Unwelcome Guest

So, as many of you know we live in the unfinished basement of my parents' house. There are french doors which lead to a walk out patio with stairs that lead up to the yard. There's a gap in the door which allows for leaves and twigs, etc. to blow inside. Occasionally I've seen dried tiny, shriveled up worms by the door along with potato bugs (sometimes still alive). I always just assumed that the worms had died outside and been blown inside, well the other day I learned that this was not the case. I was sitting at our computer desk about 5 ft away from the door when Emery came up to me and wanted to sit on my lap. So, I turned around to pick her up and was surprised by a 6 inch moving, wiggling worm crawling towards my foot on a piece of scrap carpet. Normally, I don't really care about worms, heck I dissected them in school among other more disgusting things, but this took me off guard. My first thought was that it was a snake because it was so long, but clearly on closer inspection you can tell it was only a worm. For those of you who know me, know I have a huge fear of snakes since I was a child. I was surprised, but deffinately thankful it was only a worm. I made Chase come and take it outside, even though Addie was all eager to do the job for me. Addie is my crazy girl who enjoys picking up snakes, worms, etc. and enjoys bringing home potato bugs and keeping them in her room, until I find their poor lifeless rolled up bodies in a drawer somewhere. Anyway, I've included a picture for you all to enjoy.

Night at the Museum with Harry Potter

Bailey, Addie, & Cam with Tonks.

So, for some reason I wasn't able to type above the first picture, so I'm starting here. On Sat. night I drove the 3 oldest kids over to our good old city Lehi to visit the Hutchings Museum. They were having a Harry Potter night with only $1.00 admission so I surprised the kids and decided to check it out. There were people dressed up as characters from Harry Potter through out the museum, we saw Ronald Weasley(who had a very bad accent), Hermione Granger(who didn't have an English accent), Professor Trelawny, Gilderoy Lockhart, Tonks, Rita Skeeter, maybe Hagrid(not for sure), and other random people in costume. The kids started out by going to Olivander's Wand Shop (I think that's his name), where the wands chose each of the kids. Addie's had Fairy Wing in hers, Bailey had Veela hair, and Cam had Adder Fang.

We met Professor Trelawny with her barn owl perched behind her where she read our fortunes. Then the kids played a game of throwing spiders into a cauldron and won some candy. We visited Diagon Alley and the kids got to purchase all sorts of weird candy from Honeydukes with their "galleons". We met Gilderoy Lockhart and got pictures with his autograph. He asked if I would like one too and when I told him that I was fine, he said we don't have to tell your husband. Not sure if he was just trying to be in character, or what...kind of creepy.

Then we went over to the Magical Animal Menagerie where I think the caretaker was supposed to be Hagrid, but not sure, he never introduced himself. They had a bunch of fossils and 2 live animals which I thought were the coolest part of the night. He had a Golden Eagle which was huge and a Great Horned Owl. He told us that he had rescued the Great Horned Owl when it was a baby being eaten by its siblings in the nest I guess. The owl's wings had been chewed down. He rescued it and raised it and now he says the owl thinks he's her boyfriend and demonstrated by making some owl "hoots" and the owl answered back. It was pretty cool.

Next we paid a visit to Azkaban where they have an old jail cell down stairs and we had to pass some dementors which scared Addie and Cam. I had to drag Addie along and Cam was ok, until he realized the dementors were following us. He freaked out and grabbed onto me telling me that someone was following us. Once we got to the jail we were greeted by someone with a hershey kiss to ward off the dementors.

Then we headed over to the magic show to watch the magician Magical Johnson. It wasn't quite the show I thought it would be, but it was alright for a buck. The kids got to sit on the front row. By this point Addie was not happy about the dementors and Azkaban and was angry, saying she hated Harry Potter and wanted to go home. Cam was not very happy either, but I talked them into staying for the magic show. The show started out very slowly with the magician spending about 10 min. just asking questions about the books and then tossing out chocolate gold coins to those who answered. When he did start the actual show, every trick was proceeded with a long drawn out "Harry Potter" adapted explanation. Cam kept turning around and asking me when the magic show was going to start, even though it had. He was expecting a rabbit being pulled from a hat, but I guess that was my fault, because I used that in my example as to what the magic show would be. He and Addie were both skeptical that the show wouldn't involve more dementors. Addie perked up after she got chosen to help with a trick and received a chocolate coin afterward.

