christmas, part 4: the messes

Our Christmas season cannot draw to a close until I share with you the absolute and awful stresses of this December.

I.

Just off the cuffs of resolving (ha!) my traffic ticket, I got into an accident. Yes. I ran over an apartment complex driveway median, and by median I mean a good-sized planter with huge sharp jagged rocks instead of plants. I'm stuck on this thing. I didn't see it at all. My car is rocking back and forth for awhile. Wesley is crying. My heart is racing.

I decide to drive over it, and rev the engine, but have no luck. I decide to back up off of it, and by the graces of heaven I am free with all four wheels back on the ground. Although the undercarriage of my car has been completely mangled.

I go to the complex office and frantically try to confess my sin, seeing as how I obliterated the planter (rocks in the road, concrete curb broken up and spread out), but it was lunch time and no one was there. So I did what any self-respecting just-been-in-an-accident person would do: I went home.

As I turned left into my parking space I heard a sad noise and realized I probably had a problem. I had the audacity to think all I needed to do is get the Subaru dealer to check it out so they could tell me everything was fine. I seriously thought for less than $100 this could all go away. And I wouldn't have to tell my husband!

What is wrong with me? Sigh.

I had the good sense to call Shane, who recommended I call the insurance company since towing is free. And after several calls, wherein I realized the dealership probably wasn't going to tell me anything I wanted to hear, I just had it towed to the body shop that has helped us before when people have run into us and crumpled our car (not once, but twice). This time around, it was my fault.

The next day I got the call that the damage was extensive. We'd definitely file an insurance claim. I'd pay the deductible and get my car back as good as new.

Eight days later, that all came true. In fact, they replaced the entire front bumper (which had several knicks in it from over the years, as well as breaks from the the jagged-rock incident), so my car does look brand spanking new. Not a single scratch anywhere.

Sadly I was without a car in the final days of Christmas shopping (I did a lot online). I had to suffer the wrath of Shane, who was rightfully disappointed in my driving skills. I had to live with myself for what was yet another vehicular "mistake." You start to wonder after so many mistakes what are really mistakes and what is just carelessness. It hurts to do internal soul searching of that kind.

Interestingly, I was also rather concerned about the damage at the apartment complex, but my insurance people said they would call and take care of it as part of the claim process. I heard the results of their conversation: the complex wasn't really worried about it. In fact, I went back to the scene of the crime the next day and they had put that median back together. With the exception of tire tracks in the dirt and blue paint on the rocks, it looked like nothing had happened. Insane. My car had thousands of dollars of damage done to it, but that median just looked a little worse for the wear.

Me: 0. Median Planter: 1.

As a post-script to our story, I will have you know I was driving to Bellevue trying to make a temple session the other day, and if I missed it I would have to wait another hour for the next one to begin. And I missed it -- because I didn't drive like a crazy fool. I missed it by 3 minutes. Perhaps if I had done a bit of speeding and weaving I would have made it and shaved just 3 minutes or more off of my travel time, but it wasn't worth it to me. I ran some errands in the spare hour. It made me feel like maybe I am making some positive changes and being safer.

II.

There has been quite a bit of rain this year. The day after I got my car back, December 23, it was raining buckets. Some of you may know we had an issue over the summer with a water leak in our roof. A very small drip which made a stain in Wesley's room and freaked us out some. Some roof guys found the issue; a general handyman came and fixed the water spot; and all was well.

Until December 23.

I got Wesley up from his nap at 3 PM and this is what I saw:

The walls were sweating. The ceiling was peeling. Water stains were running down the wall. (You can see the spot where the previous water leak was repaired over on the left.)

Whoa. I called our property manager in HYSTERICS and told him something had to be done RIGHT NOW (the day before Christmas Eve).

A few hours later it looked like this:

The walls were bubbling. The door frame on the closet was bloated with water.

I called again. We were waiting for both a roofing guy (gotta stop the water) and a "restoration" guy (gotta get the water out of our place).

This is the worst it got:

Water stains seeped down to the carpet. Finally it stopped raining outside and the walls stopped sweating.

