Stand By Please

I do have a few drafts started (pictures uploaded) for upcoming posts.  I've been having some trouble finding time to write and post them!  But Valentine's Day is over, the kids are back to school after having a dying holiday off from school (it seems Martin Luther King Jr day ranks higher than Presidents Day), and life will be returning to the normal crazy levels!

Of course, there is a field trip, two dental appointments, a mini doTERRA class, three after-school practices, a stake meeting, and Odyssey of the Mind competition before the week is over.

And now I am headed into the school to help count coins coming in for a fundraiser they are hosting this month.  

:)

My excuse du jour

Dear Fate,

I really wanted to be successful today. Since I've showered, eaten and have a load of laundry going, I guess I could call it good. But I had plans for a little more.

The problem is that you gave me a sick 2-year-old who kept me up all night and keeps saying "Up, please." It's not even 9 AM!

I may accomplish a bit more before I attempt another night of sleep, but just in case I don't I wanted you to know why.

Sincerely,
Arlyn aka Nurse-slave

P.S. Thank you for the beautiful sunny morning.

Nothing to do

It really bugs me that people think I don't do anything since I am home with the kids all day.

I keep getting "stood up" by folks who apparently think that it's no big deal if they don't show.

Well, guess what, people: there are certain things I can't get involved in or places I can't go if I'm expecting/waiting for you to call and say you are on your way!

Besides, it's just a matter of courtesy...no matter how busy you think I am.

__________

I know you are thinking - she doesn't post anything good on her blog in forever and when she finally does, it's to complain. It's kind of how it feels like things are going. I feel pretty grumpy about some stuff. I haven't felt like interacting with anyone virtually since I haven't really been interacting well in real life.

Anyone else feel like they've disappeared into their life? I miss being me (Arlyn, -not Mommy or wife or R.S. Sec.).

hello world

I know I haven't been around much. Not sure how to juggle what I've been dealt. I'm not having much luck fitting blogging in. Anyone have a bucket load of money?

One THOUSAND Posts!

I feel like celebrating and having a giveaway. But I have nothing cool enough to give away. Besides, it helps to have a larger group of groupies to have a giveaway - you know?


It has taken me over 5 years to get to this humongous milestone. To be more exact, it has been just over 68 months since my very first blog post. Rebekah was less than two months old and now she is nearly graduated from Kindergarten.


Here are a "few" more things that have happened during my blogging career (yeah - career - because it's brought in so much money...ha ha):


I had two children.
We moved 10 minutes away and are now trying to move 10 seconds away!
I've been a Visiting Teacher, Enrichment Leader, a Primary teacher (twice), a RS Instructor, Ward Choir Director and RS Secretary.
I have sewn 14 Easter dresses.
We have raised cows, chickens, lambs, cats, and owned dogs and a horse.
We have filled 5 years with fabulous memories...Christmas, birthdays, Valentine's Day (times 14), St. Patrick's Day, April Fool's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, 4th of July, Spud Day, Thanksgiving...and seasonal changes.
We have some glorious memories, and some not so great ones.
We've learned a bit about TMJ and paid for a round of braces. (I see more in our future.)
We've "mended fences" and "burned bridges."
We bought a new van. And then filled all the seats in it.
We've traveled thousands of miles on family trips (and cried for many of them).
Chad got his first speeding ticket. hehe
We made career decisions as the economy tanked...but have not yet lost employment.
We've met new friends and mourned the loss of others.
We had a flood in the storage room and nearly another with our septic tank (eww!).


OK...Obviously, this could get very tedious as I recount the mundane events of 5 years of living. Let's just say, we've done a lot of living!


And mostly, it's been moments like this:

Sarah - 19 months

So grab yourself a bowl of rich chocolate ice cream and celebrate 1000 posts with me! By the time I reach 2000, Daniel will probably be driving!

Life

I've been busy living it. Not necessarily living it up, but I think just living is good enough sometimes.

We've been dealing with fevers and coughing and runny noses for the past 10+ days now. Six kids means a lot of little germs are simply traveling back and forth. Leah has been sick most of those days. She missed a bit of school and even went to school with a fever today just to avoid staying home again! I finally decided she did need the Rx for antibiotics and she started that this evening. I hope it works quickly.

