MaeLyn's Musings

The presents have been opened, and mostly cleaned up. Toys have been played with. Soon it will be time to make dinner. It has been a quiet, peaceful, but very enjoyable Christmas morning. Here are some pictures: Here is the tree on Christmas Eve before we went to bed.  The cats were sequestered in the bathroom (with food, water and litter box) for the night so they wouldn't shred the wrapping paper or eat the ribbon. Here is Steven on Christmas Eve, preparing the cinnamon rolls for our breakfast. Hannah received yarn and knitting looms, crochet hooks, knitting needles and a book on How To Knit. She also received a "Sew a Teddy Bear" kit, pens, and lots of felt.  This is a nativity scene that Hannah created out of a shoebox, a manilla folder, toilet paper rolls, scraps of fabric, pipecleaners, etc. She is very creative! Grandma sent John drawing pads and markers. He also got science kits, a puzzle, modeling clay and a Skip-bo game. Here is Joshua after...

It's a quiet Saturday morning. Steven left early for a scout ski trip. Last night we went to a cub scout pack meeting at which the kids decorated graham cracker houses. This morning I took the kids to a ward breakfast with Santa where they received bags of candy after sitting on the jolly man's lap. (As usual I forgot to bring my camera and had to ask friends to take pictures of the kids for me.) Now they are all sitting around the table trading candies, building candy sculptures and  maybe eating some of their loot. It's almost Halloween all over again. In a few minutes I'll need to put the candy away and get them going cleaning their assigned rooms, but for the moment I am letting them have fun. It is nice when they can all play together happily without teasing, complaining, tattling, etc. In the background the radio is playing Christmas music. It's a nice morning.

My mind is in a frenzy. I'm not sure why. Maybe it is because I think there is a lot that I should be remembering to do right now? But when I stop to think about what I should be doing, I can't think of anything. It's weird. It makes it hard for me to concentrate on what I am doing because I keep thinking that there is something else that I should be doing... it isn't good. Maybe if I made a list? Christmas ...Gifts... check. I think. The gifts for Steven and my kids are all finished, bought, wrapped, done. Gifts for my sister are ready to give her when she comes over today. Gifts for grandparents... still need to be wrapped and mailed. Okay. That's 1) Wrap grandparent gifts so Steven can mail them tomorrow. Christmas... Eve/Day... I went shopping yesterday and got the food stuff for Christmas breakfast and dinner as well as ingredients for making cookies. I don't think there is anything else I need to do now. Primary Stuff... Hmmm. Christmas gifts for the...

The cats returned home from the vet last night and were placed in quarantine in the bathroom over night (per the vet's instructions). They scratched on the door occasionally during the night, but I think for the most part they didn't mind. This morning the first thing Steven did when he woke up was let them out. They don't seem all that loopy this morning. More than anything they seem antisocial, resentful, and terrified that we'll do it to them all over again. It took a while to convince Moroni to let us get close enough to take off the collar/name tag he came home from the vet with. Abish appeared to be lonely yesterday, especially when Ishmael was napping, but today she seems kind of freaked out by the kittens for some reason, and we've had a few cat fights this morning - between Abish and Moroni as well as between Abish and Lamoni. Ishmael doesn't seem to have a problem with them. Hopefully things will settle down and they'll all return to normal soon.

I got back a little while ago from dropping off the kittens at the vet to get snipped. Poor guys. I think it might be a relief to Ishmael and Abish though: they get the house to themselves for most of today, and hopefully the kittens will stop bothering them as much in the future. We had to borrow a carrier from our neighbor, and it was kind of fun this morning trying to catch the cats (Moroni was hiding under my bed and really didn't want to come out) and pack them both into the carrier. The first one in wasn't too difficult, but trying to get the second one in without the first one getting out was a challenge. We managed however. We fit the cage into the van and set off. The cats were really quiet for the first few minutes, at least long enough for me to drop the kids off at school. We were about half way to the vet when they started meowing. It was a fun drive. The clinic we took them to doubles as a kennel, and while we were filling out paperwork another patient came in - a...

