Cheap thrills

A couple of years ago I became the proud owner of a queen size deluxe air mattress (double the height of a regular air mattress). Ever since I got it I always talk about how I am going to sleep on it just for the fun of it. I mean think about it, I am still sleeping in a twin bed:(.

While, I finally did it. Some of my friends came by on Friday night and after staying up way too late, I was in the mood to get it out. After finally getting to bed, I slept great! However vinyl is not the most "breathable" material, even though I had a blanket under me, it still got a little warm. I think I am going to give it one more night. I mean, just look at the thing, wouldn't you?



I have decided to set up a "buy-Erica-a-queen-size-bed-for-her-30th-birthday-fund". Anyone wishing to contribute can contact me (you have 1 year and 3 months to think about it). Also, anyone who whats to fly out and celebrate my 30th with me next year is invited. I have decided to make a big deal of it.

My friend Melissa and I took the kids to the Tracey Aviary on Friday. I did a little research on it and the aviary was founded when a guy donated his private bird collection to the city. I was really excited to go, but it turned out to be just too hot to enjoy it fully. They do a bird show twice a day and the last time I went it was quite entertaining. But the birds must have been feeling very rascally that day, because so many wouldn't do their tricks, one even decided to just fly off. I guess the heat was getting to them too.

We still made sure to get some pictures to document the event. I will add the picture of me and the horned owl later when my friend Melissa emails it to me. I wanted a picture with the emus since they are my favorite bird, but they were hiding. If you have never heard the sound an emu make you should check it out! http://www.abc.net.au/archives/av/birds.htm#e

Jonah took this picture of the pelicans. There were quite a few more and they were just swimming around in a line together. I think pelicans will be my runner up to the emu.

In other news, as a study break on Saturday I joined my ward for our ward activity at the driving range. This is my third time at a driving range, and I can not even get a ball to go 100 yards. I don't think golfing is my future. That's alright I would hate to be in Tigers shoes with a knee injury, surgery and all. Again I will add another picture later, it is on Cambree's camera so I need to get it from her.

Example, Time Allocation, and Socially Acceptable Behaviors

Marie Claire (19 months) taught me a lesson on the power of example and time allocation today.

I had all the kids with me today and we had just dropped Jonah off for tutoring and we had 45 minutes before Abe had to be to swim lessons. Since it was early in the morning we decided to just chill in the car for a while. Abe and I both put our seats back and I got Marie Claire out of her car seat and put her on my lap/stomach to play while I sat back and relaxed. She proceeded to grab the steering wheel the exact same way as I do 90% of the time and then every so often she would lean over and pretend to shift gears.

I had never thought about how much she watches me while we drive around town together. Although I am excited that I am all ready grooming the future generation of drivers, it made me stop and think about all the other times she is probably watching me and learning from what I do. The one other thing I thought of is how much of our time we spend in the car together.

My other story of the day revisits time allocation but mostly covers socially acceptable behaviors.

Tonight I had Anatomy lecture from 5:30-8:00. Of course as with most classes that run that long we are given a five minute break to stretch, grab a drink, and use the bathroom. I had been feeling a little dehydrated before class so I had been loading up on water during class. I went to the restroom and proceeded with the usual business (I apologize if this is a little too much detail). Well, a girl from my class enters the stall next to me. What do I hear next? Her having a conversation with her husband on the phone! I can appreciate her desire to spend the little bit of free time with her husband, but I most definitely did not appreciate feeling like he was also in the bathroom with me!

A tribute to Crabby

This long story of a beloved crab (Crabby) begins a few weeks ago. A friend asked about my hermit crab. I went to pull him out of the tank, and noticed that he had receded far into his shell. I immediately thought he was dead. I started to tear up. I couldn't believe Crabby was dead! I have to admit that I also couldn't believe I was crying. This made me realize the extent of the emotional attachment I had formed with this crab.

Upon further investigation of the situation, I realized I was cooking my crab. Apparently the light bulb, although matching my previous bulb was a much higher watt then was appropriate for the tank and the crab. I removed the light and hoped Crabby would recover quickly.

