All Done! All Done!

That's what Miles said when we took him to see this man...

An Unhappy Memory

I went outside today to get the newspaper. It brought back a yucky memory. Beginning when I was 10 years old, I had a paper route. My first route was a once-a-week "throw away" publication. There were no subscribers; everyone got the 12-ish page paper whether or not they wanted it. I earned about $10 a month delivering that paper. We moved, and I graduated to a 5-days-a-week publication that turned into a 7-days-a-week publication. I had to go collecting and attend "settlement" monthly. I remember making about $65 a month delivering for that newspaper. I didn't like the Sunday delivery because it was the heaviest paper. In fact, the Sunday inserts (advertisements) would be delivered to me on Saturday and I had to collate the ads to get them ready for Sunday's delivery. Wednesday was the next worst day because that paper was the next heaviest. Tuesday and Thursday were the lightest days. I'd get up and deliver my route (yes, I "porched" the papers) under the cover of darkness because I didn't want anyone to see me delivering the paper, not because I was embarrassed of being a papergirl, but because I was scared of people.

One day a year was the worst day EVER to have a paper route. That was Thanksgiving day. There were so many Black Friday ads and they were so fat and so heavy that I couldn't carry the ads and the newspaper all at one time in my paper delivery bag. I remember trying to carry half of them at a time because I hated having to go home to get more papers- that just took longer, but I couldn't even carry half of them at one time. I remember the most I could carry at a time and still be able to walk my route was 8 papers. That meant I had to make 8 trips out to get all my papers delivered.

This morning I went out to get my newspapers and memories of Thanksgiving deliveries returned. Yes, today's newspapers are not delivered by young teenagers or 'tweens, and no one walks paper routes anymore, but I still felt bad for the delivery guy who had to throw my papers out his car window (in the near zero degree temperature). I wonder how cold it was inside his car since his window had to be down to throw the paper onto my driveway. I wonder if he had a sore arm at the end of his route. I felt my delivery guy's pain and anguish at the Thanksgiving day delivery.

I brought my 2 papers inside and separated the ads from the newspaper. The ads are on the left and the newspapers are on the right.In case you were wondering, the newspapers combined weighed 1# exactly. The ads weighed 9 pounds 10.125 ounces. So, how much Black Friday shopping am I going to do? Probably none. Maybe I'll go to the Bosch store and pick up some cheap yeast, dough enhancer, and wheat gluten. Maybe. If I feel like it when I wake up tomorrow.

Thanksgiving is All About Pie

I like to think the Thanksgiving feast is one big appetizer leading up to the main course of PIE. I really do not like the traditional Thanksgiving feast and I tolerate it knowing that when it is all done, I get to eat pie. Today I had whole wheat rolls, mashed potatoes, and green salad (spring greens, peeled cucumber, Asian pear, raspberries, pomegranate arils, and sliced almonds served with raspberry poppyseed dressing) as my appetizers while I anticipated pie.

Growing up I always wanted to like sweet potatoes, stuffing, and turkey. I was fine with turkey, but have never understood why people want to eat soggy bread for dinner or why marshmallows were ruined by being put on top of sweet potatoes. I also wanted to like olives. I loved wearing olives on my fingers, but I cannot eat an olive. When it comes to pie, I dislike banana cream and pumpkin pies. I like most fruit pies; I cannot think of one I do not like; however I don't like double crust pies. I like crumb toppings. I guess cherry is my least favorite fruit pie, but I always want to like it when it has a pretty lattice crust on the top, but I really don't love it because it tastes like it came out of a can. I remember having at least a half dozen types of pies to choose from at Thanksgiving- give me my mom's Lemon Meringue!

I remember my first Thanksgiving with the Belliston family. I tolerated the traditional foods anxiously awaiting my reward of lots of slivers of lots of different kinds of pies. I was so disappointed to find out that the only type of pie served at a Belliston Thanksgiving dinner was pumpkin pie. There was no reward for me that year.

