God Bless the USA

We had FHE last night. The theme was America. We sang America the Beautiful, read stories that remind us of why this country is so great and talked about the freedoms we are thankful for.

I'm a pretty patriotic person. You can tell by the way my house is decorated :) I love our country and I love our military. I am so thankful to live in this wonderful place. As we get close to the 4th of July, I find myself thinking even more about the United States and what it means to me. We should all be so grateful to have so many options available to us. There are many people in this world that don't have what we have. We truly are blessed to live in this great nation. I'm so thankful for the members of the military and their families, both past and present. They make so many sacrifices for us. If not for the sacrifices of the brave people in the military, this country wouldn't be what it is today. Thank You!

Monday Again

Ken was a good sport today. I worked an eleven hour day today and he took the kids swimming and to the activity at Thanksgiving Point. I think the kids had a pretty good day. They got all their chores done so they can earn their next Silly-Dilly Day Camp. I'm surprising them with t-shirts this time. They're simple shirts done with iron-on transfers, but I think they'll like them. The Silly-Dilly Day Camp theme this week is The Wonderful World of Art.

Saturday we had a great activity at the arts center. We had a fabulous turn-out and lots of volunteer help. Hopefully next Saturday goes as smoothly. We're doing face painting at the Freedom Festival to promote it.

My Crazy House

I live in a pretty crazy house. I'm very thankful to be living in a house, and not an apartment. My landlord is great and fixes what needs to be done, but still. It's pretty bad sometimes. Today he told me he had seen evidence of raccoons living in my attic. If I find one in my house, I'll die.

There was a bird in my basement this morning... yes... a bird. I was so glad Ken was here. If that stupid bird was down there while he wasn't around, I would've panicked. (As you can tell by the video, the girls and I panicked even with him doing the catching.)

The video isn't great, but I couldn't snap pictures because it was flying too fast. Here are more pics of crazy things in my house over the last few months, for those of you that never saw my myspace page.

This was the water that came out of my faucets when I first moved in. Big surprise, I took it to the health dept. and it wasn't safe to drink.

This was the first snake I found in my bedroom in December. The pic was taken with my cell phone and came out small. I had to catch him myself. It was horrible.

This is my "Ghost" pic. The pics taken just before and just after don't show anything.

This was the second snake in my bedroom. Thank goodness Ken was visiting. This was the day after we got married. We had been up and down the stairs all day, and then one time I headed down the stairs and there he was. Yikes!

We've also had spiders like crazy, but happy day, they sprayed and we haven't seen any since.

Ken

So... Ken's finally coming to visit tonight. He left Carson City about 8:30 pm my time. Which means he'll get here at like 4:30 in the morning. He'll be staying for about a week. It'll be really nice to have him home, even if I have to work every day. I'm glad he'll be here on the 4th of July so I don't have to spend it alone.

My Yo-Yo Quilt

I've been working on my yo-yo quilt forever (or so it seems). I started it last April, then put it away for months and found it again in January. I've been workin' on it off and on since then. I'm probably about a third to half-way done with it. It's a lot of work. It's the longest crafty project I've ever worked on. I don't usually have the patience for really long projects. If you've never seen a yo-yo quilt before (I've never seen one in real-life besides my own) you make a million...lol... not quite a million but it seems that way, little yo-yos and sew them all together to make a bedspread. I'm making mine to be a twin size. I have an antique bed that my great-grandpa made, Caleb sleeps on it now, but some day I want to have it in a guest bedroom and put the yo-yo quilt on it. (I'm scared to put it on a bed that gets used all the time. It took too much work.) The whole thing is done in blues. None of the patterns or colors match. They're all just blues. I think it's really awesome. It'll be gorgeous when it's done.

Personality Color

I'm following Karalee's example :) After taking the quiz, I guess I'm a yellow. The link's below to take it yourself....

What's Your Color Personality?

