Why Clayton Is No Longer Allowed To Wear My Shirts To Bed

Because Clayton is a first-thing-in-the-morning pooper, he keeps taking his diaper off in bed (3 times this week), and because poop stains on my workout clothes is not all that attractive.

"Mom, Can I Make Some Popcorn?"

"No, Justice. You guys always make such a mess when you have popcorn."

"I'm not going to make a mess. Clayton's gonna make a mess. I'm not going to make a mess."

After a chuckle at that, I gave in. The popcorn is popping in the microwave as I type.

Music and Me

I want to learn it all!!! I just have this HUGE hunger for learning music. I'm no longer content just to play it. I want to know how it's all put together. I want to learn how to make my own. I WANT TO LEARN! One day I'll be able to go back to school. I can't bring myself to regret staying home and being Mommy for the past twelve years. I'm where I am supposed to be. There isn't any other job in the world more important than mine. But oh how I want to learn! I know right now, in this economy where teachers are losing their jobs left and right, going to school for music ed seems totally foolish. I don't care. I just want to learn. Oh well, I'll just keep at it as I can. I can continue to teach myself until I'm not needed as much here. That will truly be a mixed emotion day when all my little ones are off to school, and I have the days to myself. I'll probably "weep like a bathtub overflowing." I'd better get to treasuring what time I have left with my little ones, and not wish it away too fast.

Yucky

Last night at Ross' baseball game, I caught Clayton rolling his gum in the dirt on purpose and then putting it back in his mouth. Does the dirt add extra flavor?

Shopping Trip Fail

Well, this wasn't the worst trip I've had to the grocery store in my 12 years of mothering, but it was the first time they threatened to kick me out. Persnickety check-out ladies. All the kid was doing was sitting on the bagging counter. I understand it's a rule, and they are liable if he falls off. Waa! I guess that's what you get for living in the most sue happy county in the country. The check-out ladies at the other Aldi never say a word if the child sits on the bagging counter. Of all the things to threaten to kick me out for. They didn't say a word to me when my kids were waving at people from inside the milk refrigerator. ;-)

Pool Fail

I tried to set up one of those 3ft deep inflatable pools for the kids today. Unfortunately I did a stupid, and I didn't make sure the ground was level. As I learned, that is an important step in the process. It filled up all lopsided, so what was supposed to be one wall ended up being a floor. After several hours worth of filling, I turned it off and decided it wasn't going to work there. I let the kids get in and splash around in about 2 feet of water. Twice when the kids were playing, the water gushed out over the low side. When I say gush, it looked like one of those AFV clips where the entire pool breaks. Bummer. Such a waste of money and water!

Girls With Power Tools

That's right. I used the jig-saw and installed a new dryer vent all by myself. (I won't tell you that I broke one blade and bent two. And in the end I forgot to put in a washer thing, but I think it will work just fine without it.)

Laundry's Believe it or Not

I went to the laundromat today in order to wash a HUGE stack of dirty blankets at once. I used 2 quadruple sized washers and 5 triple sized washers, and I still have enough dirty laundry to do at least half that again. Yikes!

Two Funny Things

1) Don't you just love it when the toddler takes off his diaper in bed and get pooh all over first thing in the morning!

2) Last night Justice was jumping off of the back of the couch and says "Mom, how about if you get the camera and we make a fail blog?!" -Not your best idea, Justice.

Recent Pictures that I Like

Another Climber

Clayton, Justice, and Mark

My J-Bird

Big Bubble

Lydia

Clayton

Justice

Ross

What is Up

The work continues on my kitchen, along with the rest of the house. There is so much work to be done that I will probably not get it done for at least five years realistically. Bruce put up another sub-wall in our bedroom (one of two to happen in there). Here's Justice and Clayton "helping."

My current project is texturizing my kitchen ceiling. I don't really know what I'm doing, so I hope it turns out well. I'm nearly done. Then I get to paint it and then I get to paint and affix all of the baseboards and crown molding. Then there are a few shelves to finish and hang in there and a ceiling fan to paint. Then I think my kitchen remodel will finally be done. Then I have a couch to recover, and some window covering to make, and a bit of spot painting in the living room. Then it's on to two complete bathroom make-overs, then I have to mud, sand, mud, sand, prime and paint 3 bedrooms and an office. (The bedrooms will also require some new window coverings to be made). Ugh. Can I just move?

Anyway, that's what I've been doing. At present I'm back to my old problem of not having anything to do at my piano. I go in cycles. I'll have a project / goal of some sort and I'll work really hard at it and grow in leaps and bounds until I've accomplished, ran out of ideas, or gotten sick of what I was doing. Then I get to where I am now. I'll sit at the piano and not really know what to do. I need a project. I really would like to learn more about how to write / arrange music, but it's hard to know where to start. I've been doing a lot of analyzing others' music, trying to see how they've put their music together. I REALLY NEED A PROJECT! Funny that I should say that after that other paragraph up there.

