Home Improvement time

I'm not sure what has exactly gotten into us. Maybe with that swine flu, we just had too much time on our hands to think about things, and stare at the walls.

Last week, my husband just decided to cut out a strip of drywall down our unfinished basement steps. We've since seen a snowball effect.

After he cut between the two studs, (opening access to the other side of our basement), we decided to re-arrange our bedroom, and move our bookshelves downstairs. We had moved the girl's bookshelves downstairs a couple of months previously as well.

Well - it didn't stop there. Our neighbor came by and gave us his expert opinion (that the wall wasn't going to fall down with further cutting) and my husband got busy.

Here he is sizing up his ideas:

 

Here's the second section he took out of the wall, along with part of the handrail:

 

So, while we were getting used to the novelty of having a small library downstairs, and having easier access, I got ambitious. On Friday I decided that I wanted to learn how to texture my wall, and so I did. It was actually quite fun and I learned a ton. As soon as it dried, I pulled out some paint (copper colored) and painted it up.
The girls thought it seemed to lead to a cozy inviting area. I'm just happy that it has some texture instead of being plain dirty wallboard, and a little personality as well.
Top looking down:

 

Down looking up:

 

While we thought we were done for a breath or two, I decided to move most of our main floor library downstairs as well. And we now have a nice cozy little reading area. It is just amazing how the removal of such a small piece of wallboard could snowbal this drastically, but I love it!

Sick, sick, sick

Well - we have (almost) survived the H1N1... cough cough. Almost there we hope.
Last Sunday our daughter would not get ready to church. After I figured out that she was sick, she and I went upstairs to snuggle up and watch some Veggie Tales (her choice obviously). She was so sick that she actually let me fix her hair. Here's the proof...

 

 

On Thursday night my fever broke and my husband and I went to a small cafe down the road for some lunch Friday afternoon. Ironically, the electricity went out while we were eating and we had to head out to the back to dine al fresco. It was nice to at least be out of the house for a couple of minutes!

 

I've surpassed myself!

I just found out that the recipe blog I began 8 months ago has already surpassed all the traffic I've had with this blog in the past 2.5 years...

I spoke too soon

So the stars aligned for a moment, and then scattered back into chaos.
Our oldest child was difficult on Sunday morning - not wanting to get ready for church. I pushed and pled and prodded, and then thought maybe I should shelve my agenda and start really listening. She didn't feel well. Since her actions were fairly singular, I decided to go with my gut and stay home with her (even though it was our primary program practice and I'm in charge of the singing). As the day went on, she got more and more sick. I was glad we'd stayed home. I identified it as H1N1 which has recently surged in the community. Our youngest seemed to feel well, so we sent her to school, but yesterday by the end of the day we just weren't so sure about her either. I took them to the Dr. office (so they could confirm what I already knew), and come to find out - all three of us have it! My husband came home with a terrible cough which had developed throughout the day, along with a headache, and he too has swine flu.

If you've wanted to get hold of us, and haven't been able to for a while, now would be an excellent time. We plan to make some road trips, maybe do some hikes (if we are up to it). Possibly finish up some painting and organization projects. We aren't all stuck in bed and feel mostly well as long as we've got some fever / pain reducer coursing through our veins.

On the good side, at least it is all at the same time, we can hang out and have fun together, and we've definitely felt much worse. Finally, we won't have to worry about getting it later since we are getting it out of the way now.

And the stars align

Some of you may remember that last year I blogged about my kid's problems with habitual tardiness. No, it doesn't really matter that we live less that a 2 minute brisk walk from the school - my kids are those habitually tardy ones. I've hated it, I've railed against it. I've put my kids half naked out on the porch with a pile of clothes and their backpacks trying to get them to school on time, I've even driven them naked to school while they hastily scrambled to get dressed in the back seat. Nothing seemed to be effective - they just didn't care Well, that was the before.

This year, finally, the stars have finally aligned and after a month of school, my kids still haven't been tardy yet - we are amazed! Such an improvement from last years all time high of 42 tardies. Yep, 42.

This year, we made some tough decisions and changed our morning routine. One great strategy I've found is to have our kids make their own lunches the night before (then they aren't complaining that they don't like peanut butter) and they lay out their clothes (everything) and pack the backpack the night before. It then becomes a no-brainer. What a simple solution - why didn't someone tell me this before?

The rest of our morning routine deals with my husband and I getting up very early and getting our exercising and getting ready out of the way. Our kids are out of bed somewhere between 6:00 - 6:30. While I finish getting ready, dad is the morning chef (with a kid approved menu). We then breakfast, while reading and discussing our scriptures together, and when dad leaves the girls both have 15-20 minutes to practice their piano. While one practices, the other can finish up homework, make their lunch (if not the night before) and focus on finishing up getting ready. Then they switch.

