Christmas at the Hibbert house

Well, No one got killed or a paper cut! Family sqabbles where at an all time low because we had two babies to keep us occupied (thanks Tate & Dewey!). I still have the Indiana theme song running through my head because Jonas got a fun whip that played the theme song. Out of all the cool presents the babies got, like trains and phones, they loved the extra kitchen spoons that Tate got the best. All in all, the holidays were very enjoyable and extremely stress free. Eli even made pumpkin and lemon marangue pie! (extra props for that!) I wish you all a happy new year full of economic prosperity!

Christmas 2008

My Visit with the Howard Family

I was able to spend a week with Lori and her family in Payson (Go Longhorns!) Arizona for a week. The Payson High School won the state 3A football championship 14-0 season! All because Ryan is their althetic trainer. I had a lot of fun with the Howard clan and am always amazed at how quick kids grow up! Lori and I worked really hard at Guitar Hero and have pretty much mastered the medium level and are both too scared to try the hard level. As you can see from the slideshow, everyone had fun.

Howards in December

The search for knowledge and other crap!

Yeah, it's 12:30ish AM and I just finished an 8 page paper! I have a ton o'stuff to work on tomorrow! I wish I could have the energy I used to. I used to be able to stay awake for days on end. (Of course I'd be crazy by day 3, but hey I'd be awake!) Now, the laws of nature seem to be catching up with me and I'm dragging like a giant on planet Jupiter. (How about that image! It's all very scientific big planet + big person = lots of squishing gravity!) I have been dealing with a sore throat and my tongue feels really weird like it is swelling up in the back of my throat. My solution: gargle with a lot of yucky mouthwash, take antibiotics, eat lots of Jelly Bellies, follow that with lots of diet Mt. Dew and of course a multivitamin. That's why I am still awake at 12:30! UGH! Anywho...that's my life right now at this very instance and the last few months. Now, you are all caught up.

The above picture is the wrong way to do CPR because you don't want the head to detach from the body! I learned that in nursing school!

If you want to laugh...

If you are interested in laughing and I mean really a good deep down laugh? Go to the link Eric-Shelly-Tater link and watch the video of my nephew craking himself up!

I dare you not to feel happy!

Sad, Sad, Sad day!

Damn the Beavers! This was going to be the year I could proudly gloat over the freaking Duck fans! But, oh no! We have to pull a classic Oregon State overconfidence thing and choke at our home field!!! Awww! The agony, the pain, the humiliation, and the anger!!!

They had their destiny ahead of them and they decided to make themselves look like idiots!

The sure thing I was looking for sure got shot down to absolutely nothing!!

In Case You didn't Know...It's an election year

Well, I just thought I'd do my civil duty and remind people that it is time to fulfill their civic duty and vote. I am trying to have a positive feel about this election and having searching for that feeling of patriotism that elections are supposed to envoke. As for that actually happening, I can't say that I've had any warm feelings at all about this election. I honestly try and keep an open mind about all canidates and issues. I want to make sure that I am voting based on what I think are the important issues and not what a party, commercial, friend or family has to say about it.

Anyway, I guess I am coming down with election time blues because I have a hard time believing anyone can help. I am feeling so numb and blah about everything and I cringe everytime an election-type ad comes on the TV.

I guess I should feel lucky that I have the luxary to feel blah or blue about elections. I know our country and our system isn't perfect, but it does allow us to at least participate in the system.

So, good luck to all the canidates and to the fellow citizens who are voting...I wish you even more good things to come. I wish the best to the future.

UHH...this is funny.

I thought this picture was funny... doesn't the news anchor look a lot like the guy they're looking for?

HOLY CRAP!!

I really could not believe this game it was so good! I usually don't blog or comment about football games, but OH MY HECK that game was so good. I'm sure the USC fans thought, WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED! And I don't blame them. I don't even know what happened other than the Oregon State University football team beat the #1 USC Trojans AGAIN! In 2006 the OSU Beavers beat the #3 ranked USC team shocking the college football world. Then, again the NCAA football universe was scratching its head after little Oregon State again slapped USC with a big fat L!

