Mejojac's Memos

My New Favorite Place

2011-12-11T09:30:00.000-08:00

Sedona, Arizona is on several "Most Beautiful Places in the US" lists. And now that I've been there, especially in the fall, I have to agree. 100%. I'm not going to say much... just going to post enough pictures to make you crazy. You see... we live in the desert. We haven't had fall-like weather for about 6 years now.
Sedona, on the other hand, has fall. They have an INCREDIBLE autumn season! So that's probably part of serious love for this area. I miss the changing of the leaves. The crisp air. The smell... gah! I'm making myself crazy just thinking about it. So. Onto the awesome pictures!

Baby Girl with a weird reddish alien tint to her skin... she's still cute though ;)

My Dad... and the shoulder of a random stranger (note to self: crop this photo a wee bit)

Little Bug... not a great photo, but hey! He is looking at the camera! I'll take it :)

My Mom! It was so fun to have my parents on this trip!

Little Bug throwing rocks into the stream. He would have stayed there all day long if we had let him!

Red...um... helping(?) Baby Girl across the stream.

Red is not a fan of having his picture taken... can you tell??

A closer shot of the photo above... it almost looked like one tree that went from green to yellow to red!

Sorry the photos are huge and that there are so many... but... you know. It's my blog and stuff :)
I hope we get to go back to Sedona in the fall sometime! Such a beautiful place!
Do you have a favorite place to visit? Or a place that you think is absolutely gorgeous?

Trippin

2011-12-02T15:50:00.000-08:00

We don't take a lot of vacations, so when we do get out and about, it's kind of a big deal! Every October the kids have a fall break. My parents came down to hang out with us and we decided to head to the Flagstaff area for a few days to see what we could see. And what did we happen to see? Some really awesome stuff!
First stop was Montezuma's Castle and Well....

As we walked around I just kept thinking... how did they build that? It's so cool! The well (it looked like a pond) also had cliff dwellings along the edges. Not sure how they got in our out of their homes (rope ladder from the top, perhaps?), but it was neat to see. We didn't have a lot of time here. We arrived about 15-20 minutes before they closed. We stayed that night in Flagstaff and then spent the next day in Walnut Canyon.

Aw... 3 cute kids ready to hike :)

Can you see the cliff dwellings in the above photo? All the little dark spots that look like caves... cliff dwellings! And there were TONS of them in Walnut Canyon! The thing I loved the most about this area was that we were able to go inside some of the dwellings....

It was a short hike (under a mile, I think!) but we saw so many amazing things! It was great! After Walnut Canyon we tried to find Wupatki National Monument. We stopped by a visitors center where the kids jumped around and made earthquakes...

And then I got us lost. How fun is that? I was the navigator who said, "turn left" when I should have said, "turn right"... so, yeah. Fun times. We did eventually arrive at our destination and it was pretty awesome!

We couldn't walk up into the ruins, but there was a nice walking path around the whole thing. We had a laminated card that we had grabbed from the gift shop and we found markers along the way telling us about different things. It was amazing! That night we went to Lowell's Observatory and got to look through some really powerful telescopes. We all enjoyed it!

The next day was the Grand Canyon. And... I'll admit it. While I was super impressed by the immensity and size... the color?? Well... I was expecting really dramatic color. What I saw was pretty much this...

What I thought I would see looked a little more like this...

Okay... so maybe that's a LITTLE over the top of what I expected... but not much. The reds obviously need to be toned down a bit... but STILL! I thought the color would be a lot more pronounced. I went along the way enjoying the day with the family but still feeling this little tug of disappointment. Imagine my joy when the sun started to set and I saw this... (these are unedited)

Much better! It was a great ending to the day! The only down side - Little Bug had a horrible day. He was not at all happy about being at the Grand Canyon and Hubby ended up taking him back to the car rather early in the day. I don't know if he was tired or just as disappointed as I had been ;) But the next day was better.

And... since the last day of our vacation was my favorite, I'm going to devote an entire post to it in the next couple of days!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T09:45:00.000-07:00

I have several posts I want to do in the next little while... so hang in there! I'm still not doing so well with this blogging stuff... I am trying though! Just a few Halloween pictures today....
Our witches kitchen and black light decor...

A few of us in costume.... not the best picture, but the only one of all of us smiling! We had a witch, a reporter, and a Newsie. (Little Bug was sick on Friday when we took these pics... I'll put some up of him later today if I remember... and some better ones of the rest of us)

And last but not least... pumpkins!

Not the happiest crew here... but they were tired of having their pictures taken and Little Bug kinda hates pumpkins... so yeah :)

Happy Halloween!!

Little Girl Giggles

2011-09-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

Is there anything better than hearing your kids laugh hysterically over the silliest things?? I think not...

Make it Work

2011-08-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

I've been searching for a striped knit fabric for a few months now. I found a few things online, but nothing that I really loved... so I decided to create some! I thought I'd share how I did it... just in case there's someone else out there searching for a striped knit fabric (or maybe I'm the only one??)

You'll need:
solid colored knit fabric
contact paper (I've found this at Wal-Mart in their kitchen section...)
bleach
spray bottle
ruler or quilting square
a bucket for rinsing
(I know not everything is in this photo... sorry! I'm new at this whole tutorial thing...)

Lay your fabric out flat and decide how far apart you want your stripes. Anything not covered in contact paper is going to be the lighter color. Cut strips of contact paper that will go the full length of the fabric. Pull the back off the contact paper and using your ruler or quilters square, space the stripes evenly across the fabric. Make sure that you press the contact paper down firmly so that the bleach won't seep under. I needed a smaller section with skinnier stripes, so that's why my stripes don't go all the way across at the top.

Next, take the fabric outside lay it flat again and spray it with the bleach. Don't put on too much or it will spread under your contact paper.

Let it sit for a few minutes till you get the desired color change... but don't let it sit too long or the bleach will eat a hole through your fabric!

Rinse out in your bucket and pull the contact paper strips off. Wash and dry your fabric again and.....
WAH-LAH!!

Stripes! The bleached part takes on a kind of heathered look and I love it! I'll show you what I did with the fabric next time :)

I've linked up here....

and here....

Pass or Fail??

2011-08-23T19:48:00.000-07:00

Some of you may recall that I HATE sewing clothing! I've documented that fact here, here, and here. I think there might be other posts declaring how annoying patterns are and how they NEVER EVER end up being the right size, but those were the first posts I found.

Anyway! I found this blog - "MADE" that had a tutorial for a circle skirt... you do a little math and make your own pattern. I'm not great at math, but thought I'd give it a whirl....

And what do you know? It turned out pretty awesome! I also made one for myself and several others for Baby Girl.
Then I noticed that on the same blog there was a tutorial for pajama pants... again, making your own pattern using a pair of pj's or shorts that you already have...

Another success! They aren't hemmed, but I kind of like them that way!

Skip forward to today... I had bought some fabric a few weeks ago with the intention of making it into a skirt. But it was so soft and I kept having visions of a shirt in this fabric. I looked around for a tutorial, but couldn't really find anything I loved. So... I made a pattern up all by myself. And guess what?!?

It's not horrible!! I think the neck needs to be a little lower. And I made the shoulder seams too wide so the sleeves kind of hang off a little bit. And I kind of goofed on the gathering at the top of the shirt... maybe if I added some detail around the neck?

So tell me what you think... is this a pass? or an epic fail??

p.s. This is technically an EPIC FAIL because I forgot to prewash the fabric... meaning that it is now a "hand wash in cold; lay flat to dry" article of clothing... booooooooo!!!!

Anxiety

2011-08-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

Have you ever ridden Mickey's Death Wheel at Disneyland? Okay... technically it's called Mickey's Fun Wheel... but since it's one of the only rides that has ever made me feel like I wanted to die... Death Wheel it is!

Don't let it's bright colors and smiling face fool you. The cars that are stationary are fine. The ones that roll and sway are evil. Completely. The last few days my stomach has been in knots... like I've been on a continuous Death Wheel ride. Let me explain...

Tomorrow is our first day of school and Friday was the open house for all 3 schools. We started at the middle school and the line to get into the school went out to the parking lot. I dropped off Hubby and Red and the rest of us headed to the next school to figure out who Baby Girl's teacher would be (the schools here are weird... we don't find out who the teacher will be till the Friday before school starts! Insane...).

We got to the school, scanned the lists and my heart sank. Baby Girl has the same teacher that Red had last year. She's not a HORRIBLE teacher, but she did manage to make me very crazy last year. But I have this kind of weird attitude about teachers. We don't always get to choose the people we work with in life. And some of those people are going to make us crazy...so, Baby Girl will stay in the class. I'm not going to ask for her to be moved... but I think it's going to be stressful.

Next we headed over to meet Little Bug's new teachers. He was supposed to be in a class that had 2 teachers that would rotate the kids back and forth for different subjects. This last school year was not an easy one for him. There was a little girl in the class who was very aggressive and Little Bug came home over and over with scratches on his face. He also regressed A LOT last year. He stopped reading out loud and we can't get him to do the math he was really enjoying in California. So, we were excited for him to be in this new class.

Imagine my surprise to see that his name wasn't listed on ANY class list. We went in, asked the secretary, she checked with the registrar, who informed us that they had been told we wouldn't be returning this year. So they didn't have him in a class. At all. They made a few quick phone calls and the district Special Ed put him in a class. The same class as last year. With the same little girl who made things so miserable.

Can you say Mama Bear??

I was in tears and more than a tad angry. I was told I could go visit the district office if I wanted to chat with them about the placement. At that point I was ready for more than a chat. I went and talked with them. They were very nice and listened to my concerns. Then they put him in the class I requested. I didn't even have to shake my fists at them :)

So, back to the school to meet the teachers. Little Bug wanted to go to his old class. He was not happy about going to the new room. The teacher was not happy to have another student in her class (it's a big class...) and wasn't exactly pleasant. And as I watched some of the other kids come in and out I wondered if it would be the right place for him.

We were finally able to go back to the middle school to get Red and Hubby and head home. But there has been a pit in my stomach since then...

That leads us to today... I didn't get to meet any of Red's teachers. I don't know who they are or what they are like. I've heard a few bad things about this middle school and I'm worried for him... a lot. Baby Girl will be dealing with a teacher this year whose moods swing like a pendulum. She's a bit unpredictable and not always easy to get along with. And then... we have Little Bug. I hope this new class will work, but if it doesn't, they will put him back in his old classroom. And when I think of him in that class I start to feel like I'm on Mickey's Death Wheel all over again.

I can't wait for tomorrow. Perhaps then I'll have a sense of how this year is going to be and then I can get off this crazy ride!

The State of the Union

2011-07-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to let you know that we're still alive... barely though. Did you know that Yuma, AZ was named the hottest city in the country? Apparently we average 114 days a year over 100 degrees... aren't you glad I told you that? Now that I've given you a random bit of information we can move on... to more random bits of information... mostly in the form of pictures.

In April I took Red and a few friends to a book signing for Brandon Mull. The boys are all huge fans and Brandon was fantastic with the kids. It was a great trip!

April also brought us a broken arm for Little Bug. Once we got the cast on things were good, but getting x-rays and the process of putting the cast on was pretty traumatic for all involved. We've got our fingers crossed that we don't have to do this ever again...

Cruddy pictures here... but Baby Girl got her ears pierced in May...

The last days of school arrived and we attended several awards ceremonies...

Including a "promotion ceremony" for Red who will be in middle school next year!

We had our Angry Birds themed Father's Day (I made the birds using this tutorial)

And then headed to Idaho to spend time with family. We flew kites....

visited Craters of the Moon

Some of the caves still had ice in them... nice and chilly on a hot summer day...

And 2 of my nephews were brave enough to crawl through this spot... on their bellies... I couldn't quite bring myself to do it...

Little Bug went into all of the caves and on the hikes. He really seemed to enjoy the day...

Snow in the mountains...

Wildflowers everywhere else... must be June in Idaho :)

4th of July brought fireworks at home...

Of course, the sparklers were a big hit...

That night we took the kids to see Cars at the drive-in. It was great - we had the movie in front of us and the Idaho Falls fireworks on our right. So much fun! Of course, I forgot my camera for that...

We did a lot of other things while we were there and overall we had a fantastic time in Idaho. It's always great to visit with family and friends.

We've had other things occupying our time here in Arizona too... Baby Girl did 2 weeks of gymnastics camp and is starting her 2nd week of swimming lessons. Red just got back from a week at scout camp and now gets to start his own swimming lessons. We've done a craft day every Monday with friends and I think that might be a new summer tradition. Little Bug has struggled a little this summer, but he has enjoyed time in the pool almost every day.

We have 3 more weeks till school starts and hopefully we'll be able to make the most of what's left of this summer vacation!

Before and After

2011-05-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

I do this every time we move. I get tired of packing/unpacking boxes and go into this creative decorating frenzy! When we bought our home in Oregon I stacked all our unpacked boxes in the middle of the room and started painting the dining room. Hubby wasn't thrilled, but I just had to do SOMETHING other than figuring out where all our junk would go.

Well, we've moved again (just around the corner from our last place) and I'm tired of boxes... so it was time to get creative!

First off we have this nasty bench. I bought it at a yard sale about a year ago for $1 and it's just been sitting around my house looking sad. The yellow/gold faux velvet stuff was stiff, dirty and just all around gross!

There was a small tear in the fabric and the foam was coming out of it...

I'm working on recreating our master bedroom. I'm using browns, tans, aquas and oranges. So, when I saw this orange fabric at JoAnn's, I knew I had to have it for the bench!

Love, love, love the way it turned out! The aqua and orange together are just playful and fun. Can't wait to use this in our room!

Then we had the mirror I got from Good Will this week. Loved the shape and style of the frame... not so excited about the, um, floral print... so, yeah. Had to get rid of that... (p.s. I had already started the project when I remembered I hadn't taken pics yet... so this is just the frame.)

I'm pretty sure those are flowers... or maybe they are really sad sea creatures. I haven't decided which...

I scratched up the back of the mirror and then placed an aqua and white fabric behind it. Painted the frame white and glazed it a bit. Baby Girl is not a fan of the glaze... she said, "It just looks dirty". But what does she know? I like how it looks :)

It was harder than I thought to get a good picture of the mirror... hopefully you can see the fabric okay... looks a lot better in real life.

So there you have it. Now I'm working on the quilt for our room and then I have a few other projects in mind. And eventually... one day... I just might finish unpacking!

I Know

2011-04-24T07:56:00.000-07:00

I'm not the most intelligent person on the planet. Heck, I can't help my 12 year old with his math homework any more! But there are a few things that I do know.

I know that my Redeemer lives. Jesus Christ came to this earth to set an example for us to follow. He suffered and died to atone for the sins of the world and he rose again that we too may overcome death.

I also know that this life is difficult. Trials and troubles come our way no matter who we are. But we can have hope that things will be better because of Jesus Christ.

In the Book of Mormon there is a scripture that I love. It's found in Moroni 7:41 - And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.

We can find joy and peace even in the darkest times because we can have hope for life eternal. This life won't last forever. Time will pass. Our trials will end and we will be better for it all.

My prayer for you is that you can find hope and peace through the Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that He lives. I know that He loves us.

Have a very happy Easter!

A Laugh

2011-03-18T20:33:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine bought a wooden sign today and the quote on it made me laugh... so, I thought I'd share.

I understand that scissors can beat paper. And I get how rock can beat scissors, but there's no way paper can beat rock. Paper is supposed to magically wrap around rock leaving it immobile? Why can't paper do this to scissors? Screw scissors, why can't paper do this to people? Why aren't sheets of college ruled notebook paper constantly suffocating students as they attempt to take notes in class? I'll tell you why. Because paper can't beat anybody. A rock would tear it up in two seconds. When I play rock, paper, scissors, I always choose rock. Then when somebody claims to have beaten me with their paper I can punch them in the face with my already clenched fist and say, oh sorry. I thought paper would protect you.

I'm not sure if the fact that I found this so amusing means I have a really great sense of humor or a really twisted one...

Dig, Dig, Dig

2011-02-20T19:20:00.000-08:00

We were listening to a Disney CD this morning and the "Dig, Dig, Dig/Heigh-Ho" song from Snow White came on. It's a song I've always loved, but as I was listening to it today I had an odd little epiphany towards the end of this verse:

We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig from early morn till night
We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig up everything in sight
We dig up diamonds by the score
A thousand rubies, sometimes more
But we don't know what we dig 'em for
We dig dig dig a-dig dig

And just for the record... I cannot read through those lyrics. I MUST sing them. Every. Single. Time. Okay... moving on!

The line "But we don't know what we dig 'em for" just kind of hit me today. I mean...isn't that how life seems to work? I know it is for me. I dig through trials and troubles. I dig through the craziness of everyday life. I try to do my best and work hard and and sometimes... well, sometimes I just kinda sit back and think "What in the heck am I digging for???"

Now, I know that I'm rewarded with blessings throughout my day. Not necessarily HUGE things each day. But little things. A phone call from a friend. The giggles of a child. A hug from my husband. A beautiful sunset. The good bits of every day that make life so much better. And yet, for me, I seem to miss the value of these diamonds and rubies. In my case, I think I don't recognize the gems like I should.

