The answer my friend...

There are some things I wonder.

Such as...

Why is it okay for someone to have a mannequin mimicking Sarah Palin hanging from a noose? Do you realize how fast someone would get busted for racism if they did that for Mr. Barack? And they are saying this isn't a hate crime. I seriously can't get over this.

Why can't politicians' ads spend time focusing on the qualities they have that makes them deserving of election rather than why their opponent isn't? Today I saw one, I don't even remember who it was, what political party it was or what the position was for, but it didn't say ONE single quality of whoever it was, only things ripping on the opposing candidate. Can't people say what they are and not who they aren't? Seriously. Grow up. And yes, both sides do this.

Are there really people out there that want higher taxes? Or does everyone think that life is magical and the candidate they support offers an equally magical tax plan that will lower their taxes?

When are people going to start taking responsibility for their own actions and realize it's not the government's fault your child is in first grade and can't write the alphabet, it's not the government's fault you are overweight and it's not the government's fault you didn't go to college?

Why is it funny to me that our 401(k) has gone down nearly 37.5% this year?

Would there have been a more comparable number of Republican and Democratic jokes from Jay Leno and David Letterman if there was a different (meaning, not black) Democratic presidential candidate? I read those two late-night guys made 475 jokes about the GOP and only 69 about the Democratic team. I'm all about joking around, but slandering one side nearly seven times more than the other makes me think someone was afraid of being called a racist.

Why am I still awake?

...is blowin' in the wind.If I have the energy, you'll get my full-fledged opinion on this upcoming election later this week. If not, it just means that I'm totally worn down from work and life as I know it (an unpregnant life that is, all you folks that are waiting for the day that I actually am pregnant).

Wispy

It's no longer a surprise that I seem to be out of town non-stop for weddings/receptions. Not that I'm complaining, because I LOVE weddings/receptions. On Saturday Holly got married in Snowflake. We rode up with my mom and Lily first thing Saturday morning. We went straight to my Aunt Jana's to help, although nearly everything had been done. Tangent: We were looking for the sugar and my mom asked me where I'd put the sugar if I was Aunt Jana. I told her if I was Aunt Jana, I wouldn't eat sugar. If you know how healthy my Aunt Jana eats, you'd laugh too. After we chopped strawberries, we got lunch and then got ready.

I went with Lily to wait outside the temple. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. Seriously, there was no wind, something that very rarely happens there. We all decided that Holly must just be extra special for such miraculous weather. Pictures while waiting for the happy little couple... Wow, really, there are trees that change colors in Arizona.Lovely ladies.Lovely Temple. For some reason, the Snowflake Temple doesn't look very grand to me from far away, but every time I'm up close and personal with it, I am awed by how simply beautiful it is. I love the windows. Definitely my favorite detail.Ankle crossing.Shawna, Mad White Woman and Michelle. Tangent: Shawna's hair used to be much lighter and SO many people have assumed that her and I are sisters. We're cousins and her and Michelle are sisters.Holly looked beautiful (Anthony is in this picture, he's just behind her fluffy dress). While they were taking pictures, we had our own fun photo shoot, jumping. Then Kara, Stephenie, Sarah and I tried to jump off the ledge, but we all just looked like we were falling. And maybe some of us did fall when we hit the ground.(PS Jason and Clara were home taking a nap. I decided not having them at the Temple was worth having a happier baby at the dinner and reception.) Fun, fun girls they are. After jumping, I put my shoes on and started to walk away, but realized (after far too long) that there was a slight problem. If only I could remember which shoe goes on which foot...We had to run back to my Aunt Jana's to get some stuff for the reception before the dinner. So we did. Why, you ask, is there a lame picture of a crow on your blog? Well, let me tell you. It's so I can tell you what we saw and you can imagine it easily. As we were driving down the dirt road, we saw a crow, on top of a wooden fence post, devouring a mangled rabbit. We tried to get a picture, but the bird flew away, so here he is, up, up and away.We went back to the Church for the dinner. Between dinner and the reception, the kids got to play with playdough in the "kid room". Some people just think of the greatest ideas. Clara meant business.And then there is the reception. It was all set up, so Cindy, Lori, my mom and I just had to prep and set up the food and then keep everything moving. They had peanut butter bars, brownies (with and without nuts), Zebras (aka Hello Dolly's), four kinds of cookies and sundaes with every topping you could imagine (Butterfingers, oreos, fresh strawberries, fresh raspberries, caramel, hot fudge, nuts, M&M's and Reese's pieces).
And then there were the mints. But these were not any ordinary mints. Mixed with the Junior Mints were "premium" mint M&M's (the shiny ones). I wish I would have got the memo on these things because they are awesome. YUM.Sarah, just hanging out. Braden, did your mom or dad teach you that trick?

