"Holy alter ego Batman!"

That's a true Robin quote by the way.

So, I have an new alter ego.  But before I tell you my new superhero name or show you my outfit I have to tell you how it all came about.  I was at a ward bbq and we were sitting around chatting with a bunch of people  in the ward.  A guy in my ward who is a dentist (and also the son of my next door neighbor) was saying his dental assistant tried calling in sick on July 5 when he knew she wasn't sick. Anyway, we got to talking and it came up that I used to do some dental assisting in my previous life (practically half of my life ago).  He needed someone for emergencies and to fill in for his other assistant and I wanted some time OUT (and havin a little bit of extra $$ is never a bad thing either).  He ended up calling me in on Saturday for an emergency and the rest is history. So, I am working about 3-10 hours per week.  It has been kind of fun.

 So, here's what I look like when I go to work:  Well, at least the green top is accurate.  It was funny, the first time Ian saw my scrubs he said "Mom, why do you have "making" clothes?  Those clothes are for "making". I still haven't really figured out what that really means because he didn't really say what "making" meant.  I am still trying to figure out what my new "dental assistant superhero" name should be.  Anyone have any thoughts? After last night I was thinking that I should pick something to do with the Incredible Hulk because of the green scrubs and because while separating a suction device from the hose I broke it. (yep, I gotta break expensive equipment on my 3rd day at work...)  The other assistant TOLD me to pull hard so I did... I guess my amazing muscles just made that plastic part SNAP (HI-YAH!) 

This is the part when all my faithful readers help me pick my new superhero name.  In other words: Leave a suggestion in the comment section.  :)

Survivor Toilet Edition: All-Stars

I think we may have had a breakthrough. It is too early to tell but so far it is looking good.  Adele has been diaper free for the last 2 days and has only had 1 accident. I hid the diapers and told her that they were all gone. I was going to put her in cloth diapers for a few days to see if that would do anything for her.  The first morning I was going to do that she wanted to wear underwear instead of the cloth diaper.  I told her if she kept it dry she could wear the underwear but if she got them wet she'd have to wear the cloth dipes.  She stayed dry all day and even went to the toilet BY herself.   For her this is HUGE! Today Kent was home and I was gone all morning. I forgot to brief (no pun intended) him on the happenings and when he went to get her dressed he could not find any diapers. BUT, being the potty training MASTER that he is, he went with the flow and put her in underwear.  She had 1 accident this morning but stayed dry the rest of the day. Yahoo!  Could it finally be happening? After 10 years of diapering could I REALLY be diaper free soon? 

Garbage disposal works again.

Kent (the GD Master) came home from work today and started taking apart the garbage disposal.  It wasn't coming apart so easily so with a little help from the internet he was able to try another method of locating and removing the offending jammer from the disposal.  Just as we had suspected:  It was the handle of the cuplet, already rusted from being in the disposal for 24 hours.  I am so glad to have my disposal back. No more dumping soggy cereal and cold oatmeal into the garbage can!  We don't appreciate the little things enough.

Our garage door is also fixed.  Our friend and contractor who did our kitchen remodel was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to fix our garage door.  Now I just have to get a vacuum belt and I'll be ALL set.  (But I won't have an excuse if my carpets look dirty.)

Murphy's Law

Everything has been breaking around here. We are starting to feel kind of picked on.   Let's see:  our van broke a couple of weeks ago and we had to get the power steering fixed.  Days after that our garage door broke and we are waiting on a repair guy to come fix it, hopefully today. The vacuum belt broke and we have not been able to get our hands on a replacement.  Come on Wal-mart people, it's just a normal Eureka vacuum... But the designated spot at the store continues to have emptiness for the "Eureka R" belts.  And now, as of last night it is the garbage disposal.  Kent brought me this:

It's a 1/8 c. measuring cup, sans handle, completely mangled. 

Where is the handle you ask?  Hmm. Dunno.  Probably wedged somewhere in the garbage disposal from whence this little cuplet was retrieved.  I noticed a funny sound coming from the garbage disposal, but I always think our GD sounds funny after I run something down it.  And my least favorite thing in the universe after giving birth without anesthesia or speaking in church is reaching down into the dark and slimy garbage disposal to look for something that may have accidentally fallen down there.  So, anyway it was sounding kind of weird-ish for a day or 2 until last night when it stopped sounding like anything. Then Kent, the brave Garbage Disposal Master, found the remains of the cup. So now we  Kent gets to take apart the GD to look for the missing handle.  Maybe when he finds it and gets it unstuck the GD will work again once more.  We hope.

