Some Courtesy Please

I seem to arive at church late most weeks.  Today I was actually there in time to have heard the callings and releases.  That is if there wasn't a group of people from the other ward (which gets out about a half hour before ours starts) sitting in the foyer talking and laughing loudly.  I would have gone in to the chappel, but on the way I realizes the boys had not actually washed their faces after lunch so I had to wait for them to come out of the bathroom.  This group was not only loud while I was trying to hear who the new Primary President was, but also during the sacrament hymn and the first sacrament prayer.  It was only after I was trying to hush and calm down my, now out of the bathroom, boys that they even realized that I may be trying to participate in my own church services the best I could that they quieted down.  I get that their bishop's office if right off the foyer.  I realized after someone came out of said office that at least one family was waiting for them.  I think it would have only been polite, however, if they had be a bit quieter so that I could get the most out of my experience there as I could.  I would also like to add that it was mostly the adult making so much noise, and my kids would have been in a lot of trouble if they had been so loud inside any building, especially the church.  HELLO!  You are all not only in the same room, but sitting together.  There is no need to be THAT loud!

Quitting Soda

When going through my diet changes since I started working, it became obvious that my main problem is the amount of soda I drink at work.  At first it was just to stay awake, but now it is more out of habit.  My doctor suggested that may be the main change that I need to make.  I agreed that was probably a good idea.  Yesterday, I drank the last Pespsi in the house.  That means that today is my first soda free day.  We'll see how it goes.  I do have "Stay Awake" pills in my work backback if I find myself getting tired at work.  Hopefully the call volume, Gatorade, and water keep me going while at work.  Who knows, maybe I will wind down after work a bit better if I can stay away from the soda and caffine pills.

Eric's Scout Cake

All I did was write the words on it.  Apparently frosting is just not easy to write with.  It used to day Bear on one side and Wolf on the other.

Knitting

I do still knit, just not as often as I used to.  I have been trying to make an aligator scarf for my nephew, Tommy, since November.  It was supposed to be done for his birthday (November 22, just like Noel), but it didn't get done in time.  I, then, promised that it would be done by Christmas, but I didn't really work on it.  Now, here it is the last week in February and it is not even half way done.  I really need to set aside a time to do this.  I have other things that I want to make, including stuff for myself.  I am so busy between work, housework, schoolwork, kids, and hubby that I don't know when I will have the time to work on it, but I will have to figure it out.  Maybe I can actually sit and relax sometime...

Clean Rooms

Anyone who has been to my house knows that my kids are slobs and don't keep their rooms clean.  Yes, I know if they had better parents, maybe this wouldn't be so.  Last week I went into the boys' room with them and sat on their floor to "motivate" them to clean (meaning I picked stuff up and they took them out of my hand before said stuff was thrown away).  This week was Noel's turn, or at least her room's turn.  Since the boys were caught jumping around on her furnature they got the oppurtunity to help.  Now both rooms are clean.  If fact they were both vacuumed!

(Just ignore the aweful colors of the rooms.)

(Of course Noel was already getting stuff out before I could get any pictures.)

Buying Groceries Online

A few weeks ago I decided to try buying groceries online because I didn't have a car at the time I regularly went shopping, and I did't have the time to go shopping when a car was accessable (at least not the time for the big grocery shopping I do every two weeks).  I remembered Tara talking about how nice it was to have the groceries delivered from King Soopers and thought I would give it a try.  I sat down at my computer that afternoon and ordered everything on my list.  It was great!  I may have accidently ordered things that were just a bit off (smaller or bigger size than usual), but overall it was a good experience.  The best part was that I didn't get a bunch of stuff not on the list that just looked yummy.  This week I did the same thing (my car is still being worked on).  I did better at actually ordering the items that I actually wanted, and got it done in about 20 minutes (how many people can say they did their grocery shopping in 20 minutes).  The groceries were delivered the next day.  It was great!  My only complaint was that my darling four and six year olds didn't tell me the lady was there delivering, and I slept through the delivery.  I am going to have to remind them to wake me before they answer the door.

