Random Ramblings

1. Sanity is beginning to return to our home. First off, I came to my senses and decided NOT to get Audrey's ears pierced and to return to my previous rule. Audrey may get her ears pierced when she can take care of all her own hygiene needs. Shower alone, dress, do hair, and take care of her clothes. When she proves thus, she may get her ears pierced whether that be at 8 or 18 years old.
We have also opted out of the business we were looking into. We just couldn't justify the $500 with the lack of sucess we were having. Therefore you may all breathe easier in knowing we will not be bugging you.

2. I hate to advertise, but I must get word out. I am SERIOUSLY looking for piano and clarinet students. If any of you know anyone in the Ogden area intersted, PLEASE contact me. I prefer to teach people I know rather than advertising in the music store. Therefore, I will try this avenue of word-of-mouth first and see what follows.

3. My newfound freedom is quite entertaining to me. You see, Ben now has a friend to carpool with to work every day. That means I get the van. Now, I haven't taken advantage of using the van for a day excursion yet, but the KNOWLEDGE that I CAN leave if I want to is SO empowering. I find myself more patient with the kids and less watching the clock for Ben to get back from work all because I know that IF I want to, I can leave and go somewhere. Go figure.

4. I have finally sucked it all up and begun walking every day......at 6am. I go with my friend Cicily, and hopefully my friend Heather will be joining us soon. 6am was the only time that we couldn't come up with an excuse not to go. Our husbands are home, the kids are still sleeping, and it's nice and cool. We knew that afternoons wouldn't work because then we'd have to take the combined total of 7 kids between the 3 of us. Evening wouldn't work either because we'd always be coming up with excuses not to go (too tired, couple time, family time, date night, friend time, etc.). So....the only alternative was 6am. We actually went for a few days, then bummed out until we found that pants weren't fitting correctly and we were NOT going to buy new pants. The only other option was to get our rears in gear and walk!

5. Fly lady works. My house has never looked better since I joined up with FlyLady. I love that she just tells you to jump in and start getting out of CHAOS (Can't have anyone over syndrome). I have just been trying to whittle away at the clutter, junk, and non-useful/non-loved items, as well as just taking a few minutes to spruce up at least one room in the home every day. Now, most of you know I am FAR from a clean freak. My house always looks "lived in." What has really changed is that a) I finally have a child that crawls and he is EVERYWHERE and eats EVERYTHING and that's a lot with two other kids leaving papers, and crumbs everywhere.
b) I finally just got sick of always being behind and feeling like I had to panic clean for anyone to come over. The house is FAR from great, but at least the kitchen and front room are usually tidy nowdays. c) I want to be more like my sister Vickie and my friend Kristie who have nice orderly, tidy homes that you feel comfortable in. Not to mention I want to be a better wife, mother, and homemaker. So there we go. If any of you struggle like I do, then go check out FlyLady.com and just remember that you don't have to do it EXACTLY like they say or at the speed they say, but that you just have to DO.

Ok....I'm done rambling now.

To Pierce or Not to Pierce, That is the Question.

Audrey came home yesterday and asked to get her ears pierced. I just don't know whether or not to do it. I planned on getting her ears pierced at SOME point during her childhood if she asked for it. She turns 5 in a couple weeks, so it could be her b-day present. My sister Vickie said she let her twins pierce their ears when they asked to do so when they were 7. She also suggested if I do it to tell Audrey she has to wear her studs for a while before getting changeable earrings. My sister-in-law Vanessa has had her girls' ears pierced since the beginning. Audrey's friend Gloria, who is a month younger than Audrey, got her ears pierced this summer. My mother-in-law is very much against piercing Audrey's ears so young. She'd rather we wait until Audrey is a teenager. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this topic? The funniest thing is, that her inspiration to get her ears pierced came from the neighbor boy who has an earring.

Don't Try This at Home

Let me set the scene. It is 11:30am. Audrey and Marissa have refused to eat much breakfast and are thus complaining that they are STARVING. Trent has just waken up from a 3 hour nap since he woke up this morning at 6:30am and didn't have the best night last night anyway due to hayfever. Trent is one hungry dude now. I'm hungry, well because I just am. I need to feed Trent and make the girls lunch before they whine me to death. So what do I decide the solution is? I ask Audrey to feed Trent. Interesting. Let us just say that I think there was more food ON Trent than IN him. He managed to steal the spoon from Audrey half way through, so Audrey gets another spoon which he also manages to steal. I take the spoon back and wipe it off for Audrey to recommence with the feeding. Well, in the mix is Marissa who has decided that if AUDREY gets to feed "Dude" than SHE does too. So Marissa gets her own spoon and climbs up on the chair with Audrey and proceeds to "feed" Trent too. Messy, messy, messy. I guess it all worked out in the end though. Trent got fed.....mostly, Audrey and Marissa weren't whining any more, and I managed to get lunch made without too many distractions. I should have taken a picture of the kids though. Trent was COVERED in Cheddar Broccoli soup and Audrey had it in her hair and on her clothes. Marissa ended up the cleanest, however SHE was the biggest contributor of the mess! Go figure.

