Daily Musings of Nothingness

I have a few minutes and thought I would blog some of my musings.

• The new house is coming along nicely (sorry about not posting pictures yet). The master bedroom was has been demoed and repaired. The electrical work is done. We added 10 new recessed lights in the master bedroom and 3 in the kitchen. The cabinet work is supposed to be done tomorrow or the next day. The windows are being trimmed today. So exciting.
• The intercom system at the new house is kind of fun. Brad and I messed around with it today. You can talk to whoever is at the door from any intercom in the house. Cool.
• I feel the need to organize a bit before I start moving. Today I sorted through Emily and Sam's room. Emily consented to give up a few things but not as much as I hoped.
• The kids did something to my m key on my keyboard. I have to press really hard to make it work.
• Ben is a stinker! He turns 2 on Sunday and is starting to throw temper tantrums. He can be very stubborn. If he wasn't so lovable, I think I would go crazy.
• Ben fell out of his crib last night. He refused to go to bed and tried to climb out before I even got out of his bedroom. Thunk! Emily had mastered climbing out of her crib at 16 months or so and Sam sometime around 18 months. I guess I should be grateful he waited until now. Although maybe that fall might keep deter him.
• We were supposed to go to Utah this weekend and see Vicki's baby blessed but I have come down with a cold and Emily and Sam have had the stomach flu. So much for spending spring break at Grandma's house.
• I spent last night organizing my primary stuff (I'm secretary). It feels so good to finally be organized. It was driving me crazy!
• I leave for Boston soon! It will be fun to spend time with Angela and cheer her on as she runs the Boston Marathon. Angela is amazing!
• It is time to make dinner and I would rather blog (the kids are outside-whoo hoo!). I really hate making dinner. So did my mom. Darn they are inside, now my fun ends. Waffles for dinner tonight.

Daily Musings of Nothingness

Back by popular demand: MORE DAILY MUSINGS OF NOTHINGNESS!

• Ben is talking up a storm now. Two of his first two word sentences: Make mess! (More about this later) and See dog (he wanted to watch Blue's Clues while we were waiting for Emily at gymnastics).
• Thursday was a hectic day. I spent 4 1/2 hours at Emily's school doing PTO things (Pizza Party for Read-A-Thon winners and PTO meeting). When I got finally got home, Ben hadn't taken a nap and was soooooooo cranky. Emily was crying because she didn't want to go to gymnastics and then Ben dumped an entire box of goldfish crackers all over the living room floor followed by a basket of glittery confetti that Emily was supposed to have thrown away (But Mom it is so pretty!). Hence, Ben's first two word sentence, "make mess!" Meanwhile I was on the phone trying to figure out why our new home owners insurance policy was $1,000 more than other quotes. I didn't realize what was happening until Sam turned on the vacuum. Out of that chaos, Sam was my hero that day. Wow, this musing could have been it's own post.
• I have been elected PTO secretary for next year. I'm really excited to get more involved in what is happening at the elementary school.
• I am the most disorganized person lately. I have stacks and stacks of things I need to go through. I really hate not being on top of my clutter. It makes me moody.
• I stopped really organizing stuff lately because I figure I have to move it all soon. It will all catch up to me soon.
• We sign our part of the house closing paperwork tomorrow morning. It should all be taken care of by Tuesday.
• We bought our fridge, microwave, and cook top last weekend. We saved a bunch of money!!! We picked out the cook top we wanted and got prices at two places in town. We came home and googled the model number and found a brand new one on Ebay! We saved $350. It came yesterday and looks great! For the fridge, we bought the floor model and saved $500. I love getting a deal!!!!!
• We went shopping for our granite counter tops yesterday. I am so overwhelmed by making the choice. It is so expensive that I don't want to mess up. Any advice?
• I have dirty laundry stacked up to my ears.
• My sister, Traci, and her family are planning on visiting this weekend. I LOVE having visitors come to my house, especially family.
• I have two people who have offered to help me with decorating my house. I am so relieved! I am really bad at it.
• I really need a haircut. So does Ben. I refuse to cut my kid's hair.
• I really do need to get to that laundry so I'll end here.

Have a great week!

Happy Birthday Sam!

