Hotel Snobs

 I am happy to report that Brandon made it back from his business trip in one piece, and relatively non-traumatized from his business trip to St. Louis. His roommate, while a lush who snores, was not creepy.

That is just the tip of the good times iceberg we've had over the last couple of weeks. Last Friday was our good friend Tom's 7th birthday. His dad grilled us some delicious burgers while the kids played in the park and the splash pad. (Tom is wearing the gift we gave him...that is not his normal face in case you were wondering.) After the party, Brandon and I packed up and went for a staycation (that's a vacation, but you're staying in Las Vegas) at the Hard Rock hotel. We didn't plan on going, it was actually our brother Chad's birthday gift to himself. But since Chad was in the emergency room, waiting for an emergency appendectomy, we were going in his place. The Hard Rock....is not my favorite place. And those people there are not my people. To make a long, Mormon-cussing induced story short...we were back in our beds by 2am and Chad got his money back the next day. Snobbery or standards? That's been the ongoing debate we've had since.

I love that summer means there are lots and lots of kids at my house. This picture has one of my favorite kids in it, Madeline Smith.

 Abby and her came up with some serious choreography to Ke$ha's Blow and entertained their parents during a Sunday dinner. Sunday appropriate music? No, but sometimes we have to make exceptions for true art.

Abby has started her summer dance classes and loves every minute of it. I'm super glad that she's found, and I quote, "The dream of my life" in dancing.

I also love that summer means lots of time with cousins...like my sweet nephew Parker.

 

Other notables for the week:

• We have a missionary serving here, Elder Shaw, who is from my home town in Washington. Last week his sister died and he went home for the weekend to go to the funeral. He visited us after he came back and it was a really special visit. It made me think about my weird sister Judy who hasn't spoken to anyone in my family for ten years and who won't even accept my friend request on facebook. No, I don't know why....but what I do know is that I stalk her. And on her facebook account, she finally accepted a friend request from someone she knew before she moved to Alabama and cut all ties with her family and friends. Between Elder Shaw and the glimmer of hope that she is open to at least an obscure friend on facebook from the past, I've been considering trying to get in touch with her again.
• We had a lovely barbecue with our friends the Thompsons and the Houstons. Ali makes the best potato salad in the whole world.
• I've started teaching Abby piano lessons...the first week was a big success. The second week was full of sass and eye rolling. I'm a little concerned.
• Abby started voice lessons with a legitimate teacher, our friend Brityn, and their lessons are a lot more successful than mine.
• I made homemade gelato and it was successful!
• Father's Day was super fun. Brandon is a wonderful father and it's always fun to celebrate him.
• The primary presidency took the activity day girls bowling. I really like those kids. I hope mine turns out just like them..  

Spooning with Strangers

 

Abigail had her dance recital this week. This is a picture of her and her friend Ruby. Ruby, if you cannot tell, has an older brother. Older, but not so old that rabbit ears to your little sister in a picture has lost any of its humor.

 

Brandon and I were joined by Grandma Susan, Great Grandma Kathy and Brinley at the recital. It was so nice of them to come and Abby ended up with a veritable field of flowers in bouquets. And she deserved absolutely every one of them! She did so great. She was confident and really hit all her of moves hard. She is taking this dancing thing rather seriously and it's a real treat to watch. I would have taken pictures/video of the actual dance, but they asked us not to. Which, normally wouldn't stop me...but they did also turn the house lights off low enough that all your pictures and video looked like a bright haze. It couldn't be that they are forcing you to buy their DVD of the performance, could it? Capitalists!

 

 This is the last day of school party. Abby (and I) really enjoyed first grade. She had a delightful teacher and I really enjoyed being her room mom. I ended strong with a serious ice cream sundae bar. You can see that I know the way to 6/7-year-old's hearts. It's through almost coma inducing insulin spikes. She got all A's this year and was in all of the most advanced groups. Do I sound like a proud woman? Because I am. Even though first grade was fabulous I'm glad summer is here...I really missed this little pip squeak. Abigail, however, in her prayer's last night, asked that Heavenly Father would help her get over Mrs. McCall and her class and then started to cry. I'm really glad that she likes school and learning so much. Let's hope she keeps liking it because we went to Barnes and Noble last night and blew $50 on workbooks all in the name of fighting summertime regression.

