Catch 22

I'm computerless, or I should clarify, I'm internetless. Still got the computer . . . at the old house with internet. But no internet at the new house yet and who knows when that will happen. We decided last weekend was the the move date. Hired some movers to move the big stuff; they showed up with a very large truck so they ended up taking more than they bargained for I think. We spent more money moving than I was anticipating, but in the end I believe it was worth it. How nice not to have to haul all those heavy appliances and furniture. We've slowly been setting up home in Lake Point and gradually moving stuff over. I miss having my computer but love the time it allows me to get things done. I've realized how much time can get sucked away on a computer. I'll have to be more diligent about that when we finally move it over. For now I've got more boxes to move.

The appraisal is in

and is wasn't good.

I thought we had it in the bag since it was the same appraiser who did our construction loan and that rarely happens since banks no longer have the power to pick who they want. I thought there was no way he would come in that much lower than his original appraisal. But he did and now we're trying to figure out how to come up with $40,000 in extra cash.

It will all work out . . . somehow, but today was kind of a stinky day. It looks like we might be putting our house on the market sooner than we wanted to.

Now in the spirit of Thanksgiving,

not a day goes by where someone in our family isn't thankful for Alex.

We all love him for the smiles and the giggles and the stories he tells and his overall happy nature.

But I think most of all we love being able to dress him up! 

 

 

A somewhat eventful week

Last Sunday kind of felt like the city of Enoch in our ward . . . if you weren't there, you missed some pretty big stuff. We got a new bishopric. Quinn Howard is the new bishop; Ty and I have speculated often that he would be bishop someday.

Three kids sick this week and several days of missed school. Wish they could all be sick at once instead of one after another.
Wednesday Ty and I got a call while we were at the house in Lake Point that the home two doors down from our Stansbury home was on fire. I thought it might be a little kitchen fire. No, it turned out to be the real deal. Burned in 20 minutes and we live a half a mile from the fire station.

Kiersten was the only home at the time and she got evacuated. I was grateful it didn't spread to other homes. While all the neighbors were congregating outside, one lady who lived several doors down came frantically down the street trying to find her daughter. After about 20 minutes the daughter was found at a friend's home. It made me realize how important it is to have a meeting place other than the mailbox (the mailbox is just too close). Ever since I was a child I've thought of what things I would throw out the window if we had a fire. This fire made me realize there is absolutely no time. Fireproof box is probably the only way to go with valuables.

On Friday and Saturday we set up the sport court at the house in Lake Point. We may not be able to move in if our appraisal on Tuesday goes south but we will be able to play hoops.

Our hairy not-so-little wolf spider friends (one had a 4-inch span). We've killed 22 so far, too many of those in the house. My poor kids living in the basement. Just glad my bedroom isn't down there. Maybe my girls will keep their clothes off the floor.

I also started the Book of Mormon again, trying to read it in 60 days and finishing up Christmas Day. So far I'm amazed at how a people can have spiritual experiences and then forget the Lord so quickly. It is so fundamental to our testimonies to daily remember Christ because it is so easy to forget Him. That's why I enjoy reading my scriptures. It helps me to not forget.

About that last post . . .

Yah, not feelin' so free.

This is what has taken just about every minute of every day. I'm so ready to be done.

And this is Ty's first rodent catch in our yard. He was pretty excited to find him dead in the trap he set.

Feelin' a little free

I knew this week I would be turning over the Stansbury Park Community Association newsletter to the new editor.

I was also planning on turning over my treasurer duties I've been doing for the past 3 years.

What I didn't know was I would be released from Primary.

Last Friday Karen, the Primary president, stopped by to tell me she felt I should be released and that it would probably happen Sunday. When it did happen I had a wave of emotion come over me. I will miss Primary but am excited to go back to Relief Society although a little strange to be released with no other calling. I've been in Primary for 8 1/2 years of the last 10. I honestly was not expecting it. We've been together as a presidency for over 3 years; I thought they'd redo the Primary presidency when I move in a month of two. At our last presidency meeting I voiced my opinion of being done with Primary. It was a bad day and I was feeling very stressed and MENTALLY tired. Stansbury Days were coming up where I had obligations; Nate needed a birthday party even if it was 3 weeks late; there were doctor's appointments between Alex and Nate; the house building was going full force with decisions that needed to be made YESTERDAY; my current house was a disaster because of summer break and my lack of ever being home to keep it clean; and I was supposed to be putting together a quarterly activity. I just couldn't do it and told Karen so.

BUT NOW . . . kids are back in school and my house stays cleaner; I've quit the Stansbury Community board and handed over my responsibilities there; Nate got his party; there are still decisions to be made on the house, but they are getting fewer. Staying in Primary would be no problem. Heck, I'm not even doing the program this year (I was VERY smart to switch with the other counselor at the beginning of the year). That definitely would have made me one crazy lady.

So now I have no real responsibilities and I kind of like it. For a little while anyway. I've still got a lot to keep me busy. Who knew building a house could be so time consuming? :)

Flowers from the Primary presidency as a thank you. Aren't they gorgeous?!

6 week baby photos

Just got Alex's 6 week pictures back (now that he's almost 10 weeks). I thought it was fun to compare my other children's pictures taken at the same time.

