my bucket list

Today, completely out of the blue, a good friend of mine asked me if I had a bucket list.
I didn't.
So he said we needed to get busy on making one.
I had never given it much thought really. It all seems a bit fatalistic ... these are the things I want to do before I DIE.
But after some thought....


1. I wanna get a tattoo. I want my children's birth month flowers (daisy, rose, carnation, and violet down my left side, from breast to hip)
2. I want to skydive (yeah I know its a cliché but I really want to do it)
3. I want to swim in the Pacific Ocean.
4. I want to travel though Europe. Back pack, rental car, train, bus.... I don't care. I would like to see the sights that are off the beaten path, not the same tourist shit that every one goes to see.
5. I want to run a marathon. It doesn't have to be one of the Big Name ones. Just a marathon. I want to be able to honestly say that I ran 26.2 miles, and I survived.
6. I want to love, and be loved, for forever.
7. I want to stand in each of the 50 states (and Puerto Rico :))
8. I want to learn how to make, and bottle, my own wine. Angels Vines is what I might call it.
9. I want to learn how to fly a helicopter (the Army wouldn't let me, apparently I'm too short for Army helicopters)
10. I want to go to culinary school. I love to cook, and why not try to make a career doing something I love?


hmmmm, what else...
I'm sure there are more things that I would like to do before I kick the bucket and I will add them to the list as I think of them

11. I want to learn how to sail
12. go scuba diving
13. white water rafting. the thought of it scares the hell out of me, but I think thats the fun of it

flowers

Hypothetical situation (kind of)


So lets say your significant other (we will say she just for shits and giggles) likes flowers.
She has pointed out that the simple $5 bouquets at the local Walmart are really nice. They are uncut and wrapped in cellophane, which is perfect for her seeing as how she loves to cut and arrange them herself.


You know that if, one day on a whim, you were to bring home one of these simple $5 bouquets of flowers it would make her happy. 
Not just happy, but ecstatic.
She would be happy, the whole house would be happy, and it would greatly increase your chances of getting laid that night.


Dontcha think that every now and then you might just stop at the WalMart (it is on your way home) and drop the 5 bucks for one of those simple bouquets. 


Not once.
Almost 12 years and 2 boys and not once did he buy flowers.
It really is the simple stuff that matters the most

Thanksgiving prep

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.
Today I start the prep work.
I remember being a kid and just being in awe of the amazing spread of food that was put out by Mom and my Aunts. I wondered how in the world it all got made and how they made it so very yummy.
Now I am the mom.
Unfortunately we don't have any family within 200 miles of us, so it's just us.
But I still put out one hell of a meal.
Grilled/smoked turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade mashed potato rolls, green beans, pumpkin pie, apple tart, and apple butter muffins.
I am the one doing the work, with the occasional help of my 15 year old daughter. 
    and I love it
      every minute of it
        I can't wait

life

sometimes life just sucks
actually, scrap that, sometimes we do things that simply makes our lives more difficult than they need to be
then when it's time to pay the bill, it hurts, bad

wild fire season?

I am originally from Wisconsin. I am a cheesehead, born and raised.
Where I am from we don't really have to worry about wild fires. 
Buildings catch fire in WI, but not so much the landscape. At least not to my knowledge.


Then we moved west.
We first lived in Jackpot, NV and I woke one morning and could smell smoke. I searched the house and found nothing. So I looked outside and lo and behold I saw this:

I made a frantic call to my father in law and asked him if the hills were really on fire or if I was just imagining it.
He laughed at me and said, yup, the hills are on fire, but not to worry the BLM will be here soon if it gets too close to town.
Now, distance is deceiving here in the west. What looks to be only a hop skip and a jump away is actually miles away, and the fire I could see from my back yard was about 15 miles from town.
So what did my curious self do? I jumped in the truck and drove around to get pictures:

It only took about 2 days for the BLM to show up and start fighting the fires. They camped on the lawn of the school in town, and amazingly enough, I felt a lot better knowing they were there. 


We are now in Utah and we still have wild fire season. I feel lucky to be living in a town, in a subdivision, thats far enough removed from the "wild" that the fires are something we watch at night and we don't worry about our property being damaged.
But others aren't always so lucky.

Public school

Band ~ $25                   Drivers Ed ~ $105               Honors Lang Arts ~ $6
Dance ~ $5                   Foods and fitness ~ $30   Textbook fee ~ $40
Science ~ $5                Health Ed ~ $10                   Handbook ~ $9
Activity card ~ $35     Yearbook ~ $47


That is the breakdown of my daughters sophomore year of high school.
$317 worth of fees for a public school, and yes, we pay property tax.
Thankfully we were able to set up a monthly payment plan. 
$42 a month for the duration of the school year.


and this does not include the $18 for her school pictures, the trip to St George with band in October, the $460 (not including spending money) we still have to pay for her trip to the Holiday Bowl in December, and the trip in May (?) to the Heritage Festival (band trip).


I'm kind of glad today that we only have one child going into high school this year.

oops

OK, so I have fallen off the wagon
I was fulling intending to continue getting on the treadmill at least every other day, but go figure, my laziness has won the day, repeatedly


I'll get there, sooner or later


Today I have the joy of registering my older two kids for school
Abby is a sophomore in high school this year, and who woulda thunk that public school would have registration fees upwards of $100
Oh well, we do what we gotta do, right?


This is the first year that we have to go to the school to register Will. He starts 3rd grade this year.


Once all of that is done we will be coming home and making jambalaya for dinner and then going to a band boosters meeting for Abby

hmmmm

I didn't get on the treadmill at all today, and yes I feel a bit guilty about that. I just wasn't feeling well.


I will make up for it though, possibly tomorrow.


This evening I managed to royally piss off my daughter.
She's 15 and dating a boy who treats her like shit. This is the third or fourth time they have dated, and after the last break up (which she swore would be the last) I told her if she get back together with him she would be grounded.
I didn't ground her, but I'm also not dealing with him.
She has to work her high school bands lemonade booth this evening at the county fair and she asked me if I would give him a ride as well so he could hang out.
I told her no.
There is no way I will encourage the relationship. 
It's poison to her. 
He is poison to her.
I will not encourage it, and I will not tolerate it.