It ain't nothin'

So...I didn't take the kids to church (a week ago) on Sunday. The baby has the leftovers of a cough/cold and Joey and Gabe have the beginning of one. So out of courtesy I kept them home... I did, however, have an appointment with the Bishop for tithing settlement later that afternoon. So Spen stayed responsible and watched the kids while I kept that appointment.
I took a couple goodie-bags with Oreo Truffles (thanks Stefan for starting that horrible tradition in my house, they're pure evil) one for the Bishop and family and another for whomever else I ran into. Anyway, I went in and made my greetings with the people waiting for their appointment as well. This family happened to be that of my home teacher, so it worked out great to hand them a bag of truffles. I felt all *with it* and holiday-ish. So after a brief conversation with them about the Young Men's trip spelunking and the pictures of Spencer that they had captured, they went in for their meeting. This left me alone in the foyer. I walked over to the side table that had some leftover programs from Sacrament meeting sitting on it. I picked one up to see who had spoken and if I had missed anything. As I read down the list of speakers I got to the the special musical number and what do you think I saw? and I quote "Special musical number by......Sis. Naomi Durrant" Uh............really? I wonder how that went. Considering the fact that I wasn't there... and I didn't know about it. After I pulled my stomach out of my foot, I went to the talk to the guys is the clerks office and I wish I would have said something clever like "I sang today? How did I do? was it good. I wish I could have been there." But I simply admitted that I had no idea that I was supposed to sing, we all laughed and then they asked me to sing the following week, which was yesterday. This time I was thoughtful enough to show up.

good day to ya.

Way back in the, I don't know, late 70's early 80's (my sister could tell you) when we still lived in Utah, my mother had the great idea that we should make a Nativity Scene out of salt dough. I remember it being fun, and it all looked beautiful. I also remember every Christmas after that, bringing out the little figures and knowing that it was truly Christmas time. I began, with age, to be able to tell the ones I created from the ones made by mother and sister(they were much better). But I still loved every part of it. Some how that Nativity scene ended up coming to live at my house. I don't remember what all was in that first scene, all I know is what I have today: Mary, with a pink face and yellow robe, Joseph, in blue, bald with a brown beard, a shepherd in brown, a yellow star, a silver sheep(I think) that doesn't stand on its own, and a silver bunny with black ears. A bunny? you say? I don't know if there really was a bunny in the stable, but when your mother's name is Bunny, there are bunnies at everything. Anyway, about 8 years ago I decided that it was time to sit down with my kids (Spencer and Sariah and baby Gabe) and make another salt dough Nativity scene. My pieces were much better this time. We didn't paint them. I am assuming that after the process of making the dough and the characters and cleaning up and chasing the (Oh my) 3 whole kids I had at the time, that I just didn't have the heart to attempt painting. But nevertheless, we had our scene to add to the one of my youth. We even added a baby Jesus this time and a camel. Well this sweet little scene lasted and lasted... until this year. A child with the first name beginning with a J-(take your pick, there are only 2 and I really don't know who is to blame) decided to take the clear plastic box they were stored in, and shake it. 28 year old salt dough doesn't hold up well to a good shaking, 8 year old salt dough holds up even worse. I pulled out all of the really old pieces, Mary and Joseph had only minor damage, they lost their heads and a few bits off other places. The *sheep* and bunny were fine and so was the old shepherd. As was baby Jesus from the new set. The star lost its bottom. The other parts and people were shattered. I threw the unsalvagables away. And decided to attempt to fix what I could. As I was gluing for posterity sake, Jacob picked up the bunny and accidentally, but promptly broke off the ear. After I was finished with the others, I went to work on the bunny ear. I don't know if there was too much glue or if my gluing skills had been impaired at that exact moment, but I managed to get the bunny ear back on and glue my finger to the back of the rabbit at the same time. It wasn't just a little spot that I could pull free from. I was stuck tight to this stupid little bunny who wasn't and probably shouldn't have been there at the Nativity scene anyway. Now, how to get unstuck. Spencer, in his genius, mentioned that when he had read the super glue package it suggested using vegetable oil to get the glue off your skin. Maybe, off your skin, but definitely does not work to remove you from a salt dough Nativity rabbit. From past experience I knew that fingernail polish remover was the only thing that really worked. Question was, did I have any? I remember when packing to move, that I decided to throw a lot of half empty bottles of stuff away, thinking that I would just replace them when we got here. The *pack rat* me always advises against this. The *stuck to the bunny* me, is grateful that in the case of the almost empty bottle of polish remover, I listened to the *pack rat* me. But, where was it? I wasn't sure if I had unpacked it, or if I had left it in the *extra bathroom stuff* box. So of course, that is where I looked first. Come to find out, the *trying to be organized* me had put it away in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. all said and done, 15 minutes later I was freed from the bunny. It took a little longer for the acetone to cut through all the vegetable oil and I was really STUCK to that rabbit. Needless to say, I think we'll be making a new scene this year when the kids are home for vacation. Perhaps we'll add some more bunnies. Or maybe just a bunny trap.

Grateful

I am grateful that y'all read my posts in spite of my poor typing, stinky grammar, bad spelling and crappy proof reading skills. I can only imagine how crazy it must drive my teacher friends. Thanks for closing your teacher brains and reading anyway.

I am also grateful for super-glue. . . and finger nail polish remover. I'll tell that story later. I'm still recovering.

Angry Tree, part deux

Heather asked how cold it was. I could make something fantastic up and say that it was -25 and there was a blizzard a foot, but I can't lie this close to Christmas. The weather has been amazing and very Texas familiar. God has been very kind when we move, he changes the weather to help us acclimate better. It snowed on Christmas Eve the first year we were in Houston. And the weather has been very friendly to us now that we are back in Wyoming. So the weather was probably in the mid to high 30's. It's a different, dry cold. Not the sink to your bones wet cold that you get near the Gulf. So anyway back to the tree... The ride home was fairly uneventful. As uneventful as you can get with 7 kids, 2 grown ups, the *not broken* dog, and a tree tied to the roof of the family vehicle. We got home and got the tree off the roof and were pleased to find that the height we needed was exactly what we had chosen. No we didn't pre-measure. Come to find out our ceilings are almost 8 feet the tree was 7 1/2. We sawed off some of the lower branches and stuffed this 15 year old tree into our nice big sturdy tree stand. We filled the bottom with water and proceeded to decorate. Lights and all the old ornaments, and the little snowmen with the dangling mittens. And the snowmen heads with the bells for bottoms, so cute. These are the ones my mom-in-law sent us over the years. Anyway we got the tree decorated. And while it was pretty, it was still thin, and a tiny bit Charlie Brownish. So the next day I decided it needed some tinsel/icicles to fill in the holes. I used to love that stuff, but it's only fun to pull it out of a cat or child's throat just so many times, then it gets old. I must have felt pretty desperate to have to resort back to tinsel. I was a little upset after buying the tinsel and a few other things from a local store (of which I refuse to name because they are so over priced there,(most of the time), I get angry when I shop and refuse to give them any credit or recognition.) Tinsel in a package of 1000 strands at Wal-mart costs 50 cents. I paid $1.09, this was on sale from $1.99. And that wasn't all. We also needed more lights for our roof. So I paid $8 something, also on sale. I came home upset and then Jason went to go run an errand and took the lights with him just in case he found some cheaper some where else, he did. $4 thank you Ace Hardware. Anyhoodle, while he was gone the tree and I got into a fight. It started to lean a little and so I tried to straighten it out a little. And it fell on me. I have never EVER had a Christmas tree fall, let alone fall ON me. So I put it back up and tightened the screws in the base. This wasn't going to work. With the tree being so fresh it had soaked up all the water we had put in the base. The bark was sopping wet and had turned into mush, the screws had nothing to dig into. So what is the first thing that comes to my mind? Duct tape. It fixes everything. I put the tree back on the ground ornaments and all, actually I don't know if I put it there or if it put itself there, and proceeded to wrap duct tape around the trunk of the tree to give the screws something to grip into. I then put the now half decorated tree back up into the stand. I was irritated. And the lights were falling off. The only logical(hormonally logical) solution was to un-decorate the tree. So I started pulling the lights off. Spencer was trying to help. It wasn't really working, and just to prove that I wasn't the only irritated thing around, the tree fell again. That was all I needed. So I grabbed it, drug it through the house and threw it out the front door... and there it STOOD, yep, stood in its smug little manner. If trees had mouths it would have been smirking. Now there is a story, kind of a legend really, to anyone who grew up around Shumway's. It has to do with children being in trouble and a tree being vaulted out of the house, but that story belongs to Christin and if she chooses to tell it that's up to her. But we have heard it in my house and so when Jason came home he thought for sure the kids were up a creek in trouble, and that he would enter to find me a raving lunatic. He was relieved to find that I wasn't having any trouble with the kids, just the stupid @*&%#$#@ tree. He fixed it by screwing pieces of 2x4's into the trunk and wedging it into the base. Needless to say it'd probably stand until July if we let it. So I redecorated, with the help of super-glue of course, to glue the little bells back on the bottoms of the snowman heads that had broken on their jaunt through the house.
I typically have great reverence, respect and admiration for the trees we get to help us celebrate Christmas. I admire their beauty, being lighted and decorated with love, care and tradition. I'm always a little sad for the life of the tree that was shortened. BUT when I look at this tree, all I can think is how much I'm going to enjoy using it for firewood.