 We all think he looks the most like Nate. And we all love him.

Every prayer offered by the kids involves thanking Heavenly Father for our baby.

Mr. McClatchy

There were red and baby blue ribbons tied everywhere.

His funeral was today.

He died last Sunday from strangulation.

He went to his room to change his Sunday clothes, became intrigued with swinging from a bathrobe belt tied to the bunk bed and ended up with it around his neck.

He was only eight years old.

He was Nate's age.

He was in Nate's first grade class.

I was a reading mom that year and remember reading with him. His mom worked at the school and sometimes she would walk down the hall while we were reading. He would always tell his mom hi and give her a shy little smile.

Nate would come home from school and tell us how Mrs. Heaton would call Jacob, Mr. McClatchy and Nate thought that was hilarious.

Jacob became Mr. McClatchy in our home and we frequently asked Nate about Mr. McClatchy and what happened at school that day.

It's strange to think he is gone. As a mother I cannot imagine losing a child, especially losing a child so suddenly and in a place you'd think is pretty harmless. My heart aches for his mother. He was the baby of the family with two older brothers on missions and a 15-year-old brother at home. Death can be such an awful thing. How grateful I am for the knowledge I have that death is not the end. Mrs. McClatchy will see her Mr. McClatchy again someday. Oh what a hopeful thing.

It's still raining

Monday was quite possibly one of the worst days ever. Even Tyler concurred.

Nathan was scheduled to have a tympanoplasty done on his right ear. Last year he had complained of his ear hurting when he went swimming and I did nothing. This year I thought I should have his hearing checked and sure enough he was hearing about 30 decibels lower than he should. Dr. Ventura, his ear doctor, said he had a perforated ear drum and that we should have a tympanoplasty done where they take a skin graft from behind the ear to fix the hole.

Well, he's had a perforated ear drum before on that ear and to fix it Dr. Ventura put a patch on it. It was quick and we were home within 2 hours and Nate was out playing that afternoon. I assumed this was what we were doing and scheduled the surgery for the day before his 8th birthday.

Nathan, Alex, and I arrived at the hospital at 7 am and got checked in. The anesthesiologist came in and casually asked if I knew this would take a couple of hours. I was a little surprised, but went to wait in the waiting room.

Also that morning I woke up bleeding . . . again. I'm 5 weeks postpartum and ready to have my body back. Over the past 5 weeks the bleeding has slowed and stopped for a couple of days and then started back up. Well again, I assumed I would be home in a couple of hours and could deal with the bleeding. Alex started getting a little fussy in the waiting room, so I picked him up and left to walk down the hall. I found a phone to call Ty to tell him we would be a little while, went to the rest room and knew I needed to go home. I was bleeding too heavily and was not prepared. I called Ty back in tears and asked him to come to the hospital.

He came and switched places with me. I went home and called my doctor's nurse. She of course told me to just take it easy. I wanted to ask her how exactly I was supposed to do that with 5 kids, a new baby, building a house, and one of my kids was having a surgery I did not anticipate. I did my best and even had Kiersten and Erik mow the lawn for me which was a first for them.

Nathan finally came home about 1:30pm with stitches behind his ear and a big bandage on his ear that he needed to keep on until his appointment on Thursday. He didn't look happy and I felt so badly for scheduling this surgery right before his birthday. I also had to reschedule his birthday pictures.

Saturday we spent the day at Cherry Hill, and despite having all the kids wear sun screen, Ty didn't put any on himself. Needless to say he got rather burnt. He spent all day Monday trying not to itch the sunburn even though he desperately wanted to. I thought he would go crazy.

Nate's birthday was as good as we could hope for. I let him stay in his jammies all day. His Primary teacher brought balloons, a happy birthday sign for the front lawn, and candy. She had told me Sunday how nervous he was about this surgery and I told her it would be nothing. Well, he had something to be nervous about. I don't think he was in a lot of pain, more discomfort than anything. I really wanted to do something fun so he'd forget about his ear, but I didn't dare venture very far from my bathroom. I'm hoping that this bleeding is nothing more than my monthly friend returning with a vengeneance. Ty's back was good yesterday and much better today.

We're all glad Monday is over. It was one of those days that never turn out quite like you think it's going to and I hope to never have a day like it again.

It's raining, it's pouring

I never anticipated last week being so mentally and physically exhausting . . . one I never want to repeat again.

Sunday: Church and parents show up for a surprise visit.

Monday: Finish up the newsletter for the SPCA and get it off to the printer; head to Salt Lake to the library and to visit the Martin garage door company for samples; decide to also stop by Standard Plumbing.

Tuesday: Actually got a little nap in and made dinner; Matt showed up to start roofing and spent the night on our tramp.

Wednesday: Went to check on Matt and took him to lunch; went back to Tooele to Standard Plumbing but no one there for us to talk to; still haven't picked out tub; got the proofs back from the printer; some mistakes that needed correcting; fixed those and sent it back, hopefully to never see it again until I mail it; fertilized the lawn.

Thursday: Meet with electrician for 3 1/2 hours and still never got through everything; ran home to meet the Sears delivery to accept our wall ovens and water softener; went back to the lot to finish with electrician and gt Tyler; headed home for lunch and then drove right back to meet with the cabinet people for 2 hours; finally got home but too tired to think about dinner; decided to get the grocery shopping done and took the kids for a Frostie at Wendy's for watching Alex; made it to bed about 11:30 and got up at 3:00.

