Crabby Week, Take 2

I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything better.

Monday, Caitlyn woke up with the crap that Alison and Kristen had. (Megan: "I'm next!" Little did she know...) She spent the day listless, begging me to eat ("Why can't anything I like be sick food?") and when I finally let her, she threw it back up again. And was sick all day Tuesday. Silly girl.

Tuesday morning (shortly after midnight, to be exact), Megan woke us up with the same yuck. Cleaned up, handed her a bowl, and eight hours later called her in sick.

I'm sure others did other things -- I think Kristen and I went to playgroup, and she went to preschool. Oh, yeah: Alison went to school. But mostly, people were sick.

Tuesday night, I took Alison and Kristen -- by then we three were the only healthy ones in the house, Russell having succumbed to it -- to Wendy's night (you go to Wendy's, you buy stuff, they donate a portion of the proceeds to the school). That was a mistake. Because being sick after eating Wendy's is NOT a good idea.

So, Wednesday, I was sick (along with Megan; we figured out it's a two day bug: one to be sick, one to recover). On top of that, we finally decided to jettison AT&T as our phone/interent guys (enough already with the bad signal) and got Cox cable. So, the cable guys were messing around with that all morning. It's in, it's up, and... we still have crappy reception on the laptop (oh, it's the laptop? Really? Now you tell us.) and now we can call you on our phone... but you can't call us. (Well, the upside is that it won't crash on us... we hope.) Hopefully, with enough harrassing, they'll fix it.

And, on top of all that, I did something to my leg and it was incredibly painful to walk or sit. Possibly pinched the sciatic nerve. At any rate, yoga (in the middle of a snowstorm) on Thursday was quite nice. The leg still hurts, but not as badly. I can at least walk without looking like someone in pain now.

So, yeah, it actually snowed here. Enough that they cancelled school on Friday. (Megan woke up Monday morning and asked if she could have a three day week. Little did she know that she would get away with a two-day week this week...) We spent the day inside, getting increasingly crabby at one another (except for Russell, who went into work to get "stuff" done). Megan and Caitlyn had the Kitchen girls over for a sleepover, we watched the last episode of Robin Hood (on the disc), and we basically called it quits. I was in a crabby mood by the end of the day anyway.

Saturday, however, was bright and sunny and cold. The snow melted enough to make a good snowman, and the girls went sledding in the ditch across the street. Some shopping was done, the house was cleaned (and, man, did it need it!). The last half of the Two Towers was watched. Moods were much improved.

Today hasn't been bad. Church was okay all around, and no one's really gotten terribly cranky this afternoon. Maybe February will work its magic (then again, maybe not) and miraculously take away all this crank.

Snow Days

We actually got a pretty good snowstorm in Wichita a couple days ago. Enough that they decided to cancel school, much to the girls' happiness. Friday, we mostly kicked around inside, though Alison, Kristen and I managed to get out and shovel the driveway.



The snow was no good for making snowmen on Friday, but today it was grand. So, Russell took the ones that were interested (crazy?) out and build the Snowgirl Princess Cinderella.




And they went across the street to the ditch to go sledding. Not the best hill, but hey, whatever works.

Caitlyn's styling her snowboard moves.




And one more I found on the camera...

She says she was "freezing!"

And... It's January

Crabby week = crabby letter. I apologize in advance.

Monday was actually a good day. The girls and Russell were off of school, and we had a grand time. Two trips to Dollar General were made, some puttering around the house, a bit of reading and writing, and then we went ICE SKATING. For the first time in, like, forever. (I think since the Christmas of 2002, when we were in Canada.) It was a grand time for everyone. Megan and Caitlyn brought friends, and Alison and I were skating buddies. Kristen went around the rink once and decided that it was much more fun to climb the seats in the stand. That is, until she discovered the hockey scrimmage on the rink next door. Watching THAT was the most fun. We lasted most of the free skate time, leaving only because we had to get Megan to piano. That evening, we had Family Home Evening with the Kitchens, which was a bit chaotic, but fun. It's nice to know that our family's FHE's aren't the only chaotic ones...

Tuesday we started in with the crank. Megan and Caitlyn had slept over at the Kitchens, and Kristen adamantly decided against stopping playing with Alison and going to preschool. She did, however, want to play with Sam, so off she went while Alison and I got pictures. Have I mentioned that Alison LOVES getting her pictures taken. Which makes for a very hard decision in picking pictures. Which means mom spends WAY too much money on pictures. Which makes everyone grumpy. I also went across town to pick up a range expander for the wireless, which promptly caused the laptop to cease working. Grrr... I'm sure something else happened (like... Caitlyn had piano, and we had the Austin kids over), but for the most part that was my Tuesday (multiplied by sore muscles).

