It's A Complete Mockery Of The Institution Of Marriage (but it's funny)

I just watched the funniest show. It is called "The Real Wedding Crashers" and I loved it. It has a group of people crashing a wedding. The Bride and Groom are in on the whole thing. They do crazy stuff. They even set up the friends of the bride and groom before the wedding. In the one that was on last night, the grooms friend goes to take the brides dress to be pressed. When he isn't looking they hang the dress out of the car door so it drags on the ground the whole time they are driving to the cleaners. The minister answers his cell phone in the middle of the ceremony, the groom almost gets arrested the night before the wedding, they trip and drop the cake in front of everyone at the reception, the waiter is eating food off the trays he is carrying. Anyway it was so funny. I am not a laugh out loud kind of person when I watch TV, especially when I'm watching it by myself. But I was laughing out loud the whole time I was watching this.

Ode To Joy #2 - The Power of the Post It

So much for my posting an Ode every day. I had a busy weekend. Oh well. I'm back. I was listening on BYU TV to a fireside by John Bytheway. He was talking about how to be better parents. One of the things he talked about was how we need to praise our children more when they do something good. It is easy for us to say something to them when they are doing something wrong but they need to hear more than that from us. A lot of times we forget to compliment them on things or say, "Thank you for clearing off the table", or "thank you for obeying me the first time". Things like that. He read a story about a mom who left post it notes every day for her daughter that said something nice on them or that thanked her for something she had done. I have been feeling like a lousy horrible mother so I thought that was a great idea. It was something I could get in the habit of doing and it would help me remember to point out all the good things they do each day and help them feel better about themselves. So a few weeks ago I started writing them each a little note on a Post It and sticking it up in their room where they can see it. They love getting them and on the few days I forgot to leave them one, they came to me and said, "where is my note from you?" I went to the store the other day and they really have some cute Post It notes now. I got some that are in the shape of stars and hearts. I am glad I started doing this because it helps me to have to pay more attention and look for the good things that my kids do that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Ode To Joy #1 - i thank you God for most this amazing

I have been having a little bit of a struggle lately dealing with the monotony of day to day life. Since voicing my struggle a while back it seems like everywhere I go or everything I hear is about having joy in your life. I don't believe in coincidences and feel that these things were put on my path of life for a reason. I have learned some amazing things in the past few weeks and I thought I would share them with you. Maybe they can help you with the things you are dealing with in your life. I am going to call it my Ode To Joy series and I will share one thing each day that I have learned that has helped me to find joy in my life. I am calling it Ode To Joy because Beethoven's 9th symphony has always been one of my favorite pieces of music, and the 4th movement entitled "Ode To Joy" has always been my favorite part of that symphony. So for my first Ode To Joy I would like to share a poem that my sister Kristy shared on her blog a while back. Since she shared it I have not been able to get it out of my mind. I think it is a beautiful poem and I decided to memorize it. I have and I find myself repeating it several times a day. It is the first thing I say to myself when I wake up in the morning before I get out of bed. I am so not a morning person and there is something about this poem that wakes me up and excites me about the day that lies ahead. Whenever I start feeling blah about my day I repeat it to myself and somehow it helps me feel better. It makes me realize that each day is AMAZING in it's own way and a is gift to us from our Creator. A gift that needs to be lived and loved and appreciated to it's fullest. The poem is by E E Cummings:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings;and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any - lifted from the no
of all nothing - human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

A Conspiracy Against Mothers

I am of the strong opinion that toy manufacturers have entered into a conspiracy against mothers everywhere. I spent the majority of the day yesterday cleaning Emily and Aubrey's room. If you have seen their room recently you will understand why it took all day. So about the conspiracy theory, how else do you explain the fact that every little girl toy out there comes with 5,000 little teeny tiny parts? It makes me CRAZY! I remember several months ago when I was going through toys and getting rid of a lot of stuff, I got rid of about 20-30 little tiny hairbrushes. Every toy comes with a hairbrush. It is ridiculous. Especially when any hair that you would brush on a toy gets messed up when it is brushed. This thrilling reading material for you I am sure. Anyway. After cleaning their room I had Steve come in and take their bed frames out of their room. You see they have developed this great system of cleaning called, "shove it all under the beds". I was so mad yesterday when I was cleaning it out. And I am sick and tired of them never being able to find shoes that match or clothes or homework or library books because it all get shoved under the bed. So if they think that is an option, well, I have taken that option away. And I would just like to clarify that the above picture was found on the internet, that's not all our stuff.

Oh Sweetheart, You Did Such A Great Job!

Does it make me a bad parent if I look at my kids papers and art projects when they bring them home from school and tell them what a great job they did and then as soon as they aren't looking, throw them in the trash?

Oh Yeah! I'm Doin' The Happy Dance!

La, la, la, la, la! I am so very excited. Woo hoooooooooooooooooo! Sanjaya is off American Idol. I just finished watching it and I screamed right out loud with delight when they said he was going home. Then I jumped up and down and did a little happy dance in my room. Thankfully no one else was there to witness it. Sanjaya, Sanjaya, goodbya, goodbya!

New Form Of Punishment

I really like Zac's teacher. She really does a great job in not only teaching her students to be good students, but also to be good people. She has a rule in her class that when someone gives you something you have 3 seconds to say "thank you" or they get to take it back. She also has them write thank you notes whenever anyone comes into their class to help. They have written thank you notes to me and they also made b-day cards for me on my b-day (since I'm the PTA president) and they made cards for me when Addison was born. Yesterday Zac forgot his homework folder at home. I was gone all day and didn't realize it until school was almost out or I would have taken it to him. Whenever someone in her class misbehaves or forgets their homework or anything she makes them stay in from recess and write a "responsibility". This the the responsibility Zac wrote yesterday. I share it with you because I love it and have decided to come up with "responsibilities" of my own to have my kids write when they misbehave at home. Here it goes:
I am an intelligent and responsible person. I want to be happy and successful in my educational experiences. I realize that certain good habits and behaviors can contribute to my success. I will make more of an effort to take personal responsibility for meeting our class expectations. I wanted you to know that I am trying to make the needed changes and I need your parental support. I need to complete my homework everyday and bring it to class.
I love it!

Miserable Failure

My attempt to launch a political debate failed miserably. On my previous post "Irritation In The ER" I expected some feedback. I figured at least one of you (whom I shan't name) would disagree with my viewpoint. But nobody said anything. I was in the mood for a good argument and everybody just ignored me. Oh well. Maybe another time.

Dinner Out Doors

We eat dinner at my parents house every Sunday after church. It was such a beautiful day yesterday we ate outside on their deck.

Isn't She Just The Cutest Thing Ever?

Addison has a new toy. So it's not really new. My parent's gave it to her for Christmas. She was too little then to use it, but She is the perfect age now. I just put it together the other day and she LOVES it. She gets so excited when we put her in it. I just couldn't help but take 500 pictures of her because she was being so cute. Click here to see the pic's.