Month: May 2006 (Page 2 of 3)

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day. You are wonderful mothers and deserve a great day to celebrate your motherhood.

9:00 church is not real condusive to Mother’s day celebrations such as breakfast in bed. In fact, as I woke one of the girls up and told her to go and shower, she said, “You are supposed to be in bed!”. Well, I couldn’t really lounge in bed when I had 5 kids to help get ready for church, and shower and look presentable myself.

We did all get ready in time, although Natalie’s hair was almost dripping wet. Wet ponytail for you, girl. Ryan had to speak in sacrament meeting, so he was up early writing his talk (plan ahead? I don’t think so.), and I had to grab a few things for my lesson, but we got there in time.

The kids were relatively good during church, even with no dad sitting with us to keep them in line. They drew some great Mother’s day cards and pictures, too. Ryan’s talk went well, and several people told me how well he did on his talk. He said it wasn’t his best work, but I think he’s just pleased that it’s over. I taught in Relief Society, and that lesson went just fine, too.

After church, the kids presented me with a plethora of school/primary or achievement day made gifts. All very cute, and all very sweet. Jenna gave me a strawberry plant in a decorated pot that said “I love you Berry much!” John gave me an oh so cute new purse (that his clever mommy bought on clearance at–where else? Kohl’s–for a whopping $2.50 marked down several times from the original $45) that I’ve just been so excited to use. I can’t wait to transfer purse stuff and use it!

Later Ryan’s parents and sister and her husband came over for a yummy dinner of grilled steak, watermellon, salad and devilled eggs. For dessert we had rhubarb pie and ice cream. Delicious!! I wish you could have come on over and eaten with us.

As a surprise, Ryan got me a food saver for Mother’s day. The real surprise is, he didn’t know he was getting me a food saver, either. Julene and Italo recieved two for their wedding, and Ryan had told them he would buy one from them, so they wouldn’t have to return it. They brought it over tonight, so….Surprise! A Great Mother’s day gift!

The weather was beautiful, the kids were sweet, Ryan let me have a nice hour and a half nap this afternoon, and we had a nice evening. What a wonderful day!

Is “Soccer Mom” a positive term, a negative term, or just a discription?

Note to self: Do not ever buy Waffle Crisp cereal again. Or for that matter, any syrup flavored cereal should also be banned. I don’t mind the smell of actual waffles, or actual syrup, but the cereal waffle/syrup smell? Purely nauseating. And the kids end up smelling like it ALL DAy. Ick.

Hooray! I remembered!

I had to go to the library today and return things, as well as get some new books for the kids. I knew my library card was expiring and that I’d have to pay another $70 to renew it for the year. I considered switching libraries, since American Fork is actually closer than Lehi, and a bigger library; but that would mean I’d have to find and return all the books I currently have out, and I wasn’t quite up to that today, so I just paid it.

The good news is, I actually remembered to go to the city office and turn in my receipt so that I could be reembursed BEFORE months and months had gone by and I lost the little tiny reciept. I went today. The same day! Wow! And they paid me in cash. So, with the $50 they pay me to reemburse me for the library cost, I feel like $20 a year isn’t that bad. I definitely use the Library $20 worth. Too bad I can’t go and get a card for the AF library and get reembursed for that one, too. Then I could use both libraries. But I’m guessing they wouldn’t reemburse me again.

And the other good news is: I managed to find a swimsuit. Black skirted things with a major built in bra pink top two piece “skirtini” or whatever the heck you call it. I did have John with me, but I distracted him with an entire single serve package of goldfish, and quickly tried things on cowered over in the corner. It will have to do. I mean, how good can I expect to look in a bathing suit when I don’t exercise and I like food. But at least it’s not the totally stretched out and sagging suit that I’ve worn on two cruises and have had for at least 3 years, now. I won’t even joke about putting in a picture here. (Well, maybe just a picture of the suit layed out on the ground without me in it–no, no-just kidding!) And although it started out expensive, it was on sale AND I used my extra 15% coupon at Kohl’s (I will try not to go on and on about how much I love that store, since I can hear you saying, “I know, I know, we’ve heard you say it about a thousand times how much you love Kohl’s”), so it didn’t break the bank too badly. Plus, I got the cutest jacket that I’ll give to my mother-in-law for Mother’s day if I can manage to part with it, and it ended up costing $4. Oh, and a way cute new purse for me! Maybe I’ll let my kids wrap it up and give it to me for Mother’s day. If I can wait that long to use it.

Oh, and in a totally unrelated train of thought, here’s my small boy at his first Father’s and Son’s campout:

And here’s my big boy at the same campout. He’s the small figure that you can barely make out on top of the large pile of snow:

Things I’d like to accomplish today:

–Win $97 on 97.5 talk radio. But I can’t hear the cue to call since we do not get that station at all. I’m just guessing and calling at the times when they are supposed to do the contest, and so far I’ve been caller 1,3,4, and 6, but not 9, which is what you need to be to win. But I only started trying yesterday so I won’t get discouraged if I don’t win today.

