Random thoughts of EdgyK

Prom Dress

2011-04-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

My good friend Amy is has a step-daughter who needed a dress a week before Prom. I know her step-daughter so I really wanted to do it for her. I got it done in about 3 days but only because it was pretty simple. I loved this fabric and I love the way it looked on her. I'm especially excited because we are trading services and she is going to paint me a picture to go above my mantle.

I used a pattern I already had and altered it a bit. She wanted the gathered part on the shoulder so I used my *exam table tissue paper to copy the pattern in the size I wanted. Then I cut it up and to make the gathers. It was a little tricky.

It looks much better on the girl then on my dress form. It's made crepe back satin which has a beautiful drape.

*The tissue or crepe paper that comes on a roll and is used on exam tables at the doctor's office is my favorite thing to use for copying and creating patterns. It's heavier than regular tissue paper and lighter than printer paper. It has just enough see-through. One roll lasts a really long time. I had to buy a box of 12 to get it when my old roll ran out. That will probably last my lifetime. I have given a few away.

Before and After

2011-04-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the not great pictures. We took out our old carpet out and put in laminate flooring over Spring Break. DH and Mya worked on pulling the old carpet out. I had some sewing to finish so they had to get started without me. You should know DH and I have never put in laminate flooring before. We bought the supplies and read the instructions online. It was a little scary at first.

Before

yep that's me texting

They grey stuff in front of DH is sand. We have a sand box so when the kids would come in the fine sand would eventually make it's way down below the padding.

That's me doing the underlayment. I'm not sure if that is the official name but that is what we called it.

Here's the Finished product before the furniture went back in. It took all day with DH and I working together. It was hard on my back. I got a massage the next day. We love it. The kids love it too and they have told me several times it's way better than the carpet. It's easier to clean and I can't help but like that. It does make the room more "echo-y." We notice every little and big thing that gets dropped. Our cat had ripped up the carpet right in front of the sliding door so I am glad to have that mess gone.

After

You'll see more of the floor in my next post about the prom dress.

The eggs are chirping

2011-04-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

It must be spring. I am boiling some eggs and as they were heating up one made a sound like it was chirping.

Clip Board

2011-03-05T14:15:00.000-08:00

I got inspired from several blogs and the mess in my bathroom...and the need to display my clips for a class to finally make a clip board. Cory took this picture while I still had it sitting on the floor. It is now in the bathroom behind the door. I have a very small bathroom so that was the best place for it. I was so excited to get it done. It only cost a few dollars because I painted an old frame that used to have wedding photos in it. I did go and buy fabric that I thought would look good with my bathroom and wouldn't be too busy behind the clippy colors. I wish I had put four rows instead of three because you can see it's pretty full already.

Early to bed, early to rise makes a person healthy, wealthy and wise.

2011-02-03T16:10:00.000-08:00

I really like taking pictures of DH sleeping.

For years I have spent almost everyday feeling tired and run down. I had some good days but I could never really track what made a difference. I talked to my doctor about it lots of times. He gave me suggestions and ran blood work more than once but everything came back normal. I exercise regularly and I am not over weight. I think I need to lose 2 lbs to get to my goal weight so I am pretty lazy about that. But a couple things happened lately that made me change one of my bad habits.

DH has been busy and stressed at work and with the extra work for church he has been super busy. When that happens he likes to stay up late so that he feels like he gets a longer day with some relaxing time. At least I think that's why he does it. We both like to stay up late and even if I am super tired I will stay up if he does. When he gets stressed at work he gets a little grumpy and I am the sounding board for that.

One day at church I was reading one of those scriptures that talks about retiring early to bed and getting up early. I decided I was going to try that or at least the first half. I thought it would help DH also if he would get more sleep he wouldn't be so tired and grumpy. So I announced we were going to bed early which he did't like but he has cooperated. I still have a hard time getting up early or getting up at all. It's not like I have a bad attitude about my day I just don't want to get out of bed because I am lazy.

So we are almost three weeks into this new schedule and from the first day I felt different and never got tired in the afternoon like I used to and I really don't get tired until 9:00 p.m. and we usually go to bed about 10:00 pm. That is early for us. I figured it might happen and it did eventually catch up with me that I would start waking up early even if I didn't want to get up. This week I started waking up at 5:00 am. Which is icky because I have a hard time going back to sleep. But I didn't get out of bed because I am lazy and it's so warm in the bed and cold in our house. DH has felt much better too. He doesn't get tired during the day. He has always been good about getting up early.

The first week when I went to bed early I fell right to sleep right off and slept through until about 7:00 am. The second week I had a hard time falling asleep but this week is better and now I am waking up early. I know my body will adjust if I keep it up. And I know I would be better off if I got up around 6:00 am but I haven't committed to it fully.

So I feel healthier and I feel like my mental recall is much much better. Now all I need is the wealthy part which probably won't happen until I commit to getting up early. Baby steps.

New Tile Floor

2011-01-20T21:22:00.000-08:00

So this last summer DH said that we would do the floors, like we've been planning for fives years, during the Christmas break. Well I knew he wouldn't remember so I talked to my brother who is very good at tiling and helped me do the backsplash in the kitchen. We set up a weekend to do it and he told me what we needed to do ahead of time. Then I informed DH that I had it all set up and what he needed to do. He tried to back out but I told him it was all scheduled so he couldn't cancel on me now and my brother. He wasn't very happy with my sneaky methods but realized he had no choice. As soon as he started tearing out the old floor he saw that I was right and that it was going to be good.

Here is the original flooring. Yikes! Isn't it gross? We also had wood floor in the entry. It was gross too. I am too lazy to go find a picture of it and I don't want to make you sick.

Here's DH and my oldest pulling it out. We even decided the subfloor underneath was nicer than the old stuff.

This is after the cement board was put down which was a whole project in itself. I had to do this pic of my DH and his first experience doing tile. Standing is my brother Calvin who was project manager, so he is managing there and my brother Kirk also getting ready to get dirty. 3 long nights; one to put the cement board down, next to put the tile in and the last to do the grout.

This is the messy grout process. We couldn"t walk on the floor for two nights so DH built this little bridge that went from the carpet in the hall to the carpet in the living room. Yes, the kids loved it and went back and forth way more times than they needed to.

The kids take lots of pictures of the cat so here is the finished project. It's so beautiful and we love it everyday. I am super grateful to my brothers and my husband for working so hard.

Now see that carpet the cat is stepping on. DH can't wait to replace it with pergo or something like that. I love it when a plan comes together.

Since we did the labor ourselves we spent about $450 to do a little over 120 square feet. I didn't have a hard time choosing the tile because I just used the same style that I had chosen for the backsplash. I did choose darker grout which was good because grout comes out a lot lighter than the color swatch on the box. It does darken over time but starts out very light.

This tile looks good even when it's messy. My old linoleum looked gross even right after I cleaned it.

Kat Dress

2011-01-06T08:41:00.001-08:00

Here is the finished product of the Kat dress. It's a dark dress so it's hard to get a good shot on my camera. Every step of the way had to be redone or adjusted but that's what happens when you are making it up as you go.

I stitched the name in the back of the dress because the back and front are almost identical. And I think it looks super cute.
I stitched all the embellishments on by hand. It took well over 10 hours.
In the end unfortunately the client was not able to wear the dress because it was just too poofy because of the stiffness of the fabric she chose. She is thinking about doing another dress with a drapier fabric. I am going to see if she let me have it back for a little while and see if I can make some adjustments to make it wearable. I hate to think of her not being able to wear it and enjoy it. I did warn her in the beginning the fabric was not like the one in the original picture. She liked the color so she wanted to try it. Which I can understand. I think if I can take the skirt off and take out some of the fullness it might work better.

Christmas Headband

2011-01-05T18:31:00.000-08:00

Here was a last minute project that took about 10 minutes. I got some cheap plastic headbands from Walmart, some read tinsel and some sparkly ribbon. Fired up my glue gone and here you go. It took about 10 minutes to make three. I knew my girls wouldn't wear them all day on Christmas but they each wore them for a little while. So I could have made one and had them trade off.

Baby Steps

2011-01-03T12:56:00.000-08:00

I got the movie "What About Bob" for Christmas and it inspired me to try and one baby step at time on my blog. Instead of being overwhelmed by all the pics I have not posted I am going to try and post one a day, maybe two if I'm ambitious. Thanks Dr. for the great advice!

These are what I made for my Beehive girls (ages 12-13) at church that I work with every week. I put it in a cute plastic bag with a package of hot chocolate. In case you can't tell they are dipped in milk chocolate first, then the stripes are white chocolate with crushed candy cane sprinkled on. You use it to stir up your hot chocolate. It all melts and you get some yummy goodness. I didn't taste test them but Mya (12) says it was super yummy. I have some left overs so maybe I'll give those away for Valentine's day. Just put them in new bags???

Christmas Traditions

2010-12-21T01:21:00.000-08:00

One of the girls at church had the sweetest tradition that her and her siblings made up. They put up a little fake tree in one of their bedrooms and they re-gift their old stuff to each other. How fun is that?

Mya shared that she loves getting whole peanuts with the shells in her stocking. Santa did this severals years in a row because he knew that was something he did for my family growing up. But now Santa would like to end the tradition but there is too much pressure from Mya. She has mentioned it several times to me over the last few weeks.

Today we were having back luck with our mangers. We have a little ceramic one and I tipped some of the figures over while DUSTING (I know I am so old school). Well Joseph's head fell off (again). And my copycat Little People manger was missing baby Jesus. He is very small you know. Well I found baby Jesus under the couch and I had some heavy duty glue to put Joseph's head back on.

DH is proving that he is AMAZING once again and after making my kitchen and entry look fabulous took our chillens for two days to the cabin. I am at home and did a lot of cleaning today. Tomorrow I will shop and prep for Christmas and probably some more cleaning. And a girl's night.

Murder Mystery

2010-12-14T09:25:00.000-08:00

This would be so much fun for date night. I hope I win.

My Million Dollar Idea

2010-11-25T09:07:00.000-08:00

I like to make my own dough and bread but if you are using a yeast type dough you have to measure out the yeast 2 1/4 teaspoons. Since I like to be lazy (or efficient) I thought it would be cool to have a measuring spoon that measured that exact amount. Then I could just leave it in my yeast tub. I buy the pack of yeast at Costco, put it in it's own tupperware and leave it in the refrigerator. It really is the best deal. I tried googling "2 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon" but I haven't found anything yet. I thought for sure someone might have thought of making it already.

Picture of the dress pattern I am starting with for the Kat Dress

2010-11-24T21:08:00.000-08:00

Making a Party Dress

2010-11-23T18:05:00.000-08:00

I'm calling it the KAT Dress

I have a new client who has asked me to make a dress from this picture. Exciting and nerve racking for my brain as I always second guess myself a gazillion times. 9.5 times out of 10 things turn out just fine.

I am using McCall's 6199 Pattern for a starter. I have to alter the pattern but it's a good place to start. She chose the fabric and all the embellishments and I started on the pattern work today. As long as I do my pattern work well the dress should go together nicely. I will post as I go.

So far I've had to redraw the top to have the panels that will have the decorative stuff sewn over the top and the gathered skirt sewn to it. The pattern doesn't have gathers so I have to slash the pattern and add width for gathering. Plus in this picture the side seam appears to drop much lower then the hem at the center front of the dress so I think I need to adjust the length of the sides.

The thing that always makes me nervous is that I'm a very particular that I make it look as much like the picture as possible but usually what I focus on and stress over is different than what is important to the client.

My pet spider

2010-10-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

I found this idea on someone else's very creative blog but now I can't remember who. So I did it myself. I've even let me nails stay long for an extra week to make it creepier. Per her instruction I used black craft paint and a toothpick to create the spiderweb. Making a spider on my thumb was my idea. This is my left hand because I was alone and too impatient to wait and have someone else do the other hand so I did it myself. It doesn't look to shabby but not as nice as my right hand work done on my left. Are you confused? I put a final coat of clear polish over the top.

Oh and I totally forgot that I am going somewhere tonight where it would be completely inappropriate to wear this so it's gotta go. Maybe I'll redo it tomorrow.

My Bedroom Set

2010-10-28T14:57:00.001-07:00

Sorry I can't get my text in the right place. I finished my bedroom set a couple months ago and I am finally getting around to posting it. I used this painting and glazing methods. I was inspired from this blog I love. It took a lot of work and I wasn't sure that I liked it at first. But it has grown on me and I wish I could find myself a round night stand but for now I have nothing. So my room is not finished as you can see by the mess in the closet area.

The first picture is the mirror that came with the set and even though I think it's beautiful it was too much for the room. Especially since I already have plenty of mirrors. I sold it on Craigslist. I mostly wanted you to see the before color. It weighs at least 80 pounds.

I didn't polyurethane after I painted which I should probably do in the future.

I asked my mom to make me a doily because I knew it would be perfect under a pitcher. I love how it looks.

2010-10-27T18:24:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to slow down and enjoy my food since I am eating smaller meals throughout the day and since I have IBS I have to stick to the foods that my digestive will be happy with. A lot of times I am eating while doing other things. Like browsing the blogs I follow.

I tried these new sweet potato fries and even though I haven't really taken to sweet potatoes in the past I love them. They aren't cheap and I finally looked at the fat content and YIKES they are a little too fattening. And turns out I was eating 2 servings at once. I'm sad about that because now I have to consider them a treat. Bummer

Fun Halloween Decor

2010-10-25T20:09:00.001-07:00

I found this cute idea for Halloween on this blog. So I painted this frame and mat black and printed it out. That's the fastest I've ever completed a project.

