Monday Morning Musings - Welcome To My Mornin', Welcome To My Day

We are so excited because late this Wednesday night, Steve's brother and his family are coming from clear on the other side of the country to visit us. They will be here for two weeks. We have a lot of fun stuff planned, including talking them into moving here and buying the lot next to us to build their house!

Don't worry, for all the rest of you who we have been trying to talk into building here, there are still plenty of lots left!

I just had to kick Zac out of the room because he was reading over my shoulder and correcting me.

You know how I said last week that it didn't bother me that that song was stuck in my head? Not so much the case anymore. In fact, I might go crazy if it doesn't stop. Now.

Speaking of songs. On Saturday we were cleaning the house since we had company over that night. I must say, I was being quite the whip cracker. The whole time Aubrey was cleaning she was singing, "It's a hard knock life for us" from Annie.

You know how I started running? Well, some of you might not because you are not on Facebook *cough*kristy*cough*. But I have. And lemmetellyasomething. What is this runners high crap people talk about? I keep waiting to get high, but it just ain't happenin'. Runners high my booty. Maybe people are talking about the feeling they get AFTER they run and they know it is over and they don't have to do it again for a full 24 hours? 'Cause I get real excited when it's over, but still, I wouldn't go so far as to say "high". Maybe it's just a mind trick people play on themselves to make them THINK they like to run. Well, y'all are all foolin' yourselves. I just wanted to bring it to your attention.

Do you wanna kitty update? Well, I made a lovely Vietnamese dinner the other night....OK, really. Sigh...after I did my post on Friday, I kept an eye out for the mommy cat. She came around about an hour or two after the kittens were discovered by those darn loud mouth junk guys. She was looking all around the spot where her babies should be. I told the kids we needed to put them out there so their mother could take them. So we put them in a box and put them in the spot where they were found. The mom came back a little later and we watched her take one of the babies out and take it somewhere. Then she came back later that day and took another one. WHEW! We were down to four. I kept waiting for her to come back. Then we had a huge storm come in and we had to put the box in the garage. *grumble, grumble* I looked up online that night and found out that if I was going to take the kittens to the animal shelter I had to PAY $25 an animal. That's $100 for those of you who are mathematically challenged. So I put the box back in the spot the next day, banned my kids from going outside, and waited for the mother cat to come back. She did come back and take one more kitten. But she has yet to return since Saturday morning. What kind of mother is she? COME GET THE REST OF YOUR DANG KIDS! Thankfully my neighbor has a much kinder, softer heart than I. She has taken on the responsibility of caring for the kittens. She went to the pet store and bought little bottles and kitten formula. And has read all about caring for newborn kittens online. I have offered to her to take them to the shelter (really early in the morning before it opens and leave them by the door) but she says she will give it a few days and see what happens. She took one of them to the pet store with her yesterday and there is a lady who might want one of the kittens. Sigh...the kitty saga continues...

The Guys

Top Row: Elder George Brown, Allyson, Kay

Middle Row: Kristy, Farrah

Bottom Row: Earl, Sam, Lauren

Lauren, Allyson, Kay, Sam, George

You know a while back when I told you that when my parents lived in Dallas, they had the missionaries over every Thursday night? That was a tradition that lasted for many, many years. Every time the missionary meal calendar went around in church, my mom would fill in every Thursday on the calendar. The missionaries spent a lot of time in our homes and taught a lot of our friends the Gospel of Jesus Christ over the years. There are a few missionaries that we have kept in touch with over the years. One of them is George. It was over 20 years ago that Elder Brown was a missionary in our ward. He and his family were in town yesterday and we had them over for dinner. It was nice to see him again and visit with him and his family. He reminded us that Lauren used to call the missionaries "The Guys".

Why I Am The Meanest Mom Ever In The Whole Wide World

In the far back corner of our lot, we had a pile of construction trash. Left over from, well, the construction of our home. It was becoming quite the eyesore. So this morning I called 1-800-GOT JUNK to come and remove it. Guess what was living under our pile of trash? Six brand spankin' new baby kittens. Sunday morning around 4am Steve and our neighbors were awakened by the sound of some animal dying. I am guessing now that it wasn't an animal dying, it was a mother cat bringing six babies into the world. In our backyard. How nice of her.

When the 1-800-Junk Man came to the door to tell me about it, why did he have to say it out loud where my kids could hear? Why couldn't he whisper, "Can I talk to you for a minute please?" You know why? Because he clearly doesn't have kids.

My girls are begging. BEGGING me to let them keep "JUST ONE KITTEN MOM!" You are going to think I am a horrible person, but I just don't get it. I don't get why I would want to have some animal living in my house. At least one that I haven't given birth to. Aside from myself, I have 5 living creatures that I have to take care of, and I can barely do that. And I can't even make my 2 year old go to the bathroom where she should, how do you think I would do with a 5 day old kitten? I would go crazy. Strike that. I already am crazy. If we keep a kitten, that just might be the thing that sends me over the edge. I'm not kidding.

