The Church Report

Choir practice went OK.  I was really good, once upon a time, at being able to play parts for the choir.  Today I had Pam help me.  :)

After choir, Pam, Jaela, Karilyn, Liberty and I practiced "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" for Sacrament meeting.  They sang and I played.  Later, we performed it and it was absolutely beautiful.  They did a great job.

Sacrament meeting was so great today.  The Swat...s spoke and she hadn't given a talk in fifteen years, she said.  Her talk blew my mind.  It was exactly what I needed to hear, and made me quite weepy... then I had to get up and play the piano for that song.  No fair.

Later, after church, the very kind and lovely and generous Sandy P. brought me a plate of pecan bar cookies she'd made. As Rosalind says, "They're like eating a big bite of heaven." OH seriously. I'd ask Sandy for the recipe, but then I'd make them and eat them. 

 

Workshop

Hubby took Bella and Roz to Eugene for a soccer game; they were gone most of the day.

We Young Women leaders were told last Sunday that the Young Women had been assigned to do a musical number for this Sunday's Sacrament meeting (tomorrow).  Rather than try to get them all together to practice something, Karilyn came up with a mother-daughter situation with me accompanying them.  We got together to practice at Pam's this afternoon.  I got to sight-read.  Yay :)

Harrison had an early soccer game, and later that day, a birthday party at a friend's house.  He said it was fun.

Carter spent the afternoon at the arts school he wants so much to attend. They held a workshop for fifth graders from our district today. We also had to ask his teacher, art teacher and principal to write recommendations beforehand - hopefully they were great. (His teacher, Ms. W, said at fall conference that she would be more than happy to write a STELLAR report for him if that was his goal - how could we not try, after that?)

He enjoyed it. He danced, played bongos, and did other artsy stuff with other kids from the area, including his buddies Ethan, Tyson and Carson... Hubby and I hope so much that they all get in, or none of them do :) Pam, whose kids attend/ed this school, says the boys have a much better shot at being accepted than girls do, since there are always more girls than boys who want to attend.  I told her about his outfit (cargo shorts, and a button down shirt, mismatched) and she said that was PERFECT.  The nuttier, the better. 

Here's hoping! 

Today I did this.

I pity the fool who wears steel gray glasses when they could be ELECTRIC BLUE!!

 

Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails... color: Blue It

 

Loving that if I get tired of the blue, I can get out the old nail polish remover and take it off.  That's my kind of crafting, baby.

 

And... I'm pretty sure I see even better now.

 

I also spent some quality time with the new iPod that Hubby's parents gave me for my birthday (via gift card).  Messed with iTunes, set up a new playlist, bought a few new things, loaded everything up on the iPod, popped in my earbuds and within a few minutes I was completely and utterly blown away by:

 

 THIS SONG RIGHT HERE

 

 

***getting verklempt, talk amongst yourselves***

 

So, so beautiful.  He used FRENCH HORNS and a BASS CLARINET.  (I am a geek.)

 

My favorite quote:

 

McCartney said "'God Only Knows' is one of the few songs that reduces me to tears every time I hear it. It's really just a love song, but it's brilliantly done. It shows the genius of Brian. I've actually performed it with him and I'm afraid to say that during the sound check I broke down. It was just too much to stand there singing this song that does my head in and to stand there singing it with Brian."

 

Oh Brian Wilson and Sir Paul.  I heart you forever.

Yikes

Sorry, man.  Not a good day.

This was the scene on our street today.  The brick-enclosed mailbox lying in the driveway and the car parts strewn about didn't look great either.

It's not often you see a car this smashed up AND upside down on this road.  Thank goodness.

Never Before and Never Again

Today I made these.

They were huge and stupid and expensive and they took hours to make and gave Brennan and me stupid hot glue gun burns on our fingers.

Whatever blessing I may have gained from performing this service (they were for a Young Women activity) was probably complained away by me.

The activity ended up being fun. I was assigned to dress up as Vanna White and conduct a matching game "game show" for the girls. Loved it.  I would rather get up and act goofy and embarrass myself for hours on end than make one stupid craft.

And that was my day today. :)

Hubby and the Mouths

I finished Wynne's book today (she recommended it).  It's quite empowering. 

