Cleaning is DANGEROUS !

My nasty bruises from cleaning !

I normally am not too clutsy of a person. Yesterday, however, was a different story. I was wiping off all of the fan blades from our ceiling fan. I was lying in bed the other day and noticed that there was a foot tall sampling of dust on the blades. I have tried to ignore them...but this was too gross to forget. I was standing on my bed, lost my balance, and I scraped my leg against the side wooden frame of my bed. I tried to push myself away from the bed so that I wouldn't rip my knee cap off as I quickly descended. I did manage to avert that particular danger, but did manage to badly bruise my fat thigh in two places . Let me tell you.....that HURTS. I could barely breathe after it happened. Just goes to show you that cleaning is DANGEROUS !

Crazy Kids !

This is what happens when the kids get a hold of my camera. Every time I leave the camera by the computer, I am always surprised at the number of crazy faces that look back at me when I turn on the camera. I am so glad that they like each other and can have a great time together.

Black Friday Shopping

Sarah and I at Denny's eating breakfast !

I have to admit it!! I am one of those crazy and retarted people that willingly get up at 0300 so that I can be to Walmart super early. This year was no different. When I drove up to the store, there was a huge thing MISSING. There was NO LINE. They had let people inside right after midnight. That was cool. What was not cool was that they were sold out of a TON of the cool things. That was definitely a total bummer. We did get many nice things though so all was not lost. Since many of the folks that I buy for read this post, I cannot tell you what I bought. Sorry.

Blessings

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I thought that I would post some of the the things that I am grateful for. We will do this around the table tomorrow, but I also wanted my friends and other family members to know this too. First of all, I am grateful for my wonderful companion. Dave makes me better. He and I have so much fun together. I cherish him. Second, is my children. Even though they are no longer super little and I don't have to do much for them anymore, I cherish them. Heather, Sarah, Sasha, and Jayson are the BEST!

I also cherish my friends. Every one of you holds a special place in my heart. From my Church friends, to my neighbor friends, to my new classmate friends, my world is better because of you.

I am also grateful for our job's. There are many who are either unemployed or underemployed. I am grateful also that our debt only consists of our house payment and Dave's car.

I am super grateful for this beautiful area that I live. I woke up in the middle of the night last night, and there were so many stars in the sky. I know that our Heavenly Father made them too. What a blessing. I love Mt. Rainier. I love the green trees, and I even love RAIN.

I am also super glad to have found the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My relationship with him is everything. I love learning new things and helping others to learn too. I am super thankful for the Atonement and that my sins can be forgiven.

I was blessed with AWESOME parents. My original family was awesome. My sister and I always had so much fun. Even my step family was good too.

Anyway...life is great....and remember to "Count your blessings one by one....and it will surprise you what the Lord has done."

I Hate Mold

Mold in our bathroom. The pictures loaded in the
opposite order. Sorry

More mold in our bathroom

My super smart husband removing our super outdated and
UGLY tiles from like....1970. Gross

Dave, the fix it man !

Ya gotta love a man who can do demo work .

This is what my poor hubby did yesterday. Our bathroom has had this weird smell for a while, and even after cleaning and scrubbing it down, it would still be there. When the tiles kept falling off one by one, and they would be full of mold on the backside, we knew what to do. Poor Dave devoted most of yesterday to killing the evil beast. For right now, that means that we have to shower upstairs in the teeny tiny shower that the kids use. What a pain. I know, I know...I should be grateful for hot showers and all that. I agree...but I want my shower back. It will be really nice when it is fixed. Someday when we have time AND money at the same time, we will really remodel our outdated bathroom....but until that time comes....this will have to do.

Sasha's newest pictures

I don't know how to add these pictures so that they look like the rest of the blog pictures....but I wanted to share my cutie with ya. I love her school pictures. I tell ya, these are NOT like the school pictures that I used to have. They were GROSS with a capital "G". Anyway...just thought that I would share these with you all. You can click on the pictures and then you can see them bigger.

The Three Amigos

The three amigos

These are three of the kiddos that I get to love every day. I have had them all since they were teeny. They are all getting super big. I love my job because I get to play all day long. Totally an awesome thing to do.