When I turned to the game late and saw that the score was 7-0 and that it was the Trojans with the goose egg, I was beginning to feel the tingling of an upset. But, when the score was 21-0 at the half, I was falling on the floor. I did say to my dad, "if any one can come back from a 21 pt deficit it was USC .And if anyone can blow a 21 pt advantage it was OSU." I was getting a really bad feeling when USC made up some quick ground by scoring 14 unanswered points. Was OSU going to lose this thing. I could see the offensive machine that is USC marching down and scoring another TD when Sanchez the infallible threw an awful pass to the OSU defenceI actually yelled, yes I was home watching a football game and yelled a screetchy girl yell about football! I heard me do it and instantly thought that it sounded kind of lame. Oh, well, I was having fun.

Then, the onside kick...Oregon State recovers...the knee...time out...the knee...and the whatever good football karma Oregon State has been saving for the last two years has been used!

THE OREGON STATE BEAVERS HAVE DEFEATED THE NUMBER ONE RANKED FOOTBALL TEAM THE USC TROJANS!!!!

Umm...is my mom trying to kill me?

Hmm... what should I write about.......I wish I had something funny to tell you that would cheer you up.... Oh, I could tell you about the time my mom tried to kill me this week... OK Picture a dark narrow staircase and the lights are burned out...Then picture my mom leaving a vaccum, or is it vaccuum or vacuum? Anywayz, she leaves that dirt sucking thingy in the middle of the floor right above the stairs.

Now, I go walking up the stairs notice the lights aren't working and decide, "hey, I have pretty good recall, I don't need no stinking lights." and walk up the stairs drinking a soda.

Then it happens... I trip on the vaccuu...dirt sucking thinging, spill soda all over me, swear at the top of my lungs, find the light switch in my mom's sewing room, turn the light on, try and set my soda on her ironing board, step on a seam ripper she dropped on the floor instead! Yell again and spill more soda, hit my arm on the still hot as hades iron that she forgot to turn off that happened to be sitting on the ironing board!

Seriously,I was expecting an anvil to drop on my head any second, that's how cartoony I felt after all that stupid stuff happening all at once. All, my mom could do was say, "oops. Sorry." I would have sworn she planned that like Wiley Coyote does for the Road Runner...I'm just not as lucky as that freakin' bird!

Is the sun really going to come up tomorrow?

After my last post I realized that it was 9/11. My world was rocked off its foundation that day in 2001. It was such a personal moment shared by the whole country. We were glued to the news. We looked at our lives and wondered what was really important. For me, I wondered if my two brothers were going to be drafted into a war started by some mad man living in a cave on the other side of the world. I remember sitting in my room and for the first time in my life really questioned if the sun was really going to rise the next morning. How could it? For me the words were too impossible to form to describe the new world I woke up to on 9/11. The pictures spoke more than anything I could imagine to say. Living in the world were cameras, video cameras, and cell phones with cameras were everywhere the victims were the photojournalists and the photojournalists were the victims. I picked this picture because it showed the devistation, the determination and the hope that 9/11 left us trying to figure out.

"Out damn spot!"

I live in a house that has a yellow bathtub and equally buttery matching toilet. Yes, it's a throwback to the place between the 1970's and the 1980's and the color of my sunshine depressed bathroom lost some battle here in the 2000's.

Needless to say, after approximately 30 years-ish of water, showers, and soaking the stress out baths in my yellow submarine tub leaves annoying water spots. Oh, it drove me nuts! I tried soft scrub, not-so soft scrub, hydrochloric acid, Comet, Cupid and a little Donner and I still could not get the water residue out!

Now, this is where the switch in me gets flipped. All of a sudden I go from oh...hum...too bad-- to I AM GOING TO USE EVERY LAST ONCE OF STRENGTH, WILL POWER AND IF NEEDS BE MY VERY LIFE TO GET THESE WATER STAINS OUT OF THIS BATHTUB!!!

Yes, somehow I've turned a little light house cleaning into a gladiator battle to the death! A talent you should be glad you don't have.

I run through the mental list of available tools that might do the trick... Chisel-no. Power drill-no. Hack saw-no. Rock salt-uh maybe-no. My copy of the movie Cinderella and hope there is some way those cute little mice will jump out of the screen and start working on my tub - uh haven't inhaled enough cleaning fumes for that to be really possible yet, so no. Out damn spot! (you can always use the word damn guilt free when quoting Shakespeare)

Then, like a ton of bricks it hits me...A pumice stone! It is abrasive in all the right ways. It gets the hard water rings stains out of the toilet! It should work on my bathtub! I considered turning on a little "Celebrate, Celebrate, Let the good times roll," but came to the conclusion that would be overdoing it a little.

