One Word

Recently, I sent out an e-mail to some of my friends that asked them to write one word about me and then send it back to me. Here are the responses I received:
Dependable
Patient
Smart
Beautiful
Mother
Laidback
Patient
Well, that's me in a nutshell :-) I used to think that I was the most patient person...until I had children. They can get to the best of us.
I'm glad people find me dependable. I get very annoyed when others don't fulfill their responsibilities. I was voted the most responsible person in my 8th grade class. It wasn't the most exciting award to receive at the time, but now I appreciate being someone that people can rely on and trust.

What's under the bed?...
It's getting harder to reach the remaining items under the bed, due to lack of space and my expanding belly. But I managed to dig out these things...
A paperback book (Pandemic by Daniel Kalla)
A box filled with Primary sharing time and activity ideas...I'll go through it and keep what I want in our Family Home evening basket or bring to church to keep in the Primary closet.
A family scrapbook (year 2000)
Here are some blury pictures of our family in December 2000...

Got money?

It's payday! Don't you just love payday? I would like it more if more of our money was going to us instead of debt payments. Yes, Matt and I have done very well getting into debt...and now we are doing the best we can to get out of it. I've read many motivational talks about getting out of debt and talked to people about how they got out of debt, but reading this book...

has given me a new perspective of not only getting out of debt, but becoming wealthy as well. I believe the key to the wealth is lesson 3, keeping a portion of everything you earn. This wasn't the first time I had heard this advice, but it clicked this time. The goal is to build a nest egg. Put 10% of your income away somewhere to collect interest. The thought of accumulating money is far more motivating to me than seeing a debt go down, but of course we must do both. There is a line in the book that says, "I can't save that much..." and that's exactly what I am thinking. I wrote down our total income for a month, deducted 10% for tithing, 10% for our nest egg, and all the debts we owe...and that put us $73 in the hole. Do we get to eat? Put gas in the car? Buy other necessities? Not that I can see. So we need to start smaller at this point, consolidate some debt, and think of a way to earn more money...which is another lesson in the book. But the good news is that Matt and I both want to build a nest egg and get out of debt. This morning, Matt suggested that we start declaring our desire for wealth together as a family every morning...which is suggested in the book, only on an individual level. As we talked about this this morning, Zoe asked what wealthy means. When I said, "have a lot of money" she perked right up and was all for this new declaration and plan. I do hope that our children apply in their life what they learn from our experience of getting out of debt, from our teachings of not getting into debt and establishing good financial habits, and having them more involved in our bill paying and financial goals to give them experience with finances.
"Today I decide to be wealthy".

What's under the bed?...
A broken bracelet
A picture that I suspect Zoe colored
Happy Birthday wrapping paper
A box filled with older pictures and negatives...I would like to organize these pictures...someday.

Eleanor's pictures

I forgot to show you Eleanor's finger painting creations yesterday. Can you tell which two are butterflies? Pretty impressive, I think.


What's under the bed?...
A very dusty laptop carrying case with disks in it. We'll give the case away if Matt doesn't want it.

Bridgewalk

Eleanor discovered the "blue game" (finger paints) on Friday, so when Zach was napping, Eleanor began painting.

3 year olds turn finger painting into hand and arm painting!

To make a spot for Matt's boxes of letters on Friday, I cleaned his top shelf in the closet...which lead to digging a box out from under the bed that I have been avoiding...

My box filled with stationary and cards, odds and ends, and letters I have received from my grammie. I wanted to clean it out so I could put Matt's sewing materials in it that I found on the top shelf in the closet. The box turned out to be pretty easy to clean out, which was nice. So now not only is under the bed getting cleaner, but our top shelf in our bedroom is organized and looking nice, too :-)

On Saturday, my parents, the kids, and I went on a bridgewalk.


Our new bridge is nearing completion. I think it will be open for traffic in December and the observatory will be open in the spring.
Click on this paper to see some bridge facts.

Looking at the old bridge beside us

The cables

Looking at our town from the bridge

We watched a boat parade. The sailboat in the lead was built in 1931, the same year the old bridge was completed. There was a young man in the top bucket, which was neat to see.

