Brochure Hoarders and Roller Rink

This week we are tagging along with my husband on a business trip.  Today I took the kids sight seeing and we stopped at a visitor's center.  They had two whole walls of brochures.  My son, Bradley, LOVES brochures and it was like heaven for him (and for me because I love brochures too).  We browsed the brochures and I took several for places that I thought we might be interested in seeing, if not this time, but possibly the next time we tagged along.  There was an older couple that ran the visitor center.  They looked a little annoyed when we walked in, but it didn't surprise me because it's a common expression on people's faces when a group of seven small children walk intp a room.  Usually people expect chaos, but end up pleasantly surprised that my children are relatively well-behaved.  Often people will even compliment them.  I was expecting a pleasant reaction from the couple because my children were behaving well, mostly because it was like an all-you-can-eat brochure buffet for them.  As Sarah took a brochure for some destination that looked cool, the woman said, "Maam, is she going to go there?"

Confused I said, "Um, no.  Probably not?"  

Then the woman said, "Can she put that brochure back?  Because we are running low on those."

They were probably running low because it's a great place to go and now I'm going to not know about it!  Obediently I told Sarah to put it back.  I didn't realize you had to actually plan to go to a destination in order to take a brochure.  If so, I'm in big trouble.  I could tell that this couple's annoyance was not transforming into pleasant surprise.  So, I continued to pull brochures, lots of them.  I congratulated Jason on all the brochures he collected for about 15 hotels that we were planning not to stay at.  I could hear the woman mumble to her husband, "Brochures aren't free, you know."  Then I heard the woman's voice, "Maam, will you sign our guest register?"  I was a little afraid to put my name, city, and state in fear that I would be hunted down for theft of free brochures,  But I signed it anyway.  

Finally with a fat stack of brochures in my hand I said, "Come on kids, it's time to go."  They all clamored to the exit and Bradley, Jason, and Rachel pushed the handicap automatic door button several times each.  Hahahaha! Now that really irritated her, but we were out of there as she was saying, "Don't...push....that....." and on our way to the gift shop.  I have to say I was a lot less stressed in the gift shop with lots of breakable things that cost a lot of money than I was being stared down in the visitor center/ brochure shop.

If you can imagine after two cross country trips, we have a quite the collection of brochures.  I'll have to take a picture of all of them when I get home.  What am I going to do with them?  I don't know yet.  Read them and plan my next vacation?  Or maybe go on a virtual vacation?  I'll be sure to recycle them when I'm finished.

************* 

Tonight we took the kids to a roller rink.  It was flashback to the 80's .  When I was 6, 7, and 9 years old I was quite the pro roller skater.  My kids?  Not so coordinated.  Bradley was so proud of himself about 1 hour into the evening.  He said, "Mommy!  I went around the whole rink, without the walker, and only fell five times!"  When we returned to the hotel Bradley said, "Tthat was so much fun.  When I was in the car, I had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn't a dream." 

Wow!  I didn't know they had that much fun while we were there, because they spent a lot of time crying from falling down and hurting themselves.  I guess my kids would've loved the 80's.  It was a pretty cool decade.  I told him he's probably going to wish it was a dream because he's going to be pretty sore and bruised tomorrow.

 Sarah using a walker.  It looks like I'm using one too, but I'm helping Rachel.

 Couple's song.  Awww.

 Bradley and his walker.  He eventually ditched the walker and skated on his own.  It seems like every time I turned my head to look at him, he was sprawled splat on the floor.

Daddy taking Rachel for a spin as she put her feet up on the walker and went along for the ride.  She's waving to me.

Wendy didn't like skating on the wood because she fell down too much, but she did enjoy skating on the carpet. 

Emily did pretty good, but hurt her wrist.  While we were there I was thinking it was a good thing we have health insurance.  Thankfully I don't think we will need to use.

