Holiday Ball

Jared's work has an option where every paycheck, he gives up a little bit of money to participate in a group as part of his work that host fun activities throughout the year for little to no money. Every year, they have a holiday ball and the option to stay at the hotel for a discount. It's how we did the cruise two years ago.

Anyways, after last years ball, there was a lot of discussion about how disappointed people were with the photographer at the event. We had offered to do it but were turned down. Well, this year, they took our offer seriously and we agreed to take the job.

The original plan was that we would do the whole thing for $1000 and give each patron a photo print of choice. Right before the event, we got mixed signals and realized, we weren't going to be paid the original amount and that we were expected to sell a la cart. We were ticked off because we do not have a merchant account so we decided to go into it hoping for the best and worked it that we would hand out business cards there and let them choose what they want and order online.

We had troubles finding a babysitter for the night. No one could watch the kids and all of a sudden, Jared's parents rearranged to be able to at their own desire. I also had the brilliant idea that I was going to wear my new red blouse to the party, but needed a formal black skirt to go with it. I decided in a crazy psychotic moment that I wouldn't find the right one in time so I decided a couple days prior to make my own skirt from a pattern I liked.

I picked up the fabric and the day before, I started to cut, mark and sew my skirt. To make a long story short, I stayed up until midnight to complete the bulk of it and then the night of the ball, finished hemming it an hour prior. I was so proud of myself and loved the look and feel of it. All of you and the ward could probably tell since I wore it several weeks in a row to church ;0)

I had a lot of fun taking pictures and eating the good food that night. I was super tired and kind of ticked off that we decided to leave before getting a chance to slow dance with my hubby, but it was a fantastic date night for the both of us to do what we like to do and have fun together.

P.S. We only made just under $300 in sales for the night and it was depressing. We definitely learned a lot from the gig and would do things a lot differently and demand payment if we ever did it again.

This is me posing while testing lighting and background

Scouting For Food Mess

Upfront, I just want to state that I am fine organizing things and putting events together, but when a wrench gets caught in my plans, I tend to have a kanipchen that leads to ulcers, stress or something else in my mind.

Every November, the scouts do Scouting for Food and different packs and troops claim areas of the city and deliver and pick up bags of donated food to deliver to Smith's for the food drive. I was already concentrating on doing the recharter before deadline and the scouts decided to put this in the middle of it as well.

I had things all figured out until the Sunday before Wednesday when we had planned on distributing the bags in our area. That Sunday, I received a phone call from the counselor of the primary over me in our church and she informed me that since there was a primary activity on Wednesday and next week is Thanksgiving, we should cancel the den meetings for both weeks. I immediately spazzed out and informed her that we were planning on doing our scouting for food drop off that night. She asked if we could move it so I had to start making A LOT of phone calls to see who of the boys as well as the leaders, could make this change in schedule to help out. I had the boys meet at my house since I had my kids and no husband until a little later. I managed to have 4 leaders and a parent around to help with our boys. The parent took his own boy and covered their neighborhood and the other two groups split up to cover the rest of the neighborhoods assigned. They met back at my house for pick up and brownies.

Among all that, my kids were cranking due to poor naps and hadn't eaten yet because of my lack of preparation to feed my kids among the chaos. I had Jared bring Little Ceasers home for us since I couldn't come up with a solution. All in all, I survived Tuesday night with part of my sanity in tact. On Saturday, during lunch, we scheduled to pick up all the bags left out by the doorsteps. I was kind of concerned since I hadn't heard from a leader or two whether they could help or not so I kept hoping everything would turn out fine since leaders were calling and saying they couldn't help out any more.

I had the boys meet next door at one of the leaders house's and after waiting a little with only three leaders, I was in a bind because Scouts requires two deep leadership with boys so we didn't have the numbers to split into two groups. I ended up asking if they one wife would join his husband and she agreed and I felt relieved. Everything worked out in the end and it made me happy, but YEESH people. No more surprises!

Christmas Enrichment

For those of you who don't know, our church does a thing called Enrichment (now called Relief Society classes or nights) once every 3 months or so. It's where members of the relief society, or women in our ward, get together and learn or do something. It being Christmas, we ended up rotating houses for our activities. The first house was appetizers and mingling. The second house, we learned how to make soda candy and peppermint bark which was awesome and then the third house, we had a service project, crafts and desserts. I made a lemon meringue pie but ended up bringing the whole thing home for one of two reasons that I can gather. The first being that there was no knife to cut pieces so there for, no one took any, or it just looked that hideous and gross, that no one dared to try it. Oh well. More for me.

I ended up signing up for two crafts and decided to just bring them home to finish since it was getting so late anyways. I made a tile quote that said, "Christ is the center of our home, a guest at every meal, and a silent listener to every conversation. " and a plate that said "Santa, I can explain!" on it. I look forward to having these fun new additions to my house and decor for holidays or not.

I also helped with the service project by coloring some pages for books about stories in our scriptures. That was fun to do as well.

Pack Meeting Chaos

December's Pack Meeting turned out to be real chaos. I had been asked by the Relief Society president of our ward, to move the night we had it so that all women involved in cub scouts be it a calling or a child's mom, could participate in their Christmas Enrichment night festivities. I decided to be flexible and so I moved nights to the night before instead at the same time, but at a mom's home. Everything seemed fine until I started getting emails and calls saying that leaders wouldn't be able to make it. Then I started spa-zing but pulled it together because I knew I at least had two leaders and a cub master coming. A little before the meeting took place, I found out that the cub master couldn't get off work along with a den leader not being able to come. This left me with the task of planning and MC-ing the whole night. On top of that, I had all three kids with me because Jared was at a meeting.

I had planned to arrive early to set up and stuff, but we didn't make it all out the door fed and ready to go until about 5 minutes til. There goes my early set up. When we got there, my two older kids immediately started running around, exploring their new surroundings and yelling. I was busy trying to get things ready so I didn't stop them right away. I tend to get stressed out in these situations. The other two moms there tried to help me set up and get ready what I had brought with me as I kept finding things missing and activities needing to be crossed out due to lack of time and materials. Hadley kept trying to play with all of the musical instruments around the house and not very gently, I might interject. I at least tried to keep her from doing any damage to those amongst the hustle and bustle. Both my kids also attempted to let the family dogs back in the house as well.