It has been too cold for too long. The thermometer on our front porch says it is about 2 degrees outside. Today is about the fifth day of below freezing temperatures and I am sick of it!!! Instead of snowing and melting off within a day or two, like it usually does here, the snow has stuck, and hasn't melted at all. It makes it hard to want to get out of the house at all, and the last couple days I've only left to get the kids to and from school. I cancelled a presidency meeting yesterday... we didn't have that much we needed to talk about, and I really didn't feel like driving on the slippery roads. Also, yesterday I started feeling sick - not flu, but a really bad cold. My nose is stuffed and my head is aching, I think primarily from the pressure in my sinuses. I don't feel like doing anything... except curling up with a good book, wrapped up in a blanket. I wish we had a fireplace and that Hannah and the other kids hadn't finished up all our hot chocolate mix...

It is 10:30am. The ground outside is covered with snow, and the temperature out there is about 10 degrees. The kids have been to school and back already - they only had one hour of assessments this morning. Now they are playing dress up with clothes we brought back from our storage unit on Saturday. So far I've seen Mickey Mouse, Buzz Lightyear, an engineer, a pioneer, and a girl with long brown hair (who looked an awful lot like Joshua). So far this morning (besides taking the kids to school and waiting there for an hour so I wouldn't have to make two trips in the snow) I've cleared up from breakfast, gotten the kitchen cleaned up and dishwasher running (we forgot to turn it on last night), put dinner in the crockpot, taken out the trash, and cleaned out the cat litter. There is more that I need to do, but I'm tired now. The house is still full of boxes and bags from the storage unit that I need to do something with. I'm ready to give away the maternity and baby cl...

I think my energy level might be connected to the weather. The last couple days have been freezing cold. Highs have been in the teens, lows in the single digits. There is snow on the ground and ice on the streets. I've driven the kids to school, picked them up from school, done my basic pick up of the house each morning and prepared meals, but that's about all I've done for the last couple days. I've just wanted to curl up with a good book, watch a good movie or play games on the computer. Today it is slightly warmer. I think the high is supposed to be about 33 degrees. I might actually wash laundry or clean my room or maybe even run to the store to get some things I've been needing. Maybe. It's still cold. I still don't feel like doing much.

Yesterday morning I discovered what just might have been my first white hair. Don't misunderstand me. I've been finding white hairs for a few years - little wiry crooked things that usually jut up from my scalp instead of lying flat with the rest of it. No, this one was laying flat, perfectly well behaved. What made it stand out to me is the fact that it is the same length as the rest of my hairs! Steven trimmed my hair Saturday evening, and that white hair looks like it was long enough to be trimmed with the rest of them. I've been getting white hairs long enough for them to be the same length as the rest of my hair - almost half way between my shoulder and elbow! I mentioned it to Steven last night and he suggested that I pull it. I remember someone pulled out one of my mom's white hairs long ago, and if I remember right, she got upset with him, saying "I earned that hair!" I suppose I earned my white hairs, too, but I have other reasons for not wanting to...

I'm afraid I might be getting sick. Or something. The last two mornings I've woken up with headaches, but if I take Ibuprofin first thing when I get up it usually doesn't bother me for the rest of the day. But I'm still tired. Maybe I'm just feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, stressed out? Or was that just yeserday? Yesterday started out well. We got to church on time, and I felt prepared with my sharing time. Sacrament Meeting was good, and the kids were even good enough that I was able to pay attention to the speakers. I guess it was when we got to primary that things started falling apart. The plan was for my counselor to take the teachers out to do a teacher training while the chorister and I did a combined (both Jr and Sr) sharing time and singing time, and then they would come back in time to teach their classes. The first problem we learned of was that we had no teachers in the nursery. Since my other counselor (the one over nursery, who had been assigned to ...

This has been a very enjoyable long holiday weekend. The kids had the day before Thanksgiving off school so I made them do good cleans of their assigned rooms, and as a reward I took them to get ice cream cones and play at the park in the afternoon (which also helped keep the house clean for a while). That evening we had Steven's scouts over to work on a graphics arts merit badge. I got to show them some of the basics of Photoshop, and the boys seemed to have fun with it. Thursday was a beautiful day! We locked the cats in the master suite and then revacuumed the entire house in an attempt to get rid of as much cat fur as possible before Heather and April and their families arrived. We really enjoyed their company, and the feast was delicious! (I didn't realize until today that we had forgotten to make any stuffing! We had so much food I didn't miss it at the time.) Tejay prepared the turkey, Heather made the drinks and April and Dean provided a fruit salad and rolls. All...

