Nothing much

I'm a huge slug today. I got things done, but feeling lazy anyway. I got snooze on the couch with a darling little baby girl today, that was fun. So sweet.

Is anyone else watching Americas best dance crew on MTV? Its HOT! Did anyone else recognise the 2 guys from So You Think You Can Dance NY auditions last year?? Jamaal the big guy who was hilarious who said he knew how to partner and do swing, and the little guy who let Jamaal "partner" him. It was so funny!! They are in one of the groups. I'm probably the only one under 20 years old even watching this stuff, but I don't care. I love it.

And I know you are all jealous that I got the Airbook commercial song on my blog. My kids LOVE it! haha!

OK I'll play

Chelsea Tagged me, so here goes.

donuts or bagels? I do enjoy me a good bagel, donuts are usually too sweet.

rice or noodles? Mark is obsessed with rice (its a Hawaii thing) but I love chow mein!

soup or salad? Dang these questions are hard!! I'm gonna have to go with soup. Its a comfort food thing.

mexican or italian? Mexican. Especially in Mexico.

purse or shoes? Shoes. I get sick of carrying around a purse, and mines always a mess!

morning or night? NIGHT! I either get alone time with my sweetie, or I get alone time by myself, both are woderful. Mornings just come with to-do lists and dragging kids out of bed.

summer or winter? Winter...Its Christmas, sweaters, soup and hot chocolate. Love it!

candy or chocolate? Chocolate, especially truffles!!

going out or staying in? I'll say going out, since I never get to go out anymore. I'm dying to go to the club again, but all my club buddies have gone away and nobody wants to go out dancing!

laundry or dishes? Niether, Why do you think I am blogging?? I'm supposed to be doing both right now!

skirt or dress? I wear skirts, but I love dresses more

flip-flops or tennies? Flip flops for sure!

walking or jogging? Obviously walking is easier, but I'm a jogger. I just have to maximize my exercise time, and walking seems like it is not as efficient.

hot chocolate or chocolate milk? Stevens hot chocolate.

water or juice? water

tv shows or movies? TV shows.

cats or dogs? Neither

diet or reg. soda? Diet Coke

cake or pie? CHOCOLATE CAKE

hair up or hair down? Hair down

mountains or beach? Beach!!

pink or blue? Dark pink!

drama or comedy? Comedy of course. Give me an episode of the office and I am a happy camper
hamburger or hot dog? hamburger
McDonalds or Burger King? Burger king by a mile!

football or baseball? Baseball is a much classier sport, but football is fun too.

epidural or natural? I've done both....Epidural of course!

care bears or my little ponies? Carebears. I used to love the cartoon!

CD or radio? CD's! I'm still hooked on The Nashville tribute to Joseph!

Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty? Cinderella! I just relate so well! LOL Kidding (sort of)

I tag Casey K, CaseyAnn, and Jaimee!! (and whoever else wants to do it too of course!)

TGIF!

I feel brain dead today, partly becuse I haven't made up for the 1 hour of sleep I got on Wednsday night,(cleaning binge, ya know) and I think my mind is still blown from watching Lost last night. I was loving it, they were starting to make some sense of things (sort of) and now they just set up about 100 more questions!! GAH!

I was completely dreading today, and I got all my chores done early, anticipating and bracing myself for a crazy day that was just about one hour short of time I needed to do it all. Then slowly my day began to free up as things got switched around, my hair clients for today rescheduled and I finished helping my SIL with her scrapbook for her school project in record time. I love it when that happens!



I had really wanted to put my AI picks up yesterday but I forgot and ran out of time. I was pretty happy with the ones they let go, I thought Joanne wasn't the second worst one, but still not in the top 12. After all the hype about how this years peopel were SOOO much better, I was surprised at how boring so many of them were. The 3 girls, Kady, Alaina, and Kristi Lee may as well be the same person. Cute, skinny, blond, and not really that great. My sisters are way better than them. I truly think that the cheeseball Colton Berry got left behind because people were so ticked that they chose him over Kyle in the hollywood final. Besides the fact that he is so CHEEEEEESY! The other guy that got voted off was pretty lame, too bad because he's just a young kid. I hated the Moon River guy! I was really expecting Brooke White to sing better. He voice just dosen't have that richness that some of the others have. I really like her, but as far as singing, I dunno. I hate to be on the David Archuletta bandwagon, but I'm ON it!! I think pretty soon he needs to get some outward confidence though, he's starting to act and sound a little too much like Melinda Doolittle. LOL!!!!!! He HAS to know how good he is! Anyway here are my top AI pics : GIRLS: Sayesha, Ramiele, Aisa'h and Carly (although I do not think its fair that she had a legit career that never took off, it dosen't seem right. She had her shot, this is an amateur competition!) GUYS:David Cook, Michael Johns (ow, baby!) David Archuletta, Jason Castro, and Robbie Carrico(for now). Danny Noriega is just WAY too flamin for me. Snap snap circle! He can sing really good, but its the image I'm not lovin. So what do you think?? Lets hear it!!

