Alive to wrestle another day

The fun never ends around here. We are at another wrestling tournament this weekend--only instead of getting to sleep in our own beds between days we are in a hotel whose proximity is right next to the train tracks. I have already heard the train once and am hoping that once i fall asleep i will be tired enough not to hear anything till my wake up call.

Up to this point all the tournaments we have attended have been team based, meaning you win and lose as a complete team. These are fun since you get to see all the boys wrestle together and it helps build team unity. As a whole we have a pretty good team and the more the team wins the more matches the boys have to improve their records.

Now this tournament is a tad different. It is an individual tournament--double elimination--so you can only lose twice before you are out.

It is an EXTREMELY

(In bold type for emphasis)
hard tournament. It doesn't matter the size of your school--so we wrestle teams from all across the state and even a few out of state teams. So how did today go for my guy? Not bad....He won his first and then lost to the #1 seed. This kid that he lost to is ranked nationally--we did not expect him to win--but he also did not get stuck--that right there is a victory--minor but a victory. He won his next match which means it is another night of watching what he eats, and running so he can make weight in the morning. Sometimes that weight thing can be your toughest opponent.

my mild mannered son-as seen throwing someone around and then stickin' it to em'

We are looking forward to another long day--hopefully filled with some more wins........Wish us Luck

train #2 just came rattling by with its horn blowing--might be a long night....make that 3 and 4.....

VERY Exciting News

I had just received the text. In reading it you could hear the excitement in her voice--she was thrilled but it was the actual phone call with the squeal of delight
"I am going to Africa" she said,
more than once as to let the realness of that statement sink in. Only a week ago it was an idea, a thought, and now it has become a reality. She is so excited--and so am I--excited for her to have this life changing opportunity--to see the world--to experience another country and culture, but I wouldn't be honest if i didn't say I am letting my first born go with some sadness and fear and trepidation in my heart. She is going more than half way around the world without me....she is leaving the nest and flying far far away---it's only for a month but still.... We have a passport to get, money to raise and shots to be had in just a short time. I think these next few months are going to fly by......

If you want to read more about the organization that she is going with or even donate some money for her adventure check out this site--she leaves June 13......and then the adventure will really start

Sigh of relief

this is me breathing a deeeeepppp sigh of relief
AHHHHHHHHHHH.......
I am happy to report that the little mans aug com device made a reappearance today. I couldn't be happier---as I am sure the school feels the same way--since it was lost in their care. I have yet to figure out how to eliminate this in the future from happening again....short of him actually talking we will be using this for awhile.....

The grinch who stole Christmas

This was a day we have been waiting for with great anticipation. Every child remembers the day they get their first "bike". For most of my children that day came on Christmas with squeals of delight--and while I would have loved to have had little man's bike under the tree this year, it didn't quite work out that way. Unlike my other children i was unable to swing into the local Target or Wal-mart to pick up his first bike. We started jumping through bike hoops back in June and were hopeful that just maybe it would be here by his birthday in September--as that date came and went we were then wishing for Christmas--and just before Christmas we received a notice that it was coming in the next few weeks---we were elated! All the patience of waiting for the communication device and the bike was finally paying off. We received the Aug com and it was a happy day--a very happy day. Today he finally received his bike
--and while he is thrilled and has had a wonderful afternoon going up and down the block(with help)
i have had a sick feeling in my gut for most of the day. We found out that the Aug com device that we waited a year and a half for has vanished--disappeared. He loves his Aug com and wants to use it every chance he gets. He loves to tell us what he wants--and when he can focus he is spot on. The idea was that he would use this device at both home and at school. We started sending it back and forth last week and then on Friday he didn't come home with it--I was hoping that it had been left in the classroom and found out today that was not the case. It had made it to the bus and somewhere between the school and home it managed to disappear. I am hoping that it was inadvertently given to the wrong child and will show up--but i am still checking Craig's list and e-bay. So while we are thrilled that little man now has wheels to cruise up and down the block-- i would trade that for his opportunity to communicate---everything has a perspective and i am trying to maintain a positive attitude about this---things could always be worse....but right now it kinda feels like the Grinch has stolen a bit of our long awaited Christmas joy......

