...when you mix a 10 year old boy with late nights and rainy Saturday afternoons?

In our ward, we had a sewing group and they were making rag quilts in baby size. Well, I don't have any babies and there are none on the horizon for anyone in my family, but I thought it would be fun to make a twin size quilt for The Princess. Well, my thinking is that if I am going to make one, it can't be that much harder to make 4.
Right.
I spent so many hours working on these. I had to cut out all the squares (80 squares for each quilt - 8 across and 10 down), and then I sewed two together with an X, and then I sewed them together. And then I had to clip all the seams. Hours and hours and hours.
When the kids asked who they were for, I told them they were for people in the ward. Well, they are people and they are in the ward!
I loved how they turned out, until I washed them. The light blue and the pink didn't bleed, and the dark blue only bled a little bit, but the red bled badly, and the white is pink. I was sick, but The Doctor kept telling me they looked great, and the kids all love them.
I am just glad they are done! And they do look really good.



I downloaded my camera a couple weeks ago. I love seeing pictures that I took, but I had forgotten about. Following is just a smattering of them.
This picture is of The Princess spelling her name with twist ties. I don't use twist ties to tie up my garbage bags, so I always have a ton to play with. She totally did this on her own. I was so impressed! (Pretend that you can't read what her real name is!)

This is the Princess dressed up as Darth Vadar. She loves dressing up in the Halloween costumes. And changing them. Several times an hour. But isn't she cute?

Here is The Princess on her brand new bed. No more toddler bed. No more crib mattress. Now she has a really big girls bed. I wanted something that would be classy and could go from small girl to teenager. And I got a really good price on it, which helped me justify how much I spent on the comforter!

More pictures to come.
So last night, as we were getting into bed, my dear husband leaned over to me.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I waited with anticipation.
.
.
.
.
.
.
His breath tickled my ear as he whispered:
.
.
.
.
.
.
"I'll try not to throw up in the middle of the night."

True story.
I made these for Primary. I hate choosing kids for helpers because if I do it on my own, I will always pick my favorites (yes, I have favorites, but I will never tell who they are!). This is the fairest way I have found. I have all the children's names on the sticks, even the inactive ones.


I draw them from the "Choose Me" container. Then their stick gets put into the "Chosen" container. If they aren't there, their stick still gets put in the "Chosen." When every stick has been chosen, they all go back into "Choose Me" and we start over.


Everyone knows they are going to get a turn, so I don't have any problems. The younger ones struggle at the beginning, but they learn that they will get a turn. It is wonderful.
I have been designated the "Laundry Queen" by my sisters. I will gladly take the title. I love clean clothes. I love the challenge of getting out stains.

I do all my laundry on one day. I hate doing laundry every day because then it is never done. I save it all for one day, and if I start at 7:00 in the morning, I can have it done by 3:00. That way, when the kids get home from school, they can put it away. I fold it as it comes out of the dryer. That way I only have to fold for 10 minutes every hour or so. And then all my laundry is done for a whole week!

When one of my sisters was interning in Washington D.C., we would I.M. all the time. Well, it seemed like they always would be on when it was my laundry day. So I would constantly be saying "BRB" so I could go fold a batch.

Every child has their own laundry basket and they are responsible for bringing it down and sorting it on laundry day. That way when I fold it, I can put it right into their basket. If they don't bring it down, or I discover that they didn't put it away right, they have to do their own laundry. And they are getting really good at it too!

A few years ago, I washed and dried a load of jeans, and when I pulled them out of the dryer, I discovered a red crayon had found its way in and melted all over everything! I was in tears. That was a lot of jeans to ruin!

I got on the internet and did research. There were lots of ideas, including using a brown paper bag on the jeans and ironing on it. But seriously, the crayon was on everything. That would have taken me hours.

We had pack meeting that night, so I just filled the washer with hot water, a huge scoop of Tide with Bleach, and a huge scoop of OxyClean. I let them agitate, and then just sit while we were gone. When we got home, I drained the washer, and then ran the load again with more Tide with Bleach and more OxyClean. When I pulled them out, the crayon was gone! I cleaned the crayon off the inside of the dryer, then dried the jeans and everything was back to normal.

The best way to get grease out of clothes? Dawn liquid dish soap. Yes, Dawn is the best. Rub it into the stain and let it sit for a little while. I have let it sit for 6 days before. When it is time to wash, I spray it with Shout and rub it in, then wash like normal. And the grease is gone! I like Shout the best.

So what are your best laundry secrets?
Tuesday I took another 75 pictures at soccer games. Many were of The Princess sitting on the grass...in the middle of the field...watching the ball go by. She was supposed to be kicking it. She did other things. Like play in the goal until her hair got caught in the net...twice. She also swung on the goal posts. And played in the dirt. In fact, when we got there, the first thing she asked was if she could go play in the dirt. No, we are here for soccer. Awwww. These are some of the rescued pics from the cell phones.


