Seriously, do they always talk this much?

I don't think I have ever heard a little girl talk as much as my little Lacy did today. But then again I am not around other little girls as often as I am around Lacy. She talked my ear off! All afternoon! She was talking about whatever, anything, and everything for a good hour before we set off on our errands, then she kept talking the entire time we were in the car! I actually had her play the quiet game from the time we went to the bank to the gas station, so I could relish in silence for a few minutes at least! Oh my gosh, it drove me batty!

At the grocery store, they had a little cart and I figured she'd like to help me grocery shop, which she did. She loved it! She had a bunch of our groceries in her little cart, and was really good, albeit chatty, in the store. Then we got back to the car, and her mouth kept going, a mile a minute! I tried playing the quiet game again, but she had to tell me every time Rose made a sound, "Mom, Rose didn't win. She's talking."

We got home and it was more of the same-- talking, talking, talking! Oh my gosh! Does it ever stop?

Well, eventually the talking turned into crying and fighting. I think Dave's crazy 12 hour day schedule is throwing her off. I've been letting her stay up late (until 9, tops) so she can see her dad every day. Otherwise, she wouldn't see him. It caught up to her today. So, even though Dave isn't home yet, she is in bed asleep. I think she needed it bad tonight. Tomorrow, she'll get to stay up to see her dad again.

And, Lacy has been volintarily sleeping in her own bed. It is a Dora-themed Ready Bed. Which she loves. But she will sleep in it every other night. So last night, she slept in the Dora bed, tonight she's sleeping in our big bed, and tomorrow she said she will sleep in the Dora bed again. The only thing is, it deflates by morning, and the first night it was kind of covering her face when we woke up, which didn't sit well with me. So last night I put a big king-sized pillow in the bed with her, and it was fine. Deflated by morning, of course, but fine. And I can't find the darned leak anywhere in the bed! Dave and I will probably get her a toddler bed soon, that she can pick sheets out for and everything. Either that or we will have her start sleeping in her own bed in her own room, but that is a little too far away for my comfort level! (I know it sounds paranoid, but a former coworker of mine lost two grandbabies in a house fire, and they would still be here today had they been in their parent's room. So I'm a little afraid to have her so far away! I know, I have issues)

How do I make this into lemonade?

It appears that my dishwasher took its last breath. Bummer. I really didn't want to buy a new dishwasher right now. But on the plus side, we will be getting a tax refund that is bigger than I expected, plus washing dishes by hand conserves water and energy.

I forgot the cutest thing from the other day when I was making lemonade out of our freezer coming unplugged! As soon as it hit me that I needed to be positive about the experience, I started singing (with Lacy), while I was chipping ice away and cleaning the freezer (ironic that there could be so much ice in the freezer yet everything was thawed out) "We're making lemonade, we're making lemonade, hi ho the dairy-o, we're making lemonade" to the tune of "Farmer in the dell." Dave called in the midst of this and Lacy answered the phone saying, "Hi daddy! We're making lemonade!"

The next day my hand ached from chipping so much ice!

Yesterday, Dave stopped working after 3 hours of his 12 hour shift. His foot hurt like the dickens. I called up Dr. Rice, a podiatrist that is a family friend from Shelton, who scheduled him in that very day. Dr. Rice told him that he had two joints in his foot rubbing together, which was made worse by the type of work Dave does. He got a cortisone shot in his foot and a makeshift orthotic for his boot. He will need custom orthotics which will cost about $800, but insurance should cover the cost for 85% of that. The orthotics have a 90% success rate, but if that doesn't work, he'll need surgery to correct it. Let's pray the orthotics work!

Making Lemonade

Tonight while preparing to make dinner, I encountered quite an unfortunate discovery. The freezer was unplugged and everything inside was at various stages of thawing. Some was still frozen solid, like the extra turkey we bought. Some was completely thawed, like most of the small bits of meat, including most of the chickens I disassembled recently. I whined and groaned about it and I yelled at my kids a little too much while trying to clean it all up.

