15220139.96

that could be the number of most anything. Minutes watched of TV, miles walked for a benefit, times eaten out in an average life time.

It is the number of KB used this month on our Verizon internet.

We don't have tv service and I guess we have watched a lot of movies this month= we meaning not me. We have unlimited contract with Verizon, but about a year or so ago they stopped selling unlimited plans. I was told in December that unlimited means unlimited BUT, now. The but comes in that when we go over the 5 GB (?) usage each month that our internet will slow down. I think that is wrong. If we are grandfathered, then they have to deal with us per our original contract.

They disagree. So when we go over that 5 amount I just try to/don't care to be careful and rack up the kb used. I mean come on. Honor the terms of the original contract; don't weasel your way out due to some unknown loop hole. We didn't even get the choice to choose if that was ok with us or not. I feel gypped. If I go over time, I should just leave the internet up and running 24/7.

So there, take that Verizion!

Cold Wind AGAIN What ?! You're wearing That?

Yep, its me wearing Capri's. And opened-toed shoes. And fake tanner that gives me that orang-y golden glow. (Ha)
I want so desperately for it to be summer with the warm sunshine on my face and that hot feeling you get when you first get in a car (crazy, I know huh?) I live for those few short months that it is warm.
This is one reason I couldn't teach year round school. I need that mental baking that comes from too many days at the pool and watching my own kids (wondering how the paid sitter does it)

So I am pretending that I am warm. I dressed the baby in a cute spring dress with her elmo hoodie over the top.
SIGH SIGH SIGH

Maybe I should take more vitamins I might be low on Vitamin D or C or maybe vitamin S (summer)

Could we at least get some rain out of this?

Menus for the week: week 3 (ish)

Sunday: cheese chrisps and tomato soup- we had gone on a trip down to the valley and we were still recovering that day. We had taken a horse home and that day we chose to break the sabbath and practice with that horse again. For lunch we had jerky, donuts, sunflower seeds and sodas from Brides. It was also fast Sunday, a day that I wished my whole family fasted for then I wouldn't have to cook.

Monday: Grilled BBQ chicken, wheat shells with cream of chicken sauce, french cut green beans ( and surprise the baby ate the green beans a no small feat I tell you) and bread and butter.

Tuesday: Hawaiian haystacks. I took the rest of the chicken and cream of chicken and put it in the crock pot. I will cook rice and make the "stacks" when I get home at 3;30. Scott got called into work for the next 3-4 nights so dinner has to be early. We also have baseball AND wrestling today. Since Scott is working (and I swear he planned it) I have to take the kids to both practices. OH Joy!

Wednesday- something with hamburger meat hopefully in the crock pot (beans?); Kennedy changed dance days to Wednesday. She got promoted up a class after the recital. Her class is from 4 to 5.

Check you later.

All it got me was more trips to the bathroom

Catchy, yet a little inappropriate for a title I think.



I have been exticed and guilted into the spring health challenge. Not that anyone had to twist my arm. I guilted me into it. I recieved a chart by which I was supposed to dutifully fill out each day with how many miles, minutes and calories I was consuming.

I should have marked my acts of kindness, hours of sleep and good, positive thoughts.
Yea, OK. I will have to actually be kind to mark those boxes.



I filled it out for a day and 1/2. And then I put it on my desk and now I don't care to find it enought to look for it.

BUt I am trying to excercise more- like this morning when I should have gotten up at 5 and finally rolled out of bed at 5:45 to excercise except my back was not cooporating well. I am trying to eat better- six times a day.



They say water is good for weight loss so I divided my weight by 2 and then used that number as a guide for how many ounces I should drink in a day. I am trying to drink at least a gallon- 1. becasue that is how much I drink (just deal with it ok) but it gives me a way to leave my room in between classes and I use it when I need a pause in class- I go take a big drink to calm myself.



I am not loosing weight but that might be all the "snacks" I eat with my water and other stupid stuff.



