Have you all been watching  synchro diving? It's fascinating to me. Ok, let's take these super-hard twisting flippy dives, and then just for the helluvit, DO IT THE EXACT SAME WAY AS ANOTHER PERSON DIVING WITH YOU. I can't imagine the training concerning timing and angles it takes. Plus there is this factor:

 

God love the Canucks (pictured above). Their syncro divers looked like GQ models. Abby and I were a little too excited about them.

And then there was the cute, British, barely-14 diver that got in a kerfluffle with his partner (who is sour and not nearly as cute and popular in his country), but, sadly, they came in last in their event:



Anyway, I am glued to the set everytime all these boys are on. It amazes me. I also enjoy their little conversations at the beginning of the dive: "Are you ready?" "Yeah". Just, so cute.

What is everyone's favorite event?

Before I got married, my older brother, Scott, who hardly says more than two words to me most days told me, "Whatever you do, don't have kids [if you want to be happily married]." I don't know if he was joking. I'm sure he was, but there was an underlying tone of serious desperation that I have never forgotten.

Today, Camille and I got escorted out of the library by a security guard. I don't know how one 3 foot tall human being can make enough noise to fill a 15,000+ square foot space, but she sure did. He politely told us he would check my books out if we could just wait outside the library. Of course Miss Camille stopped crying the minute we went in the lobby and sat in a chair--which I tried several times IN the library and various other things-but refused to put her shoe on that she kicked off during her tantrum, which I never really did discover the true purpose of. The belicose security guard prompty brought me my books and I hauled our asses out of there. Of course, Camille insisted she wanted her shoe on once I had her in her car seat.
Is there a mental switch in a toddlers brain that gets activated when they are 2? Because all three of my hellions  darling children have been a terror once they hit that magical age. And three was even worse. I cannot wait to see what Camille throws at me. Literally.

In The Giver, a book which I read recently and loved, there is a community of people that are given special talents and that is their 'calling' in life. The most important calling is Parent (it was called something else, but basically the people that have the kids). If I lived in that community, I think I would be official Texas Sheet Cake Eater or some other lofty occupation, because, I would not be one of the Parents. And I have eaten three pieces of Texas Sheet Cake that I made for my husband's birthday yesterday, and I did it very, very well.  Which is wonderful for my diet!!!! Official Weight Gainer--that's what I would be in that community. That suits me better than anything.

I fail at life. And Callie, you are right. Do not have children if you value your sanity.

/pity party

School starts tomorrow! Y.E.S. !!!!!

We went to Cedar City, Utah and the Utah Shakespearean Festival over the weekend, Alex and Mike played golf, and I didn't because I had to watch Camille. I was heartbroken. We thought the air in our van wasn't working, but it seems to be now, thank the Lord. Here are a few pics, courtesy of my sister since my camera is still AWOL. We saw "Fiddler on the Roof' and "Cyrano de Bergerac' (no Shakespeare plays for us this year despite the title of the festival) and we loved Fiddler. It was Abby's first 'real' play and we had front row seats and the kids loved it.



 I finished Breaking Dawn, and here's my quick opinion (SPOILERS, obviously):
And here is a pic (thanks, ack_attack) of Jensen to warm your loins this fine Tuesday morn:
That's about it. And oh, Michelle and Erica, Abby LOVES Step Up. We have watched it several times. :) :) She wants to watch Step-Up 2, and I told her absolutely not. It will soil the name of 'Step Up' and I will not allow it in my house. 

Hope you are all doing well....Callie, I will attempt to address your email today. :)

My daughter's room (sorry about the quality of the pics, taken on my phone):

 
And this isn't all of it. These is a huge heap of Barbies and their accessories that I was practically standing on to take that last shot. And you can't tell but she has more stuffed animals than Toys 'R Us....where do you even start??

