Monday, March 31, 2008

You Can Stand Under my Umbrella

So kind of an extra hard weekend.
I have been meaning to post this for a while, but never have. I think after this weekend, I need it, though.
When I was young, I had a friend named Marion- she was German. One year, I think for Christmas, she drew this picture for me that had a poem that went with it. The poem is in German and I don't know much German anymore, but it basically says, " Have sun in your heart whether it's storming or snowing, whether the heavens are full of something and the earth is full of strife. Have sun in your heart and then come what may, it will light you on the darkest day.

I heard Rhianna's Umbrella song and I thought about this drawing. I know the song is a love song, and some say worse than that, but I always think of it as friends, especially with the chorus:

When the sun shines We’ll shine together
Told you I'll be here forever
Said I'll always be your friend
Took an oath

I'mma stick it out 'till the end
Now that it's raining more than ever
Know that we still have each other
You can stand under my Umbrella
You can stand under my Umbrella
At it's most innocent meaning it is a wonderful song about friendship and those that help their friends in tough times. So I am going to send myself a little Umbrella and I'm going to send one out to my husband, because he can always stand under my Umbrella!

Friday, March 28, 2008

Answering Questions

To answer a few questions:



When Emma called the 3 stores we went to to asked how they cleaned their carts, she explained that she was doing a sceince experiment. They asked for her name and her school. I assume they knew something like us swabbing them would happen, but we never asked permission. We will probably need to name them stores A, B, and C on the project so we don't get sued! And yes, this is her science fair project. I am getting all kinds of ideas for more. Good thing, because they are required to do these starting in 5th grade.

Joseph is sitting in front of a sentence he made at the zoo with these different barrels that twist, so that you can make all kinds of sentences with them. I thought it fit him perfectly and since I hadn't taken a picture of him with his figurines yet, I thought that would do.

Yes, Rob has slept since the night I told him about the stake president thing. We have been told it's all good by a couple of people and to just be patient and wait, so we are waiting.

I had to add this recipe for orange rolls that I found. They were so good! Use whatever roll recipe you want. I suppose you could use Rhodes rolls unthawed also. I use the same recipe I use to make cinnamon rolls with- so good! Roll out and cut into triangle. Fill with:
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 C. sugar
1 tsp. orange rind
1/2-1 tsp. orange juice
mix together and brush onto rolls. Roll up from fat end to pointy end. Let raise for 30 minutes or until double. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes. Glaze with:
1 C. powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. Orange Juice
1/2-1 Tbsp orange rind
1 Tbsp butter, melted
These are really good the first day, but not so good the next, so eat them all! I forget where I got this recipe. It was from someones blog. Sorry I can't give credit!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

The Monkey Parade

For Easter we got some little figurines from our Aunt Maria. There was Captain Moroni, Samuel the Lamanite and a Stripling Warrior. Samuel the Lamanite obviously went to Samuel. Then Max chose Captain Moroni and Joseph got the Stripling Warrior. Robert decided to tell Joseph about the Stripling warriors, how they fought and were faithful and how they listened to their mothers and believe in Jesus. Robert ended with "and none of them got killed. They all lived." Joseph turned to Sam and said, "Let's fight, and I'm going to win, because I can't die!"
Yesterday while we were reading the scriptures, we were reading about Captain Moroni and how he used a decoy to get the Lamanites to come out of their fort. Sam asked "What's a decoy?" So Dad showed him, by shaking a hand in front of his face and when he looked at it, he smacked him upside the head with his other hand- just softly. Of course Joseph thought this was great fun and proceeded to to shake his hand in front of Sam, also. We tried to explain that a decoy only works once. Sam finally got tired of a hand shaking in front of his face, so he reached up to bat Joseph's hand away. That's when Joseph wacked him upside the head with his other hand. Woosh went Sam's head and off went the glasses, across the room. Scripture time is an adventurous at our house!
Emma went in to the hospital lab and the microbiologist gave her a gown and helped her gram stain her bugs we had grown from the shopping carts we swabbed and helped her look at them through a microscope and write down what they were.She got some great pictures and we found out that Wal-mart and Costco had the worst bugs! Most of it was non-pathogenic, though!
Rob got a phone call on my cell phone while I was at work.I came home and told him what it said. It was a request for us to meet with the stake president on Sunday. Of course Rob didn't sleep the rest of the night. He was just called to be Elder's quorum president a year ago. He has had a few problems- if you missed the disappearing post, so sorry, but I won't drag that up again, but he felt like things had settled down, things were starting to go good and that now he could really get to work. We are hoping it is just a PPI, but we don't think that is possible since I am suppose to come, too. I really hope for his sake it is not some non descript stake calling. Let's face it. The stake doesn't do a whole lot. I remember a few years ago that I finally got called into the Young Women's and I was so excited. I got to teach my beehives for 2 months before they released me and called me to be a stake missionary. They wouldn't let me do anything (because we had no sister missionaries in the area) except teach a few new member discussions and teach Gospel Essentials every once in awhile. It was awful and I hated the whole 2 years of it. I have never been called back into Young Women's. I have a feeling that Rob will feel the same way if he is called to a stake calling. We are very nervous. Rob tried to "G2 it"- as he calls it- meaning get intelligence, since the G2 is the intelligence division in the Army. His best friend and first counselor in the Elder's quorum just laughed at him when he told him and our friend in the bishopbric denied any knowledge. It's the things that make you go hmmm....

