Self- Esteem

A few weeks ago we watched the video of Donny Osmond in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - at least we watched most of it. I'm not a fan of Potiphar's wife and her maids' outfits. Anyway...


A few days later Austin was sitting at the counter eating lunch. He casually said, "I'm glad my sisters aren't going to throw me into a pit."

I looked at him and asked what he meant.

He said, "Well, because we all know I'm your favorite. But it's okay because they still don't hate me."

Not yet anyway.

How Was Church Today?

I'll let you draw your own conclusions.


Here are the facts:

Exhibit A

The bread from the sacrament tray that Austin dropped. Morgan scooped up everything that landed on the bench and plopped it back on the tray, which I'm sure the people sitting behind us didn't appreciate. The same people kindly handed us a ziploc bag to put everything in that fell all over the floor. The poor little deacon, our neighbor, Barry Saraiva, didn't know what to do. The girls were highly embarrassed.

Exhibit B

The note that Austin penned immediately after getting chastised by his sisters for dropping the tray. First he wrote "I am sick. Tacke me home." and when that didn't get the desired result, he added the "Pleas", thinking that would work on me. It didn't.


I did compliment him on his writing skills though.


We are now sitting here waiting for the brownies to come out of the oven. Hopefully that will help us all feel better about the day. (David Archuleta showed up INSIDE the sealed box of brownies. He's a tricky one. He also sent Morgan a rose at the school for Valentines' Day.)



The End.

Favorite Photo Friday and Catching Up (Home Edition)

I remembered!

I think I've forgotten to do Favorite Photo Friday for a couple of months now. (I just hope this isn't a photo that I've posted before. I may have, because I really love it.)

I've been very side-tracked lately by packing boxes for the move and kid discipline issues that have not been fun at all. Actually the packing hasn't been too bad, it's the kids that have been driving me crazy. Maybe I should just leave them in this house and go live in the other house all by myself. I've already told them this house will be the "vacation home" if we don't sell it before we move into the other one. It may be the only vacation they'll get this summer if we have two mortgages. (Oh my gosh! It just dawned on me that we may have to take care of TWO yards this summer. Heaven help us, I think that would be the death of me - and Hal's the one who really does most of the yard work.)

We have been having major issues with a couple of the kids and t.v. and computer time and computer games, etc. I've cut way back on my own computer time (hence, neglecting this blog), especially facebook, and it has been good for me too. The other kid is mad at me about the move, so really, right now they all hate me.

On a happier note, I got to go with Hal yesterday and look at flooring for the other house. He is sold on the idea of this new bamboo flooring for the kitchen. (I'm not sure if I mentioned that our "new" house is 14 years old so we will be updating a few things.) The old floor is "wood" Pergo and in perfect condition. I don't love it, but I don't hate it like I really dislike the pink and seafoam green carpet and pink paint. I'd rather replace other things like the kitchen countertop. It is a nice Corian countertop and in great shape, it just happens to be a bright emerald green with a white racing stripe. Try picking a paint color to match that. There's also the issue of the Pepto Bismol pink countertop in the laundry room. Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I am not a fan of pink. Anywhere.

I want to be very careful of what I say here because we are buying this house from some friends of ours and I would hate to have her think I'm making fun of the decorating and hurt her feelings. The truth is that this house was very much in style when it was built. It was in the Parade of Homes and actually won the peoples' choice award. I think the fact that it was so much in style then is why it seems dated now. I'm trying to learn from this and keep things pretty neutral, while working with the things we need to keep that are already there. Some things, like the white laminate cabinets in the laundry room and the bright navy blue countertop in the basement bathroom will be staying so I'm trying to figure out how to make them look like they are a deliberate choice. I have some great plans for that (huge) bathroom. We'll see how far the budget goes. Right now it's all about the budget.

Oh, I just had a great idea! I am planning on putting white beadboard in the kids' (little) bathroom upstairs, but I wonder if it would look good in the laundry room too. Do you think it would look okay with white laminate cabinets?

We don't officially own the house until May 5, so I probably shouldn't post photos until then. The house does have some great Cape Cod-type pillars that separate the entry from the front room. Maybe I'll have to sneak a photo of those in one of these days to show kind of the style I'm thinking of for the inside of the house. Feel free to post any suggestions/opinions on remodeling or anything specific I'm thinking of doing.

One thing I'd love to know now is if anyone has a raised bar and the pros and cons of it. There is a raised bar in the kitchen and I'm thinking of having the new countertop be all the same height to give a little more counter space because there's not a really big area to roll out dough with kids, etc. Also with a raised bar, I always think of little kids falling off those tall bar stools. I think the only advantage would be for hiding dirty dishes from sight, but the bar is on the side of the kitchen that is adjacent to the family room and you have to walk through the kitchen area to get to the family room anyway, so people would have already seen my dirty dishes. So, if you have experience with a raised bar, please let me know what you think.

