The One With The Eagle

My youngest brother, Bryson, got received his Eagle Scout on May 22, 2012 (our FOUR year mark of being in our house). It was a fun, but long, ceremony at my parent's house. The kids were mostly good, food was delicious, and we finally thought about bringing a camera and snapping BIG family pictures - which never happens.

The One With Phoenix-ing

Many of us have probably heard of "planking" and "owling" but I just got to throw out there that the newest rage has evolved from the especially ingenious mind of my better half.

For those of you who didn't go to University of Phoenix, and don't ever plan to, you may not see it, but for those of you that have or will, I guarantee you will come into contact with "phoenixing" at some point, and I just want you to know where it came from - ERIC!

Eric came up with the idea, got numerous pictures at OSU's stadium and vaious other locations with his buddy from work, sent out the email to the ENTIRE company, and about a week ago he got a phone call AND a face-to-face meeting with the Vice President of the entire University of Phoenix organization and "Phonexing" now sits on the Marketing Director's desk with Eric's name attached to it. Eric is to be involved in the campaign to take Phonexing GLOBAL - yes you heard that correct, as in WORLD WIDE!!!! Did you know University of Phoenix has campuses all over the world?? Well they do! And Eric's name will now be travelling to all of them.

Not only was the entire Idaho Graduating class in May asked to do the Phoneix pose during the ceremony but Eric has received over 300 pictures in the last month with employees and students "Phoneixing" in their daily lifes.

On our return home from Mat's homecoming, we had to stop at the 45th parallel - half way between the equator and the north pole - for a picture.

I tell you . . . . this man is headed for some GREAT things!

The One With the Famous Potato

The following posts will be my attempt to catch up on our daily happenings for the last month. It seems strange to me that it has only been a month since my last real posting, it seems like SO much has happened.

Eric defied all odds (or at least my expectations) by not only signing up for a half marathon, but training (sort of) and running (mostly) the Famous Idaho Potato Half Marathon on ay 18th, 2012. He and a handful of people from work decided to sign up together, train together (minimally) and run together. The running together part didn't happen after mile five, and while they did train a little bit I didn't think it was enough to prepare for 13.1 miles - alas, my husband who continues to amaze me with his many talents ran the half marathon in some pretty good time. I believe his time was 2h11m. May not compare to the guy who was running the full marathon that crossed the finish line about ten minutes after Eric, but I don't like those sickly thin fellows anyways.

I am amazingly proud of Eric for doing this, it is an incredible accomplishment, and I am grateful for my mother who came down to help me with the kiddos while we watched Eric cross the finish line.

Did I also mention that my sister is just as amazing and ran the half marathon (her second) as well? She is pretty awesome. I wish I was a runner so I could do these fun things with them . . . . . . actually no I don't. But I am sure proud of the two of them for doing it!

After crossing the finish line . . . . I probably would have puked

Aunt Britty

Pax was super excited for Daddy as well 

With these attitudes you would think they ran the entire 13.1 miles with Eric!

After the race was over Eric said he had accomplished something from his bucket list by running a half marathon and would never do it again. The following Wednesday I had activity days at our house and the back yard was a mess (literally, see picture above) so I decided to mow it . . . . . my reaction to something off my bucket list was similar.

And yet somehow I have mowed the lawn twice since.

Dang these ridiculous schedules we have!

The One With the Two Minute Post

I have been working on my finals for three days straight, the brain is a little fried and needs a vacation. We have a family Father's day dinner shortly, so I have approximately of "unwind" time until we must leave.

Life is nuts. . .  let me just say that. I am absolutely, undoubtedly looking forward to next Monday when our life slows down for about three days before it speeds up again full force. Never have we gone so fast for so long, I'm thinking once it's all over we won't know what to do with all our extra time.

We've had several family reunions already, and another coming this weekend. To top it all of : IT'S FINALS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My head is going to be mush after this, and I'm afraid my four point will be too. Something about a 3.9 doesn't sound so nice . . . . . OCD much? I think yes.

Stay tuned! Eventually I will have some "personal" time to share a little bit of our crazy life.

In the mean time, I just have to say how grateful I am for the amazing guy I get to share this absolutely insane life with, I don't know what I would do without him!

SPOILER: I have to include a few of our family pictures we got awhile back. Pretty soon here I will have a second to upload them all! :)

The One With the Blender

The days Eric has to work late = CRAPPY!!!

Usually it's Thursdays that he works late, and it's not so bad, because I work that day too, and so I come home and only have two hours at home alone with the kids. Two hours isn't soo bad. It's a couple episodes of Dora the Explorer, chicken nuggets, a bed time story, and then Daddy is home to tuck them in. Not so bad right? Sometimes I even enjoy it, especially now that it's nice outside (despite the Eastern Idaho-esque wind we've been having) and I can kick them outside. Who needs a girl, her back pack, and a purple monkey when you can dig outside in the bark chips???

