Hi

So it's been a week and I haven't posted...

There isn't much to post today, but I thought I'd better get something on here...

I think my kids have the oddest food combinations going right now since no one posted anything very wierd compared to what they eat. lol!

Last weekend was a fun weekend. We had a Primary inservice meeting. Rich is a cub scout den leader so he is in the primary organization. Instead of just having a meeting for the primary organization, they invite spouses to come and they have a potluck style dinner and some games and socializing along with the spiritual thought and information that they would have given at a regular meeting. We had a fun time socializing with the others there.

Then on Saturday night was the Relief Society General Broadcast. We had a dessert social beforehand and were worried that no one would show up for it. Only 5 of us were there when it was supposed to start at 6pm, but luckily around 6:20 a bunch of people showed up and we had a good time socializing before the broadcast.

The Broadcast was great as it always is and I really enjoyed the talks that were given.

Odd stuff

Ok... so as I was eating dinner Saturday night with our family, I thought of this blog post/question...

What odd food combinations are commonplace in your families life?

We have a taco night once a week. We have had this for years... I think I started making Taco's on Saturday night when Alex was a baby. When we started it we had a simple menu on taco night:
Meat, cheese, tomato's, lettuce, onions, taco shells (soft corn tortilla's lightly fried in oil), taco sauce, (hot sauce for Rich, mild for me) and cottage cheese (a Newton Grandparent Taco night tradition).

For a while the kids did not want to join us in eating taco's... so it became a taco/salad bar night. Rich and I would make our taco's, and the kids would take the lettuce, tomato's and cheese and make salad's and put on salad dressing and eat that. So... to our original items we put out on the table we added salad dressings of various types for the kids to choose from, and bacon bits.

As the kids saw us savoring the taco's week by week we slowly got them to try the taco's and eat them. They didn't however choose to have their taco's the same way Rich and I made them. They would take a tortilla, put in cheese, tomato's, bacon bits, and salad dressing (tangy tomato bacon is the favorite) and a touch of ketchup and eat that. We added fresh guacamole, sour cream and black beans to the items we put on the table each week to add to the taco's or salads. The guacamole is actually what got Alex into eating taco's...

Then one week we decided to have a different type of taco... a double decker taco. For this you take a crunchy corn taco shell, and a soft flour tortilla... slather the flour tortilla with refried beans and then "paste" it onto the taco shell. Then fill the taco with whatever fillings you want. This lead to the crunch wrap. Kind of a copy cat on what Taco Bell sells, but our own version for home. We take a big burrito size flour tortilla, slather it with refried beans, fill a small crunchy taco with the fillings wanted, and then put it in the middle of the burrito tortilla and wrap it up, using more refried beans as the "glue" to hold the tortilla together around the taco. It's actually turned into a fairly clean way for the kids to eat their taco's because it's kind of self contained...

So all that isn't too wierd, but a few weeks ago Alex decided to add another little twist to his taco. He wanted miracle whip, and honey mustard dressing on his taco... So his taco consisted of: Flour tortilla with refried beans, crunchy taco with miracle whip, meat, tomato's, guacamole, taco sauce (2 types), and honey mustard salad dressing.

Now I have to admit as a child I went through a short phase of eating peanut butter & mayo sandwiches so it may be hereditary...

But that is the recent odd food combination that can be found in our house each Saturday evening...

What are some odd food combinations that your kids (or you even) regularly eat?

Countdown time

We are officially in countdown mode to our DisneyWorld trip!

Three years ago I'd never been there and now we are planning our third trip there!

I've started to make my list in my mind of the things we didn't get to see with the kids last time, that I want to make sure we go and see this time. I've also started to make the mental lists of what we need to have in the car while driving, how many changes of clothes we need to pack and when/if I need to have a laundry day while we are there.

Rich usually makes fun of me because I usually HAVE to plan out these things and make lists in advance... He thinks I'm stressing out in advance and I should just wait and toss everything in the suitcase the day before, but I know for me... I have to have the lists, or else I really would be stressing out the day before the trip. lol!

