Busy, Busy May

On May 19 Taylor graduated from Seminary.  It was so neat because for the first time ever, the Bishops announced the mission calls for the young men as they read their names for their diplomas.  Not all the young men had received mission calls yet, but quite a few had and it made it fun to hear where they were all going.  We are so proud of Taylor! 

May 29 brought Jack's 8th Grade Completion Ceremony.  Even though Jack has been so busy and involved in so many things during his 7th and 8th grade years, he has maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA.   For 8th Grade he earned the Viking Attendance Award, the Viking Citizen Award, the Viking Gold Scholar Award, the Excellence in US History Award (hooray!!!!), and the Viking On Board Award.  I'm not quite sure what those last two are, but since the one is in History it must be extra awesome!

Waiting for the Completion Ceremony to begin . . .

I signed us up to do the Run of Remembrance again this year.  We have done no training.  None.  We had really good intentions once it started to get sorta warm, but we got busy with this and that . . .  and we got lazy because that's who we are . . . and so it just never got done.  I was half tempted to withdraw from the race, but figured it wouldn't hurt us so we did it.


Jack has done some training since he ran track this spring, and he had a personal best time of around 28 minutes, and he ran the whole 3 miles.

Here is Lane finishing around 52 minutes.  Jack wouldn't allow him to walk across the finish line, so he ran alongside his dad to encourage him.  The reason Jack isn't next to Lane in the picture is because Lane kept hitting Jack; he wasn't too happy to be there in the first place.  Luckily this child abuse was not captured on film.

Jack ran alongside me as well for the last stretch.  I tried to alternate my runs and walks - run 1 song on my ipod, then walk 1, and so forth.  I followed that plan for the most part, except that I was supposed to run just as I got to the big hill at American Fork Cemetery, so I walked that part too.  It was a good race, great weather, and despite my earlier misgivings I'm glad I did it.  My time was 45:35, which I am very happy with considering my zero training.  My personal best is 43 minutes, so I'm not sure what that means.  I trained really hard (well, really hard for me) for that 43 minutes, and not at all for 45.  Hmmmmm......

We made our usual rounds at the PG Cemetery for Memorial Day.  We went down on Saturday instead of Monday and it was much less crowded.  Only Jack and I were available to go.  Taylor was working and Addie was sick.  Or so she claimed.  I think she didn't want to go to the "boring Cemetery."

May 11 was Prom.  It will be a few years before I have to worry about dressing a daughter for the Prom again.  Taylor looked so pretty in her dress and had a really good time with her date.


Where do the years go?


I remember when Taylor was born and her graduation seemed a lifetime away.  And here we are.  I'm so excited for her to go to USU and hopefully have as much fun as I did and make lots of memories.  Despite all of our mistakes as first-time parents, I think she turned out ok.  Better than ok.  I think she's wonderful.  She's a Very. Good. Buscus.

Beware - TMI

Tonight my very kind and generous father-in-law paid me some very kind and generous compliments on my blog over a dinner he kindly and generously paid for.  So I thought I could show appreciation for this by writing a blog on some of the reasons why I love and adore his son:



1)  He always sprays down the shower with Clean Shower.  I hear other wives talk about how their husbands are slobs or how they leave their dirty socks all over the place.  I was lucky enough to marry a man who was raised to be "mostly" neat.  No, he doesn't leave his dirty socks all over the place.  He does, however, leave the bathroom mirror open (Grrrrr!) but after all these years, I think he just does it to provoke me.  He always claims he isn't "done yet."   Bull crap.  He's done and left the room.  Sometimes he just likes to poke me with a sharp stick for no reason.  But he does indeed spray down the shower every day . . . or at least mostly every day.  He even refills the spray bottle when it's empty.  Well, as long as I leave the refill bottle close by, that is.


2)  He always, ALWAYS, makes sure my gas tank is full.  Lane is a bit of a Gas Nazi.  I can't hardly think of a time in the 21 years we've been married that my gas tank has been below half.  I am also pretty sure that I haven't pumped gas in that amount of time.  He usually fills it when we're out and about on Saturday mornings, but he will make a special trip to fill it up if needed.  I think there's a small chance that he makes the special trips when he really needs to get some sort of treat, but whatever the reason, I always . . . umm . . . have gas.


3)  He lets me spoon.  Due to Lane working the night shift for 15+ years we don't get to sleep in the same bed very often.  And when we do it's a bit of a battle, I'm not gonna lie.  We've both become accustomed to having the entire bed to ourselves, and we both think that "my side" is smack in the middle.  Lane also has a no-touching policy when he goes to sleep.  But if I tell him I want to spoon, he lets me.  And me getting into proper spoon position can be quite a painful experience for him.  My head fits perfectly in a certain spot on his shoulder and sometimes it takes more than one attempt to settle in.  I may jab my shoulder into his armpit a few times.  But he lets me do it.  He only says "ouch!" the first time.  And he lets me spoon for as long as I want instead of saying, "ok, that's enough, get off."  That's love.


4)  He keeps his eye-rolling to himself.  Antagonizing Lane is one of favorite hobbies.  I don't ask him, "Do these pants make me look fat?" (because not only is that cliche, I don't own any magic pants that wouldn't make me look fat.)  No, it's much more fun to go with the utter ridiculous.  For instance, if he says, "Let's go for a walk," my response is "Are you saying I'm fat?"  If he says "I like the way your hair looks today, " my resonse is "Are you saying I'm fat?"  And if he says "What's for dinner?"  again, the only logical answer is "Are you saying I'm fat?"  It's  a fun little game.  Well, for me it is.  He has learned to play along. One of these days he's going to say, "Yes, Lari.  I do think you are fat."  And I will totally deserve it.  But more importantly, when I delcare (pretty much weekly) that I hate all my clothes and I'm going to buy all new ones, he says "ok," and opens his wallet.  I've never really bought all new clothes, but I love that he's willing to let me, no questions asked.