I said a prayer with the girls that I would be calmer, and that they would go to sleep early and stay asleep. After I said "amen," I had an epiphany. I could be mad and yell at my kids to stop getting in my way, and be upset at the loss of our food, or I could take life's lemons and make lemonade, stop yelling at my kids, and get on with life. So that's exactly what I did! As soon as I decided that, everything was much better. The girls still got in my way, and I did yell a little bit, but not compared to what it was before. I looked at the positives of the situation. I figured out solutions so we would lose as little of our freezer's contents as possible. I decided it was a perfect opportunity to clean out and defrost our freezer, which is not frost free and completely iced over in most parts.

So now I'm going to list all the lemons, and how I made them into lemonade.

• 300 ounces of breastmilk, mostly thawed! Rose is 20 months old now, not really needing it, most of it was expired anyway (over 1 year old), and the milk I could salvage was all fairly recent.
  
• The chicken all thawed out! I can't refreeze it once it's thawed. I can easily cook the chicken in water, break it into bite-sized pieces, and freeze the cooked chicken to use when I make something that calls for cooked chicken. What a future time-saver! Plus I can strain the cooking liquid and use the broth!
• Uh oh, two roasts from different animals thawed out completely! Can't refreeze those, either! I'll just stick the beef roast in the crock pot now, and slice it up into sandwich meat. And we'll have pulled pork for dinner!
• Yuck, the freezer is full of fish heads and salmon eggs, and who knows what else that Dave put in there! It's high time to clean that stuff out, anyway. Dave didn't treat the eggs right anyway, and the fish heads he can replace when he goes fishing in the spring (he uses those for bait). Now I can declutter my freezer and make more space!
• Uh oh, I think I may have broken the freezer from defrosting it so vigorously. We hate that freezer anyway! And since we found out our tax refund is going to be decent again this year, we can afford to buy a new freezer soon!
  

Dave was really sad this year that he didn't get a deer or an elk. Now I see that the Lord works in mysterious ways. We would have lost a whole lot more had he gotten a deer this year. I wouldn't have been able to salvage nearly as much as I have been able to. And now I have a brand new perspective on life, and I'm very grateful for this blessing I've been given. And for my now cleaned-out freezer (that hopefully still works, since we have a few weeks before we can get a new freezer).

Note to self: Tonight during personal prayer time, be sure to thank Heavenly Father for this blessing, which I have certainly learned completely now, so no follow-up lessons will be necessary.

The Wedding

The newlyweds are now married and off on their honeymoon! And the day went pretty well. I got to spend some time talking to family, meeting new people, and chasing after a deliriously tired 1-year old. Fun times.

But Lacy was practically perfect in her roll as flower girl! She took it so seriously. And she didn't even get scared! She's got to be the cutest little flower girl in the history of flower girls. Not that I'm biased in any way.

That's her in the dressing room, all ready to go. She's a natural in the job, you know. She loves having her picture taken and loves dressing up. She also follows directions well, and while she doesn't like crowds or being in the spotlight, if it is important enough, she can overcome her fears.

With the cute little ring bearers and the bride. Don't they all look so cute? The one on the left is Logan and the one on the right is, I believe, Wyatt. I accidentally left my program at the church so I can't double check based on that. Bummer. Anyway, Logan was supposed to help Lacy down the isle with the flowers, and Wyatt was to walk right along with them or in front of them, I'm not sure what the final verdict was (It didn't happen that way). They were both sweet little boys, and Lacy sure liked both of them!

I've never curled Lacy's hair before, so it was fun for her to get her hair done (and sprayed with sparkle hair spray!). She likes to choose the hairstyle she's going to have done each day, but I'm sure she would choose this hairdo every day if I would fix it for her!


Lacy's eczema has gotten much better, thanks to a daily double dose of triamcinalone and atopiclair for her eyelids. She looks so much better than she did a week ago. We call the atopiclair her make-up and it makes it easier for her to put it on. But the biggest bummer of the day was that she is still a little sick, though no longer feverish. So while she got her hair done, I plugged in the nebulizer to help her breathe more easily. I'm pretty sure she has asthma, because it really does seem to help her breathing. Hopefully she'll only get asthma when she is sick already. Because I think they may make restless! She sure had trouble falling asleep tonight, but that may be from having such an exciting day today.

