Siblings

The other day my five year old told, "Mom there are kids in my kindergarten class that have little brothers that look just like them." I forlornly replied, "yes" not knowing what else to say.
What I thought was, yes, genetics are amazing, aren't they?  But yet them seem semi-broken in our family.

Buzz Kill

I'm apologizing ahead of time for being such a downer.
Even though I love thanksgiving, and never put up Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving, I have to be honest.  The food is not really my favorite. After years I've trying to convince myself otherwise I don't like stuffing. I would much rather eat a ham instead of a turkey, and  I know people love pie, but I don't.
I don't like pie crust, unless its made with cookie crumbs.
I LOVE desserts that I like but yet pie crust is low on the list.
The worst desserts in my opinion have coconut flakes on them/ in them.
Second worst has nuts.
Third is pie crust I'm sorry.  This all being said, I LOVE pie made with cookie crumbs.  I need to find some great cookie crumb pie crust recipes.
That all being said, Edward's Chocolate Creme Pie is one of my favorite things in the world.  I almost thought about buying one for thanksgiving but then I realized I didn't really want to share it.  I'll pick one up on black friday and eat it alone. I love that they are only $4.75. They are the best frozen, no need to thaw.

Clean

Well my whole house is clean, which is no small feat with two small children.  All the bathrooms, all the carpets vacuumed, everything.  The kitchen floor swept.  Yet company doesn't come until Tuesday. With two small children you can guess what we will be doing Tuesday morning, yes.... cleaning.
That being said, with our new extra added space of 833 sq ft, I've been trying to teach my children how to clean their own toys up.  We are really making progress, they can't really finish themselves, they start to wane but they can start on their own and get about 50% there. Which is alright by me! Ok, sure I will they did a 100% without me, but I'm pleased with the progress we've made over the past 6 months, because they use to do about 2% without me.

Lets take a quick detour at the end of this post.
The house we rented when Nan was born was 1,850 sq ft.  To pay for Brent's MBA without loans we moved into a 1200 sq ft apartment for 22 months. Now our house is 2,033 sq ft.

My favorite

Can I tell you one of my favorite memories?  I think I already wrote this blog post a few years ago, but I must recall it again, because I love it so much. Although there is a good chance my husband won't be pleased I shared it.
Years ago when parents out numbered children in our family, we were driving down 12th south in Ogden something we did at least monthly and my husband sang along with Morrissey and completely mimicking him.  It was awesome.  Sometimes I ask him to do it again, and he tries to hid his smile as he denies me.

Activity

I have recently read the secret to a great looking kitchen is not a expensive renovation but empty counters.  What can you take off the counter that is currently being stored.  I worked a little organizing magic, and now my spices fit in the cabinets.  Not only that I emptied two drawers, which is no small feat since I only have four, and now the big full crock of giant spoons and what not is gone, and they all fit in one of the no longer empty drawers.  The best part is they are right, my kitchen is amazing right now.  In fact the counters are a mess, because I was at a relief society activity instead of cleaning, and they still look amazing, because I got two bulky clutterly looking items off the counters.  Now to fix our microwave so we don't have two microwaves in the kitchen, and get one off the counters.

