I hope that wasn't the ninth life

Tonight I was driving North on Redwood Road and I saw a black cat dart out into the street on the opposite side. I knew that I was going to hit it if I didn't slow down, so I did and right then a big truck heading South ran right over it. I saw the thing roll and land on it's backside with the hind legs in the air and they were flailing in jerky movements. I was so sick. I have never actually seen one get hit and die. Yuck. I don't love cats but that was really gross and sad.

Happy Birthday Tamra

Happy Birthday to my awesome friend Tamra. She has really been there for me through so much. She is like the "older" sister I never had and always wished for. (Hee hee - I can say that because she looks so much younger than me!) She has been so encouraging through everything. She will exercise with me and put up with my crazy stories and constant talking. She will run with me (although she is a mean coach) and she won't let you be lazy. She has rescued me a number of times. She is super funny. She finds all the cool things and then tells me about them so I can buy them. She has the greatest kids and is an awesome mom. She is a great example to me. So, T, I hope you enjoyed your day.

St. George '07

Halloween

Salt Lake 5K '07

(she's faster than me with an injury!)

Windy Yuba

This girl rocks on a wakeboard!

Primary Presidency '05 (St. George marathon)

Salt Lake half marathon

The "Mar-shaunt" Family

(as papa Bill lovingly calls them)

This is what we think of Classic skating

Update

The dog was returned to his owner yesterday after school. His name is Oscar. Just so you know, we saved them the impound fee, so it's all good! We are no longer dog nappers! Yay!

Dog Napped!!!

(I'm telling ya, they all look the same!!!)

So, about a month ago, my brother Billy and his family lost their dog. It was a pug named "Dumpster." This morning I get a call from Mikaela at the school and she tells me that Dumpster is running around the school yard and he answers to Dumpster. I knew that wasn't proof, but I still had a small ray of hope that it was Dumpster. I tried calling Cham to have her meet me at the school to look at him and she doesn't answer. I sent her a text and she didn't respond. So, my dad and I ran over to the school to look at him. Of course, we don't know what Dumpster looks like. They all look and snort alike. The janitor was outside with the dog and she told us that she was calling the pound to pick him up so I decided we should take him and let Cham identify him when she came back to the school to pick Loren up. Anyway, this dog is NOT Dumpster. Oooopsie!!! Apparently, this dog is only like a year old and not as cute as Dumpster (per Cham). I don't know how she can tell a difference in the cuteness but I'll go with it. Also, they lost Dumpster at the Salt Lake house instead of the Riverton house down the street so it would be next to impossible for Dumpster to find his way down I-15 to the school. So, now we have dog napped this dog! I don't know if we should make posters and try to find the owner or just turn it over to the pound. Or, make posters that say to check with the pound? Hmmmmmm! Will keep you posted.

Poll results!

Okay all you smarty pants out there. Good job on the poll. 80% of you had it correct. I have to admit that I have always said it smorgasborg. I took a survey the day I discovered my lifelong error and most of the people agreed with me. So, apparently we need to get the word out.

Oh, and FYI the bad mood has lifted. Woo hoo!!!

Forgiveness

Today in sacrament meeting I heard a talk on forgiveness and the "young" girl used personal experiences in her talk. Now, granted the talk had many great points to it, but both of her personal experiences had to do with when she was in high school and her sister always borrowed her clothes without asking (whose doesn't?) and when she couldn't buy her 2 year old M & M's from the store and had to take them away from him so that he cried and cried forever and ever! Now, I remember being "young" but are everyone's problems this minute? Or, is she the exception? I keep teaching my kids that they are not alone in their struggles and that EVERYONE has problems but, COME ON! Give me something I can work with here! How do you explain this to little children that suffer when there are twenty somethings out there that can't think of a single trial worth talking about?

Ok. It was actually a very nice reminder that we all need to forgive. So, here are a couple of nice little quotes about trials. This is from the Ensign, 1977 Delbert Stapley says: "Sometimes in the eternities to come, we will see that our trials were calculated to cause us to turn to our Heavenly Father for strength and support. Any affliction or suffering we are called upon to bear may be directed to give us experience, refinement, and perfection."

Here's another one from Brigham Young. "Every calamity that can come upon mortal beings will be suffered to come upon the few, to prepare them to enjoy the presence of the Lord. Every trial and experience you have passed through is necessary for your salvation."

So, "young" speaker girl, I forgive you...for not having any real trials in your life and then rubbing it in my face.

In case you can't tell...I am in a bad mood!

Buckethead

Today as I was driving home, I saw a guy running down the street in our neighborhood with an apple bucket on his head. Weird! (I just wish I had my camera.)

Which is it?

Okay, while writing Cham's Birthday post, I realized that I didn't know which way the word was pronounced. Is it Smorgasbord or Smorgasborg? That is the question for the day. I did a quick little survey and found it very interesting what others thought. Tell me what you think. (Take the survey on the right.) Don't look it up, just go with your first instinct. My entire life I was wrong! How dumb do I feel? But, I am not the only one. Thank goodness spell check saved me from any blog embarrassment. It reminds me of the Friends episode where they debate whether the word is supposedly or supposably and Joey says it's supposably. So funny. (You can pretty much find any situation relating to your life in a friends episode. That show was awesome!)

Happy 6th Birthday Loren!!!