H: Anna, look, I'm eating healthy! (As she shows me her ice cream topped with fresh strawberries).

C: .... (must've been some good ice cream)

J: Look how stinking cute I am in my bow tie.

Clara didn't recognize the girls from KS right away, but once she did, she couldn't get enough of Sarah. Kind of like when we're in the office. Good thing Sarah likes her, otherwise we'd have a serious problem.

Clara and I dancing... allow me to introduce to you, wispy. That's right, that lovely patch of hair encroaching on my forehead. Not sure why, but all day, my left horn decided to do that. It's cute, trust me.

P: I have the biggest brown eyes you've ever seen and my cheeks couldn't be more inviting. So just take a picture.

Cousin love.

Cindy and my mom. Happy (and good) little helpers. I helped when I didn't have Clara. Jason came and said he would scoop ice cream so I could socialize and watch Clara so he didn't have to.

C: I said, GIVE ME A COOKIE!

I'm not sure if Jason wore this black shirt so we could match... identically. Or if he did it to make me mad (it's not my favorite shirt).

Certainly it wasn't a near 30 year old father of two that hid a pile of Hershey Kisses underneath the cloth on the table. And definitely not one I'm related to.

As the reception was coming to an end, I was dreading the clean up. My feet hurt, I was running on five hours of sleep and I just felt exhausted. To my pleasant surprise, it only took about an hour. So many people helped so it was down in no time.

Sunday we ate breakfast and then headed home. Michelle's a great hostess. Tangent: Her pantry made me want to live in our house in Utah so I too can have an awesome pantry in the basement. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting to spend so much time with my mom. We visited all the way up and all the way home. We visited while we went and got lunch. We visited while we cut strawberries. We visited while we got everything reaady to set up for the reception. And my favorite picture was of me and my mom. The sun was so bright so I told her and Lily to keep their eyes closed and then open them when I said three. On cue, my mom opened her eyes about twice the normal size. The picture is hilarious, but she asked that I not share it. I told her I wouldn't put it on my blog, but that it'd be the first page, full-size, on her Mother's day book next year. :)

We got home at Noon. I was thinking about just missing Sacrament Meeting and then I realized that would be silly. Why miss the most important meeting? Especially since we had 30 minutes to get ready (none of us had showered... and one of us never did, sorry). We were late, but we made it before the sacrament. After I did Singing Time in Nursery, I went to RS and just left Clara in Nursery. It's been so long since I've done that. The teacher in there held her and after a bit, she calmed down. Ahh, the start of a new phase, hopefully.

I have a lot of {heavy} things on my mind. But I have been trying to counteract it all with some thankful thoughts from my weekend...

I'm thankful that I got to go to Snowflake for Holly's big day.
I'm thankful for good cousins.
I'm thankful for beautiful trees that make me happy.
I'm thankful for people that listen to me whine and complain.
I'm thankful the two policeman were talking to each other when we came up over the hill going 85 MPH. The driver of our vehicle will remain anonymous.
I'm thankful that Jason has a job. Losing 20% of his hours/pay is better than 100%.
I'm thankful for Clara. Have you hung out with her lately? She's pretty awesome and keeps me smiling. More on her later.