In the mean time my kids are all home for the summer and I'm having the usual problem of how to run my household. Sometimes I just feel so unorganized and hopelessly BLAH! I had a thought while I was in church on Sunday that I'm trying to put in to practice. It is this: During the school year, I get up EARLY (4:30) many a day to get my workout in and come home in time to make breakfast for everyone before school. During the summers, I enjoy not having to be home so early. I workout a bit later, and don't get home often until right before Bruce leaves for work. I hardly ever make breakfast, the kids pretty much fend for themselves (except for the little ones - I'll help them to a bowl of cereal or something). Anyway my thought was that we need to continue to have breakfast together as a family so that we can 1) Read scriptures together 2) Spend time as a family before Bruce leaves 3) Get an organized start to the day. I guess I'll have to give up my later early mornings, but it shouldn't be too bad because it gets light so early that I still will have plenty of daylight to enjoy by myself. I truly love to be outside early in the morning alone with some beautiful music and some exercise.

This doesn't help me with what to do with my children for the rest of the day ie, how to keep them from watching TV and playing video games ALL DAY LONG, or how to keep them from utter boredom (we REALLY need some good neighbors with children compatible with our children's ages and interests! There is literally NO ONE within walking distance for any of my children to play with.) I wish I were one of those supermoms who always had the patience and know how to do cool things with their kids. I do love spending time with my kids, but how do you ever get anything else done. Plus it can be mentally draining. I swear, if I hear the words "Mom, he's...(insert any quantity of complaining words here)" one more time, I'm going to change my name and hide in a closet and never come out.

Anyway, I'm waxing on in the complaining tone. I really shouldn't. I just wish I knew how to be one of those great moms. Well, here's a nice picture to end on:

More Claytonisms

"Bye bye" = either bye bye or goodnight

"Lock" = either keys or sock

"Weeow weeowm" = any kind of vehicle excepting trucks which are usually referred to as "Daddon," because Clayton's dad drives a truck.

While Bruce and I were gone for our anniversary get away, Clayton kept telling everybody "Bom Daddon go bye bye in weeow weeowm." Translation: "Mom and Dad went bye bye in the van."

Good News

Despite the vet's skepticism, it appears that this stuff actually works. We've had considerably less doggie puddles around the house. YAY!!! And a big thanks to Aunt Marsha who suggested coating the pills in butter. It makes them MUCH easier to get down the dog's throat.

The Point Would Be?

Do you ever wonder why you even bother to bathe those little guys?

Anniversary and Stuff

Bruce and I just got back from our 16th anniversary get away weekend. We went to Nauvoo, IL. It was great. We really didn't do much, but we really enjoyed each other's company.

In other news, our family is going completely cellular. I'll be sending out an email with our new numbers. Bruce's is still the same, but we are getting rid of our house phone. If you would like an email, just email me your address at brucerenae6@msn.com and I'll send you the 411.

I just got a wild email. About a year ago or so, I set up a website where I could upload some music that I had arranged. I uploaded two songs and that was pretty much it. I never did anything else with it, and had practically forgotten about it. I didn't think anyone else had ever looked at the thing. I just got an email from some guy in the Czech Republic asking me if he could use one of my arrangements on his website where he is translating LDS music to Czech. How cool is that? Someone not only found my stuff, but he actually wanted to use it. Wild. While I'm on the subject, I guess I'll go ahead and tell you about my piano duet that I wrote. It's just a silly little piece that I wrote so that Lydia or Bruce could play it with me. The funny thing about it is that instead of one person playing high and one person playing low, I've got one person playing seated in the middle of the piano while the other person darts back and forth behind the other player from low to high and back again all through the piece. It's nothing great, but it's fun. I'm teaching it to Lydia, and I think it's going to work. I'll upload it onto that site, and while I'm at it, here's a link for anyone interested.

Things Only Little Boys Say

"Aww! I peed on my face!"

Bones and Beer

Lydia and Justice were drawing with Grandma the other day. Lydia loves drawing and her practice is starting to show some promise. Above are two of her recent drawings. This one is Justice's. It's a foot. When my mom asked him to tell her about the foot inside the foot, he told her it was the bones.

Mark and Ross had Justice convinced that Kool-Aid was called "beer." They've also convinced him that he should go around and tell everybody how much he loves "beer." When asked what he wants to drink, he'll often respond "Beer." Bruce was drinking something the other day and Justice asked him "Is that soda or beer?"

Yeah Baby!

I did the Memorial Day Biathlon (5 mile run then 15 mile bike). I took first in my age group. (Which isn't as impressive as it sounds, but hey I'll take it!)