SUPERCROSS

In April, Elliott exposed me to my first Supercross race. I have seen parts of them on TV but have never been to one in person. Much to my surprise it was a lot of fun. First off going anywhere without kids is fun. We were lucky because it had stopped raining that evening so we didn't have to sit in any rain. It was really cold but we layered and were fine. It was a good race between Chad Reed and James Stewart. I didn't really care who won but it was fun seeing them passing each other up (alright maybe I wanted Chad Reed to win a little). It is pretty amazing seeing them ride those bikes. They make it look so easy when in reality it is not and would be scary to go over those jumps. And the start of the race where they all head towards the same corner at the same time...eeeeeekkk. . . .s-c-a-r-y!

Reverence...What?

I teach in RS on the fourth Sunday every month. This coming Sunday my lesson is on Respect and Reverence. I just can't get past the thought of "yeah right...ME teach about REVERENCE!! Have they not seen MY girls during Sacrament Meeting?" Sacrament Meeting is the most painful 1 1/2 hours EVER! Some weeks are definitely better than others. On those really bad days it seriously takes everything out of me to not just walk out and go home. I have had older mothers tell me that they were frustrated when they had little ones but now miss it...WHATEVER! It is their way of trying to make you feel better but NO one in their right mind will miss non stop talking, fighting, crying, having to go to the bathroom...really really bad, need to get a drink or they will die, crackers smashing in the carpet,...need I go on? Even if they are being "good" they still may be playing with their toy or coloring loud or decide they just feel like singing a song or in our case laughing really loud (even if it is Addy's cute laugh). To sit in a Sacrament Meeting a be able to just sit there and listen...What would that be like?

10 Reasons Why Alyssa Loves Me

One thing you can always expect as a mother every Mother's Day is the homemade gifts your children make in preschool/school. They are always so proud of their work and as a mother it leaves you guilt ridden on what in the world do you do with the gift. This year Alyssa gave me a coupon book (of things she will do and don't you know I will take full advantage of ALL of them). She also gave me a book that was bound with all of the stitchery she did over this past year in school, and finally a paper that had the top ten reasons why she loved me. It goes as follows with her spelling:

10 I love my Mom because she reads me books.

9 I love my Mom because she helps me do my homework.

8 I love my Mom when she makes me laugh by tickleing me.

7 I love my Mom because she taught me how to take a shower.

6 I love to hear my Mom sing songs.

5 I love my Mom because she finds time to play a game.

4 I know my Mom cares because she loves me and my family.

3 I know my Mom is smart because she knows Math.

2 I love my Mom because she works so hard at keeping the house clean.

1 I love my Mom because she's the best MOM EVER!


My favorite are numbers 7 and 3. #2 is sweet because at least someone is taking notice. I haven't decided to find a small box that I stash it all in or just take pictures of the gifts and chuck the stuff. If I have to keep it in a box for 20 year all so I don't hurt their feelings then I will.


The one reason I look forward for Mother's Day is because Elliott gives it to me as a complete day off. No cooking, no changing diapers, no putting the kids to bed, no dealing with whining kids, no nothing. For the most part Mother's Day was good despite my shower, with the water going from freezing cold to scalding hot every 1-2 minutes (this was annoying because the shower is my only place I can go to get away, for the most part) and not being able to sleep in because of early church, and that Elliott completly charred/burned the ribs (he got an A for effort). He/we made dinner for his Mom. I helped him the night before with all the prep work so all he had to do the next day was assemble and cook. Leaving less for me to do on the actual "day". I did make a four layer German Chocolate cake from scratch for desert that was YUM. I also find it hard to enjoy the day for me when we also have mothers that we feel should be taken care of as well.

Funny Faces

One day in the summer of 2005, Elliott went out to the motocross track when we lived in Casper. Kylee and Alyssa wanted to go and play while he rode around. About a week later he was going through his pictures on his cell phone. Apparently for entertainment the girls took pictures of each other making funny faces. This one of Alyssa took the prize. It brought nothing but tears to the eyes. It is amazing that she is in fact a very normal child but for some reason can fool people in this picture. She had recently mastered the ability to cross her eyes and was very proud of this ability. When ever Elliott needed a good laugh...Alyssa's picture it was. Elliott leaves tomorrow and will be gone for a month but will come home for the weekend two weeks out. I figured he can look at this picture of Alyssa when he needs a laugh because every time I see it I can't help but laugh and I have seen it many times.