All it is really getting me is more trips to the bathroom, where if you don't move fast enough, I might mow you over. ;)

negativity in my day

I have a person in my life (for only 35 more days- whooo hoo) that every time I see this person he/she (I do this so you wont know the gender or name of said person- heck, maybe I should change the name ot gender neutral like: Chris, or Sam, or Ryan, or Dakota, ) So "Chris" is a negative negative NEGATIVE person. Ev-e-rE-day. Ugghh. Not one thing is good or postive or anything. It is so old. I wonder if you can be addicted to being negative?

There is the potential of seeing this person next year, but it is highly unlikely. I hope not. I think the negativity is catching. At least, that is what I am going to blame my inablility to quit yelling in the morning on...

Or maybe our house is so big that I have to yell to ge any attention.

Romeo has died and they can't tell me WHY

I would love any suggestions from any wanna be teachers, any ex teachers or any current English teachers.
I AM TEACHING ROMEO AND JULIET

ha ha no that is not the problem nor the punch line.... thanks for laughing.
I actually don't mind teaching R&J: have you been to high school lately? It is the same thing, just a 400 year older plot line. Except Shakespeare says it with out LOL, TTYL and OMG's. He actaully has a real vocabulary.

My problem is: I tell them to take notes, I tell them that when I pause to explain something and say "this should be in your notes" that then they are not remembering what they wrote or what I said that was so "important" , which will be on a check quiz the next day or on the end of the Act test.

I can't get them to find enough value in what we are reading to see that R&J is part of our social collective knowledge and that many things that we discuss, laugh at or relate to come from classical stories like R&J. I can't get them to remember from on 24 hour period to another. I had a little success yesterday when we were able to act out the fight scene. But not every scene is "actable" there just isn't action in all scenes.

I don't want to movie them to death, I don't' want to spoon feed them more than I do ( read, pause to explain, give quizzes on the explanations and then... the grades are not great)

any viable non expensive suggestions? Romeo is dying here and they can't tell me why.

Menus Day ... whatever lost track

Last week I tried to start a menu thing but I guess it, like so many of my other endevors, was not planned out. (hello Scott!) We had a super busy week that somehow the effects there of I let roll over to this week.

For 1: I didn't plan menus- no surprise there,
2. I didn't' get all my sale ads situated.
3. I haven't touched the office since the 3 hour clean up. Maybe I need to be mad at Scott being mad at me ;)
So, subsequently,

Sunday: steaks, potatoes, salad
Monday: Bean and cheese burritos
Tuesday: frozen Tony's pizzas or egg/green Chile burros
Wednesday: Pasta bake: rotini noodles smothered in cheese baked til it was bubbly.
Thursday: ?? No clue I know I have some frozen hamburger meat in the freezer so we could have goulash.
Friday: We might go to the valley to get a horse eat on the road. I should put something in the fridge to thaw so I can have a meal ready to cook when we get back on Sunday.

Another Day of Menus and busy days

The next day was Wednesday; As you can tell I am posting on Saturday because the rest of my week was so busy I barely had time to sit down. I got home late from school and didn't have the crock pot clean that morning. Subsequently, I didn't have a dinner. I made breakfast- something I do about once a week. I had plenty of eggs, made waffles, fried bacon and made hash browns from some left over potatoes from Sunday.

I was trying to get out of the house so that I could help with a primary activity. It didn't happen. By the time I had dinner cooked and served it was 6:30. I would have been 30 minutes late and I wasn't sure how long the pizza party would last on a school night anyway.

Per the suggestion the kid at Safeway, I signed up for a Safeway mailer via the internet. Am going to do that for all the stores around.

I should have planned my menus for next week on Wednesday, so that I could take advantage of Wilburs Thursday sale. I didn't get home from RV until 8:30 on Thursday so I missed the sale this week. Still going to bust out menus before Sunday....

Menus Day 2 and the 28 day organization challenge(THE OFFICE)

I made it through yesterday and last night fairly well. We had hot and sweet, shredded roast tacos. I did have to buy the corn tortillas even though the flour ones on hand could have worked.


a big roast in the crock pot that morning.
1c. brown sugar
sprinkled the top with Montreal steak seasons ( I like Tony's creole seasonings too)
1 c. of chunky salsa
4 cup of beef broth.


