Great quote

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning how to dance in the rain."

I just saw this quote and came after the most stormy weekend you could imagine. I have to work on the dancing. I haven't quite mastered it yet. I am still falling in the puddles.

I guess a good indication of a bumpy weekend is when your oldest daughter on Friday has her starter go out. Mindful of the blessings here-She was in walking distance to the school, even closer than if she was at home. Requirement for the use of my car was lunch brought to the school for me. Wonderful daughter did that. When trying to pick her sisters and me up after school, she left her jacket behind in class and was uncomfortable going to get in while other students were testing-Mindful blessing-very attentive friend noticed right away, jacket rescued. Then Amber further helps out by taking Autumn to get a gift for a friend at the dollar store, somewhere along the way, finds a nail and it likes my tire. Amber is at home when she discovers the flat. We have a flat and there is this usually huge-but somewhat scaled down concert that Autumn and Kylee need to be at in like 15 minutes of getting this flat tire. Mindful blessing- People we know drive by the house and turn around and offer to help. They are going to the same place and I can bring dad once tire is changed. I get help, we are perfectly on time. Dad is not as on time-mindful blessing-Cell phone! I call him when girls perform so he can sort of hear it but doesn't miss it completely. Next!
Saturday we know have two cars to fix and a few places to be. Mindful blessing-Hubby is so resourceful. He manages to get tire replaced for free-I guess Amber drove a little with the super flat tire and they won't just fix it. Then he gets starter from junkyard so instead of 120 dollars it is $20 and he fixed it! But one more car starts to act up but he is milking it along for now. Kelsea's door got caught in the wind last week and dented another girl's car. They decide to file a claim and I am surprised by the insurance company telling us about the claim. I find out I need to resubmit EVERYTHING we sent in for a home loan modification thing we started in November. DO you think I have any clue where any of that is? Two kids are sick all weekend. And a grandma is very unhappy with Kelsea over the outcome with prom. Oh dear. hmm... There are some mindful blessings... I took Monday off to find my paperwork and also found the top of my desk and calmed down a bunch. I was super stressed all weekend. Hannah had to stay home on Monday-another good reason to be off. We have never filed a claim in 5 years of having our insurance so our insurance won't go up when they pay out the $200 to two dents and we were only responsible for one. All is well. The Grandma thing.. No sharing details there, just hoping prom will soon become a distant memory for all involved. But Kelsea got the sportsmanship award at the tournament she was invoved in on Saturday. She was voted on by coaches so that is quite an honor for her. Loan thing-haven't figured that one out yet. But Lee Joe has a great lead on a great job and he interviews for it tomorrow.

As for kiddos-Amber is going to be a member of the Blue Thunder Marching band at BSU next year. We are so excited for that! She is taking summer school classes and is doing great.
Kelsea is having her struggles this year. Some with friends, some with dates, some with classes and she is learning some difficult yet character building lessons with life. She is playing Tennis and winning some and losing some and is nursing an injured a sore shoulder as we speak. It's a little more than sore. Maybe it's related to too much texting? That's what I think I will tell her.
Kylee is thriving in 7th grade. Tremendously social and testing some boundaries. She has been busy with Honor Band, piano, dance, and now is playing Volleyball and made varsity. She is proud of herself. That just started.
Autumn is in a whirlwind of craziness that is calming down. She did track for the first time, has loved it. She took someone's place on a relay team and they went all the way to the city track meet and took 6th. She has discovered she enjoys running a lot and helps her feel good and cope well-even when her toenails are very infected. The poor kid had one more side of her toenail removed again. It's been an interesting time for her. A lot of growing up going on. I am watching her finish up elementary school and I can tell she is getting ready for jr high.
Hannah started piano this month. She really likes it. She is doing dance as well. She told her dad to stop gaping again tonight. We start laughing and she says "what?" She really has no clue. She is very interesting.

As for me-I have lost a few inches and few pounds with exercise only. Some people are starting to notice. I can't wait for school to get out and I really hope we can do something this summer. But I still don't like all these teenage hormones in my house.

That is more than anyone ever wanted to know I am sure. The puddles are big and I am getting wet but am trying to learn to get through the storm with grace....and sanity...all in one piece because sometimes it feels like I am loosing my mind....

But not today.

Spring madness

I will admit I am a little strung out. I will also admit that at times, it takes next to nothing to make me that way. I did find it humorous earlier this week that I said "oh, tonight is not too bad. We just have track, piano and tennis." How is having 3 things after work not too bad? I suppose it is because all those things got done by 5:30 and I had an evening to myself, but not really. I went to the fabric store to buy fabric so I could modify Kelsea's dress for prom.

So I dread spring now. It is busier no matter how you try to manage it, than December. Everything always looks manageable until everything decides it is time to wind it with huge production numbers. That is how you know the end it near because of the flurry, the tornado, the fireworks of the finale to finally send it off and put it to rest until next year. And everyone wants to do it all at the same time. The District track meet will happen on the same day as the elementary honor band tour that requires a chold to be dropped off and picked up during the parents work day. OK.

It is hard to say no to the things the kids do when they get done with that track meet and you were so reluctant to add another thing and your daughter says "that was so much fun! I just loved that!" even though she came in 3rd in the shotput and there were only 3 girls and she didn't place at all in the 60. And she is running with the most persistent infected toenail and then continues to run when they cut part of it off. All right fine, join track.

I asked Kelsea over and over about Prom. It wasn't her fault no one from her school asked her. And then the kid who did found a way to ask her even though he didn't go to her school. Then he asks her on the Sunday before prom. On top of the already busy week we get him permission to attend. I have to alter a dress she already has but am too exhausted all week to work on it. Then there is the flower she needs for him. She is too busy to do that. Miracles did happen this week. She had dress she felt more modest in. Friends did her hair. I was parting with my car because the dress was so big and he doesn't have his license yet. I tried to get all my shopping done during the day-I usually wait until late Saturday to that. In the middle of my grocery shopping I get a call from Kylee saying that the guy was waiting for me to pick up the flower I ordered for her the night before. I forgot to tell Kelsea to pick it up and it left my mind completely. They closed at 1-it was 1:30. I try to figure out what to do. Amber is volunteering at the Jazz festival downtown, Kelsea is on her day date at Wahooz in Meridian and Lee Joe is working. It's me. I am it. I have a cart with lots of groceries. What do i do? I left it. I told the checker I would be back. Drive the way with the shortest stoplights, right past my house, to the florist. I feel so bad and liek such an idiot. He says "usually it's the dad's that do that." I am just the most frazzled mom at the moment. I don't ever forget things like that. I drop the flower off at home and go back to my cart. I get done shopping, I don't even want to put gas in the car and I need to be home and get things put up and my house clean. Kelsea texts me in the middle of her getting her hair done. "did you get me a bra?" CRAP!!! Nope, nope.. another thing forgotten. It is close to when she needs to get dressed. I go to Burlington coat factory and hope that this is the day that store will have what I need when I need it. You never know there. They do! Fastest shopping trip EVER! good. It getting later. kelsea isn't back. Her date shows up. We are waiting. She has a tremendous amount of hair. It's not just long but very thick. 3 hours later-and it's beautiful- she comes home and we throw her clothes on. We get her to the park on time for pictues. Everyone is already there but just got there.
We got great pictures this time. And then the date became a disaster.

Lee Joe is right about something with me. I am way to empathetic to point that I think I can be pathetic. When my kids struggle I feel everything right with them. They are upset-I feel the same pain. I feel the pain of the other kid involved as well. Then my other daughter is in another kind of heartbreak pain. I am feeling the pain of two kids at once and have to work really hard to separate myself from them. ugh. It was a rough night after all that work to try and make it special. The pictures make it look good though. We will imagine it that way.

I have quote of the week. Little girls comes up to me. This is the one that almost named me Mrs. Dorito. She was sad. "the kids don't believe me." She shakes her head. "don't believe what?" "well Lilly does but the rest don't" "What is it?" "they don't believe me that I am a werewolf. My sister saw me when I was sleeping that I am werewolf. They won't believe it." "I see" I say. "Well I think that is something you should be kind of quiet about and just tell your really good friends, cause that is kind of a scary thing to be don't you think." "Yeah. You want to hear me howl?" What a quirky girl.

