Not so lucky

We were not so lucky of it just being the belt on the dryer. After we got the front off the dryer and started to put the belt on we quicly figured out something else was wrong. Ray was holding up everything and I was down on the floor trying to thread the belt through the pulley system. According to the diagram on the instructions that came with the belt there should have been the motor pulley and the idler pulley for it to go around. The motor pulley was there but that was it. After several minutes of both of us looking I located a badly melted wheel lying near the front of the dryer. We concluded that was the idler pulley.

While I piled the wet laundry in a basket Ray calls his best friend (spoke to his wife) to see if I could come over (across the street) and dry our clothes there. They of course agreed. So inbetween hauling two wet loads of clothes over and dry clothes back for the next 2 hours I began looking up parts on the internet. Finally found what I was looking for and if it really is only that part then it will only cost us $20 (including shipping) to fix it. But now the question is will we actually be able to fix it ourselves, is it really only the pulley, or will it become something very expensive?

We replaced our washer several months ago and wanted to get the dryer to go along with it but decided not to since funds were a little low. I would love an excuse to buy the new dryer, but I would love the excuse in a year. However, Sears is now currently having a 20% off sale on Kenmores (which is what our washer is) and that may be too good to pass up.

Start of Christmas Break

Sheila got home early from school on December 19. In her bag of goodies she had a thing of bubbles and immediately wanted to go out and blow some. Since the weather was very nice we went out and blew bubbles. Luckily I had a couple of extra bottles so Timmy could have one too.

The next day their daddy took them out to write on the sidewalks while I got a little rest. When I was a kid we sometimes had tons of snow to play in Christmas break and always the bitter cold. Not such warm weather that shorts and short sleeve shirts are applicable.

However, the weather did turn cold over the weekend and was cool for a few days before Christmas but now we are to the pleasant weather.

Dryer Breaking, Bottle Weaning

Well, my trusty old dryer stopped turning. However much I would love to get a new dryer, one to match my new washer, we cannot afford that. I got the top up after much finger smashing and discovered it indeed was the belt. It broke 2 years earlier and by accident we ended up buying two belts. Thank goodness because it will cost us nothing to fix it. Ray will finish fixing it when he gets home. Hopefully this belt will last about 2 years because I hope to replace it in just another year or two.

I stopped Timmy cold turkey from the bottle and he has had all of 3 swigs of milk in the last two days. Yesterday when he woke up I told him the bottle fairy came and took all the bottles away since he is two. He cried for about 4 hours for a bottle. He will drink juice from a sippy cup but not milk. It won't hurt him to go a couple of days without milk until he realizes that the bottle is not coming back. I may try to find some small paper cups and give him milk that way up in his high chair and see if he will drink that. He's doctor appointment is the 15th and if I am still having trouble getting him to drink milk I may see what his doctor suggest.

Sheila has regressed with potty training since being home from school. It is due to the busy week we had so the last few days I have really been trying to remember to either ask her or put her on the potty every two days. I hope by Friday I have her back on track.

Christmas Eve

When we got up Christmas Eve we went to the Norad Santa tracker to see where Santa was at. He was in Japan and well on his way. The kids liked watching Santa move from place to place.

I finally put some of the presents under the tree since Ray's and my bedroom was getting a little overloaded.

We picked up Uncle Jonathan at the airport and later that day went out for Grandma's birthday, which was the day before. The waiters asked who's birthday it was and we said Grandma's and Timmy's after Christmas. They brought them each out a bowl of ice cream. Here is Timmy sitting on Grandpa's lap with his ice cream. He "didn't want it."

It's tradition in our family to open one gift Christmas Eve and it is always pajamas. Here is Timmy and Sheila opening their presents before they went to bed.

They sure looked cute in their pajamas. Timmy's came with a cape but he kept pulling that off. It was the only cold night we have had lately so they haven't worn them again. The kids went to bed around 8:30 and were asleep soon after that.

"I Cried the Day We Took the Tree Down"

I always think of that song when we take the tree down, which we did this evening. I love the spirit of Christmas and how much fun we had but I am glad to have the decorations down and put away and the house back to normal and a little bit of order. I even put the Christmas village away that I had up since last Christmas. Over the next week I will try to post about our holiday week with pictures.

