Autumn days...

Autumn has hit our part of the country completely the past 2 weeks. We've had cool weather and rain, and more rain and even more rain. I love to sit inside with a cup of hot cocoa and a plate of cookies and read the day away when the weather is like this.

But I'm trying to loose weight, so cookies are out, and the hot cocoa that I allow myself is a very seldom indulgence right now.

So instead I've found myself cleaning out shelves, sorting through kids clothes, rearranging my kitchen cabinets, and trying to keep myself busy through the day. The busier I am, the less likely I am to just grab something to "snack" throughout the day.

And so my closets are looking cleaner, my overflowing pile of clothes the kids have grown out of have been tossed, or given away to others, and I have a new found place in the kitchen to store some bulk items and other stuff I used to have to store in the laundry room.

I've also managed to loose 8 pounds in the process.

So as London Tipton would say "Yea me!" (If you don't watch the Disney Channel on occasion you probably won't get that- and that's okay. :-) )

What good things have you forgotten about recently?

I have a great soaking tub with a whirlpool in it in my bathroom. For the past few months I've been slowly but surely trying to get it back into good shape. See we moved into this house almost 5 years ago. I used the tub quite often while I was pregnant, and then slowly but surely forgot about the whirlpool function on the tub and the greatness of it while the tub became a great place to bath little girls, and the whirlpool function was ignored.

Then one day I wanted to actually use it, and I turned it on and great big black floaties came shooting out of the jets.

I didn't know how to get it clean, I tried really hot water, vinegar and baking soda, bleach (all seperatly) mixed in with a tub full of water and running through the jets. Yet every time I would still have the black floaties come spurting out of the jets.

I finally hunted around Google and found the tip to use dishwasher detergent. It doesn't foam up like normal cleaners and soap, so you can use it with the jets.

It took about 5 times of filling up the tub, running the detergent in it for 20 minutes, and then draining and running a rinse of clean water... each time there were less and less and less floaties coming out of the jets.

Today I used my tub for the first time in years with the whirlpool... and I had forgotten how much it is a relaxing place for me to unwind, and rest. Now that I'm trying to exercise more- the jets give a great massage to weary legs and a sore back!


So... what do you have in your house and life that you've forgotten about the simple pleasure you get from it?

I'm looking around my house to see what else I already have that I've forgotten about... that when I first got it I loved, and it's slowly gotten lost underneath piles of other stuff. Maybe I'll start sharing them once a week... that seems like a neat blog post... tuesday findings... :)

Busy Month

I can't believe that we are over halfway through September! It's been a busy month!

Over Labor Day weekend Rich and I stayed busy assembling a playset for the kids. It took all day on Saturday (until time to go and watch the BYU game), and the entire day the next Monday, but we finished it and there were no left over parts! ;) (a few screws and stuff, but I think they sent extra's of those. lol!)

The weeks are starting to fly by really fast as well. With three kids in school all day, and Angela in school in the afternoons every day I feel like I've been able to get a little better balance on taking care of the house and having a little bit of quiet free time to myself each week.

The second weekend in September, Rich and I were able to take a little trip on our own without the kids. It was a great escape for us to be able to spend some time together and have some fun. We went to DisneyWorld and checked out one of the waterparks. It was sprinkling with rain all day long but it was a great day to go to the water part because your already going to be wet, and the lines were non exhistant! Rich goaded me into going on the scariest water slide I've ever seen... a humongously high water slide that goes straight down! They even put a radar gun on it to show you how fast you went on it! We were also able to enjoy some nice dinners without having to watch out for kids fighting and spilling their drinks and reminding them to use their forks and napkins. :) We even had to dress up a bit, and that was fun. Rich also surprised me with tickets to the La Nuba show at Cirque du Sole. It was amazing and so fun to watch! The acrobats were wonderful, the comic relief parts hilarious, and the music is all done live- live vocal, live instrumentals for the entire 1 1/2 hour performance! Very amazing and great to watch!

While we were out of town the kids stayed with our great friends, and so this past weekend was our turn to return the favor and we kept their 5 kids while they went off for a weekend. It was loud, and crazy at times, but lots of fun having so many kids in the house. They left yesterday and last night at dinner it was so quiet... even though we still had our 4 kids there talking. lol!

This week a good friend is in town visiting, and I get to go and get some dental work done, there is activities wed night, piano lessons, volunteering at the school, and I'm going to start a new goal... on Wed I'm going to start weight watchers. I just have not been accountable enough to myself, so I'm going to do this to get my weight back down. I'm also starting fresh with exercise. I'm not going to beat myself up for my past failings, and I'm just starting new and going to get my exercise in each day.

So... that's a short synopsis of our September... I will try and get some pictures put up on the Family blog sometime soon. I need to just take a bunch of pictures of the kids to show how much they've been growing. :)

Happy Birthday to me!

It's been over 4 1/2 years since we moved into this house. From when we sat down and planned the house and went over the floor plan with the builder I've envisioned what our back patio could become. Through out the years we've had kids toys, lawn chairs, plastic kids picnic tables, and trikes and stuff on the patio. It hasn't been inviting for me to go out and sit and enjoy it at all. I've also never had a grill.

For my birthday this year Rich asked me what I would like, and I told him I'd like to get stuff for the patio, to turn it into a nice place that I can enjoy. It took a few months, but we have gotten pieces of stuff and today the last piece arrived and we now have a nice living area out on the patio. For me and the family to use the space and enjoy the space outside out house just as much as we use and enjoy the space inside our house. :)

Schools in, Schools in...

So we now have two weeks of school under our belt.

Three kids catching the school bus each morning, three kids lunches to pack and three kids to get their hair combed before they head off to school.

We've missed the bus about the same number of days that they have caught the bus.

But overall I think we are doing well. I've been able to keep up with lunches and the kids have plenty to eat in their lunch boxes with a little variety as well.

The kids all like their teachers, and are doing well in their classes. Ashley was feeling a little bit lost without her good friend in her class that she's had in her class the last 2 years, but she has lots of other friends as well and is doing fine.

Alex is adapting to the busy schedule of 5th grade and changing classrooms for different subjects.

Alyssa is doing just fine adapting to 1st grade and being at school all day long. She enjoys being at school and getting to go to Gym and Music and Health classes. She loves having lunch at school and riding the bus too and from school with her friends.

Angela is doing awesome! She is excited every day to go to school. We are carpooling with friends and when I drop her and the other little girl off she is just full of smiles. Our friends pick her up and bring her home from school and she can't wait to show me whatever item they made in school that day. She is so cute learning her nursery rhymns and loves to wear her "school clothes" I tried to get her to wear an outfit last saturday and she told me that it was her school clothes and she couldn't wear it on a Saturday when she wasn't going to school! lol!

I am finding lots of ways to fill my time during the day when they are all at school. I've exercised, gone shopping, cleaned the house, had lunch with friends, and more... it's been nice to just have those few quiet hours where I still am getting stuff done, but I also can just have my own thoughts to fill the time and not get interrupted all the time. :)

The weather is gorgeous now and we don't have school today so I'm about to head outside and insist that the kids find something to do out there. :)