Wednesday, Kristen came down with the stomach flu. So, after a quick trip to the library to drop off videos and pick up holds, she and I basically spent the entire day on the couch. Same with Thursday.

Thursday night was that weekly Relief Society meeting we're not supposed to call Enrichment anymore. They asked me to teach on personal scripture study. Personally, I think they looked around the ward and said "Who's not coming who should be and let's get them to teach." It went really well -- especially since I completely and totally winged it -- and I'm glad I had the chance to teach. Even if it only meant that I had an excuse to leave the house.

Friday... other people came down sick and so the party we were supposed to go to was cancelled. We spent the evening watching Robin Hood and the first disc of Two Towers. (Did I mention last week that we went through Fellowship? No? Well, we did. And we let Caitlyn watch, much to her pleasure. She was much less scared by the Balrog than I thought she'd be....) Kristen was finally on the mend, but Alison came down sick Saturday.

Alison is a very bad sick person... she kept wanting to eat stuff, and I'd let her because I'd get tired of arguing with her, and then she'd writhe in agony and eventually throw up. Sigh. Russell took Megan out on a daddy-daughter outing to Friends to see a musical, which they both enjoyed. They brought home a pint of Ben and Jerry's and shared it afterward (I saw the evidence in the trash...). The rest of us overdosed on Robin Hood, and then went to bed. In there somewhere, I managed to practice with the missionaries for their musical number today....

Which went well. Russell stayed home with a recovering Alison (who's managed to keep food down today) and the rest of us went to church. Megan and Caitlyn were big helps with Kristen while I was playing; there was only one altercation when I went to play for the missionaries and Kristen decided to pitch a fit about that. But, otherwise, it was a good day at church.

And this afternoon, we'll just hang out, be lazy, and hope that no one else catches the stomach bug. Here's to a less cranky week this week!

Ice Skating in Wichita

For Christmas, Santa brought Alison a gift certificate to the local ice skating rink. I had promised her that the first day off from school after Christmas break, we'd all go skating. Monday was that day.

There was a very long line to wait in (didn't take a picture of that, though). Kristen was taking her own photos...


We got in, got skates (it was supremely crowded), and proceeded to have a grand time.





Kristen lasted once around the rink, and the proceeded to hang out with daddy on the sidelines. She discovered the hockey scrimmage in the next rink over, and really liked that, too.


It was a great afternoon!

The Great Chocolate Chip Cookie Quest #2

For quest #2, we tried a recipe off of Recipezaar. The secret ingredient? Vanilla pudding.

The consistency was right:

And Caitlyn rolled the dough into nice little balls (I wonder if that made a difference?)...

And they looked good coming out:

They were nice and soft and chewy, but there was something supremely off about the taste. And they had a wicked aftertaste, too.

Oh, well. Back to the drawing board.

Computer Woes

So, we've been going the rounds with AT&T Uverse this week. It would be on for a little bit, and then crash and reset itself. It was tolerable for a while, but on Monday, when it was down more than it was up, we finally called and someone came out. He fiddled with it for a while, got it working, but said he wanted to come out on Tuesday to "fix" it so it wouldn't crash again.

Tuesday, he came out, "fixed" the "errors" in the box outside and moved the inside box to the laundry room (and gave us a wireless something-or-other for the desktop) because that way it'd be "better" and not crash again. The fundamental problem (so they've told us before) is that there's 3500 feet of cable between our house and the "source", so our signal is always going to be weak.

Except now, we don't get internet on the laptop in the kitchen (thought it's pretty strong in our room), and barely in the family room downstairs. Which are the two places we use it the most. We've called AT&T, we've talked to friends, we've fiddled with the connection on the laptop. And, we're down to two conclusions: 1) get a signal booster for the wireless and hope it works, or 2) switch to cable internet and phone. The upside to 1) is that it's a one-time cost, but there's the chance that it won't work. Which I suppose would leave us with 2), even if it's slightly more a month than AT&T is.

Sometimes, I hate technology.

In other tech woes, Megan stuck her cell phone in a puddle of water when she went to charge it a few days ago. So, there's no more cell phone. :-( We did go out and buy a new one (she's working off half with free babysitting for us -- yes, we pay her, though not much), which was another adventure. Did you know that without the stupid 2 year plans, phones run hundreds of dollars? I didn't.

