grounded.

we have a neighbor that has a daughter that loves to play with Easton, and he is always up for playing with her. they ride scooters together, draw on the sidewalk, run cars down the driveway, race back and forth from their house to our's, climb on the 'big rock' over in the grassy common area and occasionally play inside each other's houses. they also like to go to the park together ...

today was a perfect day for a picnic at the park ... i had a bunch of things i needed to take care of and so my nice neighbor offered to take Easton and go to the park. WONDERFUL! i packed him a lunch, strapped on his helmet, handed the lunch to my super fantastic neighbor and sent them on their merry way.

i came back inside to start (i never really know where to start when it comes to the house ... ) the kitchen needed to be wiped and counters needed to be decluttered and andy needed a lunch prepared. i made his lunch and sent him off to work and just as i was headed back inside Easton crashed in our driveway. he was back early and i was surprised, but i kissed him better and rubbed his owie ... andy asked where our neighbor was and i told him she must be at the top of the neighborhood ... since Easton was on his bike, he likes to zoom down to our house.

then a frantic looking woman (whom i know from taking exercise classes at the Y) drove up and asked if i knew who that little boy belonged to ...

and the story began to unfold:

she was acting frantic and worried because she had seen that little boy ("how old is he by the way?" "um he's 3 ... will be 4 in august ... " "i thought he was about 4 ... ") on his bike WAY up the busy road all. by. him. self. ...

she had seen him and felt worried that she hadn't seen an adult with him and had turned around to follow him and discovered another hysterical woman doing the same. they spoke to each other and decided to call 9-1-1 and report that this little boy looks determined but is all alone. and by the time they found their cell phones and made the call the little boy was gone! and they couldn't find him! the hysterical one went to safeway and my Y acquaintance came down into our neighborhood ... (they didn't confront that little boy for fear that he would be afraid of them and make matters worse)

the park that they had gone to was about a mile away ... on the opposite side of the busy road. which means that little boy had crossed the busy road all. by. him. self. and had ridden his bike down the sidewalk crossed 2 side streets and come down the sidewalk to our house all. by. him. self.

i took his bike, loaded him in the van and drove up the road to find my wonderful, and now fretful neighbor. she was ... worried and a little upset and more than a little apologetic. i reassured her that it was not her fault and that I was so sorry. she said that she was really worried because he always stayed with them before ... they had arrived at the park and it was too cold and windy and they decided not to stay. Easton had picked up his bike and taken off without looking back and since my neighbor and her daughter were on foot she couldn't catch up to him!!

Easton apologized as well and we had a big talk about staying together when we go to the park ...

the strangest thing: he has never done something like this. he is my momma's boy, stays right by me, waits for me at every corner, asks if he can cross now ... i asked him why he hadn't waited for our neighbor and his answer was simple... 'when i dot to the torner my heel holed off and so i tossed the hoad' {translation: when i got to the corner by wheel rolled off and so i crossed the road} so it was the bikes fault ... hmmm ...

on the bright side: he knows where we live, he didn't get lost, he didn't get stolen, he didn't get run over, and he had 2 angels following him.

consequences: this is my first grounded child ... i have not yet need to bring out the big guns and ground anyone ... but this did it. he had to stay inside the rest of the day and when i did let him outside he was within my reach. later that day i was sitting on the stairs with him ... i told him that he scared me today. "why?" "i could have lost you today ... " "why?" "you rode your bike a long far way all by yourself, you could have gotten lost, or someone could have taken you away from me." "i tame home." "i know and i'm happy you know where we live but please don't do that again." "o tay. tan i hide {ride} my bike now?" "um, sorry buddy, you're grounded from your bike for a few days..."

and there it will hang for the next few days!

poor, grounded baby ... sure am glad he made it home ...

Cleaning the house is ... fun to do?!

when it's somebody else's!!  why is that??  my whole life - it's always been that way.  i much prefer to clean for someone, than to clean up after myself.  i remember my mom being very annoyed with that fact... i would go babysitting and after the kids were down to bed, i would set to work cleaning the house.  (maybe i didn't know how to watch the tv, since we didn't have one at home ...)  the parents would come home to a nice clean house, dishes washed a put away (or dishwasher emptied or washing), toys picked up, books organized, laundry folded, etc...  they would make comments to my mom about how wonderful it was to come home to a clean house - and my mom would roll her eyes and reply, "now if i could just get her to clean her own room!!" 

in all fairness i will try to describe my bedroom vividly enough since i don't have a picture to share ...

imagine, if you will, the basement bedroom, 10ft by 12ft (maybe?!), just big enough for a twin size bed, a desk (3'x4'), a book shelf, a dresser and an open closet insert ... no doors on the closet.  now imagine, there are many hangers and a few with clothes on them ... but there are more clothes than hangers strewn about the room ... not hung up, or folded in the drawers ... mostly on the floor so that if one were to stand in my room they would be ankle-deep in a flood of fabric.  in your mind's eye look around ... every surface has either dust or clothes on it especially the bed ... when i wasn't sleeping in it, there was a thick layer of clothes covering it ... that pile would then be scooped off onto the floor when i needed to sleep in the bed and when morning came that pile would be heaved back to it's daily resting place.  the book shelf and desk are also disaters but mostly laden with 'keepsake' things like trinkets, papers, pictures, books, painted rocks, and mini statues.  when i was sentenced to clean it up ... i would spend more time looking at my priceless junk souvenirs and never actually get around to cleaning/organizing/washing/putting away/folding/picking up any of it.  my dad often warned my friends that 'they better tie a rope to their leg and the other end to the door knob, in case they couldn't find their way out of the mess' ...

even now as i type this out ... i am amazed that my mom never nailed my things to the floor ... like her own dad did to her sister's bedroom. (another story for another time)

today, and forever, i believe that "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17)

and so i sing:
Cleaning the house is fun to do, fun to do, to do, to do!
Cleaning the house is fun to do, when it's not a chore to do!!

maybe someday i'll trick myself into thinking this isn't my house ...
and these poor people need my help ...

