Brass

You know how how I've been reading home decorating blogs?  One of the things I keep coming across is how gold brass fixtures are bad.  I will be 100% honest, I would love to have the black bronze door handles in my house, but I'm not spending that money any time in the next decade.  Sure people spray paint them, but my husband would kill me.  Anyway, so yes I like that.  And yes, I'm grateful almost every day I have no brass (gold colored) light fixtures in my house.  In fact I spray painted to get rid of the two toned brass light fixture.  But all things in house go in and out of style, and I've seen extremely trendy houses, to more traditional and classic houses.  I'm 100% sure gold brass door handles are classic, they might not be popular right now, but you will always be able to buy the finish at the store.  What is not classic, is the trendy colors right now. Trendy and classic are never the same.
Here is a story I remember, witnessing,
  When my parents bought their house almost 20 years ago all their bath fixtures were done in antique bronze color that was trendy at the time.  Well 8-10 years later when they started to wear out antique bronze was out, my father could not buy that finish anywhere.  So then either we had two tone bathrooms, or my dad replaced all fixtures.  Well guess what I just saw on a home blog?  Antique bronze light fixture! Its now called distressed/antique brass.  Remember its good brass, while my gold brass is bad.
I'm sticking with my bad gold brass, because well I'm positive it will always be for sale, and its cheaper than trying to replace it.  But the first few months we lived here, I thought if dream upon dreams what type of door handles will I get?  Well normally I like anything with a silver finish whether it stainless steel, nickle, chrome what not, but I don't actually want door handles like that, its too industrial looking for me.  Like I said I like the black brass, but I'm not convince it will be in style in 5 years then I stuck with $200 worth of door handles everyone thinks is ugly, is so early 10s.  So I'll stick with my gold brass, it might not be trendy right now, but I'm pretty sure no one really notices it one way or another.  While other home things are definitively noticeable, like my carpet.

A theory

I have a theory if I throw everything on the floor that needs to be organized in my laundry room (there are no clothes in there) I will be forced to either organize it or throw it away just so I can do my laundry in a few days.
I'll let you know how my experiment worked, or I won't, because it will won't be plaguing me anymore and I'll stop thinking about.

New Topic

Just kidding not a new topic.  If I'm not buying new countertops then I have to find all those tile/grout cleaning tutorial posts I've seen on the internet but ignored. For the past 8 months we kept saying soon soon, really soon. So I gleefully ignored them saying I'm not deep cleaning them I'm going to throw them away.  But now we are saying eh... maybe later.  So now enough is enough, it will be ugly, the tiles will still have been cut with a dull blade, but at least they won't be dirty.
Check up on me in two months and see if I've made any progress.

Home Remodels

I've recently been wasting my time on pinterest and blogs looking at home remodels, and room re-decoration. I'm not quite sure.  Some are fascinating, and some drive me crazy.
I have no idea why I'm wasting so much time other than its the illusive forbidden fruit.
We spent the last six months draining all our extra cash into our new house! Wahoo, right.  Well most home improvement projects will be put on the back burner for at least six months if not longer, because we are now saving our money to upgrade the family car.  There is always something right?  This all being said, I'm not really complaining this are all blessings right?!  Heck yeah.  Oh course an unlimited budget would be nice.... but overall one of the things I enjoy about adulthood is planning out the money with my husband, and figuring out what we need to save, for what needs/wants will come up in our lives. Realizing just how much money we have with a little bit of self-control.  One of things I do not enjoy is sticking to the budget.
So if we are not upgrading the kitchen, I should stare at beautiful brand new kitchens right?
Probably not.  We were planning to get new counter tops this spring, and maybe a new range.  I had been talking to many people about the pro cons of cook top verse gas.  I had all settled on gas, when we decided it would make much more financial sense if we put off the kitchen update a year. For one if we play our cards right and are obedient in our rules it will double our budget.

