Dusty, moldy and guinea piggy

We need an air purifier. Really, really need one. Anyone have any recommendations? Also, sort of on the subject - what do you use to dust? Our computer desk is particularly dusty and I really don't know what to use that doesn't just send it all back in the air. Our allergies are out of control and Roy wakes up every morning really sick and stuffy. It's been like that since we moved here but now that our windows are closed more often it is getting worse. I don't know if there is mold in the walls or carpet or what, but something in this house is driving us crazy. We are hoping an air purifier in our bedroom will help. Anyway, any advice you can give will be appreciated!

Halloween!

On Tuesday there a party at the library, so Rae got to dress up early.




She's a sassy little witch


Then Thursday was the Trunk-or-Treat at the church

We didn't get around to carving pumpkins until Thursday morning (I wanted to decorate our trunk with our lit pumpkins) Turns out that you don't want to carve pumpkins too early in this area - they rotted really fast!



The good ol' cake walk! They had way too many baked goods, so they were drawing 3 numbers every round and each person that won got a choice of two baked goods!


Trying to eat a doughnut off a string.


On Friday we went downtown for some trick-or-treating on the lawn of the courthouse. A bunch of local businesses were handing out candy and we got a ton! Afterwards we went and got some dinner and met Roy at the school and went trick-or-treating in the dorms. The students decorated the halls and went all out with costumes and tons of candy. It was super crowded but we managed to go a different direction than most of the people and avoided most of the crowds. After a few floors the kids were tired and their buckets were too heavy for them to carry! We went home and trick-or-treated to a few of our neighbor friends. Once we got inside I hurried and lit our pumpkins and turned on all of our lights in hopes that a few trick-or-treaters would come and I could recycle some of our candy, but we didn't get any! Darn! Don't worry, I'm making good progress on all of the candy and it won't be around for long :) Here are some pics:
In the dorms. Roy saw several of his students.


Most of the loot.
Rae trying her first pixie-stick

Too.much.candy

Before I get to posting about Halloween and the costumes and festivities, I have an important question:

What the crap am I supposed to do with all the candy we got?! We dumped it all in a bag last night and it weighed 8 pounds! Now, I am not opposed to eating it all by myself except for the fact that I'm going to be weighed at my doctors appt. on Wed and then every month after that. Roy doesn't eat candy, and I don't feel like dealing with hyper, sugary kids everyday if I let them eat all that they want. I'm going to send some to school with Roy so he can give it to his students. Maybe I'll just do that everyday until it's gone! Ugh. So much candy. I love love love candy. I love chocolate, I love sour candy, I love tootsie rolls. I am doomed.

What do you do with your kids' candy?

Too funny

Blaise is really into going in rooms (especially his) and closing the door and having some alone time. Just now I noticed he hadn't been around for a while but didn't think much of it. I went to put some clothes in their room and found out why he was being so quiet! He had found a sucker somewhere, opened it and was sitting on the rocking chair. He didn't really seem like he was eating it though. I think he just enjoys the fact that he can actually open dum dums without any help. I walked in and said "Blaaaiiisse, what are you doing" and he just looked at me with puppy dog eyes and looked as if he was going to cry! He knew he had done something bad! I wanted to get a picture but I didn't want him to think it was cute. I took the sucker away, told him to go eat his fish sticks and then popped the sucker into my mouth! That'll teach him!

Anyway, I just thought it was pretty funny. He's getting too smart!

Let's go back a week or so....

Before I post stuff about Halloween I'm going to play a little catch-up. Last Saturday we were invited by the school to the University Farm for a "Fall Festival". They had hay rides, a few animals to pet, pumpkin carving, a corn maze, hot dogs to roast and smores! It was a blast. I haven't had a fire cooked hot dog in a long time and man were they tasty! The kids loved cooking over a fire and Rae was so excited about the smores. It was a little windy, but not too cold. Right before we were about to leave we decided to do the corn maze and it took forever! I had to pee so bad and I was starting to feel very claustrophobic. The ground was really muddy from the rain the previous day, so Blaise kept falling and we had to take turns carrying him. Rae thought it was a lot of fun though! We didn't take many pictures, but here are a few:


Eating lots of yummy food. Blaise being a goob.


What is he looking at?

Lots and lots of birds.


The view from the hayride. This is what you could see for miles and miles. It was so beautiful.

A few poorly taken pictures

Here is Rae's bug box. Yes, full of lady beetles. I stopped counting when I got to 35! She found most of those in the past 30 minutes.




Here is another box. My cupcake box! Anyone who has been to a party of mine or a party where I've brought a dessert knows that I love to make cupcakes. I don't do fancy ones or anything, I just love cupcakes. I used to have a nice big pan with a lid that fit a lot of cupcakes. That got lost somewhere - left at a party or something. Right before we moved my mom gave me this cupcake carrier. This is the first time I've used it and it's so great! It has 3 layers and fits 27 cupcakes. Totally cool. We just finished making some cupcakes for the cake walk at the truck or treat tonight (does that frosting look orange or pink? Couldn't get it quite the right color). Glad I finally got a chance to use my box! Thanks mom!

Invasion

Our home is being invaded by asian lady beetles! They are EVERYWHERE outside, and just yesterday they started coming into our house! There is a crack by our door that they get in through. I wanted to take a picture to show you, but I'm charging our camera battery right now. Just from where I'm sitting I can count about 15! And that's not including the 10 in Rae's bug box! I guess they aren't really harmful though, and they are staying close to the front door, so I just let them be and let Rae catch the ones she can reach. Anyway, pretty crazy.

I don't have much time to write about anything else. Tonight is our ward's truck or treat so I need to go finish carving a pumpkin. I'll post some pictures tonight.

A little number survey

One- Number of times I've thrown up (so far)
Two- Number of kids I have
Three- Number of kids I'm going to have (ay caramba!)
Four- Times I have to get up to pee a night
Five- Hours I wish I could watch tv and eat chocolate
Six- Times a day I have to eat
Seven- Days after finals is when baby is due
Eight- Hours of sleep I try to get
Nine- Number of comments I expect to get (at least!)
Ten- Hours of sleep I wish I could get!
Eleven- Weeks down, 29 to go!

Brrr?

I put a little weather thingy over there to the right. ---->
As of right now (12:45 AM, 10/28), it's 28 degrees here. I know it's not Idaho, but it's still pretty cool.

My new best friend

The pouch costs about a buck and makes 6 muffins, which is perfect for me and the kids. And they are really tasty muffins. I've tried several mixes like this and you often get fruit pieces in the middle that are kind of crunchy. These are perfect. I mean, I'm not saying they taste like fresh blueberries or anything, but they do the job for a quick, tasty muffin. The kids love them and they are so fast to whip up. Sometimes I serve them as breakfast with some fruit or yogurt and sometimes they are our mid-morning snack.

I definitely prefer muffins baked from scratch - especially banana muffins - but when I bake muffins I always end up with 2 dozen or so and then I have to freeze them or eat them :) And sometimes I try a new recipe and end up with a ton of muffins that we didn't like. So, for those days when I don't feel like baking from scratch, these are perfect! I guess once we have a few more kids it won't really be economical though. :) Anyway, give them a try!

