Thrice Blessed

YW Lesson: Our Purpose in Life

2011-02-11T06:32:00.000-08:00

Seriously, these are 4X6. Why are they showing up like this?!?!?!

YW hand out

2011-02-11T05:42:00.000-08:00

Each week I try to provide a handout to go with my Young Women's lesson. Here is the handout I created for lesson #6.

It is formatted to print 4X6. It does look funny right here, though!

2011-02-11T05:41:00.000-08:00

News flash: I am behind in blogging my photography posts. Please try to act surprised. We are having some snow days and life is a little crazy!

Day Seven: Generations

2011-02-07T07:21:00.000-08:00

I had to slightly cheat on this assignment. Ok. Full out cheat. We were to take pictures of generations. I decided just to select a few pictures from Christmas and edit those. I feel abundantly blessed to have the family that I do. I wish we lived closer to them. But, at this time it is not possible. So, we cherish the moments we do have together.

This is a Christmas ornament with the name of my mom and her two sisters.

This is Matthew and my dad making a hand rail. I love how they are both so deep in thought in this picture. These two were born to be in each other lives!

Cousins: Brook, Ali, Ashley, Emily and Kat. Dana, did I get the twinners correct?

These two boys, Luke and Papa, both share and avid love of coins. They had a great time going thru Papa's collection. Luke learned a lot and came home and started organizing for real!

I am grateful our generations can be eternal bound. This life on Earth is not nearly enough time for all the fun we could have!!

Day Six: Who they love

2011-02-06T07:21:00.000-08:00

These two are never far apart. If I need one of them, I look for the other one.

On this particular night, they were making a cell fuel car. I was snapping multiple pictures for this assignment. They finally decided to ham it up for the camera and this is the image that was captured.

Day Five: Love to Hate

2011-02-05T13:13:00.000-08:00

What do I love to hate? Well not a whole lot of hating going on in my life!

Our kitty, Oliver, (you know Oliver, right?) L*O*V*E*S to drink out of the toilet. I have no idea why. I have put up with it until we moved into our new house. Then I told him, "This is enough. Drink out of a cup like a normal cat." So, he has a cup (he won't drink out of a bowl) in the master bathroom and the kitchen window. He still begs and pleads to drink out of the toilet. When I feel my resolve weakening, this is what happens.

We have a "no technology" rule at our family dinner table. Last night Kat was pretty sure we lifted that rule. So, I decided just to talk her picture over and over. In the first picture of her, she was typing on my facebook wall, "Dear mom, please stop taking pictures of me eating my dinner...Thank you!"

Yes, Kat. We know you are still texting!!!

I do love that she has friends and loves living in Nashville with all her little girl heart!

Day Four: What they wear

2011-02-04T08:22:00.000-08:00

This is my poor sick kitty wearing a sweat shirt. He cuddled in it for days while he didn't feel well. We are happy to report he is back to his evil ways!

Day Three: then and now

2011-02-03T08:26:00.000-08:00

Today's assignment was to capture images of progressing along the aging process. I have always thought my hands look old so I took a picture of them.

Matt's hands don't look old. I love how he works all day long building teeny, tiny circuit boards with those hands. He also plays the piano, does dishes and flies helicopters with Luke with those very hands.

Day two: How they look: Crazy!

2011-02-02T06:37:00.000-08:00

No one in my house will take a serious picture! But, I guess if they really want to know how my loved ones look this is it!!!

Day one: what they do

2011-02-01T06:29:00.000-08:00

Day one of the Joy of Love photography class found us taking pictures of what our loved ones do. Oliver was the only one who cooperated with me.

This is Oliver "helping." He loves to help me with whatever I happen to be doing at the time!

The Joy of Love

2011-02-01T06:21:00.000-08:00

This month I am participating in a photography on-line class. It is free and fun! Come join in the fun!

I only have one problem. We are supposed to be taking pictures of those we love and they are all annoyed with me. Even the cat!!

2010-12-08T04:38:00.001-08:00

I realize I have failed at blogging lately. The sad thing is, I LOVE blogging. I love thinking about our days and looking at my pictures. I just can't find the time or energy to do it lately. So, for now, I am taking a blogging break. I hope to return soon.

Soelberg Fall Break

2010-10-31T09:39:00.000-07:00

My sister's family came to town for their Fall Break. We had SO much fun! More details will follow...but I wanted to get this picture up for our mummy. We missed Josh and Dana's family and Nana and Papa!!!

Ali's Band Performance at Contest of Champions

2010-10-30T18:42:00.000-07:00

Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, Fall Party and Friday Night Lights

2010-10-29T08:35:00.000-07:00

Friday brought even more fun. Ali and Luke announced that they HAD to go to school. Really? I understood the high schooler needing to be in school. But the fourth grader? Ok, so, he had a fall party. In the long run, Kat was the only kiddo that decided to play hooky with us!

Sara brought a fabulous idea for a fabulous picture frame she wanted Matt and Joe to make. So, after five hours at work, we swept in and kidnapped Matt :) Don’t forget, we had an awesome 7^th grader home with the younger cousins. Man, that was a stroke of genius on my part!

So, off to Home Depot the adults went. I guess somewhere during the morning Sara and I decided to make a little stop at Hobby Lobby. As we walked into Hobby Lobby, Joe announced that he felt a little duped. He was sure he heard us say Home Depot not Hobby Lobby!

After Hobby Lobby and Home Depot, we grabbed a quick bite to eat. Joe is in a MBA program at Kelly School of Business. So, we were happy to have him each moment we could. After lunch Joe was into a conference call and Matt and I ran to Luke’s Fall party.

Is Luke not the cutest fourth grader?

After a Sorensen family dinner of Aunt Naomi's Linguini and Grandpa Sorensen's Pistachio Salad, we bundled up and headed to the football game Ali was marching in. Sara lies about how cold it was. Seriously. Wasn't she raised in Utah and Idaho??

We were the visiting team. But, we wanted to be able to Ali's band AND there weren't seats left on the visiting side, so we were stuck with the home fans. I guess our school had deemed the evening a tribute to Breast Cancer Awareness. Partway through the game Sara noticed a peculiar sign hanging from our high school's stands. I didn't believe her. So, we each took pictures of it and enlarged them with our cameras. If you click on the picture below, you can see the sign that Franklin High was displaying. Pay special attention to the black and pink sign in the far right hand corner!

Sara and Libby. See? It isn't even that cold looking, is it?

My sister and her sweetheart, Joe. They are so stinking cute together! It made my heart so happy to hear them talk and laugh together.

Libby had the best seat in the house to watch Ali perform.

Jenna Dear wearing a pink and white hat. When we married Matt, it was HIS hat. But, we informed him it was NOT a boy hat. So, only girls wear it now :)

Aside from what I thought was a slightly disrespectful police officer, we all had a delightful, freeze your butt off night. (You may insert your own "ta-ta" joke here :))

Trunk or Treat

2010-10-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning I awoke with great excitement. My sister and her family were coming to town! And just in-time for our church's Trunk or Treat. But first, there were beds that needed clean sheets, Friday dinner to prepare and a volunteer shift at the high school to serve. Not to mention running club and band. We were foregoing soccer for the big occasion.

Mrs. Weasley, Snape, Hermione (Holy Hermione!!) and a Hungarian Horntail beat me to the church! I was so happy to see their smiling faces. Aren't they adorable? They love Halloween ALMOST as much as the love Harry Potter. Much to my sister's dismay, I don't like either. For them to come to my house on their favorite holiday of the year was amazing!

Even though the cousins aren't together all that often, they always act like not a moment has past.

Introducing the boring Halloween couple of the night!

I thought the colors in this pictures were awesome!

Are these not the cutest little Halloween cousins?!?!?

This is Matt...

2010-10-28T04:26:00.000-07:00

...but we call him Matthew.

Yesterday we took family pictures. If you look family pictures up in the dictionary, it will say, "a period of time in which you pay someone to torture you and your loved ones." Scouts honor :) Matt had a meeting that was scheduled to go a little long into the afternoon, so the kids and I met with the photographer and got started on their pictures before Matt arrived. Luke was a little crazy the whole photo shoot, but much crazier in the period of time before Matt got there. When I saw Matt walking down the long sidewalk toward us, I turned to Luke and said, "There is Matt!" Luke jumped down off the structure he was currently climbing and ran full speed ahead. When Luke got remotely close to Matt, he launched himself into Matt's arms. Luckily Matt has gotten used to this action and caught Luke in mid-air and threw him over his shoulder.

I counted my blessings as my two boys walked toward me. As Luke held Matt's hand, he introduced Matt to the photographer with, "This is Matt, but we call him Matthew."

I can't imagine our lives without Matthew. He has cared for and nurtured each of the children. They love and adore him. They tease him relentlessly. Nine times out of ten they will call or text him before they will call or text me. He talks to them. He listens to them. He offers his full, unconditional love to them. They have blossomed with his love and attention.

This is Matt. But we call him Matthew.

Dining Room

2010-10-25T06:35:00.000-07:00

We are slowly getting our new home just the way we like it. Our current project is our dining room. We finally decided on paint colors a few weeks ago and started painting. Sadly, a couple hours into painting the walls I fell off the ladder. Talk about pain. I just realized if you add a "t" to pain it becomes paint. Rather interesting, don't you think?

Well, the walls are painted. Now what? Who wants to come help me do the rest of the decorating. Please, no ladders! I am finally able to breath, cough and sneeze without crying!

Above is the very corner I fell. Matt says it was a 4 or 5 foot fall. I landed on my left side, on top of the metal ladder.

We are currently undecided on the table cloth. I actually want a pink one...but not sure how that would work out.
The flowers are from my dear, dear friend Keeley. I love her!

Happy Birthday, Kat!

2010-10-15T08:52:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to the spunkiest thirteen-year-old I have the pleasure of knowing! She has a laugh and smile that is contagious. She tackles life with a determination that is unparalleled.

Kat recently decided she wanted the fourth generation iTouch. She crunched the numbers. If she took all her saved fun money and sold her current iTouch, she could buy the 8 GB fourth generation. So, we listed her iTouch on ebay. No buyers. We lowered the price and it sold. Well, the buyer ended up not following thru with the sale. So, she sold it to her brother. Don't worry, Matt and I brokered the deal. Signed contract and all. Hurray!

