Going to Go Crazy!

I am just dreading the next 7 to 10 days. I am still in the middle of trying to refinish my kitchen cabinets and all of my kids are sick with this yucky cough/cold. Poor Mason had his 18 month check up yesterday where he had a fever, the cold, the start of yet another ear infection and then got 3 shots! He was so sick with fever, yuck and his legs hurt him so bad he couldn't stand yesterday that he just wanted to be held all day, which he got for the most part. But the doctor said that he is growing wonderfully and developing at the right rate so that is a plus.
Then this coming Tuesday is our next big Enrichment activity that I'm in charge of, being the Enrichment Leader and all. We are having a dinner and program to celebrate the Relief Society founding/birthday. The activity itself is stressful enough on a normal day but this one half of my committee has been released, selling there house or just had a baby. So I'm TOTALLY stressed out and shorthanded with no one willing to commit to help, only a "we will see what we can do". (sigh)
To top it off the only week that Ryan could get off to put in our new kitchen floor is next week. He wants to start ripping up tile this weekend so we can get it all done within the week.
So to recap my total insanity - my kids are sick, my kitchen is about to get ripped up while I am having to get food and handouts ready for 50+ people for my big Enrichment activity. Boy I wish they would release me!!!!
Don't get me wrong I am willing to serve in almost any church calling I'm given but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it. I just get too stressed out because everything always seems to converge at the same time. Then I need time to recover and that time is never there. I think I would welcome being committed for awhile in a big white room. Ah bliss....

Sick Cat

Well I just picked up our cat Toopher from the Vet. He has been having problems going #2 in places other than the litter box, namely Ethan and Holly's beds among other places. We thought it might just be because we brought a new cat into the house a few months back but "it" didn't look and smell right either.

Ryan and I have been going back and forth as to what we should do for awhile. I finally said we either had to take him to the Vet or we take him to the pound. So I found a Vet made an appointment and took him in. Over $70 later (grrrr) we find out he had bacterial colitis, that he has to be on an antibiotic for. He also, as well as the other two cats, have to be on a monthly worm medication and we have to get another litter box. Having a female cat in the house has caused some territory issues for Toopher. I guess cats like to have a boy potty and a girl potty. Go figure? The Vet said that should help take care of him going on the kids beds.

I am happy that we now have some answers and we have a prospect of things getting better. I just HATE having to spend so much on a CAT!

Have you ever had those conflicting feelings? You don't want to be cold and just get rid of him. He is a part of the family and I don't want him to suffer. But on the other hand I totally could have used that money elsewhere.

I just need to get over it and be happy that a member of our family will soon be feeling better, right?

My Next Big Project

A couple of weeks ago Ryan and I were at Lowe's home improvement store looking around. I was trying to figure out which room I was going to paint next. I can't really do a total re-do because I think that includes furniture and we can't afford that kind of re-do so I do what I can with paint and using what we already have and using it again. My attempt at going "green"...well it is more a money thing rather than a environmental thing.

Anyway we were looking around and since Ethan has been acting the total brat for that week there was no way I was going to do his room. It will be a lot of work and I told him I wasn't going to do it for a child that doesn't appreciate all that I do for him. He had/has taken up the habit of yelling/screaming at me when I ask him to do anything that wasn't/isn't video games and TV. He had both taken away but I'm getting off track again.

So it was between our room and the kitchen. Since Ryan wasn't being very helpful picking out a color for our room I decided to do the kitchen. I knew it was going to be the biggest job in the whole house and take me over a month or more to get it all done. Since our kitchen, dinning room and living room is all kind of one big room I really would like to have the one place that most people see when they come over, done. Our new house has become a real source of pride for both Ryan and I. Ryan has taken more interest in the inside with all the snow outside and I know once the snow melts he will be out in the yard all the time so I need to take advantage while I can.

Here is what it looked like before. Now I have painted the walls and have started on the cabinets, which will take the most time. I am having to do them in sections and I'm de-junking as I go. Then Ryan will be taking some time off in the next couple of week to put in a new floor. We are going to put in a kind of Prego like floor and we are doing it ourselves which is going to be interesting since neither one of us has done something like this before. Everyone we talked to says it is really easy and the guys at Lowe's tell us no problem, so we are going on faith. The hard part is going to be taking up the tile floor we have now. You might ask, why we would want to pull out our tile? Well the last owners of our house put it in and when they did they put to much water in the grout mix and so it is braking all apart and we have loose title all over the place. Mason trying to eat the loose grout is another incentive. So getting the title up will not be a problem its the mortar on the underside that we are worried about and we can't tackle that until we are really to pull up the floor. The kids on the other hand are all excited because we told them they could help us by beating up the floor to loosing all the grout. Ethan even picked out his own mallet.

Anyway here is a sneak peak of what it will look like once it gets done. I will be sure to take lots of pictures of the process of taking the floor out. Then have before and after pictures posted once we are done. I'm hoping we should have everything done by the end of March. I'm crossing my fingers at least.

