Thoughts and Other Ramblings

I haven't felt inspired to blog lately until I saw a picture of a teenage Kelly wearing a woman's snowsuit ready to hit the slopes. Long story but I cried real tears of joy and cackled with laughter. We don't have one of those relationships where we don't laugh at the other person. In fact, we laugh at each other a lot. It keeps us grounded, ya know? Anyway, Kelly didn't feel threatened I'd put in on my blog because (as he pointed out) he would only be concerned if I actually knew how to scan a picture. He's right and he got the last laugh...for now. But since I'm here, I might as well share a few things.

I got trapped in Claire's at the mall the other day. It was a very bad experience and I felt like crying. I had just popped in pushing my limosine length double stroller because that's the only one Abe will sit in and Lilly sometimes gets "tired legs" syndrome and I wanted to buy some cheap black headbands for a project I'm working on (see goals below). (FYI they didn't have any...cheap ones, that is.) Of course I had to go to the back of the store to see if they had what I was looking for and while I was there for all of two seconds the store filled up to capacity, which is about five people, and plugged up the two escape routes. Panic, nerves, nausea. How did this happen? I waited, patiently at first, while a grandmother and two kids looked at Hannah Montana hair things while I revved up the stroller just an inch or two away. Couldn't they see me? I mean, I'm right there and Abe's starting to freak out! They still don't move and I try to refrain from running them all over screaming, "Get me out of this plastic hell!" I study the other side to see if I could get out that way, but with four or five very large women and children filling up the aisle I figured my best bet was grandma here. Finally I say "excuse me" and they move really slowly to the side all annoyed and I wanted to shout "I have the right of way! Don't you see I'm a mother who's about to lose my mind if I don't get out right. this. second!!!!" Anyway, I escaped but they lost my business for sure.

So, moving on, I've set goals for January. None of this New Year's Resolutions business for me. I like goals that I can accomplish within a reasonable amount of time. But I have put a lot of thought into these and here are a few for the month.

1. Create. My favorite part of Christmas this year were the things I made for my kids like the cape on Abe and tutu on Lilly. I have so many ideas and feel so empowered when I take an idea and follow through with it. President Uchdorf and I are totally on the same page.

2. Spend more quality time with Lilly. She's craving some love from her parents and has taken a particular liking to her dad. In fact, they're on a date right now at Chuck E. Cheese's and as they were walking out she looked up at him with such adoring eyes. She needs some attention since most of the day seems to be spent taming the beast (a.k.a. Abraham).

3. Speaking of the beast, Abe's a real hoot. Today in the car he was upset about something and to calm him down he wanted to hear "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse. He's a little off center and that's how we like it. But I do want to read to him more and help him to focus his energy on positive play instead of total destruction.


4. I've heard that in your 30's you accept who you are. That's a goal for me even though I'm sure it's hard to believe that I'm already in my 30's. But in the interest of self-acceptance, take a close look at those eyebrows on me. Don't they remind you of this?

5. I want to be a better wife and I think that means buying Kelly presents. (This will be an easy one because it's his birthday this month.) Look at how much he loves receiving gifts. Love and cashmere (for cheap!) all rolled into one.


So this is quite a long post for not really feeling inspired. What's gonna happen when I actually have something to say?

Does Anybody Care?

So, I pretty much could have died yesterday. Thanks to my family who DIDN'T call to see if my little family and I were snug as bugs in rugs at home or if we had plowed into a snow bank freezing and shaking and perishing for want of warmth? Thanks. Thanks a lot. I think I see big fat return labels on all your presents. Let THAT be a lesson to you. And now (since you asked) here is my story:

