Vacation- Day Nine: Nonstop Action

This was by far the hardest day of our vacation. I still have no idea how the kids survived- much less the near absence of complaining from them.

We started out the day in Flagstaff. We then started our drive to the Grand Canyon. The drive was nice and uneventful. The weather was absolutely fabulous for Arizona in July. The day before, the high at the Grand Canyon was 97 degrees. This day it was 87 degrees.

We parked near the front of the park, at Mather Point. The view was fantastic. The kids and Perry humoured me and my fear of heights by staying one big step away from the fence, lol. I tried to get close to the fence a few times, but it just made me dizzy and nauseous.

Don't ask me about the face Mischa is making- don't have a clue there...

After seeing Mather's Point, we jumped on the shuttle to the Bright Angel trail, made famous in the book, Brighty of the Grand Canyon.

To the right was the El Tovar Hotel.

After we took this family picture, a guy came and let us borrow his binoculars so we could see the two mule trains on the trail. Liesie wasn't liking me taking pictures for some reason

One thing I learned was that most of the buildings on the South Rim were designed by Mary E.J. Colter. I loved the Geologic Fireplace that she created, which mimics the strata of the Canyon.

We walked out of the lodge to catch the shuttle and saw the train from the Grand Canyon to Williams. Liesie and Josh really liked the "choo choo".

We then went back into Grand Canyon Village and caught the IMAX movie at the National Geographic visitor's center. I was really amazed at John Wesley Powell, who went down the Colorado River with only one arm.

Our original plan from here was to get to Las Vegas via the Hoover Dam. In Kingman, though, we had to change our plans. The highway was due to be closed over the Hoover Dam at 7:00, and we were an hour away at 6:00. We didn't feel comfortable cutting it so close, since if we missed getting through, the only way to Las Vegas would be to go back to Kingman, so we went west to Bullhead City. We made it to Las Vegas maybe about 10 minutes later than we would've if we made it to the Hoover Dam. We checked into the hotel and were out on the strip at 9:00. We parked at Caesar's Palace (wow) and took off to Treasure Island to see the pirate show.

F.A.O. Schwarz

It was so hot and crowded in front of Treasure Island. If we had really thought about it, a show called the Sirens of T.I. didn't sound very family friendly, and I am very glad that the kids could only see the fireworks and pyrotechnics from the show. I know that this family trip was part educational, but I didn't count on giving them the lesson the sirens were going to give them. We went to the Mirage to catch the volcano eruption, but, after waiting in front of the hotel for 15 minutes, we realized that we would have to wait another 15 for the eruption. The kids were melting onto the sidewalk by now, so we decided to run back to Caesar's Palace and catch their show, which was indoors. I loved the curved escalators in the Shopping Forum. The Harry Winston store wasn't a bad place to window shop, either. We made the show just as it was starting and the kids really liked it. There was even a big saltwater aquarium that the boys really liked.

We decided to call it a night and to just do a quick driveby of all the casinos on the strip. We caught a glimpse of the Bellagio fountains, and I'm sad we didn't get to see them. The kids really liked all of the different casinos. We got back to the hotel (which reallly liked me- we were on the 11th floor and the elevator was glass) around midnight. The kids just dropped, and it was the first time in the trip that Anneliese didn't wake up during the night.

Picture Problem

Blogger is giving me fits right now. First it wouldn't let me post a picture, now it will let me download only 2. I have a post just waiting for a few more pictures, so bear with me and hopefully it will be ready tomorrow.

Vacation- Day Eight: Off to Flagstaff

This was a really busy day. We got up in the morning and took pictures with all of the cousins. We drove up through Cliff, then Luna. We waved to Kris's mom as we drove through St. Johns, Arizona. We made our first stop at the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. I had never been to them before and was so glad we stopped. The kids got their Jr. Ranger badges and liked learning about the Indians and how the petrified wood was made. Joshua thought it was "Awesome".

A chunk of petrified wood

The forest today

Look at all the neat dinosaurs we could've had as pets

I'm too little for this to think about eating, right Mom?

Maybe not living with the dinosaurs is a good thing

The Painted Desert

I was really amazed at both the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. I wasn't expecting much from them, truth be told. There were some really neat petroglyphs- one looked like a giant bird eating a person while another person was yelling. It was really weird to look out and see these little bumps on the ground and then realize that they were parts of trees. It was really neat at the Jasper Forest to see the logs still in the cliff walls, just waiting for erosion to expose them. The Painted Desert was more rock layers than sand, so that was more interesting to me.

Vacation- Day Seven: A Day of Rest in New Mexico

We spend Sunday in Silver City. We spent most of Sunday School in the halls with people, catching up. We were told the great news about a friend of ours- when we left, her husband was not going to church at all. They were sealed in the temple in June. We came home and caught up on laundry and packed for the next day. Again, we stayed up too late, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Vacation- Day Six: Off to New Mexico

We left Saturday morning to head on over to Silver City, New Mexico. We were on a little bit of a time crunch, since our nephew was getting baptized at 3:00. We met up with some friends in Superior- they live in Miami and we had planned to stop and see them for just a few minutes, but they were on their way to the Valley to be there for their daughter's ultrasound. We chatted for about 20 minutes with Mark and Brenda, their two sons (who have grown about 3 feet since I last saw them), and their oldest grandson. Then it was off to the baptism. It was really great seeing everyone from our old ward again. It was amazing the difference 3 years makes in a kid's look- I hardly recognized everyone! After the baptism, we ran to Wal-Mart to get some batteries for the digital camera and to test our theory- you can't walk into the Wal-Mart in Silver City without running into someone you know. We ended up seeing 3 people we knew before we got to the first aisle, and added one more person as we walked the store. It was really fun getting all of our kids together at Pat and Kris's house. They had never met Anneliese and we had never met Bam-Bam. Lucy and Josh were really little when we left. Angel-Face is missing in the above photo (I don't think I got one of him with the digital), so you'll have to go to the above link to see him. We stayed up too late and had a lot of fun catching up.