There is something in the air. It is a feeling - very secretive, but filled with mounting excitement. It includes a bit of frustration but mostly anticipation and occasionally even delight. My brain is in a whirl, thinking, pondering, planning and waiting. My activities? Shopping, wrapping, sewing, painting... Getting ready for Christmas! Yes, I know it is a month away. I know Thanksgiving isn't even over yet. But for a few weeks now I've been searching for just the right gifts to please and delight my family come Christmas morning. In a way Steven is easy to buy for because he tells me exactly what he wants, and even sends me links to where they can be bought online, so it would be REALLY hard for me to get the wrong thing. The only problem is that he knows exactly what he is going to get. The kids are a little more difficult. I have to think about what they need (as far as clothes and the like) and about what hobbies they enjoy, what skills they are developing, what kinds o...

When I was pregnant with John, my friend Tabitha was pregnant at the same time. Tabitha's baby, Joseph, lived long enough to be born (one day after John) but suffered from something called Trisomy 13 and only lived about 12 days. A couple days ago I learned that a young family in our ward just found out that the baby they are carrying has this same terminal chromosomal disorder. They are due in January. At the same time, the secretary in our ward primary has gone to see to her mother who is suffering from heart problems. The doctor told her family they had a couple choices: he could do nothing, and her mom would probably die. Or he could perform surgery, but the operation itself could kill her. I hope I never have to make that kind of a choice. I can't express how sad these things make me, or how grateful I am for my knowledge that families can be eternal. I am grateful that my parents were married in the temple, that I was born under the covenant, sealed to them, and that I, i...

Okay. Today is random picture day. No, it is not as exciting as seeing pictues of a brand new baby, but oh well. The first picture was taken on one of the days a couple weeks ago when Lindy was here. She was impressed to see Hannah helping Peter on his little laptop game. The two of them do get along really well together most of the time, and it is nice that Hannah can help Peter when I am otherwise occupied. (Can you see the two cats under the table?) This was taken on November 2nd, a few minutes before we left to go to dinner and see "Wicked". I know I already said it, but I really enjoyed having Lindy and Thom here, and our evening out was a blast. We should do things like that more often! (Note the black cat lying on top of the TV stand on the right.) This picture was taken on my bed on Sunday. Yes, we really do have four cats here. From left to right they are: Abish(the mom), Ishmael(the dad), Lamoni (called LaLa by the kids) and Moroni (called MoMo by the...

Hmmmm. What's on my mind today? Well, first of all, I'm thrilled that April had her baby last night, that her husband was able to come back from Afghanistan to be there for the great event, and I look forward to when I can see them all in person. Yes, I did just see April a week and a half ago, but I still look forward to seeing her with her long lost/newly found family. Another thing that is rarely far from my mind these days is my calling. Primary yesterday went smoothly. I finally feel like I have some grasp on what I'm supposed to be doing at the moment and I'm not feeling quite as overwhelmed as I was before. I will feel better when I know who my teachers are going to be next year, and which class each is going to teach. At last count I still needed to find five new teachers. However, yesterday the new chorister, nursery leader and activity days leader were sustained. I consider that progress! I'm looking forward to the holidays.We had a really nice Relief ...

Tuesday exhausted me. Wednesday I recovered. The kids had the day off school so I took the day off as well. I read a couple of Hannah's books, "The View from Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg (yes, I did have to go look that up. She also wrote, "From the mixed up files of Mrs. Basil E Frankwiler") and "The Tiger Rising" by Kate DiCamillo.(Author of Because of Winn-Dixie) I relaxed on the couch most of the day while the kids were in and out, on the computer, playing with friends, making concoctions in the kitchen, playing games, doing puzzles and having fun. I didn't go anywhere. I renewed the one library book I had that was due yesterday online so I wouldn't have to go to the library. Steven took John to scouts last night. I had a very relaxing, enjoyable day. Today, I've paid the piper. I got the kids to school, then came home to clean the mess that resulted from the kids' activities yesterday. I cleaned out the cat's litter (Okay, I ...

Yesterday exhausted me. At 9:15am I loaded the kids into the car and we went to the school for Parent/Teacher Conferences. Hannah's was first at 9:30. But before we could go in to meet her teacher, I had to take Peter to the potty. Anyway, Hannah is doing awesome in school. She got over 400 in all areas of the CSAPs last year-and that's really good. She will get mostly 'A's on her first trimester report card. John's appointment was at 10am. We got to his class room about 10 minutes early, and his teacher was still in conference with someone else so we went to see the PE teacher while we were waiting. I was able to tell her that the kids have walked home from school at least 5 times since the beginning of the year, so Hannah and Josh will get credit for meeting the 1st trimester fitness goal. John walks the track at school every day so he has already met the goal. We went back to John's class room, and had to wait another 5-10 minutes before his teacher was ready...