 Speaking of Abby's prayers, she thanked Heavenly Father last night for being with her dad on his trip to Missouri. (This is the letter we woke up to the morning he left on his 5:15am trip to the airport.) Brandon is off to the firm's headquarters in St. Louis to get some training so he can continue to move up within the firm. We haven't heard from him much...but what we do know is that he is staying at a Sheraton, and to his shock and dismay, he has a roommate in the queen sized bed next to his. He was very concerned about who this guy would turn out to be...I can't blame him, especially since one of Brandon's favorite movies of all times is Planes, Trains and Automobiles which includes an awkward scene where two strangers are forced to share a hotel room together and this is what happens...

I've been giggling a lot thinking about this (in my mind, Brandon is in Steve Martin's place).

 

Other notables from the week:

 

• We have had a painfully hot start to summer this year. It's only the first week of June and it's 112. Thank you to all of my friends who have let us mooch on their pools. We've been able to go swimming everyday and it is the only reason I haven't packed up and moved away.
• I got to meet a real desert tortoise who is a pet of our friends the Gublers. Her name is Petunia and I love her. We are currently saving all the tops off our strawberries for her.
• My sister, Donna, was called to be young woman's president. Those young ladies in Pasco are seriously lucky. Donna was pivotal to my success during my teenager years and look how awesome I turned out!
• I made rolls for the first time...pfft...not so hot. Made whole wheat bread for the first time...might as well have made a doorstop. It was about the same thing. I will not be intimidated! I will, somehow, learn to make bread and have it not taste like poo.

 

And leaving you with the thought of poo bread, I will sign off until next week...

It's amazing I posted considering I've signed up for netflix

I am only 8 days overdue on this post. That is EXCEPTIONAL for me. I couldn't be prouder of myself. We've had a great two weeks...let me share with you a bit of our awesomeness. Above, please see Fort Abigail. This impregnable castle of coziness blocked our front door for a good portion of last week. It was a four-room, cozy little cottage of a home...complete with library, garage, living room and bedroom- a real dream house! Abby invited me in to read James and the Giant Peach to her. I felt very privileged.

This is mostly a picture of the back of a bald man's head....but if you squint really hard, you can see my handsome nephew Parker standing closest to the projector screen. This is his academic awards day. His mom asked him who he would like to come and I was his number one draft pick! That guaranteed his Aunt Jamie would be there, cell phone camera a-blazing, shouting his name!

So the standard Las Vegan (that's Vay-gahn, not Vee-gun), spends as much time out of our fair city from mid-May to mid-September as possible. Well, a few days before Memorial Day (which is infamous for turning Henderson into a ghost town) we realized we were pretty much the last ones left in town...totally unacceptable. So when our season-pass holding Brother Chad announced he was headed down to the Happiest Place on Earth, we decided to come with. We had a great time! Every time I'm there, I come within an inch of buying a season pass. I always calm my frenzy by counting up all of my churro/auxiliary costs. My niece and nephew are adorable and we had a great time. As you can see, there's a lot of love between the cousins.

We were able to have breakfast in the park....complete with Mickey Waffles for Abigail and Brandon. I started the morning strong with an egg white frittata and fruit...knowing that it would be a stiff decline into debauchery by 10am. I actually had a moment when I was waiting for our waffle cone order when I started being afraid for my own mortality due to our consumption over the weekend. I saw everyone older than me...fanny packed, large bellied, tired and glassy eyed. And I saw everyone younger than me...energetic, svelte and fit. I felt sandwiched between two possibilities and realized that metaphorically, I was on my way to the fanny pack side of life. This waffle cone experience was very transcendent. Needless to say, I downloaded the My Fitness Pal app and am turning things around.



Did I mention that we ate, ate and ate? This is the Mickey Waffle 'after.' We stayed at our hotel- the Hyatt regency in orange county. We love the bunk beds (even with an only child, bunk beds are super duper fun), the pool, the awesome breakfast and the fun shuttle. They even did a "dive in" movie where you could watch Brave outside while floating in their heated pool. Abby's husband is going to have a hard time competing with Abby's father.

