How fast can you...

How fast can you earn a Cub Scout Badge? Specifically the Wolf badge? Well we did it in about 2 weeks. I don't know what it is about these badges, but I forget about them all year and then when it comes to the month of my boys birthday its scramble time to earn the badge before their birthday. So of course, Zach turns 9 on Saturday (how did that happen?) so he needed to complete his badge by tonight for pack meeting. We pulled it off, but just barely.

If someone hadn't told me last month, that one of the requirements took a month to complete, we would have been in trouble. But nonetheless, we worked our fannies off these past two weeks and got it done. Now I am transfering all that energy to Tyson who needs to complete his Webelos by the end of May. He looks like he'll get it, but I don't think he will be able to complete the Arrow of Light, I'm slightly hopeful about that one. He wants to earn it so if he stays motivated it just might happen. I'll keep you posted. Zach's friend Stephen Petty also earned his Wolf badge tonight, and they proudly showed them off for me. Good Job Boys!!!

Can I be half in?

Help!! I need advice on something. Okay, so Ron takes command of the 1st Brigade Headquarters Company on Monday. I have never been active in any unit functions because, hello - I have 4 young kids and I'm a little busy with them, and my church assignments. With this new assignment of Ron's it is kind of expected that the wife will be involved. In fact I am suppose to take charge of the FRG group (for non military it is the organization for all the family members of the soldiers in the company - its like Relief Society on steroids). I just think of taking charge of that and I get an anxiety attack. The biggest reason why I feel like I should step up and be involved is that Ron is now working with the Brigade Commander (a Lt. Colonel), and all the Brigade staff which is made up of more Lt. Col's and lots of Majors and Cpts. He is making lots of wonderful contacts and this could really help his career. It looks alot better for him if his wife is involved. But I don't want to be the FRG Leader, so I told him no. So I am wondering if I can be half involved? Is that possible? Can I go to events and coffees and award ceremonies, but not be in charge of anything? Does it look bad if I only attend things and I'm not in charge of anything? Would it be better if I just didn't do anything? I'm very torn about the whole thing. I have always had a desire to be involved in the military functions, but I always thought I would do that when all the kids were in school and I had a little more free time. With Tess tagging along and still dealing with nap schedules I just don't think I have the energy or the time to do that! What do you think? I'll be looking for lots of opinions on this one!!

Family Home Evening

Okay, so we all know that Family Home Evenings tend to be a little crazy when you have 4 kids. We started doing our lesson portion on Sunday nights, mostly to make sure that we had a lesson and to promote keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. We do our fun activities and treats on Mondays. Anyway, so tonight my lesson was on 4 basic questions:
Who am I?
Where did I come from?
Why am I here?
Where am I going?
I used these in my lesson at church last week and I told my class that every child in Primary could answer those questions without even blinking, and how sad it is that most of the world doesn't know the answers to those questions. So for our Opening Song I asked them what song they were practicing in Primary this month, and the responded, "I Lived In Heaven", so we sang that song. When I help up the first question, they answered right away, "I Am A Child Of God!" Good job, 1 for 1. When I held up the second question, they just started singing our opening song again:
"I lived in heaven a long time ago, it is true;
Lived there and loved there with people I know, so did you.
Then Heavenly Father presented a beautiful plan,
All about earth and eternal salvation for man."
As I thought they would they knew the answers to every question. It truly touched my heart that the first things to pop into their head were the primary songs. I have a testimony of how wonderful music is and especially the primary songs that teach the gospel to our children in such powerful and sweet songs. I don't remember a single primary lesson from my youth, but I remember almost every primary song. I'm glad my kids are learning from the primary songs just like I did.

Kid Quote

I use to think that my kids didn't say anything funny, but I was wrong, I just didn't pay close enough attention. This happened today.

Emma was knocking on her brothers door to see if they would play with her.
Tyson: "Who is it?"
Emma: "It's Emma, can I come in?"
Tyson: "What's the password"
Emma: "I don't know the password"
Tyson: "That's kinda the point!"