And here are the kids with my parents. The kids did very well walking, being carried across the bridge. Zoe didn't like getting too close to the side of the bridge, so we walked in the middle most of the time. When we got to the opposite side of the bridge, Eleanor needed to go potty. We headed back to the other side of the bridge where we started. We stopped at a port-a-potty that was on the bridge and Eleanor and I went inside. Eleanor took one look inside the toilet and decided she was not going potty, so she waited until we got back to my parents' house.
I'm glad we got to participate in this historic event. It was neat to see the bridge up close after watching it being built for several years now.

Poor Zach or Poor Zoe?

My mom came over for dinner last night and then after the girls were in bed, my mom and I went out for dessert. Zach was not happy about this. He screamed as we were leaving, and when I got home I found out that he pretty much screamed the entire time I was gone until he fell asleep...

on top of Zoe in the top bunk.

What's under the bed?...

The Idaho Spud box and the Cherry box are filled with letters that Matt received on his mission...I'll find a place in the closet for them.
The Salomon box is empty...I'm sure we had a reason to keep it...Now it's going in the trash.

The wardrobe, haircut, and treasures

I finally dug out all of Zach's fall/winter clothes yesterday. I have a very generous neighbor who has two boys and a baby girl, so every season she gives me clothes that her youngest son has outgrown. It is like Christmas when a new season arrives and Zach has a new wardrobe to wear :-) When I was going through the clothes, Eleanor hollered something to me, and me being busy and not really paying attention just said, "uh huh". Then I hear Zoe in a panic say, "Mom, she's cutting Dora's hair!" That brought me to attention and I went into the living room to see what Eleanor was up to. There were little pieces of Dora hair all over the floor...luckily the hair is made out of yarn so it was easy to clean up. I must say that Eleanor did a fine job on the haircutting. I'm glad she didn't cut her own hair, though!

What's under the bed?...
The Navy guy's missing leg
A play fork
A green fleece blanket...this windy, rainy day could be the day to use it.
A plastic grocery bag with finger paints, pipe cleaners, and a recipe for Christmas Cookie Cutter Ornaments...I'm glad I found this recipe before the Christmas season and not after. The finger paints are still good, I may let Eleanor use them when Zach is taking his nap...we'll see what kind of a mood Eleanor and I are in then.

The lights just flickered so I better post this before we lose power.

Pies, Pies, and more Pies

Eleanor and I made our first pumpkin pie of the season yesterday.

I will make many more thanks to the Pillsbury Refrigerated Crust, which you can see here. Gone are my dreaded days of buying a crust box mix that you mix with water. This Pillsbury crust is very easy and quite yummy. I've never made a crust from scratch, so I can't compare it to that, but I'm quite content to take the crust out of the box, unroll it, plop it in the pie plate, fill, and bake. And I enjoyed Matt saying the pie was the best I've made, and that the pie was perfect :-) Works for me!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zoe was sitting in Zach's seat yesterday at the table when I told her Zach needed his seat so he could eat. In a very exasperated voice she said, "Oh! You always ruin my life!"...she hasn't seen nothing yet.

Zoe did make a very wise comment later on in the evening when we were talking about Christmas. Zoe and Emily were looking through a toy magazine that we got in the mail yesterday and they were picking out what they wanted. I reminded them that we are going to Utah for Christmas and they won't be getting as many gifts as they usually do. Zoe said they should pick out 3 things they wanted for Christmas, and then in her wise old age of 7 said, "And don't let us look at any more magazines because then we'll want more." I will gladly take her advice.

What's under the bed?...

A flashlight
A couple of locks
One of Matt's socks
A box with 2 new Family Home Evening manuals in it, which we can bring to church for someone else to use...which is probably the reason we got them in the first place.
A toy Hummer, which Zach is happily playing with right now.

Columbus Day tradition

The ducks got away from Matt yesterday, which left him very discouraged.

We played our "Columbus Goes West" game last night that we play every year during our Columbus Day Family Home Evening. I should have posted this yesterday, but the game is here if you are interested in playing it next year. I would advise printing out extra West cards, it makes the game go faster :-)

What's under the bed?...