I thought I grew out of this!

I know I keep saying that I will be better at blogging but every time I go to get on the computer I get Mason trying to "help" me or Ethan freaking out at me because he wants to get on webkins.com. Word to the wise, NEVER get your child or in my case let someone else give your child a "webkins" pet. They get this stuffed animal with a code that they can go online and adopt their pet and then they get a one year "membership" to be able to take care of their pet on line. It is basically a virtual pet world for kids. Don't get me wrong, it has some great ways to teach kids some good lessons but Ethan has to get on line everyday and check to see how his dog is doing. He is driving me crazy!!!!
Anyway back to the main topic of this post, me. I thought I grew out of certain things when I was a kid namely ear infections. But I was very wrong. This is the second ear infection I've had in the past two years and this morning I had to go to the doctor first thing because I just could not stand it any more. I have had a cold for a couple of weeks now and my ears had started to stuff up, and then my right one started to hurt. I have put off going to the doctor because I have been there so much with my kids over the last month I really didn't want to go back. But when I woke up this morning and my ear was actually leaking fluid I knew I needed to go. Ryan was a good guy and put off going to work so that I could go. My ear is so infected that it is swollen shut. The doctor tried two different sized ear things to get a look and he couldn't. He told me that I would need something for my outer ear infection anyway even if he could get a look at the inner ear so he gave up. Now I have an antibiotic, a steroid drop to put in my ear, a steroid nasal spray and some really good pain pills that I can't take till my kids are in bed because they make me sleepy. So I am having to make due with the over the counter stuff until then for the pain. Now if I can just get Mason to keep from hitting me in the ear. He has started boxing my ears as well as the head butts. Oh how I love to be abused by my 18 month old!
So I guess that the moral to this sad tale is that those thing you thought that you grew out of...you didn't and they rear there ugly heads when you have kids. So unless you want to get sick with childhood diseases, don't have kids!
PS: I hope you all know I love my kids and love being a Mom. I'm just having a bad day.

As Promised

Although it has taken me awhile, here is the before and after of my bathroom almost make over. I say almost because I still have to paint the cabinets and I "want" to get a small cabinet to go over the toilet and put a framed mirror in place of the medicine cabinet that is there now. But the paint, towel hangers, and most of the accessories are all changed. So with out further a due...

Before....and....After!

Now we are going to work on Ethan and Mason's Room. Ethan wants a chalk board wall and I think we can make it work. I don't know when we will be able to start it because the magnetic primer and the chalkboard paint are a little pricey but I think we will get one thing at a time and then go from there. I will let you know how it goes.

And speaking of Ethan, we just had his Parent Teacher conference where we got his report card, I guess they don't just send them home anymore. Ethan is doing really well he got all 4's and a few 3's (A's and B's) and he is really excelling in reading. He is reading at a 1.5 grade reading level in Kindergarten. His teacher Mrs. Larabee said that he was doing so well that she would like to send him to a special reading group in the library while she works with the others in his class that are not doing as well. We told her that would be great for Ethan and gave our approval for him to go. He then got a special "Outstanding Student" certificate that he can take to Spare Time Bowling and get two free games of bowling. We are so proud of him and I am so happy he is taking after his Dad in reading. I just hope he takes after him in spelling too.

Quick Note

Just a quick note to say that things are starting to slow down, but now I'm just playing catch up. It never seizes to amaze me how things pile up around your ears if left unchecked.
I'm half way through the mountain, and I mean mountain of laundry. I knew I left it to long when the kids ran out of clothes and Ethan had resorted to pulling out his summer shorts.
I have all my statements for work either sent or ready to print out as soon as I get paid. Which I should have been a week ago, but that is another story. I'm trying to have Christlike thoughts...
My bathroom is all painted I just have touch ups to do. I think I will wait to paint my bedroom once I have deep cleaned my house. Good idea, eh?
So now I am starting the deep cleaning of my house. With any luck it will only take me a week, that is if I don't get too much "help" the three sets of little hands. Well actually Ethan should help me but I'm not sure I'm up to the fight to get him to do the things I need. He always wants to do the big things he is still too little for like scrubbing the floors. But picking up the clothes in his room is like the worst thing I could ever ask him to do. Go figure...
Anyway that is just what I'm up to and I will post some new pictures of the kids soon. Ta

Roller Coaster that is Life

I don't know about anyone else but January is always a crazy month for me. Maybe because it is suppose to be a "new beginning" or whatever but it just always seems to be a crazy month, and so far it has been that for me. I have had too many things going on from church, house, kids, work (I have a home based business) and husband. So here is the recap of my life for the last two weeks.

