Winning feels great!

It's so nice to be able to say that! JV won their game against Provo High 21-7 and then Varsity won at Provo (their homecoming!) 31-6. The icing on the cake was that BYU was also back in form and won their homecoming game on Saturday 31-6 also! Text-Guy played great in his JV game and got to play a little at the end of the varsity game so everyone is happy at our house! He's also been practicing like a champ this week and coach said he may get to start varsity this week! That would be great since it's our homecoming! Here's hoping! Text-Guy is probably also going to the homecoming dance. More about that later!

Gotta run..."We could have gone all the way to the great wall of China!"

Happy Birthday Happy Face!

On a lighter note, I read today that today is the 25th anniversary of the smiley face emoticon-you know :-) Even the guy who get's credit for doing it first says someone may have done it before but it was after he used it that it caught on and spread. Here's the link if you want to read about it:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070918/UPDATE/709180432/1001/BIZ

Kind of fun! Smile :-), wink ;-) or frown :-( in their honor today! I love that my phone puts a graffic in when I do this in a text message! What can I say, little things make me happy!

Losing stinks...

Yes, we lost this week-badly! 6-55. It was sad. I think they could have beat a junior college team. They were just really good and had depth. When they got so far ahead they put in their 2nd string but they could have all been starters too. Text-guy was pretty upset and says it's because they recruit. No, they're not supposed to but they do. Right now there's probably 10 guys on BYU's team that played high school ball at Timpview so parents even move sometimes to get their kids into Timpview. I don't know how you compete with that. Varsity lost too with only a slightly more respectable 17-49. JV is now practicing for half an hour after regular practice so they can practice together more. That wouldn't be too bad if Text-guy wasn't scheduled to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 6:30 this week! Thank heaven for understanding managers who allow him to get there at 7:00. It's going to be a tough week for him though working three days in a row until midnight and then playing ball the next night. It's the 'Case Lot' sale at work so they've got everyone working more.

Sally and her drama maxed out yesterday and we actually grounded her from her best friend today. She was just so enmeshed and caught up in some problems at her friends house that she wouldn't mind us, wouldn't come home when she was supposed to and seemed to think she HAD to stay with her friend to help her avoid mortal peril. Bless her heart she is so worried about her friend but she doesn't understand that there are problems there bigger than she can fix. Her friends whole family are good friends of ours and we are trying to do all we can too to help but there is still only so much that any of us can do. The bad part is that now her friend thinks we don't like her and her family and won't even speak to Sally. That was certainly never our intent. We just wanted Sally to get a little distance and take a short break. It's just one day and you're think, according to Sally and her friend, that we'd just broke up an eternal marriage! It's tough when you do your best and try to do the best by your kids and they still see you as the bad guy. Parenting is not for the faint of heart.

Bless Text-guy's heart he listened to me whine last night and said all the right things and reassured me I am a good mom. He's sweet but he was much easier at this age than Sally! He even said he was glad he's not a girl because he can't see the sense in the drama either. He's such a good kid. I hope he always will be.

It's been a tough week eating wise too. I haven't done very well and I am not anxious to weigh in tomorrow. I want to talk to the doctor about how weird I've felt since I was sick in June but the first appt I could get is in October-the 30th! That's for my routine annual fun check up but I may have to see if I can get in sooner. Somethings just not right.

And a little Billy to finish on...'There's a place in the world for the angry young man, with his fist in the air and his head in the sand' or in this case, an angry young Sally :-(

Salsa and Jam...

Having been domestic lately and making both salsa and peach jam, it's got me thinking...why do they call it home canning when you put in jars-not cans? hmmmm?

Anyway, I just had to marvel a little at how much satisfaction I got out of this simple process. What is it about blanching and peeling a half bushel of peaches, mashing them up, adding LOTS of sugar and putting it in jars that is so gratifying? While it's quite laborious and messy, when it was all done and I was looking about 16 pints of yummy peach jam I felt so good. I left it on my kitchen table for two days just to look at it. Bri-guy took the salsa down to the store room too soon, I didn't get to enjoy it as much.

Saturday I still wasn't feeling all that great so instead of going to Morgan, I stayed at home to make my salsa. Sally was tired from a sleep over and fell asleep so I blanched and peeled nearly a bushel of tomatoes all by myself. It's amazing how much difference her little bit of help makes. I also chopped all the onions, Anaheim peppers and jalapenos. Okay, the food processor chopped them but I cleaned and seeded them all. Anaheims aren't that hot and I didn't think the jalapenos were bothering me until much later when my hands kept burning! I have to admit, one of the nice things about salsa Saturday in Morgan is that mom always handles the peppers! I had everything in the roaster by 1:30 and then let it cook clear till 9:00 that evening before bottling it. It was yummy! I got 25 1/2 pints so that should last me till next year.

Text Guy's JV team lost last week. Kind of disappointing. The defense was great and never did let them in the end zone. Tooele's 9 points was all from field goals but our offense just couldn't put up any points. Bri-guy says it's because the JV plays against varsity as a scout team all week in practice and never really gets to practice together as a team for themselves. Sounds right since the varsity won their game 14-7. Text Guy has been practicing starting varsity all week so maybe he'll get to play varsity this week! That would be great since we're playing his dad's alma mater! I hope we beat them!