The roof guy came. He looked up on the roof -- no shingles were blown. He wasn't sure what it could be. He went into our crawl space above our unit. There were at least five, maybe up to eleven leaks above our unit. Small teeny leaks from where nails went through the wood improperly during construction. Ten years ago, a shoddy construction job lead to this today.

They put a tarp down to temporarily stop the water leakage. They need a good dry day to actually fix the problem. Hello! We live in Seattle! The only dry day last week was Christmas. Now it's snowing.

The restoration guys came. There was lots of moisture. They put a huge fan and a dehumidifier in the room. The machines made the room very very dry and very very hot (think 90 degrees. We didn't use heaters in our unit all weekend). The machines ran until Monday night. The dehumidifier had a hose that went across the hall into our bathroom sink, and every so often water would drain.

The guys checked in the crawlspace. Lots of insulation was wet and needed to be removed.

It gets worse. They were messing with our wall and they took off that water-swollen door frame. And found mold underneath. The protocol with mold is that now that entire wall needs to come down, so the inside can be completely cleaned out to make sure there isn't an more mold. It goes without saying that Wesley's stuff was all taken out of the room so he wouldn't be sleeping there.

The wall-removal hasn't happened yet, since they are still waiting for the OK from the roof guy that the issue is stopped (who knows?) and the OK from our property management guy. Although the "Association" is paying for this, indirectly we are paying for it, since we're homeowners. This is just awful.

And my question is: why us? why now? why here? why not everyone else?? It can't be just our third-floor unit. That makes no sense. This has to be happening elsewhere. The shoddy nail construction issues absolutely must be addressed right now so this doesn't happen in every single other top-floor unit. It makes me sick to my stomach.

Sooooo if you're wondering how we are, Wesley is in his crib in our walk-in closet. All the stuff in his room has been removed (including his dresser, changing table, futon, etc.), so the other 2-3 rooms of our condo are packed to the brims. It's like we live in a one-bedroom unit, and we are crammed.

I am desperate to get this taken care of. It is a huge mess.

What a Christmas! Stresses all around. I am grateful we have each other, and things have been peaceful during all of this. Things like this can really make a family crazy, but for some reason we've been adapting well. It's a blessing from heaven, I tell you.

OK, my sob story is complete. Please let December 2010 be over.

christmas, part 3: merry christmas

I hope you've had a wonderful Christmas season and today did not disappoint!

In anticipation of this day, we've:

Untangled lights.


Had our annual watching of Elf and A Christmas Story.

Slept under the Christmas tree.


Baked many cookies. And ate just as many.

Read Luke 2 and some assorted Matthew and 3 Nephi chapters, and found homes for our nativities.




Visited not one, not two, but three Santas.

Carefully selected and purchased gifts, and sniped many things from eBay. The faces of my boys on Christmas day have not disappointed. I love them both dearly.

Driven around many neighborhoods (in the rain, as we do every year) to look at awesome Christmas lights.

Listened to Mannheim Steamroller. But had the Britney Spears song stuck in my head mostly (what is that song about anyway?)

And so, here we are. Christmas.

I think Wesley knew it was Christmas because he didn't go to sleep until midnight last night. Sigh. Maybe it had something to do with the fact we gave him one of Santa's cookies.

(our haul -- not bad!)

(Santa's nice work -- it took Santa at least an hour to get it all to work out. Gee.)

Luckily Wesley slept in until 9 am, and we've been nonstop since. (Although I did manage to get a nap with the cat at one point.)

He loves loves loves his trains. In fact, we have 10 unopened presents under the tree (mostly clothes, some toys!) that he hasn't even opened because we can't get him to focus. That is a good problem to have. (Better than him tossing aside all his presents because he doesn't care.) I guess Christmas will last for a couple more days.


Shane spent several hours this morning making a HUGE track on the floor with almost all our pieces. Very cool. I'm glad he gets to engineer with our son :-)


This is my handiwork -- a Christmas tree of cinnamon rolls!!


The cats liked their gifts, too...


Shane's stocking had hockey tickets and an introductory flying lesson; my big gift was a new digital camera (yay!). Wesley got matchbox cars and a monster truck and a Boeing airplane (which makes a lot of noise) and plenty of trains -- chocolate trains, train bath squirters, and of course his wooden train set.

