First Day of School

They had a wonderful first day of School. Both of them ended up with very good teachers (according to other parents.) They both seem to be nice and hopefully keep these two in line. I think it is going to be a great year. Both of them each received their fathers blessings tonight after a lesson in FHE on the Priesthood. I don't know how much of that lesson they got, but they sure enjoyed their blessings. Tori even asked for one. It was sweet to have them all gathered so reverently for so long. (a very rare event at our house.) It was a nice first day for me too. :-)

Money Maker

The kids set up a Koolaid stand last week. They sold 6 brownies, 6 bottles of water and a bunch of juice. They made $18!!!!! Who makes $18 at a lemonade stand???? Man, I should have had them out there all summer workin'! Obviously we have some very generous neighbors. :-) They had a ball and are now itching to go to 5 and below to spend their earnings. What fun.

Pay It Forward

I won this little thing on Mendys blog, and wanted to give it a whirl.

Here you go:

I will send a handmade gift to the first three (3) people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF (pay it forward) exchange. You may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. (So, you must have a blog to participate.)

How fun! Now let's all pay it forward, give each other gifts just for the heckuvit, and comment away!

If you are one of the three, I'll contact you to get your mailing info (if I don't already have it.) If you're not one of the three, hurry and click over to the winners' blogs to see if you can make it!

Lizas 9th Birthday

Liza had her 9th birthday party last night. We had originally planned to take 4 friends to "Bratz" movie and then have them sleep over. Well, when they posted the Friday night movie schedule we discovered that the movie after only 2 weeks of being in the theater was out already! (I can't imagine why) Anywho, so we had to quickly come up with an alternate plan that would make my sulky girl happy. She had made up all these little plans in her mind and they all went swishing down the tubes when we got that movie schedule. She actually dealt quite well with the news, and she turned out to have a wonderful party. We extended some extra invites because I could afford more friends at home. We made pizzas and watched a new Bratz movie. Then we made necklaces and bracelets. We then gathered back around the TV for High School Musical 2!!! The Girls were SO excited, they counted down with the TV and everything. It was so cute. They loved the movie and we stopped it in the middle and built up banana splits and cake! YUMMY YUMMY. We finished up High school Musical, and then started getting ready for the big photo shoot. I painted nails (fingers and toes) then did hair, and finally a touch of make up (some more then others) and then they dressed up like crazy people and I shot away. Doing the best with what I had to work with as far as set and lighting were. The girls just ate it up, the posed and posed like mad. I saw sides of these girls that I never knew they had. (eps. Seriah Brown!) I love it too. They loved looking at the pictures of themselves and each other. By the time we were done with this, it was 1:30am. I set them up with their last movie (aka, fall asleep noise) and went up stairs to read till I felt like most were asleep and trouble was not brewing (aka, either Liza or Maia were asleep so that the pair wouldn't stay up all night!) By 3am most were down and I went to sleep. Oh did I mention that I was reading Twilight (I was sucked in by all the raving... like poor Brent needed someone for me to compare him to :-) ) Anyway, all in all they had a good time. In the morning we had breakfast (cinnamon rolls) and then headed to the primary activity. Which was awesome! They had a blast, I can't even believe that I have a 9 year old? CRAZY!

I never posted this picture. I love her eyes in this one. :-)

Dublin.... sweet.

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions.You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

What European City Do You Belong In?

