Future Memories

- Aunt Jen threw her big Cookie Party this Saturday.  This is always a highlight of our Christmas season.  The kids all get together with their cousins.  Jen feeds them all pizza for dinner.  Then they all decorate lots of sugar cookies and then play games and watch movies for the rest of the time.  Somehow Jen has managed to keep this tradition up, and it's actually gotten longer over the years.  And this year, we were able to take ALL of our kids.  So Nate and I got a four hour date night for FREE.  How nice is that!  I love that I know the kids will be safe, happy, and entertained, and I can relax.  Nate and I went to see Hugo.  It was such a good, fun movie!  I'm not sure if the kids would really be all that entertained by it, maybe Charity or Bradley... I don't know, but I really loved it.  Then we went to Red Robin for dinner.  So delicious.  I don't know why but sometimes our dates feel so unreal.  This was one of them.  And it was over before I finally figured out it was.  :)  It was a good time though, and I loved it.

- For FHE we let the kids take out a bunch of their money out of the family bank, and we all went Christmas shopping!  I was so surprised at how much they all spent!  We were even at All-A-Dollar :).  Kelly went all out and got gifts for everyone in the family, not just the one whose name she drew.  They all seemed to be putting a lot of thought into their friend gifts, trying to think of what they like, their hobbies, I love that they know how to do that.  Noah had just woke up from his nap, so he was a little grouchy during most of it, but he snapped out of it once we found him a bag of cheetos :).  Bradley and Luke were very frugal, didn't want to spend too much money.  Erika found about a million things to "give dis Alwin?"  She loves her little cousin ;).  After All-A-Dollar we went to Target.  Nate and Charity ditched us for most of the time :)  And were being all secretive, so that's exciting ;).  Everyone kind of ran around as they pleased while I kept track of it all.  It was fun though.  I love that they are learning how to think about other people, their likes, and put forth the effort and sacrifice the money the way they did.  I think it's such a great thing to learn, and teach children.  I wish I'd learned this better.  They did a good job and came out on top I think :).  We still have a few more things to get, but I think most of them finished all of their Christmas shopping!  With 3 weeks to spare!  Impressive.

- Our school's play this year is going to be Beauty and the Beast.  The girls are very excited!!  We had our first tryouts today, Tuesday, and we were at the school for 3 hours!!!!  No, we were not planning on being there that long.  It was chaotic.  To say the least.  But the girls did great! (so I've heard, but didn't get to witness thanks to some crappy moms who ruined it for the rest of us!) They were practicing all morning, with flashlight microphones, testing out every song they know ;).  Charity ended up doing the song from Tangled, at the beginning, and Kelly's first audition she sang a song from somewhere, that I don't know.  She sounded lovely when she did it for me, but I guess she forgot the words when she was doing it for the judges.  Luckily we were near the end of the line, so they let her go back in and try again.  She did the Tangled song the second time and Charity said she did great!  (Charity got to be in there, along with the Holley's and some other people.... you can imagine my frustration when I learned that I COULD have been there AFTER the fact.... I"m not over it yet.)  I did get to sit and visit with some friends, the littles ran around to their little hearts' content.  It was an interesting evening.  We will find out who goes back for callbacks, tomorrow.  I hope we can sleep tonight! 12/6/11

