Putting it Off...

Ever get into a rut, where you know that you want and need to post something, but don't feel like it, because it was such a big thing and it requires such a lot of pictures and writing to do it justice, so you keep putting it off because you're too lazy and don't want to put all the effort into it that it deserves, even though you know that the more you postpone it the harder it will get? Yeah, me too...

I promise that I will (most likely) post about the reunion. But first I need to get my house in order. It was mostly neat, but not great, when we left for the reunion. Then when we got home on Sunday we didn't really do much to make it better. I did unpack right away (hooray for that!) but we let the dishes keep building up (yeah, that sounds familiar). Then I was sick on Monday morning, and had no energy all of Monday. Then I had no motivation today, and was just lazy all day, so the kitchen is an absolute mess, plus the kids' room is getting pretty cluttered too with clothes that need to be put away or tossed in the laundry. Yeah, lots to do, and not much energy or desire to do it. But I'll do what I can to work on that.

In other news, Jeff has finally been given a schedule for work. His hours are really strange and irregular (2 days on, four days off, 4 days on, 6 days off, something weird like that), but he will be getting a pretty decent amount of hours, considering that he's still on the internship. So we'll have some pay coming in - Hallelujah!! He starts tomorrow (Wednesday)!

Home Sweet Home

We're home from the reunion. We had a great time and I would love to blog about it - later. I was so looking forward to a nice, long sleep in our very own bed, with the blinds closed (dark!) and the window open and the fan on (cool!) - I was expecting paradise! I would sleep all night long, and wake up refreshed and fulfilled in the morning. Except that I woke up a little before 1:00 instead, and was stuck being sick in the bathroom for two hours. So right now I'm just going to relax and take it easy, and I'll blog about my experiences at our lovely family reunion later when I'm up to it.

:-)

Doing some good stuff

Yesterday (or was it Monday? Sometimes my days get all mixed up) I spent the day cleaning the living room. I was much more thorough than I typically am. I went through all the kids' toys and sorted out most of them. Some are going to D.I., some are packed away to bring out later (like a toy rotation), and some were thrown away. Now there are just a few toys left out. This is definitely a good thing, because the kids love to just empty the box all over the floor. Now it's much easier to clean up!

I also went through the children's books and picked out a bunch to donate to D.I., so there are fewer of those to make messes as well.

Clutter was reduced and organized, carpet vacuumed, and I moved the coffee table from the middle of the living room to the foot of our bed. It was just taking up space in the living room, and made the small room seem even smaller. Now the room is a bit more opened up, and clean!

Tuesday evening we had a Relief Society quilting bee. I spent a couple hours working with the other women tying quilts for humanitarian aid. My fingers are still sore! I learned a new way to tie quilts called the international stitch, I think it's even easier than just tying, once you get used to it. Anyway, I brought one of the quilts home to bind it. My sewing machine is really old, and I don't even know if it really works anymore, so I went over to Mom's house to finish the quilt. This worked especially well because I was able to lay it out in her nice large living room to trim and pin the edges, plus Samuel and Rheanna kept Zaylee and Thomas occupied and cheerful while I worked. I was able to get the quilt bound nicely in no time at all.

I took pictures, but wouldn't you know I left the camera at Mom's house again! So when I go over tomorrow to do laundry, I'll post the pictures.

My next project to work on is the dining room. I'm going to scrub the table and floor, and thoroughly clean the kids' booster seats. I'll probably do something about the pile of boxes in the corner as well, and clean the clutter that has somehow built up on the organ. I wanted the organ to be kept clean and clear, so I don't know how it got cluttered, but I'll take care of that soon.

Oh dear, this post makes me sound all good and domestic and stuff. Well, I guess you can think that if you like. But I know the truth ... buaa ha ha ha!

I Have a Brillante Weblog!

I got a blog award! Hooray! This award was given to me by Jeanette of Strong and Immovable. Jeanette is a wonderful lady I blog-met a while back, through her food blog, Jeanette's Kitchen. I feel like we have so much in common - we both have two young children, ages 3 and 1, one boy and one girl. Her name is Jeanette, my mother-in-law's name is Jeanette, my mom's name is Jenette, and my daughter's middle name is Janette. Plus, we both thoroughly enjoy Jane Austen. But unlike Jeanette, I do not refuse to admit that I am addicted to blogging. I know it, and everyone else must surely know it. And if you didn't know it yet, you do now - I'm addicted.

