Monday Midnight Musings - Drawstring Woes

So last night, Steve and I were in bed about to fall asleep and he remembered something he needed to take to work the next morning. Instead of getting out of bed to write a note, he just asked me to text him a reminder and that way when he turned his phone on in the morning, the text would come through and he would remember to take it. So I sent him a text and added a few other choice words. The kind of words that a wife should only be texting to her husband. Then I hit send and it said, "sending message to Steve and Andreas". I started freaking out. I don't know how I sent it to my neighbor and my husband but I did. So I started hitting all kinds of cancel buttons and back buttons in a very frantic manner. I think the text got cancelled. I really hope the text got cancelled. Just a friendly reminder to be very careful when texting.

Last week Steve and I were driving through some construction. We were stopped at a light and right next to us was a sign that said, "DANGER: Overhead Power Lines Boom Down". I kept reading it with a quizzical expression on my face. Finally I asked Steve why it said that. He said it was for the construction workers in the little cart thingys that go up and down. He said that boom down means to make the cart go down so they don't hit the power lines. I was so glad he explained it 'cause I thought the sign was for me and it was saying to be careful because power lines could come booming down. If they are for the guys way up high, why is the sign way down on the ground?

Last Tuesday the girls were in my room and it was almost bedtime. They didn't have school the next day. So I told them if they would hurry up and brush their teeth and get ready for bed they could watch a movie and have a slumber party in the play room. I was just talking to Emily and Aubrey. Well Addy took off. I didn't really think anything about it until I went upstairs a few minutes later to get her ready for bed. She already had her PJ's on and and she was in the middle of brushing her teeth. I told her I was so proud of her for getting ready for bed. She then informed me that she wasn't getting ready for bed, she was getting ready for her slumber party with her sisters. It was so cute. So they all slept in sleeping bags on the play room floor.

Am I the only person who doesn't know what to do with the drawstrings on her PJ's and sweats? I mean really, why is it there? All the pants that I have that have a drawstring, also have elastic. It serves no purpose whatsoever except to annoy me. I really don't know what to do with it. Do you just leave it hanging and have these two strings hangin' down about your nether regions? Or do you tie it and have this bumpy bow right in the middle of your stomach? Sometimes I just tuck it in the top of the pants, but then you can see the lines it makes through some of my shirts. Sometimes, I just take the drawstring out of the pants completely, but sometimes it is sewn in and removal is impossible. I was looking at PJ's at Target the other day and there were some really cute ones and they had this big satiny ribbon tied in a bow at the waist. And the shirts that went with them clearly went past the waist. So yeah, they are really cute on the hanger by themselves, but then when you take them off the hanger, and put a shirt over them, then what? Not so cute anymore! I guess I could tuck the shirt in like this:

Addy Turns 3!

Addy turned 3 today! We had a little party with some of her friends, and even celebrated it on the right date this year.

She was so excited to finally get her Dance Around Dora. I am just so glad she got it too. Now every time a commercial comes on for it she won't have to do her freak out screaming routine and make me come in and rewind the commercial and watch it so I can see what she wants for her Birthday.

Uncle Sam performed a little magic for the troops.

How We Spent Our Day Of Thanks

This is our "Wall of Thanks"  we made for Family Home Evening last Monday.  Everyone was able to write what they are thankful for on a post it note and stick it on the wall.

This is the first turkey I have made in a very long time.  I think it turned out just dandy.

As usual we shared our day with Da Boys.  However I refused to allow them to share the dinner table with us.  That made some people rather unhappy.  I reminded them I had been cooking since 6:30 am and they could pause the dang game (that's what a DVR is for after all) and eat with the rest of us at the table like decent people who appreciate someone caring enough about them to drag her tired booty out of bed to start cooking a meal at such an unreasonable hour.

The sun sets in our back yard and as you can see from this photo, it creates a problem with people trying to sit on the couch and still keep their vision intact.  Sometimes we have to wear sunglasses to watch TV.

As you can see from the above picture, my dear husband solved the sun problem.  Nothing says white trash quite like paper taped to the windows as blinds.

Me mum and Lauren and Aubrey enjoying a little round of Flash Uno.

Zac and Steve refusing to be photographed.

This is pretty much where they spent the entire day.  Oh yeah, except for that one time when the Wicked Witch of the West made them sit at the table and eat Thanksgiving dinner.

Around 8:30 that night Addy brought out the cheese ball palooza.  That's pretty much what we ate for dinner.  That and pie.