30 Years Today

Today is my birthday...well not really the day that I was physically born but this is my baptism day. 30 years ago today I was baptized into the Church. I was 11 years old at the time and my Dad and I had been taught by these awesome missionaries, Elders Pyper and Baer. I have sporatically kept in contact with these two brethren over the years. Elder Pyper has his Doctorate in Religion as a teacher at BYU-I and Elder Baer sells something ( I can't remember what, though). Even when I was a small child, I would ask my Mom and Dad..."How come we don't have prophets today?", "How come we don't have 12 Apostles?" Where did God come from? Yes...all these questions were answered when I joined the true church. I have always believed in Christ. It was very easy to join the Church as I guess I knew that I was relearning eternal truths...they were not new concepts for me. I am also super glad for the example of a gal in my 6th grade class that "adopted" me as a sister. Her family was the LDS family that I didn't have. We are still super close today and keep in close contact. Her name is Angie Shutt Barker. Anyway.....Happy Birthday to Me !! I cannot believe it has been 30 years since I entered the waters of baptism.

A Cool Christmas Idea

Here is a great idea for your family to help them get in the proper Christmas mood. We read the whole book of Luke starting on December 1st then ending on December 24th. There are only 24 chapters in Luke and it really helps us remember the true meaning of Christmas. It is really fun and it only takes a few minutes each night.

Home Made Bread

Homemade wheat bread

I just baked wheat bread this afternoon and even though my phone camera made it look like albino looking gross bread, it was delicious. Why don't I make bread more often? My family always raves over it when I make it. It wasn't even that hard to do. My bread machine does all the work, and then I just bake it in a regular pan. The bread tastes delicious especially with a lot of melted butter and then drizzled in honey. A perfect treat before bed...who needs ice cream when there is homemade bread? Anyway...this was just my latest attempt at being Molly Mormon. She is rarely at my house, but occasionally will show up for an afternoon or so. I wish that I could put the delish smell of baking bread through the computer for you all to enjoy.

L. Tom Perry Comes to the Lakewood Stake

L. Tom Perry and Jayson

Andrea, Sheryl Townsend, and Sasha

We were blessed to have an Apostle come to our Stake today. It was wonderful to feel the great spirit that was there. Both Sasha and I sang in the Stake Choir. We sang Guide Us O Thou, The Great Jehovah, I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus, There is Sunshine in My Soul Today, Lead Kindly Light, and Sing We Now At Parting. It was super fun to see Jayson shake his hand. A super day was had by everyone.

Jayson's First Band Concert

Andrea and Jayson

Granny and Jayson

Mr. McAvoy, the Band Instructor

Jayson playing his trumpet

Doesn't he look great?

Jayson had his first band concert last night. It was awesome. These kids have only been playing their instruments for 8 weeks. I am super proud of him. Of course, since I play the trumpet too, I was really listening and enjoying the concert. He played a lot of the songs that I played at my first concert. I hope you enjoy these pictures and the video.

Icky Weather

I guess all of this icky, windy and wet weather is finally affecting my mood. I have been in a bummed out mood this whole day. I haven't wanted to do anything except sit in my recliner, wrap up in a cozy blanket, and watch tv.....unfortunately, when one owns a family day care, that wish is NEVER going to happen. I did manage to get enough energy to start dinner. We are having homemade scalloped potatoes, sliced ham, and green beans for dinner. Nummy. A super nice, hot, and comforting meal on such a crappy weather night.

New Clothes Drying Rack

New clothes drying racks

Since the weather is definitely fall, and with that cold and rainy weather, this means that I can no longer hang my clothes outside for free. Well through the beauty of the internet, I found these great clothes drying racks. They can each hold one VERY large load apiece, or two medium loads each. Yes, I know that they are "redneck" in their appearance....but their functionality and ability to save me money, makes them priceless. They fold down into a mere two inches thick and are four feet long when folded down. Yes, I know that I sound like a commercial, but this is truly worth it. Can you see my dog Daisy laying in the last little bit of Sunday sun? In the last two weeks I have only used my evil dryer for 80 minutes and I have washed 12 loads of laundry. That is a ton of laundry but not when you consider that includes all the daycare laundry of sheets, blankets, pillows, etc plus our regular laundry, sheets etc. I usually just wash the clothes then hang them up in the first thing in the morning. By the next night ( overnight) they are totally dry. If something just HAS to be dried right away, then I dry them in the dryer, but I figure if the dirty clothes generally are in the hamper for a day or two anyway before they get washed, they might as well hang up on the racks for those two days. Good luck and let me know if you need any more information.