Monday, January 20, 2014

     I can honestly say that I am really aware of how spoiled I am today.  Jams had to go a day without modern technology for a class at school.  She kept trying to do it on her own, but it wouldn't work because we were not all on board with it.  For example, she was supposed to go without modern heat, but Sager kept getting cold and turning the heat back on.  She came to me complaining about not being able to get her assignment done properly, and so we all decided to go without all the modern stuff together.  I got really sick of it really fast.  Ryan has spoiled me rotten in so many ways.  He put a hot water return on my hot water heater so that when I turn the hot water on, it immediately gets hot.  He put me a water softener in, and my house is always warm and comfortable.  We use a wood stove for most of the heating, but in my bathroom we use a heater that sits below my towels so that they are always warm after a shower.  Well, he switched the power off completely yesterday afternoon.  He and the kids got busy scrounging up candles.  They found a whole bunch of them that didn't have wicks and so they got melting them down, making new wicks for them out of old t-shirts, and pouring them into glass jars.  This took them all afternoon, and by the time it got dark, we had enough candles burning to set off the smoke alarm.  We noticed right away that letting Oak and Chlo trapse around the joint with lit candles was an accident and fire just waiting to happen.  We had to take their candles away, which made Oak extremely angry.  They wanted to be all pioneer-y and travel from room to room with their candles.  Well, too bad, I like my house and I like Chloee with hair too much to let anyone set either one of them alight.  Needless to say that I was ready to switch the power back on today.  He did make Jams and Sags wash their clothes out by hand too.  It looked like a big pain in the behind.  I hope Jams passes her assignment now.  I am way more grateful for my blessings after having to go without some of them for awhile.
     We had an interesting week last week.  Ryan started the week off working a lot of hours in St. George.  I have still been working really hard to keep the house in order for potential buyers.  Well, he got home late one night and went in and started watching one of those dumb Chinese films where the fighters spin around in the air.  Not really my type of show, but I decided to quit cleaning so that we could spend some time together.  I love action movies, but the karate spinning ones are pretty frustrating.  Anyhow, I had just settled down and one of the kids had switched off the lights when Mo came in whining about something.  He wanted help up on the bed, and I immediately stuck to his little body when I grabbed him under the arms.  I couldn't see what he had all over him, but I could tell that it was extremely sticky.  I picked him up, held him at arms length, and headed to the bathroom.  When I switched on the light, I could see that he had been into the marshmallow cream.  I mean, that it looked like he had jumped in a bucket of it and rolled around.  He was covered in it, I was covered in it, and my bed spread was covered.  Boo to Sager for leaving it out.  Anyhow, he and I both had to change clothes,  Mo got stuck in a warm bath, and I had to strip our bed.  He had gotten it in the carpet and it looked like he had rolled all over the couch too.  Needless to say that I made Sager clean up the couch, and we learned our lesson about putting the marshmallow cream out of the way before Mo discovers it. 
     After I got him cleaned up, he went and got into something chocolate too.  I had to change him again.  Maybe he didn't like the dinner I fixed and he had to go scrounging around on his own.  I will make sure I cook him stuff he likes.
     I had a birthdee this week too.  The kids always want to go out and buy elaborate gifts, but I have tried to explain to them that I don't need anything.  What I want is for them to take over a few of my duties for the day.  They cannot seem to grasp this concept.  Anyhow, they did go and buy me some flowers, and plants and things which was nice of them.  Ryan took me out and bought me a new temple dress.  It was a good day overall.  All of my family called, and some of Ryan's family too.  My best friend growing up texted me too.  I am so grateful for thoughtful people.
     We also had a fiasco with a mango this week. I made the mistake of taking Sager grocery shopping with me.  She begged and begged for an extremely green mango.  I was being  a little bit spacey when I told her she could have it.  I mean, what can we really do with one green mango?  The kids love mangos.  Anyhow, that mango sat on the counter all week and it just wasn't really getting any more ripe.  Oak especially would come and beg and beg to eat it.  He didn't realize that it was Sage's and that it wasn't going to be very good if it was green.  This went on for days and days.  Finally one day he brought it in and it was red looking.  I was finally going to consent until he handed it to me.  It looked a little bit weird.  As I inspected it closer, I realized that he had used his water colors to paint it red.  Needless to say that I finally just gave in and let them cut it.  Sage was pretty stingy with it, but she did share. 
