For those of you who haven't yet given into the Genius feature on Itunes I cannot say enough on how cool this is. Now they say my privacy was protected when I uploaded to "the Cloud", but really even if they used it to target my music taste and sell me music, how bad is it to get advertising for MORE weird Al? Is there such a thing as too much Al?

So what if there was a Genius feature to our daily lives? Could you have one thought in the morning about how to improve your day, push a genius button and have 15 more just pop into your head? When you are deciding where to go for lunch, hit the genius button and have 15 great food suggestions? Could Annalyn get me to do 1 thing around the house, hit the genius button and have me do 15 OTHER things?

( I am the over worked Jackass in this picture)

I shouldn't worry too much about this scenario because I would just "genius" 15 more of me to take care of Annalyns list.

Anyways. That is just my thought process as I listened to 15 great songs recommended to me today at work. Luke is getting bigger every day. Annalyn went out and got him a camping shirt and vest and I think he looks like a rugged outdoorsman. Good thing there arent 15 more of him to keep us up at night!

Niner Niner

So I have been tagged on one of those list things. I really enjoy reading them on other peoples blogs so here we go...

9 TV shows I watch:
1- Monk
2-The Office
3- Life
4- Eli Stone
5-Private Practice
6-Grey's Anatomy
7-House
8-America's Funniest Home Videos
9- One Tree Hill (Taren, you are not the only one ...)

9 Favorite Restaurants:
1-Olive Garden - love salad, breadsticks, and can always find something good
2-Carinos - love the bread and dip
3-Garcias- bean dip is the best
4-Original Thai -a recent favorite
5-Jimmy Johns -best sandwiches
6- T.G.I.Fridays -brownie obsession is to die for!
7-Wingers -warning: sticky fingers are addicting
8-Burger King -favorite burger joint
9- Del Taco -This one is for Ryan, and it is my favorite taco/ mexican fast food place

9 things I did yesterday:
1-Finished the final copy of our primary program
2-Went swimming at Heise Hot Springs
3-Cooked dinner
4-Laundry
5-Blog surfing - found out I was tagged
6-Visited with Grandma Benson, Marcia & Richard
7-Played with Luke
8-Visited with Aaron, Audra and kids - it was so fun to have them stay with us for the night
9-Watched part of the new Indiana Jones - I fell asleep during the middle

9 things I am looking forward to:
1-Halloween - I have never had a kid to dress up and show off!
2-Going to Europe to visit Liz and return to Germany
3-Getting back in shape and running my first road race in a long time
4-A full nights sleep- still working on the whole "sleep training" thing
5-A white Christmas
6-Seeing our quadruplets again - ...someday, not too soon
7-Our next family gathering
8-Summer
9-Knitting my first article of clothing - I am starting with dish rags

9 things on my wish list:
1-a piano and lessons
2-a chariot stroller w/ all the attachments - and the means and time to use them all
3-More kids
4-A dog that uses the toilet for things other than drinking - I have heard of potty trained cats , why not a dog?
5-A perfect wardrobe that I didn't have to shop for - o.k. maybe just something that fits my constantly changing body shape
6-A landscaped yard - not that dirt, rocks and weeds aren't nice...
7-Trackside ticket to a world championship track meet
8-Electrolysis - how great would it be not to have to shave your legs?
9-To find balance in my life

9 things I am scared of:
1-Losing Ryan and/or Luke
2-Raising a child in our world today
3-Snakes, spiders and rodents - pretty much anything creepy or crawly
4-That I will forget all my German - thinking about a Rosetta stone refresher course
5-Cancer, arthritis and ingrown toenails
6-Not ever getting all my photos organized - since Luke was born I take them way faster then I can organize them
7-Drowning
8-Not living up to my potential
9-That I will never learn to ski well

I am supposed to now tag 9 people. I tag Adriana, Elizabeth, Kellie, Alisha, Sarah Cook, Danielle, Deidre, Natalie, and Sandi.

I was looking at our past posts and saw that I had missed some comments. Thank you for the comments, they are so fun to read. One was from Alisha asking for an updated family picture of the Benson Clan. So all of you who knew my family back in the day here they are as of last February (Emily's wedding) .

Top L to R: Josh, Me, Peter, Liz, Matthew, Deborah, Michael, Aaron. Bottom L to R: Tamy, Mom, Emily, Dad, Angie (In case you don't recognize them all)

I will leave you a picture of Luke. We have been trying to practice sitting up and this was one of his attempts.


As you can probably guess it quickly turned into this:

Are you ready for the Digital REVOLUTION?!?

Abercrombie Vs. abercrombie

Can you tell me the Difference...

Me Either..

So I was putting away some some shirts and I came across my Abercrombie one and had a horrific flashback.

After my mission someone told me I needed some new clothes (braided belt and pegged pants had SOMEHOW gone out of style.) and I should go to the Riverwoods to Abercrombie and Fitch. So alone I went, looking for some clothes to make me hip and attractive to the ladyz. I walked in to the blazing sounds of music cranked to 11 and clothes that were wrinkled and laid on the table instead of hung up. I grabbed a couple shirts and headed for the dressing room. These shirts were TIGHT, and I don't mean that in the "dude those are TIGHT! " kinda way. So the girl working the store asked if she could help. I asked if this was a normal fit, to which she told me I might find a better fit at the ADULT store down the road. I guess I should have known Fitch would never sell clothes to children.

