Much Ado About Nothing

It has been a busy week though nothing out of the ordinary. For the kids, it was school and scouts as usual. For me and Rachel, we visited the library, McDonald's and went grocery shopping. For Neil, it was pretty much just work. Tuesday night he did take his 11 year old scouts to the Arizona Science Center which has the Lego Display going on right now. It is one of the perks of being an employee at Chase. Yesterday we cleaned up the yard a bit as we had a couple of trees attacking visitors to the house. Cierra had a birthday party to attend and Neil and I had a scout dinner, for which I was the MC. I think it went rather well but I always have the jitters and don't ever get to actually enjoy the food. I do this for our district dinner every year. Today we went to church. It was a small group as our ward had a service responsibility putting on a Sacrament Meeting for the Randolf House. I'm not sure of the details as Aaron wasn't forthcoming and Neil and I are usuall...

I'm not a big fan of shopping. I particularly don't like taking kids shopping because they want everything. But we're about out of milk so it's a necessity. After dropping the kids off at school, Rachel and I head to the grocery store. As we get to the milk area, she clamors for chocolate milk. Hanging off the doors enclosing the dairy reefer, are bottles of chocolate syrup. She wants that too. The little bottles of flavored milk are on sale, so I grab one of those for her. Next up - eggs. I open the door and pull out a carton to check for cracked eggs. Rachel discovers that in the reefer next to the one I am working with is another shelving unit full of eggs. These are the organic, special, pricier eggs. All of a sudden I hear her exclaim - Mommy! Chocolate eggs! No dear, those are just brown-shelled eggs.

I've never been much of an artist. I appreciate art and recognize a talent in others that does not exist in myself. I am aware that most artwork involves some amount of blending. There is true genius in the eye that can catch the subtle differences in shades of green which allow the artist to create a tree that actually looks like a tree. I stay away from actually pursuing such talent on my own. I have been accused of being unable to blend my own makeup and am sure that I have been seen with that tell-tell line around my chin because I couldn't blend. My mother didn't care for makeup and my relationship with my older sister was not one where I would rely on her for advice - she would have ensured a clownish look just for spite. But because I had a blotchy, pale face, not wearing makeup was not an option. I guess I would rather have the chin line rather than expose my freckled self to my high school peers. I have been attempting another type of blending for the past 7 ye...

School is now in full swing and schedules are getting ironed out. Rachel is home with just me so we'll see how long we can enjoy this before I drive her nuts. Monday was a horrid day. I had received some calls from agents wanting to show the house so I spent the morning getting the house cleaned up from our return from camping. It didn't take too long and Rachel and I headed out about noon. We didn't get very far before we had a tire blow-out. So I pulled to a side street, opened up the back of the suburban and started pulling out the jack and other tools. The spare tire was wedged in pretty tight so it took me some time trying to get it out. While I was struggling, a truck pulled in behind me with three guys. They offered to change the tire for me (woo hoo!!!) but the jack we have didn't fit well anywhere on the truck. Luckily they had one and the tire was changed out without too much effort on my part. I headed over to Discount Tire and ended up being sent to an...

I've been mulling this over for a while. I think I'm OCD. I know everybody has little things that make them unique but don't actually interfere with their daily lives. I've mentioned my candy-eating strategy to others in which any type of candy such as M&Ms or Skittles that can be categorized by color must be eaten by color. And each side of the mouth must get equal chewing time. Yeah, it's weird, but it doesn't interfere with the important stuff. I've discovered a new game. It's rather annoying actually. You all know the car game where you have to find the letters of the alphabet, right? There are variations on the rules such as whether the letter has to be starting the word or how many letters you can use from a particular sign. Rules really only matter if you are playing against other people. I don't play well with others so the rules don't really matter when I play. And I don't normally play but found myself doing this when I wa...

I'm feeling off today. I'm not sure but I think this started awhile ago and it's just now catching up with me. I started working from home part-time and really enjoyed the work. Then the company called and asked me if I wanted to help in another department as well. Sure, why not? So I got trained for that and am still waiting for any kind of work to come from that area. But I also have an interview today with the owner who indicated he wants to discuss additional work. I'm excited about that. I think I know why I'm off. The kids went back to school and I only have Rachel left at home. We have gone to the library, done some school supply shopping, gone grocery shopping, cleaned the house, gone to McDonald's while the house is being seen by potential buyers. I'm bored. I have a lot of empty time now and when all the kids are gone, it is a lot easier and faster to clean the house. So I'm really, really hoping that this interview will bring more work to ...

I decided to wait until I had attended our Book Club meeting before I wrote my review of this book. Then, fiasco hit and I was unable to stay for the Book Club meeting and never got back on to write about the book. I did learn quite a bit from the few minutes I was there about the author and while this knowledge is a bit disappointing, it does not take away from the lessons that can be learned from Little Tree. The book's introduction touts it as an autobiographical account of the author's life with his grandparents. The truth is that Forrest Carter was born Asa Earl Carter and was a known segreagationalist and unofficial speech writer for George Wallace. It is unknown if there is any Cherokee ancestry for him to claim. Though many claimed he was Asa Carter, the author denied these claims. And though he was indeed Asa Carter, can anyone wonder at his decision to deny his identity? It is quite possible that he recognized the wrongs he had done and, in making a break from that li...