Oh Boy...

Where have I been. I feel like I am reuniting with a long lost friend. I looked at the date on my last post and couldn't believe it had been that long since I last posted. It makes me sad but then at the same time I know how busy I have been.

This is the all time busiest time of year for me with my Etsy advent calendars and Paparazzi Jewelry business. It is nuts. I always get a huge influx of calendar orders right before December 1st and then a few that trickle in after because people just flat out forgot or didn't think of them early. So at this very moment, I have 4 that I need to complete. It is a lot of fun to do and I love other's reactions to them. However, I received two wedding album orders at the beginning of the craziness. It really messed with my groove. It made things all off to start. Hopefully I get caught up with very few coming in this next week and things will mellow out.

However I don't anticipate life slowing down because of Paparazzi. It is also the busiest time of year right now. Things are insane. People are after Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers. This business has been so fun and so easy. Easy because I don't have to convince anyone to like it and buy it. It literally sells itself. This last week I had two open houses with me intentionally not scheduling anything on Saturday because of a family tradition at the Caldwell night parade. But next week, I have 6 open houses!! Two of them being on the same day. Craziness...and then next week I have 4 with two being on the same day. Then the week before Christmas it just dies. Nobody wants to venture into the full week before Christmas so far.

I have had tons of fun doing this and the compensation/commission plan is pretty great too. One of my favorite things is that I have 3 fantastic ladies signed up under me with a potential in the works! They are so fun to work with and I love bouncing ideas off of each other. One of my consultants had been one for 12 days when she had her first person sign up under her. That is insane! She was a little surprised herself. We have had a lot of fun and can't wait to see what the new year brings for us. Want to check out more of what I am talking about? Visit my Facebook page. Like it while you are there because I love to do giveaways!

My kids keep me busy too. Gunnar is in full day kindergarten but twice a week I watch Cami too. Since she is only 3.5 months younger than Brecken, they keep busy. One walks and and the other crawls. They can get into about anything but love to play together so they keep each other company. It's quite nice.

We are half way up for Christmas. The tree has been up for days but not decorated. The first night we ran out of time and Gunnar really needed to be in bed for school the next day. The next day we attempted it but Gunnar was wild and naughty so we called quits on it and sent him to bed early. The poor tree has been sitting there ever since. I don't know if it is me or what, but the older I get the more I really don't want to put up so many random decorations. Last year I really paired it down and stuck with the things that I love. Simple and easy. Right now I am on the hunt for a dog Christmas stocking holder in bronze. I am to the point that I will probably just get a random normal one to go with our others. We are done shopping. It's finished. Right down to the dog's Christmas. Now I just need to finish one more sibling gift and wrap, wrap, wrap. I'm happy about that.

We've experienced no snow yet. It has been lingering in the 40's which is rather warm here this time of year with really windy days but no snow. I am completely 100% fine with it until after all of these open houses. Then it can snow all it wants. So far next week looks clear. Yeah!

Wow! That is a lot of rambling and now I am done. :)

A to Z About Me

I saw this on another blog and thought it would be fun and random to fill out.

A. age :: thirty

B. bed size :: queen

C. chore you hate :: bathrooms

D. dogs :: our Golden, Diesel

E. essential start to your day :: making our bed

F. favorite color :: blue, always have

G. gold or silver :: silver

H. height :: five feet eight inches

I. instruments you play :: none

J. job title :: wife, mom, Paparazzi consultant

K. kids :: two, Gunnar and Brecken

L. live :: Caldwell ID

M. maiden name :: Hollingsworth

N. nicknames :: never had one

O. overnight hospital stays :: to have both of my son's

P. pet peeve :: nasty boy noises if you know what I mean

Q. quote :: Not a real quote person

R. righty or lefty :: lefty

S. siblings :: 2 younger sisters, Heidi and Mindy and one younger brother Brent

T. time you wake up :: about 6:45am to get Gunnar ready for school.

U. university attended :: Boise State

V. vegetables you dislike: the list would be a little long if I wrote them all out

W. what makes you run late :: my kids, but I usually am not late

X. x-rays you’ve had :: dental

Y. yummy food :: love hamburger, love swiss cheese, anything tacos, flautas

Z. zoo animal favorite :: not sure that I really have one...zebras

CHEAP Movie Tickets Again

I was so excited to find out that I can get 2 Fandango tickets for $9 total again! Jeff and I actually just cashed ours in the last possible day on Monday and saw X-Men. Love those shows and it was fun to go with Jeff. It was even better knowing that the tickets were cheap. When I was redeeming and saw that the original price would have been $22.50, I just about died. That is so expensive just for a couple of hours of entertainment. This time around the tickets are good until the beginning of September. I hope to use ours to see the new Cars 2. I was bummed that the cut off for the other tickets were right before Cars was released. Now we can go! Do you want in on the action? Here is an easy link right to the site so you can buy them too. They can be used any where Fandango is used. Which I am sure is about everywhere.