Just so you know

So today was nuts and I didn't have time for migraine but that is what I got. Could be because I had no fun the past 2 days.
I colonoscopy. For a recap. Everyone said the prep stuff-probably like 2 gallons of nasty, was nasty. Once I disguised it with Crystal light it was somewhat drinkable but I only drank a little more than hapf of it before I just felt like I had the flu-achy and my face was flushing and chills. I had some sinus crud going on to make it lovely and couldn't take anything. So my colonoscopy was 1 the next day. I thought I didn't do the prep right. I was worried I messed it up. Everyone told me though that I wouldn't remember anything. I mean everyone I talked to said that. They drugged me but it must not have been enough and I remember EVERYTHING. It was painful. Reminded me of having kids at one point. Yep, hurt like that. I saw what my insides look like and I remember EVERYTHING!! The results were, I guess, not bad. Healthy except for some internal hemmorids. Like anyone wants to really know that but at least I know. Not much I can do about that though.
And it's Spring. Spring gets as nuts as December. Not fun at all.

Kelsea is still having some friend drama but that is calming down a little.
Amber has changed her minor to Biomedical engineering. Her major is material something engineering. I can't remember it all. And she decided to try out for the Blue Thunder Marching Band. She is excited and I am for her too. They are so much fun.
My 3 youngest are keeping my free taxi service running. I am ready for summer vacation. I think it is 8 weeks away. Could be 7 but I need to look it up to be sure. No funny anecdotes today. I am too drugged I think.

What's up? Spring Break is over!

Yep I am sad and am in a frumpy mood. That could be because the weather all week-the week of Spring break has been the worst. Rainy snowy and gloomy. I should be running out the door right now jumping up and down and rejoicing because it did clear up magically and it isn't too freezing out there. But I am putting off easter egg dying, finding Easter baskets, making beinyas because of the movie Princess and the Frog. Hannah will not give up on this today so I better get busy. In a minute.

A rundown of what we have done--
Lets see-there were 2 birthdays in one week this year and that week was the CRAZIEST one we have had in some time. Autumn got to participate in an All State choir that only comes to our part of Idaho like every 7 years. That was out in Nampa. That required transportion to a little town I never go to but maybe once every few years any more. So we took 5 girls out to an evening practice and then there was a concert the next day at 4. Who really makes a concert for kids at 4 in Nampa with a majority of the kids from Boise? I left work early with Hannah to go see it. And the man that directed them was an internationally known children's choir conductor of some sort. I will just believe what they say. But it was a very good concert. Then we had a sleep over with 11 and 12 year olds that weekend for Autumn. Needless to say after that week I was hammered.

Things don't want to let up. I am sure it's my own fault. I will take responsibility for the inability to say no. Now Autumn is doing track. Kelsea is doing tennis. I don't have to attend everything with her but I do like to show up. I am not telling you all the other things that were already going on. There are boyfriends for couple of girls-and some breaking up with boyfriends. One of the breaking up with boyfriends was because one certain girly can't be exclusive. That's ok with me. Then it came back to hurt her when a girlfriend became very jealous over a boy and is now doing things to intentionally hurt my kiddo who was her best friend. Yucky! That's so not good and I am not sure what to do with it. I am wondering how much of what they are doing is really like cyber-bullying to an extent and whether or not these other girls have decided to stop their obnoxious mean behavior or if it continuing on. Fun with teenagers in this day and age. You want to feel like a fish out of water? I feel like my days in high school is now ancient history and I am a little lost now in how to parent my teenagers. Well I am a better parent to younger kids and this whole teenager thing does make me want to crawl under a rock until it's over. But that would be a very long time.

So other than my grumbling about busy kids, working full-time, always feeling like I am buried with everything that needs to be done, the hard working hubby that is never home now-a-days when we are(but it is job and we are SOOO thankful for it even if isn't the one we would want forever)the teenage hormones, did I mention the misery of teenage girls? Yep, grumpfest. I need a vacation! Away from everything and everyone. Spring Break doesn't count! I am home all week with the kids and too worn out to be any fun, too overwhelmed to do anything but try to catch up on chores and pile reduction and I didn't really accomplish anything.

So I know that even though working is neccessary at this time. I am not happy with my job. But I am happy for the time off I get and the insurance. But I so much still want and need to be at home. I am writing something right now and it consumes my thoughts but my life in general eats up the time I want to spend working on it.

Another good thing-I have been forcing time for exercise. I have to make it happen and it happens at like 9 or later at night. But the good news is-even though I haven't lost much weight, I have lost about 2 inches all over. YAY! I have been doing lots of cardio and yoga both. But I am also trying to get the anxiety and depression relief from it and it's not helping that much yet. I guess I would be a lot worse off if I wasn't doing it.

There needs to be more good news. We got our first actual decent tax return in several years. I finally got a stove. A flat top stove with 4! yes 4 working burners!! No more family members trying to burn my house down. wink wink--haha....

I need to dig up some more good news. hmmmm.... I guess I will have to think about it for awhile. Oh, Autumn doesn't know this yet. But some people from her little Y-ball basketball team set up something super cool today. But in a recap- I probably didn't post much about how her team won in their 6th grade basketball tournament. The last game they were down by 3 and someone made a basket and a free throw in the last seconds in the game to tie it and they went into overtime and won! One of the parents drives a limo so in between games he drove the girls from the team in it around and then to the team party. That day was awesome for her. So tonight they are going to an Idaho Stampede game. That's our local basketball team. I forget which league they are considered but not quite NBA. The girls will be called down at the beginning of the game as 6th grade y-ball stampede champions and then they will get to do the tunnel when everyone comes out. Then afterwards they are going to get to have their jerseys signed by the players on the team. So that should be exciting. Maybe if I ever decide to post pictures again, you will get to see it. But of course it hasn't happened just yet! Ha!

Anyway, not the most uplifting post. I would have posted sooner but this gloomy mood of mine has been pretty persistent. I better go make those beinyas and see how they are. On my new stove!

Blog again

Time to blog but will do it later. :)

Life in general

I tell you-we are grateful for a job. The kind that has a paycheck attached to it. Lee Joe's job might not be perfect-or really far from it but it is one and it was hard to come by, so we are very thankful. Even if we never know what he is doing or where he is going until the day before and he is gone overnight or most evenings and since I am working and the kids are in school, we see him not too often. Like last night-he said he might be home by midnight and I woke up at 3am wide awake with no husband and where he parks the truck and loads the truck has no cell phone coverage so he can't tell me where he is. Remember in December-totaled car? So I was awake for 2 hours figuring he was tired and sleeping but now I was not. Once I did fall asleep at 5 am he was finally able to call me. Haha--go figure. Oh yeah-when he moves cows, he comes home soooooo smelly. BUT It is A JOB!!!! I just needed to get it off my chest and now I will continue to be thankful for every dollar and every free potato! Yep, those Simplot potatoes!

This week was a rough one. Had a little health issue. On antibiotics, a liquid diet for almost 2 days, a contrast CT scan the next to rule out appendicitis and some other things. Ruled all those things out and now on the path to a colonoscopy--yay fun....I missed 2 days of work. But I am feeling a little better. But the colonoscopy is in a couple of weeks.

As far as kids-- I can't remember if I reported on Amber doing well her first semester. She is on the Dean's list. Pretty proud of that. She is tutoring more at the jr high and earning a pretty good pay check until the end of the year. She is quite the trooper. The boyfriend got his mission call to Lithiuania and they promptly "broke-up" but they will wait and see how things are for the 2 of them when he comes home.
Kelsea in Spanish-"talks to much and not in spanish" I am still laughing about that one as I tell her to knock it off. She has big interest in psychology now but that teacher is "hot" so that is interesting to her too. Boys are interested in her and they like to leave random things on the doorstep. She got a "Dear John" movie poster last night. We don't know why or who or what reason. Then she wished the boys will just go away. But one that REALLY likes her and is so cutely shy and left her the cutest basket ever for valentines day and he gave her penguin with a scarf that he knitted himself! KNITTED HIMSELF!! Anyways, he is about to go on a mission to Arizona.

