Sweet

We received today what I thought was a bill that we have made payments on since 2006 when Zach broke his leg, not consistently, but we pay $20 here, $30 there and just last month we received a bill from them encouraging us to keep making payments since it had been several months since our last payment. Well, our balance is now crossed out on this bill and there is a sweet $0 in the amount due box and a note that reads: "Thank you for your payments. However, Dr. _______ has chosen to write-off the remaining balance where the private practice closed. Happy New Year! ________. I love these blessings! Matt wondered if we put this doctor out of business...probably too many patients like us who couldn't afford their bill and were barely making payments...who knows, but I'm happy to not have this debt anymore. And I'm happy that in the last month we have paid off 5 medical debts. :-)

Emily brought home a traveling pet from school today..."Love-a-lot"

This is her 3rd pet that she has brought home to spend a night and then bring back to school the next day. Her first pet was Curious George. There were a few Curious George books that she brought home as well that she could read to her pet. And there was a journal that she wrote about herself in. The second pet came before Christmas and was called "Holiday Holly". Emily wrote a little bit about Christmas in the journal that came home with this pet. This is what Emily wrote in "Love-a-lot's" journal about what she loves..."I love my Family. I love love-a-lot. I love my sistrs. I love my staft aninmals. I love Mis O'Roak."

Kate was on a roll taking steps this evening. She kept taking 4-5 steps over and over again from me to the ottoman. It was fun to watch her, she loves the attention she gets when she walks!

And the comments begin

I was asked by a woman on Sunday if I was sure I wasn't having twins. I know the dress I wore made me look big, but I didn't think it made me look THAT big! Bless the heart of my dental hygienist who told me today that I look great and I seem small for how far along I am. It all depends on the clothes you wear I think.

Matt met Tagg Romney last Friday. One of Tagg's stops in Maine was at the Governor's restaurant in Bangor. Tagg shook hands and talked with everyone there to see him and he talked to the gathering as a whole before leaving.


I finally made it to Emily & Zoe's basketball practices on Saturday. Emily's dribbling has improved a lot! Zoe is looking very confident with a basketball and she remembers what she has been taught in previous years and uses those skills.

I watched President Hinckley's funeral Saturday afternoon at home on our computer with Kate. Matt was at our local caucus and Zoe, Emily, Eleanor, and Zach were still with my parents. It was such a nice funeral. I enjoyed all the funny stories and memories about him, but it was sad to see President Hinckley's empty chair and to say goodbye to him.

My mom and I went shopping last Saturday afternoon after the funeral with Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor. We went to eat at the Weathervane before heading over to Walmart for Valentines, diapers, and a new dress for Kate's 1 year picture, which I'm hoping to schedule for this Saturday. The girls brought their own money and had fun shopping for something to buy. Eleanor had the least amount of money and wanted the most expensive things! She ended up with a coloring book (which my mom bought) and a container of mini m&ms.

I love it when my children have sweet moments with each other. This morning Kate was hanging out in her carseat while I was getting ready for the day when Eleanor went up to her, gave her a big kiss, and said "I love you!". Kate made a happy noise and Eleanor announced happily "Kate said she loves me more!" Sweet.
Whenever Kate looks like she is going to stand up on her own or take a step, her siblings are right there cheering her on. Kate took 1 step today for my dad and then she took 3 tiny steps this evening that we all witnessed!
And whenever Zach is near his potty chair, his siblings are right there encouraging him to use the potty...which usually he doesn't, but it's sweet to hear the kids get excited for him and to cheer him on.

Lovin' it!

It's so quiet. I am watching Kate play with the doll house...all alone with no one to steal the toys away from her and no one to knock her over. She is very content! Zoe, Emily, Eleanor, and Zach just arrived at my parents' home for a sleepover. Matt is waiting for our Chinese food order to be filled and then he will be home. "The Drew Carey Show" DVD awaits us for later. Life is good.

Emily had pajama day at school this afternoon. Her class earned their 20 points for good behavior, working together, hard work, etc. and they chose a pajama party for their reward. So after lunch and recess, they changed into their pajamas, snuggled with a favorite stuffed animal, and enjoyed a special snack. Emily was proud that she finished her work first and was able to get her pajamas on first. :-)

My neighbor and friend, Jenn let me borrow her potty chair for Zach. He watched the potty video this afternoon that we borrowed from her as well several months ago, which he has been watching on and off, and then he decided he wanted to sit on the potty. He got undressed, sat down, stood up, and was ready to put his diaper back on. Then this evening when I told him he needed a diaper change, he went into the bathroom and said he wanted to sit on the potty. This is good. He has been checking it over and sitting on it with the lid down. When Jenn brought the potty over Zach was looking at it like I'm not using that so you can take it back with you, so he has already warmed up to it in the few hours it has been here.

