Catching Up a Little...............

I ended up taking McKaylie to the doctor last Thursday.........because of the rash.......AGAIN! I am so sick of that rash. The poor thing was covered practically head to foot. She was really itchy and giving her Benadryl helped with that, but it made McKaylie a mean little person! You can laugh, but it really did. She would get drousy and tired and grumpy and whiny and it was just ugly. There was a few times I considered not giving it to her, because it was just so hard to deal with her when she was taking it. The doctor suggested Claratin, which we tried and there was no difference. It helped with the itching, but she was still mean! She ended up staying home from school on Thursday and Friday. I've scrubbed and Lysoled my house more in the last month than in the last 6 months combined. We just can't seem to shake this virus. I'm wondering if they're not getting exposed to it over and over again at church or school or somewhere. It's very frustrating. Just when we think we're done with it, it comes back.

Our snow is melting and it makes me really excited for Spring. It's funny how seeing the ground and the brown grass, just makes you hopeful. I told was how excited I was that I could see the ground and it gave me this look, like "you are so pathetic, mom" and said, "you know it's going to snow again, right?" Yeah, I know it will probably snow again before spring is truly here, but I'm still getting extremely excited for spring, nonetheless.

I gave a talk in church yesterday. I think it went ok. I loved the subject, though, family prayer and family scripture study. It was a good reminder to get back to the basics. Without familly prayer and family scripture study, what good does everything else do? I am glad that my talk is over, though. I get very nervous until I'm actually up there giving it and then my nerves seem to calm down once I start. I thought I was doing pretty good, until they passed me the sacrament and I noticed that my hand was shaking. That little deacon probably thought I was crazy!

I printed off a bunch of stuff for Primary and only when I handed everthing out on Sunday, did I realize that instead of saying CUB SCOUTS, my sheet said, CUT SCOUTS. I guess I'll be doing that one again.

I saw this background and had to put it on my blog. I don't know if you can see all four monkeys on the sides (we have a wide screen monitor, so I'm not sure what shows up on the regular ones and what doesn't) but there are 4 monkeys swinging around, 2 bigger ones and two smaller ones. Just like my little monkeys as I refer to my kids often. So, I love this background! It's very fitting.

Chad's been reading the Twilight series lately. He's on the 4th book. I love that he's reading. It's nice to sit and bed and read together. When we were first married and didn't have a TV (oh those were the days) we used to read all the time. We also used to read out loud to each other and I loved that.

I have a busy week coming up. I have parent/teacher conferences, extra volunteer days at the school, speech, book fair, church activities, etc, etc. The list seems to go on and on. This week is our game night/date night with friends, though. That should be a very nice ending to a crazy week. I also get to pick up our portraits today. I'm excited to see them and get them on my wall!

Misc......Whatever......Stuff

Right now I feel like I have a list a mile long of things to do and I don't want to even start on anything. That's not good. So, I'm going to ramble for a little bit and see if that helps........

This is McKaylie behind our house, right outside our fence. As you can see, it's up to her knees, there's also 1/2 of ice on top of the snow, so they have to break through it to walk around. They were actually picking up sheets of icey snow. You can see Vance holding a piece in the picture below. Maine weather is crazy!

We're also suppose to get more snow today. It's only suppose to be about an inch, but it's still overcast and gloomy out. That doesn't help to get me motivated to do anything.

My sister asked me the other day if I was caught up on all my internet stuff......I don't think I'll ever feel caught up really. Of course feeling like this doesn't help get anything done, doesn't it.

Noah is home today. He says he's sick, but I have serious doubts. I wanted to get to the commissary this morning, but now I'll have to wait. I'm not taking the boy with me, sick or not!


These are the icicles on the back of our house. We knock down the ones over the yard so that they won't fall on the dogs. That could be bad............

Noah has decided that he wants a guitar and is completely obsessed by it. It's all he talks about. He even told me not to give McKaylie her lunch money today so that he could use it for his guitar. Selfless is not a good word to describe Noah.

Myshel's "boyfriend" broke up with her last week. I can't say that I was sad about it, but it did make me sad to see her hurting so much. Dumb boys! This week, however, she's seeing a truer side to the "ex" and it's just not very pretty. I'm actually glad about that, because now she's realizing that guys are not always as they seem. It's also helping her stop hurting. Oh, and maybe I should mention that she already has other guys calling her.......when I told her she'd have guys waiting in line, I didn't think that would literally be the case!----James, stop calling her, she doesn't want to talk to you!!!!!----

McKaylie has become a reading maniac. She's started reading 3 books in the last couple of days, one about a dog, one about a wolf pack, and one about fairies. I don't care what she reads as long as they're good books and she wants to read. A year ago it was like pulling teeth trying to get her to read, so this is a wonderful change! I'm loving it. I just wish she didn't want to retell every story she reads to me, though.

