Why are you arguing?

Yesterday after schoolwork was done, I sent Bradley to clean his room. A little while later Calvin and Bradley come into the kitchen in the middle of an argument. I'm not paying close attention but it sounds like they are arguing about cleaning their room. After a few minutes it becomes semi-clear what they're arguing about. I think Calvin went in and offered to help clean the room and Bradley got mad and told him he had to help clean the room. (Pause for effect). Yes, they were arguing the same point to each other. I figured I'd let them work it out themselves. After about five minutes I got sick of listening to them and said, "That's enough, both of you go clean your room and work together!" (I may have yelled it). I'm not sure which one of them, but one said "Finally!" Which was quickly followed by "Thank you, Mom, " from both of them. It was like they were just waiting for me to solve their non-problem for them. Weird.

She's unstoppable!

The five year old is officially the family Tekken champion. She has kicked all of our butts multiple times, giggling as she does it. What's really funny is when Calvin (who is almost 13 and plays way more video games than Emma) asks her to please pick a different person so he can beat her. She giggles and says my person's stronger than yours, hehehehe.

Hooray!!

Hooray! Hooray! He comes home today!!

Not an exciting post.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my sister's house. The food was fabulous - as always - but mostly I enjoyed seeing all my sisters. I really miss how often I got to see them when we all lived within 15 minutes of each other. I even got to go shopping with some of them. Loved it!!

With Thanksgiving came some very cold weather. We all froze our fannies off. I even went a bought a new wool coat after that frosty weekend. I've not worn it yet. A warm front came through the day after I bought it. I've been wearing short sleeves ever since. It's ok though because it's only a matter of time before it gets cold here again and then I will be so happy in my new warm coat.

My days all run together lately. We get up, hopefully not too late, get the children started on school. Keep the children going on school. Feed the children. Try to stay ahead of the laundry and dishes. Remind the children to do school. Remind the children they can't do their school clubs if they have overdue lessons. Try not to let the little ones watch too much TV/video games - it's really hard when I'm trying to help the older kids with their school. Make dinner - try not to eat too much of dinner (for me eating too much has nothing to do with feeling hungry and has everything to do with just wanting to eat.) Get the children into bed. And then I'm too tired to do all the things I had planned to do once the children were in bed.

I keep thinking I want to get the children into piano lessons. I've even found a couple teachers in the area. Then I start thinking about how much we're already doing and I wonder why I would want to add something else into my schedule. I also want to get some of the kids into sports. Football and cheer were really great for Bradley and Dana but it was such a pain taking them to practice all the time. My gas bill dropped by over $200 a month when the season ended. Amazing. There are so many things out there that are really awesome for the children to be involved in and are so much fun for the children. They are all rather inconvenient and costly for me. I think there's a fine line between me being selfish and not wanting to drive the children to all their activities and my thinking honestly about what we as a family can and cannot accomplish. I need Calvin to learn to drive - oh and also age three more years. It's amazing to me how my parents managed to get all seven of us children to everywhere we needed to be.

I'm almost done Christmas shopping. We are getting our tree this weekend and I got out all the decorations today. Two weeks ago I got out my Christmas dishes and put away most of my everyday dishes. I love having Christmas dishes. I also love having paper plates. I went to Costco with my sister a couple weeks ago and stocked up on paper plates, cups, and bowls. Love it!! Especially since my dishwasher is completely unpredictable. Sometimes it takes two cycles and yes the dishes are completely rinsed before I put them in.

I need some house guests.

I think I'm done rambling for the evening.

A thing of beauty

I've been looking for a giant mixing bowl ever since the first time I made my mother's Thanksgiving rolls. The dough rose right out of my bowl. Made a huge mess. After years of searching, I found it today at Target. Isn't it beautiful?

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.4

It's a little unsettling

We have a new super Walmart opening soon. It's very big news in this semi-small town. Rumors are rampant that Hobby Lobby is coming to fill the soon to be empty Walmart. It would be awesome to have a real craft store in town. I really miss Joanns and Michaels. Anyway, the new super Walmart opens on Wednesday. The old Walmart closes on Tuesday. They stopped stocking the old Walmart about two weeks ago. The shelves are bare. I think I understand a little of how Old Mother Hubbard must have felt.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.4

My sourdough bread

I was impatient. I only let it rise 10 hours instead of the recommended 20. I still think it's beautiful. And no yeast, and no overwhelming sour taste. Actually, no sour taste at all. Yummy. Ok, yes I cheated, a little, at first, then I had a sandwich. Just couldn't resist.

On a sidenote, I figured out how to rotate pictures uploaded by my phone. :-)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

It's ready

This is what my sourdough stater is supposed to look like, I think. I'm making bread today. :-)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Cultured foods excite me.

While blog surfing the other night I came across this little gem of a blog. It's a blog all about crockpot cooking. How cool is that. But wait, it gets better. She had a post all about how to make yogurt in your crockpot. So easy!! I tried it out last night and it worked fabulously. Let's do a little math, shall we? I typically buy yogurt in the half gallon tub because that's the only brand that sells a plain whole milk yogurt. Costs me $4.99 per tub. Milk costs on average $2 per gallon. Making my own yogurt will cost $2 per gallon plus buying starter for the first batch (after the first batch you keep using your homemade yogurt as starter). I'm saving $8 per gallon of yogurt. Now when my kids ask if they can have yogurt, there is no hesitation on my part.

This blog looks awesome too. I found it tonight while looking for a way to make my own cultured buttermilk. I like to use buttermilk in a lot of my cooking.

