Productivity

Monday was not a good start to my vacation.  I was full of woe is me and self pity.  I hate it when I get like that, but I can't seem to help it.  I tend to worrry about things, and be overly critical.  The good news is that it didn't last all day.  The evening actually turned out quite nice.

Waiting to Begin

 Isabelle had found the egg dye in the cupboard and was anxious to use it.  Sunday we cooked eggs, but we didn't quite get to the coloring part.  We promised here we could do it on Monday when her daddy got home from work.  She has a very good memory and doesn't let things go.  As soon as he got home, she wanted to color eggs.   We got the dye ready, and then we colored eggs.  Thomas is really good at this (and anything else that has an artistic edge to it.)  He actually uses his drummel to engrave designs into the eggs.  They are really quite fancy.

Drummeling the Eggs

Working Together

I don't care about the eggs. Could you read me a story?

In the mail we got a flyer for Toys R Us.  They were having buy one get one half off on Legos.  I was supper excited.  That is a great deal.  We ran over to the Toy store.  Unfortunately our local store has terrible selection.  I had also looked online.  They were out of stock on three of the four sets I was interested in.  Not mush of a sale if you ask me.  We ran over to Target while we were out and found one of the Dino sets on sale.  I think it is sad that both Target and Walmart have better Lego selection than Toys R Us does.  I am very excited for Easter.  I do still need to get a couple of things, but it should be fun.




Tuesday was one of those days that I wish could happen all of the time.  I was productive, and I got stuff done.  I got things done I had been putting off for weeks.  It is spring break, and originally we were going to go on a little trip down to Dinosaur National Monument.  It didn't quite happen because the arrangements didn't  all get made, but we will probably still go sometime soon, and it probably was best that we were home.  I got up, well not early, but at least on time.  I decided to run the car over to get inspected.  It was actually due in January, but so were the rest of the cars, and mine ended up with a broken exhaust manifold.  So we waited.  Since it wasn't registered we didn't drive it.  A couple of weeks ago when I tried to take it it, it wouldn't start.  Apparently a battery can go dead from just sitting.  Anyway so I went to the store, and I got there just before the guy who opened the store.  I was going to read while I waited, but then I thought it would be a great time to grade papers, so I did.  I got most of the 9th grade worksheets done.  When I got home we made breakfast and got everyone dressed.  Then I worked on my resume.  (I really do want to do something different, I just don't know what.  Which is a problem.) Also, while I was working on that I called the a car place about the seat belt  that broke in my car about a month ago.  I still drive to daycare, but I haven't been able to go anywhere further than that.  I had a (hopefully) great idea.  We made several inquiries about the part, but the only one that responded is in Virginia.  It was going to cost about $10-15 for shipping.  The store is actually very close to where my brother-in-law is living.  I asked if he could just pick it up and bring it back on the plane with him this weekend.  I am still a little worried they won't want it in his carry on for some reason, but otherwise it worked out really well.

 By about noon we were ready to go.  We dropped the kids off at my moms for my younger sister to watch, and we headed over to LDS employment.  I have been trying to get Thomas to go for quite a while.  I am not sure the trip was as productive as I had hoped, but at least we both now have accounts and know how to look up jobs.  Our next stop was the tile store.  We picked the darker redish tile, which also was the cheapest.  It is now ready to install, except this weekend being Easter.  I could really use a Saturday as well as the Easter weekend.  We have three egg hunts all on Saturday.  While we were out, we also stopped at Walmart and got some Easter things.  We then headed home.

I had told my sister to feed the kids peanut butter sandwiches, but that didn't sound tasty to her.  Instead she served homemade Macaroni and Cheese.  It is one her favorites. There were leftovers and she very kindly shared them with us.  (Speaking of my sister, she has a job interview at Lagoon today, so we are praying for here and keeping our fingers crossed.  She really needs a job.) 


On our way into the house the children were distracted by their bikes and strollers.  They thought they needed to be used., so of course we ended up going on a walk.  It was nice, except that Isabelle kept panicking about going too fast, so we ended up going at a snails pace.  When we got home our productivity lagged a little.  I think I played a round of Tetris while Thomas took a nap.  I then decided to join him.  Who says that napping isn't productive?  Unfortunately I tried to get the children to nap with us, but it ended up waking Thomas up.  He got up and I finished the nap.  I woke up a little while later to someone head butting me until I moved.  Toddlers can be so sweet.

