sunshine

Some much welcomed sunshine this afternoon found us, and a lot of the neighborhood, out at the park for a quick playtime between school and dinner, activity days and scouts, chores and homework, all of the above.

funny things the kids say and do

The kids generally crack me up.  They are a lot of fun.  I guess that's why I have so many :)  Sadly I forget most of the funny stuff so I thought I'd just jot down a few. 

This morning Lu came in our room bright and early, as usual.  She asked to play with my phone.  When I came out of the shower and went to get her I peeked over at what she was playing, expecting to see bad piggies or swipped.  Instead she was watching youtube videos of fish surgeries.  She's been watching those for a couple of weeks now.  Who knew right?  She had asked me several weeks ago if vets did surgery on fish and I said no I didn't think so but we looked it up to make sure and I was wrong, they do.  So funny.  She wants to be a vet when she grows up.  I think she might.  She's very interested in animals and science so that seems like a likely combo.

Today is twin day at Ethan's school.  He and John dressed alike, black athletic pants with a red strip, Barcelona shirt, red hoodie.  They sat in the back of the car on the way to school, I always love to listen to them during my carpool week.  Today they were talking about wanting to go to Disneyworld together, a dream they think can never be realized...until, a brilliant plan was hatched.  Ready for this?  When they are adults they will have a "fake business" set up.  They will put funds into their "business" account and then one day they will tell "the wives" that they have a meeting and then they will fly to Disneyworld and meet up.  Problem solved.  Both boys agreed that this was a satisfactory plan and they moved on to talk about some level on a game they both play. 

Lastly lately Hannah has been getting a lot of attention from boys.  They ask her out or want to be her boyfriend.  She laments this to me and wonders what to do.  The other night we were walking the dogs, she and I, and she was talking about the latest boy and then she said "curse my good looks, charming wit and great fashion sense!"  It's such burden.  She was joking around of course but I still found it very funny.

cookies and cheese

Thursday after school we picked up our cookie order.  Lu and I have sorted them and have spent a couple trips out delivering.  We have more to go, it's pretty fun though.  It's been rainy and that's slowing down our delivery.  Hopefully tomorrow night we can get them last of them out of the house and happily delivered.

 

Friday was a half day at school. Yay!  Ethan and Hannah went to hang out with Eric and Chelsea after school.  Lu had Madison come here to play.  All the kids had a nice afternoon.  Ethan had a soccer game in the evening.  They won.  After R and I went to Longhorn Steak house with Pete and Katherine.  We always have fun with them, although we all agreed that from now on Outback or Texas Roadhouse would be getting our cow eating business.

 

Saturday we had a million things on the agenda.  Robotics Tournament, Chess tournament, Music Clinic, grocery shopping, Keean's baptism and an evening out.  It was too much...so we bagged it all and went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast.  The wait was really long but we enjoyed looking at the stuff and playing many games of checkers.  Breakfast was really nice. 

In the afternoon we did go to Keean's baptism and then over to his house for dinner.  The kids ate.  I visited.  We left there early and met the Smith's and the Nichols at Ouzos in La Playta.  They have delicious Greek food, seriously yumm-o!  I loved it.  We had a great time visiting too. Then we went to see "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" at CSM.  The Kirkham family was performing in it. It was beautifully done but so sad.  It's the story of a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia that kept mostly children. 15,000 children passed through there, only 130 survived.  So so awful.  The main character was very inspiring, the way she endured.  It's amazing the resiliance of the human soul.  (head shaking)

This morning was stake council, and tonight was a YCL meeting and a camp conf call.  I went with the Laurels to their YW class today.  I have been so impressed with new youth curriculum and it's been so fun to see the different wards and how they are implementing it.  I really wanted to see how our ward was doing it.  Johnna taught a great lesson.  One thing I really love is how much the girls participate, in all the wards I've gone to. 

In other news R is converting his whole office to his fishing hobby.  Ironically today one of his buddies grabbed an old pole and some velvetta cheese and went out and caught a 20inch big mouth. 

puppy

I don't know why but the puppy will do her business immediately when Hannah takes her out.  When I take her out it takes an hour.  Why is that?  This is a real question.  I don't know why.

worst employee ever

 This little puppy got into some Valentines candy and it made her very sick.  Yesterday I got home from work and found diarrhea around the house upstairs.  I cleaned it up..then came downstairs to go to an appointment, followed by a new beginnings, and found more.  I couldn't stay to clean up phase 2 of the mess so I called R to warn him and when he and E got home from the STEM family challenge he found even more mess.  It was ugly.  He and Lu cleaned carpet and doggie.  I <3 my spot bot, without which I am pretty sure Z would have been adopted to a new family before now.  Puppy potty training is not going as well as I want.  R reminds me that all pups take awhile and to be patient.  Grrr.

