End of Pet Era

Well, our sweet little guinea pig Vanilla passed away yesterday. We are used to her squeaking when we go into the garage, and yesterday as I went out to get some food from the garage for her, there was no squeak to greet me. I peeked into her igloo and she was laying very flat and and didn't look good. I but down some lettuce for her and she didn't move for it (she usually is super excited for her romaine). I went back inside to get the kids off to school, with a plan to return to her after they left. When I did go back out, I pat her and could tell she was gone. She was still warm, but she was stiff. I rubbed her fur and told her I was sorry. She first got sick at the end of September, and she hasn't been eating well since. She'll eat all the fresh fruits and veggie treats but she was not eating her timothy hay. And they need to eat their hay. Mel still had some medicine food that the vet gave her and they would feed that to her, but she's still been feeling super thin and we've been worried. Melodie got Vanilla in 2016 the day that Medusa died. The vet said that she was old, but 2 years doesn't seem old to me, so I thought that was weird. We only had her over 2 years. We got Medusa in 2012 so she was with us for 4 years and I'm assuming she was a year or two old when we got her. We had 4 guinea pigs for a while, that was kinda crazy, not sure what I was thinking at the time. After 2 years of that though, with the kids getting busier and less interested in the pets, I was a little weary of these sweet creatures.

After Carmel disappeared in July, I've been feeling bad that Vanilla might be lonely (not that Carmel was very nice to her, she was kinda bossy). My small bit on knowledge on guinea pig needs told me that they are social animals and need a companion. But I did not want to get another one. The kids hardly play with them or seem to care about them, so I actually wanted to give them away this summer. They might just all be busy, but I am not interested in having pets that the kids don't totally love and aren't 100% engaged with taking care of. When I have to nag and remind them to put them on the grass or feed their cage, it's time for them to move on to new owners.

Anyway, so I told the kids we'd give them away before Park City this year, but Abi begged to keep them and she mostly did step it up - they've been her pets more than Mel's or anyone elses. So summer ended and we still had them, then Carmel left... I asked a neighbor who has one if she'd want to be co-pet owners and take Vanilla and we'd supply her food or something. Or they could keep the two of them for 2 weeks and then we'd take them for 2 weeks or something like that. But they voted as a family that 1 guinea pig was messy enough. And then Vanilla got sick and I've been worried to give her away thinking she'd just die on the new owner and that would be sad. So we've kept her, and she's been alone, so that's mostly why I told her little lifeless body that I was sorry. Now she's gone to a better place and I trust all is well with her little spirit. I left her in her cage, as an experiment to see if anyone would check on her or notice. When the kids got back from school the elementary kids didn't notice, but when Mel got back from school after dinner (little bit late cause of some after school commitments) she did notice and told me she didn't think Vanilla looked good. I said "Yeah, she's dead..." "She is? Oh! Why didn't you tell us?" Well, I didn't want to ruin your day at school. Once a kid heard the news, they passed it around to siblings and neighbors. They put her in the box. I had already dug a hole during the day for her in our pet cemetery in the backyard.

Everyone rallied to write her notes to put in her box before her burial.

Here is a picture of the funeral services.

I do still think guinea pigs are a perfect pet, if you want a pet. I, however, do not want any pets for a long while. If I do change my mind, it will be in our families post-toddler era, so atleast 5 years out. 

I put some links below showing a brief history of our life with Guinea Pigs -

Hello Oreo and Butterfinger 8 May 2012

Kids play with them May 2012

Hello Medusa and Eve 18 May 2012

Pigs To the Park - July 2012

Hello Brownie 15 Aug 2012

Hello Hamlet and Twix Aug 2012

1 Sep 2012 - Sold Eve and Brownie (according to a search in my inbox)

Sep 2012 Goodbye Butterfinger (inbox search)

Goodbye Oreo Oct 2012
 Guinea pig recipes - April 2014

Taking them to school for Pet Day (middle part of that long post) June 2014

Goodbye Medusa, Hello Vanilla May 2016

Goodbye Hamlet Oct 2016

I can't find a post relating to Carmel, so I don't think I blogged about when we got her, but we went to the Humane society and picked her up (apparently during a moment of weakness on my part) sometime shortly after Hamlet died in October 2016

Goodbye Carmel Jul 2018

Vanilla Sick Sep 2018

Violin Recital

Sophi had her first violin recital last night. I stayed home with the little noisy kids and Corey took her out with her a few of her sisters that were ready to sit quietly like angels and listen.

