Author: Superpaige (Page 141 of 180)

I took the kids to see Open Season last night at the old dollar theater. It was cute, and not nearly as obnoxious as the last movie I took the kids to. But this morning they are all singing this song. No, I don’t take the kids out to movies very often–what of it?

Yesterday Ryan left town for a week. He’ll be enjoying the sunny skies (or at least not snowing and blowing arctic winds) of Las Vegas. No, we’re not moving there, thank goodness. Actually he probably won’t see much of the skies at all, sunny or other, since he’ll be practically living at the convention center for the next week. I hope he has a good time, meets lots of people who generate lots of business for the company, and remembers to bring us back lots of spiffs from the show.

I did manage to get the tree taken down yesterday, although it is actually more of a two person job. I took down most of the Christmas decorations, but not all of them. What I didn’t do is clean the house, so it’s kind of a bare non festive mess. Because, honestly, is it possible to clean the house with 7 kids running through it? Not here, it’s not. I kind of did some damage control and got the front room vacuumed and free of all fake pine needles, but I didn’t get it cleaned. So, now the house is just kind of depressing. Not quite free from all Christmas decor, and still a mess. Ugh.

We also worked on the science project! Hooray! We had four different kinds of paper towels. Onto each, we poured 1 ounce of water, then put quarters on the towel until it broke. Well, we had 40 quarters on that sucker and it was not breaking. We had to find something heavier, so we used tuna cans. One paper towel actually held 10 tuna cans before breaking. We did each brand three times and averaged their scores. Megan has made a nice graph of her results, and she’ll type up a report and we’ll include some pictures, and I think that will be it. Nothing fancy or flowery, just a simple, basic science project.

We don’t have church until 1:00 today. Not my favorite time slot for church, but our ward is so huge now that we need the whole building. We can’t share any classrooms or anything, so we have to be last until they split our ward. What are we going to do until 1:00? Well, I made pancakes (forgot about the fasting thing–oops!), am having the kids all do their practicing (that they have totally slacked on since they haven’t had lessons in two weeks), baths and showers, and I’ll do their hair and maybe paint some fingernails. To try to avoid fighting and screaming, I will let them watch selected amounts of tv or movies. I’m sure it will be a long morning. But the nice thing about church from 1-4 is that when you come home, there’s not much time before the kids go to bed! It will be an adjustment, but we’ll get used to it eventually.

So, there’s our weekend in a nutshell. I hope your weekend is shaping up nicely, and you are enjoying the freezing cold!

Before my Christmas stuff is totally packed up and put away (which might be a very long time, yet, as I’ve only just started), I wanted to share a few memories and photos from Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, we always tell the Nativity story, and either act it out with costumes or use the puppets that I made a few years ago. This year, the kids didn’t want us to read the story from the Bible, they said they knew it already and could do it themselves. They put in a few things that aren’t in the Bible version but that they learned from going to see Saviour of the World. They did a great job and it was, as usual, a fun take on the Christmas story. Here’s a picture of them all taking their curtain call after the performance.

On Christmas morning, John was probably most excited about his “Cars” items, and he’s played every day with his little McQueen and the “Dinaco King” as he calls him.

Natalie was thrilled with her almost American Girl doll, and Jenna really enjoyed this Lion that you stuff yourself (like a build a bear, but the at home version).

Cole got a fun build it yourself electronics thing with circuits and things that I don’t understand all that much. He seemed very excited about it, though. And here’s miss Megan with her new movie.

The best part of Christmas is getting together with family members, so here’s a few pictures of our family parties we enjoyed.

Ryan’s mom made a whole bunch of knit caps for all the kids to chose one (or two) and then gave the rest to humanitarian services. I couldn’t believe how excited the kids all were to pick out their own hats.

So, there you have it, folks, a few memories and a few pictures (ok, a lot) from our Christmas here. Happy thoughts before we take it all down and return to the barren humdrum of January.

That is the sound I am making because I just dropped my needy John off at preschool. Now I’m starting my little vacuum in the kitchen and going down to treadmill for a mile or so.

Ha Ha, I’m free!

*********
Updated:

I’m back, and so is John. I didn’t want to sound like I wanted to get rid of my cute child or anything, so let me explain a bit. When you go away on vacation for a week, you know the risks. The kids will either be mad at you for leaving, be mad a Grandma for being the one to tend them, or they’ll have a great time. Luckily, my kids had quite a nice time with all their babysitters (who took them swimming, to Carl’s Junior, to Subway, to a family Christmas party–they were no slackers!), but when Mom and Dad got back, a certain someone named John has not wanted to let Mommy out of his sight. He’s been clingy and needy, but that’s to be expected. We can handle it. But by this week, he was really getting tired of his mommy time and wanting to play with some of his little friends. Friends who we could seldom find during Christmas vacation because they were either out of town, busy or just not home when we were.