Sam wanted to know the other day how you get "those diseases" that you pass from girl to boy. I explained that everyone shares, just like a cold and that if he only made love to one girl, his wife, he wouldn't have to worry about it. Of course then he was very nervous. "what if I like one girl and then I decide I don't like her anymore? Can I like another one?" "yes," said Dad, "that's called dating! Your mom dated hundreds of guys." Then we had to have a discussion of how many guys mom actually dated and how Dad dated far more! Mom decided to cut that discussion short before Dad proceed to share with us every name and discription of every girl he had dated!

Sam has been experimenting again. He loves to do experiments. He decided to to the vinegar, baking soda and balloon experiment this day. I got him a build-your-own-solar-car for Easter. He read the whole book and finally started to put it together, but kept screaming for us, because the book said he had to have adult supervision.Rob sat down with him finally and helped him finish it. Unfortunately, it hasn't been sunny enough, yet to run it.

Bringing up the rear of the monkey parade is Max and Mom. We don't have anything special to report, but just wait...

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

SPT- *Egg*stra special


This Easter didn't start out so *Egg*stra special. No matter how much I tried to get ready the night before, we just couldn't make it to church on time. Dad decided it would be a good idea to make eggs and what goes better with eggs on Easter when we are all in our new Easter outfits, but Grape juice? So out comes the grape juice ,then onto the new yellow and white dress goes the grape juice. Now Mom is screaming at everyone what idiots they are and there goes the spirit right out the front door! Mom decided to take a breather by herself, after getting spot remover on the dress and throwing it in the new high tech washing machine on Stain cycle. She took a very long time getting ready, because she figured Easter Services were already ruined and she would never be able to take the sacrament at this point anyway. Dad tried to help as much as possible and so eventually we left and heard most of the two speakers talks.
Dinner at our friend's home was wonderful, as was the Egg hunt afterwards. The only down part is that my poor boys- Samuel, and sometimes Joseph- get left out or teased excessively, because the rest of the party are girls. Samuel takes this all in strides, as they haul him off in hand-cuffs and put baby powder all over him, but he is sensitive and sometimes snaps. Then he gets in trouble and he cries and it breaks my heart. The only thing I can do is pray for a family with boys to move in that loves us.
But the *Egg*stra special part was when we got home from Church. First of all we had been egged by one of the families that we egged. See previous post. And secondly our neighbor who works at the White house came over to give us tickets to the White House Egg roll. Monday he secured 2 more tickets for us, so that we all got to hop on the Metro (something we don't usually do- the kids loved it!) and went downtown together to the Egg roll. Just as we got in, The Jonas Brothers came out and performed 5 or 6 songs! It was very cool. We were only a couple of rows of people back from the stage. It was definitely an *Egg*stra special weekend!


SPT catch up The week before we were suppose to take a picture of "Your feet will take you where your heart is."