Rose was there with us, too. For most of the time, she was perfectly happy playing with a puppy in the women's dressing area.


But after a while, she couldn't handle it anymore and she ended up burning herself on a curling iron. It must have been barely warm enough to make her cry, because there are no red marks anywhere that I can attribute to a curling iron. Fortunately, Brenda, big Dave's wife, was there, and took Rose to the nursery. (If you're reading this, Brenda, thanks again SO MUCH! I loved being able to be there with Lacy on such a special day)

Right before the wedding procession began, Rose broke a glass ornament hanging off the stage. Yup, that's my kid causing all the ruckus. But at least she's cute! Probably I'm the only one who thought that today, based on her behavior! It probably wasn't as bad as I thought it was, but I'm extra sensitive to what my children are doing. I never want to be "that mom" with the rowdy kids. But often, I am.

The procession began, a little bit late, with the groom and his best man (Jeremy) entering in through the side door. They waited on the stage with the branch president from the single's branch, who was performing the ceremony.


The processional music began, on the piano. Cannon in D. Very wedding-y. Nice piece, albeit a little cliched. First came our nephew, Jared, and Elisabeth, Julie's sister.

Next was Christopher and one of Julie's friends. I sure wish I had a program so I could put her name in! Oh well, not my wedding so I guess it's not as important for me to have all the names!

At this point Rose could not take it anymore. So Pete Nielson, Chris's father-in-law, took Rose, and her cousin Allison, and fed them treats. Thanks for all your help today, Pete!
Next was the world's best-looking groomsman and announcer extraordinaire. Yes, my hot hubby Dave walked down the isle with another of Julie's friends. I am embarassed just don't have anyone's names! Anyway, he was looking sharp, I must say, and you couldn't even tell that his boots crippled his feet the day before, nor could you tell he just got off working 2 12 hour shifts! It's a little fuzzy, but I'm hoping to get some better ones from some of the others who were taking photographs. The lighting was really poor, either that or my camera is ready to be replaced!

Somehow I totally missed the maid of honor coming down the isle. Just as well, since I don't have her name, either. She is one of Julie's sisters. I think I missed it because of Rose causing a commotion behind me!

(WARNING: the following paragraph was written by a gushing mother. Please roll your eyes and continue reading) Finally, it was my baby's turn! The three little ones were supposed to walk slowly together to the stage. Well, the boys practically ran, but Lacy, being ever so careful and good with following directions, walked very slowly, by herself, to the stage. She threw most of the petals right at the beginning of the procession, so she was out before she got up to where any of the people were sitting! I was so proud that she didn't get scared, not even a little bit, and did her job like the perfect little angel that she is. Doesn't she just look angelic??? What a little sweetie!

Because the boys bolted ahead of her, her daddy had to help her up on stage. Her legs are still too little!


Oh yeah, the bride came down the isle next. Like anyone cared about that after seeing my gorgeous little princess! OK, Dave is telling me that people actually came to see her walk down the isle, not to see Lacy. Whatever.

In all seriousness, Julie was stunning! Her dress was absolutely gorgeous! Tim's a lucky man. Lacy's a lucky girl to have an aunt who knows all about the girly things in life, because her mother certainly doesn't! They walked down to a country song, I think it is "I Promise You," I'll have to ask Dave because I don't know for sure (not a fan of country music). I was actually surprised because I'm pretty sure Tim's not a fan, either! It sounded lovely. I'm not sure who did the vocals, but he sounded great. I had trouble getting a good picture of Julie because everyone was standing, per the tradition.

Yup, that's the best I could do.

After the father of the bride gave Julie to Tim, the ceremony officially began. Somewhere in there I had to run up to the stage to get a huge booger off Lacy's face. Yuck! Anyway, the ceremony was nice, short and sweet. OK, maybe not short and sweet enough for some members of the wedding party.

The branch president encouraged them to prepare to be sealed a year from now. Lacy did a good job standing there, though she did try to talk to me a little bit through the ceremony. But for the most part, she was quite still, and I'm sure the 15 or so minutes the ceremony lasted felt like an eternity to her!

