Out with the old, in with the new

I love MS days. You know, when the MS truck comes and gets the pile of stuff you've wanted to take to DI forever but who has time to drop stuff off at DI? So when I get that phone call from MS I am more than happy to scour my house for more goodies to donate to make their trip out here worth it, and to make me feel like I just deep-cleaned my house, one of my favorite feelings in the world (don't we all love it?). Here's how I do it, because this is something any person with a home needs to do to de-junkify:

• First, numb yourself. That's right...don't do this when you're sad, solemn, nostalgic, loving, etc. This is much easier if you go through this process as unbiased and indifferent as possible.
• Look through all your board and card games. Look again, because 1/3 of those babies you have not played this year, or the last. Time to give it up. Don't have it "just to have it". If you were lucky and it still has its shrink-wrap on, you can re-gift it this Christmas.
  
• Go through all your kids' stuffed animals. There are a few there from teachers and from dollar stores and from Easter baskets that aren't getting the love more than a couple times a year. Your kids won't notice their absence. Ok...they will, but just for a screaming short-moment. Don't tell me they don't have 10 other stand-bys in line for lovin'.
• Look through your kitchen. Pots and pans, plates...drawers of measuring cups...how many do you really need? It is so nice to have LESS STUFF in the kitchen, because it is the place that is constantly increasing with stuff.
• Look through old books/dvds. Time to give away the vhs. Time to give away those books by Nicholas Sparks and Richard Paul Evans. How many times do you want to re-live a doomed romance or a sappy plot?
• Clothes. This is my favorite part. The more you get rid of, the more empty your closet is and needs a re-fill. Justified shopping!
  
• The husband's stuff. This is the hard part, because they are more difficult than the kids when they find out you got rid of their stuff. Who knew? Even if they never use it or never will. Beware of sentimental attachments they have with "stuff" (I can't mention item(s) to protect husband's identity). I still don't get it. Item is in back of storage gathering dust and mites and rendering itself even more useless, yet husband refuses to let item go. I feel angered that I can't win this battle, but won't give up just yet. MS comes every few months.

So, that's where I am with all of this. What a joy losing excess baggage around the homestead. No one can see the difference but me, but I can FEEL it too!

Can't wait to go shopping. Need some new shoes, new jeans, and maybe a few new books...

vacationing Utah style

Well...what a nice Fall Break we had in CA! Now I am getting why people seem to go there all the time around here. The car ride isn't horrendous, though I can't believe I'm saying that. And if you live in St. George or even Las Vegas, then Disneyland is a mere few hours away!

Russell really discourages me taking nudie shots of our children, but little bums don't count! Especially little toddler boy bums. They make me smile, and in a purely innocent way.

Laguna Beach is a beautiful beach! We were a bit disappointed there weren't any famous people strutting around in their bikinis and shorts, but we did see several mid-life crisis males trying really hard to look hot in their speedos and super-dark tans.


Disneyland Street Parade. Ani and Is got to go dance. I was sure proud of them, because I don't imagine I would have had the nerve to do that when I was young. Or now.
We convinced my mom and dad that what they really wanted to do was to take a Disneyland trip and my powers of persuasion worked! They had a good time and we enjoyed the perks of having the ratio of 1 adult per child. It was great having them with us.

Disneyland, thanks for the good time and only minimal long waits in lines. We'll be back...

Last of picture stuff. Pure Fall Beauty!

August Collage

Click to see bigger pictures, if you'd like, if you love my kids that much. So just a quick catch-up...August was Anika turning 8 and getting baptized. Big event. We went to Color Me Mine for her birthday party and that was a really fun crafty thing to do. Great for all ages...paint your own ceramic things! Who doesn't love using creative juices every once and a while?

Isabelle started Kindergarten, which she enjoys. She had some awesome hair for crazy hair day! I miss Kindergarten, too. It was just a chill time with all the kids and treats and games.

Olivia started preschool and enjoys fighting with her friend over who gets to open the door every preschool morning. She had her 4th birthday and as you can tell, it was the perfect day.

Sam loves his woof from Ikea and will just lay on him whenever the mood strikes.

We hit Lagoon in Sept, which was a very great time to go weather-wise, especially since it was evening. Great times.

Soon I will post our Sundance collage. It was true beauty up there! We made it up Saturday, because we had to say we did it. There is still plenty of time to go; maybe 30 percent of the leaves had changed.
Yay!

What makes a bad day for me and my big BOoHoO

So I shouldn't even be blogging about today because I have August to catch up on, which was a pretty big month at our house. However, I really have to digest this day as to purge it from my system and process it out of my life!

So it starts off with great potential. A day off from school that coincides with the Friday off Russell has from work. Another plus: it's Fall and the temperatures are great. Sounds like the perfect opportunity to have a fun family day, right? Well, right. But oh so wrong, thanks to poor planning and even worse execution. Our first plan was to hit Park City, which we like to do every Fall to see the leaves, but because I didn't really know *what* exactly we'd be doing up there and it seemed too sunny for Park City in the Fall (just a very specific personal preference) I changed the plan to going to Sundance, riding the ski lift, and doing a little hiking. We had to be back in Provo by 4 for dance class. Russell used most of the morning to do a little side work at home, and we didn't leave until 11:30. I thought we were still good, though I had errands to run in Orem before we got to the hiking part. Well, Russell took two kids to RCWilley because he is a bed-baby and really wants a new mattress, though ours is still soft (I'm no bed connoisseur), but he says it's not good if you wake up in the morning with a backache from your bed. I took the other 2 to Michael's to look at some Halloween stuff. I buy 3 bucks worth of stuff, Russell buys the salesman's pitch and we're out 40 minutes.

