Blogs I LOVE!

My darling sister-in-law listed my blog as one of her favorites and I was so touched! Sometimes I feel that my blog is more a place for me to ramble about my days and share things of little consequence to anyone other than myself. It was great to know that she liked it and sympathized with some of my "experiences." You have to go and check out her blog at http://hollihas4monsters.blogspot.com because it is seriously one of the cutest blogs I've ever seen. I would definitely nominate hers as one of my favorites, but I'll do 7 others since someone else already nominated her.



The rules: 1. The winners put the sticky sticker of uber stickiness up on their blog to say "Look at me! Look at me! I'm COOL... or at least someone else thinks so!" 2. Then they get to link back to me. 3. Then they get to nominate 7 of their own winners! Spread the love! 4. Then leave a little note on the chosen blogs so they aren't left in the dark.

Here are my picks:
1 & 2: My sisters' (Michelle and Kylie) blogs. http://brianmichelleparkerfamily.blogspot.com and http://kyliejeddcherry.blogspot.com. I would have included my sister-in-law Afton as well, but she was nominated by Holli too, so I hope she'll understand that she was included in this group as well. I love reading the blogs from my sisters and sisters-in-law - it's so fun to see all the day to day stuff that is going on. Even though we get together often, it's still fun to hear the little details about their days. They are all truly my best friends!
3: Carrie Morris http://makeitcountmorris.blogspot.com. I can always count on her for a good laugh and for some thoughts on things that I never would have thought of.
4: Monica Sue Murdock http://aint-life-fun.blogspot.com. What can I say about Sue's blog other than the fact that I get so excited that I can hardly stand the 2-3 seconds it takes to load up? She is my hero and is so much stronger than I am in so many ways.
5: Kelsie Peterson http://sillylittlewhitegirls.blogspot.com. You won't be able to see her blog since it's private, but let me just say that she's got twin girls that are 1 and they are the cutest things! I just love looking at her blog and seeing what fun things the girls are up to.
6: Thelissa Powell http://thelissasthoughts.blogspot.com. Even though others only update their blogs once or twice a week, I can always count on an almost daily post from Thelissa. I love her spunk and the way she knows how to perfectly explain a sitation.
7: Trisha Paddock http://trishasnews.blogspot.com. I love Trisha's blog because of lots of things. The thing that I always look forward to is the beautiful header picture. How could you not love a picture of a beautiful sunset and a dock - so peaceful! Kelsie, Thelissa, and Trisha served in the same mission as my husband and I've met them through him. Even though I don't see them often, I'm so glad that we share the "blogging bug" because it helps me get to know them so much better and I consider them dear friends.

I LOVE BLOGGING!

Hide and Seek

Lately, we have been noticing a little problem over in the front side of our yard. On Thursday, I was out playing football with Zach and when I missed one of his throws, I turned to get it. As I was walking toward the ball, something caught my eye over in the very corner of our property. When I went over to look, I discovered this:



Jeremiah had mentioned it had been a little soggy in that corner the last few times he's mowed the lawn, but we hadn't seen anything like this. It appears it had been that way for a few days and the people the neighbors have mow their lawn have dug into the grass with the lawnmower wheels. But apparently they didn't say anything because the neighbors had no idea there was a problem out there.

Well, after a little detective work, we pretty much came to the conclusion that the problem was with our sprinkler system somewhere. Luckily, my Dad told me to make some maps of the sprinkler lines when we were putting it in, so we pretty much knew basically where everything was. Since the front yard was soggy about 2/3 up our front fence and not at all in the back, we were sure the leak was in the front. Luckily, there was only one trench in that area, so once we found the pipe, we (I say we, but really it was all Jeremiah) dug up and down the line a bit and were sure we'd find a leak.



Of course we didn't. Thinking that was the only place it could possibly leak from, we decided not to water for 24 hours and see if the "problem area" was any less soggy. After waiting that long and worrying about it all night, Jeremiah came home from work and the spot was "less soggy." After digging up a bit more of the front yard and realizing it just wasn't in that location, we decided that maybe it might be leaking from the same line, but just on the other side of the fence. So Friday, Jeremiah dug up that side of the fence, trying to find it. Since we didn't have a gate on that side and we got tired of walking all the way around the house every time we wanted to go from the front to the back, we also decided to take a part of the fence down.











