Archive for February, 2008

Please Pardon The Interruption…

February 26, 2008 at 12:09 am · Filed under Family

We’ve been sick.  Really, really sick.  Ches has been sick for about two weeks, but hasn’t had time to go see a doctor or even take a day off to rest and recover because of all his responsibilities at school.  Aiden had a cough slowly coming on all week last week, and on Thursday he came home from school and went to bed.  He missed his first day of school on Friday.  So much for perfect attendance, but at least he is better now.  I woke up in the middle of the night Thursday night/ Friday morning and my face was in complete pain from stuffed up sinuses.  I have never had so much pain in my face, and I’m the girl who had to have surgery on her sinuses!!  So Friday was a miserable day for me, too.  Aiden and I both had fevers and Dallin and Parker had a little cough, but pretty much spent the day destroying the house.  The entire family spent the weekend resting up.  We even all stayed home from church on Sunday (Aiden actually cried about missing church!  This kid has been whining every Sunday morning for the past few months that he “feels sick” and can’t go to church, or that he “hates church”, or that he’s “done learning about Jesus”!!  He finally gets a Sunday off, and he whines and cries about missing it??  I just don’t get that kid sometimes!).  Dallin got a huge fever Sunday night, and had a horrible cough and runny nose.  Monday, Ches called in sick, and Ches, Dallin, and I went to the doctor.  We left with about half the pharmacy, but everyone is doing much better.  Aiden went back to school Monday, Ches goes back today.

SO… That’s where I’ve been.  I need to catch up on everyone, but just wanted to let you know we are all alive.  Hopefully we’ll all stay that way a bit longer. ;)

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My Other Name

February 20, 2008 at 2:06 am · Filed under My Crazy Mind, memories

Karen called me Sariah the Somnolent Amphibian in a comment the other day.  I didn’t know why, and I had to look it up in Dictionary.com because I don’t know the meaning of the word “somnolent”.  It means “sleepy”, in case you’re wondering.  Once I read the meaning, it occured to me.  You see, to sign in to comment on that particular post of hers, I didn’t use my regular Blogger sign-in.  I used some new sign-in option, clicked on the “W” icon for WordPress, and instead of it saying “Sariah”, it gave my suer name:  “sleepyfrog76″.  It’s all making sense to me now.

I got this username years and years ago.  I was signing up for an email account (which I don’t have anymore), and I wanted something cooler than just “sariah_s” or something.  At first, I tried to use “theslayer” or “slayerfest2000″ or “buffyness”, that kind of thing.  It wouldn’t accept that.  Ches suggested that I use “sleepyhead” because I love to sleep. We have different ideas of what is an appropriate bed time and what is an appropriate waking up time.  He is a morning person.  I’m so not.  Anyway… sleepyhead wasn’t accepted either.  At that time I was in to collecting frog paraphenelia, so I thought I’d combine my two loves of sleep and frogs, add my birth year (Spirit of ‘76, baby!!) and see what happened.  It worked!!  I’ve used that username for my new email addresses and for my blogs… and a few other things. :)

The funniest is that I sent out an email to my friends and family saying, “here’s my new email address”, and my stepdad immediately called me.  “Did you open your Christmas present from Mom already??” he asked.  Uhhhh, no.  I don’t even remember if I had it yet (as my mom is notorious for sending packages late).  I asked why, and all my stepdad would say was, “You’ll see.  It’s just interesting the name you chose for your email.”   Hmmmm.

I opened my Christmas present from my mom… pajamas.  With frogs.  I put them on and declared, “I’m a sleepy frog!!”  I still have those pajamas.  They are just too appropriate.

I like what Karen called me though.  It sounds more distinguished.  Sariah the Somnolent Amphibian.  Sweet.  Karen, you crack me up, just when I need it most.

