What I've Been Up To

Like usual, I haven't been up to anything good. Yesterday I took my kids to the doctor for Eli to get his one year shots and, yahoo, I locked my keys in the van. In my defense, I didn't actually lock the van. I locked the driver side because you have to do that manually and left the rest unlocked. However, one of the children must have locked the front passenger door when they were getting in (the side door is broken so you have to open it from the inside). Since the side doors and back doors are broken and have to be opened from the inside, it didn't really matter that they were still unlocked.

All this was made worse because I don't know where my husband works. I guess I do NOW, but yesterday the information would have been more helpful. I mean, I know that he works for Kellogs, but Kellogs has many, many smaller divisions including Garden Burger--which is the one Timothy works for. Kellogs wasn't listed in the phone book. I'm not sure if Garden Burger is or not. So then I tracked down the phone number of the employment agency that recruited Timothy for his Kellogs job, hoping they would have his number. They did, but they wouldn't give it to me so I had to give them the doctor's office phone number while they called Timothy and told Timothy to call me.

Convoluted.

In the end though, I did manage to get in touch with my hubby and he did come swooping in to rescue me. Thank you, Tim!!

We also managed to get Eli's shots and stop at Honk's (my new favorite dollar store) on the way home to purchase cousin presents for the cousin Christmas party.

So that was yesterday. On Saturday I spent the day with Timothy and Leo painting Kami's new rental house in Provo. I spent one day there with Kayli and Lindsay Ann scrubbing the filthy monstrosity. It took the three of us (professional grade cleaners) FOUR hours to clean the kitchen. We spent six hours total and cleaned the kitchen and one bathroom. Disgusting.

How come when you move out of a house you always have to scrub it to perfection but then you still have to scrub your new place to perfection? Doesn't anyone else know how to clean???!!!

Anyhoo, I spent another four hours scrubbing walls with Kami and Kayli on Friday before rushing home to take Miriam to her ballet class. Yesterday Megan, Lindsay, Kami, Mom and Dad finished up the painting. The exterminators are going in today (I didn't know our little "bug friends" were ROACHES until Leo pointed it out--gross, gross, gross) but eventually I'm sure Kami and family will move in.

Also, for FHE on Monday night we took the kids to Ogden to see the Christmas Village. It was fun and nice and warm. We've had a lot of fun doing an activity countdown advent thingy (thanks for the great idea Lindsay Ann!!), so we've caroled by the tree and drank hot chocolate, we've wrapped presents, we've gone to Christmas parties, and I can't remember what else we've done, but it has definitely added to the Christmas spirit around here to pull off the link of the chain and find out what fun activity is taking place that day.

My children, though, are done with babysitters for awhile as am I. Here I've had all my presents purchased and wrapped for a few months now, and it still feels like December has been rushed and crazy. Mostly because I've spent so much time out of my home. Homebodies like myself tend to get a little cranky if they aren't home a certain amount of time.

But, it was awfully fun to have Kami and her family stay with us for a few days. Kami and I convinced Timothy and Leo to learn Puerto Rico (a game along the Cataan lines) that Timothy purchased years ago and hasn't played. Kami and I both think the box is cool. Timothy and Leo both enjoyed mocking us for judging a game by its cover. It was a ton of fun. Highly recommend. At midnight--two hours after I initially said I HAD TO GO TO BED--Leo finally made us all quit. He's a pilot; he has to be responsible. Or something. Addictive game though--I had just put my sugar factory into operation and bought my own ship!! I was going to catch up and beat Leo--the sneaky little Colombian who somehow managed to waste the rest of us despite centering his whole strategy around being a Captain as often as possible. Ludicrous. Fun times. And besides that, Kami made me a pot roast with potatoes and carrots. Yummy.

I'm sure lots of other things have happened but Miriam's laying on the floor whining and Emeline is wielding scissors with wild abandon and Cowen keeps popping up by my elbow. It's time to return my attention to my small people.

Merry Christmas everyone!!