Klondike

Here are pictures from the Klondike. Ty said he was plenty warm. The scouts were pretty impressed with his homemade chili (made by dumping cans and adding a little chili powder.  Ty said that they were amazed with the bread sticks and cookies that he brought up. That made me smile.

Water mustache

We had a family date night last night. We went to Lowe's to find some boards to help me in my quest to overcome my weakness of disorganization. Right now I'm working on the pantry. The kids were so happy to get out of the house. Jacki loves Lowes and "The depot." Ty played with
Wes. He had his measuring tape that he would flip out towards Wes. Our lil guy loved it when it was close enough that he could touch it, and he laughed. Lowe's has drinking fountains. Jacki went over there a couple of times. She told me she couldn't drink anymore because she was going to get a water mustache.  We drink a lot of orange drink at our house, and if Jacki doesn't use a straw, she ends up with an orange mustache, so she figured that she was going to get a water mustache.

Our family adventure also took us to Hastings. I promised Jacki that she could get a new strawberry shortcake movie if she had a nap and picked everything off the floor so I could vacuum (anything to avoid bending over.) She was so excited. She liked that store and all the candy toys. We had to keep telling her to come with us. Come to think of it, she ran away at Lowe's too, and one of the workers told Ty which way she went.

We ended our night out with a pizza to go from Pizzeria. It was bbq chicken. They put a little fresh parsley on it, and Jacki said, "Yuck, there is salad on my pizza." (She's not a fan of salad, and we like to tease her about that.)

Missing Dad

My friend Pauline gave me an amaryllis bulb to watch grow. It just bloomed this week. On wikipedia, the amaryllis is described as follows:

"The botanic name Amaryllis is taken from a shepherdess in Virgil's pastoral "Eclogues," from the Greek ἀμαρύσσω (Latin amarysso) meaning "to sparkle."^[4]

As a flower symbol it has come to mean "Dramatic"."

Pauline gave the flower to me to remind me of my dad and grandpa who have passed away. Then, I read my friend Edythe's blog about her memories of her dad and listened to music on it called Daddy's girl, and I teared up yesterday and hope that I have a couple of guardian angels that are helping me from paradise. I am a lot like my dad. Grandpa was my mentor. I spent a lot of time with him the last year or so of his life, and he adored my little girl and loved our visits. I'm really glad that I've had these reminders of these two important people in my life. I had a brain hiccup, but I just remembered where I was going with this and came back to finish this post. I know that they are a part of who I am-- just like all other friends and relatives that have impacted me. Elder Anderson gave a recent fireside. He said, "Just as our life began before our birth into mortality, our life does not end with the stopping of a heartbeat. We will continue on. Who you are—you, the distinct individual—you will always be you. Some may say, “I don’t like myself.” Sorry. You can shape who you become, you can be more than you are today, but you will always be you." I know that my dad and grandpa are continuing on and have thought about my life and what I need to do in life as the "distinct person" that I am. I love the general authorities way of encouraging us to all "sparkle" like the amaryllis no matter where we are or how the world sees us. I think it's so important to teach our kids that they are special. Already, my three year old says things like, "I can't do that good enough, etc." I help her as much as I need to and then let her shine. There is nothing like the glow that comes through her face as she says, "I did it." Ty has done this for me. I told him that he has always treated me like a 10 cow wife (jonny lingo). He doesn't care about mistakes. He openly admits to the ones he makes and moves on. I hope that our kids are able to cope with life like Ty does and realize how great they are.

Enjoying life without letting the policeman run us over

The kids have been feeling better, and Jacki was really excited to go to the library. I told her it didn't open until 10. She looked at the clock and said it was nine (she doesn't understand how read the minutes yet.) We read a few books and then went. We had gone a couple of blocks when she told me that she needed to put her seat belt on. I told her that we need to wear seat belts so we can be safe. She said, "Ya, and if we don't, the policeman will run us over." It took me a second to realize that she meant to say "pull us over." I told her that they pull us over not run us over. She told me that there weren't any policemen out, so I went back to telling her that we need to wear seat belts so that if we get in a wreck we don't go through the windshield. She couldn't understand why that would happen. So, we moved on to eye spy.

On a different note, I felt like I needed to quit my job at the end of October for a lot of reasons that I won't go into. I have really tried to enjoy being home with the kids, but I admit that there are times that I miss work. Whenever I hear stay at home moms say that they love every minute and there is nothing they'd rather be doing, I wonder what's wrong with me. Last night for example, Jacki and I were making dinner- potato logs, and I told her she could do the shaking after I finished cutting up the potatoes. When I was ready, I yelled to her, and she didn't answer me. I went up to find her. She was in her bathroom with poop all over her and in her pants. I dropped everything to clean up the mess and give her a bath. We had a talk about not messing her pants.

After dinner, we were hanging out on my bed getting ready for scriptures, and I smelled poop. I didn't know if I was just imagining it, but it wouldn't go away. Ty came in and told Jacki she stunk and had to go take care of it. It turns out she had pooped her pants again....de ja vu....So, like I said it was one of those moments when I wasn't loving being at home. I talked to Ty about it, and he said that there are plenty of times that he would take poop and doing dishes over what he has to do, and I realized once again that there is poop that we all have to deal with (literal and figuratively.) I know that work isn't a fairytale either. I've been there, but this last time that I did work I tried to really appreciate the opportunity, even though I didn't love everything about it. I've realized that those people that say they love their jobs (stay at home mom, career, whatever it may be.) don't love the crap, but they don't let it ruin everything else that they do love. I won't ever love changing poopy diapers.

No hope for good education

I remembered a scene from the movie Baby Boom yesterday. The mom's are sitting around at the playground watching their kids play, and one mom is really upset because she just found out that her child didn't get into the preschool that she wanted. She says that if he doesn't get into the right preschool, he won't get into a good primary and secondary school, and then he can forget an ivy league college. Then, when Diane Keaton admits that her child isn't signed up for any schools and can barely hold a cup, the upset mom said, "I thought I had problems."

Well, yesterday I started calling preschools. My baby girl wants to go, and I think it would be good for her. I thought that I was calling in plenty of time (they don't start until fall.) Well, the first one I called said that she would put me on her waiting list. In a couple of weeks I would get an email either saying it was full, or saying there was room. The next one told me that her 4 year old class pretty much fills up automatically because she has a three year old class that just moves up. She did think she has at least child changing schools and one opening. My mother in law referred me to her. She actually taught my husband. When she found that out, she said she would move us to the top of the list. So maybe I haven't ruined Jacki's chance for a good education after all ....hahahaha.

I'm going to press the button

Jacki and I are both ready for dad to come home. Jacki just asked me, "what's taking dad so long?" We've had a big day. Jacki just said, "You really wear me out but I love you anyway mommy." That's from one of our favorite books, (but it's the other way around.) I thought I'd better update our blog. I've been putting it off because I really want to put in pictures from Ty's Klondike which aren't on the computer yet, so I've been procrastinating.

At our house the coveted task is to press the garage button. If we want to light a fire under Jacki to get her out of the car fast and into the house, we say, "I'm going to press the button." Wes has caught on to and wants the be the one to press it. He has enough motor control now and is strong enough to do it. Yesterday when Ty came home from work he came in and said, "I pressed the button," (just to rile up Jacki.) It worked. She said, "aaaahhhhh."

My brother Jord just sent me these pictures he took while he was visiting us. We miss JOJO! We had fun with him. Jacki loves to cheese it!