The Trials of a Busy Mom
John came to me and said, “I want to play Ho-wa-a-boo.”
“What?” I asked. I mean, I understand 3 year old, but this one throwing me for a loop.
“Hula-a-boo,” he said.
Realizing he meant the game “Hullabaloo”, but still wanting to tease him a bit, I said, “Hula-blue too?”
“No! Ho-wa-a boo!”
“Oh! Hullabaloo.”
“That’s what I was saying!”
Yesterday in talking with Jenna, she told me that the desk fairy had come to their classroom and she had the cleanest desk, and she got 12 candies!
“Wow!” I said, “that is so cool! Do you think the desk fairy has a cousin? We need a visit from the room fairy.”
“No, Mom. I asked her, and she said she has no brothers or sisters. Or cousins.”
“Well, maybe I can ask the teacher how to get ahold of a room fairy so she could come and check your room.”
“No. I’m pretty sure there are no room fairies,” she said with authority.
That’s what she thinks. He He he he.
John had his first day at his new preschool today. By the time the whole bunch of us were signing up, they only had afternoon spots open, so he goes from 12:30-3:00 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Today my afternoon alone. He’ll be home any minute to tell me how much fun it was.
I had my own fun. I ate lunch, cleaned the kitchen floor, started some laundry, then TOOK A Nap! Not a huge nap or anything, but a nap just the same. And it was so nice! I think I can get used to this afternoon preschool thing.
Of course, I thought about going to the grocery store or the school or some other such errands, but I really wanted my first day of preschool to be relaxing. I hope John enjoyed it as much as I did.
Overwhelmed with Joy is sponsoring another pay it forward book exchange, and I, too, have a book to give away. I just finished reading the book Crime and Clutter. 
I won this from Julie at Joyful Days when she had a book drawing, and I enjoyed it. It’s a fun, clean book, with fun recipes. Maybe I should copy some of the recipes before I give it away, shouldn’t I? Good idea. Here’s the blurb about it..
A storage unit, a 1963 Volkswagen minibus, and tattered letters…reveal shattering secrets from the ’60s.
It’s been a year since Mary Alice lost her father — the father she never really knew. Now she’s stuck cleaning out his rubbish from a storage unit. Just when she’d rather it all go away from her well-ordered life, her long-held secret is discovered by the feisty Marina, one of the six members of the Friday Afternoon Club.
When these friends make it their mission to help Mary Alice tackle her stash, they arrive at the storage unit, prepared to clean. But what they discover takes them on a riotous ride through the crime and clutter of the sixties, the angst and betrayal of those caught in The Revolution, and the forgiveness that can only come through acceptance of a different kind of Cause.
Includes fun, easy, and tantalizing recipes!
To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment. I will have the kids draw a name for a winner next Friday, th 14th. It’s just that easy!
First, I’d like to thank Ryan for posting that picture on Saturday. And then if you wanted, you could look at all 100 pictures we took that day. I can’t believe we took that many pictures! Well, we did give Cole the camera during the present opening, so we did get some pictures like this:
 We’d like to thank Julene for making that fun fire hydrant cake! I was looking at it and I said, “you forgot a letter.” “What?” She thought I was kidding, but sure enough, if you look closely, you’ll see:
that we’re wishing him a Happy Birtday. No worries, he’s four. Julene could not believe that, and started thinking she could take some of the white frosting and squish an h in there, but we wouldn’t let her. This is her first ever lettering mistake, after all. So, yes, we have to embarrass her and point it out. Cause we’re so nice that way. Anyway, all the kids wanted fire hydrant pieces (made from twinkies!) and loved the cake.
We really enjoyed the fire station mini tour for the kids. John even got to sit up in the drivers seat.  
And Cole got to try on the suit. He didn’t really want to, but we made him. Because we’re such good and loving parents. 
All the kids, even the big ones, seemed to really think those fire trucks were cool. And it was free! I did take a giant cookie and a thank you note, which they seemed to appreciate, but they didn’t charge me anything for the tour.
  They also enjoyed the pinata. But what group of boys (or girls for that matter) doesn’t enjoy hitting things with a stick with the intention of breaking it to get candy out of it. Whoever invented the pinata was really brilliant. 
 
I also just have to tell you a little bit about the skit we did for school on Friday. I had to do a little introduction to the Reflections contest for the school, and I decided to just have Megan and her friends do it for me. When I was trying to write it (last Monday–yes, I plan ahead), I was just having a mental block, so I started thinking about what costumes I actually have. Well, we have a huge Nemo costume, and everyone has one or two witch costumes, right? So, I wrote the skit around that.  Four witches and a fish.
They did such a great job! I may never have to be in my own skit again!
 
And we had a bunch of parties/dinners this weekend, too. Friday night I got together with my dear friends for dinner; always fun! Saturday night we had my cousin and her husband over for dinner, then Monday we went over to our friend Tess’s house for a wonderful barbeque. We tried our hand at making homemade ice cream. Even though we didn’t have quite enough ice (the grocery store was out, can you believe it?) it turned out yummy.
But the festivities end today. Ryan will be out of town for the next week and I will be singlehandedly managing the household. And lucky me–this week we have two soccer games, two soccer practices, two dance lessons, only one piano lesson, four days of early morning band or orchestra, scouts, and a ward party. So far. Wish me luck.
Hi, Ryan here.
