No more snow, no more snow, no more snow!

A couple weeks ago, my friend Katie said that whenever her husband goes out of town something breaks.Well, whenever Greg goes somewhere it SNOWS! (that, and our garage door won't open). He has been on four trips in the last month or two, and yep, every time it has been weather like we are having now! So for anyone wondering who is to blame for the ice, snow and sub-zero temperatures, it's the guy on the left. I know, he looks pretty innocent over there, but don't be deceived--he holds the weather in his pocket! But don't worry, he'll be home tomorrow, so the weather should improve shortly!

I also have to put in a quick THANK YOU for my neighbors--they have shoveled for me twice in the last week, and that makes a BIG difference when I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off thanks to my sweet children causing havoc when I disappear for 20 minutes at a time!

Ducky Jammies!

A couple years ago, I saw these cute little duck pajamas at Costco and showed them to Sarah. She grabbed them from my hand, and snuggled up to them the entire time we were shopping si I splurged and bought them. Well, she wore them almost every night for a year, and they were so small on her I had to buy her some very similar purple chick pajamas (that we call purple ducky jammies). Even with the new pajamas, I had to sneak the yellow ducky jammies out of her room and into the basement, but yesterday the girls were playing in the basement and went into the storage room, emptied out one of my bins of in-between-sized clothes and found the ducky jammies. Sarah came running upstairs begging me to put them on, but I insisted they wouldn't fit. She wouldn't take 'no' for an answer, however, and somehow poured herself in and zipped them up. The pajamas were literally cutting into her shoulders, and she didn't keep them on very long, but when I saw my (almost) three-year-old squished into a pair of 18 month pajamas I had to pull out the camera!

Close to my heart

So, I wasn't going to post anything about this because I was a little tender-hearted about it yesterday, but at Greg's urging I have succumbed. I don't know if I have mentioned it here, but I recently was released from a six-year stint in the Primary when I was called to be the Second Counselor in the Young Women's Presidency. Last night was our first class activity, and I thought it would be fun to have a little class party to get to know the girls on a more casual basis. We played Twister and DDR, and talked a little bit about taking the right steps in life. Well, I am stalling because the emotionally draining incident occurred before mutual. As I was mopping my kitchen floor in a last-ditch effort to make things look presentable when the girls arrived for the party, Rachel woke up from her nap. I sent the other girls upstairs to entertain her in the crib while I finished up the kitchen. I made the girls promise not to make a mess, and listened to them bouncing around above my head. I was trying to decide if it would be prudent to take the opportunity to quickly wipe down the bathroom while the girls were so happily playing upstairs when Becca came down and said, "Mom, Sarah just stepped in the clean poop."
My decision was made for me. I ran upstairs, dreading the discovery of what "clean poop" is. When I opened Rachel's door I lost it. The sight was overwhelming. Rachel had pooped her pants during her nap, and the girls removed the offending diaper from her bottom. By so doing, the poop went on the floor (apparently "clean" poop is anything that doesn't stick to the diaper) and Sarah stepped in it. Then, since it was "clean" they decided to smear it everywhere. But I guess it wasn't clean enough to use their hands on, so instead they used my scriptures. I like to read my scriptures while I'm nursing Rachel because it is about the only quiet time I have, so they are usually in her room, and it was the sight of them torn and dirty that sent me over the edge. I sent the girls to their rooms and cried the entire time I was cleaning. My tears were echoed by Rachel's screams, since I wouldn't let her out of her crib while I worked.
It is amazing how attached I am to "my" scriptures. Even though I knew I could go out and get a new set of scriptures with very little effort, it was like the girls had ravaged a piece of myself when they did it.
By the time I finished cleaning, I had regained control of my emotions, and I even let the girls eat dinner (albeit a bit later than they are accustomed to eating) and had a good time with the young women. I guess this I just really needed to follow the idea given in Sunday School to get a new set of scriptures to study this year to see what new things "pop out" at me.

Thank you Ben!

