And...

...here's where I try to win a prize from Maggie Stiefvater.  I haven't had any books checked out from the library for a bit now because I have that wacky goal to read through the scriptures (don't ask how that's going, k? although with this little prize, I am motivated to read much more diligently, lol!).  Anyway, last year I read these 2 books, and I'm eagerly awaiting the third (must finish the scriptures by July 12 so I can indulge):

They are werewolf books, and I really enjoyed them.  I'm of the Jacob persuasion (Team Edward is bad), so I was excited about these, and they didn't let me down.  At first I was a little worried they'd be Twilight wannabes, but they take on a life of their own, and I really enjoyed them--wait! I said that already.  My girls read them and liked them.  Bob even read them.  But he didn't like them.  Not enough action.  I thought there was plenty.  Whatever, Bob.  (wink!)

Meanwhile, although I have banned myself from books until my little goal is accomplished, I have not banned myself from blog-reading.  I've been keeping up with Maggie Stiefvater's blog--she's humorous, multi-faceted and down-to-earth.  Which means she's stayed in my google reader despite my short attention span for blogs of people I don't know personally.  You should check her out~~she'll keep you smiling.

(And now that I've mentioned this in my blog, I can enter her contest.  LOL!  Because the books she is giving away are very motivational for reading my scriptures.)

Query

Does my home teacher have some weird 6th sense about coming to my house.  I've kept it relatively straightened for 2 or 3 weeks.  But he decided to come over today.  And my house was completely thrashed.  The family has been home all weekend, and Bob and I spent Saturday doing some home improvement projects.  We cleaned up some this morning, but this afternoon I was exhausted and laid down to take a nap.  You know what happens with little mice when the cat's away....

Now don't get me wrong here.  I'm thrilled that my home teacher comes over, and I rather he came to a thrashed house than not at all.

But after all these years, he probably still doesn't know that I do know how to have a clean house.

I just don't do it all the time.  Is there something wrong with me?  Why can't I keep my house presentable a large majority of the time?

And P.S., in defense of my H.T., he almost always makes appointments.  In fact, he made one today, but before he left for the airport,  somebody neglected to tell me that he'd told our H.T. he could come over whenever today.

But now I'm going to have to defend SOMEBODY, who was busily dealing with my drama that started out as the girls' drama because the boys won't fess up to something.

Wait, no wonder my house isn't clean!  I spend 24/7 trying to make world peace.

It's been a long day.  Can you tell?

Now What?

Obviously, I've been keeping myself busy.  With all sorts of things.  Like this....

She tripped and fell off the trampoline.  Our net is disreputable right now.  Not for long, though.

And this...

I'm going through my file cabinet.  So far I've removed 17 inches worth of paper or approximately 28-1/2 pounds.  My file cabinet will probably float away from being unburdened.  I'm very proud of myself over this.  *I* feel lighter.  Woohoo!

I'm So Proud

They're for Sariah, and they cost me $2.40.  She didn't really want them at first until she realized her big sister had similar shoes.  Now she really likes them.  And I do, too.

Yummy!

(**My camera is broken, and my phone doesn't take the most fabulous pictures.  But it's all I've got.  And besides Sam's pretty cute no matter the camera!)

We finally found some food Samuel gets excited about.  Homemade mac and cheese.  I took a lot of pictures.  But it's just that he was so yummy while he was eating all that good stuff.  Check it out.

And just so you can share in our life experiences, take a good look at Sam's hairstyle.  People are starting to ask us if we've deliberately cut his hair in a mohawk.  As if.

It's a Great Day!

And I'm going to tell you why:

• My taxes are completed, filed, and we are now awaiting our refunds.  Which are probably already spent (but that's another post).
• Sariah slept all night in her own bed last night!!!  And we were able to put a sticker on her chart, and she could get something out of the pink treasure box today.  When she sleeps in her own bed all night long 2 times, she can have something from the blue treasure box.  So, I'm desperate.  It's what happens when you are sleep-deprived, and it's NOT because of your infant.
• The kids went back to school today!!!!  Nevermind that they will probably be home again on Wednesday and Thursday if the weathermen are accurate.
• Hannah and Lizzi are trying out contacts.  Excitement all the way around here.
• I have made a new resolution that I am really excited about.  It's been a very long time since I've read my scriptures all the way through.  Sooooo...I am returning all my library books for now (have no fear, I have a list of what I will need to check out again later), and I'm not going to check out any more books until I've read my scriptures all the way through.  I figure at the very least I'll be saving myself a chunk of change in library fines.  :)  Wish me luck and speed ... well, and most of all, a spiritual experience.

