48 hours...

nope, not the show. my life... this was MY past 48 hours...they are all relatively similar!

get up, get my kids up, make school lunches, make 4 breakfasts, forget to eat my own (nothing new), take a shower, RUSH off to school, one hour for a meeting, hurry to get groceries (we have no milk AGAIN), run a few errands, home in time for Bompie (olivia), rush to visiting teaching, home in time for big kids, try and figure out dinner, pick up van at repair shop, home to clean up the house, make something for dinner, clean the kitchen, send kids off to Young Mens AND Womens, start a tub for girls, clean jammies on, prayers and snuggles and time for bed, big kids home from wardhouse, mom tries to decompress, time for bed, can't fall asleep (that's nothing new) lay awake half the night, alarm off at 5:30, josh up for basketball, try and fall back to sleep, lay awake (don't get up--not sure why), up at 7 with the girls, make some more breakfast, shower eat and get ready, more school lunches (HATE doing these), kiss the kids goodbye again, hurry and clean up the breakfast mess, RUSH off to school again, "mommy helper" for Antarctica Days, 2 1/2 hours there, come home in time to leave again, pick up Kindergarten carpool, run off to lunch w/friends, home again in time for carpool, pick up Jr. High kids now, home in time for girls to get in house, time for Josh to call for ride home of Jr. High (he had to stay late for testing), hurry home to start dinner, hurry everyone eat it...we have to go to basketball, off to Josh's ward ball game, grace leaves with someone else to go to another ward to play HER game, Josh's game is done, rush off to Grace's game, she's stuck in an elevator with 4 girls not playing basketball (that is a WHOLE 'nother post), she finally gets out, watch her game, hurry home, time for jammies, prayers and bed....
GOOD NIGHT everyone! (nope not yet), bompie can't fall asleep, her tummy hurts, she wants to throw up, lay by her for HOURS, she falls asleep, i still can't.

yup, that's my life---day after day-- thank goodness for friday! maybe i can finally sleep?

happy birthday Grace Catherine Nielson

Grace Catherine was born on January 27, 1997

@ 4:30 pm. She had a head FULL of auburn hair with

blond frosted tips...would not have believed it if i had not

been there! she actually looked like a monkey.

she slept like a dream and was a very easy baby--

not very fussy or sad ever.

my top 10 favorite things about Grace are:

10. she is creative

9. she is loud

8. she loves to curl up with a good book and read

and read and read and read....

7. she is artistic

6. she tries very hard to be athletic (and i love that she tries!)

5. she has the greatest hair on earth...thick & shiney.

4. she is loud

3. she is a great friend and loves to laugh

2. she is a great daughter and sister

and the #1 thing about grace...

SHE IS LOUD!

Happy Day Gracie Caterina Mochatina Latte!

discovery...

THIS...is what i usually drive, the most boring, practical "mom"

car on the face of the earth...it has been at the repair shop for 4 days now.

however "boring" and uncool it is, it is THE most functional "family" car and i secretly

love it (a little at least...although i would REALLY love a new Honda or Toyota

minivan with "magic" doors and a TV/DVD combo built right in)

THIS...is what i have been borrowing from my father in law...
THIS...is what it FEELS LIKE i am driving everytime
i get in the truck and do down the road.


My discovery?
i am not a truck gal....it is just too big for me!


p.s. today is gracie's birthday ... #12. i have
lots of thoughts on this and as soon as someone
with more technical knowledge than me comes
home (which is everyone over 5) i will have
them help me scan some pictures into the computer
and write a long thoughtful post on my first born
fluffy red headed daughter~ :O)

BEWARE the Ides of March...or is it The Ice In Janurary?

i got "the call" today, you know the one? from the school office. "we have your daugher here and there has been a little accident, how quickly can you get here?"
yup. that call. it makes your mother heart skip a beat or two and you find yourself asking if she's missing any teeth? (dental work makes you panic, only for the fact that anything to do with your mouth will be far more expensive to repair than practically any OTHER body part)
teeth all accounted for, however swollen lips, eyes and contusions of the face are in abundance.
(as well as a small amount of blood on the knee)
i hurry QUICKLY to the school and am greeted by Lizzie's two "bestest friends EVER"...they came running out (what SWEET souls they are!) and grabbed my hand to escort me to Lizzie. She was being tended to in the nurse's office by the school secretary. (i am wondering if that is part of her job description?)
She was a sight to behold...i will let you share in my experience. Needless to say, she is alive and well. She has a big dose of Tylenol in her and has sat in a warm bubble tub (who needs anything else, really?) and is currently watching "High School Musical" in my bed.