Good day to ya.

Turkey Makes People Grumpy, or Attack of the Angry Tree

Either that or I've just been hormonal for the last week. I'm guessing that is probably the REAL explanation. But the turkey excuse works for me, it's dead so it doesn't mind taking the blame. So Thanksgiving came and went and it was OK but I'd rather not talk about it. I cooked, we ate and there were leftovers. Our day after Thanksgiving family tradition is going and getting a Christmas tree. In Texas this involved a trip to Wal-mart or Kroger, followed by a lot of shaking, bug spray, and a hose, for the tree that is. This year we were able to continue the *original* tradition and go cut down our own tree, and it only cost $8 not $25-$75 (depending on how many bugs you want included on the tree.) Now there is something I must explain, I have a thing with Christmas trees. I have two. One is a fake fiber optic sparkly tree. The other must be real. I grew up under the false impression that I was allergic to pine trees in the house so my family had to have the short ugly fleece snow covered, fake tree. Which now, when I see it, brings back some nice fluffy feelings of carefree Christmases past. That is beside the point. I had a friend whose mother had 2 Christmas trees. The one downstairs in the family room was covered in the ornaments that the kids brought home from school or church, and popcorn strands or paper chains, etc. The OTHER tree was upstairs and decorated elegantly with the *no touchy* sort of ornaments. I thought this particular set up was brilliant and from that day forth I decided that one of my life long goals was to have two Christmas trees. And in the year 2002 I got my wish, and it has been that way ever since. (I'm easy to please what can I say) Anyway, where was I... Oh yes, this year we got to go up to the Big Horns and cut our own, no bugs included, they all got cold and took off. Now the interesting thing about going up to this particular mountain range from where we live is that there's a lot of up. For example, the conversation in the car went something like this "Oh look! There's a nice tree, did anyone bring the climbing gear? No? well lets drive on and see if we find a more level spot so we don't have to repel back to the car." Drive on we did. Now seeing that the majority of the Big Horn mountain range is available to Christmas tree cutting our options seemed pretty open. Had we been here three or four kids ago, this process could have taken hours, but my expectations have wained a bit and so I saw a decent spot that looked safe enough and we stopped. So here comes the exciting part. We then piled out of the suburban all 9 of us and the dog. I had the baby in the snuggli, she's 13 months old, snuggli's aren't meant for 13 month 22lb (give or take a pound) babies. So I guess it would be better said that I had the baby crammed into the snuggli. Sariah had Jacob. Spencer had the dog. Jason had the saw and Joey who wanted to be carried. And I think that Gabe and Caleb we're close on Sariah's trail. We followed a little closed road just a short way and came to a cattle guard. Now honest to goodness, half of my kids have never seen let alone crossed a cattle guard. That really didn't seem to be a huge deal unless you know that the dog hadn't had much, if any, experience with one either. (He has a past life so I don't know what he did before we got him) Anyway Spencer was the first one to the guard. I suggested that the dog would be fine crossing, so to proceed. I guess he went a little fast because halfway across, the dog freaked out, lost his footing and one of his back legs slipped through the grate. He got across, but was limping on the other side. "GREAT, " I thought, "we broke the dog." Jason crossed picked the dog up, (which is probably what we should have done in the first place.) Crossed back over and carried the dog to the car. He (the dog) was fine. Turns out he just scratched up the inside of his leg. Meanwhile back at the cattle guard, Jacob had figured out how to cross on all fours, hands and feet. It wasn't good enough to go just once he had to go over at least 3 or 4 times. Spencer learned that his feet are big enough to stretch across two rungs, so he went across 3 or 4 times as well, to his credit, one time was carrying Joey. Caleb and Gabe we're fine. And Sariah carried the saw. While we waited on the other side for Dad to return, I sent Spencer up the side of the mountain to check out potential victims, I mean trees. When Jason got back, we all headed up. It only took three times up and down to different spots to find the almost *perfect* tree. When I wrote earlier about my expectations, this is part of the change, I'm just not as picky anymore. Our tree turned out to be the first one I sent Spencer to check out. So we agreed, Jason sawed, we conquered. And then we headed down the mountain, across the cattle guard that bit the dog, to the car to have our leftover Thanksgiving lunch while dad tied the tree to the top. Which, after 10 years of practice, he has gotten quite efficient at doing. So we ate lunch, peed in the trees and on rocks (it's great having so many boys) and headed back home to decorate our trophy...
to be continued...

