New Additions

We would like you all to join us in welcoming our new additions: Goldy, Chloe, and Finn. No, I have not been hiding a triplet pregnancy. I wish it were that exciting. But this weekend a friend of Caroline's gave her a teeney, tiny gold fish. She named her Goldy. Then Hilton wanted a fish too. I have been meaning to get some for the kids for a few months now, but just have not gotten around to it. So today, Hilton and I picked out 2 more fish to add to the family. Chloe is Hilton's Beta. She is red and blue and gorgeous. He named her himself. And Finn is mine. he is a fiesty blue Beta who is taking the place of what should be another baby or at least a puppy. But I have to settle for a fish with personality. We have the Betas in 2 nice big vases and Goldy is in a small goldfish bowl. They look really pretty on our mantel, but I am sure once Justin gets home, he will put them somewhere else. Soooo, I have 3 more babies to tend.

Our Weekend

On Saturday we inteded to go to the corn maze. I was all excited because we were going to be doing it as a family and we were doing something fall-y. But when we told the kids what we were going to do, Caroline said, "Well, what do you do?" I said it was a maze and we try to find our way out. She said, "So all we do is walk around?" Well, yes, but it is fun because you have to find your way out! Um, that doesn't sound fun. It sounds BORING! And then of course Hilton chipped in, Yeah, Mom, BORING! So we ended up going on go-carts, which they both absolutely loved. And I admit that Justin and I loved it too. Then the kids bounced on those inflatable bouncy things. So we had a good time,a nd the kids did too. Even though we did not go to the corn maze. That night we went to some peoples' house for dinner. The Ricks are in our ward and very nice to us. Justin cast their 9 year-old daughter as the rabbit in Charlie Brown this summer and they just think he hung the moon. There were 2 other couples there. We had smoked Chicken and baked beans and Italian sodas. I made a lovely green salad. I was a little disappointed that I had to do the salad because it is so boring... But I made a great green salad. If I do say so myself. It had lettuce and pears and blue cheese and walnuts and I used Balsamic Vinegrette for the dressing. It was absolutely a HUGE hit! And so simple. It was quite a dull time though because eveyone there was quite a bit older than us. Everyone has children that are married or in college and one couple has granchildren. The things they were talking about just did not interest me. And they were very gossipy. They all talked about people in the ward. Which, I am NOT being judgemental. I am just saying it was boring. None of it interested me. I was done after about an hour. And we were there for over 2 hours. Plus, I was sitting at a piano bench and my back was killing me after 2 hours. But the food was great! The woman is from Louisiana so she had a recipe and smoker from Louisiana. It was wonderful and made me a little homesick (or food-sick) for Louisiana! There is no food better than there! So that was our weekend in a nutshell. Church was church. I made a yummy apple pie and Ham for dinner yesterday. So it was a great sunday dinner. Of course, I did not have any of the apple pie, but judging by what is left today (maybe 2 pieces) I would say that Justin liked it!

I'm tired

I am tired. Hilton is jsut not sleeping through the night and I am exhausted. I need a nap. So I really have nothing to blog about... except that I want to sleep. Oh, we went and saw Spitfire Grill last night. It is a musical. The music is horrible. I hated it. But the actual performances were fine. And they all had decent voices. It was just the lack of material to work with. The story was great and touching. I loved that. But the music... yuck. So that is my professional critique. I am going to lay down while Hilton is watching a movie. I do not know how the child functions!

Snowy day

It is snowing! Yes, real snow! Stick on the ground, white, fluffy, snow. Our first snow of the year. Last year it didn't come until after Thanksgiving. I hope this doesn't mean that we are going to skip fall. I don't think so. I think it is just a fluke. But it is exciting. I was going to go to Idaho Falls today, but now I will have to stay home. But it is the perfect weather for finishing my book. I only have 20 more pages, and book club is tonight. Sooo, I will have a nice cozy day inside...

Pumpkin Party

Sorry I have not been able to post. Blogger was down and I didn't have the computer today. I tried to post on Sunday and it wouldn't work. Anyway, the party was a hit! It was a shower for my friend who had a little baby boy about 6 weeks ago. She insisted on not having a shower so I tricked her into having one by calling it a luncheon with a theme. Our theme was Pumpkins! And they happened to name the baby Peter, so on the invitation we put, "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater..." It was very cute. We had 3 kinds of soup, chicken corn soup, beef with barley soup and cheesy veggie soup. Then we had bread bowls that were made to look like pumpkins that we ordered from Broulims. (The local grocery store.) I had my pumpkin soup tureen, and I borrowed someone elses pumpkin soup tureen and we had a green bowl to put the other soup in. Then we had Pumpkin Roll and Pumpkin squares for dessert. YUM! For our drink, I made a peach slush which was orange in color, and looked perfect. Of course we had all kinds of fall decorations everywhere and I bought a gorgeous plaid table cloth to put on the table. It has all the fall colors. We ate and talked and then we played "Baby Bunko," a game another gal made up and we had prizes for everyone! We had little pumpkin mugs, pumpkin candles, pimpkin magnets and even pumpkin butter spreaders. And I won a big prize for the "Fuzzy Pillow prize." It was a warm, fuzzy fleece blanket. It is all mine and big enough for me to wrap up in on those cold Rexburg evenings. All in all the party was a HUGE hit. Everyone said how cute my house is and loved all the decor. I was very satisfied. And now that it is over, I am even happier!

