Is It Naptime Yet

My morning consisted of trying to stay awake during General Conference. I mostly stayed awake, but at times I was mostly sleeping. The girls had fun calling my name whenever they saw my eyes closed, then I’d get grumpy at them and tell them to settle down. I think I’m turning into my father.

In between conference we cleaned out the candy in our cabinet. Really condensed it since they were able to fit all the candy into these two coconuts containers that we had from Eden’s birthday party. At least it’s condensed and in a smaller area and not a big gallon ice cream bucket and several bags and other containers. I think once we start getting Halloween candy all the other candy will be thrown out. Maybe that’s how I should do it routinely since some of the candy they put in those coconuts was from Valentine’s day. Ewe.

I also did the dishes before the next session of conference started and to keep me awake for the second meeting I was crocheting a dish rag. I just learned how to crochet on Wednesday, so I thought I better practice before I forgot what I was doing, though I could ask Jon for help since he knows how to crochet. I took out what I started twice and I think I’m doing much more uniform stitches now on my third try. Crocheting did keep me awake for the second session of conference today, but my converter box kept losing it’s signal and I only got parts of the talks and songs. Each time it went off Lilah and Eden would say very loudly “Signal, hey signal!” because they were convinced that’s why the signal returned. It was kinda fun, but also kinda annoying. Well see how tomorrow goes.

After conference I went to work outside. The girls have been playing nearly every day with our neighbors or just outside by themselves, and they’ve asked on more than one occasion if they could go in our backyard. Our back yard isn’t too much of a mess, but it’s getting the neighbor girls there through the side yard that the dilemma lied. Our bushes hadn’t been trimmed  and they blocked the pathway along with all the pine needles and trash that liked to be blown around back there. So I took time to clean our driveway, trim back the bushes and clean the side yard. It was hard work, and I know my legs are going to be sore from all the squatting I did, but at least it’s passable and now I just need to sweep the back yard and make it slightly more presentable so they and their friends can be back there and I won’t have to worry about what they’re getting into. The neighbor girls have  talent for getting into things back there or making things dangerous. Like the time they took the giant, hard, dead, stock to our giant sunflower and were using it as a sword, or something equally scary to this momma since it was giant, and hard, and slightly pointy at the end.

Today I’ve also been dreaming of visiting some of our National Parks. PBS did a 6 day, 2 hours each day, special this week and it really makes me want to visit all these awesome parks. I never went to any growing up, but I really want to take my children and experience the beautiful scenery with them. My first goal is for us to visit the Tetons, Yellowstone and then onto Glacier National park. I think it would be so fun, we just have to budget and hope we can correspond our trip to my friends Anna’s yearly trip out to Glacier so we can stay with her and her husband at his parents cabin out there.  (And on the way to Yellowstone we’d probably travel through Utah so we could visit a certain niece.)

We need to go to many other parks out here in the West since so many are so close to us.

There are just so many beautiful places to visit and so little time.

What did you do or dream about today?

So lately my punctuation has been lacking. Not so much in my blog, though I do wonder how often I should use comma’s for my wonderful run on sentences.

I’ve not been capitalizing or adding periods when I chat or write on some one’s wall in Facebook, unless I notice it and go back to correct it.

I think  when I chat I am wanting to maximize my speed, so hitting the shift key while I type or punctuating seems to take too much time away from my rapid fire brain. I think it’s also that I still type incorrectly and am to busy trying to go back and correct what I’ve mistyped and there are many a times I still mistype, just ask Hunny Bunny. a.k.a. Jon.
(Lilah loves that his nickname is Hunny Bunny and while we chat she is known to come read his nickname and them cover her mouth and giggle as she says. “Hunny Bunny, that’s so cute.” It use to be Sexy Husband and for the previous reason of Lilah reading I changed it.)

I also am a terrible speller so besides having to correct what I mistype due to wrong key strokes I have to go back and do a spell check, which is easy since it’s automatically installed in Firefox.

I think I’m mostly lazy, buy I’m only lazy at choice times. Right now I have no problem with capital letters, but five minutes ago I was forgetting to capitalize or use periods as I chatted late night with a friend, and it wasn’t because I’m tired and hungry, though I am both.

I just have mental laziness in certain web programs.

With Facebook I think it’s when I write what I’m thinking I’m doing it in third person and they begin the sentence for me. Such as: Lacey J is tired and hungry. I only have to add the “is tired and hungry.” part so I don’t need to capitalize but then I find it running over into wall posts or comments.

