Monday Morning Musings - Raising Gum Awareness, One Post at a Time

So we're driving down the street with the windows open and Zac decides he is tired of his gum, so he spits it out the window.  I tell him he shouldn't do that because now someone is going to walk by and step on it.  He said that he was just trying to raise gum awareness.  He said people have walked all over gum for to long and now it is time to put a stop to it.  Gum does have feelings, by the way.  Apparently he feels like someone needs to stick up for the gum and he was doing that by spitting his gum out onto the street for all to see.  And hopefully not walk all over and abuse.  So next time you see a discarded piece of gum lying about, keep in mind that that gum has feelings too.

I seriously took part in the naming of all my children.  But for the life of me I can't get their names straight.  Ever.  Sometimes I go through all the names before I finally arrive at the correct one.  All while the offended child is staring at me like I'm an idiot.  What is really bad is when I call one of the girls Zac.  Or call Zac one of the girls names.  Or better yet, when I call Zac Sam (Sam is my little brother who is married and has a kid).  My kids get so upset and I try to explain to them that it's a mom thing, I'm not the only one who does it.  The other day after I went through my list of names before arriving at Aubrey, Aubrey just looked at me with her hands on her hips, her head cocked to the side and her eyebrows raised and said, "What do you need, like some flashcards with pictures like they use in kindergarten?"

Zac got a recurve bow for Christmas.  On Christmas day he lost an arrow in the yard in all the snow.  The snow never ever melted so he could find it.  When it finally did melt a few weeks ago, he went out to try and find it.  That is when we, along with the majority of the neighborhood, found all the vole tunnels in our yard that had been hidden all winter under the snow.  Unfortunately he could not find his arrow.  He said that maybe one of the voles came out and found it and carried it into his tunnel underground because he has seen them do that in cartoons.

I am not a good example of milk drinking to my children.  I gave the stuff up probably 5 or 6 years ago.  And I have never looked back.  Jack.  My life in the nasal department has been so much better since I gave it up.  I have been a walking sinus infection since I was a pre-teen.  I don't think I've had a sinus infection since I gave up milk.  Can I get a hallelujah?  Aubrey has now decided that she doesn't drink milk either.  I try to get her to have at least one glass of milk a day.  She does have a growing body after all.  OK, I have a growing body too, but mine is growing in the wrong direction.  Anyways.  One day I was trying to get her to drink some milk and she said, "If you want me to drink this milk, you should probably get me a cookie."

Am I the only one who never feels quite alone when I'm in the room with the XBox Kinect or my cell phone?  I just feel like there is always...someone...watching... My cell phone has a camera on the front and the back of the phone.  Convenient, huh?  I always cover the lens on the front of the phone when I'm using it.  I'm all like, HA!  Take that sucka!  It's the back side of my left thumb.  How exciting is that to watch?!?

Monday Morning Musings - How I Almost Peed My Pants

I sit here typing this with dry pants on.  But it almost wasn't so.  I was tucking girls in bed earlier.  I had just left Addy's room and then made my way down the hall to Aubrey's room.  I sat on her bed and chatted it up with her for a bit.  Then I went about singing her her most requested bedtime song.  I got this much out, "A you're Adorable, B you're so Beautiful, C you're a Cutie full of Charm"  when all of a sudden something under the bed grabbed my ankles and screamed.  Which made me jump off the bed screaming (my throat is still sore from it and it was like 4 hours ago).  Turns out it was Emily, hiding beneath the bed waiting to scare the living daylights outta me.  It worked.  I would like to note, as mentioned at the start of this paragraph, that the daylights were the only thing scared out of me.  I am however getting up there in age and who can say what will happen next time?

I was just glad Emily was in a better mood at that point.  Oh, because that wasn't always the case as far as today was concerned.  Right about the time everyone got home from school, daylight savings time hit us and it hit us hard.  I found myself wishing it was bedtime because I was ready to hit the sack, jack.  Then the breakdowns started.  First it was Addy.  Ohhhhh yeah...She screamed and cried uncontrollably and inconsolably for about 15 minutes.  Later, Emily fell asleep on the couch.  She woke up and we were all upstairs.  She started freaking out asking why she wasn't at school.  I told her it was because everyone was so tired, I decided to let them all take the day off from school and sleep in.  She started freaking out pretty majorly.  You see, she has perfect attendance this year and would not even let me pick her up early from school a few weeks ago when she was sick. I got my phone out to record it because it was pretty funny at first.  But then...it wasn't so funny anymore.  And it lasted for a really long time.  Even after I explained to her that it was 7:45 on Monday night and she had only been asleep on the couch for an hour.

FYI: It probably isn't a good idea -when you are standing on one side of a locked bathroom door, and your teenage daughter is having a meltdown on the other side of said door- to ask it you can blog about the event.

I have a reader!  Four of them to be exact!  Addy has been reading for a few months now, but lately she has been branching out from her easy beginner books to harder ones.  Tonight she read to me from a real actual book book.  Like she sounded out and read big hard words.  I am so proud of her.

It was a week last week.  Lemmejustellya.  It was crazy.  Steve was working 18-20 hour days.  Every day.  He had the Home Show over the weekend.  I ate, drank and even slept Eagle Court of Honorness.  Not to mention the Birthday party we had last Monday.  Which really seems like it was soooo much longer ago.  I get  to turn around and plan another Birthday party this week.  And we had several other big things going on every single day last week.  Anyway, it has been so busy, busy, busy.  I am so behind in blog posts, it's not even funny.  Honey.  There are posts on my mental post list from like three years ago I still haven't done.  So my goal this week is to post everyday.  EVERYDAY, do you hear me?  We will see how that goes.

So, when I decided to make a video slide show for each member of my family and extended family for their Birthday this year.  I don't think I fully thought that out.  And added up just exactly how many videos I would be making over the course of the year.  And I really didn't think March out very well.  Like the fact that I had  two Birthdays back to back last week.  And I had an Eagle Court of Honor video that I also had to make last week.  And now here I am with 5 more to make in the next few weeks.  It's all good though....It's not like they take hours.  Upon hours.  To make.  Or Anything....

OK, I better go to bed.  It is late.  And I could just keep rambling on forever and ever if I let myself.  Like I said, I have a whole store of posts up in me noggin'.  So...until tomorrow...

Monday Morning Musings - How Many Emily's Does It Take To Screw In A Light Bulb? And While We're Asking Questions, How Weird Of A Word Is Bulb?

So I am like, a year behind in blog posts.  Life has been so fast paced lately.  I have actually sat down the last 3 Mondays to do Monday Morning Musings, but I either wasn't in the mood or something else came up and I couldn't even get a sentence out before I had to leave the computer.  But I am determined today to complete and post this MMM!- All in one sitting!  Whenever something funny happens or my kids say something I want to remember, I write it down. That is where most of my MMM come from.  Well, my list is outta control so I'm about to unleash a whole bunch of musings dating all the way back to summer!

So Zac and I were going somewhere and when we got there, it was closed.  Early.  Irritating, right?  Zac was arguing that they were not closed early and I was arguing that they were.  The reason for the disagreement was because they had posted their weekday hours and their weekend hours.  We were there on a Friday.  Zac insisted that Friday was the weekend.  I insisted that Friday was a weekday.  In the middle of the heated argument between 2 people that must always be right (although in my old age I'm starting to cave more) Zac broke the tension by saying, "WOULD YOU STOP INSULTING FRIDAY!  You are hurting it's feelings.  It happens to be a very strong day!"  You  know.  Weekday.  Strong day.  Anyway.  Is your sense of humor genetic?  Because the older he gets the more he reminds me of the following people: his father, his grandfather, his uncle Mike and his cousin Spencer.  They all share the same sense humor.

