Today was Sunday. Everyone stayed home from church expect Dean. Ben and Anthony had upset stomachs from the previous day and Olivia caught a cold. With school in it's not surprising, yet we did our part and kept the sickies home so that it didn't travel around the school AND church classes. The kids were really good - there was no fighting 0_0 (I know shock me!) and the boys actually stayed in bed for half the day. (hence the no fighting =] )

We went through our Disney DVD's and Bluerays, added codes into
our movie rewards account. I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast, Anthony contacted people for his Eagle project, Ben shredded my shred it pile, and Olivia talked with her cousin Mya and than made one of her "Little Bake Oven" mixes. She did really well - too bad the mix smelled and tasted like play-d0ugh. >.<

I took PROOF that it was an amiable day. Notice the boys and Dean (hiding from camera) are actually playing a board game with Olivia! If you click on the picture to enlarge it - you can almost see that they are playing "Strawberry Shortcake" with Olivia!!! YES!
She won the day and was happy as can be that her brothers not only paid attention to her but actually played "with" her. =] Yes, a proud mom moment.......gimme a min. =] Ahhhhhhhh.

Tomorrow starts another week of school, work, carpool, phone calls, hoping to finish the family room, and meal planning. The last is my least favorite. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to cook and bake and if I do say so myself, think I do a mighty fine job of it. =] Looking at pic's of me and Dean I think you would agree =P. This week I look FORWARD to having a more organized, cleaner family room where I can go and do Tae-Bo or get on my treadmill. I definately feel better enough that looking in the mirror disgusts me and it's time for me to be in charge again. My girlfriend from HS and her daughter both promote a pretty healthy gun show - I have never looked like that even WHEN I was in HS - but I will settle for little guns and a size 12 again =].

Whoosh Saturday flew away.........................

As much as I would love this picture to mean I am finished with my family room....alas, it has only begun. My family room, downstairs in my "UN"completely finished basement is my horror. I HATE THAT ROOM with a passion...was that obvious? My comfy couch is in there and our nice tv and it disgusts me. To begin with, the carpet is ORANGE...yes, you heard me right - ORANGE. We have lived here for 12 yrs and I have no idea how long the people before us lived here (5 yrs I think?) but they traded someone something for it and didn't care because it was their "upgrade" that they needed for their loan. >.> They had TWO indoor dogs...need I explain more? The carpet is just beyond disgusting. The walls - ok the drywall is falling off - lol - helps that my children have placed big HOLES in it. The wood framing the windows will give you splinters >.> yes, I have experience in that. HEY, the WINDOWS are NEW - well they are 12 yrs old I put them in the first month I lived here. All new doors and windows rolled over into our first mortgage. You could see sunlight through the front WOOD door (that was hollow) - someone knocked on the little glass window and it promptly fell onto the carpet. >.> mercy me - ugh. The windows were the old aluminum things that could be "popped" out in less than 2 min giving anyone that bothered access - NO THANK YOU~! So they all got replaced "WITHIN" the month - I have no clue how the other lady lived here and had her husband at a new job in another state. Not me that's for sure. Back to the ugly room. The family room houses the furnace, water heater and air conditioner. Whoever decided to finish the basement (? *rolls eyes) decided that the encasement for these LARGE utilities should not be square - it should be at an angle so that absolutely nothing could work there. >.> oh and its not really framed it seriously looks like an outhouse. Needless to say, since the crawl space is located at the end of this room- that is where the majority of the spiders we see - AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I DO NOT DO SPIDERS! I think I've made that clear.

Anthony is helping me - a little begrudgingly since he helped me create the "first" set of shelves that we are now taking down. Looking above - you'll see the white shelves holding only half of my vhs's. I would love the room down there to have a "cabin"ey feel it. We had 2 boxes of flooring left from the living room upstairs so we have gotten the "liquid nails" and some "screws" and we are doing "opposite" paneling. =D Yes, you heard me. I will post a pic when the wall is done before we put the new shelves up. My treadmill, my comfy couch, my big tv :( I miss them so I am using the excuse of relatives coming to quickly get it done. Gee, fixing up that room has only been on the to-do list for umm.....12 years?!? =P Yes, money has a lot to do with it still being that way - that and the fact that I simply avoid the place like the plague. My bathroom, that was also - redone when my kitchen was - erm...3 yrs ago? Is still unpainted. Yep - it is MUCH smaller to tackle and I'm thinking that it's a REALLY good thing its a 3 day weekend next weekend cuz that Monday I am gonna CRASH HARD. Hopefully I can last that long and not crash mid-week >.< that would ruin my plans....rude.