Pretty

Yesterday I was putting on my makeup.  Wendy asked, "Mommy, you put that on so you can be pretty?"  I told her, "Yes."  Then I was curious if my daughter thought there were times when I wasn't pretty, so I asked, "When am I not pretty?"  Her reply was, "Sometimes when your hair is crazy."  Then she paused for a moment and said, "..... and when you fart."  Awwww.  Sometimes I just can't help it.  Emily still has me beat though.  I'm sure she could win some contests.

Blog Meets Blog

I have this blog friend, Beth, who lives in Colorado.  She randomly found my blog a couple of years ago and we've been following each other's blogs ever since. She has seven children as well.  I've come to love this family by reading about their life as a big family, seeing pictures of their cute children, seeing before and after pictures of a messy and clean room, and other stuff that I can truly relate to.  On my drive home from California, my dad and I stopped in Denver and had the opportunity to meet Beth and her family in person.  It was so fun to make a virtual friendship become a reality!  For two years I've seen pictures of her house, her children, her yard and it was very cool to see it all in person.  It was kind of like being on a movie set.

We got our families together at their house, the kids played in the yard while the adults talked, and then we all went out for pizza.  We took a picture of 13 of the 14 kids before we left.  (One of her daughter's was at a friend's house.)  I got to meet her parents as well, who are also part of our blogging triangle.  That was exciting too.

Although I was very excited to meet them all, I have to admit I was a tiny bit nervous.  I guess I was self-conscious that they would think my real life personality didn't match my blog personality and that they would possibly be disappointed.  I am much shyer in person.  I think I sometimes have a tendency to try to act cool and sophisticated around people I don't know, which really isn't my style.  But I realized that they pretty much know who I am.  I don't hide much when it comes to blogging.  I think they already know that I'm not cool and sophisticated, so I didn't bother trying.  While I was there I witnessed something which validated why I like this family so much - their 2 year old was drinking chocolate milk out of a bottle.  I thought that was AWESOME, especially since he got the bottle, milk, and chocolate syrup all by himself.  I had a great time spending a couple of hours with them.  It's too bad we don't live closer and hang out more often with all 14 kids.  However, it is nice to have friends from random parts of the country.

The kids (minus 1)

Our little girls became instant friends.

The Bloggers

10-10-10

Jason turned 4 today. This will be his coolest birthday ever on 10-10-10.  We bought him a shirt with the #4 on it. He wore it to church.  We also got him a glow sword.  Over the years, I have learned that young children don't realize "value".  They are completely satisfied with a toy from the grocery store, and my wallet is satisfied too.

No birthday would be complete without a crown made by Emily.

His Glo Sword.  He was more excited about it than he looks in this picture.

My neighbor coincidentally saved my day.  I did not bake Jason a cake because we needed to clean the house to get it ready to put on the market on Monday.  I didn't want any extra dishes to wash.  My next door neighbor just happened to bring over a dozen cupcakes as a "Welcome Home" gift.  We stuck four candles in one and called it a "Birthday Cake".  

Last Day of Being Three

Today Jason graduated from the Terrible Threes.  He received an A.  Tomorrow he commences the Fabulous Fours. The previous four children were required to give up their pacifier for good on their 4th birthday, however, Jason was not a pacifier sucker.  We are going to require him to give up the temper tantrum.  Sometimes I wonder how this happy-go-lucky kid can be so rotten at times.  We have learned that if you just let him open the van door, life is so much easier.  

  A trot through the park.

His walking stick. 

We had a little early birthday party for him the last night my dad was here.

Jason ran his fingers in his empty ice cream bowl and sucked the ice cream off his fist.  It was his favorite flavor.  He calls it, "Cookies in the Cream."

You Know You Want One

Who would've thought a plastic toilet seat could be so cool?  I was led to believe that wooden toilet seats were the "in thing".  I was duped.  Never again will my children slam a toilet seat.  Here is 22 seconds of pure enjoyment.  I'm sorry if the video is all jumpy like it is when I play it on my computer.  But just so you know, there have been no special effects added to this video.  It's all in regular time.