So my camera is freaking out. It's having energy consumption problems. It can take about 1 picture and sucks the batteries dry. Other wise I would be posting tons of new pictures. One of my new hair cut. It's great. Which is unusual for me because when I get a haircut it's usually followed by another one to fix all the things I didn't like about the first one. But anyway... Jason comes home tomorrow night! And no my house is not perfectly clean. But I'll get it done before Thanksgiving. I have to go help teach a class now, so I'll check in later

hasta

Not much

ONLY FIVE DAYS LEFT!!!!!! and my husband will be home. These last two hitches have taken (cover your eyes) FREAKIN' eternity. Literally. We moved, had been in our house for a week and then he went to work a little early. He was gone for 28days. Then came home for 9 days and had to go back early for some silly class. On Friday he will be coming home from being gone for 25 days. That time table seems a little heavy on their(meaning the company's) end. So now I can finally breathe and say "Holy crap I have to clean the house, Jason will be home in 5 days!" No, I really am relieved. It's strange though, he hasn't spent more than a couple weeks in our new house. I have to tell him where things are when he comes home.
I am very aware and grateful that he gets to come home. I understand that there are many families that have extended time away from dad. Military and such. Or the long separation called death. There is a family in my ward at church whose dad just died. I sang at the funeral the first week I was here. I just sang at two of their daughter's baptism. He wasn't a member, and after letting his oldest two daughters get baptized, I guess he said enough, no more. And so it took his death to allow these two other girls to enter that gate. Sad really. But the gospel will not be stopped. But aside from that, I think of their mother quite a bit. I think of how sad she must be, at times, to just not have him home. This makes me ever more grateful that my separation from Jason is so temporary. I'm sorry for their grief, but grateful for the reminder.
So I'm guessing I'm just blogging to blog. I really don't have anything huge to say.
I think the people here are so funny. The Relief Society Pres. came by to see how I was doing. I laughed and said I was fine. They think I'm an anomaly. crazy part-time single mom of 7. Singing, speaking, and getting up at 4:45 every morning to go write music at the church with her best-friend. and reminding us that she doesn't have a calling outside of visiting teacher. I guess when you look at it, it does seem a little odd. But it's my life, I'm very blessed. and I'm pretty happy with it and not really overwhelmed... now that everybody has stopped puking. so the natives are restless... I must go intervene.

good day to ya.

Uh...So I am not "super immune woman" like I suspected. Neither is Gabe. Spencer is still the anomaly, he must just be the carrier of all things illness related. So I started to feel a little "not right" on Sunday night. I took a Dramamine because there is nothing worse in the world to me than being nauseous and throwing up. Well if I was gonna puke I'd rather not be dizzy doing it. I was still optimistic as I fell into a cautious sleep. I had been out for about 45 mins when the phone rang. I answered thinking that it must be important for someone to call me at 10:39 (I looked at the clock) I was thinking maybe it was my husband. It was my grandmother-in-law. Calling to tell me that she had a hard time finding my phone number and that she wasn't going to send me the canning stuff, we'd have to drive to Idaho and pick it up, and then she started razzing the rest of the family like she does in every conversation. I typically "uh-huh" quite well, but this night all I wanted to do was get back to my non-puking sleep. I told her right at the beginning of the conversation that I had been cleaning up after the stomach flu for three days and that I wasn't feeling very well myself. She finally caught the clue when a half hour later I said "I need to go to the bathroom." I said it in part to just get off the phone and in part because I had an interesting feeling that I really needed to go. Little did I know that for the next several hours, on the hour, I would be in the bathroom *stomach fluing* my guts out. Stupid germs. When Monday 7am rolled around. The thought "There is no way, in anybodies world, that I am going to get any of these kids out the door to school...ain't gonna happen." Good thing too. Gabe started being sick a couple hours later. So they all watched movies and made messes. Lot's of messes. Spencer helped pretty well. I still had to change the diapers, but I was allowed to stay in bed/bathroom most of the day. And since most of everybody was still pretty queasy, the topic of food didn't come up that often.
So...we're all maintaining what goes in now. That is good. I do have to say that I would have preferred to lose the last 5 pounds in a different way, but whatever works. Only 10-15 more to hit my *before I had any kids* weight. I think I'll exercise for the rest though.

Good day to ya.

Stupid Computer,
I just went and added all my other friends blog addresses to my fellow bloggers, saved them. and then they didn't want to save. So I will have to take another 10 minutes of some imaginary hour to do it again. Whatever.

I am happy, however. The puking has subsided. Spencer, Gabriel and myself have gratefully escaped the clutches of the virus. I am remaining happy and grateful (a little bit of the Secret) that this will be the case entirely. So for now I am going to go clean my kitchen. I didn't dare take anyone to church today, it's Stake Conference. While I am disappointed to not be there. I am also not stupid or rude. It's not impossible to sit alone with 7 children and attempt to keep them sort of reverent, for 2 hours, But it isn't an easy task. Especially when they are recovering from the flu. I also don't want to take a chance at re-infecting everybody with the flu. Anyway I'm just wasting time now so it's off to disinfect I go.

Good day to ya!

Christin tagged me to find the fourth picture of the fourth file in my mess of pictures. And then write about it. Well it just happened to be Caleb's (my 4th childs) 5th birthday pic. Which is a good thing, because he has been my headache causing child as of late, I need to say something nice about him. He throws fits and crying tantrums in the mornings before school and as soon as he comes home, that's not the nice stuff I need to say. He is the middle child. Too young for the older ones, too big for the younger ones. Kindergarten wipes him out. I know he's tired. He is doing well in school. His teacher was surprised to learn that he didn't attend pre-school. He is still willing to give and take hugs. He is learning about the gospel. He's my rockstar. He used to grab the music stand and pretend it was a microphone and then he would jam out in his little gruff voice. He's a tough cookie. And he is somebody I'm glad to have on my side. I love him like crazy, even when he drives me crazy.

Now, I tag Heather, Stacey, Jen T& Jen A. 4th of the 4th.

So why is it when kids get sick they choose to do it at night? I know, it's not like I've actually slept for the last 13 years anyway, but come on. So Jacob was sleeping in my room, which tends to happen most nights. It's an age thing. All of my three-year-old's have, at one point, taken an interest in sleeping in mom and dad's room. Anyway. I had moved him from my bed to a pillow and blanket on the floor. Thank goodness, the Tempurpedic couldn't have handled the peanut butter/hot dog puke which occurred around 1 am. I promptly went into OCD mode, rubber gloves, paper towels, Lysol, clorox wipes, and wal-mart bags, and germ-X. Lucklily it all ended up on the huge feather pillow(nice) and not the newish carpet, which in my room is what color? Beige (come on stupid carpet people, when are you going to learn) the steam cleaner wasn't needed this time, but it was standing faithfully on guard. As Jakey took a bath, I proceeded to check on the other kids to see if I had acidentally poisoned them for dinner, nope everyone else was fine. I put all the blankets and pillow cases in the washer, the pillow would come later. Then I sprayed every touchable surface with Lysol, (that's one of the companies I need to invest in.) I made him a bed, on my floor, with Spencer's camp mat, a bunch of towels and I put HIS pillow in a plastic bag and then back in the pillow case, I think all pillows should be plastic hospital pillows, not comfy but easy to clean. He understood that if he needed to throw up again it should be in the wal-mart bag lined trash can. I then washed and lysoled the gloves. Washed and germ-Xed my hands. Then we laid down and tried to sleep, for a little while. Ellie woke up twice because she was cold. Not something that happens in Texas. So I had to go re-cover her, no big deal. Then I managed to fall back to sleep. In my sleep I noticed that Jacob said he was thirsty, and he got up and got a drink of water. I then woke up to him thowing up the water that he just drank. In the trash can (good boy) I tied the bags. Washed, germ-Xed, lysoled. And we went back to sleep. And then the alarm clock went off. It was one thing to get up (in TX) to make sure the kids were up and ready for the bus. It's another thing entirely to get EVERYBODY up and get them in the car to take 4 of 7 to school. They were late because Caleb threw a fit about wanting to put his pants on already buttoned. Guess what, pants don't go on when they're already buttoned, but I let him find that out. So then he had a fit because he wanted them unbuttoned. Then Gabe could only find one of each of his shoes. Joey and Ellie both needed a diaper change. And then we all got in the car, which takes FOREVER, and got the kids to school. Jacob took the trash can with him. Good thing, he had gotten another drink of water somewhere between the shoes and diaper changes. Why isn't my husband home when stuff like this happens? It's really quite funny if you picture it all in fast forward. But whatever. So I hope all y'all have a fantastic day, which is what I'll have as soon as the caffeine kicks in.