Today being Presidents Day ("he ain't my president"), we decided to go blow a major gift card at IKEA and sample their lovely frozen and reheated food choices.  OK, not all of them are frozen and reheated... but it took some of the IKEA magic out of it for me when, after eating there the first time, I went downstairs to leave and noticed a great big frozen foods section with everything they'd been serving upstairs.  Can't you romance it up for me just a little, baby?

The gift card, from Kristy and Steve, was to help us furnish our new house, and we were oh so very grateful for it.  We ended up with a new futon, a bright red bench for the piano (I'd been eyeballing it), and some square wicker basket drawers for the entertainment center - stuff we wanted but would have taken forever to buy by ourselves.  Thanks Kristy and Steve!

We normally wouldn't subject the Five Mouths to so much IKEA food all at once, but since we belong to the IKEA Family, the cost of the meal would be deducted from the cost of our purchases downstairs, so we were all over it.  I think we were able to get an additional $60 worth of stuff.  Which, again, we would have bought anyway. 

So who came out the winner?  I think we all did.

The rest of the day we spent putting together our new stuff, feeling incredibly handy and capable, and loving life.  Hubby took Harrison and Carter to indoor soccer, while I contemplated a double feature at the $3 movie theater, but those Swedish meatballs said I was staying home and laying belly up.

Good times.

Sweetheart Ball

Oh Sweetheart Ball, how I live for you.  How longingly I wait, how lovingly I get ready... how dorkily I dance with Hubby.  How wonderfully he tolerates it.  How much he loves the food.

This year was no exception.  This was the first Sweetheart Ball in three years that we had enjoyed, though, due to my being sick and completely high on NyQuil in 2011 ("I'm medicated") and missing the thing entirely in 2012 due to crap happening and not feeling it AT ALL.  Which was a big mistake, I should have rallied myself and gone with Hubby anyway.

I liked how I looked. Especially in this shot with Roz.

We went, we had fun, it was awesome.  The end.

Happy Valentine's Day

 Wore this on my feet.

 

My wonderful bloggy friend Jean Knee made this and of course I fell right in love with it.  SICK.

Jean Knee also made my awesome bacon Christmas tree ornaments.

 

Today, I went to P-town to help with some huge orchestra thing Bella's orchestra teacher had asked for help with.  It went fine, I folded about 200 t-shirts like the boss mom of five I am, but then I got texts and calls from Hubby and Bella that Bella was NOT doing well.  Dizzy, and unable to walk straight.  Like, needs a wheelchair unable to walk straight.

 

So I left.  Glad to have the excuse.  Bella is still kind of dealing with her dizzies but is most often

 

STABLE AS A TABLE :) 

Dad's Birthday Weekend

Dad and Neenaw came and stayed the weekend of his 70th birthday at the beginning of this month. We had a really great day on his birthday. After I took the kids to school, I brought home donuts for breakfast, and then the three of us drove to IKEA (they'd never been to one before), and out to Sara to see Grandma and Poppy's old house.

 

Then we went out to Carol's Corner Cafe for breakfast/lunch (HUGE as always), and after the kids came home, we found a dealership in Portland that sells classic cars. 

Neenaw admires a fine automobile.

 

We spent some fun time ooohing and ahhhing over the awesome cars - this one was a '57 Porche convertible, black. LOVELY. I'm not into cars but I could certainly get into that one. :)

Revelation

Dad and Neenaw are here visiting for his birthday weekend.

We're watching the Super Bowl with Neenaw, and the suspense is killing her!  I never knew she was such a football fan!

And then this happened

Not even cat napping - she was FAST asleep.

New Beginnings

For New Beginnings we had a Disney Princess Olympics (less cheesy than it sounds, really).

The girls were divided up into Team Mulan, Team Merida and Team Rapunzel.  We made t-shirts for them. 

Bishop P was the master of ceremonies and the rest of the bishopric served as referees.  We had eight games and invited the new Beehives coming into the Young Women program this year. 

Here's Mulan kicking the other two teams' tushies at tug-o-war.

Note the kilt - that would be Bradley on Team Merida

Mulan dominated!!

SPAYED

Sunny Kitty Lady, bless her heart, came and picked up Olive this morning and took her to her vet appointment.  She made the appointment before we met via Craigslist, and made all the arrangements - including payment - herself.  Sunny works with the Humane Society so often that they know her well and she was able to get a nice break on a checkup, shots, microchip and spay for Olive.  She refused to let us pay for anything.