Sophi played wonderfully and did such a good bow before and after her little number of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Corey said it was perfect. Lily captured her own version of the performance on the back of the program.

She did that after they were sitting back down and the girls were drawing ugly pictures of each other to keep themselves entertained through the rest of the recital. Although it was not an accurate picture of Ms. Amy, Corey did like the attention to detail... the eyes clenched shut, the mouth grimacing in pain, the hands over her ears. 

Lily, I think we're gonna have to keep an eye on you as you grow older, she might be a bit too clever for her own good....

The kids thought the refreshments were a free for all dessert bar.

Good job Sophi, you're in good hands with Ms. Amy. We'll try to learn what it takes, but hope you will be able to drive and own this skill as you grow more into it, since the violin is new to us and we really don't know what we're doing.

Rescued Basement

I don't know what came over me on Saturday, but I worked for most of the day on organizing and cleaning the basement, and I did it!

And it didn't even feel like a chore, I was just doing it and getting it done and I got it all done in one day, which is a miracle, cause that place was such a mess. It wouldn't have happened without Abi helping me last Friday evening to get the first half of it clean. And the kids are kinda doing their part with our new chore system. So now I'm just knocking out one area after another! The laundry room has been clean for 10 days! Like, no piles of laundry and no clutter covering the desk. It's just clean! And it's staying clean! And I keep thinking to myself that a miracle has taken place. Last year on the courage challenge with Holly and the EJC, the question was asked "If you went to bed and a miracle took place over night in your life, when you woke up in the morning, how would you know?" and we had to describe it. And I described what my house and life look and feel like right now. It's pretty cool. So I'm in a really good spot right now and am quite content with it. It feels good. I really think a lot of the credit goes to Holly, and I also think it started in May with just making my bed everyday. And I do make it everyday. Cause it takes 2 minutes and it feels good and it spills little by little over into the room, and then that clean room spills over into the rest of the house. On Saturday, after the basement was done, I told Abi "Unfortunately, your room is now the messiest room in the house!" And that's funny cause she is my best cleaner, but for some reason her room has been a wreck. And this is a bedroom that just Mel and Abi share. How could that be!? They used to blame the mess on all their little sisters, and I've been like "What's your excuse now, huh?" It's probably a mental thing - like its kinda easier to organize someone else's clutter up than your own. Someday I'll be a professional organizer. Over 10 years ago as I was searching for my calling in life, I started to dabble with organizing and worked for a few neighbors and got taken up for a job on a craiglist posting. And Corey was like "Um, can I hire you to do our house?" And I was like "Ughh... I don't want to do our house.." (end of 2nd paragraph here) But last night Abi wanted to decorate her wall a bit, and I said she had to clean her room for 10 min first and then I'd come help her. But I was busy doing something else, and more than 10 min passed, and pretty soon she came and told me her room was all done. With everything, just get started. Just set a timer for as little as 3 minutes. With everything- like if you don't want to do a 20 min jog, just do a 5 min walk. Anyone can do that. Start small, and little by little you feel the positive effects of it and you want to do more - little by little, a little becomes a lot. So her room is clean now, the house is looking great. I'm ready to supervise chores when the kids get home from school in another hour. We're in a good spot, yay! Sounds like it's probably time to get another ball to juggle, eh? Ok, well baby will be here in 8 weeks, hooray! I'm going to enjoy this good time while it's here, and we'll reevaluate and start a new season of life in January when junior arrives.

Boy Battle & Princess Pageant

We had a good Saturday with lots of full on boy and totally girly activities going on. The big boys had a good battle doing on with their little brothers.

It's really fun having these teenager boys to be the rough house father figures for the toddlers (cause Corey's getting worn out from the years of work he's put in wrestling on the floor!)

Sometimes they wrestle without weapons - and Owen knows the moves from a few video games, and he'll do those, like he'll hit the floor with his fist (called "PK fire" or something from Super Smash Brothers?) and Wes and Hyrum will play along and pretend to get knocked over. Today it was just swords and light sabers. Daniel got three of those for his birthday.

And of course the sooo cool pink mask I got for dress up during the Halloween clearance. I stocked up on masks shortly after the kids were introduced to them by their cousins (end of this post) - I found like 6 of them at kid to kid for a buck each!

Owen feeling invincible as the bad buy.

Go get your big brothers, Owen! You can take them on, you got this!