Vacation- Day Five- Phoenix

Everyone is feeling all better. We decide to go to Waterworld for the day, since the kids have been talking about a waterpark since they found out we were going to Phoenix. Liesie wasn't too sure about it at first, but she really liked the lazy river. Mischa liked the lazy river, too. Caleb really, really, really wanted to go on all of the slides, even the one that pretty much goes straight down. He was really upset when I told him no. After a fun day of splashing around, we got dressed and went to see Grandma and Aunt Nancy. My digital camera's batteries decided to die here, so only have undeveloped pictures of them. After seeing them, we went off to Chuck E. Cheese's.

Vacation- Day Four- Phoenix

Mischa is sick. Running a fever and can't keep anything down. So Mom and I left everyone and went shopping, lol. We had a nice lunch and went to get an outfit for my birthday present. I got a pretty skirt and a few tops. The kids all got an outfit, too. We had a great dinner of grilled steak, lamb chops, and asparagus (well, great for Perry and my mom, lol). In the evening, Caleb and Josh started running fevers, too.

Vacation- Day Three: Phoenix

Happy Fourth of July!

Today was spent getting set for going over to my cousin's. She lives really close to the Peoria Sports Complex and they have great fireworks every year. I made my deviled eggs, and my mom barbecued some cranberry orange chicken wings (very yummy). My cousin has a pool, and she rented a Spongebob jump house for all of the kids. She also has a misting system, so it's really nice to be outside. Liesie was really loving the pool. We put the arm floaties on her and she didn't want to be held anymore. She was even trying to jump into the pool. Caleb was a little bummed, though, because my cousin's daughter and friends wouldn't play with him. Things were going well, until we gathered in the driveway to watch the fireworks. Mischa said she wasn't feeling well, and in a few minutes threw up. The fireworks were great, and it was good catching up with everybody again.

Vacation- Day Two: Phoenix

Welcome to Phoenix during the hottest week of the year. Yes, 117 degrees this week. I think it was just for me.

We got up to run to Wal-Mart to get some supplies (car seats, diapers, etc.) while my mom ran to the grocery store to get groceries. We arrived home at about the same time. We went swimming at the subdivision's pool. Joshua liked to be on the stairs and Anneliese was slowly getting used to the water.

And We're Off!

Our start of 2 weeks of family togetherness started on Monday, July 2nd. Our flight was at 9:30 p.m., but due to the fun Atlanta traffic, we left the house at 5:30 to insure getting there on time. We hit absolutely no traffic, so we were at the airport around 6:30-7. We had a quick dinner and let the kids play on a little playcenter that was conveniently located right across from our gate. Anneliese loved the bathrooms, with their automatic soap and water dispensers. The flight was nice. Caleb stayed awake the entire time, Mischa was awake most of the time, and Anneliese was nice enough to sleep through most of the flight. My mom thought that we were arriving on Tuesday, so I'm glad I called her at the gate before we left. We arrived in Phoenix, and the thing I really hate about that airport is that the rental car area is accessible only by shuttle bus. We got our car, no problem, and zoomed off to my mom's.

Recovery

We just returned from 2 weeks of family fun. I'll be blogging about it, but as usual, there is the requisite unpacking and laundry to do. I should be done today with it all, so I'll start tomorrow.

And a quick funny-

From a previous post, you know that the Backyardigans are big at our house. I like to kid the kids about some of the episodes. I switch the words of the Ghost and Pirate episodes (the Ghosts favourite word is Arrr and the Pirates say Boo). I like to do this particularly to Joshua because he gets the biggest laugh in correcting me. So Perry decided to ask him what a pirate ghost says. After he got the concept, his answer was:













Window!

Do I?

Do I look cute enought to get out of trouble because I've learned how to escape my crib?

The Songs Won't Go Away

I'm so addicted to the Backyardigans (thanks a lot, Coleen!). I think if I sliced all the songs together and danced to them, I'd have a cute and fun workout, lol. Liesie thinks she's Uniqua and just about has the songs down pat, too.

Menu Plan Monday

It's going to be a little lazy on the dinner front, since we're leaving next week for 2 weeks of family bonding.

Saturday- Manicotti, French bread, and salad, lemon sheet cake

Sunday- Ranch chicken, mashed potatoes

Monday- Beef stirfry

Tuesday-Kielbasa, au gratin potatoes

Wednesday- Salisbury steaks, corn, rolls

Thursday- Soup

Friday- Homemade pizza

Go check out Laura's blog for more tasty treats!