I'm sure this will be a quick one, since I've got all the kids running around (literally) here, and we have parent teacher conferences in less than an hour. Last night for Family Home Evening I asked the kids what they would like to do as a family service project. (We've been talking about service in Primary this month, and I realized we haven't done many family service projects in the past.) The kids decided they wanted to give cookies to their school teachers. I had made sugar cookie dough earlier in preparation for cutting them out for activity and eating them for dessert, so we went ahead with our plans, setting aside the nicest (biggest, unbroken) for the kids to give to their teachers. It was fun, and the children are looking forward to delivering them when we go to conferences this morning. I'm thinking it would be a good idea to try to do at least one family service project each month. We'll see if we can think of lots of different ideas. Oops! Josh ...

Is it just life that as soon as you think you have a bit of a handle on something, you realize that you don't? Maybe it is just me. Primary on Sunday went really well. As I was going to bed last night I realized that I enjoy working with the kids in Primary. I have fun whether I am conducting, like I did yesterday, or teaching Sharing Time. I love the kids and I thoroughly enjoy that aspect of my calling. And then, just as I was ready to drift off to sleep, I realized that I had scheduled a presidency meeting at the same time as I have parent/teacher conferences this Tuesday. Oops! I laid awake for another hour after that thinking about how I was going to explain my blunder to the other members of my presidency - especially after I cancelled our meeting last week. (I cancelled because I wanted to enjoy Lindy's company last week.) I thought about Primary, about callings that need to be filled, about things we should talk about at our presidency meeting, all the while hearing son...

This morning when the kids awoke, I heard an early moan. "I don't have any pants to wear" two of my children groan! This fills my heart with much dismay - I just washed laundry on Monday. Do my kids not have four pairs of pants? I try to find some, but I can't. I know that most of them received pants for birthdays recently.  Do clean pants into the hamper go? They haven't been dirty from rain or snow. Do their pants have holes from crawling the floor? That's never stopped them from wearing before. So away to the store I must go today To buy more pants so my children won't say...     "I have no pants to wear today."

I'm waiting for the phone to ring. It will be the school asking me to come pick up John because he threw up, or isn't feeling well, or is coughing too much. It is hard sometimes to decide whether or not to send a child to school. John threw up twice yesterday-- once in the morning and once in the evening. Most of the morning he wasn't acting particularly sick, but in the afternoon and evening he stayed lying down, and was obviously less energetic than normal. He went to bed early, and I was thinking I would have him at home another day. This morning he was coughing, and his nose was running, and he still didn't look like he was 100% better. I took his temperature and it was 99.4 F. But he didn't feel nausious any more, he ate some breakfast, and he wanted to go back to school. His temperature wasn't all that high, so I'm left with the dilemma: do I let him go to school, knowing I may have to go pick him up in a half hour or an hour? Or do I keep him home, wh...

I got to see "Wicked" last night with Steven, Lindy and Thom. I had been concerned about having a babysitter, but April received clearance from her doctor and was able to come up. She had a few contractions, but hasn't gone into labor yet. I'm so grateful that she was willing and able to come and watch the kids for me. It was exciting to dress up, drive down town, and walk down the 16th street mall for the very first time. It was fun to see the bicycle - pulled carriages, and a horse drawn carriage along with the shuttle that provides transportation up and down the street. We had dinner at Chili's, and the food was good, and the conversation was fun. For dessert I had a shot glass sized key lime pie, that was really good, but it was frozen, which made it difficult to eat. After dinner we hurried to the theater where Wicked was being performed. Lindy and Thom had seats on the orchestra level, and Steven and I had seats up in the balcony. I didn't know much ...

They're here! Lindy and Thom are here in my house at this very minute! Lindy was commenting on how this is the first time she has seen our home, and we've lived here for six years now... I say it's about time! Yesterday, of course, was spent getting ready for them. I had to clean out the kids' rooms. (No I didn't use a shovel on Hannah's room, although I was tempted to.) I filled up a huge trash bag with all the scraps and candy wrappers and junk that was in their rooms. I saved anything that looked like time and effort had been put into crafting - like Hannah's cereal box doll house and felt dolls, and clothing for those felt dolls. Surprisingly, Hannah's crafts fit into one cardboard box! I was able to clean out her closet and under her bed and it only took me an hour or so! The boys room had been cleaned out more recently so that took less time, but I still felt exhausted by the time I had finished, and moved Peter's bed into Hannah's room t...

