Fridged Springbreak

Robert had Spring break last week. It consisted of doing taxes, ordering new books for this new semester, and cleaning the garage. He took very little time off to relax (except we took a nap almost every day which was heavenly!) We were going to take the kids out of school and do a couple nights somewhere, but it just didn't happen. This week is the kids' Spring break and Rob is starting a new semester. He is not happy! The weather is still so cold, the kids don't want to play outside, we are out of money for the month, so we can't really do anything, and Rob's in school so we can't take a vacation. That leaves the kids lying around the house making messesand playing World Record holder in Finger Candle Dipping. He comes home to messes, our schedule all out of whack, and no dinner made! We actually have been busy, though. We spring cleaned all three children's rooms. We also got this put up for Sam and figured out a way to organize Emma's hair stuff! We also did a big clean through the toys! Emma got her sports physical for the Fall and we started this 1000 piece puzzle. Ok, I started it. For the most part the kids haven't shown much interest in it. I got the outsides (all except one piece) done, but the middle seems daunting. It is now Wednesday and not much more is done on it. I'm thinking we aren't going to get it done by the end of the week.

I'm just waiting for a break in this weather, so we can at least play outside. I am so tired of being cold! Please weather- won't you cooperate!?

There's a Monster Truck stuck in my Ear!

We went to the Monster truck Jam this last weekend. We thought it would be as loud as the indoor motorcross we had been. Sadly we were mistaken! I think I figured that out when the people next to us got out their super powered ear protection and put it on themselves as well as their child. Then the roar started and we all had to cover our ears! The people next to us, noticed and were kind enough to give us their ear plugs they, weren't using (he was an auto mechanic). I went and found some more to buy and we were all set to watch the Monster trucks fly!- well, all except Sam, who said his ear plugs didn't work. He stayed like this the whole evening. Eventually with the whole rocking back and forth thing, I took him out. He stayed in the bathroom and I watched from the top of the stands.
All in all, I wouldn't do it again anytime soon, but it was an experience! I think I enjoy demolition derby much better!

The Leprechaun strikes again!

That tricky Leprechaun that comes to our home and turns our milk green and makes mischief has struck again. I don't know if he comes to make mischief or he makes mischief after almost getting caught by the boys' traps! This year it was quite the intricate trap with strings running every which way in a box and a piece of gold chocolate hanging from a string that when he pulled or when he stepped on one of the other strings it would collapse the box on him. Our Leprechaun was tricky and had a pair of scissors with him and just cut the string with the chocolate.
Besides green milk and glow in the dark bugs all over the house Mom and Max hid golden coins and gold chocolate all over the house for the kids to find. It took until Sunday for the last of the chocolate to be found!

How it looked...

Pi day ended up looking like this. It was the cherry cobbler from Bob Evans. As Max put it, it was kind of good and kind of bad. He thought the crust was good and the cherries bad (too tart), but if you put a scoop of ice cream on it, the cherries were just right and the crust was kind of bad- I could actually taste the lard! Yuck! I totally wouldn't recommend ordering this at Bob Evans unless you are sharing. It's over 700 calories for a bowl. I ended up eating the inside with ice cream and throwing away most of the crust! Much better!
This is how Samuel looked on Sunday. It was coming on that time to buy Easter clothing and since Samuel will be 12 in less than 4 months and therefore, will be passing the sacrament, I thought it was about time to get him a white shirt and a tie. Rob and I were both busy that morning so Emma tied his tie for him. (The girl has skillz!) He took it off before I could get a picture, so he tied it himself just before I took this picture. So I can get him to wear a tie, but I can't get him to tuck in properly or keep his hair neat. He will let us do his hair in the morning, because otherwise he gets beat (Yeah, right, with a wet noodle), but as soon as he is out the door, I watch him "crazy it up" as we say at our house. And yes, crazy is a verb in our house! Good thing he's such a good big brother!
I got Joseph a matching tie and Max a clip on. Joseph refused to wear his on Sunday and Rob for some reason put Max in an old one that I had for Sam which he refused to wear ever! Max promptly pulled and pulled on it until it was destroy. Rob told him that he obviously wasn't ready to wear a tie. Ah, the challenges of having boys! Of course we are doing a lot better than the days when Samuel used to spit on his own dress shirt and tell me it was now too wet to wear!

Pi day

Tomorrow is Pi (3.14 blah blah blah) day. I'm thinking...
YUM! I love Pi!!
I'm wrong! Today is pie day! Happy Pi day everyone. I am thinking Bob Evans for some pie is what our Family Home Evening will consist of!

Spring box

Here is what I came up with to go into my printers tray for Spring. I didn't steal a single thing from anyone else's blog this time. I think it turned out alright!

Who ordered this recession?