I also found lots of websites telling how to make cultured sour cream or creme fraiche. According to FoodNetwork TV show hosts, creme fraiche is far superior to sour cream. According to all the websites I found, they're exactly the same thing. I don't really care what it's called so long as it's tangy and creamy and thick. Here's what I did, I put 1 cup of heavy cream into a pint jar. Added two tablespoons yogurt (most websites called for buttermilk - I'll try that next time and compare). Put on the lid and shook well to mix. Let it sit out for about 8 hours. It was all thick and looked like sour cream to me. So excited. I don't like sour cream with additives.

Now all I need is a cow...

Of course I couldn't taste any of my creations. I'm in the middle of an hCG round, hopefully my last round. I've lost just over 40 pounds so far. Yes, thank you, I'm rather excited about my much smaller backside. I have about three more weeks to go before I can taste any of these things - oh well. My kids are really enjoying them so they must not be that bad.

One more project of mine lately - sourdough bread. A friend of mine makes the most divine whole wheat sourdough bread. It's so yummy. She shared some of her starter with me today. I'm so excited to make bread without yeast. :-) I will keep you all posted on how the bread turns out.

This might work

So I think I found an app that lets me post to the blog from my phone.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Wow, how time does fly

You know I never mean to let this much time go by without a blog post. Several times I have gotten on here in the last month fully intending to post something profound. Ok, I'm never profound, but at least a chatty post about our lives. I finally sit down to post something and I've got nothing in my head. What's really weird about it is usually, three or four times a day, something significant happens or the kids say something adorable and I think, "I should blog that." And then by the time the kids are all in bed and I've relaxed and let my brain stop thinking about everything I need to do, my brilliant, half-written blog posts that existed in my head have vanished. I need to figure out a way to blog from my cell phone.

Anyways, today was the primary program in our ward. The kids were so cute and not just my kids either. There was this one little girl in Emma's class who was singing really loud. Seriously, her little five year old voice was drowning out the rest of the primary. Poor Emma was standing right next to her. Emma had her hands covering her ears. What was really cute about it was that the girl didn't exactly know all the words. She knew most of them, but sometimes she got it wrong. She still sang her little heart out. Derrick chickened out and wouldn't go to the microphone to say his line, which he had memorized. I was really looking forward to hearing him say "There is safety(mispronounced) in following(mispronounced) the prophet(mispronounced)." Emma's line had Joseph Smith in it, she pronounced Smith as "Smif." Maybe it was the blue color of her dress combined with "Smif" but I couldn't get the image of smurfs out of my head for quite a while.

All the kids have been working hard this week to get caught up on lessons. In the beginning of October we took the kids to science camp. It was so much fun. But it was also three days of scheduled lessons that didn't get done. I figured we'd do the lessons the following week during fall break. I was weak and didn't make them do their lessons. We did get some done but I didn't push them to get completely caught up. So then this week we really were committed to getting caught up, until Tuesday when we had to go to park. And then on Friday we had a field trip. So next week we will be fully committed instead of just really committed to getting caught up.

What makes it really hard to catch up is that all of the kids had portfolio assignments due. A portfolio assignment is basically an essay/report that needs to be turned into the teacher. They typically count for a high percentage of the grade so they need to be done right. I check all of them before the kids turn them in to make sure the kids understood the assignment. I also typically help them redo/format so that it meets the assignment criteria. We had so many overdue lessons that each of the kids had at least one portfolio they needed my help on. One of the kids had four portfolios. I also help them study for their tests and quizzes. Which were backed up as well. I finally had to tell the kids to go ahead and turn some things in without checking them. We'll see how that plays out for their grades.

Science camp was a lot of fun to do together as a family. In most traditional schools, only one grade will go to science camp. This was a family event. Derrick was the only one who wasn't able to go because he was too young. He got to stay with his aunt though and he had a blast. The camp was three day and there were really cool activities for us. Everyone had so much fun. I'm looking forward to next year already. Maybe next year we'll actually take the camera out of it's case and snap a few photos. Maybe.

The field trip we went on last Friday was to Apple Annies. It's an orchard/farm around here. They had a corn maze that was really rather cool. Again it was a whole family event. I've never really been able to go on any field trips with the kids because chaperones are not allowed to take extra kids with them. I've always had so many doctor appointments that I was asking people to watch the kids for that I didn't feel right about asking them to watch the kids so I could go on a field trip, so I never went. It's really fun to be able to go on field trips as a family. As a HUGE bonus, Chris was able to come home from his business trip a day early and join us at the farm. Love it when that happens.

They had a market set up with pumpkins and squash and other vegetables were on sale. While we were walking through it, one of the big boxes had knobby squash in it. Derrick looked in and said, "Dad, those are freaky pumpkins." I love it when the kids start using words that I just don't expect from them, like freaky.

Mom, school is important too...

We moved + homeschooling + Chris out of town = disastrously messy house.

Disastrously messy house + visiting teachers coming over = frenzied cleaning morning.

Frenzied cleaning morning = kids doing chores instead of school work = following conversation...

Me: Dana, have you finished putting away the clothes yet?

Dana: No, not yet.

Me: Please hurry and get that done.

Dana: Mom, am I going to do school today?

Me: Yes, but later, right now we need to get chores done.

Dana: Mom, school is really important.

Me: Yes it is. So is keeping your room clean. Get to work.

Apparently Dana doesn't think I'm prioritizing properly.