I was pulling off pictures from the camera and ran across this one. I was making something with cheese. Can't remember what but I went to do something, came back and saw these nibble marks. Gunnar would not fess up. Instead he kept telling me that the dog decided to jump up there and take a few bites. The dog, if I remember, was happily chewing on a bone the entire time. He never left his spot. Plus he would have eaten more than those little bites. He would have taken the entire thing. Great...the dog did that excuses are already starting.


Tuesday I got done bagging 40lbs of chicken into more managable serving sizes. Have you heard of Zaycon foods? It is awesome. I was able to get 40lbs of chicken for 1.64/lb. If chicken prices where you live are anything like where we live, they are not that cheap. The company brings a truck load of chicken to certain sites on certain days and times. They come around here about every 6 months. You buy your chicken when they open up and announce the location. Then you show up at the designated site on the date and time specified, pull up, they load the chicken for you and you drive away. You never get out of your car and the people are so nice. This is the second time that I have done it and love it. The chicken breasts are so huge so I do 2 at a time in a ziploc bag. Some I leave plain and then others I dump a bunch of free/cheap BBQ sauce or italian dressing inside. Then I freeze it all. As the chicken thaws, the sauces marinate and the flavor is awesome! The chicken is so moist and yummy. My mouth is watering for BBQ chicken now. Anyway, I had a bunch in my freezer but went for another box because the next shipment may be coming in September/October and I didn't want to mess with it if we were in Hawaii or getting ready or coming home from it. The best thing to do is register on their site for email updates. They go to lots of place so see if your town is one of them. If not, notify them that you want them in your city so they know there is an interest. Definately worth checking out. It also looks like they have lots of places slated to open up this year.

We bought our tickets to Hawaii a couple of weeks ago. I about died! We had to buy 3 and Brecken will just be along for the ride. Even though the rest of the trip will be pretty cheap, those tickets weren't. We plan on being there for 11 days! Jeff was all for making the most of it. We are all so excited. We will arrive the morning of Mindy and Rillz's nieces 1st birthday. First birthdays for Hawaiians are a huge deal...like really big deal. Whatever you have in your mind when you think of huge, double that. Gunnar will have a blast with other kids. Jeff and I have been a couple of times before so we are really looking forward to doing low key, low cost things we haven't done with the kids. Which probably translates into lots of time on the beach and Rillz already has hikes in mind with Jeff. We all can't wait. What I am not looking forward to is hauling tons of crap through the airport and 3 hour layovers. Let me tell you about our crap. We will have a booster seat in a travel bag for Gunnar and a carseat also in a travel bag for Brecken. Hopefully we end up on pretty empty flights and Brecken can hang out in his seat on the plane. We will also have a diaper bag and Gunnar's whatever bag. Plus we are thinking of having carryons with all of our stuff instead of checking things in for $25/bag. Plus a stroller to get around the airport and Hawaii. We are still debating that one. Brecken will be 15 months old and just too darn big for a front pack. I've got to remember to order Brecken's official birth certificate too.It has almost been a year and we don't have it. I was supposed to copy my driver's license and mail in the money and paper for it. I made a copy of the front of my license, got ready to mail it all in and it said I needed the back too. Oh brother. I now have it all but need to send it. Better do that before September.

Yesterday Gunnar had his 6 month cleaning at the dentist. We discovered he has two more cavities and one on "watch". This morning he went in to get them filled. I was nervous about it because last time I almost passed out being there. I think part of it was being pregnant and the smell of the dentist always gets me anyway. Gunnar is such a trooper. One of his cavities was to the nerve so they had to put some special yucky, fighting stuff on it. Hopefully it works or the tooth will be coming out before it falls out. Ouch! Now he is complaining that his lip hurt and for some reason it is more swollen on one side than the other. Upon closer inspection, the inside looks like raw meat. It is mangled in there. My guess is that he was biting/chewing on it when it was numb and had no idea. Poor thing. Thank goodness Gunnar still loves the dentist. At this point I would have been crying and complaining about going back. That's what I did as a kid.

Our betta fish, Eyeballs, died yesterday morning. The last few days he has been acting so sluggish and slow. I figured he might die soon. We did everything we were supposed to do like feed him and change the water. Poor little guy didn't make it. Thankfully Gunnar is totally okay with death. I would not cut it as one of those parents that tries to replace their fish without their child knowing pretending it was the same one. Not happening around this house.