- Wednesday night we had a last minute, kind of impromptu Choir practice, to make up for the missed practice on Sunday.  The lame thing was that it was at 9:00pm.  Kinda strange.  I decided that since I needed to go get Nate at 10:00 anyway, that I would just put the kids in bed, and ask my Mom to come sit here while I went to the practice and picked up Nate.  She was so nice and consented.  Erika was giving me a hard time though (of course, isn't that how it always is!) and wouldn't go to bed peacefully.  I decided to try rocking her (sometimes I resort to this, when I've already had enough crying for the evening).  She was determined to stay awake!  An hour passed, and my Mom got here, and Erika was still wide awake.  So I decided rather than leave and have her screaming and crying/waking everyone up, for my crippled mother, just to bring her with me.  It was probably risky, but I have this thing in my head that taking one kid anywhere is doable.  So she came.  It turned out to be one of the funnest little outings I've had in a while :)  She was so adorable!  She was all smiles through the Choir practice.  She sat in her seat almost the entire time.  And when she did get up, it was just in front of her seat.  She didn't try to wander around.  So nice.  I was surprised at how interested in the music and singers she was.  She pulled the paper clip off of my music, and when I looked down at her, jokingly angry, she gave me the cutest smile and the sweetest little, "Just Joking!"  I loved it!!  So did all the cute ladies around us.  She kept saying it over and over (as she does with most new phrases), and made me laugh lots.  Then it was time to go get Daddy.  On the way there, we sang lots of Christmas songs, and played her new favorite game, "NOTHING!"  Where she gets your attention, then says, "Nothing" and laughs.  It's hilarious really.  It's a total Elementary school thing, so it's funny coming out of a little 2 year old :).  Makes me laugh.  She does that over and over again too.  Along with quoting her favorite lines from Tangled.  She says, "Mom, Tangoed says, 'Coming Mudoh!'" And "Tangoed mudoh says, 'Take...wong!'" And she gets the tones right and everything!  It's hilarious.  Oh!  She added a new one to the mix too, "Mom, Tangoed Huhsey (horsey) says, 'AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!'"  Hilarious.  She is a funny little girl.  And she loves to make people laugh.... sometimes :).  Don't laugh at the wrong time though, she's mastered the art of pouting, tantrums, and screaming.  It was a lot of fun.  Glad she finally went to bed an hour after we got home. 12/7/11

I hate being a jerk sometimes

Confession time.  I know I use this blog for too many things.  Venting, bragging about my kids, complaining.... all of the things I shouldn't.... but tonight, I did something and it's really eating away at me.  I wonder if writing things down will help me to figure out how I really feel.  So don't mind me, I'm just going to confess my sins to all of you!  And I'm going to preface it with all my excuses so that it doesn't seem so horrible.... at least I'm honest.
Tonight was a crazy night.  I took the three littles with me to pick up Bradley and sit out the girls' play audition thinking it would only be a half hour or so.  Much to my surprise it took THREE HOURS!!!  I'm not kidding we didn't leave the school until 6:30.  I posted about their tryouts on my Future Memories post so don't think I'm just skipping over that excitement.  I have to put it in a separate post so that I don't accidentally put this in my book.  Anyway!  So at 6:30, I took my whining, tired, hungry, kids home.  I should say, I was anxious to get home because I wanted to see how the kitchen looked.  We had had a guy painting it all day (it seriously took way longer than it needed to, and the guy was a complete bone head.... just saying).  So I wanted to see how it looked, and frankly I was anticipating that he did something wrong, or left a mess like the last couple of times he had made repairs or done work in our house.  Just as I had anticipated, the kitchen was a HUGE mess.  I was SO TICKED OFF!!!  And I know that my already tired, hungry, grumpy attitude was not helpful, and I should have just backed away and gone somewhere in the car, but no matter how hard I tried, I just could not let it go!!  On the floor, along all the walls, were piles of dust.  Even the top of the lenoleum ledge, where he should have swept BEFORE painting, had dust.  I glanced behind the fridge and it was one BIG pile of dust, that he had not swept before pushing the fridge back even!!  I really can't express how much dust and crap there was all over the kitchen floor.... AND my table!!!  Which, here's one of the more annoying things, he took my pictures off the walls, set them on the table, and then didn't cover up the table OR the pictures!!!  So they all have dust on them!!  And these aren't regular pictures, they're the fake tile ones, that are impossible to clean.  Their wood frames are all covered in white dust.  Ugh.  I just get so mad thinking about it.  So then I get over to the microwave, and he had totally not covered up anything over there either!!  I had my little "pay check" notebook that I use for the kids, on the side next to the wall, along with a Friend magazine, and he hadn't moved them either, they were COMPLETELY covered in dust.  Like, to the point where I don't want to use them, because they feel all chalky!!  I'm sure this sounds lame, I wish I'd taken pictures, the whole kitchen was covered in white dust!  It was ridiculous!  Even a plate of cookies!!!  He hadn't moved anything.  Or even asked me to move them!  I was SO ANGRY!!!!!
And like I said, this wasn't the first time for this guy.  He has been on my list from day 1.  The very first time he came to do work in our house, I answered the door, and without so much as a "Hello" (much less, a "Hi, my name is __________, I'm here to do such and such") he barged in and got to work.  He would leave for hours at a time, then come back and just walk in!  Like he'd had personal access to the place for the day!  Which irritates me SO much when I've got little kids here and I'm alone.... anyway.  He would yell stupid things down the stairs like, "Hello!  Any adults here?"  Just because the kids would be up and down, since we're not very good at putting their lives on hold for dumb little repairs that mean very little to me.  And he was just really rude!!  Today, he came in, for the first time, without Nate answering the door and just yelled downstairs, "Hello, any adults here?" When Nate told him he shouldn't walk in our house he said, "The 2 year old had answered the door".  Give me a break.  So anyway.  He was an hour late, told us he'd be done at 11:00 and wasn't done at 2:30 when we left to take Nate to work. Who knows when he finally finished.  The guy is just a pain in the neck.  I'm not even mentioning the fact that he "dropped the ball".  The ball being him painting our kitchen 2 months ago.  Yeah, he "forgot" to paint it after tearing off the wallpaper and spackling.  I've never had anyone come into my house who is SO rude, SO disrespectful, and SO messy as he has been.

