Cuteness and goodbye...

~This morning I was sitting on the floor in the closet trying to organize shoes and clothes when Matthew and Max started getting ready for school. They were singing songs from the radio. They didn't get a lot of the words right and it cracked me up. I didn't correct them, I just smiled as they sang their little hearts out. I just love them so much!

~Last night we had the last family shindig before Nathan and Heidi headed back to Florida. We ate, visited, the guys watched the big game upstairs. The kids played together. Isabelle (Nate's oldest daughter who's 5 and in kindergarten) said to Steph and J.J. that they could come to Florida to visit them on Valentine's Day or Easter. Then she told Brian and I and our kids that we could come visit them for her birthday in June. She described the birthday cake she'll have and other fun details about the party she'll have. She is adorable and had a wonderful, dramatic, excitement, and imagination about her. It was so hard to look at her beautiful little face and her pretty little eyes and try to explain that we can't afford to go to Florida to see her. I'm so afraid she's totally expecting us to show up for her birthday and will just be so disappointed when we don't show up.

When Izzy was born they lived in Provo. They came to Mom's for Sunday every week. They shared holidays, birthdays, dance recitals, births, baby blessings. They moved about a year and a half ago. My mom has been broken hearted ever since about it and poor little Josh (Steph's 5 year-old son) has missed her so much. They were best pals since he was born when Izzy was 4 months old!

I'm not big on goodbyes! There are 6 of us kids in our family and now Rob, Dana, and Nathan all live in other states with their sweet families. We all miss them so much! When I think about it I just don't know how my mom handles it!

They left for the airport at 3:00am so we had to say goodbye last night. We said our goodbyes and headed downstairs before they said goodbye to my parents. I guess Izzy just sobbed and said that she didn't want to leave. :'(  Little Mikey is about a month older than my Gracie is. Tommy is about 14 months old. We'll miss them all so much! Gracie still didn't really know what was going on so she cried this morning when we told her they were gone.

It was fun to see what a cute little family they are. I love listening to my brothers talk to their kids. Heidi is such a good little mom!

This and That...

~I must say that I was rather embarrassed to HAVE to put up a whole end cap at Walmart that was solely devoted to Justin Bieber. I'm not a fan of the show, The Office, but Brian and Zack LOVE it so I just endure it each week.  :)  I will admit, though, that I laughed my butt off when Jim said something to Dwight about Justin Bieber and Dwight said, "What's a justice beaver?" LOL! So ever since then I call him Justice Beaver. It's not that I don't like HIM or anything, it's just that I just...don't "get" it. Last night Justice was on The Voice and his pants were so far down it was ridiculous. Seriously, below his entire butt. What is up with that? LAME!!! Just had to get that out... 

~That baseball craziness has begun. Zack's games are so much fun to watch now that he's older. Add the kids are more competitive and more able to execute awesome plays and such. I'm so proud of Zack because he got hit with a pitch the very first time he was up for bat this season. I figured it would be a very crappy hitting season for him because of being afraid but he is awesome and has hit most pitches since he's been up to bat. Max and Matty are on the same team this year also so that will be a TREMENDOUS help!! Only problem so far is that a lot of the games are scheduled right during Y.W.. Tonight Zack has a game in a town really close to ours from 6:00-8:00 and has to be there at 5:30 and Matty and Max have a practice at a baseball field near where my parents used to live here in town from 6:00-7:30. And I visit teach tonight at 4:00 and 5:00. I don't have to work today like I did last week, which is so nice with all of this going on.

~Brian still hasn't found work. I am stressing so much! Ever since the Priesthood Blessing I had last week I've felt a lot better but it's just so very hard to deal with! We HAVE to figure out what we are supposed to learn from this so we can stop having this same trial over and over and over and over. It's so draining/exhausting/stressful.

~My house is looking more in order now that I'm not working so much. It will get crazy again closer to Mother's Day but for now it's been nice to have more time to devote to cleaning the house and more energy. I've felt so much better lately. I've had my share of pain here and there but for the most part I can deal with life better than I could before. Bending down to pick stuff up is getting increasingly difficult again, which I hate. Feeling like my head and face are going to explode is just not my favorite, call me crazy. I really can't complain though because it is so much better than before and I know it can always be worse. I really need to be more positive!!

~I am always so terrified when it's my turn to teach the Young Women's lesson. I seriously stress out for at least a good week over it. This week when the girls heard it was my turn to give the lesson they all were really happy that it was my turn and were like "Yay, it's Sister Freeman's turn to give the lesson". It just made my whole week! They are such amazing girls and I really hope that my lessons help them and that they I'm not just a blithering idiot up there. LOL!!! We were really early for Sunday School this week. We were actually REALLY late for Sacrament Meeting, but I'm trying to be more positive.  :)

~So, when Gracie was about 2 months old or so, I bought at darling light pink tutu and some cute fairy wings to match, so that I could have her pictures taken in them. Well, she wore them for her Halloween costume when she was one year old, but other than that it has been hanging in her room waiting for us to be able to afford to have her picture taken again. The only time we had her pictures done was when she was a month old in her blessing dress. My parents had some pictures of them with their grand kids when Gracie was about 6 months old. Other than that, this poor little girl hasn't had her pics done in all that time. She will be 3 in May. Everyone thinks she looks like she's at least 4. I worry they'll expect more out of her. Trust me, she may look 4 but she acts like she's 2!  :) Anyhoo, I finally got her pictures done a while back and I'm so excited to share them!!! I can't tell you how happy I am about it!! I'm sure Brian is happy he doesn't have to hear me whine anymore about it. LOL!! I usually only leave my kids' pics up for a couple of days because I don't want creapos to see them.  :)  I got the disc so prepared for a plethora of pics. Who can pic just one. I mean really...  ;)

~Please excuse the grammer and incoherent sentences. I don't have time to proof read...

Easter clothes, girl's day out, and cute stuff my kids did...

I've been thinking lately about how much I hate to move. Today, though, I have been thinking of all of the different people I have met over the years, in all of the different places we have lived. We have truly been blessed. We have lived in some of the best wards in the whole wide world. Some weren't so great but they have just helped us to realize how wonderful it is to live in great wards. I am so grateful for Facebook and blogs! My wonderful friends are just amazing and I still can have them in my life, even though we've moved away. I have also been so blessed to be able to see Heavenly Father's wisdom in sending my children to me when he did, instead of when I WANTED him too!!! They are wonderful kids and I'm so blessed to be their mother! I know, without a doubt, that if I didn't have my children to care for each day, I would have just stayed in bed when I was in so much pain, instead of getting up and doing what needed to be done.

