taking it one day at a time..

Blogging never used to be hard for me. I would sit down, spit something out, post a few pictures and leave it at that. Now it seems like I am weeks behind on things that I've wanted to report and I just don't know where the time has gone. My best guess is that I am trying to organize a house, take care of, feed AND homeschool kids (and keep them from killing each other.) Motherhood is not for wimps! Anyway, I have about 30 minutes before we head to the park, so I am going to give it my best shot.

First of all... WHAT are you going to do about the election? I am seriously stressed OUT about it! Is this what it feels like to be a grown up? I honestly do NOT know what to do. I realize that it's important to vote, but I am completely undecided. I cannot make up my mind. I was practically taking notes during the recent debates. I agree with a lot of what McCain has to say but frankly, I can't stand to hear him talk. It's as though he is already doing a SNL skit of himself.. He's just so old and so annoying. I don't think I can handle him as Prez. Don't you think he'll die in office? He can't possibly live FOUR more years! And, not to rude, but hasn't someone told him he needs to whiten his teeth? I mean, if he has 12 mansions and $$$ coming out his ears, then get some dentures, MY FRIEND. Why isn't his hot wife forcing Crest strips on those bananas? On a lighter note, what is going on with the economy? Is anyone else freaking out here? At night, I just lay in bed and try to breath in and out. I remind myself that we are doing the best we can. My kids are alive, my husband is a hard worker and will provide for us, but still! I am stressing about HOW we are actually going to live off our food storage. I don't know how to cook with that stuff!

Secondly... our car was indeed stolen. Someone took it for a hayride, ripped it apart, and left it on a busy street 45 minutes from our house. It's a sad story. It was an old car and we were no longer driving it.. so life goes on, but it's still unfortunate. It was towed to a junk yard and when Aaron went to check it out, the towing company wanted over $800 to reclaim it. Sorry, but without a stereo, speakers, tires, door panels... it's not worth that much. :) We handed over the title and said goodbye. We had an interested buyer, (it was a great car!) but with all our craziness, we just didn't make it a priority. Anyway, too bad. I will post pictures and an obituary later on. I am sure you can't wait. Just sit by your computer and keep refreshing my page..

Thirdly... I am exhausted. I really am tired. I love my life, but sometimes I just want to pause everyone and everything and take a breather. Where is that universal remote control when you need it?! I wake up with TONS of energy, ready to take on the day.. but by noon, I want to throw in the towel. Life is hard! Homeschooling is wonderful but sometimes I wonder if I am doing the right/best thing for my kids. They are so smart, but they are becoming such nerds! And they want to TALK to me all day long! I love talking.. but not about boy stuff. Am I crazy trying to do all of this? My husband thinks so, but the thought of them sitting in a desk all day learning the alphabet just stresses me out. I really don't know what to do. I feel like I am going in circles about the issue.. and all I want to do is call fellow homeschooling moms, but where is the time??

Fourthly... Well, it is probably still connected with my last point, but I am sick of feeling sick. I am honestly doing whatever I can and I just can't get over this hurdle! I am eating well and exercising faithfully, but I haven't felt good in what seems like forever. My clothes are tight and I am not willing to buy a bigger size. Maybe I should just get out my maternity clothes and pretend I am pregnant. Positive thinking right? I am really okay with the fact that there isn't a baby joining the family, but I wish I had an answer to WHY I always feel like crap. And why I look like crap. This is not to get sympathy (please don't give it.) but Aaron took a picture of me the other night and it was pathetically hilarious. I shouldn't have deleted it, because you would have enjoyed it too. I honestly looked like I was 60 years old-- wrinkles, bags under my eyes, double chin, fat rolls.. you name it. As soon as Aaron took it, he said, "Whoa, you are NOT going to like this." I will try to look just as ugly and take it again :) But it didn't surprise me, because that is exactly how I feel. This week I started a Candida detox. I am really hoping it helps, not with weight issues, but just my overall health. I am on day #3 of only drinking lemonade.. I am supposed to go ten days to cleanse my system, and it's actually okay so far. I am not jumping hurdles or anything, but I am feeling pretty good.

Fifthly.. My time is running out... I have a few pictures to upload. We went on a family hike on Monday and it was a good time. For those of you who live in Vegas and haven't taken your kids up the mountain at the Discovery Park, you need to. It's about a 30 minute hike, but at the top you can see all of Las Vegas Valley and there is a platform-ish area for you to hang out.. with picnic tables, etc. We had our FHE lesson up there and it was heavenly. While hiking up, I realized (for the millionth time) how great it is to be with the people I love and away from everything that doesn't matter to me.