Maybe it's because the digging process can be difficult, monotonous, frustrating and extremely time consuming. And by the time I get to the good stuff I'm tired and covered in dirt. And sometimes those blessings don't look quite like I had thought. I was hoping for a sapphire when I plucked out that ruby. Or maybe the blessing is something that really doesn't look like a gem at all. It's rough around the edges, dull and has absolutely no appeal (in my life, these ones are often disguised as a U-Haul van.... I think I won't understand the beauty of these gems till later in life or maybe not till the life after this...).

I guess what I'm trying to say (and not doing a very good job of it) is that this life is a lot of work, but it's worth it. I may not understand what all of my diamonds and rubies are for right now... but someday I will. The only question left is this: which dwarf am I going to be like as I dig, dig, dig from early morn till night?

Now I'll leave you with a few gems from this month...
Little Bug at horseback riding lessons. Look at that grin!!

Red with his new hair cut... I told him to give me a "Hurrah" cheer. This as good as it gets when you're 12...

Baby Girl finishing homework...

A finished project for a friend...

It's the little things...

Christmas Quilts

2011-02-08T18:02:00.000-08:00

2 out of 3 kids needed a new quilt for their bed this year. I had already started a quilt for Red just a little over a year ago... and yeah. Never finished it till this fall. I pulled all the pieces out, reminded myself of the pattern and got to work. It didn't take too long to get it all pieced. Then I took it to a little place here in town to have it quilted. My hand sewing is pretty much terrible, so I was more than happy to pawn the job off on someone else. They did a fantastic job and this is the final product...

I did hand sew part of the binding... it took about forever to get it done. But I did it :) And I really love the way it turned out. I didn't get a great photo of him opening it, but he really loved it!

I knew I wanted to do a rag quilt for Baby Girl, but wasn't sure how exactly I wanted to put it together. I sketched out several things, searched Google and Etsy for ideas and finally came up with this...

I was pretty much THRILLED with the way it turned out! It's bright and fun - just like Baby Girl. She was pretty excited about it too...

I just finished a baby quilt (that I'll blog about later) and then I have another baby quilt to put together and then a quilt for Little Bug and THEN one for me :) I'm really looking forward to the me quilt. I've bought the fabric, picked the pattern and I'll hopefully get to work on it.... in a month or two :)

Creative Juices

2011-02-06T10:19:00.000-08:00

Lately I have felt like I was in a creative slump. Just couldn't get the wheels in my head to spin the way I wanted them to.
Awhile back Busy Bee Lauren wrote a blog post about a new book she had received for Christmas (I think). It sounded like the perfect way to get my thought process moving. So, I got a copy for myself.

I forgot to get a picture of it before I started... just imagine the cover without the doodles on it. Okay?? Okay.
So, the instructions are pretty simple...

(Can you spot the "hidden Mickey's" throughout my book??) And so I began. We took Red to the Cracker Barrel for his birthday and so, I "documented" my dinner...

Hubby thinks it's totally gross... but it makes me laugh every time I look at it. Here are a few other pages I've done...
I don't drink coffee... so this is my hot cocoa page.

This was something my 3rd grade teacher would have us do if we were bored... draw a bunch of swirls, pick 5-6 colors and try to make it so that no colors are touching (except at corners).

Fruit stickers...

Stamps (some of these are from Christmas cards from last year...)

I didn't do such a great job connecting the dots with my eyes closed...

Still need to figure out what I want to decorate the other hand with :)

This is my FAVORITE page so far... which makes me sad since one of the instructions in another part of the book says I have to give away my favorite page...

My nonstop line got a tad damaged (and it's not finished quite yet...)

I have to admit... I've struggled with some of these items. You're not supposed to wipe your food in a book, rip the pages, burn the edges, or doodle everywhere... and so far, I've done the easier items. At some point I have to tie a string around it and take it for a walk... which sounds kind of embarrassing. I also have to take it to a public place and ask people to write/draw in it. I thought about just letting my kids do that part, but that seems the cowardly way out.
But the best part? It's helped me cut loose a little bit... and I've been feeling more creative...

I'll post pictures when it's complete.
So, here's a question for you...
how do you get your creative juices flowing?

That Face

2010-12-19T13:19:00.000-08:00

I really don't have much to say today... I was just messing around with some photos and loved the way this one turned out :)

This was taken in Idaho over Thanksgiving break. She was SO excited to play in the snow!

Help...again!

2010-12-01T18:57:00.000-08:00

I have a decision to make... and I really don't want to do it. So, you get to do it for me! Aren't you excited? I knew you would be.

This is a life changing decision. Please don't take this lightly... ready??

With the stem....

Or without?

Okay... so maybe it's not life changing. But I can't decide and I'd love your thoughts (just like the last time I made a baby quilt). Ignore the ruffle and extra bits of fabric laying around and let me know... with or without??

A Figment

2010-11-14T13:30:00.000-08:00

I used to believe in mythical creatures... such as elves, dragons, unicorns, fairies, and children who made me look like a competent parent.

Red attended a meeting with his dad today for all the 11 year old boys at our church. Our Bishop asked each boy to share something that they had learned from their mothers. Now, I've had almost 12 years with this kid. I've tried to teach him to be obedient, respectful, kind and happy. I've taught him to pray, read his scriptures and to try to be the best he can. Apparently I need a refresher course on how to teach these things because what he actually learned is to be to be silly, sarcastic and to go for the laugh instead of giving a real answer.

His response when asked what he had learned from his mother : "She taught me not to kill people". Which, in the grand scheme of things, is good. Really good. I'd rather my children weren't running around being serial killers.

But, now that we've got the "no murdering" thing down... I think it's time to move on to other things that will eventually turn him into a well-rounded individual. Perhaps we'll start with "there's a time and a place for everything..."

Oh, hey... Hi

2010-11-10T18:25:00.000-08:00

So, um, as you can see, I haven't written in awhile. So, let's do a quick catch up post and move on, shall we? Excellent! Here we go...

July - Spent some time in Idaho with family and then came home to pack like maniacs! We moved to Arizona on one of the hottest days of the year. Oh yeah... some like it hot... or, um, something like that. So anyway, we had such great help from friends getting out of our old house and a ton of people showed up to help us get into the new place. We're settling in slowly (a.k.a. I'm still not done unpacking). But the kids are adjusting fairly well. We've had a few small bumps in the road, and I'm sure there will be more, but for now, we're good.

August - the kids went back to school and I was so scatter brained that I didn't get pictures. Lame, lame, lame!!! Hubby's birthday was in August, but, again, trying to unpack and finish things up in California and it ended up not being a big celebration... MEGA LAME!! Sigh... I'll do better next year!

September - wait? What? Did we even HAVE a September this year? Oh yes. I had a kidney stone in September. Spent most of the month feeling awful. Let's forget September this year. Moving on!

October - Busy. Really, really busy. First off we had Hubby's parents come visit. It was so great to have them here. We didn't do much... just relaxed and enjoyed their company! I think everyone had a good time.
We had two birthday's in October. Baby Girl had a fairy birthday party that was a blast!

I decked the house out in lights and yards and yards of tulle. Made skirts and got wings for all the girls instead of goodie bags. It was a lot of fun.
Then we had an "October Birthday Beach Bash" with friends from California. Between the two families we have 4 October b-days. It was so fun to see our friends for the day!

Little Bug's birthday was more low key. He doesn't like lots of people around. So we kept his day simple.

I gave him a book called "Wild About Books" and all present opening stopped. He had to read it a couple of times before we could resume the rest of our evening. He still packs it around the house reading his favorite parts over and over...

Alan surprised me with a vacation away from kids! He plotted and planned with my parents... they came down and watched kids and we took off for a few days. It was really, really nice! The first evening was spent in Carlsbad, CA right on the beach.

The next two days were spent at Disneyland! I love, love, love that place! And I know it's a great place to take your kids, but can I tell you how awesome it was to go without kids? No begging for over priced toys or treats. No whining or crying because exhaustion had settled in. No skipping rides or shops because the kids don't want to go or because we don't want to take them. We were able to do anything and everything we wanted. There were things that I know the kids would have loved, but they can go next time... maybe...

(BTW - World of Color is absolutely AMAZING!!)

Last day of the trip was in San Diego. We went to the temple and then headed for home. It was a fantastic trip! (thanks again for watching kids Mom and Dad!!!)

Halloween was awesome! I had asked Baby Girl what she wanted to be for Halloween back in September and she said "Alice from Alice in Wonderland". And I said, "Oh, that will be fun! We'll get you a blue dress and some black shoes and..." she interrupted and said, "No mom. Not that Alice. The Alice from the new movie. In armor with a Vorpal sword to kill the Jabberwocky." Ah... yeah. Her costume turned out pretty good though... here's what it looks like in the movie and what we ended up with (yeah, that's the best pic I got of her alone...)

Not too bad, if I do say so myself. I got up Saturday morning and decided to be the White Queen... so I made a costume that day.

Then we had "Return of the Jedi" (he was a Jedi last year too)

Our rather reluctant farmer...

And the crazy weird guy...

November - not much so far. And I'm glad! We'll have a few things later in the month, but for now, it's been peaceful... well, as peaceful as we ever get.

I don't know if anyone will even see this post or care. But I'm going to try and get back to the blog once a week. Yeah. Try. I'm not making any promises... but, it feels good to write again. We'll see how this goes!

Huffin and Puffin

2010-04-19T18:41:00.000-07:00

Many of you may remember my friend Marissa's unfortunate hiking experience last year. Well, I had the opportunity to go on that same hike with some friends awhile ago. Needless to say, I went to the bathroom before we left. Never let it be said that I don't learn from my other's mistakes.

But, before I tell you about this latest adventure, I need to explain a few things. First of all, you need to understand my definition of "hike". So, if everyone would please open their copy of "The World According to Melissa" to page 245. Let's see... ah... yes! Here it is...

hike - verb - mindless wandering while eating snacks

I like to stop and look at flowers. Check out crazy bugs. And, of course, eat while I go. Another thing you need to know about this hike - all of the gals I went with are runners and are in fantastic shape. (Technically, I'm in shape too. Round is a shape.)
Anyway, I had gotten up early, dressed comfortably and then loaded my backpack full of snacks. My good friend Shannan was our lovely driver and away we went. Chatting, laughing, and me, totally expecting to "hike" in my own special way.
So, you can imagine my surprise when we get to the trail head and I hear the one of the gals say, "Let's see how good of a workout we can get here!"

Wait.

WHAT?

They weren't there to "hike", they were there to race up the canyon! Everyone took off at a pace that Olympic sprinters would envy. And I brought up the rear... huffing and puffing. After awhile I asked for a break so I could eat a snack. I was feeling a bit dizzy... which may have been from lack of food (most of my family has some sort of blood sugar problem) or lack of oxygen. Either way - I needed to rest for a minute. The other gals weren't even winded. Not in the slightest.
I was a little embarrassed at making everyone stop for a little while, but it was either have them stop and wait, or I could pass out and then they'd have to carry me back to the car. Which, of course, wouldn't have been embarrassing AT ALL.
But, after awhile, I got my second wind and started to feel less self conscious about myself and I really enjoyed the last part of the hike. Too bad I had been a crying whiner for the first half... well, a breathless, dizzy, crying whiner.
And the best part? I didn't get a sliver in my butt! WOOHOO!! (Don't know what I'm talking about? Go read Marissa's account and it will all become clear...)
The End
(What? You were looking for a moral? Some life lesson learned about persevering or having a good attitude or loving who you are no matter how awesome everyone else around you is? Well, too bad. I got nothing... I'm just grateful to be splinterless!)

The Great Reread

2010-02-17T19:42:00.000-08:00

I think I've mentioned once or twice that I love to read. Lately I've read a slew of mediocre books that have left me feeling kind of ... well, kind of meh. Nothing interesting or entertaining about them... actually, that's not totally true. In the last book I read I created a kind of game where I counted how many similes and grammatical errors I could find. That's not usually what I do with a book, but when you have errors as blatant as "The children was playing in the clearing" (not a direct quote, but close) then you just have to start paying closer attention. My grammar isn't perfect, but I also don't have an editor or a slurry of people read everything I write before I "publish" it.
Anyway, I'm tired of these bland and boring books and I've decided to take a couple of months to do some rereading. I want to read the Percy Jackson books again. I can't wait to get lost in the Chronicles of Narnia. Who wouldn't love to walk the halls of Hogwarts with Harry Potter? I have a stack of books from the library, but I think I'm going to take them all back so that I can revisit some favorites and maybe find myself really enjoying reading again.
Do you ever reread books? Or are you the type of person to read something once and then be done with it for good? If you do reread, what are your favorite books to pick up time and time again?

A Deep Breath

2010-02-10T22:44:00.000-08:00

For the last few years I have had a mantra... something that I've chanted to myself when things were a little crazy with kids/work/life in general. That mantra is : It will be okay.

I know. It's very profound.

I can't count how many times I've told myself this. Told my kids this. Told anyone with a problem this. It's my go to answer for everything. And now... well, now that mantra is being put to the test.

Let me ask you something... how many times have you moved in the last 12 years? If you were to ask me that question I would probably say "One too many". How many moves do we have exactly? Well... that depends on how you categorize a move. I count it if we moved all of our worldly possessions from one location to another. So, let's start at the very beginning...

January 1998 - moved into our first place together after we were married.
April 1998 - we moved out of the first apartment and in with my Grandma for the summer. We ended up putting most of our stuff in storage... but we did move it all. So it counts.
August 1998 - moved into a teeny tiny apartment. I was pregnant with our first baby and had to back into the shower. Really.
November 1998 - got accepted into government subsidized housing (Hubby in school, baby on the way...).
August 1999 - moved to Moscow, ID to further the education of afore mentioned Hubby.
September 1999 - got accepted into government subsidized housing about 2 days after I had finished unpacking. Now, technically while we were in college, we moved home each summer... but we didn't move all of our belongings. So, I don't count it.
June 2002 - moved for our first job to a house in Murtaugh, ID. Got almost everything unpacked and then...
June 2002 - got offered a cheaper, nicer place to rent by our landlords. And it wasn't just a little nicer... it was A LOT nicer... and it was on a lake. Couldn't resist. Packed all our junk up and moved again.
September 2002 - we moved to Irrigon, OR for another job.
June 2003 - moved to Hermiston, OR to be closer to said job.
June 2004 - bought a house in Hermiston, OR and thought we would live there forever until....
September 2006 - moved to our current location here in Southern California. But this summer....
June 2010 - Yuma Arizona... here we come.

We've been married for 12 years and will have 13 moves under our belt. Yes, we are insane. Yes, we are incredibly tired of moving. Yes, the kids are fairly upset with this decision. Yes, we think we're doing the best thing for our family. But that doesn't mean I'm happy about it.
I'm tired of starting over, finding new friends, figuring out how to fit in, getting the kids into school... just everything about moving makes me cringe. I like where we are at. I like our friends. I like the school situations for all of my kids. I'm not looking forward to moving. At all. And yet... I know it will all work out.

Now. That being said... does anyone know anything POSITIVE about Yuma? I've looked on the internet a bit and everything I can find is negative. EXTREMELY NEGATIVE!! For example... they don't have a Costco... which, in my opinion, is a crime. But if you know anything good about Yuma, I'd love to hear it. If you don't know anything good about Yuma, well, pat me on the head, commiserate with me for awhile and then, if you don't mind, please tell me that it will be okay. Because every time I start to give myself "the mantra" my voice quivers and my eyes start to get all watery...

At least I get to take you all with me. You won't mind going to Yuma inside of my computer, will you?

Unfinished Business

2010-02-05T17:08:00.000-08:00

I like to create. It's fun to sit down with a few pieces of fabric and see what I can throw together. Sometimes it's a mess and other times it turns out a-okay. Unfortunately, I have a bad habit of starting a crafting project, but not finishing. I thought about taking photos of all my items in progress, but decided against it. First of all, I don't have the time to take that many pictures. Second, I don't want to waste your time looking at that many pictures. Suffice it to say, my projects are varied and many.
But I've set a goal for this month. I'm going to finish at least one project - Red's quilt. I started it last summer when he complained that his old quilt was too hot. It has a fleece back and it's a tad toasty for the summer months. Unfortunately for my oldest child, he's like his mom. He wants to sleep with a blanket of some kind. I can't sleep unless I have some kind of fabric tucked all around me... he's the same way. But when the desert summers hit... it can be a tad uncomfortable to be swaddled in fleece.
So I'm going to finish it. He's enjoying the fleece for now, but it won't be long before the heat settles back into the valley and he'll be sweating it out. This is what I have done so far... hopefully in a few weeks I'll be able to show you the whole top! Wish me luck.