Mia Hamm, she's not!



I have a total for how many pictures I have on my computer. Guess how many...



Higher.



Higher.



Higher.



Close.

11,132. Yes, that's eleven thousand! Yikes! Have I mentioned that I love pictures?


This is The Chocoholic with his tongue stuck to a frozen yogurt. He acutally did it on purpose!
My mom called me last night and said that I haven't posted in a while. I got on and realized it had been since last Thursday! Whoops!

So I was going to post something witty and amazing last night, but then got caught up trying to get the pictures off my cell phone onto my computer. And oh, the drama! I got them off the phone onto the T-Mobile website, then deleted them from the phone, then emailed them to myself. Then deleted them from T-Mobile.

Never, never, never delete pictures until you are absolutely sure you have them saved somewhere else!

When I opened my email, the pictures wouldn't show. Just little boxes with red x's in them. I was sick. I shut down the computer and bawled. My poor hubby...trying to study for the Praxis test (which he is taking on Saturday!) and dealing with an emotionally drained wife.

This morning I turned the computer on and opened the email and guess what!

Still little boxes with red x's.

I spent 15 minutes on the phone with T-Mobile trying to see if there was anything I could do. Nope. Nada. Noodle. Sorry, a vague Veggie Tales reference there.

I then thought I would try to email it to my gmail email and see if they would show up there. So I hit forward, and noticed that the email had attachments. Hmmm. I sent them, then opened up my gmail account. Guess what!

Little boxes with red x's.

But I noticed that the email had the attachments. So I clicked download on one, saved it to my computer, then went onto the computer and opened it and guess what!

IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!

71 pictures that I successfully saved. You can't even imagine the relief that washed through me. Last night when I went to bed, I kept saying, "They're just pictures, they're just pictures." But they're not. They are memories.

Small blessings people. Small blessings.


This is my dad at his 60th birthday party...2 years ago.

The Teenager playing Santa for our Christmas party...2 years ago.
Kira from last night, playing soccer...well, playing in the goal while the rest of the team plays soccer.



Yay! I found a picture of the red car. This is the night we sold it to CarMax...and the last time I will ever go on the lot of CarMax. My sisters love it there. For us, it was a nightmare!

The Princess at her preschool Christmas party...2 years ago.
For my screensaver on my computer, I have it scroll through all my pictures randomly. I have all my digital pictures on my computer. ALL of them. I have 92 folders, and each folder has probably 300-400 pictures at least. I love watching the screen saver scroll through them all. I love pictures of my kids.
However, I didn't get my first digital camera until December of 2001. By then The Teenager was 8, so I had taken a lot of pictures. I have the negatives in a box...in the garage...somewhere. But those aren't fun to look at. And they don't scroll by on my computer. And it appears that my boys weren't ever babies! LOL
So I have started scanning in all my pictures. I don't even want to know how many I have to do. I can scan 3-4 at a time, but it still takes time. Pull them out of the scrapbook, put them on the scanner, pre-scan, make sure all the borders are correct, scan, take them off the scanner, put them back in the scrapbook, and start over again with a new group. Then I am going to have to go in and rename them so they are in the right order because I am just that OCD.
But I don't care how long it takes. I am going to keep plugging away. Because I want to have them all digitalized. I have one binder done, which is The Doctor's and mine from 1991-1995. As I was scanning, I came across this picture of the cutest little girl.

Yes, that just happens to be me. Aren't I cute? On the left is my Aunt Judy, holding me is my grandma (Mom's mom) and on the right is my other grandma (Dad's mom). I love that I have a picture with me and my grandmas.
So now that my boys have childhood pictures, I will be posting more of them, mainly on the days when I don't have time to write. So enjoy!
Mmmmmm.  The smell.  The selection.  I love it all.  What am I talking about? 
Office supplies, of course!

