Busy day!

Yesterday was my busy day of the week. It started with 2 of my kids having gymnastics classes. Rebecca and Tyler's classes are back to back, so I only have to go uptown once for two classes. It's nice, but it also means I have 2 1/2 hours I have to keep other kids occupied and out of trouble. But my day wasn't done there. Three of us had doctor's appointments. But we had another 2 1/2 hours to kill between gymnastics and the doctor. I didn't really want to take half an hour to drive home and half an hour to drive back, so we had to kill time. We started with lunch at Wendy's, though even that was a fight. Everyone wanted to eat somewhere different and nobody was willing to compromise. So I got to pick and nobody was happy. After lunch I decided I was sick and tired of Walmart, so I was going to risk my kids wreaking havoc and attempt the mall. They were actually pretty good! Except for Becca dragging a shirt around Old Navy that I attempted to take from her several times (she kept finding it, no matter where I tried to hide it), they actually mostly stayed with me and did as I asked. And I found this skirt that I just fell in love with. I don't usually pay full price for things for myself at Old Navy. I figure it'll all go on sale eventually. But I wasn't willing to risk it on this one. It's pretty and feminine and just the right length. I love the embroidery on it, and the little touch of tulle at the hem. It fits beautifully. It was just so perfect, I splurged! But now I think I'm going to need some new shoes to go with it. :)
So then we went to our doctor's appointments. Mine was first. When I made the appointments, I asked 3 separate times if my appointment was early enough that I could ensure availability for my kids to get to theirs on time. I was assured all three times it would be no problem at all. When I checked in, I was told they would only check me in and I would have to come back to do the kids when I was done (since I can't be two places at once). Right after getting undressed, the nurse knocked on my door and said they didn't realize one of my kids had an appointment so soon after mine, the doctor was running a little late, and all of this was a pretty big problem. I explained, none too patiently, about the conversation when I scheduled the appointments, and they reluctantly agreed that we could make it work. It means my first physical in years was perfunctory at best. They did little more than take my vitals (pulse, bp, height and weight) and the exam itself was as short as I can recall one ever being. The person who came to get information for our life insurance has more information about me than my doctor does. I did get a tetanus booster though. I can't recall ever having had one, so I figured it was time to get that done.
Then came the appointments for my kids. I thought they were scheduled back to back, but apparently I was wrong about that. There was someone in between my kids, so the doctor came in to do Becca's check up (Becca charmed all the nurses, by the way.), then left. Tyler was feeling like he'd been left out since he was promised a check up as well. She did come back about 10 minutes later to do him, but he wasn't too happy about it. Then I had to get my girls Hep A vaccines (there has been a lot of it in surrounding counties lately, so it was highly recommended). Rachel was pretty angry with me because I had told her this appointment wasn't for her at all so she could just relax, but then I made her get a shot! Tyler got his first dose of the vaccine last month with his other immunizations. Then I had to wait in two separate lines to get fluoride for my kids. I totally don't understand their pharmacy. The fluoride was ordered by the doctor, so I didn't have to actually take the Rx to them. They already had it. So I had to wait in one line just to let them know I was ready to pick it up. That person bagged it then sent it over to another window where I had to wait in another line to pay for it before actually getting it into my hands. Why two separate lines? I have no idea.
All told, we were in Group Health for a little over 3 hours, and were gone from the house for almost 9. It was definitely a long and busy day.

Peace

I've had a rather interesting thing happen to me over the last few weeks. Since being put in this new calling of Primary Secretary, I've noticed a definite increase in the peace I feel in life. That is NOT to say my kids are better behaved, that I have fewer problems, that life is any less hectic or difficult, or that anything else has really changed, but internally I feel much more at peace than I have in a long time. I never would have thought this was a calling I could do, and certainly not well, but I'm trying. I know it really is the calling the Lord wants me in. And I'm happy to serve.

Jam

There are times I really love living in Washington. When I can drive 25 minutes and get flats of fresh raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries that were picked from local fields just that morning, I get really happy. Most of my berries I'll be freezing, but I did make a bit of jam yesterday. I was just about out of raspberry jam, so I made more of that; I made some raspberry/blackberry combo, and I experimented combining strawberry and blueberry (YUM!). Later in the summer when I have my peaches and pears, I'll do even more experimenting and mixing of fruits. I'm thinking blackberry/pear, strawberry/peach, and maybe one batch that's just a mix of everything I have on hand! Anyone want to come be my taste tester?

Fizzy joy: fresh berries, especially raspberries!!

Where have I been?

Jenn commented that I've been MIA lately, and I realize she was right! I check her blog (among others) every day, but it's been a while since I posted. I guess it's time to fix that! The only problem is I'm not quite sure what to say! There hasn't been anything interesting going on in my life. It's the same old combination of busy and boring. But I am alive and things are well.
We had a nice Independence Day. We went to a picnic with Scott's family in the afternoon then had friends over in the evening. My kids loved the fireworks!
Scott managed to get the swing set stained (after 4 years!) during his 4 day weekend. It's really nice to have that done, and it looks great.
We ended up enrolling our kids into gymnastics again.
I lightened my hair again, so I'm pretty truly blonde right now (I'll try to get a picture up soon).
I made a new friend who totally gets my sense of humor. We laugh like I've never laughed with anyone before. But she's only 19. What does that say about me?
Even though I don't comment much, I do love reading everyone else's blogs. I go to Jenn's and Jill's every single day. Thank you for being so good at documenting your lives!
Jill, your pictures of Jenn's kids are truly amazing. I loved every single one you took! I don't know how you do it, but if you ever make a trip up to Seattle, you better believe I'll be using your services for my own kids!

That's about all I can think of to say. I will try to be better at blogging. Thanks for the reminder Jenn!

Fizzy joy: taking a big spoonful of peanut butter out of a brand new jar!

It's over

The heat wave is officially over. We've dropped something like 25 degrees in 2 days! It was high 90's a couple days ago, mid 80's yesterday, and today is supposed to be low 70's! The one nice thing about Washington is that the dreadful heat never lasts too long!

I'd love to post pictures of my kids in the cute little pool we got, but I still haven't figured out why it's not loading my pictures!

Fizzy joys: sunblock, lemonade, ice water, popsicles, and ceiling fans!

Heat Wave!

In case you hadn't heard, we're in the middle of a heat wave! In fact, the National Weather service has issued a heat advisory for the area in effect until tonight. We had record high temperatures yesterday, though I never did hear what that ended up to be, and I think today may have been even hotter. My neighbor said it got up to 97 today! Our temperatures may not be as hot as yours, but for an area that isn't used to the heat and has no air conditioning, it's pretty miserable.

Tyler's birthday

Yesterday was Tyler's 5th birthday! I can't believe he's 5 years old already. He was so funny. He would walk around the house singing Happy Birthday to himself, and everywhere we went he invited people to his birthday party.
We went to Safeway to let him pick out a birthday cake, and to our surprise, they had a Spiderman birthday cake right there in their cooler! He was so excited. But then we went to get balloons, and they were out of the Spiderman birthday balloon. :( But he was happy enough with the Spongebob Squarepants balloon, so it all worked out.
For his birthday party, we went to Chuck E. Cheese's. We must be crazy, right? On a Tuesday night, it was surprisingly empty. He didn't get to invite tons of friends like we usually do for birthday parties at home, and it turned out the ones he did invite weren't able to come anyway, but we still had a great time. Our neighbor Nathan came with us, and Grammy and Grampy met us there. We gave each kid a little cup of tokens and just let them run crazy! The pizza was better than normal (not that the kids care) and they never had to wait to play a game they wanted. I think Tyler's favorite part was taking tickets to the machine that counted them. He did it every time he got some! I think he ended up with about 9 ticket receipts, and that was only because I started collecting his tickets from him as he played. Otherwise he would have had about 20!
There was one very particular toy he wanted for his birthday. It's called Phlat Ball. It's a ball that will smoosh down into sort of a disc, held flat by a suction cup inside it that will pop loose and turn it back into a ball while you're playing with it. He loves how it "pops." I looked for it, but was unable to find one, so we sent Grampy in search of one. He found it! Tyler was so excited to get it! It made his day. He even went to sleep with it under his pillow!
Overall it was a very fun day for him. He felt special and loved. But mostly he had the time of his life turning 5 years old!

I attempted to post pictures, but I've still been unable to get them to load.

My fizzy joy for today is that I'm lucky enough to have Tyler as my son!

The winds of change

I've had a few things change in my life over the past week, and it's time to document them!

First of all, I am no longer watching extra kids. I won't pretend to miss the obnoxiously early mornings, but I will miss the extra money it brought in. Mostly I'm relieved to be done though. By the end, it was getting tedious. It's possible I'll do it again next school year, but not definite. Right now I'm looking forward to a summer with just my own kids! It's also nice to be able to go to they gym at night, not having to worry about the lack of sleep that will cause because I have to get up so early. I may actually go once in a while now!

