Now I'm *really* going private...promise...

I've gone back and forth on the matter a couple of times and actually posted, then deleted the post announcing it, because I thought I was just being paranoid. But watching my live feed include visitors from Lisboa, Pakistan and other countries where I have *zero* connections and not even 6 degrees of separation could link me there, it wierds me out. So until someone can explain to me how these people are finding my blog, I'm going private...let me know if you still want to visit and I'd love to add you!

Ten Honest things??

I was tagged by a friend to give 10 honest things about myself. Frankly, "honest things" is just code for "freak flags", but if you're curious, here I go...

1)I don't like sarcasm. I used to think it was funny and a valuable skill to have. Now I just think it's mean and not a particularly creative form of humor.

2)I like predictability and as such, I like being on time, HATE being late; and once a plan has been made, it stresses me out when things change at the last minute-even if i'm the one to change the plans ;)

3)I prefer small gatherings to big groups.

4)I love learning new things- still.

5)I love shoes in theory, but prefer to go barefoot 9 times out of 10.

6)I don't like things that hop, fly or jump. (except dogs. they jump and it doesn't bother me. cats, grasshoppers, crickets, moths, frogs, birds, bats....forgetaboutit...YUCK.) and speaking of cats....when they rub up against me I have to concentrate so I don't shudder...in fact, the other day Tim and I were at a member of the bishopric's and one of his cats jumped up on my lap. He asked me if I liked cats and *I lied right to his face and said, "Oh yeah, they don't bother me"* Do I need to go back and tell him I lied? I can picture it now..."Um...Brother _____, I'm really sorry, but as far as cats go, your pets really are quite pretty, but I *can't STAND* them...especially when they jump on me and expect me to pet them....I just really didn't want to hurt your feelings."..... I'm thinking I'm going to just let that one slide.... moving on.

7)If I had a day all to myself, I would spend 70% of it in a bookstore- Preferably Joseph-Beth Bookstore in Lexington- a 2-story slice of heaven.

8)Now that I'm a little older and hopefully a little wiser, I realize that my parents were right about 97% of the time, and I'm glad they knew it.

9)Apparently, I like statistics.

10)I get a lot of good ideas- but sometimes have a hard time following through with them...I think I'm getting better, but I just get distracted so eas.....

I tag Darla, Garity, Denae, Angie, Liz, Michelle and Susan....and anyone else who wants to play...

Mercy me, guess who's 3?

Since becoming a mother, it's come to me that one of the things I want most for my children is for them to have tough skin and soft hearts. Our little lou-lou seems to have both, with a dash of feisty-ness tossed in. She's always saying/doing/showing us things that make us wonder how we got so lucky. A couple of my favorite madison-isms so far:
"I best friend wis you", "You my favorite." (or lately, as she's said to me, "I like Daddy better. I like Natty better. I like Dallin better, and I like baby better. I not like you better." But I've since fallen back into her good graces.)
We love her infectious laugh (which often means she's up to no good!), creativity, and her funny spit-fire disposition....she's been known to be the designated-diaper-checker for her friends as they were potty-training, and the lap-nazi in nursery.

Happy Birthday, Lou-lou! We love you :)

Yeaaaah, buddy....work that red leather jacket and upside down shades.... did I mention how much we love her?!

1 project down, 354 to go....

Before Brooklyn was born, I started refinishing a dresser for Lou-lou's room: painting the dresser (which turned out to be a nightmare since it had some fake-wood-coat-of-armor that even a half hour assault with an electric sander couldn't touch...), and painting knobs. I did this with the idea that it could be done *before* Brooklyn arrived.....and 8 months after she got here......it's finally done.

I love the feeling of completion.

In other news:
Natty participated in Battle of the Books at school- There is a list of books that students are able to read within a 2 month period of time. At the end, all who participated take a test, and those with the top scores form a team to "battle" against other schools. This girl of mine *loves* to read (like her mother), and is quite competitive (like her father ;) . Today she found out that she didn't make it. This is one of the few things that has truly disappointed her in her 9 years, and I wasn't prepared to have my heart hurting for her like it has- not because she didn't make it, but just because she was so disappointed. It's always eye-opening to experience all the firsts that come along with parenting, as your children grow up. I know this is such a small thing in the grand scheme of things....I need to toughen up for her sake.

Dallin had a buddy from school over the other day. They decided they'd like to play chess together- Dallin has tinkered around with Natty, so he knows the general idea, but hasn't mastered strategy or anything. So they play and within minutes his friend has decimated the board and has him in check-mate. Come to find out, this cute little guy's mom is the Chess teacher at the school and his older brother has won 2 state championships in Chess.
Me: "Oh. Maybe you should go build a castle." So they did.


