Living Under a Rock.....

You know, I realize that living in Utah can sometimes feel like a protective glove. Even though bad things happen here too, it still feels minor compared to some of the stuff you hear about in the news. Today Im feeling really upset about an article I read on People.com of all places. Apparently Ive been under a rock because Ellen Degeneres claims that this story sent shockwaves around the nation. As I read the story I felt sick to my stomach. Homosexuality is a very sensitive subject. One that is hard for me to speak about because I feel strongly about it in both directions. One thing that I am completely certain of though is that NO person on this planet deserves to be treated with hate and disgust no matter what orientation, religion, race, sex....etc. Human beings have a right to live as they choose. We were given free agency for the express purpose of living and learning and making choices. As a parent, I read this story with heartfelt tears for the parents of this young boy. For any of you that havent read this story or have not heard about it, a young boy gave a Valentine to another boy....asking him to be his Valentine. The boy was 15 and he was shot in the head by the 14 year old boy that he had a crush on. Is that unbelievable? It breaks my heart. It scares me. It makes me really really angry. That is really all I want to say about it. Here is the video on Ellen if you want to watch it. Make sure you pause my music player at the bottom of my blog so you can hear her speak. and here is the link to the New York Times story about it.....

Remember when......

Do you remember your first pair of Jellies? I sure do.....I couldnt get to my friends' houses fast enough to show them my cool shoes. Thanks Mom. These are my daughters first pair and even though she is only 2 (almost) she totally digs these shoes and has worn them all day today. I love that they are coming back in....although Im probably going pass this time around and just let my little girl have fun in them.

I 'heart' the 80's.

Its Futile to Try and Resist......

This is the phrase that repeats itself in my head whenever I am in the store and I am having a stare down with a bag of these sinfully yummy candies. It really is pointless for me to even bother walking away because I know I will come back and buy them anyway. These devilish little eggs beckon to me as soon as I see the Easter displays start appearing......gulp. So far Ive managed to stay away from the large bags but then, does it really matter that Im not over-indulging myself with the large bags if I continually buy the small ones and inhale them, only to turn around and buy another? I feel like a chain smoker only replace the cigs with Cadbury Mini Eggs. I hope Easter comes and goes quickly and I will continue being grateful that these candies arent a year round problem.... My mom can attest to their addictive qualities as she scrambles every year to buy some only to find out that they are sold out and unable to be found. Remember when I was in the hospital mom and you tried to find some for me? How many stores did you go to before you finally gave up. I think I will just chain myself to the kitchen table until Easter is over......or the stores sell out, whichever comes first.

The World Loves Winter.....

Today I think the temperature must have reached near 50 degrees. Not nice to tease me this way! I decided to walk up to Foothill drive today instead of the boring treadmill at the gym. It was such a nice day......felt like Spring already. It will probably snow 6 inches this weekend. The craziest thing happened while I was walking. Most of you know that we live in the Sugarhouse Park area which is pretty close to the base of the mountains so wild animal sighting is fairly common during the cold winter months. Anyway, Im walking down the hill toward home and all of sudden a deer jumps out of the trees at this house literally 2 feet in front of me. I thought I was going to drop dead of a heart attack. If the walk didnt get my heart rate up, this surely did. Holy Cow (or deer)! My first thought was it was a horse.....and then I thought a huge dog.....and then I realized it was a deer. I must have seen it coming from my peripheral vision because those thoughts all happened before it even jumped out. CRAZY! This car coming up the hill stopped of course because from his angle he saw it coming. He was laughing his rear end off at me so I must have looked pretty shocked. Seriously it was so wild!

Speaking of snow and winter, it must be a subject that is searched for a lot on the web. I have sitemeter on my blog which is pretty cool. It shows me the IP and city/state/country of the people coming to my blog. It also tells you how they came to find your page as well. Most of the time I get people from this area and friends/family from other parts of the country that I recognize. Lately though I have noticed an increase in the amount of foreign countries popping up. Also some random states in the US. All of them have one thing in common.....the way they found my page. Seems they are searching for the word "winter" at google.com and apparently some of my pic's that I have put on the blog showing our wonderful Salt Lake winter are pretty close to the front of the Google results. Pretty cool. I still find it strange though that out of all the pictures I post on this thing all of the foreigners come by way of Winter Wonderland.....