 

The last thing on my list for the day was yard work.  We actually made some good progress.  We got several more of the flower beads cleaned out and some of the wood chips spread around.  (I might add more pictures later.  My camera ran out of batteries after I took the one of the wood pile.)  We then went in and I made potatoes and chicken gravy.  It was very tasty.  We wanted to watch something.  I had borrowed several family films from my Mother-in-law, so we decided to watch one of those.  We picked Mary Poppins.  Both of the children were enthralled.  I was surprised how entertained they both were.  even on the slower parts. It is long and kind of episodic, so we only watched to the end of their first outing.  The next night we watched through the outing to Uncle Albert's.  I think the next bit is when they go to the bank.  I am not sure where the chimney sweeps come in.

Like I said, it felt like a very productive day.

Legos

So we have a new obsession at our house.  Some of us are more obsessed than others.  It all started a couple of months ago when I was shopping.  I was walking down the Lego isle when I saw a cute little house. It had a basketball hoop in the driveway and a satellite  dish, and I just thought it was cute.  But then next to it I noticed a cabin.  It was also cute, and I thought this would be the closest I would get to owning a real cabin for quite some time.  It ended up on my Christmas wish list.  I didn't end up getting it for Christmas, but Tristan did get several  sets of Duplos.  We had fun playing with them, but there wasn't enough of them for him and his sister to play together nicely.   I started keeping an eye out for Legos.  Being post Christmas, most of the stores had very little.  I even had a gift card for Toys R' Us that was expiring, but couldn't find anything.  We ended up getting some of the new Friends sets that I had seen on Legos web site.  I love them.  I think that they are adorable.  There is nothing that says that Legos are boy toys, but most of the sets are more boyish.  These new ones are designed for girls.  Isabelle got two of the small sets she is supposed to be earning by keeping her room clean.  About mid-January I was sick and a little out of sorts.  We had to get something at Wal-mart, I can't remember what, and we made a small detour down the Lego isle.  They happened to have my cabin, which I hadn't seen anywhere since before Christmas.  They also had a light house, which was perfect for Thomas.  He said it was the biggest set he had ever owned and probably doubled the number of Legos he possessed. We found a bucket of Duplos to give Tristan more variety, and Isabelle got another one of Friends sets, a stage with a grand piano.  We went home and had a family lego day.  It was really fun and not a bad way to spend a sick day. 

That was our new Legos, but I was also obsessing about my old ones.  I got them out to show Isabelle.  I also borrowed my sister's old 1970's sets, which remind me of the new Friends sets.  Isabelle really enjoyed playing with them.   There was a website I had come across a few years ago that had the instruction booklets for old sets.  I tried to find it again.  At first I couldn't find it. It had moved and had a new name, but I did find it. They have almost all the sets. It was a lot of fun looking at different sets.  I did have problems finding my set.  I didn't know what it was called.  It had animals instead of the regular Lego figures.   The series was called Fabuland.  It  was made from about 1979-1988.  I had the town hall. They did have the instruction manual, but it is in German.  The sets were really cute.  I wished I had gotten more of them when I was little, but then I realized that I played a lot with my brother's Legos, and getting more of my own would have meant getting less barbie stuff.  I guess at the time I liked the Barbies more.  I was able to build my set, but I am missing a few important parts.  Probably one of the biggest problems with Legos is missing parts. 

                                           This is the set Isabelle wants for her birthday.

My Weekend

This has been a great weekend.  Part of that was because it started a day early!  My sister decided that it was time for her to go through the temple.  Her session was at 2:00.  This meant that I had to miss some of work, but not all of it.  I really wanted to take the whole day, so I did.  What is the point of hording your personal days?  What if I never get to use them and they just go to waste?  I have been a little overwhelmed lately with all they things I am supposed to be working on.  I spent my day catching up on stuff for work and doing laundry.  I know, not the best use of a personal day, but it helped me feel less bogged down.  Thomas came home early and we drove to Ogden together.  I took my endowments out in the Ogden Temple as well, so it was fun to think back to my first experience.  Also it was nice to get a chance to go through one more time before the temple is closed, remodeled and then not quite the same place.  My talked to one of the temple workers about it.  They said that they are taking away most of the current building and redoing it.  They will leave some of the original building however so that it will retain the spirit of what took place there before.  If they razed it, that spirit wouldn't have anywhere to go and would be lost.  I thought that was an interesting idea, and it made sense.  After we went to dinner at Mimi's Cafe.  I have only been there once before, so I didn't have a favorite thing. I tend to get the same thing every time I go to a restaurant.  I don't like paying for something I might not like.  Thomas wouldn't let me get the turkey breast, (which is what I got the one other time I was there, and what I usually get at Marie Callendars) so I got pork chops in a honey mustard glaze.  It wasn't my favorite, but it was pretty good.  After that we headed home to relieve my sister-in-law who was watching the kids.  I really appreciated her, especially since we took longer that I thought we would.
 

