I'm the first bomb to go off...

I woke up this morning and sure enough I have the virus.  Not fun!!!  The worst of it is pretty much over now.  Thank goodness.  Of course I have a LOT of catching up to do on the house work. It never ceases to amaze me how much more work I have to do after missing a day.  Tomorrow is going to be super fun!!!!  :)

A couple of thoughts...

>My apologies to everyone at my mom's church building Sunday who will probably get the stomach virus Gracie had.  She was just playing and normal and happy and then suddenly blew chunks all over the floor during Sacrament Meeting.   This falls under the "Least favorite motherhood moments" category of my life!!! We all have them!!!  Crazy how fast that came on.  Who knew!?! Matthew got it too. The rest of us are ticking time bombs...
>Gracie is in that super fun stage where she throws random things in the garbage all the time. Yesterday morning I was sitting at the computer and within 15 minutes she threw away her empty bottle, a set of toy keys, and one of her sandals. She just waltzed up to the garbage can and threw them away as if it was the most normal thing in the world.  Heaven only knows what she has thrown out when we weren't looking!

Hooray!!! I found the floor!!!!

My kids were so incredibly helpful when we moved in here.  They were so excited to see all of their toys that had been in storage for 8 months and they couldn't contain the excitement!  I begged, pleaded, commanded them not to unload boxes.  I have a system that works really well for me and I wanted to follow it the way I have followed it each of the 16 times we have moved.  Of course, they didn't listen. They unloaded box after box of everything imaginable looking for their beloved toys.  There was crap strung everywhere!!!  As if unpacking, organizing, D.I. piling with 4 kids, baseball and soccer season, summer break, no dishwasher with 6 people and making 3 at home meals a day, a clingy, confused 1 year old who also got an ear infection and has been getting molars wasn't challenging enough!  Now you add crap strung everywhere to the mix and it was bad!  Very, very...bad!  You know how when you move it's best to have a place where you can pile all the boxes and such so that you can kind of gradually unload one box at a time and have some organization to the madness.  In Salem we used the garage as this area.  Here we don't have a garage and apparently we live in a wind tunnel these days so we can't leave anything out on the carport so we just had to make due with having random piles of boxes strewn throughout the house.  My favorite!!  Well the dining room became the biggest area of craziness.  Tons of boxes were being stored there.  The kids unloaded the most crap there.  It was a danger zone!!!  Early last week I found the table.  It was so exciting!  We were having our first corn on the cob of the season and you have to have a table for corn on the cob!  Yesterday I actually found the floor of the rest of the dining room.  I have widdled it down to like 10 boxes in that room and they are stacked neatly to one side and I could even vacuum the wonderful, ugly carpet!  I feel like a new woman!!!  I have been telling Brian that I think those horders on t.v. just moved during baseball and soccer season and just never found the time to finally get the last of their crap unpacked and then life happened and it just got worse and worse until their houses just became a mess of junk they never had time to get to.  I can't handle living in clutter and mess.  We always live in places that are too small for us and it's hard to keep up with them but I HATE living in disorder!  I am a perfectionist!  I absolutely LOVE organization!!!  So living in a crazy mess in a basement for 8 months was just TOO much and the slow process this organizing, unpacking thing has been here was just about to put me over the edge!!!  But I found the floor!!!!! I.found.the.floor!!!  I feel so much better now!  I don't feel like those crazy horders anymore!!! It's awesome!!!!   I like our house more and more each day! I LoVe the feeling of US that we have here!  Sure cosmetically there are some kind of crazy things. For instance, there are holes in the ugly green carpet and your knees touch the bathroom cabinet when you're on the throne, and the 90 year old kitchen carpet made me want to hurl but you have to look at the positive things.  If we have a stomach virus where it's coming from both ends we're set!  Grosse I know!  And luckily we have a huge carpet remnant that we used in Salem that covers most of the floor in the kitchen so I don't have to be grossed out constantly over that!  The front yard is great!  The size of the living room is great! The ward is great!  The huge 2 car carport is great!  Having storage space in the cellar is great so we don't have to rent a storage unit. It really is a great little place for our little family.  Like Brian said,"If love grows best in little houses, we're really going to love each other!!!"