Birthday Present

2010-09-22T16:11:00.001-07:00

I just finished these for my sister's birthday tomorrow. I am ashamed out how ragged my cutting board looks. It didn't hold up well. I guess it means I use it a lot.

I bought this fabric a long time ago and just love it but haven't found the right project for it. I think this will be good for fall. I hope she likes them. I have a lot more of this fabric and always envisioned it making the cutest apron.

I keep meaning to make these coasters for myself. So I decided each time I make a set for someone else I will make one extra for myself. I kept the lumpiest looking one of this set. I will only have one for now but that will work. I will use it by the side of the sink for my cup so that DH knows to not put it in the dishwasher.

Two towels and four double sided coasters.

I'm going to find a reason to make these...

2010-09-19T18:44:00.001-07:00

You can find the tutorial on how to make these here.

I want these, I want these...

2010-09-19T18:40:00.001-07:00

You can find these here. They are so pretty and I really want them.

2010-09-16T10:47:00.000-07:00

Starting school has been a little rough for Ballerina. Tuesday was her first official day. She was so excited all morning and couldn't wait to get to school. We got there and she was fine but when it was time for me to leave she kept begging me to stay. I stayed as long as I could but when I went to leave she started screaming and tried to run out the door. I caught her before she hit the door, pushed her back towards the teacher and walked out. I could hear her screaming but I knew my staying would only make it worse.

When I went to pick her up her teacher told me she had a bad day. She was so disruptive they sent her to the principal and they talked with her, had her draw a picture of me and played a game. I know they were trying to make her comfortable but this just seemed like rewards for bad behavior. I guess I viewed the behavior as a manipulation for getting what she wants and they viewed it as real anxiety about school. She cries and throws lots of fits at home so I can't really take most of them seriously. After she got home I talked to her about how she can't act that way at school. She said she didn't want to go back and she kept trying to get away so she could go cry in her room. That's what I usually let her do when she starts a fit. I told her that her dad was not going to be happy about the way she acted and she said, "Let's not tell him." I had to hold back a smile.

I didn't want to deal with a crying fit each day and I didn't want her teacher to have to deal with her either but she is so stubborn. DH and I are more of the tough love type parenting. He said he would talk to her teacher and tell her she needed to be more forceful with Val but I just had a feeling that would take a long time to correct her behavior or maybe even make it worse. Usually I give her the two options; one desirable and one not so desirable. For example, she didn't want to wear a pair of pants that I wanted her to wear to the airport. So I told her she could wear these pants or go to the airport naked. Her choice. She chose pants.

I felt like there was a more immediate solution to the fit throwing at school but somehow do it in a way that would avoid a struggle on my part or the teacher. So I gave her my pink bracelet that I got at the grocery store for breast cancer awareness. I wrote "I love you! Valory" on it and told her that the bracelet would help her to remember that I love her and she doesn't have to cry at school. And that I would come back for her when the day was over. When I dropped her off yesterday she went in all by herself and when I picked her up she said she didn't cry all day and it was because of the bracelet.

I am so happy she didn't cry and it helped to ease her anxiety but I still wonder if the bracelet really worked. I wonder if she really feels confident that she did good at school or if she thinks it's a magic bracelet that makes all her troubles go away.
Mya didn't care that she didn't have a first day of middle school picture because she's not a little kid anymore. She is busy running from class to class and she loves her home room teacher. She told me a conversation she had with a girl at school. This girl told her she doesn't deserve to turn twelve because she hasn't dated yet. Mya is anxiously awaiting her birthday in November. Then the girl called her a lesbian. I tried not to over react but I did tell her that its okay to like boys but she didn't need to spend her time worrying about "going out" with anyone, holding hands or kissing. She made a disgusted sound when I said kissing which means my plan is working. I try to be all kissy with DH so it will seem like something weird grownups do and if she ever thinks about kissing a boy she'll have this image of her parents in her head. I know it won't work forever but it will buy us some time.

I asked her what she said to her but she said the girl got busy talking to her other friend about their boyfriends. I tried not to be too pushy but I told her that girl was wrong to talk to her that way. And I told her if that girl really felt that way she was going to get herself into a lot of trouble. Mya for now is more concerned with reading as much as possible and being smart than she is with boys. I am 90% sure of who she has a crush on but I will never ask because I don't want to ruin the secret for her.

Chore Cards

2010-06-22T10:41:00.000-07:00

I got these from a blog I ran across and downloaded them and then added a bunch of mine own. I have four kids so I printed them in four colors. I had them laminated and punched a hole in one side. Each day I put on the ring the things I want them to do. So I have a whole stack of each color that is not being used that day. I put a rubber band around them. Today is our first day. Once they finished something they put it in the basket. Mya took hers apart and put them in the order she planned on doing them. There are also reward cards so it is good incentive for them to get the jobs done so we can have some fun. I am thinking of making some for myself and DH. I printed mine in black ink so they came out kind of dark. I think I'll end up printing some more later because I keep thinking of more things they can do as chores or rewards. For example, I forgot to do a "Bath or Shower" card and as a reward "Time with Dad." Once they have done a chore they take it off the ring and put it in the basket.

I made 3 snack time cards for their morning, afternoon and evening snack. Since school got out I feel like the kids are always eating so I have been lazy about making lunch or I don't feel like it because I know they won't be hungry. I know it's shocking but my kids are terrible at regulating a healthy diet. Hopefully this will help me keep better track of what everyone is eating. Mya and Cory can do all their jobs themselves but the cards are good for Em and Ballerina because it helps me to remember what they need to get done. Ballerina is trying to act like the cards don't apply to her.

Em wanted to have cake for her morning snack but I told her that cake is a treat and she would have to trade in her icecream card if she wanted it and then I gave her some ideas for a snack instead. She chose to have a healthy snack and not give up her icecream for later.

One of their rewards is a trip to the dollar store which I probably will put on their rings for Friday so if they've been doing a good job on their chores all week I will give them a dollar to spend so they won't have to use their allowance. No, I am not taking them to the dollar store every week.

Fun things you can find when you read a lot of blogs

2010-06-09T18:17:00.001-07:00

I don't remember who's blog I found this on but it had the link to this fun website to make Google Maps envelopes. Have fun trying it out.

What I have been giving away...

2010-05-10T12:33:00.001-07:00

The blue ones I made recently for my friend Anth's birthday. I got this idea from Homemade by Jill. She does a lot of cute things that are really quite simple. So I started looking around for cute little things to go with them to complete the gift. Anth's had a small blue vase which I gave to her on her actual birthday but I had to finish the cloths and coasters later because there were just too many things to do and not enough time. I did pintucks on the blue one which was also an inspiration from Jill. Pintucks are so tailored looking and anyone who can sew straight lines can do pintucks. I love them.

I should have taken better pictures of the coasters. This green one was for my sister Staci's birthday. I found the tea pot at Goodwill and the fabric I had bought a while back just because I liked it. When I sent it I got matching jelly beans to put in the tea pot. It was really fun to put together.

What I found in the nightstand when I was taking it apart...

2010-04-30T15:38:00.000-07:00

I think that this night stand might have belonged to Macgyver before my parents because these look like items that could be used to escape from a tight spot. That's a rifle bullet, penny and an Advil. The only thing missing is a stick of gum.

What I am painting...

2010-04-29T13:34:00.001-07:00

BEFORE

PRIME AND PAINT

PUT IT ALL BACK TOGETHER

AFTER:

GLAZED AND SET UP IN OUR BEDROOM

Do you like how I didn't even make our bed for the picture? We got a beautiful bedroom set for free from my parents but the dark woodgrain was too dark for my room decor and a bit dated. I used off white and I think you can appreciate all the details of the furniture better with the lighter color. I had a bit of a problem putting hardware back on but I was able to make it work. I wasn't sure if I was going to like the finish (brushed nickel) that I chose but ended up loving it. I can't wait to finish the bed frame and the large dresser with mirror. More pictures to follow of course. The set only came with one nightstand so this is on DH's side of the bed. I would like to find a small pedestal table for my side. For now all my things are on the floor.

If you want to learn how I did this go here. This night stand used one can of primer and two cans of paint. If I wasn't using the faux technique then I think I would have used at least another half can. Painting from dark to light takes A LOT of paint. It wasn't hard once I got the hang of it but it is time consuming. ***Extra time needed if you are a perfectionist!

Here's my tips:

Make sure you keep the paint at room temp. I was doing all my work in the garage where it's 50 to 60 degrees and that's not a good place to store the paint right before you are going to use it.
You must be in a well ventilated area. Wear a dust mask. I think I may even plug my nose with tissue before I start the next piece of furniture because I felt like my nose got burned out.
Keep all your hardware in a baggy or can so that none of it gets lost. I kept all my tools and hardware in a #10 can and that worked out well.
Remember to cover an area way wider than you will be painting.

p.s. I almost forgot tell you the coolest thing about this little nightstand. The top of it slide forward and in the back is a secret compartment for valuables. We have very few of those but now we have a cool hiding spot. The kids know about it so it doesn't really work for that.

UPDATE:
HERE'S THE LINK TO THE FINISHED BED SET.

What I put up today...

2010-04-17T17:54:00.000-07:00

(That's my lazy Saturday do.)

Mya and I put together this fabric covered cork board. So here is what I did.

1. I google searched "fabric covered cork board."
2. I used my 40% off coupon to buy the cork board at Michael's and another 40% off coupon to buy the spray on adhesive.
3. Bought the fabric and ric rac at JoAnn's.
4. A couple weeks later decided to get it done and it took less than two hours.
5. Cut the fabric using the inside measurements of the cork board plus leaving an extra two inches on each edge to fold under.
6. We pressed out the fabric and pressed two perpendicular sides under 2 inches.
7. We layed out newspaper on the floor of the garage for our work space and then used blue painter's tape around the frame of the cork board to protect it from the adhesive spray.
8. Sprayed the cork board with spray adhesive using sweeping motions back and forth.
9. Used the pre-folded sides of the fabric to line up on the edges first then smoothed the fabric across. Once it was pretty smooth I had to fold back the other two edges and fold them under then press it back down. Removed the painter's tape
10. I don't think I sprayed on enough glue but I did end up putting staples right along the edge of the folded fabric which ended up being mostly covered up by the ric rac.
11. Then we used fabric glue to put the ric rac on along the edge.
12. Last we hung it and replaced the girls fabric names around the edge which ended up putting too many little holes in the walls which was annoying. I even used the stud finder to make sure the hooks were nice and sturdy.

A couple weeks before I even started collecting all the supplies I found these cute fabric covered push pins at the dollar store and they ended up matching the fabric perfectly.

I think if you wanted you wouldn't have to fold the edge under 2 inches but then you would probably end up having to trim your fabric in the process because of the way the fabric stretches and pulls. You can't pre-fold all your edges for this same reason.

If I don't count the cost of the spray adhesive, which will be handy for other projects, then I think the whole thing cost me under $15. Once site I read a woman looks for old cork boards at garage sales and Goodwill which would be a much better deal.

What I made today...

2010-04-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

I found this idea at Purl Bee and then I went here and ordered some felt and today I made this in about 30 minutes but only because I was taking my time and it was my first one. I think I could put one together in about 15 minutes. At first I was disappointed mine didn't turn out so great but then I decided it looks a lot like ones from Purl Bee and I shouldn't be so critical. I think I am going to make one more and send them to my niece for her birthday. Aren't they cute?

13 kids

2010-02-23T13:59:00.000-08:00

We had a little dose of what it would be like living in a house with a large family. We invited my cousins and their families over for dinner Saturday night before Valentine's day. We had 13 kids and 6 adults. We had Hawaiian haystacks for dinner which turned out perfectly because everyone could eat what they liked. We decorated and ate sugar cookies and played a fun candy bar game. We had a great time and I can't wait to do it again. With all those kids we didn't have any fights and they all played together really well. It reminded me of being a kid and playing with my cousins which was what I did everyday.

Things keep breaking

2010-01-28T11:07:00.000-08:00

Every month I think I am going to save a little money but it's not to be. Here's the list of broken things that will eventually need to be replaced.

Desktop computer

Carpet cleaner

Washing machine

Dryer

Brakes on the Honda

Van (working right now but I don't trust it)

I think that's it for now but I am just waiting for something else to break. When the washer over-flowed yesterday I just laughed. It's still kind of working but I don't think it will last much longer. And I have no idea why my dryer has lasted so long.

Dream analyzer?

2010-01-07T22:50:00.000-08:00

All my dreams lately are in my childhood home but in every dream the house has been remodeled and is slightly different, better in fact than when we lived in it. I loved our renovated school house but the dreams are all anxious and bizarre. What do you think that means? It's messing with my head.

I like my other reoccurring dream where I'm in high school again and I can never figure out which locker is mine but no matter what combination I try it always opens any locker I try. It reminds me how I never ever would want to relive my high school life. Yay for being grown up.

Another reoccurring dream is where DH makes me go back to college in another state to finish my degree but at some point I figure out there's no way he can work and take care of the kids. Who is going to take care of the kids? And I don't want to go back to college right now.