Enjoy your weekend!

Diaper issues

After doing 2 loads of laundry this morning, I noticed that the back of Zach's pants were all wet. He has been drinking a lot of milk the last few days and I guess his cheap diaper couldn't handle the amount of pee produced from all that milk. Later on I noticed poop oozing out the top of Kate's pants. I was so glad I noticed it before she rubbed up against something causing a bigger mess to clean up! So much for being caught up on laundry.

I went visiting teaching this evening with my friend, Esther. Usually the lady we visit has her 3 grandkids (boys) ages 1,2,& 3 at her house so it is quite a noisy, eventful visit. But this evening we were able to visit this lady and her husband in a quiet, cozy home and it was very nice.

"And a child shall lead them"

Before...

After...

No wonder I am exhausted this evening!

Emily came home with this award today...

Emily said she was the first to get this award in her class. I wonder if her teacher made up the award with Emily in mind because her teacher has mentioned to me several times how considerate Emily is of her classmates and she is always encouraging them and helping them. Today Emily said she got done her math work, so she helped one of her good friends. "Dear Sweet Emily" (Matt's nickname for Emily) is ringing true here!

My Mom brought over dinner this evening from our local pizza place. Wednesday is my long day at home since Matt has church meetings in the evening. It's always nice to have something to look forward to on these days. I just wish the kids weren't so wound up when my Mom leaves and they are supposed to be getting ready for bed. I am not at my best on these evenings. And I wasn't in a good mood before reading scriptures (although Eleanor made me smile when I told her to put her butt in her chair and she said, "but my butt wants to keep moving!"), but Zoe invited the spirit when she suggested we sing "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" before we read. She had the words in front of her so I told her to go ahead and sing, which she did and Emily sang what she knew with her. It brought tears to my eyes and warmed my heart. I am thankful to have a daughter who is such a great example when it comes to living the gospel.

Is it nap time yet?

Eleanor woke up this morning and said, "I can't breathe, my nose is full!" She was quite stuffed up.

I started my "Spring cleaning" yesterday. I'm in the mood to deep clean my house and I figured I better do it before I lose that desire and the energy to do it. I'm starting in the kitchen and the first thing to be done is washing the walls. I successfully cleaned off crayon and pencil marks on one section of the wall yesterday and it looks so nice...although no one noticed. The section of wall I intend to clean today will be noticed I think because it is quite dirty.

I've thought about leaving Eleanor's princess on the wall, but I don't want to encourage future drawings on the wall, so I'm going to wash it off.

Zach wants to wear his underwear today! Okay that lasted about 15 minutes. He sat on the toilet...on the very edge of the toilet so the pee would have gone all over the floor, but that was progress, he wore his underwear for 15 minutes until it was time to sit on the potty again, which he barely sat on the potty, and then decided he wanted to wear his diaper. So the diaper is back on and now I don't have to change wet underwear all day or clean the bathroom floor, which I was willing to do. I do feel like Zach is making progress just wanting to wear his underwear and he doesn't seem to be as afraid of the toilet, so I am happy about that.

It has been an interesting morning and it's only 9:00. I got a phone call from the school nurse saying that Emily is complaining of a headache. It has been a couple of weeks since her last headache. Emily got some Tylenol and hopefully she'll feel better and be able to finish out her day at school.
A member of our church called to see if the youth temple trip was still happening on Saturday since President Hinckley's funeral is now scheduled for Saturday. I didn't know the answer, but awhile later the Boston temple called to let me know that we need to reschedule because the temple is closing at noon and that is when the youth were scheduled to be there. So Matt if you're reading this before I talk with you, you get to be home Saturday. :-)

Eleanor has been watching our new Liken the Scriptures videos this morning. The company has made new DVD covers for their videos, so some of their DVDs with the old cover were on sale for half price. I got the story of "Esther and the King" and "Alma & King Noah's court". We already had "The First Christmas". These are fun scripture stories told in musical form to watch, and the kids are excited to have these movies to watch on Sunday, and other days as well.

Is homeschooling in our future?

I bought Kate a blue sippy cup that is exactly like Zach's and she loves it! It has caused confusion as to whose cup is whose between her and Zach, but she drinks more milk with her new cup.

We set up passwords on all of our computer accounts when we bought this computer, so the kids can only get on the computer when we let them, and Zoe finally cracked the code for all of the accounts except mine and Matt's. So I changed the codes yesterday. It was nice for awhile that she could get on the computer by herself and help her siblings when they wanted to get on the computer when I was busy, but lately she has been getting on the computer too much and getting on at times when I tell her not to. I hope she never figures out my password or Matt's because all of the saved passwords on the internet get erased when the account password gets changed and I don't want that to happen.