     Ryan was also a bit confused when he came in and saw a big tangle of electrical tape all over the table.  I guess someone had told Chlo to get the measuring tape, when she had wondered aloud how big she was.  She went and got some electrical tape and tried to measure herself with it.  It just ended up a big sticky wad.  Poor Chlo will get things figured out someday. 
     Our big project on Saturday was painting the hall.  My washing machine has also not been draining properly and so Ryan pulled it out to see what the problem was.  It made me so mad because we had assigned all of the kids some chores to do, and I kept finding different kids hiding in the dryer.  The dryer was sitting in the hall so that Ryan could get behind the washer, and I caught Chlo in there, Oak was in there and Rooshkie was caught hiding in there several times.  Needless to say that the wall scrubbing cannot get done when the wall scrubbers hide out in the dryer.
     We did get the hall painted, and Chlo must have been intrigued with Ryan taking off the outlet and switch covers.  I have been catching her today removing switch covers with a screw driver.  I had to remind her that her assignment today was to clean windows and mirrors...not remove light switch covers with a screw driver. 
     The kids also got into getting under the house.  Our home doesn't have a basement, but it has a huge crawl space under the house.  We like to store paint and stuff under there because it never freezes stuff under there.  Ryan made the mistake of letting Rooshkie go under the house to get the paint for the hall project.  Then she kept wanting to go under there with Oak and Jazz for adventures.  I hate them being under there.  We have mice under there from time to time, a cat lives under there, and I just know that it is dirty and spider-y.  Well, they kept going through Sager's closet, knocking her clothes and boots around, to get under the house.  Needless to say that this was not okay with Sager.  She hollered and shrieked at Jerusha until I thought she was going to go hoarse.  Rooshkie was wearing a sleek, black, sneaky outfit again and she thought she was pretty sly to slip past Sage and into the closet undetected.  It wasn't a good thing at all.
     Ward Confernce was excellent yesterday.  We have the best Stake President.  Anyhow, our Stake goals this year entail us listening and studying the words of our modern prophets.  It was really good.  I had to get after Oak and Rooshkie for tussling over honeycomb cereal, and Sager pinched Jams and maimed Jerusha once, but we did pretty good other than that.  I must admit that Jams I-pod helped us out a ton with Mo-ster.  She found some drawing game that turns his drawings into pretty designs.  He would make a nice design, and then go up and down the row for all to admire his work.  I liked it a ton because it kept him quiet and happy.
     We had our semi-annual dentist appointment today.  This is always a juggle.  We also had some of the Cox cousins come to town and so the kids were in a huge hurry to get back so that they could spend some time with them at the aquatic center.  One of the biggest problems with our Dentist's office is that it echoes really bad in there.  Every footstep seems to be amplified by a thousand.  Oak catches onto this quickly and delights in making tons of noise.  He tromps around the office.  Then he goes upstairs to the hallway and tromps around up there so that it echoes loudly into the office.  Mo caught onto the noisiness too and was stomping around.  He was banging the t.v. cabinet and running back and forth to hear his loud footfalls.  I always dread when they come to get me because I know that the noise and nonsense is going to get even worse.  I was right.  As I sat there so that the hygienist could take some x-rays I could hear the loud clomps and the screechy pterodactyl noises coming from the waiting room.  I finally asked Jams to just take them all outside.  I am so grateful for my older gals and their help.  Sheesh.
     We did get back in time for the older kids to swim with their cousins.  Chlo was way upset because I was not prepared to go swimming with them, and she had brought herself a Dora the Explorer swimming suit that was about three sizes too small.  She bawled and bawled about not being able to swim with her cousins.  I hope Chlo realizes that disappointments are just a part of life, and that life goes on. 
   



 


We also got to babysit Maddi and Jaylee this week along with Jaylee's big brother Braxton.  It made us have a great day!
 

    
    

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