Real Life Game Show

Today when Acadia gets home she is going to find herself the next contestant on "Too Many Toys!" (Come on down!!!)

We really need to weed out some of the junk in her playroom. It is a disaster since she has so much stuff! And half of it never gets played with. So today we came up with the plan to use bribery - but in a fun way.

For every 10 toys she choose to get rid of, she will earn $10 in play money. At the end of the "purging" she can use that play money to "buy" extra fun treats (like playing at Chuck E. Cheese, Renting a movie, Having a friend sleep over, et.). So the more she is willing to get rid of, the more fun stuff she can do... I think it will work!

It is pretty bad when your child has two rooms (a bedroom and a playroom) and STILL has so many toys that she can't keep them clean! In her defense - they are teeny, tiny rooms. And also in her defense, the bedroom is never as bad as the playroom. Infact, in general, toys aren't really in the bedroom much. That is supposed to be her special, quiet space.

Smurfs attack at first frost!

I often like to check out the Mt. St. Helen's live webcam. It is fun to get an up close view of it from my home. Recently it has acquired a bit of snow - it's pretty. Even when I know there is a storm and all I'll see is a grey wall, I check it out - I don't know why, I just like to look.

For the last day or two, the webcam has been blue.  Just blue.  Today I read the updates.  And this what they had posted...

"Thank you for all of your emails and phone calls wondering what has happened to the VolcanoCam image. Unfortunately, we will not get access to the Johnston Ridge Observatory until sometime today after the road is plowed out by the Washington State DOT. Only then will we be able to assess the problem more accurately. Rest assured you are not viewing a Smurf attack. " (Bold type added)

I LOVE it when people have a good sense of humor!

This morning we had our first frost! 



It looked so cold!  Well, it was pretty cold.  But when we went out to the bus stop, I was surprised that it wasn't quite as cold as I expected.  It was actually enjoyable, the sun was shining, the frost was glimmering, and the air was nice and crisp.  Plus the bus was on time so it was a pretty short wait!  (Always nice.)

Beauty and the Beast

We took Simon to the groomer this weekend.  They already had holiday bandanas, lol.  He wasn't too excited to be in this picture though.  I think he was hoping for a treat since he had been so good and looked so cute.  He was right - so we gave him one.

Why does he have to be so smart?

Earlier this week, Ryan was discussing with a friend that he sometimes carpools to work with about the size of Oregon. They did not agree on how big it was, so they made a bet. Well, Ryan won. Great, huh? Kind of...

Because he won, the co-worker had to make him fudge. And yesterday he brought it over. A huge 9x13 pan of Peanut Butter Fudge. I don't normally care for peanut butter much, but this fudge is so delicious... mmmm.

And it's addicting. This whole next week, all my workouts are going to be for the sole purpose of working off that fudge!

Ice Princess

Acadia and I stayed for free skate after our ice skating lessons today.  I stopped after about 20 minutes (My feet were killing me!) but Acadia wanted to keep skating - she skated for another 40 minutes by herself!

When we started class, she was very nervous to be on the ice, but by the time we needed to leave, she didn't want to go!  She just wanted to keep on skating.  Most of the time she was skating along the wall, but there were several times that she cut across the rink and didn't fall down at all! 

When I finally got her off the ice and changed her into her shoes, I told her how well she was doing and how proud I was of how much she was practicing.  She said, "I felt the Holy Spirit!  When I was scared on the ice I really felt the Holy Spirit and I felt better!"

Here are some pics:








Before lessons, Cadi and I went out for brunch.  We had spent all morning at the church cheering on the Young Women Volleyball team and we were both hungry!  Acadia ordered chocolate chip pancakes, lol.  Which she sure enjoyed:





I guess this is where she got all that energy from!

There are just... Moments.

I think someone should write a book called, "What to Expect When You're No Longer Expecting" for women who have had miscarriages.

Mostly we try not to think much about it, but lately it's been thrown in our face everytime we turn around - or at least every time we get the mail. I get so many mailings about baby stuff - life insurance, diapers, coupons, baby stores, etc.

The worse one was the box of formula that came last week - one day before the due date. We're gonna take it down to Jared when we see him at Thanksgiving so I try to think of THAT when I see it sitting there next to all the clothes that we're taking Esther. It doesn't always work.

I should save more of the stuff for Jared (or for any one of the many babies born in our ward in the last month or two) but usually I just throw it away without opening it. Out of sight, out of mind.

How do you get yourself off these mailing lists? I don't exactly need the constant reminder right now...
Most of the time I am okay. I am happy with my life, my family, my faith, etc. I don't doubt that my family is the way it is supposed to be right now. I don't doubt that I was not supposed to have those babies. I don't doubt the love of my Heavenly Father or husband or any other of those close to me who show me support. But there are moments...

No matter how much faith you have, no matter how much you KNOW that things are the way they should be, no matter how much peace and love you feel most of the time, no matter how much support you get from family and friends - there are moments when you realize that you will never be completely "over it".

No matter how many years go by, you will always remember the due dates and as they pass you will think of what might have been. No matter how happy you are with the family you do have, you will always have thoughts about the family you thought you were going to have.

No matter how much you know it isn't your fault, there are still moments when you actually feel guilty for the things that you can enjoy since you don't have a new baby. (Free time, fewer money concerns, smaller dress size, an extra bedroom, etc.)
No matter how happy you are to see your friends or family members having babies, when you see them or their new little one you can't help but think "What if...?" - just for a moment.

And in those moments, I get upset at myself for feeling this way.

I trust my Heavenly Father. I know I have been so blessed by Him. I could not ask for more than I have right now.

But there are just moments...

"Keep him blind to all else that moves."

Beginning late Halloween night, pumpkins began disappearing off of neighbors porches and were found smashed in the streets. I don't really understand why this is such a popular prank amongst kids in our neighborhood. We were fortunate that our jack-o-lanterns escaped injury.

Last night however, as I was leaving for mutual, I noticed that one of our pumpkins was no longer in it's proper place. This did not surprise me, it had been two days and I was glad they had lasted that long! What did surprise me (somewhat) was that both pumpkins had not been taken and the pumpkin left - was the "One Ring"! lol I smiled to myself knowing that the "One Ring" "ruled them all" and even the neighborhood punks recognized this!
Unfortunately, when I returned home from mutual, I found that while I was away the "One Ring" had been cast into "Mt. Doom" afterall. Tricksy hobbits! I knew I should have kept my "eye" on it!