What I'm Doing Today

Mondays. Ugh. I don't especially look forward to Mondays. Don't get me wrong, I would look forward to them less if I had to go "off" to work, but dealing with what is left behind from a weekend of slakerness is no picnic either.


My kitchen in all its glory. The weekend tornado has definitely left its mark.



The laundry. Okay, it's been sitting here since Friday, so sue me. Part of me was hoping that Sugar Daddy would take it upon himself to put it away. Or at least carry it upstairs. I should have known better.



Bebe. I had to make a PetsMart run the other night for some necessities. Look at that cute new sweater. Don't judge me, it was 19 this morning, and I'm pretty sure I'd want a sweater on when I went outside to pee and poop and then eat my poop. Oh, and the diaper. Yeah, it's her time of the month. About the only thing I hate about a female dog that isn't fixed. I think it's time to get that taken care of. She hates the diaper, and I hate cleaning up the mess if there isn't a diaper.



And here's a shot of Maggie. I just love this kid. She was trying so hard to finish off the Lucky Charms so she could start cutting out the mask on the back. That's Mags, for you. Always the crafter. Cutting, pasting, taping, whatever.

So, that's pretty much my day. I'll be making a stop at the library for a new book. I've started the Janet Evanovich books "One for the Money", and so far I've read through One, part of Fourteen, some of Four, and just finished Three last night. In that order. Good thing I'm SMRT, or I'd get confused. Who knows what else today will bring, there's always a surprise in store.

In Case You Haven't Had Enough

I understand how boring it can be to browse the various blogs on your Google reader and see only images of mediocre children dressed up as mediocre characters. But I bring you Emma. A most beautiful child, in a most beautiful home made costume. I had a few people tell me they needed to see all of my kids in their costumes, so here you go.

Yes, she's in a poodle skirt, made by yours truly. Even the little doggie and leash. Yes, because I'm that talented. And yes, she's wearing her pajamas underneath. We took this picture on Wednesday afternoon because I forgot to get a picture of her on Halloween. She was home "sick" that day, cough cough. But what can I say, I'm a big softie about stuff like that. But seriously, she is sick. She has an ear infection. Her first ever. So I thought she deserved a day off for that.

A Special Month

I am so disappointed with myself. I had a post all written out, and thought I had scheduled it to publish today. And yet, I cannot find it anywhere. Apparently I need to rehash the pain that is cancer. November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness month. Don't you love having a month dedicated to every cause? I think December should be Cash Depletion Awareness month. January should be Sanity Losing Awareness month. But lets just focus on this here month. November. There is a certain symbolism involved here.

My mom loved the Holidays. She would set up the Christmas tree at the office on the day after Halloween. She would cut out the Christmas show schedule from the newspaper and tape it to the fridge. Her embellished sweaters and watches and bracelets and pins and socks would be out in full force. And November was her jumping off point for all of this craziness. It is no small irony that the very cancer that took her life has it's scheduled awareness month at the very time of year she lived for.

I hate that I need to be aware of cancer in general. I especially hate that I have to be aware of pancreatic cancer specifically. I hate all that the awareness means. It means so many people are losing the battle. It means so many families are torn apart. But specifically for me, it means I have to remember all the feelings that come along with losing my mother. Every June I will remember that day of the diagnosis. Every July I will remember the dying and the funeral. Every August I will remember that drive across the plains to my home, knowing on return it would never be the same. September and October will bring thoughts of her birthday and conference weekend. And now November will bring the awareness. Only to usher in December and the Holidays. This seems to be some sort of sick monthly countdown. I wonder if every month will be special?

Again I Say

You might remember a little while ago I posted about a booger being stuck to my mouse. And it wasn't mine. I swear.

Well, it has happened again. Only this time it wasn't on my mouse. It was suck on the closet doors in my entry way. Nice.

I guess this is what happens when 2 kids have runny/stuffy noses, and the other one just has a special affinity for picking hers. And 1 of the 2 kids has croup, and the other one of the 2 kids has an ear infection. How lucky are we? Just in time to pass it all through the family for our trip to Utah. Yippee.

And today, after hearing of a friends passing from cancer, I miss my mom. I hate knowing what they are in store for over the next few months. It makes my heart hurt.

Bonus Post

I'd just like to thank all my sibs out there for being the first to put my new button on their blogs.

What? You don't see it on their blogs when you click the links? There is obviously something terribly wrong with their blogs, because I know in my heart of hearts that they would never, ever go more than a blog check or two without copying and pasting that simple HTML code over there. See? It's right over there on the left. See? It really is.

