My Little Slave

Madeline likes to cook, clean, and polish the floors. Her nickname could be "Cinderella". (o:

Madeline loves to help bake.



Madeline loves to mop at random times. She'll come up to me ask me to wet the mop for her about once a day.



You'll have to pretend there is a pile of a million potatoes stacked behind her. (o:



You have to make sure EVERYTHING is picked up off the floor before she is allowed to help vacuum.





Madeline spent 20 minutes scrubbing the floor with wet wipes after we made pancakes, because she didn't like all the flour on the floor. (Don't ask me why she didn't just want the mop. )


And occasionally we let Madeline sleep on the COUCH with nothing but pillows to cover her.

We had a good laugh when we found Madeline asleep like this after she scrubbed the floors with wet wipes. Must've worn her out.

Man, do we love our little helpful cutie pie. Thanks for being the world's best slave helper Madeline!

Pet Peeves

I know you've all been wanting to know what drives me bonkers in life, so today you'll get to find out. Here's my top ten:

10. Poorly timed stop lights (think Veteran's Blvd. in Redwood City or Peachwood here in Lake Forest)
9. People who don't mind their own business (e.g., someone telling you at the mall that your kid is walking too far in front of you. Grrr...)
8. Adults dropping an F bomb or other such words in front of kids. Can you really not watch your mouth when small children are around? (Happens at the pool all the time)
7. People who wait to start writing a check until AFTER they've been completely checked out (Who even still uses checks anyway?)
6. Automated Customer Service Lines (Please invest more money in these systems, so that I don't have to be pissed off by the time a real person finally makes it to the phone.)
5. Flaky people. Do NOT say you can do something if you know you can't do it. It's far better to not commit in the first place in my opinion.
4. Actors/Actresses who think their political opinion matters or has any merit.
3.Not flushing the toilet (ANDREW!)
2. Incompetency
1. Being in pain every damn day. Ow! (this has to stop at some point, right?)

What's buggin you today?

Don't worry I am having a good day. I do think this list will be interesting to me and my kids in 20 years! hahaha!

Typical Sunday

We love Sundays! This is how our day normally goes:

1. Go to church from 10-1 (Isn't 10 AM church as good as it gets?)
2. Lunch
3. Family nap time
4. Play outside with kids from our cul-de-sac. This is what the gathering normally looks like:


Have I mentioned how much I LOVE our neighborhood? There are so many kids for our kids to play with.
Claire, Noah, Nat, Jesse, Madeline, Juliette, Nick, Nolan, Andrew, and Ethan

5. Go to the park with friends from our ward:

Andrew and Stefan

6. Dinner
7. Get ready for bed

Aren't Sundays the best? I assume Sundays are different for those of you with "super responsible" callings! Thankfully, we don't have those right now. Happy Sunday everyone!

Phone Pics

I am so very bored today. Bored enough to finally get a micro sd card reader, so I could download pics off my phone. Here are some of the pics from my phone over the last couple months:

Andrew and Madeline's new best friends: Stefan, Sierra, Andrew, & Madeline being silly at the park



Sierra and Madeline sucking their thumbs together.



These guys have a lot of fun together!

Sierra and Madeline climbing the tree together

Madeline playing in the fountains at Irvine Spectrum

Andrew playing on the turtle fountain

Andrew riding in a teacup. I have no recollection of where this picture is from. It must've been in my phone for a long time!

I need to start planning more full day activities. I hate being bored. Anyone want to come visit soon?

My Craft Project

We finally painted Andrew's room, so it was time to start decorating it. This was my first craft project (Sorry the lighting is really bad in these pics-my flash stopped working on my camera):



Andrew's name in wooden letters

 

A closer look at some of the letters


What do you think? Now we just have to hang the letters. How long do you think that will take? (My guess is another few weeks:) Any ideas on other fun DIY projects for decorating his room? His theme is dinosaurs and the color scheme is blue, green, and white.

It's Never a Good Thing When...

The postman shows up at your door with a certified letter from the IRS!

The IRS decided they didn't want to recognize any of our charitable contributions (tithing) for 2009. I hope it's a simple thing to fight. It should be, right? We obviously have proof of what we paid. Grrrrrrrr...

Anyone else have the joy of dealing with the IRS? Any advice on how to tell them where to go?

Hi Ho Hi Ho Off Berry Picking We Go...

My neighbor, Susan, invited us to drive out to the scenic town of Yucaipa for some blackberry and raspberry picking. So, we drove the 70+ miles (each way) up into the mountains and picked ripe, delicious berries. My kids loved every moment of being out in the fresh air. They ran around, acted silly, and ate way more berries than they've ever eaten. We had a wonderful time!

