Mamma Mia! Here I go again...

I honor of the great movie I saw last night and could NOT get any of the music out of my head...

WHY?!

Why do I wait all summer avoiding the inevitable?! Why do I take kids with me when I'm trying to get work done?! Why?!

(Monkeys on crack! Seriously, I don't know how else to describe it!)

cute little monkeys though!


AND WHY am I surprised to find THIS after talking with another teacher for 5 minutes in the hallway...


4 hours at school, only 1 hour of actual work!!! *SIGH*

Miller Fun...

Tom and I invited everyone to join us in the mountains this week. And of course it was cloudy and Tom kept saying we were all babies and that it would be fine. :) Well, it was fine but it did rain! The kids ate their french pancakes in the van and the adults huddled under my big umbrella, luckily I had that in the van! It was a lot of fun though! The kids especially liked sliding down the mountain and getting all muddy...

The story of me working

This is for my journaling purposes and to share a cool experience, I've never been good at writing so bear with me. Two years ago we knew we would need to do more than just my preschool so after MUCH prayer and fasting (and trying to get the answer I wanted, which was keep doing preschool) I applied to the school district (Jan '07), they hired me right away even though I wanted to wait until the fall of 2007. Again we felt that this was the right decision even though I cried ALL the time about it!! To make this part short I will just say that twice it has been the biggest blessing to us for me to be working and have benefits. Well, knowing how hard it is for me to NOT be a stay at home mom, we are always trying to figure out ways to get me "back home" and this summer was no exception, from the day school was out I was scheming, planning, praying, crunching numbers etc...I figured we had righteous desires and shouldn't faith be enough? This is a tough thing because I have people say to me "just have faith and things will work out." I know that is true. So Tom and I went to talk things over with our fabulous Bishop to get a third party opinion. After talking for a while we came to the conclusion that I should stay in the schools one more year and then look at things next summer...I wanted to bawl my eyes out. I wanted to stay home and try doing daycare or something. So then the Bishop said let's see what the Lord says. Wonderful thing, a priesthood blessing. So I will share some of the things he said. I wish I could remember word for word. He said if Tom and I would work hard this year, the lord would provide a way for me to stay home next year, that my kids would have no negative experiences or memories about me working, but that it would be a positive thing to have their mom at their school, and the Lord would send guardian angels to be with my kids while I was working (yes, I was crying). I cannot tell you what a comfort that blessing was. All my fears were addressed and I felt such peace. It was a truly wonderful experience. I feel so blessed to have the priesthood in my life, and what a great man our Bishop is! (The Bishops in our church do not work for any money, they volunteer their time and talents.) I have such an appreciation for all the moms out there who do not have the luxury of staying home with their kids and for single parents. I really believe the Lord watches over us and helps us do the things we have to do. So hopefully, if the Lord can help my faith, next summer I will be having another baby and staying home with the 4 beautiful babies He has already given me.

Summer fun while it lasts

I met my friend Traci at the splash park today, it's been way too long since we've played! I'm glad I got to have fun with her before going back to school! (We'll just have to do girl nights!)

Savannah being chased by boys...oh help me!

Traci's baby Andrew, such gorgeous eyes!

Traci and Andrew

Sydney and Morgan

my Zack

Summer

the kids playing rock band

Vanna loved the drums!

Morgan and Jared

Friends

So fun to have friend time! Laura, Tyra, and I all went to Tepanyaki and then to Stevenettes (now the "malt shoppe"). I remember going to Stevenettes all the time for shakes back in the day...and everything was still the same! And not in a good way, same tables, vinyl seats, old jukebox, carpet...but it sure was fun to sit with friends and laugh at all the young kids at BYU now. Carrie and John met us there, I was very impressed that John came to girls nite, it was fun. Doesn't feel like we're that old girls! When I'm with you it feels like I'm 18 again!

Laura, Sally, Tyra

Laura's kids, Tyra's kids, and my kids, what a bunch of cuties!

Gas is killing me!

And I don't mean the bodily function! So what do you do when you have a huge vehicle that gets no more than 10 miles per gallon...you don't eat that's what you do! :) OR you don't drive, and that has worked out fine this summer but when school starts in a few weeks...last year I was spending about $400/month on gas and since then gas has doubled in price...so you do the math. *SIGH* So options are

1. sell the van and get a small old sedan to drive to work and whenever we go anywhere as a family we have to take 2 cars or
2. sell the van and get a used minivan but then we may have a car payment which we don't want or
3. just suck it up and keep the bus. (we like our van, it's just expensive to drive!)

(Keep in mind that nobody wants to buy a huge gas guzzling vehicle right now!) What would you do????? And quitting my job is not an option right now and I will be doing a post on that next because we had a really cool experience with that decision!

