Once again...

That stupid hamster...Yes, him again. So, I put him in the cupboard in the bathroom because he was so loud. On Saturday, Alia is getting ready to take her shower and happens to look down, and there is Tommy. He has torn his new cage apart and somehow opened the cupboard door and is literally a peeping Tom! UGH! He has now gone through 3 cages. And I'm out. Ok, so I'll buy him an aquarium and shove him in that. Put a mesh cover on it, and if he gets out of that one, he's fair game for the cats. Head to Petsmart. Cool, an aquarium is only 9.99. However, they don't have a mesh cover for it. The nice sales associate informs me that I could buy a "ready to go" aquarium for 35.00, or I could buy an over sized mesh lid for 15.00. Hello. The stupid hamster only cost 8.99 to begin with! Now I've invested 100.00 already just on cages. No, we're going cheap! Then I find a metal cage with a plastic bottom. Looks sturdy enough. He can't really get to the edges of the plastic to eat it. Should be good. Oh my goodness, it's only 19.99! I hit pay dirt! So, it's been 3 days, and other than the fact that the kitten likes to lay right next to him (still in the bathroom) and try to swat at him through the metal wires, it's going good. NEVER AGAIN will I fall for the "can I please have a pet? I promise I'll take care of it!"

And on a strange note. Conner was supposed to put his football away. He decided to kick it up the stairs. It promptly came back down, knocking over one of the pictures as it came down. The picture frame, glass, pictures and backing all came apart (nothing broke, mind you, just disassembled itself). I don't know if Conner was trying to catch all that was coming down at him, or just got "lucky", but the glass came down and sliced him right between 2 fingers. Like in the "web" part. It was crazy! I looked at him and saw the oncoming look of panic (did I mention, not to long ago, his fear of anything red, like blood?). He waited about 30 seconds. And to his credit, he didn't scream like a pansy this time. He had this shocked, panic, fear in his voice. I came over and looked at it. And do you know what? If you cut yourself right there where the skin connects in between your fingers, and it's deep enough, there is a whole pocket you can look down into. I know this. First hand! So I took Conner to Mike and told him he needed to check it out. Then mouthed to him that he probably needed stitches (I wouldn't recommend this if you are standing in front of a mirror and the person you are trying to avoid knowing this information is watching you in the mirror). Oh crap, now he's flipping out. Mike looked at it and we weren't sure what to do. Can you even stitch that? Now, over our time with Conner we have gotten pretty darn good with butterfly stitches. By necessity. He is deathly afraid of stitches (I tell you, one bad experience when he was 2, and he's crazy about it now!). But there is NO way to butterfly that one, I can't even get a band aid around it. So I called a friend of mine, who's a nurse and took him over to her place. She looked at it. Well, it could use a stitch, but I don't know how they'll be able to do it. Do you really want to go and wait at the hospital? Ummm, no! So we decided to go home and lube it up with neosporin and stick some gauze in between his fingers, then tape 2 of them together so it can stay clean. After I finished chatting with her and her 2 girls (oh, about 45 minutes...) we headed back home. On the way home Conner said "I wish I could turn back time." Now we had talked about a ton of stuff while we were over at my friends house, so I wasn't sure what he was talking about. Um ok, what would you change? His reply "I think I would WALK my football up to my room instead of kicking it." At that moment in time angels sang "Alleluia". Yes, my job here is done. I never said a word about what he did. He figured it out all on his own. Who says that natural consequences don't work?

Christmas is when???

So, we survived Thanksgiving. It was actually really nice. Well, other than the fact that I was sick. That's a sure way to lose weight during the holiday season! I think I lost 5 pounds in the past 4 days. But other than that, it was a fun visit with family. My sister and her family came up from Bend. Although we don't really get to spend much time "chatting" with everything going on, it was fun to see her and her kids (even her husband too!). Both my brothers came and my parents too. So, lots of kids and good food. It was nice.

