I'm ALIVE!

Yeah.  I haven't blogged forever and now I am finally playing catch up.  I hadn't realized that it had been SOOO long since I blogged!  I guess my Inner Blogging Voice has just been covered up by my Inner You-Have-A-Lot-To-Do-To-Get-Ready-For-Christmas Voice.

• All my presents are bought/made, wrapped, and shipped.  Whew.  I have been sewing fleece pajama pants for the kids, some doll pajamas for Adele's new doll and a blanket for Adele.
• I actually sent out Christmas cards this year (*gasp*).  I hardly ever do but I was bullied into it this year.  And I am glad because there are some people out there who don't read my blog (shocker!) so they never get a chance to see how the kiddos are growing and how many more wrinkles Kent and I are developing.
• I made fudge today. I felt really proud of myself. I love fudge but I have feared making it since the Christmas of 2000 when I tried to make it and failed.  It was all grainy and gross.  All the years after that I just hoped someone would give us some.  This year I got brave and made this recipe.  Just leave it to my bffs Kate and Sara to save the day again!  Today I declared fudge to be my favorite food.
  Then I went and ran 5 miles on my treadmill to help mitigate the fudge-damage I have done today.
• My great friend Amy won't be able to make it to our house for Christmas and we are all really sad about that.  She has spent many Christmases with us over the last 8 years and this may only be the second or third time she won't be here.  (Amy, we will miss you soooo much this year).
• Adele has been trying to be obedient lately.  She is very determined to stay off the "naughty list".  She has done a pretty good job too.  She hasn't cut her hair, drawn on the walls or anything truly destructive since last time I blogged about her drawing on the wall.  Her main offenses continue to be stealing other people's treats, gum etc. or eating ABC gum out of the garbage can.  (EWWW).  She has been really sweet lately and I am really trying to enjoy her because this is a fun age.  She is really growing up fast and I am kind of sad to see all my babies grow up. 

Update

• It is great now that school has started again.  The schedule is so nice and the kids are actually more content now that they aren't busy and with each other 24/7.   We are busier than ever and our schedule is even mor crazy now that I have kids in 2 different schools + one preschool now.  All their schedules are different and it is definitely a challenge remembering everything I need to remember.  And I don't always remember everything.  A week ago I forgot (or never really knew actually) that it was my turn to bring treats to Ian's soccer game.  Worst. Mom. Ever.  I felt like scum.

• I have a couple of neighbors who have fruit trees and it has been a really good year for fruit. I have had tons of apples, pears and plums. That has been keeping me pretty busy. I got a bunch of apples a couple of weeks ago and had an applesauce heyday and did 28 quarts.  I have recently gotten my hands on plums and pears and have been drying them. It is much less work than the canning. I did make some apple pie filling the other day that turned out pretty good. That was only the second time I have done pie filling and it had been a really long time. It makes me happy to be beefing up my food storage and doing it for very little cost.  Even though my jars are almost all filled up I just can't resist accepting more fruit because it is FREE!!!  I just have a handful of pint jars left to fill up and I think I will probably make some jam as soon as my pears get ripe enough.

My kids love to help make applesauce.

The result of 5 hours of hard fruity labor.

• The other day Kent was outside doing something with the tile and he motioned me over to the window.  He mouthed something to me but I wasn't sure what he was saying. It looked like he said, "Whose bunny is that?"  I knew that couldn't be right so I walked over to the window and opened it to see what he was saying.  He repeated: "Whose bunny is that?  Do you know where it came from?"  It was the weirdest most random thing.  The little fluffy hairball was just sitting there eating our grass.  I called a few neighbors to see if it was theirs but nobody claimed it.  Kent got the camera and took pictures of it so I could put it on my blog.  Then the bunny hopped away and out the hole in the fence. (I am sure it had nothing to do with the fact that my kids all heard about the bunny and came running outside and were chasing it.) We saw the bunny again the next day in our garage just hanging out under our car.  If you are missing a bunny let me know.

End of Summer Vacation Update

The kids start school one week from today. I think that the excitement of being home for the summer has definitely worn off and we are READY to start school.  Today we went through clothes and tried on stuff from last year to see what still fits, and I did some online shopping for the stuff we needed.  Yesterday we bought all the school supplies.  In one week we will be back on a schedule and back to sanity (maybe).  I have kind of been on a blogging famine so here is the quick catch-up.

