Wednesday blues

Instead of having "Monday blues "I have "Wednesday blues" today and I'm not sure how long they will last. As if I wasn't depressed enough after last nights election results then I had to wake up this morning to about 8 inches of snow. It does look beautiful ,and the kids are all excited ,but for me it is a reminder of what I have to deal with for the next few months. Cold, snow, and staying indoors a lot. I could have skipped winter this year! Our poor dog was wondering what in the heck all this snow was after living in St. George her whole life. We are hoping she adapts and that we don't feel sorry for her all winter long.

It was quite wild getting everyone ready to go out in the snow. If each person in our family has socks, gloves, hat, coat, snowpants, and boots that comes out to be 72 pieces of clothing! I was amazed that I was able to find most of them and fortunately being able to pass clothes down the line helps out! Again we appreciate anyone who has given us clothes to help out. We sure get our use out of them.

Lynn and I went on a quick trip to Las Vegas last week as he had a conference there. I got to spend some time with my friend Amy who lives there while he was in the conference. Then we got to go to some shows while there. Lynn surprised me and took me to the Donny and Marie show which we both enjoyed. Then the conference treated us to the cirque de sol? (Ka). It was also very good.

I was sure grateful to my mom for tending. She did a great job. Lynn and I got home about 4:00 on Halloween day just in time to get the kids ready for trick or treating. I will be glad when the candy is gone and Kyle doesn't beg for candy all day.

Memories

Both my dad and Lynn's mom's birthday are in October so we always have a tender heart when remembering the both of them and what wonderful people they were. It is interesting to wonder about how much they are allowed to be involved in our lives. I know I still think about both of them a lot and I still feel their influence and love. We sure don't like that "c" word. We miss them both.

Lagoon

We had a great day last Saturday at Lagoon. We are thankful for antibiotics that made Dallin well enough to be able to come. His high temperatures last week ended up in pnemonia. Kyle was so happy to find out what Lagoon was all about. He had seen pictures of of us at Disneyworld and he asked "where am I?" He wasn't happy when I told him we had left him home. He was really brave and even went on the tidal wave and liked it (for awhile). Dallin loved the big roller coaster and all the other kids loved every ride. I was really scared to go on wicked but Lynn convinced me to go. It was fun. Before we got to Lagoon I convinced Lynn to stop at Costco for some things we really needed. I couldn't believe it when he agreed to let everyone come in. We walked around with 6 kids eating all the samples we could find. We made quite a scene at the drink area because we were trying to decide what kind of drinks to get for lagoon. It is nearly impossible to please 8 people but Gatorade won out. I told Lynn he has come a long way to be able to handle going to a very busy store with all of his kids and still be in a good mood when we walked out. That isn't easy.

Fall Break

A few weeks ago Lynn and I approached the topic of fall break and what we were going to do. We went the rounds deciding between Lake Powell, Goblin Valley, Salt Lake, Uintah, Camping in the desert, home sweet home, Midway. I don't know how many of you are trying to please kids from age 17 down to 4 but if you are you know something of the stress. I know kids have to grow up but it is so hard when they aren't happy doing something like swimming anymore. Well, after much debate about the time, effort, and money it costs to do anything we ended up spending Thur. hanging out at home and had fun with Kathy and Jeff's family. We then ended up pawning Robert off at Jeff and Kathy's (thank you) and taking the kids to Uintah yesterday to a pool that Lynn's company built. It was a really fun place and the kids were thrilled despite the long drive to get there. I keep wondering if I will ever enjoy swimming once I am not stressed about watching anywhere from 1-3 kids who can't swim. Lynn was working on the pool and so I just spend my time thinking "where's Kyle? where's Dallin, etc? Fortunately we were all safe and sound.
Today we decided to start off the day working on projects around the house. I begged Lynn to help James and Taylor with their wood boats (in place of pinewood derby's) for the raingutter regatta this week. It made me want to watch the hilarious movie "Down and Derby" about the fathers who go a "little" out of control with their kids derby cars. Then we switched to helping James with his haunted house for his school project that has to have a light switch. While Lynn was helping him I was helping Joanna with her school project and trying to get halloween costumes ready for our Halloween Party at Kent and Janies tonight. I really am grateful my kids aren't too picky about costumes as ours are pretty pathetic. I somehow missed the creative gene and we will never have homemade cute costumes. We get a lot of use out of dracula capes and black clothes and have come up with some good ways to interchange old costumes into new ones. Finally everyone had a costume (except for Lynn and I wasn't going to push that one.) Neither Lynn or I are big Halloween fans of dressing up and so we are thankful for others who do it and make life fun.
We then decided to go hunting for treasures with Lynn's newest "toy". I'm not sure of the official name but it is like a car "gps" but you can hold it in your hand. You put in a destination and it points the way for you to go. We put in a bunch of Midway locations where people have hidden "treasures" around. You find the treasure and take something out and leave something else in its place and then write your name on the log. We found one at our churchyard called "the write way" that had a bunch of writing utensils and notepads. It had been placed only a few days ago. We found one at the Homestead that has been there since 2005. It was really fun and the kids loved searching for "treasures".
Dallin wasn't feeling good and when we got home I took his temperature and found he had a high fever and much to his disappointment we decided to have me stay home with him and the rest of the family went to the Halloween party. He is sleeping right now which is why I grabbed a moment at the computer.
So, it was a laid back fall break but fun to be together and I appreciated Lynn spending it with us.