 This last weekend R had to resurrect, again, this old washer.  It's running again, yay!  Spot bot is leaking now.  Hopefully he can fix it next.  That little thing is a neccessity and has gotten quite the work out the last few days.

 Yesterday was the STEM family challenge, they had to build a bridge that could hold the most marbles.  Ethan and John came in 2nd.

Lu has a new hobby.  They have legos for girls and she's been wanting a set.  I bought her one the other day and she's been building with it every day and now wants more.  I am surprised.  Ethan has never been a lego lover, he has several sets and he's even enjoyed putting a few together but it hasn't been a huge thing for him, which frankly surprises me as well, I thought math brains liked legos.  He is not one for puzzles or legos so much.  But Lu is.  She's a smart girl, maybe she will be the one to follow in her fathers footsteps and be an engineer?

Watched the end of Downton Season 3 last night.  I need a bereavement day now.  It was bad enough when Sybil died but Matthew???  Why?? He was so kind and good.  It's very upsetting.
Luckily, or not so luckily Z has made such a mess that R wanted  me to stay home with her and make sure she is properly taken care of, as well are our carpets kept safe.  I didn't want to.  I am the worst employee ever as I barely manage to show up.  No wonder I can't have a real job, also it causes me great stress to miss work.  Or really to not be somewhere I should.  It's awful really.  But I always do as my husband asks, ahem...well I try to, honestly I do.  So I was home.  Got some cleaning done.  Walked the dog.  Reflected on the marriages (not mine actually but Mary and Matthews, as well as the rest of the shows, as well as some people I know in real life who are happy or not depending.  Interesting topic), wrote some thank you cards.  It was a good day.  This afternoon we have to pick up our girl scout cookie order, Hannah has play practice and R is going on splits with the missionaries. 

the end :)

Presidents Day

 What I wish I was doing today.

Except it's freezing outside

and I don't have a pet baby elephant

or live near the surf

What I am really doing today.



weekend recap

 Friday was a busy day.  I left the house a little after 7am.  Hannah had already gone to school.  I dropped Ethan off at John's and Grace off at Keean's.  I am really grateful for great friends who help me out all the time.  After school Lu went to play with Arden and had a fun day!  Ethan had a soccer game and Hannah went to Alyssa's birthday party.  Meanwhile I spent the day at the stake center getting ready for the PLDD.  It was a lot of fun and it turned out really well.  I am really excited to see the pictures that Lindsay took.  We had so many people help and who worked so hard to make the evening a success.  I think the youth had a really good time.  Setting up took us 8 hours, cleaning up after took 1 hr 10 min.  It was amazing.  I was glad since we were pretty tired.  I got home a little after midnight.   Sometimes the Lord's work is really work.  :)

 Saturday Ethan had a chess meet and R and I went on a date.  We also did some chores and some laundry.

 A couple of phone pictures from our night.  It really looked beautiful.  Again we had so many people working doing flowers, cooking, taking pictures, teaching classes, decorating.  Everything was so nice. 

Today we went up to the Bowie ward for their ward conference.  The whole family came, the kids didn't love it but it went okay.  When we got home we rested, then the missionaries came over for dinner.  I had a shopping problem and didn't have all the ingredients for the dinner I was going to make so I decided to makes spaghetti, didn't have sauce, made some from scratch and I am so sad because it was way better than from a bottle.  Now I've ruined the ragu experience for us forever.

After the Elders left Pete and Joey came over to home teach us. 

Valentines day

We had a nice Valentines Day.  For a few days leading up to the big day the children were making "gift requests".  Excuse me...it's not Christmas.  One child became quite upset the other night when they learned that we were not doing gifts.  I spent a lot of time thinking about this feeling that they have that they are entitled.  On the one hand we do usually do something special on holidays to make it fun and to mark the occasion so we have set a pattern.  On the other hand I don't want them to expect and be disappointed.  Frankly I don't know what the answer is.  We live in a spoiled culture where we have nice lives, with enough food, and extra to celebrate with and I am so grateful and happy about that, yet I am mindful that I must teach my children to appreciate what they have, to thank God for it, to share and to be grateful in all things. 
Anyway, I decided to scale back a bit.  Bought no gifts, didn't go out to dinner.  We did make a nice dinner, and I got each child a card, then R and I wrote in the card a list of things we appreciated about each child & some talents that they have. 

