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So while I was in the ATL, I got to visit some of my favorite places. Harry’s Farmer’s Market, IKEA, Cheesecake Factory, the movies, thrift stores, REI, La Madeleine, a salon for pedicures and massages, and evenings with friends chatting and catching up on news and old times. (I got my first REAL professional massage, the one at UCMT didn’t count back in college 
and while the other girls were finishing up their pedicures, we watched a guy propose to his girlfriend there in the salon, while she was getting her nails done. HA!)
My sweet and beautiful friend Meg let me stay at her house on Sunday night and drove me to the airport. She makes me laugh and I am happy just to be around her. She and her husband are raising three handsome young gentlemen and I am very impressed with how they are turning out. It’s amazing, with how much time we spent through the entire time I lived in GA, that we didn’t have any serious arguments, because we are really like sisters. People often asked if we were. I love her!
My darling and sarcastic friend Shauna let me stay with her for the first bit of the trip. Actually, she just assumed I would, and I just assumed I would too. I did eventually confirm. She and her husband AJ were willing to stay up all night playing monopoly with me every night, and AJ sacrificed his whole birthday for us to go have a girls’ day. What a guy. We bought him treats as restitution. Their three girls are darling. When I first met Shauna I didn’t know what to think of her. I was shocked that she was even more sarcastic than myself. Then I decided that she was someone who would be a better friend than an enemy, and then I couldn’t help loving her. She’s a riot.
My gorgeous Wendytart. I love her so much! She is always honest and so supportive. It was wonderful to spend time and see some of her latest projects, and hope some of that creativity will jump over to my brain cells by association. Her two kiddos are adorable also. I laugh so much with these girls. We had such a great time remembering the first time we all met – and when I first met her, I knew I’d found a great friend.
So many others I could write about – Jana, Libby, Tonia, Stephanie, Joan, Amy, Staci, Molly, Tonya, Kristi, Dawn, Ida, Susan, Patty, and all my other friends… and all their darling kids. Sigh. It was great to see (almost) everyone.
IMG_6611, originally uploaded by stephsterr.
I went by myself to Atlanta. How did I get such a treat? It all started when, about a month and a half ago, Mark very nicely said, “It would be nice if you were just a little bit early to church, instead of 2 minutes late every single week.” Which I was – every week. They’d be saying “Welcome to Sacrament Meeting, our opening hymn is…” and here come the kids and me, tripping each other and arguing over whether THIS was the week I’d finally concede to sitting in the very back instead of our usual row, 5th and center.
So I got a little defensive. “You have no idea how hard it is to get 4 kids ready for church, when such-and-such happens, and so-and-so sleeps in and then yells at everyone and then insists on taking a shower etc blah blah blah…” I had lots to say. He said, “you know, people sit and chat before church starts, it’s kind of fun.” Well, I had no idea. That was definitely an incentive, but I really really was tired of getting to church angry with the kids and frantic about being late again. So. We’ve been targeting to leave a 1/2 hour early and then we end up leaving 15-20 minutes after that. Which still makes us early, so, hey. And I’m not all stressed out.
Back on track. From that conversation, I was saying how I wished Mark could see how it is to take care of the kids for 3-4 days in a row with no breaks. And he said, you need to take a trip. Voila – my trip to GA. I first stayed with Shauna and AJ, AJ has a new camera which Shauna, Wendy and I had a fun time playing around with. More ridiculous pictures after the break. And more on the trip in the next post, I need to run kids all over creation.
Or in other words, what is Josh listening to now? Teehee
This is especially accurate because my iPod took a bath in a puddle of water on Mark’s sink, courtesy of our darling daughter. So my iPod will no longer do anything of use. So any syncs and updated numbers come from Josh, unless I listen to it on my comp. So… let’s see what his tastes have been leaning towards, shall we?