I have never had so much trouble trying to get a job in my life. I am a nurse, an Emergency Department nurse! They are in short supply- so I've been told! Everywhere I have lived, I have gone to whatever hospital I wanted (which is usually the closest one to me), asked to see the director of the ER, got shown into their office, talked to them briefly and was hired, end of story. Not here! Nope! Not one hospital has even allowed me to see a director of nursing, let alone get hired that way. Everyone says, "you have to go through Human Resources." And Human Resources says, "you have to do everything on-line. If there is not a job opening posted, you can't apply." Since the job position I want (As needed ER nurse) is rarely posted, I haven't had much luck. I have tried to talk reasonably to Human Resources and ask them to please check with the department, but it all ends in nothing. See, ER's generally like a large pool of As Needed nurses to choose from, but they rarely think about posting a job for that position. It is one that most nurses just slide into when they get tired of working full time.
Well a job finally opened up and I hurried and applied. I had to go do a job interview (what, an interview? What is that?) It didn't go fabulously, but I kept calling back and finally got a hold of the director. I think she was too nice to say, never mind, so instead she set me up for a job shadow and another interview. When I got to my interview/job shadow, I was told I would have to job shadow first and then interview. Didn't matter to me which way, except I was told that since I wasn't really hired I really could do nothing. This was just for me to follow the nurse around and watch. I watched for 5 hours before they said I could go home. I was so bored, I thought I would die. And how much time did I get paid for- that's right, the big fat zero! The lady I job shadowed with seemed impressed with me, even though I didn't do anything except watch her run around with her head cut off and ask questions. But she said she would make sure that the director (who had already left) knew that she approved. As for the interview- never happened!
I know I should be grateful for the chance to even interview. There are a lot of people out there that can't get a job at all. I can only assume that a lot of them went back to nursing and took my job away. Or maybe this place is just really slow moving and it generally takes a year to get a job. Who knows! I've decided, either way, to blame it on the recession instead of my lack of interview skills!

Emma Sings

Emma has decided that she learns best by singing, so she found the Preamble to the Constitution in a song format on the web and sang along with it until she could remember it. She got a 100% on her Preamble!

7-3-11

What we've been up to lately:

Hanging out, because it's too cold to enjoy outside still!
We had a Foosball tournament. We used Starburst in 3 different colors to pick teams. Emma and Maxwell beat all of us!
We had a Wii tournament with Outdoor adventures. I still want a rematch! I know I can do better- I just kept falling off the spots on the mat that I was suppose to be jumping on!
Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning! Kids are messy little fiends!Sam did a science fair project on Yawning. They only gave him 3 weeks- not enough time to do a proper experiment for anything else, except the yawing one. Like the absent minded professor that he is, though, he never got the packet for the science fair, and so we missed a lot of things they wanted to see, like a notebook log. So, he didn't do so well in the judging.
Blowing up at my class- oh wait, no pictures for that! Really who knew 14-15 year olds could be so crazy- OOOh, oooh, I did, pick me!! I have always said that age group scares the living bejebees out of me! (We had a discussion yesterday about where your bejebees actually reside. No one could come up with a satisfactory answer!) So yes, they were slinging mud at each other during a discussion on how Christ can make our burdens lighter. I tried to inform them nicely that cat calling was not the way it was done, and finally had to yell, "enough! Stop! Stop! Stop! I can not give a lesson about Christ and meekness and love when you are being so mean to each other!" It was not one of my stellar lessons!
I helped with our Relief Society Birthday party. I wrapped some gifts to use as center pieces and made potato soup. They also asked me to do a display for their talent section on running. I made up a flyer on running sites and weight loss sites and asked the ward librarian to copy it for me. I said, "oh, I don't know, maybe..." and I was going to say 15-20 and she said, "75" I was like, "um no, I don't think that many people would be interested in it." But she went ahead and made 75 anyway. I have about 73 still left. Ha ha! There was lots of great talents there that night. We really tried to pick a wide variety of things. We had people displaying things about blogging, video making, photography, woodcrafts, family record keeping, genealogy, reading, painting, sewing, etc. It was really interesting.
Still trying to get a job. My first interview didn't go so well. I called human resources to ask if I should still be looking for a job, and they said that the ER director was just trying to find a time for me to come in and do a job shadow. I waited a few more days and finally called her and she didn't even remember who I was- not a good start. In the end she did set me up for a 4 hour job shadow and a peer interview for this Thursday. I have never gone through this kind of rigmarole to get a job, ever! So everyone cross your fingers and hope for the best on Thursday!
Been doing preschool with Max at home This is not a picture of us doing preschool- I don't use the computer very often. I just need a picture of Max
and today I signed him up for Kindergarten. Thursday we finish the registration and make an appointment for him to be tested. Rob came in and saw me registering him and said, "Finally, you have to sign him up for school. Can't keep your baby at home for 4 or 5 more years? hmm?" Crazy! He is so jealous of that boy! Ha ha!
Been reading and reading. Loved the sequel to Airborn which I actually found out was the 3rd book, but I didn't need to read the second book to understand the last one- Starclimber. I also finished the Forgotten Garden- wonderful book! Loved it!I'm now in the middle of The 13th tale and Unlikely allies. Rob and I finished the Amber room which I don't recommend (too much swearing and sex) and are now reading The first men in the Moon by H.G. Wells. It's so funny to see what they used to think about space! The kids and I finally finished the second book of Inkheart (Inkspell), thank goodness! Man that was a trudge through it book! We decided not to read the last book as a family. Instead we are reading Benjamin Bartholomew Piff, You Wish! It's been great so far.
Emma's team got crushed by a bunch of Neanderthals according to Rob. The only reason they only lost by 7 points is because the other team pulled all their guys to the back of the court. That obviously didn't matter since they had plenty of Neanderthal girls (according to Rob) who at one point did a full on body smash against one of the walls to one of our girls. After that the ref had a talk to the one Neanderthal and explain to her that this was indoor soccer, not hockey!
Sam got his first Merit badge ever- First Aid! And Joseph got awarded his Bobcat!
So what have you been up to, lately?