With my goal of a water spot free tub within my reach, I am invigorated and start scrubbing away at those 'damn spots'! My energy level increases as I see the spots disappear and I rinse them away! Oh, how satisfying that was. Yeah, that's right if they gave medals out for kicking butt on water stains--that medal would have my face on it.

I poured out some more soft scrub and rinsed the tub out one last time and enjoyed the beautiful bottom of my reborn buttercup colored bathtub! That's when it happened... the bathtub dried out and I was aghast at what was left behind.

My beautiful bathtub looked like some white trash mechanic decided to wash every car part from his front yard in his bathroom... Or some one had taken a bunch of cinder blocks and washed them nicely in their tub...which is basically what I did. My bathtub looked a little like a car that a janitor had keyed with every single one of his billion keys!!!!

How could this gone so wrong! When people come and stay they're going to look at that tub and decide how uncomfortable it would be to sit in the sink and bathe. I did have one consolation, that bathtub has no water spots on it and you can't tell that I scraped the heck out of it when it's wet. I'll have to run before my guests need to shower and say as the hostess I must warm the water before they get in... Anyway, I'll never pull it off. So, if by chance you happen to come and have to use my tub you'll know why it looks like someone washed it with rocks...IT'S BECAUSE I DID!

My poor tub...

It's late... and is that a cow falling?

OK, For those who know me, they probably realize that I can have problems sleeping. The last time I had that problem it lasted for uh...TEN YEARS! I have been blessed lately with the ability to actually go to bed and actually fall asleep...Awesome, recommend it!

So, now when I can't sleep it makes me very nervous that this may be the beginning of another decade of sleeplessness. If you're noticing when this is posted you'll see it was around 2-ish in the AM!!! The anxiety level is building and the chances of sleeping are dwindling!

Then, I decide to do a google search for "Funny Cow pictures." I started looking for pictures of birch trees and my ability to wind up looking for funny cow pictures is probably one reasons I have trouble sleeping. This is the picture I found....

Yeah, never mind falling rocks...watch for cows falling from the sky!!! Oh, come on! That's funny! I wish I knew where this picture was taken.

Labor Day 2008

Labor Day is Family Day...

The Hibberts got together and had a little BBQ (wich means there was tons of food, cake, cookies, soda, salad and meat). It was fun seeing so many people there and being related to most of them in one way or other. The only one of my siblings that was missing was Lori :(. Oh, well... The big plus was no one got hurt, well not bad enough to have to go to the ER...there was a slight Jonas and Dosie (the dog) trying to catch the ball at the same time and a bloody lip was involved, but besides that all was pretty uneventful.

Revenge heaped upon Statistics!

Picture it...summer 2008, I have just sentenced myself to an online summer statistics class! Ahggg...the horror...the pain...and what the heck does a chi square have to do with ANOVA? Do I really need to know how deviated the standard is? And please tell me that the F-stat, p-value, and the z-scores are just lame rapper names!

There were times I'd be reading my dear old stats text wondering if someone just spilled a bowl of alphabet soup mixed with a complete boggle set and decided to call it stats. For example, I needed to know what the SSE, SSG, SST, MSG (has nothing to do with chinese food), MSE, F and P. (You can now place your index finger in between your lips and do that blah, blah, etc sound.) I was glad I never had to talk face to face with my professor, I'm pretty sure that would have involved climbing a turret in a castle somewhere in Transilvania, because I wouldn't have been able to keep that civil and you know how Igor's get when you threaten bodily harm to their 'master.'

So, I decided to do what any healthy, frantic and perhaps a bit angry stats student would do...Study like hell and complain to anyone with ears about how horrible statstistics is. I did find another student in my program who decided to celebrate the summer with statistics as well. This made complaining and heaping massive amounts of bad energy in professor Frankenstat's direction a lot more fun.

It was during one of these lamentation sessions that the bright idea was born. Oh, you have no idea how bright that light bulb was hanging over our heads when this idea came about...yeah, sunglasses would have been recommended to save your retinas. After our final test, we decided to take our stats books out to the middle of the mountains and unleash our pent up rage on them. (Translation = grab a 30-06, 22, and a 38 and blow the freaking books apart!)


Now, your probably asking, "how come you don't just sell them back to the bookstore?" Good question. My response has multiple levels...First, that's not as fun as shooting a book. Second, we both bought our books from Amazon.com for $8. Third, like most books that you buy at a university book store they weren't buying them back.

