candied memories

This was one of those days when I was driving TJ home from work and we were laughing and talking about his work day.

Ok let me back up just a bit.

Across the street from the bike store TJ works at is a Walgreens store. Today when I was picking TJ up from work I ran into Walgreen's to get some hairspray and TJ grabbed a bag of assorted gummy candies.

Ok back to the ride home.

So we were talking and TJ pulled out a candy and said "this is one of my favorite candies, Mimi always has these at her house" I looked over and saw that he was holding a coke bottle.

I started telling him how those were one of my favorites because I remember when I was younger my mom worked at a store in the Thousand Oaks Mall called Marrow's Nut House. She would bring home coke bottles all the time for us to eat.

I just think it is so neat that one little candy holds fun memories for me as a kid and now that very same candy is creating memories for my kids too.

Boyz will be boyz

It never stops. It happens all the time. The boys in my home like to think that causing pain on each other is the most fun. As soon as Thayne walks in the door it starts. I hear Cries and loud bumps and bangs throughout the house. I never run to help because they do it to themselves and I think they deserve whatever they get. Sounds fair to me.
This morning at 4am, Thayne was getting out of bed to leave for work and I was half awake and this was our conversation.

Thayne- Ouch, I have a huge bruise on my leg from my son.

Me- Serves you right, you deserve it.

Thayne- Ya, but it is so funny.

I know this is something they enjoy as boys but it drives me nuts.
So I don't give out cookies or kisses for bruises, cuts or scrapes at my house.

Super Saturday

Garage Sales with Rachel at 7am. I bought nothing but a small pool float and Rachel found the cutest dresser for her girls. My real treasure I got from garage saling is caramel popcorn. There was a ward having a garage sale in the church parking lot and we stopped by and that is where Rachel found her desk. While we were loading the desk into the car a little girl walked up with 3 baggies of caramel popcorn asking if we wanted to buy any. I saw the price on the bag said $1. It was more than I thought a bag was worth but I was not in the mood to say no so I took a bag. I opened it up immediately and started eating some Oh my goodness and I mean goodness it was so good. After sharing some with Rachel we both agreed we had to get more. The little girl was no where in site. So we headed for the bake sale table knowing we would find it there. Nope! It was all gone. Of course it was all gone, it was the most delicious Carmel popcorn. Leaving alittle upset with myself that I didn't buy all 3 bags when I had the chance. Now, I sit waiting for the nice YW leader who promised to email the recipe to send it. I hope I don't have to wait much longer.

IKEA- This is where we headed after garage saling. Rachel and I took Hannah, Sam and Jess to look for things for Hannah's room she was decorating for her B-day. We saw many cute things and I took note on a few things I may go back for. The most fun at Ikea is all of us breaking out in song to "I've been dreaming" from the movie Enchanted. We received many smiles from alot of people many of whom were probably thinking we were crazy, but honestly we really sounded pretty good.

YW conference- To top off an already fun day we took the girls to the YW conference which was nice and the girls learned about modesty they learned more but that is all they said they learned. Earlier in the day we told the girls conference would be 4 hours long, so I think they were relieved to find it only 1 hr and 15 minutes. Then off to dinner which took us at least a half and hour to decide where to eat. We ended up at Bravi which is a yummy Italian place Rachel introduced me to. We then headed for frozen yogurt which is what Rachel wanted and when we got there it was Rachel and Jessika who had some, since the rest wanted ice cream we headed to Baskin Robbins. It was a crazy fun filled day and I was exhausted but one day I wouldn't trade for the world. A fun girl day with laughs and memories. On the way home my girls said they had so much fun and thanked me for a great time. Does it really get better than that, I don't think so.

PS- to top off an already great day, Thayne called while we were walking into Ikea to tell me he was coming home for the night. He needed to pick up some parts. Instead of leaving Sunday morning as he was planning, there was no flights available so he is now home until Monday morning. So change the March total to Thayne home 5 days!

Letting go

Well it is no surprise I am getting old. I find that I wake up everyday and look in the mirror and see new wrinkles (which don't bother me at all, really they don't) and then if I happen to turn around in the mirror I always think who's bum is that and where did it come from. I could go on about all my old complaints but I won't, I am already back at the gym and I will have my bum back soon.
I was just thinking today how I don't let somethings bother me like they used to. Do I really not care about these things or am I just getting older and realized that it is not important enough to stress about it.
For example, today Wyatt was walking out the door for school. I always make sure my kids have clean clothes and hair done before they leave. Today I noticed when we walked out to the car that Wyatt had one ankle sock and one bootie sock on. Now my first thought was you are kidding me right?! Then I thought, does it really matter to me if he wants to look like that at school? It had to feel awkward but if he didn't care why should I. Maybe it is a new trend that I am not aware of and he is really going to school being the cool kid. So I let it go. I didn't give it another thought except the thought of knowing Wyatt was the coolest kid at school with those socks on.
It is not everyday that I am this stress free and easy going about this stuff. I still have some days where I have to have things my way. I guess it is just nice when I don't have to make it a concious thought to not worry about the little thing and it just happens. I like to think that getting older is making me more patient and maybe a little wiser.

