So I was mentioning how life is busy and is flying by... of course as I was typing up my blog entry yesterday I could feel a headache coming on. I took some tylenol and then went to pick up the kids from school. Through the course of the evening I still had the headache. I laid down after dinner to try and rest and see if that would help it go away, and I took some ibuprophen to alternate with the tylenol... I wound up going to bed at 10pm- early for me, and tossed and turned half the night. I woke up at 4am with knives still piercing the back of my head and took more tylenol... and then again at 7:30 I took some ibuprophen. It's not a migrane, but it's a really bad headache...
So I'm skipping my daily treck to the Y today and taking it easy here at home. I can relax this morning, I'll lay down and take a nap when Angela takes a nap this afternoon, and hopefully get enough energy charged up to be able to make it through picking the kids up afterschool, going to Karate, and then cubscouts tonight- they are taking the boys to a driving range (I've never done anything beyond put-put golf myself) so that should be interesting... I'll probably stand around and watch the whole thing and let the other two leaders do the actual teaching... lol!
So today at least, I'm slowing things down and not being so busy- because I know if I try to keep pushing myself, this headache will not go away! :)
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
I'm finally getting to this.
The last few weeks have literally flown by. We have had stuff going on during the weeks, on the weekends and it all blends together after a while.
Two saturday's ago BYU played Tulsa in Tulsa, so Rich and I and Alex and Ashley went to the game. It was Alex and Ashley's first time going to a football game and even though BYU lost the game, it was a fun experience. Our seats were three rows from the top of the stadium (and those were the "premium" seats... I wonder where the "cheap" seats were??) Alex kept up a barrage of asking Rich to go get him a drink and food and he was bored... for the whole first half. I think Rich was probably to the point of having us leave and go home by half-time. A bunch of friends from the ward also had tickets near us and they talked to another family that was at the game via cell phones. Turns out the other family was on the other side of the stadium 5 rows up from the very front. There weren't very many people over there and there was lots of empty seats so they said we should come on over. So all of us went on over to that side of the stadium for the second half. It was right in front of the cheerleading squad and Ashley just sat mesmerized for the rest of the game watching the cheerleaders doing their cheers. Alex had fun standing down at the wall right behind the team and watching from there. He was a little scared of Cosmo when he came over and he scrambled up the bleachers back to us when Cosmo was shaking hands and signing autographs at the wall. Overall it was a fun night and neat to do something with both of the older kids and both Rich and I. We had a babysitter stay at home with Alyssa and Angela and just spend the night since we got home at 2am.
Last week I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I was going to do for my SuperSaturday class. I found so many fun crafts to do with kids. My class was on Christmas Crafts for Kids.. Here's some of the neat things I found or did:
Popsicle stick frames:
Take popsicle sticks and glue them together to make frames of different shapes and sizes. There are lots of different sizes of popsicle sticks available in the craft aisle.
After the glue is dried- paint it with paints, or squeeze on some glitter glue for decorations. Take a picture and cut it to the size of the frame, and then cut some felt and glue it to the back.
Now you have your own unique photo and frame- great for a gift from your kids to grandparents!
Snowman bell necklace:
1-Take a bell and string some ribbon through it to make the necklace chain.
2-Take a large white pompom and glue it on the top of the bell.
3-Cut a pipecleaner down to a 3 inch piece. Glue small red pom pom balls on each end, then bend it and glue on the top of the large white pom pom to make earmuffs.
4-Cut a brown pipecleaner into one 4 inch section, and two 1 inch sections. Wrap the 1 inch sections across about ½ inch from each end of the 4 inch section. Glue the pipecleaner between the bell and large pom pom across the back- bend to make it look like the arms and hands of the snowman.
5- Take a multicolored pipecleaner and cut it to about a 4-5 inch section. Wrap it around where the bell and large pompom meet and then bend it to make a scarf.
Window Decorations:
A great way to put your kids artwork up on your windows!
1-Take a favorite coloring page, and a clear page protector.
2-Slide the coloring page inside of the page protector, and then using permanent markers let your kids color the coloring page on the page protector.
3-When they are done, pull the page out, and tape the page protector to the window or mirror.
Rubbing alcohol will clean it off if you want to reuse the page protectors.
Balloon globes:
1-Take a small balloon and blow it up.
2-Dipping string in white glue, then wrap string around the balloon to form a delicate globe/ball.
3-Make sure all the string has glue on it, so it will stick together well.
4-After the glue dries, pop the balloon and pull it out.
