random thoughts

So there are a few random things I have to post.

1. so here is the photo that has been gracing someones desktop for the last month. The caption to it says something about why pumpkins shouldn't drink. Oh so funny.

2. Today in the car Jed managed to do the I love you sign with his hand all by himself. He was so proud! It made my heart melt (which after the morning I had with him that was a miracle)


3. Today I ranted on facebook. It was basically I'm sick of people blaming everyone else for there financial situation and thinking that someone else needs to do something to fix it. I guess I am part of the I want no responsibility in my life generation. Wouldn't it be nice if people were responsible for there own actions. wow what a novel concept.

4. I've decided that I do know how to keep things clean. I have managed to keep the front rooms, kitchen, and dining area fairly clean in the last few days. It is amazing what a dishwasher and ample cupboard (hiding) space does to help that clean looking factor :)

Most thoughtful daughter

I want to remember this for a long time. The last few days have been full of throwing up, lack of sleep and sleeping on couches, floors, and chairs. My turn came yesterday. All the kids were home (Will and Annmarie were not going to school sick) and I had felt rotten all day. needless to say the time finally came and I was praying to the porcelain gods. Chris was at school and had to work that night, Biggest issue is he has a big test on Friday that is very very important. So he needed to be at school away from us sick people. After I removed the contents from my stomach I stayed on the bath mat shaking with the chills and had aches all over. It took me about 30 min to crawl out of the bathroom to my closet floor (which is carpeted). All this time I was praying for some miracle of Chris showing up at home a random friend stopping by etc. Never did I think my 6 year old would be helpful. Well she came in and said are you OK? I said no I just threw up, and asked her to get me a blanket. She got me a blanket and sat by me for a few minutes while I was still crying. She gently rubbed my head and was just worried about me. Honestly I think she was a little scared. I don't think the kids have ever seen me like that. I heard her leave and go tell the other kids mom just threw up we have to be really good. Then she comes back in with her pillow for me. Such a sweet kind act. It made me realize that sometimes when we pray for things our answers come from very unexpected places. I do not tell this story for oh I'm so sorry Karen. Nope I wrote this so I could remember that from very early on Annmarie was a kind person who cares for others. Hopefully this continues and I can be a good example to her like my mother is/was to me.

dear blogspot

I have noticed lately how you do not update my blog list on time. I look one day and see no changes then the next day I see posts that are 2 days old. This is very frustrating. please fix this.

thanks
frustrated blogger

sorry had to get that off my chest!

Ten on Tuesday

Ugh what a week. So glad that is over!

1. Since the move Chris has had a greater distance to go to school (.25 mile to 12 miles) So we see a bit less of him. with the craziness of the move it made for some long days this past week. Not to mention He went on a scout leadership training from Friday to Sunday. When the family got home from church we were all very excited to see him!

2. yesterday I got a call from Annmarie's school. she had thrown up in class. I was at the Y which was 15 min away from her. As I am getting Jed to the car I get a call from Jeffrey's pre-school telling me that he had thrown up. His school was 7 min in the opposite direction. Needless to say poor Annmarie had to wait about an hour for me to get there. Since the kids got home all of them have had this bug, and it made for a long night last night. Today all the kids are home, and I'm trying to use my will power to not get it too. Here's to hoping we survive the day :)

3. The kids have loved there new school. They have made friends at school already! Annmarie's teacher was not there the first 3 days because she had jury duty. So happy that they are happy and in a better school.

4. Jeffrey was supposed to go to his last day of pre-school today but that got ended when he got sick yesterday. He loved his school. Too bad it is too far away to keep taking him to. He will not be going to a new one as his previous one was free and there is nothing like that here. We figure he will survive, he is a smart kid :)

5. Chris had an OK time at the scout training. He made some good connections which might be beneficial in the long run for us. He said they worked them hard all 3 days. My biggest fear is that once we are in our new ward they will put him in scouts because of the training he now has.

6. I got pictures put up on the wall yesterday and 4 boxes unpacked. I also got the books put up for the kids. For the most part there is not that much to do, it is all the little stuff. Hang photos, go through the "random crap" boxes etc. It is nice that we got settled as quickly as we did.

7. Annmarie's birthday was very low key. We are having a Halloween/birthday party next Monday for her. The trick or treat here on what is called Beggars night, which is always the night before Halloween. so since that is Sunday my kids will not be participating. So if you are in the area and free come on over for some games some snacks (NO CANDY so done with that) and cake.

