Only serious applicants need apply

This was the result of another Cupcake Experiment Day. As a lover of the delightful combination of chocolate, caramel and pretzels I put them together in a cupcake. WAYYYYY too rich to make very often, but pretty good I think.

My company buys daffodils for all the female employees this time of year. It's a fundraiser for cancer. They smell good and really go a long way to brighten up a cubicle.

Taylor has found a job, at long last. She is working at the Cinemark in American Fork. This provides her with an occassional free movie. Since she is the only movie-goer in the family, it's a good fit. I wish she had found something closer, but we are all just glad she found something. She seems to like the More Money - Less Family Time concept that having a job provides. She thinks she has outgrown us, I think.

Jack could have just hired her to be her secretary/driver, of which he has a tremendous need. He is so busy right now. The FCCLA conference is over, so that's a huge relief. He had a lot of fun at the conference in Layton - which included 2 nights at a hotel - and he scored a silver medal with his Plarn presentation. Somehow in all the madness of packing his bag and checking it twice, and bedazzling his presentation board, we forgot to pack his Plarn hat. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Lane drove up to pick Jack up on the last day of the conference to get him to his track meet at Lehi High on time. Then we had to go pick him up from the track meet to get him to his scout activity close to on time (ok, 15 minutes late. Lehi traffic is terrible!) Hopefully there won't be many days like that one. But I do have to pick him up from his next track meet early to get him to basketball practice on time. See - I wasn't kidding about the driver and the secretary.

We are to go see Dr. Day at PCMC on Monday with Addie. That's always an eventful trip. Fingers crossed for no surprises. Addie does like to throw us the occassional curve ball.

I went out for a run this evening. I haven't run outside yet this year, and I was really curious as to how it would go. I had planned a course that included a lot of downhill, since it's been a while. Even over the winter I have been far from consistent. Well, I am pleased to say that it went pretty well. I made it 1.6 miles before it started to get dusky and I thought I better head home. With the days staying lighter longer, I should be able to extend that out. It is also worth noting that the instructor at the running class I took recently encouraged running on uneven suraces, like gravel, grass, etc. With all due respect to those in charge of such things, I think many of the paved roads in this old town of mine easily qualify as an uneven running surface.

My goal is to do a 5k this summer and actually run the entire 3 miles. My stride is so short and my cadence so slow that I will never, EVER be a contender but a "real" completion would be nice. Especially if I could convice some 5k committee to start the race at my house and do the entire thing downhill. Except for the real runners. They should have to do some uphill. Just to even things out.

April 24 brings our 20th wedding anniversary. We should do somthing really exciting to celebrate. I don't know what. At our advanced age, and the exhaustion that is keeping up with the busy schedules of our family, that something exciting might be a quiet night in and going to bed at 10. Maybe 10:30 if we are really feeling like living on the edge.

It's probably more than you really wanted to know

It's a terrible thing to have to waste a PTO day acutally being sick. I don't frequently get sick-sick. Normally it's just more of an "under the weather" sort of thing where I lay around mostly. But this was sick-sick. Knock-Me-On-My-Butt sick. Thankfully it appears to be a 24 hour sort of thing.


Everything was all well and good yesterday. Nothing out of the ordinary. Went to work, made dinner with Lane (haystacks), and then went out to pick up Jack from practice. Driving home I started to feel pretty blah, but I had promised to take Taylor to buy a few things she needed, and I had wanted to go to Kohls. But as I drove home I kept feeling worse and worse, and despite my better judgement - which was to put Taylor off and go get in bed - I went ahead and took her to Walmart since it's way closer than Kohls. I sent her to get one item while I went the other direction to get the other hoping it would speed things up. But finding her item took a little longer than expected so I kept sitting down on a bench every few minutes because I was afraid I might actually pass out. We got done in a reasonable amount of time, and I checked out at the jewelry counter to speed things along and I drove home, sprinted into the house, and climbed in bed.


It proved to be one of the most miserable nights of my life and I stayed home today. After the kids all got off to school, I finally fell asleep for about 3 hours and felt tons better after that. I even managed to make it to my dentist appointment today, which worked out pretty well since I was already miserable. I hate dental exams.


In other news, Jack is super busy these days. His basketball league regular season finished up at the end of February. His team made it to the semi-finals where they lost to a really good team from Lehi. He is now in March league and they have only played one game and his team won. He also decided (with only a little prodding from me) to join the track team at school. So on Tuesdays and Fridays he has basketball practice from 5 until 6 and he has track practice every day from 3 until 4:15. That means on Tuesdays and Fridays he doesn't get home from school at all until 6 pm. Add to that this month he has Pow Wow at BYU on 2 Saturdays, a band competition, and and FCCLA Star Event and State Convention, for which he needs to make more Plarn. Lane decided to make the ultimate sacrifice and let Jack use his cell phone so we can keep track of Jack. As part of his Ultimate Sacrifice he got a new smart phone, which he is still figuring out.


Taylor is still looking for a job. I think 16 1/2 years of indoctrination have worked since she is thinking Snow College might be the best place for her to start college. College. How weird is that? She took the ACT exam this week and will likely take it again next month. She also has Choir Tour coming up in April and will finally get to go to Disneyland, since her mean and neglectful parents have never provided that opportunity. I hope it lives up to her dreams.


As for Addie, we have an appointment scheduled for her at PCMC in early April. Her PT/INR has been good for a while now and so we haven't had to make any adjustments to her coumadin and she has to get her blood drawn only about once a month. Much better than every 2 weeks.


So my new stove is totally awesome. I love getting a new toy. Finally, all of my appliances match - or so I thought until I realized the range hood is still almond. I guess I'll need to replace that. It's so good to be rid of that stupid smooth top stove. Whoever invented something so stupid? They should be shot.