Half the time the world is ending

What is it about a good book that can make all your problems go away? Well, my problems didn't really go away, but it felt so good to escape my world and enter the world of some silly high school kids' romance. No, don't worry, I don't read romance novels...it was Kristin Randle's "Breaking Rank" book (thanks Rebecca BTW). She's a great author, my second favorite book (behind Pride and Prejudice) is her "The Only Alien on the Planet." Anyway, I borrowed the book around 9 pm Tuesday night and at 11:30, I told myself "one more chapter and then I need to go to bed." But of course I couldn't put it down and probably somewhere around 12:30 (I was trying to ignore the clock, pretending it wasn't as late as it actually was) I decided I had to finish it that night...which ended up being 2 am. I think it was worth being tired the next day and waking up to the disaster (my house) I'd been neglecting over the past few days. And then yesterday turned out to be a really good day, with lots of accomplishments...check out all the good things I did yesterday:

Fix-it Woman had an encore performance last night...this time employing my carpentry skills!! There was some random leak in our master bathroom, the carpet was all wet (I really dislike carpet in the bathroom!) so I called a plumber, who couldn't find a leak without cutting holes in my wall. He recommended that I just pull the carpet and mat back to let everything dry (it wasn't a spill, there was a really big area that was soaked through to the sub-flooring). The best part was that he didn't even charge me anything! I almost called my home teachers to help with the carpet, but decided that I had to live up to my newly self-entitled name of Fix-it Woman (and of course blog about it later) and do it myself. Really, it wasn't that hard. The real trick comes in putting it all back together (but we're going to tile now for sure, even if I have to do it myself!).

Have I mentioned how we lost our iPod and didn't discover until after I bought a bunch of songs on iTunes that they don't convert to mp3s? I discovered this sad fate about a month ago when I couldn't put any of my good music on my mp3 player to listen to as I ran (a very important item when running by oneself!). But since I'm a founding member of the GGF (google girls forever...we're still accepting members if any of you are interested in joining...if you are male, you are only allowed to be an honorary member...and only then if you have shown superior Google searching capabilities), I found out how I can jump through some hoops to be able to convert my purchased iTune songs into mp3s. That required me to use my cd burner which of course was not working. So my dad came to the rescue last night and put not one, but two working CD/DVD RW drives in my computer! And I was successful in converting my songs to mp3s...yay!!! Oh, and the best part was that my mom cleaned my whole downstairs, including the dishes that were piled up from three days ago, for me while we were getting this done (isn't she amazing?! She never cleaned up after me when I was a kid...:)).

Next thing on my list of things to do is get my car in the shop to get the check engine light thing figured out (I swear we just took care of something like this a couple months ago!! I must not be dealing with enough adversity!).

Let's see, more accomplishments from yesterday...I actually cooked dinner last night (I'm down to about once a week now, which is really sad because I really love cooking, but if my kids are happy with chicken nuggets or pb & honey sandwiches, then why go through all the trouble when the leftovers are just going to go bad in the fridge anyway?). I cleaned up my computer room (it was so bad, I've been avoiding it for weeks!)...and I finally called Luke's old preschool to tell them we weren't attending this year (should've done that a month ago too!). Wow, I'm making myself sound like a serious slacker! Oh well, I guess I'm not afraid of you experiencing the real me! :)

See how they grow

Mitch had his first day of school today, starting the first grade! He's going to be gone from 8:30 am until 4 pm every day! Poor Luke, by noon he was saying he missed Mitch. But Luke will start preschool next week, and we'll be back into the swing of things. I took this picture before school today. Mitch is so grown up, he picked out his clothes last night, set them in a pile in the order he would be putting them on (i.e. underwear and socks on top because he would put those on first, shoes on the bottom, etc.). Last night I made his lunch and put it in his cool Lightning McQueen lunchbox, but he informed me this morning that he didn't want the lunchbox, he just wanted it in a paper sack. I can't believe he cares so much about these things already...at least I'm still cool enough to be able to walk him to his classroom and kiss and hug him in front of his friends!

Mitch was also relieved to discover that homework will not take over his life, and that no bullies bothered him at school. He had this idea that he would come home from school, do homework, eat dinner, then go to bed (did I put that idea in his head?!). And he's been kind of obsessed with there being bullies at his school, and we've had to say a lot of prayers to help keep Mitch protected from bullies.

I took this picture after the second day of school last year (I forgot on the first day...) and thought it would be fun to compare the pictures to see how much the three have changed in a year.

Oh yeah, and another funny song Mitch was singing last night as he was going to bed (I love when my kids sing!), Viva la Vida. He totally was singing the musical introduction and then knew the first few lines of lyrics. And I heard Mitch and Luke discussing what song it was, trying to remember the name of the song (which they actually remembered). It was so funny! I guess they pay attention to the songs I crank on the radio!

Tonight I made plum jam from plums I picked off of trees that grow on common property in our subdivision. It was so easy, but something about canning makes me feel old-fashioned and totally domestic! I feel like I should enter the county fair or something...oh wait, except I kind of wasn't paying enough attention to the fruit as it was boiling and it kind of burned, so there are these black flecks in the jam. But it didn't really seem to affect the taste. Still good enough to give to friends as gifts, right?

Our lives are made...

I think it's funny that Loren took pictures of us cleaning the bathroom...that tells you how novel it is to actually have the kids doing chores! But not anymore! I'm being a good mom and making my kids work! It was really fun to have them help me clean the bathroom! They actually kind of got excited about it too.

Luke got to do the toilet and Mitch got to clean all the mirrors in the house and clean the sink. The trick is to find something that they are both happy about doing, and not fighting over who gets the better end of the deal. I was the taskmaster, cracking the whip and making sure the job was done right.

in these small hours

Eating hot dogs on the porch swing, and Mitch with his perler bead bucket...that thing was a permanant attachment for Mitch for a while. I was ironing new creations on a daily basis, which was kind of nice in a way because since I had the iron out, I could actually stay on top of the ironing. Otherwise, clothes that need to be ironed go months and months without being worn.

These little wonders

There's nothing like playing in the rain (and nothing like staying dry inside the garage to still take pictures!)

still remain

Aunt Amy made this apron for me, and because it's pink, Elise thinks it's hers!

We should've had the sun

The Spiderman slip n' slide got a couple of uses this summer. The first time we pulled it out, the kids were a little tentative, but once they got the hang of it, they had a lot of fun with it. Elise would just run on it, and when she inevitably slipped on it, she would start crying. It was so cute!


I guess Elise was more interested in helping Dad with the shed project! She never did quite get the hang of the slip 'n slide. Oh man, she loves her "swimsoups!" She would wear them every day if she could. In fact, the last few nights she's been sleeping with two swimsuits and a swim diaper (unused :)) in her bed...she actually cuddles up with them. It's so funny!