The Nat Pack

Eat Pray Love

2012-01-01T14:42:00.000-07:00

So. Been gone for a while from my little blog. I've been reading a lot: The Help, Northanger Abbey, Eat Pray Love, The Potter and the Clay, The Glass Castle, and I'm currently reading Uncle Tom's Cabin. Come to think of it, maybe that's why I haven't been blogging-I've been reading instead!

But what better time to do some writing than at the beginning of the year? Of course I have some new goals, but first I want to review last year. My goals are here. And how did I do? Well, let me tell ya!

Attend the temple every month. I didn't make it every month, but I did better than the year before.

Earn my honor bee. Well, I did all the work for it, but now that I'm not in Young Women's any more, I don't know if I'll get the official token. But it's nice to know that I did the work to earn it.

Be more financially fit. Done and done. I still haven't done any investing on my own, but we've been a lot better with our money.

Laser eye surgery. Read about my experience here.

Exercise. Again, a little hit and miss with this. But trying is the thing, right?

Learn to play a new instrument. Nope. Right now I just don't think I have the time to take lessons. This might have to go on a future goals list or something.

Last year my motto was "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul!"

This year's motto is....drum roll please...

Eat Pray Love

Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

I mentioned reading the book Eat Pray Love. I really enjoyed reading it, and there were some things that resonated with me. No, I'm not going to go travel the world. But these are three areas in which I need to work. And here is my plan.

First, EAT. To be honest, I eat...not like I should eat. I love me some chocolate, and Coke! A couple of months ago some ladies in my ward did a health challenge, and I thought it sounded really great. So my family and I are going to do this, starting tomorrow. Here are the things in the challenge: sleep for 7 hours each night, eat 3 servings each of fruits and veggies every day, exercise for at least a half hour every day, no sugar, drink 64 oz. of water every day, and no eating after 8 p.m. It's a point system, and whoever wins (1st, 2nd, 3rd place) at the end of 6 weeks gets the kitty.

For exercise, I've been doing yoga a bit, which I really enjoy. I also got another exercise video, and a jump rope. And I go mall-walking with my mom. So that should keep things mixed up for me exercise-wise.

I'm really excited to do this. It's something that I really need to work on, and maybe I'll get some money out of it, too. It will be nice to do it with other people-I think that will keep me going. And after 6 weeks, it should become a habit, right?

Next, PRAY. Yes, I pray, but sometimes I just mumble something up to heaven, and get on with my day. In that book, the author talked about meditating a lot, as in communicating with God. I talk to God, but I don't really take the time to listen afterwards. So I'm going to work on my prayers, making sure they are sincere, and making sure I take the time to listen to my Heavenly Father's responses.

Also in this category I'm putting my scripture study. Last time I read my scriptures, I did it fast, which was nice because the story really flowed. The time before, I read a chapter at a time, and wrote down any thoughts that I had about that chapter, or a scripture that stuck out to me. Both ways, I've gotten things out of reading The Book of Mormon.

As a family we just barely finished reading, where mostly it was me reading to my kids, which was okay, but not the greatest. This time around as a family, we are taking turns reading. Jakob and Brock split a column of scripture, then I read a column, and then Pete does too. So we'll go a little bit faster, but it will be good for my kids to read out loud and get used to the way the scriptures sound. And as Troy gets to be a better reader, we'll include him in the rotation.

For myself, I decided I would read my scriptures along with the Gospel Doctrine manual. That way I can have ready-made questions at my disposal. And since I teach every 4th lesson, I might as well have it be part of my personal reading.

And last, LOVE. This one is a little bit harder to define into specific goals. I just want to love more. I want to give more service. I want to be kinder. I want to spend more quality time with my children. I want to be more patient with them. I guess if I can do one nice thing every day that I wouldn't ordinarily do, then that's what I could do to develop more love.

So, yeah. There you go.

I feel bad that I didn't post about Christmas. Christmas night my kids decided that they wanted to take pictures of their toys, so they borrowed my camera, and -surprise surprise- it broke. Luckily, I had a warranty on it, so we'll see if they can fix it or whatever, but I won't get it back for a couple of weeks. So my pictures are stuck in limbo for a while. Our Christmas was fabulous, though. Not only were we blessed materially, but it always makes me realize how much we are spiritually and physically blessed. I think some of my kids' favorite new toys have been their pillow pets that Santa brought, although Brock's made him break out in hives. We washed them, though, and now it's all good.

Well, wish me luck tomorrow, being chocolate and Coke free! I'm sure I'll need it!

Poor Troy-Boy...

2011-11-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

When Troy was little, he had a 4th of July...mishap. You can read a little about it here. The whole time he was getting fixed up, he kept saying, "Poor Troy-boy. Troy-boy got hurt. Poor Troy-boy." It was so cute. And so very sad. It's kind of the story of his life, though.

One fast Sunday, Troy wanted to bear his testimony. I told him to go ahead and go up after the current person was done. There was another person waiting their turn on the stand. I had told him that once he gets up there to wait until the other people up there were done, but he didn't hear that part. As he was climbing the stairs, the person on the stand waiting his turn got up. Troy's little face just crumpled up, and he started crying and ran back down to our seat. I think he thought that that person cut in front of him or something. Again, just so sad, but so cute.

The other day, he wanted to go play with a friend that lives around the corner from us. He was begging me and begging me. I told him that he could go if Brock went with him. Brock is buddies with the older sibling, while Troy wants to play with the one closer to his age, though I think they all end up playing together.

So Monday after Brock's homework was all done, the boys took off for their friend's house. Not two minutes later, I heard screaming and crying coming from outside. My initial thought was that one of them fell down and scraped a knee or something.

The two of them came bursting through the front door.

"MOM!!!! There was a BIG, SCARY dog, and it WANTED TO EAT US!!!"

"It was chasing us and tried to GET MY PANTS!!!"

My kids are a wee bit scared of dogs, of all sizes. I peeked out the front windows and looked up and down the road for a dog, big or small. I saw some neighbor kids out, who happen to have a dog.

"Was it so-and-so's dog?"

"NO!!!! It was a BIG SCARY DOG!!!!"

"Where was the dog at?"

They both pointed at the house on the corner.

"Well, let's just wait a few minutes, and maybe that dog will be somewhere else, and you can try walking over there again."

That's when Troy piped up: "But Mom, I lost my SHOE!"

Sure enough, Troy only had one shoe on.

Me: "You ran all the way home without your shoe on?"

Troy: "Well, the BIG SCARY DOG was chasing me and my shoe came off-" (bursts into tears) "-and so I just kept running."

I was trying not to laugh. Because it was just so cute. But it was just so sad, too. (Also, a little Cinderella-ish. Running out of the shoe and all.)

So I bundled up and started walking up and down the street, looking for a lost shoe. Shouldn't be too hard, right? I went up one side, and down the other. No shoe was to be seen.

I got back home, and asked Troy if he remembered where he lost his shoe, or which side of the road he was on. And of course, being 5, his story switched around. "It was in the road. It was over there in the yard. It was in our yard."

I sighed a big heavy mom sigh, and told him to get his boots on, we were going to go look for his shoe together. We went up, we went down, on our side of the road. Then we started to do the same thing on the other side of the road. We got close to the house with the dog. You know, the BIG SCARY dog. And Troy froze in his tracks.

"Mom, the dog is going to GET ME!" More tears. I assured him that the dog would not get him, and is probably really nice. He wouldn't budge, and was getting ready to bolt for our house again.

The big, scary dog was in his yard, doing scary things like RUNNING, and WAGGING HIS TAIL. He reminded me of the dog on Up, named Dug.

Now granted, if some animal came bounding up to me that was as tall as me on all fours, I'd be a little skittish, too.

So instead we turned around and started looking the other way again.

A minute later, out comes a little boy, who Troy recognized as a kid from his kindergarten class. Because I'm a bad neighbor, I have no idea who lives where, or half of my neighbors' names. I suck like that.

But Troy knew him, and this little boy was carrying Troy's shoe. They met, and the boy said, "My dog took your shoe. Sorry." I nudged Troy with a "Tell him it's okay, and thanks for finding it." We went home, and Troy (and Brock) were no longer traumatized by the dog.

At least for now, until they dare venture to their friends' house again...DUN DUN DUNNNNN!

Memory Monday: Scanner Girl, Part 2

2011-11-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

Wanna hear more memories about my current job? Well, then, you're in luck! (My first post of memories is right here.)

The summer after my senior year I worked by myself. And actually, I worked 10-hour days. Sure, it could get boring, but I kept myself occupied. And I was trying to save money for college. I went in right after showering, with my hair still wet. And even though it was summer, that would make me get cold. So I would crank up the heat in that room, and dry my hair in front of the vent. I would bend at the waist, with my long long hair hanging almost to the floor. Then I usually would pull it up with this purple scrunchie that I had. I loved that thing, and had it for a million billion years.

The summer before, I didn't pull in quite that many hours, but my sister and mom and I went to deep water aerobics early in the morning, which I LOVED. Then we'd get ready and go over to work. It was so awesome. One of these days, I would love to do the deep water aerobics again. I tried a couple of years ago, but it was at night, right when I was trying to get kids in bed, etc. etc. Maybe in a few years when my kids are all at school. There are a lot of things I want to do when my kids are all out of the house. Like, read. Go to the temple often. Exercise. Grocery shop. Scrapbook.

When I was scanning in college, my sister Brianna started scanning with me. At the time, my dad's office had a client that wanted some of their stuff scanned. It was a doctor's office of some sort. Our scanning room had been moved again, this time upstairs at the end of the hall. While scanning the doctor's office stuff, we discovered that they had pictures drawn in their files, about people's ailments. It was to show where or what was wrong, but...some of them were really funny. Like cartoons. There would be a phrase written, like "jambed thumb", and a picture of a hand with a REALLY over-sized thumb. Or they would have funny phrases (well, funny taken out of context). Like "Man says there is metal shrapnel in his head." Whenever we came across crazy things like this, we would scan them, then cut them out and tape them to the wall above our scanner. We taped other things up as well, like outsides of thank-you notes or whatever that would have flowers on it. We had quite the collection.

Along with the crazy pictures, the same doctor's office had these files on REALLY big papers that were all linked together. You know that old type of printer that had the rollers on the sides, and the paper would have holes on the edges that you would hook onto the rollers? And each page was hooked to the next, so you'd have to pull it apart? There were boxes and boxes of these kinds of files. And the pages were too big to put into our scanner. So we had to get creative.

Sometimes we would take the pages and photocopy them but reduce it so it would all fit onto a page, then scan that. Other times we could cut the edges and bottoms of the pages to make them page-sized. When they had the normal-sized paper that was hooked together, our scanner was able to grab the first page, and keep going, sucking in page after page in a big stream. Brianna was really good at getting the machine to do that. I wasn't very good at it-it gave me paper cuts, and would start scanning crooked, and then it would jam. So, yeah, I had to tear the pages and scan them separately.

Scanning -and prepping- the big pages took FOREVER. So my sister and I decided to come in at night a few times and just prep so that we could scan during the day. We would take a couple of boxes into the conference room, where there was a TV and cable. There was a TV movie on, called "Au Pair" (which means "nanny" in French). It's kind of "The Sound of Music" meets...any makeover show like "Pretty Woman" or "She's All That". And even though it was cheesy, it was strangely addicting.

At that time, Brianna was also into country music. We'd sit and listen to Z103, but after a while I'd get SO sick of their rotation of songs, so much so that I agreed to listen to a country station with her instead. Although I could only take so much of that before wanting to switch back, or just not listen to any music whatsoever.

This was also about the time that we met Jack on Crack. One of my dad's colleagues had a son that..."worked" there as well. I honestly don't know what he did there. Shred? Yardwork? Or maybe he just hung out there or something. We could never remember his real name, so we called him Jack on Crack. Because he was a WEIR-DO! Very spazzy, and weird. Sometimes he would try to hang out with us and talk to us. We would keep our door closed in the hopes that he would leave us alone, but even that didn't work with Jack on Crack. I really hope he grew up to become somewhat normal.

I also scanned with my sister Alexis, when I was pregnant with Troy. We were more hit and miss, because it was during the school year. I went in on Friday and Saturday mornings. We were in a different room-again, and this time had cubicles. At this time we were scanning pension files, which didn't have cool pictures like the other files.

And now I scan alone, at night. I'm back in the room where I used to dry my hair. Life tends to come full circle. Or maybe it just seems like that because right now my kids are watching "The Lion King".

Are You There, Eyelashes? It's Me, Nat

2011-11-02T14:28:00.000-06:00

Well, got my laser eye surgery done. It's absolutely amazing. You wanna hear all the gory details? Okay!

So, you get a Valium, so you don't care about anything. Then you go lay on a table and hold a teddy bear. You look at a little green light, and then it gets dark. They move the table to another area, then back to the green light. You stare at the green light for about 10 seconds, and then you're done. Rinse and repeat for the other eye.

Seriously. It didn't hurt, it wasn't weird. I could almost instantly see better. (Right now everything looks as if I am still wearing my contacts. Cool, huh?) For a couple of hours following my eyes stung, but they told me to try and sleep. NOOOO problem there-the Valium made me really tired. And really, as a mom, when am I not tired? So I slept most of the rest of the day, putting eye drops in whenever I woke up. And they felt fine after I slept a little.

The next couple of days I had a hard time with sunlight and with headlights. But I've been totally fine ever since. If you're thinking about getting it done, DO IT!!!! So, so worth it.

There is one downside: I haven't been able to wear makeup from three days before the surgery to a week after surgery. It's a small price to pay for, you know, VISION. But. My eyelashes are really light, and when I don't wear mascara I feel like my eyes disappear. My brother-in-law said I look "washed out". Which is true. I don't think I would want to be wearing mascara right now, anyway. There are some eye drops you have to put in 4 times a day, and if I were to have makeup on and do that I would look like, well, her:

But in a few days I'll be good to go AND I'll be seeing 20/20. Oh, and my eyes are a lot less bloodshot without contacts. I even bought some new mascara to go with my new eyesight. Fancy, huh?

In other news...well, not much going on. Just kind of the same old. Work, work, and more work. Work at home, work at the office, work at teaching piano, work at keeping things, you know, working. There are days that I feel like the hamster on the wheel-you just keep running, with no end in sight, and for what? So you can keep running, with no end in sight.

I hit kind of a lull the last few days. I'm very project/goal oriented, so now that I got my eyes done, I'm like, what next? There is plenty to DO, but nothing that I'm really aiming for. Monday and Tuesday days I felt kind of "meh". Today I feel better. Of course, I have all the ongoing things, but they're the hamster wheel kind of things. Which are important as well, but... I don't feel like I have to constantly have entertainment, per se, but it IS nice to look forward to things, too, right?

Of course, Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming. I like to do my Christmas shopping in November. I find there are just as many sales but far less crowds.

Halloween was fun. Last year we were all matchy-matchy, which I loved doing, but this year the kids were all different things. Ivy was "Gumpunzoh" (Rapunzel), Troy was Batman, Brock was The Count/a vampire, and Jake was a ninja.

Ivy's wig itched her a ton, so she didn't wear it all that much. Brock's makeup, though very cool, was also very time consuming. And there were about 20 other ninjas just like Jake. I told him it was like a Ninja club, but I don't think he really liked that.

Next year the kids will all be different things again. Brock already told me he wants to be Spiderman. And today I went to the store and got some costumes for 50% off. Even though I HATE keeping stuff around (it goes against my minimalism tendencies), I'd rather spend half the money on costumes now for next year. Cheapness 1, Minimalism 0.

Well, that's about all for now. I'm off to work!

Memory Monday: Working Girl

2011-10-03T07:30:00.000-06:00

Man, it’s been a LOOOONG time since I’ve done one ofthese! I haven’t been blogging as much,I think in part because I’ve been workingso much-teaching piano, helping with three kids’ homework, and, of course,working at my Dad’s office doing cleaning and scanning.

Which brings me to today’s Memory Monday topic: scanner girlmemories. Oh, where do I begin?

I’ve done scanning on and off for a very, very longtime. I swear I was only 13 or 14 when Istarted scanning there. It was my summerjob all through high school, and then again in college (summers of ’99 and 2000). Oh, and not to mention the time I workedthere when we first moved to Idaho Falls before I had Troy, so in 2005-2006.

So. When I was 13-14years old, we had this REALLY old scanning machine. It had its own set of discs that werehumongous, and very unlike normal computer discs. It was probably 5”x5”, and an inch thick. Somehowthey were able to convert the Beast Discs into CDs or something. If we wanted the machine to read a page asfront-and-back, we had to put in a special paper with little squares colored infor it to do it right. Same with if thepage was too dark or too light-same special paper, but with a different squarecolored in.

At the time, the scanner was set up in the same room as thekitchen area stuff, so we were right by the fridge. There was a lady that worked there at thetime who was addicted to Diet Coke. During the time that we (we meaning my sister Karlenn and I) were there,which was maybe half a day of work, this lady came down to the fridge to get aDiet Coke about 5 times. And each timeshe came down she would ask, “Having fun?”

Now, Diet Coke Lady wasn’t the only one to frequent thekitchen area. She was there the most,but she was not the only one. And eachperson would ask the same question: Havingfun? We never quite knew what toreply to that. “Yes, yes I am. Scanning is a dream job!” “No, not really. I hate being here.” “Not only am I having fun, but I’m workinghard, too! Two thumbs up!” I mean, what DO you say in response? So usually we’d just laugh a little, but Ithink that egged The Question on.

At that time, we were TERRIBLE scanners. If it missed a page (sometimes the machinewould suck in two or three pages at a time), we would just let it keep going,pull out the pages that it missed, and just stuck them in wherever it was mostconvenient. I’m sure we missed backs ofpages a lot. And we had no idea what totitle things. I think at the time,though, we would just put it under the client name and the year. So when the accountants went to find things,I’m sure it was a nightmare, because there would be 10 different files allunder the same client and year.

Oh, and it’s not like you could just look it up any old way,either. We had these printouts of whatwas on each Beast Disc, and which Beast Discs were on which CDs. So we’d have to look at this teeny tiny printto try and find out where the file was at, and then hopefully it was labeledwith the right year and the right client. Good times right there.

The summer after my junior year, I was still working withKar. We were in the kitchen for part ofthe time, but then we moved into an office across the hall when a dude movedout. His name was Oak. Not even joking. My dad has had several randomly-named peoplework for him: Clain, Oak…okay, I know there’s more, but that’s all I canremember right now. Clain had a coollast name, too – it was French, but I’m omitting it now for privacy purposes.

During that summer I was dating Ned. Ah, Ned. More good times right there. Anyway, our scanner machine totally broke. Just…wouldn’t scan, wouldn’t suck up pages,nothing. So we had to call an 800number. We reached a guy named Dave thatworked in Salt Lake for the Scanner Fixer Company. So he came up to fix it, and it was kind ofawkward. We just sat there and preppedfiles while he cleaned the machine, etc. By the way, he was really young, I think just fresh off his mission,which at the time seemed really old to me, but whatever - I was 17. (I’m 17. I’m 17! -What movie?)

After Dave fixed the machine, it broke, like, 2 dayslater. We called back down to theScanner Fixer Company, and once again it was Dave that came up. This time it was way different. We totally talked to him, and kind of madefun of him for being a tech nerd.

I’m pretty sure the machine broke again, because I remember we called the place again and requestedDave to come up. Hm, maybe he was tryingto make the machine break so he could hang out with us. Because even though I was 17, my hotsister was 19, so maybe he was trying to bust a move or something, though henever asked her out.

You know what’s funny, though? A year or so later, Dave got married inLogan, Utah, and he sent us an invitation to the reception! And…yes, my sister and I TOTALLYattended! It was very awkward, trying toexplain to his new wife that he had “fixed” our scanner, and that’s how we knewhim.

One more point from this summer, and then I’m going to haveto make a Part 2. After we moved intothe other room, we didn’t have to deal with The Question any more, which wasnice. Our office was next to a guy namedRobert. We teased him ALL the time, justby calling him nicknames. He’d be all, “Myname is Robert,” all deadpan. And we’dbe all, “Hey Bobby? Question for ya.” And he’d be all, “It’s ROBERT.” (Has anyone seen the movie-I think it’scalled Office Space? I caught it on TVonce. There’s a dude that’s all quiet,and people always steal his stapler. Atthe end he goes all crazy and, like, blows stuff up or something. I could totally be making that up, because it’sbeen a long time since I’ve seen that movie. Anyway. Robert was like thatdude.)

Okay, THAT tangent over. Anyway, we gave him other nicknames like Bobert, Robbie, Rob, Bob, andRobert Probert. The last one is someone’sactual name that at one point had been a client of my dad’s firm. (Hm. Wonder if he’s still aroundsomewhere.) We thought it was reallyfunny that someone with the last name Probert would have no creativity and nametheir child’s first name Robert. I mean,come on! There was also a client namedThomas Thompson. Seriously?

Anyway, since we moved into a more secluded room, we couldhave a radio. We listened to a stationcalled Z103. We would keep tally ofwhich songs got played the most, aptly named The Most-Played Song of theSummer. One of the songs that was big atthe time was called Butterfly Kisses. It’sa REALLY cheesy song. So we werelistening to that, and we both started singing at the TOP of our lungs. “BUTTERFLY KISSES, in the blah blah blah!” Okay, totally don’t remember the lyricsnow. Anyway, a lady named Maggie thatworked upstairs paged down to us on the phone, and was all, “Um, we can totallyhear you up here.” So funny.

Another song that was in rotation at the time was a songcalled “I’m a B----“. So one day mysister started singing that one: “I’m a B, I’m a lover, I’m a child, I’m amother, I’m a sinner I’m a saint…” AndRobert came over, stood in our doorway, and just stared at us for a while. I think he was trying not to laugh, althoughI couldn’t be sure, because I don’t know if he was capable of laughing. But it was totally funny.

Alright. This post isCRAZY long, so I’m going to go. But don’tworry, I have plenty more where that came from!

Oh, and enjoy this cheese-tastic blast from the past:

In One Month From Today...

2011-09-27T23:32:00.001-06:00

...my vision will no longer look like this without contacts/glasses:

(This picture was titled "blurry mess". I find that to be a very apt title, for both the picture and my current eyesight.)

Yes, that's right. After much saving, and whining, and setbacks, and extra work to get the money, I have finally succeeded in accumulating enough money to get my beloved laser eye surgery.

Say it with me: WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Because I have astigmatism, and have to wear toric lenses (which kind of help the shape of your eyeball), I have to abstain from wearing contacts for three weeks so my eyes...unshape. Or something.

Today is day 1 of wearing my glasses again. Since I got contacts in...8th grade, I've pretty much worn them and NOT glasses. Here and there, sure, but not constantly. So after all day of glasses-wearing my ears hurt, because they're not used to having large thingies hanging out behind them.

Also, putting on my makeup this morning was really...exciting, since I couldn't really see what I was doing.

But what is for reals exciting is the fact that I'll be able to see my alarm clock in the morning, and not have to have it 6 inches from my face and I'm still squinting to read the numbers. It will be exciting to not have to stick my finger in my eye twice a day and blinkety-blink a little clear disk around. It will be exciting to actually be able to see the big "E" on the eye chart, instead of just knowing that it's down at the end of the room, and only see a big gray blur.

