New project

I've done a terrible thing - jumped into a new big project before totally finishing my last project. I'm not quite done getting the 72 hour kits put together and haven't figured out exactly where we are going to store them.
Today I got this bug to strip the wallpaper off in the main bathroom upstairs. It was actually a fun project - I love demolition work. It came off so easy - the 1st layer that is. Underneath is another layer of very old 70s silvery/gold foil plaid that is never coming off, at least not without taking the sheetrock with it. So I am going to put up beadboard over it. I went to Home Depot and priced it and got the paint picked out.
And I did this all today in less than 3 hours. It's always easier and faster doing the demo work than the new work. And this is at the same time that Paul is working on building/installing a bathroom downstairs so I've definitely complicated things. Sorry about that.

Visiting Teaching

I try not to have too much guilt in my life but I do when it comes to Visiting Teaching. I've been a terrible VTer over the last year. I have not once made an in home sit down visit with any of my 3 ladies. I've dropped off lots of things to compensate. Part of my problem is I have a companion who is pretty flakey and can never go so I've kind of used that as an excuse. I have decided to just kind of pretend I don't have a companion and just go on my own. Another "problem" is two of the ladies I have are too easy to count - 1 lady is one of my best friends in the ward and we walk every morning so I certainly have regular contact with her and know what's going on in her life. The 2nd lady is in the YW presidency with me and I see her all the time too but don't really visit with her like I should. The 3rd lady is who I really have guilt about and should visit her in her home regularly. So I resolved to do better this year. I took each of them Valentine's cookies and visited with them briefly at the door. And today we all went to lunch together to this place. We had a great time and enjoyed good food and especially good desserts. It was fun to visit and get out. I plan to do this on a quarterly basis and maybe we can even get my companion involved. Now I just need to call my supervisor and report 100% for once.

A night of TV

We don't usually watch TV on Sunday - we try to spend time together and have FHE or play a game. But tonight we just boob tubed it all night. We watched this and were excited that Jennifer Hudson won. We've been a fan of hers ever since we was on Idol. We also watched this. How much have Rob and Amber won? Do you think they're paying their taxes and do you think they've been able to go on all those trips? My family is rooting for them but I think they've had their turn. I'm for the beauty queens and really, really want Kentucky and the cousins to go home.

Favorite Spot

This is Kamryn and Jared's favorite new spot. It's kind of like their little hideout. It's in the kitchen under the desk. I keep my church bag and the diaper bag there. They love to go through the diaper bag and read their books and then pull everything else out. It's fun to watch them under there together.

72 hour kits

So my project to finish for Feb is to get our 72 hour kits put together. I bought most of the stuff back in Nov when our ward sponsored some nights to inspire us to get this project put together. So I ordered everything I thought we would need and then when I picked it up I put it all in the garage for awhile and then moved it to the dining room and finally down to the storage room, where it's been for the last couple of months. I look at the pile every time I go in the storage room - which is frequently considering that is where our extra fridge is and most of our food. It's been driving me crazy so I've put it at the top of my list of things to do the last two weeks. I didn't get to it last week so now I have 5 days until the end of Feb to finish. I pulled all of the stuff out of the storage room and moved it into our office area so I could spread things out and fill up the back packs. I spent time on it today while Jared and Kamryn where playing and watching their latest favorite thing to watch. I have all the back packs filled with food, extra clothes, flashlight, emergency blankets and radio, etc. I have 5 buckets to put the backpacks in. My friend gave me that idea - then if you are faced with that emergency you can where the backpack and carry the empty bucket if you need to and it will then become your stool and one will become the "potty." Now that I've done all that we are only missing toothbrushes and some soap (that I'll go buy later today) and a water filter (the good kind you have to buy here and I've assigned that to Paul). I don't feel like I can cross it off my list until it's totally complete and I've gone over the packs with the family and where we are going to store them but it's mostly done. It's been a big job and i'm so glad to have it done.

Who's your Favorite?