Today my little Sam turned 5 years old! Where did the time go? He has been so excited. He has been counting down the days for about 10 days. My mom, dad, sister Vicki and her new baby Dimitrie came up this week and they gave him some birthday gifts (I hope to post pictures later). He has been playing with them non-stop since. He will disappear to his room for hours and when I check on him, he is playing with is Matchbox Mega Rig Space Shuttle, Launcher, and Rescue Copter. He loved Vicki's Car Doodle kit and was so excited to open his birthday cards this morning at breakfast. We are having friends over tonight for cake and ice cream and more presents. He can't wait to see what is in store tonight.

It is so fun to see him so excited and happy. His primary teacher gave him a small gift and he just feels so special today. We love this little guy so much!

Sometimes It Is Nice To Rent

One recent Sunday morning I walked downstairs to the basement and I noticed something unusual in the window well. Upon closer inspection I discovered 2 to 3 inches of water pooling in the window well. As I was standing there I also realized my slippers were getting wet. I called to Brad and informed him of the problem. As we were trying to figure out what to do, we realized, "Hey, this isn't our problem. Let's call Jake!" I couldn't help but breathe a sign of relief that we didn't just buy a house with water damage.

We made a speedy call to the owner of the house as we tried to do what we could to discover why this was happening. We had had heavy rains that night (the first since we had lived in Idaho) and I realized that the rain gutter was dumping the water just to the right of the affected window. I found a tube that I used to divert the water away from the window until Jake could take a look.

When Brad and Jake pulled back the carpet they found a river of water running right into the basement under the carpet. They bailed the water out of the window well and set up fans to dry out the carpet.
It took a while to dry everything out and the water had seeped much further into the family room then originally thought (I had to pull the carpet back much farther than what is shown in the pictures). I used a dehumidifier to help get rid of that damp, musty smell that comes following problems like this. It appears that this has happened before and Jake is working on making sure it doesn't happen again.

Hopefully, it won't happen again...at least while we are living here.

Trick or Treat

Halloween was a highly anticipated event in our household this year. As with most children, the thought of buckets of free candy is one of the most exciting events of the year besides Christmas. Emily and Sam kept asking how many more days until Halloween. Emily informed me that we should have a countdown to Halloween just like we have at Christmastime. Emily kept asking when would we decorate, when would we carve pumpkins, when is it time for trick or treating, etc, etc, etc.

Here are the kids in their costumes. Isn't Emily adorable. Somehow she did not have her pom poms with her for the picture but she was in too big a hurry to get the picture over with so the fun could begin. I neglected to take a picture of her during her school Halloween parade (I forgot my camera, what was I thinking!) My neighbor took one for me but I haven't got it yet.

Here is my valiant knight in shining armor. He looked so handsome and brave in this costume. As you can imagine, the sword was the best part. This pose was his idea.

Now here is my adorable Benny. One thing about Ben-he LOVES dogs. I mean LOVES dogs. Whenever he is throwing a fit or being difficult all I have to do is say, "Benny, lets look out the window and see if there are any dogs" (our neighbors have two small dogs that occasionally are outside). His strong desire to see a dog usually saves my sanity. So when I was digging through the Halloween costume box, I was so happy to find Sam's old dog costume (he wore it when he was 2 years old). I knew it would be perfect for Ben.

Sure enough, Halloween night he allowed Brad to put the costume on him and was even delighted to be wearing it (he wore it all night without a fuss). When Emily stood in front of the door to have her picture taken, Ben waited for his turn and wanted me to take his picture as well.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the back of the costume. Isn't that tail the cutest? When I tried the costume on Ben, I pointed out the tail to Emily and Sam. Ben then turned to see and looked just like a puppy chasing his tail-around and around. What I wouldn't have given to have a video camera at that second. My kids were so excited to go trick or treating in our new neighborhood but we found out that the neighborhood does a trunk or treat instead. Our kids were soooooo disappointed. They did not want to trunk or treat. That was until I asked Emily's neighborhood friend if it was fun. She gave Emily the low down i.e. You Get Tons of CANDY!!!!!

Emily and Sam did not have school on Friday and so we spent the afternoon making paper bats and spiders and Kleenex tissue ghosts to hang up in our car for the Trunk or Treat activity that evening. The kids had a ball and made a huge mess. But it was totally worth it to see how hard they were working and how much fun they had doing it.