–Win a trip to Cabo San Lucas on 94.1. I’ve been caller 6, 8, 14, 17, etc. on this one, but have yet to be caller 20 so I can guess which “room” the party is going on (pick a number between 1 and 1000). Of course, the brother-in-law and sister-in-law have already won this one, so I’m not competing against them. That’s a good thing, right? (By the way, yesterday I did manage to win 4 unlimited day passes to Boondocks, so that will be fun–just so you know I do win sometimes.)

–I need to shop for a swimsuit, but I don’t really think today’s the day for that. I need to be having a really good “selesteem” day to go and try on swimsuits, because it won’t be pretty. Last I checked, swimsuits did not go down past the knee or have sleeves. Plus, it’s kind of something I need to do without children present in the dressing room. That could scar those kids for life, and I’m just not going to do it to them. Maybe later.

–I need to make a kick-butt dessert to take to the end of the year PTA lunch tomorrow. Any suggestions? I have rhubarb, and I made my own pies the other day (without Ryan doing the crust like he usually does), and they turned out ok, but not nearly as pretty as when Ryan does it. But I don’t know how well rhubarb pie would go over at a PTA luncheon.

–Organize my PTA stuff so I can pass it along to the person who’s doing the Dads and Donuts job next year. I shouldn’t rejoice too loudly, however, since I’ll be doing reflections. (Why, Why WhY? did I say I would do that? Same reason Tina said she’d be the president of the High school PTA, I guess.)

–Exercise. I did 20 minutes on the treadmill watching Ellen from last Friday, but then the kids came down and wanted to walk, so I had to get off. I guess I’ll go and do another 20 minutes before I shower.

–Get all the crap, I mean stuff, off the kitchen counters. That could take the whole day!

–Find and wrap at least two wedding gifts for people in the ward with kids who are getting married. Tis the season, you know.

–Figure out what we’ll be having for dinner which can be eaten while I run from soccer game to choir to piano lessons.

–And look cute while I’m doing all of this. Ha! Ha! I almost fell off my chair laughing! What’s on your schedule today?

Oh, and I almost forgot–watch at least one episode of LOST season 1. I borrowed the DVDs from a friend and I’d really like to get them back to her sometime in the next month, so I’ve got to watch about 1 a day to accomplish this. That’s what we do during naptime!

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So, here’s an update. I DID win the $97 from 97.5. You should all try it. Just be caller 9 at 7:30, 10:30, 12:30, 3:30, 5:30 or 7:30. Good thing I won, since I’ve been wasting my cell phone minutes being the wrong caller all day.

I haven’t won the trip to Cabo, but you can bet I’ll keep trying.

I watched one and a half episodes of Lost, made the rhubarb sour cream bars, which were yummy–Thanks Melinda, and cleaned off the main counter on the island. I also invited Jenna and John’s friends Brittan and Hunter over to play, so now I’m cleaning up their mess. So, not quite everything on the list, but I’ve at least done some crossing off.

I’m not one who obsesses about the cleanliness of my floor. I’m more of a “sweep and spot clean” kind of girl. But every once in a while, I get it in my head that the wood floor needs to be clean and I will not stop until it’s done. I’m like a mom on a mission. So, today, after cleaning the bathroom and mopping the floor in there, I set out to clean my kitchen floor. After sweeping and sweeping (with birds and kids there tends to be a lot of fluff or crumbs or legos on the floor, even if you just swept or vacuumed the whole thing minutes earlier), I got out the little floor mop, and went to town. My, how clean and shiny the floor looks! I even moved the table and chairs all the way out of the way while I cleaned that area, then moved them back when I was done.

Satisfaction. The satisfaction of a clean floor is short lived, however, as the children and the birds still live here, so there will be crumbs and fluff again 30 seconds after I finish (before I finish, actually–it’s a big area to clean). And then I tend to be a little bit OCD about the floor for the rest of the day (“Don’t you spill anything, can’t you see I just cleaned the floor?!”), but by tomorrow I’ll be back to my usual lackadaisical (\lack-uh-DAY-zih-kuhl\, adjective:
Lacking spirit or liveliness; showing lack of interest; languid; listless.) attitude about the cleanliness of my floor.

Now maybe I’ll go and try to tackle the laundry pile. Or the garage. Or my office….

TOP 10 REASONS WHY WE LIKE ROBIN AS A HOUSEGUEST

10-She doesn’t give us too much time to think about whether she’s coming or not, so it’s always kind of a surprise, thus she doesn’t really expect the house to be clean.

9-She does not expect us to entertain her or keep her occupied, although she’s more than willing to go do fun stuff if we suggest it.