Good day to ya.

Ellie's first birthday

So our last baby turned 1 two weeks ago. I would have liked it to have been a more momentous occasion, but everyone was verging on illness and Jason was going back to work on Monday and I didn't get my piano, and etc.etc. So the energy was a little low. My in-laws came up which was great to have them with us. They now only live 2 1/2 hours away instead of 23. Which is much more convenient for everyone involved.

But back to the baby. She is still the happiest baby ever. Even though she has begun throwing some interesting mood altercations (that's the happy baby way of saying tantrums) when her brothers do something that ticks her off. Like take a toy, food, or push her down. We also learned that we as a family must yell sometimes(a lot) because we sat down for dinner when Jason was home, and Ellie just started chewing him out. I guess I'm gonna have to call her first word "NO!" She also says something that sounds a lot like Sariah. With dad gone, she mostly yells at the dog. She is still super cute and very happy. I can't believe how fast this year has flown by. It literally feels like a minute.

A note to those Texans we left behind. I didn't think I'd miss you, but I do. I knew I loved the people (the ones I knew anyway, it was the other 4 million that I could do without) I didn't realize how much of a family all y'all had become to me. When unpacking boxes my heart gave out a little twinge when I saw "crap table upstairs" scrawled out in Maria's very distinct handwriting. Or when I thought about all of the help that Melissa H. gave me in those last few minutes (days really) when my brain and body could no longer function as a whole unit. And for all the boxes she gave us that have their name written all over them. It was bittersweet. And then on that dang Facebook which may suck my life away, to see the picture of the Phillips' and those two babies, it made me cry, just a little. And to think of my good friend Stefan getting ready to have that boy. Could somebody throw her a baby shower... you could probably do it at Stefan's house, oh wait who am I kidding. That was done a long time ago and it probably was at her house just so she'd be there. And then Stacey...and Jeanette, and Dallas, and Janet, and Suzeanne and Jen and...the list goes on and on. You were my first family away from home. I did a lot of "Grown up" growing there. (ha ha I know grow 3 kids? I said grow up not out.) My testimony grew, too. You are all amazing. And It's nice to know that if I wanted to go back... I could and because of you, it would feel like going home. I didn't think it would happen but you cannot live in Texas for 4 years and 2 months and not be infected with a little bit of that Texas Pride. I'm hopin it will wash off after a few more Wyoming showers. But I do have 3 Texas natives in my house. So a nice mix is justified. Don't get offended if I didn't write your name. That wasn't the point. I'd have to sit down with the whole ward list and put you all down, and you know it, too. There wasn't a single sister in our ward that I didn't love. I wasn't a part of a "click" I didn't see who was divided. To me you weren't. We were all crazy in our own right. I hope to shout that I never offended any of you. If so, I apologize sincerely. If so, know that it was done out of sheer ignorance.
Well, I need to go for now. I'm starring blankly now. Means I'm tired. I have more to say on this at a later date. SO anyhoodle
good day to ya.

It's been so lonfg. See how long? I can't even type anymore. So before I get into the rest of my life I have some venting. Not even in a negative way, just letting some disappointed air out. So I get on Facebook. Y'all know it cause y'all are on it. Anyway. I find people that I knew from way back whenever, and see them doing all the fabulous things that deep somewhere in my heart I wish I was doing too. Theatre actually. That's about it really. Once a performer, there is this burning of unquenchable desire to perform again. BUT, that ship has sailed and left me on port with 7 crew mates to steward. So to all those who are fulfilling my dream without me...Break a leg.

ENOUGH. So we went on vacation...and decided to move. and left within 2 months of returning home. It was extremely guided. We hadn't even found a house by the time we got home. We had put an offer on a 20 acre farm, but that didn't take. Thank goodness, it would have been nice if it weren't for the TRAIN in the front yard. Not kidding. And now seeing how frequently the train passes by I am growingly more grateful. Is growingly even a word, no? It is now.

So we bought a 5 bedroom house on an acre. The whole process amazes me still and continues to confirm that our God is a definite worker of miracles.

Small towns have their ups and downs. But, I don't feel like complaining right now so I just want to share some pictures.

All y'all should know, that in spite of killing 2 black widow spiders (outside, you'll be happy to know they died violently with a hammer, oh and poison) My spirit is very much at peace. My children are happy and I am, too. I know longer drive down the road and have the question "Why do I live here?" repeat over and over. That would be on Fry after Franz heading to Morton. If I question here as I drive and hour and a half to Wal-Mart, it is answered by the beauty of the canyon I'm driving through or the pink shades of sunset reflecting off the snow on the tops of the next mountain range over.

Oh and the snow. Apparently the weather is being a little weird. (having come from TX it seems normal) It has only snowed once since we've been here, not bad for two months. But is was FABULOUS! 6 inches. And it was awesome putting those Texas babies down in it.
Good day to ya.

I'm here. Finally. In Worland. Town of 5,500. small, quiet. No hurricanes.
My thoughts have been with all y'all my friends and ward family in Katy and the Houston area. I know that y'all have been blessed because of your faith and prayers. Hang in there life will get back to normal. And know that NOT everyone else in the country has forgotten you.

I'll become more consistant in writing when we get our own internet. Moving turned out to be WAY more expensive than anticipated so we need to prioritize our expendatures a little bit. The kids are in school and loving it. Jason is back at work. Thankfully, he was home for the whole Ike mess. I will check in a little later. Good luck with all the clean up

As a bug...being killed by a "Croc" (from a pair of "Crocs") must be like being bludgeoned to death by a Nerf hammer.

I will finish posting about our trip at a later date. Until then I'll just give y'all a heads up on what's up. We're moving. In three weeks. When we left on our family vacation we hadn't even IMAGINED that we would be considering even entertaining the idea of moving...So Yes, there is more to this story. and no right now is not the time for me to write about the details. I have to keep packing. OH and Melissa can I please have more boxes? And thanks for the ones you've given me so far!!!!
Back to busy I must go
Good day to ya.

BRAIN BUSY!!!!! CALL BACK LATER!!!!

Third Leg

No, I'm not sure *technically* how many legs you can have in one trip. And I am sure a punchline will emerge soon. You'll know when it happens. Anyway...
We left Laramie and headed to our boomerang destination. Which would be the point in our trip that would head us back in an easterly direction. This location was Rigby, Idaho. The whole point of this trip was to introduce all of our children to Jason's grandfather, who was diagnosed with brain cancer a couple of months ago. Well we didn't make it. I guess he didn't make it. He died on June 8th. But we'll discuss that a little later.
So we were off to go visit Jason's Grandma and his Uncle and Aunt (whom I have talked to but never met.)
We *potty breaked* outside of Rawlins(one of the armpits of WY) and I offered to drive. Jason had driven the entire trip thus far and I was trying to be considerate. So down the highway we start and we ran into the ONLY real weather of the whole trip. It started pouring rain. Like Texas rain. Thing is they use black top on their roads. Not concrete like they do in TX. It creates this silver mirror like effect when you have tons of rain. I couldn't see crap. And then there were the semi's. Wind, rain, tractor trailers and 75mph. ahh driving in WY. The only thing we were missing was the snow and ice, oh and fog. Needless to say Jason panicked a little and drove the rest of the way.
We cut through the Targhee National Forest. This is when things started to get gorgeous.
I must sorta apologize for the occasional blurred bottom these pictures are all taken while driving and through the dang closed window.

