12 X 12 - March 2011

It's a good thing I do these 12 X 12's or I fear I would never blog again! My day started off at 10 am.

 Due to having sick kids most of the week, taking an allergy pill the night before, and Eric being out of town the entire week, I needed to catch up on my sleep!

When I awoke, I discovered the tooth fairy had remembered to come. Megan has lost two teeth this past month. She has lost both at lunch, at school, and has accidentally thrown both of them in the trash can. So in place of a tooth, she wrote a note that said something to the effect: "Dear Tooth Fairy (AKA Mom), I accidentally threw my tooth away at school, but please give me the money anyway." Being Megan, and being as artistic as she is, she also drew a detailed picture of the tooth being thrown away.

I also awoke to Eric loading the dishwasher, and discovering he had the day off. Woo-Hoo! However, about 15 minutes later he received a phone call and spent about the next 2 hours dealing with work-related issues. But at least he was able to deal with them at home. Right? At least that is what I am telling myself.

With breakfast (pancakes) I had my new drink of choice, Diet Coke with Lime. I truthfully don't even miss Dr. Pepper that much. Shocking!

Sadie, Sadie. As I mentioned previously, my kids had been sick. Jackson and Sadie had been taking antibiotics all week. On Saturday Sadie decided she did not want to take them anymore (they really do taste terrible), and threw a colossal fit. She could not be swayed, so I sent her to her room until she decided to take them. She was in there for a loooonnnggg time, and still refused. Eventually she fell asleep. When she woke up from her nap she was more agreeable, and finally took the medicine!

While the fit was taking place, I retired to bed to work on my lesson the next day for Young Women's.

I finally got ready and headed out to run a couple of errands. Now I have to properly prepare you for the next picture. It will be shocking. Please remember that my children had been sick, and Eric had been out of town. Okay? So all week I had been doing laundry. But I never had a stitch of time to fold any of it, so instead I put it behind the couch (where I couldn't really see it most of the time). And there it sat, and grew with every load I finished. On Saturday it looked like this:

Don't say I didn't warn you! So while I ran errands, Eric sorted and folded it.

When I got home, we dropped our kids off at our friends house so Eric and I could go out. Don't worry, my kids were not still sick. They were just still on antiobiotics that they have to take for 10 days. And the friend that was watching them knew they were still on their antibiotics. Now that I have that off my chest, I have determined that I am going to employ Megan to babysit when she turns 11. That means I only have 4 more months to worry about finding a babysitter! I am positive she could do it now, but 11 seems much older than 10, so that is the magic number I am waiting for.

Eric and I. Alone.

We first went to The Cheesecake Factory. Eric and I had eaten there years ago, and neither one of us had liked it. However since then I have gone a few times with friends and enjoyed it, so I convinced Eric he should try it again. He was much happier with it this time.

We then went miniature golfing. Eric won :(

We picked up the kids, put them to bed, and then I made these boxes of "warm fuzzies" for my Young Women the next day. I then went to bed, because all I could think about was how hard it is for me to make it to church at 9 am, and I was going to have to be an entire hour earlier (due to the time change)! But I am happy to report we made it.

Windfall!

I have to admit my life has been filled with luck lately. Either that, or extra blessings. For example, a few months ago my vacuum broke. Who should call me, but a few days later, but Rachael. Who asked if I had any need of a vacuum. They had just purchased a new one, and didn't need their old one anymore. I gladly accepted, along with this awesome Shark Vacuum to use on my concrete floors.

Then our printer broke. But how lucky (or blessed), that my husbands boss had given us his old laser printer, that is also a copy machine, and fax machine combined!

It now sits proudly in my tiny office/laundry room.

Did I mention that my garbage disposal broke over a year ago? Well it did. I never replaced it, because I always had something else to spend a $100 on that I deemed more important. But just 2 weeks ago guess what I saw sitting outside my neighbors house?

That's right! A garbage disposal. It was attached to a sink they were getting rid of, but it still worked perfectly well.

And then, just recently our T.V. broke. It was still fairly new (about 2 years old), but alas it had problems it could not overcome. But guess what? My visiting teachers happened to be visiting me 3 days after it broke, and low and behold one of them had just gotten a new T.V. the day before, and they were giving away their old one!

Lucky, lucky me!!!

Now for some BIG news. A week and a half ago I won 4 tickets to LegoLand in California.

For 10 years I have been calling radio stations trying to win tickets for one thing or another, and have NEVER been able to get through. Until.........I did. And what a prize to win!!!! They informed me they would call me in a week or two to let me know when my tickets were ready, and to let me know if I was the GRAND PRIZE WINNER. The GRAND PRIZE WINNER also was to receive a $100 gas card, Four 2-day Park Hopper tickets, and 2 nights hotel at the Sheraton Resort & Spa.

Guess who was lucky enough to win??
 

ME!!!!!!

I know someone is looking out for me and my family. And I know who it is.

