cracking up and cracking it out

Preslie is cracking me up lately. She loves to listen to music and is a wiz at memorizing song lyrics. BUT sometimes she misunderstands the lyrics...

Like the song "Tennis Court" by Lorde. 

The right lyrics: 

Baby, be the class clown

I'll be the beauty queen in tears

It's a new art form showing people how little we care (Yeah)

Preslie's version:

Baby be the class clown

I'll be the beauty queen in Sears

It's a new Iphone showing people how little we care (yeah!)

And the song "Girls Chase Boys" by Ingrid Michaelson

The right lyrics:

All the broken hearts in the world still beat

Let's not make it harder than it has to be

Ooohhhh it's all the same thing

Girls chase boys chase girls

Preslie sings:

All the broken hearts in the hospital bed

Let's not make it harder than it has to be

Ooohhh, so sick that 

girls chase boys chase girls

She cracks me up!

I took my girls to a Relief Society mother/daughter activity. We took a cupcake decorating class, and Quinn got her nails painted at the nail polish station. She was in heaven! I looked over at her and she said excitedly, "This is SO fun!" She also told me, "Your friend who was painting my nails didn't even mess up!"

We made dropcloth pillow covers. Mine turned out fun.

Mack was the "smile of the week" in his class and I helped him make his poster.

I may have swayed his answer on his favorite thing to do...

Dax's birthday kicked off the crazy season at our house! I made him a delux-o cheesecake like last year.

I love my little cuties!

I finished: Dax's closet is organized! 

His shelves used to hold his collections of manly gadgets and accessories.

 I installed a shoe organizer on the blank wall next to the shelves and put his collection of pocket knives and other stuff in there. I like this because it uses a space that previously had no use and it freed up his shelves for clothing.

Before shoe organizer..

AFTER:

The opposite corner of the closet looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

 I put up wire baskets (Ikea) to hold Dax's collection of hats and my FIL helped me screw a piece of wood to the wall so I could display Dax's collection of patches. I also attached bulldog clips (Wal-Mart) to the wood so it doubles as a memo board. I screwed a little magnet board (DI) under that so he could hang pics, receipts, and home teaching contacts.

I grabbed an empty pink leopard jewelry organizer from Quinn's closet and put in Dax's chapstick, earplugs, batteries, lighters, keys, and other random smaller items. It has pockets on both sides so it holds a lot in a small amount of space.

He likes the improvement, I think. He works really hard for our family and I want his closet to work for him.

I finished painting my bathroom. It only took a week and a half to get it done. It is frustrating to work that slowly but I'm still a Mom, Wife, primary worker, piano teacher, cook, chauffeur, maid, slave driver, etc.

I picked so many delicious raspberries from my friend's garden. OH they were yummy.

 My kids got out the Halloween decor and had a blast looking at it and leaving it all over the floor in the front room.

Mack's birthday came quick. He is my lucky Seven-year-old! Wow. That seems too grown up!

On Mack's birthday, I took the kids to see my parents. I told my Mom of my plans to makeover my bedroom and she immediately started orchestrating the making of my headboard. My mother LOVES projects and she is very fast and organized. That woman gets crap done. She also has MS and can barely walk somedays. BUT she had me set her up a station in the shop so she could chop wood for my headboard. She is so fun and amazing. I feel super bad that the chopsaw had a mishap so her fun came to an end. No one was hurt but the saw is out of commission. Boo.

The kids and I had a nice visit and listened to general conference with my parents and my sis and niece. Preslie and I did some thrift shopping with my sister and scored some goodies in her closet. I also brought home some rad furniture from Dax's bro's basement. It was originally from Grandma and Grandpa so Bro and Abbey were wanting to update and I couldn't pass up this badboy.

I asked Dax's dad about the couch and he said his Mom had it custom made in 1970 so the length would accommodate how tall he was (6'6"). Many a nap has been had on the couch. The chairs can also be turned toward each other to make a makeshift crib/nest for cousin sleepovers.

Back home, my bro Matt took me and my kids to his boss's house where it was DECKED out for Halloween.

Even inside their house was decorated wall-to-wall.

We're going back at night so we can see the music light show!

I think time is speeding up. The months go by so quickly like we are in fast forward. I am not a fast person and I don't like to be rushed. I feel the rush and the speed of time racing by and I don't like it! I feel a sense of urgency to do the most important things because there is little time for anything else. I will not be signing my kids up for soccer next year. I'm in the mood to simplify so my time can be spent on things that are top priority. My goals are:

Keeping our belongings to a minimum so there is less time spent cleaning and organizing
Building food storage
Paying off debt
spending quality time everyday with my family

goals, goodbyes, and good vibes

GOALS
I like January for the chance to reflect on my good life and for making plans to improve myself. I went without candy for 7 days and then said...WHY am I doing this? It doesn't really matter and it won't make me a better person to go without candy (which really means chocolate). So I decided to omit yelling from my life instead. That didn't last too much longer, but I think working toward that is a better improvement and will have more eternal rewards.