This year we had dinner with the Belnap family. There were only 19 of us this year. Knowing that pumpkin pie is usually the only option, I came to dinner armed with pie! I made 2 lemon cream cheese pies, 2 "darker" chocolate mousse pies, 1 Brazilian coconut pie, and 1 cranberry white chocolate pecan pie. When we arrived, I was delighted to see Lynn making more pies! He made blueberry and apple pies. Yummy! I ate until I was oversatisfied. After dinner, we went to Aly's house for a pie party (because Leslie is all about pie too- duh... she married "Pie"ter, and because Aly made lots of pies too)! At Aly's house there was lemon cream cheese pie, milk chocolate pie,"darker" chocolate pie, pumpkin, apple, key lime, and my pecan pie. Yummy again!

Now we are home and guess what I am going to have before I go to bed? Yep- more pie. I didn't take my coconut pie to the Belnap's and didn't have time to stop home and get it before going to Aly's, so it hasn't been touched yet. I think it will make a fantastic bedtime snack.

The Storm of the Century

Yep, that's what they were calling it. Big Blizzard, Snowmageddon II, whatever. We were told to have your 72 hour kits ready. Make sure your gas tank was full. Be prepared to be without electricity. The universities canceled classes. Emergency broadcast notices were sent out. We were told to expect 12+ inches of snow with 60 mph winds and near zero temperatures. Well, it is cold out there. Our snow total? None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Instead, last night we had a sprinkling of rain that evaporated before the real cold arrived. Am I complaining? Not at all. I didn't want to shovel today. I hate driving in the snow (and with dry roads, Jonathan can have another driving lesson today). Nolan will be sad. He was planning on sledding all day. Yesterday afternoon I was talking to McKenzie about the incoming "storm" that was to bring snow statewide; neither of us were panicking about the pending storm and I did take the attitude of "We'll see, Point of the Mountain has a weird way of affecting storms". True again. However, I take comfort in knowing that I was prepared for "The Storm of the Century" even though that preparation proved to be unnecessary.

Dreams

I usually do not remember my dreams, but for the past 2 nights I've remembered the BORING dreams I've had. The interesting thing (in my opinion) about my dreams is that both dreams had people from my "new" neighborhood in them. I guess that means that I'm feeling settled here, at last? Maybe? I mean, it's only been 17 months.

Dream #1- Tuesday morning. This was the last dream of the night. How do I know? Read on... There's a lady up the street and a-ways-away who is a whiner/complainer. She has a negative opinion about just about everything, at least in my opinion she does because she only calls/talks to me when she's "on one" about something. So Tuesday morning this lady is in my dream griping about this, that, or the other. My alarm went off, and I thought "Good! Now she has to go away!". I'd never been so happy to have my alarm go off. I have since banned this lady from my dreams...

Dream #2- Tuesday Night/Wednesday Morning. Stupid dream. I dreamed that Shonagh Davis, from the old neighborhood, Lucy Pierce, from the new neighborhood, someone else (can't remember who) and I were all going to get our flu shots. That's it. That was the dream.

My dreams are lame. My dreams are practical. I wonder how a therapist would interpret my dreams... probably something like "you are very practical and live a boring life..."

Random Ramblings

I am in my kitchen blogging on a laptop! Could it be? Have the Belnap's become techo-geeks? No, not really. Yes, I bought myself a laptop for my birthday, and yesterday we did get wireless internet, but since we still don't have cable or dish network, Tivo, or even Netflix, we are still officially un-cool.

Utah's is expecting to get hit by a massive snowstorm today... we're under a "blizzard warning". In anticipation of this storm, I went and ran errands this morning. I wore my tall boots. I'm almost 5'9" when I wear them! I hope my feet will forgive me, they were "tired" after being in the boots for several hours. Anyway, I went to Kohls and put Miles in one of their stroller/carts. That gave me a new appreciation for tall people who try to push strollers. With my boots on I had to stoop to push the stroller. I think all strollers should come with telescoping handles to accommodate people of all heights.

At Kohls I was exchanging that bra that I blogged about last month... the 36D that I distractedly grabbed. I found the right size and went to the customer service booth to make the exchange. I told the lady how I'd grabbed the wrong size and needed to exchange it for the right size. She looked at the returned size then she looked at me and then at the size of the bra I was buying and then back at me and then said "obviously". Nice.

