Looking for some peace...

This is a good spot.

Simple Woman

Hosted by Peggy @ http://thesimplewoman.blogspot.com
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For Today May 25th 2009...

Outside my window... Cloudy and raining on & off.

I am thinking... about the trees I just ordered for my yard.

I am thankful for... the day I've spent with my family & parents.

From the learning rooms... we didn't get much done this week. I ordered this book on the suggestion of Sue on my last Simple Day post: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

From the kitchen... we had the greatest meal today! Hamburgers (used a Bobby Flay recipe). We deep fried several things, grilled pineapple. It was awesome.

I am wearing... chocolate colored gauchos & a blue shirt.

I am creating... well, good food but I already said that. I also ordered 14 trees today but I already said that too. I'm creating a plan for my back yard!

I am going... to go home soon. We came to my parent's house for Memorial Day.

I am reading... Book 9 of the Wheel of Time Series - Winter's Heart (yes, still!)

I am hoping... that Drew gets called to work soon! (What will I say for this when he does get called back?? LOL)

I am hearing... the TV. Funniest Home Videos - I forgot how funny this show is!

Around the house... things are clean, everything is caught up. I wonder how often I'll get to say that on here. LOL

One of my favorite things... is cooking with my mom.

A few plans for the rest of the week: School this week (I'm trying to decide if I should let out for the summer. What do you think?), I have a lot of extra work at the store. Whenever there is a Monday holiday it throws everything off. And on Saturday the caseworker is coming to do our home visit and our individual interviews!

Here is picture thought I am sharing...


This is called a smew. I think it looks like an art deco duck or maybe the "cool kid" of the ducks.

I'm okay.

I'm okay today. Much better really.

I had a good cry. Drew rocked me in the big recliner for awhile.

I love him.

I got it all out. Nothing is fixed but I am better which gives me what I need to just deal with everything.

One foot in front of the other! :)

Stuff is wrong.

Stuff is wrong. Things are a mess. My life? Not so grand at the moment. My ability to grin and be happy no matter the circumstances - it's hanging on by a thread. I literally feel like my head is going to pop off. I have all these things I need to take care of and no solution to any of it.

Drew is - of course - still not working.

It's just stupid things. We painted the bathroom in January. We need another gallon of paint to do just the 2nd coat of edges but we have to drive 100 miles so we can get the same paint. Money impedes me.

My porch light? Hanging upside down.

Leah is growing out of her clothes. What am I gonna do about that?

Drew & I both need new clothes. Neither one of us has bought even a single tshirt in almost 2 years. Stuff wears out, kwim?

The shower head broke two days ago. Just the hand held part works now. So you can shower but it's not fabulous.

Drew's car has a flat tire as of this morning. We noticed it as we were pulling out to go to church (as I'm complaining about our upside down porch light). And - I kid you not - about 30 seconds later the alarm goes off in the van saying we are getting a flat tire in the van!

Awesome.

So I get home from church and see that one of the dogs has peed in front of the piano at some point. My house smells like dog pee right when you walk in. SICK. So drew vacuums and then gets the shampooer so I can clean the carpet and guess what? It's broke. It will suck up water but it won't spit it out to wet the carpet. Okay FINE. I dump water on the floor and start sucking it up because this has to get cleaned up! That's working out but then... all the sudden... the vacuum part breaks too and water comes shooting out the back of it all over my legs!

I can't take anymore. I can't fix these things.

Normally I feel great about the fact that in all this year & a half we haven't gotten behind on our bills. That's amazing considering how little money we've had coming in.

But after all this time there are a lot of things going undone.

My house needs painted. When we moved in the trim was painted before we got in but the guy just didn't scrape anything. Just painted over the flaking paint. So - OF COURSE - it's coming right off. We actually have access to free paint (because mom changed her mind about what color to paint her house) but we still need to buy painting supplies. Can't do that right now either.

I want little things. To buy a skirt, get Leah some summer clothes, I want to fix the grass, I'd like to buy a few trees and do up my backyard.

Leah asks me to for a trampoline every day. I wish I could get her one. Or anything to put in the backyard for her to play with. I can hear her jumping on her bed right now. It's not like a trampoline is an essential part of growing up but geez. If you could see her when she gets to one - or at her dance recital when she watched the trampoline routines. She was coming out of her skin. She wanted to be part of that SO badly.