Gas again

Not that kind of gas - I know what my family is thinking! Yes yes, I'm a gassy person. :)

But gas prices have gone down even more! It's 2.43 now! I am waiting till my tank is on empty before I fill it up again - maybe it will be down to the 2.30s!

Flippin' cold here today. So windy and the wind was so cold! Ugh. Why oh why do I live here?! I guess it will be fun to go sledding in a couple of months. I'll keep telling myself that!

Gas prices

Our gas is down to $2.55 here - woo hoo! What is it in your neck of the woods? Yes, I'm talking to you.

Pictures

There's a bunch of new ones here.



*Edited to add: did the captions work for you? Stupid Shutterfly. Time to find a new way to share pictures.

French toast

A few people suggested french toast. Rae hasn't liked mine in the past, but I'm not very good at making it. How do you make your french toast? Any particular bread you've found that works the best? Is the trick getting the pan nice and hot so that it doesn't turn out soggy? Mine is always soggy. Your comments have been great - keep the help coming! :)

Breakfast

What do you serve your kids for breakfast? We tend to rotate through eggs, pancakes/waffles, cold cereal, cold oatmeal and occasionally muffins. I'm planning to make some tasty pull apart cake in the next few days, but that is more like dessert! Any ideas of some creative things for breakfast? My kids used to be big yogurt fans, but not so much anymore. Should I just let them have eggs as often as they want? They'd eat them 5 times a week if I let them! Occasionally I'll change it up a bit and do egg burritos or egg sandwiches. I'm always worried about giving them too much sugar in the morning. I'm just kind of in a breakfast rut - so I'm asking for your thoughts - what do you serve?

Cold

I went to go to the gym this morning. There is ice on my windshield. I can't drive with ice on my windshield. Back inside I go.

I was not prepared for ice already. I guess I need to get some sort of ice scraper or something? Ugh. Not ready for winter yet! I'm sure by the time we need to go to preschool at 10:30 it will be nice and sunny and warming up, but if I want to go to the gym at 6:30 every morning I'm going to have to get used to ice. Roy is applying to jobs for next year and I'm going to make him take anywhere cold off his list.

Productive morning

I got Rae's speech class moved to 9am instead of 8:30 in hopes that I can squeeze in the gym in the morning. I went yesterday (no speech) and it was so great. I hadn't been in about 2 weeks. I didn't make it today (speech day) because Roy needed some extra sleep more than I needed exercise. (Poor guy is so busy and stressed!)

Speech at 9am is way nicer! It still makes me get up and out the door early, but gives me enough time to make the kids a nice breakfast, clean up after breakfast and leave on time feeling calm. We dropped Roy off at work since it's on the way and it's raining (he hasn't been able to ride his bike much - it's always too wet!) After speech we went to the library and hung out for about 40 minutes. Our library is great - tons of puzzles, toys and a puppet show - the kids love to just hang out there. When we got home the kids were happy to just play and watch tv and I decided to go through boxes of "misc clothes" and see what sort of things we have for winter. I was happy to discover that the kids' winter coats still fit them! And Blaise had a couple of pants and pjs that I didn't know about. And I even had a pair of footsie pajamas for Rae that I forgot I had. (She's wearing them around the house - she LOVES footsie pjs) I love collecting things throughout the year, either on clearance or from friends, and then when the time comes to use them you forgot you even had them! Luckily I went through these boxes early because I had no idea we had so much stuff and I probably would have gone out and bought new jackets! We have a pretty good supply for winter and we might have to start using it soon...yuck. I feel prepared and happy to have that out of the way. I also put away a bunch of shorts and t-shirts to make room for pants and long-sleeves. And the kids played nicely this whole time and enjoyed trying on jackets and gloves. A very nice use of a rainy day! Now they are watching Bambi and eating popcorn (I really should make them lunch)

Last week I was in a rut and super grumpy and depressed. The house was a mess, Roy was super busy (still is) and everything was just making me depressed. But yesterday I got to workout, I ate well all day, and just felt great. When Roy got home from work we got the house cleaned from top to bottom and now life is really looking up. I'm still adjusting to life here and still don't feel like I've made many friends. Rae enjoys preschool twice a week, but other than that we haven't had anyone over to play or gone over to anyone's house. I know that I need to step out of my comfort zone and actually call someone and invite them over, but it's hard for me to do. That's the main thing that gets me down. Every few days I just really miss the friends we had in Davis and I miss being comfortable and knowing everyone. Most of the young moms in our ward have husbands in medical school, and they have their own little network. Totally great for them - just wish we were part of it! I look back to Solano Park Apartments and all of us moms with husbands in graduate school and I hope we didn't seclude anyone who wasn't part of that "situation."

(I'm not sure if anyone from my current ward is reading this...if you are, just know that I don't think anyone is doing anything wrong, I just need to find a way to "belong" in this ward and it's going to take some effort on my part!)

Anyway, things are good now. I'm enjoying life and I know what I need to do to enjoy it even more and what to do to keep myself from getting into ruts all the time!

St.Louis

Roy didn't have work on Thurs/Fri for midterm break, so we decided to go make a little trip to St.Louis. I got a good deal on priceline for a hotel. We headed out right after preschool on thursday (around 12:30) and had a really good drive without any stops. We went straight to a mall that was near our hotel and let the kids run around and burn off some energy and got some Panda Express for dinner (yum! we don't have one here in kirksville, so it's been months!)

The plan was to check into the hotel and then I would go to the temple. Well, we got lost on the way to the hotel and ended up driving around for about 40 minutes (the mall was only 4 miles from the hotel) We finally found it and got checked in and I had to hurry and eat some dinner, get dressed and get going. But I still had plenty of time and really enjoyed going to the temple. Roy got the kids to bed and I got back to the hotel around 9 and went to bed too. Pretty uneventful. :)

The next morning we all got up and ate the breakfast I had packed, but realized it just wasn't enough food. So Roy got dressed to go to the temple and we headed out in search of some food. The traffic was horrible and there weren't many options for food in the area. We finally found a mcdonalds. We ate real quick then I dropped Roy off at the temple and headed back to the hotel (it was great because the hotel was only a 5 minute drive from the temple) The kids and I went swimming in the indoor pool, which was the highlight of the entire trip! We had the pool to ourselves and the kids had a blast!! It was really, really great.

We went back to the hotel room and got ready for the day and got everything ready to go and went to the temple to pick Roy up. Then back to the hotel to check out. By then we were all hungry for lunch, so we decided to start driving to the zoo and find something to eat on the way. Well, again, not many food options. We drove around for a really long time and finally found an IHOP. We didn't realize how huge St.Louis is and how busy and crowded it is. Yuck. Not a fun place to try to find your way around.

Anyway, we finally made it to the zoo around 1:30. It was super super crowded but the weather was perfect and the kids enjoyed it. We didn't see most of it because it was so huge, but we can always go back another day. It's free to get into the zoo and then they have some attractions that you can pay for. (Like a train that cost 5 bucks a person!! Rae was upset the whole time that we wouldn't let her go for a ride. But we had already spent a lot on this trip and just couldn't afford 20 bucks for us all to ride the train! I told her she can start saving her money and we can ride it next time.)

