Annoyed over STUPID thing!

This is really stupid and I know it is, but I'm still really annoyed by it. So, my 20th high school reunion is in the "planning" stages. It's being planned by all the nimrods who thought high school was cool while in high school as well as at the 10 year reunion. I did go to my 10 year class reunion and it was stupid. Nolan was just a few weeks old (like 6?). I let Dan stay at my parent's house and have "boys and daddy" time. The reunion was an overpriced mediocre meal with wine (which everyone at my table wanted to know if they could have mine) and dancing. My loverly boyfriend from high school was constantly at my elbow and was impossibleto shake off. I endured a few hours of back to high school torture, found out who decided that they were gay, and went home shaking my head at those who thought that they were cool in high school and still thought they were just as cool 10 years later.

Okay- so what'a annoying me... The reunion committee has put together a myspace page to get the reunion information out. Fine, no problem there. What bugs me is that someone decided that the nasty, tacky, revolting song "Push It" is our class theme. Everytime I visit the class myspace page, I am greated with the nasty panting rhythmic pulsations of "Push It". About 90% of the time that stupid vile song is playing before the page has even loaded so I can't hit the stop button. I need to remember to unplug my computer speakers before visiting the class reunion myspace page.

Oh, and by the way, no I do not plan to attend the 20 year reunion for the GHS class of 1989.

Difficult Concept or Not?

Okay, here is the senario. You are in seventh grade. You go to school and have 8 classes. The school has provided you a planner to use to keep track of your assignments. Your teachers give you homework. Now, what do you do?

When growing up, one of my biggest fears was forgetting about a homework assignment. My teachers' late homeork policies were strict- usually something that would result in your maximum score on late homework being equal to a 50%. As far as I can recall, I never, ever turned in a homework assignment late.

Jump forward to 2008. Now, my name is Jonathan. I am a brillant seventh grader with a planner and I have teachers that give homework. I think planners are stupid and a waste of time. Mom just checked my grades. I have a 52% in Spanish because I claim I didn't know I had to fill out several sections on my monthly study chart. Of course, I didn't write anything about that assignment in my planner because I think using my planner is a waste of time. Hey- Mom just checked my health grade. It's down from 101% to a 90%. Now 90% isn't a bad grade, but she is wondering why my grade dropped. Mom checks the assignments listed on the computer from my health class. I haven't bothered to turn in my "Life Path" assignment yet. I had it finished on time, butI just can't be bothered to turn it in.

Sometimes I really want to ring Jonathan's neck when it comes to him and his school attitude. For as book smart as he is, he has to be among the stupidest when it comes to assignments. Of course, he's now encouraging me to punch him in the face because "that's what I [he] deserves". Drama king to the end and never taking responsiblilty or trying to improve. Not willing to try to use the planner to help him out. Well, I pulled out the big guns and told him that he starts using the planner tomorrow or there will be no Jazz Band for him next year.

Cooking and Kids

I've decided that I am sick of being "the cook" and also sick of all the "fend for yourself" nights that we've been having around here. I got all gung-ho and assigned everyone a night where they plan the menu, cook the meal (with assistance from me), set the table, and help with the clean up. We are ending week 3 of my experiment. While I wouldn't call it the most successful project (maybe it's the most ambitious), it has been interesting. The only rule (so far) is that no one can serve Mac-n-Cheese from the box.

My night is Monday. Jonathan has Tuesday. Nolan has Wednesday. Thursday and Friday are leftovers/fend for yourself nights. Dan has Saturday (and has declared it pizza night every week- yes, he has to make it and can't have it delivered). Sunday is Belnap Family dinner night.

Week 1- I made Spaghetti with homemade sauce, garlic bread and salad. Jonathan made white rice, a salad, and french bread. Nolan wanted more spaghetti, salad, and breadsticks. Dan made pizza.

Week 2- I made fajitas, black beans, and Spanish rice. Jonathan made plain pasta, breadsticks, and salad. Nolan made rice. Dan made pizza.

Week 3- I made mashed potatoes. Jonathan chose Cheerios, fruit, and cinnamon rolls. Nolan made waffles. Dan is making pizza tonight.

I'm sure a dietician would point out that our meals are very low on protein and have a lot of refined flour products in them. So what... any complainers can have Thursday or Friday night assigned to them!

Anyway, thus far, it has been educational. Nolan didn't know where the measuring spoons were kept. They boys have learned how to make yeast rise, how to operate the mixer (we do not turn the mixer on with the beater in the "up" position), and how to measure flour (we do not pack flour into the measuring cup). Both boys are afraid of the oven- they think the air coming out of it will burn them. Meanwhile, Dan cranks the over to as hot as it can go to bake his pizza.

Menus for the coming week are due tomorrow. I'm thinking lasagna or tacos. Nolan has already claimed garlic bread. Jonathan just informed me that his night will involve Ramen Noodles. I guess that is better than Yellow Death (mac-n-cheese) 5 times a night.

Bad Blogger! Bad, Bad, Blogger!

So they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. If that is the case, I'm on my way. At least hell would be warm and snowfree... actually, I've heard some people describe hell as your worst nightmare. In that case, hell would be cold and snowy.