The relief society activity was watching 17 Miracles. You know that movie about the Willy Martin Handcart Company.  I didn't really know what if I wanted to go, I have been in Primary since week two in this ward, I really don't know a lot of people, but I ended up going.  Mostly because three months ago my Visiting Teacher mentioned she when she was serving in primary she tried very hard to attend lots of Relief Society activities so she still felt apart of the Relief Society. That gnawed in the back of my head, and I went.  Not to mention I knew my mom really wanted me to see the movie.
I took two things out of the movie.
1. The girl next to me said, it makes me want to get more food storage. I thought true true, we have great intentions now that we are settled, but few actions.  I need to get with the picture.
2. In the movie, one of the characters said something like, We gave up many things to make it to Zion. If all my children stay faithful all their lives it was worth it.  At the end of that sentence, I thought what do I give up for Zion, so my children will be faithful?  Then I thought I probably don't need a new toaster oven.  Our current toaster works fine, I can wait many more months.  Now this may seem very bizarre, but it all makes sense in my mind.  The less I buy, the better off my finances are, and the better our finances the more reverent our home will be. Some things are needed for the house and others aren't.  New coats of paint are were in my opinion needed because cleanliness is next to Godliness. Our walls were filthy, and with new paint and clean walls I can definitely feel more at ease, and peaceful. But toasters to replace working toasters, well that is probably frivolous.
Our countertops are a different story. We both hate them, they old and stained, and we are constantly wondering when we will change them.  I know it will happen one day, but I hardly know when.  I want different ones, but yet I know life will go on without new ones, and at this point I don't want to spend the money.  As long as I clean them they actually don't bother me too much, because I know how much it will cost to change them.  Who knows.... We are now back to full circle.  We aren't getting new ones this year, that's for sure, which is why I'm trying to do everything to improve the kitchen.  Whats a new countertop if you can't see it? Bizarrely enough I couldn't endure the dirty walls, but yet I have no problem enduring a counter I don't like.

The Parable of the Snowboots

I forgot to post this a few weeks ago.

Just kidding no parable, its straight out story.
Last winter as you may remember my son got mild frost bite on his feet.
Here is my lesson learned-- its never worth it to buy second hand shoes. I learned this when J was a toddler after a few pairs, one just never fit right.  Another velcro didn't work any more.  I can find shoes on sale for $7-$13 its just not worth it to save maybe $5 off that price for crappy shoes that don't work.  (Last year I got Nan brand spanking new nike tennis shoes for $12 on sale at REI)
Yet some reason I decided to try to save money last winter and buy him second hand boots.  Yesterday I bought snow boots at walmart for $17 that have a -5 degrees on the label.  $17, I tried to save $10 last year on my son's boots and instead ended up with an expensive visit to the doctor to figure out why my son's feet were covered in a red rash and why he wouldn't walk.

Buy used clothes, buy used toys, buy used couches, but save your money and buy new shoes and boots.

Irons

First off, where do you think I hid my magic erasers?  How can I clean the tub without them?  Even though I have four toilets, and five sinks, luckily I only have two tubs, and luckily only one of those is used for baths.
But that is off topic.
I love my oreck vacuum, I would never tell anyone to buy anything else.  Unfortunately it came with the dumbest iron in the world.  But who wants to buy a iron, so I have been suffering for years.  Luckily I rarely iron shirts, never pants, so the only time I suffer is during crafts.  My iron seems to have one temp, too cool for iron-able fusing, and too hot for other things which it burns. I called my mom wondering what I was doing wrong with my fusing she told me it sounded like my iron wasn't working right anymore.  I said its never worked right, and I guess I should finally buy one that works. She told me to buy a shark.
But this black and decker is on clearance
Then today when my friend asked we wanted to come play I asked if I could bring my latest craft and use her iron. She has a rowenta-- oh my goodness I was in heaven with it.   Just thinking about it makes me want to iron my husband's shirts that he doesn't care about being ironed.  I quickly fixed my fusible ironing, and wanted to continue because the iron was so nice.
This rowenta is $10 cheaper than hers.
But even $40 is a lot to spend on a iron.  I wonder if JoAnns has them for cheaper if I use a 40% coupon.  What iron to buy....
Can I get a $50 iron for $15....

Am I the only one that loves typing so much that even once my post is over, I'm sorry to stop?  There is something so calming and nice about typing.  I have been wondering if my 5 year old is too young for typing games, then I thought I want to play typing games.  I love watching my kids being pills while I type away at my computer.  I have nothing to say, but yet my fingers want to continue to tap away.  I guess I should finally finish.  The best part about playing a typing game is I have become slow and sloppy in my typing I'm sure at it, it would nice to get back on the ball.  A few years ago my father was in the room while I was blogging and he comment how fast I could type while watching J roll on the floor, but yet I'm pretty sure I'm WAY slower than I was in when I was in computer classes in school.