One of the funnest things about receiving a blog award is the fact that you then get to pass that award on to others. So here are my nominees for this Brillante Weblog award:

1. Rachel of Our Life... - I love reading Rachel's blog! She has a talent for writing about seemingly every-day events in such a way as to make them seem extraordinary, and often hilarious. She also takes wonderful pictures, and helps me see the beauty of things that I normally wouldn't find all that wonderful, like a fly on a dandelion fluff - who knew?

2. Michelle of Willford Family - Of course I would include my older sister in this award! I love reading about the antics of her three boys, and how she manages to keep her sanity in the midst of the chaos.

3. Abby of It's an Abby's Life - My little cousin is so sweet and cute! She blogs about her experiences as "a fun loving crazy 14 year old girl" - everything from high school to girls camp to babysitting. It's so fun to have that glimpse into how life used to be when I was that age. Abby also has a babysitting blog, which is just so cool!

4. Camille of Ponytail Challenge - Camille started this blog when she realized that everyday she put her hair up in a ponytail. The original challenge was to do your hair everyday for a week - not in a ponytail! Now there is a new challenge to work on every week - simple self-improvement challenges that should be easy to do, but often aren't! It's so fun and inspiring to have something to work on, and motivation to actually do it. Last week I worked on my posture, and still sit up straighter when I realize I'm slumping.

5. Christy of Southern Plate - This is a wonderful blog full of Southern charm, hospitality, and recipes! Christy projects so much personality and friendliness in her recipes, I feel like I'm chatting with a good friend when I read her posts. Plus, the frosting I made for Thomas' birthday cake came from her blog, and I will always think fondly of her and her family for providing such a delicious recipe!!

6. Melinda of Our Family - I love Melinda's method of posting pictures. She does digital scrapbooking, and posts the pages she creates into her blog. It's such a fun presentation, and she does a good job!


Here are the rules:

1. Post the logo on your blog.

2. Add a link to the person who nominated you.

3. Nominate other people for this award and add links to their blog.

4. Leave a message for the people that you nominated!

Homemaking

I've been thinking a lot lately about getting my home in order. I know I complain a lot here that my dishes are always dirty, or the living room is a mess, toys all over the floor, stuff like that. I'd like that to change. I know that my home won't always be perfect, especially with young children around, but I would like it to be at least pleasant. Some of the messes (toys and books on the floor) are indeed caused by the kids, but they are easy to pick up and put away. Other messes are my fault, caused by the simple fact that I don't clean them on a regular basis. Clutter building up, crud on the dining room floor, dishes spilling out onto the counters (though I've been doing much better with the dishes lately) - these are the things that I need to work on, the things that I plan to work on.

I've added a link list on my sidebar featuring homemaking blogs - blogs written by women who are much better at this whole housekeeping and homemaking thing than I am! I hope to gain some insight, inspiration, motivation, and encouragement from these blogs, and I hope to be able to make my home beautiful and peaceful like I know it can and should be.

Happy Birthday Thomas!

We spent all day Saturday at Mom and Dad's house, which is fine by me! I love spending time there, and I'm so glad that we live close enough to do so. Anyway, I needed to use Mom's glass pan for the birthday cake, and that's why we went over there in the morning instead of waiting until evening.

In order to not be too much of a drain on my parents' resources, I combined as many cake and frosting ingredients as I could here at our house, and just mixed them up at Mom's house. For the cake I made my own cake mix by combining all the dry ingredients here at home, then all I had to do was add water, butter, and eggs when we got to Mom's house, essentially making it just as easy and convenient to make as a simple cake mix! I frosted it with a delicious peanut butter frosting. I posted all about the cake - recipes and decorations - on my food blog. Check it out!

We had such a fun day. Michelle and her adorable boys came over in the late afternoon/evening for dinner and cake and ice cream, and we all had a great time together. Here come lots of pictures:

After snacking on a little chocolate, Thomas was just so upset to find that he suddenly looked like Hitler!

But later, when he saw his birthday cake, he cheered right up.

When we served him his piece of cake, he tried to grab at it to eat it, but was only able to get handfuls of hard-to-eat cookie crumbs. He didn't let that deter him - he just found an easier way to eat the cake. Look Ma, no hands!

