Evening Chain of Events

So, today was Wednesday - that means it's a day to look forward to because we get to hear from Elder Wride. Here is his letter for this week, he's been gone 3 months today! 13 weeks done out of 103. Time's flying (kinda). So many things to countdown - Joseph's mission, the pregnancy - on week 23 out of 39 (cause I'm hoping to be induced again, as usual) almost done with the second trimester, one more, ugh. and my invisalign braces, I'm on #16 aligner with those, although I don't know how many weeks those go for. Back to our missionary - I received a text with a few pictures from someone named Lilian who lives in Sandy who was down in Guatemala and Joseph and Elder Aquino are teaching her friends.

That was a fun surprise text to see! What a cute missionary.

We invited her over for dinner, she's still checking her schedule. That should be fun.

So, tonight I had a funny chain of events that started around 9pm - Corey wasn't home yet, working late. It was probably good he wasn't home (or even worse trying to work from home) during this chaos. Dinner is winding up, Daniel stinks, he and Owen are doing circles on the main floor on their cars, I grab him to change him, but it was bad, so upstairs we go - he needed a bath pronto. I give him a good scrub and rinse down, then fill the bath. I didn't take the diaper outside, just put it in a grocery sac in the garbage. Owen joins him in the tub. They quiz each other on the ABC toy foam letters "What is dat? O! Good job! What is dat? D! Good job!" They're cute. We just do a quick bath and I get them out and dressed. I am now ready to take the smelly diaper to the outside trash. I decide to save myself a future trip by emptying all the garbages upstairs. Owen and Daniel go downstairs. Then two things happened at once: Hyrum tells me the kid bathroom toilet is clogged, and Lily tells me that Owen and Daniel are throwing rice milk all over in the kitchen. I assume the rice milk is a little bit in a cup or dripping it from Daniel's bottle. I tell Lily "Well, stop them! Get it away from them please" and I go to hurry and unplug the toilet - fixing the toilet takes priority over emptying garbages and spills on the kitchen floor ~ I'd like to thank years of motherly plunging toilet experiences for that knowledge, esp two recent ones: experiences #1 and #2. So, I unclog the toilet, then I decide to clean it real quick (I try to clean them on "toilet tuesdays" and do a pretty good job doing it weekly but I didn't do it yet this week, so might as well while I have the toilet bucket out anyway...) Ok. So I clean the upstairs kid bathroom toilet, hurry and clean the master toilet, then go downstairs with the toilet bucket and garbage to empty the rest of the garbages and do the toilet down there after I survey the rice milk mess.

...Then I learn the rice milk mess is not rice milk, it's just rice. Grains of rice all over the floor. And no one has stopped the toddlers yet. Daniel reaches for another handful from the bag. Lily is at the counter coloring. "Lily! I said to stop them!" We pull Daniel away from the bag, so he goes for the rice of floor and just starts sweeping his hand back and forth quickly scattering it and flinging it further in all directions. "Daniel, NO! Hyrum! A little help here!! Can you come get Daniel?" The kitchen is a big "no one helped clean up after dinner" mess (since I left right during dinner with the Daniel's diaper mess) and there are smashed tortilla chips and school papers all over the floor. I start barking orders and calling in the rest of the troops. I pull everything out of the bottom of the kitchen pantry to sweep out the rice, I put it all back in and tuck the big Costco bag of rice out of sight of the toddlers behind the oat and flower buckets, so it's still in the kinda same place, but I'm hoping they won't notice it tucked in the back. Lily helps me start to sweep, Hyrum Wes and Abi are cleaning the floor. "What smells?!?!" Hyrum kept asking. It's the freaking poopy diaper in the garbage right there that I changed 20 min ago that I haven't had a chance to take out yet!! I'll take it out, but I need you guys keep cleaning in here for two minutes, can you do that? I take two trips to the outside garbage, emptying the kitchen trash and the recycling and the upstairs garbage that had the poopy diaper. When I come back in, Daniel has gotten a hold of the wet plunger and toilet brush that I left within reach on the kitchen floor and as been flinging them around like two swords getting gross toilet water who knows where... UGH! Can someone just hit pause on these little people for me?!?! I grab the gross dirty toilet cleaning things from him, which hurts his feelings and he cries, and I let Wes love him as I walk away and go to finish cleaning the toilets. An hour later it's 10:30 pm, with good help from the kids, we have the kitchen cleaned and looking awesome, little D is in bed, and Corey arrives home and is not aware of the mess that had just transpired, which is good cause then he won't bring up to me how we should hire a maid. Yay. So there's a "little-crazier-than-usual-evening" for us. Phew! Then I came up to start this blog post, then I spent 5-10 minutes scrubbing the wall in the boys room (before picture is #7), it's looking better, just a few more days of magic eraser and I'll be ready to call it good enough.