After much frustration and lots of saying "where in the world is it?" we did finally find it. Turns out the sprinkler we have right there had the problem. One of the clamps on the pipe and connection piece wasn't working right. So after putting on a new clamp and making sure the leaking had stopped, we thought it was ironic that we had to dig up that much of the yard just to fix a little clamp only 3 inches in diameter. Needless to say, it was quite a mess and I'm sure our yard looked extremely strange to anyone passing by.



Even though it could have been worse (i.e. we could have had tons of lines in that area that we would have had to check), it's hard to imagine since it was already such a mess. It's funny (at least now it is) because we were just getting our yard looking the way we wanted it and then we had to go and tear a section of it up. Oh well, such is life I guess!

Look What's Cookin' ...

or at least who's cookin'.



Saturday the kids decided they wanted to have ravioli for lunch. Whenever they decided to eat ravioli, we can pretty much count on both of their shirts completely covered in sauce by the time they finish. In order to prevent this, I always throw an apron on each of them to keep them somewhat protected. Jeremiah made them both laugh when he threw on one of my aprons to be like them. Needless to say, it wasn't too long before they all decided I needed an apron on too. I couldn't help making everyone pose for a quick picture. Boy, we all were quite the sight running around the kitchen with our aprons on.

Ever have one of those days ...

and it's only 8:00 in the morning?

Yes, it's a Monday. How do I know that other than the calendar? The fact that things are more than crazy this morning. Both kids have decided to make life difficult for me this morning, although not on purpose, I'm sure.

Just as the alarm is going off to signal Jeremiah that it's time to jump in the shower, Zach comes into our room bawling. Once we get him to calm down and tell us what the problem is, we find out that he has a bloody nose. So we quickly lay him down and turn on the light. What we find is a bloody trail from his bed to his bathroom to our room. We are even lucky enough to have him step in the blood at some point and so there are bloody footprints along with the trail. Good thing there aren't any police detectives in our home this morning because it looked a lot like a crime scene. Since Jeremiah had to get ready for work, he jumped in the shower while I began cleaning up all the blood off of the carpet. Luckily, it was all still pretty fresh, so it came up with a little scrubbing. But I did find it all over every door handle and even smeared on one of the walls. After getting that cleaned up, I went back to clean up Zach and after further inspection realized that he had blood all over his shirt (a brand new white undershirt to be exact), all over his face, and up and down his arms. Don't ask me what he was doing wiping his nose with the upper part of his arms, but he did and there was blood all over him. Sometimes I'm amazed at how much a nose can bleed!

Once his nose stopped bleeding and we got him cleaned up and some new clothes on, I jumped in the shower really quick in order to be done by the time Jeremiah left for work (he's downstairs eating breakfast and getting his lunch together at this point). Well, as I'm finishing getting dressed, I realize that I haven't heard or seen from Hailey for a few minutes. So having this, "ut-oh" feeling, I walk out of our room and into their bathroom where the door is closed and the light is on. And there I find a little girl naked from the waste down, with a tissue in her hand. When I ask her what she's doing, she quickly informs me that she was cleaning up her potty. Come to find out that she had gone potty all over the floor. You see, our little one wants to be just like her brother - eat what he eats, play with what he plays with, go to kindergarten when does, and even go potty like he does. Which in this case was standing up. Now, little girls don't exactly have the same anatomy as little boys, which we have tried to explain to her many, many times. But she doesn't quite understand why her brother should be able to do something she can't. So without Jeremiah or myself hovering over her in the bathroom, she decided to go the way she wanted to. Needless to say there was quite a bit to clean up on the floor of the bathroom. I was having deja-vue at this point since I just been cleaning blood off of that same floor not more than 20 minutes earlier.

After getting her and the bathroom cleaned up, we head downstairs, just in time to kiss Jeremiah good bye and send him off to work. He wished me luck as he left and I about slugged him! I'm definitely more than tired of cleaning up things this moment, but that doesn't stop because both kids decide it would be even better to dump both of their cereal bowls all over the counter and floor. And of course we can't do this when we almost have the cereal gone, it has to be when there is a ton of cereal and milk in the bowls. So I end up cleaning both of those messes up - at different times of course.

