January

Thanks to a concerned and loyal friend I'm doing this post to explain my absence from the blogger world. I'm not pregnant, just busy. Here's a summary of January.

Traditionally, January has been my hardest month of the year (who wouldn't have a hard time making it through a January in Chicago???). I have to chalk it up to the amazing weather (sorry Chicago friends!) but this was a great month!

-I started out with a bang and chiseled out the 900 tiles on our backyard patio. Not wanting to pay to dump them (click here to see why) I tried to chisel them out in one piece. Almost 600 were unbroken! I posted them for free on craigslist. Now I'm trying to find someone who can finish my project (cut and take out 1/3 of the cement and either lay tile or do a cement stain.)












-Jon and I have been cleaning out the garage and giving the unwanted stuff away for free on craigslist. We inherited most of this stuff from the previous owners. It's a pain having to deal with all the phone calls and emails and flaky people, but it saved us a lot of money (again click here to see why we care about saving money) by not having to dump it all. (Note to self: When buying the next house demand that the owners take everything in the garage with them.)

-Thanks to my neighbor's lovely chain saw I got to cut down another tree. Two more trees and 10 bushes/hedges to go. Is it scary that I love doing this so much?

E & R are entering the sci fair (with some encouragement from me). Em's measuring the amount of grease from various potato chips and Ray's figuring out the frequency of the different colors of M&Ms from different bags. Best part? We get to eat the results! (Click here to see where I found the ideas.)

-I needed some creative outlets this month and this is the result: Way cute ribbon hair bows, clips and ponytail holders! And of course I had to make a bow holder to show them all off in the girls bathroom. It's fun seeing them look through all the accessory options. I have about 30 more bows to make.


-I'm working on redoing a room that is next to our garage (new windows, sliding door, kid friendly-floor covering and paint). It's going to be my preschool room for the next school year. We have a few friends who will be joining Hannah and I'm looking to add a couple of more.

-New calling at church also got added to the list of what happened this month. I'm Relief Society 1st counselor. (Sorry, Carrie--I should have spelled out Pres. because I meant presidency!)

-And there were some other small happenings this month, like making cute V-day invitations for a V-day party, organizing my sewing area and laundry room, volunteering in the girls' classes and taking down my Christmas tree the last day of January!!! A bit busy, a bit tired and a lot happy!

11:00 Church

New church time!!! With 9:00 church I had little time to do hair for the girls (and me!). This year we have a chance! Thanks, Carole for the tip for the hair impaired (shedoeshair.blogspot.com).

Okay, there's still no hope for this hair yet. No amount of hairspray and encouraging can keep her hair in. She moves WAY too much and has WAY too much of an opinion. We've left trails of hair holders from our house to the girls' school. When I ask her what happened to her hair she just looks over the side of the stroller (we've also lost toys, socks and almost shoes and binkys and sippy cups).

What can I say? What a great group of girls.

Hopefully tomorrow's better

My last post was WAY funnier!

After school today the girls and I went to the library. I love watching the girls get completely absorbed in books. Even Lizzie loves books! (Well, she loves pulling them off the shelves.) The girls disperse to their usual spots and I rotate among them helping them find books while chasing Lizzie. After helping Ray, I went to check on the other girls. I see Emily quickly, but no Hannah. I look all over the children's section expecting to find her in her usual spots. I don't, so I ask Emily and Rachel to help.We all are looking now. Where is she?????? After not finding her I run downstairs with Lizzie under my arm and look on the first floor. I go to the help desk to ask if they've seen her. I must have looked pretty panicked because she immediately called "Code Adam", then did a description of Hannah over the intercom. The library was locked up and ALL the librarians came out of the back room and started searching. I ran back upstairs and continued to look in any little spot. A mom came up and asked if that was her reading some books. WHERE???? Hannah's little body was hidden from view. She was tucked inside some semi-circle stools that were put together creating a ring around her. She had no idea she was lost. Time to go home. We check out our books and march out of the library (with me walking by MANY watching eyes trying to look like a completely responsible, calm mom who CAN take care of 4 children.)

This post should end here, but sadly it doesn't...