On Friday Addy had a friend over.  They were eating lunch and I overheard Addy tell her friend that Sun Chips were her favorite because the dots on the chips look like her dads mustache.

In Emily's Utah Studies class she is known as Emily #4.  There are 5 of them in her class.  To make it even more fun for her there is an Emily Lynn (Lynn being the last name) in her class and Emily's middle name is Lynne.  She told me that when her teacher is taking roll and there is an Emily absent he says, "That's OK!  We have more to spare!"  She also said that the other day she came into class and he was playing the Emily song from Thomas the Tank Engine.

One night it was late.  Like super late.  Steve was in bed and I was going to go out to close the chicken coop.  I told Steve that if I wasn't back in the house in 1 minute to come looking for me.  I don't remember (because it has been so long) what I was doing, but I somehow got sidetracked and started doing something outside (In the middle of the night). About 15 minutes later I came back in the house to find Steve sound asleep.  I'm glad there wasn't a murderer or a crazy person or something out there!

I was giving Addy some ice cream.  I put it in an ice cream cone.  She said, "I don't like it in cone.  I like it in a cup about yea big."  And when she said "Yea big" she gestured with her hands as to how big she liked it.  I just thought it was a funny thing for a 5 year old to say.

How ridiculous is this?  We are all riding in Steve's truck.  Emily is sitting next to me talking to me.  Like actually talking and having a conversation with me.  And she is also texting me at the same time.  I looked at her and said, "Did you really just send me a text?"  Kids these days. 

Aubrey has been begging me for a cell phone since Zac and Em both have one.  I told her she isn't old enough to have one yet.  So she put her hands on her hips and tilted her head to the side and asked, "Oh yeah?  Well how old were YOU when you got a cell phone?"  To which I answered, "THIRTY-FREAKIN'-TWO YEARS OLD!"  I think that kinda blew her mind a little.

The kids had friends over and they were upstairs in the game room.  I walked in and these are the actual words that I had to say: "ZAC!  Please do not use your face to play air hockey!"

OK, I still have a big old list, but this will have to do for now!  Happy Monday Everybody!!!

Monday Morning Musings - Epic July

I was writing a check the other day for a small fortune to register my 2 children for Jr. High, and I had to ask what the date was.  The girl told me and I couldn't believe that August was already 1/2 over.  I feel like I am still recovering from July.  We had the BEST July ever around here. I have been trying to get all caught up on all my July blog posts.  When I open the July picture folder, I have to scroll through about 1,000 pictures to get to the pictures I need to post.  When I look at my pictures from the beginning of July and then the pictures from the end of July, I can't believe that they were all taken in the same month.  So much seems to have happened in between.  It has to be the most epic July ever, so I sat down to make a list.  These are some of our July highlights:

• Went to a parade
• Went to see fireworks
• Finished painting/decorating 4 bedrooms
• Had the missionaries over for dinner
• Made melted crayon art
• Went on a major grocery store shopping spree that spanned 2 days
• Hosted 3 different sets of house guests
• Hosted a Beauti Control spa
• Hosted 4 dinner parties and many smaller dinners
• Had a family reunion with some of Steve's cousins
• Learned how to do a Katniss braid
• Saw Hunger Games for a second time in the theater
• Saw the new Batman movie, Chimpanzee and Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration Movie
• Went to Hill Aerospace Museum
• Went to the Tooele Pioneer Museum
• Went to the Church History Museum
• Went to the Children's Museum
• Went to the Great Salt Lake 2x's
• Went on 2 Nature Walks
• Saw a water and light fountain show
• Toured Temple Square, both Visitors Centers, The Assembly Hall and Tabernacle
• Toured the Conference Center
• Went to the observation deck on top of the Church Office Building
• Toured the Beehive House
• Toured the Joseph Smith Memorial Building
• Spent a  day riding ATV's
• Had someone threaten to call the Sheriff on me
• Saw actual explosives exploding
• Helped a guy who was stuck in the mud
• Went shooting 2x's
• Went to the Salt Flats
• Saw an old friend and met his family
• Went on a weekend trip to Idaho
• Ate 1/4 of a giant hamburger
• Went to a college graduation
• Ate Jack-n-the-Box tacos
• Helped someone pack up their house
• Gave away all my baby stuff
• Found a snake in my yard
• Sent Zac off to work at Scout Camp 2x's
• Sent Emily off to her first year of Girls Camp
• Visited 2 Cemeteries
• Toured 4 log cabins - 2 in Rush Valley, 1 in Tooele, 1 in Salt Lake
• Visited 3 monuments that are dedicated to my ancestors
• Went on a picnic
• Locked my kids up in a jail
• Visited with my Granny Snow and had her and my mom and sister over for dinner several times
• Splatter painted shirts with 6 kids
• Went to a spa hosted by my girls and my niece
• Threw a Birthday Party for my mom
• Went to a Missionary Homecoming
• Played Football and Soccer
• Formed and headed up a new committee

Monday Morning Musings - Droid. Droid. Droid. Droid.

Man.  I am SO behind in the post department again.  Life is so busy at this moment.  Good busy, but busy nonetheless.



So about a month or so ago Sugar Daddy surprised me with a trip to the phone store to replace my phone that I dropped one too many times.  And that's how it's done ladies.  Drop the phone repeatedly until it is on its last leg, then get a trip to the phone store and talk him into upgrading you to a smart phone.  Really, I never felt like I NEEDED a smart phone, but I don't think I could do without it now.  I love it.  Except the ringtone.  It's a little annoying.  It is a Droid Bionic phone and it only came with Droid ringtones.  So when my phone rings it just says, "Droid.  Droid.  Droid.  Droid."  I haven't had a chance to have Zac mess with it and find me a new ringtone.  Like I said, life's been busy.

One thing I LOVE about my new phone is my ability to speak texts.  I can just say what I want the phone to type, and it types it.  It saves me a lot of finger work and I can send texts while I am making dinner or folding laundry without missing a beat.  Sometimes it doesn't understand some of the words I say.  And apparently I have a pretty perverted phone.  Like majorly perverted.  If it misunderstands me, it doesn't just misunderstand a little.  Whoo!  I have caught some pretty nasty texts that I have almost sent to people.  And Addy has learned how to speak a text to it.  So before I had to worry about her sending texts to people that said "I love you", thinking that was inappropriate.  Now I have to worry about her sending way worse texts than that.  I caught her the other day when she was voice composing a text to my mom and about had a heart attack.  Glad I caught that one before it was sent.

A few weeks ago Emily had to go get her shots to register for Jr. High.  Oh that poor girl.  You would have thought they shot her in the arm with a gun rather than a needle.  And for about a week after she was still crying that it hurt.  Constantly.  That was a fun week.  I had to keep reminding her that she wasn't the first person in the world ever to get a shot in her arm.

Addy is collecting money to buy herself an ipad.  She is "almost" there as she has managed to collect over $14.  How does a 5 year old go about collecting over $14?  Well, every time my mom comes over she goes out to her van and begs for all her spare change.  In the last two weeks she has made me a million Mother's Day pictures.  She gives them to me and when I tell her how much I love it she says, "Well, if you want to keep it you have to pay me a dollar for it".  I tell her I don't have a dollar to give her and she says, "OK, you don't have to give me a dollar, you can give me two dollars".  I tell her I don't have two dollars.  Then she gives me one of her dollars that she has and says, "Here, put one of your dollars with mine and pay me two dollars."  Just so you know, I never pay her for her art work and she always lets me keep it anyway.  The bulk of her "earnings" came on Saturday when she received $10 for her injuries.  I will get to that story in another post.  Just beware around Addy.  She is pretty determined to buy herself an ipad, and I kinda think she just might make it.

