I've been tagged and I have some awards to pass on!

Summer tagged me. I get to list six unimportant things/habits/quirks about myself. (And believe me, these are very unimportant things but they are definately about me!)

1. I have extremely dry lips. Always have. Nothing helps. I keep thinking someday I will die from some kind of strange lip cancer because my lips peel so much. I have chapstick hidden everywhere.

2. I love home made french fries!!! With Fry Guys fry sauce. I could eat this every day! Yummy! (Wait, I do eat this every day! My family would like some variety with our meals but hey, french fries go with everything. Sometimes I forget to make the everything part though. That's when my french fries obsession gets me into trouble.)

3. I always have cold toes, feet, hands, bum! Hubby is always so warm and he loves to climb into bed before me and be almost asleep and then have me climb into bed next to him and steal all his heat....NOT!

4. I always wear shoes! I don't like bare feet, I don't like stocking feet, only shoes! All the time! Even when I climb into bed for a nap. I only take them off at night right before I climb into bed. Then I always take off my shoes and huck 'em across the room. (Hubby reminds me each night how much he hates this habit also!)

5. At night, I become very noisy and kind of clutzy! After I finally get all the kids asleep, I'll go into the kitchen to get a drink and all of the cups will fall on the floor, or I'll trip over the chair, or I'll knock something off the counter. I don't have a problem being very quiet in the daytime, but it's impossible for me to be quite at night. I make myself crazy!

6. I am a sucker! (Those are my husband's exact words.) I buy magazines from the poor college kids so that they can go on a cruise, I buy Living Scriptures or Encyclopedia's from the kind returned missionaries, I buy amazing green cleaner from a scarey man at the door, I love to have my carpets cleaned by the kirby salesperson. I have a really hard time saying no. So, please don't knock on my door!

Okay, I tag my sister in-law Julie, Hubby's cousin Heather, and Ally, Ashley, Cindy, and Nicole

Here are the rules:
* Link to the person that tagged you.
* Post the rules on your blog.
* Share 6 non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
* Tag 6 random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
* Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.


Now on for some blog awards:

I recieved this award from Summer.

This award is from Ashley.

And this award is from Ashley, Cindy, and Holly.

Okay, each of these awards was passed onto all of their regular readers and I love this idea, because it is so hard for me to choose who to give awards to, so I am now going to pass this award on to all of my regular readers. I love the friendships that I have made through blogging. I love getting to know each of you and sharing your happy moments and moments of discouragement with you. (Okay, you have the happy moments and I have the discouraging moments) I feel like we are all working through this life together and I am thankful that I get to share these experiences with you! So, if you are reading this post, then these awards are for you! Take them! This also includes those friends who gave them to me!

I also recieved this award from Ashley!

"The rules for being A Roar For Powerful Words recipient are that I share 3 writing tips and pass the award on to 3 more bloggers worthy of recognition and esteem..."

I really liked Ashely's writing tips so I'll just pass her's on.

1. Write what you know.
2.Write what you love.
3.Give people a little insight to who you are.

I pass this award to Jenna at Cranberry Corner because I have cried more times reading her blog and I really love the spirit that she gives out in her posts, Magirk at Laughadaisy because her Gratitude Sunday posts always help me put the important things of my life into proper perspective, and Holly? at Confessions of a Not so Holly Homemaker because even though I have no idea what her name really is, her confessions are like therapy for me!

Now it's getting late and my 5 minutes were up a while ago so have a great Sunday Night!

Bathroom rules and teenagers

My sweet angel grandma stopped by today to invite my children to her FREE Beanie Baby Sell! The kids cannot wait. We were visiting for just a minute and my house was a disaster and she commented on how having children is way too much work. She always tells me funny stories about raising her kids. I'm not sure how the conversation got to this point but she was telling me about when her boys were teenagers and they would have their friends come over and they would all make a mess in the bathroom and then she would have to clean it afterwards. She said that she warned her boys over and over again to remind their friends and themselves to keep the bathroom clean. Finally she hung up a sign above the toilet that said:

Bathroom Rules
1. Stand Direct
2. Aim Carefully
3. If you miss, you clean it up!

She said her boys were so embarrassed that they started to clean the bathroom up themselves after their friends left rather than have their friends ever see that sign.

Years later, while on his mission, her son Gary, sent her a plaque like this that she still has in her bathroom today:

Ha! Ha! Ha!

She then told me how Heavenly Father created this wonderful plan of families being together forever and that we all loved it. She said that one day Heavenly Father looked down on earth and saw all of these happy families living together and loving each other and following his plan perfectly. But he noticed that no one was really spreading their wings and life seemed way too easy. So, he zapped all the kids ages 12-19 and called them teenagers. After that, the kids couldn't wait to leave home and the parents couldn't wait for them to go.

