Sick

Sorry for the lack of news. Cannon and I have been sick the last few days, and Audrey and Hunter have been wrecking the house... so I haven't had a chance to even look at the computer. Hopefully we are on the mend and no one else gets it.

Driving in Vegas

Tips for Vegas driving

I saw this on a blog and it was so funny and true I wanted to share it with other.
Forget the traffic rules you learned elsewhere, Las Vegas has itsown set of traffic rules. There's no book about them. All you can do is get in your car and hope you survive to learn them.

All your directions start with, "Go down 95...'cause you don't want toget on 15.

"Las Vegas Blvd, Charleston Blvd, and Torrey Pines have no beginning and no end.

It's impossible to go around a block and wind up on the same street that you started on. The Chamber of Commerce calls this a "scenic drive".

The 8:00 am rush hour is from 4:30am to 11:30am.
The 5:00pm rush hour is from 11:30am to 10:15pm.
Friday's rush hour starts on Thursday morning and ends sometime late Sunday night.

If you actually stop at a yellow light, then you cannot be fromLas Vegas.
You may only apply your brakes when the end of a yellow light and the beginning of the red light create a "pumpkin-orange" hue.

For the most part, you can do anything you want, as long as it isn't in a school zone.

Just remember that Camino Al Norte is Martin Luther King Blvd., BoulderHighway is Fremont Street, Eastern Ave is 25th Street or Civic Center Drive, Desert Inn is Lamb Blvd., Smoke Ranch is Carey, Spring Mountain/Sands/Twain are all the same street.
And don't forget that Ft. Apache turns into Rampart and then turns into Durango.
Don't try to figure it out. Just accept it.
If you question the intelligence behind this naming convention, people will simply tilt their heads to the right and stare at you.

And Rancho moves every street over.

Henderson is the only place in the world where THREE "parallel" streetsintersect at one traffic light.That would be the 4-way of Green ValleyParkway/Eastern Avenue / Maryland Parkway. For laughs ask your middle school Geometry teacher to try to explain it.

Rainbow Blvd. has THREE exits from the 95, this just makes giving driving directions to newbies more entertaining.

There is also a Lake Mead "Drive" and a Lake Mead "Boulevard" and both run east/west but are 30 miles apart. You have to be specific when you say "the corner of Lake Mead and........"

Again this is just another way to harass the 5000 newcomers every month.

Many major roads just end abruptly in somebody's garage, a Home Depot, a Casino or McCarran International Airport Runways and start again after the interruption. That was done to encourage you to "see the sights" and meet new people. For fun, just try to take Harmon Avenue from Rainbow to Nellis.

If moisture at hand is determined to be rain, not sweat, all traffic must immediately cease.

Ditto for daylight savings time, girl applying eye-shadow across the street, or a flat tire 3 lanes over. Do not attempt to access any road after an apocalyptic event like snow, blowing dust, or a 3-day weekend.

Once a year, when it rains, the Las Vegas wash and the City of Las Vegas are one.

The wind blows every day, and it is impossible to live in LasVegas without some kind of allergy drug.

Construction on I-15 and US 95 is a way of life and a permanent form of entertainment.

I-215 will never be completed. Get used to it!

Stay away from the corner of Nellis and Las Vegas Blvd. if you do not like the thought of being in a remake of the movie "Top Gun."

So if any of this is news to you, Welcome to Las Vegas.

Home Invasion

Yesterday we found a million ants in our living room. The kids got their shoes and started stepping on them, and Hunter even squished them with his fingers. Since there seem to be more than they could squish, I went to the store and got some ant poison. I put it out, but there wasn't many ants around then. This morning I saw a different trail of them. This time they were going along the window.

I immediately got the poison this time. A few minutes later when Hunter checked, this is what we saw... Totally Gross!!! But at least they are eating the poison and hopefully it will kill the queen and all her little workers.

