Today's To Do List

I've decided to continue bragging about the many exploits of Shelly the Conqueror. Here's what I did today...

I scraped paint off the cement foundation and repainted it.

I helped Josh hang drywall downstairs. He had to go to work, so I finished mudding it for him. He's got plenty of places to touch up tomorrow, but it should be paint-able soon.

I painted an accent wall in Millie's room.

Now I'm sitting on my behind. This whole "fix the house so you can sell it" business is for the birds. Tomorrow's to-do list includes: getting stuff together for a yard sale, cleaning out the girls' room and Matt's room, prepping our room for paint, cleaning up the office. Unfortunately, this list includes every single thing I've been avoiding for weeks. Oh, procrastination, why do you haunt me so?

Too Tired To Sleep

I was very busy today. So busy that I'm too tired to go to bed. Ever get that way?

Today I:

-got bills paid
-found out the camera survived its dip in the hot tub (hooray!!)
-turned in the books on cd we listened to on our trip south
-stopped by the gym (to cancel the membership, not workout -- I'm a fatty)
-prepped Millie's room for some accent painting (took down the Ariel border, removed the baseboards and washed the walls)
-helped Josh get the new drywall for downstairs
-cleaned the toilet, then put the new toilet seat on
-scrubbed the anti-slip dirt ring out of the bathtub
-moved the rocks away from the house so I can scrape the old paint off tomorrow and then repaint it
-cleaned off the table which was covered with crap from the van from our trip
-purchased the paint for Millie's room, our room, the upstairs bathroom, the downstairs family room, and the front doors.
-let Emma and Abby make their own (and Matt's) dinners tonight. Gotta love quesadillas.
-and I even got a shower today

At Walmart, after purchasing our paint and such, Josh noticed that we were being charged less than what we expected. I said, "Wow, we're making out like bandits!" Matt said, "Bandits? Bandits are bad guys! They kill you! We are bandits!"

The Gypsy Daughter

My dad called me his Gypsy Daughter the other day. I think it's pretty accurate.

I've attended

8 elementary schools

1 middle school

1 junior high school

1 high school

2 colleges

I've lived in

Montana

New Mexico

Louisiana

Idaho

Utah

Colorado

Arizona

Colorado

Montana

And now we're moving again. Josh just got a job in Scottsdale, Arizona. He'll be working at a good facility in their Emergency Department. He impressed the interviewer immensely and she called to offer him the job within two hours of his interview. The best part of all this is that our family is so adventurous that we're all excited for this new change. I'm really sad to move away from my parents and grandparents, and we love our friends and Josh's job here, but we have to get more income so Josh can go back to school easier. It's going to be fun and scary and we totally expect it to be absolutely worth it.

So, now we have to put our house on the market. We think we can list it for a good $10,000 below other houses in our area so we can get a quick sale. The kids and I will have to stay here with the house until it sells. So not looking forward to that one. But before we can list it, we have to do a little fix up here and there. Josh took the wood panels down in the family room and discovered that the drywall behind it needed to be replaced. So today we demo-ed the drywall. It was like finding junk behind your wall. We found an entire thing of electrical tape. We found a nearly dissolved mouse (totally hid that one from the kids). And then we found a few other things. Matt pulled out a purse from under the stairs. (That open area in the back.)

In it was $1,863,500!!

It's hard to see, but the money is actually from the game of Life. I made the mistake of telling the kids to look for real money back there. Instead, Abby pulled out a magazine she found. Josh and I looked at the cover and FREAKED OUT!!!

Flashback: Years and years ago, I was at my friend Cindy's house and her nephew was watching as Cindy's sister-in-law and I shucked corn. He asked us what was in our hands and we told him, "Corn." His eyes brightened and he shouted, "PORN!!" We said, "No, Corn." And he shouted again, "PORN!!"

That was funny and pretty cute. Not so cute when that porn is hidden in your walls and your daughter discovers it. I think I grabbed it and threw it into the trash can outside before they realized what the lady on the cover was not dressed in.

Our next step is to put up the new drywall and paint a few rooms. I'm hoping to have everything done so we can list the house by next Monday. If you know anyone who wants a 2000+ sq ft home with 4 bedrooms (and no porn) let me know. We'd love to show them around.

'Fess Up Friday

This week's 'Fess Up Friday is brought to you by:

Dictionary.com

curve ball or curve·ball (kûrv'bôl') n.
1. Baseball: Any of several pitches that veer to the left when thrown with the right hand and to the right when thrown with the left hand.
2. Slang: Something that is unexpected or designed to trick or deceive: That last question on the exam was a real curve ball.

