Thursday Things

I am so tired. I have had so much going on this week between work and home that I've chosen to give up some of my sleep to get things done. I've been up at 3:00am and 3:30am all week and hitting the sack between 10:00pm and 11:00pm. It is catching up with me and I'm so tired.

My MIL and mom drove up together today from St. George for the weekend. I'm so happy to have my mom here she is such a help when I need her and feel stressed. She always helps with the kids or my house and then she gives me the best back rubs before I go to bed.

Mom stopped by the office to say hi this afternoon and played with the baby while I finished up with a meeting. Just as I was finishing up A threw up and I just though maybe she had gagged or something. Within an hour on our drive from the office to home she puked three more times in the car and then throughout this evening. I don't know where this has come from and I have family coming in tomorrow so she can't be sick. Everytime I give her a little Pedialyte she throws it up. Luckily with Mom here she sat with Grandma and I was able to make dinner and do a few other things and Grandma was happy to hold her and snuggle with her. When I was getting her ready for bed she cried so much for a bottle but of course I didn't give it to her. I just pray she doesn't get sick tonight and I don't have to do several loads of laundry throughout the night due to vomit.

I called the doctor to see if this could be a reaction to her shots yesterday but they said it wasn't so she has just picked up a yucky bug again (this is the 2nd time in 2 1/2 weeks).

I was able to get everyone in bed and scrub my floor and finish up cleaning the back bedroom in the basement. I still have laundry to get done (but Mom will help).

Well Check Appointments

I took A and Z to the doctor today for their well child checks (A for 1 year and Z for 8 year). I actually dragged all three kids (so much fun) and they got the flu shot which the older two were very upset about. A got three of her vaccine shots, the flu shot and they did a blood draw and had to poke her twice so the poor thing had six pokies.

A
Weight: 22 pounds 8 ounces (65%)
Length: 30.5 inches (79%)

Z
Weight: 43 pounds 6 ounces (2%)
Length: 3'11" (5%)

Tuesday Things

Last night I added the lights and ribbon to our Christmas tree. Am I the only one who doesn't think putting up the Christmas tree is fun? It's supposed to be a family tradition that everyone loves but I am so crabby until it's done. The kids want to help but they are in the way and they can't really help with the lights, the lights are a PAIN to put one. I always want a ton more lights on the tree but they are such a pain that I just settle for a medium about of lights. Tonight the kids will hang the ornaments and they will just be clumped together and not look as nice as if I were to do it. The ornament part isn't so bad (it's mainly the lights I hate) and the kids will have so much fun that even though they won't look perfect I'll be okay with it. They are very excited about the tree.

I bought some new lights, they are small bulb lights and I had so many problems with them breaking. I thought it would make the tree look better but it looks the same as our regular lights only I cut my fingers mulitple times trying to change out the bulbs and cleaning up the broken ones. Next year I will stick to my regular lights.

I found some only decorations I don't think I'll use anymore and I wonder if it's okay to give this kind of stuff to the DI. There are missing things and used tinsel ribbon stuff that it still perfectly good and I just hate to throw it away if someone else can use it.

I need to get the remainder of the Christmas decorations up around the house and I hoping to do this while the kids are in school to make it less chaotic. I also need to run to the distribuation center to get R some white pants for the baptism and also for his temple bag. I have lots of cleaning to do, I need to clean out the two spare rooms down stairs since I have family coming. I've been so tired lately so I'm hoping I can do alot of this in the morning before I lose my energy.

Monday

Yesterday afternoon Z went into work with his dad (S was very upset and wanted to go as well but she stayed home with A and I). While at the office Z was messing around with many things on my desk. He faxed us some letters home. When the phone rang S ran to answer it but I stopped her and told her the fax would pick it up. S stopped, looked at me and asked if Fax had hands?

Weekly Menu

Weekly Menu

Monday:
Bacon, Eggs, Blue Cheese Biscuits, Potatoes

Tuesday:
Navajo Tacos

Wednesday:
Chicken Alfredo, Green Beans

Thursday:
Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes, Carrots

Friday:
Baked Ziti, Salad, Garlic Bread

Saturday:
Ham, Potatoes, Salads

Sunday:
Chicken Catalina, Rice, Corn

Friday Fun

We had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. R's sister Holly, her boys and R's brother Rick and his girlfriend came over for dinner. It was nice to sit and visit with them during and after dinner. Z and S went to Holly's house to sleep over and I sent her home with dinner leftovers. After everyone left our house was so quiet with only A to make noise. R and I watched Christmas with the Kranks and laid around.