So, we had parent teacher conferences today. Corey did the older 5 kids at the high school and jr. high, I did the 4 elementary girls. Corey said most of the older kids are doing good but can do better, so we'll try to encourage that. As for the elementary kids, I had their appointments all scheduled one right after the other, as usual. Going youngest to oldest this time, so to Kindergarten first. Natalie's teacher said she is an absolute delight. (she really is just so cute, such a cute voice and fun personality, she's a little ray of sunshine.) Sophi's teacher had to cancel last minute, so we're doing Sophi tomorrow.

Lily is doing great, and her teacher doesn't mind that she is doodles if it helps her focus, but it often becomes a distraction (which I could guess from how she doodles at home during scripture reading and or instead of cleaning her room or going to bed). 

Abi is doing good too, except for the same "her tendency to doodle and draw kinda makes it hard for her to focus..." comment/concern.

What are we gonna do with these little artists?

So, that's all good. Those are some pictures from their classroom's hall bulletin boards. There's our after school day and evening. Gonna go to bed and get some rest and get ready for the fun tomorrow will bring.

Moonset and Goodbye Van

There was a beautiful beautiful full moon this morning. It was almost full yesterday and I enjoyed seeing it on my walk/jog outside. This morning to exercise I went outside again and did some walking lunges. I did some around then neighborhood, then decided to take a quick drive to the canyon where I would be able to see the moon set and finish my lunges. I went on a little walk and found a good spot, so pretty.

 

I think I'll come up here next time on the almost full moon, hopefully there's won't be snow yet. The moon looked basically just as full yesterday morning, but it was really cool to see it in the dark sky. Either way though - take note self: bring my nice camera so I'm not trying to take a zoom photo with my phone. And cause my more professional camera won't have issues adjusting to the light sky or dark foreground. 

So, it was a momentous day - we said goodbye to our van of 12 years. We got this Chrysler Town and Country in 2006 when we lived in Virginia. It greeted us after our first trip to Brazil (it seemed like such a nice clean spacious car after that trip!) It brought us back home to Utah. Here it took good care of us and sustain a rather substantial work load caring for our family during many carpool trips to school and drives to Costco and band lessons, plus helping 3 teens learning how to drive...

You've served us well, Minivan.

So, after all that hardwork, I do feel kinda bat that this is how we thank you - Sell you for scrap and pocket $130 bucks and send you off, glad to finally get you outta the driveway.

We've had a month long delay cause I couldn't find where the title was... I sent in for a title replacement to the Utah DMV and we waited for that snail mail reply, and when it finally came it was empty - they didn't have one on record. It was a Virginia title, oh yeah.

But we couldn't do that online without a Virginia drivers' license or address, so then this past Friday morning I dug around in a few more files and I found it, yay! Corey called and scheduled the pick up and tow away... and today they came for the van.

We watched it go by as Natalie waited for the kindergarten bus. Goodbye van. Thank you for all your years of service, we do appreciate it, even if it seems right now like we're just glad to be rid of you.

Bye Van!