Wanna hear a dirty joke?

2 kids played in the mud!





This is Jessika's first outing in her new swimsuit she got for Easter. These 2 darlings went out to jump on the trampoline with the sprinkler and this is where I found them a half an hour later.



After they were done they thought they could sneak in the house to shower without me knowing.

clever

Today I was staining a table, and I went to open the can of stain and remembered I had the paint can tool. I think this tool is one we got for free at Lowe's when we bought paint a long time ago, but every time I see it I just think the person who invented it is genius. It works way better than any screwdriver.

The terrific side of a teenage boy

I know I am not much different than any other mom raising a teenage boy. I will say I do feel pretty lucky that the talking back is minimal, there are the you are crazy looks but never crusty looks. I do get the grumbling and rolling of the eyes at least once a day. I know all of this is normal. If TJ (that is who I am talking about in case you didn't figure it out) ever gets mad or upset he will go to his room and with 5 minutes he always comes out and says he is sorry. I think he has figured it out that it always helps him out in the long run. Smart kid. Yes raising a teenage boy can be fun. I have found an upside to having an older boy around the house. Moving furniture is always a plus. Always buying milk, not a plus. The big plus for me this week is when I told TJ I have started a Honey Do List for Thayne when he gets home. One of the things on the list is to fix one of our toilets, it has a piece that is broken. When TJ heard this he said mom I can fix it for you so dad won't have to. Then he went in and pulled out the broken piece and gave it to me (yuk) and said take this to Home Depot and get one just like it and I will fix it. I cannot tell you how great it is to have another McGyver in the house. I keep thinking in a few years he may be out of the house sniff sniff and I sometimes wonder if he knows the things he need to know to live on his own. Now that I know he can fix a toilet I think I he should do ok, or at least he is off to a good start.

catchy tune

I am sure I am not the only one who hears a song and then sings it all day long. It is something that happens to everyone I am sure of it. In my home it is contagious. If one person has a song stuck in their head and sings it, then sure enough the whole family will be singing it. The best part is when the song comes on the radio and the whole family belts out singing the song together but in sounds horrible, except I always think I sound good and everyone else is off beat and out of tune. My family has had a few that have always been favorites and some are not ones I am proud of but we have had "Fat bottom girls" which was introduced to the family by Thayne, "Hey Romeo lets go down to Mexico" not sure who sings that one but it is a country song and probably not the best song to have your kids sing but it was catchy and so we let them, there have been others that I can't think of right now.
I am officially announcing my families song for the week. We have been singing it all the time and watch out when it plays on the radio we sing it loud. (drum roll please)

Sara Bareilles "love song"

Now the chorus is the best part to belt out and I promise it will be in your head for the rest of the day. Well I gotta go see if I can add it to my playlist.

let me entertain you

What do you do when you are at Mimi and Papa's and you have nothing to do? Well you look at what is left at the table after dinner is over and you dig in. This year after dinner there were green olives which I know why they were left over, they are gross. Jessika started to play with them and then Papa had to show her that if you pop them like zits the onion pops out of the middle of the olive. So Jessika kept popping them and then feeding the onions to Papa. Wyatt found the empty Apple Cider bottles and filled each one with a different amount of water so that he could blow into them and get a different sound out of each one.



It is so fun to see my kids imagination at work. They had a blast and I think Papa has just as much fun helping them.

style change

I already know that I am crazy. I keep changing the colors of my blog and that is because I can't settle for anything I like. I kinda like these colors but who knows I may get sick of it by next week, we will see. Enjoy while it last.

Typical Wyatt

wyatt-Hey mom can I go outside and ride bikes, my chores are all done.
me- did you get all your clothes put away out of the laundry room
wyatt- oh,not yet I will do it really quick.

5 seconds later, and I mean only 5 seconds went by.

wyatt- ok it is all done
me- really, are you sure
wyatt- yep, I am going to go now ok.
me-hang on I think I want to go check it first
wyatt- oh wait, let me go check my closet first.

5 minutes later, yep 5 whole minutes this time.

wyatt- ok I think it is done now.

I always have to laugh to myself when I tell him I am going to go check and he always has to say oh wait let me go check something first. I am sure I don't have stupid written on my forehead. So I am not sure what he is thinking or that he really isn't thinking but more hoping I will not check.

FHE shocker

Tonight for FHE I was responible for activity. I got out my bag of starburst and decided to have a quiz showdown. I have a flipbook that has questions and answers for 2nd-4th grade level. I was pretty sure my kids would breeze through most of the question, but to be honest there were alot I skipped through because I didn't know. We played boys against the girl. The shocker was I asked the girls a question that I was pretty sure my kids knew. The question was "what movie did Han Solo first appear in"? Samantha looked at me and said, "who is that and what group does he sing in"? Huh, are you kidding me, you don't know who Han Solo is? The girls just kept looking at me like I was speaking a different language and I kept looking at them with different facial expressions thinking something would click. Nope they had no idea who Han Solo was. So it went to the boys and they answered instantly with a shout "Star War". I knew the boys would not let me down. Then I had to explain to the girls that Han Solo was only the cutest guy in the movie and the only reason to watch it. They just said they would take my word for it, because they didn't want to watch it. And so my girls learned something new tonight and I feel proud that they now know who Han Solo is.

my friend Gena

For all of my family and friends who think I am crazy for having alot of animals I want you to know out here where I live it is completely normal. My friend Gena just had baby goats if you want to see just click on the link. I know Gena won't mind.
I am so glad she has the goats and not me.