~I couldn't wait all the way until Easter for my kids to wear their new church clothes! They all look so nice! I don't know why Max's tie is so small, but whatev'. It's really hard to take pictures of 4 kids at the same time! I am so proud of Gracie's dress! I don't think the pictures does it justice. It.is.beautiful! Every bit as lovely and well made as any I have ever had for her from The Children's Place. And can you believe it...I got it from KMART! AND, they had so many pretty dresses to choose from that it was kind of tough to choose which one to get! I got the cute little knit shrug at The Children's Place. It was so much fun buying her pretty little Easter outfit. Gracie and I went to Spanish Fork on Friday night for Steph's daughter's 2nd bday party. The boys all had other things going on. Saturday, we just had a wonderful time. Just the 2 of us. We went to lunch with my parents and then she and I went to the mall and had so much fun buying her little earrings, shrug, and pretty pink bracelet. We needed some girl time! I just love her! Max broke her little bracelet right after church today. I was NOT happy! When I was in the kitchen I heard Gracie say to him, "It's ok buddy! (She got the buddy part from Steph's son, Josh. He's SO cute!) It was an accident. Just say, I sorry, DeeDee." She calls herself DeeDee still sometimes cause that's how she pronounced Gracie for the longest time. When Max said he was sorry, she said, "It's ok buddy." She is THE sweetest little girl! Yes, I'm biased, but she melts my heart.

~Max cracked me up on Friday. I noticed his shirt was on backwards and I told him he needed to spin his shirt around. He said, "I'm wearing it like this because the other side is dirty." I guess he figures that if HE can't see it, NO ONE can. LOL!!! I just love each of my kids so much! I don't know what I would do without them!

Mr. Maxers...

Happy 6th Birthday to my "Beautiful Boy", Max!!! I love you so much!!!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5BBEOjUKrI

He wants to be EXACTLY like his big brother, Zack!! he wore Zack's jersey and socks all the time. 

He finally got to play baseball and was THRILLED!!!

Seriously?!

I like to at least give the illusion that I have it all together but my family just keeps revealing how very much I don't have it together at all and it is so not nice.  :(   So yesterday I was at BYC for like ever and when I got home it was time to leave the house to head to church. Matthew was wearing a cowboy boot and a dress shoe. When I asked him what the heck was up with that he told me that he and Brian had searched high and low and hadn't been able to find either of the matches to his crazy little pair of shoes. Greaaaaat! So I did a quick search and couldn't find a match either. Now, some of you have actually seen their room and you are not surprised in the least but they had their room totally clean on Friday. I bribed them with a trip to the $1 store and they whipped that room into shape in no time. This fact made me even more upset about the shoe thing. The matches are probably hidden in abyss at the bottom of the toybox, never to be seen again.So he went to church with 2 different shoes on and even had to give a talk in Primary (which, by the way, went surprisingly well considering I forgot he had to give a talk in Primary until the last speaker in Sacrament Meeting was speaking, so I had to just throw something together), where he had to walk to the front of the room where EvErYoNe got to see his unmatched shoes. Oh, and by the way, I just LOVE what obnoxious kids say to other kids. (yes I know mine are probably obnoxious too and I'm just blinded by motherly love to see it) Last week he couldn't find the other church shoe and wore his cowboy boots and some obnoxious kid made fun of him for wearing cowboy boots to church. Ummm there are parts of Emery County, Salem, Kansas and, I'm sure a zillion other places, where cowboy boots ARE their only church shoes and that's totally cool.

Anyhoo...



So, just when I'm getting over the embarrassment of yesterday's shoe dabockle, Max is ready to walk out the door to wait for the bus, when I look at his feet and realize he has on 2 different sized snowboots. One being his size, and one being 4 sizes bigger. Seriously!?! Does he not see a problem here? Really? (big ol' sigh)  So I frantically looked for a matching snow boot and Brian found the match and told him to put them on. The bus had already showed up and Zack was doing an outstanding job of stalling in hopes that Max would get out in time. Well, Max ran out of the house with one boot on and one boot off. Thank goodness Brian had shoveled snow so he wasn't running through that. So I close the door, and I'm still furious over this crazy situation and Brian tells me that Max didn't take both of the matching boots. He took one of those and the 4 sizes too big boot. So I furiously drove over to the school, in my pajamas and my hat that protects my trigeminal nerve from getting cold and causing me pain, but makes me look like the 3rd clone of the dude on the movie, Multiplicity, you know the copy of a copy one, that is always saying, "Hi, Thteve!" and tried to shave his tongue but they had taken out the blade on the razor. So, I get to the school in all of my glory and Max and Matthew just happened to be the only kids on the playground, seeing as how it's only 20 degrees out and all and they are clearly crazy. So I have Max switch boots but he couldn't get the one on his foot so he still has the 2 unmatched boots on. I told him that if anyone says anything to him about his crazy boots then he is to tell them that his mom didn't want him to wear them like that but he snuck out with them on, so people don't think I'm such a loser mom. If this illusion I'm trying to give is eVeR going to work then I'm going to have to have my kids on board. I mean really, they're totally cramping my style.

Manners...

~Last night was so much fun! We had a combined young men/young women activity. It was about etiquette, which sounded pretty dull, but Sister Radley made it a LOT of fun!!! She had a panel of 4 adults who answered the questions she compiled. The questions were really fun and some were serious but the panel of adults were all really fun, silly people that made it so much fun. I asked her for a copy of the questions she asked, so if/when she gives it to me I'll post it on here. Each person chose 10 pieces of candy to put in a little cup. Sis. Radley brought Hot Tamales, Mike-n-Ikes, Junior Mints, and Dots to choose from. After the Q&A session we ate some different kinds of foods and we all had to use the good etiquette we had just learned. We weren't allowed to use our fingers to pick up anything. We had to use our utensils. The first course was grapes. Then came Wingers french fries and boneless sticky fingers. Then came a little spaghetti with spaghetti sauce. At some point there was a roll and red punch. And then for dessert we had the choice of a red velvet cupcake or a carrot cake cupcake. If anyone got caught using bad manners or just not following the "rules", like not touching your food with your fingers, or putting your elbows on the table, they had to eat a piece of candy from their cup. The people who had the most candy in their cup at the end got to choose from several different large boxes of candy as their prize. It was one of the funnest activities we have ever had!!! It was nice to learn good manners in such a fun way. I hope the kids all listened really well because they will all need to know this at some point in their lives. Most of the things she talked about were food related but at the end of the Q&A she threw in some cell phone etiquette, which I thought was wonderful!! I think we might just have to do this with our little family just for fun some night.