First Football Games

Bradley and Dana both had their first football games yesterday. The games were scheduled four hours apart so it wasn't a problem to make it to both even though Chris was unavailable. Dana, Emma, and Derrick came to watch Bradley's game. Calvin wanted to stay home. We dropped Bradley off for his game and then went to Walmart and bought huge umbrellas. We would have baked under the sun without them and they made the whole ordeal tolerable. Sorry, I'm just not much of a football fan. Bradley won his game and then we hurried home, Dana and I changed (I can't go to a Dana's game wearing Bradley's team shirt), and we hurried off to her game. Luckily a friend of mine watched Emma and Derrick for me. Again, Calvin wanted to stay home and I left Bradley home to get some school work done. So I was at Dana's game all by my lonesome. Rather nice. We were the away team for that game and it was late afternoon which put the sun right in my eyes. But I had the giant umbrella so I just positioned it down to block the sun. It also blocked the game that way. Like I said, not much of a football fan. I read a new cookbook I bought recently. I also fell asleep briefly. Aside from the sweltering heat (ok it was only about 88 degrees) it was a rather pleasant afternoon.

I think I'm rambling...

Today was a great day. The kids were all well fed with rather nutritious food. No one was seriously injured. All required bathing took place. We made it to most of our scheduled events. The events that were missed were not really necessary anyway. Two of the kids are completely up to date with school. One of the children is only a day behind in school. And the other child is a week and a half ahead in one subject, a day behind in the rest. How exactly do you classify that? I even took the kids to the park and had a picnic dinner. Have I done any cleaning? No. Are there piles of paperwork that are waiting to be attended/filed/paid? Yes. Are my expectations for a successful day are too low? Quite possibly. Oh well. I still feel quite accomplished for the day.

Random thought - it is amazing how little motivation I have to load the dishwasher when it doesn't do a very good job. I have less motivation to have the kids load the dishes because if they're not loaded just right, they come out terrible.

I have managed to sort out most of the toys. I have a rather large donation box and have thrown away a full garbage bag. Did that two days ago. I still have yet to figure out where to put the toys that made the cut. Perhaps I need to sort again and cut deeper. Goal for tomorrow, find a place for the toys. Spread out in boxes and bins on the living room floor is unacceptable.

Another goal for tomorrow, hang the pictures. And then if there's time sort out the books and knickknacks.

He's a traveling man

We are so blessed. In a time when so many people are losing their jobs, Chris has a job. He has a great job. He loves his job. He gets to do something he's really good at and enjoys doing. He also gets to take clients out to lunch. There's one tiny aspect of his job that I don't care for much. He has to travel from time to time. It's usually not very often. Lately it's been a lot. Very inconvenient for me with the move and all. He left this morning for Germany. (sigh) I wish I could've gone with him. That would have been so much fun. But, lots of reasons why I can't go, this time.

Calvin is doing a great job keeping up with his school work. He's a little overeager at times and submits his work before having it checked by me. His teachers are really nice about it and let him redo them.

Bradley has been playing football. He seems to be really enjoying it. He also seems to have inherited his athletic abilities from me. Poor kid. But what's important is that he is having fun.

Dana is really enjoying cheer leading. She's full of spirit.

Emma is really loving school. She loves everything about school. She's learning about rhyming words and her letters and numbers.

Derrick is bouncing around, knocking everything out of sync. His attention span only allows him to participate with about half of Emma's school work. But in that amount of time he catches almost as much as she does. He's a smart, bouncy disruption to our day. Lucky for him he's so darn cute. He has also been taking long naps every afternoon. Downright peaceful around here in the afternoon.

With Bradley and Dana both doing sports in the evenings and Calvin and Bradley in scouts, I find myself really juggling how to get the kids where they need to be. Every evening has something happening. There are so many things pulling me in different directions. I don't know how single parents do it. It's hard enough when Chris is in town and nearly impossible to make it everywhere when he's gone.

Well, Emma and Derrick need me to help them with an art project. Today is not a school day, but we have some art projects to get caught up on. Sounds like a good holiday activity to me.

Busy busy busy

So we did really well with keeping up with school for about four days. Then, not so much. Chris found out the middle of last week that he was going to be out of town for this whole week and then the following week too (coming home weekends only). So much for planning a slow move over the whole month. We fast tracked our move to get as much done last weekend before Chris was out of town. (You may remember that he went out of town right after our last move too). Chris had to work long days the whole week before he went out of town as well, so there was no a lot we could do during the week. We ended up getting most of it done, but to do that I had to spend all day last Friday moving, completely neglecting my learning coach duties. Friday Emma did no school. The three older kids got most of their stuff done.

Not a big deal to get a little behind. However, Monday Calvin had a doctor appointment in Phoenix. So I tried to plan ahead and printed off all of their lessons and brought all their books so they could get school done in the car. Didn't really work out. I couldn't help them since I was driving. So that hour or so that I spent trying to find all their books and print off all their lessons - wasted. If you're keeping track, Emma is now two full days behind and everybody is one full day behind. Emma still isn't completely caught up and neither is Dana. Calvin and Bradley managed to get all caught up today.

So I've been working really hard to get the kids all caught up on school. I've done next to nothing on unpacking/organizing. The chaos in the house is slowly spreading. I have no idea where to put things. I think I'm a perfectionist and it's getting in the way of my ability to put things away. I have to analyze each item and think of the best place for each item. Where will this item be used? Store it near where it's used. Where will the kids be able to put it away? Where will the kids not be able to reach this item? Where will this item fit? etc. All really good things to consider. But if I'm considering all that about the can opener or the silverware or the everything... you get the picture. Nothing is getting put away and everything is in the way. Really I need to just put things where they are not in the way for now. I spend a good portion of my day finding items the kids need to accomplish their lessons for school. You're probably thinking, why are you blogging about this when you should be organizing something? You have a very valid point. I'm too tired. Why am I not sleeping? I'm not tired enough to fall asleep without Chris. Remember, he's on a business trip.

