The pictures say it all...

I have happy things to talk about after yesterday's rant about the spiteful month of January.

I went on a cruise baby!

A CRUISE!

It was awesome.  Really.  I can't stress it enough how awesome it was.  It was warm, sunny, happy and just plain fun.  Go on...be jealous.

Here are a few of my favorite pics:

Chillin on the sun deck

Towel animals!  Yay!

Abby and her new penguin hat.  Because that's what she wanted from Catalina.  A penguin hat. (?)

Alex strikes a pose.

Mario Kart...Catalina style

Abby, Seth and Kade enjoying the beachiness.

Awwwww!

Catalina Island

All fancied up for Christmas Eve dinner.

La Bufadora, Ensenada

Me showing off my cool new bag I bought at the market in Mexico.  Notice my photo bomber and the sketchy pharmacy.

Best fish tacos EVER

The view from my cabin window

Nate showing off his abs in the pool

Eatin' lunch with Grandma.
This was a spectacular view from the back of the ship.

Life is sweet.  :)

p.s. I hate you.

Bleh.  Bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh.

January.  I loathe you.  You are so loathed.  I loathest thou.  To loathe or not to loathe?  Hmm...I think I will loathe.  Are any of these usages of the word "loathe" correct?  Who cares?  Not me, because as far as the month of January goes, it can basically go to heck where it will be loathed for all eternity.

I'm not sorry.  I will not take any of it back.

I just came back from a downright awesome vacation where I spent 5 glorious days in the sun only to return to barren trees, polluted skies and black, crusty snow frozen to the streets.

Do I sound hateful and full of disgust?  Of course I do.  Because I am.  I am wondering if it would have been better for me if I had not tasted the sweetness of the sun because it only heightened my awareness of the stinking cold.

Someday I will move to a warm and sunny place and you will not have to read about my loathing.  But until then, I reserve the right to loathe this month with every fiber of my being.

Tomorrow I will have something happy to say.  Today I loathe.

Christina's World

Christina's World
by Andrew Wyeth

I love this painting.  So I thought I would share.  It reminds me of where I am and where I want to be.  There is a sense of hope about it that gives me comfort.  She's fallen down, but she looks forward with a sense of purpose.  I guess that's life.  Sometimes we run, sometimes we walk and sometimes we crawl.

verbal vomit

Welcome!  In this post you will find nothing earth-shattering or insightful but instead you will find that I simply regurgitated the contents of my life onto the page.  Verbal vomit, I like to call it. So read on and then you can consider yourself informed.

So I am sitting here at 5:11 am.  I know, it surprised me too.  But believe me, I didn't get up this early because I wanted to.  I just returned from taking Nate to the high school for swim practice.  He is on the team this year (which I think is so cool and I am so proud of him!) and he practices every morning at 5, has a class period every other day for swim, and then has after school practices.  That's three to four hours of swimming.  Every. Day.  Thinking about it makes me feel tired.  But the good news is that at least one person in our family is incredibly in shape!  Woo hoo!  The rest of us are a bunch of slugs, but whatever.  He has his first meet today and he is so nervous.  He looked like he wanted to throw up when I dropped him off at practice.  But I am excited to watch him compete for the first time.  He is an awesome kid.

Onward with my life!  Next up...Abby. What can I say.  Abby is...Abby.  She had her birthday the other day and the day was interesting, I guess you could call it.  She was sooooo excited.  We had a family party planned and when she wasn't running around the house screaming "I'M SIX!", she was asking me how many more minutes until her party that night.  Six hours is a looooong time when you have an hysterical six year old waiting to open her presents.

Here are a few Abby quotables from the day:

"Mom, I wonder what these presents are.  Do you think they are the ones that I ordered?"

"Mom, I want the party to start.  When are my people going to be here?"

"Thanks Aunt Amy for the dress.  But I wish I could get some more presents that are cooler."

.....sigh......

I guess this is normal for a six-year-old.  The combination of self-centeredness and the inability to control what they say is par for the course.  But it's horribly embarrassing!  And kinda funny too.