I must admit that I have never seen Wyoming so green. Growing up there and being in art classes you learn a lot about the color yellow ochre. That is typically the color in any foreground of a WY landscape. They have had a ton of rain and snow this year. And man was it worth it to see the results. I appreciate the green in TX it's green here all the time, but it was almost as though WY was saying "look at me. Aren't I pretty. I can be green, too."

To be continued...

Second Leg

After staying in Amarillo, we left early (but not Too early) to head off to our next over night spot, which would be my parents house in Laramie. We were off to a slow start considering we had to have 4 "potty breaks" in the first hour. We drove 287 through a tiny spot of Oklahoma, (The whole time we were there I kept wishing I new more of the song than just "OOOOO klahoma where the wind comes (sweeping)rushing through the plains" see I don't even know that much) It was nice to drive that way because it made getting into Colorado so much faster. Colorado is another state that I consider home. The only thing about that side of Colorado is that it's very FLAT, it's a lot like OOOOOklahoma. I guess Heavenly Father didn't plan all of the landscape around the future state lines, curious. Going the other route you can definitely tell when you hit Colorado from New Mexico. But here...not so much. Nothing really exciting happened through Colorado. It's always a relief to see the East side of the Rocky Mountains, especially coming up near Colorado Springs and Denver. Fort Collins was a place I spent a lot of time in when I was in high school. And the Denver Temple is our temple. So home we were. We were all very excited to jump on i-25 and head up to Cheyenne. My kids got to peak at the buffalo at the Terry Bison ranch between Ft. Collins and Cheyenne. The only real difference looking at cows and buffalo from a distance is that the bison are bigger black dots.
Between Cheyenne and Laramie is a place called Vedauwoo (vee-da-voo) This is a place that I spent many an hour in my teenage years. Playing, climbing, camping, playing some more.

Sorry my pictures aren't great. It was a drive by photo shoot. And our passenger side window doesn't roll down. But you get the drift. Anyway...
By the time you get to Vedauwoo we're pretty much home.

Laramie was gracious enough to have rain for me. I love rain more than any other weather. There is a difference between Texas rain and Wyoming rain. The smell. TX rain doesn't really have a smell. But you can tell it's going to rain in Wyoming a good 20 min. ahead of time by the glorious smell. It's fresh and clean and nothing like those air fresheners that claim to be the scent of "spring rain." My kids were funny. Looking at the rain falling from the clouds in the distance they commented that it looked like the clouds were throwing up.
blurry sign of mine and my husbands school, they didn't teach me no good grammar. Just kidding, maybe they would have if I had continued to finish my degree instead of having a litter of children.
and finally at my parents house. They had a really snowy spring so we got there in time for the iris's to be in a beautiful bloom.
My Grandmother will be 90 on August 30th. She was in the hospital with pneumonia. So we had to go visit. It was very strange not having her at the house. We have something in common. We both LOVE Smallville. She is looking forward to the new season starting. I hope she makes it.

To be continued...

First leg of the trip

So we started out early in the a.m. on the 23rd of June. Of course when your intentions are to leave at 5, 7 is usually the reality. You know what, I have to back track a week earlier. Oh and first explain why I am writing today which happens to be Sunday. I typically try to have Sunday be the day that the computer doesn't get turned on, but this Sunday I have everyone home due to a small breakout of the lower intestinal stomach flu, (need I say more?) I'm working on an ode to Mr. Clean and Clorox wipes in gratitude. uhhhh... Oh right a week before we left.
So when I lived in Laramie I made some of the best friends of my life. After about 21 years I came out with a handful that will all be living on my block in the Celestial Kingdom, or at least down the street. One of those is Val Pead. She and her sister, Sarah, taught me about something called unconditional love. Which they showed me on several occasions while I was working out some of my many issues during my "growing up" stage as a grown up. They also showed me how to play. Like all good LDS people do. And laugh, harder than I had ever laughed before. Those were some amazing years in college.
Val served her mission, ironically, in Houston. So almost 10 years later the prodigal daughter returned to her mission stomping grounds and to my house to visit my, in her own words, cute family. She is from a family of 12, 8 boys 4 girls. Needless to say she has great sympathy for Sariah. So exactly 4 weeks ago today, I went to pick her up from where she spent the first part of her trip and brought her here to spend the last part of her trip.
Monday we went to Katy Mills and Val treated us to lunch at Rainforest Cafe, in honor of Sariah's birthday (which was the next day.) Caleb had his ears plugged the entire time, it's a little loud, but the rest of the kids enjoyed it.
Tuesday noon-ish we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's.

Tuesday night Dallas, Stacey and Melissa came over to play games. My kids were in bed, mostly, and it was tons of fun to have grown-up company. And we all ate way to much junk.
Wednesday Val introduced me and Sariah to pedicures. (pretty toes!)
Thursday we took her to the airport.
Friday we went back to the airport to pick up Jason from work. Did I mention that my little kids think that he works at the airport for three weeks at a time? Saturday we spent trying to pack as best we could for leaving on Monday. Sunday was our Sacrament meeting on music. Sariah sang and did a great job, except for the fact that she tried to back out at the last minute and I had to pay her. She is a natural alto like myself, the song was a little high and she was nervous about how she sounded. I also sang. Everything went just great. Sunday night, my sister came to pick up the dog, she generously said she would watch him for us while we were gone. And Dallas came to pick up the key, she had very generously agreed to come and care for the rest of the critters here at home. I think she even watered my plants. Thanks Dallas! Now where was I? oh yeah...finally. Monday morning we were on the road by 7a.m. Ready and excited to spend the next 12 hours driving across Texas. We went by way of Austin and the "hill country" I was actually impressed. It was very pretty. Everyone did really well. Sariah and I colored for a while in the front seat. The back two rows had movies. Heather had given us an extra screen to hook to our portable DVD player. That was awesome, but I had concerns about the child in the front row not being included in the movies, so I went and bought another set. It worked out great. The older two got to watch a movie and the youngers got to watch one too. So we made it to Amarillo around 8 or 9p.m. and stayed at a very nice hotel. We had talked about swimming, but Jason and I were exhausted, and the kids probably would have all drowned. So they were disappointed but survived.


"Ahhh, what a way to relax after spending the whole day in the car..."
To Be Continued...

Hey I'm back...sorta

So we drove up to Idaho and Wyoming for a couple of weeks when my husband was home. I'll be writing and sharing pictures in segments. We are also contemplating, very seriously, moving to WY again, so a lot of my free (haha) time will be spent painting and cleaning and throwing away and packing. The biggest obstacle will be selling this house in a decent amount of time. It will all work according to Heavenly Fathers plan, so I'm not panicking. There is just a lot of paint required to cover up 4 years of 7 very artistic kids. So in bits and pieces I will take time to drop in a blog or two and share some amazing pictures of some of the most beautiful landscapes I've ever seen.

Good day to ya.

