Random Bits of Life....

Wow! Sometimes the days drag on and sometimes they are so busy I don't get a moment to sit down. It's been the latter around here as of late, hence my recent blogging absence. I love to write and I really love to read what everyone is doing, but when it comes down to going to bed before midnight when Rich is home or staying up, I've been crashing lately. Which is a good thing since I had a major sleep deprivation headache last week. Rich is on call today and Sunday so I should have some free time to write all we have been up to- lots! I guess this is what happens when school and baseball is winding down and summer is heating up! The weather here has been amazing- green and cool- and we've been here and there and nearly everywhere. We are even heading to Louisville on Monday for a Memorial BBQ with the old gang before Josh and Tiffany head west. So all in all, life's been good.
My kitchen counter has become a menagerie of random things lately, mostly living creatures to be exact. I guess I'm a push over for the very small non-furry variety of pets. Ours now include 5 caterpillars that Matt collected while walking down the hill from school. Once in their home they promptly formed their cocoons and we are eagerly awaiting their transformation into a moth. We had one last year and it formed perfectly and flew away. It fared much better than the batch of Monarch butterflies my little brother Rhett raised when I was pregnant with Josh and Matt. We also have 2 goldfish from Wal-mart. I thought the girls would just love to take a quick peek at the fish when we were grocery shopping and I soon found myself the proud owner of a few. The girls just screamed with delight and since I already had a bowl, food and water purifier, the whole deal cost me a whopping $1.12. Not too bad. We started out with 4, but within the first 12 hours two were found floating and were quickly flushed. That was fine by me. I hadn't anticipated them last very long. We also have 2 bean seeds the boys planted at scouts, which have since been moved outside to the deck. I really can't handle that many things in one place. We'll see how they all fare. I'm guessing we will soon be back to our hermit crabs as our only pets for now.

Gas prices here in KY hit an all time high on Wednesday when they shot up to $3.95. Ouch! It has not deterred me much, but I have noticed that most of the things I buy at the grocery store have gone up in price. How could they not when gas, wheat and rice have all had their problems lately.

Also, I am DYING about all these new airline issues. United just raised all their fares at least $60 today after a week of depressing luggage news. American announced yesterday they will be charging $15 for your FIRST checked bag. What in the world? After I pay how many hundreds of dollars a person for airfare that will provide no food on the 3 plus hour flight and now I have to pay for my duffel that rides below. This is a huge problem. We are now up to buying 7 tickets. Toss in parking fees and now this expense - it's getting out of hand! And here I was freaking out about having to pay $20 for your second bag and wondering how we would get home at Christmas with our Santa stuff in 6 bags (one would be taken up with our car seats). It seems like going home for the holidays might just be out of the question!

We had baseball the last two nights of American Idol and I went visiting teaching, but Rich got most of it on DVR. I only heard the last few seconds of David A's last song and heard his critique. Good to hear Simon say some positive things. I wasn't sure how it would all play out, but I did get in 20 votes for the fellow Utahn. On the results night we got home in time for the last half an hour. Boy, those George Michael songs were a bit like torture, so I was glad I was making dinner while it was on. As we all know, David Cook took the title, but I think they both have serious careers ahead. Five of the top ten songs on iTunes today were from those two fellows. I can see why David Cook won. He is more of a pop idol and his voice is reminsent of Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam. While David Archuleta can simply SING! Rich and I have christened him the new Donny Osmond, whose voice I also love. Kristi H. who also hails from Murray, Utah gave me the inside scoop that the Archuleta's home is for sale and they are headed to LA. Interesting.

On Wednesday I had my visiting teaching companions 2 year old boy and 6 week old baby for five hours. While watching them I realized how lucky I was to not have triplets. Three two year old just don't mesh as well as two do together. It reminded me of my years with my 3 boys at home. It seemed like someone was always crying. Shopping with those three was a nightmare! I'm sure it would even be worse with 3 the same age. It was fun to be around such a little baby. It's been years and was really fun to hold and feed this little cutie. The best part was to see how obsessed Brynn and Kaitlyn were with this baby. They just huddled around his carrier and the minute he made a squeak, Brynn ran over to the diaper bag and found his bottle and the top so I could feed him. Then they both took turns assisting with the feeding. No way were my boys ever like that! They are just little mommies!

If you don't know everything on sale at Gymboree right now is 20% off and they are giving Gymbucks out too. I went in search of a few baby gifts and found these darling silk dresses that were $49.50 marked down to $15.99. What a steal! My girls wore them to stake conference on Sunday and I smiled just thinking of all the money I saved on them! (Of course Rich was thinking I still paid over $30 for dresses, so he obviously doesn't understand what a bargain shopper I am!)

Tuesday was Kentucky's primary elections. Hillary ended winning the state keeping her presidency dreams alive. Obama won the other 2 primaries held that day. The kids were off of school, which always seems strange. You would would think having the kids' school in session would encourage people to vote instead of having to drag them to the polls with you. I really don't like anyone who is running. November might just be a very painful time for me.

I am starting to worry that nap time in my house is starting to run out. And that is not a good thing. Three times in the last week the girls have taken forever to fall asleep and when all the giggles and jumping died down I peeked in to find that Brynn has taken off her crib sheet and mattress pad and tossed them on the floor. And on two occasions she's asleep naked in bed. Oh my! She took of her shirt, onesie, shoes, socks and pants. That girls has some serious dexterity! What to do? I'm stumped on this one.

So I was possibly the last person on the planet to buy a digital camera. I was very happy with my 35 mm and didn't like how the digital pictures printed up. The quality just wasn't there. But right before the girls were born my old camera went kaput and I knew it was the time to cross over. I have never looked back. Now I wonder how in the heck I got by with only a 36 count roll of film at major events. Every time we go some place new I end up downloading at least 100 pictures. I could never go back.

Now to confess my newest hold out. Rich got an iPod from his parents on his last birthday. Yes, we didn't own one and while I loved a lot of songs I had heard on my brothers' iPods I just burned the songs to a disc. So seven months after Rich got his very nice present we finally venture into the world of iTunes last Friday. We had $45 of gift cards from Christmas and I had never ever downloaded a song onto it. My brother Rhett put songs on it for us in December, but that was where it ended. When I finally pulled it up, I realized what I had been missing. It's quite addictive! Rich and I ended staying up far too late looking at songs of the past. Trey has picked out a bunch of his own and I even found some I thought Trey would appreciate. Rich rolled his eyes at most of my purchases and said they sounded like "femme" songs. Say what? Rich and I just differ severely when it comes to our taste in music. So to any of you that have not ever checked out iTunes (and I'm sure all of you have) beware, you might get sucked in and stay awhile! *Songs I love- Taylor Swift: Pictures to Burn (thanks to Rich), We the Kings: Check Yes Juliet, Rihanna: Umbrella, Ryan Cabrera: Sit back, Relax, Reel Big Fish: Good Thing and All American Rejects: Swing, Swing and The Click 5: Just the Girl (those last 3 thanks to Rhett and Kurt), Plain White T's: Hey There Delilah, Panic At the Disco: Nine in the Afternoon, Joshua Radin: Sky, Jason Mraz: Lucky and all of Jack Johnson (thanks to Greg YEARS ago!)

Happy Friday and very wonderful and safe Memorial Day to you all!!