Thespians

Our bishop's daughters put on several summer camps, one of which being an acting camp. At the end of the week, they put on a little play. This year they did "Holka Polka" and Caleb was a wizard (Grandolt) and Mischa was a fairy (it has gnomes instead of fairies in the script). In the play, Prince Charming is put under a sleeping spell, and the fairies decide to take back the witches' magic. The witches decide that they need some positive PR to help them keep their magic, so they send the sweetest witch (Brenda) to break the spell. Along the way, Brenda meets up with the Big Bad Wolf (Mr. Fuzzy), Cindy No Shoes (Cinderella), Pinocchio, and Humpty Dumpty. She learns that image isn't everything and everything isn't what it seems. In the end, the mystery is solved (never trust a fairy godmother) and the witches get to keep their magic. It was a really cute play, and not bad with only a few days of work. We're already looking forward to next year!

A Little Friend

This little blue jay fledgling appeared outside of our window a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, the next day he ended up on our concrete front porch and I think got too hot and stressed there : ( I did get to see one neat thing, other than this cutie, though. I first noticed him because of his parents flying around the yard. When I saw him on the ground, I was worried, since our neighbour's cat roams loose. I didn't need to worry, though. A little while later, a flurry of birds caught my eye. Just as I feared, the cat was in our yard, but he was being chased out, not only by this little guy's parents, but by 2 male cardinals, a male towhee, and 2

male house finches. Those birds hung around for several hours.

I Got Sticks!

2007 Space Derby Champion

Caleb and his winning rocket.

Ready to Explode

This is the cake I did for Caleb's class party. The one I did for the Blue and Gold banquet was a little different- not made of styrofoam and fondant like this one.

Sisters

Menu Plan Monday

Saturday- Hotdogs, chips

Sunday- Bruschetta chicken bake, Italian roasted potatoes, salad, French bread, cherry

turnovers

Monday- Quick and Easy Tater Tot Casserole

Tuesday- Spaghetti, French bread

Wednesday- leftovers

Thursday- BBQ pork sandwiches, corn on the cob

Friday- Homemade pizza

Be sure to visit Laura for more yummy ideas!

35

Yesterday was my birthday and I officially entered the middle-aged category. When I was younger (like in college), for some reason, I always skipped over this milestone when thinking of my future. I went straight to "old" (read:40). As I was lying in bed yesterday morning, I realized that 40 didn't seem so old. It's only 5 years away, and 30 to 35 wasn't that big of a deal. 50 doesn't even seem that old. I guess it helps that my parents are in their 60's and very active still. In high school, I always thought of myself going back to work, or being PTA president or something like that, since my kids would be in school and I'd have my days free. If I had only 2 kids like I planned in high school, I could be doing either of those things, but I guess with 4 kids, I'm doing pretty good being halfway there. Of course, I could hope to take after my grandmothers, both of whom are in their 90's. That way, I have another 10 years to go before I hit middle-age. Positive thinking does wonders!

Menu Plan Monday

Saturday- Birthday party at Chuck E. Cheeses, so leftovers for dinner

Sunday- Roast pork loin, sauerkraut with brown sugar, Italian roast potatoes

Monday-Italian pork hoagies, chips

Tuesday- Potato pizza, salad

Wednesday- Happy birthday to me- no cooking tonight!

Thursday- Ranch chicken, corn, rolls

Friday- Homemade pizza

Check out more yummy things at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

63 Years Ago

From Boortz.com:

Sixty-three years ago on this day allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy in what is still, to this day, the largest seaborne invasion in the history of the world. Just a little historical oddity, but the name for the overall operation to retake Western Europe from Hitler's Nazis was Operation Overlord. The name for the actual June 6th invasion of Normandy was Operation Neptune. Neptune began on June 6, 1944, and ended 24 days later on June 30th. The allied forces suffered about 10,000 causalities on D-Day. About 2500 of those casualties were deaths. The U.S. forces casualty figure was 6,603, inducing 1,465 dead, 3,184 wounded, 1928 missing and 26 captured.

President Roosevelt's Prayer in his radio address:

Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:
Almighty God: our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day without rest - until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters and brothers of brave men overseas -- whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them -- help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a countenance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment -- let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace -- a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil. Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen. Pres. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, June 6, 1944

Menu Plan Monday

I haven't done a Menu Plan Monday for a few weeks, seeing as Mondays have been crazy lately, then I ran across a blog (hi Annie!) I read on weekends, and duh duh DUH they had their menu already posted. So, I'm going to write my menu, save it, then hunt down the picture on Monday, since it's not on my new computer.

Saturday- BBQ kielbasa, au gratin potatoes

Sunday- Gyro Burgers, tater tots

Monday- Roast chicken, green beans

Tuesday-Pigs in a blanket, chips

Wednesday- Chicken and rice, corn

Thursday- Lemon chicken with angel hair pasta, salad

Friday- Homemade Pizza

For more yummy ideas, go to I'm an Organizing Junkie

Laundry Woo Hoo Day

On Saturday, Perry was getting a load of laundry out of the dryer when he noticed that the entire load had some sort of brown stain on them. Digging further in the drum, he found an empty brown crayon wrapper. This was Mischa's load, and probably about a third of her clothes. I just about threw up right then and there. I hit the web and the Crayola website has a great stain chart. Several forums I went to had the same advice. On Monday, I ran to the store for the ingredients I needed. I had enough WD-40 at home to do half of the load. Of that load, just over half came out clean. After more WD-40 was bought, I did the rest of the load and redid the half that needed it. On the second load, a few from the first load still needed a little help, and only one dress needed some help. I was out of propellant for the WD-40, so I just put some color safe bleach on the stains, and used my bleach pen on the white ribbon of the dress. Everything came out, except for the ribbon stains, and they are a whole bunch lighter. I figure if I get to them every time I wash the dress, they should be gone in 2 or 3 washes. I cannot tell you how relieved I am. It took about 8 hours in all, but it saved me from shopping.