Brad's mom was able to join us for our evening festivities despite recovering from a nasty sinus infection. We had our traditional chili dinner, then dressed up, and headed to the Trunk or Treat activity. I thought the car looked pretty cool and we got many compliments on the decorations. I was surprised that we were one of the few to decorate. Party poopers!

The Trunk or Treat was a success and sure enough we got plenty of candy (and gave out plenty). Ben was SO EXCITED!!! After the first two cars, he realized that people were giving him candy. He would hold up his hand and they would hand him his candy and he would walk away giggling and giggling and giggling. He would not wait for Emily or Sam but continue on to the next car where he would hold up his hand or reach into the bowl, he was not shy at all, and get the candy. Then he would walk away giggling and giggling and giggling. It was a riot to watch him.

Sam said to me as we were walking around, "Mom, I really like Halloween."

After Trunk or Treating we headed over to Grandma T's. It was so fun to spend the evening with Dianne and have her a part of our holiday. Here she is with our crazy gang. Do you like my Hippie Witch costume? I bought it on clearance an few years ago for $2.90. I get so many compliments.After seeing Grandma at her house, we went to Steve and Tobie's to go trick or treating with their family (we promised the kids they could do some traditional trick or treating). Emily, Sam, Mikey, Ben and Sean had a great time trick or treating the neighborhood. I should have got a picture of them. What was I thinking! The fun continued with more candy, giggles, running from house to house, and more candy. Sam and Mikey got tired and all the boys headed home. Emily wanted to keep going and so Tobie and I walked one more cul-de-sac with her. She scored because every house gave her a handful of candy. I think it was because she was so darn cute.

It was a fun Halloween spent together as a family. As we drove to Steve and Tobie's, we passed the hospital and Brad laughed and said, "Ha, Ha I'm glad I'm not there." It hit me that even though Brad works hard all week long, his weekends and holidays are free to be with us. I am so happy about that!

Pumpkin Carving

My kids begged for days to carve their Halloween pumpkins. Finally on Thursday night we pulled out the pumpkin carving kit (it is really worth the few bucks for these handy tools) and set to work. Emily had previously decided that she wanted her pumpkin carved with the face of a cat (she saw it in a book at school). So we all got to worked pulling out the seeds and pulp of the pumpkins.I really don't like cleaning out the pumpkins so I'm glad that the kids are old enough to do the work.They had a ball sorting the seeds from the pulp (we never did get around to roasting them). Brad started carving one of the "decorative" mini pumpkins and it turned out quite cute. He even put a candle in it.
Here is Emily with her Kitty Pumpkin. She LOVED the pumpkin and would not let us put it outside because it might get stolen. She was horrified when Brad told her he was going to make it into pumpkin pie. She finally relented, it was either that or throw it in the garbage after it molded.Here is Sam with his pumpkin (please disregard his dirty face). He told Brad exactly what he wanted his pumpkin to look like. Can you see a resemblance?Here is a close up of our works of art. Pumpkin pie anyone?Sam's molded so fast. He picked it at his pumpkin patch field trip. It was already getting soft when we carved it so no pumpkin pie out of this one. This one is cute enough to eat.

Emily insisted on lining them up in order. The one that is colored is Emily's that she took to her school library.
Happy Halloween!

Toy Rotation

I am a firm believer in toy rotation. Not only because it is a good practice in home organization but because I am a recovering toy buying freak. It is true. I went through a period a few years back where I bought an insane amount of toys. Just ask Brad...or anyone else who visited my house. (BTW someone once asked me if I ran a day care because of all the toys)

Most of these toys were from the line of Fisher Price's Little People. I love these toys. I love the imagination they spur when children play with them, I love the memories I had playing with Little People toys with my sisters, and I love that Emily played with them for hours on end when she was younger.

Now I have the space to display all these toys but not the desire to either
A) See them scattered about my entire house while I freak out that the construction set is getting mixed up with the airport set and the airport set is mixed up with the zoo set, etc. (I am a little compulsive that way.)

or

B) See them sit there while no one plays with them and than I feel bad that they are not being used and memories are not being made creating fun Little People adventures with each other.

So to make sure the above mentioned things do not happen, I store each set with ALL the pieces (if a piece is missing I can't rest until it has been recovered-I know, I know-totally compulsive). Then I store the sets in plastic bins and place them in my storage room until the time is ripe for toy rotation. I had the house set out but now no one is playing with it so I packaged it up (no missing pieces, much to my relief) and stored it away for another playtime in the future.