My mother told me there would be days like this...

got GAME?

Congrats Josh...

he made the Olympus Jr. High

Basketball team!

(we figure those size 13 dogs and that 6'4" of height

had to be put to good use sometime, right?)

...GO BULLDOGS!

HOPE

it's a new day in America today...

Post Script: WOW! have finished watching the inauguration and all the hoopla.

it brought tears to my eyes (i, of course, LIKE President Obama--as much some of my family

and friends dislike like him) but EITHER way you lean, i hope

that people everywhere could appreciate the significance of what happened today.

and P.P.S. Mrs. Obama had a stunning dress on today!

(MUCH, much better than election night, which was a frightening combo. of red/black)

these little piggies...

you know how SOMETIMES (well, all the time) as a MOM

you have one of those days where you go and go and go and go....?

(well, every day).

Last night, I sat down in the basement, having gone and gone and gone...

my sweet Gracie girl asked if she could give my PIGS a pedicure.

it was 8 P.M. and i was T-I-R-E-D! (as in: ready for bed, old lady, what in the h*@#

EVER happened to staying up til 2 in the morning tired. Yup, THAT kinda tired!)

i sighed and said YES!

She brought in a big bowl of HOT, SOAPY bubbles and soaked and rubbed my feet.

And rubbed and lotioned them. And then rubbed them some more, JUST for the heck of it.

I am telling you here and now, if you need something rubbed, Grace is your GIRL!

she can give the meanest back rub, head rub (as in when you have a really bad headache

and your head just needs a "message" kinda rub), and now add FOOT RUB to her repertoire!

(and i DID have to look up that word to get the spelling 100%!)

then she rubbed some more and painted the PIGS pink!

those PIGS in the picture, NOT mine, but very cute ones, none the less.

Thanks Gracie for making your mother's PIGGIES happy last night!

you know when you have a 15 year old son when...

...You have "BRASS MONKEY" by the Beastie Boys on your ipod

playlist, the playlist made by said child....

...and you actually LISTEN to it!

They look like a nice bunch of guys, don't they??
I would even invite them over for dinner! LOL

18 YEARS

so we made it...18 years TODAY!

Happy Anniversary Kyle & Dorien~

Married 18 years ago in the Salt Lake City temple on a cold day, winter inversion in SLC
in full swing...it was actually a hideous day weather wise, but our love warmed it all away, or
some sappy thing like that!

in 18 year we have added 4 kids to the mix and a tapestry of memories, including BOTH joy
and sorrow, happiness and heartache, good and bad. (as any life would probably be, right?)

i am grateful i have a husband who...
loves me in spite of all my imperfections.
is a great dad who loves his kids.
who has FUN with his children.
who does dishes, laundry AND cleans bathroom (including floors) and never complains.
is a hard worker.
keeps trying and trying and hasn't given up yet.
always remembers my birthday.
got up in the night with crying babies to walk, cuddle, diaper and love them (and give me a break).
loves me and my children.

so far today, we have cleaned the house, started laundry, will go to Grace's Jr Jazz basketball game and HOPEFULLY ditch the kids for something fun together after that!

HAPPY DAY!

i am a murderer of wheat grass....PART ONE & PART TWO!

PART ONE: MURDERER!

Ok, listen, in my defense, I have kept SEVERAL things alive for LONG periods of time. The "short list" not withstanding:
1. myself, now going on some 40 odd years.
2. 4 children, ages 15, almost 12, 9 and 5.
3. 2 dogs, at one point in our life when we had dogs. (which, for the record they RAN AWAY--after a move, LONG story--but i was in NO WAY actively involved in their deaths...for all we know they may still be alive and well, out there somewhere!)
4. flowers in my summer garden.
5. 3 tomato plants, i MUST get lessons from Christian Janke this year...he is the absolute KING
of tomatoes and i unabashedly called him at least once a week to beg for tomatoes from his garden. (he does not read my blog, but maybe some of his friends do and they can put in the good word for me again this year for MORE tomatoes?!)

however, and notwithstanding, i AM a murderer of wheat grass....
i tried, AMY, i really tried! i watered it, Grace trimmed it with scissors and every day since it
appeared on my steps i have watched it droop more and more...until the below result.
so i ask your forgiveness and anyone who has read my blog will see why i added "TRYING" to grow houseplants to my NEW YEARS resolutions.
sigh...i mean REALLY? how hard is it to keep this stuff alive?? it's not rocket science, is it?

