Bless You Coughs and Other Sweet Things

So, I have a VERY rare window that's been given to me, and I've chosen to use that time to blog. You are very welcome ;).

Wednesday's are my crazy days in that Ellie and Sage have gym from 4-5:30, which gives me an impossible window with which to make dinner between the dropping and off and picking up. Not to mention that Roma has YW on Wednesdays, so I have to have her fed before she goes. Because we are waiting on pay day and my ingredients are limited, I decided to make my life a little sane and just go with my back up food, canned soup. So, that frees up my time. Also, somehow the stars aligned and Athena and Zephyr are napping at the same time right now, and Roma is upstairs with her friends getting ready for a choice April Fool's joke that I am playing on her tonight. I feel a little bad that she is investing so much time into getting ready for this event that isn't going to come to fruition, but it will be memorable because of it....it's been a full 7 days in the making.

Athena ate a fruit without complaint. It's a once a year occurrence I had to catch on film.

So, I wanted to post about the sweet little things that have been happening lately. A week ago, Athena came up to me and told me she had 3 bless you coughs all at once.
I said, "bless you cough? What do you mean?"
"You know, achoo achoo" said Athena.

Holy cow, I laughed for 5 minutes. A bless you cough. So now, that's what we call sneezes around here.

Also, we have recently purchased a previously owned aka used car that fits our whole family! Yea! Our lease was up on our van at the end of December, which left us with a VW station wagon and '96 landrover aka Scott's baby. Don't get me wrong, I am totally grateful for having 2 cars period, but neither one

A. Fit all of us in it, in fact every time I went somewhere I had to figure out who was going to stay home or who's house someone could go to to play.
B. is family friendly.

I chose to drive the Land Rover. To say a '96 Land Rover is a tight squeeze for 3 car seats in the back is an understatement. Zeph's car seat could only fit in the middle, so I had to reach across to put him in, and Athena had her fair share of slipping and falling out of the car when trying to exit at first. Buckling Sage in her booster required me to scoot the booster towards me a little to find the buckle, then shoving her back in afterwards, which would result in "I'm tipping" "the booster is too far forward" or "I hate this freeeeekkiinn car seat!!!". She's mad that at 7, she has to sit in a car seat still anyway, and then to add the hassle of the Land Rover on top of that drove her insane. And for 3 months trying to figure out every time I left the house who to sacrifice not coming and what to do with them was maddening. I can't tell ou how relived I am not to have that be a daily occurance. Luckily Roma and Ellie are of age that they could stay home by themselves for short periods, but still, a homeschooling mother sometimes likes to take ALL her children somewhere, like the temple open house!!!!! But apparently if you want to look cool, that's the car to drive. I got at least 5 comments how good I looked in it. I had no clue, nor did I care really, but in case others care, drive a Land Rover.

So, we now have a '01 Suburban. I grappled with the decision based on the horrible gas mileage alone that it gets, but I weighed that against the amount we were shelling out for our van lease, and figured it would all equal out in the end. The extra room is sooooo nice.

Ikea, where all your wildest dreams come true

So, my other little sweet thing.....
I got to lunch with my niece Alexis and her 2 kiddos (plus her friend and her 3 girls) yesterday at the gourmet IKEA cafeteria! Alexis takes her duties as niece very seriously and blocked out time to see me while she was up her helping the friend move up. Of course, it was way too short a time to see each other, but I am grateful for what I can get. Her babies are getting so big, and my girls loved seeing them! "Mom...I want to go to Whatlyn (code for Jocelyn, my *gulp* great niece) house. I want to play with Whatlyn in the playplace (Smalland at Ikea)", says Athena. And her baby Bella is lookin like my sister Cheryl's (her grandma's) baby pics. Creep-pay! I didn't think our genes were THAT dominant.

Also, in that vein, I've had my nephew Ben, and my neice Julene and her husband to Sunday dinner, and a few Sunday's before that had Scott's 2 nephews, Brett and Travis to Sunday dinner. And who remembered to take photos at the last three meals? Not me, cause that part of my brain doesn't function as well as it used to.Sage is 7!