Nature's Twinkle Lights

We went to see Night at the Museum at a park by our house last night. It was a perfect day- not hot, not humid, no mosquitos. We had a picnic dinner, then set the kids out to play for the few hours before the movie started (this was the only downside to the outing- a movie that starts at dark, when dark isn't until 9:00). While we were waiting for the movie to start, the DJ of the sponsoring radio station mentioned the lightning bugs in the trees. This park runs next to the Chattahoochee River, so there are a ton of trees. It looked like a stadium where everyone was taking pictures at the action on the field. I have never seen so many lightning bugs going off at the same time, so often. It was a really neat thing to see.

Almost Over

Two more days. Just two. And then I'll be sleeping in (if you can count 7 a.m. as sleeping in).
One more event- the Cub Scout Space Derby. That is tomorrow, and is officially the last activity on the calendar. I've survived the hardest part, which was yesterday. Caleb's class party was yesterday and I think it went pretty well, even though we had to stay indoors because the smoke from the south Georgia fires was paying us a visit. The volcano cake smoked (I'll have to post pictures), no sand was spilled in our dolphin key chain craft, and most of the class finally got me their thank you notes to the teacher so I could gather them into the binder. I feel a little guilty, though, because I haven't gotten any teacher gifts from the kids. I was just so burned out in Caleb's class (and he did a letter), and I just donated to the baby shower we had for Mischa's teacher a few days ago (and she wrote a letter, too), but we didn't do anything for the TAG teachers. Maybe I'll have them write a letter to put in their boxes on Friday. I just don't feel like going into another store for a long time (Perry'll be glad for that, lol). I ended up babysitting last minute for 3 kids until 4:30, so I was almost too pooped to go to our Girl Scout Service Unit's dinner at one of our favourite Italian places. Almost. I might've rethought going, but registrations for next year were due yesterday and since I had two parents give me their registrations yesterday morning (they were due last Tuesday, but only half the group gave me theirs) I couldn't go drop them off at the registrar's house until it was almost time for the dinner. I had a little frustration with our treasurer, who is crazily involved in school activities, complaining to me about having to get her stuff to me last minute for the registration. Even though she had the paperwork filled out about two days after I gave it to her and all she had to do last minute was fill out three checks. I had talked to her Monday about dropping everything into my box Tuesday, but apparently she forgot she agreed to that, so I had to run past her house on the way to dinner to pick it all up. Ugh. But it's over. The dinner was good, it was fun meeting new people, and the waiter had us sing happy birthday to a guy who swore he couldn't be embarrassed. Now I have to turn my attention to the house, which has been woefully neglected in the past week. Ugh.

What a Deal!

I've had my eye on this since the Fall, when some friends of the family got it for their birthday. Back then, it was selling for almost $70 (which was cheaper than what it was when it was purchased for the birthday). About a month ago, I saw it for $35 at Wal-Mart, and almost bought it. They had tons, so I decided to keep a really close eye on it. Last week it was $25. I had already picked up two Spider Man 3 twin sheet sets and two Spider Man 3 throws for the boys' beds, so I figured I would buy two of them this coming Saturday for Christmas presents. I went to Wal-Mart last night with Caleb to get some things for a project and they were gone! I decided to peruse the toy department, thinking maybe they got moved to a different section. I saw a cart filled with toys that needed to be put back, and right next to it was one of the forts. Marked down to $13!!! I grabbed it, but was very sad to only have one (with 4 kids, I wanted at least two). I passed the clearance section in the front of the store and to my joy, they had about 10 more!!! I grabbed 3 more so each of the kids would have one. When I got home, I called my friend about the deal because she had talked about getting another one, and we started talking about how great these would be as presents. I ran over to Wal-Mart at lunch to see if they had any more left, since I wanted to get some for two of my nephews here in Georgia (or at least the second one will be by his birthday). There was one left. I was bummed. I decided to see if the magic of last night would be repeated, so off I went to the corner of the toy section. And in the same place, next to a cart filled with toys, was another fort. Woo Hoo!! Since Caleb already saw them, I'm not saving them for Christmas, but they won't be pulled out until after school ends. If the kids dare to complain about being bored now, I'm going to have to give up.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Yesterday started out normally enough....

After school....

After dinner.....

It's a little hard to tell in that picture, but Caleb lost his first top tooth. The other one is loose, too. It takes forever for his teeth to grow in (Mischa lost one after he lost the bottom two and hers has grown all the way in already), so he might be making friends with a blender in the near future.

Click here for a great giveaway! People who can do this are so amazing!

Menu Plan Monday

I have no idea what's gotten into me- almost everything this week is a new recipe.

Saturday- Chicken Caesar Salad- we went and saw Spiderman 3, so I grabbed a package of pre cooked and sliced chicken, a bagged Caesar salad kit and some fresh Parmesan.