Gunpowder Falls

So some ladies in the ward planned to all go out to Gunpowder Falls today for a beach day. I was all on board for this, so I packed up the majority of my stuff last night and made a lunch this morning. We got all our stuff together and out the door by about 9:15am. We planned to caravan over with Jeri. Felicity came by my place and we loaded she and Will into our car, then the kids were all trapped in with all the beach gear. We headed over to join Jeri and Emily who were all piling into Emily's Van. We were on the road by about 9:30 when I got a call from Nicole. Good news, she decided to join us. The kids were so excited, asking about water conditions etc. We had to go through the toll booth and the lady at the booth was none to happy to see Felicity's 20 dollar bill. She was down right rude about it, and after digging up the change, slapped it in my hand. I felt bad for her that she hated her job that much. Then it began to rain, but we could see the edge of the storm as we drove up the 95. We were sure that we would drive out of it and hit the beach for a lovely beach day. It kept raining, and raining, all the way there. We pulled up to see some Crazy lady down at the beach with her 4 kids, wait it that Mendy? Ah yes, swimming in the pouring rain. Liza and Alex were so excited, the rain didn't phase them. They went off to play with the Hunter Kiddos, while Felicity, Nicole, Jeri, Emily and I discussed what to do. We called Felicity's mom who looked up the area on the Internet, and reported that the weather was to be rainy all day. WHY DID NONE OF US CHECK THIS BEFORE WE LEFT THE HOUSE???? (silly girls!) At this we began looking for alternate entertainment. The wind was blowing and cool, and there was no way that I was making Katie and Will go out in that. We decided that we would go and find the White Marsh mall, using Emily's GPS. Liza couldn't understand WHY we were leaving....... So after much scheming between she and Maia, Mendy offered to keep Liza there with them. As Mendy piled her bunch into the van for lunch, claiming that they would be back out in the storm after they ate, we headed for shelter. This whole decision process probably took 45 min to and hour. As we are leaving the beach, I realize that I have left a bag at home, the bag that contains my wallet, Katie's diapers, and wipes, swim diapers, towels, floaties etc. Great, now I am driving around with no Licence AND headed to a mall with 3 kids and no money. On top of that the bag is not in my house it is on the porch for anyone to rob me. I called the neighbor and asked her to come and rescue my wallet. We stopped at a roadside produce spot and bought some peaches (with $ from Jeri), This was the BEST part of the whole day, they were delicious!!!! YUMMY YUMMY TREE RIPE PEACHES! Then we headed to the mall. As we pulled up to the mall the rain stopped and the sun began to shine! It was actually getting HOT!!! I was so mad! We had to pay to get into the park (again with Felicity's $$ cuz I'm a yo yo who forgot her wallet on my front porch. )We were in the mall for all of 5 minuets when I realized that I had left my Camera, and my Ipod in the car. I didn't even make sure the doors were locked. So I hauled my dippy butt back out to the car to get my electronics out of there. Went back to the mall, took Tori to the Potty twice. Ate lunch somewhere in there, and walked around the mall yelling at my children to stay close, and stop running around like crazy people. By 1:30 I had had it, and so had poor Will. Felicity was done too, so we headed back to the car for the drive home, and as we did, the warm sunshine shone down upon us mockingly. GRRRRRR, I try so hard to take them fun places, what are the chances of the rain letting up like that 15 mins after I give up? GRRR maybe another day. I think I'll go eat another peach :-)

Uninvited Guests!

I was just upstairs battling the latest army of ants that have invaded my kitchen. I don't know what else to do!! They think they own the place!!! We have put killer down out side, we have put those yard stakes down, we have put lemon oil on the counters, we have kept the kitchen near spotless. And as a final effort this week end we pulled out the stove and cleaned behind it and sprayed all inside there, then we sprayed under the sink (which if you saw how much hud I keep under my sink, you would know that this was almost as big of a feet as taking the stove out. ) We sprayed all around the sides of the dishwasher, all along the base boards. Every where!!! There was so much ant spray in the house that Brent and I were coughing and choking and had to go outside for air. It was crazy tons. We went 2 days w/o seeing an ant, and then the invitation got out that we had an empty house and so today they were back FULL FORCE. I was killing them all day, and then finally tonight, I cut up a watermelon for the kids... (I had mine, Tidwells, and Jensens) and then we headed straight to a walk and the park. I was transitioning 7 children, I was not about to clean up water melon. Well guess who offered to clean up???? One of the watermelon rinds was almost black with ants. (yup that's right, like you would see if someone threw a rind in the dirt, only it was on my stinking cutting board!!!) I am so frustrated I could die!!! I just sprayed again, and next I feed them cream of wheat (I have to go buy some. If this doesn't work, I guess it will be an exterminator, and he may as well take Sir Snakekins while he's at it. ARG. So here is a question for you. We need to pay our tithing from July, tithing---exterminator. If I pay in faith, will the creeping things go away? I think I'll give it a go. :-)

Swingers :-)

I took my camera to the park today, I was playing around with shooting in full sun since I sucked so bad at it at the beach last time. I did a bit better, but not what I wanted. None the less, here are my swingers.

