Fabulous Friday

Friday was our one Enrichment activity of the year where we get to do something with our hands and be crafty. My two projects turned out pretty cute. I made an erasable weekly menu board with vinyl lettering and a scripture bag out of a placement and ribbon. I even came home and made two more black bags for my mom and sister for Christmas. They are way faster to make once you know what you're doing. I am terrible at coordinating colors and patterns. I hope the lime green and yellow ribbon looks good on black. I wanted to make more brown bags, but I think the ward cleaned this town out of brown placematts and blue and brown ribbon. I felt like I belonged to some special club at church when I saw everyone walking around with their homemade scripture totes.

6 Quirks Tag

My friend Rachelle tagged me via her blog, so here goes. I'm supposed to list six quirks and tag six people. #1: I have to have the toilet paper rolls with the paper going over the top like a water fall. It drives me nuts when Matt puts them the other way. I think he knows this, though, and cleverly puts them in the WRONG way as incentive for me to change all the empty rolls. #2: Maybe this comes from sleeping alone many nights a month, but I check to make sure the doors are all locked and the garage is closed two or three times before I go to sleep. And on nights when I hear weird noises, I make sure all the windows are locked, too. #3: I hate being late to things. I'd rather arrive fifteen minutes early than be a minutes late. This is thanks to my mom grilling this into my head for the eighteen years I lived with her. #4: I'm not a very touchy-touchy person and it gets worse when I'm pregnant. I deliberately steer clear of people at church I know will touch my belly. Someone did it today and I'm not even showing yet. Ack! It's my body. Hands off please! #5: I do not answer my phone if I don't feel like it (much to the annoyance of my mother-in-law. She can't stand it when she's visiting and nobody picks up the phone). Which means I don't answer it when we're eating lunch or dinner and I don't answer it if anyone is over at my house. I also don't answer it if I'm doing my hair and getting ready in the morning. And yes, sometimes I don't pick it up when I know it's my mother-in-law calling. #6: I think I'm a little OCD about going to the bathroom. I have to go if I know I'm leaving the house (even if I'm going for a short walk around the block with the kids). If I'm going to the movies I go at home AND once at the theater before the movie starts. On car trips it is usually me that has Matt pull over for a potty break instead of one of the kids. And I absolutely have to go to bed with an empty bladder. If Matt comes home from work and I get out of bed to talk to him for even fifteen minutes, I have to go again before I go back to bed. If I know someone is coming to the house to drop something off or fix something, I quit going to the bathroom for fear they'll ring my doorbell the moment I sit down. This results in a couple hours of agony while I wait for them to arrive. And every once in a while I break down and go and invariably, they ring the doorbell when I'm in the bathroom. Since Rachelle tagged half my blogger audience, I only have four people to tag: Angie, Susie, Mary Ellen, and Vera.

Family Pics

I really didn't feel like doing a family picture this year, but Matt talked me into it. We used a lady in our ward and were lucky enough to get pictures done the last warm day of the year. Paul has never been really photogenic and, believe it or not, this is the best picture we got of him out of the family pictures. We also did his six year old pic at the same time and she also caught a cute one of Luke, too. I think I'll go back to taking the pictures of the kids myself next time. Ordering prints through these photographers costs an arm and a leg. I'm glad I did Elyse's last month.