Treasures

Sydney has always loved treasures! Treasure for her can mean anything from rocks, sticks, broken glass, cotton balls, pieces of metal, and of course anything that is small. For many birthdays and Christmas' we have had a great time finding "Sydney things" because she is so easy to shop for! You can just go into Roberts and it's her dream world! Well yesterday I was going through some boxes of craft things and came across my box of treasures! I have had these things boxed up for over 14 years. A little history here, my parents always gave me "little treasures" for presents and they were my favorites every time. (Now we know where Sydney gets it from!) So I opened it with the kids and they all had a blast. Especially Sydney! I just laughed seeing these things that were so special to me...(my prom glass, a collection of bells, a thimble of Princess Diana & family, collectible spoons, glass horses & birds, even a joke PMS survival kit with 14 yr old chocolate...) and now seeing my kids overjoyed at these things just made my day! So they each have a little collection of "Sally things" in their rooms. Even Zack took some stuff (the parrots).


Sydney with my favorite Japanese blue bird

things that Sydney wanted

things that Summer wanted

Savannah and her favorite, the glass horse

Friend Time!

Yesterday I got to spend the day with friends from my freshman year at BYU, lets just say we've known each other for a LONG time! Carrie just moved back to Utah (YAY! now we just need to get Shauna, Tyra, Mindy, Carrie V, and Christy!!!) and Tyra was in town so we met at McDonalds to let the kids eat and play. It was an ordeal for me to get there, seriously?! I thought my kids would get easier when they got older...what dream world did I live in? In some ways they have but in others they have just got harder. For example, years ago when I would take the kids to McDonalds it would involve me crawling up in the playplace to get them to come out so we could go home!!!! Now it's dealing with getting the older children who "don't want to go to stupid, baby, boring, McDonalds!!!" into the car to leave home... still a huge fit to deal with. But worth it to just sit with friends and sip a diet coke!

Carrie & Laura (my bright window in the background is not the perfect place to take a picture so I had to play with it in iphoto, still super cute though!)

Tyra





Cutest baby ever! See Laura's blog for a funny story!

Thanks for the fun ladies!

Our 2nd home...

the mountains. We went up again today for french pancakes and family home evening. I forgot the syrup though and had to go beg for some from the nice camp managers!


cute dirty boy face

sweet sisters

silly family...they're all trying to beep bop with Tom


Tom's poop grin, nice!

Zack's bed

Zack is SO excited about his "new" bed (new to him, hand me down). He has been asking to put it up ever since we got it a few weeks ago. We were going to paint parts of it black but Zack wanted it just the way it was soooo, here he is. He kept saying, "Mom, take a picture, when are you going to take a picture?!"

He wanted all his stuffed animals looking at the camera, seriously cute kid! Someone told me that kids who like stuffed animals are sweet, well all my kids and I are sweet and we all love stuffed animals, so maybe it's true!?

Pioneer Primary Activity

On Saturday we had a fun Primary activity, all pioneer type games (stick pull, teddy bear races, cricket toss, 3-legged race, tug-o-war, marbles) it was fun. Tom was helping with the stick pull so I challenged him...and lost! He kept saying, "C'mon, I said go, start already..." I'm a weakling!

Syd & Summer

Zack

Savannah & Sally

Summer aka my shadow

Me losing...

Check my side bar

I post my weekly activities if you want to join me! Just call me if you want to come!

iRack - MadTV, this is dedicated to my friend Laura!

RIGHT NOW tag...

This one is fun because it is spontaneous, not rehearsed, and real! I love real! So here goes, a splice of my life right now! Take a picture (NO cleaning up first!) of 1-laundry room, 2-kitchen sink, 3-open fridge, 4-a toilet, 5-favorite place in the house, 6-your bedroom, 7-what your kids are doing right now, 8-your closet, 9-favorite shoes, 10-self portrait (always my favorite, JK!)

my laundry room, luckily I have spent many hours "catching up" so the baskets are actually empty...they're usually overflowing!



kitchen sink, we have been gone since 7am this morning so this worked to my advantage!

fridge...clearly I need to go shopping :) Where's my Diet Pepsi??!! Wah, Sally needs her "yam yam"!

this is in our master bathroom and yes, the seat is always up!!!!! (Zack just said, "Why is there a picture of a toilet on your blog?!"

my favorite place and my bedroom, go together because 1) I love to sleep and 2) I can lock myself in for a quiet moment! (Thanks for making the bed Tommy!)

what the kids are doing right now...building forts in my craft room, which they are NOT supposed to be in! But since I am on the computer what can be done?? :)

also in my supposed craft room is Zack's new-hand-me-down bed. He has to keep his room clean for a week before we'll set it up!

Tom's side of the closet...

my side of the closet...and still I have NOTHING to wear! :)

my favorite shoes, British flag of course! All my sisters have them!

self portrait, and sadly I have not showered today, I'll admit it! Hey, I had to get all the kids out of the house before 7am....


There you have it, I have no shame! So if you read my blog you are tagged! And I will be checking! :) Gotta love google reader! If you don't have google reader and you like to look at lots of blogs then you absolutely have to have this! Look it up!