Sarah had a bout of pink eye with an ear infection. We had that diagnosed after two days of torture; she wouldn't be happy for anything! Now she just thinks she should be held, but at least she's not twisting in my arms and crying all day. She had a fever all day yesterday even though she has been on her own antibiotic since Sat. Nothing is going to be easy, I see.

Lest you think I need to fumigate (which I probably do), this nastiness is going around. We're just one sorry family in a long line of sorry families.

Our computer committed suicide last week. I guess it had become attached to the germs (viruses) it had and didn't want to go on living without them. Unfortunately, we had bought the machine from a friend and had no product keys to anything. It's all lost and we have a new tower en route this week. Thankfully, the shop was able to save our hard drive. I SO don't want to have to retype the entire ward directory!

The Sunday School lesson coming up is on Matthew 13, which includes several parables. As of late, I've been thinking of the parable of the wheat and tares a lot. I guess most people believe it symbolizes believers verses non-believers. Other people may say it symbolizes church members verses non-church members. I am thinking it goes deeper. I can see its applications within the church members themselves. I keep running into folks who live conditionally in their religion. I'm speaking specifically LDS church members, but I suppose you could see the same situations in all religions.

I am trying not to keep my covenants conditionally. I have seen areas that I need a lot of improvement in. I think I have been pretty honest with myself, though, and have been through a bit of refining. As long as I keep moving forward, right?

This is a pretty vague testimony, I realize. I'm not looking to start a fight...just sharing some of my thoughts lately.

So tomorrow is another day. I hope we're fever-free, but I'm learning not to count on it. We'll be going Visiting Teaching, fevers or not. And Daniel has an ortho appt. I'll fake trying to have a clean house and will probably end up holding Sarah a lot and telling Joseph it's not snack time yet - at least once every two minutes.

St. Patrick's Day is Thursday (that isn't news to anyone, I'm sure) and I've made the kids some shirts to wear. I'll post pictures of those and some other shots we've collected along the way to try to liven up this blog.

ACK!

Where has the time gone?

I have been busy with various things, including trying to clean my house.

I spent a nice morning on the floor of the kid's bathroom scrubbing toothpaste off their carpet. I realize that I have a propensity for exaggeration, but believe me when I say that you wouldn't have been able to find one foot in any direction without coming to toothpaste. Whether it dripped from their mouths or fell straight from the tube, there was toothpaste from one wall to the other, on the shower stall, on the walls, cupboard fronts, mirror and maybe even the ceiling (I did find dried toilet paper wads up there).

I have vacuumed countless cobwebs and then found more again after the vacuum was put away. We have so many spiders out here!

We can now walk through the storage room without using any contortionistic moves. That has been nice!

There used to be a 2 1/2 foot high pile of stuff on my sewing table. I can now see the cutting mat in most places. I still have two pairs of pants to sew for the girls and Christmas pj's to cut and sew.

Among cleaning and organizing, life has been chugging along its usual pace. We've had Pack Meeting, got the studded tires on the van, gone grocery shopping, done homework, had FHE, shoveled walks (and then shoveled them again), driven carpool, gone to meetings, been sick, etc.

I will post pictures and share some of the better memories as I can. After all, it's Thanksgiving tomorrow and we have a few things we need to do for that!

I hope you all are having Thanksgiving with someone you care about and that you travel safely if you travel at all. Be careful in that crazy snow we've been getting in Utah and Idaho!

Are you getting this?

Sometimes life gets quite interesting...don't you agree?

It doesn't seem like dirty diapers ever show up when you're ready with the wipes and diapers in hand and time set aside to clean up the baby.

The kids don't spill the pitcher of kool-aid if you have the mop out and soapy water in the bucket.

The car doesn't break down when you have a surplus of money that you can't decide how to use.

And the bishop doesn't call you in and give you a calling that fits right into your family's schedule and your interests.

RATHER:
You get nights where one kid throws up, the other wets the bed and another keeps waking up because she can't stop coughing. And just to make it memorable, each of these things happens just as you're falling back to sleep after dealing with a previous issue.