" Gena's Blog"

the sweet smell

I feel extrememly lucky to live out with all the citrus trees. I haven't always felt that way. When I moved here everyone told me that this is where scorpions live, in the citrus trees. Everyone told me there isn't anyway to kill a scorpion either. Then I heard they live in palm trees. Then I realized everyone telling me everything I needed to know about scorpions didn't know what the heck they were talking about and most of them have never even seen one. So I don't listen to them anymore, but this blog isn't about scorpions. It is about something much sweeter. The most beautiful smell of orange blossoms. The last couple of nights have been just wonderful walking outside and smelling the smell of spring. It is that smell that you wish you could capture and put in your house. It is that smell that no company has been able to get right. It only last a few weeks here so I am planning on enjoying and appreciating the sweet smell of orange blossoms. I wish I could post a scratch and sniff so my blog could smell like spring.

We juiced

We finally tried juicing. 2 weeks ago I borrowed my in laws juicer. I went to the store Friday and bought some veggies that I wanted to juice. Today after church the kids asked if we could try it and with nothing else to do, we juiced. I got a little nervous when I saw the different color juice coming out and knew I was going to have to drink it. We juiced a beet, celery, carrots and an apple. It smelled pretty good but I was not sure what it was going to taste like. The kids had so much fun juicing I don't think they even thought about them having to taste it.




Samantha would not taste it so we had her take the pictures. 4 of use were willing to try it.



I was the only one who finished. It was not the best tasting stuff in the world but I knew it was going to be good for me.

Sunday rush

I am never really good at getting pictures of my kids on Sunday before church. We are always in a rush. Today was no exception, but I was determined to get an Easter picture before we left. As always my kids get goofy and start making distorted faces and everytime I yell at them to stand up straight, no goofy faces and smile it seems to make it worse and they laugh harder. So this is the only somewhat normal one I was able to get, and we were not late to church.

Not just dying

This year I started to wonder if kids ever get to old for holiday traditions. Is there ever a time to give it up and move on to something new. I decided no.
This year instead of regular white eggs we used fresh brown eggs from our coop. I was a little bit worried about whether they would dye or not. It was so neat to see the deep rich colors we got from dying brown eggs. The colors were beautiful.



Instead of thinking my kids were to old to dye eggs for Easter I decided to allow my misc craft box to be opened for their imagination. I had pipe cleaners, rolly eyes, feathers, stickers, and of course we used alot of hot glue. I have to say it was fun to see them create and name the eggs. Yes they named them. This morning while having thier easter egg hunt I heard Jessika yell "did anyone find LaFonda?"







This is TJ with his very cool new $12 glasses he got while at the mall with Jake.



The best part was Thayne was home for the night and I always like that.

3 and 1/2

Well, if all goes well Thayne has finally sold his curbing trailer. I am doing the we sold something else dance. It is the one thing we have really wanted to get rid of from his business and now it looks like it is going today. The better news for me is that Thayne gets to sneek home for tonight to make sure it is ready for the guy to pick it up. So, Thayne will get home around 4pm today and leave at 4am tomorrow morning. I sure wish he could stay for the day and be here for Easter but he can't. 1/2 a day is better than nothing. So the the days I will see Thayne this month is now at 3 1/2. Hopefully only 2 more weeks and he will be done in Mexico.

Fun in the sun

Samantha and Wyatt were being silly all day. It has been just the 2 of them at home today and they have been having so much fun together. After jumping on the trampoline with the sprinklers underneath, they asked if they could wash the car. I thought it was a fabulous idea.



Then I told Wyatt to spray Samantha and of course he couldn't resist.



Spring is here and I love it!

how many of me

Ok my sister in law put on her blog a post about how many people in the US shared her name. I decided to check it out and I found out that 1,407 people have the name Heather Harris, and if I was still Heather Poppleton there would be only 2 people with that name. This was fascinating to me to see. Here is the link if you want to check it out too.

" How many of you are there? "

Gypped

Is it bad that I still haven't unpacked from science camp yet? I am determined to do it tonight before I go to bed. I tivo'd a few shows that I haven't watched yet so I will unpack tonight while I watch them. I don't know why but unpacking anything just is not my cup of tea. I don't mind folding laundry but hate putting it away. I absolutely hate unloading the dishwasher. Bringing the groceries in from the car is right up there with the laundry, and unpacking from a trip is dreadful. It has to be done and I am going to do it tonight. I know one day one of my great grand kids will read this and say "so that is where I get this disorder from, great grandma Harris. I hate unloading my hovercraft of groceries." Actually they will probably just push a button in the kitchen and the food will just appear. Which makes me think that I remember back in the 1980's, I always thought that by the year 2000 we would be living the Jetson lifestyle. I don't know if I actually thought it would be that way or more that I hoped and dreamed it. Ok I am going to be honest here, I still feel gypped that we are not at that point yet. I am stewing right now that Rosie is not in my room unpacking my bags from science camp, and where is the cool machine that does my hair in the same hairstyle everyday in 2 seconds flat. Oh to be sucked into a glass tube to get around the house, just like those money tubes at the drive-thru at the bank. Yep, I feel gypped.

