I miss Sarah

It is so good to get out of your own zone sometimes. I just finished a book I would have never read on my own. It came highly recommended and I still wasn't too excited to read it. It just didn't seem like my kind of book. I muddled through at first - but halfway through I was gasping out loud. By yesterday I couldn't put it down, yet I was sad knowing the faster I read the sooner it would be over. There is one particular letter to Sarah from Jack that took my breath away. Every woman should have a love letter like that tucked away somewhere. I am lucky to have many tucked away from Kyle. Of all the gifts I have gotten from Kyle, if our house burned to the ground I would miss those letters the most. The author wrote the book based off her great-grandmothers journal. I would love to know if that letter was based off something real too.
So go and get this book and tell me what you think
"These is My Words" By Nancy Turner
Here is one review of it:
This rip-roaring yarn, the diary as page-turner, is based on Turner's great-grandmother's diary and covers 20 years in the life of a woman in the Arizona Territories at the end of the last century. Through these pages, we watch the spirited Sarah, unpolished but spunky at 17, improve both her grammar and her grace; come to terms with death and tragedy including Indian attacks, train robbers, and childhood disease; marry twice and love one man fiercely; birth and bury children; and keep a large cast of extended family in her heart and in her kitchen. Along the way, she examines her own feelings toward Indians, Mexicans, and folks from back east; learns to manage money by making and selling her own scented soap; and attracts the love of her life by besting a bully in a shooting match. The language is rich and fine, sounding true to its time without being precious.

I remembered something

So we have been trying extra hard to get the kids to pay attention somewhat during church - or at the very least realize that the people are at the podium teaching us. We started giving treats for remembering specific things people said during their talks. Last night we went over it again with them and had an impromptu family home evening about prophets. We were having stake conference with a special broadcast from the first presidency - there were extra goodies on the line if they remembered something the Prophet said. Immediately after the service before we were even out of the pew Benjamin says "OK mom I remember one thing Gordon B. Hinkley said"
"Oh that's great what do you remember?"
"he said Good Morning my beloved Brothers and Sisters"
"that's it Benjamin?"
"Yep I remember for sure he said that"
"do you remember anything else?"
"NO, why?"
sigh...

Dust Storm

We are at the tail end of a crazy wind/dust storm. We found two strips of shingles in our front and back yard. Looking out our back window at least 3/4 of the houses are missing some shingles. One neighbors fence blew down. It actually started at Ella's soccer game (which they won 8-1) but luckily we were home before the worst of it. I was scared for a while, garbled memories of the tornado I went through as a child came coming back. Tomorrow we will check out our roof (from a distance, not by going up there :)

One week of walking with no problems!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!!!

Hodge Podge

Mornings:
Good morning!! Lately I find this when I go into the girls room in the mornings. I thought I would nip Ella's escapades into the crib in the bud, she is a little rough on the thing climbing in, but Kyle said leave them alone and let them bond. And he was right every time if find Ella in the crib playing with Maiya its SO cute. Of course two hours later she is locking her out of the room but oh well.

Grumpy Bear:
Maiya has been so grumpy as of late. I hope its because she is not feeling well. If this is her new behavior in general I am in trouble. First off she wants me to hold her ALL the time. Not really to cuddle she just wants to be at eye level with me and in the middle of everything. She refuses to sit in the highchair, and if she does she won't eat anything. It goes beyond ignoring the food. She freaks out, throws it against the wall and does a horror movie impersonation if you try to bring the food to her mouth. Now she does want to eat what she finds in the pantry on her own. She brings things to everyone in the house does this grunt thing and expects said bag to be opened immediately! If its not cue major tantrum and the other newest behavior: hitting.

She is hitting everyone and everything. If you act hurt she will do this air kiss toward you and give you about three more seconds to do what she wants before she strikes again. Here is a picture of her hitting Ella two seconds after the sweet cute picture. Scolding her is a one way ticket to major breakdown. Which I know she needs - but it gets tiring so she gets away with it a lot more than she should. Oh no its happening, the third one is breaking me down!