Is there such a thing as unconscious- choice- lazy- punctuation?

And did you know Lacey is misspelled according to Firefox so I have to ignore the red dots below my name any time I type it, which isn’t often since Facebook does the hard work of writing it for me.

Lately we’ve given Lilah some freedom. She can play outside and go up and down part of the street and check the mail all on her own. She loves doing this and for the most part I don’t worry. Other kids play on our block all the time, they also play in our yard and at times try to come into our house if the girls come in to get a drink. I’m pretty sure we live in a safe neighborhood, it’s just a little ghetto at the same time and there is a cultural division with us being in the minority.

Yesterday Jon gave Lilah his keys and she checked the mail. It was a big mail day since we get all the adds on Tuesday. Today Jon realized he hadn’t received his keys that held the mailbox and house key back from Lilah after she got the mail yesterday. We searched everywhere and they did not turn up. We checked the mailbox and no luck.

We think Lilah may have left them in the mailbox key hole and that some one may have taken them. Of course we’re not sure but all we know is we can’t find them in the house and the last time they were used was for the mailbox.

Losing the keys wouldn’t be such a big deal, but we think they may have been lost in a way that a person could easily find out who they belonged to, since it wasn’t like in a store or some random place, it was in our mailbox lock which if you open it has our name in it for the postal worker to see and remember us by, then just look up that name and you have an address.

So we decided we were in a vulnerable situation and should get the mail box and our house re-keyed, but I’d be at home alone with the girls and the one handling it since Jon had meetings and places to be.  While home alone I also needed a shower and someone out there possibly had our house key and could theoretically come in the house at any moment.

So I put our chain lock on before getting in a shower warned the girls that if anyone rang, knocked or appeared to be entering the house they were to come to my room, shut the door and get me out of the shower. I know the chain is more a deterrent and can easily be broken, so I figured I’d cover my bases and have us all hide in the master bath with the master bedroom locked and then with the bathroom locked too if anyone were to enter the house. I hid Jon’s machete under the bathroom sink so we could barricade ourselves in and have protection. I also had both my home phone and cell phone ready and clothes since I was in the shower.

I showered quickly and I forgo shaving my armpits just so I would get out of the shower that much sooner. It ended up being for nothing, though how bad would I feel if something had happened and I was in the middle of shaving,  not to mention any potential nicks if the girls came in at that moment telling me someone was entering the house.

I finish getting dressed and we started looking up a lock smith. We didn’t want to call just anyone in the phone book to re-key our house and with looking on-line it seemed like there were plenty of shady lock smiths, so we decided to call someone who might know a reputable locksmith. I called my sister Carolyn who’s company also deals with rentals and used a locksmith to change the locks.  I called who she recommended and he came out at noon and re-keyed the locks.

I know the possibility that the person who did find our keys would come to our house to steal our things or hurt us is small. If anything it was most likely a neighbor and someone who would have no intention of entering our house, but you never know if someone might attempt a crime of opportunity while we’re away or even while we were home.

So now we’ve spent $74 to re-key the locks and it will cost us another $40 to change the mail box lock and in the mean time our mail will be on hold.

Lilah feels bad and wants to pay us back and I feel it was partially her fault and partially mine and Jon’s since we didn’t follow up and get the keys from here.

The one thing I’ve learned is the mail key should have it’s own key chain and we need to follow up a little better with her to make sure it’s not lost.

I hated feeling so vulnerable. I was kinda a paranoid mess this morning, hence the machete under the sink, but as the day went on I felt fine.

I feel a little bad being so paranoid and a somewhat ashamed that I had so little faith in my neighbors, but I also felt so exposed, not knowing where or who might have our house keys.

It’s a good thing it’s my own blogversary I forgot. I only have me to be mad at though, I’m not really mad.

I started blogging on September 2, 2005. Eden was just a mere 6 weeks old, Lilah was two and I was starting my 4th year of school. I would graduate and find out that Jon no longer believed in a God, all in just over a year of starting my blog. It seems strange to think that I’ve been graduated for most of my blogging life and have had a non believing husband for most of that time too.

For so long my life was school, babies, school, babies, happy believing marriage, school, babies, it seems strange that  that period of time is so far away, so distant, yet it feels like yesterday.

Time marches on with no cares for those it leaves behind.

I’m happy to still be at blogging. I find it therapeutic and sometimes it’s nice to read back and remember the feelings I was experiencing at certain times in my life. I don’t like reading and noticing all my spelling and grammatical errors, and I know there are some I still miss since my writing style hasn’t changed that much.

