Thoughts for the new year

As I sit here, I am wondering WHO is shooting a semi-automatic weapon? Ryan and his dad and Oscar are working on the house, so it is either coming from the muzzle loading range across the way, or our "neighbor" in the back who made his own range and comes up on random weekends and camps. Those are the acceptable answers.

My thoughts for the new year:

I love New Year's. All new years. It seems like a fresh start; a clean slate. I have no resolutions this year, because I am still working on the ones from high school, I think. They are always the same: Eat better, excercise more. Now that I am 30 weeks preggo, I don't even care about that. Not yet, anyway.

I love my new camera- it takes movies! (I sound so old fashioned- I could've said "It shows movin' pictures!") I took a few minutes worth of video and it was amazing how clear everything was and the sound was great. My camera is a Canon SD 800IS and I love it. Not the same as our SLR, but I love it. And the movie feature is outstanding. I love seeing little clips of people and what they moved like and sounded like. I won't be able to post anything, because I have DIAL-UP at 24000bps. So SLOW. We are thinking of getting HughesNet. Anyone have it? Love it? Hate it? FYI: We have no cable or DSL. (or cell reception, or radio...)

Things I've done to get ready for 2008:
Organized the kids toys. (Waiting for the bunks to go up, then it'll be "done")
Figured out a budget and money plan for the year. I am "in charge" of the money, so to speak, and have a plan with some options that Ryan and I are going to go over tonight or tomorrow. It looks great on paper- we'll see how it works in real life. This plan includes savings, investing, and aquiring debt to build our house, and paying off our tractor. It's a John Deere.
That is it! I am going to spend the month of January obsessing over cleanliness and organization because that is what I ALWAYS do when I'm pregnant. Then in February, I have to think about moving to Bakersfield with the kids until Jessie is born. (Living in the middle of nowhere, with an hour and 20 minute drive to the hospital, not including time to ditch the kids... in town is better for all involved. We'll just hope Ryan makes it.) Then in March, Ryan is suppossed to take some time off and frame, frame, frame the house. I turned in our plans for a lumber bid, and that makes us completely nervous. That is fairly non-negotiable. Most everything else can be cheaper or more expensive- for example, we could put in $200 windows, or we could put in $1400 windows. We've seen both. So cross your fingers for us- we have no idea. Three years ago a guy we know had his bid come in at $27,000. His house is similar in size to ours, but it's still not the same house. The housing market is kind of bad right now too, so maybe lumber will be cheaper.

Tis the season

Will jumped in front of the kids I was trying to take a picture of.
Kacy got a new blanket that has long strings (her requirement so she can twirl them under her nose) and Uncle Oscar told her it was "too pink". This was her response.
A little thing we call JED- these two are funny in their own way. They are both growing up so quickly!

I am glad Christmas is over. I loved it this year-shopping online was the way to go for me, and I plan on doing the same next year. Maybe I'll get an earlier start, or put more thought into my gift giving. I have a hard time buying for men because everything they really want costs a fortune, and they probably bought it for themselves earlier in the month anyway. I was in the Christmas mood all month long, and I was relieved to see our little tree go into it's box by 9am on the 26th. It was time. NOW is my next favorite season- Tis the season to get organized! My kids got lots of toys, and with our limited space we have to keep it organized. Right now the toys are in fabric boxes from Target, and they hold the toys, but the kids can't see what is in the box so they dump everything. I am going to our hardware store tomorrow and buying more clear plastic storage boxes that have lids the kids can't open by themselves. This keeps toys organized by theme: dinosaurs, Little People, all things vehicle related, blocks, etc. and the kids can't open another box without cleaning up what they already have out. Plus, they stack nicely. I also used some of my Walmart gift card to buy some portable shelving for our little closet hoping that will help me keep our clothes neater. I love finding organizing solutions for my small space living problems. I'm looking into Command hooks next. And looking forward to our bunk beds to go up in a couple of weeks.
Unrelated-I heard my blog referred to as "the rants of a crazy lady". Maybe I should change the title.

Pics from my new camera

Kacy and Will
Ed. Enough said.
Kacy put her pants on backwards on accident.
Grandpa doesn't need the electric chair (oh- sounds crazy, eh?) but was taking a spin with the kids.
Our gingerbread house- thanks Jenny! Ed ate candy, Will and Kacy decorated.

Musings

*The Pointer Sisters should not sing Christmas songs. I'm all for "I'm So Excited" and "The Neutron Dance", and had a childhood memory come to mind when I heard them attempt "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". This memory includes My grandma's house, wearing my aunt Kristin's roller skates and listening to her record. RECORD. I'm sure I had on a nice pair of short 80's shorts, too.

*I always think I have so much time before Christmas to get everything done, and then BAMM! it's a week before and nothing is wrapped and the one little craft I want to do isn't even started.

*If I hear the Mannheim Steamrollers or Whitney Houston's "Do you hear what I hear?" one more time... I have XM radio in my car because we don't have radio where we live (so primitive...) and I love Christmas music, so we listen to one of their special holiday stations. My favorite station plays too much of the afore mentioned songs. I did hear "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" by the Bare Naked Ladies and Sarah McLaughlin (I slaughtered the spelling on her last name...) it was a great duet.

*I made Christmas cards. I addressed the envelopes. They are not sent yet, but will be today. I am going to post it on my blog so that my blogger friends whose addresses I don't know can get one, too.

*I am prefacing this one by stating the obvious fact that I LOVE COOKIES. (All you have to do is note my weight gain for evidence). I went to a cookie exchange and was disappointed in other people's baking skills. My no-bake cookies didn't turn out EXACTLY how I wanted them to- they were a little dry. But the taste was still how it was supposed to be. It just amazes me that a food that has essentially the same ingredients can turn out so differently. Now, maybe I am spoiled by my mom and mother-in-law's cookies. I love my mom's chocolate chip cookies, and my MIL makes a wicked oatmeal cookie and a snickerdoodle. It was just a little sad. There were a couple of chocolate chip cookies that were good, Costco brand included, but other than that, I was a little sad.

*Not holiday related- I am surprised that Ed is still alive. He has eaten two craft foam discs in the last two days. They were the size of quarters, maybe bigger. They only way I knew he ate them was when I changed his diaper. I refuse to dig out evidence for "fun" because that grosses me out. I have to say this about the boy- he has a really high metabolism. I think I'll find an example of the foam discs and the marble from last month and take a picture of those. He also had a very interesting diaper a few hours he ate three crayons. Where is his mother while he is doing this? (In my defense- I have pulled MANY, MANY items out of his mouth, including, but not limited to: more craft foam, crayons, hunks of play dough, money, small toys, rocks, dog food, Kleenex, cotton, fabric, string, and most anything else that he can find.)

*Last one- Ryan has finished all the digging for our house. This includes the house (finished long ago), septic, leech lines, and the trench for the wire, water, and phone lines. Our soil is so sandy, it's like digging in the dry sand at the beach. So the "trenches" are really more like canals and swimming pools. It's amazing how much dirt has been moved. The canal for our lines is 400 feet long, about 6 feet wide, and about 4 feet deep. If we had different soil, we would have used a trencher, not a backhoe, and the trench would have been something like 3 feet deep and 12-18 inches wide. Ryan was so happy to be done digging-so tedious and boring, and it doesn't seem like it helps in the actual building of the house. But, now he can start going UP from the ground. His goal is to be framing by March.

100th post

Always one for a test, I did the "readability test" that I have seen on two other blogs (Mandee and Kiahna). I love tests. I tried to take classes that were homework light, and test heavy. Here are my results, which is why I think my blog is boring. Sorry! I write for myself as a journal, and I write what is in my head.
*****Edit*****I did it again (12/17/07) and now it says my blog is high school level. Random!*****

Get a Cash Advance

This is my 100th post! That is more entries than I ever put in my journal. Now it's time to talk to SIL Jocelyn and see how to get it all in print. I think I'll do it once a year, and my blogiversary is in March.