Tyler and Rebecca finished their gymnastics sessions yesterday and Rachel finishes hers tonight. We have not yet decided if we're continuing for the summer, and it's possible Rachel will want to do soccer instead in the fall, so this is possibly the end of this particular stage. I hope not, because all three of my kids LOVE gymnastics, but one never knows. I'm adding in a couple pictures of some of the wonderful instructors my kids love so well.

The next big change in my life happened at church. Remember my blog a few weeks ago about nursery? I'd finally gotten myself to a point where I was resigned to spending my year in there, and was starting to actually make plans on how to make it better for the kids when things changed. I've been released! This has to be the shortest stint in nursery EVER! I was in there all of 4 times! So now I have a new calling. I am the secretary in the Primary Presidency. I've never been in the presidency of any organization, so this will be something totally new for me. But I have to say, I'm excited about it. I am really looking forward to this opportunity.

So those are the major changes in my life right now. Oh, and I'm tan! A local tanning salon offered 10 free tans to new members, and since we've had just about NO sun over the last few weeks and the bit of a base I'd managed to build up was fading, I took advantage of this offer and went tanning! Now I'll hopefully be able to spend time outside with my kids this summer without worrying so much about getting burned after 10 minutes! Of course that assumes the sun ever makes a repeat appearance, which is never guaranteed in Washington.

My fizzy joy for today:

My thoughtful husband brought me flowers yesterday just because I was having a rough day!

(I attempted to add in several pictures to go along with this blog, but it wasn't allowing me to add them! I'll try again later to get the pictures on.)

Eating healthy

I have a frustration that I could use some advice on, if anyone has it.

We're trying to make an effort to eat better food. The way I cook tends to be high in fat, and with Scott and I both trying to lose weight, I'm trying to change that.
The problem is that healthier foods cost a lot more money! My budget is pretty tight, and I already feel like I spend too much on food. So how do I incorporate healthier foods without breaking my budget?
Scott loves fish, but how do I justify spending $8.99 a pound for good fish when I can get 5 pounds of hamburger that will do several meals for the same price?
Let's not even start on the price of fresh produce. Even here in Washington, I'm lucky to find apples for less than $1.29 a pound! For apples! And that's not even the good kinds of apples, that's for boring old red delicious. And y'all aren't the only ones with grocery stores charging $3.99 for a half pint of blackberries. How do they justify charging that much for what is basically a weed?!?
Even things like low fat versions of some of the foods we eat tend to be significantly more expensive than the regular versions. I want to cook healthier foods for my family, but I don't know how to do it without destroying my food budget. So if anyone has any ideas on how to do this, I'd love to know!
Also, if anyone can help me cook lower fat versions of the foods my family loves, that's information I'd love to know as well. Any good tips out there?

Fizzy Joy: I colored my hair again, and I am LOVING the lighter shade!

Crush

Rachel has her very first crush. She was so cute about it, I just had to share. Her crush is on her computer teacher, Mr. Lamas. She has computers every Thursday, and last night she couldn't stop talking about it. She asked me if we could do her hair pretty today so she could look good for him. Apparently last week there was a student absent, so she got to sit up at the front of the class. She said she liked it a lot because she could look up at Mr. Lamas. She demonstrated this by doing one of those hand clasped dreamy looks used to show love. I laughed so hard it hurt! My little girl has a crush, and I think it's adorable.

It's about time

For my birthday my visiting teachers gave me some cute little cards with a matching little book. I've been debating what to do with the book. I thought about putting it in my purse and making it a fizzy joy book. I thought about putting it in my church bag so I could attempt to take notes on the rare occasions I actually get to listen in sacrament meeting like Jill does. Finally I decided to take my mother's advice.
She told me years ago that I should write down the funny things my kids say. I always thought it was a good idea, I just never actually did it. I know my kids are now older and won't say as many funny things as they used to, and their pronunciation is now quite good, so we won't get the "Paga" or "wippers" anymore, but I am starting. Better late than never, right? I'm also going to include some of those things you have to say to your kids that you never thought you'd say. My first entry for that particular thing is, "Baby, don't rub your biscuit up your nose, please."
I think this is going to be fun and interesting. Maybe one day I'll have enough for a book!

My fizzy joy for today:
After a week and a half of rain, the sun is shining again today!

nothings

I don't have anything specific to blog on, but I've missed doing it so I'm going to ramble for a bit.

My kids hit a couple of milestones this week. Rachel has learned how to do a one handed cartwheel. This is a pretty big deal. She's only the second one in her gymnastics class to have done it. All three of her teachers were so excited about it that they all had her demonstrate it for me, not knowing I'd seen her do it while watching her class! :) I really am proud of her. It's a big accomplishment! She is also now reading entire books by herself. She read Hop on Pop to Rebecca this week, reading every word except Constantinople and Timbuktu. She reads and spells to herself all the time. I LOVE having a reader in the house!

Tyler is now counting to 100 all on his own. I had no idea he could count past 20 since I don't really count with him, but I asked him on Tuesday to count for me and he went all the way to 100! Where did he learn that? I didn't teach him. I feel a little like I ignore my kids because I'm often surprised at how much they can do, and I wonder where they learned it all.

Becca is now officially potty trained, except at night. I don't even think about making her go potty before we leave the house, or making sure she goes when it's a convenient time to make sure she doesn't have accidents. She just does it when she needs to, and I don't have to worry about her. She's not even having accidents during nap times anymore. It's a huge relief to have that done. If she didn't wake up with her diaper sopping wet every morning, I'd work on night time too.

How do kids manage to grow up so fast? I feel like I'm missing it!

I thought I'd also mention the Alias finale was awesome, so if you haven't watched it, do so! Scott loved the Lost finale last night, and it was very interesting to learn why the plane crashed.

If Kelly took 2 hours to finish the DaVinci Code final challenge, I beat his time! :) It took me more like 40 minutes, best we can remember. But like him, I'm still cursing that restoration puzzle! What was the pattern that got them to clear? I never did figure it out. I also messed up the sudoku puzzle initially. Ironic, considering I do sudoku all the time, but I had to restart it. I got lucky on the chess one, and hanging the paintings, which is usually pretty hard for me, I figured out pretty quickly. The changing picture in the jigsaw threw me a little, but it was probably the easiest of the 5 for me. It was certainly fun to do, even if I'm not going to win any cool prize over it. We also saw the movie last weekend. Has anyone else seen it yet? We really enjoyed it. There were some pretty obvious differences from the book, but mostly it stuck to it really well. I loved the actress who played Sophie. She was great.

Well, that's about it for me today. Hope everyone is happy and healthy and safe!

Oh, fizzy joys!
My three new shirts from Mervyn's
Not spending $ on diapers
rereading a favorite book
being a little bit tan for the first time in my life
a good sale on something you're buying anyway

Kinda cool!

I had kind of a cool experience this week. A few weeks ago Scott e-mailed me a link to a game on Google. It was a daily puzzle game centered around The Da Vinci Code. The puzzles got increasingly difficult, but it was a fun daily distraction. There was a symbol game sort of like sudoku, observational challenges, geography, chess, and other games. It was a lot of fun! As I was nearing the end of the game, I looked at the rules again, and there are some pretty cool prizes for the winner of the game, but only 10,000 finalists get to compete in the final challenge. Whether or not you qualified depended on time; what time did you finish the final game. The first 10,000 to finish the last game and get their registration form in got to compete. The rules stated the finalists would receive an e-mail on Monday to confirm they were in, as well as instructions for the finals.
I went to my mail box on Monday and found an odd box. It was addressed to me, but I had no idea what it was, and there wasn't a return address on it. I opened it up and found this:

This is a replica of a cryptex from the movie! How cool is that?! And, I'm a finalist!! I get to compete this weekend in the final challenge! I don't expect to win, of course, but I'm pretty excited that I get to do it. Apparently there were MILLIONS of people doing this game. I had no idea it was so popular. And the cryptex is really cool. It's a lot heavier than you would think it would be. Scott looked on ebay and a lot of people are selling theirs. They're selling for somewhere around $65 each. No, I am NOT selling mine. I think it's cool, and I earned it! So wish me luck this weekend! If I'm really good, I would win a trip to Europe!

Belated Mother's Day

I wanted to share a belated Mother's Day present I got from Scott.



How many of you can say you have a picture of your family on a soda bottle?? :)

Crazy!

I've just had one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. Rebecca came walking in the house from the backyard talking about a bird. I was in the middle of something, so I didn't pay too much attention to her at first until I heard Tyler and Marisa talking about the bird and how cute it was. It turns out, a bird flew onto Rebecca's hip and stayed there. It was perfectly content to latch onto her as she walked around the house. It even stayed there as the kids pet it and cooed over it. It didn't get off until I physically took it off her. Why would a bird do such a thing? It really was crazy.

