Monday, the most random day of the week!

So much I want to share, so little time!

* I got a 5 of 6 on my English paper from last week! That is like FABULOUS news. My first paper I got a 3, then I got a 4, then I got a 4+, now a 5! I'm taking another essay test tomorrow and hoping for a topic I feel as passionate about. (This was the marriage essay.)

* I made 36 jars of peach freezer jam today. Do 36 jars of freezer jam fit in my freezer? Not so much. Am I a bad Visiting Teacher for waiting until tomorrow to unload some of these on my route so it counts for July?

* Thank GOODNESS tomorrow is payday and grocery delivery day. We're trying out Safeway/Vons delivery of groceries (for free!) and I'm interested to see how this works out for us. I'm kind of tired of Mac 'n cheese, BBQ chicken, and peas...I did a really boring menu plan two weeks ago and I totally regret it. One can only eat so much BBQ meat. Always do your menu planning in an air conditioned place, the heat will make you do crazy things to your grocery list! LOL

* I'm a little over half way done with summer semester - I'm almost there! Then, a nice little break before I start fall! Whew!

Jayden is 8 Months Old Now!

Yeah I know, a picture of her with no bows, in her jammies, food all over her, doing what she does best - be completely independent. The phone rings, you leave food near her, and Jayden helps herself, she is NOT one to wait and be patient, nope, this little girl will just get it herself! When we leave her toys on the couch, what does she do? She scoots right on over there, stands herself up, and plays with her toys while cruising the couch! When she's done with you she tells you "bye bye" by waving her hand at you until you get out of her face! She's dismissive that way! LOL Her other new favorite phrase is "no", she doesn't SAY it, but she shakes her head at you, letting you know in no uncertain terms that you are wrong and she is right so NO she will not do what you said. Exclaiming "yay!" at Jayden will yield you a cute little baby, frantically clapping her hands, "yay!" She LOVES patty-cake and "If You're Happy And You Know It." She's so much fun, and growing WAY too fast for me! She's been out of my belly almost as long as she was in it! Just a few more months and my baby girl will be a year old! She's 2/3's of the way there!

Blog Award!

Linda gave me those blog award! It's been a while since I got one, and when I do get them I am SO BAD about passing them on! LOL So I'm doing it now, before I forget, because I want my bloggin' buddies to know I think they rock! They all make nursing at night so much more fun! LOL

1.) You must post these rules.
2.) You must name 5 blogs worthy of this award based on creativity, design, interesting content, and contribution to the blogging community.
3.) You must list the name of each blog and link to it.
4.) You must link back to the presenter of your award.
5.) You must link back to the original presenter.

First of all, I give this award to Kara, she is so sweet and her boys are totally adorable! She's even having a third little boy which is awesome cause they make totally cute boys! Her middle son (Isn't that weird to think of him as your middle child, Kara?) shares my b-day!

Second I award Natalie, she blogs about the cutest, coolest things in baby/kid trends today! I even won a bow today...and you all know how I feel about bows! LOL Natalie has the cutest little girls and is so a very encouraging friend, she always has a word of encouragment when I'm feeling down or frustrated with something. A little over a year ago she joined the ranks of SAHM-dom and I totally admire her leaving the workforce and all the exceptionally hard work she and her husband put in, in order for her to be able to stay home with their children. She's a fun mommy and total Red Sox Fan!

Next is Lorie, Lorie is totally inspirational, she has lost a remarkable amount of weight through sheer determination and Weight Watchers. Lorie is an amazing cook and has begun to hone her art to being as healthy as possible. She's a hero to me in that she's making her family's eating habits more healthy every day! She also has twins that are a little younger than Justin and I shudder to think of how I would deal with 2 Justin's, Lorie's a hero!

Fourth is Wendy. Wendy I know IRL, she was in my last ward, which as I've proclaimed on my blog a million times over was THE BEST WARD EVER! Wendy is part of the congregation that makes that possible. She's always encouraging and enlightening. Her son is stinkin adorable and she and her husband are the cutest couple! Careful saying their last name, it took me a while to say it right!

And fifth is Christine (Tina) we met on a board for babies due in November 2007, her little girl was born just a few days after Jayden. It's so fun to see Sara grow and to get to know Christine. I think sometimes since our baby board isn't that active, that it's just the two of us talking to eachother most of the time, LOL! She just made a cross-the-world trip to visit her family in Germany, which looks like a GORGEOUS place, last month. In her pre-mommy life she was a teacher and has talked me down from the many times I wanted to strangle an educator in Jakey's schooling career. I also just found out that she and her husband are high school sweethearts, like Kevin and me!

