Back from another vacation that I need another vacation.

Back from the 3rd annual family trip to Lake Powell in AZ. Again my oldest brother Mark, Nina and son Carsen couldn't come. We missed them but it was still crazy without them. It is wild trying to organize 22 people.
AZ was HOT!!! But we didn't have storms this year which was great. Only about a one day was windy. The lake was super high this year which was interesting because places looked so different. Apparently it was 40 ft higher than last year. Which made the walk to the beach much closer. AND you all must know my thoughts on that. YIPPEEE!!
This year my bro Dave and his wife Sabrina bought a inflatable for the beach called Caribbean Island. It was so much fun!! It was crazy huge.

And we did lots of boating. The kids all went crazy on the towable, "SUPER MABLE". They loved try to stand up and do tricks which was funny to watch. One nephew, who will remain nameless, fell off the tube but decided to hang on and poor guy lost his shorts. I sadly missed it, but still loved hearing about it and laughed while watching him in his towel for the rest of the boating trip. I hope it is laughing about it soon.
Sadly my Mom fell off a rock and was super hurt for most of the trip. I heard she was the one warning everyone to be careful!
This year I decided we were close to the Grand Canyon and we should make a side trip. Well it was a little further than I thought so the kids weren't too happy being in the car and not at the lake. But it was interesting, large canyon in the ground. WhooHOO!! To be honest I went to say I'd been. It was not that exciting. I love Bryce Canyon and thought Grand Canyon was a little boring. But you go through forest to get there and that was beautiful and made me miss Canada. But we got a patch to prove we went there and had an ok lunch. I think the highlight was seeing all the license plates from around the USA and Canada. We are sad little people.
So our final night we decided to go out for dinner in Page. It was late because we were out boating so long. Page resturants were crazy buzy and so we hit the Pizza Hut and took over the place. A Late night dinner with 22 people who have had too much sun, overtired, week long fun was pretty wild so it was definately time to come home. We are now tired out and need a vacation from our vacation!

The World is Ending???

Today is Sat.May 21-The world is supposely ending in one hour and eight minutes. Some people really, really believe it! I sadly don't...but doesn't it make you think?
My family has been grumpy, whiny and definately unhelpful today so not a good day for our last day. Let's just say we had a difficult morning doing Sat. chores.(they all took off and went to cousins to get away from me) But if this was my last day on earth what would I want to do with my family.
I think I would want to just love one another, just cuddle in bed watching a great family movie. Eating yummy snacks and laughing out loud. I remember days like that when we homeschooled and my kids were young. Now they argue about what's good t.v. and they don't like what the other wants to watch. Now they all seem to have plans and don't include me. Parties, babysitting, jobs, going to friends or cousins, school...they are just growing up. Each day they are older and getting closer to leaving the nest. Even though they drive me crazy daily I just want to love them and get a big hug. I realize our time on earth is short and to love even the crappy parts. Love ya kids!

Gotta Kindle

I was so loved on Mother's day and recieved a Kindle. I was so excited!! I am a huge reader and just can't ever get enough. I love books so much. I happily went to Amazon to check out books. It is so easy and fast to download books. It is the greatest thing for a book lover UNTIL you look at prices.
Buying online books is in my opinion the bestest SCAM going and all the "companies" are winning. I can't believe that ebooks cost the same as buying a hard paper book. Ebooks have no paper, no shipping, no storage, no salespeople, no ink, no fancy pictured, colored bookcover...so they only have to buy for advertising and paying the author. SO HOW CAN IT BE SO EXPENSIVE????
I can't even re-sell an ebook. And tons of the books I can buy cheaper at costco than the e version.
It is frustrating because it is unfair but then they don't want illegal downloads. I don't mind at all paying for a book but seriously let's be fair.
It shocks me that readers haven't united to stop buying books until the system changes. It seems like the world needs to gear up for the future and figure out better ways for movies, books and music. The future is here people...change to keep up! Personally I am reading the free classics...and enjoying them while I wait for the book world to grab a clue!

Feeling GREEN....finally!!