Calling

I have another post in draft form that I'm hoping to get finished today (even though Monday's are my busiest days) but I needed to get this off my chest first.

A week ago, Scott and I were called into the Bishop's office right after sacrament meeting. I mentioned I had a class I was supposed to be teaching (Course 16-17) but I was told it was already covered. That in and of itself was surprising because they always struggle to find substitute teachers for any of the Sunday School classes, and yet they already had one for me even though I was there. They had already planned on me not being able to teach that class. I was informed they would be releasing me from my calling and I should turn in my manual to the Sunday School president that day. Then they told me they had me in mind for nursery leader. I wasn't thrilled with the idea, but I've never turned down a calling in my life. I did express my reservations to the Bishop, but I also told him I would accept any calling he had for me.

So yesterday I was released. I actually wasn't surprised. I'd told Scott a few weeks ago I was pretty sure I was going to be released soon. I feel a difference in my lesson preparation. It's kind of like a little warning light that my time in that calling is about to end. It's happened every time I've taught Sunday School. Then they called me to be a primary worker. As Brother Swonger said it, I felt an overwhelming sadness hit me that I can't explain. It was consuming and I couldn't seem to control it. It's now been a day since it happened, and I'm not feeling any better. Is this just disappointment at being called where I don't want to be? Do I just need an attitude adjustment? Why do I get teary and sad every time I think about my new calling? I don't want these kids to be short changed, and I want to do this calling well. But will I be capable of that if it takes all my self control not to burst into tears every time I think about it?

I'm here, I promise!

I know I haven't posted in a while, or even commented on your posts, and I have no real excuse. But I am still here. I do try to read as many blogs as I can when I have time. Thank you so much to Jenn and Jill for all the amazing thoughts on Women's conference! I'm so jealous of the opportunities you women have.
I will try hard to get back to doing this more often! At the very least I'll try to get a new fizzy joy list done today!

Celebration part 2

I had such a fantastic day yesterday, I have to blog about all the details!

I was up at 4:10 to deal with these extra kids that I have, and I hated it, but I was able to get a little bit of sleep after they went back to sleep. The very first thing Rebecca said to me in the morning was "Happy Birthday Mama!" Then she proceeded to repeat that about every half an hour all day long. My kids were as excited for my birthday as I was! And they were exceptionally good and well behaved. That in and of itself is a pretty amazing present!

Scott had a doctor's appointment at 8:30 (just a check up). About the time I was expecting him to get in to work, he walked through the door! He took the day off so that I could have a day to myself! It was a beautiful sunny day and he wanted me to get out of the house without kids and do something fun just for me. After thinking about it for a while, I decided I really wanted to get to the gym first. (I know, you can make fun of me now.) He decided I needed my birthday presents right away though, so first we had our little party. He'd been talking about his gift to me for a couple of weeks, and he was really excited about it. I wasn't disappointed. He bought me an iPod nano! I am thrilled!! And not only that, the kids gave me a case for it that straps to my arm so I can take it to the gym! It was so nice to not only have my music, but to not have to deal with my cd player that skips on some of the machines, and to not have to put my music away when I go to do my weights. It was a very thoughtful gift, and I love it!

So after the gym I came home and got showered and dressed for the day. After a light lunch outside while Scott washed my car, he sent me off to get a manicure and pedicure! I think a pedicure is the ultimate in pampering and I'm totally hooked on them. When I got home, the kids and I frosted cupcakes, and of course we had to eat one! Then Scott made them dinner while I picked up the babysitter. Then it was off to Hooters!

We ended up with 13 people at Hooters! I didn't know a couple of them, but it was still quite a party. The wings were just as good as I'd hoped, the company was fun, and we had a fantastic time. Because it was my birthday, they had me stand up on a stool while they sang to me (right next to an 18 year old girl). Of course we forgot our camera, so this is what we got from Scott's camera phone. Hooters really was a fun place for a party!

I think yesterday was the best birthday I've ever had. I got several phone calls and e-mails wishing me a happy birthday, and Jenn even blogged on it! Scott worked really hard to make sure I had a great day, and I really did.

Celebration part 1

I got to start celebrating my birthday on Friday! We met Scott's parents for dinner, and to our surprise, his brother Michael and his wife Tessa came too! We spent a very enjoyable time talking and eating at a local buffet, and they even had my birthday announced over the intercom so the whole restaurant heard about it. It was quite fun!
But the real party will be tomorrow. We've invited a whole bunch of people to meet us for dinner and I finally get to go to Hooters! I've heard they have the best buffalo wings around, and I love wings, so we're going! We'll do a little party with my kids before dinner, then they'll stay home with a babysitter so we can have some adult time. This surprises me, but I'm actually looking forward to turning 30 tomorrow!

A little bit jealous

Okay, so today I'm feeling a little bit jealous of my siblings who tan so easily and so well. Mostly I burn, peel, then go back to white again. And after only half an hour outside yesterday, I'm sunburned! It takes so little for me! I want that nice olive skin that loves the sun! I don't want to have to go inside on a beautiful day after only half an hour, then not be able to go out the next day because my skin is already damaged! Why didn't I get even a little of the ability to tan??

Fizzy joys: a sunny day to be able to go out in to begin with and my freckles!

Tagged

tagged (round 3)


5 things in my fridge
1. strawberries
2. cottage cheese
3. bleu cheese
4. limes
5. deli turkey

5 things in my closet
1. shoes
2. ironing board
3. shoe rack
4. a roll of fabric left from the previous owners
5. clothes

5 things in my purse
1. class schedule from The Little Gym
2. black raspberry vanilla lotion from Bath and Body Works
3. lip gloss from Victoria's Secret
4. Shut up and kiss me mints
5. a thank you card from the mother of a missionary who served in my ward

5 things in my car
1. my lime green rain coat
2. red umbrella
3. care bear blanket
4. water bottle
5. extra clothes for potty training Becca

5 things on my Tivo (X-Box Media Center) [I don't have one, so I'll put in what I download on my computer]
1. LOST
2. Alias
3. West Wing
4. CSI
5. Thief

Tagging...
I don't have anyone else to tag that blogs on this site (Jenn did them all!), but I will post this on another site I use to see if I can get people there to do it too!

Catching up

I was away from the blog for a while, so I thought I'd sort of catch up on things I would have liked to blog on.

First I have to talk about something Becca did on Sunday. She had spilled juice on her dress, and since it was within an hour of bedtime, we told her to go put on her pajamas instead of new clothes. She didn't like that idea at all! She went storming upstairs, sobbing the entire way. Then at the top of the stairs, she yells out at the top of her voice, "You're ruining my life!" then slams her bedroom door HARD! Every adult in the room started laughing so hard it hurt! I'm sorry, are you 3 or are you 13? I think I'm in trouble with this one. :)

I wanted to thank Jenn again for sending me the beautiful purple dress. Becca wore it on Easter and felt and acted like a princess! It was adorable the way she flounced about. We had a wonderful Easter Sunday and wish that our family were closer so we could have shared the day with you!

Potty training isn't going quite as well as it was the last time I blogged on it. Becca has reverted a bit and we've dealt with a few accidents lately, but overall it's been okay. She still hasn't pooped in the potty, but we are working on it.

I don't write much on Tyler, but in case I neglected to mention it, he did go to a Kindergarten round up at the elementary school not too long ago. He's been pretty hesitant about going to school, but after that day, he was really excited! He got a snack, got to read a story with the teacher (and they sent all the kids home with a copy of the book they read), got to ride a school bus (and our levy passed, so there WILL be buses next year), and got to play on the Kindergarten playground. He's not nearly as worried as he was, and I think I'll be able to send him off without too much trauma.

Just a quick catch up on me; I'm still taking care of kids three days a week. This week I had to be up at 4:10 instead of the usual 4:40, but we're all hoping that will not be the case next week. I'm working on a garden this year for the first time. I'm planting zucchini, cherry tomatoes, peppers, onions and sugar snap peas. I hope it all goes well! I haven't gone to the gym nearly as much as I used to, but I do still try to make it as much as I can. Scott's job has become incredibly busy so his days have become long and we don't see him as much as we want. And in just 5 days, I will be turning 30!!

So that's the update on us. I hope everyone is well! I know we're all very busy, but I miss hearing what's going on in everyone's lives. I hope we can all find the time to blog a little more often!

Fizzy joys: fresh pineapple, sunny afternoons, tulips popping up through my grass, having the cash on hand to splurge a little, a school bus to take my kids to school, and being healthy again after an illness.

Just do it!

I know it's been a while since I blogged. I do hope to be back in the swing of things now! But I had to write about my girls today.

I've written before about our struggle to get Rachel to ride her bike without training wheels. We finally convinced her that they would definitely not be going back on her bike, and she pouted for a few days. Then she decided it was okay and decided she could ride her bike that way. And so she did. She just did it. Once she knew it was the only option, she just did it. She hasn't fallen down once since then.

