What a Sunday

Sometimes there are forces at work that just fight against you no matter what you try to do to rectify the situation. We left for church on time this morning. Soon after leaving it began to rain. We have a 15 minute drive to church on a good day. About 5 minutes into our drive it really starts to pelt us and then we see it. A big white wall. That is seriously what it looked like. Ray slows way down and we merge into the wall of rain. It is coming down so hard we can't see more than 10-20 feet in front of our car. It reminds me of whiteouts in a blizzard but of rain. Finally almost to the church it lightens up. It's barely raining at the church but it is thundering and lightning. She-girl is scared of thunder so she and I run to the church building while Ray is getting T-man out of the car.

Once inside the chapel (even though we were earlier than usual) all the pews on the side we usually sit on are filled up. We see one pew on the other side of the chapel empty so we head over. The bishop stops us and ask us if Ray and I will be willing to offer the prayers during sacrament meeting. We say we will and sit down. She-girl didn't want to sit there. She wanted to sit on the other side. Ray finally took her out and got her a picture of Jesus from the table of Missionary pass along cards.

After the opening song I head up to say the prayer. She-girl freaks out and runs after me. She trips on the stairs and falls and just continues to lay there and scream while I try to say the prayer. I think I said some nice things. I go over and pick her up and took her out into the foyer. I see that she bit her lip in her fall and now has a fat lip. We make it back into the chapel for the sacrament. But during the whole meeting we are in and out with the kids. I take She-girl out for time out for grabbing a car from T-man and then throwing another one at him. When we leave T-man freaks out and starts screaming. Ray takes him out. I go back in with She-girl and she sees her daddy is gone and so starts wanting to go out and starts claiming "Stinky!" So I grab a diaper and head out again. We find daddy and T-man and we all go back in together. I ended up taking T-man out at the end and She-girl followed us out and then wanted her daddy so I stood in the back of the chapel while she walked back up to the pew. I ended up standing out in the foyer and Ray took She-girl up when he said the closing prayer.

Off to nursery. T-man's first official day. He didn't want any of it. I sit in there with him but he won't leave my lap and when he does he ventures away only for a few minutes. She-girl is hiding behind the cabinet door the whole time. Almost an hour into it She-girl decides she wants her daddy and runs out the door (she opened it herself) and runs screaming down the hall. The nursery leader runs out after her. The nursery leader comes back and says Ray intercepted her. A few minutes later Ray came back in with She-girl. That started the next fight. (I should mention besides my two there was two more throwing tantrums at the beginning. That will come in to play in a few minutes.) Both wanted to sit on Daddy's lap. T-man started pulling She-girls hair and She-girl started pushing T-man.

Snack time. Kids love that right? Not my kids. They didn't want to sit in their seats. She-girl pulled all her grapes into pieces. T-man started throwing his at the other kids. Then they both started crying and screaming again. Ray takes She-girl out for a walk. My kids started the other two back up again so I kindly removed my other child from the situation.

We left a little early and when we got home She-girl had to sit quietly in time-out and only got church related books to look at. My parents use to make us sit for an hour if we acted up in church when we got home in our church clothes. I didn't make her sit that long. I about died of the shock when she actually sat there the whole time and just looked at the books.

Ray and I decided that she never acted out in nursery until we started sitting in there with T-man so we will just leave both of them next week and then if T-man has a hard time the nursery leader will bring him to us after a few minutes if he doesn't stop crying. I also decided our FHE lesson tomorrow will be on reverence and how to act at church.

Ray let me get a nice nap and then when I got up I started dinner. I was making a really simple dish. Meatball Calzones. Just thaw a loaf of frozen bread dough. Roll it out to 12*18 inch rectangle. Put meatballs (I use frozen ones usually) and one cup of mozarella cheese. Fold over and seal ends. Brush with egg white and sprinkle on italian seasoning. Then let rest for 15-30 minutes. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 400 degrees. Heat up pizza or spaghetti sauce and serve over calzone. So I go to roll out the dough and no rolling pin. We search the house high and low and still can't find it. We call our two neighbors we know really well and neither of them are home. I end up pushing and pulling the dough into a rough rectangle. But it works and dinner turned out beautifully.

