Three Sentences I Never Want to Hear Again For the Rest of My Life:

1. I think I just wet the bed.

2. I'm going to throw up.

3. I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.

(Actually, I've never heard number three, but I don't think I would ever want to hear that one either.)

Guess which one I heard at 5:40 a.m.? (Hint, we all went to church today.)

Keeping Me Humble Part 3

Today Austin had two birthday parties. They both happened to be at McDonalds. One ended about an hour before the other one started. Did I let him go to both? Of course I did. If he was going to get in his RDA of chicken nuggets somewhere, it might as well be at McDonalds.

On the way to the first party he said to me, "Ryan (the boy whose party it was) lives with his mom. His dad lives in Logan. Why?"

I said, "Oh, they must be divorced."

"What does divorced mean?"

"It means his parents aren't married any more and don't live together so he just lives with his mommy."

"I don't want you and dad to get divorced."

"Don't worry, we aren't planning on it."

"Good because I don't want to live with just you. That would be so boring."

In case you are keeping track, that's 3/3 of my children who like their dad better.

Should I be taking this personally? I'm starting to get a complex. I think my husband still likes me, but I almost don't dare ask him!

Saturday Snow Fun

Here is the latest installment in a long line of snow masterpieces that have graced our yard with their presence.

Austin made the litte shrimpy snowman and Hal built an igloo. For a minute I thought he was going to start pelting me with a stash of snowballs that he might have hidden inside.

Fortunately, I was mistaken.

My Great Idea to Avoid Ironing

First of all, in the spirit of full disclosure, I really don't iron much. Really not at all.

In fact I can't remember the last time I ironed an actual article of clothing. My husband irons his own shirts when absolutely necessary. Don't be too jealous. He doesn't cook. At all.

I have, however, ironed quite a few curtains in the last few years.

That said, this is how I avoid ironing clothes:

First of all, hang things up while they are still damp. I only dry shirts and pants in the dryer for about 10 minutes (this also helps so they don't shrink too). Then I hang them up on hangers and smooth out the wrinkles. (Also saving money on your energy bills. Yay!)

If something you pull out of your closet to wear is still a little wrinkled, take a squirt bottle with water in it and squirt the item lightly then smooth out the fabric. This actually works really well while you are wearing the shirt, skirt, etc. (Unless it is wet and you sit down and press more wrinkles into it while it is damp.) I will usually squirt down something I am wearing and then stay standing to do my hair or makeup while the article of clothing dries completely.

I learned this tip from one of my college roommates the day I went to a Catholic worship service with a guy I worked with. It was an interesting experience. (The worship service was interesting, the guy was "interesting".) I borrowed a dress from her and it was wrinkled so I said I'd wear something else. She had me just squirt it off and I couldn't believe how well it worked.

This is especially good to do in the summer (kind of like the swamp cooler effect).

We also take a little squirt bottle of water with us when we go to the fair, the zoo, etc., any place where you get really hot. You can just squirt down your little kids and they will stay cooler. (Um, obviously if you are wearing a white shirt you might want to only squirt the water down the back of your shirt.) Also make sure to squirt it only on your clothes if you are wearing sunscreen so you don't wash the sunscreen off of your skin.

That's it for now. I'm off to get a load out of the dryer.

Random Rambling

Today I went to a wedding. It was for my sister-in-law Kim's sister Carly. I really love weddings but this one was a little different. I looked around and realized that I didn't know as many people as I usually do. In fact I hardly knew anyone very well at all. Luckily my little neighbor, Leah, showed up and we stuck together. It was fun to catch up with her.

I wore a dress that I bought at Sam's Club this morning. I was there to buy food, not clothes, but I just happened to run into the dress. (Sam's Club really is the place to buy clothes, though, isn't it? That's where I got my latest pair of jeans. Also, my mom bought me a grown-up trench coat there this year, for a really good price. London Fog. One thing though, why are all the knit shirts so short and boxy shaped? There was one set of t-shirts that had such a cute shape, cute colors too, but they had a big butterfly on them. I am so not into butterflies on my shirt. Rainbows either, or other warm, fuzzy type graphics. Just so you know.) I had already seen the dress on Lacey's blog because she had bought it for a wedding. It actually matched the wedding I was going to too. As I was putting it on for the wedding I started thinking, what if this is the SAME wedding as Lacey is going to? That wouldn't be cool, since she is the one that bought it first and blogged about it. Luckily it wasn't.