So while the boys were having wars, Abi and Lily were using their little sisters in a beauty contest. After they got Sophi and Natalie all ready, they walked them around the house for each of us to vote on. We had to choose which girl was prettier. And I knew this was a serious contest, and wouldn't end with hurt feelings for the girl that got 2nd place. So I suggested to Abi that we vote in categories - best hair, best jewelry, best dress, best make up, best poise, and best manners. Six categories - so I voted 3 for Sophi and 3 for Natalie.

Corey caught on to my plan and also voted 3 and 3 after drowning them in compliments. Sophi in Corey's office on the pedestal (rolling file) to be judged.

Natalie, striking a pose hoping to win more votes.

Video of the boys fighting and Abi and Lily counting up the votes. Sophi was ahead, but they fudged the numbers, yay.

It ended well, cause they each won certain bragging rights, hooray. It was fun to have the kids all lost in play with each other today. And with the kids all getting along, I spent most of the day cleaning the basement, which now looks pretty awesome. Happy kids and a clean house? Is that possible? Can the two coexist? Maybe, we'll see how long it lasts! Life is good.

Baby Belly

When I take Natalie to the bus stop, the two boys at the stop with her always run to their mothers as soon as they see the but to give them a hug. Natalie and I have followed their example and give each other a hug before she gets on the bus for school. Natalie's taken it an extra step and will also give my belly a hug and say "Bye Baby!" (She even counts out the baby when she sets plates and silverware at the table, silly girl. She still sets a place for Joseph too.) Owen has observed this ritual and now regularly comes up to me during the day to pat my tummy and say "Baby?" And I say "Yep, baby!"

and then he'll hug my belly.

(No, that's not a red balloon nor is it a big dodge ball... that is my ever expanding stomach that I'm looking forward to having return to it's regular size as soon as possible)

It's cute. He'll also on occasion pat his own round toddler tummy and proudly say "Baby!" Sorry buddy, there's no baby in you, but that's funny. Cute kids.

Last night we had an activity for the ladies at church, a little soup night sponsored by our ward Relief Society Presidency, of which I am a member (I'm the secretary). We made soup for the sisters. I made the curried sweet potato carrot ginger one again (in the big black pot, I made a lot...) and I also made the yellow soup next to that, which was a coconut lime soup that turned out sooo good.

I made it Tuesday to try it out, using this Chickpea Lime and Coconut Soup as my guide, and it wasn't that great. But I risked it and gave it a go again anyway and used a different coconut milk and added a lot more veggies and a bit more stock and lime and it looked so pretty and tasted great. It was a nice activity. It was a busy afternoon cooking and when it was time to go, I went over as is - like I had my hair up in a messy bun and was wearing the same red shirt from the day before. I was a little embarrassed with myself for not trying to step it up, but also know I just don't have a lot of "I'm trying to look pretty" in me right now. I'll try to start looking pretty again once this baby is out and I'm making progress getting my body back. I'm doing good exercising every day right now still and have been maintaining my weight, so going to just control the controllables as we finish this out. A good thing right now is that there's not a lot of room in my tummy for huge portion sizes, so that's helping me maintain. I'm getting my mental game on though and am ready to focus on losing this weight after the baby is born. Until then, I'm glad the holidays are here to help the time pass by quickly.

...And Found!

Today I got a text from Corey - he asked: "Mel found her flute? Where did she find it?" And I replied "I had not heard that..." and I immediately called Mel. Sure enough, she found the flute at school. Hallelujah! I joked to here that the prayers of my parents and siblings work really fast! Melodie also fasted yesterday, so a combination of those things I'm sure. (Thank you Heavenly Father!) Mel found it and her music books in some room at school called the black box. She said she should have thought to look there. So hooray and phew. She was glad to have it back and practice tonight.

Yes, if you look on the clock on the wall, it is true that she is practicing at 11 pm.

(We stay up too late. The kids more than Corey and I lately... we're learning to just go to bed and leave them with their bad sleeping habits) Ethan practicing in his room - he has All state Auditions coming up and his lesson with Ray tomorrow.

It's noisy with all these instruments, but probably not much noisier than it would be with 10 kids at home anyway. Practicing going on late into the evening/night, but having them practice late is better than them not practicing, so we'll be grateful for evenings like this.

