Home at Last!

This weekend was a lot of fun. I am so glad to see those of you that were able to make it, it was great to see these cute kids in person and catch up with every one face to face. It was so nice that I already knew what your little ones looked like, knew somewhat of their little personalities, knew a little of what was going on in your lives. We didn't have to spend the entire weekend catching up on years of stuff, instead we got to enjoy each other's company!

After heading out Sunday morning, we stopped at Mark's folks for the afternoon. The kids and Daddy disappeared downstairs to play video games. Daddy came up once and sat down for a bit. After chatting with his sister for a minute, he turned to me and said "I hope Oren won't grow up to be a sissy... He's downstairs playing dress up with a bunch of Barbie Dolls!" Cracked me up. I told him I already knew, he had come up to show me that he made them "princesses" and that he was enjoying himself. I mentioned that it was a good thing, he will understand girls much better and will be quite the ladies man, since he was also concerned that all Oren's friends are girls. There aren't any boys on the street, and the one boy in his church class is more hyper than Oren and really shows grown-ups no respect, his parents let him do whatever and wonder why they can't control him. Not the best playmate for a boy that already has some issues! I just found it funny, he is definitely all boy!

We wanted to get going a little later in the evening, about 6 ish, but it took a long time to get every one out the door. Like, 7:45. Then there was 10 minutes of good bye at the car! I love them, but they really prolong fairwells. We got almost to the freeway, when I mentioned that we would have to feed the boys at some point on the trip, our sandwiches already being gone, and he decided to go back and feed the boys there! After it took so long to get going in the first place! So we popped back in the door, his sister whipped up some Mac and Cheese, and an hour or so later we were back in the car with the whole good bye thing and finally made it back on the road.

We usually stop at Fort Hall to gas up, it's generally the cheapest place on the freeway. And I don't like to push it past a 1/4 tank, it makes me nervous. (Blame my mother, Mark!) I took a little nap (45 minutes), and he passed Fort Hall before I woke up. Didn't stop. I woke up and saw the gauge a little before we passed through Pocatello and asked him to stop so we could gas up before it got even more expensive. $4.13 was high enough! "No, we're fine, I'm not stopping." We were a little less than 10 minutes (not 10 miles, 10 minutes) from Rupert when the line dropped low enough to get me really worried, and a minute or so later the light came on! I have never pushed it far enough to know how much longer we have before totally running out, so I was trying hard not to freak out. We said a quick prayer, Oren and Daddy and me, to get to the closest gas station, so we would be safe. It was 10:30 and I would prefer not to be stuck on the side of the road. It was a close call, but we spotted a gas station several miles up the road right off the freeway and pulled in. $4.27! We had no choice but to fill up... Ouch! I told him I would refrain from saying "I told you so" and rubbing it in that he should have listened, but he told me to go ahead. What a sweetie.

Around 11:30 he started to nod off so we switched. Then, his legs were so long that they were getting cramped and were bugging him, so he whined about that before I pulled over to let him walk around and stretch. By 12:45 I was having a hard time focusing on the road, I couldn't concentrate very well. We made it home around 1:15. Safely, thank goodness. Unloaded kids and contacts case, looked for the cat who should have greeted us but didn't, and went to bed.

Jade is the type of cat who, if I am gone for 10 minutes, meets me at the door running and purring, so happy to see us. So after a couple days, you'd think she would be there! But she wasn't. She wasn't in any of her usual spots, not stuck behind a door anywhere. But I was too tired, and figured that if she had gotten out she was long gone already, and if she hadn't she was probably at Amanda's house playing with their cat, who is Jade's sister.

Sure enough, the next morning she called to let me know she had my cat and not to worry, her daughter brought Jade to their house so she wouldn't get bored. A bit of a relief, since I am just a little attached to her, and would prefer to not lose her...

It was so nice to sleep in my own bed, with the A/C going, my children tucked in nicely in their beds, not crying. Poor Mark had to get up at 6:00 am (which is why I wanted to eat on the road....!) so he'll be falling over when he gets home and I will send him to bed early tonight. I slept until 9:30 when Nathan woke up and was hungry, which felt soooo good! (Sorry Steph, who wasn't feeling good, I don't mean to gloat) After last week, I really needed it.

I have been relaxing today, headed to the BX to check out the clearance racks and look for school jeans. My boys have 2 pairs each left, without holes in them, so buying more is a must. They have to be good quality or they tear sooner. And Nathan is getting to big for the size 4's, they are getting a bit short and a little harder to snap, so he is moving up to 5's, which Oren still wears some of. Which means double the pants. They share some, but there aren't enough to go around.

A nice, quiet day....

A Poem

I awoke this morning and rose from my bed,
Took a shower 'neath my clean showerhead.
As I got out I heard a strange sound,
It sounded like a pound, pound, pound!

I rushed to the window and peeked right out,
And constrained myself from giving a shout.
(For he might turn around and I was nude,
If he was to look, it would be a bit rude...)

What to my wondering eyes did appear
was a maintenance man with a hat 'bove his ears.
I saw wooden planks standing strait and tall
and my fence now quite solid, a great wooden wall!

Thank you maintenance man for doing your job,
for doing it quickly and not like a slob.
We'll enjoy our strong fence, with our yard on the mend,
Until the next strong wind blows it down yet again!

I'm Special!

My dear, darling, younger-but-somehow-taller-than-me sister nominated me for an award! Just what I needed to lift my spirits after the day I had today. I'll go over that later. First, to brag about my award!