I just got back from Blockbuster, which I never go to because I have Netflix, and I am damn glad I do. Because I can't believe all the shite out there to rent. My main pet peeve: horror and teenagery sex movies. They seem to crank those suckers out faster than you can say "full cranial lobotomy". The horror movies all have one word titles(I guess people who watch these get bored after reading more than one word) and nasty body parts that have obviously been extracted in a horrific manner: "Slither", "Slash", "Slice", "Bludgeon" or whatever method there is to torture or defile someone. And I hate this series especially:



And these:




But, I chose to rise above and select a fine cinematic masterpiece to view with my sister and niece:



Oh yes, ladies, our night of fun and thrills has just begun.

Hello flist and The Others (nickname for people not on LJ):

After attending Saturday's Diamondbacks game, I have a new boyfriend. I give you Dan Haren, one of the starting pitchers who kicks ass on the mound. He needs to lose the scruffy beard that is his trademark, though:



And James McAvoy:


 
And for some reaon The Beatles are just about all I want to listen to. I haven't really listened to their stuff in forever. I think it's because we were watching Bee Movie and there was a version of "Here Come the Sun" near the end and Abby and I wanted to listen to it again and again and sent us into Beatle music buying spasms that have not yet abated. Abby's current favorite: Eleanor Rigby.  My current favorite: A Day in the Life. 

**Lastly, but not leastly, my kids have started their own blog called A&A Productions.  They are going to be making some very high-end, quality videos once they get their equipment situation sorted out. ie: they need to buy a decent camera since mine is broken. So look forward to some alerts on their latest endeavors.

I am so lazy about posting lately, that I stole this from someone's blog who I don't even know that was linked to someone's blog, who I do know, at least:

I saw a link on AOL the other day that said '10 books to read before you die'. I'm not sure what I would put on mine, but seriously, 2 Dan Brown books?? 2? They are interesting reads, but really, are they the BEST EVER? 

So their list was compiled by asking 2,413 people what their favorite book was, and then they put them in order of the most popular. Out of the  ten books they listed, I have  read 6 and a half. Here's what they ended up with:

1. Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell*
   
2. Lord of the Rings (1-3) - J.R.R. Tolkien*
   
3. Harry Potter (1-7) - J.K. Rowling*
   
4. The Stand - Stephen King**
   
5. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown*
   
6. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee**
   
7. Angels & Demons - Dan Brown*
   
8. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand**
   
9. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger*
   
10. The Holy Bible
    

*Have read
**Have been meaning to read, really I have (note the lack of asterisk by the Bible, sorry God)

I don't think Dan Brown's books belong anywhere near that list, but of course, these lists are major subjective.
Here's some that I think do:

Siddhartha-Hermann Hesse

Man's Search for Meaning-Viktor Frankl

The Picture of Dorian Gray-Oscar Wilde

Romeo and Juliet-William Shakespeare

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay-Michael Chabon

What are on your top 10 that everyone should read?

 

Emily: "Doesn't anyone ever realize life while they live it? Every, every minute?" 
Stage Manager: "No. Saints and poets, maybe; they do some."

Our Town, Thornton Wilder



One year ago today, Dad, my life changed forever as I knew it. I don't know if you were a poet, but I do believe you were some version of a saint. Thank you for now helping me realize life while I live it. Because of you, I have reexamined everything.

We all still miss you. I think you visit Camille sometimes, and I am jealous.
But I know you are experiencing right now exactly what you deserve, and nothing makes me happier.



I am still so glad we all celebrated your last birthday with a huge bash, even though your health was deteriorating. Because your health was deteriorating.



And I am glad you and Mom found the love of your lives.


And I am glad I got to be your daughter and experience what being loved just for existing feels like.
Love you.

I am wildly embarrassed about the number of books on this list I have not read yet.  My knowledge of 'The Classics' is woeful.