Martha Stewart has a lot of neat ideas to do with pipecleaners. Just search for christmas decorations and pipecleaners on her website; Marthastewartliving.com
Here are some other websites and ideas:
http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/treeornaments/l/blorncdphoto.htm
http://www.kinderart.com/recycle/cardbox.shtml
http://www.rumpets.com/GoodiesCrafts7.html
http://www.daniellesplace.com/html/christmas.html
http://www.craftelf.com/reindeer_lollipop.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how_11100_make-gingerbread-christmas.html
http://www.allfreecrafts.com/christmas/cotton-snowman.shtml
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/Shootingstar.shtml
http://www.crafty-moms.com/christmas-crafts.shtml
This weekend we also had some guests come and visit. Rich's brother Dave came to visit with his girlfriend Amanda. We had a great time seeing them and playing games, talking, and just visiting with them. It's too bad we live so far apart that we an only see them a few times a year. Our kids just absolutely adore them and we do to!
We are in the process of moving around stuff in the house again. Our office that we turned into a playroom, is now going to be converted into Alex's bedroom. Alex's bedroom will be repainted to a girl friendly color (right now it's dark, dark blue), and Ashley will now have her own room. The toys will be distributed between rooms and a few will be taken upstairs. The tv downstairs will go upstairs and the upstairs will now be the kids zone and playroom area. Downstairs Rich has gotten a big tv and nice console that we will do the main tv viewing on. The big screen and projector upstairs will be set aside for special occasions and movie nights. The big screen actually will be replaced with a roll down screen sometime in the future, so it can be used and then put away safely where kids will not decide to draw a mural on it, or run through it and rip it up... etc...
The tv is here, but the console to put it on, was damaged at the furniture store, so we have the tv sitting on the floor in our room to keep it safe until the console gets here. We got new dressers for Alex and Ashley because they'll need them with this new rearrangement of rooms, and we never had dressers for them before (we've always had closet drawers/shelving that we've used for them). Ashley's dresser is sitting in the living room for now since we'll have to empty Alex's stuff from his room and paint it before she can take up occupancy...
So we are here, we are happy and healthy and doing well... and I still feel like I fill my calender up with more than I'd like, but I don't want to give up anything that is mine on my calender, and I can't take away the other family members activities. Compared to a lot of people we don't have a lot going on, so I need to just remember that and organize myself a little bit more (so we can have some yummy dinners on Karate nights and not just frozen stuff and leftovers those nights) and then I'll feel like I've got things under control.
Right now though... I've got to go pick up kids from school and meet Rich at the dentist's office to drop off Alex for his dental appointment. At least I got this updated a little bit... now lets see if I can get back to it before 2 more weeks have passed by... :)
Two saturday's ago BYU played Tulsa in Tulsa, so Rich and I and Alex and Ashley went to the game. It was Alex and Ashley's first time going to a football game and even though BYU lost the game, it was a fun experience. Our seats were three rows from the top of the stadium (and those were the "premium" seats... I wonder where the "cheap" seats were??) Alex kept up a barrage of asking Rich to go get him a drink and food and he was bored... for the whole first half. I think Rich was probably to the point of having us leave and go home by half-time. A bunch of friends from the ward also had tickets near us and they talked to another family that was at the game via cell phones. Turns out the other family was on the other side of the stadium 5 rows up from the very front. There weren't very many people over there and there was lots of empty seats so they said we should come on over. So all of us went on over to that side of the stadium for the second half. It was right in front of the cheerleading squad and Ashley just sat mesmerized for the rest of the game watching the cheerleaders doing their cheers. Alex had fun standing down at the wall right behind the team and watching from there. He was a little scared of Cosmo when he came over and he scrambled up the bleachers back to us when Cosmo was shaking hands and signing autographs at the wall. Overall it was a fun night and neat to do something with both of the older kids and both Rich and I. We had a babysitter stay at home with Alyssa and Angela and just spend the night since we got home at 2am.
Last week I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I was going to do for my SuperSaturday class. I found so many fun crafts to do with kids. My class was on Christmas Crafts for Kids.. Here's some of the neat things I found or did:
Popsicle stick frames:
Take popsicle sticks and glue them together to make frames of different shapes and sizes. There are lots of different sizes of popsicle sticks available in the craft aisle.
After the glue is dried- paint it with paints, or squeeze on some glitter glue for decorations. Take a picture and cut it to the size of the frame, and then cut some felt and glue it to the back.
