Busy, Busy, Crazy Busy.....

I got a phone call back in March....or maybe the beginning of April....from a Board Member at the younger kids school. (We are at a charter school, so we have a board of mostly founding parents that help run the school.) Anyhoo, she got my name from someone(I really wish I knew who!) that recommended me to be on the Business Partners/Adopt-a-Class Committee. Not only that, she wanted me to Chair the committee.

That threw me. I don't like being in charge...unless it's of my own home and kids, then I'm fine being the boss!

But to be in charge of other things...run meetings, get-togethers, meet deadlines? Eek! I am the Queen of Procrastination. Really, I'm good at it! So to have to meet deadlines and stuff? Stresses me out. I told her I'd be happy to help with the committee, but to let me think on the Chair part and call me back in a couple days. She didn't call back. But two days later I and the rest of the committee received an email announcing me as the new Chair. Help!

I decided to suck it up. I could do it. I have the skills.....just lack the time-management/non-procrastination ones.

Wish me luck. I've already made it through the Appreciation Night, to thank all of this year's sponsors....now we're knee deep in finding sponsors for next year. Hoping our current sponsors want to keep doing it. We have picked up a number of new ones already, and according to the board member I work with, we are already looking better than we ever have at this point.

So that's some of where I've been. It seems like lately, when I get on the computer, I am emailing or updating spreadsheets instead of blogging. Well, that and sorry, but facebook and twitter is a quick way to write and go.

And my apologies to all those I faithfully read for not commenting. I have recently cleaned out my reader and I just did quick reads and no comments....sorry! I'll try to do better.

Little update....

I've been a slacker as of late. Sometimes I find that it's easier to sum up the goings on in life with a facebook status or "tweet"! So, blame the invention of those social networking sites for my lack of verbage here. :)

How horribly boring too, as I have no pictures for this post!

It doesn't feel like I live in Utah lately. It's been unseasonably cool(not complaining about that!) and WET around here! It has rained almost every day of the last month....CRAZY! It will be nice to see my electric bill though, since the A/C hasn't been running. I can't remember when the last time was that I ran the sprinklers. It really is quite strange. Last night as we were getting ready for bed and the rain was pounding down on the roof, I asked Ron if we ought to start building an ark soon. :)

Jared is quite sad about the rain. Between other commitments for us, and all his t-ball games being scheduled on Thursdays, he hasn't done one BMX race this summer. He was going to skip his game tonight to go race, but now the rain has soaked the track to the point that they don't think they'll be racing tonight.....poor kid! Oh well....I suppose we'll just keep trying!

Riley is making sure we all know that she is bored out of her mind. Not that there isn't plenty of stuff around here for her to do, but none of it has been deemed "fun" enough for her to bother with. The other day she wanted to go to a friends house because she was "tired of sitting in front of the TV getting fat". So she went. I had to laugh when I found out what they did.....yep, sat in front of the TV at her house! :D A lot of her hours at her job (selling concessions at a local pool) have been cut. It seems the pool isn't too busy when it's cool and rainy, and there isn't a real demand for snow-cones then. She has Girls Camp next week.

Nicole is missing school...she's a bit of a social butterfly, so I think she's getting tired of having the same people (us!) around. We've been to the library and picked up some books. I've been having her help me try and get the playroom organized, but sometimes, I need the kids not around me so I can fill boxes and bags with things for DI. She's excited for the Mother-Daughter Enrichment meeting tonight. She'd be even happier if we could have a fun day at the pool, but again....the rain.....

Ellie is thrilled with the playroom overhaul as there are all sorts of toys that she never even knew we had! She is also getting a little too confident and trying to head out front on her bike without me knowing, which has led to a few problems..... :) It's so hard when she sees the older kiddos head out on their own, and that meanie mom won't let her follow! Oh well.

Life in a nutshell. Trying to get ready for Father's Day this Sunday (don't forget!). Oh, and hoping that it dries up a little around here....for just a few days!

All I want to know is...

...who has been eating my chocolate?!

I have been busy.....making cards, wrangling children, school pictures, hoarding chocolate, reading other blogs....family history type stuff.....not really doing anything about it other than plans, but that's a start, right?!

I've been in a writing funk and more of an information gathering mode as of late. Oh, and that guilt imposed by dirty bathrooms and floors has been filling my mind instead of anything blog-worthy!

More fun coming when I get my ducks in a row. :)

ps....I didn't take that blurry picture....I stole it from google images....that was easier than pulling my bags of chocolate out of hiding, pulling the camera out, transferring images, and trying to not let the kids see the chocolate or their hiding place in all of that chaos. Whew!

**Roseola update: at day 3, all the "coco pops" went away, and Ellie is Ellie again!

June 1...