Ok, so there's my 5, you're all awarded, thank you to all my readers and commenters, and bloggin buddies! I'd write up a blurb, and break the rules, if I weren't so darned tired, so I'm heading to bed, consider yourselves all awarded! Night all!

So Ya Wanna Know What I think?

The English class that I am taking involves the final being a Final Essay Examination (FEE) and so we take alot of Practice FEE's during the course. Today we took another PFEE. I somehow think that my teacher might have thought it would be humorous to give me this particular topic to write on, maybe she just wanted to have to read a very long essay, but today's topic was: Should the government put programs into place that strengthen marriage, or provide more programs for single or cohabiting parents? Um. Yeah. I furiously wrote a rough draft that was 8 pages front and back, and then had to edit paragraph upon paragraph out, LOL. I totally had to water down my essay to fit it into my "blue book" in final draft form. I started with a Pro/Con sheet, but I just couldn't find a good thing to put on the "con" side. Government programs that STRENGTHEN marriage? That's like a dream come true! LOL She laughed when I brought up my blue book where I had written on the back cover just because I had run out of room. 400 words? Not a problem today! LOL Discussing this topic is going to be FUN tomorrow! LOL

My kids are so funny!

Today my mom and I were driving around, running some errands when we started discussing that Jakey used to call goggles, "Googles" and it wasn't until this year that he started calling them "goggles." Then we said, the one word that Justin doesn't say correctly is "prayer", he says it "purr." So I said, "Hey Justin, say prayer" and he immediately folded his arms, bowed his head, and began, "Heavenly Father..." LOL! He prayed on demand! When he raised his head he couldn't figure out why we weren't being reverent during his "purr"! LOL!

Jayden is getting interactive. She waves bye-bye on command and tonight we found out she actually knows what "nursey" means. Kev got out of the shower and since I've been slacking on laundry, is waiting around in his swim trunks for the whites to come out the dryer so he can get dressed...so he's topless. Jayden looked at his naked chest and pointed to Kevin's nipples. I said, "Did you find Daddy's nurseys?" and she excitedly started to bounce up and down and open her mouth and lunged at him, ready to try those babies out! LOL I set her on my lap and said, "Do you need to nursey?" and she immediately lifted my shirt and started to pull my bra down to get to her nurseys! LOL

The Sacredness of Naptime

Naptime is holy time in our house. Jayden finally goes to sleep and ends her shrill cries to be held, and screeches in frustration over her limited mobility and the house is quiet. Since we have hardwood floors, no one can walk during naptime. I know, I used to say "I'll never let my child be one of those kids that everyone has to tiptoe around while they nap" yeah that was just because my first two children didn't demand that of me...us being quiet for 1.5 hours while J naps is a small price to pay for a happy baby at the end of that 1.5 hours. People who say that still got lucky and just never had a baby that needed absolute peace and quiet for their baby to nap in. Lucky them.

Since it is summer and Jakey and Justin are in full "He's touching me!" mode, this means that we must have QUIET TIME every day. Jakey goes to my room and reads quietly on my bed, Justin cries quietly over the injustice of it all and then conks out for as long as Jayden does, and Jayden snoozes in her crib. The sound of her demanding to be removed from her crib is the sound that breaks the silence. And it is silent, except for the sound of Jakey's pages turning, and my fingers clacking on the keyboard as I finish school papers, return emails, or BLOG! LOL!

I woke up at 5:30 am this morning, I should be napping too...

My "Friday" Comes a Day Early!

I only go to school Monday through Thursday so today was my Friday! Tomorrow, on the REAL Friday, I get to enjoy friends at the park and sleeping in past 5:45 am, and all kinds of other super fun things!

I went to the dentist today for the first time in, oh about 15 years! Our dentist is a friend of mine and so she knew how TERRIFIED I was. She took Jakey and Justin first, LOL! Justin has NO cavities and just got a simple cleaning, baggie of goodies, and was on his way out the door. Jakey had some teeth pulled a few months ago and the adult ones just weren't dropping, so some numbing shots and slits cut in his gums later, he's got his eye teeth poking through now! No cavities this time though!