I finished my lesson on reverence for tomorrow. It's amazing how one bad day can give you a kick in the bum to get you headed in the right direction. Ray and I have made a vow that we are going to hold FHE religiously now (we have struggled in the past, we usually do something but not always lessons.) Ray even wants to do two a week for awhile.

Baby Powder Everywhere But on the Baby's Bottom

The other day I rearranged and cleared out the nursery/storage room. My son sleeps in there but I have several tubs of sewing and yarn supplies since I seem to hoard yarn and materials. I use to have a large stack next to the crib and it was a convenient place to leave the baby powder and wipes. Well, the other day I cleaned out the closet, got rid of some of it, and put several of the tubs in there and now just have a small stack by the crib. Knowing the kids would get into the wipes and powder I put the powder across the room on the dresser and the wipes I stuck in a bucket with my yarn on top of the stack.

Yesterday my husband must have used the powder because it was left on the short stack. I didn't realize this until it was too late. This morning I heard them rustling around in the diapers so went to investigate. Sure enough someone had pulled out all the diapers and they were strewn across the floor. But then my eyes scanned across the room to the other corner and there stood my daughter and son covered head to toe in baby powder with my daughter holding the powder bottle upside down. Powder coated the floor, several stuffed toys, my son's plush chair, the pack and play, and the box they got it from. Powder settled like dust on almost every other surface in the room.

Now, I should have ran and got my camera and took a picture but I was so upset I grabbed the bottle from my daughter and put her in her room. The bottle is now empty. I believe it had been about half full. I start beating the powder out of the toys but that just created a powder storm in the room. I retrieved the vacuum and start vacuuming. It is so thick that it is not picking up very good. I get the hose out and put on the turbo brush and go to town on the carpet, toys, and chair. It is overwhelming the vacuum with powder and little puffs are shooting out the place where the hose is placed on the vacuum when not in use. The vacuum is soon covered with it's own white covering. But the turbo brush does the trick for the most part and most of the powder is trapped in the vacuum chamber. I then wipe the furniture and the vacuum off with baby wipes. Oh, the joys of toddlerhood.

Hail storm

Yesterday I witnessed my first hail storm in Florida. Ray said he has only seen it do that a few times before and only remembers one snowfall back in high school. It was so severe that we couldn't see more than 5 feet from our house. My rosebush right next to the front door took a beating. Several of the flowers lost several petals but today several new buds are blooming.

It's Not Just Me

Have you ever had a problem and felt like everyone around you thought you were wrong, crazy, paranoid? About a year ago it felt like the AC in our van (only a year old at the time) was taking a little longer than most vehicles to get cool. I realize that the van is very large and it is also very hot here in Florida but that just didn't seem right. I could put my hand right on the vent with it cranked up to the highest and coldest and it felt just barely cold. My husband dutifully took it in and they ran some test and said the thermometer was at 41 degrees which was the correct temp. So they just topped off the freeon (hello, red flag) and sent us on the way. My husband never noticed it running hot and it wouldn't do it every time.

But I have to say I have a little experience in this area. My last car had a lot of AC problems and that is how it started. I just kept thinking that it wouldn't get fixed until after the warranty expired and then we would be stuck with a $1000 repair bill. During the winter it isn't as noticeable so of course a whole year has passed.

A few weeks ago it started doing it again. This time my husband is sitting in the drivers seat and he turns to me and says, "Does the AC seem to be a little warm to you." THANK YOU. "Yes, it does." But it gets cold after a few minutes. Over the course of the next few weeks it starts to do it a little more often. It could be blowing cold while we drove some where, we get out for a few minutes, get back in and it would blow warm again for a longer time. Now if it was a problem that just needed a little time to start cooling off then when we get back in after driving for awhile it should start blowing cold right away. Our car never takes long to start blowing cold.