Kylee is consumed by the jr high realm. She is doing well. But is so quiet and mysterious right now. Autumn is getting enrolled and prepped for her journey to that all consuming place full of hormones and silliness. Blech. I didn't sign the contract for this part. If I bury my head will all go away? Will it pass painlessly that way? I wish.

Hannah is her smarty pants sassy self. Telling me things like "my name is Hyperbole!" Making her own mother feel like a uneducated ding-a-ling as I ask "Do you know what that means?" "It's an exAGER-A-tion" I look it up to find out how to spell and see if she was right. Yep she was. And since she is eight and I have enjoyed most of my children very much before the age of eight-well I am in parental mourning and know that the next little creatures I will get my hands on will be grandkids.

And I really want to mention the passing of one special lady. Her name was Linda Blakeslee. She was the sweetest woman. I enjoyed when she taught lessons at church so very much. I knew where ever she taught, whoever was learning from her was being taught well. She worked at Wal-Mart for awhile in the fabric department and I would visit with her there whenever I ran into her when she was working. That was quite often. She had a round of cancer 4 years ago and she beat it. 2 years ago she lost her son when he commited suicide and left behind his 2 year old son. She was always bringing the grandson to church after that, even before that but it was different afterward. I had so much respect and love for her and admired her for the woman she was and the example in perserverance and her smile warmed your heart. The cancer came back and it was terminal. She lived longer than expected and she passed away last week. It is such a sad thing to see someone so beautiful inside and out leave this world. But I know she doesn't suffer anymore and has peace. She had the chance to plan her funeral. Her husband shared some of those details. But I revelled in the fact that I knew the same beautiful person that her husband, son and grandchildren described. She lived her life well with such warmth to all those she touched. Again, beautiful. And yet in the end she was so afraid she wasn't worthy enough. Enoch never felt worthy, Neither did Nephi. All who knew her just would know that she was. I felt it a special priviledge to have her touch my life. Even as she planned her funeral and told her husband he only had 20 minutes to talk and he set an alarm clock on the podium to keep his word, I think she had enough time to plan one more thing. The day of her funeral was the most beautiful warm spring like day we have had. It was like she was worried for the in-laws and the elderly people that attended, that they might get a chill so the day should be warm and it should be sunny so everyone would feel comfort and happy it felt like spring so they would not be so sad. I am pretty sure she finished planning those details even after she left this earth and now she can rest. She is missed and loved by many and I am so thankful I could have called someone like her a friend.

AHHH!!!

Do you ever feel like your house exploded? Or how about the paper coming out of sort of paper creating volcano, you just wish you could find out where it was coming from. Or the mountain building earth shattering creation of laundry that creates whole mountain ranges. How about the ever reproducing dirty dishes? Waves of stuff just about everywhere. Oh, what an epiphany! Is that what the celestial kingdom will be like just more blissful?

Mom moments

This morning my oldest daughters had themselves a spat. "MOM!!!" you know that tone they use, the tattling one. They still have it down at 16. "Mom!!! Amber made my toothbrush fall in the toilet and she won't take it out!" huh? "She threw a shirt at me and it made my toothbrush fall in the toilet and now she won't pick it up!" So who's fault is it really? And I can't determine who should fish it out of the toilet. Great way to start the day. Thankfully dad intervened but I am happily in the dark about who got to pull it out of the toilet.

Fun at Chuck E Cheese today. Really you ask? Now really it is just throw tokens at a bunch of super happy and excited super cute 7-10 year olds. I informed my brood that they were coming to help. I didn't mind that they didn't show up with me but I did start to mind after every invited child showed up and all my help was no where to be found. After they finally arrived, the begging for their own tokens started. My help was lost when it came to the pizza. Off, all playing Skee ball together after I had most of the invited children at the table. Then the post birthday girl (she did have her birthday in December, mid January allowed plenty of Christmas recovery time before throwing the birthday party) was last to be found and brought to the table. We were ready to do cupcakes, twice I had to ask my "help" to return to the table. I sent kids packing with more tokens after presents were opened. My biggest "helpers" sat at the table texting. The dad was lost in a virtual reality kind of game. Kylee kept feeding the game tokens. I wondered several times if he had left but he was still there. It was still a fun day and a super easy party. I was able to come home to messy house. I put a small dent in the mess. I would have put a bigger dent in it but someone on Facebook-not me- accidentally clicked on something that downloaded one of those horrible viruses on the computer. I am always the one though that gets to try and recover the computer even though I am really not all that computer gifted. I have spent my entire evening trying to fix it and I think I have finally accomplished that now that it is midnight and I am blogging as I have it scanned one last time. AVG couldn't find it. But I found something that finally found a ton of crap on my computer. It is Malwarebytes anti-malware. I could download it for free and it really has worked. I found it through a CNET recommendation. Oh yes, I sound so smart but not really. We will see. I am pretty sure so far that it did the trick.

I have been reflecting on one special revelation from this past week. There are times I don't like my job-the one that pays me. But sometimes I need to reflect on those special moments. There are a couple of girls that lost their mom when the little one was pretty young. Dad is doing a great job. They walk to school most days and when they run a little late they run most of the way. They always share stuff with me before they cross the street. Their dad was gone for the weekend and just came back that evening he gave the girls some souvenirs from his trip before they had to go to school. They were SO excited to show me what he gave them. Another dad with 2 girls saw this. When he came back across the street he commented something about the girls and how "some kids just really are an open book" comment. But I told him that they had lost their mom. That they are like that with me. But I didn't know what else to say. That dad's face just fell and it was like he was instantly sad and reflected on his own girls. He thought about how hard it would be to not have a mom to their hair. I can see that there is a little void in their life and they sure do like to share stuff with me. The youngest hugged my leg when I went into her classroom the other day. I am not their mom but I get little opportunities to share happy little girl things with them. Maybe in the end it is not the paycheck I should be there for. It is just to have an opportunity to be something positive in over 500 kids lives. Okay, there are some days some kids might not like me in the end. Some days I don't like all of them. There have been some really rough days. No wonder the Savior loved little kids so much. There is nothing better than to be loved by a kid.

Even when an 18 year old and a 16 year old are bantering over who's fault it is that there is a toothbrush in the toilet, there is nothing better than to have that title of mom and to feel mommy-ish to all those you come in contact with. At the end of the day it is still okay to the shut the door and tell them to go away. Darn it-moms get tired!!

I just wanted to share a snippet of my mommyhood. I would call it super human feats of amazingness but every mom fills those shoes so it really is just quite ordinary.

Should I post something new?

I think some of the bloggers in the bloggin world have called it quits. But I noticed the interest in Facebook is waning as well but I think it is because they keep changing it and gets harder and harder to see what you want.

So anyways, Christmas was nice, once I could talk and stop coughing up a lung. It was still very nice and we were very blessed.

Lee Joe's job is working out fine for now. Jobs and paychecks and wonderful things to have. And knowing when the paycheck will show up is great too.

We almost have the settlement on the car. We are getting far more than I expected. We may have our next car lined up.

Hannah turned 8. She was baptized the Saturday after her birthday. Devanie came and helped make her baptism super special. Besides the fact that she came with cousins in tow. But she brought the most beautiful dress and accessories for Hannah to wear with it. She was so very excited from like Christmas until the 3rd of January. She got her ears pierced on her birthday. That is when my girls have been able to make the choice to get their ears pierced.

Kelsea is still fighting illnesses as well. She got her blood drawn today. She is on some strong anitibiotics. We are hoping to kick whatever is trying to nail her once again.

Amber and Kelsea are in the process of changing rooms. It is a decision they made together and they are doing the work together. I am not involved. They are funny-when Kelsea is feeling well. Kelsea just makes hilarious comments about everything and Amber laughs her head off the whole time. If you have seen her profile pictures on Facebook-well it is like that all the time. Some boys came over during Christmas break and she was mortified over our old family picture from about 5 or 6 years ago. She is not embarrassed over wearing green mud on her face for all her friends to see?

