12 X 12 - April 2011

A Tuesday...I took the kids to school, sat down on the computer and remembered it was the 12th of the month. Soon after, Miss Sade brought me the M & M's. I do not usually keep M & M's, candy, chips, or most forms of junk food in the house. However, last week Eric's parents were here, and they spoiled my kids with all types of it. So now I am fielding requests for it multiple times a day.

It did bring a bit of color to our morning.

Sade's toes brought a bit of color to the bath. As you can see she branched out and chose multiple colors, instead of her usual pink and purple.

After showering, we headed over to a friends house to discuss a Young Women's lesson. Sadie and I are crossing our fingers that the car would start. We had had quite a bit of trouble getting it to start earlier in the morning. We still had trouble this time also, but eventually it turned over! Hallelujah!! I am more than ready for a new car.

Sadie was able to play with her good friend for quite awhile. Here they are playing store. They also like to play house while together. I heard Sade refer to herself as Mama many times.

We stopped by Fresh & Easy on the way home.  This sign is one of the many reasons I love it there. They also have special Hybrid parking available, but I have NEVER seen anyone parked in it.

One of Sadie's many daytime snacks. Isn't it exciting that it is cheap strawberry season once again?!

After cleaning, I retired to my bed to read this book. I have ABSOLUTELY no idea why it took me this long to read the Hunger Games trilogy. I am loving them.

Sade and I had many cups of tea throughout the afternoon.

Then we made dinner. While making spaghetti, Sadie likes to take the noodles and make the letters she knows. It was only Sadie and I for dinner, because Eric was still working (of course), and Megan and Jackson went to a friends house after school. I was really missing them, and was quite bored! I am not loving that they (especially Megan) have this entire separate life away from home. It seems like Megan suddenly has this busy social life, and is gone all the time! Especially on the weekends.

Woo-Hoo! They finally arrived home around 7! Then they proceeded to drive me crazy. I had to remind myself how bored I was without them.

Although they had just eaten dinner, Jackson and Sadie were soon scrounging for food.

Jackson reading before bed. His reading has improved so much this year. My kids have been so lucky to have great teachers. I attribute this to me sucking up to their teachers all year, so in turn they choose great teachers for my kids the next year. It totally works!

Picture Re-Cap

I have been having major blogging issues! My pictures will not load out of Picassa, so I have to manually load each one, which is a MAJOR TIME CONSUMING PAIN! Can someone please come over and fix this for me?

Anyway.....Here are some random pics off my camera from the past couple of weeks.

 Eric made us this very creative breakfast a few weeks ago,  right before he went out of town. AGAIN!!! In March he traveled to Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, California, and Hawaii (TWICE!). Needless to say he was gone practically the entire month. In the meantime I was at home making spectacular dinners like this:

Eggs, toast, strawberries

I have little desire to ever cook full meals, but with Eric out of town, what little desire I have leaves me completely. Hence we have lots of meals like the aforementioned eggs and toast.

Just a random pic of Jackson and Sadie playing the Wii. Jackson just gives Sadie a steering wheel and tells her she is playing, when in reality she is not. Luckily she is none the wiser.

And lastly a few shots of Sade in a hat I bought from the D.I. when she was a baby, and then completely forgot about! Darn. I would have loved her wearing it as a one-year old.

She snuck in a few "poses."

Ms. Fix It

I have a very important public service announcement. If you ever accidentally wash your iPod in the washing machine, all hope is not lost. Simply put it in the freezer for 30 minutes, and it will be good as new. No joke.

Well maybe not good as new. But working! I had heard about this strange phenomenon working with cell phones that had water damage, and discovered it works with iPod's too.

And today I fixed our computer. All by MYSELF! This morning it would not turn on, no matter what I did. I finally deduced (or guessed) that maybe it was overheating. So I unplugged it, moved it away from the wall, waited an hour, and BAM! It was working again.

Just call me for all of your electronic needs.

Four For Friday-Girls Edition

1. Oh Sade.....She's in love. With a 10-year old boy, no less. He happens to be one of Megan's good friends, Jake. She has been known to utter phrases like, "Mom, Jake is so funny." And, "Jake is so nice." And whenever we are going to the church, her eyes sparkle, and she says with great intention, "I really hope Jake is there." Today in the car she sang a song she made up and and asked me, "Mom, do you think I should sing this to Jake?" I of course told her yes.

