A Couple Birthday Pics (see post below)

Zoe is nine today!

Happy Birthday Zoe!

Today at 3:35 pm Zoe turns 9! (See sidebar, she told me to be sure to update it!) What can I say about Zoe? When I was pregnant with Zoe and we were considering her name, the name Zoe seemed like something you would have to live up to if it were yours. The name Zoe made me think of someone who was fun, brave, carefree, adventurous, and above all unique. Zoe lives up to that and more. She has truly been an interesting child to have around here. She is one of the most strong willed, stubborn people I have ever met. As a baby she was all smiles and laughs but that soon changed to a very challenging young girl as she got older. I've been really proud of her lately. She had a trying first half of the year (therefore, so did her parents). She was definitely a handful and on top of that seemed to be developing obsessive compulsive disorder. Spending tons of time in the bathroom, washing her hands (you know how Zoe gets the bleeding hands in the winter, well this was about ten times as bad as usual.) I had to set all the clocks forward about 7 minutes so she could get out the door to school on time without me harassing her. This problem even crept into the day she was baptized. She was so excited to get baptized and it was a very special day but afterward she was really upset because she felt so much pressure over having to be good now. She thought she had to be perfect from then on. I had to finally sit down with her and re-explain repentance to her and that no one is perfect after they get baptized and that's the cool thing about repentance, that we get to start anew every time we do it and try to improve ourselves. Finally it all clicked for her and things settled down. It took a long time and the long boring winter didn't help any, but we finally figured out what was wrong with her. She quit sucking her thumb (finally) right before school started last year and that was always a comfort thing for her. She has always been a high strung girl but she could at least go lay down and have that thumb to comfort her. Without it she was terribly distressed and it took months to work through that. She seems like she's matured a lot lately and the thought of her as a teenager in a few years doesn't strike terror in my heart like it once did. She's still a spitfire, of course, but she has always had this really sweet side too. She is so good about playing with Noah most of the time and they really have fun together. All the kids, although they do get on one another's nerves on a regular basis, are really loving toward each other and look out for one another. Once in a while we'll be out at the store or somewhere and I'll look back and Isabella and Zoe will be acting like the best of friends, laughing and holding hands. I love those times! I don't know where they got that because my siblings and I gagged at the thought of ever hugging each other or saying I love you. Anyway, we love having Zoe in our family, she is the queen of silly from time to time, making us all laugh. She amazes me with how smart and curious she is. I think it's cool that she asks for educational toys for her birthday like binoculars and stethoscopes. She has so many natural talents, I guess that is why she has that stubborn personality, to balance things out. I love this girl and I'm so grateful to have her and her brother and sister in our family!
(I'll get some birthday pics up later today!)

FINALLY! A Convincing Reason To Give Up Ice Cream

I like ice cream. It's probably my favorite treat. But after listening to this story on the news I think I'm through with ice cream. Those wacky kids at PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) have sent Ben & Jerry's a letter requesting they stop getting their milk from cows and start using human breast milk. Apparently some restaurant in Europe is doing it. Sure, the babies will love it but it just about makes me want to lose the ice cream I had for lunch today! I'm not kidding, I had ice cream for lunch.

Halloween Decorating

I have no life lately. Seriously! It's just all mom duty right now. Keeping the schedule clear so I can be helping out at school, or busing the kids to this or that activity, or overseeing homework and other projects. It's plenty exhausting (for my brain anyway) without trying to find a life for myself.
I do have the season premieres of The Office and Grey's Anatomy to look forward to Thursday, and the first Presidential debate Friday. I know, I'm just a little pathetic!
I did venture out to Super Saturday yesterday. You know (or not), the crafting extravaganza the sisters have every fall over at the church. I didn't have any money (or wall space) to do any of the projects so I brought the projects I purchased about a year ago for the family room downstairs. It was fun, always enjoy a good round of painting, and I got four projects wall ready. But when I came home I took everything downstairs, put it all against the wall to see how it looked and discovered that I must be subliminally obsessed with Halloween. My family room walls have white bead board on the bottom half and orange on the top half. Orange (?) you say. It sounds weird but it's actually a nice, soothing shade and the room has a very zen feel to it, great for working out. It's kind of a pumpkin color. I seriously love it. Every room downstairs is a different fun color, making it look like a "Littlest Pet Shop" house, but it works. So you're probably starting to get the picture with the pumpkin orange wall. I painted this shelf black, which is okay because there is already a black clock on one of the walls. The problem comes with my love of the color green. I've got lots of green in my house because it's my favorite color- all sorts of different shades of it I love. So I had this cork board to paint and this letter "H" that will sit against this mosaic tile board thing we made as a family. I painted the cork board and the "H" green to go with the aqua and green throw pillows. When I looked at it all against the wall I realized it is the same shade of green you would paint a pumpkin stem and leaves. So between the black and the orange and the green it looks really weird and like I purposely meant to decorate my family room in some sort of Fall/Halloween theme. So it's back to the crafting drawing board. I'll have to sand it all down and repaint it another, safer color. Maybe periwinkle. That sounds safe.

Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator

Sarah Palin's kid's names are Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, and Trig. Have you ever wondered what your name would be if Sarah Palin was your mom? Well now you can find out! I ran into this Sarah Palin baby name generator. It's pretty funny.
The names in our family would be:
Brent~ Bowl Antler Palin
Cindy~ Froth Moonshine Palin
Isabella~ Knife Pile Palin
Zoe~ Moose Roadster Palin
Noah~ Mullet Troll Palin

Here is the link if you want to try too....right....Here

What's your name?

Candidate Quiz

I found this link on my cousins blog to this quiz you can take that shows what presidential candidate you match up with on the issues. It even includes Bob Barr and Ralph Nader. It was kind of interesting although my results were nothing surprising. If you want to try it out and see whose views you match up with click here:
Candidate Quiz

Ugg! Crazy Week!

This week has been crazy! Every fall it takes me a while to get back into the routine and all the craziness that comes with it. It's taken a while, but I don't scream and protest as much as I used to. I love summer because it's just me and the kids and we can go off on little adventures whenever or just kick back at home. When school starts I kind of feel like my kids aren't all mine anymore. But routine and being a functioning part of society are good things too I know. This year on top of all three of my kids doing soccer, Isabella is also doing band (learning the flute) at the Jr. High which is a ten minute drive from here. She gets to do that three mornings a week before school, then ride a school bus from there back to the elementary school. I'm lucky enough to be able to carpool with another mom (I haven't even had my turn yet, next week) but it still means we are getting up at 6 a.m. three times a week and I am not a morning person at all! But I am getting used to it I guess. This week has been extra crazy because we had a couple extra girls here for a couple days. Isabella has a friend from school who's parents were out of town so we took her and her little sister for a couple of nights.
This has been interesting juggling even more kid stuff. I felt like a drill sergeant cracking the whip getting all that homework done every night! I don't envy those parents who have lots of kids close in age, juggling all the activities and homework. On Tuesday, Isabella had soccer practice at the park down the street at 5:30. Then one of our little house guests had practice at 6:00 over at the elementary. Then it was back to pick up Isabella and going straight back to the school where everyone else was waiting. Then I dumped everyone at home, because Brent was finally home, except for Zoe and ran off with her to her 7:00 practice. So it was quite the adventure. But the kids had a lot of fun having friends over for a couple nights. I kind of wished they would have stayed over the weekend so they could stay up late and party tween style, instead of having so many rules and all that structure and that pesky bedtime! On top of all that, I've had a cold all week. So I'm looking forward to kicking back and relaxing this weekend, after tomorrow's soccer games.

Quirky?

I stole this from blogging buddy, Mylee. List 6 quirks then tag 6 people.

1. I like to laugh at stupid things. For example, yesterday just before the closing hymn in Sacrament Meeting at church I flipped open the hymn book to find the closing hymn and landed on a hymn called "Lean On My Ample Arm". I'm sure back in the day when this was written, probably a hundred and some years ago, this was a lovely sentiment. But in today's vernacular it simply means lean on my fat arm. It was just kind of funny and silly to me. So I reached past the kids and showed it to Brent who kind of grinned but remained serious. Then I leaned back and giggled quietly (and irreverently) to myself in a very immature manner for the next few seconds. I apologize to any reader who's Great Great Grandfather or Grandmother may have written this hymn. :)

2. I come up with weird, unorthodox, crazy schemes. I always say something like this to Brent, "Why do we have to do things the way society says is acceptable?" When we were first married I suggested to Brent that we move out of our apartment and live in a campground for the summer to save money. I also once suggested when we sold our old townhouse that we get a van and live in it for a while to save money. I would never actually go through with crazy stunts like these but I definitely have this side that rebels from the status quo a bit.

3. I can't stand misspelled words or bad grammar from myself. I don't really have any way of telling if my grammar sucks but I have to immediately check on any misspelled word I type and have to edit any words I find misspelled later when I go back and read old blog posts. I know, this blog is probably full of misspelled words and grammatical errors that I'm not even aware of making me sound like a complete fool for even bringing this up.

4. I like crappy T.V. Who knows how many T.V. shows I've enjoyed watching that I wouldn't ever admit to. I will admit to one. I've probably seen every episode of Beverly Hills 90210 twice. I know, I'm embarrassed for me too! I will say that my love for the crappy T.V. seems to be diminishing as I get older, so there is still hope for me.

5. I have a hard time going out places at night without Brent and the kids. Maybe it's because I'm sort of a homebody. I do try to make my way out into the world to be social once in a while and get myself out of my comfort zone.

6. I'm a political junkie. Only for presidential elections though. I don't think I know anyone personally who enjoys it as much as I do. It isn't just with this years election either. In 2000 I stayed up 'til probably 2 a.m. watching to see who won before I finally gave up and went to bed. Four years ago I was very into it too. This year I think my obsession has peaked with watching too much CNN and reading too many blogs and talking to anyone who is interested. Annoying some, I'm sure. It's probably kind of like how some people are with televised sports. I feel like my interest will probably wane to more normal human levels in coming elections because I'm sure to suffer significant burn out after this year. Which is probably good.

Tag: Anyone who feels like doing this.

Whoever you like, this is funny....