I shredded the roast that night and cooked the corn tortillas. We had a veggie,the fixin's for tacos, and we were good to go. The roast and its juices are so so good. I love anything sweet and hot. Since I only used 1/2 the roast (this is why I got a huge one) now I can have a meal for today- such a crazy day: dance, shopping, wrestling practice, and a primary meeting. Laundry? Workout? I hope so.


Why everyone has something on Tuesday is beyond me. I hate it.


Like I mentioned yesterday I feel I need a command post- a place where I can spread out and pile papers, think and plan that doesn't get moved for dinner. The office has not been utilized well in our 4 years there. It ebbs and wanes as a junk hole. In fact, it was so bad I didn't know if I could go through with touching it last night. However, 3 hours later and that voice that told me just do one thing and leave the rest, and I had the office about 1/2 to 3/4 done. I still want to move things to the garage, add a desk and decorate.


My hubby's roping papers is an enormous pile and I will tackle them later. I found some things to take care of and I will weed out the papers that are older than 7 years and I will date organize them too - later.

Menu Day 2- a version of french dip sandwiches. I have the yummy broth from the roast that is both sweet and spicy. I try to do a portion of my shopping ( only the sale items) at Bashas or Safeway on the Dance Tuesdays, I can get anything for this meal I might be lacking. I could go cheap and do the SOS style of sandwich with just toast or I can get store bought rolls. I am leaning toward the rolls since I will be gone and heaven only knows what goes on at my house when I am not there. I will serve with a salad and/or baked beans. I think I have no prep time if I get premade salad, and a good thing too because I will be late for my meeting just picking up the kids from wrestling.


When I am good at this whole thing, I will have the next FOLLOWING week's menu planned so I can take advantage of the last day of the sale on my dance Tuesday's. Then I can get the new circulars in the mail on Wed and have time to think, plan, take advantage of the Wilburs Thursday sale for that next week. (See where I am going with this, If, ya do, I am not sure I do)


Wednesday will have to be crock pot too because our primary president (without ask us if we could help her) told the kids that she was doing pizza at her house on Wednesday and she wanted homemade ones! Seriously? What am to do. Hubby says "DON'T GO", but I am too big of a

Menu's Day 1

A few posts back I was worrying the subject of menu planning esp. in realtionship to sale items. As usual, I was hot hot hot over the subject and then it cooled down.



I am back on track and it may be day one of ONLY one. But we will see.



I am a visual person so I need to take notes with pen and paper. I am just transfering my notes to here when I have a full thought.



Thought one: find the sale ads on line or in hand of the places you would shop: on the drive home or a planned outing. For me these include Wilbers, ALCO, and the two dollar stores.( I can't plan to go to Wal-Mart, Safeway, or Bashas for reasons that are too weird and complicated for this post. So I dont') However, I hace decided to look at those ads for cost comparison and on the occation that I am in the location with time on hand.



Thought 2: Went on line and looked up the idea "menu planning with sale ads" I searched through the websites until I got bored and took down sites as I went that I want to go back to again. If there was a blog I liked, I stuck a reference on my own.

Thought 3: Decided that I need a command center - which is a HOLE now and I could organize.... thinking I am getting in over my head... HELP ok ok not help. I can take 28 days to get that room orgaized to USE as my room to plan and stuff. ok back to menus.

Need to find more ads before I finish my goal for the day and due to my schedule I need to have that part done tonight.

See Ya.

Redbox De-Lim-MA

Last night as promised, we returned G-Force to redbox. We were told that it had to be there by 5:30. Hoping that 5:51 was not tooo too late, we took it in. Wind was blowing and if it was my redbox, it would had been worth another 1$ to put it off.

Since it was not my 1$, I dutifully took it in. The renter of said movie was still upset about the salad dressing and other comments from the previous day at lunch. I didn't want to push it.

Both of the kids argued all the way to circle K about being the one to return it. I hit upon a solution that made me feel so proud and good like those good moms I envy.