Family Home Evening

Today we had our first real Family Home Evening. We had it this morning, because of Ryan's work schedule. For those of you not familiar with FHE, our church leaders encourage us to meet together as families once a week and have family time. We meet together all the time, because our kids are to little to be anywhere else. We had a lesson on the nativity and the meaning of the star for Christmas. I have to journal this because I don't want to ever forget that Will said the opening prayer with help, Kacy paid attention and looked at the pictures of the nativity, while Ed ate a Kleenex. Really. Will paid attention half the time, but after my little five minute "lesson" all was lost with the boys as Will started to do his monkey dance and I cleaned the Kleenex out of Ed's mouth. Ed did say "Star, star!" when I showed him my yellow construction paper star. After that Kacy and I sang a Christmas song, and then Ryan and Kacy and Will made a star for the top of our tree out of paper. Ryan made a perfectly symmetrical star freehand, which makes me jealous. He and Kacy decided it needed a happy face though.

Oh Christmas tree

I know the pictures are DARK, but I was trying something new, and this is what happened. The picture of the scary ghost Will is cool because of the lights on the tree. I have no idea how that happened- I was in full auto mode on my camera except that I turned off the flash, and this is it. To see the others better, you'll have to click on them to make them bigger.
We got our tree at Michael's, on sale. It is a fake four foot tree, undecorated right now. The kids LOVE it. Will insists it needs a star on top. Ed keeps saying "It's a tree, a tree!" (Think of that short guy on Fantasy Island- It's a plane!) and Kacy sings "Oh Christmas Tree" every hour or so.

Saturday I went to the temple, and the kids stayed with my cousin Caley. They had a great time, and Caley was still standing by the end of the day. We stopped at Claim Jumper to eat, and it was GREAT. I grossed out my family by getting my steak rare, only Kendra and I (Ryan likes it VERY RARE, but he wasn't there) like our steaks that way. It's because you can taste the beef. Any more cooked and it loses taste and texture. My dad said something about getting Mad Cow disease... I don't know about that.

This week is going to be BUSY- I won't bore you with details, but it involves appointments and parties. This is my busiest week of the season. After this, I have nothing going on besides Christmas and a December birthday party.

Happy to report that almost all my shopping is done. I have five more people to think of, and of course they are the hardest, which is why I left them for last. I love online shopping-the cost of shipping is worth it to me as a great trade off for not having to drive to Bakersfield (I estimate is costs about $35.oo for a round trip), driving around Bakersfield (I HATE traffic), and taking the kids shopping. Ann, our UPS lady will drop off our packages and voila- done! It makes me happy. The HARDEST person to buy for is Ryan. What he wants, he gets for himself. I have a few ideas, so I think I'll tell him to not buy anything for himself without checking with me first. He bought me a new digital camera that I ordered yesterday. (I shopped for him...) I'm excited to have a smaller camera. We have a digital SLR, which is nice, but it takes it's own bag and two hands and a lens cap removal- my hands are tied up with kids, and my bag is stuffed already with diapers. My MIL and SIL have the same camera, and they love it, and the reviews were good.

Not Twitching

I am happy to announce that I am NOT TWITCHING! I always tease Ryan that the kids are going to give me mental problems where I develop a twitch of some kind. Last week should have done it. But after going to church on Sunday, and then to the in-laws after, I feel much better. I had a great day at church-I went to Sunday School for the first time in months, Ed went to nursery (you have to be 18 mos. old before you can do that) and I didn't have to teach at all, so I had no responsibilities. It was refreshing. Then I went to the in-laws and visited with them, and that can be a double edged sword right now. 98% of the time it's great. The 2% is when my kids and my nephews run and scream the whole time and I end up with a headache. Good thing it's only 2%... (Before you start thinking "In-laws..."in that bad way, read on). Ryan works Sunday afternoons so I take the kids by myself, which is fine, but the coming home part is now starting to kill me. The kids fall asleep in the car on the way home, and as soon as I stop the car they start to wake up. They wake up just enough to cry and kick and scream (really- all three of them- like I'm torturing them) and I have to carry all three in because they are incoherent. With my belly getting bigger and the weather getting colder (29 when I got home last night!) I DREAD coming home. The trailer is freezing, the kids are crying, I'm huffing and puffing and tired- I'm thinking that our weekly Sunday visits are going to stop unless Ryan can go with me. We may have to start doing a weekday night visit when Ryan is off. This would make better use of our time also- we can run errands if we need to. I'm rambling again...

Little Devils, I mean Angels

How do I love them? Let me count the ways. One, um, one... I know I love them, but after being in the house with them since Monday, and having not talked to an adult since Thursday night (I did talk to Ryan, but it went like this: Me: Are you done? Him: Nope lunch break. Me: Can you open the root beer please? Will practically called me a liar when I told him I couldn't open it.) I am having a hard time putting up with my kids. Maybe because Will threw a fit about the root beer, threw a fit about breakfast (I said no marshmallows for breakfast) threw a fit about not being able to go outside with dad and the boys (paintball in 42 degree weather with a windchill and teen boys...), Kacy draws pictures all the time and then throws them on the ground, Kacy has an insanely high pitched pretending voice that I try my hardest to ignore because I'm not THAT mean to say "Stop pretending already!", because Ed can't keep his hands off the TV buttons, or out of the toilet, or off of the plastic kid chairs that he loves to slide across the floor, or because Lucy the dog has been locked up all day because of the boys being here and barks incessantly, or because all of this goes on at the same time- but I'm having a bad day. I forgot that one of the little darlings literally tore into a fresh loaf of bread that was meant to church tomorrow. My poor friend Kibbe has gotten long, rambling emails from me the last few days because of my lack of adult conversation. Luckily there is church tomorrow and I'll see people who are taller than three feet. And leave my trailer for the first time in 6 days. Yea!

All better!

I'm ecstatic to announce that no one in my house (TRAILER) is sick right now! Everyone is eating breakfast, singing (not me, although I may dance a jig of happiness later), and being nice. No one ate dinner last night, and everyone went to bed early. That sounds nice until YOU are one of them... I'm just glad we all feel better. It's raining today and a sandy mess everywhere, so it looks like we'll stay inside. Ryan is supposed to have the YM/Scouts over for a camp out on our property. The good thing about the rain is that it was 44 degrees when we woke up, instead of 27 like last week. So those boys are either going to freeze or be soaking wet.

Short and NOT sweet

An update on the puking- it got worse. I cursed myself when I told my friend in an email "As long as no one pukes in the middle of the night..." I hate that. Kacy started yesterday at 4pm, I started at 8pm, and Will started at midnight. The positive thing is that they both were able to puke in a trash can 90% of the time. The negative side is that I think I got it the worst (fat pregnant doesn't help, I'm sure) and now I'm still in charge of the kids, even though I was up all night helping the puking kids and heaving myself. Fevers. Dry heaves because nothing would stay down. Lucky for me (SARCASM) I inherited my Dad's puking behavior- Kendra knows- it's violent. Now I'm sore. The kids seems great. A little TOO great for my liking. This will pass soon.

Puking, Pizza, and Speech

What is worse than waking up to have one of your kids vomiting in their bed? Having to tell the other two that the playgroup they have looking forward to is a no-go because of the puking child. Today's playgroup was at our all time favorite pizza place, The Pizza Barn, located in Kernville. The owner goes to playgroup and scheduled a tour and make your pizza day. I was looking forward to it! But this morning, Ed woke up sick. It's the kind of sick where he thinks he hungry, but 20 minutes in the middle of playing, it is all over the place. It's not been terrible, because he seems to feel fine. He cried for pizza (our lunch today) and I gave him a piece. He fell asleep in his chair while eating. Poor boy- I hope he feels better, and I also hope that if anyone else feels the need to get sick they do it soon so we can get it over with.

Today's lunch was pizza. I make a wicked whole wheat pizza crust- it doesn't take that long to make, you just have to give yourself the rising time. No last minute pizza making. The kids love salami and olives and lots of cheese. I make myself a different pizza. I use BBQ sauce instead of pizza sauce, a little bit of cheese, cooked chicken, and grilled onions. I have put olives on it, and pineapple, too. It's my new favorite, and I think it's fairly healthy because of the small amount of cheese I use. The closest pizza to us is at least 25 minutes away, so we do homemade.

