This is sad

It's only 9:25 AM and I'm drinking a diet coke but I'm wishing I had something stronger.

Funny things you laughed at when you were a kid

You know how you used to look at pictures of your parents and just laugh your head off? Well, my brothers and I loved to this particularly because we thought our Dad looked like John Lennon and for some reason it would put us in fits of laughter. Also our Dad looks pretty rad in bell bottoms. So anyway here are some pics of my Dad, so you can decide for yourself if he looks like John Lennon.

And the crazy thing about the picture above this one. The woman my Dad is sitting by is Tanya. Now fast forward 25 years. In the summer of 2004 my mom and I were in downtown SLC as my mom and I were waiting in line. There was a woman ahead of us. When she finished my mom ask "Are you Tanya?" The woman right away knew my mom, my mom knew her, and tears of reunion were shared.

Small world.

Anyway, thanks Mom for sending the pictures to me, and thanks Dad for letting my blog about your look alike!

Weekend with my parents

So my parents came into town last weekend, and I realized I didn't take any pictures but luckily for google images I found pictures from our activities.

We spent a day at the Salt Lake Temple which is gorgeous.

Brad took my Dad to the Kennecott Copper Mine.

Then and we also spent an afternoon at Gardner Village, which was fabulous.

And we ate at one of my new favs Five Guys Burgers and Fries.

It was a wonderful visit that of course went too quick, but we all enjoyed ourselves.

Thanks Mom and Dad !

SPRINGFIELD

Now, that we know Brad was in Springfield, IL. Here is the answer to the trivia:
On May 22, 1849, Abraham Lincoln received Patent No. 6469 for a device to lift boats over shoals, an invention which was never manufactured. However, it did make him the only U.S. president to hold a patent.

This picture that is found on the post is of Abraham Lincoln's home in Springfield.

Dogisms

I love my dogs I think they are wonderful and they fit so well with Brad and I. Are they a bit neurotic? Yes. Are they a bit hyper? Yes. Are they best dogs I've ever had? Yes! I would not trade them in for anything. One thing I love best about these dogs are their personalities that are quite evident in the first 5 seconds you encounter them. So, yes I going to take this opportunity to blog about these 2 fabulous bitches (and I'm politically correct in that term; they are in fact female dogs).

Sydney Jackson Mesmuggles Wigglesworth

Sydney is smart, too smart. I know the wheels in her head are constantly turning. In fact, that is what made me fall in love with her. I'll admit when I first met Brad and he said he had a puppy, I did the polite smile and generic comment, "Oh, that's nice". You know whenever you hear the word"nice", it's just a phony term to say, "Actually I'm not a big fan" or "I really don't like or like yet." But anyway, I'll move on. The moment I saw her, I loved her. I loved that as a puppy she already new her name, I actually thought dogs had no clue what their names were, it was just a thing we humans did to them. So here are the idiosyncrasies of Sydney:

1. Sydney likes to see what she can make you do i.e. in the middle of the night she would wake me up and lead me to her water bowl, which would be empty. I would fill it up, she would take one look at the bowl then go right back to bed.

2. We make Sydney sit in the back of the car. One day she had been wanting to be up in the front on my lap but we kept pushing towards the back. Then she yelps, so of course we had to let her come up front. About a week later we were in the car, she again wanted to sit in the front but we insisted she stayed in the back. We hear a yelp and before we even have a chance turn around Syd was already on my lap! She loves that manipulative little trick.

3. As I was in the basement with the dogs they were running upstairs, Syd was in the lead when they got to the stairs, then she stopped and let Dixie go first. I thought, "Oh, how sweet to let Dixie go first," but then I soon realized that was not Syd's motivation, as Dixie was in the lead Syd took Dixie's hind legs out from under her and caused her to trip, thus Sydney regaining the lead and winning the battle of wits. Sydney does this quite often.

4. Sydney is like clockwork. She has a little bed on the floor at the foot of the bed. Sydney right around 10 pm will always go to the room and go to bed, when we come in she will jump on the bed and sleep at foot of the bed. She will stay up for about 30 minutes and then go back to her bed on the floor. Then at 5 am she will hop back up and sleep again at the foot of the bed. She will only get up at 6:30 am not sooner. If the alarm goes off she stays asleep until 6:30.

5. Sydney loves obstacle courses. I first noticed this in the first place Brad and I lived. When I would mop the kitchen floor I would put the kitchen chairs in the small living room. I finally noticed one day that out of Syd's free will she started making her way around the chairs. Going around, under, on top of until she got through them. She was going through them over and over again, and she was loving it! Every time I would mop the floors it just got her giddy she loved the chairs, now I build her obstacle courses she just thrives off trying to figure it out. She loves to go through the tunnel created by the back of our futon against the wall.

Dixie Pixie Ala mode

(It kind of sounds like a spell huh?)

