Elles name change

Here is Elle's very creative announcement that from hence forth she shall be known at home as Courtney. I found it tucked on my pillow this evening. She is being very helpful by allowing the kids at school to still call her Elle, but at home she won't respond to it anymore. Matt refuses to call her this and we have discovered that is because he has a crush on a girl named Courtney, which was fun to discover. Kirk has tried several other names like Gertrude, Penelope, Hilda but no, it's Courtney.

Lost teeth and new callings

Well Elle pulled out her 2nd tooth yesterday! I was very happy to have very little to do with it. She had discovered that it makes me very squemish when she would wiggle it all around and everytime she thought of it she would show me, and I would gulp, smile and tell her how wonderful it looked. Anyway she was laying on my lap watching tv and she held it up! The 2nd wonderful thing is that the tooth fairy actually remembered to come that same night!! I was sinking into a deep sleep when it shot into my brain that there was a tooth waiting anxiously under a pillow! I had a 5$ and thats it so thats what she got!! I think I may be 2 teeth behind with the boys, so at least Elle is paid up!
I was called as the assisant nursury leader this weekend. When the call came in asking for a appointment and I turned to Kirk and said I'm being called to the nursury and he said they said that over the phone? And I said, nope I just know. The surprize was they didn't release me from being the choirister in Sacrament meeting which I've been doing for 3 years now. They asked if it was alright if they left me since they really liked me doing it and I said I love doing the music, it's just good to know I'm still in the calling because they want me there and not because no one else wants me. What can I say I'm a girl and I need a pat on the back once in awhile, or a rub down my arm, umm or a nice word, you get the picture! So I started today and it was fine, it was nice to sit on the floor and have snack and sing songs. I could have done without the snot running into childrens mouths and the constant smell of used diapers, but over all it was nice.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!

Elles Sunday Attire

Since I had fun bragging yesterday I thought it only fair today show a funny not perfect thing! I had to run Matt to church early since he got his Deacon award in church today (bragging again), so Kirk was left to bring the other three kids to church. As I left I told Elle she needed to find her church shoes and I asked Kirk to make sure she brushed her hair. So I'm at church singing a prelude with the choir when I look over and she Elle clomping down the aisle with my boots on, and clopping is the only way to describe the sound she made with each step, along with a rat nest in her hair and a purple sweater to go along with her gold dress! The great thing is several people took her picture, not just me!!

Connors Yearbook

This Connors 5th grade photo for the yearbook, his quote was,"A bad day fishing is better than a good day of school." Lol sooo Connor, we only took Peanuts, we didn't think Tangerine would behave!

Bragging Blog

Ok bragging time!! Matthew got his Life badge today which is the last level before Eagle!! His goal of being a eagle before 14 could happen!! He also earned his On My Honor award and is the youngest in our ward history to earn it! Along with 6 merit badges!! Connor got his Tenderfoot award and his first 2 merit badges! Not bad for still being 11! He is one camp out away from First Class badge!! It was a fun day to have my two tall boys earning so many worthy awards!

My lovely friday

Ok I had a lot of fun today! I went to Elle's class and helped with Valentines Day centers which was totally fun, that is the first 2 pictures, Elle and her craft, the other is kids in her class but that isn't why it's on there. That is me standing in the background and I am happy to say the picture of my thighs didn't ruin my day. I am totally aware with how shallow that makes me sound! BUT the kids have all had the flu for 2 weeks and my stomach is off, both of which has been making me eat, constantly and all junk food, I eat when I'm tired and I eat when my stomach feels funny, so this picture shows maybe it's not as bad as I feel it is! Anyway after that I got to go spend the morning helping out in my friends new bakery!! I got to make 36 carmel and chocolate covered apples and maybe 100 chocolate dipped strawberries!! It was so much fun!! And I got to sample everything when I was leaving!! I think I would really like to work there everyday!! OK and I guess the happy non-day ruining thight picture was taken before I ate all that chocolate!

Ode to a Blender

(Do odes have to rhyme?) I would like to have a moment of silence for the passing of a wonderful blender. It was my first non-walmart blender and it served me well for 5.5 years!
thank you blender for jamba juice since i don't live by an actual jamba juice store, and milkshakes, and creamed soups, and salsa made into frothy pink liquid so my kids can't pick out the chunky vegetables, thank you for wonderful whole wheat pancakes! I will miss you! And lastly thank you for not catching me on fire or blowing up the kitchen when you finally sparked out, even if you scared the crap out of me when you blew, and even if you quit only half-way through what I needed to have done! Adieu!

Most embarrassing moment

Since I spent the night being awakened every half hour with a vomiting child and feel like I've been through Chinese torture I'm going to focus on something funny. My most embarrassing moment, I know most of my family knows the story so this is for my friends. I was in charge of music time in my church for awhile, with the attention span of children I was always trying to find a new game. So I found this one where you have cards of different animals and a child gets to pick one and then we sing do as I'm doing like the animal would, like an elephant would swing his trunk, get it? So I have a child pick a card and I read it's a woodpecker and I asked the kids, not really knowing, what a woodpecker would do. All the kids start bobbing their heads like they are bobbing for apples and I say OK lets sing the song like that! I look over to my pianist and she was talking to someone so in order to stall everyone and get her attention I said in my bright, cheerful Pollyanna voice " OK Kids, get your little peckers ready!" It wasn't until after it was out of my mouth that I realized WHAT i had said and how terrible it was! There were some good friends on the front row as teachers who barely cracked a smile trying to support me but an older gentleman teacher in the back laughed out loud and laughs every time he sees me in the hall to this day! Needless to say I was taken out of Primary music a few months later and not put back in!

