Our 1st Outing...

Friday was the last day of school before Spring Break, so we wanted to celebrate a little. The kids and I loaded up in the van and headed to Pizza Hut. This was the first time I have taken all 4 kids to a sit down restaurant by myself, so I was really hoping good behavior. And I got it! (Of course, the fact that I threatened to walk out the door without the pizza if they went crazy didn't hurt.)

Daniel was in a highchair for the first time as well, and tipped over a lot. In the end I tucked a coat in around him so I could use both hands for the pizza. I supposed this qualifies as his 5 month pictures as well, since I didn't take them on the 13th like I planned.

While the rest of us were chewing our cheesy bread, he went straight for the edge of the table. Yumm!

Waiting patiently for our appetizer. He's getting a lot better at coloring in the lines. Even if everything was colored green...

I'm so glad they provide crayons and paper!

Studious as always.

All in all, a very successful outing, and I was quite proud of their good behavior. At Pizza Hut anyway. I then pushed my luck at Walmart afterwards, and that's a totally different story. But then... what was I thinking?

Tag Time!

It's been a while since we had a tag go around, and I found this while digging through past posts. So here goes!

7 Random Things tag: Rules: think of 7 totally random facts you want us to know. Post them, and tag 2 people. Let's see how odd we really are!

Fact #1 - I had cereal, and then a sandwhich for breakfast. Then more cereal an hour later.

Fact #2 - My music theory test gets sent here today.

Fact #3 - William put toothpaste in Daddy's dirty laundry, and it all went through the dryer. White toothpaste spots all over everything! :-)

Fact #4 - Spring break just started, and I can't see much getting done with all the kids around to make messes.

Fact #5 - We're watching America's Funniest Home Videos right now.

Fact #6 - William flushed a toy down the toilet again.

Fact #7 - Daniel peed through his diaper all over my bed just now.

That's actually pretty hard! Okay, I tag Stephanie and Melinda!

The 500th Post

I've been thinking the last couple days just how I wanted to honor my 500th post. It's been tough, there's been so much that has happened since I randomly ran into Rachel on Messenger and she introduced me to the wonderful world of blogs.

There's been 2 Christmas's. Several birthdays. An anniversary.

Deciding to place Oren on medications. Adjusting those medications. Deciding to put me on medications.

Deciding to go off those medications to have another baby. A pregnancy announcement, discovering we were to be blessed with our 4th son, a delivery announcement.

Messy house, summer fun, snowfalls, first ice cream cones, and sleepy boys who nap on the floor.

Big bright blue eyes, first day of school, soccer games, lost teeth, good times with friends.

It's been a fun 500 posts, and may the next 500 have more photos and even more fun!

Just give me a match

At this moment I just want to burn down the house and start all over again. It's not filthy or anything, just all these little projects that need my attention. And I'm busy studying for my music theory test (yikes!), teaching piano lessons, trying to find clean underwear for boys, avoid calling for pizza delivery...

Things like: getting Daniel's baby blanket cut; fold a mountain of laundry; finding a free weekend for a date night as we haven't had one since the night before Daniel was born. Seriously. Oren and Nathan came with us to Marie's play so we can't count that. All the houseplants need watering badly, dust collecting on my pottery collection in the dining room. The door to the entertainment center needs finished and reattached after Nathan broke it off.

All these random things keep bugging me, and I just don't see when I'll have time to do any of them with all the prep for the 2 wedding cakes I have due in a couple weeks. I have to clean for Mark's sister and her 4 boys coming beginning of April. And practicing a song for the spring recital in May.

But I do have moments of victory. This morning I made bread, since we've been out for a couple days. I sorted a bunch of socks and threw out several with holes in them. The porch got swept yesterday since we had a huge mess of tumbleweeds shedding pokey branches in the last big windstorm. Maybe those moments of victory will start snowballing soon instead of all the things that I can't keep up with.

hurray for me!

Okay, there is no before picture, because it was just too gross. But maybe I'll post an after when I'm done.

It took me nearly all day, but I've gotten most of the boys's bathroom clean! I am simply amazed at what little boys can do to a bathroom. Good luck Rachel... *wink* That's why there is no before shot. It is my humble opinion that Soft Scrub is among the best cleansers known to woman. With bleach of course! What else would get the stains off the counter and tub? FYI- sidewalk chalk leaves bright colored stains on porous counter tops...

It took me so long because I was lettung the cleaner sit to bleach the stains. And because Daniel would be fine for all of 2 minutes on his blanket on the floor before starting to scream. And evern when I got him sleeping and laid down, that only gave 5 minutes. I timed it. He took a ton of catnaps today because he was tired but wouldn't stay asleep! Made for a grumpy baby, frustrated mommy, and a 30 minute chore into not even being finished yet.

