It's Almost Winter!

I got this in an email from my HILARIOUS friend Becky. :) She always has the best emails...

Oh, What a Day...

So yesterday was SUPER busy. I mean, like almost CRAZY busy. Almost. AND I know that you totally want to read all about it, so here we go (Note: Super long AND super worth it if you are having a crappy day and hearing about someone elses crazy adventures will cheer you up):

MORNING
We had a 'playgroup' in our ward scheduled for 9:45am and I told my Angie about it. Great - she'll be there. No problem. Our ward was doing a Christmas movie with some treats and a exchange sort of thing where you can bring things you don't need and if you see something that someone else brought that you want, you take it. Anything left goes to the DI. Simple. Easy. Great. (Especially for someone like me who happens to be a pack-rat, shopoholic who is remodeling their basement which holds 10+ years of crap in it and needs it to be empty by Saturday.) Unfortunately, only a few things were taken (which I actually expected) so I offered my van to transport the leftovers to the DI. Still, no big problem other than my kids decided NOT to watch the Christmas movie but to just run around the church instead. And scream. Did I mention that? Yeah - super fun.

AFTERNOON
We left playgroup around 11:30am and I had to get my oldest little guy to school at noon. I ran home, cooked him a few hotdogs and realized he didn't do his homework the night before (crap, my fault). So, I took him to school while he ate his Hot Dog Octopus (hotdog with legs cut on half of it). He got there on time! HOORAY! :)

I met Angie at McDonalds with 2 kids in tow (and she had her 2 kids). No problem. Happy Meals all around, kids ate pretty well, playlands are a blessing. We're getting ready to leave to drive to the DI with our vans of playgroup goodies when Zak, her 3 yr old comes up to me and says his mouth hurts. I didn't see anything so I told Angie that Zak said his mouth hurt. She looked inside and then he threw up. All over! All over her. All over the side of the table. All over his clothes. All over Robyn's high chair. IN THE PLAYLAND. Yep. Superfun! Especially at super busy packed lunch time!!! Lady behind Angie ran to the bathroom and was throwing up. Yeah. Chain reaction puking. Awesome. So while I scurried out to the McD worker, who was washing windows, requesting assistance and lots and lots of towels, Archer ran out. I didn't notice. I was too busy cleaning off a 3 year old and puke off of the floor. Yum! So when Angie left to go and wash off her hands (and shoes and pants and arms), I started looking for Archer... Couldn't find him. Then he comes in from the lobby with a kids cup full of Root Beer (which I KNEW wasn't his because I bought him Apple Juice). I asked him where he got it and put it on the table. He explains he bought Angie a Root Beer (because he totally has a crush on Angie and he thought it would be good to get her something, I suppose). I wouldn't let him drink it and I threw it away. He starts crying and throwing a fit. All while we are waiting on Angie to finish cleaning herself off. So she comes back and I send her out to the car to sort through the bags of clothing that were DI bound to find an outfit for her 3 year old who is now standing in his underware on TOP of our table. Yeah... While she is looking for clothes, Zak distracts me by pulling DOWN his underware and playing with himself. In the packed playland. Yeah. Fun. And Landon (her 1 yr old) decides to biff it off of the slide. So I'm trying to take care of these wonderful events and Archer disappears again. I put Zak and Landon down on the bench at our table, tell them to 'stay' (like I would a dog) and run into the lobby. Just in time to see Archer running out from behind the counter with a free water cup in hand heading to the soda fountain. The worker was laughing (thank goodness!) and said it was the 2nd time he did that (so THAT is where the other one came from). Archer made it to the soda fountain and climbed on the chair in front of it - that he no doubt put there in the first place - and tries to get more Root Beer. I stop him, apologize again for my irrisponsible behavior as a mom and for my child stealing from McDonalds and take him (crying because he wants HIS root beer) into the playland where Zak has pulled down his underware again. Yeah... It was awesome. Angie came in a short time later and got him dressed while I put shoes on kids, loaded them up and apologized til my face was blue to the many horrified people in the playland who I am sure thought that Angie and I were the most horrible mothers in the world.

No time for DI for me! I have to go be a room mom for Tanion's class. Which was fine. Went off without a hitch (except for a kid peeing his pants and crying; 2 girls at the table I was working with fighting and saying mean things to each other; and another kid upset about how he will never learn how to count). Normal Day.

NIGHT
Yesterday was also my ward's Primary Christmas Party. Fine. No big deal. I needed to make soup and bring the bell necklaces that I made earlier in the week. This will be easy. I made 3 'soups' (Beef Ramen Noodles, Alphabet Veggie Beef, and Broccoli Cheese) for the party and got to the church about 10 minutes late, but still there 30 minutes before it started. I helped set up things and helped get ready. It was great because 2 of our older kids were already there because of Scouts. They helped set up and play with Tanion. Everything seemed a little hectic, but really, it turned out well. My bell necklaces all got tangled together and I had to ask for help from one of our "special grandparents" who was supposed to be there to have loads of attention poured on them by our many children (who instead ignored them). But she was SO gracious and helpful and I am SO appreciative for her taking the time and putting in the effort of untangling and fixing all 45 of them! :) So lets see...