PART TWO: Things I have NOT murdered, but apparently NOT

fed as well as I should have....

this story is a little late, but it was too cute NOT to share. Olivia is in a playgroup with some cute little friends Mia, Necie and Carter (how Carter lucked out being with all these girls is something he will need to thank his mom for at some point in the future!) Anyway, they are GREAT kids and play well together. They come straight from Kindergarten and so the mom who has them always feeds them lunch. They were here the week before Christmas, all hyped up on Christmas adrenoline and I feed them some Mac n Cheese (the lunch of champions, or at least 5 and 6 year olds, right?) APPARENTLY, it was NOT a good lunch because while I was in the other room I hear a bunch of giggling and whispering and loud CRUNCHING coming from a corner in the dining room. I walked in to find all 4 of the children huddled around a box of LUCKY CHARMS in the corner, stuffing their faces as fast as they could. Somehow, one of them, managed to have a handful of ONLY marshmallows in their sticky hands. I quickly snuck back in with my camera and snapped a few photos, either for posterity or blackmail at some future date. Anyway, it gave me a good laugh--and it gave them a full stomach. So, in the end EVERYONE was happy~

AT LEAST, i am NOT a murderer of children (although i certainly have threatened my OWN on any number of occassions!) Hopefully, you will all still respect me as a human being--having shamefacedly admitted one of my biggest flaws on the world wide web....murderess!

(if ONLY that were one of my biggest flaws...)

CAUGHT in the act!!

the REAL story of the Naked Forks...and other truths

   In our house, all the kids have jobs.  Some are big jobs, some are small jobs and some are in between jobs.  The job usually coincides with the childs size/age.  (although due to unfair proportions (height) and Josh, we do try and divide things up a bit or he would be doing ALL the jobs based on the" size factor".)

   Miss Olivia has the job of unloading a small portion of the dishwasher, her portion is the silverwear/utensil caddy.  She is very diligent about doing this job and will take a bar stool, and the caddy and sit in front of the kitchen utensil drawers and hum to herself as she unloads the utensils into their correct drawers.  She is quite meticulous about this and likes to do her "job" just so.  All the forks in the fork slot, the knives in their proper spot, the spoons by the spoons and so forth.

   Well, one day her dad thought he would be a BIG HELPER and sit there with her and unload.

He grabbed a barstool and began sorting through the utensils, putting them away with her.

I was in the living room when all of a sudden out of the blue I hear a shriek, a wail, a cry of horror if you will.   My heart skipped a beat or two, heaven forbid had she been stabbed by a wayword utensil?  Had her father sliced through a finger while putting away a knife?  Surely there was blood and a visit to the Doctor in our future.   Just as I headed into the kitchen I heard her chastise her father in her BEST future mother voice, "Daddy!  You CANNOT put the NAKED forks with the CLOSED forks!!!"

   Naked? Closed?  What in the world was happening in my kitchen and who knew forks could be naked?  I will admit, I had heard a LOT of strange things in my time as a mother, but this possibly took the cake, or fork if you will.

   I marched into the kitchen to see if I could unlock the mystery of the FORKS.  Olivia was practially in tears as she was re-arranging and organizing Kyle's somehow fatal mistake with the forks.  He was equally as confused as I it appeared.  We both looked at our poor distressed daughter and rationally asked her to explain what the fork mix up was all about.

   Calmly, and looking at us like we were either 3 headed dogs, idiots, or BOTH, she grabbed TWO forks from the drawer.

   Laying them both side by side she explained that the "naked forks" could NOT be in the same compartment as the "CLOTHED forks"  (which i mistook for CLOSED, when in fact she MEANT CLOTHED, as in clothing bearing forks...who knew?)

   Since we have a couple of sets of mismatched cutlery in our possession, and we seem to have shamelessly mixed them for years (again, who knew?)  Olivia felt it only her place as our 5 year child to set the record straight once and for all.