Holy cow

I thought I would post some pictures so you can see what I experience living out on the farm. I was at my computer in my laser office and I had some visitors come and lick my window. Our grass was getting high on the side of the house so we put our lawn mowers out to mow it down. I am telling you I live a blessed life that I get to experience this kind of nature everyday. I am not sure how everyone else does it.


Cows knocking on TJ's door.

1970

This morning Wyatt had something he wanted to show me. He said mom I have 4 of these dollars (silver dollars), 5 gold dollar coins, and 8 quarters. I told him him how neat that was to have 3 different kind of dollars. So I said lets see what states you have on your quarters. After looking at the first 7 quarters we realized the last quarter was an old one. I told him to look and see what year it was. It was 1970. That's right the same year I was born. I have been looking at quarters for a long time looking for a 1970 and viola there it was. Needless to say I swapped him quarters and I am now excited to have a quarter with my birth year.

childhood games

So lately my kids have been doing things that stir up memories from when I was a kid. Yesterday was one of those days. I remember playing hide & seek with all of the neighborhood kids. We would start by playing football in the middle of the street. We would have to stop all the time to let cars go by I am sure we gave the drivers crusy looks for ruining our game. After all they had no right driving in the street to get home while we were playing football. As soon as the sun started going down and it was dusk we would start a good game of hide & seek. We had the 8 house boundary rule. The great thing is that all the houses had really good bushes that you could hide in. We always had about 10 kids sometimes more. I guess it was not a game we just played as kids, this was a game we played even when we were teenagers. Oh the good ol days.
Well, the last couple of weeks my boys have been playing the late night hide & seek games at the Ponderosa (that is what I call the neighbors house). It is I think a 5 acre piece of property with alot of horse stalls and a huge arena. The only rule is you can't go in with the horses. They start off riding thier bikes in a field next to the ponderosa and then when it gets dark they play Hide & Seek. Last night I called TJ at 9pm to tell him it was time to come home and he was trying to talk to me in a quiet voice so that no one would find him while he was talking to me. I think the ring of the phone would have given him away. He was upset that he had to come home so early. When he got home he was telling me that he doesn't know why hide & seek is so much fun but he just loves playing it. It is neat for me to know that he will have some of the same childhood memories as I have. I love it when TJ goes to play, he will go find Wyatt and ask him if wants to go play too. Hide & Seek is just one of those games that goes throughout the generations and never gets old.

To good to be true

I blinked and then I blinked again. The sun was starting to shine through my window this morning. I had turned my alarm off last night since we have "Easter" break I was hoping to sleep in. Could it be true. As I rolled over I thought holy moly I think I just slept through the whole night without anyone waking me up. Thinking of the few projects I needed to get started on this morning I was trying to talk myself into staying in bed longer and get started on them alittle later. I turned on the tv the only thing on was the same news I had listened to last night. I struggled with my decision but decided I needed to get up. With the many things I knew I need to get done I headed straight for the computer to check my emails. I don't know why but the computer sucks me right in. There is just so much I can do and learn on this thing. Samantha walks into the office and with a smile on her face tells me she is feeling back to normal. She also tells me Jessika is feeling good too. The one thing that came to my mind is that primary song that says Zipadee-ay and Heighdee-ho, I knew this week is off to a good start. TJ is still in bed so if he manages to make it out healthy all will be good. After I am done writing this post I am going to get started on some chores and see what kind of fun activities I can come up with to keep my kids busy this week. I am going to see if I can talk Thayne into doing a blog. He has been wanting to journal and honestly the stories he has from traveling should really be documented. Especially this job in Mexico. Ok I am off to finish the FHE tags for the Hixon girls I think they need them by 11am or something like that. Ok off I go, my feet are getting numb from sitting here so I need to get up and get things done like Lysol my house from all the sick germs that may still be lingering. Oh happy day no sick kids today!

Still sick

Well Wyatt is now feeling better. However, I have 2 young ladies that have bad stomach aches and keep looking at me like I am holding back my magical get well spell to make them all better. I am just hoping that this sickness leaves my home by morning so we can have a good spring break.

quick update

Good News for me!

Thayne missed his flight today and it was the only one for the day. So he came back home and won't leave until tomorrow. Yipppeee. I get to see him 3 days in March. I will take whatever I can get!

Oh Sick!