But, the sink is scrubbed, tub is pink free, and toilet is thoroughly disinfected and shiny. The trash can and training potty are soaking to remove "misses" from little boys, and I just have mirrors and floors left. Whew!

Great job Nathan!

We talked to Nathan's speech therapist last week, and it's good news. Okay, it's great news! After being in therapy since he was just over 3, going 2 to even 3 times a week at one point, tough tests and uncomfortable x-rays, and2 major surgeries....

He should be done by the end of the school year! As in: done with therapy. No more visits. No more dragging William to sit in the boring waiting room.

He's done such a great job, he knows how to make his sounds right although he sometimes will focus the air through his nose instead of his mouth because it feels familiar. But when reminded he gets the air pushing through the right way. So smart! So she feels that he should be fine-tuned enough to just check in maybe once a month to make sure the surgery hasn't slipped or anything. And that won't really be therapy, just a "making sure" sort of thing.

Of course, we've enjoyed Miss Gayle. She plays the fun games, and always has treats and crafts for the holidays. Even William gets excited to go to "Miss Gayle's Office!" Such a sweetheart! And was the first person to have even a glimmer of an idea of what was wrong with him and who to send him to for further testing, diagnosing, and correcting. She was completely right! I don't know what we would have done without her the last 2 years, she's an angel on earth.

But it's still nice to see light at the end of the tunnel.

Ode to Oatmeal

Steel Cut Oats. Where have you been all my life? Why is it that I only recently found out about your nutty goodness?

When I place you in the crockpot at night, I awaken to the perfect breakfast. You are what oatmeal is supposed to be! Chewy, textured, creamy, nutty... topped with syrup, sugar, fruit, cream...

You are even more amazing when I make lots of extra servings, and I store you in the fridge! If my family would stop eating you, a batch would last a week. But they love you just as much as I. Alas, that's what I get for being generous with a good thing.

You are even frugal friendly. One small cup of you makes 4 hefty servings. Bought in bulk at my local Winco, you will feed my family many happy meals while being happy on my checkbook!


(1 cup oats to 4 cups water. Place in crockpot, turn on high for about an hour, and then switch to warm for the rest of the night. Add fruit after cooking or it will be really gross. Recipe can be doubled and then fits a 5 quart crockpot just fine.)

My Day in Court

For those who don't remember my little misdemeaner situation with that car accident in January: I looked back at Daniel, ended up gently rear-ending a guy, and got stuck with a misdemeaner.

Well, the pre-trial was today, with my public defender. For starters, he was an hour late. It was my understanding that we were supposed to talk and then he would go talk to the prosecuters and try to work a deal. That's what I was told by his office anyway.

Nope, he took me to conference, said "I looked at the notes. Misdemeaner charge is standard for innatentive driving. You should have told the officer you were following too close, not that you looked back. (telling me to lie to an officer?) You can either accept the charges today, pay court costs, restitution for the victim who is still in physical therapy (for a sore neck? give me a break...) and blah blah blah."

Option B is that I could schedule a court trial, no jury, with the possibility of the prosecuters reducing the charge to following too closely, which is an infraction, and paying a fine so long as my insurance has paid the victim's medical stuff. Umm, I thought that was what the pretrial was for? Working a deal? He suggested I do the court thing. Okay, fine. I told him that we were darn lucky the baby was asleep the whole time, and that I have to bring him to trial with me since he won't take bottles. And that if he got hungry, I'd just have to nurse him in the court room and hope the judge didn't mind....! I got there at 2:00, my appt was at 2:15, I didn't get called until 3:15. I had to wait some more, and didn't get out of there until just after 4, so of course I had to pay for the 3rd hour of parking even though I only used 10 minutes of it. $7.50!

Lucky my last-minute sitter was okay with having the older 2 for longer after school than I thought. I'll be watching her kids tomorrow and hopefully will have her brownies done by then. I ran back to base to pick them up, and then had to go into town to get William and do a piano lesson. So I left the house at 12:30, dropped off William, ran to Boise, sat at the courthouse for 2 1/2 hours just to find out I have to go to trial anyway, fed a baby who woke up starving, drove home in torrents of rain, picked up kids at various places, had dinner at Amanda's, did a piano lesson, helped pick up the room they were playing in, and finally made it home about 9:00. Whew!

Wonder how tomorrow will be?

For Mom-

Okay, I got scolded for the not-so-flattering photo of my dear, sweet mother. *wink* So I promised to post something that doesn't have her screwing up her face.

There you go, Mom! Love you!

