New Blog Host

Dear everyone who reads my blog,

I have switched to a new blog host, as this one wasn't working for a long time.  Here's the new address: 

socuteandfumps.wordpress.com

Sorry for any confusion.  I thought I let everyone know on Facebook.

Mother's Day Questionnaire

For Mother's Day this year, I typed up a list of questions for my family to answer to see how well they know me.  

Here were the questions and the answers.  The names of those answering will remain anonymous. All spelling is how it was on the questionnaire.

What is Mom's middle name?  An like me

What is Mom's favorite color?  Orange

What is Mom's favorite food?  Spagetti

What is Mom's favorite dessert? Lemon pudding

What makes Mom happy?  If we do our chores

What makes Mom angry?  If we dont do our chores

If Mom could go anywhere in the world, where would she go?  Finnland

What does Mom do when everyone else is gone?  Crochet and watch movies and shows

What does Mom wish she could do but doesn't have time or money for?  Get a realy big house

What is Mom's favorite food to cook?  Spagetti

What will Mom do when all the kids are grown up?  Be a grandma

What does Mom love most about me?  That I'm creative and am cute and squint my eyes

What is Mom's middle name?  Ann

What is Mom's favorite color?  orange

What is Mom's favorite food?  noodles

What is Mom's favorite dessert?  lemon pudding

What makes Mom happy?  when we clean without being asked

What makes Mom angry?  when we bother each other

If Mom could go anywhere in the world, where would she go?  Finnland

What does Mom do when everyone else is gone?  clean, watch shows on the computer, sleep, run errands

What does Mom wish she could do but doesn't have time or money for?  read and or buy every book

What is Mom's favorite food to cook?  pancakes because their easy, quick, and every one likes them

What will Mom do when all the kids are grown up?  live with dad in this quiet house.  quiet until we visit

What does Mom love most about me?  I am willing to watch the little girls when she and dad go on dates.  and I am a good helper.

What is Mom's middle name?  Ann

What is Mom's favorite color?  orange

What is Mom's favorite food?  romen

What is Mom's favorite dessert?  cake

What makes Mom happy?  when I kiss her

What makes Mom angry?  I do some thing noty

If Mom could go anywhere in the world, where would she go?  in Irland

What does Mom do when everyone else is gone?  sleep and gos to the store

What does Mom wish she could do but doesn't have time or money for?  croshay or sow

What is Mom's favorite food to cook?  noodls

What will Mom do when all the kids are grown up?  play

What does Mom love most about me?  That I am cute

 

 

 

What is Mom's middle name?  Ann

What is Mom's favorite color?  orange with green in second place

What is Mom's favorite food?  pasta, and anything she doesn't have to cook

What is Mom's favorite dessert?  Baked goods such as pies and cakes and rolls

What makes Mom happy?  Reading, acts of service we do for her

What makes Mom angry?  Fighting, arguing, contention

If Mom could go anywhere in the world, where would she go?  Finland or PEI, Canada

What does Mom do when everyone else is gone?  Takes care of our laundry and bakes bread and rests

What does Mom wish she could do but doesn't have time or money for?  Running an antiques store/business

What is Mom's favorite food to cook?  Rhodes cinnamon rolls

What will Mom do when all the kids are grown up?  Volunteer and give service and maybe have a job

What does Mom love most about me?  That I take care of her and the kids

 

 

What is Mom's middle name?  ann

What is Mom's favorite color?  orange

What is Mom's favorite food?  saled

What is Mom's favorite dessert?  ice cream

What makes Mom happy?  no contenchen

What makes Mom angry?  contenchen

If Mom could go anywhere in the world, where would she go?  disnyland

What does Mom do when everyone else is gone?  croshay

What does Mom wish she could do but doesn't have time or money for?  go to disnyland

What is Mom's favorite food to cook?  mac and cheas

What will Mom do when all the kids are grown up?  croshay alot more

What does Mom love most about me?  everything

 

 

What is Mom's middle name?  Ann

What is Mom's favorite color?  Orange

What is Mom's favorite food?  raisins

What is Mom's favorite dessert?  gummy worms

What makes Mom happy?  When we do what we are told and when we are nice

What makes Mom angry?  When we don't do what we are told and when we are mean

If Mom could go anywhere in the world, where would she go?  Finland

What does Mom do when everyone else is gone?  She swims and runs and jumps for joy but best of all she reads her toy

What does Mom wish she could do but doesn't have time or money for?  Get surgery for the mole on her neck organization

What is Mom's favorite food to cook?  Scrambled eggs and toast, raisin cake with raisin icing

What will Mom do when all the kids are grown up?  Crochet, host crafting parties for the Relief Society, wrestle a bear

What does Mom love most about me?  She loves how I am tall and buff and can reach things for her.  She also loves how I live the Gospel and get good grades.

 

Missionaries Galore

Our ward has quite a few young people out serving as missionaries.  Here's the count:

4 Sisters

12 Elders

5 recently called or waiting for their call

This Week

 This week is going to be busy.

Today is high school registration for my son.  After hearing about from other moms about the problems with trying to register online from home, we're just going to go over to the high school and do it there where counselors will be there to help with any problems.  It will be a relief to get that over with.

Tuesday is Young Womens and Young Mens for my oldest two children.  It's the fifth Tuesday, which means their activities will be at Bishopric member's houses.  Should be fun.