I was feeling better by Friday. I had dreams all Thursday night about shopping. I usually ALWAYS go shopping on black Friday. For the past couple years I've gone with a friend from church. Because I hadn't been feeling well, I didn't even call her and plan anything. However, at 2:45am I felt ok, so I go up and did all my "cyber shopping". Walmart offers the same deals on line at 5pm est as they do at 5 at my local store, so I like to shop from home. Got that stuff done and fell back to sleep. I woke up at 7 and felt really good, so I woke up Ann-Elise and we headed out for the last couple hours of early bird shopping. We only got as far as Target before we called it good and headed for a fun breakfast at Shari's. Then home. We are shopping light this year for Christmas. Hoping that Santa will bring us something big (like maybe a Disneyland trip...). Anyway, I pretty much got everything done. Well, for now anyway! The problem with shopping early is that I tend to spend more because I never think I have enough.

So yesterday, we got up and dressed warm. Headed into the garage for some "fall cleaning". We were able to get the garage cleaned out and swept out in a couple hours. Now we are ready to build some storage shelves for our food storage. I'm really excited about stocking our "store" shelves. My inside pantry is really tiny, so it's just a mess. Everything is crammed in there and you can't find anything! So, by putting our year supply of food out in the garage, I can "shop" in my garage weekly, then move the week supply into the pantry. Then I only need to replace what I've used and I should only have to do that once or twice a month. Oh my, that is HUGE! Not grocery shopping with, at the very least, 2 babies will be amazing! I'll only need to run to the store for perishables based on our weekly menu. Piece of cake!!! How cool is that? I am hoping to have that done by the end of next week. However, we'll see what Mikes plans are!

Speaking of Mike, he's on this "energy conservation" kick. It's kind of cool. We are really interested in solar energy. He bought this meter that he is using to test EVERYTHING that uses power. It's very interesting. I don't know why I always feel the need to say this but...It's not for the global warming craze. It's because we have a large family and would like to save money! Anyway, there are some really cool things out there. And the plus side is that he wants to get all new appliances because ours aren't "energy star". Cool aye! The down side to that is that he feels the need to cut power to everything at night. Not a big deal except when I get up and have a screaming 2 year old wanting to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that we have recorded on the dvr and it takes about an hour for the dvr system to "warm up" and load our saved data. Oh, and we can't even watch the tv if the remote is missing (like now!) because it's all password protected. Again, the system doesn't connect with the main menu to display what shows are on, so it all registers as "to be announced", therefore, it doesn't have a kid friendly rating, so there is no tv either. Not the end of the world by any stretch of the imagination, just inconvenient. An inconvenient truth, you might say!

Random Thoughts

So, I was up most of the night with this gigantic horrible tooth ache. I thought that after having 5 c-sections and almost no pain after that I had a very high tolerance for pain. I AM superwoman, you know. Anyway, last night proved me wrong. It was awful! Miserable! Horrible! I turned into a sick man. You know how men get when they're sick. Whining, moping...you get the idea. So, that was me. Between 3pm and 8pm I took 3 Tylenol 3 and 7 Advil. Not to mention the baby Ora-gel that I used (and I will NEVER torture my babies again with that poison!). I kicked back in the recliner with a heating pad... No dinner... Must be bad if I'm not eating! This happened a couple weeks ago and I marched my behind into the dentist but they couldn't find anything. I called them again this morning and told them I was planting myself in their chair and I wasn't leaving until they figured out what the problem was. So, we'll see how that goes...

Next thought: That stupid hamster that is STILL in the bathroom is driving me crazy! I got so sick of hearing him destroy his cage that I got up in the middle of the night and put him in the cupboard. In his cage, of course. You should have seen the look on Alia's face when I told her that's where he was.

Ya know, at 3:30 this morning I had a lot more random thoughts to write about...

Thanksgiving is 2 days away. It's at my house this year and in some warped way, I'm really excited. I love to cook. I like to come up with fun new recipes to try. This year's menu consists of: Maple Roasted Turkey and Gravy; Sausage, Apple and Cranberry stuffing; Mashed Red Potatoes; Whipped Sweet Potatoes and Bananas with Honey; Green Bean Casserole (of course!); Spinach Gratin; Cranberry-Orange Sauce; Yeast Rolls; Cherry Pie and Pumpkin Pie. Oh, and Baked Brie with apricot/jalapeno sauce and pecans and the basic cream cheese, cocktail sauce and shrimp dip. Where would I be with out Food Network? Love them! Anyway, I love to cook so this will be fun. And it seems that we are only going to have 18 people here, so not too bad!

Well, until an idea strikes me...we'll leave it at this

Mean people suck!