Apparently my hard-earned button has not taken blogdom by storm as I had anticipated. Shocking, really, I know. So far my button has made it to one, and only one, blog. But I mean, come on. Some of us are blood, so they are obligated to adhere this here button to their blog, are they not? I thought so.

So get on with it already. This is my subtle cry for approval.

Thanks.

Halloweenies

This was quite the Halloween around these parts. After arriving back home on Friday afternoon from a nice getaway to the city, we scurried around getting things ready for our party that evening. What started out as as small, intimate affair, blossomed into a full on fest. It was great. I think after final count we ended up with a total of 55 people. Just what Halloween should be.

Here's Maggie in her Princess dress. This isn't her costume. This is her daily attire. But at least she got candy for wearing it this time.


And here's Maggie and Gretta. Notice Gretta's costume. It is so cute. You'll never guess what she is. And I mean that because she absolutely would not let me put her costume on her. So she went around in her overalls. But she still looked cute.

And here's a taste of what part of our group looked like. We all tried to Trick or Treat together, but between burning corn bread, and runaway dogs, we ended up split up most of the way. That's okay, because we arrived back home, and had the most fun. White chicken chili, red bean chili, cornbread, and good company. The recipe for awesomeness.

Leave A Message At The Beep

Keli can't come to the blog right now. You see, she and her Sugar Daddy have gone to the city for a night on the town. Good food, good shopping and good... Well, use your imagination. Let's just say it's been a while since they have been away from the kids.


So, Hyatt Regency, here they come. Thanks to Hotwire.com for getting them a great deal, and thanks to Grandpa for watching the kids. Don't expect pictures, because it's not that kind of trip.

Later alligator.

Dang You Darci

A few weeks back, my loving cuz Darci from L-to-the-V blogged about her sweet kid pooping in the bathtub. You will want to scroll down a little bit to see the comments section. Go ahead, scroll. I'll wait. I'm waiting.








Did you see what I said? Yes, my kids had only ever done this once. Note that I said kids. With an S.

Until recently. Gretta has taken it upon herself to poop in the tub 4 more times since I wrote that comment.

Murphy's Law? Probably. Sick irony. Yep. For sure.

Appreciation

I love living just outside the Ghetto. It makes for fun times driving around town. And it makes me appreciate my surroundings. The other morning I was heading back from a muy delicioso breakfast of Nutella and banana crepes at Wildberry, when I was treated to this prime specimen of hoopdee hoopness.

Sorry for the poor picture quality. I was trying to drive and take a picture all at the same time. Shh, don't tell. But for those of you that can't tell, yes, those are in fact Twenty-Fo inch rims on a car. Yes, a car. Some trucks can't handle Twenty-Fo's. Niiice.




And here are the lovely ladies with whom I shared a nummy breakfast. Neighbor Kate and Cayden, and Rosalia, who we're still trying to convince needs a blog. Because every good mom needs a blog, right moms? And for the record, she has the cutest hair I've seen in a long, long time. And her little boy there, Giovanni, he didn't make a peep through the enitre breakfast. Which is more than I can say for Gretta. And Cayden.

But really, this breakfast has awakened in me a sense that I need to do those kind of things more often, and an appreciation of good friends who share my needs. Why oh why do we act like hermit crabs all winter? I mean besides the sub-zero temperatures? It felt so good to sit and chat about mom stuff, and kid stuff, and most importantly, woman stuff. It was like Relief Society. Only yummier.

The Best Thing

For those of you that know me well, know that I likey my sleepy. I love taking naps, and I love sleeping in on cloudy, rainy days. Unfortunately, I have an early riser on my hands. Emma likes to get up around 6 or so, sometimes earlier. But it's not Emma that I'm talking about. Maggie, she could sleep in until 8, no prob, so it's not Maggie I'm talking about either.

It's Gretta. She wakes up at the first sound of life in the house. Which, unfortunately, is around 6 when Emma wakes up. Not.A.Good.Thing. But since I'm a loving, devoted mother, I arise and start off the day, doing my motherly duties of cereal and milk and making lunch. And of course I do all of this with a smile on my face, and a song in my heart. Sense the sarcasm here.

The other night, as I was getting G ready for bed, she became fixated on a Hello Kitty pillow that resides on the bunkbeds that share her room. She didn't want to leave that pillow alone on the bed. So I put the pillow in her crib, thinking she would be sick of it in no time. Turns out, she loves it. Yeah, she's 21 months old. She probably shouldn't be sleeping with a pillow. But she is.

