Forgive the Funk

Okay, so I am over myself and moving on. We have been so busy lately. I am going to start watching a little girl in the mornings for about 45 minutes to an hour. I had decided that I wasn't cut out to be a babysitter, but I get sucked in by these adorable babies!!!! It is not bad because it is a time when I am home and it is not for very long and I told her parents that I would be going out of town a couple of times and they were really cool with it, so I am going to give it a try. Wish me luck! I am also excited because my sister-in-law Amanda was just here and I love her and her kids! I wish they lived closer, but I know LA (the state) is where they are meant to be. The dining room and the girls bathroom are finally painted, and yes, my bedroom is finally done! Now all I have to do is get the rest of my house painted, sew curtains for all the rooms, get furniture, and accessories and I will be done. Please feel free to come by and see the finished product in 2020...it will be a sight to see! On a more upbeat note, we are going away overnight and I am looking forward to relaxing by the pool and swimming with the girls. They are getting so big and it goes too fast! We started school with Cat this week and it has definitely been patchy to start. I took the summer off from teaching her and now my groove is GONE!! I did however, get my affidavit of intent printed out and just have to order a copy of her birth certificate from Spokane and I can get her officially registered to home school. It is so ridiculous that they won't let her take music and PE at the elementary school here until next year. She has been in school already for a year and I am filing legally with the school district, but they won't let me put her in until she is officially kindergarten age. Poor kid has been waiting and waiting and they just keep making her wait. It is okay, she will be able to take those classes next year and that will help me a ton, because then I will have one on one time to teach Sarah, who will be turning 3. As before mentioned, Cat started dance again and I love to watch her. She is so serious and yet so happy-go-lucky that it is a joy to see her having fun and learning at the same time. I didn't find a piano teacher out here who would take her for a price I felt like paying for my 4 year old so for the time being, I am teaching her piano myself until she gets a bit older. She loved her old teacher, Carlie, and misses her (I do to!). We are all doing well, time seems to fly by when you have so many projects and things going on. They called me as the choir director again in this ward, so I have choir practices and music to prepare. It is really a fabulous calling. They still haven't called Brady yet, so there is hope he won't have to do Scouts for a while. The girls are doing well in their classes. Sarah is adjusting to the poopin huge nursery and Catherine is so reverent that she often comes home with treats her teachers have given her. She is such a princess! We are loving our neighborhood and moved in at the right time. Everything is almost done and most of it is in other areas, so there is little activity and noise. The cement factory is set to close in a year or two so I can handle it. I really don't even notice it. The kittens are doing well, Brady and I did notice Rudy taking a more than brotherly notice of Greta last night and are anxious for this month to be up, so that they can go in for surgery and be done. I love kittens, but I don't feel like being a grandma yet. Speaking of kittens, my kittens Mom is having another litter and it will be her last, so if you want great kid cats, these are them. Life is moving on and I have already been shopping for winter clothes, which sounds ridiculous living in Az, but we are going to Wa in October and it will still be hot here and definitely will not be hot there. I found the cutest pink jacket and cable knit sweater that Gymboree had on sale this week and snatched them. The store I went to had only gotten in one of the jackets because they were selling so fast online and it was our size. I literally beamed with glee when I found that out. I am waiting for the rest of the collection to go on sale before I stock up. It makes it hard to buy clothes that my kids will only wear here for a month or so and only twice in WA. I am looking forward to seeing my parents for Halloween and Christmas this year. I love going home for my birthday and Christmas and having it snow, so it had better snow this year! Enough from me... I have to finish packing.

Sadness...

I am just sad...I am not pregnant again. It just gets harder and harder each time. Everyone keeps telling me it will happen when I am not stressed about it, but I am starting to feel like that is crap advice! Who in there right mind wouldn't be thinking about it all the time when it has been this long? It has just been a very hard weekend and beginning of the week. Please keep us in your prayers.

