Power Outage

Yesterday was a bummer kind of day. I don't know what my problem was. I just didn't feel good. I think I am one of those people that gets headaches and nauseated when they get to hot. Anyways I finally gave in to turn the AC on at about 5:00 p.m. and right after I turned it on I heard our little fan turn off. I thought the girls were playing with it, and I told them to turn it back on, but after I told them to do so I remembered that I told them to go downstairs and wait for me because we were going to walk to my friends house to return her books. So I thought well it finally happened the fan overheated on itself and shut off. Not the case though, I didn't hear the AC kick on, and I went to check to see if I really had turned it on. Yep I turned it on, then I realized the alarm clocks were off. I was like great I tripped a circuit breaker. I was going to check it out, but when I got outside I heard one of our other neighbors ask our neighbor if their power was out. So I knew as soon as I heard him ask that question that it wasn't a tripped breaker. So we went on our walk to Jacoy's house. She told me that one of her friends had called to see what was wrong with the power. Rocky Mountain power said that the power would be off until 9:30 tonight. I was like great what am I going to do??? Jacoy was going to see mama mia with her aunt, Matt is at scout camp, and my car is locked in the garage. It's an electronic garage, and I had no idea how to unlock it so I could open it manually. So I had been sitting there board out of my mind with my children driving me absolutely nutsoid when my Mom calls me back. She asked if I was OK, and I was near tears. I wanted to get out of my house, and do something and she says well come over. I said I would love to Mom, but my car is locked in the garage because the power is out, and I don't know how to make it manual. Good thing she knew, and told me how. I was out there so quick to try and see if it would work. It worked, I got the girls in the car right away called my Mom to tell her we were coming over. It felt nice to get out of the house even if I didn't feel very good! I stayed at her house until 10:00 or so helping her put stuff away and organizing a little. I thought the power would be on when we got home, but nope the whole neighborhood was pitch black. It was kind of Eerie. So we got ready for bed had scripture and prayer. The girls would not go to sleep. It was driving me nuts!!! It was nearly 11:00 and I was so tired. I can't tell you how many times I went into their room to tell them to be quiet. It was so hot, I couldn't get to sleep either. I had every window open, but it wasn't doing any good. WE were miserable! Finally at 11:30 p.m. the power kicked back on. I was so relieved! I went and shut all the windows cranked the AC on and went to bed. I was so glad when the power came back on. I was really worried about the food in my fridge. The power was out for nearly 6 hrs. My food was not spoiled, so that was nice! I know that I need to be more prepared for these types of situations. So I'm going to get my butt in gear and take care of it, and get our food storage and emergency kits taken care of. It's not like you are going to be able to order a pizza when a major catastrophe is happening! WE need to be prepared!

Scout camp & more Twilight

Matt left for scout camp this morning. I"m bummed that he is gone. It makes me sad. I know that I will have adjusted to him being gone just as soon as he gets back. That's always how it works. He is gone for this whole week, and will be home this Saturday afternoon sometime. I feel like I haven't spent any time with him this month because he has been working, he is so exhausted so he's been sleeping a lot too. I've been helping my Mom get things done in her house too as well. She is officially moved in, and spent her first night in the house on Saturday. I'm so excited and happy about that!

So this last week I've been a good girl and spent time with my kids and not just sat and read the twilight series. It was hard to do though. I think that I'm officially obsessed with the series! I'm almost done with the third one, and I can't wait until Friday to go and get the 4th one! I have been up till 2 reading every night, and reading for a couple of hrs. while the girls take a nap. The book is calling out to me right now...Karen come read me, what's going to happen??? I have all these thoughts running through my head. I'm going to have to buy the series because I know that I'll read them over and over. I'm so excited for Breaking Dawn to come out. I want to have a party!!!

Library books, Mom moved, Matt work, and I have been sucked in... twilight.....

