Peace and Quiet

It has been a long weekend. Fun, but long. I never thought of our house as quiet really, until you put about 20 people in it all talking and kids running and screaming... That was noise! My folks came and brought kids, Steph and Jeff and family came, Mark's mom and sisters, and my friend Amanda and her girls. Boy, am I glad I cleaned.

But everyone is gone, the kids are playing quietly in the backyard. (Halfway through that sentence I had to rescue Nathan from a big bad garden spider... ) And I am left in semi peace to write about the party.

We had a blast! My family got here about 11, while I was making an emergency run for more cake decorating spray. The kids played; Mom, Steph, Jeff (a little), and Marie helped get food ready; Morgan ran various errands for paperware from my closet; Dad went to the store to get mustard. Mustard is essential when you are eating hotdogs! I think I would have freaked out quite easily if Steph hadn't taken over the veggie prep and fruit salad making. They were great, and it was nice to have all the help. I was working on the cake, like I thought I would be doing at that time. Darn fondant palm trees didn't want to cooperate.... We took a million pictures of the cake, I will post on my cake blog after this. We had lots of different salads, yummy lemonade with cherry juice mixed in, juicy beef hotdogs... I ate too much, although I think everyone else did too.

Then we had cleanup, thanks again to my wonderful family for doing that for me. Mark's mom showed up and Oren was so excited! We had told him he was having a special suprise visitor for his birthday. When she walked into the backyard, he was off like a shot and jumped at her! :-) Amanda wandered over and we started the party. Like Steph mentioned we had "pin the x on the treasure map", "cannonball" toss, a treasure hunt with puzzle pieces, and a parrot pinata. Zaylee really was adorable hitting that parrot... We had little door prizes like cheapo sunglasses and silly putty, and we had put together little loot bags with eyepatches and pirate pencils, stickers, fake jewels. The kids had a blast!

Marie wrapped streamers around him, it actually looks pretty good.

Candy Grab!

Blowing out the candles.

Today was one of the few times we have been early to church this whole year. We don't really like 9:00 meeting time. Mom Willford and the girls spent the night, so I had help with the kids to get ready. It was a very pleasant morning, good lessons, nice and peaceful. We ate all the leftovers for lunch, so I don't have a really full fridge. Still plenty of cake left though! They took off around 3:00 to head back home, it's a 4 hour drive for them. We enjoyed having them here, it's always nice to see family.

But now I can sit back and enjoy the quiet. I don't have to talk, or clean, or cook. I would love a nap, trying not to be hyper in a noisy and busy social situation is exhausting for me. Unlike Oren, I don't have meds to keep me calm.

Now, what do I do for Nathan's birthday in August?

Oh Happy Day!

I am so excited! I will finally get rid of the monstrosity that I have put up with for 4 years. It looks like shelves and pipe... But it fit our tv, and was cheap, so we used it until we could find something that looked better, fit our tv, and was still cheap. This was at a local thrift store, and I was so excited, it looked big enough. I wasn't sure, so I set up transportation just in case, and went back today in the hope that it was wide enough for the tv. YES! Mark and my friend's husband took their truck and got it for me this evening.

The color is close, but not an exact match to our other wood bookshelves. The top is flat so we can put the rabbit ears on top, camoflauge them a little bit.

I really like the detail work on the front. There used to be doors on top, but they are missing. That's fine, my kids would destroy it in seconds anyway.

I didn't get a whole lot done today, inside the house anyway. I did get some flowers at Walmart to brighten my patio. I got bright pink geraniums. And I mean bright pink. And a hanging basket of some pale orangy flower. I am sure Mark is not happy that I have good friends that are good gardeners and have me hooked on pretty flowers! I still have more perennials I would like to put out around my tree beds in the front, and roses I want out in the backyard. We'll see...

So tonight I will be folding umpteen batches of laundry, while watching a movie on the tv sitting in the beautiful new piece of wood in my living room!

