In short...

Nicole...tested positive for strep...again...on Monday. She'd been complaining about a sore throat since THURSDAY, but had no other symptoms, and seemed fine. Other than the occasional sore throat complaint. She went to school, played soccer, to friend's houses to play, all with strep. Mother of the YEAR award! Finally her voice changed and I took her in.

Ellie...tested positive for strep today. Sigh...

Tonsils....I may be canceling Nicole's surgery as I have found a different ENT that removes tonsils using a different method....that results in less bleeding and shorter recovery time, but most likely another wait for surgery. Oh well, she'd no longer miss school for it....final decision coming soon!

Weather...cold. snow flurries. I am so excited to be going to Arizona next week to NINETIES! I might even get TOO hot! Oh, the joy of that thought...

Happy Monday.

What a great weekend! I love General Conference, even if my kids don't! Jared would cry every time a new session would come on. I still can't figure out why, since it wasn't like we made him sit there and watch it. I'm not doing that to my four year old! We had activities for all of them, options to go play in their rooms or playroom, but he'd still cry, and say, "Not again!" Maybe it was because he knew our attention would be on the speakers, and not on him? But he survived, and now it's over for six months!

I loved many of the talks, but my absolute favorite was Elder Ballard. I came away from that talk feeling like I'm doing okay as a mother, and with a new resolve to continue to do better. Thank you Elder Ballard! He really has become one of my favorites and this last talk really solidified that!

A better feeling than I had last October after another certain (un-named) talk was given and I came away feeling like a failure as a mother, and with a "why even try" attitude. Wrong, I know, but that is what happened. But after yesterday, I feel better about life!

To another subject....it's beginning to look less like Spring today..that tends to happen when two inches of snow falls and covers everything...grrr....good thing it's Spring Break next week and we are heading SOUTH! First to Moab, then further south down to ARIZONA!!!! Hooray! I'm gonna be WARM...HOT even!

Saturday doings....

General Conference weekend....lots of running between sessions, and then shushing of children during sessions so we can hear anything. My kids are not well behaved at church...general conference at home....sort of a joke! I even printed out the handy-dandy kids conference packets that were emailed to me....they entertained for about 2 milliseconds. The leftover boxes from an IKEA purchase were somewhat entertaining. Until the shrieking started when one or the other of them started offending the other. For those that caught Elder Nelson's talk, I'm pretty sure I was doing the opposite of his counsel in how to correct our children at about the exact time that he was giving that counsel....sigh.

Soccer games today. Jared's was at 8 AM...ugh! :) The early hour and the typical Utah spring-like conference weekend weather made for fun times....I'm sure it was below freezing with the wind chill! Nicole's at 1 PM wasn't much warmer. I have to give it to the kids though, they get right out there and play! Jared had two or three goals...he is still the aggressive boy he was last Fall, and if he gets the ball he'll take it all the way down the field to the goal. He's not shy about jumping right into the middle of the group of kids to get that ball either...we need to work on him not stealing the ball away from his own teammates though! We're deciding that Nicole might be more musically inclined rather than athletic though! She pretty much stays away from the ball, and if it does make it's way to her, she looks at it, wondering what she should do next! At least they keep it entertaining for us!

More of conference tomorrow....the best part is that I get my husband home on a Sunday, and I don't have to fight with the kids at church! Happy Day!

7 more random things...times 7!

A different Andrea over at Raising 4 Boys tagged me a while back...and I'm finally getting around to it! But I twisted it a bit, since I already had the one below sitting around as a draft! So I finished it and will post it now!

7 Jobs I've had:
NICU and PICU Respiratory therapist @ Primary Children's
Respiratory therapist @ UVRMC(mostly in NICU)
Nanny/mother's helper for family of 5
Human Anatomy Lab T.A./instructor
Temp @ SoftCopy packaging software orders
Nanny for my cousin's baby
Babysitter to the divine Hill girls!(Find 3 of them here: natalie, nicole, kara)

7 movies I could watch over and over:
Sense & Sensibility
Emma
Pride and Prejudice
Persuasion (are we seeing a pattern here?!)
Notting Hill
Sleepless in Seattle
Sound of Music
Cinderella

7 places I've lived:
Tempe AZ
Denver CO
Cedaredge CO
Price UT(don't want to offend, in case you love it, but, ewww!)
Orem UT
Provo UT
and the last isn't being named but it's in UT! (must keep a bit of privacy around here!)

7 of my favorite TV shows:
M*A*S*H
Everybody Loves Raymond
Friends
E.R.
various TLC
DiscoveryChannel
food network shows

7 places I've been:
Israel
Egypt
Rafting down the Grand Canyon
Yellowstone
Washington DC
NYC
Martin's Cove WY

7 websites I visit (almost)daily:
blogs(Google Reader)
email
Ouraycam
School website(checking grades!)
Crosswords
KSL weather
Webkins and PBSkids...for the kids!

7 Places I'd like to go:
To TX to visit my BFF, Steph!
shopping by myself
Arizona
Great Britain
Europe by train
Hawaii
Costa Rica
Church history sites

I'm not gonna tag anyone, cause I've done that already! If you feel the urge though, go for it!

Sense & Sensibility

Well, the final book is now being played on "Masterpiece", with the 1st half being shown last night. What did you think?

I was a bit worried...so far, the only one I've liked is Persuasion. Of course, P&P and Emma were not new, and I like those....but I was disappointed with Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey. So because of that I was a bit...well, a lot, worried that this new S&S wasn't going to match up to my all-time favorite version with Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Kate Winslet, etc....you know the one!