Matt and I decided our birthday gift to her would be to surprise her and make up the difference for her to be able to step up to the 32 GB. We know she is going to take scads of pictures and video. We worried she would fill up a 8 GB in no time. So, yesterday I asked a friend to pick up the iTouch for us from Costco. Last night Matt got it all charged and set up with her apps and music from her old iTouch. I wrapped it. We planned to give it to her sometime today. Sometime when we thought it would be perfect timing. Well, the iTouch decided when it wanted to be given...when her daily alarm went off at 5:45 this morning! When Matt transfer everything from the old iTouch to the new one, the alarm when right along with it. So, at 5:45 this morning, her present lit up, started vibrating and singing!!! We hurriedly gathered the family, sang happy birthday over the ruckus and had her turn it off!!! We didn't even get any pictures in those crazy moments!

All in all, it was a surprise!!

Kat, thanx for being part of our family. We love you!

Trunk or Treat

2010-10-09T07:56:00.000-07:00

Wedding Pictures

2010-09-21T05:11:00.001-07:00

I am starting to work on an album of our wedding pictures...yea, me!! Hopefully y'all won't get tired of seeing my scrapping pages as I am a little addicted.

Today is a half-day at school. Seriously people. What a waste. The kids barely get to school and I barely get something done before you put them back on the bus! Kat is going home with a friend and Luke is bringing a friend home. Ali will come home for a bit before returning for three hours of band.

Happy 1/2 day to you!!!

Soccer Season

2010-09-20T08:34:00.001-07:00

We finally got Luke signed up for soccer. Seriously, it was crazy with the time we moved here and all. But, he is on a great little team with mostly boys from his school. He L*O*V*E*S it!! Ali went to his last game and almost started crying she misses it so much. She just can't do everything she wants to do.

Garage Sale-ing

2010-09-20T06:04:00.000-07:00

We live in a planned community. Lots of rules and such. One rule is there will only be garage sales twice a year...on two designated Saturdays of the year. We L*O*V*E garage sales. Why? Personally I love a good deal and it is just fun to go around and see other people houses...and crap!

On the weekend of the last garage sale in Fieldstone Farms, we were moving from our rental house to our very own house. I would not recommend trying to move on garage sale weekend. There are multiple reasons for this. The number one reason is your husband doesn't really want to load up your garage sale purchases along with all the rest of the stuff in your house. But, if he is like my husband, he is happy to do it anyway. But, why torture the poor guy? The second reason not to move on garage sale weekend is that people assume everything you are loading up is FOR SALE. Darling Kat finally got so tired of telling people we were NOT having a garage sale that she posted this sign:

The third, and final reason to not move on garage sale weekend is that there are cars everywhere and it is hard to navigate trucks, trailers, vans and cars full of stuff through all the craziness!

Ok, back to this past Saturday's sales. Kat was with a friend and Ali was already at band. So, it was just my boys and me off to find great finds. This time was a little disappointing. There weren't a whole lot of good things and a lot of stuff was SO over priced it wasn't even funny. We did end up with a few treasures and I thought I would share them all!

This lovely skirt is from Talbot's. It is made from Italian silk. We bought it for Ali, but surprisingly, she doesn't like it. It is a size 2. If it were only 2 inches longer I could adopt it! It was only 50 cents.

Hands down, the best single garage sale was Franklin High School's Project Graduation. This group of moms, Project Graduation, spends all year raising money for a huge party after graduation. Ugg. I am not looking forward to Ali graduating in a few years. Here are the finds from that sale:

1. 19 pairs of socks for Luke that cost us 75 cents. I was questioning Matt as to whether to buy one bag or two. He told me to go for two since we seem to go thru socks so much. I asked him if I was supposed to WASH the socks or just throw them away :) I remember my mom telling me about when my cousin got married. Before they got married, her husband had just been throwing his underwear away opposed to washing it! I guess Matt caught me and now I have to wash stuff!2. We bought two book there for a dime each. We got this great Webelos book. Luke is now a Webelos. Where does time go?!?!? Luke also got Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. They are reading it in school and he wanted to get ahead!

3. Eight pizza pan so we can make personal pan pizzas. How fun will that be?!?!? Anyone want to come do it for me?

4. Franklin Athletics shorts. We bought these for Ali, since she runs track for Franklin. But, she doesn't like them. Luke wore them all day yesterday.

Wasn't that a great garage sale? Good stuff and good prices!

This is just a little toy Luke had to have. It is very easy to get the ball into the cup...you just pick up and ball and place it inside the cup. See? Easy!

My favorite purchase is below. It is a cat toy. I thought Oliver would be SO excited. Well, he was about as excited for his purchases as Ali was for hers. The cat toy is lined with something that makes crinkling noise. I thought he would go crazy. Well, he climbed into it and laid down. Then, he never looked at it again. I was so sad :(

With soccer and band, we always seem to need BIG water containers. 50 cents.

And an old time, metal edge ruler. Seriously people. What is up with the stupid, crappy, plastic rulers?!?!? These rulers can actually make a straight line!

We also acquired two camping/soccer chairs for $5 and the book Uglies. I can never seem to get my hands on that book at the library! All in all, aside from getting really tired and really hungry, we had a great time! Thanx Fieldstone Farms!

Chihuly Nights

2010-09-20T05:56:00.000-07:00

Our Relief Society Sisters enjoyed an evening at Cheekwood for Chihuly Nights. The weather was perfect and the company delightful. I wish Matt could have been there. He would have loved it. One sister was pushing her mom around in a wheelchair. I told her to let me know if she needed any help because I am a professional wheelchair pusher. She wanted to know what qualified me to be "professional." Ha ha. It was pretty funny!

These are a few pictures I took. I realized, after I got home and looking at the pictures, that my filter was spotty! It has since been cleaned...no worries!

Darling...

2010-09-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

...just so you know, this is our schedule for this afternoon!

11:00-1:00 Sunni volunteers at the high school
1:30-3:30 Sunni volunteers at the elementary school
2:37 Ali gets out of school
3:00 Ali has flute lessons
2:56 Kat gets home
3:30 Ali has march band
3:30 Luke has running club
4:00 Luke finishes running club
5:00 Luke has soccer practice
5:15 Kat reports to play in the band for the jr high football game
5:30 Ali finishes band
6:30 Luke finishes soccer
7:00 Luke has Cubs--where he will be awarded his Bear
Ali and I have YW
(Have we figured out how to be in 3 places at 1 time?!?)
7:30 Kat finishes at the football game
8:00 Cubs and YW finish
9:37 You and I can fall into bed...dead or alive yet to be determined!

Got it? Good!!!

Digital Scrapbooking

2010-09-16T06:29:00.000-07:00

I currently have a new love...sorry Matthew! I have started dabbling in digital scrapbooking. It is pretty fun! Here are a couple of my first pages.

Sabbatical from Blogging

2010-09-16T05:10:00.000-07:00

For the past 100 weeks, ok, only 6, I have been sick. I was sick before school started and parent teacher conferences are now upon us. See, I was sick forever. I am happy to report I am beginning to feel better and think I might live. So, I will try to get back to blogging and interacting with the world outside my bedroom!

Rocket Launch

2010-08-23T06:56:00.000-07:00

For Luke's birthday last year, we gave him a rocket. He and Matt worked on it for many weekends. And then we spent MANY months trying to launch the thing! It may not be a NASA rocket, but the weather conditions still need to cooperate AND most importantly the family schedule needs to cooperate! Finally last Saturday the stars were aligned.

We went to the parking lot at Matt's work. This way Matt and Luke would be able to make any last minute improvements to the beloved rocket. If you have never launched on of these rockets, let me just tell you how FAST it all happens: itt happens very, very fast!!! I was lucky to capture the picture of the smoke of the launch :)

We had two successful launches. The rocket is still in one piece. Afterwards Matt commented that he was surprised that the rocket wasn't ruined on impact with the ground. I asked him if he had told Luke the rocket might not survive. When he responded that he had not, Luke piped in with, "Well, that is just mean." But, it was very funny!

We are glad the rocket lived to see another launch. Maybe we can do it in slow motion for mom?!?!?

In theatre, after a production is over, they have something called a postmortem. This is the time they talk about what went right and what went wrong. I believe these last two pictures are Matt and Luke having their postmortem. Aren't they darling?

Paine Wedding

2010-07-22T09:02:00.000-07:00

2010-07-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

If possible, the person sealing us next week is even more excited than we are! We are being sealed by the president of the Nashville Tennessee Temple.

Yeah, we are happy :)

Home Renovations = Fun

2010-07-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

Ali, Kat and Luke spent the first 41 days of summer vacation 2010 visiting their dad in Utah. Since we recently purchased and moved into a new house, we thought it would be fun to decorate their bedrooms.

It was fun.

It was a lot of work.

It was a small fortune.

We had a great time doing it and we surprised the kids! We now how the Paine Family Bed and Breakfast. You can choose what themed room you would like to stay in: Shabby Chic, Circles of Color or Automotive. I should mention that the "breakfast" part of our bed and breakfast is cold cereal...and you load the dishwasher when you are done!

Shabby Chic--Ali's Room

2010-07-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

So, here is Ali's room. We started her's second and I believe finished first. She has this mirror (she stole from me) she wanted the whole room based on.

Her paint is from Home Depot. The only paint we buy now is Baer Primer + Paint. It is a dream. Matt chose a Disney color for her walls. I think it is Pixie Dust. Sometimes it looks pink and other times it looks purple.

This was our first try at the wainscot. Matt is a smart guy and a perfectionist. So, it looks great. Early into this project...like 5 minutes, he turned to me and asked if I knew what our problem was. Sadly, I didn't even know that we HAD a problem. Well, it turned out our "problem" is that both our dads are coming this month and we both want them to approve of our handiwork! It took Matt 3 tries to get the first piece cut correctly. Between the second and third try, I kindly informed him my dad always told us, "Measure twice, cut once." He didn't think I was very cute :)

I found the bedspread at Goodwill for $20. It is Nautica. It is perfect.
I found her desk at a garage sale back in May. I asked the lady why she was selling it. She said that she bought it for $450 and her daughter wouldn't study. So, she painted it white. After it was white, her daughter still wouldn't study. So, she was giving up and selling it. The poor girl is only in 8th grade and I guess her academic career is over! You better study or we will toss it!