On Duty

I was feeling pretty frustrated/frazzled this morning. I'm sick of the messy house, sick of the chaotic evenings, sick of feeling like we can't get a grip on our life... I went on a walk this morning and saw some neighbors out jogging as a couple, and I was jealous that they do that and sad that we don't. So I felt sorry for myself and had a little cry this morning as I cleaned the kitchen. Before Corey left for work, he and I talked and I feel better. I noticed that I had a cry last Monday too. I have one more week until the third trimester begins - so emotional hormones might be in full swing, I'll just prepare myself for a weekly Monday cry. We'll say both - life stress/dreams/expectations and hormones. So, yeah, just trying to figure out how to manage with the daily chaos and strive for our best life. Corey had a suggestion that we tried today, an idea that he thinks could solve most of our problems. Cause we get a little frustrated in the evenings cause the kids aren't doing their stuff and he will try to sneak in a few more consulting hours and I'll be feeling like I want to take a break and blog or something, but the kids will need help with homework or they'll make a mess in the kitchen and it's just left there or Corey or I hope the other one will take care of it... Some pics of a typical evening - Owen playing trains -

He's an easy to please little guy.

Abi with Daniel after his bath - silly boy

Next pic here is how the teenagers wish they could spend every evening - playing Battlefront.

That pic from over the weekend - Hyrum likes to tell us that so many kids play everyday for 4 hours and how lame it is that we only let him play on the weekend. Sorry buddy, we don't care.

SO! ...the new plan of attack for this week: Corey said that he'll come home and we will both be on duty from 6-9pm - parenting/cleaning/putting kids to work/helping them with school work (instead of them coming to us for help at 11pm or midnight!), and we'll do scriptures at 8:30 and then send kids to bed, or atleast the little ones, and we'll know we've taken care of all the olders ones, and that we can clock off for the evening and then we can go blog or work or whatever and go to bed at a decent time. I think it sounds like a good plan. 3 hours for Corey to help seems a bit long to me, but we'll see. And usually I'm starting dinner and stuff between 3 and 4, so this could mean that I will actually be on duty for 5 or 6 hours, but it is a good idea, and I'm game for him being home and present and helping out, so we'll give it a go and see what happens!

Weekend Snapshots

A few pictures from this weekend: Daniel on Saturday - feeling the power of second amendment rights -

I'm going to post too many pictures of this, cause I just think they're all cute and funny.

This was a little remote control thing to a Lightening McQueen car, which doubles as a pistol in this toddler's imagination. I think he feels pretty cool -

Stick 'em up, mom!

You look pretty tough, little D.

Yeah, he thinks so too.

Funny kid. That was Saturday. What else did we do on Saturday? Soccer game and cleaning, we didn't make it to Lagoon, maybe next Saturday. Owen colored all over the wall in the boys room with black permanent marker. Yay. This is how it still looks after 30 min of scrubbing with magic eraser.

I think I'll be able to get it off after an hour or two more of scrubbing. Will probably take off quite a bit of the paint in the process, oh well. (Darn kids.)

Today we had a first. We left for church without one of our children. I left first with the boys, who had to get their early to get the sacrament ready, and most of the toddlers. I passed Natalie on my way out, who was dressed but didn't have her shoes on. "You go with Dad, okay?" "Yeah, I'm going with dad." I didn't tell Corey though. And then Natalie went into her room and was quietly coloring as the rest of them left. We were 30 minutes into the meeting when Corey, after counting kids several times only to reach 9 again, realized Natalie was not in attendance. He quickly drove home and found a little pink nosed and pink eyed sweet little girl, who had been praying in vain for her family to come back. Corey hugged her. "I prayed for you to come back, but it didn't work!" "It worked! I came back! I'm just a little slow". They came back to church and Natalie came by me so I could give her a reassuring hug. Sorry sweetie. Do you forgive us?

Her face was still pink. She does not seem traumatized by the event and didn't even rat us out to her teachers telling them that her parents forgot her. She has told us she forgives us, and we have promised to not forget her again. (Darn in-over-their-heads parents!)