I've also been potty training Becca the past couple of weeks. Our first week was terrible. After the first day when it was new and I was bugging her every half an hour to go potty, she didn't make it to the potty even once. She could go sit down on the potty, do nothing, then have an accident three minutes later. I was incredibly frustrated. She didn't seem to want to use the potty. She was happy to just go change her panties. Then I remembered that she is my candy girl. So I decided to bribe her. I told her if she goes pee pee on the potty, she gets jelly beans, and if she poops, she gets a lollipop. That day, she didn't have a single accident! Not one. She just did it. She was capable all along, we just had to figure out her trigger. We still have issues with pooping in the potty, but as far as pee goes, we are on our 6th day with no accidents! Not at church, not during our hours of gymnastics and running around yesterday, and not even during naptime! We haven't done bedtime yet, but I am thrilled to NOT be changing diapers anymore!

Fizzy joy for today: I've started planting my garden!!!

Letter

Here is the letter Rachel wrote Scott last night.

In case you're having trouble reading it, here is what it says:

Dear Daddy,

I love you but I want my training wheels back on please. I really want them. Love Rachel.

Then there is a picture that is very obviously her standing next to her bike with training wheels on it, and underneath that she wrote:

I like it.

I fixed the spelling to make it easier. ;)

Milestones

This is a week that will probably go down as a week of milestones in our house, so I thought I should attempt to find a minute to chronicle some of it.
As I've already posted, Rachel lost her two front teeth this week. This hasn't been the only thing she's done. She is also learning to ride her bike without training wheels. Yesterday was only her third time trying, and the first time trying all on her own, but she almost has it down. She did fall a couple of times, and I will definitely have to scan the letter she wrote to Scott about it when I get a minute. It was so funny!
Tyler went to Kindergarten Round Up at the school yesterday morning. This was a time for incoming Kindergarteners to meet the teachers, see the classroom, take a tour of the school, ride a bus, and play on the playground. He was very hesitant about Kindergarten in the fall, but now he's really excited. Now if only I could track down his immunization records so I can finish registering him, that would be great!
The real reason I won't have much time to post this week is because of Becca. We are finally potty training her. My next few days will be spent giving her as much attention as possible so I can really get her trained. She is ready, and I'm ready to be done with diapers! Wish me luck. I hate this part of parenting!

Fizzy joy: getting a full 8 hours of sleep!

And there it goes

I said Rachel's other front tooth wouldn't be far behind, but even I didn't think it would come out this soon! Here is Rachel's new, even gappier smile!

I love the way she talks with those two front teeth missing. It's just so darn cute!

Hope y'all are having a great day!

My bad

It has been brought to my attention that I have been neglecting to mention fizzy joys in my blogs. I apologize for that! It had just slipped my mind. Most days I feel lucky if I get a chance to blog at all. Let me rectify that right now with a few fizzy joys for today:

The quilt made for me by my extended family at my bridal shower (it's still the main blanket on my bed)
a really good pen
Scattergories
sugar snap peas
root beer floats
rediscovering an old favorite book that had been forgotten
new mascara
my pink toe nails!

I think that'll do it for now. I'll try to be better about remembering my fizzy joys in my posts. :)

Rachel

First off, I want to send out a big CONGRATULATIONS to Jon and Val!! Kyra is absolutely beautiful and I am thrilled for the both of you!

Rachel had a little bit of her own news that she wanted to share. She lost her third tooth yesterday, this one being one of her front teeth! She had to show everyone at church, and she is very excited for the tooth fairy to come tonight. (She wanted to keep her tooth for one day, so she asked that the toothfairy wait a day before she came.) She even let me take a picture so y'all could see just how cute she looks without that front tooth. And that second front tooth shouldn't be too far behind! :)

Neglectful

I realized, in looking over my blog, that I had neglected to blog about a very important topic. Let's go ahead and remedy that right now.

I got my own surprise good mail a few days ago. Rachel had the very day before this happened complained that we never got packages from the UPS man who is in our neighborhood just about every day. Then, to our great surprise and pleasure, he stopped at our door! And who was this surprise package from? My wonderful sister Jennifer, of course! She sent me some super cute dresses for Becca, as well as some fun things too! Personally, I'm most excited about the thick cut blade for the apple peeler/corer/slicer she gave me several months ago and the beautiful dress I get to use for Becca for Easter, but my kids LOVED the cute box with the pink and white M&M's and Rachel has stolen the darling little canister that originally held more Easter candy. I would love to take pictures of all the great stuff that was in this box, but unfortunately it got scattered long before a picture could be taken! But I am very grateful for my thoughtful sister who sent me my own wonderful surprise box of very, very good mail!

My treat!

Today was a very busy day, with all the shopping, lunch, afternoon at the park, gymnastics, and general running around my neighbor and I did. She decided, near the end of our day, that we deserved a treat. So we went and had pedicures! I have never done this before, and I have to say, I could get really hooked on this! It was so much fun, and very relaxing, even with four kids we had to corral while we did it. If you've never done this, I highly recommend it! I did let Rachel pick out the color of nail polish used, and I just had to take a picture of my pretty feet to share! :)

The Park part 2

We went back to the park today and this time I took my camera with me! Unfortunately, today's experience wasn't quite as nice as yesterday's. It was nice and sunny when we set out this morning (along with my neighbor and her two kids), but by the time we'd run our errands and gotten to the park, it was cloudy and cold. The temperature had dropped about 7 degrees. My neighbor ended up going to Walmart to buy us all sweatshirts because it was so cold. And the attitudes of the kids were affected by the cold. They weren't nearly as happy or cooperative as they were yesterday. It was still a pretty nice day though, and I do have several pictures to share!

The Park

I really need to start carrying my camera with me. I would love to be able to show you pictures of the great afternoon we spent at the park yesterday. We were there for about three hours! That's unheard of for my kids. Usually after about an hour they get cranky and want to go home. It was such fun to be able to spend the entire afternoon there yesterday. They have a great play area that has some really fun things for kids of all ages. There are the usual slides, teeter totter, and little animals that rock back and forth. They also have poles to slide down, monkey bars, and some other unusual things. Perhaps if we go back today I'll take some pictures so you can see how great it is.
In addition to the great play area, there is lots and lots of open grass, a large covered area with tables, and a great little lake where people go to watch the ducks and geese and do a bit of fishing. It's a very dog friendly park, and a lot of people go to walk their dogs. My kids love dogs and had so much fun pointing out all the dogs, and Rachel even made up a little story about a couple of them.
The highlight of my afternoon came when we were taking a walk around the lake. It has a great path that goes all the way around; sometimes right up against the lake and sometimes through the trees around it. This is where most people go to walk their dogs. One trip around is 0.8 miles. There are even rabbits in the woods that one can see from time to time. At one point, Becca was lagging behind a little from the other kids and started to run to catch up. As she was running, she started chanting. "Go, Becca, go go! Go, Becca, go go!" over and over! It was so funny I couldn't stop laughing! She was totally cheering herself on! Then, a little later, as Tyler started running to try to catch long legged Rachel, he started cheering himself on too! "Go Tyler! Go Tyler! Go Tyler!"
I know I've said it before, but I have the cutest, funniest, best kids ever!

Afternoon session

I just wanted a place to post some of my thoughts on this afternoon's session of conference. For anyone who also listened to or watched it, I would love to hear your thoughts on it! None of my quotes will be exact as I don't write very fast, but you'll get the idea.

Boyd K. Packer talked a lot about repentance, and he gave one of my favorite thoughts of the entire session. He said that Christ is the Creator, and what he made, he can fix.
None of us are beyond redemption!!

I loved Elder Bednar's entire talk, but there are a couple of things I wanted to mention specifically.
He reminded us that God determines the conditions of all gospel covenants, not us.
He suggested we need to learn to recognize when we withdraw ourselves from the influences of the Holy Ghost, and that with effort on our parts, the Holy Ghost can tarry with us much, if not most, of the time.
I also loved how he talked about just how much the Liahona was a type and a shadow of the Holy Ghost, put into the record to teach us about the Holy Ghost.

At first I didn't think much of what Elder Evans had to say about missionary work applied to me, not being in a position to be able to serve a full time mission right now. But it was a great talk. Then near the end, I realized that it could apply to me. He said to come and be part of the greatest generation of missionaries that has ever lived. I may not be able to serve a full time mission right now, but I CAN be a part of the missionary effort.

For being so short, Wolfgang H. Paul's discourse on agency had a lot of information in it! I didn't get to hear the talk this morning from Robert D. Hales, but I'm glad I got to hear this one. He said that agency is a God given gift and priveledge and an eternal law. Every human being must have the power of choice. It is by this agency that we are made responsible beings. And after we have exercised our agency, there must be consequences that follow.