Matt brought those glass shelves home from work months and months ago. He likes to tell people I rolled my eyes when he did...and I did. I do believe they were just tossing them out. Or maybe they were a penny or two. But, they are so perfect in both girls rooms.
Below you can see the mirror that inspired the whole room. We also printed and mounted a fun YW theme for each girl's room.

Love ya, Al!!

Circles of Color--Kat's Room

2010-07-04T20:37:00.000-07:00

All Kat told us about what she wanted in her room was: white walls and orange circles. She is the only one we really listened to regarding requests. The others, we just did what we wanted! But, Kat, she is one you don't want to cross :) We took her basic ideas and ran with them!

The walls are Polar Bear White. Kat made it perfectly clear that she did NOT what her bed painted. I forgot that part until she said, "Isn't it funny how I told you NOT to paint my bed and you painted it and I LOVE it?"

The circles are vinyl we ordered off eBay. 75 of them for $22. Can't beat that!

Kat's bedroom was started last. It took us a while to get inspired. Here is the end result!

Kat's desk was bought from Goodwill. It is solid wood except for the top piece. It was purchased for $15. It is Mission style.

We found the turquoise circle pillow and pink Build-a-Bear poodle at a yard sale. I asked the lady how much she wanted for the poodle. She asked what I wanted to pay. That always ticks me off. I told her fifty cents. It was pretty much new. But, if she didn't care how much she got, or didn't get, why should I? She did ask for a dollar and we gave in. What a deal!

We are glad you love your room, Kat. And we love you!

Automotive Room--Luke's Room

2010-07-04T20:00:00.001-07:00

Luke's room was the first room we started and the last room we finished. Go figure! Luke is not a huge car fan but we thought it would be a fun theme for him as he grows up. His Grandpa Olson was big into cars as a teenager and knows everything about them. We got the basic ideas for his room from a book. We, however, tweaked them and made them all WAY better.

Let's start with the walls. The idea in the book suggested using roofing tin for the walls. We absolutely LOVED that idea...but couldn't think of a way to made it actually work. And if Matt can't think of a way to make it work, it ain't gonna happen! We had reached a stand still for the whole room because we thought the whole concept was lacking without the metal on the walls. Then, we went and helped out with an Eagle Scout project. The project was painting fire hydrates with aluminum paint. Bingo! It hit me near the end...use aluminum paint and paint wainscot. And we were back!!!

All in all, the wainscot was more difficult than in Ali's bedroom. We were using an oil based paint and hanging it horizontally. Who does that? I painted it with two coats of paint and then Matt hung it. Then Matt pulled it down. Hung it again. Then I gave it one more coat. In Ali's room, we could hide the uneven baseboards with the chair rail. In Luke's room, the adjustment had to be made to the bottom of the wainscot pieces. Yeah, learned that the hard way. But, doesn't it just rock? It looks like chrome. It is an amazing look.

We painted his trim, bed and dresser with red paint. Then we placed license plates on the footboard and dresser. The license plates started out on the headboard but were covered by his bedding. Why did we have to figure out so many things the hard way?!?!

The side table is probably the coolest item in the whole room. We found the wheels at a swap meet. $15. I asked Matt to weld them on top of each other. He created this great design and I painted them with the aluminum paint to match the wall treatment. We wanted to top it with tempered glass. But, that was going to cost us $150. Ugg. So, we got a piece of plexiglass for $10. It came in a square and Matt cut it into a circle.

Nana and Papa gave Luke this stop light bank a few years ago for Christmas. Perfect, right?

The picture that is hanging above his bed is an original drawn by Grandpa Paine. It totally completes the room and is a true treasure.

The reflectiveness of the plates can always guide him to bed :)

Love you, Luke!

Sleep tight.

Excuses

2010-06-15T06:11:00.000-07:00

I realized earlier this week that it has been five long weeks since I blogged. I think about it everyday. I have great stuff to share. I have just been so busy with school ending and working on the house. The kids are currently off visiting their first dad. Matt and I have been feverishly working on the house while the house is so very empty and sad.

My personal goal: catch Thrice Blessed up before the 4th of July when our angels return to us. Here is to hoping they return the angels we sent out!

Jack

2010-06-15T05:53:00.000-07:00

I signed up to help at the Cub Scout Day Camp that was held last week. I was due to take the noon to 4 o'clock shift. At 11:50 am, I walked out the door and saw our neighbor's dog, Jack. He is a black lab with a white patch on his chest. He came right over to me and bid me hello.

Jack and I walked over to his house and rang his doorbell. His family has both parents that work and a couple older boys. As I stood waiting for them to answer the door, Jack ran around the corner. When no one answered the door, and Jack around the corner, I decided to just not worry about Jack. I was getting late for day camp. But, then I thought about if my dog (or kitty) were out, and ran away, how sad I would be. So, I turned around and called after him.

By this time, it was neigh on noon. I decided the easiest thing to be would be to put Jack in his backyard and call it good. So, like a good neighbor, I slipped their beloved dog in their backyard.

Friends and family, I wish the story ended there. But, just as I got Jack returned to his backyard and began closing the gate behind me, I saw another black lab with white on his chest already in the backyard. Yes, take a moment to process the fact that I just returned a lost dog to someone's yard that had NOT lost one! Imagine my horror of wondering if the dogs were going to fight. Imagine my horror of wondering if the teenage boys were really in their house laughing at me. Imagine my over all horror of the whole situation!

Well, the other dog, NOT Jack, liked running circles in this new place he had been introduced to. He liked eating Jack's food. And the real Jack was so excited to see me he almost knocked me over time after time. My arms were covered with scratches from him jumping on me. The other dog had no collar and I had no idea how far I could push him to leave the yard without him possibly biting me. Honestly, by this point I was near tears. I had no idea what to do to get this dog out of the yard without accidentally letting the real Jack out. And, don't forget: I was now late for Cub Scout camp! I finally said a prayer and had some loud words for Heavenly Father.

The Fake Jack finally ate all off Jack's food and decided it might be fun to chase me out of the yard.

The moral of the day: Find out if your neighbor needs help before you offer it!

2010-05-05T11:27:00.000-07:00

Here is my crazy husband, up a tree, with a chain saw. I had to threaten someone to turn the picture over to me. You can assume I was NOT present for this little situation. After I found out about it, the kids asked me why I was not happy with Matt. He told them it was cause he climbed a tree. I waited for the rest of it. The kids told me that wasn't so bad. So, I had to add the rest of the story...with a chainsaw. Then they weren't happy with him either. But, we are happy he is so willing to help people. And, yes, he has a lot of experience with his chainsaw and relief efforts.

Further Aftermath

2010-05-05T05:19:00.000-07:00

These pictures were taken Monday. The water is receding nicely. Might was well be nice after all it did here!

Spent the day yesterday helping in a house that got about 18" of water inside the house. The older couple didn't really think it would come into their house and didn't realize they were in any danger until the National Guard evacuated them Sunday afternoon. So much damage. And so much stinky smell. The whole city smells terrible right now. I told Matt the smell would NEVER go away. He asked me if I could smell the terrible smell in Rexburg when I moved there a year after the Teton Dam Flood. I told him if I had lived through it I would still be able to smell it. He doesn't always follow my logic. But that is ok. He loves me :)

Yesterday, these big trucks were going up and down the streets collecting anything and everything that people put out on their curb.

It was a huge help to us as we needed SO much stuff hauled away. But it was so heart breaking at the same time. I think it is easier for those of us, not the owners, to get the stuff thrown out. Monday, when we were helping people, they were in total shock at some of the damage. When we started the day, we would walk up and ask people if we could help them. About an hour into the day, we had switched to telling them what we were going to do. Only one person was a little concerned that she had just been helped by the Mormons! Too funny. The Mormons will be back out from 6-9 tonight. If you need help, just give us a holler!!!

For the rest of the school year, the kids at Luke's school have to have recess on a small section of the front parking lot. They won't be able to get the toys cleaned well enough before school ends. He was a good sport and he said it was kind of fun. He is excited to go back out tonight and help.

I just finished mowing the lawn. Now it is off to the grocery store. I guess the family needs to eat some homemade meals sometime this week. Thanx for your prayers and thanx for checking on us. It means a lot.

Evidence of Franklin Flooding

2010-05-03T17:43:00.000-07:00

Ok. Here it is folks. Proof of the stressful hours and days we have had. Again, our family stayed completely dry inside our home. Some of our neighbors, friends and schools didn't get so lucky.

When we woke up today, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. After the past 48 hours of stress we have had, I thought the birds were mocking us. But, Matt won't buy me a any sort of gun to encourage them to be quiet!

Saturday--Day 1

We ran to Home Depot to look at blinds and pick up a drain for one of our down spouts. We had NO idea what we were in for or we would have never left the house.

The above two pictures are of the tunnel by Walgreens on Saturday afternoon.

Below is Monday evening.

Sunday--Day 2

This day church was cancelled. We had hours and hours of watching the rain and watching the radar. We also watched some of the Monk I haven't shipped back to my sister. I was so thankful we had them! We got a call in the early afternoon that school was cancelled.

Monday--The Clean-up Begins

Those of you have been thru flooding like this know that a camera cannot capture the devastation it causes. We spent four hours helping strangers clear out their garages. Many people saw what was coming and moved stuff out of their garages and off the bottom level. Others were out of town and were left with thousands and thousands of dollars worth of damage. Some items are irreplaceable.

Above is a view of a tunnel back in September.

Below is a picture taken Monday evening.

Above is last September.

Below is Monday night of the exact same path.

Below are pictures of Luke's school. Oh, yeah. We just got a call...Field Day is cancelled tomorrow. Ya think? Why not just change it to water activities? We have school tomorrow. How in the world can they guantee that a child won't slip away and drown?

Below is Kat crossing some red tape...the first of her life!

The water was ABOVE the basket ball standards last night.

The playground at Luke's school.

Below is the top of the swings at Luke's school.

Today was a very long day. Physically and emotionally exhausting. It will take Franklin days and months to recover. The smell alone will take that long to get out of my nose.