Awwww Crap

There are a lot of things in this world that make me say "Awwww crap." On occasion it is actually crap. When my almost 9-year-old daughter was 3 1/2 she swallowed a nickel. It got stuck in her throat on the way down. Halfway to the ER she told my husband that it was gone and that they could go home. He took her anyway. They x-rayed her little belly, and sure as snot, there was the perfect little circle, impenetrable be the x-rays. They told us that it was time to wait and in the next 24-48 hours it should pass through her system, but that we needed to watch for it "just in case." So for the next 24-48 hours worth of poop, I was mining for nickel, I found nothing. Thing was, Jason had taken her to work with him that next morning following the swallowing. She had done her business there. Did he bother to check? Oh no. So after all that checking I did, we figured the nickel came out when she went to work with daddy. Either that or she has been 5 cents richer for the last 5 years.
A mother's life is full of "Awwww crap." From the time these little babies come out with the nasty black meconium, to the lovely changes to solid food, to the even better stages of potty training, to the fun filled stomach flu that hits everybody in a line, it's all about poop. My latest "awww crap" has to do with Jacob. He's my most trying 3-year-old yet. All of my kids have been fully potty trained by this age. Except him. He does fine when it's his idea. But, if I dare suggest that he try pooping in the potty, it's like I've declared war. So I try not to force the issue. I've spent more days than not cleaning "awww crap" out of his underwear. Bleeackkhhh. We don't wear pull-ups anymore because that seems to give him permission to pee in them. And that's just backwards. He can make it through the night waking up dry in his underwear, so that is what we do. A couple of weeks ago he wore a pull-up to bed. In the morning I was doing, whatever with another child, and Sariah yells out "Eww, mom." With 5 brother's I hear this a lot from her. But then I heard "Jacob is smearing poop on the wall." and what comes to my mind? "Awww crap." Actually the picture I had in my mind wasn't that bad. He has the tendency to have his hands in places they shouldn't be and I figured he ran into something gross and wiped it on the wall. No big deal I would get to that after I changed him. He came over to me with a horribly nasty pull-up. Although I was frustrated and expressed my disappointment to him, I cleaned him up without many words and tossed him in the tub, then I went to clean up the spot on the wall... I asked the kids where it was. They pointed to the wall on the opposite side of the pantry. I went to find the *spot* and what I found was a portrait, a 2 foot by 3 foot finger painting... by Jacob... out of poop. "Awww crap." I have decided I need to invest in Mr. Clean magic erasers. And no, I didn't take a picture, thought about it...but I didn't want to subject anyone to that kind of artistic expression. So anyway...

Good day to ya.

Blazy Dayz

SO I have been abnormally blazy(blogging lazy) lately. So I apologize. No that anyone really cares but still. I have started a post about my trip, but as you see it's not here. I'll get to it. Hopefully before I go on our next trip, which is in 2 1/2 weeks so that may not happen. We are driving up to Idaho to visit Jason's grandparents. His grandpa has brain cancer and we thought it would be good for the kids to say hello before they say goodbye. So we'll venture forth and around with all nine of us packed into the suburban for 2 weeks... It will be fun.

Not much has gone on since I've been home. The kids are on their summer break. Everybody's home...all day...everyday. It's all good. That's the way it is.

I again apologize for my blaziness and maybe I'll be better. Until later then...

I WON !!!

I forgot a lot of things before I went on vacation. One thing was the mother's day art contest on the rig. Remember my picture that got lost? This one? yeah, well Jason entered a laminated copy of the photo I took of the picture I did. And he added a little part of my blog about it. And I WON. 500 smakaroonies!!! Thank you very much!

Happy (Holy Crap I have a Teenager) Birhtday

So I failed to post, before I left, about the latest birthday. Well it finally happened... Spencer turned 13.

We didn't do much by way of a party. Dallas came and watched our kids and we took the birthday boy to Red Lobster and watch him scarf down a $23 plate for dinner, after which he looked at me and said, "I'm actually full." (could this be a sign of things to come?) We then went to go see "Ironman" because it was PG-13 and he was official. (the movie was actually really funny. I was surprised) I know he wanted to do something else like paintball or a huge party, but his birthday fell right in the middle of a big mess of things to do this year. I hope he enjoyed spending time with mom and dad by himself, even though we kept joking with him that he was actually on our anniversary date with us as the third wheel. He unintentionally got us back though because I had a sitter set up for over a month for our actual anniversary night, 4 days after his birthday, and we had to go to his Jr.High band concert that night. Ahh parenthood. Anyway Spen is a great kid. I love him a bunch and I am very grateful that he is a part of my life. I wouldn't trade him for a whole bag of Oreos.

My next post will be about my trip. I am a little sleppy, see how tired I am, I'm so tired I passed sleepy and went all the way to sleppy. And I need to send some positive energy toward my hubby. He's stuck in the New Orleans airport waiting for transportation and a hotel. He had to go back to work 3 days early to attend a meeting, I think they may have forgotten to arrange all of his travel for him. and it's almost midnight. So my positive focus now goes toward him...

Good day to ya.

Fish out of Water...On Vacation

My husband has sent me away for our anniversary. I'm now in WY. The baby has been PERFECT! No cryin' or complanin', she's been a wonderful travel companion. We fly to Worland today and that is where I'll be for the next week. My only small issue is coming from a place that has had 70+% humidity to a place that has 0% makes me feel a little dry, a little like my eyeballs are going to shrivel up and pop out of my head. Anyway... I have much to blog about at a later. So until later.

Good day to ya.

Happy Anniversary (in a couple of days)

I wanted to post our Happy Anniversary early because Jason comes home tomorrow and then the busy is gonna hit the fan and I want him to read it. He doesn't read my blogs when he's home, no need when you're living with it. So Happy Anniversary in a few days!
Once upon a May 14th, some 10 years ago, I married the man who would become my best friend. It amazes me that this much time has passed so quickly. We were only engaged for a very short time. We really got to know each other after we were married. That first year was surprisingly difficult. I remember thinking things like "If we were just 'going out' I would have broken up with you by now." We were young. Well, He was young...Me? not so much. Things weren't as easy as you expect them to be when you're first married, (as a matter of fact things were pretty much normal) And we had to learn to function as a family. We were sealed for Time and All Eternity a year later, things improved dramatically, and they have been on an uphill route ever since.
Over this past decade I've learned that I'm not always right and that even when I know I'm right, I don't always have to say so. I've learned to be more quiet and less stubborn. I've learned to hug and be hugged. I've learned that there really are people worth trusting. I've learned how to love and be loved. I've learned that I am worth loving. I've learned that I am beautiful. And I couldn't have learned these things without Jason. We have grown together into one inseparable unit. I couldn't live without him. I wouldn't want to try. Not to be cliche, but he completes me, absolutely 100%.
We are not without our squabbles. I think it's good to not be mindless. But we know, when we squabble, it's temporary. I didn't get married to get un-married. Neither did he. Forever would be way too long to spend without my best friend. So we're gonna spend it together.
Sometimes when he is at work, my heart hurts. I love him so much, all of him, even the grumpies that occasionally come (sometimes at church) with being a very young father or seven.
He would do anything for me. He does everything for me. He makes me happy.

Jason, Thank you for being the other half of me. My best friend and beyond. Thank you for being so generous with your life and sharing it, whole heartedly, with me. I'm so glad we didn't miss out on each other. Looks like the *B* in*plan B* turned out to stand for BEST. I love you Rabbit. I'll see you in a few hours.
gopher

What's in a Name

1. YOUR REAL NAME: Naomi

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of real name plus izzle) Naoizzle

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (fav color and fav animal) Blue Cat

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, and current street) Dean Rainmill
5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of mom's maiden name) Dur Na How

6. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink) Cool Color Lemonade (I don't have specific 2nd fav colors)

7. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (Mother's middle name and father's middle name) JoDean Joe

8. YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one your pets) Black Maverick

Tageroonie You're It!

