awww....

In case no one knew, I just love my boys. Growing up I was a totally girly-girl, so boys weren't really my first pick - but I'm so glad I have them. If I had girls I'd have no one to go on dates with and no one to open all my doors (Mason even opens my car door for me when I get out of the car). And not that I need more reasons, but I recently got a few pictures to show just a glimpse of why I do...

First, here's Milo being Milo. Oftentimes I am driving, listening to the radio and whatnot - and I suddenly tune into the back seat. There's Milo quietly talking away to whatever he happens to have brought along for the ride that day. This day I turned around and saw what is pictured below. I love it for one because of his funny stuffed animal - a ferret he immediatly named Jack (why I'm not quite sure). The other reason is because Jack is buckled up in the middle seat belt. His animals always ride safely - more often than not they are actually buckled up in his seatbelt with him. And to top it all off, he has his little arm around his pal. All this I saw when I turned around - what a silly kid.


Then a couple of days later I go into Mason's room to get his PJ's out and I find what is pictured below in the middle of his floor. Well, he does love cars so I figure this is just pretty funny. Then after he gets out of the shower and comes downstairs I inquire about it. After asking if he made it he responds, with a big smile, "Yes, its a heart, I made it for you because I love you." Oh man - what would I do if I didn't have such a sweetie around to say nice things and compliment me all the time? Yes, he also gives compliments. He tells me frequently how much he loves me and how I'm the best mommy ever (i've tricked him well). He also told me the other night that he wants to marry me when he gets older - and although that will obviously not work, I've always heard about kids saying stuff like that so I figure with that phrase my life is pretty much complete.

And there you have it. Silliness and compliments - who doesn't love that?

Fieldtrip Day

Saturday we were invited by our wonderful neighbors (Jeremy and Angie) to visit the fire station where Jeremy works. Milo has been awaiting this day for weeks, constantly asking when we get to go see Germy's (that's how he says it) firetruck. They got to ride around in the truck, check out all the equipment, and of course spray a fire hose.

All the kids put on headsets and talked and listened to each other through them - they thought it was pretty cool how it worked that way.

Another one of the favorite things - the fire hose. The boys circled around time after time, taking turns spraying the water.

Milo showing the size of the fire hoses.

Our trip ended with the biggest excitement of all - a call came in and off went the firetruck and ambulance, sirens blaring.

Thanks neighbors for sharing your adventure day with us!

Hello School

So I survived!

I only include me the statement because I don't think it was really something Mason or Milo worried about at all. Carpool is fine (no kids forgotten yet), Mason loves having two recesses and a lunch at school. Such little things to excite children...the other thing Mason is loving about school is the fact that he has a brand new alarm clock that wakes him up each morning. Oh, if only these things could be so exciting when he gets older (I will try my hardest to remind him just how much he loved them, but I don't think it will weigh in very well in the teenage years).

And through this whole first week of school here's my favorite memory...

The first day I took the traditional "first day" picture, as seen here:

That night I FINALLY cut the boys hair - something that had needed to be done weeks prior. The next morning as Mason was leaving for school his thought was this..."Mom, can you take another picture of me? That way I can have one with my haircut." (He thought his hair looked too messy the first day.) I think he's such a funny kid, the way he thinks about things I wouldn't even think about. So here's the second "first day" picture:

Goodbye Summer!

So today we said goodbye to summer as we know it. We drove about two hours out to the Bonneville Salt Flats for the first day of Speed Week. This was our first year out - visiting for a special occasion. Frank (Erik's dad) has a friend who bought and is racing a car this year, all in memory of Erik. Frank will be out there all week helping out and preparing the car for the races. Today was the technical day - they had to wait in line for hours to get everything checked out and get their "ok" to race. So after that was all over, we headed out to see what all the excitement is about. It was crazy to see up close and personal all the different race cars and stuff that are out there. Here are a few pics from today:

Notice they are both smiling. They didn't look like this in the car ride over.

The biggest fans!

Mason tried to get Wendall to let him drive the four wheeler. Wendall is a little smarter than that, Mason.

Me and Wendall, the best racer out there. Thanks Wendall for making this all happen!

calling all blog-stalkers...

So I keep hearing about those blog-stalkers out there. Yes, you know who you are. The problem is I don't. I realize that sometimes it takes a little more courage to leave a comment for all to see. Or maybe it's just that the comment is meant only for me. Either way, I figure I could solve your fear issues by posting an email address to send your comments to. That way you can blah blah as much as you'd like privately so no one else knows what a talker you really are. Or, if you so prefer, you can leave a comment anonymously on the blog too.

Ok. Here's the email address: rudy.family@hotmail.com

Happy New School Year!

It seems I jinxed myself by saying the summer seemed too long. Now only two days and school is officially started. Origianlly I was so excited I almost couldn't contain myself. Not that anything so exciting is going to happen - the simple fact that I will finally get to do the most boring things without children is good enough. I will now be able to go grocery shopping without hearing "Pleeeease can we have that?" every five seconds, clean the house and know that it can stay that way for least two hours (compared to the normal 10 minutes), and pull weeds without having to worry the boys are inside throwing food or fighting.

So now what's the problem? Well, you know what they say about green grass....