Stephanie nominated me for my cute little boys (biased opinion on my part?) and somehow not being admitted to the phychiatric spa (thanks to my friend Amanda for that term). I love to give all the details of surviving day by day in our house, and how I am so not perfect but trying.




Here are the rules:


1. Post the logo on your blog.


2. Add a link to the person who nominated you.


3. Nominate other people for this award and add links to their blog.


4. Leave a message for the people that you nominated!



And so, I like to brighten the day of some others today. Some of them don't know that I read their blogs, because I am not the greatest at commenting, but I appreciate what they share with the blogging world!


1. Michele of Bipolar Survivor. I found her blog while looking for ways to deal with my new diagnosis. She tells her life as it is, no glamourizing the good and glossing over the bad. It was great to find someone not scared to talk about things that some people are still scared of or have a distorted view. Thank you Michele for sharing your life with the rest of us.


2. Stephanie, as a contributer to our Weight Loss blog. She did so great, sticking to her diet, accepting the ups and downs, induldging without beating herself up. She is an inspiration to me, she met her goal, and she is all around an amazing person! I'm not there yet, but I will be someday sister dear!


3. Mrs. Fussypants of Mrs. Fussypants Guide to Life. I recently found this blog, and love it! She has hilarious posts, like "Name that inappropriate photo", where she has the most outrageous pics. I would love to know where she finds them! Everyone comments with what you could imagine a title could be, based on the hilarious or weird photo. Too fun! Or "Fight the Frump", self-explanatory.


Thank you all for your wonderful posts!




Now, on to the whole crazy day thing...

I was awakened this morning by my friend calling. She does this almost every morning, which I don't mind, but it does make a shower difficult. Got the kids up and attempted the morning feed. Umm....yeah. Oren had to spend breakfast in his room until the other boys were done, as he couldn't keep his hands to himself and was putting his face right by William's and screaming. That led to more screaming.... Oren finished, my friend got off the phone, I hadn't eaten yet and was headed for the shower, when the phone rang again.

Mark was calling from work to say that his commander had driven by our house this morning and saw the tumbleweeds taking over the front and side yards. (When, I ask you, would I find time to pull weeds... obviously even finding time to shower doesn't come easy) The guy threw a hissy fit, called Mark into his office, and said he had until 10 to get them all pulled. AHHHHH! He came home from work, and I threw on some clothes and started yanking vegetation. About 10ish his shop chief swung by to see what all the fuss was about. He was under the impression that maintenance people took care of the side yard (which is monsterously long), and couldn't believe how much we actually have to take care of. We mentioned the fence, which is still down, he couldn't believe that either. He left, and we were still pulling weeds when the housing office people showed up taking pictures of our yard!

They were actually nice and polite, didn't yell, but asked us to please take care of our yard a little better. They wanted the weeds gone as soon as possible, even the dead ones that we had actually gotten sprayed a while back. We told them about the fence, and they said to call it in again and ask for our ticket number. Apperantly we are supposed to get one for everything we call in. I have never gotten one... They said they'd call us when the job ticket when through their desk.

I still hadn't eaten, so I took a break to go get my blood sugar back up. Amanda had come over to help pull since she was bored and saw us in the front yard. I was pretty lightheaded and not thinking quite straight, so she brought over some breakfast burrito stuff and make us breakfast/lunch/snack, while I sipped some apple juice until I felt a little better. While this was all going on my visiting teachers showed up to chat for a while, a scheduled appointment. I felt bad eating in front of them and was still a little iffy feeling, and stressfully distracted. That took a while, and then everyone went home so I could take Oren to school.

Mark called to let me know he had called the maintenance office again about the fence, and had asked for the ticket number. They discovered that the job had never been written down when we called. They did a drive by to look at damage at the time, and hadn't written it down then. When I called it in the other day, they assumed it had a ticket number already and didn't question why it was taking so long. So now we have the ticket number, they know about our fence, and the housing inspector is on the lookout for the job to cross her desk and will let us know when she gets it. Hopefully it won't take too long. We told her we had to take the fence down to due the tree damage. Cross your fingers they won't yell at us and be all mad about that...

I was supposed to bring lunch to a family at church whose Mom passed away from cancer and Grandma is helping raise them, so our church provides one meal a week to help out a little. Needless to say, I didn't have any time to cook. They are down in town, and today was a therapy day, so I was going to have to make 2 trips, until Amanda volunteered to pick up Oren from school. That way I could run all my errands before therapy and only make 1 trip down. What an angel! I picked up some take-n-bake pizzas from a local Papa Murphy's and dropped them off, then went and ate a small lunch before heading over to Walmart for some groceries and sewing stuff. William fell asleep on the way to therapy and slept the whole time, so I chatted with Amanda.

My floor is not swept, my dishes did get loaded somehow, I was going to mop and didn't get to, I only have 1/2 a square left on the very last row of Nathan's quilt to sew and then the top will be done but I didn't get to that either. My children had cereal for dinner, I haven't eaten dinner yet, just some Dibbs (a bite size ice cream thing) and a root beer. My children have watched a lot of tv in the car, and Oren played at Amanda's house most of the afternoon, and is now super hyper, as is Nathan.

But, my front yard does look loads better, Mark hasn't played his video game at all today, the boys should go to bed fairly well today, I found more seedlings (pansies, yay!) while weeding, and I appreciated having a cell phone.

And, I got an award! That made the day all better, reading what my sister thought of my blog, both food and regular. She gave me an award for that one too, and people think my food tour is pretty cool. May my evening be better than my morning...

Now available -

I finally got around to posting our food tour. We did Germany this last week, interesting food. Just letting anyone interested know!