Some Nasties and some Funnies

Must blog...I have already put the kids to bed, worked out and cleaned the kitchen floor so I think I have actually earned the blog time. So I must say that I like the floor in the family room, most of the time. It is slippery when your foot hits something that shouldn't be on it, i.e. blankets, toys, towels, the church bag. Yeah, so that last one caused me to experience a tumble a couple weeks ago. I can't actually say a tumble, more like a slide into home. Joey was sleeping on the couch, I was feeding the baby in the recliner, and drinking a bottle of water(what is taken must be replenished.) Joey rolled dangerously close to the edge of the couch and I knew it would hurt really bad if he hit the floor. So "Super Mom" flew into action and with one huge step I would stop that boy from hitting the floor...that was the plan anyway. What really happened was this. I had the baby and the bottle of water on my right side. I stepped with my right leg toward the couch, planning to reach across my body and catch Joey with my free left arm. My foot didn't notice that one of the children (to remain nameless), while having been obedient and bringing the *Sunday bag* in the house after church, had failed to put it in its proper place, which wasn't even in the family room. So my foot landed on the edge of the bag and I slid, down, down, down to the hard laminate covered concrete. Now a bunch of things happened all at the same time. First thought "save the baby" So mid fall I twisted toward my back almost throwing her on my stomach. In this process I landed my full weight and hers,(she's no Elliephant, but I am definitely not a mouse) on the point of my elbow. As I was falling toward the ground my fall was slowed down by my head hitting the front edge of the couch and sliding down until it also hit the ground. I didn't actually hit the side of my head. It was the top. Now that I think about it my head probably saved my elbow. Anyway as soon as I hit the ground I rolled on my back and looked at Ellie. She was startled, maybe a little irritated that her dinner was interrupted. She looked at me like "What the heck was that about?" She was fine. I then told her that we were going to just lay there for a minute. Which we did. All I could think was "I'm glad I'm 33 and not 63, because I probably would have broken something." (seriously, that was what went through my head) Remember the water? Well it had splashed up onto the couch and woke Joey up so that he repositioned himself away from the edge of the couch. I later decided that if I had to do it over, I would have just thrown the water. Everything is fine. My elbow is still a little sore, but just a little. Anyway I was going to tell you why I like the floor. Well, Joey has had a crazy mucusy(that must not be a real word...hmm it is now) cough for a long time. So I gave him some Mucinex for kids. I didn't think that it would expel mucus from everywhere. When we were finishing dinner(they pick the best times don't they) Joey got down from the table,(which was really very thoughtful) went into the family room and puked all over the floor. It was the nastiest slimy puke ever. I've seen a lot of puke. All I could think was "I'm so glad it's not carpet anymore. Super easy to clean up. And no stains." He seems to be feeling much better.
So after all that here is a funny image for you to put in your mind. It was nighttime prayer and my kids were scattered about the living room, sometimes we *circle the wagons* sometimes we don't. On my lap I held a Joey and a naked Jacob.(Jacob is always naked, especially when we have a bad potty day and no underwear left. Oh, that is the other nasty thing I had to clean up today. I should call that guy from Dirty Jobs. In my opinion poop in underwear is pretty bad but poop in the bathtub is the WORST) Anyway Spencer was saying the prayer and Jacob and Joey started to fight. So I grabbed the arms that were closest to each other and crossed them over their own bodies. This still left Joey's right arm available to grab the remote that was sitting nearby and attempt to use it as a weapon against Jacob. He missed and clocked me in the head. I didn't have a free arm to stop him with so on the next swing I grabbed it with my teeth. I can only imaging what this must have looked like to the other kids when the prayer was over and they opened their eyes. Naked Jacob and Joey pinned in each of mom's arms. And mom with the remote in her mouth. All in the name of reverence.

Good day to ya.

ABC's about me

I got this from DALLAS's blog.

A - Attached or Single? Attached, happily attached

B - Best Friend? I have 2. My husband(cheesy but true) and Jennifer Hankins, no question hands down

C - Cake or Pie? cake...no pie... no cake...arrgh ...piecake?

D - Day of Choice? Thursday(isn't that silly)

E - Essential Item? bra

F - Favorite Color? I tend to lean toward cool colors, blues. But I understand that everyone needs a little yellow

G - Gummy Bears or Worms? I don't like gummy things, Spencer choked on a worm once.

H - Hometown? Laramie, WY

I - Favorite Indulgence? Asphalt Pie from Wingers in Laramie. Oreo crust, mint chocolate chip ice cream, whip cream , caramel sauce. Since I can't have that...chocolate.

J - January or July? Neither

K - Kids? SEVEN!!!!!!! and yes we are finished.

L - Life isn't complete without? LAUGHING

M - Marriage Date? 14th of May 1998

N - Number of brothers and sisters? 1 Older sister

O - Oranges or Apples? Grapefruit, but both oranges and apples are fine depending on the individual fruit

P - Phobia or Fears? fear of large bodies of water

Q - Quote? "When you think stupid thoughts does it show up on your face." me

R - Reason to smile? When my kids do something silly. Or when my husband brings me flowers

S - Season of choice?Spring

T - Tag ten people? I tag whoever is reading this!

U - Unknown fact about me? I used to live with a bunch of hippies.

V - Vegetable? green beans and peas

W - Worst habit? I over think everything

X - Xenophobic? Nope

Y - Your favorite food? Homemade bread. I also love Mexican and Italian...

Z - Zodiac Sign? Tarus

Wild Kingdom anyone? bathroom pics

So I had to start with the long awaited pictures of the bathroom that I did forever ago.There really isn't much to it. Just paint, pictures, towels
I made the shower curtain. Piece of cake.
These pictures, however, took years to put together;) I've got bath pic's of all the kids except Ellie. When I get one of her I'll throw it up there too.


So there is always the cliche "look what followed me home, can I keep it?"
For us it's "Look what I found in the mud puddle on the way home from school, aren't they interesting. I sure would like to study them for my merit badge." Which in reference to the Southern Leopard frogs Spencer brought home yesterday, I had to say, "NO!"
I have to honestly say that I have nothing against frogs. I like them. And most amphibians actually. As a matter of fact, I was recounting a story from my teenage-hood to Dallas the other day. Would you like to hear it? If not skip to the next picture.
In Laramie, where I did most of my growing, we lived near a park that had a puddle, or a pond, They call it a lake. But it's not really. Anyway, every time it rained during the spring and summer the salamanders would venture out in hopes of escaping life in the pond. The rain would keep them nice and wet so they could survive as they traveled through the grass, and across the streets, in the gutters, and finally end up in various basement windowsills within a several block radius of the park. We lived at least 3 blocks away and occasionally one would come visit us, too. Those that made it to our house were treated well for a little while, getting some water and then a quick walk back to the park to be returned to the pond. I'm sure they were cussing us all the way (it was a college town after all, they had to pick up some language from somewhere) Now there were those that didn't have the same fortune. There were those that didn't make it across the street. One particularly rainy night. I stopped at the park, with a friend or two, I don't remember what I was originally doing there, but I'll tell you what I ended up doing. The salamanders were trying desperately to escape their mundane life once again. It just wasn't safe to cross the street. So I tried to help them get back to the pond. You must picture this. I'm running up and down this street grabbing as many salamanders as I can and running them back to the lake, trying not to step on the ones running through the grass. Oh did I mention there was traffic? So I would see one grab it, see another and a car would come and beat me to it. It was horrible. Funny now, but horrible then. Squish would go another. I just couldn't save them all. I hope in the long run, the ones I saved made up for the ones I couldn't.


