Category: Uncategorized (Page 67 of 118)

–So far, the job system is working GREAT.  I woke up to kids cleaning the bathroom and sweeping the floor.  I thought I was in the twilight zone.  Megan is the real go getter, as money is her motivator.  And her enthusiasm helps the other kids at least do their basic jobs.

–Jennna enjoyed her first piano lesson.  She did really well and was excited.  She even drew a picture for the teacher to give to her next week.

–Swimming lessons went well, too.  Jenna was very scared, and John fell asleep on the way, so he was a little groggy and grumpy, but they had small groups (3-5 kids per teacher) and they started out in the little kiddie pool.  Cole and Megan and Natalie also enjoyed their lessons, although Natalie’s teacher is “a boy”, and Megan was “the only girl in her class”.  But I watched the news last night and it said that it’s going to get very cold tomorrow.  I don’t know how well swimming in 45 degree weather is going to go over.

–John said to me today, “HELLO, I said I wanted to watch a MOVIE.”  It was the “hello” that got me.  What?

–Today Megan is going with her Achievement day girls to the art museum at BYU, and I’m taking Jenna and Natalie to their little theater class.  We’re also totally out of birdseed, so if I don’t get to Walmart today to buy birdseed, 5 little feathered friends are not going to be too happy.

This is a fun weekend! I’ve spent time with friends at a yummy dinner date out on Friday night. We had good food, great conversations, and it was a time to renew long time friendships and give support. Some of my friends are going through a lot of challenging times right now, and I wish I could help. But I will pray for them and lend support where I can.

I spent a fun Saturday morning going to the American Fork Marching Band yard sale. I LOVE the band yard sale, and I’m thrilled when I happen upon it each summer. It’s about 30 kids setting up their stuff, and most of them aren’t really picky about prices. I got a lot of cute t-shirts for the girls with fun sayings on them (for a quarter or 50 cents each). They say stuff like: ‘I’m with the band’, ‘chocolate girl’ and Natalie’s favorite–‘kiss me I’m blonde’. Natalie also got an “American Girl Doll” for $4 and a bunch of American Girl books. (After reading over my shoulder, she reminded me to not forget the visor that she bought for 25 cents.) I picked up a few more books for the kids, some clothes for John, a Clifford the big red dog costume,and a brand new in the package Wallace and Gromit movie on VHS for $1 each. My great find of the day, however, was a Baby Lock serger that I purchased for $50. No instruction manual, but that didn’t phase Ryan, who figured out why the feed dogs weren’t feeding. Now I just need to buy some thread on the cones, and I can serge that skirt that I made a few weeks ago that really needs a serged edge. Did I mention the skirt I made? I bought one at Kohls that was sort of like this one here.

There it is, Natalie’s wearing it (the skirt I bought, not the one I made). Then I made a pattern and made my own skirt out of a pair of jeans and some cute fabric. But the hem just doesn’t look right because it isn’t serged. I thought I had a picture of it, but I guess not. Anyway, I’m excited.

I had a fun time with my family. My cousin Sarah is getting married, so we had a bridle shower for her at my aunt’s house. Lots of fun to chat with my cousins, my sisters, my mom, and my aunts. Megan and Natalie went with me, and Megan was very helpful in the concentration game. While we were sometimes talking through the game and not paying attention, she knew where the matches were–Thanks, Megan.

We also did a bunch of deliveries yesterday. I’ve been working on a summer fun calendar, which lists all the fun things we could do together as a neighborhood. Potlucks, a football game, bike parade,a scavenger hunt, our slide party and various field trips are all on there. I made copies for everyone in the neighborhood, and even gave them to the people who don’t have kids at home, just in case they have grandkids visiting or want to join in with the neighborhood events. So, the kids and I went around passing them out. John talked non stop during our walk, and although it was fun to be with him, his talking eventually got to me. We also delivered some ‘water bottle rocket launchers’ that Ryan had made, and took treats to Natalie’s teacher who just had a baby. Everything we needed to deliver has now been delivered. Whew.

Now we’re hoping to have a nice, relaxing Sunday. Although it is fast Sunday, and that makes for some grumpies, but we’ll get through those.

I hope you all had a fun weekend, too! Oh, and watch out for pirates.