I slept in this morning until 7:30am and got a slow start. It was just so weird not having the older 2 running around keeping me busy. I went to work for about 2 hours and then drove up to Ogden to pick up my kids. Of course they didn't want to come home but they did so crying and arguing with me.

R came home for work early enough tonight that I was able to pick up a Christmas gift for him. I looked around for the kids trying to get some ideas but I'm really struggeling with what to get for Z. Z's baptism is in a week and R and I discussed what to get him for his baptism. I know the traditional gift is scriptures but he has a perfectly good set right now. They aren't the leather bound scriptures they are the ones with the red covers (like the blue covered BoM the missionaries give away). I think I might just wait and get him some when he is 12'ish, but I'll think about it a little more this week.

I finally folded all the clean clothes on the bed in the spare bedroom. There were about 5 loads of clean clothes on the bed. I even paired up about 50 socks which I hate doing. I am doing some wash right now and I just hope I can keep up with it this week. We have family coming for next weekend so I have a lot to do to get ready. I also am hoping to work on my posterboard anoucements for the Ward Christmas Breakfast.

Thanksgiving Highlights

• Sleeping in until 7:00am
• Listening to Christmas music while I cooked
• Real whipping cream
• The smell of all the food cooking
• Pumpkin Pie with whipping cream
• The kids sleeping over at their aunt's house
• Watching a Christmas movie befrore going to bed
• Finishing a Christmas book I started last year,

Family Pictures

Tammy took our family pictures at the end of October. They turned out great. I'm so happy to have new pictures of A. With my other two kids I was very reglious about getting their baby pictures taken. They were taken as newborns, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 1 year, 18 months and every year. Since Tammy took A's pictures last year as a newborn I haven't taken any other professional photos of her.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday Wonderings

I spent most of this morning working from home with the kids running wild. Finally about 11:00am we all got ready for the day, with a lot of muttering from the kids since they don't have school today. We had to make a quick grocery run since I did forget a few things yesterday and then we stopped at Blockbuster so Z could rent a Wii game.

I am hoping to finish cleaning and start preparing some of my dinner for tomorrow. We talked about going to Tiffany's house for dinner but we were unsure about wether or not R for have to work and he is always on call so we decided to stay home. R also invited his sister and brother to our dinner so it won't just be us. I am looking forward to visiting with family and then after cleaning up relaxing and taking a nap, reading a book or watching a Christmas movie. I don't want to feel guilty like I should be doing something else, I just want to relax.

It seems like I have a hard time relaxing without feeling like I should be doing something else. There is ALWAYS something to do and altough I'm not always doing those things I need to do I am tired about feeling bad when I don't do them.

My mom is working tomorrow and then will probably go to her sister's house for dinner (although she had told us she will go there and doesn't so we won't worry about her). I wish she lived closer so we could spend the holiday with her. I hate that she has to do her holidays alone.

Pinewood Derby

Z didn't win anything awards at the Pinewood Derby but he had so much fun. At first I was bummed that he didn't win or come in 2nd or 3rd place, but when we got home I asked him if he had fun and he said, "YES!" I asked him what is favorite part of tonight was and he said having fun with the other scouts and racing. Since Z didn't feel the least bit bad about not winning anything I didn't either (although I think next year we need to do more research on how to make a winning car).

Tuesday Trivia

I don't normally go to work on Tuesdays but I ran in this morning to do what had to be done at the office so I won't have to go in tomorrow since the kids are home from school. I made a few stops along the way, like at Target to pick up the Baby Alive doll for S since it was on sale for $32.99 from $49.99. Why she wants a baby that eats and poops is beyond me since she has the real thing already. After I picked up S from school we went grocery shopping, I had my list so I am hoping I got everything so I don't have to fight the crowds tomorrow.

Z has the Pinewood Derby tonight and is very excited about it. He has loved working on his car with his dad. I laugh because it seems like the Derby is more for the dads than the cub scouts. Someone told me I need to watch the LDS Pinewood Derby movie, that it's really funny.

I'm hoping tomorrow I can clean my house and start working on Thanksgiving dinner so I can enjoy Thursday more and not feel guilty about relaxing after dinner. I think it may be just us although R said his sister may come.

Grandma's Salad

Grandma's Salad

1 8 ounce carton frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 20 ounce can crushed pineapple, drained
1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl; mix well. Chill overnight. Add crushed graham crackers before serving.

