Then and Now

I made bread yesterday and again today... an "object" to go with Kendon's Home Teaching message... Today I made another batch of bread so it would be fresh for the rest of his HT families tonight.

Anyway, when my kids got home and smelled the fresh bread, their mouths literally started to water and they headed right over to get a few slices. As they moaned and chewed and sighed, I had to laugh -- they were enjoying it SOOOOO much. I used to make bread all the time, but I haven't been very good about making it lately. My family really enjoys it when I do, though. In fact, they BEG me to make it.

Now onto the then and now part of the story... I remember as a kid, my mom made bread every week, without fail. And it was good. She is an awesome breadmaker. But I also remember begging her, on occasion, NOT to make bread but instead let us eat STORE BOUGHT bread... what a treat for us! Whenever we got to have "boughten bread" I'd take the crust off and eat it, then I'd either flatten out the rest and nibble it, or I'd squish it into a round ball and eat it. Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a treat for me.

Fast forward several years into the present. I shared this memory with my kids as they were inhaling piece after piece of fresh bread and they told my I must have been crazy. It's funny to me how a homemade piece of bread can make my kids eyes roll back in their heads when as a kid, all I wanted was store bought bread. Perspective is certainly shaped by what we have / do not have and what we consider "normal" versus "special".

Check this out! Pretty funny

Elder Moon, Man What Will You Do? (Show Me Your Virtue)

Our Master bedroom... looks pretty good
but we usually keep it pretty clean


Madison's room... looks really good. She's
worked hard to get it looking like this


Todd's room looks awesome... it's NEVER
looked this good! And he worked hard to
get it looking this great.

The craziness before more craziness

Well, this weekend is the last one before our house goes on the market. And I've been cleaning and organizing and purging like a maniac for weeks. But today, we got down to the surface stuff. Bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. My kids (and husband) are amazing.

Madi and I talked this morning about what she needed to do. Before I knew it, she had MADE A LIST, complete with tick boxes, and started in on her work. She is a girl after my own heart... a list, can you believe it??

And Todd...what can I say? He doesn't need a list. I told him what I needed him to do and he just went for it. I haven't seen his room so clean EVER!! And he dusted, vacuumed, cleaned his bathroom... then he and Kendon went outside for a little break where Todd thoroughly cleaned up on the BB court... the loser had to pick up dog poop. Suffice it to say, Todd was thrilled to see Kendon picking up after the dog.

Everyone has stepped up today and really taken on a lot of responsibility which has been so nice for me. I've been able to do what I need to do while they all do their chores. And the house is looking pretty dang good. By Monday, it'll look awesome... bring on the buyers!

People, WE are the People

I just don't understand what the Obama attraction is. The Love Fest continues. The "Slobbering Media Love Affair" is sickening. This man may well be the President of the United States, but he is the devil. He is pushing BIG GOVERNMENT, BIG TAXES, WORLD GOVERNMENT, SOCIALISM -- PEOPLE, DON'T YOU GET IT??? More government involvement on every level and Big Brother's nose in every aspect of everything we do, say, choose (well, if we keep going in the direction we're headed, we won't have to choose -- our choices will be made for us by OBAMA.

First he's firing a CEO of a PRIVATE corporation (yes, I realize GM sold themselves to the "Obama Devil" when they accepted $$) -- didn't realize Obama wanted to control the car industry from the White House, but why not? He's in the back pocket of the Union... But come on, what's next? Is he going to push regulation to tell me what food to buy or from whom? Oops...too late. There's already regulation proposed to shut down small Farmers: goodbye little roadside farm vendors and UPick fruit orchards. Or maybe he'll decide we need one religion for all people... you know, we need to unite. Where's the harm in that? Stupid, stupid, stupid. We have to stand up and take back control. The government is supposed to work for the PEOPLE, not the other way around.

People, we are the people. We have a voice. We need to stand up and be heard and let our new dear, inexperienced, clueless President know that we don't want him destroying this great country.

OK, I'm done for now. Just had to get that off my chest.

Holy Cr*p... I really need to stop doing stuff like this...

So I was stressing the other day with so much to do to get the house ready for the Home video tour taping (for listing it) and I decided I really needed a break just to chill for a few minutes. So, stupidly, I got on the computer and I got onto ebay and ubid and a few other auction sites, just to look. Now in the past, I have thrown a lowball bid in here and there never thinking I'd ever win the item -- whether or not I even wanted it wasn't important. It was the principle of the thing... winning something for a really low-ball bid is just kind of cool. And in the past, I've never won. Except for once. So I figured, hey, what the heck, I'm going to check out the laptops on ubid and see how cheap I might find one. MISTAKE #1...

Followed shortly after by MISTAKE #2... I threw a bid out there for a decent laptop totally refurbished with a warranty, big enough to hold all my now computerized recipe files and several other things... remember, I don't win with low-ball bids. Well, this time I won. And I bought myself a laptop. Ken is going to be mad at me when I get the courage to tell him.

And that leads me to MISTAKE #3... I haven't told him yet. So if you're reading this, honey, take a few deep breaths and count to 10 before you come looking for me. If family is reading this, don't ask Ken anything about said laptop. I'll tell him... soon. I just thought I'd get it off my chest here first... dumb, dumb, dumb, but still a little exciting.

Time flies!

Wow, it's been a long time since I've blogged. And there's been a lot going on in our world. Probably the biggest news is that we're moving to Ohio in June, once the kids are done school. We'll be listing the house the beginning of April and taking it from there. Not surprisingly, the kids took the move news well -- they're pretty flexible and willing to experience life's adventures along with us.

So I have a few weeks to get the house in tip-top shape -- the realtor will be having someone come in next Thursday to tape the video for the online video tour. And then they'll be doing the realtor luncheon the following week. I really don't have a lot of time and the kids are going to have to get and keep their rooms clean, beds made, etc. Then there's the cupboards to clean (inside and out), windows to wash, closets to declutter... holy cow! I have a lot to do so I'm going to go and get it done.