Amber has finished her first semester in college with 3.8 GPA!!! She was taking calculus, chemistry and intro to engineering. WOW!! She blows me away. She has a job tutoring at the jr high. So she is doing well.

Kylee and Autumn are doing very well. They are healthy at the moment, playing instruments like their bog sisters and having pre-teen and just turned teen spats. PMS is becoming a consistent visitor around here. I can do without that.

Like always, I need to post lots of pictures. So much has happened in December alone. Wow!

Lee Joe's turn to be sick. He just came home running a fever. He has the flu. Of course he thinks he might faint. I need to go put him to bed, poor guy.

Christmas-It's here too fast!

I have liked baking at times. I don't like the mess I have in the end. I realize I depend a lot on labels on items for my baking-

Rice Krispie treats-usually on the box- Not this year. Had to Google it
Muddy Buddies-On the Rice CHex box at Christmas time.
Fudge-Favorite recipe ever is on the marshmallow creme container. It's easy and almost always yummy.
Toffee cookiesLove cookies made with Toffee bits that you can find at Wal-mart. I use the recipe on the package and they are a big hit.
Sugar cookies-I was ready to give up on those until I found a recipe that calls for you to use Cream Cheese. I found that recipe at Kraft.com. They are my favorite now and they are easy, you don't need to chill and they stay soft after you bake them.
I have a chocolate chip cookie a friend gave me. I might have to share that one later.

I have been terribly sick. Could be the great outdoors that did me in this year. I usually get some form of larygitis with a cold this time of year. Never have I lost my voice permanently for days. It was gone for 3 days. It is still struggling to come back for 3 days since. I have the worst cough so I am pretty sure I have a wonderful bout of bronchitis. It's been hard to get things done this week because I have felt so bad. Today is the best day and I started with some kitchen stuff. I have made only the rice kripie treats and muddy buddies.

We have been touched by the genorosity of others like never before. Someone we know came by the house on Thursday, the day after the red car was totaled, and gave us a $500 dollar gift card to the mall. I have never been so overwhelmed in my life. We have also received gift cards to Winco too. I have never been more grateful for the love of others.

Lee Joe started his new job last week. We are thankful he has a job. He drives 50 minutes to work. The weather has been awful and he is driving cattle trucks all over. Hard job. Hard work and long hours. It was on his way home, his first week, 3rd day when he lost control of the car went off the road. He was checking the tires to see if any were flat when another car came around the corner and lost control and hit the car. He was not in the car and in absolutely the safest place he could have been standing when the car was hit. We are amazed he is safe. We are without a car but we have enough cars to be OK. I say again how lucky he was to be where he was when that car came around that corner. So we are counting our blessings and will hopefully start to feel some relief soon in other areas as well.

Wonderful things have happened even though I am whining about my health again and some of the challenges seem so much smaller now.

Here is to 2010 making 2009 disappear because of it's greatness.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

The good news is....

All I wanted for Christmas was good news. And it has finally come. We had good news regarding our house payment, I may be able to get a discount on our phones because I work for the school and Lee Joe finally has A JOB!! It was felt like almost a year at least of struggling and the last six months have been hard. When I heard he got the job with Simplot I think I wasn't ready to believe it yet until I heard more. But he starts tomorrow. We went out this weekend and we both could feel the relief. We sighed great big sighs of relief over and over.

I have been grateful that I have a job. Weeks like last week are pretty rough. It was below 0 or like 3 or 4 degrees in the morning every day last week. Even though the kids can come in, I still have to be outside for the crosswalk in the morning. Our principal was wonderful and spelled me off so I wasn't out that long. Inside recess all week is a big pain in the month of December to make even more so. I have this cold now. I get it every December. I have a really soft voice but then you give me a case of laryngitis and it is ridiculous. I was SO frustrated. I can't talk loud enough to be heard. I feel like yelling sounds like a whisper. Everyone told me to stay home on Friday so I did. Even though I have been inside all weekend I am not much better. Oh well. We have this big stake choir thing though. I thought for sure I couldn't sing and would have to just mouth the words. I was pleasantly surprised that I could sing. We sang the Hallelujah chorus in the end and then I started coughing after that and had no voice for Silent Night but was able to sing everything else. Amazing!

I am happy to report- and why I am so silly excited over this, I don't know- But I went to the dentist for the first time in several years and my teeth are healthy, no cavities. They went ahead and cleaned my teeth and my gums were healthy too. I liked that good news.

We are getting ready for Christmas with a big sigh of relief thank goodness. I am very happy about that. One more week of school and I am off too. I like that as well. We have had snow and it has finally warmed up. I hope we can send the kids out at the school to have fun in the snow.

I like good news.

All I want for Christmas....

I decided earlier this week if anyone were to ask me what I wanted for Christmas that I was going to tell them that All I want for Christmas is Good News. From a pukey flu, sore throat thing, to one thing after another and then someone stole my husbands identity and then applied for credit. It looks like they have new teeth for the trouble they are causing us. I thought my stress level couldn't get any higher. But I have found some great ways to manage. So when I came home from work on Friday I finally got some good news. It is a start. I am not going to divulge here but it finally felt good for once. It felt like Heavenly Father gave me a hug.

I have gone into Thanksgiving with great thanks for good news and how much I have really missed hearing something good come my way.

We had a very nice dinner here with my kids and my mom. Who knows if Amber will want to be around us all next year.

Here is to good news and yes I would still like to hear good news-That is Good news that is meant for me and my house.

I love my house and all it's imperfections.

Good news?

Yeah, I am not blogging the way I use to and Yeah, I need to find my positive energy. I wish there was great news. I guess it's great that in spite of all the hard things our family is struggling with, my kids have had some good reports from their teachers. And that is blessing. But we have been slammed with Swine flu's aftermath with one kid, infected toes and cysts in embarrassing locations on other children. The recession and joblessness still reigns and the cars are beginning to come up with their own afflictions and well, I am ready for the turn for the worst to end and the turn for the better to show up on my roadmap. So this and all past blogs are dreary enough.

October curse

By the way this week went, I think this October is cursed. The whole month has been rough. It has been a very rough week. I felt like it was Friday on Thursday and didn't think I could make it through Friday and it was one grand finale day.

I print the awards at the school for student of the month and personal best. I print 42 individual awards, 3 class awards and a volunteer award every month. you would have thought this was the first time I ever printed awards with how many times I messed it up and how much paper I wasted in the process. Then two were put in the shredder box with all my mess ups and they were good awards. Thank goodness that stuff waits to get sent to the shredder. And then even the teachers acted like they didn't know how the process worked. By some feat of super human diligence all the awards were ready at 9:00 this morning for the 9:15 awards assembly. That was it's own struggle along with double activities a few days this week. Two concerts on the same night at 2 different schools meant I missed one. But thank goodness Lee Joe made one of them.

Kelsea is dealing with another heavy duty round of illness. She was taken to the doctor Monday. They said it was a cold. She still went downhill all week. She went back today and they said it was probably some sort of secondary bacterial infection that set in because she was weakened by the H1N1 virus. NOW she is on antibiotics and she has missed 8 days of school in 3 weeks. Lee Joe has taken several of the girls in to the doctor these past 3 weeks. Today Lee Joe finally got a good dose of trying to deal with 3 kids visiting the doctor at once and it was all pretty serious stuff. Kelsea had her blood drawn and was tested for strep again. She doesn't handle needles well at all. Amber had some serious pain in her tailbone that got really bad over the course of 3 days. She had a cyst. I guess it was a really big one. So she was cut open and grossness took place and she is draining I guess. She has to go in again to see a doctor tomorrow to change the packing and again on Monday. Autumn went in a couple weeks ago with an infected toenail. She was on antibiotics and now it is much worse so she had parts of both big toenails removed today. They said they were in really deep. So we left the doctor with 6 prescriptions today. I showed up at the end of their visit to get the prescriptions so I could get them filled while Lee Joe took all the sick and sliced children home. Autumn's toes are wrapped. Amber prefers to lay on her stomach and Kelsea had to leave the clinic with a face mask. Visiting my doctors office was disturbing. I have gone to the same clinic since I was pregnant with Kylee. They had plastic shields covering the gaps in the glass for all the ladies at the sign in desk and there were people all over the waiting room with masks on. I really felt like I was entering into a danger zone. But I am around 500 kids all day and so many of them have had this I am not too disturbed about it and I am pretty sure I had it first anyway. But man, it is really bad here. But in our house this weekend I suppose we are calling it Recovery weekend.