~I just have to share this Max story. He attended Munchkin Manor Preschool for 2 years. One day he used good manners, I don't remember if he said thank you or please or something and I said, "Good job for using such great MANNERS Max!"  He said, "That's because I go to Munchkin MANOR Preschool."  :-)

Grooming, My Birthday, and Silly Max

My birthday was Friday the 13th this year. I hate when that happens!  It was a great day though! My awesome friends, Mysti and Tamra brought me a chocolate cake in a nice. clear glass cake pedestal with a cover. And they brought me basket with movies, a throw, candy, popcorn, and my survival juice...Cherry Coke!!! And they stayed and ate some cake with me and visited. I just love them! I've been so busy lately that I haven't had a lot of time to spend with them so it was especially nice to hang with them!  Brian had started making me a fabulous Coconut Cream Cake, that's to die for, when they came. So, I had 2 of my favorite cakes! Brian let me pick out some clothes at Maurices. I love them and it makes me feel good knowing I have some cute things to wear. I have such a desire to have cute clothes but no funds!  :) So I got clothes for Christmas AND my birthday. I actually have 3 pairs of jeans I can wear without having my belly hang over the waist, as if I were a man because they are so low rise and they are a size smaller than I really need. My new ones aren't low rise which if fabulous! Anyway, it really was a wonderful day and I felt very spoiled! My Mom has been in Florida visiting my brother, Nathan and his cute little family, so she said she'll come here when she is back in town and I get to celebrate again!  :) Usually I don't make a big deal about my birthday so this year has been especially fun! I've been kinda freaked about the fact that this is my last year of my 30's. Yeah, I'm 39! WoW!!! Where HAS the time gone?!?!? I'm going to try to make year 39 a great one!

~Yesterday, Max played at his friend, Gabe's, house. They invited him to stay for dinner. After I picked him up I asked him what they ate. He said it was lasagna. I asked him if he liked it. To which he responded, "It was good. She doesn't make it like you make it, with all the white stuff in it. It only had a little bit of the white stuff in it so it didn't make me want to puke." I am so grateful for my Max! He keeps us laughing, even when we are sad! I just love him so much!

~So, I can't remember if I ever told more about our dog situation. I was so embarrassed that I didn't dare talk about it. We had a dog named Tex. He was such a cute dog. And we all loved him. We only had him for a few days, however, because we were all allergic to him. The day we decided we needed to let him go, Zack had hives all over him. So, then we ended up with Lucy. Lucy we a cute little puppy. Max especially loved her. His brothers were in school and he wanted a little companion. Unfortunately, she liked to bite everyone. We had to put her on a cable leash thing out front where she could freely run up and down the full yard but she couldn't bite people when they came to visit. She bit almost all of us. We tried every googleable solution we could possibly find to try and nothing worked. One day she bit me twice and drew blood on my leg. That was the final straw. I didn't want her to attack my kids so we had to let her go also. So we finally ended up with Yager. He is a Miniature Schnauzer. He was 2 1/2 years old. His family was too busy to spend the time with him that he needed so we found him on KSL.com and met his owner and got the cute little guy. He is so much fun and we all love him. Since he was older I could ask important questions like, does he bite, chew things up, bark constantly, is he potty trained. He was been a perfect fit for our family. We didn't have him groomed the last few months because the poor guy shivered and shook all last winter. I couldn't take it anymore though and tried my hand at dog grooming last night. He looks so much cuter when he looks like a Mini Schnauzer instead of like Benji! If you don't look closely, he looks really good.  ;)

Just a little venting... :)

~Well, Christmas is finally over at our house. Brian got tired of waiting for me to have time to take it all down so he decided to do it himself on Friday. We still have our Christmas lights on the house and fence but other than that it's finally all put away. I have mixed feelings about it actually. We got a real tree from Sam's Club this year. It.was.gorgeous! And our decorations looked so pretty on it. After it was decoration free it STILL looked gorgeous! The needles weren't even dried out or anything. Usually they are brittle by now. We had such a lovely Christmas this year! Kind of sad it's over! When Max was 3 years old, we were driving down the road and he asked, "Mom, can we go to Christmas?" I thought it was so cute that he loved Christmas so much!

~Brian's lack of employment is totally freaking me out now! I was cool with it at first because he had the severence package and will receive pay checks through February 1st. Well, in the beginning I was super busy and we had a little time to look for work so I wasn't too upset. Now that he only gets one more paycheck, I'm having a heart attack! One of my favorite parts of my job is that I get to see people I know, all the time. There are so many members of our church where we live that there have to be 11 different sessions in 5 different buildings. Each session called a ward and each ward has a number, so that we can keep track easier. Well, my parents ward was the 8th ward and it has been really fun to see some of the people I love who are in that ward. And the people from our current ward that we just LoVe! I've been able to see some of my friends from high school also. And a friend I made while attending the college here when Matthew was 3 months old and Zack was 3 years old. Her name is Kelly. She is an AMAZING woman! I just love her! I was SOOO thrilled to see her and it made me so happy that she was as happy to see me as I was to see her! I think of her as a "kindred spirit"! I've met a few "kindred spirits" over the years and they continue to bless my life today! The only problem with working at Walmart, and seeing so many people that I know, is that most of them are so awesome and concerned about us that they ask if Brian has found a job yet. He's applied in outher states and for jobs that aren't Accounting related. He just wants ANYTHING! I appreciate the concern and the love they have for us but hearing that all of the time is starting to really weigh me down. I'm already starting to get depressed about it and then to have constant reminders is just really hard. I need to pray harder that we'll be able to have joy in our trial because that has worked for us in the past and I really need that strength if I'm going to make it through this! I know it could be worse. People are mourning loved ones, watching their loved ones suffer through cancer, chemo, and other horrid diseases. Our trial pales in comparison! I just really worry about having to move our kids from school, the town we live in, their friends, our ward. We need to be able to feed, clothe, and provide shelter for our our 4 children. It's just so scary and overwhelming for me that I just can't take it! Not to mention how very much I hate the whole process of moving!!! The packing. The cleaning. the loading. The unloading. The unpacking. The sorting. The collecting boxes. The switching utilities. All of the deposits. The paperwork involved in registering 3 kids at their new school. I know, I'm so lazy, right! But U~G~H!!!!!

~I'll try to be more positive next post! :)  Just needed to vent a little...

WOW! Long time, no post, huh!?!

 I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted on here! Our life has been pretty hectic, to say the least. I worked quite a bit during December. Probably not nearly as much as most people I know, but a lot for me anyway. I have been so happy that Brian has been able to take care of our little Gracie but it makes me so sad to be away from her. Wednesday I helped my friend out with her preschool for 4 hours and then I did my Hallmark job for 2 hours. Brian said that at one point Gracie went to him and said that she was sad because I was gone. I miss just snuggling in the rocking chair in our p.j.'s in the morning while she watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. This time is slipping away so quickly and I just hate missing any of it. I've missed being home some days when my boys get off of the bus. Last week I worked 19 hours and this week I'll only work 4 1/2 hours. I guess the hours really calm down during January. I'm glad! It is still a fun little job that I really like and the money really helped us out. I am just so looking forward to a bit of a break and to be able to spend more time at home!