Happy time!

See, as promised, a post in a better mood. My keyboard and I had a talk, and it forgave me for hitting is so hard before. My computer screen didn't notice I was glaring, so no harm done there...

My quilt top.... hmmmm. Well, I only have two rows of 5 squares left to do. It was supposed to be 6 wide and 9 long. I got 6 wide and 4 long and held it up. WOW! I turned it on it's side and it almost covered the bed just as it was! So I decided to keep it turned sideways and add one row to the side to make 5 squares across, and two rows of 5 squares on the new bottom to make it 8 rows long. That way it is long enough to tuck in but not so long to drag on the floor on the end, and the sides hang over, but again, not to the floor.

I am so close, just 10 squares to go! And they are all cut out and stacked together in the order for the pattern.

More happy stuff: My squash has nice big flowers on it I discovered today. My echinacea plants in the front garden had seed heads last year and I scattered them in the bark just for kicks when they dried up. Now I have tiny echinacea seedling popping up everywhere! It's a good thing I like that type of flower. There are others seedlings coming up in one of my flower barrels, but I really have no idea what they are, just that they aren't weeds...

My house has stayed clean for over a week. Sweeping, vacumming, mopping, cleaning toys, dishes, laundry, my bed made, bathrooms not as bad as usual. I am not quite sure how I am doing what has eluded me for years, but I am excited. I always love to walk into houses where you can tell they keep it clean. I always wanted to have one of those. This week there has been no embarassment when the doorbell rings or someone knocks on the door because the house is in order, no last minute stuffing things in closets required. There are still some things that need cleaned or decluttered, but I am working on the quilt at the moment, so they will wait a bit.

The point is that it is do-able. It's not just perfect little obsessively anal moms who can pull this off. I can too! :-)

My little rant and rave...

Okay, I am sorry to subject you guys to this, but I just need to have a little rant about a situation that keeps making me madder and madder. If I get this out now, I won't yell so much at the poor person on the other end of the phone when I call them tomorrow.


I have a beef with the housing maintenance office. There was a huge windstorm two months ago that blew down our fence, and tore the shingles off roofs, and some sideing as well. We called in to report our fence was partially blown over when it happened. They told us there was too much damage for them to handle, too many houses to fix, so they were contracting out the repairs. Fine, we had no problem with that.


A month and a half later, it was still somwhat blown over. It was rubbing against our tree, which coincidently, was the only thing holding the doggone thing up! Mark got tired of the fence rubbing our tree and threatening to blow completely over and squashing our bushes and flowers. So this is what our fence looks like now...





These are the nails sticking strait up for little hands to scrape on or little feet to possible step on.






This is the post that is now unusable and will need to be totally replaced. These were not cemented in and are hollow. We are on the outer edge and get the full brunt of any winds that blow over the prairie.



This is the board Mark had to screw over the splintered middle of a cross support before it completely snapped. Huge sharp wood edges just waiting to hurt someone.




After Mark pulled the fence down to prevent further damage to the property, we called our fence in again. That was nearly two weeks ago! Housing maintenance has 24 hours for an emergency like your heater or AC is out. Or you have no water period, or there is something like a gas leak. Anything that would severely damage property or people. Or a clogged toilet. Then they have 48 hours to respond to something like no hot water, or other things that would be considered urgent, but not imediately people or property damaging. 3-5 days is how long they have to respond to non-urgent items: light switch not working, drawer busted, door not shutting properly or the handle breaks. A fence blown completely over is 48 hours. A fence leaning but still technically attached would be 3-5 days.

NOT 2 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!

At what point do I need to go down and physically get in their face and demand that it be fixed? How long should I continue to report it before lodging a formal complaint?

So tomorrow I am calling for the 3rd time, reporting it again, and letting them know that I EXPECT it to be done by the end of the business week. Not looked at, DONE. STANDING and ALL BOARDS IN PLACE. Or I will be lodging a formal complaint with the housing office, and anyone else I can think of to lodge one with. Along with a request that an investigation be done to see why it took so ridiculously long to get done. Every other time we have had to report our fence we were called within a few days and an appointment set up for them to survey the damage and then come back with the materials. It's their own fault that it will take a lot more work to fix now than it would if they had come right out!

(ggggggrrrrrrrrrrrr.)

Well, I feel a tiny bit better. I am suprised all my keys still work as I was banging them pretty hard. Thanks for letting me rant, I really don't want to yell and scream at them tomorrow. Just calmly inform them of the situation and consequences. Let them know politely that I am NOT HAPPY, without putting them on the offensive and making the situation worse.

(deep breath)

I'll write a happy post later today, I promise.

I love Joanns!

Seriously, thank you to whoever decided to create that fabric store! I wandered around for a while looking at every single dark blue fabric they had, with my little fabric scrap, holding it up against each one to compare. Every aisle. I finally lucked out in the quilter's solids sections. They had a dark navy blue that was pretty darn close. There was a minute difference, mine looked a tad lighter, like it was a little faded. The other blue didn't have exactly the same texture, but it was almost as heavy as mine. So that went in the cart, and I was happy. In that same little section there were a couple shades of white, and I able to find a white that matched my other as well. Because the new blue and old blue will not touch, be side by side, in the quilt the minute difference won't be noticed. And the dark, golden yellow I found to border the whole quilt will pull the eye as well. So all will be well.

I was able to get some cake decorating stuff for Marie's birthday which was last week, she loved it! A decorating book with just about all the info she will ever need. And some new tips and a case to keep them in.

