Is It Naptime Yet

For my girls road trip to Utah I treated myself to a new CD to occupy my time. I love Kelly Clarkson, so I bought her new one, All I Ever Wanted.

I love it and Eden is now, “Are you listening to your new CD.” It’s more a statement than a question and she rolls her eyes and sighs a little whenever she says it and hears me playing it.

One song reminds me of Jon and me and it resonates with our relationship when Jon first left the church. It starts off a little strange, and there is one line I don’t like that you hear over and over again, (You’re the best I got.) but overall I really love it and love to jam out to it while I’m washing dishes.

There is no official music video for it, but I’ve linked one that has the words as you listen to it.

I love you Babe.

This year the girls and I went to a family reunion for my mother’s side all by ourselves. I planned on going, then I planned on not going, then decided in the end to go. Jon was unable to get time off of work, which was one reason I did not want to go, I get sleepy on long trips and did not want to make it alone.

The first day, Thursday, we were driving about 6 hours to Lehi. My parents were staying there and visiting with my Aunt and Uncle, so the drive wasn’t too bad. I did have to stop after driving the gorge and then once more in Ceder City to take some short naps. I think the caffeine in the excedrine kicked in after that and I made it just fine the rest of the way to my Aunt’s house and then to the hotel later that night.

On Friday we headed up to Brigham Cit,y Utah, where the reunion would be taking place. Before we went too far North we stopped in Salt Lake and visited Temple Square and the Conference Center. It was a humid day, so it was a little uncomfortable, but not unbearable. We had fun walking around and the girls loved the fountains. We took the tour for the Conference Center so we could see the roof. Lilah saw people on the roof and had to go up there. They both really enjoyed themselves.

After the Conference Center tour we got back on the road and drove through some of the houses and past the capitol building in Salt Lake. This was really because I wasn’t sure how to get back to I-15. We eventually found the interstate, and got on the road to Brigham City, with a short stop north in Logan to visit Jon’s niece Shauntae and her family. We got there much later than anticipated, since my stop in Salt Lake was spontaneous. Shauntae let me take a short nap while she took something to her husband at work, then later we went to a little Zoo/ animal sanctuary with just her and my girls. The girls had lots of fun and we loved talking and spending time together. We then ate at IHOP, shopped at Down East Basics and lastly visited Utah State University, where she is currently attending, to see a part of the campus. It was lots of fun and the girls and I got back to the hotel a little late, but well worth it.

Friday was the day of the family reunion. I saw some cousins I hadn’t seen in 12 or so years, and spent time chatting with different family members. The girls painted bird houses and I let Lilah be in charge of taking pictures. We had a family raffle where some family members donated items to be raffled off. Then you had to buy tickets to win items. My cousin Ruth, who was in charge this year, and is just a few years younger than my mom, brought a few odd items for the raffle. She had looked in her food storage and decided to bring men’s deodorant. Some she put in bags with a couple candy bars and others were just on the table to be taken later. It was rather silly. My Uncle Bill and my dad both won a lot, but they also bought a lot of tickets. The girls each got some tickets from my dad and won and choose some bags with toys and candy.

After the reunion I took the girls back to the hotel to swim in the pool. They had been dying to go swimming in one of the hotel pools, so we spent some time there. It was only 3 feet deep in the shallow end, so they both were able to walk around and enjoy themselves. We then headed over to my cousin Ruth’s house to join my parents and them for dinner. My cousin Sherrilyn was there with her daughter Emerylyn, who is 20 months, so the girls had fun playing with her. When Sherrilyn later left to visit her in-laws the girls had fun playing upstairs while I hung out with other cousins.

Sunday we brought Sherrilyn and Emerylyn home with us. They had gone up as a family before the Fourth of July, but Chad had to come home early for class, since I had space without Jon, I volunteered to take Sherrilyn and Emery home. I also thought it would be nice to have someone to drive with for the 8 hours it would take to get home. I see them each month at FHE,but it was nice to chat more my Sherrilyn and let the girls play with Emery.

We got home by 6 pm on Sunday, and it was so nice to be back in Vegas, especially since the girls had swimming lessons on Monday, something that is wonderful in this hot Las Vegas heat.

Really I’m not, I just do what you have to do to get things done, perfectly.

It’s funny the things you face in life sometimes. Earlier tonight I was hand-feeding my printer little papers to print out baby shower invites for a shower I’m giving. They’re only 7 x 5 inches, and will be 3 1/2 x 5 inches when finished. My printer was being very finicky and I had to push them all the way back with a pencil, because the paper tray pusher thing is not centered on the paper and thus the paper goes in crooked when I was just using that to push it back and so I figured out it’s just easier to use a pencil and carefully push it back in the center of the paper. Then I gently tap the paper on each side to make sure it’s in straight. Then I hit print, and repeated it 16 times.

