Star Light, Star Bright, First Star I See Tonight!

As I mentioned last night, Josh and I are up in Estes Park staying at a little cabin.  Our cabin is really not in Estes Park, it is just out of town...  almost in Rocky Mountain National Park.  So it is away from most of the city lights (not that Estes Park is that big of a city).  Our cabin also has a hot tub.  Josh and I have spent maybe a half an hour both nights out in the hot tub (with no lights on) talking, and looking at the stars.  Tomorrow night I will try to get a picture, because it is fantastic!  There are so many stars!  You tend to forget to look at the stars when you are so busy with life.  It has been fun to be able to spend some time just watching stuff.  Josh even tried to help me see different constellations (I sucked at it, but it was sweet of him to try).  And we were rewarded with shooting stars tonight too.  I saw three and Josh saw two.  So next time you are away from your city lights, take time to look at the stars!

A trip away!

Josh and I left this evening for a little get away.  We are off for three days to Estes Park, where we are going to stay in a cute little cabin that has no phone.  And we found out when we got here that we have no cell service...  The web site for this place boasts of wild life...  We were quite surprised to have already ran into said wild life with in minutes...  Two VERY LARGE elk!  Right by the side of the road...  Just down the hill from our cabin...  I would have taken a picture, but it was dark, and I was surprised to see them...  And a little nervous, because they were So close!  In fact we were a little nervous unloading the car...  Afraid they might have wandered closer to our cabin...  But I kept the door closed so we didn't have to worry about them coming in the cabin (a story for another blog).  Sorry you will have to wait for pictures until we get home.  For now I am going to finish watching the Oscars with my Sweet Heart and then maybe take a dip in the Hot Tube...  If it's really a hot tube, because it is REALLY cold out there...  And there is a lot of wildlife :)

What do you do?

I know this will come as a shock to most of you, but I have six kids!!! :)  OK not a shock, but I know that I have six kids, and that I should just get use to "sharing" everything, but there is one thing that I absolutely HATE to share...  My drink!  More importantly my water!  I'll share my food, my lap, my bed, I have even shared my warm shower, but I really HATE to share my water!  And my sweet Catalina must think it is a joke, because she ALWAYS steals a drink!  She did it tonight, and when I went to drink for the first time after her I could taste her sweet yuck she left!  YUCK!!!  I had to go wash my straw!  So my question to you...  Do you share your drink?

Sleep

This evening I get to go for a sleep study...Not sure what all I am in for, but one thing I know...  I will be all by myself.  And I have to admit that I think that is what makes this whole thing worry me.  I know I am a grown adult, but it has been a really long time since I had a night of sleep all by myself.  In fact since I got married (almost 13 years ago), I have not had Josh or the kids around.  Now I have spent some nights with out Josh, but there where always kids around.  And I have been away from my kids too, but Josh is always with me...

Why aren't you a sleepy baby???

Last night was long!  Myra is going through a stage with sleeping.  Her naps yesterday were short and at the wrong times.  I ended up having to wake her from her afternoon nap to go and get the little girls from preschool...  At 3pm...  So when 7 came around Myra was really tired!

I think Myra was fully a sleep by 7:30...  But then she woke up at about 11:30pm...  And was wide awake!  We tried to give her her bottle in bed in hopes that she would go back to sleep...  But she was just a happy ready to be on the move baby.  We tried putting her in bed with us to see if she might settle down...And after her drooling attack on me she did start to seem tired.  So I moved her back to her bed with another bottle (this is around 1:30)...  And she still did not go back to sleep.  I finally took her in to the office and got on Facebook to keep me awake until she gave up...  Around 2:45am!

It is safe to say that it was well after 3am when I finally got to sleep last night...  I had had hopes of getting in a nap this afternoon, Myra had different plans!  Myra was down by 9:30pm tonight...  Let's hope she sleeps longer tonight!

