And I haven't posted much at all. Angela and Ashley both had their birthday's and we had birthday parties. We went to Tennessee for a week, and we have played with friends, swam at the pool, and watched lots of tv inside the house with the A/C cooling us off. It has been hot this summer, and this week it is even hotter... we are supposed to be at or close to 100 + all week long.
Today is Alyssa's birthday. She is seven years old! We are just having a little family party for her today, and will have a "friend" party in a few weeks when friends are back from their vacations- right before school starts.
Later this week we'll head over to Branson for a few days to just get away and have some fun playing with the kids, swimming, watching some shows and just spending some good family time together without all the other distractions we have at home.
Monday, August 02, 2010
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Procrastination...
I feel like that has been my achilles heel in my life. I procrastinate doing things until the last minute.
I procrastinated sending out invitations to the girls birthday parties till almost too late...
I procrastinate cleaning the house until it is just a mess and takes twice as long to clean...
I procrastinate gathering up library books and usually forget that they are due- until 11pm that night...
I've been procrastinating learning how to make crepes. I have friends that make them, Ashley and Rich both love them and have been asking me to learn how to make them forever...
Ashley asked for a birthday dinner to have crepes. And so I looked up the recipe, read up on the technique, and then made them... and was super suprised at how simple and easy they were to make...
I have leftover batter in the fridge and now I'm debating whether I should make some for breakfast... or since it's past 10am... brunch!
I procrastinated sending out invitations to the girls birthday parties till almost too late...
I procrastinate cleaning the house until it is just a mess and takes twice as long to clean...
I procrastinate gathering up library books and usually forget that they are due- until 11pm that night...
I've been procrastinating learning how to make crepes. I have friends that make them, Ashley and Rich both love them and have been asking me to learn how to make them forever...
Ashley asked for a birthday dinner to have crepes. And so I looked up the recipe, read up on the technique, and then made them... and was super suprised at how simple and easy they were to make...
I have leftover batter in the fridge and now I'm debating whether I should make some for breakfast... or since it's past 10am... brunch!
Friday, June 18, 2010
Time flies! Catching up and a jumble of thoughts.
I know I've used that title many times. I find myself forgetting to just sit down and pull up this blog and update it.
So since I last wrote, Rich and I got to go on a cruise to Progresso and Cozumel in Mexico. We loved the entire week. It was fun to have time away from the kids, see new sights, eat food without having to prepare or clean it up, and travel with friends as well.
We've decided that we are ready for another cruise in the future, so if you have one you want to go on, and are looking for friends to take it with you give us a call. :)
School is over and the kids all passed. Alex will be going into 6th grade next year and that's a transition that I think I'm more nervous about than he is. He is excited. Angela will be in Kindergarten. I only have one more year to have her at home with me for part of the day. It seems like she is so little, but she will be 5 next week. Time really does fly. I don't really have a baby, or toddler, or pre-schooler any more.
I've also realized that we have lived here in Oklahoma in one house for longer than almost any other place I've lived in my life. The only time I've lived in one place for longer than the 5 1/2 years we've been in this house was when I was a kid growing up and we lived in Maryland from my 1st grade year through my 7th grade year at school. 6 years... that means 6 more months and I will have lived in Oklahoma for longer than any other place. Even Utah when we lived there I was at home for 4 years, then I moved out and got married and then moved away. I was there for 7 years, but lived in 5 different places during those 7 years.
I find myself looking around the house trying to figure out where I can move things and "change things up" around the house. I think that's really because I'm just so used to change. I'm used to packing up, and moving and having new places to live that I have to figure out how to arrange things in different spaces. Our house is sufficient for our needs and while a little more space might be nice, we really do fit in it just fine. We finally have figured out the configuration of who's room should be where and what the other rooms purposes should be. After 5 1/2 years I'm finally getting a little tired of the same color throughout the entire house (except for 2 of the kids rooms- everything is the same color we had it painted when we built the house). Next month while I take the kids to Nashville to visit my sister and her family, Rich will spend his evenings after work with a project of painting 3-4 rooms in the house. I think that might satisfy my inate desire to change things up in the house. :) I'll also be painting Alyssa and Angela's room upstairs and turning it into more of a "girly" room.
Now that the kids are all home for the summer I feel like each day is slipping past us. We haven't done anything worthy of any great summer vacation stories. I was able to go to Girls Camp for one night and two days and I had a great time there with the Young Women in our ward. Other than that we've had days filled with friends playing, swimming at the pool, and lots of movies and tv and video games. I think I'm getting past the "honeymoon" phase of summer vacation and I'm ready to start putting a little bit of structure into our days... like requiring the kids to turn off all electronics once I'm up and we have breakfast and playing outside for a little while. Also cleaning rooms... and maybe even sorting through toys and clothes and bagging up what we don't use/need anymore. We can get stuff done in the mornings before the pool is open and then still have the whole afternoon left to swim and play.