A journal jar that has ideas on slips of paper of what to write in a journal...could be my next blog series after cleaning under the bed...
A 3 hole punch which will be much more useful to me in my scrapbook drawer.
Matt's Navy guy who is missing part of his leg...maybe the rest of his leg is somewhere else under the bed???
Floss

Zach is polluting the air, so I better go change him.

Peace and Quiet

Zach is an only child this morning. It's very quiet around here...except for the sound of the washer and dryer going. The girls stayed over at my parents' home last night. Everyone is home from school and work today for Columbus Day. Matt is out duck hunting right now. He was determined to shoot a duck today, since his last few attempts failed, so I'm not sure when he'll be back. He wanted me to go with him, but the overflowing laundry basket was calling my name.

I was doing dishes on Friday when I looked out the window and saw this...



It was the first time I had seen a deer so close to the house.

What's under the bed?...
A penny
A yo-yo top
Some disks for the computer
A Dell documentation packet
A ripped page from my old scriptures...I have a set of scriptures that have many ripped/lost pages from young children getting their hands on my scriptures, and I don't know what to do with them...the scriptures that is. It seems wrong to throw scriptures away, but they're not very useful, so I'm tempted to do it. Any suggestions?
An old explanation of benefits from my hospital stay when I had Zoe...patient balance was $0...I wish that were still the case. *sigh*

Is there a dog in there?

I am 24 weeks pregnant today. I had a check-up this morning and the baby is still doing well. I brought all the kids with me since Zoe and Emily don't have school today, and the girls did very well. Zach was cranky, but I think that's because he is starting to get some new teeth and he was tired. He whined when the nurse was asking me questions and she took my blood pressure, but then he fell asleep when we were waiting for the doctor. But then he woke up when I gave him to Zoe to hold while we listened to the baby's heartbeat. Just like the last time Eleanor heard the heartbeat she said, "That's a dog!" The doctor suggested naming the baby Spot or Rover. Matt and I are still trying to find a name that we both like, but I don't see Spot and Rover being considered.

Zoe and Emily must be missing school because they are playing school right now...or maybe Zoe is getting experience for her future teaching job.

I'm not getting anything out from under the bed today. I still need to find a place for Matt's ammo box, which I found out has geneology in it, so I need to find a place in the house for it instead of out in the shed.

The fun ends...until December

Zoe and I met with her teacher yesterday for a conference. Zoe is doing very well in school as usual. There are no concerns, she just needs to continue doing what's she's doing. I took some pictures of work that she has done that was displayed in the halls of the school...

Click on this poster to see the writing better.


We had our last dinner out with Matt's parents last night. We all went to Bugaboo Creek, including my mom. By the time our dinner came, Eleanor was ready to leave, but overall it was a very pleasant evening. It's always sad to have Matt's family leave when they come for a visit, but this time it's nice to know that we will see them again in a few months.


What's under the bed?...
A plastic ring that I don't think anyone is missing so I threw it away.
One of Matt's ammo boxes that has who knows what in it because I can't get into it...put it somewhere until Matt gets home. To me, it looks like something that could go in the shed...I'm sure Matt will disagree.

Emily is healthy again and is back to school today :-)

I'm back!

Our computer is working again :-) Matt brought home an old keyboard from his office, so now we are up and running here again. Yay! Our phone is working too after Matt got our internet running again.

Emily is home sick today. She came home from school yesterday with a headache. She slept all afternoon and evening and she didn't get up until this morning. She woke up around 4am saying her stomach hurt and we thought that she was going to throw up at some point, but she hasn't. She's feeling well enough to eat now and argue with Eleanor, but I want her to rest a day before going back to school. She said her head hurt all day yesterday, so I can just imagine what a miserable day she had. I'm glad she's feeling better now.