Here's all the folks in attendance: Left to right - Janelle, Thomas, Marie, Morgan, Rheanna hiding behind Morgan, Mom.

Left to right - Mom again, Samuel, Michelle, William, Jeff.

Zaylee and Nathan.

The obligatory picture of me with my mouth full.

Oren decided not to eat any cake. I guess he just wasn't really hungry, and those K'nex toys were really fun! Sorry this is a bad picture, it's the only one we got of him.

Here's Thomas playing with his new toys. I have about fifty pictures of Michelle and I wrestling that dump truck out of its box - it took both of us, and several minutes! He really loves these new cars - the dump truck from Michelle kept him occupied all evening! He had so much fun filling it with smaller toys over and over.

Mom made Thomas a few pairs of way cute shorts. Here he is wearing one of them.

We didn't leave until late, and the kids were so tired! It's only three miles from Mom and Dad's house to ours, and both kids were asleep by the time we got home. Well, that's a sign of a well-spent day.

Happy birthday Thomas!

Really Quick --

Just a quick post to say that there's more coming! Today was Thomas' first birthday, and we spent the day having fun with family. I'll post pictures and whatnot tomorrow. Good night!

Thomas has been working on learning how to walk lately. He's been great at cruising along furniture for quite a while. In the past week or so, he has gotten more adventurous, and will take two or three unaided steps when given the proper motivation (usually to get to me). Here's our little walker.



He's so proud of himself!

Food Storage

I'm over at Mom's house doing laundry right now. We got into a conversation about food storage. We realized that many of us (Mom, me, Mom's mom, my sister-in-law, others) are having the same feeling - we need to work on our food storage. It's one of those "this is urgent - do it!" types of feelings. I've been doing a little every week, just adding an extra can or two, an extra bag of flour or box of baking soda. But I'm going to do a little more. Generations of latter-day prophets have counseled the members of the Church to store up food and supplies enough for a year. We've been feeling lately that it's getting increasingly urgent that we follow this counsel. The thought keeps running through my head, "get your food storage, get your food storage."

However, it can be fairly overwhelming to think of all the stuff you need to get in order to have a year's supply, especially for those of us who are still starting out, and in the early stage of our marriage and family life. It's even overwhelming for my mom. Mom realized, though, that she doesn't have to do it all at once. She's starting on a plan to get one month of storage at a time, and build up from there. Here's a list Mom found of how much food is needed per person, per month. Do this twelve times for each person in your family, and you'll have a good year's supply of foods!

Grains (wheat, rice, oats, pasta, cereal)
-25 lb.

Legumes (dry beans, canned nuts, peanut butter)
-5 lb.

Sugar (white, brown, powdered, honey, corn syrup, molasses)
-5 lb.

Salt
-1/2 lb.

Dairy (powdered, evaporated, sweetened condensed, non-perishable cheeses)
-25 qt.

Fats (shortening, oil)
-1 1/2 lb.

Meats (canned, frozen, tuna)
-5 lb.

Fruits and veggies (canned, dried, frozen; include some high in Vit. A and C - carrots, spinach, vitamin C-fortified juices)
-30 lb.

Water (for two weeks per person)
-14 gallons

Also keep in mind other things you use to prepare foods, such as: yeast, baking soda, baking powder, vinegar, spices, canned soups; and any other non-perishable foods that you use on a regular basis.

You don't have to buy all of this stuff all at once, of course. You can do a little at a time, but do it consistently. We plan to buy something for food storage every week when we shop for our regular groceries. I plan on utilizing some creative storing spaces too - under the beds and the crib, stacked in all the random diaper boxes we seem to accumulate, squeezed into empty space in the closets.

In Loving Memory

This post is lovingly dedicated to my miniature crock pot, fondly known as the Crock-ette. Our dear Crock-ette was recently taken from us, early in the afternoon of July 16, 2008. It was a good little crock pot, and deserves to be remembered always.

Jeff and I bought Crock-ette shortly after our marriage began, in the year 2004. We were wandering around Deseret Industries, shopping for basic household supplies, when suddenly - we saw it. A cute little 1.5-quart crock pot, costing only $2. I knew she was perfect from the moment I laid eyes on her. We added the sweet little cooker to our cart, and carted her merrily away.