I'm Sorry

2010-02-04T10:05:00.000-08:00

I can't remember how many times I've ranted and raved over the comment verification on blogs. It's always a frustrating thing for me to have to type all those letters in... usually I have to type it in 3 or 4 times before I get it right. My fingers mover faster than my brain.
But, I'm afraid that I've had to cave and put it up here. I'm not getting nasty comments. No haters or anything like that... just spam. Lots of spam on my older posts. And it annoys me to no end. This is my place! I don't want you to write about your "helpful, cheap, medical supplies" on my blog. GET YOUR OWN BLOG!!
So, I'm sorry, but you'll have to type in those crazy little letters from now on to read my blog. My deepest and humblest apologies.

That Extra Incentive

2010-02-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

There is a 5K this May in Del Mar - just north of San Diego. And, since I am insane, I've decided to run in this race. Actually, I use the term "run" rather loosely here. What I mean by "run" is actually more of a fast walk/slow jog. I haven't run on purpose since I got out of high school. My expectations for this race are fairly high - I want to finish and I don't want to puke. Reach for the stars my friends! Reach for the stars.
Unfortunately, my desire to do the race hasn't been enough to keep me motivated in my training schedule. I've had really good excuses for not running every day... things like "I'm going shopping. I'll do lots of walking there and that will count as my workout." or "Meh. I don't wanna". And so, oddly enough, I'm not progressing.
I decided that I needed to find something to motivate me to get up and get moving. Apparently having good health isn't enough. Meeting my goals for the race doesn't keep me moving either. I thought about rewarding (a.k.a. bribing) myself somehow. But, the only rewards I could think of were edible, fattening and therefore, highly counterproductive.
But I think I have now found a motivator that might actually work. Three little words that for some reason strike fear into my heart: high school reunion.
I graduated in 1995 and there is a group trying to get a 15 year reunion put together. Why is it that the thought of seeing people from high school makes me panic just a bit? Are these people really going to judge me and my life? Possibly. Should I really care? Probably not. But I do.
And so, I'm going to attempt to loose a little weight. And hopefully preparing for this race will be a good way to do it.
Have you attended any of your high school reunions? Did it make you nervous? Or am I just being weird?? (that's always a possibility...)

Content

2010-01-31T22:31:00.000-08:00

This last week has been stressful. Too many decisions to make. Too many decisions made by others that have affected our lives. Blah. Blah. Blah.
Some friends invited us to head to the beach Saturday and I wasn't going to go. Baby Girl had been sick and I wasn't sure if her cough would get worse in the cool, moist air. I didn't want to drive over there. My back hurt. Whine. Whine. Whine. Cry. Cry. Cry.

But when Saturday morning came around I decided we should all go. We loaded the car and headed out into crazy Southern California traffic. We had never been to Crescent Bay and we got a bit lost at one point... but, it was worth it...

Lots of playing on the beach. Then, because it was one of the lowest tides of the year, we were able to really explore some of the tide pools.

At the end of the day the kids were finally done climbing on everything. No one was throwing rocks, playing where they shouldn't, or fighting over toys. And that's when it happened. Just for a moment... really, less than a minute, I felt peace.

Unfortunately, screaming children pulled me out of my reverie. But I was thankful for that brief moment. There is just something about the beach...
Do you have a place like that? A place where you can go and just feel peace... even if it's just for a moment?

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

2010-01-21T22:20:00.000-08:00

It's been a bit wet here in the currently not-so-sunny Southern California.

One moment you think it's letting up...

And then it really starts to come down...

Which, of course, means that I'm taking lots of pictures...

I want to remember that once upon a time we saw rain here in the desert. It has even been kind of cold... for Southern California. (38 is cold for here!) I wish I could absorb this coolness and take it with me into the 120 degree weather of July and August...

Unfortunately the rain starts to gather in areas that don't have great drainage...

People aren't taking their time as they try to get from one place to the next and there have been accidents because of the rain. Many of the roads are closed due to flooding. I watched some ducks swim in what used to be a grassy spot (much like the one in the photo above). We've been leaving early for everything and getting home late. School buses are off schedule. We were supposed to go to Disneyland this week... but it was a little too soggy for our tastes. Everything just feels a little off kilter with this downpour.

But even with all the craziness... I'm still loving the rain!

So, what's the weather like in your neck of the woods? Are you seeing rain? Snow? Blue skies?

And the Winner is...

2010-01-20T10:40:00.000-08:00

I didn't know. No, really. I had no idea that my children could be so devious. Apparently they've been planning this for a long time, but I'm just barely catching on. They are having a contest amongst themselves to see who can be sick the most days this year.

So far Little Bug is in the lead with 10 days.

Baby Girl has 4 days - including today.

And Red is seriously lagging behind with just 1 day- that would be today.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to step in and be the "mean mom" and put a stop to this little game they are playing. The fevers, the coughing, the hours in the bathroom... I'm putting my foot down. No more contest!

I'm sure that they will whine and complain, but I'm okay with that (as long as the whining and complaining isn't accompanied by germs). A mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do! Right?

Photo: a feverish Baby Girl and a completely exhausted mama.

2010-01-18T06:32:00.000-08:00

All Weird

I love having one on one time with each of my kids. It gives me a chance to talk to them... see how they're doing... and play around a little bit. I usually walk away from these moments feeling pretty good. But, every once in awhile I hear things that just don't sit well with me.

For example... Baby Girl and I were conversing the other day and I made a some silly comment. She gave me a rather puzzled look and this was the conversation that followed...

Me: "Baby Girl, you should know by now that your mom is a little weird."
Baby Girl: "Oh no, Mom. You're not a little weird. (At this point I thought she was going to defend her wonderful mother... but then she continued...) You're a whole lot weird. You're all the way weird."

All the way weird? Really... I thought I had a few normal traits... but apparently not. I wonder if she realizes that by having an "all the way weird" mom that the possibility of her being "normal" are slim to none? Poor kid. She never stood a chance.

2010-01-16T08:43:00.001-08:00

Parable of the Squished Frog
Once upon a time there was a mom. She was a fairly typical mom. Nothing too amazing about her, and yet she wasn't a total slouch either. But things began to pile up for this mom ... as it often does for most mom's. The kids had been sick for a long time - taking turns, sharing germs... you know the drill. This mom had also been sick. Lack of sleep was piling up, as well as the laundry, dishes, and the muffin top whenever she put her favorite jeans on.

One day she decided to change everything. She got all the laundry done. She vacuumed. She got dressed for the day. She spent some time doing Wii Active. The only dark cloud on this day was the fact that one of her kids was sick and had been sick for over a week. He was entertaining himself quietly while she went about her business.

While she was working out she had the thought, "You should really go check on your kiddo... see what he's doing". But this day was about HER and she was totally in the groove doing lateral shoulder lifty things. So she waited. Once her workout was done she tracked her sweet boy down only to to find that this little guy...

an aquatic frog (read: has to stay in the water or he dies) was on the kitchen table. He wasn't moving and her little guy was kind of poking him. Trying to get him to jump. There were water marks all over the table where he had been previously jumping.

Now, you need to understand that this sweet boy was not being mean. He wasn't torturing the frog - he just wanted to play with him. He didn't understand that his actions would actually hurt the little guy.

But mom... well, mom kinda freaked out. It was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back. Because, you see, she felt a lot like that frog. Lifeless and kinda squished. She put the frog back in his tank and watched him float there. She began to cry. She sent her son to his room before she said something that she would regret (it's a bad habit she has). She called her husband and he tried to comfort her, but she was a little too busy wallowing in self-pity.

Depressed and just a little bitter, she watched the dead frog floating in his tank. She berated herself for not checking sooner. Which led her to examine all the other ways she felt like she had failed. The list was long and varied. But then... something happened. The little frog moved.

At first she thought it was a trick her eyes were playing on her. But no, he moved again. Slowly, but surely, he started to swim. Soon he was zipping around the tank. And the mom was amazed.

Somehow this frog had fought his way back. He had been unintentionally tormented and squished. His chance of survival was nil. And yet... he did it. And it occurred to this mom... she could still be like this frog. Yeah, he's still a little squished looking... but he was alive and moving.

And so, I'm here to tell you... I'm still alive. I feel a little squished and like I'm being tormented by things beyond my control. But, in the ever so wise words of Dory, from "Finding Nemo", I'm gonna "just keep swimming".

2009-11-20T20:39:00.000-08:00

To Whom it May Concern...

Dear Lady at Wal-Mart who can't count,

Everything you did made me want to smack you. First of all you had probably 30-40 items in the 20 items or less express lane. Then, as the cashier started to ring up your items, you decided to go and grab a box of tea "real quick". So, you kind of jogged away, got your stuff, came back, patted me on the shoulder and said, "See - that wasn't so bad now was it?" The polite thing for me to do would have been to smile, brush it off and move on with my life. But I just couldn't. I was in a hurry, running late and you were being a twit. Then, to top it all off, you didn't look before you backed your car out of your parking spot. You almost ran me over. Missed by about 3-4 inches. Yep. I really, really wanted to smack you!

Signed,

Annoyed

Dear 10 Year Old Boys,

I'm glad that you enjoy your imaginative play. But you are loud. Too loud. And when I tell you to quiet down, I don't mean for you to be quiet for 5 seconds. I mean that the volume of your voice needs to stay down at all times. And if you don't understand what I mean by the term "at all times", I would be happy to explain it to you.

From,

A mom with two other kids who are already in bed asleep

Dear Parent of visiting 10 year old Boy,

When you called and asked if your son could come and stay on Friday night and Saturday, I assumed you meant Friday night and Saturday during the day. Silly me. Apparently you meant Friday night, all day Saturday, Saturday night and Sunday morning. When I asked you what time you were going to come and pick your boy up and you stared at me like I was speaking in a foreign language... I am concerned. Very, very concerned.

Sincerely,

A mom who is wondering if she now has another child living with her forever

Dear Twilight Fans,

I can appreciate the fact that you like the books and the movies. What I don't appreciate is the glares and obnoxious comments when I explain that I'm not a fan. Can't we agree to disagree on this one?

Respectfully yours,

Tired of Twilight

Dear People who are Sick,

STAY HOME!

Wishing You All the Best,

Someone who doesn't want to get sick again

Dear Blog Readers,

I'm sorry this post is kind of whiny. I'm a bit tired. I'm very overwhelmed and I promise not to write again till I'm in a good mood.

Love Always,

Melissa

2009-11-12T19:02:00.000-08:00

Thank Y'all Kindly

I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate all the opinions that you shared for my little project! After carefully considering what everyone said...

I decided to go with an option that I hadn't even presented to you. I apologize... I liked the white, but when I laid it all out, all I saw was the white stripes. I really wanted the stars to be the focus. So, I laid it all out with the green and it was just too busy. I asked Hubby what he thought and he had a good idea, but I didn't have the fabric that I needed. So, I did what any crazy quilter would do - I went to JoAnn's. And there I found just what I was looking for.

And so, without further ado, here is the quilt top... (please don't look too closely... mistakes abound on this crazy thing)

And this is the fabric I'm using for the back.

I wish you could feel how stinkin soft that stuff is!! Baby Girl tried to pack it off several different times this afternoon and she has informed me that she NEEDS a blanket with this fabric. She also told me that if I wanted, I could find a different fabric for the baby's blanket and she would just take the blue piece. She's a generous soul... I may have to go back to JoAnn's and get her a piece of this stuff - maybe in pink :)

I'll show you more pics when it's all done. Now I have to decide if I'm going to tie it or quilt it. I'm the world's slowest quilter... so I'm thinking of just doing the ties... but I know quilting will look nicer...

Anyway! Thanks again for sharing your opinions... I hope the fact that I changed my mind completely won't deter you from sharing your thoughts with me again!

2009-11-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

HELP!!

I need your advice on a baby quilt I'm putting together for my awesome cousin whose wife just had a baby boy!! I can't decide how to arrange the blocks... so you get to help! You'll have to use your imagination just a bit... I love the way the blocks turned out...

This is what it looks likes when all the blocks are together...

Anyone see my mistake? Yeah... I miscounted my blocks! Can you believe that they asked me to teach a sewing class to the women at my church? I think this is a bad ides since apparently I can't even count... anyway, I think it looks to busy this way... what do you think?

I think I'd like to do sashing in between the blocks. I have a couple of options... white with a blue divider block.... (imagine the sashing going across the top and bottom too)

white with a green block....

or green...

What do you think?? I think the green sash looks too busy. I'm leaning towards the white with the blue, but I'm not sure... any suggestions??

2009-11-02T07:58:00.000-08:00

This is Halloween

You're probably tired of reading Halloween posts... but I really want to get this up. You can skip this post if you'd like, okay? Let's start with the food. I got ideas from Family Fun, my friend Rachelle, or my own crazy brain. First off we have...

one eyed one horned flying purple people eaters...

witches fingers....

brains...

mummies...

eyeballs...

and the ultimate Halloween breakfast!

As for the costumes... I finally got Red's done...

Little Bug was a cowboy - again... and of course, he still hates having his picture taken, but I did get one good shot!

Baby Girl was a queen (it's actually a dress from Belle's Enchanted Christmas, but it worked)

I was a pirate...

Baby Girl and Red designed our jack-o-lanterns this year...

Fun was had by all, but I ended the night feeling like my head would explode! Sinus infections are such grand things...

Hope you had a great weekend!

2009-10-31T04:53:00.001-07:00

What's a Girl to do at 4:53 in the Morning?

Write a totally random blog post... of course!

Little Bug got up around 3:45. Hubby got up with him. Apparently he wanted breakfast and a potty break. Go figure. I don't think he's fallen back asleep yet... but I sent Hubby back to bed seeing as how I can't sleep anyway...
Why can't I sleep? Well, exactly one half of my nose is plugged up. It's so plugged that I cannot even blow my nose and it keeps randomly running down my face... while I sleep. Can I get an EWWW?? Thank you.
I am not done making Halloween costumes. Slacker Mom of the Year. Baby Girl's costume isn't even started. Luckily - she's flexible. She dug into the dress-up box and went to school as a clown yesterday and tonight she's going to be a princess. Not the fairy princess that she wanted, but no one ever really gets what they want, right? Well, unless you're Red. Then you get your Jedi costume - no matter what. I've been promising to make him one for 2 years... this year he's holding me to it.
And speaking of making things... I'm using a Simplicity pattern for this costume. May I just get something off my chest here.... THERE IS NOTHING SIMPLE ABOUT A SIMPLICITY PATTERN! There. I feel better. I measured Red and bought the pattern that SHOULD have worked. The Jedi robe fits my husband... since it was a one size fits all type thing... and the tunic fits me. I wonder what the models look like that they base their sizing off of??
We had a ghoulish dinner last night and then watched old episodes of "The Addams Family" on Netflix. I'll try to do a Halloween post with costumes and food stuff later... maybe tomorrow.... or next week... or... um... sometime.
I get to host book club at my house in a few weeks. We're reading "The Hunger Games" and may I just say how much I love that book? Have you read it? If not, I highly recommend it! If you have read it, would you like to help me brainstorm a bit? Can you think of any discussion questions? I have a thought of few already ... but I'd like to hear from you guys :)

AND....... I can breathe! The nasal decongestant has kicked in...which means I can now blow my nose! And I think Little Bug finally fell asleep! Can I get a w00t? Yeah... probably not at 5 a.m. Maybe later...

Welp. I'm gonna see if my brain will let me go back to bed for awhile. Happy Halloween!!

2009-10-25T21:06:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow is Little Bug's birthday! This kid of mine has sent me on the biggest emotional roller coaster over the last 9 years. For example... right now, he's supposed to be asleep. But I just caught him down the hall putting all of Baby Girl's Littlest Pets into the washing machine. Frustrating that he's not in bed? Yes. Maddening that he's made a big mess? You betcha. Funny to see the crazy way he's got all the toys arranged? Yup. It's a mixed bag with this kid. His troubles make my heart ache. But his accomplishments give me joy like I've never known.

Another example... the children's organization in our church is called the Primary. Every year they put on a program for the adults. There is usually a lot of great music and a small speaking part for each child. Last year we tried to get Little Bug to say a few lines.

He screamed.

I cried.

This year I got him to say the lines.

He grinned and giggled.

I cried :)

And so, to celebrate this glorious boy of mine, I thought I'd share a few pictures with you... enjoy!

This photo was taken this summer in Utah. I have lots of pictures like this where he is squinting, closing his eyes, deliberately looking away from the camera or glaring at me. He's a pretty typical boy in the fact that he does NOT like having his picture taken...

This was the first day of school... see... here we have the glare...
This was a trip we took to pick raspberries. He wasn't a fan of the small prickles on the bushes... but he had fun wandering around. Again, he wouldn't look at the camera...

Little stinker! He's pretty darn pleased with himself in this shot...

Ah... here we go! This is the smile that melts my heart!

Happy Birthday my Little Bug! You are such an amazing kid! You've grown so much this last year... I can't wait to see what the new year holds in store for you!

2009-10-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

Why We Love Sale-ing

Yeah... that says "sale-ing". And yes. I know it's not a real word to most people... but it is to us! You see, I grew up with a mom who LOVES to get a good deal. And so, garage sale shopping comes natural to her. When I was growing up it was frustrating at times... people would ask where I had gotten my J. Crew jeans (there wasn't a J. Crew for hundreds of miles) and instead of telling the truth, "My mom scored these at a yard sale for .50! Awesome, eh??" I would just kind of blow it off... "I don't know. My mom got them for me somewhere..." and then I'd change the subject as quickly as possible.