Also our AC when it was turned has sometimes made a clunking sound since we bought it brand new. Ray took it in for that but they said it was just a sound the car made. So anyway my husband takes the van in yesterday and was pretty adamant that something was wrong and they were to do more then the thermometer test. We also needed the gas cover fixed and the tire checked since it seemed we had a slow leak. My husband called yesterday afternoon and they found the problem. The compressor is going bad. That is what broke in my Neon that helped us decide to buy the van a year early since we had planned to replace my car then anyway. Luckily, we were persistent enough that we are getting a new compressor while it is still under warranty. I just knew that if we didn't press the issue that the month after the warranty expired we would be replacing it out of our pocket. The gas cover is also covered but unfortunately we had a nail in our tire and so we have to pay for the patch. I rather pay the $24 than $1000+. So now my van is in the shop until Thursday or Friday. I, however, feel like a victory has been won and they should have listened to me in the first place.

Thunder! Thunder!

Our daughter is scared and awed by thunder. Personally I am a little tired of thunder and I mean that literally. She heard thunder once when we were putting her to bed and after that refused to stay in her room. She fought and raged against us as we tried to get her in bed. She finally fell asleep in the hall closet next to her room. I made the mistake of trying to move her in her room. She woke up and started all over again. Ray finally got her some more milk to help calm her down and before she even drank any she fell asleep on the living room floor. We left her there until we went to bed and then my husband moved her to her room.

Just before 4:30 this morning she comes screaming and running into our room "THUNDER! THUNDER!" She frantically climbs over my husband and into bed between us. We don't usually allow her to sleep with us but we both were so exhausted we thought we might let her but she was up and down and finally Ray got her out of bed and brought her in the living room and turned some cartoons on for her and he came back to bed. Now she is asleep on the couch. I really hope she grows out of the fear of thunder. We are in the season where daily thunder storms are common and sometimes they occur at night. I really don't want this to become a nightly ritual.

Dilating Eyes

I have needed to go to the eye doctor for awhile but it became very apparent when my glasses broke the other day. Today at the eye doctor the eye piece broke completely. Everything went well to start off. My prescription really hasn't changed so that is good. My left eyes has a little bit and I knew it had because it is hard to see out of my glasses lately. Then she got to the part of dilating my eyes. I hadn't had them done in probably five years so it was time. I told her I was driving but she said that I should be fine so I got it done.

What a trip. I felt like I was in a fog. It is so weird to me to see far away but not close up. I had to hold my daughter while we went in the elevator and looking at her face made me queasy. So driving was really fun. I have abnormally light sensitive eyes and have to wear sunglasses normally. Well, having them on was like not having anything on normally. I had to double my sunglasses just so I wouldn't squint. I couldn't look at the steering wheel and I could barely see the odometer. I just prayed that I would get home okay.

My husband and I agreed that I would not get that done again unless he can drive me home. Even now over 2 hours later I still can't see close up but I can see 6 inches and further out. My pupils are still very dilated. I feel like I need to take a nap to get them back to normal.

At least now I have my prescriptions to go get new glasses and contacts and I won't have to have my eyes dilated agains for a couple of years.

We are Builders

One of my children's favorite toys are their maga blocks. They fought over them so much we got our son a bag of his own and marked his. But they both love to play with them. My daughter built this tower all herself. Mommy helped the little guy with his but he destroyed them all on his own.

My New Ride

When I got sick the other day I upchucked all over myself and my car seat. It was really really bad. Mommy tried to scrub the seat and get the smell out but it still smelled very bad. So I got a new car seat. This one is so nice. It has pads around my neck, a cup holder, and arm rests. It's a lot like my sissy's seat. I like riding in it, I fell like a big boy.

Wedding Redo

I had a very vivid dream last night of my wedding. Actually the ring exchance since we were married in the temple. In real life we had a ring exchange for Ray's family since most of them are not LDS. It was very simple, I did wear my wedding dress, but everything else was informal. We just had a dinner and then Ray and I said a few words and exchanged rings.

In my dream last night we were doing that all over again. I had forgotten everything this time except my wedding dress which in my dream was just a simple dress. I didn't even have my shoes. Tiffany, my bff, and her husband flew down from Utah to participate and thankfully she came prepared.