Addy the human cheese ball dispenser.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

I have so much to be thankful for this year. I could type forever and would probably still leave something out. I am grateful for my life. I am grateful for my husband and children. I am grateful for my family and friends. I am grateful for my faith in Jesus Christ. I am grateful for this blessed country in which we live. I am grateful for all the Lord sees fit to bless me with, but the before mentioned are the most important to me. What are you thankful for this year? Click the link below for a Thanksgiving video.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

WebCam Wednesday - Incredible Ironies

A friend of mine posted this video on Facebook today. I think it is interesting that this is from a talk given in 1978, and look where we are right now, today.

"...We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!"
-Abraham Lincoln

Monday Morning Musings - THERE WILL BE NO LAUGHING AT MY BREAKFAST TABLE!

It has been one year since we moved into our new house. In some ways, it feels like we have always been here, but in other ways it is hard for me to believe that a whole year has passed us by and we have been able make the house payment every month. I told Steve for our one year house anniversary we should take all the construction covers off the smoke alarms to celebrate. Oh, and then there's that thing about them actually being able to detect smoke....

Just in case you are curious, I am feeling completely at home in my brunette shoes. I might just stay this way. I was looking through old posts yesterday to find some for my 600th post (Thank you Kristy for being the only one to notice my milestone) and I saw some really blonde pictures of myself and thought "What the heck was I thinking?"

Steve and I went to see 2012 on Friday. We originally set out to see New Moon (what a nice honey, it was even his idea), but couldn't get tickets to that or whatever that one with Sandra Bullock is. So we settled for 2012. And when I say settled (sigh) boy do I mean settled. I really had no idea what it was about when we first entered the theater. It didn't take me long to figure out that, well, it was about absolutely nothing. After the first speed through the caving streets and make the car jump out of a toppling building scene, I turned to Steve and he turned to me and I said, "Oh. This is one of those movies". Awesome though to know that when the whole entire earth is destroyed, we can still get cell phone calls!

This morning my kids were really on one. They could not be serious for two seconds. It was all laughing and playing and joking around. They wouldn't stop and they wouldn't get ready for school. At one point I found myself yelling, "THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME HAVE TO YELL LIKE THIS BEFORE EIGHT O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING!!!!" I was really, really, REALLY getting frustrated with them. And then my neighbor came to pick them up for school and I am trying to get them out the door, and they were still goofing off. At one point I said, "AUBREY! Stop doing a comedy routine about your socks and just put them on your feet! Lori is sitting out front waiting and you are doing a bit about your socks!!!!" While I was trying to get Aubrey's socks on her feet, I looked out the door to see Zac getting into the car with short sleeves and no coat. There is snow outside. So I gave Aubrey a jacket to take out to him. Then I am trying to shove Emily out the door, and the next thing I know, Zac is back in the house bringing me the jacket. At that point I didn't really care what neighbors heard me. I screamed, "GET IN THE CAR! YOU ARE MAKING EVERYONE LATE FOR SCHOOL!!!!!!" Then I didn't want to send them off to school with my screaming in their head so I also added an "I Love you. Have a good day." as they were walking to the car.

I don't want to be that nasty screaming mother who won't let anyone make a peep at the table while they are eating, but this morning was ridiculous. Usually they are fighting at the table, so it was hard for me to try and squish their good mood they were in this morning when they were getting along and laughing with each other. But they can't shirk their responsibilities. I don't know what to do. But I do know this one thing for certain. When they get home from school today, there will be no funny business. I have been saving up a LOT of work for them all day long.

The Big 6-0-0

600. That is a big number. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the number of this post you are reading. Yep. You heard me. 600 posts. Who knew I had so much to talk about? Who knew you had so much time to waste reading 600 posts? But here we are. Here's a little look back at some of my favorite posts. Click on them to read 'em.

Walgreen's

D*** Business

Trash Eating

Potty Pics

Mouse in the House

Rubber Bands

Summer Vacay

Flashback Friday - Just Grand

These are some of my favorite pictures. The above is a picture of me with both of my grandpas and below with both of my grandmas.

This is a picture of me with my mom's dad.

How To Swim In November

Last week, Addy found her swimsuit, put it on, then demanded that I fill up the wading pool that is in the garage. I tried to explain to her that it is freezing outside and that the water in the pool would be freezing too. Well, you can't explain anything to this girl. She just wanted to swim. She went out in the garage and found all the swim toys too. She brought them to me and then demanded again that I fill up the pool for her. How can you not want to give in to such persistence? So I filled up my bathtub instead. She had a delightful time swimming. And the whole of my bathroom was soaked when she was through.

