I'm thankful for family

This week, I got to spend time with all my brothers and sisters at once. This never happens in our family, but since Daegan and Amy moved a little closer to us, hopefully it will happen more often.

Thursday everyone contributed to an amazing Thanksgiving dinner at Cameron and Angelica's house. (Great job on the turkey, Ang.) All the little cousins had a chance to get reacquainted with each other while the adults gorged themselves on pie and played games. And ate more pie.

Friday we got together again for dinner at Kiirstin's house and exchanged gifts. (Great job on the enchiladas, Ang.)

Saturday, all of us climbed on the train and rode to temple square to see the lights. I have come to realize why my parents were never keen on taking us to places like Disneyland or the mall on Black Friday, because the older I get the more I hate crowds. But the lights were beautiful, and it was nice to have all of us together again. (Well, almost all of us. Randy had to work, and we really missed him.)

Oh what a lovely recession!

Today, I filled my entire tank full of gas...a little over 15 gallons...and was elated to read that it cost me less than $30! Since it will be impossible to lose my shirt in the stock market because I'm too poor to play that game, and I already own a home and don't need a loan, I thought to myself, "Maybe this recession isn't so bad after all!"

(Disclaimer: Only joking. I KNOW recessions are bad, so please don't think I'm that shallow.)

Another one bites the dust.

Kiirsti and I treated ourselves to soup, salad, and breadsticks today with my Olive Garden gift card. As we were walking on the sidewalk outside of the restaurant, Carter bit it. And I mean he bit it HARD. As he fell, the forward movement of his body forced him to roll up ONTO HIS FACE. Ow. Here is the aftermath:

Poor little nose. But luckily it's nothing some neosporin and a kiss can't fix.

Can I get one of these?

No posts lately cause life is CRAZY. I need a lazy Sunday.

Walmart, I hate you.

An open letter to Walmart containing the five reasons I do now and will always HATE shopping in your stupid stores, and why I have decided to boycott you.

1--YOU HAVE CRAPPY CUSTOMER SERVICE.
I don't recall ever being in a Walmart without having to wait at least 5-10 minutes in line to check out. Usually, it's more like 20. And then there's your pharmacy. Today, I "stopped by" to get a prescription. I was in pain from a back injury, I had a grumpy three-year-old in need of a nap, and I had better things to do than wait in line. But I had the bad luck of "stopping by" at 1:15, right before the ENTIRE pharmacy and ALL the staff (of 10 PEOPLE. 10!) went to lunch together. "Oh, you can pick this up at 2:40," said the bleary-eyed automaton of an employee. I spent a wasted hour and a half in your hell-hole of a store, and guess what? My prescription wasn't done at 2:40. Big surprise. Just all in a day's work for you guys. I will be transferring that prescription to Target (a store you could learn a lot from) as soon as I can.

2--YOU HAVE CRAPPY MERCHANDISE.
I know it's cheap, but I will gladly pay a little more money for a quality product. But since that will never happen in your stores, you won't be getting any more of my money--ever.

3--YOUR STORES HAVE ALL THE WARMTH OF A LAB IN ANTARCTICA.
Walking into a Walmart is like walking into a nightmare. The lighting makes me feel like I'm in an alternate universe of zombies where everything is fake and cold. Why would I want to spend any time there?

4--I DON'T NEED EXERCISE, I JUST NEED TO RETURN MY CART
I understand you're trying to be cost effective. But it makes me angry to have to hike a quarter mile round trip just to put my cart in one of the cart return corrals in your never-ending parking lots. You also force me to make a choice: leave my child in the car and hope he'll be ok, since I lose sight of my car while I'm hiking away, or take him with me in the rain/snow/wind and in the midst of crazed drivers in search of a screaming deal. Just fork out the cash!!! How much can a cart return cost??

5--TAKE YOUR CHRISTMAS MUZAK AND SHOVE IT
We, your (ex) customers are not stupid. We know the reason you start playing Christmas muzak the day after Halloween is not to be cheery. It is to try to fool us into believing Christmas is right around the corner, and therefore we need to BUY MORE!! The result is that we are already Christmas-ed out by the first week of December. Well, I'm not that easy. I reserve the right to enjoy the holiday--and therefore will not shop in your stores.

So, farewell Walmart. I sincerely hope I never see the inside of one of your stores again. (Just saying that makes me happy.)

The Other Woman

I have long been convinced that if she were actually human, my husband would leave me for Wendy. As in Wendy, hamburger-girl, daughter of Dave Thomas. Randy and I often joke that she is the other woman in our relationship--and he visits her on a regular basis.

Today, she swayed one more devotee to her cult.

I was sitting on the couch with Carter while he played a computer game. The game was kind of out of his league, and he kept losing so the game kept having to reload. As you know, during the reloading process, websites feel it necessary to subject us to ads. Well, I wasn't watching the screen, and all of a sudden Carter said, out of the blue, "I LOVE chicken nuggets, Mom." I said "Mmm-hmm" and then looked at the computer screen to see him lovingly stroking the face in this image:

After which he said, "Mom, I LOVE that chicken-girl."

Wow. He is totally his father's son.

Tiger spotted in West Jordan neighborhood

Mom emailed me today and was highly disappointed that I hadn't posted pictures of Halloween yet. So this somewhat belated Halloween post is for dear, sweet Mother.

Some background: Carter is notoriously skittish when it comes to Halloween costumes. Last year, we decided a full-body chick costume would be perfect. It would keep him warm and required little work. Ideal! What we ended up with was this:

This year, we mistakenly believed we could get away with the full-body costume again, and when Carter insisted he REALLY REALLY wanted to be a monkey for Halloween, we believed him. What we ended up with was this:

So I took the monkey costume back (notice I left the tags on the costume for just such a situation) and told Carter that he could decide between a clown costume and a tiger costume, both of which I could make from a regular sweatsuit. After weeks of switching between the two, he finally decided to give in to my decree that HE WAS GOING TO BE A TIGER. END OF DISCUSSION.

Kiirstin came over to help me paint, and after a couple of hours a tiger was born. It was a hit.