Skittles on the loose.............

Skittles likes to wiggle his way out of your hands and run and run and run under my bed until I have to take the bed apart to catch him. He likes to run from one end of my living room to the other hiding behind plants and benches. He likes to scale his little fence that guinea pigs aren't suppose to scale and try and run off, and he likes to poop EVERYWHERE! I'm not so sure I like any of those things. But, I do like it when he sits in the window sill and peaks are you from around the headboard, while he's snacking on his carrot.

Kindergarten wears you out!

McKaylie loves school. She loves everything about school. There are days, though, that it really wears her out. She's fallen asleep after school many times. Today she ate her snack, carrots, that's why she has the orange mouth, and then sat down to watch a movie. This is how we found her just a few minuts later. She's such a doll!

Terrible Two's?.........I don't think so!

Everyone says that the "2's" are the worst, hence, the name, terrible twos. BUT, I have to object (I've felt this way with all my kids, so it's an objection that's been going on for a good long time now!) I do think that when kids hit 2 they start to assert themselves more. They'll tell you "no" a lot. Some kids around 2 will start their temper tantrums (mine included) But, when they turn 3 it seems they start to put their whole might, mind and strength behind their "no's"! Temper tantrums seem to turn into huge meltdowns. And asserting themselves turns into stricking back and anything and everything they don't like. When you tell them "no" at 2 they listen but don't obey, when you tell them "no" at 3 they look at you as if you're crazy and then ignore you from that point on. I love my kids, but I cringed when each of them hit their 3's. Noah, as with many aspects of his life, has shown me just how bad the 3's can be. There are 183 days and counting until Noah turns 4!

In his defense, apparently being 3 is hard work!

What's lost is now found

I have been kicking myself for awhile now. Somehow I had lost a lot of our Christmas pictures from last year. There were pictures of McKaylie's school program, Myshel's orchestra concert, pictures with Santa, decorating the tree, decorating Christmas cookies, and pictures from Christmas eve and Christmas morning. I've been sick about it for months. I thought I had erased them somehow and I have been soooo disappointed. But................you knew there had to be a but........................I found a memory card the other day and guess what was on it. I was soooo excited. There was close to 100 pictures on there that I hadn't printed yet. I could have kicked myself for not finding them sooner, though. At least I have them now!

A little more about me....

Ok, Marie, I can take a hint!!!!