Vance has decided that he doesn't want to go camping this summer in Wyoming becasue there are grizzly bears in that area. He tends to get himself worked up about stuff like this, too. I'm not sure how we're going to get around this issue with him. On the other hand, I'm not too keen on the idea of camping with grizzly bears either!

I watched the last 5 minutes of the super bowl. It took about 35-40 minutes, but it was the last 5 minutes on the clock. It was pretty exciting. I was rooting for the Steelers (that's been Chad's team every since I can remember). Most people around here were rooting for the Cardinals. Chad went and watched the game with some friends and out of 6 guys, he was the only one cheering on the Steelers. I guess he had the last laugh in the end when they won, huh.

I noticed these icicles stuck in the snow outside of Myshel's window. Vance and McKaylie put them there. I'm not sure I should ask................I might just let this one go!

I'm enjoying getting to know FaceBook, although I just don't have time for all the stuff that you can do on it. It's amazing to me some of the people that have shown up on there. I've been able to catch up with people that I haven't heard or seen in 20 years. It's been fun!

Well, I've wasted time, now I have to get busy, although I still don't feel like it..................

Another Day's Ramblings......

I managed to get all my kid's off to school again today. That's 2 school days in a row! WhoooHoo! It feels like they were sick for such a long time. I'm getting a little congested myself, but trying desperately not to get any worse. I just don't have time to be sick.

At our house is always so busy this time of year, actually from about mid October until the end of the year, it's a little nuts. I'm really in awe, though, that it's already November. This year sure has seemed to fly by......so, mid October, we're getting ready for Halloween and Noah's birthday, then we move on to getting ready for Thanksgiving, and Myshel's birthday (she'll be 16 this year!!!!! YIKES) and then on to Christmas and New Year's. It sure seems to keep us running. I'm trying to take a few breathes, remind myself to just enjoy this time of year and relax a little. I'm not sure how well it's working, though. It's so easy to lose track of the important things, isn't it? This year, I'd just like to appreciate the blessings of the seasons (Thanksgiving and Christmas), the blessings of my family and stress a whole lot less on the "other stuff".

Chad is doing really good after his shoulder manipulation on Friday. The pain isn't nearly as bad as we anticipated it would be, which is always nice. (Priesthood blessings are wonderful!!) There is a physical therapist out there that is now on Chad's "bad" list, though. Apparently, she's awfully rough. I'm just wondering if the others weren't too soft!?!

I personally have 3 appointments in the next 3 days and that's not counting the church acitivites for the kids, school things and Chad's work. It's just that time of year at our house! Better get going............

What's Up?

Chad is out of his sling and into therapy. Right now he's doing a lot of stretches to help him get his full mobility back. It's painful and not much fun, but I think he's doing good.

Noah has gotten on the bus both days this week without any problems. His teacher tells me he's doing GREAT! Yeah!!!!

Myshel cleaned her room and has kept it clean for 3 days now. (I don't remember the last time it's been clean for that long.) That's one of the conditions she had to follow to get to go to the homecoming dance this Saturday.

Vance is trying to get us to approve of him and his friends getting together to shoot their air-rifles on Friday. I trust Vance, but do I trust his friends?? How well will his friend's dad supervise???

McKaylie is doing great in school, but tends to be rather grumpy and moody at home. Is there such a thing as pre-pre-teen attitude???

I am wondering where all the extra time is that I'm suppose to have now that all my kids are in school, because I sure don't seem to have any extra time. Maybe I'm doing something wrong!

A Little Craziness Makes the Time Fly By.....

The first couple of weeks of school are a little nuts around here for us. Last Tuesday, Vance, McKaylie and Noah started school, but Myshel was at home. On Wednesday, Myshel started school but Vance was at home. (The middle and high schools do this to give the 6th graders and the 9th graders a day to themselves in school without all the older kids. It's actually a good idea.) On Thursday, Friday and Monday (yesterday), they were all at school. During all this time, Noah was only going to school for half the day, so he was home about 11:40AM. Today and tomorrow Noah doesn't have school, but tomorrow he goes in for his Kindergarten evaluation for an hour. On Thursday, he goes back to school and stays all day. It kind of wears me out just trying to keep everyone straight. I think it will be nice to just have everyone on their regular schedule.