Are you an Idol fan? Who is your favorite?
So far, I like Chris Sligh (mostly because he's funny) and Lakisha Jones (man, can she sing!)
The results show was way too long (thank goodness for recording it and fast forwarding through commercials and bad songs).

Stake Dance

Our mutual activity last night was a stake dance - not the multi-stake, 14 and up kind. It was just our stake and it was 12 and up. There were invites with a theme (Dancing with the Stars ... and the Asteroids and the Planets) but no other info. We had no idea what the plan was or what the dress was or anything. We heard from someone in one of the other wards that maybe there would be dance instruction, which as a mother I thought sounded like a good idea.
Well, we got there and after opening exercises in the chapel, which was attended by about 40 youth (for the whole stake) they dismissed us to the gym. When we walked in they had a funny scene playing from this movie - where the main characters are showing how they dance (I've seen the movie but can't remember the names). It's a funny clip but there wasn't any sound. Then they started another clip of this movie where the main character was up on stage dancing. Again, no sound.
As leaders we're just standing there wondering what the plan was. Was anyone going to get the night started? Have some mixer games or dances? No - just thanks for Bro so-and-so doing the music and have fun. The kids all just stood there in big groups. It brought back such bad memories. Dances are such bad things for teens. The girls get all excited and want to dance and are just hoping a boy (not just any boy, the cute boy they have a crush on and not the nerdy boy who has a crush on them) asks them to dance. The boys on the other hand are mostly too shy to ask a girl and wander around the gym aimlessly or chase each other around the gym.
The music was a disaster - lots of technical difficulties and he kept playing the same 3 songs over and over. Finally, after about an hour a DJ in the stake saved the night and set up his stuff and started playing songs the kids knew and fun line dances. The kids finally got into it and most seemed to be out having a good time and dancing. My poor 14 yr old son - it was pure torture and one of the worst nights of his life.
(I may be able to get hold of some pictures to post from one of the leaders there).

Update on resolutions

I was looking back at the resolutions I set for this year. I'm doing pretty good on half (2 out of 4 isn't too bad).
I'm doing pretty good on scripture reading - almost every day (extra on some days to make up for some missed days).
I'm definitely posting more often - hopefully it's not too boring.
Haven't even come close to losing weight - definitely need to improve on that one.
And my project resolution - I've decided to change that to get at least one major project done monthly. Once a week was definitely not going to happen. My project for Jan was to repair the wall hanging that goes on the stairs wall. I got that done. Now my project for Feb is to finish putting together the 72 hr kits that I started in Nov. I have 8 days to finish and I'm making myself work on that before I can do anything else. (the clothes are really hanging me up on that one).

blog title

After reading a blog from a member of my book club and about how she titled her blog I sat back and thought my blog title should have some meaning to it. This new title was as good as I could come up with. It kind of fits my family right now - double teenagers, double toddlers (and poor Taylor stuck in the middle of that). Then after I posted the new title and looked at the blog I decided it fit really well with the background that kind of looks like you're seeing double.

SNOW?!

What is with all this new snow?! What a way to ruin a perfect day off? I'm so done with winter. We need to go on some errands today and this only makes it a big mess out there.

Fun Family Movie

We just watched this movie tonight. I really enjoyed it and laughed a lot. It was fun to watch a movie together with my kids.

Photos

One of my AZ friends said she checks my blog occasionally to see if there are recent photos of the kids - so I try to post photos whenever there are some new ones. These are from our little family Valentine's party.

Valentine's update

It's been a pretty good day - I'm finally feeling better (don't think I mentioned that I got sick AGAIN! more of a head cold this time). I baked and frosted sugar cookies all day. The kids and I had fun delivering them.
Paul had to go to Logan today so I knew that meant he wouldn't be home any sooner than 6:30-7:00 so I told him we'd just do the family valentine's night and he and I could go out another night. We had Papa Murphy's and watched American Idol. Then we had little presents - shirts for the bigs kids and teletubbies for Jared and Kamryn.

