pens and pencils are for paper

Today we went to lunch at Burger King and the kids got some Spongebob Squarepants pens in their kids meals. I'm not a Spongebob fan to begin with, I don't usually let my children watch it despite their many requests. I just think it can be a tad gross. Anyways, we got home and discovered what Abbie had been doing during the drive home.

It was all over her arm and her legs. As if drawing on herself isn't bad enough (she does it all too often), we soon learned that she has selected a new victim. Fortunately we got to her in time to prevent any serious trauma. Needless to say, we'll have to keep a closer eye on Abbie when she is in posession of any writing utensils!

gratitude sundays (sleep)

This will be a short post, because I intend to go and do the thing which I am grateful for. Last night Gracie slept for 9 straight hours. She is exactly 6 weeks old. While I know I can't count on a pattern just yet, I'm grateful for the one good night that I got, despite the side effects from not nursing for such a long period of time. Here's to hoping for another good night!

a little of this, a little of that

So I have several things that I have been meaning to blog about for a couple of weeks now, but I haven't been able to sit my self down and get it done. I meant for each to be it's own separate post, but I've decided that my brain can not handle the ever growing list, so I must get these thoughts out so I have some room to fill the empty space with more. Hence the combined post.

First off, like most little girls, Abbie loves to sing and dance. She picks up song lyrics from all sorts of places. We are often serenaded with the sounds from High School Musical and Hannah Montana. Yes, I know that she is only 4 and that these shows should appeal to an older crowd, but they appeal to her. Of course we hear some Little Mermaid and JoJo's Circus, too. Although she loves music in general, a favorite song has recently emerged, and it has no Disney ties whatsoever. On the contrary, it has Matchbox 20 ties.

I speak of Rob Thomas, and the song is Lonely No More. While she doesn't really know most of the words, she gets the melody and kind of mumbles along, except for the chorus of "whoa, whoa" which comes out loud and clear. For the last two weeks, every time we get in the car, Abbie wants to hear her favorite song, and we must repeat it over and over. About the time that she decided it was her favorite song, I was driving along, singing to it myself, and out of nowhere she said, "Mommy, it is so beautiful when you sing!" While I have musical training, it is certainly not with my voice, but the comment was cute. So, I'm sure we'll all by Lonely No More for some time to come.

On to Derrick. Last week I finished teaching a piano lesson and went in to the living room to find Derrick watching the movie Over The Hedge. Normally this would have been alright, except for the fact that we don't own the movie, hadn't rented it, and it wasn't on any normal channels. That's right...my son has figured out how to order movies on pay-per-view. Needless to say, we quickly figured out how to change our DISH settings to prevent that in the future.

Finally, the new season of Dancing with the Stars began this week. I will admit that I love this show. Partly because I've always liked dancing, but mostly because it has convinced my husband that one day it will be OK to take dancing lessons together. This coming from the man who refused to have any dancing at our wedding. Anyways, my little sister stayed with us earlier this week and she watched the first episode with me. When it came time for Heather Mills to dance, I was trying to explain to Katie who she was. Basically her big claim to fame is being married to one of the Beatles. Well, my 11 year old sister has never heard of the Beatles. How does that happen? Anyways, I'm hoping that Joey Fatone wins. Not that I'm a fan or anything, I just think he will probably be the best dancer. I was kind of bummed when Mario lost last year. Emmett was entertaining, but clearly not a better dancer than Mario, which is what it should be about in my opinion.

gratitude sundays (where I live)

This is the view to the south of my town in Colorado. It's my hometown. My family moved here when I was 12 years old. It's where I met my husband when we were sophomores in high school. Ten years after we graduated we found a way to move back and we couldn't be happier. Both of our parents still live here, so our children get to spend a lot of quality time with their grandparents. I am grateful to live here and to know the people who live here. We truly feel like this is where we are supposed to be. We never want to live anywhere else.

GM, you're funny!

My grandpa sent me the following in an email. I found it quite humorous so I decided to share! Anyone who has a love/hate relationship with their PC will understand. I look forward to the day when I can afford to get a new MAC!

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on. At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon." In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash........ Twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning light."

7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

gratitude sundays (an easy baby)

Yesterday Grace turned 1 month old. I can't believe how quickly the last month has flown by. Today I am grateful for what a good baby she has turned out to be. I'm not saying that my other two were not good babies, they just weren't as easy to care for as Gracie has been. I realize that a lot of it probably has to do with the fact that I'm not new at this, I'm more relaxed now than I was the first couple times. One major difference is that Gracie is a good sleeper, meaning that she will sleep for longer than an hour and a half at a time. Even though it doesn't seem like that much during the nighttime, I really enjoy it during the day. She doesn't fuss very much, and when she does she is pretty easily pacified. Even when she is being smothered by her brother and sister, she just goes with the flow. I can't say how much I needed a baby like this! Derrick and Abbie are great kids, but they have been a handful lately. At least one of my children has decided not to give me a hard time!

loose tooth

On Thursday night Derrick discovered that he has his first loose tooth! He is pretty excited, and to be honest, so am I. Despite the fact that it is yet another sign that he is growing up, it is something that he has been looking forward to for a while now so I am happy for him. The last two days have seen frequent updates on how loose the tooth is, several wiggle tests, guessing games as to how long it will take to come out, and Abbie's realization that he can put it under his pillow and the tooth fairy will bring him a penny! (I'm thinking that the tooth fairy will probably be a little more generous.) That then sparked a debate about whether or not the tooth fairy is a boy (like in The Santa Clause 2) or a girl (like in American Dragon: Jake Long), which then reminded me that my children watch TOO MUCH television.