Paper, pencils, pens, markers, erasers, paperclips, label makers, rubber bands, postits in every color, adding machines, tape, highlighters, binders...well, you get the idea.  I am drooling even as we speak.
I have always loved them.  When we go shopping, I will spend more time in that aisle than anywhere else.  I have never had to search for a pen or pencil.  In fact, about a year ago, I went through all my stashes and gave a gigantic bag of pens to my mom for her classroom.  I always have at least 2-3 pens/pencils in my purse.  Always at least 1 pen.  One of my pet peeves was standing in line at the checkout and the person in front of me asking the clerk to borrow a pen.  I never understood how they didn't have one!
When the sales come on for school supplies, I have to force myself to not spend money.  Right now I have 20 10-count, 4 12-count and 5 24-count boxes of pencils, 16 boxes of 12-count colored pencils, 29 boxes of 12-count mechanical pencils, 3 boxes of 12-count markers, 24 spiral notebooks, and 10 packages of loose-leaf lined paper.  I will NEVER run out of pencils!  LOL  I think it's time to donate to my mom!
Since the schools here aren't allowed to send a list of required school supplies home (which I think is the most idiotic thing in the world!), I always ask the teachers what they need for their classrooms, so I can go shopping for school supplies.  White board markers and erasers are always on the top of the list. 
So if you ever need to borrow a pen, come on over.  Of course I will have to go through and make sure you don't take one of my favorite ones!  So give me fair warning so I can start the grieving process!
Did you notice my new picture on my header?
My friend Tia is taking photography classes and needed volunteers to get their pictures taken. Um, free family pictures? I'm in! We went yesterday afternoon to Wheeler Farm and spent about 45 minutes posing. At 8:30 Tia called and had the pictures ready for us! I was amazed at how awesome they are!
Thanks Tia! Anytime you need more practice, you can call me!
Silk-Dyed Eggs

This is the coolest thing! I am definitely going to try it next year. I can't this year because we did our eggs last night. The Easter bunny comes to our house on Saturday so we can focus on Christ on Sunday.
You know that little college in Rexburg, Idaho? The one that used to be Ricks and will always and forever be Ricks in my heart?
The one where the Doctor and I met and fell in love and got engaged...all in 3 1/2 weeks?
This is our first date!
Well, my dear sweet darling husband just got offered a part-time job teaching an online class for them! He is so excited!
It is our dream that someday he can teach there full time. Yes, I know it is cold, but it would be so fun!
So Saturday night at 6:00, when you come for his surprise birthday party, feel free to congratulate him on getting a third job. Don't ask me how he's going to do it all. But I know that he will!
Okay, The Doctor's birthday is this Saturday, April 11th. He is going to be 40!

I am going to have a surprise party for him at 6:00. Come and enjoy German chocolate cake (his favorite) and vanilla ice cream (his favorite).

If you need to respond or ask a question, call me. He reads the emails and will find out if you reply to this.

So Saturday at 6:00. Hopefully it will be nice so we can send the kids outside!
So I was ready to quit blogging last week. I can't believe all the grief I got from my joke. It was just a joke. I was amazed that no one called me on it. No one got it.

But seriously. I come from a family that likes to joke and tease. I pull pranks on my kids all the time. We scare each other on a regular basis.

We like to laugh. Laughter is good medicine. Try it.

1. A blonde is driving down the freeway when her cell phone rings. It's her husband: "I just heard on the news that there's a car going down the freeway in the wrong direction. Please try to be careful."

"It's true," the blonde replies. "But not just one car - there are hundreds of them!"

2. A blonde got lost in her car in a snow storm. She remembered what her dad had once told her. "If you ever get stuck in a snow storm, wait for a snow plow and follow it."

Pretty soon a snow plow came by, and she started to follow it. She followed the plow for about forty-five minutes. Finally the driver of the truck got out and asked her what she was doing. She explained that her dad had told her if she ever got stuck in the snow, to follow a plow.

The driver nodded and said, "Well, I'm done with the Walmart lot, now you can follow me over to K-Mart."

3. A blonde woman walks into a store. Curious about a shiny object, she
asks, "What is that?"

The store clerk responds, "It's a thermos."

The blonde then asks, "What does it do?"

The clerk says "It keeps hot things hot and cold things cold." So she
buys one.

The next day, she brings it to work with her. Her boss, also a blonde,
asks, "What is that shiny object?"

She replies "It's a thermos."

He asks, "What does it do?"

She says, "It keeps hot things hot and cold things cold."

He then asks, "What do you have in there?"

"Two cups of coffee and a popsicle."
I have gotten so much flack over what I did yesterday. Even my husband is giving me crap. I did not intend to offend anyone. It was just a joke. I guess in hindsight I should have put the April Fools in the first post and not leave it all day.

I truely am sorry.
...APRIL FOOLS!

Sorry, I just couldn't resist. I called my mom this morning to warn her, and she was mad at me. She tried to get me to retract earlier, but I love a good joke. My kids and I have been playing jokes all day. When my sister's found out this was a joke, they hung up on me. LOL

So thanks to all of you who commented and expressed their support. And I am sorry if I made you mad now! Please forgive me!
He lost his job today. I thought we were okay. They don't have enough numbers to be able to keep him on full time. They offered him part time, but that won't pay the bills or the gas to commute. He will finish out the school year, but that's it. I have to get all the kids to the doctor and dentist as soon as possible because we will lose our insurance too. I don't understand why this keeps happening to us. Why? I am going to be sick.