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I really don't have much to say, but am tired of seeing Code Orange everytime my blog comes up.

Code Orange

Remember after 911 and still sometimes today at the airport we have the colors indicating the level of terror threat? When those began to pop up everywhere, my reaction was...duh!!! I grew up in smog central Riverside County California where color codes were an every day news occurance in letting us know if we could safely step outside for a brisk walk or if an oxygen tank was recommended. Since we lived in a one step in the grave retirement community, it was usually the latter. Speaking of one step in the grave, does anyone else think it's inappropriate for 2nd graders to be making R.I.P. tombstones with made up peoples names and info on them????? I almost yanked my kids into home school today.....then I came to my senses....due to code orange.
Someone asked how I was today. I have this bad habit of saying one thing...the right thing....the thing I think people want me to say.....the thing that will allow me to continue going to bible study at my church and not get my children completely ostracized in this community, while all the while having a COMPLETELY different reaction/answer/conversation going on in my head. Kind of like that Zack guy on the tv show Scrubs, but without the big hair (because I'm going bald). It really is sad when a guy has nicer hair than you. So, back to the innocent question of how I was today. I said fine, I asked how that person was, I tried to concentrate, but as I was bending over to get the baby's barf catcher out of the diaper bag in the bottom of the stroller, I felt this twinge. We all know it....I was a human wine bottle and my cork was slowly slipping out. You get the drift. As if I needed this, I have a baby, she poops a lot, she throws up a lot, she talks a lot during group meetings....I adore her and wish I could be as open with my bodily functions and chatter. So as I was politely trying to listen to how this other person was, I was SCREAMING in my mind-CODE ORANGE! CODE ORANGE! Terror (AKA Tampax) levels high....leakage imminent. And that my friends is why I always say pad up. Especially during tp season...pad up. BTW-how did our fine friends at Tampax decide what color to label the levels of absorption? Always is always green no matter if the wings look like a Boeing 500...always green....no discrimination. Not Tampax though, they got crafty....I personally think it was a man because if a woman would have done it they would all be in the one color that takes off the 10 pounds of bloating....black. Tampax black...period.

Blind Dog

This is the view this morning at 7am as I stumbled to let the dogs in. The first snow of the season. It seems that the Utah way is to skip a season in between. For example, last week we were almost 90, today's high will be 38 (if we're lucky). Sore throats be darned, winter is here. We had to scramble yesterday to even find long sleeve shirts and some semblance of a coat. BUT it is beautiful and the kids screamed in the yard of the compound as they ran out in their pj's (don't judge) and the 100 pound lab was trying to eat it all. He may have an eating disorder (again, don't judge). So, when I finally got the courage to open the sliding glass door to the arctic wind to let the dogs in, we had a problem. The 7 pound Maltipom was having waaay too much fun....or so I thought. She wouldn't come to me and as she ran to the wrong porch steps, into the concrete, to my horror I realized she couldn't see! She has CLUMPS of snow stuck to her fur that made for an unsightly blinder! The poor baby was BLIND! By the way, her hearing must not be too great either because it took her a long time to get her bearings and follow my voice. I now know how little dogs don't survive in the wilderness....frosty the snowballs disorient them as they keep trying to scrape the clumps off, more gather. Not the smartest Maltese in the Pom....but we don't judge and a good warm bath did just the trick. She may be scarred for life and we may need to pull her hair in a pony tail before her next trek. Aaaah, the joys of snow....

Real Life

As I'm sitting here trying to get caught up on all my emails and debating as to whether I will make it to Bible Study (since a truly exhausted Esther refused to wait any longer to take her morning nap and I don't want to wake her to leave), I am so grateful for the family time we were able to have and yet conflictively overwhelmed at the "real life" of concrete floors, wallpaper disasters, undone fences, piles of smoke filled laundry, homework, hip hop, cheer, mops, soccer.....obligations that I was somehow able to put out of my mind for 3 very short nights. Yet, as I read my friends' blogs I am reminded of how all of these obligations are not what is truly important. Our friends, the Blakes, lost their much awaited baby girl, Bailey, while we were gone. That is real life. That is where important things lie. In holding each other up in prayer, in laughing when times are good, and pulling out the kleenex in times of sadness.

So, as my perspective is politely re-aligned to what is truly of value, I have to say that we were able to see Santana in concert while we were in Vegas. We surprised my mom with an early birthday dinner and her and I survived the randomness of drunkards in 2nd row seats at Santana! It was crazy....it was exhilarating...I finally felt alive again (so did the guy in front of us as the security guard shoved him back into his seat).

And of course, this is the always warm pool side view from the MGM's lazy river. Man, I miss palm trees....