welcome karin

So, I hinted at it the other day, and after a couple phone consultations with me (because I'm such an expert), my sister Karin finally has her blog up and running! I'm so excited! Below is a picture of my family from almost three years ago. We're 4 grandchildren short from what we now have, but it is the most current picture I think I have of her (not in a swimming suit, anyway). Karin is the one on the far right, sitting next to me on the second step up. You may notice that she looks an awful lot like the sister on the far left, first step up. That would be Karin's twin, Kendra. She's next on my list, followed by Marcee, who is smack dab in the middle, right above my son. My other two siblings, Grant and Katie, are either two young or too involved with figuring out what to do with their future to blog, so don't expect to see them any time soon. Back to the whole point of this post...WELCOME KARIN! Now our husbands have something else in common to comiserate about.

maternity leave

My maternity leave is almost over. OK, so I'm not on an official maternity leave because I don't really have an official job. But, my piano students start lessons again this coming Monday. I mailed out invoices this afternoon. I'm torn, because while I really enjoy teaching my students, I have loved having this time off. In total, my students will have had 5 weeks off. I just couldn't bring myself to take any more time away. As it is, I'm afraid that we will already have to backtrack a little bit to bring everyone back up to speed. Ten students doesn't really sound like a lot, but it is when I'm trying to remember where I left off with everyone! Plus, I need to start preparing them all for a recital in a couple of months. I'm not really stressed out, even if it sounds that way, I'm just curious to see how teaching 2 to 3 lessons each day is going to work with a new baby. Wish me luck!

gratitude sundays (a healthy family)

"Wherefore, the blessings which I give unto you are above all things." (D&C 18:45)

Over the last week I've been blog-hopping. I've noticed a trend among a number of fellow bloggers. This trend involves writing a particular type of post on a specific day of the week. While I may choose to adopt some of the other ideas that I've seen, to start with I've decided to pick a day and topic of my own. That's why I'm declaring Sunday as a day to post about my blessings and things that I am grateful for. I'll try to pick just one a week. It's the reflection on the blessing that I'm interested in, along with the opportunity to remind myself of what I have when I sometimes forget. I invite anyone who wishes to join in!

Events of the last couple of weeks have directed me to reflect on this first blessing I want to record. A few years ago I used to work for a company that provided services and programs to people with disabilities. During that time, one of our directors began his family, only to find out that his daughter has many serious problems when she was born. Fortunately, being in the field that he was, he was better equipped to deal with these challenges than most people. About two weeks ago, I learned that he and his wife were expecting another child. Unfortunately, they had just had an ultrasound and learned that this new baby would also have serious health problems. My heart is broken for them. I am blessed with three beautiful, healthy children. When I feel tired or stressed with the demands placed on me by my three, I think of how much harder it would be to deal with the additional trials of disability and sickness. I don't know if I could do it.



On Friday we learned that the 2nd Counselor in our bishopric was just diagnosed with a brain tumor. He and his wife are several years older than us, but they have a young family with 3 children in the same age ranges as our children. He is a dentist here in town and has just opened a new pediatric practice. She is Abbie's CTR 5 teacher, and taught Derrick last year. My children love seeing her on Sundays. As 2nd Counselor, he is responsible for the Primary and since I'm the Secretary, I see him a lot on Sundays, too. I can't imagine what they must be going through right now. Supposedly the tumor is benign and operable, but you never know what might happen. Even with surgery, he may have hearing loss and partial facial paralysis. I've been concerned about whether or not he may lose some hand function as well, which could be a huge problem with his career. I didn't go to church today because I'm staying home with Grace until April, and Jon had to work, so I don't know if there is any new information or not. What I do know is that when we got the call on Friday, Jon and I talked about the blessing of a healthy family. When all is laid out on the table, I would rather have the problems that we have than the ones of these two families right now. Sure, I can't know whether or not we may ever have to experience these types of challenges, but for the time being, here in the now, I am blessed.

random thoughts

I've been meaning to post now for a couple of days, but I couldn't ever seem to organize my thoughts in to one concise topic, so I've opted for the randomness. Here goes.

Patience. This is a virtue not currently in my possession. I have need to apologize to Derrick and Abigail for my short temper over the last couple of weeks (if we're being perfectly honest, probably the last several months). This is not to say that they are blameless here, their listening skills have gone out the window lately, but that does not excuse my behavior. I realize that we are all adjusting to having a 5th member in our family. I recognize that the changes in my sleep routine are a huge contributing factor in my "quick to anger" disposition, but I'm still the grown-up and should better control myself if I expect them to do the same.

My sister Karin is in the process of creating her own blog. It's contagious! I can't wait for her to get it up and running, maybe mentioning it on here will speed the process along! Anyways, now I need to work on my other sisters. Kendra and Marcee, if you're reading this, I'm coming for you!

Is spring planning on coming this year? Every time it looks hopeful, we get another round of snow. Yesterday, for instance, brought a good 5-6 inches on the new trampoline that we just got for Derrick's birthday. I'm ready for my kids to be outside!!!