Here's a picture of the cutie to make up for her social faux pas:

Next up is my Seffers.  I love that kid!  He is 11 which happens to be one of my favorite kid ages.  Kids this age are funny and smart.  They haven't turned into teenage monsters yet, but you can have extremely intelligent, although somewhat odd conversations with them.  They still tell you about their day.  They still hug you when they come home from school (well, at least mine does).  I wish I had a recent picture to share, but for some reason I have been absolutely terrible about taking pictures lately.  I have a new camera, not to mention a GREAT camera on my phone, so there is no excuses for me.  I guess I will have to settle for a selfy he took the other day that I found on his iPod.  Don't tell him I did this because he would DIE.  But he is so funny!

Since I already told you about Nate's swim stuff we will move on to Alex. I don't know if I blogged about this already, but Alex had the opportunity to travel to New York last May with a really cool jazz band that he plays in called the Voodoo Orchestra.  They played in several places including Dizzy's Coca Cola jazz club and a little place called Carnegie Hall.  Yes, you read that correctly.  CARNEGIE HALL, PEOPLE!!!  

Here are some pictures to prove he was there :)

Three of the bands that are part of the Caleb Chapman Music group were able to perform their own night at this amazing venue.  The main band, who headlined the event, is called the Crescent Super Band.  Voodoo orchestra and La Onda Caribena both played 20 minute sets before Crescent came on and played for about an hour.  Unfortunately, Shawn and I weren't able to go on the tour with him. We were able to save up enough for Alex to go, but it was too much to pay for all three of us.  But that's ok!  I am just so glad that he was able to go.  All of these bands are part of an organization called Caleb Chapman Music down in American Fork, Utah.  They have 15 different bands made up completely of Junior High and High school kids.  And they are really, really good!  Alex is so lucky and blessed and totally excited that he got the chance to be part of it last year and go on that amazing tour.  He auditioned this year for Voodoo and is able to be part of it again for another year.  I can't tell you how much this group has helped this kid.  He has learned so much;  not just about music, but about how be good at life in general.  Words cannot even express how proud I am of his accomplishments.  If you're interested, here is a link to a review of the concert that was posted in the New York Concert review:  http://www.nyconcertreview.com/blog/?p=2360

As you can see, life stays interesting here at the Shipley house.  We are running every which way as fast as we can and sometimes, honestly, it gets a little out of control, but we have much to be grateful for.  We have trials and problems like everyone else, but for the moment, life with the Shipleys is pretty sweet.

Growing up is optional

My eldest child turned 17 last week.  I have mixed feelings about this birthday.  On one hand, I am excited for him;  he is just starting his life and has so many opportunities ahead of him.  Yet I am scared for him too.  He has so much to learn and I know he will have trials that I can no longer shield him from.  It's a weird feeling.  This birthday has also been a unwelcome reminder of my advancing age.  Here is my official list entitled "20 signs that you are approaching middle age":

1.  You realize you have known your spouse for more than half your life.
2.  When you get together with your friends, you realize that you enjoy discussing your various physical ailments.
3.  Your idea of a good time is staying at home watching Netflix in your pajamas.
4.  "Dressing up" means putting on a bra.
5.  You stop telling people that you are going to "grow old gracefully".
6.  You dye your hair because you have to, not because you want to.
7.  You actually have a strategic plan for how you are going to someday grow out your gray hair and stop coloring it.  I'm serious.
8.  You are happy to be done having kids, but start to realize you are going to miss some things about having babies.
9.  You realize that you are never again going to plan a first-birthday party.
10.  You begin to dream about future grandchildren and start saving toys "just in case". (see number 8).
11.  You wake up from that dream in a cold sweat.
12.  You try to go back to sleep, grateful that you are finally at a time in your life when you get a chance to sleep through the night, but your traitorous body doesn't let you.
13.  The reasons your body doesn't let you sleep at night are sometimes the same reasons why it won't move the next morning.
14.  You understood the previous statement without having to think about it.
15.  Your youngest child is a brat, but you really couldn't care less.
16.  People start to think you are learning to be patient, but...(see number 15).
17.  Sitting on the floor is NEVER a good idea.
18.  In fact, even getting up from the floor after sitting for longer than, oh, ten minutes usually results in cramped leg muscles, sore hips and an arthritic hobble across the room.  This is usually followed by one of your teenagers mocking you.
19.  Speaking of teenagers, you don't understand half of what they are talking about and you have had conversations where they explain to you what "hashtag" means.
20.  The fact that you even HAVE teenagers is proof enough.

Happy birthday Alex!  :)

The better side of crappy

I wish I could take credit for this phrase, recently coined by my sister who is going through the post-surgery blues.  It so perfectly sums up a mood that is somewhere between ok and my-life-sucks.  And it happens to perfectly sum up my current state of mind.

