Cell Phone Pictures

Rachel at the airport on our Utah trip
Fun at the park with Spencer

Cute Courtney at the park

Caitlin at the park

I finally figured out how to send cellphone pictures to my e-mail. I knew all I had to do was ask a teenager so I asked Carly (our niece) over Thanksgiving weekend. Here's a sampling of some of the pictures that have been sitting on my phone this fall. I am excited to know what to do with these photos! Now I can blog them and print them if I want to! Awesome! I love learning new things, even though to most of you it's old news.

The end of the nap? Nooooooooo!

The last two days have been a struggle because the twins do not want to nap. Yesterday, they finally fell asleep about 3 p.m. after an hour and a half of putting them back in bed over and over again. Today, I have been unsuccessful in getting them to sleep but at least they're in their room at the moment. I am not willing to give up on nap time just yet so I'll keep trying. Any hints would be greatly appreciated.

It has been a busy week with Thanksgiving and then putting up all the Christmas decorations. Thanksgiving was great--especially having two nieces and a nephew here with us. I was exhausted by the end of the day after all that cooking and cleaning up afterwards but was a lovely holiday! As soon as I cleaned up the dinner, we were on to decorating the house for Christmas. I love doing it and now the house looks very festive. I do have to keep returning ornaments to the tree which "mysteriously" migrate to the floor but it's wonderful having the house filled with nativity sets, reds, greens, garlands and lights for the Christmas season.

Spencer has been sick for a few days with a bad cold and laryngitis. However, it has not affected his energy level whatsoever. He's still his crazy boy self. I always enjoy vegging out with sick kids (even though I feel bad for them) but that has not happened this time. He's still running around the house, climbing and jumping on things, making forts, boats and castles, and taking apart my furniture. I have a hard time keeping a kid who acts completely normal home from church and pre-school but I am afraid that nasty cough, etc. will infect others and that would not be kind to other mommies.

That's it for now. I need to check on my little escape artists. They're at it once again!

The Girl in A Whirl

I really got a laugh out of this hilarious poem, written Dr. Seuss style, by Vickie Gunther of Redlands, California, which was sent to me by my friend, Cara. Thanks, Cara!

The Girl in a Whirl
Look at me, look at me, look at me now!
You could do what I do
If you only knew how.
I study the scriptures one hour each day;
I bake,
I upholster,
I scrub,
and I pray.
I always keep all the commandments completely;
I speak to my little ones gently and sweetly.
I help in their classrooms!
I sew all they wear!
I drive them to practice!
I cut all their hair!
I memorize names of the General Authorities;
I focus on things to be done by priorities.
I play the piano!
I bless with my talents!
My toilets all sparkle!
My checkbooks all balance!
Each week every child gets a one-on-one date;
I attend all my meetings (on time! Never late!)
I'm taking a class on the teachings of Paul,
But that is not all! Oh, no. That is not all .
I track my bad habits 'til each is abolished;
Our t-shirts are ironed!
My toenails are polished!
Our family home evenings are always delightful;
The lessons I give are both fun and insightful.
I do genealogy faithfully, too.
It's easy to do all the things that I do!
I rise each day early, refreshed and awake;
I know all the names of each youth in my stake!
I read to my children!
I help all my neighbors!
I bless the community, too, with my labors.
I exercise and I cook menus gourmet;
My visiting teaching is done the first day!
(I also go do it for someone who missed hers.
It's the least I can do for my cherished ward sisters.)
I chart resolutions and check off each goal;
I seek each "lost lamb" on my Primary roll.
I can home-grown produce each summer and fall.
But that is not all! Oh, no. That is not all .
I write in my journal!
I sing in the choir!
Each day, I write "thank yous" to those I admire.
My sons were all Eagles when they were fourteen!
My kids get straight A's!
And their bedrooms are clean!
I have a home business to help make some money;
I always look beautifully groomed for my honey.
I go to the temple at least once a week;
I change the car's tires!
I fix the sink's leak!
I have all our meals planned out six months ahead.
I make sure I rotate our two-years' supply;
My shopping for Christmas is done by July!
These things are not hard;
'tis good if you do them;
You can if you try!
Just set goals and pursue them!
It's easy to do all the things that I do!
If you plan and work smart, you can do them all, too!
It's easy!" she said
And then she dropped dead.