In the dream it became a very complicated thing. Some of Ray's aunts took over. They got a huge choir to sing. They flew in a lot of my family and friends for the ring exchange. It was held in a huge church and it was completely full of people. But I felt really too simple. So Tiffany had brought some hair clips and we found a white napkin and white ribbon and we tied it in an accordion style with some ribbon and clipped that in my hair with my hair in a french twist to resemble a veil. Then as we were waiting for the wedding march I saw some flowers planted in the flower beds outside so I slipped outside and picked a handful of different types. Tiffany was my bridesmaid and she came prepared with her own flowers and shoes (that later.)

Ray's family was taking care of the flower girl and ring bearer. I guess they thought it had to be like a real wedding. They were upset that I forgot to get things for those two important people. They were scouring the church for a pillow and ribbon for the ring bearer. The flower girl they picked some flowers and put them in one of those plastic church cups that it seems like every church I have ever been in has in their kitchen.

So the music starts and I follow Tiffany down the aisle and I look down and I am barefoot. Too late now to find shoes. I see Ray standing up there all handsome. Everyone is looking at me. Now this church is huge and some how instead of turning at the front to get to Ray I continue up the choir stands and realize half way up that there was no way to get to Ray unless I go down or completely around but there was an orchestra up there. So I start going down the stair completely backwards keeping in step. The groomsmen were behind me and they started running into each other trying to back up.

Then I woke up. Even though it was a silly dream about something long past, I lied in the bed and just enjoyed thinking about it for a few moments. I would definitely marry my husband all over again. And at least it was a pleasant dream for once.

Trail of Towels

The sickness has gone through our house except my husband who if the pattern holds will become ill this afternoon. Saturday was an ordeal. We went out to eat for Father's Day with Ray's parents. Afterwards we are driving home and our son coughs a little and then we get this horrid smell wafting up to us. Now our city doesn't have the best smells anyway, what with the sulfur in the water and the paper mill lovely aromas so at first we thought it was coming from outside. But at the same moment as I thought it my husband ask, "Did he vomit?"

My head whips around and sure enough my poor little boy is covered. We are about five minutes from home and no towels or anything in the car. He continues to cover himself a couple of more times. He starts whimpering. My husband is trying to get around the slow drivers but we are hitting every light. We live 10 miles out in the country and only have about 5 lights in those 10 miles but we got stopped at every one of them.

Once home I bring out paper towels and bags. We scrape him off the best we could and then strip him down to his diaper right there. My husband takes him in while I clean up the car seat. I finally pull it out and spray it off with the garden hose. It is still wet and stinky. We had to bring it in yesterday during a downpour.

I gather every towel in the house that is clean and start to put them down all over the floor (thank you, Tiffany, for the tip.) We just have enough to cover the living room and the hall. But luckily we do not have to clean up any of the carpet because the one time he didn't vomit on the towels it was the kitchen floor and I was able to mop that up. I have done more laundry this week than I have in a month.

The spring has sprung

It is time for a new pair of glasses. I was hoping I would be able to use my frames at least one more time but last night I went to put them on and the spring on the ear piece spring and now it over extends. At least I can still wear them. So Monday morning we will be calling the base for an appointment and hopefully this week I will be picking out some new glasses. I also need new contacts but they will probably have to wait until closer to our cruise which is just about 4 months away. Yippee!!

Poor Girl

I passed the lovely flu to my daughter. Yesterday right before Daddy got home she started vomiting and couldn't stop all evening. Trying to get her to throw up in a bowl was a real challenge so we were cleaning up the floors all night. Luckily she hadn't eaten a lot during the day and at the end it was just juice. The last time was all over my husband since he was holding her. I couldn't help but laugh because I thought it was either brave or stupid not to have the bowl close at hand while holding a sick child.

Worried that she would be worse, or either he or our son would have it he called his boss and got off of work today. Our daughter slept soundly all night and now is full of energy like nothing has happened. It was two days between her and I so I expect we may have another hit tomorrow. Everytime I hear a child cough now I go running.