Happy Birthday Brian!!!!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband Brian!!!!  I love you!!! I hope you feel loved today!!!!!!!
P.S. This is one of my all time favorite pictures of Brian. This picture of him holding Matty when he was 2 is just precious! Even Superman needs his Daddy sometimes!!!   :)

Facebook virus warning..

Most of you know that I am truly addicted to Facebook! It has been such a fun way to get in touch with old friends I had growing up in Dodge City, Kansas, and from high school in Utah. It has been super great catching up with some of my relatives that I haven't talked with for a long time.
I used to LOVE playing Farmville and Farm Town. It was so fun to play. Well, in January Brian got me a mini laptop for my birthday. It has been so much fun!! Well, I got a virus on it from Facebook. I also got a virus on our PC from Facebook.   They seemed to be a total loss until Brian was able to do some research on the internet using a different computer and found the instructions for restoring the computers. THANK GOODNESS IT WORKED!!! It seemed to happen when I was on Farmville but I wasn't sure. I continued to do Farmville and it happened AGAIN to our PC. I immediately stopped using Farmville and it seemed to be just fine for me to use Facebook. Well, one day I was opening an email from Facebook that was one of the comments that was made from someone else on a post that I had "liked". It immediately gave my computer a virus.  Yeah...a virus...from Facebook...through my EMAIL!!! Not a happy camper!!! My sister, Dana and her son, Anthony, and my brother in law Chris, have all contracted viruses from Facebook on their computers.Well, I just have such a hard time getting over this addiction so I continued to use Facebook. Last night I was just reading people's posts on Facebook and then exited it and I got the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death", which is usually irreversible and means your computer is just.plain.DEAD!! Well, I immediately turned off the computer and some how it didn't kill my computer. It some how stopped the virus from completely attacking the hard drive. THANK HEAVENS!!! Well, I LOVE Facebook, but I also like actually having a computer that works so I can blog and surf the internet. I'm trying so hard to stay off of Facebook today so I don't take the chance of getting another virus. The withdrawals are tough but I'm sure eventually I will get over it...  :(    So long Facebook buddies! Thanks for the laughs, the tears, the fun! Thanks for the memories........


By the way:  We have virus protection.  AVG.  At the college they have the some of the best virus protection you can buy and an email was sent around a while back saying that the Facebook viruses had penetrated their system.  Apparently virus protection isn't a guarantee!!!

Beautiful things...

-So yesterday we splurged and took the kids to the matinee showing of Toy Story 3. It was so good!!! We all just love the Toy Story movies and I was a bit nervous that the 3rd wouldn't be as good as the rest but it was so great!  I'm such a bawl baby that I cried.  Everyone knows the premise of the movie is that Andy grows up and goes to college and the toys are donated to a daycare. Well, it made me really sad to think about my own boys growing up and going to college and not needing their toys anymore. Their toys drive me crazy! They have TOO MANY and I just can't stand all the clutter that goes along with all of those toys. I've been taking a lot of them to D.I. these last weeks and feel like I need to take even more! After watching Toy Story 3 I have a new perspective on the toys. I still need to get rid of more of them but they are a really wonderful part of the kids' childhoods. Another thing I should just enjoy while it lasts!!!
-It's been so wonderful to be in our own home again and to feel more relaxed with the kids and get back to just being US! It's amazing how much different the family unit works when you have your own place to relax and enjoy each other! Our kids are the best and I am so happy to be their mom! They bring me so much joy and happiness! I love feeling like I can slow down and take the time to notice their individual personalities and gifts and what brings them joy. It's so fun to be able to laugh at their cuteness and just breathe easier and not have to worry so much! Freedom and space and boys and babies and motherhood are BEAUTIFUL things!!! 
-Happy Father's Day to the wonderful dads in my life. To my amazing husband who loves his kids so much and finds so much joy in them! It's fun to be living the parenting dream with such a great man! Each of our children has wrapped him around their little finger and Gracie is no different. Maybe wrapped the tightest yet!!! I have loved watching his interaction with our kids over these past 10 years! He has been so hands on and involved and wonderful! Our kids ADORE him and it makes me so happy to watch him with them! He's awesome and I love him! I also want to wish Stan and my brothers and brothers in law Happy Father's Day!!! It's a wonderful thing to watch the men I know as they father their beautiful children. They are so involved and nurturing and loving and kind.

Happy Father's Day, all!!!