5) He makes me laugh.  Once upon a time I told Lane he watched far too much baseball.  He told me he only watched the Dodger games, it wasn't so much baseball as I thought. Shortly thereafter I noticed him watching a game where neither team was the Dodgers.  So I questioned him on why he was watching a game that wasn't the Dodgers.  His answer was the longest, most drawn-out, most ridiculous thing ever.  It was an explanation of how one of the players in the game was tied into the Dodgers.  It was hilariously awesome.  So all these years later when I catch him watching a baseball game that isn't the Dodgers, he still gives me a wholy unrealistic explanation because he knows I expect it.  Also once we heard a Bill Engvall routine and it involved how women do all the household work and men do none.  In the bit, the husband informed the wife, who was repaving the driveway, that the wife didn't need to worry about emptying the ashray in the den because he "done took care of it."  To this day, Lane frequently informs me that he has "emptied an ashtray" when he has done something housework-wise that doesn't normally fall into his list responsibilities.  I love that he remembers the little things (the comedy moment, not the household chore) that have become part of our history.


When Lane came home from his mission, it was only a few hours before he annoyed his sister Michelle to the point where she asked, "When are you getting married and moving out?"  (I also remember Michelle asking me once while Lane was on his mission:  "How can you love him?  He's such a dork.")  So I'm glad that he granted Michelle's wish and didn't wait to long before marrying me.  I'm sure we've had ups and downs over the 21 years, but it's strange how I only really remember good times and special moments.  All the stupid moments about trivial things seem to slip away, or maybe their hard edges are softened by time and by all the other memories jumbling around together in our memories.  And as I look back I can't help but smile because he's made my life so happy.

My (current) Favorite Things

Ok, so these pictures turned out really small.

 

 

So since I have been quite negligent in Blog upkeep, and since I have nothing notewothy to say, I've decided to once again post a "Things I Can't Live Without" list.

 

I've done such a list before, but these are the things that are on my mind right now, either as a new discovery or a tried-and-true friend. So here we go . . .

 

 



 

 I sold Avon for about 14 or 15 years.  No really.  The reason you don't know is because I was not at all good at it.  During that period of time, Avon would turn over products with some degree of regularity and it always seemed that whatever product I totally fell in love with, they would promptly discontinue.  That's just how my luck goes.  But I am sad to say that never, NEVER, in the course of my Avon Lady years did I try the Cracked Heel Relief Cream.  I have The. Roughest. Heels. Ever.  I have tried all kinds of stuff to make them all baby smooth-like, but nothing could ever seem to soften the disgusting elephant skin on my feet (grossed out yet?).  So I finally ordered the Cracked Heel Cream.  So let me just say, that for anyone who has heels that can rival mine - this is your new best friend.    Seriously, there was a notable difference in about 2 days.  And continued daily use has only made them better.    And it's totally cheap too - $2.99 on sale.  LOVE IT!!!  Give it a try.  P.S.  This doesn't count as outrageous pandering because I'm not an Avon Lady anymore.  But I can hook you up with one!  :)

Many of my Pinterst attempts have not gone so well.  You know, the pictures on Pinterest that are total flops labeled "Nailed It!"  Yeah, that's me.  Well, I've got one that totally worked.  Worked better than I thought.  We go through gallons of Roundup during a summer and as The Cheapest Person Alive, I'm always totally offended at the cost of Roundup.  So I pinned a homemade Roundup Concoction, and I sprayed it on the weeds growing in our front yard with, I will admit, a fair amount of skepticism.  Later in the day I told Lane what I had done and asked how long it should take to work.  With an equal or greater amount of skepticism in his tone, he answered that the weeds should start to wilt within a few hours.  So we went and looked, and what do you know?  The weeds were wilting.  The grass growing in the cracks remained unphased, however, but I was thrilled to be able to gloat just a little bit.  Ok, a lot.  Ok, I may have done the I Told You So dance on the front lawn.  And the good news just keeps getting better:  the grass has since turned yellow and is dying.  Whoo hoo!


Recipe for said Homemade Roundup (for dirt cheap):  2 cups white vinegar, 1 Tablespoon salt, 1 Tablespoon dish soap.  That's it.  Mix it up in a spray bottle and spray away!  It costs pennies!!!  I Told You So dance is optional, but strongly encouraged.

 

 

And back we are to Avon again.  I love Avon.  I realize that may make me a 75 year old woman, but seriously, I love their stuff.  This little treasure is the Avon Care 3 in 1 Cleanser.  It cleans everything off my face, and I do mean everything.  If I use a little toner or something after I wash my face, there is nothing on the cotton ball.  Every.  Thing.  

 

After many attempts to be all high-tech and track my life on my phone like an educated, worldly woman of 2013, I have found that the old school paper planner works so much better.  It is just faster for me, I can view more stuff at once . . . And with 3 kids and a job I need to know not only what is happening right now, but what is coming up tomorrow and the day after.  Sometimes technology isn't the answer and the old tried-and-true is just the way to go.

After being a lifetime devote to the Bic Crystal Pen (black ink only, please) I have switched my allegiance to the clicky top.  I think this is because I have managed to raise 3 children who lack the ability to put the lid from the pen back on the pen and I have spent 17 years picking up random pen lids from here, there and everywhere, and I lack the ability to use a Bic Crystal Pen (black ink only, please) that doesn't have a lid.  It's quite a conundrum.  The clicky-top solves that problem quite simply, but presents a new problem - I can't guarantee blank ink only.  If we could all just band together and let all the business who give away clicky top pens know that black is awesome and blue is lame, then that would really help me out.