Lots to Say

I guess I will just cram everything into one big post to save time. The reason why I haven't stayed current is because I just don't seem to have much free time.

1. We bought a van! We spent Thursday to Monday looking and looking for the right one. I hope the one we bought is it. Just kidding. It is really great. It was within our budget to pay in full, with cash (thank you Dave Ramsey), even though it is probably older than most people would get excited about. It is a 2003 Honda Odyssey with about 150,000 miles on it. It is the one with leather seats and power doors but no DVD entertainment system (not that I cared about that). I didn't care about leather seats either, but it seemed like more of those were available than cloth. We have decided to call the color Slate. It is not blue, but it is not charcoal gray either. It is a strange in-between color that is very difficult to identify. The seller called it blue. The carfax called it gray. I may never know what the technical color is but slate will do. Anyway, it is great. The kids are loving it. I am getting used to it. After all, I have been driving a Toyota Corolla for a long time. It is louder than the Corolla but I expected that. It is HUGE compared to the Corolla, which is a bit difficult for me. I parked away from other vehicles on purpose today. I back up very slowly so as not to hit a mirror on the side of my garage. It does not feel like a bus. I am so glad about that.

Emmett's space shuttle

Emmett's phases of the moon made with what Melynn calls "air-whoas"

Science is about Space

Emmett's second tooth

So, it is kind of funny how car stuff happens sometimes. I sent Josh out in the morning on Monday to test drive two good-looking vans while I went visiting teaching. One was not great and the other was a 2003 Toyota Sienna. Silver. Nice, except it was at a dealership and their price was about 500 more than we had available. It would have cut into the money we needed for Josh's board test and we really needed to keep that money sacred for the test. It also only had a power door on the passenger side which I found odd. But I am sure that is not the case anymore with Toyota's. Anyway, we liked that one but before Josh left for work he looked at our list once more and this 2003 Honda just jumped off the page and screamed, "Call about me RIGHT NOW!" So he did because he listens to the Spirit. The seller said that there was a family coming from Arkansas to buy it the next morning so if we wanted to see it we needed to do it Monday. We totally bought it out from under the Arkansas people. I feel a little bad about that part but the seller was clear that it was not promised to them and that it went to the first person with all the money. And we had the money. Ugh. I still feel guilty! Because it was a private seller we were able to get a price within our range without having to touch the test money. That was a big plus for us. The other things I like better were the third row that folds down into the floor and the power doors on both sides (because I'm lazy...or maybe because I know I will enjoy the convenience). The mileage between the Toyota and Honda were comparable and both had clean records. So we went with the one that didn't cause financial strain.

2. While we were doing paperwork and paying for the van, Emmett pulled out his second tooth. For the record, his first tooth took about a month to come out, with Josh helping at the end. This time Emmett did all the twisting and tugging himself. It took two days or so from the time I noticed it was loose. I can see the permanent tooth ready to break the gums. He was thrilled to pull it out himself. He wasn't afraid this time. He was glad the tooth fairy came again but almost forgot to even check. I can't remember what had him distracted. Maybe the Lego magazine.

3. The video is of Melynn during our van purchase wait time. She learned about nursery rhymes this week at preschool and this is one we say around the house. I was stunned that she could say almost the whole thing so I asked if she would do it for the camera. I'm glad I got it. When I asked her about preschool and what she learned about she said, "Humpy Dumpsty". Got a good laugh out of that one.

4. We went to a playgroup and I actually took a couple pictures. Hooray! Melynn only went down this one slide. The others were too big she said. I also got her next to Jackson and Lucy, two kids in the ward. She is older but no bigger. :)

5. I am almost 28 weeks along. I feel humongous. I probably am but nobody is allowed to say so because that's rude. My back kills, my hip keeps having issues and I feel like my body will not make it to the end. I woke up the other night with both calves cramped so hard I was screaming. It took a full day and a night before they felt normal again. My friend Ginny is having the same problem and I sympathize. I've never had cramps like that EVER. I hope it was a fluke. So basically, I'm pregnant. I try not to think about it and maybe it will go faster. This is the pregnancy that would never end, since I've basically been pregnant on and off since September of 2010. My spirits are pretty high for the most part, which is nice. I just avoid mirrors and I'm fine. My glucose screening is on Friday and I hope to pass with flying colors. I know that failing is pretty lousy so I better have normal numbers!

6. I am almost finished formatting and editing my 2011 blog book. It took me a long time this go around because of my evening job. That takes up all my free time when the kids are sleeping so the book got pushed aside. Hopefully I can finish it up soon.

About My Poll

So, the other day I put up a poll to see what you all think. I only got three votes. But all were agreeing with me that pediatricians should perform circumcisions, not OB docs. It is customary in the South, where I now live, for the OB to perform the circumcision and it has me really nervous. I have two friends in my ward here whose sons have had the revision surgery (because their circumcisions were done wrong) and one other whose son was circumcised by MY OB doctor and it wasn't done correctly (although he did not need revision surgery). Needless to say, those three stories have me a little upset by my lack of choices here. I called our pediatrician's office to ask if they could do it and spoke personally with the pediatrician. He let me know that he hasn't done a circumcision in ten years. Ten Years! I don't want him doing it either. He did say if it was really a concern that we could probably find a pediatric urologist to do it but it would cost more. Oh yeah, the OB charges $550 for the procedure. I think in Idaho we paid $200. Ridiculous! I know I shouldn't worry about it but I feel like I should find out more about my OB's track record. How do you go into an appointment trying to get that information? Do you just say, "Hey doc, how many circumcisions have you done? How many did you mess up? I know of one..." Awkward. I'm not sure how to go about asking but I really want more information.