Fall is Fun

Dallin's first day of kindergarten

My baby is growing up!

How can kids possibly turn from this picture at age 6 to the picture underneath this at age 17?

Happy Birthday Robert. It looks like you are excited!

Saying goodbye to Grandpa and Grandma

We are having a great fall. I am enjoying every second of the nice weather before the cold sets in. Getting 5 kids enrolled in 3 different school is no small task. First you have to make sure their is enough clothes for everyone to wear without having to do the laundry every day. I want to thank anyone who has given us clothes over the years again because pulling those out this year was our school shopping. Thank you, thank you! Then comes the paperwork. I felt like I f illed out enough paperwork to be enrolled in a college or something. The info sheets just keep getting longer each year and they always make you redo it each year. I was rebellious this year and purposely didn't write down the birthdays of all of my children on each childs info sheet. Think of the time I will save just not writing down that one question each year! I hope they don't catch on and bust me. Then you pay all the dues, pay for school lunch and school pictures, and don't forget the PTA. Then its time to either sign your time away helping out in all the kids classes or feel guilty for not doing it. Then you get to go to back to school night for each school and before you know it its time for Parent/teacher conferences. (starting tonight) I am terrible because I was excited last year when we were in Italy during Joanna's . She is getting wonderful grades and I thought I didn't need to go meet with her teachers. I couldn't believe the hassles she got from me not coming. They wanted me to come earlier and when I didn't they tried to get our babysitter to come. I learned it wasn't really worth trying to skip out on it. I shouldn't try to miss Joanna's just because she is doing great but should go and revel in the fact that I don't have to listen to problems.

Overall the kids are all adjusting and liking their new teachers. Robert still hates school but overall he really has some good classes that he is interested in and he fortunately likes his seminary teacher better than last year. Most of the kids school pictures turned out cute. Taylor looked darling but had a big white blob on his solid green shirt. We finally figured it was toothpaste and since it is in a spot where it could look like a logo we are not redoing it. It is stressful enough getting kids ready for pictures once and I don't even have all the girls hair to do! Dallin is loving Kindergarten and has a very good teacher. He can't wait to go each day and I can't wait to put Kyle down for a nap and have a few hours to myself. Today's nap didn't work however and he keeps coming out of his room with every kind of problem imageanable. He just came up to me a second ago with his shirt off and asked me if he could throw it up high. I said yes and so he responded with, "your the best mom ". It's awesome when saying yes to that question makes me the best mom.

Other things we have done this fall is getting a bunch of wood for our fireplace and splitting it up for family night We also filled up the jacuzzi and the kids were really excited because we haven't filled it up for a long time since it costs a lot to run. Lynn and I were rolling our eyes at each other wondering if we made the right choice or not after watching how kids "relax" in a jacuzzi. Diving, jumping, splashing, fetching, running around the jacuzzi, etc. It's anything but relaxing. We even had Emma put her paws up on the edge and slip in. Hey day! No wonder the kids have totally missed the jacuzzi!

