Jason!

I have deemed Fridays as creative art day. Throughout the week we never have much time to draw, color, paint, make music, put on plays, watch TV, etc. So I have decided that we will use Fridays as such. I thought it might also give me some more time to catch up on laundry since the children have a little bit more independent time to express themselves. Since Jason has been having this urge to express himself through drawing, I decided it would be harmless to allow him to color and draw on this white board. I figured it was large enough to satisfy him. Apparently it wasn't...


He became a little bit overly creative and went beyond the bounds of the 2 X 3 ft. glossy white canvas.

Fortunately the dry erase marker came off with a wipe down with 409 and a sponge, followed by some baking soda. Just rubbing dry baking soda on the stain rubbed it right off. Phew! (I knew the baking soda trick from my experience of Kool-Aid stains on laminate countertops.)


Later in the afternoon while I was upstairs folding some laundry, the children were downstairs watching Little House on the Prairie on the Hallmark Channel. I thought I had all the dry erase markers hidden up high in the cupboard, but I was wrong. Jason found a blue one and scribbled on my family room carpet! When I found it, I was L-I-V-I-D!! So livid I was in no mood to snap a picture for a memory or blog post. I didn't think I would be able to get it out and I was NOT happy about blue scribbles permanently on my carpet. Of course I yelled at all my children and blamed all of them because it wasn't MY fault that Jason found the blue marker. Ok, it probably was my fault that I didn't notice that all the markers weren't put away, but at that moment it wasn't my fault because I was mad.

Thankfully I was able to get the marker out using some baby wipes, vinegar, and a clean white cloth. I have no idea if the vinegar helped at all. I just figured it would be something Martha Stewart would use (even though she's probably never dealt with blue dry erase markers all over her carpet). As I was focusing my attention on removing the stain, Emily joined me and said, "I better watch you so I can know how to do this when I have kids." She's a smart girl. She's planning for her future.

It seems as if Jason only colors where he isn't supposed to. But he did draw this on approved paper the other day. He titled it, "Boy" and told me, "Boy happy."

My Budding Artist

Jason added blue today to his purple crayon motif that he has going on around the house.

I love how this photo is so deceiving and makes the viewer think I have a fancy bathroom with it's gold faucet and ornate mirror. It fails to reveal the toddler potty seat, black marker colored on the sink, wet towel on the stool (step stool), roll of water soaked toilet paper in the trash can, poop smeared on the wood floor (oh, the joys of potty training), and the ugly cheap green bath towel/rag hanging on the towel bar. (I gave up on the pretty white hand towel because it became permanently dirty. I can't even bleach out the dirt!)

Jason even added a pattern to his door frame art. My child is a genius.

I wonder if Leonardo Da Vinci colored on his walls and door frames as a child?

I need to do laundry.

Tonight it was apparent that I must do laundry tomorrow. Sarah and Wendy came downstairs in tears when they discovered their pajama drawer was empty. I don't know why it was empty because I usually have enough pajamas to last a week. Perhaps there are hidden pajamas under beds or in messy closets. I shall hunt for them. To console Sarah and Wendy, I told them to just pick some comfortable clothes to sleep in. Thankfully they agreed to my suggestion.

Jason also was short a pajama shirt, but it doesn't seem to bother him because it happens often. I'm not quite sure why I don't have a good supply of 3T boy pajamas.

When I said, "comfortable pajamas" I was thinking something like cotton knit shorts and a T shirt, but Wendy opted for capri jeans and a shirt that is way too small.

Sarah chose a cotton shirt, cotton capris, and a toothbrush.

(Every now and then I have trouble with Blogger uploading my photos in the wrong direction. I usually persevere until they upload correctly, but not today.)

We Trunk or Treated tonight, but I think I'm going to wait to post the Halloween pictures on Saturday. I didn't get a good one of each of the kids.

A couple pics

When I was growing up my dad worked for Kodak. My family always took A LOT of pictures because my dad had a great job perk of free film and developing, which was a huge deal back in the day. So far this month I have snapped 173 photos, the bulk of them (68%) being on Jason's birthday. That is shameful considering digital photography costs essentially nothing. Just to give you an idea of my normal photography habits, I seem to average about 1000-1500 pictures per month. But here are a couple pictures I took to document our October so far.

Wendy eating her cheeseburger at our Mexican restaurant dinner last weekend.

Jason before church last weekend.

I was trying to get a picture of his cowboy boots that he wore with his nice suit and 80 year old man tie. Instead I got a nice picture of his tongue.

