It's a 4 Ring Circus!

festive festivities

Ah, I survived another birthday party weekend (only because I have the best momma, SIL's, friends, etc to help run things).  I will do the write-up tomorrow.  But first, I have to share what could be the best photo of the entire event.

Really, that about sums it up.
Although there are a couple of runner-ups.

That is one is just screaming for a "caption this photo" contest, no?  :-D

But alas, this one just might be my favorite.

See you tomorrow!

my new best friend

(ha ha, SURE that's my house!)

Here she is, my new best friend, the Bissell steam mop.   Before she came along, I was using the Swiffer Wet Jet and then also getting on my hands and knees to scrub the more stubborn spots off the kitchen floor.  No more!  I haven't met a spot yet that won't come up with this mop, including marks that I considered part of the floor now.  It's lightweight enough to pop it upstairs and sanitize the bathroom floors.  Ahhh.  I love her.  She's about as life-changing as my new front load washer & dryer combo (that are sitting in storage in California, grumble grumble).

I have another couple of friends that I'm supposed to meet today.  I can't wait to introduce you.

momma said there'd be days like this...

1)  Kids do not observe daylight savings time.  In fact, Ava has chosen to get up even earlier than usual both days so far.  Awesome!

2)  Got everybody ready to haul Ryan to the airport this morning.  About 10 minutes after dropping him off, get a call that his flight schedule changed today (he takes the same flight every weekend), and it left an hour before he got there.  I'm sure he'll get to San Diego sometime today.

3)  Told kids we'd hit the bookstore on the way back home to get some books for our road trip to San Diego this weekend.  Arrived at Border's to find that they've changed their opening time to 10:00.  It was 9:00 am.

4)  Tell kids, OK, we'll do an Amazon order when we get home and the books will be here on Wed.  Decided to start some eggs boiling downstairs while I take Delaney's book order. 

5)  At least 45 minutes later, as we are finishing up the entire book order (and certain people had to take a very long time deciding....)  I hear a loud pop noise.  Get up to yell at the kids who were wrestling around while they were watching a Discovery channel show on my bed.  Look around and realize that there is nothing broken.  So what was that loud noise?

6)  Realize that something smells like it is burning.

7)  Remember boiling eggs downstairs.

8)  Discover that of the 6 eggs we started off with, only 4 are still in the pan.  The other two have exploded all over the kitchen and have even made it into the living room.

Awesome.

reading with Sadie

This morning was the usual, taking Ryan back to the airport and then coming home and getting things in order around the house, and getting kids on task for their school assignments.  (and maybe a little Facebook to start the day . . . )  It will be nice when someday my husband works in the same city that we live.  Or really, even the same state would be good.  But I will be glad that he at least does in fact have a JOB, so I'll shut up now.

Today is Ryan's birthday, and he is officially an old man -- 35.  We're going to celebrate this weekend when he's back home, but today his present is a video of Sadie reading for him, since she didn't get to show off for him this last weekend (yes, we were really THAT busy).

ode to ferrets & JB

I do not like ferrets.
I do not own ferrets.
I do not like to stare at their empty cages, but there is one on the side of my house.
I do not like to clean up their 6-month-old 6-inch stash of poop, but I got to do that yesterday.
I do not like to clean up washing machine floods, but I got to do that yesterday.
I do not like to read up on mold and figure out if my immune-sensitive kid is reacting to a breakout in our house, but I got to do that yesterday.
I do not like to call my husband at work and tell him if he doesn't get his hiney home and fix this, he's going to be sending postcards from California to me back in Texas, but I got to do that yesterday, too.
Yesterday wasn't a good day.
EXCEPT --
In the midst of everything else, we have been getting our now-empty condo in Utah ready to sell.  And we got a great offer on (I think) the first day it was officially on the market.  I'm actually not sure if it was even in the MLS system yet.
So that saved yesterday.
That and the fact that my husband worked some magic and got my new washer working with no floods.
I am probably going to have all of the laundry (even though it was backlogged!!) done today, that is how much you can fit in those fancy front-loaders.

