St. Patrick’s Day and Why Shamrock Cookies Rule

March 18, 2014 By

Just as I was slowly digging myself out of a hole, I spent most of yesterday in bed. Though my lovely virus is no longer keeping me up a night (blessings!) a deluge of spring allergies and cramps have taken over. You win some, you lose some, right?

Though I’m still feeling under the weather and am now (count ‘em) several weeks behind on getting caught up, I’m counting my blessings. I had a mammogram a couple of weeks ago that revealed “irregularities” so had to go to the Breast Cancer Center for more tests. For almost two weeks, I lived under the dark cloud of “I may have breast cancer” and was relieved when my new tests turned out normal last Friday. On that same day, my mom was released from the hospital and yesterday, I tested negative for whopping cough.

You could say I’d just like to forget last week even happened.

Through it all, we’ve been having some fun festivities. I’m a holiday gal but if I was to list out my favorites, St. Patrick’s Day would be near the bottom so I don’t put much effort into it. That said, I’m not one of those naysayer moms who poo-poos holiday revelries. While my kids are little and still want to believe and build leprechaun traps, far be it for me to squash their imaginations and enthusiasm for the whimsical, fun parts of childhood.
Of note: Bode did not catch a leprechaun. This time.

Because I was feeling sick, I kept the mischief to a minimum. Knocked-over traps, green milk, a chocolate gold coin trail leading to their treasure in the basement (highly-coveted Nutter Butters) and Lucky Charms for breakfast. We kept it simple but my kids were thrilled.

We also made shamrock-shaped sugar cookies for friends who’ve helped me survive the last couple of weeks.

Confession: We ate far more than we gave away.

That night, we had the missionaries and a friend over for dinner. I have always hated Irish food but at a recent Costco visit, the kids and Jamie begged me to make corned beef for St. Patrick’s Day dinner. I relented and paired it with potatoes and a green salad. To tie it all in, I made one more Irish item: soda bread. Since I haven’t met a homemade bread I haven’t liked, I figured there would be at least one Irish food I liked.

I was wrong.

Next year, I’m sticking with shamrock cookies.

Filed Under: holidays

Please act quickly to ban the sale of marijuana in our community

March 15, 2014 By

I have been extremely outspoken in my disgust for the legalization in Colorado. It is a battle I will never stop fighting as I see the moral degradation of my beloved community. There are no gray areas here, no “taxes that will benefit” the community. Wrong is wrong.

Federal agents believe drug cartels have moved into Colorado and are using the recent legalization of marijuana within the state as a front to make money illegally. Drug cartels – both from Columbia and Mexico – have suffered major revenue losses following the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado on January 1. The Feds believe the gangs will now turn to the legal businesses in the state to find ways of making up for the shortfall in their profits.

This post is a call for my local residents to act quickly and please share this with your friends and neighbors ASAP. There is an upcoming vote in the city council on Monday to allow or ban retail sales of marijuana in our town. If passed, this would allow new bakeries and candy shops to sell products laced with marijuana in addition to other new freedoms to grow and sell this drug in our community.

Of concern: there are only 3 solid votes from the council to ban. The other votes are undeclared or up in the air. The primary reason to allow it would be for additional city revenue. Any money the city would take in would pale in comparison to the quality of life in this city. We need to fill the city council room Monday night so that the city council understands the significance of support for a ban. To date, the council has received 24 letters which is a wonderful start. We need to have 240 letters. Please take a few minutes and write yours before Monday.

Updated:

Thank you to everyone who wrote! The sale of marijuana has been banned in our city!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

The view from here

March 12, 2014 By

My bed buddy Fat Kitty

Reentry into the real world after our epic trip to Maui has been rough. I’m going on my second week with a virus that is at the the fun cough-til-you-puke stage and I’ve only been getting a few hours of sleep at night if I’m lucky. Saturday night I was such a basket case over my lack of sleep I drove myself over to a new ER clinic that opened near our house to get anything I could to help me stop coughing so I could sleep.

What they prescribed didn’t work.

So I went two more sleepless nights and finally called my doctor’s office Exempla Family Practice Specialists yesterday and left a message with the nurse to call me with another prescription. I didn’t hear back, didn’t hear back. I finally followed up later in the day and that nurse was unavailable again. By now, I was ticked. What kind of doctor’s office doesn’t call back? I left a not-so-kind message and voila, an hour later she returned my call and said she couldn’t prescribe anything new without seeing me (and she couldn’t have told me that earlier?) And, of course, it was too late in the day to set an appointment so I’d have to go another sleepless night.

