Basketball season ends...

I love it when my boys play on teams. I love it when they learn new skills. I love it when they get their hands on the ball and shoot and feel happy and we get to take them out for a treat. I love that there's something to do on cold wintery January days when no one wants to leave the house. I actually like the smell of gymnasiums. Guess it brings back good memories of the old gymnastics days. But most of all, I love it when it's OVER! YAY! I HAVE MY SATURDAYS BACK! (another reason that I'm a bad mom...)

Speaking of basketball, once in a while Aaron will score a few Jazz tickets from subcontractors. Of course, it is intended to "express appreciation to the Okland management staff" or something like that, but let's get real. It's big time "schmoozing." These are good seats. Last time Aaron got tickets, he took Zach with him to the game. Zach was duly impressed with the concierge service. Nothing like lobster legs and free refills of sprite brought to you by a kind and personal attendant. The view was pretty good, too. I hope they enjoyed it, because I don't think I could ever bring myself to pay what these tickets were worth:
Do you see that? That's $1200 PER TICKET! $2400!!! Oh, the silly things men do to impress each other. On the plus side, Zach and Aaron really did enjoy themselves. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does, we love the perks!

Am I a bad mom...

because I let my Levi have mac n cheese for breakfast?

Don't you love it when brothers love each other?

Levi has decided (now that he has a "big boy bed" that is easy to get in and out of) that he loves to sleep with his brother. More often than not, when I go in their bedroom to check on them, Levi has climbed in with his brother Jacob. The practical side of me thinks "Pick Levi up and put him back in his bed, they will both sleep better..." But the tender heart side of me is just so happy that they are happy to be close to each other. And when they share a bed, no one comes in to get me up in the middle of the night because they've had a bad dream.

Oh, by the way, ignore their red faces... Levi had a fight with his dump truck (he face-planted into the metal truck while pushing it at high speeds down the hallway) and Jacob has a dry-skin rash. He won't stop licking his lips!!! Just feel the love!

Christie vs. the smoke detector

I know it's been a while since I last posted anything here on my blog. It is so discouraging when I know there is so much that I want to document and I start feeling like there is too much and I don't have enough time, so then I just get further behind, and it becomes a vicious cycle... I have decided to just get back on the wagon, and start posting again... And eventually I will post about last summer in Nauvoo, or our camping trip to Goblin Valley, and maybe even Christmas! But as a warm up, here's my story about our smoke detector adventure...



The smoke detector and I had somewhat of a disagreement last night. You see, I went to bed, really tired and ready for a good night's sleep, but my feet were cold. Being tired, I thought "I'll just lay here, surely I'll warm up..." Of course, that didn't happen, and I lay there cold wishing my feet would get warm for about an hour. It is a good lesson as to why one should never make important decisions when they're tired. I think of it this morning, and go "Duh, stupid, get up and put some warm socks on..." But when I'm tired, all rational thinking goes out the window. Finally, I go to sleep, and have happy dreams about baking bread in the crock pot (it was a dream, it doesn't have to make sense.) In my dream, the timer to the crock pot goes off. "Chirp Chirp." I get open the crock pot and start spooning out the bread (once again, it's a dream...) and the timer goes off again. "Chirp Chirp." I start to get mad at my crock pot, when the timer goes off again. "Chirp Chirp." I open my eyes, and the timer goes off again. "Chirp Chirp." I realize that it's the low battery warning in our smoke detector, so I nudge Aaron and ask, "Do you hear that?" "Chirp Chirp." He mumbles yes, and I assume that means "Never fear, love of my life. I will save the day and stop the chirping." I was obviously mistaken in my assumption, for mere moments later, my sweet bedmate is snoring. "Chirp Chirp." "Chirp Chirp." "Chirp Chirp." "Chirp Chirp." The same rationale that made me lay in bed for over an hour with cold feet took over. "If I face away from the sound, it will go away." "Chirp Chirp." "If I pull the blankets over my ears, I will be able to go back to sleep." "Chirp Chirp." "If I just think happy thoughts, all will be well." "Chirp Chirp." "If I wait long enough, Aaron will fix this..." "Chirp Chirp." Finally at 3:30 am, I jump out of bed growling at the stupid "Chirp Chirp." I go to the laundry room, find a new battery, start a new batch of laundry (after all, it wouldn't be mothering if I weren't multitasking), grab the step stool, and go stand under the smoke detector to listen for the "Chirp Chirp." The offending detector is located in the hallway. "Chirp Chirp." I climb up the stool and remove the old battery. "Chirp Chirp." I try to install the new battery and realize that I am blind, so I go back to find my glasses. "Chirp Chirp." I can now see where the positive and negative go an click the battery in. "Chirp Chirp." What the Crap!?!? I push the reset button. "Chirp Chirp." I push the "hush" button. "Chirp Chirp." I push the test button. "Chirp Chirp." I yell at the detector. Aaron, now roused by my cursing at the detector, asks if I need help. "Seriously? I needed help 3 hours ago when this all started!!!!" "Chirp Chirp." Aaron comes out in his underwear and asks me if I have the battery in correctly. "Chirp Chirp." "Yes, do you think I'm stupid?" (I'll admit, patience was gone at this point.) "Chirp Chirp." Aaron takes the battery out, re-installs it, and is rewarded by a "Chirp Chirp." He pushes all the buttons I have pushed, only to hear "Chirp Chirp" coming in 10 second increments, instead of the 30 second "Chirp Chirps" we've been hearing all night. So he takes it off the ceiling to look at the hard-wiring. "Chirp Chirp." Yup, still connected. "Chirp Chirp." Sadly, the connecting plate has also come off of the ceiling, so I go out into the garage to get screwdrivers to reconnect the thing to the ceiling. "Chirp Chirp." We get it all put back together, reinstalled, and it won't stop chirping!!! So finally Aaron decides to disconnect the whole thing. He takes it off of the ceiling again, and uses the screwdriver to disconnect the wiring. "Chirp Chirp." Thoroughly annoyed, he turns it over and takes the battery out and hands it to me, smiling because that should solve the problem. "Chirp Chirp." "Chirp Chirp." REALLY??? THE THING HAS NO POWER SOURCE!!!! "Chirp Chirp." At this point I don't know whether to laugh or cry, so I do a little of both. We decide that it is possessed, toss it into the garage, and go back to bed. For all I know, it's still chirping happily out there.

So there. That's the most interesting that's happened to me recently. How about you all?