This is a picture of my feet taking me to see the statue of the Angel of Marye's Heights. Have you heard of him? He was a confederate soldier. At Marye's Heights the Union soldiers were ordered up the middle of a valley and then up a hill- all on open ground as they were mowed down in entire ranks by the Confederates on the top of the hill. Through the night the Confederate army heard the cries of the dying men. This went on for several days. Most of them were just pleading for water. This man, whose name now escapes me, went to his commander and asked to be allowed to cross over and give the dying men water. He was told no. He went higher up and higher up, each time getting told no. Finally, the last commander told him no, but as he went through the tent flap, the commander changed his mind and came after him, saying "how can I refuse such a request?" The man got as many canteens as he could, filled them up and then went over the wall and proceeded to give water to the dying men. All the while he was being shot at by the Union soldiers, who thought he was trying to loot the dying men. When he ran out, he went and got more and then did it again. He took several trips. Eventually the Union soldiers figured out what he was doing and stopped firing at him. This man made it through Fredricksburg, and 2 other battles in the area. He made it through Gettysburg where the Confederates lost so many men, but he was eventually killed in a smaller battle later on. One day, I would like to have the kind of courage and compassion that that man had. My feet aren't taking me there quite yet. But until they do, they will keep taking me to these feet, the people I love the most. I will try and practice a little compassion and courage with them first!

Good things...

All those times I haven't been blogging, there has been tons of good things happening.

1. Emma got chosen for all county choir and performed over at Stonewall Jackson High School. She loved it and they did a great job. My favorite is the Swinging on a Tree song that they sing in Bells of St. Mary's. It's such a fun song and they had fun actions that they did with it.

2. Sam's art work got chosen to go to the County Art Fair again this year.

3. We got a brand new washer with all kinds of bells and whistles. I love it, but I feel sad for the dryer that has to sit next to that washer now without it's 15 year old friend sitting next to it. I am sure that it will join her soon in that big dump in the sky. I feel so bad that I didn't take a picture of her before she got hauled away, though. 15 years of hard work, without so much as a goodbye!
4. We had a wonderful spring break with Spring cleaning and a trip to the Zoo.
5. We started a new tradition that I found on Executive Homemaker. We went around and put out eggs all over friend's front stoops and stairs and flower beds and then put up this sign. We had so much fun trying to sneak away. In the end we got caught way too many times and the others figured it out by our not so sneaky children's comments the next day! One of them even Egged us back and another brought us cookies in the shape of eggs. Her husband told her that their home was egged and she was getting so upset- how vicious people were! Then he explained that it was a "mormon egging" and showed her the plastic eggs with candy in them!
6. We went to the Battle of Fredricksburg and had a wonderful walk.
7. We swabbed some more shopping carts for Emma's Science Fair project. This time we did it like the hospital lab told us and they actually grew this time! Hopefully we will go in and see what they grew today!
8. I passed my Pediatric Advanced Life Support class without any problem!
9. We found a house to rent down in the Outer Banks, North Carolina for a week in the summer! I have been wanting to do this for awhile!
10. We got involved in bracketology (sp?) at ESPN and now March Madness is a little more fun. Just a little, though. Basketball has never been that interesting to me, even though I lettered in it in High school. That's just because my boyfriend at the time thought I should try it out and the coach was nice enough to get me out on the court just enough time to get me the letter! Rob is second, but I am tied for last place! Rob picked a bunch of the upsets! I didn't know anything about any of the teams, so I just picked by what looked good. I am a girl after all!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Blogging Hiatis

I took a Hiatis, not because I wanted to, but because I had one of 4 classes that I have to take every other year in order to continue working in the ED this week. I have to pass the practical and written tests at the end or I can't work until I do. They used to make these much harder and whenever they found out that I worked in the ED, they always made the rhythms as tough as possible. This hospital is all about passing you and almost everyone in the class worked in the ED. Even one of our ED docs was there, so I shouldn't have stressed, but I still did. First of all I am not a perfectionist in any sense of the word, but when it comes to school type things, I just have to do well to be happy. I graduated 5 years of college with a 3.93- nursing school and all! The 3 B's that I did get were when the men in my life needed extra time. Second, I only work PRN (as needed) and have never worked anything other than that. I want to be able to stay home with my kids, so I only work 1/2 shifts when my husband is home. This has made it so that I have never gotten really good at ER nursing. I feel like the idiot at work all the time! I do not want to show everyone how much of an idiot I am during a class. I feel like I have to do as good or better than everyone else on the tests just so they won't look down on me at work. Does that make sense? So this has been my stress week- even my husband said he could no longer live with me. Unfortunately, I have another one of those classes the first week of May. Time to get studying!