Now that I'm older I don't care who knows that most of our possessions are 2nd hand... in fact, I'm pretty proud of the fact that I can save a buck or two or more... sometimes a lot more.

For example... Baby Girl got some money for her birthday. She wanted to get one of those stuffed Littlest Pets. She had $10 and that was the exact price of the stuffed animals at WalMart. I told her to hang on to her cash and we could look around a little before she spent all of her money.

The Saturday after her birthday we went out garage sale shopping and stumbled on a sale that had stuffed animals for a quarter a piece. They had SIX Littlest Pet stuffed animals! So, for $1.50 she got $60 worth of toys! She had enough left to go get one of the smaller plastic animals at Target and she's still got $2 that she's saving for our next "sale-ing" trip.

Maybe it's genetic... but man! I love a good deal! And it appears that Baby Girl likes the idea too :)

2009-10-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

I'd Forgotten...

Red is off to a science camp for a few days this week. I hope that he's having a fabulous time! I hope that he's learning lots and having fun with his friends. I hope he's staying warm and playing hard. But I hope that he'll be ready to come home tomorrow because I sure miss that boy!

You see, I'd forgotten how much he does for me each day. I've really taken him for granted. You see, he's a pretty darn responsible kid. He gets himself up each morning and makes lunch for himself and Little Bug. He gets his breakfast and sometimes gets cereal for the younger kids if I'm not up yet (my kids are early risers... I am not!). He'll take out the recycling, help fold laundry, and get toys cleaned up. If I give him a job, he might whine a bit but, he always gets it done. He makes me smile and laugh several times each day. And every night, before bed, I get a hug and a kiss.

Of course... Baby Girl and Little Bug aren't getting teased. The house is staying a little cleaner with one less kid around. And I'm pretty sure that our grocery bill went down (even though he'll only be gone for 3 days).

But all in all, the good outweighs the bad. Yep... I miss that kid

2009-10-09T21:40:00.000-07:00

Who Would've Thought?

6 years ago tonight I was headed to the hospital to have a baby. We didn't know if it would be a boy or a girl. The last ultrasound had given us a 60% chance for a girl. After two boys I was pretty hopeful for a girl, but, of course, would take whatever came our way. The doctor had decided to induce me a few days early. We got set up at the hospital the night before and then waited.

But there's something you must understand about me: I don't deal well with pain. So, I had some drugs in my IV when the contractions first started. Then came the epidural (manna from heaven, thankyouverymuch!). And then the decision was made that I would need a c-section - which meant that I would need a spinal block. Copious amounts of drugs were swimming through my veins. In fact, I was so drugged out that when my baby was born the doctor said, "It's a girl" and I responded with, "What's a girl?" I think this little moment of unintended humor set a pattern for my Baby Girl. She loves to make others laugh. When she was younger it was pretty random things that she'd throw out there and a lot of courtesy laughing on our part. But, as she's gotten older, her ability to make us laugh, really, truly laugh, has gotten more refined.

For example: The other day I picked Baby Girl up from school and we headed out to run some errands. This is the conversation that followed...

BG - "Mom! Stop! We have to go to the house and get Baby Girl!"

Me - "Wait... what? Aren't YOU Baby Girl?"

BG - "No Mom. I'm just the narrator of this story!"

We both laughed till our sides hurt. She has her moments of pouting, but usually even that dissolves into giggles after awhile.

She's a good mix of princess and tom boy. This picture was taken while she was playing a Star Wars video game with Red and yelling "GET HIM!! SHOOT THAT GUY!" all while wearing her princess dress and tiara...

She's not always daring or willing to take risks, but once she gets warmed up to an idea, you'd better watch out because she'll dive right in! (pun intended)

She's the first to forgive and give hugs. She's always thinking of others and trying to find ways to cheer people up. She's creative and clever. She would paint or play with clay all day long if I'd let her. She loves to dress up and put on a show for anyone who is willing to watch.

But most of all... BEST of all... she's mine!

Happy Birthday my little Twiddle! I love you so much and I hope you have a wonderful day today!

xxxoooxxx

Mom

2009-10-04T12:56:00.000-07:00

Just Try...
I dare you to watch this video and not smile... go ahead. Try it.

A post with actual information about me and my life is coming... I've just been a tad on the busy side.

My hubby suggested that I blog about something. He pointed out that my last post was about me wandering around talking to myself... and that I ought to write something so that everyone knew that I hadn't gone totally crazy. So, just in case you were wondering, I haven't lost my mind... not completely. I'm guessing that I've got another year or two before people will really have to worry about me!

2009-09-16T12:54:00.000-07:00

Troubled

I was shopping today when I noticed a lady looking at me kind of weird. I started to check myself...

zipper up - check
nose clear - check
matching shoes - check
pants without a hole in a revealing spot - check
as clean as a mother of 3 kids can be - check

Hmm... I couldn't figure out the weird looks. So, I went on my way. A little further on I got a few more strange looks from a guy who kept looking around me. I decided to move on a little faster. What in the world was going on. It wasn't till the next row that I figured it out...

I was talking to myself! I haven't been shopping alone for about 10 1/2 years now. I've always had at least one child in tow while at the grocery store. And, even when they were tiny babies, I would talk to them.

And now, after all this time, it seems as if I've created a habit that makes me look like a crazy lady. The question is... do I do something to try and stop it? Or do I milk it for all it's worth and make people wonder about me everywhere I go?

Decisions, decisions...

Do you have any odd habits that may cause others to wonder about your sanity? :)

2009-09-15T06:23:00.000-07:00

Google is My Friend

I have Stat Counter on my blog so that I can see how many people come to visit me here in blog land. One of the great features of this is being able to see what Google searches people used and ended up on your blog. I love seeing what crazy things bring people here. Usually it's "royal icing tiara". I made one a couple of years ago for Baby Girl's birthday cake. And, I did have one of those this time... but the others were great too... just had to share!

"waterproof parody or spoof or curse i'm melting" - I have absolutely NO idea what this might be. No clue at all.

"brownies baked in muffin tins" - this kind of worked. I think I over baked mine.

"stealing winco poppy seeds" - um, I'm against stealing of any kind. Yeah.

"never use pc again" - not sure if pc is supposed to be 'personal computer' or 'political correctness'. Either way, I'm good.

"have you ever wanted something so bad blogspot" - I have no idea if blogspot wants anything... but it was nice of you to ask!

"dh had the hiccups" - I have a good story about this! When we were first married Hubby got a bad case of the hiccups. It was late at night and he was tired and wanted to get to sleep. I told him to open his mouth as wide as he could and the hiccups would disappear. Yeah... I lied. Moments later he had the LOUDEST hiccup I've ever heard and two seconds after that, I kid you not, the baby upstairs started to cry. That's right. He hiccuped so loud that it woke our neighbor's tiny baby up! Still makes me laugh to think about it... I would have felt bad for the momma of that little baby, but she liked to vacuum at 5:30-6:00 in the morning. Yeah. We, as the downstairs neighbors didn't love that... anyway! Moving on!

"link:http://flickr.com/photos/caitiesportfolio/" - this is from a mosaic I did awhile ago... but why in the world would you google search the link instead of just typing it into the web browser box thingy??

And last, but certainly not least...

"so many butt cracks" - Ha!! I'm hoping that this person wasn't looking for photos...

So, what have you Googled lately?

2009-09-13T09:03:00.001-07:00

Confession
I admit it. One day I wanna be part of something like this...

No, not the Oprah Show, although that might be cool too... no, I want to be part of a flash mob! Because really? How fun would that be?!

2009-09-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

Delicious

Every week we have Family Home Evening. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this program, every Monday night we gather the family together. We start the evening out with a song and a prayer. Then we have a spiritual lesson, play a game, and then end the evening with a treat. We aren't perfect in doing this every week, but we try. It's something that the kids enjoy... especially the treat part. I mean, really... who doesn't love a good treat? Since they seem to remember more about the treat we had rather than the things we discussed, I decided to try and tie a few of our treats back to the lesson.

Back in August we talked about the creation of the world... and we followed the lesson with these yummy little tidbits! (The purplish grey blob is an elephant... and that's not a Yin and Yang symbol... it's supposed to be dividing light and dark... just in case you were wondering...)

This last Monday we talked about how our faith is like a seed. We need to nourish it to help it grow. So, of course, we all worked together to make these...

I feel like the treats give the lesson an extra little umph and hopefully it sticks with the kids a little longer.

Do you have any tips or tricks to help reinforce lessons/ideas/rules for your kids?

2009-09-05T19:43:00.000-07:00

Bizarre

We don't get many storms here in the desert... but when we do, they're usually really strange. Take the clouds that rolled in tonight (please note that these are straight out of the camera... I didn't adjust the color or the focus on anything).

It reminds me of "the Nothing" from "The Never Ending Story". I found a clip of the opening of the movie...

So, what's the weather like in your neck of the woods?

2009-09-03T15:31:00.000-07:00

And Off We Go!

The first day of school was on Monday and I had some pretty mixed emotions. On one hand, I have 3 hours every day to run errands without having to look at the toys or fish or listen to a child whine about getting a treat. It's been nice! On Wednesday I went to Wal-Mart, Target, Lowes, and Kohl's all before 10:00! It makes me smile just to think about it.

On the other hand, my baby is now in school. Which means that I'm not a mom of "little" kids any more. For the last 10 1/2 years that is how I've identified myself. A mom with small children. But that's just not the case any more. No more babies. No more toddlers. Not a pre-schooler to be seen. All of my kids are "school age". With one child hovering in the "pre-teen" arena. And honestly? It makes me feel a little old ;)

Anyway, I thought I'd share a few pics from the first day of school...

Red wasn't very cooperative. He almost begged me not to take a picture of him at school. Normally I would have laughed and then taken his picture anyway, but he was a little nervous. So, I pretended to be a good mom and honored his request. He did let me take a few shots at home...

Little Bug isn't a fan or pictures either....

Baby Girl was super excited for her first day! She let me take lots of pictures...

She ran off to play without even saying goodbye...

Everyone had a great day and was excited to go back again the next day. And me? Well, I'm still adjusting. I'm sure I'll get used to the whole thing eventually. Maybe. I hope....

2009-08-25T07:46:00.001-07:00

Punk

I know I put this on Facebook... and so some of you have already seen these photos, but they were just too funny not to share here on the blog.

Anyone who knows Red knows that a Mohawk is SO NOT his personality. We cut it like this on Sunday night and we'll be cutting it again this Saturday. He's loving it for now, but doesn't want to keep it forever. I think it's great and it gives me a funny kind of happiness to see him be a little daring like this. He's usually a little more on the reserved side. I'm just glad that his punk hair hasn't affected his attitude....
At least, that's what I'm hoping! Have you or your kids ever done something more "daring" with your hair?

2009-08-19T10:36:00.000-07:00

Dragon-like

I've come to recognize something about myself... I used to think I was a pack rat. That I had to keep everything that ever came into my life, but I now recognize that that's not the case. I'm a dragon. I hoard. I don't hang on to everything, just a few select things. I'm specific about the things I gather around me. And I add to my hoard at a regular and rather alarming rate.

A few examples... I rather enjoy making jewelry - even though I don't wear it very often (anyone want some jewelry?!). And so, on occasion, I buy a few beads (few = many). I have boxes full... here, let me show you...

Oooohhhh.... pretty! Sparkly! Sigh :)

And then there's the books in this house. We have 5 bookshelves. When all the books are in their proper places (which they aren't) then the shelves are full. The one in my living room has books 2 deep on a couple of the shelves. Which, of course, means that it's time for another book shelf... and probably a few more books.

I've already blogged about my fabric stash on several occasions... and yes... it's grown in the last little while. Am I working on a project that needs fabric? Just one... a quilt for Red that's coming together rather slowly...

Did the fact that I don't NEED any fabric stop me from buying more? Yeah... I think you already know the answer to that one.

But this all has to stop. You see, last year my family did a dejunk-a-thon. Everyone participated and got rid of stuff, wrote it all down and whoever threw out the most items got movie tickets and $$ for dinner. We've all accumulated enough junk over the last year that we feel like we can do this again... but it will be a little different.

Everyone who participates is going to put $10 into the pot. We've created a point system for each item we get rid of and the person with the most points in the end, wins the entire pot. We're talking about anywhere from $60-100 depending on who all participates.

So, now I need to go through my hoards, get rid of stuff, win that money... and, of course, use it to replenish my stashes.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to curl up on top of my treasures and perhaps take a little dragon-ish nap. But, before I go, I'm curious... is there anything that you hoard??

2009-08-10T08:48:00.000-07:00

A Tale of Two Screams

The other night I was in my room when I saw a very large cockroach in my closet. I squealed. Yes, I know how ridiculous it is for an adult to be so freaked out by a bug, but it was a BIG BUG. Hubby came to my rescue and took care of the nasty, horrible, hideous creature and I went about my business.

A few minutes later I heard a yelp from the other room (Hubby does NOT squeal... or so I've been told). I came in to find Hubby staring at the corner of the room looking rather annoyed. You see, he's not fond of small scaly creatures. At all. I, on the other hand, rather adore them. Can you see what we found? Kind of hard to see, but he's on the base of the lamp...

Here's a better shot of him after he'd been caught...

The kids and I were delighted. Baby Girl and Red started campaigning right away to keep him. I considered it for awhile (I had lizards as a kid) but ultimately we decided to let him go.

It's made me realize what a good team Hubby and I are. He's willing to dispose of the icky bugs and I'm willing to rescue reptilian creatures. If that's not a perfect Yin/Yang combination, I don't know what is!

2009-08-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

Two More

I think I can finish all the vacation stuff in two more posts and then you'll be rid of me! Well, that's not true... you'll just be rid of these posts... I'm not that easy to get rid of :)

On the 18th Hubby flew up and we headed off to a family reunion. It was at a cabin with a fun little pond that you could swing out over...

or catch frogs, salamanders, or maybe a baby turtle...

The next day we had a mission farewell for one of Hubby's nephews. Baby Girl didn't care much for visiting with the family, but she loved chasing the chickens around...

The day after that my Dad, Red, and I headed out for a hike. We picked the Palisades Lower Lake for our ultimate destination. There were some beautiful things to see along the way...

a few tired hikers...

and then, of course, there was the lake complete with bull moose and Canadian geese...

After that we decided to head to the Upper Lake. Dad has had some pretty bad back trouble, so he stopped along the way, but Red and I pushed on. The lake was beautiful...

There are several bridges that cross the creek along the way, but this was my favorite spot...

Whew! One more post down! I'll wrap it all up tomorrow. But, just a quick question. Do you like to hike? And if so, do you have an all time favorite place to go hiking? The Palisades Creek trail is probably mine and I'm so glad I got to hike it this time with Red and my Dad!

2009-08-06T21:40:00.000-07:00

The Super Combo

Just a quick break from my vacation postings... but, I just have to say this...

ONLY IN UTAH!

That's right... only in Utah can you find a store that sells: paintball supplies, food storage, and, of course, violins. We found this little place in Saint George. I REALLY wanted to go in and ask how well their business did, but it was closed.

The next time we're driving through I just might have to stop in and stock up on a little bit of..... well, a little bit of everything!

2009-08-05T22:53:00.000-07:00

Next up...

I promise, just a couple more posts about our vacation and then I'll be done! While we were there, Red had the opportunity to go and stay with some cousins who live in Boise. They went to the new Harry Potter movie and then, that Saturday, they were able to go on a train ride that had been dubbed "The Frogwarts Express". Red, of course, went as Ron Weasley. I don't have any pictures of his costume right now, but what I wanted to share was the book we made.

In the 3rd Harry Potter book Hagrid is teaching Care of Magical Creatures and has the kids get "The Monster Book of Monsters" for their text. This is what it looked like in the movie...

So, we decided that our "Ron" needed his own copy! And this is what our version looked like...

Not too bad, if I do say so myself! It's an old biology book. We cut out a bunch of the pages so it wouldn't be so heavy... it took a lot of time, but Red was THRILLED! He loves the way it looks. The only thing I wish we could have done differently is the title of the book. I wish I could have embossed it somehow... but it looks okay the way it is. I have my fingers crossed that he'll want to be Ron again for Halloween. My Mom and I put some serious time into that book... I hope he'll get to use it again!

2009-08-05T08:02:00.000-07:00

Part 3...

The day after Yellowstone my Grandma fell and split her lip open. It was so bad that my parents ended up having to take her to a plastic surgeon to get it fixed. The rest of us hung out at home, got our kids all dressed up, and took a few photos. (please remember that all these shots are unedited - eventually I'll mess with the colors and fix them a bit) Most of them didn't turn out so well ...

But we got one or two that weren't so bad...
And I snapped some individual shots that I LOVED...But my favorite shot of the day? This one of Baby Girl...
I don't know why I love it so much... but I do!

2009-08-03T22:25:00.000-07:00

Part Two...