Anyway, things I need to finish around the house, ie things that shouldn't cost money things that just need to be finished:
We have paint waiting for us to paint two last rooms, my goal is to do it on Saturday during February.  They are small rooms.
Organize my laundry half of room
Sew the valance for the window in the laundry half of room
Hang curtains sitting in our closet over our windows
Clean my daughter's closet

What I could get done in the six months, ie all things that should cost less than $100 total:
finish our hutch
hang storage in the guest bath
Paint the front door
paint scripture power... in j's room
Brent needs to organize the camping closet
start the fixing of mop boards

What I want to do, but I'm sure I won't:
Refinish our dressers in our room (i desperately want to do this, but I know it will be a huge task, so I'm researching it a lot, that's probably why I spend so much time on home improvement blogs, then I get distracted on the rest of the house. I can't just spray paint it, or Brent would have a cow, it has to be a finishing job that won't chip.)
Find a used chandelier and repainted it for Nan's room. (i don't want to spend much money)
Do something for our lack of headboard- probably don't care until I refinish the dressers
Repaint our dining room chairs -  should be easy after dressers, but I will be worn out
get new stools for our bar
get a new bedspread/down blanket

Our hopes:
remodel the kitchen-- new counters, new range, new sink
new carpet in the front room
remodel the water damaged kids bathroom
travel internationally
paint the exterior (mine, not Brent's)
buy a $20 2-pack of ceiling light fixtures, and change the light in my closet, and laundry room (once again mine not brent)
finish our fence probably next spring not this year


our dreams:
add more lights to our kitchen, would have to add wiring (mine)
put a fan and light combo in our living room-- it has no wiring in the center of the ceiling
repaint the ceiling on the main floor, its atrocious looking
expand our patio
expand our front porch
buy brent a truck or suv
refinish our kitchen cabinets
     but does that open a pandora's box? our cabinets, our modeling and doors are all the same color
new carpet in the rest of the house
finish landscaping our yard
Dry wall our garage

If we ever finish this list, I think we will either move or start over.  But knowing Brent he will buy a new house, rent this one out before we finish.
That is part of my question in life, Brent is a restless soul when it comes to living quarters he can not sit still for long, he is always looking into other properties.  Just how much time do we have here?  What is the most important to do, what is best for rental value or resale value?  What is worth it, because it is furniture that can be moved? What should we just do because we really want it that way?
Although of course there is other stuff that is not on the list, I'm sure one day we will need a bunk bed, sooner or later I will want new living room furniture, and our hot water heater is set to die any day now, which is part of the reason we aren't getting new counters.

Not a coincidence

I don't want to forget this so I'm blogging now.

I remember being taught by I have no idea that, events of spiritual nature are not a coincidence.

Today in church they announced there was a Stake Priesthood meeting at 7 pm tonight.  I leaned over to my husband and said did you hear that?  He said what? I pointed to the program where it was written. In my mind I thought have him enter it in his phone so he doesn't forget.  Ignored it in order to be "more reverent" thinking I would remind him later.

Well yeah we totally forgot, he had just sat down for dinner, when his phone rang.  Part of me thought, should we have a no phone rule at dinner, luckily we didn't have that rule tonight.  It was a friend calling asking him if he wanted a ride together.  My husband said oh I totally forget, but yes I'll be ready.  The minute he sat down, I thought oh so so and is about to call.  Not more than a minute later, his other friend called, he asked Brent do you have a second to talk?  Brent asked if he has remembered about Priesthood meeting, and if he wanted to come.  He told his second friend, get dress and meet here.  

When he got off the phone, I knew two phones calls in ten minutes were not a coincidence. I had the overwhelming feeling of gratitude for friend 1 that he call Brent. I also knew that the Lord wanted my husband and friend 2 at that meeting tonight.  Occasionally we forget, or life happens and we miss meetings, but life seemly goes on.  Other times we need to be a certain things, and the Lord cares deeply about the one.

Dishes

I also hate dishes, but unlike laundry dishes do sleep.  You go to bed with a clean sink, you wake up with a clean sink.  Unlike laundry, pajamas become stale, sheets need washing.  You do the dishes before you leave town and come back with clean dishes, unlike laundry you get a larger pile than normal.
I really hate dishes.
A few months ago, I was telling a story to some people, and I said, our apartment (before I got married) always had dirty dishes.  My husband smirked/made a quiet laughing noise.  I looked over at him, he was smiling, all of sudden I realize somethings never change.  Our house has dirty dishes for half the day, I usually do dishes once a day, I know pathetic, but that is the way I roll.
This all being said, I would so much rather do laundry than dishes, I think dishes are my least favorite chore.  I don't mind laundry it just overwhelms me because there is always so much.


