Blog Talk

Smile! You're on Candid Camera!

I'm happy to report that I did get my van back on Wednesday. It had been at the shop for 8 days, 5 days of which it was waiting for a tire rim. Finally, after the insurance agency threatened to rent me a car at the collision company's expense, they called me to pick up the car. When we arrived they told us that they still weren't done and we had to wait. While we were waiting the owner of the body shop (Three C Collision - NEVER NEVER go there!) came out to tell me how the whole delay was my insurance company's fault and that everything my insurance guy told me was a lie. He was very adamant. However, his story changed over and over again as I asked him questions and confronted him with things his own shop had told me. 30 minutes later they finally finished the car and pulled it out front. Then it still took another 10 minutes to get the paper work because their "printer was broken" (gosh! couldn't you have done that sometime in the 30 minutes we were sitting here waiting????) It was so incredible that I felt like looking around for candid camera cameras.


The Family that Sings together...um...does other great stuff together.

Kaitlin and Chaz and I sang in the stake choir today (that is a choir that combines 8 local church choirs). The choir was very good and we had a good time.


Blog Talk 2 Coming

Kaitlin and I filmed another Blog Talk today. We'll try to put it together and get it up in the next day or two.

Blog Talk

A Smashing Good Valentines

A Smashing Car Accident

So I whacked the Windstar into a curb on Monday morning. It was snowing and the roads were ice. I went to turn and the car started to slide and then WHAM! Luckily I was only a block away from home and was able to limp the car into the garage. Chuck looked at it after work and predicted gloom and doom and that night we sent it off on a tow truck in the hands of our insurance agency.

Now, I've never been in a car accident before and I haven't had a traffic ticket since I was 16 so I had no frame of reference what it was like working with these people. What I learned over this week is that car insurance agents are very nice liars. They say they will call or they say something will be done by such-n-such time and you can bet your last dollar that they won't call or it won't be done by the time they said. Here it is Sunday, and the car was promised to be done Friday (We will move it to the top of our list! they said on Tuesday - they didn't even look at it until Thursday). Well now they say it will be done on Monday (the car mechanic nearly spit out his coffee laughing when I asked him if he took Monday off for the holiday. Mechanics take no holidays evidently- which is good news for me.)


A Smashing Valentines Date (or A Date to Keep Me from Smashing Things)

You can imagine what it has been like for me this week with no car. Stir crazy mixed with a good helping of cabin fever, I would call it. I think Chuck would call me moody or even grumpy perhaps. Luckily I've been able to work out the little details of my life - rearrange the carpools, Chuck coming home early etc. With just Chuck's truck we don't have a vehicle that will transport the whole family at once so everyone has gotten in a little extra walking then usual. The kids have walked home from school in snowstorms and we've taken turns walking to and from church in the cold. Character building - I think they call it. Luckily, I have a nice neighbor who let me borrow her car when Jared had a Valentines emergency at school and his teacher called me, Jared bawling in the background, to tell me that Jared had left his backpack in the carpool car, and with it, all the valentines we had worked on so hard together the night before.

Knowing all these details of my life (oh yeah, Chuck had to hear them all) Chuck decided to do something extra nice for me. So on Friday he walked in the door from work with a pizza in his hands and announced that we were going out on a date. What a guy.


Smashing Things Is Fun!

Jared requested this year that we have a family Valentines party. And not just any party, but a party with a pinata. Jared has a certain power over me, and he totally knows it. It only took a few whimpers, a pouty look and a tilt of his head with large puppy dog eyes, for me to agree. Over the weekend we made a heart pinata, which I filled with goodies (including but not limited to eggnog taffy I got for 50 cents a bag). We decided to do the pinata at Family Home Evening on Monday night. Unfortunately when it was time to start the paint on the pinata was still tacky, and not wanting pain smeared all over my living room we decided to play another game for an hour while we let the pinata continue to dry. We held a Wii boxing tournament and had fun smashing each other's Miis. Jared won (no realy, he won hands down). Then we did the pinata in the living room (careful not to smash anything or anybody). It was great fun.

Watching "Chuck" in 3D

I was way excited to watch the TV show Chuck in 3D and the kids were excited just to see anything in 3D. It looked pretty good on our big TV downstairs. The technology sure has improved since that time in the 80's when they showed Jaws in 3D - does anyone else remember that?



The LDS Draper Temple Open house

On Saturday we all went to the Draper Temple Open house. Whenever they build a new temple they always have a month or two when the general public is invited to walk through the temple. We watched a movie first at a church building and then road a bus up the mountainside to the temple. Then we got to walk though yards and yards of covered tent walkways (to keep us dry and warm) until we reached the temple. The temple itself was beautiful inside. We got to walk everywhere and see everything (the tour was much more extensive then the Nauvoo Open house Tour). There is always a special feeling in the temple and even though the temple was full of people we had a chance to sit down in the marriage room and just feel the wonderful spirit of the place. At the end of the tour we got to walk through more tent walkways and then went to another church building where it was all you can eat cookies and bottled water - though we limited our children to three cookies each (mean mom!). Below you will see a picture of us standing in front of the temple.

Okay,so we forgot our camera. But you get the idea.

Busy Week

I've had a super busy week. Wow!

Here was my week: one doctors appointment, 2 orthodontist appointments, 2 dentist appointments, 2 eye doctor apartments, 2 classroom volunteer visits, 2 visiting teaching visits, 2 scout meetings, 1 enrichment and 1 church training meeting.

And no I wasn't the subject of all those doctor/dentist visits, I was just the driver. All in all I calculated that I spent 4 1/2 hours last week waiting in doctors/dentists offices. Good thing I had a book to read.

In case you are wondering - we are all fine! The kids had no cavities, Chaz and Kaitlin will get their braces off soon, but Jared is still having problems with less then perfect eyesight.


Jared the Shark

As those of you with Kindergarten children know, the peer pressure to lose teeth is incredible. It was this peer pressure that empowered Jared as he got his two bottom front teeth pulled this week. His permanent teeth had grown in right behind his baby teeth. Yes, just like a shark.


Kaitlin - the Evil Step Sister

Kaitlin got a part in her school play. She is playing the evil step-sister. She likes the part because she gets to sing. The bad part is that she has to sing really awful and she has to wear ugly cloths. Well, a part is a part.