Updates & Thoughts
Well, one week down, seven to go. Hopefully it goes okay. Last week wasn't too bad; church is the hardest. This coming week I am really excited because Lois will be here with her family for a few days, and that will be great. I am really sad though because the end of this week, Sam is leaving for Colorado for his new job. I've loved having him around and my boys really like him, and he spoils them. We will all miss Cal saying "Uncle Ham!"
We enjoyed visiting with Amy and kids and briefly with Daniel last week. We also went to the pool together. I got Shanna and the boys to jump in and I would catch them. After dinner Clark stayed at Amy's & Daniel's and I went to Aldi. After I was done shopping I went outside and was going to open the van and I couldn't find my keys. I KNEW I had stuffed them in my little wallet (from Puerto Rico, thanks Mike!). But they weren't in there. I kept looking around and a guy in the parking lot saw me doing so and told me that my keys were inside the store. Somehow they fell out of my wallet, and I dropped them into an empty shopping cart. I can't believe I didn't notice. But then again, I was with 3 kids...
Last Sunday I was grabbing some last minute stuff out of the kitchen before going to church and I was at the island, and pulled my keys out of the diaper bag, went over to the fridge, and viola, my keys were gone. I could not find them! Luckily our extra van key was upstairs, so I grabbed that and went to church. When I arrived home I looked again and even dug through the garbage. I thought they must be in the kitchen somewhere. I looked in the fridge earlier, but I looked again, and there they were: in a door compartment where we put cheese and string cheese. I wonder how I didn't notice that they fell out of my fingers at that moment...
Back to my week. Yesterday afternoon I loaded up the kids and went to the library. I knew it closed at 4:00 pm, and I pulled into the parking lot and turned off the van at 3:47. I just needed about two minutes to grab some books and check out. When I got inside, after getting the girls in the double stroller and pulling Clark and Cal out, their clock read 3:55 (I wasted about a minute or so banging on a door that was locked, that should have been opened). No patrons were in there and the ladies said that the computers had already shut down. I was not happy. So I asked the obvious knowing that they close at "4", when did they really close? After that we went shopping and on the way home the fan in the back of the van for heat/air conditioning stopped working. I need to have that looked at.
Church went pretty well today. We were able to stay in the chapel and that is a good feat. I couldn't stay in Relief Society with my girls. Two people were trying to help me, but the girls wouldn't go to them. I had a type of training meeting after church and the education counselor set up a nursery just for me! Maybe she knew that other kids were going to be there, but I think she was anticipating only mine. That was very nice of her.
Now for some thoughts.
A little tribute to Sam before he leaves, he should be granted an honorary PhD in general knowledge. He is well informed on....everything! One interesting tip he gave the other day: if you are traveling in a third world country and get sick, and can't travel back to the states, check into a really nice hotel. He said that since you are a guest there you would get better treatment there than at a hospital--and can avoid all of the nasty things floating around in an emergency room or in the hospital in general. I thought that was a good tip. Not that many of us will be in that situation, but you never know.
Something else: I read in the BYU Magazine about a merry-go-round that Dr. Charles Harrell and five technology students designed for a school in Ghana. As the merry-go-round is turned it somehow generates power and in turn, lights the LED lights in the school room. Isn't that ingenious??? The Ministry of Education in Ghana would like six more merry-go-rounds installed this year to light other schools. I thought this was so amazing!