1. Wake Me Up Inside – Evanaescence – 298 — 1168!!! a new winner!!
2. Clocks – Coldplay – 1058 — 1157
3. Dead and Gone – T.I. feat. Justin Timberlake – 67 — 486 – quite a jump
4. Move Along – The All-American Rejects – 195 — 454
5. Airplanes (feat. Hayley Williams) — B.o.B — 325 (new!)
6.Bella’s Lullaby – Carter Burwell – 305 — 310
7.Thnks Fr Th Mmrs – Fall Out Boy – 247 — 305
Blue – Eiffel 65 – 273 — 296
Viva La Vida – Coldplay – 254 — 292
Supermassive Black Hole – Muse – 261 — 281
Sabotage – Beastie Boys – 219 — 244 – some of these might be mine
Shut Your Eyes – Snow Patrol – 237 — 243
That’s All – Genesis – 231 — 235
Just Dance – Lady GaGa — 233 (new!)
City Of Blinding Lights – U2 – 218 — 229 – mine too
Orange Crush – R.E.M. – 223 — 223 – even steven!
The Hampster Dance – 90 — 213
Circus – Britney Spears — 194 (new!)
I Made It (Cash Money Heroes) – Kevin Rudolf — 177 (new!)
War (New Version) — Sean Kingston — 138 (new!)
Telephone (feat. Beyonce) – Lady GaGa — 118 (new!)
Boom Boom Pow (clean) — Black Eyed Peas — 113 (new!)
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy – Morrissey – 49 — 97 my section starts here
I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris – Morrissey – 47 — 93
Now My Heart is Full – Morrissey – 50 — 74
I think the clear message is that when the boy likes a song, he really really likes it. And also, I still like Morrissey.
I decided I’d actually write a blog post. I took a long, long break because someone told me my writing wasn’t funny. I always thought I was pretty funny, so that comment really, really hurt. It shouldn’t have, I should have thicker skin than that. But I also figured that my life has been easily summed up in status updates and, if anyone really wanted to hear what was up, they could call.
But I feel like writing again. If I’m not that funny, my kids are, and they do funny things. I was driving with Mark and telling him how long these summers seem to be. They seem to take about a year to go by. But remember the movie “So I Married an Axe Murderer”? Steven Wright’s character is flying the cop in a plane and says the line “I have no concept of time.” I totally relate to this. Last week feels as far away as last year. Likewise, a card game with friends 14 years ago feels the same length away as the card game we played with a different set of friends this past New Years Eve. But that’s a tangent. Suffice it to say summers seem long.
Which led Mark to say how much harder the summers will become when Jill gets into school full-time (still a year away.) And I said, “Well, then they’ll be more grown up. Do you realize Ben still wants me to pour his cereal for him every morning?”
It’s true. The boy is 7 years old and still wants his mother to pour his cereal and milk. I’ll ask him why he can’t do it himself and he says, “It tastes better when you do it.” So every morning he’ll come into my room and he’ll say, “Mom, can you get me some breakfast?” And just about every morning I’ll say, “Do you know what kind of cereal you want? No? Go into the pantry and choose your cereal. … Go back to the pantry, GET OUT the cereal and put it on the counter. … Now go get a bowl and spoon out of the drawers. …. Now get out the milk. … Now pour the cereal in the bowl and pour the milk on top.” “NOOOO!!! That’s the part I want you to do!!!”
Often I just do it (it’s just easier that way). But occasionally when he is forced to perform this hard labor himself, he’ll lay across the lazyboy and watch cartoons all morning and forget to feed himself. And THEN, he will realize he’s hungry later and we have to deal with the fridge being constantly open and the pantry continually raided. But he just joins his brothers in those happy forages, so hey. The kitchen is always in upheaval, I spend a fortune in groceries, the kids are tan and their hair is blonder. There are 34 days until school starts.
A couple more things:
Josh busted his head open on a rock, his staples are coming out in a half hour.
I’m no longer Young Womens President, I’m now Primary Chorister.
Mark and I were Pa and Ma on a Pioneer Trek and got to dress up as pioneers and had 8 children, ages 14-18 in our family – 4 boys, 4 girls. We had to cook our food in dutch ovens and hike about 21 miles pulling a handcart. It was awesome.
The younger three went to a Vacation Bible School a couple weeks ago where Jill learned to yell a bible verse at the top of her lungs. Making me worried about what would happen at Primary the next Sunday. Also she would bust out with “JESUS IS LORD!!!” and she got such a great reaction the first time she did it (I collapsed in hysterical laughter) she kept doing it over and over.
