Productivity 101

The guests are on their way. There is food to be cooked and baked. A guest room to freshen up. A playroom floor to dig out from under all the miscellaneous toys that are intermixed with each other (and ideally sorted into categories).

Etc., etc., etc......


So, what did I spend my time doing?

Yes, I re-folded and color coordinated my sweaters. You wanna make something of it?


I feel much better now.



(Except for the fact that I still need to cook and clean and.....YIKES!)

Next up, getting rid of those cardboard boxes on the top shelves of our closet. Maybe Christmas Eve would be a good time for that.

Another College Incident

I thought I had already written all the embarrassing college stories, but something reminded me of this one today.

A few friends and I used to study at a certain spot of the USU library most days. We would study and visit and of course, since it was college, try to meet new people. (By the way, did you ever notice that people you barely knew in high school suddenly became your best friends in college because I think we were all just so happy to see a familiar face? Okay, back to the story now...)

One day I was sitting with some of the regulars and someone had brought Oreos. Though they are not my favorite, I ate a few (just to be sociable, I'm sure). We then got back to studying, visiting, whatever we were doing.

Later on, someone else came by - a boy I was somewhat interested in. I visited with him a little, flashing what I thought was a cute smile every once in a while.

It seemed like he left pretty abruptly, and it wasn't until later that either someone told me or I looked in the mirror and saw what he saw; lots and lots of little Oreo pieces were still stuck in my teeth. It looked like what people do to their teeth for Halloween, though it was nowhere near the holidays, I can assure you.

Let's just say he didn't ever ask me out.


(Ooh, that reminds me of another story that I would prefer not to print. A girl's gotta have some secrets, right?)

Happy, Happy, Beautiful Fall!

Okay, so it's really raining cats and dogs today, but I've been meaning to post this for some time. It has truly been a most spectacular autumn this year.

Now look closely at the photo below. Click on it to make it bigger and see if you can see a cute little face peeking out the window on the right side.

If you could hear what he's saying, you would hear, "Mom, let me out! I need to go catch the bus!" Yes, he actually likes school. Another big reason I really, really love fall.

And in other news: We just found a mouse, minus the guts on our welcome mat. You would think that would upset me, but it actually makes me very, very happy! First of all, the mouse is still outside and not in the house (but don't think it didn't make me check the 81 traps I have hidden all over inside the house). And second, that means our cat is not mad at us any more for moving her around the corner and not letting her into the new house and is back to earning her keep!

The New Hot Ticket Items At Our House

I got a package in the mail the other day. Check out what was in it! (And yes, I know my photography skills are quite lacking. Just get over it and click on the photos if you want to see more detail.)

(The quote on the front of the Jesus medallion says "I am with you always" and on the back is the scripture from John 8:12. "I am the light of the world: He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." The back of the Logan Temple medallion says "Establish A House of Prayer, Fasting, Faith, Learning, Glory, Order & God")


A friend of mine from high school and his wife have just started a new business called Cherished Emblems. They are faith based medallions and are pretty nifty. They are really heavy duty and high quality. They are about 1 3/4" round. There will be more information coming up on their website, cherishedemblems.com, this weekend and they also have a facebook page "Cherished Emblems" that shows photos of some of the other medallions. (Actual photos by an actual professional medallion photographer. I took about 30 shots and still couldn't do them justice. So trust me and look them up on facebook. You'll be glad you did.) I love the Beehive one.

(Okay, I just found some official photos of the medallions. The one of Christ comes in gold and silver.)

If you're in the Cache Valley area, they are going to debut the medallions at the Logan Gift Show this coming Friday and Saturday (Booth #30). I have some 2 for 1 entry passes if anyone wants one. Just e-mail me or leave a comment here. (Or call me if you are old fashioned and have my phone number.) I've got 3 or 4 passes left that I'd be happy to give out so they get used so PLEASE ask if you want one. There are also 2 for 1 passes in the Hometown Values booklet that came in the mail for this month.


Anyway, Austin in particular has been enthralled with the medallions. He wanted the one with the Temple to be his and keep it in his room. I'll probably humor him eventually, but for now they are on the display area in my entry way. I keep trading off which one sits in the wooden base, and also which side sits out. I happen to really like what is on the back of each one just as well as the front.


It's funny, because when I heard what the company was selling, I pictured buying them for older people but, like I said, Austin has been all over them. He has tried to take the Jesus medallion to school in his pocket so he'd have a good day and he has also been sleeping with it under his pillow so he wouldn't have any more bad dreams. The other night he crawled into bed with me (after he'd wet his own bed) and when I woke up in the morning I found the Jesus medallion under MY pillow!


Austin truly believes in the powers of the medallion. I know this because he has been learning to ride a two wheeler and one day after practicing on the bike I let him go over to his friend's house. As I dropped him off at the door he ran back and handed me the medallion. He had it in his pocket to help him not be so afraid to ride the bike and to protect him so he wouldn't get hurt. I thought it was kind of sweet. His friend's mom said, "Is that a big Jesus coin he just handed you?" with a bit of surprise, so I had to explain what was going on.