Suffice it to say, I am switching doctor’s offices after my appointment today. This is only the tip of the iceberg of the unresponsive and apathetic staff I’ve had to deal with there. I put a call out to my Facebook friends for local doctor recommendations and I was, quite frankly, appalled at some of the experiences others have had in dealing with inadequate care. I’ve resolved to accept nothing less than excellence when it comes to my family’s health and it’s sad that so many practitioners are forcing us to settle.

What I’m going through is minor in the long run but I have a potentially serious follow-up health appointment on Friday that has been weighing heavily on my mind. Jamie has been having a bad rheumatism attack and my mom is back in the hospital, which is another story entirely.

Can you tell I’m stressed?

I’m way behind on catching up. I was sitting here beating myself up that I can’t focus to get any work done and that little voice inside my head whispered, “Be kind to yourself. You have a lot going on. Get better, focus on what is important.”

After a week of health crisis, it’s a sobering reminder of what really matters.

Filed Under: Health

My dream home in Maui’s upcountry

March 9, 2014 By

My Maui Dream Home

I’m still working through all the fun details of our trip but something I was not prepared for was falling in love with Maui’s upcountry. With sweeping ocean views, a gorgeous tropical mountain setting, cooler climes and wonderful people, this area really had it all.

I’ve never understood snowbirds, particularly because I love winter. We know quite a few who head south when the temperatures drop but I’m just not a fan of Arizona or most parts of Florida. However, there is a couple in our ward who winter in Hawaii and *that* I get.

It’s not uncommon for me to check real estate listings when I return home from a trip but I’m at the borderline obsession stage looking at cottages in Maui’s upcountry. I wouldn’t go during my beloved winter…we’d summer there (sounds perfect, right?)

Most of the homes were just that–dream homes. Really big, really expensive and frankly, I’m just not the type to buy a big, stuffy ostentatious home or car. But I found this little gem in the upcountry that is right around the corner from the Kula Lodge, a place we loved. (See the listing here).


Though the price isn’t nearly as steep as its waterfront counterparts, $785,000 is a tough pill to swallow for a three-bedroom, 1,600-square-foot cottage. So who wants to go in on it with us? Or, I am generously offering it up to you because we’ll never be able to afford it unless I win the lottery. You buy, I come visit.

It’s a win-win for everyone.

Filed Under: travel Tagged With: ,

Bode’s computer consulting business

March 7, 2014 By

Still digging myself out of being sick and getting caught up. I was gleaning my archives and realized I never published this post I wrote once upon a time.

I often joke that my children will be much more technology-savvy than I.

Last week, I realized just how true that is when I brought out my old laptop for Bode as I worked. I turned on the power button and waited.

Me: “It’s just booting up, Bode.”

Bode: “That’s wrong, Mommy. It’s loading, not booting.”

FYI, hardware boots, software loads.

Bode will be available for computer consolations in a few years.

P.S. This picture is of my sweet boy snuggling all his stuffed animals at bedtime. He’ll later itemize each of them on a spreadsheet.

Filed Under: Bode, Humor

The Amazing Race: Maui

March 3, 2014 By

We’re back from an amazing 9 days in Maui and it was truly an adventure of a lifetime. We’ve traveled extensively and this was our favorite trip, ever.

Many more details are forthcoming but I’m wading through a deluge of deadlines and emails. Oh, and I decided to get sick at the very end so my all-nighter on our red-eye flight home was super fun.

In the interim, Jamie put together a fun video with some of our adventures.

Filed Under: Family travel, travel Tagged With:

The magic forgetful fairy in Waterton Lakes National Park

February 27, 2014 By

I think I’ve mentioned the amount of stress I’ve been under lately, which has been waking me up at 4:15 a.m. Since I’m not coherent at that hour, I’ve been doing non-essential things like airing out my blog’s draft folder. Here’s a funny post I wrote a few summers ago but never published it.

(For background, you will need to first reread this post whereupon Bode, after a day of camping with The Boys, declared he liked musicals better than camping.)