So, the kids are feeling better finally. Ian is still coughing but because he has asthma, its kindof something that takes a while to get rid of. His school sent him home Monday because his cough was pretty bad I guess. What do you though? If I kept the kids home everytime they had a cough, they would miss half of the school year. Anyway, were going to try it again tomorrow. I got some cough drops for him so maybe that will help. I better go finish my laundry.....argh! I hate laundry!

Its Early......

Ok so it is 4 o'clock in the morning and I just got home from work. Why am I not in bed? Well, Im going to the gym first. I know, crazy.....but, its the only way I can make it work... so that is what Im going to do. First, I thought I would post a little update. Addison is doing much better. Her bloodwork came back OK and so it is just a nasty virus that has to run it's course. She hasnt eaten much and has lost a pound or two, which for her means she can fit back into her 18 month clothing now! She is tiny enough already. She still doesnt look so great but definitely better than Friday. Ian is doing better also although he has a pretty nasty cough.....and of course my dramatic son makes it worse than it is by forcing the cough until he pukes. Thats always fun. Evan seems to have been spared....knock on wood.

So, yesterday we stayed home from church due to the sick kids....Denver actually went to his meetings by himself.... and so, we decided to take advantage of my brother Jeff's offer to watch the kids so we could have our "Valentines" date.... We grabbed some lunch at a place called the Wing Coop which specializes in.....you guessed it, WINGS. You get to choose whether to have the wings fried or grilled though so that was great to be able to keep it healthy. I had 5 wings and a side salad. Yummy. On a side note, the reason we went for wings was because I had this brilliant idea for Denvers' birthday next month. When we lived in Chandler, we fell in LOVE with this place called Native New Yorker. They make THE BEST wings ever. I really miss that place. I called to see if they could ship me some Hot Wings for Denvers bday as a surprise. Unfortunately they cant....so much for that. But that is why we had a wing craving.....Anyhoo.....Then we went to see a movie. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I won 2 movie tickets at work. Well, we were almost to the theater when Denver says....you got the tickets right? Yeah, well, my brain doesnt function all that great on the weekends due to my graveyard shift and so I forgot the tickets. We went anyway since it was a matinee and not horribly expensive. We saw "Vantage Point" with Dennis Quaid and numerous other famous people. My opinion.....not too bad! I give it 3.5 stars out of 5. It got pretty intense at the end and I was very pleased with how they tied up loose ends. I cant stand a movie that doesnt clean up after itself :))

Now, I guess Im going to sign off and go work out. The weather is warming up and I am really getting Spring Fever. There is actually NO snow on our front lawn anymore......for now. I cant wait to be able to walk outdoors instead of on the treadmill all the time. We live in an area that is extremely active and when I say extremely, I promise you Im not exaggerating. There is not a day of the week or time of the day when I dont see a dozen or more people jogging in our neighborhood. Rain, Snow, 20 below zero.....it doesnt matter, these people are nuts about getting their run in. I am a fair weather walker.....if it isnt warm enough to be outside without a jacket, then Im at the gym. End of story. I saw a lady running with 2 babies in a jogger stroller at 6 in the morning and it was a blizzard outside! Crazy Im telling you.

Hospital Fun.....