We left the zoo around 4 and headed to Costco. We got stuck in traffic AGAIN and what was supposed to be a 20 minute drive was a 45 minute drive. Ugh. By then we were all tired and grumpy and hungry. By the time we finished at costco, got dinner, got gas and got on the road it was about 6:30. We put the kids in their pajamas, put a movie on and told them to go to sleep! They went to sleep as soon as the movie was over, so we made another trip without any stops.

All in all it was a good trip, just not as relaxing as I had hoped it would be. And since Roy took Thurs and Fri off, it meant he had to work all day Saturday and all night too. I still haven't unpacked from the trip. But at least we both got to go to the temple, so that was worth it. Here are some pics: (we didn't get very many)


Roy and the kids at the temple


St.Louis temple


Blaise watching the hippos. The stuff floating in there is hay that comes out in their poop. Gross. And Blaise's hair looks ridiculous!



Hippos are some crazy animals. They are so weird.

Because I don't feel like blogging about anything else

1. Where is your cell? Desk
2. Significant other? Unique
3. Your hair? Ugh
4. Your mother? Energetic
5. Your father? Kind
6. Your favorite thing? Sleep
7. Your dream last night? Shepardson
8. Your favorite drink? chocolate
9. Your dream/goal? Joy
10. The room you're in? Living
11. Your fear? failing
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? hmmmm
13. Where were you last night? couch
14. What you're not? patient
15. Muffins? Dozen
16. One of your wish list items? electronics
17. Where you grew up? heat
18. The last thing you did? dishwasher
19. What are you wearing? summery
20. Your TV? small
21. Your pet? stinky
22. Your computer? broken
23. Your life? meh
24. Your mood? lazy
25. Missing someone? yup
26. Your car? dirty!
27. Something you're not wearing? ring
28. Favorite Store? walmart
29. Your summer? Expensive
30. Your favorite color? purple
31. When is the last time you laughed? today
32. Last time you cried? yesterday
33. Who will/would re-post this? dunno
34. The place I go over and over? truman
35. The person who visits me? no one :(
36. A favorite fruit? cantaloupe
37. A place I would rather be right now? anywhere

More help

So preschool was pretty good today. I made little signs for each letter and each kid got to hold two signs and I had them stand up when I made the sound of the letter they had. Then we did some dancing and singing and all was good. I didn't have a cool craft for them to do, but I just couldn't come up with anything.

Thursday's preschool topic is "dinosaurs/fossils". Any ideas? I have a little sandbox outside that I could do some sort of fossil thing with, but it might be full of water/mud because it's been rainy, and it might even rain on Thurs, so I can't depend entirely on that. Whatta ya'll think?

Need some help

I'm hosting Rae's preschool group this week and on Tuesday I need to teach the sounds for letters Q-Z. Any ideas? I cannot come up with much! Let me know if you have any ideas! Thanks!

Advice needed

How did you get your kids to stop wetting the bed at night?

When we moved here Rae was wearing pullups to bed, but hardly ever peeing in them. (this was without us waking her up to pee or doing anything different than the usual nighttime routine) When she ran out of pullups we started having her wear underwear to bed. The first week or so she did great and then she started peeing in the middle of the night. So we started waking her up every night before Roy went to bed (around 10 or 11) and that worked out just fine for long time. But lately she has either already peed before we wake her up (especially if Roy ends up staying up late and doesn't wake her up till 12 or so) and just this week even if we wake her up at 11 or so to pee she ends up wetting the bed before waking up in the morning! We thought that maybe she was drinking too much water, but her sippy cup is always pretty full.

So, where do we go from here? I am tired of washing her sheets every morning and really want to get this taken care of before it gets cold and we have to put a big quilt on her bed and end up washing THAT every morning!

When we wake her up in the middle of the night we try to wake her up completely so that she is aware of what is going on and will maybe start doing it all on her own. Any suggestions for this problem? What else can we be doing? Do we really have to wake her up at 11 and then again at like 4? She used to go the entire night without waking up to pee and would be dry more often than she is now! Please help! :)

On being a "grown-up"

When we started our life in Davis I was miserable. Roy was busy busy with school, I had a newborn and was far away from family. I made friends pretty quickly, Rae grew up into a fun toddler and we got a little more used to graduate school. Roy was always busy with school, but always had a very flexible schedule and we did a lot of outings together as a family. By the end of graduate school I felt like we finally had a routine down (it only took us 4 years to get one figured out!) and then life got all messed up again. :)

Also, we lived in a small, dinky apartment. BUT, we had free cable, water, trash and internet! We had incredible neighbors and free service from a fairly competent maintenance crew that took care of anything we needed. Of course, all I could think about was being DONE WITH SCHOOL and on to real life.

The grass is always greener on the other side! Don't get me wrong, I am grateful to be done with school and making a little more money. I just think it's going to take some time to get used to, just like it took us time with graduate school. Roy's schedule isn't really flexible at all right now because he's just getting the hang of being a full-time professor and can't give up any valuable work hours. Also, he's applying to jobs for next fall, so that's a big load on top of everything else.

We live in a great duplex type place with a few mormon neighbors, but there aren't the abundance of kids around like in Davis. And there are quite a few parks around, but none as nice as the ones in Davis. And now we really are FAR from family.

What got me thinking about all this was first the smaller than expected paycheck we got yesterday, and then we got our water bill today.(they come every 2 months, so this was our first one) We haven't had to pay a water bill in about 5 years, so it's something we are getting used to again. Is life really better in the real world?? :) I'm sure we'll get used to it all and adjust just fine, but these first few months have been a little shock to our system!

Now I just have to try to enjoy what we having going on here and try not to think about how "great" life will be when we are really settled somewhere (because then we will have a mortgage, home maintenance, really being stuck somewhere and what if we don't like it!)

Hmm, not sure if this post makes any sense. The kids needed my help a few times and I lost my train of thoughts a few times. Oh well.

Taxes

So Roy finally got his first paycheck from Truman. Woo hoo. I cannot believe how much we pay in taxes. We had planned for it of course, but we were a little off on how much we would pay. Ugh. Hey dad, are we going to get a bunch back? I hope so. Stinkin' government! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go sign up for some free government programs.

All I can be is random....

Rae had her first day of speech today. She goes MWF 8:30-9am. Do you know how hard it is to get everyone out the door by 8:15?? Ugh. Not something we are used to doing! I'm going to try to get something later in the morning, I don't know what I was thinking when I said I could do 8:30. Also, I've been exercising every morning at the school's rec center and I can't do it if we have speech at 8:30. So, I'm going to tough it out a week and then ask if we can make a change.

Rae really enjoyed speech and me and Blaise just hung out in the "lobby" area of the building and read a ton of books and just enjoyed having quiet time with just the two of us. We didn't have much of a breakfast this morning due to lack of time and lack of clean dishes, so after speech we went to Hy-vee, our grocery store here. They have a restaurant inside the store. Living in the mid-west or south is going to be the death of me. Everywhere you go they have delicious biscuits and gravy!!! So, so, so good! We got some biscuits and gravy and eggs,bacon and sausage. They put SO much gravy on your biscuits that you end up having a ton leftover, so I was dipping my eggs and bacon into the gravy! Oh my heck, my cholesterol is going to go up!