Can you tell that sometimes the boys are sick of their sister and want to be left alone? But then poor Emma doesn't have anyone to play with and she gets pretty sad. Hold on Emma, Tess is getting older day by day.

You Know You Grew Up In the 80's If:

My sister-in-law emailed me this and it is hillarious. Of course in the email it has a picture for each # which is even funnier but I couldn't include them all here. If you want the full email send me your address. I even forgot some of this stuff, and it makes me wonder what else I have forgotten that I've done...hmm, things to ponder.

You Know YouGrew Up In the 80's IF:
1. You've ever ended a sentence with the word SIKE.
2. You can sing the rap to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and can do theCarlton
3. You know that 'WOAH' comes from Joey on Blossom
4. If you ever watched 'Fraggle Rock'
5. It was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.
6. You wore a ponytail on the side of your head.
7. You got super-excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.
8. You made your mom buy one of those clips that would hold your shirt in a knot on the side.
9. You played the game 'MASH'(Mansion, Apartment, Shelter, House)
10. You wore stonewashed Jordache jean jackets and were proud of it.
11. You know the profound meaning of ' WAX ON , WAX OFF'
12. You wanted to be a Goonie.
13. You ever wore fluorescent clothing. (Some of us...head-to-toe)
14. You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like before his nose fell off, his cheeks shifted and his nationality became questionable.
15. You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.
16. You took lunch boxes to school...and traded Garbage Pail Kids in the schoolyard.
17. You remember the CRAZE, then the BANNING of slap bracelets.
18. You still get the urge to say 'NOT' after every sentence.
19. You thought your childhood friends would never leave because you exchanged handmade friendship bracelets.
21. You ever owned a pair of Jelly-Shoes.
22. After you saw Pee-Wee's Big Adventure you kept saying 'I know you are, but what am I?'
23. You remember 'I've fallen and I can't get up'
24. You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates.
25. You have ever played with a Skip-It.
26. You remember boom boxes and walking around with one on your shoulder like you were all that.
27. You remember watching both Gremlins movies.
28. You thought Doogie Howser/Samantha Micelli was hot.
29. You remember Alf, the lil furry brown alien from Melmac.
30. You remember New Kids on the Block when they were cool... and don't even flinch when people refer to them as 'NKOTB'
31. You knew all the characters names and their life stories on 'Saved By The Bell ,' The ORIGINAL class.
32. You know all the words to Bon Jovi - SHOT THROUGH THE HEART.
33. You just sang those words to yourself.
34. You still sing 'We are the World'
35. You tight rolled or french cuffed your jeans. And still debate on which is the right term!
36. You owned a bannana clip.
37. You remember 'Where's the Beef?'
38. You used to (and probably still do) say 'What you talkin' 'bout Willis ?'
39. You're still singing shot through the heart in your head, aren't you!
40. your hair looked like this for at least 1 school picture!


PASS THIS ON TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS WHO GREW UP IN THE 80s or Early 90s!!!

True Love Is Sharing Your French Fries

True Love is sharing your french fries. Tonight we took the kids bowling and got McDonald's as a reward for their fantastic report cards. To save a little money we didn't get any meals, just nuggets and burgers and two fries to share. While we were eating the kids pointed out that I was eating daddy's fries - a big no no in this house. I told them that we were all sharing and they were my fries too. I told the kids that sharing fries was very hard for daddy to do and that we should be very proud of daddy for sharing - no kidding! It reminded Ron and I of when we were first married. If we ever got McDonald's (which was only when we were traveling to visit family) when we placed our orders, I would never include french fries in mine. Ron would politely ask if I wanted any and I would say "no thanks I'll just have some of yours", to which he would say, "are you sure you don't want to order any?" and I would repeat the same thing. Finally after a little thought he would say "If you want some fries order your own, I'm not sharing!" This has been pretty consistent over the years, but most recently he has started sharing his fries with me!! I think the main reason is we both are trying to watch our weight and he doesn't want all the calories for himself, but nonetheless he has grown in his ability to share!! This is a new sign of true love in our house, sharing your fries. Do you share yours?