Today I was looking at the "free" section on Craigslist and enjoying all the threatening ads. "Smoke free couch...going to Goodwill tomorrow if no one picks this up!" NOOOO, don't take that poor couch to Goodwill! What are you, a monster??

That evening, when Sunny brought her back, Olive was pretty groggy and sleepy and sedated, so I took her and held her for an hour or so.  It was nice.  I'd never had that much interaction with her.

Once Olive was awake enough to notice that she wasn't under a bed, she made it clear she was ready for some quiet darkness, so we took her down to Carter's bedroom.  It didn't take very long before she was trying to jump onto Carter's bed to sleep with him.  Silly kitty.

Melanie posted this on my wall:
"I hate to have to say it, but I very firmly feel, Maria's not an asset to the abbey!"

Feel so lazy today.

I seem to have caught some gross, other virus, not the ones my kids have/had.

Three out of four went to school and survived today. Good thing they're all old enough to do for themselves while Mom is flopped on the couch like a... floppy thing.

My virus goes a little something like this: Lying in bed with a headache, thinking "I should go take something for this," followed by "NO my stomach won't like it, there may be consequences"... followed by more headache. I'm the only sick family member who doesn't sound like she belongs in the tuberculosis ward.

Later: I played Mad Libs with R.

My Birthday!

Hubby stayed home with me and we had a great day.  We went shopping and

I DIDN'T HATE IT.

It helped that we didn't shop for clothes.

 

And, this.

 

Also: someone texted me and wished me a happy birthday.  I had no idea who they were. 

Thanks, random phone stranger!

"I Need a Drink!"

And now: a series of complaints.

1. The kids are sick. No Seminary for Bella today. Stupid illness!!!  Why can't we just schedule it in?  It ruins everything.

We could have sick spas.  "I have to go have the flu, I've been putting it off for three years."

And sick cops.  "When was the last time you had pinkeye?  Well, you're due for it again." They give you a ticket and you can either get sick or go to court and have it reduced to slamming your pinky in the oven door.

2. I can't ever find my glasses unless I have my glasses on. I should weld them to my head.

The kids always do the "I can't see a THING without my glasses" (Velma from Scooby Doo) thing when I can't find mine... little stinks.

Tune in tomorrow for more, different gripes!

KITTY WHO NEEDS THERAPY

BUT FIRST: I was whistled at this morning.  Not the worst way to start the day.  :)

Thinking Catness must get bored while the kids are at school and it's just Brennan and me at home all day, we decided to venture forth and adopt a new kitty... we ended up with more than we bargained for.

The new kitty is about a year old, black with white patches, and we named her Olive.  She spent at least four months homeless before her rescuer found her cold and hungry; Sunny (the lady who found her) took her home and kept her for about a month, but her idiot boyfriend didn't like the cat and abused her. As a result she is afraid of men and daylight, and is terribly skittish. It's killing Hubby, the big softie.

She stays under the kids' beds (whichever room we put her in, that's where she stays) and comes out at night to sleep on the bed. I'd really like to find the people who first abandoned her and then hurt her, and give them a nice butt kicking. If you don't want the cat, great! Find someone on Cr@igslist who does. But DON'T HURT THE KITTY. I don't know why this isn't obvious to more people.

Why did we adopt her, you may be asking... after several hours of texting in which I asked if we could meet the kitty, Sunny brought her over, told us her boyfriend was ready to kick them both out (good riddance, if you ask me), and had brought all of Olive's stuff with her, obviously assuming we were ready to take Olive on at that very moment.  Awkward...

Oh well :)

Sigh.

When my kitchen is clean, some unheard alarm sounds in five kids' heads....HOLY CRAP the kitchen's clean!!! Thankfully they rectify the situation as soon as they see it. Whew! Crisis averted!

And then there's:

Sweet Kitty.

Catness nuzzling her old lady.

Proof I Actually Do Stuff

Yummy crack-y fingers and thumbs.  At one point I had five appendages looking like this, some with two splits each, on each side of the nail.  Oh it's fun (actually they hurt like a ....).  But that's what Band-Aids are for, I guess.