We didn't start until like 20-30 minutes passed start and when we did, Addison was screaming and my kids wouldn't sit still. So...I tried to conduct things around their active movements. I welcomed the newest wolf in to the Pack and we made self-portraits of ourselves for people to guess out of watercolors. We played find the christmas decorations around the room that each had a point given to them to see without knowing, who collected the most points. We handed out achievements and we had a skit and we decorated/ate cookies. All in all, I think the boys had fun despite the chaos which was important and even though it was a nightmare for me and I didn't get things all done as planned, the important thing is that I survived to plan another day. PHEW!

Black Friday Success

I forced my sister to help me out while she was visiting. I had a couple things I was aiming to get this Black Friday and needed her help if I was going to be successful in a short amount of time.

We left our house at 5 in the morning and headed over to Joann Fabrics so I could get snuggle flannel for $1.50 a yard and fleece for $2.99 a yard. While waiting in line, I decided I had time to do a run into Babies R'Uz real quick. I had my sister stand in line while I went in and got wet wipe boxes for $5 a piece (usually they have diapers for $10 too but not this year :0( oh well). On my way to the checkout, I passed the clearance racks for clothes and read a nifty sign that said and additional 50% off already marked prices. I was hooked. I quickly scanned through and took cute items that were $4 and under originally and a couple $8 and $10 items. I made a steal, I feel.

I brought that stuff to the car and joined my sister back in line. The doors opened and we decided to forgo a cart since it slows you down and went straight to flannel. I pulled a couple cute things and gave them to my sister and told her to go pull a number and if it's called by the time I get back with fleece, to start getting so many yards of the top 3. I made it back in time and then we ended up getting an earlier number from a husband whose wife wasn't ready to cut yet. Score for us! Once we were done, we headed over to Old Navy to get my kids winter coats for $15 a piece. By 7:30, we were out the door and driving home. I was so impressed with myself for getting everything done in 2 1/2 hours. I couldn't have done it without my sister. I owe her big time!

Gobble Til You Wobble!

I love Thanksgiving and all of it's glorious food. In the past, we have gone up to Jared's grandparents for the holidays, but last year we had it at Jared's family's house.

This year, I wanted my sister to come down again and with her, I thought it'd be fun to invite my brothers from another mother over as well. It was looking pretty grim that the brothers could make it due to old plans already set. I got a call though the week before saying that things have changed and they would love to come join us for Thanksgiving along with a significant other for one of them. I was so excited because I thought it'd be a lot of fun seeing everyone and hanging out. I didn't want to intrude on Jared's mom with all of those extra bodies so I decided to have a home Thanksgiving this year.

To maintain my sanity, I made a list of all of the food I was planning on cooking and just kept checking things off my list as I went. I made a pumpkin and lemon merangue pie the night before. Thanksgiving morning, I put the turkey in and made a chocolate mousse pie (Thanks Keyonna, it was amazing!). I then went through the rest of the steps. One of my "brothers," Jason, told me he was amazed at how calm I was acting. I told him it was because of my list.

The turkey ended up being awesome. It practically "fell" off the turkey in whole breast chunks which made Jared's job of carving it pretty easy. I was a bit disappointed in my brothers though. I thought for sure between them, my husband and his cousin, that we wouldn't end up with a whole lot left for left-overs. Boy was I wrong.

Other food involved was raspberry jello, salad, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade stuffing, Rhodes rolls and rice. I was so stuffed! I had so much fun though and the kids loved the extra love and attention. My other "brother," Brent, and his "friend" helped out with clearing and loading dishes which was greatly appreciated. It was so good to see them again and I had fun eating, talking and playing games with them.

Brent and Jenny

Recharter Shuffle

For Cub Scouts, once a year, the chair person is in charge of rechartering for their group. Our recharter deadline was coming up and I found the process pretty easy. I tried to get as many people as possible to be done their training so we could receive the discount again this next year. The only snag was that I found out that the boys leaving cubs to the troop level and their leaders, weren't included on the recharter for the troop. Feeling bad, I decided to make my life busier by collecting the applications with signatures needed to give to the troop so the boys and their leaders wouldn't get lost. It was a huge headache, but I was glad everything got worked out alright. I now feel very comfortable with the whole process and know what to look out for the coming years.

Leader Specific...Check

Since I started being involved with the Cub Scouts as Chairperson for my calling in church, I have gotten a little busier. The position like all other scout positions, requires training. I finished all of my online training pretty quick, but I still had to go to a physical class for leader specific that was 3 hours long. A last minute training session came up and I decided to take advantage of it. It went from 6-9 at night and I am so glad I got it done and over with. Now, I just have to go to the second hour and a half if I ever change my position to something else. Phew! Now I can get a patch in the mail that says TRAINED on it to put on my uniform.

250 lbs of Wheat!

Since the price of bulk wheat had gone down at the bishop's storehouse, I decided to take advantage of it. I occasionally went down there and picked up bulk bags of red and white wheat for the passed couple months. I finally found out that a ward member was going to have the stake sealer and canner at her house and I got excited to finally get to mylar bagging it all. WIth her help, I went over one day and bagged all 250 lbs. of our wheat for storage thanks to her help. I feel so much better and look forward to next time as well. Thanks Michelle!

Groceries & Menus

We had a class for Relief Society last month called Groceries and Menus. I was asked to talk about my methods for running my groceries and meal plans in my house along with three other women in the ward. I showed everybody my first version pre-picking kid planning. I had a whole lot more variety and a bigger plan set up. Here is a picture of it.

After my kids got pickier on what they eat, I had to revamp my thinking and it resulted in this. I call it "Mom's Menu 2.0."

I made this little beauty recently. I took a sheet of metal and put electrical tape around the edges so I wouldn't hurt myself. I might make it cute with ribbon one of these days. Then, I made labels for days and weeks with scrapbook paper and laminated them. I also made magnetic color coded meals to put on and arrange however, for my 3 or 4 week meal plan for the upcoming month or so.