So that was a first. I've left a kid home for 5 min once when we went to the school park down the street, but never for 30+ min, and I also feel terrible that I didn't even notice she wasn't there. I'll start counting kids too, or maybe we'll start sitting on two benches instead of the big long bench. I just assume that anyone that is not by me is way on the other side sitting by Corey and I can't see them. I'll start to check and count from now on. We're glad she was okay.

The kids had a fun Sunday with their dad. Most of the kids were harassing playing with him outside except for Ethan who was sleeping or playing piano, and Wes who was building little lego pirate ships all afternoon.

He showed me his finished work -

One is just a generic warship, the black one is the Black Pearl - you can tell because of the orange studs, which mean it can light itself on fire and not sink, like the Black Pearl in the movie.

I haven't seen that movie or if I have I don't remember, but those are cute little ships Wes! The rest of the kids kept Corey busy all day - they played on the trampoline and then inside for Uno and outside for a family night game of Ghost in the Graveyard. I stayed inside and caught up on the blog here a little bit. I'm 23 weeks along in the pregnancy today, one more week and 2nd trimester is done. Almost there I guess, but still feels like forever away. I'm trying to keep my nose down and just keep pushing ahead.

Rush Arcade

Today there was no school for the elementary kids. Corey said it would be a good day for me to use the Get Out Pass. Ok. So, I toyed with the idea of going to Lagoon tomorrow. We've thought about it a few times, but you have to pick up your tickets at their office, I didn't know if that would be a doable thing to do before we actually went to Lagoon or if I should go get them and have them on hand and ready for when we leave the house. So, I decided to go get them today. Had a little trouble finding the entrance to their office, but did find it and then, since we were up in Davis County anyway, I drove to Pitcher Sports in Ogden to get a new trampoline mat, which we've needed for well over a year. In past family videos and pictures, I keep the video angle strategically positioned so as to not show how terribly the mat was falling apart ...and probably wasn't safe for my children to use. But yay we finally got that taken care of today - we got a new mat! Then, after an hour in the car running those two errands, and since we were in the area, we went to Rush Funplex to use the Get Out pass Arcade pass. 

My cute kids all holding hands -

And a view of them from the front. We are a happy family, yay

In the funplex, they gave us arcade cards with credits to use. I don't think the kids quite knew how to use them or make sure they used their game after swiping their cards, but whatever. Daniel was more interested in having a card like his siblings than actually playing the game.

We did quite a bit of skee ball, which they liked and almost figured out

...and other than that I don't know what the kids did with their credits. I saw Natalie just walking around swiping her card at each machine and not even waiting, just looking frustrated and going to the next machine. I helped Daniel redeem a few credits, he shot a gun at pirate skeletons, yay.

Abi found one game that worked for her, I don't know what to call it other than the claw game (like in Toy Story at Pizza Planet)

She won a stuffed green raccoon toy, wow! Then she won some weird caterpillar thing! Then she won a black devil's trident thingy. She confessed "I don't really want any of these toys, but... it's so fun to win!" So since all the other kids were frustrated with their cards and games, they gave the cards to Abi so she could win more prizes in the claw game. She won another raccoon, this one pink, and then she won a huge owl as she was trying to move it to get to a unicorn beneath it. Maybe next time Abi! Good news is that we have free credits every month! So maybe Abi will be up here again in October or November to WIN more toys that she doesn't really want but that make her feel like a lucky winner at the slot machine in Vegas - she's a winner! She was nice and gave the 5 toys away to her siblings as we headed to the car.

Daniel and Sophi asleep after the drive home. D snuggling the raccons that Abi won. I think it was a memorable outing for them. I still remember winning a bunny once in a game like that - kinda like a calico critter looking toy doll, but larger. It's fun to break the odds and actually win at one of those rigged arcade games, so good job Abi, lol. We'll probably keep these toys and then I'll donate them to the DI. Oh, and here's what our trampoline mat looks like...