The first thing we cooked in our precious Crock-ette was chicken soup. One chicken breast, a potato, a carrot, some water, some seasonings, and several hours later, and we were sold. Our culinary love affair with the little slow cooker had begun.

We lovingly prepared many a little meal in the Crock-ette. Mock lasagna, ground beef roast, soups and stews, vegetables - the sky was the limit! Every recipe we tried, of course, had to be scaled down to 2 or 3 servings to fit in the little crock, but that was no hindrance - it was only Jeff and I, and later Zaylee.

We did eventually add a larger crock pot to our kitchen, of course. With a family of four, the larger meals made possible by the 4-quart cooker are a necessity. But Crock-ette remained fondly in use for smaller side dishes and desserts.

Crock-ette's last culinary masterpiece was created only two days ago. How glad I am that I chose to make a small bread pudding in little Crock-ette. There she sat, simmering merrily through the evening. The bread pudding was delicious - sweet and warm, creamy and custardy. It was everything a crock pot dessert should be. It was a fitting last dish for our wonderful Crock-ette - a dish to be always remembered as Crock-ette's last.

Crock-ette passed away shortly after noon today. I was preparing some delicious homemade-from-a-box macaroni and cheese, while the kids played in the cupboards behind me. Suddenly I heard that sound that no mother ever wants to hear - the loud thud and crack associated with breaking stone. I knew before I turned around that Crock-ette was no more.

There she was, sitting forlornly in two pieces on the kitchen floor. Thomas went on playing. Zaylee looked up at me, shocked. Tears in my eyes, I picked up those two poor pieces of stone and gently set them on the counter. After gazing sadly at my broken little treasure for a moment, I quietly returned to the macaroni and cheese.

And life hasn't been the same since.

Crock-ette, you will be missed.

Some giveaways

Anyone who already regularly checks the Ponytail Challenge either knows or will soon know about the awesome giveaways she is hosting. If you don't already know, here's the scoop.

Take her up on this week's challenge (Straighten Up) by commenting on this post. Then follow her directions about where to visit and where to comment. You get a chance to win a $60 gift certificate to Mikarose, and a necklace from Apostrophy Designs. Blog about it (like I'm doing!) and you get a chance at a surprise giveaway.

What are you waiting for? Go check it out!

Lotsa Cleaning

I've been cleaning off and on all day. I let the apartment get all messy and cluttered in the past several days, and today decided to fix that. I did all the dishes (we've been playing catch-up with the dishes for days), and I scrubbed the counters and stove. Table, you're coming up next! I also put away all the junk all over the living room floor. There were toys, books, shoes, couch cushions, blankets, puzzle pieces, strewn all over. I got it all put away. Of course, two seconds after I got all the books put back on the shelf, Thomas had crawled over and was cheerfully pulling them back down again. I let him keep one to play with, and put the rest back up on the shelf again. I still need to sweep and probably wipe the kitchen floor a bit with a rag (I don't want to use the mop - I swear, that old thing makes our floor dirtier when we use it!), plus take care of the clothes sitting on the floors in the bedrooms and hallway. And maybe run the vacuum over all the carpets. And I eventually need to fit in a shower sometime.

Yeah, I need to stop there. If I list too much to do, I get overwhelmed and don't do any of it!

Memories Tag

I saw this tag on both Rachel's blog and Michelle's blog. Here goes:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Mediocrity

I've been avoiding posting for a while. I've done a few little posts here and there, but not really any major, real posts. See, I'm a perfectionist at heart (you wouldn't know it by looking at my apartment, but it's true).When I decide something is important to me, I want it done right. If I can't do it as good as I want it, I often don't even try. Or I think about it a lot, preparing and making sure everything is just right, before I attempt it.

To me, blogging has become important. I want to put up impressive, thought-inspiring posts. I want my blog to draw in readers and comments because it's such an interesting, entertaining, and wonderful blog. But my problem is that I'm just not that good at it. I try to be clever and funny, and it comes out blunt and awkward. I try to be sweet and it ends up sappy. I try to take wonderful pictures, and they have poor composition or bad coloring.

My problem is that I feel mediocre.