What's under the bed?...
Emily's dress shoe, which found its way under there recently, so I put it where it belongs.
Space...lots of space at the foot of the bed...very exciting! So I dug deeper and found a plastic grocery bag full of old bill stubs, receipts, checkbook registers, bill charts, and cute suzy zoo labels that I can't use because they have our old address on them. *frown*

Be patient with me

Thursday evening...picture Matt sitting at our computer, on the phone participating in a Bishop/Branch President conference call, reaching for a 32 ounce cup of water sitting on top of the computer armoir, and spilling it all over the keyboard. Yup, now our keyboard doesn't work and our phone doesn't work because our vonage router got wet too, I suspect. I am at my parents' home right now using their computer. When I got here, their computer was on and beeping and my mom informs me that she spilled water on her keyboard last night. NO MORE WATER BY THE COMPUTER! Luckily, my mom got her keyboard working and here I am. Until we get our keyboard working or until we get a new keyboard I'm not sure how often I'll get to blog. This has been the hardest thing about not having a computer because I was in such a good routine of blogging every morning after Zoe and Emily left for school.

Matt's parents are visiting from Utah, so we are enjoying their company. My parents watched our kids Friday night while Matt and I met his parents in Portland and we stayed overnight. We ate at our favorite restaurant ~ Norm's East End Grill :-) We drove back on Saturday and watched General Conference throughout the weekend. Today we took a drive and enjoyed the fall leaves. Matt's parents will be here until Thursday, so we have a few more days of fun before they leave.

What's under the bed?...
Friday morning I pulled a plastic file folder out. I haven't gone through it yet, but I think it has old receipts and bill stubs in it that I'll get rid of. I'll keep the folder for scrapbooking.

Yay for decluttering!

Zach is over his spoon obsession, but now he's liking everybody's shoes...
Here he is with Emily's flip flop and Eleanor's sneaker

Here he is with my flip flop
It's pretty funny to see him try to walk in Matt's shoes.

I got my haircut yesterday :-) I wanted to show you a picture, but the pictures I tried taking of myself this morning were not appealing, so you'll have to wait. My hair is chin length with some layers. I like it. I'm usually one to wait and wait and wait to get my hair cut, until I can't stand it anymore and I go to Walmart where you can just walk in and get it cut. Sometimes I like the cut, but the majority of the time I don't. So, I finally came up with a new plan, which I thought of in June after my last haircut. I'm going to get my hair cut at the start of every season. Whether it's just a trim or a new style, I'm going to have something done. I've been wanting to go to a hairdresser in the same town I live in and start going to her on a regular basis, and I finally went to her salon yesterday. This is quite an accomplishment for me, so I'm very proud of myself! I enjoyed every minute of my haircutting experience...which took an hour and 15 minutes, and would have been longer if I hadn't told her I needed to leave. My dad was so kind to watch Eleanor and Zach for me and I made him late for work!...sorry again dad. My dad goes to the same hairdresser, so he knows how much she likes to talk. I really like the cut she gave me and I will go back to her at the start of winter...this time prepared to be there awhile.

What's under the bed?...
Microsoft PS/2 installation instructions...toss it
Microsoft registration card...toss it
Microsoft paper cd holder with no cd...toss it
Tithing receipts from 1993-2002...I'd like to toss them, I'll check with Matt first
Movie receipt from November 23, 2001, the movie we saw is not stated...toss it
An envelope with our well test included...AWESOME...I was just at the doctor on Monday with Zach and the doctor asked me if I could provide a copy of our well test to see what the flouride level is...I knew we had a copy...somewhere...wow, I just saved myself A LOT of wasted time looking for this...this just made my day :-)

His and Hers

The disappearing sandals reappeared when I did laundry yesterday. They were in the laundry basket...now why didn't I think to look there???

What's under the bed?...
An old binkie, which I threw away.
A car radio, which I think came out of our Jeep Cherokee when we had a CD player installed. We don't need this radio, we just need to decide what to do with it.

Are you noticing that under our bed has been a storage place? Space is limited when you live in a two bedroom trailer with 6...soon to be 7 people! I've been thinking lately that I need my own shed. We can put household items in my shed and then Matt's shed can be for tools, camping gear, and other things he uses. I'd like to buy a shed that's already built so we just have to buy it and plop it somewhere. I think I'm going to look more into this.