Yeah, I’m not a perfectionist, I just do what you have to do to get things done, perfectly.

Really, this comes down to wanting invitations that were not written in my own hand-writing, and not having scrap-booking stuff to make oh so cute and personalized invites, so I went and saw invitations I could print and thought, “These are the ones I need, because no one wants to see my janky hand-writing on an invitation.” I didn’t even want to write the addresses on the envelopes, so I took the time and figured out how to print them on there.

I just want to note, if I was a true perfectionist, I’d go buy new transparent paper and print new info on them to put in the announcements, since I realized the ink stayed wet f.o.r.e.v.e.r. and half the invitations became slightly smeared. I ended up blotting the invites, that is correct, I blotted them to help them from smearing more, at least I hope it helped.

(Anna, don’t worry about the invites, I was just mostly annoyed at them and sorry for any smears, I tried to give you the nicest one to have for yourself. )

Wednesday I had no internet so I cleaned.

I planned on cleaning anyways. I really needed to clean my bathrooms, which had been painfully neglected in the last three or four months while sewing and rehearsing for the play, but having no internet really helped me to stay focused on the task I needed to do. I cleaned the girls bathroom first, then mine, then my shower, then the floors got mopped. They had both been cleaned in all the places they could be cleaned. I even organized under my sink and threw out a trash bag full of make-up and other stuff I was storing for a later date, but really never going to use again, or shouldn’t use again. Now my bathrooms are in harmony and I won’t feel completely mortified if someone had to use one of them.

After cleaning the two neglected bathrooms I took a shower and prepared dinner. I waited for Jon to come home, mostly because I love him, partially because he could get the internet working on his laptop. Our computer had been turned off since noon, or when our air conditioner decided to start blowing room temperature air, something it’s done twice this month already, the second time being just Sunday. (A different air guy came and fixed it yesterday, at least I hope it fixes the problem, I guess time will tell.)

Once the cool air started blowing again after having the air off for over an hour, I would normally have turned on my computer to use the internet, but something is going on with the monitor. The brightness is messed up, but not only that, it’s brighter each time you turn it on. So the first time I was at 50 for brightness, and I had to turn it down to 30, to make it manageable to read. Then the second time I turned it on I had to turn it down to 20. So I’m avoiding turning it on unless completely necessary, or until we get a new monitor, which hopefully will be this weekend. Hint, Hint honey. 🙂

I realized I have a slight addiction to the internet, or really what’s on it. It takes up a lot of time, and I get easily distracted. Chats take longer than expected, I’m not complaining, but I know they take up a lot of time when I should be doing other things some days. I get lost in blogs or social networks, or I even look for things to take up my time so I don’t have to do cleaning or do what I’m suppose be doing.

It was a blessing to not have the internet so I could stay focused, but it stinks that I want it so much.

Each of us have our distractions, for Lilah it’s Mario Cart that takes up her time. We got it for her birthday and since then, she is always wanting to play when she wakes up or after breakfast, but she knows she has to wait till after lunch. Since we were in the play, she actually didn’t get to play it till a day or two after her brithday, but then she got to play it a lot, for the times were were home. Earlier this week I would just let her play, usually after lunch till later in the day, but other days, and from now on, I’m limiting it to just an hour a day. Since I made this rule Wednesday. I just set the timer and then she’s able to finish the games she’s playing after it goes off, so it’s really over an hour a day, then it’s off with Mario, unless someone else wants to play. Since an hour of play was so short Lilah actually asked if she could save up her days and play for a long time. I said yes, but only up to two hours a day. She actually didn’t ask at all to play today, the off day, so she’ll have two hours tomorrow to play. Yesterday when I had her turn off Mario Cart she found The Friend to read, something she hasn’t done in a while, so I think I’ll stick to my rule so she finds other things to do.

Eden waste time mostly by playing. As in she plays instead of cleaning something up or getting dressed or even coloring. The funny thing is she will play with nearly anything. The crayons become their own little people, her sandwich becomes something if she’s tired of eating, the clothes do something exciting, or really the chair she’s suppose to use while folding her clothes. Then with toys it’s pretty obvious that she’s going to waste time by playing when she’s suppose to be putting them away. I sometimes have to keep a close eye on her, since she’s so easily distracted, but sometimes it’s me who’s so easily…..

So what distracts you or keeps you off task?