 

Saturday was mostly a work day.  I finished up one of my work projects, did a bit more laundry, and cleaned the house.  I didn't get everything done that I wanted too, but it was a pretty good chunk.  The upstairs was pretty much finished, (it feels so nice to have it clean and vacuumed.) I almost had the kitchen clean, but then I found my cookie cutters and I asked Isabelle if she wanted to make cookies.  What three year old would say no to that? Instead of finishing cleaning, I made a mess.  She had fun though.  She usually makes cookies with her daddy.  She like to sit on the counter and either watch or help pour stuff into the mixer.  We made sugar cookies, which was a new experience for her.I rolled out the dough, and then she helped me cut out the shapes. I haven't made them in a really long time, and the first set didn't turn out.  They didn't have enough flour, so they stuck to the counter.  Instead of shapes they came out as globs.  I added some flour, and the second set worked much better.  When the trays were full we put the rest of the dough in the fridge. We are partial to cookie dough at our house.  Isabelle, wanted to take a glob of it up to here room.  I told her it had to stay in the kitchen.  She left the dough on the table and went up to here room.  I could hear her rummaging around, then she came back with her play rolling pin.  She rolled out her little piece of dough and cut it with her plastic knife.  It was really cute.  She has had the cooking set for a while, but I don't think she realized before what the rolling pin was for.




























My mother-in-law has been having trouble with her internet, so Tristan and Thomas went to grandma's house to help.  Isabelle and I went shopping.  I have been having some closet issues lately.  Several shirts that I like and wear often developed holes (all in the same spot - which I found interesting and puzzling) We headed to Old Navy.  It happens to be time for their stock up sale! Thomas was worried about me going shopping because I don't really like it, especially when I can't find things that I am looking for.  When I pulled in the parking lot and saw the sign for the sale, I was confident it would be a productive trip.  The t-shirts were on sale for $5.00.  I was a little disappointed in their selection.  They had a lot of funny colors and not as many good colors.  I ended up getting a navy and white striped shirt.  The tank tops were also on sale for $5.00, which was very exciting because they are usually $10.00. I never understood why the tank tops were more than the t-shirts.  We got Isabelle a pair of shoes and a pair of flip flops for the summer.  I also got Tristan socks.  I debated about what size to get.  The 0-6 month ones fit him pretty good, but he is 7 months old.  The 6-12 month ones looked huge.  It is better to be too big than too small, so I ended up with the bigger size.  They are a bit big, but he will grow into them.  All in all, it was a pretty good shopping trip.





That evening we watched The Truman Show.We got it for Christmas last year and hadn't watched it.  I hadn't seen it since it was in the theaters.  It is a pretty fun film.  Not at all a typical Jim Carry film, although he still has a few moments.  Isabelle fell asleep on her daddy's lap and we carried her up to bed.  As we were getting ourselves ready for bed Thomas reminded me that it was daylight savings. Yeah!  We get to get up early.  Despite that, we were both close to the end of the books we were reading and staying up latter then we should have.  I finished Jacob Have I Loved, which I knew was about a set of twins, but I thought it also had to do with a boy named Jacob.  When I was halfway through the book and Jacob had not shown up, I started wondering what else the title could mean.  I decided that maybe it was a reference to Jacob in the bible.  About 50 pages latter it quoted a scripture about Jacob and Esau.  I was so proud of myself for figuring it our ahead of time.  Anyway, it wasn't my favorite book, but it was interesting.  It did win a Newbery Medal.

Sunday was daylight savings.  Thomas looked at his watch, which is atomic and updates automatically, and thought he had plenty of time.  When he got out of the shower, I told him that church had started.  He told me I was wrong and went around to various clocks to prove me wrong.  Apparently only half of his atomic clocks updated.  I thought it was pretty funny.  On the whole it was a nice day. I even went for a walk with the grandkids. They love their walks, and it helps get their energy out before family dinners.