Monday already?

Wow, where did time go? It is already Monday, and Christmas is over. That can be a relief and a sad thing. We had a great Christmas. David's parents came in Christmas evening. Got here in time for dinner! :) We hadn't opened all the presents, so after dinner we finished. We saved the best for last! We had bought a Wii about 3 months ago and it sat in my closet until Christmas Eve when I wrapped it. I thought the kids had seen it for sure, as they have been known to 'play' in the closet and climb to the Halloween candy that was stored at the top of the closet. Well, it was the last present pulled from under the tree and we gave each kid a different box to open (one was the Wii, there were 2 games and an additional DDR mat) so each of them -except Tyler- got a box to open. We had them open them at the same time. Yeah, I think they liked it!
Then the day after Christmas we went to the Mesa Temple to see the lights and hear a quartet sing. It was absolutely beautiful. David's dad said even Temple Square didn't have as many lights! It was so cold, but we enjoyed the night.
Yesterday we made one of my favoite things at Christmas time. David's dad is from Norway, and many years ago I was introduced to a favorite Norweigan Christmas dessert. Now you all know how much I love dessert. This is one of my favorites. Whenever his parents come to visit at Christmas, I BEG his mom to make it. It is called Sandkake. (don't know if I spelled it right...) It is so yummy! So his mom surprised me with the tarts already made, we just had to fill them with the creamy goodness that makes them so good! We sat and ate them all! I only had 2, ok, I may have had 3, 4... I may have lost count! :) It was fun to carry on this tradition with his parents.
Tonight we played the DDR game on the Wii. I had to get my camera and take a picture of Grandma trying out the game.
What a good sport! We couldn't get Grandpa to try -he claimed he would make us all look bad... Maybe next time.
All in all, we had a great Christmas and have enjoyed, very much, having David's parents here with us to help celebrate this wonderful time of year.

Yikes!!

Ok, so we have been living here in Arizona for almost 5 months now, Wow, has it really been that long?!?!? Anyway, I have talked about being freaked out by the scorpions that are abundant here and how it really freaks me out. Well, we have managed to find 7 here at the house, 4 outside 3 inside. 5 have been dead and 2 alive, only 1 in the house was alive which my wonderful sister had the pleasure finding while I was in California closing our store. It has been a long time since we have seen one so we, mostly me, have gotten a little comfortable. Well, don't do that, because whenever you do... BAM!!! Today Michael went into the bathroom and yelled "Mom, um... come here." I was busy so I hollered back "can't right now..." to which he replied "Scorpion!" This, of course, sent all the kids RUNNING to see if he was kidding or serious. Oh no, he was NOT kidding. I have never seen a scorpion this big in my life!
I could not believe it! I grabbed my camera and had to take pictures. I also grabbed a tape measure because I had to know how long he was! He measured just over 3 inches and his tail was still curled a little! I threw a bobby pin next to him so you can see how big he is.
Then I decided to have a little fun with him. I poked him, tapped him, he ran and I poked him some more. The kids laughed, I was having a great time until he ran down the drain! Ugh... Can he run back up the drain? I turned on the piping hot water and let it run - thinking it would burn him. After a few minutes I turned it off and stepped on the drain cover to close it. Then it hits me... He could climb out of ANY drain in the house!!! David is laughing at me, Christina is crying and saying she hates living here and I am frozen with fear! I have closed all the drains in the bathrooms, then I realize there is another hole at the top of the sink he could get out of. Now what?? David just keeps laughing and telling me I should have just killed him. So, here I am, I don't want to go to bed because our bed is currently just a mattress on the floor (our rental furniture was taken away Wednesday and we are without a few things, so our mattress is just on the floor!) I am so freaked out I can't go to bed. I know I won't sleep! Too bad I don't have a couch to sleep on or I would. I told Michael I was going to sleep in his bed, he is the only one with a mattress off the floor. So, I guess at some point I will get use to these scorpions, Nah... who am I kidding, I don't think I ever will! They are just creepy!!
Just one question... Does anyone know, do they crawl on carpet? We have some shag carpet that is the EXACT color of the darn things. David and I have convinced ourselves that they don't crawl on the carpet because it is too 'hard' for them to get thru all the shag, not worth the effort in our opinion. We thought maybe they prefer tile or wood floors, or walls and baseboards? Is this true? Please say yes!!! I don't think I will ever get sleep if they like carpet!!!

Another Quick Trip - This time to Northern California!!

Last week I had the opportunity to go back to Nor Cal to visit some of my most favorite people that I miss terribly. I got a msg from an old employee about a month ago that all the employee's wanted to carry on the tradition of a Christmas Dinner and gift exchange, so they set a date and wished I could be there. A few weeks before that I received a free southwest ticket in the mail. So, I decided to fly in to surprise them. After they changed the date 2 times, I figured it best to let someone know I was coming so the date couldn't be changed again. I flew in on Tuesday, spent the day with my really good friend Jen - she was one of our managers and we became very close friends! We were asked almost daily if we were sisters. I really miss her and it was so good to spend so much time with her. She was off on Tuesday so we spent the entire day playing! We had lunch with Karma, it was so great seeing her. (hopefully she gets out this way in the spring to see her family, or just ME!) :) Shopped at Broadway Plaza then we went to dinner with some friends from church Tuesday night. It was soooo good to see them. I think we could have stayed in the restaurant chatting all night, but they were closed so we had to leave. :( I really miss those late nights scrappin' at the store! Miss you guys!! Spent the night at Alice's house. It was great to see them again, even if it has only been a few weeks since we saw them in So Cal. Wednesday Jen picked me up and we went to brunch with Audrey and Kari!
We laughed until our sides seriously ached! Jesus -the server or busboy, not sure- really enjoyed us being there! I think he was a little sweet on Jen and/or Kari! What a great time! Some shopping at Kim's store -our old store- and then it was back to Fairfield. Fell asleep on Alice's couch... really needed a nap, I guess! Then a quick visit with Tammy and off to surprise the employee's at dinner.
(Not the best picture, but I guess this is what you get when you ask someone to take a picture for you...) Come to find out they weren't really surprised because Terri told them I was coming. Only because they tried changing the date Tuesday night! Good thing someone knew I was coming or I would've been at the restaurant by myself! It was so fun to see everyone! We had a great time catching up and I just loved seeing them all again. Back to Alice's where we stayed up way too late chatting. Then it was off to the airport the next morning, after a very quick visit with Bev. It was such a fantastic trip. I had the BEST time and I really needed it! I had been a little mopey and really missing my friends back in CA. I have only ever moved away one time, and that was when I graduated high school and went to CA. I moved a few times while in CA, but was always in the Bay Area, close enough to all my friends. So it has been a little hard being away from friends and people I have grown to love. So it was good for me to go back and see them. I missed seeing a few people that I just couldn't hook up with, but there is always next time, and there WILL be a next time! :)

Craziness

Oh my goodness, I can't believe it has been 2 weeks since I blogged. Well, it might just be another 2 weeks. Things are so crazy right now. Have so much to say, but it will have to wait! I haven't even started my Christmas Shopping!!! Is Christmas really just a week away??? Agh... Where does time go?!?!? Ok, gotta run, just found out I have to make 2 dozen cookies for Activity Days tomorrow...