Please note: I have blogged 3 days in a row now. I think I am experiencing a blogger revival.

Clarification

I'm in a better mood today.

I just wanted to clarify that I do not really believe that my uncheerfulness made that woman's children sick yesterday. I was joking. I guess my humor fails to show when I am expressing my grumpiness. Also, I will further clarify that I don't really believe that being uncheerful will give you osteoporosis.

We worked on Halloween costumes today. I am determined to not spend any money on costumes. I think I might have a success. I had to coax Bradley into agreeing to wear one portion of his costume. I told him people will give him more candy if he wears it. Pictures will be coming soon. We have Trunk or Treat at church on Wednesday. I haven't decided if I am going to post pictures on Wednesday or save it for actual Halloween.

The big event of the day was when Jason dropped the kids off at the pool in the BIG potty! Woo hoo! Go J Boy! He still can't wear underwear without wetting it, but he is making progress. Yay!

Grumpy

This morning I woke up grumpy. Last night I was exhausted and I failed to prepare for church on Saturday night. I purposefully did not iron my son's clothes. I purposefully did not get the hair bows ready. I purposefully did not wash a day's worth of dishes. Instead I went to bed and promised myself to get up on the first alarm with no snooze so that I could iron and wash the dishes. Amazingly I kept my promise and got up before everyone and began my shower. After I got dressed I entered the children's room and was immediately bombarded by six children:

"Mommy, where's my church clothes?"
"Mommy, where's my white dress? I can't find it!"
"Mommy, should I where my brown or black shoes?"
"Mommy, I poopy."
"Mommy, can you help me find a white shirt? Why can't I wear white tights?" (As she proceeds to put her dress on inside out.)
Meanwhile a little chunky baby with two fingers in her mouth and a sippy cup tucked in her arm, is trying to sit on my lap with a soggy diaper.

My response:
"There is only one of me!! Bradley, your church clothes are in my room. I need to iron them. Sarah, your white dress is downstairs. Emily, I don't care if you where brown or black! Just get dressed, but black goes best with that dress! Jason, lay down and I'll change your diaper. Wendy, I'll get your shirt in a minute. You're putting your dress on inside out and you can't wear white tights because I'm not going to take the time to look for them right now. I already have the socks." Meanwhile I am avoiding Rachel so I don't get my church skirt soaked with urine.

Then I turned on some children's hymns and told the children to stop talking and listen to the music. I curled the girl's hair. I ironed the clothes. I changed the diaper. I found the clothes, but failed to find two matching socks for Bradley and he ended up wearing sandals to church. I couldn't find anything for Rachel to wear and was completely frustrated until Wendy found the dress I was looking for and gave it to me. David took the kids downstairs to eat breakfast while I dried my hair and finished getting ready. I was still grumpy because I knew there was still a messy kitchen to welcome me in a few minutes. I went downstairs and took a few bites of my cereal when the phone rang. It's never a good thing when the phone rings on a Sunday morning at 8:30. My husband was about to answer the phone when I grumpily said, "Tell them, 'No'!" Even though I didn't know who it was or why they were calling, I knew I didn't want to do it. My husband read the caller ID and it was the teacher that was scheduled to teach Relief Society today. I knew what she was calling to tell me before I answered. Of course I couldn't say no to a woman with 4 sick children and who was feeling sick herself. I told her I would teach the lesson and told her to get her family well. When I hung up, my husband asked, "What's the lesson?" Ironically, it was titled, "Be of Good Cheer." My husband said, "You know about that." I think I detected some sarcasm in his voice. I started to cry and I apologized.

I feel bad. It was my fault this woman's children were sick! I think my Heavenly Father was trying to tell me something today by making me teach this lesson.

The lesson went well. It basically told 3 stories about people who kept their faith and good cheer during very difficult times. One of the stories was about a woman who was going to West Germany by foot in post WWII. She had 4 children and they all died from freezing or starvation on the way. She had to dig each one a grave by hand using just a small tablespoon. She was so sad and wanting to end her own life because of the despair, but she endured and finally made it to her destination. She testified that her knowledge that she would be with her family again someday because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what got her through the difficult time.

It's a heart wrenching story, but it puts things into perspective. My dirty kitchen and unironed clothes aren't that bad. Things could be worse. One woman in class who has been through difficult times gave some good advice. She said sometimes you have to fake the cheerfulness and eventually it becomes genuine. She also mentioned that there is probably always someone who has it worse.