When the kids went back to school on Tuesday, John was very excited to go back to his preschool, too. So, over to Mrs. Powell’s we went. I was a bit early, so I waited until 9:00 to see if some other parents came, since I wasn’t 100% sure she was actually starting preschool on Tuesday. When 3 cars were there, we all figured we must be right. We went up to the door, and shock! it was locked. It’s never locked. So, we rang the bell, and no one came. We were beginning to think that preschool did NOT start on Tuesday. Sadly, we pried our children away from the door and tried to explain to them that Mrs. Powell wasn’t home and there would be no preschool that day. (Eventually poor Mrs. Powell came to the door in her bathrobe and said there wasn’t school today. She had looked at the school calendar that said they were starting public school on WEDNESDAY, and therefore hadn’t planned on preschool that day.)

I tried to pacify John by telling him that he could come to yoga with me. When we pulled into the church parking lot, he said, “That’s not the yoga church!” since we had gone to a yoga at a different church before, but this was where it was this time. Unfortunately, no one showed up for yoga, so I left, realizing that I didn’t have my yoga mat in the car with me, anyway, since I wasn’t driving my normal car.

Poor John was so sad. No friends to play with. Only Mommy. AGAIN. I took him with me to Kohls and Target in search of after Christmas discounts and he was pretty good, but not happy.

So, today, there WAS preschool, and he was so excited! I was excited to have just a couple of hours by myself, too. I did do my 2 miles on the treadmill, took a nice shower and got dressed, and that was about all I got done before picking him up, but it was still a nice little break for both of us.

I have a bit of a problem with money. Spending it.

And car repairs. Especially spending money on car repairs.

You see, I’m a bit of a thrify-nifty (some would call me cheap) and only like to buy things when they are ON SALE. I hate paying full price for anything. I get a thrill out of buying on sale.

There are no sales on auto parts or repairs. If there were, then we might have a few extra alternators or gaskets around because –hey, they were such a great deal, and I will need them someday. But alas, car repair is no place for the sale shopping bargain hunter. When something breaks, it needs to be fixed, and unless you have an extra vehicle in storage, fixed right away.

We have not had the best car repair record in the last little while, with one car and then another in the shop for what seems like endless and expensive repairs. Each time I nearly have a fit when I hear how much we have to pay. Well, Tuesday, the brakes in Ryan’s old truck seemed to stop working. Brakes are something that you can’t really live without, so he took it in to be repaired. After $700 something, he got his vehicle back. ERRG. When I complained at how much money we keep putting into that hunk of junk of a truck, he keeps reminding me that buying a new truck would be much more expensive. Yeah, but then we’d Have a new truck. He also told me in so many words that I need to stop freaking out each time we have to get a car repaired. Freaking out?! I’m not freaking out. Is it too much to ask that the car NOT break down in the very first week of the year?

I think we may need to get a credit card that is only in Ryan’s name that he use ONLY to do car repairs. Then I don’t have to know how much it’s costing us, and then I won’t freak out. He wouldn’t even have to tell me he was taking a car into the shop, he’d just mysteriously need a ride to work, and when I asked where that particular vehicle was, he could tell me it was on vacation. Hmmm. That wouldn’t work, either, because I would demand to know, and he would tell me.

I just need to go to my happy place when we talk about car repairs. La La La, La I’m not listening.

But, on the bargain side, I just found the BEST place to get your car washed. There’s a new Firehouse Carwash right by Target in American Fork. For $6.50 you can get the basic wash ($6.90-ish with tax), but if you are a Costco member (and who isn’t these days?) you get 10% off, so with tax, it comes to $6.21, I think. You get to take the car and the kids through the cool washer thingy (which is very entertaining for the 3 year old crowd, believe me!), then, when you come out the guy DRYS it with a towel. THEN you can use their powerful sucking vacuums for 10 minutes for FREE! It’s a deal. I went yesterday and then went back today with the other dirty car. It was too cold and I didn’t have time to use their vacuums, but I know they are there, so next time I’ll plan beter (you know how you have to pre-clean your car to clean your car? ) So, I’ll rejoice in my small car washing bargain, and block from my mind all repair costs and do my breathing exercises, thank you very much.

Happy New Year!

I missed posting on the first, but I’m sure you’re still in the New Year’s mode on the 2nd, right? Right.

