Memorial Day 2008

Elise enjoyed swinging on the tire swing. She used to do this while she waited for the school bus. She posed for MANY more pictures but this one was the cutest that wasn't CHEEESEEE!

I love having The Flag displayed at my home for every holiday. One day I will have my own flag pole and light and I will raise it every morning with honor in my heart. I really love my country. Wish some things were different about it, but who doesn't?

I wanted to be SURE you saw Mike petting our dog Blue, he does play with her a lot and she goes with him on bike rides (no hills or tricks, those cause him to FALL usually!) and they really are pals, even if sometimes I might say otherwise! He does like the dog, but he doesn't love her like I do. I don't suppose he ever will love a dog like I can. That is just for me!




This is Blue. She's so adorable. She has her cheesy moments too. And don't let that cute little face fool you, she can be a menace and a stinker all in the same day! And another picture of Elise, she really is beautiful and surprises me every day!






Here is Elise "telling" and showing
Blue (with her raised hand) to Sit. And to Lay Down (with her hand on the ground). Blue responds VERY well to Elise with these two commands. Elise is really quite good with Blue. They "train" tirelessly for hours at a time. Which most often consists of a trip around the farm on a leash and Elise getting frustrated and Blue slobbering on Elise's arms. Humorous I think.




Here is Blue rolling over. No she doesn't do this on command, but she does do it on dandelions, and other things that I won't mention. Dogs are strange, but look at how cute she is!! I put a big picture in hoping you all could see her tongue hanging out. I also hope you appreciate my dog a bit. She is part of my humorous day!

And here are pictures of my lovely Square Foot Garden.
Lots of things are much bigger by now since it is about a month later.

Here's Blue saying, "Goodbye! Go roll in the grass! It smells so good!"

I started ANOTHER blog.

I STARTED ANOTHER BLOG! I may be crazy, but I am reading so much that I am going to eventually run out of room on here for the family things, the crazy things, the you know. So I started a new blog and all of my reading and writing mommies and friends alike are very welcome to comment on any books that they read. Just email them in to me at wightfam@gmail.com and I'll post them. If you've read a book that is reviewed already by someone else, just add a comment and I'll approve it and it will post. I'm pretty excited about it. All sorts of books are welcome. All readers are welcome. So have at it friends and family alike! Here she is: mommabookworm

I think you'll like the title of the blog.

Love you all!
Vicki

The Company of Good Women

Oh, dear me! I just did something completely crazy and emailed in my reviews of the best two books I've read in a long time to the authors!! AHHH!! I'm such a dork. I hope they do stop in to see my blog and read my other book reviews (which are located on the right hand side of my blog if you haven't read them!!). I'm sure I've made a ton of grammatical and punctuation errors in my blog, etc. So I will be mortified if I did, but isn't that what an editor is for?? hahah! Maybe one day I'll actually get one. So friends, let me know which book you think I should write a little more on this week. Ami in China in the middle of a war with her baby girl. An adventure story based on historical events for middle-school age kids. Or Journal of Jeannette. Adoption book for kids whose parents are adopting. You pick, I'll see what I can do. Oh, then there's that book I was going to write with my BFF!! That the COB's already wrote. We'll have to think up our little twist to make the book our own Linds. What do you think?? I love you all!! Enjoy our soggy week!!! May you get some sunshine wherever you are!

Marathon Week

I ADDED THE PICTURES! THERE ARE TONS MORE WHERE THEY CAME FROM, BUT I PICKED A FEW FAVORITES AND HIGHLIGHTS!
You know when your calendar has no more room to write ANYTHING on, and the town has an actual marathon planned and the half-way point is right in front of your house, that you have an official marathon week planned. Get Ready!! Here was ours last week.

