Quirky Tag

I was tagged by my good friend, Heather.

Rules:Link the person who tagged you. Mention the rules on your blog.Tell 6 unspectacular quirky things about you or your family.Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them. Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers' blogs letting them know they have been tagged.

1. I like socks. In fact, I am never barefoot (except swimming and showering). I even sleep in socks - year-round.

2. I am a paper collector. I save things I will probably never look at again and file them away in my filing cabinet "just in case."

3. I leave piles all over - a pile of stuff to go downstairs, a pile of stuff I need to sort through, a pile of homework for the girls to complete, etc. It drives Shawn crazy!

4. I check out way too many books from the library. I probably turn 70% of them back in without ever cracking them open. Why I can't just check out 1 or 2 at a time is beyond me. Right now I probably have over 10 on my nightstand.

5. I am a list maker. I have lists for packing, meal planning, movies to see, books to read, music to download, christmas presents to get, school clothes to buy, home repairs, home improvements, etc. all saved on the computer or in a special list notebook. You name it, I probably have a list for it. I think I've even been know to make a list of lists I need to make.

6. Our family has strange inside jokes - "Look! Corn!" and "Hay!" are road trip games we developed on our move to NJ and back, and we still play them. The idea is just to catch others off guard and do the "made ya look" thing. Weird, I know.

Now it is your turn. I know a lot of you have already done this, but if you haven't, I tag you! I hope you all are well and up to the challenge!

I was tagged!

It's been awhile since I've been tagged or posted anything, so I'll play along. I did do something creative today, but you'll just have to wait in suspense to see what it was.

I am: "Shawn's wife. Mommy. A beautiful amazing lady." - to quote my husband.
I think: a lot, probably too much.
I know: my Heavenly Father knows and loves me.
I want: obedient children (sound familiar Mom and Dad?)
I have: everything I need and so much more!
I dislike: phone solicitors.
I miss: my hubby (he is out of town right now).
I fear: faces peering through the window (never happened, it just freaks me out).
I feel: content.
I hear: the sweet sound of pages turning in my daughters' rooms.
I smell: garlic.
I crave: brownies.
I cry: on a regular basis - sometimes daily.
I usually: yell at my kids at least once a day.
I regret: yelling at my kids.
I search: blogs for creative home decor and crafting ideas.
I wonder: what my kids are thinking sometimes!
I love: my girls - they are so smart and creative!
I care: about my kids' education.
I always: check out too many books from the library.
I worry: that I'm not a good enough mom.
I am not: very patient.
I remember: very little - I have a horrible memory!
I believe: we all have divine worth.
I dance: in my kitchen.
I sing: harmony.
I don't always: make my bed (in fact, rarely).
I argue: ... not so much. I'm more the silent treatment type.
I write: on my calendar every day!
I win: or get sassy trying.
I lose: my marbles every now and then.
I wish: I could read all day.
I listen: to angry-girl rock.
I don't understand: why kids do things they know are wrong... oh wait a minute, I do that too...
I can usually be found: at home distracting myself from one project with another.
I am scared: to ride roller coasters.
I need: "quiet time."
I forget: to tell my hubby how wonderful he is!
I am happy: when I'm reading a good book.

I tag: Melissa C, Tamlynn C, Jennie J, Becky M and Holly D.

More stuff we did

Other things we’ve done in the last 2 weeks: I’ve tried 4 new dinner recipes. The girls got haircuts. I spent an hour filling out the job application for district sub online – do you know your college GPA? What do you put down for work experience when you haven’t had a paying job in the last 10 years? I babysat a friend’s 2 kids while she worked at her family’s booth at the fair. Lissy went to a birthday party for her best friend. They went on a scavenger hunt to their own houses. The girls had early release one Monday and Evie got to stay “all day” and take her lunch to school. Went and got Lydia’s glasses fixed – again. Shawn and I went walking one morning after the girls got on the bus. I worked out 2 other mornings this week. Shawn and I went to a PTO meeting. Shawn and I each volunteered in Lydia’s class – on different days. I volunteered in the school library. We watched the BSU/Bowling Green football game – Go Broncos! They still won even though they didn’t score in the second half at all. I sewed a curtain to cover our game closet – it used to be a swag-type thing in our bedroom.

