Thursday, January 29, 2009

Oh how the years go by



Seems just like yesterday:



                                                                           
Yet now...                                                      


What can I say? The years truly do fly by. If life is one eternal circle; will we circle back to the future? While I wouldn't want to relive pregnancy, I do envision living the best moments over. Wrapping them tight in their blankets, holding them close and kissing them over and over. The funny things they said that often made more sense than reality.  First steps, first words, first days of school,  I think I wished a lot their growing up years away and I want to grab it all back now and really savor it.  18 years is not long enough for each one of them to be all mine.  All I can hope for is that they will all want to move back in when they are finished with school. It is all part of my diabolical plan. Gosh, I love them.

(family photo by Lyndi Bone Photography; check out the link over there, on the right)
ps. will someone please tell me why this is underlined and how to get rid of it?

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Flavor




After a week of being Wes being sick, I decided he needed to go to the Doctor. I could have saved myself (us) $25, since as it turns out Wes has only a "small" ear infection and something called  an adenoidal viral infection. Okay, I miss the days when they handed out antibiotics like candy. Yeah, I get why they don't, but still... If he's not better by Monday, then we need to take him back in; another $25. What kind of racket are they running? Give me the dang amoxicillin!  Okay me, calm down...I guess they know what they are talking about. 

And the Cheerios? I am showing them because I used the age old parental ploy to "get your child to the Dr. by bribery" and promised Wes a prize. I thought that oughta work; we'd be picking up a prescription anyway, right? But no prescription does NOT mean no prize. We had to go to Walmart (arghhh), and as anybody knows, if you are already at the Walmart you might as well pick a $100 of groceries as well, no matter how much you hate it there. I don't know how to make a long story short to explain why Wes didn't even get a prize; other than to say that he has inherited my cursed inability to make a decision. 

As I threw the box of Cheerios into our cart I heard Wes's one and only comment on our groceries, "You are buying THOSE? They are not good. They are not Honey Nut Cheerios. Did you know you have to put sugar on them?" Later that night he also clarified his feelings by telling me that they were "most unflavorsome".  I'm not making him eat them; he gets Froot Loops. They are flavorsome. I don't why he cares so much about the Cheerios. I guess unflavorsomeness is a big deal to him.


Friday, January 23, 2009

8 is great!








Happy Birthday to Wes! 

Wes, you are so funny, smart, sweet, clever, thoughtful, and you bring so much joy to our lives.
When you were born you made our family feel complete. 

Sorry you had to be sick today...but It was fun to share our big hug at exactly 12:55 p.m.!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

My name is Mary, and I am an addict.
















I made a huge decision today. I will be starting a twelve-step drug addiction program. It's been obvious to my family that I needed to do this long ago but I have been living in denial. I can go days, sometimes even weeks (though that is rare) without a "fix", but I am too weak, and I succumb to the relentless urge. I gotta have 'em and I gotta have them NOW. I always tell myself that this time I will stop at one, maybe two, maybe twenty. I am fooling myself though.  I realize now that it's not just me that I am hurting; my whole family suffers. Most of the time they don't even get one cookie. (Which is hard on everyone except Kristen.) It is tough to admit this, but it's time. Time to admit that I am a chocolate chip cookie addict.

I will start the drug addiction program as soon as I have just one or two more cookies. I promise. 

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Apples and Penguins and a long story.


Yes. That is a pretty seriously weird picture. (It was taken by a seriously weird person.) The picture is to serve a two-pronged purpose. #1, to get you to read this post. And #2, it leads into a funny story. 
Funny story later.

You may be able to tell that I have been figuring some stuff out with this blog thing. I have added some new "gadgets" as they are known. If you are on the list and don't want to be, let me know. If you know someone who might want to be on the list, let me know. I want the list to be very long. I would love comments too, especially if they are nice. I will take constructive criticism if it is given in a loving manner. That applies always.

It is Wednesday, but it feels like Friday. Or perhaps Wednesday of next week. 

It all began Sunday with my eyes hurting. They hurt often because it is so dry here; but they were hurting in an unusual way. All sting-y and burny like. By Monday they were even more burny feeling for me, AND I also noticed that Wes' eyes were all bloodshot. Which usually means too much time playing video games, so I really didn't pay too much attention to that. BUT, he was in such a foul mood, not just normal kid bad mood. He was simply unbearable at times. 

But, Monday just wasn't a good day for any of us. Kevin and I realized last week that we had not registered the truck in November. We had had it inspected, just did not register it online. Miscommunication. We know from personal experience that you can get a ticket for that (let that be a warning to all of you), so after finding out it was too late to register it with the emissions info we had taken care of in November ($45), we had to have the emissions tested again.  Another $45; what a racket. It failed. Of course. Took it be fixed, part has to be ordered, ($65), take back to be fixed (on Monday), pick up and take back to be re-checked AGAIN. 

In between Jessie and I running back and forth with the truck (it takes 2 people to do all that car switching, you know what I mean) and dragging foul mood Wes with us while he tells us in no uncertain terms how evil we are, I am attempting to make a poster for Wes for his "star of the week" turn at school. (Whoever came up with "star of the week" should really reexamine the necessity of this tradition.) This making of the poster causes me untold grief and frustration. Plus my eyes hurt this entire time. Problems with flash drives, printers, computers in general, blahblahblah. Pure frustration. 