• My nephew Erik got married on Tuesday and Kent and I went to Salt Lake for the wedding.  Our kids spent some time with our friends the Schofields while we were gone.  There was one incident, however, involving scissors and hair.  Adele and her friend Gracie were playing in a room and apparently had some scissors.  Adele thought her ponytail was too long, so, chop chop.  Gracie had kind of an all-over trim.  Gracie's mom "fixed" her hair and then ended up taking her to get it fixed by a pro. I haven't done anything with Adele's because it actually isn't TOO bad and it wasn't a totally blunt-pony-tail-chop-off.  Sometimes I wonder HOW many times Adele will repeat the same naughty shenanigans (and get in trouble) before finally learning.  She definitely wins the "most naughty toddler" award at our house.
• On a particularly stressful day this week I went to the gym for some treadmill therapy and ran my personal longest distance:  7 miles.  It made me think for a minute that I should do a half marathon.   Then I realized that 7 miles is only 1/4 of a marathon and to do 1/2 I'd still have to run another 6 miles.  Hmm. I don't think so. I am too old.  I say that because the DAY AFTER the big run I was moving at great-granny speed with aches and pains all over my body.
• My sister Linda came to visit last weekend with her kids. We had such a fun time and my kids were in cousin heaven.  (I can't believe we didn't even take pictures!  What is wrong with us???)  We did most of the things that we wanted to do but ran out of time before we ran out of activities, treats and things to talk about. I love having sister therapy.  (Thanks Ween for coming to visit!)  I sent her home with a plethora of hair bows.
• I found a huge bug at my friend Dana's house last week and had to collect it for my entomologist brother-in-law.  Dana thought I was totally crazy to capture and keep such a huge and nasty bug but I had to.  For science.   My BIL is a beetle expert and has even discovered several (4?)  new types of beetles.  One of them is named after my sister Kathy. I called Kathy to see if she wanted me to save it and to find out what to do with it.  She said put it in a jar with alcohol and that would kill it and preserve it.  So I did.  Only it didn't die.  It swam around (more like drowned around) and it wouldn't die. So I put it in my pantry so I wouldn't have to look at it.  And then I checked on it awhile later and it was STILL alive. It kept doing this weird hissy thing with its bottom and making bubbles in the alcohol.  Finally I poured MORE alcohol over it and next time I checked it it was FINALLY dead.  Blech.  I will deliver the specimen to my BIL tomorrow when he stops at my house on the way back home to California.  It will be nice to get the thing out of my pantry. (It is on the very top shelf so I don't have to look at it, but STILL!) I think I should have been a biology major in college or something like that.  Not that I love creepy crawly things, but I guess they just fascinate me. (And disgust me, but the fascination wins out.)

• I made tarts tonight. Or "tots" if you say it with an English accent. We make fun of the people at the Shakespearean Festival who sell tarts and talk in bad English accents. My kids were all speaking in English-esque accents while we ate our tarts. When I was first telling Kent I wanted to make some "tots" he thought I was making a reference to the potato delicacies that Napoleon Dynamite puts in his pocket.

Doing What We Do

I feel like I never really blog about anything except trips and birthdays and special events anymore.  Not the day to day stuff.  Not that our day to day stuff is exciting at all but I guess that is why it should be here.  So I can save for the record how ordinary my life really is.  Stuff like driving kids all over the place and cleaning.  And the fact that I swore the second day of summer vacation that I had to put up my white flag and surrender to the fact that my house was going to be MESSY all summer.  How can it NOT be messy when you have 4 kids (or more!) running in and out with water, sand, grass, dandelions, and all sorts of other creatures of nature.  So, anyway you have been warned. If you come over (especially without telling me) you get what you get.  And it will probably involve ants.
Let's move on to the other stuff we have done around here lately:

• My kids are obsessed with ants.   Probably because we have a million billion ants living in our yard.  The kids play with them, murder them, feed them, draw chalk circles around them and watch them run around, bury them, make ant soup with them, stomp on them and sometimes bring them in the house to show me.
• We are (sort of) enjoying the new aquatic center they just built here.  I say sort of because the last 2 times we have been we have only stayed for less than an hour due to poo in the pool.  They make everyone get out for 45 minutes when it happens and we have learned (the hard way, by waiting the OTHER 2 times it happened when we were there) that it isn't worth the wait. Obviously their new Nazi monitoring of the "3 layers on everyone under 4" isn't helping.  And yeah, my 3.5 year old who is totally potty trained DOES wear a swim diaper to comply.  I am not sure what they can do about this but I have NEVER seen this much pool poo in  my LIFE!!!
• It is fun having my kids home but I am really starting to miss my "alone" time.  I think they are all getting kind of sick of being with each other 24/7 too.  Just an hour or 2 every day would be heaven...  In fact, I think Kent is hiding from me tonight since I was crabby.  (sorry.)
• I have eczema on my eyelids.  That's a new one for me.  It makes me look like I use a lot of pink eyeshadow and I don't know how to apply it.  And one of my eyes is goopy. I can thank Adele for that eye disease.
• Adele is mortified by using public restrooms, especially those with automatic flushers.  We have been using a LOT of different restrooms lately due to travelling, going to parks, and without fail SOMEONE has to go to the bathroom whenever we are at Wal-mart.  Emilia also had an irrational fear of toilets when she was little.