Moving again

Yes, that's right, we're moving again. We weren't planning on moving again so soon but it just worked out that way. We found a house that is considerably cheaper and yet still big enough to easily accommodate us. We felt bad telling our landlord. They are our next door neighbors and we love living next door to them, but as it turns out, they kinda needed us to move so they could move into this house. They found someone to buy the house they were living in and didn't want to ask us to move out. They were exploring other options because they felt bad asking us to move out only six months after we moved in. So it all works out really well for everyone, except for the small detail of actually having to move. That part sucks.

Contest announcement

If you live in the SV area, you can enter to win a free photoshoot from this website.

So tired

We sent him to bed, he didn't make it.

Shopping in my own closet...

Such an exciting morning. I was able to put on jeans that I haven't been able to wear in over a year. Chris confirmed - they look good. YEAH!!!

Total loss so far - 23 pounds.

Contacts and cheerleading

Our day started out with a trip to the optometrist. Bradley and Dana both failed the vision screening portion of their sports physicals. I was expecting Bradley to need a new prescription soon but I wasn't expecting Dana to need glasses. While we were at the optometrist, he recommended Bradley try out contacts. I thought Bradley might be too young but he said he has patients with contacts at that age. So we gave it a try. For about two hours we gave it a try. Bradley was so close to being able to put them in and take them out by himself, but he just couldn't quite bring himself to touch his eye. He finally wanted to stop and try again next year. I think we'll try again in a month or so. The exam is good for six months they said, after that he will need a new exam to get contacts.

Dana got to go meet her cheerleading coach and get sized for uniforms. I think they're going to be really cute. The skirts are a lot longer than I was expecting too - thank goodness. Her coach seems to be really nice and seems to be good working with children. She said she would see what she could do about making sure Bradley is on the team that Dana cheers for. It would really simplify my life to have them on the same team for games.

I have now lost 20 pounds. :-)

He did a bad, bad thing.

My sweet husband has been out of town for a few days. Every time he goes on a business trip he always keeps his eyes open for a See's chocolate store. He knows they are my favorite and there isn't one in town here. Well, he found one at the airport last night. He even remembered that dark chocolate is my favorite.

... HELLO!?!?! ...  Diet????

He starts to get it out of the truck and immediately apologizes. He saw the candy store and knew I'd love it, bought it, and then remembered about the diet. Oops. I was going to put them on top of the fridge and not touch them for two months. Ya right. That didn't happen. Five minutes after I had that thought I ripped open the box and ate more than a few. In my utterly weak defense, I did let the kids have way more than I would have shared before the diet. I know - totally weak defense. But come on, not just dark chocolate, but See's dark chocolate. I'm not that strong.

Is this a prank?

Calvin had a doctor appointment in Tucson recently. By the time we were done with the appointment it was lunchtime. There are only a couple of fast food places in Tucson that I trust. I've had too many bad experiences to try many new places so we pretty much always go to the Carl's Jr next to Costco. Calvin only likes his cheeseburgers one way, lettuce and mayo. He never varies. Most fast food places do not get it right. With multiple children in the drive-thru I don't always allow them to make special requests but make them eat it the way it comes. It's too confusing to figure out five special orders. This particular day I order Calvin's special for him. I ask for a cheeseburger with just lettuce and mayo. He opens it up and asks, "Is this a prank?" There was no bun. I start laughing and say, "Nope, that's exactly what I ordered." Sorry, I thought the bun was understood, not at Carl's Jr. They are really accommodating to the low-carb crowd. In this case, a little too accommodating.

Is he big? or is he little?

Me: Derrick, go downstairs and brush your teeth.

Derrick: I don't want to go downstairs, that's not my bathroom.

Me: Yes it is, it's the kids bathroom. Go brush your teeth.

Derrick: I'm not a kid.

Me: (Pause) What are you?

Derrick: I'm a little boy.

Me: Go ask Dad if you're a kid.

Derrick then asks Chris if he's a kid and Chris (having not heard my conversation with Derrick) says, "No, you're a monkey." Now tell me that's not confusing for a little guy.

Emma is now old enough to not need a car seat. She and Derrick are almost the same size. Derrick has started telling me that he's big and he doesn't need a car seat either. He's not buying my reasoning that he's still younger than her. He's about half an inch shorter and weighs the same. To him, they're the same size and if she's big enough to not need a car seat, so is he.

We took the kids to Kartchner Caverns today. It's a really neat tour and the kids always enjoy it. During the tour Derrick tells me he's too little for something and I ask him, "You're little? I thought you were a big boy." He replies, "I'm a little bit little."

No really, it is broken.

Have you ever bought something, taken it home and then find out that it doesn't work like it should? And then you take that item back to the store and then it works fine for the salesman? Did you feel like an idiot? Well, Chris and I bought a tv stand the other day. We had been looking for one for a couple months and hadn't found one we both liked and also liked the price. We finally found one. Took it home and when we went to put the shelves in, they didn't fit. So we called the salesman and he said it was just tight and to push harder. Well, Chris pushed harder and we hear this cracking sound and the shelf still doesn't fit. Part of the interior had cracked. We took it back to the store and when we get there we start to show them that the shelf doesn't fit. But that's when the shelf fit perfectly. We were dumbfounded. They look at it for awhile, we look at it for awhile. We feel like idiots. Finally we found where it had cracked. The whole interior section was shifting side to side. That's why it didn't fit at home but it did at the store. It had shifted before we ever got home, so the thing was broken when we bought it. The store was really nice about it and ordered us a new one.