Monday: I can't remember
what happened, but that is ok.
Tuesday: We went to Adoption Orientation at LDS Family Services (LDSFS)
Wednesday: Our lovely dog Blue Houdini Princess had her spay appointment. This went well. I made dinners for Freezer Frenzy and worked from home that day.
Thursday: I had my HSG (hysterosalpingogram) That is doctor language for cause pain while trying to see if fallopian tubes are blocked and pay to have this done. Mine showed up as clear. I told them and told them, but they just won't believe me! Some people don't understand that this is NOT good news to me. I've been TTC for 4.5 years and I ovulate every month, have no signs of endometriosis. This just means that we have to go even further into the inf world to figure out why we can't conceive and how we can conceive. Thus the adoption classes. Elise spent the day at her BFF's home and school and I met them all at the soccer game at 6. Still a little crampy and just a bit tired. I got pictures of this last game, but can't find my camera right now.... Will add the pics later!
Friday: Recovery day, and my brother's birthday party #1 at Kobe. Then to mom's for dessert and presents. Went to Dome Hepot to get some plywood so my SFGBox can have a bottom on it. And we washed Mike's 77 caddi so we could put For Sale signs in it!
Saturday: The Half-Marathon started in front of my home at the Eden Park. They began gathering around 5:30 am. Music started blaring, gratefully with speakers pointed away from our home, at 6 am. Poor Melba across the street though! The speakers blew loud and proud right in her bedroom window. For an old farm lady, she sure put up with a lot! They had fire pits that blew smoke in her home ALL DAY. It was really exciting for me though. I was up right at 6 am with the rest of them. I was taking pictures and enjoying the energy of the whole event. Here are just a few, I have about 50!

Above Right: Just an early AM pic, I have lots of these with cool movement and stills. The lighting was so cool. Center: The potties! Seemed like they went on for miles. In this shot, the people that are lined up are really LINED UP to use them! One would empty and someone would just step right on up to fill it! Left: The runners did a warm up aerobics style in front of my house. It was great to see their mass of bodies all doing the same thing. I was sitting on my roof with Elise. We enjoyed it to say the least.)

(Above: Left: The Walkers! Amazing that these individuals would even bother! Center: The first Full Marathon runner to pass my home. He finished the entire race in a little more than 2 and a half hours. Left: The second Full Marathoner to pass my home. He passed #1 when #1 stopped for a potty break. I don't know which one of them won, but they both were so super fast and didn't even look winded as the trotted on by!)
I will run the half next year!! My running pals all were running. Kelly "Sky"Walker, Jenny W., and Larissa H. ran the half-marathon.

Jamie F.Ran the Full, here she is at my house! Hero!

Karen F. jumped in at the half when her sisters ran by running the full. I ran/walked down the street with Jamie when she got here. It was so exciting!!! I wished so bad that I could have gone with them, but I had other plans and shin splints. I planted my SFG. This included mixing my Mel's Mix and dumping it mostly successfully into the 2x12 box that I put in the front yard. Then I had to watch for Jamie and others. Then I had to shower. I got in the shower at 9:45 and had to be at the church parking lot for Freezer Frenzy at 10 am. Needless to say, in my hurry I fell UP the tile stairs in the back and I have a lovely cut and bruise on my right leg to show off! I got to the Frenzy in a frenzy at about 10 after 10. Then pulled back in, told Mike to help Elise gather her stuff to go to my mother's while I get ready to go to The Dave Ramsey Live event in SLC. Whew, anyone else exhausted yet? I am just typing this all out and re-living it. I threw my makeup in a bag, got my nice shoes on, blew my hair dry straight, and brushed my teeth. Drank a full 20 oz of water and ran to the car. GO!! We were off. A little late, but we were in the car with all possessions necessary for the days activities. Elise spent the rest of the day with my mom. I think they gardened and went shopping. We had a blast at Dave Ramsey with Kaylene and Jim R. We don't get together with them often, but when we do, we really enjoy ourselves. We met for a fat packed lunch at Wendy's and then left for SLC from there. After the event we went to El Jabaneros. That was danged good. Then headed back home. All of us had kids to pick up. We got Elise and headed back home again.

Sunday: MORE DRIVING!! Can you say, gas is going up, stay at home?? We drove separate cars to church because I have choir at 8 am and no one wants to drive me there.... And I'm always late or I would carpool with someone from choir. Then we came home expecting a nice quiet break before heading back to Mom's for dinner. Nope. No go. The Home Teachers dropped in! We like them well enough. They don't ask any really caring questions and one of them is trying to sell his house to us. So we visited with them for a while, sent them on their way. I laid out in the front yard on a blanket with a good book, my rambunctious daughter and her dog. Mike took a nap inside. Then we rushed off to my grandpa's. Picked him up and then to my mother's for Wings. A family favorite. Then after dinner was cleaned up, we had cake and ice cream for my little brother, yup, party #2. (Can a 23 yo have this many parties??)