I was talking with the Arbonne consultant Saturday about this and that and she asked me if I homeschool my kids. I said no, but told her that if any of my children wanted to be homeschooled that I would be willing to do it. Zoe perked up and said, "Really! Can I be homeschooled?!" I told her that she had to finish out this year at school, but if she wanted to homeschool next year that she could. She brought it up again yesterday morning and I asked her why she wants to be homeschooled. Her reasons were...
she hates getting up early
she's always tired when she gets to school
she usually has a headache because she's tired
she spends all of her afternoon doing homework while the younger kids play
she would like more free time

Fair enough. I was filling out Eleanor's Kindergarten sign-up paper when Zoe and I were talking about homeschooling, so I asked Eleanor if she would still go to school if Zoe had school at home and Eleanor stated a firm, "YES!". I think Eleanor should go to Kindergarten because I think she's going to love it. I haven't brought up the subject with Emily yet and I'll probably wait because I have a feeling Zoe is going to decide to go to school next year when the real decision needs to be made. Zoe thinks being home is boring...and she wants to be here all day?...I'm having a hard time believing it.

Our prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley passed away Sunday evening at the age of 97. I'm going to miss his sense of humor and caring way. He has become my favorite prophet and it's going to be weird not having him here leading the church anymore.

A morning out with Zach

Most of my morning was going to be spent watching Emily & Zoe at their basketball practices, but a note on the door of the school told us that their practices were cancelled for the day because the coach is sick...a phone call about that would have been nice, but anyway. I was looking forward to watching them since I haven't been to a practice yet and I won't be able to go next Saturday because Matt will be gone again. We came back home and then I headed out with Zach to go to Walmart to get Zach's haircut and to buy him some underwear. I wanted to squeeze this trip to Walmart in today, but I didn't think I was going to be able to, so the cancelled practices gave us the morning to spend some one on one time together, which was nice. Here is Zach before his haircut...


Zach did really well while the stylist used the clippers, but when she turned them off and tried to blow dry the hair off him, he was done. He started to cry and didn't stop until she was completely done cutting the top of his hair and blending in the top with the sides and back. My Mom met us at Walmart and she said that she could hear Zach crying when she walked in. He became a happy boy again when he was done and he happily said goodbye to the sylist and the few other people there. Now that the torture is over, he can enjoy his new look and the sticker he got.

Emily doesn't think that Zach looks like himself anymore. She says it looks like we adopted a new boy to live with us. I personally like Zach's short hair and think he looks handsome.

Here he is taking a walk with his underwear. Doesn't he look so big and proud?

Well, by the end of the shopping trip he was ready to ditch his underwear and would have been happy to never see them again. He traded his underwear for a blue bath pouff and was quite unhappy when I insisted on putting the underwear in the cart, too. I don't think the "If you want to wear your underwear then you need to pee in the potty or else you'll have to wear your diaper" is going to work with Zach.

I hosted an Arbonne party at my Mom's house this afternoon. Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor came with me. My friends Aimee, Mere, Patti, Belle, and my Mom were there. We tried out lots of products, tried a facial (I keep touching the skin on my face because it is so soft!), and had lots of fun...Zoe, Emily, & Eleanor thought it was boring.

I've been spending time this evening getting ready for the Sabbath day tomorrow. It is a new family goal to have everything that can be done on Saturday done, so we don't have to take the time to do it on Sunday morning. We often find ourselves on Sunday morning picking out outfits, ironing, trying to find shoes, and getting the diaper bag ready and we wonder why we can't get out the door at 7:30am when we need to. Since we only have one car, we have all been going in together with Matt who has meetings before church starts. Sunday mornings are much more relaxing and invite the spirit when we do take the time on Saturday to prepare for Sunday, but sometimes I get tired of spending my Saturday evenings ironing and getting things ready, so I rebel...and then our Sunday mornings are hectic and anything BUT relaxing and preparing us for our Sunday meetings. I have already saved us time in the morning by hunting down Zach's shoe this evening, and I was much calmer about it then I would have been in the morning.

Zach killed his first mouse

The computer mouse that is. Banging it against the keyboard shelf because your frustrated with the game you're playing will cause a malfunction. And then you can be mad that you can't get the mouse to go where you want it to! Matt saved our evening by bringing home a new mouse. Matt & I were able to watch the last 2 "Chuck" episodes of the season after the kids went to bed. It is one thing to not have the internet working, but to not be able to use the computer at all limits our activities. It was nice to see all the kids playing together at one point before Matt got home instead of having one of the kids on the computer with some of the other kids watching and other kids doing something else. They were actually ALL playing together and they were HAPPY. It was a sight to see.