Anyway, on to the photo. This is Austin back when he still used to fit in the kitchen sink. He LOVED to take baths here. Even when he got older I was always afraid he would try to jump out by himself and slip and hit his head on the floor.

Isn't he a cute little devil?

Happy Friday!

The story that always makes my mom laugh... and I mean always

Hey there, people!
This is Ally Fronk, my mom's favorite middle child (it's true, ask her!) and I'm here to tell you a little story about my friend, Katelyn.

It happened a few months ago, when I had study hall. We were setting up chairs in the gym for it with a 6th grade P.E. class.
My friend saw a few kids wiggling around and waving their arms, and decided to join them.
A few minutes later, a teacher came up to her and said, "You do know those kids are handicapped, right?"
Well, she was pretty embarrassed, so her face turned red, and she walked away.

So, if my mom is ever in a bad mood, all you have to say is "You do know those kids are handicapped, right?" and she'll light up like a candle :)

Mime School

Morgan is at that age where she is looking at potential colleges, which makes me a little melancholy, since I really do enjoy having her around. Most of the time.

Unfortunately, her search for which school she wants to attend has also inconvenienced me a bit, which is not good. She filled out some survey on the internet and put my e-mail address in for the contact info. I've now been getting all sorts of junk in my in-box. I've been looking for some way to pay her back for a while now.

She has recently taken the PLAN test, which is sort of a practice test for the SAT and she ended up doing VERY well. I'm so proud of her! Because of this, she has now been getting letters from LOTS of colleges and universities. Some well known, some not so well-known and some that I've never even heard of or dreamed that they were even in existence.

On Tuesday, she got a letter from the Colorado School of Mines. Mines? I didn't think you had to go to school for that, I thought you just had to be born into a coal mining family or learn on the job or something.


Anyway, I got the bright idea to play with the envelope a bit and, with the help of some white-out, the school of "Mines" became the school of "Mimes", complete with a little logo of a mime that was very obviously hand drawn by yours truly. (I just noticed the mime has six fingers on one hand.)

Morgan came home from school and we had a little chuckle about it and I asked her if she could tell that I had drawn the picture, and she said it was pretty obvious. I didn't really think much more about it until about 10:00 that night when she came home from her Young Women meeting. She came into the kitchen with the envelope.

"You didn't open that yet?" I asked her. I open everything immediately, because I'm naturally curious. It's one of my better qualities. (She got three more letters yesterday, including one from Duke University, that she still hasn't touched. I may open them myself if she doesn't get around to it soon.)

So, she sat down and started reading.

"A school for individuals who like math and science?" she read, sounding a bit confused.

"Engineering?" she said next.

She then read on until she came to the part in the letter that identified the school again, as the Colorado School of Mines.

"Mines?" she said out loud as I burst into laughter, realizing that she really did think there was a school for mimes that she'd been invited to attend.

"I thought you said you knew that I'd messed with the envelope." I said, still laughing.

"Well, I knew that you drew the picture, I just didn't know you'd changed anything else." she answered. I then asked her what she had done to qualify for such a prestigious mime school to be pursuing her. She didn't think that was funny at all.


"I did think it was kind of a random place to have that kind of a school." she said sheepishly, as I continued to laugh uncontrollably.

Seriously, a MIME school? She really didn't even bat an eye at the thought of it. It almost makes me wonder if she's looked into mime schools before.

I went to tell Ally what had happened and Morgan was not at all amused when Ally and I acted like mimes for the rest of the night. We had a rousing game of tug-of-war and locked ourselves in glass boxes over and over. Morgan was especially unhappy that I had mentioned it at all to anyone else.

In fact, I think she'll be pretty unhappy that I'm writing about it on the blog. She's still a little sensitive about the whole incident.


So, if you see her, please do me a favor. Don't say anything.

Just give her a big smile..............






and then pretend like you're stuck in a big glass box.

(Actually, please don't. I'm already in enough trouble. She'll probably make me take down this post and I think it's a funny story.)

The (Little) Man Cave

Awwwww. Some things are just too cute.

One of my brothers in building a really nice house in the next neighborhood over. My brother has his own "man cave" in the basement.

Austin must have heard my sister-in-law and me talking about it when we were discussing paint colors. Now whenever Austin goes down to his bedroom in the basement he says "I'm going to my man cave."

I wonder what's going to happen once he finds out that Uncle Kendall's man cave comes complete with a snack bar and big screen t.v.

I may have a disgruntled little man on my hands.

I'm Not Like the Other Girls...

Forget flowers. Forget candy.

I don't want clothes or need shoes.

I told my husband not to even think about getting me anything for Valentine's Day this year.




What do I want? (Well, besides world peace? I know I'm supposed to say that.)

All I want in this whole, wide world is................




A trip with him to Home Depot.

How romantic. (Let's hope he comes through!)