My house is small. It's a little less than 1400 sq feet - yep that includes the basement. I have no garage and only a crawl space. HA HA HA HAHA - you think I'm going after anything in that crawl space? NOT ON YOUR LIFE! Dean took my china box out of there and than he had to go through the whole thing so that no creepy crawlies surprised me - alive or dead - I don't care - ugh *shivers. We would like to build a garage in the backyard - our neighbor did (yep its a 30+ yr old neighborhood - NONE of us have garages) for about $5000 and some friends. I'm sure that's what ours is going to have to be and it isn't going to be anytime really soon. We have a friend going to help us dig up the weeds that aspire to be grass on the side of the driveway and than we will cement it all the way over. I'm sure my neighbor on that side would LOVE cement rather than weeds that keep spreading into his actual grass. However, even though labor is free and cement is discounted - it's still pricey and that won't be before the year is over either. So, what do I do with a small house - BIG children and no storage? I start compacting :D. My shelves that used to be where the wood is now - used to be full of DVD's. I now have less than 20 bluerays and 5 season's of Stargate plus Trek movies to put back up there. My movies all now live in a large, comfy binder - heavy binder. They are alphabetized and slightly catergorized. Yes, that was a project in and of itself that the picture above doesn't show. =]

Okay, its freakin' 2:30 in the morning again. I figured this would happen since I over used energy today. Dean and the kids don't feel very good - I hope we aren't spreading it around the family - I have things to do before next Saturday! =] I guess I'll spend tomorrow here on the computer typing my movies list and seeing which ones I haven't put the Disney protection on or registered in the rewards website. That looks like another "sightless' all day job. Lol - oh well, it will give me time to make more sweet rolls. YUM! Night.
/

What a week!!

As I write this I should really be working but when the thought hits my head I need to act or it will disappear never to be seen or heard from again. At times this is a welcome thing - depends on your outlook.

Let's see...it happened like this.....

School started for all 3 kids in 3 different schools. Elementary is great because unlike the upper level schools, it is still FREE education. Yes, I know I pay in property taxes but the teachers have most of the items and simply ask for donations of paper towels or pencils or no germs. Jr High and High School however, school started and MORE fee's walked in the door with my boys, along with supply lists and the typical disclosures. Two days of that since the Jr & High school are A & B day schedules.

Had a mammogram/breast scare when on Tuesday my Family Dr office called and scheduled me for an appt with a surgeon for the next day. 0_0 They had told me there was no problem and to come back in 6 months just so that they would have a comparison on file. THANKFULLY the surgeon looked at my mammograms (2) and my ultrasound and did a brief examination. He found nothing to be concerned about - told me if I was worried to just keep track and observe and let them know. PHEW....that was NOT a nice scare.

Olivia starting work 0_0 I know! One of the ladies I visit teach, she teaches flute once a week. Olivia is her new "distraction" for her 2 boys so that she can teach in relative peace. =] She's all excited, she gets $5 a week and has already calculated how much she will have after 2 months. *rolls eyes

Yesterday was back to school night at the Elementary, drop off and pick up day at my office in Salt Lake and neighbor visits. Today was complete my calling (VT Supervisor) - with a new Relief Society President we had changes to make and lists to print. She a character - talks to herself like I do - lol we'll get along great.

My down sides this week I can't fix. I want to help but there are situations and times that you know, no matter what you do - you can't help. You can be an ear to chew, a shoulder to lean on, and even a giant hankey - but that's about it. Everywhere around me life is hurting people I love. I know, that's life, these are our trials it will make us stronger or more humble - it just pains me to see it. Part of being a recovering perfectionist is that you NEED to help, you feel useless if you don't do SOMETHING. At times though, people don't want or can't accept it.

My friend and I settled our differences this week - THANK YOU! We finally had a chance to just sit and chat, to realize and accept the other's side and decide that our friendship is more important that who's right. He lives in a very different world from mine. Not just differences in culture from another country (Canada ain't that different =P)but differences in how family relates to your life, how and whether religion relates, you get my meaning. I value this friend unmeasurably. Our differences make us see the other's problems with an open mind. We can oft times see things that the other can't - you know, stuff that good friends do for each other. =] On the other side, for one of the times I ACTUALLY go to sleep >.<
my sister needed me. =[

Therefore......................it's been a WEEK! Ha ha, not a week from hell, not necessarily a painful week, just a week full of LIFE at its fullest. I'd appreciate a little less from now on ;). ♥