You deserve a wonderful day!!!

Another of Holly's thoughts...

There comes a time in life when you have to let go of all the pointless drama & the people who create it & surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard that you forget the bad and focus solely on the good. After all, life is too short to be anything but happy....

For more of her the great quotes she posts on Facebook, that I just love, check out my post entitled Loveliness on March 31. 

It's a gorgeous day here!!! Yesterday the wind blew like MAD!  It was cloudy and gray.  Today...blue sky, no wind, warm and lovely.  Enjoy the day!!! Be HAPPY!!!I'm gonna!!!

I posted a ton of posts on my Word From The Zoo blog!!!! Check it out!!!!

AAAHHH!!!

~It seems the older I get the better it feels to crawl into my bed at night.  When I was a kid I HATED crawling into my bed when the sheets are cold.  Now I LOVE how that feels!   It soothes my aching knees and the muscles in my legs. It's the BEST!!!
~Today is Zack's last baseball game of the season.  His coach (Andy) is so awesome!  He's wonderful with the boys.  The game the other night was intense.  This was a rival team and the coach and team REALLY wanted the win bad!!! The coach isn't usually driven by that but this game was different.  They tied and had to play an inning in overtime.  INTENSE!!  Zack's team won by 3 points!!!  I have no idea what Andy said to the team during the game but he is usually really positive with them no matter what but apparently he said something he wasn't feeling good about because he apologized to the kids and was so great with them.  I was so glad to have heard that because it just made me even happier that he was our boys coach.  We were already so impressed with him after the coach Zack had last year.  Sure, they took 2nd in the division and made it to the state tournament so he was a "good coach".  But he was such a jerk to the boys and especially his son.  His poor son (the pitcher) SOBBED for at least 15 minutes after they were eliminated in the state tournament.  I looked at that poor boy, with the weight of the world on his poor little shoulders, and realized at that moment that I NEVER want to put that kind of pressure on my children with sports or anything else in this life.  Andy would NEVER do that to a child and I am so grateful Zack had such a great guy coaching him this year!  They are playing for 3rd place in the division today.  Last night was a fun skills competition and Zack's team won the "around the horn" event.  So fun!!! They had a BBQ with brats and burgers.  Course we were sweltering at the game on Thursday and it was in the 50s with strong wind and some rain last night.  Fun times!!  Zack's team has played 22 games since April and, as much fun as it has been wrestling a baby girl in the car most of the games because of cold, windy weather I am glad it is coming to an end.  It has been awesome watching him play and watching the team progress and everything but it will be nice to say goodbye to baseball season until next spring.  It won't be completely over until Max finishes tball and Matty finishes soccer at the end of the month but no more, 2 games a night, so that will be a relief!!!
~It's amazing how calming a priesthood blessing can be to the soul!!! It's just wonderful! I am so grateful that my husband honors his priesthood and can give us blessings when we need them!!!

IT'S ROUGH!!!

So when life gets really rough I have to count my blessings so that I don't let the negativity take over, so, here goes (in no particular order)....

I am thankful for:
blue skies
HOT summer days
seeing friends for the first time in 5 years
brown eyed baby girls
watching my kids run through the sprinklers
having a clean bathroom
the rubbermaid tote we found in our cellar that is FULL of novels
bbqs
Max's big blue eyes against his green tball hat
feeling the spirit
being married to my best friend
my wonderful brother in law, JJ. All I can say is I'm sorry you had to get hurt in this after you were being so generous and kind and thoughtful and good.  It breaks my heart!!!
ice cold Cherry Coke
Mississippi Mud Cake
AND...
last but not least
air conditioning!!!!

Rocks

Our boys LOVE rocks!! They have very extensive "rock collections" that consist mainly of random river rocks they have found in our yards over the years.  I finally convinced Zack that he needs to try to stick to "special" rocks for his collection like geodes or a rock that is shaped like something cool or that he found somewhere fun or that has some sort of meaning to him before we ended up with 10 tons of river rock in our house.

When we went to Zion's National Park a few years ago with our friends John and Jan, they let their sons each pick a special rock while we were there to have as their souvenir for the trip.  She said they pick a rock everywhere they go and they write the place and the date on it to remember the trip.  Now that's my kind of souvenir...FREE!!! 