Basketball

I know I have blogged before on Josh and basketball. And I know I have said how much I love Tuesday nights when I have my "quiet time" while Josh is at basketball.  But there are times when I hope that Josh wont have to stay at basketball the whole night.  That was the case on the 15th (a week ago).  It was our Engagement Day, and I had hoped that Josh would come early.  I never told Josh that I felt that way... OK not before that night anyway.  So Josh had no way to know that I was hoping for him to come home early.  Josh got home 11:30pm apologizing for being late and sad that he didn't have flowers.  He had stopped to buy me flowers after basketball, but the store didn't have any roses in good shape.

I was still sad that Josh didn't come home earlier, and I did finally tell him (OK it was a few days later).  So lets jump forward a week.  It is Tuesday night again.  This time Josh leaves basketball early...  And he stops and buys me BEAUTIFUL roses!  And when he gets home...  I'm already in bed...  Almost a sleep.

Thanks Josh for the BEAUTIFUL roses!  And Thank you for listening to me.  I am sorry that I had gone to bed, when you came home to spend time with me!  I love you!  You are the best!

Oops!

I posted a couple days back about watching "Anne of Green Gables" with my kids.  Since my kids didn't have school today...  and they were starting to drive me crazy...  I thought that it would a good activity to watch the next movie in the set...  I was very excited to see the movie, because I have never watches the third movie.  And since it is "Anne of Green Gables" I thought that it would be fine for my kids to watch...  I was WRONG!  The third movie takes Anne and Gilbert into World War I.  And Gilbert's mail that Anne sends him are being returned to Anne, so she sets off for Europe to find him.  The movie shows war.  And I think it started to scare them some...  Not that is was a scary movie, but they were scared that people would die.  I ended up stopping the movie for a few minutes to talk to the kids, before we finished the first half of the movie...  But I wasn't sure if we should finish the movie.  A couple of the kids seemed really up set (I wont mention names, but there were a few tears shed... and not by me).  But it seemed to help them all when I spoiled the movie and told them that Gilbert and Anne would not die.  They asked how I knew...  I told them I read the books :)  I sure hope the movie follows the books... At least that much!

You Get Shots!

"You get shots!  Ha ha, Vannah gets shots!"  That was the statement from my three year old after I told my kids what was on tap for tomorrow.  And no, "Vannah" does not get shots...  at least not tomorrow.  Tomorrow is the first day of Kindergarten registration.  I told Savannah (in front of all the other kids) that she gets to be registered for Kindergarten tomorrow, and out of the blue Cat yelled out to her, "You get shots!  Ha ha Vannah gets shots!"  The crazy thing is, is that Savannah does need a couple of shots.  Last summer I took the two girls in for a well check for preschool.  They told me of all the shots Savannah would need before Kindergarten, and we decided at that time to split them in two sets.  Savannah got a couple of shots last July and I told her she would need a couple more before Kindergarten.  I don't think we have ever mentioned it again.  But obviously Catalina was listening back then, because she sure remembered tonight!  She even added it to her prayer... "And Vannah gets shots." 

How come it's only the boys that are dying???

That was the question of the day from my 9 year old....

A couple weeks back on one of the "snow" days the kids had, I made all my kids watch "Anne of Green Gables" with me.  I love this movie!  It was one of my favorites when I was a teenager.  And it is one I haven't seen in a long time.  So I thought (a couple weeks back) that it would be fun to watch with my kids...  They complained a little bit about having to sit there for soooo long...  I had forgotten it was such a long movie...  But they actually enjoyed watching it I think.  Last weekend I mentioned watching the next movie in the series "Anne of Avonlea" and my kids kind of hinted at the fact that they would want to watch it with me too.  So I waited :)

Today we didn't make it to church...  For many reasons...  OK some of us made it to church, but not into church...  So this afternoon, after we watched a church movie, we put on "Anne of Avonlea".  Now for those of you not familiar with the movie, Mathew (Anne's adopted father figure) dies at the end of "Anne of Green Gables".   And then shortly into "Anne of Avonlea" the neighbors husband dies.  It was at this point that Ben turns to me and asks "How come it's only the boys that are dying"???

Josh and I laughed!

