Quick little update: (I haven't uploaded Charlotte's bday pics yet but they're coming soon! Until then, enjoy my latest Project 365 edition.)

times are changing

Hey all. We've had an exciting and interesting week. I spent my day yesterday at Urgent Care. I have had something brewing in my lungs for about 2 weeks and have been patiently waiting for my body to kick it. Yesterday, I woke up and was so weak I couldn't get out of bed. So, I did my best to get kids ready for church and sent them off with Grandma Walburger. Casey came home from his meetings and took me to Urgent Care. They diagnosed me with an respiratory infection that wasn't going to go away without antibiotics. So, they sent me home with a super strong antibiotic and orders to stay in bed. Today, I'm feeling so much better. I'm so thankful for modern medicine! I have so much to do today (It's charlotte's 12th bday) and I need to feel like a human again!

In other news, as I mentioned, Charlotte is 12. She went to her first Youth fireside last night. Am I ready to enter the Young Women world yet? If she wasn't so ready, I'd say no. But, she is so excited about it all that it's hard not be be excited for her. I'll post more later about her bday happenings.

Finally, after a year of saving, I ordered (and received) my 2009 project 365 book. It is so neat to see a memory for every single day of last year...in a professionally bound book. We spent hours reading it as a family. Here are some photos:

It's so nice to have it done and on my shelf. Perhaps I'll be able to get my 2010 book ordered before September of 2011 :)

Brief update

Not much to update today that isn't already in my project 365 below...so enjoy!

Fairy tale family

Lots of updates to do today. First, many of you have asked for a picture of Lydia's new hair-do. (compliments of herself...and grandma walburger) It's a little pixie cut, which is all we could do with it. Her cousin Joel came over the other day and promptly announced that "Lydia looks like a BOY!"

Every night before sleeping, Lydia requires that I tell her a story about herself, "Princess Lydia." Of course, her "prince" is the only boy she really knows, and that's cousin Joel. So, it started out with stories of Princess Lydia getting rescued by her dashing Prince Joel. When that got boring, she started throwing in other characters. Her parents (of course) are king and queen. Jillian is the Wicked Witch. Maggie is the evil troll that lurks under the bridge. Allison is her fairy godmother. (she made all this stuff up). Not to leave the Booren's out of the picture, cousin Drew is her trusty horse and Sam is her baby brother. Uncle Jared is one of the witch's dragons (the mean one) while aunt Charlotte is the nice dragon. I can't remember little Charlotte's character..I'll have to ask her. Anyway, because I know that if I don't document this, I'll one day forget, this is what we do together every night....make up fairy tale stories where Prince Joel is always the hero.

Yesterday, Joel came over and when I went into the bedroom to check on them, here's where I found them...under the bed with their little heads just sticking out. Joel hates it when Lydia calls him "Prince Joel" because, he says, "We can't get married, we're cousins!" It's so fun to have cousins living just a few houses away!

In dieting news, we are having great success. I am creeping up on 8 lbs. and Casey has lost 10. The difference is that while I look pretty much the same, Casey is wasting away. He's gone down at least one pant size, maybe two. I'm rethinking this 40 lb thing...that may get him too skinny! Anyway, I'm trying to stay positive and remember that men lose weight MUCH faster than women do. They do, right?

Distractions

While being slightly distracted with this:

This happens:

That's right...my kids were all working on some art projects at the table so I decided to sit down and read my book for a few minutes. After 20 minutes into my amazing, incredible book (you should all read it), the kids started screaming, "Mom, Lydia cut her hair!" I raced into the kitchen and discovered that she had cut herself a nice set of bangs...all the way back to her ears and had chopped off a big chunk of her lovely locks in the back. I couldn't be mad because she was so darn cute. Today we took her over to Grandma Walburger's house to get it fixed. Lesson learned...never sit down with a book until all my kids are in bed...who knows what could happen!

Growing Pains

First week of school....done! It has been awesome having such a quiet house every day. Though I admit, sometimes, with just Lydia and me, it seems too quiet. For those of you with middle schoolers, do you ever get over the anxiety you feel as a parent when you send them off to school? On Friday, Charlotte came home in a foul mood. I knew something must be wrong because she usually is pretty chipper after school. I immediately thought that maybe someone teased her or she got a tardy or something. Turns out, she was having trouble with her locker and was embarrassed that everyone else could figure it out, except her. So, in between classes, she was panicked because sometimes, her locker partner wasn't there to help her. So, we bought a little bike lock that works just like her locker. She has been practicing all weekend. I hope today goes much better. The other thing that I'm struggling with is that suddenly, she doesn't want to be seen with me. When I offered to back to school on Friday and help her get her locker to open, she was mortified at the thought of it! This makes me sad but I guess it's all a part of growing up. (though it sure is painful for her parents.)