It's too short

Ever since we moved into this new house I've had a vision of what the laundry room should look like. I have not achieved it yet. My vision is nicely organized and everything is in a convenient location. My washer and dryer also need to be stacked in order to achieve my vision. They have been on pedestals since we bought them five years ago and I've always liked them that way. However in this house I think the laundry room will be much better organized if the washer and dryer are stacked. Chris agreed to help me set it up last night. To say the washer was heavy would be a huge understatement. In order to get the pedestal off, you have to lay the washer on it's side. Not easy when the washer weighs like a ton. We finally got it off and got the washer back upright. We pull the dryer out and that's when we notice that my vision of stacking the washer and dryer is not going to happen - at least not that night. The plug for the dryer is in the far lower corner from where they will be when stacked. It's a good six feet from the outlet in the wall to the back of the dryer where the cord comes out. The cord on the dryer is about three feet long. It will never reach. I need to get a new dryer cord in order to get them stacked. We decided not to bother with taking off the other pedestal for now. For three months now, I go in the laundry room everyday (three loads per day average) and think how nice it would be to have them stacked. I was so close. I'm sure Home Depot or Lowes sells a dryer cord in the length that I need. I just didn't want to have to wait any longer. Patience not my strong point these days.

I have gone down a size in my clothes and my muffin top is officially gone. :-) Happy day!!

Bradley the actor

A friend told me yesterday about a traveling children's theater group that was coming to town this week. Auditions were today. We all thought Dana would enjoy doing it and I wanted to get her to the audition. They were this morning at 9:00. The problem was that Calvin had a doctor's appointment in Tucson at 9:45. No way for me to make it to both. Lucky for me Chris had the morning off. Dana and Bradley have swim lessons from 8:30 to 9:00 so it was going to be tight. I really thought Dana would like to do it and I thought Bradley would do it but not be excited about it. I was wrong. My friends who were able to be there said that Dana really clammed up and acted like she didn't want to do it but that Bradley was a real ham on stage. Bradley got one of the main roles. I'm so proud of him. I talked to Dana about it and she said there were too many people there that she didn't know and that she didn't want to do it. Oh well, maybe she doesn't enjoy the spotlight as much as we thought.

I had to take Emma and Derrick with me to Calvin's doctor appointment. I was again reminded of the issues I have when taking Calvin and Derrick out together somewhere. It doesn't seem to matter where we go, there are issues with those two. Derrick wants to run around and I'm ok with him doing it a little, but then Calvin gets involved trying to stop Derrick and then Derrick thinks it's a game and runs farther and so on and so forth. Calvin is trying to help but is really causing problems. Derrick is fine if Calvin will leave him alone. It's so frustrating.

Wahoo!!

Day seven of hCG and I am down 12 pounds. My muffin top is much diminished!!

Yesterday I went on a hike with the cub scouts. I was a little worried that because of the diet I wouldn't have the energy I needed to make it and would need to be carried out. Not a problem at all. I felt as good as I normally do on a hike - ok I thought I was going to die a few times, but that's totally normal and related to my cardiovascular health and once my heart recovered I felt fine again. I felt like I had plenty of energy the whole time, and the rest of the day as well.

We're getting ready to take the kids up the mountain for a short walk now.

Day Three

So here we go. We are now on day three of the hCG diet. Day one and two hardly count as a diet because you're supposed to eat like a glutton. We took those days very seriously - it was glorious. I am a glutton. Today starts the actual restricted diet. Here we go.

I think we now are officially rednecks...

Yesterday afternoon saw a lot of action. Chris got to use his rifle on an actual moving target. Derrick found a rattle snake in the barn. It was a small one but it was definitely a rattler. The neighbors had a few extra kids for the day and they came over to tell us about the snake. My neighbor didn't know that Chris was home yesterday so she called the fire department to come take care of the snake. The kids found one out there four or five days earlier but by the time the fire department showed up, the snake was gone. Chris didn't want the snake to get away waiting for the fire department so he got out his 22 and went to take care of business. As he's getting the gun out and getting it loaded and taking the trigger lock off of it we realize that it sure takes a long time to get it ready to fire. It's a good thing we don't actually need it for protection. Back to the snake. Chris went out there and shot the snake four times. It still wasn't dead so one of the neighbor boys went to find a shovel to cut its head off. Chris went inside to put his gun away and while he was there he sees that Derrick is at the door talking to a fireman. The neighbor always gives our address to people who are coming because we have house numbers and she doesn't. So the firemen come to our house and there's no adults here. Derrick is having quite the conversation with them I guess. The fireman told Chris he wishes he could have videotaped the conversation with Derrick because it was so funny. That leaves Chris and I really wondering what little DerrDerr told the fireman. He won't tell us what he said, he just keeps saying that he wants to go to the fire station and talk to the other firefighter. Anyways, back to the bunnies. The rattlesnake had bitten two of the rabbits, so they needed to be disposed of. Then since Chris was home and the gun was already out, our neighbor asked if Chris would help her boys kill a few of the rabbits since they had too many. Chris let three of the boys kill a rabbit each and he almost got shot himself. I don't think he's going to let those same boys shoot a rabbit again. Bradley was one of the lucky ones who got to use the gun and he told our neighbor that he wanted to have the rabbit after it was cleaned. So we put it in the crockpot and today the kids are eating rabbit for lunch. I tasted it. It's not quite like chicken, but it's not too far off of it either. I think with BBQ sauce you'd never know what it was. So there you have it, I and my children are now rabbit eating rednecks.

Derrick is getting into this eating animals thing a little too much. He just came in and asked if we were going to eat our kitties when they get bigger. I told him no, we don't eat kitties. He said, "well, some people do." Um...we do not.

He also just tried to cut off his own eyelashes with the scissors.

Goal for the day - toy downsizing/decluttering.

Three in one day - don't faint.