Last week we decided that we really needed to start going to the library, so we went. It was a pain in the butt to get our card all setup and I hate the rule about the first time you check out anything. The limit is only 6 items per card for the first checkout. If I had known about this rule, and that it would be such a pain we would have got our cards first. Also I wouldn't have had a huge stack of books in my hands either! Duh!!! It was really fun to see the girls want to get every book they could though. =) So we went home exhausted, and I made dinner, madisynn had fallen asleep, so while I fixed dinner Matt read to McKenzie. She stayed awake for the all the books except for the last she nodded off. I had walked in to see how the reading was going and this is what I saw:

I couldn't resist taking a picture of it! It was so sweet!

This last week I helped my Mom paint her home, and this Saturday she moved all of her stuff out of storage. Yay!!! She won't be ready to move in for just a little while, she needs to get unpacked and things organized. I'm so excited for her to be closer. I can't stop saying it, it just makes me really happy!

Matt was asked to work overtime the last 2 weekends in a row. He gladly accepted and now is dead tired. Poor guy. The first weekend wasn't so bad, he was tired, but he did it. The second one was harder. Saturday morning he came home changed his clothes woke me up with a kiss to say bye, and went to a meeting for work. He also informed me that he had to do the first aid and CPR training for work as well. The only reason he said he would work the second weekend is because his supervisor told him that he didn't have to go to the training he could just go to the training the next time around. The people at work told him Friday night that he had to go to this training because if you didn't than you couldn't work at discover card. So he went to the training and it lasted until about 3:30. He came home and slept for a few hrs. and then had to be back to work by 8:30. He was so exhausted when he came home Sunday morning. He was able to sleep for a few hrs. and then he got up to go to church. He couldn't stay awake through the meeting, he kept nodding off. He told me after the meeting that he was walking home and going to bed. His eyes were so bloodshot, it was sad. When I got home from church he was snoozing and he didn't wake up until about 7, he got ready for work and then left. I swear these last couple of weeks I have felt like a military wife all over again. It was hard. He is not working this weekend thank goodness. Even if they did ask him, he's saying no because he is leaving for scout camp this Monday for a week. He wants to spend time with us, and be well rested so he can be of good use. The nice part is about him working overtime the last 2 weekends is that he made enough money to cover the week that he is gone to scout camp. Go Matt!!!

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that my older brother Chris and his family came out to help move my Mom. I wasn't able to really help out much because I didn't have someone to watch my kids, and I didn't have a vehicle. I'm glad that he was able to come out and help. Later in the day I was able to get away when Matt came home to sleep. My kids were itching to play with their cousins McKell, and Gabe. They had so much fun at Grandma's... so many rooms to run through and explore. I then had to leave to get back home in time to say hi to Matt and then to say bye so he could go to work. McKell and Gabe wanted to come over to our home to play with McKenzie and Madisynn. Sarah had told me she would let me know what their plans were going to be. They had planned on going to a drive in movie to see Wall-ee and I can't remember the other movie. Well it turns out the kids chose to come play at Aunt Karen's house over going to the movie. That made me so HAPPY!!! I love when people come over to our house, and I was lonely. So we ordered pizza, and played American Idol Karaoke until 1 in the morning, and I won. I love my Family!!! They are so much fun!

Yesterday I had to return the movies from the library, so we returned everything and got new books and movies. This time we checked out about 17 books and 2 movies. Before we went to the library though I had to call my friend Jacoy to see if I could borrow the twilight series from her. She was thrilled to let me borrow them. When I got to the front door she told me that she was so excited that I was reading them and that I had to call her and let her know what I thought of them. I said well the 4th is coming out soon right? She says next month. So I say well then I'll hurry and read them and then we can go get the 4th and have a twilight party when it comes out. We were excited. So yes I've been sucked into reading twilight.

So I didn't intend on staying at her house talking inside or anything, but it ended up being about 15 min. At first I thought it was a half hr, but it wasn't. My poor kids were outside in the car. I felt so bad, they were so hot. I will never do that again. Jacoy is fun to talk to. On my way out to the car I asked if I could bring them in to get a glass of water and to cool down a bit. She felt so bad too that she had put skittles into plastic bags for each of them to eat in the car as well. Then we ended up talking again, and we spent the next few hrs. over there. I love to talk and we have a lot in common so it makes it even better! My kids had fun playing with her kids, so it was all good. I know it doesn't make up for being a bad Mother. Geezzz I feel awful, and it feels better to get it out in the open. I know I won't ever do it again.