Franklin Flooding

2010-05-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, our little state has received unprecedented amounts of rainfall. I am sure other places of TN have received more rain than we have in Franklin, but ours seems so much worse because it is our little town. Families mere streets away are being evacuated by the National Guard and local emergency crews. Friends a half a block away have 6 inches of water in their garage. So far, we are dry inside. The river is expected to crest Tuesday morning. If the radar is to be believed, the worst is over. But, there is the clean-up of it all.

To see some crazy pictures, go to The Tennessean and search the flood photos. We live in Fieldstone Farms in Franklin, TN.

We are off to bed. No school tomorrow due to the fact that 35 street in Franklin are closed. We have a canoe. I thought the kids could get to school that way.

Lost My Way

2010-04-28T07:03:00.001-07:00

I am so incredibly far behind in blogging. It is not from lack of fabulous stuff to blog about. It is just from being exceedingly busy and fighting sheer exhaustion. So, I am going to slowly make my back back to blogging. Bare with me as I attempt to catch up! I will start out slowly...

Today Kat wants to bring a friend home from school with her on the bus. As she was preparing to leave for the day, I told her that her room better be clean. I hear her tromping up the stairs. I am not sure if "tromping" is a strong enough word. Does that word mean stomping as hard as humanly possible? Because that girl can tromp. Possibly louder than Matthew can and he is a beast :) So, off she tromps. Up the stairs and then down. I tell her that I better not find all her stuff in her closet. So, off she tromps. Up the stairs and then down, again. "I better not find your stuff shoved under your bed, either." So, off she tromps. Up the stairs and then down, again. In the end, the joke was on me. I didn't tell her I better not find her stuff stuffed under five blankets on her bed!!

Ugliest Cat

2010-04-14T05:34:00.001-07:00

My sister, Sara, recently posted a picture on her blog of the ugliest doll.

I agree, totally!!

I would like to submit the ugliest cat....

Sara, I am sure we laughed as hard at this cat as you did with that doll :)

2010-04-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to post that we are alive and well. I have MUCH to post. I also have MUCH to do like packing up a house.

I promise to post shortly. If anyone wants to come help me pack I will be able to post sooner!

Picture with my heart

2010-03-26T04:53:00.001-07:00

Sadly, I am unable to take my beloved camera everywhere. Case in point: our LDS temple.

Last night, Matt and I helped with the Mia Maid and Deacon (fourteen and fifteen-year-old youth) temple trip. When I say trip, I mean it is 4.5 minutes to our church house from our home and fourteen steps to the temple from there :) But, that is what they call it...a temple trip! Matt was needed for his priesthood and I was needed for my laundry skills. Yes, in these small temples the youth group must bring their own laundress. How funny is that?

As I sat there, in-between the wash and dry cycles, I was able to watch Matthew baptize Ali for the dead. What a wonderful experience it was. I thought about our family units here on Earth and into the eternities.

My understanding and belief in the temple promises have greatly increased over the past months and years. Through the blessings of the temple and righteous living, we are promised life eternal. As Matt and I speak of, and plan for, our sealing, it has been a concern for the children. The kids are finally realizing that they are sealed to me and that I will be sealed to Matt which means they will also be sealed to Matthew. Mostly we try to stress to them that we love each other, we love them and Heavenly Father loves them. Heavenly Father will make sure everything is how it is supposed to be. Heavenly Father loves us personally and knows the righteous desires of our hearts. Even the desires of these three precious children.

Here is the picture taken with my heart: it is of Matthew and Ali dressed in white, of Matthew using his Priesthood worthily and together they are helping others progress eternally.

Goodwill Foreshadowing?

2010-03-22T06:42:00.000-07:00

Last night Luke, Matt and I prepared to play games while the girls were off doing church-y things. Matt and I sped to finish the dishes and Luke set up our first game...Rummikub. This particular edition of Rummikub was purchased at a Goodwill a few years ago. We do own more than one edition :) After Luke set the game up, he was looking at the box and then announced that I left an "e" off. I told him I hadn't written anything on THAT box and asked what was on it. On the Rummikub box, purchased at Goodwill years ago, was written this:

Can you see that? It says P*A*I*N. I tell ya what, it was kind of freaky!

Luck of the Irish

2010-03-22T06:40:00.001-07:00

My WHOLE life I have looked for a four-leaf-clover. Luke has done it within the first nine years of his life!

We had a very difficult time capturing the image. Forgive the quality as it was near impossible for me to get it :(

A Humungous Thank You

2010-03-04T07:15:00.000-08:00

Last Fall Ali wanted a new cell phone. We told her she needed to wait a month or so for a contract to come up. Well, she didn't want to wait. She shelled out her own money and bought a cute, pink Razr. Well, it was cute and pink, but clunky and slow. She owned it a month before she started asking to trade phones with me. I had a black EnV2. Four months later and she was begging to trade with me. Being the fabulously, wonderful mom that I am, I finally traded with her about a month ago. Well, from day one I HATED that Razr. Terrible phone. Terrible, terrible, I tell you! So, what did I do? I complained to my mommy! What did she do? She bought herself new phone and sent me hers!!! She will tell you she was going to buy a new one anyways...but I know she secretly did it just for me!!

THANK YOU, MOM!!! YOU ARE THE BESTEST MOMMY :)

Last night I was laying in bed playing with my "new" phone. I noticed that all her old txt messages were still in there. I felt a little guilty for looking and them and was going to just delete them all. But, I looked at a few. She has them going back almost a year. Nope, she doesn't txt much :) Many of the txts were from me. But there were "I love you's" from my dad, pictures from my sister Dana of the twins, and "Call me NOW's" from my sister Sara. Ha ha. But, out of all of them there was one that made me laugh out loud almost to the point of falling out of bed. It was from Sara's hubby Joe. It simply says, "Are you breathing?" How could I ever delete that txt?? Strangely enough, it doesn't even seem like a strange txt between those two. Perfectly normal.

I will have to write down a few to cherish as I will have to delete them to make room for all the ones I send and receive each day.

I love having my mom's cell phone and Ali just txted me that she likes having her mommy's cell phone, too. THIS is the true circle of life.

A look back...

2010-03-04T04:43:00.000-08:00

This past week or so has been crazy busy. So crazy busy we forgot to celebrate the year anniversary of Matt and I "finding" each other again. A year a go this week, we started down the road that has lead us here: married, raising three kids and an orange zebra, and buying a house.

It looked something like this....

Sunday, March 01, 2009 12:25 AM (from sunni to matt)

Hi Matt,

I hope you don't mind, I kind of "borrowed" your email address from my dad's address book :) I hope I stole the correct address!

I just wanted to let you know that Grandma Sorensen is dying. We found out she was full of cancer last Saturday evening. You were always so kind to her, I thought you might like to know.

I hope you are well. I hope you are happy. How are you, anyways?

Sunni

Monday, March 02, 2009 8:44 AM (from matt to sunni)

You did steal the right address, and I don’t mind.

I am sorry to hear about your Grandma, she was a nice lady.

I took a look at your blog, your kids are getting so big. Things here are going well we have contracts for the next year or so, which help keep my stress level lower. It’s not real exciting here but generally that is good. Last year I hiked the grand canyon from the south rim to the north and then back again. I haven’t decide for sure what will be the trip for this year. How are you?

How ironic. He said he hadn't decided what the trip for that coming year would be. Boy, the past year has been a trip alright! A fabulous, magical, healing, exciting, fulfilling, exhausting, thrilling, completing trip. I know I am right where I am supposed to be; doing the things I am supposed to be doing.

I love you, Matthew Timothy Paine. I am glad I "borrowed" the correct email address from my dad one year ago. It has been a great trip with you :)

Taste Bud Hypothesis

2010-02-26T07:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I decided to try a new recipe for dinner. The kids get home at different times after school. As each one arrived home, I asked them about their day and then gently added, "There are mushrooms in our dinner tonight." I thought a little bit of warning would ease the reaction when I actually served the meal. Well, it might have worked for some kids but not Kat. She went on and on about daring to serve mushrooms to her. Finally, I explained to her that I got the recipe out of a cookbook written by a mom with ten kids who reported that this was her kid's FAVORITE meal. Her response? "That figures." OK, I'll bite, "What does that mean, Kat?" Well, she explained, Heavenly Father only gives each family 3,000 taste buds. He knows how many kids will be born into each family and each kid is given a pre-determined number of taste buds. So, while she, herself, was given 1,000 taste buds, a child born to THAT mom of ten was only given 300 taste buds.

While I am not totally blaming Kat, I got a migraine after this conversation/explanation. Kat is one of a kind and did NOT eat the mushrooms.

2010-02-23T20:10:00.000-08:00

Tonight, as I was preparing dinner, Luke was asking me a bunch of random questions. I was answering them without thinking until I finally stopped and wondered what he was doing. "Nothing mom, don't worry about it." And then, he suddenly asked me to come and take pictures with him with the iphoto booth. As we sat there taking pictures, he piped up with, "Don't worry, Mom, I don't need these for school or anything. But, could you email them to teacher?"

Pretty sure THAT one won't be able to pull off lying to us :)

Where, oh, Where Has My Zebra Gone??

2010-02-20T17:46:00.001-08:00

What? He is in the Rubbermade container?

Pajama Gladiator

2010-02-19T06:37:00.000-08:00

Papa gave us this DVD for Christmas. At that time it wasn't on YouTube. I hope whoever uploaded it did it legally! This short film is so delightful. We have spent hours watching it. It will only take six minutes of your day, but I bet you will watch it more than once!!

Bread Baking Day

2010-02-18T10:43:00.000-08:00

What did I do today? Baked bread!! I tried Sara's wheat bread recipe this time around. I also, as luck would have it, stumbled upon a English Muffin Bread recipe! I have been looking for one for about ten months. And where did I find it? In a cookbook I own. Go figure. Matt loves English Muffin Bread and I hadn't found a recipe for it. It is so yummy. I could have eaten the whole loaf....but I didn't!

All this bread was baked by 10:00. How efficient am I?!?!?!

Brief Look at Our Week

2010-02-18T07:55:00.000-08:00

The kids are back at school. Were yesterday, also. I like it better when they are home with me! Oliver isn't very good at playing games and just gives me blank stares when I talk to him. Yes, I am a crazy cat lady!