With John’s 4th Birthday celebration, a pre-Labor Day BBQ, and a BYU Home game on TV, it’s been a busy day today.
Since Paige is the poet, I’ll just let you see what we did:
http://www.ericksonfamily.com/gallery/01-Sep-2007/
BTW: Go Cougars! Woo!
Today while at the grocery store, I was seriously thinking about which brand and size of toilet paper was the better deal. If I use this coupon, would it be cheaper than buying that brand without a coupon? Boring, I know. I looked over at the other side of the isle, and there were these Scotties hypoallergenic tissues. I haven’t really heard of this brand, but they were on sale for $1 a box, so I was interested. We go through a lot of tissues in our house (yes, I have a box in every room of the house AND the cars. It’s called being prepared.), so I’m always trying to get them when they are on sale, and I have to make sure to NEVER EVER even think about buying the Puffs with LOTION. Or the cool antibacterial kind. Why? Need you ask? The anti-lotionator who I live with, that’s why. Just teasin’, Ryan. So, when I see non-scented tissues for cheap, I start tossing them into the cart.
As I was grabbing a box, I knocked over this silly looking little black box thing, which fell on the floor. As I bent to pick it up, it spit out a coupon. A coupon for the exact product I was currently putting in my cart. 30 cents off each box of Scotties Hypoallergenic tissues. Wow! Not 30 cents off when you buy three boxes, as is typically the case with those pop-up coupons. But it appeared to be out of coupons. Oh, darn. Hey, look, there’s one crumpled up on the shelf. I uncrumple it, and sure enough, it’s a coupon for Scotties. Just then, the little coupon spitter decides to pop out another coupon. Ok. I’ll take it, thanks. I picked up the coupon thing to see if I could make it give me one more. I bang it on the top, and out comes another one, accompanied by a sad little noise, like the coupon thing is saying, “I’m tired. Could you just leave me alone?” But, no I will NOT leave it alone, because I can use all the coupons I can get. Bang Bang Bang. Nothing. Just when I’m about to leave and continue with my shopping, out comes a coupon. What the heck? Bang Bang. Maybe I should drop it on the floor again. I wait a minute, and sure enough, out comes another coupon. This goes on for quite some time, and I’m laughing to myself wondering if there’s some hidden camera there, and they wait until I’m about to leave to make the little coupon device give up it’s precious 30 cent coupon. I even look around to see if anyone is watching me, or if I can see the hidden camera. Reality tv show, maybe?
I ended up with 10. I don’t know how many I could have gotten out of the stingy little thing, had I had the patience to wait. But it gave me a good laugh, and I saved $3.00 on my 10 boxes of tissues.
You could win this beautiful bag from 7 loaves. To learn more about this contest or to enter, go read about it at: Easy Contest – Win a 7 Loaves Purse
You could win the book Chocolate Beach, by checking out this contest here.
And who couldn’t use a photo printer? 
You can enter here to win this puppy.
So, go forth and enter.
Today I have a tip that I just learned about in a book. Not a household tips or cleaning book or anything, but a novel (because that’s all I read). If you break a glass and there are glass shards all over the floor, the broom and the dustpan may not get all the little pieces up. Use a piece of bread to “mop” up the shards. The little nasty pieces of glass that you may not be able to see will all get stuck in the bread, and then you just throw that bread away.
For more valuable tips, visit Rocks in my Dryer.
Where have you been, Paige? You post three posts on Friday and then you abandon us for three days–what gives?
Well, don’t you wish you knew! I’ve been kind of busy here, folks. Since I blogged last, we’ve: driven up to Smithfield for Ryan’s nephew’s “mission farewell” on Sunday, then drove back in time to go to a neighborhood potluck dinner (too much food!); went to a friend’s 40th birthday party and the kids ended up playing in the ditch until they were soaking wet; I went to see the Nanny Diaries with some friends; John and I went to the zoo with friends Melinda and Will.
I’ve also been working on a skit for the reflections kick off assembly. I’ve got one written now, and I’ll tell you it’s a riviting script with four witches and a fish. Stellar writing, that one is. I’ve also got to get the handouts ready, figure out when the due dates are, and get everything ready for Friday. Am I remotely ready? Nope.
I’m also planning John’s birthday party for Saturday, and we finally went today and bought the invitations and filled them out. We’ve delivered 6 of them, and he’s bugging me to deliver the last two. We’ll be going to the fire station to take a look at the trucks. I’m sure I’ll tell you all about it and include pictures of the excitement.
And, I’m working on writing an article for the upcoming “Keeping Tabs” newsletter. That’s the tabernacle choir’s semi-annual newsletter, and for the last couple of issues, I’ve written an article about the bell choir. Have I not mentioned this before? Oh. I don’t even really remember how I met the editor, but we started talking, and I must have emailed her a picture she asked for, or something. But later she emailed me and asked me if I wouldn’t mind writing an article about what we are doing in the bell choir. And she just keeps asking me to write one. Probably because she doesn’t know anyone else to ask to write it, but I’m ok with that. She even listed me as an “associate editor”.
Can you believe that? Me an associate editor? You can actually read the whole little article I wrote here, if you are interested. But I’m rambling (what else is new?). So, like I said, I’m working on another article for that.
So, I’ve been a little bit busy and haven’t gotten to the blog. And my son seems to think he needs to use my computer every moment that he’s home. School project? Whatever. What’s your excuse?
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