LOVE a good deal!

This is the pretty new butterfly decoration I bought at Michaels. The price tag said that it cost $17, which I thought was more than I really wanted to spend on it, but wasn't too bad a deal. But when it rang up, it was only TEN dollars!! Yay for me finding a great deal :-)

Here's one side of the wall in front of me right now as I'm typing:


(that's mostly for my mom -- i'd want to know how things look at my kids' houses if i didn't see their houses very often)

The digital frame was stopped on a picture of Joel wrestling when he was about five years old - hahahaha!!! He was a funny little wrestler back then, just playing and wanting to have fun. Now he's more serious and trying harder to win his matches. Speaking of Joel, the poor kid has been sick for two days. He didn't get to go to church yesterday or school today. To most kids, that wouldn't be too bad, but Joel likes to work in kids' church with his friends, and he likes to be at school with his friends, too. He's been sleeping a lot and watching t.v. If he didn't have a fever, I might think he was faking, but the thermometer told me he really is sick :-(

Fur Rondy/new stuff

I'm a little frustrated right now because loading the pictures for this post took about 45 minutes :-( Apparently the entire world is on the internet all at one time tonight! Or maybe my computer isn't working properly.

Anyway . . .

Uncle Rich invited everyone to go to the Fur Rondy excitement downtown on Saturday. The boys all went together.


Luke in an armored tank -- SCARY!!!


Joel's getting so tall and grown-up looking!


While the boys were having fun together, Makenzie and I were having girl fun -- shopping :-) We went out to the bead store in Eagle River. I can't go to that town without commenting on how very annoying the road system (actually the LACK of any kind of system) is in that town!! We did find the bead store, though, and bought beads to make earrings for Makenzie . . .


. . . a necklace for Makenzie . . .


. . . and earrings for my mom (and enough to make some more to possibly sell on ebay).


We couldn't find the other two stores we wanted to visit in Eagle River, so we went back to Anchorage where we know our way around at least a little bit. At Target, we found these adorable sunglasses for Seth . . .


. . . and for Makenzie.


My little movie star princess :-)


Then we went to see the movie Tangled. We really enjoyed the movie (a new twist on the Rapunzel story). But I had forgotten when I suggested going to a movie that sitting in a movie theater gives me a migraine. It was such a good movie, though, that it was pretty much worth it. We went to Value Village to wrap up our girls fun day, and then I had to go to bed for a couple hours. The kids were fine with having me out of the way for awhile so that they could watch netflix without Mom (a.k.a. big old fun ruiner) limiting their t.v. time :-)

changes

Several months ago, the dentist had to pull two of Luke's teeth because the permanent teeth were growing up behind the baby teeth. Today Luke lost his first tooth all by himself. He was chasing another kid at the basketball game at school this afternoon, then turned too fast to get away from being chased. He crashed right into a chair, and his tooth fell out. It was barely hanging on before the crash, but he cried as if it had been stuck tight. Jason was afraid that it was a permanent tooth and that we'd have to make yet another trip to the emergency room. So now Luke is lisping and not wanting to go to sleep just in case he rolls over the wrong way and bumps his mouth. I don't remember losing teeth being this traumatic as a kid.


I decided this afternoon that Seth needs to start sleeping in a bed like everyone else. Up until now, he's been sleeping in his crib. It's the crib that Pop Pop and Daddy made when Joel was born . . . the crib that all four babies have slept in. Seth isn't so good yet at obedience, especially at obeying things like "stay there." So it seemed like a good idea to keep him sleeping in the crib where he'd be safe and wouldn't come wake me up any time he felt the urge to get out of bed. But he IS five years old and a kindergartener. It's probably time that he learns to make the decision to stay in bed all night instead of having no choice but to stay there. So I removed one of the sides of the crib. Jason picked this crib pattern because it converts to a toddler bed and then to a single bed. Finally, twelve years later, I completed the first conversion.