I'll add in one more random thought: about me. As a few of you may know, especially my husband, I like things clean. I think more than anything, I am in the habit of cleaning and I have a harder time doing other things if my surroundings are messy. It's funny, as I have more kids, I have become more of a perfectionist in the cleaning area. And with laundry, I don't know what happened, but I am back to caveman techniques of cleaning. I hand-scrub most stains before I wash the clothing item. I want to see that the stain is gone before I throw it in the washer. (Clorox Beach for Colors is great, especially on chocolate!) My main point about this whole paragraph is this: if there was only one thing that I could have clean, what would it be? I thought about this for awhile. I thought maybe it was having the sink clean of dirty dishes, but then, what about the counters, and of course the stove-top needs to be clean...and on and on. Basically I concluded that I just liked everything clean. I even clean our garbage cans! Well, after much self-deliberation, I think I thought of my "one" thing: the toilet. I just like a nice, clean porcelain throne in the bathroom. Dirty toilets just gross me out, and I saw a few nasty ones at gas stations on our trip this summer! One good benefit to being a girl is, that in public restrooms, the ladies' room tends to be cleaner. Sorry Clark and Cal, but you boys will be getting bathroom duty till the day you leave for your mission/college.
After mentioning the whole toilet thing, I have another tip from Sam. (If you're feeling queasy, skip this paragraph, and if your Brooks, don't tell Melissa this at the dinner table, though she may have already heard this and apparently has heard much worse.) You and your hubby/buddy/kiddo are out in nature by yourselves and one of you sustains a nasty injury that requires immediate cleaning. You don't have any water or other cleaning/sanitation items. You have two choices: stagnate water from a puddle by a tree, or your own water: urine. Yep, urine wins. Sam told me urine is sterile (and Lee confirmed) and a much better option than yucky water that has countless germs in it. Again, I am sure many of you will not find yourselves in this situation that would require such a drastic measure. But just in case...
Well that's about it. I have a picture I want to post, but the camera is in Florida at the moment. As you can imagine, that causes a slight problem.
And for a sweet bedtime moment, Shanna was hugging Haley a few days ago and it was so cute. And for a bedtime brushing story, I have started putting a little bit of tooth paste on the girls' tooth brushes. Shanna likes it so much that she doesn't like it when I take her tooth brush away. And since I am highlighting Shanna for the week, last night she walked over to the garbage with an empty pop can and put it in the trash! (She then wanted to take it out again, but I was impressed with the original motive.)
Check out Lee's blog for all of his adventures. I am so glad he's an officer.
Well, one week down, seven to go. Hopefully it goes okay. Last week wasn't too bad; church is the hardest. This coming week I am really excited because Lois will be here with her family for a few days, and that will be great. I am really sad though because the end of this week, Sam is leaving for Colorado for his new job. I've loved having him around and my boys really like him, and he spoils them. We will all miss Cal saying "Uncle Ham!"
We enjoyed visiting with Amy and kids and briefly with Daniel last week. We also went to the pool together. I got Shanna and the boys to jump in and I would catch them. After dinner Clark stayed at Amy's & Daniel's and I went to Aldi. After I was done shopping I went outside and was going to open the van and I couldn't find my keys. I KNEW I had stuffed them in my little wallet (from Puerto Rico, thanks Mike!). But they weren't in there. I kept looking around and a guy in the parking lot saw me doing so and told me that my keys were inside the store. Somehow they fell out of my wallet, and I dropped them into an empty shopping cart. I can't believe I didn't notice. But then again, I was with 3 kids...
Last Sunday I was grabbing some last minute stuff out of the kitchen before going to church and I was at the island, and pulled my keys out of the diaper bag, went over to the fridge, and viola, my keys were gone. I could not find them! Luckily our extra van key was upstairs, so I grabbed that and went to church. When I arrived home I looked again and even dug through the garbage. I thought they must be in the kitchen somewhere. I looked in the fridge earlier, but I looked again, and there they were: in a door compartment where we put cheese and string cheese. I wonder how I didn't notice that they fell out of my fingers at that moment...
Back to my week. Yesterday afternoon I loaded up the kids and went to the library. I knew it closed at 4:00 pm, and I pulled into the parking lot and turned off the van at 3:47. I just needed about two minutes to grab some books and check out. When I got inside, after getting the girls in the double stroller and pulling Clark and Cal out, their clock read 3:55 (I wasted about a minute or so banging on a door that was locked, that should have been opened). No patrons were in there and the ladies said that the computers had already shut down. I was not happy. So I asked the obvious knowing that they close at "4", when did they really close? After that we went shopping and on the way home the fan in the back of the van for heat/air conditioning stopped working. I need to have that looked at.