Now that we're done with breakfast, I'm trying to get my sanity back. But now I'm fighting with a little boy who thinks my house is an indoor soccer field and is kicking a ball all over - hitting the chandelier, picture frames on top of the entertainment center, and the blinds on the window. I'm also fighting with a little girl who has been up to her room 3 times, pulled a different outfit out of her dresser each time and put it on. Boy, am I in trouble when she hits the teenage years!

So that's been my morning for the past hour and a half. It's Monday and only 8:00 am, what in the world am I in store for the rest of the day and week for that matter????

Seasons

I love the changing of the seasons. I like the summer, with all of the fun activities, but secretly, I wish for fall. It's my favorite season and I love the change that it brings. After so much heat and sun, I love to have the slight chill to the air in the mornings and evenings. The change in the colors is probably my favorite part about fall, the beautiful reds, oranges, yellows, and browns. Nothing can quite compare to the beauty of the changing leaves (in fact, the above picture inspired the new change in background for my blog). Reminds me of the time we spent in Connecticut. New England is not matched by any other place I've been when it comes to fall (although, I'm sure there are many). This time of year makes me miss being there around all of the trees and their beautiful changing colors. And of course, I miss all of the wonderful people we came to know and love while living there.

Seasons are ever present in our lives as well. There are times when things go smoothly and times when they are rough. But one thing I've learned is that the rough times make you appreciate the smooth so much more. And despite how rough those tough times can be, you always come out a better person for having experienced it. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that knows me personally and knows what trials and rough times I need to make me a better person.

Big Girl Bed

As if sending my 5 year old off to Kindergarten wasn't hard enough to handle, this week we decided it was time for our 2 year old to move into her very own "big girl bed." We were lucky enough to get a bed frame that belonged to my great grandmother, which looked great after a quick coat of white paint, so all we needed was a new mattress, sheets, and comforter. The mattress was easy enough to get, especially during the Labor Day Furniture Sales at practically every furniture store in the area. And after some searching on the internet, we found the perfect comforter, sham, and bedskirt set - ladybugs of course. We gave Hailey the option to switch to something else, but she decided she wanted to keep with the ladybug theme we already had going in her room. So Monday, we put it all together















The little "Hailey-bug" on her big girl ladybug bed - does she look happy or what?


After getting the bed together, it was apparent that we were in need of a dresser to match. And since both hers and her brother's dresser were both falling apart, we took the big plunge and purchased a dresser for both kids. Now her room is all girly and cute as can be for our big girl.















And the dresser for Zach's room looks great - much better for our big boy.















Seems like every time I turn around, my kids are growing up on me, but I'm so proud of them.

Kindergarten Here I Come!

Well, it's official. My little baby has grown up. Today was the first day of kindergarten and he was so excited. He had a grin on his face all morning and kept asking me every 5 minutes if it was time to go. This was a little sign his teacher (Mrs. Paxman) gave him to get him excited for school.



He was all dressed up and ready to go by 7:45 this morning, which left us 1 1/2 hours to wait until school started. This isn't the shirt I would have picked for him to wear the first day, but this shirt has his school name and mascot on it (The Snow Springs Dragons), so he begged and pleaded with me to wear it today. And with his backack, he looks all official. Awfully cute don't you think?















And he didn't want me to forget to take a picture of his new shoes. He's been waiting all summer to wear these!












Two monkeys against the wall - waiting for class to start












Lining up outside his door, getting ready for his teacher to come out














There he goes into his classroom - HAVE FUN ZACH!



And of course we can't forget Hailey, who doesn't want to be left out of anything, especially when we're taking pictures with backpacks















In all, we had a good day. I really only teared up once as I watched him walk into his classroom and it hit me that he really was growing up. Other than that, I did really good, which surprised me. Hailey on the other hand, had a much harder time with it. She wanted to stay with him when we dropped him off and the whole 2 1/2 hours at home, she would tell me every 5 minutes that she wanted Zach home and that it was time to go and get him. We went through this same thing when Zach went to preschool last year and it got easier for her after a few days. We're hoping for the same thing this time around. As much as my kids fight with each other, they really do love the other and could not survive without them. I'm certainly blessed with good children.