Blessing #5-JOB

Do you know what JOB stands for??? Just Over Broke! LOL I'm KIDDING!


This might seem like a dumb thing to some people, but my husbands job is a HUGE blessing. I guess I view it in my top 5 because we have been self employed for almost our entire married lives. We women thrive on stability, and to be living a feast or famine lifestyle for 12 years and raising 5 kids has been VERY stressful. We always made things work, we were always blessed when things were all said and done, but it was a hard life to live. Having been on the "dark side" for so long really really makes me appreciate things like awesome health insurance, federal retirement, (aside from social security, which we all know we arent' getting anyway), life insurance, and a paycheck rolling in every other friday....well if you have those things these days you are blessed blessed blessed. If you have always had those things.....I hate you!!! NO just kidding!!!! But really, I am SO appreciative that Mark was able to get this career and use the hard working skills he has to finally be rewarded for it! For so long he worked himself into the ground and we always struggled, now its overtime, baby!!

Weekend!!!

Now THIS is what weekends are supposed to be like. Friday I had the troops in order getting things all cleaned up around here, so while everyone was in school I just chilled all day while it drizzled. It sounds all cool and wonderful, but it put me in a funky mood. I think what did it was dealing with my computer for a few hours trying to revive my audio device. It think it died and I can't figure out how to re-install it. So that was a big waste of several hours. I felt like punching my comupter in the face but decided to take a nap instead. picked up the kids and then ran a few necessary errands. On Saturday the best new was that the football game was cancelled due to the fields being a mud pit and my brother couldn't work either so I didn't have to get up at 7 and babysit. I actually slept WAY in!!Niiiiiice. The boys are dying to go to Gamestop for some reason so they cleaned up last nights mess and now I'm gonna take them. If they think I am buying them stuff they are crazy. Tonight I have to sing in the choir for the adult stake conference meeting (our ward is the only singers...yikes, gotta represent!) Tomorrow will be a nice break from primary and we can chill all day. Monday is going to be crazy because I'll be doing a LOT of hair all morning, and people are bringing their kids with them, it is going to be complete chaos.

If I had known about the weather in advance, I would have planned a trip to Thatcher for the long weekend, but oh well. I had to be here tonight anyway.

Happy Valentines day!! I'm a nutcase!!

I usually really like V-day, this year was pretty good. I got some beautiful roses and a card that made me cry (it was a funny one, too which was wierd, but I cried anyway) from Mark and I got him a card and 2 "SKOR" bars. Score, get it??? LOL Just kidding he's working tonight and the rest of the week so whatever. I guess the candy is as close as he gets to scoring this time. LOL!!! We're dumb, I know. We went to an early dinner at Phoenicia (yay, greek!!) and now its time to make red dinner (spegetti) and put the kids to bed.

Coopers class party went really good, the kids loved making candy leis, they turned out cute, and the heart match game was a big hit. All the moms thought I was so creative, but really I just stole ideas from Maddy. Thats how I roll. ;) I missed Wyatts party but I made it to Cades and Sadies. Dayton came home from preschool and declared that this was the best day ever!! LOL Cade made me a blinged out dog tag (cute!) and Wyatt made me a frame that is absolutely the CUTEST frame I've ever gotten from a 5 year old. I'll have to take a picture. We started the day with gift bags from my mom at breakfast with candy and 5 bucks inside. The kids were all in trouble last night so I wasn't much in the mood to run out for some fun and creative morning valentines activities as planned. We had cinnamon toast on heart plates. whoopie.