As silly as that story is, it makes me sad to think that this is the phase that I am headed into with my children. Teenage years were very hard for me and I am so afraid of making the same mistakes with my children. I don't want to go through this and I don't want them to hate these years like I did. Is there a way to make it stop or just skip it?

I'm curious how your teenage years went and what your parents did that helped you or didn't help you during those hard times.

Little (or BIG) Surprises

I was playing on my blog and probably on your blog also, working through my huge pile of laundry when the phone rang. It was my neighbor, whom I don't know very well but my sons play with her's. I like their family and they seem to like us okay so it's all good. I am a little confused as to why she is calling me though. She begins to tell me about how her boys (8 year old twins) got in trouble at school that day and how she had been recieving phone calls from other parents in her boys class. I'm thinking, "I'm sorry. What does this have to do with me? My kids go to a different school than yours do." She tells me that her boys are in trouble because of a story that they have been repeating to their friends at school. She tells me the story and I am shocked! With Hubby's line of work, I hear alot of things that shock me but this was probably the filthiest story I had ever heard a child tell. I'm still confused as to why we are having this conversation though. She tells me that she called her boys in and asked them where they had heard this story from. They told her from J. I gasped. Excuse me? Did you just say your boys heard that story from MY J? I was so embarrassed. I apologized repeatedly and thanked her for bringing this to my attention. I told her that I would get to the bottom of this and that J would be down later with an apology and an explanation. She was very kind. She said that she was also shocked when they told her it was J whom they had heard it from and even though she knows very little about our family, she was sure that I had no idea he was a part of this and that he probably didn't understand at all what he was saying. I appreciated her coming straight to me to discuss this and I'm thankful that we have a pretty decent reputation amongst our neighbors, at least for now!

I remember when I was pregnant with K and we found out she was going to be a girl. J asked, "How can they tell that our baby is a girl?" S, who was 4 at the time, jumped in to the conversation and explained that girls have privates that are squished and boys don't. Life seemed pretty simple back then.

I decided to pack up the little kids and go to school to have lunch with my J. We needed to talk! He said that he had heard it from a 5th grade girl on the bus and that he just thought it was a funny story. After a few more things he told me she had said, I went to fill the principal in on this problem and to find out if she wanted to deal with this or if she would like me to. She said that she would. After school, Hubby and I called our older children in to have a serious talk. If they are going to tell those kinds of stories, they had better know exactly what they are talking about. Since it was my idea, Hubby suggested that I do the talking. So I did! My boys were close to vomiting all over the floor and Hubby almost had to be asked to leave because his covering his face and falling out of his chair from laughing so hard was very distracting. He said he was shocked that I knew as much as I did. I proudly told him that I, too, have a school bus education. As we talked about different things, I would use "correct" words and they had no clue what I was talking about. So, I would try to use words that maybe they were more familiar with, then we were speaking the same language. It's amazing how that is one area that hasn't changed much since I was a teenager. When we were finished and they had no more questions, J headed down to the neighbors house, sick to his stomach but much wiser, and apologized for what he had said. He told them that he did not know earlier what that story was about at all but that his mother had explained it to him and now he knew everything. He was so sorry! When he got back he told me that alot of things in life were very different now. He was understanding alot of things for the first time. I think he is a changed boy!


That same day, the kids brought their report cards home. S has straight A's. J has A's and high B's. A has exceeds grade level in everything, and Z has A's in PE, Music, and Art, B's in Language/History, D in Science and F in Math! I grounded him from the PS2 until those two grades are raised. He has been an emotional disaster ever since. His life is so awful it's not worth living, he's going to flunk out of school, he has no friends, he has no talent, he's a loser, etc. He refuses to go to Mutual on Wednesdays, he wants to be released from his calling at church so he can just stay home, he begs everyday to let him just drop out of school. Yesterday, their school declared it a "snow day" and took all the kids up to the ski resort to go skiing, snowboarding and tubing. He had so much fun, until it was time to come back to reality. I spent all night in his room with him yesterday, cleaning it and talking to him and just trying to get a feel for where the real problems are. I really have no clue! (But he has a very clean room!)

Today I woke up feeling sick. My throat hurts and I have a really bad headache. When A threw her little fit about not wanting to go to school again today, I gave in and let her stay home!

So, do you know any good secret magical mommy formula's for dealing with teenagers and tweenagers? These are just my first two and they are boys. What will I do when I have all of them in this stage? I need a good book to read. I was thinking about The 5 Love Languages of Teenagers. Have you heard of anything you would recommend? I'm open for suggestions.....

Friday Night Family Fun!

WARNING: This video is really loud so turn your volume down!

As you can see, every one, even K, knows ALL the words! I, on the other hand, DO NOT know the words to this song and I didn't catch on very quickly that Hubby was recording us because he had his finger covering the little red light. (Yes! After 13 years, I still fall for his teasing! Even Z figured it out alot faster than I did and he got out of there!) And poor little H. Look what he will grow up to be like. Fun Times!