My last stop with Miles was Costco. All I needed was a bag of pecans, but $143 later, I left Costco (milk, stamps, a sled, produce, Christmas garland, etc). I hate that. On the way out, Miles demanded food court lunch. I stopped and got him a piece of pizza even though it was only 10:30 a.m. He didn't want the pizza; he wanted a Coke. Thanks Dan for introducing Miles to carbonation.

Now we are home and waiting for the boys to get out of school and for Dan to leave work. Once everyone is "safely gathered in" then let the winter storm begin, if it really has to.

A Conversation with Miles

Yesterday was Sunday so we went to church. Midway through Sunday School, Miles was through with church and his nursery teachers brought him to me. I took him home and he immediately took a nap. After nap-time, Miles and I had the following conversation.

Me: Miles, did you go to nursery today?
Miles: 'es.
Me: Did you play with the cars?
Miles: 'es.
Me: Miles, did you cry?
Miles: 'es.

It was fun to have our first "real" conversation!

Oh Wow?!?

Jonathan got his learner's permit today. He and I stopped at an empty parking lot on the way home from the DMV and let him try out driving. I let him drive my precious Outback. It is a standard transmission so I warned him about the clutch. He only killed the car once before getting the clutch out semi-smoothly. He did a big lap around the parking lot (at a fairly fast speed) before he wanted to try parking. He parked fine, but was baffled as to how to back up when the car is sitting on a slight decline. After a big, bumpy clutch-popping experience, he agreed that he was done driving for the day, and I drove us home. It should be an interesting few months around here as we learn to accept a new driver in the family.

A Sure Sign of Adolescence

Today was the big day for Nolan... Braces! This day has been on the calendar for nearly a month. Nolan's assignment for the past month has been to wiggle his last baby tooth out. He hadn't worked on his task much until I started bribing him with money... $5 was mildly motivating, $10 was more so, but it wasn't until last night when I said I'd pay him $50 to get that tooth out that Nolan got really, really motivated. He worked on it a lot last night and started in on that tooth again this morning. Finally he was "ready" for the string to be tied around that tooth. I attached the string and he gave the tooth a big tug. Unfortunately the tooth did not come out. It made a bloody mess and now can be twisted all the way around, but it won't come out.It was time for the orthodontic appointment, so Miles and I took "snaggle-tooth" to his appointment. Nolan was afraid that Dr Hyde was going to "yank my tooth out". Nolan was really tense in the chair. Dr. Hyde tilted the chair back and Miles started to freak out. "No-nin! No-nin! No-nin!", Miles cried. Miles needed lots of reassurance that his "No-nin" was just fine. Dr. Hyde said that he'd leave Nolan's tooth alone if it didn't interfere with the wire. Lucky Nolan- it didn't! About an hour later, we left the ortho office- Nolan is sporting braces on his top teeth with red and navy blue elastics!

It Wasn't Just Any Rock

Nearly 12 years ago, I brought home a salt-crusted rock that I found on the shore of the Dead Sea. While we lived in Pleasant Grove, the salty rock was displayed on the "purple and white things" shelf in the dining area. When we moved, I didn't want those items together anymore and so while I was trying to decided what I did want, I put the salty rock on a shelf in a closet. Yesterday, this is what I found...That is my special Dead Sea rock, however it is no longer salt crusted. Evidently, my little friend pushed something over to the closet and climbed up on it and got my rock down. He then proceeded to lick all the salt off my rock. Sad. My "special" rock is no longer special to me- now it is just a rock. Miles is happy to add it to his collection.

Trip to Smiths

I went grocery shopping today and my favorite checker (checkette?) asked me how I've been because she hadn't seen me for a while. I had to laugh. I did a stock-up on "extras" grocery run today. I bought...