But we shall see... I'll admit I LOVE that I'm able to sleep in and wake up and not worry about the messes I might wake up to- entire boxes of cereal dumped into the carpet like I have in past years. lol!
So since I last wrote, Rich and I got to go on a cruise to Progresso and Cozumel in Mexico. We loved the entire week. It was fun to have time away from the kids, see new sights, eat food without having to prepare or clean it up, and travel with friends as well.
We've decided that we are ready for another cruise in the future, so if you have one you want to go on, and are looking for friends to take it with you give us a call. :)
School is over and the kids all passed. Alex will be going into 6th grade next year and that's a transition that I think I'm more nervous about than he is. He is excited. Angela will be in Kindergarten. I only have one more year to have her at home with me for part of the day. It seems like she is so little, but she will be 5 next week. Time really does fly. I don't really have a baby, or toddler, or pre-schooler any more.
I've also realized that we have lived here in Oklahoma in one house for longer than almost any other place I've lived in my life. The only time I've lived in one place for longer than the 5 1/2 years we've been in this house was when I was a kid growing up and we lived in Maryland from my 1st grade year through my 7th grade year at school. 6 years... that means 6 more months and I will have lived in Oklahoma for longer than any other place. Even Utah when we lived there I was at home for 4 years, then I moved out and got married and then moved away. I was there for 7 years, but lived in 5 different places during those 7 years.
I find myself looking around the house trying to figure out where I can move things and "change things up" around the house. I think that's really because I'm just so used to change. I'm used to packing up, and moving and having new places to live that I have to figure out how to arrange things in different spaces. Our house is sufficient for our needs and while a little more space might be nice, we really do fit in it just fine. We finally have figured out the configuration of who's room should be where and what the other rooms purposes should be. After 5 1/2 years I'm finally getting a little tired of the same color throughout the entire house (except for 2 of the kids rooms- everything is the same color we had it painted when we built the house). Next month while I take the kids to Nashville to visit my sister and her family, Rich will spend his evenings after work with a project of painting 3-4 rooms in the house. I think that might satisfy my inate desire to change things up in the house. :) I'll also be painting Alyssa and Angela's room upstairs and turning it into more of a "girly" room.
Now that the kids are all home for the summer I feel like each day is slipping past us. We haven't done anything worthy of any great summer vacation stories. I was able to go to Girls Camp for one night and two days and I had a great time there with the Young Women in our ward. Other than that we've had days filled with friends playing, swimming at the pool, and lots of movies and tv and video games. I think I'm getting past the "honeymoon" phase of summer vacation and I'm ready to start putting a little bit of structure into our days... like requiring the kids to turn off all electronics once I'm up and we have breakfast and playing outside for a little while. Also cleaning rooms... and maybe even sorting through toys and clothes and bagging up what we don't use/need anymore. We can get stuff done in the mornings before the pool is open and then still have the whole afternoon left to swim and play.
But we shall see... I'll admit I LOVE that I'm able to sleep in and wake up and not worry about the messes I might wake up to- entire boxes of cereal dumped into the carpet like I have in past years. lol!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
I guess I'm not doing too bad of a job...
So today Rich had to leave on an airplane on a buisness trip. Alex was the only one of the kids up this morning before he left. That meant I got to get all the girls up, fed, dressed, and ready for church along with myself.
No biggie right? Well the biggie is that I'm not used to doing that. I usually get myself ready on sunday morning, Rich get's the little girls ready and I just have to remind them to brush their hair as we drive up to church. :)
I was pleased that we were all at church before the meeting started. Everyone had eaten breakfast, had clean church clothes on and had their hair brushed.
Then Alyssa leaned over and told me she didn't feel very good... and coughed... and it sounded very uncomfortable... She leaned over and spent all of Sacrament Meeting just leaning on me and reminding me that she didn't feel good.
So I figured I would be loading everyone back up into the car and taking everyone home after the first meeting.
And I told the kids this, and I thought they would be pleased.. they wouldn't "have to" stay at church for the rest of the meetings.
But they didn't want to go home. They wanted to stay. I asked each one individually, and they each made the decision that they wanted to go to their classes and have a ride home with someone else. Even my little four year old that I lovingly refer to as my "velcro babe".
And so I got rides home arranged for my three kids, and I arranged for Rich's sunday school class to be combined with another class, and I brought my one little sick girl home.