   And so, now only the NAKED forks lay together in one slot (and who knows what goes on when no one is looking??  at least they don't seem to be multiplying rapidly--or AT ALL thank goodness!) and the CLOTHED forks lie together in another slot in the silverwear drawer.

   Peace on earth, or at least in the drawers, at last.  In case you are as confused as we were when this incident took place in our home....please look at the photo of our 2 kinds of forks posted below.  We are certain that any person with any degree of intelligence (hey, you only have to be as smart as either Kyle or I and that is not too hard!) will be able to figure out WHICH is NAKED and which is CLOTHED!

   And that my friends, is the TRUE story of the the Naked Forks!

excuse me while i have a nervous breakdown....

what with it being my first blog of the "NEW YEAR" and all,

i think i will come right out with my heart on my sleeve.

as any of my "fans" know (thanks to the 3 or 4 of you that ACTUALLY read my

blog!)  i am an "odiater" of snow (you must see a past blog entry for this to make sense)

alas, i am ALSO an "odiater" of New Years Eve/Day celebration as well (you only have 

to go back ONE blog entry to read about this).

the whole NEW YEARS thing makes me remember how much stuff i 

didn't accomplish during the past year, and even though 

it is now 2009 TODAY, all the same crap that was wrong 

in my life YESTERDAY, well, guess what? STILL HERE TODAY! 

well, my first task of the NEW YEAR was to take down my "Christmas Crap"--

you ALL know you have it!  and in my house it only lasts a few hours (at most)

into the NEW YEAR!

another thing you may, or may not know, about me is that i am a PICTURE FREAK!

I love taking them, displaying them, taking some more...etc.  My camera is in constant

motion around my children and i am forever displaying a new picture of them in 

some candid (i prefer these!) or posed shot in the various frames around my home.

so, after the Christmas Crap was lovingly tucked away in the basement waiting with

baited breath for another year when it will be unpacked...

....I was putting back all my frames and photos and my children (forever frozen in time)

onto the newly NAKED furniture. (it does look SO empty that first day or two)

I decided to add a few new PHOTOS to the frames, and in so doing unearthed

even OLDER shots of my growing children ("in perpetual motion, they are!" as Yoda 

would say!)

well i have an ODD HABIT of what i call "photo stacking".  In simple terms this means

i always leave 3 or 4 older photo's of my kids in the frame and just add the latest version

of them on top, slap the glass back on and WAH LAH! we have the child in a new pose

smiling sweetly (or NOT!) back at us! 

well, this year, as i replaced older SHOTS with newer ones, i unearthed pictures of

Josh from, like 10 years ago.  and Grace from when she was 3, and Lizzie from when

she was 2 or so and Bompie from when she was a new babe in Josh's arms...

that DID IT!  i completely lost it....

HOW HOW HOW? do you let your kids grow up?  i know there are probably some moms

who don't feel like i do and that is OKAY!  but boy oh boy, it sure tugged at my heart 

strings for a LONG LONG moment today.

to sit, and think, and REMEMBER ...

how much time, how many years, how many moments and memories had gone by.

SO many...including good ones, bad ones, and ones in between.

the wonderful life that i have thus far shared with these WONDERFUL gifts I call 

my CHILDREN.  

frozen in time, FOREVER in a snapshot "stacked" inside the numerous frames inside

this place we call HOME.

and the emotions that washed through my "mother soul" were REAL and overwhelming.

my "babies" are growing up SO FAST!

it is kind of strange how as members of the church we measure the passage of time by

"where" our kids are (and those that know this culture will understand)...

"she is in Young Womens now"  "he just got ordained a Priest"  "she started Nursery today"

"ahhh! look how cute all those Sunbeams are"  "he's leaving on his mission next week"

ANY of those phrases and you will know EXACTLY what age your child is...right?

well, mine are SWIFTLY passing ALL the "little" ones and headed to the "big" ones...

and TODAY....

it is making me a little sad....

can we freeze them for just a moment or two?

probably not, until then, my advice is to take LOTS of photos and look at them when your

heart is strong and REMEMBER! with fondness and love and happiness ALL that they (the

kids) have brought to your life, your home, your love and your heart.

and THEN, give them an extra hug.

so excuse me today while a shed a tear or two and then blow the snot from my nose...

i am feeling a little weepy about the passage of time today.

i think i'll go have a diet coke or something and finish vacuuming my house.