The Vortex of Doom, and My New Toy

Ok, so the vortex of doom is ticking me off!!! You know that mysterious place where all the missing socks go?? Well, it's sucked up my umbrella stroller AND Marissa's blanket. Seriously. It's annoying. To be truthful, I think someone stole the umbrella stroller, which must have meant they needed it MUCH more than I, but it had two chinese jumpropes in the back bag, and THAT I'm ticked off about being stolen. The blanket however is seriously gone without a trace. I've combed the entire house looking for it. Inside and Out. I've checked in cupboards, under beds, in all the toy drawers, the closets, EVERYWHERE I can think of and I can't find that blanket. Marissa's going to go ballistic if it's gone for more than this naptime. I'm lucky I got her to sleep without it right now....what am I going to do at bedtime if I can't find it?!?!??!?!?!? So, if anyone knows the whereabouts of either the blanket, or the vortex of doom, please inform me so that I don't go any more insane than I already am!!

Now, on to my new toy. I scored. Big Time!! The family down the street is moving to California where her husband is stationed as an interpreter for the army (?). Anyway, they didn't want to take the piano with them since it's a BIG piano so they GAVE, yes GAVE as in for FREE, me the piano!!! I know, I can't believe it either. So Ben and I rearranged the house and put the TV downstairs so that there was room for my new toy!! I LOVE my piano. All in all, I guess it cost about $300 dollars in the end to move it and have it tuned but that was so worth it. I play it every day and I'm REALLY excited to have it during Christmas because that's my favorite time of year to play. So, here's a picture of my newest acquisition. Oh, and if anyone knows someone who wants piano lessons let me know. I'm serious. I'm trying to get 3-4 students to help out with money.

One of THOSE days

Do you ever have one of THOSE days? Of course you do, we ALL do. Well I'm stuck in a rut with THOSE days. All I can say is that I need to rant, so here goes. Do you ever feel like everything in life is going wrong? It doesn't help to be sleep deprived either. You feel like you want to kill your kids, your house looks like....well like people LIVE there and don't clean up after themselves, you feel fat and ugly, and you just feel all around like a crappy person? Welcome to my world of the last few days. I just need to suck it up and get over it, but sometimes the depression just spirals out of control until you're sitting like a blob on a chair bawling your eyes out. Now, I'm not saying this to alarm anyone, I just have to get it off my chest and start climbing back up the sides of the pit. Anyway, I'm sure life will start looking up....I mean it already looks better today than it did yesterday. Improvement right? Ok, I'm done ranting now. Everyone can go back to their lives now. Thanks for listening.

My Little Trooper

So, let me tell you about my little trooper, Marissa. Poor little 2 year old has a broken arm!! It is sad, but true. While we were on a hike (really more of a walk on a nicely paved, flat path) she fell and broke her arm. You see, my neice Gaby accidentally tripped over Marissa and they both went sprawling. Marissa started screaming bloody murder. Of course, I didn't think much of THAT considering it's Marissa and she is a DRAMA Queen, it was WELL past nap time, and she'd fallen and gotten hurt. She had a scrape on her left cheeck and a fat lip, so I thought, "she's tired, so she's just over reacting." She screamed a lot longer than usual, but I still didn't register that her arm was hurt because she was sitting in her stroller and she fell asleep before we got to the car to drive home. We got home and I put her down for a nap. She woke up around 5pm and THAT'S when I noticed that something just wasn't right. She'd hold her arm close to her body and wouldn't use it. She'd also scream if anyone bumped it. So, we took off for an urgent care facility in Provo to see a doctor. The doctor checks her out, moves her arm around and declares that he doesn't think it's broken. There is no x-ray tech on hand to do an x-ray however to confirm this diagnosis. The doc tells us if we REALLY feel it's necessary that we can come back in the morning for an x-ray or go to an ER. Since the doctor was SO sure it wasn't broken we didn't bother. However, when Riss STILL wasn't using her arm a full day later I called my pediatrician and gave them the scoop. They told me that as long as nothing changed I could wait and bring her in when we got home. We got home, and I took her in, and they took an x-ray to find out that BOTH her bones were broken!!! Stinkin, stupid urgent care doctor!!!! Anyway, now she's in a cast and our biggest problem is trying to keep the dumb thing dry!!! Ah well, such is life. Here's a pic of Riss with her temporary cast on.