• I tried a new recipe for Kent for Father's Day:  Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake.  That was a keeper for sure.  I took a bite of it and thought, I must take a picture of this and blog about it even if it does have a bite out of it.

• Emilia had a bump on her gums from a baby tooth that was dying and was creating some fluid or something in her gums.  (exciting huh?)  I always like going to the dentist though so it is something worth mentioning.  If it doesn't quiet down she'll have to get the baby tooth extracted. I swear, we have spent an inordinate amount of money on getting baby teeth extracted.  My kids' teeth just don't like to fall out on their own. In fact, more than once I have bribed my kids with toys if they would let me pull a tooth that the dentist was threatening to extract.  Much cheaper that way, and they get a new toy.  Win-Win!
• Tomorrow we are having dinner with some friends. I normally wouldn't mention this on the blog because it's not really that big of a deal-- except this time it is and I will tell you why.  Let's see if I can do this without being too specific so as not to incriminate anyone.  We have a neighbor who lives near us who likes to have parties.  BBQs in fact.  With lots of work friends and Karaoke.  For 4 hours.  We attended such a party last year simply because we were invited and wanted to be neighborly.  It was awkward, the food was quite a disappointment especially since our neighbor boasted about his (or her) great catering skills,  all the work friends were singing the great hits and love ballads of the 60's (Peter Paul and Mary anyone?) and we just decided that we just didn't fit too well into this scene.  Especially since we had all the kids with us.  So, fast forward to TOMORROW.  We are invited to go to another Karaoke BBQ and we just.  really.  don't. want to.  So we made other plans so we wouldn't be home.  I am feeling very evil now because I confessed this. 
• Ian's cute little "girl" friend has been BEGGING and begging to come over to my house to make sock puppets.  I guess Ian told her about a sock puppet that we have that my kids call "Socket Pup".  Adele could never say sock puppet so she would call it "Socket Pup"  (Kind of like how she calls Gobstoppers "BOBSCOTCHERS".)  So a couple of days ago I made good on my promise and we made sock puppets.

• I have 2 flavors of Ben and Jerry's ice cream in the freezer. It was definitely a splurge but since I had a COUPON it was totally justified.  I have been SOOO bad at coupon shopping lately and I had STACKS of coupons that I needed to organize.  Yesterday I organized ALL of them, cleaned out my coupon folder and TODAY I got online, found the deals and did a great cereal and cracker deal.  I think I am back into the coupon groove. I am going to try to stay up-to-date with it and not get behind again.

So, that's all the ordinary stuff I have been up to.

Back to the Grind

We have pretty much returned to the daily grind around here.  The jet lag was pretty bad for the first couple of days after I got home from Hawaii. Especially since I went to bed at 5 am the first day I got home.  It was actually not too hard to jump back into my mom role.  The trip recharged my batteries, at least for a few days.  I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to pick things up where I left them.  Maybe it seemed less stressful than all that getting ready for the trip.  Those last few days at home before I left were pretty busy and crazy.  Kent and the kids fared amazingly well.  The only comment I heard from anonymous sources was that they "struggled a bit with the hair".  The kids were happy to have me back so I could fix their hair again.  And now the kids prefer Kent's smoothies over mine because he puts chocolate sauce in them and I don't. 

Adele has been up to her usual antics of getting into everything and hiding a lot of things in places where they should  not be. This week (or was it last?) I found an entire bottle of princess bubble bath squirted into a bowl into her closet.  And an applesauce cup with the foil peeled back .  Both of those could have ended in disaster but somehow neither one made a mess.  Now we are trying to survive the whining.  Can't stand the whining.

Lastly, school is winding to a close. I am looking forward to not having to get up and get kids ready in the morning but I am not excited about the fighting and the "Mom, I'm bored" complaints.  ("What, you're bored?  Here's a rag, go scrub something" will be my reply). This month the kids have tons of field trips so I am just doing my best to make sure they have sunscreen, hats, swimsuits, good hiking shoes, 2 dollars, 1 dollar, water bottles, hats etc.

"Normal" Life (Update)

Whew, now that all those cruise posts are done I can get back to posting about normal stuff. Not that normal stuff is exciting in any way but I wanted to get the cruise stuff done and not break up the posts. 