I am loving this weather. I always miss the fall leaves and all the color that this time of year brings, but Vegas is definitely beautiful.


Three major things happened on the hike. 1. Zack fell down because he was running like a mad-man. Surprise, surprise. 2. Luke's pants fell down all the way to his ankles. hilarious. I don't have it on video, but I pulled my camera out seconds after it happened. He wasn't phased by it, but you can see his reaction click HERE. 3. We found a snake on the trail. It wasn't any old garden snake.. it was a long sucker!


Oh, and just as we were leaving, Zack peed his pants. Aaron was thrilled that we decided to drive his new car rather than the stinky old minivan.



Sixthly.. (and finally.) I am sorry about neglecting everyone's emails, phone calls and blogs. I can't keep up. There are too many people to love and there's just not enough time in the world. Which has me wishing again for that universal remote. Where art thou Christopher Walken?

No kidding.. this is exactly what I looked like the other night [with just a tad more freckles.] Husband, vouch for me. Let it be your one comment for the month..


Well, ladies and one gentleman. That's all we have time for, typos and all. God be with you till we meet again.

Madness with Mad Libs

The last couple of days, the kids have been learning about nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. This morning while out exercising (the sunrise was oh so beautiful!) I had a flashback of doing fun word games called MAD LIBS as a child. I don't know if the little books are still around, but there are lots of websites that have you plug in the words and make the story for you. We literally have been laughing for an hour. I don't think I will ever get tired of listening to them giggle.

Here is one of their MAD LIB stories of Little Blue Stinky Hood. Warning: These adjectives were suggested by little boys who love to talk about gross body parts and stinky things. I let them "be creative" but I am so glad I took Luke's suggestion for a noun (eyeball) over Ben's choice (buttcrack.) But the word FART is still included.. after it's suggested for every verb, I just had to include it. What IS IT with little boys? Anyway, consider yourself warned.

The Story of Little Blue Stinky Hood

Once upon a toothbrush, there lived a smelly girl called
"Little Blue Stinky Hood". Little Blue Stinky Hood just loved
to scream in the forest.

One day, her Cousin Cade called to her and said, "Little Blue
Stinky Hood, would you please SPIT this basket of diapers to
your fat grandmother in the woods?"

Little Blue Stinky Hood started off down the eyeball, but on
the way she met a big awesome porcupine. "Where are you going?"
the porcupine asked her. "Oh," she replied, "I am going to
spit these diapers to my grandmother, so that she will become
less fat!"

The porcupine quickly ran down the eyeball to grandma's
house, and when he got there he farted her up in one gulp! He
quickly put on her underwear and got in the car.

When Little Blue Stinky Hood walked in, she was excited to see
the porcupine in grandma's car. "Why grandma!" she said.
"What big freckles you have!" "The better to hug you with,
my dear!" he sang, and skipped out of the car.

Luckily, at that very moment a handsome penguin happened to
be jump roping along the eyeball and heard Little Blue Stinky
Hood laughing with the porcupine. He yelled the door down,
then smacked the porcupine with his own pig. The porcupine
begged for mercy and swam away. Then Little Blue Stinky Hood
and the penguin shared some diapers, and lived quietly ever after.

Dreams I hope never come true.

I have always had crazy dreams and I have always been able to remember them. My husband usually rolls his eyes in the morning as I rattle off what I dreamed about. What I really need is an interpreter. Anyone? These are some of the things I've dreamed about in the past week.. let's cross our fingers that they never come true.

• Opening Zack's mouth and realizing that his adult teeth were there, but they had all grown in randomly on the roof of his mouth. HOW are we going to get braces to fix THESE?

• Being contestants with my husband in The Amazing Race, but taking the wrong plane and ending up on the other side of the world.. we practically got divorced over it.
  

• Talking to a nun in an OBGYN waiting room about her pregnancy.

• Having to leave my family to sell pest control for the summer.. that sucked.
  

• Playing a universal game of girls vs. boys. Realizing that some evil woman tricked me into killing my kids (they are all boys and we wanted them wiped out.) I thought it was just a game until I saw that Zack and Luke were already dead. I secretly told Ben what was going on and we spent the next 2 minutes (but felt like a year in my dream) running from place to place to keep him alive. oh! the stress!

• Zack waking me up at 2 am to say he has to throw up. Oh wait, this really did happen. Luckily we made it to the toilet. When he was finished he said with much excitement, "I didn't keep it in my mouth! It went in the toilet!" Good. Now lay here on this bathroom rug while I go back to sleep on my bed.
  