Noel's Haircut

Just when I thought all of the scissors were out of Noel's reach, she decided to prove me wrong.

Luckily the nice lady at Cost Cutters was able to fix her hair and make it cute.

Better Than Christmas

This year parent-teacher conferences have been fun (or at least a proud moment for Mom and Dad).

Sean is testing way above were he should be by the end of the year.  We were told that him and a few other kids are starting on the second grade no excuse list because they have mastered the first grade list already (that is marked in the "Word List" category).  That was the most exciting one to me.  Probably because that was the one that he had excelled so incredibly far on.  No one can tell me this boy isn't smart!

While not surprised that Eric was smart, we did find out that when it comes to the DRA test, Eric has tested as high up as allowed because from this point he would have to take the fourth grade test.  That test is a bit different and scored different.  His teacher said that they will try it at the end of the year, but told us that his score probably won't go much over 40 because of the difficulty of the test.  That is fine with me.  He is in second grade and ready for fourth when it comes to reading.  I can't complain!  We were told about the problems he is having in math, but they see to be more speed related than anything else.  He is my boy after all!

Ponytail Evolution

When Noel was born, she didn't really have enough hair to put a ponytail in, but I did put a little bow in the front for her blessing (it is a bit hard to see, I know).

When she was 7 months old, she finally had enough hair for me to put a bit of a ponytail with that bow.  She rarely went anywhere without one, and she left it alone.

I was so excited when she had enough hair for two ponytails about a year later!

By the time she was two, she had started to take them out.  On some rare occations I would acctually get a picutre with some kind of ponytail in there.

By her fourth birthday, she mostly would just put a comb through her hair and leave it at that.  I would get her hair put up in some way for church, but it wouldn't last through primary.  Sometimes she would get into the hair stuff and put baretts in, but not much more than that.

She has now decided that she will now do her own ponytails (yes, this is how it was done on Sunday too).

What Do You Do on a Warm February Afternoon?

Get your Lightsabers out of course!

Down to One Car and a Motorcycle

This time last year we had 4 cars (three of which were running) and a motorcycle. If one car broke down we had a spare. That was great! Over the summer John sold his Explorer. (I can't find a picture of it.) We were then down to 3 cars (two of which were running) and a motorcycle.

I really wanted to get my old car running again so that I didn't have to spend so much on gas with the van (not to mention the fact that the van hadn't run in the winter for a few years and my back up was now gone). After working for a few months, we were able to get a new engine put in my car and I didn't have to drive the van that was on its last leg anymore.

Two months later my car started to burn oil (let me tell you how excited that did NOT make me feel). The decision was made to get the van running well enough so that I could drive that to work while my car was being fixed. After getting my van back, I drove it for about a week before it decided that it wasn't going to hold antifreeze anymore. The diagnosis was a blown gasket (oh, joy). We decided to let the mechanic junk it and put the money towards fixing the car. (It is a lot harder to find pictures when you actually want to.)

Now, here I am. John and I have to share his mustang (which only has 4 instead of 5 seat belts). My car is at the mechanic's. My van is gone for good. The Explorer was sold to some poor kid that didn't know what he was getting into, and poor John had to ride his motorcycle to work today because his battery died. When my car gets fixed, his will go in for a tune up. Until both cars are done, we will be sharing one car. that means that I have to walk to take Sean to school and pick up the boys in the afternoon (something I didn't mind when I wasn't sleeping most of the day and when it was warmer outside). Hopefully, we will have two cars that run very well by this time next month. (I can hope, right?)

(Hey! The van and Explorer in the background!)

Racing Stripe

My wonderful son decided that my car needed a racing stripe a couple of weeks ago.  I haven't washed my car yet because I wanted to blog about it.  Yes, that is mud.  The day the stripe was put on my car it went from bumper to bumper.  I even had to squirt the windshild and run the wipers to see out the windshild to go to work.  I like to promote creativity, but this may be a bit too much creativity on Eric's part.  You may not be able to tell, but the mud is caked on the top.  I guess it is a good thing that this car is so old.  (For those of you who knew me back then, yes, this is my high school car.)