Zac now has what I call a Bionic Mouth.  We went to the orthodontist on Friday and they put a device in that will move his jaw forward.  It really does makes him look a bit bionicish.

So apparently I am the worst mom ever because I wouldn't let my two oldest kids go see the midnight premiere of Avengers.  ON A SCHOOL NIGHT.  They kept telling me all their friends were going and they kept begging me to let them.  I kept telling them that there was no way ALL of their friends were going to see it that night and I told them that they could go see it as soon as school got out the next day.  Well, it would seem that ALL of their friends did go see it on Thursday night.  Oh well, they were able to go with a few friends, and Steve, who was much happier to accompany them at 3 in the afternoon instead of midnight.

Every time I do laundry I am reminded of the difference between boys and girls.  I don't even think my girls realize that their jeans have pockets.  Zac on the other hand could survive for at least 72 hours in the wilderness just on all the stuff he collects in his pockets on a daily basis.  And it doesn't matter how many times I tell him to empty out his pockets before he takes his jeans off.  So I have to check every pocket in his jeans before I wash them.  He always has some pretty interesting stuff in there. 

Aubrey has been about to lose a tooth for nigh over a week now.  That child.  I want so much to get my hands in there and twist and yank that sucker out.  But she won't let me.  Instead she whimpers around the house saying she can't eat anything but ice cream because the cold is the only thing that feels good on her teeth.  That lasts until we have something really good that she wants to eat again and the pain is magically gone until she is finished eating.  I would try to yank it out in her sleep, but I tried that last time she had a week long loose tooth and I almost lost my whole hand.  She chomped down in her sleep and I could not get her to let go for anything.  I sure hope it comes out today...

  

Monday Morning Musings - Plumbers Crack

A couple of days ago I went to check on Addy who was supposed to be sitting on this time out bench. This is what I found. She arranged some shoes under this blanket to make it look like she was under the blanket on the time out bench.

Aubrey has this obsession with clock math. It is this game she has made up in her head. Whenever she looks at a clock to see what time it is, she makes the time a math problem. And she can do it for any time. So say it is 6:17. She will say, "It's six seventeen. Seven minus one is six." Or if it is 5:15 she will say, "It's five fifteen. Five times one is five." She really literally does this every single time she looks at the clock.

So we watched Lord of the Rings (all 3 movies) with Zac and Emily a few months ago. They had never seen the movies. Well now they are obsessed. And they have Aubrey hooked on them too. Emily can do a near perfect Smeagol/Gollum imitation. You should ask her to do it for you. She does the part where he is arguing with himself. She's good.

And Aubrey, she is now in love with Legolas. Which I think is cute since she is quite elfish herself.

We have this spider book that we have had since Zac was in Kindergarten. It shows real pictures of spiders. I think it is an awesome book. Spiders can be really beautiful. But for some reason it totally freaks Zac and Addy out. Like FREAKS them out. The book had been stuck on a shelf for years but someone got it out a few weeks ago and for several days it just kinda floated around the house. If it was in a room, Addy would freak out and refuse to go into that room. I finally had to throw it away because it was making me so crazy.

So I was making smoothies the other day. Addy asked if she could push the buttons on the blender. I said sure. Emily got all huffy and said that last time I made a smoothie she had asked if she could push the buttons and I told her no because she was already pushing buttons. I have absolutely no recollection of this.

We celebrated Aubrey's Birthday a few weeks ago. We had balloons. I hate balloons. They freak me out. I fully blame it on my Bishop when I was like 5 years old who told a story of a boy who choked on a deflated balloon. So I pop them as soon as I can. I let the kids play with them after the party since they were still floating. But the next day when they were on the ground, I popped them and threw them in the trash. OK, really I didn't pop them because that could potentially send little pieces of chokable matter flying all about the place. So I rip a little hole by the base of the balloon with my teeth and let the air out and then stuff the empty shell way down in the trash where the kids can't see it. Well, I did this to the balloons from the party. Addy realized her balloon was missing. One of her older siblings, who is on to me and my balloon popping ways, told her that I had probably popped it and thrown it in the trash. Even though I tried to deny it, she wasn't buyin' it. Especially because her siblings were backing her up. So she says to me, "What would happen if you were a kid still and YOU had a balloon that you really liked and wanted to play with and what if I took your YOUR balloon and I popped it? How would you feel???" She paused to let me think it over, then continued, "Well, THAT'S how I feel!" About 10 minutes later she came back with her hands on her hips and said, "I'm seriously mad at you!" That's fine with me. One of these days she will thank me for all the times I saved her from choking on a balloon.

Zac. The kid has now outgrown 3 (T-H-R-E-E) sets of church clothes in the last year. I'm serious. I bought him a new white shirt and black dress pants right before we went out of town in November for Thanksgiving, and they don't fit him now. I think I am going to start some type of "Church Clothing Exchange For Teenage Boys" in our ward. It's crazy.

The other night we were watching American Idol. One of the songs that a contestant was singing has been sung by President Obama at some something or other. So they showed a clip of him singing it. Addy said, "DID YOU SEE THAT!?! The United States Government was singing that song!" She thought it was so funny.

So it's like this. My dishwasher is a piece of poo. We have lived in this house for 3 1/2 years (it is brand new to the house) and I have already had to have someone come out and replace the motor once. Thankfully it was still under warranty. Well, it stopped working again. Last summer. For real. We have been washing dishes by hand since. last. summer. Well, it's more like we have been letting dishes pile up on the counter until there is no more room, then we wash them, since last summer. Finally last week I had had enough. ENOUGH. I called a repairman out to fix it. I wasn't too awfully impressed with him.

First of all he told me that he couldn't determine what was wrong with the dishwasher. That it could either be the control panel or the motor. He said that they don't make this type of dishwasher where you can take apart the motor to see if it is bad, you just have to replace it. But it could be that we replace that and find out that it wasn't the motor, it was the control board and then we would have to replace that too. And for what it would cost to do both of those, we would be better off buying a new dishwasher. Then he told me that my garbage disposal has a crack and needs to be replaced. He said that for a smaller horse power disposal than what I have now, it would cost $350 to replace. (Let me just say again - This house is 3 1/2 years old! We have a dishwasher that has broken down twice, a disposal that is cracked, and a doorbell that we have replaced once already when it almost burned the house down and now the new one is not working. Can we not make anything to last nowadays???)(For reals!)

So I begrudgingly scheduled him to come two days later to replace the disposal. I told him I would have to think on the dishwasher. Since the dishwasher has been broken, I have had this hankerin' to take it apart and see if I could solve the problem myself. But I had no idea how to do it or if I would electrocute myself or what. So I haven't. Well, my mom was over for dinner that night and she said she had just watched a video on pintrest of a girl who took her dishwasher apart and fixed it when someone had told her she would have to get a new one. And I thought, "By golly! If some chick on the internet can take her dishwasher apart and fix it, so can I!" So I did! With the help of a five year old.

We took it apart, cleaned the motor (which I've heard isn't made to be taken apart) and all the other pieces. Amazingly we were able to put it all back together and didn't have any screws left over. (Next time I will take a picture of each layer as I take it apart). And it works! It makes a horrible noise and it leaks a little, but it works! I still don't use it because of the noise and the leakage, but I know now that it is NOT the control panel, it is the motor. I googled the brand of dishwasher and motor problems and found out that I can buy a new motor for about $70. And I can probably install it myself, seeing as how I took the other one apart.