Seth might be too excited about sleeping in a normal kind of bed to actually go to sleep.

creating again

It's been quite a while since I created anything, but last night I converted an old bracelet into a new pair of earrings:


If I could just live comfortably on two or three hours of sleep, I'd have time to do all the things I have to do AND all the things I want to do. I finally ordered the beads to finish my lamp shade, but I don't have time to work on it. I have stacks of beading books and magazines, too. I really need to adjust the schedule somehow to be able to do more creating!!

transformation

This is how Jason left the house yesterday morning . . .


. . . but this is how he looked at Seth's meeting at school yesterday afternoon.


I dared him to show up at the meeting still in his pirate costume, but he had to be all "appropriate." NO FUN!!!

It's Spirit Week at A.C.S., and yesterday was "military or mismatch day" for the elementary (obviously not for the high school). Joel wore Pop Pop's old Air Force clothes . . .


. . . and Luke wore Pop Pop's old Boy Scout uniform and hat (he looked military-ish, even though he wasn't technically dressed in military clothes).


Makenzie chose her comfortable school uniform instead of dressing up yesterday. I'm so glad their school doesn't have some horrible dress code that the kids hate! They get to be comfortable every day (except on dress-up days :-).

not enough time

So many funny things happen with my kids, but I never seem to have the time to write them out on here. Maybe now that Valentine's Day is over, I'll get myself and my schedule pulled back to together. I've been working nine to twelve hours a day sometimes because of first Christmas and now Valentine's Day. The St. Patrick's Day and Easter cards are up now, but there aren't nearly as many of those as there were for the other two holidays. I guess Mother's Day is a pretty big card-giving holiday, but that's not for a couple months. I've also been working hard to get the Walmart gift wrap/gift bag/party supplies sections and the back storage area shaped back up. I'm probably doing WAY more work with that than is really necessary, but I need it to be pretty much perfect or I feel agitated.

I've been trying to concentrate on positive things this year, even in the middle of difficult or even painful situations. One little example that was hard for me to get over: my cell phone broke in half, so the phone company gave me a new phone. My new phone is probably nicer, but I lost all of my saved texts from my other phone. Actually, I only had one text saved on that phone -- it was the last thing my brother texted me. Well, since I'm crying as I type this, I guess I'm really not over that one. But the positive thing is that I clearly remember what the text said and it made me smile when he sent it.

she's 10

My princess is TEN years old! We had a family celebration the Sunday before Makenzie's birthday and a friend celebration on Wednesday, her actual birthday. After school, we took Makenzie, six of her friends, Luke, and Seth to Bouncin' Bears where they all got out ALL their energy bouncing on the inflatable bounce house/slides, running around, and yelling. I had no idea cute little girls could be SO loud!!!

faith?

Joel lost his wallet -- with all his birthday money and gift certificates in it!!!! :-( We told him to take apart his room, put everything away, CLEAN IT!! He still couldn't find it. Jason looked, I looked, we searched everywhere. We were so afraid that Seth had gotten in Joel's room, took the wallet, and put it in the trash can (we've found some interesting things in the trash). I kept praying that little-bit-of-faith prayer people pray as a last resort, "God, help us find it. PLEASE!!" After praying that a few times, I thought to myself, "Why do I keep saying this? He doesn't care about this stupid little wallet." I wasn't thinking that rebelliously or even angrily, just being realistic that God has much bigger things to deal with than a 12-year-old's wallet with less than $100 in it.

Not even five minutes later, Jason found the wallet!

Hmmmm . . . .

deserved it!

I guess I deserved it after being so self-centered in my last post -- not one thing worked out how I'd hoped yesterday :-( The bead store was closed; I had to work both morning and night; Joel wrestled one of his matches later than I expected, so I had to pick Seth up and hold onto him while we were in the gym. The only thing that happened how I wanted was that I did get to read a few chapters of my book in the afternoon while I waited for Joel's first wrestling match. Oh well -- maybe next time things will work out better.

