Running again

Today is running day. Taylor and I will walk 1 lap, run 4, walk 1, run 4, walk 1. I warned her last night, so that she will come home ready and excited to run ;-) Like that will ever happen. It is starting to get pretty cold running now, but the race is in February, so we need to be ready for cold running.

BTW, my laptop recorded Avatar correctly while we were in Holden, so Taylor has been very happy watching the shows.

Busy Today

Today is Tuesday and one of the busiest ones in a while. I am not feeling at all well, my usual crampy blues....it taps my energy for just about anything but staring into space. (Come on, girls, you know what I'm talking about)...but life must go on.

I have to get the girls to their dance dress rehearsal today after school. Shaylie's costume, which they supposedly measured her for, is way too big so I have to find a way to take it in. I also had to go and buy her some new shoes since they wanted black for the costume. Taylor's costume also needs work since she didn't take very good care of it last year and I also think it is getting a little small. Then later tonight I am teaching my Beehive girls how to crochet. They all wanted to learn how to make a scarf or something. I hope it goes well for them. I've never tried to teach anyone to crochet before, so it should be interesting.

I was sorry I didn't get to talk to anyone on Thankgiving. I read all the blogs and heard the messages and it sounds like everyone had fun. We are looking forward to having New Years here this year. We should have an extra bed and a blow up mattress and there is room at Anissa's place so we should have plenty of room (I hope).

I had my conference call on Monday and I have to get my first two articles to the website by Dec. 15th. They will likely "go live" at the beginning of January. I am very nervous about this...I hope my mind doesn't fail me anytime soon. When I get the URL, I will post it here and you can link right to the page....if you are interested.

Grandpa seems to be doing better. When we left, he was just finishing a 24 hour lie-down. He is supposed to lie down if he feels even the tingiest headache come on. They said they would have the results in about a week...so we'll know more then. They think it is some sort of fluid in his brain and it is upsetting is equilibrium. Scary. He'll be in our prayers and Scott is going to the temple tomorrow so we're putting his name in the rolls. ...You know, one of the things I love the best about Grandpa is that he never has a bad attitude about anything. He is always smiling and laughing and making the rest of us laugh and feel better. I hate to think that he is getting old but what a terrific person he is no matter his age. I may be biased but I feel that he has lived a life that he can be proud of and that's not saying a little. I love you Papa! You are the best.

Well, unlike my grandfather, I am full of complaints. I am staying home from work today because of my affliction. I wish it was a weekend, because I hate to lose the mon-a hon-a. It's really not fair that the one in the family who never gets sick has about 16 years worth of sick leave built up and the one (me) who is sick constantly (according to my hubby) has none. Maybe I need a better job. It seems I can still write even when I am sick though, hmmm...something to think about.

Okay. I expect to hear from everyone on our blog in the next day or so. I don't think having your own blog is an excuse for not commenting on ours. I feel very sad when I see people posting on other blogs and not on ours. I know you don't want to make me cry. I love you all and I hope to see you all soon.

PS...Grandma J--I hope you saw Scott's message about staying with us for all of your 7 vacation days. Wouldn't you feel better knowing they aren't going to waste? Think about it...we would love it if you could stay a little longer this year.

Technical Difficulties

Our web site is experiencing some difficulties, so I have put the default theme on so that pages will come up, will look into what has happened to my template when I get a chance.

UPDATE: As you can see, I have fixed it. Now continue with your everyday business :-)

Let it snow, let it snow

Today was work day here in Holden, We raked up all the leaves and as I was starting the Heath's backyard, it started snowing. The pull rake stopped working in the snow, so I guess it is too late. Then Anissa set up the Christmas tree at Dawn's.
They took Grandpa Heath up to Provo for tests this morning, yesterday he wasn't able to walk so they took him to the emergency room. They ran tests, couldn't find what is wrong so they scheduled him to get tests in Provo. They are up there now, and we haven't heard anything more other than Dawn called about 11:00 that they were waiting for his spinal tap.
As of 2:42 we have about 4 inches of snow on the lawn. Bella, Taylor, Shaylie, and Anje are out building snowmen.

We did it!

At 2:00, Tonya drove Taylor and I over to the Millard High School track (very nice track by the way) to run our two miles. After much fear (and a bunch of fake cramps on Taylor) we walked one lap to warm up, then stretched out, and ran EIGHT LAPS :-D At about 6 1/2 laps, I knew I could make it. It was great feeling to come around the last turn and see the finish line.
Shaylie and Anje were with sitting with Tonya and they cheered on Taylor as she finished up. She was very tired but she was happy to have it done.
Afterwards, she took the girls to get ice cream, and I hadn't ate lunch yet, so I got a sandwich. I am so glad to have that finished.