Speaking of "E": my brain, after setting the appointment today, went "EEEEEEEEE!" with giddiness. (That doesn't sound right. With "gid"? Hmmm. Happiness? I mean, I would say "excitement", but now that's just overused in this post. But you know what I mean.)

Let the countdown begin!

Jake's Baptism

2011-09-14T13:42:00.002-06:00

Jakob got baptized over Labor Day weekend. It was so awesome!

We had many family members come for the event: 3 of Pete's brothers (Mike, Mark, and Richard) and their families, Pete's parents, my parents, and my sister Lexi and her hubby Chris.

The only baptisms that I have attended were where just one person was getting baptized. In our stake, because there are so many young families, they baptize all the kids that turned 8 that month in one big session. There were 6 kids that were baptized the same day as Jakob.

Because of that, our stake assigns each ward one month to be in charge of the talks and musical numbers. So...we just had to show up, and that's it. Easy peasy.

There was a great talk given, and a musical number: "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus". Then, it was time for the baptism.

It kind of felt like we were riding a train. First stop: the chapel for the talk, etc. Second stop: the font for the baptism. Third stop: a different room for the confirmation. Pete preformed both the baptism and confirmation, and he did great. He was really quiet as he was giving the blessing to Jakob - it's because he was trying not to let his voice crack from emotion. *sniff* So cute! What a great dad.

Jakob was so cute. When walking into the chapel, he had a big old grin on his face. He was just so very handsome when he came out after being baptized and was in his vest and church pants.

After the baptism was over, we had a lunch at our house - sandwiches, and brownies, and salad, and cool caramel dessert (which I need to get that recipe from my mom-it's DELICIOUS), and jello, and chips.... SOOO yummy.

Then we went to the fair. When we got there, it was almost dinner time. So we walked around a little bit and saw a few of the animals. Then we got dinner. And then Pete's two brothers and their families had to head back down to Utah, so they left. I felt bad that we didn't get to spend more time at the fair seeing the different things, but oh well.

And this is the one picture I got from the fair. It's not even very good-it's of everyone's torsos. Sheesh. The nice lady on the left let us pet her sheep. It was a weird species-it has hair instead of wool. Weird. So they don't clip it - it sheds in the spring instead.

(Also part of the crappy picture-taking by Nat - the pic of Pete and Jake is all that I got from the baptism. Had I been thinking 4th-dimensionally, I would have gotten pictures of everyone there, and of our family all dressed up...Doh!)

One thing I did do, however, was ask family members to write a little note to Jakob for his baptism. My request rendered a few responses. My plan is to put the letters into a little booklet about his baptism that he can have to help him remember his baptism day.

I hope people don't mind, but I want to share snippets from each of the letters.

From Lex: Your silly dances, faces, and poses can always make me smile. And you are also a sweetheart!

From Howard: The very first person in my line was named Andrew; he was my great-grandfather. He joined the Church in Denmark in 1861....There are many generations on both sides of the veil that are there to help you as you progress in your life.

From Marianne: Jakob, we love you and are grateful that you have made the decision to be baptized.

From Kar: You are such a great kid. One of the things I love best about you is your desire to make good choices. You always strive to be a good boy.

From Jim and Jennifer: We're proud of the good choice that you have made and the good example that you are to your cousins.

From my mom: I am still learning things about the baptismal covenant and about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, just like you are. We have to keep learning so that when we make mistakes we will know how and why we repent.

From my dad: Jakob, you are a good boy and a great brother to your brothers and sister. Always watch out for them...I want you to know that I love you very much and I am so proud to have you as a grandson.

From me: We can hear the Holy Ghost the best when we are doing things like reading our scriptures, saying our prayers, and attending church. Remember: he uses a still, small voice, like a whisper or a thought or a feeling. When we have peace inside of ourselves, and take the time to listen, that's when we hear what we need to do.

I asked Jakob how he felt about getting baptized, and he said he was really glad. I'm glad, too. What a cutie pie.

Ramble, Ramble, Back to School, Ramble, Ramble

2011-09-13T13:59:00.000-06:00

Well, now that school is back in session, I'm almost back into the swing of things...almost. Here's the rundown on how things have gone thus far:

Jakob

On back to school night, we took Jakob’s school supplies to his class and got a chance to meet his teacher. She seems really nice. There’s a girl in his class that he’s buddies with. She is just a little doll and a half. She came up to him and said, “Hey, Jakob! Are we going to play at recess?" Jakob, with a shy little smile, replied, "Yes." She said, "What are we going to play? ....Zombies?!?!?" And Jake got a huge grin on his face and said, "You KNOW it!" It was just so cute. I'm glad he has some friends in his class.

I think he’s doing...okay so far. He wants to be able to do everything right the very first time he tries something, and if he can’t then he gets frustrated. We talked about it, and I told him that if he already knew everything, there would be no reason for him to go to school at all. He really is a smartie pants, though. He hasn’t had homework so far, which has been nice (for me).

Brock

I got to meet Brock’s teacher the week before school started. She called parents and had them come in individually with the student and school supplies. She’s a thinker, that one. She is also very much on top of things-she didn’t miss a beat in asking me if I could come in to help in the classroom. I told her I would try-my only hiccup is how Ivy is doing when she is with me. Sometimes, when I’ve gone to help at the school, Ivy has been great-she just sits there quietly and plays. Other times, she’s wanting to run up and down the halls. So we’ll see how this year goes.

The first day of school, Brock lost his lunch box. I swear it went to the Phantom Zone for a while, and this is why: he forgot to put his lunch box in his room’s basket. At the end of the day he realized that, and so they went to the lunchroom and found his box, and sent him on his way with it on the bus. But then his box was exactly like a girl’s box that rides the same bus, only she’s in 3rd grade, and somehow he had her box. So he came home and was in tears because he lost the box. We went to the school, to his classroom, to the lunchroom, and called the bus, all to no avail. The next day, voila!-the lunch box appeared…in Jakob’s class’s basket. Hm. Very random. But we got it back.

Brock loves school. His homework has taken the most time so far, because he wants to color everything meticulously. Grr. I’m like, just scribble, child! But he is a SUPER artist, and wants everything to look right, so I have to hold my tongue. He’s getting better and better at reading, but still wants to guess at words. If I stop him, though, and point at the word that he guessed, he’ll read it the right way. I think he’s just trying to go fast or something.

Troy

Troy is just so cute. He’s a dawdler, so I worried about him being on time in the morning to catch the bus. But he’s done great so far. The first day of school we were walking in to the front doors with a bunch of bigger kids. Troy’s eyes got wider and wider. But once we got to the classroom I think he was okay. There are a few kids in his class that he knows from church, so I think that helps. And he plays with his neighbor friend at recess that’s in the other kindergarten class.

This week for homework we had the Mom Scrapbook Project, as I like to call it. Each of my kids has had this: it’s a packet that asks questions about your child, like their favorite color, a cool trip they have been on, what they are scared of, etc. (Incidentally, Troy said his favorite trip was “when we went to Wyoming”. He doesn’t say when we went to Lexi’s wedding, but that’s the only time we’ve been in Wyoming. So random.) So you answer the questions, and then you have to find things to show the answers, like pictures, and stickers, and dye cuts, and on and on. When I did it with Jakob, I think I put a lot more time and effort into doing lots of different…mediums? Like, stickers, and yarn, and I had him color a whole bunch. This year, I did almost all pictures, because it’s just that much easier. We got a few stickers, too, but that’s about it. Oh, and I had Troy draw a couple of pictures.

Troy is just so eager to learn - he wants to know everything, and how things work. He’s constantly asking about what words start with what letters, that kind of thing. The other day he asked Pete to explain how waterfalls work, and ate up every word.

Ivy

I thought about trying to do a little group school thing for Ivy this year. And then I remembered how much I hated doing the neighborhood preschool for Troy when he was three, so I quickly changed my mind. So far, she mostly just wants to play with toys while “da brudders” (translation: “the brothers”, which is what she collectively calls Jakob, Brock, and Troy) are at school. Sometimes she wants to be with me, so she’s at my mercy-she helped me do laundry, and put away dishes, that kind of thing.

Twice a week my mom and I are walking - outside right now while it’s still nice, and then we’ll start mall walking when it gets cold. So Ivy rides in a stroller with a blanket over her. She thinks it’s the best thing ever. Which takes us to…

Nat

Have I been productive? Yes. Am I busy? YES. But do I have down time? Yes.

During the summer we slept in, and kind of took our time doing things during the day. It’s amazing how much more one can get done when one gets up and gets moving. After I get the boys out the door, I’ve been exercising for the first time in YEARS, either walking with my mom like I mentioned, or doing yoga. I bought this DVD of 20 minute yoga, and so far I really like it. The dude on it talks about how people go to bed too late, and then get up with a huge to-do list and rush through the day. His philosophy is to go to bed earlier, and then start the day right with down time, to set the mood for your whole day and get you in a peaceful mindset.

My other morning routine is reading my scriptures. This has been a wonderful way to start my day. We read together as a family at night, but it’s just one page. Reading on my own has been hit and miss, but now it’s part of what I do, and it’s been great. It does the same thing as the yoga - it gets me in a peaceful mindset to start off my day.

Another great thing about school is the lunches. I came up with a rotation of sorts for school lunches that I send with the kids. It’s not fancy, but it helps break up the monotony of a PB&J every day. I’ve been trying to include healthier sides, like carrots and celery, or little fruit cups. So, when Troy gets home, I make the same lunch for him, me, and Ivy that I did for the other two. So I’ve been eating a little better as well. The other day I was like, Ooooh, celery! I don’t normally chop up celery for my own eating, but since I had already cut a bunch of sticks it was easy to grab and eat.

After school, I teach piano. I have 14 students this year. Every year, before I start teaching, I get really nervous - about if I’m teaching well, if I’ll have enough time to get everything done, that kind of thing. Last week was my first week, and it went really great. Well, at least it went great for me – I hope it’s the same story when my students get home. I really love teaching, and all my students are awesome.

And then at night, of course, I clean at my dad’s office. Luckily, I’ve been doing that for a couple of months, so that’s really second nature now. I’m glad things have been adding on little by little or week by week so I didn’t get inundated all at once.

So, weekdays, doing okay. Weekends, however, are a different ball game, especially Saturdays. On Saturday, I just want to sleep in, and relax. But what I NEED to do is grocery shopping, and cleaning at my dad’s, and cleaning my own house with my kids. I wish my kids were old enough that I could just set them to it, but I know we’d end up at the hospital with bleach in a kid’s eye or something. So I help them out, which takes longer than if I were to just do it, but they need to learn at some point.

This last Saturday we were cleaning after dinner and clear up till bedtime, but at least it got done. So that’s something I need to think about. I could try fitting one chore into every day of the week (like Monday is dusting day, Tuesday is windexing day, something like that), but I don’t know if that would be better or worse than what I have going on now. My other thought, and I REALLY need to do this, is go grocery shopping on a different day other than Saturday. It would be less crowded on a different day, that’s for sure.

Well, I think this post is long enough now, so I’ll be off. But don’t worry-I’ll be back to ramble another day!

The End of (Summer) Days

2011-09-07T14:22:00.000-06:00

My sister Brianna came out to visit in August. It was so fun! We ended up doing a few little outings.

The first one was going to a new water park in Rexburg. It's really awesome! There's a really shallow end that has little spray things that come up. There's another area, also shallow, that has a few little slides for little kids. At the top of those slides is a HUGE bucket that fills with water, then tips over and dumps all the water out on the kids waiting below. There's a climbing wall, and a lazy river, and two big slides.

We had so much fun! I enjoyed the lazy river the most. Jake and I went on the big slide. While we were waiting in line, my dad looked up at me and said, "Do you have Brock?" Uh, NO. Brock had told my parents that he was going on a green slide. They kept waiting for him to come out of the tube, and he never showed up. I was like, great - either my child has drowned or has been kidnapped.

Turns out he had gone to the lazy river section by himself. Luckily we found him. I asked him about it, and I think he originally said he was going to the green slide but then got distracted or thought differently or something. And luckily he could touch the bottom of the lazy river. But we talked again about always having an adult with him.

Ivy and Brianna were buddies the whole time. Ivy loved watching Beej's long hair float around in the water. Even though the wind made it a little cold to be there, it was still way fun.

About a week later, we got to go to Lagoon in Utah. It was so awesome - and hot! We took zero time in heading to the water rides like Cliffhanger and Rattlesnake Rapids to keep cool, and then the heat was no big deal. Look how soaked Jake is in this picture:

I know I went to Lagoon as a kid, but I don't remember much about it. And then I went a few times as a teenager. So going back was a whole new experience, because I've never gone with little kids before. I was surprised at how many rides they had for just kids. Plus, they get new rides every couple of years, so there were some that I had never gone on before.

Ivy hated waiting in line. I think she didn't get the concept. Right before this boat ride she was pitching a fit because it wasn't her turn. The little girl in the boat was by her in line, and kept trying to comfort Ivy.

Brock was, of course, a little freaked out by some of the rides. We took him on one at the beginning of the day that goes around in a circle really fast. I kept looking back at him and his face was sheer terror. Pete took him on a big boat ride that swings back and forth, and he said Brock was gripping the rail for dear life and shaking with fright. Yeah, we're kind of mean parents. Not a lot has changed.

But Brock loved the swings ride, and he insisted on riding the train, which takes you to this hidden zoo part, which is way cool. I had forgotten about that.

Jakob was tall enough to go on some of the big rides. I think he was a little scared, but wasn't about to show it.

After losing Brock at the water park, I warned in earnest about always being with a grown-up at Lagoon. Troy chose my dad to be his buddy-he hardly let go of his hand the whole time. One of the times we went on Rattlesnake Rapids, Troy got ABSOLUTELY drenched. I watched his face, and thought for a minute that he was going to start crying, but instead his look of incredulousness turned into a huge smile and he said, "That was AWESOME!"

I'm more of a chicken now than I used to be. We went on Colossus, and I totally closed my eyes at the top. There was another ride that's new (to me), called Wicked, and during the corkscrew part I kept saying "Oh mama! Oh mama!" and closed my eyes a few times on that one too. One girl in front of me put her hands in the air and I started yelling, "Get your hands down! Your hands are going to get chopped off! The ride says keep your hands inside! Put them down!" I'm sure she didn't hear me.

Despite the slight fear on some of the rides, it was a way fun day.

Then the next day we went to the planetarium in Salt Lake City. It was pretty cool. The kids loved seeing all the different science-y things, and seeing models of the planets.

We watched a movie while we were there. The seats were so comfy, and it was dark...yeah, I barely stayed awake. I think the same was true for my parents as well. The movie was called "Space Pirates Attack!" or something like that. I was thinking that it would be all action-packed. Not so much. Oh well-my kids still liked it.

My little Martians:

And here are my science boys. Jakob is Pete incarnate.

I think we'll have to do a repeat trip next summer.

Made to be a Maid

2011-08-27T08:54:00.002-06:00

When my sister went to China, she left me the successor of cleaning my Dad's office. I take out garbages every night, clean bathrooms, and vacuum. It's really not too bad of a gig.

Here are my cleaning supplies:

P.S. - You can learn a lot about a person by looking at the contents of their garbage. And also by the state of cleanliness of their office.

I wear these handy dandy gloves, which helps my toilet psychosis. I have a hard time with toilets normally, but with gloves on I manage a lot better. I need to get some for my own toilets.

I think my hands might permanently smell like latex after a while, but I'm okay with that. I also think that cleaning many bathrooms as often as I do has also helped me psychologically. You know how people do exposure therapy, where they have to face their fears? It's kind of like that for me.

Also, doing this job is like getting paid to exercise. I clean, and end up a hot sweaty mess after I'm done. I've noticed that I hold with my left hand and do with my right hand. So my left arm gets the heavier loads that I sustain, so it's going to get buff from that. But my right arm does the repetitious movements, and I vacuum right-handed, so it's going to get buff a different way. I tried switching arms one day, and it really didn't work.

This is just a little doo-dad that my dad has had in his office since I can remember. I actually think it's an incense burner he got on his mission in South Korea, but I could be totally making that up. I've always loved it, though.

I've also been helping my mom clean at her house as well, about once a week. Lately it's been more like once a month, because we've been out of town playing. But once school resumes it will probably be more periodic.

The other job I took over was scanning at my dad's office. I've done this job on and off for years. Back in the day when I was applying for jobs, I would call it "document imaging". Sounds fancy, huh? I just scan old tax documents into the computer. Here is my little office:

And there's the computer and scanner. That machine is crazy fast. This job is also pretty nice. I set my own hours, and can do as much or as little as I want. I usually do it right after I do the cleaning.

Right now my cleaning and scanning money is going towards my laser eye fund. Well, right right now, it's going to replace what I used of my fund to get my new fridge. But you know what I mean. I've noticed that I'm kind of a money hoarder, so part of me wants to scan and scan and scan, so I can get MORE MONEY!

But then I realize I need to be reasonable in my money-getting endeavors. There are only so many hours in the day.

Besides, somewhere along the way I need to clean my own house, you know?

It's Great to be 8!

2011-08-26T11:44:00.006-06:00

My Jakob turned 8 earlier this month. He's gotten so big!

It was kind of like a rerun of Troy's birthday: we went to the park, and we ate yellow cake with chocolate frosting that night. However, when we went to the park, I decided to get my kids up early and go. PERFECT plan! No one was there, and it was nice and cool. This time we got to go on the super big playing area.

We've had a poster hanging up in Jakob's room. We made it when he was in first grade, when they did a spotlight on him. I wanted to compare some of his favorites from then to what his favorites are now. So his favorites from first grade will be listed in green, and his favorites now listed in red.

JAKOB'S FAVORITES:
Favorite holiday:              all of them!                              Halloween
Favorite song:                  DuHast, Billie Jean                 Until Forever
Favorite food:                  ranch chicken taco and pizza   pizza
Favorite color:                 red                                            white
Favorite movie:               Up                                            Transformers
Favorite toy:                    Bakugan                                   Wii and Bakugan
Favorite TV show:          Mythbusters                              Mythbusters
Favorite animal:              cheetah                                      cheetah
Favorite Superhero:        Gooie Man                                Deathacus
Favorite book:                 Junie B. Jones, Horrible Harry Harry Potter series
Favorite person:              my sister Ivy                             Ivy
Favorite school subject: science                                      gym
Favorite cartoon:            Avatar, The Last Airbender      MAD

A couple of side notes: the superheroes are ones that he has made up. Clever little guy. And I have no idea what MAD is, seeing as how we don't have TV. Also, it's nice to know that he's growing up, but that some things stay the same (favorite animals, food, toys, TV show, person). Also, both times (in 1st grade and now), I secretly wished that Jakob would say that I'm his favorite person. But I'll settle for it being one of his siblings.

We went to Arby's for dinner-his choice. It was yummy.

Then my parents came over, but they couldn't come until a little bit later. So we had the kids take baths and get ready for bed before they came. Hence the jammies.

Jakob got new scriptures, a scouting outfit, a Wii game...

...and clothes. Notice his excitement about the clothes below:

He was also not very excited about starting scouts at first, either. I told him that he could try it for a couple of months, and if he didn't like it he didn't have to do it. But then my mom took him to buy his shirt and badges and all that on his birthday, and then he got way excited.

Some Jake-isms for ya:
Jake: (coughs) Me: Jake, cover your mouth. Jake: Oh, sorry. It's just my asthma. (He totally does NOT have asthma.)

Beej to Jake: Do you have a girlfriend? Jake: Yeah, it's Ila. Beej: Is she pretty? Jake: Yeah, she's pretty....pretty HOT! (Yeah, Ila's not his girlfriend. Just a friend.)

I love my Jakob. He's turning into a little man, where he has actual conversations with us. He's so concerned that he's doing everything right. He loves anything science, and is a super good reader. He's a great older brother. He's really amazing at the different Wii games that we have. Jakob is super creative and really funny.

I love my boy.

Moon Walking

2011-08-25T09:53:00.000-06:00

A couple of Fridays ago, Pete had to work overtime (he normally does 10-hour days, 4 days a week). His work is about an hour's drive from our home. Out past his work, about 20 minutes or so, is an area called Craters of the Moon.

That morning, Pete texted me and said, "Hey, since I'm already out here, let's go to Craters." I was game.

I hadn't been there since I was a kid, maybe in 5th grade. So the kids and I drove out, and met Pete at his work.

(The sign behind Jake's head says something like, "Warning: Watch your kids and make sure they stay on the path so they don't FALL and DIE.")

They have a visitor's center, which is pretty cool. But they also have a bunch of hiking trails to go and see the sites up close and personal. We ended up going on the perfect day-it was kind of overcast and was sprinkling on and off, so it wasn't hot at all to walk amongst the mountains of black rocks everywhere.

We walked on one of the trails that takes you to a cave. I should say "cave", because it had somewhat of a ceiling, but it was mostly an open hole in the ground. But it was still way cool. We even saw some bats flying around in there.

I drew all sorts of parallels while we were walking to the cave and back. Jakob kept walking on the very very edge of the pretty narrow path. I was like, "Jake, you've gotta walk in the middle of the path." And he didn't get it. I pointed out to him that we don't know how strong the rock is on either side of the path, and if we were to walk there and it gave way it could be dangerous. Also, I showed him that there were large drop-offs on either side of the path. I told him, "Jakob, if you were to be on the very edge, and slip even just a little, you will hurt yourself." I thought about our path in life, how we need to be constantly vigilant, and we shouldn't even flirt with dangerous edges; the middle is the safest way to go.

It was a really fun excursion. It also made me very grateful for the hard-working husband that I have. There's no way I would drive (or ride a bus) for an hour to get to work, especially so early in the morning like Pete does.

Alive and Five!

2011-08-24T08:44:00.002-06:00

My Troy Boy turned 5 at the beginning of August. Look how cute he is!

By the time we reach the summer birthdays, we (ahem, I) are in total relax mode. That means we just...hang out. Troy's birthday this year was no different. Although I did do a friend party for Jake when he turned 5...hm.

Troy decided he wanted to go to the park for his birthday. We drove to a really popular park, and it was super crowded. We saw two busloads of kids arriving there as well, so we opted for a quieter area of the park.

Then we commenced to bake in the sun. It was so HOT!

We (ahem, the kids) were playing all good, and then, like, 10 kids suddenly showed up. So my kids decided to go to a different toy area. They played, and drew in the sand with sticks. And then the same 10 kids showed up there! It was like our own paparazzi squad or something.

Then two of my kids magically had to use the bathroom. We found those, then I promised Popsicles at home. The kids were in the car in two seconds flat. We went home and ate Popsicles galore.

That night we went to Chili's. Troy originally picked McDonald's, but blech. So we convinced him to eat somewhere else instead.

Here's Ivy and Pete doing Spiderman poses:

My parents came over, and we had cake (yellow cake with chocolate frosting-one of my favorites, though I have lots of favorites) and ice cream.

Troy got a Joker cave (to go with his Batcave), some dinosaurs, a robot dinosaur, a couple of movies, and some Batman toys. What a lucky little punk!

My Troy is so dang sweet. He cannot WAIT to go to kindergarten next week. He thinks he is just so old and so big. He'll still cuddle with me, even though he's kind of pulling out of that phase, which makes me sad. Troy loves his grandmas. He's always talking about what he'll be doing when he gets older. He's been trying to ride his two-wheeler bike sans training wheels, and petals twice, then freaks out, steers all crazy, and falls over.

