Sunday thoughts and gratitudes

We've had a pretty good day today. Of course there has been the ever present whining of kids, but nothing extra ordinary... We woke up late and still managed to get to church just as they had the opening prayer. We had a great lesson in Relief Society on Bereavement and Death and the power that the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation gives to us. I then stayed for choir practice and we had a great time practicing some songs we are trying to prepare to sing. Our choir director has grand ideas of what we can accomplish, and though we don't quite share the vision (we are kind of skeptical on our ability to sing a piece from the Messiah), we are having a fun time trying to learn the piece.

At home we've had a relatively peaceful afternoon. I'm grateful for the days that are more peaceful. I know that my own individual level of tolerance to busy days is much better when I do have quieter "recovery" days to relax a little bit.

Another thing I've been thinking about this afternoon is my gratitude for technology. With Rich being in the computer field, he tends to know about and follow technological trends. We don't always get stuff right away when things come out, but eventually if he (0r occasionally I) really really want something and it's affordable it winds up in our house.

One such thing is Rich's itouch. The thing is now that he has it, he's testing out an iphone for work and he isn't really using it much now, so I've been playing with it. I've realized that Rich's itouch is much easier to sit and read off of webpages than my phone is. So at night I've been taking his itouch into the little girls room, and while I'm laying down with them and waiting for them to fall asleep, I have been reading ensign articles.

Now I'm a big reader. I love to pick up books and read a 300 page book in one day, but somehow I tend to have a hard time picking up the ensign to read it. I feel like it's something I can't read while I have to split my attention. A novel is easy to read, while another part of my brain is listening for sounds of contention, or subterfuge from the kids. A novel is easy to toss down and pick right back up and get back into.

The ensign is harder for me to do that with. I'm so glad I figured that I could read it at night online using Rich's itouch. I've been able to read issues from the past three months, cover to cover, in just the last week and a half. It's quiet when I lay down with the girls, and since they are right there, I know they aren't getting into anything and I'm able to use most of my brain power to concentrate on what I'm reading. I'm actually feeling like I'm getting much more out of reading it than I have gotten in the past when I've sat down with the magazine in my hand.

So I'm grateful for the technology that is allowing me to find a new way to connect and read the ensign... and it opens up a whole door full of great reading material for me to read at night while I'm putting the girls to bed.

I'm also grateful for relaxing Sunday afternoons... we've been having fun baking together with the kids... this week Rich and Ashley made brownies, and Alyssa and I made some Jello.

And... I'm rambling... :) So I'll end now... :)

It's here!!!

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away... oh wait that's starwars upstairs the kids are playing on the xbox... lol!

But... in the same vein... a long time ago when my oldest two were young I felt trapped at home. I felt like I couldn't take them out by myself, and so I bought a double stroller. I had a small car at the time and was limited in my options of what was available that would fit into my car. It was functional, but didn't have any extra's to it and was not that great to push around, but it allowed me to get out of the house with my kids by myself!!! That was the biggest plus... the negative was that it really wasn't that convenient to use. In fact Rich refused to use it and push it around and eventually I stopped using it, because the pain of getting it out and using it, was greater than the convenience of having it to use.

Fast forward to now... I gave the stroller away a year ago and constantly find myself out with all four kids and at the end of the day trying to cram two kids into a single stroller because they are too tired to walk back to the car on their own.

I was going to just deal with it... the kids will eventually grow and be out of that stage and be where I can tell them to just walk... and they'll grumble and complain, but follow. Right now they just throw themselves down on the floor and we become a traffic jam... lol!

so... when we decided to go to disneyworld this fall again, and we found out that they had raised the price of renting a double stroller so it's twice as expensive... my brain started to turn... (yes I do use it occasionally on math problems... ) The cost of renting the double stroller for 5 day's of visiting the parks would be $140... that's a lot of money... and I could probably find and buy a stroller for a similar price... Rich told me that if I did it I had to find something that was much smaller and convenient to push with kids in it, and carry folded up. This is like 21lbs without the canopy's and folds up to the size of two umbrella strollers side by side...

So I went shopping online and came up with this:

It is slightly more than what the stroller rentals would be, but this I can use here at home, and if we go on another disney trip in the next two years (which knowing Rich is highly likely) it will pay for itself in the cost we would have paid for renting the strollers there...

And... with this I can use it to get back to the car, instead of carrying a sleeping 30lb 3 year old all the way back to the car after dropping off the stroller... :)

And it's here now. The girls have been having fun "testing" out their seats in it, and I'm pleased to report it is much easier to push and steer with them in it, than our last stroller. :)

One and a half more weeks....

One and a half more weeks till school starts!!!  Last week we had a really tough week.  The kids were cranky, I was cranky, just overall it was a long week and we didn't come out of it in high spirits.

This week has been long and busy, but much easier to deal with.  We've kept busy more, and I've had plenty of mommy time in little breaks throughout the week.

We've played at friends houses, and gone to the pool, made new friends and had fun playing with old friends.  We've either played at someone's house, or had someone over to play every day this week and I think that has made a huge difference. 

I'm still counting down till school starts again though.  I'm excited to get back into an exercise routine, and get the kids back into the school routine.

I still need to finish catching up on all of the pictures I need to post on the photo blog, but I'll get to them eventually... :)

pictures... finally... :)

Ok... I'm finally getting pictures up on the family photo blog I've got set up... I'm so far behind so I'm trying to get up the kids birthday's and Rich and I's trip and just a bunch of fun summer pictures up.

So go here... and see them. :)

http://newtonaaaa.blogspot.com/

Girls night out

Last night I had a fun girls night out.  A bunch of us meet and went to dinner to celebrate one girls birthday.  There were about 11 of us there so it was a fun group and we had a good time at dinner.  Afterward two others were planning on going to see a movie, and I tagged along with them.  We went and looked at the sales at Dillards and tried on some shoes (I found some I liked, but they were the wrong size), and then went and looked at the swimsuits that were on clearance.  After trying on about 7 or 8 suits in just a few minutes, I found a suit that's cute, but still covers me (something that I seem to have difficulty finding). 

Then we raced over to the movie.  We were late and walked in right as the actual movie was starting.  Since it was a weeknight the theatre wasn't too full and we still got pretty decent seats.  We saw Mama Mia... it's a comedy set on an island in the greek isles.  It's basically a spoof on musicals and was pretty funny.  I never ever thought I'd see Pierce Brosnan break out into song and dance, and his previous roles he's played really increased the hilarity of the movie...

I had a fun time and told my friend that next time I need to go shopping, I am definitly calling her... she's a shopper and I'm not and it was so much more fun to shop with her pointing out things and telling me to try on this or that... than it is when I go in and get frustrated and give up because I can't find things that are cute, and fit me and are modest...

Today we are having a quiet day at home.  The girls have been playing wonderfully, and Alex is just doing his own thing... it's supposed to get to 100 or higher, so I'm debating going to the pool.  It seems like when it's this hot the pool water itself get's hot and it really isn't that great of a cooling thing... the hot sun and air are too hot to enjoy the pool.