PATTYCAKES

This is Brandon, at one of his wrestling meets, waiting for his match.

A winter past time in our family is building jigsaw puzzles.

Dare we do another, or save it for next winter?

So, the Arizona Cardinals have done it! They have managed to get themselves into the Superbowl. I will admit to lacking a whole lot of football interest, and most especially in regards to the AZ Cardinals, but I have my reasons.

But I am thinking about the rest of you.

It is not because we roll back prices in there, or that everything in there is "made in America". Do they even say that anymore? Because I remember when Wal-Mart used to tout that as many items as they could carry were made in this great country of ours and then, when I would go there, I would never, ever find anything made in America! But, I digress. My laundry room reminds me of Wal-Mart for this reason:

Have you ever gone into a brand new Wal-mart? It is big, and clean, and shiny and most noticeable, ROOMY! But, as time rolls along, every spare square inch of space in that store starts to fill up with more and more merchandise until I start to wonder if anyone even bothered to measure the distance between stacks to make it wide enough for one, not two, simply ONE cart to fit through. My answer is often a resounding "NO" as I trek down the entire aisle to and back up the other side to get to the display I was trying to look at.

Before you know it, there is barely room for two strangers to pass in the night as we try to reach our shopping destination and the displays are stacked so tall that we cannot see over them to read the signs and figure out where we need to go. But, the good thing in that is that most Wal-Marts are designed similarly and if you shop there often enough, you have the layout memorized.
And so goes my laundry room. If it were not for a memorized layout, I think I would be in trouble navigating through all that has accumulated in there. And, yes, I do keep up with my laundry, mostly. It just so happens to be a catch all for everything else! Besides laundry there is my two weeks supply of water, food storage, the paper shredder, pool towels, board games, opened cans of paint (because the heat would ruin them in the garage) and every item of clean clothing that my children own since the dirty stuff gets washed, dried, hung or folded, yet never makes it down to the bedrooms! Who needs closets and dresser drawers. All the clothing they own is STILL in the laundry room. As time wears on, I find that the piles are taller and the walkway is narrower. Yes, reminds me of an aging Wal-Mart. When it happens to them, they just close shop and build a newer, more super-sized store! Do I need a new laundry room?

Why did this tune strike me in the middle of church today? I assure you we don't sing that kind of music in church. I guess one of the speakers spoke of being in the rodeo. His wife also spoke of being in the rodeo. That is where they met. They are young things, just starting out. She said she could not imagine marrying into a family that did not like horses as she grew up on a ranch. So did he. They live nearby but that is because the city grew around their horse ranch and rodeo set-up, not the other way around.
What the subject of their talks was about was how we can become more Christlike in our lives. They spoke of our commitments to each other and to the Lord by our very actions, by seeking out the will of God, and bend our will to His and not try to force His to ours.
And when they were finished speaking, I realized that those "cowboys" knew a thing or two for their youth and had some pretty inspirational things to say, and it was a joy to see them starting their lives out together in the same saddle, each having the same goals that they can work to accomplish together. And that they were taking the steps they needed to stay strong in the Gospel, and with each other.
And I thought about how my own children were growing up so fast and in a matter of a few years, might be just like that newlywed couple and I thought that if they had things together as well as this couple seems to, then I would gladly be fine with them growing up to be cowboys!

I am serious! Be a man! Why do men want to look like women? Why do women want to look like men? I am just not getting it when I see men with eyeliner, and make-up, and hair products, and now...................Mantyhose! Change the name so it feels more masculine perhaps??? Cameron and I had a good, looooooong laugh about this and now, whenever any man in my house decides something is hard, I am going to ask them if they need some mantyhose! Man-up!
I especially like this pair, don't you?



And did you hear about the 140 year old lobster that nearly got cooked for dinner? The restaurant that was going to serve him decided to free him into the wild to live out the remainder of his days. I want to know how they know how old he is AND is the cost of lobster going to go up again because someone has to be paid to figure out the age of each lobster they catch???????? What is this world coming to?

Bunco is a silly, skill-less game, but a whole lot of fun!

The month of returns is here.

Notice, the men are all returning, easily but the women just stand in line and stand, and stand. Has no one learned how to design women's restrooms yet?? More stalls!!

Finally we pick up our offspring in Blythe, load up the pocket bike, full of gas! Nice smell! Drive home with windows cracked the whole way!

But, we are all safely home. We are grateful for that. We return to school and work and the next return???? You guessed it, tax return time! Ugghh!

During the week between Christmas and the New Year, Cameron went to Utah to snowboard and Brandon went to California to hang out with his cousin, Alex. He loaded up the pocket bike and away we went. Tim and I had the whole week at home! We cleaned up the decorations and we cleaned the garages. We also enjoyed eating this:
Mmmm, California Pizza Kitchen. I had never eaten there. Worth it! I had the Thai chicken pizza, Tim had some kind of Canadian Bacon with pineapple on it. Delicious! We ate at Gecko Grill that week too! Don't tell the kids. We ate at all the places we like since we didn't have to pay for them! ha ha Is this what retirement will be like???