SOLUTION: One would push the button and one would hold the moive to be sucked in. PERFECT solution.

I didn't bank on a rebellion. Little man came back with tears in his sensitive eyes as he told me that Sister had done both jobs.

They argued all the way home.

The PUNISHMENT: I allowed little man to kiss his sister ( considered to be the bane of death by her) once on the cheek and twice if she ran away and three times if I had to hold her down.

As she sobbed from the three kisses and wiped them away before they were absorbed by her skin, I unsuccessfully tried to tell her that she was damaging his self esteem.

Sobbing was the only answer that emitted from her room till she fell asleep.

Sheesh. How Do perfect moms handle uprisings and insurrections?

I think it is Spring

Cause I found my neighbor's pasture inching it's way across my road to my lawn. I think everyone one who has a west facing yard might be better than those with a east facing yard.

Hello Spring!! I am hanging onto a pole with my feet out waiting for summer!

You marry who you date

My dad use to say all my high school years "You marry who you date.". It was his answer when he didn't want me dating non-member boys, when he didn't like who I was dating after he relented about the non-mormon dating, and it was his answer just in passing- mabe when he didn't have anything else to say. It went hand in hand with "Remember who you are."



During those years, I thought i was the adopted kid of a weird family. I thought my family was so odd and did weird things.



Now, I hear kids tell that their dads say the same things. so I guess we weren't so weird after all.



I think America has married who it has dated in regards to President Obama. I was listening to a radio station at lunch todaya and caught a piece of a show. Their topic was about our health care bill and who has actually read all 2,000 pages. The "quacks" read the bill. Their friends? Did Not. They were spewing and repeating what they had heard about the bill. People, really. Read what you can. Get information. You will find that what it says is not what you are being told what it says. Even President O has admitted at one point that HE has not read it all. Many dems. have to read it either.

Heaven help us.
Something comes to mind that I heard as a kid that I will mis-quote "when the nation hangs by a thread...." And we are not yet hanging.
Sad, huh?

Easter Holiday

Happy Easter and all that from us. This weekend has been quiet and good. Poor Scott has missed most of watching the kids grow due to his outage at the plant. Except for a day off once, he has worked the whole thing straight. It would have been day 45 or something equally crazy like that. I think he worked 21 days before it started too. WOW.

I must say he is doing better than expected. Last summer I was trying to find people for the kids to visit for a week or so to keep the noise level down. Scott is handling the noise level better this year.

today the kids and cousins went on an egg treasure hunt. It included clues in eggs, that they needed some prodding from grandma to decipher. It ended with them digging like dogs in the sand box for their treasure. It had candy and trinkets. They were shouting and making a lot of ruckus.

When it was all over but the wind blowing- the wind had picked up minutes before we started the whole thing, my mom says to the kids, "Now wasn't this more fun than just plain egg hunting." the kids agreed.

Later one of them said, "Now can we color eggs to hunt them?"

I laughed.

Clinton the cousin and Kelsey were finally old enough this time to play. They were wary of each other when we first came over. Clint who doesn't like binkies, kept taking Kelsey. She didn't put up much of a fight, to my surprise. She finally had enough and took it back which ticked the little guy off. For then he picked up a corner of a kitchen rug and pulled on it. Kelsey shook her hand at him as if to say to put it down. His response was to shake the rug at her a few times and grunt at her.

It reminded me of an old couple doing things to annoy each other to see who will get mad first.

Woo Hoo Day off sort of.

Today it is our FRIDAY. Tomorrow is good Friday. Many students didn't know what good Friday was about and this week I used good ole' google to make sure I was in the know and still retained my status as the Freshman concierge of useless knowledge. I was.

For those of you who do not know, here is what I confirmed about good Friday:

Good Friday is observed on the Friday before Easter Sunday. On this day Christians commemorate the passion, or suffering, and death on the cross of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Thank you, About.com.

I will be catching up on grades tomorrow, dying easter eggs, buying candy and such.

By the way, why does Google say TOPEKA today?