More stuff

What's under the bed...
Another baseball trophy with no information on it...I'll toss it.
A fake pizza slice and fake banana...I'll put in the kids' shopping cart.
Green thread...I'll put in the sewing box.
A Mag-Lite flashlight...I think I'll put this in my car.
A sound card with manual and A Microsoft Getting Started manual...I'll check with Matt to see if he wants.

I have more laundry to do today since I was gone most of the day yesterday. Zach's appointment went well, although he is the worst patient of all my children. He does not like to be weighed, measured, talked to, or looked at! He got one shot and actually took that pretty well. Maybe because he sensed it was the end of his visit.

I took Zach and Eleanor shopping for sneakers yesterday. Eleanor outgrew all her shoes over the summer, so she has been wearing Emily's flip-flops, and Zach has been wearing his sandals which have mysteriously disappeared. It was the perfect day to shop for some fall footwear since I had the car, I had some money, and Zoe and Emily were at school :-)

You're going to school!

I'm feeling better, but I'm still not 100%. All the kids have colds now. I stayed home from church yesterday with the kids and we played church, sort of. We decided the living room and kitchen would be the quiet area where we would have BYU-TV playing on the computer, and if they wanted to play then they could go in their room. They started off so well...

but by early afternoon there was no quiet anywhere and I finally turned off the computer because I was tired of reminding the kids to be quiet and not being able to hear the computer.
I figured since Zoe and Emily's energy level hasn't seemed to be affected by their colds, they could go to school today.

What's under the bed...

I'm thinking this emergency lighting kit would be more effective if it was opened and put somewhere easily accessible.

It's laundry day and Zach has his 18 month check-up this morning, so I better get moving. Happy Monday!

Kids DO share some things...

Here I sit with a sore throat and no energy...I'm back, you find energy when you need to. Eleanor just peed on the kitchen floor and she had a bloody mouth. I think she bumped her mouth on the table and she cut her gum. When I asked her why she was bleeding she replied, "I'm not bleeding!". She's fine now, washed up and dressed...Need to go wipe Zach's nose...It may take me hours at this rate to write this short entry!

What's under the bed...
My farm league Champion trophy from 1986. I learned in a decluttering class once that it's a good idea to take a picture of things that you want to remember, but you don't want to take care of anymore. I think this trophy is one of those things. I thought of putting it on a shelf (what little shelf space we have), but then the thought of having to dust it was unappealing. Looking at a picture of it would be just as meaningful to me.
But what do I do with the trophy???

Tis the season

Emily and Zach have the first colds of the season. Emily has had a sore throat the past few days and her nose was stuffy this morning. Zach came down with a runny nose yesterday and he was sneezing all day. It's time to stock up on tissues.

Zoe's class put on a short play yesterday for their families. It lasted about 2 minutes I think. Here's a picture of Zoe playing the part of a flower...



What's under the bed...

When I first took this box out I thought it was ammunition, but I think they are pen tips.
And then I pulled out these...

Two more cigar boxes. One has Matt's old passport in it. So now there sit three cigar boxes at our computer that I need to find a place for. I think Matt should be quite pleased that I'm finding all these treasures for him.

It's time for me to go wipe Zach's nose...

So nice to hear

I have a new favorite sound. The sound of a newly potty trained 3 year old in underwear saying, "I need to go potty!"...especially at 5:30am when she wore underwear to bed for the first time :-)

What's under the bed...
A size 1 diaper, which I will put away in the baby box.
A piece of paper that has the Chinese dragon on it, which is Matt's year...I'll put in the cigar box which is still sitting here by the computer. When I asked Matt what he wanted to do with the cigar box he said, "Put it under the bed." Um, that kind of defeats the purpose of cleaning under the bed doesn't it? It looks like he hasn't caught the decluttering under the bed bug yet, but I'll press forward anyway.
Some Dell computer books and disks which I don't think we need anymore, but I will double check with Matt before simplifying them. If we keep them, I'll put them in our computer armoir where they belong.