Thinking through it

Today we went to the store to find a birthday present for my niece who is Toris age, and my nephew who is Alexs age. Both of my sisters kids are pretty much into the same stuff as my two, so it is rather easy to find something. It didn't take Tori long to choose a "Beautiful baby." She was so in love with this baby in the store. We bought it and as we did, I kept telling her, this is Abbys birthday present. Trying to be sure that she understands that she isn't getting it for her own. We went to the commissary after we were done at the toys, and we did our shopping. (which was an adventure in itself, taking 4 kids to the grocery store.) For some reason, I have a really hard time taking them all to the grocery store. Any other outing, I don't have a problem with, but the grocery store, I don't like to do with everyone. I really feel like I am scatter brained, and I need to have my head on straight to get my shopping done. But we got our milk and bread for over $100!! (huh? how did that happen???) Anyway, on with the story, so we got home and as I was loading groceries into the fridge, Tori came in and was trying to come up with some way to make it so that she too could play with the new baby. "Mom, are we going to Abbys birthday party." "No Tori, she lives too far away, we will just mail her the present." "Oh, but Abby could come to my house and then she could open the baby and she would share, she is good at sharing mom." "Tori, she really does live too far away, we will mail it, and when we do get to go and visit her, I am sure she will share it." She was appeased, she left the room, all the while, she has the doll in the box, carrying it everywhere. About 3 minuets later, she is back. "mom, how do you move a house?" (my sister just moved to Oregon) "You don't move the actual house, you pack up your things and put them in a truck, and then you buy a new house and put your stuff in it." "Lets pack up our stuff, and put it in Abbys house, then we could live with Abby." I thought it was so funny that she would go to this extreme just to play with Abbys doll. :-) Funny how they think. She cracks me up.

Goodness Snakes!!

Last night at about 6:40pm Tori and I were headed out to the store. We stepped out the front door, and Tori said "look Mom, a snake." I thought, umhum... Then I thought I would humor her and said, "where?" She pointed down at the step where the step meets the house. And there slithering along was this HUGE snake. I have never seen a REAL snake in the wild. Nothing of this size anyway. We couldn't see his head as it was already in the hole, which is under my steps. and his body ran up the steps and across my whole length of my door. (YUCK!!!) I yelled "Brent, get out here!! " He came and I just freaked out. I just started to say how yucky he was in every way I could think of. I really really really don't like snakes! We ran the hose in his hole and he didn't come out, we ran it under the step, still no sign. We don't know if he liked the water, or if we killed him ( not likely). I tell you though, I am sure keeping an eye out for him, every where I go. Even in the basement I am scared. Yuck, I hate not knowing where he is. Anyway, that is our latest news, I looked on the Internet and i think that he is a Northern Black Racer, but I'm no snake expert. One think I know for sure, he is gross!