As Roy posted, Rae got a haircut on Friday. When we first cut her hair short I wanted her to get bangs, but she really didn't want them. But lately she's been asking for bangs, so we went and got them! They make her hair much more manageable and she can pretty much take care of it herself (on the days we aren't going anywhere super important) She also got her very own hairbrush. I cannot believe how much she is maturing, both in looks and personality! If we were sending her to school she'd be going to kindergarten next year! That is seriously insane!

I hit a squirrel this morning! As far as I know I've never hit one before. I tried so hard to avoid it, but it just went straight under my car! It was so horrible. I looked back and could see it just tossing and flopping around on the ground. I almost wanted to go back and hit it again to put it out of its misery!

This week is Homecoming Week at Truman, so there should be some fun events going on. We've had pretty warm weather lately, but last night there was this huge storm that lasted about 20 minutes and today it's nice and cloudy and cool. Still can't get used to the weather here! Anyway, that's about all going on right now. Hope to hear some updates from some of my siblings! :)

Bang!

I guess since we got cable, I'll have to take over here.
Rae got bangs.

We took the plunge...

...and got cable. I'm slightly disappointed in myself, but I'll get over it. :) They had a special 6 month promotion, which is perfect because we won't be here much longer than 6 months. We got a lot of bonus channels, like the BYU channel, and we even got a DVR included! I do believe the DVR will be the death of me. :) And Rae is obsessed already and since we have so many channels there are always cartoons on! But I think we'll all be used to it in a few days and soon we'll be back out at the park and doing more exciting things. :) Blaise is so not into TV, so we can't watch it all day or he gets mad. :) Now I gotta think of something for us to do this afternoon or Rae won't leave the couch. Ugh, and I should probably wake Blaise up from his nap. He'd sleep all afternoon if I let him.

So glad I can set the DVR to record The Office tonight if I don't get home from Enrichment on time. (Which I probably won't, since I would like to actually be sociable!) Can't wait to see what happens with Jim and Pam this season!

More eating habits

I made the kids their favorite lunch today: Mac n' Cheese. I made myself some Progresso Southwest Chicken soup (one of those with zero Weight Watchers points) The soup was pretty lame even after adding a little sour cream and cheese and eating it with chips. (kinda cancels out the zero points!) So I was about to throw the last of it away (seriously, it was not good) and I wondered how it would taste with some mac and cheese mixed in. It was delicious! Okay, the secret is out, I have strange tastes! And my somewhat healthy meal was ruined! But very yummy lunch.

I'm off to eat the rest of the mac and cheese (there's always just a tiny bit left at the bottom, not enough to save for another meal!)

Nummers

Whoever first paired grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup was a genius! The way those flavors compliment each other - yum! The sandwiches I made today were especially yummy because they were made with thinly sliced french bread from Walmart (go to your walmart and see if they have sliced french bread, it is so yummy - cooks up crispy on the edges and chewy in the middle!) and I used real butter. So good! It's the only thing that American Cheese is useful for! Someday I'd like to try out a recipe for tomato soup that I saw recently, but for now the canned stuff is fine by me. (doesn't even have to be Campbell's to please me!)

With the rest of the french bread I made garlic bread for our pasta last night. Again, real butter, some garlic powder and dried thyme and oregano. Spread em' out on a cookie sheet and bake them at 350 for a few minutes and then put it on broil for just a minute. Yum yum yum. I am so into buttery things right now! :)

Didn't watch Heroes last night...I was asleep by the time it even came on. I've been going to bed pretty early lately because Blaise hasn't been sleeping very well. And I get up every morning and go to the gym at 6:30, so I need a good night's sleep. I need at least 8 hours of sleep at night and if the kids wake up and I don't get uninterrupted sleep, then I need to be in bed for at least 9 hours to feel like I got enough rest. There will be times in my life where I have a lot to do and only get 6 hours of sleep a night and I'll do just fine for a while but then I get a full night's sleep and realize I could be doing much better! So when things aren't hectic in life I get as much sleep as I can, even though there are always things I could be working on. Sleep is pretty much the last thing I give up.

Anyway, I know I said I'd post pictures, and I still plan to. :) Maybe later today, or after I finally get to watch Heroes tonight!

Stuff and stuff

Heroes tonight! Woot! I probably won't even get to watch it tonight since I don't have cable and I don't know when it'll be online. Oh well, I'm sure I'll catch it sometime this week. And The Office is later this week - woo hoo!

Speaking of cable...the other day Rae asked "when are we going to get one of those tvs that you can change the channel and watch cartoons and shows and stuff?". Yeah, I want one of those "tvs" too! We are thinking about getting cable. The problem is that I don't just watch the shows I enjoy. I sit my bum on the couch and watch whatever is on and waste my evening away. So if I can just break that habit then cable would sure be nice! The kids are really sick of their movies and even the movies from the library. Hey, we should get it now so we have BYU TV and can watch conference at home!

I'm getting Rae started in some speech therapy through the school district. I hope she starts making some improvements soon, because she has started to lose some of the things she learned before the summer. I can understand her most of the time, but sometimes it's like I'm talking to a 2 year old instead of a 4 year old.

I wanted to sign Rae up for tumbling but I decided not to. Since we'll be doing speech at least once a week and preschool twice a week I decided that'd be enough stuff to keep us busy. Also, the class I wanted to sign her up for starts at like 3:30 in the afternoon and sometimes Blaise is still napping at that time. (When he actually takes naps - he's been trying give them up!) Besides, tumbling is like 30 bucks a month, plus shoes and costume expenses. Maybe we'll take the money we save and get cable!! I think I'll just wait till she's old enough to really want to do it and actually gain a lot from it.

The weather here is so weird. Hot one day, cold the next. Rain and rain and rain for days and then days with no rain. I think we might hit the city's indoor pool sometime this week for a little something different to do.

So yeah, there's an update. Totally random, but that's how it gets when I get behind on posting! Pictures to come later today.

Hole in the Wall

If you want a good laugh check out Fox's "Hole in the Wall". (again, it's a fox on demand show, which is why we watch it) Rae really likes to watch it and then try to imitate the shapes they need to make to get through the hole. I'd like to be on this show! Good stuff. We used to watch the Japanese version.

Fringe again

It is pretty gory.

Fringe, cleaning and Violette

Have you heard of the new Fox show called "Fringe"? You can watch it on Fox on Demand (we don't have cable, so we only watch shows you can watch online!) For those of you who thought Heroes was too violent and gory, this one is a little less of both (well, so far) We watched the first episode on Saturday night and the second episode aired last night, so I think we have a date to watch it tonight.

This morning when I came in from sleeping outside I realized our house really stunk! Every week or so I walk into the house from running an errand or something, and realize it stinks. Usually it's just the trash can or something, but this morning it seemed like everything was so behind on being cleaned! Roy took out the trash and that helped the smell and I've spent the rest of the morning catching up on everything else. Sometimes it nice to get a little behind because it feels so good to get caught up! Roy took the van to school this morning, so I'm forced to stay home and deal with the chores here. The kids are being reasonable and actually playing nicely together, so it's been a nice morning so far!