Fishing with the Kiddos

They just opened a new little reservoir here.  We went swimming with some friends last week and our kids have been begging to go fishing.  So for family night we took the kiddos up there to fish.  We sort of had a good time. I guess. Actually, to be honest it was kind of miserable and I'll tell you why:  our sinkers kept getting stuck in the rocks whenever the kids would reel in the lines, the rocks were quite wobbly and a little precarious for kids (I had visions of spending the evening in the Instacare for sprained ankles, especially when Adele got her foot stuck between some rocks), there were dead fish everywhere (stinky!) and it was difficult for Kent (the Fish Master) to keep 3 lines going for the 3 bigger kids who were fishing (especially since the sinkers kept getting stuck in the rocks).  We could see little fishies swimming around the bait but we didn't get more than a nibble. Kent loves to fish so the plan is for him to take the kids on some 1 on 1 fishing trips. That should work out better.

Zumba

It has been awhile since my Inner Blogging Voice (IBV) has spoken.  I guess lately I haven't done anything out of the ordinary or crazy.  Maybe the blogging "fire"just isn't there as much as it used to be.  When my IBV speaks though, I need to listen.

I have been to Zumba at my local gym 2 times now.  The first time my IBV was going WILD, but after I came home I didn't listen and I didn't blog about it.  The SECOND time I went I remembered why I needed to blog about it.  WOW.   There are so many levels of blog-ability here.

Level 1:  I do not dance.  I do not do aerobics.  Coordination really isn't my "thing" which is why I usually stick to things like running and yoga (which does require some balance, but not so much coordination).   Latin dancing is completely out of my repertoire.

Level 2:  There are a lot of interesting people to watch at Zumba.  It can be pretty entertaining to watch a bunch of white girls (and a few Latinas) try to "shake it" like a Cuban.  So far I haven't seen any men near Zumba except to gawk at us through the windows. I am sure there are some guys who strategically plan their workouts to coincide with Zumba.  Either to laugh at us or to watch the "real dancers". 

Let's just say that there are definitely many different levels of fitness and coordination.  (It is a good thing there are too many people in the room for me to actually be able to see myself in the mirror.  If I saw myself I don't know if I would ever go back.)  I actually commented to a fellow "newbie" that I felt like I was at some cheerleading camp nightmare or something.  People who don't have experience with Latin dancing, cheerleading, belly dancing or (exotic dancing/stripping) have a hard time with the moves.   (Not kidding here.  It is actually quite crazy and frightening how these types of dancing overlap.  I have learned this from Zumba.)

And then of course, you always have a few classmates (okay one) who wear a THONG with sheer, tight-fitting-leggings that don't have QUITE a thick enough layer of fabric around the buttocks.  Then they do exaggerated Latin maneuvers, shaking their hips and pelvises to and fro and you happen to be standing behind them.  Yeah, there's always one of those.

Level 3: The instructor is about 6 months pregnant, maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less.  There's nothing quite like pregnant belly dancing.  Don't get me wrong, she's good, but the belly definitely does add a twist.

Level 4: It's dang fun.  So, despite all the crazy cheerleading camp nightmare (and I say that not because there is anything wrong with cheerleading, but because if I was ever AT cheerleading camp it would be one of my PERSONAL nightmares because of my incoordination and ineptness), Zumba is really fun.  Those Latins know how to have a good time and they have really awesome music.  (SO much better than the usual TECHNO that all the other classes listen to.)  I go to class and spend so much brain power working on the moves that I probably burn twice the calories.  And it goes by so fast, I hardly feel like I am working out at all, besides my brain that is, which is working overtime.  It is fun having a new challenge, and Zumba is my new challenge.  Not that I ever think I'll ever be great at the "Latin moves" but I do hope that I will at least be able to get the steps down eventually.