Happy Thanksgiving

We are in Holden. I am writing this on dial-up, so you may have to read it more slowly ;-) The girls are burying each other in the leaves, and everyone else is cooking. My job is to clean up computers whenever I come here, so as I am writing this, I am downloading several megs of updates.
I hope you are all well wherever you are! Happy Thanksgiving!
P.S. Tomorrow, Taylor and I go and run 2 miles, I hope we make it.

Taylor did well

I just got back from the District Storytelling Festival. Bias involved, but I think Taylor did GREAT! :-D Taylor followed after a girl who I think was too young to be in the competition and I couldn't understand a word she was saying. Taylor was very clear and acted out parts of her story.

We are going to the Hobby Hut after work and spending her door prize money from the train show.

Something shocking happened

Today was supposed to be the hardest day of running so far. 3 800 Meter runs. I was dreading it and so was Taylor. However, when we started running, we both had a very easy time at it. We got through the runs and it was very easy. We in fact ran an extra lap and we raced the last 100 meters.
We are now sure that we can handle the two mile run on Friday, I just hope it is not too cold running on the Millard High School track.
For family night, we went a little off course and went to a movie. We went and saw Chicken Little. It was very good. Shaylie was scared of the aliens, until she actually saw them. They she loved them. We had fun.
Tomorrow, Taylor is performing in the District Storytelling Festival. We know she will do well.

Made it through the weekend

Our tree is up and the 3 nativity scenes are up. We will decorate the house tomorrow. We pulled our train set out and played with it for a while until I got fed up with it not working perfectly. (yes, I know, some of it is 2 plus decades old) Maybe I will work on it later since Taylor won $30 at hobby hut. The most important things, new track and new engine :-D
Oh mom, by the way, this web page is a blog. A blog is basically an online journal, or at least that is how they started.
I am so proud of myself, I didn't make fun of any of the rabid BYU fans at church today. I did mention to one person and reading the Book of Utah, chapter 41 verse 34, but he was a Ute fan also, so we had a good laugh about it. (And mom, no mentioning that I liked BYU as a kid, I don't know what I was thinking. And it was because of Jim McMahon, so that doesn't count) In my history, it is written that I was always a Utes fan, that's my story and I am sticking to it.
Taylor and I run tomorrow. This is a hard week. Monday, we run 2 laps, walk a lap, run 2 laps, walk another, and run 2 more laps. Wednesday, we run 3 laps, walk 2, run 3. Then on Friday, we run 8 laps straight. So if you need to tell me anything, get it done before Wednesday, I may not make it any longer through the week. Plus I should go over 1400 miles on my bike this week. Why am I not getting skinny?

Busy Days

Last night, Taylor and I went running. Like Darth Vadar, we have found out that Taylor's hate make her powerful. She was mad at us for not letting her play and made her go run, so I was not able to keep up with her the whole time. If she runs like that in the race, not only will she beat ALL the kids, she may beat all the adults. When we got back, I went to help my neighbor go set up for a hobby train show. It was pretty fun to play with trains.

Today we are going to the train show, then coming home and setting up Christmas stuff, the Shaylie is going to a birthday party and I am going to help a ward member with the internet. Taylor already went for a big bike ride this morning and I will probably go later. Tonya has to prepare her lesson for young women's tomorrow.

We will sleep well tonight.

Movie Night

Last night we went as a family to see Zathura. Shaylie was scared through a lot of the movie, but ended up enjoying it a lot. Taylor really liked it, in fact she and Tonya were laughing a lot at the end of the movie. Inside joke, you will have to see it, then we will tell you. I thought it was very good.

Believe it or not, we do not yet have tickets to see Harry Potter yet. I know this comes as a shock that we haven't seen it yet, but sitting outside on the concrete just isn't appealing to me anymore.

Blog Standards & Current Events

Hey now, Chad is giving us a hard time because suddenly everyone has a blog when we have had one for years, but I would like to remind him that we are the standard bearer....I've checked in a couple or few times in the last day and there are no updates.... plus I've only seen one or two photos and the proof is in the pudding so to speak...We are glad everyone is joining the craze: let's see who can keep up!

We are having a pretty good week around here, but it is always hard to get through a full week before a holiday...it seems like it drags and drags. We have been talking about putting up our Christmas decorations this weekend, which hardly seems possible, but 'tis the season.

Taylor had her annual storytelling festival at school and she won! There were two girls in her category and they send two kids to District. So without even preparing she gets to go on. This is her first time to district though, and she is practicing hard for that competition.

Shaylie rode her bike to a friends house for the first time yesterday, which prompted me to talk to the kids about Stranger Danger. I worry a lot more about Shaylie than I ever did about Taylor for some reason...I don't understand why. Shaylie just seems a lot littler and more vulnerable than Taylor did at that age. She is very good at calling me and letting me know if she leaves or is heading home so that allays my worries a little bit.