BOB

Addy's new favorite thing is "BOOOOOOB" as in "Bob the Builder". When she gets sad she will ask for her "gankie" (blankie) and "BOB". She loves to watch Bob the Builder and frankly it is the cutest thing that she loves BOB of all shows. We have a DVD that has a bunch of different kids shows, Bob the Builder, Barney, etc and for some reason she has become attached to Bob. It isn't very long but hey if that guarantees me 15 minute I take it because nothing else on TV catches her attention. I am not a big fan of letting the TV entertain your kids but it is amazing what a mom can do with 15 minute WITHOUT interruptions (and I have a lot to do right now).

Armpits

Ryann told me that she couldn't wear a certain shirt because people would see her armpits.

Yesterday we had dinner at the park. I was the last to get in the car and failed to notice Ryann's "outfit". She will change her clothes too many times to keep up. She was wearing capris with Kylee's nylons (that are too big for her) underneath with white sandals. She looked like an old lady. Her shirt didn't match her capris either. Lovely, I love it when they look homely in public.

Saving BIG on Groceries!

I am so excited I just had my first experience going grocery shopping and using coupons! I know this may sound dumb but really it can be so exhilarating to save a bunch of money at the store. A month ago a friend of mine invited me to this class that taught you how to use coupons. It is so easy!! I get 5 Sunday newspaper coupons plus my in-laws. You get one Sunday paper per person in your family. They I take the coupon inserts date them and place them in a file. Then I go to a free website that will let you click on what ever store you want to shop at. It will pull up what is on sale that week and what items you can use coupons for to get the great deal! It will rate them for you so you know if it is a good deal and it will tell you what Sunday paper the coupon is found. You can highlight and print your list of the site. EASY AND GREAT! It gets you to buy ahead on items so you can wait to buy when they come on sale again later. It is a great way to build up your food storage. It is when you combine the coupon with the sale item that helps. It takes a couple of weeks until you can start using the coupons but so worth it and it does not take a lot of time! I took the older girls with me to Albertsons and we went coupon shopping! We got 19 boxes of cereal! They were in heaven. At the end of the trip they were so amazed by how much money we saved! When the checker ask me for my coupons...oh did I have some coupons...I handed her 42 coupons! I spent $98.77 and saved $168.83 plus earned two free movie tickets and got more money off for their gas reward program. We later that week filled up our tank at Albertsons with $1.30 off per gallon! It feels so great to save some money! This week I was on and saw with a coupon you could get Suave Shampoo for 31 cents! I personally don't use Suave but it is great for my girls and 31 cents...hello you can't even buy a pack of gum for that! The website I use is GrocerySmarts.com. As far as I know it only provides service for Utah and Nevada. You can also print coupons off from their site and it is not a long painful process. I felt like the lady on the Ikea commercial that sees how much money she saved and ran out telling her hubby to start the car because she got such a good deal.

Unloading the goods.

I even used a coupon to get the reusable bags. Now if only I can remember to bring them..

Alyssa was so amazed how long the receipt ended up.

Bye Bye Coco

Sunday we said goodbye to our cute little dog Coco. We have had her for a little shy of 18 months. It was a hard decision and we had been thinking about finding her a new home for a while. I felt so bad for her thinking about the transition of her getting use to new owners and wondering what happened to us or her feeling rejected and unloved. I know she is just a dog but they have feelings too. I also didn't want the girls to be too upset by having her go. We have been talking about her leaving for some time and they knew the time was coming. It is also sad because she just started acting more like a dog and less like a puppy. We kept saying she knows we are giving her away and was trying to be good so we would keep her. She was a sweet little dog and put up with our babies (Ryann and Addy) dragging her around by the tail, picking her up and dropping her, and other forms of torture. I got so sick of her getting picked on and didn't want to have to always keep her in her kennel. Then when the girls would cry she would howl so LOUD and annoying (as if crying, whining kids isn't bad enough you have to throw in a howling dog!). She was one more person to take care of and I am not really a huge fan of animals inside homes. It was also hard when we wanted to be gone all day worrying about her or when we would go out of town. If we end up moving we will also be in a transition for 2-4 months and worrying about what to do with Coco was another stress. My Aunt took her in. She has had two other Shih Tzus in the past and wanted another. She came up and picked her up on Sunday. I felt so bad. You know she was wondering what in the world was going on and why we were sending her away with these people. If we move we won't be to far away from my Aunt and will still be able to see her. It also helps knowing she will be loved and will no longer be tortured by small children. And I will no longer have to clean up dog food out of my plants (thanks Addy) or clean her water dish because Addy dumped dog food in it as well.