Needless to say, some curveballs have been thrown at our family. Everything is fine, and I'll expound on it all later, but I didn't get to exercise at all this week and I've got to get back to working on it next week. Not this week. Our "quick" trip to Colorado wasn't so quick and I'm just beginning to recoup from that one. I'm really hoping for a very uneventful weekend.

Not a Real 'Fess Up Friday

I realized today that yesterday was Friday. I forgot to 'fess up. It's because I'm on vacation with my family. So, my exercise has consisted of sitting in the car, swimming with my kids and nephews, and seeing family members I haven't seen in a long time.

We started off with my husband loving me to death and not only taking me shopping but also taking me to get my hair cut. He's a good man. I'll keep him around a bit longer, I think.

We've gotten to see so many of our family. I'd post pictures, but I decided to take my camera swimming with me. It's in the CICU (Camera Intensive Care Unit). It doesn't look good. I'm not really sure what's going to happen next. If it gives up the ghost, we're just going to be picture-less for a while.

But, we've seen Johnson family members, Williams family members, and we finally got to meet our newest nephew, Ashton. He's a cutie! My nephews are all getting so big (all 7 of them). And I look forward to the day when we get to meet a niece. Maybe someday. My youngest brother and his wife are expecting next March. Maybe they'll have a girl. Maybe.

So that's the skinny about where I've been. What have you been up to? Anything fun this summer?

Need Me a Pick-Me-Up

Ever watch Friends? Remember when Ross would walk into a room and say that really sad and pathetic "Hi"?

Hi.

I don't know what the problem is today. My children were out of control at the store (which always makes it a lovely trip). I've got a headache and some congestion coming on. I'm so tired. And I have a lot of prep work to do before we head off to Colorado. Colorado should be enough to make me happy, but, alas, I'm still down.

I think I might need a physical pick-up. I may have to buy myself a new pair of pants (since I'm down to a size 10--heck, yeah), but I want to save our money for whatever our future may hold so I think I'll take a cheaper route and color my hair. Problem is I heard a rumor that you shouldn't dye your hair when you're nursing. I know you can't when you're pregnant, but is nursing now part of that warning? Anyone know? I think I'm going to Google it. So, if I can do it, any suggestions as to what color to do? I'm thinking a strawberry blonde. I haven't gone blonde-blonde for a long time. And brown didn't do it for me when I did that one once. I've done the so-maroon-it-looks-purple once too, but I think I'd like to stay more natural.

Oh, just to update you, my class at church was actually pretty good. Afterward I felt kind of bad for publicly worrying about it. It wasn't perfect, but not too bad (Crisanne, I am soooo sorry that you have such a handful, and I'm even more sorry that I laughed when you said your troublemaker is your son! :) )

In an effort to find something funny, I tried to record Millie playing peek-a-boo with me, but I'm not very positive today, so here are the bad things about this video: I didn't get the camera soon enough, so she was getting fussy at the end AND you have to listen to my high, annoying, baby-voice for 23 seconds or something like that. But, Millie is still cute.

And in case you need a fix of the other kids, here you go...

This is Matt. That is all.

Abby fell off her bike the other day. This barely shows the immense amount of road rash she got on her face. Poor girl. Hopefully she'll be healed a bit before we take pictures this weekend in Colorado.

Emma is showing off her new tooth that is growing in. It's a slow process. Most 8-year-olds already have their top front adult teeth, but Emma has always been blessed with looking younger than she is. Hopefully she'll have that blessing for most of her life!

And, after having issues with these beautiful children today, I'm willing to let them vacation somewhere other than my house with people other than me. Any takers?

More Teeth Issues

My baby is getting too big too fast. Millie's first tooth broke through today. Nooooo! She's too young!!! Take me instead!!! Wait, sorry about that. Have we established the fact that I get a little melodramatic?

But, really, I'm so happy my baby is getting bigger and stronger, but does she really have to prove to me that she's not a newborn anymore? I'm a bit bummed. On the other hand, she is such a calm baby. Like, what-the-heck?-calm. About a week ago she started to get fussy and I thought it was probably her teeth. The buds had just begun to show, so with the other kids that meant that we had several weeks of fussing and gnawing before those buds broke through to become teeth. But, this is Millie we're talking about. She's the anomaly. Hardly any fussing, hardly any grinding, and her teeth have begun to pop up.