Sunday-Ranch Chicken, rice, corn.

Monday- Kielbasa covered with BBQ sauce, sour cream and chive potatoes, rolls

Tuesday-Quick and Cheesy Sausage Rotini, Yummy green beans, bread sticks

Wednesday- Chicken enchilada casserole

Thursday- Saucy Pork Medallions, stuffing, peas

Friday- Girls' Night Out- the boys are going camping, so my daughters and I are looking forward to our traditional meal of Pizza Hut and ice cream.

For more yummy ideas, head on over to I'm an Organizing Junkie.

The New Baby

Here's the latest addition to the John family. The kids are excited, since that means they get a computer again (theirs died a few months ago). This will be a great help on our trip to the Southwest with our new GPS software and downloading digital pictures of the reunion. I've never done the laptop thing before, but I'm excited, especially since I saw that Hearts, Minesweeper, and Freecell are on it, lol.

Cakes

I've started doing a few cakes again. This first cake was one I did for the Blue and Gold banquet for Cub Scouts. I did two cakes, but Perry took the digital to England, so I don't have a picture of the first cake, which was a smoking volcano, yet (haven't developed them). Little Hawaiian dude wasn't eaten, so we brought him home for Perry's birthday.

This next cake was done for the son of one of the women I visit teach for his baptism.

I'm going to do the volcano cake again for Caleb's class party, so I'll have some pictures of that soon. I might modify it, though, and make the volcano out of styrofoam instead of cake. We had about 50 people at the Blue and Gold and still had a little bit of the cake leftover, so I can't see a class of 20 eating all of it.

The Sexist Stomach Bug

I am back in the land of the living. The girls and I were hit the other night by some sort of stomach bug. A few weeks ago, Caleb threw up twice in three days. Never complained about a stomach ache, being tired, anything. Just got sick in the middle of the night in his bed (not a great way to be woken up at 2 a.m., btw). Josh got sick a few days later. Just once. Complained of an earache a few hours later, but the next day he was running around and didn't really even remember the earache. So when I went to pick up the kids at my friend's house the other day and she told me Anneliese threw up, I thought, "there's her one". We get home and she throws up on the driveway (whew, not in the car), and I thought, "well, she's done". Hahahaha. I forgot the sense of humour God has with me. We used all but 2 of our towels that night. She didn't have much in her stomach, but not even a sip of juice would stay down. I went up a few hours later to watch American Idol and just felt weird. Not sick, just weird. By the time AI was over, I was nauseous. I went downstairs to tell Perry, only to find Mischa in the bathroom. She was so cute. She came out and told us that Heavenly Father told her, through the Holy Ghost, that she was going to be sick and she needed to get to the bathroom. Liese was done being sick by 10 p.m., and at 4 a.m. was wanting to eat and kept it down. She was quite the chatterbox then, too. Mischa didn't fare so well. We sent her to bed with a bowl, which she lined with a Wal-Mart bag so my "bowl wouldn't get dirty", but she was up all night. I was sick a few times, but so nauseous I couldn't sleep. I actually took two two hour naps yesterday (I have to be on death's door to sleep during the day). Perry called from work, saying he wasn't feeling sick sick, just like he had hunger pangs without being hungry. He was nauseous for just a few hours at home. I don't know why the girls were hit so hard, so fast, but in the end I'm glad that only half of us had to suffer and at least one parent was functional.

Wax On, Wax Off

We went to the school's walk-a-thon yesterday. We ended up showing up late (but at least Perry got to go with us!) because of some miscommunication the family I babysit for on Monday had with each other, resulting in the mother telling me her son would be home at 4:30, instead of the 5:30 she told me a few weeks ago. We only walked a mile out of the 2 miles and we could've probably done the second mile before the trail closed, but the kids were starting to complain and lag a bit. We had a Mexican dinner catered in (not too popular with the kids, but I thought it was tasty and I'm not too fond of Mexican food). At the end of the dinner, they had a prize giveaway for the person who raised the most, class that raised the most, and grade that raised the most. It was a very successful fundraiser, with all but $200 of their $15000 goal raised by last night. They also had a raffle. They raffled off an 8" TV, some CD players, gift certificates to a sporting goods store and an ice cream place, two lucky people won a pound of chocolate (the little girl I watch in the morning was one of those), and then they announced the last prize of the night. Six months of unlimited karate lessons. I just closed my eyes and chanted "Caleb, Caleb, Caleb" in my head. The assistant principal announced, "Caleb....J". I opened my eyes and looked at Perry. Did I hear right? He's been bugging us to do karate, and our dr. thinks it will be good to get him involved in non-classroom activities so he can experience success in multiple fields, so this is just perfect. Of course, check with me in a month when I sign him up and he shows his siblings his karate moves (he had had the gift certificate in hand for all about 30 seconds when we gave him this talk). And now Mischa is starting to bug us about karate lessons...

Menu Plan Monday

Another busy week- Brownies, planning an end of year party, Walk-a-thon. I'll be glad when school is over and I can stop to breathe. The start of school and the end of school are the craziest times in a mom's life.