So... if anyone is actually reading this and wants to comment... How do you plan for your trips? Do you list out everything in advance and then pack and check off your list, or do you toss everything in the suitcase the day before the trip?

On our last trip I gave a list to Alex and Ashley and then let them pack their own things... Ashley forgot to check something and wound up on the trip with her Nintendo DS, but she didn't have any games at all... she forgot to check her DS bag and make sure they were in it.

This time I have a feeling she will check things a little better...

So second question... what funny things have you forgotten to pack when you've gone on a trip?

We have forgotten the toothbrushes numerous times. One time I forgot to pack Rich's razor... now he packs his own suitcase. lol!

I've forgotten wipes for diaper changes, and pairs of shoes... and the biggest one was last summer we packed up all our church clothes in the big garment bag and got to the hotel the night before my sisters wedding. Unloaded all the suitcases and realized we forgot the garment bag with all of our church clothes in it. Luckily we had family there and could leave the big kids with them while Rich and I hurridly went out and bought new clothes for everyone. We had the hardest time finding something for Ashley to wear, in the middle of the summer all the dresses for little girls that we could find were halter top style with no back on them! So she wound up wearing a pair of gaucho's and a nice shirt to the temple for the pictures outside. :)

A follow-up on Monday's post

So on Monday I posted the new deal we have with the kids. I'm happy to say that our kids rooms have been looking nice and clean all week! It's so nice when it's bedtime and we go to tuck the kids into bed, Alex and Ashley's rooms are picked up and we don't have to try and ignore all the mess on the floor, because they have done a great job keeping them picked up during the day!

On the other hand, Alex really doesn't like this new system because we are making him be a lot more accountable for his schoolwork. He is having a tougher time adjusting to school this year and doesn't like that he has homework almost every day and just more schoolwork in general. He has been rushing through schoolwork and the work he brings home is almost illegible. We've been making him redo work that we know he can do better easily... He's tried to "forget" stuff at school with the thought that then he can't do it so we'll just let him watch tv and stuff because he doesn't have homework to do... and then thrown some tantrums when he realized we are serious about these new expectations and rules. I think he is finally "getting it" although he still automatically goes into his tantrum mode, he's calming down and sitting down and getting to work a lot faster than he was in the beginning.

So one week down... it was a long week, but I think we've progressed. Next week Alex and Ashley both have their first book report of the school year due, so I know we'll be putting in extra time on that this weekend and next week.

I'm also going to try to actually use labels... I always forget they are there... now the big question is do I go back and put labels on my past entries? Or just start the labels now and try to remember to put them on them from now on?

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

I thought I'd try it again... :)

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Free family history - Roots

Ok... so I have two friends that have done this... here's what it comes up with for me. lol!


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MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Monday Monday....

Well it's the start of a new week. Yesterday we had a little meeting with Alex and Ashley and laid down the new expectations and responsibilities that we are going to ask/require of them each day. Now in order to be able to watch tv after school they have to have their rooms picked up and clean, and they each have a bathroom that has to be clean. Alex is the only one that uses his, so his has to be clean (wiped down, no big messes), and Ashley shares hers, so she just has to make sure the countertop is clean. They also have to do homework, and correct any work that comes home that isn't up to the level that we think/know it should be. If it's not where we think it should be then they really do need to sit down with us and have us help them learn it, or they just were rushing through it and didn't take the time they needed to read all the directions...

So... we will see how it goes this afternoon. We talked yesterday about how much easier it is to keep our rooms clean if we just clean as we go and don't let them get messy... right now they both have a bit of cleaning to do in their rooms this afternoon.

So... what do you think?

I was inspired by my friend who redid her blog... http://thesegolilypad.blogspot.com/

I thought I would try to customize my blog finally. I think I like it, what do you think?

I would like to try and figure out how to get my main body background so it isn't showing the image line through the right column, but overall I like it! :)

Websites...