Blogable

Katie has done it again, my special little girl has created yet another poopin' memory. This time we can point the finger somewhat at Liza, but still, that girl has a special knack for poop. This morning as I was getting ready to head out for the day, Liza (my big helper) changed Katie out of her wet night time diaper and into some clothes. I was so pleased to be able to just scoop Katie up and take her out the door when we were ready. We delivered a sister in the ward to her Dr's appointment and then explored the store "Tuesday Mornings". This was my first time in this store. For those who don't know it is kind of a Mc Frugals, TJ Maxx (-the clothes). Kind of a place. Discounter. The kids LOVED it as they had their allowance $ burning holes in their little pockets. We then headed over to meet the Tidwells at Cici's (mmmmm....) While at Ci Ci's I smelled poop, and went to take Katie to change her. As I picked her up, I lifted her little dress and saw that she had a big pile of poop next to her in the little high chair! GAG! So once again, I broke out my box of wipes and wiped my sweet daughters feces off of public property. (I tell you I used to think that those mommies who use all those highchair covers, and cart covers were over cautious germ -a - phobes, but now that we have done our share of nasties all over public areas, I understand them.) Luckily I learned from the church/ gym floor experience and had a onsie on had this time. Good thing, cuz there was no Jenny there to save me this time. After cleaning up the chair and sneaking into the bathroom trying not to be noticed, I began to change her and realized what the problem was, apparently I should have checked the positioning of the replacement diaper, the leg hole was giving her a little diaper wedgie, which is likely why she wasn't so happy in "Tuesday Mornings". :-) Hence the mess on the chair. LOL, what a crazy time. Any who, the rest of our day went well, and I must say that I almost did a post just to mention that I went to an Enrichment planning meeting tonight at Corrines home, and that woman had us in and out of there in like 45 min TOPS!!!! I don't think I have ever had a meeting that fast! My hats off to Corrine, what an organized, get to it lady! Fabulous! That there is Blog worthy!

A Tribute

So tonight I wanted to write a little tribute to all the service men and women out there serving in our military. Often times when Brent comes home and tells me about a patient that they lost that day, my first thought is, oh that poor family. Once he came home and told me that this criminal had died. And you know, I thought to myself, he still had a mom, no matter what a stinker he was. And today, she is very sad. On that note, all those men and women out there are fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, grandchildren and so forth. Every single one of those people have loved ones who miss them and fear for their lives every day! Most times their families don't even know their exact location, and any upset over there on the news gets their stomachs in knots! In 2001 our dear friend Matt went to Iraq, he left behind his loving wife and 3 little girls. He was gone for over a year, and those wee ones changed so much in his absence. The family is together now, and recovered, but it is so much more then just going away. These men come home with memories that NO ONE should ever have. Their spirits are weak, and they're broken. Their wives are tired and lonesome, and the man that returns is different then the man that left. These people really do give ALL. The time spent over in Iraq is not the end of the trials. I wanted to say Thank You in my own little private way to those who serve this country, and their families that support them. Thank you Sutton Family, and Good Luck Thomas, you'll be missed.

