Christmas Vermin

      I'm up waaaaay too early when I see the dog and cat go up to a dark pile of...something (the lights were off, couldn't make out what it is) sniffing around lazily.  I assume an animal barfed and I'll have to clean it up. Look up a minute later and the pile's not there.  But, the cat is pacing around the box in the corner. You've got to be kidding me.  I turn on a dim light and move the box, but don't see anything.  Except, now the cat is pacing around the corner where another box is, obviously hunting.... something.  I turn on the light, get on a chair (please note at this point I was still kind enough NOT to wake my hubby) and move the box.  Oh yeah, it's a mouse.  Slowly walking...no JAUNTING LAZILY across my dining room floor while the cat watches on with little interest.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!! We OBVIOUSLY feed our cats WAY too much, something I plan on rectifying IMMEDIATELY.  The mouse has meandered under the dog dishes now, and I'm not doing this on my own- the animals are no help, either, so I get Scott up.  

     " A mouse." I say. 

     "Huh"- his reply.
     "A mouse. A MOUSE. We have A MOUSE in the dining room.  A MOUSE." Where the heck is his sense of urgency?
     "Okay. Get the cats." he groggily replies.
     "I did. They aren't doing anything but watch it."
     "Well, what do you want me to do?" he says trying as hard as he can not to wake up.  Let's see, I'd like to to pet it, sing to it, maybe dress it up in barbie clothes-
     "CATCH IT!" I reply, to the point of frustration.
      He stumbles out of bed and stands at the dining room entrance while I lift up the dog bowl the mouse is under. 

     "If he comes that way catch it...or at least stop it."

     "With what?" I'm feeling the whole "bat in the house" thing coming back. 

     "WHATEVER! Here's a tub lid!" I prop up a tub lid as he just stands and watches.  Honestly, the baby in my womb is being just about as much help.  At least HE'S kicking me, cheering me on, I believe.

     "URGH!" I grab a bucket myself, knowing that I'm our last choice for catching this vermin and slowly lift the other dog dish the mouse is hiding under.  The mouse just stands there.  The cats just stand there, squinting at me as they blink slowly, as if to say "Problem?".  I set the bucket on top of the mouse and look back at Scott. 

     "Okay. Got him. What are we going to do?" Proud of myself, expecting him to take over now.   

     "Okay, well,  I'm going back to bed." He says. 

    "So, we're just going to leave the mouse there?" It's 6am, not 2 in the morning.

    "Yep." he says and retreats to the bedroom. 

      I grab Kayte's giant "Messed-up Bulletin" binder that's heavy enough for the mouse not to be able to move and set it on top of the bucket.  The cat's head over to their food bowl.  As if.  I have safely stored their food bowl on top of the fridge until I can forgive them of this "indiscretion".  Then, as an after thought (picturing the curiosity getting the best of my children) include a note on top that says: "DO NOT MOVE! There is a mouse under here (and don't fool yourself into thinking the cats will take care of it- THEY WON'T- we already tried!) Stupid cats." Interested to see how long it takes Scott to "take care of it" this morning.

What (WAS) up with me?

http://www.groupon.com/r/uu7472994


NOW HERE, MY FRIENDS, IS A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE.  I JUST UN-EARTHED IT WHILE LOOKING THROUGH MY OTHER BLOGS.  IT'S NEVER BEEN COMPLETED AND MOST OF THE THINGS ON THE LIST NEVER HAPPENED/WERE NEVER COMPLETED (WITH THE EXCEPTION OF MIMI'S PERSONAL PROGRESS). YES, WE WILL UPDATE EVERYONE (HOPEFULLY BEFORE BABY GETS HERE....OH YEAH....BTW, I'M 8 MONTHS PREGNANT- SURPRISE!!)






Okay, I'm (not-so secretly) hoping my husband will check out the $20 60-minute massage at Tranquil Day Spa on the groupon link above.  HINT HINT
 
I know it's not something that's tangible or that I can keep as a reminder, but I promise I'll take some pictures, and I don't have to clean up after it.  Sounds like a good birthday present to me!! 
 
Perhaps Star, Christy, June and I can all convince our husbands and then we can go after our birthday dinner (believe it or not, all 3 friends and I have birthdays on either Sept 13, 14, or 15- and my sister's also!)!
 