Friday: Took Alex for his third hearing test in his left ear. So far he hasn't passed. Thankfully he did today so I don't need to schedule an appointment with the ENT. Met with the home theater/speaker dude and finished going through the basement with the electrician = about 3 hours. Ready for a nap. Headed for the neighbors home in Lake Point for a neighborhood party with ice cream and soda pop, the second night this week we've had ice cream for dinner. Kiersten wanted to know why we don't do block parties in Stansbury: too hard to decide where to cut off and stop inviting people. The women chatted and the men hunted down the vole that had dug a hole under our new concrete garage floor.

Saturday: Went to East Canyon for the day, came home and mowed the lawn.

Oh ya, we had swim lessons all week. And I had a sharing time for Primary to prepare. And a baptism/blessing program to put together for my boys. And plan a birthday party for Nate (thankfully his friends were out of town for a couple of weeks and I convinced him to put it off until they get back). And all my bills seemed to come in at once and of course everyone wants more of my money than I believe I owe them. Trying to work my way through that pile. And my kids have been left to themselves pretty much all summer. I'm embarrassed to see Ashlyn when she comes home from a friend's house with straggly hair and unbrushed teeth. I'm sure the neighbors are wondering WHERE IS HER MOTHER?

Monday: I had a serious melt down and wanted so badly to run away where no one could find me. I seriously thought about calling my sister Ang to see if she wanted to go home to Ferron with me for a couple of days, but when I called home today (Wed.) she was already down there. How dare she run away without me!

Yesterday: An okay day. Found out our shingles are priced way too high so we're back to square one looking for new shingles. Tried to take my first nap in a week: lasted about 20 minutes. Made a trip to Salt Lake to look at garage doors on homes. No luck. Driving through one neighborhood we happened upon a HUGE Primary activity complete with vinyl signs announcing the activity and police cars to block off the road! I'm not even going to try and compete with that.

Today: Went for my first run this morning and surprised myself by going 1 1/2 miles. My hips will pay for that for a few days, but it sure felt great to be running again (How do you stretch your hips?). Got the shingles ordered.

I know that "this too shall pass." But in the meantime my baby is getting bigger and I just want a little time to hold him and enjoy him myself. All I can say is thank you Heavenly Father for sending us such a content, happy baby who hasn't minded getting shuttled all over the planet in the last month.

 

The scales are now tipped in favor of . . .

the BOYS!

A. G. was born Tuesday, June 22 at 9:06 am.

He weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces and was 20 inches long.

I meant to post this so much earlier, but I seriously have no life. And when I do have a free moment I definitely don't want to be sitting at the computer. We'll see how many days it takes me to complete this post. So far: 17. I began it on the 25th of June. It is now the 11th of July.

So maybe I'm a little superstitious. There is this family of bloggers I follow simply because I like the way they all write and one of the sisters is my age with 5 kids who follow my kids birth order and who had a baby in January. I feel a little connected. Anyway back in March I knew I needed to get back into my scriptures on a regular basis. One of these sisters posted about the same time that she was going to read the Book of Mormon in 60 days and even gave a daily reading schedule. I decided to accept the challenge. It would get me reading on a more consistent basis plus when I was done reading in June this baby would be ready to join our family.

This particular sister was also going to have a baby in June . . . which she did, the day she finished the Book of Mormon. I did pretty well at keeping to the schedule, but towards the end I kind of lost steam with end of school things and our house finally starting to get built. Here's where my superstition enters in. In the back of my brain I figured this baby would not come until I had finished the Book of Mormon. We had planned to go to the Uintahs for a day trip on June 18 so I purposely did not finish the last chapter until that night after we got back. Well, the next day came and went. And so did the next and the next. So much for my superstitions.

Tuesday, June 22 I was scheduled to be induced. I had to call the hospital at 6 am to see when they wanted me. My doctor and I discussed being induced several weeks prior since she was going to be out of town for a week and wouldn't see me at my last appointment. She suggested the 22nd and I went for it even though in my heart I really wanted an odd number since my kids birthdays are 17, 21, 27, 21. I thought the 23rd would work great. But I didn't mention it to her and we stuck with the 22nd. I figured this kid could share an even birthday with his dad since Tyler is the only one in our family with an even number. Am I sounding a little strange at this point?

Our surprise birthday party started a little early. Remember we didn't know what we were having, girl or boy. At 3 am my water broke. It was not little trickle either. I literally ran to the bathroom and wondered if it would stop enough for me to get to the hospital 30 minutes away. I finally got in the bathtub to kind of clean up and remember feeling like that baby was just going to drop out. I knew then we needed to leave immediately which was so unlike when my water broke with Kiersten. I don't remember the gush, and we stayed at home for a good hour and a half while I had something to eat and finished packing a few things.

A half a block from our house the contractions started. We timed them all the way in to Salt Lake at about 3 minutes apart. At one point I asked Tyler if he couldn't go a little faster than the 75 miles he was going. I was never so happy to make it to the hospital and I'm sure Tyler was a little relieved also. They were waiting for me since I was supposed the come in that morning anyway. I didn't need the Pitocin but asked for an epidural right away. Not because I needed it at that point, but because I knew this could be a fast delivery. I was dilated to a 5+ when we arrived at 4 am.