Troy: I love flying on a plane! Me: Um, have you ever flown on a plane? Troy: Yeah, I did in my dream.

Troy: When I grow up, I want a house that's a green rocket ship, and 26 kids.

Troy: (while eating, but not wanting to eat what I made for him) My sandwich doesn't want to be picked up.

He loves his Batman stuff, but also loves his stuffed animals. He has a little turtle his grandma made for him. It has a purple shell and light green limbs. He named it Sea Mist. No idea how he came up with that one. Troy is a great brother. He does a shy little smile that reminds me a lot of mine when I was his age-he tucks his lower lip under his upper teeth. It's just so cute.

I love my little guy.

Love-Love

2011-08-23T14:49:00.000-06:00

During the school year, Brock brought home a paper. He had to draw an activity of something that he and his family do during the summer. I thought he'd draw he and his siblings playing on the swing set, or riding bikes, or swimming.

Nope. He drew a picture of him and me playing tennis.

Have we ever played tennis? No. Does he even know what tennis is? Apparently, because he had drawn us with rackets and a net and everything.

And can I find this work of art? No. I've looked through my stacks (and stacks and stacks) of drawings, and I can't find it for the life of me. I'm way bummed, because Brock is a super artist.

So, I took the kids out in the morning before it got too hot, and we played tennis. We don't have tennis rackets, but we have two racquetball rackets. And I bought some tennis balls.

We took turns "hitting" the ball, a.k.a. swinging our rackets in the air as the ball flies by.

And we played chase. I was trying to get Troy on one side of the net, and Ivy on the other. They just ran around and around the net, giggling with glee.

We also did a lot of running after the ball. I would hit the ball over the net, and my kids would miss, and then chase the ball down.

Then I would stand on one side while my kids attempted to hit the ball to me. After 10 or so tries of them hitting the ball into the net, and by the net, and around the net, I would take my turn and hit it back.

At one point I had Jakob take pictures with the camera. I think they were having more fun taking pictures than they were playing tennis.

Another time I served the ball to Brock. The ball bounced on the ground, then came up and hit him square in the eye. I started laughing, even though it really wasn't that funny. Okay, it was funny, and I'll be the first to admit I'm a bad mom for laughing at my kid's pain.

We didn't play for very long. And even though it wasn't productive in a rally, keep score kind of way, it was still fun. I'm glad Brock suggested it.

Out Cold

2011-08-11T21:20:00.000-06:00

Well, it's done. My old fridge kicked the bucket, if you will.

It had been coming for a long time. I first mentioned The Leak in this post. That was almost three years ago.

Then I wrote a letter to my fridge here. Apparently it couldn't read.

Really, my fridge should have been ashamed a bit, having to use a bed pan to catch its leaks.

This fine tupperware sat in the back of my fridge and caught all the water coming down from my freezer.

I must say, I won't miss hacking out the layers of ice that would build up on the inside of my freezer, either. Sure, it was a great way to get out aggression, but having ice fly around by my eyes as I chop away at it may not be the best hobby out there.
So, out with the old, in with the new! Thus:

It's...just so pretty! *sniff*

My mom and my sister both have the freezer-on-the-bottom fridges, and I'm a fan. Plus, I don't have to bend clear over when I want to get cheese or veggies out any more.

It's bigger than my old one. And the door holds a full gallon of milk. It's awesome.

The only downside: buying the fridge has cut significantly into my laser eye surgery fund. I blame my old fridge for being selfish.

Bir-Cay-Ding, Part 3

2011-08-10T07:46:00.001-06:00

Here is the third and final installment of the fabulous Bir-Cay-Ding. YAY!

(I would have gotten to this sooner, but we've continued to be busy. I really will post about those things, too. Remember: good things come to those who wait.)

So, the wedding. First of all, I just want to mention that I'm so glad that Chris and Lexi got married, because Chris is a super awesome guy. I can tell they fit each other really well.

July 30: pre-wedding
While we were getting ready after our horse ride and ski lift ride, Lex and her cute/awesome/amazing bridesmaids and Chris and his groomsmen were out gallivanting through the woods getting their pictures taken.

Then we got to join in the picture fun. Lexi's wedding colors were a true orange and royal purple. I was out with my mom shopping the week before, and we found these awesome orange ties, so we got them for my three boys and Pete to wear. And Ivy was a flower girl for Lexi's wedding, so she had a way cute orange dress that my mom had made. I completed the orange ensemble with a sweater and a white flowery skirt. Which, I just realized, I don't have any pictures of myself. I really need to hand the camera over to Pete every once in a while.

Here's Brock:

And Troy:

And Jakob:

Here's Ivy, holding Lexi's wedding bouquet. Ivy was being shy at first about pictures, but then later on warmed up about it.

And here are my handsome boys. I love how they all match, even Pete.

Here are Lex and Chris, ready to do the Toyota jump. (Or is it Ford? I really can't remember.) Lex looks like she's getting ready to jump into some cold water or something.

The ceremony
I think I already mentioned that Lex and Chris chose Grand Targhee as their wedding site. Lex really wanted an outdoor wedding. Even though it was bright and sunny and warm earlier in the day, at about 3-ish it started getting cloudy and started sprinkling. Then it started raining pretty hard for about 20 minutes or so, right before the ceremony was about to start. There was a tiny little room just inside, and we asked if she wanted to set up in there, but Lex, being the weather girl she is (or something), said to wait just about 15 minutes.

And about 15 minutes later, it stopped raining. Perfect! It was a little cool out, so my kids were cold, but it was the perfect temperature for the adults. It stayed rain-free the whole ceremony (it started getting windy near the end, but not too bad), and as soon as it was over, it started raining again.

Then the aisle walking began. My parents led out, because my dad officiated! Cool, huh? He had been a bishop a while back at Ricks (which is now BYU-Idaho), and they checked the laws for Wyoming about marrying people, and it was totally okay. Which, by the way, my dad ROCKED it. I've always admired his teaching/speaking/officiating skills.

Lexi's friend Mark Doubleday, who is an EXTREMELY talented musician and composer, played his cello for the ceremony. He's the one that helped Lex help me and Pete when we rapped at our ward talent show. Let me find the link....okay, it's here. And that's my cute uncle Kurt holding the umbrella for him. Kurt also helped wipe down chairs after the rain for people to sit on. He's such a great guy.

After the bridesmaids and groomsmen walked down the aisle, it was the flower girls' turn. I really didn't know if Ivy was going to do her part. In these kind of performance situations, she will either ham it up, or freak out and cry and scream or run away. I really had no idea. Chris' cousins, Maria and Julianna, were the other two flower girls. The older girl, Maria, who is 8-ish, started to explain to Ivy what to do. And Ivy got all excited about it. So I sat down, but was at the end, in case I had to jump up and rescue Ivy.

But man. She started throwing the flower petals on the ground. And when she decided to do it, she was going to THROW the CRAP out of the FLOWER PETALS, DANGIT! Maria had to kind of drag her down the aisle (they were both holding one of the baskets), and Ivy threw and threw and threw. She had a blast. And they were all just so stinking cute.

(That's a better shot of the dresses my mom made. Cute, huh?)

And there's the beautiful bride, with Gramps. My grandpa rocks, end of story. His jacket was super sweet that day, too. It was blue, and made of...suede? It was really soft. I asked him about it, and he said it was really really old. But it was beautiful and in great shape for how old it was. He's such a cute guy.

The flower girls stood there during the ceremony most of the time. Ivy ran to my mom after a while, and I think Julianna jumped ship, too. It's hard to see in this picture, but Ivy gets this confused look on her face. She had it on during the whole ceremony.

There was a part during the ceremony where Lex and Chris read their individual vows to each other. I got all teary when Chris read his to Lex. (Um, and I just realized that blogger erased a bunch of what I had written right here. Stupid blogger. But let me sum up: Chris talked about how they met and how he knew they would be together. Lex talked about how excited she is to start their life together.)

(Yeah, I probably just totally botched that up. Lex, I hope you and Chris have your real vows somewhere. I KNOW they are more eloquent than the craptastic summary I just wrote above.)

Like I said before, my dad did an amazing job. Near the end, he read an Apache blessing of sorts. I really liked it, so I found it on the internet. For your reading pleasure:

Now you will feel no rain,
For each of you will be shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
For each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no more loneliness,
For each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two bodies,
But there is one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place,
To enter into the days of your togetherness.
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.

It was just a beautiful ceremony. I cried, and laughed, and got chills...it was just so wonderful. I'm so glad I got to go and see it.

Oh, and after Chris kissed the bride, he dipped her, and kissed her again. Lexi's face right before the dip was so funny-her eyes got really big, and had a look of "don't drop me!" It was funny.

Party time
Like I said, I was warm enough, but it was a bit chilly for my kids. After the ceremony, everyone headed over to the tent they had set up, where we would eat dinner. I ran and got jackets for my kids (because even though we were mostly encased, the cold air was still coming in).

Here's Lexi. Doesn't she just look so beautiful and so happy? Which, she had her makeup lady come up to the resort, and got her makeup airbrushed on. Sweat free, smudge free, tear-proof...she's a thinker.

They had toasts, where the Best Man and the Maid of Honor gave little speeches, as did the parents. Lexi's Maid of Honor was a girl named Kate. Let me tell you, Kate ROCKS! She told this awesome story about how Lex would talk about Chris when they first met, but they (Lex and Kate) had a nickname for him of Javier. It was so funny! Also, there was dancing later on, and when the DJ was doing a crappy job of picking out songs, Kate kicked him out of his chair and took over to find awesome boogie-down songs for us.

We had this amazingly yummy dinner. There was a strawberry-spinach salad, and chicken (or fish, but I'm a chicken girl), and...is it called twice baked potatoes where you bake the potato then pull out the insides and mash them up and put them back onto the skins? Well, if it's not that, then that's what we had but I don't know what it's called. I'll call them Prettily-Presented Potatoes.

And here's their cake. Chris designed it. I know that their colors had something to do with their school colors or something, but I know I'm going to get it all mixed up. They met at BSU, so that's the Bronco thing on the top tier. And something about a team that starts with a C, which is also Chris, and something with a team that starts with an A, which is also Alexis.

I'm SOOOO into sports, can you tell?

But what I CAN tell you about the cake is that it was deliciousness wrapped in amazingness. Each layer was a different kind of chocolate. One was German chocolate, one was Mexican chocolate, and the other was...I know I'm not remembering right...like a double dark chocolate or something like that. I had a slice of the Mexican chocolate layer. It supposedly had cinnamon in it. But all I tasted was super rich, moist, yummy chocolate. Oh, mama. It was so good!

Lex and Chris cutting the cake:

...And then Lex and Chris shoving the cake into each other's faces! When Pete and I got married, I told him I would kill him if he got cake on my wedding dress, so he placed the cake nicely in my mouth. Not Lexi and Chris. Oh, no. This picture below is Lexi, mid-fall. Chris totally pushed his bride down! It was funny.

The aftermath of the cake shove (you can't really see the cake smeared all over his face unless you enlarge the picture). Chris:

And Lex:

But all was well. They got cleaned up, and had their first dance together. (I really don't remember if they danced before or after the cake shove.)

And here's the bride dancing with her dad. I love this picture-such a sweet moment. (My dad is so cute. And Lexi's hair was to die for.) Say it with me: AAAAAWWWWWWWWW!

At this point, my kids had had it. They had gone to bed super late the night before, woke up super early that morning, and then had a really busy day. Troy could barely keep his eyes open during the dinner. The DJ dude started playing music after the dinner, and normally my kids boogie on down, but they were not about to do it in public that night. Ivy danced with me, but her tights kept falling down and pulling down her undies, so I'd have to keep fixing them. She tried to get people to dance with us, like Pete or my dad or my mom, but no one was ready to boogie...yet.

Although, I danced with Ivy, and then I kept making faces at my kids. Jakob was about to die from embarrassment at his dorky mom, but I didn't care. Yep-I'm one of those parents, that thinks it's really funny to embarrass my kids.

We took the kids back to our room, told them to open the door under ZERO circumstances, and...then went back to boogie.

It was so fun to dance! And, of course I don't have pictures of it, because I was too busy having a blast! They played way fun music, some of which was old school (old school meaning when I was in high school, or even junior high). Like, "Killing Me Softly" by the Fugees, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by the Proclaimers (which I first heard when I attended my first EFY at 14 years old-YIKES!), "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard, and "Cotton-Eyed Joe" by the Rednex. (Yes, quite the variety.) They also had Beatles songs, and Black Eyed Peas, and Tao Cruz, and Beyonce's "Put a Ring on It". Which, at that point, I wish I would have known all the dance moves to that song, because that would have been awesome. I know, like two moves.

So, yeah. WAY fun. And Lexi's bridesmaids had some sweet, sweet dance moves! After a while (a LONG while), we were worn out, so we went back to our room. (Not to worry-we had checked on the kids periodically during the dancing.) And, surprisingly, they were still awake for some reason. I would have thought that they'd be out cold by then. Oh well.

Well, that wraps up Part 3. And I really did save the best for last, huh?

Bir-Cay-Ding, Part 2

2011-08-04T14:57:00.002-06:00

'Kay, folks. Here is the much-anticipated Part 2 of our awesome celebrations! Aren't you SOOOO excited?

July 29-July 30: Grand Targhee adventures

We drove to Targhee on Friday, and checked into our room. It was awesome! I should have taken a picture. There was a hide-a-bed in the upstairs/main level of our...I'm going to call it "suite". There was also a mini fridge and a half bath. Then downstairs there was a full bath and two rooms. One of the rooms had a king bed, and the other room had two bunk beds. The kids were way excited about that. So we had Jake and Brock on the top two beds, and Troy and Ivy on the bottom two.

Lex and Chris had a kind of golf game near Grand Targhee, and then they were having a dinner afterwards with the wedding party and family members. So, we got just word-of-mouth directions to get to the golf course, which is at a place called Teton Springs, which is very, very beautiful-it's near Driggs (where you turn to get to Grand Targhee) and Victor.

So, the people we talked to were all, "Just drive through Victor, and then it's just right there with a ton of signs-you can't miss it." We had also heard, "It's a little bit farther than you think. Just keep going, and you'll see the sign-you can't miss it." The golf course is called Headwater, by the way. So we were looking for signs showing a golf course, or for Headwater. Shouldn't have been too hard.

Well...we drove, and got through Victor, and kept looking for signs. And soon we were heading up a canyon. Both Pete and I were all, "Oh, it will show up any minute. I'm sure it's around this bend in the road." Um, no. We were heading to Jackson, which is about 20 miles from Victor. I think we were about halfway there when we decided to turn around. Neither Pete nor I had cell phone service because we tried calling for directions.

So we went back to a gas station we had seen earlier to ask directions. The guy was all, "Go left, then right, then left. You can't miss it. Oh, and the sign says 'Teton Springs'". Yeah, that would have been nice to know in the beginning. We had been right on top of it, and just didn't know what we were looking for. So once we got there, it was great. And we showed up right in time for the dinner.

It was SO yummy! They had these chicken and/or steak fajita things, and a salad with a cilantro-lime dressing (I'm in love with cilantro). And for dessert: peach cobbler, with blackberries in it! YUM! So, so good.

It was really nice to meet all of Chris' family. Honestly, though, from that night, names-wise I remembered a guy named Chad, who was Chris' brother's buddy that drove with him. Go, Chad, the Random Dude!

That night we went swimming at their pool. The main pool was pretty cold, but the super deep hot tub was really nice. Afterwards, we went back to the suite, and Pete and I watched TV, which reaffirmed the fact that we don't miss regular TV. (We don't have any form of television; we just watch stuff online. You know, where you get to see exactly what you want, when you want, without commercials. It's luxurious.)

The next morning (July 30), Pete, Jakob, and I went horse-back riding. I had gone a handful of times growing up, but Pete had never ridden a horse before. We would have taken everyone, but the other kids were too young for it. My awesome parents watched our other kids while we rode. Jake's horse was named Cammanche, Pete's was Spirit, and mine was Butch, which was funny to me because I had a cat while in high school named Butch that loved me a lot. The horse stuff was right on Targhee's grounds.

Pete told the rancher dude that I had ridden "a bunch of times", so I think the dude thought that I was super experienced. Um, no. That would be my other sister, Brianna, that rode and trained horses for years and years. So Butch was a little...strong-willed. And apparently, hungry.

We went on a trail up the mountain, and it was very beautiful. Butch kept trying to eat every two seconds, and he kept wandering off the trail. The rancher told me to pull up on the reins and kick him a little and he would stop. Yeah, right! If I kicked him, he would just start running, and then he would stop and eat some more, and then wander around. After a while I put my reins behind the horn on the saddle so he couldn't reach down as far to eat the grass.

I definitely had fun riding, but it was like a wrestling match the whole time. And when I got off, my knees were hurting from the stirrups. I'm such a city slicker.

After our horse ride, we did another ride: the chair lift up the mountain. I've ridden on this lift about a thousand times in the winter, but never in the summer. The chair is lower in the winter, because you're standing on a bunch of snow to get on. I also think they ran it slower than they do in the winter. Here's my mom and dad with Brock and Jakob:

We went up Saturday morning and Sunday morning. On Sunday it was cloudy, so the top was pretty cold. But Saturday it was nice and warm and sunny.

Another thing: I've ridden up chair lifts a million times. But to get back down you either had to bike, walk, or ride. We opted for ride, but it's pretty trippy to see how far you've actually gone up.

So here's my family with the valley behind us. At the top of the lift there's a little trail, and you walk to a platform to overlook everything, including the Grand Tetons a couple of ranges over.

Here are the boys with the Grand Teton behind them. I was a little nervous about my run-around kids. Why, you may ask? See the little rope under Brock's arm in the picture below? That extends out, though you can't see it because of the snow (yes, snow) in the picture. But on the other side of that rope is a very, very, very steep cliff. So I told the kids they had to stay on the platform at all times.

So of course, Troy being the close listener that he is, started running around on the entrance of the platform. I grabbed his arm, and tried to show him the IMMINENT DEATH that awaited him if he didn't stay on the platform. Which, in 4-year-old translation, means I was just being a mean mom because I wouldn't let him play wherever he wanted to. That is why he's being a grumpy pants in the picture.

My dad took the boys down below the platform (where the ski hill is), to an area that still had snow on it. They tried to make snow balls to throw at us.

And here's my family again, this time with the Tetons behind us. Ivy had gotten a combination of sun lotion and bug spray in her eye, so she rubbed it and whined the whole time. (You can see the rope behind us in this picture. In front of the rope = nice happy beautiful pictures. Behind the rope = IMMINENT DEATH!)

These next two pictures were taken on Sunday, after we rode the lift back down. We were chatting with my parents and my two aunts and two uncles that had come for the wedding. And my kids, being the self entertainers, decided to play with sticks and dirt. Seriously, why do we even buy toys for our kids?

Alrighty. I know I suck, because I should have started this train of posts with the most interesting event - the wedding. But instead, I decided to save the best for last. And I'm going to stick it in its own part. Soon to come: Part 3 (the final part) of the Bir-Cay-Ding extravaganza!

Bir-Cay-Ding, Part 1

2011-08-01T17:15:00.000-06:00

We just got done with a many-evented extravaganza: my birthday, a mini vacation, and my sister Lexi's wedding. YAY! It was all so much fun! And the best way I can think of to tell all about it is...just to start at the beginning. Or maybe I'll mix it all together, like I did with my title. Eh? Eh???

July 27: my birthday

Last year, I only got one picture of my birthday, which kind of sucked. So this year I took lots and lots of pictures.

In the morning, I took all my boys to get their hair cut. The boys were getting fluffy, and Pete had major beast neck. Look at Troy being all super important:

Then we went shopping a little. We needed a few things, plus I picked up a new dress (yay!) and the movie "Chicken Run", which I have always loved. We also went looking for a new fridge, because ours is fritzing out again. I think it's time to let it go. *sigh* Here are two of my cuties, though, being all posh while shopping.

Then I got a pedicure with my mom. I didn't have my camera with me, so I don't have a picture of that. But we both got orange toenails for my sister's wedding. They're so cute!

After that, Pete and I went to the temple and did a session. I hadn't gone since February, so it was really good to go. So refreshing!

Then we, my kids, my mom, and my sister and her (then) fiance Chris went out for dinner at Sol Rio. I LOVE their salsa that they bring out with chips-yummy! And then we got really yummy food. I ordered the Burrito Supreme, which I kept telling my kids was as big as my arm. When they brought it out, I got photographic evidence. SOOOOO good.

Here's my mom and Troy. Troy loves grandmas.

After dinner, just my little family had dessert. Instead of cake, I made rice krispie treats. Which, I really do like cake, but we have two more cakes coming to our house really soon, so I opt for an alternative.

Then I got to open gifts. On top of my new dress and movie, my parents had taken me out a few days before and got two other dresses, which were much needed. My kids all drew pictures of me with a cake. I'm a princess on all their pictures, which is very sweet. And Pete got me a Slap Chop, which chops up your veggies or whatever else really well and easily. I can't wait to use it!

And here I am with my sweet kids.

My birthday was very nice, and very relaxing. I am so blessed!

Okay. Onward.

July 28: campfire night

Pete had been wanting to take the kids out and build a campfire somewhere. We aren't really the outdoorsy type of people: in fact, we have a total of one sleeping bag. But I think Pete's inner Boy Scout - or maybe it's his inner pyromaniac - wanted to come out and shine. So, no sleeping in a tent for us this night, but playing with fire was definitely part of our fun.

We went out to some camp sites just past a ski hill called Kelly Canyon that's not too far from home.

Here's Pete with three future Boy Scouts/pyros:

This was my "cooler" for the night. Because we did hot dogs and smores, and bought drinks on the way up, I didn't really need anything else.

My cute clan with our drinks:

Ivy and Troy. Notice Ivy's cheeks-absolutely stuffed with hot dog!

Besides eating and playing with the fire, my kids ran around and whacked down big weeds. And then they threw those in the fire.

We also played Hide and Seek. Mostly I helped the younger two hide while someone did the seeking, though everyone took their turn being the seeker. There were trees and grass and huge rocks to hide behind. It was way fun.

And, of course, there was dirt to play in. Lots and lots of dirt!

We had a blast, and I'm sure we'll do it again sometime.

Okay, friends, this post is getting long already. So I'm going to have to make this a two-parter. So stay tuned for the rest of our birthday/vacation/wedding adventures!

Half-Way Already?

2011-07-13T16:56:00.002-06:00

I realized that the summer is already about half over. Wha.....???? Where does the time go? We've definitely been busy, but we've been relaxing as well. In fact, so far this summer has been exactly what I had envisioned in my mind.

So, this is my philosophy: I want my kids to do things in the summer that are constructive, as in, I don't want to hear the phrase "I'm BORED!" BUT. I don't want to over schedule my kids so that they don't have free time to just BE KIDS, you know? They need to be able to explore, and relax, and come up with their own entertainment, too.

Luckily, I've been blessed with self-entertainers, that play together very well. One day they made up a game called "Dandelion Store". This speaks ample amounts about the state my back yard was in at the beginning of the summer. (More on this topic later. I have, like, 5 blog posts swimming around in my head that I have yet to put down on paper. I mean, on computer.)