Violette is adjusting nicely to our family. I let Rae hold her yesterday during Blaise's nap and they did just fine together. She doesn't jump every single time we walk past and she's getting used to the loud kids. Whenever we get her out to pet her we offer her some sort of fresh fruit or veggie. She usually won't take it directly from us, so we put it in her cage when we put her back in, so now she associates being held with getting yummy food. She did eat hay from Roy's hands this morning. We went to the pet store in town to see what sort of supplies they have (NONE!) and they had some full grown guinea pigs - yikes, I didn't realize how big they got! She might need a bigger cage eventually. Actually, we'd like to have two guinea pigs someday, but probably not till we get settled somewhere permanently.


A close up of Violette


We had a birthday cake for Violette (hey, any excuse to eat cake, right?) Yum, candy corn! The best part of Halloween! (and those peanut butter "mary janes")

Another campout

We slept out in the tent again last night. This time Blaise joined us. Why the heck does anyone camp? We settled down for the night around 8 or so and Rae fell asleep pretty easily by 8:30, but Blaise was awake for a long time - probably till about 9. He's not used to having to block out noises and light so he had a harder time falling asleep. Plus, he took a long nap late in the afternoon. Roy had to stay up and write a test for his class tomorrow and it ended up taking him till 2 in the morning! He came out at 2 and got Rae to go potty. After that I couldn't get back to sleep for another hour or so and then Blaise woke up and realized he was outside and wanted to cuddle with me, so I spent the rest of the morning with his head on my shoulder. It got pretty darn cold last night, so I also kept waking up to make sure the kids were covered and that they weren't pressed up against the sides because there was a lot of moisture on the tent and it would get you wet if you pressed against the sides.

Sigh, what a night. Blaise woke up at 6:30 and I took him in the house and woke Roy up and then went back outside to be with Rae. Luckily she slept till 7:45, so I got a little more sleep. Poor Roy is going to be exhausted today, and Blaise is already showing signs of lack of sleep. My back and shoulders hurt and to top it all off we are all getting colds. Fun stuff. Moral of the story is: if things go well the first time, don't do them again!

Happy Birthday MOM!

I don't know if you'll get a chance to check this today, but I hope you have a great day and get a little relaxation. Love you!

New pet!

We've been talking for a while about getting a pet for Rae. We were considering a frog but they are pretty boring. We thought some easy fish, but those are boring too. We went to Columbia yesterday and hit up Petco. The first animal we wanted to consider was a ferret! Turns out they cost like 130 bucks and their cages cost another 130! And they are a lot more maintenance than I'm ready for right now. But Roy has always wanted a ferret, so it's something we'll consider in the future.

We spent SO long at Petco trying to decide. The kids were super hyper from chocolate shakes and it was after 7, so they were fighting off sleepiness too. We looked at frogs, fish, hamsters, mice, etc,etc and finally decided on a guinea pig! Well, we decided that if we were going to get a pet we would get a guinea pig, but we hadn't decided whether we were ready for the start-up cost involved. But we decided just about every pet is going to involve some start-up cost, so if we wanted a pet we might as well do it now. The kids are at a good age for a new pet and life is pretty calm and easy right now. And guinea pigs are supposed to be super friendly and easy to take care of.

So, introducing....Violette: (named after the building where Roy works, and purple!)




Not very good pictures, but she's pretty scared and timid right now, so it's gonna take some getting used to before she comes out for a photo-shoot :) She's only a few weeks old. Last night she let me hold her quite a bit, but this morning she's super jumpy and doesn't want anything to do with me. We'll give her some alone time in a while when we go to the store, so hopefully she'll be able to relax a bit.

Anyway, pretty big excitement in the Wright home! Guinea pigs can live like 4-8 years, so this may be a really long commitment. I'm already worried about finding someone to watch her during Christmas break, but as long as I start looking early I'm sure I'll be able to find someone.

McDonalds and Redbox

On Tuesdays our McDonalds has Happy Meals for $1.50. With every Happy Meal you buy you get a code for a free movie from Redbox. Woot woot! We've done Tuesdays at McDonald's twice now and last time there was this old guy there that was getting Happy Meals and he gave us his toys and codes. (Nothing like a playroom full of junky toys!)

I love Redbox. We have 4 of them here in Kirksville, so you can almost always find the movie you want. And I hardly ever have to pay for them! I also get a text every Monday with a free code. If you haven't tried it yet, give it a shot! They also have some good kid movies. The only problem is having to return them the next day, which isn't convenient if you don't plan on being out. But ours are so close that it's worth it. Our other movie-renting option is a place called "Movie Gallery" which is like Blockbuster but cheaper. You can rent new releases there for 2 bucks for a one night rental (it's like 4 bucks for a week rental) and they have a big selection of kid movies that are only a buck for a week rental! I like the options like Netflix and Blockbuster, and have used both, but I always felt like I HAD to watch movies to make it worth my money. Now, when we have a holiday break we can watch a bunch of movies and when we are busy we can just watch one or two.

I watched Baby Mama the other day. Good stuff if you have nothing better to do!

Lame-o

I can't believe I didn't post anything for a whole week! I'm so fail.

Not much going on lately. We had a lot of rain this week. I went to the gym several times. Me and the kids went to Columbia for some "big city" action. Fun stuff.

Sometimes I get in a blogging rut. I'm sure I'll come out of it in a couple of days and get back to business! I've got some pictures from our lake trip last week, so I'll try to post those soon. Until then - umm....stay tuned. :)

Houseflipping?

We've got our eye on a nice little property down the street from us:

Link!

...or maybe we'll just move in ourselves!

We just finished off the last of my homemade pancake mix and the kids loved them! Time for a new batch - this time with a little more whole wheat flour and a little less white flour.

I finally made it to the rec center yesterday! It was great! There's so much to do there. As Roy's "designated guest" I only get to go between 6:30am-2pm. So, I pretty much have to go as soon as it opens or there won't be time for Roy to get to school on time. I can't believe I have access to all this stuff for free! I'm trying to make it part of my routine so that when it's cold and dark outside I still get up and go. On Saturdays I can use it anytime of day, so I plan to have nice long workout today, and hopefully every Saturday. I should ride my bike to the school, but then I might be too tired to do anything else!

WOWZA!

I missed the two-year anniversary of starting my blog!! I did my first post on August 13, 2006! You see, I was "hip" before blogs were so popular. :) I think my friend "Bluebell" over at Degenerate Subspace was the one who made me really want to start a blog. Hers is very honest and fun to read. And I like that it's changed tones over time to reflect things that have gone on in her life - proof that she's not trying to please any audience. Her early posts always made me crack up and feel relieved that I wasn't the only one who thought that way (but I'm usually too afraid to admit!) Some of favorite posts: Santa Rant
and Moo

Anyway, Happy Birthday/Anniversary/Whatever to me! Thanks for reading!

Randomness (edited to include pictures) Updated: "After the storm"

I'm officially a Missourian. I got my driver's license on Tuesday. Whoop whoop! I went today and registered our van. (We had to get it inspected first, which ended up costing a bunch of money because there were a few things to fix - ergh!)
I love the "DMV" here. It's just a little tiny office with 3 or 4 employees and they are all super nice. And the two times I went there were only a few other customers. Way better than in CA!