Yesterday Chad went back to work. It seemed very strange not having him around. I like it when he's home and I don't think there's every been a time when I've not liked having him at home with me. It's hard to believe that it's been 3 weeks since his surgery. But then, it's hard to believe that it's the second week of September already! Before we know it, it will be Christmas! Yikes!

Travel Logs....

My sister has all the different states/countries that she's been to and the ones that her husband has been to on her blog. I was showing it to Chad and we thought it would be fun to do, too. So, here's our list

Cindy
United States
Wyoming*Montana*Idaho*Utah*Washington*California*Nevada*
Colorado*Virginia*Florida*Maine*Massachusetts*New Hampshire*North Carolina*Louisiana*Illinois*South Dakota*North Dakota*Maryland*Georgia*
Kentucky*West Virginia*Alabama*Arkansas*Connecticut*Delaware*Tennessee*South Carolina*Rhode Island*Pennsylvania*Wisconsin*Oklahoma*Ohio*Nebraska*Indiana*
Iowa*Kansas*Michigan*Minnesota*New York*New Jersey*Mississippi*Missouri

Canada
New Brunswick

Overseas
None

Chad
United States
Wyoming*Montana*Idaho*Utah*Washington*California*Nevada*
Colorado*Virginia*Florida*Maine*Massachusetts*New Hampshire*North Carolina*Louisiana*Illinois*South Dakota*North Dakota*Maryland*Georgia*Kentucky*
West Virginia*Alabama*Arkansas*Connecticut*Delaware*Tennessee*South Carolina*
Rhode Island*Pennsylvania*Wisconsin*Oklahoma*Ohio*Nebraska*Indiana*
Iowa*Kansas*Michigan*Minnesota*New York*New Jersey*Mississippi*Missouri*Oregon

Canada
New Brunswick

Overseas
Spain*Italy*France*Greece*Croatia*Portugal*Israel*China (Hong Kong)*Malaysia*Singapore*Malta*England*South Korea*Egypt*Puerto Rico*
Albania*United Arab Emirates*Bahrain*Sicily

Bodies of Water (He's sailed on--we may have missed a few)
Atlantic Ocean*Pacific Ocean*Mediterranean Sea*Suez Canal*Red Sea*Arabian Sea*
Adriatic Sea*Persian Gulf*Indian Ocean*Philippine Sea*Yellow Sea*East China Sea*
South China Sea*Gulf of Mexico

Much Ado About Nothing........

It snowed again last night. They predicted that we'd get 7-12 inches and then rain. We only got about 5 inches and no rain (that I know of). I'm not complaining, we haven't seen the ground since last December, so the less snow we get the better if you ask me and it didn't rain! The rain just turns everything to ice. We already are way, way over the snowfall average for this area. Last fall, Vance could hardly wait for the snow to come and I think that even he's getting a little tired of it. I will say, though, that it is nice when it snows, because it gives you a nice fluffy layer for a short while. All the snow on the ground is hard and crusted. By the end of the day it will be all packed and hard, but for a little while we'll have some fluffy snow. McKaylie was helping make a snowman while she waited for the bus. The kids still had school, which is good, except for Noah. He's home today and will have to make up his school day on Friday.

Have I mentioned how much I hate this housing???? I do, I really do. It's so small and has an awkward layout. It's the oldest housing in the area. They were actually in the process of tearing down this housing to build new, when it was decided to close this base. So, all work stopped and we're stuck living in small, old, outdated housing. The only thing about this housing that makes it worth while is that the school system here is very good. So anyway, Monday I decided to rearrange my living room, yet again. Trying to make things fit better to give us a little more room, but also trying to keep the heat registers open so that the sectional doesn't block off the heat. (There's heat registers of 2 of the 3 walls in the living room area--doesn't leave a lot of options) My little brain was thinking away when it came to me.......I can take the corner section out of my sectional and hook the 2 ends together and it would just be one long couch basically. It would fit on the one wall that doesn't have the register and open up the room. So that's what I did. I don't know if I think the "look" is all that great, but I had to give up on getting the"look" I want in my house when I moved in here. What did I do with the corner of the sectional???? I put it in the only corner in the entire house that was available, in Myshel's room. I don't think she minded at all having an extra seat in her bedroom. It's not perfect, but it definitely opened up the living room and that makes a big difference. But, ohhhhh how I miss my housing in Virginia! I always did like that housing and was sad to leave it.