~We had a great Christmas! At my family Christmas party, we were able to visit with  Nathan's cute little family by using Skype. It was so much fun to see them! We all miss them a lot! It was especially fun to see his new little baby boy, Thomas, who was born in October!

~We stayed home for Christmas. Traveling with our kids on Christmas is just not easy, not fun, and really not worth it! We had a nice quiet day. Our friend's, Mysti and Randy, invited us over to their house for dinner. We decided we would all still make our Christmas dinner to share and we would be able to spend time together to help make our day feel less lonely. Mysti made Roast and potatoes and carrots, and a veggie, and dessert. Brian made ham, yummy potatoes (otherwise known as funeral potatoes), and rolls. It was a delicious meal and everything just worked out great! AND, bonus, I got to hold  Mysti's baby boy, Landon, who was born on ll/11/11 at 11:01! I just had to throw in his birth date cuz it's so cool! He is such a cute little guy!

~My Max made our Christmas extra special! He's 5 now, and turns 6 at the end of January. A lot of you will remember the many stories of my Max's craziness since he is definitely my craziest child, so you can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when my "crazy" little boy was the one who kept our focus on our Savior, Jesus Christ. At church, they learned the song  "Samuel Tells of the Birth of Jesus" for the Ward Christmas Program during Sacrament Meeting on Christmas Sunday. For weeks we heard this song practiced over, and over, and over again. Even when he played the Wii! That's HUGE! Even on Christmas Eve when most kids are singing about Santa Claus and his reindeer, our Max was singing about Jesus.    Here are the words...

Said Samuel, "Within 5 years, a night will be as day, and Baby Jesus will be born in a land far, far away." Hosanna! Hosanna! Oh let us gladly sing.  How blessed that our Lord was born. Let earth receive her King!
Across the sea, in Bethlehem, Lord Jesus came to earth, as Samuel had prophesied. The angels sang His birth. Hosanna! Hosanna! Oh let us gladly sing. How blessed that our Lord was born. Let earth receive her King!

What a wonderful song to hear over and over again! What a blessing it is to have Primary for our little children. To have wonderful teachers and choristers and Presidency members help us teach our children the principals of the Gospel. Our entire family was blessed to have the words of this song ingrained in our heads. We needed that! And it NEVER got old!

~Some of you will remember the posts I made last year about our Christmas Jar. (each of those 2 words goes to different posts about the Christmas Jar)  Well, on Christmas Eve, Max found a couple of scriptures he wanted to read in addition to the one we would take out of the jar that night. I just thought that was wonderful! He just really surprised me with his focus on our Savior. I can't even express how happy that made me feel!

~I'm trying so hard to potty train Gracie. If we weren't already, for sure, done having more children, THIS would have totally made me decide to stop! I HATE potty training. I seriously think I have A,D.H.D or something. It is so hard for me to just take a whole day and focus my efforts on potty training. She tries so hard to go. She really does. She sits on the toilet and tries and tries but she just can't let it out. I know that if she would just be able to do it once she'd totally be fine but she just can't. Any suggestions would be really great!  Heaven help me! If only there was potty training camp or potty training school that I could send her to....

~I shared this on facebook the other day. I absolutely LOVE her voice! I have also always really liked him and had no idea he could sing too. It's kind of fun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcrd5vpUGyk&feature=related

~Oh and one more thing. We played the game called LOGO at my sister's on New Year's Eve. It was so much fun!!! I hope everyone has a wonderful 2012!!

Just Some Silliness...and a Trumpet

~Last night we attended Zack's first band concert. He plays the trumpet. He's in the sixth grade so this is his first year to play an instrument in a band. We waited in the auditorium for 45 minutes waiting for the concert to begin. That's a long time for an 8 year old, a 5 year old, a 2 year old, 2 grown people to wait for...anything!  At one point Max's gum fell out of his mouth went right between the back of the chair of the woman in front of him and the woman's back. I about DIED!!! I had to tell her! What if it was sticking to her pretty sweater?! Thankfully she was really nice about it AND it didn't stick to her but fell to the floor. Max did not get another piece of gum!!! Well, the band finally started their concert. They played 4 songs. They did a great job...except one poor student that couldn't hit a single note right on their clarinet and always played an extra note when everyone else had stopped. The first 3 songs went so well! Unfortunately they did not stop while they were ahead and played ANOTHER song! It was very....entertaining. But bless their hearts they really tried, and Zack did a wonderful job of starting when he should, ending when he should, watching the band director's cues. The best part of the whole night, though, was that all 4 songs took about 8 minutes from start to finish. It was awesome!!! After the concert we decided to surprise the kids with some Little Caesar's Pizza. I can't remember the last time we did that. Of course, we had to watch the Biggest Loser season finale...after eating pizza! There is something really wrong with that!

Gracie says that Santa says Har! Har! Har!  Cracks us up! When the boys heard that, they tried to correct her but she just still always says that Santa says Har! Har! Har! She also likes to drop the first letter off of words. Makes understanding her a bit difficult sometimes but it's awfully cute! Oothbrush-toothbrush, andy-candy, ood-food, Anta-Santa. Sometimes she just uses the wrong letter at the beginning of a word. For instance, she calls Zack's friend Tanner-Nanner, and mink-drink, nammies-jammies, Yack-Zack, Yacky-Zacky. She also says Grandpa for GrandMa and for Grandpa. That gets confusing! We love her 2 year-old speak! She is so much fun! She's in the 95th %-tile for height though, so people often expect her to act much differently. She won't be 3 until May but people already think she should be potty trained. She probably should but I can't get her to actually GO when she's on the potty. I think if she can finally figure out what she's supposed to do when I put her on there, she might actually just keep doing it and life will be good. She tries. Any suggestions???

A few months ago we discovered that we LOVE the show, The Big Bang Theory. We watch the reruns at 10:00 most nights. Last night's episode was SO hilarious!!! I just have to share cause laughing is so much fun!!! If you don't know the premise of the show, they are all Geniuses (except Wolowitz of course, because he only has a Master's Degree HEHE). They are all a bit backwards but Sheldon is just totally socially inept it's ridiculous. He's always very serious and analyzes EVERYTHING. And he's a major germaphobe. Anyhoo, I hope you laugh!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqwPp--hy-c

I survived Black Thursday/Friday at Walmart...