In LDS tradition, the ring ceremony is not a part of the official wedding ceremony. So after the the bride and groom kissed, they exchanged rings. I wish I had a picture of this, but they could not get the rings off for the life of them! So Dave, being the problem solver that he is, went over to his dad and asked him for a pocket knife, which they used to free the rings and complete the ring exchange! You know you're a redneck...


Then it was over, and the party began! Fortunately, this party included opening the nursery (which is the chapel overflow) to the gym, where the ceremony took place. Thank goodness, because I don't know what I would have done had this not been available! Rose was just not a happy camper, since her nap is usually at 11, and that's when the wedding started. She did enjoy hanging with her cousin Allison and Aunt Kelly.


The cutting of the cake was very tasteful and nice. Personally I'm not a fan of the shoving of the cake into each other's mouths. I know some like to do that at their receptions, but personally, I like a nice clean bite of cake in the mouth, with any mess being accidental. They had cheesecake for their wedding cake! Yum-o! We actually took a whole cheesecake home with us. Great for the tastebuds, not so great for the sugar addiction.


I mentioned earlier that Dave was the announcer/emcee at the wedding. He certainly is the loudest of the boys, so he was the obvious choice for Tim. Lacy loved being part of the action, too!
The first dance was the father-daughter dance.

After the first verse, all fathers in attendance with daughters there were invited to join them in dancing. But Rose had to dance solo first. Dancing and music is her thing.

Of course Dave had to dance with his pretty princess Lacy! (I almost forgot, Lacy kept calling Julie "princess" at the wedding! She certainly looked like one!)

But Rose seemed to be a little jealous of all the partnered dancing going on, when she had no partner of her own to dance with!
So Dave, of course, had to dance with Rose as well.
Next was the first dance as husband and wife. What a beautiful couple! I'm so excited they're going to be in our ward!

As the announcer, Dave got to tell some stories at the front. He talked about how Tim dated girls and sometimes brought them over to meet us when he lived at our house, and we liked a lot of them. He was actually engaged over the summer, and we liked his fiancee a lot. But that didn't work out, and he remained at our house for a couple more months. After he moved out, he started dating Julie, and we met her a few times. We knew there was something different, and immediately loved her. We were thrilled to find out they were engaged, and were anxiously awaiting this date! Dave also talked about his mother. She was a rock in their family, a wonderful person, and very close to all the boys. Dave said some very nice things about her, since she could not be with us at this very special event today. (OK, yesterday, since it's way past my bedtime and after midnight)

One special thing that happened at the wedding was that it snowed outside! Apparently there are pictures in the snow, but I don't have any. I'm waiting to get copies! I'll post them when I get them!

There were a couple of musical numbers, with a serious one "The Rose" (which I've actually sang at a wedding before), and a fun rendition of "Summer Lovin" from Greese. But it was called "Winter Lovin" or "October Lovin" or something, with words cleverly changed to fit Tim and Julie's situation.

The last event was the bouquet toss. I didn't get a good shot of that one unfortunately. It happened too quickly. There was going to be a garter toss, but Tim didn't feel comfortable with it, so it was nixed. Then they left in a sea of bubbles and went straight to their honeymoon. Best wishes, you guys! We love you!

Finally, Rose decided she couldn't take it anymore. So we got our family photo taken and got the heck out of there. Rose was asleep within 5 minutes of being in the car. She slept for about 3 hours today, which is huge for her, especially lately with her 30 minute naps. She looks pretty far gone, doesn't she?

Two last photos and my blog is complete! I had to squeeze in some of my two wedding party members! And I have to applaud them for spelling Lacy's name right. It seems my leaving out the "e" makes it nearly impossible for most people to be able to spell her name correctly!

We made it through the rehearsal!

Tonight was the rehearsal for Tim and Julie's wedding tomorrow. I arrived about 10 to 7, but we didn't really start the rehearsal for a good 20-30 minutes after we arrived. The kids were so good, especially considering they both have coughs and fevers. And I think Lacy has a bit of asthma, with the way her cough sounds. She'll be getting a breathing treatment in the morning. Anyway, Lacy was such a trooper, and did exactly what she was supposed to do! She's so excited to walk down the isle with a boy tomorrow! And she stood so still at the stage. What a good girl! I'm going to have to take a million pictures tomorrow to show off! She's going to get her hair done in the morning, so we're going to have to leave right around 8. Maybe earlier. We'll just scoop the kids up out of bed and off we'll go.