One more thing for today, I have 90% decided to get Will tested for his speech/language after the first of the year. He'll be 3 1/2 at the end of Feb. (Wait a minute... that's when Jessie will be here... how am I going to work that out? I'll have to think about that.) Today he was trying to tell me something that he was really excited about (pretending with a helicopter made with 2 blocks of wood...) and he just couldn't find the words and said "mommy, mommy... uh uh mommy" A LOT. I have gone back and forth with him and speech because he has improved, but I am his mom and have learned to understand him. Others have a hard time. And, I'm not a speech expert, and I am not sure if there is an actual speech problem or if it's a language problem. (Two different things...) It's just so hard to tell, and since the county tests for free, I might as well rule anything out, or get him the help he needs. It might solve some of his crying problems too if he can express himself better. One thing I am working on is having him use a flannel board and stories to tell the stories- that seems like it should be helpful. Kacy talks over him a lot, and for him- ah, enough rambling.

Cartoons and Christmas

What our kids look like while watching cartoons. I call this a cartoon induced coma, and sometimes I am grateful for it. When it is cold in the mornings, they like to all sit together to keep warm. Kacy still sucks on her fingers and twirls a string on her blanket while watching TV. I wonder when this habit will end? I went through and programmed lots of Christmas cartoons to record for my kids. I love them. (The cartoons and the kids).

Christmas is fast approaching and that means my normally stressed personality will be positively mental until it's all over. I have to figure out what to get everyone, whether or not I should attempt a Christmas Card (and then, with or without a picture of the kids?), how much to spend on everyone, how crafty I want to get (found out that crafty doesn't always mean less expensive...) and then, where to store the gifts once they are here. Ryan thinks we need a tree this year (first time in seven years...) and our rule is it has to fit on the TV. On the plus side, December should fly right by, and then after that will be January, and when you are pregnant, any month that goes by fast is a great month. I look forward to meeting the baby who makes me sick with movement. I look forward to trying to get thin again. I hate maternity clothes. HATE THEM. And since this one is our last one, I semi-refuse to buy anything. But I might have to. I'm thinking a really decent pair of jeans that I can also wear for a couple months afterwards would be great. Biggest problem is that I am between sizes- Mediums are tight on my hips, and a large is just too big. Oh well, by the counter on the bottom of my blog, I have about 15 weeks left. Maybe I'll last.

Just an update...

Here is half of Ryan, all of Ed (standing in the footing that will support our fireplace), the backhoe, and the yellow thing is our septic tank. To us building Buntings, a septic tank is old news (Kacy and Will both know what it's for, what it's called, and how it works- poor things) but to those who have no idea where the waste water goes from their house- here is one example if you have septic. Ours is 1500 gallons. Yellow. Plastic. Double chambered. Kern County code says we need minimum of 1000, but we thought a little bigger with our growing family wouldn't hurt, and the prices have gone down since last year, so we paid the same price this year for a 1500 gallon as a 1000 gallon last year. The next thing "to do" on the house is still more digging- we have to dig and then put in the wiring and phone and water. Ryan can't wait until the house starts going UP instead of digging down.
Meet Lucy- we adopted a 9 month old labrador from a family who is moving to Kentucky and can't take her. She is a nice dog- we've had her for almost a full week now and today is her first day being let out all day, unsupervised. She accepted us right away, which makes us a litttle nervous that if any ol' person said "Come here puppy" in a nice voice she'd just go. So we keep a close eye on her for now. She isn't allowed in the house (TRAILER) because she is just so big. We keep her in a kennel at night and when we are gone, and she seems to enjoy life. She's good on a leash, and taking her for walks gets some of her energy out. She excellent with the kids, and has a lot of potential to become a really great dog.

Things to appreciate about your house

Here are a few things that I miss most about having a real house. The things that I will most appreciate when I have a house again...
-having a closet
-being able to close a door on the hideous mess in my kids room (we are constantly cleaning it up because I think it looks so bad!)
-having hot water on demand (realized this the other day when Ed had serious diaper problems and we had NO hot/warm water to bathe him)
-having a dining room table so we can eat together, at a table (or a bar)
-having a full size fridge and freezer (OKAY! having a kitchen!!!!)

Things that have surprised me that they DON'T bother me:
-having only a dresser drawer for each kids clothes (makes me be more choosy about clothes, and since they have less, I do laundry more often, but less of it)
-not having a dishwasher- I thought I would miss this more. I will surely appreciate having one again, but it's not so bad.
-having my kids share a small space for their "room"-as long as everyone takes a nap together, we are super duper good. This happens 99.9% of the time.

6 things

I was tagged, so here it goes. 6 things you don't know about me.
1)The smell and taste of a homegrown tomato makes me weepy. If I wasn't already married, I'd marry a homegrown tomato.
2)If I had to pick ONE CD to listen to forever, it would be Lynard Skynard's greatest hits.
3)I am even meaner when I'm pregnant. (Some of you already KNEW that.)
4)My favorite candy is dark chocolate, followed by candy corn.
5)I still hate pickles.
6)I am getting dumber with every kid I have. (Some of already knew THAT, too.)

Halloween

I can't get Ed to stand still to save my life- hence the pic of him running out of the shot. He didn't really have a costume- he and Will are supposed to be Greasers (50's style) and Kacy is a fairy princess. She won a prize at our ward's trunk or treat for her costume- I think the judges just think she's cute no matter what she wears. I love Halloween CHOCOLATE- I hate Halloween- pain in the neck for costumes and decorating.

archeological dig or house?

I've gotten some "What are you doing digging footings?" comments from several people, and let me reassure all of you that those who really and truly know me know that I like to exercise. So, I look at digging like a workout. Maybe I shouldn't mention that on the days I don't dig, I load all three kids into a landscaping wagon and pull them up this slight incline for a mile and then walk them back down same path for another mile. That's pulling 100 pounds, and it's great! I do get in the wagon on this one short hill and ride down with the kids- they think it's really funny to go down the hill that way. I'll admit it's really fun- and I found a longer hill to ride down with them on the way to the mailbox. Four wheeling in a wagon with gravity as your engine... (Anyone seen the show "Jackass" on MTV? I hate that show, but this would fit right in, only a toddler/mommy version. I can't wait to have a sand rail (dune buggy)- I want a back seat of course, so the kids can go with me, and Ryan already has a motor for me out of an old Kawasaki police motorcycle. I love go-karts and I'm going to have an awesome one. But I digress.

Our house is a rectangle with a bump-out in the back. This angle is from the side of the house where the kids rooms will be. Most of the footings where dug with a small back hoe. I personally dug the shorter footings by hand (so proud-that will be one of my last contributions for awhile) and Ryan dug out the big square footings. Two of them looked like small Jacuzzis when he was done. We both had to clean out the ditches- our soil is very sandy. He compacted the whole things before we dug and that has helped tremendously. (Didn't you know one of my hubby's many talents include the operation of heavy machinery?) Today he got our back hoe running and dug out the final bit. Next is digging the septic system. Or the forms. Whatever we want because we are building it.

A digging we will go

Our footings for our house are almost finished. Ryan and I dug yesterday, a lot (him lots more than me) and I have to say that today I can hardly move. I am SO tired. Exhausted. Today we dug again, (him more than me!) and I quit him early without really doing much because I just could hardly lift the shovel. I am so out of shape. I have sore muscles! That is kind of exciting, actually, to think I have some muscles.

I ordered maternity pants online from JC Penny's for pretty cheap,(they were on sale for less than $20) and they arrived today. A word about maternity pants- they are ugly. Unless you pay $$$ for them, they are just pathetically hopeless, especially when it comes to the "rear view"- these pants are a little baggy in the WRONG places and have NO pockets. Even when I'm thin I don't have a flat butt, so these help nothing. I am going to keep them though, because I need pants badly, and they are a nice wash and look okay otherwise.

I just checked my stock portfolio and it has bounced a little for the last two weeks, as the DJIA hit 14000 and then went down again. My stocks closed at 47%. Too bad I didn't put MORE money in- you know, like a million dollars. Then I'd have 1.47 million. Oh well- my goal is still to keep it above 10%, and I'll be happy. This is still my furniture fund for when our house is finished. I want those front loading washer and dryers. And a dining room table (Ryan will probably build that) with chairs. And closet systems for all the closets.

Good- no GREAT news on the credentialing front- I was stressing about renewing my credential before I was ready to go back to work, and found out that all I have to do to renew it in 5 years is send in my money. None of the old "strings" are required! That means I can truly wait until all my kids are in school and not have to do daycare at all. I spent too much time getting the darn thing to just let it go- besides, my hubby has a somewhat dangerous job, and he has some somewhat dangerous hobbies, and if is ever maimed/killed it would be nice to support the family and not worry about what would happen. It's a great back-up plan that I need. If I didn't have that back-up I think I would worry about Ryan more. But I don't at all. Besides, he's a great shot.