Yes, it is true. We finally got our green cards for the USA. It was a crazy, long, expensive, hard, annoying process. (fyi-apparently I say process wrong here in the USA. I say pro-cess not praaacess...weird!)
Anyway our immigration journey was a crazy one. I was on my parents papers when I was a child and aged off them. Then I got married which then made my husband my immediate family and kinda removed me from my parents..to a degree.(which makes the process longer) So my dear parents, little brother recieved their papers in about 1994ish. They followed my brother to Utah where he lived with his wife. My husband also has a brother and sister who lived in Utah with thier spouses. We wanted to follow but couldn't. So began the wait. I had to wait 5 years for my Mom to be a new immigrant then she could apply for citizenship. Once she had citizenship she could finally apply for me.(If I wasn't married she could have applied earlier...gov't stops many people from getting married I'd guess) So that took about a year to get all her paperwork worked out. Then finally my papers went in about Aug.2001. Then the wait came. When we started people's wait time was about 4 years in our catagory. Not bad we thought. So we kinda planned on about 4 years. That was a joke. The wait times just got longer and longer. Finally Aug.2010 we could start sending in the final visa papers. Each person in our family needed a thick stack of papers filled out. Truckloads of documents when there was 6 of us. We had to go to doctor's appointments, fingerprinting and the final interview. It was stressful. You hear horror stories of people's paperwork tossed because they are missing info. My husband was like a crazy man checking and rechecking them. And when we got to the interview we still had a problem...typical. They wouldn't except his birth certificate because it was a small one. They want one with his parents on it and full info. And after 17 years of marriage we found out that the certicate that we had for marrige was a church one not a "real" one. I was blown away. I am sure that is what I used to change my name and proved we were married in Canada. Well the immigration would not take it. So I was approved for a green card and so were the kids. But my dear hubby now had to prove that he was married to me. Haha!!
I had visions of my marriage not being registered and having to face that we in the eyes of the law have been *gasp* living together for 17 years!! But luckily that didn't happen. Apparently my husband still loves me and sent away to Washington state and got our marriage certificate. He also sent away for a new Canadian birth certificate. Boy they are fancy and I think they have fixed any prolems with fakes cause they are just amazing. Clear parts, holograms, plastic-y weird paper. Very cool.Oops sorry got off topic there!
So about a week later -Green cards came in the mail. Only took over 9 years from when our papers went in. Only over 16 since my parents came. Crazy!
All this time waiting...it's hard to believe that they are here. It's hard to know what we will do now. We finally are here when the economy tanks. Mortgages are hard to get. Jobs are really hard to get. But we are happy and know we should be here. Utah is home but we still miss our other home, Beautiful British Columbia.
To all my BC friend -please continue to complain about the rain frequently...it really helps me not miss there.

I am a SAD blogger

Ok I haven't written forever but I still think about blogging. I have been so busy already this summer. We took a two week vacation. I felt I learned so much. So I thought I would share a few things.
#1-Went to Martin's Cove to do a pioneer trek with my family. I learnt I can walk over 7 miles and not die. But most of all I found out that pioneer life really sucked more than I ever understood. Wyoming is constantly windy and drives you crazy! I was there in summer not freaky freezing winter. I think I would have killed myself! Snaps up to all those Mormon Pioneers!
#2-South Dakota is not that far from Utah and it is so beautiful!
#3-There is a Mammoth Site in Hot Springs South Dakota. Mammoths all fell into a hole millions of years ago and now they are digging out their bones. It was so cool. GO there!
#4- Hot Springs also has a fancy hot springs pool that cost $11 a person. If you walk around town you can find a beautiful path along the creek.In certain places you can go into the same hot springs for free. Yes it is shallow but it is much prettier with trees and sky than the $11 swim indoors!
#5 Custer State Park is a hidden gem!
#6 Mt. Rushmore is an amazing feat. You see pictures and are amazed but real life is gobsmakking! And the drives through the black hills are so wild! We went through a tunnel and as we started getting to the end we realized it framed Mt. Rushmore. Super Cool!
#7 Ok...I am a loser. But as a child my bro Paul(who was with us) and I watched the movie-Close Encounters of the Third Kind. So we had to stop at Devil's Tower. I was fun and then we tortured my kids and made them watch the movie. I learned it was a pretty boring movie and the guy in it seemed a little too friendly with a women who wasn't his wife! Missed that as a kid!
#8 After that we went to Yellowstone Park. Learnt more than I wanted there. I think of Yogi Bear when I go there. Well I saw a bear but it was eating a poor little baby fawn. The Mom spent the day walking back and forth all over the meadow trying to get her baby. Where is a picnic basket when Yogi needs one??
Then the other problem was I watch the movie 2012 recently. Big Mistake! AND then I found out the whole flippin' giant park is actually in a giant volcano from long ago! AND the park has shooting steam everywhere. It could blow at anytime!! Some parking lots had some cones in spots where a steam vent blew through unexpectedly! Crap...I was risking my life for over three days!!! But at least I didn't see the freaky guy in the trailer monitoring volcano action like the movie!
#9-Don't go trying to relive your past 20 years later! 20 years ago this Aug I went to Ricks College. I spent a year there and had a great time. I wanted to share this with my kids since we were passing by. HA! What a joke that was. Yes, I knew Rick College changed to a 4 year university and they changed the name to BYU Idaho. But we parked on campus and I couldn't even figure out where we were. They added so many buildings. So I finally found the main building. There they had the place my roommate and I ate lunch everyday. Where all the dances were. The school store, bowling alley. Ya know the fun place! ANYWAY the whole place was gutted and redone. Man that is how to make a person feel dang old!! Oh...town was unrecognizable too! The dance place we spent tons of time at was gone too! But the movie theater was still there and we went! Brought back memories of many dates...better stop there...heehee
#10-So the last thing I learnt was- I need to take longer vacations because that was too much fun and I didn't want it to end!!!(I am now blocking that BYUI was once Ricks. My school is still in Rexburg Idaho and I hope to visit it one day to show my kids. BTW-Does anyone out there have a time machine?)