Dave arrived late to the rehearsal because he is working 12 hour days, ending at 7:30. But he learned the order of the procession, the special way to walk, and how to hold his arm. That's pretty much all he needs to know!

I'm sure I'll have plenty to blog about tomorrow! Wish us luck, and pray that the girls will behave (and not get scared!). For now, some pictures of the rehearsal. They are kind of grainy unfortunately.

Lacy and Logan (I think! I'll have to double check on his name!)

The whole gang on the stage. Look how still Lacy is! (of course she's still, it's a photo! OK, so that was a silly thing to write) She stood perfectly still the entire time. What a good girl!


Rose and Allison- ready for bed!

The Lord always comes through!

We have been so nervous lately about money. Dave was at a great job, with Dave being among the best workers in the company, being the most efficient and hardest working. Well, he was a little too efficient because the big group of plumbers couldn't keep up with Dave and his 2-man crew (his boss and one other guy!) so they did a temporary lay-off for 1 week, which turned into 2 weeks, which turned into 3 weeks. Well, Dave finally had to file for unemployment yesterday, which practically took all day. We've been doing our very best to be faithful members of the Church with having daily family scripture study and the like, and we've been praying for a miracle to help us through. We've had a lot of things happen for very recently that are quite positive and will help our financial situation.

Dave was called yesterday from the Union Hall. A company wants him for 9 days to do some prep work for a huge job coming up. Dave was the only person available for the job. Well, 9 days of prep work are 9 days straight (with Saturday off for the wedding), and they're 12 hour days. He'll be starting tomorrow. That's 24 hours this week, and with overtime the equivalent to 108 hours next week. And that's if he doesn't work a week from Sunday, which would be an additional 24 hours. So in just a week and a half, he'll be making up for the 3 weeks he's had off, almost.

Plus he'll be getting at least one $500 unemployment check. Maybe one more, but probably just the one.

In addition, we should be getting about $100 for prescription drug reimbursements from the union health plan. And we don't have to pay car insurance for 3 or 4 months because we overpaid for almost an entire year. A savings of about $100 a month.

We are also working on a new business with Daren Falter, who has written the book on home based businesses (literally), who just happens to be best friends with my sister and her family. This has potential to make us a lot of money if we put in the work now. So Dave's out at the Sportsman's Show networking and getting business cards. Plus he wanted to go to the show LOL. With this business, we will be able to pay off our mortgage in 14 years if we don't increase our monthly spending, and if we do increase our mortgage payment in just 7 years. And we had 28 years on a 30-year mortgage left, with a $100,000 balloon payment due at the end. And this is without refinancing. Anyway, it's a really awesome business opportunity and will certainly bless our family and many others as well.

Meanwhile, the girls are sick and the wedding is on Saturday. Ugh. I really hope their coughs go away before then! They were finally better, and now BAM! Sick again. They are croupy, slightly pukey, and barely fevery. But mostly croupy. Plus Rose's teeth are horrible and I tried having her fall asleep on her own last night when she woke at 2. No dice. She fussed, cried, and whined for an hour until I gave in and nursed her back to sleep. I'll try it again in a week or two when Dave isn't working crazy hours anymore and she's over her cough. She has to have some major dental work done soon and I'm not looking forward to it. In the meantime, I need to focus on having it not get any worse.

And just some random pictures that have nothing to do with this post.

Quick stats update!

Lacy: 40 inches and 31 pounds (32nd weight, 82nd height with a BMI of 13.7 which is under the 5th percentile so still underweight)

Rose: 28 inches and 26.5 pounds (67th weight, 86th height)

The Flower Girl and the Singer

Lacy is going to be a flower girl for Tim and Julie's wedding on the 26th! We have her dress, and it is so cute! She always wants to put it on. Here it is:




I'm just hoping that she doesn't freeze and freak out at the wedding. At the very least, she will be awfully cute in that dress and everyone will say, "Oh, poor little girl! She's so scared!"