Today

I wanted to record a normal type Saturday in this point in our lives. Liza got up this morning first and dressed, got herself breakfast and watched some sat morning cartoons. (I remember when that used to be prime cartoon time.... now anytime is prime cartoon time) Tori was up next and I was pulled from my cozy bed this morning, not because she needed help, but for the 3rd morning in a row because Ants have found yet ANOTHER way into my kitchen. I swear, they stay up all night planning their attack and sending out little scout ants to find a crevice that I missed when I sprayed for them. GRRRRR. So I took care of this mornings lot of ants and helped Tori with her Breakfast. Then I went upstairs and kicked Brent out of bed so that he could make it to his 8:30 spin class at the gym. I then fed and got the kids all ready and headed to the gym at 8:45. I taught the 9:15 water aerobics class. I had record breaking numbers (my personal record anyway) I had 36 members in class this morning! It was crazy full. I had folks in the lap lane behind the class. Super fun though to see that many people interested in water fitness. Anyway, after class, I chatted with the people for a min or two, and one of the "regulars" had been out to Lariland farms, picking peaches, and she brought me 1/2 dozen. :-) What a sweety. I accepted graciously, as I LOVE PEACHES! After having a shower and quickly cleaning up, I went to go get Brent and the kids. We headed home for our weekly jobs. The kids cleaned their rooms, and bathrooms. They are getting pretty good at doing their jobs. There is always one of them that is dragging their feet. Usually it is Liza, but today was Alex. His room is NEVER messy, so it was weird to have him take very long. Liza zipped right through her stuff, and did an outstanding job today. I was very proud of her. Tori complained a little, but not too bad. Katie had a nice nap. Then we got turned around and headed over to the Obrings for a farewell to Thomas Sutton. It makes me so sad that he is going, and quite frankly puts the fear in me. I am rather worried about our turn. I think that I can handle Brent being gone for that long, but the danger, and possibility of Brent not returning to me, that is what eats me up. Anyway, I guess you have to trust in the Lord, and hope that your way is His way. We got to the Obrings at 3:45, thinking that the open house was from 2-4. No, it was from 4-6, so we weren't 1 hour and 45 mins late, we were 15 min early! :-) While there Brent was feeding a cookie to Katie, just little pieces one at a time. Luke (Sutton's baby) saw this sharing taking place and came over to see if he could get in on it. Brent said to him "Oh, did you see that I was sharing?" Katie, who was standing near by, whipped her head around and said in her sternest voice, "NO,NO, NO!" We all had a good laugh at that one. We had a nice visit with the Suttons. The have asked me to photograph their family before Thomas leaves, and I am quite nervous as I want to make sure that they have the memories that they want to keep. I think that I am planning in my little mind a much more elaborate situation then they are. Thats okey. Anyway, we went straight from the party, back to the gym where we took the kids swimming. I have wanted to take Brent with us for quite a while. Alex had really progressed this summer in the "Swimming" department. He has gone from sputtering and wiping his eyes if he got splashed, with no chance of him putting his head under the water. To being the swimming, diving, water sliding MAN! I can't believe the difference, and I had to show Brent. I got to go on the water slides today, so that was fun, I enjoyed doing that with the kids since I had an extra pair of hands to take Katie so I could slide. They enjoyed playing games with Daddy in the water. It was the perfect night for swimming. It was so warm, but not blazing. The blazing sun warmed the pool all day, so we got a warm pool and warm air. It was great, we also saw both Walburgers and the Terrys. We didn't leave the pool until after 7, and by the time we all showered and dressed it was 7:45. (we did showers for Sunday at the pool) So we were all hungry and upon the kids request we hit Mc Donald's on the way home. (I remember when I was little that going to Mc D's was such a huge huge treat. So sad that they hardly even appreciate it.) The kids all at one point or another tonight said Thank you for taking us to the pool, and thank you for taking us to Mc Donald's. So I guess they appreciate it, it just isn't as special of an experience as it used to be for me. Anyway, we got the kids down by 9. Not too bad I say. The house is clean, (not decluttered) but clean enough, and kids are tucked in. Now I am going to go and make Brent watch a movie with me or something. :-) Oh yeah, and I had planned this surprise date for Brent and I, I bought tickets to go and see our favorite comedian Brian Regan, and told Brent to make sure that he had the night off. Then last night we were watching comedy central and there was a commercial for Brian, and they said coming to Baltimore Sept 7th. Brent whipped his head around and looked at me with a big grin!!! Oh well, he figured it out, at least we can be excited about it together now. :-) http://www.brianregan.com/

I got 80% how'd yo do?

Studies show that 1 of 11 drivers cannot score more than 70% on the GMAC drivers test. This is good, try it and test yourself. http://www.gmacinsurance.com/SafeDriving/2006/test.asp

Another wonderful day swimming

Today we got to go swimming at a friends parents home. It was SO cool to have this WARM privet pool to swim in. The kids had a ball. We were there for about 4 hours and they went full force the whole time. Alex has become quite the swimmer lately and was doing front and back somersaults in the water, and once I saw him do a full flip into the water. (He was jumping into the deep end, but there was a step and he smashed his head on it.) Poor kid, would have pulled it off too. Anyway, he was okay. It has been quite the summer for him, he has really opened up in the water.

Aimee gave the kids a little diving lesson and they were all loving that. I even got in on that part because I never was very good at diving. I quite enjoyed it. The babies had a ball floating about in their little floaties in the water that was like bath water, and the mommies enjoyed the chatting. Of course I brought my camera, so more pictures.....:-) It was such a perfect day!!!