Well, Brian survived his first "Black Thursday/Friday experience. We went to Walmart in Payson. It was CRAZY! I've never seen anything like it and I've been going to these for years now. One chick's hand was bleeding from fighting someone over something. Not a fan of bumper carts! Had to ditch the cart to try to get through and I still couldn't get through. I thought I was going to have to punch a couple looney cart chicks when I still had the cart. My sister, KayTee would have totally mopped the floor with them! We were so excited though because we were able to get one of the $99 4-wheelers for Max. He will be over the moon excited! We were also able to get Matthew a pogo stick for $12 and 3 Barbies that were $5 each for Gracie and we were also able to find a Harry Potter Lego Wii game for $15 that my mom wanted us to pick up for her. There were lots of other things we wanted to get but they will have to wait until after Brian's payday.  :)  The lines seemed to be moving pretty well to check out so that was nice! I would much rather stay up later than get up at 4 a.m.! Unfortunately, so would everyone else! We were able to save about $150.00 and as cheap as we are and as much as we love a good bargain, it was totally worth it!. Fun times! Fun times! 

We had such a nice Thanksgiving! The food was delicious, the company was wonderful, making gingerbread houses was so much fun, and the Black Thursday/Friday sale was very productive.  We missed Rob, Jenise, Dana, Richard, Nathan, Heidi and everyone's adorable little children and grandchildren!!! I love Thanksgiving! It is such a wonderful time to reflect on all of the wonderful blessings we have! I hope everyone I know had a wonderful day as well! Later today my mom and sisters and I will go to the craft sale in Spanish Fork. Oh, I just love this time of year!!!

A few thoughts

Sometimes if I ask Gracie if she wants to take a nap she'll say no and then a little while later she'll say she does want to go ni-nite. So I asked her today if she wanted to go ni-nite and she said, "No, dedo" and smiled really cheesy.
Max was playing with my hair today. I have my bangs pulled back in a couple of bobbie pins today. He had one of Gracie's hair flowers in his hand and said, "I'm just going to cover these up with a flower because when I see them I think they are kind of hideous."

I'm finally enjoying the summer. We're just kickin' back and havin' fun and I'm feeling very relaxed. In most ways I'm not looking forward to school starting. I am, however, looking forward to having a cleaner house. That's it. That's the only reason I'm looking forward to school today. Tomorrow if the kids start fighting I'll look forward to school starting then too. I'm really looking forward to having some one on one time with Gracie. She is such a sweetie and the poor thing is kid #4 so she pretty much just has to go with the flow. It will be nice to not have anybody in preschool. Being able to keep up with the house better will be nice. It will be nice to feel like things are more calm and relaxed. I really NEED some calm and relaxation in my life!

Can you believe I actually braved free swimming day at the pool for International Days? They said there were over 1,000 people there that day and I believe it! It was crazy! But we had fun! Gracie freaks out when the waves turn on but by the time we left that day she wanted me to take her to the biggest wave in the pool. She's so cute! I love spending time with my kids and feeling like I can actually feel like doing fun things like that with them by myself. I am really thankful for modern medicine!!!

Rice, Surviving Sacrament Meeting, Ipod Touch, Spiritual Thought, Crazy Life, Please share!

~I finally perfected rice after 17 years of trying. When Brian and I were first married I was the worst cook ever!! I was especially bad at cooking rice. I also had a hard time actually remembering to cook rice in the first time with meals until the sauce or whatever I cooked was finished. Brian was also bad at cooking rice. He can make fabulous bread, rolls, meals. I can cook just about anything that doesn't require yeast. But we just couldn't get along with rice. It always ended up crunchy in spots and gummy in other spots when we made it. So gross!! So we started making Minute Rice all the time. It saves time and it is always cooked right. Now that we have a family of 6 people to feed and a VERY limited budget, we decided we better master the art of cooking rice. We've been trying for a few months now and Brian finally figured out Jasmine rice. But still more expensive than regular old rice. I was still struggling until I started cooking 2 cups of rice with 5 cups of water and I cook it at a bit higher temp than we were before. Now it works! Every time!!! I am SoOoO happy!! I know it's kind of weird to be so happy about that I just felt like a weirdo for not being able to figure it out before. It seemed EVERYONE but us could cook rice. Yay me!!! Now I just have to get serious about mastering recipes that require yeast. Wish me luck!!  :)
~I've decided after attending Sacrament Meeting with my kids last week as usual on Sunday morning, that every single one of them must have ADHD. Sometimes they're worse than other times and last week was rough. We've tried taking snacks, books, coloring books, notebooks, Friend magazines, lacing boards to keep them entertained but it seems they just fight over them. Or discuss what they are doing...LOUDLY!!! Make huge messes. Cause many distractions and big scenes. It just isn't pretty! So last week we tried the -not bringing anything- thing...again. I think it worked about the same as anything else does. My biggest problem is that Max and Matthew think their voices only have one volume. Full blast! I wish there was some kind of muzzle for kids that I could use at church. Is that bad? This week we didn't bring ANYTHING again and it worked pretty well. Much better than last week. Matthew's volume is still full blast but they behaved as well as any little wiggly boy could be expected to behave.
~I am truly grateful that we decided to buy Zack an Ipod touch for his birthday last year!!! He had been begging for a Nintendo DS or an Ipod for a couple of years. An Ipod touch costs more than they do but you can use it for both games AND music as well as about a zillion other things. We NEVER spend anywhere near what we spent on that thing for birthdays but he's a great kid, we can't afford to pay allowance, we can't afford to take him anywhere fun ever, he NEVER gets ANYTHING fun so we figured it was worth a splurge for him!! Thank goodness we got it for him! If you don't have one in your family you definitely need one!!! We were sitting there in Sacrament Meeting when Zack remembered he was supposed to give a talk in Primary today. He whipped out his Ipod touch, that Brian was going to borrow for Sunday School and Priesthood since it has the scriptures and lesson manual on it, and looked up the Friend magazine and found a lovely little story by Elder Uchtdorf to read for his talk. Saved again!!!
~Our lesson in Sunday School was fantastic today! I just love it when this certain man substitutes! He is outstanding!! We talked a bit about The Word of Wisdom and about how some people don't want to commit to following that commandment or any commandments but want to eat, drink, and be merry and not be accountable at all. Brother McCourt talked about how Jesus suffered all of our sins and died for us that we might be forgiven of our sins and return to live with Him, our Heavenly Father, and our families forever and what does he ask of us in return? That we obey His commandments. That we live lives that emulate Him and that we be instruments in His hands in serving others, loving others, and bringing our brothers and sisters to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that none of us is perfect and that ultimately we are all striving towards the same goal. And that we all know what we should and should not be doing but I just love how each week at church we can be inspired to live certain  commandments and principals more fully. Each of us may find something different that we, as individuals need to work on but if we all go with the same attitude of being humble/teachable, the spirit can speak to us and help us find ways to achieve our Celestial goals. I was really not thrilled to go to church this morning. Time changes are hard and I turned off the alarm and decided say a quick prayer before getting in the shower and accidentally fell asleep until 10 minutes to 8:00. Not good!! It's a circus at our house Sunday morning and sometimes when I'm sitting in Sacrament Meeting after all the craziness, I don't always have the right spirit about me. But I forced myself to go and I am so glad I did! I eventually humbled myself and allowed those wonderful whisperings to happen. Next week I'm going to try to not FORCE myself to go but to go with a happy heart and with an excitement to learn.
~The last few weeks have been crazy! Here are a few of the things we've had going on.
*baseball sign-ups
*baseball try outs
*New Beginnings: LOTS of hours and details and work but oh so worth it!!! It was a really great night!!!
*Zack received his Arrow of Light badge through a really neat ceremony at the Blue and Gold Banquet for scouts. Incidentally, the entire Blue and Gold Banquet lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes! Only church should last that long and even then...kind of iffy! :)
*Meal planning for a month
*Grocery shopping for a month
*Zack's D.A.R.E. graduation
*Matthew's Patriotic concert for school on a Wednesday night that lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes
*Zackary's Patriotic concert for school the very next night that lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes also. Same program. Same parts. Same songs. Different kids. They didn't have enough room for all of the parents and families to be there on the same night so they decided to split it up and have them do it on 2 different nights. UGH!!!
*Fire station field trip with Max's preschool
*Parent/teacher conferences: Warning: Shameless bragging ahead!! Have I mentioned lately that my children are positively BRILLIANT?!!!!! I am so proud of them! I love that the teachers always say they wish they had a class full of students as well behaved and smart as my kids are! They are awesome!!! And they both have THE best teachers EVER!!!
*I had a couple of Dr.'s visits, medicine additions and tweaks, and 8 vials of blood for testing. Fun stuff!
*A 3-4 hour Book of Mormon Read
*My beautiful niece Emily's 1st birthday party

