F-

Oh man, did I ever drop the ball this morning! My poor kids, I feel so bad for them. I chalk it up to the fact that there is no possible way it can already be the start of a new school year.

Ashley started middle school today. Sixth grade in a new home, new ward, new school. She even has to ride the bus this year. Huge HUGE change from just walking out the door and across the street. I didn't do so badly with her, although I did forget to take her picture this morning. I got her to the bus stop and the bus was about twenty minutes late. I was this [-] close to just driving her to school, but they really recommend that the kids ride the bus at least the first few days of school so they know which bus to catch, where the stops are etc. etc....
I really didn't like not being able to walk onto campus with her this morning, making sure she got to her first class ok and all that. I'm sure she's fine with it though. I came home and cried.
She got to school ok, a few minutes late. sigh.

Haley, I was doing fine with., even remembered to take her picture. She was ready to go an hour before school even started. I guess I didn't give much thought to what traffic would be like this morning. I mean in the back of my mind I knew it would be bad, but again since we used to just be able to walk out the door and cross the street to get to school I wasn't thinking clearly. We left about five minutes before the school grounds opened. I didn't count on all the traffic. What would normally be a two minute drive down the street and around the corner (the school is one mile away), took about twenty minutes. I manged to finally find a spot to park, managed to get Haley across the street, just as the bell was ringing. Didn't get the chance to walk her onto the school grounds because I realized at that moment I'd left my camera and phone in the car with the windows down. So, I'm hoping she found her classroom ok. We attended the open house last week, so she knows which class she's in, but still it IS a new school for her this year too, and I'm sure she was nervous.
Tomorrow, we're walking! I think that will be the much more sane option and it'll be great exercise!

living the good life

So, since we've moved into our new place we've had a few issues:

• the master bedroom window leaks (you know, when it rains. Which is like, hardly ever around here--but when it does rain--watch out!), we're waiting on the roofing guys to fix it I guess. I'm just holding out hope that the summer monsoons don't come along anytime before.
• Jon thinks the thermostat doesn't work properly. It was a pretty old model. We bugged them at the office about it several times, they changed it to another old-ish model, which still didn't seem to keep the temperature correctly and finally Jon just went and bought a digital one and changed it himself.
• The AC unit was really dirty. Had the guy come by and clean that out.
• The back burner on the stove didn't work. The guy came by once and said he had to order the part. Last week he came by and replaced it and it STILL didn't work. Praise the Lord, he came by this week and now it works.
• The disposal had to be replaced.
• The refrigerator was leaking. (we don't really like the refrigerator. It's old. It doesn't have a meat and cheese drawer. We really miss our meat and cheese drawer. And the ice maker).
•  Just tonight, one of the roof tiles came crashing down just outside our door. There's another loose one up there. Yikes!! Hope nobody walks under it when it decides to come down. Jon already put a call into the office. I bet they just love us over there. :)
• The dishwashere is NOT secured. Everytime I pull out the bottom drawer thingy the whole thing tips forward. Looks like I'll be popping by the office on Monday.

Got to love apartment living.

The good thing is that they do come by and attempt to repair things, they're pretty quick about it too for the most part.
On the whole I like our new place. Still trying to get all the boxes unpacked and everything set just so. There are aspects of the old house I miss though.

Signs of ?

Here are my symptoms:

• raw, hoarse throat
• stomach pain
• bulging eyes
• pounding heart
• exploding head
• hair loss 
• ears ringing

 What's the ailment?

A couple of three year old boys.
Terrible twos?? Who came up with that? The threes are SO much worse!

who's who?

I'm not too sure.......

who's the good guy here?

d'ya think Evil Knievel was scared of the vacuum cleaner?

See that little guy on the left? Cute little cheesy smile. Jason. He is such a trouble maker!
Little mister dare devil. He loves the swimming pool. We haven't had swimming lessons yet, but he doesn't let that stop him. He jumps off the side, right into the deep end if I'd let him. He wants to go under the water. He doesn't even wait to make sure mommy is ready to catch him. Just goes for it. Heaven help me, this boy is going to give me cardiac arrest.

He loves to climb on things. Gets into everything.
He is afraid of nothing---except the vacuum cleaner. I pull that baby out of the closet and he's running for the other room. I'm not sure what I did to traumatize him with it; but it does make a handy tool when I need him to go in his room, shut the door and leave mommy alone for a little while.

Maybe I should put the vacuum in the swimming pool, so he'd be a little less eager to jump in?
I love that he's so eager to try to swim, but really- the kid's scaring me to death.




Annette, are you reading??? My daughter just asked me what a semi-colon is. I showed it to her on the keyboard and she said "that's not what I mean". I replied, "I'm not really sure anymore, I just use it when I think it's appropriate". She replied, " I just use it to make winky faces". ;P
Maybe I should buy your book!

CSN Review--I'm so excited!

Wow! A really lovely lady from CSN Stores contacted me recently about reviewing a product for their company. Oh my gosh where do I even begin? They have so many amazing products! Everything from dinnerware to pet products. What oh what should I review? Having just moved into our new apartment, you know I'm dying to outfit it with some amazing new items. And by the way, we are MOSTLY moved in. We've still got to make a few more trips to the old place for odds and ends. That's the biggest problem--what to do with those odds and ends? Maybe I'll review a storage item. My kitchen is about the same size as the old one, but that was even pretty small. So I'm in need of some good organization tools. I'd also like a kitchen scale. I've been trying to watch my calorie intake, so I could really use one of those. Hmmm, furniture, a new rug, a pot rack? Something decorative and pretty for my kitchen?

I could take a month on their family of websites and probably not be able to decide-there's just SO MUCH!

What would you review?

She's a sweetie

This is such a sweet girl. She wishes she were a boy, she really does. But I think she's a born nurturer. Case in point: Last week I volunteered in her class. They were making ice cream. Let me just mention that it was awesome ice cream!!! Well, I took the boys with me and we ended up staying longer than we had planned. We went to lunch with Haley. I hadn't packed us a lunch, and didn't have any cash on me to pay the lunch lady with; so sweet Haley shared her meal with the boys. It wasn't just that she shared her meal without complaining--but she really just made sure they got to eat before she did. She did this with everything-her sandwich, drink and dessert. Her sweet friend, Alyssa offered her some of her popcorn chicken-about five pieces. What did Haley do? She could have just shoved those little morsels in her mouth, after all she didn't get much of her own sandwich; instead she gave her brothers two pieces each before she enjoyed the last one. SO sweet! I got teary eyed. It was so sweet and loving and thoughtful.
I love my sweet girl. I love moments like this that just make me realize what terrific little people my kids are.

oh. my. gosh!

This looks hill.ar.E.ous!!!!