2010-01-05T10:10:00.000-08:00

DH is a school teacher so he got to be home for two weeks during the winter break. I love it when he is home but quite often two things happen; he gets sick and we have some sort of disagreement. I have to admit the offense is usually my fault for over-reacting to something and he finally loses his patience with me. He is the most patient person I know. 2009 was no fights for the Christmas Break. It really is a Christmas miracle. Either I was extra good or he was extra patient with me. We are trying to get better at communicating since we both have a tendency to be passive-aggressive. He didn't get sick so I have to say it was the best Christmas break ever. We were both sad for him to go back to work yesterday. And we are a little tired because we stayed up late every night and slept in every morning. It was fabulous. We can't fall asleep at a reasonable time but we still have to get up early. Hopefully in a few more days we'll adjust back to real life. I miss having a grown up to talk to during the day.

I almost forgot to mention that he did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen everyday. Now I have to do it. Rrrr.

Which is worse?

2010-01-03T15:09:00.000-08:00

Since my DH is home for two weeks during the winter break we head to the family cabin for a few days. It's fun except that we usually don't sleep very well and this time the hot water heater stopped working. I spent most the time reading Phantom by Susan Kay. It's a bit cheesy but very entertaining. Especially if you are in the woods at night.

I had taken a shower Monday and Tuesday we headed to the cabin. I thought I'd take a shower that night. No hot water, no shower. We weren't planning on coming home until Thursday. By Wednesday afternoon I was so gross that I could smell my own stench. I am always cold, I hate it and I am quite whiny about it too. But I thought I could be tough enough for a few minutes to get clean or at least not as disgusting. I stuck my head in the shower and I could hold it in there for about 10 seconds at a time before the back of my head started to freeze. I'd pull my head out and let it thaw then do it again. After that I wrapped my hair up in a towel then I jumped in the shower and twirled around twice, jumped out to thaw and did it again. I may have done that three times.

Now I know what I hate worse. What is it for you, being dirty or being cold?

Cute Apron and Chef's Hat pattern giveaway

2009-12-08T14:08:00.000-08:00

I entered this cute giveaway.

Thought I needed a break?

2009-11-05T19:55:00.000-08:00

I really felt like I needed a break but not to be. I had a huge event for our young women at church and I had volunteered to do all the last minute running around. I was almost to Costco, my last stop and my brakes starting giving out. Luckily my fabulous SIL Brittany was able to pick me up. I was grateful that I had gotten everything I needed but I nearly had a bad panic attack right before leaving to the young women's activity. I felt better once I got there and made it through the evening. That was last night and today I feel better. I am painting so I have been light-headed from the fumes. I really would have been able to handle the broken car if there hadn't been several other stressful things going at the same time. I am also grateful that I had left Em and Ballerina with Deena and Mya and Cory were at school. Many $'s later the van is fixed. That makes 4 repairs in three months. My van has over a hundred thousand miles so it's just going to have those problems but I really want to wait until next year before buying a new van. So I guess I'll keep fixing it.

When I called the tow company the guy who was helping me asked, "Is this the Kendra that married Scott and worked at the cannery." That was a weird question but it was a guy from high school and he and I were the only two non-Mexican workers at the cannery that summer. We hung out together on our lunch breaks and I never would have survived that icky job if it wasn't for him. He even gave me the nicest card at the end of the summer which I have never forgotten. What a funny coincidence to talk to him like that. He was a year younger than me but Scott remembered him too because he was such a nice guy. He must have like me for me because I never wore makeup to that job and I wore a hairnet everyday.

Tomorrow is Mya's 11th friend birthday party. We invited 13 girls and only a few have RSVP'd which is kind of frustrating that I don't know how many girls to expect. We are doing a Fondue theme. It should be fun no matter how many girls show up. She wanted a RC truck so I got her a giant one at Costco. The great thing about having an 11 year old is that she is so ready to babysit and that means a lot more freedom for me. I love it. For now I only have her babysit when I am no more than 5 minutes away. We might try going 10-15 minutes away in a month or two.

La la la la la la la

2009-10-29T20:20:00.000-07:00

DH took this picture from our front yard. I haven't been blogging much or reading blogs. I am feel way behind. I had a subject I wanted to blog about but I keep trying to decide if it will come out right. October has been busy. The first half was mostly getting ready for Em's carnival birthday party which was TOTALLY AWESOME. I wish I had more time to do more but it was fun just the way it was. Em loved it.

Struggles: I have had a hard time focusing when my 10 and 9 year old talk to me. They talk so much and sometimes so randomly that my brain cannot keep up or slow down enough to concentrate on the meaning of the message. I find myself getting very frustrated with them. I am trying to be more attentive and control my temper.

Cor has been working so hard on his reading and spelling and I am so proud of his progress. He is very consistent with his spelling errors that I think things will eventually click for him. Either way I think we will have him tested for any learning disabilities. He is constantly switching his b's and d's which I remember doing too.

I had my once a month day that I get totally irritated with my lack of being able to keep the house clean. Usually I get over it and I am lazy again. I did decide that having a clean home would bring me a great deal of satisfaction and the only way that was going to happen would be if I started cleaning more consistently. I have a system but I had to start using it. So I have been doing really good this week. It is evening now and I cleaned and worked hard all day and my house is still a little messy but that is the mess that my little ones made after I cleaned. Ballerina did inform me that she was not going to clean up. She wanted to see what she could get away with. She did clean up her room so she could play on the computer. She did pretty good for being four years old. My room is very clean but I still have a few piles of projects that need to get finished and put in their place. I cleaned the mirrors and windows in my room today. I dusted a little, made the bed and lit the candle. I was trying to decide if I was being uptight when I informed DH that I don't like it when he wrestles with the kids on our bed. Especially when I have made the bed and they turn it into a big mess. The kids undo all the cleaning I do in the rest of the house and I really want my room to be off limits. As it is they are constantly dropping their stuff in there. At night I usually gather it all up and throw it out in the hall. I want my room to be a place where I don't have to think about all the stuff.

I used to fold my laundry on our bed but then I would leave it there then we would have to pile it on the floor and sometimes it would be there for days. I have moved the folding to the couch where I feel more motivated to get it put it away. I am totally caught up on my laundry. I only had to do one load today. My goal is two loads a day. I don't think I'll have enough to do laundry tomorrow. My dryer is dying so I am waiting for it to give out completely.

Things I need to buy:

Dryer
Carpet Cleaning, mine is dead
Tile for the backsplash in the kitchen
Bathroom faucet for Master bedroom
Flooring for Entry, Kitchen and Family room
A dressy coat for me
Curtains for the sliding door so I can get rid of the horrible, dirty blinds hanging there now. Why would you hang blinds that are impossible to clean? I don't understand it.

That's just off the top of my head. I know there is more but I don't even want to think about it. We were going to do the wood floors down the hall when we did the entry, kitchen and family room but now I am thinking that will be way too noisy. I think I want to put a berber carpet in the hall. It will be tougher and softer. Hopefully that's a realistic plan. The main obstacle with all of them is $. I am working on a savings plan but it will still be a while before I can afford floors especially if I am forced to buy a dryer.

I would also like to rip out the backsplash in both the bathrooms but I need to finish the kitchen first. I have a problem staying focused on one project until it's done. Hence the reason I have not had a consistently clean house. DH is always focused and I am trying to be a little more like him.

Mental struggle: I have been a little crazy lately and more weepy. Just hormones because I wasn't any more stressed than normal. I start worrying that no one loves me and I have failed at everything I've ever done. Yes, it's all so dramatic but I give into it until I talk some sense into myself. I hardly ever cry so when I start crying over one of the kid's movies then I know something is not working. Am I the only one that feels a little broken sometimes??? I feel better now. I don't ever remember feeling that way before I had kids, sleepless nights and an endless list of responsibilities. But I can't remember in detail my feelings or struggles prior to having children. I am amazed when I read my journal because my life is so different now.

My current stage of life is half a day with only one of my four kids. I love it. I love having the quiet time with Ballerina. Em comes home happy and plays so well with Ballerina. I can run errands in the morning just with Ballerina or short ones with both of them in the afternoon. I still have no clue what I will do when all of them are in school all day but I am confident I will come up with something. The logical answer would be to go back to school but I am not sure I'll be ready for that.

I know a totally pointless blog entry but that's what is up with me.

Summer Projects

2009-09-27T15:46:00.000-07:00

Mya's room was one of the summer projects. This is a picture of Mya's stuff that I piled in the living so we could sort it out. For the most part I let my kids determine how and when they clean their rooms but Mya asked for help. One day I decided to tackle it. It took 1 1/2 hours just to take everything out of the room. We sorted through it all, threw away a lot, recycled a lot of papers. I think it's pretty reasonable now. I told Mya she could no longer give Cor a hard time about how gross his room is. That was over a month ago and I walked in there this week and it looks about the same as it did before I cleaned it. I don't go in there unless I have to. It bothers me that her and Cor's rooms are so messy but kids have to have their own space. We help Cor with his more often.

This was another project. The roof wasn't great when we bought the house and we knew we would someday have to replace it. Four and half years later we decided it was time to get it done. The priests (16-18 year old boys) from our ward came and helped tear it off for a service project. That was a huge help. A friend of ours who does construction gave us a great deal and had some of his guys come out and put the new roof on. It was a noisy week abut now its a beautiful new roof. It's hard to get excited about your roof but we tried.

Here's the new counters. The old ones were white with blue and pink speckles. Icky. The picture of the new ones looks very green and I don't think they look that green in real life. The sample we got didn't look green at all. We like it and this weekend I worked on staining the mitered corners. We are still looking for tile for the backsplash. Our great friend Brent helped DH insall the new counters. They just glued it on top of the old laminate, formica whatever it's called. It's has a cool texture that makes it always look wet and the dark color hides the dirt well. If you look at the above picture and the cupboards look different colors. That's the difference between regular light bulbs and the fluorescent. The cupboards closest to you looked so much warmer. We took out the florescents and felt a little guilty but we've gotten over it. We still use florescent bulbs in the other rooms but not in the bathroom because they made my hair look green.

Right after we got back from Fiji I decided I couldn't stand the sick color of the walls in my Master bedroom any longer. We painted all the walls white and one accent wall blue. It's lovely and serene. I am working on decorating the rest of the room but it's still kind of a mess. We both love the blue color which is a relief since picking out paint color can go very wrong sometimes. I also like the clean feeling of the white walls. Our room is getting closer to being a sanctuary than a place to dump our junk.

I wanted to do the floors in the entry, hall, kitchen and family room with some laminate wood flooring but the savings account was not sufficient to fund that project so it will have to wait a little longer. We also need a need a new entry chandelier, new kitchen faucet, bathroom faucet, door knobs and the list goes on and on. But that's how it is when you own a home and a limited amount to spend on it. I am very pleased with what we've accomplished this year. We had to buy a new dishwasher and a new microwave too which wasn't really fun but necessary.

Fogarty Beach

2009-08-25T14:05:00.001-07:00

This was a super fun beach. It had this creek where the kids could play and move the rocks around. The sand was not really sand but small rocks. It was darker too so it was pretty hot. DH and I were sad we both forgot to bring books. We played for over four hours before we decided it was time to head home. We used to go to this beach a lot when I was a kid, with all my cousins.

There's Cor checking out some sea weed or pieces of wood to carve. There is a lot of sea weed on this beach and the ocean crashes huge waves right up on shore. So it wasn't really safe to play in but the creek was fun and the waves were amazing to watch. That big rock ahead of him is perfect for climbing on.

Ballerina and I were going to climb the big rocks but she didn't like the loud, large waves so we played in the creek and tried not to burn our feet. I know that doesn't sound like fun but it was a perfect day. It was almost 70 degrees and not enough wind to fly our big kite but it was nice not to get blown away. We'll definitely be back to this beach. We should have brought our swim suits, it's just that you don't always think to bring those when going to the Oregon coast. I didn't even have to wear a jacket this time.

Unless we plan an extended family trip every couple months we watch the weather and go on a day it's forecasted to be nice. DH had to go back to work on Tuesday and Monday looked to be the nicest day at the coast this week so it worked out perfectly.

Summer Fun

2009-08-09T19:53:00.001-07:00

If we are friends on Facebook you'll have already seen my pictures for our trip to Fiji. Fiji was definitely the highlight of our summer. But we have also done a lot of other cool things with the kids. It has been a magical summer.

Swimming at the Reed Cabin. It's so nice to have the cabin and the great swimming spot available whenever we want. We stayed 2 nights and 3 days recently and it was so fun. DH's sister Kim's family came too. We stayed a night while DH's brother was here for the 4th of July weekend. This last time Em discovered that the life jacket is trustworthy and she was swimming everywhere and jumping in a bunch of times. At first she was so scared to get in but once she discovered she could be independent and safe she was so proud of herself.
Safety Town for Em and Ballerina. They learned so much that I had tried to teach them but when I taught them it was scary. They had a lot of fun and made some friends.
Here's Em at swim lessons. Em wouldn't ever leave the wall but she did get better at her swim techniques. Cor and Mya both did great and are very confident in the water. Ballerina was so funny at lessons but she made some strides in her confidence in the water.
Here's Jenna (one of my sisters) holding Brooke, our neice. That's Abby, Jenna's 2nd daughter, at Agate beach which was really windy that day. We had so much fun with Jacob and Heather's family when they were here for a week in June. The weather at the beach was perfect. Their four kids and our four kids all played together happily and there weren't any injuries the whole week. That's a miracle.
While Jacob and Heather were here we spent part of one day at OMSI. It was so much fun and we have a family pass and this is the first time I've been there. I'd go all the time if it wasn't for the drive. In the picture is Ballerina (pink), Emily (blue) and Kylie (brown).
Our cool friend has a boat so we had a boating date. We went with the Anth, her husband (cool friend) and Kirk and Brittany. DH's sister was nice enough to watch the kids. This is DH and Kirk trying to hold on while cool friend is trying to dump them off. Brittany and I got on the tube on the conditions that we would not end up in the water. Cool friend assured us we would stay dry. Unfortunately their was a problem and we ended up in the Willamette River. Oh well. I did find out my pink shorts are see through when wet. Good thing I had my bathing suit on underneath.

rain, swimming, interviews, shopping and cute dresses

2009-06-05T09:07:00.000-07:00

I love summer. How I love summer. My favorite part has to be WARMTH! I prefer being too warm to being even slightly cold. For over a week we've had warm weather. We did have Thunder and Lightning storms the last couple days which was amazing. We so rarely get lightning, it was exciting. But Cor went to go swimming with the Scouts yesterday and they were only in the pool a few seconds before they had to get out and take cover.