The school year is officially over for my kids. Whew. We made it though another year. I no longer have a Kindergartener, can you believe it? Jenna had her Kindergarten graduation yesterday, and it was awfully cute. They sang songs, recited poems, showed a slide show of their art work, and they even played kazoos. Since this was our 3rd child to have this particular kindergarten teacher, I pretty much knew what to expect, but it still brought tears to my eyes. Must they go on to 1st grade? I guess they do, and our job as parents is to let them grow, and support them. I also no longer have a 7th grader, 5th grader or 2nd grader. They all did great this year, and we’re looking forward to a great summer.

And what better way to start off the summer than our annual neighborhood water party. I must admit–yes, I organized it. I’m just an organizer that way. This year it was not at my house, though, and that was nice. My friend Geanna had a WAY cooler backyard, and my friend Lisa went and picked up a bounce house this morning. We all paid $8 for the bounce house, and brought food, and we had a lovely lunch of hot dogs. Mental note to self–way too many chips and not enough hot dogs. I’ll have to try to get it evened out next year. We got there at 11, and at 2:30, I made my kids come home, as I knew they were all getting sunburned and would soon be nothing more than a little black pile of ashes if I let them stay outside any longer. My kids had a great time filling water balloons, and we took over the water bottle launcher and it was a big hit, too. John had fun bouncing, but really spent a lot of time in the sandbox. I think we might need to put in one of our own. The kids all love digging so much! My 3 oldest kids just went back to jump in the bounce house some more, since John fell asleep exhausted on the couch. I figure they can jump for another hour before dinner, and then maybe we’ll go back again later tonight (since we don’t have to return the bounce house until 10 pm or something like that.

So, it’s kick off the summer weekend, and so far we’re off to a great start.

I was going to write all about the picnic at my Grandma Coleman’s house on Monday, and the great memories of visiting there, but my sister did all that for me.

We have such a great family, and it was really nice to see them again.  Some of my cousins I only see about once or twice a year, and I wish we could get together more often.  But we had a fun time exploring the grounds, and playing with our kids like we use to play.  This willow tree has had it’s fair share of swingers.  But there used to be an old car there that we would climb on–now that was fun.

And they used to actually use this outdoor fireplace, but mostly I remember climbing on it, like John was doing this week.

Megan ran around the house taking pictures of the inside and outside, so if you are interested in seeing more pictures (taken by an 11 year old, remember), you can click here.

I’m eating a cookie right now.  And it’s good.  And I deserve it.

Why?  Well, the kids came inside and said, “We have something to show you.  Come outside.”  Hmmmm.  That can’t be good, can it?  I go outside to find a dead bird in the backyard.  It looked like a cat had gotten it.  It was all bloody and mangled and there were a lot of feathers around it.  Why didn’t the cat just eat it, I wonder.  I’m glad that there are cats out there, as I want them to eat all the mice in and around our yard.  It just makes me sad to see them attacking the birds.  Oh well, I guess it’s the circle of life and all that.  But then something had to be done with that bird.  Someone had to get it out of the yard, and unfortunately, that someone was me.  There were no males, and certainly no male adults around to do it for me.  So, I got a garden trowel, scooped the poor dead bird into a weeding bucket, and disposed of it.  Where?  Well, I tossed it over the fence like I do with lots of other yard waste.  What?  It’s an empty lot!  Maybe a different hungry cat will come by and want a snack.

When I came inside and washed my hands thoroughly,  I was greeted by a smell.  An all too familiar smell wafting towards me from a certain 3 year old who just barely had used the potty (much to his displeasure).  I don’t know what we are going to do with this kid.  Even though he knows how to pee on command, if I didn’t force him onto the potty, he would just do everything in his pull-up.  ARRGh!  Anyway, I just changed him for about the millionth time.  Ick.
And that’s why I deserve this cookie.

Back when we lived in our house in Lehi,
(and I can’t find any digital pictures of the house or the backyard right now, so I just threw in one of the kids in the living room), we lived right by the cemetery. When we looked out our back yard, we could see right into the cemetery grounds. We had to try to be quiet and not play outside when there was a funeral going on, just out of courtesy to the families. We never thought it was creepy or weird, since it was a beautiful, well kept place; not creepy and old. We used to walk or ride our bikes back there, and the neighbors were quiet.(Thanks, Ryan, for finding pictures of the old house. It must have been winter, because our grass sure looks dead, doesn’t it?)
I learned to love Memorial Day. Before we lived there I didn’t really think much of the holiday except that it was a day off of school and work. We weren’t really big cemetery visitors and it wasn’t a family tradition to go and visit graves and place flowers. Maybe because we didn’t really have many people close to us who had died. Oh, I do remember going to my Grandma’s grave, or my Grandpa’s grave a few times, but it wasn’t every year.