I am sitting here at 1:45 a.m. in a terribly uncomfortable office chair.  I am supposed to be in bed, but I recently vacated that location due to less than desirable sleeping conditions.  Being awake in the middle of the night is a little weird;  I sorta feel like I am doing something wrong, sneaking around the house like a burglar, avoiding all the creaks in the floor and quietly closing doors to bedrooms so I don't disturb anyone else with my insomnia.

The stillness in the house gives me too much time to think.  My mind starts to wander with anxious thoughts and I worry about everything that is wrong in my life.  Most of my worries are about things I can't control, but I go ahead and worry about them anyway.  It's silly and a little irrational, but I can't seem to help it.

I've tried what feels like everything for my anxiety.  Meditation, therapy, vitamins, calming teas, avoiding caffeine, all kinds of medications and nothing really seems to work.  I read an article once that told me one of the best things I can do for anxiety is get enough sleep.  Obviously whoever wrote that article is a moron.  So what else can I do?  This is not a hypothetical question, but an actual question sent out into cyberspace where it will hopefully return to me with some answers.  Anxiety can be crippling at times.  And the worst part is that I see it in my kids and I feel so responsible for it.  So guess what I do?  That's right.  I worry about it.  I even have anxiety about anxiety.  It makes me laugh a little, which come to think about it, could be from my current sleep-deprivation.

So anyway, there's my little rant for the night.  Maybe writing it out will ease my mind and give me some relief.  Who knows?  Not me.

Welcome to the better side of crappy.

food for thought...

Abby:  "Mom?  Why do boys sometimes order girl cheese sandwiches?"

happy October!!

Just pie

Here's the deal.  My mom makes the best pies in the world.  For real.  IN THE WHOLE WORLD.  She came to see me the other day.  She brought me a peach pie because she is the best mom ever.  After she left I immediately ate two pieces and then proceeded to hide the pie in the back of the fridge.  If you get between me and my pie, there is trouble.  And this is what I had for breakfast, lunch, dinner and a midnight snack the next day which is totally acceptable because there is fruit in it.  Yes.  The pie is gone.  Yes.  I cried.

Behold the deliciousness.  It's just so beautiful.

And again.  Do you notice the exquisite, flaky crust?  Perfection, my friends.

This is how I look before I partake of the deliciousness.

This is me:  the pie stalker.

And this is me eating another piece about 5 minutes after I ate the first one.  I promise I do use a fork.

Long live the pie.  Go get some.  But stay away from mine.

A play in three acts

The cast:  Mom and Abby

The plot:  A series of conversations between mother and daughter.

The setting:  Sacrament meeting.

Act One

(Congregation is folding their arms reverently during our five-minute -- no lie, it was FIVE MINUTES -- opening prayer.  At about minute number two, Abby starts to fidget.)

Abby (using a hushed voiced that barely qualifies as a whisper):  "Mom.  Mom.  Mom.  Mom.  When are we going to be done?"

Mom:  "We just started, Abby.  We have about an hour left in the meeting."

Abby:  "One hour?  Is that a long time?"

Me:  "Well, ya kinda."

Abby:  "Uuuuuuuuuuuh.  Nooooooooooooo."

Me:  "Fold your arms and stop talking!"

(Next scene, during minute four of never-ending prayer)

Abby: "Mom.  Mom.  Mom.  Mom."

Me:  "Whaaaaat?!?"

Abby (using the whiniest voice she can possibly muster):  "This is the loooooongest prayer EVER."


Act Two

(Congregation is bowing their heads reverently as the sacrament is passed.  I take that back.  Everyone except my children are bowing their heads reverently.)

Abby:  "Mom?  Your arms look like Sponge Bob's"

Me:  "..........."


Act Three

(Congregation is getting restless.  Sacrament meeting is running in overtime, probably due to the aforementioned five-minute prayer.)

Abby (Not even bothering with the whisper this time):  "Mom, do you know how to say hello in Hawaii-an?  Alooooooooooha!"

Me:  "Wow, that's awesome!"

Abby:  "I am so smart, huh."

Me: "Yes you are definitely a smart girl."

Abby:  "Yup.  My brain is getting lots of wrinkles."

(Mom laughs out loud, congregation sings "We Are All Enlisted" and curtain closes on yet another successful sacrament meeting.)