So, as I mentioned earlier, Addison is sick. Today marks the third day with a fever which has reached 103. Plus now she has this one eye that is all red, swollen, and goopy. Not to mention a hideous cough. I took her in to see her Pediatrician today and he didnt like the sound of her lungs and so he sent me to Primary Childrens Hospital for a chest x-ray and some blood work. He was worried about Pneumonia. Addison doesnt like doctors much. I guess her NICU experience is still too close for comfort. All the doctor has to do is walk into the room and she freaks. For the chest x-ray she just sat on this little stool - no one even touched her and Im the one that put her on it and she was screaming like I was leaving her for the dogs. I looked over into the next station and kindof smiled and apologized to the couple standing there since Addie was screaming so loudly. They laughed and said their 17 year old was screaming louder just minutes before they knocked him out so not to worry about it. I guess the boy had been crushed by some heavy equipment and they were doing chest x-rays to see if his lungs had collapsed or something. Scary. So, after that ordeal, we went to the lab for the bloodwork which made the chest x-ray seem like a ride at Disneyland. The guys asks me if I want him to use the needle or the finger stick......huh? Like I know. All I want is fast and as pain free as possible.....but mostly just fast because I know she is going to go nuts. He opted for the needle first and it was as horrible as it gets. My poor baby. I felt so bad for her. After digging for a minute or two, he decided the finger method would be better. For future reference to the other moms out there... if a doctor asks you to choose, the FINGER PRICK METHOD is by far better than the other. Of course if they need a lot of blood, then you dont have the choice....but if you do I promise the finger is better. They gave her a cute little piglet stuffed animal and we left. The good news is that she does not have Pneumonia. We are still waiting on the blood work to find out if what she has is viral or bacterial. Im fine with either as long as I dont have to leave her in a hospital again. I had my fill of that when she was born! Here she is being silly after the medicine kicked in.....She tried to be happy despite feeling so yucky.....my sweet girl.

The IRS sucks. Who agreed to let them take so much money from us anyway? I think paying taxes is reasonable and Im not against paying taxes but PLEASE.....they are taking way too much from hard working Americans. Ok, I'm done.

Cool Game.....

Check out the Game on the bottom of this blog.....it is harder than you think!

My View on The Candidates.....

****Warning....this is a political joke, if you are quick to be offended over such things, quit reading now*****

Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain were flying to a convention. Barack looked at Hillary, chuckled and said, 'I could throw $1000 bill out of the window right now and make somebody very happy'.

Hillary shrugged her shoulders and replied, 'I could throw ten $ 100 bills out of the window and make 10 people very happy'.

John added, 'That being the case, I could throw one hundred $10 bills out of the window and make 100 people very happy.'

Hearing their exchange, the pilot rolled his eyes and said to his co-pilot, 'Such big-shots back there. I could throw all of them out of the window and make 156 million people very happy'.

Sick.....again.

Well, I dont have much to update. Yesterday I didnt watch Soren because he had a fever and was fussing so they took him to the doctor. Addison was also hot all day yesterday but her mood was great. Last night she was hot all through the night so this morning I ran to the pharmacy to buy thermometer covers so I could take her temp. Thats the bad thing about those great digital ear thermometers....they dont work unless you have the little shield on the tip and I always seem to be out of them when someone gets sick. Anyway, she has a fever of 101.....so, Im just praying that it breaks and she doesnt get any sicker. According to Nates Pedicatrician, there are 3 different strains of flu running around town....Great. Im just walking on egg shells hoping that nobody gets it in this house. Im going to clorox bomb the house today and start the Orange Juice IV's.....kidding. Thats the great part about this time of year....the warmer temps start coming and then all it takes it one or two days where the temperature crashes and the whole city gets sick. That is OK though because it means Spring is around the corner and it couldnt come soon enough for me.

I went to the gym this morning at 5:30. Im trying to go earlier now so I can fit in the weight training along with the cardio. I cant believe how packed the gym is that early in the morning. I was hoping to have it all to myself because I cant stand being watched. Oh well, Im really motivated right now because Im starting to feel better and I know Im getting healthier. Im going to Vegas in April for a little reunion with some military friends that I havent seen in years and Im trying to get some weight off before then. The last time they saw me, I was pretty thin. Well, Ive got to get Evan off to school. I probably wont post for a few days......so until next time.

Wow, I actually got off early last night! It was very slow at the post office and so the let me off work about 3 hours earlier than usual. Why is this such a big deal? More sleep! I actually thought today was Tuesday when I woke up.... The kids are off of school today due to it being Presidents day. We always love not having to get up and get the kids to school. Denver and I didnt end up going on our Valentines Date. Big Surprise. Really it was just because our babysitters fell through but we got a promise from my brother Jeff to do it this coming weekend, which actually works out better because a movie we really wanted to see starts on Friday.