Snowmageddon 2011

Or, as Bob prefers to call it, The Never-Ending Saturday.

It's been sleeting/blizzarding/snowstorming/snowing/icing since Monday evening.  This is the 4th day in a row that the kids have been out of school.  I don't even want to hazard a guess as to how the school district will make up these days.  It was too cold for the kids to have much fun.

It's snowing again today.  Nice fat, white, fluffy flakes.  It's gorgeous!  You can't even tell that Bob and the kids shoveled the driveway yesterday.

Too bad we're ready for some good spring weather again.

Like our snow shovel?  It was our Christmas present.  A nice metal one, as opposed to plastic, which doesn't always work so well when you are dealing with ((re)re)melted snow & ice.

The forecast for the weekend?  A nice warm day in the 30s tomorrow.  Just warm enough to melt some of the snow.  And then it will ice back up over night, and then guess what?  More snow.  I'm starting to think we've been transplanted.....

The Best Things

So, last night, I was peeling off the disgusting layers of a head of lettuce when I found myself remembering why my best friend is my best friend.  An interesting connection, you would say.  I just happened to remember way back when I was pregnant with Caleb, I needed to clean out my refrigerator, and I knew there was a truly nasty unsalvageable head of lettuce in a Tupperware container.  My pregnant nose and gag reflex couldn't bear even the thought of opening it, and so when my friend came over, she disposed of it for me.  That's a good friend!

And when I was holding Sam the other night in the rocking chair, I remembered that my friend's little boy was just this age when they started visiting my little apartment and he would spend all of his time wanting to gnaw the top knob on that same rocking chair.  I didn't have any kids then, but since then they've all tried doing the same thing.  Poor chair.

She has come when I've called her because I thought I was going to string my kids up and taken them away for an hour.  She's talked to me at 1 in the morning when I couldn't figure out how to get down from whatever ledge I'd trapped myself on.  She's been my donut fairy, my babysitter, my medical/financial/educational/parental advisor, my sanity and my saving grace.

Don't get me wrong--I don't think either one of us are saints.  We have had (and I'm sure will have more) ups and downs.  But sometimes you count your blessings, and you find out there's a huge blessing staring you in the face, whom you talk to every day, and who makes your life as wonderful as it is.  She's the hardest working, most talented woman I know, and I'm so grateful she's a part of my life.

Thanks!

What We've Been Up to

Well, there was the grass fire in the field across the street.  That's enough to make you assess your emergency preparedness and count your many blessings.  No damage to our property. And I'm so grateful for the fire department who kept the fire at bay, stayed overnight SEVERAL nights to make sure everything burned out, and kept all the cars out of our neighborhood during the worst of it.

The remaining stench was especially disappointing in light of the fact that the grass fire was followed by 3 days of FABULOUS weather.  It was WARM, and it was the kind of weather that makes you throw your windows open and anticipate the deliciousness of spring.  Except that we couldn't throw our windows open because of the all-permeating (over)burnt cedar smell of fall.  Bummer.

And now: Snowmageddon.  Except that, IMHO (in my humble opinion, for the technologically illiterate), the blizzard in 2009 was much worthier of the title.  Of course, I was sound and snugly asleep last night when the worst of it blew in.  But still.  It's snow.  And it's freakin' cold.  But we've done that before.  And probably will again.

Meanwhile, my neighbor's daughter pointed out that our little corner of the world has recently been a real magnet for weather/earth related disasters.  Since we moved into this house, we've experienced blizzards, a tornado, an earthquake, fire (not to mention the ice storm right before we moved)....  She started wondering what's next and even made a suggestion, but really, I must say I decline to participate in that sort of self-punishing, self-fulfilling prophecy, jinxing type behavior.  I can't think about it.  My mental health might be at stake.

BUT HERE'S THE BEST PART OF THE WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO LATELY: Sariah's pretty purple glasses have been located.  In Caleb's backpack.  Why didn't I think to look there?!  Still, even this morning I find myself continuing to look around my house imagining all the little hidey-holes a pair of glasses could be hunkered down in (inside the piano? but alas I've already looked there ... oh wait! under the china hutch? but alas I looked there, too ... noooooo, I'm not really going to consider going through the hideously messy craft drawers in the closet!).  You get the picture.  So, I'm ready to dance a jig over finding the long-lost, much missed specs.  Woohoo!