Then it was my turn...yeah...I was NERVOUS. Now my kids didn't tell me ANYTHING about how it works...how could they?! LOL I didn't know about the awful plasticy tasting thing that gags you while you get x-rayed! I was gagging the whole time, the poor girl looked really worried that I might throw up. Tell me I'm not the only one who gags with the plasticy thingy that you bite down on during x-rays! Then the dentist came in and she looked at my x-rays and gums, and teeth and said that I need to have my wisdom teeth pulled but since I'm nursing Jayden still now isn't the time, so we'll reevaluate that when I'm ready (and she'll refer me for the surgery since it's unethical to perform surgery on your friend.) But I have gum disease. :( No cavities that need attention or anything that you'd expect to see in the mouth of someone who hasn't been to the dentist in 15 years, but I need a deep cleaning. Since this is much more involved we made an appointment for me to come back and we're doing it a quadrant at a time because I'm so scared. I go back on July 12th, a Saturday. I'm scared! But I survived today!

Anyhow, Jakey is like my hero...I was in there when they did the shots and cutting his gums and WOW....his only response was, "hey, you're in the way of the TV" to the dentist! She "prescribed" ice cream for him and she happens to practice next door to Baskin Robbins so "oh darn" we had to fill his rx there! LOL Jakey's such a total trooper though, he emptied his gauze filled mouth and started in on his shake and I asked if he hurts at all and he says, "yeah, it's not that bad though, not like having a baby or something" LOL!

Anyhow, I'm just blogging nothingness...and I have no cute pictures to add...so I'll end this with, I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday. TGoodnessIF!

Behind on Blogging

With school, homework, the kids, my church obligations, and other family stuff, I've just been swamped, hence the serious lack of blogging I've been doing! Luckily, since I passed that math final, my math hours aren't being counted each day anymore, and I did an essay in English and don't have homework tonight. So....it's time for a massive blog post! Yeehaw!



First, I took Jayden to the pediatrician on Monday. Last time I had her weighed in March she weighed 17 lbs, something ounces, with her clothes on, and a diaper, and it was cold then, blah blah, on a different scale, lots of reasons for it to be different than Monday...this Monday we returned to our FAVORITE pediatrician, with new insurance (woohoo!) and Jayden weighed 14 lbs EVEN. No ounces. Yeah. To be fair, she was not wearing anything but her clean diaper, teething necklace, and hair bows. Still...that's a big difference!

The doctor didn't seem overly concerned though, her words were something along the lines of "this is a formula fed weight chart, she's not getting formula, and that's ok" and "don't go running to the nearest jar of baby food because it has less calories than breastmilk, just keep up the good work, she looks healthy and happy, just petite." So I'm trying not to worry. We go back in two months.

Next was Father's Day...we went to a friend's house and BBQed, it was great and Kevin's a great daddy! Here he is with some of his favorite little people...



And finally, I was tagged by Linda.

MY FAVORITE PERSON OUTSIDE OF MY FAMILY:Hmmmm...I think that might be Yaneth!

MY FAVORITE FOOD: I like all food equally, LOL, no really I LOVE bread and bread products!

QUIRKS ABOUT ME: I'm afraid of escalators...

HOW WOULD THE PERSON WHO LOVES ME MOST DESCRIBE ME IN TEN WORDS OR LESS?: quote, "That's too hard..." I don't know if he meant "leave me alone" or "I don't want to get this wrong" or "How could I possibly describe my wonderful wife in 10 words or less..." I'm hoping for #3.

ANY REGRETS IN LIFE? I like how Linda put it, only lairs say they dont' have regrets....but yeah, not gonna air them today on my blog...I make mistakes DAILY.

FAVORITE CHARITY OR CAUSE: I don't really have a specific charity.

FAVORITE BLOG RECENTLY: Keepin Up with the Joneses - Kellie is just getting into blogging and her family is adorable!

SOMETHING I CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF: frozen mango

WORST JOBS I'VE EVER HAD: security officer outside of Longs Drugs overnight! SCARY.

WHAT JOB WOULD I PAY NOT TO HAVE? the laundry! I wish I could afford to outsource that!

IF I COULD BE A FLY ON A WALL, WHERE WOULD IT BE?
listening to who is going to be the running mates of our presidential nominees.

MY FAVORITE BIBLE VERSE RIGHT NOW: I was reading about the First Vision tonight and was really touched by the simple beauty of James 1:5.