Where Have You Been

Not really sure what has taken me so long to get on here myself. Funny how I can't really tell you what I have been doing. Just normal, daily stuff. Not really sure what that is most of the time. Of course it involves the usual like running after kids, cleaning up after kids...but my house isn't super duper spotless the prove that I spend my extra hours cleaning. I also don't really have a bunch of finished projects to prove that I have been working on them too. I can tell you that I think endlessly on the projects/things that I need to and should be working on. Sometimes I feel like I think so much about them that it renders me paralyzed. I just don't know where to start or what I have motivation for at the moment. It really gets super annoying. And then I lay there at night watching tv thinking back on the things that I need to get done and ask myself why I didn't work on them during this time in the day or that time in the day. It would have been so easy then. Annoying.

I do know that I finished 3 books within the last month or so. The first is called The Alchemist. I love it. It was kind of interesting to read the reviews on Amazon when I went to get the link. Some people thought it far too simple and maybe that is what I loved about it. It was so easy to read and had a great message. It is written in more of a fable/tale type why and I whipped right through it. It talks about persuing your dreams and perseverance among other things. Love it.

The other was The Hiding Place. This book was written by a woman that was part of the underground protecting the Jews in Holland. She was arrested along with her family and sent to concentration camps. She was later released and did remarkable things after the war. This woman was amazing. I love reading books about WWII. I am always amazed at how strong so many people were during that time. What would I have done during that time? I like to think that I would have been brave and risked my life like so many did. Until one is in that situation, I don't think we could really answer. I am pretty sure I have this movie by the same name on my wishlist at the library. So I better get that one requested.

The last book that I just finished this morning was The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond. She started a blog a few years ago and started writing weekly installments of her dating years with her husband. It caught on and people started coming back to her blog weekly to get the next bit to her story. She now has it all published in a book. She also has a cookbook with her yummy recipes. Anyway, it was super easy to read and she is hilarious. It was a pretty funny story. It was one of those brand new books at the library. So I could only have it checked out for about 2 weeks. I read and read so I didn't turn it in late. I ended up reading it in the first 3 days that I had it. All 319 pages.

Well that is what I have been up to among being a mom, having a 5 year old birthday party this last weekend, projects here and there and sitting for how long. I'm pretty sure there was some of that in there. And at this very moment, the hearing in the left ear is decreased for some odd reason and I have icecream melting on my counter. Good night.

This is Hilarious!

My stomach hurts from laughing so hard. Gunnar and I watched this at least 6 times in a row. It will make you bust up laughing too.

2 Movie Tickets for $9!

One of the daily deals on one of the sites is 2 Fandango movie tickets for $9!! That is so incredibly cheap given that tickets are so spendy. Jeff and I never go because they are spendy and I can't think of spending money on something so expensive. Anyway, you are only allowed to do it once and they expire June 6th. I was really hoping to be able to save them for when we go to see Cars 2 this summer but I think Cars comes out a couple days after the expiration date. Regardless, there has to be something we want to see in the mean time.
http://livingsocial.com/deals/28498?ref=personalized-link-box-6835973&rpi=6835973
I easily found it using Boise as the city. This deal can be used anywhere in the US since you have to redeem them through the Fandango website.
Heidi, you want to swap babysitting if you get this deal? ;)

Taxes and Beaches

I have several things that I watned to post but I've just become a little lazy but also preoccupied with other things. My biggest focus right now has become our taxes. We use Turbo Tax which is awesome and easy but my eyes are BUGGING out of my head from staring at the screen for so long. My head hurts so BAD! But I want these stinkin' taxes done. Because Jeff does tile stuff on the side, we still have all of that stuff to do so things aren't so cut and dry. On a good note, I am actually greatful that we are doing our own this year. My dad has done our taxes for the last 10 years. He's not in town this year, so we are all on our own. Why am I greatful? I am actually understanding some of this stuff. I now understand why keeping receipts and logs are super important but also things that we can deduct (that I didn't realize before) with proper receipts etc.

On an even better note...my sister got engaged this last Sunday which we are all super excited about. I am so happy for them. So what does this mean...we will be heading to Hawaii the end of September and I can't wait. It has been 10 years since I've last been and I miss it. I am a beach girl, Jeff more a mountain boy. Thank you Mindy and Rillz for making this possible on so many levels!

39 Things Every Mom Should Know

39 Things Every Mom Should Know

1 You never have to go to obnoxious kid-themed restaurants. Ever. I wish someone had told me that.

2 Don't make birthday parties a huge deal.

3 Do your chores while kids are awake. Using up naptime to wash dishes or clean the bathroom is truly soul-crushing.

4 Put Band-Aids on everything your kids want you to. Why not?

5 If the kids are awake, bite the bullet and be awake yourself. You'll waste so many hours trying futilely to extend early-morning snoozes that it's not worth it. If you are sick, pregnant, or it's the middle of the night, ignore this advice.