The epidural worked great and I wouldn't do it any other way. I was able to converse freely with the doctor and nurses right up until I was ready to push. At about 8:15 am the nurse said we were ready to have a baby and called Dr. Cannon. At 8:40 am I started to push. I really thought it would be like Ashlyn -- one push and she was out. This one was a little more difficult. With Ashlyn I felt all kinds of pressure and really felt the need to push. This one not so much. I also wonder if it was because he was bigger than any of my other kids too. I pushed for about 25 minutes before little Alex was born at 9:06 am AND he chose his own birthday, not me.

Dr. Cannon let Tyler have the honor of announcing boy or girl. Alex came out and Tyler hesitatingly said, "Boy?" And then Dr. Cannon flipped him over and Tyler announced with more clarity, "It's a BOY." He was a little stunned. He really thought we were having a girl. I was pretty sure it was a boy. So A. G. has joined our family and we couldn't be happier. Like Kiersten has said several times, "He's the best thing that's happened to our family."

Tomorrow's the day . . . hopefully

I add hopefully because with Ashlyn I was scheduled to be induced on the 19th of March and the hospital put me off for two days because they were so busy. I hope that doesn't happen tomorrow, but I am mentally prepared if it does.

Last Friday was the annual Leary reunion at Manor Lands in the Uintahs. My kids really wanted to go; I really wanted to go; I don't think Tyler was too keen on the idea of me going and possibly going into labor 1 1/2 hours from our hospital. The day before, I had an appointment with my doctor's nurse (Cindy) since Dr. Cannon was out of town for the week. Cindy was the NICEST and I walked away wishing she were my doctor. Not that I don't like Dr. Cannon but Dr. Cannon is just a little more professional and is in and out quickly (which I don't mind either). Cindy took time to listen to my concerns of taking a day trip to the mountains when I'm already dilated to a 3+, 75% effaced, and the head is very low. We discussed it and she ho-hummed but thought I'd be okay.

Then she asked me if I was a religious person. And I said I was. She said, "Maybe you should ask Him if it's okay to take this trip." That caught me off guard and I'm a little embarrassed to admit that it took a health care professional to suggest the idea. We talked about an experience she had had that week with the Holy Ghost while with her bishop and young women just that week as they were hiking. I resolved to do that very thing when I got home. I told God that if this baby did not come during the night and I woke up feeling like I have every other morning then we were heading to the mountains for the day.

Friday morning I woke up feeling great. Tyler was still very nervous, but I reassured him that I had prayed about it and felt okay with our decision. We would leave the cabin if I felt we needed to and we also scouted out all the hospital exits along the way (not that I wanted to have this baby in Evanston!).

It was a fabulous day. And I'm so glad we went. My kids were glad we went. I even think Ty was glad we went: the fishing was the best it's ever been at Whitney Reservoir.

*I thought this picture that Ty's dad took was pretty funny. Is he feeling sympathetic or what?

A side note:

Our house has some walls. It's been exciting to watch the progress move so quickly in just 3 weeks.

Waiting

Scout camp over.
13th anniversary celebrated.
Sharing time done.

This baby can now arrive any time. We are all anxiously awaiting his/her arrival.

Our beautiful backyard

For the Memorial Day holiday we wanted to go hiking up the Oquirrh mountains which are right in our backyard. I wasn't sure how well I'd perform at 8+ months pregnant. But I surprised myself and didn't need to stay behind at any point.

 We saw this: 

 The sego lily -- our state flower

 And this:

 And the view was spectacular:

 Stansbury Park -- where we currently live

 Lake Point -- where we are moving; you can even see our pile of dirt if you squint hard enough

"We're not in Kansas anymore."

Up to this point the whole house building process has been kind of a fairy tale like we've been playing make believe designing our dream home, but never really believing it would come to pass.

Not today.

I'm not in fantasy land anymore.

WE HAVE A HOLE!

I dare say this will be one of the more exciting parts of the build.

We went out a couple of times just to watch the excavator and let the kids play on the dirt piles. I'm tempted to leave a pile of dirt somewhere on our lot just for something to play in.

March of the Toys

Early this morning around 5 am I was awakened by Ashlyn crying uncontrollably as she tried to tell me something. My first thoughts as I tried to understand her were "she's thrown up" or "she's peed the bed."

 It was neither. Her toys were on the move. She literally thought her toys were moving in her room, and it had her petrified. I immediately put her in bed between Tyler and me, told her she was safe, and then she fell back to sleep.

We questioned her later about her experience. She repeatedly told me how she laid in bed watching her toys move, and then I told her how brave she was to get out of bed to come and tell me. We have no idea how long she laid there. The poor girl. But just look at her room. I would probably think things were moving to at 5 o'clock in the morning too.

An aha moment

Ever have one of those moments when the light bulb goes on?