Grandpa's Birthday Party

We wandered down to Grandpa's birthday this afternoon. True to Danes form, we got there a good hour late and nobody had eaten yet. They were just saying prayer! Yummy potato/chili bar, and salads. I made one out of a cookbook Jim and Connie gave us when we got married, and everybody loved it. I didn't take a picture though, I forgot, so I'll have to make it again and snap away. Afterwards Grandpa told some stories, his voice was so soft it was hard to hear and unfortunately Daniel was really (understatement) fussy and gassy to I had to leave to take care of him.

Some people couldn't keep their eyes open. Guess that happens when you know the stories by heart! :-)

There was a game going on in the back, don't know what but it looked fun. Sluffing Grandpa's story, for shame...

Mom was helping clean up. Don't know what prompted this look, but I thought it was hilarious.

After I finally got Daniel settled, fed, and to sleep, Janelle stole my camera and got one of the few pictures ever taken of this reclusive creature. A mom.

Nathan came in from the hallway to watch the game.

Tracking down all the kiddos, roaming the halls.

When William saw me with the camera, he would walk a little down the hallway, turn and say "Cheese!" and then keep going.

Poor baby. I snapped this just after he bonked his face on Daddy's head. Daddy was just complaining about the drool, which he knew was coming. Babies drool!

I tried uploading a video of Aunts Karen, Annette and Lanita, singing a song with Grandpa about the soldier in his uniform coming home. Something like that, I think they said Grandma used to sing it or something. I came in just after they talked about the song. I'll try again in another post, it was a fairly long video so I don't know if it'll work.

It was lots of fun seeing everybody. Then we loaded up and hit Winco for some needed bulk items, and Panda Express for a really big dinner where we stuffed ourselves and I made Mark drive home so I could nap. Whew!

update- The MB limit is 100 megs, and the video is 320 something. Shoot! Sorry....

I did it!

I was looking into different ways to learn to be a better piano teacher, and happened across an online music academy offering technical degrees in piano pedagogy. The study of teaching piano. 6 2-week courses including music theory, music history, teaching as a business, and practical application - where I would shadow a professional teacher and assist in 3 lessons. Where I would find a professional I don't know, but that's at the end of the curriculum.

Mark and I discussed it, and decided that further education to learn how to teach more effectively for different skill levels was a wise thing to do, since I love teaching so much. He gave the okay, and I requested an application. I was able to locate my last piano instructor and ask for a letter of recommendation, and one of my piano parents agreed to write me one as well, which was part of the application process.

After trying to think of all the musical qualifications I could come up to help me get into this course, and working with the wording to sound more professional, my application was complete. I sent it in this afternoon, and once they receive the letters of recommendation, they'll review my application and let me know if I got in.

I am so excited at the prospect of furthering my education, which is funny, because I never really thought that I would someday crave taking classes and learning things. I want to exercise my mind, stretch my horizons a little. I've been feeling a little stagnant lately. I took cake classes, but that was several years ago. Several things have been on my mind, including the feeling that I need to prepare myself and learn what I can to help provide for our family's future. I may not ever make a living off teaching piano, but having the necessary skills to teach properly will play in my favor when advertising new students and hopefully will ensure that I don't have a large lull when the current batch moves, as is common on a base. And becoming a better teacher will help me feel justified in what I charge for my time.

Crossing my fingers it all comes together quickly and I get in, and that I do well!

Waiting

Waiting for lots of things.

Waiting for the boys to get home from school. Waiting for the dryer to finish so William can wear clothes to piano lessons. Waiting for Daniel to fall asleep so I can type two-handed.

Waiting for the energy to start going to the gym. Waiting until my pants fall apart before I go bu new ones so I can fool myself into believing I didn't need them because I gained back all 20+ lbs of weight I lost while pregnant.

Waiting for news about an issue at work that may determine a lot. Any news. Waiting for the new name tapes for Mark's uniform. Waiting for Mark to get home from work and tell me about his day.

Waiting for a response on a favor I asked a friend reqarding a letter of recommendation to be sent to a course/school I am trying to get into. Waiting to send my application in while I hunt down back-up letters. Soon I'll be waiting to hear if I was accepted.

Waiting for the cleaning fairy to come work magic on my kitchen. Waiting until the hazmat crew clears us for entry into my children's rooms to find all the missing socks. Waiting until morning to get more ice cream at the store.

Waiting on new wax bars from Scentsy. Waiting for the right moment to finally own a home to choose scents for. Waiting for spring, for my bulbs to come up and my pansies to bloom. Waiting until there are new buds to prune back my rose bushes.

Waiting far too late to go to bed, once again.