That reminded me of one time when I was a senior in high school. I went to the Junior Prom (which was our formal dance) and saw another girl with the same dress. Luckily, I was older than she was, so I dared go over and talk to her for a second. I wanted to make sure she knew it was fine with me. She was nice so we sat together for a minute. The yearbook photographer took a picture of us together. I kind of waved to the camera like "Yes, we are wearing the same dress." They ended up putting it in the yearbook on the Junior Prom page, but in black and white you don't really notice it's the same dress (unless you're observant). It's actually one of the better photos of me in that yearbook. It was kind of a bad hair year.

Anyway at the wedding, while I was sitting by myself, I was thinking if Kim needed a break, I could take her and we could sneak out for a minute. That reminded me of another time I sneaked out of something I was supposed to be at.

Every year, for quite a few years, Hal's family held a dance outside on their slab of cement that they used to use to play tennis on. I used to have fun dancing with Hal's dad and his Uncle Delbert (who passed away last year). Once in a while I could get Hal to dance with me but he was usually busy visiting with all his old neighbors and parents' friends, etc. It was also fun because if I really wanted to dance, I could go out and dance with my kids, nieces, nephews, etc.

One year, Hal was pretty busy and I wasn't really dancing and I was getting bored sitting on the sidelines. I was also getting hungry too. (At the dances we usually have cookies or cake, not real food.) Bored and hungry is not a good combination for me. It usually spells trouble. I was talking to my niece, Andrea, and somehow convinced her to go with me to get something to eat. We ended up at Wendy's getting a cheeseburger and frosty. It tasted so good! Anyway, I didn't think anyone would miss us, but apparently they did. And they were not amused. It was kind of fun though. (As the adult I had to take all the blame, which was only fair since it was my idea.)

That's about it for today.

(P.S. I asked the girls if there was anything else I should write and Morgan says to say, "Ally is awesome." and Ally says, "Morgan is flippin' sweet." Funny, they forgot to mention me.)

My Biggest Complaint with Sarah Palin

It's her hair.

Sometimes someone will say to me, "Oh, I like your hair when you wear it like Sarah Palin." Well, that kind of ticks me off because I've been doing this for years and now all of a sudden people think I'm trying to do my hair like hers. This is my lazy hairdo. It's what I do when there isn't time to do anything else. (Actually, it usually looks better than this. This is at the end of a LONG day yesterday. In fact, I just tried to PhotoShop some eyelashes onto my right eye, but I think I forgot to flatten the image, so I lost the effect. I really did have mascara on. Looks like I should have tried to PhotoShop some blush on too.) This hairdo actually kind of gives me a headache from the clip I have to use, so that's another problem with it.

I also wear glasses when I drive (so I don't run into anything important). This may very well be the only photo in existence of me wearing my glasses.

My kids are funny and had me try to be Sarah Palin for Halloween. I don't think anyone even tried to guess that I was supposed to be her. There must not be as much of a resemblance as they had hoped. For the record, I think Sarah Palin is a lot cuter than I am.

So, I'm now looking for a new lazy day hairstyle. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be happy to listen to them.

As far as any other complaints with Sarah Palin and her politics or lack thereof . . . let's not get into it. It's too complicated and that will give me a whole different kind of headache.

(Ok, now I have to explain myself. I'm not a huge Sarah Palin fan but I'm not against her either. I like her well enough as a person. I was also fine with McCain picking a woman. I just think there may have been other women who were more qualified. Rats. I just talked politics on my blog. I was trying to avoid that.)

Keeping Me Humble Part 2

When Lexi (now Ally) was about 3, she LOVED the song Butterfly Kisses by Bob Carlisle. She would listen to it over and over on the cd player and sometimes she would even get emotional and cry.

One day I was brushing her hair and she was listening to the song. I asked if she wanted to look like me when she turns 16, like the girl in the song.

She said, "Yes mom, I do want to look like you."

As I kept brushing her hair for the next minute or two, she gazed lovingly at me. I thought, "How nice. She really does love me and want to be like me when she grows up." (She usually wasn't this sweet.)