The young women in our ward are celebrating the Chinese New Year tonight at their activities. Myshel volunteered me to make won tons. I thought that was aweful nice of her. I guess that means I'll be spending the afternoon getting ready to teach the girls how to make won tons. At least there will be something yummy to eat afterward. They're also having someone make mandarin chicken, so double yum!

I have a pile of sewing that I've been trying to get done. I've told myself that I can't go back to scrapbooking until the sewing is finished. It's my goal to accomplish that today, along with the laundry and getting ready for the YW acitivity and working on speech with Noah for an hour. That's besides all the normal everyday stuff that I'll also have to manage. And I wonder why time seems to fly by..........

Time's Flying By....

Is it just me or is anyone else out there just blown away that in two days it will be March?!? It seems like we were just getting settled after moving to Maine and here it is, 8 months later. I remember wishing that Christmas would just get here already and now it's been over for 2 months! Time just seems to be flying by for me. Also, Daylight Savings is going to come early this year and Easter is early, which is strange, but also makes it seem like time is flying by even faster. Before I know it, it will be summer (not that I'd mind that) and the kids will be out of school! Things just need to slow down a little.

Break Time's Over.....

My kid's vacation is over tomorrow. This week has gone by so fast. We really didn't do a lot all week, but it was still really nice just to hang out and not have anything pressing that we just had to do either. It was really nice having Chad around all day, too. We really appreciate the time that we have together. He went back to work today.

I'm not sure that I'm ready for the vacation to be over. It's not that I'm not ready for them to go back to school. It's more that I'm not ready to start getting up at 5:30AM and spend the day runing around. It was a much needed break, but I guess we have to get back to "real life".

A Little of This, A Little of That.....

Well, for starters, I haven't decided about Firefox and Internet Explorer. There are things that I like about both of them and things that I don't like.... Like this underlining thing that has started since I started using Firefox. I'll probably keep both and use both them for different things. Thanks for your comments!

Santa finally broke down this last Christmas and brought the kids a Play Station 2. We haven't had any of those games in our house before, because I don't think they're necessary and they distract kids from doing what is more important. And some of the games!!!!! WoW!!! In short, I think they can be a waste of time. Why did we get it then, you're asking???? I'm not sure I have an answer for that.

But since having it, I've learned that even a 5 year old can learn how to pick out a rifle and hunt polar bears, jump a motorcycle with style, find all the dragon eggs for Arthur and the Invisibles, and get Sully through the Scare Factory to name just a few. I've also found that the PS2 can be a great bargaining chip. They seem to really want to play it, so they're willing to do a little extra for it, sort of thing.

On the other hand, I'll had to listen to a few "just let me finish this part in the game first", a few "he's been on there longer than I was", a few "it's MY turn", and a whole lot of "please, let me play, mom, please". I can't say that I don't enjoy some of it. It's hilarious to watch the little ones play, because they move all over like they're there in the game. I've played a few times myself, but I don't feel a need to be on it, either. I guess as time goes by we'll see how things go with it.

I am finally feeling a little more organized at home. I managed to get my sister some of the pages I edited for her website sent, not as many as I'd hoped, but it's a start. I have several other small projects I'm trying to finish up, too. My house doesn't seem to be falling apart too badly either. It seems that every time I put my attention on one project, even for a little while, everything else explodes.....like if you clean the kitchen and it looks great and you go into the living room and it looks like a hurricane hit it......yeah, I haven't gotten to that point, yet.....knock on wood!

I feel like I have about a hundred errands to run today, things I've been putting off all week and here I am on the computer. My originally logic was.......I'm already on the computer taking care of stuff that had to get done and finishing a few other things, so, I mine as well update my blog........unfortunately it always takes longer to update my blog than I think it will, probably because I don't ever just update my blog!

Tonight McKaylie has a sleep-over at a friend's house, and Vance is having one of his friends over after school to play PS2 and have pizza. (I actually feel kind of good about Vance's friend coming over. He has such an awesome mom, who I know can be very picky about what her kids do and where they go. So, I feel pretty happy that she's comfortable with her son coming over to hang out at our house) Tomorrow, I have a visiting teaching conference, President Hinckley's funeral and a trip to the store(s) to fulfill a promise that I'll post about next week.

So, I think I'll stop rambling and tell you all to have a great weekend!

A New Look.......

As you can see I've changed the look of my blog. I like it. It's a little more "me". But, until I get everything back to where I really want/like it, I guess it will be a work in progress. I think I choice the flowers, because deep down (amid all this snow) I'm secretly, or not so secretly, wishing for spring (which is only about 4 months away-ugh)! So, I hope you like it and thanks to you guys who have already commented on it!