Here's last week!

Dieting

The first day of school went great! The only complaint that I heard was from Allison who felt that school went just far too long. (She's a first grader and has never gone to school all day before.) I'm figuring out my morning routine a little better. Charlotte has to be at school by 7:55 a.m. so to get scripture study, morning chores, lunches packed and breakfast served, I've got to get up by 6:15. YUK! That's just way too early. So far the girls have been enthusiastic about doing their chores before school and doing scripture study. We'll see how long that lasts. :)

In other news, Casey and I have spent the last few weeks devoting ourselves to diet and exercise. We work out every night and eat healthy. Casey started swimming every morning also. (30 laps...I don't know how he does it.) Anyway, after 5 weeks, I've lost 6 lbs. Does that sound normal? It is coming off so SLOWLY! Casey has been at it for only 2 weeks and has lost 5. Why oh why do men loose weight so much faster? We've committed ourselves to loose 40 lbs each. That will get us back down to close to what we weighed before we started having children. Can we do it? I hope so! I find there's much more motivation when we do it together. I knew that Casey is motivated when he went to the store the other day and bought "veggie" chips instead of potato chips. Is this my husband????

I finally got enough money together to order last year's project 365 book. It's over 100 pages in length and I am anxious to get it and review all the memories of 2009. For now thought, here's last week of 2010.

Happy happy first day of school!

The blessed first day of school has arrived. My house is quiet (though not yet clean) and I keep finding myself watching the clock, waiting for 2:30. I am so anxious to hear how everyone's first day went! Allison is in 1st grade this year and it took her a while to understand that she would be going to school ALL day. Maggie is in 3rd grade and has a male teacher this year who she says is very funny. (she met him at last night's open house.) Jillian is already in 5th grade (that means middle school for her next year...eeek) and she has quite a few friends in her class. Her goal this year is to be more organized. Last year that was a big problem for her and she knows that in order to do well in middle school, she has to be organized. Here are my 4 younger girls on a wet and cold first day of school.



And, the child that I'm perhaps most anxious to see is Charlotte. She started middle school today and she was visibly nervous all morning. Casey took her to school, she met her locker partner, and then, she was on her own. I so hope that things go well!

(Charlotte, how can you be in middle school already?)

much needed changes

It's almost here!!! The first day of school starts tomorrow and I am breathing a sigh of relief. The last month has been particularly challenging. I feel like the fighting between my girls has increased dramatically and my already small-ish house seems tiny! I clean up a mess, turn around, and it's messy again. I am anxious to do a post summer deep clean of the place.

In other news, in the next few months we are doing a mini remodel of our house. The old carpets (nine years old...five kids, a dog and a cat...you can imagine how worn out they are) are getting replaced with a laminate wood floor. We are tearing out every room in the house except bedrooms. We are also going to paint the exterior of the house...I think we're the last ones on the block to get it done. We've been saving for this for some time but we don't have enough money to hire someone to do it. (and, our resident handy-man, Einar, moved far away) So, my studly husband is going to do the work with some help from friends and family. We'll see how that goes.

Project 365 for 2 weeks ago: (I'm a little behind) enjoy!

my love of camping

Anyone that knows me well knows that I detest camping. I really, really hate it. I would have made a terrible pioneer. But, we gave into our childrens' begging and this year, went to our Ward Campout at Schwartz park right outside of Cottage Grove. Despite my misgivings, we had a really great time. The best parts were watching Grandma Walburger cook a feast of goodies using various campfire techniques. We had reflector oven biscuits, giant cookies, a cherry dump cake and a peach dump cake. Holy cow...the woman should have been a pioneer. Next time we camp, we're hiring her as our cook. Another fun thing was visiting around the campfire and watching the Bishopric cook a lovely breakfast in the morning. Brother Stockford make us ham and cheese pancakes. That's right, the ham and cheese were inside the pancake. I was hesitant to try it but it was actually really good. By 11:00 that next morning, after a pretty sleepless night, we were ready to pull out. 18 hours of camping... I can handle that :)