Freedom

I am feeling particularly free today.  Today marks my independence from the Relief Society presidency. I have been second counselor for 4 years and today we got released.  FREEDOM, SWEET FREEDOM.  I do have to meet with one of our bishopric members on Tuesday so my freedom is short lived. I don't think it is going to be anything big though.  Perhaps I'll have a respite for awhile.

Family Reunion at Zion

We:  hiked, ate, made s'mores, rode the busses in Zion, swam, blew bubbles, celebrated my dad's 74th birthday, played with our cousins and siblings, didn't sleep enough, zip lined, rode 4-wheelers, threw rocks in the river, played mini-golf, did some New Zealand Maori dancing (the only kind of dancing anyone in my family does), took a nap or two, made jewelry and played "Lego Rock Band" (which my family decided is not as good as Guitar Hero).

Fun with Gma and Gpa

Gma and Gpa V were in town and offered to take the kids on an overnighter.  They took some really fun photos and had a blast.  (Kent and I also had a nice kid free break which we hope to repeat soon.)  They went out for pizza, went to the park, played at the splash pad and had a sleepover.  Thanks mom and dad for takin' the kiddos!

I absolutely LOVE this picture. I am going to get one printed and put it on the shelf in my computer room.  So cute!

Crazy June Update

It has been a crazy month around here. Here's a quick catch up:

• My niece  Hailey came to visit for about 2 weeks. The kids had a LOT of fun, as you can see.

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  I have been sewing a lot. I have been making dresses, blankets and even leopard print shorts for my girls and a skirt for Hailey.
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  We have been doing quite a bit of hiking.  With and without the kids.

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  Adele fed the fish 1 1/2 cans of fish food.   (Maybe she was trying to fatten up or kill our oldest fish "Skinnies")

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  We had a picnic in the garage with our new picnic table before it got moved to the backyard.
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  We had a family reunion (which I will blog about later).
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  I have strep throat. Don't worry, I am not going to post pictures of my throat which the doctor labeled "impressive" and gave me a stronger-than-usual dose of antibiotics.

The Big "8"

Elise turned the big 8 this month!  She barely turned 8 in time for the June Stake baptism.  We had a little bit of a problem with getting the bishop interview on time and for awhile there I was worried that we might not make it since he had to go on a youth conference.  Lucky for us though he was able to squeeze in the interview and get it done.  I asked Elise before the baptism if she wanted to get baptized in a white dress or the jumpsuit.  She didn't hesitate to answer that she wanted to wear the jumpsuit.  I was going to buy or make her a new white dress but she ended up just just wanting a "regular" dress.  She had no desire to go with me to pick out fabric (I'm not sure why,) so she drew me a picture. I had to call her from the fabric store to offer other ideas because red and purple vertical striped fabric isn't that easy to find.  I ended up buying some pink sparkly fabric with multicolored butterflies for her dress.

So here we have a bunch of  pictures with the gorgeous gold background at the church.  Top left:  Elise and her grandparents, Top right: Me, Kent and Elise.  Bottom left:  Double cousin Hailey who stayed with us for almost 2 weeks, Adele in her new dress that I made for her, Emilia, Elise and Ian. Bottom right:  Elise and her good friend Lindsay from school.  They have been in the same class at school for several years and they didn't know that they were going to be baptized the same day. It was a fun surprise for them.

Here's Elise with our good friend and neighbor Virginia.

 Now we move on to the partying

Swedish pancakes for breakfast with strawberries and whip cream.  I love this re-enactment of the "blowing out of the candle".  And the backwards, inside-out pajama tank top.

More birthday treats.  Cheesecake with strawberries and

"E L I S E # 8" cookies that my friend Christine made for Elise.  And last but not least, the birthday party at the "bouncy castle" place with her friends Jeffrey and Johnathan.  I had to get a picture of the wall with the unicorn and the castle because If there is anything Elise loves it would be unicorns. 

I have to say, Elise had a GREAT birthday.

P.S. Please ignore the psycho blogger formatting.  Blogger people, why all the weird formatting?

Denver Trip: The Final Chapter

Ok, If I actually had readers I would worry that you're really sick of hearing about this trip.  I really should have written this part first since it was the most crazy and interesting.  At this point I am sick of blogging about this so it's going to be the quick and condensed version. 

