Memorial Day Plans...Wait, We Had Plans?!

For Memorial Day weekend, we had planned to go to Conrad, Montana to see our niece graduate from High School. This was going to be our ONE trip of the summer due to the baby coming in August.  Those plans were contingent on our main sewer and water line being completed since our basement had flooded... Okay, let me back up a little...

David and I bought a 1958 rambler about seven years ago and in the years since then we have almost entirely remodeled the interior. This has definitely been a labor of love, or frustration, blood, sweat, or tears. You pick! Alas, one of the final things we needed to have done was replacing our clay sewer line to the street. It was cracked in several places, and we have had problems with it clogging over the years. Sunday night, it backed up into our newly remodeled basement and needless to say, that was the last straw. We scheduled for the construction to begin on Wednesday, giving us plenty of time to leave for MT on Friday. It was only supposed to be a one day job. Key phrase..."supposed to be a ONE DAY job."

Here are pictures of our house before and during construction.

 

There was dirt everywhere and all the neighbors were poking around wondering "what we were doing." When we dug a hole in our backyard for our tramp they thought we were putting in a swimming pool! I can only imagine what they thought!

This irrigation pipe was such a pain in the butt! They had to hand dig around it and the comcast pipe. This made for a lot of shovel digging, especially since they had to do it twice!

The lovely trench that spans my front yard to the street! It was about 3 feet wide and 9 feet deep! They removed two large pieces of sidewalk, most of my grass, and half of my flowerbeds! Ugh...

This is the old, broken clay pipe. So glad to be rid of that stuff!

You can see how deep it was with these two plumbers standing in it. What a project!

These are the "Trench Boxes" they had delivered after David threatened to kick them off the site. The excavator almost lost his machine in the trench as well as tried to bury one of his guys. It was awful!

These boxes were huge! As you can see. They weighed about 400 lbs each.

At the end of the day, they didn't do the pipe correctly the first time and had to re-dig most of it out again. After much frustration and anger from my husband they did finish the job very late Friday night. We cancelled our MT trip to stay and make sure the job was finished properly, and now have a large mess in our front yard to deal with. Good times people...good times.

Family time with Grandma & Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa Legg came to see us over the weekend! Since their move to Arizona we have been lucky enough to have them visit every month. Boy do we love seeing them! Since it was Jenna's birthday weekend, they scheduled to take all the grandkids to Jungle Jims for some good ol' fun! The kids had pizza, soda, and unlimited rides, as well as tokens to play the arcades! 

The best part for me? Being able to sit in one place, without kids crawling all over me, reading the USA today and talking about the latest in government, business, and sports! What a great way to spend a Saturday. The other bonus? We were able to take three of Debra's kids with us so she could have some quiet, or relatively quiet, time at her house too! Debra is my sister-in-law who has been so helpful to us in the last few years. She is always willing to have our kids come play, and right now is watching Andrew full-time while David finishes school and I work. We look for all kinds of opportunities to return the favor! Hey, isn't that what family is for?!

Here are some pictures of our great time! Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!

Jenna's Seuss Birthday!

So, as you saw in my last post, I forgot Jenna's birthday but luckily, not entirely. On Friday night she had a Dr. Seuss birthday party with a bunch of her friends. Needless to say I went "all out," I seem to have a habit of doing this. 

Jenna had the girls all dress up as characters from Dr. Seuss' books. We had Cindy Lou Who, Thing 1, Sam I Am, Sally, Pair of Green Pants, and two more I can't remember!

I was happy that they all had such a good time! Making my kids smile makes me smile!

 

What a week!

This week has been one of "THOSE" weeks. 

Monday I had some very unsuccessful meetings at work, you know the ones where you always have  that one person who is trying to halt change and progress for everyone. Needless to say a downright crappy day. I thought, it's okay, things will be better the rest of the week! Hahaha fat chance!

Tuesday was complete with feeling every day of my 26 weeks! This baby is trying to tell me that he has no where to go, I have stayed very small this pregnancy, and it is really starting to make me uncomfortable. :(

Wednesday seemed a little better until I realized I had forgotten Jenna's birthday which was the next day! What a horrible mom I am! Things have been so busy with David's classes, the kids, work, pregnancy, etc. that I had totally spaced it! I was ironing my shirt for work when she came in and said "I'm so excited for tomorrow!" to which I asked her why. She said "Mom, you know why!" Then I knew something was up and just played along. She continued by saying "It's my birthday silly." Luckily I was able to pull this one out, and if you know Jenna it goes without saying why, but I teased her that it was not her birthday and she thought I was joking the whole time. Once again... Mother of the Year. Needless to say, I rushed out after work to buy her birthday presents, which turned out to be an epic fail because the only thing she asked for was a book series called Skullduggery Pleasant and it was sold out everywhere. Luckily I have a very understanding daughter who said no problem when I told her I had to order them! Love this girl. Can't believe she is 12!!

Thursday was filled with meetings. After several morning meetings I had to run to Kneaders to pick up food for our Directors Luncheon. I was sitting in the left turn lane on 1600 N & State St when all of a sudden the Range Rover in front of me started backing up. I laid on my horn but alas he still rammed right into the front of my car! His hitch went right through, and he put a small dent in my hood, among various other scratches, cracks, and breaks. After waiting 45 minutes for the extremely competent Orem City police officer (if you couldn't tell I'm being sarcastic) I got my accident report and rushed off to pick up lunch that was now an hour late! Good thing my boss is only slightly like the wicked witch in The Devil Wears Prada or things could have been much worse. Oh and don't let me forget the best part! When the officer asked the gentleman who hit me how he didn't see me, he replied "my backup camera didn't even pick up her car!" Argh!!!