A "Journey" to my Past

Do you remember Journey (the 80s band for you babies who don't know what in the world I'm blogging about)? I have a Journey Music book and I forgot how much I love some of their greatest hits like "Faithfully," "Send Her my Love" and "Open Arms." They were actually popular when I was a little kid but one of my high school friends got me into their music.

Anyway, it was fun playing through the book. It brought back memories of driving with the windows down in a car full of high school friends while we all sang at the top of our lungs to our cassette tapes. Do you remember those days?

Also, I have a confession. . .I still love Milli Vanilli (or whoever actually sang the music that they lip-synced). One day, I pulled out the old CD and even got Rachel loving "Girl, You Know it's True." I've always wished that whoever actually performed their music would put together an album. I know this random info dates me but I'm throwing it out there for you to mock me!

The Bad Mood Buster

I just came upstairs after playing our new basement piano for about an hour. Yes, it's after 10 p.m. and I'm playing the piano--what joy! Our piano sits in the room adjacent to our two-story foyer, which provides excellent acoustics and works wonders if you want to wake sleeping children when playing late at night. Thus, after about 7 p.m., I haven't been able to play the piano. The only time I can play the piano without children interrupting and demanding attention is at night so I basically haven't been able to play the piano regularly for years.

Piano playing used to be my bad mood buster. Now I whine in my blog. But I have really missed playing the piano so when a dear friend asked if I knew anyone who wanted a free, ancient upright grand, I couldn't pass it up. I told her I would wait and see if others wanted it first (who otherwise couldn't afford a piano) but if there weren't any other takers, I would put it in our basement. Sure enough, she put the word out but no one bit, so I sent Paul to pick it up on Saturday. Getting the piano on the trailer and moving it into the basement was more challenging than I can possibly put into words but somehow it finally got where it needed to go. The piano is terribly out of tune; but, until the tuner comes, I'll manage to close my ears and simply enjoy the relaxation of playing the piano once again.

A Dinner Disaster?

We are hosting the High Priest Christmas Dinner at our house this year. When I was first asked, I was thrilled because I love to have things here and I love decorating my home at Christmas. However, now I am beginning to stress out about it! The Mains have hosted it at their house forever and it has been a very elegant affair with Cheri making scrumptious food, using real plates and silverware and a arranging a lovely program. So, of course, everyone looks forward to it every year. The Mains are going to be out of town and have a wedding in December so we were asked to have it at our house. Besides the "fancy dinner" precedent, we had to change the original date because of a conflict with the ward activity so now Paul's out of town that entire week, including the day of the party, so I truly will have to do everything by myself. I'm sure it will work out. . .I hope!

I have no idea what to make for the main dish. I planned on cooking a bunch of spiral hams but just discovered they are serving ham at the ward party the next week so now I'm freaking out because I only have one oven and it is usually a large crowd (30-40 people.) Paul says, "Just make the ham anyway." But I don't know if that's the right thing to do. So now I'm leaning toward a chicken dish that my family loves which we call Governor's wife Chicken. Someone also suggested the Chicken Crescent Rolls (a.k.a. Chicken pillows, chicken croissants) which I make for our family once in a while. They like it. What do you think? I'm great at baking just about anything but not a very good cook so if a recipe's complicated or has the potential to fail, I'll probably blow it. I do have great salad recipes and I can make delicious rolls in advance. I'm just concerned about the main dish. Let me know if you have any brilliant ideas for something easy and delicious that meets my "no fail" parameters.

Sleep deprived but still alive!