So needless to say, I'm exhausted still. Just typing this all out... whew. I got lots of good pictures from the Marathon. It was really inspiring to see the wheelchair racers as they came in front of my home. It was also inspiring to see the half-marathon walkers! Some of them were overweight. Some of them were using walking sticks. And here they were, walking a half-marathon! And they paid to do it! Amazing.

Thoughts on my HSG: I was told this procedure would be PAIN FULL. Ok, it wasn't that bad. I took half a ltab before and I was ok. I could still feel the pain of some of it. It felt a lot like menstrual cramps, and bloating, and bad gas. The kind of mens. day that you'd feel so much better to just sit on the potty, all bent over. Even knowing nothing will come out. Recovery was ok. I curled up on the couch with my dog who was in recovery as well. I put a thick sheet on the fouton, gave her her chew to pieces bone and laid down with a blankie. I watched Days and read a new book, Almost Sisters. I also worked too, from the couch! Not too bad.

Freezer Frenzy: A crazy way of getting your freezer full of heat and eat meals. I signed up to make one and eat 13 or more. You buy the ingredients for the one you make for you and whoever else signs up. You make the meal. Freeze the meal. Then go to the Frenzy and exchange those meals for the actual cost of making that meal. Not a bad deal! I have a full freezer and lots of good ideas for freezing my own!

Warning: Vicki is Frustrated

Ok, so I've vented to my new friends on 2ofus4now.org (the yahoo group) and I've decided it is time to really put it out there. My family may totally hate me for saying all of this but I am VERY frustrated about my "infertility" issues. There are some people that when I talk to them about trying to conceive they really lean hard on the fact that I haven't undergone ALL of the damned testing that would actually LABEL me INFERTILE. They are right. I haven't. I don't have the money or the emotional stamina to undergo such pain!! I get really frustrated when someone I love and is supposed to love me says to me that I won't ever understand what someone else in my family is feeling about her infertility, and never mentions at ALL about how I might POSSIBLY feel about my own. I am frustrated beyond belief that my family doesn't communicate well about our infertility. ALL three of us sisters have issues. I'm the ONLY one who hasn't been tortured by a doctor yet. I ovulate just fine as far as my current doc can tell. My husband checks out just fine (which was not a surprise to me or him in the slightest). And we have one beautiful little girl. We've thought for years that the Lord knows what He's doing and we are obviously meant to not have one more at this moment and for whatever good reason He has, we're sure it is good. We'll I'm sick of waiting I want to know why I'm being left out of the baby drop. Why I get this path to trod. Why??????!!!!! It seems like everyone around me has a great time at getting pregnant. If it isn't easy as pie, give her chlomid and BOOM there is twins. Well, that won't work for me. I don't know what will and I'm really tired of waiting. I should be grateful some will say when they read my rantings, but oh, I am grateful, for what I HAVE. I just want more!! I watch my friend Karen's children and for the first time in YEARS I'm happy about having other children around. Other people's kids used to bug me so bad!!! I didn't babysit much growing up because I really didn't like kids that much. It is so different now. I don't understand the change that has taken place in my heart, but I love them!! I love watching Amy's kids too!! And I hope the Lord forgives me for this but I'm just not ready to love someone else's children only when they are dropped off at my home. I want my own.
I have the best Visiting Teachers ever right now and they are fasting with me on Sunday this week for a huge list of things. Only a few of them have been breezed over here in this little rant. They are so awesome and I'm so grateful for them. One of the thing is definitely that my heart will be softened and that I'll have some measure of understanding and patience again. Which I dearly need!! And oh, there are just so many negative feelings I have that I want to throw up them all on paper and get them out. I'm quite angry. I'm going to get on my treadmill, it is a little late in my morning to do it, but I think i really need a good 5 miler right now. Wish I could go and run outside, but Elise is still sleeping, and that would be totally wrong of me to just leave her here unattended!
I hope I didn't offend anyone here either. Please keep in mind, I'm frustrated. Oh, and I'm scheduled to start my period on my 28th birthday next week. So if you call and I'm really super ornery. That is exactly why. I probably have cramps and I'm bloated and don't have enough chocolate in the house and I am extremely full of emotions, so maybe don't call. Call on Friday, I should be better by then. Oh, and Mike will be out of town all week starting Monday and we don't know when he'll be back.