We've been busy and having fun! Brian and I are gearing up for a very busy baseball season as many of you are. I've GOT to be more organized with our meals this year. Last year we ate so many hot dogs that the mere thought of them makes me gag a bit! We never tired of sandwiches though. What is your favorite "go to" busy night meal. Please comment and share your tip with me! Even if I don't know you PLEASE help me out here! Take care everyone!!!

Loser mom...again, Chore chart progress report, and Way to go Zacky!!!

~So, I'm checking facebook (rare for me because it gives my computers viruses but I was totally bored) on Sunday night around 9:00 and I read one of my friend Emily's posts that talks about her son's Valentine box he made for school. UH OH!!! We totally spaced off the Valentine's boxes. We were going to do them on Saturday. Matthew was going to make a dragon. Zack was still figuring his out. They were going to be awesome and they were totally going to win 1st prize in the Valentine box contest at school! Man I suck sometimes... Sorry mom, I had to say it! Luckily Zack was still awake because Brian has been letting him stay up until 9:00 lately. The poor kid had to stay up late and throw a box together. It was pretty cool and even had a monster drawn on it with it's mouth open around the card slot. Matthew had to get up early and throw his together. They would have totally rocked when I was a kid but since the Valentine's box competition is CrAzY and people are really intense about it, they didn't have a chance! When there are Spongebob, Bunnies, a whale, and a dragon that are all HUGE and intricate and totally awesome there is NO way my kid's had a chance at winning. They knew going into it after their experience last year. That is why we were going to make totally awesome ones this year. Unfortunately, I taught Zack to clean the bathroom Saturday, made the other kids do chores, took Max to his friend Michael's super fun 2 1/2 hour birthday party at the Wave Pool. We finally got faster Internet for several reasons and now we can watch our Netflix movies through the wii so we pretty much spent any spare time we had over the weekend watching movies. So, after the bday party we watched a movie while the kids played outside since it was a beautiful afternoon and apparently none of us even thought about the Valentine's boxes. Next year...it...is...on!!! We are going to start making them in like January so I won't be a loser mom and my kids will at least have a chance at winning! You'll see! It's going to be great!
~Max is cracking me up lately so much. He is always hilarious but lately he is just really funny. I am SO like Dori on Finding Nemo so I can't remember 5 minutes later what he said but it is fun to have a good laugh at the moment. I'm going to start writing everything he says in a notebook in my purse now so I can remember and share. I'm just a mess!
~Zhack talksh really shilly lately becaushe he hash retainersh now. He got them last Friday. His top one is cobalt blue (he picked it because it's called BYU blue but I am a Utes fan so I'm choosing to call it cobalt blue) with the Batman symbol. Totally awesome!!!
~This new chore chart thing is the best! Last night Matthew's chore was to straighten the living room, Max's chore was to vacuum the living room, Zack's chore was to peel potatoes. When they were finished Matthew asked if he could wash the dishes, too. Who am I to stand in the way of a kid that wants to work! When he was finished he was disappointed that there weren't any more for him to wash. AND he's totally stoked about learning to clean the bathroom on Saturday. He keeps telling me everyday that he just can't wait until Saturday so he can learn to clean the bathroom. He was my biggest grumbler about chores for the first few days and now he's my biggest helper. How cool is that?!
~Zacky has always been a great student. His kindergarten and first grade teachers in Cedar City called him "brilliant"! He was always one of the 3 top scoring kids in the class. His second grade and third grade teachers in Pleasant Grove were INTERESTING!!! At that school they literally tried to dumb things down for students that excelled so that everyone was on the same learning level instead of having different levels for different kids. I talked to his second grade teacher about how he was reading at a fourth grade level in the first grade and just wondered how he was doing. And she said that she didn't realize he was that great of a reader, she would have to test him. This was in FEBRUARY!!! It was just not the same, to say the least. The teacher he had in Salem for the last 3 months of 3rd grade (we moved there in March...HARD for him!) was interesting. Each time someone misbehaved EVERYONE was punished by having to put their heads on their desks for a minute. The next time it happened it was 2 minutes, then 3 and so on throughout the day. How is that fair to anyone! Here's my poor Zacky who has always behaved so well (every one of his teachers has said they wished all of their students were as well behaved and as kind to the other students as Zacky is) and he's being punished off and on all day long for other's bad behavior instead of rewarded for his good behavior. Not cool! One morning on the way to school, he was crying because he didn't want to go so I started crying too and just kept him home. I just couldn't do it. Fourth grade here last year was..eh. Now, this year his teacher is outstanding and recognizes that he is "brilliant" :) and LOVES my boy so much! She challenges him and helps him become the best he can be. It's been amazing! He and 2 other students this year are always the top scorers on everything. She moved all 3 of them up to accelerated programs in reading and math. He is doing so, so well! He's happier! We're happier! It's been a wonderful year and I am so grateful that things are going so well for him! He really needed this boost in his confidence after so much weirdness! And with all of our crazy moves and everything I am just so proud of him and his ability to be so resilient and remain the "brilliant" :) amazing boy that we love so much!!!