Matthew turned 38 this week. Sorry, Dear, was that a secret? The kids decided he "wanted" to go to Steak and Shake for his birthday dinner...so we did :) Someone asked us if Matt really wanted to go there and I informed them that Matt has had 38 years of free agency and that has abruptly come to an end. No one with children has free agency!!! He was a very good sport and we had a great time.

We got him Jelly Bellies and a poster with all the words we collected from family, friends and co-workers. He was very surprised by all the kind words and could actually guess who donated which words. True to my promise, I have not reveiled the identity of the two co-workers who contributed words. But, they were some of the best words given!! Feel free to identify yourselves!!

Other than the birthday celebrations, we are having a relatively quiet week. Track is going well for Ali. Kat continues her unit on the solar system. She is going to Mars one day, didn't you know! Luke has passed off all his multiplication tables and now working hard on division. Up next for us is Solo and Ensamble, the science fair and Pinewood Derby. We feel everything will lean toward our favor as we have an engineer in our pocket to help with the science fair and Pinewood Derby.

Matt continues to be the "smartest person in the world" and a fabulous father figure. He went into work a bit later just so Ali and her friend could talk in his car after he drove car pool. The children love Matt. I tried to buy their love yesterday by purchasing straws at the store. They love straws. They loved me more for half a second and then returned their adoration to Matt!

That is about it from the Paine household. What? What was that you said? There is a chance of snow over the weekend?!?! Well, keep that info to yourselves. We need to stay in school and finish the year on schedule!

Snow Day #7

2010-02-16T07:09:00.001-08:00

"Hello Williamson County parents and staff. This is Carol Birdsong. Members of the Williamson County Schools transportation department and their spotters have been out assessing road conditions this afternoon, and they are reporting that we have a great number of secondary streets and rural roads in all parts of the county that are still covered with snow and ice. So, while we want to get back to school tomorrow, we have determined that we cannot safely transport students tomorrow. So, school will be closed in Williamson County tomorrow, Tuesday, February 16. Again, no school in Williamson County tomorrow, February 16. Thank you."

Three more snow days and we are going to school during our summer vacation!

Happy Birthday Matthew!!

2010-02-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

Luke's Valentine's Box

2010-02-12T07:03:00.000-08:00

Remember the days when we made our Valentine's boxes in school? That was probably one of my most favorite part of school. All that glue, glitter, lacy hearts, sequins, etc. And the mess! We had glitter in our school carpet for weeks!! Sadly, my kids have never experienced that kind of wonder. They have to make their boxes at home, with boring ol' me! It is a terrible tragedy. I am not a crafty person and don't have great stuff laying around to make a glamorous box.

Luke is the only one still in the Valentine Box stage. And this year, his took a little different direction. Matt is a scuba diver and instructor. He gets this fabulous, high gloss magazine every month. We decided this year it would be fun to make Luke's box an ocean of sorts. We had everything planned except the opening. My vote was just for a slit in the top. Luke's vote was for a drawbridge. Of coarse, a draw bridge. I told him a slit would be easier. He turned to me and replied, "It's ok, Mom. We have Matthew this year. He can do it." After some planning and measuring, the drawbridge was made.

As Luke got out of the car this morning, he surveyed other kid's boxes and turned to me and reported, "My box doesn't look like anyone else's." It was said with a lot of pride.

A New Theatre Holiday?

2010-02-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

Recently I have seen this decorated door in our neighborhood. I couldn't fully see it but it has fascinated me because it has the comedy and tragedy faces on it. I was worried I had forgotten to wish my dad some sort of "happy theatre day!" Yesterday I finally snuck up and took a picture of it. Now that I see it enlarged I realize it is for Mardi Gras. I liked the "happy theatre day" better. So....

Happy Theatre Day, Dad!!!

Numbers

2010-02-10T19:00:00.000-08:00

My husband loves numbers. Luke loves numbers. We have all become much more aware of numbers since we became a family :) This pictures is for my prime number loving husband!

As I posted this Luke said, "Do you know 2 is the only even prime number?" Yes, we talk about numbers a whole lot!

6th Snow Day and counting...

2010-02-09T18:55:00.000-08:00

This week we had our 6th snow day. There are 10 built into the schedule before we start into the summer vacation days. But the way we are going....we might just use all 10!!

Sacrement Meeting

2010-02-08T06:38:00.001-08:00

Ali played Come, Come Ye Saints in Sacrament Meeting today. If we could find a new Hymn arrangement, she would play a new song! Good thing we are in a new ward.

She did a phenomenal job. The best I have ever heard her play. Brett Raymond accompanied her. They really work well together. He realizes that the way she plays it is the way she wants to play it...regardless of the music at times! Good thing he can arrange around her :) Hopefully we can get him or Randy Kartchner (also in our ward) to arrange some new music for her.

Someone left this comment on their facebook:

"heard the BEST Sacrament Meeting musical number ever today! Thanks to Ali (14 yr. old flute GENIUS!) and Brett (best pianist ever!)...it was truly "heaven on earth" and made my heart swell!"

Oliver the Terrible...

2010-02-06T14:32:00.000-08:00

...pretending to be sweet :) This is Oliver's favorite place to be right now. He curls up in the basket for hours and hours a day. We can carry him anywhere we want and just stays curled up.

Oliver the Terrible

2010-02-05T06:19:00.000-08:00

Dear Husband,

I know you told me to be the bigger "person" when it comes to dealing with our zebra, Oliver. Why is it you sound so much like my dad at times? You both love to be the bigger person and rise above things. But, I digress. Back to the issue at hand: the zebra. He is driving me crazy. Please see the below photos as vidence. These were all taken within a five minute period.

Later today, when you receive a package that is kind of wiggly, just accept it. I don't want to ruin the surprise for you....but it will be an orange zebra!

Love,

Your Wife, mother of an orange zebra

Dooped by the Twelve Year Olds

2010-02-03T07:44:00.000-08:00

Monday was a "snow day." Kat invited friends over to play...I mean hang out. By four o'clock that afternoon school was canceled for the following day. "Can my friends sleep over?" was Kat's immediate response.

About ten minutes after Matt and I had given her permission for her friends to spend the night one of the girls came downstairs in her very own, personal PJs. Matt and I looked at each other at the same moment realizing what had happened: somehow Kat had planned this all along and the girls had brought their stuff from the very beginning!

"Winter Break"

2010-02-01T07:58:00.000-08:00

Today begins day four that we are all home together. School has been cancelled. Church has been cancelled. When the school called yesterday, at 2:00 pm, to cancel school for today, I was a little stressed out. I actually told the kids the call was to remind them there was school the following day. I decided to worry about the fall-out of that lie when they got to school today and it was empty. But, I forgot to factor in texting, instant messaging and facebooking. My lie lasted 1.5 minutes.

Nashville must have some of the best weather people around. They forecast snow, the school district cancels school and IT SNOWS. How often, in the real world, are the weather people actually correct? I have been dumbfounded three times now to have school cancelled with blue skies and snow shows up the following day.

When I was young, this is what it looked like....

There were two criteria for which school could be called off due to severe winter weather conditions. The first was so many inches of new snow. Sadly, I am forgetting the number, but I am sure it was around 6-12 inches of new snow. The second condition was if it was 20 degrees (or more) below zero. Did I mention I grew up in Idaho? I remember kids driving snow mobiles to school.

If there was chatter around school (not internet chatter) about bad weather coming, we would get very excited about school getting cancelled. Just like the kids of today, we would plan and scheme about what we would do with a free day!

The morning of the expected school closure found us kids up and huddled around the radio, tuned to an AM station starting at 5:30 AM, praying for Madison School District to be called among the closed schools. Sometimes we would have to wait 30+ minutes for an announcement as the district had until 6 AM to make a decision regarding the school being closed.

You might be wondering if it was often our little hearts were made happy by our superintendent. Well, it wasn't often enough! One winter we were SO happy because it was 20 below for like two weeks IN A ROW!! And what did the school district do? They changed the 20 below number to 40 below and made us only get a "late" start @ 20 below!!!! They didn't get a lot of love from us after that little change. You see, in Rexburg, you could bank on multiple days out due to negative 20 degrees!

Here, in the South, they figure it is best to be prepared and cancel school 24 hours ahead of time! It is very comical.

What have we been doing with our unscheduled "winter" break you might wonder? We have played games, eaten, played with friends, played in the snow, eaten some more, went to Costco to buy more food, played more games, made a rule about ONLY playing card games as board games take way too long and we kill each other by the end, tried to watch a sacrament meeting on BYU TV with no success (yes, the kids were VERY sad about that one, made zip-lines from the upstairs to the downstairs for our Littlest Pet Shops, made snow frogs, read, watched movies, updated our facebook pictures, txted, im-ed, practiced the flute and now...blogged. I would just like to add that Oliver has been on one. Matt told me that I am the adult human and that I should just find a way to deal with Oliver. Yeah, right! Oliver can be evil!!! One day the world will know of his evil not and not say, "He is SO cute."

Here is the zip-line Kat made. Unfortunately Kat fired her mechanical engineer as he did not live up to her expectations :)

Here is the boy and his snow frogs :)

And last, but by no means least....Oliver the Devil!

I guess we will repeat everything today and hope we are getting up and on the bus by 6:30 tomorrow morning!

Buyer Beware!!

2010-01-26T05:16:00.000-08:00

I planned for two weeks to go check out this store down the road about 45 minutes. I wanted to get the advertised ceramic pan. IF I have been a Barbie doll, it would have been perfect!

iPhones

2010-01-24T16:53:00.000-08:00

Kids must be getting iPhones younger and younger these days if these are the kinds of messages I am getting....

Gdhxhxhdbdbxbzhh. Dhhhjeieoejrhri

Sent from my iPhone

Pictures

2010-01-21T08:04:00.000-08:00

I L*O*V*E pictures: looking at, taking (have taken roughly 8,000 in the pasts two years) and editing them. My husband gave me a very precious gift: pictures. He rescued hundreds of my old pictures and some home movies (just a few of those as I have been told our physical collection of home movies is "lost") off of my old desk top computer. The computer itself is inoperable. He had to use sneaky spy stuff (I pretend he is working with Chuck) to locate and extract these images for me. It took him hours upon hours. I hope he knows how much it means to me. They irreplaceable memories. I heart you, Matt.