Not-Too-Mellow Yellow
You tend to look on the bright side of things, and you're always the most easygoing, cheerful face in the crowd. People get a sense of power when they're around you---it's almost like your happiness is contagious. But. . .even though go-with-the-flow golden girls Like you sometimes go out of their way to please other people, they also can be a little lazy when nobody's looking. Don't forget to treat yourself as well as you treat others, sunshine.

http://www.gagirl.com/quiz/color-personality.html

Another Alyssa Note

Here's another note Alyssa wrote me:

MOM,
I love you 1 million dimonds, 2 million doves, 3 million sweetish fish, 4 million pearls, 5 million buttons, 6 million flowers, 7 million quarters, 8 million pennys, 9 million dimes and 10 million harts.

What a sweet girl. She is so caring.

kids

My kids are coming home tomorrow night. They've been with their dad since Saturday. The house has been extremely quiet. It's been nice to have some time alone, but I really miss them & I'm glad they're coming home. We thought Ken would be coming this week, but it turns out he's not, so it's been really quiet around here. The kids will probably be sad to come back to their boring life. It's not really fair that they get to go and just have fun, fun, fun with their dad. He doesn't have to work when he has them and they play the whole time. Then they come here and it's chores and staying home while mom works. Even though I try and plan out activities for them and such, it still makes me feel bad that I can't be that fun parent anymore. At least they get to come to the activities I'm planning, even if I'm working at them. It's hard. I'd love to be taking them all over the place and doing all kinds of summery activities, but this year it just isn't working out that way. I guess I'm just doing my best, and that's all I can do.

Ding (lightbulb turning on)

Today during RS I was really struck by something. Now this is something I've always known, but it really hit me today. I'm not really sure why.

Someone made the comment that when we look at our ancestors we go back generation to generation. When we look at our spiritual ancestry we are just directly linked with our Father in Heaven. Obviously I know that I am a daughter of God. But what really struck me is that my children are not my children. My parents are not my parents. Not on a spiritual sense anyways. They truly are my brothers and sisters. There is no line to Heavenly Father. We are all his children. We are sealed together, but not necessarily as daughters and sons but as brothers and sisters. We will all be friends/equals in eternity. It truly is a great responsibility to raise up my friends, my sisters and brother. After this life they will be just like me and I have to take responsibility for what happens to them on this earth, for the things they learn and the people they have been taught to become. (Obviously they have their agency, they will grow up and make their own choices, but what they are taught at home impacts them forever.) In Heaven they won't actually be my children. They will be adult spirits just like me.

This is really an odd thing to hit me so strongly today, and like I said I'm not sure why, but it does make me even more grateful that Heavenly Father trusts us so much that he is willing to let us take the responsibility of training, teaching and caring for our spirit siblings :)

Sunday

Tonight we had another virtual FHE with Ken's kids and Alyssa and I. We had a delicious sweet potato cake. Yum-yum.

I got a calling at church today. I was called to plan the children's class for enrichment nights, RS temple day each month, etc. LOL I was cracking up.... more kids' activities. When I told the bishop I plan kids' activities at both of my jobs he laughed too.

Alyssa

Today when I got home from church Alyssa had made a sign that said:

MOM,
10 things I love about you
1. your a great cook
2. your very creative
3. your a good cook
4. your very brave
5. you teach me a lot
6. you help out a lot
7. you always tell the truth
8. your very protective
9. you have good ideas
10. your always with me

She had it posted on the living room wall. What a sweet girl.

Silly Dilly Day Camp

Our first Silly Dilly Day Camp day was a hit. The kids had a blast with all the activities. They didn't clean up their messes though, so next time I'll schedule it out including what they need to do to clean up the activity. They usually do pretty well with list.

The kids are at their dad's for a week. Alyssa will come home for part of it because they're traveling and she's too sick to go. We spent time in both the doctor's office and the ER this week. Poor kid.

I'm really enjoying my job at the art center. Once again our activity wasn't well attended, but the people that went really enjoyed it. We're giving discounts to all kinds of people next week to try and up our numbers. It'll be a super fun activity, I'm bringing in a magician and everything. $3 a kid and adults free is a great price for a family activity too. Hopefully word spreads and people start realizing what a great deal it is.

I'm working on plans for children's programs for the fall too. Possibly preschool age birthday parties and a preschool drama class. My boss would like to see our building get used more during the day.