Game Closet - Before

Game closet - after

Lissy's wire shelves

Lissy's closet hooks

Kids' craft cupboard

September is half over already??

The first two weeks of September have gone by so fast. I’ll try to give you the “nutshell” version. The first week I went and got my fingerprinting done so I can do a tiny bit of substituting at the girls’ school this year. Shawn and I got to go to our ward’s sealing session on Friday night. We haven’t done one in awhile and by the end my knees were sore. I think I was a “daughter” every time I wasn’t part of the couple. It was great to be there though and to be with other members of our ward. On Saturday Shawn mowed the lawn and I did some weeding, then we used a couple of the girls’ free kids meal coupons and went to Chili’s for lunch. After lunch we went to the library and hit the used book sale. The girls were more interested in the “garage sale” type tables, but Shawn found a couple of hardbacks for his John Grisham collection and we got the game UpWords for a steal – all pieces there!

Shawn has started choir again, so we have been doing that on Sunday mornings before church. We tried to go to the seminary building the first week, but they had changed the locks over the summer, so we are meeting at the church instead. Felicity started attending the GATE program on Monday. They bus the kids to a different school in the district and it is a class with 4th through 6th grades, so she was pretty nervous being in a class with older kids/kids she didn’t know, but I think she’ll do fine. She was really excited about going. The girls also all started dance and tumbling classes this week. Evie and Lydia are taking a ballet and jazz combo class and Lissy decided to take hip-hop. Between the 3 girls, 2 classes each, we are at the dance studio 3 nights a week, so we’ll see if we can handle that. Thursday night ended up being very busy for us – the girls had 3 hours at the dance studio, I went to a visiting teaching convention and Shawn went to a parent meeting for GATE. Shawn brought us pizza between dance classes and we ate at a nearby park. I am so glad that Felicity is old enough to be left in charge for a little bit so Shawn and I could both attend the other meetings. Saturday we ran some errands and worked in Lissy’s new room. Shawn got the mirror attached to her dresser, rearranged and attached new knobs on the dresser and put some hooks up in her closet. Lissy and I worked on organizing her closet and put together some wire shelves to put in there. This week I also took the pantry/cupboard out of her room and moved it up to my scrap room and filled it with all of the girls’ art and craft supplies. I also finally turned one of my wall decorations (a black picket fence) into our new family home evening chart. I just turned it upside down, stamped on some tags and cut some vinyl monograms out for each member of the family. Oh, I also went and got the library orientation so I could substitute there this week. Shawn taught the lesson in Elder’s Quorum today, I gave the closing prayer in sacrament meeting (without crying, as Lydia pointed out) and led the singing in primary, and Shawn had a Court of honor and a music workshop to go to tonight, so it has been another wonderful and busy Sunday.

The next couple of weeks look slightly less busy, but it is really too soon to tell. That one blank day on the calendar will probably get filled in before I know it. I guess it is good to be so busy and accomplish so much. It means we’re healthy and blessed!

New family home evening chart

Wall grouping in living room/library

Lissy's dresser - all set up and fully functional

Labor Day Weekend

On the way back from Craters, we stopped at Wal-Mart to get some groceries and a new media stand for – our new TV! Shawn finally broke down and got his big screen TV. It was a pretty good deal at Sam’s Club and he loves the size and high definition. When we got home we hung it on the wall so we could watch the BSU/ISU game. Go Broncos – gotta love it when your team wins! Late that night Caleb, Jessica and Shannon and Aaron and Amanda (Shawn’s brother’s families) came for the weekend. They are technological wonders, so they helped us get everything hooked up right and Aaron even gave us another speaker system. They also brought their PlayStation to show us how wonderful it is. It is pretty amazing to see what a “video game” system can do, but I think that will have to wait for awhile. We did get a new DVD player though that could handle the HD stuff a little better. It was fun to have them come visit. The girls loved playing with Shannon and having someone younger than them to tend to (aka boss around). We had some good eats and played games too. Thanks for coming guys!

