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...

Aubrey's 10th Birthday

Aubrey's Birthday video is above.  If you can't see the video, click here.
FYI:  The first song in the video is a song I always used to sing to Aubrey when she was a baby and the last song is her bedtime song of choice every night.

My sweet Aubrey Anna, who has the most awesome birth date of 03/03/03, turned 10 on Sunday.  For her present she wanted to go to Build A Bear.  So on Saturday we headed downtown for the birth of Pandy.  Steve was working but he was able to get away for a little bit and have lunch with us.  Aubrey's lunch of choice?  Panda Express.  I wonder if that had anything to do with her choice of bears?  Here she is making the hard decision:

 Aubrey & Pandy

On Sunday night we had my mom and Lauren and Steve's Aunt Callie and her family over for a Birthday Dinner Celebration.  Aubrey requested Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner and my mom made her the cakeof her choice.

On Monday (yesterday) after school, we had her Birthday party with her friends at Get Air.

After the party while we were waiting for parents, the girls found their way into the babysitting room next door at the sports complex.  They instantly bonded with this "very famous" soccer player from the high school.  They all had to get her autograph.  On their persons.

Then she let them autograph her person.  Happy Birthday Aubrey.

Happy Birthday Roy

Happy Birthday to my native land of Texas.  Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss.  And most importantly, Happy Birthday to my Father In Law Roy!

If you can't see the video, click here.

Flashback/Flashforward Friday: Typical Friday Night

Flashback: Last Friday Night

Zac and Ethan chair spinning.  They did this for about 20 minutes straight.  Don't miss the video:

Princess Addy and Princess Naomi

Aubrey and Grace playing Just Dance 3.  I believe at this moment in the picture they are doing the moves that go along to "So call me maybe".

Emily after arriving home from her friends Kelsey's house.  She drew a beard on her face with a marker and was calling herself Captain Longstache.

Flashforward: This Friday Night

Earlier tonight Zac and Ethan were outside hitting the snow with baseball bats.  They wouldn't let me take a picture but I snuck this one.  Right now they are in the kitchen with Emerson and Addy cutting stuff and eating mac 'n cheese tacos.  Disgusting.  Ethan tells me he eats everything on taco shells.  Including cereal.

Addy just came home from Naomi's house a little while ago.  Please note she is wearing the same Cinderella dress she was last Friday.  Aubrey and Grace just left here to go to Grace's house.  And Emily is back over at Kelsey's.  Probably bringing Captain Longstache back to life.  Yep.  Typical Friday night around these parts.

A Winter Spring Day At The Zoo

Presidents Day.  No school.  No work.  Gorgeous day outside.  It has been a long time since all of those things have happened in one day.  We have had a freezing cold, hazy, smoggy, snowy, long, sunless winter.  I walked outside this morning and the sun was out and it felt like spring.  I knew we had to get outta the house and spend the day outside.  So we went to the zoo.  It was a fun, super fun day.  I loved spending it with the people I love the most.

Annie, Addy's bear she built for her birthday in November and who is now the 7th member of our family, had to come with us.  Here is Addy showing Annie the bears.  Real ones.  When she did this Zac and Em started singing, "Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba Sithi uhm ingonyama...The circle of life..." (yes I looked up the first part of the song on the internet)

We had lunch in the cafe where Steve did the floors.  

If you look down at the end of the table, you will see Annie in a highchair.

"Will you all stand there and let me take a picture of you?"  Yeah...that worked well.

Flashback/Flashforward Friday - Pioneer Chic

Flashback: 1991-2ish?

 Allyson, Kristy, Farrah, Earl

I can't remember the year.  It was sometime before I graduated High School in 1992.  We had a Stake "Trek" Youth Conference.  This was back in the day before "Trek" became "Trek".  It was basically nothing like the Trek Youth Conferences they do in this day and age.  But it was fun and it was a great experience.  (If you have no idea what I'm talking about and want to learn more about this whole trek business, click here.)