Other notables from the last two weeks:

• I went to a relief society meeting on personal safety...and even though I just wrote my senator 6 months ago, encouraging stiff gun control...I agreed to let Brandon get a gun. The officer there was very patient with my 500 questions and convinced me it was a good idea considering how many death threats and altercations Brandon has already had with work. Maybe I should have encouraged him to go into ice cream truck driving....I also learned how to respond to an assault, and am fully prepared to rip cheeks, bite off fingers and pop out eye balls if need be.
• I went to my first boot camp class with my friend Sarah. I haven't been back yet, but I will! I loved it.
• Went to an outdoor movie with our dear friends, Brityn and Max. We had a great time! It was Tarzan...I think we all cried except Max.
• We had a swimming F.H.E. with some of our friends and family. Brandon worked until 11pm that night. We missed him, but it was still great!
• I actually attended a book club where I had nothing negative to say about the book. Which, for me, is unusual.
• I signed up for My Online Chore/Job Chart and so far it has been the most successful tool in getting Abby to work. I will report more on this later, since we are only 3 days in.
• We went out to our favorite Pho restaurant...and it was empty except for the waiter finishing a 13 hour shift. And the lonely waiter talked to us for a long time about being a lonely waiter. It made me very glad to be where I am in life.
• I am growing my hair long and that almost came to an end this week. I have never really had long hair and I am finding it quite the adjustment. I do not look like me to myself. I am having a hard time embracing this flowing locked goddess I see in the mirror...but until I am able to come to terms, I won't be cutting it. Abby, however, got hers chopped off and she loves it. I am having envy of her hair...
• We went to the temple as a primary presidency and I loved it. It was all Lindsay's suggestion- she always makes me a better person.
• I discovered Netflix....and I haven't gotten anything serious accomplished since.  

The first step is admitting you have a problem

I think we all know by now that I have a bit of a pattern. I let an inexcusably long time lapse between writing blog posts and then I try to catch up, using fragments of my memory, google calendar and grainy cell phone pictures. I don't think I see the grainy pictures ending (it's so convenient!), but I can do a considerably better job of posting. In fact, I've added it to my Wednesday to-do list as a permanent fixture. Let's see if that works...considering it hasn't worked with my set to-do list days of "deep cleaning" and "exercise" I am a bit nervous!

Mother's day was great this year! it is officially my favorite holiday. My parents were awesome to me and treated me to a box of chocolate covered strawberries. When they arrived, the tag said I only had 48 hours to consume them to guarantee freshness. I took my job very seriously and made sure to meet my deadline. I'm nothing if not responsible!

 

Primary was great on Sunday. The kids sung a song that made me cry and they were all really good in sharing time (probably because I wasn't giving it, I do manage to bring out the rowdy). We had a nice dinner over at the grandparents followed by a romantic midnight scorpion hunt with Brandon. We found 15! That's a record for us.

On Friday, I made a traditional picnic and we headed over with our bike (yes, that is singular, since only Abigail has one) to the new park in Whitney Ranch. When we parked our car there was a man strapping his little girl into her car seat getting ready to leave. He asked us if we were planning to go over and play at the park. We said yes. He said, "well, those punk teenage kids are using all types of language so we are leaving." I loved it! Sometimes it's nice to know that it's not just you who gets irritated by the total lack of propriety by today's youth. (That's a fancy way of saying, "kids these days!")

Scenic Las Vegas: Dangerous Snakes, Dog Poop Bags and Trash Cans.

These are my legs are after I fell/fainted backwards into our hallway which leads out to the garage. I know the scene into my garage makes me look like a hoarder but this is actually all of my dear friends, family and ward member's....well....crap.The second annual cub scout garage sale was held again at my house this year- curse me and my tidy three car garage! I actually don't mind, except this time I got really, really sick....like, see a bright shiny light and my ancestors are calling to me kind of sick. Thus, the fainting. I actually took this picture as a reminder to myself to not sign up for this particular activity again next year.

 This is a picture Abby took. Once a month, we go out as a primary presidency and visit with/drop a treat to each member of a different class. This month was CTR 6 (which is Abigail's class). She took about 15 pictures of the tag that came with the treat and three of the treat itself. Nice to know someone gets excited about seeing the primary president!

Teacher appreciation week was last week. It was super fun! I was in charge of decorating the window for Abby's teacher and for the custodians. I took pictures of all of the kids in a halo (since her teacher calls them her "angels") and used those for Mrs. McCall's windows. The custodians got candy grams. We sure got lucky with Abby's teacher this year. She even stopped by with her son last night for a surprise visit on their way back from basketball practice. She is a mom of an only child as well and him and Abby have pretty much adopted each other this year.

 Abby cooked! I brought home a kid's cookbook from the library with over 200 recipes in it. I asked her to pick which one she would like to make. She flipped straight to the back and picked brownies. What can I say? The toffee covered, chocolate chip coated apple does not fall far from the ooey-gooey marshmallow tree.

I know Easter is too far back to catch up...but here are scenes from Abigail and my spring break to Pasco, Washington. Brandon was missed, but someone has to pay for our movies, lunches and shopping!