Noah, Andrew, Madeline, and Lily



The kiddos wanted a ride, but I did not oblige their request



The farm had lots of old cool buildings and a llama (my kids had never seen a llama before and they were so excited to see one)



Andrew decided he likes blackberries better than raspberries because of how juicy blackberries are



Madeline did more eating than picking

I can't wait to go up into the mountains again.

Fun at the Park

There were two small issues with the park we went to today.
1. There were no other kids, despite it being a big newer park
2. There were NO bathrooms. (This can be a big problem with my kids. It could also explain the lack of other kids :o)

The second item is the only one that proved to be a real problem today. My kids still found things to do. Andrew has been very into swinging now that he has FINALLY learned to pump his legs! Can we say alleluia?

Then my kids noticed the awesome sprinklers. Man, did they have a good time. Made me want to go back to the park at the same time tomorrow to see if the sprinklers are on again.

After they were thoroughly soaked, it was time to take Andrew to his Tae Kwon Do class. He is absolutely loving the class. (they are giving us 3 weeks of lessons for FREE, but I may have to sign him up when his trial is over)

Isn't he cute in his uniform?

And since I am sure you are dying to know how much Home Depot charges to reface cabinets, the answer is a whopping:

$16,945

But with there AMAZING special, you can take 5% off that price and pay only $308 per month for the next 7 YEARS! (Only $26,000 with interest!) Can I please sign up for the ripoff of the century? Good grief! And that's not even for real wood cabinets but thermafoil. At least we had a good laugh over it. (o:

Reface Cabinets?

We love our kitchen! It's big, has lots of cupboards, has an eat in area, a huge walk-in pantry, an island, and it's even been partially updated. The only thing we don't love is the 30-year old oak cabinets. We decided to look into refacing them. We did a lot of research online and determined we could replace all the cabinet doors and drawers for about $1000 if we did it ourselves. Not too bad, but it would be a lot of work. So the other day I was at Home Depot (I spend a lot of time there lately) and someone approached me about their "HUGE" refacing cabinet sale and said they would love to come and give us a free in home estimate for replacing our cabinets doors. I thought, "Wow, that sounds great" and scheduled an appointment with them. So, someone came over from HD last night to give us our free estimate and can you guess how much it costs to reface our cabinets? (there are a couple more cupboards that you can't see in this picture, but this is most of our kitchen)

This is the eat in area of our kitchen

Surprise at Church

So, this morning the Relief Society President asked me to represent her in Ward Counsel meeting.  No biggie--I'm the education counselor, and I've certainly sat through a lot of these meetings before.  It was pleasant enough, and I shook hands with the Bishop and his counselors on the way out the door.

We had about 30 minutes before sacrament meeting started, so I went home to help the kids get ready.  Madeline was ready, but Andrew was completely wet and naked and refusing to get dressed.  And, after trying for 20 minutes before I got home, Tom had basically given up trying to put his clothes on.  So, we ended up getting to church about 10 minutes late.

Right as we walked in the chapel, we saw the Relief Society President standing, being thanked for her service, and being released.  Next thing I know (and before I have even sat down), I am being released as education counselor, along with the rest of the presidency.

So why is this a surprise?

1)  No one told me I would be released.
2)  They just called me a month ago.  I have attended one presidency meeting.
3)  I had no idea this was coming.
4)  I had no idea I was released--I just knew that Tom said I needed to stay standing.  I think everyone within five rows of me heard me stage whisper "did I just get released?"

The whole Bishopric came up to apologize to me afterwards.  They said that the stake forced their hand by calling the RS president to the stake RS presidency, and that they were planning to make the change next week.

I was blessed for my flexibility.  My kids were quiet the entire time during church.  Or maybe that's because they did not get enough sleep last week.  Regardless, they can release me without notice every week if it will help my kids to behave at church!

Stuff

It is too hot for me right now. I am a super wimp. It doesn't help much that our a/c isn't working. I am sweaty.

I got my first sunburn in a very long time today. My double layer of sunscreen didn't cut it. (Don't worry Mom-I am only slightly burned (o:)

I am hosting a Mother's luncheon on Friday and I am super excited. I wish all my friends from NorCal could come too.

Andrew went to see the dentist today. It was a very negative experience. Andrew wasn't 100% cooperative, so the hygienist decided after 1 minute of cleaning that she was done and sent us on our way. When I say he wasn't 100% cooperative, I mean he was pretty wiggly. He wasn't fighting or crying or refusing to open his mouth or anything like that. I learned that it's best to take my children to a pediatric dentist who might have a little more patience.

We are enjoying $1 movies and kids bowl free again this year. I love cheap activities!

Andrew finally learned to go under water at the pool. It's a big step. (o:

Madeline has her first cold sore and she's not very happy about it.


We have some awesome lakes in our area for kid friendly swimming.

Andrew can almost do the splits. haha



Madeline likes her chair in the water

 What are you up to this summer? Any big trips planned? We still haven't decided where we want to go on vacation.