In Which I Discover "New Editor"...

Wow...look what I can do!  I've always wanted to do that!

It's been so long since I've really messed around with my blog that I didn't even know about "new editor".

And then there are so many things that I hadn't really paid attention to before...like quotes, how nifty that you can just hit that little quotation mark and they automatically indent...

That rock don't roll...

Some kids are like marbles rolling down the sidewalk;
you can barely keep up with them.

Others are more like:

In Which

I'm happy to report
that my laundry is done...
for this week anyway
Yes, I did 17 loads in 4 days
No, it was not fun
But it was cheap
I made my own laundry soap
It only costs .007 per load
Ok, I'm not sure that is right
but I can't find my calculator on my computer
That's how computer savvy I am

Ok, I'm done writing in short sentences without periods. . . . See all those periods? Oooo and even a question mark.

Ok, I'm being a bit silly.

You know what I did this morning? I put a pad of paper and a pen by my shower so that as soon as I stepped out I could record my thoughts before they dissipated into thin air. The first four lines I typed are what came out of my head.......

OK! So not everything that I think of in the shower is profound,

but...
but...

I did think of another post that I am working on that is pretty profound.

So get ready to step on over
I'll be putting my best foot forward
Stepping out in style
Tappin' my feet

Perhaps sometime in the near future I'll post it.

(But don't hold your breath.)

And now I'm tiptoeing off to bed.

Goodnight.

Wii Caved

Wii said wii'd never buy a gaming system.

Santa brought a Wii for Christmas this year.

My boys nearly fainted when they unwrapped it.

They have played on it almost non-stop since Christmas day.

I think their brains are turning to mush.

The only thing that is saving them is the trampoline that Santa brought as well.

They play the Wii. They go out and jump. They come in and play the Wii. They go out and jump.

This morning the light was on downstairs at 6 am.

I went down and found my son playing the Wii.

I confiscated the controllers and sent him to bed.

My husband went down at 7 am.

Son was outside jumping on the trampoline!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I love this season. Actually I love this time of year beginning from about the middle of November when it starts getting crisp (remember, I live in California...it's still hot right before Halloween) until the end of February when I celebrate my birthday. That's also usually about the time that I slack off on my New Year's Resolutions and I start feeling guilty...

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. My brother and his family came to visit. I love having them close. We took our annual trip to Apple Hill where Christmas tree farms abound. We trekked around for a few hours looking for the "perfect" tree. I saw several which I proceeded to point out to my husband only to be given "the look" complete with "the rolled eyes". The poor man really needs a different house, one with a 20 foot ceiling. I kept having to remind him that it could only be 9.5 feet tall because our ceiling is 10 foot and I wanted a star on top of the tree this year. Oh, and I'm so excited because I finally talked him into getting a Cedar tree instead of a Douglas Fir. I love it because it doesn't have needles! I love a fresh tree...no artificial one at our house, but I hate the needles all over the place.

I haven't done a smich of shopping yet. Well, actually that's not true. I was going to say what I had done, but remembered that sometimes my kids read my blog so I guess I can't tell you! All I know is that I want to keep it simple this year...very simple kids, in case you are reading this...don't expect anything big at all...really....the stocking stuffers might actually fit in the stockings this year!

One of the reasons I love this time of year is because of the color red, which happens to be my favorite color. It is EVERYWHERE and I am in heaven!

Oh, in case you were wondering...I did get my rank back. It was only a simulation after all. And guess what. I have memorized the entire Declaration of Independence! Yessiree Bob, my girls and I can recite the whole thing! Can I just say, that it was really hard to do. At my age. Which is 42. That rhymed.

Well this was just a random post to let you know that I have not dropped off the face of the earth. I have been busy...memorizing.

I've been SEW busy...

I'm tired of my best friend. She's been all up in my face lately. Usually we have fun together, but this time I haven't enjoyed her company so much. We're going to have to give each other some space. Next time we get together it will be on my terms.

(My girls are in a Shakespeare play and I am on the costume committee.)

...

I have 565 items in my email "inbox"...

All my blog feeds are highlighted, with multiple posts to catch up on...

I haven't the foggiest idea for a post in my brain...

On Wednesdays I am gone from 9 am until 6:30 pm...

Just taxiing people around in my gas hogging SUV...

I'm teaching a Literature class and we are studying Shakespeare...

It's the first time I have ever studied Shakespeare...

The teacher wasn't able to keep teaching...

