Nashville

**Paul and I with Wendee and Dan at a ward activity we went to on Friday night.**















**This is Wendee and Dan Truman, me and Paul, Rhonda. We were at Chef's Market for a very YUMMY dinner.**


It's taken me a couple of days to get these pictures together so I could post about our trip to Nashville.
It was a great long weekend away. Highlights and thoughts about the trip:
**It was a long flight and this was traveling without children!! We stopped in Chicago on the way there and there were major delays due to Air Traffic Control coverage. We were lucky and were only delayed about 45 minutes. I read on the flight and slept. I got a little bored and kept wondering what am I going to do when we fly to Orlando in Florida with 2 toddlers and Taylor.
**Nashville is beautiful. It's very pretty right now with everything in bloom. It's lots of green rolling hills.
**Went to see the Temple. It is small. It's next to a stake center and is much smaller. It looks like it got squashed flat. I'd planned to do some work at the temple while Paul was at his work meeting but the temple wasn't open that morning. It is only open at certain times and you have to have an appointment to do the work. Bummer.
**We had a great time with Paul's cousins, Dan Truman (of Diamond Rio fame) and Dan's sister, Rhonda. Dan has lived in Nashville for over 20 years and was an awesome tour guide. He showed us downtown Nashville and told us lots of history - both US and family. We saw music row where most of country music is recorded and produced, Vanderbilt University, Grand Ole Opry - the old and the new buildings.
**Went to an actual movie theater to see "Work and The Glory III"
**Had fun on Friday night checking out the music scene in downtown Nashville. Went to Roberts Western World - a bar where the band (BrazilBilly) plays old time country music. It was great weather and spring break for some so it was crowded with a variety of people.
**Loved sleeping in on Saturday.
**Enjoyed a great 4 mile walk at a wooded park near Dan's house. It was so green and pretty.
**Loved spending time with my hubby!!!!!

Popcorn

"I looked out my window and what did I see ...
... popcorn popping on the apricot tree."

Every year when I look out our hall bathroom window and see this tree in bloom it reminds me of that song. I had to take the pictures today because come Wednesday those blossoms probably won't be there anymore - due to the rain and snow expected :(

Boise, ID

Spent part of the weekend in Boise, ID for a volleyball tournament. The tournament was really just a disguise for a girl trip. Brooke and her 3 friends in the ward that play on the club team and all 4 mothers went up to Boise on Friday. I'm not a big fan of road tripping but it sure is fun when you're with girlfriends. We made it all the way to Tremonton before we stopped and had lunch. We got to Boise about 5:30 and checked into the Courtyard Marriott. Nice place for a decent price. Unfortunately Brooke started feeling sick (sore throat, chills, fever) on the way up so she spent most of Friday night in bed while the other girls were out to dinner and swimming with the rest of our team. Luckily she felt a lot better Saturday morning and was able to play her best games in the morning. She started crashing in the afternoon and didn't play the last couple of matches. The team played really well and won their bracket. It's fun to watch the team play and improve. Best of all was the time away with Brooke and our friends. The only bad part was we had to drive back Saturday night - left Boise at 6:30 and drove into SLC at 1:00 am. Next year we're staying and coming back on Sunday. There's nothing better than a fun girl trip.

Car Wash

The car wash is not an great adventure for all ages. I filled up the van today and it desperately needed a wash. Jared and Kamryn were with me and I was pretty sure it would freak them out but I went ahead with it anyway. Both of them had huge eyes as we drove in. I tried talking them through it and they laughed when all the soapy bubbles were sprayed on but then when the big forceful spray started washing the bubbles off they started freaking out. Kamryn lost it first and was bawling and terrified and then Jared joined in. They were both gripping my arm and hysterical. They didn't like the dryer either. When we were finally done it was Jared could talk about all the way to Sam's club - "car wash" over and over (of course I was the only one that could understand what he was saying). I guess we won't do that again soon.