Monday Evening

Yesterday afternoon we made it home from Price. 'A had been sick with a fever and throwing up the entire weekend so when I came out of Spanish Fork Canyon I called Kid's Care to make her a doctor's appointment. Of course once at the doctor she no longer had a fever (she was burning up all weekend). The doctor said her throat was red so they did a strep test that came back negative and I was told she just had a virus of some sort. Poor A all weekend. She is feeling much better today and hasn't thrown up at all and has even started eating a little.

Other than A being sick my weekend with the family was good. Katie came from Colorado and Tiffany came down from Logan. We all stayed with either Dad or Kris and the cousins had so much fun playing together. Katie sells Tupperware so Denise and Kris had Tupperware parties. As I was trying to decide what to buy because there were so many things I wanted I came up with a brillant plan. It is only $99.00 to sign up to sell Tupperware and there were several things in the beginners kit that I wanted (it's a $450.00 value) so I signed up to sell Tupperware. Then in the next four months I have to turn at least a $250.00 order in to keep my dealer license active, but if not in the next four months I can still order some of the things I want at a discount. I haven't been to a Tupperware party for ten years and things have really changed and there are a lot of cool things.

Of course this week is super busy and work and I have so much to do at home. We have been thinking about going to Tiffany's for Thanksgiving dinner but R may get called into work so we may just stay home.

Weekly Menu

Weekly Menu

Monday:

Oven Baked Pork Chops

Rice

Green Beans

French Bread

Tuesday:

Spaghetti

Salad

Garlic Bread

Wednesday:

Sandwiches

Carrots & Dip

Thursday:

Thanksgiving Dinner

Friday:

Leftovers

Saturday:

Cornbread Turkey Pot Pie

Salad

Fruit

Sunday:

Turkey Crasin Puffs

Veggies & Dip

Wednesday Worries

I have over scheduled myself today. Ugg! Between work meetings, early out for school and doctor's appointments. I'm hoping I can call the doctor first thing this morning and reschedule without a charge for less than 24 hours notice.

My second meeting was scheduled last minute. It's one of our biggest accounts and they have some contract changes they want to make but she wouldn't give me a clue to the changes. It would be nice to go into this meeting knowing what they would like. There's no way I can make it from this meeting to pick the kids up and then get them to the doctor appointment on time and R needs to be at the meeting also so he can't help me.

I totally forgot about S's gymnastics class the other day. I feel like I am losing my mind and my memory along with it. I genearlly have a good memory so when I forget things that happen every week or double schedule myself I get frustrated with myself. Oh well, in the end it will all work out and it'll be fine.

Tuesday Thoughts

I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week. Of course we still haven't decided what we are doing. Tiffany invited us to Logan to have dinner with them but I don't know how work will be and if there will be enough drivers. We are on call and sometimes R is called in latter in the day so I'm sure sure if we should be in Logan. I plan on buying everything to make dinner anyway because I love the Thanksgiving feast and even if we go to Logan I would be it the following day on Sunday or something.

My sister Kris called yesterday to say they were heading to Salt Lake to talk to a lawyer about a car accident she was in a while back. The person at fault's insurance company is screwing her around so they are taking it to the next level to at least get the money the have had to pay out of pocket for insurance and stuff. We meet her and Shaun for a late lunch/early dinner at Ruby River Steakhouse. It was nice to visit with them, I haven't seen them for some time. Of course my kids were not the perfectly mannered children especially since Shaun was teasing them and they were tyring to tickle and kick him.

I had a parent teacher conference with S's teacher. Teacher had good things to say about S; that she is a good worker and doens't talk as much as I was afraid she did and also that S is very social. S is a young kindergartener and her teacher said there a alot of young summer birhtdays in her class this year. She said S is doing good for her age. We made a goal to work harder on her weekly sounds. I have a parent teacher conference with Z's teacher this afternoon.

My sister Katie is heading the Emery County this weekend for a visit so Friday after school the kids and I will head down also. Tiffany will come down early Saturday morning. My kids are excited to see their cousin Mariah and all the other cousins. Since Mariah lives in Colorado we just don't see them as often. Katie has started selling tupperware so Kris and Denise are both having tupperware parties while Katie is visiting.

I have seen some Christmas trees up in peoples windows already. I am tempted to put mine up just to get it out of the way. I started thinking that I don't know how I'm going to be able to keep my tree up with A. She is Miss Tornado and is into everything. I just don't know how she will leave the tree alone. I'm tempted to get a small tree and put it on top of a table so she can't reach it. R probalby thinks it will be fine, but she will play with everything and pull it off.