While kids definitely need their sleep, we found that getting them up earlier has been the total key. We have several evening activities that we've decided not to participate in. While very worthwhile, they end late, and we decided not to compromise on bedtime. It is music to our ears when our kids happily and voluntarily crawl into bed at 8:00 and ask to be tucked in.

While life is never perfect, and I know things will change - especially as our kids get older, I've never enjoyed a schedule so much! I figured I'd probably better record this as a reminder of some of the less turbulent moments when the stars did indeed, seem to align.

Halloween FHE

Our girls have been SO excited to decorate for Halloween this year.
Last week we decorated our pumpkins for FHE. Here's the documentary of the process

 

 

 

 

October 2009 General Conference Packet Link

Our church's semi-annual General Conference is being held today.
As my kids get older, we expect them to pay a little more attention and listen more and more. Here's a link for a conference packet for the October 2009 General Conference. It took me a while to find. Happy Conferencing!

Weekend Re-cap, Not for the squeamish

I can't believe this weekend is over, it's been a while since life threw me such a loop.
My husband's brother/family came into town and we loved staying up late playing games, chatting and just hanging out with them. We hit some fun restaurants on Friday and hung out in some of the tourist areas.

 

Saturday morning, while making breakfast, my husband went out for a quick run. I received a phone call that one of the ladies I was performing with for a wedding was extremely ill and there was no way she would be able to make it to the performance. I was completely thrown into panic mode since another of my ladies had just moved away and was no longer unavailable. I called a friend and she gave me some names and numbers but the people I was calling lived pretty far away and it was a long shot. As I was on the phone with her, my husband came in from his run and informed me that he needed some help.
While running, he'd tripped and fallen downhill and sliced his hand open. We ended up spending the morning at the doctor's office (3 hrs) as after the stitches they wanted to take some X-rays. Once we finally got home, we had to wait for the Orthopedic surgeon's assistant to look at the X-rays because after telling us that it was nothing, my husband's pain seemed extreme and they were concerned that it may have been something more. We were so grateful that my husband's brother & family were here and so willing to help us out with the girls!
He'll see the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow and we hope to figure out what's going on.
Here's his hand - the morning after

 

Moving on (or back to my dilemna), I finally found someone who was available and willing to drive two hours to play with us. It was a beautiful location and I loved the gentle breeze and the fall colors. It couldn't have been a more beautiful day. While I had been super stressed about performing with someone who had never seen the music, he did a great job and I was SO relieved that it turned out as well as it did. Here is some of the colorful backdrop we got to enjoy while performing.

 

After performing, I joined back up with everyone at the river and while I soaked my feet in the cool water, I found a few much needed moments of tranquility as the adrenaline finally began to recede ~ After church, a nap, and an easy day, I'm feeling back to myself again.

Ever seen one of these guys?

I'm seeing one or two every morning!

This fluffy little guy is known as a Shrew.

I know - I never thought I'd be blogging about the cat again, but man - she's amazing this year. Every morning we wake to find either a mouse, a shrew, or a bird on our porch - or all three. We have a neighbor who complains about her catching birds and sets traps to catch her. Maybe I should start putting the dead rodents on his porch so he can begin to appreciate her skills. Better dead on my porch than in my house!

Funky Carrot - Ode to grandpa J.

When I was young, I took a carrot for show and tell (and my sister's belly button, but that's a different story). Now this was not an ordinary carrot mind you, but one from my grandfather's garden. It had 8 legs - we called it the octopus carrot. Important show and tells remain in your memory forever, you know.

It seems like every year we just happen to get a funky octopus type carrot in our garden. Hmmm, I wonder if it is hereditary? Here's this year's addition to the carrot hall of fame

 

Marathon Pics

I just uploaded some pictures and realized that I hadn't posted any of these.
Here we are just before the race as we are dropping him off. I think he was hyperventilating...

 

Here are the girls in the back seat. We left our hotel around 5:20 am to drop him off.

 

So, we waited, and hung around, and waited, and played at the park and waited for the buses to bring them back, and waited and waited...

 

More park pictures


Finally! Here he is just off the bus - it was rather anti-climatic since he'd been done for an hour and a half by this point. The triumphal entry was a mere stepping down from the yellow school bus...

Happy to be alive today

It's just a good day. Yesterday I headed to the temple and REALLY enjoyed it. As I drove I could see the leaves all changing - what a gorgeous sight. The skies are blue, the weather is perfect, and I'm putzing around the house getting things back into order. Just thought I'd say - today is a great day - I'm happy to be alive.

The race

Well, I noticed that I haven't posted anything for such a long time. We've been getting all of those last days of summer taken care of, and getting back into the swing with school starting again. I've had a range of emotions as I re-adjust to my quiet house and being able to shop and do things I want (when I want) a little more often now while the kids are away. I headed to the temple last week - that was great since I haven't been able to do just a me trip since last spring. So - school is underway and I've been trying to really evaluate and make sure that I keep my perspective. My kids and family are really the most important - it is so easy to get caught up in everything else, but that's my focus, and I've been surprised at how much happier everyone is when I remember this and when I find joy in serving my family and kids.