Foiled Once AGAIN

Along with my respect for Murphy's law is another law, one I don't even know the name of. Maybe it's a subsidiary of Murphy, he's a powerful guy you know. I was supposed to go on a night away with a bunch of girls from church, we were going to a cabin by a lake for the night eating junk and bonding, relaxing, no kids!! And OF COURSE emergencies happen at Kirks work so here I am making mini corn dogs and tater tots. Looks like I'll be here as a single parent all weekend rather then Kirk. It has happened like this our whole marriage, but it's never anything either of us can blow off. First it was important assignments in law school and now it's a case going to trial on Tuesday that needs a mountain more of work to do. Oh well, love my honey, gotta be glad he's got a job he likes!! And it pays for me to be a stay at home mom! And it paid for my new book and treats for me and the kids to ease our woes!!

Sublimnal encouragment

This is a picture of my fridge, it is my montage of pictures on my fridge anyway. I know that this collection really drives some of my friends and family nuts because its, well i guess it could look messy and random. But there is a purpose to it. It is right about the water spout, so whenever I'm feeling like yelling at a child or ripping my hair out, or running for Mexico where no one will ever find me, i stand there and drink a glass of water while looking at cute smiling pictures of my kids. And I think oh yeah, they can be cute and nice, lets try again. Priceless really. It's funny how those subliminal type things work. For instance above the toilet on a shelf in the main level bathroom I have a copy of the family proclamation, I'm not sure how it ended up there, but whatever. So one day Matt was explaining to me the injustice of how I was treating him, and he said well mom it is says in the proclamation that you are supposed to raise me with love and respect and I'm just not feeling that when you make me do jobs. I was like , What? Where did you get that from? He said well while I'm using the bathroom I stand there and read it, what else is there to do? (how about not get pee on the rim??) So as silly as it is to have the Proclamation in the bathroom, it seems to be working!

Fun Times in Alpharetta

I had a really fun time tonight doing something different. A friend at church suggested a card party where we all make 12 valentine cards and bring them and we swap cards. I haven't done anything crafty like that in awhile so I was a little rusty. I forgot how walking into hobby lobby gives me the desire to be crafty and I think 'self' i do say it, i've told ya'll i do, "self if I buy everything I will then be good at everything", but i know that isn't the case. For instance I tried using embossing powder on my cards, but i didn't want to buy the embossing heating tool, obviously if I was Kirk I would have bought the tool, because he has to own all the tools. Anyway I didn't and therefore the cards didn't look quite like I had hoped, but it was still fun. Mostly it was just fun to get out with some girls and talk books, actors (not actresses),movies, gross kid stories, you know. And mostly it got me out of the house so I missed a night of reading, which is a good thing! I am trying to baby step myself into reading less. I'm keeping track on Shelfari, in Jan for instance I read 18 books. And some of those I liked so much I read maybe twice. That's probably too many books, some of that time should really be used to... say, clean out closets or i don't know dust blinds. So I'm trying to slow down, so far in Feb I've only read 3 books so I think that slower... right? Although now isn't the time to slow down, Kirk will be gone a lot this month for court and then he goes right into pinewood derby time, heaven knows I'm a pinewood derby widow for at least a month. Talk about buying tools, the pinewood derby has cost me more money than all my scrapbooking supplies put together! At least we are down to only one cub scout this year, thank heavens for small graces!

My weekend

Well it's been an interesting weekend to say the least. Friday I had Matt and AJ home from school, mostly they just had a cold but Matt sounded awful and Aj looked awful. And I spent the day running around getting food and supplies for the EYO scouts to spend the night camping in our basement. Saturday we were up at the crack of dawn making breakfast for the boys, driving AJ to the first birthday party he could go to in at least 2 years since everyone seems to have them on Sunday, grocery shopping etc, you know how Saturdays are. By about 10 that night I was feeling really bad, horrible headache slightly ill and I thought about calling a sub to lead the music for me in church, but then I thought I'm stronger then that I can get up and do the music come home whatever. I have this irrational fear that if we miss a week of church the kids will love it so much they'll never go back, but I finally just said self, i say this alot, self just send an email if they get it great. So I sent out an email to someone to sub for me. Boy am I ever glad I actually listened to the prompting this time, as well all know I tend to not realize I've been prompted until I miss it. About midnight Elle climbed into bed with me and proceeded to vomit her poor little body into nothingness every hour or less until 7 am. It was a very long night! Kirk who has 2 major cases going to court in the next month and CANNOT afford to be ill slept on the couch. Which I understood, but at the same time would have liked for someone to take care of Elle besides me, since I wasn't feeling great myself. But he was great all day as Elle and I laid in bed the whole day and brought us water and played with the boys. Elle watched movies and cartoons and I read 2 slightly but not completely trashy romance novels, if we didn't feel so ill it would have been a great day! As I said earlier Kirk has 2 cases going to trial this month, one is local and one in FL. The one in FL was just moved to a week before our scheduled trip for spring break, which gives me flash backs of last year when the judge scheduled trial during our family reunion! Of all the weeks in the year how do these things keep happening on the one week he takes off?? So I have my fingers crossed that it will not be moved again! But just in case I am resigned to going and having a wonderful time in Florida with or without him, isn't that wifely of me?? :-)