Cold and snowy... I've had enough! Our 24 hour snowfall yesterday was around 18 inches. We shoveled out our driveway and sidewalks 3 times yesterday and did a sweet little old neighbor lady's driveway and walk twice. We did get a nice bonus because of the monster storm... church was cancelled. Instead of going to church, we worshiped at the church of FOX 13 and watched the SuperBowl. Big Freakin' Deal. I didn't waste too much time on the Superbowl and just caught the last 3 minutes or so of the game; evidently that was the important part. Nolan was devistated that the Pats lost and got a nasty mouth and threw a SuperBowl sized attitude at us. My question is "Since when did Nolan care about football?" I don't think he even watched a single NFL game this season. But he was definately a Patriots fan yesterday. Next week hockey will probably become his newest favorite sport and he'll be all for the Anaheim Ducks (are they even a real team?).

I had a picture scanning party today. Here are some of my favorites!

I must say, I was one cute kiddo. I also was a stylin' dresser- I'm lovin' the polyester green and white outfit. I think it belongs in the Smithsonian right next to the first lades dresses!

Oops! I Did it Again!

Yes, it's true. Once again, I forgot I had a blog. Today I was sitting at a red light on State Street in Orem at the intersection of 1200 North and out of the blue I thought "Crap! I have a blog! I haven't written anything in days!" So here I am, penitent again. I sure hope I can make blogging a successful habit.

Okay- summary of the last 2 weeks. Jonathan- end of term- all A's again! Loves to go to Oak Canyon home basketball games. Shovels snow a lot. Skiing- twice so far this year. Has experienced changing clothes in the locker room for PE and survived! Nolan- got glasses. playing basketball (and made a basket in today's game), making pinewood derby car (must be ready to race on Thursday). Skiing- once so far this year. Developing monster-nasty attitude! Dan- nothing new (oh wait, I lied, Dan bough 20K worth of SII stock yesterday... hope it goes up or he'll have to put off retirement to compensate for lost money). Laura- Trek kick-off meeting done! 51 bridal shower invitations handmade and delivered! Pioneer dress- in progress, but let's not blog about that now. Laundry- in progress. Mom and dad have been here. They think Utah is miserably cold. My Zurg friend played with a mushroom and is now terribly sick (events are not related).

Dan is Spaciously Gifted (in some instances)

I took down all the Christmas decorations, beginning on January 1, 2008. I did 99% of that work myself. I got them nicely boxed up (done 100% by me)... and reduced the number of boxes of holiday carp by 2! It took both Dan and I working as a team to figure out how to get the tree back in its box, but we succeeded! I inventoried the boxes so I actually know what is in them come next December. Most important is that I remember that the "December First to Christmas" countdown ribbon is in the metal popcorn tin.

Today, I convinced Dan that this was the day to get the boxes out of the living room and down to the basement to the "closet under the stairs" and to the "little room". I told Dan that I was far too much of a weakling to haul the tree down the stairs. He rose to the challenge like a man. Heave! Ho! and Down the stairs it goes! Up and down the stairs we went, hauling the 20+ boxes. Then Dan began his magic.

See, while Dan cannot efficiently or effectively pack a suitcase, or put clothes in his dresser, he does wonders when it come to a car trunk or a closet. I told him where in the "closet under the stairs" the tree went and then Dan took over. When it was all said and done, every Christmas box was stored under the stairs except for the 3 that I told him didn't go in there and the box full of Christmas books (because I told him it was too heavy to be stacked on top of boxes with fragile items inside!). Last year, I put all the boxes away. When I got out all the Christmas stuff this year, I got lots of stuff out from the "closet under the stairs" and lots of stuff from the "little room". Dan was definitely more efficient at storing all the boxes than I was because now I have more room in the "little room" to store more useless carp... unless I choose to use that newly found additional space for food storage... now that's a thought.

The Most Boring New Year's Eve Ever

Yep, December 31, 2007 will go down in the history books as the most boring New Year's Eve ever! We actually motivated the boys to get their work/stuff done by 3 p.m. We bribed them with a late lunch/early dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. We made it to Sweet Tomatoes 5 minutes before the lunch pricing ended. Jonathan ate his usual 1/2 kids tray of plain pasta, 8 pieces of pizza, and 2 huge bowls of mac and cheese (how/why he loves that stuff, I just don't know). Anyway, after lunch/dinner (lunner?) we went home for a couple of hours. Around 7 p.m., Dan announced it was time to go see his parents. Whatever. So we went. We got there and Parley and Bona were watching the "Live from Lincoln Center" broadcast of the New York Philharmonic with Joshua Bell as the violinist. We sat there in relative silence until 9 p.m. When the concert ended, we went home. What a visit. We got home and had a Mario Kart Double Dash 4 player All Cup Tournament. I'm proud to say that I came in second once and third place 15 times! Dan won one race and came in last 15 times. Jonathan was the family champion by 1 first place victory over Nolan. This, of course, enraged Nolan who took the Poor Sport title as the threw a lovely tantrum. After the tournament, we finished watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (it only took us 3 nights to watch the movie). After the move, there was still more than 20 minutes until midnight. I fell asleep. I was woken up. We watched the ball drop. By 12:02 a.m., Dan, Nolan and I were in bed Jonathan went outside to "run around". He also filled his collection of 20 ounce soda bottles with water and jumped up and down flinging the water out of the bottles. He was back inside by 12:05 a.m. and in bed shortly thereafter. And that was New Year's Eve.