This morning Zach was trying to tell me what he wanted, but I couldn't understand the word he was saying (lala). It sounded familiar, but I just could not figure it out. I wanted him to show me what he wanted, but he just came whining lala, lala. I asked Eleanor if she knew what Zach was saying and she had a light bulb moment and shouted, "Lula!". I didn't think that was it, but she ran into the bedroom searching for a sign of Lula and came back with the paper doll game and pointed to one of the girls on the front and said, "Lula!". That wasn't it, but she had fun going to the kitchen table and playing the game. I asked Zach if he was saying Dora, but I didn't think it was that either because he can say Dora and he was saying lala. I ended up putting a Dora movie in for him and that distracted him for a little while. Then he came into the kitchen, pointed to the umbrella, and said lala! Oh, umbrella...no you can't play with the umbrella inside the house, which is why the umbrella is in the kitchen from a previous confiscation. Mystery solved.

Eleanor's line of the day: "I'm so excited...because it's almost Christmas still!"

My gray hair became a topic around the dinner table last night. Emily was saying that when people are old enough to have a full head of gray hair then they are ready to die. The kids talked about Matt's graying hair and he was quick to point out that I am younger than him and I have more gray hair...which may or may not be true. Emily looked at my hair and said, " It's shiny"...which is her polite way of saying I'm going gray. And it is sadly true. I looked at myself in the mirror today and noticed that I look old, definitely older than I should at this age I think. So, any ideas on getting rid of gray hair without going to the salon and spending lots of money every few months for highlights or dying my hair? Are there any good home products out there? I don't want my hair to be shiny anymore...not a gray shine anyway.

Odds & Ends

Kate has a thing for Zach's sippy cup. Whenever I give her milk in her own cup she tolerates it, but when she sees Zach's cup unattended, she rushes over to it and excitedly drinks from it. It's quite funny...although Zach doesn't find any humor in it. He quickly snatches his cup away whenever he sees Kate drinking from it. And then Kate gets mad. It will be interesting to see how well the two of them get along as they get older because they are not off to a good start. Most of the time Zach is doing what he can to make Kate's life miserable and Kate in return "talks back" and swats at him. Never a dull moment OR a peaceful moment with the two of them around in the same room!

Kate is done nursing. She has lost interest, and she doesn't like formula, so we are giving her milk. I think she's going to take after Zoe and be a water drinker because she'll drink a little bit of milk, but she mostly drinks water.

While reading our local paper awhile ago, this headline caught my attention..."Kindergarten sign-up". I'm anxious for Eleanor to start Kindergarten and she is anxious too, but it's weird to think that she is old enough to go next year! She seems younger and less ready than Zoe and Emily were at this age. Less ready in the fact that she has no interest in learning her letters and being able to write letters, which were strengths for both Zoe and Emily. But Eleanor will have her own strengths, right? I think Zach knows his letters better than Eleanor, so I guess that will be his strength too. Eleanor is going to be the social butterfly...I hope she will be able to sit still and be quiet long enough to learn something. I'm sure the parent/teacher conferences about her will be interesting! I'll have 3 in school and 3 at home. Weird.

I'm starting to feel the new baby moving around more and more. I'm going to miss this part of pregnancy. I love to feel the baby moving around in the womb!

And last, but not least I need to thank PJ here for my newest award (which I have been trying to put on my sidebar, but can't seem to remember how to make it fit like the others).

Xandra from Heart of Service has created this fun award. Here is what she says: "It's for blogs that I must read every day without fail . . . They make you laugh, cry, think and feel connected every time you read a post..."

I would like to pass the award on to:
4 for Me
Call Me Grandma Dawn
Living la vida loca
Mama's So Called Life
Sugar and Spice...Everything Nice?
Under Construction
The Wilson Family

These are all blogs that I keep updated on and feel like a slacker and so out of touch when I don't! (and PJ is on this list too, but since she already received the award and gave it to me, I will give her an honorable mention.) Keep up with the blogging my friends and continue to make me laugh, cry, think, and feel...I need it!