Anyway, not much to report really. It was a slow weekend.......Denver played basketball on Saturday and they definitely "worked it out" (who can name the show that saying comes from?) I think all the scoring came from Denver and my brother Nate. They were really on their game. It is a shame that next week is their last game. It feels like they are just getting it together. Thats the bad thing about church ball (well, one of the bad things) These old dudes finally get to feeling good and playing well on or about the last game of the short season. They ought to start playing a "PRE Season" first with about 6 games and then start the Actual season. I think the games would be much more enjoyable after these guys worked out all of their kinks and joint problems! Oh well, it has been fun and Denver and Nathan are going to try and find a Saturday league that they can keep playing in. We are getting ready to sign the boys up for baseball and soccer. Baseball in the Spring, Soccer in the fall. This year will be a little different as we are putting them in REAL leagues. Before now, they have played in the city Rec leagues which are great, dont get me wrong. However, they dont really teach these kids HOW to play the games. They just get a parent coach to kinda push them a long but they dont have practices or training. Up until now it has been OK but I noticed in the last soccer league (last fall) that it was so boring. The kids just ran up and down in a gaggle. I feel like the boys are old enough to really start learning about the game.....and maybe a little about competition too. Im always baffled that my kids are so Un-competitive considering that their parents are both Ultra competitive. Its good that they arent though. Anyway, these leagues cost a bit more but they feel more Official and I am excited for this stage in childhood sports! Im still trying to find something for Addie but I think Im going to wait until the fall to start her in anything. There arent a lot of options for 2 year olds just yet. I try to dance with her when I can and she really has a grasp of movement and rhythm. I love to watch her dance to different speeds of music. She has a way of moving slowly and swirling her hands to mellow music and then when fast, upbeat music comes on, she completely changes her way of dancing. It is great to see that so young. I think she will be a great dancer.......if she chooses to be.

Well, Im off to clean out the van (yuck) and hopefully go to the gym. Ciao for now.

(oh by the way, the picture of the random girls above is actually our babysitter Courtney and her little sister. Courtney was in my primary class at church until she turned 12. Her little sister Sarah is the same age as Addison and they are in Nursery together. Their dad plays bball with Denver, hence the picture of her at the game.....not that any of you actually care about all of that....sorry)

Frustration, Speeches, and other Misc News.......

I think I have been called a few choice titles this week.....but the only ones that actually MATTER to me are, Mom, Honey, and "My Wife". The rest are just names that insecurity creates. Some of you have asked me about Alec's blog and why it has been removed from my list. As you know, I am the one that created the blog for him. You also know that it was made for the express purpose of sharing our lives with Alec as well as for our Kentucky family to do the same. Considering that we all live so far away from Alec we decided it was important for him to at least see us in some respect more than once a year. So I thought the blog was a brilliant idea. Apparently not. Unfortunately, we still have to deal with his mom's bitterness toward Denver and I as well as her continued efforts to keep us out of his life in any way except what the court laid out in visitation. We always thought that eventually she would re-marry and be happy enough in her own life that she would quit interferring and actually interact with us in a way that was conducive to allowing Alec to love 2 families. That is never going to be the case. So, after a week of arguing about the blog, we deleted it. It wasnt worth the struggle and it was becoming something painful for Alec and I never wanted to be a part of that. Obviously we all Love Alec very much and will continue to try and be a part of his life as much as we can. The rest we leave in God's hands and hope that as Alec matures, he will see everything more clearly. Most importantly, he will realize just how much his dad loves him and that he does the best that he can to be involved in his life.

Anyway, on a more positive note, it is warming up......slowly. This weekend we will hit the mid 40's again. I know, it still sounds pretty chilly. But, it feels like Spring when you are used to 20 degree weather. Brrrrrrrr. Ian gave his speech today on The Gulf of Carpentaria. He did a fine job. Actually I think it was his best speech yet. I involved him more in the creation process this time so he was really comfortable with the information. He really made an effort to look up and not just read the paper too. He paused for laughs in a couple of spots and answered questions about the speech afterward like a pro. Very proud of him..... We are getting ready to sign the boys up for baseball. Evan wants to take Karate and Skateboarding too though...he is starting to show a little more independence from Ian this year which is great. Its hard being the middle child and being so close in age to your big brother. But, he is doing great and Im convinced now more than ever that we made the right choice in sending him to our neighborhood school instead of Ian's school. It is a pain in the rear sometimes getting them to 2 different schools in the morning but I think it gives him a sense of having something that Ian doesnt and that makes him feel pretty big. He is reading! This is very exciting because he didnt show a strong ability even just a month ago and then all of a sudden, he reads a book to me! Im so happy about this and feel much more comfortable with his kindergarten experience.