Summer also means Ballerina's birthday in a few weeks. Her birthday is actually on the official first day of summer and this year falls on Father's Day. We are having her first "friend" party on the Saturday before. I thought I was being smart and ordering her party supplies early. I ordered Em's too late and they weren't here for her party. They arrived almost a week ago, three weeks before her party. She was so mad that I wouldn't let her have the party that very day. So we printed a calendar with a few other important dates on it and every day we put a star on the calendar to mark the days passing. She is only slightly pacified by this activity.

Summer means cute dresses every where and I am caught up in the trend (not to be confused with a fad). I would even say Spring/Summer dresses are a Classic. I just ordered three fun dresses online and Anth help me find one at JCrew for under $20 which is my criteria. Anth and my Sister Staci got me into wearing skirts which is fun but I am so ultra picky about how things fit around my waist. I have found that I prefer a fun knee-length dress. All are sleeveless but I am prepared with several new layering tees.

Yay for end of the school year. DH finished his last Administrative this week and even got a call from the school district for an interview for a Vice-principal position. That is next Tuesday. I don't know how anxious he is about it but I can't wait. We've been so busy all week that we haven't had time to talk about it. He is glad to have the opportunity to interview. It makes all the work seem more worthwhile. I am so proud of him and excited to see where this will take him in his future job opportunities.

Baseball is almost over for Cor. It has been a lot of work just running one kid to all his practices and games. DH and I decided were just not as into that as other parents. Maybe later when all our kids are older it won't seem so exhausting to take all of them everywhere. On Wednesday I spent over four hours driving my kids to all their stuff then we ended up at the church for my meetings and DH met me there to pick up the kids. I was so frazzled by the end.

Summer will be a nice break from the endless scheduled events. Plus a vacation to beautiful South Pacific should be rejuvenating.

Today's Shopping Trips

2009-05-21T21:14:00.001-07:00

I didn't take pictures but I think I did good today.

I went to Safeway and I bought 35 items. I spent $44.27. I saved $43.83 which was 50%. The average price of each item was $1.26. Not too bad.

I also went to Walgreens and spent $26.48. I got 13 items. Each item averaged about $2.06. Which is still pretty good considering the items I was buying. I also got $7 in register rewards so you could say my total is $19.48 which would make the average price of each item $1.50. But I usually use my register rewards for the kids to get stuff.

Tomorrow I am going to try and go to Walmart to get Cory a new sleeping bag for our trip to the cabin. It's the Cabin Work weekend. We go to DH's Mom's family cabin and do cleaning and repairs. All the Aunts, Uncles and cousin who can make it come up too. There aren't any huge projects this year so we'll clean for a while and eat a lot. It should be fun. Mya and Cor are really excited.

I also have a gift card from my birthday and I am going to look for a clock to put above my sewing desk. I usually need to know the time when I am sitting there and I can't see the clock on the stove or the microwave from that angle. When I am in the middle of something I don't want to get up.

It's been such a crazy week and I am exhausted.

Deals at Albertson's Today

2009-05-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

I spent $15.58 for all this. The average price of each item was $.71. My total savings was $64.40. I am pretty happy with it. I am trying to figure out this whole couponing thing. That blury spot in the picture I am pretty sure is from the girls putting their fingerprints on the camera.

Waiting

2009-05-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

Everyone is waiting for something:

I am waiting for Summer.
Designated Hitter is waiting for Administrative classes to be over (only 2 left).
Mya is waiting for more books to read.
Cor is waiting for whining to work.
Em is waiting for Kindergarten.
Ballerina is waiting for Jesus to come.

Awesome Mother's Day

2009-05-11T10:59:00.001-07:00

I had a great Mother's Day. Designated Hitter did everything I told him to and then some. I got perfume, lotion and Pride and Prejudice (the old one, of course). Mya made me a poem and card and Cor made me a fridge magnet. Ballerina told me Happy Mother's Day about every 15 minutes. Em decided to be true to her personality and refused to recognize anyone's happiness but her own. If there's any kind of pressure to conform she opposes it. She is a very good kid otherwise. We watched P and P all day. I really got to relax.

Blogs to check out...

2009-05-04T14:06:00.000-07:00

DH started this blog:

Yak Brothers of Oregon

My SIL started this one and she takes lovely pictures:

BELS Photos

birthday festivities

2009-04-26T16:32:00.001-07:00

I had a really good birthday. There was a few things that it was not but those I was able to get over.

My 8 year old son Cor had discovered yesterday morning that my birthday had arrived and he didn't have a present for me. Actually, all the kids came to this conclusion at once. Em was bothered by it for a while but eventually gave up because being five rendered her powerless to do anything about it. Cor tried to convince me at the grocery store to buy a gift card that he would give to me then he would pay me back when we got home. I told him I wouldn't do that. Later I got in the shower. About the middle of my shower I saw one of the kids run in and out of my bathroom. A few minutes later Cor came running through again. I looked out and Cor had place $1, a note and some rhododendron flowers on the toilet lid for me to find when I got out of the shower. I thought it was so sweet and that he wanted it to be a surprise and that he knew I would like the flowers.

Early in the morning my neighbor brought me a homemade cake with Sprinkles. Her husband has the same birthday as me so I thought that was really sweet.

My Dad called and sent me a text but both times I didn't have time to answer. He said he had arranged for the delivery of a gift from one of my siblings but has yet to appear. So I get to look forward to that on another day???

My SIL Brittany brought me Chicken Pot pie because I told her I wanted it for my birthday. I never make that because no one else in my family would eat it. I had some for lunch and it was fabulous. Oh and she got me a Hoops and Yoyo talking card and it's so CUTE. I heart Hoops and Yoyo.

My friend Becca brought me Pineapple cookies and they were so good. I ate most of them.

My brother Calvin, who works nights in a sleep lab, called me in the morning right when he got off work. He felt bad that I would minus a husband all day so later he brought me a chocolate cake and a talking The Office card and a gift card. And the cake had number candles on it--34!!!! I love number candles.

Oh, on Friday night I got to go out to dinner with some friends and my sister, Jenna. She brought me a gift card for Mary Kay and a talking birthday card. About a week ago I got a card from my oldest sister Staci for Victoria's secret. Yesterday I got a card from Scott's Aunt Jolae, she remembers everyone's birthday and she is my inspiration. I got a card from my in-laws with some cash. I put it in my can where I have been saving my sewing money.

I am very excited about all the money I get to spend on ME! La la la.

Past tense, last Sunday we had dinner with Deena's family and that was really fun and I considered it a pre-birthday dinner. Deena can cook and it was so nice to hang out with her great family and chat.

Saturday night after I got back from a dinner and church meeting with Elder Russell M. Nelson and Elder Michael Ringwood I had another gift from Anth waiting for me. She gave me a knife which I love and have already used it. It makes sense if you know how much we talk about food. A lot.

My niece Madeline babysat for me while I was at the dinner and church meeting and she didn't let me pay her. Super sweet girl and a great babysitter.

I am also excited because one of my favorite cousin's wife had a baby girl this month and they named her with a K and she was born in April so she is awesome. Because you know K names rock!

I've hardly seen Designated Hitter for more than an hour this whole week. That's definitely a thumbs down but it's been that way for months and probably will be for a couple more months so I can't start getting bummed about it now. DH has been feeling super guilty about not being around this weekend but I keep telling him that he has misplaced guilt. We'll see if he ever figures out or is brave enough to ask me what is really bothering me.

Talking birthday cards, lots of dessert and a husband who may have misplaced guilt but he is totally devoted to the Lord, to me and our family. Overall it was a very good birthday.

Here's my cutey kids

2009-04-19T21:04:00.000-07:00

Don't they look like they love each other? So sweet.

I took these pictures this morning and almost cried because pictures I took actually turned out alright. That's a miracle.

This will make you cry...

2009-04-10T11:03:00.000-07:00

I read this in the Statesman Journal today.

A judge overseeing a civil lawsuit in Nassau County separately froze the assets of Madoff's brother, Peter.

Initially, Peter Madoff's lawyer claimed the freeze was so tight, he didn't have money to buy bread or take the subway. The judge responded by loosening his spending to $10,000 a month.

Madoff's sons also have to return $31 million in loans they took from their parents. So next time your kids ask for a treat that costs less than a dollar you might not feel so bad for spoiling them just a little.

This didn't make me cry but it did make me laugh.

Education

2009-04-05T20:26:00.001-07:00

I have been reading the April Ensign the last couple days and I liked a couple quotes that I thought I would share. The first when really summarizes how I feel sometimes. There is so much information out there and sometimes it's hard to determine what is truth. It seems like most everything is someone's opinion and can change at any time.

Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife Kristen M. Oaks

As we seek to receive and apply the guidance of the Spirit in a world driven by trends and issues of the day, we are confronted by an avalanche of often erroneous and trivial information served up by modern technology. We risk becoming what one observer called " 'pancake people'-spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by a mere touch of a button."

The next quote I liked because I have learned this over and over again in my church callings. Sometimes I get frustrated with my calling because things seem too hard and outside of my abilities and then I am reminded that the Lord will make me who I need to be. And he has so many times. It also reminds me of something my Dad might say and a quote my FIL would love because as he says: "I am a quote guy."

President Thomas S. Monson, as part of his message during the general Relief Society meeting held on September 29, 2007, told women; "Do not pray for tasks equal to your abilities, bvt pray for abilities equal to your task. Then the performance of your tasks will be no miracle, but you will be the miracle."

I consider myself to be a life-long learner even though I am not currently enrolled in school. I love to learn new things. I think I do put things in two categories; one, things I could easily learn and two, things too difficult. I avoid the difficult unless forced on me and I think that is limiting. It's a bad habit and one that will probably take some time to break.

I have been thinking again about my formal education and if there came a time that I would have to provide for my family I really wouldn't know what I would do. The education I have is in clothing and textiles and I right now I am not sure that would get me a job that would provide for my family if I had to. Right now I don't have to worry about it and I am extremely grateful but you never know what the future brings.

Is it weird that I want these?

2009-03-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

I found these in the Williams-Sonoma catalog and for some reason I think they are super cute and I want them for my Easter decor. But then I think maybe it's something freaky that a crazy old lady would have in her house. I don't want to scare my kids. What do you think?

I LOVE APRIL...I can't wait!

2009-03-29T22:06:00.001-07:00

Birthday Cakes from WiddlyTinks.com

I ask myself the serious questions

2009-03-18T12:33:00.000-07:00

Do I really need all those styling products to have beautiful hair?

I had a conversation with Anth lately about hair styling products because I am always trying to convince her that she should use something even though she has naturally fabulous hair. I am convinced that my hair needs all the help it can get. I decided I shouldn't be so stubborn in all my opinions. So I did an experiment. I only used one instead of FIVE products on my hair two days in a row. This product is a smoother and helps me to comb through the last of the tangles. The first day I let my hair dry on it's own and I didn't do anything in the way of styling it. It was a bit wavy and a little frizz. I think Designated Hitter (new name for my husband, get it DH) prefers my hair that way. I thought it was alright for staying home the whole day hair.

The next day I straightened it with the same product as the first day. I didn't think it was going to turn out but my hair straigthened just fine. The only difference being that it was not as smooth but the difference was minimal, meaning only I would notice. I also got two separate comments that my hair looked lighter in color or shinier. I also thought it looked shinier.

Conclusion: One of the reasons I use so much hair product is to make my hair shinier and for more control but it seems to have the opposite affect. I think there's something psychological to using all those products. Even now that I realize that I don't need all that stuff to achieve basically the same affect I still have a hard time letting them go. I think I will still use them for special occasions and Sundays. The rest of the week I can use the one product and some hairspray and I should be able to save some money.

updates on sickville

2009-03-17T12:11:00.000-07:00

Well so far no one else is sick. Ballerina slept all night until 5 a.m. But she refused to go back to sleep so I let her get in bed with me. That was unpleasant but it was the only way to get her to stop whining. She loves milk and she bummed she can't have any today. I sent Mya and Cor to school with a juice pack and instructions not to drink milk. I was glad to see them feeling much better today. They have Thursday and Friday off school because of Conferences so they'll only have two days of school this week. I think Cor was excited about that and Mya was alright with it because we have fun things planned for Spring break. She's already been on me about what we have planned for each and every day.