OK, so we all know just how calm and level headed I am. Generally don't get too excited about much. Very balanced. Easy going. Agreeable. Move well with change. (Are you dying of laughter yet?) So I'm at the gym today. It was after my workout and I was picking up the babies from the childcare there. My trainer had told our class that because we usually have class on Thursday, and next week is Thanksgiving, we would have it on Wednesday instead. She said that they had already informed the "boss" of the gym and she was aware of it, but they were going to discuss it with her more because she didn't really respond when they told her. In the past when they have had our class move it has caused some issues with too many kids in childcare. Because all 5 of mine would be attending next Wednesday, I decided to check with the ladies who work in childcare. They told me that it shouldn't be an issue. They usually aren't very busy during that time, so don't worry. Anyway, boss lady over heard. And was "shocked" that class had been moved. I told her that she had already been informed of the change and she said that she had not. No one had said anything to her. Ohhh, so now my trainer is a liar? Heart rate rising... She went on that that was not OK. It wouldn't work. We would have to change our time... Anyway, I just figured that I wouldn't go next week and wouldn't worry about it. Then later today I got an email from one of my trainers saying that if we could find other childcare arrangements, then to come to class on Wednesday, otherwise they would figure something else out. Umm, excuse me, I have already paid 225.00 for my 5 kids to use the gym's childcare. OK, now I'm steamed. I'm flipping out. So, after a not so nice email to my trainer (only about mean boss lady) I have decided that I will attend the gym, that I have paid hundreds of dollars to join, with my 5 kids, that again, I have paid hundreds of dollars for them to be there, and I will show up, not for MY class, oh no, that wouldn't be acceptable, but to sit my fat A$$ on the bench by the machines for 90 minutes! Now she's just gone a ticked me off... I'll skip my class and I'll bring ALL OF MY KIDS, ya know the ones I paid to have there? Ya, all of them will come, kicking and screaming, to join me in the gym! Boy that will be a fun day!

house pets

So, I have been meaning to write about how long, exactly, can a hamster live outside it's cage in a house with 5 kids and 2 cats? Then the answer came to me. IF (big if here) you pay REALLY close attention to your kitten, the hamster can be located (alive even) in about 3 days. Don't ask how I know this. Just trust me.

So, one of Adrie's favorite things to do in this life is to harass, I mean play with, her siblings hamsters. Lately she leaves Conner's hamster, Levi, alone. However, Tommy is a whole other story. His cage is conveniently located in the kids bathroom on the counter top. He is a master Houdini, so we moved him in there when he was literally eating through his plastic cage and it was so loud that the neighbors next door asked us to do something about it because it was causing sleepless nights for them. So, he's been in the bathroom for, oh, about 2 months now. Yes, he has a new cage, just never quite made it the 20 feet into the bedroom. Anyway, this makes for perfect access for Adrie. She LOVES to show him off to any and everyone. She isn't afraid to pull his cage apart to get to him either. So last night we had our good friends, the Allens, over for dinner. Their youngest son is 4. Adrie and Deacon play very well together and they disappeared after family home evening. Us adults were busy doing what ever it is adults do in the few minutes of peace and quiet they get. All of the sudden my friend Niki looks up the stairs and asks "Is that blood? Deacon, is that blood?" HUH? What, who, how??? I stop and run up the stairs. There is Adrie COVERED in blood. I'm not kidding. I'm looking for gouging eyes, missing limbs, razor slices (I'll come back to that). We narrow the pour spout to her hand. Missing fingers? Nope I count 10 (ok, well 8 and 2 thumbs). I flip her hand over and there is, no kidding, a pin prick! What the heck??? Who the heck knew that you had a flippin' artery in your finger? So, we got her cleaned up. Literally from head to toes. And come to find out, she wanted to show Deacon the hamster and Tommy didn't really want to play right then. Crazy. The funny thing about the whole thing was that Adrie didn't even cry until we put her hand under the water. Had that been Conner, he would have been a screaming girl at the first drop!

Ok, so the razor part... I was cleaning out my closet yesterday and Adrie and Caile were off doing whatever. Mike was home and laying right on the bed so I wasn't paying to close of attention to the girls. I could hear them. That should be good enough, right? Anyway, I come out of my closet (yes, I DID just type that I came out of the closet. Shut up!) and Adrie is chewing on my razor. She bit the razor part off and was really chewing on it. I about flipped out. However, no blood. She didn't cut herself. All I can say about that is that it's a good thing that I use my razors for 6 months! Guess it's time to get a new one!