GUILTY PLEASURES? dark chocolate

GOT ANY CONFESSIONS? not for my blog tonight!

IF I HAD $1000 TO SPEND ON MYSELF, HOW WOULD I SPEND IT? on my tuition for school.

FAVORITE THING ABOUT MY HOUSE? my kitchen!

LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT MY HOUSE? my neighbors across the street!

ONE THING I'M BAD AT: introducing myself to people, I tend to wiat until they talk to me.

ONE THING I'M GOOD AT: being a friend.

IF I COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT MY CIRCUMSTANCES, WHAT WOULD IT BE? I'd be done with school, but not have missed a moment of my kids' lives.

WHO WOULD I LIKE TO MEET ONE DAY? the prophet.

WHAT MAKES ME FEEL SEXY? well this question is odd below an enlightened one like the question above...um I'm nursing a baby, I'm all touched out - pretty much NOTHING. LOL

WHO IS MY REAL LIFE HERO? my kids, we're going to the dentist tomorrow and they're totally not afraid, but I am!

WHAT IS THE HARDEST PART OF MY JOB? balancing everything.

WHEN AM I MOST RELAXED? on friday's at the park!

WHAT STRESSES ME OUT? paying for gas!

WHAT CAN I NOT LIVE WITHOUT? internet

DO I AGREE WITH THE RECENT ARTICLE THAT BLOGS ARE AUTHORED BY NARCISISTS? didn't read it.

WHY DO I BLOG? it's a great creative outlet and way to keep in contact. I originally started my blog to keep in touch with some friends from an LDS mommies board I was a member of after I left the group.

RULES FOR THIS TAG:

1.) ANSWER THE QUESTIONS.

2.) LINK BACK TO WHO TAGGED YOU.

3.) TAG: 2 NEW BLOGGERS, 2 FRIEND BLOGGERS, 2 BLOGGERS YOU'D LIKE TO KNOW BETTER, 2 BLOGGERS THAT YOU DON'T THINK WILL RESPOND, BUT HOPE THEY WILL.

I TAG: NEW BLOGGERS: Kellie and Shannon (Shannon's not entirely new, but hasn't blogged a ton either.)

BLOGGY FRIENDS:Natalie and Beth

BLOGGERS I'D LIKE TO KNOW BETTER:Sara and Sarah

BLOGGERS THAT I DON'T THINK WILL RESPOND, BUT I HOPE WILL: Laura and Wendy

Ok my Meme debt is paid in full!

Night all!

My 94% B

The Pre-algebra class I was taking is an online one, where you work on a program online and can take the final at any time and the grade you get on the final is your grade in the class. I completed enough of the program it began to suggest I should take my final, so I stopped by the math lab to do that this morning after English class. I passed the test with a 94%...but that's a B! I could take the test again, and try for an A, but if I do worse, they'll average the two and then my 94% will be looking pretty good. I can also use the program I've already bought for Pre-Algebra and just move onto Algebra and try to get that class out of the way this summer so I don't have to repurchase the program this fall. So I took my "B" and I'm starting the Algebra classes. I'm a little bummed cause I think I could have earned an "A" and that 94% really ought to be an "A", but what can ya do...

So one class down...lots to go!

Head For The Hills!

We live in a valley, so cleverly, the stake Relief Society President of my former stake coined the name "Head For The Hills" for their annual RS Women's Retreat that is in the mountains that surround our valley at a church-owned camp called, Camp Wilderness.

Friday, at 9 AM, I headed "for the hills" with some of my friends from my former ward/stake. First stop, The Trail of 100 Giants! Guess what? It WAS easier to do hike with Jayden on my back, rather than IN my belly! LOL It was a BEAUTIFUL day, perfect weather, perfect company, perfect scenery, just PERFECT!



Then we finished the trip to Camp Wilderness where we met up with the rest of the sisters from that stake. I didn't count or anything, but it wasn't as well attended as last year and that just makes me so sad! There is GREAT value in bonding sisters in the gospel together! We played tons of games, including the return of FARKEL!, while Jayden slept on the table, LOL!

Later that night we went down to the campfire and made smores and laughed until we cried (Over a Super Saturday Project gone HORRIBLY wrong...LOL!) and then finally decided to return to our cabin to call it a night. Where again, we were in tears laughing. I should have taken a picture of it - one of the bunkbeds was literally made for VERY short people, like 4 ft people. Not that 4 ft people don't need to camp, it's just that they fit nicely into regularly sized beds too, whereas regularly sized people don't normally fit into beds designed for a 4 ft body.

