RIP Mailbox. You have been good to us.

Imagine your house has a three car wide driveway. Your mom’s car is parked in the center spot. You have a cute happy-go-lucky little 16-year-old sister who is glad as can be to have her driver’s license. She is extremely responsible, so your mom trusts her with her car.

Your dad pulls up in his ginormous truck while she is trying to pull out. 

Really, his truck is ginormous. And it’s blocking her vision.

She backs out and finds that the mailbox is somehow underneath the car and she is on the mow strip.

How did that even happen?

The mailbox lays there for a few days. But the best part is, the mail man keeps delivering your mail. 

What a guy.

The last few weeks

It’s been an incredible few weeks. I just love my family so much, and it all has to do with them. To start off, my little baby Chinese fatness sister Shawna graduated from BYU with a Bachelors of Science in Public Health. I can’t believe she’s old enough to have done that! I am so proud of her. She’s so ambitious and it makes me prouder than a peacock’s tail feathers. 

After that, my sister-in-law Courtney went through the temple. I’m still emotional thinking about it.  It was so wonderful. I love to go to the temple. It’s one of my favorite places. I’m so excited to have more family able to go, especially since it was in preparation for another person to be sealed to my family. I seriously have the greatest family! I am so happy for Courtney and that she got to go through the temple and that I was able to be a part of it. It helped me to feel closer to my family on both sides of the veil. 

The following Thursday, Paul and Courtney were able to be sealed in the Draper temple. I am so proud of them! I am so happy for them. I really couldn’t be any happier! I am so excited that they are now sealed. It’s such a great blessing! Really, I have the greatest family!

Then this last weekend, I headed down to Hurricane on Friday night to watch Alana run a half marathon. I still get emotional thinking about this one too. Last year Alana was bed ridden and I was afraid I was going to lose another sister. It was a real possibility. Before she was hospitalized, she couldn’t even walk to her work a block away. To see her come running down the street at mile 12 this weekend was a real miracle to me. She ran it in 2 hours and 3 minutes, 12 minutes faster than her goal time. She did such a great job and worked so hard. I am so proud of her! I am so grateful that she has a healthier body and that she can do the things that she wants now.

Anyway, that’s pretty much what has been going on around here. Love ya.

Twi-Lite: I Was a Teenage Vampire

I had a very busy weekend. For my lil' sister's birthday, I decided that I wanted to take her to the Desert Star Theater in Murray. Her birthday was two weeks ago. That's how on top of things I am... Anyway, they do parodies on different things and seeing as she is Team Edward, I thought she might enjoy this one. Our flight left Viva Las Vegas at 8:30 so I got tickets for the 11:30 show thinking we would have plenty of time to get there. Being the forgetful girl I sometimes am, I forgot about the hour time difference and that our flight wouldn't land until 10:45. We were supposed to be at the theater at 11:00. So I raced home, changed my clothes, and raced off to the theater. We got there just in time. And it was just delightful! We were laughing so hard and it was just fun to hang out with Rumblina. She is such a sweetheart and I love spending time with her one on one. But I hope I have learned my lesson on over booking myself as a result of this last weekend. Because that wasn't my only overextension of myself.

Cannibal

While I was watching the kids, Angela bit Emma's head. And left a tooth mark. It was funny enough to make up for the hysterical crying after the incident. Oh yeah, and it was an accident. Angela, your name is cleared.

Playing mom continued... and done

I don't know how my mom does it! I was tired as can be and I didn't even have to run the business and I didn't wash any of the kids' clothes, just towels. There were just the four kids and they can all do everything for themselves. Maybe I'm just a weiner. Anyway, we went to Princess and the Frog on Monday night. Umm, so being the single girl that I am, I didn't take into consideration that fact that these kids go to bed around 9:30 or so. The movie started at 8:35 and we didn't get home til 10:30! What was I thinking? I wasn't. We had a pretty good time though. Then the next night we watched back to the Future, another of the movies I wanted them to see. I can't get away from, "Hey, butthead!" But the Newsies singing continues. No matter what I do, I can't excape it! (That 'x' is for you, toots). The next night, or last night we went down to Orem and had tacos with Alana and Steve. It was so fun to see them on their turf. I like their turf. The kids put in Patch Adams. One of my favorite movies.

As I am writing this and going over the week of what we did, I fear for my own future children. They will probably be more movie literate than I am. Poor little dears. People will always be asking them if they came up with that last sentence or if it's a quote from a movie. They won't have an original bone in their bodies. Their lives will be totally scripted. Meh, it's not that bad.

Anyway, we never did have the dance party. Rachel read that last post too soon :). Never fear (Brooklyn is here!) we will do it soon.

Playing Mom

My parents are out of town. They get a free trip every year with their supply company. I wish I was with them in sunny Cancun. But I'm not. I'm stuck in the most polluted city in the US. It's true. Salt Lake City was ranked number one today for the worst air quality. At least that is what people are saying on facebook. Ha ha. Anyway, every time they leave town, I get to watch the kids that still live at home. It's always a party. It's always a lot of fun. It's also exhausting. I mean they get up at, like, 6:30! That is a bit early, I say. But I love doing it because we get to spend some quality time together and make some pretty great memories. Take this weekend for instance. We planned to go to see Princess and the Frog. We bought lots of treats and loaded our purses. We finally found a parking spot and, lo and behold, it had sold out. Not happy, Bob. Luckily, I brought over some movies I wanted them to see. One in particular. Newsies. Best boy musical ever. Emma and Rachel wanted to watch Prince Caspian but since I was the boss, I won and we watched Newsies. The next night, Mason wanted to watch it too and the girls were all over that. There are cute boys in the movie, you know. Now I can't go five minutes without hearing a song or a quote from it. And it makes me laugh. We are also going to have our traditional "dance party when the parents are out of town." It's usually pretty spontaneous. But as long as Rachel hasn't read this post yet, that's what we'll do.