But i did remember to take pictures at Sage's 7th birthday pajama party. Boy, did we have a good time. A few months back our neighbors moved and gave us their unused chocolate fountain. So, Sage decided to have a chocolate fountain party. I wholeheartedly recommend everyone get one of these. There was a good 40 minutes worth of silent dipping and smiles happening because of it.

The chocolate fountain of love, according to Ellie

She invited all her church and homeschool friends and the night started off with present opening, per Sage's 'request' (insistence). The we did the fountain, cake and ice cream (which, by the way, I got Arrowhead Mills' cupcake mix for the cake and never in my life have I had a better mix, healthy or not. Granted, it's not cheap, but if you're going to splurge, get it.). Then we watched Artistocats. All in all, it was a fun party without much stress at all, thanks to the chocolate fountain!

On the bus to the temple, tatoos and all, just how the Prophet advises

Right outside the temple doors (no photo's inside) At the meetinghouse with their Costco cookies

I also remembered the camera at the Draper Temple open house I had to leave Roma home for. Very finely orchestrated event, I must say. We arrived at a meetinghouse, watched a nice 10 minute film on the improtance of temples, loaded a bus up to the temple, walked through a heated, tented maze to the temple, and quietly followed the many similar groups through the temple. Then we went into the meetinghouse that is right next to the temple and had some lovely Costco cookies and water in the wonderfully decorated cultural hall. I'll be honest, I was way suprised how many non members were there. We got there the night before they were done doing tours, so I didn't expect a lot of people, but it was full, with a lot of very polite people with a sincere curiosity. It made me excited and grateful for the Oquirrh Mountain (pronounced Oaker, but we call it the Shakirah temple, because for a long time I would call it the O-kira temple) temple celebration and open house. All together, they will make 3 temples within a 15 minute driving range for us. Can't beat that.

Roma put her glasses on him. I think here is where he realizes he's in for years of dress up torture.

Another sweet thing... I think it's awesome that Zephyr has turned into a rough and tumble little boy. Loves being thrown in the air, wrestled with and made scary faces at. He thinks it's heee-larious! He's put on the pounds in the last 3 weeks, too, as he's realized that I am not his only food source. If he's not nursing he's eating, if he's not eating he's nursing. Makes me a little afriad for our future food bill, but he's really cute a little pudgier.

Lastly, I am so happy that all of us our healthy, especially Scott. He's still got a little work to do, but I am floored by just how well he is doing. To think that sometimes he goes to bed after me and then leaves for work before I even wake up, this wasn't possible even before he got sick! Seriously, every day I am keenly aware of how blessed we are to have our health as a family. I am also very grateful for the subsequent corner of the world that I have in my house, affectionately known as Tincture Island, where I do all my herbs and tinctures.

Life is good! Now if I can just figure out a way to get all my family up here, it would be complete.

Oh, what's the April Fools joke? Last week, at Roma's temple celebration dance practice, a lady came in asking if theirs was the chapel David Archuletta was at for the choir practice. There is another youth group for the temple celebration, and apparently the director knows David Archuletta and had him come inspire them. So, I asked Roma if their dance director told them who was coming to their practice tonight to compensate for their lack of celebrtiy attention. So, for a full week I've had her going that someone is going to show up tonight. I have the dance director and her 2 friends in on it. She thinks Julianne Hough from Dancing With the Stars is coming. Roma's group is doing the Lindy Hop at the temple celebration, and it was a mighty fine coincidence that Julianne Hough did the Lindy Hop 2 nights ago on the show, and I eluded to the 'fact' that she was coming to teach it to them. I'm going to have Ellie dress up in a blond wig and poke her head in the door quickly. I know it's mean, but it's going to be a great memory, right? She's bringing her camera and everything, which means I don't have a camera, so we'll see if I get any photos of it. I'd feel bad and everything, but she's the one that chose me as her mother, she knew what I was capable of.....what's that saying, you knew I was a snake when you picked me up? And, really, it's only bound to get better as every April Fool's Day comes. wah hahahahahahaha!!!