We ate a big dinner and are waiting for the homemade apple pie to finish cooking. Remember calories don't count today. Ha!

Also, I am still in my pajamas. I was trying to feel less icky so I brushed my teeth. I love days like this. We're all together as a family and warm and happy and full and grateful.

Merry Christmas!

christmas, part 2: having adventures

We've done plenty of Christmas-y things this month.... here is a recap:

I.

The hottest act around here this time of year is the Santa Train. There is this old train line near the mountains, and you hop the train (aptly decorated for Christmas) at this one depot and ride 3 miles to another depot, where you get out, wait in line for Santa, mosey around the gift shop, get hot cocoa and cookies, and then take the train back. It really is quite an adventure. We knew Wesley would love it.




The day before and that morning we kept telling him, "we're going on a train!" and he'd repeat that over and over. Shane remarked though, and I agree, that it seemed like the train was being held together with duct tape. Kinda rickety, But whatever, it was fun to ride on a train.

The Santa was quality. The wait was taxing, but we got to go in a little room with just us and Santa and a nice big tree, and the elves gave Wesley a toy train afterwards.

(model trains in exhibits, displayed in the area where we were in line for Santa)

The hot cocoa and cookies are in a kitchen train car parked on a dormant track, and there were benches inside the car -- AND there was also a train set to play with. The. Best. Part. Yeah, Wesley cried when we left. We told him we wanted to look at the big trains outside, but it was painfully obvious he liked the little wooden trains inside better. I suppose you can all guess what Santa is bringing the Gottula home this year.

(food car -- US Army! Cool!)

(our train as it comes into the depot)

We had a nice time! I had been warned the train wasn't heated and it would be cold, so we were all bundled up. It started raining just as we returned to our car. It was a perfect afternoon!

II.

As if the Santa Train wasn't enough festivity for one year, I decided to take an adventure and see the Christmas sights in downtown Seattle. I was without a car, for reasons yet to be disclosed, but I didn't let that dissuade me! We'd take the bus! I'm a commuting professional; planning a bus ride for me and my toddler shouldn't be that tough, right?



Because of where we lived, we had to catch two buses. The first took us to the park and ride, and the second took us downtown. It was busy in this morning; lots of commuters at 8:30 am. Go figure. We got off at Fifth & Seneca and my first stop was the Teddy Bear Suite at the Fairmont. And it wasn't open until 10 am. Sigh.

Our second first stop was the Gingerbread Village at the Sheraton. Wesley didn't really care, but he did point out a couple stars he liked, and a Santa or something. I love checking out the gingerbread houses. My parents would take me to a huge gingerbread house show when I was a kid, and I loved it. I remember a room with just tons of smallish gingerbread houses, all so interesting. This Village in Seattle only has six houses or so, but they are big.



We ran a couple errands (bank and post office), and finally it was 10 am so we hit the teddy bears. Wesley liked it better this year than last year. He hugged some of the bears and pointed out the cool lights. I was better prepared and left my jacket outside (it is HOT in that suite), so I enjoyed myself too. Very cozy.




We stopped by my office to see some co-workers and have a snack. Yay MKA. Wesley's new thing is "big building" and he had to point out all the big buildings in the pictures on the walls and outside, and say "big building" over and over and over again. Maybe he'll become an engineer, who knows?



Next, we hit the corner display at the Macy's, which has a cool model train exhibit in it. A couple of the trains run continuously, but two of the trains don't. Kids (or anyone) can make them go by putting their hands on a certain spot on the glass. Very cool. The display was crowded, but Wesley did get a chance to make the train go.


The display was actually really great because it was tiered, so little kids could see all sorts of stuff even though they are short. Wesley didn't want to leave! But we had a monorail to catch...


We took the monorail over to the Seattle Center to check out the model train village there. The monorail was cool. The ride is only like 3 minutes long. Wesley enjoyed being on yet another train.

The model train village at Seattle Center, I think, is less cool than the one at Macy's because it's all on one level. I could see all of it because I was tall enough, but a little guy like Wesley has such a limited view. He only saw trains when they buzzed by right in front of him.