I would recommend this to anyone for therapuetic reasons over the pure thrill of seeing peices of book flying across the open field!!!

(I got that waskaly workbook!)

I dare you not to giggle!

I found this picture and just couldn't stop giggling. I had to share the belly laugh with the world I hope you enjoy!!

I drew a picture...

I was inspired by the olympics and those cool stick figures running, jumping, fencing, diving, and BMXing! I sat down at my computer and decided I am going to make a cool stick figure. And here it is...

I'm not quite sure what sport my stick figure is doing. Perhaps hailing a cab in New York. That could be an olympic sport I think. Any who, I decided that drawing stick figures that are cool is a lot harder than it looks.

OK, I was one step away from buzzing it all off...

You know those days when you look in the mirror and all you want to do is buzz your head bald because you're sick of your hair! OK, if you've never felt that way...I hate you and you're very lucky! I decided to go not quite that drastic. (is that really how you spell drastic? It doesn't look right. hmm) And here it is....

BEFORE...

(I never notice that the right side of my face is higher than the left...kinda quasi modo-ish)

... AFTER

Tate Revisited.

We were able to visit Eric, Shelly and of course Tatum! Boy has he grown! He's a hefty 10 month old who enjoys every meal he's been fed I think. He's pulling himself up and crawling. He has the crawling philosophy of, "Crawl through it not around it." He has a big smile that takes a little bit before you can see it because he's kind of on the shy side. If you think he reminds you of someone, it's probably because he looks a lot like the Campbell soup kids they used to have in old commercials. (It's due to the curls and chubby cheeks.)

He sure enjoyed the meal because it included multiple yummy noises and smiles.

I'm pretty sure that's a thumbs up look!

We Take a Road Trip

I had to feel bad for putting my parents through, after enduring one myself as an adult, the dreaded family road trip!

Well, actually it wasn't that bad, I mean nobody actually died or was harmed in the making of the road trip. Although, I'm pretty sure threats of bodily harm were involved at some point.

I helped Lori and her three kids drive from La Grande Oregon to Payson Arizona. Two days of driving in the hot, hot sun especially in Utah. I forgot that to me, as a mature adult, five minutes is just five minutes, but to a child under the age of 10 five minutes might as well be five years. I think that's why every five minutes Wesley would ask, "are we there yet?" Oh, to be a kid again and have absolutely no sense of time!

We had bouts of cranky, sick, hungry, potty emergencies and thoroughly bored kids at one time or other or all at the same time. To quote one of my favorite philosophers, Nacho Libre, "It was fantastic!"

Chaz turned out to be a one man comedy tour. He kept cracking jokes when he was at that deliriously tired stage. Chaz was the only one who understood and laughed at his jokes, but the process of cracking himself up made Lori and I laugh to the point of tears which only encouraged him to make more jokes...in short it was a vicious laughing cycle.

When we finally stopped the first day to go to sleep the kids were so excited to get OUT OF THE CAR they were literally bouncing off the walls, beds, bathtub, you name it they bounced off it. This, I'm sure, endeared us to our next door neighbors.

The next day was much better. I think somewhere the kids realized or at least accepted the fact that being in the car was a fact that they weren't going to escape anytime soon and kept the fighting to a mere minimum, except the whole "I'm pretending to be a vampire" incident. We were able to see parts of Lake Powell, drive over a freakishly high bridge, and get Burger King without anyone crying. We stopped at a rest area/information center that had metal sculptures of dinosaurs (genius for a rest stop visited by children).

We finally made it to Payson and enjoyed sitting down on something that wasn't moving. The kids seemed excited to be at home with their dad and I could tell that the natural rhythms that flow through a family's existence was beginning to get in sync.

It was sad to say goodbye to the kids after a summer of seeing them everyday. It was lonely going home and not be able to run over and go hang out with my sister, but at least I have that memory of driving down to Arizona with them, that is until I forget about it.

I take for granted

NUMBER ONE THING I TAKE FOR GRANTED (at least right now): Hooks to hang stuff on!!!!

Why is that my number one thing? Well, my lucky little friend let me explain this to you... I am right now stuck in the airport in Reno, NV. I am stuck between the excitement of being in the the world's biggest little town and my desired destination...Boise. I am being reminded constantly of the thrill of gambling with slot machines within 10 paces in every direction and poker chip keychains that read Reno Nevada.