Diagnosis

For the past two years, Sarah has suffered from a severe rash on the backs of her legs.  It's itchy and she scratches it so much that it bleeds.  I took her to an allergist and he assured me that it was atopic dermatitis and that it wasn't caused by anything.  It was just the way her skin was and I accepted it. He prescribed an ointment and told me to have her soak for 30 minutes everyday in a tub and once a week put 1/4 cup of bleach in the water.  Nothing seemed to alleviate the rash.  We took certain things out of her diet, used dye and perfume free detergent, and some other obvious things that might have been causing it.

During our six weeks in California her skin totally cleared up.  It was very encouraging to know that it wasn't a permanent thing.  We could always move to California or a drier climate.  We used the same detergent while we were there, her diet was the same, and everything else seemed to be pretty much the same as when we live at our house. The only things I could think of that she might be allergic to were our couch, the Southern humidity, or the fact that the people who lived in the house before us had cats (because we do know that Sarah is allergic to cats), or something in the water or regional milk.  I was hoping that when we returned home that her skin would remain clear, but it didn't.  She broke out again on the backs of her thighs, close to her buttocks region.  I finally determined that it must be the toilet seats because she's only broken out on the skin that touches the toilet seat when she sits.

I looked it up online, and sure enough there is such thing as Toilet-Seat Contact Dermatitis.  Most practitioners fail to even consider this as a diagnosis.  We have wooden toilet seats with Microban on them. Sarah started breaking out when she was about 4 years old, around the time that she quit using the child potty seat on top of the toilet. So tonight my husband bought some plastic ones and we will see if it works.  My dad has wood toilet seats at his house too, but they must have a different paint or varnish or didn't have the Microban on them.  I'm so excited to find out if this will solve her issues.

On the last day of our trip, we asked all of the kids what their favorite part of vacation was.  Some said, "Disneyland."  Bradley said, :"Hollywood."  Sarah said, "My skin."  The poor thing has suffered miserable itchiness and discomfort for 1/3 of her life.

My mom always thought it was the toilet seats, but I never agreed with her.  My dad said he would take the old toilet seat and set it by her grave with a sign that says, "You were right."  Let's hope she is.

Decisions

Is it better to blog everyday even though some posts might be boring?  Or is it better to blog less often with good posts.  I can't decide.  Help me.

Today I cleaned out the garage.  We are getting ready to try and sell our house.  The market isn't looking so hot, but we are going to try because my husband has a new job.  Right now he is working remotely, but they expect us to move there by next summer, which means a new city and state.  I would like to say that I cleaned the garage to make it look nice for prospective buyers, but the truth is I needed to make room for more junk, because I need to declutter the inside of my house.  Seriously, why do I have some much stuff?  When I was gone for two months, it wasn't like I missed any of it (maybe a few things, but not much).  We have 12 bicycles in our garage.  Various sizes in boy and girl versions.  My biggest challenge is downsizing the shoes on the shoe shelf in the kitchen.  I think we have, like, 24 pairs of shoes there right now.  My other challenge is trying to make the kids room look like an actual master bedroom. (Right now all of our children share the master bedroom because my husband uses the third bedroom as an office.) I'm tired from all the cleaning and painting, but I'm excited to have a fresh, clean home.

I know I need to post some pictures and documentation of my trip.  I'm not crazy about Blogger's photo uploader.  It seems to take forever.

I'm Home

I'm home from our trip.  It's just taking me awhile to get back into the swing of things.  I'll be back soon.....

Worst Fake Smile Ever

On Saturday we did 3 things:

1.  We went to the Chumash Indian Museum.  We picked a good day because they were having a Pow Wow, however, the incense smelled so bad we didn't stick around for the cultural enrichment.  We took a small hike to the Indian Village instead.  They were totally strict with their $10/family (limit 5) rule.  My sister and I brought the 4 oldest and they made me pay an extra $3 for a kid.  I guess the Chumash try to profit off of big families.