A little update

2009-03-16T20:56:00.001-07:00

I was talking to a friend at church about how her family had the flu. She was telling me how terrible it was. When church got done Cor came into my classroom and said he felt like throwing up. He threw up most of the evening. A few hours after church Mya started feeling bad and she threw up all night. Loud, horrible retching sounds. She took care of herself but none of us got any sleep. Ballerina started throwing up. So far that's 3 out of 6. Em has happily announced that she is not sick and she won't be getting sick. We'll see. Mya and Cor stayed home and rested today and were able to eat very little. Ballerina's first vomit was while she was attempting to give me a hug then she backed up so most of the puke landed on the couch next to me and on the back of my pant leg. I got that cleaned up and she has succesfully been able to puke in her bowl ever since. She can't decide if she wants to stay up or go to bed. So she is going to make it a long night. She has been following me around telling me she is sick. I'm so tired that I'm starting to lose my patience with her.

Pre-puking Ballerina was quite the silly girl this weekend. Before I got in the shower Sunday morning she said she wanted to get dressed. I told her I would get her dressed after my shower. During my shower she came in to ask if she could take her panties off. She had already taken her pajamas off. I told her to wait till I got out of the shower. She came back a couple minutes later with no panties and a dress she wanted to wear. I told her she needed a shirt to wear with it and panties. So she went back and pulled a sweater out of the closet. She ran around naked, doing naked tricks, while I got dressed. The rest of the kids think it's gross when she runs around naked but I think it's so cute.

DH took his Praxis test for his Administrative license. He was really frustrated because his study guide didn't prepare him for the test at all. He doesn't think he did very well but we won't know the results for four weeks.

Things I've actually accomplished...

2009-02-24T14:12:00.000-08:00

So here is my counter/work space/desk. Usually all my papers and junk are spread out over the entire counter and the pile just grows bigger and bigger until it falls off the counter and I am forced to sort through it and put it away where it goes. Then I find things I should have taken care of a week ago. It's a sad and inaffective system. DH makes fun of it all the time. I have been working on keeping the pile small lately just to say "I love you" to DH (not that he noticed). I have been looking for some type of filing system to get the papers organized. Something simple, not too cutesy and not plastic. I found this at Costco today for $14.95. I would have loved a better price but I just finished my taxes so I'm feeling ritzy. I am so pleased.

Here is the cupboard above it. I did do a little decluttering in the cupboard above it so I could give myself even more pats on the back. At the top is the can of paint that is for the kitchen walls. The tub on the top shelf is all the manuals for all the appliances and such that I hardly need but it's nice have them all in one place. The purple tub holds a variety of pens, pencils, erasers, screwdrivers, etc. The basket next to it is my small collection of cake decorating supplies. It doesn't really makes sense to have it in this cupboard but that's where it is for now. My phone charger is next to it. And all my recipe books and Household Organizer notebook. I also have a Christmas Organizer notebook. All these notebooks could use some cleaning out and reorganizing.

Here are pictures of the two dresses I just made for a friend of mine D. D. Her two girls are flower girls in a wedding this weekend. I really didn't have time for these but I am so glad that I did them anyway because it made me do some sewing and I felt good about that. They turned out super cute and she has super cute girls. I couldn't decided which one of these pictures would post better so I just put them both on here. I tried a new zipper method that came with the pattern and I like it so I scanned the instructions in and printed a copy to use as a reference for later. I also tried the rolled hem on my serger which I had never had tried before because I thought it would be too much work to set it up. It was really easy. A woman from church is supposed to come this week and bring me the stuff for two bridesmaid dresses. It's fun to earn a little cash. I am saving up all my sewing money and hiding it but I haven't decided what I am going to use it for yet. I'm sure it won't take long for me to think of something(s).

Stephenie vs. Sarah

2009-02-20T16:42:00.000-08:00

I still can't quite get into The Host. I am about 53 pages in and it still annoys me. The story is tolerable so I can only conclude it is the writing. I had started two other books. One was A Piece of Work which I enjoyed. The other was recommended by Anth. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen.

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this book right from the beginning. It was magical and romantic. Everyone ends up "perfectly" happy in the end. An ideal girl book.

FYI-It does have some swearing and sexual content.

View all my reviews.

Everyone I know is sick...

2009-02-17T23:15:00.000-08:00

Really, everyone!

Update

2009-02-11T21:14:00.000-08:00

I wrote a few emails to my sister today so I am just going to copy and paste a few things to give an update on what we did this week.

I didn't get to exercise till today, since last Thursday. So I was feeling pretty blobbish. Monday and Tuesday I was going none stop all day so that has to count for something. Monday I was still blowing my nose pretty frequently and Sunday I stayed home with the girls. Yesterday was a lot better but today my throat is dry and hope it doesn't develop into a cough. It's so annoying.

I took Em to the dentist yesterday. This was her second visit. I have absolutely no recollection of the first visit and it was only six months ago. She was so funny. She had a goofy grin on her face the whole time and was having such a good time. They kept telling her how well she followed directions and they told me she was so smart. So we all felt good. She has lots of space in her mouth so that may be one kid who won't need braces. She normally doesn't like doctors appointments but she is getting more confident about trying new things and tolerating new people. At home she is trying to be nicer to everyone. Ballerina still throws quite a few fits a day but when she is happy she is adorable. She really enjoys life. Cory tried going three days without pullups at night and he wet the bed all three nights so he's back in the pullups. He's also having a problem with telling me the truth when the answer might get him in trouble or create more work on his part. I got so upset with him one day for lying right to my face and yet he is still doing it. I'm not sure what to do about it.

We've been rockin out to Plain white t's music. It didn't occur to me that I could watch music video's on youtube. i'm slow.

I am having stir fry leftovers. Scott took the smaller tupperware. Sucka! Ballerina and Em are having cup o noodle, their favorite lunch.

Ballerina's new saying when em does something she doesn't like, "How dare you?" And for a while they kept saying they were going to "check you out." I kept trying to figure out what that meant. It was something bad. Finally I figured out that's their term for when they draw on each other's pictures when they are coloring.

IF you come over right now my house is clean. No one ever comes when it's clean. I could keep it clean for a month and no one would come till the day it got messy.

It's nothing against you Stephenie

2009-02-11T12:27:00.000-08:00

Maybe it's the way you have all e's and no a in your name. I don't know but I just started The Host hoping to be pleasantly surprised but so far I can barely get through the book. The prologue made me want to gag.
The Host: A Novel by Stephenie Meyer

My review

I am not very far into this book and I can't stand it. I am trying to figure out what I hate about it. Possibly the author. I am not sure. I am going to give it a hundred pages because it is for bookclub. I'll just call my niece and have her tell me how it ends. Sorry to all my friends who love it.

View all my reviews.

Nearly Impossible

2009-02-05T13:08:00.000-08:00

I just updated my accounts and I realized that I didn't go to Target the entire month of December. No Way!

We don't have a Walmart in Keizer so our only options are "Smelly Old" Bimart and Target.

The next project

2009-02-05T09:43:00.000-08:00

Here is my next project. This will be 2 flower girl dresses for a friend. It's in a silver-gray satin with a sheer overlay on the skirt. The neck is round (sweetheart neckline in the picture) and the hem will be straight and floor length. I will post the finished project later this month. I will be lining the skirt with a crinoline petticoat. She wants the skirt to stand out on the bottom. They want to look very princess. I will be using horse hair braid on the hem of the satin layer of the skirt. Pretty easy since I've done a lot of this style before.

I know I was just whining about being stressed then I take on these sewing projects. But I feel like if I don't I will never make time for sewing and that would be really sad for me.

Yucky Chuck E. and other people's kids

2009-02-04T08:38:00.001-08:00

So last Saturday I took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. Cory had earned it on his reading chart that DH made for reading at home. DH wanted to put it off, especially because he wasn't feeling well, but I want the kids to know we are reliable. If we say we are going to do something then we do it. I told DH to stay home and rest so he would be ready for our date that night that meant a lot to me. I hate places like McD's and Chuck E. Cheese because they make me feel dirty. I feel like I am being coated with germs, sweat, and pee the moment I walk in there. But the kids love it so I decided I could deal with it for a few hours. Saturday is the worst day to go but the only day we would be able to go. Cor and Mya got their tokens and I told them to stay together but they didn't have to stay with me. I kept Em and Ballerina with me. Ballerina kept wondering off. She is little and she would just start following who ever got in front of her. There weren't very many things they felt brave enough to do. We got our little prizes and were there for less than two hours.

The worst part was other people's kids. Little kids, younger than Em and Ballerina, were running around with no adult supervision. We had to wait our turn for every thing we wanted to do and half the time some kid would run up cut right in front of us. Or they would try to climb on a ride while one of the girls were on it. Sometimes I said something but most of the kids just ignored me. Later on Saturday I was at the grocery and some 8-10 year old kid came up and starting taking things out of my cart. I told him that was my stuff and he tossed it in the cart and ran off. Completely oblivious.

Today Ballerina has a runny nose and I am pretty sure I know where she got it from. But if I had to compliment Chuck E. Cheese it was nice that they had so many employees there and they kept people as organized as they could and kept the floors picked up.

Last night Ballerina came into our room. She can't breathe well so she couldn't sleep. We never let the kids sleep in our bed but I was so tired and I knew if I sent her back to bed I'd just be up with her again in a few minutes. So I let her have half the bed and I snuggled up on the other half with DH. She slept pretty good for several hours. About six in the morning she got up and went back to her own bed. I guess sleeping with Mom and Dad wasn't all she dreamed it would be. Maybe she'll realize her own bed is better. Doubtful but I can hope. Ballerina has been trying her whole 3 1/2 years to be able to sleep in our bed. She only sleeps through the night 2-3 nights a week. Now that she wears panties to bed we have to get up with her and take her to the bathroom. Good thing she is the baby.

DH went to the doctor yesterday because he had some really weird symptoms and Friday. And all weekend he was completely exhausted. He is a pretty healthy guy so it really worried him. The doctor thought it was a result of the all the stress he has been under. Sunday night I had talked to him about how stressful our life has been and the effect it's having on our relationship. We decided that we need to work on our communication since the stress is not going to end any time soon. Every night we've been sitting and talking. Sometimes it's hard to get DH to talk because he'd rather just listen. But he is trying. Last night I really confused him because I actually did want him to give me a solution to my problem. I am really stressed out. I feel like I am doing all I can but it's not nearly enough.

Yesterday, as we were crossing the street near the school one of the cars did not stop until the last possible second. The crossing guard was waving the flag at him. It was a bunch of teenagers and they were laughing. Where is a police man when you need one? So as we were crossing one of the other moms crossing yelled, "This is a School crossing you Jack-A**." She said that several times while she was surrounded by school children including mine. After that her boy was telling her something that happened at school and she asked him if he kicked their butt. This boy was a kindergartener. Luckily he said no in a confused sort of way. She used a few other offensive words in the 1 1/2 minutes we had to be near her. I didn't say anything because she was bigger than me, mean looking and also had another large, butch cut woman next to her and I am sure they would have been in no mood to take my constructive criticism. I understand that a lot of people using an excessive amount of foul language but to me it shows a severe lack of intelligence.

Today I was going to volunteer in each of the kids classrooms but I decided I better not take Ballerina anywhere. Now I have time to exercise and get ready for our Young Women activity tonight. Now I just got thinking about everything again and I am almost in tears. DH asked if he could help me with anything but I don't really need help I just need less to think about but that's just not going to happen. I know I need to be more patient with myself. If I don't learn how to deal with it I am going to have a breakdown soon. But I am probably just being dramatic.

This morning Em kept coming up to me and showing me her hand but she was holding it a different way each time. I kept asking her what I was supposed to be looking at but then she would say nothing and run off. She likes to be mysterious like that. Finally she came back to show me what she could do with her hand and she said, "K." She was doing sign language. It was on the back of her cereal box. She just showed me the sign for "E" for Em. Apparently I don't need to teach my kids anything and just buy more store brand cereal.

Cor just started piano lessons and he doesn't want Mya to help him. Mya has been taking lessons for over two years. Their teacher told them it would do them both good if he would let Mya help him when he practices. This morning Cor was working on a little song and Mya came up and starting helping him and after a little encouragement from me he watched her and listened. It really made me happy to see them learning together. I loooooove that my kids are playing the piano. Their teacher is amazing because she recognized immediately that Mya and Cor have completely different learning styles but both work well for learning to play the piano.

Fun with my KitchenAid

2009-01-20T20:28:00.000-08:00

I should be posting this on my cooking blog but it's mostly bragging about how much I love my KitchenAid stand mixer.

My mom found this Mixer Attachment pack at a garage sale then never used it. I sent her my I want it vibes and when she was packing up to move she gave it to me. It was pretty dirty and had mouse droppings in it from being stored so long. I brought it home and put it in the garage so that I could get around to it later. I didn't want to bring it in until I was ready to clean it up. DH mistook it for something that needed to go to the attic. My electric cheese grater broke a couple months ago and I am so sick of grating cheese by hand. Tonight I asked DH to go find the box that had the attachments in it.

I got it out and cleaned it up. It's only missing that little brown thing called the stomper that pushes the food down into the mill. And if I get the plates (around $30) I could make pasta with it. My mom used to make homemade pasta when we were kids and I loved it.

The whole pack is worth $130 on Amazon. It's just too bad I didn't have it when my babies needed everything mashed. It would have been handy for that. I guess I'll use it for my grandbabies someday.