A day away

I thought about writing Monday night, but I was tired and figured I would do it in the morning. But then our internet wasn't working yesterday, so I wasn't able to do anything on the computer, and the kids were bummed that they couldn't play on the computer either. I think not paying our bill finally caught up to us, so after paying the company what we owed them yesterday, it is now working again. :-)

Matt and I had a fun getaway on Monday. We made a 2 1/2 hour drive to Portland to eat at our favorite restaurant, Norm's East End Grill. They have the BEST barbeque sauce and food there! It was worth the drive and we enjoyed a delicious, peaceful lunch together. After stuffing ourselves to the max, we headed back to Augusta to check out the Christmas Tree Shops store since I have never been to one and I have heard a lot about the one in Portland. I'm glad I checked it out, but I can't see myself making a special trip to Augusta or Portland (where the only 2 stores in Maine are located) to shop there. While we were there Matt kept saying, "I don't get it...where are the Christmas trees?" because that is the way Matt is. We left the store with me thinking that I'm just not a bargain shopper. I do like finding what I need at a discounted price, but I don't seem to get into going to a store with nothing in mind to buy and looking around. Matt wanted to look around Barnes and Noble, so we went there. It didn't take me long to spot Janet Evanovich's new Stephanie Plum novel, "Plum Lucky". It's an in between the numbers book, which are not as good as the number books, but I still enjoy them. I debated buying it since it was something I would read in a few hours and then give away, but then Matt pointed out that I was going to be spending more money on a movie after we left the store that would last an hour, so I bought the book. And I am enjoying it.
We went to see "National Treasure:Book of Secrets" before heading home. Sequels are never as good as the first movie, but it was still fun to watch.
My Mom was worn out by the time we arrived back to her house to pick up the kids. I'm sure she was happy to go back to work the next day and rest. We appreciated my Mom and Dad having the kids over for the entire day so Matt and I could spend the day together. It was fun! Matt thinks we should make Martin Luther King, Jr. day our day to get away every year (after next year since we'll have a 6 month old the next time it rolls around) and I think that sounds like a plan. What do you think Mom?

Looking forward

Yesterday felt like a Monday. Matt was gone to another Scout training. Zoe and Emily were gone all day with my Dad. He took them to their basketball practices and then he took them to the Girls J.V. and Varsity high school basketball games. I did laundry all day, since Matt and I are going on a road trip tomorrow to Portland while my Mom watches the kids. I am so excited!

I talked with Matt's Dad yesterday and I was happy to hear that he had a dream that we had a baby boy. When I found out I was pregnant, I too had a dream that we had a boy. I've always had the feeling that our last baby would be a boy. We'll find out for sure in a few weeks. :-)

Potty training Zach was on my mind yesterday, so I googled "potty training boys". I have successfully potty trained 3 girls, but I am clueless when it comes to potty training boys. I noticed the title "Potty training in 3 days" and remembered PJ talking about potty training her youngest with a 3 day program. I checked out the site and decided that for $7.00 it was worth reading and trying. I have read the introduction and 1st chapter, which neither have told me what exactly I am getting myself into, but I can tell you that I already have a better attitude about potty training and I am actually excited to do it! I'll be taking on an almost 3 year old who has absolutely no interest in going on the potty and when I finish the book, I'm going to be ready!

Kate's new thing is to get up on the bottom bunk.

She whines when she's ready to get down. I'm trying to teach her to turn her body around and scoot off the bed feet first, but she hasn't caught on yet.

Memory Lane

I forgot to mention how much fun I am having reading through my 2006 blog posts as I organize. It's weird that Emily was Eleanor's age and Zach was Kate's age. The kids really do grow up even though at times it feels like everything is always the same. Remember Eleanor decorating Zach's head with marker, Zach's broken leg, head lice, finding out I was pregnant with Kate, Our family camp out in the backyard, Emily starting Kindergarten, our interesting Christmas trip to Utah?! I love traveling down memory lane.

Here are some things that I will have fun remembering a few years from now. While enjoying a peaceful lunch today, Kate decided to sneak into our food closet, find a container of pepper, and dump it all over the floor. If she hadn't crawled into my view, she could have stayed there for a long time and I wouldn't have noticed, but she crawled into plain view with the pepper and continued to sprinkle pepper onto the floor. She thought it was great fun! At first I only saw the mess that she was currently making, but then I discovered that she had taken advantage of me not paying attention to her for awhile.

Silly of me to think that a quiet Kate was a good thing.

Eleanor wanted me to put a dress on her Barbie this afternoon. The dress is one where the Barbie hands get caught in the sleeves and it takes FOREVER to get the Barbie dressed. The sleeves of the dress were ripped from too many Barbie fingers getting caught in the thin material and I wasn't in the mood to wrestle with the Barbie and dress, so I decided to cut the sleeves off. Normally I would be all for a long sleeved modest dress, but in a moment of weakness, the sleeveless dress appealed to me...and frankly still does. After cutting the sleeves and putting the dress on the Barbie (which was very quick and so much easier!), Eleanor looked at the Barbie curiously and asked, "What about the sleeves?"
Me: "I cut them off."
Eleanor: "Why?"
Me: "Because they were all ripped."
Eleanor: "Oh Mom...it looks beautiful!"
Yes, I am a bad influence, and the next time she wants me to put that dress on a Barbie, I will gladly do it.