Megan also went and took the admissions test for the IB program next year. She's not quite sure she wants to do the whole IB thing (on the up side: challenging academically; on the down side: having to make a whole new group of friends again), but we figured we'd apply for the program and see what happens. She might not even get in. (Oh, and we signed the "contract" which states that we, as parents, will not take our child out of school for any vacation or "family matter". Um... I wonder if that's enforced? It might be a deal breaker...)

Oh, and it's that time of year again: Girl Scout Cookie Sales. It's the third year doing this, and I still hate it as much as ever. But... if you want your cookies, we've got them, and Caitlyn would more than appreciate your support. (If you don't want cookies, but would like to help her/her troop anyway, you can donate boxes. And then it's tax deductible -- and fat free!) We sure don't mind mailing them... (PLEASE?? I really hate selling these.)

And that's about it for us. We're off for the next two days (MLK Day and a teacher in-service day) and so we're going to use Alison's Christmas present and go ice skating. Pictures coming soon...

A Day in the Life of a Sixth Grader By Caitlyn

Do you ever feel like you are the only sane person in your family? Well I always do. Last night I asked my mom for a juicy conture phone and my mom said that she had something better for me. What could be better than a Juciy Conture phone? Than she handed me a 288 paged book. So now I stuck with a diary, only dorks would get cought writing in diaries.
OMG! Deliah (CCP President) saw me writing in this dairy and I nearly died. Besides that Mr. Crossen asigned me 2 hours worth of homework, book reports, ect.
This is SO unfair I don't have a NICE cellphone and my crush Justin likes Deliah, and I only have a couple of friends, I don't think I'll work on my homework, so I'll probiley text Hannah, Katie and mabey see if Justin is there.

Justin wasn't there. But I had a good hour long text chat with Katie and Hannah. After an hour Sammi came in and told me that it was dinner time.We had had chili.

My family: Mom, dad, that's me next to my little Sammi,behind my dad is Victoria, she's in 10th grade and i have another sister who is gone to college named Marlynn.

I'll see if Justin is home, HE IS!
After 1 hour and 50 minetes chating with him I decided to put on some make up and go shopping.

First lip gloss my favorite is Strawbilioucs Starburst. Then I put on mascara and Chocolate Cocoa eyeshadow.

Than some blush and fianlly some black eyeliner. Then I ask my mom if we can go to Fantastic Fashions, she said that we could. YEAH! Once we get back it's about 7:00 so I take my medicine.

Ivuprofin pill to be exact. Then I get in my PJ's. Then I wander into the kicthen and make myself some pepermint tea.
I also see that my mom made popyseed cake so I took a slice, while eating I fliped open my Fashion Fab New York Modle magizine.
After I done eating I go back up to my room, brush my teeth, law down and think.
Iam SO tired. I'll just.....zzzzzzzzz.

THE END

Thank you for reading coment on how much you like thet story. 10 best 0 worst.

THANKS!

Staying Warm(ish)

It's been cold.

Okay, that's the understatement of the decade. (Which is easy to say, since it's January 10th, 2010.)

It's been a good weekend, remarkably, since it's January and I am notoriously grumpy in January. (In fact, I think -- even despite the cold -- I've been amazingly un-grumpy so far this month.)

Monday, amid much complaining, the girls went back to school. Much complaining because it was their first day back after a very fun break, and much complaining because it was dark. They are my girls, after all. Kristen and I went to playgroup, hung out, and (mostly) enjoyed the quiet day.

Tuesday, since they cancelled my boxing class (le sigh), I went to a body design class at the Northwest Y. It was a combination of step and toning, and was okay (read: not as fun as boxing, but a whole lot better than riding a stationary bike, which is the only other option). I must have worked out hard, because I could barely walk for the next two days! The girls grudgingly got back into the swing of things.

Wednesday, aside from the usual, was (characteristically) grumpy. Maybe it's because everyone was predicting no school for Thursday? Maybe it's because it was a gloomy, gray day? Whatever the reason, we were all at each others throats for most of the day. (Not *all* of the day, of course. They did go to school.)

Thursday, the cold hit. And MAN was it cold. (It wasn't so bad when you didn't factor in the wind, but this is Kansas, people. There's wind.) And, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), the school board didn't cancel school. (Megan asked, "Why can't we move back to Arkansas, where they're wimps?!") So, we all bundled up and tried to stay warm. Everyone went to school. I put in my volunteer hours (I AM the goddess of the copier, just so you know). Kristen and I built a fort in the basement, and stuck the space heater in there; it was the warmest I was all day. Yoga was that night; it was REALLY good to be back into that. And, the girls were okay, considering we were all so cold. After Wednesday, though, there was really no place to go but up.