Have you smelled cold?

Have you ever smelled the smell of a very cold morning? I LOVE the smell of COLD!! When I was a kid I associated this smell with Idaho because it was the only place I went that had that smell. I thought that Idaho just had a unique smell. Come to find out, that its just the smell of cold! And it isn't just a little cold, I mean less than 20 degrees cold - the kind of cold that freezes your nose hairs when you breathe! Now grant you, I don't like having my nose hairs freeze, but I still love the smell. And to top it all off my neighbor uses a wood burning furnace to heat his house in the winter so I get that delicious smell as well. It smells like a campfire all winter long. Ahhh, how I love the smells of winter.

p.s. the low temperature for last night was -25 and the high today is 15. Did I just say that I love living in the frozen north? Maybe the cold is messing with my brain!!

House update....the never ending project

Okay, where do I begin.... I guess as the beginning. So the first week of January, the demolition/remodel of my house began. Ron thought it would take one week (we have almost reached the one month mark), so the kids and I checked into a hotel just down the street and hunkered down for what we thought would just be a week. At the end of that week it was very apparent that this would take alot longer than we thought. So we took a break from the hotel and stayed with friends for the weekend (thank you Petty's for putting up with us!), but come Monday we were back in the hotel. By that weekend, I knew I was reaching my limit, so I shoved the kids in the car and headed south to my brother Andy's house in VA for a change of pace and more space. We stayed there for the long weekend and came home on Tuesday.

I sweetly told Ron that I was not going back to the hotel and the house needed to be "live able" for me and the kids. Well it was "live able", we had one working toilet and a kitchen sink to wash hands and brush teeth. The bedrooms were still the same and so was the kitchen, so I could cook and the kids had their toys to play with. That same day was the first day for the dry wall to go up - yea!! That was suppose to be done in 3 days, well 8 days later he was finally done. So last Wednesday started the painting spree for me. Do you know how long it takes to prime and paint an entire first floor? A LONG TIME!! And I am not a good painter - my friend Sara M. can attest to that. But I have tried very hard to do a great job because I want the house to look great, and Ron and my great friend Tamara have helped a lot. So I am still not finished painting. I still have the dining room and both bathrooms - of course the bathrooms still aren't ready to be painted so that gives me a break. Oh, I forgot to mention that 5 days after we came back home Ron did get the upstairs bath tub installed so we were finally able to bathe at our own house. (Did you notice how many days that was without a bath tub? Well, we did! And I had to swallow some major humble pie and ask a friend if we could bathe at her house. Of course she said yes, but it was so hard for me to ask. Ron was in trouble with that one. ) And Monday night we started moving some furniture back in the house. My family room is all moved in and Ron is currently putting our T.V. and other electronics back in working order - I can't wait to have my DVR back!!! I know my priorities are a little wacked, but I need my t.v. breaks. And we finally got to eat dinner at our dinner table on Monday - yippie! No more sitting on the floor in the upstairs hallway to eat! (the picnic thing gets old really fast)

So what still needs to be done, you may ask? Well here is the list:
Upstairs bathroom - dry wall, prime and paint it, install lights, and install vanity

Downstairs bathroom - prime and paint, install new laminate floor, install toilet, finish shower install, install vanity, install WASHER AND DRYER (yes I have been going to the laundra mat - yuck!), install doors, and install lights

Whole down stairs - paint base boards and window trim, install base boards and window trim, and install new front door and entry way wood floor.
Oh, and the painting of course - the painting never ends!!

So we are all working hard to finish the house. We do have one major obstacle right now, Ron has pneumonia - yes you read that right, pneumonia!! He is finally feeling better but instead of following doctors orders and resting, he keeps working on the house. Of course I want him to get better and rest, but I also really want him to finish the house. I think I might be hampering his recovery - what do you think?

I will post pictures when we are finally done, hopefully by this SUMMER! j/k