Lots of visiting with family and friends this week. Went swimming one day with my family. Out to eat another day with friends from high school. Got new tires for the van (big expensive sigh). Of course, I wasn't smart enough to get photos of all these things... not that I wanted pictures of my new tires, but it would have been fun to get some shots of my friends and everyone swimming... I guess we'll have to do it all again next year so that I can remember to take PICTURES.

During the later part of that week we took all of my family and went to Yellowstone National Park. It's only 2 hours away from my parents home, but I hadn't been up there for about 7 years. So, off we went!

There were plenty of bison (and idiots jumping out of their cars to get a closer shot of the creatures... it may have been their last shot)...

and mud pots (so stinky and yet so fun to watch)...

and my brothers who are wrapped around Baby Girl's little finger... (they deny it, but now I have photographic proof!) :)

and of course there was Old Faithful...

and my niece who did NOT want her picture taken (that's my beautiful sister (my niece's mom) smiling through it all)...

and my other niece who was tired and a tad hungry in this shot (I think her parents (my little bro and his awesome wife) were ready for me to be DONE taking pictures)...

and my other niece who was just happy to be along for the ride...

and my parents (aren't they cute?)...

and more of our crew waiting for Old Faithful to do it's thing...

and then, of course, there was us. Our little family (minus Hubby who wasn't in town yet). We had a wonderful, yet exhausting day! It was so fun to just hang with the family and wander around for the day. I hope we can do it again next year.

2009-08-02T08:41:00.000-07:00

WHEW!

Wow... I didn't blog in July. I have several posts in the "edit" mode that never got published. We were in Idaho for most of the month. Let's see... where to start? Why don't we start with the first week or so? It will be easier that way...

July 1st - Struck with insanity. I threw three kids in the car and drove 12 hours to Utah. Along the way our check engine light came on and one of the tires developed a slow leak. Not fun things to have happen when you're alone with 3 kids. We made it to our hotel without anything major happening, ordered pizza, ate and then crashed.

July 2nd -we met up with my parents and went to the open house here....

(Oquirrh Mountain Temple)

... and visited here...

(Salt Lake City Temple)

... then a HUGE storm rolled in. Please remember that we live in the desert. The kids were thrilled with the rain, till it started coming down really hard and the lightening was striking a little too close for their comfort. They freaked out a bit, so we decided to head for home. My parents were following us, but we got separated in the traffic. My parents had car trouble in Ogden. They tried to contact me, but my cell phone was dead. So, they were stuck in Utah and I made my way to Idaho before I finally realized my phone was not working properly. I plugged it in and learned of their predicament. All of the mechanics they had called had informed them that they were closed till Monday for the holiday weekend. So, they found someone to tow them home, but they weren't going to get there till around 1:00 a.m. So, we stopped and stayed with my in-laws that night.

July 3rd - hung out at my in-laws for awhile and then headed to Idaho Falls. We unpacked and rested. I got to meet my new niece...

... and see my little brother be a pretty awesome Dad!

July 4th - family reunion with my Mom's side of the family. Lots of fun things for the kids to do and good food for me to eat! Is there any better combination? Later that day we had an impromptu whiffle ball game at my parents house...

That night my kids were exhausted. They did NOT want to drive downtown to see the big fireworks. I know. My kids are weird. We did set off a few that night in the driveway and then, off to bed.

July 5th - went to church with my parents and had fun visiting with everyone there. That night we set off more fireworks with all of my family there...

I don't take the best firework pictures... anyway, that ends week one. I'll blog again tomorrow about week 2 and then week 3 and then our trip home. I know you're thrilled, but I want to write this all down before I forget... bear with me here!

2009-06-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

HA!

Have you ever watched a music video and wondered "What in the world does this crazy guy running around have to do with this song???"

Well I have... and apparently I'm not the only one. I present to you "Total Eclipse of the Heart". That 80's hit by Bonnie Tyler... but now the lyrics match the video... and you will laugh. I promise. You. Will. Laugh.

Enjoy!

2009-06-08T15:31:00.000-07:00

Small Gripe
Its the end of the school year and I'm once again faced with the task of getting gifts for teachers, aides, therapists, bus drivers and so on and so forth. I really do appreciate all that these people do for my kids. I am so thankful that there are people out there willing to be teachers! Let's give it up for the educators! WOOOHOOOO!!

And now... for the gripe. I've been looking for something to do for everyone and my creative juices have run dry. So, what did I do? I did what any other self respecting (read: a little desperate) parent would do... I Googled "gifts for teachers". Oh how I love Google! Anyway, I got some good ideas but I also read a few things that really irked me.

I came across articles written by teachers about how much they hated lotions, candles, coffee mugs etc. and wished for things like a day at the SPA or season tickets to a local venue... WHAT THE CRAP!?! I'm sorry but be a little thankful that anyone took the time to give you ANYTHING. Teaching is your PROFESSION. That means you get PAID to do it and that we (the parents) don't have to GIVE you anything. I give you something because I want to show you that I appreciate what you've done... but I can't afford a day at the spa or season tickets to anything!

I don't owe you a gift, dear teachers. I give you one because I like you. I try to take the time to make it something worth while that you will like. I may miss the mark, but at least I try.

I do have to say that my kids teachers this year have been really gracious and sweet. Sending home thank you notes and showing they are really grateful for our little gifts. But if we ever end up with one of these "Gimme a spa day" types... well, that will be the year we stop giving gifts!

Do you give gifts for the end of the school year? What are your kids teacher like? Do they seem to expect a gift? Are they appreciative of the things you do? Or do they grump and groan about getting ANOTHER candle? I'm curious...

Anyway.... rant over. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program...

2009-05-17T21:24:00.000-07:00

She's Baaaaaaaaack....
So, MARISSA wanted me to share another little story with you. Do you remember Marissa? If not, you must go read about her here. Laugh like a maniac and then come back. Don't worry. We'll wait for you.
Anyway, Marissa has learned another great life lesson and thought she'd share it with you all. As you remember, the last lesson was "Go to the bathroom before you leave the house... no matter what." Today's lesson is "Don't ever, ever, ever, ever try to quadruple a recipe when you are...
a. really tired
b. in a big hurry
c. your children are awake
d. you're just not good at math
e. all of the above"
Unfortunately, Marissa falls into the "e" category.
She was up late last night and then didn't sleep well (stupid neighbor dogs).
She hadn't left herself enough time to really undertake a baking project this morning.
Her children kept running in and asking life or death questions such as "Can we watch the Gummi Bears?" (do you remember that show?) or "Do I have to shower today?".
And let's face it - Marissa is really bad at math. Basic addition still stumps her.
All of these factors should have been clues for Marissa to forget the whole idea, but she REALLY wanted zucchini bread. So, she ignored all the warning signs and went blazing ahead.
She was supposed to add 2 cups of the following ingredients: sugar, brown sugar, and oil. In her hurried state she added 4 cups of each of those ingredients. ACK! On top of that, she didn't add enough baking soda or flour.
Do you know what happens when you do such a thing? Neither do I. But MARISSA DOES! You end up with bricks. Sugary, nasty, burnt on the outside, gooey and gloppy on the inside, bricks.
And the extra batter that was thrown in the freezer? Well it won't freeze. Why? BECAUSE IT'S GOT TOO MUCH DARN OIL IN IT!!
Marissa is a tad frustrated and really annoyed that she didn't get any zucchini bread today. But I told her she probably wasn't alone in her baking mishap. I'm sure there are others out there who have had troubles of their own... right? Um... anyone? Please... feel free to share...

2009-05-10T20:34:00.001-07:00

STRETCH
First off, I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day.
Second, I decided that Mother's DAY just isn't long enough. Which is why I insisted that we have Mother's Day Weekend in our home this year.
It started Saturday morning. Hubby took the kids out shopping - I stayed home and sewed on a new skirt. Something that I just can't seem to do when the kids need my attention. They brought home a gorgeous bouquet of flowers for me. Then we went to Subway for lunch because there was NO WAY I was cooking on MY weekend. After that we needed to do grocery shopping... but I bailed out and sent the kids and Hubby packing. I had two BLISSFUL hours of UNINTERRUPTED reading time! It was like heaven had opened its pearly gates and let me enter for a moment. Ahhh... After that, Hubby fed the kids and got them in bed while I continued reading. Then I picked a movie for us to watch... it was stupid. But it didn't matter - it was my choice. After the movie was over, I finished reading my book (it was the 5th book in the Percy Jackson series and it was so good!).
Today I got to sleep in. Baby Girl snuck into my room and whispered "Happy Mother's Day. I love you momma." I love it when she calls me "momma". Hubby made me breakfast and got the kids ready for church. I opened some fun gifts and then got myself ready for the day. At church I got to hear some fantastic talks - especially the first speaker. It was a young woman from our ward and she spoke about how it takes courage to raise a family. It was a fantastic and left me feeling so uplifted. The men and all the children sang in a special choir for the moms. It was fabulous! Then, all the women were given brownies as a gift. You can never go wrong with chocolate. After church I relaxed and talked to my parents on the phone. Hubby and the kids made dinner (rib-eye steak and garlic Parmesan potato wedges) and dessert (no idea what it's called, but it involves a peanut butter mixture, cocoa krispies and vanilla ice cream). Then Hubby put the kids to bed AGAIN while I played the piano! Now I'm eating my second helping of dessert and blogging.
I feel rested and relaxed and loved. Does it get any better than that?
I hereby declare Mother's Day Weekend a success and proclaim that it will be carried out every year from now through eternity. Actually... can I proclaim a Mother's Day Weekend once a month? I like that idea... I like it a lot!

2009-04-30T08:19:00.000-07:00

Oink
The swine flu has decided to make an appearance in my little valley. I can't tell you how thrilled I am. I've always wanted to be part of a pandemic and now it looks like I just might get my chance! YES!! I will be part of history... gotta love that, right?
Okay, not really. I'm not freaking out yet, but I am concerned. After all, I have a child who can't talk. If he gets this, he won't be able to tell me. We'll just have to wait for him to be completely miserable before we will know that he needs help. Sigh. So, we are taking a few precautions...
Hand sanitizer was sent with Red to school along with instructions for him to use it, especially before he eats, and share it with anyone who wants some. Little Bug's class already uses hand sanitizer, but I'm going to buy more to send for the class. We will also be bathing in the stuff once or twice a day.
The everyone will change clothes when they get home from school/work/shopping... wherever they could be exposed to the flu (ugh! I don't even want to think about the mountains of laundry I am creating for myself here :S). If we find out that someone from the family HAS been exposed, their clothes will be burned.
Clorox wipes are now in my purse to wipe down shopping carts, door handles, and anyone who sneezes or coughs in my general direction.
My Mom is sending us some masks to wear if someone does get sick. If no one gets sick then we just might wear them anyway and pretend to be Michael Jackson.
Hand washing will be required throughout the day. I'm even thinking of waking everyone up in the night to make them wash...
And we will be staying home unless there is a really good sale somewhere. Then, I'll take my chances.
Not a lot of changes but it should be fun, don't you think?
There is a silver lining in all this though... we already have a subscription to Netflix. So, if we do get sick, we will still be entertained. Can't ask for more than that... right?
(Please recognize a healthy dose of sarcasm in this post... I'm not that crazy. Not yet anyway...)

2009-04-29T15:15:00.001-07:00

Decisions, Decisions
I have a dilemma. And so, as usual, I'm turning to you, bloggernauts, for your guidance and inspiration.
I have a membership to Barnes and Noble. So, every time I order a book, I get a discount between 10-40% off. On top of that, every so often they send an email with an extra discount code in it. So, I have an additional 20% off one item (oh, how I love discounts!).
And that's where my dilemma comes in. I can't decide what to use it on! I'm like a kid in a candy store when it comes to books. I love getting new books... but (there's always a "but" isn't there?) I'm also hesitant. I don't like reading books that are gory,vulgar (language or sexual content) or just plain boring! And so, I always worry about spending money on a book I haven't read before. What if it's nasty? What if it's foul? Or what if it is so stinking boring that my brain turns to mush and leaks out my ears? See? This is a big deal!
And this is where you can help. What have you read recently that you've liked? And, if you had a 20% off coupon for Barnes and Noble, what book would you buy? Or would you use it on a game? DVD? CD? What would you get?

Oh, and one more thing... Barnes and Noble has just opened an Audio Bookstore. You can download over 10,000 books. I've done a few price checks and B&N is anywhere from $5-15 less than what I found on iTunes... I've only looked at a few books, but what I've seen has been encouraging! We listen to audio books whenever we travel... so this is a great thing for us! Just thought I'd give a heads up in case anyone else out there loves this format as well. (And no, I don't work for Barnes and Noble and this is not a paid blog spot... I just really love buying things from them!)

2009-04-22T22:21:00.000-07:00

Liquid Refreshment?
Several of you have commented or contacted me in some way asking if I've dropped off the face of the earth. I haven't... and I'm here to explain where I have been...
The other day I was feeling rather worn out but couldn't really put my finger on why. I had slept well, had a good breakfast, and I had even exercised. But I was exhausted. I started looking around online and found that fatigue can be caused by dehydration. So, I went on a quest to figure out just how much liquid is recommended in a day...
They say that you should get between 8-10 8oz. glasses of water every day. That's 64-80 ounces to stay healthy and hydrated.
8 oz. of pomegranate juice
Then we have milk... 3-4 8oz. glasses each day to get the calcium you need.
Grape juice is next on the list (full of all those great antioxidants, ya know) 1-2 glasses at about 5oz. each.
You should have about about 8 oz. of cranberry juice each day.
Another 8 oz. of grapefruit juice should also be consumed.
Then there are all sorts of herbal teas, protein shakes, health drinks and a myriad of other juices. The list goes on and on.
Basically what I'm saying is that I haven't been blogging because I've been living in the bathroom. I no longer feel tired... quite the opposite actually. I haven't felt this lively or done this much running in a long time!
Okay... not really. But it was funny, right? (Oh, and just so you know, you really shouldn't drink that much liquid. It's around 64 to 80 oz. total liquid intake. I know all my readers are smart, but I don't want some stranger stumbling onto my blog and start drinking a couple of gallons of beverages every day... I think that would be a bad thing and I don't want to be held responsible. Anyway...)
I haven't been blogging lately because I just don't feel like I have much to say right now - not even in comments. I seem to go through spurts like this every now and again. Hopefully inspiration will hit and I'll be writing up a storm and keeping up with all y'all again soon.
Thanks for checking up on me!

2009-04-07T08:01:00.000-07:00

Just Keep Swimming
I've rewritten this post a few times. Okay, so maybe more than a few! I'm just kind of at a loss and a little bit overwhelmed right now.
You see, yesterday we had a meeting to discuss Little Bug's goals and testing results with the school. Now, we get to go to quite a few meetings for my little guy, but this is the one that I dread the most. This is the one where they let me know just how far behind he is. This is the one where they let me know that my 8 year old is functioning on a 2-5 year old level. And in some areas it's even lower than that. It's never fun to have another person point out areas where your child may be lacking. But it's one thing to have a person give their opinion on what they think is wrong. It's another to have a set of professionals (psychologist, speech therapist, behavioral therapist, teacher...) sit down with test results in black and white to illustrate each and every area where your child is struggling. He has made progress and I'm thankful for that. But sometimes it's hard to see those steps forward because they are usually microscopic.
And after these meetings I always wonder... what more can I do? And then, of course, the guilt comes rushing through me because there is always MORE I could do. I start a list that is not unlike the one given to me by the school. I'm lacking in so many areas. And as I continue to pile things up, I begin to feel more and more desparate for solutions. But each solution seems to bring with it another mountain of problems and soon I'm feeling suffocated and overwhelmed. Because, really, how can I do everything I need to do for each of my kids (especially Little Bug) and keep myself in a sane and happy place? I'm starting to wonder if it can be done.
And so I sit. Paralyzed by the vast amount of things that I should be accomplishing. And in the end? I've done nothing and everything in my life suffers and then my guilt list grows.
I think my biggest problem right now is knowing where to start. I have to move a mountain and I feel as though I've been given a teaspoon to do it with. So, how do you tackle the mountains in your life? How do you keep moving forward even though your progress doesn't really seem like progress? Does anyone else feel this way? Or is it just me... and Marissa?