And Thomas absolutely loved the dump truck we gave him. Back and forth. Back and forth. I saw it in the store and it just about jumped off the shelf and into my cart and said "Buy me, please! I want to go play with your nephew!" Well, what else could I do but oblige the lonely little dump truck. Most of it's friends were already gone, and I just felt sorry for the poor thing. Thomas and the dump truck seem to have hit it off already.

It was nice to sit and enjoy my family for a while. Mark was on call for work and couldn't come with us. It was a very boring, quiet day for him here at home, he said. I missed him, partly because I don't get to see him much during the week, and partly because I could have used an extra pair of hands keeping children contained in the various stores. *wink*

You know when you visit somewhere, it never fails that you leave at least one thing? Or is that just me...? I was being so careful to make sure I had everything, and was about to walk out the door when Janelle noticed the bag on the counter. It had all the quilt stuff I had just bought, plus all the square cutouts for the next row I need to sew! Thank you, Janelle! That would be a bad thing to leave. And then after I gave Mom a hug goodbye, she gave a little yelp and said I still needed the frame thing. Ha ha, that was one of the reasons I had gone up there in the first place! And I was about to drive off without it! Thank you, Mom, for having a working brain, because mine was out of order tonight.

I am pretty sure that I brought everything home with me, although it was a close call. The boys had a lot of fun, I ate some amazing peanut butter frosting, courtesy of Stephanie. Thomas gave lots of cute poses for pictures, including literally diving in face first into his cake. I am sure Steph will post pictures of that tomorrow. Hilarious!

And I will have to take a picture of the quilt thus far, and update pics as I get it finished. I think it would be fun to make more quilts, and I would love to get a small frame like Mom's, but her's is about $70. *gasp* It snaps together, with small pieces to hold the quilt onto it. You can only quilt about 3 square feet at a time, but that's fine with me! Takes up less space in the living room! Mom might not get it back... :-)

Blue....

Okay, you have to sing that Leanne Rhimes song "Blue over you." Where she sings with that voice that cracks on the word "blue".

Nathan's quilt is turning out so cute! Blue squares in the middle, Noah's Ark, Raindrops or plaid. All blue background in the same sort of tone. Then it alternates between white strips and then blue around that or the other way around. Like a checker board. I thought I would have enough fabric to do the quilt. I have enough fabric for the squares, but only enough of the dark blue for half the quilt plus a couple squares. And the same for the white. So I have to go to Walmart and cross my fingers they have almost the same color and weight, mine is quite heavy. White is easy. If Walmart doesn't have any that's close enough, I will have to go by Joanns on my way to Mom's tomorrow. I really hope I can find something close enough, because this is an adorable quilt, and he will love it, and I don't want to make it look wierd or off because it will drive me crazy to look at it if the fabric doesn't match well.

But I did get 3 rows done. That's 18 squares! Out of 48, not bad...

I did it!

I spent the morning doing maintenance cleaning: sweeping, vaccuming, laundry. Lots of laundry. Just so I would have the afternoon free for another cleaning project.

A big thank you to Mom and Steph for letting me talk their ears off while I cleaned my room. Yes, that's right, I got my room cleaned! Hurray! I have sadly neglected my own spaces whilst keeping everything else looking good. I even did some straightening of the bathroom. Cleared the trash off the counter and took all the trash out of the bathroom. The toilet can wait... maybe tomorrow. I am thoroughly exhausted. Mark has no idea that I was going to tackle that project, he'll be very excited when he gets home and goes to put his uniform away. I love suprising him like that!

You know what every mother's nightmare wakeup is? "Mommy, I threw up."

"Is is a little throw up or a big throw up?" (half asleep still)

"A big one..."

Great. Just what I want to deal with very tired and before breakfast. He said a big one, what he should have said was it was all over his pillow, both sheets, fleece blanket and big quilt, the wall dripping down to the floor... Lovely.

But that is all cleaned up now, and of course he has been running around just fine today. I kept him home from school just to be safe. What was odd is that Zaylee did the same thing this morning. Threw up, had some diarreah, then was fine! How weird is that!?!

Busy day all together, but this is a good kind of tired. I want to get everything clean so that maintenance will be so much quicker, therefore more likely to get done. I don't want to be one of those anal mom's who are at their family all the time to pick things up, I don't have time for that, plus that's all I would do all day and my kids would suffer. I need to find a nice medium that allows time for the kids, keeping the house decent, and saving my sanity with some "me" time.

And somewhere in this I am hoping to find the time to get Nathan a quilt made for his birthday. I only have a few weeks left. Mom is loaning me a quilt frame thingy she has so I can tie it, and I designed a really simple square for the top, 12x12, that I will make a bunch of and sew together. I had all the stuff hanging around in my fabric stash, even the stuff for the backing, so I don't have to buy anything. Amanda crochets and has tons of yarn, and is donating some for the tying! I love using stuff up, and giving my boys awesome gifts for little money!

Thank you!!!!

Thanks Melinda and Steph for your tips and directions. As you can see I have made some alterations, and although I consider this to be a work in progress, it is a step in the right direction. Next I will work on my title area!

Today was a busy day and seemed to fly by. I have been trying to be a better housekeeper and keep up on sweeping, mopping, vacumming, laundry, dishes, yadda yadda... There is a lot more than I thought that needs done just about every day. I am happy to report that the laundry has been folded right away and put away for 3 weeks now, my personal record. The floor has been swept everyday and the carpets vacummed every couple of days for a week, another record. And dishes have been rinsed and put in the dishwasher, which is run once a day and emptied, and the table and stove wiped off after every meal! It is so nice to come home to a clean entryway where shoes are stacked neatly and bags hung up. The clothes are in the laundry baskets and toys picked up before bed. I even changed the kids sheets to cotton ones! They were still using our flannel winter ones. Hot!