Every once in a while I'll wake up with a feeling that a trip to Cafe Rio or Anthropologie is imperative. It just so happened that earlier this week when I awoke, let's say on Monday, it was made known to me that a visit to both Cafe Rio and Anthropologie were necessary. It had to be Wednesday. Wednesday Kelly would be home. Wednesday I could have time. Without the children. Alone. FREEDOM!!!! And then Wednesday came along with that blasted snow. Courage. I must have courage. The fear of driving in the snow plagues me even though I've long since lived in Utah (thank goodness!). Yet here I was and I had to make a choice. Well, I'm nothing if not very brave and I took on the challenge, drove to Anthropologie where I scored this treasure for only $3.95! Because who doesn't need a hedgehog candle? I was meant to bring him home. Courage...courage and faith (And if you can tell me what movie that's from I'll give you a dollar)

I enjoyed my grilled chicken salad with extra pico de gallo on the side and my 3/4 cup full diet dr. pepper and 1/4 cup full diet coke with two straws knowing that I was alive and it felt good. Could life get better?

Then we built a snowman who is now decapitated.

And this is the view from my front door this morning. Notice the slushy streets, family dear. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

THE END

DECIPHER THIS!

Lilly has written another book. Last night she just sat down,said she wanted to write a book and she did. She even drew pictures. She's an artistic genious and that's all I can say about that. Here are her words. See if you can figure out the story. For those of you who don't read Lilly, then a translation is provided below. Happy reading!

Watsapanatim ther wur a famly. A hapy fuamuly. Tha selubrat Crtsmis. But wun Crismis it wus a the wrs Crismis. En rona prticeelr and Crismis tha didit hav enee fun. Tha had to cleen. But the next day tha had the best Crismis evr. And the next and day. The end.

To evreebudy

From Lilly

ilustratit bi Lilly Sowell

The athr is bi Lilly Lilly Sowell

Translation:

Once upon a time there was a family. A happy family. They celebrate Christmas. But one Christmas it was the worst Christmas. And one particular Christmas they had to clean. They didn't have any fun. But the next day they had the best Christmas ever. And the next day and the next day.

Then End.

To everybody

From Lilly

illustrated by Lilly Sowell

the author is by Lilly Sowell

The Acceptance Speech

I would like to thank all of you who voted. It's nice to win something, although I'd prefer to win something more along the lines of a "How'd She Manage To Take Such An Ugly Picture When In Real Life She's So Stunning?" contest. I just want to remind everyone what I actually do look like in case I've scarred them from my ugly picture. So, feast your eyes on this...

p.s. I think it's a little weird that there were two votes for Lilly. And I think Kelly's picture should have totally won. Besides your obvious lack of judgment, I'm really grateful.

The Contest... Continued

Not to interrupt the voting process (and I'm not at all embarrassed that I'm winning by a landslide and all the votes are not actually helping my self-esteem but causing it to plummit downwards at an alarming rate), but I actually meant to post this picture of Kelly. I just wanted to even out the playing field.

WARNING: DO NOT CLICK TO ENLARGE OR YOU MAY SUFFER SEVERE AND UNCONTROLLABLE CRYING AND/OR BLINDNESS

And if you don't know what I'm talking about (and who really does?) just scroll down.

A Contest For The Ages

Last night Kelly and I took the kiddies to Town Center to have a little family time, do a little shopping and a little playing in the snow (a.k.a. bubbles that shoot out from the trees and that taste really gross- as Lilly will tell you). It was fun. We had a little fro yo and to make that even more exciting we held a "Who Can Eat Your Frozen Yogurt With The Ugliest Face" contest. And guess what, you guys get to pick the winner. The poll is on the right.

This is Abe's best attempt, but I think he failed miserably.

Kelly had a couple of really good options, but I think this was his best work.

Sweet Lilly, she did pretty well.

Well, to be fair, I had a really hard time getting an ugly picture. I mean, Kelly actually had to give me lessons because it's so hard for me to take a bad picture. I don't know how the rest of you do it.

Please vote for the ugliest and the winner gets bragging rights. If you don't mind, please vote several times so it looks like I have a lot of readers. It will help my self-esteem.

Welcome!

Just a sweet little face to welcome you into December