Excitement is in the air for a Merry Christmas

Our house is full of excitement. Sheila knows Santa is coming tonight and is very excited. She told me the other day that Santa says, "HoHoHo." The fun starts today for our family. My brother in-law is coming into town late this morning and will be staying with us. Then later we are going to get together to celebrate Grandma's birthday, which was yesterday. After a fun filled day hopefully the kids will go to sleep early so Santa can come early because tomorrow will be a very busy day with present opening, good food eating, more present opening when grandma and grandpa come over. Then the day after Christmas is Timmy's second birthday so there will be more present opening and some cake eating.

Nativity sharing time project

I am so lucky to get to do sharing time this month. I have the cutest die cuts for the nativity story. Since that is what sharing time is about this month I have been busy today and yesterday making the kids nativity sets. I cut them and then glued the clothes and hair on the dolls. The kids will create their own scenes on a piece of paper. They will get Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, the manger, stable, a star, shepherd, and a sheep. I could have also done the three kings, camels, and donkeys but I didn't have enough gray to make the donkeys and tan to make the camels and we aren't going to be talking about the three wisemen so leaving that out made it more doable. I would still be working on them if I had made the wisemen. Anyway, I made a larger version to use with the junior primary to tell the story and that is what this picture is. I may change it a little and tape two pages together since this one doesn't seem long enough and the shepherd looks one eyed since Mary's foot is behind his eye. But overall I am very pleased with how it has turned out. The older kids will also be creating the scene but after we act it out. I am making a play like script for the Luke 2 scriptures. Then we also will talk about what was happening in the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi as well.

Randomness

Randomness is the theme of this blog.

First an update on the potty training saga. We had some more success with Sheila. She actually did go number 2 once on the potty but only once so far. She also went on the big potty at church. She still prefers her small potty at home but I am going to get a little toilet seat to go over the big one so she can start making the transition at home. We are still having accidents every day but as long as mom and dad stay persistent in asking her she will go if reminded. Hopefully soon she will tell us every time or just go herself. Panties are on order for a few weeks after Christmas break so hopefully she will be on track for that.

I went shopping at the commissary with Timmy by ourselves this morning. We got there when they were opening the door so Timmy got one of the few car carts. Those things are very long and I seem to hit everything in the path. Also those carts don't hold as much as a regular cart so my cart was overflowing. I let the bagger take my groceries out for me and gave her a double tip since I had so much today.

While driving out to the base today I was in a fog. Literally. It's about 30 minutes out to the base and right before the base is a bridge over the bay. The fog was so thick up on the bridge that I could not see the water down below. It was a little eerie. It didn't burn off the hour I was in the commissary either but it wasn't as thick on the way back.

My inlaws live way out in the middle of nowhere. They do not pay for garbage pick up so on occassion they will bring some to put in our garbage can. We have a rather large can and usually don't even fill it in a week. Our garbage comes on Friday. Saturday my husband took the garbage out (probably our first since it was picked up the day before) and when he came in he said, "How do we generate so much garbage? Our can is already full." I wasn't really thinking about it just coming the day before and that was odd for it to already be full. But later that day I looked out the back door and saw that the lid just barely shut and on top of the boxes we had sitting out (we forgot to take to the road the day before) sat a pizza hut box. I know we didn't get a pizza hut box and Ray's dad works part time there as a delivery driver. I put 2 and 2 together and got 4. I said to Ray, "I know why our garbage is so full. Because your dad filled it up." Usually I don't mind but please leave us room for our garbage. It's only Tuesday and we have another bag sitting outside next to it. Ray will have to try to get it to fit since we have wild raccoons and dogs that roam around and will tear into loose garbage. I can't store it inside because it was making the house really stink.

I never realized how easy of a kid Timmy was to take care of until Sheila went to school. He too plays very good by himself. Although he gets into more stuff than Sheila ever did at that age he really is a good boy when he is by himself. When the two are together is when they get into everything and makes mommy want to pull her hair out.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Friends are invaluable. I am glad I have some just wished I didn't live so far away from most of them.
2. Cherish health; it's ever changing.
3. I'm ready for this cold to finally go away. Come on, it's been over a month.
4. My husband's collogne, I think it's Victoria Secret's Sexy or something, is one of my favorite perfumes or aftershaves or smells.
5. The oldest ornament I have is a little animal on a sled. My grandparents gave it to me for my first Christmas in 76.
6. Take some little children, mix it all together and you have a lot of trouble and a lot of love.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching a movie, tomorrow my plans include preparing my sharing time lesson and Sunday, I want to teach a good lesson!

