Famous last words

Isabelle's newest guilt trip: "Jesus is in my heart, and when you get mad at me you're hurting Jesus's feelings."

Ethan's excuse for not wanting to go to scouts the other day: "I'm paralyzed. I WANT to go, but my body just won't let me."

Isabelle's words of wisdom (notice my little play on words there) to my 86 year-old Catholic grandmother: "You know, that coffee is gonna kill you."

Back in my day....

I teach the 7-turning 8 year-olds in Primary. It's never a dull Sunday. Haha

A couple of weeks ago I was teaching how Heavenly Father protects us and gave the example of how He protected baby Jesus by sending Joseph an angel to take his family to Egypt. I was supposed to give an example of Heavenly Father protecting me. I shared with the class of the time when I was in highschool, dating a kid that lived literally over the mountain, and my car broke down on the side of the mountain, in the middle of the night, two or three miles from civilization. I explained to them that we didn't have cell phones back then (you should've seen the disbelief on their little faces). I told them that I prayed (I really did! Not making this up!) and that a few minutes later a young woman came driving by that took me to her house so that I could call my dad.

Several hands went up at this point.

Me: "Yes?" calling on one of my favorites (you all have a favorite. don't deny it)
Kid: "I thought you didn't have a cell phone."
M: "I didn't"
K: "But you just said you called your dad. How did you do that without a cell phone??" Other kids voice their agreement.
M: "I used a phone at the girl's house. Don't any of you have phones attached to your walls at your house?" Receiving completely blank stares now, like I'm asking them how many of them have elephants in their back yards. I try again. "Do any of you have.... cordless phones?"......

"OH YEAH!!! We have those!!"

Oh. My. Lands. Yeah. Felt my age that day. Hahaha

Ah do dehclair

Don't you hate it when you can do the most amazing knock-your-socks-off Southern accent, akin to 'Steel Magnolias', and the only one around to hear it is the four-year old who asks why you're talking so funny?

Cruise, ah how I miss thee

I thought I better blog some pics real quick about the cruise so I can still make people jealous about how warm and loverly it was.... whilst it's still somewhat cold here.... haha :) Last month we went on a cruise to Grand Cayman Islands and Cozumel with all of Wade's brothers and sisters and their spouses and mom and dad to celebrate Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary!! It was tons of fun and well worth the wait. :) I have to say, a cruise is well worth the money cuz you're waited on 24/7, there's a 24 hour ice-cream and pizza bar, you don't have to worry about transportation, and you stay in the same room the whole time. And they leave the cutest towel animals on your bed at night!!

We went swimming with stingrays in Grand Caymans. I was so mad cuz when we got home we got our water-proof camera developed and had about 30 pictures of stingrays. I don't know why. A little excited, I guess. Haha

This is me saying, "no thanks, I don't really want to hold it." ;) I did touch one, though. They felt like gravel on the top and smooth and slimy on the bottom. The rays were so big and easy going and beautiful to watch in the water. I could have stayed there all day!

Fish we saw whilst snorkeling. No, we didn't touch any. Haha

The next stop (different day) was Cozumel. OH MY LANDS I COULD LIVE THERE. Lol It was so warm and colorful and gorgeous and laid-back and easy going...... when you see pictures of beaches with white sand and gorgeous blue/green water, yeah, those aren't doctored up at all. They are for real!!

Going kayaking and getting ready to snorkel!!

I loved loved loved our cruise!! So much fun and so many other fun things that we did on the boat- we won a Scattergories contest, competed in a bean-bag contest, Wade won a "name that TV theme song" contest, and I tied for first place in a Karaoke contest, but told the judge the other guy could have the prize cuz it was a bottle of champagne, and I'd be happy with a plastic trophy that looked like the ship. :) Our waiters were both from the Philippines, which Wade was thrilled with cuz then he could brush up on his Tagalog. It was so much fun to spend so much time together and nice cuz the day after we got home Wade was asked to be second counselor in the Stake Presidency.... Yeah, we should have moved when we had the chance. Lol

Bedtime.... yawn.....

Oh my lands I hate bedtime. Actually, hate is too nice of a word. I LOATHE bedtime. If I could hire someone to come and put my kids to bed every night and deal with all the bedtime drama and shenanigans, I would take out a second mortgage on my house right now. I put my kids to bed at 8:30 tonight and they all finally fell asleep at about.... ten. Yeah. You know who the worst one is? Yeah, you all know exactly who it is. Little miss Izzy. hahaha

Over the Christmas break we decided to switch the kids's bedrooms. Abby and Ethan were downstairs together, and Olivia and Isabelle were upstairs together. A & E were getting to the point that they were fighting every single night, every single day, Ab wouldn't sleep in her room anymore, yadda yadda yadda. So we switched Ethan and Olivia, and now Liv is downstairs with Ab, and Eth and Izzy are together. NOW none of them will go to sleep cuz they're all too busy talking like they haven't seen each other in twenty years! Lol So back to Izzy- she has now found a gossiping relief society lady in Ethan. As long as she keeps him talking, she can stay awake. And she has to have the lamp on cuz she gets scared, according to her. Hahaha Poor Eth got the short end of the stick, I'm thinking. :P

So tonight I had them all in bed, settled down and quiet. Long story short, (Too late!!) an hour and some later Iz was still talking Ethan's ear off. I finally went in and turned off the lamp, and turned on the night light. Oh man, all heck broke loose. She starts hollering that she can't see, that the shadows are too dark, yadda yadda yadda. I climb into bed with her and try to make her see reason that it's SOOOO late, Ethan has to go to school tomorrow, etc etc etc. She doesn't care. Lol Now, with Izzy, all you have to do is literally get her to hold still for about two minutes and she's out like a light. But getting her to hold completely still is the trick. I told her that I would start counting quietly (and slowly!!) to see how high I could get before she settled down.
I got to 21 before I realized she was mouthing the words..... started again.
I got to 11 and she started singing... started again...
I got to 14 and she complained that this was taking FOREVER!!!
I got all the way to 60!! And just about started to cry when she opened her eyes and told me that she could mouth the words if she wanted....
I kept going and she actually yawned at 79..... she rolled into her favorite position at 120 and was sound asleep at 134.....

Pick your own punishment day!

Tonight Ethan got in some trouble (yes, dad. YOUR grandson) for something I'd already warned him about twice, and consequently got computer privileges revoked for tonight and tomorrow (I was ready to sell him to the gypsies. He's lucky I decided to keep him). He proceeded to get a stool from the kitchen, set it in the hallway, and set the timer on the microwave for ten mintues. He then sat down on the stool with an innocent look upon his angelic little face.

"Whatcha doing?" I asked, pretty much already knowing the answer.

He replied, "I thought I would sit in time-out for my punishment instead".....

I told him if he'd like he'd be more than welcome to do both. Aren't I the nicest mom?? ;)

Good morning to you too!

The other morning Izzy climbed in bed with me at about 6:30 due to a bad dream. We laid (layed? lain? layeth?) there for a while talking quietly and trying to get back to sleep until she piped up with, "Mom.... you look creepy. And you have stinky breath."