Month: April 2008 (Page 2 of 3)

I told you how excited I was about my new Roomba vacuum, right? Now I can go back to cleaning my floors more than once a week (just kidding, I really do clean more than once a week). But this new roomba has some “new and improved” features that I’m not so sure about.
I push the little start button, for example, and the roomba says to me (yes, it talks!) “Please remove and clean roomba’s brushes.”

Um, excuse me? You are a vacuum. A tool. I don’t want you telling me what to do, here, just get busy and clean the floor!

But what do I do? I remove and clean the brushes. I don’t want to make it mad at me and not do any work, now do I?

So I don’t know if I like the “talking back” feature. I get enough of that from my kids, for heaven’s sake. Next thing you know, I’ll push start to get it to vacuum, and it’ll start giving me wardrobe advice, “Are you really going to wear that shirt with those pants? Did you not have time to do your hair this morning?”

All right, already! Shut up and vacuum!

I set up a puzzle on Saturday afternoon. Just something to do with our hands while we were listening to general conference. I imagined us working on it together as a family and rejoicing when we finished it together.
In reality, it was too hard for most of the kids, and Megan soon lost interest. So, it was me doing a puzzle on Saturday. And I soon became a little obsessed. When Ryan and Cole went to the preisthood session, I fed the kids dinner, but I stayed at the counter working on the puzzle. After they ate, the kids wanted to play Wii. Fine. I’m working on a puzzle.

Sunday we didn’t have any time to work on the puzzle, since we had to get everyone ready, listen to the am session, and then we went up and attended the pm session in the conference center. It was a wonderful experience, even with three kids.

But Monday, after I exercised, that puzzle was still there. On the counter. I worked on it for a while, and then Monday night even Ryan caught the puzzle bug and spent a couple of hours on the puzzle after I went to bed.

On Tuesday, I go the kids off to school, exercised, and then sat down at the counter to work on the puzzle for a minute or two. John wanted to start a movie, and he chose ‘Over the Hedge’. About halfway through the movie, he wanted to sit on my lap and “help” do the puzzle. So, I let him help. I would search and search and find where a piece would go, then he would put it in. It was actually fun. A friend called me at around 11:15, and I realized I had been working on that puzzle for almost two hours. Oh, let me just take a shower, and then we can get the boys together to play. How embarrassing! 11:00 and I’m still in my work-out clothes working on a puzzle! But I was almost done! Tuesday afternoon when Cole came home, he and I finished the last few pieces of the puzzle. Except for one piece, which is missing somewhere. Hooray! The puzzle is done!

Off Cole went to piano lessons, and I went upstairs for something or other. When I came back into the kitchen, the puzzle was again in pieces. It hadn’t even been completed long enough for me to take a picture. I couldn’t believe it! The little culprit was sitting right there in the kitchen. “John,” I asked, “what happened to this puzzle?” “I don’t know,” he said.

ARRG!

Since the puzzle wasn’t completely destroyed, and since it’s always easier to do a puzzle the second time, some of the kids started working on putting it back together. I didn’t join them. I already did that puzzle, once, I’m thinking, I don’t really have the time to devote to completing it again. Today, sick of the puzzle and wanting my counter back, I put the whole thing back in the box. Back into the closet it will go, not to be looked at for at least another six months.

“There is no role in life more essential and more eternal than that of motherhood.” ~ M. Russell Ballard

His was one of my favorite talks on Sunday.

It’s been kind of sad and lonely at our house lately. You see, our fun little pet, Roomba, has been ailing for a while. He would start vacuuming a room, and then two minutes later he would stop and say he was done. Kind of like a child. So, I would have to kindly tell him that no, he was not done, yet, and he’d have to keep on cleaning until he actually picked up some of the crumbs on the floor. Not unlike my 4 year old, his work has been pretty sloppy lately. Oh, Roomba–don’t dis me like this! We’ve tried everything to perk little Roomba up. We did a thorough cleaning, sensor adjusting, battery charging, and everything we could possibly think of, but he still wasn’t pulling his weight around here.