Books

I got The 5 Love Languages for Christmas.  And I really enjoyed reading it.  I after I finished it I ordered The 5 Love Languages For Children and Teenagers...  I haven't finished it yet, but it is very insightful.  And it has been fun trying different things out and seeing how each child responds.  But it got me thinking...  I wish that I had read these books earlier on in my marriage and when I was a young mother...  And that got me thinking that these would be great books to give as a wedding gift...

Myra!

Myra is 8 months old today!  Hard to believe!  Here are some pictures of Myra doing what she loves to do... MOVE!  More on Myra's stats to come...

The School "Nurse"

It has been one of those weeks.  You know the one where it seems like it is one thing after another.  We have had a bunch of sick kids this week...  My baby has croup and an ear infection :(  But my boys have been sick too.  Monday morning both boys complained that their heads hurt, and that they didn't feel too good.  I knew that they had stayed up after we had sent them to bed reading/playing, so I was not too sympathetic.  In fact I had no sympathy for them.  I gave them some meds for the head ache and MADE them go to school...

Imagine my surprise when I was called within 15 minutes of them getting to school, and it was the school.  It seems that in the Whole 10 minutes Ben had been at school that he had not FELT good enough and had been sent down to the "nurse".  The "nurse" said she had him lie down and rest for a few minutes (really, because he had only been in school a few minuets???), and then she had taken his temp.  And on her magic thermometer it was 100 degrees even.  The school HAS to send kids home from school when they have a temp of 100 or above...

I was SO happy to go and get Ben...  And the "nurse" was sure to tell me that sometimes kids get sick as soon as they get to the school.  So much for teaching my kids NOT to stay up late playing/reading...  The "nurse" also made it a point to tell me that Ben could not come back to school until he had not had a fever for 24 hours.  And that was 24 hours of no fever and no MEDS! 

Ben's temp was not 100 on my thermometer when we got home, but it has gone up and down a lot this week.  It is now Thursday, and Ben has not been to school yet.  And he has had a fever, and a little cough.  But that is it.  No runny nose, no ear ache, no soar throat.  Just a fever and a very little cough (all though it seems to be getting worse today).

This morning I made the obligatory call to the school to let them know that Ben would not be there again.  For some reason the "nurse" picked up (it has been going to the machine so I could just leave a message).  I told the "nurse" that Ben would not be there again today.  And she asked if he had been to the doctors yet.  When I told her no she went on to basically "HINT" that he would need to be seen before he could come back to school!  Really???  You sent him home!  And then you told me he couldn't come back until he had gone 24 hours with out a fever!  And now you are going to tell me that I have to take him to the doctor before he comes back???  Is he getting paid to go to school???  Really???

Noises

My baby has been crawling around all day making noises.  The most offten made noise is a "mama" sound.  My boys were excited this afternoon thinking that it was her first word.  Myra was crawling towards me saying "mama"...  Then I picked her up and she kept right on saying it... Not to me.  She has been so funny tonight crawling around making all sorts of noises...

Happy Engagement Day!

13 years ago today was a very LONG day.  It started out in London England at the airport early in the morning... And my niece throwing up over my brother's shoulder, missing me, but not the guy next to me :0

It ended (OK not ended, but you know what I mean) with Josh proposing to me!  What a wonderful day!

Josh "saving" me
As he often has over the years!

I was so happy that day, and I am so grateful to be married to Josh.  He is the most wonderful husband, father, best friend.  I couldn't have asked for someone better.  I am the luckiest woman around :)  Happy Engagement Day Josh!  I love you more than most!

Happy Valentines Day!



Thumb anyone???



Josh and I don't celebrate Valentines day.  All though we did go out for lunch today (and it was YUMMY)! If you want to know we don't celebrate Valentines Day you will have to go back to last years blog (I'd give you a link... but I still don't know how). Anyways...  My kids all had parties at school, poor Ben was sick and didn't get to go to his party though.  SO my kids spent the afternoon eating candy...  A little afraid Catalina might have over dosed on candy...  Happy Valentines Day!



Whhaaattt???





Sweets???





What the heck???





"Sucks" to be sick today!





Too sick to "Suck"



What does a Three Year old see?



My cute three year old!



This!  Can you tell she likes to take pictures???