6 Just throw away the poopy underwear.

7 Don't beat yourself up if you have to use a bribe.

8 Teach your kids not to pee outside unless you're camping - you'll be glad you did. But if other people's kids do it, don't judge the parents too harshly - it's all about karma. (If you're in the midst of potty training, all bets are off. You've gotta do what you've gotta do.)

9 Buy cheap shoes when kids are little. Feet grow faster than you think.

10 Don't forget about board games. You'll suffer through way too much Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders, but Connect Four and Battleship aren't half bad. And Clue rocks.

11 Embrace their quirks.

12 Know this: That stain won't come out. And it's okay. (The sooner you accept this, the better.)

13 At some point it will be February. Things will seem bleak. You will think about vitamins, glasses, more exercise, more sleep, more chores, less TV, more rules, fewer rules, and organic food. Just wait. Things will get better when the snow melts. Know that it will happen again at the end of summer, right before school starts. It's the circle of life, baby.

14 Always get boys' haircuts at barber shops instead of hair salons.

15 Answer this question: What is the worst thing that can happen if your kids sleep in their clothes?

16 Never stifle a generous inclination.

17Try to like what they like. It kind of sucks when it's Bob the Builder, but the payoff will come when they discover Lemony Snicket.

18 Teach them to pump on the swings ASAP.

19 If your child falls asleep occasionally without brushing her teeth, don't wake her; baby teeth do eventually fall out.

20 I know you are supposed to use natural consequences to punish bad behavior, but sometimes it's hard to think of natural consequences. In these cases try threatening your kids with clipping their toenails or some other activity they dread. I've had great success with this one, but you must find your own.

21 Get used to the word zerrissenheit. It means a state of disjointedness, and it's the new normal for most of us. At least you can feel fancy because it's German.

22 Buy kids deodorant before they need it.

23 Teach your children to make their own breakfast - and allow enough time so they can do it without pressure.

24 I can't stress this enough: Use duvet covers on your comforters and forget about a top sheet. Not only will you thank me for this advice, but your kids will thank me as well when they are learning to make their bed.

25 Remember clogging lessons are not in the best interest of the child.

26 Don't administer a punishment that hurts you more than it does them.

27 Always pack wipes. If your kids go somewhere without you, send along wipes. It's like having a mom with them.

28 Do not allow the word wienies in your home.

29 Dress your little girls like, well, little girls.

30 Make sure your kids know how they like their eggs and burgers cooked. You don't want them to feel stress when ordering at the diner.

31 It's fine to brag about yourself to your kids.

32 Buy quaint wooden toys and hand-knit stuffed animals. But don't expect your kids to play with them.

33 Just say "No" to any toy or doll that comes with packets that have to be mixed with water.

34 Teach them to like cool music. Why suffer through The Wiggles when you could be enjoying Wilco or counting along with Feist?

35 Don't buy the most expensive school-picture package. It's a waste of money.

36 Give out awards for actual achievements.

37 You're never too old to dress up and decorate your house for Halloween. And it's more fun for everyone if you are into it. It also entitles you to more candy.

38 If the school year, new babysitter, or karate class gets off to a rocky start, don't totally stress out about it. Instead, think of the improvement that can be made by the end of the year.

39 Independence is a wonderful thing. For everyone. So is together time. Make sure you have a healthy dose of both.

*I read this on someones blog who found it in a magazine somewhere. I highlighted some of my favorites and ones that I have recently done myself. I loved them all because I can totally relate. Many of these cracked me up.

Defeated

I don't think I have ever gone this long without writing a post. This last month or so has been one thing after another and because of that, I have realized that I have no desire to write anything. I just feel defeated. It all started shortly before Halloween when our car wouldn't start in the Winco parking lot. Jeff came to the rescue and later that night we discovered that it was a blown fuse. Easy, cheap fix. Everything was going great until we got in the car after trick or treating with Rillz and Mindy to only discover that the car wouldn't start. Same fuse but this time every time Jeff put a new one it, it would blow. We we just a couple of blocks from our house, so Jeff and Rillz pushed it home where it has sat ever since. Passat's are rediculously expensive to fix. The parts and labor just add up. We just got done spending $450 on the dumb car on a fix that was not vital to the working of the car. We had to get it done to comply to the the new emissions testing in our county. It made us mad. Anyway, car still sits in the garage and we haven't touched it since. Nothing like making car payments on a nonworking car. So we drive the truck now. Which is fine but it too has its new issues and seem to be getting worse. Thankfully Jeff just works down the road so if all else fails, he can ride his bike.

One of our computers is wacky so we no longer use it until we can get that fixed. I think some sort of something is creeping in. We also found out a while ago that Cableone will no longer be working with our modem that we have. Great, more money out the window. Plus our Norton virus protection on our laptop recently expired which scares me too death. I lost 3 years worth of pictures this last January and just wanted to cry and cry because of a virus.