day-dawn is breaking

It is 7 am on Saturday morning. The day of the pumpkin party. I thought I had a ton to do, but I really don't. I have the soup on the stove, and the dishes are washing, I am doing a load of laundry, the kitchen is clean, and I am on the computer. I went to a party last night. Actually the girl I am having the shower for had a pumpkin-carving contest, for adults. We had Chimichangas and I made my friend Ginny's pumkin cake. (Which was a HUGE hit!!! It all got eaten and people were raving about it!!! Thanks, Ginny!) We had fun carving pumkins and Justin and I came in 2nd place. We were happy with that since we seemed must less prepared than others. People took this very seriously. Justin was not very enthusiastic, until he saw how the other husbands were doing all the work. Then he dug right in and got his fingers dirty. I will try to post a picture of it later. But anyway, my hair still smells from the oil of the Chimichangas and I need a shower bad!!! So I will be doing that. My friend, Erin is coming over at 10 to help get set up, and then at 11:30 the guests will start to arrive! I am nervous. Everyone always talks about how clean my house always is. I have a lot to live up to! But I am going to let it go. It is clean and looks festive. It will be a very fun party and I will be soooo glad when it is over!

Dracula

I am currently reading Braham Stoker's Dracula. Can I just tell you how much I adore this book? I admit, I was skeptical because it is a classic and I have a slight aversion to the classics. I don't know why, because I always seem to like them when I get around to reading them. But this book is soooo good. I was also a little nervous because the other gals in my book group have been talking about how boring it is. I just don't understand that at all! It is thrilling. I can't put it down! I wish I had more hours or even minutes in the day to read so I could read more. Instead I have to help with homework, violin, make dinner, go to parent meetings, boring stuff. I would much rather be reading Dracula. The descriptions are so beautiful and the language makes me want to cry. I want to live in the late 1800's and to wear beautiful dresses and say things like, "I don't use slang." But this book is one of the best I have read in a while and I am so glad we are reading it this month. It is a little scary, but not too much so, but sooo entertaining. I had the same experience with East of Eden. I was convinced it was going to be totally boring and didn't want to read it because it was a classic. And I was so pleasantly surprised that it is now one of my favorite books of all time. So I guess I have learned a lesson. I should not be afraid of classics. They are classics for good reason. But I probably have not absolutely learned my lesson. Sometime, probably in the near future, I will not want to read another classic and hopefully I will once again, be surprised and pleased!!!

Space man

Last night Hilton was up about 7 hundred and seventy eight times. The first time he woke up, he said he felt sick. So I got the sick bowl and put it beside his bed. The other 777 times he just was doing it to annoy me. I am convinced of this. Anyway, he was totally fine this morning. Why am I posting about this? Because this is the conversation we just had: H: I'm a space man! M: cool. H: I'm a space man because I have the throw up bowl on my head. M: cool! H: Can you build me a space airplane? Can you build me a space airplane? MOM!!!!!! M: yes? H: Can you build me a space airplane? M: Ummmm, I don't know how. H: Okay. I'm a space man with a throw up bowl on my head!!! M: cool. I'm tired. Still, just give me a break, okay? If I were a good mom I would have said, sure, honey let's build a space ship together!!! But I am a bad mom. A bad, bad mom, who is now going to go read a book.

one more down

I lost another lb! That makes 24!!! Only 76 to go... anyway, I hope it keeps working!!!