Friday, March 14, 2008

disappearing posts

Ok, I decided to delete that last post, because it is still so contraversial! I have it written down- How insane I think my ward is- but I guess it doesn't need to be out there in the cyper world. That could constitute cyper bullying, even though I didn't mention names. Let us oft speak kind words!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

SPT- Welcome

If you were to come to our home you would know which of the many townhouse doors to enter because ours is Colonial blue. I felt that since we were in a rich colonial area that we ought to conform and show our colors. David's house has a red door, but ours is blue. There is rarely anything on our door, because of objections from my DH. Obviously screwing something into the door is unthinkable and the over-the-door hangers scratch his wood. After 14 years of marriage, he finally agreed to put some lights outside one Christmas, but used tape instead of putting holes in his wood or scratching it with the hangers. This is what happenedand hence we haven't had lights outside since. I have found a plastic over-the-door hanger and use it occasionally, but all the things hanging on it have to be soft, too and that makes it a little harder to do. My DH has had all the kids practice the statement, "wood on wood always scratches, metal on wood always damages." You might also notice our door being shut several times in a row. This is from said DH teaching the children each time they slam the door how to shut it correctly. Shhh, no one tell him that I don't do it quite the right way!:)
Hello, come in! Welcome! We have a small entry way with a much loved and long sought after deacons bench with storage. That's where all the shoes go. It still needs something else, but decorating has never been my strong suit, especially being military. It's hard to get things just the way you like them to then move and try all over in a different house with a different layout.
People always come in the front door. I would love a beautiful house with a nice front and back door and a yard, but that's not going to happen any time soon. So please come in the front door. And Lellie, if you came in through the garage it would do you no good. Our garage is detached!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

SPW- extra special

Ok, today has to be SPW- She Photographs on Wednesday's. Lately, I can't seem to keep up with everything. So today is an extra special cheater version of SPT. We were suppose to take a picture of something that is extra special about us. I have 2 old pictures and I promise I will add the new one after my daughter gets home from school.
The thing that is extra special about me is that I share my birthday with my only daughter.

Picture with Emma, Mom and Grandma Thomson. Notice the brownies with the candle in them that our friends, the Mcombers brought for me- besides opening a couple presents between contractions, and the birth of my daughter that is how I celebrated my birthday!

When I was in hard labor, my husband said, "hey, wait a minute, when were you born? Let's time this, so you are both born about the same time of day, too." If I could have made it through the pain over to where he was, I would have smacked him!- Especially since I wasn't born until 11:56 pm and I wasn't going to go through that kind of pain for another 10 hours!

Despite the fact that we didn't quite coordinate the time, we are born on the same day a few years apart and that makes us extra special!

taken in 2006 at King's Dominion on one of the rides


My daughter is now 11 and she told me the other day that a boy told her that he liked her and she told him that she liked him, too. I was not sure how to take this information. I don't want to lecture her and make her stop telling me things like that, but we did go over the fact that she wasn't allowed to date until she was 16 and that she would get big money if she could go until she was 16 without kissing and even bigger if she made it to 18! I am certainly not ready for all that boyfriend/ girlfriend, emotional rollercoaster junk! How do you handle it? I guess it is a good thing that I only had one extra special daughter!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

What did you do with your Extra Day?

I was just thinking in my car on Leap day as I was going to pick my kids up from school, "you had a whole extra day this year. What did you do with it?" I was disappointed to tell myself that I only scheduled and got ready for a party. I didn't help anyone in need ,cheer up the sad, or make someone feel glad, today. But then I heard on the radio the announcer talking about how it was an extra day of work stuck in there that you didn't get paid for and how terrible that was. I hadn't even thought that people might be in a funk because of that. I guess, because I don't get paid for my real job (mom) and my other job (RN) is paid hourly. So how was your Leap day? Were you bogged down by the thought of not getting paid for an extra day of work? Did you get paid any other way? I got paid by having a great time with family and friends. We had a pancake breakfast together, then played volleyball, pin the crown on the frog prince, red light, green light and had a cake walk. I made these frog and fly cupcakes and these party favors. It was a great way to celebrate a whole extra day. I would have liked to write that I lightened somebodies load, but maybe a little celebration is what some of them needed, to help get them out of the funk of working an extra day and remember to celebrate the fact that they got a whole extra day this year in which to better themselves!