You drop your last jar of spaghetti sauce on the kitchen floor, while the noodles are boiling over, the baby is crawling directly for the mess at your feet and your older child needs to be timed for a math paper. Meanwhile, your oldest child is making another child scream somewhere down the hall and they are on their way to tell you all about it.

You just fall asleep for a short nap and the phone rings. It's for someone you've never heard of. Just as you start to doze again, the baby wakes up.


I'm sure you've had similar experiences. And I'm sure this is where all those comedy writers get their material...from real life. So if all of these crazy experiences in life are actually funny, I want to know...Angels in heaven, are you getting this? I want to watch this movie when it's done. And don't you dare leave anything on the cutting room floor!

I have nothing

I know I haven't posted much lately. It feels like my life has been too boring to make it worth your time. So I'll force myself to type something this evening and see if I can't prove myself right.

Chad's sister, Pamela and her husband, John and baby Cordelia spent a few nights with us. I think Pamela was worried about wearing out her welcome, but I really enjoyed her visit. Her baby is so cute and has the craziest hair! I couldn't get enough of it. :) The kids enjoyed playing with their "step" cousins, Everett and Eliza. I think they almost understand how John's kids are related to them!

We spent some time with friends at a potluck dinner and enjoyed getting to know a few people a little better. The kids learned how to play "Ghost in the Graveyard" and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. They have mentioned how fun it was. Too bad they get sent to bed before the sun goes down!

Joseph's potty training went so smoothly, I felt we'd "dodged a bullet." Apparently it was just a slow moving bullet. We've had several night time accidents lately. I'm not sure why that is. I do know that I don't like the extra laundry. I've been trying to figure out if there is a trigger that I can recall that would explain the change. But during the day, Joseph is a super star and has a near flawless record. And that boy is REGULAR! He says he has to poop and does it in less than 15 seconds!

Rebekah has been loving Kindergarten. I really wish I could observe her in her class. Her reports are of a different nature than Leah's Kindergarten reports. Where Leah was concerned about who was her friend that day and who was not, Rebekah finds it important to let me know who misbehaved and who didn't (usually it's only her). I think it's entertaining to think of Rebekah being the ONLY obedient one in her class, especially since I know there are some kids in there that would rather melt into the carpet than cause even a second of trouble. And then there is some kid named Brandon. He gets reported on often. I'd like to meet this bad boy!

This is the last week of school before Spud Harvest. The kids will be out of school again for two whole weeks. And we didn't even plant potatoes this year! I guess the kids may get a chance or two to play that "Ghost in the Graveyard" game after all. It's also Homecoming week. Will there be a second Homecoming after this second summer?

My heel is still sore. I've been wearing my shoes in the house. I don't know how it's been helping the overall problem, but it is easier to walk around during the day.

Sarah has started walking. She willingly makes the trip from the coffee table to the couch. And she often takes off into the middle of the room, though doesn't often get more than 10-12 steps. She's had a few accidents involving the coffee table, so I look forward to her getting more confident in her movements. My heart will have less trauma when she's a little sturdier on her feet! I've decided she looks a lot like a Kewpie doll. I'll have to get some pictures of her posted before she loses the look!

I haven't been able to scrapbook lately. Our desktop has been "in the shop" since last Tuesday. We'll get it back tomorrow (if Chad remembers) and things will be better in more than one way. I am very grateful for my laptop, but my desktop is where most of the magic happens. :)

Is anyone looking forward to Fall? I'm trying to decide how early to get the Halloween decorations out.

Monday Morning

It rained a lot last night and was raining when we woke up. (good thing)
My house is a mess. The kitchen sink is full of dirty dishes (but the dishwasher is empty).
I have a large round cake cooling on the counter and 44 mini cupcakes on the table (four have already been eaten). I used two cake mixes.
My house smells like chocolate cake and it's not even 9:30.
The mail lady delivered the cake pan I needed on Friday.
I have a bunch of b-day presents to wrap for Rebekah.
The laundry needs folded.
Joseph has a chocolate beard from licking the beaters.
I still have to decorate the cake.
I have to drive the carpool - in less than two hours.
Sarah is ready for a nap.

I'm glad I've showered and my teeth are brushed!