That 1930s wife quiz that I took is a good example of my mediocrity. Sure, lots of the questions were kind of silly, and don't really indicate one's level of good-wife-ness in today's world. But many of the questions are still applicable today. Do I complain too much? Yes. Do I keep the house clean, and myself looking nice? No. Am I crabby in the morning? You betcha. Can I carry on an interesting conversation? Not really, I'm too shy and often let conversations die because I can't think of anything to say. Do I fail to clean the top of the milk bottle before opening it? Well, okay, that one's pretty much outdated. But still. I don't wash fruits and vegetables before I use them, and that's along the same lines. And (guilty confession) I don't really like kids.

I will concede that there are some things I am good at. Crochet, cooking and baking, piano and organ. I'm very frugal and good at saving money and making due with what we have. I excel at changing diapers. And I have proven myself to be pretty good at losing weight (and gaining it all back when I get pregnant).

But right now, I just feel that, no matter how good I may think I am at this or that, I'm still...mediocre.

Am I a Good Wife?

47 As a 1930s wife, I am Average Take the test!

Well, I guess I'm nothin' special, but at least I'm not as bad as they come!

Our Adventure with the Clowns

This morning I took off for the library about five minutes after I meant to. Since we were walking, that meant I had to go faster than I normally find comfortable. I was worried about being late, so I even broke out jogging a few times - boy was that hard work! I'm not a jogger. Period. But I really didn't want to get there late and miss any of the show. So I jogged. Whew!

I shouldn't have worried. I got there with minutes to spare, and spent a nice long time waiting in line in the library foyer, wishing I had one of those little personal fans so I would stop dripping sweat all over the place.

When we went into the multi-purpose room where the show was, they had fun, kooky clown music playing, and the clowns were handing out stickers. When everyone was seated, the show began.

Drumroll........



To be honest, the clowns weren't really all that great at being clowns. They had some funny stuff, but they didn't seem like they were trying very hard, and they didn't really get that great of a response from the kids in the audience.


There were lots of door prizes, and a couple times during the show they drew numbers and the person with each number got a little prize. I was excited when Zaylee's number was called. With some help and encouragement, she went up to collect her prize - two little cardboard puzzles. They're really cute, and though they're a bit advanced for Zaylee's abilities, she has enjoyed playing with them.


At one point the clowns out a little dog, who jumped through a hoop and did a couple other cute tricks. Zaylee really enjoyed that part - she loves puppies.


After the show they brought the dog out again to let all the kids pet her. She was very good-natured, and took the throngs of children in stride. What a sweet little dog!

The last trick was the jumping flea. The flea jumped and did flips and somersaults from the rope, then jumped back into the bag. A lot of kids pointed out that "I didn't see the flea jump!" But fleas are, after all, quite small.


So basically, the show was a little on the bland side, but Zaylee really enjoyed it, and a got a really good workout going there and back (I did not jog on the way back home. I took my sweet time).

5 Random Things Tag

I was tagged my Melinda. Here are five random things you may or may not know about me:

1. I get migraines fairly frequently. Last month I had about 10 migraines. Because of the heat lately, since the beginning of July I've already had 6 migraines. In fact, I've got one right now.

2. Today I watered our vegetable garden for the first time ever. It's pretty much Jeff's job. But we've determined that the plants need to be watered more frequently, which means that I need to do it during the day while Jeff is at his internship.

3. We're borrowing the movie Happy Feet from my sister. Zaylee has fallen in love with it, and frequently requests that we watch "the movie about the penguins." Since we borrowed it on Thursday, we've already watched it more times than I could count on one hand (hmm, what does that say about my parenting? Never mind, I don't want to know).

4. No one ever comes to our house. The manager came over on Sunday to check and make sure the apartment was okay for the big inspection on Monday. When he rang the doorbell I about had a heart attack - it's just not a sound we ever hear. Ever.

5. I'm wearing colorful zigzag striped ankle socks right now.

You can tell I was really digging at the bottom of the barrel for that last one. I just couldn't think of anything!

I tag Michelle and Karen.

Story Time

We walked to the library today, and participated in story time. Today the theme was the circus. One of the ladies was dressed up like a clown. She kept trying to blow up a balloon, but it would slip out of her fingers and blow all over. Zaylee giggled like crazy over her antics.

After a fun and exciting half hour of circus stories and songs, all the kids were given a handout - their very own clown nose!




I tried it on a couple times too, but no way am I posting pictures of that!