After church we ate, took naps, and "restored order" to the home which means we did some cleaning to make Mommy happy. I have a Comet soaked kitchen sink right now. I should have a bright white kitchen sink to greet me in the morning.

And I'll leave you with a scripture:

Proverbs 17:22

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

That's it. I'm going to be cheerful because I don't want osteoporosis.

Wednesday

I'm still alive. Just lazy. Give me a little more time and I'll be back. Don't worry, I'm still reading y'all's blogs. I'm just too lazy to comment as well. Just a brief summary of the past few days:

Saturday, October 17th - Made $100 at yard sale. Spent $60 taking the family out to Mexican dinner. $9.25 of that was kid's drinks.

Sunday, October 18th - typical Sabbath day. Church, rest, and attended a baptism.

Monday, October 19th - my husband's second day of work. Yes, that's right, my husband has a real job after 370 days of unemployment. And I would say it's a pretty good job. He will be earning the same salary that he was before, but with better health benefits. After we get a paycheck, I'm going to find a babysitter and enjoy a dinner out with my husband alone so I can have a conversation without interruption and not have to cut someone's food with their sticky fork. I can't wait. I still have more to write about the whole unemployment and job search thing, but I'm just too fatigued to do so right now.

Tuesday, October 20th - survived the day with my husband at work and fell asleep on the couch while watching TV at night.

Wednesday, October 21st - about the same as Tuesday, except I cleaned out the freezer today. Too bad it's an accomplishment that isn't that noticeable. I made French toast with an old deformed loaf of bread that was in there. It was a big hit for dinner. Rachel loved it. I also made smoothies with some vanilla yogurt and rasberries and blueberries that I bought and froze 2 summers ago. It all tasted good. Now I need to empty the bathroom trash cans because they are overflowing since I haven't emptied them in like a month. Tomorrow is trash day.

My poor camera's memory card is so empty right now :(

Friday

Mmmm...... Potato skins for dinner. I think they tasted better than they looked.

While I made dinner. Rachel found my "spare" that I keep in my scripture case.

(It looks like Rachel has abnormally short toes in the picture, but I'm pretty sure they are just curled under.)

Tonight I've been getting ready for a garage sale that I'm participating in tomorrow. It's at a friend's house, so my SUV is jam packed full of junk. What's one person's junk is another person's treasure. Right? I hope to make enough to treat the family to a decent dinner out tomorrow. I'm thinking a dinner that is a step above a square hamburger, although that does sound good. We have something to celebrate. Daddy actually has a job!!!

I have to get up at 5:30 AM. Boo. I work hard for my money.

Baby Dolls

My kids were in the other room playing. I could tell they were busy with something. Then they called me in to come see something. I heard giggles so I grabbed my camera. I walked into this:

I'm glad I had my camera.

The Pictures I Promised

So these are some pictures from Jason's birthday. I feel like my boys get kind of jipped because they have fall birthdays. Jason's is only 3 weeks before Halloween and my mind is on how in the world am I going to pull together 6 costumes? Bradley's is about 3 weeks before Thanksgiving and my mind is on how in the world am I going to pull together a huge meal when I'm so used to just microwaving frozen chicken nuggets? Thankfully my parents and sister pulled through this year and Jason was able to tear into some wrapping paper.

This was the cake Emily made. It was my idea to cut out the stars from the second layer and polka dot the cake with stars.

Jason's new fireman outfit. Although this could possibly eliminate one costume to have to think about, I think it might just remain as dress up because I have another idea up my sleeve for Halloween costumes.

Happy Birthday, Jason!

Jason entered his terrific three's today. Pictures coming tomorrow..... Yes! I actually took pictures today!

Wednesday

I think it's a little slow on the blog front for a lot of people right now, so I don't feel so bad for my infrequent posts. I do feel bad for the lack of September pictures though. I just didn't take very many this month. Sad. Very sad. I'm also very sad at titling my blog posts and all I can come up with is the day of the week.