Our oven doesn't cook very evenly. I burned some muffins the other day, my oatmeal cookies didn't cook right today and I just took some rolls out of the oven and the bottoms almost burnt!! Ergh! I never burn things! Seriously - I hardly even leave the kitchen when something is baking because I'm constantly checking it!

Our kitchen has such little counter space that we are forced to do the dishes constantly or we won't even have room to butter a slice of bread. Seriously, no counter space, especially since there's only one drawer in the kitchen, so all of our knives and spatulas are in little "carousels" on the counter top. My BIL Chad would have a heart attack if he came into our kitchen since the counter tops are so covered! (He's got all the counter space in the world, yet he insists on putting the paper towels in the pantry!) :) Good news is: the dishes are ALWAYS done!

Butter and margarine are sold in long skinny bars here. In CA they were a little shorter and thicker. Weird.

Check out the size of the praying mantis we found! We actually found three this size. Creepy!



Went to a thrift store the other day and I got a really cute pair of pjs for myself, a Halloween vest for Rae and a Tigger costume - all for $1.25. Awesome.

The other day Roy was being neglectful in the morning, so Rae got out leftover eggs (green eggs to be exact) and two plates from the dishwasher and served up breakfast! She's been super helpful lately. She gets herself dressed for bed every night and even gets out PJs for Blaise! Notice the fly on the table. We have a lot of flies here. Gross.



Rae can't decide what to be for Halloween. She wanted to be a little old lady, and then she got that tigger costume, which is cute, but not super exciting. She wants Blaise to be a cat. Weird that Blaise doesn't even know what Halloween is! I know he'll LOVE it though!

We've had some nice cool weather lately, but it was pretty warm today, I even considered going to the pool but we just didn't have enough time. We picked Roy up from school at about 4:45 and it was hot and sunny. I wish I had more of a notice of rain..check it out... by 5:45 it looked like this:



After the wind settled down a little we let the kids go out and play in the sandbox, which was now a pool!






Okay, here is a picture from 7:30 tonight...the storm is completely over and it looks as if nothing ever happened!



Yup, total randomness. I've been meaning to blog about most of these things for a few days now, so here it is - all in one post!

Good ol' Blythe

I grew up in Blythe,CA (in case anyone out there didn't know) My friend sent me a link to a video from "pvtv" with my daddy in it! My dad is the principal at the high school there - and his name is Jeppson, not Jessop.

A few things I must point out:

-How unprofessional does that "news anchor" look?? Nice tattoo.

-The football stadium took a really long time to remodel (I dunno how long - but something like 4 years!) and it look exactly the same! :) Okay, it does look nice, but not that much different.

-All the other principals had a few short sentences to say, but my dad had a whole speech prepared! I think he's probably the only principal that has anything prepared for the school year as well.

-The last principal they showed - Jeremy James - was a teacher at the HS when I was there and I had a huge crush on him.

-How pathetic is our band?! Some things never change.

He's finally here!

My sister Katie finally had her baby boy today! (5 days late) I'm so glad he came safely and without any complications! Congrats Katie!

Toys toys everywhere

I've been thinking lately about starting a Christmas list because there are certain people in my family that like to shop super early (ahem, Baerbel!) but I haven't really come up with anything the kids need. Here are a few things they do NOT need:

Cars - Blaise loves to play with them but he has about 30 or so!

Dolls - We are overrun with dolls. We have talking ones, swimming ones, and cuddly ones

Doll clothes/accessories - We have blankets, towels, bottles, toys, beds, swing, etc

Puzzles - I think we have plenty, although maybe some more complicated ones for Rae

It's amazing how many toys you realize you have when you have to pack them and then unpack them. We got rid of lot of junk but we still have enough to fill the playroom. I do want to get a kitchen for them, but I'm not sure where it would go.
Anyway, just some random thoughts I had while I was cleaning up the playroom tonight.

Oh, I stumbled upon this video on You Tube today, and it pretty much sums up Kirksville! Well, it's focused on the medical school here, but that's pretty much the center of the community. It gets a little boring, but the beginning is funny.

One more post today

Here are a few random pictures from the past few days:

Several parks here have these "wading pools" and are open various times of the week. They are free and there's a lifeguard there. It goes from about 1 foot deep to about 2, maybe 2 1/2 feet deep. We've only been to this one a few times because the weather has been so unpredictable, but it's a great free activity and you don't have to fill up your own wading pool! (And yes, they empty them every day)



Burger King playground rules - look closely...







Ummm, okay...like this?

Should have looked outside

I got up, got dressed, put on my socks, grabbed my shoes (I like to sit on the porch and put them on or else Blaise will ask for his shoes on too) and went outside to go walking only to discover that it is raining! Ugh. I don't know how I didn't notice it was raining, or think to check (it was about to rain when we went to bed). I have a pass to go to the Student Rec center on campus now, but it's too late in the morning to attempt that. Bummer. Oh well, maybe I can go tonight.

When it's rainy outside I like to have creamy soups and hot chocolate. Or, at least I did when I lived in southern California. When I moved to Davis it was rainy from Dec to Feb so I got a little used to it. But my first two weeks here I found myself craving hot chocolate and soup when it rains, because one day it will be hot and yucky outside and then 10 minutes later it will be cloudy and rainy and chilly! But I better get used to it, because I will get really fat if I eat creamy soup every time it rains!
(Especially if I can't go walking!)

Happy Birthday Christie!

Today is my oldest sister's birthday! Hope you have had a good day so far and maybe even get to do something fun or relaxing for yourself!

BTW

Blaise is all better. Just a little bug I guess. He still breathes a little funny when he's sleeping, but overall he's all better! Thanks for all of the suggestions and well-wishes! :)

And we decided to go with Geico. Their rates were way lower than what we were currently paying and a bonus is that you can do it all online and don't have to call anyone, which I avoid as much as possible! (which is why we were using Esurance!)

Umm, I think I was going to update about something else, but I can't remember now. And it's way past my bedtime!

Another question

Have you seen Premonition with Sandra Bullock? What'd you think?

Quick question

What kind of car insurance do you have? We've been with Esurance for a few years and now that we've moved we have to cancel our current policy and do a new one, so I'm shopping around making sure we have the best deal. So, what company do you use and have you had any problems or really good experiences with them?

No pictures, but lots of fun

I'm teaching a lesson at church tomorrow in Relief Society. I honestly can't focus on assignments like this until it gets a little closer to the deadline. I read the lesson several times throughout the week and figured I'd work on it Friday night and today. But I started my day by getting up with the kids for a while and then waking Roy up and going back to bed till 10am - ah, lovely! Then Rae and I went to Walmart during Blaise's nap and as soon as we got home he woke up. He was feeling better today, so we all went to the State Park to swim in the lake. It was a nice, warm day, but not too hot. The water was cold, but Rae was willing to go out to the deep area on my back. We built some sand castles, ate lunch and finally towards the end I sat down in the shallow part of the water and got Blaise to play with me. He got really into it and was throwing himself into the water and had a lot of fun. Roy and Rae built a huge tower but it fell when Rae tried to put a window in it. We brought the camera with us, but we left it in the van. :( We'll have to go back sometime soon and do it all again!