Day Camp

I've decided to try and motivate my kids to get their rooms clean by offering them a "Day Camp Day" once a week. The first one is Friday if they can get their rooms spotless. The theme for the first day is "I'm Proud to be an American". They're doing a science experiment, crafts, decorating cookies, etc. all with a patriotic them. I put everything for the day into a "Day Camp Bag". We went over what the activities will be so that they can be excited. I think it will be a lot of fun for them to have a planned out activity day once a week. And then I don't have to hear the whining of "Why can't we go to a day camp?" As if 2 weekly events at my jobs aren't enough :)

Family Home Evening

Last night for FHE along with celebrating Nina's birthday, we had our last "about me" presentation. This has been a really fun addition to each weeks lesson. I've decided I'm going to type up a new page of questions and start over again. It's been really good to get to know each other better.

We had our lesson on family goals. We went around and around asking everyone what one thing is they'd like to do as a family this summer. Some of the random answers were: eat chicken cordon bleu, have brunch with relatives, go to an arcade, have a themed dinner, play Skip-bo, eat root beer floats, make treats for friends, play at the park... It was funny to hear some of the things. We also talk about what we need to do to accomplish all of these things, like keep the house clean, not fight with each other and stuff like that. It's my goal to help them accomplish as many of these family goals as possible.

Of course our biggest family goal right now is to have Ken find a job here in our area. The kids fasted for the first time with us. I was so proud of them. They have such sweet spirits.

Nina's Birthday

Nina's actual birthday isn't until the 23rd, but since she'll be at her dad's, I wanted to surprise her. We had family home evening last night, for the refreshments Caleb and I made a cake. It was a last minute thing and since it was Sunday, we had to make do with what we had. Her favorite colors are blue and green, so we made green frosting and used blue sugar to decorate. I had these random flamingo picks (Caleb called them ostriches...lol) and one birthday candle. We hid the cake in Caleb's room along with her presents and then Surprise!!! It was awesome to see the look on her face.

Where Are All the Good Parents?

Not at my work activity tonight, that's for sure. I've never seen so many unsupervised children. I've never seen so many lazy people that think going to an activity every Monday night where they can socialize with their friends and let their kids run wild is considered Family Home Evening. What kind of example are you teaching your children? What kind of spiritual upliftment does your family get from this? I just need to vent... Kids were running wild, making messes, doing whatever they want and the parents just sit on their butts and chit-chat. Not just bigger kids, 2 and 3 year olds were running crazy, dumping paints all over, getting in other kids ways, and the parents don't even seem to notice. Huge families with 6, 7 or 8 kids and no parental supervision. There are a few certain families that do this every week, but tonight it seemed to be the majority. By the end of the night I wanted to scream at every family I saw.

So... anyways... I'm not usually a mean person, and I'm usually very patient :)

Is it bedtime yet? It's been a long day.

adventures in wonderland

We had a fun activity today. There wasn't much turn-out, but it was our first one and I guess Orem and Springville were having their big celebrations/carnivals. Hopefully as we get going along we get better crowds. The kids that came had a lot of fun. The Queen of Hearts was quite scary though. I couldn't get kids to even come and play "The Queen of Hearts Says" with me... lol. Nina the March Hare scared a couple of kids herself. Caleb had a blast doing all of the activities. What a fun job I have!!! I'm very blessed to have two jobs that I really enjoy. It's like throwing two birthday parties every week! Alyssa was home sick (as always). Poor kid; I half feel sorry for her, half want to beat her. She spents most of her time not feeling well. I'm just gonna have to start dragging her there sick or not.

Dementors

I think the Harry Potter event tonight went fantastically. For someone who has not watched or read a Harry Potter, I think I did a great job planning it. I'm pretty proud of myself. I know... toot toot... quit blowing my own horn. The dementor capes I made were a hit in the Defense Against the Dark Arts freeze tag game. I whipped them together in about an hour, and they came out pretty awesome.