Well, no other news today. Hope you all enjoyed your Valentines Day. Denver and I will hopefully be going to lunch and movie tomorrow (pending the ability to snag a babysitter) so I will give my reviews on that next week. I have to work tonight.... so I'd better get moving on the house now or it will stay messy all week. Arent these pictures of the boys so cute. I tell them all the time how they used to be the best of buddies and were always hugging on each other. Now, it seems Im always breaking up fights. Gotta love boys.

Ciao.

LOVE DAY

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

We hope this day brings everyone who reads our blog lots of fun and of course a LOT of LOVE.....

XOXOXOXOXO,
The Shannon Family.

Soren.....

Well, Im still enjoying status as "favorite aunt" to Soren (j/k Laura & Andrea)....at least on the Ries side anyway. Laura and Andrea will have to fight that one out on the Lorenzon side :) Anyway, I had fun watching Addison play with him today as she is so gentle and motherly. Very surprising for her age. I thought she would be insanely jealous of him when I started watching him. But, she has been great (except when she is tired, then I am expected to drop everything for her....naturally) Today she was teaching her little cousin how to properly use the telephone. She was very patient with him and took his age into consideration......Here are some pic's.

So, I put together a little slide of some camera fun we had today. My kids like to pose for the camera. Well, Ian has always been a ham...Evan and Addison took some time to come around but now they are always ready to take a picture. Evan wanted me to take pictures of him today with his Eagle. We went to REI yesterday just for fun and I bought this for him. As I have said before, Evan is an EXTREME animal lover. Doesnt matter if it is cute and cuddly or slimy and scaly....he likes it. He also loves the camera and announced a couple of days ago that when he grows up he "wants to take pictures of kids like at Kiddie Kandids".... we think a photographer for National Geographic should be a perfect job for him. Ian changes his mind often but usually it revolves around the standard stuff, doctor, lawyer, engineer..... anyway, we bought Valentines yesterday and the kids are excited for school on the 14th so they can pass them out. Love is in the air..... Hope you all have a "LOVEly" week.

So, I havent updated for a few days, sorry about that. My weekends are usually not very lively due to working the hours I work. So, a combination of fatigue, boredom, and nothing exciting to report made for a "no blog update" weekend. And frankly there is still nothing exciting to report. It was Stake Conference Sunday so we opted to stay home from church ( and I got some much needed sleep) Saturday we went to eat at Sweet Tomatoes....healthy stuff. The kids LOVE that place and I dont feel bad eating there because even though they have a few "treats", most of the stuff is pretty decent for you. We had a weigh in today at Weight Watchers....I only lost 1 pound this week which was upsetting. Mainly because Denver lost 3.8 pounds and I find that disgustingly unfair (was that even a word?) Oh well, better to have lost 1 than gained 1 right?

Im so excited over something so lame....well it probably wont be lame to other moms out there. But, anyway, we were sortof window shopping at Old Navy Saturday and right now they are having a 40% off sale on all kids and baby clothes. Great deals on all their spring and summer stuff, which my kids desperately need new everything of this year. Anyway, we cant really get anything until Denvers next payday which is 2 weeks away....naturally I assumed the sale would be over by then but I asked anyway.....Im sure you have guessed by now that the sale runs through the 21st.....Denvers' payday! Woo Hoo! I know, pretty sad that this is the kind of thing that revs me up but what can you do? So, that was pretty much our weekend....I hope I have much more to report during the week. Until then.....Happy Monday!

We did it!

I cant believe she finally has enough hair to put sponge curlers in! This is a great day.....I couldnt resist the pictures because of course I find them adorable. Of course as I am writing this, the curlers are still in so who knows what her hair is actually going to look like afterward. All I can say is that its a good thing "bangs" are in style right now because she is going to have bangs for a while. That big patch of hair in the front refuses to grow. Oh well....I may post a picture of the finished product if it turns out....Im sure you all cant wait to see :))

Good Night!

No more Romney....