So good news-Kylee tried out for honor band and made it. She is proud of herself and I am so happy for her. Only 3 kids from our jr high are in it. We know people who made it so a car pool may take place and I love that!

More bad news-Kelsea has been doing Color guard with the band all season. She missed all week because of her crud and they changed all the choreography this week, so she can't perform for DIII this weekend. She feels like she has wasted her time and I am so bummed.

Lee Joe is trying to find work. I am struggling with all this stuff. I am waiting for it to let up. I have had a sense of humor about it all and had some good laughs but I seemed to have misplaced it right now. I keep teasing Amber that she was trying to grow a tail but she doesn't think that is as funny as I think it is.

Blechyville

That sick piggy thing made a pit stop at our house and decided to stick around awhile. Kelsea has had and recovered from it. We got her into the dr right away and they gave her Tamiflu so she was sick but not in the worst way. I was concerned because her lungs are still compromised from pneumonia this past spring and I heard how someone's neice was in ICU after just 3 days and she came down with pneumonia. Kelsea had a good day on Saturday-plus she was determined to go to homecoming. She made it to Homecoming but came home early. Party the date and partly that flu. She missed 3 days of school with the weekend in between. Of course Monday child number 2 was hit. Autumn started running a fever. We got her in right away. No Tamiflu for her or cough medicine with codeine and she is my croupy cougher. I guess Kelsea was considered high risk. Lee Joe took them in so I am not sure if they told him that and he didn't remember or what. Autumn has run a really high fever for 3 days now. I called the dr this morning because she couldn't breathe this morning and I wanted some cough medicine at least for her but they never called me back until after 5. Good thing she felt a little better. Not much though. So they called in the prescription but the pharmacy wouldn't fill it because they wanted an actual signature from the dr. She has no voice from the congestion. her throat is killing her and she has the most wicked cough that hurts her throat more. I could go on more about my headache with that but I just hope she doesn't have to go to the ER. She looked a smidgen better just now going to bed. So I hope that means she is turning around. And the PA I talked to said "You know they just feel really bad." She is telling this to a mom of 5 trying to care for number 4. Yeah, I know.

So then last night I thought I was getting sick with a cold. I was coughing and my nose was miserable. My chest was hurting and I couldn't breathe. Before bed I thought I would treat it like allergies so maybe I could breathe. Then everything felt much better within a half an hour except my eyes were hurting and bothering me. I thought something was in one of my eyes and it wouldn't stop. Then my eyes kept sealing shut and My right eye got really swollen. I looked pretty scary. I had to call a sub and no one picked up my job. I went to the doctor. Tried to get my wonderful nasal spray refilled. Ran into problems with that. My insurance doesn't want to cover it. Veramyst is absolutely the best allergy spray EVER!! My doctor offered to give me a sample to get by until we figure out if the insurance will cover it so that was a trip on the other side of town. But it was worth it. That is the stuff that calmed everything down last night.

I am rambling. But basically I remember the days when a doctor visit was maybe 30 dollars without insurance. And medications maybe cost 50 dollars for an expensive one. And now everything is ridiculously high priced and so are the doctor's visits because of all the people they have to hire to go back and forth with insurance companies. In the end the insurance company is who wins out everytime. When I didn't have insurance I would get shafted with extra fees the doctors office was making up from their contractual obligations to insurance companies and now I am shafted by the insurance company and I am still paying for what they have decided is pre-existing conditions. I don't think Obama has it figured out. But I think everyone would be better off without insurance companies dictating everything. That is where the problem is. Insurance. I am stepping off my soapbox now. Goodnight.

Week of the run over

This is one of those weeks that run you over. Yeah, so 4 kids to the dentist one day ( two with cavities that I have to schedule appts for and a wisdom tooth consult to schedule too.), my dr's appt the next and figure out how 2 kids are getting home at different times and then there is one more appt to finish the week with. One has started elementary basketball, and honor choir this week. there is the school carnival. On top of one in tennis (thank goodness she can walk to and from the jr high) one in color guard and playing in the homecoming powder puff football game and the performance at the game on Fri and the dance on sat and now she is coming down with a sickness. She says it is starting like her pneumonia did. Ugh. SO yeah, I am complaining like I do so well but it really is no surprise yet the bonus is having enough cars so enough of them can drive. That's good.

There is my week and yet I have a little time in the evenings to decompress some. But I am ready to schedule myself a mental health day but I will wait until things settle down some so it's worth it.

Wait, so I have to share today. We had a 911 emergency that was weird with an adult on the sidewalk outside the school. Then another person- a friend, had a passing out episode of some sort and we almost had to call 911 again. Kids were given these little strobe light whistle things for walking to school. Having about 50 kids blowing these things on the playground at once is like some sort human torture device. NERVE WRACKING!! and then Amber's boyfriend's mom is the PTO president and she is organizing the school carnival. She calls the office and says "Hi, this is ---- I am stuck in the attic." I laugh. But I don't know where the attic is. She tells me so I find her. She is scared of heights and doesn't want to climb down the ladder without help. But she really did need another person there to hold it but she also didn't know where the light switch was so I turned on the light and saved her. Ok not really all that heroic but after our day any little boost counts right? That was almost like a week full of little crisis rolled into one and it isn't even a full moon anymore.

Nough said!!

Birthdays and flus

So I should mention first of all that today is Kylee's birthday. My middle child is 13 years old. She has been one of my easiest at times of my kids. She is really laid back-almost too much at times. She goes with the flow. She just had a great day with her grandma and was spoiled beyond belief but she had a great day. We were both treated to lunch at the Olive Garden by my mom as well. My favorite place EVER!! So she got all the Teen girly girl stuff. Make-up, nail polish, some clothes, jewelry and a DS game. She was very excited.

Then my mom threw in my birthday tonight and I got a Wii fit. I like it a bunch.

I think I might have been hit with the H1N1 virus last week. I had the symptoms and was down for 4 days. I didn't know that is what it was when I started to feel it coming on Saturday morning as I was away from home. I had a very nice weekend in spite of being sick, in Jordan Utah at a time out for women event. I had one of the best dinner's out at a mexican restaurant before I parted ways with Devanie and Her in-laws. I have still been feeling not quite myself all week so I hope this thing doesn't rebound. blech....

Music

So I am really liking some music right now. Why I am posting it- well I feel like sharing somewhere. I don't want to do a music link on the side so you will have to chesk it out.

I am so liking this one funky song-- It is "Say Hey (I love you)" By Michael Franti. It is such a fun song.

I just got two more songs that are totally different and LOVE them. They are By Priscilla Ahn and they are "Dream" and "In a Tree" That one is currently on some car commercial and that is what led me to both so there you go.

Just watch the biggest looser while riding a stationary bike-- Motivating!!!! There is woman on the show that lost her hubby and two kids in a car accident. Breaks yout heart completely but she is there for herself. And then there is the biggest woman ever on the show that grew up in foster care and is a social worker now. Gotta love her. You want them all to stay so much longer than they ever let any of them stay.

So in the coming week or two I complain about everyone being sick- it should be no surprise. More than half the 6th grade was sick yesterday. Today we were sending kids home that had fevers but didn't look sick. No nurse in the afternoon. I was the nurse. YUCK!! I washed and washed my hands.


I need to be doing something else somewhere else. Just wanted to throw some random tidbits out there.

Where did I go?

Yes, life has become hectic again. I have been more loyal to Facebook than blogging. But I guess mainly because of exhaustion. Even though this week would be considered a short one it was a rough one to get through all the way around. It feels like we have been back over a month but it has only been two weeks.