Today is Loren's 6th birthday. (Yes, she was born the day after her mother's birthday.) She is still toothless and so cute. She also just got her long hair chopped off and donated it to "Locks of love." It was soooooo long. Loren is such an easy going child. She just goes with the flow. She likes almost anything and is willing to try all foods. She just recently learned to ride a two wheeler without training wheels and she is so excited about it. She always reminds me that we are the only two that both start with "L" and that makes us special. (Not in that way, Billy!) So, Happy Birthday to my little niece Lo Lo!

Toothless

Dancin' cousins (recital December 2007)

Grandpa Santa

Check out the long locks!

Goodbye pretty, long hair!!!

Hello, big girl!!!

Happy 30th Birthday Chamberlee!!!

No more "29 and lookin fine" for Cham. She is officially 30. Ahhh, welcome to the throws of being over 30. For Cham's big bash, the girls went out to dinner at Logano's, which is her favorite place, and then we went to the Tavernacle for the dueling pianos. It was pretty crazy. I think we were the only "mellow mo mo's" in the entire place. But, nonetheless, we had fun. Cham danced on the pianos (I can't believe they let people do that to the pianos!) to "Pour Some Sugar on Me." I hope Cham had a nice birthday and that her Big 30 was everything she dreamed of and more. (Not the kind of Amazing Race dream you had with D-Rock!)

The ladies!

The family

Reading to her babies. Awwww.

Cham and her friend Emily

Sweet 30!

Grandpa Santa

Alicia, Summer, and Cham

Things I love about Cham:

She will help out whenever needed

She loves to borrow my clothes

She is willing to be involved with our side of the family (and that's asking a lot!)

She is fun to play games with

She is funny

She is always willing to do stuff with you

She loves Papa Bill's smorgasbords

She is willing to help out

She is always complimenting my parenting (muchas gracias)

She loves to start DeGraaff family traditions

And, she loves the white chocolate lindor truffles like me!!!

My apologies

To all of those on my email yahoo address book, I apologize. Apparently when I signed up with Reunion.com, it automatically imports ALL my addresses to my reunion.com profile and sent you all invites from yours truly. Isn't that nice of them? On two different occasions I clicked that I didn't want to invite everyone in my address book and then Mikaela informed me yesterday that she received one from me. So, some of you may have received it and some of you had it sent to your spam. Just leave it there, it's crap. I am so mad about it. And, if you decide to sign up with reunion.com, just be forewarned that they will send something to everyone you know if you are as computer illiterate as I am. So embarrassing. So, again I apologize and FYI I did not search for each of you on their site. Reunion.com is a liar, liar, pants on fire!

I HATE TAXES!!!

I haven't been blogging lately because I have been working like mad on taxes. I am going crazy with it. I haven't been sleeping well because of it, it has been major stress and I hate them! So, last night I am dreaming what seems like a very long drawn out dream. (I'm not sure I should even tell everyone because it is so crazy.) I have been looking at so many numbers and credit card statements, specifically American Express statements. In my dream, apparently I am on a cruise or something sort of vacationy like that. I go to use the restroom and the toilet paper dispenser is on the wall which would actually be where the door normally is. So, if you are sitting, ahem, you would be looking right at the toilet paper dispenser. But, this is no ordinary toilet paper dispenser. It is shaped like a paper towel dispenser with multi-fold towels in it. But, instead of the towels being dispensed, it is toilet paper which is like 12" wide and 9" long. It's stronger than toilet paper but softer than the multi-fold towels. (I'm getting to the point.) So, I pull out a piece of this weird toilet paper and I see that it feels like the toilet paper but it is American Express statements. Statements with people's information on them. All their purchases and card numbers and everything. I keep pulling more and more and discover that there are a variety of people's statements in the toilet paper dispenser. I start freaking out because this is so wrong, such an invasion of privacy and a facilitator for identity fraud, etc. So, as I start my freaking out, I get super restless and then my alarm wakes me up. Then I sort of chuckled because I was dreaming of taxes. Isn't it almost time to put it to rest? April 15th I await your arrival!

Strawberries for free!!! How sweet is that?

Today I went grocery shopping. Now, I am my father's daughter and he taught me well. He can catch any incorrect pricing at any grocery store at any time of day no matter how full his basket is. I can't tell you how many items he comes home with for free because the prices are screwed up.
So, I ran to Albertson's and picked up a four pound thing of strawbs for $5.96. The kid rang it through at $9.99. I, of course, had to let him know it was incorrect. He called back to produce and they told him the sign was supposed to come down and they were no longer on sale. So, he said "can I just give you a $4.00 off coupon?" And I replied "what about the price guarantee, don't I get them for free?" (whilst pointing at the small print of an offer on their counter!) He sadly said "Yea, I can do that for you?" Now, what is the big deal? The store offers it. It's their correct price guarantee. Why won't they give it to you in the first place? Why do we have to gravel? Why do they act like it's coming out of their own pockets every time? I don't get it. If you don't want to honor it, get rid of it!!! Okay, enough of that. My dad hates going to Peterson's because no matter what he buys, something is ALWAYS the wrong price over there. But, if it happens at Albertson's, you get it for free, baby. (With a little begging, pleading and giving your eye teeth, of course.)

In case you can't tell, it's been a boring week.