skip the jalepenos, PLEASE!

Last night I made homemade salsa. It turned into a comedy of errors. They should have put me on stage and let everyone laugh at my mishaps.

I always leave out the jalapenos. Don't ask me why I included one last night.

I cut the jalapeno. My air conditioner is not working so the house is hot. I wiped my brow. Jalapeno juice/oil on my forehead - it burned all night! Everyone hated the salsa - too hot for everyone even though I halved the amount of jalapeno. I stuck my finger in my mouth. There was still jalapeno oil so my mouth burned all night. Two hours later I took my contacts out. The jalapeno oil must still have been there because my eyes burned then, and they really burned again this morning when I put the contacts back in.

Could I be any more ridiculous? Next time I will go back to omitting the jalapenos!

9/11

Nine-Eleven: Two words, two numbers, that conjure up very vivid scenes in my memory and still jar painful emotions in my heart.

I remember it all so vividly. I was in our basement on the elliptical trainer. The TV was on (trying to take my mind off the pain and effort) when, all of a sudden, footage was being shown of the North Tower. I absolutely could not believe that a plane had flown into a building. How do you not see a building? Was it pilot error? Was it an aircraft problem? Was the control tower to blame?

Then, a second plane flew into the south tower? What?!? How could that happen? I think I was slower than most to realize this was a deliberate action - not wanting to believe someone would do such a thing on purpose.

Slowly, realization dawned. We, the people of the United States, were being attacked. Not on some faraway battlefield or some remote locale. Not trained soldiers who signed up for the job. But everyday Americans here on our very own soil. Unfathomable.

For a while, America changed. We were a united, God-fearing, patriotic country. We were no longer politically polarized. We were less selfish.

I fear that too many have forgotten. I don't mean the actual event. I think we've forgotten the emotion. We've forgotten to lean on each other. Most of all, we have forgotten not to take our freedom for granted.

Most of my children were too young to understand then what was happening. Today, we will spend some time discussing the events of September 2001. What is freedom? Can you have too much freedom? Is freedom worth dying for? What do you do when people abuse their freedom and make disastrous choices that affect others? Would we be better off with limited freedom? Can others take our individual freedom away?

I love my country. I enjoy my freedom. I honor and revere those who have stood in the trenches, fallen on the battlefield, and braved the enemy to secure that freedom for me and for my loved ones. I still cry when I talk about the brave citizens on Flight 93 who crashed that plane on a Pennsylvania field rather than risk it being used as an instrument of death against others.

I don't want my children to forget. I don't want to forget.

twisted

Last week on the way to McKayla's soccer practice we ended up behind her teammate, Katie. Katie was being driven to soccer practice on the back of her dad's motorcycle.

I said, "Oh, how fun! McKayla, don't you wish you got to go to practice on a motorcycle."

Her reply: "No, that would be scary."

Me: "Really? I think it would be so much fun! I have always wanted to own a motorcyle and hope I do someday."

Then McKayla proceeds to lecture me on how dangerous they are and what could happen if I were to crash.


Seriously, who's the parent here? It seems twisted when your 13-year-old daughter is lecturing you on safety.

I Won Again!

Monday I won the tote bag at Jazzercise. Tuesday morning UPS delivered a package from Fraiche.


I follow the blog "Fresh Confessions of a Screwed-Up Texan" (sorry, I can't get the link to work). She ran a contest for Fraiche a while ago and I won. I got to pick a bath soap - I picked peppermint because I like a nice, pick-me-up, fresh, get-your-eyes-open start to my day!

I also got to pick 2 bath fizzes. I picked Spa Splash (can I imagine I'm being pampered?) and Lavendar Fields (it sounds relaxing).

It was a nice start to my week. Too bad my week took a sharp turn downhill on Wednesday (I'll blog more about that later). Let's just say, the relaxing spa products could come in handy.

I WON!

Every summer, Sean (the local Jazzercise owner) collects favorite items from every instructor over a period of several weeks and puts them in Jazzercise bags. Then, on Labor Day, Sean draws names for the 3 bags that are now stuffed with fun things. You get to put your name in the drawing every time you attend a class.

This year I won! Yea! You can see the darling pink and black bag. As I've said before, I love tote bags!

It came crammed with fun stuff:

*a Go Green recycle bag
*pebble magnets with Paris scenes
*Kleenex
*duct tape
*cat stickers
*two homemade dish cloths
*a Gatorade
*a candle
*a shower scrubby
*a can of pinto beans
*Diet Shasta grapefruit soda
*foot scrub
*a lint roller
*Reeses
*Snickers
*a compact mirror
*a scrubbing sponge
*hand sanitizer
*homemade apricot jam
*a sticky note pad
*Soft Lips
*Sudoku
*a Fancy Nancy book
*hair scrunchies
*Hot Tamales
*a car air freshener
*Sweet Pea hand gel
*a pair of socks
*positive notes for lunch boxes
*a flower accessory clip
*a handmade decorative box with handmade cards
*a Killers CD


Seriously! All of that and killer workouts too -- I love Jazzercise!

2nd place

Yea! Congratulations to McKayla's soccer team, The Utah Glory! They took 2nd place in the Nike Rush Mayor's Cup tournament over Labor Day weekend!

The girls played awesome and have improved so much since becoming a team in early June. They lost the final 0-2 against a team that easily beat them 0-6 only 2 months ago.
Front row: Cloey, Marissa, Aleeya, Erin, Ashley, Courtney, and Katie
Back row: Coach Kevin, Michaela, Erin, McKayla, Libby, Courtney, McKena, Hailee, and Emma

I can't believe how much McKayla has improved her play under her new coach. It has been exciting and fun to watch!

Yellowstone Park

I had really planned to be spending this weekend in Yellowstone Park. Then I discovered McKayla had a soccer tournament and that ended the Yellowstone plans. I joke about how I have no life because my children play soccer but I really don't mind. They love soccer and I am happy they have discovered something they enjoy so much. I enjoy watching them.

Still, I can't help missing Yellowstone just a little bit. I grew up only an hour away from Yellowstone so I was a frequent visitor. I thought Yellowstone was amazing! Everything was cool - from Old Faithful to the bears to the waterfalls to the boiling mudpots! Yes, I actually have seen bears in Yellowstone. In fact, once I saw one fairly close as it was hanging out in a pull-out so we pulled in and watched. That is, we watched until some idiot got out of his car and approached the bear. My dad decided we didn't need to see any more.

As a youth, we would drive through Yellowstone to get to the Idaho Falls Temple for our annual temple trip. We quite often would stop at Old Faithful. There were always so many tourists. One of our favorite things to do was everyone would choose a language and start speaking it. I took 3 years of German in high school so I would speak that. One boy knew a few phrases in Japanese. It was a riot because people around us would get so excited as they tried to figure out what nationality we were. "Oh, that boy is all the way from Japan. Cool!"

I have only taken my kids to Yellowstone once. My mom and I went. We camped and hiked and sightsaw. One of the highlights of the trip for me was seeing a fox while we were hiking. I had never seen a fox before (outside of a zoo, that is). Another highlight was seeing a buffalo up close and personal. I was driving down the road in our Suburban when a herd of buffalo decided to cross the road. They ambled down the road and crossed right in front of our car. A couple of the buffalo actually walked right up to my driver's door and stared in the window at me. Only a piece of safety glass separated me from these giant beasts. It was a thrill but quite intimidating!

I really want to take my children back to Yellowstone so they can experience the majesty and glory of nature that I thing Yellowstone Park magnifies.