• Before our cruise I commented to a few people that we had  had a pretty good winter so far without too much sickness. My kids were healthy through the holidays and that was amazing.  Of course I knew that couldn't last forever. And it didn't.  When we left for the trip Ian was sick. Then all the other kids got it while we were gone.  Then when we got back Elise was sick.  Then Ian got it, then Adele and then me.  Ian missed 4 days of school last week.  Adele and I days 5 and 6.  I think we have "the flu".  Next year I am going to be one of the first in line for the flu shot.  Guess who was the only one to have a flu shot this year.  Kent.  Guess who never got sick.  Yep.  Good thing too because last weekend he was on call and there was a big system upgrade.  Kent ended up working pretty much non-stop all weekend while the rest of us either ran amok or stayed in bed convalescing.  I CANNOT wait until everyone is well again. Can I just say:  THE WHINING!!! THE WHINING IS MAKING ME INSANE!  And I miss doing my usual activities like having kid free time sometimes.  It is great when kids can go to school.  I miss not being able to go to the gym.  And I miss sleeping all night without having Adele wake up in a coughing fit every 45 minutes and then crying and freaking out. Ah, the good old days.
  
• Someone please remind me what the age is when kids grow out of getting into everything.  Adele has been DRIVING me crazy because she is constantly getting into all my stuff and is a huge destructive force around here.  Maybe I am getting lazy and underestimating her power of destruction and am leaving things in accessible places but I don't think I have done anything different.  She is just into everything, and she always has been.  Either aliens are invading and using my camera to take pictures of their Mothership or Adele has gotten the camera again.
  
• On a happier note, we had a silly and fun FHE the other day.  Emilia saw this idea in The Friend and wanted to try it. It's kind of like musical dress up where you pass around a bag of silly stuff and when the music stops you have to reach in the bag and put on whatever you get.  The kids thought it was the most hilarious thing ever.

• I had to post this picture for 2 reasons.  1. I taught Adele to play "Go Fish" the other day and now it is her favorite thing to do EVER.  2.  I had to document me wearing my "Betty White"  (wait, mine is Bea Mcarther huh.) jammies. My sister Carol told me about her "Betty White" warm-up suit and said that it was the most comfy thing ever even if it did make her look like one of the "Golden Girls".  When we were talking about it she decided that I must have one too.  Hers is blue, mine is pink.  She sent it to me early for my birthday.  It is like wearing a fuzzy cloud.  Now we need to find some for the rest of our sisters.  They didn't have any more at the store when she got mine for me.

 (Oh, and thanks Kent for taking the picture with the pink bow in my hair. Sometimes I grab whatever is nearby to get my bangs out of the way. I guess I should be glad it was that little pink bow and not something scarier.)

This is scarier.

January Update

Most of my posts have been photos lately and I haven't really posted any updates.  (Not that anyone cares or even reads it but I AM going to get this blog printed someday dangit and I like to have records.)

Soooo...

• It was brutal torture for all parties involved getting the kids (and me) back in the swing of school. We had developed quite a habit of staying up late and sleeping in late. That doesn't really work with the school thing so the first few days we had some really grumpy people around here when it was time to get up and get ready for school.
• Having a break from all our normal life stuff was really nice. I didn't have to run kids all around or run myself around.  Cleaning was pretty much optional, and even more pointless (which isn't a good thing necessarily).  It was great to be able to just stay home if we wanted to, or go out if we wanted to.  I really enjoyed the relaxed schedule. I didn't enjoy the fighting though.
• We are still doing piano and art lessons for the big girls and I am deciding whether to sign Ian up for soccer or T-ball in the spring.  (Do they have T-ball in the spring?) I am still not totally "up" on all the sports schedules.  My older girls have had no desire to play sports even though I have encouraged them to TRY it over and over. They would much rather write stories and draw pictures. They actually loathe P.E.  Partially because their teacher is really "strict" (SHE'S SO MEAN MOM!), and partially because they inherited their mother's lack of sports ability.  My cousins are all good at sports. I think they got all the sports genes.
• I have a few things I am hoping to accomplish this year. I hesitate to call them resolutions because I stopped making New Year's resolutions a long time ago... I think they are actually kind of pointless because we all know that we just cross out the year and put the new year in the old year's place anyway. 
• This year I AM going to print out my blog posts from 2007-2010.  I have to upload and edit them and then have them printed. I have never done it before so I don't know how long it will take. I have just kept putting it off. 
•  I am going to work on my real paper scrapbooks this year. I need to add lots of pages to Adele's and Ian's and some to Emilia's and Elise's.
• I want to read lots of books this year.  Right now I am working on the 3rd Fablehaven book.  I hope to finish Fablenhaven, and read The Immortal Life of Heniretta Lacks, maybe Bitter is the New Black , The FitzOsbornes in Exile, which is the sequel to A Brief History of Montmaray.  Emilia wants me to read Gregor the Overlander and if that is good I will read the whole series.  Some friends of mine are starting a book club this year (probably) so I might have to give another book club a go.  My last book club fizzled and died.  * If you have any book recommendations please leave me a comment.
•  There a few are other things I need to do this year, and goals I have but they aren't really the "post it to your blog" types of things so you will just have to wonder. 
• Kent and I are getting really excited for our cruise.  We are leaving in just a few weeks and we are SO excited to escape this freezing land and go to the BAHAMAS where it will be 80 degrees and kid-free.