Lore, Kim, Allyson, Alicia, Marisa, Farrah, Barbara

Flashforward: 2013

Emily and Anika

So my mom made the dresses my sister Farrah and I wore for our trek.  A few years ago as I was helping her clean out some things in her house, I came across the dresses.  I tried to talk my mother into getting rid of them.  But in her infinite wisdom she talked me into keeping them.  Any good Mormon has some type pioneer clothing hanging in their closets, after all.  Well, just last week, the occasion arose in which we needed some good old fashioned pioneer garb.  This summer our stake is doing trek and Zac will have to opportunity to go.  To help get the kids all ready and excited, our ward had a pioneer activity in which they had to dress for the occasion.  Emily and Zac both refused.  I knew there was no talking Zac into dressing up.  But I tried to work on Emily.  I kept telling her that I had the perfect outfit for her to wear.  No, no, no, no, no.  She was dead set against it.  That's when I remembered that not only did I have one perfect outfit to wear, I had TWO!  So I had her call her friend Anika and talk her into dressing up with her.  It worked!  Look how cute they are!  It was fun to see those dresses resurrected.  It would be nice to see the figure I once smushed in that dress resurrected too.

Interesting side note:  I wore that dress to the trek in Dallas Texas with some of Anika's cousins.  Learn more about that by clicking here.

A Post Mostly Because I Felt Like Rambling And Avoiding My List For A Little Longer And Because Valentine's Day Is Way Closer Than Easter And I'm Even Rambling In The Post Title So There!

I went to the store today.  Not because I needed to go to the store.  Because I needed to go to my bank.  Which happens to be inside the store.  While I was there I thought, "I should pick up some Valentines stuff while I am here so I don't have to come back."  You see, I am in charge of a game for Addy's class party.  And I have to take stuff to decorate cookies for Aubrey's class party.  At this point I have no idea what game I am going to play.  There is time to figure that out later, and I am sure it will involve some type of heart shaped candy, so I thought I would save myself a trip. And there is still plenty of time until Valentines Day to work all the details out.  At least I thought so.  Apparently the grocery store does not feel the same way.  According to them Valentines Day is done and over.  Because when I got to the place in the store where the Valentines crap stuff should be, I was stopped dead in my tracks by this ↑.  They do know that the closest holiday is Valentines Day, right?  I mean, it's only 2 days away.  Easter however, is a whole 47 days away.  I know because I just counted.

I'm not sure what bothered me the most about this.  It could have been because they cleared all the Valentine stuff out and didn't clearance it yet so I still had to pay full price.  Or it could be because the emergence of Cadbury Mini eggs (my archnemesis and greatest weakness in this world) gets earlier each year, therefore leaving me with the need for greater willpower over an ever expanding period of time.   Maybe it is because in a former life I would have had my dumb party game planned out and purchases made a month in advance.  But at this moment my life is not functioning at that level.  I'm sorry, it just isn't.  (I would like to remind myself at this moment that Aubrey's and Addy's Valentine cards were purchased over a month ago and have been filled out for several days).  Still.

You know what today was like for me?  I had 5,000 things on my  THINGS I ABSOLUTELY MUST GET DONE TODAY LIST.  And it was one of those days that I had so many pressing things I had to get done that I didn't know where to start so I never started and now I still have those 5,000 things + whatever things I absolutely need to get done tomorrow one of which is to figure out a dang valentine party game.

♫ Shot through the heart, and you're too late... ♫

Sorry, I'm sharing the office with Steve at the moment.  He can't work without music on.  I can't think with music on.  So if this post makes no sense whatsoever, blame it on Steve.  And Jon.  Bon Jovi.

♫...a bad name...♫

Yoodlehoodle, It's not that I didn't get ANYTHING done today.  Steve did call me 50 times today (literally, I have the phone records to prove it) needing me to call people, type up bids, look things up.  I was able to collect some money and help secure future monies.  So I did get SOMETHINGS done today.  Just not the things I was planning on getting done.  OK, I did get 4 things done on my THINGS I ABSOLUTELY MUST GET DONE TODAY LIST.  But compared with the 5,000 things that needed to get done, they were just a drop in the bucket.

♫...two tickets to paradise..♫

For the love of blogging and endless rambling, can we please turn the music off!