The talk I'm most looking forward to reading when it comes out is the one from Russell M. Nelson on marriage. I couldn't even finish writing a thought down before he'd said something else I wanted to get written down, so my notes are terrible! But I do want to mention a couple things. He said that marriage is the foundry for social order and the foundation for eternal salvation (there was a third thing listed, but I didn't get it written down). Priesthood offices, keys and quorums are to exalt families. And we have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other.

L. Tom Perry's talk on the sacrament gave me my own question to ponder. Do I partake of the sacrament as a matter of routine or with great reverence? I'm afraid it's more often a matter of routine. But I will strive to make it much more a moment of great reverence.

I thought it was a wonderful conference, with many great truths spoken. I am grateful for the opportunity to be there and to hear the words of our leaders. I would love to hear what everyone else thought, and what struck you in what you heard.

For the record

Mom is always telling me I need to write down the funny things my kids say and do because I'm not going to remember them later, but I never do it. Well, tonight I'm going to do it here on my blog.
The kids have been fighting for the past couple of hours. A few minutes ago Tyler asked Scott if they could play a game. He said, "Tyler, you have to behave if you want me to play a game with you." To which Tyler replied, "But we ARE have."
It made me laugh! What a cute kid I have. :)

You're who again?

Over the past couple of years, we've had sort of an open door policy with whatever missionaries have served in our area. We like them to have a place they feel like they can come whenever they like, sort of a home away from home. We've made very good friends with many of these young men. We've even sort of adopted a few who don't actually serve in our ward but were friends with the ones who did, so they end up at our house as well. My kids have loved this constant stream of missionaries, and overall it's been a great thing for everyone involved.
Lots of these guys talk about how much they love the Carnegies, and how when they get off their missions they're going to come back and visit, maybe stay a few days, and how we'll always be friends. Want to know how many have actually come back? Not one. It's become a running joke with us. Every time someone gets transferred out, we tell them flat out we'll never see them again and it was nice knowing them. You say you're coming back to visit us sometime? Nope, not buying it. You'll forget about us before your next Sunday dinner in someone else's home or by the time you're at cruising altitude on your plane ride home.
There was an elder that my kids called by his first name (his choice). He was in our ward for 6 months, was over on average three times a week, and went home from our ward. He got married less than 6 months after getting home, and even though he talked a big game, didn't even send us a wedding invitation!
There was another guy who talked about us all the time to his mother and his girlfriend back home. We were even in contact with his girlfriend (we played a great prank on him right before he got transferred with her help). Have we heard from him since then? Of course not.
Now there are two guys who were here a while back who are still out serving that we do actually hear from every now and then. We get occasional phone calls and e-mails from them. Boyce even called to wish Becca a happy birthday. But they are certainly the exception. Mostly, no matter how much they treat our house as home, once they're gone, they're dead to us. I don't want anyone to think I'm complaining about this. I find it rather humorous. It really is a running joke.
If we ever did actually have one come to visit us after their mission, I'm afraid I'd say something like, "I'm sorry, you're who again?"

Fizzy joys for today: fleece pajama bottoms, lots of clean laundry, children who can and do take care of themselves.

Good Neighbors

I have a neighbor that I love. She has been a great friend to me over the last few years. And last night I got quite a treat out of her.
She called me to ask me how to make my twice baked potatoes. She then asked what I was making for dinner. At that point, I had no idea what I was making, so she asked if I wanted to bring my family over to her house to eat. Not have to cook dinner? Sure! After a couple of conversations that afternoon, it was determined I would bring over some kind of fruit, something for all the kids to drink (another family was coming as well) and a pan of brownies. No big deal, and certainly easier than having to cook a whole meal for my family. Besides, the thought of twice baked potatoes was very appealing.
I walked into her kitchen and found a whole lot more than twice baked potatoes. There was a platter of steaks, fresh off the grill, a pan of sauteed mushrooms, and a nice bowl of fresh shrimp. Plus the yummy twice baked potatoes, broccoli in cheese sauce, green beans, and chips and hot dogs for the kids who didn't want steak and potatoes. She went all out! My contribution of pears that hardly got eaten, a pan of brownies that only the kids ate, and juice that ended up coming home with me seemed paltry indeed. But she didn't care. She was more than happy to just have us over to enjoy a really good meal with her.
To top it off, she took Rachel out after dinner to start teaching her how to ride her bike without training wheels! She taught her daughter last week, and Rachel gets very stubborn with me, so she got her started. She didn't give in to Rachel's crying when she wanted to stop. She made her continue. I would probably gotten too frustrated and let her quit for the day, but Scott would have caved totally and put her training wheels back on. We love that Angela made her keep going.
Neighbors like her are so nice to have! :)

LOST

I'll say this right now; if you watch LOST, but have not seen last night's episode, you may not want to read this post quite yet.

Scott and I had the rare opportunity of actually watching LOST on tv, without having to download it to watch later. Even with those pesky commercials, it was so much better that way! We could actually talk about things, and we notice different things when we do. One thing we've started keeping our eyes out for is crossovers between the lives of the castaways. The big one last night; the woman Locke was inspecting the house for in the flashback was Sayid's girlfriend! We were really hoping to find out how Locke was paralyzed in last nights episode, but they STILL haven't told us! And what's up with his trusting Henry Gale? Did you know Henry Gale is the name of the wizard in The Wizard of Oz? I LOVE how these writers work!
What was really funny to me was that as soon as it was over, Scott was online going to his favorite sites about the show, and the credits weren't even over before he was looking at a screen shot of the map Locke saw on the wall with the black light. So apparently there are 7 bunkers on the island. And was that food drop meant for the people in the bunkers or for the "others?" Or are they one and the same? And can the castaways expect more food drops in the future? Wouldn't it be nice if they could count on regular food deliveries?
Now don't expect me to blog on LOST every week. I just had fun with last night's episode. It was really nice to watch it with Scott instead of days later.

Fizzy joy for today: kids freshly clean from a bathtub!

Better than expected

I went to bed last night dreading the morning. I knew today was going to be one of those days I was going to be pulling my hair out. Turns out I was wrong. :)
It's Monday, which means it's one of my up at 4:40 days. Even knowing I had to get up early, I just could not get myself to bed last night. It was almost 1:00 before I finally turned out my light last night. So I knew I wasn't going to be getting very much sleep. Also, all the elementary schools in the district have parent teacher conferences this week, which means there is no kindergarten at all, and all the other kids have early dismissal all week. That means that the two older kids I don't normally have to do much with will be coming home several hours before their mother gets off work. And Rebecca and Tyler both had gymnastics classes today. I knew I was going to have to pack lunch for everyone because there wouldn't be time to feed them all before we had to go. In fact, I was worried that Alex and Keirsten would get home in time to get Becca to her class on time. I was praying that bus was early, and that traffic would be light. Turns out prayers are answered. They got home a full 15 minutes before we had to leave, and traffic was so light I was able to stop at the bank and still get Becca there on time.
My next blessing came in the form of good weather. It was in the low 60's and mostly sunny today, so instead of having to figure out how to entertain 5 kids in a very small place for more than two hours, we were able to go to a very nice park just a few minutes away! It's a nice sized park, but it was also very busy. I was impressed at it's layout. Even with as many kids as were there, they never seemed to run into each other too much. There was always something for them to do, something on the equipment to play on. And they played so well together!! From the oldest to the youngest, they all played together, helped each other, and just had a grand time all around. They loved being able to have a picnic and play outside. We also had friends from the Little Gym there with us the second hour we were there, which just added to the fun. And the timing worked out so perfectly. They were all starting to get tired by the time we had to head home, so they were ready to go, but it hadn't been too much time and they were still having fun. It was a fantastic way to spend the afternoon.
Oh! I forgot one other very important part of my day! These three kids have gotten pretty comfortable in the house, so last week I started going back to bed instead of trying to sleep on the couch (which wasn't working). I didn't really sleep much even in bed last week, but today I was able to go right back to sleep without any trouble! I got another 2 1/2 hours of sleep! That alone was huge in making my day better.
So all around it was just a great day. I went to bed dreading the day, but it has turned out to be just wonderful!

Fizzy joys for today: public parks, warmer weather, sunshine, pink leotards, and a friend to talk to.

Happy Morning!

Today's post will be just a brief one of fizzy joys.
Scott was nice enough to get up with the kids this morning and let me stay in bed for a while. It was one of those typical Washington mornings where the weather can't decide if it wants to be sunny or cloudy. It was cool and breezy and I realized I'd forgotten to close my window last night. But I was thoroughly enjoying the fresh air, even if it was a bit cold. But what really made my day was when I realized that if I tuned out the neighbor's dogs barking, I could actually hear the birds chirping outside! It's just another one of the signs that spring is actually here, and it made me smile. So today I'm happy for spring, birds chirping, a fresh breeze, and a warm bed. Happy morning to me!

Who am I?