So.
I am tired of talking about my house and how it is falling apart and none of the appliances work properly.
How about a little manjoyment instead?
I will now tell you who my crush is -- he was on Letterman the other night and I fell in love with him again.  (Don't worry, Ryan knows.)

Jason Bateman.

Good night in the mornin'!
He puts the sizzle in my frying pan!
ha ha ha

Alright, so who's your celebrity crush?

the money pit

Ever seen that movie?

Well, that's been my life the last week or so.  I don't feel like going into all of it, but basically this house we're renting has got several major issues going on that keep unfolding.  The kind of things that the guy HAD to have known about, and just didn't fix.  I am hoping that we're going to get some resolution this week, and that I'm not going to have to whip out my can of you-know-what on this guy.  Fun!

Oh yeah, it has been HOT.  Perhaps you've seen the news headlines -- "California Inferno" being my personal favorite.  Only one problem.  It's not usually hot.  So there is no A/C in the house.

Hot + no air conditioning + various mildew issues = STINK is a math lesson I've been working on this week.  Again, FUN!

We finally just hit the beach yesterday with all of the rest of our city to try to cool down.  Ava, with the help of her siblings, dug herself a nice deep pit that looked like a bunker.  Which worked out, b/c even though it was hot, she still thinks the water is WAY too cold and enjoyed how she was safe in her bunker.  Ryan bought a boogie board and was trying it out.  All our peeps in Austin would've LOVED seeing that.  Unfortunately, while I did bring the camera, I did not put the batteries in it.  (That is typical for my luck this week.)  So, you'll just have to imagine that scene for now.  The board he bought is really more a size for kids, and my older two had a blast on it, so we're going to be investing in some more of those this week.  At least there is the beach.  I even finally donned the bathing suit and got in the water -- and yes, it was still cold!

Yesterday morning (before the beach), I was losing my mind and decided to head out to run errands and only took Josh with me.  Poor boy, he thought we were only going out to get glue for his new medieval castle project.  Ha!  He got to hit the mall with me first, so that I could continue my quest for some cool sandals (still didn't find what I was looking for).  But he did help me pick out some new earrings.  What do you think?  (Also another shirt from Forever 21.  Yep, Sunday fashion show.)

My friend Toni sent me the Martha Stewart cookie book for my birthday, so I was pretty thrilled about that.  Can't wait to make something out of it, although it will be hard to pick just one to start out with!  Most of the kids' school stuff has arrived now too, so that's been fun.  I'll post more about that later.

Another cool thing to report -- due to our landlord leaving me with the mildew washer (AWESOME), Ryan had a good excuse to finally break down and buy me a front load washer/dryer set.  The washer even comes with the "steam" feature, so I can supposedly steam the hell out of any germs, lice, staph bugs, etc that may try to come my way.  They get delivered tomorrow morning, woot, and he got lucky and found a floor model with a small dent way cheaper, so double woot!!  I haven't been able to do laundry for a few days (and those dirty beach towels add up, along with towels from the backyard wading pool I was forced to buy when we were melting in our house on Friday), so I'll definitely get a chance to put its capacity to the test.

Alright, time to lay down and enjoy my quiet house for a few minutes.  Happy Sunday to you all !

overcoming anal retentiveness

Ah, I'm still getting adjusted to the new house.  It is a beautiful house in a beautiful neighborhood in a beautiful city, BUT . . . it's got its share of issues.  There are a lot of little things that need to be fixed or tweaked, but that you don't bother or invest in if it's not your own home.  But we haven't rented since our BYU days, and I've become used to taking care of that kind of stuff ASAP.  Who knew -- I think I'm a bit OCD about this kind of stuff.

Another one of my "issues" -- you really can't call it a pet peeve, my reaction is too severe -- is gunked up kitchen cabinets and drawers.  And I have to use gunked up cabinets and drawers EVERY DAY.  There are a couple of cabinets that I just refuse to use.  Luckily, since my kitchen is way downsized right now since we didn't bring anything with us, that is working right now.