After a couple more minutes of her staring at me fondly, she finally said, "Mom, I decided I don't want to look like you. I really just want to look like Daddy when I grow up."

Keeping Me Humble Part 1

When Morgan was little (about 3), I had my mom watch her for an hour or so one day.

When I came to pick her up, she was outside waiting for me. She started running toward me with her arms outstretched. Of course, I played along and ran toward her with open arms also.

We met in the middle and hugged for a long time.

I said, "Morgan, did you know that you're my very favorite?"

She answered back, "Mom, did YOU know that DAD is my very favorite?"

Question of the Day

Where are the two pillows that are missing from off our dining area couch?

I've searched high and low, all over the house, including the kids' bedrooms.

I hope someone didn't take them outside. That would not be fun to find when the snow melts.

Cutting Costs

It seems like these days everyone is having to tighten their belts in some ways. We are no exception. Right now Hal is doing commercial developing, which isn't really so hot right now. We have a gravel pit in West Weber, some lots on 10th West (which now we are paying for all the improvements, since his partner, sadly, died last fall), part of a strip mall in Pocatello that is for sale and the old Anderson Lumber building on South Main. If any one of these came through we'd be in good shape. The problem is, nothing is moving right now. But, we have enough to live on, so I can't complain.

I always get interested when I hear or see an article about cutting costs. "Good," I think to myself, "maybe this will help us out a little." I'm usually bummed when I find out that I'm already doing pretty much everything on the list.

For example:

• Quit going to the movies: We rarely go to the theater, maybe once or twice a year, once in a while we go with with one of Hal's business partners and he gets free tickets


• Cut back on your cable: Done. A few years ago, when we had financial trouble I cut back to the basic cable, $10 a month.


• Cancel your magazines: Again done. I do have some free magazines that I got with my frequent flier miles because I don't fly frequently enough to actually earn an actual flight.


• Turn down your thermostat: Yep, I dress warm if I'm the only one home.


• Quit drinking pop: We never did drink much pop. Maybe 2-4 liters a year, on special occasions.


• Don't eat out as much: Hal hates to eat out, he does it enough for business so we only go out on birthdays, or once in a great while with friends.


• Don't drive as fast: One of the great features on our Pilot is the little bar that shows what gas mileage you're getting. Instead of seeing how fast I'm going, I watch the gas mileage go up (or down). I think I'm actually driving the speed limit most of the time.


• Pay off credit cards: Already done. Credit cards scare me. We have two (in case something happens with one) and use them for monthly expenses, like groceries. They each have an incentive program, like cash back or free groceries. We pay them off all the way every single month, without fail. This is one lesson I hope our kids will take from us.


• Use your library: Yes, we are library junkies around here.


• Don't buy bottled water: Check

• Garden: Well, we try anyway.
  
• Don't buy things you don't need: It's interesting, because it seems like the times we have the least amount of disposable income, I start to get into "we have too much stuff" mode and start trying to pare down. I guess that's lucky for me. I also don't love shopping as a recreational activity. My favorite store for clothes is Ross because I like how it is set up. You know what you want, you walk in, you go to the skirt (or whatever) section, you find your size, see what they have and either find what you like and buy it or don't find it and walk out. Done. I do, however, have a fondness for shoes and boots. Luckily, I'm not too proud so I will buy them at Payless or anywhere else that they are affordable. My last three shoe purchases were $8 each. That's a number I can live with. (Now that I think of it, I'm going to call Hal right now and remind him what a low maintenance wife I am.)

And so on.

The only money saving tip I refuse to do is play the coupon game. I absolutely HATE coupons. I feel guilty if I don't use them, so sometimes I end up saving them but then they float around all over the house. Then I stuff them into an envelope and leave them in the car, only to be found usually after they've expired. If they are a dollar or more off and for something we actually use, I sometimes remember to get them into my purse but honestly, of probably 25 or so coupons I try to save a month. I really only probably use two or three. I need to just give up on that idea.

Well, that's my soapbox for the day. If you have any other good money saving tips I can try, please leave me a comment.

For now, I'm going to go turn down the thermostat some more, throw on a couple more layers and run around and find all the coupons in the house and throw them away!