Mark is impressed. I haven't been this good for this long ever in our marriage. Once we struck a bargain: he would put away his uniform if I cleaned off the counters before he came home. That didn't last long. But with the house looking nice he makes an effort now to not leave his work stuff lying around. Sweet of him.

Now, my bedroom and bathroom are still awful, as is the laundry room. But, everything I have already cleaned has stayed that way, and I will be tackling the rest this evening and tomorrow, since I don't have to go anywhere except take Oren to school.

I think the meds are part of the reason for my housekeeping motivation. I haven't been depressed lately, and I haven't been as easily distracted. I used to try cleaning something and get sidetracked by other cleaning things and by the end of the day nothing had gotten done. Now I find myself able to finish projects, as well as stop them when I need to if the kids need something instead of being so focused I ignore everything around me. A nice medium.

Here's hoping I can keep it up.

Help!

Okay, all those who are more blog savvy than I, like Steph who used a picture of food she took for her blog background. HOW DO I DO THAT! Maybe it's because it's 1 am right now, but I am feeling very stupid. I don't want to have to redo all my sidebar stuff, which is what happens every time I choose a new layout from pyzam.com, I just want to change my background image.

PLEASE HELP ME!

Send me a nice email - the_willfords @ q.com or write me a nice long comment giving simple, no fail instructions. Because either my brain is malfunctioning, or the "simple instructions anyone can use" on the layout page for editing the html are for people with IQ's of 237 or higher. (does that even exist?)

I think I can figure out how to do a cute title thingy, I would just love to know how to change around the background image of the page.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE ALL YOU DEAR, SMART, LOVED ONES OF MINE!

(can you tell by the lack of little brown flowers that I have already screwed up my template? yeah...)

Barber Shop Quartet

But not in the way you think...

Oren cut his hair yesterday. By himself. In the front. With nail scissors.

That's right.

I had to take it all the way down to 1/8 of an inch all over before there were no more short spots showing up. That's the smallest attachement. The next down is bare clippers and practically down to the skin.

Lovely.

Then Mark came home from work and asked if I would cut his hair. It gets done about twice a month to stay in regulations. So he got a nice hair cut, tight on the sides like he likes it. Since I had the clippers out, I plopped Nathan in the chair and clippered his head. He has a really bad cowlick when it's longer, it only lays right if it's really short or really long. But, being summer, we went for really short. About 7/8 inch on top and tapered down the back and sides.

Then, why not do William too? He keeps getting food in his hair, and his brothers like to throw dirt at him, that doesn't like to come off easily. It's actually impressive. He sits there very quietly and lets me use the clippers. I can count on about 5 minutes of sitting still, if I wipe his nose off every so often. Luckily I have been doing their haircuts for so long that I know what I like, and can do it very quickly. His is an inch on top and tapered down.

It will take some getting used to, but they all look cute. Although Oren's head is a bit bumpy for the bald look, it'll grow in fast enough I suppose. My four handsome boys.

Picture of the Day #46

I was just sitting here at my computer blog hopping, and I happened to look up and see this bottle of beverage I bought earlier today. It is delicious, not too sweet like juice. I bought it because it is low-carb and was on sale. What caught my attention is this single word, written in a bold font. "Slenderize". As in, "You too can be slim and beautiful if you drink this". "All you have to do is partake and world will be yours". They have others they have labeled energizing, or refreshing. You know what's energizing? A walk. Stretching. You know what's refreshing? A good shower or a long drink of ice water. But I, like a moth to a flame, got drawn in. I too wanted to "Slenderize".

Memories Tag

This one from Rachel's blog looked like fun. It's always a treat to see what other people remember about you that you have forgotten!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

My new entryway!

I absolutely love how this turned out. It makes me smile when I walk by and felt so welcoming when I came home from a meeting this morning.

A full main wall shot. Minus the bags and hat on the rack for the picture.

A close up of my shelft. The "welcome" is cut out of the wood. And the small word is "family"

Above the door and the closet door. The stencil goes down the wall on the left side.

A close up of the stencil. I bought this years ago and for the life of me I don't remember why!

The wall you see when you first walk in, opposite the door.

A close up of the crackle detail I posted about on that last picture tag. I crackled the pegs and the outer trim/edgework.

I am so glad I actually got this done. It feels really good to get a project done. So many things have been started in this house, but not finished due to not being able to focus well and getting distracted very easily. Now, what else can I paint?

Squeaky Clean!

Whew! All the hard work payed off. My house is clean! Except for my room/bathroom and the laundry room. I'll save those for next time I have energy.

Mom and Grandma and a couple of the kids came for lunch. That gave me all morning to finish all the little things I have been wanting to do. It felt really good to declutter our living space. Clutter stresses me out. I don't know how long the kids will help me keep it clean, but I am hoping for a few days at least. Nice and relaxing atmosphere, makes me want a nap.

I also finished my entryway last night. I blogged about the shelf I was doing in a tag a while back. I got that done and hung. Then I dug up a flower/ vine stencil I have had for a while and some red paint I had lying around from another project I never got done. The whole entryway is stenciled, it looks sort of like wall paper. Mark had no idea, so when he walked past to re-tuck in the boys, his eyes got all wide. We all like it. I'll take a picture and post it later. It makes me smile just to walk by!