And Ian will take us out of this post with a little "Eye of the Tiger" on the spoonguitar.

September Happenings

I can't believe it's the 10th of September already and I haven't blogged a thing!  We have been busy. So busy.

•  We have been a 1 car family for the last 3 days.  Our van was leaking some mysterious fluid and so we had to take it to the shop.   It conveniently stopped leaking  and the guy couldn't find anything wrong with it.  This is the 2nd time this has happened.
• 3 kids in school is great.  Ian is so excited about Kindergarten but it has been kind of an adjustment for him. The 2nd day of school I woke him up and said, "you gotta get up buddy, you have to go to school".  And he replied "Again?"  This everyday thing is something to get used to.
• The (evil) bus driver was 3 minutes early yesterday and everybody almost missed the bus. Not just my kids.  What are they thinking? I think she likes to see the panicky kids running to the bus stop.
• Our garage door is broken again.  *sigh*.  Our friend Dave is going to fix it this afternoon.  Hooray. I guess it is good to have the garage door broken when we have fewer cars right?
• I bought some peaches but I decided not to can them. Too much work. We just ate them and I froze some. I bought some canned pears at the case lot sale at Smith's. That was so much easier than canning them.  Probably the same price too.
• I've been helpin out my friend a bit with her 2 year old and newborn twins.  She had a knee accident and has been immobilized for several weeks.  It has been fun to hold the babies and I feel good helpin her because I know she appreciates it.
• Yesterday I locked myself out of my house.  I had a car and no keys and a husband at work with no car since our van was in the shop. I walked around my house to see if I could break in but our screens are nearly impossible to remove from the outside.  Very reassuring but not so good for emergency lock-outs. I had to borrow a car from a neighbor to go get some keys from Kent.  I promptly gave a spare key to said neighbor for future emergencies.
• My sister Carol bought me a massage for my birthday clear back in March and I finally scheduled it.  I'm goin next Friday and I am very excited!'
• I am enjoying my little part time job. I have been working about 5 hours per week.  Just enough to keep up my eating out habit.
• Survivor starts next week.   So excited.

August Update

• We have had 2 mysterious fishy deaths this week.  First was Tiny. One day he was there, the next day he was gone.  He vanished without a trace.  We are suspecting Skinnies or Goldie swallowed him whole.  We thought at first he might have gotten sucked into the filter since he was SOOOOO tiny but we didn't see him in the filter anywhere.  The second mysterious death was Bowser Jr.  We found him with half of his tail and body eaten.  Again, it is making us suspicious of Skinnies and Goldie. I guess we'll find out who is the cannibalistic murderer and who is dead if this killing streak continues.  We do have another fish:  Mrs. Sucker.  She just eats algae so I don't think she is a fish of interest in this situation.  Adele was so funny when we discovered that Tiny was missing.  I said, "What happened to poor Tiny?" and she replied, "He got an owie on his brain.  Poor little fishy."

• 
  
  Kent has been tinkering with computers again.  He built what I call  his "Frankenstein Box":

 

I don't know what he does with it but it is a good thing he is a computer guy and not a biologist.  Severing and resecting computer parts is much less freaky than doing the same thing to animals.  (Ever see Word Girl? It reminds me of Dr. Two Brains with his second brain on the outside of his head.)

• 
  
  Kent has taken each of the kids (except Adele) fishing individually. None of the kids (or Kent) really like eating the fish that they catch but they go anyway.  Elise caught 2, Emilia caught 1 and Ian had an unsuccessful fishing outing. Right now we have 1 tiny trout in our freezer waiting for some other fishies to join him so we can cook them all at the same time.
• 
  
  I have finished my back to school shopping.  There have been some killer online deals at Old Navy.com and Oshkosh.com.  Only 5 days until school starts. I can hardly believe it!  I need to make some big and exciting plans for Thursday and Friday.

Crazy June Update

It has been a crazy month around here. Here's a quick catch up:

• My niece  Hailey came to visit for about 2 weeks. The kids had a LOT of fun, as you can see.

• 
  
  I have been sewing a lot. I have been making dresses, blankets and even leopard print shorts for my girls and a skirt for Hailey.
• 
  
  We have been doing quite a bit of hiking.  With and without the kids.

• 
  
  Adele fed the fish 1 1/2 cans of fish food.   (Maybe she was trying to fatten up or kill our oldest fish "Skinnies")

• 
  
  We had a picnic in the garage with our new picnic table before it got moved to the backyard.
• 
  
  We had a family reunion (which I will blog about later).
• 
  
  I have strep throat. Don't worry, I am not going to post pictures of my throat which the doctor labeled "impressive" and gave me a stronger-than-usual dose of antibiotics.