I guess we are doing something right if the kids want to stay at church when given the option to go home early, and I guess that perhaps there is a lesson for me to learn in there too... they wanted to be there, they knew that was where they should be at that time, and they choose to be there. Sometimes I loose sight of that in thinking of responsibilities and things that I have to be at church for and I don't particularly want to be at church for those things... I need to remember their simple decision and make that choice to "want" to be at those activities and meetings.
No biggie right? Well the biggie is that I'm not used to doing that. I usually get myself ready on sunday morning, Rich get's the little girls ready and I just have to remind them to brush their hair as we drive up to church. :)
I was pleased that we were all at church before the meeting started. Everyone had eaten breakfast, had clean church clothes on and had their hair brushed.
Then Alyssa leaned over and told me she didn't feel very good... and coughed... and it sounded very uncomfortable... She leaned over and spent all of Sacrament Meeting just leaning on me and reminding me that she didn't feel good.
So I figured I would be loading everyone back up into the car and taking everyone home after the first meeting.
And I told the kids this, and I thought they would be pleased.. they wouldn't "have to" stay at church for the rest of the meetings.
But they didn't want to go home. They wanted to stay. I asked each one individually, and they each made the decision that they wanted to go to their classes and have a ride home with someone else. Even my little four year old that I lovingly refer to as my "velcro babe".
And so I got rides home arranged for my three kids, and I arranged for Rich's sunday school class to be combined with another class, and I brought my one little sick girl home.
I guess we are doing something right if the kids want to stay at church when given the option to go home early, and I guess that perhaps there is a lesson for me to learn in there too... they wanted to be there, they knew that was where they should be at that time, and they choose to be there. Sometimes I loose sight of that in thinking of responsibilities and things that I have to be at church for and I don't particularly want to be at church for those things... I need to remember their simple decision and make that choice to "want" to be at those activities and meetings.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Memories
I just took a little walk down memory lane... and I pulled out a story from when the kids were little.
Yesterday was just the day from toddlerland! My daughter is 2 and Son is 3 and they did a chocolate powder stunt- dumping Quick powder all over the living room couch and carpet, and then while I was cleaning up the powder I had put them in the shower (I know... not the greatest choice, but I had to get them out of the immediate area while I got some of the mess cleaned up and they were covered head to toe in chocolate powder). I got the vacuum out and did a little bit of vacuuming up the powder. I then thought I'd check on the kids and went into the bathroom to find an inch of water covering the floor. So I get that cleaned up with towels and get them out of the shower and diapers/pull-ups put on. I drag out the gate which I haven't used in months and gate the hallway so they can go to their rooms but can't get to the rest of the house. The minute I turn around my little sweet 2yr old terror kicks the gate down. So I decide that I'll just put her in her crib with some toys and I can get my 3yr old to "help" clean up the mess that he made. Unfortunatly he was more interested in "helping" his sister because she was crying and went and pushed a large toy over to her crib and helped her climb out. At least while he did that I was able to get the bulk of the powder vacuumed up. Then amazingly he asked me if he could take a nap and I of course agreed immediatly and got them both in bed and had some time to work on the stains and calm down myself.
So two hours later I've got rags laying across the stain and weighed down by books trying to soak some of the stain up and my kids wake up. Immediately two year old helps me by moving the pile of books that "don't go there" then I try and get her to sit and color at the table here in the office and the minute I turn my back she is drawing a masterpiece on the file cabinet that is next to the table.
I take away the crayons and as I am putting them away she climbs on top of the table and empties Dh's and I's scripture cases (We keep our Bible and Book of Mormons in fabric cases to make it easier to carry them to church and protects them a little bit) all the papers that were just in them loosely all fell out all over the floor. So while I'm cleaning that up she walks over to the bookcase and starts emptying the shelves with a swipe of her hand. So as I'm attempting to get her to put the books back on the shelves she throws herself down in a screaming tantrum and starts yelling and kicking.
At that point I went and put her in her crib for a few minutes. That calmed her down and I got her back out and she helped me put the books back on the shelf. She never got lunch due to the chocolate powder incident and them asking to go to sleep after it, so I put her in her booster seat, strap her in and give her some crackers and some milk to eat. I turn around to go put some laundry in the washer and come back to find the cracker ground up into fine powder and being thrown all over the dining room and the milk dumped on the table. I clean that up and take her to her room and we were playing with her kitchen and her food and she starts picking up her plastic food and throwing them at my head! She thinks she is hilariously funny at this point. I'm thinking she is possesed!