Other notables for the week include:

 

• One of Abby's best friends, Emma, turned 7 today. It was so fun to go over and visit with her. It's hard to believe these two have played together every week since they were 2!
• I started making my own pizza dough. It's really fun and really tasty. Well, tasty to everyone but Abigail. She still prefers frozen pizza and Little Caesar's $5 Hot and Sweatys to anything I make. This came as no surprise to me.
• Brandon and I are finalizing details for our trip to Rome. I checked out several books on roman history and I am practicing my Italian. It's getting bene!
• I also made homemade biscotti and an Italian custard this week to celebrate our trip to Italy. Everyone loved it...but Abigail. Again, this came as so surprise to me.
• Abby went to art camp where she painted her self portrait. I will be framing it.
• On Friday afternoon, we had Thomas over to play. The play date ended with lots of neighborhood kids running through my house, grabbing popsicles, and running back out to ride bikes and scooters together. I love this stage of life.
• I called the police this week. Always fun.

 

Until next Wednesday! Ciao! (yes, I am practicing mia Italiano on you)

Happy Mother's Day Patsy Thompson!

Happy Mother's Day, Mama! this year, for mother's day, we are taking you on a virtual trip to Henderson, Nevada. I know you haven't been able to come and see us in our virtual habitat, so we made some videos for you so you can experience life with the Leavitts. I wish we could be there with you today, but hopefully these videos will help you feel like you're here with us.

We love you!

Love- Jamie, Brandon and Abby

Abby riding her bike in our neighborhood.

Welcome to the Leavitt house!  (You're going to want to turn your neck sideways, or watch this on a lap top so you can turn it sideways.)

Abby practicing for her recital. The costumes are as bad as I said, aren't they?

Abby's school tour

Abby's scooter tour

Abby taking you on a tour of her room

Catching up- February and a bit of March

 Happy February and beginning of March! While my blog completely missed February, it was a spectacular month and March is off to a good start. Since I only take pictures of about 3% of the things I do this catch up session shouldn't be too terribly painful!

This first picture is of Mrs. McCall, Abby's delightful first grade teacher, on the day of our Valentine's party. Being room mom is a real treat since I get to me there for all the fun stuff. I helped organize a gift from the class which came complete with a giant group hug. Super fun day!

 

This is Abby super sick. What? Don't you take your kids out of the house and have them pose for pictures atop cement rabbits in public places when they're running fevers? I just can't tell you how EXTREME my (and Abby's) cabin fever is, especially when it is nice out. I know that it's my style of parenting that causes world wide pandemics...next time, I'll disinfect the rabbit after and maybe then I won't feel so guilty.

The color runners!!! These are my friends Brityn, Max, Nick, Kylee and Lindsay They were kind enough to join me in a little fun 5K race in downtown Las Vegas. At each kilometer, you are pelted with various colored food coloring. It's a festivus of rainbows, unicorns, and all of the crazies you can imagine who take rainbows and unicorns seriously. While we had to wait more than an hour to start running, and even though we all rainbow boogers for days, and even though Lindsay's van almost got towed...I still think it was a success!

The Valentine's party again! Who's the best room mom in the whole wide world?

Abby during her music and academic performance night. She was in the middle on the bottom and was seriously cracking me up. She took this performance VERY seriously and if any other first grader started screwing around (like 95% of them) she'd get her stern face on and point at them and mouth correctional directions their way. Needless to say her pointer finger got quite the work out. I sure love my obedient, bossy, adorable, vocally gifted little munchkin!

You'd think all I do is stalk Abby's class all day long...which sometimes feels like the case. Here we are on our field trip to the secret garden at the Mirage. Oh Vegas...my child's field trip was to a hotel/casino...I try so hard to love you Vegas but sometimes it's just so, so hard. However, the secret garden really is awesome. We had lively tigers who were fighting, flipping dolphins putting on a show, and a tour guide who let the kids pet a real lion's whisker. I think I was the most enthused patron. I had a fabulous time! And I got to go for free!

Have I told you my kid is a hip hop sensation? She puts the f.u.n. in funky! While I put Abby in hip hop dance for exercise and because she seems to like it, I had no idea that she would take off like a sparkle booted rocket ship to the land of Getting Down. It's really fun to watch and I'm looking forward to the recital. She's lucky enough to have her friends Abbie and Sienna in there with her. It has been delightful!

This picture is like a knife to my heart. Here is the woman who dumped me and left me alone. This is Brityn Smith, the former first counselor in the primary presidency, on her last Sunday in our ward. She up, bought a house, and moved on from me. I am having serious readjustment pains.

