Happy Easter!!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

So, the rest of the week played out something like this...  Thursday morning, I was back at the gym teaching again... man was I pooped.  It was fun tho, like it always is, I do SO love my job.  The kids seemed to have had a good time at the gym again, and we came home, me with many ideas in my mind of things that we could do, we did none of them.  I came down with a wicked cold.  I thought we were past cold and flu season, but nay...  That night I rushed out the door right before bed time to take library books back and run to buy some plants for "curb appeal".  Blew another nice wad of cash on a house that we don't intend to keep.  Rushed to Target and stayed under $100 yet again!!!   (I am getting good at resisting all the Target deals)  It's not nearly as fun tho. I had to get some nyquil so that I could sleep.  GRRR.  Then I hurried home to meet up with Terry to discuss what we are going to do to sell our home.  Now we have dropped the price $10,000.00 from our original asking price.  And he is suggesting we put in new floors. I would really like to know where people are getting the $$ to do this crap?!?!?  seriously.  I just lost 10 grand on my house, how's about I buy you all new flooring too!?!?!?  Man alive!  So that was a new stress to add to the pot.   

Friday Morning I felt like I'd been hit by a train!  Oh it sucked.  The kids came in asking all the normal mommy questions, and I told them each to "go away, I don't feel good."  Liza, being the sweet hearted girl that she is, made me a lovely breakfast in bed.  Scrambled eggs, and toasted bagel with Orange Juice.  I was tickled, and boy did that OJ taste good.  not long after I was left to enjoy my Breakfast I heard a large crash.  I waited, no one cried, so I ate on.  Come to find out that my sweet hearted girl also showed her skills at balancing, and balanced the huge family sized OJ, in such a way that when Tori opened the fridge it "jumped" out at her.  There was OJ everywhere!!!  Seriously... by the time i got up and took over the clean up... my my my.. under the fridge, in the fridge..  everywhere, and the floor was SO sticky.   After the fiasco was over I went out and planted all the flowers that i purchased the night before, and made the front look beautiful.  And then we waited for the carpet cleaners who were coming at 12.... then called and said 1:00, and they didn't show till 2.  Yeah, have you a ever waited 2 hours with 4 kids trying to not allow them to make a mess on the carpet while you wait for someone, then to wait another 2 hours for him to clean the carpets?  i was just grateful that it was a beautiful day and we were able to play outside.  When he got to our house..  I took the kids up to the court.. with the dog to ride bikes.  Yeah, not such a good idea.  Alex ended up getting super mad about something... and threw Toris bike.  Yes, threw it!  And ripped up the seat.  You have to understand, that Tori has had this bike for almost a year, and she has babied this thing beyond belief.  It hardly has any rust on it, and we don't have a shed or garage.  She keeps it under a tarp, and if for some reason it gets wet, she takes a towel out and dries it off so it doesn't rust.  (Seriously folks! )  He was in some serious doo doo.  So that was the end of that fun.  Everyone was crying, Tori cuz of her bike, Alex cuz of his punishment, and Katie because she can't peddle her bike and it makes her mad.  UH, can't you just see us walking home from up the road.  OH BROTHER!  So we played in the yard and waited... then when he was done, it was time to wait for the carpets to dry... but we could do that somewhere else, so we packed up and took off.  The carpets do look better by the way.  :-)  It was worth it.  I took the kids to Michael's to buy stamps so that we could go  Letter Boxing  Liza picked a Mommy horse and baby, Alex picked a bunny bum that  says "the end",  Tori picked a baby Tiger, and Katie found a Tinkerbell.  Everyone was happy.  They each got a book to put stamps in and then we headed home where Brent was meeting with John to talk about getting flooring in, and renovating a bathroom.  I took the kids out on a letter box hunt.  The hunt started us out right in front of Aimee's house, so we took Alissa with us.  We were gone for over 90 mins, the dogs pad on his back right foot was worn down to flesh, Katie fell asleep on my shoulders on the way back, and everyone was pooped.  But it was a cool adventure!  We found the box, it was a fun hunt, and great scenery.  We even found a  "hitch hiker" which is a traveling letter box of sorts.  Anyway, it was fun!  And the kids were pooped, so I achieved my goal for the day.  Mean while... I'll remind you folks that I am still feeling like death.  Saturday we had a flooring guy coming at 9 am, a showing at 11 and Taxes in DC at 1.  Yes once again, a full day... no sleeping in.   We had a good day tho.  Taxes proved to be in the black, rather then the red.  We had a deal with the kids that if they did their part and earned their points that when Tax day came, we would take them to the mall and let them choose something.  So seeing as how every morning, these kids get up and "stage" their rooms, and when there is a showing, they pitch in and wash windows and carry out baskets of stuff, shoes and the dog crate, they got their prize.  Liza got some cute little black shoes, and a big stuffed bunny that was 40% off.  Alex is saving his bounty, for he wants to combine it with his birthday $ to get a DSi.  Tori has looked forward to this the most.  Early on this year, she spotted a puppy at Build A Bear.  It was a mommy dog with a baby dog in it's mouth.  (done with magnets) The mommy was dressed up with roller skates on.  Tori didn't have enough money in her "account" for the mommy, but she did have enough for the baby.  ($5.00)  So she bought the baby and has kept it around as her motivation to do good so that she could get the mommy one on the mall trip.  And that she did.  She was very pleased!  Katie when she heard that she would get to pick a prize immediately shouted "My sleeping Dora!!"  We saw this Dora in Wal mart weeks ago, but she kept talking about it... so we took her to get it.  Then she was upset the rest of the day cuz she wanted Tori's cool dog.  :-(  oh well.  Poor girl!  We took the kids out for dinner (like real sit down, waiter dinner) this is usually only for birthdays... they were excited!  It was a nice night, with only one pit stop at Target where I bought a box of the softest Kleenex available since I'd been using napkins all day.  (are you getting sick of me and my cold.  hehe... just think of poor Brent.. what a whiner!)   Anyway... if you can believe it.. at 9pm I ran to Childrens Place and bought the girls dresses for Easter.  Yes, i waited.... waited and waited for my favorite dresses to go on sale. :-(  I won't do it again.  They were gone.  The girls looked cute anyway, and I scored the perfect color shirt for Alex, so it was still good.