Go Wildcats!!!

It's about time!

Saying Good-bye....

-We have worked together almost EVERY SINGLE DAY for the last 7 years!

-We've been a team of 3: 1 washer, 1 dryer, and 1 sorter/loader/switcher/folder/put awayer

-We've worked hard averaging 2-3 loads a day.

-We have survived 4 moves together, 3 new babies, 3 kids potty trained, 6 dirty kids, and way too many flu bugs and other catastrophes!

My dear old friends, You have been overworked and underpaid! Thank you!!!!!

Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!!

You have no idea what you're in for!
At least you're pretty to look at!
Now, let's get to work!

A Fabulous Giveaway!

My very sweet friend Ally over at Laughadaisy just had a blog makeover by Summer and because she loves how it turned out so much, she is celebrating! She is having this great Giveaway! Go check out Ally's new blog look and enter her contest and check out Summer's great designs. Summer is very talented!! I love every blog that I have seen her design. She is the one who recently made the LDS Women Bloggers page look so beautiful!

How was my weekend?

What weekend? I can't believe it's Monday morning already! My kids begged and begged to stay home today from school. I was mean. I made them go. The crazy thing is that I can't think of what we even did this weekend. Humm.....

We wanted to take the kids and go to SLC on Friday to President Hinckley's viewing BUT the roads were all closed! We couldn't get out of Idaho. We were planning to stay over night with Hubby's sister, Julie, so my kids were very disappointed when we had to cancel. In order to prove that we still loved them, we got Papa Murphy's Pizza and the High School Musical PS2 game. I think that was an okay substitute. We had our little Friday Family Fun Night and we sang and sang and sang out little hearts out. Hubby won! He isn't around the house much so he hasn't had to listen those songs over and over and over which means he doesn't even know the songs, he plugged his nose and sang really really high and made us all laugh really hard and still got the best scores! I think he's a cheater!

Saturday, the kids traded bedrooms around. We have 3 kids bedrooms and I have had a hard time trying to figure out how to divide up the sleeping arrangements. PROBLEM: 3 boys, 3 girls, 3 bedrooms. Who sleeps where? What we've tried so far: I've divided it so that the 3 girls are all together in one room and the older boys each have their own room and that leaves H in my room. I've also tried S in her own room, both older boys share a room, and the other two girls share a room, once again, leaving H in my room. Saturday we moved them so that the older boys share a room, the older 2 girls share a room, and that leaves K & H to share a room. So, how did our new arrangement work out? K has been sleeping half the night in the room with the big girls and then eventually wanders into my room and sleeps with me and H is STILL in my bed which has left me with an empty bedroom. AHHH....Maybe Hubby and I will take the empty room!

We watched President Hinckley's funeral most of the day on Saturday. Then Hubby and I went out on our bi-monthly Saturday grocery shopping date! Saturday is such a calm, uncrowded, relaxing day to shop....NOT! I do love that my older kids are old enough to stay home with the younger kids though so I can spend such great, quality, uninterrupted time with my Sweetheart! This is definately the Happily Ever After part of our Walt Disney story.

Yesterday was Fast Sunday, (my kids call it Sslllllooooooowwwwww Sunday!) and testimony meeting was very nice for a change. Then I was off to wrestle my little Sunbeam class and my own little Sunbeam, K, was the worst! I was really hoping her parents would come and rescue me and take her home but no such luck, so she came home with me. Instead of getting my weekly Sunday nap, Hubby made wonderful dinner and generously invited a family in the ward over to share it with us. I went onto Flylady.com this morning and I decided that I live in CHAOS! (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome!) I was slightly stressed! My washing machine broke AGAIN! on Saturday so I have stinky laundry all over. (Hubby, please, Please, PLEASE can I now have brand new machines?) We just stuffed it all in the little laundry room/entry to garage room and shut the door. It was all good until my friend, Shawna, had to clean up a juice mess and she wanted to throw the wet towel in with my dirty laundry. So, my new rule is: If you still like me even after you see my dirty stinky laundry pile that almost touches the ceiling, then you are a very good friend!

Last night before bed we were talking to the kids about what would now take place as a new prophet is called. We asked them if they had any questions. J, who is always thinking about really important things, asked, "So, how do you think we are going to fit another name into the Latter-day Prophets song?" Then he starts singing it and at the end he said all the names really really really fast, then added President Thomas S. Monson's name into the song and then fell on my bed laughing. Good question!

And that was my uneventful, no pictures even, where-did-the-time-go?, but just-the-way-I-like-it weekend! Aren't you glad that you asked? We did get lots of snow though, but still no snowdays!

And how was you're weekend?