Not much new today. Jason turns 3 on Saturday. It seems as if he has absolutely destroyed my house this week. He decided to draw a very nice dark black crayon line outlining the wainscoting in the playroom. He drew green crayon on the cupboards in the family room. He largely doodled with a ballpoint pen on the big blue exercise ball. It looks like he was trying to draw the continents. He drew with blue crayon on the wallpaper in the bathroom and tore a piece of wallpaper. I managed to Elmer glue stick it back on. He broke one of my cereal bowls trying to get an apple off the kitchen counter (that probably wouldn't have happened if I had actually washed the dishes after breakfast this morning). And he broke a rung on the disassembled crib that was sitting in his bedroom because he thought it looked like a ladder. Apparently the crib rung was not built to bear the weight of a 32 pound toddler. I haven't tried fixing that yet. Holy cow! Jason is getting in all his terrible two's in this last week. I'm sure he is going to be a perfect 3 year old and a perfect teenager. Get it all out now, Jason. Only 2 more days.

Have you ever watched that show, "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" on the Discover Health channel? That show never ceases to amaze me. One woman thought she had a bowel obstruction from a chiropractic appointment (the chiropractor told her that was why she was in pain). Her husband gave her an enema before bed, she woke up and thought she had to poop, so she went to the bathroom and pushed out what she thought was the most painful and biggest bowel movement ever. Then she sat on the toilet in such relief as her husband congratulated her. Then she heard a cry and asked her husband if the coyotes were out tonight. Then she heard the strange noise again and looked in the toilet to see her baby girl. So strange. I love that show! Every Tuesday.

I have to teach at church on Sunday. I need to go pick a lesson and prepare.

Monday

Ok. Ok. Ok. I'm going to blog tonight, but it's kind of difficult typing with one hand since I have an ice cream sandwich in my other. Hold on......

Ok. There. Both hands free and fingers licked clean.

I actually have some energy this evening because I totally concked (konked?) out this afternoon on the family room floor. I was finished schooling the children, but I felt a little guilty for skipping social studies and/or science. So I put on the Discover Kids channel and they watched Time Warp Trio, Grossology, and Kenny the Shark. I think they learned something about something in history, how a scab forms, and something about sharks. I don't know because I was dreaming about being at a church event and they were serving donuts, muffins, cupcakes, and other yummy stuff. I love delicious dreams. But I woke up so groggy and hungry! It wasn't a deep sleep because the cartoon dialogue was part of my dream.

At dinner I made up for my slackness and we talked about the Titanic. The movie was on TNT last night as I was going to bed. I had only seen the movie once in the theatre. I caught the last half on TV and then TNT played an encore presentation so I tried to stay up and watch the first half, but I fell asleep. The children seemed to be fascinated with the story. I feel successful now.

I also want another ice cream sandwich.....

Oh yeah, and General Conference was great this weekend. I totally enjoyed listening to the talks and now have a desire to be a better person. I especially liked President Monson's talk, but that is a post for another day....

Oh yeah, and today is Emily's half birthday. She is very excited to be halfway to nine years old. She's growing up and she's going to start getting boobs soon. I don't know if I'm ready for that!

Yay! Conference!

I'm planning to watch General Conference all weekend and I'm looking foward to it. For those of you with kids or even without kids, here is an activity packet to print. It should help keep them and you engaged all weekend as you listen and watch:

http://www.ldsresources.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/2009-october-general-conference-primary-activity-packet.pdf

You all are expected to fill it out and turn it in to me by Sunday at 5:00 MST. You will be graded and your scores will be sent to you local Bishop. Failure to do so might result in your family having to clean the church building one extra time during the year, including toilets even if they are already sparkly clean.

Any guesses as to the topics that will be covered? Here are mine:

1. Faith
2. Temples
3. Adversity
4. Service
5. Obedience
6. Following Jesus
7. Strengthing our Homes
8. Provident Living
9. Prayer
10. Reading the Scriptures
11. Hope
12. Missionary Work
13. Teaching the Gospel
14. Happiness
15. Parenthood

I expect to to be good. There is always something new to learn or something to be reminded of. Repetition is key to remembering!

Thursday

I want to cry because I am such a bad blogger. I'm sure my audience is moving on to more exciting blogs. People who blog everyday and post pictures. Please hang in there with me. Please!

I watched a lot of TV tonight, ate an ice cream sandwich, and drank some hot chocolate because, brrrrr, it's like 60 degrees outside and I have the window open. I love to finally be able to open the windows. My kids' bedroom smells like a perpetual fart from being closed to the world all summer. Finally some relief. Bradley has been habitually crawling into bed with us for the past couple of weeks. He claims he's scared, but his subconscious is probably telling him to get away from the toxic fumes.

I have a lot of laundry to fold tomorrow. Yuck. But at least it's Friday when I can have an official date night to sit with my husband on the couch and catch up on some So You Think You Can Dance and The Office. Yay for date night!