I’ve felt detached from blogging lately. I like putting our daily or weeking doings up, but now it seems so big a task at times. Instead I try to do a weekly post about five things I’m grateful for, and that usually sums up what’s going on, and then I do big posts about our trips and what I’m feeling.

With homeschooling I write in a journal about what we’ve done that day or recently in the week. I find it to be helpful and motivating because then I can see progress we’re making, I can be accountable on the days I slack off, and I can see what we’ve done and where we might be stuck at.

I’m happy to still be blogging. It’s a big part of my life and so here’s to another year of figuring life out and writing about it.

Today was kinda an off day. I didn’t do any homeschool, which I should have since yesterday I was at the doctor’s and then I took a nap once home. I did read to my girls about Columbus and I did have Eden read from the Bob books.

I also cleaned my stove-top, as in the little drip pans and underneath where things spill beneath the burners. It was terrible and it was something extra in my routine so I  think it’s an accomplishment worth blogging about. Yay for me!

Tomorrow maybe I’ll de-clutter my living room or bedroom. I figure if I tackle one extra thing in my routine per day I’ll make some progress and maybe my house will become presentable again. As of now if anyone were to drop by I’d be terribly embarrassed.

As I make my last minute preparations for leaving my family tonight to go to Pine Valley for one night with some girl friends, my craziness surfaces.

This is the first time I’ve left my girls or Jon and I worry about not returning. You see I worry about death a lot in some ways. If Jon becomes more than 15 minutes late I just know that he’s been in a car accident. If he’s 30 I just know he’s dead. I’ve never been right and I always breath a sigh of relief when I see his car pull into the drive way or hear him open the front door.  I also hate when he goes on business trips. I just know his will be the plane that goes down. I’m strange that way.

With me leaving and driving 3 hours away with friends I just know that this will be my death. I can hear Nina Raditich announcing the tragedy of three young mothers and two children who were just trying to get away being hit by a semi and dying. I know I’m crazy. But here’s the really crazy part. I cleaned my toilets and mopped my floors just so people wouldn’t come to help Jon and the girls and see what a disaster those places are. Though, it’s also to help Jon out so he doesn’t have to to worry about cleaning those areas for a while. I’m really just trying to be a nice wife before I leave for a mini vacation.

Really I know I’m strange, and I’m pretty sure that I will safely return from my weekend, hence why I feel fine posting this. I just needed to kill a little time while my bathroom floor dried before I took my shower.

I’m just neurotic that way.

…On my toe. I did fracture it, and on my child’s sandal of all things, and I have to wear shoes for 4 to 6 weeks. Knowing I fractured it makes going to the doctor and needing to spend money on the x-rays a lot more acceptable. ( Did you know that mothers are notorious for not going to the doctor and neglecting health care, especially during economic hard times.)

I’m sad that I have to wear shoes, but happy that I don’t need to return the cute ones I just bought since they’re now a necessity and get to be taken out of miscellaneous, though I think they may have come out of medical, spending rather than my allowance which I need to save for my girls night out this week, ( Anyone else up for line dancing Thursday night?) and then save for my girls weekend because us Mama’s are gonna go wild like good Mormon Mama’s always do when they’re not taking care if their kids, though their will be babies there.

Anyways, I’m not happy about wearing shoes and my cold sore is all but gone, since I still have just a small scab and my husband won’t kiss me till the scab is gone.

Things are almost back to normal. Almost.

I’ve realized I have two weaknesses right now.

The first is I love, love, love finding school or teaching related things. The whole back to school season has made the stores full of cool learning things and I find myself filling my carts with flash cards, puzzles, glue, pencil box holders, notebooks and workbooks.

I’m just excited to find things that I feel my girls will be excited about and find things to teach them. I may not be the most consistent homeschooler, but the idea is to make my house a learning environment and then all by themselves they’ll be interested in what’s around them and the cool stuff mommy bought to help them learn. My girls love learning and I love watching them learn and right now is the time to get cool workbooks and glue really cheaply. ( They go through glue rather quickly and I fear my 9 bottles that I bought rather cheaply won’t last till the end of August at the rate they love to make crafts. )

My second weakness is sewing. I’ve been sewing a lot. For the past three weeks  I’ve been sewing everyday or night, except weekends, and for the most part I love it. I’ve been able to make some great things and I’m even looking at making a dress for me. We’ll see how that turns out and if I get to it anytime in the near future, but I’m excited to be sewing and creating.