Health assesment

In order to receive a discount on our health insurance they ask us to do a health assessment, so today i have been online answering those probing questions. I find some irony as i am doing this while lying in bed--self diagnosed with STREP(yes i was assessing my own health)--i figure if the back of my throat is covered with white spots it is not a good thing and i need to take care of it before it gets worse. I have too much going on to get sick--problem is that I need to do much today and am not moving--at least not very fast. (Hopefully one day will not be enough to put me behind.)--Back to the assessment--it didn't tell me anything i didn't already know--or anything that the WII hadn't told me--although it was a bit kinder in its approach. It did make me feel good to check that i have fewer than 1/or none drinks a week and that i never touched cigarettes. And then there is the statement that I almost always wear a seat belt--at least that makes me safe when i talk on my phone--eat while driving and am distracted by the kids----none of which was mentioned in the test---thank goodness that omission was left out or i would have gotten an even worse score......

beautiful burritos

I am a simple person. It does not take much to make me happy. Food, a warm bed and a nap on a Sunday afternoon, all fit my description of a perfect day. All of these things came together today. With being gone most of the weekend at a wrestling tournament there was not much to be had in the food department--plus we were going to the grandparents house this afternoon for some "heart attack french toast"(appropriately named since it is dipped in cream, fried in Crisco and has a stick of butter added to the syrup--can you say YUMMY!!!!) Not wanting to spoil my appetite for this taste sensation but in need of something to tie me over, my dear son with use of his wonderful pan whipped up some sausage egg and cheese burritos. He used the last four eggs in the house and instead of putting the Valentina's hot sauce on the eggs he mixed it in. He also grilled the tortillas to give them that "authentic" look. It was the perfect snack to tie us over till the real feast came...one more item to be added to his ever growing list of specialties.

Beauty

My father used to always say
"Beauty is only skin deep--

but ugly runs all the way through" .....
That statement has stuck with me---it has been my mantra as to the way i try to treat people.
Some of thee most beautiful woman i know are not necessarily what you would call natural beauties or beautiful in the physical sense--but it is their beauty from the inside that exudes and you see past their physical "flaws" to really appreciate their inner beauty.

Beauty is as beauty does.....
Tonight there was a new reality show on that had to do with peoples beauty-- only these people who are on it think it is about their outer beauty- and most of them have failed to cultivate their true inner beauty.

The real sad thing is that when the true intent of the show was explained to the contestants who were eliminated and they still did not get it--that while they were "beautiful" on the outside what they really wanted to see was their inner beauty

“No object is so beautiful that,

under certain conditions,

it will not look ugly."

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.....

I find it interesting and sad on what they value as beauty--
it is purely the physical--and some have altered their god given beauty in hopes of obtaining what the world currently views as beautiful. Years ago(actually more like centuries) in my full figured beauty i would have been considered beautiful--I have always said i am more of a Renaissance woman, but now days thin is in--is a bony figure beautiful? And what about all this "body art" and piercings? Will they still be beautiful after our bodies start to sag....

Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good. ---Lao-Tzu
And what about the way we speak to others--some of the things that come out of our mouths are far from beautiful. Wouldn't it be interesting if the words that came out of our mouth had pictures attached to them. What would the things we say to our family look like? Would we think more about the things we said if they were daggers? Or maybe covered in filth? Or what if our language was full of sunshine and flowers? I have heard the phrase "Vomit of the mouth" and while that is a very visual description it does explain what some people have coming out of their mouths. So the question is "What words do we value as beautiful?" and do the things that come out of my/our mouths--do they make us beautiful or ugly?
Have you ever wondered which hurts the most: saying something and wishing you had not,
or saying nothing, and wishing you had?

Do the clothes make the man?

