Happy 2009!

I've already had lots of practice writing "2009" today while I was at the doctor's office so the year has already "broken" me in. How lucky am I?

Let me back up.

Last night was New Year's Eve. I figured it was going to be a quiet one just because we have all been super busy and everyone was coming down with a cold. My work can get pretty insane at year end so I was working in the office, which meant getting kids up WAY before dawn to get them to a sitter so Sam and I could be at work by around 7:30.

Yesterday when we came home from picking the kids up, I heard Cameron *bark*. Instantly I was brought back to when he was 2 months old and I heard the same sound. Blast. I think Cameron has the Croup.

So the kids all went to bed by 8:00pm. Happy New Year to me!

I was wiped out so I was in bed by 11:00pm. I almost made it...

Sam had other plans. I guess he didn't want to feel like an old fogie. So, he watched all his TIVO'd football games that he had recorded on Sunday. Then about 11:30pm he got his suit on and headed to the Stake Center to chaperone a regional youth dance. He left there around 12:30am. Then just as he pulled into the driveway a really good Cure song started playing on the stereo. So he decided to drive around the neighborhood to listen to the song. As he passed some friends' house, he noticed a lot of cars in their driveway and he happened to know the owners of those cars. So....because he's Sam, and random, he raced home for the toilet paper. He drove back, and wrapped toilet paper around our friends cars. That's just one of the reasons I love Sam.

Then Sam came home, finished a few more moments of football, cleaned junk off our hard drive, and took down the Christmas decorations in our family room. He came to bed around 3:30am. Happy new year to Sam!

At 5:30am I woke up to more barking. DANG! I was hoping it would just go away.
So I was up pretty much the rest of the early morning hours holding my croupy baby.

We took Cameron in to the KidsCare this morning and my suspicions were confirmed. Croup....steroid medicine for two days....he's contagious.....good thing we didn't party it up on New Years. When he was two months old and had the steroid medicine it was horrible. He was super cranky for 2 days. I'm hoping now that he's older he won't be so crazy. Yeah right....

We did have good news today. We cleaned up all our Christmas decorations and as I removed the tree skirt from under the tree, a present flew out! Seriously! I couldn't believe it! Here it is:


I opened it....a very generous gift card from my brother and sister-in-law, Mike and Kim! So funny! So I got to call Mike and thank him twice for their gifts! ha ha ha!


Happy new year to me!

Tonight we were out running a few errands. As we were leaving one store the cashier gave Carson and Parker each a helium balloon. Now, I have to preface this with some background info. My kids are famous for having bad luck with helium balloons. Just to name a few instances: One time Carson had a helium balloon for about 5 minutes, he walked by a pine tree in our driveway, the balloon hit it, and popped.
Another time, a car dealership gave Carson a balloon. We walked outside the dealership, Carson lost his grip, and the balloon flew away. Those are just a few examples....I could go on for another hour on this subject!

So, the cashier hands them balloons, thinking she's all noble and awesome. I smiled, instantly bent down to my kids' eye level and said "Now listen to me, if those balloons pop or are let go, I better not see ANY tears!".

We go to a grocery store next. Carson leaves his balloon in the van because he's nervous. Parker brings his into the store.

After Sam rammed Parker's ankle with the shopping cart, Parker cried. Sam picked him up to console him. He put him back down, the balloon pops off Paker's wrist and flies up to the ceiling. Wow, Albertson's has high ceilings! Now Parker is crying because his ankle hurts AND he lost his balloon. So much for my "no tears" threat. The only thing that would make Parker stop wailing in Albertson's is when I quoted a line from "Horton hears a who", which I have never seen, but it goes something like "In my world everyone is a pony and they eat rainbows and poop butterflies". Out of pure desperation I remembered that line because Carson says it 100 times a day. It worked. Parker couldn't help it, and the corners of his mouth went up. I guess there is a place for potty talk after all. Hmmmm.

So, we go back out to the van, Sam opens the back to put the groceries in, and Carson's balloon flies up to the stars. For the love. Then Carson starts crying. Honestly, did no one hear my "you better not cry" comment? The only one not crying was Cameron and he had every right to cry, he has the croup for crying out loud. Truth be told, Sam and I were laughing our guts out. Yes, we're not very compassionate, but you should already know that about us.

So change of subject.

I remember when I married Sam and one day, early in my married life of belonging to the Sweet fam, I watched in horror, as Fern bought Christmas M&M's on sale, after Christmas. Then she proceeded to separate the green M&M's from the red ones. When I asked her what the *&!# she was doing, she said "Now the red M&M's are for Valentines Day and the Green ones are for St. Patrick's day".

Honestly, I thought she was wack-a-doo. Who would take the time to do such a thing? Was it really that important to have perfectly coordinated M&M's for those two upcoming holidays? Seriously, wack-a-doo.

As we were dealing with balloon crisis at Albertson's, I saw a huge bag of Christmas M&M's out of the corner of my eye...50% off....I couldn't just walk past that deal could I? Suddenly, I had the frugal desire to buy it, separate the colors and save them for the next two holidays. OH NO! I went from wack-a-doo to WACK-A-DID!!! I bought the bag and separated the colors. 10 years of belonging to the Sweet family and Fern's tradition has finally rubbed off on me! I'm proud and a bit ashamed at the same time...in a good way.

So now that I've admitted my....uh.....acceptance of the M&M trick, I have some interesting facts for you.

Here I am at the start of the process:


Now, knowing that there are 3 colors of these M&M's: light green, dark green, and red, do you think there are going to be twice as many green M&M's as red?

Carson loves doing experiments so I told Carson after I separated them all out, we would weigh them on my kitchen scale.

I couldn't believe the results:



So, even with two colors of green and only one red color, they weigh the same! I don't know why, but that intrigued me. Carson loved it, I wish I would have taken a picture of his face. He was positive there were going to be more greens. Maybe we can turn this into a science project one year....

Well, Happy New Year once again! Let's all say a little prayer that Cameron doesn't start barking tonight because if he does, I have to go out into the freezing cold night air with him to open up his airways. Oh who am I kidding...I'd probably make Sam do it!