I don't know what it was about that aisle of pastel bunny paraphernalia crowding out the red and pink hearts that bugged me the most today.  Maybe it is because I feel like the world needs to just slow down and enjoy the moment.  Maybe it is because I feel like I need to just slow down and enjoy the moment.

No.  Never mind.  I was the Cadbury Mini Eggs.  It's always the Cadbury Mini Eggs.

My Arrest Record, According To My Kindergartner

Conversation in the car during kindergarten carpool earlier this afternoon:

As we are pulling out of Jett's driveway...

Me:  Addy you need to sit down on your booty. 

Jett: Yeah, because you know what happened to me one time? I was standing up right as this cop car was coming right at us.

Addy: My mom has been in a cop car before.

Jett:  My mom has been arrested!

Me, thinking to myself:  I know a lot of crazy facts about Jamie, but this is one she has failed to mention.  Although it does co-ordinate with some of the other facts I know about her....

Addy:  My mom has been arrested too!  For not stopping at a stop sign.

Jett:  My mom was arrested for going over the white line.

Me, thinking to myself again: Darn it!  That's all?  Going over a white line!  Not as exciting as I had previously thought....Hmmm...what if this same conversation were to take place somewhere where I am not present and people really think I got arrested just like I thought Jamie really got arrested.  You know, because it co-ordinates with some other facts people perceive to know.  I should probably clear this up.

Me, out loud this time:  Y'all know that getting pulled over by the police is not the same thing as getting arrested, right?

Addy and Jett, completely ignoring me:  Yeah, well there was this one time when my mom...Oh and my mom was...Uh hm, and then she....

And then we were at the school in the drop off lane with no more time for clearing the air.  So I sent Addy and Jett off to school still believe that their mothers are convicted felons.

Swearing At Your Children Is Perfectly Acceptable Behavior, As Long As You Do It In Spanish

That is, unless they speak Spanish....

Earlier tonight Addison and Aubrey were sitting at the island in the kitchen doing their homework and I was making pink pancakes for dinner.   I informed them of the decision I had made earlier that day regarding the two of them.  I told them that from here on out, if they were going to speak to each other, they had to do it in Spanish.  No more of this English mumbo jumbo.  Aubrey now has 5 years invested in her Spanish education and Addison is halfway through her first year.

After I told them that, they let out a collective groan.  I told them to stop their bellyaching- if they were going to be groaning they had to do it in Spanish as well.  I told them both of their teachers would appreciate our new rule.

So Addy said something to me in Spanish and I answered her in my broken Spanish.  And Aubrey said, "MOM!  You just said a really bad word!"   I was like,  "No I didn't Aubrey."  And she was like, "Uh, yes you did!"  So to prove her wrong I said the masculine version of the word.  To which she acted even more shocked and horrified.

Sorry.  I learned my Spanish in the kitchen of the restaurant in Dallas Texas that I worked at 18 years ago.  It probably isn't as wholesome as the Spanish they teach in Pleasantville Utah.

Although one might ask the question....How does a child whose Spanish education took place in this Pleasantville Utah place, know of such a word and its meaning?

Happy Birthday Farrah!

It's a big day today!  And no, I'm not talking about the Super Bowl.  I am talking about my sister Farrah's Birthday.  

Farrah and I are three years apart.  I am amazed that we both have lived this long to see this day.  Because there were times growing up when we tried really hard to kill each other.  I will never forget the day we came home from school and our dear mother was rearranging our rooms.  We asked her what she was doing and she said she was putting us both in the same room together.  That did not go over very well.  We explained to her that one, if not both, of us would be dead by morning if we had to share a room together.  She said she didn't care.  I believe her exact words were, "I don't care.  You can either share a room and learn to get along, or you can kill each other.  Your choice, but I've had enough of the fighting and it ends.  Now."  Right there in that moment I thought my mother was crazyouttahermind.

But guess what?!?  It worked.  We didn't kill each other.  And in the process of learning to get along in one room, we became BEST friends.  That was one of the smartest things my mother could have done.  In those years of sharing a bedroom together, some of the greatest memories were created.  

Farrah, I love you!  Happy Birthday!

Can't see the video?  Click here.