Dixie, what to say about Dixie. We adopted Dixie last April, and I remember our first night with her I kept thinking, "Oh my gosh what did we get ourselves into?" But she is quite the sweetheart. She was spastic when we got her, and she has made loads of progress but I think she will always remain a bit spastic, but to be honest I kind of like that about her.

1. Dixie gets scared at night. As soon as the sun goes down she becomes skittish and scared of everything. I'd imagine night time was the time she was probably abused, seeing how she changes.

2. She hates ceiling fans. If there is one in a room, and it has been on at any point in history, she will NEVER forget it. Every time she enters she will look right at it to make sure it is off. And she will verify that it has continued to remain out of operation every 3 seconds or so.

3. Dixie gets sad if Sydney leaves. A couple of times Sydney has been away and Dixie just becomes depressed. She will mope around the house with no desire to play no matter how hard we try. Many times she will wait in the kitchen staring at the door.

4. Dixie loves the sun. It could be 100 degrees outside and she will lay in the sun.

5. She loves, and I mean loves car rides. She gets so excited for a ride that she can make it from the door to inside the car with touching the ground only 2 times. The picture below she over estimated her jump and landed in the back seat.

Where in the world is Brad?

Brad is in the hometown of the only U.S. president who holds a patent.

One of those days

When you can't find anything.

What the heck?!?

This is what we woke up to, oh joy. I hate winter I hate snow, so why I am in Utah? That's a good question...

Sydney's Histiocytoma

So out of no where this big red bump showed up on Sydney. We were waiting for it to clear up but it didn't even improve, so off to the vet. It is a histiocytoma, usually only in young dogs. It is harmless, it is actually a benign tumor that will disappear just as quickly as it appeared after 2 to 3 months! But it's not painful , if fact Syd doesn't even know it's there.

Kids say the darn'est things...

So tonight I was caught thinking about my preschool teaching days and some of the things I miss (and don't miss about it), and I realized I miss all the funny things kids say, so here are just a few things I've had kids tell me.

1. After lunch we always had naptime. Some days when the kids were being grouchy I would tell them, "You really need a nap today to get rid of that attitude." And one day that came to haunt me. It was a day the kids were being particularly difficult, I was cleaning up lunch and getting the nap time stuff out; when cute, witty and smartalic Joshua said to me, "Miss Julie you need a nap today to get rid of that attitude!". I told him, "You have no idea." He said, "You can have my bed!"

2. Cute little Rachel who pronounces her "r" as a "w", and for the most part had a pretty funny way of saying things told me, "Miss Julie you have a mustache! And not a milk mustache but a weal mustache." Needless to say I waxed that night.

3. I had cut my hair, a real cut from long to above the shoulder. When I walked into work my class was playing outside, David asked, "Who are you?" I said, "David it's me Miss Julie" he replied, "But Miss Julie that's not your hair."

4. We were using brown paper bags for an activity. I had told the kids (who decided to wear them) not to do that because it could be dangerous. Zachery came running over to me with a paper bag over his head and said, "See Miss Julie I'm not dead yet."

5. I was training a teacher who carried most of her weight in her stomach area. When Rachel (yes, the same one) asked her if she had a baby in there.

6. Rachel (yes, the same one, are you seeing a pattern) was telling me about her dad (which I might say is always a bazaar story) that she had a sleep over at his house (previously she told me he was in jail) so I asked, "Was your dad there?" She said "No, Michelle watched us." I asked, "Who is Michelle?" Rachel: "His sugar hunny". (I had to ask her to repeat three times, because I couldn't believe she said that)

7. We had a male teacher by the name of Harry so the kids called him "Mr. Harry". One day we were getting the kids to sit in a circle but they were not listening, so he began to speak in third person, he said "Mr. Harry is not happy with your listening skills" Connor very confused replied, "D'ere two Mista Har-wees?"

8. As I had the class lined up to go outside I noticed Adam started flipping up his middle finger at everyone. As he was doing this, of course, all the other children try to do the same, by using their one hand to pry up their middle finger on the other. I said, "Adam, that is not a nice thing to do, you do not do that here." I knew his parents very well, so I asked, '"Where did you learn that from?" He said, "Oh my Mom and Dad do it in the car all the time."

WARNING: THIS NEXT QUOTE MAYBE A BIT TOO MUCH FOR SOME, SO BEWARE

9. Some of the kids were talking about mustaches and why people have them, one little girl felt it very important to tell me and the class that... "My mom has a mustache down there!" (I don't think I need to mention where she pointed to).

TO ALL YOU PARENTS - YOU WOULD BE SURPRISED AT WHAT YOUR KIDS REPEAT!!!

Here is a list of some of things I learned:

1. I know where tattoos are on most of the parents (if they have them)

2. I know when one of the parents slept on the couch

3. I know when Daddy bought flowers for Mommy (see good things too)

4. I know that Daddy likes to yell at the TV and dance like he has to go potty

5. That Mommy's eyeballs, and only the eyeballs look up at the ceiling a lot when Grandma is talking (this one took me awhile, it means rolling her eyes).