The Never-Ending Cycle of Life

So, here I am again, back to painting my room blue. I am a slacker and only finished half, so now I have to finish up so that the rest of the house can hopefully get painted someday. The kids are back on their school schedule, with Cat starting her fall ballet session yesterday. We will start our homeschooling routine today. I have had a rough couple of days and am looking forward to our routine being back to normal. Both the kids and I deal much better with life when we are on a schedule. It does get a bit monotonous when I feel like I just cleaned the stinkin bathrooms and it is already bathroom day again. I do love a clean bathroom and I do love cleaning bathrooms, so I guess I should say when it is already kitchen day or vacuuming day or dusting day...yuck! I am happy though that Amanda, Randy and their kids are here right now and that this weekend Amanda and the kids are coming to stay when Randy goes home. We are so excited to see them and it definitely feels like more than a two months since we have last seen them. I am also excited to see my sister next weekend. Things are busy, busy, busy and aren't slowing down! Keep me in your prayers that I don't catch fire down here!

It's an OCD, manic, freaky chic thing

Okay, so I feel like I have gotten nothing done this past week! Brady has been sick and now I am feeling under the weather, but, I did get 11 pages done at the Scrapbook late niter I went to on Friday and I spend all day today cleaning the house from top to bottom which it has needed since we moved in a month ago...gross! So, now everything is clean, but my bedroom is still half painted. I need to finish up all of the detailing I am doing and paint the other two walls, but finishing it seems to be impossible. Not to mention the rest of my house waiting to be painted and decorated. I think I finally decided on the colors for the family room, thank you Shantell. I am looking at fall colors,you know, rust orange, dark green, plum, browns, a gold maybe. I haven't gotten up the courage yet to buy drapery fabric because I can't make up my mind which route to take. After switching things up in my bedroom, I am not feeling like I can make more changes at the moment. It's that whole OCD, manic, freaky chic thing that I have going on. Who knows, but I do need to do something and fast!

I'd Like to Thank the Academy....

Melissa, you shouldn't have.....I have been nominated for this beautiful award and now it is time to nominate some of my friends.

1.Tara Fisher---You are one of my best friends! You always know just what to say to make me feel better and stop stressing, OCD-ing, or feeling down; that is a rare talent. I love your sense of style and the way that even when life sucks, it never gets you down.

2.Tanya--You are my fellow cleaner, organizer, obsesser and I love you for it. I also love the way that you tell the truth. I am so glad that you are finally home.

3.Melissa--Thank you for nominating me. I am so glad that you were the YW Pres. that I got to serve under in KBP ward! You are amazing and I relate to you so well! You are an inspiration to me and I hope that you know how special you are.

4. Michelle Shirley--The other YW Pres. that I know and love. You also are an inspiration to me and I love everything that you are. You are beautiful and a wonderful example of being the best that you can be.

5. Brooke Romney--I want to be you, it's as simple as that. You are a great wife and mom and through it all, look like you just walked out of a fashion magazine. You are a great spiritual example to me and I wish I was more like you in that area too.

6. Laura Tannery--I absolutely love reading your blog. You are the most fabulously funny blogger and person! I dig it, and kudos to you!

7. My two beautiful sisters-in-law Manda and Anna--You are both so important to me. I love being a part of this family when I get to have you both in it. You are such wonderful examples of what I strive to be like. I love you both.

Rules of award:

1. Post the award on your blog

2. Add a link to the person who nominated you.

3. Nominate 7 other people for this award and add links to their blog.

4. Leave a message for the people that you nominated!

It's Poop, Cat!

So I am changing Sarah's diaper just now because she is stinky. Catherine was asking me about dressing up for her Primary Activity this Saturday. We were discussing her dress and she didn't know what I was talking about and asked, " What is that Mom?", and Sarah answered her, "It's poop, Cat!" Sarah thought Cat had been asking what was in her diaper. The things that toddlers say.

It's never ending!!!