Well, so much for my poll. Today Mitt dropped out of the race for President. I must say I was a bit dissappointed. Although I hadnt decided for sure who I was going to vote for, if he were on the ballot, I would have probably voted for him. I trust him the most. I dont always agree with him but almost always. I really dont like McCain at all so I may be voting democrat for the first time.....we'll see. Anyway, Im removing my little poll since half the people that visited my blog today didnt bother voting anyway.....:)

I got sad news today about my cousin. Johnny passed away last night and he was just 30....he has had a difficult life for sure but always had such a big heart. He always wanted to be everybodys buddy and even though sometimes it was obnoxious, you couldnt help but love him back. When we moved to Arizona a few years ago, I was left alone to unpack our UHaul because Denver had to go back to Utah for a couple of weeks. Johnny was going to help me unload the heavy stuff but first I had to go to the bank because I wanted to pay him a little for helping me out. When I got back from the bank, Johnny had unloaded the ENTIRE uhaul by himself and was sitting on my couch watching TV when I got back. He petitioned the neighbor to help him with the heavy things. I couldnt believe it. I was so grateful to him for that because I had 2 little boys to deal with by myself and it just made my day. So, thanks Cousin, for being so kind to me and I hope you are at peace.

I just got done unloading and putting away a massive amount of groceries......I think Im going to look into home delivery! Anybody out there utilize home delivery service? If so, leave me a comment as to how it works out for you. I would love to know if you feel it is worth it. My problem is that I shop at Super Walmart for groceries. I really hate going there but we seriously save SO MUCH money. I just cant justify going anywhere else. Which is why I dont know if home delivery would even be an option for us. Anyway....just some thoughts for today.

Misc babble.....

Still not loving this new design but it is staying for now. I need to find some new material. I dont like what I have left. So, not much to report today. Ive lost 11 pounds this month which I am pretty excited about. Just 70 more to go! Wow...I shouldnt remind myself of that fact since it deflates the current mood about my weight loss so far. Either way though, its progress right?

I found some picture cd's from when we lived in Arizona and I didnt have a digital camera at the time (I cant imagine what I did without it!) These pictures are so cute. Obviously i cant post them all but here are a couple of my fave's.... The rest of them I will add to my slide show that plays on the side.....if you are really bored you can sit and watch it and look for new pictures!

Politics....you know I hate em! But, I am curious what most of my readers think so I have added a poll to the bottom of my side panel. It's anonymous so you wont have to worry about people knowing who you are voting for. I would just like to see what the majority is....for fun. So, take a second to vote.

It snowed again today! I swear Spring is never coming. Granted it is only February but still! I saw a funny post on another blog the other day that said "It snowed in Iraq for the first time in 20 years......so much for Global Warming!" Considering the amount of snow we have gotten this winter I would have to say that comment is definitely funny. Not to downplay the damage that we are most definitely doing to the environment, I just thought it was funny.

Well Ive got to go pick up my son from the bus stop......Ciao for now.

Blog Design...

Im so bored with my current colors so Im in the process of changing it up. Im really not liking what is on here right now.....too islandy. I was going to do a Valentine theme but honestly I could not find anything out there that wasnt over the top! I like things a bit more subtle. Then I found some that were too Springy.....although I would welcome Spring at this point (we got more snow last night....) So anyway, Ive spent too much time on it for now.....you'll have to put up with the yuckiness that it is for a few hours longer until the kids are in bed and I can spend some more time on it.

On my last post, a friend of mine made a request to hear more details about my "graveyard shift" and what exactly I do for work. Well, I work for the Post Office. They have a large building here called "The Rec" which stands for Remote Encoding Center. There are only about 10 of them across the county. What we do there is this: When you drop of piece of mail in the box; postman; post office; etc.....the people inside your local post office run it through a machine called a Sorter. The Sorter scans and reads that piece of mail and is able to discern what address that mail is being sent to. However, it is just a machine and sometimes it cannot read the piece of mail for reasons such as; written illegibly, written too lightly, written in glittery ink, the envelope is colored, or the address itself is not valid (mostly the zipcode is what matters). So, when the piece cannot be sorted, the image that was scanned when they put it through the Sorter comes to my computer at the REC. I look at the image and key in the correct address for that mail and that correction goes back through cyber space to the post office it was generated from.....and now the mail gets sorted by hand to its appropriate place. Basically my job from 8pm to 4:30am is sitting in front of a computer and keying images as fast as I can. We cannot talk to our neighbors so it is essentially silent in the center. I listen to my ipod, books on tape, etc and just key key key. It is a simple job for a person who can type quickly and who likes to work and go home. Perfect for me. Plus my schedule can be changed every 90 days if I need to so it is very accomodating for busy moms. I get to be home during the week with the kids and am able to attend school functions....etc. Its great, tiring, but it works great for us. Plus it pays pretty decent. So, there you go. Thats what I do.....I also babysit my nephew 3-4 days a week while his parents work and I watch a girl in Ian's class on Fridays. All of this gives me income as though I worked full time out of the house but I am home for most of the time!