Magical Johnson's first trick was having 2 adults stick a large needle through a balloon to determine whether they were muggles or not. Then he pulled out his balloon and you could clearly see the tape where he stuck in the needle and then it ended up popping anyway. A couple of his tricks didn't work all the way like that. He was decent enough, like I said, we paid a buck to get in. His last trick was really the only one I found impressive, most of his tricks you could figure out how he did it just by watching. The last trick he smooshed up a banana, put it in a handkerchief and made it dissappear. All in all we had a fun time, but I think Bailey appreciated it the most because she's actually been reading the books. She just finished the 3rd book and watched the first movie, so she was very excited about all of it.
Rita Skeeter interviewing Addie.
Honeydukes candy: Pepper Imps, Jelly Slugs, Bat Bones, Fizzing Whizbees, Chocolate Frogs, and of course Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.
We were surprised by Moaning Myrtle, complete with a tape recording of her talking to us while we used the bathroom. A little weird.
Addie dressed as Professor Trelawny assisting the magician with his trick.
Cam, Addie(still mad about the dementors), Bailey, and Magical Johnson the magician in the background.
Bailey holding the animal book that comes to life, not sure what it's called.
Caretaker guy explaining all the fossils.

Cameron intensely examining a snake skeleton with his magnifying glass.
The kids standing in front of the owl and eagle.
Great Horned Owl
Golden Eagle
The pics of the eagle don't do it justice, this thing was huge with massive tallons.
Bailey, Addie, and Cam getting their fortunes read with Professor Trelawny(a barn owl is perched behind her head).

Crossroads Feis

On Sat. the girls wanted to go watch the crossroads feis (pronounced "fesh") held at the Marriot Hotel in Provo. My mom enrolled Bailey and Addie in an Irish dance class at the Power Academy of Irish Dance. They really enjoy it and are excited about practicing and getting better. They seem to improve with every lesson. I'm glad they have something active that interests them. Their dance school was involved in an Irish dance competition (crossroads feis), so we decided to go watch since it was free to watch.

It was interesting to watch all the different dancers and their different costumes. The older girls had more elaborate costumes all of which usually had sparkly and brightly colored patterns. They all wear really tight curly wigs as well, which I never realized were wigs until we got involved with Irish dance. The girls wear different shoes as well, ranging from beginner types to more advanced. I am not sure on the names of the shoes, but Bailey ended up getting a pair that hopefully will leave room to grow in, so they last a long time because they are expensive. They are pretty cool looking and have really long laces that lace around a lot. Maybe later I will get pictures and post them. Sorry, but I forgot my camera and didn't take pics of the feis.

The feis was really crowded and wasn't really the sit down type of performance that I thought it would be. People were constantly coming in and out. They would announce different specific dances and those competing in that category would all line up along the back of the stage. They had musicians playing what appeared to be an accordian, but I could be wrong and they were also playing one of those irish drums. There were also people moderating each group and as the music would start the person moderating would clap twice signaling the next person to go out and perform. They would dance for about a minute then the moderator would clap again signaling the end of that performance and starting the next girl. When the performers were done, they would bow to the judge and then bow to the musicians. It was really interesting, but I think I prefer more of a performance type venue. It was hard to watch sometimes with people going in and out so much and groups changing all the time, but it was neat to see the different levels and types of dance and how they actually do the competition. There were these really tiny girls younger than 5 who were amazing. The girls really liked it and I think it motivated them to keep practicing. I love Irish dance, so I'm excited they like it. I would eventually like to learn myself one day.

This Has Not Been My Week!

I worked again last night. I received a lovely morning wake up call around 7:15 this morning from the very considerate construction crew drilling up the church parking lot. They were literally directly next to the fence seperating our yard from the parking lot. I got to bed maybe around 3:30 am and then was awoken by the walls and ground shaking around me accompanied by lovely pounding of the pavement. I was so angry I ran outside in my pajamas and waved at them over the fence until they saw me, because they couldn't hear me, even though they were no more than 3-5 ft. away. I yelled, "Are you kidding me?! It's 7:15 am! I worked last night! Would it kill you to wait an hr. or 2?! My baby is still asleep! You are incredibly loud and it's shaking the whole house! I don't care who contracted you, the church or the city, but it's extremely inconsiderate!" They just kind of stared at me and then I heard one of them mumble, "Well, we'll hurry and try to get it done then." I went back inside and while they ceased the drilling they kept driving their trucks around and lifting concrete chunks and dumping it. I was furious! I called my dad who is a bishop at this building to see if he could call someone in charge of that stuff. He did, but no one answered the phone. So, I called the city police department and complained. They told me they'd be sending an officer by only to return my call right after and inform me that the city ordinance allows for construction at 6:00 am. I am so angry and irritated! I tried to sleep through it, but couldn't, so I went upstairs and tried to sleep in one of the girl's bedrooms on the other side of the house, which helped a little. I do not understand how people can be so inconsiderate! Maybe some of you think I am being completely negative as I have been called out for recently, you can argue that they were only doing their job, I don't give a crap! I have a right to be angry and express it anyway I like, you have a problem with that, go jump in a lake or don't read my blog and facebook! Maybe I'd be a little more positive if I didn't keep running into assanine people every time I turn around. I want to move to an isolated cabin on the coast or up in the mountains, that should satisfy all of us I think!