Yes, we take her to the park (a lot actually - several times a week) but I wish there was something in the backyard besides spotty grass. And why is it so spotty? Because last summer Drew wasn't working so I only watered the front yard - and that infrequently so it doesn't look so great either.

Can I call a halt to all this?

Someone save me!

I love my family. I actually love my life. But this is just getting to be all a little too much.

I need a lifeline. Phone a friend? 50/50? haha.

And if a dog pees in the living room again. I'm going to hurt them both. I don't know who did it.

Sleep Over

Leah her first sleep over a couple nights ago. Her cousin Elaina spent the night.

They both did wonderfully. It was really fun!

And yesterday Elaina was here to have school and play again. I was listening to them play in the next room and all the sudden I hear:

"I love you, Leah"

"I love you too, Elaina!"

So crazy cute!

Dead

L: I have 2 ants and 1 lady bug. This lady bug is dead.

Me: Do you know what dead means?

L: Ya.

Me: What does it mean?

L: It means you have to go to the dead doctor.

I'm thinking she doesn't quite have that concept just yet. 

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Leah's ants in a bucket:

Yummy

"Mom? Can I have that from your salad? "

She took my broccoli, my carrot sticks, and my celery. She ate it all. And then she ate an entire personal pan pepperoni pizza. Afterwards she said: I'm not hungry anymore!

My Mommy!

Look at my mommy on the internet!! How cool is that??

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'Something sacred happens every day' in early-morning seminary

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By Aaron Shill

Mormon Times

Sunday, May. 10, 2009

The early-morning seminary program -- with all its attendant adventures and blessings -- is highlighted with a series of profiles on students, teachers and families from around the country, on MormonTimes.com beginning today.

Cathy Pickren is an early-morning seminary teacher -- not a morning person.

So she knows a crash is coming.

"I have the energy to do it during the school year, but after it's over I drop like a popped balloon,” said Pickren, of Saratoga, Wyo. “I sleep for about two weeks.”

When school resumes in the fall, however, she’ll once again put in hours of daily lesson preparation, get by on five or six hours of sleep and arrive at the Laramie (my added correction here - she doesn't drive to Laramie. She stays in Saratoga lol) Mormon meetinghouse each weekday morning for the 6:15 a.m. class.

“Something sacred happens every day,” she said. “It’'s so worth it.”

Pickren is in her fifth year of teaching early-morning seminary and ... read the rest

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If you don't know what seminary is: Click here - Early Morning meets before school. There is also 'release time' in areas highly populated with LDS students. They kids are allowed to leave school for one period during the day and attend seminary. "Home study" seminary meets once a week and is for students who can't do either thing - they do most of the work on their own and then meet together with a teacher just that once a week.

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Hosted by Peggy @ http://thesimplewomansdaybook.blogspot.com/

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For Today May 18th 2009...

Outside my window... It's is a perfect 79 degrees with a slight breeze. Fabulous!

I am thinking... about the fact that I need to grocery shop.

I am thankful for... a husband who doesn't mind taking over so I can have a good day of shopping with a friend.

From the learning rooms... Leah is asking to learn to read. She's 3.5. I can't decide what to do. That seems awfully earlier, she knows most of the sounds letters make so far now I'm just going to work on that. And I guess we could start memorizing sight words. I just am not ready for this!

From the kitchen... Nothing exciting. I haven't even contemplated dinner for today.

I am wearing... black capris and a t-shirt

I am creating... a happy home? I got nothin' for that one today!

I am going... do some shopping and cleaning. I need to unload and load the dishwasher but I can't because we ran out of soap and it still needs run! haha.

I am reading... Book 9 of the Wheel of Time Series - Winter's Heart (still)

I am hoping... that Drew goes to work soon. Sigh.

I am hearing... Drew talking and Leah pushing buttons on a phone.

Around the house... I haven't done anything since I went shopping today. Drew just ran to the store to go get dishwasher soap. He says he's all over the kitchen. I love him!

One of my favorite things... is days like today. This is the dreamiest weather.

A few plans for the rest of the week: School, work at the store, a seminary graduation tomorrow, a baptism at church on Wednesday - no too busy hopefully.

Here is picture thought I am sharing... I'm just remembering today that I love my husband.