GorillaPod

2009-01-16T13:53:00.000-08:00

I saw this on the Selfish Mom blog. It's called a gorillapod. And now I think I need it.

Emergency Preparedness Giveaway

2009-01-16T13:29:00.000-08:00

I just found this website that has tons of info on emergency preparedness and has a give-away each month.

2009-01-15T10:51:00.000-08:00

In our little town of Keizer there is this woman who runs up and down the main road. She has an 80's look to her and she runs daily and and she has a jogging stroller for her child that never seems to get any older. A couple years back they put a picture of her on the cover of the Keizer Business Directory. She is an icon of Keizer.

I like to walk and I have a double stroller and mostly I use it for my little girls to ride in while I walk with Cory and Mya to School and back. It's about 1 1/2 mile round trip to the school and back and the idea is that I would do that twice a day. When the weather is nice I do that 3 to 4 days a week. It's cold enough right now I don't want to go outside unless I really have to. Actually I haven't wanted to exercise, I guess I am in a slump. I decided I needed some motivation. I decided that since I love my husband and I want him to have something nice to look at and not my flabby body. That sounds silly but that was motivation enough.

I also had car problems with my van. It would sometimes start and sometimes not. I could always get it to start on the 2nd or 3rd try but I was worried my luck would run out and eventually I would be stuck somewhere. The best time of day to take my van in would be when I only have the two girls but I didn't want to bother anyone with helping me get to the auto shop and back home. So I decided to walk. Yesterday when I went to drop the van off I kept track of the distance and it was a little over 3 miles. It was no problem and I made sure DH left me the Ipod touch so Em and Ballerina would have something to do otherwise they end up fighting a lot when they are in the stroller a long time. Walking home from the shop was no problem. Today I had to walk the kids to school then walk back to the shop to pick up the van. In all I think I walked 4 1/2 miles. This time was more up hill so I got a pretty good work out. I was joking with my sister that I could be the next Keizer icon.

I would like to have a nicer looking tummy and it seems like a worthwhile goal since my baby is 3 1/2 and I don't plan on having any more. Now I need to come up with some kind of plan for how I am going to get these abs of steel. I think I might do some research today. I know quite a few ab exercises from all the videos I have done so I could probably come up with something on my own. I am also trying to watch what I eat now that the holidays are over. I have 4 more pounds to lose to be at my ideal weight and I know that isn't much but it's really stubborn and won't leave easily. Being in shape and healthy is way more important than how much I weigh at this point. Having rockin' abs would definitely be a bonus.

Even when I have been in shape my legs are not the sexiest which is fine with me. My arms do look nice when they are more tone. My second motivation is our trip to Fiji this summer and I am hoping to spend a significant amount of time laying around on the beautiful beaches so I want to look as fab as possible. I don't have unrealistic expectations of looking like a movie star or super model but I know what potential my body has. And I do have the benefit of having a husband who likes me just the way I am. I know that helps my self image a lot.

Some friends at church keep encouraging me to attend their exercise group they have at the church building. I did that all last year and my little girls were such a pain, hanging on me all the time. This year they have worked out a babysitting system but I still haven't felt like going and I don't know why because I think it would be a lot more fun to exercise with others. I guess I feel like that will take up a good portion of my day and end up being more stressful than beneficial. Plus up to this point I haven't had Ballerina fully potty trained and I didn't want to deal with her and have the whole thing be a waste of my time. I have been pretty protective of my time lately. I don't know how effective it's been. I don't get a rush from being busy and going lots of places all the time and dealing with crying and the fights so I try not to go anywhere unless the benefit out weighs the trouble it takes to get there. I assume anyone with little kids knows what I am talking about.

I'd rather be naked than wear those clothes

2009-01-12T21:07:00.000-08:00

I thought I was being a nice mom instead I created a monster. At our last Enrichment meeting we had what we call the give away table where everyone brings their unwanted items to share with others. Anything left over is taken to Deseret Industries (DI) which is similar to Goodwill (GW). I got quite of few good things this time. One was a white Tinkerbell t-shirt for Ballerina. She was so excited about it and put it on right away.

She refuses to take the shirt off day and night. So every two days I have to peel it off of her and wash it. This afternoon I had an appointment so I told her she had to take the shirt off so I could wash it and get dressed in some clean clothes so we could go. She started crying and threw herself on the floor. I got two outfits out that she could pick from. This made her more angry and then she started taking the Tinkerbell shirt off saying she was never going to wear it again. Then she said she wanted to be naked jay bird (that's what we call it when someone is naked).

"I no wear those clothes. I be naked jay bird."

Basically she is saying she would rather go through life naked if she can't wear her favorite shirt. It's funny now but at the time I was pretty irritated because she made us late for my appointment and she cries and throws fits at least a hundred fifty times a day.

But she is now pooping every three days instead of once a week. That has made life a lot less stressful. She is also obsessed with playing Webkinz and even when Em begged her to come play she was more concerned about playing on the computer. She is a fun kid but she gets very focused on what she wants and it's impossible to change her mind. She gets that from her dad.

Addicted to Webkinz

2009-01-04T21:31:00.000-08:00

You need to buy a webkinz for your kids right now. The faster they get their webkinz the faster they can start having fun and learning. You and your kids can sit down and spend time together when you are showing them everything that they can do with their new pet. Your kids will love you forever. You definitely want to see your kids happy and to see them getting more education. What is better than them getting the education of responsibility that will help them throughout their whole life? There are more webkinz then you will ever be able to buy for your kids but letting them get one will make you and them happy. So go get one today.

This is a quote from the WebkinzHub website. I especially love the part, "Your kids will love you forever." Or until they want another webkinz.

DH and I have started playing the games for Em and Ballerina on the webkinz site to help them earn Kinzcash. Without Kinzcash Ballerina can't buy clothes or even food for her pet. Ballerina is 3 1/2 and most the games are too complex for her. Em stands next to her while she is playing and tells her what to buy. I don't think it is teaching either of them to be responsible. But they know it's just for fun and they only get a set amount of time each day to play. It's funny to watch Em on the computer she clicks around and does things on that website super fast without being able to read. She even memorized her login information.

Some of the games are really fun and challenging. Sometimes I like to play the mindless games just to feel good about myself. Cor is always low on cash and Mya has plenty to spare because she is careful with it. In real life and in Webkinz World. I love playing it so much that I find all other computer games a dissappointment because I am not earning Kinzcash. DH is just as hooked.

It's good having the computer in a central location where I can keep an eye on what they are doing. I don't let them play on it when I am in the shower or busy in another room. I constantly worry about how much time they spend on the computer, TV and other mindless entertainment. Cor thinks that's the only thing to do in the world. We really focused on getting him things for Christmas that might give him something else to do. I did teach him how to use the knifty knitter and he is knitting a hat. He is doing well and almost done.

R and R

2008-12-31T09:40:00.000-08:00

DH is a school teacher and because of the snow we had in December we had 3 weeks of Christmas Break instead of 2. The best part has been sleeping in. Next week we will be back to our regular schedule and I don't think we are going to adjust well. I don't think I've been out of bed before 8:30 the whole vacation. Not counting Sunday. This morning I woke Cor and Mya up at 9:30. I was tempted to let them sleep and see how long it would take them to wake up. But our church schedule will change for the new year and we will be going to church at 11:00 a.m. So now I can get up at 8 a.m. instead of 6 a.m. Ballerina and Em have been getting up at their usual time around 7:30 a.m. but then they play in their room for a while. They get the cat to come in then they close the door on her. She is usually dying for attention in the morning so that works out for her. The little girls come in and beg one of us to get up. If we have bananas on hand we tell them to have a banana for breakfast which they love.

Along with a lot of sleep there has also been a lot of yelling. My children have given up on their communication skills and no matter how much we talk about it their first attempt at conflict resolution is yelling and/or screaming. It is always unaffective but they keep doing it.

Much to my family's dismay I have gotten really sick of buying cold cereal. I try to buy the semi-healthy kind and one that they actually want but then they only eat the one they want and the others just sit there. DH wants yummy cereals for him to eat when he is hungry late at night because that is when he eats breakfast. But if I get the kind he wants then the kids will just want it and won't eat anything else. DH even tried to buy some cereal when we were wondering around the store. But they were $4 each. I said, "No way am I paying that much for cereal." He was really sad.

So I have been making real breakfast. I made my own whole wheat pancake mix (even ground my own wheat) and this morning I put blueberries in it. The kids won't eat it because they will only eat fresh, unbaked blueberries. It's sad. I also make oatmeal. They like oatmeal and pancakes but they would rather have disgusting, mostly sugar cereal. Boo Hoo. I don't feel sorry for them at all.

#29 Hang the stockings with Care

2008-12-26T14:19:00.001-08:00

On Christmas Eve day DH and I made a list of things that needed to been done before the dinner with his family that evening. We added a few silly things to make it more fun. We also added some obvious things just to make ourselves feel like we got a lot done. I am pretty sure that there were at least 30 things.

One thing was for DH to kiss me passionately which he never did but I never finished smacking him in the head 10 times. I think I got 4 done. We also color coded the list. Green was for things to be done anytime during the day and Red was for things that had to be done within the last 2 hours before the dinner like baking the ham. When we finished something we wrote "Merry Christmas" over the top of it .

Mya was watching us so she made a list of her own and even color coded it. I thought it was too cute not to share.

It's Snow Fun

2008-12-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

Ballerina looks so cute all bundled up. Do you like DH's yellow pants? Because I do.

The snow and watching the kids play has made Checkers really hyper.

Ballerina is bundled up so tight she can barely move her head around.

It might be hard to see here but our little tree is completely coated in about a 1/2 inch of ice. This was last night and today it's added another layer of snow on top of the ice. The weather man is calling it SNOWZILLA. DH is really excited about that. He is out now trying to shovel a foot of snow off the driveway so he can go to Walmart to pick up the kid's main gift for Christmas. I order it from the website and I used the Site to Store option. I wouldn't let him go get it last week because I thought it was too dangerous and now it's twice and dangerous. I feel dumb about that.

It's a BLIZZARD

2008-12-20T21:57:00.000-08:00

Cor and Ballerina

Mya

DH and Ballerina

Well it's not really but that's what we are calling it because it's the most snow we've gotten in a really really long time. The snow started last Sunday and it made our 2 week winter break into a 3 week winter wonderland. DH had so much fun this week playing in the snow and I had fun watching them from the window. I know I'm not the fun Mom I should be but I did make sure we had hot chocolate and hot cider supplies on hand. DH is a school teacher so that meant an extra week off of work for him too. Will we survive 3 weeks together? Well we barely survived the first week. DH and I make a good team but we have two completely different leadership styles. Both good just very different. So who is in charge when we are both home? The kids think it's me but I'm not really sure. That remains to be discovered and we may never know the answer.

I did try to have a togetherness/bonding family activity. It was called we'll all clean the house "together." The kids were suspisicious and DH hated the idea entirely. But I made them do it. I think sometimes it's good to learn to work together even if the job doesn't get done fast or right. DH is the get it done fast person and I am the get it done right person. I don't know if our togetherness time was emotionally productive for anyone but sometimes you just have to try things out.

DH tried building a giant snowman that didn't turn out looking anything like a snowman. He did build a snowman family at my request. They built several forts or barriers for snow ball fights but today he built a two room fort with a roof. The snowman family became part of the 2nd room. They have made the most out of the snow. I haven't gotten pictures yet because I had to charge the battery to the camera and sad to say I am still not confident on how to transfer the pictures from the camera to the laptop. It's pathetic. I will be forced to figure it out one of these days.

Last weekend I sent DH to Costco to pick up a few essentials such as pop-tarts. He called me from the store and asked if he could buy a robe. His old one is the one I made him the Christmas we got married so that would make it about 12 years old. It's really getting gross looking, enough that he has noticed. That means it's pretty bad. He got a nice polar fleece robe and has been wearing it almost everyday. We call it his smoking jacket. He looks very relaxed when he wears it. It's kind of funny to me. He has started to put a little more thought into his appearance and overall comfort of his clothes. I think I am starting to rub off on him. Yes!

2008-12-10T21:15:00.000-08:00

Here we are at Cor's baptism. Everything turned out so perfect that day. I even had to give a talk in Sacrament meeting. But I was so grateful that I had a perfect hair and skin day. That really only happens once every couple years. Cor had a good experience and everything went as planned. My parent's even came over from Utah for the weekend.

Here is DH and I at the Pacific City, Cape Kiwanda for his birthday weekend. We had such a good time and you can see what a beautiful day it was.

You can also see our new kitty, Checkers, getting comfy with her favorite person. I don't really care much for pets but DH has taken to the cat. The kids love her and she gets a lot of attention which she seems to enjoy. A better picture would have been of all the scratches Em and Val had all over their bodies the first couple weeks we had the kitty. Checkers is very very patient with them but they pick her up and carry her the wrong way all the time and eventually she gets scared and scratches them. She is getting used to them now and doesn't scratch them so much and we've only had her six weeks.