Ramble, ramble, ramble, ramble, ramble...

So, yesterday was Max's 5th birthday. I let him invite some friends for the first time. He was so excited and anxious for his big day. One really nice thing about having a birthday in January, in a small town, is that Walmart has some super sweet deals on toys they've marked down that were left over from Christmas. We got him a scooter for 15 bucks!!! We found some other great things too and he was happy with his loot. I had been running around like a chicken with my head cut off for 2 days. I had a Dr.s appointment and a dentist appointment and I've had to run Brian to work all month because we need to register his car but can't until February 1st (UGGHH!!!!), which means back and forth to take him, to get him at lunch, to take him back and pick him up if I need the car in the afternoon, if not he drives back after lunch. I had to run some errands, visit a new young woman in the ward (which was the highlight of my 2 days of crazy and turned out really well!!!!), run Max back and forth for preschool, wash a million dishes and clean frantically every extra minute I could find, all one handed while lugging around my adorable 20 month old little Gracie who is getting over a cold and NEEDED her mommy. Yesterday morning I made a batch of strawberry cupcakes (yes, pink, I know, I tried to talk him into chocolate but he's stubborn) and a chocolate cake. Of course my stupid pain was terrible all day both days because stress makes it worse and I was more than a little stressed! So, I'm at my dentist appointment that took an hour and a half and I get this phone call from the school saying Matthew threw up. SUPER!!! I go to pick him up after my appointment and I'm asking him on the way out to the car if he was sick to his stomach or what and he completely fell apart and says, through his tears, that he was choking on a piece of chicken and tried to drink to make it go down but it wouldn't go down so he started puking and it finally came out. SCARY!! He did that once at home and I had to do the Heimlich on him. He needs to chew his chicken better! I was sad for him that he was obviously so traumatized by the whole experience but relieved that he didn't have a stomach bug that would cause me to cancel the party or anything. So, it's getting down to crunch time. 2 hours till the party. I still needed to pick everything up and vacuum, make frosting in at least 4 colorful options so the kids could decorate their own cupcake, wash a bunch more dishes (they never end!!!), clean the bathroom, dust my adorable Ikea shelves, decorate for the party, wipe off counter tops and stove...I'm only ONE woman needing 14 more hands. I decide a prayer is in TALL order. I called the boys together and we thanked Heavenly Father that Matthew didn't choke to death at lunch and then asked that I'd be able to get everything done in time for the party. I was frantically trying to do my best at that and running out of time when my angel friend, Sherelle, drove up in her chariot (mini van) and offered to help me out. Bless her!!! She really saved my tail! And she stayed and helped me with the whole party too! Thank heavens! We didn't quite finish all the tasks on the list but we did get all of the really important stuff done and the rest didn't really matter in the end anyway. I don't think I'll ever do another midweek party again. It was fun but just too CRAZY!!! Once the party was over I still needed to make the chocolate cake I made earlier in the day, into a football. I was definitely channeling my inner Paula Deen yesterday with all the butter and shortening I used in making two kinds of frosting and a chocolate cake from scratch. And it...was...good!!! Sherelle showed me the super fun little comment thing I added to my blog. I am so excited about it! Then when Brian came home from work he made a pizza crust and homemade pizza (that's what the birthday boy requested) and I got to work looking for scrapbook paper for our little Y.W. activity. It was so fun! I'll post about that later! Then we ate and sang Happy Birthday to Max and then Zack and I were off to pack meeting at 6:30. His leaders were nice enough to give him his awards first thing so I could be there for it before I needed to go pick up a couple of the YW for our activity at 7:00. When I got home I CRASHED!!! I am exhausted today! Oh to have the energy, focus, and cleverness I used to have before my pain started sucking it all out of me. I'm starting a different medicine combination today and I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that it does the trick since the pain seems to be worsening and the ibuprofen doesn't seem to be doing anything for me anymore. Crazy days! Crazy life! That's what keeps it interesting, right! I hope you all are having fun with your interesting lives too!!! Have a good one!!!

 

 His cake that kinda, sorta looks like a football....I'm NOT a professional!!!  ;)

When I was combing Max's hair the other day I discovered that he had decided he needed a hair cut and cut a big chunk out of the front of his hair and the side of the top of his head. Like almost to the scalp in spots.

I used the clippers and cut it down as low as I dared go in the dead of winter. If you look closely you can still see spots that are lower than I went but oh well. Silly boy! I just laughed until it occured to me that he might try doing that to his sister's hair some time. I had a flashback to a story a lady told us once about how her mother had put curlers in her long, beautiful hair and she thought it would be cool to cut the hair off at the roller and unroll the hair on the bed and look at the pretty curls. Then she said at some point she realized if the hair was on the bed, it wasn't on her head, and she CRIED!!!  I decided to threaten unspeakable things to Max if he ever dared touch scissors to her hair.  Hopefully that works!!!

I'm in love...

with this time of year!!!

I never thought I would be one of "those" mom's. You know the ones that just couldn't wait to have her kids go back to school after the summer. I always thought I would be super sad when they went to school. I am always a bit nostalgic, especially when my kids go to kindergarten, of course, but this year I felt PURE JOY when they went to school and it just gets better every day.  The kids were so restless by the end of the summer. I had started a schedule with them because they really thrive on knowing what to expect and having stuff to do. They made lots of science projects, played outside lots, played in our little swimming pool, had very little t.v. time, read books, made crafts, I taught them to sew pillow cases, they drew lots of fun pictures. They loved it! They were very excited for school to start. Matthew is our sleeping-in child and he is usually a bear every morning when he's getting ready for school.  He cries and begs not to go to school many mornings.  So I was getting nervous about the first day of school with him.

Usually I take them to school the first day. Take a picture of them in their new classroom. Sometimes I take a picture of them with their new teacher. Zack's getting older and this ritual embarrasses him. Matthew and I met his new teacher the week before school started in his classroom. He was very nice. Matthew found where his backpack would hang. Took a little tour of the classroom. It was great. So when they wanted to ride the bus (which picks them up in front of our house  HOORAY!!!) instead of having me take them to school that first day I went with it. I felt sad I wouldn't be taking their picture at school and stuff but I figured it would be better for Matthew to not have me there.  They LoVeD their first day of school!!! It was only half a day for the first 2 days. Matthew started begging to stay home the 3rd day of school.  He's such a little home body. He loves being home!! But he loves school while he's there. He just doesn't like the going part I guess. Probably hates the waking up early part most. Max started preschool last Tuesday.  He is a bit timid about it this year because he only knows one of the kids in his class. She was on his t-ball team this summer. It's a pretty big class too.  Once he makes some more friends I'm sure he'll love it even more. I am really enjoying the 2 hours, 3 days a week thing. Who knew that 6 hours a week with only one very quiet child could be so rejuvenating.  I all but did a happy dance the other day in the kitchen when I was telling Brian how great it had been having the kids in school again. It's wonderful!!!  I thrive on having my own schedule back again. It helps me be a better mom to have a bit of a break once in a while. They love interacting with friends and learning new things and the whole school thing.   