Kids

Ben had a friend spend the night last night.  And Ryan taught my kids a fun new skit.  The three girls were hilarious to watch performing it.  Especially Catalina and Savannah (because they are still so young to "preform").  So the skit goes like this...

One person is "sitting" on nothing (they are in the sitting position, but not actually sitting on anything).
The second person comes up and asks... "What you doing?"
First person... "I'm sitting on an invisible bench."
Second person... "Oh, can I join you?"
First person...  "Sure."
Then second person then takes up the same pose of sitting on something, when there is really nothing there.
Third person comes up and asks...  "What you doing?"
First and second together answer... "We're sitting on an invisible bench."
Third person then says...  "I moved that bench over there." (and points)
First person and second person together... "Oh..." as they fall over! 

It was so funny to watch the girls doing this skit!  I wish I had recorded it!

Am I Invisible???

I went shopping this morning with my youngest three kids...  It's been a while since I have actually gone with three kids...  It will probable be a long while before I done it again :)  Actually they were really good.  Catalina only threw a couple little fits about having to leave her book in the car, and I gave in to the fit about leaving Louie in the car (because according to Catalina "she doesn't like to be left in the car"...).  So it was not my kids that made me want to be done shopping!  It was all the other shoppers out there!



My Fantastic brace



I hit two store this morning, and I didn't have LOTS to get at either store (although I ended up getting more than I planned at both).  And while I was at the second store I came up with this blog.  Picture me, and were as I might not be a 6ft tall 450 pound offensive linemen in the NFL, I am no where close to being "little".  But here I am in my T-shirt (because it was quite warm in the store) with my Fantastic brace on pushing my shopping cart...  And I did the math, two 35 lb girls + one 15 lb baby + one 10 lb car seat = one 95 lb cart... and that's when it is empty!  And I am shopping for food for eight people, so you know the cart is not going to stay empty.

Now I have to say that my husband has tried to teach me to be aware of people around me when I am shopping.  I try to always make sure that when I stop on an isle that I am all the way over to one side, so that there is room for people to go around me.  So here I am with a half full cart, OK half full of food because it had three girls on it, and I pull over and stop to get some item...  And a lady comes down the isle and stops her cart maybe three feet from me...  And stands there giving me an evil eye like "get out of my way".  And she continues to stand there glaring at me until I move my 95 lb when it is empty cart around her.  Really???  You couldn't see me when you were coming down the isle???  Did I just magically appear in front of you???  Really???

Goodnight!

I went out this evening for book club.  It was nice to go to a book club again, it has been a while.  But I got home to a sad, grumpy baby... who wants to be cuddled right now.  And since I am still wearing my fantastic brace, it is not the easiest thing to type.  So I am going to go cuddle a cute sleepy baby (and maybe knit when she goes to sleep).  Goodnight!

Is it worth it???

Almost two years ago I ran to be elected onto a board for a little community pool.  I was elected and was very excited.  Being a member of the pool board means you get a free family membership for the summer.  I must admit that this was my biggest reason for running.  I would also love to see the pool as great as it once was, like when I was a teenager.  I thought two years ago that it would be a peace of cake to be on the board.  I thought that I would spend a few hours of time doing things for the pool each month,  and for that I would get a free membership!  Boy was I wrong!

In the almost two years I have been on the board I have put in well over 200 hours of work... WELL over!  maybe even over 300 hours.  I have gotten TWO free memberships now (each worth $300).  But a long with the actual hours of work there has been the stress as well.  The first year on the board the stress was limited to not knowing what my role was and working with a bunch of people with different standards than me (many board meetings where most of the men were drinking, chewing/spitting tobacco and so on).  Not to mention all the fun "Mormon" jokes that I have been told.  Oh and the fight to NOT meet on Sunday, because that was the only day of the week some people could meet.  "You can't ever meet on Sunday???  That is the only day I CAN meet!"  My reply... "I gave you six other days in the week I could meet."