Money, Money, Money...

Today as I am driving my teen home from guitar lessons. He asks me,"Why do you let Jacob spend money at the school book fair?" Jacob is my 8 year old son who is so clued out to reality. Anyway, I was gobsmacked to say the least as my son started telling me about the poster Jacob bought him...and the present he bought his "girlfriend"...and the things Jacob bought for himself. So I was a little hot under the coller by the time I got home. Sorry to the school but the book fairs are a little expensive and my kids never want to buy books. They just want to buy the jacked up expensive pens, pencils and erasers. GRRRR!!!
So I get in the house and start yelling. (What happened to the lesson I gave on Sunday about being a Peacemaker at home) I swear it was a test and yes I failed. Well turns out my lovely sharing son decided buy himself two pens that cost $4 and $5, one he left at school so who knows what it is. The other is a weird "message pen" that is suppose to connect to other pens and send messages. It seems like a watch with time (for New York)and other stuff. BUT...not sure how it works because he just through the directions in the garbage. So really it is useless except as a cheapo pen that cost $5. I told him I'd sell him a fifty cent pen for a fiver!
Jacob bought his brother a poster which I actually thought was really nice. It was the other four kids he bought for that I wasn't too happy about. My loving son spent(I think) a whoppin' $30. So with his birthday and Christmas money, he got two cheapo pens.
Shaking my head is really all I can do. What can you say? He shouldn't be taking money to school for one. I should never have let him have his money because he is a money idiot!! But it is a good lesson I guess.(still trying to convince myself.)
I am questioning the school though. I know they are fundraising but I think I would be a little concerned when an 8 year old pulls out a $20. And when a gang of kids are following him around begging for money. I would wonder if the parents would be ok with it. But NO that didn't happen. The school encourages the kids to bring in their money. Are they so short of help that in a very small area they don't notice one kid is paying for a group of kids!!
ARRGGG!! I am just irritated to say the least. I'm going to bed because I think I need this day OVER!!

Olympics Days are Gone!!

It seems so long ago that Vancouver was trying to get the Olympic to come to their city. 2010 seemed so futuristic to me. It is hard to believe that the games are over.
My heart is fill with love for my home country of Canada. Watching Vancouver brought back years and years of good memories.
I am not usually a huge watcher of the Olympics. I am not a sports fan. I do like watching the figure skating. This year I watched bits and pieces of everything. My husband is a junky!! And come on it was in Canada...and to top it off BC.
It was weird watching this year from Utah. They focus on the Americans... surprise..surprise. But the Olympics taught a lot about Canadians. I loved it. I loved that the news was teasing a bit about how Canada has never won a gold on Canadian soil. I loved that Canada made them eat their words by taking the most golds. A joy in my heart for sure!
I loved that I could follow the torch traveling through towns on facebook. Seeing pictures of friends watching it pass by. Seeing the pride of Canada in their faces.
I am a proud Canadian..even though I am living in the USA. I have always felt that Canada did not show pride in their nation. I am so happy that finally Canada was loud and proud. The streets were full of red and white. Maple leafs abound!
Thank you to all Canadians for being you. For making our city look great. Wish I could have been there. But my heart sure was! GO CANADA GO!!!
ps-loved that Canada took gold in hockey!! It was a memory of a lifetime!