Lost Flute

Last Friday after school, Melodie and Ethan both had to go to American Fork for music - Mel for an Lyceum rehearsal, Ethan for a Crescent practice. Mel dropped off Ethan and then when she got to her rehearsal, she could not find her flute in the car. Her phone had just died, so she went to buy a cord and then let it charge for a few minutes and then she called me to as what she should do. She remembered getting her flute out of her locker, and then going to the bathroom, and then going to the car. So it was lost somewhere between the locker and her car. I was on my way with Sophi to a violin group lesson which was out near Skyline. I told Mel I'd go look at the school... It was 4:15, I was hopeful that it was still open. It was, and I went in, and looked in the bathroom, asked the janitor, the janitor took me to the office and we found what looked like the lost and found but there was no flute. He said maybe they put it somewhere else if it was big (the lost and found box wasn't big enough to hold her flute and music bag and books), no luck anywhere. The other bathroom it might have been in was locked, so I waited and looked trying to find a janitor again to unlock it. When I did, looked in there, no flute. Even though Mel was sure it wasn't in her locker I told her to give me her locker # and combination just in case. No flute in there. After an hour, Sophi's teacher called to tell me Sophi was really worried I had forgotten her. I thought she wasn't done until 6 but I guess they were done at 5, so I left Skyline flute-less and went to pick up Sophi. I told Mel she'd just have to check at the office on Monday/today. Mel's rehearsal on Friday went until 8 and Ethan was done earlier, but since she wasn't able to play, she decided to wait for Ethan and just come home. Hmm, where could the flute be?

Melodie used Corey's old student flute at her Lyceum concert on Saturday and said it was fine.

(Side note - they have two concerts coming up for the holidays, mark your calendar, they always do such a good job, and also two free concerts in March -

Dec. 5th - Christmas Concert with Lexi Walker and Vocal Point at Weber State - Tickets here.

Dec. 8th - Christmas Concert with Vocal Point and Heritage Youth Choirs at AHS - Tickets here.

March 8th - Side-by-side Concert with U of U Philharmonic at Abravanel Hall - FREE admission, 7:30 pm

March 9th - Concerto Concert and Tchaikovsky Symphony 6 at U of U, Libby Gardner, - FREE admision, 7:30 pm

So anyway, today she went to the office to check if anyone had turned in a flute. No luck. We've been checking the classifieds online just in case anyone stole it and is trying to sell it. But that seems like an odd thing to have it stolen - cause it would have been stolen by a girl and would have had to be taken like right away for it to be gone while Mel was in the bathroom stall - if I saw a flute I wouldn't think of taking it to sell it, so that one girl would have had to been looking out for an opportunity like this, which again just seems unlikely. We're really puzzled as to where it could be. I sent out a text to my family to ask for their payers. I haven't been worried over the weekend cause I was sure it'd turn up yesterday, now it's just a mystery. Here's hoping for a miracle that it will turn up. But if not, I guess we'll start saving our pennies for another one. Corey went by the music store today to see if they'd let us rent one for a couple of months cause Mel has her college application audition videos coming up. ...But they want a year contract to rent, so hm, not sure what we'll do. Just keep praying and thinking as to where it could be.

Find Joy in Today

On Friday after school, Abi helped me rescue the finished/carpeted part of the basement from the mess it was in. Corey told me earlier that day that our friend Rafael from Brazil would be staying with us one night. I wanted to say in response "We are not in a position to entertain guests..." but instead I tried to make a place ready for our house guest to sleep. It didn't make sense to move any of the kids out of their rooms, so the only option I felt we had was the basement. And that place was a horrible mess. I only had an hour to get it looking hospitable. Abi helped me work a miracle. We cleaned it up before she had to go to the church for activity days and before I left to take Sophi to a group violin lesson. It was a quick clean up (aka we just shoved everything in bins and pushed it to the other side of the basement, (don't look at that side...)) so overall it's still the same messy, but we moved 100% of it into the unfinished side instead of the 25/75 mess it was. So yay, it's nice to have that one part of it clean! It's been a while since the floor there was clear... it's been a mess since Wesley started working on some team moral building activities for his SBO's leadership conference.  That was back in September when he started working on those projects. The leadership conference is now over, but the mess has remained, including a big palm sized blue glue stain in the carpet right in the middle of the room. Wes strategically placed the couch over the stain so I didn't discover it for a few weeks, although I did notice and wonder why the couch had been moved. I should have known. This time it was my turn to strategically place a carpet over the stain. We put up a mattress and then Abi and I had to leave, and I told Corey it was as good as I could get it in such short notice. Then he texted that Rafael was going to stay with a different friend. Well, I won't be bugged that I was stressed for the past 3 hours about hosting a guest, cause I'm happy that that room of the basement is cleaned, so we'll count that as a win.

I rearranged my weights in the exercise area -

The black desk in the left corner is where I'm working on filling the scrapbooks. 