Quick Update

I know, the suspense is TOTALLY KILLING you... You're waiting anxiously for all those awesome Denver posts and pictures. I'm working on it. I'll get it up soon, but before I post that I needed to do a quick and random update. Instead of blogging I have been doing this (plus a bunch of other things of course):

Buying and hanging curtains and decorating my kitchen (finally)

Sewing some aprons for a Mother's Day boutique

Chasing these weirdos (and feeding them, and making sure they don't look like orphan children all the time)

And playing with my sweet and sassy Adele. Oh, and by the way, THE TRIBE has spoken and I have been voted off the island. Actually, I decided that we all needed a break from the potty training. We haven't given up. Oh, no. But I DID need a respite from washing 8 pair of underpants a day, and all the accompanying puddles. We'll have to do "round 2" in a few weeks.

Laryngitis

Yep. I have laryngitis. I sound like Marge Simpson (with laryngitis). When I mentioned that to Kent he said that I did indeed sound like Marge Simpson. Maybe I should dye my hair blue to fit the part better. This morning Kent commented that it was weird because I am so quiet. I don't talk unless I have to. He said it is like living with a mime. Only I am not wearing stripes and doing mimey-stuck-in-a-box-hand things--just not talking. I have noticed a few things:

• I normally talk a lot.
• It is frustrating not being able to tell my kids what to do ("Stop bugging your sister/brother!" "Don't take your clothes off again!" etc.).
• Whisper yelling isn't as effective as regular yelling (I don't really yell that much but saying things like "don't go in the street!" just doesn't work when you have no voice and yes, Adele did go in the street yesterday).
• When you whisper to people they are more likely to whisper back. Adele keeps whispering to me when I talk to her.

Hopefully I'll have my voice back tomorrow.

Update

I haven't updated in awhile so here goes:

I went to the dentist today and everything looks good. The sonicare toothbrush I have been using has really been helping with my gums. All my pockets had shrunk (that's good, for those unfamiliar with gum recession and periodontal problems). Elise has to go in for an extraction tomorrow because one of her permanent teeth isn't in the right place and the root of the baby tooth isn't resorbing. For some reason my kids have a hard time losing their baby teeth. The permanent teeth either grow in behind the baby teeth or on the sides. Our dentists make a lot of money from us on primary tooth extractions. Ian has a dentist appointment on Thursday. So it looks like we'll be at the dentist's office almost every day this week.

The story Elise wrote for Reflections won second place in the district. We have a medal ceremony to attend on Thursday. She was so excited to win second place out of 252 entries.

Adele's pajama fixation seems to be cured and she hasn't been insisting on wearing pajamas 24 hours a day. She will usually let us get her dressed now, although she does take her shoes off all the time. Usually I have to get them on at least 2 times before we go anywhere.

I have started scrapbooking again. I am about 2 years behind in most of my kids' books. Somehow I found some motivation and I have done 5 or 6 double page spreads in Adele's book. I have 2 more to go in her book and then I'll move on to Ian's book.

We got a new tv and hung it on the wall in our bedroom. I got tired of never being able to watch tv because my kids were always monopolizing the tvs in the house. So for a late Christmas present we bought ourselves a new tv and Kent hung it in our room. I love it. LOVE it.

One more for November

Well I gotta squeeze in one more post for November before the month ends. I just have a couple of things today:

• I am SO glad that school is starting back up tomorrow. My kids just fight and fight and fight when they are together. They play a little and then fight a lot. They are constantly chasing, wrestling, poking, touching and bugging each other. I am glad they'll be back at school and not bored at home. It has been nice to be lazy in the mornings though. We have been getting up late so it's going to be hard to get back on schedule.
  
  
• My kids' new favorite thing in the world is Harry Potter. I hear "expelliarmous" and "It's not wingardium levio-suh, it's wingardium levio-SAH" all day long. They all want wands for Christmas. Why do the stores think they can charge 8 bucks for a plastic wand anyway? Let me know if anyone sees wands at the dollar store. And did you know there's a wikipedia page with all the Harry Potter spells? I just learned this. Check it out.
  
  
• I have got to get on the ball with Christmas shopping! I am usually done by now, but this year I am behind. I can't believe that Christmas is in less than a month.
  
  
• We put up our tree and Christmas decorations on Friday. It looks like I may have permanently won the colored vs. white light battle. Last January I bought a pre-lit tree for 75% off. It has white lights. So, until the white lights die I think they are staying. I am in the clear minority at my house since Kent and all the kids want colored lights, but when you are the shopper you get to buy what you want. (The white lights look really pretty by the way.)

Do you like Ian's pink socks? I bought these fuzzy socks for myself for Christmas and then gave them to myself for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately all my kids love them so much that they all keep stealing them. Emilia wore them to bed last night.