And my life has suddenly become much, much easier. Now, her once short sporadic naps have become 2 hours or more. Heaven! And her habit of waking upon any sound in the house? Gone! She sleeps through anything now! I can even go in her room to check on her now, which is probably a good thing, since she's sleeping with a pillow and she's 21 months old, or have I mentioned that already?


So thank you, Hello Kitty. I never thought I would be grateful for a creepy kitten with a giant head, and yet, I am. Gretta thanks you too, from her very rested heart.

Send out the P.I.'s

Have you missed me? Be honest. You have, haven't you. Haven't you? Well, even if you haven't, I've missed you. Oh blogdom, do not a hater be. Please take some pity on my poor, slacker soul. You see, I've been so very busy. You will never understand the "ness" to which I've been busy. In the last 96 hours, I've played host to 8 guests, at 2 separate intervals. You don't understand the amount of time, and laundry detergent, that has been spent folding towels and sheets, and rugs, oh my!

Here is just a taste of what kind of things I've been up to recently.

Lugging around 6 kids. To dance, to the drug store, and to McDonalds. Where else could 6 kids be entertained simultaneously? In the picture are only 5, but you can't see the one sharing the cockpit of the vangina avec moi.





And here are their dear, dear parents. Parents for whom I have an immense respect, not only for traveling so far to attend the temple like dedicated Latter-Day Saints, but because I now understand the time and patience it takes to rassle 4 kids. I may have provided the cheeseburgers, and even though I skimped on the drinkage, there was nary a complaint. Good, good kids.

So dear blogdom, now you have my plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Don't they call it by reason of mental disease or defect now? Probably, but either way, it fits. Do not fear, I will return. And I will return with a promise of more interesting posts, and pictures of various projects and children. So for now, dear blogdom, I bid you adieu.

Busy busy

We've been an in-law hosting house the last few days. It's been so awesome to have family come and visit. I love having the MIL here to entertain the kidlets with puzzles and games, and all other sorts of distractions. But I also love having the MIL here because she shares my love of all things craft. 'Cept she's good at it. So we've been keeping plenty busy around here with projects galore.

This is the first taste of what is to become many, many wonderful items. One is already finished, but it will have to wait. I know, the suspense, yeah yeah.



This is the other outlet du crafte. This was last nights family night project. My kitchen table was slathered with newspaper, and then the newspaper was topped with paints and pumkins and brushes, oh my! We ended up with a pumpkin per person, and one extra. I think they'll look quite loverly on the front porch.

Stay tuned for more excitement. We received a phone call this afternoon asking to be the B&B for more family members later this week. Of course I was more than happy to oblige, so it should bring some good times.

The Happiest

A shout out to my awesome bro. It's his birthday. He's a way hottie, I have it on pretty good authority that he's just getting better with age. Good job on that.

So here's to you, oh aged one. Have a mighty fine day.

Dancing Queen

Maggie has been taking dance lessons for the last month. And let me tell you, if there could be one girl that loves to dance more than any other girl on the Earth, it's Maggie. This girl, she amazes me. Just when I think she couldn't get more girly, she goes and does something that just makes my jaw drop. Like galloping. She gallops everywhere, because that is what she learned to do in dancing class. Here is a picture of her galloping around her gym. She's wearing a tail, and they were dancing to Jungle Book music. It was adorable.



And here she is looking possessed while trying to hop on one foot. She is really quite good at hopping, but it's hopping and looking graceful at the same time that trips her up.

Mostly I just love that she loves it. It's like soccer or any other sport kids choose to do. Seeing the joy of accomplishment in their eyes, and the thrill of the new and undiscovered that makes spending all that time each week freezing my butt off in a musty old gym worth it.

Win Sumthin

If you like handbags, as I know you do, check here for a chance to win a brand new one. They are giving away a bag an hour for 24 hours! Crazy!

Thanks, Handbag Planet!

2nd Picture

I was tagged by Rachel, (which reminds me, I'm still not positively sure as to how to pronounce your name correctly. I've heard it like Ray-shell, and I've also heard it like Ruh-shell, so if you could enlighten me, that would be super!) who challenged me to post the 2nd picture ever uploaded to my computer. Wow, this is going way back in the way back machine. I have a few less chins, and Maggie has a whole lotta black hair! And I can't believe Emma. She's always seemed so grown up to me, but she looks so little in this picture. So here you go.




I think my BFF Lisa Blackburn took this picture, she also gave Emma that little dolly, which we still have! We also still have the jammies Emma has on. My mom gave those to Emma when I was still in the hospital after giving birth. Of course now, the sleeves and pants have been cut off to fit an ever growing child, and making them much more comfy. Gretta was just wearing them the other day, and they are trash-tastic! But I digress.

