I LOVE BABY DILL PICKLES

Today in our combined RS/Priesthood meeting I got all the parenting answers I needed. A lady from LDS social services came and spoke during the meeting. She had good advice to share and it really made me think. We have all these people in our lives that will do things that hurt us or make us mad. All we can do is control how we react. It is so hard to handle people with love after they have wronged us but this is what we are required to do. She said one of the worst things we can do is criticize and one of the best things we can do is listen and try to understand where another person is coming from. It is so overwhelming to hear stuff like this sometimes because it reminds me of all the things I need to do to be better. I'll just add that to all the other stuff I need to overcome! It was very insightful and I was glad I was able to hear her lesson. It was good insight for raising kids and building a better marriage and relationships in general.

This was my last Sunday to attend church without help! Charlie had his bishop's interview and he'll be ordained next Sunday! I can't believe he'll be old enough to pass the sacrement. He's a good kid and will hopefully be a good teenager! I'm sure he will be.

I made 5 1/2 dozen pumpkin spice cookies tonight, with icing! They were delicious. It was the last thing I needed to do though. I have missed the gym for the last 2 weeks and I get back into my routine tomorrow. I'm dreading it a little but I know it makes me feel so much better. I'm not a huge fan of working out. I've been doing it 5-6 days a week for the last 3 1/2 years and I thought by now I would love it. The love for it still hasn't come. It is so hard to go back after I have skipped out for a while. Tomorrow is the day though:) Here I go!

WHY.....

...do my kids fight all the time? Am I the only one whose kids fight incessantly? Ryan is constantly telling Charlie how fat he is and what a huge nerd Josh is. Charlie tells Ryan how he acts like a girl and tells Josh what a big baby he is. Cody likes to tell all of them how gay they are. It NEVER stops.Whenever I ask if they want to do something fun, or what I would consider fun, they never want to do it. My older kids are at the age where they would rather spend time with their friends and it makes the little ones want to do the same. They want to do whatever the big ones do and think how they think. It makes me nuts. Even the way they dress... the younger ones see the things that Charlie wants to wear and they want to do the same thing. I mean a 5 year old should not give a dang what he puts on, but Cody does. He can't wear anything that's not "cool". He can't wear gay, long sleeve shirts or stupid pants that aren't cool jeans. It makes me want to bip Charlie in the head when the younger ones act this way. As I type Josh and Cody are fighting over a quarter that was found in a basket. Cody got to it first but Josh got it after Cody put it down. Josh told Cody "finders keepers, losers weepers." Cody is pretty upset about that. Ryan had to do chores all day for calling Charlie names. I figure if he's gonna take up a lot of my time solving the issues he's creating, he can pay me back with his time. Today while Ryan had the dust spray out for dusting Charlie got the bright idea that he would spray a spot on the hardwood floors with the spray. He wanted to make it slippery for whoever walked on it! Well the good fairy has gotten him several times today. He has slipped on that spot more than anyone else in the house today!! Hilarious!! That's what he gets for making me put up with the bickering that goes on here all the dang time!

I thought it would be fun to bake with the kids today but none of them wanted to join in on the fun. They want to partake in the finished product but not help with it. I was all ready to make pumpkin chocolate chip bread today when I realized all the chocolate chips had been sucked down but not one person in the house was to blame. Hmm....interesting. They were all but gone and not one kid confessed to eating them. So, needless to say there is no pumpkin chocolate chip bread. Believe it or not I do love the holidays. I'm just always really glad when they are over!!! I know, I know I sound like the most miserable person. I swear I'm a happy girl, it's just all these mishaps in life get me discouraged at times :)

It's exercise and sunshine that I need. I have taken 2 weeks off at the gym and I need to get back. The break has been nice but I feel like a chubby slob. Come Monday morning I'll be there! I also got new dishes yesterday and I need to open them and look at them so I can get excited. Nothing says happiness like retail therapy! Just kidding...I guess...there are other things in life that make me happier than shopping, i.e.-kids :-|, husband, ooey gooeys. Shopping is up there though!

Oh, by the way, Alabama beat Auburn today! ROLL TIDE! Charles wanted Auburn to win and I'm a BAMA fan! :) We won.

Black Friday

Good heavens! Ok-I have never been shopping the day after Thanksgiving and thought how bad could it really be! Well, it was pretty bad. They had a few things at Wal*Mart that I wanted to get and had no idea the chaos I was about to step into. I walk in and head straight back to the electronic department to look for the portable dvd players. Apparently I wasn't the only one that wanted one of these at $49. There was a ton of people standing around the pallet waiting for the employee to slash open the plastic wrap that contained these suckers! Well once the plastic was off people were going nuts! I stood there in absolute astonishment! I never moved closer to the pallet. I was scared for the employee. She couldn't get out of the mob of people and was screaming for the police! It was the craziest thing I have ever seen. However, I did get the dvd player! The lady standing in front of me was somehow able to get 2 of them and handed me one. I also got the case to go with!I never even saw the pallet to see how many it contained or how fast they ran out. I walked away as soon as I had my hands on one. It was worth it to do it at least once...I guess. Won't be doing it again though! I'm sick of shopping already. It is nice to be mostly done.
After I got home from shopping I read on fox news about a Wal*Mart employee in New York that was trampled to death by shoppers looking for a good deal. Can you imagine? I mean there is nothing that's that great of deal, for heaven's sake!