So anyway, heres a little parenting "thing" that happened last night. I had a bit of a meltdown. How many times do you think I've walked into what had recently been a picked up room and found disaster over the last 12 years or so???? Hmmmmmmmmm, I'd say it has to be close to thousands. Nobody seems to be learning the lessons of "mommy is not a maid" and we don't just throw anything anywhere as we please. SO I see the mess in the boys room and kinda snapped. Just a little. I didn't really yell tooooooo much, but the room got wierdly silent as I went and got a big black garbage bag and proceeded to pick up the room "my way". Oh yeah, every bit of it. I dumped every single toy that was in the room, toyboxes, and on the floor into it. Sadly, everyhting they own to play with fit in 1 bag. 4 boys worth of toys in 1 bag is pretty sad. It just illustrates how much I downsize their stuff to keep the mess to a minimum (which hasn't worked that well I guess). They sat there in stunned silence. I packed up ALL the dressups, and if you know my boys they are lost without dressups, but I was sick of seeing everything emptied to find one specific glove or mask. I even took the toys out of the tub and packed them. It is all out in the garage, neatly stored, ready to be earned back piece by piece. All they have now are a couple guys that were in the car or stashed out in another room. Even sadder, is that they havent' seemed to notice much. There is just 2 shelves with 4 empty plastic boxes where toys used to be. I yelled into Sadies room as I was hauling plastic boxes out... "You better get on board, or your room's NEXT!!" Well she got it picked up quick, so that worked. At least now when I tell them to pick up their stuff or I will do it for them "my way" MABYE they will get in gear.

I think the whole ordeal took the yippee out of my day today, but thats OK, I'm hoping it will help in the long run. Or else I'll just go down in the books as a total freak. Either way, whatever. :D


Anyway......LOST is on tonight!!!!!! And lots of other good stuff. Time to get this night wrapped up so I can self medicate with TV!!!!! :D

TV post-AI!!!!!!

WOW was American Idol great last night or what?? My DEFINITE male favorite is the 16 year old guy who had the vocal paralysis. He almost made me cry!!!! I LOVE that Bryan Adams song he picked. Did you see the backup singer wiping a tear??? Seriously. Awesome. I also really like the cute blond mormon girl who played piano, but I'm not sure how long she can hang because I don't think her voice is as rich as some of these other people. How hot is the Australian guy??? YUMMY! I think my favorite girl right now is A'isa (sp?) the one whos dad died right before her first audition. So amazing and beautiful!!! Mark is in love with her, he was making all sorts of faces and guestures while she was singing...LOL!! What a nerd! He has a thing for white pants, don't ask, its stupid. They might put the nerdy guy with glasses on just for entertainment, he's more likable than he is an amazing singer. He's pretty good though. It was just all so great to watch. I love it when they finally expose all the really talented people they hadn't shown in the audidtions yet. I am SO glad they cut that stupid dance captain abstinence girl, I want to slap the poofy pout right off her face. SO obnoxious. The one I thought they should have kept was the guy from AZ that was like a gangbanger. Mark thinks his image killed him with the latin punk look. Possibly, but I though he was way better than the nerdy guy singing wise, and they'll probably keep him just for ratings. That dosent' seem right, but its a show I guess. What about the Rock and Roll nurse?? I'm undecided on her, shes not my style (but either was Daughtry and now I love him) It just seems like shes yelling. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

The ants go marching......

Yesterdays playgroup went amazingly well. Who knew that a 4 dollar pack of playdough could entertain 6 preschoolers for an entire hour??? It was AWESOME! So I tore them away from the rolling and cutting long enough to go to the park, and I see an ant struggling with a big crumb. I call the kids over to watch. After about a minute one of the kids suddenly stomps on the ant giving him a surprise death. I felt sorry for the ant for some reason! LOL A few minutes later I see another one carrying a piece of popcorn 3 times its size, so I call them over again this time teling them to just watch and see where he goes with it. A couple of them were just dying to stomp on it. Dayton sees them getting a little too close and says "NO, don't kill him, he just watched his brother get killed!!" Luckily the little guy made it home to the sand with his popcorn to tell the sad tale of the murder in the family. LOL

weekend update

It was pretty average weekend around here. Sleepovers, football games, driving, and chores. Mark was busy either working or sleeping except for Saturday because of the game. We are just dreading the next 8 or so weeks of football. Our game was in Glendale ths week, and we got killed again. Actually, they held their own and even scored against a team of boys that were CLEARLY over the size/weight limit. I swear they diet these kids down right before the weigh in so they can come in way bigger by the time the season starts and cream all the other littler kids. Its a notorious problem in the NYS league and for some reason we thought it wouldn't happen this time, but it is happening. I liked how our other league had a mandatory weigh in before every single game. This league dosen't do that so it is just super easy to cheat. It just sucks for our kids who follow the rules. BAH! Cade is 90 pounds with his pads on, on the line trying to block kids who are about 115 pounds. After a few plays, hes just beat up and mentally beat as well. I realize that that is just how football is, but is hard watching him go through it. I hope it helps him get some mental toughness if nothing else, at least he can hold his own and is doing pretty well.I had to take a picture of his battle wounds hte other night, he loves seeing himself all beat up, it makes him feel tough. Boys are wierd.