I am so happy with it. It has been my piece of mind and makes my life a whole lot more simpler. Of course, almost all meals on said version are what I know my kids have eaten or will eat for the most part. Less of a headache for my husband and I at dinner time :0)

I remember my father-in-law seeing my first version and telling me I should sell this method to other women out there. I sure you can make money off of it some how. I'm happy to inform people that my husband is working on an application for this very purpose on the IPhone that blends in your recipes as well as an editable shopping list to cross check with your pantry. It'll be fabulous and we hope to have it done in the months to come.

I told everyone I planned out my meals as follows. Once a week, I make bread for our family. I make a batch of 4 loaves, but use one loaf of dough for a dinner such as pizza, calzones, chicken pillows or navajo tacos. Every Tuesday night is "Taco Tuesday." I got this idea from my mother-in-law. We always have some form of Mexican that night. The rest, I rotate between chicken, pork, steak, beef and miscellaneous meats and meals. This way, I can rotate through my meat source and have enough variety to not get bored or sick of one thing or the other. There were handouts for the night as well and I even learned some new things. Let me know if anyone wants the handouts and I can email them to you. Happy planning!

Trunk-or-Treat or Trick-or-Treat

We carved pumpkins on Halloween which turned out to be fun. Daddy did his own pumpkin, Hayden drew this face for his and Hadley drew marker on hers. I finally carved one of my artificial pumpkins as well. I thought it turned out pretty cute. Here is a picture of them a day or two after Halloween since I wasn't on top of taking pictures day of. Jared's pumpkin's mouth had WWWW across it. Kinda funny.

We had the trunk-or-treat and I think we planned things out pretty good. I fed the kids in advance so we wouldn't have to try and feed them there. It was a good thing too because it was freezing cold out. We got a parking spot in the lot and then went around trunk-or-treating with the kids. Hayden was Anakin Skywalker and Hadley was Snow White. Addison was a Pumpkin, but her hat didn't fit her. Hayden didn't want to be Anakin Skywalker. He was upset because he wanted to be Luke Skywalker. I told him this was the one he pointed to and so this is what he was going to be. To make him happy, we gave him a Darth Vader beanie to wear and glove and then he finally thought it was a cool costume. The sad thing is that the costume I made Hadley, I didn't hem enough and so by the end of the night, Hadley's dress on the bottom was black. You can see in the picture. Very sad.

I promise to take better pictures of them in their costumes and post those after the fact obviously.

Anakin and Snow White (unaltered dress)

My little pumpkin!

GORILLA!

The school had a fundraiser and the principal said that if the kids reached their goal for sales, he would dress up in a gorilla suit and stay on top of the school throughout the day.

Apparently, it was a good enough incentive because here is their reward the day of their Halloween parties. Each class took a turn throughout the day, visiting the gorilla outside. He read them stories and handed out bananas. I was there taking pictures for the yearbook. I originally thought, he was going to be throwing the bananas down to the kids from the roof. Instead, there was a box on the ground that the kids picked out of. Oh well. It was still pretty fun to witness.

The only downside to this whole experience was that when I got to my car to leave and bring Addison to her doctor's appointment, I was rolling out of the parking lot and heard a thumping sound. I pulled into a spot before leaving the parking lot entirely and saw that my right back tire was flat all the way down to the rim. Bummer!

I called Jared after I found where I had left my phone and he told me to pump it up and bring it home so I could take Addison to her appointment with his car and get a friend to bring Hayden home from school. All I can say is that I am grateful for having a pump in my car. I am also grateful for all that people did to help out, especially my husband. I love you! It turns out that the tire had a screw stuck in it and the front right also had a tear in it as well. New tire on the back and a patch in the front for me.

My Kids

My kids have really and truly become my whole life in a nutshell. I never really questioned waiting a while after marriage to start having kids. I always wanted to let things happen and today, I am the mother of 3 beautiful kids. Each of them are unique and each of them, I love dearly with all my heart despite the tantrums and frustration that emits from them from time to time as they are learning and growing.

As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we have the opportunity to visit teach on a monthly basis, sisters or women in the ward from various backgrounds and ages so that we can learn and grow together in friendship, love and service. Each month, we are urged to share a message with the sisters we are assigned to teach. In the past, my visits have varied in subject depending on who the person was and how to get to know them for who they are in life. Some of them, I will have a prepared message to inspire them with and others, just a simple conversation of comfort and laughs. Sometimes, there is good food involved and other times, tender moments.

I really appreciated this months message in particular because it was meant to help give strength and encouragement to moms out there and give them peace of mind that their efforts are appreciated.

The message title was "Nurture the Rising Generation." There are always questions to answer in each month and the first question was, "What is my responsibility to the Rising Generation?"

I appreciated what Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the presidency of the Seventy said, "Our rising generation is worthy of our best efforts to support and strengthen them in their journey to adulthood....In every action we take, in every place we go, with every Latter-Day Saint young person we meet, we need to have an increased awareness of the need for strengthening, nurturing, and being an influence for good in their lives."

We need to be an example to our children and do the right things instead of just tell them. You never know when they are listening and watching and trying to become like you. One of the kids I use to babysit sent me a thank you note in the mail a couple years ago saying just how much my decisions as a teenager, helped her strive to make good choices and goals in her life. We really do make a difference in kids lives as we interact and teach them. The importance of being "an influence for good in their lives" is vital and we need to remember.

The second question asked was "How can I nurture the rising generation?" I liked a couple tid bits that are important to this question. How Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president stated, "Nurturing requires organization, patience, love and work."

I have found that statement to be so true. When I am truly organized and truly take the patience and work to show them I love them and spend time with them on their own, they behave better than when I am engulfed in doing other things around the house. It also helps with what Barbara Thompson, the second counselor in the general relief society, said that it makes a difference when others "say or do just the thing that is needed to reinforce what a parent is trying to teach."

Then all of a sudden, its not just mom or dad who are telling the kids how to do and say things, but its others who they look up to as well.