I just had to post one more time. I am starting hCG again today. So excited for my skinny self to magically reappear. I will probably need two rounds to find my former glory. I'm not ready to post any before pictures because I don't have any fabulous after pictures to balance out the horror. We'll see if I'm brave enough to do that later on. Wish me luck!!

Family pictures on their way

I know it's been months since I've posted any pictures on here. And then I do a product review and post a picture for that. Lame. We did have family pictures taken a couple weeks ago. We are waiting for them to be finished. I guess the photographer takes about three weeks to do digital enhancements to them. Maybe she'll make me look skinny - that would be awesome and I would so pay extra for that. I doubt that's what she's doing. When the temple was dedicated my family all got together for the first time in years and we had a family picture with everyone. It has been over five years since we've done that. Most of the family would get together for holidays and whatnot, but we were never all together at the same time. It was really nice to see everyone together and spend the afternoon there.

Anyways - pictures are coming - soon.

Product Review - LemiShine

This stuff is amazing!! My dishes have never been so clean. When we first moved here, the dishwasher was alright. I thought it was just an ok dishwasher and I should just not expect the results I had in Queen Creek with my awesome dishwasher (not to mention water softener system). I was ok with that. But after a few months the dishes got worse. And then it seemed they got worse with each load of dishes that were washed. I asked my neighbor about it and she said the water was so hard here that was the problem. She said she used something to clean out the dishwasher once a month and it made a big difference. She showed me her dishes before and after (she had forgotten to use it for the last six months and so she had some dishes that looked just like mine). She couldn't remember what she had used to clean out the dishwasher so I went on a hunt. I found this.

It truly is amazing! I had to run the dishwasher empty and let it soak overnight to clean the buildup out of the dishwasher. And then I ran a load of my dishes through. The picture on the front of the bottle is exactly what my glasses looked like both before and after. Yippey!!!

I stayed up to watch THIS!?!?!?!

I really do not like movies that show a couple in love, who then gets married, and then screws up the marriage. I do not like when they show how happy they are before they get married, and then show how much misery they are in after a few years of marriage. I don't like seeing a couple lose their love for each other and then separate and then one of them dies a miserable death and the one that's still alive recognizes what she lost. Pathetic!! I HATE watching movies that show people being royally stupid in their marriage. It really bothers me. Yes, I just watched one such movie. Yes, I was disturbed by it. Is it really late? Yes, it is. Should I have gone to bed instead of watching said movie. Absolutely. I should have done anything else. Netflix should have a filter on it for happy endings, which surprisingly I think this particular movie would have passed that filter anyways because the last two minutes of the movie the "heroine" turns her life around and blah blah blah. Netflix needs a filter on it for the portrayal of stupid married couples. That's what Netflix needs.

I miss my beloved.

Dear blogging friends - my apologies regarding my laziness.

So the school year ended and the kids are now home. We took a few days to be VERY lazy, but that's now out of our system and we are ready to not be lazy. Chris had a novel idea for the kids to be more helpful with the chores. Each child is assigned a specific room/area that they are responsible for all day. Additional chores are assigned each day to address areas that don't need daily attention. It's been two days so far and the house is looking (and smelling) awesome. When the kids are done with the assigned chores, then I'm willing to let them do paid extra chores, although Dana is the only one who feels that the wages are sufficient for the work. And that's fine with me, she's usually the only one who does a job worthy of getting paid.

We took the kids to the temple open house last month. I went one day while Chris was at work. It was a really windy day and I was not wearing an appropriate skirt for such wind. Calvin was in a wheelchair from his recent surgery on his ankles and so I'm there trying to get the wheelchair out of the back of the van and trying to not flash the whole parking lot. The usher who was opening the doors of the church finally came over to help me. His words "I'll get the wheelchair, you hold your shirt." (Sigh) embarrassing! It was so worth taking the kids up there though. As we were leaving Dana says, "Mom, that was so beautiful. Thank you for bringing us here." We went again a couple weeks after that, this time Chris came with us and I wore a more wind worthy skirt. After the temple was dedicated, Derrick asked when we were going to go again. We told him he needed to be 12 to be able to go inside now and he responded with "but, I am 12." I think he still doesn't believe us that he's not allowed to go inside. (And he has no concept of his own age - my mom asked him how old he is and he answered, "I'm four, but my mom thinks I'm three." Sometimes he says 16 or 8 or 10 - totally random. Dana used to do that too.)

Dana's birthday was on Monday of this week. I wasn't ever able to come up with ideas for presents for her and so we just took her shopping for her presents. We went to Sears and bought her a new wardrobe. She was in dire need. All of her clothes were looking threadbare or stained. She's now looking quite the snappy dresser. We also took her to Gamestop and let her pick out one Wii game. She picked out Pony Friends 2. We tried to encourage other choices but that's the one she wanted. Funny thing is the boys have been playing it almost as much as she has. Calvin is trying to build up his profile so he can buy a mustang - never mind that it's not a car, he still wants the mustang.

I have started the process of registering the kids for online schooling. I'm really excited about them being home with me next year. I'm a little nervous about the organization required to make this work but I'm sure it will all work out.

Wow - didnt mean to neglect...

I hadn't realized how long it's been since my last post.

Quick summary - we all got well. We went to a wedding in Phoenix - beautiful. Spent a few days in a cabin in Pine - lovely. Came home and finished unpacking boxes and organizing toys and clothes. Boys outgrew their clothing, again. Calvin went on a camp out on the army base here, it was a Camporee with other boy scout troops. One of the other troops started a wildfire - burned 6 acres. Bradley is excited to be signed up for Football in the fall - it will be really good for him. Dana wants to sign up for cheer leading and I'm really having mixed feelings about it. Emma is pure sweetness and has discovered the crayola cutter. Derrick is like lemonade - super sweet with a tartness. Derrick doesn't understand why I want his toys to be put away at night. Bradley doesn't understand why he has to help pick up the toys that he didn't play with. I simply remind him that I do all his laundry while I certainly didn't dirty the clothes. Calvin just had surgery on his ankles - went really well. He's enjoying staying home and getting so much unshared time on the video games. Lest you think I'm letting his brain turn to mush, he is keeping up on his school work and I do require equal time of reading for video game time.