The most recent thing is our furnace. A part on our furnace just went out so we have been without heat for 1.5 weeks. It was okay at first but now the temperatures are dipping into the single digits. My sister in law put it best. She stated that is stinks when money makes the choices for you. It totally stinks. We thought that the part was pretty reasonable until we looked into it. It is quite expensive. Well my mom found out and paid for the part. It is my birthday present. I joked around with Jeff that he got a big screen tv from his mom for his birthday and I got a furnace part from my parent's for mine. Honestly I could not be more excited for the furnace part. This furnace part has been a new low for me. It really depresses me. I have no desire to do anything around the house because I don't want to venture into other rooms because they are cold. Our family room is actually warm with 2 space heaters and our fireplace but you can spend so much time there until you go crazy. We do have a fireplace but it efficiently heats the room it is in only. It is so weird. The dining room is open to the family room but the heat for some reason does not pass the invisible line seperating the rooms. I am so ready for a working furnace. Nights are actually pretty warm and almost too hot with the blankets. Brecken has been sleeping with us because it is cold. He likes to sleep with his arms out which don't help him any.

Just this last weekend, Jeff was heading to work for a couple of hours and wondered why the heater in the truck smelled like burning plastic. Sure enough when the heater was turned on, it was burning something under the hood so now we don't have the heat in the truck. Yesterday morning the smoke alarm was beeping indicating the batteries needed changed. I just about went over the edge. What else could stop working. I changed the battery and felt a little better.

Oh ya, on Saturday we were helping Mindy and Rillz load some stuff into their truck. It was dark and Jeff just happened to look up and see hot ashes flying out of our chimney. Great now we have orange ashes just floating around our trees and roof. Thankfully it was cold and wet and they went out before any of that happened. However it forced us to promptly go buy a chimney cap. More money out the window.

Last night I did break down and get Norton on our computers. I was super paranoid and it said that I can put it on 3 computers so the other one will get it too. I also bought the virus removal help super cheap. I figured I can have them do it or pay another boat load of money to have it fixed. It was cheaper to do it this way.

Also our dog is driving me bonkers. He continues to get in this closet where we have gardening stuff. He has managed to rip open a diazonon container (bug killer) and Miracle Grow container. He has also ripped apart the handle and tubing on a Home Defense container. He did some nasty stuff in his crate yesterday that I had to clean out. I wonder why. He also ripped off the misting system on our patio. Jeff and I weren't too mad since we have never used it the 5 years we have lived here.

Anyway, tile stuff for Jeff and holiday advent calendars are keeping Jeff and I busy. It is also giving us extra cash which is greatly appreciated. On a great note, Gunnar and Brecken are done for Christmas. We are keeping it incredibly simple. The last few months, I have been on this huge kick of simplifying. Working on getting rid of those things that have no purpose in my house. I don't need them anymore. I still have work to do but it feels good to get rid of stuff. It really is just that...stuff. It is taking up space in my home and me. It just feels so freeing to have it gone. I was watching the Oprah Favorite Things show the last 2 days and couldn't get over the peoples reactions. I don't care if Oprah gives away stuff. It really is nice of her but do people really need to cry over a 5 year Netflix subscription or a brownie pan. The $600 (or whatever it was) earrings are pretty but I probably would never wear them. If I were there, I am sure that I would scream with excitement but I wouldn't cry. I may have cried for the car because right now I could really use one. The other stuff, is just stuff. I am not sure when my shift happened but lately I am just thankful for those things that are necessary and important. Family, friends, the gospel, a roof over my head, vehicles to drive, food on the table...you get the idea.
*Within the few minutes that I originally wrote this, the blessed UPS man showed up with the furnace part (still not installed but it is at least here). I also tried to turn on our furnace to see if it would randomly would work and it did, thank goodness. I remember my mom recalling a time when I was growing up that everything that could go wrong did go wrong including the dog dying and needing a new well drilled all within a week. They got through it and so will we but while you are in the middle of it, it still stinks.