I PROMISE I did not do this to him!!! LOL



Tomorrow is playgroup at our house......um, yay. Just kidding, Dayton is so happy. I think the plan will be playdough, park, and mabye valentine cookies.


Friday night I got some FABulous scrapbooking done. It has been SOOOOO long, Its been mabye close to a year or so, I think. It was great to just relax, meet some fun ladies and recharge my battery a little. Thanks to Elizabeth, who the kids LOVE to babysit. I told Wyatt to be good for her before I left and he said "Oh, that will be sooooo easy!" He's so funny. I got about 8 layouts done, and they are pretty cute. My mom is the BEST, seriously we were at an open scrap at Scrapbooks etc. and she bought me a gorgeous new 12x12 binder plus let me put all my supplies on her tab. How awesome is that?? She didn't have to do that, but she just likes to. Then she gave me valentine gift bags full of stuff for the kids. She is the best! I hope I can treat all my grandkids and adult kids as good as all my moms treat me and my kids.

So that is the overview, now its time to put the house together so I can keep the damage to a minimum tomorrow. It wont be too hard, everything was shipshape all weekend because my landlord was coming over to fix the garbage disposal (which wasn't broken, just jammed) so I'm starting off the week on the right foot. Go me!!

Hannah Montana Vent

Not that I don't love Hannah Montana, cuz I do. Its more about me screwing up as a mom tonight. Well after Cade had gone to his NFL thing I was feeling like Sadie wa a little left out, since we usually do things that are more boy oriented. Honestly it just easier to do things that please the majority most of the time. Every once in a while she and I do something together. And she rarely complains and goes with the flow, so I thought it would be great to go to the Hannah Montana movie concert in 3D, but since it was only on for a week (now I guess they have exteneded it) the only night we could do it was tonight. We went and got tickets for the 7 pm show (the earlier one was sold out of course) and I spent about 3 hours of afternoon time literally BEGGING the kids to get their homework done, which only Cooper did (he always does) Well we ended up having to go before it got done and Cade was FAR from done. I knew he woudn't do it while I was gone, and of course, he didn't. Even Wyatt in KINDER got his done all on his own, and he struggles with focusing sometimes.

Long story short: I get home and Sadie has TONS to do, Cade has TONS, and they are just having meltdowns on me, and its now 9:30 pm. A better mom would have not even gone to the stupid thing if her homework wasnt done. I should have just bitten the 20 bucks and made my point, because the evening ended with slamming books (she won't finish and will be benched tomorrow, AGAIN) slamming doors, and Cade won't finish either, unless I get them up at 5:30 in the morning. My kids can really pour on the drama, it just kills me. They had PLENTY PLENTY of time to get it done earlier today, and they just WON"T. So I had to suspend ALL TV afterschool priveleges monday thru thursday, until spring break. I don't care if they all finish their homework, the TV is permanently OFF monday -thurs. That was the rule growing up, and I try to do that but I usually start caving in on it when they are on good behavior and getting things done. I'm really mad at them, Cade for stalling and then acting like such a punk and Sadie for not stepping up when she was in the midst of getting a special privelege.

For the record, Cade had a really good reward startegy set up for homework with his teacher, which she later watered down to where it wasn't very good and not much of an incentive. That dosen't help much, unfortunately. I HATE getting played by my kids, it happens every once in a while and it makes me madder than pretty much anything. It stresses me out like nothing else. It makes me feel like I'm not doing my job well enough, and its just too important not to do right. GARH!!I am so glad Sadie will be at a sleepover Friday night (unless she dosen't shape up, then thats getting yanked too!) and Cade has a campout, I'm getting a babysitter and going scrapbooking with my mom all night. Get me the heck outta here!!!

I can't stop chuckling at the visual......

18

The questions that I had to answer were really funny, I don't know why, they just were. So Marla, looks like I'm just a teeny bit tougher than you. Haha I doubt it.

Healing....

Well Cade is feeling OK. His Jersey is back in its favorite place....on his body. He's recovering. Now back to the task at hand...winning one of his OWN football games. We're 0 and 3. Grrrrrr.