Last night I had a sudden stress-out moment. Oh my! Only two days and every night the boys have to be in bed early enough to make sure they can get up and ready for school (stress out #1). Mason starts at 8 AM (ouch!) and will now be in school ALL day long. I have had many people mention to me how tired he will be while trying to get used to this (stress out #2) - add to the fact that he normally goes to bed around 10 at night - which I have been trying to change (stress out #3). Then there's the carpooling - something I've never really done before (stress out #4) but am suddenly going to have to learn because I am now doing one for Mason and Milo. That means if I forget to pick up the kids, it won't just be mine (stress out #5) - not that I do this all the time, but you know, what if? And I could just go on...

The biggest problem is that I didn't even realize I was having all these stresses. Sounds weird maybe, but the super busy summer has just made me forget I guess. But now that the summer is over I feel like real life is begining. And just how am I supposed to handle that (stress out #153-376...)? Oh, crazy is as crazy does I guess.

So I realize that my blog is not as exciting to read as it may once have been. Not that exciting is the right word. But before it was so easy for me to write because I didn't have to talk about myself ever. More about what was going on. The other day I was talking to a friend and we decided that we just don't like to share a whole lot about our personal lives. Of course it's easy to share little stories here and there or recent events of the family. But one of my favorite blogs is the one I read that tells all about every feeling and every thought the girl is feeling. So I know what will make my blog one of those that everyone wants to read, I just don't know if I am the person who wants that. Or maybe just not the person who can do that. Sometimes I think about posting a thought I have here or there - but then I immediatly think not to for fear that I will be that blog that people read to have their "Debbie Downer" moments. Or that people will feel like they have to leave me uplifting, happy, "you are so strong" comments. And I don't want people to feel like that - nor do I want to make people depressed while reading my blog.

But I was persuaded tonight by a friend who vowed to be a little more personal in her blogs - if she can do it why can't I? I will warn you though, don't get your expectations too high here - big things like this can't really happen overnight I suppose. So for my first big "feelings" blog I am going to get a little creative - me being my random self and all. Every day or so I hear a song and think, "Oh, this is so what I am thinking." So I decided to make a little songlist. My thoughts in a mix CD. I realize that this might not help everyone since some songs may be ones you haven't heard of - and some songs might just have a few songs I relate to - but hey, no complaining - it's better than nothing!

dreaming with a broken heart - john mayer

everybody knows - dixie chicks

i still miss you - keith anderson

so hard - dixie chicks

everybody - keith urban

doesn't remind me - audioslave

just a dream - carrie underwood

wish you were here - incubus

Ok. I think that's all i can think of for now. And although these songs all appear to be more on the thoughtful and i might say somewhat depressing side - I don't generally feel this way. I think that whatever it is I feel it cannot really be described (maybe that's why I tried using songs instead) and yet I don't wish anyone to fell sorry for me or like I'm moping. I really feel normal - whatever that means right? But that's how I feel. Obviously I seem that a comparable situation is that a tornado has come through my life and spun everything around. But what do you do with that. You can't just sit around and stare at the broken mess around you. At some point you have to get up and start cleaning.

Well, well - for one not into sharing feelings so much I sure have a lot to blab about. So until my next Mix CD - I leave you with one of my new favorite quotes...

my hot date

So I was asked out on a date for tonight. The plan started out as dinner at Tepanyaki and a movie. Well, the movie my date wanted to see (Space Chimps) was not playing anywhere so we had to come up with a Plan B. My date suggested we go to the mall.

"Why the mall?" I asked.

"Because there's an arcade there," he replied.

"But there is no where to eat there," I said.

"Yes there is, there's that Wendy's place - or whatever it's called. We can just eat there."

So I came up with a Plan C. Lovely Boondocks. A little classier than the mall arcade and "Wendy's" (although I think he was referring to Chik-fil-a) - but not much. Although I do think I saw a few other daters there. So we had pizza for dinner, played a couple rounds of miniature golf, drove the bumper boats and of course - played the arcade games. And I must say, although I seemed to have a slow streak, my date was having a very lucky night - raking in exactly 1000 tickets by the end. We tried to take some cheesy (although I admit I love them) photo booth pictures but the machine wasn't working. So here is the one shot I got of our date.

I think he's pretty handsome anyway. And he opened doors for me, held my hand - and I even got a good night kiss! Now I just need to work on getting him to pay.

the shuffle

So I was driving in my car today, listening to my favorite thing - ipod on shuffle. I love the randomness. With each song end a new little surprise comes my way. But today as one song ended and another started I had to wonder to which one belonged the strange mismatched melody at the beginning (or ending). So it's not like this is the first time this has ever happened. But each time it does, for some reason I have to think how different songs sound when you listen to a whole CD by itself. And then it always makes me wonder, do musicians hate shuffle? Because if I were a musician I would stress forever wondering what song sounded good before or after which other song. Then there's those fancy songs which just lead right into the next one. So after planning and worrying and thinking and changing the playlist over and over until finally recording the record - then to just have someone download their preferred songs from itunes and shuffle them all around - how rude!

But yet I love to do it. And my favorite is to hear two totally random songs one after another. My songs would be appalled if they knew what was going on after they were over.

So there it is. A very shuffled thought of the day.