Pictures of my new nephew

My brother just emailed the family with his blog spot and I put it as a link here. He has pictures of his new son so if you are interested in seeing the little guy (I know I was since I live so far away) I added a link to his blog spot on my blog.

Just Great!

Two weeks into school and Sheila came home with a note today saying she has been exposed to head lice. Just great! The note said all kids have been checked and those with have been isolated and parents notified so Sheila didn't have it or they would have called me. But now I am washing her school clothes, her jackets, and both kids bedding. Tonight both kids will get a bath with a thorough scalp scrubbing. Tomorrow while Sheila is in school I will vaccuum the house thoroughly. I just hope she doesn't get it. Or the rest of us.

Some fun pictures

The other day for FHE we made a cake for dessert. The kids and I each had a wooden spoon and were stirring it together.

It was very yummy cake.

I had this box next to the garbage ready to go out and this is what I found waiting to go out to the trash.

Daddy was making spaghetti one night and they thought it was funny to put a noodle in Sheila's hair.

Don't be a Scrooge and Play Along

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper, bows, and homemade tags if I get them done. This year will be the sticker tags.

2. Real tree or Artificial? I prefer real but we have a nice artificial one we have used for two years now.

3. When do you put up the tree? the weekend after Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take the tree down? New Years or the weekend after New Years.

5. Do you like eggnog? not since I seen my FHE brother at Ricks spew it up after drinking two big glasses of it.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? my rocker barbie set and radio. Also any books since I love to read.

7. Hardest person to buy for? my inlaws

8. Easiest person to buy for? Sheila

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, a cheap one but I haven't put it out for the last two years since my kids have a wooden one that my grandmother made them.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? usually mail but this year most people will get an email Christmas letter. I try to make Christmas cards every other year and photo ones every other year. This year was supposed to be homemade ones but I only got a few done with all the illness going around our house.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can't think of any bad Christmas presents but for our wedding one of Ray's aunts and cousins wrapped up used junk from their house and gave it to us. We got 3 cork screws (we don't drink anything that requires one), a box of old baking soda, and a very used puzzle of Hawaii since we went there on our honeymoon.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? It's a Wonderful Life

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? January. No joke, if I am planning on making stuff I have to start early but if I am buying stuff usually in September after all our families birthdays are past.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? no, but I have been on the receiving side of a recycled gift. My inlaws are notorious for doing this. Last year they gave us an animated snowman someone gave them. (I have pictures of them with it the year before.) Then they also gave my brother-in-law a game he gave them the year before. Oops!!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Wassail

16. Lights on the tree? our tree is prelit so of course.

17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night

18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? dasher and dancer and prancer and vixon, comet and cupid and donner and blitzen....but do you recall? the most famous reindeer of all!!!! Rudolph the red nosed reindeer (I cheated and copied my friend Rachel's answer who emailed me this)

19. Angel on the tree top or a star? angel right now but we use to have a star.

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? one gift Christmas Eve and the rest the following morning after breakfast

21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? crazy shoppers who hurt others to get what they want in the stores....nothing is worth that. (again another copied answers but I feel the same way.)

22. What theme or color are you using? mostly random but red balls and red and white garland on the tree this year besides all the random ornaments.

23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? turkey but we are turkeyed out this year so we will be doing ham. I have never cooked a ham so that will be interesting.

New nephew

Update: He was born 2:09 this morning. He weighed in at 9 lbs. 3 oz and 20.75 inches long. He was 2 weeks early. They named him Kaden Mark. My other brother and his wife are expecting a boy.

My brother Mark and his wife Michelle welcomed a new baby boy (their first boy, third child) early this morning. My dad emailed me about 3 a.m. mountain time telling me that my brother called him about 2:45 and told him that he was born early this morning. No details yet but I will update the post when it comes. For my parents that makes 4 grandsons, 5 granddaughters, 1 step grandson, and 1 step granddaughter. My brother Michael and his wife Tatum should be finding out what they are having today. They are due in April.