This morning there were some great speakers and then we hit the road, back to town, and the HEAT! It was 104 when we returned! OUCH! I'm already looking forward to the getaway next year! (And my stake needs to come up with something like this! Luckily I'm "grandfathered in" to this retreat, cause they love me and all, but still - I think it's a great idea for bonding with your stake/ward.

Whew! Someone's Tired!

I've been waking up at 5:45 and eating and getting ready and then waking up the kids at 6:30 and dressing them, quickly, in the clothes that I laid out the night before. Well, last night I didn't lay out Jayden's outfit because she has some new ones still on hangers. This morning I dressed her quickly and put pigtails in her hair and added bows and ran out the door with her and the boys at 6:45 to make it to the bus at 7:00 am.

A few hours later, when I got home from school, I picked Jayden up out of her carseat and realize - she's wearing two different styles/color of bows! LOL She's so incredibly cute that it's not a huge deal - but still very funny! LOL

Tonight is my class on blogging, I'm going to have to come up with a better blog post than this as the top post on my blog before 6:00 PM!

Tomorrow is my former stake's Relief Society Retreat, I am SO excited to get to go get some good "Girl Time" in! We're leaving early and going to hike (if you can call it that) the Trail of 100 Giants. You'll remember this particular trail as one I previously did about 6 months pregnant with Jayden...
During...

and after...


Maybe this time I'll come out of it not looking like I'm gonna die! LOL I think it'll be easier to carry the baby on my back, rather than IN my tummy! LOL

Anyhow, in case I don't get a chance to come back before I head out of town...Saturday is the anniversary of THE PEPPER STORY...my favorite blog on my blog! LOL I couldn't let the opporutnity to re-read that HILARIOUS story pass us by, so here is, THE PEPPER STORY:

Never in a million years are you all going to believe what Justin did this morning. Never.

He took a Costco sized container of pepper to the top of our stairs. (Black Pepper) He sprinkled about 1 lb of pepper all the way down the stairs...paying particular attention to getting it right in the center of the stairs. Then, he went to the top of the stairs, stripped all of his clothes off (You don't want to get pepper on them I suppose...) and slid down the stairs, ON HIS NAKED BUTT.

I'm on the phone with my mom and Justin's screaming - HELP ME, MY BUTT HURTS, HELP ME!! And I can't figure out for the life of me, what in the world he's crying for. He brings me to the stairs and shows me....and screams, "My butt burns!!!" Ok after I laugh hysterically....sorry, but that is funny! I throw him in the bath and tell Jakey to stay with him and vacuum the stairs...well apparently he wouldn't sit in the bath water for Jakey, so his butt got more and more seasoned (now we're not talking cheeks here people, think BUTT CRACK) yeah, so he's SCREAMING. So I get him to sit, I wash his butt, I do everything I can think of....the pepper is still making him scream.

So, what does any mother do??? I called the dr. I think it was a full five minutes before the nurse stopped laughing and crying....then another 10 for the dr and rest of the staff....followed by - apparently there is a special ointment for little boys who slide down the stairs on black pepper butt naked and irritate their butts....it'll be waiting for me at the front desk. (Can I really show my face in there????) Oh and if the burning doesn't stop by tomorrow or he has a hard time going potty, we need to bring him in. THIS is so getting written down, I'm telling ALL of his dates this story. And I think I might have grey hairs. Oy!

My English Ain't So Bad...

Haha. That was supposed to be funny. Get it? Ain't? LOL I'm a riot, I know.

Anyhow...I know that I have blogging habits that would drive an English major to drink: I use ... instead of , I'm afraid of the SEMI-COLON so I refrain from EVER using this, I capitalize words for emphasis LIKE SO, I misspell, and about a million other English mistakes are commonly found on blog. AND, I COULD use spellcheck. But I don't. (Look I just started sentences with "and" and "but".)