But living right by a cemetery, you get to see all the people come and do some big time decorating. One family made a balloon arch every year. That was cool. Others, who had lost a child, would decorate with balloons, flowers and stuffed animals. Those graves were often decorated for every holiday, not just Christmas. And when I would read the headstones, I would feel so sad for those families. The decorating frenzy would begin on Saturday, with the views from the back window growing increasingly colorful as the weekend progressed. Families would gather, some with food and games, and have a fun time of it. It was always nice to observe. Then we would go for walks and look at all the pretty flowers and decorations.

On the Monday after Memorial day was the day to go mum hunting. You see, if families don’t come and pick up their flowers, the city workers would come by on the next Monday and throw it all away. So, Sunday night or Monday morning I would go through and pick out some that were still living, bring them home and plant them. I got several mums that way. That is not stealing. They were going to throw them away anyway!

This Memorial Day it’s all about fun with friends and family. Saturday evening we had some good friends over for dinner. The kids played with the water bottle launcher, jumped on the tramp and climbed on the playground. The adults talked and laughed. We had good food and it was very nice! There was that small incident of a child throwing up in the bathroom, but I think my bathroom came through it cleaner than it started, thanks to my lovely friend Melinda. I hope the car ride home was uneventful and there was no further throwing up.

Sunday we had a nice time at church, and enjoyed the much smaller numbers. Usually we have about 500 in Sacrament meeting, and this week Ryan tells me there were about 270. Room for everyone on the nice soft benches, and only 10 in John’s sunbeam class (instead of the usual 17).

Monday we are going to go to my Grandma’s house. Grandma has moved in with my aunt, as she can no longer take care of herself. He house will be sold, demolished and made into a cul-de-sac, I think. I believe someone bought two houses and will take them both out to put in a few more. So, we’re meeting there with my cousins and family for one last picnic at the old family home. It will be kind of sad to see it go, as we have so many memories of that little old house, and my grandparents who lived there (good ideas for a later post). Later we have a pool party and barbeque planned with Ryan’s family. So, it’s a full day of fun family goodness.

I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day, too, and that we don’t forget those who served and died for our freedoms.

Pepsi is on sale at Target right now.  4 -12 packs for $11.  Now, I’m really more of a diet coke drinker myself, but Ryan really likes the Cherry Vanilla Diet Dr. Pepper.  But the stock guy at the grocery store told me they are not making that anymore–can you believe it?  And there are some really cool new pepsi flavors.  Strawberries and Cream, Carmel Cream (it’s in the fridge cooling so I can enjoy it for lunch), and wild cherry.  Not a big cherry fan, but maybe Ryan would like that one.  Anyway, if that’s not a good enough deal for you, go to the  Target coupon generator  and print out as many $1 off coupons as you’d like.  I just went to Target, and they let me use 5 coupons in one transaction.  I wish I had printed more!  That makes a 12 pack only $1.75, which makes each can about 15 cents each.  And with summer coming and barbeques and parties and all, you can never have too many soft drinks around, right?
Thanks to Mir at wantnot.com for pointing out this great deal.  And check her website for new deals every day.

I think it’s cold enough, if I add ice.  I’m going to go and try the caramel flavor right now.

Well, I’m trying to plan ahead and stick to a menu plan, so this week, I’m actually planning.

Tonight, we’re having Easy Chicken Cordon Blue, which is a nummy recipe, if I do say so myself.

Tuesday we have softball and scouts, so dinner has to be something we can eat at different times, so I think I’ll make Taco soup.  Then I can just leave it in the crock pot and when people are home, they can eat.

Wednesday will be spaghetti.  Not very exciting, but deal with it.

Thursday…..I’m still thinking……hamburgers sound good, don’t you think?

And Friday I will be gone, so the family can and will heat up their own dinner.  Corndogs or chicken nuggets with a healthy side of leftovers.

What’s on your dinner menu?

Wow, it’s Sunday and we survived a very very busy week. Hooray for us! Some thoughts on the week:
–My concerts went well, and it we were pleased to see the Salt Lake Tabernacle mostly full both Friday and Saturday nights. We did well as a group. We made mistakes, and strangely enough, different mistakes each night (to keep it interesting, I guess), but overall I think it was an enjoyable concert for the audience. But being up there four nights in a week means other things don’t get done (like laundry). But the family survived.