Wow. It's already June. Summertime is officially here. Sixth month of the year, and I still have to think about what year it is when I write it! It think that's a sign that I'm getting old...old as the dirt. Not much happening around here....we had ants.....in the house....I hate ants. Hate, hate, hate, hate 'em! But Stewarts pest control came to the rescue and did a respray....yeah, we'd already had them here for a usual preventative spray, but the little buggers showed up anyway. Now they are gone! Phew!

Jared and Ron went to the Father & Son campout Friday night. For the 1st time ever, Jared stayed all night. And since they were trying to sleep in the car and hadn't planned on it being cold, Ron got about 2 hours of sleep. But Jared thought it was the best thing ever and was so proud of himself for staying. They both took naps yesterday afternoon!

My poor husband not only brought home exhaustion, but a nasty cold as well. So, needless to say, he's not feeling too hot. Stayed home from church even.

Tonight the kids and I, since Ron isn't going to share his cold, are going to farewell dinner for my Aunt Diane and Uncle Mel. They leave Tuesday for their 3rd mission for our church. The first time, they were mission presidents in California. The 2nd was 16 months in Ivory Coast, Africa, coming home 2 months early due to health issues. Now they are off again for 18 months in San Diego....yeah rough! :) They will be working on the military bases there in the branches.

Lots of busy-ness this next week. I get tired thinking of it. My goal is to get some pictures of the kids though for an idea I have....

Highlights...

• The park yesterday was fun, but not all that sunny as a storm was moving in...the temperature was almost 80 yesterday(ahhh heaven!) and 50 today...booo.
• Orthodontist today...yippety-yay...ouch. Good news is they say my teeth are moving really well and fast for an adult. I hope that means we'll be done in the 15 month timeline instead of the 18 month.
• Just helped Nicole finish her animal report on the Bald Eagle. She's taking a poster with pictures and her paper is all ready for her oral report. I'll have to take pictures of her tomorrow!
• Made this yummy dinner: Individual Chicken Pot Pie Pockets. I used my recipe for CPP, but got the idea from here.
  
• Lowlight: Joey, the wonder diarrhea dog has been banished outside...unfortunately it got too cold for him to stay out all night so I still got to scrub the laundry room floor this morning....retch! He was allowed no food today, so I'm hoping for no scrubbing tomorrow morning. Riley wants to call the ASPCA on us, because she's sure the dog will starve to death by tomorrow. Hmmm, I bet her tune would change if I let her clean up the #%*@. My mother called me twice today to tell me he has worms. Wow. I had no idea she was a vet, let alone one that can diagnose over the phone. Just so everyone knows, the dog shows absolutely no signs of illness other than the nasty poo...he isn't on death's door(yet :P), and if it doesn't resolve, we will take him to the vet.

Can you believe tomorrow is MAY?! My kids only have 17 more days of school...Jared's down to 9. Whoa...I better start gearing up for summer break!!!!

break time......

Sorry for the lack of posts recently....I'm feeling a little down in the dumps recently....I shouldn't be, because I have so many blessings, but just feeling a little sad, anxious....I don't know. I think I need to spend this afternoon at the park in the sunshine and I'll feel better. So to spare you from the details of life, I've not been posting, and will be back when I can do some happier stuff! Until then, hug your kids, love your spouse, and smile at the sunshine! And be glad you aren't scrubbing doggie runs off your laundry room floor...gag. That's enough to put anyone in the dumps.

Comedy of Errors....but I'm not laughing too hard.

We found out a while back that there was some recall/warranty work that needed to be done on our car. So, for some stupid (in hindsight) reason, I scheduled it for today, along with an oil change and tire rotation before we head out on our trip in that car.

So this afternoon the service guy calls...I'm thinking to tell me the car is done. Instead, he informs me that while they were doing the recall work on our car's "Electronic Control Module" (basically the car's on board computer, that controls alot) our car's battery went dead. When that happened, there was a "voltage spike" that, um, went right into the "ECM" and fried it...the car's brain was dead...and they don't have the part to replace it.

OF COURSE NOT!

So he tells me that they've ordered it, and it'll be overnighted and the car will be fixed with new ECM and battery tomorrow....well okay, we'll need a rental...okay they'll arrange that.

*********************
Question 1: Why did the car battery that is less than a year old run dead?
Question 2: How does a dead battery have a voltage spike?
*********************

Ron calls him an hour later when he gets home for the story and to make sure they understand the car must be back to us tomorrow (he'd already told them we were needing it for a road trip.) This is when it became really NOT funny...

The latest update was that the ECM would now not be available until Monday. They claimed they could not pull one out of another car because the '08 part wouldn't fit in our '07.

This is when my husband pretty much ripped the guy a new one through the phone.

So they said they'd figure something out, even said they'd rent us a car to take on our road trip. (Of course the car would be too small to fit our entire family in, and there would be no built in DVD player. Yes, our kids are spoiled, but that is our lifeline to going anywhere in relative peace!)

Later, when we called AGAIN to find out about getting a rental car for tomorrow so I can get my children to school they told us they'd researched it and found that they COULD use an ECM from an '08 in our car, so they were doing that now and we could get the car tomorrow. That's great, but I still need a car to chauffeur my kids around as my husband will be at work tomorrow.