Rose yesterday at my sister's house picked up a piece of music and started singing. Like she was reading the music and singing. She was very, very cute! And she also likes to lead the music, just like mommy. Very cute stuff! I think she'll be a musician!

The whole chicken

My sister and I were talking today about food. One thing she mentioned is how almost everyone at her book group doesn't cook with whole chickens. And those who do, some said that they would just cut off the breasts and THROW THE REST AWAY. And they actually thought that cooking with the carcass was gross! Or that when chicken looks like a chicken, that it's gross (I think it's gross when it's pressed into dinosaur shapes, but what do I know?). Well, maybe I'm weird, but I like buying whole chickens for a lot of reasons. But first, I will show you where I learned the proper way to disassemble a chicken. The important part starts around 4:30.



Reasons to use whole chickens rather than pieces or boneless skinless varieties:

*the carcass... I freeze it after I disassemble the whole chicken and use it later to make broth. Then I can take the meat off the carcass and either freeze it or use it in soup right away, if that's what I'm using the broth for.
*The wings... I don't always just use the wings when I'm cooking chicken. This way I can save them and use them for hot wings! YEA!
*I can cut the pieces how I like them!
*No waste!
*chicken stays fresher longer when it's on the whole bird
*I can use every part of the chicken!
*It only takes a couple minutes to do, so why not do it yourself?
*I can get whole chickens for a whole lot cheaper than I can get pieces or even cut whole chickens. Sometimes 50 cents a pound or less!

So... why not use the whole bird? That's one thing I want to do this year... only cook chicken from whole birds. And, so far so good! Tonight's dinner: chicken paprika!

SLEEP!

Yesterday was Lacy's first day in Sunbeams. And Rose's second full day in nursery. There was another little girl who had her first day in nursery and she was fully upset to be placed in there. Rose couldn't care less. She walked right in, ignored me, and played for two hours. She sort of noticed me when nursery was over and I picked her up. But still kind of wanted to play. I'm so glad at least one of my kids likes their class at church! Because Lacy's day wasn't so smooth. She was a bit testy all morning, and when she went to Sunbeams in the Primary room, she wouldn't let me leave. She would scream and she was hugging on to me and attaching herself to me. I couldn't take it anymore so I took her outside, found Dave, and he sat with her the second half of opening exercises. She went happily to class though, when it was just her and the other Sunbeams and her teacher. There are 6 Sunbeams this year, including 2 named Shay. Four girls and two boys. Should be a fun class!

Here's the girls Sunday morning, all ready for church

And Lacy, terrified, in the Primary room on her first day of Sunbeams. I think the older kids intimidate her. Hopefully next week will be easier.

I guess Lacy's my shy kid. I have a feeling Rose won't have any trouble transitioning to Sunbeams! But then again I have two more years until she reaches that age, so who knows how she'll react!

Well this morning I discovered why Lacy was such a brat yesterday, and so difficult in Sunbeams. She was sleep deprived! She went to sleep before 8 yesterday and woke up after 11. I was just finishing up my FlyLady challenge to wipe my countertops while I was on the phone, and she FINALLY woke up! She went to bed beautifully tonight, so I guess she had a bit of a sleep debt. I might try to get her to bed each night at 7 this week to see if it helps, so that she doesn't sleep in all morning the next day! Tonight we had Family Home Evening so we had to finish that before bedtime.

Today is the first day of my parents' mission! They entered the MTC this morning in Provo, Utah. Apparently the MTC didn't have record that the first presidency changed their mission to Munich! Uh oh! Well, they have wireless internet access and are blogging (unlike the poor unfortunate young adult missionaries, who can't have that type of technology!) so if anyone wants to keep up with what's going on with their mission, check on them at the Abersold Family Blog! We're so excited to have missionaries in our family! We know we'll all be so blessed while they are away. I know they'll be great and we'll miss them terribly (especially Lacy), but they will do such great work for the Lord.

Dave's been working hard this week and is getting a lot done! He is off work but has a side business going that is working out very well for him. He has a ton of contacts already and is making it possible for us to pay off our mortgage in less than half the time. I'm so proud of him! Go Dave!