Neighborhood kids:
So at first I viewed it as a positive that there are a lot of kids in the neighborhood. And deep down I know it probably is but I am getting a little tired of it. We have very uppity neighbors to our left and right with daughters Ella's age - that won't really let them play over here. Then there are boys Benjamin's age down the street and one street over that have no problems sending their kids over for hours at a time and I am a little too uppity to send my kids over to their house. So my afternoon consist of either six kids in my house or me walking the streets doing the awkward "do you mind if my kids play over at your house" thing, or my kids whining and fussing that I never let them play with their friends. UGGGHHH - It reminds me of the swing thing when the kids were smaller. At first I hated playgrounds that didn't have swings because the kids loved them so - but after HOURS probably days actually of swinging and owning a swing set ourselves I wished the kids had never laid eyes on one:)

Last but not least a late HAPPY MARDI GRAS - here is our homemade king cake!

My First Science Fair Project

Dang it!

I checked after watching the news this morning and we have an almost finished jar of 2111 peanut butter - lets hope none of us get salmonella!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17155561/

Vehicle life support no more...

Its gone - we exchanged the Chevy for some very expensive scheduled maintenance on Gracie. Our most awesome mechanic is a church member - he is donating his services to try to get the Chevy drivable for a very needy family and we got a new timing belt and water pump in the Toyota. I am grateful - It was a very fair trade and I am glad we are done with it actually. Having one car is solidifying my resolve for frugal living. I say with only slight hesitation I have gone 100% into cloth diapers. I have mastered the correct number of layers for night and nap wear. The final frontier is out and about, but we won't get out much with one car:). I have made one trip requiring a diaper change and armed with leftover newspaper bags for the dirty diaper it went just fine. Now I have one issue with saving money on grocery shopping. Almost all books and websites I read on saving grocery money tout once a month grocery shopping. The idea is stocking up on sale items, bulk buying, and eliminating numerous trips and therefore extra money for miscellaneous junk. I get the point but I can't honestly picture it. For one I wouldn't know where to begin on getting everything for a month. It would probably require a lot of time at once. I don't think I am organized enough - but if it would save more I might try.
Here is a once a month shopping family:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/AmericanFamily/story?id=127871&page=1

The other tips so far have been a big help - I should give this one a try too. How often do the rest of you shop? Do you think going less often would save you money?

Happy Birthday Aunt Beth

Love you!!!

The Good then the Terrible

So my walking continues - I enjoy the company a lot and I have had more energy. But (there is always a but...) First the good - the itching is getting better!! yah! In fact Monday I barely itched at all. I was so excited I decided to do some extra walking on our off days - well I don't know if it was because of walking everyday and picking up the pace a little or what but I think I have shin splints in just my right shin. It hurt bad yesterday - but I didn't want to give in and not walk this morning so off I trudged and about 10 minutes into our walk I could feel the front of my lower leg start to tighten. I started stopping about every block and stretching but I kept going, repeating in my mind "no pain no gain". By the time I got home I was wishing for death.

I sat on the sofa and would you believe it got worse! It felt similar to labor pains concentrated in my shin. Thank my lucky stars Meg had the day off - I sent Ella to wake her (which is not an easy feat) and she lovingly took over - I loaded up on pain medicine and spent the rest of the morning moaning intermittently on the sofa. I will now read up on my new flavor of ailment and decide by tomorrow if I will be walking on Friday.

Did I do that?

Totally unrelated conundrum - I got zeke some new chewies they are like pig ears but in long strips - It would be an understatement to say he absolutely adores them! He waits at the counter like a child begging for candy. But holy cow they give him the WORST gas in the history of dogdom. He has always been heavy on the flatulent side but whoa these are bad. I don't have the heart to get rid of his treats. I am not buying more but until they are gone I need to buy more matches.

Benjamin's Fort

Its working...

Benjamin has a major problem cleaning up - he has never been too big on it - but even when he tries he falters. We have had major break downs on both sides over this issue. As a mom I try to keep my cool but when I say "pick up your dirty clothes" four hundred times a week it leads me to the land of mental breakdown.
We are figuring out Benjamin is a visual learner - so my Mom gave me the idea to give him a picture of his room clean and tell him to make his room look like the picture. So I cleaned his room, took a picture, - blew it up and printed it with the title "MY CLEAN ROOM" and hung it on the wall. Skeptical I explained once again what he needs to do to his room everyday. The next morning I walk in and he is straightening the pillows on his bed and there were dirty clothes in the hamper. HALLELUJAH
Now there is a "OUR CLEAN BATHROOM" and "OUR CLEAN GAMEROOM" sign. Lets hope it keeps working.