Also, fall isn't fall unless you have football. We have enjoyed going to some of the BYU football games and watching Taylor play flag football and James play tackle football. It is so funny how different each child is. It was almost a painful experience watching Taylor at his first football practice. He was thinking deeply but I don't think it was about football. He was off finding the tumbleweeds, etc. Luckily he started getting more interested in the games and really enjoyed himself. James on the other hand hasn't thought about much else BUT football. He has been having 4-5 practices a week and games once a week. He plays on defense and loves tackling people. The first 3 games they won and the opposing teams didn't even score. Then last weeks game the score was tied and it was more intense. James was tackling a boy and another teammate came to help him and tackled him hard the opposite direction James was tackling and the results were a hurt kid. He didn't even get up and they ended up having to call an ambulance. It was scary. The kid said his back hurt and he had tingling in his legs so they didn't want to take any chances. I hope and pray he is ok but may never know unless we play that team again and I go over and ask someone. Wow, football is intense and ruthless. I'm afraid we are in for a lot with James which I guess is good but it is scary for moms.

Speaking of scary the economy issues are scary! It is hard to think too deeply or too long about it without getting freaked out about the future. Why does money have to be such a big part of our lives I'll never know. I can finally laugh about the fact that I used to be very particular about extra noises in the house. Now, I realize that by being particular I have brought a curse upon myself. Our computer makes a very loud noise and its on its last leg, our vcr/dvd machine does the same. Our music/telephone system makes noise and has been broken for a long time . Our video camera doesn't make a noise but it is so big I am almost too embarrased to take it anyplace because I feel like I am carrying a boom box. We need to get all of these things updated but it all takes Money! At least I can report that I am not as particular about noises anymore. I can't be!

Finally what is fall without hiking, and biking and watching the beautiful leaves. Lynn has found his motorcycle to be his stress reliever and he goes anytime he possibly can. As I write this he is off on his bike. He has a couple of good buddies from the ward he goes with. We went on a fun hike close by a few weeks ago which we would love to take anyone on if they want.

The kids are still loving our dog Emma. Kyle tells everyone we see that "I have a dog". Joanna's feet and hands have finally cleared up though scars are still there. We got the fence finished and it is so nice to not have to tie her up anymore. She is such a good, mellow, dog. I am excited because I found a collar that works in taking her jogging with me so that she doesn't try to pull anymore. She loves going on walks.

We have had a scare last week with some Mexicans trying to get a girl in their car by the dirt road that the kids walk to get to school. Everyone is nervous and won't even let their kids play in the yard alone anymore. I feel glad that I can still feel ok about that now that we have a fence and a dog. I am bummed that I now have to start driving to school three times a day. It was nice while it lasted to have them ride their bikes. I'm glad nothing happened to anyone.

Dad and Vickie are really enjoying their mission so far and have been writing super letters home letting us know what is going on. I'm happy for them.

I spend quite a bit of time reading up on everyones blogs before writing on my own and I want to express how much I enjoyed it. You are all good writers and have such interesting stuff to write.

It's Too Noisy

One of my favorite kids books is a book entitled "It's too Noisy" where a farmer with a lot of kids goes to a wise man to find out what to do with all the noise in his house. The wiseman tells him to put a new animal in his house each week. Finally, when the farmer has all sorts of animals in his house he goes to the wiseman declaring that his isn't wise at all because now he has more noise than ever. The wiseman now tells him to get rid of all the animals in his house. Lo, and behold, even though their is still crying, yelling, kicking, screaming, etc. in his house it seems quiet after having the animals leave.

I can now relate with this story somewhat. I had heard getting a dog was a big decision and commitment and that is why I couldn't ever handle getting a puppy. To make a long story short I was trying to handle having a big dog in our house and I found myself not only liking her but petting her and even letting her lick me.(when I found out that in dog language licking you means that the dog knows you are in charge). But I was getting more and more stressed about the amount of hair that she was shedding and the extra stress she was causing between everyone wanting the dogs attention etc.