This picture makes me laugh cuz this is how Tori perceives the world.  :-)  See how she is the center, and all in focus and the others are just her backdrop.. LOL, she seriously kept moving closer and closer to the camera until the other kids were not even in the picture.  She thought this was the best picture when we looked at them on the computer after wards.  LOL!!  She is so funny.  Taking pictures of the 4 of them is really something else.  One day, I am going to get a really good shot, and I am going to hang it proudly!!   

Easter was great this year.  Liza's Achievement days leaders did the easter egg/ scripture thing... anyway... it was nice to spend the 12 days before easter preparing for it and hearing the story of the savior.  The kids got a little taste of it every night as we headed off to bed.  Even with that in mind however, Alex was still more then excited about the Easter Bunny!  The Easter Bunny not only leaves us baskets, but also leaves us a hunt for foil wrapped eggs.  All over the house.  It is quite fun.  
If you look closely you can see about 6 eggs hidden there around him.  SO much fun.  I used to  love doing this when I was a girl.  I remember once, waking up in the middle of the night and finding my dad with a bag of eggs in his hand and placing them around the living room.  I said "dad!  What are you doing?"  Quick on his toes, he said "The easter bunny was in a hurry and asked me to finish up for him."  I took that answer and went to bed.  :-)  Funny.
Here is the excitement of the baskets.  The kids checked out their baskets, did their hunt, and then headed down stairs to watch their new movie Bolt.  While eating disgusting amounts of Chocolate.  By 9 am, they were packing it in, and I was back in bed... finally a sleep in.  Followed by church preps,  wonderful meetings today, that made me so grateful for the Savior and his sacrifice.  Dinner, made by Brent (thanks babe) and a nice evening of reading books on my bed with the little girls.  Tori is trying to read now.  And does pretty well.  She gets frustrated quickly.. but I am trying to keep it light.  She took 2 different reading sessions to do it, but she worked her way through GO DOG GO.  I am sure that this was just the first of many times through this book.  :-)  Brent brought me flowers on friday, and they are stunning.  Maybe tomorrow I will take some photos.  We have a showing scheduled for tomorrow, I  better get to bed, so that I can get up early enough to stage the house before we leave for the gym.  :-)  YIPEE!!   The new house Settlement is supposed to take place on Friday...  I am excited and apprehensive.