Lacy's really been suffering from eczema lately. She has scratched her "knee pits" to shreds, to the point that we keep them bandaged all day long so they have a chance to heal. We're going to focus on a few things to help take away whatever it is that's bothering her. She has a patch on her face, behind one of her ears, and on the back of her neck, in addition to the knees. You can see the face patch in the "terrified" picture. I think Rose has some eczema as well, so we will likely go on a total elimination diet as a family in the near future. I will be getting a book soon that will help guide us through that process. I need to mentally prepare myself though, because it is going to be HARD WORK.

Rose is officially potty trained! She wears panties all day long and only wears diapers while she sleeps and when we're out and about. She tells me she has to go potty by banging on the bathroom door until I notice! LOL! We started the elimination communication process at 7 weeks, and while she wasn't trained significantly earlier than Lacy, only 5 months, I think it's an achievement in this society to have a child potty trained before the age of 2. Before I started, I thought it was just a fringe hippie movement, too weird even for me, the woman without the crib who just weaned her 3 year old, but when Rose insisted on being potty trained (she cried HARD before she peed, would wait till the diaper was off to go, and got a pretty bad rash that made me look into it more closely) I realized it was a great choice for our family. And I even did it while working full time! And Just 8 months after I quit, she is an EC graduate!

That's the update for now! You get a medal if you finished reading this entry! Keep in mind this isn't just a blog, it's the only way I'll keep a journal, so you can just deal with it :) Hope everyone's having a great year so far!

Goals 2008

And here they are: my goals for 2008!

*Read the Book of Mormon
*Keep going on FlyLady routines, establish new routines, and complete the daily chores and challenges.
*For the girls, Establish morning routines in addition to our night time routines, and stay consistant!
*Preschool goals-- work on Slow & Steady with both girls each week, and help Lacy learn all her letters and numbers to prepare to read
*Kids-- one hour of TV or less each day
*Build a 3 months food storage supply
*Determine once and for all what Dave is going to be when he grows up! We're getting closer, I think!
*Continue decluttering and organizing our home
*Read 2 books a month in addition to the Book of Mormon
*(re)Learn and perfect one piano song per month, and practice all songs that I've learned thus far
*Be 100% on visiting teaching!
*Establish and stick to a get-out-of-debt and savings plan

This year, a dozen goals. I think they're pretty realistic. So hopefully a year from now we'll have most, if not all, of these goals accomplished!

Review of my goals: 2007!

Last year I created a list of goals for myself for 2007. Here's the breakdown of what I did, what I didn't do, and maybe there's a good reason for that! And my next post will be my goals for 2008.

• Read the New Testament

Not only did I read the New Testament, I read it twice! I finished it the second time with about 5 minutes to spare in 2007 :) But that final day I only read 5 pages, so it wasn't marathon reading. I finished it the first time in May or June, and started reading it again the second time soon afterward.

• Write an article for Mothering about elimination communication

Uh, no I didn't do this one. I got a little discouraged about it. But I hope to write one sometime after Rose has "graduated" from EC. Which will be soon! She's in panties all day at home now and I'm considering going out of the house without diapers soon!

• Organize my house and throw out junk

Not totally organized, but better than where I was a year ago. I started FlyLady and I've been getting better ever since!

• Get started on my food storage and have at least 100 pounds of wheat by the end of the year, and have a place to store it!

Yes, mostly. I posted on getting 90 pounds of wheat in September. I also got about 70 pounds of wheat in May. I do have a place to store some of it, but one bucket is still in my foyer. Bad Carolyn!

• Read more books to my kids-- at least 3 books a day on workdays

Well, considering I'm not working anymore, this goal is no longer applicable. I do read lots to my kids, but I don't know if I'm reading 3 books every day, but certainly many days I'm reading more than that.

• Get my hair cut and donate it to Locks of Love

I cut my hair and it's sitting in an envelope. I need to mail it in sometime soon! At least it's cut now!

• Don't get pregnant!

Yep, met this goal! New goal for 2008: get pregnant! Ha ha, I'm joking, I'm joking (maybe)!

• Start a savings account to save for Dave's education

Um, next question please?