I volunteered...

My two oldest kids are taking an intensive writing course...

My two middle are taking a writing course...

My two youngest are watching lots of TV...

I just started a NEW & IMPROVED job chart...

It's about the 129th one in my 16 years of child rearing...

It's 12:46 AM...

I was waiting for my two older kids to finish one of their writing assignments...

I think I'll go to bed now...

Coming Up For Air

Breathe in...Breathe out...In...Out...

Oh hello. I'm just coming up for air after being deep in the throes of decluttering my kitchen for the last four days.

OK, well that's not all I've been doing. I did go to church on Sunday, and did the usual chauffering of the troops. I even stopped to make a couple of dinners (sadly, an unusual phenomenon).

It's an interesting feeling walking into a newly decluttered kitchen. Even though the outside appearance hasn't changed much, I feel a difference (just knowing I can open my cupboards and nothing will fall out on me is exhilirating!). My kitchen is clean from the inside out and I can feel it, in fact I feel clean when I walk into my kitchen. I have five grocery bags full of items that I decided I really didn't need. Only five you say? It's amazing how many things can fit into a grocery bag! My criteria was such that if there wasn't a place for an item, it was gone. Some things were harder to part with than others, and some were down right agonizing.

Well, the pantry's next. Time to dive back in...

Randomness

It's midnight and one of my goals this year was to get to bed by 10:00 pm...

But I haven't been able to get around to all my favorite blogs lately, so that's why I'm up, only I've not been able to read them all so I guess I will have to catch up on the rest tomorrow.

Friday I took the kids rollerskating. I found some muscles that I forgot I had. I had a ball though and thoroughly enjoyed skating with my kids. The sweetest thing happened. My six year old has never really skated aside from trying out his siblings rollerblades a couple of times, so it was quite the experience for him. So much so that he decided that he needed some extra help so he found a little corner, three times, and knelt down to say a prayer...my heart melted seeing him kneeling there! He said that the first two prayers didn't work, but the third one did! I agreed as he was able to make it around the whole floor without holding my hand and only falling, oh say, four or five rather than 20 times!

It's been raining here for a week, on and off, but mostly on. I love it, but today I decided that it really makes me tired. I don't know how you people who live in Washington do it. I love the rain, but all I want to do is curl up in front of the fireplace and read a good book...only I have six kids and a husband who need to be fed, clothed and educated and carpooled around (educated and carpooling--meaning the kids, although there are some things that I would like my husband to be educated in...won't go there).

I've been washing my face lately at night. I've never been a face washer at night, and don't know why I'm even telling you that, except that my face feels really nice and I'm wondering why I didn't do it before. The other day I found myself in the skincare aisle at the market looking at all the anti aging creams...I guess I'm starting to worry about the tiny lines around the eyes, not to mention the big dark circles underneath. I bought myself some anti aging eye cream that makes the skin tingle around my eyes, and Ponds Cold Cream (only it's not called that anymore). I've always wondered what it was like and I've always liked the name, so I bought some and also some Ponds facial wash. Now I know what it's like, and I like it.

Today I was standing in the kitchen and I started to smell something and thought it was a nice smell, but couldn't fingure out what it was. I left the room for a bit and then came back in and the smell was a bit stronger, but still a good smell. Then it got a bit stronger and I looked over at the toaster oven and remembered the english muffins I had put in there several minutes ago...black. It drives my husband crazy, the penchant I have for burning toast. I think I have only NOT burned toast like 5 times in my whole life, and I eat toast several times per week! I put it in a just forget about it. Last year I joined Toastmasters so that I could improve my public speaking skills (then I found out you had to write speeches and after only writing one in six months I decided to quit and will only go back after I have four prepared speeches...I think it will be awhile). ANYWAY my husband's only comment when I told him that I had joined Toastmasters was that now maybe I would learn how to properly make toast. Nope, didn't happen.

Well, that's all I can think of for now. I do have another Isaiah post I've been working on and I finally thought of an ending for it today, I have such a hard time with endings. Hopefully I can get it finished and up here in the next couple of days.

Going to bed now...do you think that staying up late and dark circles under the eyes have any connection?

Pity party is over.

Ok, I'm done with feeling sorry for myself. Today was a good day. My daughter was happy, my house is fairly clean (that's about all it ever is, so that's good), and my laundry is almost caught up. What I mean by that is the big pile at the end of my bed is gone and the couple of overflowing baskets in the laundry room and the others sitting out in the adjacent hall are all folded and put away. I still have a couple of loads to wash and dry and some socks to sort, but they are contained in laundry baskets and will be run through tomorrow.