I also got up under the sink and looked at the garbage disposal and saw that there were only 2 screws holding the thing up there. I was feelin' so handy I thought, By HECK! I can probably fix that there disposal myself. So I googled again and found that the type of disposal he was going to give me retails at Home Depot for $90. And I watched a video on Youtube of a guy replacing a disposal and it took him all of 5 minutes to remove the old and install the new. SAY WHA??? Yes, apparently this appliance repair man was charging me $250 for 5 minutes of labor.

So I called him up the next morning to cancel my appointment to fix the disposal. I was nice and just said we had changed our minds. What I really wanted to say was, "MY 5 YEAR OLD AND I TOOK THE DISHWASHER APART AND FIXED IT AND SINCE THAT WAS SOMETHING YOU COULDN'T HANDLE, I DON'T WANT YOU TOUCHIN' MY DANG GARBAGE DISPOSAL! THE 5 YEAR OLD AND I WILL HANDLE THAT AS WELL! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!"

Monday Morning Musings - Always Knock On Windsday

Can I just say: My life is crazy busy right now! I am always on the go. I am glad to be busy and I love all that keeps me busy, but wow. Busy. I have so much to blog about and no time to do it. I thought I'd try and get a post out tonight before I go to bed (even though I'd rather be in bed right now watching The Big Bang Theory) because I know there is no way any kind of post is gonna be happin' tomorrow.

So...American Idol. It's back on and we are so excited in these here parts. Well, most of us are anyway. We were watching it and Steven Tyler was walking out to his car and he had all these people following behind him and one of them was carrying all his stuff. I said, "Man. I wish I had someone to walk around behind me all the time carrying my stuff." Emily said, "That's what dad's for!"

Two weekends ago (has it really been that long-the time goes by so fast) we had a Lord of the Rings weekend and we watched all three of the movies. Zac and Em had never seen them before. I'm tellin' you right now, I am so proud of myself. I stayed awake (mostly) for all three movies. I can't even stay awake to make it to the end of a thirty minute TV show. I regularly fall asleep in movie theaters. Well as regularly as we go to them, which isn't very regular.

We watched the first one on Friday night and I had to stand up and do some calisthenics to keep myself awake. We watched the second on Saturday during the day and then the third Saturday night. Again. Standing. Calisthenics. During the second movie Emily kept saying, "WHAT!?! They are STILL in those trees!?!" I did learn a great trick for staying awake through the third one . I got out my big exercise ball and sat on that. It's hard to fall asleep on one of those. When I started to try I would just start bouncing. I did start to doze a bit toward the end. Ball or no ball, a person can only stay awake in a darkened room that late at night for so long. That's when I remembered that it is the movie of 15 endings. It is so dang long and you think OK- it's ending- I can stay awake for a few more minutes. Then there is another ending. And another. And another. And SURPRISE! Another!

On Thursday Addy and I were driving in the car and she asked, "Is it windy on Wednesday?" I said, "No, it wasn't windy yesterday." She said, "NO! Is it WINDY on WEDNESDAY?" After a few more tries of trying to decipher what she was asking me she said, "Is it WINDY on WINDSDAY? Is that the day the winds come?" I had to explain to her that it wasn't Windsday. It was Wednesday. And no. That day is not reserved for winds.

Yeah. So our doorbell is broken. Again. Why can they not make things to last now-a-days? (I sound like an old person asking that, don't I? Well guess what? I'm old.) We built this house three years ago and we have already had to replace the doorbell once. Well the new one decided to stop working. We now have a sign on the door informing people to knock if they want to be heard. But we didn't always have that sign. Which means that sometimes people stood on our front porch for a while after ringing the doorbell, waiting for someone to answer. FYI: You can hear everything that goes on inside my echoey house from the front porch.

So it was a Wednesday night (not Windsday). I had this feeling that my Bishopric was going to show up at my house that night to give me a new calling. In fact, about 15 minutes before they came I thought, "I really should clean up the living room a little before they come." But I was in the middle of helping with homework and cleaning up from dinner and trying to get kids ready for bed, so I promptly forgot that thought. Had I remembered it I might not have done what I did next. Which was yell. I had very kindly and softly asked my three beautiful daughters to clean their homework stuff up from the kitchen and go get ready for bed about 10 times. When I got to request #11, some of the kindness and softness had left me and I might have yelled something about getting their stuff cleaned up right now and to go get ready for bed. Then I walked past the front door and could see someone in a suit standing by the window next to the door. Then I remembered. I was expecting the Bishopric to show up at my house. Oh that was fun to open that door and see the three of them standing there. They promised me that they heard no yelling. I won't call them liars out of respect, however....

So the story doesn't end there. Oh, how I wish it did. But I doesn't. About two weeks after that, it was a Wednesday night again. And no, it was not windy. The girls and I were sitting on the couch which is about 5 feet away from the front door. The front door that still didn't have a knock sign upon it. Steve and Zac were at the church for scouts. The girls and I had just finished reading scriptures and saying family prayer. Again, I asked very kindly 10 times for them to go get in bed. Again, the kindness left me by request #11. So I yelled again for them to go get in bed. Then I walked into the other room where I could see that there was a car in my driveway with it's headlights on. I went to open the door and SURPRISE! It was once again a member of our Bishopric there to sign Zac up for Seminary next year. He once again promised that he heard no yelling. Yeah, right.

Seriously. How embarrassing. So that very night, a "Knock if you want to be heard" sign went up on our front door. And if you come to my house and want to get and earful, just stand on the front porch for a few minutes before you knock.

Monday Morning Musings - A New Way To Eat, A New Way To Clean, A New Way To Garden, A New Way To Read, And A Chinese New Year

One morning last week, I walked into my kitchen to make lunches and what I saw literally took my breath away. I had to stop for a minute and take in one of the most gorgeous sunrises I had ever seen. This picture I took with my phone just does not do it justice. It was magnificent and I was glad I was able to take a minute out of my busy morning to enjoy it and to give thanks to my Heavenly Father for such a beautiful sight.

This is the first normal week of school my kids have had all January long. For some ridiculous reason the first three weeks were all only 4 school days long. And next week is early out week all WEEK long (ridiculous!). The weekend of the 13th was a 4 day weekend. We were having lovely weather for the middle of winter, so Steve took Aubrey down to St. George with him for work. While they were there he taught her how to ride an ATV at the same place he taught Zac and Em when they were Aubrey's age. That same weekend Zac was able to go have an airsoft battle with his friend and Emily and Addy and I hung out with my mom and Lauren and Sam and Teresa who came down from Idaho for the weekend. My mom decided to try and make tamales again. By herself. With Lauren and Addy and Emily. I now have permission to slap her anytime she ever talks about making tamales again. I had to remind her that when we made them at Christmas we had 7 adults and 4 kids helping. And it took all dang day.

We just found out last week that in 2 years our elementary school will switch to year round so they can have different tracks to accommodate the amount of students we will have. I am not too happy about this at all. When my kids were younger, I wanted so bad to have year round school because summers made me so crazy. But now that I will have 2 kids in elementary and 2 who are not, we will not have the same breaks and I am not liking it one single bit. And now that my kids are older, I LOVE summers off from school. We have so much fun together. I will really hate having them in school part of the summer while the rest of us hang out at the pool.