Loud - check.
Crazy - check.
Panic Attack - check.
Fun - check.

All in all, I laughed. The day was SO crazy and just out of control. But I dealt with it. And I was ok. Ah the fun of just a normal, ordinary Wednesday...

Tanion and his heros working on my 'bell necklace' ball

Our Primary Kids and the nights 'Special Grandparents'

How our kids REALLY are...

Tanion and Amanda (1st Counsellor in the Primary)

The Wonderful Sister Knight reading Polor Express to the interested children

Dorky Me with my untangled bell necklaces - Thanks Sister Barfoot!

One of our cute Sunbeams :) He wanted to be the king. :)

So aren't you glad you didn't have MY day yesterday!?! :)

The Art of James Christensen...

"All the World's a Stage", by James Christensen How many Shakespearean characters can you find?

I cannot express to you how much I LOVE the artwork of James Christensen. He is completely amazing. I had the chance to meet him once when I worked at the Homestead (there was a conference and he was the guest speaker), but I gave myself quite the little (ok big) panic attack (about meeting him) and couldn't go down to meet him... THEN, he just released a book called "Men and Angels".

I decided that I NEEDED to own this book. He was doing book signings and I was going to go and meet him and express that I love his work and I think he is completely amazing and that I - well, I don't know but just something. And of course, the night he was going to be near me was the night of Jeremiah's company's Christmas Party. And we went there instead....

BUT - I have an amazing little sister. Not that she will ever read this, but if you see her, tell her that she is amazing for me. Colleenia got off work at 7pm. The book signing in Fruit Heights (like 20 minutes from her house) got over at 8pm. I told her that I would love her forever and really, really appreciate her if she could go and get me this book - signed. By him. So instead of feeding her little family dinner first, she packed them all in the car and drove to Fruit Heights and bought me my $85 + tax book (ok, I DID pay her back for that, but still) and she even had him sign it to ME! :) It was simple because she didn't know what to have him say, so he just wrote his own little thing -

For Mandy
Peace and Blessings
James Christensen
2.0.0.8

James Christensen - FANTASTIC ARTIST MAN! :)

And his signature - just as artsy as his beautiful paintings! :) :) So I'm a giddy little girl because I just got my gigantic, wonderful book from James Christensen (thanks Colleenia for getting it; thanks dad for bringing it down to me; thanks Jeremiah for letting me get myself a great Christmas gift that I got to look at early).

If you are not familiar with his work - look him up. You won't be disappointed. Like I said - he's amazing. Below are a few of his more well known pieces. Click on them and make them bigger - do searches on GOOGLE for them - whatever. Just check him out. Enjoy! :)

Once Upon a Time

Men and Angels

Faery Tales

The Burden of the Responsible Man

Three Kings

Parables

The Bride

Balancing Act

If you find this blog by chance, Mr. Christensen, please know - I love your art. Thank you for sharing your wonderful, amazing, great talent.

Remodeling

Our house used to be a dentist office. Well, a house AND a dentist office. The dental work was done in the basement. We knew this when we bought the house. We knew there would be a lot of work involved. We knew it would take time and money. There were lots of random pipes in the basement and scary showers. We knew that.

Well, we're still remodeling. Upstairs is basically done (and has been since January). New carpet upstairs. New windows upstairs. New blinds upstairs. New paint upstairs. New ceiling and texture in living room upstairs. New mantle over the fireplace upstairs. New flooring in the laundry room and bathroom upstairs. New doors on the front and back upstairs. Added a dishwasher in the kitchen upstairs. Bought new washer, dryer, fridge, stove for the upstairs. LOTS and LOTS of time and effort.

And now, for the basement. Crap. We've taken out walls. We've pulled out ceiling tiles. We've taken out 2 showers (that weren't really showers, but that is what they were used for) that looked like they belonged in a horror movie. Made the electrical work (if you can call it that) visible. Lots of pipes visible. Worked some on the kitchen but that shall be quite the project.

And we are out of money. Well, we've been out of money since January. Which is why we stopped with the upstairs. Except now, we are REALLY out of money and are probably going to borrow some to do the basement. And then rent it out. I'm not sure how I feel about that because I've heard a million stories of renters from hell. But I like my little house. And I've come to like my little ward. And I love my little Primary kids and calling. And I don't want to loose all that, sell my house and start over. I don't. So we are trying to do what we can to get the house to appraise for more and then either refinance and add on some of our other debt (crap) OR have renters. And my luck, it will be renters from hell.

Bummer. So I'm just having a poor me day. Well a poor me month, really. And I thought I would throw it out there to the magical land of the internet. Maybe someone with lots of money will feel bad for me and my little family and just "give" us money to help us fix the basement and pay off some bills and not expect us to pay them back and we can live happily ever after. :)