A couple of days ago Crabby crawled out of his shell! I did some reading online to see what I could do to help him, and it just said to keep him moist, provide food and water, and new shells should be available for him to upgrade to. Although there was a new shell available, he did not decide to take up residence in it. He had been very active despite the lack of the shell, and when I would mist him periodically throughout the day he would respond to the stimulus, so I was hopeful. Last night as I drifted off to sleep, I could hear him moving around the tank. Then this morning I went to mist him with water before I left for the day, but he did not respond. I am sorry to announce that he must have died in the middle of the night.

Now there may be some of you that do not know about Crabby. He was the best of pets. I came to know Crabby a couple of years ago (the above picture was taken in August of '06) when he became my preschoolers class pet. As you may have guessed, they were the ones to name him. We got him for free because the pet store deemed him too freakishly large to be sold.

Crabby was so tolerant of the kids playing with him. He didn't get upset when he was dropped repeatedly.

One time he was place on the carpet and decided to grab hold; there he stayed for a couple of hours until he decided to let go.

The kids used to love to put him on the table and sit around him as quietly as they could and wait for him to come out and crawl. I can't tell you how many times a day they could ask if they could play with Crabby.

Occasionally I would bring him home to wash his tank thoroughly. I would arrange the tank in a nice and organized manner, aesthetically pleasing as well. But as soon as I would put crabby in he would start rearranging the "furniture". I would frequently forget to bring him back after the weekend. The kids were always so disappointed and would keep asking me, "Why did you forgot Crabby?!" and "When are you going to bring Crabby back?"

Then there was the time that one of my students was being timid around him and I decided to show her there was nothing to be afraid of. I put Crabby in the palm of my hand and he pinched me in between the index and middle finger. I tried really hard to make it seem like it didn't hurt as much as it did.

During that school year the preschool asked me to step in as assistant director of the school. Crabby stayed behind in the classroom. Sure, I saw him now and then, but it wasn't the same.

When the teacher that replaced me continued to have concerns about the "love" (maybe a little too much) Crabby was getting and the distraction he was becoming in the classroom, it was combined with my missing him. I volunteered to bring him home with me. Cambree and I loved to let him out to crawl around the room and on the couches. We would watch Cambree's dog try to figure out what was going on. He was also great for conversation. As for our roommate at the time, Jenni, well. . .Crabby just creeped her out.

But really he was the best of pets and will be dearly missed.

Cambree and I have plans to visit the pet store soon in order to help cope with the emotional strain of loosing him. Maybe I'll get a frog, or a lizard, or a fish, but then again, perhaps I will just get a freakishly large, but ever faithful hermit crab.

Rodeo or bust

Jennifer and I went to the Strawberry Days Rodeo in Pleasant Grove on Thursday. It was a ton of fun! My favorite events were the cow milking, (each team has to catch a cow and get a certain amount of milk) and the mutton bustin' (little kids ride sheep). The mutton bustin' brings me back to our childhood when we used to try to ride our pet sheep, not an easy task.

The other thing that I absolutely loved, but can't remember the name of, was the dirt bike half time show. These crazy kids set up these huge ramps and drove their dirt bikes up them and did all these crazy tricks in the air. This was my second time seeing this done, and it just blows my mind!

One last thing of note from the rodeo was their famous strawberries n' cream. Delicious! My friend Tony treated all of us to some. Yeah for Tony!

Since going to the rodeo it has pretty much been all anatomy all the time. I am pretty sure this class might lead to the end of me. Thank goodness for Sundays! Then I have the whole day not to study.

Cram in the fun before school starts

My summer class is starting this Thursday and so I have been cramming in the fun. Yesterday I went on a hike with a couple of friends. It was a pretty low key one since I am not in the best of shape currently. Here are some of the great views we were able to enjoy.


Luckily Garrett had his phone to take the pictures so in honor of him I am including his picture (which I took) along with the picture he took of me.


If you look carefully in our pictures you can see the Draper temple which is under construction. I drive past it almost everyday as I run the kids around. The outside is pretty much complete with the exception of the steeple which still has scaffolding on it. Today they had the sod by the road ready to be installed.

Now we move on to the fun of today. I took the kids to Liberty park which has great playgrounds for kids that include water play. I would include pictures of the kids, but they are not my children so I hesitate to put them on the Internet. But it was fun and they totally passed out in deep sleep on the drive home. After work I met up with my friend April at a place called "Color Me Mine". It is one of those places where you pick a piece of all ready created pottery and then glaze it to your liking.