So. What have we done this summer? One of the things I wanted to do was sort of a "field trip" idea. It hasn't been anything terribly creative, but we've still gone out and enjoyed what is around us. I wanted to do something about every other week. Like, for instance, the zoo.

We went to the zoo a few weeks ago, before it got too hot. My cute friend Joanne and her amazing kids went with us. We headed over first thing in the morning, and all the animals were out because it was fairly cool. Even though the kids went there at the end of the school year, it's still fun to go and see the animals. And it wasn't really busy that early, either. So that was nice.

Troy has been climbing the walls-literally. He is such a monkey! But this is one of the examples of just relaxing, and entertaining themselves that I was talking about.

Summer time is not just a vacation for my kids; it is also my break time, for me to do things that I want to do. I've had these quilts that I've been wanting to make for the boys sitting around for almost a year. I was going to make it all from scratch, but that was too expensive. So then my friend Arin suggested I just buy ready-made bedspreads, and add some squares of color or something. Brilliant idea! Or so I thought. It really is a great idea, if you have a quilting machine, which I don't. There's no way that big hulking blanket is going to fit through the little tiny hole of my machine.

So....I glued it, with fabric glue.

I'm sure every quilter lady out there just about fainted after reading that. But you know what? It's done, and my boys REALLY REALLY REALLY don't care if it's beautifully stitched on or slapped together. And in a few years, when they wear out, I'll either do it the right way, or just buy an interesting bedspread that I don't have to sew.

(Now I want to paint the walls to match, but that's going to have to wait, I'm afraid.)

I also made a new skirt for myself, that gets totally wrinkly all the time, but oh well. I had a couple of church tops that needed a bottom, so I was going for color when I picked the fabric. The pattern ended up being jacked up, where the top of the skirt didn't quite work out on the inside, but I jimmy-rigged it. Plus, it's on the inside, so no one can see its flaws. I'm currently working on a vest for myself as well. We'll see how it goes-it's only cut out so far.

Let's see. I've also had time to clean out my vacuum really well. I replaced the filter, and the belt, etc. It's much more happy now. I've been doing a lot of cleaning lately. But that's yet another topic for another blog post.

Like I said, my kids are self-entertainers. They are also very artistic. I have no idea where it came from, because even my stick figures are questionable at best. Here are two pictures, gifted to me from Troy (that's him and his "grown-up" house on the left) and Brock (his is on the right-his house when "I was 19 years old").

We've also been doing a lot of reading. Brock has gotten really good at reading this summer. He even attempts to read in The Book of Mormon when we read at night-he'll do one verse, and I help him with the big words. But even those he's trying to do on his own.

So far this summer I have read some Sherlock Holmes short stories (I read some last summer and loved them), The Great Gatsby (two thumbs WAY down-HATED it), The Walk by...Richard Paul Evans? I think that was his name. Anyway, it was fairly good. I also read a book called The Third, by Pete's mission companion Abel Keogh. It was good, but ends on a cliffhanger. I've also read two books by Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club, and The Bonesetter's Daughter. I LOVED both of them. I really like her style of writing.

My kids have also been riding bikes non-stop. Troy wanted his training wheels off, and has tried a few times to ride his two-wheeler, but he gets freaked out and then steers too sharply and falls over. Oh well.

And Ivy, well, she's my little outside baby-she loves being outside all the time. Yesterday it was raining super hard, and it stopped for a minute, and she was all, "Can I go play outside?" I'm like, uh, not with thunder and lightning. She also tends to wander, and I've lost track of her a couple of times. Luckily, we've found her, but it makes me nervous.

Also this summer, we went to the Playmill and saw "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels". It was really cute, and a musical to boot, which I wasn't expecting. I haven't seen the movie, though, so I didn't know the story line or anything.

Another goal I had for this summer was to have my kids do some worksheets. I have a few little books that work with math and matching and letters and stuff for Troy and Brock, but I couldn't find anything for Jakob. So I've been making my own sheets, mostly of times facts. The 2nd graders started some of those at the end of the school year, so I thought it would be good for him to keep learning those and working on them. Some of the facts he knows really well; others, not so much. But that's the whole point of practicing them, right?

I originally wanted to have my kids do the worksheets every day, but I haven't been super diligent. It's been, like, twice a week instead. Maybe we'll be better at it for the second half of the summer.

We've also played soccer in the back yard, endured OODLES of ALLERGIES, watched some fireworks, had some barbecues, attended my nephew's baptism, gone swimming, watched one sister go off to China for 8 months, had another sister come out to visit from New York, and my other sister is getting married at Targhee in a couple of weeks. (While we're up there, I want to go horse back riding with my family. We'll see, because I don't know if they'll let little kids go or not. But if so, that would be another "field trip".)

Which brings me to the second half of summer. Things to look forward to: three birthdays, swimming lessons (hopefully), playing tennis in a goof-off way, the wedding, Harry Potter movie this weekend, and...maybe more posts from me. Hopefully.

The Short Version

2011-06-14T16:43:00.002-06:00

I think I am the President of the Procrastinator's Club. Of course, I wouldn't know, because procrastinators would just put off having their meetings, wouldn't they?

Anyway, I've been gone WWWWAAAAAYYYYYY too long from my blog. And so much has happened! But I'm afraid if I try to do super detailed posts of everything, then I won't get around to doing any posting at all, because I'll just fall further behind. So, I'm going to do the highlights, and you can fill in the details in your mind. I trust you to make up awesome things.

So, without further ado...

Pete had his birthday. He got a computer mouse, and then some drawings done by the kiddos. It was very chill.

I started a chore chart for my kids. Jakob had been doing bathrooms with me for forever, and the other kids didn't have any chores. I revamped it, and now we have a rotation of several chores. My kids have been really great about doing chores-eager, even.

I have to supervise them, but for the most part they do pretty well. A couple of weeks ago Troy was on dusting, and I didn't know that he was trying to do it by himself. Needless to say, I had to scrape off oodles of dust stuff off of my dresser. But he tried, and I guess that's what counts.

I also got a laundry basket for each of my kids, and now they fold their own clothes. I have to help Ivy a lot, but they do well folding their own clothes. I'm not quite ready to have them try and run the washing machine by themselves, but it's helped me a lot to divvy out their clothes for them.

Brock lost his two top teeth in the last little bit. I love the toothless smile.

We spent mother's day with my parents. It was really fun. My mom is a spaz. She's so cute!

My cute friend Sara got some free tickets to a show called "Handsome Little Devils", so she invited me and our other friend Anna to go. The actors do a lot of juggling tricks-that kind of thing. It was really impressive. And I got pulled up on the stage! The actor next to me had me hold some roses out in front of me, and he whipped the tops of them off while balancing on a ladder! It was really cool.

We had an Easter egg hunt at my parents' house, in the 400 mile-an-hour wind. Idaho "spring" is very, very windy.

Ivy had her third birthday. For some reason, I always space on the candles for cakes. Also for some reason, I had a brand new "1" candle, but that's it-no others. Awesome. So that's how we ended up with two matches as the other candles.

She got some clothes, and some hair things, a Tinkerbell doll, and the movie Bambie.

I was outside on a Saturday, and Troy ran out to be with me. His hands were in his jacket. He tripped, and fell flat on his face on the driveway. I saw the whole thing and couldn't do anything to stop it. So very sad.

A few days later, Troy graduated from preschool. He loved preschool, but he is so ready to go to kindergarten in the fall.

And speaking of graduations, Brock graduated from kindergarten. Their program was really cute, and I thought I would cry a lot, but I didn't.

(Okay, so here is where I tried to insert a video of Jakob's piano songs, but it wouldn't load. Good job, blogger! So, maybe someday I'll get it to load, but until then, just pretend that you can watch that video here.)

I had my piano recital. I've been teaching Jakob this year as well. He did an awesome job! He was all, "My legs were shaking a lot!" And I don't know why he decided to stand while playing, but whatever. He did great, as did my other students. I played as well, and did pretty good, but botched the end of my last song. Oh well, though. It's not the first time I've messed up a performance, nor will it be the last, I'm sure.

Also, I look like Beaker when I play the piano: my eyes are really wide, and my mouth turns down at the corners. It's neat.

Right after school got out, I got sick, for a week! It was way super awesome. I love being sick.

We took a quick jaunt to Utah for Pete's mission reunion. I was a little bored but I think Pete enjoyed seeing some of the people from his mission. We hung out with family, and went to Thanksgiving point, to the dinosaur museum there. I had no idea why Ivy is crying in the above picture.

They have a digging spot at the museum, where you can uncover "bones". All my kids enjoyed that part.

All of my boys have individually told me that they want to either study or dig up dinosaur bones.

We ate at Benihana on the way back home. The kids' menus folded up into hats. Troy zonked out with his hat still on.

And, this last Sunday, Ivy decided to take some scissors to her own hair. The pile of hair she chopped off is in her hands in this pic.

She did a very thorough job on both sides of her head. It was very mullet-esque. It's kind of hard to see in the pictures of it. Needless to say, we needed to get it fixed up. I figured a cute little pixie hair cut would work. And, of course, all this happened before I got her 3-year-old picture taken. Because I've been really on top of things lately. (Pres. of the Procrastinator's Club, remember?)

Here it is, all fixed up. Pete thinks it's kind of boy-ish, but I think if I keep a barrette in it then it will be feminine enough.

Well, that pretty much catches us up to speed. Sorry it's not heavy on the details, but I just wanted to get 'er done, you know? So that maybe, someday, I can step down as the President of the Procrastinator's Club. You know, when I get around to it.

Angry Letters

2011-06-01T16:17:00.001-06:00

Dear Local Overpriced Store,

While in the midst of my roadshow preparations, I learned that I would be needing some paint. I was told, dear store, that you were the only place I could buy temper paint. I was completely wrong. After purchasing said paint, I saw temper paint at a national craft store. Not only was the bottle at the other store bigger, they carried more colors, and it was cheaper. So, each of your small bottles: $2.99. Their big bottle of the same stuff: $1.99. Good job, overpriced store.

a good illustration of the small bottles and large bottles

I changed my mind about using temper paint, though, and got something else. I tried to return the paint to your store the very next day. That's when you informed me of your store policy: no refunds, only exchanges. I'm pretty sure you're one of the few stores left in America that has this as part of your policy. And even though there are other stores with this kind of policy, the cashiers tell the customer as they are purchasing their wares so the customer is not caught off guard, much like I was. I had no time that day to look around for an exchange, so I took my paint back home.

I ended up using some of the temper paint. Which, as a side note, does not work very well on cardboard. And it comes off onto your hands when you have to grab the cardboard.

About a month later, after the roadshow, I went back the hopes of exchanging the paint not used. The unused paint, by the way, had been sealed up; I hadn't broken the seal, so it was obviously unused. I went in, and that's when I was informed about your other return policy, of no exchanges after 30 days. Um, it had been, like, 34 days. Really, store? Again, you couldn't have told me at the time of the initial purchase?

To your credit, you have your return policy up on the wall, about 15 feet behind the purchasing counter, on the side so customers have to crane their necks to see it. It is on a homemade sign, and small enough that I had to squint at it to read it. Good job, overpriced store. Needless to say, you need to work on your communication skills and visual aids, and I need to work on my observation skills, or perhaps need to bring binoculars with me. Also needless to say, I will not be returning to your store. Thank you for wasting my time and my money.

From,
Disgruntled Paint Purchaser

Dear Expensive Jeans Store,

I used to love your jeans. They were the only jeans that fit my body well. They were expensive, but I put up with that because of the fit. But you've lost your touch, Jeans Store.

When I last bought some of your jeans, I noticed the legs were way too long. They are also way too thin. This is Idaho, not Texas-our jeans need to be thicker! And I think they were so long so you could wear high heels with them. Again, Jeans Store, know your audience-IDAHO. We're in snow boots half the year.

I had to hem up the bottoms of the pants. Also, after I wear them once, they sag in the butt and fall down, so I'm hitching them up constantly. I guess I should wash them after one wear to keep them from stretching too far, but because they are so expensive I only have 2 of them. And, it's not like I don't have enough laundry to do. I should be able to wear them at least twice before washing.

not my butt, but this is what it feels like

Jeans Store, I just don't think the price you charge is worth the "quality" I get any more. I'm going to have to deal with these pants for a while, until they wear out. Which, actually, should be soon, because they're so thin-there will be holes in the knees in no time. After that, I'm going to have to shop elsewhere.

Sincerely,
Cold, Saggy-Bummed Lady

Dear Mean Chiropractor,

I'd like to write and tell you how much your belittling me has meant to me. My back had been hurting for quite some time. I had been to your office before, but had been treated by your co-worker, who is quite nice. I thought maybe you'd be the same, but I was sorely mistaken.

The first time I went in to you, you fixed me up. My back finally had some relief. We scheduled a follow-up for the following week. And this is when you lost me as a customer.

right where my back has been hurting

I had the first appointment after your lunch break. It was scheduled for an hour before I had to get my son again from preschool, so I thought I had plenty of time. After waiting 45 MINUTES for you to get back from your lunch break, I had about 2 minutes until needing to leave to get my son. It's not like I was waiting for you to finish with another patient. If you don't want to be back on time from lunch, then don't schedule people for that time period.

I informed you that I had to leave soon. And that's when you started to make snide comments to me about how stat-at-home moms are soooooo busy, as in busy eating bon-bons

I did not appreciate your attitude toward my job as a homemaker and mother. Maybe your wife (bless her heart) has a maid, and a cook, and a nanny, and a chauffeur, and a dry cleaner, but I don't-I do all of that on my own. So excuse me for needing you to be prompt for my appointments. I wasn't late, and you shouldn't be, either. Common courtesy, man.

Also, could you tell your receptionist to not pull out condescending remarks as well? After my awful appointment with you, where I got billed $40 for 2 minutes of your oh-so-precious time where you pushed my back right into the original "out" position (causing further appointments/money with a new chiropractor), I received a bill, informing me that I was "late" on my payment. So I called, and asked if your business had sent a claim to my insurance. Your receptionist decided to tell me all about my deductible, as if I didn't know. When in fact, she didn't have the right information. I don't like to be talked to as if I am a two-year-old.

So, dear chiropractor, if I ever see you again it will be too soon. And I will never frequent your office again. This town has about 50 million chiropractors; you'd think that you would be trying your hardest to keep the clients you have. But apparently that is not your focus; instead it's on 2 hour lunch breaks and belittling housewives.

Always,
"Just" a homemaker

Dear Fridge,

Is it too much to ask of you to work properly? You are a fridge, and only 6 years old at that. A few years ago, you started leaking water from the freezer into the fridge portion of your body. The water would freeze in the back, and drip down onto the bottom of your insides. I got you fixed. And then a few months later, I fixed you again. And again. And again.

By now, fridge, I could have bought your twin with all the repair cost I have put into you. Is that what you want, fridge? To be replaced so easily?

Right now, I'm trying to save up for laser eye surgery. The last thing I want to do is spend money on either fixing you (again) or replacing you. So for now, I have to put plastic containers in the back of you to catch your water overflow (which comes from who-knows-where) and emptying it out every other day.

And sometimes, fridge, you have decided to also do the leaky thing in the freezer part of yourself. Which then makes an ice layer that freezes around all the goods I have in there. Chipping food out of my freezer isn't the best use of my time, nor would I like it to become a new hobby. Couldn't you just...work? Like a normal fridge? I'm all about quirks and individuality, but I draw a line when you're a menace to my kitchen.

So, fridge, I'll stick it out with you, for now. But once my eyes are all lasered, it's on. You're next, pal.

With love,
Annoyed Owner

Beatle-mania

2011-05-16T21:27:00.002-06:00

There it was, in the corner of my newspaper: a headline for one of their articles. I flipped open to the page, and lo and behold, the article about the band 1964.

And my heart did a little leap of joy, and I went “EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

1964 is a tribute band that plays all Beatles songs. They dress like them, talk, and act like them. They even played their instruments the way the Beatles did.

I saw this same band when I was in 9^th grade. My sister and I went, along with a couple of our friends. Somehow, we got front row seats at the Civic Auditorium. When the band started, we jumped up and started dancing. But the guy behind us didn’t like it. He poked us, and yelled “Sit down! We’re trying to watch!”

So we went into the orchestra pit, along with a bunch of other teenagers. We danced in pure Beatles bliss.

Anyway, when I saw they were performing up at BYU-Idaho, I immediately called my two Beatles-loving sisters. They were both all over going to the concert like white on rice. I think they both went “EEEEEEEEEEEE!” too. I called and got tickets.

And so we went. First we got burgers from Five Guys (YUM!), and then we headed on up. I just love spending time with my cute sisters.

We were singing at the top of our lungs, and boogying in our seats. At one point the band told everyone to jump up and sing and dance to “Twist and Shout”. After that, my sisters and I couldn’t be contained in our seats any longer. They had an area in the back where people could dance if they wanted to.

There was a boy, about 10-ish years old, who was spastically dancing around, and was totally off-beat. There was an older guy, maybe in his 40s, who had his two little girls dancing with him. He was dancing exactly the way my dad would dance with us girls when we were little. There were some couples trying to ballroom dance to the music, and I wanted to kick them in the shins.

And then there was us.

1964 only plays the early Beatles stuff. There were a few songs with which I was unfamiliar. But then they played my favorite Beatles song, “In My Life”. The band told us to pull out our phones and call someone to share the song with, and I called Pete. I was so excited that it was “In My Life” that I was all, “petethey’replayinginmylife ilovethissongsomuchcanyouhearit listenlistenlisten!!!” I asked him later if he heard the song at all, or what I had said, and he was all, “Um, yeah, phones don’t really work well at concerts, I couldn’t hear anything.”

After they were done, we all clapped and cheered, and stomped, and yelled for an encore. They came back out, and played four more songs, just right in a row. We ran up to the stage, along with most of the audience. We danced and sang some more. There was a guy in front of us, that, when they started the third song, he turned to his friend and said, “This is just BLOWING my mind!” It was funny.

Then it was over. My cheek bones hurt from smiling and laughing. (The “Beatles” would joke around in between songs.) My throat hurt from yelling and singing. I was a sweaty mess. But I was also high as a kite from adrenaline. It had been wwaaaaayyyy too long since I had listened to Beatles music. I love, love, love the Beatles.

And here is my favorite Beatles song. (Pete, when I die, you need to play this at my funeral, k?)

Roadshow Rocks!

2011-05-10T13:44:00.002-06:00

Well, it's over. You know, the thing that's been at the front of my mind, on the tip of my tongue, and the thing that has given me some sleepless nights for the last few months.

Our roadshow.

Sweat, tears, time, energy, effort, heart, and soul went into this show. It was hard. It was fun. It was entertaining. It was faith-building (for me, anyway). It was challenging. It was rewarding.

We loosely retold the story of Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah from The Book of Mormon. We used the parts found in Mosiah 27-28, and Alma 17-19. Basically, Alma and the sons of Mosiah are tearing down the church and spreading lies. An angel comes, and the guys repent, and then they all go on missions in their enemy's territory (the Lamanites). We also told the story of Ammon's mission: he becomes a servant to King Lamoni, and saves Lamoni's sheep from some other Lamanites by chopping off their arms. Then Lamoni and a lot of his kingdom become converted.

It's a very cool story.

While studying this story again, I came across a really cool scripture. It's Alma 26: 12-Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

I just love that scripture.

I honestly don't think I can pick a favorite part of our roadshow. We called it CSI: Zarahemla. We had these CSI guys investigate the crimes that the brothers were doing, including chopping off the arms. Just, every little bit was awesome, and funny, and amazing.

Our CSI guys were perfect (and imitated David Caruso in CSI: Miami). Our brothers each had their own style of picking on the citizens. The brothers each had a great style and were so awesome in their own way. Our citizens actually looked like they got hurt by the brothers. The dancing was amazing. My set boys were crazy fast at taking off our sets. Our Alma the Elder rapped! Our angel wore stilts. Our Lamoni wore a glittery crown with pride. We had cute little kids be our sheep. Our bad Lamanites parodied "The Three Amigos", and sang and danced to My Little Buttercup with fake arms that got cut off by a light saber. They even threw their fake arms (as they were being cut off) at the stake president who was sitting on the front row. Awesome.

Everyone in our show did an amazing job. I was so impressed, and grateful.

Well, right now I don't have a copy of our show, so pictures in a fabulous slide show will have to suffice. I tried to put them in show order, but I don't know if the slide show thingy cooperated with that idea. And someday I'll get a copy, but who knows if I'll be able to load it onto a blog-it might break blogger because of its size (25-ish minutes). Or because of its awesomeness.

Post-roadshow: my body decided to shut down. Feeling sick, and SUPER tired, and achy. I've been sleeping a lot, and have been to the chiropractor a few times (my back has been out a long time). I have much to catch up on, and much to do still. The end of school is ramping up, with so many things to do and accomplish. I'm excited for summer and the laziness it (somewhat) promises. I do promise to blog all about the past, present, and future!

And "Thank" YOU, Brock (Plus a Recipe, Because I Don't Know the Next Time I'll Have a Second to Make a Separate Post)

2011-03-30T23:19:00.002-06:00

As you may already know, Brock loves to draw. I got each of the kids a notebook some time ago, with the intent of them taking it to church to keep themselves entertained. None of them usually remember to take it, until last Sunday. And then Brock and Jakob decided to make paper airplanes, and then proceeded to fly one through the chapel during Sacrament meeting. Pete and I were none too happy about that.

After punishments were given (and carried out) at home, Brock wanted to draw some more. (Which I learned my lesson as well: only scriptures will be brought to church from now on.) But his notebook was all used up. So I got him a new one. On the first page, he wrote me the following note and handed it to me:

"Fac yoo to get me a not book so I am hape."

Yeah. That's what I thought at first glance, too. And if you don't see it, then you are a really good person with a really clean mind.

The translation: Thank you for getting me a notebook. It makes me happy. (Then the picture is of the notebook, pencil stuck in the spiral part, with a smiley face, as in "I am happy".) Which really is sweet.

Brock's next note shown was written about a week ago. In the last few weeks, Brock has been waking up just scared out of his wits. One night it was a scary monster in his closet that had one red eye and pointy teeth. Poor kid. Then there was another night. We went and got him and had him sit with us (me and Pete), and I kept asking him what was wrong. He wouldn't answer me. We gave him a couple of snacks and a drink, and then sent him back to bed. He came back a few minutes later, with the following:

"Mom becuz I wuz krien I wuz hugry ok Brock?"

I think you get the gist, but just in case, the translation: Mom, I was crying because I was hungry. Is that okay? -Brock

He's just a never-ending pit. I call him my Hungry Bug all the time. That kid could eat all day long, I think.

And speaking of food, I found another fantastic crock pot meal! YUMMO!!! I hope it's readable-I decided to scan it in.

I had my doubts about this one. First of all, Pete bought a stir-fry mix from Walmart called Sugar Snap Stir Fry, or something like that. It has peas, carrots, squash, red and green peppers, broccoli, green beans, and water chestnuts. And I'm not a huge squash or water chestnut fan, so I didn't know how it would be. Second, usually I can smell the dinner cooking, and I couldn't smell it at all, so I thought it was going to be bland or something.

I was so, SO wrong. This is one of my favorites that I've come across. I didn't really measure out the sauce stuff-I used a whole can of the chicken broth, and 3 big heaping spoonfuls of the orange marmalade. The other ingredients I just poured in until I thought it was about right. And then I made 3 cups of minute rice. (Which was great, because I dumped the leftovers on top of the rice, which soaked in the sauce. It ended up being really proportional.) I had done big chunks of chicken, but shredded it before serving. Oh, mamma. So good.