Updates

Ear Infections: Sheila had her follow up appointment for her ear infections. Unfortunately, although she seemed better, her ears are still very infected. We had a choice; another round of antibiotics or the shots. Picturing us holding down our daughter twice a day for another ten days we opted for the shots. We didn't tell Sheila that is what was going to happen until we took her back to the shot room. Boy, was she mad. After the shots we had to wait for 15 minutes to make sure she didn't have a reaction (she had one in each leg) and she ran around the waiting room, threw herself on the floor, and tried to leave. Afterwards we had to carry her everywhere. We took her to McDonalds afterwards and she was so upset she got the same pony that she got Saturday when she went with her grandparents. We were able to trade it for a different one. Nice thing about the shots is that by tomorrow she should be her happy self and daddy and I won't be stressed trying to give her the medicine.

Potty Training: Doing pretty good. Sheila is going pee on the potty at home around 85% of the time. I usually will ask her if she hasn't told me she has needed to go in awhile. Still no number 2 on the potty yet. But since she is doing so well we have decided to let her wear pull ups at home as well as school as long as she keeps going on the potty. We tried pull ups about a year ago and she just used them like diapers. She has been accident free at school for the last three days. She also is scared of the big potties still so she won't go at church or while we are out so I try to get her to go right before we leave somewhere.

Take It All Out

Yesterday I was happily crocheting along on a robe that I am making for my daughter. I have been working on it off and on for a month. It is a set that actually matches one for a doll I intend to give her next year with whatever doll clothes I have made for it by then (so far just a dress and the robe but I plan on making lots more this year.) The robe is worked in parts, the bottom, then the two sides of the front, and then the back. I was one inch from being doing with the bottom (17 inches) and I couldn't figure out why the wrong side of the robe looked better than the right side. I looked at the picture in the book (I did the robe for the doll probably around a year ago or longer) and I noticed that I had been doing the pattern wrong, since row 2! My husband told me to just finish it the way I was doing it. I could have done that. But I have taken out more than that before and this was something I just couldn't cover with some fancy stitch work. So out it came, 2 skeins worth of yarn now twined up into a big ball. I now have about 3 inches done of the new bottom. Luckily the real pattern is easier and takes less yarn so I should be able to whip it out faster than the first time around.

Putting up the Christmas tree

We put up the Christmas tree the Friday after Thanksgiving and boy was that an ordeal this year. We have a nice prelit one we bought after Christmas a couple of years back and we store it in our outside shed. Last summer our shed got infested with roaches and we had Terminix come out a couple of times to spray it so they are long dead but they left us presents in the tree. Ray had to shake it all out in the yard since I am scared of the little buggers.

Finally it was up and we could decorate. For prelit trees all the plugs are along the trunk of the tree and we had one set of branches not lighting up. We searched the tree for the plug that wasn't plugged but couldn't find it. Finally traced the cord to one plugged in. We must have a bulb out but couldn't find the bulbs that went with the tree. We need to look for some to buy but for now they are not lit but since there are so many it is hard to tell those branches are not lit. The kids had fun hanging the ornaments on the tree and now they like to rearrange the ornaments. The nonbreakable ones are on their level.

Here is the tree almost finished. That night we discovered we didn't have any garland so Saturday we bought some and some more red balls. We finished the decorating but discovered that we really needed another strand of garland so I have now bought that. But all in all the tree looks very nice.

Pictures of Sheila's first two days of school

I finally got the pictures downloaded since we finally got our new computer. Here are the pictures from Sheila's first days of school. The first three are from the first day. The last two are from her second day.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Snow is beautiful when it first falls and covers the ground in it's pure whiteness.
2. I'm looking forward to seeing my children's reactions when they see what Santa has brought them.
3. Ray is the best husband ever!
4. One of my favorite old tv shows is Mash.
5. I'm done with trying to figure out how I screwed up my template on my blog.
6. The most enjoyable thing around the holidays is the spirit.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to ward Christmas party, tomorrow my plans include hopefully getting to sleep in and Sunday, I want to teach a good sharing time!

Potty Training Woes and Successes

Everyone has been telling me to be patient, that Sheila will potty train when she is ready. That there will be signs. I waited and waited. I tried different things. I tried bribing her with her favorite candy, I tried promising her a trip to McDonalds and a cake when she starts wearing panties, I have tried having her just wear panties so she can feel the wetness and ickiness.