Well, now it is Friday and my day seems to truly be off to a better start. Tonight I am hosting Jenna's "Dr Seuss" birthday party for ten 12 year-old girls! We are looking forward to a great time. I will post pics later. Happy weekend everyone!

Madi & Drew

Its always a special treat at our house when Madi and Andrew actually get along. The norm is one of them chasing down the other at "rocket-speed" (as Andrew calls it) to beat the other one up. This is quite entertaining, as Madi can usually outrun her brother and she is much bigger.  Lately, Andrew has gotten really smart! If he does something to set Madisen off, he will run as fast as he can to our bedroom and lock the door. Madisen then pounds on the door so hard you think she will break through at any minute. It's quite comical.

Although Madi claims that she doesn't like her brother, there are always rare moments like these:

She is giving Andrew a piggyback through the house, and she is doing a cartwheel over him while giving him a kiss on the forehead. It was so cute to hear Andrew just laugh and laugh because Madi's hair was tickling his nose. I love these moments with my children, and take pictures to prove to them that they love each other! Sometimes that is hard to believe, and a picture is a great reminder!

I remember growing up in a house with sibling rivalry; one kid was always trying to prove dominance over the rest. It is interesting to watch this same dynamic play out between my children. I keep telling them that this will pass and to remember how much they love each other!  Madi just keeps telling us she doesn't want anymore brothers! To late Madi, our new baby is a boy!! ;) I love these two monkeys!

Mother's Day

I know of few of you mothers out there can sympathize with me when I give you my Mother's Day rant. I mean, come on, do we really have to label a day "Mother's Day" so that we can be appreciated? It ranks right up there with Valentines Day for me...an over commercialized holiday to celebrate  something we should be celebrate and appreciate every day of our lives! It is such a struggle for me to walk through any store the week of Mother's Day and see all the cards, flowers, balloons, and gifts for mothers that may only be shown appreciation because of this one day. What about the countless dinners, loads of laundry, help with homework, kissing away the scrapes and bruises, etc. that we do everyday? Shouldn't we always be appreciated for the menial yet so important things that we do for our families?

Okay, enough with that! Alas, my Mother's Day was wonderful. Know why? Because it did not consist of a bunch of "stuff" bought from a store, but instead included sleeping in, breakfast in bed made by my amazing kiddos, my husband telling me just how much I mean to him and our family, and a visit with my own mother who means so much to me. Those are the things that make me feel appreciated, not gifts. Yes, gifts are nice. I did get flowers and my favorite kind of licorice from my kids, as well as an amazingly cute blanket my mom made for our "coming soon" baby. These things are great. But what made my day is the heartfelt love and appreciation from my husband and kids. They make every day worth living! Without them, I would not be the person I am. 

I know there is the big argument swirling around about defining our lives outside of motherhood; being our own individual person outside of our everyday roles. My thoughts on this? That me being the greatest mother I can be is what I want to define me! Nothing else I do, in my entire lifetime, will ever compare to what I can do for my children. They, as well as my husband, are the greatest things in my life. I count my blessings everyday for the joy, sorrow, frustration, laughter, and just amazing things they add to my life. So remember, that today of all days, when you are angry about the flowers you didn't get or feel validated and appreciated for all that you did, you matter. This world would not be the same without loving mothers leading the way, teaching and nurturing our up-and-coming leaders! Way to go moms!! 

Where to Begin...

I guess we will start from right now. That's a beginning of sorts...isn't it?

I am currently a crazy working mom, who is attempting to do a graduate degree at the University of Illinois, raise four amazingly active kids, pregnant with the fifth, better than average wife, and the list goes on and on. I love life and family, and wouldn't trade any of it for the world!

David, is a school-o-holic, trying to finish a BS in Business, Marketing, and Economics (overachiever? I would say so!) He is an awesome stay-at-home dad in between classes and homework. We traded a very normal lifestyle for the one we are currently adventuring through and are loving (okay, maybe that's a little strong) every minute of it!

KayDee (13) is our teenage drama queen, who is more emotional than I would have ever expected. She will be a freshmen in the fall and cannot wait for driving, boys, friends, dances, you know all the normal teenage girl stuff. She is a fabulous reader and a typical student who gets the "once-a-week" talking to about her grades!

Jenna (12) is our child that excels at everything she touches. She is currently whizzing through 6th grade to be a big "Jr Higher" next year. She is so fun to be around and attracts all kinds of interesting friends. She loves to sing, especially in the shower at high pitches (YIKES!), and is a spunky kid. She is definitely the family entertainer!

Madisen (7) is our extremely temperamental first grader who always keeps us on our toes! Just this morning, she awoke happy and friendly to turn around and have a total meltdown that required David shoving her into her classroom 20 minutes after the bell had rung! Never a dull moment with this one! She loves to do gymnastics, play with cousins, and boss around anyone or anything that she can! People say she is just like me, to which I comment "I know, isn't she perfect?!"

Andrew (5) is our little man who is quickly turning into an "all boy." He used to be cuddles and kisses, but now he has traded that for picking on his sisters, sword fights with sticks, and little pecks on the cheek. Boy do they change! He loves Transformers, cars, and playing outside. He is an absolute joy after ALL THOSE GIRLS! ;)

Our newest little guy is currently cooking away, in my stomach no less, and will make his first appearance three months from now. Very unplanned, VERY, but we are excited nonetheless. He will be a great addition to our brood of characters, and we can't wait! No name as of yet, his dad is quite difficult in this area. 

Well, that's us! I am hoping to keep this blog frequently updated with all the crazy and exciting things happening in our family. I hope you enjoy our stories as much as I do!