So...I have no problems with amphibians. I even had a couple frogs myself, for a minute. My sister had gone to the trouble of catching one for me, a good sized one, and then a little one later, to go with it. I put the little one in with the big one. I guess the big one was hungry. The next minute I looked and there were little frog legs sticking out of the big ones mouth. I didn't like the big one very much after that, but I did feel bad when he froze because the water he lived in wasn't deep enough to hibernate in.

All this aside, back in the present day, I said that Spencer couldn't keep the frogs because he pulled the same "It's for my merit badge" a few weeks ago and we ended up with this.
Actually that was Rocko

This next one is Roxy. She was the one that Spencer brought home after a day of doing a yard work fundraiser for scouts. I agreed. She was cute. For a lizard. They are Anoles. AKA the American Chameleon because they change color(it's really cool)
Oh, wait you say... Spencer only brought home one? Yeah, here we go on another story.

So Spencer had Roxy in a giant pickle jar up in his room, so we thought. One day Jason and I were taking the boys to the store. As I walked out of the house to put someone in the car, I saw the lizard on the driveway. I was sure that Caleb had gone into Spencer's room and taken it out of the jar, shoved it in his pocket in attempt to take it to the store with us. I was in a *can't disappoint my oldest child* mood, and I was frustrated that I had to take the time to try and catch it. I ran inside to check and see if it was Spencer's lizard, his door was locked, which Caleb has the tendency of doing also, so I went to get a bowl to catch the escaped lizard with. Then back out to the driveway. I was running from one side of the car to the other(those things are fast when they think you're after them) all the while yelling at Caleb for going in Spen's room and letting the lizard out. Meanwhile, Jason had gone upstairs, unlocked the door and found Roxy sitting in the pickle jar. He came out and told me to get in the car. I can only imagine what this all must have looked like. So we went to the store. It had begun to rain by the time we got home to unload the groceries. Jason received a little surprise when he walked by his car. The lizard I had been chasing was catching some rain on the windshield. He was camouflaged in black. I decided that if he was still around it might be fun to catch him anyway. So Long Story even longer...that is how we ended up with two. Roxy and Rocko. and no I don't believe we'll be having little ones anytime soon. Roxy was quite repelled by Rocko. He is really quite arrogant. As far as lizards go.
They no longer live in a pickle jar. They have a nice aquarium. And I have to buy crickets to feed them...I don't like crickets. We had our yard treated for bugs just a couple days after we caught them other wise their food would have been free.
So to the list of 2 adults, 7 children, 1 dog, 2 cats, 1 hamster(sorta, will explain later) 2 fish, we add 2 anole lizards(and a crap load of crickets, good thing they don't chirp)

Good day to ya.

Happy Birthday, yet again...

Saturday was Joey's 2nd Birthday

Anyone sick of birthday posts yet? We had another nice casual birthday for Joseph. He's such a cute boy. I am sad that he is two only because he is acting a little two-ish. I do not enjoy this age very much. It's better than three, but I have one of those right now, too. The other not so fun age is five. But as of last week, I've got another five-year-old in the house. (sigh)

Birthday season is almost over. Just Spen and Sariah left. I feel bad for all the other kids, all the other's than Gabe that is. Because his birthday is in February, I still have some party planning gumption. But by this time, and 6 birthday's later, I'm just throwing cake around and I'm not interested in entertaining anyone else's children. Spencer is turning 13 and he wants something big. His birthday couldn't have fallen at a worse time this year. Jason gets home the day before, and then leaves the day after (mother's day) for a 3 day seminar for work. Then he's home for the day of our anniversary and I leave the next day. I can't cram "something big" in between all that. Any suggestion's? As a matter of fact I'd take lots of suggestions for birthday season in general. How do we make each kid feel special, have parties, etc. when mom's totally burnt out? I'd like to hear from Sarah and Christin and anyone else who comes from a big family that has a million birthdays close together. Anyay (that was a typo but I think I just made a new word) That is all for now.

Good day to ya.

Best Birthday Ever!

Today has been fabulous. Thank you all for your birthday greetings! My birthday started at 7:25 this morning, when I woke up and realized that the baby slept ALL night, Jacob woke up but that's normal. The 3 oldest kids forgot it was my birthday before they went to school. Caleb remembered and he, Joey and Jacob came in my room to say good morning and we want food (I was feeding the baby) and Joey was the first person to wish me a happy birthday. He said "Happy happy" which for Joey is pretty good. Then I got to talk to my husband. And then I got ready for the rest of the day. As the boys were watching PBS, Barney came on and it was his birthday, too! I took it all in stride, tried not to let it affect me :) My sister came over to watch my kids and she and Sami brought me presents! A really cool book that I've been wanting to read, and some bubble bath. Then Stacey came to get me and we met Dallas for lunch at Carino's. Dallas treated. She also gave me a super funny card and a fabu gift card! Stacey also gave me a gift. I don't know what it is because she forgot to bring it,(which just makes me laugh hard) but I don't even care because, seriously, just the thought makes me feel SO loved! When Stacey brought me home Jen showed up at that exact moment with BROWNIES and they were still warm! It was wonderful and they were so GOOD. My mom-in-law sent me and Jason some Egyptian cotton sheets, and she and my hubby sent me e-cards. My mom and Grandma sent "green" cards (ones with $)
The kids came home from school, they remembered my birthday then. We ordered pizza(so I didn't have to cook.) Did our little family birthday (missing dad.) Then the missionaries came over to share a spiritual thought and they sang Happy Birthday, too! So over all this has been the best birthday ever! Here are pics. Although I hesitate to share many pictures of my-(self conscious *I just popped out three babies in three years*)self. I share these with you because you all know what I look like anyway.

Happy Birthday, again

Happy Birthday Naomi
33 years ago (yes I am almost exactly 3 years older than my husband) I was born. Almost a month early I weighed 8lbs. 14.5oz. Chunky Monkey1975
Little did my mother know I'd grow up to have a gazillion children
1977


living in Utah


1990
This was mostly for Christin's benefit. YW basketball Regional champs. I scored maybe two points. But I ran a lot, I was a good place holder. Just get the ball to Syd, Ellen, Christin, Sarah, pretty much anyone but me, that was my plan.


Sophomore year
Junior year proof(I never ordered the pics)
I don't have a copy of my senior pics. I had head shots done in college, but I don't know where those are either. But this next picture fits me best most of the time.



If you could see my inner child this is still what she would look like, the expression has never changed

So here was my page dedicated to me. I have some other good pictures that, at a later day, I may post. so this birthday is gonna be great. 29-32 just blew. Except for the fact that my hubby is not with me, this one has already been an improvement. Tomorrow I'm going to lunch with my friends, Dallas and Stacey. My sister is going to watch the kids for a little while so I can go! I'm excited to go!

I made my cake. Lemon. I don't know why I like lemon cake, but I do. I decided to not sit around and pout this year and wait for someone to do something for me. And because I did that, things have been great. I'll have to write later about what my husband is doing for me when he comes home, but he wants to talk to me (we get to talk every night while he's at work, sometimes I think we get to talk more when he's gone then when he's home.) And I can't type and talk at the same time. So...

HAPPY Birthday to me
Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday dear me, myself, and I
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOOOOOOO ME!!!!!!