I have begun my Christmas shopping (Scott says I've finished it but little does he know). I still have to decide what kinds of gifts to get for neighbors and friends...and this would be a lot more fun if we had unlimited budget. As it is, I have to figure out how to get the most for the least. We always think of something though....thank goodness for dollar stores.

I sent my first ever headshot to my publisher in New York. (Tee Hee!--It's probably not very professional to have a whoopdee-doo sound right here but it's still so exciting!) It sounds like we are going to have a page with our picture and articles on it, eventually places to put family photos etc. I'm still not entirely sure what to expect....time will tell. I do know I have to submit 2 articles each month. By December 15th? I don't know yet.

Well, better go. Scott and Taylor just left to go running. Wish I could join them, my back's been giving me fits lately. I have been trying to walk more though, but I can never tell if it works or not. I suppose I don't stick with it long enough. So, enough already....dinner awaits. Love to everyone!

Another Family blog

Anissa now has a blog. It is at http://olivasgirls.blogspot.com/. She says that she will not update it often, however as she is the one that says we don't update ours enough, we will keep on her. Taylor and Shaylie's rooms look pretty good and it is nice to have cut down greatly on the clutter. We'll see how long the rooms stay clean ;-)
Now I only need to convince my mom and Roger to get blogs and then everyone will have joined the blogoshere.

Re-arranging, cleaning

Friday night was ward temple night. Only five families came for the session, but that was ok, because the Las Vegas temple is closed for the rest of the year and everyone is coming here. In other words, it was packed! Taylor and Shaylie stayed home with Deborah Hutchins. They get excited to have a babysitter.
We have been dejunking the house, Tonya has been packing up all the old toys and clothes for D.I., or the nursery room. We put the bunkbeds back together in Shaylie's room, although I don't know if Taylor is going to sleep in there. Shaylie came out and asked to not make Taylor sleep in there because Taylor snores way too loud ;-) That led to a be discussion of who snores the loudest. I unfortunately won the contest.
This weekend is stake conference. I had a meeting from 4-6 on Saturday. Then the adult session was 7-9, although Tonya's back was really hurting so I am the only one that went. This morning from 10-12 is the broadcast from Salt Lake. The stake is kindof excited, as this is the first time conference has been done this way. Oh, by the way, Taylor and Shaylie are over at Anissa's, that is why we are able to go to all these things without them.
The house is still a mess, but I am sure it will be all cleaned up today, as long as I stop writing on the computer and get to work, bye! ;-)

Security Upgrade

Well I have done it now. I have been studying Wireless Security a lot lately and I finally got around to using real security on our home network. I used to disable SSID (almost worthless), MAC filter (almost worthless) and WEP (very hackable). Well, I have now upgraded to WPA-PSK with TKIP data encryption. Also, my passphrase is 63 random CHARACTERS LONG! I feel really secure now :-D The nice thing is, with that much security, I am able to turn SSID on so that I can find my access point and I can turn MAC filtering off. If any of you understood anything I just said, you can tell that you have been related to me for a very long time. ;-)

She's Alive! Thanks for a New Job! And Merry Christmas already!

(How's that for wrapping up all the Holidays in one...)

Well, I'm back to the land of the living...I hope. I came home from work yesterday with a raging headache and woke up in the middle of the night with some kind of eye infection. It all seems better today, so I am up and about. I think my headache was brought on by sitting at the computers for about 4 hours straight yesterday...Today, I'm going to have to set a timer to remind myself that I need to get up and move every so often. I have been trying to update the computers and install software while the kids are off for SEP's and it has been a real challenge. I am not sure that I will be done for Monday, especially since I have two different meetings scheduled for today and tomorrow. Scott is right...they aren't paying me enough.

I can't remember if I posted about my new job though. I was just hired by the ClubMom website to become a Go-To Mom. This means that I will be writing two articles each month to be published on their website. Mostly advice, how-to, stories from the heart, etc. in the category of Friends. I applied about two months ago, mostly just to get the 2,000 club mom points. But they told me about a week ago, that they liked my submission & I just got the contract today. This is pretty great because I guess they had quite a few people apply. Anyway, it is another baby step toward my ultimate goal of becoming an author. I guess it is reaching my goal of being published...even though I have a hard time believing that this counts. But, hey, I'm getting paid to write....so what's not to count. It's only $100.00 a month plus 2,000 club mom points, but I'm going to save up my points so I can take a trip with them (in about 10 years). I'm just excited because it's a national forum and I'll be working with real editors and learning a lot! I just hope all my friends and family don't mind being my subjects. I promise to try not to embarrass anybody, and if I do, I'll change your names to protect the innocent.