So here's the horrible part.  I called the guy.  And actually, I had called the landlord first because I wanted to tell him about our oven not working, and the call to the Landlord started out okay.  I was pretty polite, but then as the message I was leaving (which I KNOW he won't return because he NEVER DOES!) went on, I just got more and more frustrated, brought up their crappy painter guy, and just went off.  I even said, "but since you never return my calls!..." in my message. So embarrassing.  So I guess leaving that message wasn't enough for me, I took one more step into the kitchen, and freaked out again, and ended up calling the painter guy (I have no idea what to call him, I don't know his name).  I started out by asking him when he was going to finish the job.  He acted surprised of course, and I was like, "The painting looks fine, it's the mess you left that I want finished."  It was when he said he swept it before he left that I got really hostile.  There is NO WAY he swept it!!  He was just a lazy worker.  He made a comment about how he isn't responsible for moving our stuff, and I'm thinking, what painter doesn't cover up the room before they paint??  Is that not normal??  Of if I have left something there, that is going to get ruined, TELL ME!!  I will gladly move it! I couldn't even be in the room because he would get all huffy when someone was in his way at all.  I couldn't help but say, "I know we're renters, and we're not the ones paying you, but you ARE getting paid!  You need to do the whole job!  No cutting corners just because your check is coming from someone who doesn't have a clue what's going on!"  I really do think that these guys get away with things like that because of the situation.  And I don't think it's fair!  I didn't ask to have the room painted, it was hideous before, but it wasn't something I chose to have them do.  I don't feel like I should have to rearrange my day for it, and then clean up after it when it wasn't for me!  Not to mention I have 6 kids to clean up after!  I don't want to clean up after a grown man who is getting paid to do a job!  He was funny because even though he "swept it before he left" he said, "The soonest I could be up there to clean it up would be tomorrow afternoon."  Apparently he didn't realize he was admitting his guilt.  Like I'm going to leave the crap all over the kitchen for a whole day!  We eat in that room!!!  UGH!

Yeah, I'm still bugged. So anyway.  I just hate it when I explode on people.  As mad as I was, I KNEW I shouldn't call, and I KNEW it would go bad.  I wish I had used more self-control.  Luckily my kids were downstairs, I think they missed all the action, but still.  I have my conscience.  I guess I'm just getting so sick of faulty service.  I feel like everyone is always cutting corners!  Nobody gives you what you pay for, and nobody seems to care about doing a nice job.  It's like BARE MINIMUM!!  I'm tired of it.  And now I feel bad.  Do I need to call the guy and apologize??  I don't want to.  I feel like he really needs to know that I don't appreciate his crappy job, and I don't appreciate his disrespect.  I just wish I had done it with a little more class.  If that's possible.  With a little less anger and explosion.  Have you ever done that??  What did you do about it??

I guess that's all.  I'm a jerk.  I hate being a jerk sometimes.  I wish I could just let things go.  It's been a while since I let myself call someone.  It should be never.  Anyway.  Now that I've made myself look horrible..... comments??????