I think this may be the new thing we hide in each others' rooms, backpacks, underwear drawers, etc. The David Archuleta picture may have been replaced by the Jesus medallion.

Favorite Photo Friday!

A quick photo of our little Harry Potter before we went out Trick-or-Treating and got soaked to the skin.

Our New Kid Bathroom

Long story short: New laptop = PHOTOS on the blog again! Yay!

So, here's the first installment of the remodel of our new home, the kids' bathroom.

Here's a photo of what it looked like before:

(The paint was kind of a light pink and the linoleum was gray and pink. I'm glad one of my friends really liked the shower curtain, so it went to a good home.)

Now, onto the new bathroom. First a little background. I told the kids (especially since Morgan wasn't 100 percent thrilled about the idea of moving) that they could pick out the shower curtain for their new bathroom. When they picked this one I was the one that wasn't thrilled. I told them we'd wait and look around a little more. When they didn't find anything they liked better I went to Target and bought this one and 2 others, hoping they would get confused and pick a different one. But, they didn't, so this is the one we went with. It was a while before I could walk into their bathroom without humming the theme from the circus. Now I like it just fine.

Here it is:

We had our carpenter put board and batten on the walls and we got new tile. We also re-did the cultured marble trim, changing it from mauve to white, and changed out the hardware on the vanity. (I found a really good, inexpensive source on e-bay. It cost about $100 to do the bathroom, whole kitchen and linen closet in the hallway.) We debated for quite a while over what color to paint the top, but this is what we ended up with. I'm happy with it and Hal really likes it, which is a plus. Austin won out and got his orange bathmats. (I won out because they were $6 on clearance for both of them.)

Here is my favorite part of the bathroom. Whenever anyone comes to look at the house I make them step into the bathroom and shut the door so they can see it.

Each kid has their own colored towel(s) on their own hooks. I love this because there is no spreading of boy germs to the girls and vice versa.

I really wanted to frame out the mirror too, but since we were in such a time crunch to get it done to move in, I had to wait - thinking Hal and I can do it later. Only problem is that the top rail for the board and batten runs right into the front of the mirror, so we'll have to do some creative cutting later. I think we'll start with the easy mirror downstairs when we work on that bathroom in the spring.

Well, that's the grand tour. It's a little bit of a cozy (small) bathroom but it'll do for now.

A Recent Conversation With Austin (After A Lot Of Rambling)

Hello.

Yes, it has been a while. No, nothing out of the ordinary going on, just life. You know what I mean? Nothing more than the usual bad haircuts, home maintenance, family parties, ward parties and kid parties at the house. Cooking and cleaning, family stuff, extended family "stuff", etc. Oh, and we have mice.

And, honestly, fall IS my favorite time of year. I'm really glad it's fall because with everything going on here, I might tend to get a little depressed. I've really been trying to enjoy the little things. And the not so little things. We really are enjoying our new home. It has made a world of difference in our family dynamic to have a floor plan that works for us. (And a fireplace that works when you hit a switch isn't so bad, either.)

So now, two haircuts (within two weeks of each other, don't ask), EIGHT mice (yes, one more and I'm calling in a professional) and almost a month later, I'm back.

Oh yes, I think I found a way to start posting photos again. Our main computer won't recognize my digital camera and the laptop is long gone. BUT, I just realized I might be able to get things to work by putting the memory card in the old digital camera and download that way.

Oh and p.s., no luck yet on selling our other house. Only I would try to sell a house during "the worst market in our lifetimes".

So, even though life has gotten even crazier than usual - if that's even possible, my kids have not had any shortage of amusing things to say. Here's one. (Some of the things Ally says are NOT fit to print.)

Austin: "Mom, why don't you love me?"
Me: "Of course I love you. Why would you even say that?"
Austin: "Because you never change my sheets."
Me: "I do change your sheets. I just keep putting the same ones on your bed because I thought they were your favorites."
Austin: "Oh, well they still need to be changed."
Me: "Okay, why do they need to be changed?"
Austin: "Because I wet them about 100 times."

And, by the look of things on the mattress pad, he was telling the truth. It did NOT look like that the last time I changed his sheets.

Happy Halloween!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

And Last Years....

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Rule Number One: Know Your Audience

Rats.

I was just getting ready to wax philosophical in a very splendid post, if I do say so myself.

But then I remembered that the person who inspired such wisdom might likely be reading this blog.

And they might not appreciate what I was going to say.

(Note: If you aren't related to me in a fraternal sort of way - meaning that you're not one of my brothers- this post was NOT going to be about you. You're safe. If you ARE one of my many brothers and you're worried that it might be about you, just shape up and then you'll have nothing to fear in the future.)