She started school yesterday and they have a potty schedule. I learned today when I dropped her off that she had only one accident yesterday and that she used the potty. I decided I needed to follow a similar schedule. As I sat home today gearing up for the confrontation I would face when she got home I started to really doubt my ability to be a mother. I have heard people tell about how all of a sudden their child wanted to potty train and would practically do everything themselves. It seems to be a magical number around 3. Well, that magical number never came for us. Was I doing something wrong? Was I not trying hard enough? Did I need to just sit back and wait or did I need to get a little meaner? I watched shows, asked questions to other mothers, read books but nothing helped Sheila and I with the issue.

So anyway back to gearing up for the confrontation. I knew she would not be happy with me and decided not to prolong it. I would put her on the potty as soon as she got home. I even came up with the idea to put her potty in mom and dad's bathroom and make it special. Also that bathroom is a lot further away from Timmy's room who was taking a nap at the moment.

Sure enough a fight insued. I thought I would have to chase her around the house but she did sit there but she cried and cried. I tried to take her mind off of it. I sang to her, shown her pictures on my camera phone, and other distractions. But she did not calm down. I let her get off, gave her a hug, and reassured it that it would be okay but told her she would have to sit again in about half an hour until she went peepee on the potty.

A little over an half an hour later the fight was on. She had woken her brother during her first tantrum over the potty and so I had moved her potty back into her bathroom. I tried to get Timmy to sit with Sheila but he didn't want to do it. After a few minutes I let her get off and decided to try to get her in a better mood before I tried again.

I gave the kids a snack and an hour later put her on again. I kept checking back every so often. After about five minutes I go in to get her off and she is standing up looking in the potty. She had a dribble of peepee in there. I made a big deal of it. We poured it in the big potty and she got to flush the potty and then we did the peepee dance and I gave her a hug and a kiss.

I called my husband who was on his way home and he was so excited. So when he got home I had Sheila tell her daddy. She then said she wanted to peepee in the potty for daddy. He took her in there and within a few seconds she had went. We made a big deal about it again. Half an hour later she told me she wanted to peepee in the potty again too and so we went again and sure enough she did. We made a big deal about it again. Finally some success. She hasn't peed on the potty since she was about 2.

But as they say take two steps forward and one step back. I did not expect her to be potty trained after the first time but when she started to tell me she needed to go I was hopeful it would keep it. But then she had a number 2 accident in her pants and then it became a fight again. I am bound and determined to keep up with the schedule though. Every hour on the hour and she sits there for a few minutes or until she goes. My husband's aunt told me something a few weeks back to kind of make me feel better. She said, "You have to remember she won't be in diapers when she is 15." I will celebrate the day she is no longer in diapers.

My Baby Went to School

Today was Sheila's first day of preschool. I drove her to school today and walked her to class. When I woke her up this morning and told her she had to get up for school she told me no and swatted at me. But a few minutes later she came out of her room. She picked out her clothes the night before. The school district here has a strict dress code policy and she has to wear plain jeans or khaki pants and then plain white, blue, or red shirts. They are supposed to be one color and either a plain tee shirt type or a polo or button down shirt. Well, it is very hard to find those items for a child still in 3T-4T clothes and during the off season. I had to get some stuff at the girl's section and just find the few 4s and XS that they had but I came up with a handful of items although some of her shirts have a little bit of details on them like sequins and shiny thread.

She picked out a blue tee shirt with a little bit of gathering at the neck and some dark blue jeans. I had to roll up the jeans and after I dropped her off I headed to walmart to get her a belt. She didn't want her hair done but I told her she had to.

Finally we were ready to head out. The kids were gathering at the bus stop as I loaded my kids in the van. The bus stops right across the street. We got to the school and I unloaded the kids and got the stuff for Sheila's class. (She needs a blanket and pillow, a change of clothes, pullups, etc.) We walked into the school (classrooms open up to the outside) and down the sidewalk to Sheila's class. Sheila wore her backpack. She was the first one in class (We were about 10 minutes early.) Timmy wanted to play too but when I told him it was time to go and let Sheila stay at school he came with me.

Timmy and I headed to Walmart to pick up a few things we needed. I haven't been shopping by myself with just one kid in 2 years. But he was a good boy and stayed in the cart although he wanted out near the end of our shopping day. For the first two hours of the day he kept asking, "Sheila go?" I know he really misses her already. His playmate is gone. In just another hour they will be putting Sheila on the bus for the first time and 20 minutes after that I will be walking across the street to get her from the bus. I hope she has a fun day and that she goes to the potty when she is supposed to.

No pictures yet because I am still waiting on our desktop computer but I will post some as soon as we get that picture up and running.