I've come to an important realization. I am utterly clueless about music these days. I am the only person I know who does not own an iPod. Nor do I particularly want one. I have a little MP3 player that I keep in my purse but I don't think I've actually used it in months. 

I rarely listen to the radio in my car or the one on my desk (although that's mainly because I get lousy reception in our building). Instead, I have about a dozen CD's burned onto my computer and I listen to the same ones over and over. I don't even own a decent stereo in my house - never had really. It always seemed like a big waste of money to me. Isn't that pathetic? Most of the time, I listen to audio books rather than music and I would take an Amazon Kindle over an iPod every day of the week!

I can only name a dozen or so popular artists from the last decade and I can't tell you the names or the words to any of their songs. It's hilarious to watch the Grammy's or some other show like that because I spend half the time asking my husband or my son - who the heck is that? What about that one? Is that the one who did the song from that movie? Drives them crazy!

Do you know what is so funny about it? When I was in school, I was a bona fide MUSIC MAJOR. Yes, I wanted to make music my life's work. I sang in choirs and danced in performing groups for my whole time in school clear into college. I acted in plays and I played 5 different instruments, none of them very well, but I could put a decent tune together on them. Like any teenager, I listened to the radio nearly all the time - KHJ Radio with Charlie Tuna and Casey Kasem and the Top 40. I remember quite clearly being on stage performing in a school talent show in the 2nd grade and I could hardly wait until the 5th grade because that's when they let you join the band and be in the school choir.

Literally the biggest, most devastating disappointment of my entire life was when I didn't get into the top music group in High School. I don't think I ever wanted anything in my life so badly before or since.  And I had it rubbed in my face every day of that Senior year when virtually every single friend I knew headed off to that class while I went off somewhere else.  

But I took other classes - all the classes I could get my hands on. Jazz, tap, ballet, classes in song writing, conducting, music theory, voice lessons, instrument practice, every performing arts class I could think of. Someone asked me once what I would do if I had a million dollars. I said I would spend it all on classes - music classes, voice lessons, acting lessons, dance classes. I was completely obsessed with music until I was about 20 years old. Then I just stopped.

Why? A teacher literally broke my heart.  He kicked me out of his choir halfway through the semester.  He said he'd made a mistake with my audition and I just didn't have the vocal quality he needed in his choir.  Between that and the drama I had in High School over not getting into the group where ALL my friends were, I was just done, done, done.  I decided I was no good at any of it and had no talent whatsoever.  Any of it - singing, acting, dancing, instruments, just none of it. I was done. 

The next semester, I transferred to the computer science program and I never looked back. I guess it's a good thing really, because I've made a heck of a lot better living dinking around on computers than I ever would have made as a music teacher, or a choir director or even a professional performer, probably.  But it was a hard way to go.  I don't remember particularly singing again until about 20 years later when I joined our church choir and still was always very tentative and unsure of myself.  

It's sure funny how your life makes such an abrupt right turn after 20 years or so of going in one direction. I wonder how different my life would have been if I'd kept on going straight?  Maybe I'd at least have an iPod!  

We're having a busy week. This week is all about the Scouts for Blake. He had his crossover ceremony on Monday making the transition from Webelos to Scouts. They actually had them cross across this huge log bridge that was about 4 or 5 feet high. I wasn't expecting that. Especially when they made ALL the parents do it too! I took the chicken exit and went through the timbers instead of over. I could just see my fat butt falling off of there and crushing several small Cub Scouts in the process. I think it was a good decision because one of the leaders ended up breaking his ankle jumping off the durn thing.

Today they had swim testing at the local pool for their upcoming campout. Then tomorrow night he gets his Arrow of Light ceremony from his old Webelos troop. Then he's off for a 3 day campout with his new Troop. Wow, how's that for a full week of Scouting? That's my idea of a boy's paradise.

Matt is cooking up some plans of his own. He's all excited about getting his own apartment. A house actually. He and a couple of buddies are scheming to rent out a house together. I'm having a hard time dealing with it actually. I know this is a normal part of growing up, but I wasn't at all prepared for it. It's not that I want him still living with me when he's 35, but I didn't leave home until I was 24 and married and he's only 20 and still in school.  We'll see - plans are still pretty loose and kids this age tend to be pretty flaky.