Oh -- on a side note -- Alison's decided that she wants to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, so Russell's been reading that to her this week. She's really liking it. It is also his third time reading it to one of his daughters.

Friday, was more cold. Kristen had her friend Sarah over to play, and the girls went to school. Caitlyn had a sleepover with Merry, and then Friday night, Russell decided we needed to go out on a date. So, we went out to a restaurant I've been eyeing ever since we moved here, Granite City. It wasn't bad. Pricey, so not a family place, but incredible customer service. And we beat the dinner rush, too. And then we came home and watched one of my favorite movies: Stranger than Fiction. I can't tell you how much I love this movie. Maybe it's just because I'm a book geek? It's also VERY nice to have a wonderfully responsible oldest daughter who is willing to baby-sit at the drop of the hat for us. Won't be much longer that she won't do that.

(Oh, and they got grades on Friday. Everyone's doing great. Megan even got As in both science and math!)

Yesterday was mostly lazy. I tinkered with my blog. Russell tinkered with his blog. We took the laptop in (again!) as well as the portable hard drive. We're trying to get used to having only one computer again. It's not fun. We did chores. Russell took the younger three swimming, Megan and I opting out because we're not insane. And Russell was brilliant (second time in two days!): he ran to the Dumlers and borrowed Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was exactly what the doctor ordered: fun, funny, and they blow stuff up! We all went to bed happy.

And today's been good, too. I think I do get more out of church when it's at 9 a.m., because I really enjoyed it today as well. Either that, or I'm just getting more out of it? Caitlyn stayed home -- she woke up with a stomach ache, and couldn't get moving in time. Russell complained about setting a precedent, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt. She slept, bathed, and rested and felt much better by the time we got home.

And we've just spent the rest of the afternoon being lazy. I'm still puttering around my blog, the girls are staying warmer (since we've warmed up to 35 degrees. Woot!), and actually getting along. And that's about it for us.

Stay warm!

The Great Chocolate Chip Cookie Quest #1

Remember the Great Chocolate Cake Quest? Well, Sunday, I got tired of our chocolate chip cookies never turning out quite right, and so I decided that what we need is a search for the Perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. And, since I need to write things down to remember them, the Great Chocolate Chip Cookie Quest was born.

The question is, though: what makes a good chocolate chip cookie? Hmmm.... chewy, with lots of chocolate chips, not to sweet but not to nutty-flavoring, and one that stores well. At least, that's what makes a good cookie for me.

This was the recipe off the back of the Ghiradelli chocolate chip bag.




It looks good, but they were too... sweet. Buttery. Good, but not perfect. If you've got a recipe you think is perfect, let me know, and we'll give it a try.

We <3 Elephant and Piggie

And we love reading them, too, so we thought we'd share!

Being Lazy

Since we were out of town most of the week, and I stuck some pretty detailed posts up (along with pictures), I'm just going to link to them here.

Texas, part 1

Texas, part 2

Friday was our annual New Years day party (yes, we did make it back for that!). It was a smaller turnout than past years -- more people were out of town -- but we still had fun. The elders came by (again; that's three major holidays in two months!) to hang out (Elder Parente *really* likes) for a while. (And they informed us that they're coming by on the 19th, which is Elder Parente's birthday...at this point, I've stopped rolling my eyes at it and am just embracing it. Elder Parente needs a family, and right now, we're it. Okay, then.) It was a lot of fun. Lots of conversation, good food... the best party, in my (oh-so-humble) opinion.

Yesterday, we vegged. Literally. It's blasted cold here and it's January, and, personally, I just want to hibernate until spring. (Ah, the advantage of being a bear!) Some cleaning got done. Some shopping, too. The younger three girls went to the Primary meet-and-greet for their new teachers. Kristen's in Primary now; it's hard to believe that my youngest is growing up, but she is!! Then we finally finished the last disc for the sixth season of Monk. Only two more seasons to go. (with an interruption to watch series 3 of Robin Hood...)

Today's church was surprisingly good. Perhaps it's because it's at 9 instead of 1?? Whatever the reason, I really had a good experience today.

And that's about it. Happy New Year, everyone. Any bets on how long it'll take me to actually remember to write 2010?