When Brent was single he had one load of laundry a week (whites and colors mixed), that he did every Saturday.  If I remember correctly he only dyed his white shirts blue once....
Once we got married we had two loads of laundry every week, whites and colors, that we did every Saturday.
Once we had a child, we had three loads of laundry every week, a load of whites, lights, and colors.
Then we had a second child, and I had a load of laundry every day.  Everything spiraled out of control, with our second.  Our easy to maintain life, quickly jumped out the window, the minute her colic started. People say two is easy wait until you have three, I'm pretty sure that well meaning annoying phrase uttered by everyone is the reason my husband wasn't as quick to suggest a third child like he was the first or second.
This all being said, I didn't give up hope, I chose to ignore all the well meaning annoying people.  I chose to have hope in the few occasional people I met who said she sounds like our second child.  We nearly gave up after our second, but nothing has been as hard as 2.
My husband would contradict all of this, but yet he still hasn't suggest a third.  Two years ago when I said should we have another, he asked me if I was crazy?  Probably, which is why our daughter is 3 and still the youngest.
This all being said, I'm extremely off topic from the dishes.
But I should follow up with we love our daughter a whole ton, girls are so different then boys.  She dances all day, and loves unconditionally.  She does everything full throttle, which is why she was such a challenging baby and toddler.  Now that she is three, we are making progress, the hope burns brighter almost each day. One day I fully believe she will be a completely pleasant person.  Maybe she already there, everyone tells me how sweet she is, but at home she can still throw a wicked tantrum.  She is also has stubborn has all get out, but as my sister pointed out me, isn't everyone stubborn in their own way?  I don't really see her growing out of her stubbornness anytime soon, I think it is part of who she is, who she has always been, she was born with knowing she had agency, and knowing she did not have to choose what I place before her. That all being said, I'm not opposed to letting her know agency comes with consequences whether good or bad.
Dishes, though, I don't do dishes that often, I sweep two to three times a day, and do dishes once, go figure. Well there are probably plenty of times I do them twice a day. I hate dishes, let the consequences fall how they may. Luckily my son unloads over half the dishwasher every day.  Five year olds are awesome!

Laundry/Interest

Whenever I do the laundry which is like everyday.  All I can think is,

“Interest never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; it never goes to the hospital; it works on Sundays and holidays; it never takes a vacation; it never visits nor travels; it takes no pleasure; it is never laid off work nor discharged from employment; it never works on reduced hours. . . . Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.” — J. Reuben Clark

Interest is what I call laundry in mind.

Laundry never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; it may go the hospital, but it always comes back, it gets dirty on Sundays and holidays; it goes on vacation with you and comes back with you; it takes no pleasure, it is never laid off work nor discharged from employment; it never works on reduced hours.  Once a mother, laundry is your constant companion every minute of the day and night you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; it will always follow you and never go away, laundry will be your constant companion, even when your kids get their own friends.

Ok, so I probably don't think that much of the quote in my mind.  But there is a fair portion of that quote that goes through my brain multiple times a week.

Then bizarrely enough instead of seeing J Reuben Clark, or President Hinckley or President Monson (those are the only two prophets I can actually recalling telling us to get out of debt.  I see this face in my mind.

I'm sure that sounds wierd to all of you except maybe my husband.

But here is where the real confusion comes in my mind.

The prophet told me one day I would miss the laundry. 

“If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.”

I'm so confused, and the laundry is waiting to be worked on again.

New Shorts

My friend had a swap at her house last night, I brought three boxes of stuff and was suppose to come home with nothing.  Didn't happen, my husband didn't really expect it to happen, I doubt he even dreamed to hope.  Instead I came home with 6 pairs of long shorts or capris that actually fit my waist. Now I'm dreaming about summer days so I can wear my new pants.
Ah, dreams....
Literally, I stayed until midnight talking with some of my great friends here.  I needed that time.  But now I'm super sleepy I'm just blogging, so the bright computer screen keeps me awake.
Because nothing is funnier than "then the cockroach went to the bathroom".
Ha ha, good thing is thursday I'm exhausted.

Another one

Here's another.

Phyllis Diller, whoever that is, said, "Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing."
Then again, anyone who has been where there is a lot of snow, knows it is easier to shovel the drive while it is snowing the night before, then shovel again in the morning.