I decided I might do some more painting. We are hoping to be in this house for a while, another baby is going to have to wait until things get straightened out with the kids and me and Mark has to be willing. (that could take a while...) Which means we will fit in this house for a while. Another baby would mean we qualify for a 4 bedroom and we would need the space. ALthough if push came to shove one of the bedrooms is big enough for a bunkbed and a toddler bed, or another twin bed. But either way, we don't want to move for a while. So why not paint some more? Maybe do a wall, just a single wall in the living room. One that's not too big, like by my backdoor or something. I just have to prime the walls I paint before we go so the maintanence guys only have to do one coat over that. No big deal. My bathroom got painted a dark olive green about 2 seconds after we moved in, now I have the stencils, and I'm itching to do more! We had lots going on the last couple years with other projects but I should have more time now that the kids are a little older.

I think I will relax and curl up with a book. Maybe reread a Harry Potter or something. All the housework is done, except for laundry, but I think I deserve a nice break. And an Oreo or two!

Ugh.

Today I am reminded of why I only mop once a month. Yes that's right, once a month. Not a typo. My arms are so short that it hurts my back. I can get the hallway and part of the living room before I feel it. By the time I hit the kitchen I have to stop every 3 foot square and sit down for a bit. It takes forever!

But I got the floor swept and mopped, and dishes done, and the living room stayed clean, and laundry got done! I also ran errands and did therapy in town. Hurray!

But that dog-gone floor... Every time I turned around there was a little crumb, or smear of banana. I JUST CLEANED THE FLOOR PEOPLE! I mop, and then it is so much effort to keep it clean that I succeed for about a week, then it all goes to pot. You know it's bad when the baby doesn't want to walk to his chair because of the krud on the floor, or when Mark is looking for socks so he doesn't have to get his feet dirty and resorts to scooting penguin style on the baby's blanket. Yeah, it's been that bad before.

Unsanitary? Definitely. Bothersome? Yes. Important to my eternal happiness? Not really. But because of the first question I should probably try harder to get it done at least every 2 weeks. *wink* Stupid short arms...

On another note - I got through the French menu, except for a time constraint that neccesitated using purchase garlic french baguettes from Wally-World. I like bakeries! Recipes have been posted, as well as pictures that made me hungry all over again.

How would I measure up?

68 As a 1930s wife, I am Superior http://www.magatsu.net/maritaltest/">Take the test!

This was a funny little test. Who does half this stuff anymore? I was really suprised at my score... Am I really that thoughtful? Good grief, maybe I should walk around in pj's all day or something, or start wearing curlers and night cream to bed. :-)

5 Random Facts Tag

Okay, I was tagged by Stephanie! Post 5 random facts about yourself... hmmm....

1. I bought roses today. Big ones with flowers already in one gallon containers (the expensive ones). Beautiful red ones with a hint of fuschia and lots of petals. Why? Because they were having a closeout and all the plants are half off at the store I was at! Score! (Now I just have to get them in the ground.)

2. I am on my second round of fish in our little aquarium, and half of them are already dead. It would probably help if I cleaned the water occasionally or fed them regularly. Can we say "impulse buy"? Good!

3. I used to hate pink. I didn't want anything to do with it. Now I have 3-4 pink shirts and tanks for wearing under other shirts, pink Crocs (the knockoff Walmart ones), pink socks, white socks with pink edges, brown and pink striped socks... I bought a plant today that came in a pink plastic container. I liked the plant, but the pink container sealed the deal. Do you think I need a girl?

4. I am both scared and relieved to be on medication. Scared because I have to be on these pills the rest of my life and they are expensive if I don't have insurance, so if anything happened and Mark left the Air Force I am in big trouble. Relieved because I am finally starting to feel normal again. No more jumping from project to project. No more interupting people because I literally can't help it. Maybe I can be a better mom now.

5. I spend way too much time on the computer. I watch movies or tv shows, blog, look at blogs, look at recipes I could never afford the ingredients for, look up medical stuff relating to either my condition or my kids' issues. Looking at plants and window shopping my garden. Researching different breeds of dogs that would fit my requirements of low shedding, not huge, not yappy, no wierd eye or ear problems or prone to sneezing. There is an imprint of my bottom on the computer chair and I want to put extra padding on it, it's only 6 months old.

Let's see. I tag Rachel and CissaLynn!

My new favorite thing!

You know, I love France. The language, the food, the history. I took two years of French in high school, and would have taken more if they had offered it. The cuisine is regarded as some of the finest in the world!

The point of this is our family's Around the World food tour. So far we have done Austria and England. This week, we are exploring France! After doing lots of research for traditional dishes that complement each other and don't take too many fancy ingredients, we settled on a menu. Blancs de Poulet au Fromage (chicken breasts with cheese), Ratatouille Nicoise (prepared the original way- without eggplant), Baguettes made from scratch, and crepes with sweetened whipped cream/cream cheese mixture and raspberries in sugar. We are very excited!

We are enjoying learning about new countries and sampling their food. The kids are expanding their palates and experiencing new tastes and textures. No picky eaters here!

Stay tuned to my food blog tomorrow for recipes and photos!

My own little nap

I wholey agree with Rachel's post about her Sunday nap. Mark, for reasons known only to himself, chose to let me zonk out for nearly 2 hours this afternoon. I am not even sure why I laid down on the bed in the first place, but I awoke 2 hours later a tad disoriented, and slightly worried what he'd done to the children to get them to leave me alone for the whole time. That was mostly because our bedroom door was open and they have a tendency to go in there and play when we aren't looking.

