Everything passes too quickly

Life seems to be rolling along faster these days.   My weeks are fuller, as are the days, as are the hours.  I blinked, and this last week was gone.  What?  It is Tuesday the 15th already?  May is half over?  I'm struggling to fit in everything that is worthwhile that I want to accomplish.  Oh...so many things to accomplish.  What do I give up, exercise, journaling, the kids' activities, my house, my yard?  If only I was Super Woman and could fit in 4-5 more hours in a day, three of which would be dedicated to sleep. But I'm not super, just a regular person trying to do everything.

Here are some of the everythings that I'm juggling (in a good way) right now.

The new office is rolling along.  Yesterday the builders put up the first wall.  Steve and I put the kids to bed after swim team and then drove over to see it.  (yes, we could have walked, but I was tired)   Steve is gushing with excitement over his new work space, and I am so happy for him.   He spent hours on the computer after we got home going over bids from dental equipment companies.  This is an all consuming process, but I believe Steve is more excited than he is stressed.  We discussed this fact as we stepped over boards and equipment at the office site.  We are chalking up this excitement to our naivety.   One day we will know better to be more excited than stressed.

There are only three weeks of school left and the kids are showing their summer fever with relish.  It is torture to pull the kids inside from the perfect weather at night for bedtime. Who wants to go to bed when it is still light and beautiful outside?  Oh, that would be me.  We are setting up for this summer and it's bitter-sweet that most of our weekends are filled with plans.  We are signing up for swim team and swim lessons.  Steve is itching to go camping with his boys...and me. (insert enormous sigh here)   We are working on our yard and putting in the garden.  Things are coming along and I'm grateful for the cash shelled out on the lawn care, our lawn has never looked this green.   And...our house is still bug free.  Joy.

Along with summer fever here, we have Skylanders fever.  Andrew and Carter are obsessed with this Wii game.  I personally think it is a rip-off as each new character must be purchased separately for an nominal fee.  We have not been a gaming family in the past and my boys have never been interested in the small array of video games we posses, until now.  Unfortunately, Steve and I are noticing that whenever the Skylander game is on, there is contention in our home.  Someone always ends up unhappy, sassy, or fighting when this game is played.  I should call the came "digital negativity."  Steve grounded the boys for a week from the game yesterday after a certain unnamed son of ours called his brother a loser.  We are sure the name-called brother was not innocent either.  It takes two to tango you know.   Our boys are not thrilled with their punishment.  I, however, am.  I'm going to enjoy the peace without the game.  If I had my choice, I would throw the entire system in the garbage can.  I am not afraid to say that I do not find value in video games.

My calling is keeping me hopping and I'm finding most of it is speaking assignments.  I'm speaking tomorrow night at the 4th ward Young Women in Excellence meeting.  I'm grateful for the time I must spend in preparing and studying in order to speak.  Forced gospel study is good for me.  I also enjoy spending time with the young women in our stake and their leaders.  I find strength in their friendship and example.  I will be attending girls camp at the end of June.  I am planning on having a much better attitude than I had when I was 16.  I will not be pouting this time around, that or moping that I missed a Pearl Jam concert.  I'm amused how life has come back and bit me in the backside for being such a bratty young women when I was 16 and 17.  Crow feathers are hard to swallow.


...I cant find my camera battery charger.  I'm truly annoyed by this.  I will be combing my house until I find it.  My blog without pictures is not the same.

Only Truly Evil Parents go to Disneyland Without Their Children

But in our defense, we went to a dental convention first...and the kids wouldn't have liked that.

Steve and I flew to Anaheim last weekend to attend a dental conference and see every dental product imaginable under one roof.  It's easy to compare chairs, lights, delivery systems and such when they are all together.  Steve and his dental partners are picking out everything for their new office and the dental reps had a glimmer in their eyes the entire time the boys were comparing.   We will putting the reps' kids through college and not ours after this office is completed.

However...a free trip is fun no matter what, and I had a good time looking at useless tacky dental products while Steve was shopping for chairs.

For instance,  I find this shoe really gross along with the cannibal type necklace displayed behind it.

I mean really, who has time to remember to brush their shoes and jewelery before leaving the house?  

Also, who'd really want a Justin Bieber Singing Toothbrush?

I would be afraid one of his flippy hairs would be stuck in the bristles.