FOF - Daily Meal Plans

Quite often I run across 'frugal' blogs and the people say they are able to feed their family of four for just $80 a week. What? Just? That's over half of my monthly budget. So I became determined that if needed (and, now that Jason is "20% laid off", I need to), I could feed my household for $25 a week. "Oh, but Anna, you only have two adults and a small person." No, no. We have four (Jason's brother lives with us, remember). Yes, four, as in two men that eat like four, one dainty lady that eats like a man and one toddler that eats like a woman. Another thing that irritates me is when you search for "inexpensive meal ideas" and all you get is a bunch of cheap, processed food. Beans, fruits and vegetables are great for you and inexpensive, so don't tell me you have to eat ramen every day (although once a week isn't bad... :)).

So, very determined to spend $25 and create a 5-day plan of meals that are relatively healthy, this is what I came up with. I stopped trying to keep track of how much, but I was at $25.09 (obviously there were some estimates in there) and hadn't figured in the ingredients for bread bowls. At that point, I felt I had triumphed and reached my goal, so I stopped wasting time on it.
Sundays aren't on here, nor Saturdays. We're lucky we go to my mom's for Sunday dinner and usually Saturday finds us rummaging through leftovers. There are plenty of leftovers.

Monday
b. toast & fresh peaches (my favorite breakfast: toast with fresh fruit)
l. cheese crisps w/ apples
d. baked potatoes & salad

Tuesday
b. toast & apples
l. cup-o-noodles (but only b/c Clara sat on one I bought for our 72-hour kits and it burst open)
d. beans & cornbread

Wednesday
b. cereal
l. leftovers
d. pasta w/ cream sauce & sauteed cabbage

Thursday
b. cereal
l. apples & PB
d. creamy vegetable soup in bread bowls

Friday
b. pancakes
l. leftovers
d. leftovers (actually, we're off to a friend's house tonight, but if we weren't, we'd eat leftovers)

A few disclaimers: The cost assumes we use 2 cubes of butter (gross, I know, but I put about a 1/3 cube on my baked potato, especially when we're out of sour cream), a gallon of milk (probably a little less), 1/2 box of cereal and 1/2 loaf of bread each week. Jason and his brother don't really eat breakfast and his brother rarely eats lunch. Jason brings leftovers for lunch. It might seem like a lot of leftovers, but in a typical week, I almost never eat the same thing more than twice. Even after all this, my original points remain: you can eat fairly healthy spending very little a week. Trust me, no one around here is withering away either.

Happy Weekend!

Law of Attraction. Whatever.

Earlier today I saw the phrase: Law of Attraction. I've heard about it, but never read about it, so I did a quick (3 min) research of it. And then I decided to try it out. All day long, I've been thinking of my specific wish. I've been imaging it came true. I've been sending out good vibes into the Universe and believing that it will happen and living as if it has. I have tried so hard to prevent any negative thoughts from getting in the way. My wish is mine. The only problem is, I've thought about it so hard and so much, that I now have a pounding, horrible headache. Apparently that's the only thing I can attract with all my good thoughts and vibes. Shucks.

Two-faced Tinkerbell

If I Could Do It Over Again

I've been thinking lately. I'm pretty opinionated. My life is crazy. I teeter, daily, between crazy and sane. I talk non-stop, often about nothing, and I pretty much feel like there's a constant tornado in my head. That is why I've decided my blog is being re-named to: Diary of A Mad White Woman. Nothing seems more appropriate.

Besides thinking, here's what else I've been up to.

Amy's Birthday
Amy's birthday was Thursday. We had lunch at Kathryn's and had fun visiting. Then Amy and Beka came over Thursday night to hang out. We ate lots of junk and laughed and laughed. Ahh, reminiscing about when we were "young" and eating is so refreshing. Knowing full well we wanted to get together for Amy's birthday, I gladly let her bring treats when she offered. She always gets the best snacks.