The day after the wedding was Sunday.  We had  a flight out around 2:15 pm.  We hitched a ride to the airport with Rachel and waited a couple of hours to our plane to board because it was delayed.  Finally it was time to board and they had overbooked our flight. They asked people to give up their seats for 400 dollar flight vouchers.  I called Kent and we decided that a free trip somewhere was worth the pain and suffering of having to sleep in a free hotel and eat free meals and get home a day late.  

We made our way to the Frontier Airlines customer service line and waited pretty much forever.  Apparently Frontier Airlines has a pretty bad reputation for overbooking their planes.  Also, that day there were a bunch of athletes who were scheduled to fly to Milwaukee and they ended up having to take smaller plane so there were about 50 stranded travellers.

So, in a nutshell, here's what our "free hotel and free meals" package deal included:

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  Waiting in line for over an hour to get our vouchers
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  Talking to lots of disgruntled folks from Wis-KAN-sin
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  Waiting for our shuttle to take us to the  hotel
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  Wandering around the "bad part" of Aurora Colorado with our new travel companion Rob who was also bumped from our flight.  He became our bodyguard while we walked for at least 45 minutes looking for a restaurant that accepted our airline food vouchers
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  Stopping to take a picture in front of the giant menorah constructed out of street sign poles and lamps
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  Being called a racial slur from a moving car--  (anyone ever been called a "jigger?  It means "a Jewish person pretending to be a black person"?  Who knew there was even a word that meant that. It must be really common for Jewish people to impersonate black people...)  That wasn't even in front of the giant menorah or anything. I guess I just REALLY look Jewish. My blond haired, blue eyed child does too. 
  
  Discovering that there were NO restaurants who had ever seen our airline food vouchers
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  Finding several closed restaurants
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  Settling upon a small Mexican restaurant in a scary looking strip mall and not even worrying about the stupid food vouchers because we had been wandering around for almost an hour
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  Walking into the Mexican restaurant and having about 10 Hispanic people turn and stare at us since we were the only Gringos in the place.
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  Going to Safeway to get treats and wait for our shuttle to pick us up again.  (Worrying the whole time that someone was going to kill me, and thankful that we had invited our bodyguard Rob to eat dinner with us.)
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  Finding out upon our return to the hotel that the vouchers must be used at the airport or the hotel (gee thanks customer-service-lady-at-the-Frontier-Airlines-desk for not TELLING us that small detail.  And believe me, we were there long enough to overhear the instructions PLENTY of times before it was our turn.  GRR. That reminds me, I still want to call and complain about that one.
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  Getting ice at the hotel (I always love getting ice)
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  Getting up at 4:30 am to catch a shuttle to the airport at 5
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  Spending a ridiculous amount of voucher money at the airport McDonald's for breakfast
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  Taking Cinnabon home to use the rest of the voucher money

That's pretty much it.

Here's the Mexican restaurant.  The food was excellent.  The atmosphere, not so much.  On the right of this picture there were all the guys who were wondering what the heck those crazy white people were doing in this restaurant.  They kept looking at us, making me feel very conspicuous.  The bodyguard Rob went outside and sneakily took this photo after I said that I really wanted a photo of this place so I could post it on my blog.

Here we have Emilia in the shuttle, the tv that Em thought was so cool in the plane, the view of the Denver sky at 6 am and Emilia playing on the moving walkways while I waited in line forever.

So that ends my Denver Trip 5 (6?) part epistle. I just had to write about it because there were so many crazy things that happened and believe me, my IBV was going 100 mph.  I had such a great time visiting my friends from Denver and seeing Kari get married. It was really fun to take Emilia with me on this special mother daughter trip.  Thanks again to the S family who housed us and everyone who gave us rides and cars to borrow.  And thanks to Frontier Airlines for the free trip. Now that it is over it is definitely worth it.  Now we just have to decide where we want to go.  That's a post for another day.

Denver Trip: The Wedding

On Saturday May 10, 2010 Trevor Vernon and Kari Grimshaw got married in the Denver Colorado temple.  This temple was always "my temple" because I was a kid when it was built and our ward's primary earned the money to pay for the "bride's benches in the back of the temple. I went to the dedication of this temple and even have a plaque with one of the stones that was used in the construction of the outer walls of the temple. 