The girls saying goodbye

Addison being "2" and not wanting to be in the picture.

Addison trying to rip out Coco's bow as Coco licked her in the face.

It felt very weird coming home Sunday night without our little greeter. Addison woke up from her nap Sunday walking around looking for Coco. She kept saying "Coco." Even when we drove up from dinner she was excited to go see Coco. She just loves that dog. I just tell her she went bye bye and she says, "Oh, bye bye". Alyssa was sad and cried afterwards. This surprised me a little because she would get annoyed by Coco but I guess recently she started to get attached.

About Time

The evening of April 18th, after Alyssa's baptism, we finally go the news we have been waiting for way too long to hear...Elliott has a job! Over 900 applicants narrowed down to 52 interviews and from their 8 were chosen to be apart of this training program with Biomet. It is a company that makes lots of orthopedic devices. He will be specializing in their Sports Medicine Division. The down side is that we don't know if he will take the position here in our city or if he will take a position in another city. We were told we would know in 5 weeks which is now a little less than two weeks away. He started training that following Monday. That was painful not knowing if we stay or if we go! Of the selected 8, 4 will go on to further training to be specialty reps for the company and the other four will started working mid-June. Elliott is trying for the specialty rep position which will put him out of town for a while. Either way we are happy that our life will finally move forward. It is looking more like we have a move in our future. So in-between studying and homework and conference calls we are BUSY getting our house ready to be put on the market. We have gone through 3 truck loads of mulch. Then we moved to the inside which involved repainting everything! I am sooooo sick of painting. We are almost done. We have gone to bed every night these last 3 weeks exhausted and I wake up the next morning cringing because I know what my day will hold. Yes poor Addison and Ryann have not been getting lots of attention so we did take a short break from house work and took them to the Zoo one day this last week. It is so close to our house, why not and they love it. We just got all new carpet in the basement so this means all the BLUE IS GONE!!! Even if he ends up with the position here, at least our house is fixed up and how lucky we are that he got a job to begin with in this ever so attractive job market. So this is why I have had no time to update my blog. This next week it is down to little things so it shouldn't be that bad...ha who am I kidding?

12 Years...Really?

May 2nd we celebrated our 12 Year wedding anniversary! I can't believe it has been 12 years! It is a little scary how fast time really does fly. It seemed like the first 18 years of my life dragged and then after that it took off and now I am in my 30...eek. Almost 32 to be exact. I still feel like I am 22 just with the start of wrinkles...yuck. I am learning to embrace the "new form" of beauty that comes with age. Elliott has his first gray chest hair and yes he did ripe it out. See all the fun we have to look forward to with age.

That morning Elliott went to a bike swap to try and sell some more of our cycling stuff and then we painted our master bedroom. Getting rid of the country blue was a beautiful thing! It is truly amazing what new paint, light fixtures, blinds, and carpet can do for a room. That evening we took the girls out to dinner to celebrate our "family's birthday". That is what Elliott called it. Nothing big but sometimes it is nice to keep things simple!

Random Cuteness

On fun thing about being a Mom is hearing your kids say the funniest, cutest, or most embrassing things...Here are a few recent cute ones that I can remember.

Ryann..."I get to go see the dentistsea?" (for some reason she adds sea at the end of dentist)


I was fixing Ryann's hair and picked up a hair brush and she asked me if that brush was going to hurt her feelings.

Ryann..."Can I have some E-E-O-C-E?"
Mom..."What's that?"
Ryann..."Ice Cream!" (With older girls we will spell when we don't want Ryann to know what we are talking about...some she has clued in on)

Alyssa... My parents were sitting next to each other eating at the table all by themselves. She told them that she thought they looked so cute and that they looked like barbies and that she would buy them if they really were barbies.