The 3 Sickateers

This last week the cold hit our house. Gunnar, Brecken and I got the cold the night after Heidi had her baby. I was so bummed because I didn't want to be around them. They didn't need it. Anyway, it was so sad to see a 3 month old with a cold. He was so stuffed up but couldn't do much about it. I love sucking the stuff out of babies noses. Not sure why but I do. Brecken could be screaming but I was on a mission. One of those things that has to be done. Monday was an aweful day. Brecken screamed uncontrollably twice where nothing worked to calm him. It was aweful. It would last too long and I didn't know what to do but hand him off when Jeff got home. That night was aweful. He woke up at 1am, 2am, 3am, 4am, 5am, 6am, 7am ...you get the idea. From 5am to 7am he screamed and screamed. He was not hungry and the only thing that would put him to sleep was me walking around the house. I did that for 2 hours straight. I tried to sit down, he screams. I tried to sit in the rocker and rock him, he screamed. It was aweful and tiring. Now you have to understand. Our children have to be bleeding severely or near death for us to take them to the doctors. We don't go for just anything. The only time that we have been other than well child visits was for Gunnar's pink eye. That's it. So I knew I had to take him in. He was acting so out of the norm. With his cold, I was worried about his young age and things that he could get because of it. I was lucky to get in with our normal doctor that afternoon, took him in, and discovered that he has an ear infection. I was so happy with my decision to take him in. Poor little guy was in so much pain. We got the medicines that we needed and he was back to his normal self. I just hope he is not going to be one of those kids that we battle ear infections...Mindy.

I forgot what wacky hormones can do to a person. My hair lately has been shedding like crazy. Envision shedding and then envision it so much worse. It has been bad. I happen to be reading one of those -your baby is X months old- emails and shedding was one of the topics. It said an average person loses about 125 hairs a day. About 12 weeks after having a baby, a mother can lose as many as 500 hairs a day!! I'm about there, no joke. My hair has always appeared to shed worse because of my curly hair but it is ultra nasty. I have TONS of hair in the shower, I have hair all over the house, Brecken is always grabbing my hair and ends up with handfuls. Just nasty.

I made caramel apples the other day with homemade caramel. They are pretty yummy but not my thing. Stuff like this sounds fun but ends up stressing me out in the end. I was using a candy thermometer for the caramel. All was good until I was nearing the end and the thermometer came free from the clip and ended up plummetting into the sauce. Ooops. I'm hoping to try pumpkin cream pie in a jar for gifts and homemade peppermint patties soon. We'll see how they turn out.

Does anyone else have problems with 4.5 year olds that are bossy and mean most times. We are going through an aweful phase right now. I am not nice most days, I am not Gunnar's friend often (which translates into he does not like me), and he rarely listens to me lately. I thought it was a new baby brother thing but Mindy complains about the exact same thing with the boy that she nanny's. On the other hand he can be so fun and nice on rare occassions. Those moments are quite enjoyable. He really is a super funny kid. Come next fall, I will be an excited parent when he heads off to school. Excited for him to experience something different and new, not necessarily the fact that he will be away from home. He is already talking about it all of the time so I know that he is ready and looking forward to it.

Brecken is no longer fearful of Gunnar instead trying to initiate conversation all the time. It melts my heart. Most times Brecken would much rather play with Gunnar than with me. He gets this little excited look on his face when Gunnar comes around. Gunnar equally gets excited when Brecken smiles at him.

Oh ya, Brecken was weighed at his doctors appointment. He weighs 15lb 6oz at 1 week shy of turning 4 months old. Gunnar was 6 months old at this weight. He is 3 times Camden's weight. Explains why Brecken feels like a tank and Camden feels like a feather.

Was this all an awesome dream!?

Saturday nights are mostly uneventful around here. We do have neighbors across the street that like to have parties but they are pretty contained and end at a reasonable time, so no big deal. We also have neighbors right next door that have parties and most of them are family affairs. Not so on Saturday. The neighbors across the street were having a party so there were quite a few cars parked on the street. When we got home from getting milk that night, nothing looked different.

It all changed around 1:30am when Jeff and I headed to bed (not sure why we have been staying up late lately, but we have). Our bedroom is right next door to their house by a few feet and we had the windows open through the night because it has been nice and warm. When I got Diesel from the kennel outside, I could hear people in the neighbors backyard but the patio lights were off. Thought nothing of it. Well it all changed. We were laying there and people talking/laughing got loud and you could here someone constantly shushing people. Jeff thought it was the neighbors across the street. I told him it couldn't be. You could also here them in the front of the house. Jeff decided to get up and check things out. He looked out our front window and saw a teenager walking across our lawn to their car with a beer in hand. Jeff immediately called the cops to complain. They mentioned that they had gotten other calls and were on it. We later found out that a cop of staking things out around the corner trying to here in on the party but we are pretty sure that the beer drinking friend called the others because things started going crazy. I was in bed and could here kids running like crazy through the gate by the window. They scattered and I could here noises on the patio. I could also here a cop yelling stuff to the kids. Jeff was watching it all from the window. He never came back so I went to check on him. To my suprise our front windows were lit up with about 4-5 cop cars with lights on, cops all over with shining flashlights and Jeff talking to one in our driveway outside. The cops were gathering kids, some in handcuffs, some standing there on the curb. Cops constantly shining flashlights every where. It was insane. I headed outside to talk to Jeff who was now talking to our totally drunk neighbor across the street and another that just got back from the bars. Earlier we had also heard a HUGE crash of glass. It was like a car crunch or car glass breaking. It sounded more like a window or glass table. When kids started running, dogs started barking down the street and Diesel joined in. After that, he went to sleep and never woke up (we have been trying him out in our room and he seems to really like it). After talking to our neighbors, Jeff and I sat on the living room couch watching the entire thing for a while. It was nuts. Kids kept coming from down the street. They were slowly gathering a small bunch. We also saw one officer do all of these tests on one of the kids like the follow the finger test.