Fashion is what you adopt when you don't know who you are.
~Quentin Crisp

How we choose to cloth ourselves gives the world the opportunity to judge us. While it might not be a fair judgement in how we are assessed our clothing speaks volumes--good or bad.

Clothes can suggest, persuade, connote, insinuate, or indeed lie, and apply subtle pressure while their wearer is speaking frankly and straightforwardly of other matters.
~Anne Hollander

I find it interesting how people put so much value in name brands. Some feel that the more you spend the more it is worth--and while i agree that some things are better made and are more valuable i truly believe a t-shirt is a t-shirt.

Know, first, who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly.
~Epictetus

Again it does not matter how beautiful you are dressed if what you are covering with those clothes is an inferior product. We need to be the best person we can be on the inside--that is what we will be judged by...

If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies.... It would be a sad situation if the wrapper were better than the meat wrapped inside it.
~Albert Einstein

I love the fact that i believe/know that I am a daughter of god. It helps me appreciate the blessings i have. I know that my heavenly father loves me know matter what. I was created in his image--he thinks i am beautiful. It is my responsibility to be as beautiful on the inside as he knows i can be.

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgsen Burnett :
"'Whatever comes,' she said, 'cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it.

We need to appreciate the blessings we have been given and be willing to help those who are down on their luck--by thinking of others it makes us more beautiful

I had the blues because I had no shoes until upon the street,
I met a man who had no feet.
---
Ancient Persian Saying

We are all beautiful people--it is up to us to cultivate it in ourselves and each other.I think about the savior---was he what you would consider a beautiful person? I tend to think not. He was born of humble means, no beautiful clothes adorned his body. He lived modestly. Those that were drawn to him did so because of his spirit--the knowledge he had of who he was and what his purpose was here on this earth--he was beautiful--but his beauty came from the inside

If honor be your clothing,
the suit will last a lifetime,
but if clothing be your honor,
it will soon be worn threadbare.
----
William Arnot

Where did the break go to?

The quiet is deafening....
even with the TV's on for background noise....
my children are all gone...
back to school for the remainder of the year....
The holidays are over...

the tree and all things Christmas have been removed.
Playtime,sleeping in and eating poorly...
OVER.....

I am a bit sad---
sometimes life really does move too quickly.!
I want to savor those moments of unstructured life...
of just hanging with my kids--
playing games--

laughing
cherishing those moments for what they are
FLEETING!

With the start of a new year
it only serves to remind me of this fact.
We have now reached the oldest childs graduation year--

it seemed as if it was a long time in coming....
and yet....
I blinked my eyes and it is here--
in 5 short months she will be graduating
and while i will once again have all my kids home for the summer
it will be different.

We have started down the slope of the exodus...
some days i think i am ready for this
like when the busyness and stress are getting to me.
And then there are those other days--
like i had during break
where i enjoyed every--
I mean EVERY minute of my time with them.
Even cleaning was a pleasure...

I guess some things are just not as much fun by yourself....
Back to my solitude.....

.......at least i still have the dog to keep me company......

the raw truth from a machine

There is something about being insulted by an inadamant object that really hurts. This thing does not know your heart--the kind person you are inside. NOOOoooo--it is only measuring you on your physical attributes/abilities and making judgements solely based on that and nothing else--and then this object doesn't even sugar coat the judgement--you have to take it for what it is--an insult wrapped around some truth.

My mother in law--bless her soul--left her Wii fit for us to try out.