I don't know what I'm going to do when he leaves. We still have dinner together every night he's not working and we watch TV together every week - Bones, Dancing with the Stars and American Idol. He's the one who gives me a hug when I've had a rotten day. And he's the one who plays the most with Blake and wrestles with him and chases him all around the house. And plays really cute with the kitties. Practical stuff too, like watching Blake for me after school, doing the grocery shopping, doing all the sweeping and mopping and stuff.



I mean, he's lived in my house nearly every moment of the last 20 years and I really can't imagine him not living with us and not seeing him every day. But I guess I'll have to come to grips with it because he's all set to go in just a couple of weeks. I just never really thought of myself as being an "Empty Nester". Or half empty anyway....

My other little bit of randomness is about Facebook. As I've said in earlier posts, I'm really enjoying the whole Facebook thing and I'm having a great time connecting with people from all walks of life. However, there's a little point of etiquette I'm not quite understanding. When you're adding people as "friends" how do you define who you should add as a friend? For instance, do you only add people from school you were actually friends with, or do you also add the cheerleaders and jocks and all the people who wouldn't give you the time of day back in school? It's kind of awkward because I went by a totally different name in High School, both first and last, so I'm sure people are looking at my Facebook name and wondering who in the heck I am.

Then there's the relative-of-a-relative crowd. Do I add my niece's husband that I know pretty well? That one sounds like a no-brainer, but what about my ex-step-nephew's wife that I never actually met? Yes, I know you think I'm making that one up, but I'm really not.

I have a fairly large and convoluted family tree. I added the ex-step-nephew because I knew him pretty well back when my sister was married to his father, but is it rude not to add his wife since I've never met her?  What about the kids of my various cousins? I've been adding the ones I've actually met and might recognize if I ever ran into them somewhere, but there's some I'd even never heard of. I don't know if they really want somebody my age in their profile. I know Matt doesn't like having me on there as his friend. He's afraid I'm going to embarrass him in front of his friends or something.

Oh and one other question -I found some women on there who used to be good friends of mine, but there was a big blowout in the group we belong to and they kind of bailed on us. We're still in that "polite mode" when we run into each other around town, but we're not exactly best buds anymore. But we run in the same crowd, so I see their names pop up from time to time and I'm not sure what to do. Do I ignore them, do I acknowledge them, do I sign them up as friends and make nice-nice? I don't really know on that one. Can you say AWKWARD!

By the way, I'm still a little leery of Facebook. I went in and tightened up my security settings like you are supposed to. Did you know that if you join a network like your city network that every person in your city can see your whole profile? I didn't until I started clicking on other people's profiles and noticed that I was able to see profiles for people I didn't even know. So I've set it so that only people who are actually designated as friends.

If you haven't done so already, I'd advise you to give it some good thought. There is a lot of hacking going on. The other day, that We're Related application sent me FIVE different E-mails about adding all my relatives. That kind of freaked me out and I'm wondering why they want to know so badly. I think it's kind of a fun app, but I keep thinking of sinister ways they could use that information.

Anyway, that's my bit of randomness for today...

After two years in this house, I decided I wasn't really happy with the decor in my dining room. I had a collection of rustic checkerboards on the walls and I was kind of tired of them. So I decided to make a pilgrimage to our local Tai-Pan Trading store and see what I could figure out. They have a great selection of imports and some pretty good prices, so I set a budget of $50 and figured that would about do it. Silly me. I think I spent that in about the first 10 minutes, but I did get some bargains and I found some really lovely things.

So here is a tour of my lovely new dining room. Here is the new vinyl lettering I put above my main window. As you can see, I love words so I have lots of word things around my house. This lettering package was one of my finds from the Scrapbook Expo where they were selling them for $2.50 a piece - normally, they run about $20, so I scooped up several and I'm in the process of finding spots for all of them.



Next is my new clock from Tai Pan and another sign that I got from the Scrapbook Expo. It says Believe in a pretty glass frame. I liked this shade of red and I managed to find several other items that coordinated perfectly with it.














This is my favorite part of the new decorations. I just love this shelf, but it's metal and it was terribly heavy, so my husband had to get special screws to get it mounted properly on the wall. I just love these little bird houses and I think they go perfectly with the block letters. I found the little Home Sweet Home sign in a different part of the store and I think it ties in very nicely with the pastel colors and the bird houses above. I love it when a plan comes together!