Bits and pieces

Just a few "bits and pieces" thoughts for the day:
**I taught in YW today. I teach the Beehives and we have about 10 girls in our class. Today we only had 6 girls there and it's amazing how different the class was. Usually the lessons go okay but today was great and I felt really good about it and I think the girls really liked it and got something out of it. The miracle in this is that I didn't really start on the lesson until about 10:00 last night and I was up working on it until about 12:30 and we had church at 11:00 (really 10:00 in my head due to daylight savings times). The lesson was on being a peacemaker and we played spin the bottle to discuss situations of how to be a peacemaker.
**Due to the late night I was so tired after church so I decided to lay down for a short nap. I fare much better if I just lay down for 30 min - I'm too groggy if I really nap. But I must have been tired because I napped for almost 2 hours. I woke up with a start at 5:22 and freaked out. We were having dinner with my family at my mom's and I needed to put green bean casserole in at her house at 5:15. So I had Justin run it over there and then I forgot about it until about half way through everyone dishing up at dinner and Paul said "where are the beans?" I had totally forgotten about them and they were very well done with all the little french's onions burned. Naps are just not good for me.
**Can't believe Rob and Amber got out. I thought for sure it would be a non elimination round. I guess it came down to karma and they played dirty on that round and came back to bite them. We're really pulling for the beauty queens now. I'm going to have to worry about my husband though - he said "I'm all over the beauty queens now."

Book of Mormon

I finished the Book of Mormon today. I started it on Sept 11th. I try to read every morning after the kids leave for school and before Jared and Kamryn get up. For most of it I've listened to it and followed along at the same time. I really like doing it that way and feel like I've gotten so much more out of it. Now I'm going to read the Doctrine and Covenants (because Paul's reading it right now and he's downloaded it into our iTunes library).

RS Birthday

Our Relief Society birthday dinner was Tuesday night. The program was women who dressed up as former General RS presidents and told about "themselves". My mom was all dressed up and when I walked in I felt like I was looking at my grandma.

Volleyball Tournament

Brooke played in another tournament last weekend. This was a 2 day-er - Friday from 3:30 - 10:30 and Saturday from 7:30 - 7:30. This was a "reseeding tournament" so that is why it was 2 days. They played Fri and Sat morning at Open Court. I love that place. What a great facility. The spectator section was above the court so it was a fun way to watch. I was able to go Friday night without Jared and Kamryn, which was nice because I was able to just watch the team play and concentrate. Saturday was another story. We ended up having Jared and Kamryn at most of the tournament, which was CRAZY!!! I couldn't leave because I hate missing when Brooke plays. She's getting a lot better and is therefore playing more. She does a great job in the back and also played the front and did well. She had one awesome spike (HIT for those who know the correct terms). We were all cheering and excited and Justin looked up and said "What'd she do?" It was funny. I was just glad he came to support her. He must have liked it because he ended up going to the whole tournament on Saturday.
The next tournament is in Boise ID. Our 4 girls and mothers are going. It will be a fun little mother/daughter weekend. I'm really looking forward to it just for the chance to get a break from my little gremlins.

Update on bathroom project

Well, the bathroom project has gotten pretty complicated as you can see. I'd planned to put beadboard up over the 1st layer of wallpaper and even bought one sheet of the board. When I put it up it didn't look good - too many lines with the tile below it. So now I have to paint -which meant painting over the wallpaper or taking it down. I decided to take it down which was probably a bad decision. I've got major areas where the wallpaper did indeed take off the wallboard. What a mess. I've spent a lot of time getting the walls cleaned up. Whoever put up that paper did it with wheat paste. After spending most of the day yesterday I've got all the paste off the walls and then washed the walls. Now I've just got to patch the tears and holes - which I have no idea how to do but I guess I'll learn. Paul wants me to wait for him to do it but who knows when that will be since he's got his own bathroom project downstairs. So I guess I'll go to Home Depot and learn how to patch walls.

February goal

I did pretty good on my February goal. As you can see, I posted 25 times in February which is way more than I normal. So I'm going to try to keep up with regular posts, just not every day (which will be relief to some, I'm sure).

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.