The only bad part of the night was my kids didn't come. It's a long story, that makes me really grouchy just thinking about it. I'm so sad, they had been so excited because they had seen me plan everything and helped me with ideas. Oh well. Not anything I can do about it. There will be many more events they can come to.

Caleb's Baseball

Caleb started baseball last week. These are some pics of him at his first practice. He does pretty well. He's a good little hitter and thrower. He just needs to practice his catching. I think he's scared of the ball. Also, silly me, I didn't realize he needed to bring a mitt. Guess we need to buy him one before his next game. He's so adorable. I can't believe he's growing up so fast.

Monday, Monday

Here I am... Monday again already. This week has been very busy. I've been planning huge events at both jobs all week long. I've been working out the details for crafts and games, booking performers, looking for volunteers... it's been crazy. Tonight is our Harry Potter themed event. We're expecting about 500 kids. I've been running around trying to finish up all the last minute stuff today.

I was sick all weekend. I'm still getting over it, so today seems to be going by really slowly. I'd rather be home in bed :( Hopefully I have enough volunteers that I don't have to head up any activities. I don't have the voice to shout over a billion little kids.

My kids are with their dad for 4 days. They're coming to the event tonight cuz they would just DIE if they didn't. And then they're going camping for a couple of days. I'm glad they get to go have some fun.

When is Ken coming to visit?

I get asked quite often, when Ken is coming to visit again. We are hoping he'll get to come the last week in June and stay for a couple of weeks. He's applying for jobs in the area and we are hoping (and praying and fasting and hoping some more) that he can find a job here in the area soon. It's really rough being apart. I can't wait until the day we can be a "normal" family (lol... what is normal anyways?).

Crazy Busy

My boss at the arts center decided that since I love planning events so much, I should develop a weekly family event night there also. So I'm basically doing the same thing at both jobs these days. The intern who was supposed to help me plan events at my new job quit after one event because she couldn't handle it, which means I'm over all of the events there now. So.... I'm planning and in charge of 24 events during the months of June, July and August. All of which will have 100s of people attend. It's pretty cool, but my summer just seems to keep getting crazier and crazier. When you add in swimming lessons for all 3 kids, tennis for the girls and baseball for Caleb, my summer calendar is packed all ready and June has just begun.

I've set some goals for myself to help me get through this summer, and I'm listing them here to make myself be accountable for accomplishing them...
1. have dinner prepared each day before I go to work: whether it's a crockpot meal or a casserole ready for Nina to pop in the oven, I don't want to be eating cold cereal for dinner just because I'm busy.
2. have a clean house: Mondays I don't work until 2pm. I want to spend every Monday morning doing deep cleaning. Also the kids can't play or watch TV until chores are done.
3. spend time with the kids: We have passes at the pool, Thanksgiving Point and the zoo. I intend to use them and have family time with the children.
4. keep up on FHE and scripture reading: I don't wanna slack on these things just because I'm worn out when I get home.
5. to become healthier: When I'm busy I don't take the time to watch what I eat or work out... It's not acceptable! I need to make the effort to take care of myself.

Caleb

It was Caleb's turn to do our FHE lesson this week. Since we are trying to learn an article of faith each month, I decided one lesson each month needs to be dedicated to that article of faith. I had Caleb come down to my room so we could work on his lesson. He got frustrated because the 4th article of faith is something he knows nothing about. Usually the person doing the lesson gets to choose the topic, so they can choose something they know about. He said, "I'm the littlest one in the family... how can I teach everyone else something!" I told him that's why we teach, to learn ourselves. He replied, "How can you learn things yourself? When you teach, you're supposed to teach other people." What a young age to learn such a valuable lesson. How many of us feel inadequate in church callings or just in our every day lives? We are called to teach as mothers, as primary teachers, Sunday school teachers etc. We often feel that we are supposed to be teachers to those who know much more than we do. We sometimes are that "littlest one" and are overwhelmed. Caleb is such a sweet boy, and I'm thankful that we can teach lessons and principles to our children when they are young. We get to build the foundation of their precious testimonies. Our children are the future leaders of this land and the church. What a great responsibility!!! I am very grateful that the Lord has trusted us with his wonderful special children.