Tomorrow for the Wednesday activity, the library will have real clowns. We'll definitely be attending that! :-)

Festivities

Okay, so I've been a little negligent in blogging the past couple of days. I'd better update now, before too much time passes and I wind up not blogging for days and days and never get around to updating at all.

On Friday, we had a pretty relaxed day. We watched some movies, and just hung out at home all day. We planned on walking down to the stadium to watch the fireworks, but decided against it. Since the fireworks wouldn't start until after 9:00 (had to wait until it was dark enough) and the kids' bedtime is 8:00, we decided we'd just put them to bed and stay home. Plus, Jeff had found a couple videos of fireworks online, and we watched them. They pretty much freaked Thomas out, and we thought it best to not subject him to the real thing yet.

It turned out okay though. After putting the kids to bed, we popped in an Indiana Jones movie. While we were watching it, we heard the fireworks going off and decided to check if we could see them from our back yard. Turns out we could see them just fine. Well, the middle and high ones anyway; the lower fireworks were blocked by buildings and all we could see was brightly-colored smoke. But we had a good show anyway, and I got some fun pictures. These are the ones that turned out the best. I think next time I shoot pics of fireworks, I'll try to use some sort of stabilizing surface or tripod - my hands kept moving around and that movement showed up in the pictures. But it was a lot of fun anyway!





On Saturday we had such a great time. My mom's brother and his wife had a get-together for all the family in the area. We had a nice big lunch (I totally blew my diet, but it's nice to have "planned indulgence" days once in a while) and hung out in their HUGE backyard all afternoon. They had a slip n' slide out, and we had brought Zaylee's swimsuit. She had a great time splashing around in the water!



At one point, she found some wet sidewalk chalk and had fun coloring on the walkway.


The bigger cousins got together a game of water kickball. The bases were buckets of water, and to get from third base to home they had to slide along the slip n' slide. It was a great spectator sport - I had a great time watching everyone running around getting wet, sliding in the water and throwing water balloons at each other. We had a few close shaves when the ball almost hit the adults gathered around watching. And the ball landed in the ditch several times, forcing the kids to dive after it into the filthy water. But fun was had by all.

I enjoyed taking pictures of the game. During one inning, I got a little series of shots of Janelle and her boyfriend Lloyd. I though they were cute.

Standing in line, waiting for their turn to kick the ball.


Janelle sliding into home. I love the way this picture turned out - the timing was perfect!


Janelle cheerfully sopping wet, while Lloyd slides in.


I gotta tell ya, it is so much fun watching such big, grown-up people sliding on a slippery wet length of plastic! This one is Marie.


The older kids enlisted Samuel as a sort of runner. His job was to keep the playing field clear - such as this time when one of the cousins kicked off their sandals and Samuel was responsible for getting them off the playing field. I love how proud he looks to be involved and to have such an important job!


Then I've just got a few random pictures I took throughout the day.






Okay, that's plenty of pictures!

When we got home we threw together a quick dinner for the kids (Jeff and I were still full from eating way too much lunch) and then I got busy on the kitchen and dining room floors. We have an inspection coming up tomorrow, and I wanted to make it look nice. This was especially important because I have only mopped once or twice in the several months we've lived in this apartment. Needless to say, the tile was filthy! Our mop is pretty pathetic, so I grabbed a scrubber, a rag, and a bucket of water and went to work. It took a very long time and a whole lot of elbow grease (and all this after having been out all day and I was really tired already), but I got the floor cleaner than it's been since before we moved in. It looks great! The only problem is that now I'm paranoid about letting the kids eat. They tend to drop stuff on the floor while they're eating - big turnoff when you've just spent over an hour cleaning it!!

Today was pretty interesting. When I went down to the nursery to drop Zaylee off after Sacrament Meeting, there was no teacher there yet, so I stayed there with her, waiting until a teacher showed up. I waited a bit as other kids trickled in, but no teacher. Suddenly, before I knew what was happening, the nursery leader was handing me a baggie of goldfish crackers asking if I would sit the kids down and start handing out the snack to occupy the kids. She thanked me for being willing to help out, and then she was gone.

And so it was that I spent the entire two hours in the nursery.

