Here's what's happening in my world. Jealous?

Not much to write about. Life is hectic as usual. Mike made it home, but hasn’t been here too much. He is gone again (just for the day, I think). The girls are still getting out early from school which makes my day feel cut in half.


Jake is continuing with his “I need to transfer” bit. I finally told him that if he writes me a paper with legitimate reasons, I will consider it. All I ever get from him is “I don’t have any friends”. That won’t cut it for me. Yes, I’m probably cruel, but I honestly don’t think moving to a bigger, new school is going to help him make friends. I'm pretty sure actually talking to kids is the answer to that problem.  Oh well, I’m sure things will work out. Somehow.

Josh is doing good. He, thankfully, has said he doesn’t wish to transfer. I am extremely grateful for that.

Emma is dying. At least she thinks she is. She has allergies. I’m sure they are unpleasant. I’ve been dealing with them myself, but I’m also sure she isn’t going to kill over in the next day or two like she’s acting. She had me write a note for her to get out of gym and was much better that afternoon. It was a true miracle. Unfortunately, she had gym again today, so yes. She is on her deathbed again.

Elaina is up to her usual good natured self. Yes, that was sarcasm. She hasn’t been bad, but she has been getting more and more active lately and less able to handle things. If we could bottle up her energy and share it with the world, we would run out of things needing to be accomplished. Oh well. I’ll just have to keep re-directing her and getting on to the other kids who sing… or hum… or whistle… or snap… or etc. You get the idea.

My weird morning

Today is one of the weird days where the boys have the day off school and the girls have school. It's nice and bad all at the same time. Today was a bit different than it has been in the past. Usually the boys start bugging me to entertain them while the girls whine because they aren't staying home as well. Today the girls went to school with no problems. I'm sure it helps that they are getting out of school at 1 PM all week due to parent teacher conferences. Then when I got back from taking the girls, Jake let me take a shower and take a nap. He didn’t even mention that I was to entertain him today as is his style on days like today. I woke up to him on the phone discussing his plans for the day with a friend. He didn't wake me like he usually does. He let me sleep. I was shocked and extremely appreciative. I think if he had asked me to drive him to the moon I would have tried to do it. I of course didn't let him know that... but I did let him know how much I appreciated the uninterrupted nap. When Mike is out of town, I don't sleep well. I wish I did. Thankfully he comes home today after being gone for a week. I don't know how many more nights of getting 3 to 4 hours of sleep my old body can take. Usually napping during the day keeps me up at night.  I figured since Mike is coming home tonight I should be OK. Plus, I was about to pass out. Haha

My princesses

I have been asking Elaina for a couple of weeks what she wants to be for Halloween. She always answers ‘a princess’. I wanted to make sure she wasn’t going to change her mind (as is common). Yesterday I remembered a dress that Mother had adjusted for Emma a few years back. I thought it might work for Elaina. She tried it on and the bodice was too tight. As fate would have it, that is the part of the dress that Mother had adjusted for Emma earlier. I got a wild hair today and pulled out the sewing machine. I don’t often trust myself with that thing. I really enjoy it for simple straight lines, but I am NO seamstress! Mother is the one with the sewing talent. Even Mike has better sewing skills than I do. Anyway, I figured “what do I have to lose” and used a seam ripper and undid one side of the fabric Mother had sewed into the bodice. Thankfully she had used a bigger piece of fabric than necessary and I just undid one side and sewed it back up using the outer edge of the extra piece. I had Elaina try the dress on this afternoon, and it fits just right. She is in love.

Emma tried on her dress from last year and has decided to re-use it as well. Last year she was a witch, this year she wants to be a gothic princess. They are really excited.

I’m just glad that I was brave enough to try fixing it on my own and that it worked! Not bad for a couple of thrift shop dresses!

