Sometimes Sam gets us laughing pretty hard when he's listing what he's thankful for in his prayers. Some of my personal favorites are:
The last one is definitely my favorite. Where does he come up with this stuff? I love it.
On Sunday I gave a YW lesson on heritage. I shared something from my heritage that is very special to me. [Preface: Mike's ancestor William Clayton (author of Come, Come Ye Saints, & Will's namesake) served a mission in England.] My ancestors William and Jane (Johnston) Black had moved from Ireland to England, and were listening to the Mormon missionaries preach in someone's cellar. William and Jane believed the missionaries and were baptized...by Elder William Clayton!
They immigrated to America and crossed the plains to Utah. Jane Johnston Black is my hero! I can't wait to meet her some day. There are lots of fantastic stories about her and her amazing courage, but my favorite was her conversation with a mob member. The mob militia was disarming the Saints, and the Captain rode up to her and asked if she had any firearms concealed on her. She drew a small six-shooter from her bosom and said, "Do you want it?" "Indeed I do," was the reply. "Captain, I am serving notice on you that I intend using this before giving it to you. Now do you want it?" "I guess not," he replied, and rode away.
Another time she was digging up some guns she had buried under a wagon. Several men on horseback rode up and asked what she was doing. She smiled and replied, "You know we Mormons have the power to resurrect. I am now in the act of resurrecting." The leader of the mob laughed and said, "She is only a crazy Irish woman. Let us be moving."
There are more stories of encounters with Indians too. She was so amazing!
She was also a noted obstetrician (delivering nine in one night...the night after the six-shooter incident) and well known for her medical services. She nursed President John Taylor back to health after he was shot in Carthage Jail with Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Pres. Taylor is also my ancestor on my mother's side (Jane is on my father's side).
I'm in awe when I read the stories of my ancestors, and I feel so blessed to have such an amazing heritage.
I think I need to be more aware of holidays. I forgot it was Memorial Day until I saw the flag out front that the scouts put up. It rained a lot, and Mike went to work. We went to our friends' house for a BBQ though, so the day wasn't a total loss. Except that Will was seriously sleep deprived and Sam refused to eat, so we left early with grumpy children. It was really fun though, the Fishers and Bluncks are so great! Katie and Teri and my new motivators to work out, except that I've only worked out with Teri twice, and I've never gone with Katie. I told them to just keep inviting me, and when it's not during nap time, I'll go.
Last night Teri and I went to Katie's to watch Dan in Real Life. We talked through half the movie, and then when it was over we sat and talked for hours. I hadn't checked my watch at all...until Mike called at 1:20 AM to make sure I was okay. We couldn't believe how late it was, so we called it a night. I didn't end up going to sleep until around 3:00 though. Garbage needed to go out, dishwasher needed to be started, Will woke up crying because he's teething again. Needless to say, I've been pretty tired today. So now that's it's midnight, I might as well blog.
There's a fun giveaway on here, but it ends tonight. I was the 792nd person to enter, so the odds are horrible, but what a cool prize!
The Sanders are in my ward, and I actually visit teach Liz. They are some of the sweetest, nicest people I've ever met. They were featured on the news last week. This link will get you to a brief article, but I recommend watching the video on the right-hand side of the page. Pretty amazing stuff.
As part of my food blog, I'm going to start posting Good Sales for the week. If you're in Utah, this is helpful to compare the major grocery stores' sales. I love this. My sister emails it to me every week, and I use it to decide what to buy and where. When I shop, I have to get a deal or I don't buy it. I can't pay full price for something unless I know it never goes on sale, or I have to have it right then. But most everything goes on sale, and then I stock up. I'm embarrassed at how much butter I have in Jami's fridge (and freezer), and it wasn't all of it either (sorry Jami, but thanks!). Freezer guy's coming tomorrow though, so hopefully I'll be able to put my food back in my own fridge, and stop living out of coolers!