Good News, Bad News

The good news is that all sorts of bins, baskets, buckets, and drawers at my house have now been cleaned out.  All of the kids' rooms are nice and clean.  Even my room is nice and clean.  Even the laundry room is nice and clean.  Don't bother asking about the office and the kitchen--you surely know that I'm not so much into cleaning those.  My car isn't exactly sparkling clean, but it has been searched headlights to taillights.

The bad news is now it's time to start visiting all the Lost and Founds at places we've been to recently.

Of course...I'm wondering if I can talk the neighborhood boys into scouring the neighboring lots for her glasses if I offer a reward.  This because Sariah told me this morning, "Maybe they are in the grass somewhere."  Great.

Oh No!

We've looked high, and we've looked low.  We've cleaned the boys' room (eeeeeewwwww).  We are cleaning the girls' room (eeeeeewwwwwwwwwwier).  I've been through all of the trash in our dumpsters for the last 2 weeks (eeeeeeewwwwwiest).

We can't find the pretty purple glasses that garner so many compliments.  Prayers and suggestions would be much appreciated.  I'm feeling pretty desperate and despondent.

My Heart Is Aflutter

I'm in love!  Isn't he too cute for words?  Lizzi takes fabulous pictures.  It makes me want to pick him up and hug, hug, hug on him.

Whew

I'm feeling wiped out.

The Bingo Night was a huge success, thanks in large part to the wonderful Byron, Beth & Shannon.  I was thrilled to be the sidekick/slave-type-worker bee.  And I was glad to go home afterward, with that off our plate.

Sariah does indeed have the flu (like influenza, not the stomach flu).  Bummer.  She has finally stopped running a fever.  But she's still not even close to 100%.  And she's still sleeping with us at night.  Bummer, since we tried to kick that habit in the fall.

I'm exhausted.  Sleeping with a three-year-old is the equivalent of not sleeping at all.  It's starting to tell on me.  I'm irritable.  Crabby.  My children try to avoid me.  I'm desperately praying for a full night's sleep with the warmth of my heated mattress pad and not a feverish bed buddy.

On the flip side, Sariah is wiped out exhausted, too, and is now sound asleep.  Rex is sound asleep.  Caleb and I are making triple-chocolate cookies.  When Bob and the girls get home, I can crawl off to bed, snuggle down with a good book until shut-eye time, and luxuriate in some quiet time.  I'll take it.  :)

You Know It's Going to Be a Great Day...

...when you have a PTA fundraiser (thank goodness someone else is in charge of it), your daughter has a doctor appointment because she's been running a fever for 2.5 days, you have to sift all the trash in and out of the house to look for a missing pair of glasses, the middle school has decided (apparently) to change its pick up policy (which, incidentally, occurs when your dr. appointment is scheduled), and you're really tired from being up on and off all night long with the sick preschooler.  Did I really throw away all the chocolate two days ago?!  What was I thinking???!!!  Good times!

On Potties

Caleb's basketball practices started last night.  He played hard.  I'm glad.  He needed to get some energy out.  Not that it makes much difference on a day when there's no school because of the weather.  But I digress from my originally scheduled diatribe....

Have I mentioned how much I despise automatically flushing toilets?

While at basketball practice last night, while I was trying to make some numbers add up on a borrowed laptop, Sariah decided that she needed to go potty.  (Incidentally, someday she will hate me for this public post.  But that's not stopping me now, is it?)  We adventured out of the high school gym to find a bathroom.  We found one all right.  But it was locked.  I told her she'd just have to wait until we got home.  I wasn't too sure about this plan of action, because even though she'd already been potty less than an hour before, I'd been giving her Gatorade all day long because she had a fever.  (Yeah, I'm one of THOSE mothers.  But really, between the 4 big kids, we had 5 scheduled activities at 4 different locations, and Bob's bigwig bosses came into town and forced him to go to Cattleman's for dinner last night {I know, aren't his bosses so terrible? we should sue or something}, so there wasn't a lot of choice but to take an infant and a sick toddler out into the potentially bad weather and grumpy masses...I'm digressing again, aren't I?)