Steve parking it when he got a chance.  

The vendor behind him parking it also.

Our feet were aching by the afternoon.

After the conference the real fun began.

We ate a lot of gluten free food!

This place is my favorite!

Steve snapped this picture without my knowledge.

Lovely I know.

Saturday, however, we became the meanest parents on the planet and went to DISNEYLAND without our offspring.

And because we didn't take our children, there are no cute nostalgic pictures infront of Disney characters or landmarks, and no perfect memories saved photographically forever of the happiest place on earth. 

Instead, we took pictures of things like this sign posted outside the park.

What?  Disneyland gives you CANCER?

What the crap?

Steve didn't care though, because he had his imported Fiji water to keep him safe from carcinogens.

(long funny story...will post another time)

Fiji water is the best.

We rode only the rides we felt like and ate what we wanted.

There was no whining, sadness, crying, complaining or anyone saying their feet hurt.

No one tattled, fought, fussed or begged for candy or snacks.  

No one complained about standing in line, being too hot or too bored.  And no one cried that they had to use the bathroom

It was the best vacation ever.

I think we will go again without our children next year too!

Steve enjoying his free Krispy Kreme in the Star Tours line.

A group of kids had to give them away or throw them away.

Steve was one of the lucky ones.

Phones don't take nice pictures in dark places.

They don't take nice ones in the shade with a bright background either.

Oh well, its better than nothing.

Steve's reaction to having to go on It's a Small World.

My reaction.

Obviously, you can tell who went here is a kid and still has loving feelings to all things Disney and who does not.

My favorite part of the day was eating at the same restaurant my parents took me to when I was little, The Blue Bayou.

It is located in the same building as the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

I remember my dad saying he knew how the restaurant got it's name.  The patrons would look at their bill, turn blue, open their wallets and say "Bye You" as they handed over their cash.

I smiled when I looked at our bill "ouch" and thought of my dad.

I appreciated Steve letting me go again.  The food was delicious and the place air conditioned and quiet.  

It was worth it.

We had a WONDERFUL time.  It was Steve's first time at Disneyland and I loved taking him on his maiden voyage.  We truly want to come back...and if they are really lucky, we might bring our kids.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end.

My end was the California Screaming roller coaster at California Adventure.

My inner ears apparently do not like going from 0-60 mph in 2 seconds.  

After resting for 30 minutes or so, I admitted I didn't want to go on any more rides, even the Tower of Terror that we already had fast passes for.  Steve admitted that he was only going on that ride because I wanted to and that he thought he had blisters on his feet.  Turns out he did have blisters, so we walked back to our hotel, soaked in the pool, went out to dinner and then watched a movie.

We ditched Disney at night for comfort.

We are old.

We don't care.

...we'll just start our day later next time.

Weekend Away

Steve and I left this weekend on the dime of another Dental 

Company.  They want to make money so they send us places.  

I'm completely ok with it.

We left our kids with Grandma Dixon and Aunt Cara and enjoyed a weekend away.

I'm currently catching up on everything I was not here to do.

This place is a pigsty.

But...here is a clue of where we were.

(PS.  We are CRAPPY picture takers.  We packed extremely light and my camera phone is all we had. This was about the best we got.)

More to follow when I've tackled the mountains of laundry oozing out of my laundry room.

Early Mother's Day Present

Steve bought me two certificates for hanging plants at Rock Creek Growers out in Kimberly.

He gave them to me early because I knows how much I love hanging flower baskets...and Mother's Day is just to far away to wait.

It feels like spring now.

I also have ordered a few plant from a friend and will be planting amazing blooms in my planters and front flower beds.  They have to wait a few more weeks though.

I'm crossing my fingers I can keep everything alive this year.

ps...we are loving the no-wasp front porch.  

Those exterminators were worth EVERY penny.

Colby's 6th Birthday

My youngest son turned six on the 25th of April!

He was pretty excited about it.

He ordered a new big wheels and a store bought cake.

Pretty easy request if you ask me.

He also wanted to go to Burger King for lunch and dinner...and go swimming.

I'm proud to say that all his birthday wishes came true.

(I'm I proud he ate nothing but junk that day?  No...but I didn't have to fix any meals so I got over the guilt quickly.)

 The cake from the store.  