Saturday- The kids had homemade pizza (we went to a Tri-Stake youth dance festival on Friday and had IHOP). The adults went to Olive Garden to celebrate my Stepmother's birthday. I had the chicken crostina, which I had been wanting to try since it came out. It was so good, I almost asked for the recipe. Yay Olive Garden for reading my mind! Perry had this and really liked it. The smoked mozzerella fontuda was very good, too.
Sunday- Chicken and rice (which we didn't have last week), corn, biscuits
Monday- Walk-a-thon surprise
Tuesday-Spaghetti, French bread
Wednesday-Leftover spaghetti
Thursday- BBQ chicken, corn on the cob
Friday- Homemade pizza

For more yummy ideas, visit I'm an organizing junkie

Menu Plan Monday Debut

I know I've been tagged and, while I have no interest in having my house burn down, I'm still working on that post (okay, mainly finding a few people to tag). This post is a little easier, since I basically wrote it on Friday.

My menus go from Saturday-Friday, since I do my shopping on Saturday. I'm also switching out winter and summer clothes, so things are pretty quick and easy this week. So, without further ado....

Saturday- Hot dogs and brats on the grill (woohoo Spring!), fresh corn on the cob, pasta salad, and deviled eggs (my friend brought the last two things).

Sunday-BBQ chicken sandwiches (done in the slow cooker), corn on the cob.

Monday- Mac and cheese (Perry's out of town).

Tuesday- Baked ziti, French bread, salad

Wednesday- Roast chicken, green beans, stuffing.

Thursday- Chicken and rice (made from yesterday's leftovers), corn, and biscuits.

Friday- Pizza and popcorn night. We have a tradition eating homemade pizza in front of the TV and renting a movie.

For more yummy ideas, visit I'm an organizing junkie.

Tagged

4 jobs I have held you may not know about:

I'm pretty boring on the job front.
Market research interviewer (yes, the people you run from in the mall- but it really helped in getting over my shyness, which is why I took the jobs)-twice
Veterinary assistant/receptionist/kennel worker-3 times

4 movies I have watched over and over:

Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Phantom of the Opera
Sense and Sensibility
Pretty much any of the Disney cartoons starting with Little Mermaid


4 places I've lived before now:

Tennessee (Franklin and Chattanooga)
Texas (Richardson)
Arizona (Glendale and Tucson)
New Mexico (Playas and Silver City)

4 TV shows I love to watch:

Lost
Scrubs
My Name is Earl
Monk
I'll add a 5th- just about any "reality" show- except for Survivor

4 Favorite Foods:
Lasagna
Mushroom Swiss Burgers
Chicken Parmagiana
Fried Artichoke Hearts
I'm also going to add the chicken crostina from Olive Garden that I had Saturday night.

I've had this post sitting in my draft box forever, trying to figure out who to tag. I'm going to tag Emily and Tara.

Music

We sang this song at our Easter program at Church a few weeks ago. I wrote down the lyrics before the program so I could have them to write this post, then the paper was upstairs, the computer downstairs, and I never thought about them while upstairs and couldn't be bothered to go up and get them when I was downstairs. So when my sister-in-law posted this, I saw them upstairs and carried the paper with me to not forget to bring them downstairs. They then got lost on the kitchen counter for a few days, but they've finally made it to the computer. We sang this song last year, and I wanted to copy down the lyrics then, but as I've already illustrated, the road from point A to point B is long and has many side trips, lol. I always tear up at the end, it's a miracle I can finish it at all.

Behold the Wounds in Jesus' Hands
Lyrics- John V. Pearson
Music- David R. Naylor

Behold the wounds in Jesus' hands,
The marks upon His side,
Then ponder whom He meant to save
When on the cross He died.
We cannot see the love of God
Which saves us from the fall,
Yet know that Christ from wood and nails
Built mansions for us all.

Behold the outstretched hands of Christ,
Our God, who came to save,
Whose love and grace redeems our souls
And lifts us from the grave.
Though bruised and battered as we stray
His guiding hands caress,
He washes and anoints with oil
Then in His arms we rest.

Behold the wounds in Jesus' hands,
Look to your Lord and live.
He yearns to bless you with His love
And all your sins forgive.
Oh empty is the heart of man
When it is filled with sin.
Come, open wide your broken heart
And let your Savior in!

Behold His wounded hands and feet!
Come touch and see and feel
The wounds and marks that you many know
His love for you is real.
Then as you fall to worship Him
And wash His feet in tears,
Your Savior takes you in His arms and quiets all your fears.

Your Savior takes you in His arms and quiets all your fears.

Listen to an excerpt here.

Mixed Blessing

Anneliese woke up for the second night in a row. I didn't mind in the old days, since she would fall asleep as she started nursing. Not anymore. I think she clones herself twenty times and they like to play on the bed. Even while she nurses, she's trying to flip herself around. If she's still enough that I fall asleep, just as I'm asleep she'll sit up, wanting to nurse on the other side. Then she'll usually sleep until normal time (provided the kids are quiet as they get ready for school). I don't know what time she woke up this morning. I stumble to her room without glasses, but I do know I saw the green light on our security panel. The next thing I know, I open my eyes and see green flashing on Perry's side of the bed. Yay power outage! Turning the TV on shows it's 5:15. We reset the clocks and snuggle into the covers again. Perry then wakes up- power's gone out again. He took his shower with a gas lamp. I was worrying about having to find a friend not in the neighbourhood, since I needed to make frosting for some giant cookies and I need my mixer for that. Power came back on, and we turned on the news just as they were talking about the power outage in our area. They never said what caused it, though. If it hadn't been for Anneliese, though, we would'nt have noticed the power outage. I'd still like to sleep through the night for the rest of the week, though.

