Pictures from my phone

Times Square New Years Eve. Very fun!

Claire in the hospital needing Oxygen after her worst asthma attack. Don't recommend this to anyone.

Claire with curls and fully oxygenated.

She was a very bad girl this night not wanting to participate in the festivities. If you look behind Santa, you can see the fireplace that Eldon and I made. Well Steve Sabin "made it", we painted it and Eldon decorated it.

Oh the black mail pictures I will have when he is older. Thank goodness for digital.

Piano Recital. A bit blurry.

His first violin recital. A serious virtuoso.

Our little cub scout.

So here are a few pictures from my old phone that I saved. I hope the new phone has better images.

The only good thing about winter

The only good thing about winter is how cold my drinks get while being stored in the garage. How cold the water is when it comes out of the tap. How quickly a hot room can cool down when you open the window. These are marvelous things, but really are they worth it? Maybe just the cold drinks in the garage. I'm a sucker for that. They are way colder than drinks from the fridge but not cold enough to freeze. It's a rare treat.

The blasted pancakes

Ok - what child does not like pancakes? Max does not. Either he doesn't like them or likes to spend inordinate amounts of time manipulating us into thinking he doesn't like them. Every time we have pancakes, let me step back and say, every time Eldon makes the most amazing pancakes I have ever had, Max has a complete melt down. The first time, banana pancakes with caramel syrup. Unbelievable pancakes. He didn't eat for weeks after the trauma of us demanding he eat three bites.

Last night, chocolate chip pancakes that were really the most delicious I have had. Max ate his bacon, drank two glasses of milk and then tried to escape with having cut a piece of pancake away and not touching it. Normally I could care less if he eats, but I knew with the little amount he ate, we would find him hoarding a bag of pretzels 10 minutes later. Eldon put the hammer down and said he couldn't leave the table until he ate the pancake.

Oh the tears. Tears led to hyperventilating, then to gagging, then to near passing out from the drama. I mean who can eat a chocolate chip cookie by the dozen and not a chocolate chip pancake? It ended up he gave up his new DS until JUNE to avoid eating a delicious pancake.

I don't get it.

More thoughts

As you can probably tell, Eldon is traveling so I am left alone to my thoughts. I try to fill my head with TV so that my thoughts don't get too out of control, but I'm very frustrated with TV so I have moved to books. While reading, there are only thoughts in my head so here is to moving them out of my head and into the public.

I just finished reading "The Year of Living Biblically". I found profoundly interesting the views of agnostic people. So much of my life centers around religion that I just can't imagine not having any religious foundation and how confusing that must be. I'm sure the agnostics must feel that I have no time for real thought because so much of my time is wrapped up in religious thought. Anyhow, I recommend the book. It was funny, and I learned a lot about Judaism. I'm sure I learned about Judaism what a Jew might learn about Christ from "Jesus Christ Superstar" the musical but I did find a few nice insights.

I keep asking myself, why can kids be so polarized from day to day? I mean Jackson can go from telling me that I am beautiful to trying to rip the carpet off of the floor. Their scope is so limited that I can't imagine they can be that different from day to day. It's really driving me Crazy.

That's all for now.

Things I have been thinking about

I haven't done a post in so long and so I have about ten minutes and thought I would put down a few of the things I have been tossing around.

New Years Resolutions - I for once would like to make a New Years Resolution that wasn't only about weight loss. It's like why do I have to decide to lose weight in January? So this year, along with weight loss, I have included some work goals that will no doubt make my boss happy, but our family too. We also did this as a family and made some family goals for each of us.

-Family Scripture Reading - We have successully read the scriptures every morning since January 3. It has been much better than I thought and the kids are doing great. Max is definitely getting the most out of it, but the others enjoy being included in something that seems grown up.

-Family Prayer- We have also been able to do morning and evening family prayer since January 3. I think organization is the key for us as we have never been opposed to it, just not organized enough to make it all happen continuously.

-Making our beds and picking up our rooms before school. We have not done very good at this. I'm going to start over tomorrow with a renewed emphasis on it. The kids are capable and willing (kind of) but it's just how many battles can I fight before school?

Attitude - I have always had a pretty decent attitude on life and I think it has served me pretty well. But this week it has been harder to stay positive. My husband has been home for a few months and I just got used to having his help. But the traveling has started again and the transition to solo parent is starting again. To keep a good attitude, I used to plan fun things for me to work on while he was gone, but I'm not there yet. Hopefully my projects will seem more doable and I will help the time pass by easier.

Cleaning - I hate it. I truly feel like I'm pouring alcohol over an open wound whenever I think about starting it. I've become famously great at overlooking things that need to be done. My mother can't stand it as it knaws at her, but I tell you having to do it is more painful than stepping over a few things on the floor. I'm always very happy when things are clean, but I just don't get that rush that some experience when cleaning and seeing the finished product. So to tie in my New Years Resolutions, if I reach a certain mark within my sales, the maid comes back. Ivanni that precious girl who is so good at cleaning. Even if I work my darndest to get something clean, she always does a better job. So some may say this is a cop out, but when you work like I do and have a few minutes at home, who wants to spend that time cleaning???? I say if you can, hire it out.