PS Prepare to see posts of old pictures!!! Ha hA

A look back...

2010-01-19T06:43:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, the kids were scanning some older pictures so we will have a digital copy of them. I thought I had picked up the folder of Matt's mission pictures. But, I picked up a folder with, among other pictures, included some of Matt's old girlfriend. The kids were quick to tell me that I was cuter than his old girlfriend but that I was NOT cuter than this particular person Matt has kissed....

If I can't be cuter than the dolphin, I will be content to know that I am cuter and smarter than the old girlfriend since I realized what a great husband and dad Matt would make!!

The kids love this picture.

Among the pictures we also found my brother's engagement picture and a picture of my dad and grandma taken in my parent's Park Street house about 16 yeas ago. Sometimes it is so crazy Matt shares so much of my history.

Hobby Lobby

2010-01-15T13:26:00.000-08:00

I saw these lovely items today at Hobby Lobby. They are labeled "Spring Fever." I am just telling you right here, right now, I would need a fever of some sort to use these items in my home and I am pretty sure it wouldn't be Spring Fever.

OK. Two funny stories about Hobby Lobby.

#1 My sister, Sara, is the queen of sewing and crafts. I am pretty sure her husband has invested in Hobby Lobby stock. I guess she goes there so often her oldest daughter, Libby, has developed a serious dislike of it. Just to add fuel to that fire (cause that is was we Sorensen's do: slightly torment our children with love) Sara has started calling Hobby Lobby "Libby Lobby" and I have been assured that Libby hates it with a capital H!! I hope to one day see the fit that is thrown when Sara says "Libby Lobby."

#2 Today, after I captured that lovely picture above, I was looking at patterns. I had txted my darling husband that I was next door to his work at Hobby Lobby. When he isn't busy, he sneaks over and we make-out in the fabric department :) Well, today he basically told me he was too busy with a circuit board to run over. I sat and looked at patterns for a while, feeling sorry for myself that I didn't get to see Matt. After I chose a pattern, I got up to go choose fabric and ran smack dab into Matt's arms. I screamed slightly, but in a good way. Later, when Kat got home she asked what I did today. I told her of my Hobby Lobby trip and how Matthew scared me. Her response was, "Well, at least we know Matthew is a good husband." What's up with that?!?!?

New Cousins

2010-01-15T13:09:00.000-08:00

Ali, Kat and Luke have been very blessed with cousins in their lives. They have fabulous cousins on the Olson and Sorensen side whom they love and are loved by. Recently they inherited some new cousins.

And they are a bunch of Paines :)

Matt has a cousin, Jeff, and his wife, Carolyn, that live here in Franklin. Matt works with Jeff. They have six wonderful children. They all took to each other right away. We love hanging out with them.

These pictures are from the company Christmas party that was held January 6th. Yes, a bit after Christmas, but we were all too busy to party before then! It is fun to see the way the kids gravitate towards each other.

Erica, Ali and Kat

Benjamin, Jared and Luke

Benjamin had just eaten some jalapenos and was crying! True story :)

Rebecca and Rachel

Soon to be Elder Ethan Paine. Ethan is headed to Baltimore in March to serve a two year mission for the LDS church.

Some Christmas Presents

2010-01-13T08:58:00.000-08:00

At the top is my "Dictionary" and Thesaurus. Below that is Dictionary and her boyfriend whom we have named, you guessed it, Thesaurus :) Aren't they cute together?

This is the dang cute Yahtzee game Sara made for us. I forgot to take a picture of the cute dice. You might asked why I don't just take it now and add it. Well, I am in a current battle with my photo program. It seems to only have one way to upload pictures. I get one shot and that is it. So, when I win the battle, and MATT will, I will add a picture of the dice to this post!

This is a picture of the screen of Kat's iTouch.

Ali must have taken her camera to school as I can't find it to take a picture of. Matt has the elephant art hung in his cubicle. So, I will get pictures of those items later.

I did try to upload other pictures of Christmas presents, but these are the only ones that Picasa decided I should be able to post :)

Tablecloth

2010-01-13T08:43:00.000-08:00

While my parents were here, my mom commented on our tablecloth. I told her it was easy to clean up as it was laminated. Now, I can't swear to this, but I am pretty sure I heard her lean over to my dad and say, "I think she means it is vinyl." When I was at Bed, Bath and Beyond the other day, I took this picture of the packaging :) While I was at it, I bought a vinyl tablecloth!

Great Minds...

2010-01-13T08:36:00.000-08:00

For Luke's birthday, back in November, we gave Luke a rocket. Matt picked it out. He said he loved rockets when he was younger. Since he does some work for the defense department, I think it is safe to say he is still fascinated with such things!

They have been working on this rocket for weeks. This is a couple of pictures of one day of work. In the second one, Luke is holding a blow dryer to help dry one of the fins. The next step is spray painting it.

We can hardly wait to launch it! Don't worry, we will capture it :)

Next up...Pinewood Derby. Yes, the boys are already planning and scheming....but, we won't blog any plans since we don't want to to tip the competition off!

YW Basketball

2010-01-13T08:27:00.000-08:00

It is back....YW basketball. This time we have two daughters on the roster. Yes, folks, Kat is playing basketball!!

Unfortunately I seemed to have been in a bad location for picture taking as evidenced by the bishop's head in every picture, the poor quality of pictures due to the shadows I was sitting in and the fact that I didn't get any pictures of Kat the Great :)

Kat has the fabulous play: get the ball and throw it as fast and hard as possible to Ali. It worked pretty well.

They won their first game. Hurray!

I promise better pictures this coming week. But, enjoy these great shots of Ali for now.

Family Prayer

2010-01-11T18:49:00.000-08:00

Each evening, well, most, we gather for family scripture study and family prayer. After we read out of 2 Nephi, Matthew asked Luke to say the prayer. Luke is nine and is plenty able to pray on his own. Yet, he asked me to help him pray. So, I started singing, "Heavenly Father, are you really there?" After a brief pause, Kat piped in, "YES." After we all stopped laughing, she said she wasn't going to wait for Luke to get an answer to that question right now.

Kids. How dull life would be without them.

2010-01-01T07:17:00.000-08:00

We welcome you 2010!

Christmas Eve/Morning

2009-12-29T08:38:00.000-08:00

Warning: A lot of words+no pictures=possibly a boring post!

After spending four days with us, my mom and dad traveled on to visit my sister, Sara, in Bloomington, IN. Well, actually, my mom left here, arrived in Bloomington and checked herself into the hospital. It was not a fun few days for them. My mom handled it all like the trooper that she is. She only got one full day with my sister and her family until they had to head back here in preparation for their departure Christmas morning.

In preparing for Christmas, we asked Matt if there were any traditions he had while growing up. The one he mentioned that the kids latched onto was the "Grandma bought pizza on Christmas Eve." So, the kids told Nana she HAD to buy pizza for us on Christmas Eve cuz Matt said :)

Nana and Papa arrived back in Franklin around 5 pm on Christmas Eve. We had a great evening. We ate the required pizza, read Luke 2 and Christmas stories, we watched some great BYU short animation movies (over and over and over they were that good!) and opened presents from Nana and Papa. As usual, they spoiled us!

We got a toaster oven, which we all love and adore. I also got a cookbook and Matt got a wallet and some glass dishes. I have to tell you. I think the glass dishes are his new favorite thing. I have been sending his lunch in just plastic bowls and I guess the other boys have glass bowls. Well, now he is the "same as the other boys" and is feeling much better about himself! Among other things....Ali got a backpack, Kat got an iTunes card and Luke got Lincoln Logs.

Poor Nana and Papa were falling asleep where they sat so we tried to hustle them off to bed. Did I mention their flight was for 6 AM Christmas morning? 'Of coarse you got a good deal on the tickets, Nana, who else wants to fly at 6 AM Christmas morning?!?!?' After we got Nana settled, my men and I wrapped the remaining gifts. I hope the best part of Matt's Christmas was getting it all ready for the kids. He seemed to have a great time. He was there for almost every gift purchase and wrapping. Sans his own, of coarse! Matt, Papa and I were up till well past 11 pm, but we had a good time talking and laughing. Some of the laughing I didn't get filled in on until the next day.

Side-note: As I have mentioned before in this blog, Matt has know my parents for years, even decades. He loves them. He has loved them independent of me for almost ever. And they have loved him. It is so easy for all of us to be together. There was no adjustment period. Maybe a brief period of redefining roles from very good friends to parents and son, but nothing that was difficult or uncomfortable. Ok, back to the story. At least I warned you this was going to be a boring post!

Christmas morning we got up at 3:30 AM and got ready to head to Nashville airport. The roads were dead and so was the airport. Dead, I tell you, dead. Telling my parents goodbye is always very difficult. I love them so much. So very, very much. My mom said it was easier to leave me this time because she saw my life and saw how much Matt loves the kids and myself. She knows we are being well taken care of.

When Matt and I got back home, we climbed in bed for a little while. A very, little while!

There are good and bad things about the kids getting older. They sleep in a little more, but they are getting "bigger" gifts and so they get fewer items to open. And in the case of our teenager, she already knew what was in every single present. Please tell me we aren't the only parents who let their teenager pick all their gifts! There is really much less gift returning that way.

Ali got a pink camera with a pink case from Santa. We also gave her the book The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas and a purple pea coat. Ali also got a card and money from Grandma and Grandpa Paine who are serving a mission in Scotland and some PJ's from Grandma and Grandpa Olson.

Kat got a iTouch from Santa. She also got some shoes (that have been retuned and no replacement found) and the book Peak. Kat also got a card and money from Grandma and Grandpa Paine and a dress from Grandma and Grandpa Olson.

Luke got a "real" remote control car from Santa. It should last until adulthood! He also got PJs (that have been given to a friend cause the tags were removed before he tried them on and found them to be far too small) and a paper airplane book. Luke also got a card and money from Grandma and Grandpa Paine and a Lego's car from Grandma and Grandpa Olson.

We gave Matt an "elephant art" picture. He has always wanted one. Kind of crazy, I know. Who came up with putting a paint brush in an elephant's mouth and letting them paint? I was going to put a paint brush in the kid's mouth and let them paint, but the kids told me it HAD to be elephant art!