Clean

I have looked a few design blogs over the course of the day.  I actually have looked at quite a few which I wonder how I even had time between, getting ready for kindergarten, drop off, grocery shopping, library time, pick up, play dates, lunch, cleaning my house, watching dora (yes I watched 15 minutes of dora, and got in a 5 minute nap), trying to back and ruining mini cheesecakes, I've glanced at a lot of redos. (If I cook dinner and fold the laundry before bed, it will be a successful day.)
As I look at more and more, I think number one problem, I need to get rid of some stuff.  My children have fairly cute rooms, but good luck noticing it under all their clutter.  My son has a desperate need for stuff pilled everywhere.  While my daughter apparently wants her room to look like a baby nursery that a tornado hit.
Plus as anyone who tries to clean with children knows "housekeeping is like stringing beads without a knot in the end". I cleaned my kitchen from top to bottom it was spotless nothing was out of place, two hours later... well that is a different story. Cleaning is overwhelming me right now.  I have this desire not to buy my children toys until December.  My son's birthday is all bought and paid for, so we could totally wait for December.  Normally we get toys on Easter, but I want a swing set.  Hmmm.... do I have the self-control not to buy a doll or a box of leogs?  The last thing either of my children needs is more. Plus if I didn't waste money on toys, then we could buy more books, every child needs more books!

p.s. I know most of those design blogs of their diy project redos only look like that for the pictures, or they just don't have stuff.

One last thing, ever since we started kindergarten I keep thinking about my poor little new mother self six years ago.  How things of changed, I don't think I could have ever fathomed doing so much each day as a stay at home mom, 5 years ago.  (I never had time to think about anything of the sort until I graduated from college and became a stay at home mom.)

Found

Over three years ago we mysteriously lost a beloved stuff animal.  Valentine's Bear.  It was a tragedy I was sure we would find we when we moved we didn't.  For years he asked what happened to his bear, I never did know.  But you'll never guess what happened, I was at goodwill in a different town today with a friend when I found valentine's bear.  I had to buy it, it was old bunny's best friend for years.
My son actually did finally forget about the bear probably a year and half ago, but he was interested in the whole story and the pictures from when he was a baby with his bear.  He loves the fact that he has a Valentine Birthday.

An aside

I should comment, I see nothing wrong with mommy blogs, I read a fair amount.  I just don't have it in me.  I'm too wordy or something.  My attempts just don't satisfy me so in my realization I am who I am, go with what I got.  I just am giving up attempting it, because I don't feel like I fit.  But like I said, I'm sure my kids will be on the blog, and our events, it just a travelogue overwhelms me, sometimes I want to post what we did and sometimes I don't.  Sometimes I love my blog covered in pictures and sometimes I would rather delete my blog than post a single picture.

Where I am

I was really annoyed at my blog, and dreading the thought of posting all those christmas pictures, I was already to go on sabbatical.  Then I started writing this really long, nonsensical post about how I am not a mommy blogger, I liked it back in 2007 better.  Yada Yada and I never posted it, but then I started writing lots of really long nonsensical pieces.  I feel like myself again, and so that is where I am currently.  Sure I'll post pictures of my kids, but I'm never very happy when I have a mommy blog, this blog was never suppose to be that, and in fact for over a year I barely ever mentioned my child thinking he didn't belong on the blog.  Well now I'm a little more middle ground, but still this blog is about me, my journey living hapilly ever after, with my husband and kids not a paparazzi chronicle of my children.
This all being said a few weeks ago, I realized I am more content with myself then I have been in years, since high school really.  That sounds odd huh?  most people aren't content with themselves in high school.  I was, middle school was a bad patch for me, I wasn't very nice, and a lot of other things we don't really need to hash out.  Once I started high school, I realized there was no point in being a mean girl, and I did what I did and didn't care what anyone thought.  I was full of self confidence, I had plenty of friends, but refused to play the popular games, and had no problem sitting at home on a friday night.  I was full of self-confidence in high school, college pretty much killed me off though.  I was great in classes, I felt confident with my study habits, my grads, the opinions I shared in my classes, the response my professors gave me but take me out of the classroom, and the social atmosphere at school almost killed me off, the super dark, dreary, LONG winters didn't help.  I am prone to seasonal affective disorder.
But over the years I've been trying to get back to who I was.  The person Brent fell in love with, he met me as an overconfident 18 year old, it was a gradual process of small town college life killing me slowly from the inside.  Finally I realized I am back.
I've been trying to remember for years life is not a zero-sum game.  Just because some is talent, beautiful, smart, funny etc doesn't mean I am an ugly stupid loser.  Lately I realized I've achieved my knowledge that life is not a zero sum game.
Some women are better at caring for smaller children than me.  Who cares!  Not me anymore, I am who I am, I try my best, my children love me, my grandma thinks I'm cool, as does my mother, and the Lord gave me my children so he must have some level of trust for me.  My children are pretty amazing people/challenging people so the Lord wouldn't have just given them to any mother.
Sure some people sew better than I do.  Who cares, I enjoy it. Never did actually care about this.
Sure some people look different then me, apparently my husband thinks I'm hot.
Sure some people are shorter than me.  Oh well, I dominate with my height.
Sure some people have amazing careers.  But I don't want to miss my kids being little.
Sure some people's household incomes are more than ours, but also there are lots who have less.
Sure some people have bigger houses than ours or nicer.  But life isn't about them, its about me being content. Not to mention if I broaden my scope, I have a mansion in comparison to 90% of the world.
List all this stuff, because in the past it would have bothered me, but honestly I can tell you non of it does now. I don't know if I just need more sunlight in my life or what.
I can honestly say, it has never been regularly sunny when I've fallen into depression.
Anyway, this is the reason my blog has returned to me.  I've stopped worrying what people think.  I stopped worrying who was reading my blog, and so now its back to me. We'll see how long my self confidence will last.
On a side note, I never once worried that someone had a better husband or marriage than me, or even wedding.  I've always known my marriage is the best, and I have the best husband. Then again life is not a zero sum game, so I always hope and pray that everyone feel like that with their spouse.  Life is too short to not enjoy your marriage, and wait on baited breath for the next moment you get to spend with your spouse. As a teenager I never wanted to grow up and get married, so at 20 when I decided to get married, I knew it was going to be the best thing ever, I wasn't going to settle for sub-par.