I know I can't take it for granted. She is having a little more difficulty falling asleep, so I have to adjust our routines based on that. I'm a bit nervous about it because tomorrow may be trouble. Every Sunday I sit with the 4-year-olds at church for two hours. It's called the Sunbeam class. These kids are cute and vivacious and energetic. Yeah, those last two words are synonyms, but have you ever spent two hours trying to keep 6 to 8 4-year-olds sitting in their chairs and listening to the lesson? And all I have to do is assist. It's always complicated on the Sundays that Josh is working. Try as he might he cannot stay awake for church, and I don't push him because he needs sleep to work at least three more nights. But when Millie sat in her carseat sleeping, she was still a major distraction. Lately she hasn't been sleeping during class. And even lately-er she's been a bit active during class. Tomorrow I am teaching the lesson and will be the only adult in the room with all the crazy-active little kids. And, you guessed it, Josh is working this weekend. I'm praying that Millie will be able to relax and be a good girl. And that lots of families will be on vacation.

'Fess Up Friday

Here it is, the end of the week and for once I'm not dreading this entry. I know...me dread blogging? Yes, friends, that is the sad, sad truth. But it's because my weight loss has been such a miss over the last several weeks. I had that good spell when I took a break, but then my break lasted too long and I gained some back. Well, I'm back down again and I can see the end of the tunnel. Either that or a big fat freight train. I'm hoping for the former.

Despite the fudge I bought at the candy store this afternoon, I've been doing pretty good this week. I've decided that I'm not up for P90X after all. I hoped it would work out for us, but he required more commitment than my body was able to give and we had to break up. But it's okay. I've found another beau and so far, he's working out just fine. My body just rebelled against the P90X, and I had to finally just give in and listen.

Here's some good news: I'm almost not illegal anymore! I'm within 5 pounds of what my driver's license says I weigh!! It has been a LOOOOOONG time since I was legal in that area. So, I'm very, very excited for being illegal because my driver's license weight is too much. Ah, I can dream right?

How'd you do? Are you legal??? ;-)

Unwanted Houseguest

We've had this houseguest for a while that is really getting under my skin. He's been hanging around for a few months now. I don't know that it's fair to label this houseguest as a male, because I'm pretty sure the female form hangs out around here too. This thing's name is "Not Me." I'm really hating Not Me. Not Me does all sorts of stuff that I keep blaming my kids for: cereal spilt all over the floor, dirty spots on the carpet, untidy rooms. Today Not Me wore his/her welcome to the point of getting kicked out of here as soon as I figure out how to wrangle him/her.

At lunchtime I was making the girls some mac and cheese. I pulled the butter out of the fridge and realized that it was very, very soft. Now, this has happened before. You can read that post here. So, I thought I just had to defrost the fridge and all would be well. I need all to be well because we have a trip to Colorado coming up next week and I really don't want my budget for that to be used for a new fridge.

Anyway, I figured the fridge needed defrosting and I'd get to it after I got some lunch. I decided to pull the food out of the freezer first, though, and stick it all out in the big deep freezer in the garage. See, last time this happened, the freezer wasn't freezing the food right and that affected the fridge. (Affected or Effected? I always get those confused.) So, the food in the fridge wasn't getting as cold as it should've.

I started freaking out when I realized that this time, the food in the freezer had defrosted. Not just a little bit, but completely. I was so upset because I didn't want to lose all the meat that had been frozen in there. I very calmly and carefully began unloading the freezer. YEAH, RIGHT! I totally began throwing things around and mumbling very loudly and getting all sorts of mad. And then I saw it: Not Me's contribution to this catastrophe. The freezer setting had been turned down to 1. With how defrosted everything was, it must've been turned down yesterday. Of course, I blamed my children but they all swore to me that it was Not Me! That stupid, hateful, crappy Not Me! S/he is totally not welcome here. I swear, if I catch him/her I'll kick his/her booty so hard!

Not Me, go home!!

The Snaggle-Tooth Lisp Begins

If you're keeping score (because everyone under 8 at our house is), Abby has just lost her first tooth--putting her (still) in second place for having lost the most teeth out of all the kids. So, just to recap the race:

Emma has lost four teeth and has 2.25 permanent teeth.
Abby has lost one tooth with no biggies growing in yet.
Matt is 5. If he loses a tooth yet it will be a bad thing.
Millie is still toothless, but the bottom two are on their way. I'm jinxing myself by saying that she's been pretty even tempered through this whole ordeal. Hopefully, she'll stay that way over the next several weeks as her gums grow more sensitive.

And, yes, I know I shouldn't encourage competition between my children and to you I say, "I'm not, so back off!" But I am very happy that Abby has finally reached the milestone. Everyday for months she's had me check those blasted teeth and they have been solid. It took about four days for this tooth to go from loose to money in her pocket. FINALLY!!

I Like. Can I Touch?

Josh and I say that to each other all the time when one person has said something less than intelligent. This is why:

Drama Queen? Yes. Beauty Queen? No!

Happy belated 4th of July, everybody! I hope you all had as much fun as we did. Overall it was a good day. About the only thing that would've made it better was if Josh hadn't had to rush off to work after the fireworks tonight.