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope you all have a nice Valentine's Day. Things are up in the air at our house as to what we are doing tonight - date night or family night.
I just wanted to share this article from our ward newsletter - it really touched me:

A Valentine Challenge
I remember when I was in elementary school we had to make a Valentine box in order to receive a Valentine from everyone in the class. I remember making tinfoil mailboxes, robots, hearts, bears, etc. I would work very hard on these boxes but took even more care with the actual Valentines cards. I was extremely careful to make sure certain people got Valentines with the very best candy. You couldn’t give a “My heart is yours!” Valentine to just anyone. You did not want to send the wrong message. At the end of the day you received 30 or so crumpled Valentines and a lot of heart shaped candy that later got lost somewhere in your room. Years later you really didn’t look forward to Valentine’s Day, especially if you didn’t have a boyfriend. What fun is it when you don’t have anyone to give you chocolate and flowers?
Years later, you have found that eternal Valentine. Valentine’s Day is now a fun date night. You may not get the chocolate and flowers anymore, but you don’t really care. A quiet evening out, being served at a restaurant, is enough to call the holiday a success. Valentine’s Day means something different to everyone. Whoever you are or whatever your situation, Valentines should be a time to show love and remember those people you love most in your life. During the month of February, take an extra minute in your day to compliment your spouse on ANYTHING, actually get down on your hands and knees and play with your children, shovel the snow off your neighbor’s driveway or make yummy heart shaped sugar cookies and give them to someone you really look up to. My personal favorite is to write a letter expressing why you love that person. Ryan will do this for me every birthday and anniversary. The bottom line,
make this Valentine’s Day different and do something that will really show the people you love most that they are indeed, loved by you!

Dinner

We went here for dinner tonight to celebrate my mom's birthday. She likes to go here because we can have a reservation for our group of 32 and we get a separate room so it's a lot easier with all of those kids. I have a problem when I go out to eat. I can never decide what to order and usually end up with "order regret." My brother-in-law coined this phrase. I like to try new things instead of sticking with what I know I like. So, tonight was one of those nights. Instead of getting the 'Shroom Burger I went with the Fiesta Salad. It was okay but I wished I'd ordered the burger. And the strangest thing - I ordered a hot dog for Jared and the waiter came back and said they were out of hot dogs. How can you be out of hot dogs?

Poor Kamryn

Poor Kamryn. This is how she looked when I got her out of bed this morning. She's got a bad cold and probably the start of pink eye (which she got from her cousins this weekend). Those are dried buggers all around her mouth and they were on her binky too. GROSS! She went straight into the bath so we could clean her up. She was actually a very happy sick baby for most of the day.

Random thought

So, after family prayers tonight, Paul said "Does anybody have anything they want to share?"
Justin (14 yr old) says "Oh I do. One day I was walking home from school, I think it was in November, and I was chewing gum but wanted to spit it out. I didn't think it would be good to just spit it on the ground so I wrapped it around a tree branch. And you know what? It's still there!"

Talk about random thoughts!

I'm off

I'm off to the cabin with Jared and Kamryn. My sister is going up with her 5 kids because they are off track. She didn't want to be up there "alone" so we're tagging along. It's a lot easier to get ready to go to the cabin when it's just me and the little rugrats. I'm all packed up and now I just have to get them up and dressed and fed.
So I'll be back on Saturday and have to do some catch up them. Hope you all enjoy your weekends.

Feb goal

I guess I should have stated this before the 7th of Feb but that is the way this month has been going so far.
My goal this month is to blog every day - of course, I picked a short month to do that.
So far this will by my 7th post for the month and it is the 7th. You'll notice that there are several days already where there are more than one post on a day and none on another - I figure it'll even out.
Hopefully there will be something to say every day - of course, with the way my life is going with teenagers and toddlers in the home, it is NEVER BORING.