2009-03-29T22:26:00.000-07:00

Mother of the Year
See this picture?
Would you believe me if I told you that this looks BETTER than it did before? Well, it does.
Would you believe me if I told you that this isn't a sunburn? Well it's not.
Not any more... it started out as a rather mild burn. Red's skin is super-mega fair and he burns easily. We went to the beach last week and he got a light burn. So, I alternated putting burn jel and aloe vera on his back. But it got worse... and his back got really splotchy. Each time I applied the stuff he said it hurt a little more. But, being the BRILLIANT person that I am, I didn't add things up... so, I kept putting stuff on his back.
On Friday night he was hurting. I put more aloe vera on him (stupid, stupid, stupid!) and the pain it caused was terrible. Soon he was laying on the floor shaking. He kept telling us that he was okay, but it was very obvious that he was not. We were getting ready to take him into the ER and we decided to say a prayer. The power of prayer is amazing. The pain stopped shortly after and he was able to sleep.
Afterwards I started looking at both the gels... both have lidocaine in them. I'm not sure if he had an allergic reaction or if it was some kind of chemical burn... but I just thought it was the sunburn getting worse. Sigh. Why is it that when I make a mistake, it's usually my kids that pay the price?
We kept him home from school yesterday, but by last night he was teasing Baby Girl till she was almost in tears. Apparently he's feeling better :)

2009-03-24T23:27:00.000-07:00

Just Keepin it Real: A Cautionary Tale
I have a story to tell about...um... a friend of mine. Yeah. That's it. And her name is... uh... her name is Marissa! Yep. That's her name alright! Anyway, Marissa had some family visiting. One day the family decided that they wanted to go for a hike. Marissa got all the kids ready and made sure that they went to the bathroom before they left. But, she forgot to send herself to the little girl's room and by the time they got to the trail head she had to go... BADLY. Of course, there was no porta-potty or outhouse type structure. Marissa had never wished to be a boy till this very moment in time. But that's besides the point. Anyway, she sent the rest of the party on ahead and took off into the bushes. She found a lovely spot and ... wow. What a relief! Till she stumbled just a bit... she's not used to squatting, you know. Anyway, there was a dead tree branch behind her behind (ha!) and she kinda fell onto it. Now, this dead tree wasn't all nice and smooth... no. It was rough and very brittle. It broke. Marissa caught herself before she fell all the way to the ground, but not before that branch left a lovely splinter in her rear end. Have you ever had a small piece of wood in your bottom? Yeah... um... me neither. But MARISSA has! And she told me that it hurt pretty bad. Luckily, she was able to get it out in the end (ha!ha!).
So, the moral of this story? Go potty before you leave the house... but if you have to pee in a bush, check for items that may impede the process. Oh, and you should probably start doing squats to build up those leg muscles, just in case. Learn from Marissa's mistake... I know I have...

2009-03-20T22:37:00.000-07:00

Random... Again
It's time for another edition of randomly random stuff. I'll be your host today to guide you through this jumbled mess of thoughts that have been scrambling around my mind. Please keep your arms and legs inside at all times... my brain can be a scary and dangerous place!

Why is it that people who drive fancy cars think they can do whatever they want? I was cut off three times yesterday... once by a guy driving a Jag, another driving a BMW and another driving a Lexus. I know that their vehicles cost more than we make in a year, but I think someone needs to let them know that they only bought the car... not the road they drive it on.
The other day we were cleaning up and I handed Baby Girl some toys to put away. She turned around and said, "Look Dad! Mom gave me the bird!" It took me a minute to figure out why Hubby was laughing so hard...
We have family coming tomorrow. They'll be here till Thursday and then we have more family coming on Friday. Should be a fun and hectic week!
I left a message on Hubby's phone the other day that went something like this... "Hi - I hope you're having a great day! Hey, I may or may not have bought a Wii Fit today. And I may or may not have played it all afternoon. And I may or may not be the hula hoop queen! Love ya!" I'm stiff and sore, but I'm lovin that Wii Fit!
The neighbors have a little girl. The other day she was in the back yard singing the songs from "Enchanted". Totally made my day!
I made my picks for March Madness. I'm not very scientific about my picks. First, I pick the teams by location. The closer the team is to where we live, the more likely it is that I will pick them. Unless they have a really cool name... then I'll pick that team. Like Villanova or Gonzaga. Try saying those names.... see? Totally fun!
Little Bug pushed our Little Tykes car over to the fence the other day. He climbed on top and threw rocks into the neighbor's pool. Sigh.

I think that's about it for now! Thank you for joining us today here at Mejojac's Memos. Please remain seated till the ride comes to a full and complete stop. We hope to see you again soon. Enjoy your day!

2009-03-17T14:25:00.000-07:00

Coming to a Table Near You
We spent some time in the field with Hubby this morning. It was a great day to be out and about and I realized that almost everything we were seeing was going to be eaten at some point in the not so distant future.
Summer 2009... Super delicious table grapes...Winter 2009...Oranges and lemons (I wish you could smell the blossoms! SO GOOD!)

Some random time in the future...
Honey! (And yeah, this photo was taken from the car because I'm a coward... but come on... that's A LOT of bees!)And probably never...

Escargot! Yep. They have escargot snails out in the orchards, but they don't harvest them. This is actually an empty shell, but the snails are everywhere!

Hubby works in agriculture and so we've been surrounded by all kinds of different fruits and veggies over the years. When we were in Oregon there were watermelon fields, peach and cherry orchards, potatoes, peas, onions and corn. Down here there's strawberries, citrus, bell peppers, dates, tomatoes, and lots of other things. The best part is getting to bring a little home every now and again... like the oranges Hubby picked this morning and I ate with my lunch. There is nothing better than produce that goes from the field to your table and skips the middle man.

Do you live in an area with a lot of agriculture? If so, what is grown where you're at?

2009-03-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

Not Too Bad
The other day I was at Kohls and found a skirt that I really wanted... but it was almost $50... on sale. I don't have $50 for a skirt... and so, sadly, I put it back. But then, I had a thought... I could make my own! It can't be that hard, right?
And actually, except for the zipper, it wasn't that hard!
I went to JoAnn's and found a pattern I liked and the fabric I wanted. Came home and measured myself to see what size I would need. I'm usually an 8-10 and figured that's the size I would need.
WRONG!
Apparently, in pattern-world, I'm a size 18. I figured that they MUST know what they are doing and went ahead with the 18. This is what I ended up with.It seems that pattern-world measurements are a tad off. If I hadn't been wearing jeans it would have slipped off completely.
So, I took about 5-6 inches off the side seam. It fit much better.
The zipper was a pain. I've never put a zipper in by myself before. My mom has ALWAYS been there to help (a.k.a. do it for me). The stitching around the zipper is crooked and kind of off center, but for my first try, I'm pleased.
The finished product?Nothing fancy or amazing, but I like it! And the cost...
Fabric - $8.00
Pattern - $1.50
Thread - $.50
Zipper - $2.00
Hook & Eye - $.15
Twill Tape - $.75
Total = $12.90
Lots cheaper than the skirt I had wanted and it only took me about 3 hours to finish it (would have been less but I had to unpick the zipper twice... I told you it was a pain).
I bought fabric to do a different skirt that was in the same pattern packet. We'll see how that goes... but all in all, not bad. Not bad at all!

2009-03-08T18:09:00.000-07:00

To Whom it May Concern
Dear Person Who Thought of Daylight Savings,
I hate you.
From,
a Tired Mom who will have to PEEL her kids out of bed in the morning... sigh...

2009-03-05T18:25:00.000-08:00

So Cool
The Elasticwaistbandlady, otherwise known as The Smiling Infidel, had this video on her blog. I thought it was so awesome, that I'd share it here too :)

So fun!
I'm still working my way through the Google Reader. It's still deleting posts, but not every time. Selective deleting. Kind of like my kids selective hearing loss, only I can't punish Google Reader for ignoring my pleas to STOP DELETING POSTS!

2009-03-03T09:28:00.000-08:00

Hello Out There!
I'm back! Kind of... my parents and brother left yesterday. We had a fantastic time with them here! It was fun to play games each night, go hiking a couple of times and head to Disneyland one day. And the weird thing? I think they had a good time too!
I tried to catch up a little on blog reading this morning but my Google reader is being weird. I clicked on a link to take me to the blog and it didn't go. So, I clicked again and noticed that it deleted a post from my reader. I looked through and realized that it had deleted two posts. I tried a different link... it deleted two more posts. I have no idea what is going on...so, I'm waiting for a little bit to see if it quits and then I'll try to catch up again. It's going to take me awhile... there are almost 300 posts in my reader! I'm not going to get to all of them, but I will hit your most recent posts. Unless, of course, those are the ones that were just deleted in my Google reader. Then I can't promise anything!
I did want to thank you all for your kind words and encouragement about Red's car. I made a certificate for him letting him know we thought he did a great job and it promised a trip to Carl's Jr. (his fave fast food spot). He was pretty pleased with that. Anyway, I read your comments to him and you should have seen that kid grin! Y'all made his day - so, again, thanks!

2009-02-27T09:00:00.000-08:00

Not So Fond Farewell
It's no secret that I dislike the Scouting program. Red wants to participate, and so, we do. But if it were left up to me, he'd never don that neckerchief and blue shirt again... but, this isn't about me. It's about him.
Last night was our Pinewood Derby. It's probably one of my least favorite things about Scouting. But, again, not about me.
Red was pretty excited this year. He was hoping to break a sad losing streak. You see, his first car was shaped kinda like a funky sports car. That year he didn't win any races. Not one.
The next year we had the pencil car. It looked awesome, but still didn't win any races. Not even close.
This year we chose a wedge shape hoping that it would be a little more aerodynamic. But what Red really wanted was for it to be really fun... and so, he decided to do this with his car!
That's right... he wanted it to look like a wedge of cheese with a little mouse on top!
We don't have the greatest tools, but I cut it out with a little hand saw. Red sanded, drew the holes on and then helped a little with the drilling. Then he painted and cut out all the shapes for the mouse. I glued the bits and pieces on the lead sinker to make the mouse because the stuff we had to use is pretty nasty if you get it on your hands. Then Hubby and Red went to put the wheels on... and the nails bent. They ended up having to glue them in and, apparently, that's not such a good thing.
I wish I could tell you that his car won a race. That's all we were hoping for... just one race. But it didn't. It seems that we are the worst Pinewood Derby car builders in the world. He took dead last. Again.
Red was a pretty good sport, but he was SO disappointed. It was so hard to watch him try to smile as he told me the news (Baby Girl is sick again... bad fevers and her legs hurt... not sure what's going on, but I stayed home from the Derby with her). We're going to take him to Carl's Jr. to celebrate a job well done. He did a lot of the work on the car and I'm pleased with that. Besides, it looks AWESOME!
And even though this isn't about me, I can't help but feel a little pleased that we don't have to make another Pinewood Derby car ever again!

2009-02-20T14:41:00.001-08:00

Winter Reprieve
It's 31 degrees in Idaho where my family is at right now.
It's 74 degrees in California where I am at right now.
Which is why they are leaving Idaho and coming here. It makes perfect sense to me! The same logic is what takes us there in the summer... it is 120 here and 80-90 there.
I thought it befitting to deck the blog out in snow white for their winter visit. It may be snowing at "home" but here they will be able to bask in the sun and play out doors. The kids can't wait and neither can I! One more day till the fun begins!
I am sorry I haven't visited blogs this last week. I probably won't this week either. I'll be back to blog reading the first week in March. Till then, have a wonderful day!

2009-02-17T08:37:00.000-08:00

More and More and More Random

First of all, thank you for all your kind words. Last week was hard. I wanted so badly to be in Idaho with my friend, but it just wasn't happening. I appreciated all of your thoughts and prayers.
Blogger is being weird. It keeps rotating my photos when I download them into a post... it's turned on my computer, but when I bring it on here, it rotates them. So frustrating. Maybe when I publish it, they will rotate back... or not.
I participated in a Valentine Swap and I got the best package! (again, sorry about the rotated picture...) I got a cute little bag, a notepad, some super yummy chocolate, awesome socks, truffles and a fun card from Earth Muffin! Thank you again for the package! So much fun! I also got a fun little valentine from Carrot Jello! I felt so loved!! Thanks Carrot!!
My parents and my youngest brother will be here on Saturday!! I can't wait for them to come visit! We're going to Disneyland one day, San Diego another day, the beach another day, hiking on one or two days... they'll probably need a vacation from this vacation ;)
I'm sick. I knew it would hit me. Yesterday we were visiting with friends and towards the end of the visit I started to feel blah. I felt bad because we were having a great time visiting, but I needed to get home. I don't have the flu that the kids had (thank goodness!) but I do have the head cold. So fun. I have a dream that one day all of my family will be in good health...
We bought a carpet cleaner. I decided to try it out last night (even though I felt crummy). I read the instructions, put it all together and then decided on a small area to try it out on. I was so disappointed with the results. It left weird stripes in the carpet and didn't get the spots out. The water was dirty nasty, but the carpet still looked icky. BUT, then I got up this morning, looked at the carpet, looked at the cleaner and realized something very important.... I never turned the scrub brushes on. All the dirty water that came up from my carpet was just from me squirting cleaner on and then sucking it up. No scrubbing was involved... on one hand, I'm glad that the carpet cleaner probably works better than I thought. On the other hand, I feel like an idiot.
The dejunking has been going rather well. We've got about 20 boxes of stuff in the hall that need to go to Good Will. I was going to do a yard sale, but I'm tired of this stuff in my house. So is Hubby. Which is why he bribed me to not do a yard sale and just get rid of the stuff. We filed our taxes. We'll pay for the STUPID termites with that money and then, whatever cash is left, is mine. It won't be much, but it will be a little bit...enough that I took the bribe and I'm gonna haul off the boxes as soon as I'm feeling better.
Okay... enough random. I'm off to bed. Baby Girl is playing. So I'm going to rest. I hope you're all having a fabulous week. I will try to do some blog reading in the next few days, but I'm not making any promises... and then my family will be here... but I will try!

2009-02-11T07:40:00.000-08:00

Enough
First of all... the blog is REALLY close to looking the way I want it. I wanted to change the belt to this little wavy line thing, but every time I mess with the widget HTML, Blogger gives me an error message. I'll try again today. **update...fixed it! FINALLY!!** I did finally get the backgrounds the way I wanted them. If you came here within the first few moments of my messing with it, then you would have seen yellows, oranges, teals, olive greens, and pinks. I'm sure that somewhere a rainbow was weeping.

Anyway, yesterday turned out to be... well, I don't know what yesterday was. One of my best friends from high school had a tragedy in her life. Her younger brother committed suicide. I knew this kid. Their family grew up just across the street from us. He was the typical little brother who did his best to bug us whenever he could. We, in turn, tormented him. As we grew up the teasing continued on both sides, but never in a mean way. I joked with him and he tried to get his big sister's friends to laugh. I remember seeing him at a gas station a couple of years ago and we visited for awhile. He was a good kid.

Fast forward to now... he was 28. A husband. A dad. Yesterday he found enough reasons to take his own life. And no one has any idea why.

I was pretty out of it yesterday. By the evening I just wanted something mind numbing to do. I played video games. But that wasn't enough to stop the wheels in my brain from spinning. Why would he do this? What was his thinking? Were things really so bad? Why? Why? Why? The truth is, I don't know his demons. I can't judge him or his actions. I don't know what he was dealing with. But I did have a thought that struck me...

I can't understand why anyone would take their own life because I can look around and find enough reasons to live. For whatever reason, he could no longer see those things. We have our troubles and I may whine and complain, but overall, the good overshadows my life in a really big way. And for that, I am truly grateful.

My heart goes out to this family. They have been amazing friends to me and my family through the years. I can't be there with them right now and that makes me crazy. I want to hug them and try to give comfort somehow. But I'm over 900 miles away. For now the only thing I can do is make a few phone calls, send a card with my love, pray for them, and hope that somehow, it's enough.

2009-02-10T09:50:00.000-08:00

ACK!
Please ignore the horribleness of my blog right now... I was playing around with the template and now Blogger won't let me save any new changes!! GRRR... I promise to have it looking all wonderful and stuff as soon as possible...

2009-02-08T15:22:00.000-08:00

Waging a War
I don't have much time... You see, I have been taken hostage by viruses and only have this small window of time to get my message out to the world wide web. Those sneaky little things are making my life a bit crazy at the moment.
The first wave came in the form of head colds. Mine is gone, Baby Girl hasn't been so lucky. It's moved from her head to her chest. The evil viruses keep her up all night by making her cough. They make her feel miserable and cranky. And sometimes, when they are feeling particularly vicious, they won't let her breathe.
The second wave has been worse than the first. They attacked Little Bug with all their might by giving him fevers, making him lethargic and causing the contents of his stomach to leave his body. He's taking his 3rd nap for today and we won't discuss the 3 a.m. wake up call that involved vigorous carpet scrubbing. Those vile little beasts!
To top it all off, they have forbidden me from blogging and are enforcing their edict by causing misery in my children. Can you imagine? The nerve! I am sneaking in a moment right now while Little Bug is snoozing and Baby Girl is involved in a movie. But it won't be long before the viruses catch me and drag me back to their dark lair.
This is the reason I haven't done much blog reading this week and I ... wait... what was that sound? They're coming! Hurry! Run! Save yourselves!! I promise to make contact as soon as I can....