So dinner was set and the children were home but my hard working husband was late (and with all the terrible cuts and the skillful leadership of our president (do you hear the snark) ) I am very grateful that he has a job and we support him in whatever crazy hours he needs to work.  So we sat around and Hannah entertained us with her cup/singing skilz :)  When he got home we ate, the kids read their cards, then wanted to read them out loud and were touched and sweet.  The atmosphere at the dinner table was a peaceful happy one. 

We ended the evening with reading Alma's words to his son Shiblon and went to bed early after a  moonlight walk with the poochies for me and a run to CVS for Dad and Han for some makeup remover.

And in other news at school each child had a good day.  Lu had a "great" party!  Ethan exchanged valentines and received two that exploded (the best EVER) , he exploded one at school and brought the other home to show me...and it was pretty cool! and Hannah got a love note :) in a cute card from a boy who wishes she liked him back. 

ZZzzz s

5:00pm while dinner is cooking in the oven:
Tonight is scouts for Ethan and activity days for Grace.  Tonight Hannah also talked me into going to the "midnight premiere" of Beautiful Creatures, which thankfully actually starts at 10pm, still too late but much better. 
So, being a mom is an interesting thing.  I thought I was a pretty good mom when my big girls were little but it's mostly gone down hill since then.  They were easy and sweet.  Oh there were moments that things  didn't go well. I suppose there always, but usually they were delightful and I felt pretty good about it.  As they got older the hardest thing for me was always feeling like I was short changing them.  We grew and blended our family and that was tough.  Then we had more babies, which we wanted and which was totally wonderful but tough with a really hard side of keeping balance and really being there for everyone. 

6:00 am while waiting to see Hannah out the door:
I always wanted to be the "fun mom" the one who went to the movies and shopping and drove to dances and stayed up with warm cookies and cold milk to hear about their dates, or football games.  I wanted to watch "big kid movies" and other undefinable big kid things.  I tried to do that but I was not always able to.  Sometimes I was too tired, other times the little kids were too little, I always had to compromise so I could be there for my husband, take care of the little guys, be there with/for the big girls/sleep/ etc...anyway, hopefully it worked out to be more good than bad and certainly they are wonderful women now so if that is the measure then I was awesome.  We have had a few conversations where I have asked them what I could have done different/ better because I do have three more kids at home and they are tougher than the first set (ironic) and getting better is the goal in life.  2 of the girls said they wished I had spent more time having fun with them, just being with them. 
So I have another chance, and this time there are no babies...but guess what? I am still sometimes too tired:)  Last night I was too tired, but decided to never mind and go anyway.  Hannah and her friend Hannah were so very excited! They talked the whole drive up to Waldorf (a stinking hour away but the theater~ so worth it).  We got there just in time to get popcorn and soda and to sink into our lovely recliner seats.  Those seats were the best part of the movie, so comfy.  So nice.  I didn't fall asleep, despite the fact that the movies itself was pretty average.  It was dark and since I had not read the book it seemed disjointed and silly (unlike Twilight's skillful interpretation)  We got home at 1am, and the girls had a good great time.  So it was worth it!

 Grace, Maggie, Abigail and Arden after activity days.  The girls made chocolate covered caramel popcorn balls with sprinkles.  Lu is excited to go to activity days!!

While the kids were at their activities I ran to Target.  Lu's teacher was just diagnosed with cancer and she will be out of school for most of the rest of the year so we wanted to get her a beat-cancer gift bag for Grace to give her today at their Valentines party.  She's got a good prognosis so I am hopeful for her.  We will be sad to have her gone because she's been a kind teacher. 

Z in her diaper for girl issues.  I am very surprised she went into heat this young.  Also not too excited to buy diapers, we had planned on having her fixed before her first heat but who knew it would be this early?