Ok, so Sariah really had to go.  While I was still frantically crunching numbers, I watched her shift her weight from leg to leg, and then finally whimper, "I can't wait, Mommy."  Ok.  Fine.  We tracked down and a janitor and asked where an open bathroom was.  We found it, and I was so happy.

Until we walked into the stall.  And there it was.  The Automatic Flusher.  Sariah stared at her nemesis for awhile. Couldn't, wouldn't be coaxed into using it, even if Mommy held her hand over the sensor.  Meanwhile, Sam was ready to get in and take a swim.  But Sariah, she just didn't need to go that bad.  Suddenly.  Seriously.  When we are on road trips, she'll pee beside the car before she will use an automatic flusher.  Seriously?

I try to tell myself that she's easier than I was when I was little.  I.  Didn't.  Use.  Public.  Restrooms.  Period. That had to have been hard on my mother.  But I sure was smart, then, eh?  Do you know what nasty things you can get in public bathrooms?  Take, for example, the flu.  (Really, that's a random throw-out there.)

So, we'd been home 3 full minutes, and ... erm ... I had a mess to clean up.  Dang it.

And my day just keeps getting better.  Did I mention that I'm pretty sure Sariah has the flu?

Yeah, I'm THAT mom.

6 Things I'm Not Loving So Much These Days

1. Laundry.
2. Tummy aches/colds/flu season.
3. Library fines.
4. Glum weather.
5. Dishes, of the dirty variety.
6. Aching muscles.  Grr.  Yay!  Grr.

Yes, I'm making lots of lists lately.  They give me the appearance of control.  Hahahahahaha.

Mother of the Year? or More Rexian Adventures?

I just can't decide which title.

Hopefully this post won't land me in jail for child neglect.

But it IS pretty entertaining.  Now.  After the fact.

So, back in November, Rex was not feeling well, and I ended up taking him to see the doctor.  His neck hurt, but it was fine.  Meanwhile, while she was peering into one of his ears, the doctor asked if we had any red fish tank rocks.  Ummm, no?  Hmmmm.  Well, it looks like there's one in his ear.

Whereupon, helpful Rex pipes up, "Or maybe it's a crayon."

Ummmmm....how long's it been in there, ya think?

"Oh, since the first week of school."  Very casually and helpfully.

Doh.

So, the doc tries to fish it out, but it won't come out, and Rex is crying.  Ok, so now we need to go see the ENT (ear, nose, throat guy).  We did try to flush it out at home.  Had I known how large it actually was (for being in an ear), I probably wouldn't have attempted that.  Anyway, the appointment....

Ummmmm....I forgot to set up that appointment.  Which I was reminded of when I took Rex in for his annual well-child right after his birthday in early January, and the doctor was peering in his ears again, and said, "I feel like I'm having deja vu?"

Doh.

I called the ENT THAT VERY DAY, and they got him in the VERY NEXT DAY.  (Does this make up for anything?)  Rex cried on the way to the office.  He cried in the office.  He flinched when they went to take his temperature, even though his ear didn't hurt AT ALL, as he had voluntarily reassured me repeatedly.  I got a dirty look from the nurse when I told Rex not to be a wuss about having his temperature taken.  Ok, so granted name-calling is NOT good.  But I did already know that his ear didn't really hurt.

It just went from bad to worse.  They took him across the hall to where the ENT had a handy-dandy microscope for peeking into small orifices like the ears.  It took 3 people to hold Rex down while the ENT dug the crayon out.  Rex was screaming BLOODY MURDER.  I was starting to wonder if it really did hurt when the ENT pointed out that he wasn't actually touching Rex's ear when Rex was screaming the loudest.  It was bad.  When we walked through the waiting room after, people stared at us because Rex had been screaming so loudly.  It wasn't pretty.

The part that kills me is that Rex insists, to this very day, that the crayon accidentally fell in his ear.  Hello?  Has anyone out there ever had an object fall into their ear canal so far that a doctor had to remove it for you?  I didn't think so.  Oh yeah, AND he insists that he really could hear better with the crayon in.  Ok.

But now it's all over.  Crayon's out.  And hopefully (knock on wood), Rex won't ever feel inclined to stick something in his ear again.  And the moral of the story is...ummm....Tracy is the mother of the year?  LOL!

Thumbs Up!!