When we were in the sealing I had this overwhelming feeling that I didn't want to ever leave Denver again.  I looked around and saw so many people from my past and felt like this was the place I belonged.  It has been so many years that I have been away and I just finally felt like I was home.  When I was a teenager and moved away from Denver I felt that way the first time I visited again, which was about 3 months after I moved.  I wondered if I would feel that way on this trip and I didn't until I was in the sealing room with Kari's family and some "old" people from the ward we grew up in.  The wedding was very nice and the sealer, one of my previous bishops, Lloyd Richmond said some nice words.

The happy couple exiting the temple

Here I am with 2 of my all time best friends:  Kari and Rachel

Didn't we look awesome back in 1991?

I'm not sure why I posted that second picture here but I thought it was pretty funny.

The reception was held in the mountains at Mt. Vernon Country Club.  How fitting huh, since the bride and groom are "Vernons".  I saw some of my old high school friends at the dinner reception and had a chance to talk and visit with each of Kari's 5 sisters.  It was seriously such a fun walk down memory lane.

Denver Trip: Part Who Knows?

Ok, I really gotta get this done so we'll see if I can wrap it up soon and move on with my blogging life.   After this I think there are just 2 parts left.

Soooo, I left off at the zoo. 

After the zoo Emilia and I went to one of the most exciting restaurants in Denver:  Casa Bonita.  They are known for their great entertainment, cliff divers and disgusting food. I was hoping that the food would have improved in the 20ish years since I ate there last but no such luck.  The sad thing too is that my food was actually cooked and prepared BY Spanish speaking individuals who probably make delicious food at home. For some reason the nasty food is just considered a part of the experience.  Maybe they just want you to eat lots of the unlimited sopapillas. That must be it. 

Here are some pics of the Casa Bonita trip:

Vroom

 See how it says "EMILIA" on the poster?  Too bad can Emilia only find her name on Spanish posters and not on key chains and license plates....

Look, I found that same poster on Amazon.com for sale.  Wow.  (Now the question we naturally must ask is: Who would want a freaky-facial-hair-hombre who is losing pantalones and has an arm that  appears upon first glance to be to a very saggy different body part hanging on their wall?") 
 Btw, profugo means "fugitive" in case you wondered.

If you look really closely you can see yet ANOTHER girl with Soviet hair. This one was at Casa Bonita. Her tattoos went really nicely with her hair.  It was really tricky taking her picture without being too conspicuous.

After Casa Bonita I drove around to some of my old neighborhoods.  I lived in 5 houses in the Lakewood area (that I remember). I went to just the 2 where I lived the longest.  We were tired from eating all that "Mexican" food (and walking around the zoo all day) so we didn't want to drive around forever.  So, here's the house where I lived for 6 years: 

The pine tree is HUGE now, and the house looks so much smaller.

This was the next house where I lived during my Jr. High years. When I was looking at this house it reminded me of Dora the Explorer with her mushroom hair. ( My kids have completely ruined me forever.)

(Swiper NO swiping...)

After the driving around we had to take advantage of the malls and other shopping centers.  It has been a LONG time since I have set foot in a mall (sad but true) and I was shocked and quite sickened by some of the things that were for sale.  Granted, this was a "Claire's Boutique which markets mainly to teens and teeny boppers, but REALLY.  REALLY.  Who buys this stuff?  Really?  I personally haven't SEEN any people wearing fishnet neon gloves anywhere.  Maybe in Denver they do.  I do live a pretty sheltered life, far away from any good shopping centers.

I love her face on these!

Plastic pants anyone?

After a long day of animal watching, nasty food eating, Soviet hair photographing, top-hat headband wearing and dress buying we finally headed back to the S's house for dinner and some air-hockey.  Did I mention how awesome our hosts were? When we were there I wished I could go work in Dr. S's office again.  Those were some good times.

Adele's Dress

Yup, I made it.  And I plan to make a few more because it was so easy and I think it looks so cute on her.

"Shortcut"

I took Elise in for a haircut and Adele was being surprisingly cooperative and wanted a haircut too.  After we got home she kept walking around telling everyone that she had gotten a "shortcut" just like Elise.  During the cut she kept zoning in the chair.  I thought she was going to pass out.  I had to give her a "curiously strong" mint to keep her from falling asleep in the chair.  Hopefully she'll have the same reaction when we start taking her to the dentist. Somehow I doubt that.