• 1 bottle Basalmic Vinegar (I knocked a bottle off the shelf and onto my foot today. The bottle broke open, vinegar went everywhere, Nolan asked "What reeks?")
• 3 big bags Golden Puffs
• 3 big bags Frosted Flakes
• 8 bags Pasta
• 10 boxes Granola Bars (I could not believe that we are nearly out!)
• 5 boxes Captain Crunch (new experience for my kids... I think this cereal is nasty)
• 6 boxes Cookie Mix
• 12 boxes Pudding (mmmm, lemon cream cheese pie...)
• 5 tubes Toothpaste
• 2 Toothbrushes (Miles will be happy!)
• 12 2-liter bottles 7-Up (don't worry neighbors, you're not getting them for Christmas)
• 30 cans Vegetable Broth
• 1 Bagel (to keep Miles happy and busy)

That would be 98 items! I had the cart brimming-full. It all fit in the cart, including Miles! Then I went to pay and the baggers didn't have a magic touch today and they had to put bags "under" the cart, next to Miles, and one bagger had to accompany me to the car carrying 2 bags with him. My pre-tax subtotal was $165.98. I paid (pre-tax) $41.92. So while I had another great grocery store victory, I now have to haul the 98 items (okay, 97... Miles ate the bagel) downstairs and put it all away.

Weekend Escape

Jonathan had 2 band competitions in St. George last weekend. We decided to go to St. George, see the band compete and to play. It was kind of weird because Jonathan wasn't with us. He traveled, hung out, slept, ate, etc. with the band. He even went home with the band while we stayed another night in St. George.

We left at 7 a.m. Friday morning for St. George. The band left at 6:30 a.m. We passed them just outside of St. George. Their first competition was around noon. We were the water providers for the band. After the band performed and rehydrated, we took off for some fun. The other day I was reading on someone's blog about "Little Black Mountain" which is just over the Arizona border. It sounded fun so we went to check it out. There are lots of petroglyphs and cool rocks to see. Miles thought the dirt was the best. He also liked the metal platform that you stand on to see the petroglyphs. His jumps echoed off the mountain. Nolan liked trying to squeeze his body through the crevices. There were ancient petroglyphs, and some not-so-ancient pertroglyphs...... loser modern man.

After we got back, the boys went swimming.

On Saturday, Jonathan and the band were the third band of the day to compete, which meant we had to be up early. Again, we were the "hydration specialists". Nolan and I got field passes to help the pit get their stuff onto and off the field. By 10:30 a.m., we were done with "band duties". Nolan mentioned that he wanted to ride the rollercoaster at New York New York in Las Vegas. Since we were only 120 miles from Vegas, we decided to take him. It costs $14 to ride the coaster once and $25 for an all day pass. We bought the all day pass and Dan and Nolan road the coaster 4 times while I entertained Miles in the arcade. Then we crossed the street to M&Ms World (crowded, silly, and expensive). After that, we were done with Vegas and drove back to St. George. On the way back, I took a picture of the Las Vegas Speedway for Jonathan. The boys went swimming again when we got back.

Jonathan returned home with the band on Saturday and the rest of us stayed behind in St. George to sleep. Sunday morning we got up and drove home. We missed having Jonathan with us. He managed quite well without us.

Loose ends...

#1: We did drive the Prizm on this trip. We crossed the 100,000 mile mark just outside of Las Vegas on the way back to St. George. #2: While I hate the drive to St. George, 80 mph speed limits are nice and make the drive less painful.
#3: Getting a little sunburn in November is weird.
#4: Miles added 2 more states to his "States I've Been To" list... Arizona and Nevada.
#5: There ought to be an ordinance against this type of yard ornamentation. We drove by this house many times in St. George.

V-O-T-E

Today is election day and I cast my ballot. I didn't vote FOR anyone, but in the races that I voted in, I voted AGAINST certain candidates. Utah politics are quirky and my views don't really fit in anywhere. I'm not an extremist... that's the problem! I don't believe the government is inherently evil, that the world is going to end in 26 days, or that scare tactics should be used in politcal campaigns. I don't believe that the "R" next to a candidate's name means "righteous" or that the "D" stands for "damned". I also have never voted a straight party ticket because I don't believe in the party system because both major parties have sold themselves to every special interest group out there so neither party really stands for anything at all. But I still exercised my right to vote.