• Sam drank from his sippy cup today.  Yeehaw!  Been waiting for that, and worrying that he would never take to it.  Silly Mommy.
• I'm back on track for PTA, and super excited about the things we have going on this spring.  I can't tell how grateful I am for my executive board.  Byron, Beth & Shannon make me happy!
• Yesterday I only taught 2 CTR 4s.  And 4 Sunbeams (3 year olds).  And the Holy Terror (a.k.a My Diva Daughter).  It actually went okay, so long as Sariah wasn't saying "No no no" which then prompted all of the rest of them to say it, too.  Live and learn.
• Part of the reason yesterday went so well was because of the new Children's Songbook app I got for my iPhone.  The kids got to pick a picture and see what song played.  They thought that was pretty awesome.  So did I.
• I started my Personal Progress.  Moms are allowed to do it with their young women.  I figure now is a good time to start since Hannah is only a few projects away from completing hers, and Lizzi will be in YW come June.  Now I can do it with both my girls.  Of course, at the rate I progress, I'll probably still be working on it when Sariah is old enough to be a young woman.  LOL!
• Caleb is one achievement away from attaining his Bear ranking in Cub Scouts.  Awesome!  And he has the most awesome den leader ever, because I certainly didn't do most of this work.
• Sariah slept in her own bed all night long last night.  That's one night in a row.
• We started Rex's Cub Scout stuff.  He should get his Bobcat at the next pack meeting.  Way cool!  I'm so amazingly on the ball.  (ROTFL!!)
• Lizzi just needs to memorize the Articles of Faith, and she will earn her Faith in God award.
• And my wonderfully fabulous husband has procured a new keyboard and a new mouse for my dilapidated older-than-dirt super wonderful computer.
• I have really enjoyed having my family home for a long weekend.
• And I will enjoy kissing them all good-bye tomorrow morning.  :)

16 Things Tracy Is Currently Obsessed with....

1. Peanut butter.  Crunchy, creamy, it doesn't matter, as long as it's peanut butter.  No wonder the Cardio Workout isn't working.
2. Lotion.  It's dry around here.
3. Webkinz World.  I know.  Not even my kids are on.  I just like to have limitless money to spend.
4. Sugardoodle.net.
5. My library card.  Not that that's really anything new.  Neither is peanut butter.
6. The shaker-can to keep Dumb Mutt from jumping up on the door.  He's taller than me when he does that, I swear.
7. Google Calendar.  Especially since Amber showed me how to move things around.  That's fun.  It's the small things.
8. Scotch Self-Sealing Laminating Pouches.  My primary lessons will last forever.
9. Colored, felt-tipped pens.  Why did Santa only bring them for Hannah & Lizzi?  Didn't he know that I might hijack them?
10. Teaching Sam to wave bye-bye.  Or night-night, which seems to work better.
11. Cuddling with RaiRai at bedtime every night.
12. Fixing the stubborn flash on my stubborn camera.
13. Getting Caleb's Bear done for Cub Scouts.
14. Starting Rex's Bobcat & Wolf so we're not madly trying to get them done right before his next birthday.  Of course, I have NO idea how that actually feels....
15. Byron and Beth's awesome Bingo skilz.
16. And we're back to peanut butter again.  I think I need another spoonful.  'Night, all!

On Being a Primary Teacher

In December, I accepted a new calling at church: primary teacher to the CTR 4s.  I've missed being in primary.  I don't have the attention span for Sunday School and Relief Society for grown ups.  I like to be up and down, and to have singing time, and to make rapid transitions occasionally.  But teaching the 4-going-on-5s is going to give me a run for my money, I think.  I started the first Sunday of the year, so I've taught the class exactly 2 times.

On the first Sunday, one of the little girls threw up.  Yeah, I'm that great of a teacher, lol!  It was a great confidence booster.

I think I might have to pick a different off-day for my exercise schedule.  My class is rather ... active, so we sing "Do As I'm Doing" enough times that every child gets to be the leader once.  We jumped for 4 runs through the song.  That's longer than I jump rope on Cardio Workout.

4 is such a transitional age.  For our coloring activity, I had one child done coloring his picture in less than 30 seconds.  And another one who, at the end of 10 minutes, had colored precisely one line in his picture.  And he cried when it was time to put the colors away.

All this being said, I'm having a great time teaching this class.  Yes, it's tiring because they are so full of energy.  But because they are so full of energy and fun and life, there is never a dull moment, and everything is new and shiny.  I'm still super excited!