But then the second year started.  And things did NOT go well!  By the middle of the summer two board members were kicked/quit off the board, and we only had one alternate.  Then comes the end of the summer when we learned that some important things for the pool were really not being done!  OOPS!  And three more people quit.  And now I am no longer the lowly sectary doing what I am told...  No, now I am the president of the whole pool board!  And there are only four of us left to figure out how to make a failing little community pool run/stay open.  Oh and we have to find a new manager!  So again I ask you... Is it worth it???

Parking

Maybe it's because people know it REALLY annoys me, maybe the world just needs to be a little more courteous, maybe I just need to let it go, But I REALLY hate when people I don't know park in front of my driveway!  Come on.  I think it bugs me more now in our new house too.  Maybe it is because there is TONS of parking around us!  TONS!  Our neighbors (who we really do like) have people that seem to think parking in front of our house is just fine.  They recently had a lot of work done on their house.  And the crews working on their house would always miss judge their parking job and be blocking my driveway some.  Of course the was the day when I couldn't even get in my driveway because of the BIG truck blocking the WHOLE thing!  GRRR!  But today really bugged me.  The person's car was mostly in front on they driveway.  And there were NO other cars on the street.  Let a lone across the street!  They were just to lazy to "fix" their parking job!  REALLY???  It takes what, 30 seconds?  Show some courtesy please!  I always will re-park if I am anywhere close to blocking someones driveway, that's all I ask form others.



Front yard



Now today's episode brought back memories... 

Back several years ago, when we were in our other home we had a similar problem...  but worse!  This was back when we only had 4 kids I think...  It was a Sunday morning...  I don't remember if it was spring, fall, or what, I know it wasn't too cold out though.  Josh and I had gotten up and gotten our family ready to go to church.  I want to say we had the 11 am church time, but it might have been the 8:30 time... doesn't really matter.  Anyways, we got and were heading out to church (running a little late).  We opened the garage to go to church and there was a truck parked in our driveway!  All the way in our driveway!  Almost touching the garage.  And right behind the van.  And for those of you who don't know what my old driveway looked like, it was VERY steep!  We never parked in the driveway.  There were times we couldn't get into the garage because of snow on the driveway, it was to steep and slick!   I don not miss that driveway by the way...  Any ways, there was no way to get the van out of the garage.  There was no way to take our family to church. 

Our Driveway

I went over to our one neighbors house and knocked on the door.  I was pretty sure I had seen this truck at their house before.  So I knocked, and rang the door bell.  And no one answered.  I could here movement behind the door but still no answer.  I went home and sent Josh to church with the two boys.  No since us all missing church.  And I set out to figure out what to do.

I ended up calling the police station.  I told them the situation and the answer was...  They couldn't do anything for us because it was on private property.  If it had been blocking our driveway while on the street they could have had it towed, but because it was COMPLETELY in our driveway they could do nothing!

The police told me that we could have it towed.  She said to call companies and find one that would let you pay to have it towed when the car was picked up so that we wouldn't have to pay.  I spent the next half an hour calling around to find a towing company that could get to my house that day and not charge me to have it removed.

Two hours later the tow truck removed the truck from our driveway!  It took a little bit of work to get it off our STEEP driveway!

Another shot of the
Driveway

It was 5:30 or 6 that evening when someone finally came to find out where their truck had gone.  It was our neighbors.  Her father had parked in our driveway on accident...  He thought it was his daughter's house.  He got out of the car and then jumped in her car and they all headed up to Denver for the day.  My question is how did four adults not notice that the car was in the wrong driveway???  Our driveway was much steeper than our neighbors.  And he had to walk over to his daughter's car.  Really no one noticed???

Technology

This evening our kids school was holding a meeting to raise money for Technology.  I have to be honest, I wouldn't have gone if Josh Jr. hadn't had to be there.  Josh Jr's teacher was in charge of the whole shindig, and she had her whole class there to help present things.  So I went...

First I have to say that I think Josh Jr. and his class mates did a fantastic job on all their presentations.  They are just fifth graders, but they had many different presentations on the computer to so how they can use technology.   I walked away thinking that Josh and I SHOULD donate to the school for the technology lab they are hoping to update.  But I also have to ask...  When is it to much technology?