A Chumash house.

2.  We went to Paramount Ranch.  It's an old Wild West movie set used in many old movies and the TV show Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.  The kids loved it.  They played Sheriff and Robbers.

3.  We went to Borchard Park.  They had a brand new Labrynth that we check out.

If you walked the path of the Labrynth, you would walk 1/2 mile.  It was kind of cool.  This was posted on a sign by it:

"The Labrynth is a metaphor for life.  We are all on a path.  We encounter twists and turns, but ultimately arrive at our center. We gain insight and take this back to our world.  When walking the labrynth notice what you learn about your life."

I didn't learn a whole lot about my life.

Sarah jumping of the swing.  The first time she did it, she face planted into the sand.  It was awesome.

Oldies But Goodies

This picture is a month old, but I love it.

He's totally going to get all the girls with that wink.

Disneyland

Ok, I will blog.  I have finally set a date to return home which means I have two more weeks here in California.  We've been doing some fun stuff.  That some fun stuff includes La Brea Tar Pits, California Science Center, Legoland, and DISNEYLAND!  Disneyland was awesome as expected.  We went on Wednesday, September 1st, so most kids were in school already, and the lines were short.  We pretty much did everything we wanted to do, except I totally did not get a churro, and I was very disappointed with myself for not indulging.  Here are some pics:

We were literally the first car to the lot.  We left at 5:30 AM to avoid traffic which got us there 2 hours befor the park opened.  It was so awesome!  It beat sitting in traffic.

Belle.  I love how Sarah is always snuggled up next to the character.

Princess Tiana.

Ariel

Rachel getting a little special treatment during the Royal Ball.  It looks like Sarah is ready to snuggle up to this prince.

Mickey Mouse

Pluto

Aladdin

Sorry to my Facebook friends.  These are all the same photos I posted the other day.  

Happy Birthday!

Today would've been my mom's 64th birthday.  She shared a birthday with her mother.  My grandmother turned 91 today.  It was easy for me to remember my mom's age because it always had the same last digit as my age because she was 30 years older than me.  Also something else cool is that my mom's dad was 30 years older than her and I am 30 years older than Jason.  So now Jason needs to continue the tradition and have a child when he is 30 years old in 2036.  The pressure is on!

I've been scanning lots of old photos during my stay in California. I came across this one.  It is my mom and grandmother's 37th and 64th birthday.  It's too bad nobody made a cake for them.  All they got is bowl of Jello with whip cream and a candle.  It was probably too hot in the August heat to turn on an oven in a house without AC.

August 29, 1983

Old Friends

Friday night I arranged a little get together with some old friends from Junior High and High School. Two of them (twins) I hadn't seen in 10 years.  It was so good to be in touch again.  We were all buddies during Jr. High, but when it was time to go off to high school, we lived in different zones and the twins went to a different high school than Kelly and me.  However we remained friends and would travel to Catalina Island every summer for a week, where the twins' family had a summer home.  It was like old times, except with kids.

I brought out the slide and it became the main attraction until Rachel decided to run down it and fall flat on her face.

It was Kelly's birthday, so I baked her a cake.

A picture of us and our kids.  

It was a great night.  Now if only I can get them to join Facebook!  They just don't understand its value!

Blogigation

Last night my husband and I went out on a date.  We took some pictures and he made a comment that went something like, "You can put it on your blog."

 I said, "Yeah!"

Then he said, "Like you're really going to put it on your blog."

Then I said, "What do you mean?  Did you go to my blog today?"  (I thought he probably saw that my last post was a week ago.)

Then he said, "No.  You just have guilt written all over your face.  Slacker."

He's right.  Maybe if I extremely abbreviate what's been going on in list form, it will make things easier.  Let's begin where I left off so I can fulfill my blogigation.