Finally, President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke some powerful words on the subject that we can draw comfort with in saying, "Never forget that these little ones are the sons and daughters of God and that yours is a custodial relationship to them, that He was a parent before you were parents and that He has not relinquished His parental rights or interest in these His little ones....Rear your children in love, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Take care of your little ones. Welcome them into your homes, and nurture and love them with all of your hearts. They may do, in years that come, some things you would not want them to do, but be patient, be patient. You have not failed as long as you have tried."

So with these uplifting thoughts, I trudge onward in trying to be more patient with my kids and continuing to try the best I can to nurture them as they grow and learn and try new things. Have you tried today? My kids and your kids and all kids deserve your efforts to try.

Networking

I've mentioned before that Jared and I are on the yearbook staff as photographers for Hayden's school. On Friday, they had the big sellers for the recent fundraiser go on a limo luncheon with the principal. We were asked to take pictures so I went with our two cameras and snapped some shots for the yearbook. In the process, the limo driver asked if I could take pictures of his limos for his website. I told him that'd be great and we swapped business cards. I thought it was really cool that I could pick up a side job just by volunteering our services in the first place. Go Me!

Pasta Dinner

We decided last minute to go to Hayden's schools' PTA Pasta dinner. I was happy since I didn't have to come up with dinner to cook. It was suppose to be $5 for our family, but they didn't take our money. The food was good. The Spaghetti had really amazing sauce with it so I'll have to try and find out what they used cause it tasted awesome. Here's a picture of me and the two oldest. Addison was in her bucket seat down on the floor.

The Great Pumpkin Patch Adventure

It's been three years since we first went to this pumpkin patch. The first year, I went with our Joy School group and the pumpkins didn't last all the way until Halloween. The second time, we went too late towards Halloween and there were barely enough left. THis year, I think we timed it the best and we went as a family which was fun. We took a bunch of pictures and had a Girl Scout Leader help us out with a family picture real quick. I hope you enjoy them. More are on our site. We ended up with 3 pumpkins to bring home, two of which are pretty big and we topped the afternoon off with a new smoothie concoction that consisted of pomegranate, raspberry yogurt and the base of julius. Good stuff.

Cart Returns

This is just something I thought about today and wanted to make a comment on my blog. While I was out doing some grocery shopping with my girls, I had loaded up the car and was getting ready to return my cart to leave. Normally, I try to park somewhat close to a cart return so that I can return them with my kids waiting in my car. At the nearby grocery store though, the cart return which normally takes up one parking spot, had been pushed into the middle of two parking spots.

On this such occasion, a truck had decided it didn't care about the cart return and parked IN FRONT of the opening to put your carts in. I was a bit frustrated because I feel bad leaving carts (especially on a windy day) near my car as I leave instead of where they belong. All I could think about was, can this guy please get a ticket or something so that his truck can move out of the way. Come on. I guess this is just my version of Colbert's wag of the finger. I wag my finger at the driver of the truck who blocked my nearby cart return.

Lost Pet

I am all for returning lost pets to people. I think its sad if someone loses a pet because it escaped from their home. However, I just have to preface this with, I DRAW THE LINE when it comes to insects and all creatures alike.

The other night, Jared got ready to go get the mail in the evening like he enjoys doing. I was wrapping dinner up with the kids. All of a sudden, I heard Jared say, "Sarah? Come here."

I walked over as he stood at the door with it partially opened and he then asked, "Did you put up any Halloween decorations out here?"

I replied with, "No. Why?"

Then he pointed to the floor and asked, "Is that real or fake?"

I looked down and to my horror and disgust, I saw the HUGEST Tarantula I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. WAIT! MY WHOLE LIFE BECAUSE I HAVE NEVER SEEN ONE IN PERSON. Seriously. This thing was huge. It had to be between 4 and 5 inches in length. GARGANTUAN! It was just sitting there in our open doorway on the inside of our house. I can STILL see the image in my head with the detail on the thorax and everything. I replied with, "No way! Where did it come from? I don't know if it's real."

Jared then explained that after he opened the door and walked out, he heard something drop from above him and then looked over and saw that sitting there. We then proceeded to stare at it to check for movement. We grabbed the camera and took pictures and then I went and got a broom and some on hand insecticide as if that would do anything to this HUGE TARANTULA. Did I mention it was HUGE?!

So Jared pokes it with a broom and it does move so it is alive and real and it crawls out of our doorway to the outside again. He grabs the spray and sprays it. It crawls over to the side of the house and he follows it while taking pictures. He gives it another good spray and then impales the thorax to make sure it is good and dead. He then sprayed the outside entryway really good, looking to see if anything else was lurking around.

When he got back inside the house, we realized that I had handed him a camera with no card so sorry for no pictures, but if you want to, you can peek around the corner of the house and take a glance at the dead carcass still.

Needless to say, we were both pretty buzzing after that encounter and I didn't want to go to sleep until I had some happy thoughts in my head so that if I woke up at night, I would still be able to fall back asleep. Thankfully, it worked out.

Relief Society Broadcast

I enjoy going to the Relief Society Broadcast each conference. They always have some message that is good to hear to reboot my system and feel good about myself and what I'm doing. The food before doesn't hurt either where we get to catch up with people outside the ward. I brought Addison with me and tried to time her feeding right but ended up giving her a bottle while there. She was super tired and was fussy because she just couldn't quite fall asleep there. Every time she got close, a kid would make a noise or someone would walk by. Finally, about 15 minutes until the end, she fell asleep and sure enough, when the lights went back on to leave and everyone moved about, she woke right up and screamed the whole way home and it took a while to get her to finally calm back down and pass out. Poor Addison.

I do want to mention that I loved the talk about MIND THE GAP. I'll try to post some highlights a little later. I didn't write notes because I was juggling Addison so I'll wait until the Ensign to read it over again.

First Pack Meeting

We had our first official Pack Meeting at the beginning of the month and it went pretty good. We only have 8 boys in our pack and although 5 of them were receiving awards that night, our attendance was weak with a whopping 3 boys present. Also, we are assigned a certain half of the gym to use for these meetings and when we got there to set up, apparently another group was using it and we had to move to the Relief Society Room which screwed up other groups who were supposed to be in that room. It was totally screwed up and a little awkward having it in that room. I felt kind of bad because it was the bishop's son's arrow of light ceremony too. He wasn't pleased with the move at all. Hopefully, we'll be in the gym in November and thereafter so things will seem smoother.