–Since I had won a “7-11 prize pack” a while back, and the only 7-11 I even know exists anymore is downtown on 3rd west, I encouraged my carpool to stop after practice on Tuesday and use up some coupons. So, we all went in and got free slurpies. On Wednesday night, we all went in and got taquitos. We were going to stop and get hot dogs last night, but I forgot the coupons. I’m glad we could use them, as I can’t really go in and use all the coupons at once. They do say “one coupon per person” on them. I don’t think I’d had a slurpie in 20 years. Honestly.

–Cole’s band concert went well, too. Since they didn’t turn the house lights all the way down, I sat and read my book. It was the most enjoyable band concert I’ve been to yet!

–John is still sick. He’s got a cold, fever, and isn’t eating well. On Friday he was really complaining and said his neck hurt, so I took him to the doctor. Negative strep test, negative on the ear infections. Thanks a lot. I hate it when I waste my time and money on a dr visit and they just tell me it must be a virus. Meanwhile my little boy is still suffering, and I can’t do much for him. I’m hoping he feels better today, if not, maybe I’ll get to stay home from church.

–I took John and Cole to get haircuts on Thursday. They were both looking pretty scroungy and I had a coupon for Great clips. While we were there, Jenna decided she wanted her hair cut, too! She looks so darling in her new little bob, I can’t believe it. The funny thing is, I’ve suggested a hair cut before (many times) and she always says she wants long hair, but I guess she decided to give it a go now.

–Ryan’s company had a “park day” similar to the Office’s “beach day” last week. I don’t know if someone was looking for a replacement or what the deal was, but any day playing kickball beats a day at work, I guess. Anyway, Ryan’s been sore and complaining ever since. I guess typing all day doesn’t use the same muscles as kickball.

–I made two pans of the most awesome mint brownies on Friday. We gave a plate to Natalie’s soccer coach, and one to Megan’s soccer coach, and we now have two more pans to give out to music teachers, dance teachers, etc. But I don’t know if we can leave them alone long enough to deliver. Those are some good brownies!

–IKEA. That’s one huge place. Thanks to my friend Michelle, who smuggled a bunch of us in for the friends and family preview day. The employees all clapped and cheered when we walked in–like we had one something. That was kind of weird. Lisa, Sandra and I quickly rushed to the as-is department to see if we could find some goodies, and yes, we did. I got a cute mesh rolling cart with 3 drawers. I haven’t decided where it’s going and what it’s purpose in my home is yet, but I love it anyway. We purchased those things because Lisa didn’t want to be pushing a large floor lamp all over the store, and we were some of the cashiers’ first customers EVER. Then we went back in and bought some more things. I got some way cute little spatula sets with a 3 small utensils that are the perfect size for scooping brownies out of the pan (like those mini pampered chef spatulas, you know the ones?) but the set of 3 cost me 59 cents! I bought 10 sets of them, and I’m going to give them as teacher gifts with a brownie mix. How great is that? I am also enjoying my new pink dustpan and brush set that I got for 99 cents. No way you’ll get me there on grand opening day, but I’m sure I’ll enjoy shopping there again.

–If you’ll excuse me, the kids are fighting over the cute little stuffed animal hangers I bought at Ikea yesterday (I bought 5 of them, for heaven’s sake). So, I must end this long long epistle and go do my job as a mother and settle this.

Natalie had her Highland Children’s choir concert last night. She even sang with a small group, and did GREAT. Here’s a tiny picture of her and I’m sure you can’t even spot her, but you can try if you want.

Ryan is a wonderful dad, as he took the kids to the Provo tabernacle for this concert without me for the 3rd time. I don’t know how she does it, but this director always has her concerts on a Wednesday night right before one of my concerts, so I can never go. I know. I feel terrible about it. But such is life. (I had my own dress rehearsal in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for our bell choir concert, which went pretty well, despite a few mess ups, but I guess that’s to be expected.) At the last minute, we realized that John had a fever (could it have something to do with that unfortunate incident yesterday? I sure hope not!), so Cole and John stayed home. I’m proud of Natalie for singing her best. I don’t think she wants to do choir next year–she wants to take a cheer or dance class instead, she tells me.

Tonight Cole has a band concert (Thanks for the advanced warning, Cole. I think he told us on Monday, that he had a band concert), Megan has a Hope of America type program tomorrow at school, and then we’re almost done with all these concerts. Like I said, May is insanely busy for us, and we’re just trying to get through it!