Pink Party and Lucky #7

Thank goodness that is over! I am all partied out! The pink party has come and gone. It was just wonderful! We had 15 girls here and they all had a blast!!! First we played "pin the horn on the unicorn." Then we had a Hello Kitty pinata, which was a huge hit! The girls got a ton of candy. And then the girls each decorated their own cupcake with pink candy. And to drink, they had strawberry floats: strawberry ice cream with strawberry soda. Caroline opened her presents while the screamed and ooohed and aaaahed, and then they each got treat bags and balloons. All the girls were wearing pink and they were very cute. Caroline had "the best birthday ever!" And several girls said it was the best party they had ever gone to, which made me feel really good! The kids totally OD'd on sugar, but I didn't care since I got to send them all home! Caroline got more than enough gifts! She was very excited. Then we went out to Gringos for dinner and they put a hat on her head and sang to her and gave her fried ice cream. It was one exciting birthday. And earlier I went to her classroom at school and everyone sang happy birthday and we had cookies and I showed everyone cute baby pictures of her and she told everyone what her favorite things are. It was a pretty great day, even though it rained all day and even hailed at the end of the party! But at least it didn't snow! I am just happy that we did not plan an outside party! It was beautiful all last week and today it was freezing and wet. But I just cannot believe my baby is 7! next year she will be baptized! Her favorites are: color:pink place to eat: McDonalds food:chicken nuggets sport:soccer thing that is hers: American Girl Doll clothes: purple shopping dress subject at school:centers ice cream: vanilla with chocolate place to visit:Grandma and Grandpa's So that is Caroline in her 7 year old nutshell. She is so grown up. She is very well-behaved and well-mannered. She is very sensitive and loves her friends and family. She gets embarassed very easily and gets mad when I do anything to embarass her. That includes talking about boys. She really hates that. She helps me out all the time. She is very talented musically, she loves to make up songs on the piano and to play songs by ear on the piano and violin. She is constantly humming. Constantly!!! She never stops! And when we are listening to the radio or a cd she always knows the words! I don't know how. She has a love of reading that is like my own, which I love. She loves to read the "Box car Children" books and "Dick and Jane." I amazed more and more each day by how smart she is. And she is so cute and beautiful. She is missing her front top tooth right now and loves to have her hair in pony tails. Caroline is my most favorite girl in the world. I love her more than anything and am so glad she came to our family.

23 lbs down

Has my plateau ended? After 2 months of not losing anything, I lost 2 lbs this week. Now, I am not going to get my hopes up, but boy was I excited! I was so worried about gaining weight since I couldn't exercise the whole time I was in St George. But I LOST!!! I just can't even believe it. For those of us keeping count, that is 23lbs altogether. I am very pleased. Maybe that little break kick started my metabolism. And after my water aerobics workouts, my body finally let go of some more weight. I just hope it lasts! I am going to be praying that I continue to lose. Especially at this time of year. It is going to start to be very difficult, very soon. Halloween candy, Thanksgiving, Christmas, my Pumpkin Party is coming up next week... but I have resisted before, I can totally do it. Right? I did not walk at all this week. I am catching up on sleep. I have been so sleepy! The night before last, I went to bed at 9 and woke up at 11 am!!! I slept 14 hours!!! I didn't know that was possible. Anyway, wish me luck! I have got to lose more weight!!! I would love to lose another 10 lbs by Christmas. That would make my year!!! So give me advice, give me encouragement, give me money... oh, wait, no you don't have to give me money! Unless, of course, you want to give me money. I won't argue...

invitations and H2O aerobics

My friend dropped off the invitations for my other friend's baby shower. I cannot even tell you how cute they are. I mean, soooo cute. I never in a million years could have thought of something like that. So now I have to deliver all 20 of them. Which is going to be difficult since I don't know where most of them live. But I will get it all done. This morning in water aerobics I got my foot floats. Ok we do deep water aerobics which means you need floats to hold you up. I have been using a float that goes around my waste. I finally got used to that. And I was getting good at all of the exercises! And then today I got the ones that go on my ankles. These things are powerful!!! I got in the pool and ended up with my feet in the air and my face in the pool! It was humiliating. But everyone assured me it happens to everyone when you first get them. It took me the entire class to get the basics again. Very frustrating. But, boy, what a workout!!

Lots to do

I am home. And very happy to be here. I have a beautiful new diningroom set, new end tables, a piano, numerous lamps and many other treasures from my grandmother. It has been so fun to go through all of the stuff and determine where to put it. Although, Justin had pretty much done all of that before I even got home. Yesterday Caroline and I went shopping for her stuff for her "Pink Party." Her birthday is on Monday and we have invited a ton of girls over for what will prove to be a fiasco, I am sure. But she is excited because we got lots of pink stuff. Her party bags will be filled with Hello Kitty Pez dispensers, pink "snowballs," and tons of pink candy. I thought it would be easier than it was to find pink stuff. There is pink stuff everywhere but you have to buy all the other colors too in order to get pink. They don't sell a lot of just pink. If I had thought ahead I could have found a ton of stuff online, but I didn't. We made the invitations yesterday. Caroline picked out the paper and stickers. I cut them all out, she glued them together and put the stickers on. She was very proud of her accomplishment. If I had a digital camera I could publish a picture of them... but I don't. But they were very cute and very cute. I just hope people will be able to come. I am always afraid that noone will come! Anyway, I am hoping we have given people enough notice. Today I have to clean the house because Justin's parents are coming up, I have to go to the store to pick up some things, and then sometime this week I have got to get Caroline's birthday presents!!! I haven't even thought about it! But it will get done before Monday... Maybe Justin's parents can watch the kids while I do a little shopping. Anyway, I have a busy weekend ahead of me. I have not had time to sit down since I got home on Sunday. I don't like being this busy. But it is good for me. Maybe I am burning calories...