But, OH! I really did like it! Of course, only half of it has been seen, but in my opinion, this adaptation is very good! The actors are doing a great job, they really show the contrast of going from rich to very poor. The whole feeling of the cottage and where they had to move is bleak, and their lives seem to be forever altered. Willoughby isn't so good looking that it's going to be hard to not like him at the end (like the other one!), and Colonel Brandon does seem more marriageable than the Alan Rickman character...and even Edward seems to be a bit more...I don't know...sure of himself?!

I'm even more excited, because I noticed that Costco is going to be carrying a DVD collection of the new Persuasion and Sense & Sensibility together! Hooray!

Cuts & Curls

Fun Saturday...and what a handsome boy...
Wait....something is amiss...what is wrong with this child's left eye?

We were getting ready for Nicole and Jared's 1st soccer games of the Spring season. I had asked Nicole to get me something off the counter for Ellie.

Jared saw it first.

The race began....he was off to get there first. Of course, NO ONE is going to do something that Nicole was asked to do, so she was hot on his heels. So hot on his heels that when he got to the counter that the thing was sitting on, she didn't stop and bashed into him, sending his head and eye into the edge of a very unforgiving granite counter top...rounded edges even, but his upper eyelid opened up very nicely. (Feel free to click on the picture for a larger view of the inch long slice!)

And in a very fine mommy-moment, before I realized that he was cut open and bleeding, I got on his case about trying to beat Nicole to something I had asked her to do. Great, my kid got hurt trying to do something for me, and I acted bugged by it. (I have since asked for and hopefully obtained forgiveness!) Nicole got a talking to as well...about being a bit calmer even when she feels like her glory is being stolen.

So, instead of soccer, we bundled off to the after-hours pediatrician and got him all fixed up. No stitches....he got super-glued! Hopefully leaving less of a scar....at least a scar without the stitch marks surrounding it. He was very sad to miss soccer....he had new cleats to wear after all! Oh well, there's always next week!

Funny part...when it happened, Ron was out extending callings to some ward members. Well, I obviously needed him home, so I called him. He of course, didn't pick up so I called him back to back about 4 times. By this time, he tells the couple he is meeting with that I know where he is and what he is doing, so someone at home must be broken or bleeding for me to call him like that...truer words had never been spoken!

To close a little shot of the new thing I tried with Ellie's hair last night. Rag curls. I think I need some practice as half of them were out this morning when she got up (at 5:30 AM....WHT?!). She seemed to like them though. She called them her bows and didn't want me to take them out! I fixed the flat ones this morning with the hot twists. I should've taken an after picture of her, but she didn't look a lot different that the curly Easter shot in the post below!

Generations.....

My sister FINALLY updated her blog...and a picture of her son, Connor, freaked me out....reminded me of a picture of my dad, his Grandpa...so I decided to put them together for a bit of comparison. (I think there's a definite resemblance...but my brother Russ is the dead ringer for my dad!)
For a while, we've also thought my little boy resembles his Grandpa. We don't have too many pictures of my dad at a young age, but here is one along with one of Jared....what do you think? (My Dad is the older boy in the picture, the little one is his brother John) I think there are similarities, but maybe what we are seeing in Jared are looks and mannerisms that remind us of my Dad.

You must make this! It's heavenly!

I am a devoted reader of The Pioneer Woman, and have also tried a number of her recipes from her cooking blog as well...have yet to be disappointed! But this beauty...oh my! I've been craving it since I first saw it, and finally threw it together last night. My, oh my, it was delish! I did go a bit lighter on the cilantro than what she put in, since I don't like feeling overwhelmed by cilantro, and it turned out great! Ellie ate up two bowl of the noodles and veggies...the other kids weren't so sure of it, but they missed out!

So here's the link, and a little peek:

*photo taken by Ree the Pioneer Woman and borrowed by me! Hope she doesn't throw me in jail!

Easter fun...

I wish Nicole's eyes were open for this one....since it's the only one Ellie smiled in and doesn't look like she was being strangled in to keep her there!

How boring....just pictures of Sunday. I took pictures of the easter egg hunt at the park...but I wasn't impressed with the outcome, so I'm not sharing. :) The kids were just happy about the candy, and didn't care about posing anyway! Taking Sunday pictures are always fun. As parents, we have to get the cute shots of the new easter clothes, but the kids could care less, and are so hopped up on chocolate and sugar that I could hardly get a good shot, since the kids are a blur in real life! Jared would literally run a lap around the front yard between every picture attempt. Riley isn't present in the pictures. She was acting very 14 that morning, and wouldn't uncross her arms and only scowl for the pictures. In trying to get her to stop and give a smile, Jared and or Ellie would take off running, so I gave up! I'm going to take the kids in their outfits to the tulip festival in about three weeks and hopefully get some good shots, when I have Ron's help in corralling them! Riley too, whether she likes it or not! And a big shout-out thank you to Crazymama for the bow inspiration and tutorial!

Is it bad....

that my kids have watched this twice today?


No, I say! I was able to deep clean two bathrooms due to this movie!

They are outside playing now, and Jared came in and used the bathroom, and said, "MMM, it smells good in here!" Not that it smelled bad before, but it didn't have that fresh, clean, clorox disinfecting spray clean smell to it!

The pieces and parts of the movie I have seen so far look cute....maybe I'll sit down and watch it start to finish for myself tonight!