 1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (do parts of it count? probably not)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (wish there was a way to indicate extreme hatred for something you've read)
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (how many must one read before they're complete?)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis [isn't this redundant with number 33?]
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown  
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding 
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From a Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce 
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell  
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare  [again, seems redundant with the old Complete Works]
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

These are the guys/dudes/hotties that help with the super-long, super-hot days. And count yourself extra lucky if your boyfriend or husband or partner or one-night-stand or whatever resembles any of these boys. Suspend judgement of where they are showing up for me and remember there is nothing good on TV during the summer (mostly):


So there you have it. Some surprises in there, maybe, but I will gladly defend every one of my summer boys. Other than my son's baseball team, I would eagerly hop into a convertible with any of them and let the wind play through my sundrenched hair while they drive us down to the beach....

Who are your Boys of Summer?


XOXO
Chris

I have been fighting with my pre-teen son (who is supposed to be the even tempered child) for two days straight. I literally weep for his teenage years. Let alone my daughters teen years (who is most certainly NOT even tempered).
Here are some choice phrases I have heard:
"You are not being a good parent"
"My mom is being annoying (overheard in conversation to not-such-a-good-influence friend)"
"You are against anything fun"
"When are you going to let me make my own decisions?!"
And every parent's favorite:
"You can't make me"

I understand parenting is not a popularity contest. I understand I am wading into the shallow end of the teenage years very soon where friends may know more about my own kids than I do, I understand that my decisions will not be popular, but I do not understand why it is so necessary to feel like a failure as a parent every day. 
:( 

Can I reiterate how much I loathe the summers here.........! 

A couple weekends ago, Abby and I were in SLC for the clearing out of the house I grew up in, along with all my siblings. I haven't completely picked myself off the ground since. It was a tough day for obvious reasons: watching stinky strangers rifle through the things you have become accustomed to for 30+ years as part of your family, then having them barter over every penny. It is insulting, but it shouldn't offend, it was a big garage sale after all. Nevertheless, it was exhausting and I had a nervous breakdown in front of my sister and brother (and a bunch of other people) and yelled in their faces, and even though they both forgave me instantly I still feel remorse over the events of that day. It was the culmination of a horrible year of dealing with my Dad being gone and my Mom's physical and emotional constant requirements, and then getting rid of the 80 years worth of stuff that my parents had accumulated was the cherry on top.  
There was a big dumpster in our driveway that we just kept hucking stuff in and some of that felt good, cathartic even, but it was hard having it there. Is that what all those years worth of memories come to after all? Garbage?
The day after the sale I left that house where I had lived since I was 3: my only birthday party when I was 8, my first kiss, my first date with my husband, brought my beautiful babies over to see my parents, countless family gatherings, Christmases, birthdays, and other holidays. I knew I would never see it again, the way it exists, as belonging to our family. Someone would gut it and flip it and it's face would completely change, which it needs, but no easier to watch happen.
I stood behind the dumpster full of 80 years of life and cried my eyes out that last day, the day after the sale. I had to hide a little because Abby was nearby and she doesn't deal well with her mother's nervous breakdowns, so it was a quick sobbing session, and then: the house as I knew it was in the rearview mirror forever. The house that our family built. The house that built me.

And oh yeah, we found out over the weekend that my father-in-law has colon cancer. It has spread to his lymph nodes and liver. Not a good year for me and my husband's families when all is said and done.

Sorry to be such a bummer, I just can't seem to pick myself up lately.

Ok forgive me, I really reigned in on the language because I know I have some sensitive readers out there (lol, more like my 12 year old reading over my shoulder). I have to have this rant at the beginning of every summer, even though I know what is coming.

Hello babies.....we have been quite the bushy busy beavers around here lately. Here are a few highlights then I will post what I really meant to post about: My niece's highly anticipated, painstakingly planned, joyous wedding!!


*Lots of exciting baseball games...Alex's team (who is leading the league) lost a nail-biter last night to the #2 team. That could be a whole other post in and of itself, but would bore you lot to tears, certainly. Anyway, tons of good baseball this season.

*One of Alex's pet mice escaped Monday and the entire family spent the better part of two days finding that little sucker. We finally got her trapped under his dresser and I nabbed her with salad tongs. Yes, salad tongs, my weapon of choice. She is unhurt and I have earned many nicknames around here because of my quick-thinking involving kitchen tools.