Seven Already?

Today is Mischa's seventh birthday. She got to spend the night with Oompah and Grandma last night and go shopping and out to lunch with Grandma today. Watching her walk toward the car today when I was picking her up, I was struck by how she isn't a little girl anymore. She is growing up fast. Her art and handwriting have improved so much over the course of the year. Watching her with her friends has really been fun. My little girl has girlfriends. She has such a big heart and an even bigger imagination. She has a room-brightening smile and a cute little snort when she really gets to laughing. She is probably a bigger reader than I ever was. She is insightful, caring, and an all around joy.


Dora and Boots by Mischa

She's TWOOOOOOOOO!

Be afraid, be very afraid. More afraid than Caleb being a dentist (we're at INK- a place in Gainesville that is bunch of stores and offices that let kids play pretend. I have some more pictures, I'll do a post on it sometime).
Anneliese is the stereotypical two-year old. Ugh. If she wasn't so cute.....She's starting to assert herself more, which is good, except that screeching usually accompanies that. She has the sweetest smiles, though, so it's hard to stay mad for long.

So, to recap terror levels:


Caleb as a dentist- Low

Anneliese- Medium

And Josh- High

Cool Site

Thanks to Code Yellow Mom for this heads up. This is a really neat site where letters were found on butterfly wings. They are absolutely gorgeous and it's a great reminder that the unexpected can be found in anything.

Terrible Twos, Terrific Twos

Two is right around the corner at our house. With a vengeance. Our sweet, quiet baby is turning into quite the screech monster. And don't get me started on the hitting. I try to remind myself that this is as frustrating for her as it is for me, but after prying her off my legs 30 times in as many minutes while cooking dinner, I tend to lose sight of that.

One of the upsides of two is being able to let her go out to play with her brothers and sister. One of their favourite things right now is going down our small hill in the backyard in one of their cars. Sometimes they go down on a tricycle-type one. Josh's main problem with this one is getting off. He always catches his leg on the the handlebars. And falls down. Onto the horrible ground that meanly sticks to his hands and pants. And he cries. Because to my kids, this is the end of the world. I was watching him out the kitchen window the other day and watched this scenario play out. For the umpteenth time. This time, however, Liesie was at the bottom of the hill. She walked over and started brushing off his pants. Then she grabbed his hands and brushed them off. She followed this up with a big hug. I forgot that two has some sweet moments, too.



She isn't much of a talker. She still won't say Caleb or Mischa. To fill in some important gaps (milk, cookies, ketchup, french fries), I've been teaching her sign language. So imagine my surprise this morning as the bus pulls up.
"Bus!"
"You're right, sweetie, bus!"
We start trudging up the hill home.
"The bus is yellow."
"Elow"
Woo hoo, on a roll now! I point to her coat- "Pink".
She looks at me.
"Say 'pink'".
She points to the coat.
Falling back on a now known, I ask her to say yellow again.
She points to the now leaving bus.
Snot face.

Can Anyone Help Me Post Video?

Pretty please?

Just One More for Today

I really am going to spread these out over the next few days, but since this turned out so cute and it is green, I couldn't resist.

My stepmother has been teaching me how to sew, so to thank her, I made her this frog pincushion. I had seen this square pincushion over at Rocks in my Dryer , and then I went to the site she had gotten her inspiration from. I was all set to do the square pincushion, but when I went upstairs before I left for Wal-Mart, I saw some green fabric I had leftover. She and my dad love frogs, so the idea was born. I bought some green embroidery thread, some googly eyes, and a dragonfly button.

Losing Teeth

Mischa lost her first tooth on February the 17th. She's been waiting for such a long time for this day to come!

Emptying the Camera

To make room for the pictures he'll be taking in England, we downloaded the pictures from the digital onto the computer. So now I'll have lots of pictures to inspire my blogging. Guess it's just a little luck o' the Irish for ya!

Happy St. Perry's Day! 2007

Tis that time again- Perry's birthday. The big 3-5. And he's off to merry old England. So if you want to send some birthday love to Perry or his twin, Pat, click on over!

We love ya, Hon!!! Even if you are old!

