And?

It's been a long couple of weeks.  Between sickness, and a crummy St. George trip, and a dishwasher fiasco, and doctor visits, and new medication, and emotional conversations, and a ridiculously messy house, and..... *sigh.*  When it rains it pours, right?  

Some things I've been thinking about - 

1.  Retro timers.  Are you kidding me?  I love these!  I'm pretty sure I need one.

2.  Cake Batter Rice Krispy Treats.  Yes,  I will be making some.  This weekend, in fact.  I'll let you know how it goes.

3.  These are absolutely dreamy.  Love these colors and want them on my counter pronto!

4.  J's first soccer season.  This kid is absolutely hilarious and yes, he likes to show off his shin-guards.

5.  I recently cut my hair -- a few inches off, layered and razored the heck out of it and brought back my bangs.  I really wanted....needed! something different.  Crazy thing - it doesn't look a whole lot different.  When you have short hair and you need a change your only option is to go shorter, right?  Well, I'm gonna.  

I'm talking myself into it.  Help me do it.

This short???  Do I dare??

Battle Cry

Everyone could use a pep talk when they leave for the day. Actually pep talks kind of freak me out.  Ask G.  So let me start over. Everyone could use a positive thought when they leave for the day.  I'd like to introduce you to our family motto:

Print by Super Swoon

Loved it when I saw it.  Knew it was perfect for my family.  It's now hanging on our wall (desperately needing a new frame), right by the door, so when I run to the store in my glasses, pajamas and uggs, I can think about how awesome I am.

Does your family have a theme?

Because He's Awesome

After 20 minutes of Jack's radio blaring, I decided to go see what he was up to.  I have never been so proud.

Where's the beef?

FYI - the address of this blog has changed to lgmarbles.blogspot.com.  If you give a hoot, you'll need to add it to your google reader since the other one has been nixed.  The end.

*DISCLAIMER*  We eat meat. If you have a problem with us eating meat, well, watch THIS instead of continuing on. 

We recently made two very large purchases. 

1.  Freezer.   I have been so excited about this.  It's big and clean and pretty... and BIG. We've needed an extra freezer for a long time and every time I thought about it I could picture it full of my homemade jam, frozen vegetables from my garden, extra freezer meals, maybe a couple turkeys, some chicken .....  

2.  Cow.  Yes, we bought a cow.  Not a whole cow ... we saved some for someone else.  Nice of us, I know.  G has been so excited about this. Me, not so excited.  

Where's the beef?    Evidently in our BIG, clean, pretty freezer.

The One and Only E

Our family has entered a new phase.  Something new.  Something intense. Something uniquely crazy.

Dance Competition.

We experienced E's first competition yesterday and I've already learned, or at least realized, a few things for the next one:

*Groups of screaming girls will always overwhelm me.  And hurt my ears.

*Dress light and comfortable.  Between costume changes, make-up applications, pinning, sewing, fixing, anxiety, lugging baggage, snacks, stress, cheering, screaming girls (see above)....etc., I will be a sweaty mess!

*A bag that requires a check-list to pack is guaranteed to stress me out.

*Keeping track of all the knick-knacks of multiple costumes is guaranteed to stress me out.

*I will never be ashamed of being the mama who screams and hollers for her girl on stage. E pretends to be embarassed.  I wouldn't really care if she was.  

*Some form of caffeine is a must!  Exhausting, I tell ya!  

*I get weepy when E dances.  It's nerdy.  It's embarassing.  It's just ....what it is, I guess.

*I REALLY need to figure out how to get a good picture of Ella on stage.  My photo skills are SEVERELY lacking!

E and her darling dance buddies practice for hours. They were amazing!  E works so hard and it's so fun to have her hard work pay off and to watch her love something so much.  

Bottom line is this:  It is insanely amazing to watch your kids do something they are honestly good at.
This is new for me and I am loving it so far.

Cheese?

We have never had a family picture taken.   You know a real, effort-made, photographer taken, hang on your wall family picture.  

Wait, I'm remembering a photo session taken a couple years ... Jack was just born ... .ugly hair ... tired and sweaty .....   That's right . We did have a family picture taken.  But it doesn't count.  It was a "whole family in town, better have a picture taken" moment that a) I didn't really make an effort for and b) didn't really WANT to make an effort for.  Besides, there's no photo hanging on my wall to prove it.  Therefore, it must not have happened.  

Knowingly having my picture taken makes me sick.  Honest to goodness, pit in my stomach sick.  So much pressure, self-awareness .... money, time, energy ....   Add in three more people to coordinate clothing, colors, hair and smiles with and I am one freaky, sweaty mess.  

BUT,  I bit the bullet, purchased some extra-strength deodorant and made an appointment with my beautiful, photographer-friend, Allison.  She's amazing, hilarious and could kick my butt in 3 seconds flat.  Absolutely love her.   

A sample:

I am so happy with these pictures!  So happy, in fact, that I started to cry when I saw them.  What a RELIEF!!   Our Christmas cards will be displaying these pictures for the next 5 years because we aren't doing this again any time soon.  

A couple things I'm pretty sure about:

• I'm pretty sure that October just might be my favorite month.  Especially this year -- amazing weather, or what?!
• I'm pretty sure that Ella will someday be on TV ..... something along the lines of Hoarders ...
• I'm pretty sure I'm not going to plant as many tomato plants next year.
• I'm pretty sure that Sunday is my worst day.
• I'm pretty sure that running is not my favorite.
• I'm pretty sure that Jack's habit of taking off his underwear and leaving it places is a sign of a bigger problem.  I mean, don't serial killers do stuff like that?
• I'm pretty sure I have way too much stuff on my To Do list.
• I'm pretty sure I waste too much time .... .when I should be working on my To Do list.
• I'm pretty sure I need to go out and do something fun .... preferably without my kids.
• I'm pretty sure Jack isn't going to throw his shoes at his teacher today .... well, hoping anyway.
• I'm pretty sure my kids are hilarious ..... despite the missing underwear and hoarding tendencies.