It was snowing when we woke up this morning, but it wasn't supposed to snow all day, so the kids had school. Emily was happy to go to school because her class was having a sub in the morning and then if they were good for the sub, they were going to a magic show at the High School in the afternoon with their teacher. Emily was very excited! She brought home some homemade silly putty and was happy about her day. Zoe however kept checking the computer in the morning to see if our school had cancelled for the day, but was disappointed each time. She couldn't understand why she was having school when there was a blizzard outside!

Matt and I went out to dinner this evening to our local Chinese restaurant! My Mom watched the kids (and even got them ready for bed and in bed, except for Zoe, before we got home!!). Everyone was happy to have our date night back. :-)

Blog binder

When I started my blog in February of 2006, my Mom started printing out my posts so I could have a printed copy of my blog to put in a binder. She printed out all of 2006 and a few months of 2007. I am just now getting around to going through these papers and getting them ready to put in a binder. This is no easy task for me because my brain wants the posts to appear in chronological order starting from the front of the book, but the way the posts are printed out, my first post will start at the back of the book. At times I will get confused and it will take me a minute to adjust to the fact that March 24th will come before March 23rd. Plus there are duplicate pages so I'm weeding out the papers I don't need. Some of the copies do go in the correct chronological order, so I am adjusting them to the backwards order, which involves cutting and taping.
I am thankful for this printed copy of my blog that I have, thank you Mom! You saved me a lot of paper and ink (I'm still debating about the time :-). I will complete this 2006 binder of my blog and then I will print out my 2007 posts to put in our 2007 family scrapbook. And hopefully I will be able to keep up with the printing of 2008 as the year goes on...I'm only 17 days behind.

Catch up

Let's start with yesterday since I couldn't motivate myself to write last night...and there was also the fact that Matt was glued to the computer getting the Michigan Primary updates hoping Romney would win...and he did. :-)
Zoe stayed home from school yesterday. She went to bed the night before with a sore throat and she woke up with a headache and sore throat. She laid around most of the morning, but was feeling better by the afternoon. I played Battleship and Checkers with her that you hook up to the TV. I have found it relaxing and fun to sit down to play these games when I need a break. Matt came home the evening before and found me playing Battleship by myself and he wondered if he should be concerned. I did play the games on and off yesterday, but I also cleaned the bathroom and cleared off our stove that was piling up with papers and magazines, so at least it looked like I had been productive all day.

Matt being the sweet man he is...or maybe he just wanted me out of his hair so he could keep up with the Michigan Primary, called me yesterday before coming home from work and asked me if I'd like to get out of the house for the evening. Of course that sounded wonderful and I ended up going over to my parents' home for dinner and my Mom and I played Phase 10. It was nice to get out of the house. We are down to one car again, which we have been for several months now, so my trips outside the house are limited.

Matt and I have been watching "Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe" the last couple of evenings. We got the disc from Netflix. We used to watch the show when we had cable. Mike is very entertaining, but some of the jobs he ventures into are disgusting! I watched a few episodes with Zoe this evening that I knew weren't gross and they were the ones I slept through last night. She didn't comment on whether she liked the show or not, but I know she enjoyed being able to watch it with me.

Eleanor had a rude awakening this morning. Zoe's laptop Barbie computer fell from the top bunk and hit Eleanor in the cheek. That had to have hurt! Matt put ice on her cheek even though Eleanor fought him, so she only has a minor bruise. I'm glad she wasn't hurt more seriously!

Zoe woke up with a minor stomach ache this morning, but since she missed yesterday and Matt and I weren't convinced she was sick enough to stay home, she went to school. I asked her if something was going on at school that was making her want to stay home, but she said no. I wonder if she has a touch of what Emily went through last week because Zoe came home with a headache today and yesterday she woke up with a headache. Emily's headaches have gone away, so maybe it IS part of a cold...like Matt said. One of these days I might learn not to doubt him, but then that would mean I am always wrong and that doesn't seem fair.

I made powdered milk today. Matt thinks macaroni and cheese smells like diarrhea, well I think powdered milk smells like a wet diaper! Eleanor, Zach, and Emily insisted on trying it, but they weren't fond of it either. I think that was the last time I am ever making that stuff. Too funny...Matt just walked through the door and sniffed the air asking, "Is that burnt popcorn or is it macaroni and cheese or something." It's burnt popcorn...I got distracted earlier and forgot it was in the microwave.