Tomorrow I might actually get to sew. I bought the fabric for my kitchen curtains and got them cut out a few days ago (before sickness) and tomorrow I will buy the lining and get that cut out and hopefully by the middle of next week my kitchen windows will be sporting curtains.

This evening I spent reading a book that I couldn't put down, so I finished it and then played "Phase 10" with my girls whom I beat handily, or at least by one phase.

Not really an extraordinary day, except for the fact that I am able to walk up the stairs without getting winded...and I finally have a bit of an appetite. Not sure I'm happy about that as I have lost 7 pounds from being sick. There's a silver lining in every cloud!

A day from hell...

I was just going to type in here that I have a 13 year old daughter who was unhappy today and that would probably have been enough explanation for my title.

And maybe I should leave it at that rather than spewing forth venom and ruining all of your evenings.

Then I thought I should title it "Thank You Fellow Bloggers", because I needed something to take my mind off my day, so I surfed around to all my favorite blogs, and laughed and shuddered and sniffed and laughed some more and generally got uplifted.

I didn't leave any comments, because I was afraid of writing anything in my current mood that might offend or be taken in the wrong way, but I did thoroughly enjoy all of your posts and when I get caught up with my life (see below) then I will delight you with my enlightening comments (cough, cough).

I've learned my lesson too many times that when I'm in an especially emotional mood that it's just best to keep quiet.

Remember the stomach flu I had?

Well it went away and was replaced with another flu.

One that zaps all your energy.

I've been laying around since Sunday.

Let me rephrase that: I've been trying to lay around since Sunday, but every day this week (and usually more than just once per day) someone(s) had to be somewhere and since I am the chauffer and I don't have a backup, then I had to drive kids around, and while my charges were in doing their various fun activities, I layed around...in my car...until I could finally come home and either get in the bathtub or on the couch.

I think I am finally on the mend and tomorrow I don't have any places to be or things to do except my appointment with the washer and dryer.

I have piles of clothes, both clean and dirty, laying in various locations throughout my house.

Why doesn't life stop when I do?

Poor Me

A couple of days ago my husband spent the whole night upchucking the contents of his stomach. He attributed it to food poisening as he had eaten a hamburger on the way home the night before and assumed it was the culprit. Well last night I spent part of the night crouched over the toilet bowl...apparently it wasn't food poisening! My oldest son and my youngest son threw up last night as well, so me and the little guy are hanging out in my bedroom and we're getting ready to curl up together and watch "Toy Story" to try and distract our minds from our queasy stomachs and achy limbs.

Hope your day is going better than mine!

Curtains and Scary Movies

I've been busy today. I'm putting up curtains...finally. My mother-in-law gave me money for Christmas so yesterday, while I was at the department store, after talking to my friend (see previous post) I took a gander over to the curtain aisle and found 4 sets of matching drapes for my living room. I was at Ross Dress for Less and four matching sets is quite a struggle to find! It took some digging, but my do they have good deals on curtains, so it was worth it. I brought them home along with some curtain rods and today I proceeded to hang them. Then I wasn't sure if I liked them so I went back and bought a few different styles and have had a good ol' time changing them around and trying to decide which look best.

I've lived in this rental for almost three years now without curtains because I thought we'd only be here a year and didn't want to spend the money or put in the effort. But seeing how the good Lord has not seen fit to sell our property so that we can build our "dream" home, I know I'll at least be here for another year, probably more, and dang it if I'm gonna sit around staring curtainless windows for another year. I'm movin' in...finally.

The kitchen will be next and is compliments of my best friend from high school. She sent me a JoAnn's gift card (fabric store, she knows me too well!) for Christmas. I'm going to buy my favorite fabric, Norfolk Rose by Waverly, for that room. There are already curtain rods up in there thanks to the previous renters, but I'm going to put up cafe curtains, so I'll need to purchase those. My birthday comes up in February, so I'll get a new dose of money from my mother-in-law then and will proceed to the family room. Hopefull by the end of March I'll have the whole house done.

I'm sitting in my living room right now with my beautiful curtains in view. They still have wrinkles in them, I didn't want to iron them until I knew which ones I was keeping, but nevertheless, they sure do warm up a room.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda done this three years ago...