Saturday was such a nice day. It rained all day long, before it started snowing. We spent the day in our pj's and just hung out around the house. We had crepes for breakfast, played games, watched American Idol. It was fun just hanging around the house all day with the family. Except poor Zac who wasn't with us during the first part of the day. He was on a Scout Klondike Campout. I think this is his 4th Klondike and he has fun every time he goes. He is a better scout than I, that's all I can say.

American Idol! It's back on! It's my most fav-O-rite show ever! When we watched the first episode this season, I must admit that during the opening segment, I teared up a little. It's true. I cannot even tell you the amount of excitement I have for this new season.

Last night when we were reading scriptures, the kids (Zac jumped up as soon as I got the camera out) wanted to read in plank position. I wasn't going to let them because I didn't think it was too reverent. But Steve said to let them because that way they couldn't touch each other or look at each other or bother each other in general. So we read scriptures while planking. I must say, it might have been one of the most reverent scripture reading sessions we've had.

Last week at story time at the library they celebrated Chinese New Year. Here is Addy under the dragon tail, parading through the library.

My mother and sister Lauren I have started this fabulous new way of cleaning our houses. We decided that we would go to each others house for one hour every week and work fast and furious cleaning. That way, with the 3 of us cleaning, it's like getting three hours worth of work done in one hour. The first few weeks we are actually doing this 5 days a week to get everything all cleaned out and all the problem areas taken care of so that everything can be nice and tidy and de-cluttered and then we can just come in and do our hour each week and have it all clean. It has been working out fantastically. We have done some pretty major projects that have been hanging over our heads for a while. Like my laundry room. I keep it locked so that no one can ever accidentally come to my house and find that door open and see into the pit of all pits that it was. But now, it is so fantastically clean and organized and loverly that I walk in there about 5 times a day just to stand and take in the beauty.

I have started taking an organic gardening class. It is once a week for 9 weeks, and I have been twice already. I LOVE it! LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT! The lady that teaches it teaches in her home. She has the most remarkable gardens (I've heard tales and seen pictures) and even sells her organic produce to local restaurants. She is the sweetest lady, and in 2 lessons I have already learned so much. Not just about gardening but just about improving your life. It's fabulous. She teaches this class every year and I have already decided I am going next year.

After the gardening class, she has a raw luncheon at her house. This is for people at the class if they want to stay, and for really anyone who wants to come. Everything we eat is raw, and lemmetellyou, I have had some of the most interesting and fascinating and delicious things. I don't even know what half of them are, but they are good. It has just opened my eyes to a new way to eat. Last week we had seed porridge. Seriously. It was a cold soup made out of seeds. And it was good. Everyone that comes brings something raw to share. So far I have been really lame and brought carrots the first week and cucumbers the second. I am going to be brave this week and actually make something. I am making raisin seed balls. We shall see how they turn out.

I have a new favorite food now from this raw lunch. Raw sweet potatoes. Yeah, you heard me. I am a raw sweet potato eatin' fool now. The first week a lady brought peeled sweet potatoes that were sliced thin like chips. And she brought raw almond butter that I found out they now have at our local grocery store. It is in a machine and you turn it on and you watch it grind the almonds right in front of you. We spread the almond butter on the sweet potato chips. Hea-ven! (I typed that in a sing-song voice) I'm so not kidding. I went to the store that very day and bought sweet potatoes and almond butter and fed it to my kids as an after school snack. They loved it too. Then last week a different lady brought a version of one of our families most favorite things Black Bean Corn Salad. We usually eat it with tortilla chips. This lady brought sliced raw sweet potatoes and we used those as chips. Delish. Raw sweet potatoes as chips. That's how we roll around here from now on. You really should give it a try. It is fantastic.

Monday Morning Musings/Never A Dull Moment - It's For The Birds

So our house is under attack by a flock of sparrows. They won't leave our yard and they keep flying into the windows. It started yesterday morning and they are still attacking us even as I type. We had several fly into the windows throughout the day yesterday. This morning when we were in the kitchen eating breakfast, three of them flew into the patio door within 20 seconds of each other. And I have been hearing them hit various windows about every 30 minutes or so, all day long. I'm not sure what to do about it.

Last week Zac had the chance to go to the Student of the Month lunch at his school. He went with his principal and a few other students. They went to a Chinese restaurant and then to Baskin Robins. One of the students that went with him was Chris Stewart's daughter. I had no idea they lived in such close proximity to us. If you don't know who Chris is, he is the author of "The Miracle of Freedom: Seven Tipping Points That Saved the World" and "The Great and Terrible" series, which Zac has read. He is also running for Congress.

Zac was in Ski Club last year and he loved it so much. Neither Steve nor I ski and neither of us has any desire to. So I was glad he was able to ski with his friends once a week last winter. This year my bad mom skills showed themselves when I turned in his application for Ski Club a little too late. By that time there was a waiting list to get in. I tried everything to get him in, including bribing the teacher in charge. Ok, not really. But I thought about it. I thought long and hard. Anyhoosers. I was so so sad last week when Ski Club started. I had to pick Zac up after taking a test after school and all the kids in the club were sitting out front waiting to get on the bus. I seriously felt like the worst mom ever. Because we all know, I'm not takin' him skiing. It was that club or nothin'. But as I was sitting there in the van waiting for him, watching the members of the ski club I had a realization. HE HAS PNEUMONIA! HELLO! He couldn't go skiing, even if he was in the club. Especially because on that very day that ski club started, he woke up having a hard time breathing and had to do a breathing treatment. And he was totally exhausted that day when he got home from school and had to do another treatment that night. The doctor told us it would take at least a month for the pneumonia to clear up and that he shouldn't do anything strenuous in that time. Ski Club lasts for 2 months, which means he would have missed half of it (and lost half of the money for it) if we had signed up on time. It was just a reminder to me that sometimes things don't always work out as we want them to, but we don't know everything, and sometimes what we thought was a bad thing works out for the best in the end.

Addy has this breakfast eating problem. She likes to eat weird things for breakfast. Like soup. Or ham sandwiches. She gets this from her father. Anyway. She also can't eat breakfast within the first hour of waking up. So if I make her something, it just sits there. I usually make her wait to eat after the girls do so that she will actually eat her food. Sometimes this makes her mad, even though at the times I do make her food because she insists she will eat it, she doesn't. She does eat breakfast everyday though. Well, on Saturday I guess she couldn't remember eating. (A problem she has been having lately when she says: I'm STARVING and you haven fed me ALL DAY. And then I remind her of all the times I fed her that day. And she still doesn't believe I have fed her.) So Saturday, she says to me all exasperated and mistreated like, "Why do you NEVER make me breakfast!?!" And I told her that I always make her breakfast. She said, "No you don't. You didn't make me breakfast on Sunday or Friday or Wednesday or JULY!"

Monday Morning Musings - My 38th Birthday In Which I Sound Like I'm 83 With A Bad Habit

It's that time of year again! I'm another year older and wiser too. 38. That's how old I am. I'm good with that. I feel like I mature a little each year and become a little more of the person I was meant to be. It's like I'm growing into myself. So even though I'm only 2 years away from the big 4-0, I'm not as freaked out as I thought I'd be. So here's to 38! Hopefully it will be the best year yet!

I had to go this morning to help in Aubrey's class at school. When I got home Addy and I had a snack and then I sat down on the couch to read a chapter in my book. About 45 minutes later I woke up and felt so guilty that I was reading/sleeping when I had so many other things I needed to do. But then I remembered it was my Birthday so I got up, used the bathroom, and sat right back down on the couch and read another chapter. It was great, but I still have so much to do...