Craters of the Moon

Gina called and invited us to meet them at Craters of the Moon on Labor Day weekend. We have wanted to go back and explore the caves, so Saturday morning we headed out to do some caving. We packed a picnic lunch, grabbed breakfast at Sonic and drove for about an hour and a half to get there. After meeting Bryan and Gina and Gina’s brother’s family at the visitor’s center we all drove out to the cave area. The first cave the kids and dads explored (Dewdrop cave) was pretty small, but was oh so exciting. The kids all thought it was awesome to be able to climb around, in and under all the lava formations. The second cave – Boy Scout Cave- we all went in. There was some ice and it was nice and cool, but after being hot outside, we didn’t really need our jackets. Gina’s brother and all the kids took off exploring another part of the cave while we went up the trail to see if it had another exit.. It didn’t, so we went back and everyone was coming except Lydia. She had managed to follow another group into the first part of the cave and came out shortly in tears. We reassured her that we would never leave her and would definitely look for her if she was lost and all was well. The last cave we explored was Beauty Cave. After a short descent, it was just a huge open cavern. The kids had fun climbing in the alcoves and it took several tries to get pictures due to the mist.

After the caves, we went back to the Visitor’s Center and had a picnic lunch. The clouds started to roll in and cool things off with a little breeze. Bryan and Gina and her family were camping for the weekend, so I hope the weather was bearable for them. The kids had fun chatting and climbing the wall (literally) and it was fun to see Bryan and Gina and meet her brother’s family. As it turns out, we are very distant relatives on the Sorenson side too. Isn’t it a small world?

Happy Birthday Cedric!

Silly as it may be, we also celebrated Cedric’s 1st birthday on the 28th. He received a new camouflage hoodie and a camouflage leash with an attachable pouch for treats and baggies. We had leftover cupcakes and let him have a few doggie-treats. Oh, we also bought him some adult dog-food.

Evie's Birthday

The last two weeks of August were very busy! The girls were back to school in full force. The sore throat I woke up with on the morning of my talk turned into a full blown cold. Once Evelyn’s birthday party was over, I spent the next couple mornings in bed and Shawn was a great hubby and daddy and got the girls off to school. I still have a lingering cough, but am feeling human again, so it’s time to catch up.

Evelyn’s 5th birthday was a lot of fun. Monday night we went to their favorite birthday dinner place. We had pizza and salad and the girls played in the playroom. We opted to skip the arcade this time since it was a school night. Shawn met us there since he was getting off work a little later than usual. We went home and opened some presents from the family – birthday outfit, Barbie movie, Hannah Montana stationary kit and microphone, play-doh, a weaving kit from Grandma and Grandpa Sorenson, a Cold Stone gift card from Grandma and Grandpa Thurber and cards from Great-Grandmas. Then we had brownies - I even went all out and made frosting!

I took mini-cupcakes to Evie's class right before school let out on Tuesday and they sang happy birthday to her. She wanted to ride the bus home, so I left and came home to get things ready. Shawn was already home working on my list of last minute prep items. Shawn usually comes home for lunch, so he was able to be here to help with all the party. He even burned CD of Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus songs for us to listen to during the party. After school, 4 of Evie’s little friends came over for her first birthday party. They made their own pizzas for lunch. I used mom’s pizza dough recipe and pre-baked a dozen pizza crusts, then they got to top them. They colored their paper cups while we waited for them to bake. After lunch the girls played musical chairs (to Hannah Montana of course) and Rock-Rock-Roll (like Duck-Duck-Goose). Shawn is a great party game player and all the kids had a blast picking him to chase them around the circle. Then we opened presents and had cupcakes and ice-cream. The cupcakes came in the shape of a guitar with some Hannah Montana decorations – so cute (and I didn’t have to bake it).