A few days ago, I needed to get a few things done so I took out the Little People Amusement Park and Construction set bin and let Ben and Sam have fun. Here they are digging in. Sam had exclaimed, "MOM, I forgot about these. I LOVE THESE!" It was just like Christmas morning but in October and it didn't cost me so much.
Sam can hardly wait to figure out what adventures the Little People will experience today.
Ben is thrilled with new toys. Although, every toy is new to him.

So the moral of this post is that toy rotation is a great thing. I makes your old toys new again. Brad told me we didn't need to buy anything for Christmas, we just needed to wrap up their old toys and give them to the kids again. As much as I would like to do that, I do still have that insane toy buying freak deep inside of me. It sometimes sneaks out at Christmastime. Oh boy, oh boy!

Wall Drug, South Dakota

On our drive from Minnesota to Idaho, we stopped at one the of ultimate in tourist traps: Wall Drug, South Dakota. It was a quaint stop full of overpriced souvenirs and tempting treats, even on old fashioned soda counter. Out back they have a fun place for kids to play and parents to take several dozen pictures. Here are a few shots assembled in my first Pisaca collage. I'm glad that drive is over.

We Love Being by Family

My older sister Rona, who lives in California, is in Utah visiting my family. I have not seen Rona for over 2 years. She has never even seen my Ben. Unfortunately, as the two siblings that live away from home base our vacation paths haven't crossed-until NOW!

She arrived late last night and called me today and asked when I was coming down. I said, "Why not tomorrow!" My kids whooped with joy at the unexpected trip to Grandma Eva's. So I finished my laundry (the reason I didn't leave tonight) and have packed my bags, mostly.

So I'll be gone for a week playing in the sun with my family! See ya!

PS Did I mention how much I love being closer to family!!!!

Moving Days

It is never fun to move but this time was so much easier in so many ways. Mainly, we had Mayflower do the packing, loading, and unloading. I have always done this myself and I am so glad I didn't have to this time.

The Mayflower guys came on Wednesday, July 18th and spent the day packing our belongings. Before they came, I had everything clean and ready. They came about 8:00 and most of the packing was done by 12:30. Wow! About 7 guys, mostly teenagers, packed and they did are really great job (nothing was broken in the move). They said it was one of the easiest jobs they have done because I had it all ready. One guy was so nice to Sam and let him be a "helper". Sam LOVED it! Brad was able to be home and he kept the kids out of the way (kind of) while I tried to do some cleaning. Later that afternoon, a few guys came back to do the inventory. That took as long as the packing.

On Friday morning the truck came. It was strange to see a huge semi parked in front of my house. Please note that it was already half full of someone else's belongings. I know I have a lot of stuff but not that much.About six guys removed everything from the house and piled it in my driveway. As my neighbor, Marin, put it, it looked like my driveway threw up.

I was interested to see how they organized this task (it is the insane organizer in me). They sorted everything in the driveway-furniture, boxes, plastic bins, large bulky items, etc. They then loaded things and utilized every inch of space in the moving van from floor to ceiling.

Sarah P., and Hillary C., so graciously took my kids for the entire day (Brad had to work.) It was a lifesaver! It would have been so difficult to keep them out of the way while the movers were in and out of the house. Not to mention that everything was packed so they would have nothing to do.

While the movers worked, I cleaned the entire house and got ready for our two and a half day drive. It is surprising how much dust and dirt are hiding behind furniture.

The movers left around 4:00 pm (I can't really remember exactly). I had the house clean and the minivan loaded for the trip. I went to pick up the kids and Brad from work (we had his car moved). The kids wanted to come back and say good bye to the house. I think it was strange for them to see it completely empty. They were so young when we moved in.

So 4 years and 1 month after we moved to Minnesota, we had to say goodbye to our friends, neighbors, and lovely city. We were off to experience our next chapter in life. It has been 15 years in coming and we are excited and nervous about what the future holds for us in Idaho!

Last Few Days in Minnesota

It has been soooo long since I felt I had a minute to blog. So I'm going to sneak in a quick (yeah right-it just keeps going and going) post while Emily and Sam are playing nicely together (how long will that last?) and Ben is asleep (please sleep little baby!).