1. What time did you get up this morning?6AM (ugh!)
2. Diamonds or Pearls? Diamonds
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? hmmmmmm hoodwinked, I think
4. What is your favorite TV show? CSI's, NCIS, Grey's Anatomy, Charmed
5. What did you have for breakfast? Strawberry smoothie
6. What is your middle name? Lynn
7. What foods do you dislike? Onions, chocolate, Peanut Butter and Jelly
8. What is your favorite color? blue
9. Your favorite Potato chip? Pringles Cheezums
10. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Rascal Flatts
11. What kind of car do you drive? A silver/blue Chrysler Town & Country
12. Favorite sandwich? Club
13. What characteristics do you despise? dishonest, rude, disloyal (is that a word?)
14. What are your favorite clothes? T-shirt and jeans
15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where WOULDN'T you go? Texas
16. What color are your eyes? Brown
17. Favorite brand of clothing? Old Navy
18. What food can you not live without? Pizza
19. Favorite time of day?10pm
20.Where were you born? Cody, WY
21. What is your favorite sport to watch? Baseball
22. Who do you think will not send this back? Well, I'm not really sending it to anyone, so......
23. Person you expect to send it back first??????
24. Pepsi or Coke?Neither!!!!!! I don't like colas, BUT, I do, do the dew!
25. Beavers or ducks? What the heck kind of question is that?
26. Are you a morning person or night owl? That would definitely be a night owl
27. Pedicure or manicure? Pedicure
28. Any new & exciting news you'd like to share with everyone? Uhhhh that would be a no
29. What did you want to be when you were little?I have no idea, that was soooo long ago
30. What is your best childhood memory? My family and I went on a picnic at the resevoir and then we were playing a game of tag sort of in the middle of this wooden fence thing, but anyway, my mom was running around and playing tag with us and I remember her smiling and laughing a lot while we were playing. I love to think back to that, her laughing and smiling.
31. What are the different jobs you have had in your life? There's too many to list really, but I'll name a few.......receptionist at an orthopedic clinic, Customer Serivce Supervisor at Kmart, Secretary/bookkeeper at Pamida, Cashier, Maid, Carhop, Mom, Wife, Homemaker
(I'm not sure what happened to 32....)
33. Ever been to Africa?No
34. Ever been toilet papering? Ummmm yes, I believe there were people in uniforms looking for us too........
35. Been in a car accident? Yes, that happened the last time Chad was deployed
36. Favorite celebrity? Orlando Bloom is nice to look at, so is Johnny Depp (To date myself, and him,I remember him in the movie Cry Baby-----and Edward Scissorhands
37. Favorite sports team? Chad says it's the Atlanta Braves
38. Favorite day of week? Saturday (Sundays are very stressful)
39. Favorite restaurant? Red Loster
40. Favorite ice cream? Pistachio
41. Favorite fast food restaurant? Taco Bell
42. From whom did you get your last e-mail? My niece Eryn, Hi sweetie!
43. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Target
44. Bedtime? 11:30-12:00
45. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? Anyone!
46. Last person you went to dinner with?Chad, Candy and Tommy
47. What are you listening to right now? Chad's watching Judge Judy
48. Favorite pastimes? scrapbooking, cross stitching
49. Dogs or Cats? Dogs
50. Favorite Flower? Roses, but I never get them, so there Chad
51. What time did you finish this e-mail? 6:10 pm
52. Favorite magazines? The Ensign, Readers Digest,Cross Stitch Magazines

It's my room, right?

I spent a good part of the day cleaning my bedroom. That seems like it should be a simple task, doesn't it. At my house, though, my bedroom seems to have turned into somewhat of a TV room. My kids are in there constantly watching TV, hanging out, playing with Skittles (yes, the guinea pig is in my bedroom...........if it weren't my children would mall the poor thing to death). Since it's their makeshift TV room it ends up messier than it should. I picked up books that weren't mine, toys that obvisouly weren't mine, even clothes that weren't mine. There was dishes in there that I hadn't used and school supplies that didn't belong to me either. I vacuumed crumbs that I know didn't fall from my snacks. There was chocolate cereal in there that I most certainly did not eat. So in short, I spend the majority of my day picking up after my children in my own bedroom! Things are going to change around here!

The sad part of it all, I spend all that time cleaning in one room and now the rest of the house looks like it's been completely neglected for weeks. You clean one mess and it just seems to move somewhere else.

Pre-deployment Meltdown

Chad and I have been doing all the pre-deployment "stuff" for quite awhile now. There's all the physical things that you can get prepared for, but I still haven't figured out how to prepared for the emotional "stuff" (this is our 5th major deployment). I don't let myself dwell on the fact that he's leaving and so it gets pushed to the back of my mind most of the time. Yesterday, however, I suddenly realized that he only has about a week and then he's gone for 6 months. I thought about everything that I hadn't let myself think about. That's never a good thing to do. It made for a very hard evening with a lot of tears. I know that we've done this before, but things change, I've never had to deal with everything myself when Myshel was a teenager or when Vance was graduating for 5th grade and starting middle school, or when McKaylie was turning 6, or when Noah was a little wild child and wouldn't go to sunbeam class without screaming and crying. I've never done a summer deployment when my kids are out of school. If you think about it, everything's different because nothing in our lives stay the same. Besides each time he leaves there's always something new to "deal" with. I don't think I'm ready........................ but then I don't think I ever will be..........I don't feel like I can handle it all..............but I have to.................I don't think I'm strong enough..................but 4 kids need me to be.............................I don't want to do it.................but I don't have a choice. It's going to be a very hard week.

How old is old?