So we had to resort to vacuuming with the central vac. Now there’s nothing wrong with the central vac, I actually love it! It does a great job at getting ALL the crumbs off the floor and getting in all those nooks and crannies of each room. But you have to get out the whole long hose thing, and the vacuum thing, and hook them together and all that. I’m also a fan of having someone else do the work for me. I mean, with Roomba, you just set it down in a room and tell it to go to work. When I mentioned to my mom that my roomba wasn’t working right anymore, she seemed amazed and said, “You mean you use it all the time?” like it’s only a vacuum for special occasions or something. Hmm. Maybe that wasn’t the coolest gift to give her if she’s not going to actually use it. But, yes, we use it ALL THE TIME. Everyday. That is, when it’s working.

So, Ryan has been watching the Woot sales, and the other day he ordered me a new Roomba. Hooray! Happy, happy, Joy, joy! It came yesterday and we charged it overnight. Isn’t that sleek looking? So, this morning was time for the inaugural vacuum. I couldn’t figure out how to turn it on. I had to actually look in the instruction manual to see how to do it (but I don’t feel too stupid, Ryan couldn’t figure it out without reading, either). So, off it went. Oh, the smoothness, oh the quietness! Really, it’s quieter than the old one. It picked up all the bird seeds and spilled popcorn and crumbs in my kitchen, and I think we’re going to be quite happy with it.

As it was making it’s way around the kitchen, Jenna said, “Maybe this new roomba will make the other roomba feel better, and then it will start working again, too.”
“That would be nice” I said. I know that Ryan’s been itching to take apart the old one and see if he can fix it, and now he can do that without feeling like he destroyed something that was still actually “working”, even if it was only working a little bit.
“I think this Roomba is a girl,” Jenna continued, “because it’s so pretty. And the other one is a boy, because it’s so handsome. And maybe they’ll get together and have little baby Roombas, and then we could each have one in our rooms.”
I like how you think, kid! Let’s get those two together and see what happens.

Speaking of lazy (it’s in the title of this post, you know), I’m training for a 5K again. How sad is it that I actually have to train for a 5K. Any normal person in decent shape should just be able to get up on any given day and walk or jog for 3 miles, right? Well, I’m not a normal person in decent shape, and I have to work up to that. My friend DaNae has started a little running group, and she’s even got a blog. I’ve guest posted, myself (like I have anything to say in a running forum! What a joke!). You can check it out at here. Anyway, I’ve been trying to follow an interval training schedule, where you walk for 90 seconds and then jog for a minute–lather, rinse, repeat. I’m doing two miles, but I don’t run 1/2 of it by any means–yet.

I’d like to someday be someone who ‘jogs’. Wouldn’t that be cool? To just go out for a ‘jog’? Or to even be able to say “I think I’ll go for a jog” without having everyone in the room laughing in hysterics at the mere suggestion that Paige would actually jog. If only I had Bob or Jillian here to kick my butt in gear. But anyway, we’re going to do a 5K in May, and then maybe another one in the summer if that one doesn’t kill me. I did survive that one in the fall, so maybe I won’t actually die from the experience–I hope.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go and hit the treadmill. Get my jogging in, you know. Because, like Bob, “I jog!” (10 blogger points if you get that reference)

Soccer season has started, or didn’t you notice? When the wind is blowing and there’s snow on the ground, but the tulips try to poke out of the ground (so the deer can eat them), that’s when it’s time for spring soccer to start.

But didn’t you just barely finish winter indoor soccer? you might ask.

Yes, we did. In March. And now it’s April and we’re into soccer full swing. Megan now has two practices and about two games every week. Which means that we she straps on the shin guards on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. She’s never happier. I went to a game last night in Lehi, and didn’t quite freeze my tail off, but it was close. I was wearing a jacket and a wool coat and scarf, with a blanket over me. I would have had gloves on if I could have found two in the car. Megan at least dressed warmly, this time, in a sweatshirt under her jersey and long pants under her shorts. I suggested leggins, but she scoffed loudly at that idea, telling me in no uncertain terms how stupid leggins are. Well, excuse me. Last Saturday, Ryan got up and went to her 8:30 am game, and even though I had told her the night before that it was indeed going to be cold and she’d better wear at the very least a long sleeved shirt under her jersey and long pants, she was out the door in her plain old uniform of shorts and a short sleeved shirt. By the end of the game, she was crying–she was so cold. Hopefully after that experience she will listen to me a little bit more when I give advice on how to stay warm.

We’re hoping that eventually spring will come, and we’re also hoping it happens before the entire season is over.

So, if you’re wondering where we are, we’re at soccer.