We waited in a long line for a chance to operate one of the trains in the village. A sweet old man, the "Operator," tells all the boys and girls how to move the train, and one by one they can do it. I don't know if Wesley understood the cause and effect of turning the knob so the train would go. He actually liked to turn it so the train would stop. Soooo yeah, maybe next year the long line will be worth it.


We got some overpriced food and hopped the monorail back to downtown. Because I knew I needed to catch a connecting bus at the park and ride to get home, there was a certain bus I needed to catch from downtown up north -- and if I missed it, we'd be stuck in Seattle for another hour. As we left the monorail and headed to the bus stop, I saw it! I ran! And the bus waited for me! My lucky day! I arrived out of breath, with a toddler in a stroller. I picked up the whole dang stroller and went up the bus stairs. A nice woman moved to give me her spot. Our bus commute a success!

Overall, it was so nice to experience some Christmas spirit with Wesley. We didn't get to ride the carousel at Westlake Center (umm did you see that line?), and we didn't go see a snowfall in Pacific Place, but maybe next year. It was good to get out of the house and do something different. I love adventures with my son!

christmas, part 1: doing things for others

I’m really into the Spirit of this Christmas this year, and it has a lot to do with the fact that I decided to be of service to others. Wow, it feels so good and I am so excited. I'm not writing this to say "ooh baby look at me I'm a service machine," but I just want to document why Christmas is better for me this year. Really.

I.

First, our Bishop asked ward members if they’d be willing to make Christmas gift baskets anonymously for families in our ward. I thought this sounded so fun. I’ve never made a gift basket for anyone! Although it was all anonymous (I don't know what family I had, nor do they know it came from me -- although I did know the "type" of family so I could plan accordingly), I had a great time hunting things down. I included hot cocoa, a gift card, Hershey kisses, mixed nuts, a jingle bell ornament, chocolate-covered cherries, and of course fruit, among other things. The hardest part, seriously, was finding cellophane. Did you know it’s sold in a roll just like wrapping paper?


Shame on me for not getting a finished photo. I wrapped it with a beautiful red ribbon. I hope whoever received my basket had their spirits lifted.

II.

On more personal note, I got a new nativity set at the end of November and debated what to do with my old nativity. I had the thought to give it to someone – and not just in a general “wrap it up and hand it over” way. My nativity had 12 pieces – so I decided to do the 12 Days of Christmas for someone! It’s a family; I know the mother the best and the kids are seriously so sweet. I’ve been going over to their house every day for 11 days now, leaving a tiny wrapped figurine on their doorstep, then sneaking off. Whimsy is my partner in crime; she knows the family, too.

The most exciting part, for me, was finding scriptures and quotes to go with each figurine. Of course Mary and Joseph are accompanied by scriptures from Luke 2, but the final baby Jesus (given last, tomorrow) is accompanied by a quote from The Living Christ, the declaration given by the First Presidency of the Church a few years ago. It is so beautiful. I hand wrote all the scriptures on little cards Whimsy made, and I’m lucky this one all fit. I wrote small. The final day said:

"We solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary. He was the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world. … Of Him the Prophet [Joseph Smith] also declared: 'And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father — That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God' (D&C 76:22–24). …We bear testimony that Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God. He is the great King Immanuel, who stands today on the right hand of His Father. He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son."

Awesome.

(this is what 12 gorgeous handwritten cards for someone looks like)

So, tomorrow is the “big reveal.” Whimsy and I will go see our friend together to give her baby Jesus and the box the nativity came in. I’m so excited!

III.

This year I had a friend who was on bedrest at the end of a rough pregnancy. I really felt like some of our other friends and I could help with Christmas preparations... but what? So we went and got her a tree! She had her stand and tree skirt and stuff out and ready (before the bedrest decree), she just needed a tree delivered.

I used my powers of persuasion on my friends and found someone with a big van who was willing to help, and we delivered a tree and lunch and fun one Monday morning. She emailed us later and said her husband and daughter were happily decorating a tree "delivered by some angels." Awww, that felt so sweet. In subsequent news, she had that baby just a few days later. A new healthy baby girl. Yay.