It is now 12:20 am, and my eyes are finally getting tired. I should have been in bed hours ago! Mark did. I didn't even get anything done, just sat and watched a movie on the computer, with headphones as to not disturb anyone.

I did get 4 loads of laundry washed, dried, folded and put away, with another load to be folded, one to be put away, and Mark's uniform to be pulled out of the dryer and hung.

My house needs to be ready by Friday. Mom and Grandma Danes are coming down to pick up Grandma's meds and they like to stop in and have a quick lunch. And of course, due to my insane appointment schedule and the need to run errands all day leaving me too tired to clean up the messes in the short bursts of time I was home, even though the boys were trashing the place, my house is a Disaster! We have been eating off paperware for the last several days. Going camping didn't help either, between the chaos of packing and then returning home.... The car isn't even unloaded.

What an awful housewife I am. If only people really knew. (It doesn't help people only show up when it's a mess.... of course)

But because I had such a long nap today, and am therefore up so late tonight, I will be super tired tomorrow. My children will wake at the same time they always do, and I will be exhausted. It's going to be a long day, we have errands and therapy in town tomorrow.

Actually, I just remembered we are feeding the missionaries Thursday. Great, one less day to get ready... But I don't mind feeding them, hearing all kinds of stories, watching people genuinely enjoy their food. (cooking for others is one of my favorite things to do, the more people over for a meal, the better!)

I think I will go toss and turn for a bit and maybe, just maybe, I can get to sleep.

Goodnight!

My beautiful boys

I know every mom thinks their children are beautiful. I do. I love their sweet spirits and how their personalities differ from each other. I admire their patience with a sometimes grouchy mommy. I revel in their complete joy of something as simple as playing outside.

That's what we did today. Being a pleasantly warm afternoon I sent them outside to play. They were having so much fun, I wanted to try and capture it on film (okay, SD card, but hey....) I took lost of pictures, but these were my favorites of the afternoon.

Is there anything better than watching your children grow up? Oren amazes me with what he remembers and how fast he is learning. I can carry on actual conversations with him, and he is so observant about the world around him. Nathan is as easygoing as Oren is vivacious! He follows his brother willingly, although it often gets them both into trouble. He has such a sweet way about him, and I love how his top lip is crooked when he talks and smiles. And William? What a tiny bundle of energy! He pats our cheeks softly after accidently banging us with his head. He has started using more and more words, his current favorite being "help dadda" although I repeatedly emphasize the fact that I am Momma. I don't know if not-quite-two year olds can carry a tune normally, but that boy sings the alphabet song (the melody at least) like nobodies business!

I am so proud of my children and all that they are learning and doing. I only hope that I am worthy to be a mom to such amazing children!

We're Back!

And we survived! Thankfully is wasn't as hot as we thought it would be. Friday got about 95, but there was a nice breeze and a lake for swimming. Saturday only got up to 87...\

We had a lot of fun. We decided (after lots of mind changing on Mark's part) to visit the Bruneau Sand Dunes about 30 minutes away. BIG sand dunes. We got to the campground about 2:oo and got everything set up. It is a fairly nice campground, numbered areas for tents and seperate spots for rv's, every section has it's own picnic tables. Ours had a shelter over it! We were able to grab a spot with shade for our tent, close to the men's side of the bathroom so we could watch the boys come and go.

Then it was time to beat the afternoon heat and head out to the lake!

William was exhausted and fell asleep in the car over there. So we tucked him in the stroller and parked him in the shade next to the shore. Poor thing hasn't had regular naps much this week. He enjoyed having one today when we got home.

Nathan played it safe and stayed close to shore. A family camping in the next spot over had 2 little boys, and they shared their water toys with him. He thought it was fun to crawl around in the water to his knees and "swim".

Oren was a little braver, and let Daddy walk him way out. The lake was pretty shallow, and you had to go out kind of far to get over Mark's head. You can see how far out they are and it is only to Mark's waist. But that is a little high for Oren, who doesn't swim, so Daddy carried him.

I have a really good zoom, this was while they were all the way out there. Oren was holding on for his dear little life! Later, Mark borrowed a floatie thing and he and Oren drifted (paddled) out to the other side of the lake. Mommy watched quite nervously the whole time.

William finally woke up and splashed in the water for a while with Mommy before climbing out and playing in the sand to dry off. Here is Daddy trying to convince him to come back in the water. William wasn't excited about the idea.

We didn't fry, and we used plenty of sunscreen so we didn't end up all red. The boys had a blast, I remembered how to get a fire started back up from warm coals into a nice blaze, we borrowed salt to cook our tinfoil dinners in our skillet since I forgot both the salt and the tinfoil, and we spent some nice family time together. We hit Mountain Home on the way back for smore's fixing, which we had forgotten to get before, and had a picnic lunch at a park in town. Let the kids run off some energy.

My house is a disaster, I haven't been home to clean it, just home long enough for the kids to make messes in between appointments and errands. But it was nice to spend some time as a family and enjoy our tent and make a big fire and squish around in the muddy lake bottom. All in all, a nice weekend!

Roughing It

I am going to be gone for the next couple days, we are going camping until late Saturday. This time is also Mark's idea. There are several places within an hour of us, and he wants to make good use of the tent.

The problem is that today was 106, and this weekend is going to be almost as hot. OUCH! So, armed with sunscreen and plenty of ice, we are braving the great outdoors. We are borrowing a camping stove, scrounged wood for a fire, got pokey fork thingies for roasting marshmallows and cooking hotdogs. There had better be trees at the camping site or I am turning around and going right back home. Too hot without trees!