Mating

Recent dinner conversation with our family:
Brooke (12) and Justin (14) are for some reason talking about animals mating and which animals mate. Taylor (9) pipes in some comment which I can't remember exactly what it was.
Brooke: "Do you even know what mating is?" (I glare at her not wanting to get into that with Taylor)
Taylor: "Sure. Mom and Dad mated." (He states this very matter of factly while Paul and I are laughing so hard and trying not to).
Taylor goes on: "Of course they mated. They mate all the time!" (Does he know something we think he doesn't know?)
Taylor: "Mating is just another word for dating." (oh that explains everything)

Jared

I wanted to share a sweet story about Jared. He loves to read The Strength of Youth pamphlet and he will frequently sit down and look at the pictures and thumb through the pages. It's almost like he knows what it says.
Well the other day, he was sitting on the couch and he was looking at the first picture in the book, one of Christ. He would look at the picture in the book and then look up at this picture.
Several times he would look from the picture in the book to the picture on the wall and very thoughtfully compare the two pictures. It was very sweet to watch.

One good thing

One good thing about being sick is having some reading time. I love to read and would rather read than watch a movie. I usually don't have much time to read these days and I'm lucky to get my book club book read. Mostly I read toddler books these days, which is fine.
On Wednesday I read Once Upon A Day by Lisa Tucker. I really enjoyed the book, obviously since I said I read it on Wednesday. The ending was a little weak and it had some language so not one I can use for book club.
On Friday I read for one more day by Mitch Albom. I'd already read Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven and loved them both. I also loved this new one and was really believing it to be true for awhile.
Now I've started one by Jodi Piccoult. When I'm finished I'll let you know how it is.

more sick days

How come, as a mother, you don't really get a sick day? Even when you're really sick life goes on and so must you. I had the worst night Thursday. First I made the mistake of going with the youth in our ward to do baptisms at the temple. I was feeling okay when we left but steadily got worse while we were there. At least it was quiet place to feel awful. From there I went straight to Justin's church basketball game. I have a hard time missing my kids' sports games. His team tried hard but they lost. Then we continued on at the church and watched our ward's priest team play - they were ahead the whole game and then lost it in the last 4 minutes. Heart break for them. By then I was a wreak and should have been home in bed. I was freezing and shivering. When I got home, then the sweats started. I have never sweat so much in my life as I did that night while trying to sleep. When it was time to get up - after the kids got themselves off to school I called the doctor and they could get me in at 8:45. Lucky. And lucky for me I had something treatable - strep throat. So now I'm on antibiotics and should be feeling better soon - so far not too much better. Hopefully by tomorrow.

In-Laws update

Here's an update on the in-laws:
John was transferred to HealthSouth, a transitional care facility last Friday and has done really well there. He's been doing physical therapy and getting his strength back. He called me this morning to tell me he's going home tomorrow and he was so excited he just had to call someone. That was sweet. I've taken Carolyn (his wife) there a couple of times to see him. When we went on Tuesday it was quite the sight. She in her wheelchair, him with his walker and Jared and Kamryn helping them. It really was cute with Jared walking with Grandpa and Kamryn pushing her Grammy. Carolyn has been on her own at home this week but has had plenty of people checking on her and helping out. It hasn't been too bad and once John is at home it will be easier just because we will only have to go to one place to check on them and help them with anything that needs to be done. My main job will be doing their grocery shopping and I think I can handle that.

Sick Day

Yesterday I had a sick day - didn't start out too bad, just a little achey and a bit of a sore throat. By evening I had the chills/fever going on and worse sore throat, very achey and major head ache. I was freezing and couldn't get warm. Luckily during this sick day Jared and Kamryn were very good. They were happy to watch PBS shows and read books and play while I laid on the couch. The big kids took care of themselves once they were home from school. It was a long night of either freezing or boiling but I think I must have gotten the worst of it out of my system. I'm doing a little better today - mostly the sore throat is left and no energy. So it will be another lay around day I'm sure.