So, yeah. You should try the meal. Also, I really need to scan more stuff into my computer. Maybe I'll do that this weekend as I listen to General Conference, eh?

And by the way, "thank" you for reading my post!

Memory Monday: Part-Time Model

2011-03-28T10:34:00.001-06:00

My freshman year of college was oh-so-fun! We would stay up till all hours, and do some of the craziest things.

During that year, I started to wonder where I would get the funds to keep going to college. My freshman year I had a one-year scholarship to get me in-state tuition. But I had no idea if I was going to stay and apply for residency (the rules were a lot less strict then than they are now), or...what.

At one point, I had a note up on my cork board. It looked a little like this:

How to Pay for College

sell a kidney on the black market

get another scholarship

take a year off and work

marry a Utah resident

convince my parents to move to Utah so I can get residency

rob a bank

Our school's ~~joke of a~~ newspaper would run help wanted ads, but sometimes I wondered if they were jokes. There was always one for posing nude for an art class. There was another for milking cows on someone's farm. And the one that my roommate, floormate, and I decided that we'd actually go and check out.

The ad said, "Models needed! All shapes, all sizes!" Something like that. We decided to call, just because. We knew it would never turn into anything, but we were curious.

Between the three of us, we had the "all sizes" part of the ad down. My roommate, Stacy, was super tall and very athletic. She was from Las Vegas. The floormate, Becky, was teeny tiny-maybe about 4'10". A lot of people thought she was, like, 12, because she looked really young. She was from Fargo, North Dakota. And then there was me-somewhere in between the tall and the short.

Becky from Fargo, ND

Me and Stacy from Las Vegas

We went down to where the "try-outs" were at. They wanted us to bring a picture of ourselves. Of course, not knowing how it all works at the time, we just brought little wallet-sized pictures, instead of big 8x10 head shots in a portfolio. The "studio" was in the basement of some random building. We walked through a hallway, and into the first room. In there was a catwalk. There was a really tall guy, walking back and forth on it. He was practicing his turns. It reminded me of Zoolander. Then we went into the next room, which was an office.

The lady had us fill out all this paperwork. And then she asked us for our pictures. The whole time I had to hold back my laughter. But I'm sure when she saw our "head shots" she had to hold her laughter back as well. After we were done with paperwork, she began her interviews. If you can call it that.

She started with Stacy. She basically called her fat (which she wasn't) and told her that she might be a good plus-size model. Ouch, right? Then she moved to Becky, who she told could maybe model little kids' clothes. Ouch again. And then it was my turn. She told me I was too short to model, but I should try acting. Yee-haw.

What. A. Joke.

"All shapes, all sizes"? They should have said, "All shapes and sizes if you want us to insult you". Or "All shapes and sizes if you are between 5'9" and 6'2" and weigh 80 pounds".

We left, and just...started laughing hysterically. We thought the whole thing was so funny. Becky was all, "How about I chop my hair extra short and model 10-year-old boys' pants for JCPenney?!?!?" And I was all, "Yes, I'm going to win the next Oscar!"

Good times, my friends.

I did end up getting a summer job at Zuka Juice in Logan, which helped take care of my financial woes for schooling (earning money in a legitimate way, and getting Utah residency at the same time). I'm glad I didn't have to be a part-time model.

Six-a-Roo

2011-03-24T14:05:00.001-06:00

My Brock Ba-gock turned six - SIX! - a week-and-a-half ago. Where does the time go? I swear he was just born.

such a spaz!

I wish I had oodles and gobs of news of the great adventures in which we partook for his birthday, but alas. We hung out in the morning, had a run-of-the-mill lunch, and then did roadshow practice. Yee-haw.

My cuties

Although, we did go to Chili's for an early dinner. On each person's birthday, he or she gets to choose where they want our family to eat for dinner. At first he chose McDonald's, but with a suggestion of Chili's Brock quickly changed his mind.

Spazzing - again

Normally I really love Chili's, but for some reason that day my food was pretty blah. Oh well.

After our dinner, we had some family come over for cake and ice cream.

The cute engaged couple

The cute married couple

Such an internal struggle of "love my aunt" and "girls have cooties"

(I didn't get any pics of my niece and nephews. Or any of the other kids that night, for that matter. Or of Mom and Dad. I suck.)

Like, two months ago, Brock decided that he wanted a strawberry cake. With a Spiderman on top. He even drew a picture of it for me:

Brock's drawing, labeled "birthday" by him

So we had the party mix cake on the inside (it's the kind with the little colored dots) and strawberry frosting on the outside. Then Brock helped me with the sprinkles on top, so there were ample amounts of those. Then I cut and arranged the strawberries. I thought I had bought a "6" candle, but apparently not, and I only had 5 of the regular candles, so we added a fancy "1" to make it six. I'm sure he didn't care.

The really yummy, really specific cake

Brock got a Lotso Huggin' Bear to complete his Toy Story collection, some "boring" clothes, the movie Hook, a Generator Rex toy, and a Toy Story coloring book. He loves all of his presents-except the clothes (because he's a boy), but I love the clothes for him.

LOVE this shirt-thanks, Mom!

Can you see the joy and love on his face?

Here are some factoids about my Ba-gock:

Brock loves to do his homework right off. Our kindergarten classes give a packet of homework on Monday for them to work on all week. He sits and gets it all done the first day. He's starting to read, and is doing pretty well with it, but sometimes wants to guess at the words and is totally wrong. His voice gets softer and a little higher when he reads-it's funny.

He is the coloring and drawing machine! He draws better than I do, and I'm not even joking. For a while he'd sound out the words to write, which was really cute. I need to scan some pictures in that he's drawn for us.

I adore this picture of my boys

Brock loves toast with peanut butter on it. I have never, ever, eaten this, but he asks for it all the time now.

He is a hoarder, with a capital H. I'll go through his school papers that he brings home, and toss the ones that are no big deal. He'll dig through the garbage and pull them out to keep. The other day I asked him to clean up his room, and take his toys downstairs and put them with all the other toys. Instead, he shoved his toys under his bed, then arranged the garbage can and his blankets in front of his bed so I couldn't see his toys underneath.

Brock is a really chill kid. Sometimes he can be a spaz, and every once in a while he'll get this little stubborn look on his face, but he's mostly just so, so good. Pete will try to dupe him, and he never falls for it. He doesn't really follow anyone else-he wants to just do his own thing, even if that means he'll be doing it by himself. He calls chores "drawers". He loves Toy Story, and Spiderman, but he wants to be a vampire for Halloween. (Halloween costume discussions are a year-round occurrence in my home.)

Brock is a total lady killer. One little girl kissed him on the cheek while riding the bus, and it was the talk of the neighborhood. (I had, like, 4 moms ask me about it, because their kids told them about it.) He sits by a girl at school, and I'm pretty sure she likes him, too.

He has a steel-trap mind, like his dad. He remembers EVERYTHING. He's also very patient. He'll ask for something, and if I tell him I'll get it or do it later, then a while later he'll gently ask me about it again, and of course I had totally forgotten in the interim. But he doesn't get upset with me.

Brock is still a super night owl. I don't know what we're going to do with that kid when he has to get up at 7 a.m. for school next year.

The other day I took him to the store, and got him a big candy bar because he was having a rough day-Jake and Troy didn't want to play with him for some reason. I thought he'd eat the whole thing by himself, and gloat over his brothers that he had this fabulous candy bar and they didn't. Instead, he shared it with them. How nice is that?

Love this boy of mine.

My 6-year-old

Memory Monday: Appliance Gratitude

2011-03-14T23:23:00.004-06:00

This last week, our microwave decided to die on us. (This isn't the "memory" part of my post. This is just the setup of what brought back this particular memory, or memories, if you will.) One minute it was working, the next minute there was absolutely no heat emitting from its...micro waves.

The appliance fixer guy came out and said a piece wasn't working. I keep wanting to call it the Megatron. The...Magnavox? The...MAGNATRON! Yes! I remembered! (Seriously, my brain goes to Megatron first. I must have boys in my house.) Anyway, that's the thing that makes the microwave work. We could either replace the part, or get a new one for the same exact cost. I went with a new one, because why not?

While I was looking around the store, I saw some really fancy appliances. It's only been 5-ish years since I've done some appliance shopping, though at the time we had Budget X to work with because that's what our home builders told us we had. Of course we could have gone over Budget X to get fancier things, but we didn't have more money with which to spend on the fancy, so Plain Jane is what we ended up getting.

But now? There are microwaves that have grills inside of them. Crazy, huh? And there are ovens that have a smaller oven door, which totally fits a 9x13 pan, but you only have to heat up the smaller one (and then there's a full-size oven underneath), so it's more energy efficient and all that jazz. (Here's a picture of one. Awesome, huh?)

And then there's the fancy, roomy dishwasher. *sigh* Of all my appliances, I would want my dishwasher to break. It's short, and small, and the utensil holder is in the bottom instead of on the door so it takes up a ton of room, and then it has that spindle thing in the middle of the bottom and top that shoots water up, so you have to work around it. And because my dishwasher is short, if I use a normal-sized skillet, I have to lean it over, so it takes up more than half of the bottom of the dishwasher to clean it.

I was coveting, my friends.

However. This experience brings me to my Memory Monday. And because it's late, I'm sure I'll forget all sorts of descriptive details about it. Though, I think for Memory Monday's sake, I'm going to just stick to the appliance section of this time in my life.

The year span was 2002-2005. Pete and I got married in June of 2002, and we moved into married student housing on campus at Utah State. I think these beauties were built in, like, the 1940s or something. There were plenty of things wrong with the Aggie Village apartments, but for two really poor college students, they were just fine. Here's a pic of one of the buildings:

Sweet, sweet cinder block walls with no air conditioning. Very cold in the winter, warm like unto an oven in the summer. (And then being SUPER pregnant during one of those summers! Yikes. Bikes.) They were cheap, but a great deal because our water, cable, internet, phone, garbage, sewer, and electricity were all included in the price. The downside: no appliances to be had.

Laundry machines? We were lucky enough to have the laundry building right next door to our building. Microwave? Pete's siblings all pitched in to get us one for our wedding gift. It sat on an old desk that Pete had had in his single days. Dishwasher? I called my dishwasher my hands, my sink, soap, and a towel. We had a dinky little gas oven in which only one of my cookie sheets would fit all the way.

Our cabinets had sliding fake wood doors. Our "pantry" was maybe a foot wide and maybe two feet deep (I'm being generous on the measurements).

One day in Sunday School during church (which was basically our whole ward, because there were, like, 5 kids old enough to be in nursery while the rest were all brand new babies, and that was the entirety of our primary), someone made a comment about our fake wood sliding cabinet doors, and our lack of counter space. And I think every woman in the room started fantasizing about real wood cabinets, and appliances that were younger than she was. And our teacher (I can't remember his name, but he had red hair, if I'm remembering right) made this comment:

If we can always remember our fake wood cabinets during this time in our lives, we will always be grateful for what we have.

That really hit me. I think he was trying to say a few things-or, I interpreted it a few different ways. One, that someday we'll look back and realize how poor we were in college, and that hopefully we'll be better off in the future, but we need to be grateful for how far we've come. Two, that aren't we lucky to even be in college, and that we even have cabinets in which to house our food and dishes. And three, all we need are the basics, and our happiness doesn't come from material goods.

So yes, I coveted a new dishwasher last week. But then I remembered what life was like without one, and I realized how great I have it. I am so blessed, and not just with appliances.

Lazy, According to Jakob

2011-03-02T10:29:00.003-07:00

Jakob has a really skewed sense of what lazy is. Well, maybe it's a skewed sense of what we as adults-that is, his parents, do.

He told his gym teacher one day that he was being lazy at his class, "just like my dad". Yeah, I think that getting up at 5 a.m. four days a week to go to work, and getting home at 6:30 at night is being TOTALLY lazy.

Then last night Jake wanted more dinner, so he asked me for some. I was like, "You can get some more by yourself." And he gave me this look like, what? I have to serve myself? As he was dishing up, he muttered, "I wish I could stay home and do nothing like Mom does."

That made me laugh. I replied, "Jake, do you want to hear what I did today? It definitely wasn't "nothing"."

He looked at me with "impress me" in his eyes. I began.

"First, I got up, so I could get you up, made you a lunch, and got some breakfast for you. I got you out the door so you could catch the bus and get to school on time.

"Then I got breakfast for the other three kids, and got myself ready for the day. I started some laundry, and folded three other loads from yesterday's laundry, and put it all away. Later in the day, I folded two more loads and put that away as well.

"I cleaned out the fridge, and dumped the old food. I rinsed dishes, loaded the dishwasher, and after it was done running I put all the dishes away.

"I took out the garbage, which includes getting garbage from 6 cans, and also changing out the cat litter box. After the garbage man came, I brought the garbage can back in.

"I finished writing down the music for one of our roadshow songs. (Meaning, I had to come up with accompaniment for one of the songs, so it's like I was composing a bit. I did about 2/3s of it yesterday. And this was not an easy task for me.)

"I swept the kitchen floor so my students wouldn't get grossed out looking at it. I also cleaned some pee off the bathroom floor. (Totally gross, I know, but that's how it is with three little boys who don't have the greatest aim.)

"I got lunch for myself and three kids, and listened to a tantrum from Ivy (for about 30 seconds, then I sent her to her room) because she didn't want what I got for her for lunch. I got Brock ready and out the door for his school.

"I taught four piano lessons today.

"I did have a slight break, because usually on Tuesdays I go and help in Brock's kindergarten class, but today they were doing something special so his teacher told me not to come. Instead, I finished the craft pages you kids had started earlier in the week. (It's mosaics with little sticky foam squares. Like paint-by-number but with squares. It was fun, and because it's for 6-year-olds, about at my crafting level. This owl one is one that Jakob did on Saturday; it's one of the small ones. I did three big ones.)

"During piano lessons, Troy, Brock, and Ivy came in from playing outside, COVERED in mud. I had to strip Ivy down, and then sent her downstairs to wait to get cleaned up until after I was done teaching. That means another load of laundry, with three coats in it that I had cleaned only a week before, bringing my washed loads total for the day to three, and my folded loads for the day to six. (And then she fell asleep, with mud on her face and in her hair. I'm the best mom ever!)

"I also checked your homework, listened to you read, made four beds, including yours, and made dinner. I also answered your questions you had while practicing piano.

"In a half hour, I get to go over to the church, and play a musical number for a lady that's singing at New Beginnings. (I don't know if I mentioned on here that I got released from Young Women's. Being at New Beginnings last night made me really miss my calling and those girls.) I also get to come home and get everyone ready for bed, and do more dishes from dinner.

"So, if you want to switch me for the day, my "nothing" for your day of schoolwork, I'd be happy to, any day of the week."

Silence, with eyes very wide, from Jakob's side of the table. Maybe he'll rethink his definition of lazy.

Memory Monday: Roadshow

2011-02-28T12:50:00.002-07:00

Sorry I've been hit-and-miss on Memory Monday lately. I'll try to do better. However, one of the reasons I've been so sporadic with posting at all (and, in turn, reading and/or commenting on others' blogs) is because of my current church assignment-our ward's roadshow. It's a lot more time consuming than I originally thought it would be.

But more about that later. This is MEMORY Monday. So I'm going to write about one of the roadshows I was in when in Young Women's.

The year: 1996. Me: in high school drama, thinking that I knew everything there was to know about acting, and writing a script, and all that jazz.

Somehow, the Laurel class got put in charge of writing our ward's roadshow this time. For whoever doesn't know what a roadshow is, it's essentially a play that a group of people perform in different locations, like three different church buildings. We had roadshows in our stake every other year, so this one was my third. Anyway, because I thought I was all that and a bag of chips, I kind of took over writing the roadshow.

Our theme had to do with time lines, or something, and it was our stake's 50th...anniversary? It had been 50 years since its creation, so whatever that would be called. So we chose doing a Back to the Future theme. The main plot was that Biff (guy in the middle in the picture, who I dated for a while, actually) went back in time and ruined some roadshows, so Marty (guy on the right) and Doc (that was me, if you couldn't tell from the costume) had to go and fix them. We went to the 50s, and the 70s, and...is that all? That's all I'm remembering. Our youth group was really big, and we had them do some dance/singing numbers with the words changed to songs that were from the different eras.

Yes, it was cute. But, I was really selfish with it, and because I was so full of my drama self, I thought that my ideas were the best, so I kind of ended up writing it myself. Also, the lady that they chose as director wanted the guy on the right to be Doc. But because the script was my baby I wanted to be Doc. So I kind of forced her hand. Which, now, if a youth were to try to do that to me, I'd be like, step down, punk. I don't know why she didn't do that to me, but oh well.
So, very fun. Well, I had fun, anyway; I have no idea if anyone else had as much fun. But the other roadshows we did as youth were fun for me as well.
Fast forward to January of this year. Our 1st counselor pulled me and Pete aside and asked if we would be in charge of our roadshow. And we gladly accepted. We wrote our script in about a week, and we've been full steam ahead ever since.

We've had a couple of dance practices with the youth, which has been fun, and it looks so great. Of course, we have a lady in our ward who does choreography at a dance studio all the time, so she's made it look great.

The biggest obstacle we've come across right now has been music. We picked some different songs, and some of them don't have instrumental versions available. So I've been trying to write in some accompaniment to one of the songs on the piano, and then I'm going to have to figure out how to record it. (My piano can record, but for some reason I can't find the cords that connect it to a computer to get it off the piano. Neat, huh?) But it's worth it for this specific song.

I want to write more about our show, but I don't want to give anything away (in case there are roadshow spies out there that may come across my blog and steal our ideas or something). I can tell you that each ward got an assigned time period (ours is Book of Mormon) and a theme (ours is missionary work).

There is still SO much to do, and SO much to think about. And the show is at the end of April, so YIKES! BIKES! Hopefully it just all comes together, and ends up being as cute and as funny as I am envisioning. I mean, just because I think it's funny, doesn't mean it necessarily is funny, you know?

So, that's my current time-sucker. Like I said, way more time-consuming than I thought it was going to be. But it's been fun. And I'm sure you'll hear all about it in a couple of months! In the meantime, I'll try to keep up with my blog. For real, yo.

What Happens in Vegas...

2011-02-24T21:56:00.002-07:00

...stays in Vegas.

That's why I can't tell you anything about our recent trip to Las Vegas.

JUST KIDDING!

We didn't do anything crazy, so I can totally tell you about our awesome trip! It was just me and Pete, and my mom watched our kids, which was wonderful of her. We left on a Friday night via plane and flew straight from our home town to Vegas, which took only a little over an hour, which is SO awesome.

We had a shuttle take us to our hotel, and after we got all checked in and found our room, it was about 11 p.m. Mountain time, and we hadn't had dinner. The awesome thing about Vegas is that there are restaurants in the hotels. There was a Baja Fresh on the ground floor of our hotel, so we got it to go and ate it in our room. I got a chicken burrito thing, with mango salsa and avocados on it, and it was to DIE for! SOOOO yummy. Mmmm, just thinking about it makes my mouth water. It was so huge, like the size of my forearm, but I ate the whole thing in, like, 5 minutes. YUM.

Here's a pic of Pete by our room's door, room 20166. The 20 part means the 20th floor, and the 1 means the 1st tower. Each "tower" was actually two towers, because the even-numbered rooms of tower 1 were in a different segment from the odd-numbered rooms. So really, there are four towers. Also, where we caught the elevators had one side that went just floors 2-17, and the other side of elevators was for floors 18-28.

Now, I've been to Vegas before, but it was a really long time ago. I had forgotten how BIG everything is. Oh, and they gave us a little (deceitful) map of the Strip, so it looks not very big, but in all actuality, it's so super huge and spread out.

We found that out the hard way the next morning, as we went in search for our breakfast. We found a Denny's (which there's at least five along the Strip), which was just across the street. But to get across the street, you have to go through the casino/maze on the ground floor of the hotel, down some steps, up an outside escalator, across a bridge thing, and then back down and over. We could see it from the other side, but it took us, like 15 minutes to walk there.

While there I had a yummy drink, of orange juice, peach juice, and Sprite all mixed together. At first it tasted like Gummy Worms. That's my best Gummy Worm impression that my finger can make. After I stirred it up a bit, though, it was really good.

So, because we're idiots, we decided to walk from our hotel (Excalibur) (well, actually, from Denny's on up), which is on the southwest side of the Strip, and go pick up our Phantom of the Opera tickets in the Venetian, which is northeast. Again, the little map was all deceitful and was like, "Look how close it is! That's not bad! Just walk the strip! YAY!" Stinking map. By the time we got there, I was a little tired, but it wasn't too bad. And it had warmed up outside, so it was nice. However, we decided, after getting our tickets, to walk back, down the other side.

One word: stupid.

Going up the strip on the east side wasn't all that bad. It was actually a pretty straight shot. Going down the strip on the west side, however, was entirely different. On the west side, you still have the escalators and all that, but it's like, jig in, go up, go across, go down, jig out, walk down a little, jig in again....yeah. Like a big ol' zig zag. About halfway down my knee started feeling weird. And I felt all wimpy, because hi, we were just walking, right? It just felt like it needed to pop or something, but it wouldn't. So that was fun.

We stopped and got our picture in front of the Bellagio fountain. Which of course wasn't going off at the time, and I have no idea what its schedule is. I was under the impression that it goes all the time, but guess not. It was still pretty, though. And notice the short sleeves and sunglasses. Ah, to have warm weather...

We went back to the hotel to rest, and by that time my knee was killing me, as well as my feet. Good times. While Pete slept, I watched a couple of awesome TV shows. One was called "The Stranger", about this guy that started hanging out with a family, and he was all nice and calm, but it turns out he was on America's Most Wanted, and he had killed his wife and set her on fire. Nice, huh? The other show was called "A Twist of Fate", where these two girls who totally look alike went to the same college and worked together, and got in an car accident. One was killed, and the other was in critical condition, but they got the identities mixed up, so the girl in critical condition belonged to the family that thought their daughter had died. Eventually they figured it out, but weird, right?

We got all dressed up, and after managing to pull ourselves away from the TV (read that last phrase sarcastically, okay?), we had a late lunch at Rainforest Cafe, which Pete pointed out tastes a lot like Chilis. And because we like Chilis, that was a good thing. Luckily, Rainforest Cafe was in MGM Grand, so we only had to go through our hotel maze, up and down and around across the street, and then into MGM Grand's

Here's Pete all pimped out. We didn't pack his dress shoes, though, so he wore his tennis shoes.

After that, though, we caught the monorail thing up to Venetian. The monorail thing is kind of behind the east side hotels, and starts at MGM Grand. And the Deceitful Map was all, "Look! There's a stop at Harrah's, which is totally right next door to Venetian! No more walking for you! YAY!" So we got off at Harrah's, but then we had to go through that hotel's maze, and out to the road, and then there were five million shops between Harrah's and Venetian, and then into the Venetian, and through its casino/maze, until we finally reached the theatre.

Oh, and I was doing all this walking in heels. So not only did my knee hurt, and my feet hurt, my ankles also hurt. Good times.