On Wednesday we have an awards reception for our 11 year-old daughter.  She entered a piece of art in a competition and will be receiving an award for it.  The reception is right during dinner time, of course.  We're all excited for her.

On Thursday our niece, Kaitlin, is getting married.  Her fiance is Muslim and she has also converted to his religion.  They will be married in a mosque in Salt Lake in the afternoon, so my husband and I will be going to that and to the dinner afterwards.  It should be interesting.  We have to wear ankle-length pants or skirts and long-sleeved shirts and take off our shoes for the ceremony.  The men and women are separated for the ceremony, with one group upstairs and the other downstairs.  Different, for sure.  The kids will be on their own for dinner, but macaroni and cheese is a favorite around here and two of the kids know how to make that.

On Friday our oldest daughter is going to an old neighbor's house to sleep over until Sunday morning.  They will be going to Lagoon on Saturday.  She's very excited.  It's always fun to see old friends.

On Saturday one of our youngest daughter's friends is getting baptized, so she and I will be going to that.  There is also a half marathon in Vernal that my husband and son may be participating in.  We're not sure on that one yet.

In other news, I'm completely off antidepressants.  I haven't done that for years.  It took a good couple of months to wean off them, most of which wasn't too bad.  I'm definitely more emotional now than I was while taking them.  I always feel like I'm either on the edge of irritation or two seconds away from crying.  Hopefully that evens out.  

I'm also trying to improve my eating and fitness habits.  No white sugar, corn syrup or white flour.  More water and movement.  I set up a points system where I earn points for how well I do each day.  When I get to a certain number of points, 210, I can buy a book on my Amazon wish list.  This has been a great motivation for me, as I always want more books.

Yard work has certainly picked up.  The front yard hasn't been too bad so far.  Mostly pulling a few weeds here and there.  And then there's the back yard.  The weeds are thriving, for sure.  Most of the garden is in: potatoes, onions, carrots, strawberries, tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, and a few other things that I can't remember.  My husband usually does all the planning and the planting, and I do the weeding and harvesting.  I've been slacking on the weeding already.  It's not quite out of hand yet, but getting close.

I put in a time change request for the elementary school kids for next school year.  Instead of leaving the house at 9 like they do now, they would have to leave at about 7:45.  The high school starts much earlier and my son would have to be at the bus stop by 7:06 or something like that.  My oldest daughter leaves at 7:50, so it makes sense to have everyone out the door early.  It wasn't so much of an issue until now to drag out the getting-ready process for hours, but next school year, I want it more compact.  We'll see if my request is granted or not.

We went to hike the Y on Saturday.  The kids had done it with my husband and I had gone as a teenager, but we had never done it as a family.  I made it to the second benches as my stomach was not behaving and I thought it best to not be too far from the bathrooms.  We're going to go hike it again sometime when my stomach is healthy.

Pictures of Steve and Pete

 This is Steve.  He is mostly white with a bit of tan.

 Here's a nice shot of Steve's whiskers.  And cute paws.

 Pete is more shy.  He wasn't sure about the camera or me.

 Pete hightailed it for the safety of the igloo as soon as he could.

Here's a good picture of his ears.

The Trouble with Ratties

Our pet rat, Cluny, started breathing hard about a week ago.  He had a respiratory infection, which is the number one killer of rats.  After watching him suffer for a week, my husband put him to sleep last night.  That sure is hard.  I had my time of crying, for sure.  He was such a sweet rattie.

Since rats are very social animals and don't do well alone, we thought we'd get another rat to be friends with Remy.  Well, that didn't work so well.  Remy was very territorial and kept attacking the new rat, Steve, until Steve had several wounds.  Poor Steve.  Steve is a dumbo rat, which means his ears are a bit bigger than the fancy rats.  He is so small and cute and loves to be held and petted.

Our new plan is to give Remy away to a new home and to get another dumbo rat to be a brother to Steve.  This should work much better, since no one will be the boss yet.  Once I get the other new rat this morning, I'll take some pictures and put them up so you can see the new cute ratties.

Pictures Around the House

I haven't done a post with pictures for a long time, so I'm doing one today.  Here's what's been going on around our house:

 Here is what is at the foot of Daughter #3's bed.  Phineas and Ferb's eyes are awesome.

 You can see actual carpet in the little girls' bedroom.

 Daughter #1's rollerblade waiting to be fixed.  Attempt #3 will be made today.

 One of many owls.  This is my newest one.

 Sneak peek of a rug I'm making for a sister's birthday present.

 Seedlings.

 A dresser I bought at a thrift store and am fixing up.

 Pile of things to go to D. I.

 The too-cute ratties.

 The too-weird chickens.  And gross window and gross back patio.  All thanks to weird chickens.

 Our family room is starting to come together.  Still trying to figure out what to put on the walls.  The couch, ottoman and rug are new.  Everything else is thrifted.

 Latest set of used childrens' books.

 Our cheap but new couch for downstairs.  Love it!

 An old rolling cabinet I found at the thrift store.  Of course.

 It holds all our movies.  It's very handy.

 Just part of our food storage.  I think we've got condiments covered.

 All that's left of our nasty old couches.

 You can see carpet in the older girls' bedroom, too!!

 Laundry.  Always laundry.

 My craft room.  I need to spend some quality time in here.  Stat.

 Someone is studying for their learner's permit.  I don't want to talk about it.

 LEGO

 One of these things is not like the others.  OUCH!!

 Hey!  My bed is made.  And you can see carpet.

Dishes.  Always dishes.