More Random Thoughts and Bits of Life....

When I picked Matt up from school today he declared that he had a new name for me and the van. "Slow Mo Joe (for me) and Slowmobile (like the Batmobile he said)". True. I never leave earlier than I need because then I'll have to sit and wait for the buses to leave and the line to inch forward. It doesn't hurt them to wait 2 extra minutes standing there if it can save me 15 minutes in a parked car. Good names though and quite appropriate!

Josh is sick at home with me today and Brynn's thrown up three times since lunch. Not good. Josh woke up at 2:30 AM and was crying about a sore throat and stomach ache. This illness bug has gotten most of us. Trey was home on Monday and ran a fever on Sunday night. Rich and I are both currently on Amoxicillan to battle sinus infections. Which to be honest was a relief for me. I had a nasty cold for 2 weeks and after consuming 2 bags of cough drops, my entire top row of teeth started aching on Saturday. I just knew I had a mouth full of new cavities and should have bought the sugar free drops. As I dreaded all my possible dental work, it finally dawned on me. I had a near migraine the day before and felt another one coming on. This was no tooth decay, it was from sinus pressure. No fun. Thank heavens for medicine!! Luckily the boys illness have been shorted lived. Josh perked up around noon. So far today, I've watched The Emperor's New School with him on Disney Channel and while the girls napped played a mean game of Sorry, 2 games of Candy Land (in which he attempted to cheat- he must be related to me!) and Chutes and Ladders. It really is nice to get one on one time with them, especially after the Tylenol kicks in an they are back to near 100%!

I LOVED the Project Runway finale last night. I will admit that I was giddy thinking about it while I was at young women's. We got the kids to bed and I waited an extra 15 minutes in the kitchen so my DVR could record it and then I could fast forward all the commercials and it still ended at the same time. It was FIERCE! I don't think I could have said who I wanted to win before last night, but as the show progressed I thought Rami would win, but deep down I was truly hoping Christian could somehow pull it off. His clothes were "Major" as Posh said, but nearly all were black and over the top. I wasn't sure it was enough. I was honestly nervous as they stood before the judges. I thought Jillian's clothes didn't have enough cohesiveness and Rami's were beautifully made and in various clothes (which turned out to hurt him). It was fantastic and I'll truly miss watching it every Wednesday night.

I had a good laugh when I turned on the Internet yesterday and read a story about "Momnesia." Apparently we mothers tend to lose our memories after having babies (hormones and loss of sleep) and they now have clinical proof. I'm just glad I have an excuse why I am losing my mind!

One other silly thing from yesterday happened while cooking dinner. I went to add a bit of pepper to our hamburger mix for burritos and didn't know the shaker cap had been removed. I dumped 1/2 a Shillings jar of coarse pepper onto the hot skillet. While this was a big time flavor oops, it instantly started to smoke and we all were coughing up a storm. It was very funny, but something I hope to avoid in the future!

I really stunk at being the Tooth Fairy last week. In all the years I have been able to play this magical role, I had never forgotten (or a least been able to do a swift cover and get a dollar in place before they knew it.) Poor Josh lost a top front tooth which in terms of losing a tooth is a very big deal. The kicker was he wanted the Tooth Fairy to draw him a picture of herself just like she had for Matt. I, unfortunately, put it off until I simply fell asleep. I felt bad on day one, but felt beyond horrible on day two! Rich asked Josh if she came and he simply shrugged and said not yet. What a sweet kid. I made it up to him with a whirly, swirly apology note and an extra dollar for his trouble. I've got to be better next time!

I got a happy delivery yesterday. After we fed the missionaries on Friday night and Kaitlyn managed to break another salad plate, my only set of dishes were starting to dwindle. With the loss of the plate, I only had 5 which just wouldn't do. In an amazing feat of luck, I checked out Pfaltzgraff.com and found not only do they still make my dishes (Naturewood) 11 years later, but that I could just buy the plates I needed and they were on sale. Love it! I also got some plastic versions which will be wonderful to use with the kids and not risk losing a plate at every meal!