Side note: I was successful at sewing on my numbers, patch and emblem before going to the meeting and I think I look a bit silly in the uniform shirt, but oh well.

PTA Meeting

I volunteered Jared and I to take pictures at the school's County Fair coming up. They're going to have a Model T car there and we're going to be taking pictures of people with it. I went to a board meeting to get more info and nail down the details for the night and that meeting went so much better. It was in a classroom. I only had 2 kids. There were other little kids and they all sat at a table watching Dora on a DVD player while eating donuts. It was such a breeze. That's the way all meetings should be run :0)

Scout Store

As part of my new duties as Cub Scout Committee Chairperson, I have the responsibility to head down to the scout store across town to pick up awards, certificates and books as needed. At the end of last month, I took my first trip down there and didn't get lost finding it. I picked up a uniform for me to where to the meetings and handed my registration form in to the office. It worked out pretty nice. Now I just have to figure out how to use the account at the store for our pack with my new authorization. Then I wouldn't have to get reimbursed for any of it.

Park Play

A group of moms from school decided to get together at a park after school on Friday towards the beginning of the month. I prepped a bunch of food to bring with me so we could eat lunch and then come home for quiet time. I brought sandwiches and cookies and freeze pops because it was hot outside.

Surprisingly, both of my kids ate the lunch I packed for them which I found very exciting since it's a struggle sometimes and the cookies and freeze pops were a hit too. The six of us moms sat and chatted while the kids played on the playground and in the water.

An interesting part to our park day was the we were noticing a group of high school kids gathering in the parking lot. At first there were a dozen or so but that number soon grew into 30-40 kids. They all finally meandered on down to the very bottom corner opposite us. We were wondering why in the world they were there and what they were doing. It didn't take long for us to figure it out as we all of a sudden witnessed a circle of observers and two kids in the middle throwing punches. We couldn't believe it. One of my friends immediately picked up her cell phone and called the cops with info about it while others started yelling at them to knock it off and that we're calling the cops. The kids started to scramble and run while we tried to describe things for the cops as good as possible. As the barrage of cars peeled out, we kept yelling out the types of cars and their colors. I also took my nikon camera and snapped some shots of the kids leaving. It took the cops 15 minutes to get there and they were all gone by then of course. The area was patrolled for a little and as we left, the officer gave us his card so we could contact him directly next time it happens.

A rather eventful park visit if you ask me. Oh well, as long as the kids had fun and were safe, that's all that matters, right?

BUNCO!

I promised my husband back when we were going through some financial speed bumps that I would give up my monthly Bunco night so we can save more money. I went from January or February to September. I was so excited to go again. A friend of mine asked me if I could go and carpool with her. I got the okay from Jared and took off with her to Bunco. I brought Addison with me just in case she needed me while I was gone. It ended up working out great. Addison hung out in her car seat on the floor for the first bit and then when she started making noises, I held her while playing. I think she appreciated the attention and observation time because she was smiling and quiet while on my lap. She eventually passed out for sleep while sitting with me. Everyone there was amazed at how great she was and I was again grateful for my Addison. I didn't do great for Bunco, but I didn't do horrible either. I was able to get at least 1 Bunco for the night which made me feel good and I brought home a glass pumpkin with candy in it as my end gift from the exchange.

I'm glad I got to have such fun. It's refreshing to just get away for a couple hours to do something you enjoy that'll make you laugh.

Open House

I kind of wrote a more detailed account of how the Open House for Hayden went on his own journal, but just to let the rest of you know, we made it an outing with just Mom, Dad and Hayden so we could both spend time getting to know his new classroom and his teacher. It was fun having Hayden show us around his classroom by following the scavenger hunt list. We went towards the end of the night and it was a lot less busy to talk with the teacher which was nice. We went over a couple of things about Hayden with his teacher and made some goals to help improve him with his writing skills and straightening his speech back out because of some phase or something. All in all, it was fun and informative. We missed the powerpoint explaining the different words she uses to explain things so we can use them at home, but that's okay. As long as he has a stamp on his hand, we know he's been good that day.

ANTS......

I hate ants and earlier this month, I found a trail of them in my living room all of a sudden. First off, I was glad they weren't in my kitchen or pantry of food because that would've been disastrous, but they were still in my house around some crumbs on the floor so I followed them to the entry point and put down a trap and then called my pest control to handle the rest. Gratefully, they are gone and I don't know if they are totally gone, but I definitely need to watch out for crumbs more to avoid the situation again.

8 Years

On the 8th of September, I met my husband either years ago. We were so busy with the kids and our lives that we didn't really celebrate in any way. Jared beat me to saying Happy Anniversary when he got up and we didn't really do much other than that. I'm still very grateful for deciding to go to that football game though. We talked about it the other day when I was sorting through old clothes. Shui ge, wo ai ni!

Worst Meeting Scenario Ever!

I forgot to mention this and since I'm behind in blogging and need to catch up and back track, I figured I would throw this in here. As I mentioned before, Jared and I are on the yearbook committee for Hayden's school. THey had a meeting at the beginning of the month in the early evening that Jared couldn't make so I went with the 3 kids and I was prepped with food and IPod for entertainment and thought we'd be set. Boy was I wrong. When I got there, they told me it was going to be on the stage instead of the classroom. Immediately, my heart stopped with dread as I smiled and said, okay when in fact inside my mind I was like, "WHAT!! Are you kidding me?! We were supposed to meet in a classroom! You know. Isolated. Only One Exit Point! DO you see my three kids with me?"

I tried to be optimistic as the meeting started. I got the kids to sit down and be good but as other kids started to wander, my kids thought it would be cool to not listen and wander too. Do you know that there are quite a few exit points to a stage that my daughter Hadley can easily escape from?

Exactly. So needless to say, the meeting went long and my kids ran in and out of our meeting spot continuously. I don't think I caught much of the meeting. I got flustered and frustrated at the whole scenario and by the time I went out of the school building to go pick up pizza for dinner, I was choking back tears and sadly scolding my kids. I was so fed up that I texted Jared and told him I was DONE! If ever there was a time when I truly wanted to binge on chocolate when I shouldn't, THAT night was definitely it.