One last post

Thanks to facebook, I learned that my relief society president read, The Truth About Epidurals.  Well I had to read it. This lady's youngest is 15, and oldest is not yet married, if she was reading it, I needed to.  That's not really true, epidurals and me have a love hate relationship.  The stupid natural people always made me feel guilty, but I really need an epidural after multiple hours on pitocin.  I stopped judging myself, so now I don't care one lick what big birthing hip women say.  After hours of using natural child bearing technics I appreciate what my epidurals bring, like a second child who I could hold sitting the next day. As I waited for the doctors to discharge us the day after my daughter was born, I sat in the visitors chairs in my room, I didn't lay in bed.  It was wonderful! Yes, I could sit the next day, and I totally blame that on my epidural, thank you.
I wanted to remember this part of the epidural article.

One study reported that women who request the drugs have smaller pelvises than women who do not, a characteristic that makes labor more of an ordeal and independently increases the chance that a doctor will have to operate. So just because epidurals are associated with C-sections does not mean that they cause them. Taking Excedrin is associated with crankiness, but last night’s open bar is your culprit, not your pain reliever.

One study reported women with smaller pelvises have more of an ordeal.  Yes, I think my skinny little self would agree with that.  My brother was in an anatomy class in college, when his professor said the idea of birthing hips is ridiculous, you can not tell the size of a woman's pelvis based on the size of her hips.  I said, I guaranteed that by looking at the size of my hips no one would ague I could have a large pelvis.  He agreed.  This all being said, I am thankful so far I have not had to have a Cesarean, but I feel no guilt at having two epidurals, because all that pitocin is brutal. Nor would I feel guilt for a cesarean whatever it takes to have me and a baby healthy. That being said, I hope I never have to deal with a longer recovery.
By the way I should specify I have never been induced, my body started labor both times, and both times it sat at a 2 while having steady contracts for more hours than most of my friends are in labor. Pitocin is necessary, and I think I will say epidurals have been too.