A winter of snow

We have survived another snow day. And it did start snowing and it is still snowing. And according to Matt it's supposed to snow into tomorrow, so we'll be checking again in the morning to see if there is school. If we get many more snow storms, I may get my wish of Zoe and Emily still being in school when the baby is born! The kids went outside to play this afternoon, but it was pretty cold out, so they didn't stay out for too long. Plus when Zoe and Emily were playing "bury me in the snow", Eleanor dropped snow on their faces...which I didn't see, but they said she did which is why Emily shoved a bunch of snow in Eleanor's face and made her cry (which I did see). This all happened after an episode inside of Emily pushing Eleanor out of the chair Eleanor was sitting in and then Emily got mad at Eleanor because Eleanor wanted her chair back. Emily called Eleanor a brat and Eleanor came back with, "well...you're not my sister!" Emily was not going to let Eleanor get rid of her so easy and firmly declared that she was too her sister and she would be her sister FOREVER! Emily thinks Eleanor is annoying most of the time, but she was not going to let Eleanor disown her.

Every so often Zach will find a glue stick and use it on his lips like chapstick, which he did today. I wonder how he likes the feel of glue on his lips. I guess it doesn't bother him since he happily announced to me that he had put it on his lips.

Emily picked out a lesson tonight that I had done with the young men and young women several years ago. It's called Sundaes & Sundays. You're supposed to have sundaes first and along with the yummy toppings like chocolate syrup, whipped cream, sprinkles, etc...you also put out things that don't go on a sundae like ketchup, pickles, and cheese. When I did this with the youth, one of the young men actually did put one of the non-sundae items on his sundae not realizing it was whatever it was (I can't remember what he put on it). The youth laughed about that the entire evening, and I think he ate the Sundae with whatever it was that didn't belong on it. Anyway, the point of the lesson is to talk about activities that belong on Sunday and activities that don't and you relate that to the fact that some things are good on sundaes and some things are not. Well, my kids weren't willing to have their sundaes until after the lesson, scripture, and game because they are creatures of habit, so we just used the Sunday activities part of the lesson. Maybe when they're a little older, I will do this lesson with them again and we'll include the sundaes with our lesson.

It's a snow day...I'm still waiting for the snow to start.

Sometimes I hate thinking of a title

Today was a good day at church. The kids were for the most part reverent during Sacrament meeting, except when Eleanor was whining because we weren't going over to my parents' house after church like I said we were going to, but plans changed (which is why I usually don't inform the kids of plans until it happens), and except when Zach had a short freak out because Eleanor took his book, but she quickly gave it back to him. I was well prepared for my sharing time during Primary and that went well. We talked about our premortal life, earth life, and life after death and I had taped a piece of paper under each chair telling which life each girl would be in during Sharing Time. Zoe and Emily were both in life after death, so I joked with them about how they were dead and now I would have less work to do...although a teacher pointed out that I would actually have more work without my older girls around, which is probably true. I'm glad I could call them back to earth after Sharing Time and they are still with me. :-)

Emily didn't have any headaches today and I think it's because she hasn't done any running around or playing today. I'm glad she felt good all day.

We always joke that Sunday is anything BUT a day of rest around here, but it IS a rest from TV (Dora, Barbie, High School Musical shows) and from the kids playing on the computer and from active play. It's nice that we have trained our kids to know that Sunday is different from every other day and they know not to ask to watch their movies or play on the computer (although either Emily or Eleanor wished this morning that the Webkinz sight had a church so they could play it on Sunday). It is truly a rest from our routine. Some Sundays are longer than others trying to fill up time with quiet activities, but the break from TV and computer noise is nice. It's also a day when I don't think about bills and our phone is not ringing with SallieMae on the other end trying to get a hold of Matt, who won't talk to them and tells me to talk to them, but I'm not on the account so I know that's not going to get very far.

Another thing I have been thinking about this evening, which Matt and I talk about every so often is the fact that I have been pregnant a part of every.single.year since 1998. Isn't that weird? And twice in 2007! That is even crazier! I was also thinking that this could very well be my last pregnancy, so I don't want to take any of this fun part of pregnancy for granted. I want to enjoy it. I am feeling good and the excitement and anticipation of having a baby to cuddle with this summer has hit...although I do realize that I still have many weeks to go and really that's okay because I am liking my sleep and I need Zach and Kate to outgrow their competition for my attention in the next 5 1/2 months.