Trunk or Treating Our ward Trunk or Treat was held on Friday. The parkinglot had been plowed and the weather had warmed up so it wasn't too cold. The evening started out with chili and cinnamon rolls--our traditional trunk or treat dinner, which is unfortunate because none of our kids is a big fan of chili. I was a rebel and brought corn bread muffins instead. After dinner the kids played games and won prizes, and then came the trunk or treating. We got a prize for our trunk decorations. Steven decorated all by himself! Presenting: John - Robin Hood Joshua - Friar Tuck Peter - the king (He couldn't decide if he wanted to be Prince John or King Richard.) Hannah - Maid Marian Josh at one of the games. I'm not sure what he was supposed to be doing, but he liked riding the horse. Peter, after he got tired of playing games and before the Trunk-or-Treating.  Notice me, on the left, holding all the kids' unwanted accessories and prizes. Steven with the trun...

The sun is shining and the kids are back in school today. But they were late. Our school has a "gentle start" policy. Kids are supposed to arrive between 7:35 and 7:45am. If they are not at school be 7:45 they are late. Usually we try to leave home at 7:30 so we have plenty of time for things forgotten at the last minute and to pick up the little girl up the street. Today was no different. We went out to the garage at 7:30; the girl was waiting a few buildings up the street; we were on time. Unfortunately, as I was backing down the driveway, another car turned onto our street and I had to stop halfway down the driveway for them to pass. Unfortunately that meant I lost all my momentum and I was stuck. For the next twenty minutes the girl's great grandmother and I pushed, pulled, dug and salted, trying to get the car out of the driveway, over icy ruts, and onto the street. Eventually another car paused to give some helpful advice (I imagine they were Colorado natives and no...

The kids have a snow day today!!! I'm so glad. That means I don't have to go anywhere at all today. I can stay home, read, bake, clean, deal with bored, sopping wet, freezing children. Hmmmm. Maybe it won't be so wonderful after all. Oh well. Here is the view from our front door this morning. Our flower pots look like ice cream cones! Yesterday wasn't as bad as I feared it would be. I was able to renew my library books online so I didn't have to go to the library. My Visiting teaching companion called to say her children were sick so she wouldn't be going, and when I called the sister I was going to visit, she encouraged me to stay home and we had a nice long chat on the phone. John's scouts was canceled last night too so the only place I had to go was to school and back. Dropping the kids off at school yesterday wasn't a problem. I managed to get up the hill and back down without much difficulty. Picking the kids up was a little more of a challenge....

It's snowing this morning. It may not stop until tomorrow afternoon. If I could just sit inside, curl up with a book, and maybe sip hot chocolate, I would really enjoy it. It is pretty where it hasn't been walked on yet. I like looking at the smooth expanse of blank snow, like a canvas waiting to be painted on. Unfortunately I had to take the kids to school this morning. I usually go to the library on Wednesdays, and I have a visiting teaching appointment in a few hours. Then I'll need to pick up the kids from school, and I'll need to take John to scouts tonight and then go back an hour later to pick him up. I'm going to see if I can renew the library things that are due so I can cross that off my list for today, but the other things I can't really cancel. I am grateful that our new van has front wheel drive instead of rear wheel drive like our old van had. I don't get stuck nearly as often. It is kind of scary though when I'm pressing on the brakes and ...

I hate it when my husband gets sick. I know he can't help it usually. I know that I shouldn't get upset at him, especially when he needs my sympathy and help more than ever. I still don't like it. Yesterday Steven came home from work, and without saying a word, without even letting me know that he was home (Dinner was ready; I was back in the bedroom wondering what was keeping him) he just sat down at the table for dinner. He could have sat there for five minutes before I finished what I was doing and came out to the living room and saw him. I gathered the rest of the family for dinner and we ate, but there was an oppresive silence over the table. I asked him how work went, and apparently something had happened at work and he'd had to redo some project he'd been working on. He said he was tired. He looked like he was tired- that heavy, sullen kind of tired like he wished the world would let him off for a while and he could get back on in some other universe far away...