Eventually we headed to bed. I heard one girl tell an officer that she was calling her mom (I am sure he told her too) and I could hear her say. "Officer, what street are we on?" She then told her mom the directions to get there and she hung up with an attitude indicating that she thought her mom was stupid. Really?! Do you think that her mom really wanted a call like that at 3 in the morning. Dumb girl. Jeff and I also heard a lot of commotion, like a big ramming rod against a door, and as we stood on our bed looking out of our high windows, we saw the cops in the house with flashlights checking rooms as another one was standing right by the window just in case a kid jumped out. Finally we both fell asleep.

I thought it was all over until about 4:30am I heard an officer outside our window yell about seeing movement in a certain area of the yard, ask if anyone checked the shed and mention that someone moved a big screen tv in front of a door inside. Wow, they were still out there rounding up and looking for kids. I tried to get back to bed but they left a side door light on all night which was shining brightly in our window. Jeff was out like a light.
The next morning we had beer cans in yards and smelled like cigarette smoke and alcohol from our neighbor and his friend. We figured we better take showers before we headed to church. Wouldn't that be funny heading to church smelling like that.
Yesterday an officer called Jeff following up on the situation. He said that the kids knew what they were doing. They had all the windows blacked out and were drinking and smoking marijuana. We are assuming most if not all were underage. He said that some were in jail, some were released and some have warrants out for them. They are taking this seriously and pressing charges. They said that there were no adults there. Weird...because they all magically appeared home on Sunday and the man that has not spoken a word to us or acknowledged our presence in 5 years waved at Jeff through the fence. Interesting. They asked if Jeff would be willing to testify if needs be. He told them of course and that he was a probation officer with the county so it didn't worry him. The officer did, in fact, raid and search the house for kids. I could only imagine what the inside looked like afterwards. The kids are so dumb. We would never have known if they were not out well into the morning and started to get loud. We wouldn't have done anything. What a way for them to end the school year and what a crazy morning for us. I am still struggling with energy because of it.

Pizza. Pizza Who Wants Pizza

I don't know why I found this kind of funny, but I was going through the ads in our mail and noticed a trend. Pizza, after pizza ad appeared and they all seemed to be offering pizzas for around $10 or less. Are they trying to get my business or what.

Word to the Wise

About a month ago our desktop contracted a nasty virus. We took it into the computer repair people and were told days later that the virus got into the Windows operating system so everything was essentially wiped out on the C: drive. I've saved quite a few things to other drives when we had a computer scare a couple of years ago, but apparently became lazy in doing that so everything from that point on was lost. This all includes our basic word programs, everything that have to be reinstalled. We took the computer back for them to try and recover stuff but all that they could recover was the things that were saved on those other drives. We got the desktop back yesterday and it is all now sinking in as to what I have lost. I lost ALL pictures that were on the C: drive which consisted of anything that was Gunnar from age 9 months to now (that's ALOT of pictures) and then all of the in between random pictures. I lost all of my digital scrapbooking kits, etc that I had yet to save over to the other drives (I did save some the scary time before), and just now I realized that I lost the majority of my digital layouts which makes my heart ache because of the time and documented memories on them. Frustrating extremely, but then Jeff and I were thankful that I do this blog because mostly everything is documented on here.

Technology is great when it works good but a total frustration and disaster when it does not. The moral of the story is to backup your computer. What do you do to backup your computer? Do you use a program online to do it...external hard drive...CD's? I would love to know because I am now taking this very seriously.

The post to get the ball rolling again...

This is seriously the post that has postponed the posting of Thanksgiving and anything related to Christmas among other things. I always felt that this trip needed to be documented before the other. Because so many pictures were taken on this trip, half were on the laptop and half on the desktop. I was too lazy or busy to sit down and get the ones I wanted from the laptop until today. Hopefully this is the start to getting very caught up. There are so many things that recently happened that I would love to post about in the present and not far past. So here we go.

Owl City

Do you like the new music on the blog? The song Fireflies has been playing on the radio lately and I love the words of it but at the time I had no idea what the title of it was or the name of the group was. With a lot of keyword searches, I finally figured it out. Introducing Owl City. I love it! I looked up a bunch of their songs on playlist and loved them. So different, with words you can understand, innocent and catchy. I set out to buy their CD yesterday. It was $10 at Walmart, last one, and is played constantly in the car. Gunnar loves it. I love it. I hope you do too.