Weekly Menu

Weekly Menu

Monday:
Dinner at Ruby River Steak House

Tuesday:
Chicken Rollups
Fresh Canberry Salad
Green Beans

Wednesday:
Chicken Alfredo
Salad
Garlic Bread

Thursday:
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Canned Peaches
Carrots and Randy

Friday:
Emery County

Saturday:
Emery County

Sunday:
Emery County

Happy Veteran's Day

Fresh Cranberry Salad

Fresh Cranberry Salad

2 packages fresh cranberries

12 oz. each - chopped about the size of rice

4 cups sugar

4 cups grapes, halved

1 cup chopped pecans

2 cups whipped cream (no sugar added)

Mix the chopped cranberries with the sugar and put in a colander. Seep all night. Throw away the liquid sugar stuff. Make sure the berries drain rather than set in the liquid. Add grapes and nuts. Whip cream and fold into fruit and nuts.

Sunday Blessings

Z had his sleepover Friday night and they had a good time. The boys stayed up way to late so of course I had a sleepy Z yesterday. I should have planned a fun family Saturday because all Z's friend's were busy so he had a boring birthday day and spent part of it being mad at me because his friends couldn't play. When R came home from work last night he took Z and S to see the Bee Movie and I stayed home with A and folded laundry and working on my Young Women lesson.

My lesson went okay today although we got done a little early. I'm sure the girls are happy to have extra time to hang out between classes.

My visiting teachers were just here and we talked about Elder Ering talk on keeping a journal. I am not so good at this but my visting teachers gave me hope. I really have great visiting teachers and I love to visit with them.

I am on the activity committe in our ward and we have a meeting in an hour for our ward Christmas Breakfast at the beginning of December. I don't want to be in charge of decorations so I'm hoping to either do advertising or the food. R is still at work so I have to drag with kids with me which I'm sure will make the meeting super fun for all involved. Maybe we'll sit in the nursery so the kids can play.

I picked up our disk of family pictures from Tammy yesterday. They turned out so cute and she made us two family Christmas cards to choose from and a baptism invitation for Z. I need to sit down and order the prints I want and start working on our family Christmas letter.

Happy 8th Birthday Z!!

Finally Friday

Who knew these little guys could stay up so late??? The boys from he slumber party are still going strong and I'm pooping out. I told them in a half hour they at least need to watch a movie and be quiet downstairs so I can go to sleep, I've had a long day. Overall the party has been fun for Z and his friends. We had pizza and a Dairy Queen ice cream cake and they opened gifts. Z loved his new Nintendo DS and I gave him a game he has been wanting. I lead him to believe he was getting a new suit for his birthday and he was not excited about it at all.

I can't believe Z will be eight tomorrow. It seems like time goes so fast and the next minute it seems to crawl along. Z will be bapized December 1st and he is so excited. I'm pretty sure he doesn't totally understand the whole baptism thing but I didn't either. He has a small testimony and as he grows so will his testimony.

S was quite the nurturer tonight taking care of the boys and making sure they had what they needed. She so cute about it and it was so hard for her to finally go to bed a few minutes ago. S thinks she should be able to sleep with the boys and do whatever they do.

I'm going to try to get them to bed so I can sleep.

Thursday Thoughs

Binks is home and the kids are so happy. Tuesday someone called and said they had our dog so R went to pick him up. The girl explained that her brother who doesn't speak english almost hit him in West Valley and took him home to Rose Park. He tried the number on the tag but didn't leave a message since he didn't speak english ( we didn't have any unexplained numbers on our caller id because we had been watching it). The girl finally called us Tuesday, they had bought Binks a big bag of dogfood and his tags were missing (the tags with our phone number) and when R tired to ask where the tags were they said they didin't have them. I'm not sure how they would have gotten our phone number then, but oh well. We figured that since no one had called we would never get him back so although I don't understand why they waited so long to call us, I'm glad they did.

Z's 8th birthday is Saturday and he is having a sleepover birthday party tomorrow night. He is very excited (although I have to admitt that I am not that excited for it). I need to get the basement family room cleaned up today and plan food and games for the party. I also need to go to his class tomorrow for his "Special Day" and I need to come up with treats and an activity of some sort. I think I got most of his birhtday presents but I need to make sure the girls have gotten him something.

Sunday I give the lesson in Young Women's so I need to get working on my lesson. I start getting stressed when I have to give the lesson and I cant' wait until it's over.

Did You Vote Today?

Happy Birthday A!!

Happy first birthday sweet baby!!

