This means I get to enter 3 times ;)

I want to win Sue's Best Buy card because I need a new camera. Which is why I'm posting about her giveaway. Go read her here because she's really funny. But don't you dare enter the giveaway because it's mine. Mine mine mine mine mine!

My own little virtuoso

Caden has started taking piano lessons this year due to the generosity of an unnamed benefactor (thanks grandma and grandpa!). From the beginning his teacher has been very impressed with how quickly he is able to learn everything from the key names, to finger positions, to being able to play his songs so well, so quickly. Enough(ish) bragging.

At the beginning of December they had their Christmas Recital. Caden did a great job introducing his songs at the pulpit without any written notes about what to say and then very professionally sat at the piano and played. He did a great job, didn't miss any notes at all. I don't have video, but here's some pictures from that night:

Or, er, one picture. I've been trying to upload pictures to this post for three days and this is the only one that Blogger is allowing. Stupid blogger. Anyhoo... so handsome. Love you, Caden!

On the bright side, I guess I could win an award for it...

Every night at 7pm my ex calls to talk to the kids. He's fairly prompt and has hardly ever missed a day. I know all day long that he's going to call. As the day winds down and the kids and I are getting into our night time routine of dinner, cleaning up, pajamas and bedtime stuff I know he's going to call and I almost watch the clock waiting for it to happen.

Every other weekend my kids go to their dad's house. I miss them so much when they're gone. I purposefully pack my schedule when they're gone so that I know what to do with myself....because otherwise I'm a little lost without them.

But. I forget to call them at 7pm.

What? What kind of horrible mother forgets to call her children?

Wait, wait, hear me out. I think about it in the morning....but it's not time to call yet. And then I get busy. And then I think about it again during the day and make a mental note to be sure and call at 7pm....but it's still not time yet. And then I get more busy. And then I remember at 10:30pm that I haven't remembered to call my kids and that I am THE WORST MOTHER IN THE WORLD!!!!! Which is how I feel. But probably not entirely true. I mean, I haven't eaten my offspring or anything, but still. HORRIBLE.

It happened again tonight. I have since learned that I can set an alarm on my phone to remind me to call them, which I have done....the tricky thing there is going to be remembering to set it when I drop them off for their weekends away. I think that my biggest problem is that it's just not a habit for me to MAKE the phone call. I am in the habit of RECEIVING the phone call, and honestly, how difficult is that?

"Whatever lady; excuses, excuses."

Yep, (nodding) I know. That's exactly how I feel.

Yep, I'm bragging

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

are pleased to announce the grades of their daughter

Valerie

for her first quarter back to school

after a 13 year absence...

4.0

4.0

4.0

That's right. She rocks.

;)

What it's like at our house...

My kids are enrolled in a Sarcasm Immersion program. It's called Life With Valerie For a Mother. What we do in this program is lie to the children all the time about stupid stuff that doesn't matter. They catch on fairly quickly. Let's take for example last night's dinner conversation:

Caden: Where's Grandpa?

Sarcasm Immersion Specialist: Mongolia.

Caden: What's he doing in another state?

Sarcasm Immersion Specialist: Mongolia's another country, not a state. It's kind of up by China.

Caden: Well, what's he doing in Mongolia?

Sarcasm Immersion Specialist: He had to get a key made.

Caden: Oh, I get it, because everything's made in China. Ha ha.


The best part was the 'ha, ha' at the end because it was a completely sarcastic 'ha, ha'. He knew we were pulling his leg, and he let us know in our own language. *sniff* kind of brought a tear to the eye. ;)

My children are learning well.....Thanks Sarcasm Immersion School!

I am thankful I am not cooking this Thanksgiving ;)

So I'm Single Now

Dating at 31 is not so bad. There's a lot of honesty, which makes it easier to weed out the creepy guys. But if you find a good one, it's a lot of fun.

Family Pictures 2009

We had a family photo shoot at the end of September before the weather turned. A very wonderful girl in my old ward did them and charged me a pittance for an entire disc all retouched and making us look our best. Here's a small sample...

Blah. Blah de blah blah blah. Consider yourselves updated.

A quick update...

My classes are awesome. Even the ones I thought would suck are awesome. And as a bonus I got into the ASL class that I absolutely have to have this quarter in order for the rest of my master plan to fall into place.

But I'm unbelievably busy. So, not that the blog's been such a huge priority anyway, but it's getting pushed even further back on the list of stuff that has to get done.