It's a...

Girl! I was shocked, and that now puts me at 0-4 in the guessing what my babies are department. Kacy went with me and she is so excited... all the way back to my mom's house she talked about shopping and what we need to get and how everything needs to be pink or purple. Ryan got his wish- he wanted a girl, and it seems like he was right every time. And the people on the poll were right... it's just like the audience life line on "Who wants to be a millionaire." The audience is always right. Now, My SIL Jocelyn is due about a month after me, so we'll find out what she's having next month. Fun! Oh- all the parts are where they are supposed to be, and according to the ultrasound, the baby is measuring 21 weeks and 3 days, and my calendar dates are 21 weeks and 1 day, so it looks like the beginning of March it is! I want February 29. Just for fun.

Barney is 20

I just saw that Barney the dinosaur is 20 years old. I had no idea. My kids don't watch it, but really, it's kinda shocking to think it's been out that long.

I am going to be busy the next couple of days- tomorrow we are going pumpkin picking. Wednesday I have my fetal survey (ultrasound!). According to the poll on this blog, I'm having a girl! Which is totally funny to me because I am expecting to hear "It's a boy!" Seriously. However, I have been wrong the last three kids, so maybe it is a girl. But I doubt it. We will see Wednesday and I will post Wednesday night or Thursday. Hope everything is formed up okay. Jocelyn and I agree that the more kids you have, the more you realize just how much can go wrong and how lucky you are when everything is fine. Not pessimistic about it or anything, but with Kacy all I thought about was the heartbeat and her gender. With ever kid you realize more and more what they check for during that ultrasound and it is amazing when out of 142 things (I think that's what I heard with Ed's ultrasound) all 142 are great.

Quote of the day provided by Will. The kids were talking about my "belly" and Kacy said "Wow, mom! Your belly is getting SO big. Maybe that means the baby will come put soon!"
"It's not THAT big Kacy. The baby won't be here for awhile. My belly has to get even bigger."
"BIGGER? Like dad's?" asks Will, eyes wide.

A new game in town

Anyone want to play NUT WINNER with me? According to Kacy and Will, in order to play NUT WINNER you have to throw rotten walnuts into a trailer, and then you win! Sounds like fun- maybe we can have a NUT WINNER tournament.

Another day, another dollar?

Another dollar gone from my wallet, that is. I went grocery shopping, and Ryan stayed with the kids, and IT WAS NICE! I didn't have to tell anyone to not lay on the floor, or to stop "ribbiting" at the top of their lungs while hopping down the aisles... me not close to tears because I want to scream at my kids, but don't, but feel like a bad citizen for letting my kids get all "Lord of the Flies" on me in the store... AH! Today was different and so happy. I even had time to CHECK prices on the things I was getting and I left the store with no donuts and no Little Debbie snacks! I did have that horrible feeling like something was missing and "Oh no! Where are they?" and then I remembered: at home with Dad. Go dad! I perused the online grocery store market, and it looks like I am out of luck- except maybe Albertson's, who didn't kick me off their site right away. Every other place said "sorry, we don't deliver to your zip code." You want to know what I did find out? If you live in Manhattan or most other NYC areas, everything comes to your door. Although I love my acreage and clean air and no noise pollution (oh wait- I can still hear my kids)- I was slightly jealous for just a second. Especially when the testimonial lady for one site said "I use it because it is just such a hassle to take my 10 month old to the store. Even though my grocer is on the bottom floor of my building, it just saves me time." Tears, sniffles for her. Must be rough. I know, I know, I CHOOSE this lifestyle. I DO. And I enjoy it. Except when I have to go into a public place. A place that puts candy at little people level. A place that says "grocery store" but sells SpongeBob stickers and bouncy balls.
I looked at the poll results today, and we find out for sure next week. I'll post it for sure, possibly with the unabashed genital pictures for proof. We only care about modesty after they are born!

fire station, kindergarten, and online groceries

Today for playgroup we visited county fire station 76 in Kernville. We got to see where they slept, ate, and of course we saw the truck and the kids got to use the fire hose. Both Kacy and Will did it- I was surprised Will did it. He got in line, and went when it was his turn. I also noticed that he was interacting with the boys in the group. Most of the boys are 5 years old, and Will (in my opinion) is a bit delayed in his social development. Very shy, still doing the 2 year old play (I forget what that's called at the moment. There is an official fancy word for when toddlers and two's play "together" side by side, but don't play "TOGETHER". You've seen it- kids might play with trains near each other, but they are not interacting.) ANYWAY- Will is a pro at this kind of play, and he never joins in when it's story time. Today he was running around with the boys and talking to them. He squirted the hose with the fireman. It was encouraging for me- I've often worried about him in nursery and for Kindergarten. He's very sensitive and stubborn. Poor Kacy has only one girl to play with- most of the playgroup is boys. Both kids are very into gender identity right now.

Will is upset that he can't go to Kindergarten next year with Kacy because he wants to go to Aunt Kendra's house and play too! (Get it? Kacy says "Kendra-garden". "No Will, you can't go to Kendra-garden until you are 5!" Will: "Yes, me too mom! I want to go to Aunt Kendra's house and play with Benjamin and Jack!" (crying, of course)

Amazon sells groceries online. This I found out after spending time in the car thinking "I HATE grocery shopping. I NEED to go today. The kids are tired and hungry and they will be a big PAIN right now. I HOPE we have food at home." Then, while warming up soup for lunch, I saw a commercial of a loaded shopping cart driving itself to a house. I stop and stare, mouth agape. I look up amazon groceries right away. (As fast as I can with dial-up in the boonies, which is slower than dial-up in the city.) What a great idea, free shipping options... fairly reasonable prices, especially if you consider the mental toll of taking kids shopping. TOO BAD they sell some weird stuff and all of it is in large quantities. I simply do not have the space for 6 boxes of Lucky Charms. I looked up angel hair pasta just for fun, and they don't sell regular ol' white flour pasta. It's all organic or egg free or whole wheat. I don't do organic because it is more expensive and I love to eat pesticides (so tasty... LOL) and egg free might be okay, except expense, and whole wheat is so healthy, I'm sure, but not for our family. I may continue looking into online grocery shopping. I live far enough away from any store a little shipping or not getting the best price would be a great trade for getting all my non-perishables without the kids.

Happy Birthday!

Me either! I am missing both their parties today down in Bakersfield- had to make two phone calls to the mom and the mom-in-law saying "I'm not going to make it down today..." something that doesn't happen very often. I get to disappoint around 40 family members today! Both grandparents haven't seen the kids for a week now, but after sleeping around 5 hours last night and feeling pukey all day, a trip up and down the canyon just didn't seem possible. (5 hours is a generous estimate.) So, happy birthdays to my favorite father-in-law and littlest sister!

candy detox

Candy detox is hard! I think I OD'd on Reece's Pieces and those yummy Halloween pumpkins (you know- the ones that are like candy corn) earlier this week. Winco had both in the bulk food section, and it was the first time I bought any junk food in the bulk section. It will also be the last time. I had to have some Coco Puffs the first day to tide me over, but other than that, I've been candy free for almost three days. It's killing me. I want Reece's Pieces!

Two cop stories, long and maybe gross

Here are a couple of fun stories, compliments of Ryan. Anyone who knows Ryan knows he has the gift of story telling, and these happened to him, but I am going to share without trying to botch it all up.

Last week, Ryan came home from work late two nights in a row. One night, at 2am, I hear him call dispatch and say "Put me 10-10, I'm out of the mountains now. Search and rescue are there." I THINK that's what I heard, it is 2 am after all. The next morning I ask what the phone call was all about and this is it in a nutshell: A motorcyclist crashed in the mountains. He has cell reception somehow, and called 911. Ryan has the 4x4 patrol car, so he and some Sheriffs go looking for this guy. They called about 10 search and rescue guys who were on quads and dirt bikes to help. There were helicopters involved. It gets really cold up here at night, it was really important to find the guy. The whole idea to find this guy is to have everyone drive to different points in the area and flash their sirens/lights, and he is supposed to call 911 back and tell them he saw something, and they would figure it out from there. Ryan went down a path that was very much an off road path. Steep. Rocks. Down a mountain. Turned on lights, no report back. So he turns around (he has no radio reception at this point with anyone, he's all alone, just him and his Durango)- he starts up the mountain, things are going well, if not slowly. All of a sudden, his transmission goes out. So, the next two hours of Ryan's life from this point consist of winching himself up a mountain. Pull out winch cable, climb mountain, tie around tree, go back to car, winch, and repeat. Winch and repeat. For TWO hours. Needless to say, he hates his Durango and swears we will never own a Dodge. (In his defense, his Durango has been in the "shop" for tranny problems, brake problems, and an airbag thing for four or five months of the 13-14 months he's driven it.) Warn winch company, on the other hand, is his new favorite.