Pizza pockets

Tonight for dinner I made pizza pockets.  I got a bit of sticker shock while looking to buy the girls some 'Hot Pockets' for school lunches. These taste great and are basically free since I already have everything on hand.  :)

I haven’t made these in a long time. I made up some wheat pizza dough. Then I made up some pockets. I made them like mini pizzas then folded them in half, sealed the edges and cooked them.  We had pepperoni, broccoli chicken, and bbq chicken. My personal favorite was the bbq chicken. Just bbq sauce with cooked chicken and cheese all rolled up to burnt perfection. Actually, I didn’t burn any this time. Maybe next time. haha

Am I dreaming?

Taking Jake to seminary has been enjoyable. I can’t believe I just said that. I must be delirious from the lack of sleep.
As is habit, Elaina went with me yesterday to pick up Jake from seminary. It’s the best way to get her up and moving. On the way, she turned on the light and read to me. It was wonderful. She has really taken to reading. This morning, she woke up early to go with me to take him. I was shocked, but alright with it. She read me a book before we left. Jake got a bit annoyed, but I thought it was great. He likes to be a little early to seminary, and we weren’t as early this morning, but we were still on time. Then after we got home and had Emma and Josh awake, Elaina started making her lunch. To say I was shocked is an understatement. She was so excited. She told me “I want to make my lunch every morning”. I let her know that would be great with me. I still can’t believe it. I am not foolish enough to think this will happen two days in a row, but man how I enjoyed this morning!

How was your morning?

This morning is one of the mornings in which I look longingly toward the time I am in a nursing home or better still… the psychiatric ward. I look forward to the time when all I have to do is be taken care of. I don’t see it happening, but it’s a nice dream.


I was lucky enough to listen to the 1st session of conference yesterday with the girls yelling, crying, and hitting each other. You can’t imagine what an uplifting meeting that was. Then for the 2nd session, Elaina was still at it, only this time she was doing it all with Josh. Needless to say I didn’t hear much of conference. I will have to read it when we get the Ensign. 

Then this morning, I was lucky enough to get a sore throat from the screaming I got to do. I am truly blessed to have kids who love hearing my voice strained beyond capacity. My first opportunity came when Elaina didn’t want to wake up. I tried the gentle coaxing, lights on, singing (to annoy her), and all kinds of other things.  She wouldn't budge. 

Then came the morning showers. My how I hate shower time in the morning! Apparently I am the only one who thinks 30 minutes is way too long for a morning shower, especially when you only have an hour to shower, eat, make lunches, get dressed, brush your hair and style it, and when Mike is gone, go pick up Jake from seminary (which takes 15 minutes each way).  Then get to school on time.

I have also been trying to get Elaina better at helping with her lunches in the morning. She is determined to let me continue to make her lunches while she sits and whines about what I put in her lunch bag. I figure it isn’t that hard to help with a lunch, but I am apparently mistaken. It is truly difficult. The effort it requires is too much for my darling 1st grader. Never mind that most of the lunch items are pre-packaged or easily obtained. Oh what a foolish thing for me to ask of her!

This was just a typical morning. Yeah!

Let me apologize in advance for the many posts you might be receiving from me. Mike left this morning and since he isn’t good at e-mail or phone calls while in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, I will be writing more on the blog. He is supposed to try to email more, but I doubt it happens. He gets very busy and doesn’t often have a good internet connection. He did mention, as we dropped him off at the airport this morning, that he would be reading the blog to keep up with us here. So, sorry if you get blog overload from me. I can’t guarantee that I will make lots of posts, but in case I do, you have been warned.


Today I tried a new recipe. I wasn’t impressed and Jake was the only other one to eat any. It had good qualities, but it was just too sweet for my taste. It also had too much parmesan cheese for my liking. I am going to play with the recipe and see if I can get it more to my liking. Here is the recipe if you want it as it is. You might be able to play with it and get it to your liking. It has great potential.

This is what it looked like. Not too pretty, but it has potential like I said.  I put the leftovers in a freezer bag so Mike can try it when he gets back.

This is what Josh, Emma and Elaina ate.  Noodles with parmesan cheese.  They were happy with it. They had to have "fancy" plates as well.   haha