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The Scam

February 19, 2008 at 4:23 pm · Filed under money

Ches called me during his lunch hour today, concerned with some stuff going on in our bank account.  We have $11 left to make it the next week and a half, and there were some things coming out that he had no idea what they were from.  He read me the name of the company, RewardMeMore, and I had no idea who they were.  He did some research online, sent me a link, and I did some research.  Apparantly this company has take money from a lot of people without any permission.  Most of the complaints I read seem to have the same story as us.

A while ago, Ches ordered a CD online from a company called Grant Masters.  The CD cost was just under $2 for postage and had a 7 day “free trial”.  Well, we all know that nothing is “free”, and Ches wanted to check out the CD before we paid anything.  He was curious about all these grants that we hear about and thought it was worth at least checking into.  Well, the CD never arrived, but we were charged the postage as well as the monthly fee from Grant Masters.  Ches called Grant Masters, and they have removed the charges.  No problem.

Then there is the $33.87 charge from RewardMeMore.  Looking on complaint boards and scam notice boards, all the people who have also received these charges had ordered the same CD from Grant Masters or another grants company.  Most never received their CDs, either.  The grant companies seem fine with their end of the bargain, but I haven’t heard of anyone getting money refunded from RewardMeMore.  Most of the people filed some thing with their bank, and many ended up closing that bank account and opening a new one because they were getting charged 2 to 3 times a month for some program that they never authorized, much less received anything for!!

So… we have been scammed, and are now trying to get it resolved.  Life is great, isn’t it?

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If I Were Famous

February 15, 2008 at 9:40 am · Filed under My Crazy Mind

I decided yesterday that it’s a really good thing that I’m not famous. 

You see, I love getting hot chocolate from Starbucks.  If I was really famous, the paparazzi would be following me all the time, photographying me, and there’d be al these pictures floating around of me with a big Starbucks cup in my hand.  Then there talking would start… all these people would be saing things like, “She’s drinking coffee!  I thought she was a Mormon!” and all the Mormons would be upset and say, “It’s just like Steve Young.  He worked on Sundays, you know.”  I’d have to put out a statement on my website, saying that Starbucks has an entire line of non-coffee drinks, which I enjoy, and no, I’m not breaking the Word of Wisdom.  I’m simply enjoying a cup of hot chocolate.  Then Young Women leaders throughout the Church would use me as an example in “Avoid even the appearance of evil” lessons.  I’d probably have to make a deal with Starbucks to come out with a cup designed specifically for people like me that is a different color and design, bodly proclaiming “This is NOT a coffee”.  However, Starbucks, in all their wisdom, would probably figure out quite fast that it’s not exactly cost effective to make those seperatel cups, so they decide to go with a sticker, instead.  I would probably have to give up drinking hot chocolate from Starbucks and try to show all my LDS fans I listen and care about them.

All because of my chocolate addiction.

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The Results Are In…

February 11, 2008 at 10:11 am · Filed under Family, Living in Phoenix, Younglings

We received the letter from the school about Aiden’s testing for the gifted program.  He is officially “gifted”!  He scored in the 99th percentile for cognitive, the 95th percentile for spatial, and the 35th percentile for verbal.

That’s right.  35th.  Doesn’t that seem wierd to you?  It sure does to me.  So I’m going to definitely be asking about that part.  I will have him retested for that if I have too.  Believe me when I say there is NO WAY this child is only in the 35th percentile for verbal.  Although when I was talking to the Primary President at church yesterday, she said, “Well, of course.  Because if he doesn’t want to do something, he won’t.  That’s Aiden.”  That made perfect sense to me, as I was afraid of all the testing because I knew he will just refuse to do something if he doesn’t like it or if he finds it too dull.

Anyway, with this “diagnosis” comes extra attention at school.  Yay!  He’s supposed to get something like 2-3 hours a week of extra something.  I don’t know what, but something.  I think Aiden will like it.  He’s really thriving in his reading group (he was moved to the top reading group in a first grade class), and he asks to attend Clubs after school.  Apparantly Clubs is actually extra instruction for the kids who are having difficulties and are behind.  Aiden just wants to do something fun, and I guess a lot of kids he knows have to go to Clubs. When I told him it was for kids who needed extra help, he said, “But I’m having difficulties, too!”  I was worried he’d purposely fall behind just to get to hang out with other kids, but he didn’t.