Paint

For MLK day we painted our Master room, I was so excited when my husband suggested it, I had been waiting months, picking out the most perfect gray I could find.  Then dream upon dreams, they are discounting the line so our paint was half off, it only cost $26 to buy two gallons of Martha Stewart Paint.  The price was so good, we also bought paint for my daughter's room.  Unfortunately her room is still going to be pink, its just will be painted better and won't drive me crazy and won't have hole in the wall.  Literally she had a hole the three inches in diameter until I patched it.  Back to my Master bedroom, I love it so much now that is painted, every time we paint another room I love my house that much more.
Thanks to pinterest my gratitude has been a little greater lately.  You see different crafts that say, "What if you woke up today with only what you thanked God for yesterday" multiple times and it starts to click in your brain, and your prayers get a little longer.  Well one of the very frivolous blessings I realized a little while ago was how well my furniture matches. We are quite frugal, and the only furniture we have ever bought new was our mattresses, but not even our crib mattress it was a handme down.  We also bought a broken bookcase new.  Actually we have bought two computer desks over the years that have both been cheap.  The only furniture we have ever bought new and spent more than a $100 on is our mattresses, but I can't even say beds, because we don't have fancy bed frames, we only have metal bed frames, and we have only bought one of those, the other two Brent's parents found for us.
So frugal, or cheap depending on who phrases it, or really smart and independent, since we have never had a furniture loan, or actually any loan other than our mortgage.  I'm sure we could have bought furniture new at some point, but instead we sent my husband to college twice he now has two more stinking years of school then me. I jealous all the time, that he has a master's degree and I do not. (Maybe I should get one, online, who cares if its a lowly master's degree, I would have one, that's the point, we would be equal again. I can't have my husband thinking he's smarter than me!) I'm off topic though, I care a great deal about how our house looks.  I clean it so it looks nice, I make crafts so it looks nice (at least in Brent and I's opinion.)  I'm very superficial and have a nice home is very important to me. I don't need an expensive home or expensive furniture, but I need a nice and comely one.  I don't need a trendy home with all the latests fashions, but I need a nice one.  So here is where my blessing comes in, we have gone through a multitude of used couches over the years, and before you say we should have saved all that and just bought new one, you are wrong.  The combined total of the couches in our current house is $60.  Years ago we bought two couches for something like a $130, then sold them two years later because we were downsizing for $75, we have never spend anywhere near the price of a couch, I don't even know if IKEA couches are that cheap, but they definitely wouldn't last 5 years if we would have only spend $100, and it would have only been one couch, not five. So when you walk in my house, you might not like my style, but I'm proud of what it looks like, I've been very blessed all of the furniture in my living room matches quite nicely to my liking, and I feel like it is very neat and comely, even if my couches are super old, they match quite nicely with everything else, and they do have clean (modern maybe) slip covers on.
Not to mention I've had a few complements the first time someone stops by the house on how cute my house is.  I like people here, well females here, they tell me how cute everything I do is.

Romance is not Dead

Brent and I spent a lot of our courtship chatting online.  I say courtship to sound really old, no in actuality, we spent the whole school year chatting online for hours each day with each other before we ever started dating.  Back in the days of us both telling the other I don't want to date you.  I guess when you spend 3+ hours a day talking to a member of the opposite sex who agrees with your political views, and who you discuss future parenting methods with, such as to homeschool or not to homeschool, you need to specify that you are not dating. 

But then we did start dating, and we did our homework together, and we chatting online together while we sat next to each other, him on his desktop me on my laptop not talking in person because well who doesn't think chatting online while sitting really close isn't romantic?!

But to get to the point, since he is an IT guy we still chat online usually daily.   I want to prove the romance is not dead.  Here is an excerpt of our conversation.

 Brent:  will you do me a favor?

 me:  what?

 Brent:  go to ipchicken.com and tell me the ip address?

 me:  __.___.___.____

 Brent:  it changed when I unplugged the dsl modem so I can't access it anymore

thanks

 me:  I thought you were going to ask me to be amazing, and I was going to say done

 Sent at 2:46 PM on Tuesday

 Brent:  I knew that I didn't need to ask you that

I already knew you were amazing

 Sent at 2:48 PM on Tuesday

 Brent:  but you should feel pretty proud, I wouldn't just ask any woman to go to ipchicken.com for me

Ah yes, is that isn't romantic than shoot me now, because I might make the barfing gagging noise you make in middle school if he tries anything more romantic than that.

One last thought, 10 bucks says I get in trouble for this post, but not for the reasons most of you think.  Since I already know why I'm getting in trouble, I'll really get in trouble.

Taller

In church my son attends his sunday school class with a girl that is about four inches taller than the next kid.  Apparently my son's 19 year old teacher told them, that one day he would be taller than this girl.  He proudly told me this, I guess I could have left it at that.  But instead I crashed his dreams, played the realist in me.  Its who I am, I have a hard time turning it off.  I told him, maybe not, her mom is taller than your dad.  This little girl's dad is probably 6'6" while I guess the mom is a good 6'.  So yeah, sorry to burst your bubble child of mine, but odds are no, you won't be taller than her, neither of your parents thankfully hit 6 feet.  Your parents are taller than average but not in our church. I'm pretty sure the average height of an adult male who is mormon in america is a good four inches taller than the average male in america.

