Overdone

I like to get my kids something for Valentines Day. My parents always got us something growing up and it made the day extra special. So I wanted to give a small gift for my kids. My first thought was the heart shaped box of chocolates from the dollar store. They might not be great chocolates but the kids don't care, and I remember how special I felt when I got my own box of chocolates. Well that was the plan until I went to Alan's class party.

Have you been to one of those lately? When I was a kid the fancy valentines that were delivered had a couple conversation hearts stuck in the envelope. Now almost every single valentine was a candy (I say almost because ours was not). I saw them at the stores, they are very cute ideas, but really? It's not Halloween. The kids don't need that much candy. Of course the real kicker was when one of the kids valentine was the box of heart chocolates. You just had to show me up. Now mom looks cheap. (Yes I know that the dollar store is cheap but the kids don't know). Alan ingested the box of chocolate in 6.2 seconds without appreciating it for a second, and then he was on to the next candy. Can't we go back to no candy's in the valentines so that a box of chocolates actually is something to appreciate? Do we have to overdue everything?

So the kids ended up getting a calender from the dollar store instead. I know it doesn't fit well with Valentines but I didn't want to have to compete with a first grader.

The Kids Got New Chores

Well . . . . at least it's not MY job to put away the dishes anymore.

Because I just haven't felt like it

I know. It's been almost two months since I last blogged. I'll be honest. It's not because I have been too busy or even like I have nothing to say. I actually have a million things to say but I just haven't felt like blogging. So here's our brief update. But just a warning if I post some things in the near future that just don't make a lot of sense chronologically (like posting about Christmas after I post about Valentines day), it is because I am just now getting around to it.

Hyrum turned 5 last week. Wow! I can't believe my baby is 5! That is five as in he starts kindergarten next year. I'm not handling it so well. Just thinking about both my kids being in school next year is too much for me. Who knows what I will be like next August when school starts. Hyrum is doing great. His current plan is to marry me, have 10 girls, 6 boys, and 4 babies. I'm flattered.

A little side story. A few years ago I took some cake decorating classes. Cake decorating isn't a natural talent of mine but I worked hard at it and I've made some cakes that I'm really proud of. Especially because my original goal for taking the classes was just to not be embarrassed when frosting my kids birthday cakes. Well all that time and money spent on classes has come to this.

This is Hyrum's birthday cake. Even though this shot is out of focus I kind of like it because it looks like it's an action shot and the army guy's are actually moving. It's not all my fault. I asked Hyrum what kind of cake he wanted and and he told me "A strawberry army cake with yellow frosting" Huh? I tried to convince him to have a camouflage cake because I've been wanting to try out that technique but no he wanted yellow frosting with plastic army men. OK if you say so.

To celebrate Hyrum's birthday we played hooky on Monday and went up to Flagstaff to play in the snow. It was so much fun. It was both of our kids first time in snow (well technically Alan spent a lot of time in snow as a baby but as we moved to Arizona when he was only 15 months old he doesn't have any memory of it.

I made an attempt at snowboarding. I never made much progress but it really made me miss skiing. I haven't been skiing since I got married, because as we all know being married = no money. Now I'm going to have to save up money for lift tickets.

Plenty of spills but that makes it fun.

Moving Up

In our last ward I spent 4 years doing food storage and 2 years in the nursery. John spent three and a half years as Elders Quorum president and 1 year as ward clerk. I am happy to report that we are moving up.

As of January 1 we will be team teaching the sunbeams (3 year old Sunday School). We are thrilled because we have been requesting team teaching positions for the last 5 years. Sunbeams are so much fun too because they don't ask the hard questions that older kids do. And you know that we will be among the most informed people in the ward. With 3 year olds as our informants you know we will hear everything.

Bless Your Heart

I cleaned my kids bathroom today. It was long overdue. Of course the kids bathroom is long overdue for a cleaning 24 hours after I clean it but it had been much longer than that. Due to sensitive stomachs I will refrain from telling you just how long it had been.

As I was cleaning it reminded me of another time that I cleaned a very dirty bathroom. In college just before Christmas break it was time for the cleaning check. One of my roommates was assigned one of the bathrooms but was running late and didn't have time to clean it before her flight back home. I volunteered to clean it during the break because I wasn't leaving town. During the break however, before I had a chance to clean it I got the stomach flu. I obviously didn't clean the bathroom and called our landlords who were doing the cleaning check to warn them. The thought of entering our disease ridden apartment was enough for them to decide to skip the cleaning check all together. Well I completely forgot about cleaning the bathroom because John was also in town for the break, and well, he's a really good kisser.

The break ended and the roommates started coming back in town. We started classes and got busy. The bathroom was bad. It had been far to long since the bathroom was cleaned so one afternoon I finally did it.

We didn't have any rubber gloves so I got plastic sandwich bags to cover my hands and spent almost 2 hours scrubbing that bathroom until nary a germ could be found. That afternoon two of my roommates were having a conversation. My one roommate informed the other that I had spent 2 hours cleaning the bathroom.

"Bless her heart!" My other roommate exclaimed. Silence ensued for a moment when my roommate said "You know, 'bless her heart' is just code for 'she's an idiot."

It's true. Try it next time you hear someone say "bless his heart", fill in "he's an idiot". It works ever time. And if you're like me you will then have to try and hide your smile if front of the person who said it.

Finally

When we moved into the ward we were so busy with unpacking and getting our old house ready that I was afraid that we would get calling quickly. I kept thinking. "Please give me two weeks to adjust before a calling." Well we made it two weeks and even a third week after that. Every Sunday John and I would wonder if we were getting callings. Well the weeks stretched into months and we eventually gave up wondering about a calling.

Finally after five months in the ward we got the call into the Bishops office. And they managed to find a calling for each of us. Can you guess what it is? Leave a guess in the comments section for each of us and the winner gets . . . . uhh . . . . a delivery of some really fantastic Christmas goodies. What the package will entail will depend on how close you are and how sturdy the treats need to be. Unless you happen to be one of my siblings and already are making the same goodies as me. In that case I'll have to think of something else to give you.

I'll announce a winner for each of us (or whoever is closest if no one gets it) on Wednesday, or Thursday if I feel like it.