We Sold The Car

Today was exciting. Josh sold our car in about two hours. Yeah, he posted it on Craigslist and two hours later he had cash in hand and no car. Strange. It sold for more than the blue book value. It was fast. And now we only have one car. That means I'm stuck at home more than usual. It could be strange. But Josh works nights next week so we can trade off. My mind is still spinning a little since we don't have another vehicle lined up yet and I hate rushing into things, but we are looking for a van and hope to find something affordable in the next few weeks. Agh! I'm going to be driving a minivan soon! Am I ready for that?

Happy Valentine's Day!

We are having fun with Valentine's this year. I made pink pancakes for breakfast and we have an awesome dinner planned with the sister missionaries, if they will ever call me to confirm their appointment. Anyway, we are having spaghetti and meatballs with chocolate cheesecake for dessert. The kids even talked me into buying sparkling cider for an extra special thing. I figured we could really ham it up.

I have some pictures to put on:

I think the only picture that needs a little explanation is the first one. We are learning about space this month for science and Emmett painted the planets. They are in order Mercury through Neptune, left to right. He sang his planet song for the camera. Enjoy!

Woohoo!

I just checked our homeschool group's site for the Math-a-thon and Emmett is in the lead for the most donations! Wowzers! We have had such a response already that I am just thrilled. He is so excited about it. He reached the level where he gets a free t-shirt for a prize already and he has almost finished the entire math funbook. I plan on having him do some of the online funbook games tomorrow. Anything on the computer is a bonus for him. He loves getting computer time and I have to be stingy about it or we won't get anything else done. Anyway, I am just excited and had to let out an online scream. Woohoo!

One of THOSE Days

Ugh. What a day. My kids and I started off on the wrong foot and never got back on. My mom called at about 8:15 my time and Emmett was already in a full blown tantrum because he didn't get to see the garbage truck. That's right. He was crying for almost 30 minutes about it. I read 2 Nephi 2:27 to him at her suggestion and pointed out that he was choosing to be miserable but it didn't work. He said a prayer that the garbage truck would come back. And you know what? Not five minutes later the second garbage truck (the one that picks up the brown yard waste cans) came rumbling down the road and I screamed at him to get to the window quick before it drove away. Then I told him that Heavenly Father answered his prayer.

I thought for a minute that we were going to turn around at that point. But I was wrong.

We had planned to go to a playgroup/birthday party at my friend's house but her kids were sick and it was raining so the original plan of going to the park for a picnic was cancelled as was the backup plan to go to her house. And I was okay with not going because I had lots to do around the house but the kids LOST IT. They both started going berserk because we were not going to play with friends. It was fairly dramatic. Lots of tears and wailing. I knew I was in for it.

I had an idea. Lets go to Walgreens and pick up a prescription refill. That should break up the day, right? So I called it in and finished getting myself ready for the day and read some stories to the kids and when we were all ready we went to Walgreens. I had reserved a movie for tonight on Redbox so we picked that up and Emmett insisted on carrying the movie, so I told Melynn she could hold my medicine bag. All was fine with that until we got back to the pharmacy and Emmett decided he HAD to hold the medicine and Melynn had to hold the movie. Well, she didn't want the movie. So his plan to trade didn't go down so well. He then threw a tantrum in the pharmacy. Full blown screaming and hollering tantrum in Walgreens. I'm thinking to myself, "Seriously? You are crying about carrying a prescription out to the car. What is the big deal?" It ended up that I carried the movie and Melynn carried the prescription and Emmett wailed all the way out to the car. I just smiled as we left and I'm sure the employees whispered to themselves, "Those are the people that should use the drive-through window."

We went home and had lunch. Melynn threw a tantrum because I didn't use her Minnie Mouse bowl. I told her to be grateful she was being fed and to stop whining about it. My temper was growing short by this point.

The afternoon wasn't terrible, although it was like pulling teeth to get Emmett to do ANYTHING I wanted him to. The last major tantrum came about dinner time. I'm trying to finish the prep work and get it cooking when Emmett decided he HAD to ride his bike to see his friend Matthew. I told him he couldn't because he still was dragging his feet about finishing his assigned handwriting (copywork of Article of Faith #2). He had started at lunch time. I didn't feel that bad about him not getting a privilege because he had plenty of time to complete it and if he has been more cooperative throughout the day perhaps I would have wanted to walk over to Matthew's. But I did not feel well by the time this tantrum came around and I was definitely NOT going to let him have his way. I figured I had lived through enough tantrums that I could handle one more big one. And it was a BIG one. My goodness! He brought out the best line of all: I am going to DIE if you don't let me ride my bike. That put him in timeout. After timeout he calmed down a little bit and actually did finish his handwriting. It took about two minutes once he put his mind to it. I finished dinner and that is the end of this tale. Kind of.

I left out the little skirmishes that happened throughout the day. In the end we all survived. I read the scriptures and we prayed together. They brushed their teeth before bed and I haven't pulled all my hair out. So, not too shabby even though it was quite a day. I'm glad they are asleep. I need another awesome Monday.