I forgot to mention one little thing that also happened while Greg was away. Sarah has been really into "cleaning" and has used four bottles of dish soap on my carpet, two bottles of "Totally Awesome" all over the house, and much to my sorrow, the very last remnants of carpet cleaner ON MY CELL PHONE! I got my first phone in September, and on Wednesday, Sarah brought my phone to me and said, "I cleaned it for you." And, as is the case so often, it was totally ruined. Fortunately, however, the SIM card is fine, and Ben donated his old Treo to the cause and I once again have a cell phone! Hallelujah! And a great big THANK YOU to my little bro.!!

"Orange" you glad you didn't have to clean it up!

Well, my girls have been back at it. Last week, Greg was in San Antonio, and the girls decided it was a prime time to watch Mom have a slight breakdown. They started the week by taking a Costco sized container of Tang and making themselves a drink/wading pool in the kitchen drawer. (I'm starting to wonder if Costco really is such a great thing for our family).
On another morning, the girls searched through the cupboards until they found a big bag of unshelled peanuts. They thought that playing elephant would be a delightful game, and turned the nuts into peanut butter on my kitchen floor. When I discovered the mess, I told them to go up to their rooms until I got it cleaned up, but instead they went into Becca's room and found some vinyl window paint that I had tucked away on the top shelf of her closet. The beauty of the vinyl paint is that if it is used on a non-absorbent surface it will simply peel off when it is dry. However, Becca's windows did not provide a broad enough canvas, and they instead decorated the walls, carpet and bedding. This picture was taken after my first attempt to clean it all up!

I did come up with a great punishment, though. I went through Wendy's drive-thru and ordered myself a kids meal, and ate it in front of the girls while making comments like "Oh, this is delicious. Too bad you guys made such a mess or you could have one, too."

Well, Greg got home Friday afternoon, and his parents invited us to come over for dinner. I fear I was feeling a little complacent since our child to adult ratio was 1:1, but after dinner while we were in the basement my girls found the ONLY messy item in a VERY kid-friendly room. That messy item being bright yellow marbling ink. It was everywhere. All over their clothes, the carpet, the toys and the walls. Fortunately, it cleaned up pretty well thanks to my favorite cleaner in the world, "L.A.'s Totally Awesome Cleaner."

I don't know if I have posted about this wonderful product, but I buy it at Dollar Tree, and I had a great experience with a door to door salesman who came one day and asked, "What would you use to clean up Sharpie from clothes? Would you use a stain remover, or just consider it a lost cause?"
I told him that I would use LA's Totally Awesome cleaner, and he asked me if I would show him. I brought it out to the front door, and he used it on the Sharpie and watched as the stain disappeared. He then looked at the back of the bottle, saw that it did the exact same things his product claimed to, and asked where I got it. I said I bought it at the dollar store for one dollar, and he shook my hand, asked me not to tell my neighbors about it, and said I had found a bargain he couldn't compete with.

So, thanks to "Totally Awesome," the signs that my children are incredibly mischievous are not quite as obvious as they could have been.

Happy Holidays!

Greg is still working on getting the Christmas videos to the blog, but I thought I would give the latest updates anyway. We had a great Christmas. The girls were darling on Christmas morning, and they all got what they wanted (I will enjoy that while I can). Everything seemed very picturesque with some heavy snow storms helping with the "white Christmas" feeling.
Greg got a new laptop, a bathrobe and Super Mario Galaxy & Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii, and we have laughed ourselves silly trying to improve our dancing abilities. Greg took the week between Christmas and New Year off, and in that time our average "grade" on DDR has improved from an E to a C or D. However, on New Year's Eve, we took the game to Greg's parents and we both got an "A" the first time we danced together. We were rather pleased with ourselves.

It's a good thing we have a new exercising game, though, because I went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner last night, and I think I consumed enough calories to take me through 2008 (and I brought more than half of my meal home). I had a delicious herb-crusted salmon and shared a piece of Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake that is chocolate-heaven.

And now it is time to get back to real life. Becca has gone back to school, Greg has gone back to work, and hopefully my kids will go back to sleep at some point today because they did NOT want to sleep last night. But even if I didn't sleep, at least I had "visions of cheesecake" dancing in my head!