Like I said we fed the missionaries on Friday night. I really should say we had a Thanksgiving feast with them. I got another 12 pound turkey at Wal-mart for $8.00. Such a bargain! And really, I don't think there is a law against making stuffing and yams in March. We did have reason to celebrate. One of the Elders who had been in our ward for seven months was heading home on Tuesday. We had him over various times and always laughed because our house is so crazy full of kids and he is an only child. He was a good sport through it all. I LOVE seeing missionaries go home, people graduate and others finish residency. It proves that someday we will really get done! We also invited our home teacher and his cute family to celebrate his acceptance to dental school (only bad part it's in Pittsburgh so they'll be moving) and by another stroke of luck our friends the Rosenhan's joined us as well. Since I knew we'd be having a houseful of people over, I wasn't too sure how the seating was going to go. So I ran over to Sam's Club (where I got gas for $2.89 a gallon instead of the ridiculous $3.28 I saw elsewhere) and bought metal folding chairs. I was so excited as I wheeled out my set of 4 chairs (great price at $36.99). That might mean I'm a total women in her 30's, but it really did make me happy. Like as happy as a great sale at Gymboree would. And we used them all and they are something that we'll use for years to come.

I have totally loved working in the young women's in our ward. We had the New Beginnings program and Sunday and it was all about the 7 values and being steadfast and immovable. They read one of my favorite scriptures Helaman 5:12. I hope I can always build a strong foundation for our family. Rich told me on Sunday his favorite scripture was found in D&C. It was the part about having a house of prayer, order, early to bed, early to rise, etc. That is true. I've got to be better about that stuff. Sometimes it's chaos day and night here!

Our activity at young women's this week was this making a great FHE lesson on Easter. You take 12 plastic Easter eggs and fill them with little objects that all refer to the Savior and have scripture references from the Bible. There were bits of rock, soap, a nail, dice, a bit of red felt, a bay leaf, a small cross, a larger rock, a bit of linen and rope. I can't wait to do with with the boys so I can show them the real meaning of Easter instead of focusing on the bunny, candy and toys.

I am rather bummed that St. Patrick's Day and Easter fall so close together. I love to decorate the house for both, so after much thought pulled out my green first and will just have to enjoy the bunnies and eggs for the rest of March and some of April. You just do what you can!

We are having another mass exodus in our ward this coming spring. The bishop said there will be at least 12 families leaving. That hurts! Glad we are staying put for another two years. The idea of packing up and moving is still fresh in my mind, even two years later.

The weather here has been so crazy. It's gorgeous today with a high of 55. But the rains will come in tomorrow and they're predicting freezing rain and snow for Saturday (up to 6-10 inches, but I'll believe it when I see it!). That would really mess up my plans of heading to Louisville on Saturday for our ward's temple day. On Monday and Tuesday it got up to 70! I quickly pulled out my flip flops and did yard work all morning. You just can't be blue when there is sunshine on your face and dirt under your fingernails!

Monday after school, when Trey perked up we made a mad dash to the mall and got a second hermit crab. After two people informed me the kiosk was back, I had to go get Shelly a friend. We picked out a crab with a black shell that is a painted like a spider web. The boys named her Webby. Matt declared her a girl, but I doubt we'll really ever know. It's nice to have 2 again. Especially after our replacement frog died in 24 hours. I think we'll just stick to crabs. The boys begged for a turtle, but I'm not ready for that kind of commitment just yet. The next morning when I went to check on our new hermit friend, I realized our old friend had ESCAPED! Yes, it was no where to be found. She had gotten out once before on Thanksgiving after she pushed the sponge to the side and made her exit. I dashed around the house in search of the white shell and found her over by the front door. It's amazing she could survive the fall of the counter not once but twice and I'm very grateful no one stepped on her in our crazy morning rush to get out the door to school.

So I finished the new Sophie Kinsella book yesterday. It was fine, but BEWARE her characters do not have clean mouths. I so wish authors didn't ruin fiction with swearing. What a disappointment. Sorry to any who rushed out to buy it and were offended!

I am so excited that Daylight Savings begins on Sunday. I love when it's light at night. It really makes it feels like spring is upon us. My bulbs are creeping up and it's fun to see the buds on the trees and hear the birds singing in the morning. I do not think my Japanese Maple is going to make a full recovery like I had once hoped. I think it'll be a major trimfest in a few weeks when I see what parts are really dead for good.

I have found a new found love. I am interested in following the 2 LDS American Idol contestants, but never watch the show. I simply to got youtube.com and watch their recent songs. I think David could really win (though I have no idea what his competition sounds like) and think Brooke is really cute. The only problem is I have been humming the Carly Simon song Your So Vain for a week. I finally googled the words since I only knew the chorus. Hope to get a new song stuck soon to replace it.

At pick up on Tuesday Trey walked slowly to the van complaining that all the new book order books in his backpack were killing him. He said, "You really got a lot!" Yes I did and they were dirt cheap. Love a good book especially at a great price! Can't wait to start.

