Hi There!

Well, I have spent the last few days going through all my 2010 pics and organizing and labeling them. I still need to tackle the four prior years, but I started with the easy, semi organized one. Every once and a while I have a minor panic attack about having my family history in order. I feel like things get so lost in the digital world, but I guess it is the same when you have stacks of pictures. I was definitely not blessed with a natural knack to organize or clean. I feel like I spend a good day cleaning bathrooms, floors etc, and then a few days later everything is a disaster again and it totally spills over into my moods. I have piles of sand throughout my house. I know that is my fault considering I asked to have a sandbox, but I just wish I was better at keeping on top of it. I wish I would pull the vacuum out every night and clean. But, I would rather do things I enjoy in the evening and so whatever does not get done in the day, remains that way.

Bedtime was a chore tonight. I usually enjoy it, but I am tired and I just wanted them in bed. Paige was a major pill, complaining that she was hot. She has wet hair, only panties on, a fan blowing in her room, and I turned the AC on the pm. There is NO way she is hot. So, she lays in her bed and sobs her eyes out. It gives me tremendous guilt because I really want bedtime to be a peaceful end to the day. Instead, my last words to her were..."if you get out of that bed again...(insert punishment of your choice)." Man, I feel like a crummy mom sometimes.

I really need to go to bed earlier tonight. Duh. I think I have been saying that for the last 20 years. With Douglas gone, I just seem to stay up forever. I am not doing anything important, just avoiding my empty bed. My kids just get up too early for me to be getting to bed past midnight. I wish they would get up and go watch TV together downstairs until I feel like getting up, but instead they fight and get into trouble. When I was a kid I just wanted to watch TV in the morning. I really don't get these two kids I have. Today was a fight because Jackson wanted to watch Star Wars. Really, at 6:30am?? Paige had no interest. She wanted to watch Busytown. So, I awake to Paige's shriek across the house. It was delightful.

Douglas is on day two of his internship and loving it. They are really nice at the office and he enjoys his work. He takes the bus and metro to and from work and rides his bike everywhere else. He says it feels like he is on a mission again. Ha! He goes to bed at 10pm each night, awakes at 6am, rides his bike, studies his scriptures, eats a healthy bfast and gets to work on time. I don't understand his efficiency one bit.

I guess I would be efficient if I actually got a good night sleep too....

It went from cold to hot and muggy here. Blah...It is nice until the afternoon and then I just sweat. It should be a nice, long, hot summer!

The last few days Paige and I have spent collecting things for her birthday party. Since I am on a very limited budget, I have gotten very creative about what to do and have found a lot of great things on clearance at various stores. It should be fun. We are inviting way too many people, but I am very sensitive about people feeling left out and would rather error on the side of inviting too many rather than leaving people out. I think often times that is more hurtful to the moms than the actual kid. Oh well, the party will be out back so maybe we can handle a bit of chaos. We are doing a "fairy" theme. It should be pretty cute. I ordered Paige some fairy wings (I love amazon prime) and will be making wands and fairy hats. Not sure what to do for the boys, but if they have a problem (at age 4) with a fairy theme they can just not come.

Paige has a couple of her preschool friends that live down the street and it has been so nice for her to have friends to play with during the day. Unfortunately the cut off for school here is December 1st and one of her friends barely makes the cut off and her mom decided to start her. I am a little shocked to tell you the truth. She seems younger than Paige!! I guess sometimes moms just want their kids gone for the day. It will be sad for Paige though. They have such fun (and get in to a lot of trouble) together.

Jackson is doing a little better in general...school, home etc. We went through a rough patch for the past month and a half. It isn't 100% better, but it isn't as contentious around here. I have really been trying to use Love and Logic and he responds well to that. He always responds well to being charged for things. He loves money so it is a great motivator. I started giving him an allowance each week if he does his chores and whatnot. He gets $2.50 and he loves getting money. That kid amazes me. He is like an adult trapped in a child's body (or so he thinks).

My ultrasound is next week. I am excited though it will be strange to be there alone and have to call Douglas afterwards. I have had a lot of pain in my belly lately which has concerned me a bit though I am thinking they are gas pains. Pregnancy really does amazing things to your body. I go to my monthly appt. tomorrow so hopefully will find out that it is nothing more.

We had the craziest rainstorm yesterday. I have never driven through something like that. I couldn't see more than a foot or so ahead of the car. It just dumped. It was very nerve wracking to drive in, but I am alive to tell about it.

That's about it, I guess. I am going to get caught up on some really old pictures from last year for the next few days...bear with me!