Ox in the Mire

Wow today (Sunday) was interesting!  We got up an hour earlier than usual because we were determined to be on time to church today.  It's important that I be there on time with my new calling, and we don't have two cars to split up in.  So we were on top of everything all morning!  It was fantastic!  Then I got a call from the Primary President telling me that they were cancelling the block meetings and we were just going to have a short Sacrament meeting and then break to go home, eat, and clean up the debris all over the neighborhood before the upcoming storm.  WOW!  That totally blew me away!  Eating, putting on work clothes and skipping our meetings wasn't something I planned on doing this Fast Sunday..... So anyway.  I called my people.  We got into our warm work clothes and headed on up to the Church.  I had been told that it was okay to wear work clothes to the meeting, so we did.  We were the only ones (almost) who did.  Sort of embarrassing until they announced what we were doing.  Most people didn't know I don't think.  It was a nice, short, little Sacrament meeting.  We did get the Sacrament.  The Bishop explained what was going to happen and where everyone needed to be, then Brother Hinkle in the Bishopric bore his testimony.  President Dibb was there, he spoke about the importance of service and that this was a decision made by our Priesthood authorities, and that it was what the Lord had wanted us to do.  It was very powerful.  He said some funny things about weathermen and said he was still hoping for good weather, even though we were going to be doing all this work in preparation for a storm, and gave the ward his blessing.  It was cool.  Then we all headed home.  I realized then that the women weren't really part of this clean up party and I was kind of bummed.  I've really been wanting to help with all the disaster stuff but because I was feeling so crappy and since I have kids I need to take care of, I hadn't really been able to.  So I got it in my head that I was going to go anyway.  I called my Dad, and dropped the kids off at his house for the morning.  Then caught up with Nate and Bradley at the Bradbury's house and started loading up the trucks with branches and branches and branches.... I can't believe how many branches there were all over the ward!!  But what an awesome experience.  I really don't think I'll be able to express how neat it was to be there with all the Priesthood brethren (I was the only Female around).  I'm sure I was in the way, but if anyone knew what that did for my testimony of the Priesthood, and the leadership of the church, they would be okay with my in-the-way-ness.  There were so many who made me feel welcome, and that was very sweet of them.  But I  was almost in tears a lot of the time at the thought of all the sacrifice those older men were making, I'm sure they'll be in pain for days!  I might even be!  They all worked together SO well, and so hard.  It was so neat.  I would have totally missed out had I not been there.  I love that kind of atmosphere.  I was so grateful too, that they were so nice to my little boy who had wanted to help out so badly.  Bradley was the only person under 12 there.  And he had wanted to be there which is just cool if you ask me.  He's going to make the most amazing Priesthood holder one day.  He's already got so much initiative.  I love it.  And I love that there are so many good men in the world (besides his Dad of course!) to look up to.  Another great thing about our church.
I think my favorite thing during all this, was when the men needed someone to drive the Bobcat.  Everyone was looking around, mumbling things (I had no idea what they were talking about), and then a few minutes later, I looked around and couldn't see Nate anywhere.  Then a couple seconds later, where did I find him?  In the Bobcat, all cozy and buckled in!!!  He looked so hot in that thing!!  And this was before he figured out how to work it!  So he was in there, kind of testing all the controls out and everyone was just standing around watching him.  It was actually really funny.  Several of the guys asked me stuff like "Does he know what he's doing?" " Has he ever driven one of those?" "Should we be worried?"  It was hilarious.  I proudly answered, "YES!  He has driven one.  It's been a while, but he can probably figure it out!  If there's one thing about Nate, he can do whatever he wants to do!"  And that about summed it up!  Then a couple seconds later, he was scooping up the debris and dumping it into the dump truck (the Elder's Quorum President didn't trust his new Bobcat driver with his own truck, so he pulled it away and let the dumptruck take it all :) Nate was glad.... and frankly, I think he would have done fine, but I was glad to not have to worry about scratching up the nice, shiny truck :) ).  I know this is TMI, but it totally turned me on to watch Nate work.  Working the Bobcat especially.  It totally made my heart skip a beat to see all the men standing around incapable of doing something that MY man can do ;).  I loved it.  I'm sure I looked silly til I was finally able to wipe the grin off my face.  Lots of fun :).