Thankfully, Jared convinced me to eat something else like cream puffs to curb my frustration. The next time they emailed me for the next meeting, I tagged the end of my email with "Please make sure it is in a classroom this time."

Okay. I'm done venting now. Boy was that a drain on me as a whole.

I Heart Food Storage

I love case lot sales. For those who don't know what this is, it is a wonderful thing that a nearby grocery store does twice a year. They price typical food items for a cheaper price in bulk and you can pick up some to build on your food storage. As a LDS woman, I find this concept important because food storage is made to help out in times of needs whether there is a disaster by nature or a disaster financially which happens a lot these days. There have been times in the past where we have had to scrimp and save to amend our budget for different life style periods. Those moments have been easier to manage while having an ever growing food storage in my own home. It gives me a huge peace of mind knowing that if anything bad should happen, I can still provide common needs for my family and my kids.

Anyone who knows me well, knows this for a fact. They also know that I have devoted my pantry which is huge to begin with, but also another closet on the side. After this passed case lot sale, I have even moved into underneath beds for storage. We also received 2 huge water barrels to start up our water supply storage as well which is VERY important for us.

Anyways, on this recent pilgrimage to my semi-annual case lot sale, I encountered three funny comments from passers by. The first one was by a middle aged black woman as I was stacking my cart with the cases full of things. She saw my cases of sugar and said, "Is that sugar?"

I replied with "yup." Then she asked, "You can buy it in a case like that? How much is it?"

I then whipped out my spreadsheet that I prepare every time and responded with, "They are each $1.89 for 4 lb. bags and there are 10 in a case which you can get for $18.90."

She replied with, "Wow! That's really good and smart. You can buy sugar all at once and not have to come back and forth to the store to buy more whenever you need some."

That just flabbergasted me because I have been doing this since college and it never occurred to me that people spend so much money just buying a little at a time and have never considered buying and storing lots in their own home. Craziness! Should I be telling my friends more to do this as well?

The second comment came after I had picked up all the cases I needed. I was working my way through the store, picking up my less than a case full of items. I was in the baking isle and my cart had 6 bottles of vegetable oil and 5 jars of peanut butter and I was proceeding to file in 10 boxes of cake mixes. A young woman around the same age as be passed by and when she got a little further away she back tracked and said, "Excuse me. If you don't mind me asking, What exactly are you making?"

I smiled and told her, "Nothing in particular. Every year, this store has a case lot sale where you can buy things for cheaper. I like to bulk up on things I use so I can store them at home. This creates a sort of mini grocery store in my own house so that if I need something to bake with, I don't have to pile my kids in the car and go to a store in order to bake it."

She replied with a simple, "Oh, okay, " and walked away.

Then finally, I had to get help out to my car because I had 2 carts full of food. The middle-aged man who helped me out asked me "if I liked baking?" as we loaded all of the flour, sugar and other essentials into my car. I responded with an energetic, "I sure do!"

I guess that ends my experience this time, but I just wanted to leave you all with a thought to ponder. These really are hard times and life is pretty unpredictable with the economy. You never know what kind of storms will approach you next that you have to work your way through and I just want to reiterate how important I find food storage in my life. I encourage everyone to try and build their own up as well. It will bless you in times of need and if you need help figuring out what to do or how to do it, let me know and I'll try to help you out.

Good luck and take care! Happy Storing!

A Butcher, A Baker, A Momma...Wait!

That's not how it goes, but that embodied my day today :0)

Who buys 14 pounds of hamburger?!  Wait, I did.  Who then takes those 14 pounds of hamburger and then browns, tags and bags it all into portions for the freezer?  Wait, I do.  Two days before that, I also had about 12 pounds of London Broil Beef Top Steak since it was on sale too and bagged and tagged those for the freezer.  I also bagged and tagged to freeze 5 pounds of Mozzarella and 5 pounds of pepperoni.  Yeesh.  I think I've got things down to a system now.  My freezer is once again adequately stocked with meat for future dinners and I am feeling good.  So that covers me as a butcher.  Check.

Baker.  Today is bread making day.  Typically, I make 4 loaves worth of dough for bread and then make 3 loaves and a dinner of either calzones, pizza or chicken pillows.  We bought pizza last night as a fundraiser so instead, I'll half the recipe and end up with just 2 loaves instead.  Now I'm a baker.  Check.

And of course, last but not least, I'm a momma of 3 kids that each demand a part of me during every instance of the day.  It's some juggling act somedays and although I admit I was sooo done yesterday, it's a new day and I am going to try to make it better.  I've played with the kids, cuddled Addison, helped Hayden read his book from school a couple times and look forward to cleaning up a little more today in hopes of rescuing my sinking ship of messes placed around my downstairs.  I'm a Momma of 3!  Check.

What's New

So I have recently decided to make my life a little more occupied by accepting my new calling of Cub Scout Committee Chairperson.  I thought it only involved organizing and planning events and 1 monthly meeting, but apparently it involves more.  I have another meeting in put in the mix and another meeting every couple months with the den leaders and master as well as attending the pack meetings and putting on the Pinewood Derby and Blue and Gold.  Of course, a lot of it is delegating and what not so it probably isn't as bad, but it still does change the routine again.  

On top of that, Jared and I are on the PTA at Hayden's school and will be helping with putting together the school's yearbook.  Crazy, huh?  We volunteered to be photographers for events we can make and then to do design and layout.

And finally, I am trying to do Joy School with Hadley still.  I got one person interested, but now I am feeling a little overwhelmed and so now I'm not sure.  I want to help a person out, but I need to organize that and get it going to know what my teaching weeks would look like.  Oh my goodness.

Deep breaths.  Anyone know any stress relieving tactics for when kids are screaming and yelling and not listening?  :0P  I guess they were right when they said your life gets busier once your kids start attending school on a daily basis.

Finally!