8. a week ago Sunday was the primary program. My older 3 were all in it and did great. We could hear their singing, and they spoke there parts well. A wonderful thanks to their teachers and the primary presidency.

9. In the car we were listening to last years primary program CD, with the song I know my Savior Loves me. Jeffrey turns to me and says " Mom I know the Savior is true and he loves me. (then he repeats his like from the program) I know Jesus is my Savior and Redeemer. Such a great touching moment for me that I hope to never forget!

10. So I made Freezer Jam on Wednesday. We ran out (that batch moved with us from Vegas) just before the move and Chris was in need of some new jam. So I made some, OK well a lot as usual. So if you need any come on over I've got about 10 jars I can spare :) On a side note it was so nice to make it with all the counter space we had. oh such small joys!

Happy Birthday Annmarie

I cannot believe it has been 6 years. Annmarie has been a ray of happiness in our house. She is the most helpful and loves to do most anything. She will play star wars with the boys, but really enjoys playing by herself with her Polly's or any other girl toy that has been given to her. She loves Pink and purple. She loves soccer and does well at it. She loves to read and according to her teacher she is at the end of 1st grade level as a beginning Kindergartner. I must admit that is all her. She listen when we were working with Will the last 2 years. I think she doesn't want him to pass her up by too much. Hopefully this doesn't cause major problems in the future. She really is a sweet child and is always trying to comfort someone (unless she did the inflicting of pain) she is strong willed, and stubborn, but usually tries to do what is right.
She knows when I need a hug and an I love you. She has such a tender heart too. I was truly sad to see her go to school this year because I was losing a huge helper at home. She loves her new school (after 4 days) and has already made friends.

this is her making up her own pose.

 Look mom I have a loose tooth

 getting ready to go to school. . . a few weeks early

 after getting her ears pierced in June 2011

Her favorite things to do are color and read. So happy that she is in our family. Someday she hopes for a little sister. . . we shall see on that one :)

Tuesday - our new home

Per the request of a sibling here are photos (Taken with a phone my battery died) of our new house. Before you get to see them (unless you skip this part) I wanted to give a little back story on how we moved here. Back in August Chris came home from school earlier than usual and said lets go. We were eating dinner at a friends house (the Flints you will probably hear more about them since they will be our house neighbor in 2 weeks). I was like ok. we drove and he wanted to go somewhere and finally I figured out we were going to look at a new place to live. I was very adamant on not looking anywhere. Drake had be wonderful to us. The rent was great. The Drake people were awesome. We live in a branch with few people Chris was recently called as the YM president, I'm in RS. There was just no way I was going to move. Plus it was further away from school etc. Even after looking at them I still had no desire to move. We decided to put in our application (to make Chris happy) and wait and see what happened. Did I mention these are brand new town-homes? That there is no smoking anywhere in the community, no alcohol outside, and no partying after 11pm at night? We think they are trying to cater to the LDS students that head out here for med-school and law-school. We went to eat at the Flints house and they thought we should totally do it. I was still very unwilling to budge on my decision of no moving! fast forward 4 to 6 weeks Chris asks me to call and check on the application. I must admit I had not really thought about it since we put in our papers. I call and we only had 1 thing that needed to be done. I went and took care of it. Then we find out guess what out of over 200 applicants we are one of the lucky 90. Well I managed to irk Chris pretty good when I said I had not thought or prayed about it since we dropped off papers. Well after lots of thought etc we decided it was the right call to move. All the issues I had in my way earlier were gone. We planned to move in end of October. I went and told our Landlord that we would be leaving and he was so happy for us in getting a better place for our family., These mid-west people are really weird, they are more excited about the person than there bottom line. Then Chris went in later that day and asked if we could move in during fall break (about 2 weeks away) they said sure and even prorated our rent! I will never speak ill of Drake ever! So we boxed up. Thursday the 13th we loaded up the truck with the wonderful help of many people. And Friday morning we got our keys and moved in. We finished the cleaning Saturday afternoon at the old house. I have never been so happy to be done cleaning! Now were are doing well at being all done unpacking here thanks to Chris. He was amazing! He would not let me do very much due to my "condition" and never said a poor word against me. So thankful for him.