I reviewed the pictures I took over our last few days in Minnesota and I thought I would post them along with a brief explanation.

We decided it was not worth moving our trampoline and swing set to our new house. So we gave them to our friends Hillary and Mark for their little guy Blake. Mark came and took down the trampoline and swing set (Thank you Mark!). The kids were not as upset as I thought they might be. Here is the big dirt spot where the trampoline killed all the grass underneath it.

Here is Emily and Sam swinging before Mark came to dismantle the swing set. I forced them to go outside for "one last swing." Ignore the super long grass-it rained a lot and I was unable to mow it for awhile. For pictures of the swing set and trampoline's new home click here.
We have always love "park day" during the summer. Moms and kids from church gathered at local parks and played and snacked every Tuesday morning. We were usually the first to arrive and the last to leave. Here are Ben, Ann B., Joy M., Sarah P., Lori L., and Janus W. I should have taken more pictures, but I was still in denial that this was my last chance.
Here is Emily with friends (I have no idea why she is scowling). Tessa P., Madison L., Emily, Alexis W., Ella F. I'm so glad she had a chance to play with her friends one last time.
I could not help including a picture of how Ben spends "Park Day". Here he is with a bag of pretzels. He usually eats non stop while the kids play. I guess everyone has their own definition of fun!When we are not playing outside, Emily is great at coming up with fun things to do inside. Here is Emily and Alyssa M. (across the street neighbor) dancing.

Our friends have been such an important part of our lives while we have lived in Minnesota. Our friends are like family to us and we have shared so many memories with them. I was so fortunate that Hillary C. and Sarah P. were willing to watch my kids while the movers were at our house, not just because I needed the kids out of the way, but as chance for Emily and Sam to play with them one last time before we moved.

Here is Emily and Tessa. Such pretty girls!Here are handsome Abel and Sam. Of course, we had to have the silly pose picture! Sarah, why didn't I take a picture of the two of us?
It was so hard to say goodbye to my friends. Thank you Hillary for emailing me these pictures. Look at us with our cute baby boys (Jared and Ben)! Sam with his good buddy Blake.There was a slide that belonged to the swing set we gave to Blake and his family. (Brad never attached it in our yard-long story). I'm glad Sam got a chance to use it and that Mark attached it for Blake. I'm so glad that Emily, Sam, and Ben had a great last day in Minnesota playing with their friends.Stay tuned for the moving pictures.

Saying Farewell to Friends

This past week we started the sad process of saying goodbye to wonderful friends.

Our wonderful friends of the past three years (gee, it seems like we have known them much longer), Todd, Julie, Sarah, Mason and baby Emma (that is what we call her) moved to Utah. Emily and Sarah, Sam and Mason have been buddies since they moved to Minnesota three years ago. So many play dates, preschool days, park visits, holidays, and babysitting swaps have been spent with them. We have so many wonderful memories.

Julie has always been willing to babysit whenever I needed her and my kids always feel so welcomed and happy at her house. I'm going to miss our chats so much!
Here's Brad and Todd saying goodbye.


Sam waves to his best buddy.Farewell great friends! We already miss you!

Lemonade Stand

While I was getting ready for the garage sale, I realized that it would be nice to have something for the kids (Emily especially) to do while I’m manning the sale. Rosemary’s kids sold cookies at their garage sale and I thought it would be fun for the kids to do something similar. I talked to Ann about it and we both decided we didn’t want to make cookies (or anything else for that matter). She suggested we use my lemonade stand and sell lemonade. I also decided the kids could sell freezer pops (or Otter pops depends on what part of the country you live). Emily was THRILLED with this idea. One thing you might not know about Emily is she is an entrepreneur and highly motivated by money.

My mom gave me the above lemonade stand last summer. She purchased it at Target when it was 75% off. She bought all they had and gave one to me and my sisters. My kids have a ball with it and beg to sell lemonade. We live on a cul-de-sac so I rarely let them do it for numerous reasons.

But the garage sale was a perfect chance to use it. As soon as Emily came home from school on Friday she immediately set it up. They had fun with it for awhile but eventually lost interest because we didn’t have a lot of people coming through later in the afternoon and it was a bit on the cool side. I think they also ate most of the freezer pops. At the end of Friday they had $2.60 which they immediately spent at Target on nail polish ($1) and a foam sword ($1).