Dumb mistake number 2 when we got to the library McKenzie saw a barbie Rapunzel VHS movie and grabs it. I thought I saw that it was in the Spanish section, so I checked the movie to see if it had anything saying that it was Spanish. I didn't see anything, so I thought we were fine. Well when we got home, I showed Matt what we had checked out, and then I look at the movie again. It is dubbed in Spanish! It said it in 2 different places. I don't know how I missed it. I was really tired and I had a major headache. I let the girls watch part of it today while I was getting ready. McKenzie kept asking me what was going on. I told her I have no idea because it's in Spanish. I was glad to turn it off, and take it back and find different movies.

You & Me

Ok Shaina, I'm copying you and posting this as well!
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.
Let's see whatcha got!

Cheer Camp, & a Funeral

I was really looking forward to this week, because I had something for my girls to do. Well to go back to the beginning. Father's day Sunday one of the girls in our ward comes up to me and asks if I would be interested in signing my girls up for cheer camp. So I didn't tell her yes right away because I had to go home and check the calender to make sure we weren't doing something else already. Well we were free, so I called her back and said sure I'll sign my girls up. It's a 3 day thing. Two of the days they they practice from 10-11, and the 3rd day they practice from 10-10:30 and then they perform from 10:30-11. $15 a piece and they get a shirt.
So Yesterday I woke up really excited, got the girls up and tried to get them excited about it as well. So we rushed out the door, and got to the high school right on time. Went and found the group they were supposed to be in. First off their were only about 6 cheerleaders in charge of our group of about 20. Kind of hard to teach that many 3-5 yr olds. So McKenzie just stood there twirling her pigtails, and playing with her tongue. I was so frustrated!!! Madisynn was doing more than she was. This was the first 10 min. Then Madisynn decided she didn't want anything more to do with it. So I went back down to the people in charge and got my money back for her. Come to find out the kids were supposed to be at least 3 to do this. The girl in my ward said oh any age can do this. Madisynn did pretty good for her age and attention span.
We then go back up to where McKenzie is, I give madisynn some pretzels, and try to cheer McKenzie on. McKenzie still wouldn't do anything. I told her to come to me and I asked her if she wanted to do this. She says yes, so I told her to get back over there and watch the cheerleaders and do what they do. Well we went through this process about 3 times, and then she starts to cry. I ask her why she is crying? She didn't answer so I said are you scared? She shook her head yes, and I said oh you don't need to worry because I'm right here, I won't leave. She wouldn't stop crying, so I asked her again do you want to do this? She said no. I said OK let's go. So I went and got a refund for McKenzie too. I didn't want to make my kids do something that they didn't want to do. I don't want to turn into one of those obsessive parents, and make my kids miserable. I really don't want my girls to be cheerleaders, but if they end up doing that fine. I do want them to be involved in something.
The part that makes me the maddest is that she was acting like a baby the whole time she was there. I'm not mad that she started crying. It's the standing there and not trying, and twirling her hair and doing things that a little baby would do. She has been doing this a lot, and it really concerns me. Baby talk, it drives me nuts when they are as old as they are. I don't know how to get her to stop. I've tried telling her I can't understand you when you talk like a baby. It works, but I just hate to sit there and say it all day long. She is a very smart bright girl, and I don't want her to be a baby. She is far from it. I want her to act her age. The other thing that made me mad too, was the second we got back into the car she asks if she can watch a movie. That really worries me that she doesn't want to try something new, and would rather watch a movie instead. I told her no, we're going to go home and play, read books, and do preschool. I don't want my kids to turn into couch potatoes, they need to be active, get the energy out so they sleep well. I let them watch 1 movie a day, and that's it. They get to watch some t.v. while I do their hair as well, so it's not like they're going without.
So I remembered the park and the free lunch and we went and did that instead of going home. We stayed there for almost 2 hrs. and then we left. The girls didn't want to leave, but I remembered I needed to go to walmart to buy Matt's cousin a bridal shower gift. I missed her shower this past weekend. So when we got into the car we guzzled a bunch of water, and left. Thank goodness walmart was only 5 min. away from where we were. So then we pull into the walmart parking lot, and McKenzie says Momma I think I'm going to puke. I was like please noooooo. So I hurried and parked and went to get McKenzie out of her car seat. I barely got her out, and she dry heaved and then puked all over the parking lot. Poor thing she puked so much! It was so sad. I think that the heat got to her, and that she guzzled to much water, and also the motion. She instantly felt better afterwards, and was fine the rest of the day. I'm so glad she didn't puke in the car or inside the store!!! I just feel bad people would have to see the puke in the parking lot, not much I could do about it though. Sorry people!!!
Matt's cousin Stephanie died this last Saturday. She just didn't wake up. I have no idea what happened. She was only 18 yrs. old. So sad, she had her whole life ahead of her. I have only met her twice, and the last time I went she still looked like a little girl. When we got to the viewing and walked through the door, the spirit was so strong. It was very hard to go in and look at her. She didn't look like herself, she looked like a young woman. I don't do well with funerals. I hate to see people so sad, and crying. It just brakes me heart every time. I especially don't really handle them well after going through it with my Dads funeral. That was one of the hardest things I've ever had to go through.
Moving along....Stephanie's parent's got a divorce, so she has her Mom (Matt's Aunt) her Dad and step mom. I think a lot of Stephanie's step Mom's side of the family are inactive and don't really have an understanding of the plan of salvation. It's very sad, if you don't have an understanding of that. I couldn't imagine not being able to see my Dad again, or any other part of my family that has passed on. How agonizing would that be??? It's just sad that they are no longer here in the physical sense. Stephanie is in a better place now, she won't have to be tried, or hurt, or go through awful things ever again. How lucky is she?! Stephanie seemed like an amazing girl from what people said about her. I wish that I could have known her better. I will get to know her someday, I can't wait for the day I get to see my loved ones again!