Stopping to Say Hi

I apologize for the big lull there. Things have just gotten crazy around here. Caleb was suspended for two days for hitting two fifth graders in the stomach, so I've been doing a lot of research on ADHD and homeschooling, just to keep my options open. Then I get a soon to be VERY two year old girl all of a sudden. Ugh. It could be worse, I guess. My friend has a three year old girl with Joshua syndrome (I really shouldn't laugh).
Girl Scout cookies have come in (thank you again, Perry, for braving the warehouse to load our minivan full of our troop cookies!), so between sorting and delivering, and preparing our girls for our first ever booth sale, it's been chaos on the Brownie front. We had our first booth sale on Saturday. It started out sprinkling on us on the way there, but quickly turned into the perfect day. Our cookie mom, B, only gave us about a third of our cookies, since she was concerned that they wouldn't sell, since this area had booth sales for three straight weeks. We were at Walmart, land of impulse buys, so I don't know what she was thinking. Luckily, my co-leader is cookie mom for her older daughter's troop and had brought all of their cookies. We sold out of what we brought and used enough of theirs, that when we paid them back with our boxes in B's garage, we didn't have enough boxes and had to pay them for six boxes! We sold 250 boxes! Woo hoo! B was initially concerned about how many we ordered extra for the booth sales, but I think we have the most awesome little sellers in the world! Only four of our girls signed up to help on this sale, so to give all the girls a chance to do this we're helping out the troop we borrowed cookies from at their booth sale this coming weekend (no parents have been signing up to help man the booths for them, how sad). They might not have booth sales at all next year because it's too frustrating for the cookie mom and leaders. I signed up to stay on after our sale to help my co-leader out.
I'm also in a weight loss quest, and decided that I really need to step up the exercise. I haven't been too good sticking with that, but the past few days I've really tried to get at least one walk in. I did two yesterday and the shin splints have caught up to me. I'm going to rest my legs for a few days and start a little less ambitiously, lol. I've never been a runner, so it must be seeing how awesome Perry is doing with his weight loss by running that caused the temporary insanity. The sad part was that you could only call it a slow jog, and I could only keep it up for two minutes at a time, two or three times in my 30 minute workout. I guess I'll need to focus on diet (at least the evil cookies are out of the house) and pilates for the next few days. So if I go AWOL again, you'll know that I feel better.

Funny Kids

Just a couple of quickies-

We had Joshua say prayers at dinner the other night. He's been saying them for awhile, but he always stops and waits for us to say something, then repeats it. This night, Perry was helping him, but kind of using charades to do it. Joshua asked for the food to be blessed, then he paused. Perry made a muscle and pointed at his arm, for "to make us strong", and Joshua then asked to "please bless our elbows".

One of the kids was watching a movie yesterday and paused it during a preview of Charlotte's Web. In it, Dakota Fanning was kneeling down to talk to Wilber. Anneliese kept hitting her on the bottom, saying, "Go, go".

A Little Bit of Sass

On Monday night, we went to Dairy Queen (nyah, nyah Toni) for a treat to go along with our nonexistent Family Home Evening. On the way there, we passed by Chick-Fil-A. Joshua always calls this Cow Foot, even when I tell him the name. On this night, he informed me that this was no longer called Cow Foot, it was Chicken Cow Foot. I chuckled at this, and was rebuked with a "Don't laugh at me".
The next situation needs a little bit of background. Monday was a noisy day. A really noisy day. Apparently Joshua thought I was a mile away every time he talked to me. Noise really wears on me. A lot. So here we are at Dairy Queen (hot fudge sundae, mmmm) and Joshua has been told several times to whisper, since I'm sitting right next to him. I was reading the nutritional pamphlet (only 240 calories for my small sundae, not too bad), so I popped him playfully on the head. And I was met with him standing on his chair and saying, "What do you say now, Mom?". Ouch. I guess they do listen, lol.

A Little Math for Ya

Mischa had to make up a subtraction problem for her homework tonight. Poor wormies.

Baby Lessons

I was watching one of the newest babies in our ward yesterday as he was sitting next to my chair in Relief Society. He's about 2 months old and is so cute (his sister, Daphne, looks just like your old Cabbage Patch Kid, Karina, Toni. It's really freaky).

Okay, returning from my trip down memory lane... I was watching this little cutie waving his arms and legs around, and every so often managing to get his little fist into his mouth. He was so happy when this happened. As I was watching him get more and more excited every time this happened, I had to chuckle to myself. I was amazed at how something so simple caused him so much joy. I then had a thought about this. I thought about how excited we must have been in the Preexistence in learning that we would be getting bodies. I thought about how this little spirit I was looking on was getting to experience the joys of a body and what it could do. I thought about what lay ahead for him- crawling, walking, running, jumping, climbing. I thought about how proud and joyful my kids were (and are) when they mastered these things. Caleb is learning to ride a bike right now. He's very good at falling, but that was another post. We get to experience all sorts of new things thanks to this body. I think about Mischa drawing, or Joshua swinging. The possibilities of this body are almost endless. I thought about my roommate from college. She wrote about taking up ballet again, and how her body remembered a lot of what she had learned many years ago. I think about me, riding a bike again after 15 years (and not falling off!). This body really is one of the neatest creations of our Heavenly Father, and I'm ashamed that I've lost a lot of the joy and wonderment over all I can do. I'm going to have to pay more attention to those things that I've taken for granted.

What have you recently done that amazes you?

Go Ahead, Make My Day

Almost every morning it's the same thing, only the time is different. Joshua comes sliding down the stairs, one at a time, on his bum. He then runs over to me, sitting at the computer, climbs up on my lap, throws his arms around my neck, then as he pulls away, asks for "Disney channel and a poptart". He is so nice and warm, so cuddly. I just can't imagine my day starting any better.

I Need to Find Me Some Spare Time

I guess Techno isn't this guy's happy music

It's the Little Things

I don't ask for much, I really don't. Throw me a Snickers and a Dr. Pepper every so often and I'm a happy momma. The icing on the cake for me is finding typos in books, magazines, newspapers, that kind of thing. I came across this today: scary hyenas/parties, same difference.

Another little thing that makes my day a little better is Joshua and his love of Blockbusters, or "Bustards".

I figure I can do a little blatant comment whoring, now that Perry has used the term and I won't be accused of corrupting her baby if his mom ever sees this: What little things make your day?