Now you have your own unique photo and frame- great for a gift from your kids to grandparents!
Snowman bell necklace:
1-Take a bell and string some ribbon through it to make the necklace chain.
2-Take a large white pompom and glue it on the top of the bell.
3-Cut a pipecleaner down to a 3 inch piece. Glue small red pom pom balls on each end, then bend it and glue on the top of the large white pom pom to make earmuffs.
4-Cut a brown pipecleaner into one 4 inch section, and two 1 inch sections. Wrap the 1 inch sections across about ½ inch from each end of the 4 inch section. Glue the pipecleaner between the bell and large pom pom across the back- bend to make it look like the arms and hands of the snowman.
5- Take a multicolored pipecleaner and cut it to about a 4-5 inch section. Wrap it around where the bell and large pompom meet and then bend it to make a scarf.
Window Decorations:
A great way to put your kids artwork up on your windows!
1-Take a favorite coloring page, and a clear page protector.
2-Slide the coloring page inside of the page protector, and then using permanent markers let your kids color the coloring page on the page protector.
3-When they are done, pull the page out, and tape the page protector to the window or mirror.
Rubbing alcohol will clean it off if you want to reuse the page protectors.
Balloon globes:
1-Take a small balloon and blow it up.
2-Dipping string in white glue, then wrap string around the balloon to form a delicate globe/ball.
3-Make sure all the string has glue on it, so it will stick together well.
4-After the glue dries, pop the balloon and pull it out.
Martha Stewart has a lot of neat ideas to do with pipecleaners. Just search for christmas decorations and pipecleaners on her website; Marthastewartliving.com
Here are some other websites and ideas:
http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/treeornaments/l/blorncdphoto.htm
http://www.kinderart.com/recycle/cardbox.shtml
http://www.rumpets.com/GoodiesCrafts7.html
http://www.daniellesplace.com/html/christmas.html
http://www.craftelf.com/reindeer_lollipop.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how_11100_make-gingerbread-christmas.html
http://www.allfreecrafts.com/christmas/cotton-snowman.shtml
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/Shootingstar.shtml
http://www.crafty-moms.com/christmas-crafts.shtml
This weekend we also had some guests come and visit. Rich's brother Dave came to visit with his girlfriend Amanda. We had a great time seeing them and playing games, talking, and just visiting with them. It's too bad we live so far apart that we an only see them a few times a year. Our kids just absolutely adore them and we do to!
We are in the process of moving around stuff in the house again. Our office that we turned into a playroom, is now going to be converted into Alex's bedroom. Alex's bedroom will be repainted to a girl friendly color (right now it's dark, dark blue), and Ashley will now have her own room. The toys will be distributed between rooms and a few will be taken upstairs. The tv downstairs will go upstairs and the upstairs will now be the kids zone and playroom area. Downstairs Rich has gotten a big tv and nice console that we will do the main tv viewing on. The big screen and projector upstairs will be set aside for special occasions and movie nights. The big screen actually will be replaced with a roll down screen sometime in the future, so it can be used and then put away safely where kids will not decide to draw a mural on it, or run through it and rip it up... etc...
The tv is here, but the console to put it on, was damaged at the furniture store, so we have the tv sitting on the floor in our room to keep it safe until the console gets here. We got new dressers for Alex and Ashley because they'll need them with this new rearrangement of rooms, and we never had dressers for them before (we've always had closet drawers/shelving that we've used for them). Ashley's dresser is sitting in the living room for now since we'll have to empty Alex's stuff from his room and paint it before she can take up occupancy...
So we are here, we are happy and healthy and doing well... and I still feel like I fill my calender up with more than I'd like, but I don't want to give up anything that is mine on my calender, and I can't take away the other family members activities. Compared to a lot of people we don't have a lot going on, so I need to just remember that and organize myself a little bit more (so we can have some yummy dinners on Karate nights and not just frozen stuff and leftovers those nights) and then I'll feel like I've got things under control.
Right now though... I've got to go pick up kids from school and meet Rich at the dentist's office to drop off Alex for his dental appointment. At least I got this updated a little bit... now lets see if I can get back to it before 2 more weeks have passed by... :)
Monday, September 10, 2007
Just giving myself a pat on the back
So I've mentioned before how I was trying to exercise more. At the begining of July I was at my heaviest weight that I've ever been, except for the last few months of pregnancies and right after having babies. I was 173 pounds. I hid weight really well, but you could tell in my face and my arms that I was weighing more than what was ideal.
