The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Sorry it's been so long. We have had a lot of family time lately. And as family time goes, it's always a little up and down. So here is a short synopsis.

The Good: Jason's sister, husband and son came down to deliver their son to the LDS Missionary Training Center. He will be heading to San Bernardino California for 2 years to serve the Lord. Good for him. To him, it is a foreign country. Alberta Canada to California USA. Culture shock. Anyway, it was SO great having them be our first visitors in our home, play cards with us (Jason showed off his skills) and go to a Canada Day party. We loved having them and it was such an enjoyable visit. (This was taken at Jason's work. The grounds are beautiful.)

The Bad: The day Jason's sister left my sister Kate and her darling family came. That's not the bad part. I love her to death and she is SOOO awesome and amazing. I can't say enough good things about her. Here comes the bad part. They stayed for a few days before moving to Arizona for the next 4 years while her husband does medical school. Then they have residency, army service and so on. Who knows when we will live close to eachother again. I can't think about it too much or I'll start bawling. I move to a new neighborhood and then my family moves out of town. I'm really all alone. Nothing better happen to Jason. (You'll have to excuse my dress in the picture. Kate wanted to make sure that she was the best looking girl in the room on her wedding day. Well done.)





The Ugly: I feel bad mentioning this but it's the truth and unfortunately I don't shy away from it. We went to a family reunion for my dad's family. Not bad. BUT. My grandmother is a crotchety, bitter old woman. I'm not saying that to be rude. It is simply the truth. As much as we can, we avoid being around her. So why did I make the effort? I'm still trying to figure that out. I did a lot of soul searching on the way home (and crying) to try and feel better about all my interactions with her and to feel like I am a good person despite the horrible treatment. The good thing about being around her is it makes you realize what happens if you hold on to all the bad things in your life and never let them go. I feel bad for her because she has had a hard life and even worse still that she has yet to find a way to let go and enjoy life. Too bad for her. (Notice how me and the kids are dressed in red, white and blue but not Jason. That dang Canadian!)

As for me, I'm pretty lucky with my three gorgeous kids, great husband and nice house. I'm choosing to look on the bright side of things. With that said, I enjoyed my family time!

Tagged--My Guy

So Colleen tagged me on this and since I haven't blogged recently and I'm exhausted, it saves me from thinking of something original. (Again, read my blog title, if you're looking for something exciting and new, this isn't the place.)

What is his name? ~ Jason Tyler Gough
How long have you been together? ~ We’ve been married 10 5/6 years…
How long did you date? ~ …and dated for about 7 months.
How old is he? ~ 35
Who eats more? ~ You know, although he outweighs me by 70 pounds, I totally eat more than him. I can eat a lot! Can’t you tell by looking at me?
Who said I love you first? ~ Honestly, I actually don’t remember. Is that bad? It just feels like we’ve loved eachother forever. (OK, I was totally being sarcastic with that.)
Who is taller? ~ He is. I would never marry a guy shorter than me.
Who is smarter? ~ Well… I don’t want to make him look bad but we’ll just say that I tutored him to help him finish his final college course to get his Bachelor’s (Math). BUT he is way more creative and artistic than me!
Who does the dishes? ~ Both of us, but he does them more often. I figure that I make the meals, he can clean up after them. Fair trade. I’m all about equal rights!
Who pays the bills? ~ The computer. We mostly do everything online. He pays the tithing though, does that count?
Who mows the lawn? ~ We both do. In all our married life I’ve probably done it more but last year he did it a lot because I had a baby. That’s fair, right?
Who cooks dinner? ~ I do. Always. Jason cooks Ramen, Spaghetti and Macaroni. And sometimes he even messes Easy Mac up by not reading the directions.
Who kissed who first? ~ He kissed me first.
Who asked who out first? ~ We kind of hung out with mutual friends. But he called me first.
Who proposed? ~ He did, of course!
Who has more siblings? ~ I do. 10 kids in my family. Not too many people can beat that. But he has 6 which isn’t too small either.
Who wears the pants? ~ Again, equal rights. I think it’s pretty equal. I like to feel like I’m in charge but I like to let him make decisions sometimes and have a say so that it feels equal! Here's a picture of us from last year when we went to see the Jazz in the Playoffs against the Warriors. We still have fun together. Can you tell I'm 9 mos. pregnant in this?
I tag: Kate, Ari, and Jenn. Go get 'em girls.

A few life lessons from the past few days

I actually shouldn't be doing this but I need a break so I thought I'd jot down a few thoughts.

1. The only person who cares if you skip your baby's birthday is you.

2. As much as you can, avoid West Valley City, UT. Never attempt to purchase anything from anyone there. It's notorious for having the worst crime in all of UT and yet we thought we could trust an online seller to purchase a fridge. After renting a U-haul, driving up there, spending .70 per mile on top of gas costs; it was nothing like they said. We came back empty handed. Oh wait, no we didn't, the guy had thrown the front grill from the fridge in the back of the U-Haul so later that evening we got a phone call full of expletives about not purchasing the fridge and "stealing" the grill. He very kindly asked for our address to come pick it up. We very kindly offered to mail it.

3. When you buy a new house, measure everything. Measure to make sure the fridge fits.

4. Never assume that there is a standard size for anything. Door sizes are NOT standard. You can't replace doors when they don't have the size you want. Sanding down 15 doors to size is not an option. You know what they say about assuming. . . .(you make an a*$ out of U and ME)

5. Again with the assumptions, will I never learn. Never assume that someone will call people to remind them to show up and help you move. When it is 9:30 on Saturday and no one has shown up when you were supposed to start at 9, you realize quickly how stupid you were to make that assumption.