Next night, Ryan comes home at 2am. I am a little more awake this time, and ask if Ryan has been partying. He relates the fact that he has been on the scene on a bloody, bloody homicide/suicide (it was TBD by the detectives) and related his theory to me about what happened. For the best story, ask Ryan. From my point of view, it went something like this: Ryan telling me about the copious amounts of blood. Me feeling a little ill. Ryan saying that the guy shot himself in the head, there was one casing in the revolver, and the shell was in a puddle of blood on the porch, the guy was in the house. A leatherman tool was nearby the shell, maybe the guy pulled the shell out of his head. Me feeling like I'm going to puke. I try not to remember the rest, because it makes me sick- I'm a blood wimp. Anyway, Ryan tells the story, falls asleep snoring loudly, and I lay there picturing this scene, feeling like I might puke. NICE! Oh- as for Ryan's theory about it being a suicide and not a homicide- the guy was found in his living room, the gun was on the front porch with the one casing, and the one shell was on the porch also. Remember in psychology class the story of the guy who had a railroad spike go through his frontal lobe and he still lived? Ryan said this guy probably did the same with a bullet, lost all reasoning, and then wandered around all bloody, doing weird things (pulling the bullet out of your head anyone?) and then bled to death. Ryan has a job I absolutely could not do.

My inner Pollyanna is missing!

This is me, except I'm not as tan.



Funny, the difference between Ryan and I. This was us this morning. We were digging footings.



Me:"Ryan, do you think there is 'men's work' and 'Women's work?' "



Ryan: "You think too much. You know what I think about? Shear walls."



Maybe I needed this reality check. I'm hoping it's the pregnancy hormones (can only use that excuse for a good 4 months or so more...) but sometimes I feel sorry for myself and get a martyr attitude. Last week I had a bad attitude week. Poor me, I do EVERYTHING, blah blah blah. Now, not to discount myself, I do A LOT. Jack of all trades, master on none- that is me. And I think living with four other people in 320 square feet of living space, with another on the way, only makes the tedious chores I do repeatedly throughout the day, well, more tedious. When space is short, there is no "getting away" even for a minute. After two years of this, sometimes I think I've reached my point. You know, THE POINT. The point when you think you'll be in the loony bin any second. Take all this, ask your husband when he thinks the house might be done (grasping for hope, that's me) and discover/reaffirm you and your spouse have opposite views on how to get things done. (I'm a stress case, he's not. Lucky guy.) Think our discussion in the car last week that ended with a "Let's not talk about this anymore." couldn't have gone any worse and fell on deaf ears, mumbling in my head all week long about living in a trailer for the next ten years, thinking at least it will be paid for when we move out... negative thoughts. This weekend I decided to change my attitude, slipped miserably on Sunday (I don't know WHY I get so bad around Ryan's family, maybe deep down I'm hoping they know something about him I don't and can give me a hint. Maybe because they lived in a tiny trailer while building a house...) anyway, while digging footings today, I told Ryan I put all my sewing stuff in storage. He said "That's good, after talking last Sunday I decided to pawn off the living nativity to so and so, he'll do a good job, and finish this trailer and that's it. Nothing else but house." That was followed by "Kacy, Will, get OUT of the mud!" and we went back to our normal stuff. I leaned on my shovel while watching our kids make hideous messes of themselves. Ed came crying over to me and I checked his diaper- it was full of dirt. Dirt and a rash make a sad, sad baby. I took off his diaper while outside and he just smiled and laughed- ah relief. Anyway, I love Ryan, even when he threatens that the house will take five years to get done. (He was joking, I think...). I do take myself way too seriously way too often and forget to be fun a lot of the time. He reminds me relax. I need that. He once teased me when we were dating that I was Pollyanna because I USED to be positive. Not so much anymore, but I know my inner Pollyanna is somewhere, probably lurking in my pinkie toe. I'm going to dig her up.

What I learned today

One should strongly consider wearing pants when grinding on metal. (Not skateboard grinding- fabrication grinding.)

Why, oh Why?

These are my why's:

Why do the kids pick the one "Materism" from Cars that has the potential for disaster? "Holy shoot!" anyone? My kids new favorite word.

Why isn't my laundry getting as clean as it should be? My whites aren't white, and my kids clothes are always stained. Any laundry hints or tricks out there? Should I bug Ryan to fix the water heater so we have hot water for laundry? I bought some "bluing" for whites. I bought "Shout" spray.

Why does a pedicure and an eyebrow wax/shaping make me feel so much better? Oh, and real jeans. I did those things yesterday, and WOW! I felt almost like a girl again. I went shopping for jeans in my friend Amy's closet again, and I have two pairs of jeans that might get me through the winter. They are low rise, so I can wear them under my belly (which is getting quite obvious now) and if my butt doesn't get any bigger, I'll be super happy all winter. Yea! Now if I can just get Ryan to get our wagon out of storage, I can take walks while pulling the kids.

Bargain hair find: Those who know of Biosilk hair serum, it is awesome stuff. I found a cheaper version that works just as well: Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine anti-frizz serum. I found it at Rite-Aid on sale for 4.99. Biosilk is like $20.00. It works!

Last side note- went to the Dr. yesterday and everything is fine. It was a 5 minute appt. where they measure your belly and find the heartbeat. The heatbeat finder thingie was so quiet I could barely hear it. This cracks me up- the look the nurse had on her face, I've seen it on the Dr.'s face too: they look at you like you should jump up and down or cry at the wonder of it all. I'm just always relieved. But, not being very sentimental, I pretend to be thrilled. "Oh yea, I can hear it, that's really neat! Wow." When I'm thinking "Whew. There's a heartbeat still. Let's go." I am much more interested in the ultrasound and the end product.

Stock Market update

A big yawn for some of you I know- but I have decided to divulge my portfolio, although it was never a secret anyway. I was averaging a 30% rate of return until the unstable month of August, but I just looked, and it is back up to 25%. My goal is to keep it above 10%. So, I think I'm doing pretty well. I am not going to sell anything for awhile, and I have my own little theories that I've put together. My little portfolio is going to be my furniture fund, so that when I have a house again, I will have the cash to buy stuff! I am thinking extra large capacity washer and dryer, beds for the kiddos, great closet systems...

Here are the stocks I own:

Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD)- heard it was a good restaurant, and it is expanding into the untapped WEST- Maybe CA will be next!

Global Sources Lmtd. (GSOL) Wild Card- has done very well for me- has big ups and downs with a steady upward trend. Company located in the Bahamas that matches companies with foreign markets.

Nathan's Famous Hot dogs (NATH) Love their hot dogs, small company (micro) with steady performance.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (RMCF) I have to own stock in chocolate, and since my favorite See's candy is under the Berkshire-Hathaway umbrella, this was it. Pays small dividends, and has yummy product.

Meridian Bioscience (VIVO) Bought on a hunch just before it split. Steady performer that has treated my well. Plus, I like their ticker symbol- not very logical, I know.



I want to own stock in Chevron, which helped to make my grandparents rich. My grandpa worked for Standard Oil for years and had stocks as a perk. During the years (50's-80's) the stock did very well. I will start slow since it's kinda pricey for me. So there you go. My 25% performers, as of yesterday.

Running with the bulls, and more

The bulls!
The kites and the kids!

This is a picture of mt nephew Jared I took at Ed's birthday and then Photoshopped. I think it looks neat. Had to post it finally before the gets too old.

