What I've learned about myself this week...

I'm an emotional eater! *pfft* I've had a super stressful week and I've prolly gained 5 lbs because of it! I've had to work longer hours all week and I have no hope of it getting better tomorrow :( I have a co-worker who has called in sick all week and I'm her only backup. Well, I can't always stay and work late with NO notice! Jason has appointments and Jenalyn has preschool...and we only have one car! On top of that, it's not my regular job so it takes me longer to get the work done...that coupled with the shorter hours and the work is really getting backed up! I feel like I'm just treading water! Like I'm not cuttin' it! I run like crazy while I'm at work and I work as late as I possibly can! By the time I leave I'm exhausted!

It's a good thing my kids make me feel like the most important person in the world when I walk in the door. I love coming home! Squeals, smiles, and open arms coming at me! It will never get old! I will always cherish that - well, at least as long as it lasts! I'm sure one day they'll barely turn their heads from the screen when I walk in the room!

Here's how I found Jenalyn when I got home on Monday. Her position cracked me up - oh to be young and flexible again, eh? And look closely, that's our fat black cat curled up in the crook of her leg :)

I've been wanting to post a picture of Corbin's haircut (I cut it Saturday afternoon) - unfortunately this is the best pic I've gotten of it so far - please excuse the cookie-face!Anyhow, speaking of how loved these kids make me feel...I hadn't realized how much our time together in the morning means to Jenalyn. On Monday she woke up crying at 6 a.m. and she was calling out "Mommy...*sob* mommy..." so I rushed in there and she immediately perked up and said, "Oh, you haven't left for work yet?" She was afraid she had missed me - it's getting lighter earlier and she thought it was later in the morning and that I had already left for work. I thought that was sweet. But I still told her to go back to bed and promised that I would wake her up before I left. I still had 45 mins of sleep left and darned if I was gonna miss out *lol*

Anyhow, I guess this was a rambly post. I just needed to vent about my stressful week - and then count my precious blessings to pick myself back up. Thanks for "listening".

Yeah, I'm a professional typist...

79 words

Speedtest

Although there are a lot of things I'd rather be good at... *shrugs*

Shout out to Peep!

Yes, I'm dedicating this blog to my favorite kid's show: Peep and the Big Wide World.

It's such a pleasant show, so positive and calm! and my kids LOVE IT! If you click on the above link, you'll find a new episode of Peep every day (click on the red "Watch Peep Now"). Sometimes at night Jenalyn says, "I have to go to bed so I can watch a new Peep in the morning." *giggles* it's like Christmas for her...okay, not really, but she looks forward to it every day.

It's narrated by Joan Cusack (love her). Also, a couple weeks ago they had a character with the voice of Megan Mullally. You HAVE to check out their theme song too. It's very catchy. I find myself singing it all the time...and I actually don't get annoyed with it like most other kid's show songs.

Anyhow, I hadn't heard of Peep until Heidi's family told us about it. So I'm passing this long to you, in case you've never heard of it either. WE LOVE YOU PEEP...and Chirp and Quack.

In case anyone thought I was perfect...

Here is a post dedicated to my faults...you guessed it: the Sucky Tag (yes, I'm tagging myself too). I don't like to focus on my imperfections but I might as well get it out in the open so there's no misrepresentation.

1. I'm LATE for everything! I have a horrible sense for time.
2. I'm notorious for saying "okay honey I'm just going to shut down my laptop and I'll be right there." ...then jump in and check for new blogs *lol* (BTW: thanks to LeaAnne for telling me about Google Reader - that makes it a lot easier for me to do this!)
3. I have horrible willpower - I've gained 5 lbs since I started trying to lose weight *hmph*
4. I don't wear makeup because I'm lazy and would rather sleep in an extra 15-20 minutes.
5. When I'm angry I drive like a lunatic.
6. I'm a laundry-loser! I don't sort my kids' clothes - they all go in together. I only sort mine and Jason's by whites and...everything else. But at least they get folded and put away, right?
7. I nap EVERY afternoon when my kids are napping! I feel so very slothful sometimes, but I love to nap! It's a guilty pleasure.
8. I'm obsessed with Ovaltine. Actually, I love chocolate milk, I rationalize my excessive consumption of Ovaltine because of the amount of vitamins it has. (Note: those are two different links for Ovaltine ... just some plugs for my current favorite product.)
9. I love my kids almost to a fault. I think they are the coolest in the world! If someone compliments them I beam. It's almost more than I can handle - I feel like I will explode with pride.
10. I hit snooze at least 3 times every morning before waking up - I actually set my alarm earlier just so I can use the snooze button!
11. I'm horrible at yard work. My yard is in horrible shape because I also married a guy who is horrible at yard work!
12. We spend more money on fast food than I care to admit. (refer to #3, above.)
13. I'm a freak about my kitchen! For example, if anyone else stacks my dishwasher I re-do it as soon as they leave the room - there is a place for everything! Jason is really the worst! Not that I don't appreciate his efforts!
14. I'm a bear if I don't get enough sleep! Seriously, I need my beauty sleep or else I'm a BEAST!
15. I'm a procrastinator! You can bet that I'm planning my YW lesson every Saturday night!
16. I'm shy.
17. I like to warm my cold feet on Jason's legs at night.
18. I snap pictures like crazy. When I upload them to my computer I usually find 50 shots of the same thing! Thank heavens for digital cameras! I could never snap like this with film!
19. I'm terrible at sending Thank You cards! I never even sent Thank You cards after my wedding! The guilt has haunted me for 8 1/2 years! Not that I'm not grateful - just lazy!
20. I shoot for an 11:00 bedtime...but I don't actually go to bed until after midnight most nights. (refer to #10, above.)