Funny thing Derrick said the other day - Chris brought a friend to church last Sunday. His name is Paul and he shaves his head. Derrick asked Chris if Paul had hair and Chris told him to ask Paul. Derrick slowly climbs right up next to his face and whispers "do you have hair?"

It snowed this morning. I know - late April. That global warming thing is gonna freeze us all out before long. I'm a little concerned about the garden. We had some nice tomato and strawberry plants out there. The pepper plants were not looking so great before the snow, so we'll have to see what survived out there. Derrick comes into our bedroom this morning and says he can't find his socks. I tell him to look on the couch and fall back asleep - this was at 5:00 AM. Then he comes in and asks where his snow gloves are. That caught my attention. I asked if there's snow outside and Derrick's excitement is heard in his response. I thoroughly disappoint him by telling him it's too early to go out and play in the snow. With the snow I am feeling totally justified in turning the heat back on yesterday. I hope some of the apricots make it.

Not so busy...

Not because there isn't anything to do. Oh no, there's lots to do. We've all been sick - again. All the kids have taken turns staying home from school and church. The little ones sound like they're going to cough up a lung. And the mild fevers seem to never end. I missed my college roommate's wedding reception - I was really looking forward to seeing a bunch of old friends that I hadn't seen in years. Total bummer.

I think I would rather have one to two days of really being sick than two weeks of come and go mild fever. Get it over with and move on instead of lingering and feeling just bad enough that nothing gets done but not bad enough to feel justified in doing nothing.

This morning the little ones seemed to be feeling better finally so I took them to the mall to get a little shopping done. Bad idea. Halfway through they started coughing and my mild headache/fever came back. We weren't ready for an outing. We were sick and tired of being sick and tired and so wanted to get out of the house. But it was just a little too early.

I did find really cute Easter skirts for Dana and Emma. They will actually match this year. The dress selection in this town really leaves something to be desired. There are not very many choices. It's nearly impossible to find matching clothes for those two. Dana is in the older girls range and Emma is still in the little girl range. The mall here doesn't have any stores that cater to girls/children's clothing. It's very disappointing, but not worth driving to Tucson for. If I had planned a little bit earlier I could've ordered something cute online. But I didn't.

Anyways, I think I'm done rambling for the evening.

So busy

Ok, so we've been rather busy. We moved on the 13th and then right after that Chris had a business trip he had to go to and was gone for most of the week following the move. That was lame. Chris got home and now we've been in this new house for just over a week. It's been so busy.

Funny thing that Derrick said the other day - I asked him if he wanted a grilled cheese sandwich. He said, "No, I want a boy cheese sandwich."

Not ready to fly solo

Do you remember that old movie Better Off Dead? Remember the mother was a truly terrible cook? Remember the green slime pudding that crawled off the plate? Dana concocted something similarly creepy last night. I was helping Chris with his class and I wanted Dana to make popcorn and watch a movie with the little ones. But we were out of popcorn. So I told her to make cookies. She's done it before, but always with supervision. I thought she was ready. She wasn't. We knew something wasn't right when she came in and told us that Derrick was helping her mix them up and he had stirred it too much. Chris and I look at each other, not sure how you stir cookie dough too much. We told her to take care of it because we had to focus on his class. Then right after we finish, she brings in what I find out to be the second batch of cookie dough. She asks, "Does this look right?" This is what reminded us of the scene in the movie when the pudding crawls off the plate. Talk about slimy looking mess - whoa!! It was the consistency of snot with chocolate chips dispersed throughout. I go into the kitchen to find the first batch and it's looking like brownie batter. I find measuring cups with melted butter in them and realize she has forgotten what it means to "cream" the butter and sugar together. She has melted the butter. That in turn melted the chocolate chips in the first batch, which she then abandoned to make the second batch. I ask her how much of different ingredients she has put in. She's gotten everything right except for the flour. The recipe called for 2 and 1/4 cups plus 1/2 cup for elevation. (I had to alter my favorite recipe for our altitude here.) She put in 1/2 cup of flour. I decided that I may as well try to salvage it if the only thing missing was flour. At that point all I'm risking is 4-5 cups of flour, the rest of the ingredients were already a lost cause if I didn't try to save it. So I mixed the two batches together and added flour. Lots of flour. They turned out pretty good - not fabulous like the recipe done right, but pretty darn good for looking like it would crawl off the plate.

Snow...

It snowed here last week. It didn't stick down here but there was snow really low on the mountain. We took the kids up on Saturday to play in the snow. Everyone loved it. Some loved it longer than others.
Emma didn't last very long. One very small snowball in the face and she was done. Everyone else had lots of fun though. We made a small sad little snowman. We just have no experience there. One of the older kids was shocked to find that their butt was wet after sitting down. We really thought they should have figured that out beforehand. It was lots of fun and we look forward to doing it again.

Music lessons

So this year has really been a struggle for Bradley as far as homework is concerned. We've decided he has two speeds when being compelled to do something he doesn't want to do - slow and slower. We've tried several different methods for encouraging him to get it done in a timely manner. None worked all that well. I'm not exaggerating when I say he would spend 7 hours on homework that should take maybe 30 minutes tops. About a week ago he came home from school with one of these -

a recorder.