It turns out that the teacher of Zaylee's class, where I helped out last week, wasn't able to come to church this week because both her little girls were sick. So the nursery leader was just running around trying to find people willing to help out in the nursery. I guess she assumed that since I was in there, I was willing to help. I was, of course - it's always fun to play with the little kids - but it was a bit unexpected. And this time was different because I was more in charge than usual. Usually Sister Harris is there, making sure everything goes smoothly with the lesson, the snack, the coloring, etc. All I had to do was play with the kids and keep them from beating each other up. Today, things were pretty chaotic because I really had no idea what was going on. But we survived the two hours, and no worse for wear. Whew!

I think next time I'll just drop Zaylee off and leave, whether there's a teacher there or not! No, just kidding, I'm glad I had the opportunity to serve. They really did need my help, and I was glad to give it.

Well, after so many out-of-the-ordinary days this weekend, I'm looking forward to things getting back to normal tomorrow. Well, except that I'll have to clean a bit more to prepare for that inspection. But aside from that, it should be just a normal, regular day. Ahhhh.

Cute Conversation Reprise

So remember the conversation I had with Zaylee a couple days ago? This evening there was an even more humorous repeat.

Jeff happened to refer to Zaylee as "Zaylee-girl." She quickly rebutted, "I'm not Zaylee-girl, I'm Zaylee...girl."

It was too funny!

Happy Fourth of July!

I've got some catching up to do. On Wednesday, I took the kids on a walk to the library. It was nice and hot, but there were plenty of sprinklers along the way to cool us off. While we were there, Thomas slept in the stroller (he had fallen asleep on the way there) and I read a lot of books to Zaylee. Enough to finish the forty required books for the summer reading program log, and Zaylee got to pick a new book for herself. As soon as the lady opened up the book case, I knew right away which book Zaylee would pick. Sure enough, she reached right in and grabbed this book:


She loves this little book - it's got little pop-out cardboard pieces that are things you might find in a little purse - a cell phone, a coin purse, a powder puff, and a mirror. So cute!

Yesterday we went to Mom's house to do laundry. When I mentioned that I had tried to buy some shirts at D.I. the other day, but couldn't find any that fit my criteria (cute, modest, warm-weather, fits properly, looks great, etc.) she decided to take all of us to the big D.I. in Boise. So while my first two loads of laundry were on the line to dry, and my third was in the washer, we all packed into the van and headed into town. After trying on over 10 shirts, I was about to give up just like last time. But Marie got in on the search with me, and found me a way cute shirt that was just right. Then we realized that Mom had found one just like it in a different color. She let me have it, because she already has a few like it at home. They were Modbe tees (the really long modest tees that are great for layering and stuff) and they were only $1 each! I also found a couple other shirts and two great skirts, plus a few other things. It was a very productive trip!

Zaylee fell asleep on the way home, in one of those really awkward-looking positions. How do they do that?


Last night it was still really hot. We are too cheap to turn on the AC unless it's desperately hot, so that wasn't an option. Then I remembered a can of peaches I'd frozen the day before to make some sorbet. So I took out the frozen peaches and pureed them in the food processor. Presto! The easiest frozen dessert I've ever made!


I posted the...cough...really, um, complicated and impressing...cough...recipe on my food blog. It was cold and refreshing, and just right for a warm evening.

Today we plan on just taking it easy. We have no real plans, except that we know we're gonna break out the grill for at least one meal, and probably walk over to the stadium to see the fireworks tonight. Mostly we'll just enjoy Jeff's day off and relax.

Happy Fourth!

Cute Conversation

I greeted Zaylee with a bright and cheerful, "Hi there!"

She replied indignantly, "I'm not there, I'm Zaylee-girl!"

Yes, sweetie, you are.

Things are Looking Better

After a morning and afternoon just as grumpy and lousy as yesterday, I had pretty much determined that the rest of the day was going to be as bad too. Then Jeff came home. He brought me a cookie. And suddenly I wasn't quite so grumpy. He also brought some chopsticks. One of his coworkers had been to Japan and brought a bunch of fancy chopsticks in to work to share. Jeff took two beautiful pairs. Okay, then I was a little less grumpy, only because I found the chopsticks so interesting.

I guess that was just what I needed to break out of this grump that I've been in. By dinner I was laughing and goofing off with the kids, and by the time we got Zaylee put to bed I had made cookies and was joking around with Jeff. So since Jeff got home, my day has been much better.

Here's to a tomorrow that will be happier all day!