Here's the lo-down on our household lately:
 
Scott:  Scott's hard at work (literally AND physically).  Him and his boss have been doing the work of three men, since they lost one of their employees.  That means long, hard days building 'loads' and sweating up a storm.  He's also the Young Men's president which means early Sunday morning meetings,the occasional trip during sacrament meeting to grab some forgotten sacrament bread, Wednesday night activities, Scout trips, Campouts, Black-sock hunting (early Sunday morning), White-sock hunting (every other morning), and he still has time to catch a quick nap during scripture study.  I can't imagine why!  He has managed to put up all of the shelves I constantly ask for (somewhere in the thousands by now), fix the broken things that magically show up, take over the finances, make dinner every Sunday, throw laundry in the wash, and fret over our lawn.  I don't think I'll ever know how truly good I have it!  Scott, you are an amazing man, and I don't mean that lightly.
 
Enoch:  Enoch has been absorbing several of the college Chemistry textbooks he's been reading for the last year.  He's supposed to be taking Chemistry next year as a Sophmore.  Something tells me, aside from the labs, he might be a smidgen ahead of his class.  He's officially shaving now, getting teased relentlessly by his sisters, and a harsh reminder from his Mom, after giving a good night kiss, to SHAVE.  We are grateful that he discovered girls, which was closely associated with the discovery of the shower, body wash, and deoderant.  He's taking Spanish this year as well as weight training at the YMCA (the age of 15 apparently makes you an 'adult' in the eyes of the YMCA, thereby allowing you access to the big boy gym). Yes, he still has those bizarrely huge muscles, and he plans on keeping them (although he doesn't believe us that you can totally pump them up by washing the dishes).  He's finally surpassed his sister, Amelia (and his Mom and Dad), in height, ringing in at just over 5'5 1/2".  He started Seminary this year, and is up, dressed, and ready each morning ready to go before Mom is.
 
Amelia: We skipped Mia ahead a year in school.  We figured if she was doing Freshman schoolwork, Algebra, etc. it just made sense.  Luckily, with homeschool, we have the flexibility to do that and focus on a specific subject if she needs to concentrate on it more.  She started Seminary this year with Enoch, and is up and ready before my alarm even goes off. She is taking control of her own clothing style, which is often questioned by me with an additional 'When you see pictures of yourself later, don't blame me!'.  I must admit, if this is as bad as it gets, I'm certainly blessed!  Kids still flock to her by the dozens and despite our encouragings to look into a career in childcare/social work/ANYTHING with little ones, she still thinks she wants to go into the medical field (of which she would GREATLY excel in).  She's taking Spanish classes as well, and in exchange, her, Enoch and I are going to be babysitting for the teacher.  She's also part of the homeschool Gym & Swim for two hours each week.  Amelia only has a few things left to do before her Personal Progress is finished, she's hoping to be the youngest in the Branch. 
 
Katarina: Kate is in 6thish grade.  We've noticed that's a hard thing to do when you homeschool- put a kid into a grade catagory.  They're usually in several DIFFERENT grades, depending on the subject.  She's a whiz at math (just like several other of the kids), even though she groans like crazy while she's doing it.  She (and Enoch) have discovered the joy of  'natural hair dye'.  They take walks down a trail near our house and gather bright purple berries and SLATHER them through her hair, creating a completely sticky, dries solid as a helmet, purple hair-do.  She won't let me give her a perm, she HATES having her hair down (she thinks it looks too "poofy"), and hates wearing any sort of hair product in it, BUT she'll rub (probably poisonous) berries in her hair.

