I finally did it!

I finally made some strawberry freezer jam. I've been wanting to for years and I keep asking my mom how it's made and I keep forgetting. Finally, I bought a big box of strawberries and I knew that we weren't going to eat them all before they went bad. So I got a couple boxes of Sure-Jell and it had the recipe in it. It was so fast and easy. I'm definitely doing this every year. Now I just need to make some homemade bread to put it on.

Yay for Wal-Mart! Sort of.

A new Wal-Mart just opened up by my house. I went there this morning. It started out really nice. Everything was new and clean. I learned the new layout. Everything was good. I went to the check out line. There were several check out lines opened up. Hardly any lines at all. Yay! This should be so fast! I chose one with 1 person in the line. Her stuff was placed up on the belt. I waited patiently for her stuff to start moving so I could put mine up there too. The cashier didn't have the belt set to move forward. It felt like forever, but finally it started to move. I looked for one of those separators to put between my stuff and hers. There weren't any. Oh, there they are. Two of them. The lady in front of me has them both. She has 3 transactions. By the time her first group is done she realizes she bought too much. She starts looking through her bags to take things off of her bill. Search, search, find. Beep. Search, search, find. Beep. She removes about 5 items. Still trying to think positive, I think, "Well, at least she is good and sticking to her budget. That's what I should be more like." Then her next two transactions are WIC. Hello, this is a new employee. She doesn't know how to do crazy stuff like that. Take your WIC stuff to an older Wal-Mart where they know how to do it. Just kidding. I guess they need to learn here too. I look in the lanes next to me. Lines three people long come and go before my eyes. One person is in line behind me. We haven't moved for a very long time. Oh wait, the person behind me is leaving now. I can't leave since my stuff is all up on the belt. I guess I can leave but I know as soon as I get all my stuff back in the cart, the line will move forward. Another person gets in line behind me. We still don't move for ages. She ends up leaving too. The lady in front of me is spinning her child around making a piercing noise. I want to plug my ears, but I don't. Her two older kids steal balloons from the nail salon's opening day display. The lady starts playing a new game with her baby, where she goes close to the debit card machine and then pulls him away saying, "DON'T GET IT! DON'T GET IT!" as loud as she can. Over and over. Does she think we can't hear her? The whole store hears her! Finally she jams her baby's fingers on the machine so he starts crying. A beautiful crying noise instead of her crazy lady voice. I look at the lanes next to me again. Entire lines have come and gone again. Finally she is done! My turn! Wow, I don't know how they do that WIC stuff but it sure takes a long time. The whole time being in the line I am holding my toddler, since she is done with the cart, and my arms are starting to feel like lead. My transaction moves quickly and I get everything put back into my cart. I toss one final bag under the bottom so it doesn't squash anything. Pushing the cart one-handed is not easy. Especially when I get outside on the slightly slanted parking lot. The cart keeps pulling toward the cement curbing and I have to steer it with one hand and one foot. Finally I get too close to one of the curbs and it bumps a little. The bag on the bottom spills open and items roll out onto the parking lot. I put down my toddler and warn her to stay by me as I clean up my items. A Wal-Mart employee walks by me and watches me put my things back into the bag. "Thanks for your help," I think in my head. Exasperated, I get everything put in my car and buckle up the baby. WHEW!!

I definitely need an attitude adjustment. But why, oh why, do I always choose the lane that takes half an hour?!

A sad Friday

Yesterday I went to the funeral of my little baby nephew, Paul. He was just over a week old. He was named after my dad Paul who passed away 30 years ago. His name was picked out by my brother and sister-in-law way before he arrived. It was a normal, healthy pregnancy for my sister-in-law. He had complications at birth and wasn't able to stay with us here on Earth. He was such a sweet little angel baby. While he was here he was read to, sung to, prayed for and loved more than words can describe. His mission in life was to gain a body. He did that. A beautiful, strong body. Now he is in Heaven with his grandpa and many other relatives fulfilling his mission there.

"Each of us will have our own Fridays--those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.

"But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death--Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.

"No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or in the next, Sunday will come."

- Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

Shows I wish were still on the air:

1. Arrested Development - Funniest show ever made. It was hard to watch it regularly while it was on air because they kept changing the time and days that it showed. I heard there might be a movie in the works which will be exciting but I just wish that I could see a new episode every week. It was genius. Plus Jason Bateman is heavenly to look at.

2. Studio 60 - I loved this show. It was pretty much the only drama show that I ever wanted to watch regularly. I'm so sad that it ended so soon. It might have been overlooked because the show 30 Rock came out at the same time and they were both about comedy sketch shows. I do love 30 Rock too, but I guess since it had so much attention, no one watched Studio 60. I loved Matthew Perry in it too. I thought he would be too Chandler-y but he was perfect.

3. Punky Brewster - I know I have talked about this before, but I seriously miss it! Just the other day, a while after my kids were home from school, I was getting ready to make dinner and I just had the biggest urge to turn on Punky Brewster for my kids to watch it (and me). Maybe I was having a sort of flashback from when I was younger watching it in between the school/dinner time. Ohhh... I really need to buy the boxed set or something. It's just such a part of me. Does anyone know what channel it used to play on? Fox wasn't around back then was it? Was it on one of the main channels like CBS, ABC, or NBC? I can't remember, but now there are no kids shows on after school except for PBS and cable. We for sure didn't have cable growing up and I'm pretty sure it wasn't on PBS. It must have been on one of the main channels. All I remember was that Silver Spoons was on right after it.

Cute pronunciations

Addie: wants "tanny" every day (candy)

Ben: had a "scabeger" hunt at school

Elli: saw a hyena on TV and said "that's a cayeto!"

It's funny being a mom.

Just a little vent

Not a day goes by that I'm not annoyed at the pick up/drop off loop at the school. 95% of the time it is for one reason: people stopping in the "keep moving" lane. The school sends home a note at the beginning of each year telling people to not stop in this lane. Kids could get hurt, it backs up the lines, and it's very annoying to others. It's just like butting in line. All the people who are in the correct stopping lane picking their kids up the right way will have to wait for the people who come after them and let their kids cross two lanes to get to their car and they will block everyone behind them in both lanes until they are done and then they will get to leave before everyone else. (They come at the last minute to pick up). ANNOYING!! I know I have used the word "annoying" three times in this post, now four. But that's exactly what it is.

I have never liked butters. As young as I can remember in school, I have realized that it's not fair. All through high school, I disliked anyone who butt in line. And now as an adult, I still don't like it. But I have never dared say anything, ever. Recently, with the school thing, I have become a honker. Good for me for being assertive, bad for me for being rude. Maybe it's cause I have my car to hide inside that I am braver. I am a little nervous that the person who I honk at will be someone I know, or that I will have to work with later on (helping in class, etc.) But maybe they deserve it. Don't stop in the "keep moving" lane. Thank you.