Finally!  I have waited three kids and around five years of my married-mom life to be blessed with this information.  Go figure that a doctor finally decided to give me this beauty of a sheet with my third child.  I'm so glad I have it now.  It makes giving Tylenol and Motrin to my kids, less of a guesswork.  I'm so grateful for this information.  If you've been deprived from this information as well, here it is.  How to Medicate Your Child Correctly:

Momentous

I think this is totally huge.  Today after getting home from school, I was getting the kids to eat their lunch and Addison was crying so I tried to feed her.  She continued screaming and not wanting to eat so I figured I had to try something else.  I quickly prepped a bottle of 2 oz. of formula.  Mind you, Addison hasn't accepted any bottle of formula as of yet and that is why she hasn't been left with a babysitter yet.  Finally, I put it in her mouth and she ate and ate and kept at it and soon enough, she was passed out and fed with the 2 oz.  I was so excited that I could hardly contain myself.  This is such a momentous step in our lives.  This will open up so many more doors for us as far as things to do.

First Day of Kindergarten

I was super nervous going in to today about how Hayden will do now that he is expected to go to Kindergarten.  Before going to school, I fed them cinnamon rolls and we got all ready and brushed our teeth.  I also took the opportunity to take some outside pictures of Hayden since I figured it would be too chaotic to get good ones once at the school.  We then all got into the car with our backpacks (Hadley wore her princess one there because she wanted to be a part of it all too) and drove to school. 

The morning drop off seemed like a whirlwind of a process.  There were no places to park in the parking lot so I parked in a nearby neighborhood and we walked over.  We were trying to get off the sidewalk to the crosswalk strip and the ramp down wasn't there.  There was just landscape mound of dirt and plants.  The stroller didn't bode well in the soft dirt because it started to tip.  I tried to steady it while holding on to Hadley but still struggled to get it upright totally again.  A nearby Dad saw my troubles and helped me finish the job.  Great start, eh?

We got to the playground area and we set down his backpack in the line by his door and then we started taking a bunch of pictures with his friends from Church who were also in his class.  Before I knew it, the bell had run and his teacher was lining everyone up to go inside.  She had all the parents stand on one side and she told the kids to blow a kiss goodbye and tell their parents not to worry and that you'll be fine.  And without saying goodbye and I'll see you soon, or hugging him, they filed into the classroom and that was that.

Crazy!  There was a Boo Hoo Wahoo breakfast at the school for anyone who wanted to stay and chat with others, but Hadley didn't seem up for sticking around so we just ducked in briefly and then proceeded back out of the school.  As we started to leave, Hadley had a separation anxiety attack and started crying and screaming and yelling, "HAYDEN!  HAYDEN!  Where's Hayden!  Oh no!  Where's Hayden!"  

Apparently, I hadn't prepped her efficiently.  I tried to calm her down and told her that Hayden had to go to school, but we'll be back in a couple hours to get him.  She then insisted on playing on the slides in the school yard and I promised her we would go play at the park together while we waited.

We made it back to the car and we went home to grab some water, freeze pops and snacks and then headed to the library for books and movies and then to a nearby park to play.  It was lots of fun running around.  We even took a break to eat our freeze pops.  We chased each other up the climbing wall and down the big blue slide.  I think she appreciated playing with me and it got her mind off Hayden being gone even though at first, she would run around the playground and shout, "Where are you Hayden?  Come on, let's go!  Hayden?"

When we got back to the school to pick Hayden up, we waited in the car looking at library books.  I was going to feed Addison while waiting too but she had fallen asleep so I decided to wait.  I watched his class play on the playground for a little and then went on the playground to wait for them to get out of class while back inside.  

The door opened and the teacher waited at the door, asking for your kid's name before releasing them to us.  Hayden caught my eye inside the classroom as I looked in from a distance.  He had a huge grin on his face, way excited to see me, we waved at each other and he came running out to get me.  I asked him if he had fun and he said yes!  Hadley gave him a huge hug and said, "Hayden, you're here!  ohhh."

Hayden's comments about his first day are in his journal to remember.  As we walked back to the car, his friends were all shouting by to each other and see you tomorrow.  

Fusion Playtime

What do you get when you take a five year old boy and have him play with a 3 year old girl?  You get fusion and it sounds a little like this:

*sounds of fighting by making noises with his mouth*

Hadley shouting, "Go get him Cinderella!  Yeah!  You can get him!"

princesses and action figures/balls fighting each other

Hadley shouting, "You can do it Snow White!  Yeah!  Alright!"

I thought it was pretty inventive and fun to listen and watch.  See, boys can play with their toys and girls can play with theirs' and still have constructive interaction :0)

Trash Picker

I will admit that if I am going for a walk and it's trash day, I have been known to pick up big things that look nice on the side of the road.  I haven't done it too often, but I have done it.  Well, this morning, I was looking out Hadley's window while the garbage truck was out front and I caught them looking through a neighbor's trash looking at DVDs that had been chucked.  They spent about 5 minutes looking at each of them and deciding what to keep before moving on.  I found it funny and I guess it never occurred to me that the trash guys do the same thing.  Just wanted to share that fun image.

*Just for clarification, they did look at the trash once they put it in the truck and were down a house or two.  Didn't see them look through papers though which is good.  I still shred everything.

They'll Be Days Like This

Remember when you were growing up and your mom would say, "When you have kids, they're going to do what you did growing up and then it'll be pay back time."

Well, I'm here to say that it is totally true on some parts.  I don't remember all of the things I did when I was in the toddler years, but I definitely believe my kids do things I have done before which makes the saying true and thus the title, "They'll be days like this, momma said."

The first recent instance had to do with Hayden and his eating habits.  For a while now, Hayden has been a great eater.  He'd eat his food fast and good.  However, Hayden slipped into a terrible phase the passed couple of weeks.  A little while back, Hadley had a cold sore on the inside of her lip making it painful to eat.  She refused to eat anything and we tried to get her to eat some things, but more often than not, we sent her to bed hungry.  

Well, we think this triggered Hayden into a bad phase of eating because one day, he all of a sudden didn't eat as normal.  We would give him food that he liked or asked for and he would nibble like a mouse on it or not touch it at all.  Perplexed by his behavior, we asked what was wrong and he complained of a sore on the his tongue.  I saw a little sore, but really, why can't he still eat some food in a different way than normal.  It was soooo frustrating, watching him take 2+ hours to eat his normal breakfast, lunch or dinner.  He looked thinner than ever and he is already a very thin little boy.  Sandwiches went uneaten, timeouts were given that ended up super long and privileges were lost left and right.  

