The haunting of the "8" balloon!!

For the past week I have been followed by this 8 balloon. Seriously. It started the first night after Guy left out of town, I woke up to feed the baby and caught a flicker in the doorway of my room. I went about taking care of Bella when something flickered and moved in my doorway. Ok I knew it wasn't my moms ghost because she wouldn't be so shiny. As I tried to calm myself the heater clicked on and the stupid balloon started to move into my room. Holy crap!! I was sitting up in bed with this thing floating toward me...not good. By the time the balloon came into the light from the night light I was ready to run. I think I hollered out loud, "Not funny balloon". Since then the stinkin thing has followed me from room to room. I turn around in the kitchen....it is there staring at me. Bella loves it but not me. I punch it into the next room. Slowly but surely the thing finds me again. Tonight it scared Samuel as he was going to bed. I am such a mean mom I laughed. I thought about tying it to the end of his bed so when he woke up it was looking at him. Don't worry I won't.


You were probably wondering why we had a huge 8 balloon. Mitchial turned 8 on Saturday and was blessed with the balloon after the great to be 8 program. Next time we won't accept left over decorations! Happy Birthday Mitcharooni!


Happy Sweet 16 Ian!! This is Ian in his cool new jacket (or maybe he is just mad:) I can't tell) Ian and Mitchial celebrate the same birthday 8 years apart. We like it because that means we get 2 cakes to eat! Yeah! Ians picture with his super duper chocolate cake didn't turn out because there was so much smoke!! All you could see was a cloud. Funny! We are so blessed to have Ian and Mitchial in our family. Love you boys!

If you can't laugh at yourself, who can?

For months I have said that I was going to be thrifty and patch my husbands work jeans. I was embarrassed with his holey pants, so today was the day. I practiced with camouflage patches on Samuels pants and was quite pleased. I didn't make fancy cutout's like my Mom used to, but Samuel didn't care. After "testing" the patch area to make sure it stuck good, I was ready to move on to Guy's jeans. I found the first pair of jeans a bit difficult because of the location of the holes. :) After 2 tries of getting the patches to stick, I quickly moved on to the 2nd pair of pants while the first cooled. The 2nd pair was a piece of cake. One big hole on the knee and a small one on the pocket area. I knew the color of the patch was darker than the jeans, but since being patches I thought they would be ok. After finishing the 2nd pair I stepped back to look at the good work I did. AAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!
Guy came home to find me looking at my patching job, and just smiled. After a few moments of laughing at myself, Guy asked why I didn't just put the patches on the inside of the pants then you wouldn't have to worry about "seeing" the patches. Good question. I think the patches are more embarrassing than the holes, because don't people pay lots of money to have the worn look? Oh, well. Now he has some durable yard pants!!

Sing like angel....Dance like a superstar!

As I was searching for pictures of my family dancing, amazingly enough this picture came up :) Ok, not really. Our family was not blessed with the dancing jeans, but we have fun. I didn't really think we were a silly family until my neighbor was telling me how my kids behaved at her house when music came on. She was laughing so hard it took her a few minutes to collect herself. She described my kids "spazing" out, only we don't call it spazing, we call it dancing. I think the boys were offended when she asked what they were doing. The story got even better when she told me Mitchial started singing. What can I say, I teach them early.
Some of my fondest memories are of my Mom and Dad listening to music. They loved music, therefore I love music. I was raised listening to Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond, Barbara, Johnny Cash, Elvis, the Carpenters and of course the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I grew to love all but the Mo Tab. One summer my Mom played the 4th of July Mo Tab tape over and over and over. I am sure the neighbors knew it by heart just like us kids. That summer we didn't invite our friends over much:)
In high school my Dad could be heard in the halls surrounding his class room. He loved to sing and even dance while he taught. It didn't matter what was happening in my life, whenever I heard my Dad singing, it made things seem alright. I remember sitting on his lap while he drove listening to old 8 tracks. Whenever he got to the melody he would squeeze me tight. Good times!
So, I am following my parents and surrounding my kids with "good" music. My music. My parents music. They already know the words of almost all the songs I put on my playlist. I know my brothers are going to give me a hard time, but I post them proudly. :)

Super no more!