2009-02-02T21:04:00.000-08:00

Randomly Random

I blinked. January disappeared. Do you know where it went?
Hubby brought the laptop home again. I'm watching T.V. and blogging. I love this thing!
I just saw a commercial for a new Disney movie. Do you remember the very first "Air Bud" movie? The one about the basketball playing dog? They now have one coming out called "Space Buddies"... why?!? The first one wasn't so bad, but come on. Isn't this franchise dead? They have one for soccer and football and hockey and... and... and...The only movie with more sequels is probably "The Land Before Time".
The state of California has been in budget crisis for 89 days. They have decided to delay sending out tax refunds for at least 30 days. But the deficit is around 15 billion dollars. Yeah. Billion. And our lovely leaders can't seem to agree on anything. Technically they have till May to get the refunds out... but we'll see if it ever really happens.
We have termites. We got an estimate today to see how much it will cost. Did you know that termites are very expensive bugs? Stupid little things. With the lack of tax money and the possible $1,000 to clean up the bugs... our vacation plans are now on hold. Stupid, stupid little things.
I have been pondering some very deep questions and I need your help. When you make a root beer float, do you put your ice cream in first? Or the root beer? And what about strawberry shortcake? Strawberries or whipped cream first?
Baby Girl has a head cold. I think I'm coming down with it too. Bah.

M'kay. I'm sure there will be more random randomness coming up, but I think that's it for now.

2009-02-02T10:01:00.000-08:00

Simplify
I like to spend money. Hubby would testify to this. Some people eat when they're bored, I go shopping. Instead of taking Baby Girl to the park so that we can get out of the house, I take her to Kohls or Target. And, of course, we can't walk out empty handed. Then I bring the random item home and I have to find a place for it. Trouble is... usually there's not a spot for it. So, it gets set down somewhere till I can figure out what to do with it. Then the next item gets put on top of the first item... and so on and so on.

We have so much stuff that it's overwhelming. I look around and I'm surrounded by stacks of things. Piles of papers. Boxes of toys. Mountains of stuff everywhere I look. It makes me feel helpless and kind of lost. No one should feel that way in their own home. And yet, I do.

I was visiting with a friend the other day. She was telling me about how she and her husband are minimalists. They keep things very simple. They don't spend money on things they don't need. And it made me wonder about why I buy the things I buy... is it just on a whim? Or do the things in my life have purpose?

Then I was reading over at Morris Moments. You see, Julie and I have a few things in common. We both have three kids. We both love my play list (hee hee). AND we both HATE laundry!! I usually just sit and whine about it. But she DID something! She figured out exactly how many outfits each kid needed and then got rid of the rest of the clothes. SO AWESOME!! Now she doesn't have as much laundry to do.

And THEN... Yvonne at The Life and Travels of Me blogged about a cleaning system that she has used in the past and is starting up again. It breaks things down into daily, weekly, and monthly chores. It's a great system!

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I've been inspired. It's time to get rid of the "stuff". I don't need it. And I don't want it any more. The kids have too many toys. We (as a family) have too many clothes. My cupboards are filled with dishes, odds and ends containers, and small appliances that never get used.

Our neighborhood will have a garage sale... probably sometime in March. And so, I'm setting a goal. I'm going to have my home dejunked so that we can sell as much as possible on that day. That money will then go into the vacation fund so that we can maybe stay an extra day on our trip!

I've tried to dejunk before by doing one room at a time. It doesn't work for me. So, I think this time I will focus on items. For example, I'm going start with clothes. And when I get that done, then I'm going to hit the fabric and craft stuff that I don't use or need. Next up will be toys and then the kitchen. After that... the garage (involuntary shudder). I'm hoping to be ruthless. I have also created a list of questions I'm going to ask myself every time I go shopping.

Do we NEED it? Not want... need.
What are the pros for this item? What are the cons?
Do I have a place where I can put it without having to rearrange anything?

Hopefully this will keep my spending at a minimum. We're hoping to get some of our big debts paid off this year. It has occurred to me that if I spend less, this may become a reality sooner. I know that's not a shocking discovery, but it's something I forget from time to time. And, like I said, I like to spend money.

So, let the dejunking begin. Let the money diet proceed. And let the overwhelming hopelessness disappear!

2009-01-29T18:09:00.000-08:00

I Want One
I've never used a laptop till this very moment. Sad, don't you think? Hubby tried to talk me into getting one a few years ago, but I was trying to be good. We needed the money for other things. I turned the offer down. Stupid, right?
Usually when I'm on the computer I'm away from the family. Our PC is in the master bedroom. It's the only place we could really put it when we first moved in. We could probably move it into the living room now, but I'm lazy. I don't want to do it.
But, as I sit here playing around, I'm tempted. Not to move the PC, but to purchase a laptop. This is fun. I'm part of my family's activities right now. I'm carrying on conversations and laughing while blogging. Usually I'm secluded (which is also nice from time to time). But, I'm liking the mobility here... and so I'm thinking that maybe... just maybe we could look into a laptop.
I'm working on a Dell right now and I like it. But I'm wondering, for those of you with laptops, what kind do you have? And do you like it?

2009-01-28T08:48:00.000-08:00

A Little R and R
Help! We're trying to plan a vacation and I have no idea what I'm doing! You see, about 99% of our vacation time is spent visiting family in Idaho. Planning that trip is easy. Drive for 14-15 hours (depending on how many potty breaks are made). Stay with family. Eat family's food. Participate in activities planned by family. Have lots of fun. Drive home.
See? Easy! The route is always the same and there are no worries about lodging, food or activities! But we'd like to go on a family trip this year that will take us somewhere we've never been before. So, now I'm trying to plan a trip that will be fun for a 10 year old, an 8 year old and a 5 year old that doesn't involve Idaho (to any family that might be reading this (mainly my Mom)... don't worry! We're still planning on coming up sometime this summer...). It's not a huge gap between the ages, but it's enough that they really aren't interested in the same things.
Red would love a trip where he got to play video games the entire time. He does like to get out and play but, as I blogged about before, it's not cool to be seen with the family. But, if we have activities that he deems "cool enough", he may just consent to being seen with us in public WILLINGLY. Dude.
Little Bug would love a trip that had to do with animals. Zoos, aquariums, nature preserves... as long as animals are involved, he's a happy kid.
Baby Girl just likes to go and do fun stuff. If she can run around and be a little crazy, she's good.
Hubby and I wanted to take everyone here...

(Mesa Verde)
But the hike to get to the cliff dwellings is steep. The hike involves going up and down several 8-10 foot ladders. Red would probably be okay. But I'm not sure about Little Bug or Baby Girl. We did a hike this last spring where we had to go up and down ladders and they both really struggled... I want everyone to have a good time, so I'm thinking we'll save this for when they are a little older and a little bigger.
Our tentative plan for now is this... first we're going to go here...
(Aquarium of the Pacific)
Then follow this...

...stopping along the way to play at various beaches. Then we'll go here...

I have no idea what we'll do in San Francisco, but it's somewhere we haven't been before. I found some great travel sites over at 3 Bay B Chicks that I'm going to check out. But I wanted to know if any of you have ever taken your kids to San Francisco or if you have been there on your own? What were the things you really enjoyed? What things were not as much fun? Where did you stay?
We don't want overload on activities during this trip, but we do want to have plenty of fun things to do. Any thoughts or ideas?

2009-01-26T22:24:00.000-08:00

The Curse of the Curse
We need to find a way to talk with Red about swear words. He was reading a book the other night and came out of his room rather upset. I asked him what was wrong and he said there was swearing in the book. I asked him to show me and so he pointed out "heavens above" and "good heavens" and "he's the devil himself". I explained that those weren't swear words. He was confused and asked what words WERE swear words. I didn't know how to respond. I told him that I needed to talk with Dad (actually, I was hoping to pawn the task off onto him) and then we'd talk about it again.
Our kids haven't been exposed to a lot of bad language. We don't swear here at home. We're pretty strict about the movies we let the kids see. I am of the opinion that they'll be subject to enough garbage out in the world and they need to have a safe place to come to when everything else is crazy. And again, in my opinion, that place should be home. So, we try to keep the general crud out of our home. Maybe we're too strict, but that's how we've done things.
But now, I'm not sure how to explain this to him. Should we sit down with a list of "these are words we really don't want you to say"? Or do we just wait till he asks about a word? Any thoughts or suggestions? How have you approached this with your kids? Did you wait for the words to pop up in their vocabulary? Or did you sit down and talk about the words and explain it all? I wonder if we've made our kids too naive? And is that a bad thing? Not that I want to run out and uncover all the foul things in the world for them, but I wonder... can you protect your kids too much?

2009-01-24T15:49:00.000-08:00

Crafty Conundrum

My kids love to draw and paint. But, they hate parting with anything their sweet little hands have made. For a long time we would put everything on the fridge. I loved the art work, but disliked how cluttered it made the kitchen look. Plus - every time you opened the refrigerator door, papers would go flying. So, we had to find a better solution.

I had originally wanted to take a piece of wood, glue clothes pins to it, spray paint it and then hang it on the wall. But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if the clothes pins would stay on very well. And what would I do if one broke? I'd have to make an entire new board. I needed something a little more flexible.

I went into Lowes with Baby Girl to brainstorm. Oh how I love that store! As soon as we walked in I saw the rope and chain you can buy by the foot. The rope was cool, but I was really drawn to the chain. I went through the pros and cons, but in the end we bought nine feet of white chain. It was .40 a foot so it cost me about $3.60. I also got nine feet of black chain for the boys room at .47 a foot.

This is the white chain on the wall in Baby Girl's room. (It's hard to see... look closely...)

Then I decided that I didn't like the way the nail heads looked, so we hot glued flowers onto them.
After that we took mini clothes pins that and hung the masterpieces from the chain...
Wah-lah! Awesome way to display the art and it's not in my kitchen any more! I put the chain in the boys room a lot higher up. Little Bug has a tendency to pull things apart. Hopefully he won't be able to reach it above the closet...I have to climb on a chair to hang things up, but the pictures won't get destroyed, so, it works for me.

Another plus with this is that the kids get to decide what goes on the chain. As soon as there is no more room they have to start making decisions on what they want to keep and what they can part with. That way I'm not the bad guy throwing things out. It will be 100% up to them what stays and what goes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will work!

What about you? How do you display your kids art work? And how do you decide what to keep and what can go?

2009-01-22T08:21:00.000-08:00

It's a Good/Bad Thing
I had a bazillion things planned for today. That's right. A bazillion.
I was going to start with blog reading - since I'm waaay behind (sorry 'bout that). Then Baby Girl and I were going to head to a play group at the park. After that I had errands to run and laundry detergent to buy. Then, of course, I was going to do laundry. Lots and lots of laundry. While waiting for the clothes to dry I was going to work on Valentine craft stuff - which I will post about later. There were other small projects I wanted to work on today too.
But now?
Well, now Little Bug is sick. He's got a fever and seems to have a sore throat. When I tried to hand him his school clothes this morning (before I realized the fever was there) he burst into tears and croaked out "pajamas... pajamas". I shouldn't be excited, but the kid spoke without any prompts! It's always so hard when he's sick. We never know what to do for him or how to help because he can't speak. (For those of you who are new to the blog, Little Bug has Autism) This is the closest we have ever gotten to him telling us how he's feeling. Obviously today he wants to be curled up in jammies. And while I'm not happy that he's sick (and that my list of things to do is getting tossed out the window) I'm glad that he was able to express this one little thing.
So, pajama day it is! Now, if you'll excuse me... I'm afraid there will be no blog reading today. I'm off to curl up with my kids, watch Wall-e and hope for more spontaneous speech.

2009-01-21T08:07:00.000-08:00

Exodus
We live far away from our families. Our parents, brothers, and sisters all live in Idaho. On one hand, we like living in different areas. We like seeing new things, experiencing new places and meeting new people. On the other hand, we miss our families.
This year our holidays were kind of.... lonely. We were able to go home for Thanksgiving, but then we spent Christmas and New Years with just our little family. Which is great and fine, but it was also hard to hear about all the family parties going on up north. While everyone in the extended family was getting together to laugh and play, we were sitting home twiddling our thumbs. Well, not really twiddling... it makes my hands hurt to twiddle for too long.
ANYWAY!
The point is, we missed our families and really wanted to be there in the frigid cold to participate in the hustle and bustle of the holidays. It just wasn't possible.
But we are about to witness the annual migration. You see, every year, about this time, our families get tired of snow, ice, wind, and everything that makes winter... well, winter. And so, they come here because our winter... well, it's not. It's supposed to be 81 today. We are expecting a "sudden drop in temperature" for tomorrow. All the way down to 68. We might have to put long pants on and (shudder) closed toe shoes! The horror!
Of course, 68 is much better than 11... which is the temperature in my parent's neck of the woods at this very moment. And so, in February we will see my parents and (my Mom just confirmed this) my youngest brother! He's never been down here to see us and I'm so excited to drag him around for a week.
My in-laws will be here in March! I know there are people out there who would not be excited about a visit from the 'laws, but mine are fantastic. We always have a great time when they are here. After that we have a slight possibility of seeing both of Hubby's sisters and their families. They mentioned that they would like to come and go to Disneyland. Now, I admit that they brought it up in a very casual sort of way. There are no REAL plans for them to come. But I am crossing my fingers and hoping that they will! We want anyone and everyone to come on down to play.
So, who's next? I'll take in friends as well as family... anyone else tired of the cold and looking for a warm weather retreat?
Let the migration begin!

2009-01-19T08:06:00.000-08:00

Rats
I thought I had a few more years. Why didn't anyone tell me that when my sweet and lovely Red turned 10 he would also turn into a bit of a monster? It's like all the teen attitude has come crashing down on me and I'm totally unprepared for it! Just a quick example... on Saturday we went to the mall to look for books and just spend some time together. He kept walking behind me and so I jokingly said, "Hey, catch up! Are you embarrassed to be with me?" I laughed. He didn't. Instead he said, "Yeah. I am. I hope no one from school sees me here."
Wait... what?
When did this happen? Heaven help me. I know I'm not super cool, but I didn't think I was too dorky... maybe I am. Blah... I had always hoped that my kids would pass by this stage. That they would never hate being with me. Sigh...
And so it begins.

2009-01-16T11:26:00.001-08:00

Eleven-ty

See this guy?

It's the same guy you see in this picture that was taken EXACTLY 11 years ago today...I wish I had a current picture of the two of us... but I don't (maybe we can fix that when you come to visit, Mom??).
If I could, I would express just how much he means to me but my vocabulary isn't big enough. So, I'll just say this...
Thank you for the last 11 years. I look forward to many, many more. You're my best friend and I love you!

2009-01-14T06:45:00.000-08:00

It's Play Time
Do you like online games? I tend to gravitate towards them when I need a little break. It's fun to sit down to a game of Tetris or perhaps some Wordscraper on Facebook. But, what I love even more, is the thought of taking a break to play these games and having it be worth while.

There's a little guy I've gotten to "know" through his mom's blog. Parker is a sweet little 4 year old with Down syndrome. He has been in and out of the hospital too many times in his little life. He's there right now - fighting for his life. And his parents? They are fighters too. But, they are under a lot of stress. Their medical bills are stacking up. That's where the games come in.
5 Minutes for Mom is sponsoring the games. Click on the "Playing for Parker" button above or in the side bar (it's kind of buried in the side bar for now because Blogger is being psychotic... AGAIN) and a window will open. And then, another smaller window with a game will open and you can play. There are lots of games to choose from, the ones I've played have been fun, and the best part? Every time someone plays the game, money gets put into Parker's medical fund. It doesn't cost you anything to play... the money comes from the advertisements on the side. You just give a little time.
So, if you get a moment, head on over and relax. Solve a few puzzles. Enjoy a game or two and help out Parker and his family!

2009-01-13T11:06:00.000-08:00

It's Back!
American Idol starts tonight! I'm looking forward to the new season. I really enjoyed it last year and felt like they found some pretty amazing talent. I'm sure we'll see the same thing this year...
Of course, there's always the people who think they can sing but can't. It always amazes me that these people get up there and say things like, "My family and friends all say I have a really amazing voice."
Really? They do?? You really need to think about finding new friends and maybe even a new family.... the ones you have now are apparently liars. Really big liars. And I think they might hate you... yes, they hate you enough to encourage you to go on national television and make a fool of yourself. May I suggest looking for new people to fill those spots in your life ASAP?
ANYWAY...
In the past, they have always given more camera time to the people of no talent rather than the ones that can actually carry a tune. I read an article the other day that said they aren't going to do that this year. Yes, we will still get to hear some of the people that make us want to cover our ears and cry out "Mercy! Please, have mercy! Make it stop!" But, that won't be the focus. They are going to show more of the the people who make us say "WOW!"
I know there are some people who are looking forward to the new format and others who are really disappointed that that element will be gone from the show.
If you watch AI, which group are you in? Do you enjoy watching the crazy antics of the tone deaf crowd? Or are you glad that the in-tune crew will get more of the spotlight?
Of course, the article may have just been hot air and tonight we will get to listen to Simon destroy the self esteem of many young hopefuls... only time will tell!