Well, here is a beginner's list for you. You can learn more from my own experiences later. Back to work!

The voyeur in us all

I enjoy reading my friends' blogs. I don't really read many random blogs from people I don't know. But sometimes, the voyeur in me comes out and I love to bloghop. (Is that a real word?) You know, you read a friend's blog and then you see a link to someone on their blog that you might kind of know so you link over and read it. You feel a little sneaky reading their personal information without them knowing and it feels a little funny like when you would read people's notes in junior high or their diaries while they were out of the room. Not like I ever did that. Oh no, not me. As much as we don't admit it, I think within us all there is a bit of a voyeur. That's why blogging and reality TV are so popular. We like to watch other people's lives maybe to feel better about our own or to suspend reality for a little and wish it were us. Either way, I think it's completely harmless. So, for those of you that are reading my blog without my knowledge, go right ahead. It's pretty boring anyway. And as for me, I will continue to read those blogs of my friends' friends and enjoy the adrenaline rush as if I'm doing something naughty! Heaven knows I'm a perfectly perfect person everyday (yes, perfect) and can enjoy a little freedom from myself every once in a while.

No, it's not a wig

Thanks to Jenn who is SO awesome at hair.

P.S. Yes, that is my stalker in the background.

My lunch and what it says about being a mother

So, bear with me here. This post will be a little mushy.

As I was eating my lunch and thinking about mothers and what I could say on my blog about them I realized that what I was eating really summed it up in a nutshell. You'll see where I'm going with this. For lunch I had a salad of the following:

Leftover Feta cheese and Tzatziki sauce: leftover from the greek lunch I made for my sister when she was visiting

Chopped Apples: I bought for the kids to take camping even though they are not on sale

Leftover Mexican rice: I made for our Cinco de Mayo party

Bagged Salad: I bought on my way home last night so the sitter would have something to feed the kids while we went to the temple, although the kids decided they didn't want salad so it was never opened.

Dessert: mini chocolate treasure from Mara's teacher for putting together the music for kindergarten graduation today.

I know, weird combination. But what does this say about mothers--

1) Mothers are creative: we are always putting together school projects, halloween costumes, meals and all kinds of different things. Most of the time we are tired too. It's hard to be creative when we're tired but that's what we do. Only a creative person would think of these things to put in a salad for lunch.

2)Mothers are resourceful: we are always finding ways to make the best of any situation. Just the same as I wouldn't want any of this food to go to waste so I am throwing it together and calling it lunch, there are so many times that we are in a jam and have to figure out what we can do to keep ourselves sane and the kids happy in a difficult situation.

3)Mothers are good at time management: From my lunch today you can tell that in the last week I have 1)had a Cinco de Mayo Party 2)had a houseguest 3)gone camping 4)put on music program for Mara's kindergarten class 5)gone to the temple 6)gone shopping for all the events, not to mention all the other many, many things that have gone on. Mothers are constantly running to and fro doing everything and trying to keep track of everything.

4)Most of all-- mothers are SELFLESS: We give our time, love, talents, energies to our children. We are constantly thinking of our children, doing things for them, living for them. And not just them. Once we are mothers to our own children; we are mothers to everyone. For lunch all the things I ate were things I had purchased/made for others. Not to say that I don't do things for myself but everything I do for myself helps me to be a better mother-- getting more education, exercise, etc. helps me to be more for them. As a mother, you in essence live your life for them. I'm all for feminism but I firmly believe that you lose yourself to find yourself. As a mom, you give everything you have to your children and in the process learn so much about yourself and are actually gaining more in the long run.

Being a mother is difficult. And mothers are not perfect. That is exactly why we are so amazing. Because we are not perfect and yet are willing to try and learn and grow from the experience. I am so grateful for my own mother and all the other mothers in my life for their examples good and bad. I learn and grow from their examples.
I thank the Lord EVERY DAY for the opportunity to be a mother. Every Day!

So, for Mother's Day my gift was that I get to be a mom to these beautiful children.
I couldn't ask for more! Who wouldn't love these beauties? (These pictures are from last weekend at Bryce and Zion National Parks in Southern Utah.)

I might even be a rock star

Mara is obsessed with Hannah Montana, along with every other little girl her age. Granted she has never really seen the movie or the show (a part of one once) but since everyone else likes it, well then by golly, so does she. I know I'm a really anal and conservative mother so I won't bore you with all of my opinions on this whole phenomenon. One of the main ones is that being a rock star is not something I want my daughter to aspire to. But as I've mentioned before, nature has a strong hold on that child. Last week she sat down with Jason and had him write down her lyrics. Then he played guitar while I sang the song and made up a melody as we went. It was all I could do to keep singing because I was laughing and crying so hard. Nevertheless, for a 6 year old it's not too bad. So here are the lyrics for her song exactly as she wrote them. Maybe while we're moving we should move to LA and I can start promoting her.

"Let's See the World"

Lookin' in your heart
like everyone is noticing
Everyone can see the world
if you show them everyday

Uh-oh and what can you do for that?

Let's see the world together
(this is my favorite line)
like a team on a trampoline
Let's see the world
it's awesome to explore

Let's see the door---BYE!


Here's a picture of her from tonight. She was wearing that outfit already and posed like that without me asking. Yah, she's a rockstar.





Feel free to laugh at my daughter's expense. She'll never know.