Hope everyone's having a fabulous October day!

Jealous?

 I had sinus surgery on Wednesday.  I am PRAYING that this will all be worth it.  If you like blood and the feeling of being punched in the face, you should definitely look into this.

Taken this morning after a much needed shower.  A relatively decent picture considering I spent a good portion of yesterday praying to the Porcelain Gods.  

A few things I am thankful for today:

-Heavy medication

-Awesome neighbors and family. Food, babysitting, support ... awesome!

-Zofran has gone generic! 

-  Gauze pads

- Fall weather

- Gator

- A quiet house

Red

I love red.  I am a firm believer that every girl should own a clothing item or accessory that's red... except leggings.  a lot of people should not wear leggings, let alone red ones ....  

Red shoes, red purse, red hat .... A good RED has the power to make you happy.  I promise.

My latest finished knitting project:

A RED sweater for my new niece.  Yes, I know it looks a little weird with its sleeves sticking straight out but my crummy photo doesn't do it justice.  It's cute.  Little H. is going to be feeling her RED POWER when she gets this thing on!

You know what else are cute?  Purple shoes.  The only way I would love my shoes more is if they were RED.

Totally Sucks

I hate bad mornings.

I hate not knowing how to deal with stuff.

I hated watching her ride off on her bike this morning splotchy faced and sniffling.

I hate when I can't be the adult and STAY CALM!!

I'm going to have to apologize to my 6 year old for being a bad parent.  I hate that.

I'm going to have to tell her she's still grounded.  We are all going to hate that.

 .......

Being a parent can really suck. I think I need to be grounded.

A scenario.

A burnt piece of toast and a smoky, smoky house.

I say I'm getting a new toaster.

Husband says the toaster works perfectly fine if I would just stand and watch for it to be done (the automatic pop-up thing broke years ago).  He does this and rarely (if ever) burns toast. 

I say I don't have time to stand and watch the bread toast when I'm busy refilling cocoa puffs, finding drinks,  packing backpacks .... and checking facebook (just being honest).  

Husband says we don't need to go and waste $50 bucks on a toaster.

I say I don't need a $50 toaster.  A $10 toaster would suit me perfectly as long as the toast popped up automatically. 

Husband says we don't need a toaster.

I say Husband, don't tell me what I don't need.

Husband leaves for work, I put another piece of bread in the toaster.   Smoke billowing, fire alarms blaring and one charred piece of bread flaming in a toaster is flying through the air. 

I'm pretty sure I know who is getting a new toaster.

Harvest

Four huge bowls picked from my garden this morning.  In another day this will double. Time to buy more bottles, I guess. 

Sunday

A day of peace.  A day of reflection.  A day of rest.  

If you forget about the process before church, the wrestling of kids, Sunday school, teaching lessons, meetings, the never-ending day, grumpy, tired kids, Church Headaches and the pure exhaustion of the Sunday Circus Ring ....

It's the best darn day of rest I've ever had!

The Stake President asked me a while back, "don't you just love Sunday's?"  I asked him if that was a trick question.

And on the third day ....

My computer has been on this screen for three days.  I've been feeling the need to blog but writers block has seriously set in.  These last two sentences suck, yet they took me 5 minutes to write.  Hmm ....

You know when you start writing in a journal and after you've taken a break you feel like you need to catch up on everything you didn't write about?  But then you start writing, and writing, and writing and it's past your bedtime, and your hand hurts, and you're still not even current?  *sigh*  Do you even know what I'm talking about?

So, this blog here.  I need to blog.  It's been nagging at me.  I've had a million blogable thoughts rolling around this head of mine ....   but I can't focus on the current until the old is out of the way ... well, I think that's problem anyway ....

So as much as I've been trying to avoid a re-cap post, here it is.  Our summer:

Did you know that Jack has not slept through the night for the 3+ years he's been alive?  Most of you know this since I complain about it every chance I get.  We took in Jack in for a sleep study to figure out what was going on.  It was an absolute joke, nobody slept, I was ticked, but the conclusion was that Jack suffers from sleep apnea and we needed to get his tonsils and adenoids removed.

 So we had his tonsils and adenoids removed...

...which led to 14 days of Jack not taking any pain medication.  No pain medication = torture for everyone. Now, the sleeping?  Another post for another day....

Ella, Jack & Cousins

 The Kaysville 4th of July Parade.  Now THIS is a party!

We spent a week camping at the beach with some friends down in southern California.  We had such a great time!  The weather was a little crummy but overall a fun trip!

 Sea World.  3D Elmo.  Ella got scared and cried.

.

 Sprocket Rockets!  Division Champions!

Saints to Sinners -- a 500+ bike race from Salt Lake to Las Vegas. Me, along with an awesome team, spent the spring and summer training our butts off for this race.  It was amazing!  One of the hardest, hottest and funnest things I've ever done! 

Instead of running the full Bountiful triathlon this year, a few of us decided to do a relay team (except for Valerie, the girl in pink. She ran the whole thing).  We were awesome.  We were fast.  We were robbed of first place.  Next year we are coming back with a vengeance!!

 Hannah!

Gator's sister Ashlee finally had her first baby.  You can't see her, but she's darling!!

Gator had a company party at the zoo.  The kids love it!  Roar!

Me and Dwight and a huge pair of unflattering shorts.  Lake Mead.  100+ degrees.  Right after my last leg of the race .... what a relief!!

THE END 

Six

Happy Birthday, sweet girl.  Best Mother's Day gift ever!  

Love you.