10 things I've learned about moving (again)

1. don't do it while pregnant. Your crazy whacked out anyway why add more stress and also why watch people move you in when you can't do it.

2. invite the missionaries over for dinner the night your packing the truck. It gives you at least 2 extra bodies and in our case 4! It was so nice to have extra help

3. Label all boxes with items and Date. needless to say we found a box of spices that we packed in Las Vegas and lost when we moved here. Now we have lots of the same thing.

4. Have a place for your kids to go so you can pack/clean/unpack move etc. We were so lucky for all of the wonderful help we received. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

5. Don't sleep on the ground the night before you move. . . long story short air mattress with a hole. not a fun last night in our "old" house.

6. Have a wonderful husband! I honestly cannot say how much I am thankful for Chris and everything he has done the last few days and weeks etc. He had to tell me to stay away form the boxes multiple times. and even when I was out getting food he was still putting things away. Such a great man that I am so lucky to have.

7. Expect your kids to feel your stress and act out. anyone who says that kids can not tell we are stressed is wrong. I cannot tell you how chaotic our houses have been the last little while. I'm so glad that we are back to school etc and getting into normal patterns again.

8. Throw stuff away. we can actually say that we moved less this time than the last time. Plus we have tossed stuff since arriving here as well. Sometimes you just need to let junk go! (we are giving our church book collection back to my parents at Christmas time so if you want any you better come look now, yes Jill I figured you, rob and my parents could have a big fight over who gets what at Christmas time ;) )

9. Have something for the kids to do. I don't know how we managed this, but we had the kids toys taken to the playroom very quickly and then sent the kids off. It worked great!!

10. Have friends! They are the first ones to help you load the truck, they watch your kids, they feed you food, they come unload your truck the next day, they are excited for you, and they are sad you are moving further away. Friends are great and we are so lucky to have made as many as we have during our time here. THANKS AGAIN!!!! we couldn't have done it without you!

now what you've been waiting for. Let me remind you we moved from a 2 bedroom (living room with walls and a door makes 3) 1 bathroom house to what you will see below. Although I didn't get a house shot. It is yellow with stones around the 2 car garage! 

Here is the view inside the front door. Our family room then dining room.

Here is the kitchen. There is a dishwasher (who's name is not Chris) and you can kind of make out the large cupboard to the left of the photo.

Some how I managed to not take a photo of our room, but I got one of my closet. Funny. Our room is right off the hallway. that leads to the garage.

 Through the closet is our very own bathroom!!!! I'm so excited about this!

 Here is the hallway leading to the garage. the last door on the left is our 1/2 bath. the one before it is our heating unit etc. just to the left is our bedroom door to the right is our closet/pantry. and right behind me is the kitchen.

Here are the stairs leading up. this is just to the right as you enter the house.

at the top of the stairs is this! bathroom number 2.5!!!! I'm a little crazy I know.

this is our hallway to the laundry room. The first door on the right is the linen closet!!! the 2nd one is another electrical closet of some sort. and there is my new laundry room on the 2nd floor.

 Here is my massive laundry room. It would be awesome to find some cheap table to fold laundry here but really who am I kidding. I would never fold laundry without watching something on TV or netflix.

 a random view down the stairs

 This is the playroom/guestroom. I cannot tell you how nice it has been (the past 4 days) to say kids go up to the playroom and play. It is actually quite large and has a double closet. so great storage space

This is Annmarie and the new baby's room. It is the smallest in the house but all that goes in them are beds and dressers (which all fit in the closet!)

Then this monstrous thing is the boys room. There is no trouble getting all 3 beds in (1 set of bunks and 1 single) then to the right is . . . 

The most massive closet I've ever seen. It has shelves on 2 sides and easily fits there dressers in it with loads and loads of room to spare. This would make a great bedroom, if there was a window.

once again sorry for the photo quality. Maybe someday I'll remember to charge the battery.

Best in the world

Today is my mom's birthday. I cannot tell you all how much I love her and the older I get the more I love and am so thankful she is my mom. She is the best mom ever no one will ever convince me other wise. Plus my Dad agrees with me and I think probably 8 others :) Happy birthday Mom. Your the best example I've ever seen. Thanks Mom!

actually having a photo of her is one of the hardest challenges of all.