But here's my consolation prize:


Actually, that's one of my consolation prizes. I ate the vanilla Valentine's cupcake last night, the cranberry scone for breakfast, and the peanut butter cookie after lunch. This last treat is for tonight after dinner (or maybe instead of dinner so that I don't go over my calories too far) :-)

all about ME

Time to catch up on me me ME :-) I've been swamped the past I don't know how many months now with work -- both the work that I get paid for and the work that doesn't earn a paycheck.

I was working three stores for Hallmark: Walgreens, Barnes & Noble, and a Safeway. My supervisor asked me if I would give up the Safeway so that I could take on a Walmart. Right now I'm questioning whether agreeing to the change was wise or not, but I think everything will be ok after next week. The holidays are just so stressful and busy, but they only last for four months :-) I'm enjoying doing the gift wrap and party supplies instead of cards at Walmart. It's fun to have variety.

I have also become a freelance editor. Some friends at church have an engineering firm and asked me to look over their reports before submission. I'm glad to help out, although even they admit that the information that I read is a sure cure for insomnia.

My biggest excitement of the new year is my weight loss program. By using the website "My Fitness Pal," I count my calories and exercise time. I used to do this same thing on paper, but this website makes it easier because they have lists of foods with the calories already figured. My "program" is to lose a 1/2 pound every week by eating less than 2,000 calories a day and walking a 1/2-hour every day. Since I've been sick for several weeks, I haven't been able to walk much, but I've still been losing weight by staying around 2,000 calories. So far, I've lost 11 pounds!!! My goal for 2011 is to lose 25 pounds. Then my goal for 2012 will probably be to lose another 25 pounds. That will put me MUCH closer to my pre-children weight :-) It should also eliminate my back pain, foot pain, and embarrassment at having to keep buying bigger and bigger clothes. Fred Meyer has some DELICIOUS gluten-free frozen foods that are pretty filling and don't have too many calories. My downfall is the gluten-free treats at Terra Bella! It's so exciting to be able to go into a bakery and actually EAT! They make THE best chicken sandwich on gluten-free bread and scrumptious carrot/zucchini muffins!!!!! That pretty much blows my whole calorie count for the day, but I try to skimp on my other meals in order to enjoy those treats.

Today is a ME day :-) I get to do things today that make ME smile: shopping for some beads at a super-cool bead store, sitting in the bleachers at school to watch Joel wrestle after lunch (that doesn't sound like a "me" thing, but it is because all the other kids will still be in school, so I get to concentrate on watching Joel instead of corralling other children. and then I get to read in between his matches!!! definitely a "me" thing!!), then leaving the kids with Jason to enjoy for the evening. I also still have to do laundry, dishes, Barnes & Noble, and Walmart; but it's all good because the work is spread out in between all the "me" things :-) Tomorrow will be back to kids and work with no time for "me" things until they go to sleep, but I'm going to thoroughly enjoy my time today :-) Actually, I'm looking forward to tomorrow, too, because I don't get to see my angels much anymore because of school and work. It'll be nice to hold Seth and Luke tomorrow while we watch Joel wrestle. Makenzie likes to help with the concession stand, so I won't see much of her until tomorrow evening. I'm thinking a Barbie movie and card games will be the perfect way to spend our Saturday evening :-)

still growing

Joel is now almost as tall as his Aunt Amanda. By this time next year, he'll be taller than she is. He'll be taller than his Meema in another year. He'll probably be taller than his mother and Grandma Ruth in another year. This is both scary and exciting -- scary to see my oldest child growing out of childhood; exciting to see him healthy, strong, and making his own decisions (many of them good and right).

Seth automatically jumped in the picture when he saw the camera. I'm pretty sure he believes that all pictures, applause, laughter, praise, and celebration is about him :-) And that's just fine since it means that he knows he's loved.