I mad… Now I happy and other random things

So Jr3 (I think I'm going to switch and call her Little Miss) likes to keep us informed of her feelings. I sad. I mad. I happy now. This is now evolving. This past week we were taking a car ride. Little Miss informed us that "I mad." We joked around and got her in a better mood. Then she got upset again and informed us "I two mad." So, I asked her what things she was mad about. She then informed us "I forty-six mad." I'm not sure if that's on a scale of one to 100 or if it's how many items she's mad about. I'm sure we'll get to find out. Jr2 has been reminding us that we need to start planting some of our plants. It's time to plant the strawberry seeds to get a good start. We went to the store and bought dirt on Friday night. It is kept outside and was frozen solid. We brought it in Saturday afternoon and had to keep checking it all day to make see if it was thawed yet. It was finally thawed today, so we will be planting them tomorrow for part of family home evening. Sr has been working, scouting and helping around the house. I have been cooking, cleaning, and working on lengthening Libby's dress I made her last Easter. I think the dress might actually end up cuter that it was. I've also been enjoying my sunshine lamp from SunBox. 20 minutes a day for me. I'm not necessarily getting up earlier yet, but I am getting more done in the day. I am also working on exercising. I have joined nExercise and Fitocracy (free versions) and have been tracking my exercising. I like it because then I can level up. On nExercise I get rewards I can accumulate slowly and redeem for things. On Fitocracy I have joined some groups to get encouragement. For example, someone told me that when they exercise with the kids around, they will do sit-ups, then read them a story, then do pushups, then read them a story, etc… They also try to involve the kids in the exercise and they posted a YouTube showing someone doing just that. Kind of like Coo using the kids for weights when doing pushups. So I did sit-ups the other day and had the kids sit on my feet to anchor them down. They thought it was all sorts of fun. We'll see how long that lasts, but in the meantime I'll enjoy it.

Random Bits of Knowledge I've Used More Than Expected

Lately, I've been thinking about the things I've learned (not from parents) that I've used more than expected. I'm sure I've used a lot more things I learned from my parents than I ever expected to use when I was a teenager, but that's another post. I'll probably update this post as I remember more of them. First are skills I learned at church girl's camp. I never expected to use any of these skills, since I hate camping. However, I must admit some of these skills have come in useful. For example, how to make a bedroll. Since we are trying to save money and turning down the thermostat is a great way to do it. As a paranoid mother that wants to make sure the children warm enough at night, I use bedrolls on their beds. I learned how to do this at camp, even though we never actually used them. I remember this, since soon after I learned it I had to teach my brothers how to do it for scouts. The other camping skill I learned that might be useful is lashing. We have quite a few branches from the neighbor's trees. I am thinking this summer I will lash some together to make some fun outdoor furniture for the kids (to go with the sunflower house we are planting). Drafting and math have come in handy when lengthening patterns or creating extensions for current clothes. Mom is grateful for drafting and it's positive affects on my handwriting. My psuedocode class came in handy when I graduated from college and got a job programming in a language I didn't know yet. My personal fashion selection class taught me that I can wear any color I want, as long as I get the right shade, so I'm open to trying on more clothes than I would have been. Also, it taught me that just because something is cheap it isn't always a good deal and vice versa. For example, if I buy a shirt on sale for $5 and wear it once, it cost me $5 per wearing. If I buy a shirt for $40 and wear it not quite every other week for 20 times, it cost me $2 per wearing and is a much better deal. A county gardening class taught me that while some times are better than others for pruning and trimming, any time is better than not at all. With how well I get around to doing things at the right time, this has been very valuable knowledge. On my mission I learned how to boil water (ok I already knew that) that I could then use with colder water from the tub for taking a shower when the hot water is out. I used that this winter when our hot water heater was out and we were waiting on a new one.

The Holidays

So, Sr keeps telling me when I tell him about different happenings -- "You should put that on your blog".  Unfortunately, I haven't been doing it or even making a note of the event.  As a result, no fun stories at the moment.

Jr2 and Jr3 did enjoy their Christmas.  We read the Christmas story in the scriptures and paused at strategic points to let the kids act out the events with the Fisher Price nativity set.  Jr2's favorite present was his new bike (even though he claims it is too big and too hard to ride).  Jr3's favorite present was her Hello Kitty karaoke.  We got many hours of entertainment out of it on Christmas day -- and without having any music to go with it.  Jr3 does love music and tries to learn and sing along with all the songs on the various shows she watches.  She doesn't quite have the concept of following the tune down yet.

We had a pinhole leak when we got back from our trip to Sr's side of the family (I'll have to post about that trip in another blog).  We tried a fix.  It didn't work.  Our home teacher came over and taught Sr how to weld (solder?) copper pipes.  Now it doesn't leak -- there.  Then the water heater finished going out.  We new it needed a new anode rod, but by the time that was known it was probably too late.  Sr now knows how to install hot water heaters.  Talk about a good home teacher.  He helped install the water heater as well (2 days) and the second day he dropped Sr at the doctor's (pneumonia again, we think) and dropped off a van key to the kids and I when I locked us out of the van.

Jr2 went and got his more in-depth speech assessment (which is where I locked the keys in the van).  They will be getting the results to me on Wednesday and then they will meet with us to discuss the plan of attack the next Wednesday.

Jr3 continues to love dolls and being a mommy to her dolls, although when Sr told her she was a good mommy to her dolls, she replied, "I not a mommy, I a sissy."