Church went pretty well today. We were able to stay in the chapel and that is a good feat. I couldn't stay in Relief Society with my girls. Two people were trying to help me, but the girls wouldn't go to them. I had a type of training meeting after church and the education counselor set up a nursery just for me! Maybe she knew that other kids were going to be there, but I think she was anticipating only mine. That was very nice of her.
Now for some thoughts.
A little tribute to Sam before he leaves, he should be granted an honorary PhD in general knowledge. He is well informed on....everything! One interesting tip he gave the other day: if you are traveling in a third world country and get sick, and can't travel back to the states, check into a really nice hotel. He said that since you are a guest there you would get better treatment there than at a hospital--and can avoid all of the nasty things floating around in an emergency room or in the hospital in general. I thought that was a good tip. Not that many of us will be in that situation, but you never know.
Something else: I read in the BYU Magazine about a merry-go-round that Dr. Charles Harrell and five technology students designed for a school in Ghana. As the merry-go-round is turned it somehow generates power and in turn, lights the LED lights in the school room. Isn't that ingenious??? The Ministry of Education in Ghana would like six more merry-go-rounds installed this year to light other schools. I thought this was so amazing!
I'll add in one more random thought: about me. As a few of you may know, especially my husband, I like things clean. I think more than anything, I am in the habit of cleaning and I have a harder time doing other things if my surroundings are messy. It's funny, as I have more kids, I have become more of a perfectionist in the cleaning area. And with laundry, I don't know what happened, but I am back to caveman techniques of cleaning. I hand-scrub most stains before I wash the clothing item. I want to see that the stain is gone before I throw it in the washer. (Clorox Beach for Colors is great, especially on chocolate!) My main point about this whole paragraph is this: if there was only one thing that I could have clean, what would it be? I thought about this for awhile. I thought maybe it was having the sink clean of dirty dishes, but then, what about the counters, and of course the stove-top needs to be clean...and on and on. Basically I concluded that I just liked everything clean. I even clean our garbage cans! Well, after much self-deliberation, I think I thought of my "one" thing: the toilet. I just like a nice, clean porcelain throne in the bathroom. Dirty toilets just gross me out, and I saw a few nasty ones at gas stations on our trip this summer! One good benefit to being a girl is, that in public restrooms, the ladies' room tends to be cleaner. Sorry Clark and Cal, but you boys will be getting bathroom duty till the day you leave for your mission/college.
After mentioning the whole toilet thing, I have another tip from Sam. (If you're feeling queasy, skip this paragraph, and if your Brooks, don't tell Melissa this at the dinner table, though she may have already heard this and apparently has heard much worse.) You and your hubby/buddy/kiddo are out in nature by yourselves and one of you sustains a nasty injury that requires immediate cleaning. You don't have any water or other cleaning/sanitation items. You have two choices: stagnate water from a puddle by a tree, or your own water: urine. Yep, urine wins. Sam told me urine is sterile (and Lee confirmed) and a much better option than yucky water that has countless germs in it. Again, I am sure many of you will not find yourselves in this situation that would require such a drastic measure. But just in case...
Well that's about it. I have a picture I want to post, but the camera is in Florida at the moment. As you can imagine, that causes a slight problem.
And for a sweet bedtime moment, Shanna was hugging Haley a few days ago and it was so cute. And for a bedtime brushing story, I have started putting a little bit of tooth paste on the girls' tooth brushes. Shanna likes it so much that she doesn't like it when I take her tooth brush away. And since I am highlighting Shanna for the week, last night she walked over to the garbage with an empty pop can and put it in the trash! (She then wanted to take it out again, but I was impressed with the original motive.)
Check out Lee's blog for all of his adventures. I am so glad he's an officer.
