cleaning = exhaustion

so, i just spent the last 2 hours deep cleaning the kids bedrooms. i put everything in it's place, got rid of toys they no longer play with. i ended up with a big box of stuffed animals to send to the DI, and a very full 13 gallon garbage bag to put in the trash. their clothes are all put away, they all have clean sheets, and i feel like i've accomplished something huge. and i am now ready for bed. sadly, it's only 5:30 pm.

on a not quite so nice note, i did disaster management yesterday afternoon. taylor, once again, cut elizabeths hair. when i get the pics uploaded, i will post them. i took her in to get it fixed, it was bad. when i got back, shaun was trying to put the laptop back together. shannon got a hold of it and pulled off half the keys. still can't find the 'g' key. then when i went to start dinner, i discovered that the kitchen counter was covered in water. so i had to get that wiped up before i could even think about starting dinner. as i was putting the last load of laundry in the dryer, i kept repeating this mantra to myself: i love my kids, i love my kids. i think it worked!

fingers

lately, shannon has discovered that her fingers fit in her nose. and in my ears. and that baby goldfish crackers will fit in my ears as well.

i really like this stage, i do. the whole discovery thing is so much fun. but why do i have to get dry willies, and goldfish in my ears?

baby, baby, what will you be?

turns out, it's another girl!

sad and pathetic

 just found out that if i tried to sell my van, i couldn't even pay off the remainder of the loan with it. my van is only worth $6500, and i still owe $8500 on it.

just my luck!

"washing" dishes

the kids just spent the last hour "washing" dishes. they had both sinks filled to the brim. they ended up using 1/4 of the bottle of dish soap. they had the floor and counters covered in water. not to mention themselves.

but, i suppose the important thing is that they had fun, and they weren't trying to kill each other for that hour. so worth the mess!

stress killer!

so, we got a call from the landlord last night. they wanted to talk about our delinquent rent, and to do their quarterly inspection. (as if i wasn't stressed enough. i have no idea how to pay rent right now.) except that the house was in no shape to do a walkthrough. we cleaned until 11p, and then cleaned this morning starting at 8:30.
shaun knows me so well. i'm already stressed to the limits, so he puts yanni on the stereo. i don't know why it is, but that's an instant stress killer. i was able to stop thinking about everything that had to be done, and focus on doing it instead.
we apparently passed the inspection, and they are letting us check a few things out to see if we can find some help for rent. what a relief.

whoa, frosting!

the kids got into some cookies that i bought today, and decided that the baby needed one also. she came into the front room eating said cookie, so i picked her up and hauled her back into the kitchen. in the process, the cookie ended up all over her forehead!

o, the drama!

sometime in the last two weeks, elizabeth knocked a tooth loose. course, it could have happened while we were in missouri for christmas; who knows. i think if she had left it alone, it might have solidified back up. but, as she didn't, it keep getting more loose.
got home from picking her up from headstart and getting a few things at the store this afternoon. she decided, even though they feed her at school, that she was hungry again, so she made herself a sandwich. she took a bite, and screamed.
"my tooth came out! waaahhh!" and the tears came flooding. and the blood came dripping. it was still mostly attached to her gums, so when the tooth popped out, it tore her gums, which caused the blood.
i chuckled, still am, and got a washcloth wet so she could suck on it, to get rid of the blood.
oh, but how i laughed!

hand-me-downs!?

so, a member of the RS presidency came by this evening. she asked me if i liked hand-me-downs. are you kidding me?! i grew up with them, we love them! so she brought in 3 black garbage bags that were all partially full. they will fit shannon and no one else, but i think the best part is there was a partial bag of diapers. in the exact size that shannon uses! thank heavens for little miracles!

shannon's newest thing is going around the house saying, "na, na, na," and pinching her thumb and forefingers together. she's walking around the house saying, "no!"

storage

so, i just spent 35 min putting up 10 lbs of hamburger. if you buy in bulk at all, i highly suggest getting a food saver device. one that sucks the air out of the bag. they are so nice!

um, help?!