I am trying really hard not to freak out at the lateness of the season. I feel like I missed the whole first half of December. I spent the last 1/2 of November in trip mode. There was getting ready for the trip, then the trip itself. Then I got home from the trip and was so sick. Then I had trip/sickness catching up to do. I haven't done much to get ready for Christmas and usually I'm about done by now. I like to have it all done and then sit back and enjoy the season. But I have a lot to before any sitting back can occur. And how do I handle it? I spend the day napping and reading on the couch. That's really good Allyson.

You really gotta love it when your 5 year old comes running into the room with a phone in her hand all panicked like saying, "I CALLED 911 AGAIN! I CAN'T BELIEVE I CALLED 911 AGAIN!!!" Yes, she called 911. Again. For the third time. This time it was with an old cell phone she was playing with and she said she didn't think it would work. Even though I had told her before that it would.

So after she called 911, she told me that she is even more scared of police than she was before. Great. She was scared of them before. Then she met a very nice police officer and I thought she was over it. But then, about a month ago something happened to change all that. What do you think would be the worst thing to happen to a small child who is scared of police? She could be in the car when her mother gets pulled over by one. Yes. We were on our way home one night. I had all the kids in the car. We were having fun singing Christmas Carols at the top of our lungs. I may or may not have come to a complete stop at a the 4 way stop sign coming into our neighborhood with no other cars present. I may or may not have been pulled over and given a warning. This may or may not have caused my 5 year old who was 4 at the time to have a major panic attack. And this may or may not have scarred her for life. She freaks out and starts screaming and crying anytime anyone thinks about doing anything slightly out of the ordinary while we are driving. Like the time we were on our trip and the kids were trying to put a movie in the dvd player. They dropped it and we were in the middle of nowhere so I told Zac to get undone from his seat and pick the movie up. Oh my good golly miss molly. You would have thought someone was pulling her toe nails out with a pair of pliers. I thought she was going to blow a blood vessel right then and there. And heaven forbid we ever pass a police car while we are driving...

I am pretty much over my horrible awful illness. However I don't sound like it. I sound awful. And each day the awful gets worse. Like right now I sound like an 83 year old scary woman who has been smoking a pack a day for 75 years. I don't know why it is taking so long for my voice to go back to normal. It must have something to do with bronchitis, but whatever it is, it's annoying. And it really upsets me the most because I can't sing. This sick voice isn't giving me the sexy husky singing voice I wish it was. It is giving me the sound of an ox dying a slow torturous death singing voice. I am a singer. Not like a singer because I can sing well singer, but a singer because I love to sing and singing makes me happy and I sing all the time singer. So when my favorite Journey song came on the radio the other day while I was cleaning house and the sound of my voice frightened even myself, I had to stop singing. And when I took the kids ice skating Saturday followed by a trip to the store for hot chocolate and we had Christmas songs playing on the radio and I couldn't sing along because my kids kept begging me to stop....And yesterday when we were in church and they were singing Christmas hymns and I couldn't sing along....and when I was trying to sing and dance with Steve last night and he nicely asked me to stop singing...I can't. Handle. Not. Singing....

So yes, I did take the kids ice skating Saturday. They are building a new shopping center near our neighborhood and they have an outdoor ice skating rink and Santa's village that just opened. The kids have never been ice skating so we decided to go check it out. That was some messed up ice, that's all I have to say. But it was fun. Zac, Emily and Aubrey just took off on their own like they had been skating all their lives. Addy needed a little help from me for a while, but then she got to where she could skate on her own. After skating we went to see Santa next door. It was a fun little outing.

Monday Morning Musings - How I Almost Died And Ruined Christmas For My Children Forever

Well, last nights storm was really a let down. No drama. At all. Hardly anything I would categorize as a storm. It's a good thing, really.

I was so excited to wake up this morning. The start of a brand spankin' new week. A week much much better than its predecessor. I don't remember having any coughing fits last night. I was able to sleep in my own bed in a semi reclining position. All last week I was sleeping on the couch in the living room because I had to sleep sitting straight up, or I felt like someone was sitting on my chest and I could only take little tiny shallow breaths, and the corner of our sectional provided 2 good high sides to support me.

Most of last week is one cough laced blur. I do remember very clearly almost killing myself. My nights on the couch were not pleasant. I had coughing attacks all night long. And darn me I have this thing about taking cough medicine. I can't and won't do it. I kept falling asleep with cough drops in my mouth. At one point on one of the nights I felt a big cough coming on so I sat up to brace myself. I sucked in to start the cough and WHOOP! That cough drop sucked itself right down my wind pipe. For a split second I thought, "So this is how it ends. Me out here on the couch, alone, a cough drop blocking any chance of taking another breath, and my poor children will wake up and find my cold dead body when they come down in the morning to turn on the lights on the Christmas Tree." But just as fast as I thought that, I coughed and POW! Out came the lozenge and I lived to see another day. And my children will not be destined to have gruesome flashbacks for the rest of their lives every time they see a Christmas tree.

By the time I made the decision to go to the doctor it was Wednesday night and I could see that there was no hope of my getting better on my own. It was kinda like when I was in labor with Zac for 9 1/2 hours without an epidural and by the time I decided that I was not going to be able to get the kid out naturally, I wanted the epidural right then. Because it was physically impossible for me to endure one more contraction. But dang that anesthesiologist who seemed to take his own sweet time getting there. I was the same with the doctor. By Wednesday night I thought it was physically impossible for me to endure one more coughing spasm. So I decided I would call and make an appointment to go in to the doctor first thing Thursday morning. Then Thursday morning happened. And I was unable to find a doctors office open. So I had to wait until Friday. The doctor said she thinks I have bronchitis. Surprise. I had figured as much by then. I am feeling so much better today. Not 100%, but so much better than last week.

The kids started getting sick the other day, but their illnesses seemed to have a shorter duration. They rested up with their 2 days off of school due to the winds and loss of power at the school, plus the 2 weekend days, and they were good to go to school today.

My mom and Lauren just took Addy to see the Muppet Movie they have been promising her they would take her to see. Steve is at work. So I am home alone in a quite peaceful house. Yeah right. Lauren's dog Eli is here and he is being anything but quite a the moment.

You know what its like when you get home from a trip and you have all this catching up and unpacking to do. Yeah that's where I am, only add a weeks worth of catching up because I didn't get anything done last week. I still haven't unpacked my suitcase. I'm not complaining though. I am just glad to be on the mend.

Now if I can just find a way to get that darn Direct TV guy out here before Wednesday to get my satellite fixed, all would be right with my world....

Wednesday Morning Hackings

I'm comin' atcha live from my sick bed. I'm a real prize right now, just let me say. We were in St. Louis all last week for Thanksgiving and our last night there I started to get a cough. I woke up Saturday morning to pack and load up so we could begin our drive home and I could hardly do anything. I just figured I was tired because we had been keeping some late nights. It really was a struggle to get everything packed and once we were in the car and rollin' down the highway, I started to realize that I was sick. My body was achy and I had chills and a horrible hacking cough. So it was a very unpleasant two day drive for me.

We got home Sunday night. I had to help in Aubrey's class the next morning at 9am. It was so hard to get out bed when my alarm went off at 6:30. But I decided that most of it is in my attitude and if I just got up and had a positive attitude and went about business as normal, I would be just fine. I went to help in Aubrey's class, then I went shopping for Addy's Birthday present, because it was her Birthday. Then I went shopping for groceries. Then I came home and cleaned the house and made Addy's Birthday dinner and cake and my mom and Lauren came over for a family party. Then the next day I got up at 6:30 am and went to help Emily's teacher at 9am. (Most of it's just in my attitude right?) By the time I got home from the school yesterday, I was in pretty horrible shape. Like Horrible, Horrible. Yesterday was not a good day for me.