Anyway, I worked on the lesson a little more after dinner and started to work on it some more after the kids went to bed but I decided I better go for a walk while it was still light out. Well, my walk turned into a bike ride, which turned into an exploration of the city, which turned into me getting a little lost. :) I'm home now, should be working on the lesson, but blogging instead. I am now officially out of excuses and I will go finish that lesson now!

Oh, and Blaise's fever went away this afternoon (which is why we decided to go to the lake) but he's worse now. We really shouldn't have gone to the lake. :( (We've just been waiting for a nice sunny day and were so excited that the weather was perfect!)
Now he's more congested and he's back to having a fever. :( Poor little guy. At least he had fun at the lake!

Any ideas?

Blaise has had a fever for about 24 hours now. I just took his temperature and it was about 101.8 :( He hasn't shown any other symptoms yet. He's been acting really achy and tired but tries to have fun too. He tossed and turned all night last night even after giving him Tylenol. He ate a decent breakfast and was energetic this morning, but around 11 he was ready for a nap and could hardly walk. Ever since his nap all he's had to eat are some grapes and a pear. He tries to do something and just gives up and lies down or crawls into your lap. His poop is normal, no throwing up, I guess one other symptom he does have is that he's a little bit stuffy. We don't have any insurance yet (doesn't start till Sept) so I'm not taking him to a doctor unless it gets more serious. Besides, even if we had insurance I wouldn't take him, there's nothing they could do at this point. Any ideas of what it could be? I'm counting on all you moms with experience to have some insight into something I haven't thought of, so maybe I can either be prepared or know what to watch for. Most likely it will all just go away tomorrow and I'll never know what his fever was trying to fight off.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any ideas you might have!

Sleep-out

Rae is always asking to go camping. We were going to go this week at the State park near by, but we don't really have much camping equipment. We had to leave our ice chest in Charlotte because we couldn't fit it into our van. Our tent is big enough for all four of us, but we only have two sleeping bags. We have no equipment to cook food, etc,etc. So, anyway, yesterday Blaise didn't take a nap so we got him to bed super early and then set our tent up outside and Rae and I slept out there. She was an angel all night getting ready for bed and was giddy with delight when we settled down for the night. She fell asleep pretty easily even though our porch light is pretty bright. Our new neighbors arrived last night after Rae had fallen asleep, so I spent the next hour or so talking to them. I went to bed around 11 and sometime during the night it started raining. The roof cover wasn't on the tent so I felt the sprinkling and got out and put the cover on just in time. It started pouring and was pouring all night. Rae woke up around 7:15 and was so excited that she had slept in the tent all night and that it was raining and thundering. We had to run inside in the rain. It was so much fun to do that with her and I'm sure she'll ask to do it again soon! Sleeping out like that just made me want to go real camping. But camping in the rain isn't very fun when you don't have a house to run to if your tent leaks!

On a side note, we ran out of pull-ups for her the other day, so I told her it was time to start wearing underwear to bed. She was going most nights without peeing in her pull-up, so I figured she was ready and things are finally calmed down around here. She peed in her underwear the first night but since then she's been dry! I usually wake her up when I go to bed and make her go potty. But last night I forgot to even have her pee before bed! And she slept out in the cold with it raining, I'm very impressed that she didn't have an accident. I told her this morning that I was proud of her and she said "I didn't want to get the tent wet." I'm very very glad, because sleeping bags are a pain to wash!

Pathetic

Is it sad when you can plug in your vacuum in the kitchen and it reaches throughout the whole apartment? And is it even more sad that this apartment is considered "big" compared to your last one? I love vacuuming. Mainly because it means your floor is completely clear. I love to vacuum right before the kids go to bed and sit on the couch with something yummy to eat and watch a movie, which I am about to do!

A few more things I'm loving:

Garbage disposal. I have a bad habit of letting things rot in my fridge (I blame my mom - sorry mom, but I think I got that from you!) and now I don't have to dump it in the trash can and then either empty it immediately or deal with the smell. I can just put it in the garbage disposal! It doesn't take much to make me happy!

Dishwasher. I've never been much of a fan of dishwashers because they always seem to leave a few things dirty. But now I realize a few items not getting all the way clean is worth a bunch of items getting super clean. And since we have barely any counter space it's nice to not waste any on a dish rack. This is our first apartment with a dishwasher and garbage disposal.

Cool weather in August. We got a bunch of rain today and have had the windows open all day. Feels so good and saves on the bills!

Water filter. Ever since we moved here we've been trying to figure out what to do about drinking water. We drank the tap water the first few days and it literally made us sick. It smells like mold and has a really thick feel to it. We aren't even that picky about tap water but this stuff is really bad. We bought a couple of jugs at Walmart, planning to refill them with one of those water machines, but apparently those machines don't exist here. We looked everywhere and couldn't find one. So today we bought a Pur water filter and we love it! Ahhh, water, yummy.

Off I go to watch a movie instead of doing things on my huge "to-do" list! Yay!

Pictures

Two sets:

• before the move
  
• during and shortly after the move

Also, go see the big picture of the BK playground if you haven't.

Do you scroll?

Sometimes I get crazy and post a lot in just a couple of days, so you might need to scroll down to see all of my newest posts.

We had pancakes for dinner tonight and they turned out really good (see post below)

Went to the swimming pool again today and Roy watched the kids while I checked out a water aerobic class. It was fun and just challenging enough to make me feel like I could do it but still feel like I was getting exercise.

Happy Birthday to my little niece Lily! It's her first birthday today. I take all credit for her being born early. I went to visit Lindsey in Visalia and brought her a bunch of baby essentials and Lily was born just a few days later. You're welcome :) Oh, and her daddy's birthday was on the first of the month so happy birthday to you too :)

And my sweet sister-in-law's birthday was on the 3rd -Happy Belated birthday to you too! Sorry, I guess I was a little busy at the beginning of the month. :)

And one more random topic: Rae has an invisible friend. She talks about him nonstop and even got Blaise talking about him. She says that he used to live in Davis and just moved to Kirksville too. Apparently his family drives a convertible because when we saw one in town Rae said "Oh, my friend has one of those cars that roof comes off". His name is Ckeiee. That's how she spells it. It's pronounced "kyhaki". She used to just talk about him and about how she goes to sleep-outs at his house a lot. But today he was actually here and playing a game with her. Kids, fun stuff.

More shutterfly pictures coming tonight.

I don't want to grow up

I've been getting a lot of gray hairs lately. They make me very sad. They wouldn't be that big of deal except that they are really noticeable when I pull my hair back at all and they are so coarse that they don't lie flat like the rest of the hairs, they stick out and call attention to themselves. This is the first summer in a long time that I haven't chopped my hair off when it gets hot. But with the humidity here I at least needed to get an inch or so cut off so it wouldn't feel so heavy on my neck. Anyway, after getting the trim I decided I should dye it too! I did it this morning and I don't see much of a difference except that it did seem to cover up the grays.

I don't actually mind getting older, it's just looking older that I mind. When I was a teenager people always thought I looked older than I was, so does that mean I still do? I just don't think it's fair to have zits and gray hair - come on!