Today I embroidered for 7 or 8 hours. I'm almost done. I had 3 boxes of shirts and aprons (hate aprons) to do, and I only have 10 names left (with 2 aprons each). It's now midnight, but I need to unwind a little after a very non-relaxing day filled with work and fridge stress. The boys were pretty good though, and we went on a walk this evening in the gorgeous weather. We saw the Fishers too, so we stopped to talk for a little while.
The other day Sam found his chore chart sitting on the counter, so he took it to the couch to look at it. I heard him saying, "My jobs are: be nice to Will, watch Thomas, play with trains, drink juice." Later that day he asked me for some "cattle corn." I tried to get him to say kettle, but he refused. Cattle corn it is.
Last night to celebrate our 6th anniversary (yay for us!), we dropped the boys off with Grandma and went to Red Robin. Mike really wanted a burger, and it was by the Sports Authority (Mike also needed new shoes for work). Our server, Jack Daniel, asked us if we'd ever been there. The last time for me was nearly 10 years ago (I feel SO old saying that). When Mike left to use the restroom our server came over and asked if I had been in about 6 months ago, because he could have sworn I was there. I don't know if that should creep me out or not, but I just said no, I get that all the time. I used to get that all the time, but mostly when I was single. So, do I really have a long lost twin, or are people just weird?
Anyhow, it's been a great 6 years! And I can't wait until May is over so I can see Mike for more than 45 minutes after work before bed.
Fridge is out too.
I now have 3 coolers filled with as much food as I could stuff in them (and 20 lbs of ice). My poor neighbors. They'll be getting a call early tomorrow as I look for another home for more of our food. Huge thanks to Jami and Katie! What would I do without you guys?
Current freezer temp: 39 degrees
I called customer service again, but this time I got a supervisor (why didn't I just do that in the first place?). She set up another appointment for the freezer...at no charge this time! Based on the number of past service calls, she said I wouldn't have to pay for the next one. She also quoted me a price for a replacement unit (with a prorated discount, since it's not under warranty), but it's more than we paid originally. I asked if there was anything she could do about refunding my money from yesterday (since he didn't even fix it), and she gave me back the $65 for the trip charge. Ha ha! Feels good.
And never buy a GE appliance. Our compressor went out two years ago, which was repaired for free (all five times. Sounds great, but we were out a freezer for 5 weeks). Today someone came to fix the freezer. All he had to do was vacuum the compressor (by removing a panel off the back of the fridge). That's it. $101.41 to vacuum the compressor. I told him that the previous repairmen never told me I needed to do that (which they could have mentioned one of those 5 times). He told me it was in my use and care manual. Well, I checked the manual and NOWHERE does it talk about cleaning the compressor. Apparently I was supposed to just know to remove the panel to make sure it's not dusty inside. I've never heard of nor seen anyone ever pull the fridge out, remove a panel, and vacuum the compressor. I called customer relations (for the millionth time), and was told that the fees I paid today could not be waved and were not refundable. All this for a dumb freezer that's 3 1/2 years old. Happy anniversary to us.
On a brighter note, Mike arranged for his mom to watch the boys tonight so we can go out. Yay!
We had a great Relief Society focus group at Western Gardens. Lance gave us some fabulous information about designing and planting pots.
Will has completely destroyed these cheap plastic blinds. They look worse every day. They'll be replaced with something a little more sturdy.
Me and my mommy on Mother's Day! At least something went right that day!
Will is such a fun baby!
Newlyweds no more! Renee and Eric celebrated their 1 year anniversary! And they moved out today. They were here for about 9 months, I think they were ready to be on their own again. Their new apartments sound pretty nice. We're thinking about a pool party there for Will's birthday.
Two of my dear friends from high school came over for lunch and girl talk, and to show off our cute babies to each other! Sam was in the other room, not to be disturbed.
See ya aspens! Actually, we'll be seeing them all summer...those little suckers they send out are nearly impossible to get rid of! That's why they had to go. We have hundreds of them all over the back yard.
It's a miracle!
Eating Spiderman mac & cheese in a Spiderman bowl with a Spiderman spoon.
Hmmm, what's this?
I like it!
If my sticky hand touches the drawer, then it will taste good too!
Getting into more suckers!