Another thing I want to work on this year is spending more time with people I love, including extended family. I have family in Alaska, Idaho and Utah. In January, my sister Trina moved from Florida to Utah so I am excited to add more visits with her family, too!

We spent Martin Luther King weekend with Dax's family and celebrated our niece's birthday. Chuck-A-Rama, Kangaroo Zoo, games, chats, and cousin time gave us some happy family memories to start the year out on a happy note.
This pic is of my nephew after a few hours going full-speed at Kangaroo Zoo. I love his red, tired face and how he's slumped over with his gut sticking out.

 

GOODBYES
Our dear neighbors/friends moved from our town and they will be sorely missed. My boys are best buddies with their boys and I taught the older two piano; there is already a void in our day-to-day life!

These pics were taken on the last night they were here.

I sent them home at dinner time and Mack was stomping around yelling that "They are STUPID for moving! Tell their Dad to quit his new job so they DON'T have to move!" If you know Mack, you know that mad is the emotion he shows for all other emotions. This is Mack's way of being super sad that his friends were moving. I sat my kids down for dinner and the next thing I know, Mack has his forehead down on his arm and is SOBBING. Like the saddest, real tears I've ever heard out if him. This sincere, raw emotion just burst out of that tough and gritty 6-year-old and it was the saddest and most beautiful thing I've seen him do. I went over and put my hand on his back and (he didn't elbow me away like I thought he'd do) I just said "it is SO hard when our dear friends move away. I'm sad too and it's ok to be sad. It is really hard." Then Hunter says, "Mom, just don't talk about it. It's making me cry." then Hunter teared up. We are planning to visit them this month and the boys are excited.

 GOOD VIBES
Paper clutter is my ultimate nemesis. My counters and kitchen table are constantly piled with papers and I can't stand it. Somedays I submit and let it win. One day last week I went on a rampage and was chucking things left and right when I saw one of Mack's school papers that he hadn't completed except for one part...

 I was as happy as a red hen when I saw that!

 A few friends and I organized a birthday lunch for my friend Jaclyn. It is so worth the effort to get together with good people. Most of these ladies are my neighbors. I love where I live!

Here is one room in my house that has not given me good vibes for a long time. My boys room has never received the attention it needs. It is super boring, no style, cluttery and blah. That is going to change.

I cleared it out and planned to paint it the end of November. Then this thing called Thanksgiving and Christmas happened and then it was January and so I called in 2 of my friends to help me and we painted it bright and clean white! I love it. I took the bunkbeds down. Making bunkbeds is awkward and annoying and I've been doing it for 8 years so I'm done. But I'm NOT done with this bedroom. Now that I have a beautiful blank canvas, I can begin to transform this room into something awesome for my boys (and me) to enjoy!

GRABBING LIFE
I feel like my main goal this year is to make life happen instead of letting life pass me by. I plan to take charge of my time and really do what I want to do. Spend time with loved ones, take my kids new places, make my house a place I love, reach out to people and serve, be a missionary, read the scriptures, visit the temple, choose the best things instead of just good things. I feel like I am a robot that is going through motions everyday but I want to live and soak it up and be in the moment. This life is temporary. Loved ones won't always be there. So hard to remember that. I love life; I want to spend more of it DOing.

I started writing in a little notebook ideas and things I want to accomplish and remember. In the back I write down gift ideas when they come to me, projects I want to do, etc. The first page, I wrote January at the top and as the month went on, I recorded things that I wanted to remember like what day I washed which sheets, payed the mortgage, and kicked the dog. But also what projects I wanted to accomplish that month. My January projects were: paint the boys room, decorate for Valentine's day, make a hairbow organizer, and organize my Christmas decor in my storage room. Well, I did all but the last one. My storage room is a bomb so I wrote that on the next page with my February goals. Writing things down has helped me stay focused on the projects I want to do most so I don't spend time spinning my wheels unsure of where to start.

Here is my bow organizer. Yes, it's a baby gate. I love my jewelry organizer I made out of a baby gate so when my friend was throwing this out, I grabbed it and it fits great on the wall behind my bathroom door. I have extra gate pieces if anyone needs one!

Here is my Valentine decor. Way cheap and easy.

Learn from me, don't put your candy jars up high like this. Mack was up on the counter grabbing some candy and he fell. The top rack of the dishwasher broke his fall. And it broke. It still works, but is a little crooked now. The candy jars got moved down to the counter and a pink feather heart wreath moved up onto the shelf. Dumb to make my decorations non-kid friendly! Learned my lesson.

good intentions 2009

last years' goals were:

visit parents once/ month: check

simplify and declutter mind and life: ongoing check

laugh and play more with my family: ongoing check

this year I'm adding:

keep track of my keys --this is going to greatly eliminate stress from my life

in bed by 11pm, up by 7am -- cannot name all the ways this will improve my day to day

visit the temple once a month -- this will be harder. BUT, there is no excuse for not going more, other than it isn't a priority. And how sad of an excuse is that. I am sad to say I didn't go ONCE during 2008. I could blame it on nursing a baby, or building a house. But instead, I'll just do better.

Oh, and one more goal: keep the baby AWAY from the toilet brush.

There. Yay for goals and making my life better!