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.