My List

Okay, so today was pretty much spent cleaning. I wanted so badly to go to town and see if the entertainment center I saw at the thrift store was still there, but I resisted. I'll be going down in the morning anyway, so I'll check then. If it is there and it measures big enough for the tv, I'll be buying it and then I can finally pass ours off to Steph and Jeff! I am really crossing my fingers....

So, I did my list up last night. I took the rooms that people would actually be in and broke them down into each job that needed done. The front, the back, and the front of another page. Yikes. But that doesn't stress me out as much as looking at the whole house, so I started this morning. Now, I have the best friend! She called me this morning, and I mentioned my in-laws are coming. So she offered to come help tackle some stuff with me. I generally keep my house pretty clean. 5 days of the week it will be fairly nice. The other two are disasters, and that's always when people come over... Of course. So she came by and grabbed a broom. We have found cleaning goes faster with two, so next week I will go help her get her house in order before she goes on vacation.

I got done:
Living Room
Declutter shelves, entertainment center, and magazine rack; Dust living room; clean off piano and polish; vacumm floor and hide-a-bed; sweep and mop living room.

Dining Room
Clear off dining room bar and wash; clean fish tank; clean table; sweep and mop dining room

Kitchen
Wipe down cupboards, dishwasher and fridge; wash dishes and dishdrainer; wipe down microwave; clean off and wash countertops; wipe down appliances; sweep and mop floor.

Bathroom; clean off sink; wipe down walls; clean off mirrors.

I did have help with the sweeping and mopping between Mark and Amanda. And Amanda's daughter did the bathroom stuff for a dollar. She's 8 and loves to earn money. I pay her to magic eraser the walls sometimes! I am about halfway done with my list, but some of the stuff will go really quick, like stack shoes on shoe shelf. I love when my house is clean, and all these little jobs have been depressing me. These are all things that I do regularly and would have done in the next week or two anyway, but now I have motivation to get them done sooner.

Now if only I could keep them clean...

"Start your Engines"

I really shouldn't be blogging, but I am sort of reving up for a really busy day. You know how you want a clean house when you have family coming over? What about Family, Family Friends, and In-laws?

That's right, my mother-in-law called and said she had this Saturday off, could they come visit? Sure, why not, the more the merrier. (note- this makes about 24 people coming for lunch on Saturday) They don't have to rush back, so they will be spending the night. AAAHHHH! I wasn't going to stress, but that many people, I need to have a clean house. This isn't for Oren's birthday party. This is my parents coming to bring Rheanna and Samuel to the party and bringing the other kids and having lunch. Then family friends heard they were coming down, who haven't seen my folks for 2 years, and I invited them over for lunch. So they won't be there all afternoon, just a couple hours of socalizing. And then my mother-in-law and 2 sisters-in-law have the day off and want to jet over and see the kids. Oren's "party", invited people, are only a couple kids.

But, that's still a lot of people over the course of a day.

Now, for some reason, if I look at the whole house, and think, "It needs cleaned", I stress out really bad. I freak, it's too much to look at. Some people break it down by room, and that works. That can even be too much for me. I need lists. I break the house down by room, and then detail a list of chores for each room. That way I can say "I have 20 minutes, not enough to clean the dining room, but enough to tackle the fish tank." Then I can check something off the list. With a list, I breathe easier. Odd, but it works.

So, I 'm off to clean. Wish me luck!

A little cleaner at least

Well, I can't say that I have had anymore energy today. Or that I cared anymore about the house. But I did get up and clean anyway. The floor got swept, and I attempted to vacumm. Unfortunately the vacumm wasn't sucking anything in. I tried the hose, that worked fine. SO I took off the cover, the spinner brush, and another cover and tried to clean out the Mark hair from his last haircut. And the powder he used to dry the water off the boys floor. And a hundred other assorted things that got caught in the intake. I thought I got it all. Nope.... So I had to take the hose off and pull things out that way. But I finally got it working, I didn't break anything, and I didn't lose any screws. So the floor got vacummed after all.