IV.

My gifts for my office co-workers and visiting teaching sisters this year were little pumpkin loaves. Thanks to Megan for the great idea (I'll have you know I added chocolate chips to your recipe). The loaves turned out well, and I loved the ornaments I found at JoAnn's that I attached to each one. I wrote out a nice card, too. I had a great time putting it all together. I wish I had a picture of all 10 of them side by side!

(Note, I only have two teeny loaf pans... so I had to bake these two at a time! And they take 45 minutes to bake, each session! I am a crazy baker this year, seriously!)


Anyway, my point in this post is that it has all just meant something different this year. I feel better. Maybe I've bitten off more than I can chew (sometimes I feel a bit stressed out driving to the same house for 12 days in a row!!), but I feel good about myself. I feel like I'm doing something better, and making Christmas more about service and love than about myself. I'm in a weird place emotionally right now, so I think helping these friends was really for me; it has been what I needed most of all.

It's made Christmas come alive for me. I know Christmas is about Christ, but isn't it really about what Christ did -- served others more than He served himself? It's about seeing the faces of others light up when we've thought of them, or helping someone in need, or being a friend at the perfect time. Christmas is about love. It feels good to feel that.

More later.

false advertising

I have a lot of posts running around in my head... lots to say... but here is what we get today:

I wrote last year that I bought myself a fancy phone. For the most part, it rocks and rolls. I've learned how to use many of its features by visiting an online forum, www.samsungmomentforum.com. All sorts of types (technoid and non) post all sorts of quirks and helps and ideas and science. It's been fun. And I've even impressed people at parties with my knowledge of technoid terms and fancy phone abilities.

In a strange roundabout way I won't get into, I learned this weekend that the developer of this forum started another forum, samsunginterceptforum.com, to help people who own the Samsung Intercept, the next generation of my phone, the Samsung Moment. That is fine with me; I think forums are great. But here is what I don't like:

Because the two cell phone devices are so similar, he took the entire Samsung Moment Forum, copied it, did a "find and replace" which turned all "Moments" into "Intercepts," and published the forum.

Which means that I went on this new forum and found posts, from myself, detailing my adventures with my beloved "Intercept." Boy, did I hit the roof. This is wrong on so many levels!!

1. It's completely FALSE. The entire forum SITS ON A THRONE OF LIES. Does that seem too dramatic?
   
   
2. My published words were changed without my permission. I emailed the guy and demanded he remove all posts from me on the new forum. He obliged. Although I bet the forum looks a little stupid since um, I replied to posts within threads and if my message is gone but someone replied to me then what? Anyway.
   
   
3. It just goes to show, sadly, that you can't believe everything you read on the Internet. Sigh. I feel like the Internet is SUCH a good tool for information, but then stuff like this happens and I get so jaded. It sucks. I wish I could trust it. I just don't get why this guy couldn't just start his forum from scratch? Why copy an existing forum? SO LAME.

Since I'm on an Internet tirade, here is another one:

My friend was raising money for breast cancer research, and InsiderPages.com said for every review I could write for a local place, they'd donate $x to her campaign. That seemed kinda cool. I made a name and password and posted a bunch of reviews. It was all to my liking.

Well, it turns out CitySearch.com or someone similar bought Insider Pages, and then published all my reviews on their site too. Which I wouldn't have a problem with, except they didn't use my username on the reviews, they used my real name. And I wrote reviews for like doctors and stuff. Who I still see. Which should be totally private.

Urgh. Now I gotta figure out how to get that changed. Heaven help me.

Anyway, my venting for the day is finished. Anyone have similar Internet experiences?

what a day

I had a crazy successful day yesterday. I feel incredible. Here all the the things I did:

• Exercised
• Made granola
• Got my car's oil changed
• Went grocery shopping
• Bought Christmas toys from Toys R Us
• Cleaned the kitchen counters
• Swept
• Vacuumed
• Watched a bunch of music videos online because I am so in love with the new Nelly song
  
• Paid bills
• Made a treat for the ward Christmas party on Saturday
• Cut up 100+ magnetic words for a project for Church
• Made dinner
• Gave Wesley a bath
  
• Went to tithing settlement
• Got a book for Shane from the library
  
• Went to Joann's and found something I really needed
• Heard the Nelly song on the radio (yay!)
  
