Santa and the Boys

No funny story or anything to go along with this picture. It's just the kids sitting on Santa's lap. I'm thinking about framing this one though. Look at those smiles. Those are genuine smiles. Every once in a while you catch a picture where the kids smiles hold a thousand memories of genuine smiles given to you in happy moments. This one does that for me. I love these smiles. Thanks Jason for taking the picture.

Flowers

I love getting flowers. OK, so these aren't really flowers, but I love receiving them all the same. Every time Hyrum and I are out on a walk he has to get "flowers" for me. Actually you'll notice in this picture that there are four flowers. One for me, one for John, one for Alan, and one for Hyrum. I love real flowers, even though I only get them about once a year (hint, hint), but these "flowers" make me smile. I'll happily display them on my kitchen table any day.

I'm Just not Sold on Facebook

I know I am probably the last person in the world who is not on Facebook, but really, I'm not sure I want to be. I'm all about reconnecting with friends. There are a lot of people that I would love to find out how they are doing. I want to find out that they got married, that they got their phd., that their making eight bucks and hour working at the quickie mart. That’s great! I'd love to know how they are doing, but I thought that was what blogstalking was for (Come on, everybody does it. Don't worry I'm not offended that your reading my blog but you haven't left a comment to say hi, I might cry a little, but I'll get over it).

Really, there are different levels of friendship. There are the old friends that I want to keep in touch with, the ones that I'd like to know how they are doing but don't expect a Christmas card (actually that probably goes for all of you. I don't think I'm going to send out Christmas cards until I can get a decent picture of my family, so don't be surprised if you don't get your cards until March). And then there are the people that I can vaguely remember who they are. I know John’s gotten multiple friend requests on Facebook that all he really knows about the person is that they went to the same High School. Is it rude to turn down a friend request? I mean, I tell my kids they need to be friends to everyone, but do I have to live by the same rule? (Here I am fretting about too many people wanting to be my friend in my imaginary Facebook world. HA!)

When I look to see what’s on John’s Facebook page 80% of it is "Jo Mama is now friends with Suzie Q" Or "Suzie Q just changed her profile picture" The rest of it is mostly comments like "Jo Mama is tired from staying out all night" Occasionally you get great nuggets of information on what is going on in someone's life but you really have to weed out all the other stuff. Maybe you have to be on Facebook to really get it. So enlighten me. What is so great about Facebook? Who knows, maybe you’ll find me on there; I mean I didn’t ever think I would start a blog, but here I am.

Cousins!

John's sister Rebecca and her family were in town for the day on Monday. How fun! It was great to see them and spend some time together. Hyrum was so upset with them for leaving that he refused to say goodbye or even wave. We just love our cousins!

On top of Shaw Butte

So embarassed

Yesterday I couldn't find our cell phone. Of course the best way to find it is to call it. I call but can't hear it going off. Great, it's probably on silent. I get the house quiet and call again hoping to hear the vibrating sound. Still can't find it. Oh well, maybe it fell out in the car. I'll have to remember to ask John about it when he gets home. Later that afternoon I get a phone call. It's Alan's teacher "are you missing a cell phone?" Oh dear. I then remember that it was put in Alan's backpack when we went hiking on Monday and apparently we forgot to take it out. It then fell out of Alan's backpack in the classroom and I caused quite the disruption when I called. Oops! Do I get a detention for that?

Crazy Wednesday

It was time to pick up Alan from school. Buckle Hyrum in and get going. I'm almost there. I make a left turn at the only light that stands between me and the school. The light's yellow but the car is stopping. Aaaahh wait! The car that was in the other lane way behind the stopped car thought that yellow means step on the gas. Figures. Later I find out he didn't actually have a licence. --Funny side story. When I was doing my drivers training, I was heading home at the end of a driving session and I see a yellow light. Of course I slow down only to hear my driving instructor yell at me, "Speed up! Speed up! Drivers test you slow down, now you speed up."

I digress. So I hit the brakes, but luckily instead of being T-boned he just scrapes off the bumper of my van. Unluckily, the driver behind me then rear ends me. Luckily, we were only going like 10 miles an hour so the damage could have been a lot worse. I pull to the side of the road and check to see if the people behind me are hurt. They're not so I run across the street to see if everyone else is ok. Turns out he took off the bumper of another car as well. They are ok as well as the the car that hit us. I turn around and the car that rear ended me is gone. Grrr. No I didn't get any of their information. Grrrr. . . .

Well it could have been a lot worse. We are all ok, and really, the van is 15 years old. Alan was wondering why we didn't pick him up, but luckily our good neighbors were driving by, saw the van and stopped. I didn't have my cell phone with me (that's another post), so the neighbors were able to go to the school and take care of Alan. John met up with them at the school and brought the kids to meet me. Alan had tears streaming down his face when he got out of the car. I ran to him, picked him up and assured him that Hyrum and I were OK. Unfortunately, that didn't comfort him too much because it turns out he wasn't worried about us, only the van. I love you too kid.

There is a silver lining. When the firemen showed up Hyrum got a sticker, hat, and a bear.