I've been having some random thoughts over the past couple of weeks that I'm going to try to put into something cohesive here on my blog. I've been trying to figure out who I am.

I've thought a lot about who other people think I am. I've recently reconnected with a couple people from high school, and they still sort of think of me as the person I was then, a dozen years ago. To a certain extent, my family still thinks of me as that person as well. I suppose it's normal to think of someone as the person they were when you last spent large amounts of time with them. It's hard to see how a person has changed when you don't get to spend much, or any, time with them. But I've also been thinking about how my current friends think of me, and I realize that they would all probably say something different about me. Who I am sort of depends on who you ask.

I've also been thinking a little about what image I portray to people, and how much of that is who I really am, how much of it is what others expect me to be, and how much of it is what I think they want me to be. Where is the line between who I really am and what people see because it's what they want or expect to see? And how much of who other people think I am comes from their own limited boundaries of how they see me? I think people get uncomfortable when we do something or act in a way that doesn't agree with how they see us. Knowing that, how much do I conform to other people's expectations?

I know that most people do a lot of things, but most people also are best known for one or two things they do particularly well. Is that a byproduct of our need to be able to label people, or our inability to see nuances in people? Or is it natural to be known best for one or two things you do particularly well? And what about people like me who don't do anything particularly well? I'm not saying I'm talentless. In fact, I think I do a lot of things. But because I do several things, I don't do any one of them very well. So where does that leave me? If we don't have a "thing" to be known for, do we just fade into anonymity? Are we less important or valuable if we don't have one thing to be known for?

I know I have been guilty of expressing more interest than I really feel in something because it's an interest of a person I'm with. It could be seen as simply showing interest in another person and what they like, but I fear it's more likely a form of conformity. I want to feel like I have something in common with this person, so let's find something we can connect and bond over. But again, that blurs the lines between who I really am and who I'm seen as by other people.

I read a quote recently that sort of resonated with me. It said, "Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." I completely believe that. I am of value just the way I am, right? I shouldn't have to pretend to be able to bond with someone. I shouldn't be forced to conform to someone else's preconceived notions of who I am. I should be able to be me, the real me, the whole me, no matter where I am or who I'm with. So why is it so hard to do that? And what if I don't really know who I am? The same person I quoted above also said, "I would rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not." I wish I could live by that sentiment. I wish I had the courage to be just me in every circumstance. But I feel the need to conform. I feel the need to be accepted. I want to be me, the real me, and nothing but me in every circumstance I'm in. But I also want to be loved and appreciated. Where is that line and how do I find the balance? Who am I really? I'm not sure I know.

One more

I had to list one more fizzy joy for the day. After going to Jill's SmugMug page, I have to say I am in love with her flower pictures. Of course all of her pictures are beautiful, but that grouping of flower pictures just made me feel all warm and fuzzy, and if that's not a fizzy joy, I don't know what is! Jill, thank you so much for sharing your talent and your amazing pictures!

Murphy's Law sucks!

Wouldn't you know it. Last week we had beautiful weather; mostly sunny and warmer than it has been in quite a while. But last week my kids were sick and I was basically homebound. They were too sick to even go play outside most days. And now that my kids are feeling much better (and fighting again) the rain has returned. We're all aching to get out, to breathe fresh air, and to get some energy out. Unfortunately, I have never liked being outside in the rain and my kids have picked up on that so now they don't like to go outside in the rain either. Why couldn't it have rained last week when my kids were so sick they hardly moved and been sunny this week? Rain, rain go away!!

My fizzy joys for today:
A milk man who delivers
The song Come What May from Moulin Rouge
Victoria's Secret Sweet Talk lip gloss

BACON!

Kids are funny creatures. Especially my kids.
Rebecca got a new Veggie Tales DVD for her birthday, but my kids haven't been interested in watching it. Finally I decided I was sick of all the other stuff we had, and I wanted something new. So I turned it on for them. Now I don't actually sit down and watch my kids cartoons with them, though if I did, Veggie Tales are what I would watch. But it was nice to have new sounds in the room while I did other things. They LOVE this video! (If you're interested, it's called Lord of the Beans.) They want to watch it all the time. After not even being willing to watch it for a month, now it's all they want to watch.
The last couple of days, all three of my kids have been running around the house yelling "BACON!" for no apparent reason. We haven't had bacon lately, and it's not a word I commonly use, but they've all been yelling it all over the house, just out of the blue. Rachel was doing her homework last night and when Scott came into the room, she looked up and yelled "Bacon!" What in the world is going on with these crazy kids?
Well, there is a connection. At the very end of Lord of the Beans, out of the blue, one of the characters yells out, you guessed it, "BACON!" It's just one of the silly little things the clever people at Big Idea throw in to make kids laugh, and all three of my kids laugh at it every time. But since I hadn't actually sat down to watch it, I didn't know the connection until I just happened to catch it right when it was happening yesterday. Whew! It's nice to have that mystery solved! So if anyone wants to come hang out with the silliest monkeys around, or if you just like yelling out the names of meat products, head over to my house. You'll be right at home!

My fizzy joy for today: Pushing Becca's button! (If you push her nose, she sticks out her tongue and blows a raspberry. It makes me laugh every time!)

Women

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about women in general. It has been her experience that women are mean, catty, and view each other as nothing more than competition for each other. She had absolutely nothing positive to say about women as a group. She will allow that there are exceptions to the rule, but overall, she has a very low opinion of women. I was incredibly sad for her. I think we have all had experiences that would support her ideas, but I hope overall we have all had much better experiences than that. I know I have.

So I thought I would take a moment to write about MY feelings on women.

It has been my experience that women are generous and caring. The women I have known best have been women who help one another, who encourage and serve one another, who teach and edify one another. I've known women who selflessly share their talents and knowledge. I have been uplifted, comforted and cared for. I have become a stronger, wiser, better and more capable woman myself because of the wonderful women I've known. I don't know why our experiences have been so different. But I am very grateful for all the remarkable women I've had the privilege to call friend in my life.


My fizzy joy for today: my homemade strawberry jam. YUM!!

Wonder Woman in the flesh!

I know I usually blog about the things that are going on in my life, but I decided today to blog about a person in my life instead. I want to tell you all about this amazing woman.

For starters, she is kind and caring. She makes everyone around her feel special, important, and loved.
She is generous with her time, talents and love. Talents and love she has in droves, but her time is extremely limited, so I feel blessed and grateful every time she makes time for me.
She is an amazing mother. She allows her children to grow and increase their own talents, and she loves them the way every child deserves to be loved.
Even though she complains about her callings at times, she has magnified every calling I've ever known her to hold. She is more than competent, she is wonderful wherever she puts her hand.
She is creative and talented, and loves to share that with those she loves. She isn't stingy with anything she's been given. And the organization alone in her craft room astounds me. Not to mention all the incredible things she makes in there!
She is a great cook. I always love eating at her house! Anyone who has done fondue with her can also tell you that her food looks as good as it tastes. She certainly has a talent for bringing out the beauty around her, including in her food. And if you ever need a table decorated, she's absolutely your girl!
She makes a sincere effort to include all those she feels should be included in every event. She makes sure those who should know about something are in the know. And even if distance precludes attendance at something, she makes sure to let you know you're wanted anyway.
Her home and her heart are always open to anyone who needs it.
She is a hard worker. She gets more done in a day than I can accomplish in a week.
So who is this amazing and fabulous wonder woman? Of course, it is my big sister Jennifer.
Jenn, you are truly the glue that holds our family together. You don't get nearly the thanks or appreciation you deserve for everything you do for all of us. You are so important to this family. We would not continue to function as a close extended family without all of your hard work. You do so much! Thank you for making each and every one of us feel loved and important. Thank you for opening your home, your kitchen, your life to any of us when we want it. Thank you for being so generous and selfless. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! You are truly amazing. I hope I can be more like you when I grow up!
I LOVE YOU!!!

And just in case there was any question, my fizzy joy for today is my wonderful sister!

OOPS!

I realized I neglected to list in a fizzy joy in my last blog. I will rectify that right now with a small list of things that make me happy.

Orange juice
warm blankets
seed packets
a hot shower
daffodils
rain coats
ibuprofen
chicken soup
a second opinion from a new doctor that gives good news
being able to do an act of service even when it's inconvenient
lime green

That'll do for now!

The Flu

The flu has struck my house.