Amber is adjusting to college life just fine but she keeps to herself mostly and she kid just spend a week with her boyfriend's family watching his 4 younger brothers while he was in Utah and his parents were on an Alaskan cruise. She was given a little trinket box from Russia and I said "Why did they give you something from Russia when they went to Alaska?" And she says "I can see Russia from my house" With her Tina Fey acting like Sarh Palin voice. It was funny to me but I might have just been hysterically tired. One little mishap which I also find funny. The cable on their suburban decided to break when she drove it to our house with the boys. Since we couldn't release it, the suburban had to stay here overnight. They have personalized plates so every who knows them that decides to drive by our house- on the busy street we live on- would know who's car that was. Lee Joe was able to release it later Sunday. But as soon as the mom and dad got home, they made the mistake of pushing the brake in and got stuck in their driveway and the red car had a flat. That was one welcome home for them.

Kelsea is not liking high school so much but that's because it is school. She is flag waving in band. Alright, she is doing color guard.

Kylee has transformed into a very social jr high kid. It is like she grew up all of a sudden. Kind of funny to watch the change because it is dramatic.

It is just Autumn and Hannah and I going to the elementary school. Autumn is starting to play the flute this year. Hannah has a wonderful teacher and most of the students in her class are great with the exception of one. They have had to evacuate the class a couple times and he has an behavior interventionist and he has been sent home several times and we just finished the second week of school. I am not happy about this at all. Especially since Hannah's class has strict criteria to be in it and someone has bulldozed their way around and through it at the expense of many. So I will leave that there.

We are here. And life is not going to slow down for some time. I am just trying to get use to it again.

At work again

Ummm.. Vacation in over for me. I am sad and wishing for the good old days. But what is fun with the lack of schedule with no kids is I have gone out to lunch a few times with friends from school that I normally don't get to have lunch with. The kids start on Monday. But Amber started this week too. I am exhausted every day. Oh well.

Lee Joe is trying to find work. There has been very little and a lot of waiting without good news.

Such as it is. I wish I had good things to report. It's Friday eve. There's the good. One more day to go before the weekend.

pictures promised

Here are my pictures. Not sure the order. I am still getting the computer jargon when the pictures upload and I am tolazy to preview. I know there is one of my tile job. Two of Hannah's cute glasses. The rest are of our hike from our little daytrip to Twin falls to Jared's house. We met Janika and had time to hang out for lunch and go on a couple of really short hikes with all the kids and take some pictures and then we had to come home so the 2 oldest could go see all the kids about to leave for college. So far the biggest event of our summer.

I am here

I haven't gone far. Just to Twin Falls and back today but other than that I have been sitting here at home. Not doing much. Kidney stones have calmed down only to make for a migraine battle. But I have been very successful in fighting those off. here is my rejoicing in that--Hooray!! YAY!! WOOHOO!!! The weather is crazy cool but that's nice, but probably the source of my headaches. So the days are ticking to when school and work starts for me again. I am trying to make everyday last as long as I can. Well, going to bed a 2am most days is not the best way to make summer last but the freedom is great.

My next post will need a bunch of pictures but I am not posting those yet.

Kidney Stone

Something has been a brewing. I just didn't realize it until it was too late. Devanie has felt my pain. And yes it is THE worst. As if migraines themselves weren't enough of an affliction. But I have a stone causing me some misery all of sudden. I haven't had one do this for a while. Yep, lack of water, too much sitting and writing on my laptop and too much soda and maybe some of the new medications causing a flare up. I hope it feels better tomorrow.

I have pictures of Hannah in her new glasses to post and my nice little tile job. I will post them later.

Waiting.....

And Waiting...I seem to be waiting so much for all sorts of things that UGH summer is slipping away.

So Hannah's super cute glasses should be in by now but are not. I was waiting for something that help us out tons here and that took almost 2 weeks when they said a few days. We wait for every check Lee Joe is suppose to get until we are almost at our wits end. As of Friday it is one month until I have to be back at work and things will be picking up with things to do with the kids.

Lee Joe keeps applying for every job he can find and every job gets inundated with applicants. 150-200! people applying for one job. He is getting bits and pieces here and there but those are the things we have wait forever for.

The good things-The 3 little girls did summer reading and got a bunch of free stuff for it. They got to do the first thing today and go to the Discovery Center. I didn't go so no pictures. Lee Joe has never been there so he took the girls for a little while and Amber hung out with them until they were ready to come home. I am fixing my mom's laundry closet door for some extra money. So I got that started. I was able to do some serious grocery shopping. The house is stocked for the first time this summer. Good feeling there.

It is nice to be so low key with out much to do. I will be very reluctant to shift gears when school starts. It is super hot so you really don't want to go far or do much. Hopefully though we can find some more pool time. I will try to get some more projects finished and a garage sale in the works so more good to come I guess. I have been writing. Staying up ridiculous hours doing it but I am so into it that it's so cool. I am finishing up Aurora's doll right now. She has been kind of finished but just needs a couple of little things. I just love it. She looks like a little Anne of Green Gables doll. Pictures will be coming of that. Oh yeah, I finally grouted some tile that has been unfinished for 2 years this summer. I needed to caulk around the counter top back splash but the caulk spent too much time in the garage and was more like nasty vaseline so now I have to clean that up and redo it and THEN I can sand and paint the walls so I will post pictures of that home improvement task here soon. I love the tile. So on that positive note I end this burble.

Harry Potter

Kelsea was SOOOO excited for this Harry Potter movie to come out. She looked up when movies were playing it for the midnight premiere and bought us tickets several weeks ago. She knows I read the books and enjoy it so she bought me one to and I got to hang out with all her teenager friends. The movies theater we went to downtown didn't have any movies playing that night except for Harry Potter in all 8 theaters. She left at 9 and panicked and told me I should come because there were so many people there. Even if you had a ticket for a certain time, they told everyone to just pick a theater. So for the time leading up to the movie we saw all the people dressed up like characters from the movie or just Harry Potter excitement all over them. Kelsea dressed up like Ginny. She made herself a wand which I did not get a picture of, days earlier. She wore Amber's graduation gown and went to savers to get a clip on tie. One of the radio stations took a picture of Kelsea. We are waiting still to see if they post it. It was like 95% teenagers at the midnight showing. I waited in the theater with all the teenagers- Kelsea had a huge group of friends-from like 10 until the movie started at 12. It let out at 3am. And it was sold out so all the theaters were packed. The movie was well done and is like the lead in to last movie or movies- one of the kids said they are making the last book into 2 movies. They probably should. When it ended everyone was like "Uh, the end?" it was a good ending spot but you are kind of like wanting more. I need to reread the last 2 books now.

New glasses

The best news is that Hannah was overdue for a new eyeglass prescription. The even better news is that she doesn't have to wear a foil on her lens anymore. She really was kind of tired of it anyways. That's why she didn't wear her glasses all the time. I have insurance that I could all the girls on for eye care. Medicaid gives you little selection. So we were excited to shop for the really cute glasses. There are the absolute cutest Disney Princess eyeglasses they have out now. We bought a pair a few years ago when we had some eye care insurance and I loved them. Hannah picked out the CUTEST pair on Thursday. Check this out. Her pair is purple and pink. I will post pictures of her when we get them. She is so excited to get them!
http://www.bestbuyeyeglasses.com/disney-princess-giselle/298336.html

What the foil has done--- She sees about 20/25-to 20/30 with glasses on with the eye that has the persistent pupillary membrane. She was 20/40 with glasses on when we started. That is pretty good improvement. The other eye does a REALLY good job of seeing and that is why we had to put the foil on. It really was a little piece of clear looking plastic film that obscured the vision in her good eye. Check out those glasses, they are super cute.

Yesterday I spent the entire day at Boise State University at Orientation. Ugh. I didn't realize I needed to be there until Thursday night. But I learned a lot about things I needed to know to get Amber prepared even though she is going to be doing most of this herself. We got a free lunch and free dinner while we were there. I came home with a migraine. Too much sitting I guess. A lot to take in. I was suppose to go back this morning for at least half the day but there wasn't much more I needed to do. Amber was signing herself up for her classes anyway without my help. I did meet some parents from around the country. I met a nice lady from Chicago and a couple people from Los Angeles. It was fun to hear other parents from around the country ask questions about Boise and Idaho, about weather and driving laws and just other little funny things you take for granted living here. Amber went on a tour of the campus and she has been in and around it so much in her high school years that it was more like revisiting places she had been. The neat thing I came away with was a new perspective on the university and how it is settled in a really neat location where the kids can have really fantastic college experience. I guess you have to know Boise and what it has to offer and what is down town to really appreciate it. The lady from LA really likes it here and that has the city feel but not overwhelmingly so. They make a really big deal about it being one of the top 5 bike friendly cities in the nation. So yeah, I like this place and I just appreciate it more and I am glad Amber is sticking around to go to school. We are maybe 10 minutes away from the university and that is mostly just waiting for stoplights. She could ride her bike on the greenbelt and get there in 15 or 20 minutes. And yeah, I am burbling on.