Due to the 42 tardies our kids had last year, we've re-evaluated some things and made some changes. While the girls are still taking gymnastics, they were invited to move to the next level. The next level however, involves 4 hours of gymnastics a week. Add piano lessons and homework and our girls are keeping very busy. As such, they've been getting lunches and clothes ready the night before, and then getting up in between 6 & 6:30. We are able to have breakfast together and move our scripture reading to breakfast time which is nice because they get to spend some time with their dad in the morning. After breakfast, they do their morning chores and do their practicing. While I don't really love to get up in the mornings, I'm amazed at how much happier everyone is when we stick to this schedule.

Okay - so my husband ran a race today near Price Utah. I have to say - we did a LOT of driving in 24 hours for such a short race. I was really bummed. He was SO nervous since he's never run a full marathon. Halfs - no biggee, but this was new.
Unfortunately, the marathon he chose had a great intriguing name, but it wasn't so great.

I did get ill (literally) for 3 days prior to as I tried to find a decent hotel. The only available ones got such awful reviews, I really got sick to my stomach when I thought about staying in them. Finally, I found the only decent place in the area and was SO relieved.
My husband didn't sleep well last night (before the race) (not that I could blame him) but while we agreed to get everyone up at 5:20, he was up and ready at 5:12 and so anxious for us to all be ready to drop him off. Too bad the drop off was 30 minutes away. So, we dropped him off and then found out that there's no finish line to that particular race. Apparently they bussed them up a canyon and dropped them off. There was really no place to go up and park and watch them cross the finish line. BUMMER

So - 3.5 hours after the race started, we went to see him get bussed back down into town. Except that his bus had to wait for over 40 minutes for race results to be brought back down and so he didn't get down until after 12:30.

To kill time, we played at the park for a while and hit the local case lot sale at the grocery store in the meantime. Then we drove home. That's it. We dropped him off in the dark and saw him 6 hours later. He says he ran the race, but we never saw anything (he did smell like it though).

He said it was the worst race he'd ever run. And scenery wise - he said it was downright ugly. So - at least he can check it off his list of goals, and he learned quite a bit about himself in the process.

I'm proud that he was able to do it. One anecdote he shared with me was that his race was 40 minutes longer than he'd anticipated it would take him. Well, behind him a runner came in and she was quite a bit older than he. He said that it was very obvious that she was very sick. She was bald and looked like she'd been going through chemo. When she crossed the finish line after him, her nose was bleeding and she looked pretty rough. Regardless of this, she was ecstatic that she'd finished. Perspectivewise - my husband ran double her distance and still beat her, but she was so thrilled and happy that she'd made it. Kind of puts things into perspective.
Carpe diem I think

Squirrel - schmirrel

We are teaching our kids to be independent learners. As such, we had a small family debate regarding the small rodent running through my house's name.

After spending some time with google images (love that feature) and reading several informative articles, together, we determined that our friendly little guy had stripes on the face and that they ended at the tail. Also, there were only five of them and not thirteen. As such, we regret to inform our readers that our rodent is actually a 'chipmunk' and not a squirrel. They do however belong to the same family and are very similar.

Here he is again, so that you can also check out those features



We apologize for any inconvenience our erroneous reporting may have caused for our readers.

Squirrel - schmirrel.

Final vacation photos

Here are my little rockers at the Hard Rock Cafe. Check out the youngest's lips!

 

Continental divide

 

Continental divide hike - this is much prettier than the other continental divide areas we've been to.

 

Lunch on main

 

Drying out

 

After 15 minutes they were freezing. I'm thrilled to have discovered yet another great summer perk to our area!

Last days of summer

While we only have a few days left before school starts, we've been trying to make the best of every moment.
The girls and I took my husband to lunch at the girl's favorite chineese restaurant on Friday. Apparently, their favorite thing about the restaurant are the beads to the bathroom and the paper placemat that tells which Chineese year you were born under. While dismayed that they didn't have one, before we left, our daughter spoke to the manager to let her know she really missed the placemats. The manager explained that they'd stopped using them for environmental reasons, but gave my daughter 4 to take home with her! Way to speak your mind little girl!

Here are our fortunes if you are interested. Feel free to try and guess which belongs to who

 

The famous beads to the bathroom

 

After lunch, we all went to a park to play for a while. Then the girls and I did some school supply shopping (if you can believe it, Walmart was completely out of glue sticks and #2 pencils..arg..)
Afterwards we stopped at the carniceria for carne asada meat, and then headed to the local spray park

 

 

Fishing

While we fished with our cousins, here are my little fishermen.

 

 

 

 

Camping

As I've mentioned, our cousins came camping with us last weekend. Here are some of our photos.
Breakfast

 

One little, two little, three little indians (is that pc?)

 

Silly guy

 

Working on breakfast