The last two nights have been interesting. On Wednesday night, I FINALLY had all the kids to bed and had fallen into a deep sleep when the phone rang. It was close to midnight and Paul was calling to tell me he was still in Newark (he arrived at 4:30 p.m. for his 6:00 p.m. flight to Raleigh which was delayed) but thought maybe he would get on a plane soon. I don't recall much of the conversation because it seems as if it incorporated itself into my dream. But something must have registered because I woke up in a panic at 3 a.m. wondering if Paul made it or not because I hadn't heard from him. So I called his cell phone--poor guy--and woke him up in North Carolina.

Once I'm awake, I have a hard time getting back to sleep so I finished a book I was reading and had just settled back to sleep when--CRASH!--we had the loudest thunder ever accompanied by a wild thunderstorm! Pretty soon, there were multiple kids in my bed. After what seemed like an eternity of rustling kids, kicking legs and children using me for a pillow, I slipped out and went to Rachel's bed. That lasted about 10 minutes until Caitlin came looking for me. At this point, it was 5:30 a.m., the storm had subsided, and I knew I had to get up soon so I carried all the kids back to bed (except Rachel--I made her walk) and got back into my bed. The sweet sleep didn't last long--Caitlin and Courtney were up by 6 a.m. as always!

Last night, Paul got home very late from his trip. So we put the dog in her crate, trudged up to bed about midnight and tried to snooze. After just a few minutes, the dog started whimpering, then began whining and then almost screaming. The ear-piercing whining lasted for hours. So Paul and I took turns over the course of a couple of hours taking her outside and checking her crate to see what the problem was (she normally loves being in the crate and happily goes in and stays in all night.) Finally, after a discussion (a.k.a. argument) to determine who was taking her out this time, I finally took the crate, her water (she seemed excessively thirsty) and put her in the laundry room with the crate door open. After a few minutes of whining and scratching the door, she quieted down. Yes!

In the morning, we discovered the reason she was whining. . . . When Caitlin and Courtney woke up at 5:30 a.m. (yippee!), Paul opened the laundry room door and discovered that Sugar had vomited multiple times, etc. all over the laundry room. Poor puppy! Paul then tripped over a bowl of extra cookie dough I planned to freeze in the library where some little one had left it. We are wondering if Sugar ate some of that. I'm happy to report that our dog is much improved today but I am feeling slightly exhausted.

What Season Are You? Try it!

You Belong in Spring

Optimistic, lively, and almost always happy with the world... You can truly appreciate the blooming nature of spring. Whether you're planting flowers or dyeing Easter eggs, spring is definitely your season!

What Season Are You?

What Kind of Ice Cream Are You? Try it!

You Are Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

You are kind, popular, and generous. You tend to be successful at anything you try. A social butterfly, you are great at entertaining a crowd. You are most compatible with strawberry ice cream.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

Barreling through another day

This morning, I went to Rachel's school to arrange the Reflections displays in the foyer for parent teacher conference. This is my fourth year running the Reflections program and I'm finally getting it down. Two years ago, we tried taping all the entries to butcher paper in the hallway which was a colossal failure. We had hundreds of entries that year and I think every single one of them fell down and had to be re-taped in the week that they were displayed. Now we use standing bulletin boards and tables and it works very well.

Once I was finished with that, I ran home, got the three little ones and drove to the church to meet the truck carrying the 52 water barrels ordered by people in our ward. We unloaded the barrels and I loaded the kids back into the car and headed to Rachel's bus stop (1/2 day today). While driving, I called all the people in the ward who ordered water barrels to let them know to get them as soon as possible.

The rest of the day was typical. Now I'm ready to sleep but Spencer has arrived downstairs once again so I will put him back in his bed for the 9th time tonight. I don't know where he gets the energy.

Cleaning Conundrums

Have you ever driven around and looked at large, spacious and beautiful homes and daydreamed that someday you would own a home like that? The other day, I was driving through a stately neighborhood near our home with the kids and I just kept thinking, "I never want that house. It's way too big--I could never keep it clean."

Cleaning is one of my current challenges. I am much happier when the house is organized, clean and running in an orderly fashion but I can't seem to ever get everything done that I want to do while attending to the needs of the kids. I see other friends' homes that are spotless and orderly at all times and I feel even more discouraged. These are the same people who also manage to work out daily and whose children behave perfectly in public. What am I doing wrong?