Better Days

Ok. SO yesterday was so much better. And Mom and Dad are way ahead of schedule and expect to be home this evening! And Justin totally misses me and wants me to come home. Which feels great because he loves to be on his own. But maybe he just wants a clean house... No, he really misses me and it makes me so happy. And I watched LOST last night which is such a good show and keeps getting better and freakier every day! The kids went to bed on time last night so I had some time by myself that I felt unstressed. So it was much better. Today I have been cleaning so the house is perfect for Mom and Dad when they get home. They are always so busy that they don't have time to really clean. THe house is not dirty by any means, but I think it will just be nice for them to come home and not have to do anything. But I did get some frightening news! My sister called me last night and her ex-husband's mother died last night! She had diabetes and it was a heart attack related to that. Boy was that a wake up call for me! Just crazy that you can really die from this disease! Granted she did not take care of herself at all. No diet or exercise or anything, but I realize that I really need to get in gear and lose weight so I can totally be free of this thing. I don't want to die! So I will really make a better effort. I haven't falllen off the wagon but I know I can work harder and that is what I am going to do. I am totally going to get rid of diabetes. I don't want to just control it, I want to get rid of it all together! Anyway... I am hoping to be home by Saturday.

Locked out

OK. It could be worse. I recognize that. But at this point, I am so tired that I can't think how. But today will be a better day. I will tell you my story. Last night I was putting Hilton to bed in my parents' room. That is where we are sleeping. Hilton was not ready to go to bed. He kept screaming and crying and generally making me mad. Finally, he decided he had had enough and was NOT going back in that room and he locked the door. Usually no big deal on a bedroom door, right? Except this door needs a key. Like a key to the front door or something. I tried every single key in the house. Then I called my parents who are on the road from Michigan back to here. I said to my dad, "Please tell me you have a key to your bedroom." He said, "no, of course not, why would we?" He didn't even realize that his bedroom door had a key lock. He thought it would just be one of those locks that you just stick a paper clip into and pop it. So I tried everything to get this lock open. I used a hair pin, several paper clips, keys, key/paper clip combinations. Nothing worked. I tried the window but it was locked. I called some of Mom and Dad's friends and they came over and tried to get it open. NOTHING! There was nothing I could do. So I called a locksmith. He popped it right open with his handy dandy little burgulary tools. Then I asked him to PLEASE make me a key, and after a HUGE chunk of money late, I was in the bedroom again trying to get my son to go to bed. Now, I called the locksmith and he got there at about 10:30 at night. Hilton did not go to bed until after 11:00. I needed chocolate. Yes, I am an emotional eater, but it made me feel better and I did not go into a diabetic coma. But I also did not get to bed until after midnight. Then Hilton was up at 7am. I still want to beat the child, but I am controlling myself and blogging about it instead. Hoping and praying that today is a much better day... and night.

HIVES

My kids have hives. My parents have a dog and I think that has to be it. Caroline is worse off than Hilton, but they are both pretty miserable. Hilton has several sores on his tongue so he doesn't want to eat. Caroline has one in her mouth but is covered all over her body. Some places are worse than others. Her legs and arms have it the worst. Hilton only has them on his arms and legs, not on his trunk, but they are not as bad as Caroline's. I am going to give them an oatmeal bath and hopefully that will soothe them a little. I have some Benedryll too... Poor kids. They are never going to want to come back here again! And we still have several days to go. Justin's parents may have to come down and get them!

Sleeping positions

Sleeping with your children is so different from sleeping with your husband. The kids kick and cuddle and generally annoy me. I have gotten used to sleeping with my husband. We both have our boundries. A No-Cross zone, if you will. Children do not respect this zone and it is really irritating. But is only for another week or so. You would think with my parents' gigantic king size bed, there would be plently of room for all three of us... (Caroline, Hilton and me) but the bed is not big enough for the 3 of us. If the kids would just lay there without moving in your normal vertical position, everything would be great! But they are both constantly moving. And they cannot stay vertical. They end up horizontal with someone's foot in my face and someone else's foot in my back. The joys of vacation. I want my bed back, with my normal-sleeping husband.