This week in words: Monday we found a nasty looking SCORPIAN under a sheet of plywood- great wildife lesson for the kids. ("DON'T TOUCH IT!") Tuesday while we were all outside in the evening, 2 BULLS came wondering into our cleared part of the property. This scared the kids even more than the scorpian. After watching us for a few minutes, they continued on their way. Another Wildlife lesson: We live in open range. Watch for bovine. Wednesday we went to church at night and the kids (not our kids, the teens at church) played dodgeball. If I wasn't pregnant, I would've played, it looks like fun! I also cleaned out my car, which took FOREVER! Today I am scanning OLD pictures and photoshopping them as best as I can (does anyone know how to remove stains from a picture? I've tried a few things, but I just think there is an easy button for that that I don't know about.) and I am still in process of cleaning out clothes. We don't have a lot of room (think one dresser drawer per kid, and two for me because my clothes are bigger.) We have learned to not have too many clothes... and now that the seasons are changing, we need to pack up summer and get ready for winter. Totally random post, eh?

A joke for Jimi

This post is for our friend Jimi. Kacy and Will wanted to pass along their favorite knock-knock joke. Ready?

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Cow says.
Cow says who?
Cows don't say who, cow says MOOOO!

We are thinking about you!

Updated at last

By popular demand- an update to the ol' blog. The problem is, I am tired. I would love to post more, but I just don't seem to make the time. I nap instead. I don't sew anymore right now either. Ed is at a BAD age for touching everything, and the heat is awful. I cannot iron without turning off the AC and that is just unacceptable right now. Plus, I love my naps.

On the positive side, I have some pictures of the kids to post soon to appease the family. I have some fun facts about them, too. Kacy's new words for the last week are retirement, transportation, and now oxidation. Will loves to have "Little bunny Foo foo" sung to him, and tried a spinach leaf today. He spit it out, but he still tried it. Ed tries to sing his ABC's, he has the tune right, and I can hear the letters abcd, hij. All the rest sounds the same.

Update on the adults in the family: Ryan has been very busy doing everything he's supposed to be doing. Stuff keeps getting in the way of more progress on the house: Example- Saturday he worked extra late (read: by the time he gets home it's dark outside...) because a drunk guy lost a wheel in the canyon, kept driving causing lots of sparks, and caught the canyon on fire. NICE!
My update: I'm still pregnant, I think I'm 15 weeks along (what day is it???) and my normal pants are getting tight. I am thinking it's about time for maternity pants, or at least this cool new band thing they have so you just unbutton your pants and wear it over... should get those for Thanksgiving dinner gifts for the family. The way my belly is growing is weird, but being pregnant can be weird, too. That's just me. Oh- and today I had a really simple spinach salad for lunch, followed by countless double stuffed peanut butter oreos. Don't be jealous.

you know you hang around law enforcement when

Conversation on the way home I had with Kacy today:

Kacy: "Mom, see that white truck up there?"
Me: "Yes."
Kacy: "They are bad. Bad drivers."
Me: "Why?"
Kacy: Because they crossed over that line. They must be drinking."

Confessions of a tired, crazy pregnant lady

I SHOULD be posting a picture of the wonderful work Ryan did with digging the footings, but I have yet to take a picture. Maybe I'll do THAT tomorrow morning.

Yesterday was Will's birthday. He turned three! To see pictures, I'm sure my MIL has some on her blog, or will shortly- see my list of buddies and click on cherie and david. If she doesn't have anything, she's very busy right now!

Today a few things happened that I want to document for posterity. Nothing really important.

I went to my favorite restaurant with my friend and visiting teacher (and the kids). This little Mexican restaurant is very good in my opinion, and I get one of two dishes. Today I got my favorite carne asada tacos with onion and lime juice. I enjoy this monthly lunch date. Jenny is a good friend with a lot of common sense. I enjoy her family, too- her brother and sisters and parents are in the ward. I sat by the women at our Relief Society luncheon on Saturday and had a lot of fun. The hi-lite of the luncheon was tasting the chicken salad, which was a perfect combination of ingredients. Some chicken salads are heavy on one thing or another, but this one was just right to me. Look forward to the recipe.

Today I exercised. I have a great set of DVD's that got me in great shape after I had Kacy. You don't have to shake your bootie or be talented in anyway- it's a no nonsense kind of workout. I was having this odd mental conversation with myself while doing it, and thought it was worth recording. I could always use a good laugh, especially when it's at myself.
1- should I even workout? Expanding waistline and butt scream yes! My brain says no. My throat says no (I think I might be sick- I feel fine, except for my throat which kills me every time I swallow. Wondering if I should go to the Dr. Probably wait.) I do end up exercising.
2- get thru stretches- no problems. I'm a little stiff.
3- Power Yoga- Don't do upward dog, need to see if plank and downward dog are preggo safe. I know just enough about yoga to know that some poses are not recommended for preggo ladies. Can't remember which ones though...
4- marchy leg lifty type things for lower impact, warm up. Used to hop thru it, today did low impact version. Still got tired.
5- high impact section- jumping jacks. I do ONE. Opt to do a jig instead. Do running in pace okay (does shuffling count?) and the run/lunge exercise. (like pretending you are on a climber. Kinda fun)
6-Take break with DVD- love those built in water breaks. Notice foul smell from kitchen and decide to locate asap. Pause DVD and recover a decomposing mouse in forgotten mouse trap. Remove trap to outside and resume DVD.
7-Kickboxing section- love kicking and punching, again choosing low impact versions. Contemplate future career as boxer. Remember I don't like pain or scars on my face, and my IQ has already dropped from having kids. Reconsider future career.
8-Finish DVD still standing. Managed to narrowly avoid kicking both Kacy and Ed in the head. Finish thinking I am really out of shape.

There is a thought that you start showing earlier in subsequent pregnancies because your body "remembers" what to do, including your belly muscles. IF this is a true phenomenon, WHY can't my muscles remember being 17 years old?

more news and thoughts

My more news is this: Ryan in out right now, as I type this, buying wood (and I think rebar) so that he can dig the footings and put the cement forms in! The sprinkler is going again on the dirt so that when he digs, our very sandy soil stays firm enough to get the forms in. Yesterday we put up more string and marked the dirt with paint where he needs to dig. Go footings!

My thoughts are these: I think I'm rich! Ha ha, not really, but I came to terms today with the fact that my kids cannot attend any of the preschools up here because Ryan makes too much money. I know he makes a lot, but where does it all go? We never seem to have any at the end of the month. But that is a personal problem we've have whether we made 50,000 a year or 110,000 a year (our record when we both worked and had no kids...) Anyways, my gripe is this: the ladies at the state run preschool led me to believe that my kids could go there. Every time I talked to them I told them I didn't qualify for income, and every time they replied "don't worry about it". So the week before school starts I run around Bakersfield getting paperwork, spend two horrific hours at the clinic doing TB stuff, and was told they would call me on Tuesday when they worked something out. Today is Wednesday, I called them, and was told "We have to take all the low income kids first. We haven't forgotten you". So I email the big boss at county superintendent (who taught a class I took at CSUB) and told her and she called me and we worked everything out. By that I mean she told me that there was no way my kids can go because of their state funding and our income. I said "Thank you for the straight answer" and that I was led along and wasted a bunch of time. She is going to talk to them tomorrow and set them right, I guess. I hate complaining, but I don't like wasting my time either. Raise your hands if you have ever sat with a crying one year old in a clinic for an hour while your 4 and almost 3 year old tried not to think about the shot that was coming to them. The county lady suggested I do a parent co-op (have a degree in Child Dev)... but I hate the licensing requirement of a director having to take this icky 3 unit class on how to be a manager of a preschool. I've attempted it twice, and the class is soooo lame. I have jumped through many hoops, but this is a hoop I'm not willing to go through. Looks like I'll try to find that playgroup again we tried last year. Maybe I'll put an ad in the paper to see if anyone up here is interested in a play group. I would love to do a playgroup twice a week AT a place. A building. I loved the field trips we took, but the parks could be windy and with little ones it's hard to watch everyone. At any rate, I need to go find my figurative "preschool teacher/child developmentalist" hat and brush off the dust. And wear it. But then again, I never went to preschool, and I took naps in Kindergarten and played and played and I think I'm fine... maybe a little mental, but otherwise fine...

Is it a...