Miles and I walked to our polling place... the junior high. We walked in and were greeted by a very perky older gentleman who first wanted to show me where to stand in line and then tell me all about his grandsons. Next, I showed my photo ID (new thing in Utah... showing ID to vote!) to a sweet grandma-type lady who signed me into her book and told her next-door-neighbor-chairmate my name. That lady wasn't listening at all, but the "debit card" voting machine lady was. She had my card ready in a flash, but I couldn't take it because lady #3 hadn't done her job and still hadn't heard my name. Finally she tried to find my name... in the "M" section. I told her that Belnap started with "B" and she wouldn't find me in the "M" names. She started leafing through her tabs... L, K, J, I, H... until she finally came to "B". Then she asked me what letter came next... I told her "E, Be". So she starts running her finger down the page of "Ba" last names. Page by page she ran her finger down her ledger until she finally came to the "Be" names. "What the next letter?" she asked. At that point I wanted to scream "Let me find my own name!!!", but I didn't and I patiently replied "L; Bel". Finger scroll again until she tells me that I'm not in the book because I'm not listed with the "Bells". Deep breath. I help her find my name and I signed my name in her book.

I got my voting card and went over to the touch screens. I love touch screen voting. A few seconds later I'd picked my candidates, voted on the Utah amendments, and ignored the judges sections (except for the one who signed Aly's divorce papers... he got a YES from me). Then I printed my ballot, cast my ballot, returned the voting card and got my sticker!

So while I do not expect anyone I voted for to win (except the judge should retain his seat), I voiced my opinion. Mr. Sandstrom... do you really think that every person who is not a minor should be able to carry a concealed weapon without a permit? Mr. Lee, do you really think that I am not smart enough to vote for U.S. Senators... you want to change the US Constitution to take that right away from me, but you first need my vote to send you to D.C.... sorry, you didn't get it. Mr. Chaffetz, your 15 minutes of fame has been up in my book for a real long time. Mr. Herbert, are you a crook, or just really, really dumb... or do you think I'm the dumb one? Mr. Corroon, I really did not like the style of campaign you ran. You should have allowed Mr. Herbert to implode himself. Mr. Granto, Mr. Baugh, and Ms. Hyer, just because you are the other major party's candidate does not mean you earned my vote either. To earn my vote, you must go out and act like a candidate. Good luck to all who are elected tonight; but try to remember those who gave you your office.

Halloween Revisited

More tidbits about Halloween that I omitted last night...

First, it was raining, no- POURING! during the initial prime Trick-or-Treating hour. Nolan wore a rain slicker to try to stay dry. His shoes were soaked through by the night's end (and probably within 100 yards of the house).

Second- the low point of the night was our LAST group of beggars... I mean Trick-or-Treaters. It was a group of 3... a young (6? 7? year old) girl with 2 adult females with her. Knock, knock, knock; Dan opens door; "Trick-or-Treat"; Dan starts giving the girl candy; woman #1 (who speaks English as a Second language) shouts out "No! Chocolate!!!" and reaches into bowl and grabs what she wants; little girl is taking what she wants by the handful; woman #2 holds up her pumpkin to make sure Dan know she needs candy too. Now, by "women" I mean "Grown-ups"... middle aged mother/aunt/friend out Trick-or-Treating with young trick-or-treating age appropriate child, then rejecting what is offered and demanding and taking what they want. RUDE!!!

Third- The Costume that Made ME Laugh the Hardest!!! We had a lot of teenagers this year, probably because the weather didn't bother them! Most wore some type of costume. Some actually said "Trick-or-Treat", and a few even said "Thank You". One group of teenagers came to the door... I was on the phone at the time and I told the person I was talking to that at my door there was a skeleton, a Green Bay Packers Fan and a kid wearing a white garbage sack. I handed the kids the candy; they started to walk away, and Mr. White Garbage Bag turned around and in a very quiet voice told me "I'm White Trash". I started laughing so hard! He won simplest, but funniest costume of the night!