Today our teacher handed back the essay we had written yesterday. There were no marks on my paper, just a note about the audience in blogging versus the audience in writing essays and that it's a "good start". We weren't graded on them or anything. I figured, oh I guess she didn't check spelling or grammer or punctuation or any of that - SCORE! THEN, she started putting on the board what different proofreading marks mean and explaining what you "might find on your paper." I looked around me, everyone else had little marks (well not EVERYONE, but those nearest me had a few) and I realized...I ACTUALLY USED PROPER ENGLISH, SPELLING, GRAMMER, AND PUNCTUATION IN MY WHOLE ESSAY! Way to go, Dawn! Seriously, my brain isn't gone from years of reading The Cat In the Hat or One Fish, Two Fish! It's a miracle!

I made it through the first day! I rode the bus this morning and it was amazingly full of students going to the college! Standing room only! The men stood so that the women could have seats - and they say chivalry is dead! LOL

Anyhow, my English teacher just had us do a baseline essay to see where we're at and then we were free to go so I managed to get out of there at 9:00 am and I was able to make it BARELY in time for the morning orientation for my math class instead of waiting around for the 2:30. After orientation I stood in a LONG line for the bookstore and actually managed to get through in a decent amount of time. I rode the bus back to the mall by my house and Kevin and the kids met me there.

Jayden was SO happy to see me (or my boobs, either way) and she did really well with Kevin. Kev managed to be off today so he just kept the kids. After school I did 2.5 hours of math and went to Costco and Barnes & Noble with my mom to find a dictionary. Whew at Barnes and Noble there was this really long line of people waiting for help and the worker was coming back from the back and dropped something and I stopped him to hand it to him and the whole line started yelling and freaking out thinking that I was asking him for help! Everyone in that line was amazingly upset! Craziness! I think the heat is getting to people.

Well this is an unorganized blog if ever there was one, with very little point, but I have fractions swimming in my head and how to find the area of a triangle and other fun factoids and I NEED to shower quickly and get in bed.

Other bits of random around our house:

* Jakey saved cans for months and used the money today to buy a Nintendo 64, it's actually kind of fun!

* The investigator the missionaries wanted to bring to FHE didn't show up, but we had a great FHE with the missionaries (who we also fed dinner) with The Want Monster. At the end of the lesson Jayden was overjoyed to get to destroy the Want Monster, LOL! (Trust me, this had more gospel relevance than you can imagine.)

Ok, goodnight!

I got my list done! Kev is going to print the lesson for me for our Family Home Evening for tomorrow and everything is done!

I have been awful about taking pictures lately, there aren't hardly any of Jayden (or the boys for that matter) for almost this whole month! I need to fix that so I have some to post on my blog of my little cuties!

Well this blog post is going to be cut short because Jayden woke up (frustrating because I JUST got her to sleep!) and I need to get through the shower and put away some folded laundry and get to bed early because - IT'S A SCHOOL NIGHT! LOL

Wish me luck tomorrow!

Feelin' Like A Slacker!

I'm so not motovated to do the things I need to get done this weekend! Here's my list, maybe I can be held accountable if I blog about it?

* Finish Relief Society Newsletter for Sunday
* Print attendance sheets for the folders
* Prepare FHE in advance because the missionaries are bringing an investigator to FHE on Monday
* Read Chapter 1 of my English Book (recommended in class email I got from the teacher)
* Finish all the laundry and fold it and put it away
* Prepare handout for Blogging Class for Enrichment

What I have accomplished, not on that list was:

* Get bus pass
* pay bills
* banking
* cleaning kitchen, living room, and bathroom (deep clean)


In fun things, we're watching our Netflix movies so we can get them sent back on Monday so we'll have new movies to relax and watch next weekend. We're watching, as a family, National Treasure 2 and Zoom. Kevin and I are watching I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry without the kiddos (Kev's lame humor LOL).

Other bits of randomness include:

* Right now Jayden's crawling around the living room floor and Justin has decided her middle name should have been "Corn" so he is chasing her through the living room saying "Jayden Corn, oh pretty Jayden Corn!"

* JC Penny's had a half off sale of most of their baby clothes - Jayden has a new, extensive wardrobe thanks to her Grandma and Great Grandma.

* New clothes mean new bows...Jayden now has 16 more bows! :blush: Yeah. I know. I have a sickness. I need Bow Addicts Anonymous.

* It's kind of weird weather today - not hot enough for AC but not cool enough to not wish it were on.

Ok, I've been random and unproductive long enough. Almost my entire to do list involves something on the computer so I should get motivated and get started!

How Green Am I????