12 Weeks and Counting

I'm officially 12 weeks pregnant and I think that means I'm heading into my second trimester. The past couple weeks I've been feeling pretty good. I can change Luke's diapers inside as opposed to out on the deck ("It's cold, Mom," Luke always complained. Ya, I bet. He'd get goose flesh all over his backside). And I can open the fridge all by myself without having to hold my breath or run gagging to the kitchen sink. The kids are grateful I don't make them get breakfast ready in the morning anymore and Elyse hasn't had to change Luke in a couple of days. Here is a typical day in the life of pregnant first trimester Emily -Wake up -Beg Elyse to get the OJ and milk out of the fridge while I stand across the kitchen and close my eyes. -After breakfast I usually make lunch for the kids, but since I can't get into the fridge, I've resorted to letting the kids have school lunch. So while the kids get ready, I throw a banana in their backpacks for their morning snacks and then lay on the couch, yelling up the stairs for Paul to keep getting ready. -Drive the kids to school with the window half down because I'm car sick with the kids telling me "It's cold, Mom." -Come back home to lay on the couch and sleep while Luke watches Higgly Town Heros, Little Einsteins (boy, I'm glad I sleep through that one), and Mickey Mouse. -It's been two hours since breakfast and I need to eat something. -Luke and I then take nearly an hour to get ready because I like to sit in the tub forever. -Try and do one chore for the day whether it be laundry, grocery shopping, or one errand, etc. -It's been two hours so it's time to eat again. -Nap with Luke. I try to write, but really the computer and reading any book makes me motion sick (so does grocery shopping), so I end up falling asleep. -Kids come home from school. I drive or my car pool buddy drives. -It's been two hours so it's time to eat -After school hustle and bustle of homework, etc. -It's been two hours so it's time cook dinner. Elyse helps me get all the food out of the fridge. I can no longer add onions to anything because the taste and smell lingers forever and makes me gag. -Kids play with each other. I sit on the couch and wait for bedtime. Or I try to play with the kids. -Bed time. If Matt's home, he puts them to bed. Hallelujah. Bed time is my least favorite time of the day. -It's been two hours so it's time to eat again. -I go to bed shortly after the children maybe somewhere around 9 because when I'm asleep I forget I'm pregnant. So far 2nd trimester Emily has read two books and finished writing a chapter of her own book. And grocery shopping no longer gives me a headache and makes me want to gag and then lay down. 2nd trimester Emily might even start driving herself to play group more often now that driving isn't so bad either. I still have to keep a bedroom window open, though, so one room in the house doesn't smell funny.

The Not Napping Boy

Luke likes to take naps in my bed, especially since I've been taking naps there too almost every day since I've been feeling cruddy. The last couple days, though, I've felt well enough to stay awake and catch up on my writing (which hasn't been going well recently. I now hate the book I'm working on). I put Luke down for his nap, tucked him in, kissed him and hugged him, and closed the door to go work on my book. Twenty minutes later I hear something dropping in my bathroom. Instinctively knowing the boy is up to no good, I open the door to find he's completely emptied the contents of my bathroom/makeup drawer and lined each item in single file on my bed. This wouldn't be so bad, if he hadn't first opened my rarely used foundation and used my eyeshadow brush to paint his forehead, hands, shirt, carpet, and other items on the bed. Argh! He's had a fascination with my Blistex jar for a few days, and I know he's been sneaking dips into there, but this is the first time he's branched out to try other makeup. My poor eyeshadow brush! Its bristles are all glued together and I've tried washing it out. It's old and sometimes falls apart, but I liked that brush. Grr! I guess no more unsupervised naps in my room. That boy cannot be trusted. I think last night he got out of bed and played with Paul's toothbrush and now it can't be found. Is it child abuse to duct tape your child to the bed?

Elyse's Baptism

After Elyse's birthday, she was baptized and confirmed the very next day by her dad. We had a double baptism with one of Elyse's friends at church and both girls were really excited. She has been asking questions about her baptism for a long time and we've spent several fhes talking about it. She said she had a warm feeling after she was baptized. The next morning was her first fast Sunday and while the boys ate breakfast she wrote in her new journal about her baptism and her testimony. We're very proud of her decision and excited to see that she's already trying to discern the Holy Ghost and take the Sacrament more seriously. She's a good girl. I don't know what I'd do without her.

A fun side note: Elyse is wearing the same dress I was baptized in. All my sisters and all my nieces on my side of the family have been baptized in that dress, which was actually made for my sister Liz when she was in Saturdays Warriors as a little kid. It's getting old and starting to fall apart. My mom's refurbished it once already. Hopefully it makes it through all the nieces.

Happy Birthday Elyse and Happy Halloween

Elyse turned 8 on Halloween! She invited some school and church friends over for a party and thankfully the weather was nice enough that they could run around outside and play half of the games out there. Two aunts and uncles came over to help and I couldn't have done the party without them. Then we all went to grandmas to trick or treat with a couple of cousins visiting from Ohio. At almost every door the adults would say to Paul, "Hi Spider Man," to which Paul would take off his mask and reply, "No, I'm Paul Deibel." After chilli and homemade doughnuts at grandpa's we headed home and were all in bed and asleep by nine. What an exhausting day!