Family Pictures

While I'm updating my blog and avoiding going to bed. I thought I would post some of the pictures we had taken in November. The kids are absolutely adorable!!!

STAIRS!!!!

I'm so excited to announce that I now have stairs going from my pantry (former laundry room) to my laurdry room (former empty room with furnace in basement)!!!

There is no jumping required to use these stairs, only ducking if you are over five feet tall. I still have to cut out a portion of the floor in the pantry, but we are waiting until the cabinets get built for safety reasons. So I only had my cell phone pictures of this great event, but here they are anyway - if you keep them small, you can get the idea :)

This first picture is before, and from the landing at the top of the stairs. The existing stairs are cement, and there is a 20 inch drop from the landing to the first cement stair. This picture also shows the walls I built yesterday!

This is a split entry. The stairs going up have been there for a few weeks, but I was taking my time on gettting the lower stairs built because of all the walls that needed to be built.

I've had quite a long break from blogging, but I wanted to check in. I'm currently training for the Ogden Marathon on May16. For those of you who don't know, I will actually run the entire 26.2 miles (minus walking breaks once in a while). The kids are excited to participate in the KidsK which is a one mile run at the end of the marathon run.

Training for this long run is killing me. Right now I feel like my Saturdays are completely wasted. My runs are taking about 3 hours on Saturdays, and then I am exhausted for a few hours while I try to recover from the run. My knees bug me for at least 40 hours after my long runs, and I'm just a bum about it. Emily asked me a couple of weeks ago if it was worth it because I could hardly walk after my 14 mile run. I told her it was because the pain is only temporary. . . I think I've gone crazy :)

So, anyway I'm sitting (practically laying) here on my bed with Ainsley (being a bum). I thought I would actually post something. . .

I'm totally grateful for friends. God has blessed me with a great support network, and you ladies know who I'm talking about. You keep me sain in this crazy life of mine. Thanks to everyone. . . I love you guys!

Additionally, I tried out for the local community play of My Fair Lady (thanks to Ann for helping me get ready for the audition) and made it to callbacks, but it wound up that I couldn't participate because of the Trek. Ryan and I have been called (yes it's a calling and we were set apart) to be a Ma & Pa for the youth Trek in June. It has almost the same dates as the play. I'm more excited to be involved with the youth again. I miss being young women's president (I know I'm cursing myself to get the calling again), and I think it will be a great experience.

I ripped out the floor in my laundry room, and moved the washer and dryer downstairs. I'm hoping to actually finish building stairs over spring break this week so we can get to the new laundry room without having to jump, but life has a way of throwing curve balls, and I've been jumping downstairs for over a month now :) The old laundry room is now half the size, and will be converted into a pantry with floor to ceiling cabinets and maybe some counter space (I havn't decided yet), but that will have to wait until the end of May.

Upon ripping out my floor, we encountered a problem with the ancient wiring in our house, so now we are compelled to upgrade our breaker box (yeah - I can now have enough breakers to redo some wiring in my house). I think I'll be busy all summer replacing all the old wiring in my house. Another project that will probably stay just half finished :). . .

I don't think I have completely finished any of the remodeling projects I have started. My kitchen still has mud in some spots and outlets that have no power (waiting for that breaker box upgrade); the living room does not have window sills or the the metal strip between the carpet and entryway flooring; the bedroom was barely started, and the upstairs bathroom is completely ripped apart (the sink is on the floor). I get so bored with a project by the time everything is livable.

Girl's Night!

Ok, so I had a ton of fun with my girl friends tonight. It was great to get away from the kids and hubby for a few hours and just enjoy myself. I have to give cudos to Steve for making me laugh so hard thinking I was pranking him when he locked Emily out of the house and wouldn't wake up for three phone calls, several doorbell rings, or Emily's crazy loud whistle; by the time I got a hold of him on my cell phone I was laughing so hard I'm sure he didn't know what I was saying. . . Now after calming down a bit. . . I still have a weird urge to be called a Spider Monkey :)

Since the kids were at Audrey's house, I had to wake them up to bring them home. It was Ainsley's turn to say family prayer. She was sooooo cute. Then I tucked the kids in their beds and kissed them all. It was such a great way to end a wonderful night!

Wow How Time Flies

The kids went trick-or-treating with their cousins. From Left to Right: Ainsley as a Rock Star, Delton as Spiderman, Corbin as James Bond, Hayden as Indiana Jones, Morgan as a Corpse Bride's Maid, and Caden as Batman.

All three kids got a truckload of candy. They went to two trunk-or-treats, the Tooele city Halloween Carnival, and then on Upland Drive for Halloween. I think that next year, I will only let them go to one place. I think my kids teeth will rot. . .

Ryan and I were rockstars with Ainsley.

I should be wearing wings because I am sure that I have flown through time faster than superman. It seems like Halloween came like lightning and then has gone in a flash. I love dressing the kids up for halloween, and it is always so much fun to make everyone's costumes. If I ever get batteries for my camera I will download some better pics of the kids costumes. They are adorable!

BOOK PARTY!

I'm so excited to be planning my book party next week. It is on Thursday, Oct 23, 2008 at 7pm at my house. Everyone who wants to come can. It is for Usborne Book publisher. They publish childrens books of all sorts. So, look for your invitation to come in the next couple days :)

Sick day. . .

I can't believe I am actually posting two days in a row. When I got home from Young Women's (about 9:15) last night, Ryan said Ainsley had thrown up 7 times in the last 2 hours. She was pale and exhausted. I felt so bad for her :( By the time I was home she was dry heaving. We started pushing pedialite on her, and she drank a ton. She threw up about four more times through the night, and slept in mommy's bed, so needless to say I didn't get any sleep. I dragged my but out of bed and went to work at 7am, but when Ryan told me that she woke up with really bad diarrhea I decided to come home so he could go to work. She acted fine, but went to the bathroom about once an hour until about 1pm.

I got so much done!!!! I finished almost all my homework for the week. I got some things done for work today. My laundry is almost completely washed, dryed, and folded. Some of it has been in my laundry room for a couple months. The kids actually have their homework done and in their backpacks for the morning, and we spent some quality time watching a movie together (and folding laundry).

It is days like this when I really wish I could be a stay at home mom. The only thing that would have made it better was if I could have made it to play group this morning. I am so grateful I have the job I do. Where I can be home when my kids are home or take a sick day when I need to.