Friday evening we went to the furniture store to buy a bed for Peter. It's about time. Way back when John was a tiny baby sleeping in a bassinet, we bought a Little Red Bed (LRB). It was a toddler sized bed. I think it was used because the mattress was already a bit torn in spots. Hannah loved it because it was just her size. We moved Hannah out of the crib and onto the LRB so that John could have the crib. Life was good. She slept on that bed until we moved to our condo here. By then John was ready for a real bed, and Josh was getting close to needing the crib. So we aquired some bunk beds. The LRB went into retirement. Eventually Peter came along and needed the crib and Josh was old enough for a bed. Hannah was reaching an age where she didn't want to share her room with her little brothers, so we bought her a day bed (without the trundle that fit under it) and moved her into the room that had been our office. Josh skipped the LRB and went straight to the bottom bunk of the b...

Lately I've been reading a lot. Most of the books I've read recently are geared towards young people, and I've been borrowing Hannah's books to read while she is in school because they are good! If anyone is interested, (and has similar taste in books, and would like some light reading) here is what I've been reading: The Cat Who .... series by Lilian Jackson Braun.  These are detective/mystery type books, but there are actual cats involved. The books in the series stand on their own and don't necessarily have to be read in order, but sometimes it helps because it gives you more background on the characters involved. Eragon by Christopher Paolini. I read this a long time ago along with its sequel, but I wanted to refresh my memory before I read the third book in the series. Strong influences from Tolkien and David Eddings. Percy Jackson and The Olympians   series by Rick Riordan. It helps if you have some basic knowledge of Greek Mythology because in the ...

I have a lot on my mind this morning. Yesterday afternoon I had two girls over from the family up the street. I was watching them so their Grandma could get a chance to rest. They had a blast playing with my kids. Apparently their mother is still in the hospital, and their dad has bleeding ulcers. I wish there was more I could do for them. Our bishop also is in the hospital suffering from complications of the H1N1 virus. He has viral pneumonia, was having a lot of difficulty breathing, and is now in a drug induced coma for what could be a couple weeks or a month. We are praying for him and his family. As a result of all this, he was unable to participate in setting me and my counselors apart for our new callings last night; his counselors had to do that instead. While I was being set apart, one comment that was made in the blessing struck me particularly. I was told that the Lord has been preparing me for this calling for a long time. I guess that is why so many of my callings so f...

Yesterday I found out about a family that very recently moved into our ward and is now living on our street. The mother was in critical condition in the ICU with the swine flu. She has three children, ages 8, 4 and 9 months. Our Relief Society president had asked one of my counselors to watch the children this afternoon, and she left our presidency meeting that morning with the intent to go buy diapers for the baby and then go watch the poor kids. They were in my thoughts that afternoon. Last night as we were putting our kids to bed, I received a phone call from the RS president telling me that the children were now being watched by a couple of 18 year old girls in our ward, but that the baby was running a fever. She asked if I had baby Tylenol, and if I knew what dosage to give him. I have children's Tylenol, and I found a dosage chart, so I grabbed the medicine, the book containing the chart and my bathroom scale and headed up the street to their home. The baby was warm, but had ...

Today was our ward primary program. It went wonderfully well. Except that I almost skipped the fourth verse of the first song. Whoops. Oh well. Everything else went well. I even played the piano for "Baptism" without a hitch...up to tempo. John memorized his part this morning before church sometime and I didn't realize he had it memorized until he did it and he was outstanding. Hannah gave a short talk about her baptism, describing it in detail. Josh and Peter both gave their parts. The primary children sang loud and clear, especially the one seven year old boy who always sings loudly, and with lots of enthusiasm. The closing song was Families Can Be Together Forever. The primary sang the first verse, the congregation joined in on the second verse, and then there was a little interlude (which I wrote) and the primary sang the chorus from "The Family is of God". It was awesome, and I cried through the closing prayer. Earlier in the meeting, I was sustained as t...

This morning Peter came to me with his hands full of his stuffed animals (his four favorites) and told me that it was their birthday! "Penguino is 4, Little Blue Bunny is 3. Monkey is 2 and Chippy the Chipmunk is 1." He proceeded to have a birthday party for them, wrapping presents in things he found around the house, and then he made me take pictures of the birthday boys with their gifts. Then he brought me a piece of paper to write about the party. First I had to list the animals having the birthday(Chippy the Chipmunk, Little Blue Bunny, Monkey Down and Penguino), then list the presents they received (ball, checker, bear) and what the presents were wrapped in (blanket, boots). When we left to do some grocery shopping he insisted on bringing all four animals along, and stuffing them all into cupholders for their car seats. He was disappointed when I wouldn't let him take them into the store, and so he sat them all on my drivers seat to wait while we were in the stor...