I really didn't know that I like things to be "just so" as much as I do.  It's mostly kitchen-related, and I really like to cook and normally spend a lot of time in the kitchen.  So it has required me to take a lot of deep breaths and trying to ignore and move on.

Oh yeah, the dishwasher kicked after the first load.  After I had already loaded it up with a second load, of course.  I need to get in touch with the property management dude, I'm sure they'll take care of it, I've just been busy with other things.

So.  My bread project is going to have to wait, as the oven is way hotter than it says and I keep burning things (and I've heard that your oven needs to be pretty accurate to tackle the process in that book).  Instead, I just ordered another bread machine (my other one is still in TX and I've pondered the fun of having two going at once anyway) and this book, and we'll have to make do with that instead.

life cycle completed

A couple of weeks ago, Ryan brought in a caterpillar and set it up to see if we could watch it make a butterfly.  I was a bit skeptical, but lo and behold, she hatched today!  (and after much debate, we decided that it would make a black swallowtail, and we were right!) This was one of the days that you're glad that you homeschool and could all be around for the blessed event.

In other news, I was lucky enough to get pinkeye last Wed night. And yes, I've had pinkeye before -- it's not pleasant, but not THAT big of a deal. Well, apparently I've had the nicer version previously. Ugg... I was almost completely incapacitated Thursday, could not tolerate light or any eye movement without major pain, plus the burning was horrible. It got a little bit better over the next few days, but then was not making major improvements so I went in to an insta-care clinic yesterday where they gave me some different eye drops and told me to lay around with a heating pad on my eye. It has helped some, but I'm pretty sure I have managed to get the viral type that you just have to deal with for a couple of weeks. I also have the other symptom of feeling like there is something stuck in your eye, scratching it up. Oh, it has not been fun. I have managed to keep things afloat over here, and at least it waited to strike until Ryan was home (although he leaves again tomorrow). Wah, wah, wah. Ok, I'm done now.

So that's what I've been up to for the last several days, in case you've been wondering!

I have a bizarre sense of humor

I tried to take a picture of it, but my dang camera ran out of battery juice at the wrong moment.  (Yes, this is a frequent issue I have that I would LOVE to have time to take care of, but, alas, that won't be happening any time soon.)

So I get out a Totino's frozen pizza for the kids' lunch.  I am unwrapping it when I see on the box a new symbol.  "Totino's quality assured."  I about died laughing!!  Now, don't get me wrong, Totino's pizzas have their place in the world, but generally, when I'm cooking one up, it's not "quality" that I'm after!  :-D

We are on the final countdown until the catheter removal, and I am pretty darn excited about that.  That is, if I could muster the energy for excitement.  Ava has been sleeping pretty crummy (I think her happy pain meds are making her have nightmares now) and I have way too much to do, and now Ryan is in San Diego for a couple of days.  They are finally making the big announcement that he will be managing the office out there, so he's nervous but excited about it.  It is all starting to be a bit more real now.  He's checking out a home rental that we've seen on the internet while he's out there, so maybe we'll be able to have a place to call home out there soon.

Alright, time to check on the Totino's.....

flying cowpies

OK.
Close your eyes and imagine yourself hearing a fresh cowpie, being thrown as hard as possible against the side of a barn.
Do you hear that disgusting SPLAT noise?

That was my day today.

I was supposed to be helping with a friend's wedding today.  Instead I was up several times last night with one sick kid, and woke up early to another sick kid.  After a prolonged doctor's visit, we determined that Delaney has a virus, and does not have flu or strep.  Ava, on the other hand, has a really bad UTI, probably already up in the kidney.  She got to have a shot in each cheek (and I don't mean the face!) and is on an antibiotic also, and gets to go back in first thing tomorrow morning.  Let's just pray that it winds up being something that we can deal with at the already-scheduled urologist appointment next Tuesday.  I don't think I can deal with so many rotten kidneys in this family!

It's time to get the kids in bed, so I won't go into all of the other details of the day, but just sum it up -- SPLAT!