Guns & Mermaids

This past weekend Eric's brother Todd and his fiance Mallory came to visit. Somehow I made it through the entire weekend without a picture of them, but they were here! We went down to the Silverton to visit Bass Pro Shops and see the Mermaids.

Sade loved the Mermaid! She remarked to Eric, "I want to be a Mermaid when I grow up."

We also took numerous pictures with guns.

Future NRA members?

Thanks for visiting Todd and Mallory!

The Fever

Before posting this picture I had to PROMISE Megan I would make it perfectly clear that she is not a Justin Bieber fan. I repeat: She Is Not A Justin Bieber Fan. However, we have all had a little Bieber Fever this week when Megan discovered this cool wig in the garage and dressed up like you know who.

It was also talent night last night at Activity Days! To preface: Activity Days is a church related class that girls ages 8-12 go to twice a month. So this is essentially how the night went: Piano player, piano player, piano player, cello player, piano player, and now bar tricks from Megan McClellan. And I couldn't have been more proud. After all I am intensely jealous of her cherry stem knotting abilities.

To be fair there were also a couple of other non-traditional talents like paper-airplane making and origami. It was a fun night.

Sade's Update

Just a few things about Sade's.

She put on this outfit and called herself the, "Top Chef Cheerleader."

She was having a conversation (or fight) with Jackson over breakfast about who was more awesome. She finally won the argument by shrieking 3 times, I'M THE MOST AWESOMENEST!"

She also told me later in the car: "Mom I'm way cooler than Jackson because I can twirl."

I am loving this pic of Sadie looking a bit red-necked. Shirt off, tattoo on, hooded eyelids. Looks like that She must have snuck something into that Danimal.

A conversation we had:

Sadie: "Mom look how big I am." (as she was laying on the ground)

Me: "Wow Sade. Pretty soon you will be bigger than me."

Sadie: "Yep. And one day I will have really big boobs." Say What?!!

Gothtastic

If you have been a reader of my blog for a while, you may remember when Eric and I dressed up for standards night a while back.

Eric was Snake Felony and I was a 15 year old schoolgirl. It was quite enjoyable. So this year I was very excited to get the call to dress up again. And even more excited when I was asked to dress up goth!

 

The eyebrow ring, lip ring, and spiked dog collar were my favorite parts.

I am also partial to my purple Doc Martin boots, that I have insisted on saving all these years since high school. I knew I would have occasion to wear them again.

Sadie did not find my new persona likeable in the least. After seeing me in the make-up for the first time she said, "You look scary." She then ran out of the room and would not come to me for the rest of the night. As you can tell by the above picture, when she discovered she was going to have to sit next to me on the way home, she was not amused. She cried the entire way home. Poor Sade's.

12 X 12 - February 2011

Well I guess a 12 X 12 is as good a time as any to start blogging again. The last month and a half has been tough, and hence my blogging suffered.

I woke up Saturday morning to see my little Sade in bed with us. Lately she has been coming in quite often. Usually around 3 am. She comes to the side of the bed and asks, "Can I cuddle with you?" Neither Eric or I can resist her, so we of course say yes. Luckily she is a calm sleeper. I don't think I would be so accommodating if she was a kicker.

 Jackson was the only one awake when I walked out to the living room. I found him working on his Valentines. This year he chose paper airplane Valentines.

I left the house quite early (7:45 am!) to make it to a Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting. I do not enjoy early mornings, especially when they come on a Saturday. Nevertheless, I went.

I came home and was very happy to see Eric had made pancakes (with fresh blueberries). It almost made up for my early morning.

After he left for work, I didn't feel like doing anything (including cleaning my messy house), so I climbed under my covers and started a new book.

I was soon joined on my bed by Sade, who delighted me with a very special dance performance.

 My reading time ended up turning into a nap time for me. I knew better than to crawl into bed, but I was just could not help myself!

My kiddies spent most of the afternoon outside enjoying the 70 degree weather. Eventually they came back in, and I gave Jackson a hair-cut. He has literally been asking me every day for weeks to cut his hair, and I finally obliged.

 He needed it!

When Eric finally came home, we went to Macayo's.

I swear we have not been in over a month, although it seems like we go all the time.

 In this picture Sadie is sticking her "booty" out at us, and singing the ever popular "Shake My Booty" song. She finds it hilarious (and so do the rest of us).

After dinner, we went to Wal-Mart to grocery shop. It was painful. My kids were surprisingly good, even though it was late, but the lines were horrendous! I am talking about 10 people deep, backed up into the clothing section horrendous.

 We made it home, quite late. I took my pain pills and went to bed! I wasn't going to blog about the reason for taking pain pills, but it seems if I include them in my 12 X 12 some may wonder about them. So, for those that do not know, I had a D & C last week, and still have to take the pills for some residual pain. But I am doing much better now, and think the pain pills will be relegated to the medicine cabinet soon.