Myshel was talking to a friend and this is what I overheard....."You know, pretty soon my mom will be really old. I mean really, really old, like 40!"

There's nothing like a 13 year old to put it all in perspective for you!

I love you, Mommy

Noah climbed into my bed this morning and woke me up. He snuggled up to me and got his face right next to mine. He put his hand on my cheek and said, "I love you, mommy". Ahhhh, that's soo sweet, so, I said, "I love you, Noah, boy". Then Noah got to the real reason he was in my room, "Mommy, where's daddy?"


I know deep down that my kids love me, but I don't think I'll ever see that I am at an even level with Chad............and that is just not right!

Down by the Bay

Last night McKaylie sang with her Kindergarten class in a school program. They sang Down by the Bay. It was so cute and I love watching these programs. Our school is great about it too, because they only do a program with 1 or 2 grades. So, that way they're short little programs instead of one very long program. They dressed in their summer/beach clothes. McKaylie had a lot of fun and did a great job! My pictures didn't turn out so I don't have any to post, sorry! But, you can take my word, as her mother, that she was the cutest kid there!

Tagged again

Wow, I haven't had to think so much about me in I don't know how long!

4 Jobs I've had in my life
1-receptionist at an orthopedic center (4 doctors/5 physician's assistants)
2-secretary/bookkeeper at Pamida
3-cashier at grocery store
4-car hop

4 Movies I could watch over and over
1-The Cutting Edge
2-American President (that's Chad's fault)
3-Runaway Bride
4-Everafter

4 Websites I visit Regularly
(Besides NFCU and paying bill sights.......)
1-Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
2-Netflix
3-Betty Crocker
4-ABC Distributing

4 Favorite Foods
1-Pizza
2-Ham/cheese/mushroom omlet (made by Chad, of course)
3-Lobster (I got hooked in Maine)
4-Taco Bell

4 Places I would rather be right now
1-Wyoming with my family and Chad's
2-Just about anywhere with Chad
3-the temple
4-Italy ( some day I will make Chad take me since he's seen it tooooo many times without me!)

4 Books I could Read over and over
1-Book of Mormom
2-Harry Potter Books
3-The Greatest Quest
4-Is Your Mama a Llama? (Hey, I have kids!)

4 Songs I could listen to over and over
1-Groovy Kind of Love
2-HonkeyTonk ba DonkaDonk (this one is Vance's fault)
3-After All
4-Child's Prayer

4 Reasons Why I Blog
1-For the most part, I enjoy writing it
2-It makes me laugh to go back and read about how crazy my life can be
3-It helps me to write things down and get a better perspective
4-My blog is full of the little things in life that I thought were fun/cute/silly/scary/whatever that day. Some of the little things that we forget about. If I write them down and print them out, I have a record of some of the little things in my life that made me complete!

All the same people are tagged for this one!

Signs of spring

Spring is here...........

It has to be! I spent most of yesterday afternoon/evening working in our little yard. We have a nice sized front yard, but the housing takes care of all that yard work. Our backyard on the other hand is ours to take care of. It's small, it's very small, but it's still my space, so I want it to be nice. Noah and McKaylie play back there sometimes, but they mostly play at the playground that our backyard opens up to. On the other hand, my backyard is what I see from my kitchen window and from my patio door and window which is in the dining room. I do go out there with the kids, too. So, I can't just ignore it.

Chad and I planted an azalea bush a couple of weeks ago and that is looking nice and we also fixed the path that leads from the patio to the gate. When we were fixing the path I had Chad dig a narrow little flower bed on each side of the path. So, yesterday I planted flowers and mulched it. We also planted the sunflowers that Myshel has been growing inside. They are all along the fence. I put my tomato plants in a new pot outside, too. And, since we were out there it seemed a good time for Chad to trim the grass (He really suffered for it though, allergies! Love you Chad!) and we pulled the weeds and grass from under the fence. We also threw some grass seed down and watered everything. It looks really nice and once we get some new grass coming in (our lawn died last year when I went home to WY for 6 weeks), 0ur little back yard will look even better. I'll have to take some pictures later. But, now that I've planted my flowers/tomatos outside, spring has to stay!