 

And here's the other side of the basement that I've been avoiding for weeks... Too bad there's not a door there.

I know I said don't look but I thought I'd share how sad and messy it is. Just keeping it real, not that I've ever really tried to hide the reality of my inability to keep on top of the mess around here (example 2 from last year).

That's life with kids. I was thinking recently about the problems with this house and the list of things I want to have replaced or fixed... and I was thinking about how I want to figure out how to keep it clean and keep things in order, and as I thought of that, I thought that some day (so I hear) my children will all leave and be grown and out on their own, and I will have a clean house and probably will have money to fix and update things and have a house that I like more and that stays tidy. And when I am that older woman living that "new normal" life, I think I will look back on this time and probably think of what a wonderful time it was. I should do that more now while I'm here in it. Create my happiness now. Find Joy in the Journey now. To quote from the Prophet President Thomas S. Monson - I was thinking of the second paragraph here, but will post these 4 verses, they are all good, but read or listen to the whole talk at the link above to get all of it -

If you have children who are grown and gone, in all likelihood you have occasionally felt pangs of loss and the recognition that you didn’t appreciate that time of life as much as you should have. Of course, there is no going back, but only forward. Rather than dwelling on the past, we should make the most of today, of the here and now, doing all we can to provide pleasant memories for the future.

If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.

Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important—and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know. Wrote William Shakespeare, “They do not love that do not show their love.”3 We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Rather, our regrets will come if such things are omitted from our relationships with those who mean the most to us.

Send that note to the friend you’ve been neglecting; give your child a hug; give your parents a hug; say “I love you” more; always express your thanks. Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.

Joseph said at the end of his email to our family this past week  (the email isn't posted there, but just for time reference) - "Thanks for all you guys have done and are doing for me and for teaching me a lot back when I lived with you. LOVE YOU."  I guess that last phrase "when I lived with you" sounded so much like a day far in the past, a time gone and over. He will live with us again for a little bit when he returns from his mission, but soon after he gets home he will be off to college, so the days that he has lived with us really are over. I will strive and seek to find joy in what this day, these children at these ages, offer to me now before their childhoods expire. Find the joy that each of these present moments give to me now.

Winter Swim

Corey has a friend from Brazil in town. It's our friend Rafael. Corey got him a consulting gig at the place where he consults, and they are having a company conference this weekend. So Corey helped him get a room up at the Marriott with our timeshare. We took advantage of his accommodations by treating ourselves to the hot tubs this evening. I told the kids to get ready, but I wasn't planning on swimming, plus I don't have a maternity swimsuit, so I was just in my regular clothes and figured I'd just watch from the sides. We left at 3:00 and grabbed some pizza on the way up. 40 minute drive, then we ate in the room. Then we went outside to swim around 4:30, but it was crazy cold and I wished I could get in. Darn it, poor planning on my part, I was watching them but was freezing! Owen didn't want to go in at first, but I made him. You gotta get in, it's too cold out of the water!

The older kids watched the toddlers, I sat on the edge and pulled up my pants to soak my feet and calves in the warm water.

Owen kinda had fun. Maybe?

There's a smile, good job buddy. Do you like to swim?

He liked it, and had fun, but only for 30 minutes.

So an hour drive to get here for this activity and he's done by 5:00. Great.

You can't be done yet, Owen! We just got here! Get back in the pool!

I tried to entice him into another pool, but harder to make them swim when I'm not in the pool to hold them in.

It didn't work. So the older kids took Daniel into the big pool. Which was warm enough, but I didn't want to go over to that one, I was cold enough as it was.

We pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Too bad that after 30 minutes they didn't want to be there! 

Ok, fine, we can be done. So back to the room to finish off the pizza.

Then over to the Mine - Owen is in his happy place again!

The rest of the kids were in their mind numbing place.

Ooh, Daniel is happy too! He's got free reign with a marker!!!

They have a white board-like table and a basket full of expo markers - you go ahead and draw away buddy, I won't stop you. So, Corey was home with Ethan and Hyrum, who were finishing music. They were gonna come up too, but since we were done I told them not to. So we went home and they watched a movie while I ran to Barnes and Noble to get books for school. When I got back, I got a kick out of Daniel, who was set up like the older kids in front of the big screen...

With his territory clearly claimed and in the zone watching the flick.

Daniel! You're cute! Wanna give me a smile? There it is, what a cute little guy.

It was a good week and a good weekend. I'm always proud of myself when I get myself out of the house. Will try to make myself do it a few more times before the baby's here.