Get Away

For the last several weeks Dave and I have been trying to plan a work/fun get away to Hawaii.  He needed to head out there to the BYU campus and I was going to tag along with him, I know, its rough.  We talked to some friends of ours and they were going to jump in on the adventure too and make it a real vacation, with a little work mixed in.

We started plotting and planning our grand adventure, even looking into island hopping over to Maui for a few days.  We found a few good options for vacation rentals that were really very affordable and looked into scuba diving, snorkeling, and whale watching.  

Then, the news came from Turtle Bay (the hotel that we would be staying at and the ONLY one on that side of the island) that they are under construction and half of their rooms are not available!  It is the "high" season over there so having half of the rooms and condos not available means that they can, and do, charge double the price for the same room.  Who's brilliant idea was that to rip the place apart in March?  Someone was not using their thinker!

So we checked in staying over in Waikiki (and hour away and yucky like L.A.) but who wants to pay top dollar to stay in a crowded, gross big city?  Not us!  Plus we'd have to drive Dave out to the North Shore, drop him off and kill time while he was working, etc, etc, etc.  Any way...  We decided to postpone that trip and go another direction, literally!

Dave has a conference in Rhode Island so we are going East!  I am pretty excited about this trip.  Why?  Because I just bought tickets to see 

Wicked  

at the Gershwin Theater!!  

It seems that everyone I know has seen that show and loved it.  Now I get to see it, on Broadway!

We will also get to visit with Dave's sister and her husband in Connecticut so that will be awesome as well.  

We are going to see the Mansions in Rhode Island http://www.newportmansions.org/, Cape Cod, http://www.capecodchamber.org/ , Boston, http://www.northendboston.com/visit-2/historic-sites/ and who know what else.  

We will run until we drop!!  There is so much history back there, so much to be explored, so little time, but we will conquer!!

Hawaii will have to wait for another day...perhaps in the fall, but for now, we are going East!

"Wills"

Dave and I took a short trip to Idaho a few weeks ago and on the way my mind started to wander about, life junk.  Hey, there is LOTS of open space out there with nothing to look at, so that's what my mind does.  I forgot to bring a book to read to/with Dave so I was left to my own devises. 

We were taking Amanda up to college (BYU-Idaho) and so I kept thinking of all of the things that I might have forgotten to teach her, like how long to boil an egg for the perfect hard boiled egg, and how to pick good fruit (assuming she would actually buy and eat some).  It's amazing what you think of when you are faced with sending your kids out into the world, to survive on their own.

This led to another subject that raced through the empty cavern of my mind...

If we die on this trip, would the kids know what to do?  Who to call?  Where the guns are?  Where the ammo is?  What to sell?  What to keep?   How to handle the bills?  How to get Dave's life insurance $$ to pay the bills?  Did they know that they would need several (like 20) death certificates?  The answer was a very loud NO!  Holy crap!   This is how my mind works!    Scary, I know!

Now, living with Dave for 23+ years has taught me a thing or two about being prepared.  I usually have extra this or that around the house, in case of an emergency and I usually don't let the gas tank get below a 1/4 (he would prefer 1/2 tank) etc, but the kids growing up and being capable of handling the "in case we die" topic just seemed to sneak up on me and yet, here I was, face to face with this time on our lives.  

So Dave and thought it would be a great idea to sit down with them one Family Home Evening (FHE) to discuss this very strange topic.  We told them that should we both go "toes up" that they need to first call G-ma and G-pa Peterson (my parents) who will help them through financial junk.  Then of course, call Marcia and Ron (Dave's sister and brother in law) and continue calling family and friends etc.  

My dad dealt with money his entire career and is pretty good at it so he would be able to navigate through that for them.  

Now here's where it goes WRONG...

We asked them to make a list of things that we own, that they would want.  The lists are as follows, with quotes from them while they laughed.

Chris, speaking on behalf of Sarah, "We want everything in the garage!"
Amanda, "No, I call the Avalon.  I love that car.  It goes FAST!"
Jeff, "Well I call the Suburban and the 22 year old Camry"
Becca, "I want the 4-wheeler"
Chris, "Okay we'll take everything else in the garage".
Amanda, "I want the blender!"
Jeffrey, "I want all of the kitchen appliances and the electronics".

This is when I said, "Umm the blender I have now probably wont be alive then.  I go through blenders like no body's business."


Becca, "Okay, I'll take the NEW blender that you will have!"
Jeffrey, "I want the coasters"  (These are the, hold your drinks kind of coasters that I made)
Amanda, "I want all of the Disney movies and books.  Oh and, the couches and ONE bed"
Jeffrey, "I want the guns and Grandpa Charles' historical stuff."
Becca, "I want all of Grandma Corry's stuff like the chair, dresser, etc. and moms jewelry"

Jeffrey, "So, this is like the ultimate Christmas list!!"

It didn't take long for the laughter to erupt and soon, what was going to be a serious discussion, turned into ridiculousness!! Oh well, we tried.

Burn it all, sell it all, I don't care, just don't fight over anything or we will haunt you!!

Welcome to our "new" blog

I'M CHEAP!

So I gave up trying to get around blogger wanting $$ from me to continue blogging.  Cheap, I know, but my theory is the less my credit card # is out there in cyber space, the better.  So my way around the situation was to slightly change the name of our blog and start fresh.  I took, what seemed like hours, scouring you tube trying to find a way around the problem but to no avail.  So, I ended up adding a "s" to petersen and will carry on, despite blogger.   

I'm sticking my tongue out and blowing them a raspberry...you should see me!  I'm cheap AND ridiculous!!

Wanna see a photo of my little guy?  I knew you would.