We had a great Thanksgiving! All I had to make was a Sara Lee dutch apple pie! No other cooking went on at my house. Golden Corral made everything else. They have been my Ogden Thanksgiving tradition. I can't get too used to it now that Charles is home and we will celebrate the holidays like normal people again! Darn it. Glad he's home though:) Well... not actually home but in the United States at least. He'll be here on Friday! We have a fun filled December planned.

We also went to the movies to see Bolt, after our feast. It was a good movie and the kids enjoyed it as much as I did. Charlie liked the fat, little hamster as well as I did! It was cute. It's been a while since we've been to the movies. That is an expensive past time, especially when you have 6 people to pay for. I guess anything is expensive when you have a big family! Grateful to have them though!

Fart Blossoms

Who knows? I am bugged tonight. Trisha and I were on our way back from our class when this big, monstrous truck towing a HUGE trailer with 2 four wheelers cut us off. He came rushing up in a lane that was about to run out. He had his blinker on but since he had his huge trailer we couldn't let him in without having to completely stop our car so we kept going. He dang near hit us with that trailer so I told Trisha to speed up so I could flip him off. So...she did! And I flipped him off. Normally I don't do this but I just said "Hey Trisha...Look... a deer!" And up went the universal sign of you know what! It did help us to both feel a little better. Then the guy has this attitude like we were just supposed to put up with his crap and I just don't have tolerance for that attitude lately. Dadgummit! A few other words come to my mind also.

Anyhow, we were both up a pound tonight. :-| I was actually quite surprised it was only a pound for me. I ate everything I wanted to when I was on vacation! We celebrated our 1 pound gain with a cheeseburger and shake from Kirt's! Trisha even got fries! We're winners. We seriously are in the lead of everyone else so hopefully we get that money!

So I took the kids bowling today. They have fought all day long. After bowling we went to the iFly place to watch some of the flyers. That was pretty darn neat. Apparently the guys we watched are pros. iFly is a skydiving place. You get in the little flight suit and there is a giant wind gust that sweeps you up as if you were really skydiving. It was a good time. Anyway...tomorow is Thanksgiving and I do have a ton to be thankful for. First and foremost I'm thankful I ain't cooking tomorrow! :) Seriously though, I'm grateful for my life, even all the crap I have deal with. The crap reminds me of the good and there is a lot of good.

Oh yeah, one thing I was really excited about today....I had gotten these super cute red, snakeskin heels while I was on vacation and I bought them without trying them on and when I finally did try them on they were a little too small. I asked Charles to bring them back to Birmingham with him and see if they had a half size bigger. He called when he was at the store and told me they didn't have the size I needed and I just told him to keep the ones I already had and I would just pretend to be Cinderella's stepsister when I wore them. He called back about 5 minutes later and said he found my size! I was happy! Still am! See...I have a lot to be grateful for!

Hmmm.....

I can't seem to get back into my routine. I had a lot of business stuff to take care of today and it took up a lot of my morning. We were finally able to get our insurance claim settled and got a check for our car. Now we have to decide if we want another car. We leave for Arizona in the spring and hopefully we'll be able to live on post and save some money. If we do that then Charles can bike to work. I guess we'll see. A second car does come in handy and it's been a long time since we've been a one car family!

So... Thanksgiving is Thursday and Charles gets to spend it in Birmingham while we are all here! It's hard for him to be in the United States and not able to be here with us yet. In fact, it downright sucks. We only have 9 days to go after this night is over and then he'll be here for an entire month. We have tons planned and I can't wait! It'll be like a vacation since he hasn't been able to spend a lot of time here. Christmas will be super fun this year too! I am looking forward to getting settled in Arizona and back into my life. I have thoroughly enjoyed living here this year but I'm very ready to get settled back into my marriage and be a real family again.

Have you ever had an experience where someone has done something really horrible and then they try to turn the situation around to make themselves look like a victim and you're standing there wondering what the heck just happened? Well...I actually know quite a few people like this. I do not understand this personality but I think it may be called a sociopath or something like that. I'm not sure what it is about me that attracts people like this to me but obviously there is something these people can sniff out! I have to come to a point in my life where I can know they are not the victims and they are trying to place the blame elsewhere. I haven't always been this way though. I used to let them get to my mind and think I was somehow to blame for their misdeeds. No more though. I guess when you deal with it enough you come to learn through experience. Just some thoughts :)

Why is it when you leave your kids behind for a few days you miss them like crazy only to return and wish you had spent more time enjoying being away from them? This is where I am right now! I think my kids only fight when I'm around. I think they only enjoy making ME nuts! In fact, I KNOW this! I love those boys! Hurry home Babe!