However. Phantom of the Opera. PHANTOM OF THE OPERA!!!! That was the whole reason we wanted to go down to Vegas, because the Venetian has a permanent Phantom stage. I bought tickets beforehand, and we sat on the VERY front row. I wanted to get a picture of me in front of the orchestra pit, which was about four feet in front of our seats, but there was a worker there that was a Camera Nazi. I got down in front of the pit, and she came over and was all, "NO CAMERAS!!!" I was like, I just want a picture of how close we are. And she's all, "NO CAMERAS!!!!" So, I didn't get a shot of us in there.

Since I don't have a picture of how close we were, let me describe how close we were. We were so close, we could see their mics on their foreheads (it was a little peach bump). We were so close, we could hear Christine's dress rustle as she walked around. We were so close, we had to look behind us to see the chandelier fall. We were so close, that we could feel the heat from the flames that came up on stage. We were so close, that when the singers turned from singing to the back of the stage to the front again, we could hear their actual voice (instead of just hearing it through the mic). We were so close, we could hear the conversations of the orchestra members prior to the show starting. We were so close we could see their eyeliner lines.

Did I mention that we were close? The tickets were a little pricey, but TOTALLY worth it.

Afterwards, we walked (well, Pete walked, I hobbled) to the Cheesecake Factory. I had a super yummy salad, and we got cheesecake to go. We totally grabbed a taxi on the way back to our hotel, which was worth every penny (and really, it wasn't super expensive). Note to self: next time I go to Vegas, I'm taking a cab everywhere I go, even if Deceitful Map tells me it's not very far. My cheesecake was so good, but I could only eat about 2/3 of it because it was so rich. That made me really, really sad.

While we were there, I made Pete gamble a dollar. That's right-one smackaroo. He went up 50 cents, then lost it all. NO! Not our dollar!

So Sunday morning, we totally got sucked in to going to a time share pitch. In exchange for our time (a couple of hours) on Sunday morning, we got a free lunch and a free ticket to the Tournament of Kings, which is the dinner show that Excalibur puts on. We took a shuttle out to "the future of the Strip", which is further south. And the condos were nice, but SO overpriced it wasn't even funny.

What was funny, though, was the saleslady. We were all, sorry, it's too expensive. And she's like, well, let me check and see what they have going on right now. And she'd come back with this SUPER AMAZING DEAL that must be a typo and we can't pass it up! We said no about 4 times, and she got the message after slashing the price to about a third of the original price. We went downstairs, and went into another room, where we met with a guy, and he was all, "I can offer you this same deal for half the price." We were like, dude, no, and where is our free stuff?

We finally got back to our hotel via shuttle. I guess if you signed to buy a condo timeshare, you got to ride back in a limo. So we started joking with all the other people on the shuttle that it was the Loser Bus because we didn't get timeshares. But in all actuality, we were the Smart Bus, and I don't mean that as a joke.

Was it worth it? Hard to say. Because we got a ton of stuff out of going to the presentation, but we wasted a good three hours there. Would I ever go to a timeshare presentation again? Probably not. But if you're into getting free stuff, and are great at saying "no" about 50 times, then you should totally do it.

We ate our FREE buffet lunch, which was like glorified cafeteria food, then hung out at our hotel room again. And this time I slept and Pete watched who-knows-what on TV. Then we went to the Tournament of Kings.

If you don't know what it is, it's a show about King Arthur and the different kings from different countries. You eat your meal (chicken, potatoes, roll, broccoli) with your hands, and watch as the kings fight each other. We sat in the France section. It's so fun. You get to yell and cheer for your guy, and boo at the bad guy. They joust and sword fight in the arena right in front of you. I had gone to this before when I was in high school, but Pete had never been. I couldn't believe how well-trained the horses are. And the guys are SO good at their stunts! So, so fun and entertaining. I'm sure my boys would have loved to see it.

Afterwards, we decided to walk again (you'd think we had learned our lesson, but NO), mostly to find souvenirs for the kids. But it really wasn't very far this time, and I wasn't in heels, and my knee was feeling better. We went to the Coke store. I had my camera out, and a lady in there was all "I'll take your picture with the Coke bear!" But I thought she was yelling at me like the Camera Nazi had the night before. So I was all, "I'm putting it away right now-sorry!" But then I heard her the right way. The bear kept taking Pete's hat off. I loved the Coke store. But I love Coke, so, you know.

After that, we had to go back to our hotel room to sleep. We're boring and old that way. We had to get up to catch our shuttle and flight the next morning anyway.

Here we are in front of our hotel.

And...that's it. It was a fun, albeit short, trip. But it was nice to get away, just me and Pete. I don't know when I'll be heading back to Vegas, but when I do, I'm getting taxis everywhere I go. And I'd see Phantom again. And eat my yummy cheesecake before my yummy salad. And not listen to Deceitful Map.

Thought-filled Thursday: Training Day Part 4-the Final Chapter

2011-02-17T08:20:00.002-07:00

I didn't know I had so much to say about poop. But here we are again, reading about my last potty training adventure with my only girl.

Sadly (fortunately?), I don't have a picture of Ivy potty training. Because once again, it went so fast. The reason I have a picture of Tinkerbell was Ivy got to have a Tinkerbell sticker if she went poop in the toilet. And she loves Tinkerbell.

Let me start from the beginning. I got an awesome book from my friend Chelsey, who used it while training her triplets. She said it worked like a charm. It's called Potty Training in Three Days, or something like that. You're supposed to train your child when he/she is 22 months old, which would have been super awesome. But that time came and went for me, and I had just trained Troy, so I was ready for a break, and I didn't feel like Ivy was ready to train.

However, she started doing the same thing Troy had done, and sat on the little toilet before bath time, and went pee almost every time. So that was good. That meant she knew how to let go when she wanted. She did that for a few months, at least.

I tried to start taking her in the mornings during the summer, but she would just sit on the toilet and cry and whine. She was so miserable, so I gave up on that one after just a couple of days.

Then she started showing more signs, like wanting to sit on the toilet, and going and getting a diaper when hers was wet. One day in September or October, I asked her if she wanted to go pee in the toilet all the time, and wear big girl undies, and she said yes and seemed super excited. So one morning I had her go pee and we put the big girl undies on her. A half hour later, she had peed in them, but didn't tell me or even react to it. So we cleaned it up, and put new undies on her. Which she peed in them about an hour later.

After I cleaned her up, I asked if she wanted to wear big girl undies still or if she wanted a diaper, and she tearfully asked for the diaper. She wasn't quite ready, and neither was I. And I really do think that the mom has to be ready as well as the child, because the mom has to deal with cleaning the accidents and helping that child run to the bathroom and all that jazz.

For the next couple of months, I could tell that Ivy was becoming very aware of her diaper and its contents. She would poop and get this really squirmy uncomfortable look on her face and ask to be changed immediately. She would even bring me a diaper after peeing. She's always been a great talker, so I knew that we would be able to communicate about going potty, which is also a great help. Not necessary, but nice.

I knew we'd have a week off of school and all our activities between Christmas and New Year's, so I decided that that would be our potty training time. I made a little sticker chart for her, and we started the Monday after Christmas. She had little rainbow stickers for peeing, and Tinkerbell for pooping.

It's sad that I can't think of any crazy mishaps that happened on our first day, but maybe that's because we really didn't have any. I know she's had accidents, but really, we worked on it that week and that's about all it took. She would have good days with no accidents, and then days with four accidents. But overall, she did really well, and started taking herself to the bathroom by the end of the week.

I think it helped while we were potty training to have both me and Pete around. Because when I had to run an errand, Pete could be home with her, and vice versa. For the first few days, we would ask her almost nonstop if she had to go pee or poop. I'm sure she got sick of hearing us ask, but then I think it helped to keep the subject in the forefront of her mind. Also, it helped that we didn't have to drive to preschool, or gym, or wherever else, and I didn't have piano lessons. We could concentrate on her instead of being pulled in 50 directions.

I do remember when we started back into our daily grind, we drove Troy to preschool. I dropped him off, and got back to the car, and Ivy was scream-crying. I asked her what was wrong, and she cried, "I go PEEEE!!!" I was like, oh great, she just had an accident in the car. I felt her bum, though, and she was dry. So I asked, "Ivy, do you need to go pee?" And she was all "YEEEEEESSSSS!!!" So I took her out of the car and asked Troy's preschool teacher if we could use the bathroom. She held it all the way in to the house, which was awesome, and then went pee there.

Also, I didn't think that aiming for girls was a big deal. They just sit, right? Wrong. Well, wrong for Ivy, anyway. Because when she sat straight up, the pee would go in the gap between the seat and the bowl, and get all over the back of her pants, or the floor. So then I had to work on having her bum hang down lower into the bowl, and lean her clear forward. And now that's kind of how she sits by herself, which is nice.

Another time, like a Saturday night, I noticed the bathroom door was shut, and the light was on (this is after the kids were in bed). I opened the door to smell that really yummy smell. There were some undies in the sink, with poop in them, and the toilet was filled with toilet paper and kleenex, so much so that they were sitting in there dry. So poor little Ivy was trying to take care of her poop all by herself, and tried cleaning it up and stuff, and had apparently run out of toilet paper-hence the kleenex. The next day I told her that kleenex is for noses and toilet paper is for bums, and if she runs out of toilet paper to come get me and I can get her more.

And...that's about it. I think she had an accident on Saturday, but before that it had been...who knows how long since the last one.

So hopefully my potty training stories were interesting, or helpful, or...something. If not, at least I have them written down. Because you can never type too much about this subject, apparently.

Non-Forgetting Friday: Training Day Part 3

2011-02-11T08:25:00.001-07:00

This is the only picture I have from Troy's potty training experience, because his training time was so stinking fast. Well, kind of.

Our little potty was pretty much a permanent fixture in our upstairs bathroom by this time. Once trained, all of my kids have wanted to use the "big tow-wet" (big toilet), but have all trained on the little one. So, for a long time, Troy would use the little potty before baths at night, and actually go in it (just #1). But I couldn't get him to use it any other time. I didn't try to force him into it, though. (See? I'd learned.)

So that went on for a couple of months. Then I had my hysterectomy (this is Oct. 2009). So, just so I have it straight in my head, Jake trained in 2006, Brock in 2008, Troy in 2009, Ivy in 2010. While I was healing from surgery, my mom came over a lot and helped me out with things. And Troy LOVES my mom. He loves cuddling with her, and he'd do anything for her. So she would ask him to go in the mornings, and he would.

A little over a month after I had my surgery, I went to my doctor's appointment to get checked to see how I was healing. And Troy had preschool-just a neighborhood thing that a few ladies and I did for our 3-year-olds. Troy was the youngest in his little group, and, incidentally, the only one not potty trained. So I took him over to preschool and left for my appointment, leaving my mom behind.

After preschool started, Troy pooped in his diaper. The poor mom was trying to figure out where the smell was coming from. When she found it was Troy, I guess a few of the other kids were all, "You still wear diapers?" And he was soooo embarrassed. The mom called my mom, but she couldn't go get him, and by the time I got back from my appointment the preschool was almost over. So the poor mom had to smell him the whole two hours, and Troy had to sit in it and be embarrassed for two hours.

It definitely had an effect on him. He talked about it for a few days after. And that's when I decided he was ready. That was his button-being a Big Boy, and keeping up with his peers.

I made a potty chart for him. We started December 4, apparently. I kept him in diapers, though, because I wasn't wanting to clean up messes. The first day he went in the toilet only in the morning and before bed. The next day he did the same thing. But the following day, at church, no less, Troy told me he had to use the bathroom. I took him, and to my surprise he went.

And...that's that. He was good to go from then on. I put him in undies after a couple of weeks, and he's been dry ever since.

Which takes us to...part 4, Ivy's story. Stay tuned. That is, if you want to hear more about poop.

Tell-It Tuesday: Training Day Part 2

2011-02-08T16:58:00.004-07:00

And now Part 2 of the Potty Training Chronicles: Brock's turn.

(The undies on his head? His idea, not mine. Don't worry-they were clean.)

After our rough time potty training Jakob for six months, I was worn out, and was totally NOT ready to potty train again. But time marches onward, so it had to be done.

Which, P.S.-poor Jake! The first kid really is the Guinea pig, huh? When you just don't know what to do, and so you flail around, and try all sorts of things, and then afterwards you figure it all out, and then it's a lot easier on the next kids. If only it didn't have to be that way.
One thing I had learned is that I started Jakob on potty training too early. He had no idea what was going on, or how to do things. I think I started him so early because I didn't want the three kids in diapers, but then after I did it that first time, it's wasn't the worst concept in the universe to me. So when I was pregnant with Ivy, I had zero drive to try with Brock until later.
Another thing: when I was training Jake, I brought up the fact that it was taking a million years to train him to my doctor. He suggested having Jake clean out his own undies. I was like, I can't do that to a 2 1/2 year old! So I didn't ever try that with him. But as I started contemplating training Brock, it sounded like a better idea to me.

Ivy was born in May 2008. I started training Brock sometime in July 2008, so he was a little over 3 years old. Hence, I did the three kids in diapers thing for a few months again.

Brock has always liked to be pampered. He loves getting sun lotion put on him because it's like a massage. He loves getting his back rubbed. And, by extension, I think he really liked getting his diaper changed, because it was a form of pampering. But I could tell he was aware of his diaper and his "system", because he'd pause while playing for a minute. That was one of the signs I knew he was ready, but I knew I had to force his hand a little because of the pampering thing.

So, we started, and we did cold turkey, meaning just straight into undies. I think because he was older, he did a lot better than Jake did at first. I still had him sit on the toilet often, but I didn't do the hand in the warm water thing or the sticker chart.

I did, however, have him clean out his undies whenever he had a poop accident. And he HATED it. I'm sure most kids would, but he especially did because of wanting to be pampered and clean. We would have him take off his undies, and put them in the sink, and rinse them out really good.

There was one time I took him to clean them out, and he was shaking, and he just reached one little finger out and just...touched the poop. I'm like, no, you don't have to touch the poop part, just the undies, but we need to make sure the poop gets rinsed out.

He did really great-it took about 3 weeks for him to be trained. But after no accidents for a while, he pooped in his undies at my parents' house, on my birthday at the end of July. I played the birthday card, so Pete ended up cleaning him up. And to do it, he had Brock stand outside naked while he hosed him off. A little cruel? Yes. Effective? VERY.

A couple of weeks after that Brock had a pee accident, then two the following day. I was like, dude, no WAY are we going to regress. So I told him, "Well, we need to get you cleaned off because you peed in your undies." I put him in the tub, turned the water on super cold, and started dumping it on him. He totally HATED that, but while I was doing it, I said, "No peeing in your undies." He was like, okay okay okay! He's been great ever since.

Lessons learned this time around: making the kid clean it up works very well, wait until you see some signs (like that they are aware of their diaper and their poop) works, and kids hate cold water.

Memory Monday: Training Day Part 1

2011-02-07T23:28:00.005-07:00

Now that I am TOTALLY COMPLETELY DONE with potty training, I'm ready to document my diaper days. These are the stories of my adventures in potty training. We'll start with the oldest, which I should probably title "How NOT to Potty Train Your Child", or "First is Worst".

Here is a picture of me, pregnant with Troy, and CRAZY to boot. And yes, that would be Jakob, asleep on the toilet. Isn't he just so stinking cute?

So. I started potty training Jakob the day after Easter, when he was a little over 2 1/2 years old. I had no idea what I was doing. I had heard, "Oh, you'll know when they're ready", and "Just wait until they show interest", and "Bribe them and celebrate any time anything goes in the toilet!" Okay, then.

We bought the little toilet, and some cool superhero undies so that he would get excited. Then I put the little toilet in my kitchen, and vowed that we'd spend the day(s) in there until he got it down. Oh, and I only bought a 6-pack of undies. Little did I know. Or maybe I was being optimistic. Either way, I definitely was not prepared.

The first day he went through all 6 pairs in the first two hours. He would just go a tiny bit, and would always get this look on his face like "What in the world is traveling down my leg?" After that, I put him back in a diaper for the rest of the day, until I could clean the undies and try again the next day.

The next day was a little better, but not by much. But, I was also sick of spending time in the kitchen. I tried giving him a lot to drink, but the kid could only take in so much fluid. After a couple of days I got the brilliant idea to put his hand in warm water, to see if that would help him get going. We did the sticker chart, which he cared about for the first 3 stickers.

One day (I have no idea where I was, but I was gone, or downstairs doing laundry or something), Jake went poop, and it ended up EVERYWHERE. I think he was trying to get to the toilet, but didn't quite make it, so then he was trying to clean it up himself, but it got all over the floor in the bathroom, and of course all down his legs, and he stepped in it and ran down our carpeted hall...just, everywhere.

Eventually, he got pretty good at peeing in the toilet, but pooping was a different story. We bought a toy for him that he had picked out and said if he went poop 10 times in the toilet (not even in a row, but just 10 times), then he could have that toy. It took him, like, three weeks to finally "earn" it.

There was a day, after months of cleaning poop out of undies, that I just lost it. Now remember, I was pregnant with Troy, which was my crazy pregnancy. Not that I'm trying to make excuses for myself, but I had just had it. Everyone always says not to punish kids when they have accidents, but Jakob at this point was very aware of his BMs. He would run into a corner and stand there and poop instead of running into the bathroom. So he had done that, and I just started yelling at him, like, crazy yelling.

Every time I flipped out during this pregnancy, and there were a LOT of times, it's like I was watching myself be crazy. It's like I was flipping out, and couldn't stop it from happening, but at the same time my sane brain would be like, dude, what's the big deal? Just chill out already. So, this was one of those times. I was wiping Jake's butt with wipes, and...I remember just doing a lot of yelling. And he was just so scared of his crazy mom. Not one of my best parenting moments.

At that point, I decided that if I had to clean poop out one more pair of undies, I would probably either kill my child, or kill myself. Neither option was good. I didn't want to go back to diapers, though. I settled on Pull-Ups. I still called them "undies", but if he pooped in them, I could just throw them away, and I was okay with that. Then things felt a lot better, but Jake still had a bunch of accidents.

Well, Troy arrived in August, and we had been potty training for 4 or so months by this time. Which sucked, but oh well. Troy was a super easy baby (thank goodness). We just kept on keeping on with the potty training. One night, in October, inspiration struck. We were getting the kids ready for bed, and we said, "Look at Troy. He's a baby because he pees and poops in his diaper. Jake, you must be a baby, too." And the now 3-year-old said, "No, I'm not a baby! I'm a big boy!" Us: "No, Jakob, you must be a baby, because you pee and poop in your undies." Jake: "NO! I'm a big boy!"

It was literally the next day that Jakob had zero accidents from then on.

I think, for him, he had to really see what he was doing, and realize that he could go in the toilet. He had to make up his mind that this is what he needed to do. And knowing that he was a Big Boy instead of a baby was the kicker for him.

So yes, I had three kids in diapers at one time-well, technically, Jake was in a Pull-Up, but who am I fooling? Tons of people have asked, "Wasn't that the worst thing ever, to have three kids in diapers?" Nope, it wasn't. And I did it again, too, after Ivy was born. It was more like an assembly line-just line 'em all up and change them all at once. No biggie.

Lessons from this: don't rush your child into doing it on your time table, find the little button that pushes your kid and not what has worked for others (because it's different for every kid), and you probably shouldn't potty train a cute little kid when you're pregnant and CRAZY-if you can help it.

Thus concludes part 1 of my Potty Training Chronicles.

The Gym

2011-02-02T21:06:00.002-07:00

I signed my boys up for a gym class for the year. Jakob had done a hip hop class last year, and really enjoyed it, but wanted to try something new. And I thought it would be a good thing for all my boys to do together.

It's a tumbling class. They've all been doing great in it. It's so funny to watch their different personalities come out while they're doing the class.

(I haven't been able to get very good pictures-because they're so far away, and it's so big and not super bright in there, they all come out blurry. So, there's a good butt picture for you. I'm actually kind of surprised at how flexible they all look right there.)

Jakob has been spastic. He's gotten really good at front rolls and back rolls. He loves doing the different tricks on the long trampoline they have.

Brock has been exact. He'll observe the teacher closely and try to do it exactly right the very first time.

Troy has been important. Even though he's the smallest kid in the class, you'd think he was the biggest. He's just so happy to be there.

They just got a new teacher-I think their other one went off to college or something. The new teacher has them grab onto a large rope at the end of their lesson, and swing out over a pit full of large foam cubes. Then they let go and fall in. It's the best thing since sliced bread. It's very Tarzan.

They have a parent section, that's up above the floors. One side has video cameras that play on some TVs, and the other side you can look down and watch. I like watching some of the other classes. There are some little girls that are amazing gymnasts. It's like watching the Olympics every week.

One lady comes and cross stitches the whole time. I asked her about it, and she said her daughter comes twice a week for 4 hours each time. She was all, "I guess I could be at home cleaning my house, but if she's doing something she loves for 8 hours a week, why can't I?"

I guess I could cross stitch as well, but instead I take my logic puzzles book. Which, for me, is still very zen. Ivy comes along as well, and I try to bring crayons or toys for her to play with. For a while she kept trying to steal a little boy's food and toys. When I forget toys we munch on TicTacs. Have you tried the green apple ones? They're yummy, although they don't necessarily give you fresh breath.

There's also a Russian guy that teaches there. At first I couldn't really hear his accent. And I was like, dude, I wonder what he says to people when they ask what he does for a living. "I yell at little girls." He doesn't mean yell all of the time, but you have to yell to be heard in there-it's very tall and open in there.

The boys' gym class starts right when I would be preparing dinner, and ends too late for me to whip up something afterwards. So I decided to make that night my crock pot night. My friend Arin lent me a crock pot recipe book, and I photocopied a whole bunch of 'em. I've really liked all of them. And I LOVE being able to just dump everything in either in the morning or early afternoon, and it's ready to go when we get home that night. If only every meal could be so easy. (Well, I guess it could be, if we had crock pot stuff every night.)

Here are a few of my favorite recipes that we've tried thus far:

HEARTY HODGEPODGE (a.k.a. Minestrone Soup)
1 1/2 pounds ground beef, cooked
2 cans (10 3/4 ounces each) condensed minestrone soup
1 21-ounce can pork and beans in tomato sauce
1 12-ounce can tomato juice
1 cup sliced celery
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup water
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced (I just used a little bit of minced garlic)
Dump it all in a crock pot. Cook for 7-8 hours on low or 3 1/2-4 hours on high.

COUNTRY STYLE PEACH RIBS
3 pounds country-style ribs
1 medium onion, sliced
1 18-ounce jar peach or apricot preserves
1/2 cup orange juice or water
2 Tbl. bottled teriyaki sauce (I think I used soy sauce)
3 cloves garlic, minced (used minced garlic again)
Put the onion on the bottom, put the ribs on top. Mix the other ingredients in a bowl, and pour all but 1 cup on top of meat in crock pot. Put the remaining in the fridge. Cook for 8-10 hours on low or 4-5 hours on high. Heat up the sauce that's been in the fridge, and pour over the ribs before serving.
(I used the leftovers and made a sandwich for myself with green peppers and Swiss cheese the next day. YUM!)