Last night TJ went off to a hocky game with his teachers quarum. Thayne and I took the other 3 kids out to YC's for dinner. It is not exactly what I was in the mood for but it was easy. As we walked in the door Wyatt said "my stomach hurts alittle". So I did the mom thing. I started asking the questions. Does it hurt because you are hungry or are you going to throw up? Of course I get the typical answer. "I don't know". Well Wyatt do you want to try and eat something. Again typical Wyatt answer "sure". We all piled our bowls with food and then did what everyone goes to YC's for and that is to watch them cook your food. By the way, I got Kung Pao flavor and it is not very spicy and I was in the mood for spicy so next time I will try something else. Anyways, so we finished dinner and went home. Finally in my nice bed and dozing off waiting for TJ to get home from the game I watching Jay Leno, TJ walked in around 11pm. Oh goody I can finally go to sleep. Thayne was already snoring but pretending he was awake when TJ walked in. Right when I was just getting to sleep I heard someone next to my bed, it was TJ wondering if I had picked up his clothes at Rachel's house. Of course I did, but I had left them in the car. Not sure what was so important but he felt he needed to go out and get them in the middle of the night. Finally everyone is in and NOW I can go to sleep. Again, I heard someone next to my bed, "mom I just threw up". Looking up I saw Wyatt. Oh I was so glad it was him because he always makes it to the toilet so this would be easy. Wait, it couldn't be that easy. I just spent 3 days at science camp and was so glad to sleep in my bed I knew it wouldn't go so smoothly. Wyatt made it to the door of the bathroom. Thayne half asleep looked at me and said "if you need help come get me", ya right we know that wasn't going to happen. So off I went to see the damage. I will not gross you out you can use your imagination of what barfed up stir fry looks like. It was everywhere. On the walls behind the door all over baseboards. So there I was at 11:30pm cleaning floors and walls and everying else I could see. When I finally got back to bed at 12:30, Thayne rolls over and tells me what a wonderful person I am. He didn't have to tell me because at that point I had already told myself how wonderful I was many many times. It is now Saturday at 11:30 and Jessika just asked me if she could warm up my YC's from last night so I could have it for lunch. I told her I would pass, for some strange reason it just doesn't sound very good.


You know if I would have thought to grab my camara last night this would not be the picture you would be looking at.

Science Camp

I am finally back from 3 days at Science Camp. I was sooo excited to go to Science Camp with Jessika this year. I went with Samantha 2 years ago and we had alot of fun, and I knew it would be just as fun with Jessika. Now let me just explain that these 3 days that I was going with Jessika is the exact same days that I was supposed to go to Vegas with Thayne for Con Expo. It was a company trip for him but I was going to tag along and enjoy some time with him and some time by myself. Jessika came home from school and gave me the dates of the science camp and it was the exact same days. I knew I had no choice I knew I was going to science camp. Instead of room service and maid service I was getting to babysit 12 year old girls in dirt for 3 days. The bus ride up was supposed to be 3 hours but took 5 do to an accident and the freeway being closed down. I was so glad when we actually got there and we got settled in. Settled into a cabin with 3 bunk beds to a room. On the wall there was a pretend heater. I think they put this radiator thing on the wall to make you think you are going to be warm. One mom had a mouse run over her foot as she stood in the hallway. I was so glad I brought my own sheets from home to put on my bed because they were not very comfortable. I had girls and mom afraid to kill spiders in their rooms, so I would go kill them. Honestly who is afraid to kill a little spider. I had 4 girls to watch over, I had 7 girls when I went with Samantha so 4 was going to be a breeze. The girls in my group were great except one who seemed to wander off. Her name was Kylie and she is 12 years old. She had a nose ring and a horrible mouth and very little clothes to cover herself. Still I thought no big deal I can handle it and I did.

It was very nice to see that my daughter has picked some really good girls to hang out with. I find that to be one of the perks of chaperoning is seeing which kids you don't want your kids to be around. So Jessika passed with flying colors. The first night one of the moms got very ill and had to go to the hospital. Her group was in rotation with my group for classes so I took on her group to chaperon so I was now up to 8 girls to watch. Now Kylie (the problem child) was able to get a transfer to the group she wanted to be in and that worked for me. So now I was down to 7. 7 great girls who stuck together and worked great together and had manners. My favorite kind of kids. The food not so bad. Jessika was able to do a zip line which she has never tried before. I really didn't think she would do it, she can't even climb very high on a rock wall because she gets nervous, but she just stepped off the edge and off she went. I was so proud of her for trying it.


We went on a long hike. Now I was thinking of a nice trail hike that was more like a stroll through the trees, but I was wrong. We really hiked. Up and down hills and rocks and through the brush. I was pooped when we got back and my legs are very sore today. It made me realize I need to raise the incline on my machine at the gym. We did take a break at a nice little stream actually it was more like a crack of water, but the kids had some fun taking a rest and playing in the water. My favorite part of the hike is when one of the girls asked me if I was 23 years old. Of course I told her I was. She said "I thought so, my mom is 38 and you look way younger than her." Let's just say I felt alittle bit younger on my hike back to camp.



I was so glad to see the buses pull up for us to load and go home. Our trip home was alot faster than our trip there, and I was so glad. Being home meant that I would be sleeping in my own bed, Thayne would be home in a few hours, I would be able to see by other 3 kids, I could get a good fountain drink from Sonic, and I would get a real shower. It was fun spending time with Jessika but it is soooo nice to be home.