2009-01-09T08:13:00.000-08:00

Reading Rainbow
Spellcheck is gonna LOVE this post! I finally started reading the 3rd book in the Inheritance series. I really loved Eragon. I liked Eldest and now I've started Brisingr. Now, I know I'm not the smartest gal in the world, but I feel like a complete moron reading this book! I think he pulled out his dictionary of huge, unused words and tried to cram as many as he possibly could into this book!
Also, for some reason, Mr. Paolini believes that he needs to describe everything. EVERY.THING. This is something that has always annoyed me. It was the reason I struggled with the Lord of the Rings books and all of the Anne books (please don't hate me). I like to use my imagination a little bit. Go ahead and tell me that the guy sat on an old tree stump, but do you really have to take a paragraph to describe it? How it groaned under the weight of the character? How it was bleached from the sun and stripped of bark from the harsh winds??? SERIOUSLY!
Maybe this is why I'm not an author... I'm too pragmatic (that's the biggest word I know). If I were writing the book it would go something like this.
"Everyone got on the dragon, fought the bad guys and won. The End."
It's a best seller, I know. I'm just not detail oriented enough. Most of the time, for me, less is more. I don't really care if the characters walk into a luscious valley covered in a carpet of vibrant grass that is glistening like diamonds with the morning dew as the golden sun rises over the distant hills. Really. I don't care. Just get to the point. Why are they in the valley? What's going to happen? Sigh... I'm probably the only one that is bothered by this sort of thing, but that's okay.
What I really want to know is if you've read any good books lately? I'm in a reading mood right now and am looking for something fun and quick to read after Brisingr. Any suggestions? Also... are you on Goodreads? If you are, would you mind adding me to your friends? If you're not, may I suggest signing up? It's a great way to keep track of the books you've read and the ones you want to read. Plus, you can add friends and see what they are reading, what they've liked and disliked.
Happy Reading!

Sidenote: I'm stealing this idea from Yvonne again :) This is for my mom... yes we felt the earthquake last night. It was centered in San Bernardino. They are reporting it as a 4.5. There wasn't any damage and no one was hurt (She worries about us living on the San Andreas fault... go figure!)

2009-01-07T08:42:00.000-08:00

Once a Tease, Always a Tease
Yesterday was Red's birthday. I can't explain in words how much I love this kid! His heart is so big and he's so generous! Case in point: he took cupcakes to his class yesterday. He had a few left over and instead of bringing them home (which is what I was hoping he would do... I wanted one!) he shared with some other people. One of his friend's little sister was staring longingly at the cupcakes and he gave one to her. He made sure he gave one to the principal and some of the office staff. He's always been that way. When he was really little I had to make sure I always had change with me at Christmas time. We had to have something to give to the Salvation Army bell ringers. If we didn't, he would be heartbroken!
Another thing I love about Red is that he's such an amazing big brother. A lot of my attention is given to the younger kids - especially Little Bug. But, Red is not resentful. He digs in and helps when I ask and even when I don't! He's really patient with his brother and sister. I couldn't ask for a better kid!
On top of all that, he's a good sport. Which is a really good thing because he comes from a family that likes to tease and joke around. And that brings us to yesterday's festivities... we got Red an MP3 player for his birthday. But earlier in the day I pulled it out of the box and got it charged up so that he could use it before he had to go to bed. I thought about putting it back in the original box, but then I saw another little box sitting on my computer desk and used it instead.
So, when Red opened his gift he saw this... Yep - that would be a LIGHT MAGENTA printer cartridge. He was so thrilled... (Oh, and yeah... that would be lasagna on his pants...) But wait... what's this? It's taped together...YES!"Wait... what is it?" There aren't any MP3 players in our home... so he wasn't exactly sure what he was holding in his hot little hand. I think deep down he knew, but I had told him over and over that they were too expensive and that we weren't going to get him one this year. The exclamation of joy was mostly over the fact that it WASN'T a pink printer cartridge.
"What did you say Mom? I can't hear you! I'm listening to my new MP3 player!"I'm sure this will be a good/bad thing, but for right now? It's all good! Happy Birthday Red!!

2009-01-06T15:37:00.001-08:00

P.C.
Sorry about the plethora of posts today :) Soon after I posted the pictures of the cake, Hubby sent this to me. It's an email he wrote and I thought it was funny. So, I'm sharing with you. Enjoy!

It’s hard to believe but the festivities are upon us again. Happy Three Kings Day to one and all! It’s wonderful this time of year when we can pause to celebrate our 3 kings, Obama, Pelosi and Reid and honor their respective gifts of Gold, Nonsense and Myriad Regulations. I trust that, like me, you’ve carefully hung out your free market values in order to receive the traditional tuppence from our generous and omnipotent triumvirate.

I, for one, just can’t wait to see the look of surprise on the childrens’ faces when they open up their new personal carbon emission monitors! How excited they have been to take part in reducing their carbon footprint, and we’ll make a fortune selling carbon credits as they walk slowly to school being sure not to expend excess energy along the way.

Of course the holiday wouldn’t be the same without family and friends with which to celebrate the coming Change as we throw aside the old-new ways and embrace the new-new ways. What a relief it is to see that traditional partisan bickering will soon give way to refreshing abject obedience. That instead of toiling away to sustain ourselves, we can soon benefit from the fruits of our neighbors labors. At this special time of year let us not forget the poor, but rather let us focus on the wealthy who have been so richly blessed with the means to provide for one and all of us.

What a glorious time we live in when we can serve under the sure guidance of an African-American, a Female-American and a Mormon-American all at the same time! It’s staggering to think how far we’ve come and to what great heights we may aspire as we all look forward to the day when there are no more “ – Americans” but rather we can simply be equal subjects in a glorious carbon neutral society.

2009-01-06T14:46:00.000-08:00

Humor Me...
I am going to blog about Red a little later... you see, today is his birthday! He's 10 years old and for some reason this feels like a BIG DEAL to me! I'm going to write a little more about my awesome boy later (I want to get some photos of him opening his b-day presents first...) but I wanted to share some photos of the cake.
BEFORE you look at these pictures, you must PROMISE me that you won't laugh! Promise???
You see, I've never worked with fondant before and really had no idea what I was doing. Plus, I didn't have the money to buy fondant or to buy the glucose syrup or unflavored gelatin to make real fondant. So I found a recipe that used items I already had (shortening, Karo syrup, vanilla, salt, powdered sugar) and used that instead. The fondant is so GREASY!! It worked, but it's all shiny and kind of weird... anyway...
I wanted to make a "Wii" themed cake for Red. So, we started with a couple of twinkies...
and transformed it into a Wii remote! (the lettering and detail stuff didn't work well... I bought markers with edible ink, but the fondant was so greasy that the writing didn't work the way I had hoped)
After that I wanted to make a blue shell. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Mario Kart, a blue shell is something that is used to hit the person in first place. It has spikes and wings and is not a lot of fun to get hit with. Red is really good at Mario Kart and so he's constantly getting hit with the blue shells. This is what it's supposed to look like... And this is how my blue shell turned out...
I didn't know how to make the wings stand up. If I had thought of it earlier, I would have made them with royal icing... but I didn't think of it soon enough.
Here's the finished product! I bought some candies to spell out "Happy Birthday Red. Wii Love You". But since I used his real name and not "Red" on there I'm not posting that picture. You get this one instead.

He saw the cake when he got home from school and knew exactly what it was. He was really excited about it... I'm not thrilled with the way it looks, but it works! More birthday updates later today!

2009-01-05T07:49:00.000-08:00

To Whom it May Concern...
Dear Children,
I love you. You know that I do. But I have to ask the question... WHY? You had two blissful weeks of Christmas break and every stinkin day you were up by 6:30, full of energy and ready for the day. So, tell me, why is it that at 7:10 this morning I had to beg and plead with you to get up? Why is it that at 7:15 I used a crowbar to pry you out? And where was all that boundless energy?
Little Bug... you almost missed your bus because it took you 15 minutes to get dressed and 10 minutes to put your shoes on
Red... I just caught you staring at your refection in the mirror instead of brushing your teeth. You weren't even making faces... just staring blankly.
Baby Girl... you WERE up at 6:30 this morning. You ARE bouncing around like a kangaroo on speed. Perhaps it's because you don't have school-itis. Apparently both of your brothers do...
I hope that eventually you'll learn that school days are for getting up early and vacation days are for sleeping in... of course, by that time, my body will be so trained for jumping out of bed to get you moving that I probably won't be able to sleep in any more. Sigh.
I do hope that both of you have a wonderful day at school today and that this half of the year will be fun and interesting for you!
Muchas Love yas,
Mom

2008-12-31T13:09:00.000-08:00

Change is in the Air
I wanted something funky and fun for the blog... not sure if this is it. I'll probably mess with it a few more times over the next few days... so don't be frightened if you stop by and the blog looks a little random or weird. Not that it doesn't already look random and weird, but you know what I mean.
I think this will be an interesting year for us. We're making some big decisions and wondering how in the world it's all gonna work out... I feel a bit like this right now...

The first step is always the hardest, right?
So, off we go, into a new year. I'm sure it will be full of craziness. After all, the last 32 years of my life have been that way, I have no reason to believe that it will stop now!
Happy New Year!

2008-12-30T18:33:00.001-08:00

Stupid
Have you ever looked at something and thought... "Hey, I bet I could do that!" and then when you actually TRIED to do that thing you realized it was much MUCH harder than it looked. Yeah. Case in point:
This is Baby Girl.

Please notice her lovely golden hair. I am not sure what possessed me... you see, I cut all the boys' hair the other day. No big deal - I just take the razor and buzz them. Easy as pie (well, except for Little Bug... but that's another post for another day). Baby Girl came and said she wanted her hair cut. I told her we could take her to have it cut. But that's not what she wanted. She wanted ME to do it. And, in my disillusioned state I thought, "That shouldn't be too hard... "
FAMOUS LAST WORDS!
She wanted it just a little bit shorter. So I cut a tiny bit off and realized that the sides were uneven. So, I cut a little more... now the sides were even, but the back was longer than the sides. I kept snipping and cutting. At one point I told her I had to cut a little more off and she burst into tears.
"Mom, if you keep cutting, I'll be a BOY!!"
I admit that tears welled up in my eyes... what had I done??
I trimmed and evened things out, but it's short. A lot shorter than what she had told me she wanted. And the back? It's still longer than the front, but I don't dare try to fix it...
See all those fun little jagged edges? Yeah... sigh... she doesn't hold still and I don't know what I'm doing. Bad combo...

I curled it this last Sunday to hide all the mistakes... you can see from this picture that the sides are a lot shorter... I've given my child the "wedge" haircut from the 70's. Think Dorothy Hamill sans bangs.

She's still my little cutie but I really hate what I've done to her hair! Sigh. It's a good thing it will grow back...

2008-12-29T11:05:00.000-08:00

Slam
The Sound of Music was on t.v. last night. I didn't get to watch it, but I did see enough commercials to get the music stuck in my head :)
I was buzzing around the house singing "My Favorite Things" and this is the conversation that followed...

Red: Mom, what is that song from?
Me: What do you mean? (I twirl and continue singing) Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...
Red: Is it from a movie?
Me: Yes.... bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens...
Red getting a little exasperated with his crazy mom: What movie is it from?
Me: It's called The Sound of Music.... (singing a little louder) brown paper packages tied up with strings...
Red: Doesn't sound like music to me!

Oh how I love my pre-teen child!

2008-12-28T18:21:00.000-08:00

Resolve: Not Just a Carpet Cleaner
It's that time of year again. Around this time of year I tend to set goals and make resolutions that I have absolutely no intention of keeping. I usually set mediocre goals so that when I fail, it's not such a big deal. If I say that I plan on eating healthy for a week and then only make it 10 minutes, it's not as bad as if the original goal had been for a year. Yes, I basically set myself up for failure each year.
But this year I've been thinking about my time and how I spend it. A few weeks ago I taught a lesson to the women at church about unity and how sacrifice can bring us closer together. I had read about the early pioneers of the church tithing their time - one out of every ten days was given to the Lord to work on the temple. And I wondered - how would my life be different if I tithed my time?
I can't really give a full day every ten days, but what if I tithed the hours of my day? What if I gave 10% of my time each day to the Lord? It comes out to 2 hours and 24 minutes. How would I be different if I did this?
Then I started thinking about how I spend my time during the day. I have about 16-17 hours each day where I am awake and functioning (well, semi-functioning). Sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less. Those hours are squandered on trivial things. Things that don't improve me. Things that don't bring joy to my life or the life of my family. Things that keep me from progressing in any way, shape or form. It makes me sad to think that I don't feel a sense of purpose in my life at this time.
And so, it's time to become resolute.
I can't afford to set myself up to fail again this year. I could opt to just not set any goals (I've done that before) but I feel compelled to do something this year. I'm tired of sitting around watching life pass me by.
Last year I had hoped to lose 10 pounds. The year has passed me by and I still have those 10 pounds (plus a few extra). The time passed and I did nothing. I don't want to look back on another year and wonder what I accomplished with my time.
And so, as usual, I turn to you by bloggin buddies: Do you set goals or resolutions with the new year? If so, how do you keep yourself motivated to follow through?

2008-12-24T15:32:00.000-08:00

Hmmm...
I've been trying all day to write a Christmas post. At first I thought I could come up with something really deep and profound to share with you. But, it's fairly safe to say neither of those words describes me. Then I wanted to be very spiritual and thoughtful. But that didn't really work out either. My message then progressed to something very silly and a tad on the bizarre side. A little too silly and bizarre if you ask me. And so, instead, you get this:
From our Craziness...
to yours (because, let's face it, if you're reading this blog, you must be a little crazy)
Merry Christmas!
I hope that the true spirit of the season fills your heart and stays with you throughout the coming year!

2008-12-22T14:13:00.000-08:00

Day One
There are moms out there that look forward to their kids being out of school. They love the time with their kids. They enjoy doing projects and playing. They are organized and ready for any craziness that could creep into their day.
I am not one of those moms.
Oh, I love my kids and I love to be with them, but I fly by the seat of my pants. I'm a little crazy and tend to be more than a little unorganized. I procrastinate and don't plan ahead as much as I should. Often times this leads to chaos in our home. This week is going to be a good example of that.
My kids are bored - already. It's only the first day of Christmas break and they can't seem to find anything to do but watch movies and play video games. I really don't want to spend the next two weeks plugged into the t.v.
But, I didn't plan. I didn't prepare. I don't really have anything for them to do and so now? Well, now I'm paying the price.
When kids are bored they do the most natural thing possible - they fight. We have had some lovely disagreements today over toys, treats, Wii games, lunch, movies...etc.
It doesn't help that I have no desire to leave the house. The snow-bats (a.k.a. cranky old people who are escaping the frozen north) have descended on our valley and their driving is more than frightening (yes, I know that there are a lot of very nice old people who drive very well... there just aren't very many of them HERE).
I do not want to stand in lines with my kids at this moment. I'll stay home and let them drive me crazy before I take them out in public by myself. Especially since they are all in such stellar moods (it doesn't help that I had the brilliant idea of letting them sleep under the Christmas tree last night... Little Bug didn't get to sleep till 11:00 and Red and Baby Girl were up for the day by 6:00... so, my idea was good in theory, but perhaps not in reality).
They don't want to play outside. They don't want to play with their toys... I think they are too excited about the possibility of new toys. They don't want to do anything and I'm going insane!
Thoughts? Ideas? What do you do with your kids to keep them from getting bored during the holiday break?

help

2008-12-20T22:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday
We accomplished a lot yesterday. We cleaned the house, did a little laundry, dropped off Toys for Tots items, recycled our plastic bottles, went to the bank, fed the ducks, walked around the park, saw "The Tale of Despereaux", ate at a new place called The Slice (and loved it) and then used my plethora of 50% off coupons at JoAnn Fabric. WHEW! Just to highlight a few little things...

Toys for Tots is something we try to do every year. One of the local furniture stores had an advertisement on t.v. saying "Come help us fill our sleigh with toys for kids here in the valley!" So, I, being fairly literal, thought they had some kind of sleigh set up to put the toys in. I got the kids all excited about putting the toys into this sleigh... only to find out it was two cardboard boxes. Kind of anticlimactic, but still good for the kids to remember that this season is about giving.

"The Tale of Despereaux" was cute. Our family was fairly split on how we felt about it. Red and I have both read the book. Now, we didn't expect it to be EXACTLY the same, but they changed it a lot! The overall message in the book is different from that in the movie. It was kind of disappointing for us. But, Baby Girl and Hubby, who haven't read the book, quite liked the movie. Little Bug was not impressed (but, he may have not been feeling well... he woke up this morning at 5:00 with the flu that I had earlier this week... good times). There were parts that seemed a little intense for a movie that was rated G, but other than that, it was good.

As for the 50% off coupons... from now till the 24th JoAnn's is having their "Coupon Commotion" and they sent out an ad with about twelve 50% off coupons for different things. Last time I was there a lady gave me her coupons saying that she wouldn't be using them. Then they stuffed coupons into my bag at the checkout. Then I got the ones in the mail... I had TONS of coupons! I bought a few beads that were already 40% off, but I had enough coupons to get everything else in my bag for 50% off! It was fantastic and made me very, very happy :) Coupons have that affect on me...

And, to top the day off, Little Bug wore his new shoes all day! I know that's not a big thing to most people, but he has a lot of sensory issues. New shoes are a really hard thing for him. It was a struggle to get them on, but once they were there, he did great!

All in all, we had a really fantastic day! How has your weekend been?