You look at those signs. Capitalized is Adult, lower case is children.

Mr. Abercrombie, You are dead to me, Mrs. Fitch, we're cool.


UPDATE!!!
Now I don't know if this makes the story better because I have someone to verify it, or worse because I have blocked this experience. My sister, Callie, says she was with me for this debacle. I personally think I have told this story to her so much that she has inserted this story into her own memories. Is this proof that an eye witness at a crime scene cannot be trusted? All I do know is whenever I come across these horrible store fronts I have a the same feeling I got when I got busted cheating on my times table drills in third grade by Mrs. Fuja. Just makes me want to vomit. The next update to this event will be Annalyn telling me she was the clerk working in the store that day.

Domestication

With the addition of Luke to our family all my feeble excuses for not being "domestic" have gone out the window. I have told myself for 4 years that once I stayed home and had kids I would nurture the homemaking side of myself. I am sure there has to be a homemaking side in there somewhere being the oldest of eleven and the daughter of a champion house wife. Luke hasn't been convinced yet...


My first goal was to do some canning. I had planned to have a garden and then can what I had grown. Well, being 9 month pregnant at garden planting time was the perfect excuse not to do the garden. I just didn't have the energy or drive to get it done. My back-up plan was to buy some fruit and go from there. I missed strawberry season with a newborn and then my mom convinced me that peaches were too expensive and it was more cost effective to buy them already canned. I had almost given up on my goal and then Lyndi offered to let me pick some of her uncle's corn and so I could can it. She doesn't know it but she saved me! I was able to pick some corn, call my mom for instructions and tips, and with the help of Pete and Heidi (couldn't have done it without them) I canned some corn!

We actually ate some this week and it was delicious! I have started on the road to being a canner!

My next goal has been one since I got married. I have had a goal to cook dinner regularly. It may sound funny to some of you but we have fallen into the habit of eating out more than eating at home. With just to two of us for so many years and also working together. I was tired when we got home from work and we were both hungry so more often than not we would run and get something to eat or pick something up on the way home from work. This week I have cooked every night! As Ryan pointed out, I think it is a record for us. To celebrate we are going out to dinner and a movie tonight. :)

My last goal is to be a good mom. I am sure that I won't reach this in one shot. Luke promises that he will make it easy on me.

I can't complain so far. He is getting to be more and more fun. He is now rolling all over the floor and loves to be able to do it. He is playing with toys, smiling, and laughing. We have tried to get the laughing on video but all we get is the two of us acting like crazies trying to get a somber kid to smile. As soon as the camera is off he will do what ever we want! We are starting to sleep train Luke and that has been going relatively well. The only worrisome thing is his last encounter with his cousin Carter...

Luke was caught red-handed letting Carter know who was the older cousin! We will have to keep our eyes on this one.

I am sure I will share all my domestic milestones as I reach them, so stay tuned ...

5 Weddings and a Funeral

It has been a year of weddings for Ryan and I. Between the two of us we have had 5 siblings get married. Emily and Levi started things out in February by getting married in Salt Lake.

The day was unseasonably warm and turned out to be a beautiful day. We enjoy the addition of Levi to the family. He and Ryan are motorcycle buddies.

Next Jacob and Deidre sealed the deal in March. We love to take credit for this one because we set them up on a blind date. I feel lucky that I got to hand pick my only married-in-sister-in-law on that side of the family and we tied Jacob to Idaho via Deidre!

We loved having them up here both working with us. We miss them now that they are in St. George. We like to think they miss us too, although I am not sure they will miss the Idaho winter that is fast approaching.

Pete and Heidi chose June as their month of love. Like Jacob and Deidre they chose Idaho as the place to tie the knot. We had lots of family around us to celebrate with. It is nice to have everyone come our way rather then having to travel.

Pete and Heidi moved into our old place down the road and we love having them so close. They have become great baby/dog -sitters. We are grateful for our arrangement and look forward to their little one!

Deb and Mike decided to elope in July. Unfortunately we have no pictures of their big day but are equally as happy for them. We got to meet up with the happy couple soon after at a family reunion. I have never seen Deb look happier. We are excited that Mike joined the family. They now live in Colorado where Deb is finishing out her senior year playing soccer at Mesa State.

And last but definitely not least Chris and Jessie got hitched last weekend down in California. We are always looking for good excuses to go home to California and were excited to head down to the sun and sand. Their wedding was perfect with perfect weather to match.


As you can see they are a very happy couple. (Thanks for the picture Callie!) We have liked Chris from the beginning and know he will be a wonderful addition to the family. He passed the "Bear Lake Test" with flying colors so the rest should be smooth sailing!

The year is not over yet and we both have at least one more available sibling of marriageable age so if the stars align we could go for 7 weddings in a year!

Our Funeral:

The first thing we did when we got to California was go and visit Grandma Ernie in the hospital. She had not met Luke yet and we were anxious for him to meet his Great- Grandma Ernie. We had a wonderful visit. She was feeling good and loved to see Luke. He was on his best behavior, smiling and laughing for us all.


Grandma Ernie passed away the next day. We will miss her. She was always so good to us. I don't really feel qualified to eulogize her because she has only been my grandma for 4 years but I learned to love her quickly. She was witty, loved to laugh and was very generous. Callie blogged more about Grandma Ernie (check out her blog) and added the poem that Grandma wrote for her grandchildren.

We loved Grandma Ernie and are going to miss her!