• Went to Big Lots and found the perfect Christmas gift for our families
• Went to another Big Lots to try to find more

Wow, I feel super productive! I wonder if every day could be this way? Well, I've already not exercised today... boo.

i hope i laugh about this later

We taught Wesley a funny phrase. I think we taught it to him in jest... but now I worry. It's "crazy driver." Shane would try to get Wesley to call him a crazy driver, and then say, "dad's car goes fast!" so when Wesley started so say both things, we thought it was cute and funny. Heh.

Now, I'm afraid he is calling me a crazy driver. Bad news.

A couple weeks ago, at the beginning of November, I was driving home after picking Wesley up from a friend's house; she watched him while I went to a doctor's appointment. We were in this weird neighborhood that wasn't familiar. I turned a corner and saw one of those digital speed limit measuring things, and it said the limit was 30 and I was going a red 31 and then a green 29. Good for me! At that very second I looked in my rearview and saw a cop behind me. What!?!

I pulled over and he said I had been speeding. I said, "but sir, I just passed that speed tracker thing and I was going 29!" He replied that no, he clocked me many blocks ago and had been following me and I hadn't stopped. (Which I guess was true; I hadn't checked my rearview lately. Weird.) He said I was going a 42 in a 30, and gave me a $154 ticket. I was none too happy about it.

This bugs me on so many levels:

• One, I didn't know where I was, nor did I know the speed limit, and I didn't think I was speeding (the sign told me I wasn't!), or at least I wasn't speeding on purpose. And I got a ticket anyway.
• Two, I realized I've been pulled over pretty much every year for the last four or five years. That's a terrible record. I got one ticket that I "mitigated" and got reduced from $198 to just $98, and this is the second ticket. A camera got me speeding (ooh 29 mph) in a school zone once, and I got a ticket for that, too. I got let go with warnings twice.
  
• Three, this $154 ticket basically was a birthday present. I really wanted a new digital camera, but the fine for this is about the same so I suppose my punishment is that instead of buying a camera I'm paying off this debt. So lame.
• Lastly, what I think is the worst thing that bugs me, is that Wesley was in the car with me. I drive everywhere with him. I am his mother and I need to be taking care of him, so why I am I speeding? Why can't I just slow down and be OK with it and keep us safe? I feel like a bad mother.
  

It's pretty safe to say that at the get-go, I was already pretty annoyed with this ticket.

My story gets worse.

I had 15 days to respond to the citation. I was pretty irked, so I ignored it for a couple days. Then I asked people what they thought I should do. Evidently in Washington you can "defer" one citation every seven years, meaning you pay an admin fee of $125 and if you don't get another ticket in one calendar year (I wasn't on a good track for this, but it sounded interesting), it is purged from your record. But, I'd have to go to court, and because my citation was only $25 more, I decided against it. I'd just pay the stupid thing.

I got it all ready. Wrote the check. Sealed the envelope.

And went on vacation. Leaving it on the kitchen table.

The 15-day period passed. I remembered that I hadn't mailed it during Thanksgiving dinner. I frantically texted our cat sitter and asked her if she'd seen it. She said she had and she'd mail it for me.

But evidently, the City of Brier doesn't actually want my money, it just wants to make me miserable. They sent the money back to me with a nicely worded letter saying, "we are in receipt of your money, but you were late, so here it is back, sucker." They passed my case from their Police Department to the South County Courts, so they didn't have my info anymore and I guess didn't want my money. And according to the courts, I still haven't paid.

I am completely freaking out. I did a lot of research on what this all means. It means:

1. My fine will increase (at least $52)
2. My license could be suspended
3. I could be sent to collections
4. Although I didn't explicitly find this on the Web site, many friends said it's possible there would be a "bench warrant" out for my arrest (oh geez)
5. Overall, my stress level increases and I lose all sanity. Yay.