Well this week is functioning just a little different. My brother graduates high school on Thursday, and we are leaving for Portland Friday morning. We also have a graduation party for Bryson on Tuesday, activity days/scouts on Wednesday, so the only day that Eric could switch his late night to was Monday. I really didn't think it would be so bad, and to be honest it wasn't. I was highly productive.

I am crazy at work . . . . I am highly productive, and to make sure that I can keep my days straight I write down EVERY thing I do. It also helps keep a time line with clients and stuff. Mostly it's just jibber jabber, like "check/respond/store all 158 messages in my email" or "leave a message to let so and so know that his receiver is on back order and will not be in production for another 4-6 weeks". But I write down EVERYTHING. Half the time I find myself beginning to write "took a sip of water" and "made the kids' lunch" . . . and then I scribble it out.

Sometimes I even want to keep a list like that at home. I mean seriously, how much more productive would you KNOW you were if you wrote everything down. Work out, work on homework, make breakfast, get kids up, feed kids, take shower, get ready, do seventy loads of laundry, put seventy loads of laundry away, vacuum floors, mop kitchen . . . . I mean that really does make me sound like the Queen of Productivity, am I right?

Well today I was thinking it would be a highly productive day. Really it HAS to be productive. I've got about seven different chapters to read in both my classes (at about 80 pages each) three papers, discussion questions, responses - and that's just for THIS week, neverminde that we are going to be in Portland for next week as well, so I really need to get caught up on that one too.

Paxton has begun getting up in the middle of the night again. Super annoying. Not that I don't love watching episodes of Lipstick Jungle or Samantha Who in the middle of the night. But it's getting progressively earlier, and it's hard for me to justify going back to bed after I feed him from 4:45-5:30 and my alarm is set for 6:10. But 4:45 is WAY too early to get up for the entire day.

Back to the story. Call it lack of sleep - an entire week of getting up at 4:30 will do that to you. Call it lack of food. I don't know. But tonight I took it all out on the blender. I've done a million loads of laundry today. I've cleaned bathrooms, and kitchens, done several loads of dishes, kept the kids happy, gotten them fed and dressed and bathed. It wasn't until about 11:30 that I realized I hadn't even eaten breakfast for the day. So I hate two eggs and two pieces of toast then continued on my merry way. There hasn't been a second of sitting down today (until now), all the cleaning, and kids keeping me on my toes, and breaking up fights, and making macaroni has made it almost impossible to even think.

Eric and I kind of have this little thing we do . . . . when one of us is really crabby the other one says, "okay it's time for you to sit down and eat something". We both have issues with low blood pressure, and being total brats and yelling at the kids is usually a sign that we haven't eaten in awhile. Well, Eric being gone today meant that I didn't have anyone monitoring me like I probably needed. And realistically there's only so much frustration you can take out on three kids that are 4 and under before you just realize they have absolutely no idea what you are saying. I'd finally gotten them out of the bath, dressed in PJ's, and in bed when I decided "hmmm . . . . it's almost eight o'clock, maybe it's time i eat something myself." I was feeling the dangerously low sugar frustration. But then Pax woke up, and wanted to eat too, and then he threw his applesauce (we're trying to shove the solids down his throat) all over my freshly laundered bed (he's not liking the solids so much) and Parker comes into the room and wants a snack and yada yada

We head downstairs and I am trying to make myself a delicious protein packed smoothie while Parker is talking about what he wants to eat. And I'm trying to get him food, while trying to get myself food (the kind of time where having those elastic arms like the mom in the Incredibles would be REALLY nice) when I go to start the blender and "mmmmmmmmmmmmmm" is all I hear.

No chopping. No blending. No smoothie-fying.

Just a humm.

I'm checking plugs, and settings, and pulling off the pitcher making sure everything is set up right, and Parker's still yapping about he wants goldfish dipped in nutella drizzled in sprinkles. Press the button again . . . . and another hum.

Then the smoothie hit the fan (figuratively of course).

I had the mother of all two-year old freak-outs on that blender.

It deserved it. Stupid piece of electronic equipment that abandons me when I need it the most. I screamed at it, to avoid yelling at my kids, or yelling at myself, or beating my head against a wall, and banged it and hit it, I may have even thrown it a little . . . . . although it must not have been hard seeing as how the glass pitcher did not break. I may have even shed a few tears for my strawberry orange protein smoothie that I was obviously not going to sip into my belly. The whole time Parker's sitting there next to me, eyes wide, obviously freaking out knowing that his mother is having some sort of psychotic break (although he probably doesn't even know what that is yet).

And then the tantrum is over.
I calmly put the pitcher back on the blender.
Push the start button.
And WHIRRRRRRR
It works.

That'll teach you blender. I am the boss. Do not disobey me.




Don't worry, no children or actual things with feeling were harmed in the process.

The one whith, "Did I say things were crazy before???"

Crazy.

Busy.

Craziness. Have I said things were crazy before? This seems to be an undeniable new theme in my life. On that, quite frankly, I am getting a little annoyed with. I can't help but wonder sometimes, "Is it like this for everyone? Or am I just that different?????"

