Weekend Update

I am so sorry - I am the worst blog updater ever! I will really try to post something else this weekend while I'm home for 4 DAYS - WOOHOO!! How sad is it that I'm already looking forward to the upcoming 4 day weekend and it's Sunday night? We have the kids for Thanksgiving this year, which will be nice. I'm excited that my sister's family is coming down to spend the day with us. I wish there were more of us getting together, but I so appreciate her making the hour + drive for the occasion. I will try to make it worth her while and dazzle her with not only my stellar culinary skills but also my fabulous game playing abilities. Upwords and Payday here we come! Kidding... kind of. So I went and saw "Twilight" this weekend. I thought it was pretty cool. It's been at least a year since I read that first book so I forgot what happened in which book, but I enjoyed it. I agree with my sister's assessment that they could have found a prettier Rosalie - I mean seriously, Bella is always going on and on about how perfect she looks...ya, not really. That was disappointing, but I think for the most part the other characters were well cast. Bella and Edward were cast really well; they were just as I pictured them. I guess Emmett could have been a little bigger, but he was okay. As soon as the movie was over I was like "Okay I'm ready for the next one!" Seriously! Why can't authors and movie-makers just make them all and then release them like within a month of each other - you're killing me!
I really had such great intentions for this weekend - I was going to clean the house like a mad woman, and I so didn't. I mean I did some stuff, cleaned here and there, but not even close to what I was planning. That just means I'll have to clean after work all week. Or perhaps it means that I over-plan... yes, you know, I think that's it. I just shouldn't "plan" so much, and then I won't be put up against these "expectations". There's my solution, right there! Okay, or I could just do it, but that's way less fun.
Well, as I said I'll really try to remember to post something next weekend while I'm home, since that's the only place I'm able to post stuff, but with the kids here it will be tricky. So I won't promise anything - there's that whole "expectations" thing again. :o)

Sick Day

I ended up having to take the day off today because Maya's mom called to say Maya is sick and she had a workshop for work to be to today, so I said that I'd come and get her and take care of her. Apparently she has thrown up 4 times since last night, but fortunately for both of us, she hasn't since I picked her up this morning. Troy has a big project at work that is keeping him really busy so he wasn't able to stay home with her. I feel like a true mom now! :o) She fell asleep watching "Sword and the Stone" (love that old school Disney) so now I finally have a chance to write a new post! It's only been - what - 4 months? How sad. Zane's baptism went well - of course the pictures from that are at work ironically; I'll try to remember to email them to my home email address so that I can upload some new pictures. I'll post some pictures of our camping trips this summer too. We went to Deer Creek, Huntington Lake, Strawberry Reservoir, and most recently Bear Lake. I wasn't a big fan of Huntington because it was swarming with mosquitoes, but the rest of the campsites were beautiful and a lot of fun. Bear Lake was by far my favorite, even though our truck ended up breaking down halfway there. Luckily we had the van with us too so we left our truck and trailer in Layton and drove the van up to Bear Lake for the rest of the day. We saw a show at Pickleville Playhouse called "Chuck Wagon's Wild West Showdown" and it was so much fun! I highly recommend going there; it was seriously hilarious - the whole family loved it. They interact a lot with the audience and Zane even went up on stage to help out with their version of "She'll be comin' around the mountain" and he did a great job. Maya has been wanting to sing that constantly ever since because their version was pretty funny. Of course the beach was so nice too - we'll definitely be planning a return trip early next summer or even in the spring, weather permitting. Sadly, Utah is already jumping right into the fall weather - it was rainy off and on yesterday and is supposed to be the same way for the next couple of days. I was really enjoying the sun. Now that I'm not so fat I actually can enjoy the warm weather instead of feeling like I'm going to die of heat stroke! :o)
Well, wish me luck with the little sick sweety sleeping on my bed. I promise I will post some pictures soon!

What's new?

Well, Zane is getting baptized on Saturday, so I'll post some pictures of that once the deed is done. Troy is baptizing him so that will be cool for them both. My sister Staci and her family are kind enough to make the trek down from Kaysville to Provo for it so that is much appreciated.

I made my plane reservation for my trip to California in May, so I'm really looking forward to that. Troy and I are going to Vegas in a couple of weeks to see Bon Jovi and Daughtry at the MGM so that will be way fun. You probably won't be seeing any pictures from trip because as we all know, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas"...as it should be. :)

I'll try to post the pictures from Saturday this weekend...I'm being optomistic.

