100 Days Update

I forgot to mention, Brother B won the poster contest for his 100 Days project.  

What Have We Been Up To?

Two weeks ago we finally picked out new carpet for the back room.  Against my initial aversion we went with a shag type carpet (frieze).  I love it!  It is so cushy.  The sale-lady kept saying it is so soft you could sleep on it.  I tried that out, it is not true, but it is definitely a pleasure to walk on.  Everytime I walk in the room I just want to savor it.  I highly recommend the type of nylon it is made out of too, Tactesse.  It is not scratchy at all.  To save money we did all the removal.  It was amazing how much sand was collected underneath the carpet. We painted the room before the carpet came in.  J wasn't huge on the color, but it was my turn to pick.  I think it looks fabulous.  It so nice to walk in this room and not smell cat pee anymore.  Now I just have to make sure Rush doesn't sneak in and mark the place up.

J wasn't happy with me putting all the furniture back by myself.  Thanks to Marv, I had some furniture sliders which made it so much easier.  The computer was unhooked for about 24 hours and it nearly killed me being disconnected.  Maybe I need therapy :)

By the way, it did snow again last week.  I think that is the fifth time this year.  I laugh in the face of global warming.  Isn't it rich how they call it Climate Change now?  I believe that climate change is a natural process last I checked.  Last month there was a global warming protest in DC and they were snowed out.  The big question is, what will they latch onto next?

Re-discoveries

Fefe had a lot of fun sliding the other day.  Ephant was catching her so she wasn't scared to slide down on her own.

The next day, Loofa decided he wanted to try catching.  Each time she came down he was knocked over.  In case you are wondering, the blue is from the gatorade he was drinking earlier.

Mouser

I remembered a picture the second time:

They were chewing on the cat food under the stairs again, so good riddance.  Hopefully he got them all.

Heaven in a White Box

A couple weeks ago we were in Portland to pick out carpet.  J decided we would stop by Papa Haydns so I could pick up my favorite dessert.  A late Valentines I guess.  This was only the second time I've had it.  The first time was probably 7 years ago.  One slice costs $8 so I savored every bite.  It was a pretty big slice.  I could only eat 2/3 of it and by the time I got to it the next day it was soggy :(  I still ate it though.  So, if you are wondering what is called... Bocconi Dolce.  I attempted to make it once, but didn't have much success.  The layers are meringue, whip cream, chocolate, strawberries and bananas.

What a Day

I haven't been keeping very good track of the weather lately so I was quite surprised to see snow when I came downstairs this morning.  Global warming sure is  getting a kick in the pants here this winter.  It only lasted long enough for a 2 hour school delay.  Today's snow is what we are used to.  Once a year and only one day of snow, nothing like the monster we had in December.

In a futile attempt to clean my floors, I decided to vacuum this morning.  I was quite surprised to see a dead mouse nestled against the vacuum when I opened the closet door.  Glen has finally decided to pull his weight around here I guess.  Thank goodness, I hated having to trap a mouse last year that was eating the cat food.  I'd rather let the cats do the dirty work.

A couple days ago I finally decided to create a "chore chart".  It mostly has responsibilities like brushing teeth and doing homework,but it is a good way for the kids to self manage themselves without me constantly having to nag them.

Last, but not least, I found another gray hair today.  I guess it is the beginning of the end.  It is probably due to all my stress over the lesson I have to teach at church this Sunday.  I'm so glad I only have to do it every 3 months.

Magic

Loofa keeps asking me to make him a wand to get into Mario Galaxy and the full import of what he is asking finally struck me.  He seriously thinks I can build him a wand that can magically send him into the game.  I told him I didn't think I could make something like that and he said "you just need some glue and paper".  At this point I asked him who told him this.  He said "Ephant".  Gotta love the older kids telling the younger a joke that they actually believe.

What to Do

I barely know what to do with myself now that I'm done burning our home videos.  I have to remember all the things I used to do with the computer before I started that.  Tonight I remembered blogging and facebook.  Mindless timewasters...  Seriously though, this is my journal so it is worth it.

Fefe wore her first dress of spring this last Sunday.  This is the best picture I could get of the little monster.

Brother B's class had their 100 day party today.  They had a family project to create a poster with 100 of one item.  I thought it would be fun to print out 100 different pictures of Brother B.  This is the result.  Supposedly there is a contest for the best poster and I think we might have a good chance.  It is creative and cute in my opinion.  Way better than any class projects I did for myself when I was in school :)

Ephant seems to be having a resurgence in enjoying piano again. I'm not sure what exactly brought it on, but she doesn't complain about practicing and even chooses to do it on her own sometimes.  I told her though that we probably won't do violin next year.  She never practices it and forgets to bring it to school half the time.  When I told her she wouldn't do the violin class next year she asked for a trial period to prove she could do well with it.  Well, she didn't, but I haven't broken that news to her yet.  Her main reason for wanting to continue it was because her friend is thinking she'll do it next year.  Not a good enough reason for me.

I realized today why Spring Cleaning happens.  The sun comes out and you see how dirty your house is.  I've been doing some intense cleaning because of that.  I just wish it would last.  It is amazing how quickly four kids can erase all signs of a freshly vacuumed room.  It also doesn't help when Fefe keeps finding cough drops around the house and leaves sticky handprints everywhere when she realizes it does not actually taste like candy.

I have to ask for some advice.  Loofa has been having leg cramps periodically at night for a while now.  I can't really put a time frame on it, but it has been happening more frequently.  He is pretty inconsolable, but does better once I give him ibuprofen.  He eats terribly so I'm wondering if his body needs some type of vitamin so I'm going to do my best to give him vitamins on a regular basis.  If any of you have more ideas, please share.

Announcing

I'm the best subject in this house.  I don't complain or whine when I take my picture.  I don't have to bribe myself with cupcakes to take my picture instead of playing Mario Kart.

We Are the Pirates

I know, I know, it has been a long time.  My computing power has been sucked up by home videos the last week or so, but I also just haven't felt like blogging for awhile.  We've been keeping pretty busy.  My Relief Society calling has been a major factor in that.  We've been sick free for a week or so, although last night, Fefe started coughing again.

Loofa usually spends most of his afternoons playing the Wii.  The boy is utterly obsessed.  The rest of us have normalized somewhat and don't spend every waking moment on it.

It was a relief when swimming lessons finished.  Ephant and Loofa enjoyed them, but Brother B didn't.  He thinks it is boring for some reason.  Our weeknights haven't been all that relaxing, it seems like I have something to do almost every night, plus J has scouts every Tuesday.

I've been practicing taking good pictures without flash and I really liked how this one turned out:

Here is our recent trip to OMSI.  Fefe wasn't quite sure what do with the water, but she thought it was pretty cool:

Playing with flubber is usually the kid's favorite part of OMSI.  Loofa really enjoyed it, but Fefe did not care for it when I stuck her hand in it.  She really hated the sand pit too.  Can you say sensory issues?

My cute girl enjoying her bath:

Verizon installed our FIOS this week.  I've been wanting that forever, but didn't want to pay extra for it.  They offered us a good package deal finally so I jumped for it.  Everything is so fast now.  My pictures I uploaded for this took about 2 seconds.  Podcasts download super fast too.  Plus it doesn't have the limitations of downstream cable.  It came with a new router so hopefully those of you that had trouble connecting to our wireless network in the past will not have problems anymore.

Hopefully I'll be done burning all the home videos in another few days.  Hope you all have a lovely Valentines.  I'm debating right now whether to make sugar cookies today or not.  I ran when I was supposed to all week so I have some calorie reserves :)