ITALIAN BUFFET DINNER
2 1/2 pounds boneless beef chuck
1 medium onion, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large red sweet pepper, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1 14-ounce jar spaghetti sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1/4 tsp. black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 1/2 cups hot cooked spaghetti or mashed potatoes
grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
Cut meat into 1-inch pieces. Dump everything in the crock pot except spaghetti or potatoes. Cook for 9-10 hours on low, or 4 1/2-5 hours on high. Serve over spaghetti noodles, or with mashed potatoes.

So there you have it. My time at the gym.

Like a Fiddler On a Roof!

2011-01-19T12:32:00.002-07:00

So, now that Christmas is long gone, one would think that the busyness of my life would have gone along with it (hence the lack of posts as of late). Because I’m usually busy, but you take busy and add, like, 20 million more things to The Busy, and…well, you get the general idea of how the end of 2010 went for me. (And for some reason the fun hasn’t stopped. I need a remote, like Adam Sandler in the movie "Click". But I think I’d perpetually have it in the pause mode, so maybe that wouldn’t be such a good idea.)

Anyway, Christmas was awesome. It always is. But you know how I was whining about how we don’t have any traditions? Well, after I thought about it, I realized that we really do. And we added a few more this year. Wanna hear about it? (YES, Nat! PLEASE fill us in on what happened 3 1/2 weeks ago! We’re on the edge of our seats with anticipation!!!!)

Tradition 1 (old, but tweaked to be new): For FHE after Thanksgiving, we set up the Christmas tree. Usually I decorate it by myself, and try to have the breakable ornaments at the top. I also try to get the ribbon just right, and have all the ornaments all spaced evenly. But by the time Christmas rolls around three weeks later, all the ornaments have been moved (thanks to my kids) and the ribbon has been pulled down (thanks to my cat). So this year I had the kids help me, but we ended up with about 42 ornaments on a single bough. Oh well. They had a blast decorating, and that’s what matters, right?

Tradition 2 (new tradition): In Pete’s family, I guess they drew names amongst the siblings when they were younger, and then exchanged those gifts on Christmas Eve. They still did the everyone open stuff all at once thing, though. So I told Pete that Christmas morning we can have the kids open things all at once, but on Christmas Eve the kids were going to take turns. This is the first year I’ve had the kids draw names and get gifts for each other. So they took turns, and it was really great because they got to see the gifts that they got for each other. They were all, “Thanks, Brock!”, or whoever gave the gift. I loved that part of opening gifts when I was younger-seeing the person’s reaction to what I got for them.

They all did a great job picking gifts out for each other-I only helped Ivy with the selection. Jakob got a Bumblebee from Brock, Brock got an Ironman from Ivy, Troy got a Batwing from Jake, and Ivy got a Rapunzel barbie from Troy.

Tradition 3 (oldie but goodie): Early Christmas Eve evening, we did luminaires. Which, I guess they’re called “luminaries”, but I think that sounds weird. We also ended up doing them over at my parents’ house as well. I think it looks really cool when they’re all lit up. I didn’t get a picture of it, though, because it doesn’t show up very well in a picture. My whole neighborhood did luminaries growing up, and it looks SO cool.

Tradition 4 (another golden oldie): We went over to my parents’ house and ate a very yummy dinner. And then we had a little Christmas program, where we sing songs, and read stories, etc.

That night I took a video of Jake playing the piano, but I held it sideways, thinking that there was some button I could push to make it be upright, but apparently not. So sideways it is, and I know better for next time around. I’ve been teaching Jake piano this year, and he is doing so well at it. (I tried to upload the video of Jake playing the piano 4 times, and for some reason it won't do it. So tilt your head to the left and pretend you're watching Jake play "Jingle Bells" and "Silent Night".)

Tradition 5 (a yummy oldie): For Christmas morning, I made butterscotch rolls. They are called different things by different people-I’ve heard Sweet Rolls, and Monkey Bread, and Breakfast Rolls, but to me Butterscotch Rolls is the most descriptive. (My kids say “butter-squotch”. Super cute.) What was that? You say you want the recipe? Happy to oblige:

BUTTERSCOTCH ROLLS

Place about 12-15 frozen Rhoades rolls in the bottom of a greased bundt pan. Melt ½ cup (one cube) butter and pour over the rolls. Sprinkle one 3.5-oz. package of Cook N’ Serve (NOT instant) butterscotch pudding on top, along with ½ cup packed brown sugar. Add nuts if desired. Let it sit overnight with greased Saran Wrap on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes with a piece of foil loosely on top.

Like I said before, we had a great Christmas. Jake got a Robot Cop:

Brock got a Megatron and a new Woody from Toy Story:

Troy got a Batcave:

Ivy got a “Tih-chin”, or a kitchen:

We all got movies, too:

And, the grand finale, from my parents-a Wii! We bought Dr. Mario for it, and I totally got my mad skills back. (Can we say Level 20 on Hi? That's right, baby.)

So, like I said, Christmas was great. Add to it the elementary school program, my piano students’ recital, and doing Brock’s school party (where we did the star thing like in Jake's kindergarten class), and you get why I was feeling a little overwhelmed.

The week after Christmas was a lot more relaxed. Though, that’s when I started potty training Ivy. That story coming soon to a blog near you. Meaning this blog.

Memory Monday: Reuben (Knuckle) Sandwich

2011-01-10T13:27:00.008-07:00

When I think of the worst dates that I've been on, this one is probably the worst one. Well, maybe not the worst one, but definitely in the top 5. I was a junior in college, so fall of 1999.

There was a guy in my ward in college named Reuben. I called him Ruby, I think mostly to bug him. Nice guy and all. He lived with about 8 guys in a house that they had dubbed the "cinna-batch". I have no idea why they called their house that, but whatever.

So Reuben asked me on a date for a Friday night, which I gladly accepted, because he was a really nice guy, right? Um, yeah. Right. I mean, he is. But just not on this date.

He picked me up, and when we got to the car, he said, "You can get your own door, right?" 1st wrong step of the night. I was like, "Uh, yeah, I guess." For dinner, he took me to a stake barbecue. We got there late, so there were slim pickings on the food. Come to think of it, I don't even think it was our stake-I think he just heard about it from who-knows-who, and decided, hey! free food! 2nd wrong step of the night-free food for a date? Not that I expected a super fancy expensive meal for dinner, but dinner together would have been nice instead of with 100 other starving college students.

Going back to the car (and every time we got in or out of the car that night), Reuben again said, "You can get your own door, right?" One of the times I replied, "Um, no, I can't. Would you please get it for me?" Which he grudgingly did that time, but dude. It ticked me off.

We went back to his apartment, and we watched "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". And I totally kept falling asleep. Reuben was in love with that movie, and so of course he owned it. (Free movie. Hm.) And it was fine to sit and watch, but when he was reciting every line along with the movie, it got a little old.

Right before the movie, we went to the store and got some dessert/snacks to munch on during the movie. I'm remembering ice cream, which I think I might have gotten one little scoop out of before he hoarded it away in his freezer.

Then we went to an Institute dance, where there was a band that was playing Beatles songs. I thought maybe the date would improve at the dance, because I love the Beatles, but I was wrong. So we were hanging out and dancing and stuff, and then he decided to start chatting up some random chick. I went and called my roommates, and begged them to come to the dance and crash my date, essentially. So my date with Reuben became a date with Reuben, Random Chick that he was flirting with, and my two roommates.

Eventually, it was time to leave, so we left...and walked Random Chick home. She didn't live that far away, but dude! WE WERE ON A DATE!!! We got back to the car, and he had the decency to walk me to my door after the date, which was the first gentlemanly thing he had done all night. I might have given him a high five (no way was I going to hug him-I think I would have strangled him if I had gotten that close), because by then I had HAD it.

I walked in the door, and was like "WORST DATE EVER!!!" to my roommates. They all agreed.

Reuben ended up asking Random Chick to Homecoming. And we stayed friends, but there was no way I would have ever gone on a date with him again. Though apparently, he felt the same about me, but before our date even started.

(I just looked to see if I had a picture of Reuben in my scrapbook. That would be a big fat no.)

Knock-Knock!

2011-01-06T20:55:00.002-07:00

Who's there?

Nat's blog!

Nat's blog who?

Exactly!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Yeah, I know that it's not a joke. My kids like to tell knock-knock, um, "jokes". And they sound a lot like the "joke" I just told. For instance: Troy: Knock knock! Me: Who's there? Troy: Um, apple. Me: Apple who? Troy: Apple that is yummy. Me: {fake laughter that's really not convincing}

I have GOT to go online and find some good knock-knock jokes. The only ones I know are the boo/boo who/why are you crying, and the one where you say banana over and over, and then finally orange/orange who/orange you glad I didn't say banana again?

ANYWAY, I've been wanting to blog, really I have. But I've been busy being busy, and busy with relaxing, and busy potty training. And one of these days I'll write the adventures that we've been having around here. But first thing, I want to write my New Year's resolutions.

Before I get to that, here is the post for my 2010 resolutions. Let me reflect a little on how I did last year:

Learn to make freezer meals. Um, not so much. However, I've been doing a lot of crock pot meals, about once a week, and it ROCKS. Throw everything in a big pot and let it cook itself? Why can't every meal be that easy? I'll write more on this later, in a future blog post.

Scan scrapbooks. Nope, still haven't done that. I keep thinking about it, and yes, it's one of my new resolutions. I did get an external hard drive to store things that I will scan, though, so that's a step forward.

Potty train Ivy. Yes! I started not in March, like I had originally wanted, but she wasn't ready one bit at that time. However, she was ready for it end of December. Again, I'll write more on this in a future post.

Digitally scrapbook 2008-2009. I worked on this a little bit. On the 2011 resolution list. I just need to set aside some time every week to work on it.

Read Book of Mormon with my family every night. Yep! We don't do very many verses each night, but we're in Alma, and are reading about Ammon. I know my kids aren't absorbing a ton right now, but eventually they will, and eventually we can read more, and they will be able to read along as well. Someday.

Getting up before my kids. On and off for this one. Mostly off. It's back on the new resolution list. Getting up early is definitely one of my weaknesses.

Build up food storage. I've been working on this. It helps that I've been more aware of sales, and things like Case Lot. The last couple of months I've been a little hit and miss with couponing, too. Just...super busy. I haven't had the time to research, and run around to five different stores. Maybe this summer it will be a different story. And I went Tuesday night, and got free Halls cough drops and free yogurt! I went to Case Lot at Smiths in September and got a bunch of canned goods, and they're having Case Lot again this week-I'm planning to go tomorrow, actually. So that's been good to help build up our food storage.

In summary, I did...fair on my resolutions last year. Which is better than nothing, right?

This year, I decided that my motto is going to be "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul!" From this. And because of this.

So without further ado, my 2011 resolutions:

Attend the temple every month. This was one of my goals last year, too, and I think I went twice, which is pathetic. I love going; the babysitting arranging is what's hard for me. I just need to be more proactive, and get 'er done.

Earn my honor bee. This is the next step in the Young Women's Personal Progress program. You read the Book of Mormon again, and serve for 40 hours. This will help pull me out of my comfort zone a little bit. And yeah, I serve my children almost nonstop, but I need to reach outside of my own life and family, because I know I can help others. Also, even though I'm great at reading scriptures with my family, my own scripture study is irregular. So reading through again (and again and again) is a good thing for me to be doing.

Be more financially fit. I'm embarrassed to say, we have more debt than I would like. Ideally, I would love to be completely debt-free, but at this point in life it's not necessarily possible. The debt I'm okay with having (for now) is our mortgage, our car payment, and our student loans. And all three of those are at really low rates, so even though it sucks to have them at all, someday they'll get paid off, and they aren't the worst thing in the universe right now. However, we had an expensive summer/fall, which we weren't financially ready for. Which is so dumb, because hi-I graduated in finance, for crying out loud! So a few days ago, I hid our credit cards, and today....drum roll please....I paid off Pete's hospital bills! YAY! We also should be getting a decent tax return, so that should help get rid of some debt.

In college, we did mock investing in one of my classes. And I LOVED it. It was so interesting to me. And in my class of 40 students, I was the 2nd or 3rd highest earner (it changed back and forth, depending on the day/market). Of course, when I was taking that class the stock market was bubbling, so it may not be as fun in today's market, or with real money. Still, though, I think it would be fun to try for real.

Also, I want to get a bunch of money in the bank. Paying off the debt will help with this goal, obviously.

Get my eyes lasered. No, not getting burning eye beam things like Superman. I'm talking about getting laser eye surgery. Where I would be able to see first thing in the morning, instead of having my alarm clock 8 inches from my face in order for it to be clear enough for me to see the time. It's an expensive procedure, but oh!-life without glasses or contacts! I got glasses in 2nd grade, my friends. I've been blind for way too long. So I'll need to save for a long time to get this, but I'm hoping that I can get this done this year.

Exercise. Pete and I have been sporadic with exercising this year. We'll do really great for a while, then miss, and then fall out of habit. Then get really good again...and the cycle continues. We're back out of the habit. So Tuesday night while at the store I got a jump rope, and a yoga tape that has 20-minute workouts. Pete and I were doing P90X, which I love, but every session is an hour or so, except for ab ripper, which is still, like 30 minutes or something. 20 minutes in the morning, though? I can handle that. Or jump rope for 20 minutes. Just...something. I don't want to lose weight, but I care about having a healthy heart.

Lastly, I want to learn to play a new instrument. I've always been drawn to the violin, the guitar, the harp, and the cello. I might wait until the summer or fall to do this one. And I'm not sure if it is even conceivable while I teach piano because of time constraints, but I don't want to quit teaching...hmmm. So maybe the summer would be best, since I don't teach piano during the summer. But that's if I can find a class or a teacher willing to do summer, and have me drag my kids along with me. All good questions and/or challenges.

Oh, and the digital scrapbook thing and the getting up early thing that I continually try to accomplish.

So there you have it.

And I really will try to be better at regular blogging. Just as soon as I learn some knock-knock jokes...

Memory Monday: Cookie Monster

2010-12-20T23:16:00.003-07:00

First off, here is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I've come across. The cookies stay plump and soft. Though, after this post, you might not want to use it. D'oh.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Combine in bowl: ½ cup butter, ½ cup shortening, ¾ cup sugar.
Add: ¾ cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, 2 eggs.
Then add: 1 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. salt, 2 ½ cups flour.
Stir in: 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Spoon onto cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 9-11 minutes.

Maybe my cute sister Brianna can help me with the timeline on this story. I'm going to say early teenage years for me, and she's 3 1/2 years younger than me. So if I was 13, she'd be 9 ish. Beej, if you read this, maybe leave a comment if you remember.
My family often made little goodies to munch on. Lemon bars, Mississippi Mud bars, No-bake cookies, etc. And cookies. I love me some cookies. And now I'm getting all hungry thinking about cookies. They are a definite weakness of mine.

After devouring one (or most likely more than one) cookie, I had a bit of phlegm built up in my throat. Anyway, Beej and I were being dorks, and I was telling her how to make a loogie. It's like that scene from Titanic.

So, I was joking around, and was like, "Dude, what if I spit a loogie at you?" And she was like, "No way!" and started running off. So I grabbed her, did the whole Leonardo DiCaprio loogie-making moves, and had a humongous loogie in my mouth. Brianna goes, "Nooooo!" with her mouth all wide.

And I spit. And it landed right in her mouth.

I promise I wasn't aiming.

Of course she ran over to the sink and tried to clean her mouth out. I felt bad, but it was also really funny (well, to me, anyway). I've never been able to get that good of a loogie before or since. And I've never been able to spit very far at all, except for that one time. I attribute that to the cookie phlegm in my throat.

So there you have it. Fun with phlegm.

(Go to about 1:15 on this video to see how I normally spit. Not that I'm all out there practicing or something.)

Memory Monday: Christmas Misunderstanding

2010-12-13T21:34:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to remember how old I was for this one. I'm going to guess about 4th or 5th grade, so 9 or 10.

Christmas traditions in my house growing up were plentiful. Which was awesome. My poor kids-I feel like we have no traditions whatsoever. But Pete and I can never agree on what we want to do with our little family. Growing up, though...Christmas Eve we would go skiing, unless the weather was extremely awful. It was great, because there was hardly anyone there, so we didn't have to wait in line for the chairlift. After skiing, we would come home and light luminaries (which my kids and I have done, but this year I'm feeling very Scrooge-like, so it may not happen-we'll see), which are paper sacks with candles in the middle of them. Supposedly it is to light the way for the Christ child to come. Then we'd open a family Christmas Eve gift, which was always some sort of game, like Sorry or Apples to Apples, that kind of thing. We'd play the game, then the girls would all sleep in the same room together downstairs.

Christmas morning, bright and early -too early, usually- we'd get up, and then cover our eyes as we made our way upstairs and into our parents' room to wake them up. We would all go in together to see what Santa had brought for us, which was usually a big gift sitting by our stockings, and then stocking stuffers like CDs and Lip Smackers and chocolate oranges. (As we got older, college age, our stocking stuffers morphed into things like toothpaste and socks. Now my kids get a mixture-still the big Santa gift by the stocking, and in the stocking things like a movie or books, and socks or undies. My kids love the new clothing-or not.) After spending time doing the Santa stocking thing, which was in the family room where the fireplace was, we'd move to the front room, where the tree was, and do the family gifts. We'd also take turns opening gifts, which Pete thinks is so weird. His family does the mass opening/chaos, which I think is weird. We still haven't decided on that, but so far Pete is winning, though I end up not opening up anything and just stand there cleaning up wrapping debris. Which kind of sucks. I might put Pete on garbage duty this year, since he wants to have the chaos. That's fair, right?

Okay, so that's kind of how it went for us. So one year, we got up, and went in to see what Santa had brought us. I located my stocking on the couch, but...no big present. Hm. I sat down, and started looking at my stocking stuff, and watching my sisters enjoy their "big" presents. By this time I knew the whole Santa secret. And I didn't know what to think. A couple of thoughts crossed my mind: one, that my parents didn't have money to buy me a big gift, and two, that I got overlooked.

I didn't really feel sad. More like disappointed. And then content. I thought, "I'm okay without a big gift. Maybe next year. And I can watch everyone else enjoy their gifts." Which is what I like about taking turns opening up family gifts-you get to see what everyone else gets, and you get to see people's reactions when they open the gift that you got for them.

So, like I said, I was sitting on the couch, looking at my new socks or whatever it was, when my dad said, "Nat, aren't you going to look at your Santa gift?" And I looked at him like, um, what do you think I'm doing, Dad? Suddenly I realized that he was pointing to the new glittery purple ten-speed bike that had been standing near my stocking. I had totally thought it was for my mom.

Then I got all excited, because I had asked for a ten-speed bike for Christmas, but didn't think I would get it. And I knew that my parents hadn't forgotten me. I took it out to ride that day, on the icy roads, which was so super smart on a ten-speed. If anyone remembers, ten-speeds had super skinny tall wheels. Yikes. Bikes. Literally.

That day I realized a couple of things about myself. I realized that I liked getting Christmas gifts, but if there came a day when I couldn't have anything for Christmas, then that would be okay, too. I realized that Christmas is a small fraction of what you get, and a bigger fraction of the joy that comes to those around you, and basking in that feels just as good.

Now hopefully I can try to find some of that Christmas spirit in me this year. Brock asked, "Mom, when are we going to make our house a Christmas house?" Because I haven't pulled out my nativities, or Christmas lights, or stockings...We have the tree up, and that is all. I definitely have "Bah! Humbug!" at the tip of my tongue this year for some reason. I just need to shake it off and get with the program.

Turn Back Time Tuesday (Because I Missed Memory Monday)

2010-12-07T22:39:00.002-07:00

This one is for Jakob, because I recently found out that he's being picked on at school again this year. Sheesh.

I was a nerd growing up. Okay, I'm still a nerd. The only difference now is I've come to terms with it. I was also very smart growing up. It's not like I was the smartest kid in class. There were other kids that were just as smart, if not more so. But I think I became known as "Brain", because of the whole nerdiness. Maybe it was my appearance. In 6th grade, the year this story takes place, I had awesome feathered bangs (which were in style), a fabulous perm (also very "in"), an A-line hair cut (NOT cool-and yes, a permed A-line is a not-so-great combination), glasses the size of half my face (seriously, whoever came up with that concept needs to be shot), and a super cool headgear. I also had braces on my front four teeth, but you couldn't see them under the headgear. I had to wear the headgear thing pretty much nonstop, too, which meant during school. Yee-haw.

So, basically, with the combination of the glasses and braces and headgear and big perm and feathered bangs, I don't think you could touch any skin on my face without some serious maneuvering.

Good times, my friends.

Anyway, we did a rotation in 6th grade, and Mrs. Nickerson was our science teacher. Oh man. Back in the day, I always thought "how old is this woman?" She had neat 70s polyester pants. She had a big chin wart complete with sprouting hairs. And her hair was always a shade of blue, purple, or pink. I think there's a theory that when you get gray hair, if you dye your hair with an undertone of one of those colors, then you don't look as gray or something. Which is true. You just look like you have blue, purple, or pink hair instead of gray. (Now when I think about Mrs. Nickerson, I realize that's probably what I'll look like in the future. Though, having never dyed my hair, I don't think I'll ever be convinced to do "gray with a pink undertone". I'm hoping to get gorgeous silver hair like my grandpa, or platinum white hair like my grandma.)

Now, science has never been my strong suit. I've had one class where it kind of sort of made sense to me. Two of my sisters got all the science proficiency in our family. So, even though I was known as "Brain" to my classmates, I really did not deserve the title when it came to science.

For some reason, Mrs. Nickerson thought it was a really good idea to read our test scores out loud after they were all graded. If you got below a 70%, though, she wouldn't read it out loud. How merciful. I usually did well, but there was one test that the info just was not clicking in my mind.

So, she went down the list, and...I got a 70% spot on.

Now I'm sure my little 11-year-old self blew the reaction of my classmates way out of proportion, but I saw everyone turn and stare at me, and whispers of "Brain got a 70???" "Natalie did so bad!" "Wow, I can't believe it!" I sunk down in my chair, but the taunts kept coming. And, because I'm a girl, I started crying.

And then I ran out of the room.

I know-take something not so bad and make it into a huge deal, right? Right.

I ran into the bathroom, and just cried and cried. I was so embarrassed, not only for the bad test score, but now for running out instead of blowing it off like no big deal.

Anyway, I waited out the rest of the class period, which wasn't super long. When the lunch bell rang, I decided to go back. Luckily, there were a couple of girls that were nice enough to come looking for me, and assured me it wasn't a big deal. And there was one boy that was super nice to me, too. So that made me feel better, that people would make sure that I knew that no one really cared what my test score was, that being upset was okay.

So Jakob, if you ever read this, know that it's okay to want to get good grades. And know that you get your perfectionism from me. And hopefully, you have some little friends at school that will take your side and put their arms around you and make you feel okay. Also, you will live through the bullying, and hopefully be a stronger, more compassionate person because of it.

Amazing, Awesome, and Addicting

2010-12-02T08:40:00.001-07:00

1. Last week it snowed. A bunch. Then the snow decided to drift all over the place, meaning, my driveway. And I was out shoveling Wednesday morning while pies were cooking in my oven. I'd have to shovel one little area about three times, because I couldn't lift a 2 1/2-foot layer of snow with the shovel in one fell swoop. Then, to my utter surprise and delight, a big huge blue tractor drives up. At first, it looked like my neighbor, but then it kind of didn't. He asked if he could clear the snow for me. In less than two minutes, he had cleared my entire driveway. Like I said, I couldn't tell who it was for sure, because he was all bundled up, and I had my glasses on that were getting all foggy with tears of frustration, then tears of relief because he came to help me. So, if anyone knows who this kind fellow is, please let me know so I can thank him (I gave him a thank-you wave, but that doesn't seem sufficient enough), or let him know that I'm so grateful.