WebCam Wednesday - Another Pleasant Valley Tuesday

Yesterday was a little rough. To say the least. I wasn't feelin' so hot. Aubrey did nothing but cry. Emily couldn't figure out her homework and she freaked out if anyone tried to help her. Zac kept trying to explain to me why Emily was wrong on her homework, even though I already knew that, and he kept trying to tell her that, which made her freak out even more. And Addy, well, she was just being Addy.

Monday Morning Musings - I'm Not Your Lunch!

So, this morning I was playing with Addy. I picked up her foot and acted like I was going to bite it. I said, "I'm gonna eat your foot" to which she replied, "I'm NOT your lunch!".

We had parent/teacher conferences last week. We met with Aubrey's teacher who doesn't speak English. I was very impressed with my daughter who could listen to, understand, and reply to her teacher in Spanish. My little Espanol girl.

The other day the kids and I were driving and I can't remember what we were talking about but somehow we got on the subject of the sun not giving off light anymore (the girls and I were just kidding) and Zac had to bust out with one of his facts. He said "Well, if the sun stopped giving off light, we would all be dead in 8 minutes." Apparently it takes the sun's rays 8 minutes to reach us and when they stop, we all freeze to death. Who knew? Oh, yeah, Zac did. I'm so glad he is around to keep us on track.

I'magonna tell you somthin' right now, that you have to promise never to tell anyone else. 'Cause it's real embarrassing for me and the old man, and if people knew, well, we just can't have that. So, it's like this, we put the kids in bed on Saturday night. The girls had been in our room watching TV. When we got in bed, we turned the TV on. It was on the last channel they were watching. iCarly was on. Yeah, we didn't change the channel. Sigh. Now you know. The sad thing is this. The episode that was on, I've seen it. Like ten times. *awkward* Sorry babe. It was gonna get out sooner or later.

I guess that's the end of Monday Morning Musings. I mean, what could I possibly say after that...

Back To My Roots. Literally.

I did it. I have been contemplating it for like a year now. Maybe two. And on Thursday I just jumped in and did it. I went back to my natural hair color. A special thank you goes out to my dear friend and neighbor, Jodi. Who has to play guessing games with me to try and figure out what exactly I want her to do with my hair.

I have hair issues. I have said it before. I have never had a haircut I have liked. And it has nothing to do with the person actually cutting my hair. It has to do with how down right irritating I am. Do you know I have been planning on getting a perm for three plus years now? I will spend months going back and forth and debating it in my head, and then I will decided yes, I will get one. And then I will live with that decision for a few weeks, until I decided how stupid that would be, so I change my mind back. And then I start the whole process over again.

But, like I said, I have been thinking about going au naturale for a while now. And I was all set to do it at the beginning of the summer, but then I thought I should wait for winter. And then last week, my sister Kristy paid some mean Russian man $300 to make her hair orange and then she had to go dark and so then I thought, well, if Kristy can go dark, so can I. But I forgot that Kristy is so down right beautiful she could shave her head bald and still be gorgeous. Some of us just aren't that lucky.

I loved it on Thursday. I woke up on Friday and looked in the mirror and thought, "WHAT DID I DO?" And I hated myself all day yesterday. I haven't looked in the mirror yet today, so I am not sure how I feel. But I can tell you this one thing for sure. This color hair and those butt ugly blue glasses are not a good combo.

So I am gonna go take a shower now, and get ready, and see what type of hairy emotions today brings. And Jodi, if you are reading this, PLEASE don't take it personally. You really did a fabulous job, if you could just fix what is going on INSIDE my head, well, then we'd be all set!

Flashback Friday - A Whole Lotta Love

Stand back people. Stand back. Yes, you read the title correctly. Flashback Friday. You know how long it has been since I have done a Flashback Friday? Well, I do. 'Cause I looked it up. March 6, 2009. That is a long dang time. You know why I haven't done it in so long? Because I was feeling guilty. Remember? How I was doin' the special FF and then I moved and couldn't locate the pictures I needed? And I kept promising I would start again. And I never did. So now I hope enough time has gone by that you all forgot about it. But now I've gone and reminded you again. So now you remember. But I don't care anymore. I mean, I love you and all, but get over it, life goes on.

The above pictures were taken at BYU not long after Steve and I were married, so about 14 years ago. My sister Farrah was living in Utah going to BYU and we were visiting her. We used to have so much fun with Farrah, and later her husband Bart when they lived here. I really think they should look into moving back....

I feel like I have done these pictures before on a FF. But I looked back through all of them and I couldn't find 'em anywhere. Have you seen them before. If you can find where I have posted them before, you get a very special prize.