Blessings & headaches

I had a good day with the kids today. I have been extremely calm and patient today, which I contribute to being blessed for Matt's church service. On a normal Saturday evening by bedtime after feeding and bathing the kids with Matt here, I am exhausted. But tonight I am still going strong here at 10pm and the fact that our bathroom was nearly flooded with bath water after the last bath, it didn't phase me. And Eleanor playing and talking during scripture reading, after telling her several times to zip her lips and listen, I didn't yell or get mad, although I did threaten to send her to bed before reading scriptures from now on. And after putting the younger kids to bed and Kate was asleep, Zach's screaming to be covered up...again and waking Kate up didn't put me over the edge (although I was getting closer). Yes, it was a good day.

My Dad picked Zoe and Emily up this morning for basketball practice. And when they got home 4 hours later, Emily had a headache. While I was talking with Aimee this evening (our Primary President who is a nurse), I told her about Emily's headaches and asked for her opinion. We talked about Emily's eyesight at first and she suggested Emily have an eye exam done. Zoe told me that the school nurse checked their vision at the beginning of the year, so I think I'll call the school and see if Emily's vision was checked and what the results were. None of Emily's teachers have had a concern about her vision and Emily has never complained about her eyesight, so I doubt there is a concern there, but I'll check. Then Aimee asked me if Emily had gone sledding and bumped her head. This made me think of ice skating last Saturday and a fall that Emily took where she hit her head on the ice. Aimee suggested she might have a slight concussion from the fall. The timing makes sense since it has been about a week since the headaches started. I realized that Emily's headache didn't start today until after basketball practice and wondered if Emily's headache yesterday was triggered from playing during morning recess before school began. Her head doesn't seem to bother her until late morning after she has been up and around for awhile. And after she has taken some Tylenol and has rested for awhile, she feels better and starts playing again, but then her head hurts at bedtime. Matt isn't convinced she has a concussion. His theory is a sinus headache. Both causes require a CT to diagnose. A CTScan we can't afford, but would hopefully get to the bottom of what's causing these headaches.

Need any books to read?

Eleanor, Zach, Kate, and I were supposed to get together with our playgroup today, but because of freezing rain, we ended up staying home. I used to get so mad as a kid/teenager when my fun plans would get canceled because of snow or bad weather. I still find it annoying, but I get over it quicker. When you make plans around here in the winter, there is a good chance that it will snow that day and you end up staying home. Eleanor did get to go next door to Jenn's house, which I was thankful for because she was so looking forward to playgroup and seeing her friends. It was good for the both of us for her to get out of the house. I had a super productive day going through our books and weeding out the ones we will never read again and novels that we can get at the library. Hopefully Matt will agree to get rid of the novels that are his that I don't believe we need anymore. I hate the rule that you can't declutter other people's things! We would have a lot less clutter if I could decide which of Matt's things we really need. :-) But I am good and I only get rid of his things when he gives the okay.
I went through the books because I wanted to make room on the bookshelves for the scrapbooks that have been lined up along the wall of the hall. I took the hall cleaning a step further and decided we didn't need anything in the hall (my scrapbook box, my scrapbook folder, extra portrait pictures of the kids, Matt's gun case, and an ugly foam mattress that Matt won't get rid of, which was sitting on top of the gun case. I stuck the gun case and mattress under our bed, which I am now realizing is a temporary solution since Matt made our new bed frame higher off the floor so we can store 5 gallon buckets under the bed for food storage...I guess I should stop putting things under the bed! But our hall looks so nice now with nothing in it! It will be much easier to vacuum now and will probably get vacuumed more often.

I got a call from the school today saying Emily was in the office complaining of a headache. I gave them permission to give her some Tylenol and hoped that she would be okay the rest of the day since I didn't have a car to go pick her up. She did make it the rest of the day, but when she got home she said her head still hurt and she sat on the chair and watched a movie. She perked up enough to play on the Webkinz site (Zoe and Emily received Webkinz cats (stuffed animals) for Christmas from their cousins and they LOVE getting on the internet site to play with their on-line pet. I had never heard of this Webkinz world or pets until Christmas. It's really neat. I like how the girls have to earn money to buy things to take care of their cats and they play games to earn that money. I'm thinking of buying Eleanor a Webkinz pet for Valentine's Day because she loves to watch Zoe & Emily play with their on-line cats and she has stated more than once how excited she will be when she gets one of her own. Anyway, I'd like to figure out what is causing Emily's headaches. She used to get them occasionally, but in the last week or two it has been every day or every other day.

Matt has cub scout training for church this weekend in Waterville (about an hour away), so he will be home late tonight and he'll be gone all day tomorrow. My Mom is at the same training. And come to think of it, I'm supposed to be at the training, too, but it was much easier for me to stay home than to find someone to watch the kids this weekend.