A mystery....

What? Two blogs in one day? Due to the pictures coming into my blog in computer jargon I will post two. But this one should be on it's own anyway.

This is all we can find of Hannah's glasses. It has been several weeks and still this all we can find. I asked her to go get her glasses and put them on and she came back with this. I know they were on a little table between the recliner and the giant beanbag we have. There are no lenses and no other bits of metal. I have looked in and beside and under the recliner. Under the bean bag. No evidence. It is still a lingering mystery as to what happened to Hannah's glasses. I am baffled. Perhaps one of the girls broke them and has not fessed up and threw away all the bits they found to cover up the accident. But I still don't know.

What's up?

Oh I don't know. But then I remember what since today is the first day all week I am not grieved by an incredible sunburn. We went to Roaring Springs waterpark. The 3 youngest earned free tickets to go but they weren't as good of a deal in July and August so we went on the last day of the month. I wasn't as diligent as I made the kids about wearing sunscreen. But I put it on myself and them many times. We go at least once a summer and have come home sunburn free. So don't ever buy Equate sunscreen from Wal-mart. Banana Boat is the best. Kylee is allergic to Coppertone. With that lesson learned:
By the way, I would caption these but for some reason in Edit mode my pictures are a bunch of computer jargon. I need to figure out how to fix that.
Here is fun in the sun later to be captioned too much fun in the sun.

Lee Joe's birthday

Well.... Lee Joe had a birthday. He is getting old and crusty. Haha. I get to live the old part up for 3 months until I am right there with him. Sunday birthdays are tough. They wind up being uneventful but this one didn't have potential at this moment to be eventful. So for his birthday I made Jell-o. I don't make it very often, it's not hard just I don't know why so it really is a treat. And that was his birthday. The girls made tacos. He made homemade tortillas for them and there you have it. Not my usual birthday celebration at all. He left to go to Burley for a job. Leaving for a job here is a good thing. Just for Monday though.

So these migraines are taking a complete toll on my mental capacities. It is that or extreme stress-the stress can cause migraines so maybe it is both. I mentioned the pancake almost fiasco ordeal. I have had a hard time following simple instructions for recipes lately. I have done it several times in the past few weeks. I have never been like this. I messed up Jell-o. But not in a bad way. I forgot to add 2 more cups of cold water so it was almost jiggler consistency. It was still good so not the end of the world. I am having a hard time keeping my train of thought straight. I will say things totally messed up from what I was saying and have no clue what I just said. The kids are always wondering what I am talking about. I hate it. I read a about a study that was done and it said that it is possible that migraines cause some damage to the brain. If I could remember what I read I could explain it better and now I can't find it. That might explain some of this, I don't know. I am not old enough to be having this much trouble.

Some fun is in store. Lee Joe has worked all this past week. The little girls all earned free tickets to the water park here. We need to use them by tomorrow and it is finally in the 90's so we are going to play in the water tomorrow. I enjoy going there a ton even if I don't go on all the slides.

I am sewing and writing on the laptop and trying to do what I enjoy at home and I like the fact that June took it's time even with all the added yuck. Amber's been renting movies since she is 18 and can have her own account and has the money to do it. So we are enjoying those bennies from her. I hope things will keep a slow pace for the rest of the summer. But it might not. I applied for a job that would be temporary until I start back at the school. I am pretty indifferent about it. If it happens it is helpful. If not I can still do my at home projects.

Oh and one more thing. Kelsea was asked on 2 dates this weekend. She is so funny. She doesn't enjoy it much. She is totally like super excited for the new Harry Potter movie.

My girls have planned their first road trip. They are headed to Utah for the 4th of July still. I think I already mentioned that. Oh well. Got keep my brain working.

Yeah, Ok, that is life up here in my neck of the woods.

Dolls

I suppose this is about to be a doll making summer. This is my latest and many more are to come. I would like to try and sell a couple on Etsy. It was suggested to me from some friends on Facebook. I am working on an assembly line now that I have refreshed my memory. We will see how ambitious I get and how this turns out. But my girls are about to get theirs. 3 really want one. One may help me with hers. Amber is completely indifferent about it so I will wait and see if she has girls and make some for them.

What a change

Yep, life has changed. Some of it right now could be better. And some things I think are nice, like teenagers with licenses and spending money. I couldn't do much for Lee Joe for Father's Day but since two of the girls have been earning money, they all went shopping for their dad. Too Cute. And someone special helped too..(SHHH my mom helped with the coolest most enormous balloon, some flowers in a baseball looking vase and watermelon) Amber made her dad jell-o and the girls got him some WWII DVDs and cowboy hat he wanted. Why a cowboy hat, I don't know. I think a fedora would be much better. But I prefer to see him in baseball caps.

I still had a gift card to Cafe Ole so we went to dinner Sat night. I suppose that could be a pre-anniverssary dinner since our anniversary is Tuesday. And his birthday is next Sunday. Busy week but then not really because there is nothing we can do about any of it. So there you go.

I have been busy doing projects I have been meaning to finish and other ones I have been meaning to start. So maybe this is the summer to get things done. And the weather is nuts, but it isn't bothering me much because the temp is perfectly pleasant and cool. I haven't missed the pool because it hasn't been hot enough to swim anyway. I don't mind driving in this pleasant weather at all. It is still raining a little more than usual but not as bad as it was a couple weeks ago.

Kelsea had summer basketball and that just finished. It wasn't as hard as last summer and she still needed help getting to the Nampa tournament and to the one in Pocatello. This weekend's tournament was here at her school. I got to go to a few games and watch her play. She was playing Point Guard and was making 13 or more points on a few games but man, 3 games in one day!! Holy Cow. She played in 2 on Saturday. Now it's over so it was about right. She got a lot of experience. Much more confidence.

My poor oldest girls are having a little trouble adjusting. Amber is, I think, suppose to attend the singles branch that meets right in our church. Her friend wasn't there and her boyfriend is officially at BYU now so she came home early today. Kelsea has lost Amber and isn't adjusting well to the new YW president and that is a bumpy ride for her. This is interesting. Those two are pretty dependent on each other whether they admit it or not. I am just glad Amber will be here when she starts school. I don't think anyone is ready for that change to happen--the one where she moves out. Amber and Kelsea are planning a trip to Utah together with Amber's friend. Amber wants to see the BF and Kelsea wants to check out hot LDS college guys at BYU(not sure how I feel about that) She talks the boy crazy talk but doesn't act it when the guys like her so it's OK. The friend is a lot like Kelsea so it should be one nutty trip.

Autumn had a way awesome dream. I wish it was my dream or maybe it just being real would such the coolest thing. But she dreamed that I (me) got a check in the mail for a half million dollars..... EWWWEEEEE, yep, that would be super duper awesome!!!

Bummed

This stupid recession thing can go away now. I am sick of it. Lee Joe was so close to getting a job. Went through 2 interviews and a driving test, got his hazmat on his CDL and cleared the backround check and they decided he didn't have enough experience driving hazardous materials--well Duh, he just jumped through all the hoops and they knew what he was doing so several weeks of it looking like he was in and he's not and there has been nothing here for months. His work has dried up along with all the other people in town. He is getting stuff here and there. So anyways, I have been positive and hopeful for a turn around for months and months and months now and I feel like- well- just miserable. So there you have it, we have joined half of america in the misery of nothing. You look for work and even in all the states around us there is very little and this is when Lee Joe's work is always hopping. So along with half of the Lay family we are in need of prayers. Amber and Kelsea are making more than Lee Joe it seems like with their little jobs they have. I am still getting a check but if he can't figure it out I will be calling people around here and looking for something for the next 2 months.