I also got a small break today. When Mark came home I took off with Nathan to the store. Oren got time with Daddy yesterday, so today was Nathan's time alone with a parent. I restocked some stuff, and bought some stuff for Oren's party this weekend. I am having lots of family for lunch, so I got LOTS of hotdogs. I think six packages ought to be enough. For this weekend and a couple lunches afterward too. Bun length of course.

My family was so excited for dinner. I didn't get home until almost 7:00, so I grabbed a take-and-bake pizza from the store. Papa Murphy's is better, you truly get what you pay for.

All in all, a slightly more productive, if not exciting day. At least I am actually a little tired today. :-)

A ho hum day...

It would be nice if I had anything interesting to report.

Oh, Nathan fell outside and bit the inside of his lip hard enough that his mouth was bleeding quite nicely.

I don't know, I spent most of the day here in front of the computer. I did the same thing yesterday uploading all my cake pictures to my blog. Today was watching movies. I guess I cleaned a little. I did figure this evening that I needed to use some of the fruit that I bought this weekend, so I did a crostata. I don't have a picture because it is still baking. It's like a pie without a pie tin, the crust is folded over the filling. A tart/pie. Peaches, nectarines, and raspberries. With cinnamon and mace. Should be interesting, since I improvised most of the filling. I'll post the recipe on my food blog.

I have discovered that the medication they have me on is causing some slight insomnia or something. I stayed up until 2:30 am Saturday morning finishing a graduation cake for a friend, and I wasn't even tired. I made my self go to bed, but kept waking up. I am usually dead without at least 7 hours, but I was running on less than 5 all Saturday. And I didn't get tired until after midnight again. So Sunday night I had to make a run to the shoppette at 11:30 for some sleeping pills, and was still up until 1:00 am. What gives? And I am not exactly tired today, but I have no real energy, just kind of sitting here. I guess I am having the blues a little today. This whole summer vacation thing is throwing me off.

I think I will be taking the sleeping pills again tonight, maybe a little earlier. I know my body needs the rest, it just doesn't think it does. But I have managed to catch up on some tv episodes online of shows I like. And desert should taste yummy once it gets done baking. I just hope I have more energy tomorrow, or at least care what the house looks like by this weekend, since most of my family and some family friends of ours will be here for lunch and then Oren has his party...

A little chunk of heaven

As Steph has mentioned, we all gathered together for Samuel's baptism. I missed everyone's since Morgan, whose I don't remember. So I was determined to make this one. Luckily, Mark didn't have to work this weekend.

We ended up being late, and snuck in the back just before Samuel's turn in the water. We would have been on time, but I discovered as we were walking out the door that my diaper bag was missing. Mark had hidden it from the children and couldn't remember where he had put it! I frantically searched for several minutes, and then gave up and threw some diapers and wipes in a tote bag I had lying around, and ran out the door. I think Mark went 90 down the deserted road to get to the freeway, and at one point said he hit 100. In a minivan... I was not happy. He was in heaven.

Afterwards we all went back to Mom's house for lunch. Grandma and Grandpa Danes joined us, which was nice, I like chatting with them and we really don't get to see them very often. Mom did the yummiest barbeque pork, on Steph's homemade buns. Green Salad, Fruit Salad, Potato Salad.... I had put together some pretty good Red Velvet Cupcakes, for pictures and the recipe click here. I took 2 dozen cupcakes, and I brought home 4. And Oren ate one of those on the way home, since he didn't get one after dinner.

We left pretty late and so got home really late. The kids were nice and tired, Nathan and William slept the whole way home, and Oren sat very tiredly and quiet. It was a nice afternoon, and we sure enjoyed spending time with everyone.

Janelle also talked her boyfriend Lloyd into coming, so it was nice to meet him as well. He seems like a really nice guy, and she is very happy. YAY!