Ronald McDonald House

Tonight I went to a coupon class with Heidi and our friend Susan (from Heidi and my mom's ward). It was taught by A Thrifty Mom herself, Sarah. It was a super great class and she is incredibly funny and personable. I wanted to go to really see how she presented the topic. I have to teach a 20 minute mini class at enrichment in a couple of months so I wanted to glean information. I walked away realizing that 20 minutes is not enough time to understand anything. I consider myself pretty knowledgable with coupons but we were there for 1.5 hours and someone can still walk away overwhelmed. A 20 minute class with leave everyone hanging on with questions. Aaagh! Anyway, through trials and experiences in her life, she does everything that she can to give back to the community. One such organization that she mentioned was the Ronald McDonald House. On her blog she talks about how she looked up a wish list for items that they need. I didn't really know that there is such a thing. I looked up the list and realized that there are several things that I could easily donate right now from my storage. If I remember, I hope to get a few things together when my mom has an appointment in Boise. It always feels good to give back.

So thrilled

Today I had to go into Costco to get my mom more Miracle Grow Potting Soil. To my complete and utter surprise, I noticed that Costco added three self checkout lanes. This is the BEST thing ever. I hated to go into Costco for one or two things to find a line about a mile long at each open cash register. On many occassions I have chatted with the people around me about how they needed some sort of express lane. It is finally here. You have to have 10 items or less and the great thing about it is that even those people that have one super duper large item, they will still have to go through the normal lanes because I don't think that they can scan their big item. Costco is all about big items so this really helps in speeding through those lanes. Just thought that I would share my excitement.

Seriously 2 years!?

I have been blogging for an entire 2 years. Boy has this time flown and within the 2 years so much has happened. I have my previous years posts blurbed over into a blog book that still needs to be finished and published. Well over 100 pages is a lot to edit and format. Now I have this last year to do as well. Too much to do and so little time.

This week I am planning on a blog giveway in celebration of my 2 year mark. Just hang on tight...it will be posted within the next couple of days. I promise this one will be fun. Any of you could use it. It is such a trendy thing right now. Until then...

He's Officially Ours

Yesterday I completely paid off our hospital bill from Gunnar's birth. Three years later he is now officially ours. Why pay more if we can make interest free payments and move our money around where it is really needed. Such a great feeling. Now to paying down/off other bills.

Happy Mother's Day

I am enjoying a rather nice day today. Gunnar is sleeping and Jeff is over at his mom's. I am catching up on computer stuff that needed to be done. This is my kind of day. Just relaxing and enjoying myself. I really needed it. All that my mom wanted for Mother's Day was for all of us girls and spouses to work on her yard. With the rain, sun, rain, sun lately, it caused the weeds to sprout up everywhere. Just another spring time chore. It was fun and the weather was really nice. I feel like we accomplished a lot. Not nearly as much as we would have liked but we made a little dent. We all got a lot of sun and it felt good. My mom was even out there with us for some time. I think that she really enjoyed herself. It was good for her to be around what she loves doing.

We decided to take Kaika with us over there. She was always the one dog that would most likely do the best with other dogs. She is also the dog that was the most protective/possessive over heer family. So we had no idea how she would do with my parent's two dogs. If it came down to it, we could stick her in the little kennel that they have. They also do not have a fence so we stuck Heidi's dog's wireless fence collar on her. She did so great. She interacted well with the other dogs (pretty much ignored each other) and stayed around once she got shocked REALLY bad twice. She quickly learned her lesson...until one of their cats went running through the trees later in the day...and she forgot that she had a shock collar on. Boy was that interesting. Heidi and I were yelling for her to stop and she didn't. About 2 seconds into the shock she realized that she was being shocked and she yelped as she ran so fast back to us. Quite entertaining. I guess that we could say that she had her shock therapy for the day. She was the puppy growing up that learned that she could endure the electric fence shock long enough to make it to the other side. This system doesn't stop shocking once you get past the line. It was great for her to get out of the house with other dogs and us.

At Walmart and there is this spot where homeless people like to stand with their signs. It is away from the stores and at the end of the parking lot where you would pull out onto the main road. Yesterday there was a woman. She looked pretty normal to me and presentable. In the parking lot near her, she had a really old car parked. Her sign read, "Need help with bills." For the short time that I sat there waiting to merge right onto the road, I watched 3 cars give her money. Quite interesting because she didn't present herself as homeless just needed to pay bills. Wouldn't we all love money for our bills but would any of us stand out in front of others and essentially beg for it. I sure hope that it is money well spent. I have a couple of other opinions that I will just leave it at this. Who am I too judge. We should sure others and not expect anything in return.