Saturday was another story. Despite being 9:00 in the morning, many kind people were willing buy a small cup of lemonade for 5 cents or a freezer pop for 10 cents from a few eager kids. As the morning went by they were selling many cups of lemonade and lots of freezer pops. Most of the people were very generous and gave a quarter and didn’t expect change. Emily, Sam, Alyssa, and Anders greeted everyone who stopped by with a friendly, “Would you like to buy a cup of lemonade?” As they left Alyssa even told them to, “Come again!”

I was amazed that they stayed interested and profitable until about 1:00 pm when things started slowing down and they sold (or ate) all of the freezer pops and we ran out of lemonade.

In the end they made over $22.00. I was surprised by the amount of money they earned. It was kind of people to support the kids’ enthusiasm and buy a cup of lemonade. I think it was a good lesson for them as well. Emily even gave a few kids a free freezer pop just because she either knew them or she wanted to be nice.

Emily and Sam chose to use the money they earned to buy their bikes (that was our theme of the garage sale). One of the first things we will do after we move is bike shopping!

I wonder what our next entrepreneurial project will be.

Happy Easter

I have been so overwhelmed with the whole selling the house situation and Brad's horrible schedule that Easter was really low key this year. The Friday before Easter Sunday we had our Easter Egg hunt since Brad was home. The kids woke up to Easter baskets filled with toys, games and candy. They had fun looking through the baskets and they couldn't wait to find all the eggs hidden around the basement. It didn't take long for Ben to realize that there was candy in the eggs. He was so excited! On Easter Sunday, our friends the T's invited us (me and the kids since Brad was working) for dinner at their house. It was a fun evening visiting with friends and eating good food. Maybe next year I'll have it more together and we can focus on the true meaning of Easter.

Stomach Flu - You know post will involve vomit - Consider yourself warned!

I can't believe it has been a week since I last posted. Well, actually I can believe it. It has been a week filled with the stomach flu. Ben, Emily and Sam had it this week. I think I had a slight case or maybe just being around sick kids made me queasy. It wasn't as horrible as it could have been-mostly one good puke with a lost of appetite for a couple of days. But I was stressed out because the carpet has just been cleaned and vomit smelling carpet isn't a good thing when you want to sell your house. Fortunately, we didn't have any problems on the carpet and no one has thrown up since Thursday morning so I think we are in the clear!!

Hopefully we have a better week. It's Spring Break!

Ice Skating

We attended an ice skating activity last night. At first I wasn't thrilled about it because I figured I would be sitting on the sidelines with Ben while Brad tried to help two kids ice skate. As a true "Prophetess of Doom,"I foresaw chaos, crying, and frustration. But I was wrong. It was a blast!

Many of our friends were there (you would have thought it was a ward party rather than a resident's party). We were able to watch each other's kids and everyone was able to get as much time on the ice as possible. I even got out there and didn't fall (although I had a few close calls).

First, Brad took Emily while I got Sam ready. She was amazing! She picked it up like she has been skating since she was a baby!There she goes on her own!Next, Brad took both of the kids out for a turn. Here they go! Look at Emily. She has only been out on the ice for about five minutes.Sam was having a really hard time and so was Brad. Brad's skates didn't fit well and trying to keep Sam vertical was a struggle.But, the rink has these really cool "skaters" as Sam called them. There were made out of PVC pipe and they came in all different sizes. At first someone gave us a tall one and I was able to take Sam around the ice with him holding onto it while I skated us around (sorry, no pictures). Then eventually we got a small one for Sam. He was able to skate on his own and he LOVED it!

We also loved it because the kids could skate on their own. Sam just took off and skated around the rink. If he happened to slip, he got right back up and kept going. Eventually his buddy Mason joined him with a "skater" and they went round and round.

By this time, Emily was a pro! She skated and skated. There was a figure skating class going on in another rink and Emily tried to imitate what they were doing. She would try to skate and lift her leg and spread her arms. Unfortunately, I never got any pictures of that.
Eventually, we had to drag the kids off the ice. Emily probably would have skated all night if she could. Emily talked about how much she loved it all the way home. This morning, Emily said she dreamed about ice skating and wonders when we can go again. Hopefully soon!