We had a great time following the Utah high school basketball tournament last week. Rich's former teammate Quincey Lewis is the Lone Peak coach and one of his star players is being recruited by Stanford. It was fun to get updates from Rich's brother Danny who went to many of the games. What memories I have at the Dee Events Center in Ogden. I cheered there my senior year when SF went to the state tourney for the first time in years. We went up there and watched Danny's team win state twice, got to see my brother Brad get an Academic All State basketball trophy and watched Taylor's team win the title there as well. Good memories! It was so fun to have Rich call me on Friday (semi finals)night asking for Lone Peak updates. I got online and gave him the play by play. Lone Peak ended up winning the undefeated Davis Dart in DOUBLE Overtime. They then won the 5A boys tournament the next day, making that 2 years in a row for Quincey and his team.

The girls have this new habit of wanting a new diapers every 5 minutes. Brynn can take off her pants, unsnap her Onsie and get her tights off. Not good. I finally pulled a "Kara" and put packing tape around the diaper to keep it on. They are not ready to be potty trained just yet, and I'm not ready to try either.

Spring baseball is in full force here. Trey's team is having their 4th practice today at UK at 4:30 PM. They really are die hard here. Josh is dying to start and was excited to know their first practice is on the 18th, followed by 2 practice games the next week. Oh my. How I'll get through another summer at the ball park and even worse- swimming pool with the girls is starting to boggle my mind!

Josh and I did enjoy watching some preseason baseball on TV last week. The Braves trounced the Dodgers which delighted Josh since his t-ball team is the Braves. It was so fun to hear the easy banter of the commentators as the game progressed. Baseball is such a great sport. I also loved seeing the emerald green grass in Florida and can't wait until the green returns to Kentucky. (I also didn't mind seeing shots of Disneyworld too!)

While I have a sweet tooth for candy, I am not really a chocolate fan. Well all that changes when the Easter candy comes out. I have pigged out on the malt ball eggs and Cadbury mini eggs these past 2 weeks. Thankfully the girls like them too so I won't have to eat the entire bag by myself! No wonder I thought I had a mouth full of new cavities! I am very glad these treats only come out once a year!

Kaitlyn is such a Daddy's girl and will often go through periods where she really just loves him far more than me. It's funny because when that happens all I do is crave her attention and love. When she finally starts giving me hugs and kisses again, I just melt. It shows that we all want to be needed and loved!

The other day I was in the van and was frustrated that the boys had gotten in the console and scattered the discs around. As I tried to shove them all back in and close the lock, it was wasn't going to budge. I had enough and simply pushed down hard until it clicked. Later that week as I looked for something I saw that I had broken one of my favorite CD's- John Mayer Room for Squares and of course it was one that I had NOT put on the computer or iPod yet. After reordering it on Amazon I was happy to get a replacement, but knew that I need to work on my PATIENCE because bad things often happen unintentionally when I lose my cool.

While I'm going on about my patience, it really has been tested this past week. First, the girls are queen of pushing the chairs around the kitchen to get what they want. They often climb on the counter and open the above cupboards too. While I was helping Matt with his homework I didn't notice Brynn climb up by the chicken enchilada mix and dump half of her cherry yogurt into the mix. She then took the whisk and mixed it in herself. Let's say I wasn't pleased. I scooped out what I could and when they boys saw it, they promised they wouldn't touch the stuff. Thankfully they forgot and scarfed it down later that evening. Just before that happened I went to the basement for soup mix only to discover a 1 pound box of spaghetti noodles spilled all over the floor (Brynn and Kaitlyn) and the Halloween costume box scattered in the storage room (Matt). Nice. Then last night as I had one child get in the shower because they didn't go a good job wiping thier bum, I walked into the other bathroom to find Brynn cleaning the toilet with the toilet brush.... and her hands. Maybe that's why she's throwing up today. When I flushed the toilet, the water started to rise and as I grabbed for the plunger the water spilled over on to the just washed rugs. So much for the recently cleaned bathroom. Let's just say, I've had my share of practice lately, and while I'm not perfect, I really am trying to stay calm through it all. Somedays are better than others, but all I can do is try!

And the last bit (on this MASSIVE post) is about the Lord of the Rings game Trey still has his heart on getting or at least renting. He made this check list of things found in the game and would allow him to rate it for himself, thus proving it was worth of his time and money. I just laughed when I read the categories he had listed: swords, catapults, big Orcs with maces, bow and arrows, rams, bubbling lava, fireballs, hit by a hook, axes, shields and staffs. Huh? Not quite the list I would have made if I was trying to convince my parents to buy me something!

And there's a very long peek into our REAL lives!!!