Potholder Mania................

A month or so ago, my mom sent me some potholders that she had crocheted. I love them. They are so much nicer and thicker than the ones you buy in the store. When my mom visited me, I had her show me how to crochet them. So now, I've gone potholder happy!! I used up some of my exta yarn making the top 3 and then decided to make some for my visiting teaching sisters for Thanksgiving. The fall colored ones were 2 of the 5 I made for them. I loved how they turned out the best! Now, if I could just learn to crochet better, I could make something besides a potholder!

They were here, but now they're gone..............

Hey, I'm back! It's been a crazy couple of weeks, with so much going on. I'll try to fill you in on everything!



My parents left bright and early Saturday morning. Their flight left at 6AM and, of course, they needed to be there early, so we had to get up at 3:30AM! We were hoping that when we came back the kids would still be in bed, but no luck! They were all up but Myshel. We went back to bed anyway and managed to get a couple more hours of sleep.



The house was very quiet all weekend. It always is when company leaves. I guess that's the bitter-sweet part of having family come to visit. You have to say good-bye again!



We had such a good time with them. We didn't get to do half the things that we would have liked to do, but we so enjoyed just having them here. I love seeing my kids with their grandparents. They are just so happy and excited and want to tell them everything and I loved having my parents here to visit with and try and share everything that I could with them. I wish we were closer to them and could see them more often! I started missing them, before they were even gone!



So, this week is back to normal, if you can call it that. But there are things that have changed with that too, so the "normal", isn't feeling exactly "normal" yet!

It makes no sense!

In the last 13 years that Chad has been in the navy, I've spent a lot, I mean, A LOT, of nights alone. I've never really had a problem sleeping without Chad there. It's not that I wouldn't prefer that he were there, it's just that I was never one of those women who had trouble sleeping when their husbands were gone. I felt very blessed for that since Chad was gone alot. BUT (you knew that had to be coming, right) since our moved here to Maine, I've started having trouble sleeping when he's gone. This makes no sense to me. How can I be perfectly fine sleeping without him for years and then all of a sudden struggle with it. The frustrating part is, he's only gone when he has duty, which is about every 9-10 days, so it's only one night here and there. So, why am I having trouble sleeping with him gone now? I never have liked duty days, but now that I'm sleep deprieved because of them, I like them even less.

Such is life...........

Hello everyone. I've missed you. ha ha I'm starting to wonder how I ever had time to blog???? So far this week has been a lot of catching up after last week and a lot of appointments. I'm not sure how they all seemed to fall on the same week, but they did, which means lots of running around and lots of feeling like little is getting done. How can I be so productive one week and so nonproductive the next. Oh well, such is life, I suppose. (tried to post some pictures, but blogger isn't cooperating)

Something Had To Give...............

Last week was crazy and this week hasn't been much better and I'm getting a cold that is kicking my butt! It is just wiping me out. So, something had to give so that I could manage everything and it ended up being the computer. Which is why I haven't posted in awhile. I am starting to feel better, for the most part, so hopefully I can catch up on things. I'm ready for the weekend, that's for sure.

The start of a 4 day weekend.............

My kids have a 4 day weekend starting today and Chad has a 3 day weekend (should have been 4 days, but he has duty on Monday, for those of you who aren't military means that he has to stay on the base for 24 hours, basically on call and sometimes he stands a watch) So, we should have been able to sleep in this morning. I was so looking forward to it, but as luck would have it, my kids woke me up at 6:30AM and I couldn't get back to sleep. I guess I did get an extra hour of sleep, but still, not quite what I was hoping for. They have been going, and going ever since. Vance, Chad and I went for a 3-4 miles walk this morning, too. That was very nice.

We're going to go for a drive today, to..............somewhere, I don't know where yet! I want to take pictures of the fall colors before they're gone. I love New England in the autumn! So, maybe the next post will be with some nice pictures of some wonderful fall colors! Have a great weekend and enjoy general conference!

Wednesday

Since blogger won't seem to let me post my wordless Wednesday right now, I'll guess I'll just complain a little................

I hate Wednesday mornings! The kids start school an hour later on Wednesdays. You would think this would be nice, a little more time to sleep, get things done, etc, but no, that's not how things work out. Myshel still has seminary at 6:15AM, so we still have to get up early and then we come home and everyone seems to think this is the time to do nothing, including get ready for school. In that one extra hour, they seem to be underfoot, frustrating and deaf! It makes me crazy! I'm not sure why it turns out like that, but it does and now, instead of hating Monday mornings, I hate Wednesday mornings!