Scott came home on Friday with a fever and feeling dizzy. He went to bed about 7:00 that evening and basically stayed in bed almost 24 hours. He was able to sleep most of it off, but it really did last a couple of days for him. He was nauseous and had no appetite, but never actually threw up. Sunday morning Rachel woke up with a fever. Since Scott was sick and staying home anyway, she stayed home and spent her afternoon on the couch. But yesterday was even worse for her. She came into our bedroom about 3:30 in the morning complaining that her stomach hurt. Since I had to be up in about an hour anyway, we decided to just let her stay in our bed. She didn't get out of it all day long. She ate nothing but half a piece of toast and a couple bites of applesauce all day, and she spent the bulk of the day asleep. Fortunately she is feeling back to normal today. It seems to be a 48 hour bug. This morning, again about 3:30, Tyler came into our room having had some really crazy nightmares. These were bizarre nightmares about walls melting and such. He was really upset, so I let him climb into bed with me (which is really unusual at my house, just to be clear). As he snuggled up to me, I realized he had a pretty good fever going as well. He's mostly acting normal, but he doesn't have much of an appetite and he has bouts of lethargy. Becca also got up much earlier than normal, feeling a little warm, and not wanting to eat at all. Not long after drinking some water she threw up all over the place. Fortunately it was just water, having had no appetite for breakfast.
So here I am today, having had less than three hours of sleep for two nights in a row, and having not had much more than that for several nights now, already tired of playing nurse (Scott is the biggest baby of them all!!), looking at another couple of days of sick kids. I just hope I somehow manage to avoid it. I did have a day last week of not feeling well and getting dizzy every time I stood up, but I never had the fever or nausea or lack of appetite everyone else seems to have. Hopefully that's as bad as it gets for me. I don't have time to get sick!

Let it snow!

The weather man was actually right for once! When I went to bed last night, there was a thin layer of snow on the ground. I had been getting myself all excited for spring, and now we're looking at a weekend of snow! I feel like I should say that I'm disappointed, especially since I hate winter, but I'm not. My kids woke up so excited this morning, and that excitement was definitely contagious. It wasn't a lot of snow, barely an inch at it's worst, but it was still snow. At one point this morning it was coming down so thick I could hardly see. We did go out and play in it, but since there wasn't enough to build a snowman or have a real snowball fight, the play didn't last long. Mostly we stomped around and tried to catch snowflakes on our tongues. After about 10 minutes my kids were done and back inside asking for hot chocolate. It seems somewhere along the way they decided playing in the snow necessarily means we have to drink hot chocolate. Unfortunately I was out. But it was still a fun day and I find myself actually looking forward to more snow over the next couple of days. It's just too bad the cold front killed my beautiful crocuses. And I may have to venture out to get my kids some hot chocolate. :)

Fizzy joys for today: turtleneck sweaters, umbrellas, and the light given off by freshly fallen snow at night.

Fizzy Joy

When I was a teenager, one of my best friends had what she called a Fizzy Joy book. It was a small journal she used to record the little things that made her happy. She was one of the happiest people I'd ever met, and I think a great deal of that came from her ability to find the joys in everyday situations. She even gave me a fizzy joy book of my own once, but I'm sad to say that I rarely wrote in it.
When I was a kid, there was always this book hanging around the house called 14,000 things to be happy about. It was always out. It didn't actually have a place on the bookshelves. I loved to sit down and flip through this book. It was interesting to me what the author found joy in. A few years ago my mother gave me my very own copy of this book, and I've read it almost cover to cover. I still flip through it at random from time to time, but I'm trying to actually read all 14,000 things. Her joys are eclectic and varied, sometimes simple, sometimes not. She includes items, places, and even moods. Nothing is left out.
I finally came to the conclusion that since some of us are sort of using our blogs as a type of journal, why not make it a fizzy joy book as well? My new goal is to post at least one fizzy joy somewhere in my blog every time I post. I want to start looking for the positive in my life, and I want to share what I find. And who knows; maybe one day I'll have enough for my own book of 14,000 things that make ME happy.

So for my fizzy joy of this post, I'm going to list Anne Elliot from Persuasion. Her happy ending makes me happy.

The Little Gym

All three of my kids take gymnastics classes at The Little Gym of Puyallup. We love this place. Rachel started there two years ago and we've gradually gotten to the point where all three of my kids are attending. The newest semester started the day Rebecca turned three, which is the age necessary to go into a class without a parent, so she's been going just over a month. I actually got to sit and watch her class yesterday. It was so much fun to see! I was a little amazed watching her do donkey kicks, attempting front supports, and doing forward rolls down the cheese mats. And I remember the days when Rachel first started and how new and exciting it was for her to be doing the same things. Rachel is now perfecting her cartwheel and handstand kissers. She has quite a talent for the balance beam, though she loves the uneven bars the best (especially that flying burrito). Tyler's class is a little different. His class is half gymnastics and half sports skills. Of course he loves to do the front supports and pizza hangs, but he more loves telling everyone how to bump, set and spike a volleyball or how he won his hockey game against Mr. Jason. The Little gym has been wonderful for my kids. They've all gained skills , strength and coordination, but they've also gained confidence and courage. They're encouraged to push their boundaries and go beyond their comfort levels. But it's done in a way that is safe and builds them up for just trying, whether or not they're successful. Going to gymnastics is the highlight of the week for my kids. They look forward to this more than anything else they do. And I'm thrilled we've found something that has been so great for all of them.

Is it spring?

The last few days have been the kind of days I've come to love. Flowers are starting to bloom, the trees on the corner are showing their first pink blooms, and we even see the sun from time to time. These have been days that have some sun, but also some clouds, and even a rain shower or two. The wind has been blowing hard and often. They've been days that would be classified as either mostly sunny or partly cloudy (and yes, there is a difference) but unlike the usually white fluffy clouds that usually populate a mostly sunny day, these clouds are dark and gray and wholly block out the sun when they cover it. These are days that clearly say that we are still definitely in winter (we may even get snow by the end of the week), but spring is most certainly on it's way. I'm finding I'm a big fan of these days that clearly show signs of the changing seasons.

Shoes

They say most women fall into two categories. There are shoe women and handbag women. Most women (not all, but most) prefer to spend money on one of those two things. I am definitely a shoe girl. I'll use the same purse every day for years before I change it. But I love shoes. A girl can never have too many shoes. And I like a high heeled shoe best. There are two pairs of shoes I found online that I've been coveting a bit. They are higher heeled than any other shoes I own, but they are beautiful. Of course I don't actually need a new pair of shoes, but these two pairs just keep calling to me. The ones shown in red I would actually get in white. I think they would be a great summer sandal. I know, the 5 inch heel might make them a little difficult to wear for too long, but I love them anyway. Almost every time I look for which black dress shoes I'm going to wear I wish I had this black pair. I do have a pair sling back black shoes, and I do like them, but I love this pair. I know, I don't really need more shoes. But if I had money to waste, both these pairs of shoes would be in my closet right now.

A break!

Today was bring a friend day at the Little Gym, where my kids take gymnastics classes. Obviously that means they can bring a friend to their class. For any of you who don't know, three days a week I take care of extra kids. Two of them go to school, but I have Marisa all day. Gym on Mondays was supposed to be my one on one time with Becca, but since the first of the year I've had Marisa with me as well. Not today. She got to go in with Tyler! That meant that Becca and I had a full hour to spend together, just us. I didn't want to waste the time seeing as it takes half an hour to get uptown, but I also didn't want to just run errands. I wanted some fun time with my little girl. So we drove down the street to get ourselves a little treat. We went to Jamba Juice.
I haven't been to Jamba Juice in quite a while. I have a hard time justifying spending $4 on a smoothie I can make at home, and there's a smoothie place I like better closer to home. But we both felt like we needed a treat, so off we went. We had so much fun! I seem to be so busy that I don't get to have just play time with my kids, and certainly not one on one time. Becca and I shared a smoothie while we talked and played and laughed. My baby is growing up so fast, and I feel like I'm missing it. She's not a baby anymore. She is three years old and very grown up for her age. I am so glad I could take an hour today to take a break from my life and reconnect with my baby girl. And even on a cold, rainy Washington day, that smoothie sure was good!

Old things New

Does anybody recognize this dress? Ever seen it before? I'll give you a hint. It's pretty old, at least for me. This is a dress Dad bought for me at Nordstrom the summer before I left for BYU. It's 11 years old. I hadn't worn it in probably 7 or 8 years, but I wore it to church on Sunday. In fact, this is a brand new picture of me taken just yesterday. I can't tell you how amazing it was to be able to put that dress back on. Obviously I'm not nearly as thin as I was 11 years ago, but I'm obviously not nearly as big as I was a year ago either. And it just goes to prove that the number on a scale is meaningless. According to my scale, I've actually gained about 5 pounds lately, but obviously my body says otherwise. I'm thrilled to be in this dress again, as is Scott. This was one of his all time favorite dresses of mine, which is why it's stayed in my closet for so long. I'm not trying to brag or toot my horn, I'm just so happy to be wearing this dress again that I thought I'd share!

My little miracle

So here is my update on the 7 shirts that went through the laundry with a bright pink crayon.

The crayon is gone!!!

This was quite an ordeal. After spending a couple days bleaching and soaking and washing these shirts over and over again with no success, I was turned onto a nifty little product that, along with large amounts of elbow grease, saved the day. What is this magic product, you might ask? Here it is, Spray 'n Wash Dual Power. My little miracle solution!