Josh Jr's class is one of three or four that is trying out a system that allows the teacher to talk into a small microphone hung around her neck.  And hie class is adapted with surround sound.  There are speakers hung around his room so that all the kids can here what the teacher is saying through the microphone.  They also made it a point to let us know tonight that the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes all have 52 inch monitor hung in their room and that the teachers computer is connected to these screens, and she can show them their work and other things on these screens.  And this is where I have to ask, WHY?  Do they really need 52 inch monitor.  Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade only have 42 inch...  And this seemed to be a problem.  So my question tonight is... When is it too much technology?

Chores!

We all had chores growing up.  We all did chores.  But I don't remember when I learned them.  I just remember doing them.  And I didn't talk back about having to do them or complain when I had to re-do something I hadn't done right (at least I don't remember complaining or talking back).  So how do you teach your kids how to do chores???  And not complain about doing chores???  With out a lot of yelling :)

Too tired to think tonight, so here are some fun pictures!

Bob - Not my brother

My oldest has taught his sisters something fun.  He drew a stick figure on the palm of his hand (OK this was a couple months back) and he drew a big messy blob on his other palm.  He also had different letters on his fingers, but I don't remember what they where, I think it was T-H-I-S.  Any ways he came home from school like this a couple of months ago and showed me and the other kids a "fun" saying that goes with the drawings... 

Now months later his little sister are still drawing on themselves and showing me "Bob"...

One hand with stick figure...  "This is Bob!  Bob says hi!"
smash hands together
Other hand with big messy blob on it...  "This is Bob when a car goes by!"

Love seeing a smashed "Bob" on my three year old's hands!

Do you want to play basketball???

Tonight Josh and I took the four girls to a JV basketball game.  Brooklyn was cheering during half time again.  Josh made a comment that it was hard to watch the cheerleading, because he loves to watch basketball...  He later stated that he couldn't watch the game because of how bad the home team was doing though...  anyways...  I told Josh he had better hope for one of his girls to play basketball.  I then turned to Savannah and asked "do you want to play Basketball?"  Her reply... "No, I want to cheerlead!"  Sorry Josh :)

Day Two!

Josh Jr. and Catalina
playing the Wii

It was another snow day today.  And Josh stayed home again today.  YAY!!!  And maybe it was because Josh was home, or maybe my kids just needed a break from school, but these last two days have been very nice.  We have spent a lot of time together as a family playing games and watching movies, and it has been so nice!  In fact I think Josh should find a way to become independently wealthy so that he can stay home most every day :)



Josh Jr. and Savannah playing the Wii
(Catalina took this picture)



Ben's turn to play the Wii
(another Catalina picture)

The girls putting on a fashion show!

The Day After Tomorrow!

I love that movie.  I even thought about watching it today.  I thought it was fitting for a day like today. However today maybe a little too much like the movie...



Right lower corner of Front door



We bought our house 11 months ago today!  It is almost crazy to think it has almost been a year.  Time goes way to fast...  But back to our house.  When we first moved into our house I thought it seemed very well insulated.  But with today being the first REAL cold day we have had in the house, well we learned differently...



Door hinge on front door



We have noticed over the few months in the house that certain areas of the house seem to be colder at different times.  One place that seems to always be cooler than the rest of the house would be the office.  In fact we have put up some extra insulation in the front window a couple of weeks ago to help with the cold.  And it has helped, some.  But with it being Extra cold today I thought that maybe we should add a blanket to the window.  Josh,  being the great husband that he is, hung a blanket up for me this morning.  It was while he was hanging the blanket that he decided that they must have slacked on the insulation on the front wall of our house.  He showed me how you could feel the difference in temperature on the front wall in our office verses the side wall.  And you could!  Really crazy!  And crappy!  It was then that I noticed a small problem with our front door.  And that is why I feel like it is a little to close to "The Day After Tomorrow" for me...



The roof/wall
above the front door.





We have ice on almost all of the windows... the inside side of those windows!  And we have frost on the front door, and icicles on the walls!  Crazy!  Thank goodness Josh was home today to do some insulating for us!



The left lower corner
of the Front door