There you have it folks...20 reasons why I'm not perfect!

I'm tagging my MoB girls: Ginny, Rachelle, Heidi, Lis, and my sissy: Cheryl.

Can you believe this mess?

When we got back from the temple Friday night our sweet babysitter (BTW, I highly recommend Heather to ANYONE!) had cleaned our kids' bedroom! I was amazed! I made sure the rest of the house was clean before we left so she wouldn't feel like she had to clean my house...but the kids' room always gets neglected!

The next morning I went to the Stake Relief Society workshops and when I came home...that nice picture above is what I found *gasp* That's right, all of Heather's hard work...out the window! :( I wanted to cry! This is what happens when daddy babysits! I told him that if I had been home and heard the chaos in the bedroom I would have let the kids each pick a toy, have them bring it to the living room and then close off the bedroom. But no, he let them have their way with the room....so he got to supervise the cleaning! I should have taken an after picture, because it really looked nice when they were done.

In other news - what we did with the beautiful, sunny Saturday:

After the Stake R.S. thingy we had lunch, then we were totally exhausted because of our late night temple trip and then early morning R.S. meeting. So we took a short nap while the kids napped. Afterwards we all got outside...to do yard work. Jason mowed the lawn while I did some much-needed weeding. We found all kinds of interesting bugs and insects: beetles, ladybugs, ants, spiders, earwigs, and caterpillars. Jenalyn attached herself to one caterpillar. She toted "her" around like she was her new best friend. She was so disappointed that I wouldn't let her bring her in the house. She didn't want to leave her just anywhere so she put her inside a tulip *lol* she also plucked a leaf and slipped that in there, so she wouldn't get hungry.

This morning when we left for church she ran straight to the tulip to see if she was still there and she WAS! She checks on her whenever we're outside. Jason asked her to say the blessing for our lunch today and she said "please bless my caterpillar that she will turn into a butterfly soon." On our way home from church she announced that she's naming her caterpillar "TyMarie." I have no idea where she got that name, but it's actually kinda pretty! Anyhow I got a couple pictures of her with TyMarie this afternoon:

(this one cracks me up - she's such a picture-poser sometimes!)

(I love this one - it looks like she's talking to her.)

Temple Trip

Last night we went to the temple with some people from the ward. We had a GREAT time. It was like a youth temple trip :) We piled into the EQ Pres' Lincoln Navigator - 8 of us (Jen & Tim met us there). It was cozy, but by no means cramped - that's one BIG SUV!

We got to the temple as the sun was setting. The sun hit the temple spires so beautifully! My senses were overloaded - so of course I had to snap a picture! It was incredible, then as we were walking up to the door we were hit with an amazing fragrance. Jeannie and I were sniffing around to see which of the beautiful flowers made that deliciously sweet smell. I love going to the temple. It's so peaceful...and this was all before we even entered the doors. I know we are very lucky to have a temple just 2 hours away - but I really wish we had one closer so we could go more often. It was a great experience!

So after our session at the temple we piled back in the Navigator and drove down the street to ColdStone. It was about 10:20 p.m. and the sign on the door said they closed at 10:00 *hmph* we sat outside for about 10 minutes with our mouths watering, wondering what our other options for ice cream might be. We saw a guy leave with his ice cream and someone noted that meant the doors were unlocked ;) So Jeannie couldn't stand it any longer and she jumped out of the car and went on in. Before long she turned around and gave us all thumbs-up and we piled out and so we all ran in for ice cream. I can only imagine what those poor employees were thinking when we piled out of the Nav like it was a circus car *lol* They were great though and the ice cream was phenomenal, of course!

Oh, and one of the best parts of the night, we were able to complete the work for 10 of my ancestors :)

Sombreros and Harmonicas

Sombreros:
Last Saturday we went to Los Dos Amigos to celebrate "Grandpa John's" birthday. They, of course, put a BIG sombrero on his head and sang really LOUDLY to him. But after that was all over, we passed the hat around so the kids could try it on. The pictures were too cute, I couldn't not share :)
(Grandpa John, Aunt Dale and Gramma Jan)



Harmonicas:
The other day I decided to get out my old harmonica (my mom gave each of us kids a harmonica for Christmas one year....several years ago!). Jenalyn fell in love with it! She seriously loves that thing! She is constantly playing it! Every morning, "Mommy, can I play with your instrument?" (she rarely calls it a "harmondica.") She even took it to preschool today for show and tell (it was a big hit!). So, since she was so interested in this new instrument, I decided to take her to Great-Gramma "Scrabe's" house so she could hear a pro at work! My Grandma is truly amazing on the harmonica! We had so much fun. Jenalyn would make a request (knick-knack-patty-whack), and grandma would hum it to herself or a second, then she'd belt it out on the harmonica! No practice or anything - it was so fun to watch! So of course I snapped a couple pictures and got a short video of them playing together. Gramma told Jenalyn to keep practicing and they could play together more often.

I have a lot of memories from childhood, sitting around listening to grandma play the harmonica, so it was really special to watch my daughter playing with her. When grandma finished playing she would pat the harmonica on her leg and then rub the finger prints off - Jenalyn copied her every move! It was so sweet!


(Sorry the video is so dark, that window behind them ruined it!)



Oh, and one more thing. My favorite new word Corbin says is "straw-bellies" (translation: strawberries). It's so sweet! I should get a video of him asking for "more strawbellies peeeeease!"