Painting-never ending
cleaning-never ending
children-never ending

I had been having kind of a rough day with Sarah and hit the end of my rope and she got put into time out in the powder room. She screamed and yelled and slowly I grew accustomed to the sound and tuned it out. I came to realize that I hadn't heard her in a while and went to see what she was up to and found an empty powder room. I then found all of her clothes and her diaper in the formal living room, then I found the lady of the hour sitting in the formal dining room, ripping up packing peanuts and feeding them to herself and the kittens, stark naked!! Naughty, just naughty! Then, I have Cat guarding the door of my bedroom so that the kittens can't get in the paint and of course they still got in and I found little blue kittie prints on my carpet. Not happy... Summers are difficult for kids. We can't go outside so they are stuck inside all of the time, which turns them into little monsters and they manage to find all sorts of mischief to get into. We are plugging away and making it work. The blinds go in on Saturday and hopefully, our bedroom will be done by then as well. Saturday Cat has a Primary Activity for Pioneer Day and gets to dress up like one. I will take pictures. The other day, we were at family dinner and Sarah came running in and said, " Whooy Whooy Whooy, one, one, one, it's going to wain." Translation: "Hurry, Hurry, Hurry, Run, Run , Run, it's going to rain!" There was a monsoon and she was very worried and convinced we needed to take cover. When we all just sat at the table, her little brow furrowed and the look of consternation was priceless! She was not happy that we fools were just sitting around and not heeding her advice. Poor little girl gets no respect. Wish me luck continuing on my painting, parenting adventure; until next time....

4th of July

We went to see Kit Kittredge, American Girl, on Friday with Grandma, Auntie Deborah, Auntie Karson, Emily Layton, Auntie Sarah and Aunt Anna, plus Emma and Abby. Auntie Deborah's friends joined us as well. We had lots of fun and there were lots of dollies there. We brought Mommy's special Samantha and Cat brought Felicity. We all had so much fun eating popcorn, and watching the movie. After we went swimming and had a huge BBQ that Spencer and Karson hosted, we were supposed to go watch fireworks, but we were so tired that we went home. The girls and I fell asleep in the car. Brady tried to wake us up to see some fireworks out by our house, but we all missed them. We feel so lucky to live in a free country and to be able to choose what we believe and what we will do. The 4th of July is such a great holiday!

Our little drama kittens

These are our kittens, Greta Garbo (the calico) and Rudolph Valentino the 2nd (the orange tabby). They are so adorable and my kids have played non-stop with them. It is so cute to watch Sarah carrying around a kitten. They get played with so much that they sleep all night long. They try to sleep during the day, but it never is for very long before one of the kids finds them. They were so tuckered the day we brought them home that I banned the kids from taking them out of the laundry room if they were sleeping in there. We are excited to have our super cute Hollywood kitties.

Newness...is that a word?

Everything is new; the house, the car, the kittens. Yes, we got kittens! Hooray! They are so adorable! It is just difficult to relax because I want everything to stay looking new. When it was already used it wasn't such a big deal. I tried putting pads on the bottom of the chairs so they wouldn't scratch the floor, but they have all fallen off and now are making little sticky marks on the floor...grrr! While I was loading the Brady's car during the move, I told him I had loaded it and he said, "You didn't scratch the leather did you?" I was sorely tempted to tell him I had loaded it with screw-laden shelves and other various pokie items, but alas I had only filled it with blankets and I cannot tell a lie. Keeping the kittens in one piece since yesterday has been a greater task than I anticipated as well. My darling little two year old has turned into the human scratching post because she refuses to learn that even kitties have personal boundaries. She has literally played with them non-stop since we got them yesterday afternoon. The girls have carried them around, chased them, played fishy toys with them, fed them, helped them discover every square inch of our house, and attempted to help potty train them. Both the kittens and the girls fell into a quick and deep sleep and I got to sleep in until 7:00am this morning. I've been needing these kittens in my life so that I can get more sleep. Who knew? I am off to do more unpacking and rearranging of things to find that perfect fit.