Today I had a funeral to go to for my Uncle. It was nice, very simple. Just a graveside service, apparently he didn't want any speaking of him or anything, so my dad played Nearer my God to Thee on the violin and my cousin dedicated the grave. It was fun to see my cousins, I don't see them too often, and we took a picture of the ones of us who were there. Its always fun to catch up with people you rarely see. It was amazing how many funny memories I had of that side of the family, but I really did.


DID YOU VOTE TODAY?????? I did, it took about 1 minute, there were no lines, it was nice.

Heartbreaker!!!!!

In case you were living in a cave in the desert, you know it was the Superbowl tonight. Mark has been a Pats fan since he was a little kid. He knew the heartbreak of the 80's, but has stayed true. Cade has found that he too loves the Patriots, and as most 11 year old boys do, hangs his life on his "team". So I'm sure you know where this story is headed. :( Mark took Cade and his best friend out of school early on Friday and went to the NFL Experience, Mark and Cade pooled their resources and purchased what my kiddo has wanted more than anything since before football season started, a REAL pats jersey with #12 and Brady on the back. Well Brady jerseys were sold out, but they did one better by getting our last name on the jersey with #12. He was just beaming, I was so excited for him. He could hardly wait for today, and then.......


Oh boy, he is not a happy camper. It didn't help that he got in HUGE trouble during the game, I won't go into it now, but he got sent to his room during the 4th quarter. Not football related. But Mark let him finish watching in the other room after a little while. The next time I saw him he was putting his authentic jersey and prized hat into the garbage can. Which ticked me off a little, but I rescued it. I guess he's getting crash course in being a loyal fan through good times and bad. Today, emphasis on the BAD. Marks words of wisdom were: "listen, I survived the Superbowl in 1985 when the Bears beat the Patriots 55-10, and I'm still mad about it. You just have to find it in your heart to forgive them and show them you are a true fan and stick with them. They will have another great season next year, we'll be back. " Spoken like a true Superfan!!! It may be a rough week for my boy. He dosen't want to face his friends at school. Football is life, and he dosent' do well with smack talk that is directed at him. He informed me that some kids will be missing teeth tomorrow. Yikes. Sometimes its really hard to watch them grow up.

Blessing #4- My house!!

This picture is really old, but it will do.


I love my house. This blessing is actually more than about a house. Its not even really MY house, we just rent it. BUT I know without a doubt that I was meant to live here. Before we moved here we had just moved back from Utah, and were having a rough go of life. So we were staying with my MIL and we ALL lived with her in her 3 bedroom condo for 14 months. Don't even ask me how, but I guess it was a combination of necessity and her amazing generosity that we made it work. So
I just answered a random "for Rent" ad (one of only 2 that I called on while house hunting) and it sounded really good, so I checked it out. I pulled into the neighborhood, and before I even got out of the car I was on the phone with Mark saying "this is it. No question. I MUST live here!!" And I have been loving it ever since. So although I love my house (and my rent is a steal!!!) I love my neighborhood even more, and my ward is awesome. I can't even describe how amazing our street is. We go to church with 8 of the families, and know all the rest too. We are just one huge family, it totally rocks. I mostly love my kids school, its just a lot of hard work for all of us (and I'll be cursing the makeup work Wyatt is going to bring home, I guarantee it) but as far as schools go, it is top notch and the parents care and are involved, which is really great to have. I'm right next to the super shopping center with everything I could want, and the freeway so everything feels pretty close. The only thing I don't like (besides the fact that is is just a teeny bit small for our big family, but really, its fine) is that we dont' own it so we have no guarantees past July of 09. I can't even think about it. We just have to cross our fingers to get another year. Anyway, I feel like we were put here for a purpose, and I am VERY grateful fo it!!

Church-y post

If your wondering what the "BOM in 97 days" graph is, it is a thing I am doing starting today, to honor our wonderful prophet Gordon B Hinckley, He lived to be 97 so there is a website you can go to to sign up to read the Book of Mormon is 97 days. This a little over 5 pages a day. I have major guilt that I didn't do in the 3 months everyone did it in 06, so I am doing it now. But I really want to do this and I think I will be blessed for doing it. Thanks Andrea for the link!! I needed a little push and a great reason, and this will be perfect!

Lost!!!

I am a huge Lost fan, so of course last night was a big night for TV! I watched the series recap first, and I'm glad I did because there is just so much that has happened. And since they only show the stinkin series once a freakin year........we need a refresher before every season starts. But the new episode was really really good!! I was scared to death in one part, or I guess more startled, but it was fun. I LOVE the fact that they have flash forwards, it makes it so interesting and raises even more questions. Yeah, I loved it. And I want arms like Kate!! :D