Hives, flowes, weeds, trees, paint, waterfun, & Karaoke.....a crazy weekend!

Remember when McKenzie got stung by a bee? Well I found the hive, and it's not a bee hive, it was a wasp hive. Yeah I didn't even think to look in the ends of the swing set, because for some reason I thought they were solid and not hollow. Whoops. So I had Matt do the dirty work, since he is the Man of the house! He got the wasp spray and sprayed the wasps nest. It says not to remove the hive for 24 hrs, so I thought well what a perfect time to take a picture. Oh yeah there was also a hive on the other side as well. Crazy! I'm so glad my baby wasn't stung multiple times. Guess what I have flowers blooming! Yay! I didn't kill something! It actually grew! Here are my pretty flowers:

I'm going to have to transplant later, and make them more spread out, and add other fun things to it too. So exciting!

So when we moved in to this house on the fence there was this ugly looking vine stuff which was brown because it was early spring. Any who this vine stuff is a flower, but it's basically a weed. It grows like a weed. We have already trimmed it twice, and I'm not talking a dinky trim, it was major. I'm sick and tired of it! so I finally caught site of my neighbor while he was outside one day, and I asked him if he was at all attached to this stuff. He said absolutely not, so I said do you mind if I get rid of it then. He was all for it! yay so the weekend of the 24th or sometime around that time frame we are getting rid of it. Here is what this stuff looks like:

This stuff was touching the ground on our side, and it's touching the ground on the other side, it continues to grow out and makes a huge mess everywhere. This is what we trimmed from our side of the fence last week:

The picture doesn't do it justice of how much we really trimmed off.

Here is a pictures of our front yard from the front doorway. Please excuse the dryness of the lawn, we are doing our best!

I wanted to get peoples opinions. I hate this pine tree, yes it creates good shade, but I hate pine trees in general. I like to be barefoot a lot on the grass and you can't really walk around to well when their are pine needles everywhere. So this is what I was thinking. I want to grow some trees along the front park strip, put another little tree in the left corner of the front yard by the driveway and when that grows to a good size tear out the pine tree and plant a globe willow in it's spot. So just want to know what you think, and what kind of trees should I plant in the places I said.