Right after dinner the girls always do kitchen jobs. I was starting to clean off the table (Hannah's job tonight) and looked for Hannah. Called for Hannah...called for Hannah again (because seriously she was just right with us eating!). I run through the house (sound familiar?) calling her name. I start looking in hiding places and outside. (Yesterday she and her friend hid under the dining room table in a tent I had made, but after I called her name a few times I heard her laughing and she came out.) I run to my neighbor's house where Hannah loves to play, but she's not there. My neighbor offers to help me look, but I turn her down and ask her to send Hannah home if she pops up. I run back to the house and am now YELLING Hannah's name and looking under, in, behind everything. She would come out if she were here and if she's not here then she has to be at her friend's, so back to my neighbor's I go. All I can get out is, "I can't find her." Being the good friend she is, she immediately comes out to help me look. We don't think she would be outside--it's dark, so she must be at the house. My friend walks in my front door and doesn't even take three steps when Hannah steps out laughing! My friend, seeing that all is well turns to go knowing this is not going to be pretty. In seconds Hannah went from laughing to crying while putting on her pajamas.
When I calmed down, this is the story I got: She hid under Rachel's covers because she didn't want to clean off the table.

One day I'll chuckle at this story, right?

Some thoughts on chocolate...

I'm cleaning out some files (Does it count as housework?? because I'm pretty sure my laundry is more of a priority. Note to self: write down time management for goals for 2009) and found these quotes I used for an Enrichment activity to lure people to come dip pretzels. If they don't make you chuckle, please buy more chocolate for yourself--it makes life GOOD!
* Eat a square meal a day - a box of chocolate.
* I could give up chocolate, but I'm not a quitter.
* There’s more to life than chocolate, but not right now.
* Exercise is a dirty word. Every time I hear it, I wash my mouth out with chocolate.
* Nine out of ten people like chocolate. The tenth person always lies. ~John Q. Tullius
* There are four basic food groups-milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate and chocolate truffles.
* The 12-step chocoholics program: NEVER BE MORE THAN 12 STEPS AWAY FROM CHOCOLATE! ~Terry Moore
* I have this theory that chocolate slows down the aging process.... It may not be true, but do I dare take the chance?
* I don't understand why so many "so called" chocolate lovers complain about the calories in chocolate, when all true chocoholics know that it is a vegetable. It comes from the cocoa bean, beans are veggies, 'nuff said.

Thanksgiving

At the top of our family's gratitude list this year is living close to good friends. We were all very excited to spend Thanksgiving with the Hollingers who live in a BEAUTIFUL place in S. Cal. (We miss you Craig!)

Just check out these photos (thanks, Carole.)
My girls were loved and spoiled. Hannah figured out quickly who to go to if she wanted something (like a new blanket! because her baby blanket is showing its age and because Carole is very nice.) All the kids got adorable, matching jammies! (again, thanks Carole!) Being there answered the question I've been asking myself for the last several months "Why in the world do I live here???" To be close to a very good friend!

Sign Waving

Here's a website to explain the background of what we've been supporting (protectmarriage.com).

I wish I had a picture of my beautiful girls standing out in the cold wind and rain waving signs to cars. It's a picture I'll always keep in my mind. I'm proud of them. Instead of me bragging about them though, I'll let them describe the experience:
Em--It was really rainy and wet. We got over 150 honks. Three people were kind of a little bit mean. One person got out of his car and started yelling at us. I made a leaf pile and we brought candy with us so that we wouldn't get hungry. (She's being very, very forgiving to all the people who waved with one finger and yelled many words I don't say.)
Ray--We went to a busy corner and did Proposition 8. We held signs saying "Yes on Prop 8". It was really busy and noisy. When we held up the sign for 10 minutes we got to eat some of our Halloween candy. I was sad because some of the people were calling us names like "You're dumb!" The people who were voting yes on Proposition 8 honked at us. We got 150 honks. It was raining. The rain was not fun.
Hannah--We played in the rain. We were in the stroller. I played with Mom. People honked. I like people.

On the ride home we talked about the freedom we have in America to voice our opinion. We talked about our choice to do it in a nice way and not in an angry way (like we saw some people choose to do tonight.) The girls have asked some great questions and however it goes tomorrow our family has had a great opportunity to teach some good lessons to our girls.

Leave a Record!

"Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life.' This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked.
In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ. . . Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . . . This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions.
Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened.... Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, 'summer is nigh.' Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat." --- Elder Neal A. Maxwell

The girls are I are waving signs today at a busy intersection. I have to admit I wasn't going to because the thought of me and 4 girls in the rain waving signs at people who are going to yell at us didn't seem like fun. But then I read this quote from our Stake President: "Our children are aware of and have seen our efforts in this initiative and will be prepared to mount the same kind of effort in the challenges that they will face in the future. We did this not only for ourselves, but we did it as an example to our posterity."
I envisioned my girls fighting even harder than what Jon and I have done and I wanted them to see me give my all up to the end and this is my small part of leaving a record and not complaining of the heat (or rain!)