1/8-1/10

Tuesday
breakfast: applesauce muffins
lunch: mac & cheese
dinner: leftover soup

Wednesday
breakfast: cereal
lunch: grilled cheese sandwiches
dinner: tostadas

Thursday
breakfast: fried eggs and toast
lunch: crackers and cheese
dinner: chicken parmesan

Every night this week I've been too tired to post after I put the kids to bed. I often fall asleep while reading to them. I call it my nap. I get up after 15-30 minutes and try to finish up my nightime jobs. Anyway, now I'm typing while they watch TV and dinner is cooking.

Corey's diet consists mostly of cheese and some kind of grain product - with some carrots, meat or scrambled eggs every now and then.

My back is feeling quite a bit better lately. I was talking to a mom in our ward who said she'd had back problems several years ago and doing stretches with an exercise ball helped her. I hadn't thought of that, so I got ours out and did some good stretches with it and it seems to have made a nice difference. I have been doing them every night and morning. I hope to continue until my back is back to normal. The timing of this is interesting because I read on one of my other friend's blogs that SHE has started using an exercise ball, as well!

One day this week Jenna freaked me out. We were waiting in the usual place to pick her up from school. And waiting, and waiting. . . Finally, I made a circle around the school to see if somehow we'd missed her and she was walking. No. I asked the crossing guard if she'd seen Jenna. (She's in our ward, so she knows her.) She hadn't. I made another circle. I decided to check at the house of one of Jenna's friends (Lauryn) who's in her school class. The teenage daughter opened the door and said that her mom did have Jenna and they'd either be at our house or the school. They weren't at our house. Driving through the neighborhood on the way back to the school I saw the right car. Apparently, the teenage daughter had picked up Lauryn from school. Jenna was walking along with Lauryn and the teenager offered Jenna a ride. Jenna claims she said no, but that Lauryn and her sister were very persistent, so she finally agreed. When they got to Lauryn's house the mom was quite surprised and said, "This hasn't been pre-arranged!" She asked if Jenna knew my cell phone number, which she doesn't. (Another item to work on.) So, they immediately got back in the car to find me. Of course, once Jenna was in our van I proceeded to give the lecture about how I didn't know where she was or what could've happened to her and she knows she's never to get a ride with someone unless I say it's OK, etc. Crazy - let's hope it doesn't happen again. A learning experience for all.

Corey was going to lift Jenna off of the kitchen counter (she was up there getting plates or cups or something). I told him to be careful and he said he'd lifted her off of a stool before. I said, "Wow, you're getting strong." He said, "I never really work out."

I've made a little progress with the stacks of papers and junk around the kitchen and dining room. I thought about doing a post about "piles" and taking pictures of all the piles of STUFF I have sitting around. They are semi-organized in my mind, but they make the house look cluttered.

Corey put up another post on his Important People blog. We read about Alexander Graham Bell. There was one part of the book that was pretty funny, but he didn't include it, so I'll include it here: "Later, Alex experimented with the family dog. The dog was a terrier named Trouve. Alec taught Trouve to growl on command. Alec carefully moved the dog's mouth and throat as it growled. Trouve seemed to talk. Alec's friends and neighbors laughed at these experiments. But such experiments sparked Alec's lifelong interest in sound and speech." (From Alexander Graham Bell by Greg Linder) Isn't that funny?

Reverence practices with Randy have continued. He seems to like it. He'll even bring in the chair and get the timer. He's getting better at sitting still and whispering. Some fun things we've done - played concentration/memory with about 6 sets of animal cards, read one of our old Noodle magazines (they came as tear-outs when we got Nick Jr. magazine several years ago). I think I will declare us bottle-free. Randy hasn't had a bottle for . . . I'm not sure how long. He's only asked for one once, which we didn't give him and he was fine with it. So, tomorrow I think I'll throw out all the bottles.

Corey and Randy seem to sense when I wake up. In the morning I naturally wake up around 6:30 or 7. The house seems totally quiet and dark and I'll try to creep quietly downstairs, but they join me within 5 minutes. I WANT some time to myself. I could get up earlier, but usually I am too tired since I go to bed late (between 11 and 1). It doesn't seem to matter what time they go to bed, either. They are up when I am. I try to think of it like this: they love me and want to be with me, so I should think it's sweet instead of being bugged by it.

I know this is supposed to be like a journal, but I thought I'd ask a quick question to anyone who might be reading - what do you use on your face - for cleansing and moisturizing? I've used Mary Kay for years. It does a fine job, but I'm kind of bored of it and it's expensive. I've tried a few other things, like Phisoderm and Purpose lotion, but I don't love them.