So, I've finally listed some websites on the side of my page. I've only put up sites that I am certain people are fine with being shared. So... if you read my blog and you want your website on my list... just let me know. :)

Just catching up...

So... I posted that we had put the girls beds up into bunk beds. Alyssa is doing great on her bunk bed. She is sleeping more in one spot and not flipping around on her bed quite as much as she used to. :) Angela loves that she has the bottom bunk and Alyssa is above her, and they both like that there is so much more room in their bedroom now! We moved their play kitchen down from the playroom and now they can play with all of that and I can hear and see if they try to start using real food in their play kitchen! (We've been finding them upstairs with orange juice, milk, water, and apple juice playing tea party... that kitchen is just for pretend... not real liquids... :))

Also yesterday Ashley had her first piano lesson! Her piano teacher is a friend of ours and she is a great teacher. We have other friends that take from her and we are very happy to have Ashley starting piano with her. I just need to do my part this week and get the piano books so Ashley can actually do something at her lesson. :)

Today's it's an overcast and rainy day... and after yesterday's busy and full day, I'm going to take it easy today and play with my girls and possibly fold some laundry or do some other household chores... see ya later!

Ahh... I can breath now...

So last night was the first Enrichment Meeting that I've been in charge of. I thought of it, organized it, got the teachers for it, planned the menu, cooked and shopped for the menu, set up and decorated, and taught a short mini-lesson for it. I had help, but ultimatly I was responsible for the entirety of it- and it's the first time I've ever been responsible for an enrichment meeting.

Yesterday I felt like I was hopping from one thing to another all day long. I was nervous. I had butterflies in my stomach and although I was eating food to sustain me, I wasn't really tasting it at all.

Last night went really well! We had planned for around 40 people at the most, and I think we had about 34, so that was a pretty good turnout. The people that taught our classes did a great job and I think we all had fun and learned some little tips and tricks and basic things to help us do some things better. The theme was "Back to School, Back to Basics" and we all went back to school. Our dinner was a sack lunch that people filled from our "lunch line" with a chicken salad wrap, bags of chips, and some yummy cookies... the people that made cookies for it made some really really yummy ones... ginger white chocolate, monster cookies, almond coconut chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, and white chocolate macadamia nut... yum!

Then we had a mini-lesson on Back to the Basic's... Spiritually... I talked about 6 basic things we can focus on to help ourselves get back to the basics there.

Then we had classes on Back to the Basics with Healthy Eating; Exercise Tips; Basic Organizing skills.

It went well and I feel so much better about my ability to do this calling... I have one meeting done and under my belt and next time I know better what to expect and plan and stuff. :)

The girls room

So I spent most of today cleaning in the little girls room. They have a room that's 10X12 which is a good size, but due to doors and window's it doesn't lend itself to a good layout for two twin beds to be in it. I started out the day just cleaning it, and then decided to move the beds to vacuum under them, and wash the walls where they tend to put their feet on the wall at night and it was getting pretty grimey.

That lead me to think about how one of their beds was forced to be in front of the window's and the cold draft that comes in during the winter months... which will be coming in the next month or two.

So... we had been trying to decide for the past few months whether or not Alyssa was ready to be on bunk beds.

Well today we decided to put them up and try them. So Alyssa's sleeping up on the top bunk tonight for the first time. Hopefully it will go well and she will like it. My only fear is if she wakes up in the middle of the night and is disoriented and can't navigate the ladder well.

There is sooo much more space in their room now with the beds up in bunks though... I hope she does well and we can keep it this way. :)

Exercise

I got to the Y again today... I'm slowly getting myself mentally ready to get back to a daily workout schedule...

I did the elliptical for 33 min (3 min cool down) and then did 2 minute intervals on the treadmill for 30 min. I managed to get up to just over 2 miles with that.

Let's see how sore I am tomorrow and if I can convince myself to get over to the Y two days in a row... (or skipping tomorrow and go on thursday... if I can get 2-3 days this week I'll be happy!)