Lily's Birthday
Friday Lily had a party so we went and helped my mom. Clara LOVES Aunt Lily. I love her too. She's such a sweet person that loves to help other people and is genuinely concerned for others. There are pros and cons about being the youngest of nine. Pro: Mom goes all out for birthday parties. The theme was luau and it was great. I guess after you do receptions for four of your daughters, a birthday party is a piece of cake, right? Con: On the Sunday we celebrate your birthday with the family, don't expect more than a half-eaten pan of brownies to put your candles in.Blissfest
Saturday Clara and I went with my mom, Lily and Lily's friend to Blissfest in downtown Mesa. Truth be told, we went mostly to see Angela, but had a good time walking through the booths. Someday, when I don't have two houses, I'm going to only buy letterpress cards. Even a boring accountant can appreciate handmade beauty. Clara had a good time eating frosting (and part of the cupcake) for lunch. She let no frosting go to waste. When she dropped frosting in the street and it stuck to leaves and dirt, it didn't bother her one bit. We wanted lunch from Mango's, but didn't have time. So we tried Pete's and After that we settled for Jack-In-the-Box. So much for our dining experience at a non-chain local restaurant.

Bunco
This month was couples month and it just happened to be at a mortuary. Very fitting for Halloween. Afterwards, we got a tour. I know people that work there get desensitized, but still... I had a great time and Jason admitted he enjoyed it too. Do I ever not when it involves good food and socializing? I can't believe I didn't take pictures, though.

Party in a blanket
Sunday at my mom's, the three little girls got swung all at once in a blanket. They loved it. I loved it too because I discovered there's no better way to get all three girls looking at me with big smiles at the same time.Sick
Clara got sick and now I'm sick. Roccy, this is not an invitation for you to bring me dinner, so don't even think about it. I still haven't forgiven myself for stealing your bacon and bread. I just feel blah. You know when you have a headache, feel super tired and you have a sore, "hairy throat"? Clara's has progressed into coughing, so who knows what's in store for me. Ryan called and I told him I feel like crap. He told me I don't look any worse than I feel. I'm glad him and I are close like that. :) Here it is, barely after nine, and I can barely hold my eyes open. I have a few things I needed to do tonight but feeling this way provides me a good justification for not caring. After this, I think I'll go to sleep and dream about being able to lie around tomorrow and not work. If only in my dreams...

Ah-oh!

(Yeah, that's how my family says it and that's how I'll teach my kids to say it. Forget you, spaghetti-o's).

Most mornings, Clara wakes up happy. Before long, I hear her saying "Ah-oh". Normally this means she's thrown her blanket and/or dolly overboard.

Several days ago, neither the blanket nor the dolly were on the ground where she was pointing, but she still continued to say "Ah-oh" as if she'd dropped something equally important over the ledge. I picked her up, sat on her chair and she insisted she needed to get whatever had fallen. I let her down and told her to get what she dropped. She walks to her crib, bends down, picks something up and comes to show me what it is. Lovely. A giant, hard booger. She must've picked it and then dropped it over the side of her bed. Tragic.

However, a few days ago, moments after Clara woke up, her "Ah-oh's" seemed a little more frantic than usual. Completely expecting it to be an overreaction to a dropped dolly or blanket or worse, her exploring in her diaper, I went into her room. At that point, the ah-oh's were much more frequent and almost panicked-sounding. Her dolly and blanket were in her bed. I didn't quite understand because she was sitting with them. And then she showed me her dolly.
Yup, I'd be a little freaked out too. And yup, this is why it was so urgent that I find my card reader.

Until then...