I am the Enrichment leader in our ward and on top of the start of the year planning, they just called a new counselor to the RS Presidency that I get to work with. I think this is a good thing and I also feel like I'm the cause for the change. You see for the past two big quarterly activities that I have had the pleasure of putting together the RS Presidency has changed things on me over and over again during the whole process. They just seconded guessed every plan and decision that me and my committee has made. For the Christmas activity they changed EVERYTHING right out for under us 20 days before the event. At that point I told the RS President that if they did the same thing for our activity in March then I was going to quit. At first she thought I was joking, "surely you won't just quit", "no one just quits, at least not good active members". I laughed and said "you really don't know me too well, do you". I just can't and wont work like that. Well after many phone calls and promises things calmed down and next thing I know there is a new counselor. I guess the last one didn't want to work with someone who wanted to do her job. I'm happy to report that the new counselor sees things the same way I do about the process and I hope to enjoy my calling more in the coming year.

Now I don't know what got into me but for some reason I thought now was the time to paint more of my house. Ryan went to Driggs, ID again for work and so all last week while he was gone, I started painting. I finished painting my foyer, hall down the stairs and have started on my upstairs bathroom. I will post some pictures when I get it all done. But now I am starting to question my sanity.

The kids are so happy to be back at school but it seems like Ethan now has more homework than he did before. Thus bring on the fight to do his homework before he can play video games, etc.

He also went into the dentist on the 12th and had the other 3 front bottom teeth pulled to make way for his emerging permanent teeth and had 3 fillings put in. He did great through the whole thing. Now we are just having an even harder time trying to get him to brush his teeth because he says it hurts to brush where his teeth were pulled.

Holly is now to be called "Fairy Princess Holly Bug". My Dad sent the kids some money for Christmas and she spent hers on a new Princess bedside lamp and a new fairy dress with wings and all. I think she has worn it almost everyday and for all day on those days she doesn't have school.

Mason I think has conspired with his older siblings to drive me MAD. I know it is just part of being 17 months old but he is into EVERYTHING and climbing on EVERYTHING!! So on top of Ethan crying that he doesn't like doing homework and Holly jumping off of the coffee table trying to fly with her new wings and getting mad that they don't work, I now have a toddler trying to kill himself but climbing up on things ready to fall on his head at any moment.

Mason has also had major ear infections in both ears, which he just finished his antibiotics the end of last week. Now he has another one in his left ear and the start of one in his right. I just got back from taking him into the doctor (yes on Sunday) and he has to do a second round of a stronger antibiotic. Oh joy!!

Here are a couple of examples of Masons activities over the past two weeks.

He found and decided to taste a ink pad. Thank goodness it was water based!

He is climbing on my table at least 12 times a day and then can't get down so he screams at me until I come and get him down.
And finally I have been busy with work. I do the accounting for two condo associations and have had to finish their income statements for the year as well as help them get ready for their annual meetings. Let me just say that I am SO glad that we don't live in our condo anymore. Don't get me wrong I am happy that I was able to get the experience of serving on a condo homeowners committee, it has helped me to be able to earn some money for my family and still be at home with my kids. But listening to the struggles that these other homeowner associations go through just make me appreciate my home so much more.

Well that is it for now. Things are starting to slow down a little bit and hopefully I will be able to breath here soon.

Happy 2009!

As I said it would be a while till I posted anything and so it has been.

We had a very good Christmas and enjoyed our new home so much during the holidays. We did really well not to go overboard this year on gifts and I for one enjoyed the holiday more knowing we were not going to have to continue to pay for it into the New Year.

Although we were hit with a pretty big storm on Christmas day we were still able to go down to Ryan's parents house to have dinner and exchange family gifts. We had Katie & Mike's family this year and they had ours. They gave us each a really cool bean thing that you warm up in the microwave. They work like hot water bottles and keep your bed/toes warm with out the danger of leaking. That is just what they remind me of because I can remember being in my Grandparents house and all of us girls (me and my aunts) lining up at the stove to have our hot water bottle filled just before bed. Now it is Ethan and Holly lining up in front of the Microwave waiting for there "snuggy" as they have dubbed them, to be warmed up. They use them almost every night, as have I, Ryan being the only one not to. But then again he is usually the one trying to open the window or turning on the ceiling fan. I think he is just enjoying not having me stick my cold feet on him every night. ;)

Ryan got me a new camera for Christmas and I have loved it because it is just a step down from the professional ones and takes really good pictures. Although as you can tell from some of the pictures below it took me awhile to figure out how to use it. So please forgive some of them.

Anyway I am just going to put a bunch of pictures below so you can see our holiday and I hope you all had a great Christmas/New Years too.

Waiting to be able to come up and see what Santa brought.

The aftermath of present opening.

Ethan & Holly playing Holly's new "Dora the Explorer Saves the Snow Princess" Wii game.

Mason taking a "ba ba" break. Notice he won't take his had off his new Mono guitar.

Ethan and Holly waiting for the ball to drop at midnight (EST). We never told them it was really only 10 pm our time.