My goals for this year are as follows:

Eat less
Exercise More
Spend less $
laugh more
win more
be a better person

How’s that?

Ryan says it’s not a goal if it’s not measurable, so I guess I should give specifics.

Ok, here are my specific goals.

Exercise. I want to walk one mile every single day. If I miss a day, I’ll have to make it up sometime in the week, so I’ll get in 7 miles over the week.

Since I will turn 40 in the next year (and I’m officially inviting you all to my non surprise birthday party on December 29 (it’s a Saturday). More on that in the future, but go ahead and put it on your calendar now. but I digress. I was actually going to put down my goal to lose 40 pounds by my 40 b-day.

Kindness. I want to do more random acts of kindness. Like take someone a meal even if they aren’t sick or didn’t just have a baby. Or give away tickets and things (oh, I already do that, so I guess I can just do more). I also want to be kinder to my children and husband. I love them dearly, but sometimes I forget to tell them how much they mean to me. Same goes for friends. I think I need to express my love and my gratitude more, and use a softer voice with the kids.

Temple Service. 12 visits to the temple this year. I would say once a month, but I may just feel like going 3 times in one month, and I know there will be months I don’t go, so I’m just going to say 12 in the year. I’ll mark them off to keep track.

I’d like to win another big prize this year, along with some cash. That’s entirely up to me, and I’ll be trying hard on that one, of course.

Social–we need to invite someone over for dinner at least once a month. We did pretty good on this one last year, but I think we can continue to improve.

There you have it. Goals for the year 2007. And a partridge in a pear tree.
Amen.
And, what are your goals for the year?

Happy Birthday, old woman.
I wish I could say I’m spending the day relaxing, getting a pedicure and then going shopping. But due to a family party at my house tomorrow, and the general state of this house because of:

a-the primary cleaner being out of town for a week
b-Christmas
c-my illness earlier in the week, leaving me weak and tired and not really caring about the state of the house
d-5 kids, one husband and 3 birds.

I’m spending the day cleaning the house. I might as well give up, though, because the little people seem to be messing it up faster than I can clean, and there’s mountains of boxes that don’t fit into the trash, along with tons of little pieces that I’m not sure which toy they go to. And I keep trying to send my kids to friends’ houses, but instead we have more and more kids arriving. Right now Cole’s at a friend’s house, and we still have 7 kids here. hmmm.

Why did we schedule a family party the day after my birthday? Silly me. Oh, I know. It was scheduled for the 23rd, but because of someone’s vacation (mine), we rescheduled it. So, I should stop complaining and get back to cleaning. I will, right after a short rest (I haven’t gotten my energy quite back from the earlier illness, you see) and maybe a diet coke.

I was impressed that Ryan actually remembered the birthday and even got me a gift. Nice cozy slippers. AND he got up before me, changed a stinky diaper, went down and helped the kids make me breakfast in bed. It doesn’t take much to impress me. I guess I have low standards. I just wanted the old family to remember without me giving them any hints or reminders (which I didn’t). Thank goodness for the palm pilot so he can put in a reminder about important dates like birthdays.

I know that Ryan posted a link to the billion and one pictures from our Cancun Trip, but in reality, no one wants to sift through all those, so I’ll just post a couple of highlights and call it good.

(All the links are now clickable to the larger sizes –Ryan)

Here we are BEFORE going para sailing, while Paige still feels good and excited about life.

Here we are up in the air. See the pretty colors. See the pretty ocean. Luckily you can’t see Paige getting ill.

Here we are as they reel us in back to the boat. Don’t we look like we had a great time?

Here’s the lovely view we had for about the next hour as Paige lay in a lounge chair becoming un-sick. It looks like a Corona commercial, doesn’t it?

Here’s Paige playing bartender.

Here we are under the Christmas arch–or whatever it was. And Paige with her new amigos.

On our last day there, we traveled by crowded stinky bus to a really nice ritzy mall where I had seen a dolphin exhibit. Kind of like the buffaloes we’ve seen around here locally, but dolphins. We took tons of pictures, but these are some of my favorites.

Here’s a group shot of all the people in our group.

Nothing much to say here, just getting ready for the trip. I’ve got our suitcases packed, presents wrapped, groceries bought and my bedroom and bathroom cleaned. Now I can work on the kitchen and bathrooms and get the neighbor gifts organized. Who’s brilliant idea was it to schedule a trip the week before Christmas?! It’s probably cheaper, right?

Anyway, you probably won’t be hearing from me–but maybe you will–who knows. So, enjoy your week before Christmas!