Mine wasn't anything spectacular. Yesterday for Sharing Time we were talking about what the word GOSPEL meant and I had the kids look it up in the bible dictionary. They discovered it meant GOOD NEWS. So I asked what the good news was. Someone said the atonement of Jesus Christ and then we broke it down further into

1. We all will be resurrected and live forever and

2. We can live with our Heavenly Father again and have the life he has if we do what we should in this life.

Later that day I was thinking of the scripture in Moses 1:39 where Heavenly Father tells us that his goal is bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. And then came my aha moment: That is exactly what the atonement covers. It makes immortality and eternal life possible. Without it there would be no hope of attaining those two things and God's work and glory would have been frustrated.

I've always known to some degree what the atonement of Jesus Christ was all about, but I just never connected the dots between that particular scripture and what Jesus Christ did for me and essentially all of us. How grateful I am that HE chose to fulfill HIS particular mission.

60 Days or Less

To jump start my daily scripture reading again, I've decided to quit where I am in the Book of Mormon (which is somewhere in Alma) and start over reading the book in 60 days. How many times do people do that? How may time have I done that, start over with "I Nephi, having been born of goodly parents . . .".

Well, today I was reading in 2 Nephi 5. Laman and Lemuel are still trying to kill their little brother Nephi and the Lord finally tells Nephi he should probably move somewhere else. So Nephi says in verse 6,

"Wherefore, it came to pass that I, Nephi, did take my family, and also Zoram and his family, and Sam, mine elder brother and his family, and Jacob and Joseph, my younger brethren, and also my sisters, and all those who would go with me. And all those who would go with me were those who believed in the warnings and the revelations of God; wherefore, they did hearken unto my words."

So this little verse got me thinking a little. First, how many were in the group that left Jerusalem? Lehi, Sariah, Laman, Lemuel, Sam, Nephi, Jacob, Joseph, some sisters (possibly 2 or 3 or more), Zoram, Ishmael, Ishmael's wife, 5 daughters, and 2 sons. That makes a total of about 21. Lehi's family and Ishmael's family intermarry during their travel through the wilderness (8 years). They probably start families, but the oldest grandchildren of Lehi wouldn't be older than about 7 when they traveled across the sea.

Verse 6 says that Nephi left with his family, Zoram left with his family, Sam left with his family, Jacob and Joseph don't seem to be married yet. And I'm not quite sure about the sisters. So who are ALL THOSE WHO WOULD GO WITH ME? Nephi has just mentioned everyone who initially came across the sea and who have taken sides with him. I don't think he was referring to Ishmael's sons because they tended to side with Laman and Lemuel in earlier chapters.

It just seems to me that the ALL THOSE must have been other people who were living here at the time Lehi and his group showed up. I really don't believe Lehi's group was the first to people this land and for whatever reason, Nephi doesn't seem to feel the need to mention them, although it is quite possible they are mentioned in his large plates that contained the more secular history of his people. Oh, the have all the scriptures would be fascinating sometimes.

Anyway, here's my reading schedule I'm following for the next 60 days. They say it doesn't matter how many times you read the Book of Mormon, there is always something new to be learned.

1 1 Nephi 1-4

2 1 Nephi 5-10
3 1 Nephi 11-13
4 1 Nephi 14-16
5 1 Nephi 17-18
6 1 Nephi 19-22
7 2 Nephi 1-3
8 2 Nephi 4-7
9 2 Nephi 8-9
10 2 Nephi 10-15
11 2 Nephi 16-23
12 2 Nephi 24-26
13 2 Nephi 27-30
14 2 Nephi 31-33
15 Jacob 1-4
16 Jacob 5-7
17 Enos, Jarom, Omni & Words of Mormon
18 Mosiah 1-3
19 Mosiah 4-8
20 Mosiah 9-12
21 Mosiah 13-17
22 Mosiah 18-21
23 Mosiah 22-26
24 Mosiah 27-29
25 Alma 1-4
26 Alma 5-7
27 Alma 8-10
28 Alma 11-13
29 Alma 14-17
30 Alma 18-21
31 Alma 22-25
32 Alma 26-29
33 Alma 30-32
34 Alma 33-36
35 Alma 37-40
36 Alma 41-44
37 Alma 45-48
38 Alma 49-51
39 Alma 52-56
40 Alma 57-59
41 Alma 60-63
42 Helaman 1-4
43 Helaman 5-7
44 Helaman 8-12
45 Helaman 13-16
46 3 Nephi 1-4
47 3 Nephi 5-8
48 3 Nephi 9-12
49 3 Nephi 13-17
50 3 Nephi 18-20
51 3 Nephi 21-26
52 3 Nephi 27-30
53 4 Nephi, Mormon 1-2
54 Mormon 3-7
55 Mormon 8-9
56 Ether 1-5
57 Ether 6-10
58 Ether 11-15
59 Moroni 1-7
60 Moroni 8-10

March Madness

First, can I just say this has not been your typical Easter.

1. I, er, I mean the Easter Bunny, didn't put a single piece of chocolate in any Easter baskets.
2. He also usually leaves summer clothes for the kids. This year instead he left a new scooter for ALL of them to share. Good thing he didn't leave clothes because . . .
   
3. We woke up to snow on the ground. I certainly don't ever remember an Easter morning with snow on the ground. Quite depressing. We've had more snow in the last week than all of winter combined.
   