I let Colby put in his own candles because six year olds are old enough to do that!

 I also let him get away with eating sprinkles off the cake.  But, only because it was his birthday.

 Colby wanted to go shopping and pick out his new big wheels.  The toy store didn't have exactly what he wanted, but they did have something better.  It's called an Easy Glider (or Easy Rider-I can't remember) and  is powered by pushing your feet back and forth.  Colby is already WAY too fast on it and scares me to death every time he goes around a corner.

He also picked out his present from Grandma Walker. 

He is in love with his stuffed wolf and new Tonka garbage truck. 

 Grandma Dixon gave him COLD HARD CASH.  

He was elated!

Happy Birthday my darling six year old!  

We love you to pieces!

...and just for history sakes, here are Andrew and Carter when they turned six.

You can tell what kind of mother I used to be.  I used to make cakes for my children.  They were huge and fabulous with the first child, and then diminished with the second.  The third child gets cakes form the store.  I must be getting tired in my old age.

Andrew Stephen Dixon 

Age 6

Richmond, Va

Carter Dean Dixon

Age 6

Twin Falls, Idaho

crappy grainy pictures

I have a love/hate relationship with the camera on my phone.

Love:  It is with me always and I can capture moments that I would normally miss because I refuse to drag my big camera around as an accessory.  

For example:

Picture of Colby with his teacher after passing out treats for his 6th birthday!  

(What?  Colby is 6?  When in the world did that happen?)

Hate:  Most pictures indoors are grainy and blurry...I hate using a flash even worse.

For example again:

Love:  I can take picture and send them to my spouse at anytime and tell him how much we miss him. (Brag that he is not at Cafe Rio eating salads and donuts.)

Hate:  It is now documented for all time that I bought my kids donuts for lunch so I could eat Cafe Rio with friends in peace.

 Love:  Saved forever is the memory of cousins eating lunch together in happiness.

 Hate:  Once again showing that my kids eat junk food most of the time.

Love:  Darling moment frozen in time of my children sitting happily together on a family outing.

Hate:  It proved that we spent all this money on our flower beds...but they still look like garbage.

Winner

I have failed to mention that my childrens' poor mouth pleading actually worked.

Steve won a CVT rooftop tent.  

I'm referring to it as "Death on a Land Cruiser" as is surely does not look safe to me.

The kids are in precarious camping equipment heaven.

The funny thing is that Steve did not win the popularity contest that the facebook voting called for. We are facebook losers (I'm grateful for this) and knew we were defeated before the contest even began.

However, the owner of CVT took a liking to my children, especially  Carter Dean, and awarded a demo tent to Steve because, and I quote, "Those little boys deserved it."  

Thank goodness my children are cute on camera because they now get to sleep in this.

The owner of of CVT delivered Steve's tent to my sister's home in Boise.  It was there he told my mom and my sister how cute he thought Carter was and how Carter HAD to have a tent. 

...now if only his big brown eyes and fluttery eyelashes could get him a collage scholarship.

Much to my dismay, the tent is very room and posh as tents go.  

I have a feeling I will have to sleep in it before the summer is over.  

The kids are planning on camping out this weekend come hell or high water, even if it means sleeping in our drive way.  I haven't told them yet, but I've already purchased the smore's stuff in honor of their maiden camping voyage.  I'm looking forward to many quiet weekends with just Say and I at home.

But I'm planning on worrying a lot.

Someone is going to fall and break a limb for sure.

(I'll bet you a thousand bucks his name is Colby.)

**********

This afternoon a clean cut young man came to my door bearing pictures of venomous bugs and dangerous rodents.  He asked if I would like to hear about his pest control services all while dodging wasps buzzing his head.  I would have been able to say no if it wasn't for the wasp nest being built directly above my front door.  I'm thinking that guy planted the nest.

I caved and forked over Andrew's first year of college tuition all so I wouldn't have to hear my kids squeal if fear over the mass swarms of wasps on our porch.  They have taken over my black shutters at the front of my house in past years and then texted their ground burrowing cousins about the prime real estate.  Last year we were all afraid to use our front door.  The black widows setting up shop on the front  step was the kicker.  I don't like those little black spiny legged suckers.

I just paid to have them all killed in a hopefully cruel chemical way.  

Goodbye dear insects.  I will not miss thee.