Giveaways At Alive!

The March issue is up after much drama and tears on my part. Yet we have giveaways for the next three weeks for our Southern Utah residents.

This week we are giving away a free Maggie Moos ice cream cone and 2 free tickets to the Parowan Theater's performance in April. I know what you are thinking -- Parowan theater? Well apparently their performances always sell out. They are a small theater. All I know is that my girls are going to be so excited when I take them to see Beauty and the Beast. I am buying three tickets. So go enter this week. http://aliveutah.com/content/lucky-giveaway-month. And I don't care if you are my SIL, my neighbor or my mother-in-law because I am not doing the drawing, random.org is and so it is totally unbiased.

Check out some of my other fave Alive! links this month
http://aliveutah.com/content/book-review-being-sixteen a review by my SIL Libby.
http://aliveutah.com/content/leprechaun-saga A sweet little giggle for St. Paddy's day.
http://aliveutah.com/content/getting-root-it-santa-clara-egg-dyeing So totally cool!

Lia the Fearless Scaredy Cat

Lia is a quandary,  a piece of work, a surprising girl. She is at times more fearless than anyone I have ever known and yet moments later she is as fearful as anyone I have ever known.

Take exhibit A: (yes I know these are terrible pics)

Yes, that is Lia on her first venture onto the ice. She grabbed hold of that bucket and took off like she was born to skate. Her courageous antics eventually got her cousins on the ice -- where they too discovered how fun the ice skating rink in St. George can be. But the truth was my SIL and I were in awe of her speed, agility and resiliency (yes she fell a lot) on the ice. Her cousin and best bud Elise was soon joining her as they wizzed around the rink. It was impossible to keep up with them and eventually we just let them skate to their heart's content. Isaac tried to keep up with them but even he was overcome by their sheer determination to dominate the rink. I was frankly shocked by her fearlessness. She even took on a much older girl who unwittingly took the bucket away from Elise. Yep, she just skated right up to her and told the older girl that bucket was Elise's and could she please give it back. The girl gave it back. Seriously, who can deny such sheer pluckiness?

(By the way, I am trying to get free passes to the Dixie Igloo to give away on Alive! next month)

Now if that ice had been a lake, she would barely have dipped a toe in the water. Because really, Lia is a scaredy cat. Especially lately.

I give you exhibit B:

Yes, I am aware this is adorable. But let me explain why Lia has decided to make herself a bed on the piano bench (where she did eventually fall asleep.)

Lia is afraid to be alone in the house. She absolutely will not leave my side ever. She waits by the shower, she plays in the office all day by my side (sometimes she just stands there) because she is afraid to be alone in her room or anywhere that I am out of her eyesight. She is terrified of her bedroom and claims to hear all kinds of scary sounds (like the running dishwasher, or the turtle in his tank) that are proof that she should not walk to her room. She insists on getting dressed wherever I am, whether that is the kitchen, my office or my bedroom. And if you think that I can just refuse to let her get away with this behavior ( of which I have little patience for) then you do not understand the stubborn will of that girl or that her brother had a similar ridiculous phase. I am going insane. I spend a good deal of my day in my office. And that is a small space for two people, especially one that is four.

And how does she go to the bathroom you ask. Well, she went through this phase, after she saw a spider in the bathroom, (oh the fear that girl has of all bugs but bees.) that had her absolutely terrified of the bathroom. Eventually she convinced herself that spiders are afraid of very loud singing. And so she sings/yells everytime she goes to the bathroom to scare away the  spiders.

Let me address the wierd bee thing -- another sudden flash of her ability to be fearless. Lia understands bees are necessary. We have many of them in our yard and she has learned that if she does not threaten them they feel no need to threaten her. However, heaven help us all if a stinkbug even turns its body in her direction. Oh the terror. I told you the girl is a quandary. She is fearless of things that often require a little fear and fearful of things that are well ridiculous.

And so now you know why she is sleeping on the piano bench. She was tired and she refused to sleep further than 5 feet away from me.

Missing

I am trying to give you a post really I am but my camera cord up and dissappeared and I can't download the photos that go with the post. Bugged. Looked everywhere.

Excuse Me While I Vent

I want to wake up tomorrow with a much more positive outlook on life. Tomorrow I want to see the silver lining and so therefore, today I must vent just a little.

I have a sweet friend who often calls and says I need to vent - can I just vent. I do the same to her. We vent and then we are done. We move on because we can. We have purged ourselves of some of the frustration. Sometimes it works wonders.

So please excuse me while I vent my way through a couple frustrations.

1. I hate this weather. I am sorry but I am tired of being cold and wet. I am tired of white and slush and running errands in the snow. I really am not a winter person. And I honestly fight off depression with a giant shovel all winter long. I long and I mean pine to see things growing again.  Yes I know it has its pretty moments. But if only they were just moments and not a growing wall of snow drifts lining my long icey driveway.