1. Went to Salt Lake City. Emily got altitude sickness, so we left.  Thankfully we saw most of Temple Square the previous evening.  But I cried because I really wanted to see Conference Center.
2. Took the scenic route south in Utah and stopped by Zion National Park.  Spent the night in St. George.
3. Toured St. George.  Went to most of the Church History sites.  Fun.
4. Headed to California with a stop in Las Vegas.  We stopped briefly at Treasure Island.  Took the monorail to the Mirage and left.  It was cool seeing the lights.
5. Drove to Southern California and arrived at my Dad's house at about 2AM.
6. Have spent the past 3 weeks in CA.  
7. Have watched a LOT of Phineas and Ferb on the Disney Channel.  LOVE that show!
8. Went to Hollywood.
9. Touched the Pacific Ocean.
10. Went to the Reagan Library.
11. Saw some old friends from high school and college.
12. Watched more Phineas and Ferb because we love that show.
13. Played lots of games - Battleship, Monopoly, Mancala, Stop Thief, Family Feud, Wheel of Fortune, Clue, Trap Door, Scrabble, Solataire, Chinese Checkers, Aggravation, and more.
14. Watched TV.
15. Had a birthday party for my sister.
16. Have been scanning lots of old photos from my childhood.

More to come..  Here's some pics:

Salt Lake Temple

Manti Temple.  I think this one is my favorite.

Sick Emily.  I'm pretty sure she had altitude sickness.  At breakfast in SLC she said everything turned white and blurry and she nearly passed out and then she vomitted.  When we returned to normal altitude, she felt better.

This is proof that we went.  We were only there for a few hours.  We took the tram ride through the park.  We didn't get to hike or do cool things.

At the St. George Visitor's Center

On my next Tithing slip I'm going to donate $3.00 for Windex.

St. George Temple.  It was beautiful.  We were told at the visitor's center that a long long time ago a baby was born in the temple and was named Templeina.

A quick stop in Las Vegas before final destination.

Salt Lake City

What the heck?!  I just uploaded a bunch of photos and words and now it's blank!!  Darn Blogger! I want to cry.  It's no wonder that blogging can be so discouraging!!  I'll try again tomorrow.  Here's a picture not of Salt Lake:

Playing Battleship at Papa's house.  

They look so sweet, but about 10 minutes into the game Bradley was in tears and accusing Emily of not playing fairly.

More Vacation Documentation

Ok, so I just realized that I never finished documenting our drive out here.  Here is some more:

Day 4 - Drive from Nauvoo, IL to Cheyenne, WY (August 1/2)

Planning this part of the trip was tricky.  We spent Sunday in Nauvoo and we planned to stay at my brother's house in Cheyenne, WY for an evening.  If we stayed in a hotel on Sunday evening we would get to Cheyenne too late and wouldn't be able to spend much time with them.  So I planned to drive through the night in order to get to Cheyenne in the morning.  Since my husband is not a total night owl, I volunteered to drive.  It was a lot of fun having a quiet van with sleeping people and a lot of radio stations with good music to listen and sing to. I found it amusing that Omaha had a radio station called 101.9 The Big O.  However, during the night we drove through 2 state capitals.  My husband was kind enough to take my picture at 12:30 AM in Des Moines, IA and 3:30 AM in Lincoln, NE (above picture).  We stopped at a Perkins in western Nebraska and made it to my brother's at about 11 AM.  I was tired.  But....

I did a picture of Cheyenne, WY.  Woo hoo!  That night we watched The Bachelorette finale and we departed on our way to Salt Lake City the next morning (about a 7 hour drive).

To Be Continued....

Day 11

Are y'all mad at me for not blogging?  Because I'm mad at myself.  I'm so flaky!  It's day 11 of being in California and for goodness sake I have lots of things to blog about.  I mean I could be blogging about every single episode of Phineas and Ferb that my kids have watched on the Disney Channel.  I could blog about all the hundreds of photos I've been scanning from my childhood.  I could blog about all the games we've been playing.  But, nope, instead I sit and watch the Bachelor Pad with my sister and neglect my poor poor blog.