2. She also has been bringing me the camera on a nightly basis and asking me to take pictures of her while she "poses."

It involves turning away from the camera, and then whipping forward quickly so she can get the perfect shot.

 

It's good she has already chosen a career path.

3. Now my little Megs: Today she was selected as Student Of The Month!!! Finally.....My goodness it is almost the end of the school year. I was starting to worry :)

The ceremony was held indoors due to the crazy wind we have had this week! As I was blogging about the above picture, Sadie said to me, "It's too bad we didn't see Jake there today." I tell you, she is obsessed!

Good job Megan!

4. And now on to me. This morning I was once again the lucky recipient of a prize. This time it was 2 tickets to Terry Fator's show at the Mirage! Woot, Woot.

Try not to hate me.

FOUND!!!

Because of the plumbing work, the layer of dust covering every inch of my house is pretty significant. I have been mopping like a fiend all day! In the spirit of obsessively cleaning I decided to move the washer and dryer and clean behind them. Mind you, this is a chore that has not been done in the 9 years I have lived in my house. To put it mildly, it was a bit scandalizing. Or gross.........

See what I mean.

And to those of you who do not visit my house often, I would like to put your minds at rest and assure you the rest of my house does not look like this!

But lo and behold, I FOUND MY MISSING WEDDING RING!!!

Sitting nicely in a layer of filth. I lost my wedding ring over a month ago, and truly felt like I had searched everywhere. I have my shoddy plumbing system to thank for this piece of good news. And I needed this bit of good news today, because Eric's truck is once again not working. It is at the mechanics as I type. I am dreading the call when we will find out how awful much it is going to cost. After finding my ring I joked with Eric that now we can sell it to pay to fix his truck. Why can't I just be rich? And be able to buy two brand new cars? And to live in a mansion? Is it really too much to ask?

I also need to report on another piece of good news. The painter came today, and I have to say the results are quite tremendous. I really can't even tell that any work has been done. And! They left me all this extra paint:

That's like $250.00 right there!

Swiss Cheese House

Well.....We are having the plumbing in the entire house redone. Apparently a part that was used in the original plumb is defective, so after a lawsuit, the builder has agreed to fix it. What this means for me is that the entire inside of my house is encased in plastic, and I have large holes in almost every room!

The entryway.

We cut a slit in the plastic in Megan's room so she could get to her bed. Luckily Jackson's and Sadie's rooms were not touched.

The view from my bed.

And now for some of the holes:

 Yesterday they did all of the plumbing work, while today they are doing the drywall. Thursday they are  painting, which is the part I am most worried about. They tell me they can match the wall color perfectly which hopefully is the case. It is a serious pain, but having the pipes burst would be worse! And at least we don't have to pay for any of it.

Monday Miscellany

I have a bit of picture catch-up to do. The time change really affected my kids this Spring. For DAYS I had to wake them up at 8 am to get them ready for school.

Sleeping the morning away....

Lately Megan has been sleeping with 3 pillows behind her head. She is basically upright while going to sleep, and looks incredibly uncomfortable. However, soon after falling asleep she ends up off all of the pillows for  the remainder of the night. Then this last week she started sleeping on top of her covers because she says it is more comfortable. She has the strangest sleeping habits of anyone I know.

Eric snapped these pics of Sade and Megan the other day. Both technology junkies:

It was once again Awards Assembly time at school. Jackson received an award for Principals Honor Roll!



Megan received an award for attendance. Just attendance. Megan generally gets "A" on her report cards. She is capable of it and works hard to do so. The WEEK BEFORE grades came out she brought home her progress report from school and her grades were  "A"s. Fast forward to a week later when she brings her report card home and she inexplicably has a "C" in science. Say what? I don't know what could have happened in a week's time. Especially when her progress report showed no missing assignments, and they didn't have any last minute tests. I sent a note to school inquiring about the grade, and was told by the science teacher that she didn't really know what caused the grade to drop, and since she had already submitted the grades she couldn't look it up. Needless to say I am pursuing it further.

And lastly I will leave you with a picture of a new lawn ornament my neighbor gave me.

Did I mention it is a lawn ornament, and thereby has to be displayed in the front yard? And since it was given to me by my neighbor he is going to notice if I do not display it. It's not that I find it hideous (well maybe I do find it a little hideous), it is simply that I am not a lawn ornament type of person. It is a dilemma for me.

What would you do? Would you display it?