She still got up and got looking cute for Valentines day!  I bet she'll go to bed early tonight ;)

hair cuts

Yesterday was a good day.  Right now I am doing a long term sub.  I do classroom inclusion support for kids with IEPs.  I really enjoy working with the kids.  Yesterday, one little boy, who is really the saddest little guy and who  likes to hide under his hoodie or in a work carousel, talked and smiled with me.  That was a first and I was very happy about it.  Elementary age kids really are so sweet.  My days are full of lots of hugs and silly jokes.  Because it is a sacrifice to be out of the home every day, and it makes our evenings hectic, which I don't like, I really try to make the time I spend at work meaningful.  I try to see these children, the ones I specifically work with that have extra needs, and the ones who are doing great, as the Savior would.  I really try to be kind and gentle and to serve them well.  One really great thing about subbing is that it is so flexible and when I need to be home it's no big deal.  :)  Last week for example I was home 3 days when Lucy was sick.  This week I am working 3 days and then Thursday and Friday I am off so I can get ready for the dance.  I am excited for that.  I am grateful for the ability to work when I want and be home when I need.

So when I got home I gathered the children and we went to get haircuts.  The girls and I did, Ethan brought his ipod and played games.  Hannah needed her shark attack evened out.  I think she looks so different!  It turned out really cute.  Grace and I got our usuals.  After we went to eat, then stopped by our favorite pet store.  It is a fancy fancy pet place.  We needed to refill our puppy snack jar and pick up some chewys.  To illustrate our ridiculousness the clerk asked where Z was.  She remembered her from past visits :) 

Then we came home.  Ahh home.  I really love it here :)  I had some camp/dance stuff to do.  E had some homework.  Han had some hair business.  When I put Lu to bed if it's before we get to family scripture study she and I read the Old Testament.  We are reading about David right now.  Last night she was commenting that there sure is a lot of killing in the scriptures.  We talked about how that was a warning to us.  When people follow God they are peaceful, when they follow Satan the opposite is true.  That's a good way to judge your own heart, are you being peaceful and treating others kindly?  Then you are probably following Him.  Are you fighting with those around you, and feeling a war raging in your heart?  That is an invitation to look at yourself and make a course correction.  We had a nice chat.  I am grateful for bedside chats, they are one of the sweetest times.  She is just enough younger than the others that her scheudle is still really different.  She goes to bed early always and needs a good 10 or 11 hours of sleep.  I prefer to have her read with the family (where we are in Alma) but we have to be flexible around here.  F.L.E.X.I.B.L.E

 

Lastly sweet Little Penny is 5 months old now!  She's so stinkin cute!!

weekend recap

congo line

 What a long weekend, I need to go back to work to relax!  Friday night Ethan had a soccer game.  Hannah had to decorate for the young women fundraiser dinner Saturday night and I had a baby shower to go to.  I actually didn't feel (cold) well so I stayed home, put Lu to bed and watched TV on the couch for about 15 minutes before I fell asleep :)  Ethan's team won and Han went to decorate with the Streeters.

Chelsea and Hannah busy working

Saturday we had a blue and gold banquet, a chess tournament, Ellie's heartaversary party, grocery shopping and the fund raiser.  Too much to go to, clearly.  Ethan chose chess over banquet.  We still helped with decorations, since that was our assignment but didn't go.  He is starting a 6 week chess season.  First day went well.  He won 2, tied 1 and lost 1.  Ellie, who was born last year with her arteries transposed and who had open heart surgery when she was less than a week old had a party which we would not miss.  It was really cute.  Her mom and grandma made all this delish heart shaped food, and they had a heart cake and lots of people wore heart stuff, Ellie herself had a darling outfit on.  We were very lucky, Grace won the best heart dressed kid prize, Hannah won the guess how many heart shaped marshmallows are in the jar game, and I won the random heart sticker on the bottom of the dessert plate game :)  Sarah and Tony are awesome parents and were so brave and faithfull.  I was very happy to celebrate with them!  After Chess R and E went to the phone store and got iphones for me and hubby.  It's pretty amazing I have to admit, although I have no idea of more than a fraction of what it does.  I did say to it last night, with my voice, set the alarm for tomorrow at 6, and it answered me, alarm set, and it worked.  And I can facetime on the go...which I have yet to do but I am anxious to try it. Can't wait to talk to my Tate and Pen. The girls and I went shopping.  Groceries and Charming Charlie, one fun, one not so much.

In the evening we all went to the fundraiser.  The dinner and dancing were fun fun fun and the decorations were so cute.  We won pet sitting and sausage at the silent auction and hopefully Han earned a good portion of her needed camp money.  Grace went to the baby sitting room and played with Arden.  Ethan and Nick played by running around.  They invented a "great game" where they stood in the little breezeway between to the two sets of glass doors and threw a soccer ball as hard as they could against the wall trying to get it to ricochet off the wall and hit the other one.  They were pretty successful and thought it was really fun.  Whatevah. 