Evil Genius Survivor Man

I'm a little scared for my boy Russell tonight. Real scared. On the preview for this weeks Survivor, they make it look like he is gonna get voted off tonight. NO Russ! Don't go! I love his little evil, buddha bellied, mind game ways. He has made the game so interesting this season. I love how everyone totally believes him and likes him and thinks he is the nicest guy. And behind their backs he is talking about how he is using them and when he's done, he'll just throw 'em in the trash. But now, it looks like his gig might be up. Only a few more hours and we will know. Be safe you nasty little evil genius man, you!

WebCam Wednesday - If You Saw My Family, You'd Understand

You might have noticed that I am trying really hard this week to be a better blogger. You can thank me later. Or now, whatever is more convenient for you.

Anyhoo, this is a little video of a fun moment in time when Mike and Sheila were here last summer.

Because You Asked For It

I have had requests on Facebook and right here on this very blog for a picture of my aforementioned glasses. These are the glasses I ordered but cannot see a darned thing out of:

And here are the Butt Ugly glasses themselves:

*A special thank you goes out to my dear little Emily, my blog photographer. She is the only person in the house who understands that you need to take 20 pictures with different poses before you can get a picture worthy of posting. Thanks Em.

Monday Morning Musings - And The Winner Is....Butt Ugly!

Over the weekend, Steve refinished his office floor, with the help of his two little cutie girls. I walked in while they were masking things off and I had this flashback. I flashed back to the first floor Steve ever did. It was some office floor in a car dealership or something like that. He had no idea what he was doing. Anyway, Zac and I were there helping him mask it off one night. Zac was just a little baby. We were masking it with newspaper and masking tape. Sigh...oh, you've come a long way baby!

Here' s the finished project:

Steve got a real good dose of Addy on Saturday. He was trying to work on his floor and I was at the store. She made a pretty good little disaster that included a sprayer full of floor chemicals, our living room floor, and various floor equipment. Earlier that morning, when I was in the shower, she went into the girls bathroom which is upstairs, plugged the sink and filled it up with water. A lot of water. Like so much water, that it was pouring through the speaker on the ceiling in the kitchen below. That much water. It made me have a flashback to the time when Aubrey did something similar to our old house. Remember that? Thankfully this time around, there wasn't as much damage done. Anyway, Steve was getting very frustrated with little sweet thing and I was like, "HELLO! Welcome to my everyday life!" *Scoff* that was nothin' out of the ordinary.

I am getting really frustrated in the eye glasses department. Like, REALLY FRUSTRATED. I got new glasses a few months ago. But the prescription in them was wrong. So I went back almost a month ago and had to have my vision test redone. Have I ever told you how much I loath the eye doctor? LOATH. I don't like people messin' with my head. "Which one looks better? One or two? This one or that one? Number one, or number two?" ARGHHHHHHHH!!!! Shut up already!!!!!! I swear they ask you the same one over and over again just to see if you will change your answer. Anyhoo. Deep breath in, deep breath out.....They called me about 2 weeks ago to say that my corrected glasses were in and I could come and pick them up. So I did. The guy that was helping me brought over these baby blue, butt ugly glasses and said, "Here, try them on". I looked at him in horror and said, "Those aren't my glasses." And he said, "Yes they are, your name is right here". And I was like, "Do I look like I would pick out baby blue butt ugly glasses?" So he looked in my file and found the glasses that I had ordered. He apologized for insulting my fashion sense in such a manner, and said he would put a rush order on the new ones. Well, I don't know what kinda rush they're in, but uhhhh, HELLO! No glasses yet. He was kind enough to let me take the butt ugly glasses home so I could see. Now I am faced with this dilemma every time I put on my glasses. Do I wear the butt ugly ones, or the ones I can't see with. Butt ugly, no sight. Butt ugly, no sight. Butt ugly almost always wins, and I'm getting real tired of his little victory dance.

You remember those crazy, kooky kids, Max & Dianna? They came over for dinner on Sunday. Max helped with my mom's roof and all he wanted in payment was dinner. Well, we have been tryin' for months to make that happen. Trying to coordinate a free Sunday with three families ain't no small task. We finally made it happen and we had a fun time with them as you can see below:

Am I really this short? Dianna, are you wearing heels?

The kids, getting their Beatles Rock Band on:

Trick Or Treat, Smell My Feet

I told my kids I wasn't buying any costumes for Halloween this year and they would have to make due with what we had in the Halloween box. They came up with costumes, but they did it going by memory of what was in the box. When I actually pulled the box out, about an hour before we went Trick or Treating, they changed their minds about what they wanted to be. Here's how we ended up:

Addy the Cute Little Doggie

Aubrey The Vampire for the second year in a row.

She was going to be a Vampire Cheerleader so she didn't end up too far off.

Emily The Rocker Chick

Zac and his friend Gus the Army Guys.