I got a thesaurus from Matt and the pink snow leopard Webkinz from the children. This is where part of the laughing came from the night before during the present wrapping time with Papa and Matthew. Ever since we moved here, I have been moaning about my dictionary. It is falling apart and actually was when I bought it from a used book store. So, Matt decided he was going to buy me a new dictionary for Christmas. When he took it out of the bag to wrap it on Christmas Eve, he realized he had accidentally picked up the thesaurus that had been laying right next to it! Matt was so sad he had bought the wrong item, that when I opened the Webkinz right after the mistakenly given thesaurus, I promptly named the Webkinz Dictionary! And, yes, I now have my own Webkinz account and everything! Her legal name is Dictionary :)

Each year, my siblings trade names. As there are only three of us, it is easy to remember who to give to each year! Sara had us this year. She gave us an adorable Yahtzee game with our faces on the dice. Way too cute! She also gave us Enchanted which is one of my all time favorite movies! Matt's sister, Sarah (yes, we both have Sara-hs!) gave us girls homemade bracelets and the boys a 007 model. Aunt Stacy sent our very favorite sweet and sour sauce.

Thank you!!!!

We love family!!!!!

The rest of the day was spent very quietly. We played with our presents, talked to family near and far and had a delicious dinner of smoked turkey. It is the ONLY way to eat turkey my friends! Yummy!

The next day we went hung out with our Paine cousins. We L*O*V*E going over there and being with them. Family is a huge part of our lives.

We are a very blessed little family in a very blessed country. I am thankful for the Christmas season to take some time to slow down a bit and spend more time in our pajamas. There are always problems and challenges in our lives. Those make our blessings and good times that much better. With the help of our families and our Savior, we can become better and stronger people. It was a difficult and wonderful year. Thank you to everyone in my life who has been there for me. I love you all.

And as Luke says...

Peace-out to 2009!!!

Merry Christmas "Unwrap-up"

2009-12-28T07:40:00.001-08:00

The reason/reasons I have not blogged recently:

We have been crazy busy.
We are switching over to a new photo editing/storage program.
We have had some special visitors.
I am lazy.
All of the above.

If you chose #5, all of the above, you would have been correct! The most recent reason is that I am being lazy. Plus, if I blog about it, it is over. And who wants Christmas to be O*V*E*R?

To begin with, the semester is over. Let me repeat. The semester is over. We are all still alive. Everyone ended with respectable grades. We survived our first semester of marriage, a new community, high school and early morning seminary. I am so proud of all of us!

During finals week, my parents came to visit from Provo, Utah. They, however, forgot to bring the snow with them! We had a great time while they were here. We studied (Papa did pretty well on his Freshman English final) ate, shopped, laughed, talked, wrapped presents, slept and repeated it all over about 6 times!

While they were here, Kat unfortunately mentioned that she had a school project to work on. It was a project regarding Greek columns. Thanx to Papa we all know WAY more about columns than we ever wanted to! But, we were able to complete the the project four weeks before it was due. We had to take pictures, at three separate locations, of the three different types of columns.Not only did we complete the project for Kat, we also completed it for her friend from school. Please note, only two pictures were taken at the same time and the same place. We took sixteen pictures at different times! Here is an example of one of the columns.

On the Friday after finals competed, we took a quick tour of downtown Nashville and went to Opry Mills Mall and Opryland Hotel.

Here is another pop quiz. Is our family tree #1 or #2?

Yes, our family tree is #2. Opryland Hotel has some beautiful decorations and some fun shops. Here are some pictures from when we were walking around the hotel.

The girls told Luke to be a little freaked out by Santa. He did pretty well!

"Singing in the Rain" inside the hotel.

Our favorite thing to do while Papa was here was line up all our Apple computers and "work." Papa was the only one who worked. The rest of us just played while he worked.

Merry Christmas from Thrice Blessed

2009-12-25T06:44:00.000-08:00

Mid-State Auditions

2009-12-14T05:20:00.001-08:00

For what seems like years (really? only a few months?), Ali has been preparing for mid-state auditions. They bring together the best band students from Mid-Tennesse area. I can't tell you exactly what area that is for I am clueless. The actual mid-state experience takes place in the beginning of January. They bus the kids to Chattanooga for a weekend and work with them. It culminates Sunday evening with a concert.

We got up at a leisurely pace and left the house by 9:00 am. We arrived at McGavin Comprehensive High School at 10:00 am. Ali signed in and was assigned flute #132. In my mind I am thinking, "Great, they have been at the audition process for a little over an hour, we should be nearing #50." While thinking this in my mind, I hear the processor say, "We are currently on flute 16." At this point in time I did the fastest math of my life when I erupted with, "They are only averaging 15.5 flute auditions an hour?!?!?" Followed by me pulling my phone out and accessing my calculator. At this rate she wouldn't be auditioning until 4:30 pm.
Ali wanted to walk around, look for friends and warm-up. Warm-up? I scoffed at her. What do you call warming-up when the event is 7.5 hours away? The warm-up room was for all band students. They even let the snare drums in there. I was contemplating my ability to do damage with their drum sticks. So, so loud.
By 11:30 am we decided to hit Opryland mall. I could barely enjoy the time there I was stressing about the auditions taking place. After we walked around, bought a few items and had a Cinnabon we headed back.
When we got back around 1:30 pm, I quickly realized we had gone from 19.5 flutist an hour to about 24. More walking, or more aptly described as pacing, chatting, warming-up, tears, pep talks, loudness. I heard, countless times, the "This is good experience. You did great. You will do better next year" pep talk. Why do we tell our children this? Is it helpful?

It was pretty funny to watch parents with their ear to the door; other competitors weighing out if they are better or worse than the current candidate playing. No matter who was currently listening at the door, when the parent of the current student playing came to the door, room was made for them to be the closest.

At 6:00 pm flute #132 was called into the prepared room. I seriously laughed out loud when they called FLUTE #132. We were the ONLY instruments left to play. Other instrument's results were already trickling in. Txts were flying.

The audition was broken down into two parts. The prepared part room and the scales and sight reading room. They would play their two prepared songs first, return to the hallway and then head into the second room when their number is called again. They were asked to play random scales. Ali has know all her scales since 7th grade. I now realize not all flutists have that knowledge. After the scales they are asked to sight read up to three pieces. After the first piece, they are either asked to leave the room or proceed to the next piece. As I listened at the door to the scales/sight reading room I silently counted her sight reading pieces. One. Two. Three. Hurray Ali!

Ali is an amazing musician. I could tell she was nervous as she played. But, Ali brought one student to tears and caused another to rant up and down the hallway that she blown her audition after hearing Ali play.

140 flutes auditioned for Mid-State 2009. Ali found out she was seated 5 chair even before we got home. What followed was hours of texts, phone calls, emails and facebook messages reliving the day, celebrating and making plans for the actual Mid-state weekend in January. I celebrated by throwing everything I had on in the washer, hot water. Who knows what I could have gotten at a high school in downtown Nashville? I also got a hot shower and foot rub from my fabulously amazing husband.

Matthew, Luke and Kat had their own adventures this day. But, that post will have to wait a while. I have a house to clean for my guests tomorrow!!

**Photo credits in this post belong to Ali with the exception of the fountain.

Lazy Zebra

2009-12-07T08:07:00.000-08:00

My Mommy

2009-12-01T12:43:00.001-08:00

My Daddy

2009-12-01T07:29:00.000-08:00

Super Evil Oliver

2009-11-24T14:44:00.000-08:00

We have a cat named Oliver (whom we refer to as a zebra). Whenever the kids aren't around, he turns evil. And that is really saying something because he is mild-level-evil on a daily basis. Yesterday he brought a dead squirrel to our bedroom door. Poor Matt has never experienced that kind of "love" before. I explained that Oliver was just saying "I love you." Matt was a good sport. Squirrel blood and all.

Last night, after dark, I took the trash out. As I was coming back in, and after I had threatened Oliver with, "So help me, if you bite my ankles I will kick you," I heard the little neighbor boy scream, "Oh my gosh it is a TIGER." I looked over and he had just seen Oliver run across the road. He set off in hot pursuit of Oliver. I was thinking, good, torment Oliver a bit. But before I made it all the way inside I heard the boy announce that he saw Oliver on a missing cat poster and thought they should take the cat and get the reward. Don't worry, I did hesitate for a minute knowing they could never actually catch Oliver, I claimed that evil little devil as my own and asked them not to haul him off.

I will be the only one hauling him off anywhere!!

Thanksgiving Week

2009-11-23T07:27:00.000-08:00

Well, Saturday morning we put the kids on an airplane to head West for the week. The kids forbade me from crying at the airport and I did very well.

I met a very nice woman while waiting for the plane to take off. I feel terrible cause I didn't get any of her contact info. I would love to have emailed her. She is also LDS. She told me things get easier with time. I am holding her to it! As we went our separate ways I told her I was glad she was there to chat with as my plan was to sit there and cry for an hour.

The kids are having a great time with my parents and their Provo friends. I love how much my parents love them.

My brother and his family got a new dog. I am publicly demanding pictures!!

Our cat brought a dead squirrel into the house this morning. I almost stepped on it as I left our bedroom. And the kids missed it. It was terrible. Bad kitty.

Well, I am proclaiming this as the most boring post of my life. Probably won't be much to blog this week as I usually blog about the kids. Maybe I will have to go to Walgreens daily and get some good stories there. Wait. We have Black Friday and it will be Matt's first one. I worry he will see a side of me that scares him!!! I will miss my Provo girlfriends and sister Dana this year!!

Thanksgiving Lunch

2009-11-20T07:36:00.000-08:00

Thursday was Luke's school Thanksgiving lunch. Remember back when we were young and they had a huge traditional Thanksgiving feast? Our schools have gotten very pathetic. Our school just served fake turkey and nasty looking rolls. And it took most of those poor people 35 minutes to get through that line. But, we were smart we took in our our food and got to talk with Luke for a good 30 as pretty much the only people at the table. It was awesome!!

Deal of the day...

2009-11-19T14:37:00.000-08:00

...and I am not kidding.