So I though I would give a quick update on my status.  We are still in California enjoying some cooler, unhumid weather, sitting outside without the threat of rain, gnats, or mosquitoes.  It's been enjoyable.  the other day Wendy or Sarah (I forget which one) remarked, "Why are there no clouds in California?"

We haven't done a whole lot besides the above mentioned activities.  It's been nice just hanging out with my dad.  I bought a new camera before we came and it takes awesome pictures.  I thought I'd share one:

Ok, just kidding.  The picture I was looking for must still be in my camera.  Instead here is a different one:

George is getting really good at smiling.

Back to Blogging

Ok, so I had this unrealistic expectation that on our drive out to California that I would blog every night once we arrived at our hotel with free wi-fi.  The truth is I am not Super Woman.  After driving nine hours and fulfilling my promise to let the kids go swimming in the hotel pool until it closed, getting clothes ready for the following day, and downloading photos from the camera memory card, I was just too exhausted and pretty much fell asleep with the computer on my lap.  So now a week later I will have to do a brief overview of our trip.  I might have to split this up into a couple of days because I'm tired right now too.

Day 2 - Lexington, KY to Macomb, IL

I have a life goal of getting my picture taken in front of every state capitol building.  It all began in college when I drove with a college roommate of mine to her home in Washington State. On the way we visited Sacramento, Salem, and Olympia.  Since then I have visited several more.  I think I have collected more than half of the states.  Anyway, after leaving our hotel in Lexington, KY we had a short drive to Frankfort.  I knew that Frankfort wasn't a big city, but I was a little confused when the GPS told us that we arrived at our final destination.  It was a trailer park having a community yard sale.  I took a picture anyway in case it was the capital.  As we were leaving, we saw the sign, "Capital City Mobile Home Park".  I guess that confused the GPS system.  The GPS eventually directed us to the correct destination.

We also stopped at Springfield, IL.  We visited Abraham Lincoln's old home in addition to the capitol building.  Did you know that Abe is still alive?  We drove around the block three times to try to get his picture.  He seemed pretty annoyed with me snapping pictures of him.  Now I understand why the paparazzi spend a fortune on telephoto zoom lenses.  I probably could've gotten his picture on the first time around the block and been a little more discreet about it if I had a fancy zoom lens.  I was thankful that the homeless man begging for money stalled him for a while.  I wonder if Abe gave him any money, perhaps a five dollar bill along with some pennies?

We also went to Indianapolis, IN and ate Subway on the steps of the Capitol building.

Day 3 - Nauvoo

We spent most of the day in Nauvoo.  We attended Sacrament meeting and then toured the Church Historical sites.  There wasn't enough time to see everything.  We hit the highlights and collected our free souvenirs.  We got a brick, rope, candles, and a mini horseshoe.  We also visited Carthage jail where Joseph Smith was killed.  It was a busy day in Nauvoo and Carthage because it was the day after the last day of the pageant.  Our tour group at Carthage had about 50 people in it.  It was hot and crowded in the tiny rooms.  When we were upstairs looking at the actual room where Joseph was shot, I found a nice spot on a bench by a window where I could sit with George.  He was fussing so I stuck him on my breast because I forgot to bring the pacifier.  As I was sitting there with my boob half exposed because I didn't have a blanket either, the tour guide directed the attention of the group to the window from which Joseph fell to his death.  It was the window I was sitting by. People began to snap pictures.  Nice. Let's hope none of those pictures end up on somebody's blog.

After Carthage we found a nice park in Iowa and ate a snackish dinner of tuna fish and crackers and let the kids play at a park.  We then embarked on an all night drive to Cheyenne, WY.

To Be Continued......