4. And then I was asked to bring dessert for Easter dinner. I've been craving carrot cake, so I made one and then decided to also make a carob cake (equivalent of chocolate but without the caffeine) since going to the health store in search of citric acid and coming across the stuff. For the record Tyler grew up on carob because they didn't eat chocolate in their home. He was very excited to have a carob cake. Anyway, not your typical Easter.

Our Crazy Month of March

Our first week of March consisted of basketball games just about every night with Kiersten and Erik both playing tournament games. That Saturday we had two Jr. Jazz championship games. Erik lost, but Kiersten's Jr. Jazz team, who were the underdogs going into the championship game, beat the only undefeated team of the entire season. What made this game cool was her coach's sister and only sibling was killed in a horrific car accident half way through the season. For the remainder of the season, those girls were out to win for him . . . AND THEY DID! It was a very awesome moment.

Nate lost a front tooth, but left the other dangling.

 Two birthdays and

 

 a Candyland birthday party.

 Every year Tyler has everyone fill out a NCAA championship bracket. Then he tracks who does the best with their guesses and they win a package of Oreos. Nate did amazingly well, guessing many upsets and was at one point number 3421 out of millions who submitted their brackets to ESPN. Take this kid to Vegas!

 Erik's stolen bike was recovered a block away from out house, pretty hammered but repairable. However, after getting the bill for fixing up the bike we almost could have bought a new one. I immediately bought bike locks for all the kids. Hopefully they will use them.

 Throw in an orchestra concert,

finished house plans (FINALLY!),

and a Bear Lake Primary presidency retreat where I made this cute Happy Birthday banner.

Doctor appointments. Ash had several. One in particular was with her oncologist who gave her a clean bill of health. After being 5 years cancer free we no longer need to visit with them, although they said they would love to still see us every year. I think not. I'm happy to cut that appointment out entirely. My OB now wants to start seeing me every 3 weeks. Eleven weeks to go. I'm not counting :)

And to conclude this month, Nate's other dangling tooth came out biting into a piece of bread.

Thick of thin things

Do you ever wonder how you can possibly accomplish everything . . . and then one more thing gets added.

Lately I feel as though my life is spiraling out of control.

Well, not really. But life is just busy. Busier than I'd like.

I'm kind of looking forward to this week of spring break where at least I won't have to think about school projects and homework. And then one more quarter of school which means one more quarter closer to having this baby. When I first suspected this pregnancy and a potential due date I thought to myself, "When school is over I will be close to delivering this baby." Anyway, I'm feeling really thick lately and have been wishing for my thinner self. I'm sure it's because of the warm weather. I'm missing my runs outside, and even though I do work out on my elliptical it's just not the same.

Back to the title of my post "thick of thin things."
I have tried harder with this pregnancy to keep myself more fit. However, I have not been keeping myself spiritually fit. I was afraid this would happen when we started thinking of building a house and then found out another child would be coming to our family. I even told myself at the beginning of all this I would not let the craziness interfere.

But I have.

I have become mired in the thick of thin things.
I have become mired in trivial matters.

And at the end of the day when I'm so tired from all the inconsequential matters that all I want to do is veg in front of the television, I tend to forget my prayers.

Not good.

Not good at all especially since I also haven't read my scriptures on a regular basis in a long time. I've picked them up here and there, but how easy it is to get out of a regular habit.

My Primary calling no longer holds any appeal for me either. I wish I could be excited about it, but I'm just not.

I've mentally slapped my hand and am recommitting to a stronger exercise regimen for my spirit:
Daily doses of prayer and scripture study. Hopefully this is the cure for my feeling so out of control lately.

I also can't wait for conference this next weekend. It's been almost 18 months since I actually tuned in to the TV to watch (last April we were in Korea and in October it was California).

A lemon kick

 I've been on a lemon kick this week. For my birthday the kids made me lemon poppy seed muffins. Actually, I reminded them Sunday that I was going out to breakfast with my friend who shares the same birthday. Kiersten burst into tears IMMEDIATELY and told me how they were going to surprise me with breakfast. We compromised and they made me the muffins and orange julius the day before. It was late start Monday for school so it worked out better anyway to give them more time in the kitchen without being late.

Wednesday night was our Relief Society birthday dinner which the kids thought was just an extension of my birthday which it kind of was since I didn't have to make dinner. Anyway I took a sip of what I thought was water, but it turned out to be sweeter with a lemony taste to it. I loved it enough to come home and find the recipe online.

Tonight I tried a new recipe for lemon bread. I've never made lemon bread and it turned out pretty yummy. However, since this was the only recipe I've tried and don't have anything to compare it to, I'll keep looking to see if there is a better recipe.

I also have a recipe for lemon cookies made with a lemon cake mix and cool whip. Interesting enough to try sometime.

And while I'm on the subject of birthdays, Tyler told the kids as I was folding their laundry, "You should really thank your mom for washing you stinky clothes on her birthday." Ash responded with, "Thanks mom for washing our clothes on your stinkin' birthday." That made my day.

Sweet Lemon Water
1 qt. hot water
2 cups sugar
1 T. citric acid
1 T. lemon concentrate

Mix this together and put in the fridge. When the mixture is cold, add 1 1/2 gallons of cold water and lemon slices.

Too much praise?

I read this about Jerry Seinfeld in last week's Parade magazine and agreed with every part except his first poison P.