God Bless America

I just arrived home after being gone for 9 days. It is so good to be home. I completely forgot about life for a while and enjoyed my time away! Thanks Matt and Jade and also a HUGE thanks to the Budge's for helping out! I got to Birmingham on the 14th and hung out with my sister and her kids until the 18th. I headed up to Tennessee that day and Charles arrived at around 12:45 a.m. Wednesday morning. It was so exciting! I cannot believe this deployment is over. I did not want to leave him today but we have another homecoming to look forward to when he gets home on the 5th. We did absolutely nothing but spend time together while I was there. We got to stay in a little 2 bedroom apartment in a complex that a friend of ours owns. He owed us a favor and let us stay there free of charge! It was a huge blessing and saved us some cash! It had a kitchen and washer and dryer and everything we needed. Well most everything! We could have used some measuring cups, a cutting board and a vacuum to name a few things!

Everybody survived the 9 days without me except for our little Ford Taurus! It got totaled the day after I left. Some teenager smashed into the car while everyone was headed to a pool party! Nobody was hurt thankfully and the other insurance company did take full responsibility. Poor Cody scrubbed a tattoo off of his face and took about 12 layers of skin with it. Other than those 2 minor details everything went great back in Ogden while I was gone! :) I'm pretty sure Matt and Jade were the most excited for me to be back! They weren't sure how I do it day to day but I have super powers and cat like reflexes! It is so good to be home with my kids. I am so thankful for all the experiences I have had and more than anything I am grateful this was our last deployment. I'm thankful for what I've learned and the things I have been able to accomplish. I am so glad Charles is home.

For those of you that would like to see pictures of the homecoming ceremony you can click through the link from the other blog that I am a member of. Go to my eblogger profile page and it's on there! Does that make sense?

I'm Frankful...

My day was filled to the brim! First and foremost I had to go tanning! I didn't make it to the gym because I had to wait till 9 to schedule Josh an appointment and the clinic didn't open till then. By the time I had waited till 9, I had to wait for Cody to get out of school since today is early day. I hate early days. This happens every Wednesday. So I got Cody then checked Josh out of school to get him to the doc by 11:10. Josh has had a sore on his head and then I noticed he had a lump below the sore. When I noticed this I was panicked. I had called Monday to get an appointment but they were all booked up and couldn't bring him in yesterday since it was veteran's day and our clinic is on a military base. So today was the day I was able to put an end to all my worrying. He has ringworm on his head, it's not a cancerous tumor like I was thinking! But ringworm, good heavens! The lump was a lymph node that is working hard to get rid of the crap from the ringworm. So...other than him having ringworm he's all healthy. Thank heavens. I seriously was thankful for the diagnosis.

I had to go to parent teacher conferences starting at 2. I got to listen to all my kids' teachers tell me how wonderful and smart all my kids are! Seriously though, I am glad my kids catch on quick since I hate homework. They have all been good readers and good at figuring things out. It is very hard for me when a kid is slow to catch on. I have volunteered in the class room a time or two and there are kids that just do not get it and it is very hard to try to get it into their brain. I could NEVER be a teacher.

Trisha and I are the only ones that showed up to the weight loss class this week. I lost almost 5 and Trisha lost almost 7 pounds! Only 40 more to go for me! Almost there!

I'm down to the wire before I leave and I still have a ton of stuff to do. I didn't think it would get all piled up on me like this. I should have put my shoulder to the wheel earlier in the week. I started my packing tonight and it seems surreal that I'm leaving in less than 2 days. I really will miss my kids and I'm a little nervous about being away from them for so long. I won't know what to do with myself not having to run around for them for a few days. As enticing as it sounds to leave, the fact is, they are my life pretty much. What do you do when you're away from your life for 9 days? I mean don't get me wrong, I do have an identity outside of being a wife and mother but I see them everyday and they are the largest part of my life. *sniff, sniff* I'm sure I'll find something to fill up my time. (especially when Charles gets home!)

I also had to get my recommend renewed tonight. I sat and talked with a lady who had recently gotten remarried. She had been widowed 2 years ago. She had been married to her first husband for 26 years and he died suddenly of a heart attack. It was such a sad story. She told me how they married at 19 and had 3 sons together. It made me think of Charles and me. We got married when I was 18 and he was 19. I couldn't imagine losing him at such an early age after thinking for all those years we would grow old together. I'm so glad we got married as young as we did. It hasn't been easy but it has been so worth it. I'll only be 38 when we send our oldest out on his mission!! How nice!

Little Cody gave our family prayer tonight and he always tells what all he's "frankful" for. It is so cute! It's times like that that make all the frustrating things they do easier to deal with. The frustrating things like Ryan holding Josh's legs over his head until Josh was bawling! Or Cody coloring on Ryan's nightstand table, that I finished a few months ago, with a hot pink sharpie marker. Yeah, not so frustrating when he's telling the Lord how "frankful" he is! I love those kids.