• Our Honda getting stolen while parked inside our gated community. Dang it.. this really happened too! Longer story later. How we loved that car!

The TREAT SHEET and other weekend happenings..

It was a quiet, wonderful weekend. The LDS population got to watch church on TV!! (General Conference, which happens every 6 months.) It was inspiring and ended too quickly... Funny how watching it as a child, you couldn't believe how L.O.N.G it was-- and now I hate when it comes to an end-- even after 8+ hours of speakers.

The highlight of the weekend for my kids was NOT watching Conference, but rather a piece of paper they colored and named "the treat sheet."


As you can see, they drew pictures of every kind of candy, dessert, or TREAT they could think of. When one of them did something worthy of a reward, they got to pick out anything on the sheet and pretend to eat it. Amazing how three boys could spend hours carrying a piece of paper around the house, trying to find reasons to be rewarded.. Aaron and I would crack up every time one of the kids would exclaim, "Yum! That is SO good!" And of course, Zack had to switch up the game with saying that everything was YUCKY.. because it always got his brothers to giggle. As parents, we were happy that they not only kept themselves busy, but that they were able to eat so much JUNK without getting any cavities or going into a sugar-induced coma.

Highlights of the weekend for me:

• Meeting Kara's family. Kara is my cousin who is now a fellow Vegan-- (a person who lives in Vegas, not to be confused with someone who doesn't eat animal products.) I am so excited to have family in Vegas again!
• Going to dinner with my husband after the Priesthood session. A quiet meal without the kids is always a good thing.
• Not getting on the computer ONCE all weekend.
• Painting the dining room. I realize that I hired someone to paint it last week.. and it looked good, however, I wanted to add a little depth to the wall. I decided to sponge paint it to give it a bit of a fancier look. I didn't do any planning.. I figured I could paint over it, if I don't like it. But I think I do. Aaron is still deciding..

I didn't really take any before shots (when the wall was white--) but I took a break and grabbed my camera in the middle of the process.

and after--

I mixed three different colors in the sponge-- wanting to blend in the dark arch in the dining room. I painted for about 2 hours and probably used 1/2 gallon of paint total. A pretty simple job, really. (Well, only when your husband is occupying your kids with a long game of hide and seek!)

On the other side of the arch is our red couch. It was our first new furniture purchase for the house (or ever for that matter.) We both loved the painting too, even though it cost more than the couch. It's in our formal sitting room now, but we may move it up into the loft. We're just not sure, yet. For now, this is all that's in the room..



Well, it's a whole new week and I have to go take on the day! Zack woke up ready to save the world..


This is his reaction when I act surprised that HE was really underneath that mask. If only I could have gotten his response on video "It was me under that, mom! It was!"

How's that for a random weekend wrap-up?

the house is coming along quite nicely...

Paint on the walls makes such a difference and I am starting to feel the excitement about decorating/turning it into a home. But I don't like staying up until 2 am tossing and turning about what we're going to do and where we are going to put what. I need all the beauty sleep I can get!

We decided to hire a painter because Aaron thought it was my job to paint while he was at work. I think he forgot that I have three kids to take care of. We got a couple of quotes from professionals.. they were around $1500 to paint everything except the bedrooms. I figured that was a reasonable price for not having to do all the work. Then I got a painting referral from a friend (Hi Emily!) who blew our socks off with his painting fees. He quoted us $300 to paint our entire house. That's right people. We had to buy the paint, but he brought all his stuff, covered everything, painted for a couple of days and did an excellent job. I felt like I robbed him or something. We paid him a great tip and he almost wouldn't take it. If you live in Vegas and want to hire him.. let me know. I will give you his business card.

I need to take pictures of the rest of the house but my camera battery is dead. I do have pictures of the loft. It's empty, but we have big plans for it (as soon as we can afford what we want, that is.. it may be a couple of years :)

Before:

After:

I need something to put on this ledge going down the stairs.. something that will keep the kids from getting up there, but that won't break if it gets hit with a pillow (or another object) being thrown down the stairs.. I hate knick-knacks, but it definitely needs something. Help.


We still have yet to paint our bedroom, the guest bedroom or the kids toy room. I want to paint an entire wall in the toy room with the chalk board paint. Has anyone used it before? I am just waiting for my inspiration to come before I start.. Any fun, creative ideas?

oh-- and the green tint that I thought would stay in the carpet is COMPLETELY gone. I have asked friends to see if they can find it, and they can't. Is this a mini miracle or what? God is good to me.