This grouping was already in place. I toyed with changing it a bit, but I decided to leave it as is, just because I like it so much. I love the smart-ass sign - "Never put off til tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow" because it fits me to a T! The message board has all sorts of pictures of the boys and the little sign below is one that my mother gave us. It has some kind of saying that if you mess it up, clean it up, you break it, you fix it, etc.



I found this great picture frame at Tai Pan with exactly this picture in mind. It's my favorite picture of Ryan and the grandkids. I call it his Superdad picture. And I love this plaque beneath it. I've had it for years and I think it's hilarious! Of course it made more sense when we actually had a dog, but I'm sure we'll get around to fixing that situation some day soon...



Next are some of my chickens. I added these in honor of my mother. She loved chickens and had them tucked in all over her house and I never see one that I don't think of her. The stained glass chicken used to hang in her kitchen. And I found this fabulous red chicken hook to hang it on. The picture with the stars was from my stamping friend Brenda Weaver. I got it in a swap at Convention last year. The colors match the rest of the decor almost perfectly.



This Belle Jardiniere tray was another one of my better finds and a bargain too. I think it's so pretty. The other wooden tray with the heart-shaped handles is one I painted for my mother, probably 20 years ago back in my tole painting days. I think they go together so nicely.




More chickens naturally. We actually got this baker's rack from our church garage sale - a bargain hunter's paradise! I love it, but I wasn't sure what to do with the top racks. Originally the wicker baskets were on the top row and I had mail and other clutter in them. I didn't like that, so I emptied them and moved them down a row and I found these two fat, sassy roosters to put on top. There are even hints of that great red color again to tie them in with the rest. I still need to put a little something in the baskets - any ideas?

I found that silver G in the bargain basket marked at 75% off. I was toying with the idea of hanging it with a pretty ribbon from one of the hooks, but I kind of like it on the TV. The picture was one my daughter-in-law did of the grandkids. I think it was very clever to shoot the picture like that with the focus on the eyes.



The finishing touch is my mother's hand-painted tile table. She just loved this table and I do too. We keep it covered with a piece of Lexan to protect the tiles, but I love the vibrant colors of it. However, the chairs were a different story. The had definitely seen better days. Her dog had chewed on some of the legs and two of them were badly cracked, so we splurged some more on a set of brand new chairs to match. They aren't quite as comfortable, but they are a perfect match to the table and I think the new silk flower arrangement adds just the final touch it needed.


There you go! Hope you enjoyed your little visit to my new and improved dining room!

This was pretty interesting. I got this meme from Black Belt Scrapping and I thought it was pretty interesting. If you'd like to make one of your own, follow the instructions below.

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search
b. Using ONLY the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Mosaic Maker. Change rows to 3 and columns to 3. Here's the link for the Mosaic Maker http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php.
d. Now save the image and post it on your own blog.

The questions:

What is your first name? Adrian
What is your favorite food? Ham
What is your favorite color? Green
What is your favorite drink? Rum & Coke
What is your dream vacation? Caribbean cruise
What is your favorite hobby? Stamping
What do you want to be when you grow up? Lion tamer (that's what I wanted when I was a kid)
Who do you love most in the world? My boys
One word to describe you - Unique

Here's how mine turned out:


Pretty interesting application. Give it a try.

OK, I couldn't resist doing just one more. Look at all these beautiful tulips! They are my very favorite flower and aren't these pretty?

We have lived in Utah for 18 years and I have been in and out of this state literally all my life. Yet in all this time, none of us had ever made a visit to the state Capitol building. So on Monday, I thought it was about darn time. We had a very nice time and enjoyed the free tour.






Here are the boys goofing around in a very pretty hand-painted wall safe. I expected a guard to come and toss us out at any moment, but they were having such a great time, I couldn't bear to stop them and they were being pretty careful.  These two are always messing with each other - it's like a trademark in our family.  



It's really beautiful in there with lots of marble, gilt leaves, fancy curliques and pretty sculptures.



We even got to see the chambers where the House and Senate meet. I was really annoyed to find out that they only meet for 45 days a year - sheesh! No wonder it takes forever to get anything done! If I were in charge, I'd make them meet for at least 3 days a week year round. And then I'd abolish that damned filibuster concept. When you meet for such a short time every year, it's absurd to waste large chunks of time like that.

Before this last election, I never had any interest in politics. Now I'm finding it really interesting. Aggravating as hell, but very interesting!