Emery The Energizer Bunny

Emery decided she doesn't want to sleep anymore. She has been struggling with taking naps lately and going to bed. This started around the same time I started to work; I'm not sure if there is a correlation or if it's just coincidence. We finally got Emery to go to sleep last night around 10:00-10:30, right before I left for work. I got home about 3:15 am and was getting into bed when I hear a little Emery voice talking. Chase seemed to be awake so I asked if Emery was in the bed and he answered in the affirmative. Apparently she had woken up just minutes earlier asking for me and was freaked out, so Chase put her in our bed. Well, since I was there now, she rolls over and tries to get as close to me as possible, meaning she ends up mauling me. She also would just talk and jabber constantly allowing me no possibility of getting any sleep. I wrestled with our little booger until about 5:00 am and finally had had enough and put her back in her bed where the screaming began again. I went upstairs and got her a drink which pacified her briefly, but she would have nothing with going to sleep. I was exhausted having been up since 7:30 am the day before, and gone to work. I'd been awake for about 21 1/2 hrs. straight.

Chase then took Emery upstairs where he tried to sleep on the couch while Emery watched some cartoons. He got the other kids ready for school and I woke up around 9:30 am, thinking she would have crashed and finally gone to sleep. This was not to be, she was not going to give in. After lunch, and watching some Yo Gabba Gabba in her high chair, Emery looked drowsy, so I decided to try again. I thought for sure she would just crash and take a nap. I laid her down around noon and the screaming ensued again off and on for about an hour, followed by a sad little voice asking if she could come out now. I was still tired, so thought I'd go down and see if she'd take a nap with me if I laid down next to her. I read her a story, and we sang some songs together. I ended up falling asleep and Emery crawled out of bed and went upstairs to play.

The day went on like this with Emery actually not acting any crankier than her usual 2 year old self and not seeming to be sick or anything out of the ordinary. We finally put her down to bed again tonight around 9:00 when we finally heard quiet about 9:30. The screaming has stopped and she finally gave up her fight to stay awake. Going on about no more than 5 hours of sleep, Emery was awake from 3:00 am until 9:30 pm. I have no idea what in the heck possessed this kid to do this, I only pray that this is the end of the madness. I was so perplexed I was about to call the pediatrician. Short of dosing her with benedryl, or giving her Bailey's melotonin I was completely at my witts end on what to do. I'm crossing my fingers that this never happens again and that she wakes up happy tomorrow morning at a normal time, or better yet a little later to make up for all the grief she gave us. What 2 year old does this, it's crazy!

A Great Weekend!...

Except for my aching shins and feet! My dad gave us tickets to General Conference, so Chase and I drove up to Salt Lake yesterday for the morning session. We had to park a ways from the Conference Center and I not being very forward thinking wore horrible shoes to walk in. We also climbed a lot of stairs! Traffic was crazy trying to park and a ton of people in lines winding around the block, but once inside we made it to our seats with 15 min. to spare. It was a neat experience to watch conference in person which I had never done before. I had been to Young Women's conference as a teenager, but that was it. This was also my first time hearing the Tabernacle Choir in person. I finally understood why everyone thinks they are so great. It is totally different hearing them live rather than through your television set; the sound was amazing! I have never before heard a choir sound like that. Although I did miss watching conference in my PJ's, it was very nice to feel the spirit and experience conference differently, especially being able to hear every talk without noisy kids interrupting.

Afterwards, we drove to Moochies and met my brother Clint and his wife Michelle for lunch. It was very delicious and we had a fun time, even though we were accosted by a bee. Michelle and Chase teamed up to trap it in an empty bread pudding container and saved us. Don't worry, Michelle later released it safely, and I'm sure it is flying around again with his other bee friends. Sorry, if my post digresses, I didn't get much sleep after working last night, so my writing suffers. After Moochies we drove to Clint and Michelle's new apartment and had a tour and visited. Quiet, adult conversation is nice every once in a while.

Today, Bailey wanted to go to conference. My dad had 2 more tickets left so Chase took her for a Daddy/Bailey day. I packed them lunches and they left after the first session. They had a great time and got to look around afterward. They had a lot of neat art work up in the building which was cool. As of now I'm not sure if they were going to continue their Daddy/Bailey day by driving up the canyon or not since the weather here is kind of yucky right now. Anyway, I'm sure Chase will post about their day later for you if they did. Have a fabulous Sunday everyone, enjoy this cozy fall weather while you can!