Sick Again

Yesterday I was hit hard with the flu. A few weeks ago I got a slight case of the flu that lingered for about a week but it was nothing compared to yesterday. My poor husband had to come home from work early to take care of the kids and me. I had tried to get a hold of his mother to come over but couldn't get a hold of her. It felt like someone had beat my sides and all I could do for awhile was lie on the floor and feel like I was going to die. Luckily, my children were very good while my husband was at work and I did get my son down for a nap and my daughter put herself down for a nap before my husband came home.

Hopefully today will be a better day.

Gas Prices

I'm usually not one for conspiracy theories. But I think something is going on with gas prices. If they keep going up I see the country coming to a stand still, or at least this family will be. We have already cut back on how often we go into town (since we live 10 miles out of town.) We use to go in about 1-2 a week. But now we have cut back to grocery shopping to once a month and since my husband works on base he will stop at the commissary on the way home for the inbetween shopping trip items. We go out to eat less. I don't visit and shop at my hobby stores as often. I am buying more items online since shipping is cheaper than the gas to run into town and buy the same item. We make one big trip when we have to go in and hit as many places as we can. It is a big planning event because we don't want to back track and waste more gas. We use to take the kids out every Saturday to the beach, parks, etc. but now we are going to go to the beach out on base during our monthly grocery trip and staying home the rest of the time and just going out less often. We had planned to make a bunch of day trips this summer since we weren't going on a big family vacation this year but that has been cancelled. Our gas budget use to cover gas for both cars and the scheduled oil changes but now the gas takes it all up and then some. I have to find money from other areas to come up with the money for the oil changes. Those months I hope the water and power bill are less than budgeted to help out.

I joke to my husband that if gas does go up to the $7 a gallon we have heard rumored that we can ride bikes to church since I use to ride one in a dress on my mission. We have a little trailer for the kids to ride in the back. It would be a very hot, sweaty, long ride. When I was growing up a man use to drive his mule team and wagon to church sometimes. Too bad we don't have the yard for some mules or horses. However, the price of feed for animals is going up to so maybe it wouldn't really help having an animal to ride.

Peek-a-boo

Can you find the boy amongst the Minnies and Mickeys? Another lunch time fun time.

Bear Wrestling

We love these big bears. We can cuddle them, wrestle with them, play with them. And there is one for each of us.

A seat with a view

(written through my son's eyes)

Mommy put me in the big chair with a tray and put my lunch on the tray. My sissy was sitting next to me in her big girl chair. Mommy left us there to eat our lunch because really how much trouble could we get into while eating our lunch. Sure I like to throw my food all over the room but that isn't trouble, is it? The other day I threw my waffle all over and two pieces landed on mommy's work desk but she didn't find one of the pieces until today. Anyway, back to lunch. My sissy and I were laughing and having a good old time. Sissy got a great idea. My chair is on wheels and even though there is carpet on the floor she started to push my chair. There is a big window in the dining room and when mommy is working we sometimes like to look out it. Sometimes it is raining, sometimes there are cats stalking around the houses, and sometimes we can see neat bugs flying around. Sissy pushes me right up by the window so I can enjoy the view while I am eating my lunch. What a nice sissy I have.

Spilled milk

No use crying over spilt milk, but I most often feel like screaming over it. My son is still on the bottle. I know, I know, he should be drinking out of a cup. I just haven't had it in me to deal with the screaming tantrums he will throw when I stop him but I am gearing up for it. Maybe tomorrow. Anyway, my daughter and son have taken to a new form of art. Milk and juice shaking. They take their bottle/sippy cups and shake them all over their toys, books, carpet, bed, everything. I am constantly wiping up milk and juice off of everything. I try to make sure they only drink in my presence but that doesn't always happen. Whenever my children get quiet and the bottle is nowhere to be found I know what they are up to. As I write this my daughter is in time out for her participation in the last art work that got her one coloring book thrown away. My house is going to stink of sour milk until the day my last child is out of the bottles and sippy cups and then maybe we will chance replacing the carpet.