Now this great product didn't work all on its own, and there is still a story here. I was given this magic product on Friday evening, but I had a ward social to attend that night. So after the social and after getting my babysitter home and my kids to bed I went to work on these shirts. It requires more than just spraying the solution on, you have to spray it on then use a butter knife to scrape the crayon off. It's a tedious process. Also, it says right on the bottle that this product is a skin irritant. That's putting it mildly. By the time I was done, a large portion of my fingers were literally white from being almost burned from this stuff. But I scraped it all off and put the shirts back in the wash hoping this would finally do it. I can't tell you how excited I was when I pulled the shirts out of the wash and they were perfectly white again. So I put them in the dryer and went to bed happy.
Then I got up Saturday morning with the intent of ironing the shirts so I could return them in perfect condition before heading out to Silverdale for the afternoon. I can't tell you how I felt when I opened the dryer and found the shirts covered in pink yet again. These were not the same marks having come to the surface again, these were new marks. I know because I knew these marks pretty intimately by the time I was done. These were not the same. They were brand new crayon marks all over these once clean shirts. I wanted to cry! I had done a load of my own whites in between drying these shirts so I can't begin to explain what happened or where these new marks came from, but there they were.
So instead of spending my morning running errands and being able to deliver nice clean shirts, I spent another two hours going through the same process of burning my fingers while scraping crayon off white shirts. By the time I was done, the hand holding the butter knife was so sore I could hardly straighten it. It's only now, two days later, that I'm starting to regain feeling in my pinky finger. I'm not kidding. It's been totally numb for two days. So after rewashing these shirts, you better believe they were line dried. There was no way I was putting them back into my dryer. We've had no crayon issues with the dryer since, but I'm not risking it!! But these shirts are now clean. I can't tell you how relieved I am to finally have that issue resolved.
Maybe once I've regained full feeling in my hands I'll try to get all the crayon out of my load of jeans from last week too! :)

So much for a relaxing day

There are four missionaries in our area who treat our house as sort of a second home. They're over quite frequently, eat many meals here, and even do their laundry here. They're really great guys who play with my kids and even help with picking up after my kids. One of them even managed to save Rebecca by catching and cradling her head right as she was about to hit our new hardwood floor after falling down the stairs. We love these guys.
They were over last night to do some laundry. We're more than happy to let them do it here because it saves them time and money. They can drop off a load, go and do some work, then come back at the end of their night to pick it up. It's much better than having to spend an afternoon at a Laundromat. But last night a bright pink crayon ended up in the wash along with a load of white shirts. And they went into the dryer with the crayon as well. Nobody noticed it until it was too late. And now I feel terrible. I have the white shirts of two missionaries covered in bright pink crayon. This isn't one of the soft pinks that isn't all that noticeable. It's one of the worst colors you could have had (except perhaps for the dark purple that went in with my jeans earlier in the week). So now instead of spending my day relaxing and trying to recover from my crazy week so far I will be spending my day pulling out every stain fighting trick I can think of to get this pink crayon out of these shirts. I know there are some of you who read my blog that seem to enjoy this kind of stuff (Jill), so if any of you have advice on how to get this out, I would love to know! Wish me luck!

My own good mail

With all the posts that have gone up about good mail, I was starting to feel a little jealous. But today I got my own good mail! I got a very surprise package of valentines (complete with candy) for me and my kids! I would have loved to take a picture, but the speed at which those kids ran off with their boxes of sweettarts hearts would have astounded everyone! And who was this fabulous package from? Jon and Valerie!! How sweet it was for us to get this great package from them. Having had weeks of nothing but bills and junk, it was a very pleasant surprise.

So this got me to thinking. Now that we have all of the original girls in the family blogging, what is it going to take to get our sweet sisters-in-law in on this as well??

Tomorrow...

I haven't posted a new blog in a few days. I did really well for a while, but I've been slacking a bit this week. In my defense, I'm exhausted. Beyond what is normal for me. Over the last four nights, I've had about 13 hours sleep total. 13 hours over four nights. That's barely over 3 hours a night. Last night was the worst with about 2 1/2 hours. At this point, I'm hardly functioning. So if I haven't felt inspired enough to post a new blog, I hope you'll forgive me. I should be better tomorrow. I don't have to get up to take care of extra kids and my husband will get my kids breakfast before he leaves for work, so I plan on sleeping as late as my kids will possibly let me. And then I won't get out of my pajamas all day. Tomorrow is my day off. Perhaps with a real night's sleep, I'll be awake enough to start posting again! :)

Candles

Y'all probably know that I LOVE candles. I burn them all the time. I have even been selling candles through Partylite for about 2 1/2 years. I had my first show for a couple of months tonight. I'd forgotten just how much I love doing these shows. I love sitting in a dim room full of lots and lots of candlelight and friendly people who are having a great time together. And this was a group I've done many shows with, so I feel almost like part of the group instead of the "consultant." It's always a party there with good food, lots of laughter, and lots of money being spent. :)
It had been a while since I'd even burned a candle at home, so it was so fun for me to light 21 of them at the show. There is just nothing like the glow of a lit candle. It is one of my "fizzy joys" of life. As soon as I got home I had to light some more. I just love love love candles.

Old Friends

This has been a week of reconnecting with old friends. I have a friend from high school I found a couple months ago on a networking site, and we've sent each other a few e-mails, but this week we've gotten back to actually chatting. It's been so much fun to reconnect with her and talk like we used to. I'm remembering more and more why we were such good friends for so long.
Tonight, my husband and I went out to dinner with an old friend. It was someone we hadn't seen in a few years. He's been going through some problems over the past year, and we didn't really know how to even get in touch with him. We finally were able to track him down and we got to spend a very pleasant couple of hours with him tonight. He'll be moving to Utah at the end of the week, but at least we got to see him again and we exchanged information so we can stay in contact.
Tomorrow we will be going out to dinner with some other old friends who we haven't seen in several years. We were engaged at the same time as this other couple, and he and my husband were even roommates at one point. We've missed them and talked about them a lot over the years, and we are really excited to see them again.
So it has been a week of reconnecting with old friends, and it's been wonderful. I'm going to do what Jill does and pose a question now.

How do you manage to stay in touch with those you love?

All Grown Up

I just had a rather adult moment. My sister (the one who is not blogging yet) just called me with a cooking question. She called me. I don't know if she tried to call Mom or Jennifer (the obvious choices) first, but she called me. And I was able to answer her question. I don't know why, but it made me feel very grown up, and like my whole family is all grown up. We're not kids playing house any more, we really are adults with adult lives and adult problems and adult solutions. I don't know why it took her calling me with a cooking question to make me see it, but I'm suddenly feeling all grown up. And I like how that feels.

Babies

A friend of mine just posted new pictures of his baby on his website. He has one incredibly cute little boy. I've never seen this baby in real life, and yet I'm totally in love with this little guy just from these pictures. How is it a smiling baby can have such power over me? A nice picture of a cute, smiling baby is all I ever need to put a grin on my face.

Progress

Rachel brought home a game board from school a few weeks ago, and for every 15 minutes she read with a parent she got to color in one of the shoes on her board. When we first started, she knew just a few words. In 15 minutes we could hardly get through a few pages. Mostly it was me reading and her repeating what I said. But in just a few weeks, her reading skills have improved immensely. I have been amazed at her progress. Of course we have our struggles, and nothing frustrates me like when she's already read a word half a dozen times and then suddenly can't read it. But overall I have been so pleased with her. It's so fun watching her try to sound out a new word, hearing her say the sounds one at a time under her breath before saying it outloud. I am so thrilled that she is starting on a path to a lifetime of finding joy in books. Books have always been a very important part of my life and I love that she loves them too. I posted this picture because these were her very favorite books to read. A Giraffe and a Half made her laugh every time!

Seminary

There is a HUGE difference between getting up to watch kids and getting up to teach Seminary. I had to get up at the exact same time, but my morning is completely different. I feel energized and happy. I loved teaching this morning. It was a wonderful experience for me and I find I'm actually looking forward to doing it again tomorrow. Who would have thought I would actually enjoy teaching seminary? I may actually volunteer to substitute more often. Am I crazy??

Morning Again

Today was my third day in a row getting up at 4:45, and it was supposed to be my last for the week. I only take care of these extra kids Monday through Wednesday. I was very much looking forward to having tomorrow to sleep in, at least as late as my own kids would let me. Unfortunately, that was not to be. I got a phone call just a little while ago asking me to substitute Seminary! Not only that, but she wants me to do it Friday too! So now instead of getting up at 4:45 three times this week, I will be doing it 5 times this week. What makes it worse is that I can't seem to get myself to bed at a decent time. I'm still not going to bed until sometime between midnight and 1:00. Four hours of sleep is just not enough. At least I'll be used to it, right?