About a week after having Emma, Joanna broke out with itchy blisters on her hands and feet. A call to the allergy Dr. confirmed that it very well could be from the dog and a week later when we got her in to the Dr. his test determined that she definitely is allergic to the dog (and cat). I also had Dallin with me at the appointment and he tested him since he has asthma and animals can cause problems for asthma patients. He tested fine to the dog but allergic to the cat! The dr. recommended no pets in the house. Now the stress level was bumped up as we determined what to do. It was decided we would get rid of Oreo the cat and keep Emma as an outside dog as we are all in love with her. We had to invest in an insulated dog house with a heated bed and water dish. We then started having to tie her up all day and the poor thing was probably wondering if her one "poo accident" in the house had determined her fate of never gettting to come in again. We have had to get used to not feeling sorry for her and I think that will be easier once we don't have to tie her up anymore. We decided to finish fencing our yard as she always runs away when we untie her and the kids get all upset when she leaves. Grandpa and Vickie relieved a lot of stress by being nice about the decision even though Grandpa didn't want a fence. (thank you)

Once we found Emma in Cindy's horse pasture and I decided to let her in the back of the car to get her home even though she was muddy. We quickly determined, by the smell, that it wasn't mud after all but horse manure that was all over her. (I was then beginning to wonder how in the world I got myself into this mess.)

Poor Joanna, who was probably in love with the dog the most, has had to deal with her disappointment of being allergic. Her rashes got pretty wicked before we were able to get to the Dr. for some cream and she has been living on zyrtec. The Dr. says that once we get her cleared up she should be fine if she always washes her hands real well after playing with her. She can take an occasional zyrtec if she needs to.

So these last two weeks I have been cleaning to try and get animal hair out of the house. Oreo has black and white hair and Emma has yellow so we have a good collection. I had all the carpets professional cleaned and then borrowed Vickie's steamer (thank you) and cleaned the furniture. I also washed bedding and I am exhausted! It feels so good to have the house clean and I have to admit that the one good thing that came from getting pets is that it has taught me to not be a clean freak. I hope I can remember this lesson and keep cleanliness in perspective.

Though getting rid of Oreo was stressful the kids were good about it and haven't seemed to miss her at all. Dogs are way funner according to everyone in our family. In fact I was laughing as I heard Dallin acting out trying to pet Oreo vs. Emma. Oreo would always scratch the kids when they tried to pet her but Emma loves it and tries to lick them.

Though the noise (and mess) level of the house is less without pets it is still plenty high. This morning when I got out of bed I thought to myself (again) that I was going to try and go a whole day without raising my voice. I should know by now that Satan knows exactly which days I try to do this and he sends enough challenges to make me never be able to do it. Well, this morning was no exception. I didn't think, however, that before it even got to be noon I would not only raise my voice but be yelling. And I didn't think that the person I would take my frustrations out on would be my poor innocent husband! (It was an Erma Bombock morning ,Eric.)

To cap the day so far: the jog with Emma didn't work. She keeps pulling me until I raised my voice at her and brought her home much to her dismay. I decided raising my voice at the dog didn't count and recommitted to try again. My voice was then raised slightly as I sent Robert out the door late and heard some "alarm excuse" again. We had family prayer and I reminded Lynn that when he goes out of town he should be the one to tell the kids he is going and not leave it to me or wait until they notice he hasn't been home for awhile and finally say ,"where's dad?" I then kissed Lynn goodbye for a few days as he is off to Wisconsin ( I am pretty sure that is where he is really going because I asked him a few times)

I was then hopeful that while I took a shower James could make blender pancakes because he did it last week and only needed help on finding baking powder instead of baking soda. So, I let him make pancakes while I showered and was only inturrupted once. I then helped Taylor with piano and then rushed to eat. We found out after one bite that James apparently needed help again this week telling the difference between baking powder and soda. We didn't notice the pancakes weren't good until we had all the syrup on and cut up so at this point we didn't have time to do make anything else. I encouraged and begged everyone to eat as much as they could until I saw Dallin gag to the point of almost throwing up. I then said that everyone could throw them away. I sent two kids to school hungry and knew the other two kids would be begging for a snack within the hour.

I then started dishes, and laundry determining which kid peed the bed last night. There is always at least one! I then actually made it to the computer and started typing on this blog until Emma started barking. Yea, the fence guys are here finally. We were told they would come last Fri. and then got posts delivered yesterday but didn't know if that was just to make us think they were getting closer. I got them started and remembered the salesman saying they would alway have someone that spoke English on the job. What he didn't mentioned is that the "English" would still have a strong accent and I ended up, as usual, hoping that what we had just communicated was right.