• Pay at least 50% of our debts off this year

Ooooh, this one wasn't any better. But we do have an actual financial plan now!

• Buy a new (to us) car-- in January!

I think it actually happened in February.

• (for Dave) collect at least 10 capes to use for Taxidermy school, including two from animals that are harder to get

I'm not sure if Dave is going to go to Taxidermy school at this point. We'll see.

• Focus on healthier eating by serving two veggies at dinner every day

Well, I certainly have at least one veggie every day at dinner. Sometimes two. I have been eating more healthfully and have started baking my own whole grain bread and muffins, and I've been trying to eat more raw veggies as well.

• Gain some self control and don't eat that fifth cookie

Nope, still don't have self control. But on the plus side, I haven't started wearing plus sizes, so that's good, isn't it? I weigh approximately the same that I did before I got pregnant with Lacy, so it's all good. I've weighed the same since I was in 9th grade.

So there it is, my year in a nutshell! I think I did all right this year. Some goals were completed, others completed with gusto, some partially completed, others written down and forgotten. I resolve in 2008 to not forget my resolutions! OK, maybe that's unrealistic, but I do resolve to write my goals down and post them before the end of the week.

Christmas with Carolyn's family

At about 9, we packed up the kids, the pop-up tent, and all our gifts and headed on over to my folk's house. When we got there, pancakes were just starting to come off the griddle so we ate a yummy breakfast of pancakes and various breakfast meats, including leftover ham from Dave's dad's house the night before. It was deeeee-licious!

Soon afterward, we started opening the presents under mom and dad's tree. The girls both got Dora jammies from my parents. Lacy got a princess purse and more princess panties (but in size 4, so she'll fit in them when she 6 LOL). I'm drawing a blank here on the rest, so I'll come back and edit with what else they got! Dale was very generous and gave us a gift card to Target for the kids, plus he had our family and gave us the entire Beatrix Potter book collection and a gift card to Cabellas. We had Kurt, so we decided to give a theme gift centered around camping/hiking since they enjoy doing that as a family. They got a mini first-aid kit, a lantern, a camp spice pack, and a collapsible shovel. We also got Marilyn a craft project that looked fun.

After the gift exchange, we shooed the kids out of there and exchanged funny gifts. Hayden participated this year for the first time. It was so much fun having everyone together during funny gifts! I'm not sure if we'll be able to do them next year, since my parents are leaving for their mission this week! Anyway, Hayden got a really funny comparison of Arizona versus Washington (the similarities and differences, such as in Arizona you get brown from sun, in Washington you get brown from rust, etc). Kurt was up next and got something about his BRAT that was funny but I can't remember. I can't remember what Mark's was, but it was hilarious. My turn next. I got a paper talking about how in the past, certain funny gifts have been insensitive, so this year I was really going to get something that made me cry-- an onion! It was so funny I about died laughing. Leslie was up next. You know the phrase, "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil?" Well, my dad gave her a gift on that concept-- "See no children (blindfold), hear no children (earplugs), smell no children (noseplug)." The funny thing was, Turner came into the room right around the same time and to put it delicately, the noseplugs got some immediate use! Dale was next. He got a hot pepper kit (he had an unfortunate event with a hot pepper that he hilariously related to all of us afterward). Then Dixon. I gave to Dixon. I gave him an erector set boat kit, and a note saying something along the lines of, "we know you're sad your business didn't work out and now you don't have a boat, so here's a boat that is inexpensive and easy to maintain/repair!" After that, Mom's turn. She got some goggles with pictures of scenes in it to look at when she needs a "vacation." Dad was last. And again, I should have typed this out sooner because I forgot. I will have to ask everyone so my memory can be refreshed!

Christmas dinner was really yummy. We had prime rib. Delicious!

We left at about 6 because the kids were tired and Dave was sick. He's still a little sick but he's recovering finally. It was a blessing in disguise that he had two four-day weekends in a row. They're not paid, but at least he didn't have to miss extra work to recover. He wouldn't have missed work, but he would have been miserable and it would have taken twice as long to get better.

Maybe I'll go back and post pictures of Christmas day later. I'm just trying to get this written out so I can move on and review last year's new year's resolutions and write out my resolutions for this year!