Um, surprise! I guess I have to come out of the pregnancy closet and say that I am pregnant. My mom, who doesn't know yet, as she is in LA checking out the next three Yankee games and can't check her Internet (sorry mom!), told my sister Kendra to ask me because SHE thought I was getting chubby and the only time I get chubby is when I'm pregnant. I think she wanted me to be pregnant and was just LOOKING and WAITING for ANY possible clue. Okay, so I've gained five pounds already! And, it seems to be in my belly, which is a little odd for me, it usually goes to my bootie first. And for all you out there (that would be everyone...) who feel like I lied to you, technically no one asked me exactly if I was pregnant, so technically, I never lied. I think the "when are you going to have another one?" and me saying "I don't know" ISN'T a lie because my due date is March 4, and I have my babies a little early, so it could be March 1 or Feb. 27... and for the record, if this kid is born on Feb 29, I think that would be so cool because then we have a bona fide reason for saying "no birthday party this year honey, wait until your birthday..." not that we are party poopers or anything. Anyway, those who read the blogs get to know it first... and maybe I should call my mom tomorrow and let her know... although I hate it when she says "I KNEW IT" because she did.

shopping in hand me downs

Yesterday Jocelyn provided me the opportunity to go through a bunch of hand me downs for boys. I love hand me downs- I happen to have the "bestest" shopping friend ever who gives me all her old jeans- and they are NICE! Back to the kids- Will was the only one of my kids the clothes would fit. Kacy might be able to wear some of the jeans. I let Will pick out the shirts he liked. It was classic Will. (As I posted earlier this year, Will hates graphics on his shirts and cries when I put them on him.) We went through all the shirts, and it went like this:
Me holding red/blue stripe: "No mom, already have one" (he does, similar)
Me holding yellow/blue stripe: "no mom, it's yellow" (hates yellow)
Me and Jocelyn holding various Mickey Mouse shirts: "no mom, those are Ed's"
Me holding plain red tee and plain blue tee: "that's cool"

We were cracking up. He was true to form, and his favorite outfit is jeans and a plain red tee shirt. He still makes an exception for his Thomas shirt though. He'll be three this Sunday!

Two interesting (to me) bits of conversation I had yesterday: Jocelyn and I were talking about the parking situations at the IKEA stores, and Will says to his dinner plate : "Parking lots? What parking lots?" You had to be there. Then when we left I called my mom and asked if we could have a family party for Will next Tuesday at her house. When I hung up, Kacy asked who I was talking to, and I said "Your grandma Sorensen." Kacy: "You mean your mom?" Me:"yes, your grandma" and she said "But you are too big for a mom" I told her everyone has a mom and that when she gets older she'll move out of our house and be married and I'll still be her mom. She got teary eyed (she was very tired...) and said, "But mom, I don't want to move out! I'll miss you!" It's cute and heartwarming when a four year old says that. We may have to have a chat when she's 30 though.

What I did today...

I am taking a cue from Jocelyn and writing about my normal day. She reminded me that she uses her blog as a journal, and she's going to print all the posts as a book. That is why I started a blog, too; I wanted an easier way to journal. But then I got caught up in the fact that other people read what I write and I started not to write because I was boring. Am boring. Whatever. So, I am going to post more often, probably without pictures sometimes, so that I get back to the journaling part. So if I bore you, TOO BAD!!! My kids might find this interesting one day.

Today I took all three kids to the clinic up here to get Kacy and Will tested for TB. An hour after we got there we finally got in. Ed was the worst behaved. Poor guy, he is 14 months old and wants to RUN around and explore. He can't do that in a medical clinic. He was also very tired, and let everyone know about it by being very fussy. When we got to our room the kids got their tests right away. The nurse asked who was going to go first, and Kacy said "Will!" He went first, cried, and had to be held down by myself and a nurse. Then Kacy went, held her pink bear, and bravely laid there while being poked in the arm. She didn't cry. When we got to the car I asked Will why he cried and he said "I no cry mom."
"Yes you did. Did it hurt?" I asked him.
"No, it no hurt. I no cry."
"Yes you did Will, I saw you" chimed in Kacy.
"Nope." insisted Will.

That's his story and he won't change his mind.
After the awful clinic mess we went to the Pizza Barn for the all you can eat buffet. My kids are restaurant trained and the last two times we have gone somewhere they have been extremely well behaved and even helpful! I have walked out of both places thinking "what happened to my kids?" Oh yes- the whole reason for the TB tests is because the two are going to start preschool. Three hours a day, five days a week. WHAT am I going to do with the time? Kacy wants to start school so badly, and Will needs it because he is a little immature and could use someone else giving him instructions. He is the boy who in his nursery class at church had a lesson on being obedient, and when they played "stop and go" he stopped when he was supposed to go and went when he was supposed to stop. This from the boy who tells me to go when the lights turn green. He thinks it's funny. I heard him counting to 30 today (from 20, he doesn't know his teens, I think) and I thought "Is that Will?" He is my silently smart kid. Kacy likes praise, Will doesn't really care what you think.

our house is growing?

Here we are, watering our house. The water will (hopefully) help compact the soil, along with the compacting machine.
An attempt at a group shot... I have thought and thought about taking my kids to Walmart to get their pictures taken, as a group, but I'M SCARED! I know that Will is going to start crying and say "No mom, I no want to!" and then Ed will get all upset and I'll have nice pictures of Kacy with frizzy hair because she'll have "fixed" it. I think I will work on getting my nerve up soon, pack a bag full of wipes, clean cloths, and hair gel (poor kids need product already...) and just go. Maybe I'll tip the photographer if she/he can get them all looking at the camera at once.

a shot of spring

Thought we could all use a picture of cooler weather... ours was so nice last week and now it's hot again. I miss it already! It makes me look forward to the fall. The nights here get really cool, and I love it. I haven't posted in awhile, but it seems that many of us in my little circle have taken July off from blogging. It'll pick up again in awhile, I'm sure. Ryan is busy with work and church callings, I'm busy with kids and church callings, and I still haven't 100% unpacked from girls camp. I have so much to do I'm not sure where to start. I think I'll start with the dishes and then move on to laundry as the day gets cooler. I love taking warm clothes out of the dryer in the winter, but I hate it in the summer. Our laundry situation isn't the best yet either- between the five of us we have 2.5 feet of closet, which Ryan uses for uniforms and jackets. We have cupboard space, and it's not terrible, but how I look forward to hanging everything up on a hanger (easier than folding). I learned that at my old house, put hot clothes on hangers, hang them up and viola- time saved in both folding and ironing. Yea! Anyway, that's my post for the next week or so, unless something amazing happens. Right now Will keeps hitting everyone on the head with a flashlight (he's not making many friends today) and Kacy is asking for a drink and Ed is fighting with a toy he can't figure out. Awesome.

Our house is started!

This is a picture taken mid-completion of the initial dirt work. Today it is all level and flat, ready for the footings to be dug. The kids were playing in the mountains of dirt, if you look really closely, you can see Kacy and Will up at the top. This is exciting for us, we have been living in our fifth wheel trailer for two years in August. (August 27th to be exact). Trailer life isn't exactly great, but now that I have more convenient laundry access (no more trips to the laundromat or Bakersfield), and now that we've been on our own property, things have improved. We hated living in the campground. It was weird having different people come in every weekend, and I couldn't let the kids outside. People thought we were weird because we didn't hang outside playing games, bbq-ing and listening to music. It's a little different when you LIVE camping. When it's your vacation for four days you live it up and pull out all your good camping stuff, but when it's your life you try to make it seem as normal as possible. When you have a patrol car next to your RV, there are polar reactions with your camper neighbors. Some come and introduce themselves and try to be friends, and others stay far, far away. In my mind I'm thinking the former are just nice people with a law enforcement relative somewhere, and the latter are the felons. The campground was really nice and I would recommend it to anyone. It was just not fun to live there for 14 months. Our property is awesome. Out in the middle of nowhere. No weirdos. Our biggest worry is the wildlife, which we love. (On that side note, earlier this week Ryan heard two gunshots while getting dressed in the morning for work, and went to check it out. It came from our neighbors who come to their house annually and have a caretaker live there. Ryan drove over there and the caretaker had shot a stray coyote who was ill, he had patchy fur and was acting funny. We never considered that coyotes can carry doggie diseases that may infect puppies.)