Weekly Menu

Weekly Menu


Monday:
Spaghetti, Salad, Garlic Bread

Tuesday:
Stove Top Easy Chicken Bake, Salad

Wednesday:
Ham & Cheddar Loaf, Green Beans

Thursday:
Leftovers

Friday:
Pizza

Saturday:
Chicken Rolls Ups, Corn, Salad

Sunday:
Roast, Mashed Potoates, Peas

Wicked

About two months ago I bought the Wicked soundtrack on Itunes and have been listening to it nonstop. I have informed R many times in the past two months that I want to see Wicked. My hope was that whenever it came to Salt Lake he would get us tickets. Well....last week was my birthday and we were in southern California and R surprised me with tickets to Wicked in Hollywood. I LOVED it! It was so wonderful and I knew the music which made it better. I read the book a few years ago and had been told the musical wasn't like the book so I was so happy so see the humor in the muscial. It was funny and enjoyable. R gives me the best gifts and I was really surprised.

Long before Dorothy drops in, the two other girls meet in the Land of Oz. One born with emerald-green skin is smart, fiery and mistunderstood. the other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. Based on the novel by Gregory Macquire, the spellbinding musical takes a look at how these two unlikely friends grow to become the wicked witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.

Our Family Trip

We are home! A few weeks ago Randy “accidently” bought a trailer from an online auction. We debated whether or not he would go alone to pick it up or make a family trip out of it. Thursday, October 25th we decide to make it a family trip and take the kids to Disneyland. We left early Saturday the 27th so it didn’t leave us very much time to get ready so of course I forgot much needed items.

Saturday night we made it to San Marcos (in the San Diego area) and stayed with Fred and Valerie. We spent Sunday with them eating out at different places and hanging at the beach. The kids loved the beach and although the water was freezing they managed to get very wet. Fred and Valerie took us to some of the fire burned areas near their home. It was awful to see how the fire devastated neighborhoods. It would burn one house to the ground and the home next door was untouched and you could see where the fire jumped to three houses down. So sad.

Monday morning we drove to Anaheim and Disneyland. Randy bought us a 3 day park hopper pass so we could go between Disneyland and California Adventure Park. We started at California Adventure Park and walked on almost every ride. The kids loved Bug’s Land although Sarah didn’t like the interactive movie in Bug’s Land, it really freaked her out, especially when the spiders came down from the ceiling. The kids also loved the Monsters Inc. ride and we went on this several times. We had pictures with characters and ate lots of food. At the end of the day we finally bought autograph books for the kids to get autographs and pictures with the characters. When the park closed at 5:00pm we went to Disneyland and thought about standing in the Finding Nemo Ride line but it was sooo LONG so they went on a few other rides and then we watched the parade. We finally left the park just before closing and went to IHOP for dinner where the kids barely stayed awake.

Tuesday we spent the day in Disneyland and had so much fun. Again we walked on or only had to wait no longer then 15 minutes for every ride except Nemo where the wait was an hour. I think we went on the Buzz Lightyear ride like 8 time throughout our visit. We rode many rides a couple of times and got a lot of signatures and pictures in their autograph books. This time when the park closed, we when to dinner again at IHOP and the kids fell asleep before their food arrived, they were so tired.

Wednesday was Halloween and my birthday. We spent the early part of the day in both parks going on favorite rides and looking for characters we wanted to see. We left the park early because Randy planned a special surprise for me. The kids put the costumes on and we took them the Anaheim Stake President’s wife who Randy made arrangements to watch them and take them trick or treating. We drove into Hollywood and saw the musical Wicked. It was the best gift the show was incredible. I loved it!

Thursday we got a late start because we had such a late night. We picked up the LONG trailer and started our long drive home. We finally pulled in about 3:45am Friday morning. Randy and the kids went to bed while I ran into work to do payroll, which was the whole reason we had to be back by Friday morning. Now I am still doing laundry and putting everything away. It was such a fun trip.

Binks

We are back! We pulled in about 3:45am yesterday morning. The drive back was soooo LONG! We had a wonderful trip and so much fun. I'll post about it when I have more time.

Someone took care of our dog Binks for us while we were gone and I stopped by to pick him up yesterday but we couldn't find him. It looks like Binks we outside through the doggy door and then jumped the short fence and wandered off. He wanders off here but his tags have our phone number listed and someone has always called us when they find him. So far no calls and we are all sad. I'm surprised that I'm sad but I am and the kids have been crying about it. We had family prayer last night and asked that if for Binks to come home but also to be safe and warm. I hope someone calls soon.