Finally, yesterday, the miracle happened that I had been waiting for and he ate his breakfast, lunch and dinner, super fast, normal and was happy again.  I am so glad to have the change back to normal.  It makes the mood in our house so much better because it really stinks having to not reward your child for such a long time.

The second instance was a complete disaster meltdown.  We drove over to the library like normal every week and I gave my normal speel before getting out of the car and what was expected of them.  I took out the baby, put on Hadley's teddy bear leash and we walked over to the front doors.  

My kids love to push the handicap button to open the doors and usually Hayden can push it and then Hadley can push it after him without knowing it didn't do anything new.  Well, today was different and it happened so fast that I had no clue what happened.  Hayden pushed the button and it didn't open with the first tap so he tapped it again.  Then Hadley comes over and starts trying to push it and it opens for her.  Hayden then gets furious and starts tapping the button multiple times.  Hadley rebuttals with pushing it in between him.  During their back and forth, I am trying to talk reason into them, especially Hayden, but he starts screaming and bawling and yelling "Noooo!" and Hadley responds to his emotions by starting to cry and yell, "Mommy!"  

Oh my goodness, seriously?!  It's just a button, right?  So they are really amped up now and making a huge seen while the doors are staying open for the whole inside library to hear and I all of a sudden say, "Okay, let's go to the car."

Screaming increases saying, "No!  I don't want to go to the car.  I want to go to the library.  Mommy...Mommy...Mommy!"  etc. etc.

I put them all back in the car and have them in their seats.  I tell them to be quiet and stop crying and then we'll talk.  Finally, it is calm enough for me to speak my peace about what just happened and the consequences of their actions.  I told them that because they behaved so poorly, they can only get one movie a piece, no exceptions (books are still free game).  Hayden rebuttaled with, but I want 2 movies!  I reminded him of his behavior and bad choices and said he had a choice.  He can either calm down so we can go back into the library and just pick out one movie while being good OR we can go home with nothing.  

Thankfully, he accepted my offer to go back in and we came to the agreement that Hadley could open the doors on the way in and Hayden could open the doors on the way out.  The second attempt turned out a whole lot better and I am so grateful.  I hate meltdowns so much.

So Momma said, they'll be days like this, they'll be days, they'll be days, momma said.

Ode to the Potty

I'm kind of proud of myself.  I had been putting off potty training Hadley for a while because we have had so much going on where I didn't have a good chunk of time to just go through the motions with her.  I had tried previous attempts in the same way I trained Hayden and nothing had been working.

Finally, I googled potty charts one day and came across these cute charts that I think are real winners and everyone should give them a go.  I came up with the game plan that I would introduce the potty in steps following the chart and get her to at least get to know the potty.  Then, Friday morning I dove into it totally and it was rough.  She is very strong willed and it was hard to get her to want to follow through quite a few times.  I had her do straight undies with her normal clothes on and put a pile of clothes and undies near by to get ready to go through a lot.

The chart went up and stickers were prepped.  The first day, we had 3 different accidents and then 3 successful trips to the bathroom.  I found that it was hard to figure out when to bring her because she showed no signs and then would have an accident.  I finally estimated and came a little off so I reduced the time and found more success.  I had a 30-40 minutes window each time.  I also gave her more fluids to give her a jump start and a drink or two on the potty when she was turning up nothing.  

On Saturday, we had greater success with 3 good potty breaks and just 2 accidents.  On Sunday, we took it slower because I wouldn't be able to help her at church so she wore a diaper for church and through nap time and then I put a pull-up on her for the rest of the day because we had family coming for dinner.  Surprised, she went right to the potty on her own with a dry pull-up, did everything by herself and went potty.  I was so proud of her.  We did our happy celebration of high fives, rocks, stickers and some m&ms for the win after she was done.  She went 3 trips again and did great.  Then, this morning, she went right to the potty and did her thing by herself again so I do have to say, I do see the light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to potty training and I know I am not in the clear, but we are on our way to having just one kid in diapers now.  Wahoo!!!

Sidenote:  Hadley didn't like being on the regular potty with even a smaller seat on top so we have stuck to just her little potty in the bathroom to start.  Hayden was easy and used the normal potty, but Hadley had to do it this way.

6th Anniversary

It's hard to have an enjoyable anniversary when bringing a baby with you.  We were trying to figure out what to do and I had nothing fancy to add to the decision making, but Jared finally decided for us.  We ended up going to a Wolfgang Puck restaurant for a little bit of fine dining.  We didn't realize it wasn't totally enclosed as a restaurant and so Addison had a hard time for the first half.  I wanted to try to feed her because I thought she wanted to eat, but she just couldn't fall asleep with the noise level so we took turns eating alone for the first half and then Jared finally got her asleep and then we could finally talk and spend time with each other and let me just say, the food was good and the dessert was excellent.  Everything looked so pretty.  THe crab cakes were great and my non-chocolate dessert was great too, but Jared's decadent chocolate dessert looked amazing and tasted amazing according to him.  I still can't eat chocolate thanks to Addison, so I just watched him et it and asked him questions about it.  We were truly stuffed after eating and I was glad to celebrate our 6 year mark.

Jared, you truly are my love in life.  You stole my heart eight years ago and I've never looked back.  It has been quite the journey with ups and downs and uncertainties here and there.  I appreciate all you do to ensure that we are happy and safe and looked after.  You sacrifice a lot and I realize it all the time.  I love your smile and the laughter we share.  Having 3 kids makes alone time scarce, but appreciate the talks we get to smuggle in here and there while kids are sleeping.  I love the adventures we've been on together and the time spent in the kitchen cooking as I learn to em-better myself in different ways and talents.  You are a great dad to our kids and they truly love you.  Thank you for encouraging me to try new things and work towards my goals in life.  You make me realize I can do things I thought weren't possible.  I love you so much!  So fracho nao!  Shui ge, wo ai ni!