So the rest of the afternoon went okay but the two year old continued to just be into everything. Hubby got home and I made dinner. Tuesday nights he gets to go play tennis with a friend so he left to do that. I needed to go to the bathroom and alex and ashley amazingly were playing quietly so I just went alone thinking this will only take a minute. I come out to the three year olds diaper having fallen apart and diaper "stuff" all over the room. He saw that his diaper was falling apart and went and "changed" it in the bathroom and left the door open so I went into the bathroom and found the two year old standing on the counter with a whole bottle of baby oil dumped all over the medicine cabinet and counter and a bottle of baby lotion squirted all over the mirror. So... I clean up yet another mess and get the kids changed and ready for bed. Hubby gets home and we have family prayer and he puts the kids in bed. I needed to go get some milk so I went to Wal-Mart and got some milk and a bathtub pillow and came home and went to go take a nice bath. I go to turn on the water and look in the tub and there is another masterpiece that sometime during the day my two year old terror for the day got into a marker and drew a "pretty picture" for me on my tub! lol!!!!!!! At least marker comes right off of the fake marble whatever that my tub is made of.
Yesterday was just the day from toddlerland! My daughter is 2 and Son is 3 and they did a chocolate powder stunt- dumping Quick powder all over the living room couch and carpet, and then while I was cleaning up the powder I had put them in the shower (I know... not the greatest choice, but I had to get them out of the immediate area while I got some of the mess cleaned up and they were covered head to toe in chocolate powder). I got the vacuum out and did a little bit of vacuuming up the powder. I then thought I'd check on the kids and went into the bathroom to find an inch of water covering the floor. So I get that cleaned up with towels and get them out of the shower and diapers/pull-ups put on. I drag out the gate which I haven't used in months and gate the hallway so they can go to their rooms but can't get to the rest of the house. The minute I turn around my little sweet 2yr old terror kicks the gate down. So I decide that I'll just put her in her crib with some toys and I can get my 3yr old to "help" clean up the mess that he made. Unfortunatly he was more interested in "helping" his sister because she was crying and went and pushed a large toy over to her crib and helped her climb out. At least while he did that I was able to get the bulk of the powder vacuumed up. Then amazingly he asked me if he could take a nap and I of course agreed immediatly and got them both in bed and had some time to work on the stains and calm down myself.
So two hours later I've got rags laying across the stain and weighed down by books trying to soak some of the stain up and my kids wake up. Immediately two year old helps me by moving the pile of books that "don't go there" then I try and get her to sit and color at the table here in the office and the minute I turn my back she is drawing a masterpiece on the file cabinet that is next to the table.
I take away the crayons and as I am putting them away she climbs on top of the table and empties Dh's and I's scripture cases (We keep our Bible and Book of Mormons in fabric cases to make it easier to carry them to church and protects them a little bit) all the papers that were just in them loosely all fell out all over the floor. So while I'm cleaning that up she walks over to the bookcase and starts emptying the shelves with a swipe of her hand. So as I'm attempting to get her to put the books back on the shelves she throws herself down in a screaming tantrum and starts yelling and kicking.
At that point I went and put her in her crib for a few minutes. That calmed her down and I got her back out and she helped me put the books back on the shelf. She never got lunch due to the chocolate powder incident and them asking to go to sleep after it, so I put her in her booster seat, strap her in and give her some crackers and some milk to eat. I turn around to go put some laundry in the washer and come back to find the cracker ground up into fine powder and being thrown all over the dining room and the milk dumped on the table. I clean that up and take her to her room and we were playing with her kitchen and her food and she starts picking up her plastic food and throwing them at my head! She thinks she is hilariously funny at this point. I'm thinking she is possesed!
So the rest of the afternoon went okay but the two year old continued to just be into everything. Hubby got home and I made dinner. Tuesday nights he gets to go play tennis with a friend so he left to do that. I needed to go to the bathroom and alex and ashley amazingly were playing quietly so I just went alone thinking this will only take a minute. I come out to the three year olds diaper having fallen apart and diaper "stuff" all over the room. He saw that his diaper was falling apart and went and "changed" it in the bathroom and left the door open so I went into the bathroom and found the two year old standing on the counter with a whole bottle of baby oil dumped all over the medicine cabinet and counter and a bottle of baby lotion squirted all over the mirror. So... I clean up yet another mess and get the kids changed and ready for bed. Hubby gets home and we have family prayer and he puts the kids in bed. I needed to go get some milk so I went to Wal-Mart and got some milk and a bathtub pillow and came home and went to go take a nice bath. I go to turn on the water and look in the tub and there is another masterpiece that sometime during the day my two year old terror for the day got into a marker and drew a "pretty picture" for me on my tub! lol!!!!!!! At least marker comes right off of the fake marble whatever that my tub is made of.
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