Question of the Day:

Is it lame to paint your new house the exact same colors of your old house because:

A - It took a lot of time and trial and error to find colors you actually like.

and

B - The colors match the furniture and things you already have and after remodeling and moving there won't be much money left to buy new furniture.


Opinions, please?

Moving

I've started a big post about the why and the how of our new (to us) home. Looks like all that anyone who knows us is really interested in is the where. The other post was taking too long so I shelved it for now.



So, without further ado, we are moving................(drumroll please)...........






Around the corner into the Hutchings' home.



Whew! I feel better now. But I'll feel a whole lot better at the end of May when hopefully all the work will be done and we are all moved in.

I actually moved in 3 carloads of stuff today; Christmas boxes, old toys, cds we aren't currently listening to, old school papers of the kids', etc. Non-essential stuff that was just cluttering up this place.

The new house has a floor plan that is great for this stage that our family is in. More on that in later posts. And, the best part? It has literally DOUBLE the square footage of this home. I can hardly wait.

So, sorry to all of you ward members who were hoping for a new bishop. I hope you're not too disappointed that we are sticking around a little longer, maybe even forever.

Announcement: This Is What Has Been Keeping Me Up At Night

I'm sure you've all been waiting on the edge of your seats, haven't you?



Well, here it is:



We are moving.



Yep, it's true.



At first I was up all night wondering where we would go. Then once we settled on which house, I was awake all night making plans of what I'd like to do (paint, carpet, etc. - it needs some updating - your opinions will be asked for and appreciated very soon) before we move in. Then I was up all night placing my furniture in the new house in my head and trying to fix potential problems. I'm still working on a couple of things.

So, basically it's true. I'm up in the night. (Sorry, that was lame, but in my sleep-deprived state, I can't help myself.)

Anyway, that brings me to my next announcement:

This house will be going up for sale very soon.

I'm hoping to have it ready in about 2 weeks. If you're local and interested, or even semi-interested, know anyone who may be interested, or even morbidly curious in what our house looks like, let me know. I'd be happy to show you around.

Hal is already mourning the loss of his basketball court.

Our loss could be your family's gain.

(How's that for blatant salesmanship? I didn't know I had it in me.)

Question of the Day:

How closely do you think the way other people see us matches up with how we see ourselves? And I don't just mean how we look, I mean how we are viewed, personality-wise.

Something today that was said made me realize that because I'm the "bishop's wife" it carries a sort of, I don't know, expectation with it. (Which of course I already knew, but it shouldn't carry way back into your childhood.) People seemed surprised that I had done something blatantly wrong when I was younger. Actually, now that I think of it, there are a LOT of things that I did that were blatantly wrong. To be completely honest, I was kind of a little troublemaker/comedienne when I was a kid. This was further complicated by the fact that I was also painfully shy so the real me was glimpsed by only a select few. (I like to call them "the lucky ones". Ha ha, see how funny I really am.) This is how I still see myself, as a somewhat bratty or innocently mischievous person who tries to keep it to herself, yet fails miserably once in a while. (And really, growing up I never DREAMED I would become a bishop's wife some day. So, I didn't really live my life thinking that one day some of these shenanigans might just come back to haunt me.)

Also, I was just thinking about how I grew up. To be honest, there was really not much active parental guidance or influence. I think I turned out okay, but really I'm lucky things didn't end up worse. Maybe I have my husband to thank for that. Maybe there was just something inside of me that wanted to be good. Who knows.

So, it's interesting to think about the fact that some people grow up as a direct result of their childhood environment, whether good or bad and others end up doing everything in their power to "escape" the way they were raised, either rebelling from straight-arrow, conventional parents or vowing that they will rise above and do better than how they started out.

So now what really fascinates me is that I view myself still as that kid in that home that never really knew what it was like to have a "functional" family. I've tried really hard to be responsible, respectable and on time. (On time is huge for me. In elementary school there was no bus system in Nebraska. My mom had to drive us every day. And we were late, every day. And I was mortified, even as a little kid.) And, for the most part I think that's how people who know me now think of me, but to me I'm still that troublemaker little girl who always feels somewhat out of place and a little uncertain of whether people really want her to be where she is. I wonder if people who knew me in my younger days see me as I am now, or the whole picture, taking into account my background (if they even knew it).

Boy, this is getting really deep. I really did mean to just ask basically the question of if people view you as the "now" you, or the "whole picture" you, taking into account where you came from and where you are now.

Actually, if I really look at the real, whole picture, I should remember that all of us came from the same place originally, heaven. We are all children of our Heavenly Father, our Divine Creator. And, as my Grandpa Hendricks (who was very un-religious, a direct result of his very devout and over-bearing mother) had on his wall "I know I'm somebody because God don't make no junk."

Maybe that's the answer after all. It really doesn't matter how other people see us. It only matters how we see ourselves.