Life has been nuts.

Life is currently nuts.

But it's only going to get MORE nuts!!!! And not like a squirrel that wants nuts, but actually crazy hectic schedules - even more so than usual.

This last Friday my mother threw another one of her HUGE garage sales. And when I say huge, I mena HUGE. I'm not talking about those ones set up on people's driveways where there is a bunch of old furniture, and a few stained clothes, and maybe a disfunctional lawn mower.

No.

My mother has the mother of all OZ garage sales. And you know that based on the simple fact that she pulls in almost 5 grand a piece on these things. Quality merchandise I'm tell you people, quality merchandise.

It helps that they sold the showroom and now have massive amounts of furniture and decor. It also helps that they are giant hoarders and have decades worth of stuff they have been able to throw in their seven bay garage. If you had that kind of space, you would hold onto everything too.

But back to the craziness.

THURSDAY: at work, was preparation for the yard sale. I then came home to do a massive overhaul cleaning at our house for a meeting we were having Friday.

FRIDAY was the garage sale, leave at 3 to make it home for an important meeting, then take Preslie out because Friday, May 11th marks the YEAR point for PRESLIE!! Year in remission people, this is seriously amazing stuff!!

SATURDAY was the garage sale again - oh yeah, and Daddy worked, so Mommy got to have all three of the kids for an additional day by myself, it was great. After the garage sale, hurry home, get ready and head downtown for family pictures. Which are desparately needed - and let me tell you, I am excited to see teh end results! What my friend Katie was doing there, it was good stuff - look her up and book her for your pictures!! :)

SUNDAY: Oh what was that? You actually forgot to do a paper three days early, Crystal, and now it is due tonight? For that you must get up at 6:30 to work on it . . . until 9. Then eat Mother's Day breakfast, get the family ready for church, be there for Parker's first talk, leave early to make it to a Mother's Day dinner at the parent's in which I couldn't even keep my eyes open (really, I was falling asleep on th table) and make it home to your once clean house to start another work week.

The only cruddy part is, this craziness extends beyond just this last weekend, and extends for the next several months. This week: Scouts, Eric works late Thursday, Eric has the Idaho Potato Marthon on Saturday, following which we are supposed to go and prune a tree at the Church orchards. Next week: Tuesday is my brother's graduation dinner, wednesday is activity days and scouts, Thursday is my brother's actual graduation in downtown Boise in which I will be attending by myself with three kids as Eric works late, Friday work and then drive to Portland (in two cars) to see the littlest Marshall get home from his mission. Elder "Smack" will speak Sunday, we'll be in Portland until that Wednesday, work Thursday, Friday, and Eric has to be at University of Phoenix's graduation on Saturday. Following weekend, is the Reynold's family reunion in Idaho City, come back from that. Next Friday we have a concert which Eric's brother's are flying down for, and then we leave the next day for the Carpender family reunion near Pocatello. Come back from that, take a weekend off, and then leave for the Lewis family reunion in McCall.Then a trip to Utah for a baby blessing and baptism. And I forgot to mention that in this whole time frame we also have: my sister's birthday, memorial day, nephew's birthday, mother's birthday, grandmother's birthday, father's day, fourth of July, nephew's birthday, dad's birthday, brother in law's birthday, parker's birthday, my birthday, my brother's birthday, aunt's birthday, three final's weeks for Eric, two final's weeks for me, schoolwork, homework, scouts, activity days, meetings, work, working out, doctor appoitnments. . . . . and am I done yet?????

I can't even think of taking out even ONE of these family events because it's so busy. I wouldn't even know where to pull one! They are all so important to us, and to my family, that I can't even think of cutting something out.

Word of the wise: when you say outloud "things can't get any busier" you're dumb.

Cause it can ALWAYS get busier.

Just like it did for us.

Here's to the freakin' weekend, friends! It's been nice knowing you, but most likely I'll be checking out for a few months! :)

The One With Mother's Day

Mother's Day was amazing this year! As it usually is. But each year seems to get better and better. I can't believe that I have THREE kids! That is just a crazy thought to me. And although I sometimes get overwhelmed with them and my responsibilities, I can honestly say I wouldn't have it any other way.

This year, Eric took over with the kids, offering more help than I probably deserved. He watched them while I finished homework, then made maple donuts (donuts have become a Sunday tradition as of late - unhealthy sure, but awesome nontheless!), we went to church where Parker gave his first talk in Primary, pulled the kids our early to go to a family dinner, and then spent the entire rest of the day surrounded by people we love, appreciate, and admire.

I also finagled Eric into telling me what my Mother's Day present was - apparently shipping delays have it trapped in Jersey with Snookie - but by Wednesday I will be the proud Mommy to a new camera!!! Great present babes, cause ours is getting trashed - five years can only do so much!!!

I am blessed to be a Mommy to three amazign kiddos, and even more blessd to have Eric to spend my life, and the eternities, with. Love you ALL!!!