The Beach

We had a wonderful trip to the beach with Christina and her family last week. We went to Bethany Beach in Delaware. We had such a wonderful time. It was blissful to sit in the warm sun and watch my kids playing in the sand. The only thing I would have changed was the fact that Brent wasn't there. I feel sorry for him when he has to miss times like these. I really wish that he could have seen the kids on the beach. They would have loved to play with him.

Liza was as crazy as one would expect. She was leaping into waves head first, and getting sucked under every so often by an undertow. She was a little too brave for my tastes, but I was lucky to have Kimmie (Christina's Sister), who is a life guard, there to pull her up most of the time.

She tried her hand at boogie boarding, and seemed to enjoy that. She also spent quite some time out on an air mattress with Christina's little sister Lizzy too. She absolutely filled her hair with sand both days.

Alex took more time to develop trust with the water. (true to his personality too) He eventually grew to trust and was out jumping around at the end of day one. Then one huge wave knocked him over and sucked him under. Liza takes the credit for "saving " him, she says that she reached for his arm and pulled him up out of the water. True to his personality again, he decided that the water had betrayed his trust and he didn't set foot in it again. He did however enjoy digging in the sand and occasionally borrowing a wave to fill his pit that he dug. My favorite Alex story from this trip was not on the beach however, it was back at the 'beach house' where we had dinner. Eli's Grandma was sweet enough to make a yummy crock pot chicken recipe, which she served on Mashed potatoes. It tasted good, but it didn't look so hot. (as it is with most crock pot recipes) When she slopped that chicken and gravy on his potatoes he looked at her like she was crazy! Then he sat at the table and watched everyone else eat. (again something Alex does well). When Eli's Grandma came to sit down she told the kids that they would get a prize if they found a bone in their dinner. (PRIZE??? Did Alex hear the word PRIZE?) It was like a treasure hunt! He ate his whole dinner AND Tori's leftovers because he was digging for bones. He found 3!! They were tiny, but they were bones, none the less. She rewarded him with and ice cream cone, and I awarded her with a pat on the back for being to ingenious!

Tori was warned at the beginning of day 1 that she would be "sucked out to sea" by the strong waves if she wasn't careful. Christina's mom took Tori out to the water and let her feel the sand pull her little feet under so that she could get a feel for how strong the water was and what I meant by "sucked out to sea." Tori, being the sweet obedient type, steered clear of the water for the most part of the whole trip. She would get very nervous if I went into the water and would yell "careful mom, you're going to get sucked out to sea!!!" She had a wonderful weekend with Eli's Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa sat with the two of them in the blazing sun and dug for Sand Crabs for a REALLY Long time! Tori Loved it. There is just something special about that Grandparent time that kiddos need. Tori developed quite a relationship with Eli's Grandma, she was found several times curled up in her lap talking. The night that we stayed over, Tori was very tired, but we were waiting for dinner, she was crying and very upset. Eli's Grandpa came in and asked her if he could read her a book. They curled up on the bed and read a book together that seemed to calm her down pretty well. What a great guy.

This is Tori loving her little baby sand crab. She thought they were great. She also loved to dig in the sand and play with her dear friend Eli.

Katie was so excited to arrive at the beach house! She was so happy to see Leah there. She just kept saying "Hi, Hi, Hi" over and over to Leah as I got her unbuckled and out of the car. She just couldn't believe that Leah was there. I think that she was more excited to see Leah, then Leah was to see her, but they got along well. Katie on the other hand did not like the heat and did not like the sand! She had little to no appetite and would just lift up her little princess toes and legs any time the sand got on them. It was nice however because I didn't have to chase her. I knew for pretty sure that she wasn't leaving the blanket, towel or chair that I put her on, so long as she was surrounded by sand. It was like having one of those invisible fences around the blanket. She also however enjoyed some grandparent time as she took a nice nap in Leah's Grandpas arms.
A great time was had for all. Thank you again Christina for letting us join in on your family fun. You're Family is wonderful. Thank you to your folks for all their help and love. They really helped me feel better about my kids needing to see grand parents. We had a wonderful time full of memories. :-)