Blue and Gold Banquet

Last night was the blue and gold banquet. I was asked to bring 5 pounds of cooked pasta for the dinner. Well, I brought 4 1/2 pounds of my pasta home with me last night. I was not too thrilled. So, it looks like I'll be stopping on my way home from work to get the rest of the ingredients for a pasta dish that I can freeze today. Oh wait. I have a presidency meeting right after work. I am quite reliant on an afternoon nap these days. I guess I'll be missing that today. But at least we'll have three dinners in the freezer, I suppose.

Kid Chores

We've tried many variations of chore systems in our house and none of them have really worked. Mostly because it requires a parent to really stay on top of it and I am not that consistent. A while back, we decided to just have Saturday chores. Usually on Friday evening, I will write up what needs to be done around the house and give each kid four chores. They have to get a parent's sign off of the chore before they can check it off. So far it has worked really well. They generally do these chores without complaint and work fairly efficiently. And with four of them, the house is usually pretty good after they've completed the 16 chores. Now, the tub's not scrubbed and the floors aren't perfect, but they're getting better each week and I was fairly surprised at how good the living room looked today after they were done.

The thing that doesn't work very well is to have two kids work together on one chore. Today I had Reid and Cole cleaning their room and Jacob and Zach cleaning theirs. Jacob and Zach screamed at each other over and over again. Reid and Cole wouldn't stop being silly and playing. However, I pretty much stayed out of it except for the occasional, "You know you can't play until your chores are done." Eventually they were done and all was right in the world again. And I have a clean living room that's been vacuumed, clean and vacuumed bedrooms, wiped down bathroom, vacuumed stairs, and dirty clothes where they belong. All that for only 13 years of child rearing. Not a bad deal. :)

A week later

I have finally stopped bursting into tears at random times. Although, I did get a little teary last night, but it wasn't uncontrollable. I miss my baby kitty a whole lot, but have come to terms with his death. I had never had to make a decision like that before. It was _possible_ that he could recover. It would have been weeks and weeks and several thousands of dollars (which isn't a huge factor, but stepping back from the situation, I don't know that it's wise to spend so much family money on a pet). It would have been a lot of pain for Kane even if he could have made a full recovery. I think I made the best decision for him and it's comforting to know that I could do what was best for him rather than follow my selfish desires. I was not batting an eye at the vet telling us he could be blind ("Then we'll have a blind cat.") or that he could have brain damage ("As long as he lives."). I just wanted my kitty. So, the fact that it turned out the way it did was not really my doing, I've decided. The Lord intervened in the life of that sweet, good kitty and made sure he was taken care of. And that's really nice to know.

As for our lives, we are getting back to normal. We had Monday and Tuesday off from school, so the kids had some good down time. We went to the park on Monday. It was 72 degrees and gorgeous. Just the slightest bit cool in the shade. The kids climbed on the climbing rocks for an hour. I remember when they were building that park, I was frustrated because of how spread out it is. It was hard to watch all of your kids if they wanted to do different things. Now that the kids are older, I appreciate how the park is put together. It's nice to have things that older kids like to do. They do like to swing still, but the other park equipment is not of too much interest to them anymore.

My Sweet Baby Kane

Kane was hit by a car this morning and had extensive head injuries. I had to have him put to sleep. Too many tears right now to put in a deserving eulogy, but he was the best kitty in the whole world. We will miss him something terrible.

Winter Blahs

So, I think I officially have the winter blahs. Which is kind of funny given that we haven't had much of a winter this year. Even so, I'm ready for spring. Ready for flowers and colors.

The kids are ready for a couple of days off from school. They are off next Monday and Tuesday. I know they're so excited. Reid will be spending the weekend with a friend at his family's lake house in Tennessee. He's planning on packing a fishing pole my dad bought him a year or two ago. He's very excited about it. I should probably get him a small tackle box with supplies. My dad has always been around when the kids were fishing, so I don't know if he even knows what to do! :) I know he'll have fun, though. If the weather would warm up just a tad, we'd take the rest of the kids camping. Alas, it's supposed to be really cold overnight. That makes for grumpy kids and parents who get little sleep, and therefore become grumpy, too.

So, they get two days off next week and then on March 20, they have early release (get out 2 hours early) and are off March 21. Then they go to school for a week and are off for 6 days for Spring Break. Explain to me why they can't combine the day and a half with the 6 days!?! I will never understand the public school scheduling decisions that are made. Whatever... weather should be good by then, so we can go camping that weekend.

We're planning on going to Topsail Island for spring break, so I'm really looking forward to that. We had some nice weather there last year and I'm hoping for a repeat.

Sickness Update

So, I did get better. :) I was fairly sick Monday and Tuesday, but started feeling better on Wednesday. I swear it was a flu. Mild, but flu. Mike kept up with dishes, laundry, and morning duties with the kids. He has been superman this week. I'm hoping to catch up on some of the more organizational cleaning today. The kid's rooms are a mess. The new bathroom is still clean, though. :)

Sick as a Dog!

Okay, so yesterday I felt much better than I did on Friday, so that was good. I made it to Cole's baptism which was really sweet. I even ran a few errands. But, I got tired very easily. I took a two hour nap in the afternoon and then went to bed at 9:30 last night. At some point in the night I woke up with the feeling of having knives in my throat. It was awful. Then I started hacking up my lungs. I'm not coughing a whole lot, but when I do, it's deep and it HURTS. I go between feeling really hot and then really cold. I am glad that I wasn't feeling this bad yesterday, but it's no fun thinking you're getting better only to get worse. Oh well... I'll probably lay around most of the day and do nothing, so I guess that's not all bad.

Cole's Baptism

Tomorrow is Cole's baptism. Hard to believe he's that old. We were fortunate that the multi-ward, child of record baptism is under our ward this month. So, I have Danny Soto (Sophia's dad) and Monte Knutson (an old friend) giving the talks tomorrow. My mom is planning to come. That will be a first for her. I guess it kind of balances out the fact that John and Kristin won't be there. :( Of course, I caught whatever kept Reid out of school for three days and am not 100% sure that I'll be there. Maybe they can wheel me in on a stretcher.

So, here's a picture from October that my dad took that I really like of Cole. I know I'm partial and that he's my baby, but he is a beautiful child. :)