Ok so, no more exciting stuff to report. I am freezing right now. I caught a chill outside while picking up Evan from piano lessons and I cant shake it.....Im deep in the throes of Spring Fever!

Sunday.....

Nothing really exciting to report. Ian gave a talk today in church but by now that is probably old news to most of my readers. He LOVES to get picked to give the talk and he always does such a great job. There was a specific theme for today's talk but Ian decided he wanted to talk about President Hinkley and so his talk was about Prophets.....he is very tender hearted and cried during his talk when he spoke of President Hinkley's passing. I fear he takes after me in that department ...I was doing the best I could to hold back the sobbing. As I get older, I am not just tearing up as I used to, it's full on crying.....sobbing and all. So embarrassing. It doesnt even have to be my child that is speaking to provoke it either. Ah well....what can you do right? Anyway, Ian is such a good reader that I dont worry too much about big words when I help him with his talk. It is always impressive to listen to him speak....I hope that he continues to enjoy it. He will soon start giving his school speeches. This year they are studying Austrailia and his first speech is going to be on the Gulf of Carpentaria. The following speech will be about an Austrailian animal. He hasnt chosen the animal yet. Also, we went to his friends baptism yesterday. This was exciting for him as the realization that his turn is coming up settled in. I cant believe he is going to be 8 this year. It just doesnt seem like 8 years have passed since he came into the world so "roughly".....bull in a china shop right from the womb is what I like to say. Time flies by so quickly and I am saddened by it but excited for the fun things to come too.

Evan is in full birthday mode right now. He is realizing that his birthday is only a couple of months away so every other conversation we have is about possible birthday themes, cakes, presents.....etc. He is very excited to turn 6 but then asks "do I turn 8 after that?" He is anxious to catch up to Ian. It is funny to listen to him because I think he honestly believes that eventually he will physically catch up.....he doesnt understand that Ian ages every year too. I guess that is the plight of the 2nd born.....Its funny because Im finding that I let him do certain things sooner than I had allowed Ian and then I realize Im doing the same thing my parents did. My number one complaint (OK maybe not #1) as a teenager was that Nathan and Jeff got away with murder and I never got to do anything. It is amazing what parenthood teaches you about your own parents and how it helps you to come to understand them so much more. Anyway, it looks like a Jungle party for Evan this year....or some kind of animal party as he is truly a HUGE animal lover.

We bought little Dora the Explorer panties for Addison yesterday. I put one on her for fun because she was very excited to have them.....she peed in them before I could even change her. I think we have a long way to go on the potty training. We also bought a potty seat that fits on your toilet along with a step stool so she can climb up on it. She is still a little nervous about sitting on it completely but we are working on it. This is the first attempt we are making at potty training her. Im not going to push it because I think she will do it when she is ready but we are slowly moving toward it.

Well, I am tired and hungry. Im working my graveyard shift this weekend and I never seem to accomplish anything during those 3 days. It really wreaks havoc on a persons' body to work those hours. Thankfully I only have to do it 3 days......but in the meantime, I better go feed myself and get ready for one more night of work. Sorry no pictures this time except this picture I took of the kids with Olivia....she is a child in Ian's school class that I watch on Fridays for a few hours so that she doesnt have to go to the after school program. I could talk for an hour about the horrors of the after school program at their school but I will save you from the boredom. Anyway, we made Chinese lanterns and this is a picture of them with theirs. Also a picture of my cheezy little girl and of my sweet nephew Soren.

Have a Great Week.