Dance Recital

A little while before the recital. Leah was coming out of her skin all day waiting for this dance recital to begin. I did her hair around 3 to try to appease her but she was mad at me for taking out her "flat braids" (french braids - it was a zig zag part with two french braids). Anyway, she loved it and she was mad at me for taking it out and because it still wasn't time to go. Like it's my fault when the clock doesn't move faster!



Oh my gosh! It's finally time to go. She was so excited. "You can take a picture mom but then we need to hurry hurry hurry!"



On the way there... "Mom! I'm so excited! Take a picture of me!"



The Event: (the video is 3 minutes long - it's bad mostly. Hard to get good video from where we were.

Curtain Call:


Waving Bye! I wish I'd backed up and gotten a picture of the whole stage. It was FULL of kids. There were 27 separate acts for the recital. It was insanely long.



My favorite moments of the night:

During the performance right before Leah's, she suddenly appeared on the side of the stage. Someone let her get too far out. It made the people in the audience laugh. She's so freaking cute.

And about half way through her performance she got distracted by the action backstage and was watching off to the side for awhile. Too funny!

Oh and during the ending "curtain call" stuff they were handing out a few trophies to the older kids. The younger kids all gets medals but at some point the lady says "Did I miss any trophies?" and Leah (along with a few other kids) raised their hands.

Luckily Nana had brought Leah a rose. She'd wrapped in all in tissue paper and put a ton of ribbon on it. Nana said to her "her's your rose leah! This is way better than a trophy" and she was happy as could be! She has the rose in a vase in her room now. She was really excited about keeping that in her own room.



And here she is about 3 minutes after getting in bed. Wiped out.



Sorry this post is so long! Whew.

Pet Rock

Matilda & Tootsie

These are our pet rocks. I seriously have no idea where the name Tootsie came from but she picked it out! Many hours later she decided to change it to Kaitlyn and as I type she is discussing a new name. I told her "Leah! I love the beautiful colors on your rock!" and she says back to me - all nonchalant - "Yours is pretty too, mommy." but in a "not as cool as mine" kind of voice.

Cookie Giveaway

Tracey of Just Another Mommy Blog is doing a COOKIE Giveaway. Really Cookies? What could be better than that??? Yummy.

The company that makes the cookies is in Khayelitsha, South Africa. They make organic treats created by previously unemployed men & women. That's so amazing!


Below is a CNN video about the company :)

Cuteness in a Hat

May 12, 2009

The Simple Woman's Daybook

I want to start doing this on Monday's: The Simple Woman's Daybook (instructions)

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Hosted by Peggy @ http://thesimplewoman.blogspot.com
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For Today May 11th 2009...

Outside my window... It's dusk. There's a nice breeze. I hear birds and dogs.

I am thinking... about another blog post I need to do but I don't have it all worked out in my head yet. And just before that I was thinking about the railroad. Please, please, please let my husband get called back to work soon!

I am thankful for... the cheerfulness of my child. There is no way to sink too low with her around. She is like literal sunshine to my soul.

From the learning rooms... today Leah and I did Montessori type puzzles. Of course since I did them with her I'm breaking Montessori rules right? She likes company. We also worked on some speech. MIL is a speech therapist. She says Leah has what's called a lateral lisp. I think that's the right word. Anyway, it just means she has her tongue forward for some sounds. Like S. So we are working on keeping our teeth together to say some sounds. She just thinks it's a game so don't worry about her. LOL The other day she was explaining a character on TV to me and I repeated the name wrong. She says "No, mommy. Let me show you. I will help you say it right." And the proceeded to slowly pronounce it for me.

From the kitchen... Today I did nothing in my kitchen. It's very clean. Today Drew babied me and did everything all day. (Since for Mother's Day yesterday, he bombed but today has been spectular!) The only fun thing on the agenda this week is to make these traditional Mexican cookies that for some reason are supposed to be in the shape of a pig. I happen to have a pig cookie cutter so I want to make them. We were supposed to do it on Cinco de Mayo but Leah got in trouble so we didn't. I'm sure I'll blog about them when we make pig cookies!

I am wearing... fleece jammy pants and a white tshirt with paint all over it.

I am creating... hmmm. I worked on my forum a lot today. I kind of downsized it. Pruned the membership, combined forums, etc. It's just not active like it used to be. It's a comfy, cozy place still though. I like those people. A lot.