My children think I am unreasonably mean. I'm just looking out for their best interests, really. I mean, what kind of life would they have if their mother ended up in the crazy house? Besides, I am sure that Steve and Zac's allergies would go crazy with something furry running about.

So, there ya have it. I am the meanest mom ever. Anybody want a kitten? Or two? Or six? PLEASE!

Raisin' The Roof

My mother was in desperate need of a new roof. Her roof has been leaking, and we have had so much rain here lately. Last Saturday, we, along with many friends and neighbors, showed up to tear the old roof off. I believe at one time I counted 23 people on the roof, all at one time. My mom has very good neighbors and friends. Before noon on Saturday we had the old roof off, brand new sheeting all over the entire roof, and it all dried in. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights were spent putting the new roof on. And YAY! It is finished! How grateful we all are for good, loving, caring friends. A special thanks goes out to our friend Max who freely gave of his time in service to my mom.

Stuck In My Head - Dance Along The Light Of Day, Head Back To The Milky Way

This song has been stuck in my head for several days now. I don't mind so much, 'cause I really like it. I think it is a very purdy song.

Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken....

What's For Dinner - Mandarin Chicken Salad

Today, as I was making dinner, I realized that I have never shared a recipe on my blog before. And what good is a blog that doesn't share recipes, right? So, here it goes.

Tonight for dinner, I made one of my family's all time fav-o-rite things. Everyone in my family, including my steak and potato husband and my dear sweet children, thinks that this salad is simply divine. De-vi-diddly-ine. It is my own take on Wendy's Mandarin Chicken Salad.
I use:
1 head of romaine lettuce
1 head of red leaf lettuce
4 cooked chicken breasts
2 cans mandarin oranges

I serve the slivered almonds and chow mein noodles on the side.

Now, if you want a really yummy salad, you can serve it with some kind of Asian dressing. However, if you want a

Fantastically Fabulous Absolutely Delicioso Out Of This World Kinda Salad

you will do this:
mix 1/2 Italian Dressing
with 1/2 Ranch Dressing

Right about now, you are wrinkling up your nose, thinking that is the most disgusting thing you have ever before heard of. Don't worry. Everyone has that reaction at first. But trust me. Really. It is so dang good. I think it is the dressing that makes my family's mouths water. It is the dressing that is the perfect topper to this delightsome little puppy. Take my word for it. You will be happy you did.

Monday Morning Musings - Potty Talk

I woke up one day last week to find this out my bathroom window:

Kinda made me feel like I was in Texas again. Not that I had these outside my bathroom window in Texas, but, well, you know.

Last week Emily was so happy to finally be able to have her friend Rylee come over and spend the day. She and Aubrey and Rylee had a blast together.

You know the thing about digital photography? It results in a booty load of pictures. Like, back when you used to use the camera where you had to buy film, and you could only take 24 pictures per roll, and to actually see your pictures, you had to get the film developed and that cost money. How many pictures did you used to take back then? I probably went through maybe a roll, roll and a half in a month at the most. Now? Hello! When I am doing a post, say, about Emily having a friend over, one photo would suffice, right? But I have to go through about 50 pictures to find the one I want to use. The good thing about it is, out of the 50 some odd pictures I took, I have a totally cute one of them running through the field.

Have you ever noticed how much more exciting Walmart can be when you are all by yourself? Because normally, Walmart, not my idea of great excitement. But the other day, I had to go shopping and Steve happened to be at home. So I went by myself. Usually, when I go to Walmart, I am one focused woman. This last time, I was like, "Oh, look at that. Eye liner. Let's spend 15 minutes looking at the eye liner. Oh, towels. I don't need any, but look at these nice towels. And they are on sale. Let's spend 15 minutes looking at those." Finally, after about 45 minutes I snapped myself out of my trance and realized that I hadn't even made it to the food section yet and Aubrey had a birthday party to go to and I had to buy the present and get it home to her. I didn't make it in time. She had to go to the party and I had to bring the present later.

This is the deal. Like, a month ago, I woke up with the need to potty train Addison. Just out of nowhere, I decided that I was going to potty train her right then. And she did GREAT for the first few weeks. Hardly any accidents. Life was good. But then I realized that the reason she didn't have accidents was because I asked her if she needed to potty every 30 minutes or so. After a few weeks, that gets really annoying. For everyone involved. She was tired of me asking, and believe me, I was tired of asking. I thought, ya know, she really needs to be able to recognize for herself when she needs to go. So I didn't ask as often. And we started having a few accidents here and there. Then about a week ago, she started getting really angry when I would ask her and she would say, "NO! I'M NOT GOING POTTY ANYMORE!" So then we started having accidents all the time. By last Friday, I was sick of it. I put her in a diaper on Saturday. She was not happy, but I told her she had to wear it until she started going on the potty all the time. So it was about half and half, going in the diaper and on the potty. But now, now as of today, she has totally reverted. She just pooped in her diaper. She has not pooped in her diaper or panties since I started the whole potty training thing. I was so mad. And she hasn't gone on the potty once today. -Calm down, you don't have to tell me it is my fault because I am sending her mixed messages. I am fully aware of my failures as a mother. So now I guess I am just going to have to go back to panties and asking every 30 minutes. The problem is, I just don't know if I have the energy or patience to do that right now. I guess it really doesn't matter though. We are back on the potty band wagon.