Successfully Potty Training the Wrong Way, a book by EdgyK

2008-12-09T07:53:00.001-08:00

I promise to never give anyone advice on potty training. I have successfully potty trained 3 of my 4 children the wrong way. I won't even tell you what I did because no one should follow my example. My first child potty trained so easily and probably would have trained herself even if I hadn't initiated it, so she doesn't count. I actually handed over potty training authority to my husband this weekend because I had lost all confidence in myself as a potty training mother. He pretty much used the same method I ended up using on Cor and Em. Ballerina could pee and poop in the toilet, she had the ability, but no desire. I had the same scenario when potty training Cor and Em. I read all the information available to me on potty training and worked hard to all the right things. But my children, like most, only do things when they choose to do it. I couldn't do what I had done with Cor and Em because I felt like it was the wrong way. DH didn't understand why I couldn't just do it again with Ballerina since it worked before. I guess I thought I'd get better at this mothering thing and wouldn't have to resort to bad mothering methods. Even though I still feel guilty I am glad cleaning poopy out of panties may be a thing of the past.

My Favorite Facial Scrub

2008-11-24T12:40:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite scrub because it works as well as the Mary Kay Microdermabrasion scrub but is 1/3 the price.

I use it everyday especially around my nose where I get a build up of dead skin. ooh gross, I know. I have pretty sensitive skin so I was really pleased to find something that worked but didn't cost so much.

It was the 2nd thing I tried after deciding that Mary Kay was too expensive and I figured there had to be another company who was able to make something that would work just as well. It does have a slight fragrance but it is not strong. I am sensitive to smells.

DH is 34

2008-11-16T17:13:00.001-08:00

My husband turned 34 yesterday but I am still younger than him and won't be 34 until next April. And that's like forever. We had a fantabulous weekend. We had our first over night get-a-way from the kids in over ten years. Mya just turned 10 on November 9th. I have been away for several days and nights before and so has DH but never together away. DH's parent's came to stay with the kids. The kids had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa and we had a lot of fun being together and relaxing. We went to Pacific City and things couldn't have worked out better. I really wanted everything to work out perfect and it did.

Here are some of the things that worked out to make a perfect weekend:

No one was sick until after we got home. DH jixed it because when we were at dinner Friday night he mentioned how healthy we've been. I told him he shouldn't have said that out loud and that I wouldn't mind if anyone got sick now because I was just concerned about everyone being healthy for this weekend. When we got home Em was not feeling well. Ballerina also started a runny nose and barking cough. And I'm okay with it.
The weather at the Oregon coast was in the 60's, no wind and very few clouds. That's as good as it gets at the coast. A bunch of people came out to surf so it was fun to watch them. DH decided he should try it someday.
Our hotel was cozy and fun and right on the beach. They had a decent restaurant right across the street so we didn't have to go far to eat or decide where to go. The staff at the hotel were really friendly.
There was a full moon on Friday night, so romantic!
I was able to keep the whole thing a secret from DH up until we drove away from the house. Awesome!
DH had a good time and was able to relax and that was the whole goal.
We had time to sit in the sand and talk, kiss and do nothing.
We got icecream in Tillamook and we went to an outdoor mini golf course. The shop wasn't open but DH just happened to have 2 putters in the trunk and a few golf balls. So we put money in a drop box they had by the door and played 18 mini holes of golf. We were the only ones out there and we had a lot of fun. It wasn't the kind with little buildings and fake mountains it was like little putting greens so it was like real golf just mini. It was challenging and I almost beat DH's score on one hole.
The best part is we still are "in love."

I arranged the weekend and then DH got decide how he wanted to spend the weekend. I am extremely grateful everything went so well and it was just what we both needed.

Cookies for breakfast

2008-11-14T07:15:00.000-08:00

Last night I made chocolate chip cookies to sooth a friends emotional distress. And yes, it did work. This morning Ballerina saw the cookies and wanted it one. Right now she is eating it and making yummy sounds. I don't know if I am teaching her a bad habit or not. She did have to eat a bowl of cereal before she got the cookie.

Zero Tolerance

2008-10-27T23:11:00.000-07:00

Well DH is gone for 4 days and 3 nights to a Education Technology Conference in Seattle. He told me that he is learning technology stuff. He has his own hotel room with a big flat screen tv and two beds. He gets a big allowance for food each day and he gets to hang out with the big wigs from the school district. It's a blessed life he lives.

I already miss him. I've been stressed about him leaving and dealing with our four children all on my own for a couple weeks now. I don't like sleeping alone. He has a cell phone but the battery is old and it keeps dying. So I didn't even know for sure that he made it there tonight until 10:30 pm and he left from work around four. I had to convince myself not to worry.

As for dealing with my kids I decided I could do it one of two ways. One way would be just let them do whatever they want and be layed back about the rules or enforce zero tolerance on misbehavior. When DH gets home late or is gone for maybe two days I go with the layed back approach and we have as much fun as possible. Which is what I think my older kids were expecting. But I decided I wouldn't last the four days if I did that. So I was more strict today than I usually am. I wanted them to be clear on what I would put up with right away. It was a long day. But by bedtime all whining had completely stopped and for the most part everyone was doing what they were asked the first time I asked and I didn't have to get after them. I should be more like this all the time but sometimes it's hard to see the line between being mean and being a stern disciplinarian. I feel like I am pretty consistent with my kids and that is why they noticed a difference in my attitude today.

DH told Cor that he is the man of the house while he is gone and once Cor remembered that he was happy to do whatever I asked him. He wants to be just like his Dad.

This I could do without

2008-10-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

As I have mentioned before I volunteer at my kids school. It's fun but I went today and my oldest daughter's teacher once again had to make a joke about my height. This is a life long trial for me but my every interaction with her has a joke at my expense. She seems nice otherwise and my daughter loves her. So I will smile and take it, I guess. I am so non-confrontational.

The last two years Ballerina had a runny nose every two weeks and it would last two weeks. No runny noses for months now and I figured out it is because she stopped sucking her thumb. Like a normal kids she would touch everything everywhere we went and then stick her thumb or other fingers in her mouth. It took me a while to notice but she stopped sucking her thumb all on her own. The endless runny nose is something I could have done without last year but now I don't have to deal with it.

Sometimes I've got it and sometimes I don't

2008-10-21T07:27:00.001-07:00

I don't really believe in fate and I try not to be superstitious but sometimes I think the universe is messing with my head.

Last month I had two weeks following my (.) that I didn't break out even a little bit. That was the longest I've gone with clear skin in as long as I can remember. It was heavenly and I wanted to tell people about it but I was so afraid that if I said something it would break the spell. This month a week had gone by and no breakouts. Since I am not superstitious I thought I would tell my husband how grateful I am that I haven't broken out. There can't be any harm in being grateful right? It couldn't have been more than six hours before two large and painful pimples started to emerge under my skin. Errr!

Yesterday I was in Freddy's and I hardly ever shop there but there was something I wanted to get there. I only had one kid and all the clothes in clearance were an additional 40% off. I looked through my size quickly and pulled out a couple pair of pants. The khaki/jean like pair I tried on first were so cute but slightly too big. Then I tried on a pair of jeans but they were slightly too small and when I checked the size on those and it was because they had been hung in the wrong section and were one size too small. I am pretty petite but this "Vanity Sizing" is getting seriously out of hand. Too the point, I was kind of bummed because I haven't much in the way of pants lately. I was just going to forget it because I didn't have a lot of time. Em was in the dressing room with me and she asked me why there were extra clothes in there. Indeed, someone had left some clothes in there. I looked through them quickly. There were the khaki pants in one size smaller and they fit perfectly. They ended up being $17. Too long, of course, but Dh says that's standard for me.

The other day at JoAnn's I got was going to buy a handbag that was made for holding sewing supplies. It was on sale from 19.99 to 9.99. They have a new computer system that wasn't letting the new price be entered manually. It took the woman more than ten minutes of arguing with the computer screen and somehow it gave the handbag to me for .99 cents. I asked her if she wanted me to pay the difference and she told me just to take it. I felt guilty for a few seconds.

People I meet when I walk down the street.

2008-10-17T08:57:00.000-07:00

Right now my form of exercise is walking. I walk the kids to school in the morning and I walk to pick them up after school. The round trip is about 1 1/2 miles. Total I get in 3 miles a day maybe a little more. I like walking because I don't have to be awake or feeling coordinated to do it. I have a double stroller for Ballerina and Em to ride in. Mya and Cor ride their bikes or scooters. On Tuesdays I make them walk using their two feet because after school I have to drive to pick them up to take Mya to piano lessons. You'd think they were gonna die to have to walk. They think it's so boring and takes so much longer.

The majority of our walk is along one of the main roads in our little town. It's Lock... and it has the famous great wall. It's a long straight road and for quite a length there is a tall, ominous cement wall on both sides of the road. It separates the houses from the noise of the street. It was prettier when the vines and plants would grow over it but they cut those all down which I was grateful for because even though it's uglier there is less trash and fewer creatures living in the brush.

The best part of this walk is that I see something of interest almost every day. Nearly every day we pass a little old lady (lol) walking her little fluffy dog. But really the dog is walking her. It pulls her along nearly choking itself and then whenever they pass by any people it loses control and she has to lift it clear off it's front legs with the leash. If I were her I would eventually have to shoot that dog. That's what us country folk do with annoying, disobedient pets.

There is the crosswalk lady we will call Joy. She is probably in her fourties and she has been the crossing guard for many years. She is quirky but in a friendly sort of way. She is vigilant about the kids safety. This morning she told me that she saw two strange men (non-regulars) walking near the school with their dogs. She knows everyone so she keeps an eye out for the unusual. She was hoping it was the nice weather that brought them out. Today was cold and foggy. She is funny. I decided I was so grateful that she is always there watching out for our children.

Then there is the beautiful African woman who has very dark skin and a beautiful voice. Her kids are all gorgeous like herself. Everyone likes her but I think everyone, like myself, is enchanted with her accent. The majority of the population is caucasion or hispanic so that makes her fascinating.

Then there is another Mom who I see a lot. She has two girls and a boy. She walks as much as I do. Her older daughter has flaming red hair which is unusual for their family. I'll call her Terry. I really like her.

After school I walk home with some of my friends and neighbors kids who live closer to the school then we do. I just make sure they get going in the direction of home in a timely manner. On the days I drive they are left to figure it out for themselves. Everyday seems to be some kind of drama for one of the kids. I try to patiently help them work out their little problems. One of the youngest boys that is in Kindergarten has won my heart. He loves to tell me about his day. I want to hug him everyday but I haven't because I don't know how he would react but I think he needs it because he home life is kind of odd right now.

Everyday I pass by my BFF's house with the red door. Right now there is a Jolly Jack-o-lantern on the porch and two pair of cute rubber boots. One pair for Anth and one for her daughter that we call LB. This morning I saw black smoke coming out of their back yard but from what I could assess it was a controlled burn and I could see from the cars parked out front that her Dh was home.

There are several trees that hang over the Great Wall and one is a Walnut tree. Yesterday I saw an older Asian couple using a long pole with a hook on the end to pull walnuts out of the tree. They got a grocery sack full. I found it amusing and smiled as I passed them. They said some greeting that I couldn't understand because I only speak English. Too bad I wish I could have talked to them about their walnut pilfering.

I hope to share more exciting adventures of people I meet when I walk down the street with you until the weather gets too terrible that I don't dare go out.

Cozy Baby Quilts

2008-10-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

Here are some baby blankets I made recently. This one was using the extra fabric from one of the other one that was jungle animals. I like these quilts that have cotton on one side, batting in the middle and flannel on the other side.

I am experimenting with different kinds of yarn to tie it but I am still not totally happy with the way it turns out. I was the quilts after they are done to see what it does to the yarns and trim them up if they get frayed. These were all for baby boys.

A Hiding Place. A True Story of Corrie Ten Boom

2008-10-16T12:55:00.000-07:00

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book lived up to it's title. I (or my kids)lost it 3 times.

Well I kind of waited to read this book because I assumed it would be too sad in parts. It was but extremely inspiring. I felt like I could be a better person after reading it. I would recommend it to anyone. I have my own copy but plan to give it to a friend.

View all my reviews.

Volunteering at the School

2008-10-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

Well my good intentions finally resulted in some action this year. I haven't been very active at being involved in my kids school only because I would have to find Ballerina and Em a place to go. Now that Grandma S is watching the girls on Tuesday mornings and Deena will watch them another day I can go to the school and be a Mommy Helper. Tuesday I went to Cor's class. The teacher had me test the kids on their sight words. The kids were each so cute and they immediately started calling me teacher. They were so impressed I was Cor's Mom. Total celeb status in no time.

Wednesday I went to Mya's class. The teacher had me take kids to the computer lab. The kids can't go without an adult so I just hang out with them and watched what they did. That was good because my kids will benefit from using this Math program called Whizz but I had to pay for it and that was the last day to pay. One of the boys in the group knows me from church so he gave me the low-down on everything. It was funny. It's interesting how capable most kids are on the computer and others had a really hard time and needed a lot of help.

Since I went to Cor's class in the morning I stayed for lunch after that. I ran over to Dairy Queen and got some gross chicken strips and fries and a Pumpkin blizzard. The blizzard was awesome but filling, I could only finish half. Because I was there Cor got to invite 2 friends to eat lunch with us in the pod. His friends were so funny. One boy was telling me all the bad words he is not allowed to say. Mostly he would just start the word but not finish it. And they were trying to guess how tall God is. I asked one boy what he was going to be for Halloween. He said his family didn't really celebrate Halloween but all the other holidays. He said that love holiday was his favorite (Valentine's Day).

Speaking of computer skills Ballerina is getting really good at clicking around on Starfall.com. I have to watch her because sometimes she right clicks and gets the computer really messed up. My kids mostly play Starfall and Webkinz but now Mya and Cor will have this math program they can play with at home too.