Today is my mom's birthday. I cannot tell you all how much I love her and the older I get the more I love and am so thankful she is my mom. She is the best mom ever no one will ever convince me other wise. Plus my Dad agrees with me and I think probably 8 others :) Happy birthday Mom. Your the best example I've ever seen. Thanks Mom!

Ten on Tuesday

Wow what a busy week!

1. Grandma Carmen came to town on Monday and the kids have loved having her here. They will be so sad this morning when she leaves. She has been a wonderful help to me this past week through all the crazy that has been going on. Thanks for the visit Grandma!

2. Marian (Chris's youngest sister) graduated from Army Basic training on Thursday. We got in the car (grandma, kids and me) drove to KC and spent the night there. Angie (Chris's sister) joined us there and we woke up at 4am and drove to Fort Leonard Wood. I must say the trees (or Leaf Peeping) was great! We are so proud of Marian and all she accomplished. All Will has talked about since then is when he joins the Army.

4. We move this Thursday and Friday. I said this once 3 plus years ago and said I will never move again while pregnant. Well here we are and let me tell you why (careful real Karen coming out, not life is perfect blogger talking :) ) I don't know if it is because I'm extra hormonal or if the inability to sleep well, but I am not functioning well. Some days I just want to blow up what is left and move on without. I usually handle stress pretty well but this move is no one of those moments. Maybe its the fact that it is all happening in 2 weeks from hey were moving to we move or we have kids now so it makes things a little more complicated. not sure but I will be very glad when we are settled (hopefully by January ;) ) in our new place

5. We will not be changing wards/Branch (church congregation) until probably the end of the year. It is amazing how you can be so sad to leave a place that you were so confused about at the start :)

6. Annmarie and Jeffrey had their last soccer game this Saturday. They had a great time. But there were only 4 players  (3 on at a time) for all 5 quarters. needless to say I think they were a little tired. I'm really glad that we got into the league that we did since it is so low key and the parents love that it is low key. Will has 2 more games left then games will start up again sometime in the spring.

7. Friends. I am so thankful that I have friends here who when I lose it, as I have been quite frequently lately, are willing to help me out. Thankfully people have volunteered to watch our kids during the truck packing, and moving into the new house. Thank you thank you thank you

8. Jed turned 3 on Sunday. He adds so much craziness to our family and we love him. Yesterday I took him back to his GI Dr. His EE has come back and he is starting to vomit way to often again. It was really hard to go in and learn that what we did over the summer, which seemed to work so well, didn't take care of the problem. Now he will be on 3 different meds and I had a really hard time with this. I know that his medical issues are small in comparison to some but I struggle and wish he could just be a normal healthy boy. I worry about the side effects long term exposure to the meds he is on. But then I worry more about him not eating the foods he loves. He asked for stake for dinner on Sunday, which he loves, but he didn't touch it. He eats dry cold cereal, peanut butter sandwiches, chicken nuggets and milk. Poor kid. Here is to hoping that this round of treatment works as good if not better than the last.

9. Last night we watched Man vs Food for the first time. We watched the Des Moines one. and Let me tell you. All I wanted to do was go to the places they went and eat the food. It looked so amazing. I think I should never watch this show again while pregnant, because then I have these cravings that I want and just can't fill. Am I the only one who gets these issues while watching this show?

10. I have not been to the YMCA is over a week. If you know me you will know that this is probably the reason I am losing it at this moment. I am headed back today with a maternity belt on in hopes of not hurting too much. Hopefully this takes care of the problem because I'm not sure what I would do for the next 4 months if I cannot workout the way I have been.

Happy 3rd Birthday Jedidiah!!!

 I cannot believe it has been 3 years since Jed came into our lives. He is his own child and is very different from his siblings (they really are there own people amazing how that works). Jed has decided that he likes to do things his own way and cannot be convinced easily of changing his mind. This past year he has changed so much. He talks all the time and it is usually very loud, or uses the word Poop. He discovered Star Wars and is very much in love with it. He just got a red light-saber for his birthday and can now really be Anakin, Darth Vader, or count dukoo when ever he wants. He has started choosing the good side very once and a while. He is almost fully potty trained. We treated his EE this year with great results. While on the medicine he stopped vomiting and coughing completely. Sadly in the last few weeks he has returned to his old ways and we are going to see his GI tomorrow to hopefully figure something new out. (the old medicine is a steroid and they do not want him on it very long). He is really a happy kid. He gives some of the best hugs ever. He has loved the one on one time he gets while Jeffrey is at pre-school. He loves to copy his brothers and sister. He likes to give the baby (aka my belly) hugs and kisses at night. He will be in for a huge change once the new baby comes. Jed has more energy than anyone I have ever met. I love him and am so thankful for the joy and happiness he has brought into our home. We love you JED!!!