I find it funny that in front of the gate terminal where you have to wait for your airplane there are signs that state, "it is against the law for those under 21 to loiter near gambling areas," Hmm. Maybe they should put the slot machines somewhere besides a designated loitering area, I mean isn't that what the gate is for: an accepted form of loitering (waiting)for your flight. Then, how are they supposed to enforce that. I mean if I were a determined to loiter around slot machines and happened to be under the gambling legal age limit and some one were to accuse me of loitering, I would totally say, "Hey I'm waiting for my flight." There really would be no way to disprove that. (Ha! That's right, evil genius at work.)

Anyway, I'm off the mark with the whole hook thing... I had to go to the bathroom and of course that like anybody else in an airport I have bags being toted around like an annoying Siamese twin that can't even carry on a conversation to help pass the boring time in a shopping deprived terminal. (insert breath here) I shut the stall turn around expecting the necessity of every airport hopper... a hook to put my portable companion aka ... my backpack. Alas, I saw the evidence that at one time there had been a hook there, but some heavy laden bag, in league with the laws of gravity, ripped the damn thing off before I got here. "Oh, my kingdom for a hook!" So, there I was in a tiny stall, hoping to all that was holy that the suspicious floor was Ebola virus free, trying to set my bag down in a severely space deprived lavatory cubicle! I had to wedge my bag between the door and my knees while in the sitting position which made me nervous that if someone had installed one of those perverted video cameras, then I truly felt sorry for him when he checked this footage. I at least had one comfort, if someone tried to bust in on me there was no way he was going to be able to get the door open.

That's when the thought occurred to me, I really take hooks for granted! They hang out all day and I just expect them to be there when I need them. Then, I thought it's probably a good thing hooks were invented before this day and age of extreme capitalism or we would have to deposit 50 cents before using them and really in a bathroom emergency, lets face it that would suck!

So, I officially thank the inventor of the hook! Thanks for thinking, "I should make something to hang stuff on."

Once again silliness finds me...

I found this and just thought it was silly in a funny kinda way...I hope it brings a smile to your face! If not...lighten up, geez!

Christmas in July

I found this picture from the movie Elf and thought, "Can I enjoy something so simple as a revolving door with child like enthusiasm?" Then, I thought about trying to keep the Christmas spirit all year round. This all lead me to remembering the advice the savior gave, "...Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3.

So, what does this all have with Elf and a revolving door? I'm not quite sure, but I think I made the connection of trying to find and enjoy fully the happiness the plan of salvation provides. Perhaps, we hear about the plan so often we forget how truly amazing it is. The challenge is trying to keep that pure joy that children have when they really feel happy. The plan of salvation is often called the great plan of happines.

Now, I'm not so dumb as to think that everyone has to be happy all the time, that really isn't realistic. (Well, at least not for me.) I guess I mean we (meaning me) need to take the time to sit back and see how blessed we (I) are (am). Then, let that feeling fill every molecule of our body and cheer (if you want to) or smile as big as you feel like.

See, what happens when you aren't looking for a spiritual connection and you find one that is so random it's cool.

A doe a deer a female deer

Hah! I actually had my camera and was able to capture the eating habits of a deer! (They eat grass...who knew! Just kidding, I knew they ate grass) I felt very safari. Lori was driving, the window was rolling down and snap, snap, snap...Got ya! I've seen tons of deer before and at very close range. (If you can avoid it...don't take your dog for a late night run through Eastern Oregon University Campus in the middle of deer season...believe me, you can't run fast enough to keep up with a wantabe deer hunter on four legs! I had the scrapes and bruises to prove it!) But, I've never had a camera with me to capture what my eyes have seen before. I hope you enjoy the pics...they're very Bambi's momesque.

OK Just some Random Shots

See, dogs smile.

I accidentally took this picture and thought it was so cute. Dosie is just being pure happiness. I wish I could do that. (I'm a little obsessed with my dog, sorry.)

Only one 4wheeler! No prob!

I saw my cousin coming around the corner and thought it was so funny. I was glad I had my camera!

So, my boots are pink. Got a problem with that?

Chaz didn't care how he was going to do it, but he was going to get outside! He found these Disney princess snowboots and shoved them over his PJ's and out the door he went!

Something's not right here!

My uncle parked his snowmobile in an old cabin on my dad's land. The snow melted before he was able to move it and I thought it looked funny... again lucky I had the camera!