School District

First off, I think we have a great house so don't think I'm being ungrateful.  But we could have bought a better house, somewhere else in the area, or we could have bought a cheaper house, that was just as nice as ours in our metropolitan area.  But I wanted to move to this school district.  To provide my house price and property taxes are not in vain.  Here is what I recently read about our district for 2011.
 *Our CSAP (state standardized test) scores for the state were  in the top six!  
 *Our district is the only one in  Colorado to be honored by the  College Board with placement on the  Advanced Placement (AP)  Achievement List.  Only the top 2% of school districts in the country receive this award. This is our second year to be honored. 
 *Our district has four schools that received the John Irwin Schools of  Excellence Award for high academic achievement and growth. 
That being said I only have a kindergarten so none of that effects us right now.  But you know me I love where we live, I would be happy if I stayed here for the rest of my life.
If I'm good at budgeting, and willing to vacation to South America there is a good chance my husband will let me stay here for our whole life.
Our school districts are independent, from what I've seen in my short life, large unified school districts are not where I want to be.  Small independent is where it is at.  There are quite a few good districts in our area, but I like ours the best that is why I picked.  Although I don't think people really have to be in the best to succeed, but my son is so precocious I felt it was necessary to pick this district.

Pictures

Around the time I potty trained my daughter I stopped taking pictures of my children.  I didn't mean to, it just happened.  We (as a couple) use to take on average about 700 digital pictures a month, lately we are down to 300.  The only thing I can come up with is I'm so trilled I don't have a diaper bag anymore I forget the camera since its so nice to be so light.  I know the camera weighs practically nothing.  I don't know what it is, but something happened. Always forget it.  Maybe I'm trying to live in the moment instead of behind a lens, who knows.
I rarely carry snacks either, its wonderful.  Unless we are going to the park to meet friends, I figure my children can survive two hours without snacks. Which they can. Although at this altitude it is sure is nice to remember a water bottle, unfortunately I rarely do, so my children and  I must hunt for the water fountain. Something about errands that make my children parched.
We also do not eat snacks during church (although their primary teachers are nicer teachers than me and give snacks). Even though we are snackless, we are not waterless, I figure if I keep a water bottle with the notebooks and crayons, then there is no reason to leave other than a potty break.  I like that.  I like that a lot.

Great Post

A friend of mine posted this link on Facebook,

2011 Lesson #2 : Don’t Carpe Diem

its from momastery.com

I loved the post and wanted to share it.

I understand why people are nostalgic about when their kids were little, I mean my kids aren't even that old and I get nostalgic about about little baby chicken legs, or oneses, or past halloween costumes, but I really can't stand some of the "well meaning comments" people give.  I can't stand being in church, when women who have no small children, and their adult children have not provided grandchildren yet, say things like oh you will miss everything.  Really everything, even the sticky hands, vomit, and being woken up at night.  Yes, everything, you will miss it all, sticky hands and all.  I was in a Church meeting exactly like that, with my mom.  Afterward I said seriously mom, these women miss everything, sticky hands and everything?  She said no, Lesli they don't miss everything, they don't have grandchildren, no body misses everything.  

I appreciated the post.  Sometimes its nice to have permission to hate the miserable parties. I honestly don't often the day to day, everyday with very small children, the crumbs, the wet panties, the shopping with small kids but I do love all the memories, because human memory is so perfect in its imperfection of omitting the misery.

Last Post before I download Texas christmas from my camera

One of my favorite parts of the holidays with kids is how the arrange nativities.  Of course I arrange them properly and then wonder who keeps messing it all up.  But then I notice its always arranged in the same way.  All the Mary's in one pile, all the Joseph's in another pile, then the babies together. 

I forgot to the document the last shot I wanted, a few days later my son added another nativity into the mix with everyone forming a circle around the baby.  Sure its not how an adult would do it, but I thought it was so sweet, and much more realistic. 
At my mom's there was a nativity that my niece could reach, but wasn't actually suppose to play with.  It was very cute, because she turned around the wisemen so they were facing the baby.

Castle Part Two or I should have posted this two weeks ago

Remember my husband's castle.  We one day after we visited it again, my son built a castle at our house.  Since I teach Joy School I had been saving "good stuff" in a box, ie old boxes and egg cartons, in preschool we built a tower taller than the girls as part of the lesson.  The good stuff was still in the house, and J had a blast building for a day or so with it. Here is the castle modeled after his dad's.