Today was a long meeting day for me.  I had two ward conferences to go which meant I started meetings at 7:30 and went until 4pm.  Tonight we have a youth conference meeting but thankfully it it a video meeting.  I really enjoyed Sister Davis lesson to the young women in the LP ward.  It was very spiritual and uplifting.  The whole day was good, kind of long though.  February is a long, meeting full month with 9 ward conferences and 9 new beginnings and the PLDD and a camp meeting and a YCL meeting.  It think it's the craziest month of the year for us.  I don't know how our stake presidency does it, I think they keep up this kind of schedule all the time.  I am very grateful for dedicated Priesthood leadership who selflessly serve and lead.  I am also grateful to be able to give my time and talents to serve.  When I got home I was very happy to have a yummy spaghetti dinner with my family, which R prepared.  I am really enjoying meeting with the different wards and knowing many different people around the stake and the girls of course are so much fun every where we go!!

dog ownership is not for the faint of heart

or for the weather-phobic.  For Christmas this year Nana got me a long coat, down almost to my ankles & very warm.  Thank goodness for that.  I have worn it every day, and every night since.  This morning it is rainy and gloomy.  Which is fine with me, I like a little dark weather especially when nothing severe is accompanying it but we are  fence less dog owners and while Millie is ol reliable when it comes to the business, Z not so much.  The only guarantee of a plop and a drip is an eye witness and a walk.  So 6am found me rushing into my boots and gloves and long white coat, attaching two leashes and heading out into the rain. 

Rob said to me this morning "once you got to sleep you seemed to sleep well".  NyQuil.  He said that because I have the can't breath long enough to cough but need to do both, sniffle, sore throat cold.  However I have been very blessed with the ability to sleep.  What kept me up last night?  A phone call from Sierra, the sound of bombs blasting on the ipad next to me, R saying "Lana? we need to talk....", "Lana, are you awake??", a boy in his spot and then a boy who needed "one more tuck".  I am grateful that I am a good sleeper.  I can sleep even when the PLDD looms and I just know our decoration plans are not up to last years high bar standard.  I can sleep when secrets swirl in my head, of things that aren't right in the world but aren't mine to share, or people who need help.  I can sleep when babies are laying in orphanages around the world with no one to love them.  I can sleep when my personal budget got cut in half by a dear hubby who is trying to "trim the fat".  I can sleep with the sequestering looming that is going to devastate our countries defense, and the men and women who work in that field...and by the reality of trickle down or sludge over or whatever economics the rest of the people.  I can sleep when I have disobedient children tucked into their beds and I wonder how I will ever train them up. Thankfully, for whatever reason, I can turn that off and sleep and I know that is very fortunate.  Why?  I think it's because there is nothing I can do at that moment but I know in the morning I will be needed to do lots of things, small things, nothing to do with RADAR defense, carrier ships, impoverished nations, the national debt, or even my cell phone plan...but things none the less that must be done, and I am the one to do them so at night I sleep.  And now it's 7am and I have showers to supervise, lunches to make, a carpool to drive, work to go to, a menu to plan, laundry to move.......

home for three days

So Lu wasn't quite ready to go back to school today.  Actually I probably would have thought she was fine enough but R thought she was really sick (she's his baby girl) and by the time I thought she was fine I had already cancelled my job for today.  So with 3 unexpected days home Lu can I did some redecorating.  We freshened up the wall above the couch.  We painted some of the picture frames and changed out some of the pictures.  I also did all the laundry.  Everything in the house, including bedding is clean right this second.  I also cooked some yummy curry, mango chicken for dinner.  I do like being home.  Also got lots done for YW.  There is always lots to do.

In other news we had a shark attack.  When Hannah was little, like 2 1/2 she used to wear her hair in a whale spout on her head.  One morning she was under the table with scissors and cut off her spout.  When we saw her we were shocked and asked if she cut her hair.  She said "no a shark bit it off ".  Well last night the shark was back.  She was "just trimming a bit of her bangs" when somehow some of the hair above her ear leaped into the scissors...and shark attack.  This is sad sad sad.

Tonight Ethan had scouts and Hannah had YW.  I took them while R stayed home with Lu.  I plopped down on the couch and was joined by some wonderful women and we laughed and talked.  We helped Darlaina cut out decorations for the YW fundraiser.  For some reason I had an especially nice time.  It was really just great to sit and cut and chat for an hour. 