I've tried to increase my exercise and exercise at least 4 days a week and try to exercise 6 days a week. I am also trying to not snack on foods throughout the day like I used to. I had so many years of being pregnant or nursing where I had to eat every 2-3 hours that I got into the habit of eating and snacking, even though I really wasn't hungry. So I'm not dieting persay, I'm just trying to eat less than what I was.
I weighed myself this morning and I am at 156 pounds. That's 17 pounds! I'm shocked that I'm able to do this. For so long I've told myself that I have a sweet tooth and I would never be successful at not eating sweets because of that, but in the past two months I've been able to say no to treats most of the time. I still have an occasional dessert- about once a week on average, but the snacking on cookies or crackers or whatever is laying around in the pantry during the day- I've been able to really stop.
My goal is to get down to 140, so I'm halfway. I was 135 when I got married and I'd be thrilled to get back down to there, but for now my goal is to get down around 140.
It's just a good feeling to have made this goal and to really see the results already starting to happen. I just hope I can continue and get down to where I want to be.
I've tried to increase my exercise and exercise at least 4 days a week and try to exercise 6 days a week. I am also trying to not snack on foods throughout the day like I used to. I had so many years of being pregnant or nursing where I had to eat every 2-3 hours that I got into the habit of eating and snacking, even though I really wasn't hungry. So I'm not dieting persay, I'm just trying to eat less than what I was.
I weighed myself this morning and I am at 156 pounds. That's 17 pounds! I'm shocked that I'm able to do this. For so long I've told myself that I have a sweet tooth and I would never be successful at not eating sweets because of that, but in the past two months I've been able to say no to treats most of the time. I still have an occasional dessert- about once a week on average, but the snacking on cookies or crackers or whatever is laying around in the pantry during the day- I've been able to really stop.
My goal is to get down to 140, so I'm halfway. I was 135 when I got married and I'd be thrilled to get back down to there, but for now my goal is to get down around 140.
It's just a good feeling to have made this goal and to really see the results already starting to happen. I just hope I can continue and get down to where I want to be.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
I'm here...
I really haven't been posting a lot lately. I just haven't felt like I've had a lot to post.
I'm starting to attend an institute class one day a week. It is for two hours on Thursday mornings. The first class I decided that morning to attend, and then went home and forgot all about studying the next two lessons until the night before the second class. Angela wound up getting sick that night, so I missed the second class. I really didn't open my manual to read anything at all, until today.
Today is Stake Conference- it is held in an auditorium at a High School and Rich and I in the past wind up really not hearing any of the speakers because we are so busy trying to keep the kids occupied and quiet. With auditorium seats that the kids can't sit in very well and no good area out in a hallway to listen while the babies toddle around- well we decided not to take the entire family to the Stake Conference today. Rich went and took Ashley with him for a special Daddy daughter time. He would have taken Alex with him as well, but lately Ashley has been provoking and picking fights with Alex and Alyssa so we thought the day would be calmer for everyone if she was taken and given a lot of one on one time with Daddy. So... Rich and Ashley are off at Stake Conference for the majority of the day. They'll get home around 1:30-2pm I'd guess.
Alex just thrives in the big brother role here at home when Ashley isn't around to but in and boss all of them around. He has been playing games with Alyssa and Angela and helping them do things. We played Monopoly Jr all together, and then he played Jenga and DVD Bingo with them and I decided to come into my room and read for the Institute class a little bit. I'm hoping I can get myself into the regular habit of reading one chapter for the class and studying it each day. I do pretty good with the reading habit- picking up the scriptures each day and reading from them, but I have a hard time focusing and concentrating and really "studying" from the scriptures. I'm hoping taking this institute class will help me regain some of those questions that arise from studying the scriptures.
So I came in here and had a great time reading the scriptures and reading from the manual. Marking passages from the scriptures and the manual that really stood out for me and writing down thoughts and insights that I gained while reading. I am such a procrastinator that so many times I'm playing catch-up, and I don't get to really enjoy the process of doing something. At least for today, right now- I got to enjoy the process of studying this morning and learning. I hope I can continue to do this and enjoy it and grow from it.
Of course something happened in the house while I was doing that. Angela climbed up onto the cabinet in the laundry room and found the water bottle that was full of black beach sand from our trip out to Santa Rosa last summer... 1/5 of the bottle wound up all over the top of the washing machine and cabinet and the floor. I can still be grateful for two things though:
*it was only 1/5 of the bottle, and not the entire bottle!!