About 4 pm or so Jessie and I drove to Jiffy Lube to pick up the truck in what should have been the final chapter before finally registering it. We debated for a moment on who would drive the truck and who would drive my car. Jess took the truck; me, my car. She left before me, and I was following in case she was stopped by the police. (Because of the non-registration, not because she is routinely stopped by the police.) It could not have been 20 seconds later that I notice the traffic going all weird because there is a wreck ahead of me and then about 5 seconds for me to figure out it was Jessie that was in the wreck. I missed seeing the actual accident by about 2 1/ 2 seconds. (I was really watching the second hand on my watch.) I consider not actually seeing the accident a blessing. She was standing next to the truck so I knew she was okay; but the truck and car involved were not. The car pulled out in front of her as she was driving straight down the road and there was no way she could stop. She's okay, the other driver whose fault it was is okay. The truck not so much. May be totaled, but Kevin has high hopes that it will not. Nice guy who saw the accident called the police before I even stopped, another man stopped and offered to do CPR (Jessie was standing next to me; I'm not sure on whom he wanted to perform CPR); we called Kevin who fortunately works about a mile from there; the police FINALLY show up (aren't they supposed to be able to drive fast?) and did I mention it was FREEZING. 

Do you like how dramatic I am making this? When your kid is in an accident it is dramatic. And you mix feeling like crap, stupid star of the week poster, and Wes being a monster because he is getting sick all together you get drama. It is Wednesday and I have been staying home with a sick Wes. I feel like crap. I have to listen to star wars playing in the background constantly. And Hunter barks at his own poo. Kevin leaves for a week tomorrow. I deserve to feel dramatic. Or maybe pathetic.

Oh yeah, the funny picture with the funny story. When I asked Wes what he wanted for his birthday he said the usual Legos and Wii things which I expected, but then he had a couple of other requests. 

A talking apple and a live penguin. Look at the picture as more of a dramatic portrayal and not as an actual representation. Because that is one more thing I can't figure out on this whole blog thing. How to post pictures other than my own. Maybe you could help me out with that. If anybody would like to see Wes' poster, let me know, it never made it to school.

*Very Important P.S.* 
We are very fortunate that Jessie was not harmed in the accident. If you had seen the cars you would be surprised that no one was hurt. Jessie held herself very well during the entire time and I was really very proud of her. We all feel so blessed that it turned out that way it did. With my pessimistic way of expressing myself it may seem like am not grateful for our blessings. Tis not so. I just have a hard time with expressing revealing emotions. 

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Just Breathe

From This:
To This:

This is winter in Utah County. We've been enduring the inversion for a week or so now. What makes it so beautiful here is what causes this inversion; the mountains surrounding us. They are a majestic, awe-inspiring sight. When we can see them.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Snowy January in Utah

Our house, before Christmas, with Daryl in front. You would have to ask Jessie about Daryl.

It had been snowing off and on for what seemed like days and the sun popped out and I made Kevin run out and take these pic's. It is can be oh so glorious before the inversion rears up it's ugly head.
A shot of Rock Star Jake because he doesn't seem to have much presence on our blog.
Is it by choice? I don't know. (Notice the fine interior decorating if you haven't already.)
Weird out of sequence big snowstorm shot.
1.
2.
and 3.
We all headed up to Soldier Hollow to sled. Took us about a day and a half to gather stuff like snow pants, gloves, hats, etc. for everyone. We were quite excited. We don't really have that many chances for a family activity. But we learned one thing that day. You have to have reservations to sled at S.H.; so home we went and it became a half family activity. 


You really can't tell but in the above shots but it was really snowing. Really.
Here we have driveway sledding. Who knew how much fun sledding in your own driveway could be? You don't need to make reservations either. So, come over.



I was gazing out the kitchen window about 4 p.m., probably dreaming of not doing dishes, when I noticed the sky. I could not capture the amazingness of it but I tried.

Officially longest post ever. I need to stop dreaming of not doing dishes because they are staring at me right now, mocking me. sigh...

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

OCD

Yeah, I know I keep changing our page. I just can't find the perfect one. I'm kind of OCD about things like this. The polka dots are kind of bugging me and it may be too girly. And I keep having to change the colors of the fonts. You can't even read some of the type. Sheesh.  

Shall I venture into my other OCD's as well?

Or is it OCDS? I never know about the apostrophe thing. And it drives me nuts. nut's? nuts'? 

Monday, January 12, 2009

NEW YEAR'S EVE EGG ROLLS





































New Year's Eve. Egg Roll Fest. 
 
     I make the mix that goes IN the egg rolls (looks gross, tastes good), then Kristen and Kevin roll them (which requires a skill few possess), and Kevin breaks out the fryer that we use this one time each year and fries up a humongous batch of egg rolls. We love whoever can/will come to feast with us. If you are reading this and are drooling at the thought of egg rolls, fried rice, and lots of junk food, please consider yourself invited for next year. There are always too many egg rolls, never enough people. I never really know if anyone actually likes the egg rolls...but any excuse to be with family and friends works for me.

    And I promise I will not use the word FEST again until next December. 

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

CHRISTMAS MORN-2008
Jake is the picture of excitement...
Wes with an I-Pod, can it be?
this is before the explosion of wrapping paper...
The Buckner children trademark pose.
Santa completed his task well.

     What a great Christmas 2009 was. We haven't actually celebrated Christmas Day at our house for a while. Last year we were in HAWAII (I can hardly believe it's been over a year ;((  ), and many times in years gone by we have celebrated in Idaho. We LOVE being at S & R's house and miss those fun times. It would take roughly 212 hours to open presents when the whole gang would gather in Idaho (you know who I am talking about).  This year was much quieter and quicker. It did mean though that I was in charge of the entire breakfast fixings...life is just so hard. 

    I would say a good time was had by all. We're a lucky family.
 
    Coming up soon in a future post: "The Annual New Year's Eve Egg Roll Fest"