Jenna has been invited to two b-day parties this week. One is tomorrow and one was on Wednesday. The one on Wednesday was just up the street, so we walked. Randy wanted to walk with us. But, then he wanted to bring the doll stroller. Fine. Once we started walking he noticed a wheel wasn't working and got mad about it. I told him he could leave it in the driveway. No, he wanted me to open the garage and get out the fertilizer spreader so he could push it. No, I wasn't going to do that, we only had to walk past 5 houses. "Whine, fuss, fuss, - go back in the house and get my scooter." I told him no, but he could hold my hand, or I'd carry him. I was proud of how nice I was being. He ended up following us to the party, walking about 5 paces behind, whining and crying the whole time and the whole time he and I walked home. What do you do in that situation? I just tried to ignore it. I'm not going to bow to his whim and go back and get his scooter or whatever when Jenna has her present in hand and is waiting to go and I'm ready as well. I probably should've gotten down face-to-face and told him to stop whining - but I don't think that would've worked. I have a hard time maintaining the stern, yet positive balance.

About Jenna and parties, etc. She is ALWAYS getting invited over to friends' houses to play. It's nice that she is so in demand, she must be a good guest. But, she's gone all day at school and sometimes I feel like I never see her. I don't want to tell her and her friends that she can't play when I really have no "logical" reason (except for my own preferences). I could have her invite her friends over here before they call to invite her to their homes, but she only occasionally makes that request herself , and given my hermit tendancies, I don't really WANT to have other kids in our house all the time. I'm thinking that maybe we'll designate 2 days a week as play days or something.

On the flip side, I feel like Corey never gets invited anywhere. He has Scouts and church and he said he wants to do swimming - so we'll look into that so he can have a bit more peer interaction. First of all, he's not naturally as social as Jenna. Maybe that just comes from being a boy. Plus, there aren't that many boys his age in our immediate neighborhood. The ones that are in our ward don't seem to have much in common with him. His one good friend, Jakob, is GREAT! (He's coming over tomorrow.) But, he lives kind of far away and they only get together every few weeks. I actually feel like Jakob was an answer to prayer. At the end of the last school year I was praying that Corey would find a good friend and that was when he and Jakob started hanging out. There are homeschool get-togethers. We went to a few during the summer and fall. So, maybe we should do more of that. But, he never found any particular buddy/ies. There was one kid who he had a good time with (Jamison), but we only saw him once, and we never happened to be there at the same time he was again. And, again, given my hermit tendancies I don't LOVE going to the homeschool get togethers. Hmm.

Tomorrow evening the cousins from Logan are coming down to spend the night with us. Their Dad will soon be shipping out for Afghanistan. I guess the military pays for a nice dinner and a bed and breakfast for the couples before one of them leaves. We got the Underdog movie today and we'll go to the store and get some treats tomorrow so we can party while the cousins are here. Then, they'll come to our Primary activity with us on Saturday morning. (Lauren 12, Heather 9, Trey 6)

It's nice to have Dion around. At dinner Jenna asked for some water. He poured some into her cup until it was just about to overflow. Then, he gave a fun little presentation on surface tension and what surfactants are used for. I'm glad he's a math/science brain - those aren't my fortes.

I've given up trying to listen to Harry Potter together. Corey will listen with me every now and then. I've listened to it the past two days while I was on the treadmill, in the kitchen, in the car/van. Dion took the van to have some dashboard lights fixed, so we had the Accord today, which doesn't have a CD player. We had to run some errands and Dion said he'd taken our power converter with him in his Accord when he went to Las Vegas. If the power converter was still in the car, I could plug it into the power outlet (cigarette lighter) and plug my portable radio/CD player into that. Then, we could listen to HP while we drove. I was in a hurry and did a quick search around the passenger seat, but I didn't see the power converter. I took my portable radio/CD with me anyway because we were going to Target anyway and I thought I'd just get batteries for it. So, that's what I did. (8 C batteries for $10.) When we came out of Target I put the batteries in and we enjoyed listening to HP as we drove around. When we got home I was unloading the car and noticed the power converter behind the driver's seat. Sheesh! If I just wouldn't have been so flustered and in such a hurry (which is how I feel like I spend most of my life) we could've saved $10 on batteries! Annoying.

OK, this has been too long. Too many notes to catch up on over the past few days. We got another set of The Office DVDs, so we'll watch a bit of that tonight. I also took some pictures that I want to put up, but they're still on the camera. . .