I'll Have the Early Bird Special

I know that it has been forever since I posted, but I am basking in the wonderfulness of not having to go to high school anymore. Besides, I have been busy with a job, 2 houses, 2 dogs, a husband, a college student, 2 gardens, YW presidency, visiting teaching and MS. So after a particularly busy and tiring day, I got something in the mail that was just the cherry on top.

Now I know why the waitress at Village Inn gave us a 10% discount the other day. We are (expletive deleted) senior citizens!! Of course, that it what I get for going to Village Inn for dinner.

The Happiest Day of My Life

I can't believe it has finally come. It is a day I have been waiting for since August of 1994. Our last child, the beautiful Kathleen Marie Sykes, graduated from West High.



We started at West with Rachel as a 7th grader in the ELP program in 1994; Sarah in 1996, Rob in 2000, and Kathleen in 2005. Our roots at West go back even further. My parents, Frances Dibble and Scott McKay, were West high graduates.

A friend of mine told me that even though I am ecstatic right now about never having to get up at 6:30 am and beat a child to school (metaphorically speaking), one day I will drive by the school and get a little wistful, perhaps even teary-eyed, as I think back on all the memories of good times at West.

No more parent-teacher conferences, cross-country meets, tennis matches, dance concerts, back-to-school nights, A Capella trips and dinner/auction fund raisers. No more PTA meetings and folding parties for the school newsletter. No more swim meets, fines, automated calls telling me my student was absent or tardy one or more periods today. No more children telling me it was their sibling that was tardy or absent one or more periods today. No more trying to figure out if it was a red or black day and when each child was supposed to be home and why they were home early. No more homework, IB/AP tests, USBSCT tests, CRT's. No more online classes, no more worrying if the grades would get to the registrar on time to qualify for graduation. No more bad school pictures.

In other words, one less source of stress in my life.

Congratulations, Kathleen (and me!). We graduated.

Once a Panther (and Panther Parent), always a Panther.

I Can't Help Myself.

I just couldn’t help myself. I walked into Costco with the sole intent of buying dishwasher detergent tablets, pool chlorine, 3 oz. cups, and Soft Soap. There is something about the air in Costco . It must be thinner because I start thinking fuzzily. My eyes glaze over and my willpower disappears. I was shocked when the bill at check out came to $320!!! Looking over my purchases I came home with the soap, the cups, the chlorine (that was $100), the detergent, pool shock, dog food, 2 blouses, and James Patterson New Book!!!!
At least I know I am not the only one with the problem. Bob went last week and bought dog food, cleaning supplies, cheese, chicken salad, 2 flats of raspberries, bratwurst, Advil, fish oil tablets, and a whole bunch of Kleenex. The past Wednesday he went to buy stuff for the office. He came back with chocolate caramel macadamia nuts, chocolate covered almonds, gummy bears, a box of lunch size chips packages, multigrain chips, vegetable chips, tortilla chips, peanuts, mixed nuts, Pepsi, Fuze drinks, cheese/cheese cracker sandwiches, and a 2-gallon container of animal crackers!!
This is why I don’t send Bob to the store. I ask for eggs; I get eggs, Oreos, lentil soup, sugar cookies, 3 kinds of bread and Vanilla Coke Zero. And cheese balls.
So much for the grocery budget this month.

You Can Go Home Again

I am a little behind the times, but I just got these pictures so it is ok. In March, we (aka Debbie McPhie Brown) arranged a little reunion for my old high school from Beavercreek Ohiol. At least those people we could find. It was so much fun and just as though we hadn't ever been away. Debbie just sent the pictures and WE HAVEN'T CHANGED A BIT!!!


Becky McPhie Reeder was not able to attend (He son was getting married and for some reason, she chose that over our reunion. However, she and her husband took a road trip and ended up in Beavercreek and took some picture for us. Here she is in front of the high school.

This is our high school. It looks smaller and a little newer. I think it has a new facade.