He asked if he could practice it and I told him he could as soon as his homework was done. He grumbled. But then he got his homework done - quickly. The next day, he didn't say anything when he got home he just sat down and did his homework. He was done in about 20 minutes. That was the first time all year that he had gotten his homework done so quickly. He's done this every night since he brought home the recorder. My friend is the PTO president and she is the one who is teaching the 4th graders to play the recorder. I told her how great it's been for Bradley but I don't know if she can possibly appreciate how ecstatic we are that Bradley is doing his homework like we knew he could.

It's due WHEN!?!?!

So Tuesday morning as I'm driving Calvin to school after his physical therapy appointment I ask him about his science project. I knew the teachers had started talking about it back in December but Calvin would never tell me when it was due. So he says it's due Friday. I know he hasn't done anything on it at home yet, and after a few questions realize he hasn't done anything on it at school either. I ask him what he's going to do. He's got it all figured out it's going to be so easy. He's going to determine if video games will turn your brain to mush or not. He says it will only take a day or so to do. I explain that since he cannot cut anyone's heads open to actually look at their brains he cannot do that project. He agrees that I'm right. Then he changes his idea to whether video games make you smarter. He assures me this will also be easy and will only take a day. I tell him he needs to talk to Dad about that one. Later at dinner Chris asks him about his science project and that's when Calvin says that the presentation is due tomorrow. We're so mad. We explain that the due date can't be Friday and Wednesday at the same time. After quite a bit of "discussion" (lecturing from Chris - and I was in trouble too because it was written in his homework folder which I had not been checking. I hate those things. ) I help Calvin with a completely new idea. Is 6 a lucky number? He's rolling dice and writing down data and then I help him organize his thoughts and data into a presentable project. I have to say it looked rather nice for last minute. We have him give us a mock presentation so that he's practiced for the next day at school. So now skip ahead to the next day after school -

"Calvin, how did your presentation go?"

"We didn't have it."

"Did you ask the teacher when it was due?"

"No." Pause. "Maybe it's due tomorrow."

We had the same conversation the next day. And then a similar one on Friday in which he told me the teacher said it was due on Monday. Um, there's no school on Monday. We're pretty sure that he turned it in really early because if he had turned it in really late, the teacher would've made some sort of contact with us - right?

Quick Catch-Up

So it's been awhile since a real post and I think if I don't do a quick catch-up I'll just keep putting off posting.

We had a great Christmas. This was the first year that we didn't spend Christmas Eve with family. We just had our own little family at home. It was rather refreshing. I kept worrying all month about not doing something with family. I felt that it wouldn't really be Christmas if we didn't spend it with either Chris' side or my side of the family. But all that worry was for naught.

We had a nice dinner at home with the kids. We had a Christmas goose, spinach casserole, sweet potatoes baked with butter, fancy rice, homemade rolls, and salad. Everyone really liked the goose. I was worried - kind of risky making something you've never tried before but I trusted Alton Brown and he did not fail me.

We had the kids make Santa scopes and tracked his movements on Norad. That was fun. We then read a book about believing in Santa with the kids and it explained the symbolism of Santa with the true meaning of Christmas. I had made PJ pants for everyone - including Chris - and gave them to everyone that night. (I found John Deere tractor flannel for Chris - it's awesome! He said he hasn't had tractor PJs since he was five.) We sang Christmas songs and all the kids actually sang. I'm looking forward to our new tradition of having Christmas Eve at home.

Christmas Day was really great. We had a really nice relaxed morning. I had made cinnamon rolls for breakfast the day before. After we opened presents, Chris took a nap for a couple hours while I got food ready to take to my parent's house. We ended up leaving about an hour and a half late for my parents, but there were others who were later and so dinner was postponed anyways. We stayed the night at my parents and had a great day the next day with all my sisters and their families. My brother wasn't there this year because his wife's brother was getting married. We all missed his family.

New Years Eve was again at home with the kids. We let the little ones stay up until almost 11:00 which is unthinkably late for them. The three older kids got to stay up until the new year. I actually fell asleep on the couch the last half hour and woke up grumpy when they were ringing in the new year. My bad. We sent the three older kids to bed then and Chris and I watched a little TV. Around 1:30 we went to bed and I asked who was going to get up with the kids in the morning. Chris said they would sleep in because they had been up so very late. Didn't work. I got up with the kids.

We drove to Chris' sister's house for the annual monopoly game the next day. Before we left we were cleaning the house and I was working in the play room. I wasn't picking up anything heavy but I hurt my low back and it has yet to fully recover. It's been getting a little bit better every day, but is still sore. So my participation in the monopoly game was minimal. I spent most of the evening laying on the floor. We stayed the night at her house and then spent the next day at his other sister's house and then spent the night at my sister's house and went to the baby blessing on Sunday. Everyone commented on us being on time to the blessing. Apparently that's what it takes for us to be on time to a baby blessing, stay the night before with the family blessing their baby. All in all it was a great weekend. We got to spend time with a lot of the family and it was fun.

For the most part now, the kids have adjusted to going back to school. Laundry is mostly caught up - ok I'm swimming in clean clothes, but at least they're clean. The kids have all been passing around a mild cold/flu for the past week. I think we're mostly done with it now though. I've been making my sister-in-law's wedding dress. It's all cut out and needs to be put together now. We're thinking about moving. And I want to start homeschooling the kids. More posts to come...

I'm back...

So Chris and I decided that the blog no longer needed to be private. I like that the sidebar of my blog tells me when my friends and family have updated theirs and I knew that it bothered some of you when I went private. So sorry, it was unavoidable at the time. But now, I'm happy to announce that the blog is open again to the public. Happy day.

Oh and by the way, to have your sidebar show the updates, you have to remove me from your list and add me back in.