My next project will to fix the slightly to small top of Eden’s Jasmine outfit. (I’m happy I made it a size larger than her measurements, but still disappointed that it fits so perfectly.) Then I get to make some more aprons and bags. JoAnn’s is having a sale on outdoor canvass, 60% off, and I’m so tempted to go buy a lot of fabric for my bags. It’s just that I don’t buy fabric because it’s on sale so have it for when I need it. I don’t have the storage space to do that and even though I have a very specific reason for buying it, I don’t know where I’ll store it till I can use it, though I have an idea where I might put it if I clean out some other things.

I admit my house is holding up, but I need to spend more time on certain things. I feel like I am accomplishing a lot at the same time. I’ve had great cleaning days and great sewing days. I’ve been spending more time with the girls and I’m figuring things out with what I want to teach them and how I want to spend our days. I’m no where near the organizational level I want to be, but it’s baby steps. Just take baby steps.

I’m just going to need to stay away from Target, JoAnn’s and Costco till I can put a rein on my spending. (Costco has great back to school stuff and it’s cheaper and it’s only there for a limited time and too tempting for me.)

So don’t be alarmed if you come to my house and find the ironing board out, sewing machine on my table, a slightly to very messy house, and children reading Brain Quest cards. It’s just how it is around here nowadays.

… with pictures of events that took place far too long ago, but are far to important to just forget about.

So, since I got so far behind on picture posts, really just posting about normal things, while I was sewing and participating in the play, I’m slowly yet surely blogging about certain events. My goal is to do one a week, and for the last two weeks I’ve reached it. So regular posting will be interrupted with pictures that I should have put up a long time ago.

The Dolphin Habitat

The Shark Reef

The ladybug release from like April. ( Still need to find a way to stream video.)

May birthday’s

Lilah’s birthday

The Mormon Fort

The Fourth of July

swimming lessons

The waterpark fun at the cast party

Eden’s birthday

Maybe I should make my goal to do three a week so they’re posted before the year is over.

…if your toe looked like this?

I know not too bad, and those are some dang cute toes, but look closer at that funky one next to the baby toe.

–

I stubbed it on Lilah’s sandaled foot this evening and now, just 3 hours later, this is what it looks like. Would you visit your doctor or just wait to see what happens?

There’s irony in here too.

I have a bridal shower to attend to this weekend, a lesson to teach in church and for my family gathering on Sunday, and we’re going to Chuck E’ Cheese’s to celebrate Eden’s birthday and yesterday I had a zit right on the border of my bottom lip, and I popped it. (I am a zit popper, especially when they’re big and white.)

Yesterday I was sad that I had a zit, since I have all these public things going on, but I thought, at least it’s not a cold sore. Then this morning I felt a tingle in my lip and I thought it was the zit healing, but when I looked closer I could tell that it was not the zit that was making my lip tingle but a cold sore. Great! I’m going to have a cold sore this weekend when I have so much going on and I get the mother of all cold sores. The left side of my bottom lip is swollen and will be perfectly gross by Saturday.

Then, as I looked at my pink toe nails this afternoon that I had just painted last night I thought to myself, well I may have a cold sore, but those can’t be completely helped, but I do have cute toes that will match the shirt I’m wearing on Saturday.

Maybe I’ll wear a purple shirt instead.

I think this is irony for you.

Man, if only I wasn’t so darn skinny. (Do you think if I think this I’ll lose the ten pounds I want to?)

Update: It’s 5 am and I am so sad because my mother of all cold sore as decided to give me a fat lip and is the mother of all cold sores. My whole left bottom lip is swollen and has the potential to get even worse since it hasn’t been 24 hours since the tingle began. My once not so purple toe is completely purple and I have a 10:20 am appointment with a doctor. So grateful for online scheduling, though it was the only appointment for the 24th out of 6 doctors.

I’m going in for the toe, but I hope there is something they can give me for my lip. I usually just smother it with a Lysine ointment because the other things don’t work, or I can’t smoother them, and I tried something different and my face is swelling like I was hit with way too much novocain. It’s not nice to wake up to such a horrendous cold sore and then stub the hurt toe once more after you write a note to your husband telling him he’s going to need to stay home so you can see a doctor.

My sobs woke him up.

Sorry to be a downer on what I wanted to be a funny post. The irony has left and I’m left with the reality that I hate cold sores and this one is disfiguring my face. It really stinks.