I can't remember the last time I felt so bad. I had a fever and chills. A nasty cough that was in my lungs. And a very achy breaky everything. I thought I might die. Thankfully I didn't. About that time, I decided it was about time for me to slow my attitude down and park my booty in the bed. I couldn't just keep going about life as normal. I needed to get better and I needed to do it in a jiffy. I had exactly one day because on Thursday (tomorrow) I had 3 big events. 1. Emily's play at school, 2. Addy's friend Birthday party, 3. Relief Society Christmas Dinner. So I put a halt on all activities last night. My dear visiting teacher brought in dinner last night. The Relief Society Presidency came by to visit and brought me a treat. And I started ordering everyone in my family around, more than normal.

At that point, I had no choice but to get orderly. I couldn't do anything for myself. Seriously. I couldn't even reach my arm out of my blanket to get a kleenex because my chills were so bad. And my kids were freaking out because every time they would come to give me a hug I was burning up. Poor Steve, he has been so good to me. After me ordering him around all night last night and making a trip to the store for me to buy all my invalid supplies and getting all the kids in bed and doing everything else that needed to be done, just as we were about to fall asleep I said, "Honey, will it make you crazy if I ask you to do one more thing for me?" He said it wouldn't. So I asked him to take my socks off because they were bothering me. And he did it without complaint.

He is a good man. He stayed home from work today and he has been babying me all day. I have decided that in all likelihood, I am not going to be better by tomorrow, so I postponed Addy's party and sadly decided that I'm not going to the dinner tomorrow night even though I hate to miss it. I will venture out for Emily's play however. Hopefully I will be well by the weekend because we have play tickets for Saturday and tickets to the Christmas Devotional at the Conference Center on Sunday. I will not be happy if I have to miss either of those.

One upside to all this is that I haven't been able to eat anything for the past few days and my abs are getting a stellar workout with all the coughing. And I had Steve set me up in bed with the laptop and my pictures so I can get caught up with all my posting.

Here are some pictures from last night. I told the kids that if they would clean up the kitchen and clean out the van (it hadn't been done since we arrived home from our trip and it was pretty ripe) we could set up the tree. And by we I mean I would shiver under my blankets in the corner of the couch while they set it up.

The girls pretty much set the tree up themselves

Steve hard at work

Zac wasn't feeling too hot either (I don't know what I'll do if other people get sick) so he also took up residency on the couch. I tried to tell him not to get near me but he wouldn't listen. I think he is looking for a way to get out of going to school.

Monday Morning Musings - Heavy Metal

My dear son Zac came home from school on Friday with this beautiful flower he made for me in Metal Shop. I love it. He is loving Metal. He has made some pretty awesome stuff so far this school year.

I also must say how proud I am of his recent report card he brought home. He made 4 A's and 3 B's which is a HUGE improvement over all of last year. He really is working hard and trying to get good grades in his classes. Way to go Z!

I can't tell you how nice it was to wake up this morning and have it be semi-light outside. It has been so hard lately to drag myself and the kids out of bed when it is so dark outside. And I am glad it will be easier to get people in bed on time. I am really enjoying this time change thing. I will have to remember that in the spring when we have to pay up for our extra hour.

My cousin Kathy and her son Spencer flew from Texas to Utah over the weekend. Kathy's husband works for the airlines and they let their kids pick anywhere they want to go (inside the US) for their Birthday. Spencer turned 5 on Friday so he and Kathy flew here to go to the Dinosaur Museum. They stayed with us on Friday night. It was good to see them. On Saturday morning, before the had to head out to the airport, we had a delicious breakfast with them and my mom and Lauren came over too.

Spencer and Addy are only a few weeks apart in age and they were instant best buds. They had so much fun together for the few hours they had to play. It snowed Friday night so they were excited to wake up Saturday morning and go outside and play.

On Saturday morning Addy went down the street to a Birthday party. It was a princess party and she came home all decked out in princess attire with her own little princess cake.



The other day we were cooking something on the stove and one of the kids took the pan off the burner and set it on the counter. I picked it up and put something under it and told them we couldn't put hot stuff on the counter or we will ruin it. Silly Zac said, "Oh...so that's why you don't want me sitting on the counter."



That boy is so goofy. A few days after that Emily had something she wanted to put in the spice cabinet. I told her she couldn't keep it there and showed her a different cabinet where she could keep it. She for some reason was not happy with that and really wanted to keep it in the spice cabinet. I told her she couldn't because it wouldn't fit in there. And Zac said, "Yeah, it doesn't fit in. All the other spices will make fun of it."



So the other night I was making dinner in the kitchen when I almost chopped my hand off. I was just going along all fine and dandy like, singing along to Journey as I sliced and diced with a big huge knife. And then BAM! Something hit my big picture window so hard, I can't believe it didn't break it. After a split second of freaking out and almost cutting my hand off, I knew exactly what it was. Because it isn't the first time it has happened. A big huge beautiful pheasant had flown into the window. It was kinda sad. For the bird and my big window which had just been washed a few days before.



I don't know what the deal with me and dishwashers is. Really. At the time in my life when I had the cheapest dishwasher available, no problemo. Whenever I have a nice dishwasher, it is always breaking down. It is totally ridiculous. We have lived in this house for almost 3 years now and this is the 4th time the dishwasher has stopped working. Anyhoo. So when the kids get in trouble and need a punishment, they get to do dishes, since the dishwasher is on the fritz. Again. I think my kids are a little too smart for their own good. Do you know how many glasses they have broken in the last week? I couldn't even begin to tell you. It is so often, I really think they are doing it on purpose to insure that they don't ever get dishes again as a penalty. "She's gonna make me do the dishes again, I'll show her how I do the dishes. Oops. Another broken glass...."



Addy. I don't even know. That kid. She keeps us laughing all the time. The other morning when the kids were eating breakfast she said, "Lady Gaga is bad because she shows her boobs." And Emily said, "Addy, don't say that, that's bad." And so Addy said, "Ok, she shows her MAN BOOBS!" And Emily said, "Addy, that's bad too!" So she said, "FINE! She shows her pecs!" First off, I don't even know how she knows anything about Lady Gaga and what she shows because we don't ever listen to or watch Lady Gaga in our house.

Monday Morning Musings - Why Don't You Stay With Me?

(The title of this post has nothing to do with the post itself, other than it is the song that was on the radio when I was trying to come up with the title.) Let lovin' start, let lovin' start...

Steve was in Montana last week. On his way back home he stopped at a gas station in Idaho. Apparently in Idaho they sell guns at the gas station. So he couldn't resist picking this up for Aubrey. It is a Red Rider BB Gun. So ever since she got it the kids have been going around saying, "You'll shoot your eye out!" We did get an extra few doses of that movie last Christmas.

We had some mighty fine weather over the weekend. Last Fathers Day we gave Steve a gift card for 5 buckets of balls at a driving range and 5 rounds of golf. He has been so busy since then that he literally has had no time for golf. The gift card we bought expires in December so we figured we better use it while we still had a few days of good weather left. On Friday we took the kids and used all 5 buckets of balls. After the driving range, we went to Cafe Rio for dinner and then came home and had a family movie night and watched The Blindside. It was a fun family night. The next day Steve took Zac and a friend and used 3 of the 5 rounds of golf. 2 more left!

Good form Em!

Yeah. One of Zac's clubs got a little messed up. Addy was using it and she set it down in front of her driving pad thingy. She and I went to get more balls and Steve stepped in and started hitting balls in her space. One of his balls gone awry hit the club and shattered it.