At Walmart the other day, Lou-lou all of us sudden looks at me with a panicked expression and says, "Mommy- I gonna puke"...awesome. So I start to take her coat off so she can puke in something other than the cart... and as soon as I got it off of her, she says, "Oh, I okay now. The money's in my belly." She swalled a penny. or dime. or nickel. we'll never know. And I mean NEVER. Because a)I'm not paying for another x-ray unless she starts complaining that she hurts and b)I refuse to "monitor" what...comes out (if you catch my drift).
Then later that day she finds me and starts pointing up her nose saying "ouch". So I close the other nostril and tell her "Blow". TaDa:

A pink string. Why????

This one:

is doing this:

(taking a bottle from Beboo...)- she's weaned. yipee!!/sniff. sniff.
and this:

(sitting up...)

Tim and I are just soaking these good times in....

5 Lucky people!

Another fun blog game!

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make! (Though I hope you will!)
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year. {might be a little while}
4. You have no clue what it's going to be. I don't even have a clue what it's going to be.
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a homemade gift! It may not be great, but it will be fun!!
* * *Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!* * *

I'm seriously wondering if I will get 5 comments, most of you call or email after you read my blog. So make sure you leave a comment too!! :o)

Me, me, me, me, me..........

not that it's a bad thing, but it has occurred to me that 90% of the things i write about on this blog are child-related. it's no wonder, considering I have 4 kids who gratefully occupy what feels like 90% of my time. HOWEVER.... tonight I've decided to start a game of picture tag....all about things we love. (And we all know that family, the gospel, and friends are on the list...those are givens...so you can't use those things!)

3 things I love right now:



3 places I'd love to go:


London


Hawaii


Switzerland

3 items I'd love to have if money was no issue:

(photoshop)

3 books I love to read again and again:


3 things I'd love to learn more about:


If you're reading this (all 5 of you....), consider yourself TAGGED. (and I know who you are, because I have a stalk-meter installed.... so there. ;o)

Vomit, Tooth and Ice...in that order.

The Past 2 Weeks In review:

#1-We all got the stomach bug. Lou started it all. Passed it to me. And Brooklyn. Then Tim. Somehow Natty and Dallin evaded it, which still baffles me. Dallin's usually the "sick one". Maybe Kindergarten has given him additional immunity? I'm not complaining!

#2:

Need I say more?! The Tooth Fairy even had cash this time.

#3- "The Storm"

I'm sure everyone's aware of this and I know to all of our local friends, this is old news, but eventually I'll have this blog printed out, so I wanted documentation. So bear with me, or skip it :)
Monday morning we woke up to snow dust- maybe 1/2 an inch at best. School was canceled. Tuesday morning, however, we were hit with 4-5 inches of wonderful fluffy snow- the good kind to build snow men with. But then the freezing rain came all through the night and at 6:30 on Wednesday morning we heard the electricity shut off entirely.

The first thing Tim said was, "We should have bought a generator." After the wind storms that Ike brought through, we had debated doing it and decided we'd wait "just a little bit longer". Bad, stupid, poor choice. So immediately Tim and I got up and showered before the hot water went out. We started calling around (luckily our cell phones were never affected, which was a blessing) at about 9 o'clock to see if we could find a generator. Naturally, they were all sold out.

Tim decided to brave the roads and drive 20 minutes to Lowes to see if he could get a heat source for us. When he got there, he found 1 of 3 propane heaters left. As soon as he picked it up, another couple came and grabbed the last two. (another blessing)

He came home to see us all bundled in our winter gear because the house had already gotten around 55 and it was freezing. He set up the heater in our dining room and lou-lou was ready for summer- this was one of her more modest outfits of the day:
I was really wishing for a wood burning fireplace at that point because propane-flavored smores just don't do it for me.

We had some good friends stay with us that night because they didn't have any heat or electricity either. It was genuinely fun (for me, at least)! Eating dinner by candle light (which we were able to heat on our gas stove- another blessing), watching the kids play games in the basement with flashlights, Natty reading a story to them by candlelight- and it was heavenly not having the TV or computer to contend with. Although the dead-silence with no appliances running was a little unnerving. After we'd gone to bed, at 10:30 that night, we were all awakened by bright lights and bathroom fans. (another blessing) We were some of the first in our city to get our heat and electricity back.

Here are some of the pictures I took. I wasn't able to get any shots of the real damage around here- it genuinely looked like a war zone- huge trees toppled with the amount of ice build-up, full trees and massive branches falling on power lines, onto houses, across driveways, trees and branches bent so they were almost touching the ground, etc. We didn't deal with anything that extreme, but a couple of our big trees took a hit-

Before: (notice the ice pond on our driveway and around the tree seeing as you can't see much of the tree)


After: you get a good comparison with the trees on the right especially, but the tree on the left lost more branches.


It was so hard to believe something could be so tragically beautiful.






as I said, we were the lucky ones. There are still so many without power, without heat, without housing. Please keep them in your prayers.

46 more days until Spring.

But who's counting? :)