PS. Don't go see "I Am Legend" if you are a big scarety cat like me. My fingers were numb by the time I left the theater last night because I was pushing them against my ears so hard trying to drown out the sound. I would have gotten up and walked out, but that would have meant I would have to open my eyes and might see some hideous mutant "dark seeker" jumping out from some dark hole and I don't think the other theater goers would have appreciated me falling all over them as I scrambled my way out to the aisle. I took 5 Lindt dark chocolate truffles with me to savor during the show, but I couldn't eat them because that would mean I would have had to take my fingers out of my ears and move my jacket from in front of my face to get to the pocket they were in...

I Did It!

I made it all the way through Halloween without eating one piece of candy! Everytime I'd hear a knock at the door and I'd have to carry the bowl over I was tempted to just take just one, but I knew that if I gave in to one, then I'd give in everytime the doorbell rang!

So my husband took the little one around the neighborhood tonight and they came back with their pillowcases half full. Time to bargain. "I'll give you five bucks and you can keep 10 pieces of candy, but if you choose to keep all the candy it has to be gone by Sunday," says I. Last year it worked, but this year, no go. The 8 year old...he's good. He haggled his way to a better deal. The going price? $10 bucks and 15 pieces of candy, with two bite sized bars counting as one.

Seems silly to pay them to go out trick-or-treating, but the payoff is mine in the long run. They get to dress up and have fun. They get money that they can use for Christmas presents. The doctor and dentist bills would add up to far more than the $$$ I had to fork out right now, and best of all, the candy is out of the house. I pack it up and send it to work next day with my husband for all his employees.

Happy ending to a Spooky Day!

It's All Up From Here

I had 4 nightmares last night. I'd wake up from one and fall back asleep right into another one.

This morning I stepped on the scale and it was up 4 pounds from yesterday. Could it be one pound for each nightmare? Or it could possibly have been the donuts from the ward party, or perhaps the cheesecake from yesterday that my chef husband made for me just because he loved me. Or more probably that monthly thingie that started yesterday.

This morning for breakfast I had a piece of toasted homemade bread, spread with butter and apricot jam, a glass of orange juice, and a small glass of eggnog. So I announced to my two older girls that I had had my grain, fruit and protien, after which my middle daughter chimes in "and your fat!" She was, of course, referring to the contents of the eggnog, but the look on her face was priceless when she realized what it sounded like! We laughed ourselves silly for a good 4 minutes!

Attack of the Donuts

It's that time of the year when the treats start to roll in and if I'm not careful I will acquire a few rolls myself!

I've gotten pretty good about passing up the candy, it's the homemade treats that do me in. Not store-bought-homemade. I don't know about other areas of the country, but here people are so busy that instead of bringing homemade items to ward events, they usually run by the store and pick up some cookies from the bakery section so as to appear homemade. But you can always tell that they aren't (That is my husband's pet peeve. This is a man who has his own cookbook and whose favorite store is William Sonoma!).

So when I prepared myself mentally for the ward Halloween party tonight I figured it wouldn't be too hard to keep away from the treat table... that is, until I walked into the gym and saw this cute little grandma making donuts...yes, homemade donuts... right there in the gym! She had a whole little set up with a big bowl of dough and a rolling pin, and a cute little donut cutter. She had a pan of oil right there and she'd fry them up, dunk them in glaze and pass them out to the eager crowd that was continually around her table. That's what saved me; the fact that I had to keep getting back in line if I wanted another one and that the line was always pretty long.

Talk about not playing fair, they go from not ever having homemade treats to making them right there--fresh and piping hot!

Well I didn't do too bad considering. I got away with only eating three...or was it four...

Too Many Hats

I'm still here. Just been playing wife, mom, chauffer, teacher, librarian, hairstylist, cook, butler, therapist, etc...

What's been keeping you busy?

Hey, what's up with the empty background?!?!

I came here to do a little posting and found that my background has disappeared! And if I want to put that one back on all my little widget thingies on the side will disappear, and I don't want to have to redo them all...it's a pain being technoligically illilterate.

Well this is just a sampling of how my day is going so far. I actually had something else to post today, but it will just have to wait until tonight. I'm taking my ball and going home...oh yea I am home. And dinner needs to be fixed and the house straightened up and kids picked up and...

I liked my template... I'm bummed!

Up and Down

“I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.” ~Bilbo Baggins to Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings.

Duhh

I finally figured out why it's called a Qwerty keyboard..."qwerty"...go on, type it...