That's a number I can live with

I was jersey-juked at a stop sign today. touché.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Tomorrow is April Fool's. I love this day, it brings me joy and I celebrate by honoring all of my Grandma Tobler's traditions (except for dressing up like a freakish clown). So I have my usual tricks planned and I might just try the sprayer ploy again. But thanks to a fortunate call from Christy, I have some new tricks up my sleeve. And because of spring break, the kids have no idea it is April fool's tomorrow. I don't think I'm going to tell them either--at least not until all my tricks are executed. It is going to be sweeeeet.

Grandma T sidebar: the woman is turning 94 this week! What is up with my grandmas living to be forever years old. I do not want to live this long. I say after 75, let's just call it a day and be done. Got that Heavenly Father: after 75, just take me out. (Preferably, while base jumping.)

Meinen butterchurner ist gestolen

Ich bin mude. Konnen Sie mich helfen?

(yeah, I still got it--german skills that is.)


[three kids in my bed last night. 2 hours of sleep. arrrrrrgh.]

I see you like to chew; why don't you chew on my fist.

I survived two snow days...now I just have to get through two weeks for spring break. How does adding one to my day make it that much harder? Well, because Bryn and Ava get more attention when Lore's at school, which creates less need for mischief when Lore gets home. Also, Bryn is addicted to Lore, and she forgets Ava is there when Lore is home--this creates hurt feelings. Thankfully, Morgan is getting older and more fun for Ava to play with. Still, Ava often comes crying to me that Bryn and Lauren aren't including her. And last but not least, Lore is a helper but also a tattler. So yeah, four at home is more trouble. I don't know what I'm going to do with just 2 at home when Bryn starts Kindergarten in August. I might actually have time to eat bonbons then.

So I thought for spring break, we could get outta here, but Aaron is going to be gone sporadically for work. So I can go it alone (but I'm nervous based on our last adventure to Utah) or I can just find stuff to do around here. I'm wimping out with option two. We'll see if I survive.

taxes sidebar: they're done and we owe Utah more than they deserve. Swine utah--their state taxes are almost 3 x's colorado's. Hurray for Colorado.

parents are suppose to live for this stuff

I am now 2 for 3. Lauren lost her third tooth last wednesday at school. She was so excited and all the kids in her class loved looking at her tooth. When she got home, she taped her tooth to a personalized note (because of the experience with her first tooth that the tooth fairy couldn't find, ie forgot), taped her own nickel to the note as a thank you (you know, because we're trying to teach our children to give back), and then tucked it obviously under her pillow.

Well that night, Aaron's parents flew in. We talked till way late and then we went to bed--completely forgetting Lore's tooth.

She came in at about 6.30a to let us know that the tooth fairy didn't take her tooth. Aaron and I both sunk three feet into our mattress. We were the dirtbag parents again. Devastated, Lore went in to see her Grannie and Pa. I felt sick...then it got worse.

I got up and went to tell Lore to get ready for school. Only she pulled me away from everyone and asked, "Mom, can I please stay home from school? All the kids are going to ask me what the tooth fairy brought. I don't want to tell them that she didn't come."

Uuuuugggggh. The jerk store called, and they were all out of me. I agreed that she could stay home, plus then she would get more time with her grandparents. But we both know I did it to save her from humiliation. I told Aaron and he agreed. sucks.

All day long, Aaron, Grannie, and I tried to come up with various reasons why the fairy didn't show. Lore was still broken.

That night, the fairy left three quarters--these are small treasures to Lauren and it washed away the mistake of the previous morning. When I dropped Lore off to school, she had her quarters in hand, and several girls from her class rushed her when she got to the playground.

I hope I'm not scaring this child. Once is understandable, twice is just mean.

Fix it!

The people of Utah can not yield or merge when driving their cars. This drove Aaron and me insane. Gratefully, the people of Colorado can yield and merge...but they can not stop at a stop sign. Well, they have the stopping down right. They just don't know when they can go if there are other cars at the stop sign. So I can be sitting in a 4-way with a bunch of cars and no one knows what to do. This is insanity! I know what to do: ram them with my car is what I'm going to do. But seriously, I consider myself a nice driver--I rarely use my horn. But the stopping and not going is driving me crazy. So I just jersey juke everyone at the stop sign if they show any sign of retardedness. I know, it's rude but someone has to go.

This is a serious problem in Denver and someone has to fix it! (this is my favorite snl skit right now + mcgrubber.)

talk about your all time backfires

Great trip to Utah, miserable ride home.

Utah
Family: great; cousins: great; friends: great; snow: please, it was awesome to see it; whole trip: uber great. Aaron worked almost the whole time; there was some ultra mega world championship of snowboard halfpipe something in Park City, so Aaron painfully (righttttttt) had to be there for it. He was able to get Christian and some cousins in (there's got to be some perks), and then me and the girls met Aaron later for some Park City fun. Aaron and I agree, Park City is top ten best places USA. We have soo many good memories all over that town. Love it.

So we met Aaron at the end of the day for dinner and then went to Main St for caramel apples at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Then we went back to the hotel to watch a movie and eat the apples with the kids. It was well past bed time, but we figured they would sleep in the car on the way home the next day. We had a fun night, and tucked them all in at 10p.

Then the worst day happened.

It is day light savings, so aaron sets his phone clock back and then sets the alarm for 6a--this way, we can be outta there by 8a and back in Provo to retrieve the rest of our stuff. While we are sleeping, aaron's phone sets itself back another hour: so the alarm goes off at 5a. Bummed, we realize the error and go back to sleep...then we oversleep. Then Bryn loses her bear, Morgan loses her puppy, and yadda yadda yadda, we don't leave Provo till 11--2 hours behind pre-approved schedule. Whatever, we're at least on the road. The next 6 hours of the trip are fine, except for periodic shout-outs from Morgan to let us know she hates the car. Noted. We roll into Vail at about 5p and then we have the dooming revelation that we are about to hit resort traffic. Denver is 2 hours from the resorts, a lame and frustrating part about denver. Everyone, who lives here, knows that the traffic is stop-and-go out of the resorts and adds another hour to your trip. In retrospect, we should have pulled over and had dinner, but we were ready to be home. So we fought the insane traffic. Of course, morgan loses it the last hour which makes Bryn and Ava lose it. And we have everyone screaming and crying until we pull up to the drive way. Brutal.

Oh and then we forgot to set our alarm back last night, so Lore is late for school, I barely get Bryn to her Kindergarten check-up, and now I have pringles smashed all over the kitchen floor. I know that last one is unrelated to time but it goes with the theme of today: it sucks. I had a cookie for breakfast.

Nitro Circus sidebar: so there's this new Jackass-on-Motorcycles show on MTV called Nitro Circus. Aaron knows everyone on the show. Andy Bell is one of Aaron's really good friends and it is weird to see him on TV. Cam had a cameo on the show last night. Apparently the show is doing well for their target demo, so we're happy for them. But it is just weird seeing them be themselves on TV.