Here is my charming son trying to climb up on one of the lions outside the building, or he's trying to throw himself over that railing. One or the other.


So much for our wonderful historic tour of the day! Hope you enjoyed it. Hope it doesn't take me another 18 years to make a visit like this.

Interesting facts (from the little bookmark we bought at the gift shop)

Built in 1912-1915, re-built in 2008.

256 base stabilizers were added for earthquake protection. Each weighs 5,000 lbs & cost about a million dollars each.

Height 235 feet above ground

Surrounded by over 500 Yoshino cherry trees

Twas the day after Easter (okay, a couple of days) and this is the result.




Yes, take a look at this. Solid chocolate bunnies sitting there, not even a nibble out of them. Peeps not even eaten (although Blake and I did share one box of Peeps - I ate most of them!), even those delicious little Hershey's kisses sitting there all neglected and lonesome. Sometimes I think I have the strangest kids on the planet!

Pretty much every holidays is like this. I buy the requisite candy hoping that this time, they'll actually eat some of it - this time. And usually they do eat a bite or two. Then they're done and either I eat it myself, or I wait until the next holiday and toss it all out. I just don't know where I went wrong, but all three of my kids are exactly like this. Not a candy junkie among them. I dunno, they didn't get it from me. Here's what MY Easter candy looks like:


Go figure!

What is it with boys? With three sons, this is my third time around on the puberty train and I still don't get it. I swear for about the last decade, I've been having the same conversation on an almost daily basis. Yes, you need a shower today and every day. Did you remember to put deodorant on today? Yes, your feet do stink, try changing your socks once in a while! Did you actually use the shampoo today? Just looking at it won't get the job done and your hair does look greasy. And no, you did not brush your teeth properly - go back and try it again.

Why is it so hard for pre-teen boys to accept the basic facts of human sanitation? I mean, they've had the lecture at school. It's all been explained to them and they understand at least in theory, that this happens to everyone. So why can't they just accept that and get with the program?

Instead, you spend several years of daily nagging until they finally get to the age when they notice girls and only then, do they finally get a clue. And then at that point, you can't hardly get them out of the bathroom and can't hardly breathe for the smell of aftershave and cologne. Even so, that's a lot better than that car ride home on a summer's day with a stinky, deodorant-deficient boy. You know, the one where you have to put the car windows down and stick him way in the back of the car? Ewww! I don't know how Jr. High School teachers survive with a whole classroom full of them.

Oh well, at least we miss out on PMS and the mysteries of menstruation!

I am so bummed. I SO wanted to do something fabulous for April Fool's Day today, but I just could not think of anything funny to do. I did think of one somewhat lame joke to do, but it was kind of a bad-Mommy thing to do.

My April Fool's joke involved Clocky.



As you can see, Clocky is an alarm clock - with wheels. If you don't get up and shut Clocky off the first time the alarm goes off, what does Clocky do? Well, he jumps down off of your dresser and starts running around your room beeping loudly all the time. Isn't that just wild? So there you are stumbling around in the dark, half awake trying to catch your alarm clock so you can put it out of it's misery.

So last night, Blake and I snuck into Matt's room while he was at work and we set Clocky for 3:00 AM! It was kind of mean, but funny. I just wish I'd been awake to hear all the mayhem. He didn't even realize it was an April Fool's joke until we asked him about it this morning. He thought he'd just set it to the wrong time.

That's OK, I helped him plot revenge. Clocky is now sitting underneath Blake's bed. He should be going off in about an hour. After all, it's still April Fool's Day until midnight!

Update: Well, the alarm just went off. It was beeping and running around like crazy under the bed. Scared the heck out of the cat. But Blake - he just slept right through it. Didn't even turn over. Man, that kid is a sound sleeper! But I'll bet he was having some very strange dreams.  And the next night - guess who got a 3:00 AM visit from Clocky.  Darn boys - they thought it was hilarious!  

PS: I just thought of a really nasty office joke I'd heard about but never got a chance to try. Guess I'll have to wait until next year to try this one -Wait until your co-worker gets up from their desk after typing a really long document of some kind. Save the document (important!) and then use search and replace to remove ALL the spaces. Thiswillturntheentiredocumentintoonebiglongword! Completely unrecoverable. The only way to fix it is to go through line by line and replace the spaces. That’s why you save it (if you’re nice!). April Fool’s!