There is nothing like the adrenaline rush of waking up 40 minutes late to get a person moving in the morning. Especially when that means I have only 20 minutes to get three kids dressed, fed and packed up to leave for school. Steven has been sick the last few days. His upper back and neck have been bothering him for a week and a half. It feels like he has been miserable forever. Yesterday he came home from work early and spent the evening reading in bed. Last night he kept making noises in his sleep: something half way between a grunt and a groan. Anyway, it was keeping me awake so I went to sleep on the living room couch. I kept waking up out there too, because one of the cats decided to come lay on me and purr and give himself a bath, noisily licking himself until I pushed him off. I wasn't laying in a position where I could see the clock, but suddenly I opened my eyes and realized it was light already. Suddenly I jumped off the couch and looked at the clock - 7:10, the time we...

I feel sorry for my fish. We have had fish for the last five years, ever since our neighbors gave us a fish tank they didn't want anymore. One of the first fish we got was a black molly that had babies the first day we had her. Only one of the babies survived to adulthood, the others getting stuck in the filter or being eaten by the other bigger fish in the tank. Over the years we've had mollies, guppies, zebra danios, neon tetras, catfish, snails and a frog. We've had fish in stripes, solids and with spots. We've had fish in almost every color. When they died (after a couple weeks or a couple years) I'd scoop them out and eventually replace them with something new. I've cleaned out their tank about every other week for years, fed them every day with fish flakes or freeze dried blood worms, and spent a lot of time watching them, counting them, and searching for the hiding ones amongst the big rocks and plants. They don't demand attention. They don't remi...

The weekend is over. I really enjoyed having Kendra visit with us. She spent most of her time with her dad in Longmont, but we had time to chat and she entertained the kids with games on her phone and computer. It was good to see her again. While Kendra was here she asked what my kids would like for Christmas, so she could tell their paternal grandma. I'm just over birthday season, and I'm not really ready to think about Christmas yet, but here is what I've come up with: Hannah - craft supplies. [A knitting loom (like the kind you make hats on), yarn, fabric, tape, pinking shears, ribbons, crochet hooks] Books. [Horror, fantasy appropriate for a 10 year old advanced reader.] Clothes. [size 8. Long pants but NO jeans. Maybe twill or corduroy? long sleeve shirts] John - Books. [mystery, fantasy appropriate for an 8 year old advanced reader, he also has interest in electricity and magnetism, magic tricks and origami] Clothes. [size 6/7, pajamas, long sleeve shirts, jeans...

Kids are out of school today. Hannah says it is a teacher work day and the teachers are tired of the students. My sister in law, Kendra, is coming to visit tonight. Her Dad, who lives in Longmont, had a heart attack a week or two ago and she is coming to visit him, but staying with us. So, I need the kids to help me clean the house today. How do I motivate them? I don't know. It is a cold day and I feel sleepy and my head is aching slightly. I need to wake up and get moving. Can you jump start a person without using caffeine or drugs? It snowed for maybe twenty minutes yesterday, but there wasn't enough to stick. Today it is clear and cold. We may get more snow over the weekend. I don't mind the snow when I don't have to be out driving in it. I love it when I can stay at home, wrap myself in a blanket and read a book all day. It would be wonderful if we had a fireplace we could light and enjoy while reading a book, snuggled in a blanket while drinking hot chocolate. H...

Have I mentioned here the deal with the cats? I mentioned that my sister April brought them over when she came to babysit while Steven and I went on the Pioneer trek. I don't think I explained all the details. April's husband Dean left in May for a year's tour of duty in Afghanistan. April moved out of her house on base and moved in with my other sister Heather in Colorado Springs. Heather's husband is allergic to cats so she couldn't keep the cats with her there, so we took them in. When Dean returns and April and Dean find a home of their own that accepts cats, they will get the bigger cats, Ishmael and Abish, back. We will keep the kittens, Moroni and Lamoni, who are now as big as their mother. In the meantime, we have four cats in the house. We love the cats. They are soft and cuddly sometimes. They are all young and playful and provide hours and hours of entertainment, chasing strings, marbles, wiggling fingers, whatever. Ishmael loves me and frequently when ...