I can't find my stinkin' card reader. Until I do and bless you with pictures and unentertaining stories, read this, this and this. And then tell everyone you know to read this, this and this. It might take a little time, but it'll be less time consuming than a.) homeschooling your children or b.) getting a second job so you can send your children to a private school if the Proposition doesn't pass. I'm too lazy to write my own version and I agree with what these women have said on the issue and they obviously write much better than I. So be grateful I'm lazy and do everything you can to fight to protect our precious children and their innocent minds.

Lucky Duck

What are the chances of my side-by-side freezer going out less than four months after having to purchase a new outside freezer? I bet they are pretty slim. Consider me lucky. That's right, lucky as a duck can be. Yesterday morning I noticed my fridge making a different noise. Not loud, but different. My first thought was to check the freezer. Sure enough, the thawing had begun. The fridge was fine though. I transferred most everything into my outside freezer. Every now and then it's not a bad idea to clean out your freezer anyway. I figured it wouldn't be too hard to go without an inside freezer until we could find a way to get it fixed.

This morning I noticed the fridge wasn't fine. Oh lovely. Jason went and bought some ice and I packed the ice chest full and had a few items take refuge at the neighbor's. After figuring out the problem, Jason got the part and fixed the fridge for a little over $40. Much better than buying a whole new fridge! While I give credit to Jason for diagnosing the problem and eventually fixing it, I must say that if I hadn't come home, taken one look at the first part he bought and told him it was the wrong part, he'd still be sitting on the kitchen floor with the wrong one. He was given the wrong part by "the new guy" (it's always the new guy's fault) and when he went to exchange it, they gave him two of the part we need. That was very nice of them because based on our history, we'll be needing it much sooner than the average fridge owner.

Maybe tomorrow I'll have the other kind of luck. But until then, I will be happy to have access to my favorite filtered water in the world.

FOF - Confessions

Sometimes I do things and wonder if anyone else does them. They are things you wouldn't normally know if someone else does it because they are "uncool" according to our society. So today, I offer five confessions...

1. Lately when a load of laundry is done (which is on an as-needed basis), it gets left in the dryer until a.) all the items are used or b.) we do another load. I haven't folded laundry for almost two weeks.
2. I don't really flush the toilet every time I go potty (aka pee - just had to clarify because Jason refers to the other lovely stuff as potty and trust me, that stuff doesn't hang around). Yeah, that's my contribution to conservation. Jason hates it. I love saving 20 cents and a few gallons on a regular basis. It makes me feel good.
3. I haven't, not once, wiped the counters in my kitchen this week. I have gone straight from cooking dinner to eating to working (until tonight, which I proudly claimed as the beginning of being lazy for a day or two) and have literally not had the chance. They actually have so much junk on them right now that you can't really tell that they have dried food underneath the junk.
4. I mostly eat pretty healthy. But occasionally, I'll feed Clara healthy food, eat a bite or two of mine and then eat candy, treats and chips when she's not looking. Odd that I feel it's okay for me to do that, but not her. (Okay, sometimes I let her eat the junk too, but not until she's eaten some of her lunch).
5. Sometimes I put on shirts and see a spot on them... and don't change. As long as it's not super noticeable, I figure Clara will manage to get a spot on it shortly, so why bother?

Don't pretend like you don't do any of these. But if you really don't, pretend you do to make me feel better. Just kidding. I am actually okay with it and that's obviously why I'm sharing them with the world.

PS Kate and anyone else who's wondering, FOF stands for Five on Friday. And this is when it all began...

{Yawn}

Here's how my life's been the last three days. It's been crazy, but times like this help me realize how important it is to cherish and enjoy life when it's not totally hectic. It makes me appreciate down time and reminds me how grateful I am to have a job I can do from home. Life is all about opposition.