*just this morning I took the clean clothes that I had folded and stacked on top of the washing machine yesterday, and put them in a basket and took them to my room; so it didn't get dumped on top of all of my hard work yesterday washing and folding the clothes... :)
I'm starting to attend an institute class one day a week. It is for two hours on Thursday mornings. The first class I decided that morning to attend, and then went home and forgot all about studying the next two lessons until the night before the second class. Angela wound up getting sick that night, so I missed the second class. I really didn't open my manual to read anything at all, until today.
Today is Stake Conference- it is held in an auditorium at a High School and Rich and I in the past wind up really not hearing any of the speakers because we are so busy trying to keep the kids occupied and quiet. With auditorium seats that the kids can't sit in very well and no good area out in a hallway to listen while the babies toddle around- well we decided not to take the entire family to the Stake Conference today. Rich went and took Ashley with him for a special Daddy daughter time. He would have taken Alex with him as well, but lately Ashley has been provoking and picking fights with Alex and Alyssa so we thought the day would be calmer for everyone if she was taken and given a lot of one on one time with Daddy. So... Rich and Ashley are off at Stake Conference for the majority of the day. They'll get home around 1:30-2pm I'd guess.
Alex just thrives in the big brother role here at home when Ashley isn't around to but in and boss all of them around. He has been playing games with Alyssa and Angela and helping them do things. We played Monopoly Jr all together, and then he played Jenga and DVD Bingo with them and I decided to come into my room and read for the Institute class a little bit. I'm hoping I can get myself into the regular habit of reading one chapter for the class and studying it each day. I do pretty good with the reading habit- picking up the scriptures each day and reading from them, but I have a hard time focusing and concentrating and really "studying" from the scriptures. I'm hoping taking this institute class will help me regain some of those questions that arise from studying the scriptures.
So I came in here and had a great time reading the scriptures and reading from the manual. Marking passages from the scriptures and the manual that really stood out for me and writing down thoughts and insights that I gained while reading. I am such a procrastinator that so many times I'm playing catch-up, and I don't get to really enjoy the process of doing something. At least for today, right now- I got to enjoy the process of studying this morning and learning. I hope I can continue to do this and enjoy it and grow from it.
Of course something happened in the house while I was doing that. Angela climbed up onto the cabinet in the laundry room and found the water bottle that was full of black beach sand from our trip out to Santa Rosa last summer... 1/5 of the bottle wound up all over the top of the washing machine and cabinet and the floor. I can still be grateful for two things though:
*it was only 1/5 of the bottle, and not the entire bottle!!
*just this morning I took the clean clothes that I had folded and stacked on top of the washing machine yesterday, and put them in a basket and took them to my room; so it didn't get dumped on top of all of my hard work yesterday washing and folding the clothes... :)
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Slowing down... or is it?
It seems as if life is starting to slow down a bit, but then I look at my calender and it's fuller than ever! I think having this time while Alyssa and Ashley and Alex are at school and Angela takes a nap is really really helping me deal with the business of things. I have missed having regular nap times- I haven't had any from Angela since she was born, so it is a nice little blessing that she falls asleep when we take Alyssa to school each day- and stays asleep when we get home and I put her in her bed and it's QUIET so she doesn't wake up from hearing others in the house. I'm able to do a little bit of cleaning, and just spend a little bit of time relaxing and doing whatever I want to do in the house for a couple of hours. I've really noticed that I have much more patience with the kids during their cranky hours after school and before dinner.
That doesn't mean I'm not very ready for the kids to go to bed at bedtime, but I know I am handleing things a lot calmer than I have in the past during the few hours after then get home and before Rich is home when we have to work on homework go to Karate, and I work on making dinner.
One bonus about being busier, is that we are in the house a lot less, and it isn't getting as incredibly messy. It's much easier to get the kids to pick up a few things than when they get out every single toy and article of clothing and it's all over their rooms. :)
I need to get some pictures up soon of the kids... maybe I can get them up this next week. :)
That doesn't mean I'm not very ready for the kids to go to bed at bedtime, but I know I am handleing things a lot calmer than I have in the past during the few hours after then get home and before Rich is home when we have to work on homework go to Karate, and I work on making dinner.
One bonus about being busier, is that we are in the house a lot less, and it isn't getting as incredibly messy. It's much easier to get the kids to pick up a few things than when they get out every single toy and article of clothing and it's all over their rooms. :)
I need to get some pictures up soon of the kids... maybe I can get them up this next week. :)
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