Next week...................the big flower bed in the front yard!

Born to talk..........

About a week ago, I was downstairs and Chad was upstairs. I heard the phone ring a couple of times and then it stopped. I assumed that Chad had answered it, he assumed that I had. What we found out later is that Noah had. I don't know who he talked to or what he said, but he definitely answered the phone.

Today I was just finishing my shower and Noah was standing outside the door telling me that Miss Candy (my friend) wanted to talk to me. I thought that was strange and was trying to understand him better while I was getting dressed when I remembered the phone incident from last week. I opened the door and sure enough he had the phone in hand and was talking to someone. Luckily it was another one of my friends (sorry Staci) who thought the whole thing was quite funny!

Tag......

Apparently, I've been tagged. So now I have to think of 6 weird things about myself................ I'm sure most people would agree, that shouldn't be too hard for me!

1) I don't like chocolate. It's not that I'm allergic or that it gives me headaches or anything like that. I just don't like the taste of chocolate. In fact, I don't like the smell of chocolate. When I was a kid I liked eating it, but I've never like chocolate milk, or pudding, or chocolate ice cream, though. And, the older I get the more I don't like it. I think it's my dad's fault, he's allergic to it and so I think this is his way of passing that on it me.

2) I hate mornings. I mean I really really hate mornings. I hate getting up out of bed. I love laying there snuggled up in my warm covers and just being there. Even when I go to bed early, I still hate getting up. It's all I can go to force myself to get up with Myshel at 6AM. On the other hand, I won't stay in bed all morning. I think that's wasting the day. In summary, I hate getting up, but I won't let myself lay in bed all morning, even when I can.

3) I grew up with dogs and I love them. I think they're great for kids and they help them learn responsibiliy, but I've come to realize that I don't really want them to live at my house! So much so, that maybe deep down, I'm not really a dog person after all.

4) I love having my husband around all the time. That seems to be rare these days, but I guess maybe I'm old fashioned. I've heard people talk about their husband being on vacation and they don't know what they're going to do having them around all the time. That's not me, at all. I would love to have him at home every day if that were possible. And, to make it weirder still, I know that Chad feels the same way.

5) I don't like looking at the horizon across the ocean. It's beautiful, I know, but it leaves me feeling depressed. It reminds me of when we first lived in Virginia 10 years ago and Chad deployed for 6 months and I looked out across the ocean at the horizon from the bridge/tunnel and thought about Chad going out there (on his ship), further that I could even see......very very upsetting to me........and I'm amazed at how quickly and easily all those emotions can come back when I see the horizon across the sea.

6) When I was growing up, I never thought I'd live outside of Wyoming, let alone outside my home town of Cody. Now that I've been gone for almost 11 years, I don't think I could ever go back there to live.


Tag, you're it
Marie
Candy
Debbie (Because you told me you read mine, and you can start your own now, or email your list, he he, looking back, I don't think any of these are new to you, sorry about that)
Donna (For the same reason as Debbie and you can start yours too, or email me......
besides who doesn't want interesting facts about their mother-in-law)

It's your turn now, have fun!

Naughty Pig

I read in a book telling all about guinea pigs that they couldn't climb out of the tray that's on the bottom of their cage. I foolishly believed that ment that they couldn't/wouldn't climb out of other things as well. But apparently, we have a very naughty guinea pig or a very talented one, because..............a friend of mine (Thanks Candy!) gave us a little fence, about 12 inches tall, to put on the floor or outside that you can put your guinea pig in and he won't run off. HA! Skittles has already decided that he doesn't like being penned in and has scaled the fence on several occasions to roam around the room as he pleases! Let's keep in mind, too, that Skittle is still a baby. It figures that we would pick a mischievious guinea pig, with a mind of his own, to come and live at our house! Needless to say, he fits right in!

Chocolate Bunnies.............

The pictures say it all!