On Saturday, I was bound and determined that the house would be cleaned from top to bottom. I took the two older kids to a primary activity in the morning and when I got home, I began cleaning with fury. By Saturday evening, after cleaning for five hours straight, vacuuming, dusting, toilet scrubbing and general pick-up, I still had many uncompleted tasks on the two main floors and the basement floor was still strewn with toys. It would be an understatement to say I was discouraged and frustrated. So, my sweet Paul, in his infinite kindness, took all four kids out to dinner AND grocery shopping so I could have some time to clean without the children undoing all my hard work. Isn't he the best?!!!

I thought surely the house would be spotless by the time the family arrived home but it wasn't. I only picked up the basement, cleaned the basement bathroom and vacuumed it before they were back again. I still had a number of vital chores like mopping that weren't done.

Now Sunday's over and the entire house is back to being as messy as ever. Oh well, the sun will come out tomorrow and I'll begin again!

Who needs toys when you have a recycling bin and a vacuum hose?

Yesterday as I watched the kids playing I wondered why we spend so much money on toys when they don't even play with them.

Spencer got into the recycling bin and got out four milk jugs, grabbed a basketball and with the blanket, laid out a bowling alley with gutters (by folding the blanket on each side). He had the family bowling down the milk jugs with the basketball. Meanwhile, Caitlin was running around with a vacuum hose, singing into it and sounding like an elephant while Courtney was laughing at the entire scene. Who needs toys when you have "stuff" around the house to entertain the children? Maybe I should donate a few hundred toys somewhere (thus eliminating a lot of messes) and see how creative the kids get then.

On another note, my Mom won her city council seat by a landslide as expected! Yesterday when I was talking to her, I said, "Well, I know no other candidate has stressed as much as you so you definitely deserve to win." She has worked so hard in this election and I'm thrilled the work has paid off! She'll continue to do a great job for the city of Orem.

Good Grief--girl scout cookies galore!

We got our girl scout cookies yesterday. I am totally nuts! I bought six boxes thinking I'll freeze them and eat them throughout the year. Well, two boxes are already almost gone and it's only been one day. The kids ate a box of thin mints yesterday while I was at choir practice and today. . . well, today I admit I'm one of the culprits.

I end up buying girl scout cookies every year. I can't help myself--I have no willpower whatsoever! While writing the previous entry, I ate an entire sleeve of cookies without even thinking about it. Now I feel like throwing up. Those darn girl scouts. . . why do they have to be so sweet? I just have to support them. It has nothing to do with the delicious delights they are selling, right? I wonder. . .do they have some sort of agreement with Weight Watchers? We'll sell 'em, you save 'em?

I am making a vow today. No more girl scout cookies for at least a month. . .err. . . a week. Argh!#$%* Now that it's written down, I have to honor my committment. Into the freezer behind all the healthy food they go. Let's hope I don't find them for another month.

Glimpses of eternal potential

Last night while reading to Spencer at bedtime, I had a sweet experience. He asked me "Why is Jesus called the Savior?" and we talked about the atonement. Then he asked about the "different heavens," and we discussed the plan of salvation and the degrees of glory. Then he said, "Mom, I want to pray all night like Enos. Can you help me? I don't think I can think of that many things to say." So we began praying together with me prompting him about things he was thankful for. After about five minutes, he stopped praying and began breathing deeply and I realized he was asleep. It was one of those moments I'll always cherish. Glimpses of the spiritual potential of my children motivate me to keep going with scripture study, prayers and family home evening because I know it can make a difference even though it is hard and at times seems like it's not working. I am so grateful that I gave in to Spencer when he begged me for "just one more story" last night. Otherwise, it would have never happened.

Quote of the day:

While putting laundry away, I caught Spencer and the twins eating candy out of a very heavy ceramic bowl which was on the top of the fridge last time I saw it.

Me: "Who got that bowl of candy down? That's not your candy."
Spencer: "Someone very strong." (admitting he did it without saying so directly)

I'm finally five!

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