2 days in March

Two days in March is all that I will see Thayne. He was home one night to help Wyatt with Pinewood Derby and then he headed off to meetings in Vegas as I headed out to Science Camp. We both got home Friday afternoon and he is gone this morning back to Mexico for about 3 weeks. Many, many years ago I would keep a calendar to keep track of Thayne's travels. I am thinking I am going to do that again to see how much he travels this year. I know many people already think I am a loony scatter brain, but the more Thayne is gone the worse it gets. So for my sake and everyone else around me, I am hoping his next job is close to home.

nerf is in the house

As a mother I have rules of the house that I like to inforce every single day. One of them is that there is no ball playing in the house. That is an outdoor activity. Now this includes all the nerf balls and weapons we have accumulated over the years. The only problem with my rule is that when Thayne is home, there is no rule. All rules are out the door. Everysingle nerf weapon is used. I even recently bought myself a nerf slingshot to use. By the way it doesn't work very good. Today was no exception. Thayne got home just yesterday and today was a small nerf war. Definately not as extreme as others we have had in the house because the bazooka was not used. I always worry about something being broke and if it does I know I will get upset. I just have to keep telling myself that memories are being made in our home and I do my best to let it happen when it does. I remember when I was younger in my parents house growing up we had water fights in the house. I don't remember my mom getting upset about it, infact I think one time she joined us. Sometimes I think I just need to take a step back and look at the big picture, and somedays it is easier than others. Today was not so bad.

Pinewood Derby

With 26 hours left until the pinewood derby, Thayne shows up to help Wyatt make his car. No sweat or stress felt by Thayne. Wyatt and mom feeling some stress that we may not be able to pull this one off. Thayne was able to convince Wyatt that "it all works out", that is one of Thayne's motto's in life and sure enought it always works out. Today I picked Wyatt up from school at 3pm and was home by 3:30. With 2 hours til weigh in, he started to paint the car. Even though I do alot of spray painting with my business I have never painted a matallic silver and was not sure on how fast it would dry, but I had to give a big thanks to mother nature for the beautiful weather we had that dried the car very fast. Down to the last hour I cut out stickers for the car and we had a masterpiece. He was so excited. He was beaming when he saw the finished product and I have to say it melted my heart just alittle to see the relief and excitement on his face that he knew he was going to the derby with a cool car. The car ended up to be a "win some lose some" kind of car and that was ok with us.
We were just thrilled that we had finished the car in time and that Thayne was able to be home to help. After all the most important part of the pinewood derby is the sons making the car with the dads. At least that is what I think.

singing time 101

Note to self. Be prepared, you may have to do a last minute singing time at any moment. I always try to keep most of the cute things I make for sharing time. I always figure I can use them for FHE or in another calling someday. Today being one of those days. I recieved a call from our primary chorister at 10:30 saying she had a migraine and that she was not going to be able to make it to primary. I love doing singing time even though I am not very good, I have so much fun with the kids. So not having alot of choices I told her I would take care of it. Knowing I had to leave for church in a half hour I had to find something fast. I grabbed my CTR grab bag and headed out the door and planned the rest in sacrament meeting. I am not sure what everyone else thought but I can definately say that I had alot of fun. I also realized that when I am sitting with the kids and singing it doesn't matter that I mix up the words and forget some of them, but when I am up trying to teach the kids the songs forgetting the words and mixing them up doesn't fly. Maybe one day I will get to have my library, ward photographer (I made that one up), primary chorister calling that I dream about.

I'm so excited

Thayne comes home tomorrow. He won't be home for very long, but I can't wait to see him.

Questions of the day

-Can I play with my friend?
-What time do we have to go to get my hair done?
-Can I clean my room later after I play?
-Why are dinosaurs extinct?
-Can I play with Hannah?
-Can we pick out a candy bar? Do you want one too?
-Can we have a late night?
-Does that car know they left the blinker on?
-How long until they know the blinker is still on?
-Can we pull up next to them and tell them the blinker is on?
-Can I get my ears pierced again?
-Can we get an ice cream?
-When is dad coming home?
-What time on Monday will he be here?
-Why does gas cost more on that sign than it did yesterday?
-Will you take me to Target?
-Why can't we live in Power Ranch?
-What's for dinner?
-Can we go swimming?

I am sure there were more that I just tuned out to, but those were some that I remembered. I find it kinda funny how most of the things my kids say are in question form. As I thought about it I think I do the same to them.

-Will you feed the horses?
-Why did you go to Marco's without asking?
-Who is going to clean up this breakfast mess?
-Where is your helmet?
-Where is the phone?
-Why are you wearing the same shorts as you did yesterday?
-Why haven't you fed the dog yet?
-Are your teeth brushed?
-Does that really look clean to you?