The family is doing great! We are shocked to see so much of Christmas before Thanksgiving these days but it is really getting us into the Christmas Spirit. Marketing works! I have already started some Christmas shopping. In fact, you guys can all really help us....Taylor wants a new full size bed this year and I am looking for good (cheap) deals. If anybody sees anything, please let us know. She is getting old enough and big enough to have one and I am anxious to put the bunk beds back together. She also wants an electric guitar & lessons for Christmas. I think now that she knows about Santa, she is being extra extravagant...funny that. As for Shaylie, dear Santa Claus, she wants anything and everything....Topping her list is a Barbie Jam with Me Guitar, Skydancer Castle, and Care Bear Cub Love-a-Lot Bear, Furby, and Pound Puppies. She won't even get a fraction of what she asked for, but she's easy to please. Scott and I got a new transmission for Christmas so all we want is our Credit Card paid off...we are currently in negotiations with Santa for terms.

We love you and miss all of you wherever you may be. My favorite thing about the holidays is being able to see everybody I love. Which reminds me, does anybody know where New Year's is this year? I had a feeling it is at my house, which would be awesome, but I didn't know for sure...

Post again soon...

Tonya Sick, Computers Patched and other stuff

Tonya came home really sick yesterday and slept all the rest of the day until when I went to bed, then she got up. I have no idea how late she stayed up as I was really tired.
Tuesday is the day Microsoft releases patches so Wednesday is the day that the WSUS server of mine sends out patches to all the computers. Had to run around and help people reboot their computers and make sure all the machines get turned on so that they patch. Finished that this morning with my public access computers; they have a software lock on them, so I have to unlock them to patch them. Tonya got to do it at her school; they don't pay her enough.
Taylor had Girl Scouts last night. They meet at the Tonaquint Nature Preserve on the other side of town. It used to be really nice and surrounded by trees, but it is right next to the Santa Clara trickle of water that for some reason last winter became a raging river so all of the trees are gone. I hadn't been to the park since the flood and it was quite a shock to see.
Due to SEP's Anje has been with us most of the time in the afternoons. Shaylie has been very happy about that.
Tomorrow is a holiday for work, so I am probably going to go help Tonya at her school.

1300 Miles

I passed the 1300 mile mark on my bike this morning. With the new rim and stainless steel spokes, I am hoping that I won't have to take it to the shop every couple of weeks like I have been. I am sure that 2000 miles for the year is now out of the question, but I am pretty sure that next year it will be easy to achieve. With the new road next to the bike trail, I can easily get my long rides in all of the time.

Daddy-Daughter / Mommy-Daughter Night

3 months ago, Taylor came up with an idea on the first Monday of the month to have a daddy-daughter night and moomy daughter night and each month we trade off. Tonight Shaylie and I had our night again. We went to her absolute favorite restraurant in the world, McDonald's :-D She played in the playplace for quite a while.
We then went to see "March of the Penquins" at the dollar theater and got a small popcorn. Shaylie got a little bored with the movie, until the babies started walking around, then she couldn't stop laughing. To end the night, we went to Arctic Circle to get ice cream cones. It was a very fun night.
Tonya and Taylor went out to dinner at Applebee's and then went to see Dreamer. Then Taylor took them to Arctic Circle to get shakes. They had fun also.
P.S. Bonus points to guess who had the cheaper dates ;-) Extra points to guess exact amounts ;-)

Interesting Day!

It has been a busy day. Last night, Tonya hit something in the road that popped our tire, so we took the tire off to take it to the Tire Pro's so that it could be fixed. However, the battery in our Toyota has been dead for a month, so we had to jump the car to get it to the shop. We replaced the battery and got the tire patched. We put the tire back on the van, so now we have two cars again. We also cleaned the house today.
As we were eating lunch, Tonya heard a loud noise but just ignored it (you know, lots of kids on the streets). A minute later, a lady comes knocking on our door saying that there is a car in our front yard. The neighbor's car that had been on their driveway jumped the blocks and rolled down the driveway, across the road and into our yard! Thankfully, none of the kids were out there went it happened. It had to have been going pretty fast to get as far as it did. Here are the pictures:

Halloween Picture

Here are the costumes for the night:

New Page

I have always been bored with the default template that we were using with our web page, so I tweaked it a little. I realize that it doesn't change any of the format, but I like the look of it a little better. Now that I know what I am doing with the template, I may change it a little more often.

P.S. and yes, I will work on the halloween pictures soon. ;-)

Finally Upgraded

I have upgraded our Blog software to 1.5.2. I also got rid of the polls, as they were not as secure as my older poll program and someone was spamming (plus I could never think up a decent poll that anyone in the family would care about) Work is starting to calm down again, so I may have time to actually do things that I need to get done.