Setting: Several months later, camping in Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada a.k.a. my favorite place on earth in July 2011.  We cruised the bike paths adjacent to Waterton Lake on Surrey bikes, hiked Bear’s Hump with awe-inspiring views that peered into the United States , played in in the water at glorious Red Rock Canyon,  snuggled up to the ranger’s campfire chats in the evenings and camped a stone’s throw away from Cameron Falls.

I’m aching to go back.

Princes of Wales Hotel

Hiking Bear’s Hump

Riding Surrey Bikes

Navigating Red Rock Canyon in Waterton

Boys will be boys at Welch’s Chocolate Shop

Prince of Wales Hotel

During the midst of our outdoor utopia, Jamie turned to Bode.

Jamie: “Bode, do you like camping or musicals better?”

Bode: “What are musicals, Daddy?”

Jamie: “That’s my boy.”

Filed Under: Bode, Canada, Family travel, Humor, Jamie Tagged With: ,

The win-lose game of motherhood

February 25, 2014 By

Costco funny: “Johnsonville Brats”

My kids are making me drip with sentimentality these days.

Too often it’s easy to poke fun of all the drama of parenthood but my gosh, our latest phase (and that’s what it is–a phase) is full of kindness, funniness, obedience and hard work. I couldn’t love them anymore and I’m so honored to be their mom.

On Saturday, I marveled at how good they’re being lately.

“I have to give a shout-out to Hadley and Bode! We’ve had a busy day and you have been wonderful. Hadley did her chores without being asked, there was no complaining during homework and you both did a great job at volleyball and basketball. I have to commend you on your wonderful attitude lately.”

They beamed as Jamie chimed in: “Yeah, but mine sucks.”

You win some, you lose some.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor, Jamie

Happy belated birthday to me!!!

February 24, 2014 By

My namesake book, as discovered at the thrift store

I’ve had some birthdays that are downright amazing and others that were only so-so.

But there was none worse than my fete five years ago and the little outbreak that occurred.

Head over to Mile High Mamas for a stroll down memory lane.

Hint: LICE.

Filed Under: birthday, Humor

The High-Five Squad Meets Superstar Denver Nuggets

February 20, 2014 By

High-five Squad at the Denver Nuggets game

The kids are both involved in YMCA sports this winter. Bode is playing “Junior Nuggets” basketball and Hadley is in volleyball. Hadley is developing a real love for the sport and I enrolled Bode so he could stay active and be on his friend Sean’s team.

He has the least amount of experience of any of his teammates but here’s the thing about Bode: what he may be lacking in natural skill he makes up for it by his sheer determination to succeed. For his first few games, he hung back taking it all in. But his latest game on Saturday the little dude caught fire–going for rebounds, dribbling the ball up the court and he even scored two baskets which, in 7-year-old basketball, is equal to about 70 points.

He also traveled with the ball about 20 times but we won’t count that.

Occasionally there are a few perks to aligning yourself with the YMCA and last week we cashed in on one of them. Every player in the program was offered two free tickets to a Denver Nuggets game and extra tickets were just $15 so we figured we’d take the kids to their first basketball game for FHE.

Then, it just kept getting better when I received an email from a Nuggets sales coordinator. They’d had a cancellation and they needed 25 kids on the same night we had our tickets to be part of the High Five Squad to welcome the Nuggets onto the court. I, of course, jumped at the chance!

We arrived 40 minutes early, retrieved our free T-shirts and while the parents waited on a nearby platform, the kids were escorted down to the floor where they proceeded to form a tunnel and high-five the Nuggets players as they were cheered onto the court. Both of the kids were near the end of the tunnel and stationed right in front of the camera so their cute faces splashed across the Jumbo-tron a few times.

Of course, I was too slow to capture that because those tall Nuggets kept blocking my view.

As it turns out, the Jumbo-tron is for amateurs. Jamie recorded the game and when we watched it later, we laughed to see that the kids were repeatedly on live TV.

Hadley is to the left of the announcer in white pants and Bode is to the left of her.

We had a  blast in our nosebleed seats as we watched the Nuggets defeat the Los Angeles Clippers. In fact, Hadley was so inspired she announced she now has a new career aspiration. Thankfully, it wasn’t a cheerleader (sigh of relief) but she was impressed with the two sales gals who helped plan the half-time shows and High Five Squad.

“I’d like to work for a sports team!” she said. “It would be a lot of fun. Plus, I like telling people what to do.”

I’ll vouch for that one. Look out, world.

 

Filed Under: Bode, Colorado, Hadley, Humor Tagged With: ,
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