Maggie was about a week old in this picture, I think. I know she was still pretty new, because I can only fit in those jeans I have on for about the first 2 weeks after I have a baby. Then the tummy puffs back up, and there's no way in Hell those things are going on. They've been that way with all 3 babies. Plus, obviously I was still not sleeping much, just look at that shiny skin and the apparent lack of blow drying skills. Nice. Sugar Daddy is looking good as always, though. He's my babe.

And I Don't Even Smell Like Curry

This weekend I realized I'm not as low maintenance as I hoped. And of course, it all hits at once. Suddenly I needed a pedicure, my brows waxed and a good deep conditioner. The pedicure and deep conditioner will have to wait due to time constraints, but I was able to get the brows done.

I branched out, partly out of curiosity, mostly out of desperation. And I'm thrilled with the results. See what you think for yourself.

Things I've Learned Since Living In The Midwest

• How to avoid dead racoons on the road
• How to prove residency for everything
• You're likely to be the only Mormon in your town
• And probably the first one most people have met
• The true meaning of "wind chill"
• How to use a dehumidifier
• That you can't pass on the right.
  
• Game days are religious holidays

But most importantly, I've learned a lot about myself.

• I can do pretty much whatever I set my mind to
• I'm more self sufficient than I ever thought I could be
• I enjoy discovering new places
• I'm stronger than I ever thought I could be
• I appreciate my family, both near and far, for the efforts they put in each day

I love living here. I love starting a new adventure for my family, and I love knowing that wherever we are, whatever the situation, we will always have each other.

Spiritual Aardvark Theory

I was listening to Kathy and Judy yesterday. They have a wonderful talk radio show that totally cracks me up. I'm not normally a talk radio person, because let's face it, I'm not that into politics, and I don't pretend to be smart enough to know what the heck they're talking about anyway. But K and J, their show reminds me of something like an audio blog. You know, just kind of random things, not much of a filter, etc. etc. Yesterday they had on a girl (woman?) that had just copyrighted a new "scientific theory". Now this is good. Apparently one day, she and her friend were watching TV, and a commercial came on that had a scene with a girl in an aardvark costume that was participating in a school play. She commented to her friend about how random an aardvark was, and how you never see them. Well, the next day, for some odd reason, the word aardvark came up 3 different times, with no help from her! So this got her thinking. Doesn't this happen a lot? You see something, or hear something, and sure enough, it's everywhere. It's like your brain is suddenly more aware of that specific subject, so you notice it more.

I have taken this theory one step further (farther? I can never remember, please correct me, Eliza). When we were dealing with the sickness and subsequent death of my mom, we were all acutely aware of so many miracles happening around us every day. From the smallest things, like the hospital cafeteria having the best cookies ever, to the big things, like all being in the right place at the right time to be there when she needed us most. Whatever the miracles, we saw them. Sadly, I've started to be blinded to them again. I knew it would happen, life takes over, and days turn into weeks, and before you know it, months have passed. We were all living in a cocoon of small miracles for those 6 weeks, and lived and breathed to see a miracle every day. Now, it's just a matter of making it through the day.

So I've decided to reinstate the Spiritual Aardvark Theory in my life. I need to start looking for those miracles every day. I need to see it in my kids, in life around me, and most of all, in myself. I need to have the courage to make it over this hump and to embrace the miracles that I am entitled to. That we're all entitled to. I need my eyes opened to the gifts that are all around me. I need to see that life has a meaning beyond the hurt and pain I feel now. Any ideas are welcome, but mostly, just a big thanks to all of you for reading this. I know, it gets all blah blah blah, but it helps my brain.

Birthday Girl

Today is Maggie's birthday. She's 5. I can't believe that I have kept a human being alive for 5 years. Some things we love about Maggie are:

She is always crafting. She loves to cut and paste, and color and draw, and sing and dance and dress up.

She is very smart. She had an evaluation done for her speech class. She scored the highest possible points. She gets that from her mother. ;)

She is very, um, shall we say, determined. She knows what she wants, and she will do whatever it takes to get it. She gets this from Sugar Daddy.

She has a special affinity for Nunn Bee. Nunn Bee is my mom's mom, who died before Maggie was born. Yet somehow, Maggie knows all about her. Especially that Nunn Bee gave her all that hair she has. I love that they share old souls.

She is very independent. She will climb on counters and chairs and stools if it warrants getting something she's after. This is a trait I love.


So Maggie, I love you. You are very special. I know you chose to come to our family because you knew you'd be happy here. You have a very special spirit, and have a definite sense of right and wrong. Thank you for being so sweet and kind. You are a wonderful daughter!