now that we're home, and life is getting back to normal, we are trying to figure out how to pay the bills. shauns loans don't come in until the middle of feb, and last semesters loans are completely gone.
have a business opportunity, but don't know where to find the money to take it. can't get anyone to listen about melaleuca. very frustrated and concerned.

oh dear

as our vacation to missouri for christmas ends, we sit here trying to figure out how we are going to make it home, dreading the 22 hour return drive, and wishing that the drive was already over.

christmas haul

so, Christmas is over, the kids are having a ball playing with their new toys, and the rest of us are trying to survive their craziness.
when we got here, my sister took the kids shopping and got mom and dads presents. my kids already had stuff for us, so we got doubled up on.
grandpa gave the kids a train table that actually has 4 other activities on the table. how that works, i haven't figured out yet. the boys got swords from my brother, and shields from my sister (that was not coordinated). my girls got dresses galore. we'd had a large swingset we were going to give the kids from santa, but as we could not get it in the van for the trip here, nor did we want to, we had to figure something else out. elizabeth had apparently wanted a barbie for christmas, but the first i heard about it was 2 weeks ago, so we got her one from santa. taylor got a transforming bumblebee car, complete with sam. shannon got a drop and slide toy that teaches cause and efffect. the kids made a haul. shaun asked me the other day how we expected to get all this stuff home. i reminded him that we had brought three boxes of christmas with us that could be used to put our christmas in to get it home. the only thing we're worried about is the train table.
this has been a fun trip. not the actual trip, but once we got here, it's been fun.

driving, and driving, and driving some more

so, we left friday evening, and drove down to ogden. we got there about 9:30. had a good talk with my grandparents, and then went to bed so that we could get up and leave early.
left at 9:30 in the morning, and started on our looooooong drive. tried to find somewhere to stay for the night, but were not willing to pay $95 for a room, so we kept driving. got here this morning around 6:00. woke everyone up so that we could get in the house, it was cold, and we had to go potty.

21 hours in the car, 3 kids . . . long drive, glad we only make it every now and then.

finals . . . check!

i finished my last project last night (well, i guess technically, it was this morning). 2 am, i got everything put together. it still needs to be hemmed, as well as the sleeves, but other than that, it's done.

now i need to focus on packing so we can leave tomorrow.

all i want for christmas is my front tooth

so, taylor is almost 6, in a month. as is the case around this age, teeth start coming loose and falling out. taylor lost his first tooth on wednesday. he was out shovelling snow, and decided to eat a piece of ice. well, the tooth that was REALLY loose, finally popped out. shaun says he walked in and it was sitting on his collar :) we forgot to put it under his pillow that night, so the tooth fairy came the next night. she left him a whole dollar!

happy day!

the preliminary hearing was today, and i was scheduled to testify. the prosecuting attorney decided to try and expedite the process and see if the judge would bond him just based on the testimony of the detective. he did! i didn't have to testify today, but probably will at trial. we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

no gingerbread :(

so, the lady who wanted the gingerbread house did some searching, and discovered how long it can take to make one. she came to us and told us not to worry about making the house.

we both decided that we were a little glad, but sad too. we were both looking forward to doing it, and yet we really didn't have the time.

gingerbread anyone?

so, i think i may have gotten myself in a little over my head. we were in church the other day, and a lady mentioned that she wanted a gingerbread house for her son's reception. i mentioned to a friend that it would be fun to make that for her.
you guessed it, we're making a gingerbread house for the reception. not only that, but the date got moved up a week. we thought we had a good 3 or 4 weeks to do it, turns out, it's next saturday!
right now, we are making a mock up in cardboard. we will them use those pieces as templates. it really is going to be fun, but i also have a dress pattern to make and then the dress itself to put together. not to mention, the half-scale pattern work to finish.

oh, as for the gingerbread, i looked through my cake-mix dr book and found one. problem is, it calls for a plain spice cake mix, and you can't find any plain mixes anymore. they are all added moisture. the dough turned out really soft, and all my attempts at making it stiffer were for naught. i had to google a gingerbread recipe. hope it works out better than the other one.