Although his own children obviously want for nothing, Seinfeld works hard not to be too indulgent. He bemoans the way some people cater to their children’s every whim. Seinfeld has three rules of parenting, what he calls “the poison Ps.” The first is Praise—“We tell our kids, ‘Great job!’ too much,” he says. The second is Problem-solving—“We refuse to let our children have problems. Problem-solving is the most important skill to develop for success in life, and we for some reason can’t stand it if our kids have a situation that they need to ‘fix.’ Let them struggle—it’s a gift. Just as he’s explaining the third P—“Giving your child too much Pleasure”—a woman comes in the deli with her three young daughters and buys them all huge cookies. “Can you believe this?” Seinfeld says, gesturing like his TV counterpart used to. “It’s 5:30 p.m.—when will they have dinner? At 8?”

I strongly believe kids need to have problems and be able to work out their own problems. Like for instance hard teachers in school. I'm not the mom who puts in requests for certain teachers. I believe that if one of my children has a hard time with a teacher, that's okay. They'll learn to deal with it because there are going to be hard people to deal with throughout their life. Children today also have way too much pleasure and not enough work. Part of the reason I'm excited to move to Lake Point is our one-acre lot with a lot of dirt for my kids to learn to work in. I grew up with a lot of dirt and a big garden and I want the same for my kids.

However, the one issue I take with Seinfeld is overpraising our kids. I don't think you can tell your kids "Great job" too much. There will always be the world telling them otherwise. At the end of the day, they need to be able to walk into a home where they feel safe and loved and mom and dad can build them back up again.

And the gender is . . .

 ??????

I like surprises. Tyler doesn't. Our children consist already of 2 boys and 2 girls, and we have all the right season clothing.
This time it was my turn, but I did tell Ty if he wanted he could look while I closed my eyes.
Well the doctor said this baby had his/her foot strategically placed. I'm not sure he looked very hard.
Also he moved my due date up a week to June 20.
That made me happy.
This baby makes me happy.
We are all a little excited at our house.
Boy or Girl!

Sitting, sitting, sitting

I lost all ambition after making enough dough for seven pizzas and getting up from a nap that was much too short. I've sat at this computer staring at the screen wondering what it is I'm supposed to be doing. Too many things going on right now. So not typical of February. Usually this month is a slow one for me waiting for spring to arrive. I'll make a list. A list in no particular order that will help get the motivation rolling. I love lists and the feeling of checking things off.

• I have a stack of SPCA dues that need to be opened and put into Quickbooks and then taken to the credit union for deposit. I only have about 200 or so. [insert frowny face here] I usually enjoy this mindless task every year as part of my duties as the SPCA treasurer, but this year, like I said, way too much going on for me to enjoy it.
• Bills to be paid
• Kiersten's science fair project to complete. Really this is her baby. But what parent doesn't become involved somewhere down the road. And while I'm on the subject of Kiersten, I've also been busy attending the elementary's annual Book Battle where she placed 3rd for her grade (Erik took 2nd for his grade) and also the districtwide Reflections award assembly. She got a certificate for making it that far and then she was one of the finalist for her category (music). She gets to go on to state. At first she really wanted to do the art category, but I talked her into writing an original piece on the piano, knowing that a lot of kids wouldn't be competing.
  
  
• Flooring to pick out. We've decided on our wood floors; now just need to match the carpet and tile.
  
  

• Book St. George trip for next weekend. And no, it's not because of Valentine's Day. Our kids happened to be out of school Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. They are out more than I wish they were. Anyhow, Tyler thought it would be a good idea to hit the parade of homes down there and get some last minute ideas before we finalize these plans. I know I'll be looking for bay windows and how to dress them. I don't want blinds because of the view.
• 3 Jr. Jazz games on Saturday and a baptism. Thankfully all I have to do it show up.
• Would really like to sweep out the garage and get rid of all the dirt from the dirty snow.
• Purchase a new violin string for Kiersten's violin. One of those online jobs.
• Dejunk my closet as part of the moving process.
• Buy a baby gift for my friend Sara.
• Start the book club book Shattered Silence. I finally finished The Lost Symbol which took me longer than I anticipated. Again, where to find time to read. I mean leisurely read, not the paper, not the kids' homework, not the recipe book, not the internet.
• Now that I mention recipe book. I have a myriad of recipes waiting patiently for me to type, print, and tuck away carefully in my recipe book. I used to be an organized person. The last 6 months have proven otherwise. It is also 5:45 and I also have no idea what to do for dinner tonight despite going to the grocery store today and making pizza dough. I've learned a few secrets in the past couple of months about the makings of a good pizza from Papa Sharm. The dough has to sit in the refrigerator for several days as it SLOWLY increases in size. There will be no pizza tonight, but come Sunday we are having a feast. I did suggest to Erik that maybe we should make it a banana split night. You've got your fruit group and dairy group. Add a few nuts and there's some protein. I'm not going to even mention the fat group.

 Well, there's a list to get me started.

What's Tyler been up to lately?

Not working, that's for sure. Unless you count drawing up floor plans in Google Sketchup. This has pretty much consumed every day, all day for the past month. But they are almost done. Just a few minor tweeks we need the architects to make and we should have finalized plans.