One crazy lady

That's me. Lee Joe, Kelsea, Kylee and Hannah went to Pocatello this weekend for Kelsea's summer basketball tournament. She played 3 games on Friday and 2 on Saturday. They stayed at Kim and Gwen's and visited Grandma Leavitt on her birthday on Saturday with Jared and his family. I was home with 2 kids and Autumn spent the night at her friends house on Friday and Amber went to babysit. So I was home ALONE for awhile. I decided it was a great opportunity to tackle Autumn and Hannah's room while they were gone. I bagged up 3 bags of trash. Washed all their sheets and made thier beds. As a result of that cleaning frenzy that also involved the kitchen too, I was until 4AM. I can't remember when I did that last, It has been a long time. But since Autumn was back home at 10am the next day I didn't get enough sleep and it was gloomy and rainy so I got nothing done on Saturday. It wasn't a big deal though. I got some time with Amber and then some time Autumn on Saturday evening. It was pleasant. Everyone is home today back to all their squabbles.

Good news on migraines- the weather has been toying with me and I have successfully headed off 2 migraines this weekend with my new meds and knowledge. That is progress. I am ready for my favorite dry Idaho air. I really don't care if it warms up. We have been having Texas like weather lately.

I am sure everyone else out there hasn't felt the pain from the DTV transition. But we have. We do have a ridiculous amount of TVs in this house but we don't have cable and only one of the TVs we have was ready for it. We were able to get two converter boxes with the coupons but we still need two more boxes at least. I like to watch TV in my office and we get one spanish channel on it now. Amber's TV doesn't have any thing she can watch either. The other obnoxious thing is the remotes we need for the TV and the converter box. The stupid box doesn't have any buttons you can push on it so you have use a remote to watch TV. I don't mind the manual way of doing things--unlike men. The cool thing is we have 13 channels we can watch without paying for it so we feel a little more like we have cable. I am kind of silly because I like the company I guess of a TV even if I am not watching it, I have it on.

So I am rambling about nothing now...

Pancakes

Lets see. I thought I was going to have something fun for dinner. We had for dinner. I have this great, usually simple recipe for pancakes. First batch I mixed turned out OK. It was taking forever for the electric skillet to warm up. It took so long for the first side to cook. I flipped them and suddenly they were cooking so hot. I burned half the pancakes. SO I needed to make more batter, and Amber was bringing a friend. So I mixed up a new batch. So I thought. Then I put too much baking powder in it so I thought I would double it. As I went through the rest of the ingredients I added 4 eggs. I only needed 2. Ugh. So I tripled the recipe even though we are short on both flour and sugar. Still too much egg and slightly thin. I cooked many many more pancakes. And to finish the fiasco I dropped one nicely cooked pancake on the floor. So there were 5 burned ones, 4 really runny cooked pancakes, and one dropped one all made it to the garbage. I wanted to make cookies and it was delayed several days because I needed eggs, once I got them I was too busy or tired to make them. And then while making the mess of pancakes I discovered our lack of brown sugar and then the lack of regular white sugar and flour was low. I have some food storage that was given to us recently but I don't dare try using it yet because it is 11 years old. We will sample on something smaller and after tonight's very messy pancake making disaster--and the kitchen is a complete disaster, I dare not make cookies today. Maybe I will stick to scrapbooking tonight.

I went to the neurologist today. He gave some more ideas on medications to use with my headaches and variations of meds to try so I feel a little better prepared. I hope it will help with the next one and I hope it won't last 3 days. Other than 3 dr visits in 3 days there has not been much going on and I need some motivation to get busy on something. Well I say not much, it is AMAZING what freedom having 2 licensed drivers brings to me. And I was able to call them and tell them to get sugar, brown sugar, and flour at the store. Yippee!!!

Adjective Alley

The middle of the night title was about to be Frustrated but there was too much of a theme with my last title. Here I am in the middle of the night for the 2nd night in a row. I woke up with this torturous headache 2 days in a row. I had more success Friday kicking it with some migraine meds but they left me weak, thoughtless and listless--but pain free. Today was not so good. I took one pain medicine in the morning. I guess it took the edge off. I didn't have any more of the migraine meds I had yesterday so I had to wait until 24 hours had passed to try some new stuff. I was really bad by then, shaking and sick to my stomach and trying to get back to bed after eating for the first time at 1pm. I took the meds and waited 2 hours to take the next. They didn't work and my tolerance for these headaches is getting very low so I have been getting very distressed. This one if I had to gauge the pain was about a 9 when up and 7-8 while lieing completely still. I was slurring and my left side was a little weaker than the right. I took a different pill. It eased up with that and a hot pad after everyone hunted high and low for it. Then I woke up to stomach cramps so I took ibuprofren and at 8 I was pain free. And now it is 1:30am I still have some pain but now I am awake. So what the heck!!!! I really hope that 2days of headache is all I get. I was really close to going to the ER today. I think I will try to go to bed now. Hopefully, if I have a pain free day here soon, I will post some pictures of Amber's graduation.

Bewildered

That is a fun word. And that describes how I feel at this moment. Bewildered... At having a daughter that no longer attends public school. To have a full time job that I get to spend my summer home with the kids and it starts tomorrow--after lunch at McGrath's fish house with the staff at the school. And very bewildered about something else......Not that Amber's graduation should be over shadowed too much. She was one in 27 students with over a 4.0 for at least 7 semesters out of 450 kids. Ok, that is an accomplishment with the classes she took.

I am bewildered by something today and this whole story is weird. I came back from my lunch on the last day of school with seeing something that looked like and emergency. A man was laying on the ground. They had an umbrella shading this guys face from the sun and my doctor and the principal were standing there over this guy with the school nurse leaning on the ground talking to him. They had called 911 so an ambulance was on the way---2nd time in the past month. He was a dad that had an issue with medication and he was diabetic I guess. I am saying hello to our doctor-Amber's boyfriend's dad. He asks me if someone has called me and I say no. And he tells me that he was wondering if I would be interested in being a patient representative to a committee that the governor is forming for health care reform. I was like Ok... Lee Joe has been on about his rational national party so I was confused. But our daughter's boyfriend's father/friend/doctor said they wanted someone on the committee that had experience with no insurance and he felt I was very articulate. I say much more in writing than what comes out of my mouth. And sometimes what comes out of my mouth is inarticulate. I have to call someone at my doctor's office tomorrow to find out more. So, yes, I am bewildered. I was asked out of the blue to have a voice in a committee on health care reform formed by the governor for the state of Idaho. We will see where this goes. Yep, bewildered.....Oh and by the way, the ambulance showed up, the guy was OK but got in the ambulance to be taken to the hospital. It was all very strange. I am still bewildered...

Graduating child of mine

I seem to always fall short when it comes to getting information out and trying to think ahead. It happens when the kids are baptised and all other grand events in their little lives. I get a little wrapped up in a thousand other things and details and then later I realize what I should have or could have done. There is so much worry involved it overrides the creativity it takes to something right. So I am trying to get word out-yes it is a little late, about a little plan I have. I can't really afford to throw a party right now. I didn't get enough invitations to send to everyone I know. Then it was too late to do something economical. So I have an idea. For one was to use Facebook to announce this. And now my blog.

I want to throw a sort of "Snail Mail celebration" for Amber and just ask everyone to mail Amber something-a little card or whatever to congratulate her for accomplishing so much.

She is graduating with a class of 450. I thought was more like 600 but I guess that was couple years ago. She has been in the top 10% of her class. She has worked hard so I hope that everyone might want give her a well deserved pat on the back.

She will be attending Boise State University in the fall. She wants to major in chemical engineering and is being awarded over $5000.00 in scholarships her first semester.

To snail mail Amber: our address is 7109 Northview St. You should know what city and state. 83704. She will be required to reply to anything sent to her.

Amber's graduation is Thursday June 4. 7pm at the Taco Bell arena. Anyone who can or wants to come can.

She just graduated from seminary on Sunday. I want to say more but I have to work just 1 1/2 more days!!! So I still need some sleep I guess.