Adele thought this plastic candy cane was a real candy cane and kept trying to bite it. We have already broken about 4 or 5 ornaments and our tree has been up for 2 days. We don't have any presents under the tree yet but I am sure I can predict how that will go.

Update

Time to change the blog colors again. The orange has got to go. It's hard to believe November is here. So, here's the update:

I have been such a blog slacker in October that I must do better this month. (Not hard to do, I already have 2 posts this month and only had 3 all of October.) I have not only been a slacker on updating my blog but reading others' blogs too. I caught up on a bunch today and I have to admit that I can't help but feeling a little bit bad because it seems my life is nowhere near as fun as the lives of all my friends and family. I guess that could mean two things: I need to WRITE about all the amazing things I do, or I need to do more amazing things. I think I need to do more amazing things and take my camera. Mostly we just do the daily things like go to the park and the library. Nothing too exciting. I also need to do a better job at listening to my IBV which has started whispering to me just a little bit.

• Adele is following in the footsteps of her older sisters regarding naps. Something in their little brains tells them they are 2 now and that means they no longer need a nap. I put her to bed every day. She sleeps about 1 day in 3. The other days she completely destroys her room. She takes all the clothes out of the drawers, pulls any wipes she finds out of the wipe box and pretty much makes a huge mess. Here's what we found today. Only she was buck naked when Kent went in to get her. And there were wipes everywhere.
  
  
• Adele has also learned that she can take the garbage can/diaper pail from her room, move it to any location in the house and use it to reach things that are normally not in her reach. This is very bad.
  
• I have been helping out in Elise's class every week. I really enjoy seeing her interact with her friends and her teacher. And I know who she is talking about when she says that "Denim did this" or "Denim did that". In fact, "Denim" is so often doing something interesting that Ian almost always asks Elise what "Denim did today". This is the first year that I have really been able to help in Elise's class so it has been really fun.

Busy

Now that school has started once again things are busier than ever. Here's the update:

• The girls just started piano lessons again. I used to teach them but they were averaging about 2 piano lessons per year and that just wasn't going to cut it. A gal in my ward is their new teacher. They have only had 1 lesson so far but I think it will be good. It is hard to remember to practice. We need to get into the habit.
  
  
• My girls are also taking art lessons this year from my good friend Kirsten. I trade piano lessons for her 9 year old. In not too long she'll get too good for me to teach and then she'll have to get a "real" teacher.


• Ian started preschool (which reminds me, I need to take some pictures of him on his, um, 7th day of school and post them... I guess I dropped the ball on that one didn't I? It is true what they say you know about the first kids getting everything and the last kids not getting anything.) He loves his new teacher and seems to be really happy to have a place to go. He gets bored being at home with me all the time. I have been enjoying a little quiet time as well.


• Adele is speaking in sentences now and she says things like, "I want some milk" and "Go play with Ian". When she wants a drink she asks for a "drinky winky" (Too much teletubbies perhaps?) and she calls noodles "nonies" (rhymes with phonies). I love this age because they are so cute and funny and you can FINALLY start to figure out what is going on inside their little brains.


• I decided to trim Adele's hair the other day because it was getting all scraggly at the ends and looking bad. I was only going to cut a little bit....but she moved, and I cut more than I meant to. So of course I had to cut all of it that short... and well, it just looks bad. It isn't TOO terribly short, but it IS too terribly uneven and crooked. I am not a great haircutter to begin with and trying to cut a wiggly 1 year old's hair is just really difficult. I think tomorrow I will have to take her somewhere for a little hair repair. Maybe I'll post a picture, maybe not. I feel really bad for making my baby look like a freak. (Ok, not a freak, just making my baby have freaky hair.) Let this be a lesson to me to never take scissors to my girls' hair. I do better with the boy.
  
  
• I gave my kids pedicures today. I had my first pedicure about a year ago and it was so much fun that I decided to do it for my kids too. They loved it too and so now we do them every once and awhile. Of course, even Ian gets one. I wasn't going to paint his nails for obvious reasons but he was so sad about missing out on it that I painted his blue. He will be wearing shoes and socks to school from now on and in public, but at least he doesn't have to be left out. I think it is hard for him to be the only boy.


• After a 6 month sewing hiatus I finally got the ol' machine out and made a bag for a friend. I am excited to be sewing again. I am considering making some aprons for a Christmas boutique but I am not sure if I want to do that or not. I have a bunch of stuff I need to catch up on first, but it does sound fun.

Update

It has been a long time since I posted anything. We pretty much do the same things every day so life is not that exciting. I do have a few updates though just for the record.