Next week is girls camp. Both Ryan and I are going, as well as 5 other family members. I have to get the kids ready for their trips to the grandma's houses too. It should be fun. I'll be gone for a week and I'll be busy there, but it might be a nice break from the daily life of cartoons, laundry, cooking all the time in a kitchen too small. In fact, Ryan and his fam will be cooking for me twice a day! How awesome is that! I am planning to take a biffy box with me- I am going to fill a box with wipees, a little trash can, lysol, and glowsticks for night time lighting. This is mostly for myself, as I plan on showering as little as possible while there. There are no real showers, and my memories of heating water over the fire and then showering in the midst of tarps is vivid. It's not terrible, but since I've had kids and discovered the wonders of baby wipes, I think you could possibly go a whole year stink free and clean using wipees. Hair will be a different story, but hey, we are camping! As I've told Ryan, I should probably make more of an effort to look in the mirror everyday. But for occaisions like camping, my lack of caring about my looks is just right! We will not be here next week to update the blog or anything. I am looking forward to the downtime! I am still a little nervous about leaving the kids for a week, but I know they will be fine with the grandmas. They will have fun.

Goodbye Honda

Honda has passed away today. He got really sick this weekend, and no amount of IV's and plasma transfusions could save him. We feel terrible because we were dragging our feet to get him all his shots, and now he suffered from parvo and died. I don't think we'll get a puppy for awhile. I don't think the kids know exactly yet... I know Kacy understands, and Will doesn't, and Ed will propbably miss him the most, but luckily won't quite remember him.

Kacy's latest news

Kacy informed me that she no longer wishes to attend preschool or kindergarten. As we drove past both schools the other day, I explained that she and Will MIGHT go to preschool there in a few weeks, and that the Kindergarten is right THERE. I told her before you go to school you have to get a shot. She got really quiet, and then said: "Um, mom, I don't want to go to school anymore. I just want to stay home and watch cartoons."

No amount of explaining or milkshake bribing could convince her that a shot was okay.

Two posts in one

Good bye old friends- I fear it is time to says good bye to my favorite, favorite shoes in the whole wide world. I bought them in early spring of 2001. Now, summer of 2007, I have to think about throwing them away. Not only are they ragged, they are no longer wearable. I think I'll keep them in my shoe cubby for a few more months before I throw them away... (I tried to replace them but they don't make this style anymore...)
Dem bones... Honda is an archaeologist. He goes exploring every morning and these are the treasures he has brought home the last few days. The leg bone is really big, still has some juicy stuff on it, and weighs a lot. The jaw bone is missing some teeth, any one care to wager a guess as to the species of this animal? To be fair, Ryan says the bones don't go to the same animal. I have my guesses...

Today I made...

That is supposed to say "WOOL" hair clip, but that's what you get when you are in a hurry...

This is what I did today, along with a couple of dresses that are half done. With the scraps, I gussied up this onesie and attempted my first hair clip. I tried the clip on Kacy and it is really cute on the head. Looks a little funny laying there all lonely, with no hair to complement. I didn't have a girl model in the house that would fit this size 2t, and Ed would look funny... Now, do I try to sell it, or give it to someone I have in mind at church?

What a day

Today was a little crazy, all thanks to Will. He is the reason for this post. Maybe it's second child syndrome, I don't know, but why, oh why is he so goofy? He spread his beans all over his legs after rubbing his ranch dressing all over his face. Earlier in the day he wrote all over his legs...and he has had a rough time fighting over toys with both Kacy and Ed. (Ed won... he pulled on Will's 'fro and made him cry... Ed can be mean. At least, he stands up for what he believes in.) Kacy is in this because this is the pose she struck when I got the camera out, and she didn't want me to take her picture. I love this picture of her, it cracks me up! Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful day full of "mom, I'm thirsty" and "mom, so-and-so is doing this-and-that" Good thing I'm still in a good mood. I could use a diet pepsi though.

1952 dress

Here is a dress I made this week, and I have to say my favorite part is the shoes! It is from a 1952 reproduction pattern (Butterick something or other in case you are interested.)... it is made from 100% cotton, so in the 50's this would have been a more casual dress. I had to modify it a bit, adding some here and there to make more of a sleeve, and the black bow across the front to help keep the extra fabric I added in place and to break up the front, which ended up looking a little like a hospital gown. I love the fabric, it is from Denise Schmidt "Katie Jump Rope". Kacy took the picture of me, and with some creative Photoshopping, it doesn't look too bad.

turning 30

Today I turned 30 years old. We had a little swim party at my friend Jenny's house with a TON of kids (who swam the whole time) and their moms, with a grandma too! Everyone seemed to have a good time. My kids have a love/hate relationship with the water. They hate to love it. They get intimidated, but that's okay. It keeps them a little safer. I was nervous almost the whole time; I kept doing head counts for the three kids and could never fully relax. But it was fun! My thoughts on being the big 3-0: According to my mom, 50 is the new 30, so that makes 30... the new 20? I'd rather be 30 than 20 any day! I think I'll feel "old" when I turn 40, because my kids will be old. Personally, I think getting older is easier because there is less uncertainty. I love that Ryan's grandma was talking to my grandma's at a family party once and one of my grandma's looked at me and said, "Oh to be young again", and Ellen said "I wish I was 72 again. That was a good age." That is my goal! I want to be wishing to be 72 someday. That's awesome! So what is it like being 30? No different than 29, and way better than 20. I'm done with school (what a pain THAT was), I have a good hubby, three kids who can make me laugh and cry within the same day, and a puppy that needs to learn manners. I am venturing into being a micro-small business owner. My life right now is fun, if not busy.

Who needs Disneyland?

We had to take Ryan to pick up his truck this morning, and I told the kids we'd have donuts for breakfast since we were out. Will asked for donuts and soda, but I told him no. We went into town and visited our new favorite place, the donut shop. We had never been there before. When we were getting out of the car, Kacy said "Mom! This is going to be so exciting!" We went in, picked out a donut ( Kacy picked a pink one, Will got a white one, and Ed had donut holes) got some juice, and ate them inside. It was awesome! We ate donuts, we watched people coming in and out of the store, the kids were exceptionally well behaved. They asked when we can go again. All for under $7.00!

A few random thoughts

I was struggling last week with what to blog, it was a real stretch for me. But the last few days have been awesome, so I have something to say.



First, I made my niece SaraJane a cute dress/shirt with bloomers- I love the bloomers. LOVE THEM. Here is link so you can see her in it. You can't see her bloomers, but they are made of the polka dot material. http://www.michael-kendra.blogspot.com/ Kendra wants a matching set for her other daughter Gracie. Which brings me to my next subject...

I am opening an Etsy store. I am going to make children's clothing. I'm not looking to make big bucks, but maybe fund my habit (of sewing and looking at fabrics...). I have a few ideas in the works, and am working on my pricing. I can't sew for free, because the materials I use cost money, and since I've developed a skill, that skill is worth something.

Jocelyn and I are official insane. We have way too many ideas in our collective heads for what is good for us. I will keep you posted on THAT later. Think "CRAFTY"

I have quit the triathlon. It was stressing me out that I couldn't workout everyday like I wanted to, and I was starting to grow resentful of my whole family for not cooperating with me. So, I made a mature decision that I will just have to wait until my kids are old enough to watch after themselves for 30 minutes or more. I guess my goal for fitness will be to just be healthy. And fit. My new goal is to become "hot"... hee hee. I am going to work on doing my hair regularly, wearing nicer clothes when I go out, all the things "hot" girls do. I should probably wax my eyebrows too.

Last thing- I love the blogs. I read other people's, and I feel like I know all these people! For example- there is this girl Emily that I was friends with when we were freshman in high school. I transferred to a different school when I was a sophomore, but still saw her in seminary (but that doesn't count because who is really awake at that time in the morning???) I saw her a few times after high school before we both left town, but we never really talked. Why? I know on my end, I was like "Hey, there's Emily!" but I let the bad part of my personality take over. The part of me that was like "She probably doesn't remember you" and "what are you going to say to her anyway?" and "you're just a big dork, no one cares what you say." and "your wearing ugly clothes and your hair is frizzy." I saw her last week and a family function, because is this really weird way we are now kinda sorta related. We talked, and it was fun. All because of the blogs. You can see that other people are just like you, have the same stuff going on, and that there is nothing to be intimidated about. I've gotten over most of my insecurity, so that I don't care what people think anymore, but I'm still not as friendly as I want to be. I want to be one of those people who sees someone new in church and says hi, welcome, how are you... instead I am the girl who smiles and walks on by. But I'm getting better! oh, and I still know that I am a dork and I will always have frizzy hair, but I don't care. Isn't self acceptance great?