Cramming in Christmas

Okay, the picture isn't great, but you can watch the video on my facebook page (unless I can get Enoch woken up to show me how to attach it) The picture isn't really what's important, anyway.  It's the insanity of the hour prior to the picture that matter.  Here Goes: We raced home from church to get ready for this performance, only to be greeted by our neighbor warning us from the porch that we have no electricity (SO glad she did, or I would have been CONVINCED I didn't pay the bill).  Run in, stick Ava's head under the sink to wash it while Mimi grabs a flashlight to go downstairs and find a 'Christmas-y' dress/shoes/tights/accessories ('cause it's Mimi) to wear.  Halfway through washing her hair I realize- I can't blowdry it!!  I hop on the computer to send a text to a friend of ours asking her to call Scott (we have no cell phones, only land-line, and Scott's phone can't recieve texts).  I get my message all typed up, press send, and realize that our internet works through the electricity (Scott, Enoch, Aidan and Kayte had meetings at church so they were going to meet us at the venue- they just had NO IDEA where it was located, so they were going to call us and get directions). SO, we threw Ava's hair in a towel, grabbed her clothes and stuff and BOOKED it out the door.  Friend's house #1- not home. AARGH!! Friend's House #2 (The Waugh's)- LIFE SAVERS!!! They had JUST returned home from church, let us use their bathroom/outlets, even looked up the church/location and called Scott to give him directions.  We are OUT the door and only 10ish minutes behind schedule.  End of story? Not a chance.  NEVER TRUST MAPQUEST.  After getting lost and utilizing the "Full" part of Full-Service Drive-Thru at a local CVS, we were back on track, but now REALLY late.  Then I realized, Scott's using the same wrong directions I had.  We dumped Ava off in the line of children's choir kids and ran around the church looking for a phone (because all of our have one in the foyers- isn't that a common courtesy...or something?) No phone.  Finally begged a phone off of two nice nursing ladies in the foyer.  Called Scott-straight to voice-mail.  I left a brief-and barely understandable explanation of how to get there, while in the middle of it she gets a call.  I quickly hang up, thank her profusely, and make a B-line to the concert now beginning. Mimi told me later, that the call she received was actually from Enoch returning the unanswered call.  They made it there having only missed 2 of the 4 songs!  Good thing I didn't have to get my blood pressure checked that day!! (And by the time we returned home, our electricity was back on....knock on wood)

Mimi's 16th Birthday- In Her Own Words

Hello everyone! Amelia here(16 year-old Amelia, thank you very much). I just had THE BEST 16th birthday ever! 
 Ava woke me up at about 8:15am (my plan was to sleep in until around 10-ish) with a wonderful gift-breakfast in bed! 3 frozen toaster strudels ( I like mine that way) and an extremely full glass of milk was the perfect start to my day.
 Right after I had my shower and finished off my breakfast my mom told me to put on my prom dress. Now, for the past week or so my family and neighbor, Tabitha have been acting very strange. I knew it was about my birthday but I had no idea what was planned. After I was in my dress and my hair and make-up was done (which turned out to be pointless, but I'll explain that later) we(Me,Mom, Kayte. and Ava) hopped in the car and left. Of course I was still clueless.Our first stop was at subway so we could get lunch and drop it off at dad's work                 
  After that my mom asked me where I wanted to go for lunch. We all decided on Banditos (free birthday meal and they sing to you). When we walked in, the lady at the front asked if we had just gotten back from a wedding.
Once we were seated and had given our orders another group comes in and is seated right next. There were 2 moms, one with 7 kids and the other with 4. 2 of the little girls were just fascinated by us. Probably by the dresses and the fact that the staff came to sing to me. Speaking of which, I think it was very kind of them to make sure that they got the cute waiter to come out and sing with them.
 After Banditos we headed out. Of course I still had no idea where we were going.
 Well we ended up at Macy's! I knew exactly what we were going to do when we ended at the make-up section. We were getting make-overs!!! The lady who did our(Kaytes and mine) make-up was AMAZING! Her name was Gabriella. She was beautiful and super nice. We had a great time and Kayte even got her make-up done( a once in a lifetime thing for her) and Ava got a little lipgloss as well.
 After a couple other stops we headed home. Once at home my mom told me to change into a more casual out fit and to eat a quick dinner because Tabitha was going to take me somewhere.
 First stop: a nail salon. Before then I have never had my nails done professionally. It was fun. I got them painted gold with a cute little design on then.
Last stop: The movies! Tabitha took me to see Safe Haven. A wonderful movie(but only if you are into chick flicks)! After I got home I opened my last few gifts. and went to bed. It was an awesome day! 
 Friday evening we had my birthday dinner and cake. We invited a couple people(Laura Zollman and her kids and Brock Wallace) over to have dinner, cake and to watch my last gift. Enoch, Daddy and the rest of my family made a little slideshow/movie with a bunch of pictures of me and some of my favorite songs.
 Of course it wouldn't be a birthday without my birthday talk in church(a 5-year tradition. so far anyway).

                                                 The girls and daddy.

                                               After my make-up was done.

                                            Ditto.

                                         After our make-up was done.

                                              Me, Gabriella, Kayte
  Thank you to everyone who made my birthday so amazing!