This morning, I tried to get someone on the phone at the courts to discuss this. No luck. They have a phone tree and no real people are accessible. So. Lame. Then, I decided to go down there personally and make this all go away. I arrived ONE MINUTE after they locked their doors for their lunch break. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? The time was 11:51, and evidently they eat from 11:50 to 12:50. (Side note: who has lunch at such a weird time? How would I have ever planned for this? It's not fair.)

I went back to my car, sweet little Wesley in tow, and cried. This sucks. I don't want to deal with this. And I have to keep telling myself I am not a bad person, although sometimes I speed, and I really need to stop speeding because if I never have to deal with this kinda stuff again it'll be too soon. I am trapped in a nightmare. A bureaucratic nightmare. I am trying to give the government my money and they won't take it! What is wrong with this?

Anyway, I realize the issue is that I can't control what is happening to me, and that bothers me. I like to be in control. And strangely interesting is that I also realize the one thing I can control is my speed, and because I used that control to break the law last month, I now have to live with the consequences. I get that. And boy do I feel sheepish. I've always felt like a good citizen, but I'll tell you the local government here is sure making me feel the opposite. Sigh.

I sure hope they take my money tomorrow.

my favorite things

Here are some of my favorite things from the last week or so:

Tuesday, November 23: Even though a plane slide off the runway at Sea-Tac International Airport Monday night after a bunch of Seattle-stupefying snow, our plane from Seattle to Salt Lake City still took off on time. Yahoo!

Also, you might find this interesting (I do), but our plane flew over the storm, and it followed us down to Utah. The storm we survived in Seattle on Monday hit Salt Lake on Tuesday night, with wind and inches and inches of snow. We were stuck on a mountain. It was pretty fascinating.

The best part of being in a big house with all my family members was probably that all the toys my nephew brought Wesley thought were the coolest things ever, and all the toys we brought my nephew thought were the coolest things ever. Everyone was appeased at all times. Wesley even now is asking for "Kyler's Monster Truck," which sadly went home with Kyler. (I didn't teach Wesley the term "Monster Truck," so I was pretty floored the first time he said it.)

Thursday, November 25: Check out these bad boys which I made for our Thanksgiving feast. Thanks to Megan for the inspiration last year. I've been waiting all year to make them.




Since little Kyler has some serious allergies, his mom and I invented a hypoallergenic turkey for him. I was really proud of myself.



They were well loved by all.



Friday, November 26: I've been training for my 5k Santa Run for a few months now. I finished the run and met my goal of continuously running and not having too terrible of a time (35 minutes 49 seconds if you have to know, a 11.13-minute mile, 11th in women in my age group and 64th overall!). This is a pretty big feat considering I ran at 5,000 feet elevation and trained at -0- feet elevation. My most awesome friend Marianne ran with me, and some family members, too. My favorite parts though were the costumes:




Saturday, November 27: Wesley and I got to watch the machines making magic at the Krispy Kreme in Orem, Utah. That afternoon we went to this awesome train museum in Ogden, Utah. It was in a trio of museums; my dad liked the gun museum (did you know a major gun inventor named Browning was Mormon?) and Shane liked the classic car museum. Wesley's favorite, of course, were the trains. (Yes, they had BIG TRAINS to walk around, and TOY TRAINS to play with and MODEL TRAINS to check out. It was fun.)







Sunday, November 28: This was a day of family. My new niece Ruby was blessed. It was sweet. Afterwards there was a huge family dinner with um, way too much food. I think I flipped out a little bit when I saw all the food and knew there was no way we could eat it. Maybe I'll have some pictures later.

Monday, November 29: My dad and I got into the hot tub at 10 at night, in like 20-degree weather. Steam from the hot tub crystallized in our hair. Seriously. It was fascinating, but really hot and fun to talk and look at stars.

I love my family! We had lots of fun playing with Grandma (and the Dump Truck book she bought Wesley) and oogling over baby Ruby and watching football on huge bean bags and wondering if our house would slide off the mountain in the blizzard and eating way too much food and playing games and laughing until we cried.

What a great trip. I miss everyone already. You know this may be the last time I go to Utah ever? Crazy. I also reserve the right to post about the trip more if I remember other cool things.