At this point the kids were begging for food and so I decided to make bread since we were totally out and I thought it might be easier than going to the store. My renewed resolve to be happy and calm today led me to let the kids help. We had hands washed and was right in the middle of it when we were interrupted from the fence guy. I gave the kids strict instructions not to add any more flour or do anything until I returned. When I got outside I didn't need to understand English to know that we had a problem. Sprinkler pipes were directly underneath every hole they had dug and are apparently right down the property line. I then resorted to calling Lynn who didn't answer the first time but knows better than to not answer again when I call twice in a row. Dallin then comes out covered in flour informing me that Kyle had broke my flour thing and is crying. I hand the phone to the fence guy who now tries to talk to Lynn about what to do without even seeing the situation. I then go inside expecting to see either my Bosch or my flour grinder broken on the floor but to my delight it was the "flower" thing he had broken and was a nice vase that had broken. The kids had no shoes on and were covered in flour so I got them changed and out while I was cleaning up. Before I know it the fence guy comes to hand me back my phone and tells me they are leaving . It was then that I grabbed the phone and yelled at Lynn!

After calming down I realize that it is better that Lynn help decide what to do about the sprinkler situation so it won't get done wrong and that it is only a few more days (since Lynn will be out of town) and eventually the fence will get done. I have handled the chain dragging on the deck for a month now and finding Emma when the kids let her loose so a few more days isn't going to kill me. But I of course couldn't see it that way at the time.

I remember thinking that by the time I came home from the Philippines on my mission I would have patience mastered because the people over there were so laid back that I had learned to be more patient. Now ,18 years of marriage and 6 kids later I realized my patience challenges had just begun. I will be lucky if at my funeral any of my kids can say that I mastered the virtue of patience. It is one I think I will always struggle with. It is humbling to me to look on peoples lives who really do have severe challenges and difficulties they are dealing with where they have mastered patience. I just have little issues and still can't keep a calm voice. So, I need to say sorry to my husband who is much more patient than I am and I have to resolve to never wake up in the morning and make a concious effort to not raise my voice again. If I do a certain someone will try extra hard to thwart my plan. I also learned that you NEVER try to not raise your voice when you are having PMS.

The bread didn't get done in time for me to feed Dallin before his school so I fed him graham crackers and milk. I then went to pick up Lynn's 1st councilor's boy to take to school. This is a family I admire so much. They just had their 6th child two days ago. (which weighed 9lbs 12 ozs) The dad was the one who broke both of his elbows a month ago. Their oldest child is 9 and I saw chaos at their house. Even with Kim's mother there it was crazy. It brought me back to when I brought Kyle home from the hospital and how even with my mom helping we couldn't seem to find time to even bath Kyle. I wrapped my arm around this faithful mom who hadn't slept all night and though I couldn't tell her life will calm down I could tell her she was doing a good job and that it was all worth it. When I take the time to think about the "big Picture" I can focus on what I am doing in trying to raise a righteous family with my husband and I can let the chaos and noise and messes be secondary. What cute kids I have and what a wonderful righteous husband who loves me even when I lose my temper. I also have good family and friends who just might take the time to read my latest LONG blog and cheer me on. I love you all and thank you for your love and support.

I don't have any pictures to go with this novel but I could have taken some good ones had I thought about it and if I was smart enough to be able to publish them on my blog without my husbands help whom I am way too dependent on.

Emma

I can't believe we have a new member of our family in the "pet" category. We got a new yellow labrador dog named Emma yesterday. It is kind of interesting how we ended up with her. Emma was born almost two years in Dec. She was owned by Lynn's co-worker Dean's brother. Lynn had been to their house in St. George before and had seen the mother and said if we ever get a dog he wanted it like that one. So, when the mother had pups Dean asked us if we wanted one. After considering it we decided we were doing good raising 6 kids and couldn't handle training a new pup and so we told them no. A few weeks ago Dean told us we had another chance at the dog because Dean's brother had decided to find her a new home as Emma and her mom were having too much competition between them. Also , their daughter was going to college. So, we decided we couldn't pass up having a trianed dog and took the plunge! We had told Robert and Joanna a dog was coming but not the other kids. When her previous owner brought her to our house yesterday the kids were pretty shocked when they found it it was their new dog! Kyle kept saying "it's not their dog anymore, it's ours, huh? The kids are loving it!!! I can't imagine how many times today our family is going to say the word "Emma" She has been very good so far.