Ok I am going to stop with my questions because I sound like a nag. Let's just keep in mind that the questions were spaced out through the day and not one right after another in a 5 minute time frame. Well maybe there were a few that were grouped together but not all of them.

not in the mood

I told myself when I started a blog that I was going to do my best to blog everyday about something. To be honest I don't really feel like it tonight. I am tired and I just want to go to bed. Tonight is my fun tv night so I am going to grab a treat and watch some shows. My kids are supposed to be in bed but I heard them laughing and running around in each others rooms. So I go back to tell them it is way past thier bed time and if I have to come back again I will bring a spoon (which is a joke) and they started laughing harder knowing it is an empty threat. Samantha says laughing "hey mom don't forget there are no more wooden ones because Wyatt and I broke the last one yesterday when we were playing around hitting each other. I am going to bed and I am going to chalk this night up as "my kids are making memories".

How sweet it is

I think I am developing a love/hate relationship with TJ's teachers quorum leader. The love part is what I started calling Donut Tuesday. The hate part is what I also call Donut Tuesday. Bro Smith owns the Donut Peddler. My family is a donut lovin family. Let me go back to last year when Bro Smith became TJ advisor. For one of thier activities he decided to take them on a tour of the donut shop. What a fun activity especially for 15 year old boys who are always hungry. Bro Smith told the boys to help them to as many donuts and to what ever kind they wanted. TJ came home the first night with not one but two boxes of donuts. Now you would normally think a box of donuts as a box that holds a dozen. Oh no that would be the normal thing to do. Each box was the size of a sheet cake a HUGE sheet cake. Now you would think that most boys would be so excited they would grab all the different kinds they like. Nope, not TJ. He likes maple bars. We got 2 ginormous boxes of maple bars. TJ was in heaven and so were my other kids. It was one of those things were you just look at it and think "unbelievable". So now back to the here and now. The teachers quorum is getting ready for a long bike adventure. So they are trying to get ready for it. For that last few months they have been going on a bike ride for thier class activity. Here's the catch. They have a route they like to take up by the dounut shop. After each bike ride they get to go get donuts. Yipppee. TJ has figured out that two boxes is to much so he has downsized down to one box, and he now gets a variety. Ok so here is the love/hate part. I love not even thinking about what my kids are having for breakfast on Wednesday morning. There is even enough for them to take one or two donuts for a school snack. I hate that when I tell myself I can have only one donut, by the end of the day it has turned into 2 or 3. Guess what today is? I am happy to say that today I had only one. So usually by Wednesday night I am always thinking Bro Smith has GOT TO GO! Since I have been really good this week tonight I am thinking he can stay.

finally we play

Tonight we finally got to get out and play tennis. Sam had to walk around the track to earn PE credit for when she was absent so we were able to play tennis right next to the track. As we were driving to the school TJ kept asking how it was going to feel for me to lose. I just kept saying I don't know you will have to tell me when you lose. We started to hit the ball back and forth and he realized that yep, mom still has skill. After just hitting it back nice and slow so TJ could figure out how to hit the ball he asked if we could hit it hard. So we started really hitting it back and he realized it was harder than he thought but he was able to keep up. We had alot of great vollies back and forth. We had alot of fun and I loved feeling like I was getting exercise. After we were done the little ones took turns trying to play. It was so funny to see them try to hit the ball. They would try to hit it and then they would miss and then just start laughing so hard. I think it will be fun going to play once a week with the kids and hopefully Thayne will join us when he is home. I think the last time Thayne and I played tennis was when I was 7 months pregnant with TJ and I won. I think we can get him out with us though.

not on the calendar

So much for playing tennis with TJ. That has now been moved to Wednesday after piano lessons. I thought I had a few hours to spare after Wyatt's cub scouts, but then Jessika told me that I had a parents meeting for chaperoning science camp and right after that she had a chior concert. Never saw that one coming. Then she told me I was to rush her right after the concert to Young Womens. In the mean time I was to make sure Wyatt now has a ride home from scouts and TJ and Sam have a ride to mutual and Wyatt would be left alone for a 1/2 hour. Jess did a great job at the concert and even had a one word solo, she got to yell OWWW in the middle of a song. I was soooo proud! I finally got home at 7:30 and Wyatt looked at me and asked if I would take him to Cold Stone's so he could use his free coupon he got for being honored at school for RESPECT for character counts. I really didn't want to drive anywhere but I just couldn't say no. As we headed out the door I remembered to grab one of my punch cards since Thayne and I have to get a new one everytime we go and never seem to fill one up. We had such a fun trip to get ice cream. Wyatt could not stop talking about his field trip to the airplane meausem and the rock measueam. He must have had a great time because I couldn't even change the subject he just kept talking airplanes. I then realized I got a raw deal by going to the Peter and the Wolf field trip 2 weeks ago which was horribly boring and I now wish I would have gone to see the airplanes with him today. Making the night better it was Double Punch Day at Cold Stones so I now have a card fully punched and now have a free ice cream for next time. Pulling out of Cold Stone my gas light came on and I thought of course this is happening because gas just went up to $3.07 a gallon. Wyatt helped me get gas and we drove home. Even through all the craziness of feeling like a pinball I had alot of one on one time with each of my kids and enjoyed our quick but informative talks.

Tagged

Tagged!

Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Tag at least three people at the end of your post and link to their blogs.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the fun begin!