Good from Bad

Yesterday as I was walking outside to put something in the trash, I stepped on a piece of glass.(Bad) Russell got the tweezers and tried to get it out. It wouldn't come out.(Bad) It hurt a lot!(Bad) It was almost time for church, and I was supposed to do sharing time.(Bad) I called one of my councilors and asked if she could do it. Mentally she juggled everything she had to do, and then said yes. (Good) Some friends were able to watch the kids so we didn't have to take them to quick care with us.(Good) We only had to wait about an hour before we were seen by the Dr.(Good) He didn't have the proper lighting or tools to extract the glass.(Bad) He had gentle fingers (Good), but still had to dig around a bit.(Bad) He didn't want to numb me(Bad) in case there was anything else there he wanted me to feel it so he could get it out. Finally after squeezing Russell's hand(Good me, Bad him) the glass came out!(GOOD) It was so little, but it was tough to get to and it caused a lot of pain. I had to get a tetanus shot(Bad-ouch, Good because I probably needed it).

So a bad experience turned out good because a. I have great friends. b. I have great councilors that don't really need me in primary. and c. a pain free foot!

D Day

Today is the day that we decided to have the binky and the silky be only bed time things. This is done in hopes that we can break the habit of these comfort items. Adurey has cried a few times for her binky and Hunter went to the silky drawer, but otherwise the day has been o.k. We'll see how they do. The hardest part I guess will be to see how we do. Its hard to stay strong and deny them when they are crying.

Fluffy

As you know I've been going to the gym recently. I've been going 5 days a week for the last 2 weeks, and this week I did 4 days. I've been feeling good about myself and my commitment to getting in shape.

Then last night I read a laugh out loud funny blog called Navel Gazing at its Finest (there's a link on the side of my blog). She said that a Dr. told her to eat less and move more in order to be healthier. I still felt good about myself because I was moving more, but I'm not really doing the eat less part. Example: I went to aquaerobics in the morning instead of the evening because there was an ice cream class at relief society last night. YUM!, but not really helpful when I'm trying to look my best.

THEN this morning when I came home from the gym and was heading to the shower, Hunter asked me why my belly was so big. He said that it was fluffy and soft. I told him that's why I'm going to the gym, so it wouldn't be so big. He said "well that's not working because its still fluffy. But that's ok because I like it fluffy!"

Sheesh!

Out with the Old

Our carpet in the living room has been steadily getting worse and worse. It was no nasty that I couldn't stand it any more and so we ripped it out. I said that concrete would be better than our gross stained carpet. And it was, but it didn't look that great either. We wanted it to look like we cared about the appearance of our home. So I looked up staining concrete and they can do some beautiful things, but we opted for the more efficient (cheap) version and just painted it. We were going to do a checker board with white & gray. We painted it white and the next day when we walked on it, it had black feet marks on it, SO white wasn't going to work. We decided to paint the gray as our main color and then get another color for the checker board look. Once the gray was on, we just decided to leave it. Our goal is to save for wood flooring, so we didn't want to put any more work/money into this project. I found a great rug at the DI for $30 and we are slowly putting the room together. We changed where the couches are and the computer armoire so that is making the room look a lot different. We also had a lot of stuff jammed in here so we are trying to downsize. I will post some more pictures when the room is complete, but for now you can have a sneak peek.

Brrrr!

For the last several weeks we haven't had the swamp cooler running due to high temperatures and high humidity. Now that the humidity has dropped we have turned the swamp cooler back on. The picture of Audrey shows how the kids have reacted to this news.

You can't tell, but her hair is blowing and she is saying, "BRRRRRR!"

So even though its 100 degrees out, if you sit on our couch, bring your winter coat!

Slow Week

Sorry for those of you that read my blog. I've had a slow week with nothing much to write about, so I haven't. I can tell you though, that I made it to the gym another 5 days this past week. Hunter went poo poo in the potty again (with no accidents in between). HIP HIP HOORAY! The Olympics start tonight and I'm super excited. There is something so wonderful about watching such amazing athletes and cheering your country. I love the USA! Tomorrow our big plans are to (hopefully) clean out the garage. So as you can see, life is a little boring right now, but I guess life is like that.

GREAT News!

Hunter does not have lyme's disease! It is just some viral thing. But it is going away, so all is well.