The other day, Addy was digging around in my bathroom drawer. In the very back at the bottom she found a lidless chapstick. She pulled it out and looked at it and these were her very exact words: GROSS! It looks like some man used this in his armpit!

Come on feel the noise...Sorry. Steve is working from home today so we are sharing the office. He has to have music on to concentrate. I must have no music on to concentrate. He says the music blocks everything else out so he can think. When I hear music, I just sing along and there is no room for anything else. I am having a hard time concentrating on this post. We'll get wild, wild, wild...

You know how I found the perfect window coverings, but they were slightly out of our price range by tens of thousands of dollars? Well, I have found the second best thing. And it cost me nothing! On Sunday my mom and Lauren came over to watch the movie 17 Miracles, which I highly recommend. Anyhoo. While we were watching the sun was killing us. It was coming in these windows and there was no where we could move to avoid it. We could hardly see the TV and we were all sitting on the couch sweating. So Steve and I hung these lovely table cloths up that I had left over from kids parties. As we were hanging them we could literally feel a 20 degree difference in the room. Sweet relief. And I think they go perfectly with my lack of decor, so I plan to leave them for the time being.

Everything is different with your youngest child. You are a little more laxed. You sometimes celebrate their Birthday on the wrong date because you can't remember their actual one. You think it is cute when they dress themselves. I never would have ever let any of my other children leave the house like this. But sweet Addy dresses herself like this every day and I think it is so cute, I can't bear to make her change.

So we were do down to the wire and way beyond it when we were building the house. We finally got to the point where we just did what had to be done to get the certificate of occupancy and figured we would finish the rest after we moved it. Ha! You know how that goes. It doesn't. But this past weekend Steve has been working on finishing our deck. It is almost done (the red tape is still up from masking it off) and I am so excited. It looks so much better than it did. We just had the base coat on for the last 3 years and you couldn't walk out there without getting this dry powdery film on your feet. This is upstairs and we keep all our shoes downstairs in our mud room so any time we go on the deck, we are barefoot. I got to the point I never would go out there because I couldn't stand the way it felt on my feet. Well, that and the 10 bajillion mosquitoes. I am loving the new deck!

I had a few rough days this past weekend. I came out the other end a better person I think and with many many lessons learned. So as un-fun as it was, I am glad for the lesson learned. I also learned to never post on Facebook when I am seethingly angry. I always feel bad about it the next day. And I think I worried a few too many people. I got so many messages and phone calls. Thank you all for caring about me. All is good. Loving life and all that goes with it. I am so thankful for good friends and family that love me!

You make a grown man cry-y-y. You make a grown man cry-y-y.... (music's still on and I was able to finish this post!)

Monday Morning Musings - Here's The Story, Of A Lovely Lady

For some reason, Addy is scared of Police. She freaks out when she sees them. She was outside playing the other day and came running in the house screaming because she thought she heard a siren and she was scared the police were going to take her to jail. I have had so many talks with her about how they police are the good guys. They aren't going to take her to jail. She shouldn't be scared of them. And I could go on and on...So on Friday when there was a carnival at the elementary school and the DARE officer was there, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to let Addy meet a real live police officer and see how not scary they really are.

This officer was so kind to her. He took a long time talking to her and showing her all the cool stuff in his car. He let her turn on the lights and siren and talk into the loud speaker (something he didn't let anyone else do). Her let her wear his jacket and gave her a sticker badge and told her that she looked like she would make a great officer and when could she come to work? He was playing with her and telling her that tomorrow wouldn't work because it's Saturday, but that if she could come down to the station first thing Monday morning, that would be great. We went on doing other things at the carnival, but every time she won something or if something interesting happened, she had to run back over and tell him all about it. At one point he told her that if she was going to be a police officer she needed more badges, because the one she had on her shirt would get messed up when she tried to take it off. So he gave her a huge stack of badge stickers and told her she could wear one to work each day when she went.

So you know what she did first thing Saturday morning when she woke up? She jumped out of bed, got dressed, put a new badge sticker on and came downstairs to tell me she was ready for me to take her to work. I broke her poor little heart when I explained to her that the police officer was just kidding and that she really couldn't go to work. She kept saying, "No mom, remember? He said I could go to work today!" Anyhoo, she's not scared of police any more!

I love living in Utah. I really do. So on Saturday night while the boys were at the Priesthood Session of General Conference, the girls and I went out for dinner. They wanted to go to Carl's Jr. so they could play in the play place. We pretty much had the entire restaurant to ourselves most of the time. Then 2 buses full of students all wearing the same black shirts came in. Following closely behind them were about 30 guys in white shirts and ties. It was great. I knew then that the Priesthood Session was over. It was kinda like the week before when I stopped by the grocery store on my way home from the Relief Society General Meeting and there was a traffic jam of ladies in dresses.

After Conference on Sunday, we took a walk. It was perfect weather. You could also tell Conference had just ended because there was a traffic jam on the trail too.

Aubrey and Emily wore their rollerblades because that is pretty much all they wear any more. Zac would have been wearing his, but he didn't come with us because he was busy making his movie with our neighbor. They are making an awesome movie and I will have to post it when they finish.

My silly girls. So the night before when we left Carl's Jr., we went to The Dollar Tree. Emily bought these fake earrings that you can put on your lip and ears and make it look like you have a ton of piercings. She also bought this blue hair that you clip to your hair. She wore about 6 or 7 "piercings" on her face and the blue hair. I'm sure all those people just finishing up with Conference thought we were outstanding parents.

Yes, she really is THIS cute! (Please note her police badge)

I have a ton of pumpkins that spontaneously grew where our chicken coop used to be. I am so excited, because none of the ones I actually planted produced anything. They are mostly still green, but we have about 4 or 5 that have turned orange. Well, today as I was walking by them, I noticed that my naughty chickens have been eating the pumpkins! I was so mad. And they couldn't just eat one pumpkin, they have eaten just a little bit off of about 5-6 pumpkins! GRRRRR.....Oh well, I guess they figure those are their pumpkins because they sprang forth from the pumpkins I gave them to eat last year and I'm sure the reason why they grew so well has something to do with all the chicken poop.

So I have decided that I am sick and tired of the shows my kids watch on TV. I have put a ban on Disney and Nick and I have started recording Little House on the Prairie and The Brady Bunch. My kids are really enjoying watching them. They love the Brady Bunch (The first Little House they watched was the one where Albert accidentally starts a fire and Mary's baby dies, so they thought it was a little depressing....) and we watch it all the time now. The first time we watched it, I kinda freaked them out with my vigorous singing of the theme song, but now they sing along with me. We fast forward through the commercials, but never through the song. Never. That's the way we became the Brady Bunch...

One of the first times we watched it, Mrs. Brady said "Oh, that's Groovy!" I felt the need to educate my children, so I paused the TV and said, "OK kids, when she said 'that's groovy', that is like in our day saying 'that's awesome'. I just wanted to make sure you understand the lingo." Then Zac said, "No mom. That's like saying in our day ninja or epic or sick or beast." So instead of me educating my children, they educated me and also made me feel really super old.

And BTW (see, I can talk like them there youngsters) I'm totally diggin' on the Brady's house and furnishings. I would so love to furnish my house the exact same way!

Want to know more about General Conference? Our church holds a General Conference twice a year. We are able to get updates on things that are happening around the world in our church and we are also able to hear from a living Prophet on the earth today. The messages we here are inspired and inspiring. Want to hear some of it for yourself? Click here.