Okay so here are RANDOM facts about me you may not know.
1. I sing primary songs in the shower
2. I spend my free time usually on the computer.
3. I have been stung by a scorpion
4. I love to watch jets at the airport and love seeing them fly overhead.
5. I can touch my tongue to my nose
6. I have a collection of autograph pictures of celebrities.

I tag Rachel, Sara and Shannon. Have fun girls!

Somedays, grrrr.

I am having one of those days where I think I am losing my mind. I have my own bank account for gas a groceries. Each week Thayne has money deposited in my account and that is what I use for the week. He tells me not to use our joint debit card for shopping. If I need more money just transfer it to my account. Well today I left my debit card for my account at home. I ran to the bank to open a savings account and then I decided to take myself to In & Out for lunch. I ordered my hamberger without onions and a coke. I got up to the window and realized my debit card was in my jeans pocket that I wore yesterday. I had only $2 cash which was not enough so I had no other option that to use the dreaded joint debit card. After I paid for it I then realized I had another $2 in my back pocket so I did have enough cash but it was too late. grrrr. Now it really isn't a big deal as far as money but it is a big deal that I have to hear the simple speech that Thayne has prepared when I do this. "Hey (he always calls me Hey, must be short for Heather I am not sure) I know we have talked about his before but I thought we agreed you weren't going to use the debit card for this account". I can just kick myself when I don't stop and make sure I have everything I need before I leave the house. I think if anything it just makes me feel stupid. I am so glad Thayne doesn't get mad about the little things I do wrong.

so far so good

Ok I don't think I am sick. I still have a light sore throat but nothing like being sick with a sore throat. So I am going to continue taking my daily garlic pill and hope it stays away. I am also going out to get orange juice. Let's hope this works out in my favor.

I can feel it

I am starting to get a subtle pain in my tonsils. I can't get sick. I can't, I can't, I can't.

It's Monday

Well Sam is still sick and stayed home from school. About 3pm she came in and said her eye felt dry and when I looked at it all I saw was PINK EYE! Lucky for me I have the stand by pink eye medicine that I am able to use. I guess this is what I get for bragging that my kids have not been sick this winter. Wyatt keeps washing his hands saying he doesn't want pink eye like Samantha. I love that she is old enough to stay home so I can still run errands and leave her to rest at home. I got off to the gym this morning so I am starting the week off good. I bought these yoga style gym pants from Costco and I can't tell you how comfy they are to wear to the gym. I love Costco. Tomorrow TJ and I have a date to play tennis. This is our new mom and son fun time that we are starting. Extra excersise for me, and some bonding time for the both of us. I am excited and I know he is because he keeps asking when we are going to play. So I will let you know how our date goes. I have a ton of laundry to fold tonight and if I get it done before the kids go to bed then it can get put away today. I was hoping to go out and wash my car before it got dark but it is now dark so it looks like that isn't going to happen. I did help Wyatt clean up dog poop on the side yard and that wasn't even on my list of things to do today. Jessika lost a tooth and thinks that the tooth fairy still comes to 12 year olds. I had to break the news to her that 12 is the limit of milking the tooth fairy. TJ, Wyatt and a few other boys are on the front lawn playing soccer in the dark. I want to call them in to practice piano but it is so peaceful with them playing outside right now that I am going to wait. I love when there is nothing to complain about on Monday, (except that Thayne is still in Mexico) all in all it has been a great day.

Match... Dispose

Today Jessika decided to clean her room. She brought to me a stack of clean unmatched socks and wanted to know what she should do with them. I told her to put them in the sock basket (the basket of unmatched socks) and maybe one day this week she could have the job of matching the sock basket. Alittle while later I hear her talking and making funny noises and went to see what she was doing. I walked in and saw her matching the sock basket and in a high pitched voice she would say while looking at the socks, "dispose, dispose, ohh a match" over and over again. It was a typical Jessika moment that made me smile.

sick sam

Sam has been sick today. She stayed home from church and slept most of the day. Sore throat and a bit feverish. Hopefully she will be up and back to normal in the morning.

alittle testy

I guess tonight I am alittle bit testy. I knew I was tired but when talking to Thayne on the phone tonight the kids kept interrupting me and I just kept kicking them out of the room. Thayne said your kinda testy tonight and I had to agree. So here I am thinking of the good things that I should be focusing on. TJ worked all day at a job he likes and is learning alot from. Samantha was able to spend the day with Hannah and had fun experimenting with Hannah's hair color (I am still not sure how that turned out check into Rachel's blog to see, I am sure she will talk about it), Jessika was able to go to the mall with her two friends with no adult chaperones and had a great time. Wyatt went to a neighbors party today and tonight lost another tooth and since he really doesn't believe in the tooth fairy he is still hoping she will come. I am finishing up my sharing time I have to do in the morning for primary. I miss Thayne alot tonight and can't wait until he comes home in a week. I am going to go paint my toe nails and then go to bed.

1/2 tank of gas

I have been in my car all day. Running kids to work, the mall, parties and cousins houses. I have not done anything that should make me as tired as I am but somehow I feel exhausted. I was thinking of heading to the gym tonight to give me a reason for being this tired.