My new hobby

First let me start by saying "Holy Cow, 2 posts in one week. What is this world coming too?". And with that said...

I think I wrote about Mike's aunt Rose teaching me how to knit when we were in Canada this past summer. I have made many attempts to create something that was recognizable with no luck. So last weekend when Mike and I were in Sisters, we stopped at a little store called The Stitching Post. They have some really cool quilting stuff and lots of fun (expensive) knitting yarn. They also have a little section with fun nick knacks (probably "home decor") but I stayed out of that area. Anyway, I was looking for an easy project to work on using my vast knitting skills (knit1, purl 2). I found a cool free hat pattern that one of the owners had created. It looked easy enough. After buying bamboo knitting needles (no walmart specials here!) and some 18.00 yarn, I was off to complete my masterpiece. It could have been the fact that I was trying to complete most of it during the 2 hour car ride home, or just the fact that I'm not so good at details...but my winter cap turned into a very expensive kippot (the name for a Jewish hat). Well, seeing as how we're Mormon, it didn't really seem to be a necessity. The next one I made (with cheap yarn) was a little small for Caile. But I kept on trying. Oh yes, you can't deny that I am the little engine that could! I tried again on inexpensive yarn and created a beautiful little hat for Adrie. Wow. I was impressed with myself. The positive thing about making so many, was that I really had that pattern down pat and was getting pretty quick. So last night I started another one with some yarn that I had purchased (at Walmart for 1.98) specifically for Ann-Elise to match her new coat. I finished it this morning right after she left for school. Hopefully it fits. The problem with this one is that it may just be too big!!! Oh well. Determination. I can do this! So, I think EVERYONE I know is going to get a new beanie hat for Christmas, so if you know what colors you want, just let me know!

The fans demand it...

So I suppose I should update the blog. Unfortunately, my camera has died, so I don't have any cool pics. Anyway, life does go on... So, football is over. The Huskies finished their season with an awesome win (19-0) on an amazing Saturday here. Conner had a great game with some good tackles and a really good run. It was a great way to end the season (2-5). He is going to play again next year and is excited to have his dad coach him then. Alia is down to 1 more soccer game left. She is actually a pretty good defender. Conner was even commenting on how well she played (impressive!). She loves hanging out with her friends on the team and if they get a win, it's even better! Ann-Elise is busy with tap class. She is enjoying learning a new skill that will drive her parents crazy when she practices (should have thought about that before suggesting it!). She will keep us busy over they holiday season with MANY performances. But it will be fun. Adrie is just Adrie. She is a ham and a love. She is so funny. She says some crazy things. Some of her favorite sayings are "I love you so much." and "I like your hair.". She is also crazy about Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Disney and will watch hours upon hours of it if I let her. Caile is turning into a funny little bug. She is learning lots of new words and is not afraid to let you know what she wants. She will wake up in the morning and inform you that she wants to "go down there". And she is VERY good at "yes" and "no". She has that last one down to perfection!

Anyway, other than Leise's dance, we will be taking the winter sports season off. I am looking forward to evenings at home. It has been nice spending the evenings together as a family playing games. Oh, except last Tuesday night because I took Ann-Elise to the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert. Alia was supposed to go, but negative actions necessitated having to forgo that one. Anyway, Leise and I had a blast. We went with Tracy and Hannah from next door and had a great time, other than the fact that Ann-Elise almost fell asleep. Oh well, guess that goes along with being 6.

Let's see... Mike and I have been trying to get away once night a month. My dad will come out and watch all 5 kids while we go have fun. Our first trip was to Lincoln City and the Inn at Spanish Head. Wouldn't recommend that place, but we did eat at a great restaurant, Pier 101. Then last weekend we spend the night at Eagle Crest in Redmond. Stopped in Sisters on the way home. I've been through there a million times but this was the first time I ever stopped. It was fun. We will be going back to some of the little shops. One was a yarn and knitting shop. Mike admits he is now a "yarn snob". He doesn't like the "cheap" 3.00/skeen yarn, he likes the 18.00/skeen yarn. Oh well, as long as he's buying!

Well, I'm sure that this was exciting to read. So until next time...