I am going... to eat a fantastic taco salad when I'm done with this.

I am reading... Book 9 of the Wheel of Time Series - Winter's Heart

I am hoping... that Drew will learn something at his union meeting tomorrow. And that our next adoption will go really fast!

I am hearing... the TV. I should mute it for some peace! Ahhhh. done. Now it's silent.

Around the house... things are clean, everything is caught up. I wonder how often I'll get to say that on here. LOL

One of my favorite things... is holding my sleeping daughter's body on me. I just went to check on her and she was sleeping but on top of her covers and at the foot of her bed. So I picked her up to move her but I love that feeling so much that I stood there for awhile just holding her.

A few plans for the rest of the week: Tomorrow & Thursday we have school with Leah's cousin, Elaina. Wednesday is dance class - which is a last rehearsal because Friday is Dress Rehearsal, and Saturday is her first recital! I also have the youth activity Wednesday night, and oh and a church thing for me Tuesday night. I think that's it.

Here is picture thought I am sharing... Leah made this bag for me at church yesterday. All the petals and bees are her finger and thumb prints. So insanely cute. The tag said "thumb buggy" loves you as part of the poem. SO adorable.

Railroad Update

We heard some railroad news today.

Let me preface this with a warning. Railroad men gossip like a bunch of old bitties. I know that's not nice it's just a statement of fact. It's beyond ridiculous. One of my FIL's friends on the railroad decided once to start a fake rumor before he got on his train. And when he got to his destination 10 hours later - the rumor was already there.

Anyway.

The railroad has two things going on soon.

1. The government has decided that railroad workers should have a day off. It's going to be a royal pain in the butt for the railroad, railroad workers don't want it, but it's passed. So. It will require more employees. This is actually good news for us - more employees at work means Drew at work. **This is the most likely to be the truth. lol What remains to be seen is how it effects things and if it's enough to keep Drew working steady.

2. The Moffit tunnels. (I don't know if that's how you spell them that) These are some train tunnels that are going to be closed for repairs for an extended period of time. That railroad is routing traffic through here. It's a LOT of business.

And a maybe 3rd thing:

3. The UP is apparently buying another railroad that would add a lot of business. We'll see. Not much info on that one.

The Railroad

The Sun

Yesterday for school we made these "masks".

Those pieces of paper are glued to a paper plate that I cut the center out of. The "real" project called for cutting the construction paper into triangles. Cutting in triangles is not a specialty of 3 & 4 year old children so I did not insist on that! LOL And then we glued. They love glue.

Now she's the sun. Which I already knew but now I have visual proof. ;)

Picture Blog

I did a picture blog for Leah. I used to have a website for her and decided since I wasn't keep that up it would be easier to do a blog for pictures. I imported everything from the website and then updated it through yesterday. Fun walk down memory lane for me.

It's set on invite only so if you want to see them just email me! :) I'll still post them here sometimes too but the picture blog as pictures from the last 3.5 years. It's a LOT of pictures. lol

Adoption #2

The caseworker just called!

Home visit & individual interviews scheduled for May 30th at Noon!

Hooray! Progress :)

Adoption #2

Today my friend Becky called me to let me know she got the reference paperwork. Again.

I sent an email. I got a phone call.

She doesn't have the reference paperwork. She didn't know it had ever existed. She's going to call Denver.

Still I've heard nothing from the caseworker.

I'm getting mad.

I did get a letter from them today with background check forms and a request for $16.

At least that's something that wasn't done yet. Instead of having to REDO stuff.

Britain's Got Talent

No it's not Susan Boyle.

And yes it is well worth watching. (I say that while I cry)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1KHRf02ups

You'll have to click the link. Embedding of the video has been disabled.

Click it!

Rosco

We got a new dog! He is 2 years old and he's a King Charles Spaniel.

He is the most relaxed, calm dog you can imagine. So snuggly and sweet. He snores but in an adorable way. It's not aggravating and certainly won't keep me awake. lol

Sam & Rosco get along great. They sniffed each other when we first walked in the door and then just went about their business. Very nonchalant. lol

Leah really, really likes Rosco too. She wants to take him everywhere - which works out nicely because Rosco wants to go everywhere!