5 boys is easier than 2 ... phew ... but it's true!

at the library!

Tuesdays are fun days ... I so look forward to them! I swap with a friend of mine every Tuesday ... either she takes my 2 or I get her 3 ... she is brave and takes them to the library ... I'm not so brave and have them play here at our house. It works out quite nicely ... when I have all 5 of them here, we watch a show (diego or backyardigans), play with cars, run up and down the stairs, shoot guns (nerf or pop - nothing lethal), have a snack, and generally entertain/occupying/assassinate each other! What do they need me for? Oh that's right, I make the snack!!

It's awesome!

and these boys are honestly the easiest kids to have around!

Yeah for good friends!

Y.M.C.A.

They might want to wear something
a little more comfortable in the weight room.
Ya think?

"It's fun to stay at the Y M C A ... "

It's also fun to swim, workout, play in the adventure zone and do yoga

"at the Y-M-C-A-ay"!

I have been going the last few months fairly regularly and really liking the classes. I do a few different ones and they all 'kick my bum'!!

Lately especially I have been sore, tired and generally hurting all over - the good kind (as if there could be a 'good' kind of hurt). I have been doing a class called Peak Performance which is code for weights, cardio, and bum-kicking fun! Today we did a pyramid work out with 3 sets of weights ... light, medium and heavy. 12 reps with the light weights, 10 with the medium, 5 with the heavy, 10 with the medium, and 12 with the light weights. We worked shoulders, pecs, lats, biceps and triceps ... and my arms and back are pretty much jelly at this point. I surprised myself alittle in class ... I didn't wuss out of any of the exercises and between the pyramids we did some cardio that was fun!

Wednesdays I like to do the Cardio Blast class which is a fancy name for step aerobics! It took me a while to not feel totally uncoordinated and I still mess up a LOT ... but I have fun and the teacher is great!

Fridays is another Peak Performance with the same teacher that does step and she's fun! I like her and she keeps the workout fun ... kinda don't feel like I'm really working all that much until the next day when I realize I have worked muscles in places I didn't know I had!

Ideally I would be doing cardio (ie: the eliptical that is in my bedroom) daily ... babysteps!!

I am telling you all this for a reason ...

I need to lose weight ... I want to lose more weight than I have already lost (I used to be fatt-er - it's hard to believe, I know!) I want to be in a size that makes me want to buy clothes!

I'm working on it ... I need to work on it more ... but for the time being - I'm trying. Someday, sooner than later, I'll look in the mirror and wonder who that beautiful babe is staring back at me?!!

So, if you see me there, cheer me on and I'll do the same for you! Go Team!!

We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet!

this song and this lesson (taught in Relief Society today - Amy: you did an awesome job!!) got me to thinking about just how thankful i am for a living prophet on the earth today. what a blessing it is.

what a wonderful man!

and he loves his wife!
so darling!

a squeak under the hood?

Andy and I went on a date tonight and the car battery was not doing well ... mind you it's the stock battery on a 2005 van and everything is electric ... the doors, windows, locks, DVD player, sunroof, radio, 6 CD disk changer, backup camera, GPS ... all electric ... battery powered ... battery sucking functions. So we made it home and he went to Walmart and got a new battery and brought it home to swap out the old for the new ... no big deal. It's not a coincidence that Andy rhymes with 'handy' ... really what would I do without him?

So he unscrews, unlatches, un-does whatever to get the battery off (i didn't watch - i have no real idea what he did ... but the old battery was removed) and it's really heavy so he uses his big burly muscles (swoon) to lift it out and lo and behold ...

tucked under the battery ... (we think it fell there) near the tranny (that's shop talk for transmission) we found this:

go ahead ... say it ... GROOOSSSSS!!

That's what I said! Does that mean there is a dead mouse somewhere inside my car!?!?!?!?

We hope not ... Andy's pretty sure that there would be a terrible stink if there was a dead something in my car ... at least he assumes ...

pray for me.

what's better than beautiful weather and best friends with a boat?

enjoying the sunset at the end of a great day!

somehow i feel content ...

the kitchen sink is clean ...

while i don't follow all the steps ... flylady is right about the way it makes me feel!

if only the internet would have worked at the church building where i was supposed to teach a class about using the church website ...

I would have shown them all of this!!

Points that I tried to cover:

www.lds.org front page is very comprehensive … many things that you might need and news/recent information … regularly changed. (bread crumbs are at the top left to show you where you've been and are links to click back too!)

Stake and Ward Websites (right sidebar) – (need information to log on) Ward webpage
Calendar, Membership Directory, Stake Home (other ward websites are available - only within our stake)
About the Church – Humanitarian Service – How can I help? – Make humanitarian aid kits
Gospel Library – Search Gospel Library
Gospel Library – General Conference – English – 180th Annual … April 2010
Family History and Temples – Temples around the world
Home and Family – Family Home Evening
Serving in the Church – Relief Society
News and Events – Calendar or Newsroom …

These were my notes ... I hope everybody was curious enough to go home and look at it for real! there really is a LOT of really good/helpful/wonderful/amazing stuff there!

unbreakable

My parents have been married 37 years today ...
(8 years longer than my mom has been alive ...)