2. I am really frustrated with the lady I carpool with and while I told my children we were going to no longer say bad things about her but chalk it up to different life philosophies, I am going to cheat for just a moment. I am really sick of my children being late to school because she picks them up as the school bell is ringing or she calls and says she is on her way as I am walking out the door (tired of waiting for her to show up) or she doesn't show up at all -- like today. She asks me to have my children ready by 7:45 and she shows up somewhere between that time and 8:25. And then when I am supposed to pick her daughter up -- I sometimes wait or have to go look for her daughter only to discover she has pulled her out of school early and then called my home to tell me while I am waiting in the carpool lane at the school. Seriously, I am done. This is no longer working for my family. We are going to break free of the carpool.

3. I am overwhelmed. I did it to myself. I started a huge project that requires an intense amount of TLC and love and writing and editing and planning. I am exhausted and I have only just begun. But I will get on track, I will be motivated tomorrow. But today the thought of crafting a well- researched article makes me feel like burying myself in a snowdrift for a day or at least under my covers, oh that's right I did that yesterday.

Now I feel better, a little, and I can go to bed with a clear head and a hopeful heart that tomorrow it won't snow, my kids will be to school on time and I will be a clever writer again.

A Love Note

I spent a lovely Valentine's Day greeted early in the morning by these lovelies from my hubby. I am not really a rose girl and I think that is awesome that he remembers that. Aren't those stargazers stunning. They have a fragrance that can knock you out from across the house, which is why they have to be in the dining room but they do certainly keep me from staring at the dismal snow outside. Tom also got our girls a flowers. Cute daddy.

Later that night we sent the kids to bed and I served Tom a delicious dinner of lobster and shrimp fra diavolo, focaccia bread and asparagus. We played a little Wii bowling, which frankly is exactly what I asked for this Valentine's day.

We spent a lovely day together as a family.

I love my children. They drive me to madness some days but there are moments when I wish I could just freeze them all at these ages. I have never felt this way before. I have always been anxious for the next stages, the older child. But I have to say I am pretty content with 11, 8 and 4. Aah but life plods on.

I love my husband too. Tom is not overly demonstrative with his words but he has a way of making me feel beautiful around him, eventhough I know I am not as gorgeous as I once was. You would never guess it from the way he treats me.

And those are my love notes to my family this year. I love you all despite your imperfections and mine.

36 years

I turned 36 yesterday. And I have to say I don't feel a lot older. That's why I am not embarrased to say my age.

Birthdays and years don't really make me feel older.

• The gray hairs I keep finding every week make me feel a little older
• The 30 pounds I need to lose make me feel older and unhealthier -- that is my gift to myself this year -- lose the weight.
• The fact that my son is going to be a deacon in four months makes me feel a little older.
• The fact that I am afraid to go sledding down a hill makes me feel older. Although Tom remedied that last time I took the kids sledding. I sitting down on a sled and he snuck up behind me and pushed me down the hill, Turkey.
• The fact that I have absolutely no fear of being hit on by another man makes me feel old. I almost laughed Tom into oblivion when I walked into one of the sport's bars at the resort in Costa Rica (I needed a late night snack) and Tom said "don't let anyone hit on you." That was funny because. . . seriously, do I need to elaborate why.

And yet there are some things that remind me I am still young.

I can still learn new things.

This year I learned to bake bread and paint. It is never too late to learn a new skill

I can still pursue my dreams:

This past year I started my own business.

I have a very silly four-year-old and am therefore sometimes surrounded by her friend's young moms.

Sometimes I catch myself dancing in the kitchen and I feel young again.

Really, 36 is not that old.

I'm back, Kinda

I am so sorry. I know some of you have been checking in to see if I have posted. I have been a little preoccupied. I have been ridiculously swamped trying to pull off my February issue of Alive! and I was perilously close to slitting my wrists with the keyboard at one point. But it is up and although there is a ton of work to do on it still I am taking a break from that place, kinda. It is a little bit of an obsession.


Somewhere, in the middle of January, Tom wisked me off to Costa Rica. It seems like it may have been a dream. We came back to such massive workloads that it was easy to forget that for hours at a time I had almost no thought in my head except, "look at how gorgeous the ocean is today."

We had a very relaxing visit, barring my sprained ankle and the incessant mosquito bites. Everyone wants to know what we did and although we did have some serious play time, we spent a lot of time lying by the pool or playing in the ocean. We rested. Because we needed it and we knew we had a few hectic months ahead where there would be little or no rest and very little time together.

But here are a few pics of our visit.




I loved the thrill of the canopy ride but this wall freaked me out a tad.

The resort

I know you are wondering about the pic of the John but Tom and I thought it was hilarious that there was this pic of the brahma bull greeting us in the bathroom every day. These white cows are everywhere in Costa Rica. I just didn't expect to have one staring at me in the bathroom.

My first zip.

One day we had an all out adventure that included zip lines, rock climbing, horseback riding, a sprained ankle, a trip down the rapids in an inner tube and a mud spa treatment at the hot springs (the mud spa was a little wierd. But hey we did it and now we never feel the need to coat ourselves in lava mud again.).

We saw a few wild animals, including this porcupine at the resort. We spotted a few monkeys in trees too.

We had some questionable Costa Rican meals (Okay I had a questionable meal)

We had some good meals too.