I will have to do another picture of the finished products because the colors will look quite a bit different after they are fired.

I have more fun planned for this week so you can all look forward to more posts in the near future.

Communing with nature

I really wanted to get out of the city and enjoy a campfire. So we headed up Millcreek Canyon last night and enjoyed some hot dogs, corn on the cob and s'mores cooked over the fire.

As you can see fun times were had by all.

I am so spoiled!

Yesterday my boss decided it would be fun and helpful if she and I both took the kids downtown to do some fathers day shopping and then go to the Salt Lake City Library. The library is so great. Here are some pictures I found on-line:

I need to go back sometime when I am not trying to keep track of kids and such so I can really appreciate it.

My alarm clock died a while ago and so I have just been using my cell phone as my alarm. However, my last two alarm clocks told me the temperature too, something my phone can not do. I have had an alarm clock with temperature on my wish list for a while. Well, we were doing the father's day shopping and we were in Brookstone and they had this "rainbow alarm clock" that had everything I wanted and it looked really cool, but it was of course way more then I had budgeted for an alarm clock. Shannon (my boss) had just finished making their purchases and we were leaving the store and I pointed the alarm clock out to her. Almost before I finished saying I liked it she was offering to buy it for me. I declined at least 3 times, but she insisted. So here it is.

Isn't it great! As you can see it is 81.0 degrees Fahrenheit in my room, no wonder I am feeling a little uncomfortable.

We all also enjoyed a delicious lunch at the spaghetti factory. There are definite perks to my job.

grammatical correctness and borderline OCD

I love reading the comments people leave on my blog posts, but there is one thing that challenges my borderline OCD. So before someone comments it says "0 comments". When one person leaves a comment, it changes to "1 comments". It drives me crazy! It should say "1 comment". So if you see that one person has left a comment, you can provide a small service for the day by leaving a second so then it can be grammatically correct when it has comments in the plural. :-)

Commuting is the way for me

Yesterday, I did the environment proud by using public transportation. I went up to visit my friend, Cyndie, who lives in Syracuse, UT (west of Layton). But instead of driving she suggested I take the new "Frontrunner". It runs from Salt Lake, north and back again. It was great. I just drove down the road from my house a little ways, took trax (a "two-line light rail system"-wikipedia)up to the frontrunner. And when I got back, my car still had the same amount of gas I left it with! It all really made me wish I could be a full time commuter.

I'm a Material Girl!

Most of you that read this all ready know about my current employment. For those who are not as up to date, I am a nanny for a family that has 3 children. The first is 10, then next 6, and the third 19months. Well, my job puts me in a interesting spot at times. For example, when I think about cars, I wonder if 2-3 car seats will fit in the back. Additionally, I find that my purse now carries everything but the kitchen sink; wipes, tissues, sippy cups, etc. I had a rather large, but quite "mom-ish", purse that was wearing out and I then managed to spill soda all over the inside and out. So purse shopping was in order. My roommate and I went out looking this past Saturday and she found this huge, but stylish purse. The best thing, it has pockets and compartments; a surprisingly rare feature in large purses! You wouldn't believe how much I have fallen in love with this purse. My I-pod and camera have their own special spots, then there is the gum/pen section, the personal section, key and phone, seriously, it is the best!

But seriously, is this purse not like half the size of my body. I remember as kids we would always make fun of mom for her huge purses. Dad used to open them and shout hello into them and then make the echo. I take back all my teasing and laughing at others teasing b/c you really have to carry everything.

Ok, enough about the purse. Monday night for FHE our ward did some work at the Utah Food Bank. They put us in charge of delivering food to individuals that couldn't get out to get it due to disability. This was a truly humbling experience. One of the people we delivered to lived in an RV in a trailer park. It was so tiny! I thought it was just the one lady we were delivering to that lived there, but then her daughter came out to help us. Once inside I discovered a crib that was squeezed into the tight quarters and a little boy, probably younger then two, was inside. It was so good to go around to the individual homes.

After the deliveries, we came back home to enjoy a sweet treat that I discovered the other day. it is a Nilla wafer, with Nutella, banana, strawberries, and a cherry on top. Amazing! I am not supposed to eat much chocolate, but this is totally worth the discomfort that follows.

Those are the highlights for now. If you want more nitty-gritty details, I would be happy to fill you in individually.