It's been another long week -and it's only Wednesday- of late nights. It's been productive though. We've been helping Jo and her family get ready for carpet throughout her whole house! It's like moving in one day! They have 4 level split and they did the bottom two floors yesterday which wasn't too bad because two of the room and the stairs were just finished so we only had to empty two rooms. Well, they did that and it looks great but last night we had to empty their living room and the three upstairs bedrooms! It was a bit crazy and I hope they ever find some things again but about 12:30 Bri-guy came home and said it was done. I left about 11:30 to come home and do home work with Sally. Tonight I'm sure we'll be helping them move back in to the bedrooms. We want to wash the walls first so that everything is fresh at once. I can't wait to see it finished. But first I have a dentist appt. and I told Jo's daughter Miracle Maddie that I'd come watch her play soccer. She's so adorable and I can't wait to see her play. She made a goal last week! I hope I get to see her make one tonight. I'm so glad the C-Clan (Jo's family) lets us be part of their family so I can have little friends like Miracle Maddie and Shay-J.

This is way too long so I'll conclude with a little Billy..."yes, we all need a room of our own"

I think I figured out pictures!

I think I figured out how to add pictures to my blog! This is dad at the reunion-cute huh!?

This is my cute mom at the reunion!

Text Guy at the reunion kicking back in his 'Breaking Benjamin' t-shirt.

Bri-guy kicking back on the deck

Sally (center) in the hot tub with the 'little cousins' and their mom.

That's enough for now, I think I got the hang of it and will spice things up with pictures now and then.

Late nights and endless days

I am so incredibly tired today it's not even funny. If I see my pillow before 1:00am this week it will be a miracle-pray for me!

Monday (Labor Day) was nice. I slept in, cleaned house and then helped Jo pick out a new couch for her living room. It was fun and we found a gorgeous one and two chairs to go with it. She's been remodeling for about 9 months and it's finally down to the fun stuff like furniture! Anyway, it was after that that I made my fatal error. I really am brain dead sometimes because I think I made the same mistake last year! I went to Wal-mart (the Orem one-closest to UVSC AND BYU!) the night before school started at BYU! The shelves were empty, the aisles crowded like Christmas and the check out line was 30 minutes long-no joke! I love New York city but other than that, crowds like the one at Wal-mart make me claustrophobic and generally stressed out. Sally was with me and kept me occupied some-when she wasn't whining about the wait. There were obnoxious students in line behind me talking way too loud-honestly, do they think I and the rest of crowd care about the fact that their car needs brake fluid? Anyway, if I hadn't needed some of the stuff pretty bad I would have walked away from my cart and out the door. I usually shop the Lindon store and will make the extra effort from now on!

Tuesday Text Guy-after coming home at 9:30-remembered he had a poster due on Thursday and he was working till midnight on Wednesday! So, after doing his math homework till 10:30 we headed for my office to do research on the Internet and find pictures for his poster. We got home about 11:45 and by the time we got settled and to sleep (me anyway) it was about 1:00. I had got up that morning at 5:30 to walk and had put in my 3 miles before work so it was a pretty long day!

Wednesday I did not get up to walk! I managed to pry Sally out of bed and really believed that once she got going her cold wouldn't bother her too much and sent her off to school. She called about 1:00 and sounded terrible so I went and picked her up. Took her to Wendy's for some edible food (school lunch was a bean burrito!) and stopped at the fruit stand across the street for peaches. Of course they had a box of too ripe ones for only $5 so I couldn't resist and bought them. I'm in to the fatal errors this week! That's the same as buying work because of course they had to be made into jam the same day or they would spoil. So, after waiting forever for Text Guy to get home from football, waiting for him to shower, discovering he had lost his wallet, going back to the school to look for it (never found it) and finally getting him to work at 7:30 (an hour late!), I went into the store with him and bought sugar, pectin and lids for jam. I got home and started in blanching, peeling and chopping. Sally helped and I had the first batch done by 9:15. I finished the last batch about 11:15 (got 16 pints total). Had to wait till midnight to pick up Text Guy from work and so of course, by the time my head hit the pillow it was 1:00 am again.

We'll see what today brings! Football game at 3:30-home game at least! Go Bruins! Then a meeting at 7:30 and then undoubtedly more homework. Sally will put hers off for sure until I get home and she'll have plenty because she didn't go to school again today. I let her sleep in and she feels pretty good now but says its 'way to embarrassing' to go in to school part way through the day. Whatever. I have the same cold but not as bad and am operating on 4 1/2 hours of sleep-oh, I went and walked again this morning- to argue with her.

I hope the walking I'm doing pays off soon. When I started back in January my weight loss slowed to a crawl! I had lost 65 lbs by then and then in the next 4 months I only lost another 10! Then I was sick in June and dropped more, down to a total of 83 but have popped back up to only 78. I lost 1.8 yesterday at weight watchers and I'm trying to be happy about it but considering I gained 3 last week, I'm still not happy. I'm slowly getting back on track with my eating and exercise since being sick in June. Just 37 pounds to goal weight. It seems like a lot but I'm trying to remember how far I've come and that once lost, I'm never going back so I won't ever have to be fat again! Yesterday's lesson was on dreams and maybe there is something to be said of truly making being thin a dream. I suppose it is and has been for the last 18 months but it might help to focus more on the 'dream.'

I'll finish with a little Billy and there's only one line that's appropriate today! "In the middle of the night, I go walking in my sleep..."