We gotta find the missing springs, I think they're in the shed somewhere, and then we'll put up the new one tomorrow, cause now I gotta go get ready for date night, Corey and I are going to go see "Operation Finale"

Sink Fixed

Good news of the day - our kitchen sink got fixed! Thank you Stott Plumbing, and thanks to my mom for the recommendation. I shall use them again, I'm glad to find a good plumber. The sink was clogged several weeks/months ago, gosh I don't even remember how long it's been, but I got a plunger to try and force the clog out, which made the seal under the sink break, duh, shouldn't have done that. So ever since then the drain have just been kinda hanging there under the sink, kept in place just by it's pipe attachment to the wall. I've been telling the kids not to pour anything down that side, and usually forgot, so I had a pan underneath the sink to catch the drips. Over the summer I was doing really good at getting one household thing fixed a week for a few weeks there, until we got the new van, and since then the payments for the van have taken most of our budget's discretionary income. But over a month later, and I've gotten a handle on it and we might get to start saving for household maintenance again. (We've needed a new dishwasher for years, maybe we'll finally get it! My goal is by Christmas, fingers crossed.

Not much else to report, but so that I have a picture to go with this post - here is Lily doing a more art last Saturday-

Such a serious artist - These are for her to give to others, as her wall is already too full of artwork (last pics on this post).

Daniel is 2!

Today is Daniel's birthday, our 3rd and final September birthday. It was a pretty chill morning for me as birthday mom - no last minute errands to the store. Oh, if every child could be as easy to please and have such low expectations as a 2 year old. I gave Daniel most of his gifts during the past 2 weeks, whenever I felt like it might help him and Owen play nicely and/or stop fighting (not necessarily the same thing). So, Daniel had already been given his red wiggle car two weeks ago. I also already gave him some little Melissa and Doug wooden train cars. Owen has also pretty much claimed those, but Daniel seems to be okay with that. He and Owen fought a little bit over the new toys Corey's parent's gave to Daniel - 

As for me, today I didn't give him anything, and he was not upset with me and didn't tell me he was entitled to special treatment cause it was his birthday. I also didn't buy him junk or make him a cake OR buy him ice cream! We did go to the park this evening, and he liked that.

We went and played at a park by my parent's house while we waited for Abi to finish soccer practice. Daniel had fun for about an hour until we wouldn't let him go kick the ball with Abi at her teammates. Her practice went for 90 min, so we had about 30 min that we needed to hold him at bay.

He was mad we wouldn't let him go join in their scrimmage. So that wasn't very nice of us to do that to a birthday boy. We tried to play under the pine trees and in the tennis court.

Under the trees was pretty cool! If one of our pine trees looked like this underneath, it would definitely have come a kid club house by now.

The kids helped a lady throw a ball to her German Shepard, that was fun and kept Daniel distracted, I continued to watch the clock and endure, and then Abi was finally done and we could go - we loaded up and went to my parent's house.

Daniel followed his sisters instructions and obediently sat on the floor for his presents.

They took turns helping him tear off the wrapping paper

Then finally a birthday treat - we went into the back yard to eat cupcakes.

My cute little boys

So here is Daniel's two year old birthday shot with a messy frosting face -

Daniel, you need to smile! This is your birthday cake pic!

That's better, one more... Oh cute...

I think his sisters taught him how to tilt his head to one side like that. You're super cute Daniel.

Before we went to the park and practice, the children were saying things like "Grandma Hibbert's house?!? We haven't been there in years!! That might be true.

It might also be why thy were so intrigued by things that might have been normal had we been there more often, like a pillow (Lily) and Daniel playing with a small rock collection.

 

We didn't stay too long cause it's a school night. Time to load up kiddos.

I'm glad we went easy on the treats today, and I'm glad that we have a birthday junk food break until Mel's birthday in December. I'm always trying to make policy, and my new policy is that ice cream is just a birthday treat around here. No worries for my deprived children, I'm sure it will miraculously pop up several times anyway. Treats and goodies always do appear around here as if by magic. They love birthday magic. Hope you had a good birthday little D, may you stay as sweet during your 3rd year of life as you have been in your second year.