I went to my favorite place this afternoon. Yes, Walgreen's. I saw in their ad that they have Almay mascara for $2.99. That is a bargain folks. So, I slipped in there this afternoon. Just as I was leaving with my single tube for $2.99, I saw a double pack for the same price. So, I picked up 3 double packs. Don't worry. I am not going to wear it all. I am going to sell it on the "black market of mascara" to Ali when she runs out. She will pay $5 a tube :) Too bad she is reading over my shoulder.

OK, so funniest comment of the day. I was checking out at Walgreen's and I asked the cashier a question about a product. She told me, "I don't know. I have lived in New Zealand for the past 30 years. I love working at Walgreen's. I love Walgreen's more that New Zealand." Do you think she would say all that again into my camera? How about for some Almay mascara???

Young Women in Exellence 2009

2009-11-19T07:11:00.000-08:00

Last night (yes, after the field trip) was our Young Women in Excellence at church. It is an evening we spend with the twelve to eighteen year-old girls in the ward. We find out some of the goals they have accomplished and projects they have completed over the past year.

Last night it was set up like a game show. Very original. It was a lot of fun.

Ali was part of a "Name That Dance" game. They kept starting and stopping so I didn't get very good footage of her. Actually, I was so tried, I didn't get many good pictures at all. Ali is a fabulous little dancer. (She is on the far right in the video below) I would have killed for her ability to move her hips when I was doing Latin ballroom dancing. She helped plan a barn dance that she didn't even end up getting to go to due to band. Ali also sewed a pillow case and purse for projects.

Kat was part of a "Newly Added" game fashioned after the Newly Wed Game. The contestants were the four new Beehive girls. They asked the four new girls to come up and bring a parent. Kat went up with some of her friends and then I followed up after her. I got up there by her and she loudly whispered, "I want Matthew." So, I went back to my seat and sent Matthew up.
People are always surprised how much the children genuinely love Matthew. And they do. He loves them and they love him. They were quite darling together. I wish I had caught some of their interactions. They share the same quirky sense of humor. Kat's project was sewing. She sewed a skirt, pillowcase and PJ pants. She gave the pants to Luke cause we got them too small.

Moment of true confessions: Matt got more of the questions right than I would have!!! They were actually the winning team. But, who kept score??

Kat has really caught the Personal Progress bug and she might kill me off doing it all! She informed me she wants her medallion by the time she is finished with Beehives. I told her no way no how. "In my day" we couldn't earn it until we graduated from high school. Who changed that rule??? So, we are now planning to finish it by the time she is sixteen. We can live with that number!!

Both the girls have worked very hard and we are so proud of them. This church asks a lot of its members and these two girls are stepping up and doing what is expected.

We love you!!!

P.S. This note is for my germ-a-phobic mother and husband. Kat and I had the same clothes on for the field trip and the YW in Excellence. BUT, I washed everything in between :)

Sixth Grade Fieldtrip aka: I signed up for this???

2009-11-19T04:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I ventured to the Adventure Science Center in Downtown Nashville. I got there via a big, yellow, school bus. Throw in 100 sixth graders and you will begin to get the picture of my day.

So far, thank the stars above, my kids still like having me around. Which is why I was able to attend this trip. It is very funny. The more my kid's friends like me, the more my kids seem to like me. Yesterday I got multiple sixth graders to like me, so my popularity in my family was boosted :)

In my group I had four, excellently behaved, 12-year-olds. Two girls and two boys. Kat was in my group.
Parts of the the Center were fabulous for our sixth grade friends. But a lot of it was just too young for them. Part of the day was a "severe weather" lecture. There were some experiments, but a lot of talking. I am pretty sure most of those kids learned that stuff two years ago. After it was over, I heard one girl say that they owed her one hour of her life back. I told here if we were making those kinds of requests I would like two hours back AND $50. Why not dream big???

The planetarium part was amazing, but made me very ill with all the movement. The planetarium show was The Stars of Pharaoh. It was truly amazing and I wish it hadn't made me sick. The small, male person to the right of me talked to me during the whole presentation. (Later Kat informed me he had a crush on me. How sweet.) About half way through, I put my feet on the seat in front of me and closed my eyes. Soon, from the right, I heard, "They told us not to put our feet on the seats." Fine. Point for small person. I put my feet down, but kept my eyes closed. Soon, I heard, "They told us not to sleep." "Dude," was my response, "They said no snoring. Let me know if I start snoring."
No field trip would be complete without a little pain. I hit my head going down a slide the kids said I just "had to do." They were right. It was fun. I didn't even feel "old" all day.

All in all, minus the motion sickness and bruise on my forehead, it was a great way to spend a dreary Wednesday in Nashville.

Getting Old

2009-11-17T10:03:00.001-08:00

I am getting old.

I am going to a baby shower tonight. My baby is turning nine-years-old next week.

Sometimes I get out of bed like Mr. Fredrickson in Up. But, I do get up.

Yesterday the doctor asked if I had been tested for gout. Seriously, people. I am not THAT old.

I used to have one gray hair, now I have two.

More than once I have said, "Back when I was in high school..."

My teenager told me to choose "mature" nail colors. (I would like to appologize to my mom for any crazy things I might have said like that when I was in high school!!)

I am a good 15 years older than my son's 3rd grade teacher. Ok, maybe 10.

Our new bishop is a contemporary of mine.

I have looked at the lotions that help fight wrinkles. Ok, I bought Olay's cheapest one. That is only the beginning folks.

I have two girls that can babysit.

I would rather be comfortable than look good. Can I have both???

I am getting old. My husband tries to tell me otherwise, but it is true. I am getting old. Hopefully he loves old ladies :)

Seasonal Flu Shots

2009-11-16T07:06:00.000-08:00

The whole Paine family is now vaccinated against the seasonal flu. We did a 'surprise' attack on the kids on Saturday. Our errands turned into, "Well, look at that. Here we are at the medical clinic for flu shots." The kids have all decided they would rather die than get another flu shot.

Last night Kat proclaimed, "So, my upper left arm won't get the flu, what about the rest of my body?"

Kangaroo Boy

2009-11-14T12:12:00.000-08:00

We have the stinkin' cutest boy that lives behind us. Those are Ali's words :) He has a HUGE pogo stick and can do amazing tricks on it. Last Friday I caught this footage. The funniest part is when we figure he is dead and never coming back up!

Land-form

2009-11-13T08:42:00.000-08:00

Luke has recently finished this "land-form" project. He worked very hard on it and did 99% of the work on his own. (Which is more than I can say for some of the projects) The project needed a theme and then each land-form needed a name. So, since we used Crayola products, we decided to name it "Crayola Land." We took a bag of Crayola crayons and used the color names to name each formed area. My favorite is the "Wild Blue Yonder Mountains." Isn't that awesome??

Sewing Machine

2009-11-13T08:35:00.000-08:00

My sister is an amazing seamstress. I used to sew a lot more when the kids were younger. (Geez, I sound OLD!) Within the past couple of years I have gotten a new sewing machine and got excited about sewing again. While I was at my parents, it sat in storage. We recently got it out for the girls to start working on Young Women's projects. Matt and I both have a machine, so it works out they can both sew at the same time.

Anyhow...my has been misbehaving a little bit and so I took it in yesterday. A couple of hours later the shop called me and told me it was ready. As it turns out, much to my humiliation, I have been using the wrong bobbins. I told the repair man that my machine hates me. To which he responded with, "Ma'am, it is a machine and has no feelings." Totally seriously. So, I was kind of embarrassed twice :)

I am excited to try to sew with the correct bobbin. Maybe Sara will get bored enough with her husband in school and come and sew with me!!!

This one goes out to Nana and Papa....

2009-11-12T06:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Kat started teaching Ali how to play the clarinet. Things were going along well until about 4:00 pm. At that point in time Kat suddenly said, "Well, that's all for today. I need to put my clarinet by the front door for school tomorrow."

Those who know and love Kat know her fear of not being to school on time. But, folks, 4:00 pm the night before has set a new record!!

We love you Kat :)

Too Early??

2009-11-10T07:09:00.000-08:00

Playing Hookie

2009-11-10T06:31:00.000-08:00

Last Friday the power went of in a large portion of Franklin. Including the high school and Matt's office. The high school was 10 minutes from being out so they didn't get out early, but Matt came home 2 hours early. Lucky Luke got to enjoy that extra time with Matthew.

They went to the park and played and played and played. When I was done making bread for dinner I sneaked over an snapped some pictures over of their fun.

Somewhere in the beginning of our life together, the kids started calling Matt "beast." He is definitely a gentle beast and the kids adore him. Here our beast is being a sloth.

They spun....

and spun....

and spun...

until our beast could spin no more. As Luke was looking over at Matt on the ground he very softly asked, "Beast??" It was so very sweet.

Luckily the sun went down so we could all go home and rest :)

That illuminating license plate is my Utah plate. One day soon, we are going to put the Volvo plates on Cali to keep Clark's memory alive. But, for now, I love seeing my Utah plates. Reminds me where I came from :)

Ali and Band

2009-11-09T15:39:00.000-08:00

Ali has played the flute for about 20 years :) She has always had a natural music talent that actually makes others not like her. Most of the time she is seated 1st chair.

Over the weekend she traveled with the marching band to Indianapolis to help and check out the marching band program. When she got home she was very happy and said she had a great time. She said everyone was very nice to her and that she doesn't feel like the "weird 1st chair flute player" any more. Quite innocently (actually enough) Kat asked, "What happened are you 2nd chair now?"

We are happy Ali made some new friends in her new band and is feeling more comfortable and not so "weird." She is currently working towards an all-state audition.

Death by Candy

2009-11-05T05:23:00.000-08:00

Last night I ran to Walgreen's to pick up a prescription. We walked down the old Halloween isle and saw 3 very full carts full of Halloween stuff. I spotted some Pez, which I love. I asked the manager how much the Halloween stuff was marked down. He told me I could have it all for $5. So, to get the Pez, I had to get it all!

The kids had fun playing in about 100 pounds of candy. Don't worry. A large portion is already in the trash. Some has been sent to Matt's work. The rest will be sent to school for the treat box.

The 25 bags of Peanut M & M's made the whole $5 worth it! They are now in the freezer and should keep for a long time!!!

Kat is hidden in there :)