Tomorrow it's back to work for me, heigh ho heigh ho.

update:  last night Z peed on E's bed, and all the children changed into pajamas and viola, the hamper is full.  That everything is clean second is really only a second.

little sickie

 Poor little Lu is sick.  This is why I can never have a real job.  I can only show up every so often.  She has a fever, and a sore throat.  Lu spent almost all day laying on the couch.  She cuddled with Ziva, played a lot of phase 10 (where she whooped my butt), watched a little TV, and took a couple of naps.

 When we went to pick up the boys she fell asleep in the car.  In the evening we had FHE where she did rally enough to eat some ice cream.

 For dinner I made lentil coconut soup and naan.  It was yummy but the kids didn't really love it.  R and I did though.

weekend wrap up

 Saturday, not such a sweet day as we had hoped.  Rob had a fishing trip planned, a standing by the water and casting trip planned.  The rest of us stayed home for family cleaning hour, which turned into family cleaning blitz accompanied by family cleaning weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and things didn't get very clean at the end of the day.  It was a long long morning.  Finally around 2 Lucy went to a birthday party for Madison at the club house, Ethan went downstairs to  play with his friend the x-box, and Hannah and I went grocery shopping.  By 4pm we were all happier and went to the Martines' for Jeffrey's birthday party.  It was fun.  I made these cute groundhog day cupcakes (which I forgot to take a picture of but Darlaina did so I borrowed hers).  Jeffrey had lots of friends over and we had lots of fun celebrating with him!

Sunday we went to church, then we went to Jeffrey's baptism.  He asked me to give the talk on the Holy Ghost, which I was happy to do.  After treats and visiting R and E went to watch the superbowl and the girls and I went home.  Lu went right to bed.  She was tired, and then in the middle of the night she came to me with a fever and sore throat :(

So this morning I am not working, Lu is watching netflicks on TV and feeling kind of miserable and I am going to clean.  I spend a lot of time cleaning...

where's the sun?

Friday is  like a big sigh of relief.  No 5:45 wake up tomorrow.  No endless hours with the little cuties at school who require a lot of patience.  No walking the dogs in the dark.  Of course this weekend will be too busy.  Like every weekend.  It's okay.  I love the busy.  Tonight though I am loving the quiet. 

 Deo and Penny are playing together this weekend at their first cousin play date.  How cute are they??!

 

Today was the good citizen assembly.  Lu was awarded the good citizenship award for her class this month.  It was also Raven's day.  Our school all dressed in purple and had lots of purple decorations.  This weekend the Ravens are playing in the superbowl.  Now, I actually don't care, and won't watch the game, but it's still fun to root for the home team, and some of the staff and kids are super into it, which is fun too.

Ethan played soccer tonight.  They brought their A game.  It was very exciting.  Watching these boys play is more exciting than a pro game. They are so into it. And they are really good. 

Randomly, Adam Braverman, of Parenthood, yes a TV show, is the best husband ever.  I <3 him.  Of course it's probably pretty easy to be a good TV husband.  No laundry or anything to step over, no kids to disagree about, no bills to pay...you know all that.  The other morning I was talking with a couple of the teachers before school, one of them had just got back from a long weekend trip with her girl friends to Vegas and her husband watched their boys.  So she was grateful but the house was a disaster when she came home, and she was tired, (terrible turbulence on the flight home that got her back 8 hours late {which is one reason I don't love to fly...not that that's ever happened to me but you know it could and although by definition any flight that ends with passengers alive on the ground is a good one you know, the misery is yuck!} ) and so she was complaining through her gratitude.  We were all commiserating with her, because apparently all husbands keep the kids alive but the dishes, not so much.  Which can be frustrating.  Then I wondered what do all husbands complain about?

Speaking of complaining, I have a small one.  So working every day just really just cuts into my cleaning, visiting teaching, thinking about exercising or crafting, laying around watching TV time.  So tonight I am watching TV, on the couch, the boys are still at soccer (it's 10pm if you are interested) the girls are sleeping and the house...disaster.  And I don't want to clean it.  Not one little bit.  I thought I'd clean it tonight and have tomorrow for fun but I guess we are cleaning tomorrow.  And by we I mostly mean me. 

It is very cold outside.  It's very very cold.  Tomorrow is groundhog day, will he see his shadow?  One of the teachers is from Punxsutawney PA and every year her mom makes groundhog cookies for everyone.  So I got one today, and it was cute and tasty.  And I hope Phil does not see his shadow tomorrow :)