On Snow

I hate snow. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I don't know if there are enough distasteful words in the dictionary to describe how much I hate snow. It wasn't always this way of course. As a child I loved snow, loved playing in the snow, sledding in the snow, making snow angels. Even walking to school in the snow (barefoot and uphill both ways) wasn't too bad. No, I didn't start hating snow until after I had to start shoveling it. Unearthing the car, unearthing the driveway…really not so much fun. My parents didn't get a snow blower until after I left home.

Until we got our house, Brent and I were constantly removing snow from our cars. Thankfully we now have a garage, and only cars are allowed to be in it. Well, cars and some other stuff, but not so much stuff that our cars are out in the driveway getting covered with stupid snow. It saves time, and is much safer to leave the house when you don't have to scrape off your windows and wait for the car to defrost.

We do have a snowblower, albeit an old, small one that we got for free when my grandpa Brimhall died. It's got to be at least 15 years old, but it was free. And until it dies I just can't see springing for a new one. Until recently Brent was gone most of the time, so it seemed pointless to buy a new one when it gets used once or twice a year.

This year I have had to shovel more snow than I have ever wanted to in my entire life. Every time I shovel my back hurts sooner and I do less and less. I'm pretty much at the point where I'd better quit shoveling. The other day I shoveled just enough to get the car out, and then the snow plow put snowman size chunks of snow in the driveway, and I had to remove enough of the snow to get her to school. And of course we ended up being late for school.

I was so mad I started yelling at the snow and kicking it, telling it exactly what I thought. I'm sure the neighbors got quite a show, and were amused by my rant about how I hate snow, winter, Utah, Utah winter weather, snow shovels, and on and on. The snow was very deep and heavy that day. Two days later it got worse, and then it got even worse than that. We have to have close to two feet of snow out there, and of course H is having a ball. As she should. Her job is to play in the snow and have fun, not remove it from the sidewalk and driveway so you can get the car out. Maybe I'll just homeschool her for the winter…

Snow

You ever notice how people who think the snow is so beautiful on the trees and the ground and the mountains are not the ones pushing a snow blower or hefting a snow shovel?

Migraines are Evil

So I have basically had a migraine everyday for the last couple of months. Since I can't seem to sit at a computer for more than 10 minutes without incurring another one, it has been and probably will be awhile until I get another post done. And I have a great one in my head about Halloween Costumes.

Of PTA and Suckers

So it turns out that if you sign the paper to be a room mother you are not signing up to help in the classroom, you are signing up to be in charge of all of the parties in the classroom. Back in my day a room mother was a mommy who came in and helped out once in awhile, not the party mommy. So while I feel a little bit like a sucker, I have to admit that I do like to plan parties, so this really isn't a horrible assignment. Even though I was suckered into it.

Halloween Ghost

I hate the Halloween Ghost. The stupid ghost that shows up at your house with a plate of goodies and an admonition to make two more plates of goodies and keep it going on around the neighborhood. I also hate his cousin, the Christmas Star.

Why do I hate this tradition, you might ask. For starters, the stupid ghost does not make it around the entire neighborhood. Someone is always left out, which is obvious by the lack of a Xeroxed ghost in the window. Of course they also might be trying to score extra goodies by not displaying the ghost. But it becomes pretty obvious pretty fast who the popular families in the neighborhood are. And if you happen to live in an area where most of the people are members of the same religion, it also shows who the outsiders are.

Not everyone makes good treats. Some people make horrendous cookies. Others go the easy way and buy some goodies from the store. I could do that myself, and make sure it was something I wanted. The same with Christmas neighbor gifts. I don't need any more plates of candy or cookies. I certainly don't need any bottles of Sprite with a tag wishing me that my "days be merry and Sprite." I don't need bags of marshmallows labeled ghost poop. I don't need more Christmas ornaments. It would be nice if neighbors would spend the money and time consumed in creating and delivering neighbor gifts and instead used those resources on the local food bank, or other community needs.

But maybe I'm just being a little cranky because our house if often overlooked by the Halloween Ghost. I can't imagine why. Maybe it has to go with the go away or else sign in my front yard…

On Weekends

A lot of people spend their weekends doing home improvement projects. Our neighbors are often seen mowing their lawns, cleaning out their garages, and unloading items purchased at Home Depot. Many women I know compile honey do lists for their husbands. I admit I often have honey do's for Brent, but I haven't quite mastered the concept of the honey do. Brent's honey do's usually involve putting batteries in remotes. Yes, I am that lazy. I will switch to another remote control instead of changing the batteries myself. The only batteries I will change when he is gone are the ones in the smoke alarm. Otherwise, it's going to wait for Brent.

Brent also ends up with things like "check H's bike to see if the seat is the right height", or "put salt in the water softener." This week he's going to be putting up the decorations for Halloween. He's the one that wanted a big graveyard in the front yard, so he's going to darn well be the one to set it up. I usually end up taking all of Halloween and Christmas down, which is somewhat irritating, but it is what it is.

We usually spend our weekends having fun as a family. Unlike most of our neighbors, friends and family, Brent travels most of the time. He is basically gone from Sunday night to Friday night, so our Saturdays are the only time we have to hang out together. And we are not going to blow that time on mowing the lawn or weeding the yard. If we're going to blow that day we're going to do it by staying up too late, sleeping in too late, and playing WII all day. Once one of Brent's brothers was trying to solicit helpers for a project. I flat out told him that Brent wasn't available. I have no problems keeping him from having other obligations on Saturdays. He is already scheduled taking H and I out for lunch.

Sundays are a bit of a trial for us. Right now we have morning church and it just doesn't work in a house of night owls. Brent would sleep all day if you would let him, and H is known as mini Brent when it comes to mornings. We do sometimes make it to church, but our attendance rate is much higher when the meetings are at 11:00am or 1:00.

Our current Sunday schedule shows that after we have lunch Mommy gets to have a nap and H and Brent have daddy/daughter time. Sometimes they go for drives, sometimes they watch tv, and sometimes they go on bike rides. Since H tends to poop out rather early on bike rides, this is one that won't be attempted again for awhile.

Almost every Sunday we have dinner with my family, either at my dad's place or at our house. Since my youngest brother Ryan is working at the Payson Wal-Mart, we've been having Sunday dinners at our place so he can pop in, see the family, and have a meal. After dinner we usually drive Brent to the airport or help Brent pack for his trip. Helping is used loosely, because H and I are more of a hindrance than a help.

If we're at home Sunday night we watch tv, play WII, and attempt to go to bed at a reasonable hour. 11:00pm is reasonable, right? Just don't tell the Supernanny that H is up with us.

Early Out

I really detest the early out days at H's school. Since she is in kindergarten on Early Out Wednesdays she had to go to school at 12:15. Usually class starts at 12:40. We generally remember to leave for school at 12:30. Two weeks in a row now I have forgotten about Early Out, and H has been late two Wednesdays in a row. If I hadn't happened to look at the calendar today to see what was going on after school and noticed the 12:15 notation for school today, she would have been much later. Since I noticed that at 12:15, we got out the door and H was only late by 5 minutes.

Instead of getting out at 3:15, she gets out at 2:20. So why even take her to school for 2 hours? By the time I start getting anything done, it's time to go get her. And after we get home and have snack time, it's time to leave for gymnastics. Which I also forgot about today. Which makes me wonder if there is any point to having a calendar, since I don't always remember to check it. We even have daily schedules for each day of the week to keep this from happening! Of course, the month-long sinus infection I've had has completely thrown us off our schedule. Perhaps if we got back on schedule we could handle this early out nonsense. Hmm…