Ten on Tuesday

1. Grandma Carmen came last night and the kids were so excited. I think I have heard grandma about a million times just in the few hours between her arrival and the kids bed. She is in town because Marian (Chris's sister) is graduating from boot camp. We are driving down today (hence the really early post) and will spend a few days with her.

2. In other big news We will be moving a week from Friday. Back in August Chris got a call from his friend Brody telling him to come look at these new town homes for rent. Lets just say Chris said hey we are going somewhere lets go. We got in the car and he refused to tell me where we were going. We got to this new development and I was like no way. We are not moving etc. We looked through the beautiful 4 bedroom 2.5 and 3 bath homes. with 2 car garages and I did not want to apply. Chris said lets just apply and see what happens. Then we will decide. Why did I not want to move. Well our current landlords are wonderful (more on that later), it is so close to school, and we are in a small branch in the Church and feel useful. fast forward to Wednesday, yes less than a week ago. We got a call saying we were accepted. We went out and looked again and it seems that time had softened my desire to move. We picked a house that shares with Brody and his family (the evil family that convinced us to apply :) ) We were going to move in end of the month. I went and told the landlord and you know what he said. That is wonderful. we are so excited for you. Thursday I sent him an email with out 1 month notice. while looking online I found out that it is supposed to be 60 days. Chris really wanted to move during his fall break (next Fri to Mon). I said if you can get them to give us back our money for those days sure. So what happened. They agreed to let us out in 2 weeks and give us our money back! I love this place. So a week from Thursday night we will be packing a moving truck (which Thursday rental is much cheaper and 1/2 the price on mileage!!! than weekend rental) Friday we will get our keys and move on in. It is a 2 story 2 car attached garage. with 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms. other awesome things that I have never had. a laundry room, linen closet, and a pantry! Chris is most excited for the wind not to blow straight through the house this winter.

3. wow only at 3? Will turned 7 Thursday and was so excited to finally be 7. What a fun and great kid he is. The previous post in dedicated to him.

4. Soccer games on Saturday were great. I was alone with the kids and the games were at 9 and 10. Needless to say I because that mom. I strapped Jed into the stroller and gave him the DVD player. He happily watched during Will's game, and Will happily watched during the other game. The kids have made such great improvement. I love seeing them play this early because you really can see it each game. A girl on Annmarie and Jeffrey's team who only touches the ball when it hits her scored a goal. Our coach started running victory laps around the field and all the parents were out to their chairs cheering. Love that about this league!!

5. General Conference this past weekend was great. To listen or to read (after Thursday) chick here. I loved Elder Andersen's talk on having kids. Plus the talk after by Elder Arden about It is better to look up. At one point on Sunday Will came and sat down with me and watched about 2 talks. such a great moment for me.

6. Another point I loved from conference was by President packer I believe. It was that we are raising our kids on enemy territory. So true and when you think of it that way it really opens your eyes.

7. I have discovered that for some reason my body really likes to be awake during the 1am to 3 or 4 am hours. I am really not enjoying this at all. Hopefully this is a short phase of this pregnancy (due to some stress right now. . . moving in 2 weeks no problem!)

8.  Since I finished reading the Book of Mormon I decided that I would read a standard work that I know very little about and should know more. I also have never read it the entire way trough. What did I pick. Why the very interesting old testament. I'm excited and hoping to learn a little more. I cannot wait until we get to the new house and I can unpack the institute Manuel to help me with some of my questions. I have also learned that after reading a chapter in Genesis and go and read the similar chapter in Moses, it usually clears up some questions I have. Thank goodness for revelation. Which me luck on this new endeavor.

9. Chris and I had a hot date on Friday. . . we brought up all of our food storage up from the basement and put it on the back porch. Bet you all wish your dates could be that exciting! And Chris was said he didn't make it to the YMCA that morning to work out. I took care of that problem.

watch it again. Not because it is entirely bad but because I do not need to be bringing that stuff into my house so readily. I must be getting really old.