*My mother. Who is finally in Utah getting ready to go into a retirement center and is positvely miserable about that. This move is incredible rigamarole and hubub involving us 5 siblings. I never realized how much difference one person makes and what requirements there are just to make my Mom's life a better place since my Dad's passing. It's been sensationally exhausting for all of us this past year.

*Lots and LOTS of end of the school year projects and concerts that always, always coincide with some other event lately. :(  The end of school is next week. :(  :(  Then we are off to Utah to divide up the home I grew up in so my Mom can move into her new retirement place. Should be momentous.


Well, I have gone on way toooooo lonnnnnnnggg, I think I need to update more, each one of these topics deserves it's own entry. So forgive me for being so lazy, if you made it through the quagmire.

XOXO
C
 

Lately my life is all about my mother. We just got back from an eventful journey via airplane to SLC to go visit the retirement center she is moving into in about two weeks. The flight was only 'eventful' because my mom can barely walk two steps (she has to be pushed in a wheelchair if travelling distances more than about 20 feet)  without help and has to go to the bathroom once every 10 minutes or so. Do the math. And she is very vocal about her discomfort, in which she posesses a very small tolerance level for. Regarding anything.
I also just got off the phone this morning haggling over prices for a motorized wheelchair for her so she can be reasonably mobile once she arrives at the forementioned retirement center. So when I proudly dialed her to tell her I managed a $4000 chair for less than $2000, all I heard was "you didn't get me another wheelchair did you????"  And then promptly told me I need to take her to get her hair done this week and that she needs to shop for shoes.
Dear readers, at this point, I was literally walking around my house looking for a sturdy rope or even a bedsheet to toss over the shower curtain rod to hang myself with. 
Instead, being the practical person I am, I knew in my heart there were only two boys that could pull me out of my vortex of despair. And also, after a hearty tug, I determined the cheap Target curtain rod wouldn't hold my weight.
So: instead of a mess my kids what rather not clean up, I give you the Supernatural boys. They have done their job. I am healed. No matter that  both of them are practically married to their girlfriends and Jensen has done a straight-to-dvd movie about vampires and Jared has done films with Paris Hilton and the Olsen twins. I forgive them. Infinity.

Behold Jared and Jensen: costarring in all my wet dreams. The pics without my smartass comments speak for themselves.

 
I hope you are all doing well and getting through school and wedding plans and happy in general. Tonight Alex has a baseball game, a strings concert and a scout merit badge function. All at the same time. That is also indicative about my life right now.....

Take care
Chris

((Camille, pulling her favorite nose scrunchy face.  Thanks again to my  BIL with mad photoshop ability.))

I hope you all have had a splendid day. I have eaten too many M&M's and am enjoying the 86 degree weather. And am damn glad Spring Break is OVER. Kids back to school tomorrow : YESSS.

XOXO 

Happy Birthday to my luminous sister who turns 39 today!

 



Even though I grit my teeth every time someone thinks she is my younger sister, and she doesn't "get" Harry Potter, I love her and here are only a few of  the reasons why:



I LOVE YOU SIS.

Camille had a wonderful time at the zoo celebrating her 2 years on the planet. Her grandma, Uncle Tim and Aunt Shell and cousin Caca were with us. She liked the exotic 'wild animal' carousel and the petting zoo the best. There was a parrot feeding exhibit, but we got there too late and the nazi employee was practically yelling and kicking our arses to get us out, but Camille did get up close to some of the birdies.
There were also WHITE TIGER BABIES that we all sat and watched and commented endlessy about their ferocity and cuteness. I want one in a basket at the end of my bed.
After only 3 hours at the zoo (seemed oh so much longer than that) we ate dinner at Macayo's and Camille 'opened' gifts and ate her cake, sans utensils. I will post some pics of the entire event and then some pics of Camille devouring cake and one photoshopped version of this that my creative brother-in-law made. It is self-explanatory.

 
My favorite picture of the day:



And a slightly altered version of that:



Absolutely nothing gets between Camille and her cake. haha

I think she had a wonderful day.