When we moved to the house we're in now, we moved alot closer to the city and things in general, so it's been a bit cheaper for us. My mom just moved, I don't know how many miles but about 5 minutes from my house. Kevin's family, of course, lives right around the corner. So, as I was saying, we're closer to everything. We're even only about 1 mile, or less, from our church building (but still not green enough to walk there).

A handful of times I have ridden our city's public transportation, but not in like YEARS. The college I'm going to start attending is on the other side of town. Now I live in California, so things here are not measured in miles, but in minutes - I live almost 30 minutes from the college. And, gas is $4 a gallon. And we only share one car. Sooooooooo, we've been trying to get creative in ways I could get to school that won't cost an arm and a leg. Our solution - public transportation, specifically - THE GET BUS.

There is a bus stop just down the street from my house and it would take me about an hour and twenty minutes - I KNOW! - to get to and from school (each way). So I wasn't overly thrilled with this idea. Then I realized that there is a bus terminal at the mall by our house (like just down the street, but it's a busy one) and the college has a terminal and they have an express bus that just goes between each of the terminals every 15 minutes, so it would only take me 30 minutes to get to the college from the mall. Well, everyone in our family said - I'd totally drop you off at the mall to help out (it's down the street from all of us!) and so I'm going to be taking the bus to and from school. A monthly pass is only $30! That's less than one week's worth of gas going to and from in our car! Not to mention the cost of parking and taking Kevin to and from work (the extra trips to keep the car).

I'm a tiny bit nervous because I don't want to be sitting next to a "shady character" or anything on the bus, and I've never done it so I'm nervous I will forget to get off or take the wrong bus or something, but overall I'm glad we found an economical solution to our problems!

Blogger Block

Lately I've had a bad case of blogger block...I hope it doesn't last long since I'm about to start a COMPOSITION class on Monday! LOL So what has Dawn been up to this week?????

* Paying a small fortune in gas...fortunately I hide that expense in my Costco receipts and don't feel too bad, I mean really - once you spend $300, what $360? LOL

* Cleaning the house, deeply! I've been scrubbing baseboards, washing windows, walls, hands and knees on the floor type of cleaning all week to prepare for handing off some of my daily responsibilities to Kevin, Jake, and Justin. We're having a big meeting on Sunday night (Family Meeting) to decide who is going to do what...if you have any ideas for age appropriate chores for a 4 year old, let me know!

* Finished my mom's move. I am SO relieved. However, during their move a pink bag with every bolt, from every piece of furniture in their house, went missing. I "inherited" some of that boltless furniture - so now we're looking for our bolts! LOL

* Began to prepare for an Enrichment class I'm teaching next week on BLOGGING! Yep, we got an overheard projector, internet, everything, so I could teach sisters how to maintain their family blogs! If you have blogging advice, fave websites, etc. feel free to leave that info here!

* Went school supply shopping! Now I LOVE school supplies, in August I buy crayons, markers, glue, and rulers until my closets won't hold anymore...but by June my supply is depleted and I haven't ever bought COLLEGE supplies, so all of our paper is wide-ruled, and no pens! LOL I even got a new backpack, well it's a messenger bag, but it does the trick!

Well I'm about to have my awesome breakfast that Kevin is making before I start in on further deep cleaning and installing my new printer...have a happy Thursday everyone! I'm coming to comment!

Several times in the past few weeks I've noticed that I'll ask Jakey to take out the trash and he'll go grab the can and then start heading into his bedroom with it. He got the can, and forgot what he was supposed to do, so he just headed into his room. Or I'll ask him to do something, like get me a towel for his sister, and he'll go to the towel closet and open the door and then stand there, puzzled. He's totally flighty. But I've realized where he gets this from...

HIS DAD! LOL

Yesterday we planned to have a lasagna, salad, and garlic bread for dinner after church. We have church from 1-4 and the lasagna takes 2.5 hours to bake. We decided that Kevin would come home when Sacrament Meeting let out and start the lasagna and then come back in time for Elder's Quorum. We get home and I notice, there is no delicious aroma of lasagna in my house...

...go to the oven...

there sits a completely frozen lasagna in an oven that is NOT. TURNED. ON. Yeah.

So this is my family birthday dinner, and so figuring out what to do now is totally NOT my problem LOL, I go open presents from my parents and change my clothes and Kev managed some burgers and we ate and it was all fine...but yeah, he forgot to turn on the oven. LOL

Forgetfulness is a very dominant trait!