The Latest

So it's Sunday morning and all is quiet on the Richey front - except of course for Zack's walking. Zackary loves to walk a lot - back and forth and back and forth all over the house. It's his way of burning off all of his excess energy, thus the reason he can eat the way he does and yet still be in such good shape. Perhaps we could all learn something from Zackary - he also drinks water all day long. At night he comes up and down the stairs at least 10 times to fill his 16 oz. cup up with more water. Now how can you fault him for that? How bad is water for you, right? Troy and I are very grateful for Zackary; he needs very little help with his schoolwork and still gets excellent grades, he's very honest and respectful, and I could go on and on so I won't. However, just yesterday I asked him if he would wear flip flops when we go swimming if I bought him a pair. (Zack always wears tennis shoes and socks and doesn't especially like to wear sandals or flip flops, but I thought for swimming it would make more sense to wear flip flops...) So he said "That's okay, Cheri, I can just wear dad's, you don't need to spend your money." Most teenagers I know jump at any opportunity to spend their parents' money and get new things out of them, but Zack is always worried about us having enough money and is very considerate about that and appreciate when we do spend money on things for him. He is a very humble young man and we are very blessed.

Okay sorry to get off on a tangent about Zack... yesterday we all got to go to Cora's birthday party at the South Jordan Rec. Center. It's a really nice place, and the kids had a great time, so thank you to Chris and Jen's family for providing the fun activity and good food. I should have brought my camera and I could have shared some pictures but that's okay; I'm pretty sure no one needs to see me in a swimming suit anyway, so you're welcome everyone for doing you a favor. Granted, it's not nearly as frightening as it would have been two years ago, but still. More skin than flesh & bone is not a pretty sight. :o)

Our big news is that we just purchased a brand new travel trailer. We are all very excited to use it and be able to go camping all summer long with our whole family - Zack and Maya refuse to sleep in a tent, and quite frankly I'm not a big fan of sleeping on the ground with the dirt and insects myself, so we'll all be much happier with the trailer option. Troy can get in his fill of the great outdoors and fishing, and the rest of us will now be able to enjoy it as well thanks to the flat screen TV and built-in DVD player in the trailer. Not to mention actual beds with mattresses and oh, yes, air conditioning! SWEET! Man I'm getting excited just thinking about it... I just wish this dang snow would go away!! It snowed again last night, just when it had all finally melted and we thought maybe, just maybe, spring was finally here and we'd seen the last of it. No such luck. :o( I keep hoping! Until next time...and I'll really try to be better about that...peace out!

Finally an update!

So I set up this blog with the intention of being able to update it here at work during any downtime I might have (which lately is most of the time given the slow market). However, my company internet blocks me from being able to do that...until today when for some reason I was miraculously able to do so. I'd better take advantage of it while I can because who knows how long my luck will last (given the amount of money I lost in Vegas last weekend, not long)! So Troy and I had a great time in Vegas (despite the loss). For Christmas I bought him front row tickets for us to see Phantom at the Venetian, and it was AWESOME. I highly recommend it to everyone that has the opportunity. We went dancing and basically just had a really fun time together.

We all had a very nice Christmas; the kids got everything they could ever think about wanting, between our house and their mom's houses, so they are very fortunate children. We try to remind them as much as possible how very blessed we are. Troy was able to track down a Wii for the family and we've had fun playing the different sports together as a family. We also got lots of new board games to play together; that's one of our favorite things to do. Well, okay, maybe just my favorite thing to do as a family (thanks to my mom for my inheriting those Andrus game-playing genes). Anyway we have quite a variety to choose from now and we always pick one to play for family night. (Okay I make them pick one and force them to play it and like it, but whatever - no need to quibble over details, right?)

Maya's birthday is next week and Zack's is the first week in February, so we will be busy with parties for the next little while. Maya will be 6 and Zack is turning the big 16! I can't believe that he's that old already! We are so very proud of him and the great young man that he is. He is by far the most well-mannered and thoughtful almost 16-year old I have ever known. Kudos to both of his parents for raising such a kind young man. I will be sure to take pictures of both parties so that I can post them on our blog in a few weeks. Until then, adios amigos!