Except . . .

That every day we seem to add something new or come up with some *bright* idea like a balcony above the deck with a slide into the pool that is just off the deck or a zip line off the rafters (nevermind neither of us have ever been off the zip line at my parents' house). Oh, we like to dream big. But reality will kill the dream when we finally hand these over to the bank.

A nesting instinct?

I have been on a roll this week. It all started with my bathroom that was badly in need of a cleaning. I don't even want to mention how long it's been since I last cleaned it. Nothing feels better than a clean bathroom. Then I tackled the toy room while ALL the children were out of the house. I threw away; I hauled away; I put away; I hooked up the old monitor that's been sitting on the floor for ages. That took me all of 5 minutes so why didn't I do it before now. I don't know. Anyway, it felt wonderful. Today I tackled some of my closet and had high aims of getting to my filing drawer and purging all the old stuff until an offer of a hot lunch date came my way. Maybe tomorrow.

I don't know if this sudden urge to clean and dejunk is because a new year is upon me and I always get excited to start a new year clean and clutter-free. Or maybe it's the thought of moving and who wants to move more stuff than they have to. Or then again, maybe it's that old nesting instinct that comes to a woman before she brings home a new baby. I doubt it's that. I still have 5 months to go! Whatever it is, I hope this energy stays with me for a few days. I have boxes of books to go through and papers to sort and Tyler's office . . . well that might take me more than a few days.

On a funny note: Ash came into my room tonight to tell me, "I don't believe in Elmo anymore." What! You mean Elmo isn't real. I never thought Elmo was right up there with Santa and the Tooth Fairy. I guess in Ashie's world, he was just as life-like.

Jr. Jazz has officially started

For the past couple of weeks Tyler and I have been running the kids back and forth to Jr. Jazz basketball practices. Last year Kiersten and Erik played; this year we threw Nate into the mix. And speaking of practices I'm a little perturbed that Kiersten got placed on a Tooele team instead of a Stansbury team. Ty and I both tried to rectify the situation, but no one would return our calls. So we are stuck taking her to Tooele every week for practice. At least she's enjoying it.

Yesterday was our first game day as spectators for the 2010 season and Nate's first game ever. All three kids won their games easily with all three scoring the first points for their teams. Nate astounded us by how good he was. A lot of kids his age will double dribble, run with the ball, shoot from miles away. Nate dribbled well, took it to the hole a couple of times, and scored 12 of his team's 32 points. Erik wasn't that good at his age, but he's gotten progressively better each year. Erik played well scoring 14 of his team's 34 points, and Kiersten had 2 points and loved every minute of it.

During the last game which happened to be Kiersten's, Tyler and I looked at each other and asked, "What did we get ourselves into?" Three games every Saturday for the next 2 months. I'm looking forward to it even if it means my Saturdays are pretty much shot. I also remind myself that we allow our kids to play one sport a year in order to maintain our family mealtime together. They just all happen to want to play basketball which equals a couple of very busy months.

Quickie Flickie Ice Cream

My siblings and I are ice cream fanatics thanks to my dad who kept one of two deep freezers stocked with the stuff. Naturally I've passed that on to my own children. I don't have an extra freezer to devote to ice cream but at any given moment we have around 5 different half gallons of the stuff in a freezer somewhere. My dad was a HUGE fan of ice cream parties and Sunday night round table discussions that always included ice cream and possibly brownies, cookies, or cake (or even just the cake batter straight). I remember those nights when we'd make a tent in the living room out of blankets, put a few logs on the fire, whip up some shakes in the blender, turn out the lights and tell stories in the tent with our shakes. What great memories.

Shortly after Tyler and I got married, his dad pulled out their old ice cream machine from the shed and gifted it to us since they never used it. We got plenty of use out of it, so much that it finally gave up the ghost one summer evening and I sent Ty in a mad dash to Wal-Mart to purchase us another. I would have been deeply disturbed if this had happened in the winter when there are no ice cream machines to purchase. Thankfully he arrived with a bright, hot pink one in hand and we've been cranking out ice cream ever since (although I'm sure this one is going to lie down and die one day too, and I've been thinking I should have a spare just in case).

I've tried my share of ice cream recipes. I partial to good old vanilla. Raspberry shakes in the summer are fabulous, and as I sit here writing this I'm thinking of the 2 big buckets of raspberries in my freezer that we pulled off our bushes this year just waiting for something to be done with them . . . I believe raspberry shakes are somewhere in my near future. I also rather like Oreo. Like I've said I've come across several good recipes but they all tend to leave a coating in my mouth and freeze rock solid when the remainder is put in the freezer. My friend brought homemade ice cream to book club several months ago and I was in love. No coating!! I've made it several times now at home and love the texture, the taste, and it's not terribly hard when I pull it out of the freezer to "taste." It does include a few extra ingredients which often involves a trip to the store, but well worth it. 

QUICKIE FLICKIE ICE CREAM
1 pint heavy cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 small package vanilla instant pudding
1 quart whole milk
1 can evaporated milk
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons vanilla
candy mix of choice, optional

Combine all ingredients except candy in freezer. Stir until mixed. Churn until ice cream reaches a soft texture. Then add crushed candy and continue to churn until desired "freeze" level.