Sam gave me this present...a spiderman puzzle piece, book about Jesus that he made in church, and two cars. He was so proud of himself for giving me such a great present.
Happy May Day
My older brother graduated from the U! That's me with my 2 brothers, 2 sisters, and our great mom.
Will loves all kinds of balls!
I really love the idea of Mother's Day. Honoring the women who make the world a better place every day by small and often unseen actions...devoting one day to them is really the least we can do. However, I'm campaigning to cancel Mother's Day next year, at least at my house.
I've got a repairman coming tomorrow (somewhere between 8-5), and it's only $65...for the trip charge. Then he still has to fix it. I'm calling tomorrow to see if they'll wave the trip charge since they sold us a total lemon. It broke 2 years ago (the compressor blew), and after 5 appointments with 5 repairmen in 5 weeks, it finally started working again. SO FRUSTRATING! [It wouldn't have been as bad if Mike's back hadn't gone out at work that day...two days before I was having some minor surgery. Injuries need ice, which is hard to get when you don't have a freezer!] Now all my frozen food is in two different freezers (thanks Grace and Jami!!). Argh. Happy Mother's Day. And go Jazz, Sunday's game was awesome.
We watched game 3 (Jazz v Lakers), and we even let Sam stay up late. It was an awesome game, Jazz won! Now I don't feel like I wasted my time watching. Anyway, a solicitor came to the door selling magazines (we get these people at our house ALL THE TIME). We always say no, and their parting words are always insulting, or at least rude. My favorite was the girl who implied our condos were cheap by saying, "But...look where you live." Yeah, now I'm really not going to buy your dumb subscription. Anyway, the guy that came to the door happened to be black (to be pc, African American). Sam had been watching the game for about 20 minutes, so when he saw the salesman (who was wearing basketball shoes) he said, "Hey, I was watching you on tv!" I'm glad I wasn't there, because I laughed for 5 minutes when Mike told me. Such a funny kid!
I may not ever get caught up on my pictures. Today I ran around like crazy doing laundry, embroidery, delivering shirts to Mike, etc. Now I'm just tired. Mike went next door with Eric and Renee to watch the Jazz game (we don't have TNT). I'm glad I'm not watching. The officials ruin the game, and I'd rather just hear about it when it's over. Anyhow, I was 30 minutes late to my YW activity because Will touched a hot pan (hot enough to hurt, but not hot enough to damage), and the only way we could calm him down was to give him a bath. He was totally happy in the tub until I washed his hair, and then he started screaming. The water wasn't very warm because we wanted to sooth his hand, but then he wouldn't stop screaming until I nursed him. Then I had to get Sam out of the tub and in his jammies, and when I was done doing that Will was ready to go to bed, so I put him down. When I got home from my activity (at 9:00), Sam was still up and the kitchen hadn't been cleaned up from dinner. I put the food away as everyone was leaving to go watch the Jazz game, and then I put Sam to bed. I'm done. Pictures will have to wait until...a less strenuous day than today.
Sidenote: Eric and Renee decided it's time to make their own way in the world, so they're moving into their own apartment in about a week. They'll have a pool, tennis, racquetball, and lots of other fun stuff, so we'll probably spend a lot of time there this summer. We're thinking a pool party for Will's birthday.
Sam says the most hilarious stuff all the time. I need to walk around with a pen and paper because I can never remember it all. The other day I actually had the presence of mind to write a couple of things down:
[We upgraded to a 4-slice toaster]
Sam: Do we have two toasters?
Mom: Yeah.
Sam: Oh, that's better than having one.
[Sometimes Sam gets the cookie cutters out and plays with them, which includes making them talk to each other]
Sam: Here Mom, you be this cookie cutter. He can talk. He says better things than you.
It rained a lot today. As we were looking out the window at the wet dreariness:
Sam: Is it raining?
Mom: Yup.
Sam: Oh, is it a terrible day?
The computer crashed on Wednesday. It snowed on Thursday. Friday was freezing. What a depressing week.
I have lots of pictures and stuff to catch up on. Maybe I'll have a few minutes tomorrow since Mike will be home with his computer.
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