8-We eventually (after driving through what seemed like the entire Salt Lake Valley) hit some awesome garage sales (more about the cute cars I found for John later).

7-She offers to babysit my kids for me so Ryan and I can go out (Yes, we went and saw MI-3 on opening weekend).

6-She plays sword fight with the kids so I don’t have to.

5-She tells us over and over again how beautiful it is here in Utah, and makes us more appreciative of the beauty of Utah in the spring.

4-She cleans up after herself, and doesn’t mind helping with dishes.

3-Even though she ties up the phone for hours at a time, she at least uses her own phone card so I don’t freak out at a big bill long after she’s gone.

2-Hearing her child custody battles and the hoops she has to jump through woos reminds us of how lucky we are to have a good marriage and that we NEVER EVER want to get divorced.

1-I love her like a sister and she is welcome anytime.

Many Thanks to someone at Book Club ( I think it was Janice) who gave me the tip about The Olde Spaghetti Factory. We went there last night and I asked if they could cook me up some rice noodles, and you know what? They did!! So, I got to have the potpouri with the 4 different sauces–yum! It’s been a good 10 years since I have had good Spaghetti, and it was really a nice treat!

It’s BYU Women’s conference this weekend, and while I’ve gone for the past couple of years, I wasn’t planning on going this year, since Robin wasn’t planning on coming up for it. She’s come about every year for the past 10 or so years, and always stays with us. We always love it when she comes, sometimes with her kids, and sometimes without. Well, she was in the middle of a nasty court battle with her ex, and had a court date scheduled which conflicted with Women’s conference. Her lawyer informed her this week that they needed to settle, accept the recommendations of the court appointed family mediator, and not go to court. So, at the last minute, she booked a flight, and decided to come to Women’s conference. She said she needed to recharge her spritual batteries, especially after the last two months of this battle.

So, we welcome Robin this weekend, and even though I can’t get away to join her at women’s conference, I’ll watch some of it on tv and join in the spirit of women’s conference. I hope she finds just the right classes she needs to hear, and has a good time.

I didn’t get my house clean for her, and the first night she slept on the couch because we thought she wasn’t coming until I got her message after rehearsal Wednesday night. But she doesn’t seem to care that the accommidations aren’t fancy. She puts up with my kids talking to her incessantly while she does her hair and makeup in the morning, and she even came to a lovely band and orchestra concert last night! She’s a good sport.

So, tonight we will eat the obligatory meal at the Olde Spaghetti Factory (her favorite place to eat when she’s here), and go garage sale hunting on Saturday morning. Fun Fun fun!
Speaking of the band concert, the kids did a great job. The highlights were a Saxaphone Solo of “the Pink Panther”, a sax and trumpet duet of “Tequila”, “The Phantom of the Opera”, and “Pirates of the Caribean” played by the whole group. I’m impressed with those kids, and the patience of their teachers!

I’ve had a few days of craftiness lately. Not that I’m not crafty, but craft-y in the sense of finally finishing some projects I’ve had going on for quite some time. First of all, I made myself a clock. I’ve been eyeing those large 24 inch clocks but they’ve all been so expensive (over $100 seems excessive for a clock, in my cheap and humble opinion). So, when I saw a wonderfully personalized one at my friend Linda’s, I was fascinated and asked her how she had done it. She told me it was quite easy and she could get me all the instructions and even the letters and numbers through her company, Just Stick em up
So, I’ve been working on this clock, and then anxiously waiting for the actual clock parts to arrive so I could put the whole thing together. Well, I finally got everything done, and it looks like this:

My sister did some drawings of my kids (for Christmas), and it’s taken me a while to get frames for them, and decide where they were going to go, but I finally got those hung, too. This isn’t the greatest picture, but it looks kind of like this:

And with the clock there, too, it looks kind of like this:

So, I’m pleased with the whole thing. I will probably move that clock to a bigger wall when I figure something out, but that’s the joy of decorating, it’s never done, and since I live in this house and see my walls all day, I get tired of them, and need to change things out frequently.

Oh, and I also painted my kitchen bench red, and will someday paint the whole table (don’t hold your breath, I’ve got 5 kids coming over for playgroup today so there will certainly be no painting right now). But the bench is fun, so far, and it looks like this: It’s a bit on the orange side in that picture, but when I get the black glaze over it, it should tone it down a bit.

And just to show you that I’m not exactly the picture of efficency as you may think from all these lovely photos, I’ll just show you this one, of a mishap that demonstrates what can happen when diswashers go awry.

I’ve almost got that burned plastic smell out of the kitchen by now.

Oh, and one more–I know, I know, stop already. But now I have to brag about my children, who were in a DARLING play on Saturday. It was called “Once upon a lilypad”, and it was the culmination of a class the kids have taken through Highland City. Megan was a snake, and Natalie was a turtle. How cute it this?