We got his progress report this weekend, and he’s doing well in all his subjects and is really improving in his listening skills.  He’s following directions better, and is working on not interrupting Miss B. when she is talking.

In other news… Aiden has asked to play hockey.  Well, not only can we not afford it, but he has never been ice skating.  However, I found out about free skating/hockey lessons through the Phoenix Coyotes.  It’s a program called Tanner’s Kids.  He goes for three 45 minute sessions, gets a jersey, and gets to use skates and hockey equipment there.  The only requirements are the child must be between ages 4 and 9, and the child can’t be registered for any other skating or hockey program.  Aiden fits, so I signed him up.  His first lesson is March 10th, and he couldn’t be more excited.  I’m not looking forward to driving up to Scottsdale at the beginning of rush hour, but oh well.  He really wants to do this.  I hope he has fun (but not too much fun, because we still can’t afford to sign him up for hockey once the lessons are over!).

All in all, I think it’s a good time to be Aiden. :D

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Politics. Sigh.

February 7, 2008 at 2:48 pm · Filed under My Crazy Mind, Rant, politics

I think there really should be a law that says presidential candidates cannot announce their candidacy until 9 months before the November election and all caucuses will be held on the same day about 4 months before the November election.  Oh, and no one can do any sort of campaigning until the official start of the candidacy.  The general election isn’t for 9 months and I’m SO sick of it.  Anyway…

I promised myself that I wouldn’t vote for Mitt Romney just because he’s a Mormon.  I think it’s ridiculous that so many people are voting against him because he’s LDS instead of looking at the issues to see if he really is the candidate for them.  So I did my own bit of research and pondering and I believe Romney is the candidate for me.  I’m sad to hear that he’s dropped out of the race, but I understand the reasons.  More than I want Romney for a candidate, I don’t want Hilary Clinton.  I’ll vote for just about anyone over her.  Romney is just trying to give his party the strongest candidate.  I think it’s a good idea.  If I stick with the party I’m registered to, I think I will be voting for McCain.  Since we’ve already had our caucus here in Arizona, there’s not much more I can do to make sure my party has a the best candidate.  I now wait for the final candidates so I can make a good decision on who I think should be president.

No matter what my decision is, I honestly believe (and I’ve been saying this for about a year now) that Obama will be our next president.  We’ll see if I’m right in November.  Until then… if your state has not yet held their caucus, remember to go out and vote!  Do the research and make an informed decision.  Don’t vote for someone just because of what they do on Sunday morning.  Make sure they actually have the values you want in a candidate. Make sure you know what their plans of action are.  And help others around you be informed.  Voter turnout in this country is atrocious!  I think it’s something like an average of 1/3 of the registered population actually votes.  How is that going to help make sure the right people are voted in to office?  How is that representative of the people, if the majority of the people didn’t get their voice out there?  We all say “If you didn’t vote, you can’t complain”, but we need to do more than that.  If you know of someone who is registered but can’t get to the polling station for whatever reason, HELP them.  I don’t care if they aren’t voting the same way as I am, I will still drive them so they can make their voice heard.  Yes, it is that important to vote, people!

I know that this post is not well-written and is just one big ramble after another.  These are just a few of the thoughts that have been going through my head lately.  I rarely talk politics because I can’t stand the level of contention between people that goes on.  I don’t care what party one belongs to, or if they are even in a party.  I just want people to actually do something to make this the country we all think it is (or was, once upon a time).

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Back in the Day

February 1, 2008 at 2:39 pm · Filed under Family, memories

Get a load of this picture my stepmom put up on her Flickr account.  Isn’t it great?? :)   Ches and I were once sooooo skinny, huh?  This is outside our apartment in Moscow when we were first married and were students at University of Idaho.  I love this picture and have made it my new profile picture on Facebook.  Wow, we have changed a lot.

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