My Mom started painting her house this last weekend. I wasn't able to help out because Matt had worked and was sleeping, and he had to work this last Saturday. It was normally his day off, but they called him to see if he would fill in, because they were shorthanded. So getting back to the point I couldn't exactly take my girls over there with me while I painted because let's face it there would be nothing for them to do, and they would probably get into the paint and make a huge mess. So me being the good daughter and Sister that i am =) wanted to help in someway, so I talked to my sister and said I will watch your kids at my house so you can help Mom without worrying about your kids as well. They jumped at my offer, so my brilliant plan worked. This Saturday was crazy, but I'm glad I was able to help.
This is what we did to keep busy, so Matt could sleep as well. I forgot to stop recording, whoops!

So some fun game that Kaleb the oldest made up. The kids had a blast! They love playing together!

Here are fun pictures of them posing:

So we spent a good couple of hrs. or more outside. Then it just got to hot and we went in and watched a movie with popcorn. Fun Fun and more Fun!

Sunday we were just dragging. We didn't feel like doing anything. Matt had to work again, so no fun for Sunday night as a whole family. I was talking to my brother in law josh online and he said that they were going to see the fireworks at Weber state university. He then asked what are plans were, and I said a big fat nothing. How sad is that???? Well later I decided that the girls were going to have a karaoke night. I would do most of the singing of course, but the Kenzie and Maddie, loved watching. They ate their cracker Jacks, and watched me sing. Then when they were done eating the cracker jacks I dressed them up and let them hold the mikes and sing and dance the way they wanted to! It was a lot of fun, so the night wasn't a total depressing one.

Here are some fun pix and a video of the girls:

I was so ready for bed when we were done, but you know I had to have my alone time so I stayed up for another 45 minutes to sing in peace. We will have to do it again! It will be so nice when they both can read and follow the words on the screen! Then the party will really begin!

Update on our lovely car

So our car was finished today. Yay! I'm so glad. I have to say I guess it doesn't matter if we get crappy or nice cars, we always have major problems. So the above picture is the type of vehicle we own, which is a 2001 Acura MDX. It's a beautiful car, and we love it! We just always end up getting the Lemons. I'm just glad that we have someone we completely trust to fix our Lemon, and that would be my brother in law J. He's been so good to get us through this. and I'm proud to say I have not shed one tear over this, which is a major step for me. I usually don't handle things like this very well. So all through the day J was calling me to let me know the status of our car.

The first time he called me he says "k do you want the good news or the bad news?" I said "give me the bad news so we can get it over with." So this was the bad news. Now our rear AC is not working, just lovely. The good news was our AC is fixed and is working great!!!! That's a relief! J was testing the temp of the air as he was driving and talking to me. He said he was gauging the air at 45 degrees while driving, and when it was just idling about 50 degrees. So nice and cool. J wanted to know what we wanted to do about the rear AC. He said he would do some more research on it, and let me know and go from there. So later I get a call back from him and he told me a bunch of mumbo jumbo that I can't remember right now. Anyways he asked if we wanted a diagnostic done on it. I said "absolutely, let's find out why this sucker isn't working!" So that cost's an extra $75 on top of what has already been done.

Then I get a final call from J and he said the rear power transistor needs to be replaced. That will cost $125 for parts and labor. He suggested we wait to fix it. I quickly agreed! We were fine if we were getting some cold air. Then I asked what the total bill was. So here it is folks: $950.67. Nice. I told J "now I need to go puke. " He said "call the Acura dealership and ask them how much it would cost to put in a new AC compressor." I just laughed, and he said "no seriously it will make you feel better." so I said OK I will call and see. So I did and this is ridiculous. When I talked to a service guy he said it would cost anywhere from $1300-$1700 just for the part. Then he goes on to say we would also have to check to see if any lines or pumps were damaged as well and need replacement. and that would cost along with the compressor just for parts about $2800. When he told me all of this I had the biggest smile on my face! J was definitely right, it did make me feel a whole lot better to call and find out it was way more expensive to get the car fixed at the Acura dealership. Thanks J! =) So our total total with rental car added on top is $1182.85. It's still Sickening, but I'm glad we had the money to do this. The sad part though is we could have bought a second car for what we spent on repairs. I guess the second vehicle will have to wait until next year. Hurry up next year's Tax refund!!!