• My GI doc's office still hasn't called me back. It has been 10 days since the procedure and they haven't called me. I can't believe it. Seems pretty unprofessional to me. I don't expect them to have any great wisdom about treatment for me except for pepto bismol or other drugs. I doubt they'll even mention the possibility of food intolerances, since they seem to be unwilling to keep up with the research and actually try to help their patients. I have been not eating gluten since the procedure to see if that helps. So far, I am not sure. It takes awhile, they say. "They" also say that you can have withdrawals from gluten when you stop eating it. I would have to agree with the withdrawal theory. I have felt more sleepy and anxious the last few days. I am just waiting for things to normalize and hopefully I'll feel good again.
  
• I am going to be doing some more diagnostic tests to find out whether I am intolerant to gluten and get some answers once and for all. You can have gluten sensitivity and not celiac (and sometimes they just don't FIND the celiac because it is patchy.)
  
• My kids are in their second week of swimming lessons. They have 3 days left. It is kind of a pain to go every day but they love it and it gives them something to do.
  
• Mr. Hops (our frog) croaked (ha ha ha). I took him back to Wal-mart and got my 4 dollars back. Right now all the fish seem healthy and we seem to have a good ecosystem going on in there.
  
• I really wish I had something more exciting to talk about but I really don't. I need to get my camera out and get some pics of my cute kiddos before the summer is over.

The Latest

• We got some new fish last night. We also got a frog. Now we have 3 Danios ("Skinnies", "Zippy" and "Zeus"). We got an algae eater named "Hoover" and we named the frog "Mr. Hops". Lucky (one of the older ones) seems much happier now that Skinnies has some friends to play with. Skinnies used to chase him around and bug him but now that Skinnies has some other Danios to school around with everyone seems happier.

• This morning I went in to get Adele and she was completely naked in her crib. I think she took her diaper and pajamas off before she fell asleep because her diaper was totally dry. Her bedding, pillow, teddy bears etc. were unfortunately NOT DRY. Tonight we will have to pin her pajamas so she can't take them off. It's funny that even after having 4 kids we still have "firsts". That was definitely a first.
  
  
• Our toads have made an appearance in our window well. We only saw one in there at first but the other one came out the other day when it rained. I can't believe they are still alive in there. They have been in there for almost 2 years.
  
  
• All my tests came back normal. My Dr. referred me to an internal medicine doc. I hope we can get to the bottom of this soon because I am so queasy all the time. It is very unpleasant. (No, I am not pregnant, but thanks for wondering.) I am not sure what this new guy is going to do with me but hopefully he is good at figuring out what is wrong with people's innards, since that IS his spec-i-al-ity.
  

Update

Holy cow I haven't posted for 10 days! Has it really been that long??? Here's a quick update in our crazy but boring lives:

I have to take Adele back to the ENT in a couple of weeks to find out for sure if she will have to get tubes. He put her on a steriod that was supposed to clear out the "effusion" that was in her ears (basically the built up fluid.) Let's hope she won't need tubes.

In other medical news, I took Emilia to the Instacare last night for what I thought was an ingrown toenail. Turns out that it was a paranicial infection, probably Staff. (Paranicial means outside the nail.)

Adele has been sick with the flu all weekend. She threw up on me today so we stayed home from church. I also let Emilia stay home because her toe was sick. (Actually I needed to drain the pus from it and have her soak it so I just let her stay home.)

Kent also had the flu last week.

The kids at Elise's school are always joking around and checking the other kids' heads for nits and now Elise has a lice paranoia. She has been waking up at night saying that there is something on her head or that her head itches. She finally told me that she is worried about getting lice. For this reason I am glad that school is almost out. Then she won't have to worry about lice anymore.

I taught a couponing class at Enrichment this week. I think it went ok and hopefully I inspired someone to save some money.

We got 3 new fish last week and they are all still alive. We got 2 Platies and 1 Danio. Their names are: Lucky (black tail), Flower (orange tail) and Skinnies (the Danio is the skinny one so its name is Skinnies. They all seem healthy and I don't think any of them have Ick. I hope they live a long time.

Slacker

I can't believe a whole week of May has gone by and I haven't blogged. I keep trying to think of things to blog about but there hasn't been anything exciting going on. We have been spending more and more time outside because the weather has been so warm. I am trying to get my garden ready. I have some parsley that survived the winter and I planted a few things in some cups. They haven't sprouted yet. I have some good turkey poo-fertilizer (aka mulch, don't worry, the bag says it is sterilized) that I need to spread out in the garden but the kids have been playing in the dirt in the garden a lot so I hate to make it off limits. I think I will do that next week.

Adele had another ear infection last week and so she will probably have to get tubes in her ears. She has an appointment with the ear doctor tomorrow. Poor thing.

My kids have 2 weeks of school left. I just can't believe it. May is such a fun month for them at school though because they just keep going on field trips and having parties. I don't think they learn anything in May. They are ready to be done though. I think they are really burned out. I am burned out too with all the homework and papers I have to help them keep track of.

The cute little ones