And in case anyone thinks I'm totally shallow and appearance-obsessed, I really don't think I am. I spent like 8 bucks on the hair dye and it's only something I do when I'm feeling particularly depressed about my looks and dying my hair is the easiest, most convenient change to make (easier than clearing up zits and losing weight!) And yes, the gray hairs do bother me, judge all you want! I'll let my hair go gray when I'm a grandma, but until then I'll probably keep pulling them out or coloring them.

But I really should work on the losing weight thing too. Sigh.

Resourceful

I've been trying to make a switch to whole wheat products. I do most baking with half white flour and half whole wheat flour and I'm starting to slowly make it completely whole wheat. We've switched to whole wheat pasta and we've always used wheat bread. (Some day we'll use a healthier, whole wheat bread when it gets a little cheaper or I start making my own) We'll probably never switch to whole wheat tortillas unless they find a way to make them tastier!

At my sister Katie's house they had whole wheat pancake mix and I decided that when we moved I'd make that switch. Well, I've looked all over the place in all the grocery stores and can only find one brand of whole wheat pancake mix and I've tried it before and didn't like it. Then I realized that I could make pancakes from scratch. But first thing in the morning is not a good time to try to measure flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, etc. So I looked up a "homemade pancake/waffle mix" and found one I'm going to try out. I just mixed up and I will try it tomorrow morning. I did a 60/40 mix of whole wheat flour and white flour to try to get Rae a little more used to the change. (She kind of balked at Katie's pancakes) If this works out I'll be so glad! No more buying pancake mixes!

Here's the recipe:

HOMEMADE PANCAKE MIX
10 c. all-purpose flour (3 lbs.) (I used 6 cups whole wheat, 4 cups white)
2 1/2 c. instant nonfat dry milk
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. baking powder
2 tbsp. salt

TO MAKE PANCAKES OR WAFFLES:
2 c. homemade pancake mix
1 c. water
1 egg
2 tbsp. oil (waffles - 3 tbsp.)


I'll give it a try for breakfast and let ya know how it turned out. (Hopefully they are good because I just make 13 cups of it!)

Random tourism: Burger King in Columbia, MO

On our way here from Charlotte, we just had to stop in Columbia to see the largest indoor Burger King playground in the world. This is a composite of 15 photos, which is why it's slightly distorted near the ceiling, but it gives you an idea of the size of the structure and the room that houses it. That's Blaise there on the right.

Trying to catch up

I just cannot figure out where to pick up from. So I'm not going to catch up, at least night right now, maybe later.

As for this week, we spent most of it unpacking, buying dressers and bookshelves, almost getting the toy room all set up and we even had a little fun. :)

Monday we went and checked out the city pool. It's really great. They have a little pool all by itself with a few little fountains. It's enclosed by a 2 foot wall, so it's a little harder for your kid to just run off. The kids spent most of their time in there, because there's a big bucket of toys to play with. And then there's another pool that slopes down like a beach and gets about 3 maybe 4 feet deep. That one has a floating frog slide and log boat to play on and a couple more fountains. Then they have a bigger pool with a slide and a diving board. They also have an indoor pool, but it's mainly for lap swimming and exercise classes (which I really want to check out one of these days) We had a lot of fun there, and are definitely considering getting a year pass.

On Thursday we went to Nauvoo,IL for the pageant that they put on there. On our way we realized that Carthage was really close, so we were going to head there too. Well, we got a little lost on the way and ended up in Carthage! That was great because it saved us on some extra travelling. We toured the Carthage Jail (the kids weren't very reverent, but they weren't too bad). It was a really neat experience. Seriously people, come visit us, there are so many cool things up here!

Then we headed into Nauvoo and planned to go on a covered wagon ride, but it was closed for the day by the time we got there. We walked around a little and saw a few cool buildings and then tried to find something to eat for dinner. Man, Nauvoo doesn't have much! We finally found a buffet restaurant, and although it cost a lot more than we had planned to spend, it was really tasty.

We got back to the pageant site just as the "pre-show" activities were starting up. The kids got to do some crafts, play games, watch a puppet show, and walk on stilts. It was way less crowded than I thought it would be (I was picturing the kind of crowds that are at the Mesa pageant). We were parked really close, so we went back to the van and put PJs on the kids and got our blankets and went and found a spot to watch. They had chairs set up and then they had one hill where people could sit on blankets. We got a nice spot and settled in. We borrowed some bug spray from a nearby person and got some popcorn from the snack shack. We thought the kids might go to sleep but they were too excited. They were really good though and Rae actually watched most of the play. Blaise fell asleep at about 9:30 and Rae fell asleep a little bit after that, but I woke her up towards the end because she wanted to see the "temple" be built (and I wanted her to walk back to the van instead of carrying her!). We left Nauvoo around 10:30 and the drive home was a little tricky. Blaise kept waking up and screaming and then would go back to sleep. And the rode is really curvy and there are a bunch of one car bridges, which is all a lot trickier in the pitch black darkness! We were pretty much the only car on the road. I made a mental note to never go to the temple at night when I'm driving!

Anyway, it was a really great trip and I hope we are around to do it again sometime. And I'd love to be able to volunteer to do something next year! And I'm looking forward to going to the temple sometime (we didn't even actually go up close to the temple) and seeing more things on my own. And if anyone wants to come next summer and see it all, you are welcome to! (if we are here)

Our goal tomorrow is to get all of the recent pictures (I'm sure there are hundreds of them) on Shutterfly and we'll send that out instead of trying to post them here. I'll post the link to that here. Or maybe we'll start using Photobucket, since my sister wants all of the reunion pics pooled together on there. Anyway, pictures to come soon!

INTERNET!

Woo hoo! We have internet! (Ugh, internet we actually have to pay for) Being without internet and cable the past week has been good for us. We got the dishes done every night and got a ton of stuff unpacked. At this time of the morning I would usually be unpacking and taking advantage of the kiddos not being bored yet, but instead I'm on the computer. It's hard to blog after getting so far behind on everything. I don't even know where to begin. Plus, our keyboard cord isn't long enough for the keyboard to fit onto the desk (we got a new desk from our neighbors) so we have to have the keyboard on our lap until we get an extension for it. It's really annoying to type on your lap. And now Blaise is being really annoying, so I better go.

We are thinking about going to Nauvoo today since the pageant is still going on till tomorrow. It's a lot of work to go, and I don't know how well the kids will do and whether they will sleep during the actual show, but this might be our only chance to go and I'd hate to miss out on that. But then again, there is a chance that we could be here next summer, so maybe we should just take that chance. I have to decide in the next hour or so. We could always go tomorrow too, but it's closing night, so it might be more crowded. Anyway, I'll try to get some pictures up soon.

Bloggin' from McDonalds

We don't get internet until Wednesday and we needed to pay a bill online, so we are using the internet at McDonalds. I thought I'd give a quick update. Most of the house is unpacked and we are adjusting nicely. Although our apartment is overall bigger, there's not as much cupboard space in the kitchen or storage space elsewhere, so unpacking has been kind of tricky. We are headed to walmart right now to buy a dresser and hopefully some shelves. I'll blog more on Wednesday or Thursday when we get internet.