Monday
7:45 wake up (after about five hours of sleep, kind of my own fault, but I was dreading this week so I didn't want to go to bed), read
8:30 get Clara up, make breakfast, eat
9:30 get ready, pack up & off to KS for a little work; grocery store on the way home
12:30 put groceries away, make lunch, eat with Clara
1:30 read to Clara and put her to bed
2:00 phone call w/ client lasting 54 minutes
2:55 visit with my new Scout as I watch Kimball trim our bush and feel genuinely bad that I can't help and that Jason hasn't done it... but Jason has been busy these last few weeks.
3:30 process payroll for client
4:30 begin cooking dinner with the help of Clara (she's really good at opening all my cupboards and scattering dishes and hot pads across the floor)
5:50 eat dinner, play with Clara briefly
6:45 FHE
7:15 lock myself in my room to work
2:35 decide I've gotten enough done and begin to get ready for bed
3:00 bed time

Tuesday
6:45 wake up in order to not sound woken up for 7am conference call with client
7:45 shower
8:15 get Clara out of bed, make breakfast, work on client's stuff while eating
9:15 additional phone call with client
9:35 slice toe, get Clara ready, pack up and head to KS (call clients on the way)
10:00 work (friends and family at KS play with Clara... it's nice but I hope they know I don't expect them to babysit my child and when they do, I appreciate it)
10:30 meeting
11:00 finish what I need to at KS and visit for a little bit
11:45 drive to mom's
Noon eat lunch
12:30 work while Clara helps my mom plant her garden
1:00 realize I don't have everything I need to make any further progress, pull Clara in the wagon and then pack up and go home (call clients in the car)
1:50 put Clara down for a nap
2:15 back to work
5:00 start dinner
6:00 eat
6:30 go into room to work
8:50 decide I need to take a break, got to bookclub
10:30 back to work
Midnightish fall asleep with lights on

Wednesday
5:50 wake up & work, work, work
8:00 get Clara (who woke up at 7:30 after going to bed at 9:00... so I knew she'd be grumpy) 8:10 breakfast for Clara, more work for me (what, you wonder, or don't wonder, did Clara have for breakfast? 3 bowls of cereal AND two whole bananas)
9:30 pack up, gather stuff and go to work ... this time, no visiting and it still took twice as long as anticipated
12:30 leave to go to the post office (talk about double whammy*)
1:15 finally get home, have lunch and put Clara down for a nap
1:30 work and get ready for Scouts (I hate having to prepare right before, but I didn't have much of an option this week)
3:30 scouts
4:45 begin preparing dinner, visit with Angela
6:15 eat dinner
6:30 dinner is over, sit visit and get annoyed again at government by watching pieces of the debate.

Now
I haven't done anything productive all night. :) I am purely exhausted. Every time this happens, having a time period with not even five minutes of down time, I appreciate even more being able to have a little extra time to do things other than work/eat/sleep (very little)/cook. It feels so wonderful to be able to sit. I have a few things going on tomorrow and I have lots of catching up to do on cleaning and stuff. But then I'm going to be totally lazy on Friday and I can't wait. Plus, I'm going to go to bed early tonight and have tomorrow be the first day all week that my body isn't feeling so tired. Just the thought gives me renewed energy. Oh, and when I do go to bed tonight, I won't be sleeping with this:
* I was highly irritated by not one, but TWO government organizations today. Every time I do taxes, I get annoyed. I am annoyed the tax structure has to be so complex and have so many grey areas. I get annoyed that there is way too much info and no one could ever know everything in the tax code. I get annoyed that all these hard-working people pay too much in taxes. And when I am at the post office, I get annoyed that I am tempted to buy insurance or a delivery confirmation to ease my anxiety that things will arrive okay. Basically they make you pay for something but don't guarantee that the service you are paying for will be realized. I get annoyed when the workers move slower than most of the snowbirds even though there are about 15 (no exaggerations) people in line. I'm pretty sure you can't move too fast at the post office. I've never seen any of the workers move quickly. Ever. I've always wondered why it's okay for the government to have a monopoly like the post office. Anyway, it's rare that I go to the post office without leaving frustrated by the experience.