And don't you just love everything about this time of year.  The weather is PERFECT!!! It's not too hot, not too cold.  It smells like fall. The food gets so super yummy and comforting.  I love it when I can start making soups, stews, and casseroles again.  And...apple pie!! So delicious!!!  No air conditioner. No heater.  I get to wear my light jackets or long sleeves.  I just thoroughly enjoy each of the seasons.  I love that we live somewhere that has all of the seasons.  There are places that don't really have much of a fall.  Who doesn't love the beautiful colors as the leaves change?!  I so enjoy the decorations and holidays of fall.  And the smell in the air and in the house.  It's just a wonderful time of year!!!  I feel so happy and so grateful for all of our blessings and to be living on such an amazing planet that our Savior created for us.  What marvelous gifts he gives to us.  How blessed we are to have fall.  To have seasons.  To have apples.  And pumpkins.  And the smell of cinnamon.  And such a gorgeous state to live in.  To have such great family.  To have the gospel in our lives.  To live in a free country.  To have shelter and transportation and food and clothing and shoes.  We are truly blessed!!!!!  I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this time of year!!!!

Weeds, Stones, War, School, and Football

~Our back yard is a large open area that is dirt and weeds. It's so large back there that the cost of watering grass back there would be too much for the people who own the home so they just left it open and dirt. Well, it's being overtaken by weeds now. When Brian tries to mow it it flings dirt and rocks all over at him  cutting his legs and arms and face, and they fling at the house, the windows, everywhere. So we decided to spray weed killer on them. I sprayed some cheap weed killer from Walmart all over them a few weeks back...NOTHING happened!!! It was as if I had sprayed fertilizer on them instead of weed killer. The other day I decided to spray some Round Up on them. I mean it's ROUND UP!! That will kill anything right?!....NOTHING happened again!!!! It looks like a jungle of weeds out there!! The kids don't even want to play out there anymore because of the craziness of the weeds. Any suggestions?! I'm going to put on some long pants and a long sleeve shirt and mow them again but doesn't there have to be some kind of killer that actually KILLS weeds? If you have a tried and true brand and particular type please enlighten me!!!
~So about 4 years ago, on Memorial Day, Brian passed his first ever kidney stone. Between that day and Labor Day of that year he passed 36 kidney stones. UNBELIEVABLE!!! And he didn't experience much pain at all. He has an incredibly high threshold for pain!!! Well, the last one had spikes and got stuck and he had EXCRUCIATING pain and ended up having to have a lithotripsy to break it up so he could pass it. The anesthesia made him very loopy which made for some great entertainment for me! :) 
Since then he has passed about one kidney stone a year. None of them being very painful at all. Just a bit uncomfortable for him. Well, last Thursday he woke up in the middle of the night feeling very nauseous from the extreme pain in his back. He said it felt like he had a knife stabbed in his back and realized he had another stone. He had a lot of pain with this one Thursday and Friday as it tried to leave his kidney. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday he just had a small amount of pain sporadically throughout the day but not bad at all. Finally, Tuesday at around 3:30 am he finally passed the darn thing. I felt so bad for him! Those things aren't fun!!! I have been lucky not to have those. I may have just jinxed myself! But I'm sure that I would have been much more whiny if it were me. I would have had to use much more medication and would have milked it a lot more than he did. He's awesome!!!
~For years now people have suggested The Children of the Promise series to me. Even Brian read them and he's not a super big reader. He enjoys reading but doesn't often commit to a series of books that big. I always say NO WAY!!! I get so freaked out about war. I just can't take it. It's so hard! We don't watch R rated movies but I wanted to see Saving Private Ryan when it came out because I felt it would be good to see the reality of that war and appreciate the things people went through to ensure my freedom and the freedom of so many others in this world. Well, it was HORRIBLE!!! At the time my little brother Nathan (yes he's 6'4" but he will always be my "little" brother) had just joined the Marines. My brother in law Richard was in the military as well. I can't remember if he was in Special Forces in the Army yet or not but he has been for years. It was too close to home for me. It made me so sad and sickened to think of what these soldiers had endured. And it scared me to wonder what my relatives might have to face if anything bad happened while they were in the military. There was one particular scene that has haunted me since I saw that movie. I woke up with nightmares of that scene for at least a good month after I saw that movie. It was horrifying!!! To this day when I hear the name of that movie my mind immediately goes to that scene and I feel sick to my stomach.
Since watching that movie September 11th happened and the war broke out. Nathan spent a month in Iraq. Richard has been there many times for long periods of time. War terrifies me and I just don't do well seeing stuff about it or reading stuff about it. I finally caved and decided to read that series because my mom let me borrow a whole bunch of books and I realized they were all extensions of that series. I figured what the heck...I'll give them a try.  I finished the first one this morning. I couldn't put it down. It was really good but also so hard to read at the end when the Japanese soldiers began the Bataan Death March with our soldiers. It's just disgusting to me!!! What those poor men went through and what their families went through. It's just horrible!!!
I have been watching my Gilmore Girls Series boxed set again lately because it makes me HAPPY!!! I catch an episode when I'm folding laundry in my bedroom. I like to stick a disc in the computer and watch an episode while I do dishes. As many as I've watched you would think I would dream about them but I haven't done that at all. Not until I read this book about war and now I'm having nightmares about them. I'm debating if I should keep reading these or not if they are going to affect me so much. There are still 4 more books in this stories and a whole bunch more in The Hearts of the Children that is an extension of these books from what I understand. If I keep going I won't want to stop I'm sure but can I handle the stress these books cause in my heart? Have any of you read them? What do you think? Are they worth continuing?
~Only 12 days til school starts!!! I'm so very excited and worried. The kids are going to love being in school again but I'm wondering how Max will ever manage without his brothers around. How will I ever manage without Max having his brothers around?! It should be interesting that's for sure!!!
~Football practice has begun for Zack. It's his first year in tackle football. He is very excited! He's so cute in his football pads!!! He has a scrimmage tonight and his first game in a week and a half. We're excited for this fun new adventure for him!!! Baseball about puts me to sleep but I really get into football so I'm excited to watch his games!!!