Other noteworthy accomplishments, I cleaned my bathroom today. My bathroom gets seriously neglected and it was nasty. It took me a couple hours. I washed the walls and baseboards, etc. I scrubbed the toilet and shower. I wiped down everything and washed the floor mat. I would have done a before and after picture but I'm too embarrassed about the before picture.

Here's my Sister St

2008-10-06T13:37:00.000-07:00

Here's my sister St. and her Husband St. hanging out with Gavin Degraw. I had to look up who the heck Gavin Degraw was but they won this lunch with him ad tickets to his concert from a radio station.

Perspective

2008-10-06T13:18:00.000-07:00

It's always fun to get another persons perspective and more fun when it makes you rethink the way you look at things.

My sister's husband is half Phillippino and one of his cousins from the Philippines was recently visiting them. My sister said this cousin (woman) thought it was so funny that everyone in America wants to be darker with all the sunless tanning lotions, sun bathing on the beach and tanning salons. Where she comes from everyone wants to be darker. They think white skin is beautiful. She said all the beauty products there claim to have a lightening agent in them. She said after trying several different kinds she discovered that it doesn't really work but everyone keeps using them. So it proves we always want what we can't have. Even though my brother-in-law grew up in America he thinks white skin, like my sister's, is beautiful and he doesn't understand why she uses the sunless tan lotion.

Next example was a conversation I had with a neighbor on my way home with my two little girls in the stroller. He was telling me that they reminded him of his grandkids. He said his youngest daughter just got married so they were officially empty nesters. I told him it felt like a long time until I would be doing that. I thought he would say something like I should appreciate my little ones while I have them at home but instead he said it did take a long time. He seemed releived to me. That made me laugh.

This morning Em was sitting on the floor asking me if I was serious. I asked her, "Serious about what?" She said if I was serious about making cup-o-noodle for lunch. Up to that moment I had not considered how strongly I felt about cup-o-noodle.

My "Beef" with Heroes

2008-10-04T20:06:00.001-07:00

So far the new season of Heroes looks like it might be pretty good. It will be hard to beat the first season. The end of the last season left me with the feeling that the show could do without Mohinder and they could just find someone else to do the deeply powerful narrating. So here is my problem with the new seasons so far. Maya who just found out her old boyfriend was freak, woo hoo, big surprise and falls right into the arms of Mohinder. Mohinder who was our moral compass has become completely obsessed with himself and his new powers. Just like Sylar he is looking for something to conquer. In walks Maya in her newest slut apparel. She just snuck over the border but somehow has enough money to buy new skin tight, revealing clothes. "The company" must be taking good care of her. Mohinder looks her up and down like a piece of meat which is apparently all she requires to fall in love with a man. It's sad that she is being stereotyped this way. Yuck, Yuck, Yuck...couldn't they come up with something better than that. This has to be one of the reasons I don't watch much tv very often. They always bring in the ultra-cheesy sex icon (soap opera-esque) to keep people watching instead of just developing a really good story. Hopefully the story will improve in the coming episodes.

Get it "beef" and Maya is a piece of meat. I know it's kinda funny.

What I did today

2008-10-01T11:39:00.000-07:00

Here's a list of the things I did today (Wednesday):

Got up
Dressed
Woke up Mya and Cor
Ate breakfast and checked email.
Helped Ballerina and Em set up play-do
Walked Mya and Cor to school, Em and Ballerina ride in the stroller.
Dressed Em and Ballerina.
Called a friend
Paid bills
Balanced check book and savings account.
Checked rewards card and ordered some free gift cards.
Labeled my tomato sauce that I canned yesterday.
Switched the laundry and started a new load.
Changed into stretchy pants and t-shirt (out of exercise clothes).
Curled my hair and put on a little make-up.
Made and ate lunch
Cleaned up computer desktop
Emailed my sister
Switched laundry
Empty, filled and started the dishwasher
In the process of cleaning the kitchen-it is a huge mess from canning
Talked to DH on the phone-very rare that I talk to him during the day while he is working but no emergency he just called to chat while he was Principal for the Day.
Picked a bunch of tomatoes at varying degrees of readiness and put them on the counter to finish ripening.
Emailed a friend.
Printed October Calendar and taped it on the fridge.
Talked to a friend on the phone.
Got Em and Ballerina Otter pops.
Walked to school to pick up Mya and Cor
Drank a large glass of ice water
Checked Mya and Cor's school papers.
Signed up for kids Book It Program online
Helped Ballerina get a snack.
Emptied Dishwasher, refilled and turned it on.
Switched the laundry
Put the salsa and tomato sauce away.
Handwashed the dishes that didn't fit in the dishwasher
Tried to untangle Em's necklace.
Took some drugs for my lingering headache.
Got a text from my brother that his wife is in labor, will deliver soon, sent a text back. Baby #4 for them-2 boys and 2 girls.
DH came home and brought us a bunch of pencils and pens that they can't use at school and post-its shaped like light bulbs. Woo Hoo!
Switched the laundry
Trimmed the ties on 2 baby quilts
Talked to my brother K. on the phone
Talked to DH outside for a while
Ate Stew for Dinner. DH was the winner of the bay leaf. Who ever gets the bay leaf in their stew is the winner. They don't win anything they just get to feel victorious.
Cleaned up dinner
My brother J. called to announce they had the baby. It was a girl, 8 lbs. 3 oz., 18 1/2 inches long. He said she is short and fat. She has had her eyes open for the last 2 hours. He just sent me a pic on the phone with her eyes and mouth wide open. So cute! They live in Utah and he said that they had 5 other babies born in the hospital right about the same time so it is pretty hectic there.
Going to show DH and the kids the picture
Read through grocery store ads till Ballerina came and rearranged them for me.
Started folding laundry
Paid DH's tuition
Checked emails
Finished folding the laundry and put some of it away
Read scriptures with the kids, prayed and tucked everyone in. Usually I read to Mya and Cor but lately I won't if their room isn't clean. I thought this would be good motivation but it has not worked. I guess money is the biggest motivator right now.
Switched another load of laundry
Finished putting folded laundry away
Ate a cup of yogurt
Read my newest cooking blog that I co-write with Anth (I have yet to contribute anything) and someday it will be the greatest cooking blog in the world.
Tried to figure out where that beeping sound was coming from
Going to watch Jericho, Season 1, Disc 5
Goodnight

The Sock Box

2008-09-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

Prologue

I come from a family of eight kids. I never ever had to mow the lawn but my primary responsibility was doing laundry. I actually enjoy doing laundry of all the household chores I am required to do as the goddess of my home. I liked doing the laundry growing up because I could go into the laundry room and no one would bother me because I was doing laundry and clean clothes were gold in my house. In the laundry room we had two boxes that were never empty. There was the sock box and the ironing box. I am sure everyone knows that there are always the mystery unmatched socks that seem to go into some black hole somewhere. My mother and I decided that the dryer ate them. We would remember putting socks with their matches in the washer but by the time all the clothes came out of the dryer some were missing. I hated the sock box. I could never find a matching pair of socks. I never had any matching socks in my drawer and everyone in the house seemed to have the same problem but the sock box was always full of socks that did not match. I always felt trumphant when I could get the unmatched socks down to less than five. I would ask my Mom if I could just throw them away and she would never let me.

I am against having a sock box in my house. I think the sock box would make me crazy. When I do laundry I put all the socks in a pile then I match them and if there is an extra it just goes into the owners drawer where it waits for it's mate to appear. Sometimes it's mate is in the drawer waiting for it. About once a year I go to each child's drawer and pull out the socks that have had no mate that returned to them and I throw them in the trash. Inevitably the mate returns from it's sabbatical within a few weeks but I don't care because I tell myself it's just a sock and it really had a fair chance. Now that Mya and Cory are folding their own laundry I just give them all their socks and they have to match them up. Mya doesn't even bother matching them and I saw her wearing mis-matched socks this evening. I asked her what that was about. She said she couldn't find any matches so she just grabbed what was there. I told her that I know she has a lot of socks in her drawer and she just shrugged. That means she just didn't feel like going to the trouble of opening her drawer and really looking. I didn't really care because she is a kid and they are supposed to have unmatched socks, right?

*********************************

So here is the story that goes with the pictures. I know this story is only funny to me but it did trigger the memory of the sock box and well that was worth it for me. And for some odd reason I can't type before my pictures, it keeps kicking my type down below the pictures. Okay, so one Sunday I was putting on Ballerina's white lacy socks. I noticed that everything matched except the lace. Two different socks. I figured I must have matched wrong and other set of socks were most likely paired together in the drawer. I turned around to go get them and Em was standing there wearing the other set of unmatched socks. I showed DH and he thought I was crazy for even noticing and he wouldn't have noticed that in a million years. That's because he's a boy and I am a girl.

I know it's only funny to me. I apologize to anyone who waited for an exciting ending but really what can you expect from a story about socks. But please come back to my blog someday because I am going to post a picture of something absolutely disgusting. It will be off the hook.

a little catching up to do

2008-09-24T19:35:00.000-07:00

So I spent a half hour loading a bunch of pictures on so that I could catch up on reporting all the fun things we did this summer then I realized I was still logged into my DH's school blog. Argh! So I am starting over but I am only going to load one or two pictures a day.

DH kept trying to get pictures of my in my bathing suit. I thought this one looked like one of those Tabloid pictures of someone famous. You see it and think, "ya she looks worse than me without makeup." Then you think you could look better if you had someone who did your hair and makeup for you. Well at least that's what I think.

I had to wear a hat almost the whole trip because it was always between 95 and 100 degrees. I enjoyed the dry heat but it was torture for my scalp.

The Magician's Nephew

2008-09-24T09:01:00.001-07:00

The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Right now I am reading this book to two of my kids. One is 8 and one is almost 10. The 10 year old has read it before. I read this book as a kid and it is my favorite of all the Chronicles. I enjoy Digory's character.

View all my reviews.

An exciting curly day

2008-09-19T17:00:00.001-07:00

Actually today I did almost nothing. I have to give a talk at church on Sunday. I mean I get to. But today I decided to scrunch and curl my hair a little. I have done this several times since my major haircut. But today for some reason my kids actually looked at me. Em said I look like my sister Staci, Cory was shocked when I picked him up from school and DH told me I look nice. He only tells me that about twice a month. I really haven't looked at it since I fixed it this morning so I assume it's okay.

My Summer Project

2008-09-16T20:26:00.001-07:00

Here's what I worked on this summer. My V-shaped tan. This is right after my pedicure. I got a pedicure after my very first bikini wax. OUCH! But totally worth it. I didn't have to shave down there during our two week vacation where we swam almost every day. This V-shape tan is courtesy of the my very cool and comfortable Havaianas flip flops.

The Eyre Affair

2008-09-16T17:38:00.000-07:00

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I am still in the progress of reading this book but I have to say it's one of the few books that I decidedly like before I finish it. It's "zany" with all kinds of characters. The main character's name is Friday Next which gives you an idea of where it might head. It reminds me of an old movie which I love. I hope it stays interesting and I am glad it's part of series. If there is any swearing I don't remember so it's clean that way.

I own this copy and wouldn't mind lending it once I have finished.

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Cookie Cutters

2008-09-12T11:53:00.001-07:00

I collect cookie cutters and I found this out while searching for a cookie cutter online today.

TRIVIA: Before we begin, did you know that if you collect cookie cutters, the collectibles are referred to as "Cookie Silhouettes"?

10 Years!

2008-09-12T07:57:00.000-07:00

I realized the other day and shared this little tidbit with DH last night. Mya will be ten years old soon and in ten years of raising our children we have never gone anywhere overnight together without our children. Individually we have each gone away for 3 days or more. I knew it but just thinking that ten years has passed and we've never taken a break made me a little sad. Something must be done about that.

Calgon take me away.

2008-09-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

I took a bath tonight. I would love to brag that I have a clawfoot tub but I don't. It's a dream. We have really small bathrooms and in the 3 1/2 years we have lived in this house this is the 2nd bath I have taken.

My back, shoulders and neck were very stiff. So I thought maybe I might relieve some tension by taking a soak. I don't really enjoy baths very much. The only tub we have is in the kids/guest bathroom. It's small and I can't really get comfortable in there. I asked DH to clean it out so I could take a bath. I love my kids but they are dirty little creatures and I have to admit that cleaning the tub is low on the list of household chores. But the bath did help me to relax and even though I am still a little stiff I feel better than I did before.

Sick of LOL

2008-09-04T10:07:00.000-07:00

Ok someone needs to come up with something better than LOL. Or just something different. It's so overused. And when I worked for the eye doctor LOL meant Little Old Lady so I have never transitioned well.

Please submit your ideas and lets spread it around.

Loved to Death

2008-09-02T12:40:00.000-07:00

I have shared with my friend Anth before that I am just not sure how much love I can handle and can you truly be loved to death. Em and Ballerina want to be on me or wrapped around me any time I sit down. Ballerina likes to be right under my right arm when I am typing on the computer. Cor wants to have an in depth conversation when I am reading. But it's Em who may cause my eminent demise. She wants to be as close and attached to me as possible. She has to be laying on me or wrapped around me like a snake. She wants to touch my face and she wants me to be touching her skin, usually a back rub. A friend who had a daughter of similar needs told her daughter that they couldn't get any closer unless she put her back in the womb. I think if I must leave this earthly vessel being loved to death would be the best way to go.