It seemed like a fun thing at the time--that was until we made a Mii for me and I did the fitness test. This thing weighs you---now i know that i am a tad bit heavy(notice the sugar coating) but in the course of this evaluation it also takes account of your body mass index---not a pretty sight---especially after evaluating me it blew up my Mii like the stay puff marshmallow man--
talk about a visual--and not a pretty one at that. Then it proceeds to put you through a battery of tests to come to the age of your body--the trumpets blew and when all was said and done i was 47--it didn't make me happy, but i sorta accepted the fact that I might kinda-sorta be a tad bit out of shape--equating in the added years. So i took the test again--hoping to shave off a few years--instead i added and was bumped up to 55---fifty five?
plus it still blew me up like i had ingested an elephant. I know i have some issues but that was just down right rude---That was it--with my children laughing I proceeded to take the test one more time--I was bound and determined that i was going to better this game--I knew what i needed to do--once again after the BMI test my Mii was inflated like a tire--(It is not quite as jarring the third time as it was the first)--but when all was said and done and the trumpets once again blared the number that popped up on the screen was one that i could live with---a lovely 26 was starring me in the face. Now that was more like it. I decided that this machine/game couldn't be all wrong--just a little abrupt in the way it dispenses the truth....I prefer mine wrapped in chocolate......

New Years day--also known as game day

I love new years day---sleeping in--or not--watching movies and napping--or not--or just hanging out with the family---playing games. I figured since we went to bed around 1:30 (including little man) we would all be good to sleep in till at least 10am--but NOoooo. We were up around 8:30-9. We picked up the house from the night before and then played games as a family.

First we started with a couple of hands of Canasta--which my daughter proceeded to win-BIG. We then opted for a game the whole family could take part in and played a new version of Phase 10. If you have ever played phase 10 you know it is like "the song that never ends"--"it goes on and on and on my friends"---well this version actually has an ending--and even if you don't complete a phase you get to move on--until you get to the last phase--and then you have to complete that particular one. I was sooo far ahead of everyone--and i got stuck on that last phase and let everyone catch up and lost the game to a come from behind victory. We then pulled out and dusted off a favorite. SCATAGORIES. We have had this game for at least 17 years and used to play it all the time when we were young marrieds. I recently bought it for my niece and her husband and we played it with all the family a few days before Christmas. It was my children's first experience with the game--we had never played it with them because it is more of an older child/adult game. They loved it! With the extended family we played as teams--pairing an adult with a kid--daughter #2 was paired with her uncle--come to find out later that he would take a picture of the list and e-mail it to a friend with the chosen letter and the friend would e-mail words back to him---I had no idea that my brother in law was so devious--so competitive? I will have to talk to his bishop about that one--wait--he is the bishop---HMMM.......gotta love technology. If you have never played the game Scattagories you are given categories and then a letter and you have to find a word or set of words(for extra points) that fit--it pays to be creative in that you don't want to match anyone elses answer. You can make a case for your word and then it is voted on if it is questionable or really creative. Here is one of my favorites of the day--it left us laughing for quite awhile--the category was ATHLETIC ITEM--and the letter was "G"---so my daughter wanting to score double points put down "Groin guard". It was a good effort but having never actually seen a groin guard it was voted down--maybe that would be a good invention--HMMMM....something else to think about. We had planned on going to the movies but the majority of the family wanted to stay home and play games--so daughter #2 and I left with the grandparents and saw The curious case of Benjamin Buttons--good but a tad long--the rest of the family stayed home and played games with the other grandma. Grandma had gotten a Wii fit for Christmas but doesn't have a Wii yet so she brought it over to try out. It was fun watching everyone take turns. I will just say that some people have better balance than others--I am thinking i might actually exercise using it--I guess i would actually have to figure out how to use the Wii first--might be a slight hindrance?! Sounds like a rather fun filled game day (and not one football game was watched--miracle of miracles--since we now have a big screen and my poor husband has not watched a singe game on it yet) We had bought Seinfeld scene it for my mom's husband--

he is a bit of a Seinfeld junkie, as are my brother and my husband (I might be included in that group as well)What a better group to get together to play the game-- we made sure that the game was still sealed-making sure that no cheating had taken place--we are not a very competitive group or anything. It helps to play with a group that has never played before so you have no idea what they want from the questions. We were a bit surprised at the randomness of some of the questions--which really shouldn't have been a surprise since it was a show about "Nothing". While doing "nothing" can be fun sometimes, today was a day for spending time together---what a great way to start of the year....as family!

Other things may change us,
but we start and end with the family.
---
Anthony Brandt