Our day started off with us being in the 4th of July parade in downtown Great Falls. I was okay with just skipping this, but Josh got us out there and we joined up. It wasn't so bad. I had to try to figure out why I'm so against parades. I've been in several throughout my life. I've seen several from the sidelines. I don't know, maybe I feel it's just a lot of waiting for a few minutes of fun. I just don't like sitting and smiling and waving and being on display. I know, I'm such a hypocrite. I'll get up and make an idiot of myself on stage and live for the applause, but getting on a float to wave at people and have my cheeks hurt from the fake smile, just isn't my cup of tea. But, it was actually very fun and the kids loved it. Emma said being in the parade was "a dream come true...I always saw kids in parades and wished I was them. Now, I'm in a parade and I bet other kids will look at me and wish they were me!" How can you argue with that? We were on the float for the Mercy Flight unit of Great Falls. It's the helicopter and fixed wing that transport patients to and from the hospital. It was pretty cool to watch the crowd realize that we were for the Mercy Fight and they'd applaud for us simply because we were a part of a noble organization. It was good to see those that had a true appreciation for the Mercy Flight, therefore having an appreciation for those that work with the Mercy Flight, therefore having an appreciation for my stud of a husband. And of course Millie was a hit as people along the sidelines noticed, "Oh, a baby!" It was fun.

In the afternoon we had a BBQ at Mom and Dad's with Aunt Bev, my cousins Jennie and Kristen, and Gramma and Grampa. Matt got a few more birthday presents and all the kids (including Jennie and Kristen) got some huge bubble wands.

Gramma and Millie. Gramma's knee surgery was almost two weeks ago. She's up and around and looks really great.

The kids were playing with the bubbles in the backyard.

Jennie, Matt, Abby, Kristen, and Emma. They had lots of fun playing. The little kids didn't want the big girls to leave. At all. Ever.

Aunt Bev and me. Bev was single for most of my childhood and I loved when she let me hang out with her. She's still so cool.

We did fireworks later that night. We had to hurry so Josh wasn't too late for work. We love doing fireworks. We've done them every year for the last four years. I don't know why we didn't do them the first few years in Alamosa. Anyway, they've become a fun thing that Josh and I do together. The last two years in Alamosa we bought a bunch of extra fireworks to do for the people at the long term care center Josh worked at. There were so many veterans there and good people in general. But, the activities director always got the 4th of July off, so she didn't bother doing anything for the residents. So, Josh and I took it upon ourselves to honor the wishes of the old folks. Alamosa had some great deals on fireworks, but in Montana the fancy shoot-up-in-the-air-making-circles fireworks are legal, so we had to pay a little more, but got some cooler ones. Only problem was that it rained really hard for the first time in weeks. We were drenched before long, including the fireworks. Oh well. It was still fun and a good day. I love my husband, my kids, my extended family, my country, my heritage of soldiers, and my freedom.

Happy birthday, America!

'Fess Up Friday and the Camping Trip

This week my exercising consisted of camping and boating. My healthy diet included Matt's birthday cake and S'mores. So, yeah, another week, another bust. Next week I'll try again!

But our camping this week was SO FUN! I love getting out and having fun with my family, and with Josh's decrease in overtime, we may have lots more chances to camp this year than we did last. I'd tell you where we went, but then everyone will want to go there and we won't have as much quiet as we did this time! Here are a few highlights of our trip:

Millie did NOT like her life jacket for the boat. Every time she had it on she got really mad then shut down and fell asleep. Either that or we kept catching her at nap time.

The kids were on the dock waiting for Dad to bring the boat around so we could board for the first time.




Abby got to steer.

Matt, Emma, Millie, and Josh.

Have you ever seen the movie "Master of Disguise"? It's pretty cute and stars Dana Carvey. He has one scene where he's trying to fit into the local Turtle Club and instead of looking like a yuppie, he dresses up like a turtle. "Am I not turtley enough for the turtle club. Turtle, turtle, turtle!" Millie reminded me of that.

Josh and Abby jumped into the lake. Later Abby wanted to go in again. The first time she just kind of got into the water. The second time she shocked her system by jumping in and she began to freak out. The quote of the week is, "I...changed...my...mind!"

The water was pretty.

Matt got in too, but he was not a happy camper!

He was so traumatized that this picture was taken about ten minutes later.

The girls had lots of fun at the front of the boat as we raced toward the shore.

Inspired by my BIL Jabon's beautiful photography, I decided to try to capture the sunset as we headed home yesterday. Not great, but a decent try I think.

So, I've got to restart my workouts again. It is harder to restart than I remembered. Plus, summer schedules are totally messing me up. How'd you do?