I will never again brag about being super. I promise. I should know by now that as soon as I say "look at me" I fall on my face. Last week after calling myself super I slipped and fell at the the mailbox. I wasn't even trying to show off or do fancy foot work, I just turned around and boom. It was terrible. It was one of those slow motion falls that hurt not only my hands and knees but my pride. I had to hurry and get up before the garbage man got out of his truck to help. You should have seen his face....it was a look of do I laugh or be concerned. Luckily he just drove off. After I got up I quickly scanned my neighbors houses to make sure I hadn't been seen. So far the only 2 people I know of to see me fall were Timothy and the garbage man .
Ok, no more bragging about cooking either. I don't think I have made a decent dinner since my last post. I am afraid my kids are going to turn the color of macaroni and cheese. Please tell me the noodles are vitamin fortified:)

Super mom....for a day!

Yes this was me for a day! I did take the cape off to clean the bathroom. I don't know if everyone feels as inadequate as me, but there are some days I look around and it looks like I did nothing. I know I did but why is the house a mess? I had a rough start to the week. Getting used to getting the kids to school on time was a tough one. I enjoy my sleep so when I have to wake up to a alarm...I am grumpy. Well yesterday I started the day off early with a diet coke. I was peppy, dressed in real clothes( no jammies for me). I had makeup on and dangly earrings. I was looking and feeling good. The kids had a real breakfast, no chips or corn dogs. They had a real lunch, again no chips and corn dogs. I started my bills and finished sending our "holiday" cards. By time the kids came home from school Timothy was up from a nap:) I had homemade brownies in the oven and was starting dinner. I had vacuumed the front room and hall and had the kitchen clean and had folded and done 2 batches of laundry. Yeah and it only gets better. I cleaned the bathroom and put Samuel in to soak while dinner was cooking. By the time Guy got home, all the kids were bathed and fed with veggies and all, and they all had their jammies on ready for bed. I think the fun thing was not only did I feel that I accomplished something that day, I actually had proof. I enjoyed my day as a mom. I had fun. Not everyday is "fun" when your a mom. Now my goal is to have more than one "super" day a week!!

Out with the old and in with the new?

I have heard that saying before but have never thought much about it until this December. Starting from the first weekend of December, something has broken at our house. Not just a towel rack or snow shovel but BIG important items. Let me start with the sliding glass door that Tornado Tim broke on Bella's blessing day. (look at previous blogs). We were getting ready to replace the door when the water heater went out. Not good. It was the coldest weekend of the year and we had no hot water.
You are now looking at a new and expensive gas valve and a new thermocouple. (a new big word I learned from the repair man) I do not like cold water. I do not like it camping. I do not like it in a pool on a hot day. I do not like to drink cold water, so going without hot water for 4 days was terrible. I had to shower at the neighbors house which has glass shower doors (very weird when you are used to a dark shower curtain) and take my kid's to different friends to bathe. The kids loved the "pioneer" experience, not mom.
The next thing to break was the microwave. Back when we blessed Bella my sister in law mentioned that our microwave didn't heat things up very well. I thought she was just rubbing in the fact that she had a new 2008, sleek black sensor cooking microhood. Wrong. Our poor microwave pooped out on Christmas eve as I was trying to make hot cocoa for Santa. I seriously couldn't believe it. What is going on in our house, and on Christmas. Isn't there some rule in the universe that says only good comes on Christmas eve? Well there we were, no hot cocoa for Santa, Guy couldn't have his microwave popcorn, and the kids couldn't get their rice bags heated to warm up their beds. I was really starting to feel picked on.
This is the "old' microwave.

This is our "new" microwave. Thanks Bairs for keeping your first microwave. (Yes it looks like it is a sleek black model, that is just the front door. The rest is covered with vinyl wood stickering) It doesn't look like much and it doesn't have a nightlight, and it doesn't have a fan, but it cooks!!
The next thing to go happened just before the new year. Guy took the cars in to have them inspected and get 2009 stickers. Harmless you would think. NOT. He comes home to tell me that my van needs a new front tie rod end. A what? His car only needs new brakes and a new tire. I took a picture of a front tie rod for those of you who don't know car parts.
Yes the picture is blurry, it's because I was under the car!! Anyway I was feeling very overwhelmed. I went to church today feeling hole in our wallet and a little blue until I heard my friend say her child broke his jaw and her husband was in a wreck over the holidays. I decided then and there that I can handle my "broken " house and that I am grateful for all that I have.