Then we find out that the only car the rental car company had isn't going to fit our family....don't ever try to rent a car in Provo....they have nothing that fits families...so then the car dealership tells us they'll stay an hour late and finish our car for tonight.

So after all that mess, we did get our car back. It is functioning, so I'm assuming the ECM is okay, and we got a new battery....as for the oil change and tire rotation, I'm not all that sure those happened, since the cashier had no charge slip written up for those.

I just hope we don't break down in the middle of the Indian reservation. Then again, our kids might think hanging with Native American kids would be cool...

I'm just glad we got our car back, and I think if we ever get a recall notice again, I'll ignore it!

Murphy's law....

What happens when you are in charge of something, that is sort of a big deal, and it is in the middle of the day, requiring someone else to take care of your children?

Said children get sick, of course. Fevers, puking, head ache, etc....

And then their mommy has a nervous breakdown.

Well, not really, because I have to keep it together enough to figure out the plan of action...which included calling all the main PC people...none of which can take over for me. So the plan right now is that my poor mother is still coming over to babysit the kids, and I'm telling them they can't sit all over her, or touch her,and telling her to be a hand-washing freak. Then we pray she doesn't get sick.

It's a spelling bee for crying out loud. Whoever can spell the most words right wins...I don't know why they need me anyway.

I want to go back to bed.

There...I'm done now. :)

Perspective...

This picture was taken Sunday when Ron got home. I had mostly shoveled, but he cleaned up the sides, and since I had almost given up down by the street, I only left room for one car to enter the driveway at a time. So he cleaned it up and widened the entry into our driveway. I decided to get this photo so you can tell a little better how deep the snow bank is....that one that is almost to the shoulder on my hubby who is 6'1"...the best news is that it's even deeper now. Why, you ask? Because it has snowed every day this past week. Sometimes just a skiff, sometimes 3-4"...but snowed nonetheless. Not to complain about our overabundance of blessings, since we do need the water, but a little bit of a break would be okay. They said on the news that our snowpack and water levels are typically where they should be in APRIL! Eeek! I hope when we do thaw out, it's a slow thaw, or we may all float away!

I can't believe it's almost Friday. This week has FLOWN, and I haven't finished most of what I need to.

I'm in charge of the Spelling Bee and the Presidential Pageant Essay Contest at school. I need to get the essays and all the info to my judges tomorrow. I was still tracking down essays from teachers today, seven of the 13 teachers didn't follow instructions and copy the essays for me, so I have to go do that tomorrow, and, I am still short 3 judges. Sigh. I'll be glad when this is over! :O) My happy thought is that as of February 29th, 2:30 pm, the school spelling bee will be completed, and I'll be done with my responsibilities until next year! That's only 22 days away!

Other happenings this week....
Nicole lost her first top tooth! Finally! She lost her four bottom teeth right after she turned 5...but we've had to wait another year for any more visits from the tooth fairy. This tooth was interesting...the permanent one coming in was pushing it out at such an odd angle, it was pointing out and toward the left until it was almost over-lapping the other front tooth! She was such a snaggle tooth. It was driving me nuts. It was loose, but the front of the tooth was really hanging on, so I literally took it into my own hands and "helped" it out. Just a simple twist and flick, and it was out. Nicole screamed, of course, for about half a millisecond, and then ran to get it in her tooth pillow. I hope the permanent tooth comes in somewhat straight...if you look closely at her bottom teeth, the 2 front ones have quite a space in the middle and overlap their neighbors...I hope her top front ones aren't so crooked....poor kid can't get braces on yet. So odd when her baby ones came in straight and with lots of space that her permanent ones came in crookedy. Oh well....the orthodontist will have a nice vacation cabin when he finishes our family!

Lots o' Luv!

Even though I just changed my template...I decided to go with a Valentine theme for the next month...hope the pink isn't too killer for y'all!

It is COLD!

No pictures today.....too overcast to take anything in my house....not enough light...and there is no way I am going outside again except for the absolute essential things(like pick up from school.) It is freaking eighteen degrees outside, 18!!!! Fahrenheit! This stinks. I want to crank my furnace up to 75, and turn the fire on. But I don't want to pay the gas bill if I do that. So I'll just turn the fire on and drink some hot cocoa.

Ron wanted to go "somewhere" this weekend. He was talking St. George, because it would be warmer...yes, 45 is warmer than 18, but it's certainly not warm! We also discussed Colorado...yes cold, but we thought there would be some fun stuff to do...but there was nowhere to stay in Ouray due to an Ice Climbing Festival. We even thought about Arizona.....but 20+ hours in the car with our kids?! For only 2 days there? We decided no....sorry sis!

So, we'll stay here and find some fun(?) winter stuff to do. And clean and organize the playroom. Now THAT sounds like fun!