 I finally threw away my faux suede gray boots. Yes, they were stained, cracking and my husband told me, "homeless people have nicer shoes than you" but what really was the catalyst to throwing them out was when I walked across my lawn I could feel grass poking me in the socks. These boots have been to Europe, the Oregon coast, all over! It was hard to let them go, which is why they are memorialized here on my blog, so that I'm not left with thoughts of them in the Hefty sack in my trash can.

This is my nephew Parker. I am lucky enough to get to watch my nieces and nephews every Monday afternoon while Brinley (another niece) goes to physical therapy to work on correcting and strengthening the motor skills and muscles damaged by her brain tumor. I am happy to do it but I was completely unprepared for how much I would enjoy it...especially this kid! We have become really good buddies

This is a plastic yellow bucket, on a table, in a dark room. It is also the only representative picture of a super fun night out with friends. Our friends Nick, Arcy, Thomas and Dominic treated us to a night out. We went to a fabulous show called Recycled Percussion. Everybody got some type of trash (pots, pans, buckets) and a drum stick to play along with the show. It was so loud it made you sick to your stomach and that is how I like my music. It was a great time.

I sold a lot of my furniture and am, again, in the process of redecorating my house. Since this is always true, lets move on...

The posse rides again! well, at least three of us. My great friends Carrie and Katie came down for a girl's weekend and we had a blast! These two are supremely fun, talented, intelligent, gorgeous women who have shaped me and helped fill my life with hilariousness This picture is in front of the Bellagio. We asked a slightly inebriated Irish man to take it. He said "Sure" and then told us to smile and say "Sausage." Oh my sweet innocent friends...you are smiling like he asked...those of us hardened by the mean streets of Vegas are giving the camera a "Really?! Sausage? How cliché" look.

 

 

Other notables:

 

• Brandon got a STELLAR annual review and a nice raise. We're RICH!!!! Ha! That is so funny! If I were to really celebrate it would be We're NOLONGERINSOLVENT!!!
• Abby had crazy hair day at school. I tried to give her rainbow hair using chalk and a flat iron. Totally thought it would work because I saw it on pinterest and it linked me to a dog grooming website, so totally reputable...I about made her bald.
• Sold girl scout cookies. Ate a lot of girl scout cookies.
• Had a fabulous Leavitt super bowl party. No one ever knows what's going on in the game but we eat like it's our last meal.
• My good friend Aspen came to town and we lunched.
• Chad graduated with his MBA and we partied with Mexican food and crepes. The Leavitts have tasty celebrations.
• We got a new air conditioner. It's a freakin' Cadillac of  air conditioners. I have never been more excited for a home appliance in my life.

And that's all I can remember off the top of my head...

 

Oh! Except....my friend Becky shared this video that I have to share with you. I about peed my pants.

 

http://youtu.be/HLI4EuDckgM

 

We're off to a great start

What you get when you go on a double date and your husbands are nerds who are trying to activate their Panera Bread cards to get free pastries...

 The second half of Christmas break was great. We rang in the new year with monopoly, sparkling grape juice, and fireworks. I can just tell 2013 is going to be the best year ever! I'm a week into my goals and so far so good...I have them apportioned by month. I am currently working on a.) flossing every day b.) completing Jamie Eason's 12-week program on bodybuilding.com. I start today. This will be my fourth start today. I've never made it past week 2 for the last 6 weeks. But this time it's going to be different (tongue firmly in cheek, but optimistic nonetheless!). c.) Not eating any dessert until my birthday (which is in October). So far, I've done great. Except....

 We went to Disneyland. And I stood in the pineapple Dole Whip line (with all the rest of the world, 40 minute wait), but everyone told me that I needed to try one of these "Pineapple drinks." Now, it was worth every single goal breaking sip, but I don't count it as a total failure, because when purchased, I honestly believed it was going to be pineapple juice. But I am so, so glad it wasn't.

 We did Disney with the entire Leavitt collective. We rented a house together and took over Disney like the wild pack of fun loving animals we are. The kids did AWESOME and even though we were sandwiched in the park like sardines and stood in record breaking lines, I still loved every minute of it! Having that many adults really allowed us some good divide, conquer and a quality 16-of-us-just-cut-in-front-of-you-because-that's-Grandma-who-held-our-spot-for-the-last-60-minutes-so-so-sorry-excuse-me-was-that-your-foot-I-stepped-on?-Pardon! strategy.

Happy New Year from Radiator Springs!!!