Well, yesterday they were having a FREE "Rock and Fossil Show" at the college.  We decided to take the kids to it.  They LOVED it!!  We actually enjoyed it a lot too.  It turned out it was really a sale. It was set up like a craft show is where tables are set up with crafts to buy but there just were tons of rocks and fossils for sale.  It was still fun to see all of the neat different types of rocks and fossils. 

Zack really enjoys geodes.  He used his allowance to buy a geode. It was actually quite cool!! You buy the geode as a solid rock (his cost $4) then the guy puts it in some sort of hydrolic jack that has blades on the top and bottom and it breaks the geode open and you get to see the coolness of the inside. Of course each one is different on the inside.  His is really neat!  My Grandma Zickefoose liked geodes and rose rocks and things and I just couldn't help but think of her and how neat she would have thought that was.

 Matthew is totally into sharks so he bought a large shark tooth with his money.  Max got a star fish.  Anyway, it was fun, free entertainment that the whole family enjoyed.

Not MEEE!!!

As I've mentioned before, I have many ghost children roaming around my house.  I have to say the most annoying ghost child, by far, HAS to be the one my children have dubbed; Not MEEE!!!  I tell ya, he is SOOO naughty!!! He wreaks havoc on this place like none other!  When I get my hands on that little bugger,  ooooeeeeee is he going to get it!!!!!

Time.........

~Yesterday was a gorgeous day!  The sun was shining brightly.  It was warm.  And the wind only lightly breezed by a few times.  I love days like that!!!
~I'm still unpacking.  Brian and Zack brought over the last of our things in storage yesterday so I don't have to worry about adding more to the mix, which is a HUGE relief!!!  This place is bulging at the seams.  I've already taken out something like 5 boxes of things we are getting rid of which is nice but there is still so much more.  Our boys have always LOVED dressing up in costumes. They are so cute!  You never know "who" is going to walk in the room.  As I've been unpacking and organizing and sorting I've run across many of the cute little costumes our boys have always loved dressing up in. Of course Matthew and Max were so excited to see them again after being away from them for the last 8 months.  They put them right on and much to my surprise and both of our disappointment...they have grown too big for most of them.  I knew they were growing like weeds this year but I had no idea just how much until now.  It's sad that they are growing up so quickly.  It's wonderful that each new phase brings new joy and excitement for them and for us.  It's so exciting to watch them grow and change and progress in so very many different ways.  I'm a little scared of what the future brings.  It's kind of a crap shoot.  You raise your kids the way you believe you should and some of them turn out great and others...not so much.  There is no secret.  There is no magic potion or formula that will ensure that they will turn out the way you hope they will.  I have seen so many people that have been very good, decent, people and they raise all of their kids in the same way, in the same home and each result is different.  I just hope and pray that our children will turn out to be happy, good, kind, decent, loving, family oriented, successful, spiritual, productive, honorable, upstanding, members of this world we live in.  They are growing so fast.  I hope we are doing it right.  I hope they are taking the good things from life.  I hope they hold onto the good things of their childhood and not the bad.  I hope I can try harder to enjoy the moments before it's too late and they are grown and the opportunity is gone.  I see my nephews and nieces and I can't believe how quickly they have grown.  I blinked and they are all in their late teens/early twenties.  Some are parents.  I just can't believe how fast time flies by.  I want to capture this time somehow and remember it forever.  Everyone that is past this stage tells us to savor the time, enjoy it more, it goes too fast, don't let it slip by without taking time to just ENJOY.  I'm trying.  Really, I am.  Sometimes LIFE gets in the way and time slips away a little more and I stop and think, wait! Hold up! SLOW DOWN!!!  Crazy how it doesn't.  It just goes by faster.  One thing that might help is to take more pictures.  The more kids I have, the fewer pictures I take.  Too busy taking care of everyone to think about capturing the moments.  If I do though I will at least have the pictures to look back on and help me remember this time after it's gone.  Scrapbooking is so great for this.  I should do it more often.  If you scrapbook you are thinking all the time of the scrapbook and what moments you want to capture in their books forever and you take more time to really look for those special, sweet moments to capture on film.  I am so grateful that our children are so healthy and can grow and flourish.  I wouldn't want it any other way.  I will ENJOY this time more and appreciate it more and try harder to make this time more enjoyable for all of us!!!!