Today was spent in Boise going to a doctor's appointment. They said my Lamictal seems to be working fine so far, and they are going to start me on Concerta next week. Oren resonds very well to the Concerta so they figured I would too. I get to play with the dosage myself, increase it until I feel good. Or notice I am less hyper and temper-tantrumy. (I'm just making up words right and left aren't I...) We went and ate pizza, a big treat for the boys, and buzzed to Home Depot for some plants. Went home, gave William a nap, ran to the store for food stuffs for the weekend.

I will be returning red as a lobster, even with the sunscreen. I burn through spf 80, done it before. Maybe I should wear green on Sunday, cancel out the red of my face and chest. Oren and Mark will be tan, Nathan and William will hopefully not be as red as me. I will sleep well on our air mattress, which is suprisingly comfortable, but the kids will be up very late. Hopefully there is a body of water nearby for cooling off, and the bug repellent works. We just got over the last bug bites...

I am glad Mark suggested camping. We thought it best to begin small, and close to home, and gradually work our way up to 3 days or so, a little farther, like 3-4 hours away. I always enjoyed camping with my family, and I am a little ashamed that when we went with my folks, it was the first time Mark and I had ever been camping together, and our kids' too. How sad. We'll have to remedy that...

What's another name for Busy?

I swear, how many of my posts have the word "busy" in the title?

I had an appointment at 10:00 this morning at the hospital. Not a big thing, just a routine checkup. The kids got all packed up and we prepared to walk, since it's just a 15 minute walk and we may as well save the gas. Halfway down the street, Nathan is screaming and crying about his eye and couldn't open his eyes. (he hasn't figured out how to open just one yet)

Last night he got a little sawdust or dirt in his eye while playing outside. I was planting daylillies, and Mark was sawing wood, so we don't know exactly what got in there. I tried to flush out his eye with water, but that made him cry harder. I tried saline drops, and he calmed down a little bit. But he was still rubbing his eye and wouldn't leave it alone. He seemed okay by bedtime so I wasn't worried. This morning he was still complaining that is hurt and was tearing up periodically. I figured we'd give walking a shot anyway.

That didn't happen. How could he walk without opening his eyes? Oren was holding his hand, but that only works on the sidewalk. We have to walk on the street for part of it and I can't risk him not being able to see. So we turned around and got in the car. While at my appointment I called the appointment line to see if they had any same-day appointments left. (It's like an urgent appointment if you aren't bad enough for the ER) Luckily they had one at 1:15 this afternoon.

So we finished my appointment and headed to the library for some new books. I found a couple of cookbooks to browse through, and the kids piled on the children's books. Next came lunch, then off to the commissary for some stocking up. (We are working on our food storage, so half of what I bought was for that. It's hard on a limited budget.) We made it through in a record 30 minutes! Hurray!

We went home to unload perishables and ran over to Nathan's appointment. That was fun.... (read the sarcasm.) Our doctor had a baby and moved away. So we have had a series of temps for the summer. I am sure they are fine doctors, the last one was really nice and knowledgable. (sp?). But the one we had today? Picture a monkey with one eye open really wide and the other almost closed with his tongue hanging out, mouth open, saying "duhhhhhh". (I know that's probably mean, but good grief.)

"What seems to be the problem?" (note-he had the file and PA's report right in front of him)

"My son has something in his eye, got it last night, and I can't get it flushed out."

"Okay, let's check his eye. Hey bud! I'm going to listen to your heart first, okay! Now I am going to look in your ear. Looks good. Can I see inside your mouth? Alright, I am going to look in your eye now." (not in the singsong little voice, teasing to make the patient comfortable. Totally serious.)

He pulls the eyelid this way and that way. Stands back. Then goes in for another look. "hmmm, I can't really see anything". One more look. (I TOLD him it was either a little sawdust or some dirt. What did he think he was going to see? A clod of something?)

He hems and haws for a bit about options, like using dyes and special equipment he doesn't know if the clinic has. I had to straight out ask him if he could flush the eye, since they have the stuff to do that and are more skilled than I, and then I would wait and see if it still bothered him tomorrow. (We have to pay for emergency eye appointments unless the ER sends us there.) If it still bothered him it would mean he has an abbrasion. He finally agreed that would be a good thing to do. Finally!

The nurses came in to do that for us. Aparently a doctor can't be bothered with kids eyeballs. The nurses did great, Nathan did great. They put in a prescription for an antibiotic eye ointment just as a preventative measure, to prevent infection. So we picked that up and had to run right in to town for his therapy.

So then we had therapy, then Walmart for things that are cheaper than on base. William had missed his nap and fell asleep sitting up in the cart in the parking lot while I was unloading the couple things I picked up. One more stop at the hardware store for some screws for Mark.

So, we left at 10:00 this morning, and we didn't get home until 5:30 in the evening. Busy? Just a tad. But the boys behaved suprisingly well, all the appointments went good (in the end), and I was able to get most of what I needed. I'll be back down there tomorrow for another therapy session, and will hit the other 3 stores then.

I hate having to pull days like this, but I can't afford extra trips to town, and have to squeeze in errands when I can. And I couldn't help the appointments. Nathan's eye isn't as red, so hopefully they got the stuff out and I won't have to make an urgent visit to the eyedoctor. Tricare will pay for one regular visit per year unless the base deems it an eye emergency (like the eye has been skewered or something). Then they do an emergency referrell to the eye doctor and pay for it. We'll see what happens.

Always something going on at our house!