Adventures in Babysitting (or I love being an Aunt)

I spent Christmas day and the day after with my sister Heather and her cute family. She asked me if I would take Josh up so he could stay with my other sister, Shannon. I was willing. Along the way, I seem to acquire a girl (Hennessey), another boy(Riley), a Scene it game, one Queen CD, and two Neil Diamonds. Destination: Midvale, UT. The adventures were about to begin.
The first stop on Adventureland was in Gunnison, UT (podunk) where I saw flashing lights in my rearview mirror. "Miss, do you know why I pulled you over?" "Was I speeding?" I answered sheepishly. "Yes!" "Do you know what the speed limit is?" "No" "It's 30!" "Oh, and I was going 40!" He asked where we were headed and noticed the kids all bundled up. Hey, if this gives my sympathy points--I ain't too proud. He then got my license, registration, and my dignity and headed back to his car. Moments ticked by and suddenly he was back at my door. He handed me back my license with the warning to watch the speed limits in small cities. I thanked him graciously and he then handed me (the best part of this story) two junior police officer badges for the kiddos! I then drove off slowly. Okay, so the adventures were off to a somewhat shaky start. We got home after what seemed like an eternity, watched Stardust and then went to bed. I was pooped! Or is it pooed?
Next day wasn't too eventful, but I did get a piece of mail that was addressed to the Parents of Megan Keeney. Riley thought this was about the funniest thing he had ever seen. He had to call his mom to tell her about the funny piece of mail I received. I tried throwing it up to Heaven to see if they would catch it, but apparently there isn't a direct post line to Heaven. Riley talked about it for days! We went to Winger's to eat and Hennnessey wanted me to go out with the cute teenager server. Hey, I may be willing to go younger, but give me a break. I threatened Henna with her life if she said anything to this dude. We went home, watched Hairspray--which I danced and sang to! Hennessey kept saying to me, "Um, can you just lip sync?" Rude little girl. I'm not that bad. After the movie was over, we danced and danced and danced. I even got Riley to dance with me! He may say that he's not a good dancer, but he has moves that could make the ladies swoon. It was fun to watch him join in. We danced for about an hour and a half! Whew! I then collapsed into bed.
Okay, this is getting long--the rest of the time consisted of Zoolights, The Game Plan (sigh), Burger King, Sledding, Thumbwars, Hangman in Church, Alana developing a crush on Riley (she wouldn't leave him alone--the first sign!), bubble baths,retainer cases, crashing grocery carts, Henna saying, "Thank you for making us spaghetti," plugged toilets, lost wallets, pop tarts, smelly lotions, Riley wanting to go to Vegas with Josh's money, lost patience, lunacy and much much more. It's always fun to have the kiddos come to my house and play, but it's always fun to have them leave too! I was in the kitchen and noticed that Riley was doing some wrestling move on Henna, when I asked him what he was doing he replied, "I'm hugging her!" Whatever little boy, but it made me laugh! They are great, rambunctous kids and I always enjoy my adventures with them. I just hope that they are preparing themselves to do some major babysitting when it's my turn to have babies! Love you oodles!

Just another sigh........

Now, Dont be alarmed by the following post! Patrick and Zac are both still on my top crunch worthy list, but they may have some competition! The competition: DWAYNE JOHNSON aka The Rock. I took my cute nephew, Riley, to go see the Game Plan and the entire time I think I was drooling. I believe there was a time or two that Riley had to force my mouth shut. Oh my........He is a good looking creature.

Oh, and if you are wondering how the movie was. I give it two enthusiastic thumbs up. I was laughing (and drooling) the entire time. I was trying to convince Riley to go see it again on Saturday, but he wouldn't budge! Dang! Well, I know what I will be doing on New Year's Eve. Happy sighing!

No Lovin' for Keri

Okay, relatively, this does not rank on the list of really important things to be concerned about. But I feel the need to comment on it nonetheless. The nominations for the Golden Globes came out yesterday, and one very fine movie was left off the list -- Waitress -- along with it's star, Keri Russell.

Now, I don't condone the behavior that occurs in the film, but it is still a well-acted, well-written show. You laugh; you cry; you wish for more. And Keri Russell is at her best (along with Andy Griffith in a great supporting role). Although the happy ending is not the one that's expected, it still warms your heart and leaves you with the feeling that good things can happen to people who end up in bad situations.

So, I'm a bit sad Keri didn't get any recognition for her work. She deserves it. I've seen the movie three times, and it gets better each time.

Oh, well. I guess there's always the Oscars.

"Dear Baby, I hope someday somebody wants to hold you for 20 minutes straight and that's all they do. They don't pull away. They don't look at your face. They don't try to kiss you. All they do is wrap you up in their arms without an ounce of selfishness in it."

Come on, does it get better than that?

Marie

Christmas Sweeties...

Christmas 2007 - O Nite Divine....

We took a romp around Temple Square after; looking for parking for over an hour, singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" on Mir's phone, planning our 12 days of Christmas, harassing some temple square couple missionaries, eating at Nauvoo Cafe, playing funny faces (I think Mindy won), taking funny thing-like glasses faces pictures, AND...finally going to see "The Restoration" movie at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, feeling the spirit and balling our eyes out. Whew...what a night! :)

It was a blast. The Beautiful Women Rock! We were minus- one of our very important members... who recently got busted for blogging about cranky-pants people at work... (I won't say who it is... :)

Which makes me think, we're single & we are AWESOME! I had a terrific experience recently at my ward Relief Society Party. Several single sister's mixed in with marrieds were sitting at a table waiting to partake of a feast when these two sister's in their late 50's came and sat down. Full of vibrancy, one of the women- Maryanne, introduced herself to everyone at the table and announced that she and her friend were single and proceeded to ask everyone else if they were single or married. I was sitting with a friend in the ward (we're both in our 30's, single, & incredibly awesome!...) answered first. "Yes, we're single"... Maryanne, proceeded to a married woman, "Are you single too?"... The married woman responds proudly, "No, I'm married." Maryanne replies sympathetically with a wave of her hand "Oh, that's okay! Don't worry about it... we're all friend's here"... hahahah!!!

My friend Melanie & I cracked right up! Melanie told Maryanne, "That's usually the response we get when we tell people we're single, I like you Maryanne. I'm going to start using that on people when they ask me if I'm single."... Maryanne meant no harm, but boy was that funny. The girl who was married was kind of apologetic about it too. So funny!... She didn't know any better, she just got married too young. :)

love you guys! You are THE BEST (said in Nacho Libre voice) :)