2. I've seen two terrific movies and a play this last week. Movie one: Harry Potter. A-MAZ-ING. I heart Harry Potter. End of story. Movie two: Tangled. I just about bawled during one of the scenes, when the two main characters are on a lake. It was just... so beautiful! I had to keep swallowing really hard to stop myself from crying. WONDERFUL movie. The play: the people from Playmill put on "White Christmas" at a local theater here. They did a great job.

3. We had Thanksgiving Wednesday night because my sister and her fiance had to jet out of town unexpectedly Thursday. It was actually really nice to have Thanksgiving dinner the night before. And then we went to the movie Thursday and had leftovers afterwards, so it's like we still had Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving.

4. These little Heath bars are like crack! I should just buy the big bar of Heath, because I think I would consume fewer calories that way. These bad boys are so addicting, and I could probably eat 20 or so of them without batting an eyelash.

5. Another thing I'm addicted to: these amazing pants! I wish I could give a pair to everyone I know. And then we could start a fashion trend of soft cozy fleece pants, and then I wouldn't have to change out of them to go places to look acceptable-ish. They are $9, at Walmart. You will not be sorry if you run out and grab some! I have pink, and purple, and polka-dot now. They can get a little static cling in them, which usually I hate, but with these I feel like it's an extra warm hug for my legs.

6. And if that wasn't enough, I'm addicted to another thing: the Hunger Games books. I CANNOT put them down. I read nonstop Saturday and Sunday, and finished today. And now I'm having withdrawals. LOVE them. Read them!

7. Monday I finally got my snowblower to run! I hate that things like lawn mowers and other outside machinery have a pull-string starter thingy. I have to pull the string with all my might to get these items started. I had tried two or three times (at like, a hundred pulls each) before yesterday, without success. Then Pete suggested I bring it in the house, thinking that getting the machine warm would help it. So I hauled it into my kitchen, cleaned it off with baby wipes (seriously, who knew those things could be so handy in wiping things other than baby bottoms?), and then a couple of hours later took it out. It started after about 5 pulls, which is amazing for me. Once it was going, I wasn't about to stop until my whole driveway was cleared again. I even got all fancy and cleared my sidewalk.

What has been amazing, awesome, or addicting in your life lately?

Memory Monday: You Spin Me Right Round

2010-11-29T21:42:00.003-07:00

Sorry it's been nothing but Memory Mondays around here. I promise I want to post more than once a week. My days keep getting away from me...

I was traveling back to school from either Thanksgiving break or Christmas break my junior year of college...give me a sec to think of the year...late 1999, or barely into 2000. Now that I think about it a little harder, I think it was back from Christmas break, because I remember that a couple of guys my roomies and I hung out with, Shawn and Sheldon (brothers, from Hawaii), had stopped by our apartment and left us a note, along with one of their new roommates Morgan. Little did I know that Pete was going to be their other new roommate.

Dun-dun DUNNNNNNNNN!!

The drive from Idaho Falls to Logan is not too bad. I would get some Alanis or Phantom blasting in my little Neon, and sing at the top of my lungs. I no longer do this, mostly because I don't drive alone. Because alone, I have a fabulous voice and can hit the notes as well and as high as Sarah Brightman. But when I'm in the car with, like, Pete, I realize that he has a better voice than I do, and so I just hum quietly along to myself, usually. Unless by some bizarre twist of circumstance we'd be playing some Beatles music, then I be-bop along as loud as I please. But Pete hates Beatles, so it doesn't happen very often.

Now that I've derailed twice from the topic, I'll get back on the story. So. Driving along. It's only a little bit over 2 hours from one destination to the other. I was singing along, and noticed my exit coming up. It had been snowing, but the road was mostly dry, with just a few wet (not icy) patches here and there. Snow was blowing every so slightly across the freeway, but there was no reason to fear the weather on this particular day. I turn on my blinker to indicate my exit from the freeway, and...then totally lost control of the car.

I don't know if I hit an icy patch, but it seemed unlikely since it wasn't icy. But my car started spinning. I can't remember if it started spinning to the right or to the left first, but it ended up doing both. I was spinning onto the exit ramp, toward a lamp post. Suddenly, I was spinning the other way, back on to the freeway. Suddenly I was spinning between the freeway and the exit ramp.

I swear to you I wasn't touching the steering wheel. Well, I'm sure I was touching it, but I wasn't steering, or over correcting, or...anything. It's as if my car was driving itself, and I was on a horrible car roller coaster ride.

I kept thinking: oh no! I'm going to stop on the freeway and someone is going to bash right into me! Oh no! I'm going to run into the exit sign! Oh no! I'm going to fall in between the two roads and the car is going to roll!

I kid you not that my car made at least 10 full circles.

Suddenly, and I mean SUDDENLY, my car stopped spinning. I was sitting in the middle of the off ramp, car facing the right way. As if I had just stopped a little early of the stop sign at the bottom of the exit ramp.

You know on "The Wizard of Oz", where Dorothy is in her house and it's spinning around in the tornado, and the furniture is moving around, and it's super windy and loud, and then instantly it all stops? All the wind and the movement, and the house just lands there? It was like that.

I know, absolutely beyond a shadow of a doubt, that something-more like someone-stopped my car from spinning. Someone saved my life. Someone reached down, grabbed my spinning car, and placed it in the right place, without any harm done to me or to my car.

Of course I started crying. I immediately said a prayer of gratitude for being safe on that day. Because things could have turned out really really bad.

Now, I know that people have been in more dire circumstances with their cars than I was on this day. They'd be like, spinning around? Psh! That's nothing! And hey, I've ridden in cars where the driver is doing donuts in the church parking lot, and that's basically what this felt like. But the instant stop, the instant safety, this little miracle in my life, is what was so wonderful about this memory.

Remember When? (Kind of like Memory Monday, but the TOTALLY CHEATING Version)

2010-11-22T15:47:00.001-07:00

Hey! Remember when I whined and complained about wanting to paint my downstairs family room? Remember that I wanted to do it last spring, and that didn't happen, and then the summer flew by me, and then I was totally going to paint Labor Day weekend, but then that's when Pete got his 6th kidney stone?

Remember blah white walls with hundreds of dings in them?

Now there's a new memory to replace the old!

Behold:

Okay, I don't know if it's showing up very well, but that would be a freshly painted beautiful blue wall!!! My awesome sister Kar and I decided that we needed to help each other out in the painting-our-rooms-in-our-houses endeavors. Because on our own, it seems to be an insurmountable task, but with two people doing it, it doesn't seem so bad, and then when you do it it gets done way faster.

I cleaned. I fixed dings. Lots and lots of dings. I haven't put up my pictures again yet, but that shouldn't take long. It looks so, so good!

Oh, and because I'm a nerd, I didn't get any action shots of us actually painting, but my sister did. Also, Pete took the kids out to dinner and a movie to keep them out of the way, which was a HUGE help.

Okay, so also, remember when I was whining about having a messy kitchen all the time? And how I need to change my habits and become better at what I do? I've been working really hard at this, and though I haven't been perfect, I've been a lot better. I've been trying to stay on top of laundry (this last week, not so much), and staying on top of dirty dishes. So today...

Behold:

This is my kitchen with a freshly mopped floor. The dishes are all done. The laundry is running as I type. I dusted and windexed. I tried to snow blow, but I couldn't get the machine started, so I tried shoveling, and it kept blowing back on me, so I'm going to have to try again later today or tomorrow. My chicken is cooked for tonight's dinner. My floors are vacuumed. I am the master of my fate!

YAY for new "memories"!

Memory Monday: Window "Pain"

2010-11-15T22:44:00.001-07:00

Sorry my Memory Monday is a bit late. It's been a bit crazy today.

See that scar on my finger? You know, the scar that I circled in bright red? This is the story behind that scar.

It was wintertime, January of 2006. We had lived in our current house for all of 5 or 6 months. I was about two months along in my pregnancy with Troy. Now, this is important. Because I honestly was super crazy the whole time I was pregnant with Troy. The kids would walk by me, and I'd be like, "DON'T WALK SO LOUD!!!! AAAAHHHH!!!!" In that spring we had planted some grass, and I went out and used the weed wacker on the weeds growing above the new grass on the whole entire lawn. And we have a big freaking lawn. Everything made me mad, everything made me sad. I was the epitome of crazy.

So that day, my sister Lexi and I were going to get together to scrapbook. You know, back when I had time to do cool things like that. I went to the store with my two kids in tow, bought some stuff, and when I came home I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if I shoveled the snow off the walk for when Lex comes over before starting dinner? Look at me be productive while having morning sickness!" I had set the meat out on the counter, along with our other groceries, and went outside to shovel. It wasn't quite dark out yet.

So I shovel-shovel-shovel, and then I went to go back inside. Right as I reach for the doorknob, I hear a "click". Jakob, all of a little over two, and Brock at 9-ish months old, had been inside. And...Jakob had just locked the door on me. Of course my keys were inside my house, and of course we hadn't made a copy of our key to give to anyone else or to set outside the house for just such an occasion. In a nice voice, I said, "Jakob, honey, open the door for Mommy. Just turn the little, um, thingy, the other way." And my 2-year-old tried flipping the dead bolt part of the door. Then I go, "Jakob, honey, keep trying. It's the bottom one." Of course he didn't get it. I mean, he was two. So then I knocked on the door, and the urgency built in my voice. "Jake, please open the door. You just have to turn the thingy on the knob. Please, Jakob. Wait-I'm going to the back door-please let me in."

And Jakob then ran downstairs.

I kept knocking. I checked the front door. I checked the back door. Everything was locked-including windows. Tight-like unto a dish. Which, normally, would be a good thing. On that day, not so much.

I ran around the house. I rang the doorbell, and heard Jakob run upstairs. I begged at that door for him to let me in. He ran back downstairs to watch TV. I climbed down into our window well and banged on the window, hoping he'd peek through the blinds at me. Nada.

I sat down to try and figure out what to do. Now, a normal person would think Hey!-run next door and ask to borrow their phone and call a locksmith! But remember, I was not a normal person at this time. I was Crazy Pregnant Nat. I thought about going next door, but to call Pete, but knew he couldn't get to me for another two or three hours because of traveling back from work. I thought, hey, I could just hang out over there until Pete gets home, but no, that would leave my kids in my house all alone. Hmm, what in the world should I do????

I did the only "logical" thing that I could think of. I would just have to break in. Literally.

I grabbed a big hammer thing, and tried to find a suitable window. Which one? I didn't have a ladder (hm, still don't), so it would have to be one into which I could easily climb through. The only one that I could see that would work was our big sliding glass door in the backyard.

So, right now I'm making it sound like I was being all calm and collected at this point. Far from it. Which kind of goes without explanation, because hi-I was about to break a big glass door. But my mind was all, "THE MEAT IS ON THE COUNTER-IT WILL GO BAD!!!! BROCK IS DOWNSTAIRS CRYING-WHAT IF HE'S HURT?!?!?!? I WILL NEVER REACH MY CHILDREN!!! THEY ARE GOING TO DIE IF I'M NOT WITH THEM RIGHT THIS SECOND!!!! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!" Kind of Mama Bear meets Axe Murderer meets Xena the Warrior Princess.

I took my big hammer, and swung at the door. It hit. And bounced off. Nothing! So, I try again, but a little harder. Everyone and their dog was like, didn't you know it was going to shatter everywhere? Um, no, I did not, having never broken a window/door before. I actually thought I'd break a little hole right by the handle so I could reach in and flip the lock, and the glass would just have a little hole in it. But no. The whole entire pane shattered into little pebble-like pieces. But then I discovered something else-our door was double paned. So I had to do it again.

Each time I swung, I turned my face away and closed my eyes. Smart point-the only smart point of the night-for me. But, stupid point for me-I was holding my gloves in my left hand as I swung with my right. Why I didn't put my gloves on while swinging my hand at broken glass is beyond me.

I hit through the second pane, and barely realized that my finger got sliced in the process. I immediately started crying. There was glass everywhere in my kitchen, and outside. I went to the kitchen sink for my finger, dripping blood as I went. And then I got on the phone, trying to find anyone that I could to come and help me. I called my mom's cell, then my parents' house, then Lexi's cell, then my dad's cell, then my dad's work. No answers anywhere. I called Pete and told him what happened. I went downstairs and said, "JAKOB! Why didn't you let me in?!?!?" He was calmly sitting on the couch, watching TV. I think he thought he'd be in trouble if he came back up, which is why he was hiding.

I finally got ahold of my mom, and she came over. In the meantime, I tried to sweep broken glass with a bleeding finger. I tried to calm my baby Brock while bleeding everywhere. We went to the urgent care. My skin on my finger was hanging on by a thread, so they basically pulled it off and then sewed it back on.

For the next week I had a brace thingy that I couldn't get wet. Showering left-handed (I'm right) was quite the adventure. Then I had to take the brace off and could barely bend my finger. That night my family had to stay with my parents until a replacement door got put in. We propped up some cardboard to help keep snow out of our house.

And now I have a reminder of my Crazy Days.

And my glass sliding door doesn't work as well as the original.

Memory Monday: The Abercrombie & Fitch Party

2010-11-08T10:34:00.006-07:00

My whole life, I've felt very much like Josie Geller in the movie Never Been Kissed. But not nearly as much as when I went to the "Abercrombie & Fitch" Party. At least, that's what I ended up dubbing it.

For some comparison photos, this picture represents me. Josie's nickname: Josie Grossie.

Seriously, this is me. Always.

Aaaannnnddd...here are some Abercrombie & Fitch models:

I finally found a pic of A&F models that were slightly more dressed. Yikes. Bikes.

Okay. So, it wasn't a real Abercrombie & Fitch party. It was actually a party at the Governor's Mansion in Salt Lake City.

During the summer after I graduated from college (2001-which seems SO weird to me that it was that long ago), I lived in Idaho Falls again, working at a hotel. You know, really putting my degree to good use. Although, in my defence, I graduated in finance, right after the whole stock market bubble burst. Jobs in my field were a little scarce.

Somehow, me and my good friend Chelsey ended up in Salt Lake for a weekend, with Pete, his mission buddy Myers, and a guy I knew from drama classes in college named Dustin, who had been home from his mission all of, like, three days or something. Maybe that's why we were down there-to see him for some reason. He was from Farmington (the city right next to Lagoon).

So, Myers knew someone, who knew someone, who knew someone that had been invited to this party. So we got invited to it by default.

There were so many beautiful people there. Everyone was dressed in the perfect clothes, and saying the perfect things. They were gliding around, chortling at each other's witty jokes, and having the perfect comeback ready. They danced the perfect dance moves to the perfect music. The party had the perfect lighting. All the girls were skinny and had long shimmery hair. All the guys had muscly arms and trendy clothes.

...And then there was me.

"Hey Guy. Guys. Guy's guys!" hee-hee *snort!*

I remember trying to "flirt" with a guy. I started talking about the bench in the hall. I'm pretty sure I let out a few more "hee-hee *snort!*"s in between words.

I also remember trying to talk to Dustin. I asked him something about his mission-he had served in Zimbabwe. I think I asked about the language, and asked him to say something. And...he started singing some tribal song. At the top of his lungs. In the middle of the dancing area. He was totally fine with it, like it was a normal thing to burst out in song in a different language. I, on the other hand, was mortified. Maybe I shouldn't have been. But I think it was my own insecurities that brought that reaction out of me. Like, don't draw unwarranted stares from the pretty people! I'm trying to blend, not stand out even more! His song was very Lion King, and I think in a different setting would have been awesome. But not at the Governor's Mansion.

We left after a while. I had never felt more...little. And dorky. Not that anyone was mean. They were just all so....model-y.

We went to Dustin's house and watched a movie. I don't remember which one. Though, I think Never Been Kissed would have been appropriate. That, or Zoolander.

Lee-low-stone

2010-11-07T16:51:00.001-07:00

(So this happened, like, a month ago, and I'm just getting around to posting about it. Good times.)

In the first part of October, Pete's parents came up to visit us. We decided to head up to Yellowstone Park for the day. Pete's dad has been all over the world, but has never been to Yellowstone.
It was a gorgeous day, but very very cold. But since we went in the fall instead of the summer, the animals were out in droves. Here are a bunch of elk that we saw when we barely entered the park:

DROVES, I tell you! I actually can't think of a time when I've seen the elk out, and I've been to Yellowstone several times.

We drove to Old Faithful, and decided to make sandwiches and wait for it to go off.

Here's Ivy:

You can tell it's cold. Her little nose and fingers were red. It was fine while we were walking, but when we stopped is when we could feel the crisp cold wind.

Here's Jakob being all emo about something. I can't remember why he was pouting, but whatever.

Marianne and Howard, with Troy and Brock. We had the kids stand or sit in front of us so we could block the cold wind.

And finally, Old Faithful! It never ceases to amaze me.

Jake and Brock saw it when they were super little, so I think this is the first time they remember seeing it.

Ivy was all "WHOA!!!" She thought it was great.

I tried to take a picture of the kids, but the sun was right behind me. I love how Troy is trying to open his eyes here. (When I was little, my dad would always take outside pictures, and we'd be looking straight at the sun. I have so many squinty-eyed pictures.)

And here are the Yellowstone Falls. This thing is seriously humongous! I think it's my favorite part of Yellowstone Park.

Here's our family picture, with the falls in the background:

Did I mention the animals were out in droves? A buffalo:

And the grandparents with the grandkids.

Like I said, we had so much fun! Thanks for going with us, guys!

Hallo-Weeeeee!!!

2010-11-06T07:23:00.005-06:00

This year's Halloween festivities turned out so much better than last year's for the Nat Pack. Well, maybe it was the same for the kids, but it was definitely better for me.

It started out with going to the pumpkin patch with Troy and Ivy for Troy's preschool class. It was so nice that day! Hence the sunglasses on Troy.

Troy's teacher, Miss Karla, had the kids try to find the biggest pumpkin they could, then the smallest.

Ivy found this little round thing. I think it's a watermelon instead of a pumpkin, but whatever. She's all about "baby" things.

Later on, Ivy and I went back and got pumpkins for everyone else. I hate carving pumpkins, because it's super messy, and I've never liked roasting the seeds or whatever it is that you're supposed to do with them. So we decided to do fingerpaints instead.

I think Brock's turned out the best. He's so very artsy. I should have taken a picture of the completed pumpkins, but...I was ashamed of my own pumpkin. I'm NOT crafty. At ALL. All my kids' pumpkins turned out way better than mine did. I didn't want to document mine. Though, retrospectively, I should have just omitted my pumpkin and taken the picture. Oh well.

Even though I'm not crafty, I can sew a little bit. So this year, I convinced the kids to have costumes that all fit together, and I made their costumes. So they were characters from Peter Pan. Jake was Captain Hook, Brock was the Crocodile, Troy was Peter Pan, Ivy was Tinkerbell, and I was Smee. I was going to have Pete be Smee and I was going to be the Second Star to the Right, but Pete pooped out.

The kids all got to dress up for their class parties. We went to a trunk-or-treat for Pete's work on Friday, then a trunk-or-treat at the elementary school on Saturday. Which, trunk-or-treats are so much better than the old school house-to-house: you get to see everyone, it takes way less time, and you get more candy. Wins all around.

My kids are already talking about what they want to be for next Halloween. This is definitely one of our favorite holidays.

Unfinished Thoughts

2010-11-04T16:50:00.002-06:00

I've been a little frustrated all week. I think it's because I taught a lesson on self-mastery to my cute Young Women on Sunday. And I'm probably the last person that should be teaching that. Because I'm the ultimate non-master of myself.

We were talking about bad habits, and I told the girls that sometimes I end up leaving my dishes unwashed, so that they're lining my counter, and have dried food on them and I hate that that's become one of my habits. Now, it's not every day, but still, it happens way more often than I'd like. I was explaining this, and one of the girls got this "how gross" look on her face. And I was like, I know, right? Totally gross.

But really, it's not just dirty dishes. It's laundry that piles up taller than Troy (I measured today). It's unmopped floors and stinky bathrooms. It's the unfinished projects sitting by my computer. It's the oh-crap-we're-almost-out-of-milk-better-finally-make-a-list-and-run-to-the-store.

It's procrastination.

And I hate it about myself. It's even hitting the snooze button-I'm procrastinating getting up out of bed.

I wish I could be one of those tackle everything immediately kinds of people. And I can be like that about some things. But I end up procrastinating a lot more often than I'd like.

Let's be honest. Most of the things that I procrastinate are the things that I hate doing. Chores, if you will. And it boils down to being part of my "job" as a homemaker. If I had a performance review right now of how I was doing, I'd probably get fired. I'm surprised my kids haven't fired me yet.

So, what to do about it?

I only had a few minutes to prepare my lesson. (Not because of procrastination, luckily, but just a miscommunication.) So here are a few more thoughts that I wish I could have brought up. I'm writing them here, just for myself.

In the lesson I brought up the ending of the poem Invictus. The last two lines read "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." I wish I had had a copy of the whole poem, and had given it as a handout. We talked about it briefly. Basically, we are in charge of our own destiny. If we don't like the direction we are heading in, we need to change it.

I wish I had known beforehand that the author of that poem, William Ernest Henley, had to have his leg amputated at 25 (which is about when he wrote the poem), and he died at 53 after leading a very active life.

We also read a scripture: Mosiah 4:27-...it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize... I wish I would have had a minute to think about that scripture. Because right now, it's not realistic to expect my house to be spotless-I have four little kids running around making messes right and left! But again, I can't blame them for it all. I need to be diligent, that I "might win the prize".

I was thinking about some of our girls that play sports, especially the track girls. Every person has their different strengths; not everyone is made to sprint; not everyone is made for long distance, either. But everyone has their own race to run, at their own pace. What one person can accomplish in a day is not the same as another person. And it can ebb and flow in our own lives-there are times when we can conquer a lot, get a lot done, and feel great. There are other times when it's all we can do to get everyone fed for the day, never mind do the dishes on top of that. But you can't win a race if you don't even get on the track to start the race to begin with.

The gist of the lesson was thoughts lead to actions, which lead to habits, which lead to your character, and finally to your destiny. So to change a habit, we need to change our thoughts and our actions, which will lead to a different destiny.

So this is my step 1: I'm trying to change my thoughts. I've realized that no one is going to do the laundry for me. No one is going to push me out of bed. Not that this is a new epiphany for me, but I'm the only one to blame for having a laundry pile the size of a small mountain.

My step 2: my actions. Yesterday I "caught up" on dishes. Today I "caught up" on laundry. My goal to change my habit of procrastination is to do two loads of laundry every day, and to do my dishes every day, no matter how late.

And, this should lead to my step 3: my habits getting changed. There are so many other things that am tired of procrastinating on, like painting my downstairs living room, or making new bedspreads for my boys. But if I can conquer the mundane everyday tasks, then I can move on to bigger and better, and conquer those things, too.

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

I challenged my girls to pick just one bad habit, and work to change it. And that is what I am going to do. Because I AM the master of my fate. I AM the captain of my soul!