What are we doing this week for summer fun? You can refer to last weeks chart. We are doing the same this week.

Fathers Day

Most of the time, I try not to think about it.

But sometimes I can't help it.

Like the other night.

I was putting Aubrey to bed and she started crying. I immediately knew what was wrong. Every few months she has a little breakdown. I sat down on the edge of her bed and asked her what was wrong. She sobbed out, "I MISS PAPA!"

It breaks my heart.

I miss him too.

I still feel like I am in denial sometimes, even though a year and a half has passed now. A year and a half.

I was writing a post on my blog a few weeks ago and my first thought was, Dad will get a kick out of reading this....

When I was talking to Aubrey the other night, my heart started to ache. I wondered how people can go so long without seeing someone they love. Because I know I will see him again someday.

My dad was a funny guy. You couldn't help but laugh when you were around him. In fact, we were just laughing at him yesterday. We were at my mothers house, taking the shingles off her roof so we can replace them. There was a lot of banging going on up there. One of the lights in the kitchen fell down. My kids saw the light hanging there and asked me why it fell. My response was, "Because Papa put it up". When my mom and her neighbors heard that, we all started laughing.

Oh Dad! We miss you!

Click here for a link to my fathers Memorial Page

Click here for a link to my Fathers Day post from last year

Monday Morning Musings - 'Cause I'm A Woman!

Because I know you are dying to know what we are doing this week:

Something I hope to never stop appreciating is the sunsets we get around here. 'Cause we get some good ones. I took this outside my bedroom door the other night.

Last night after I tucked all the kids in bed, I was walking down the stairs. I happened to glance out of the window we have in the stairwell, and there was a deer standing just a few feet away from me. I am surprised I saw it, because it was almost dark and I wasn't really paying attention. All my hard work of tucking in went to waste because we told the kids to come and look. I tried to take a picture, but it was just too dark. We watched it walk all the way across our backyard. While we were watching, an owl flew right by the window. I was like, OK kids, there's your nature lesson for the week.

Not this past Saturday, but the Saturday before, Steve and Zac went with Zac's friend Garrett and his dad to an air show. Here are some pictures from that.

You may have noticed a new feature on my blog. Every time I do a new post, it gives me the option to add it. One day I decided, what the heck. I'll add it and see what happens. I think it has been there about a week. So far I have earned a whoppin' 4 cents. Honey, I am bringin' home the bacon, fryin' it up in a pan.


Speaking of bringing home the bacon. I got so sick and tired of hearing all about how people are using coupons and getting groceries for practically free, and here I am paying full price for everything. So, I thought I should give it a try myself. My mom decided she was going to do this several months ago so she started getting several copies of the newspaper every Sunday. Well, she hasn't done it. So every week I go over to her house and throw away all her newspapers. The other day I was there and there were a few weeks worth of papers stacked up her her garage. This time, instead of throwing them in the trash, I stuck them in my car. I spent an hour last week taking all the coupons out and organizing them. Then I got on the coupon website. I spent over an hour trying to figure out what the heck they were talking about on there. I finally had to stop, it was making me so crazy. The next day, I gave it another try. Then I gave up again. Then I tried another website that I had used a long time ago. It is a little more clear cut, but only for the store of the week that they choose. So I printed out my shopping list and located all the coupons I needed. Then I started thinking, half of the stuff I'm about to buy is not stuff I would ever normally buy, so even if I can get it really cheap, I'm still spending money on stuff I don't want or need. So after devoting several precious hours of my limited time to this endeavor I threw my hands up and said, FORGET IT! I'd rather pay normal price. Well, this morning, I had to take Zac to a merit badge class. I had to find something to do for an hour while I waited for him to be done. The list and coupons were sitting in my car. So I decided that there were a few things on the list that I would normally buy and I decided to go buy those things. I did pretty good. I got four jars of Ragu spaghetti sauce (Thursday Night Pasta Night) for 90 cents each. I got salad spritzers for 50 cents each, and salad dressing for 75 cents each. What I need is to find something I can buy for 4 cents so I can put my hard earned blog money to work for me.

Neighborhood Birthday Party

Last night our neighbors down the street had a fantastically fabulous birthday party for their little boy. They had a big blow up water slide thingy, a bounce house and awesome face painting. The kids had a blast. It was fun to hang out and get to know some of our neighbors better.