Next dealy- eat lunch. 1st problem: we told the kids McD's. 2nd problem: it's the McD's by the Orem Target, which is horrific, both in locale and quality. Okay, truth be told, when you go to McD's you know you're most likely not getting a stellar experience, but aim for sub-par and you'll be content. Anyway, not only was the order wrong (which is very usual) but the food was even more nasty than usual, even the apple dippers! Sad, McD's, very sad. And I like their cheeseburgers and fries as a rule...I'm not a snob. Anyway...Russell and I left feeling money was wasted and bellies were still hungry.

One more stop before the much anticipated nature event at Sundance: a "quick" stop into Target to get something I left there last time, and to briefly look at some kid clothes. Well, anyone and everyone knows you can't get out of Target in less than half an hour, and you most definitely won't leave without spending a big sum of money. This was no exception, and by the time we got out of there, it was 3:00. Oops! Russell and I are explaining to the kids that we don't have time to do what we actually PLANNED to do! How sad is that? We both felt pitiful and lame.

We got to dance class a bit late, because of traffic and one other errand we decided to run, and then took the kids out early (which is hard for me) to make it to Anika's last soccer game and party, which made it a big deal for her to go. Sadly, she left ONE shoe and ONE shin guard at home, and we had to run home and we ended up at the soccer game at half-time. Yuckety yuckety yuk. So how's that for a day that just leaves you feeling like UGH! I really needed a personal assistant today to help me with my planning, to check kid's bags, and to pack a lunch for us all, because dang, it looks like my fail to plan really caused my plan to fail. Cliched but true. It could have been a satisfying nature appreciation day! You'd be seeing pictures of me dancing in fall wonder....all of us laughing joyously and making memories, having intellectual discussions about seasons ...or maybe we would have fallen off the ski lift, so maybe this is the best day ever since we avoided a near-catastrophe? Is that how I should look at it? My gut tells me I should have cut out all the extra-curricular consumer errands. Story of my life guys, story of my life.

Anyway, if I could just do today over again...

Happy Birthday Di!

l-r
di, me, meg in PA
Di and I are pregnant in this pic- I got to hide behind the candy bar
(we miss Diana all the time while she lives in NJ)

Well, it was just 8 months ago this day I wrote a birthday post for my older sister and promised I'd be back for another post of emotional sentiment for my younger sister, whose birthday is today. Well, since I really don't have that much sap in me to cover any more years down the road, this might have to be the first and last year I do this for my beloved sisters. So I will make this time a really special experience for everyone involved.

So a few words about Diana. She's just a good true person with smarts, patience, and creativity. I can't go into our growing up years as they had a lot of turmoil, thanks to myself, but I do like to focus on the times I was a good sister. We've had lots of great times!

We got creative with our huts in the field during the summer. I'd like to say that girl with the permy big bangs is Diana, but sadly, that was me. Diana's in her house- she's hard to find, but if you're good at ISpy..

Anyway, Happy Birthday Diana! I'm excited for the day when you live a lot closer and we can celebrate your big day with a night of clubbin' and mocktails.

In memory of post #2

Back in the old days of 2008 when I started my blog, I had issues to discuss. I am a little sad I have departed from my insightful commentaries on various consumer products, or politics, or world news. Well, with the exception of the last two mentioned, my blog was a source of strength for my many reader. Her name being Megz. Going back I realized how succinct I was, how I didn't just go on and on for paragraphs. I miss the old me.

With that old post in mind, I wanted to give an update. Secret deodorant being the issue at hand. I didn't even post a picture back in those days of newbieness, so I made sure to not be lacking in that area today. If I were one of those bloggers, I would even show my armpit, perhaps with a little stubble (of course I don't have stubble ever!) as I apply the Secret. But I'm not going to do that for you.

So here's what happened. Secret did some random consumer research online, found my blog, saw my dismay at their change in formula, and after a year switched it back! So now I am finally back to wearing Secret Unscented. I tried several other flavors of deodorant, and I have been disgusted from the smells emanating from my armpits ever since. I am not a smelly person (i'm pretty sure), and I don't sweat excessively. So with that in mind, how can any sane person desire a wet-sweat-tainted version of Watermelon Sunset coming from the top two corners of their body? I don't want to smell my pits at any point in the day. No Baby Powder Unfresh, no Fusty Flamingo, and please no Tropical Breaking Wind. Not only do people get a whiff of you as you walk by, but you have to smell yourself all day long. And that is just something I can't handle. I love me a good perfume or lotion or spray, but mixed with body sweat just doesn't quite have the right zest, you know?

So my question is, how do you people out there that wear scented versions of deodorant defend yourselves? I am almost of the mind that you should go au-naturel- body-smell before you go scented.

But credit where credit is due. Thank you Secret, for taking the scent out of your Unscented once again. You heard my voice and I will once again pay 10 bucks a year to your company. Gracias.