This is where we went to church. These are days that changed my life. It never dawned on me until really just a few months ago, that I must have gone to church smelling like an ashtry. My dad was a heavy smoker and when you live with it, you don't notice it, but others can. No one ever said anything, and everyone was so loving and inclusive. I don't think I would have been the person I am without these friends.

Speaking of these friends, here we are. From the left front: Me, Mendy Simpson Conner, Teresa Daley Love, Wendy Van Waggoner Dyck, Debbie McPhie Brown. Left Back: Charles David Graham (who reminded me of my first day driving to seminary - backed out of the garage with the car door open and tore the door off the car -- I have spent the last 35 years trying to forget), Cynthia Newbold (can't remember her married name), the famous Bruce Newbold - whose voice is so distinctive that I can't watch the temple film without thinking of high school days), and Kathleen McKay Lewis.

Happy Days!

I'm so dizzy!

Friday morning, I woke up and sat on the edge of my bed and literally fell over!! I have not been able to function at all. I know that spending days in bed seems like a lot of fun, but it gets really boring really fast.

I have caught up on all the Millennium episodes, watched The Chorus (a delightful French film -- even if you have to read the subtitles, it was delightful), tivo's a whole bunch of NCIS and Cold Case and have just laid in bed watching TV.

I've been so dizzy, I can't even read a book for more than a few minutes. And you all know how I like to read!!

Our bishop came over to help give me a blessing and mentioned something about crystals that grow in your cochliar canal in the ear and if one gets dislodged it can throw you off balance. The only cure for that is to have the doctor hit you on the head a few times. Dr. Taylor said he didn't want to do that because he was afraid I might hit him back. I did smack Bob on the back of the head just in case he gets any bright ideas. Anyway, Dr. T thinks it is a virus, not an enhancement of my MS. (I know that enhancement seems like a good thing, but it isn't) Dr. T gave me a sea-sick patch and said that might help. When I read the insert that came with the patch, one of the side-effects really jumped out at me. This patch could make you DIZZY!!

Hopefully, I will be better by Wednesday when I am in charge of Mutual. I'll keep you posted just in case you want to know.

PS. Emily Jones - It may have to be Paris/Rome in 2010, though I am never tired of London.

PPS. Aunty Kate - yes, I took a self defense class at BYU. About all I can do with what I learned it smack Bob on the back of the head. I did learn to flip someone over if they were sitting on the couch right next to me and I was sitting higher than the assailant and he weighed hardly anything.

PPPS. Aunty Kate - Hello! Wedding announcement in the Auburn Times. Also, didn't you go on the handcart trek from the boonies to the Kent Ward? Our picture was in the paper then, too.

My Life so Far

These are a few of the things I have done since I was this child's age (that's me in 3rd grade). I copied this from Cyd Carter's blog. To participate just copy and paste in your own blog or email me, and bold all of the things you have done.(I put all the things I have done in red)

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band Rock Band counts?)

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain - Ensign Peak is a small mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb - does a lamb chop count?

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen an eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise -a dinner cruise.

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving - why jump out of a perfectly good airplane?

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar - not my favorite - ranks right up there with snails.

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone- only if toe bones count!

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating - a fish?

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury - called but never chosen

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

Hannah Montana is Not Awful

That is not to say it is great either. Bob really, really wanted to go to a movie and he wanted to see this. So we humored him, and found that we were more entertained than by the last 2 movies we saw (Faster & Furiouser, and Knowing). I didn't intend for my blog to turn into the movie review of the week when there are so many other things to blog about -- the state of the economy, war, the Obama puppy (finally!!). But the dismal state of the movie pickings the last couple of years is a really important thing to rant about. I really can't count more than a handful of really good movies since Harry Potter. Oh, Slumdog was great and Dark Knight was pretty good. And Race to Witch Mountain was really fun. And Hannah Montana was not awful. Not a rousing recommendation, but 2 stars for the tween girls and no stars for the rest of us.

Honestly, if you saw Kathleen Sykes on the stage with a blond wig, wouldn't you say, "hey, that's Kathleen with a blond wig!"

I will post about something truly important next time.