So at one point in the day I got a text from my Dad asking if I had any diapers, so I knew Erika needed a change.  So I had to leave to go change her.  That drive up to my Dad's was an opportunity for a special little talk with my Heavenly Father.  I felt so frustrated that I hadn't helped or done much before this point.  I always get frustrated when I hear about something that happened when I could have helped, but didn't.  And it's usually because I didn't think about it.  And that just frustrates me.  So anyway, I was telling Heavenly Father, or asking rather, to please point out these opportunities to serve to me.  And help me recognize them.  To help me find ways to step out of my comfort zone, and give me ideas.  It was a nice little talk with Him and I felt very comforted at the time.  Knowing that he understands me and knows what goes on in my busy little head, and he forgives me for not doing more.  But I also felt that he knew what I was saying and would do that for me.  It was a neat experience.  So anyway, I got up to my Dad's to change Erika.  It had already started snowing but just the tiniest little bit had stuck to his driveway.  Unfortunately it was enough to make the ground slippery and I totally slipped and fell.  I landed on my hand/wrist and my shin on the step.  It hurt SO bad.  I made sure nobody had seen (of course who knows how many neighbors saw, you're just kind of on display up there on those steps up to my Dad's front door... not that it really matters), got up and ran inside.  

This is just a side note, but Erika was so adorable when I got there.  She came up to me as I walked in and said, "poopy."  With the most adorable, disgusted, little face.  She was so grossed out by it all.  It was sort of funny.  And then I changed her and she was back to her cheerful self :).  They were watching Tangled, thankfully that entertains Erika right now.  So that was nice.  I drove back down the hill to go back to work with the men.  On my way down, I caught a glimpse of an older woman pushing a garbage can up the sidewalk.  It occurred to me that she could slip and fall, just like I did, and that wouldn't go well for an older woman her age.  I kept driving because I NEEDED to get back to helping with the ward.  But as I drove on, I thought, that maybe she needed some help with what she was doing anyway?  I kept pushing this thought away because I really wanted to get back with the ward.  But immediately I felt this overwhelming, "You told me you wanted to know when you could help.  I'm telling you what you should do.  Please listen." It was kind of cool because I rarely feel something so strongly, but I did!  And so I quickly turned around.  I got back up to the woman, parked my car, hopped out and asked if I could help.  She was hesitant to accept my help, and I realized that she was not someone I recognized from the ward, though she lived in the boundaries.  It occurred to me that she may not be a member (or less-active), and it made me push more.  I really wanted to be able to help her.  I think I forced my help on her at first, but she softened up to me after a few minutes.  She let me do most of the work.  It was just a couple of piles (I'm sure she had swept them) of twigs and branches she was trying to put in her garbage can and then move her can down to the vacant house below to get it out of the reach of the wind.  She began talking to me about her last few days, with no power, no gas, she talked about her husband having a surgery, just lots of small talk, and not so small talk, and she just kept talking :).  It was so fun!!  She seemed a lot like my Nana.  She didn't really ask about me, but she seemed like she had been wanting someone to talk to.  A friend.  I was SO HAPPY!  I can't tell you how much love I started to feel for this woman and the Spirit was so strong!  It's been a long time since I've felt that!  Used to happen to me a lot when I was taking the bus to Orem everyday.  So anyway.  After a while, I got a call from Nate saying that he and Bradley were going to take a load to the dump.  I realized that I was fine staying and talking/helping that lady because I wasn't about to go back to the ward without Nate around :).  Then after I hung up the phone with Nate, I got a call from a friend of mine in the ward who had been watching me from her window.  She was so funny!!  She was talking about how she was worried about me because the woman I was helping was one of the "scary people" who yells at them and she was worried that she was yelling at me.  It was one of the funniest phone calls I've ever had.  She offered to come help and made her way outside.  My friend was so happy that I had been able to help/talk with that woman because she had never been able to.  She and her husband really keep to themselves I guess, and have never wanted to have anything to do with anyone as far as my friend knew.  She was able to sit and talk with them with me and everyone got along really well and had a good time talking.  It was so nice!  We even got the lady's husband in on it all and it was just really cool.  They talked about their pasts, some of their experiences.  It just felt really cool.  I felt like I had made a new friend.  And I really hope that this can be a planted seed.  I would love to keep in touch with them and take them cookies and stuff.  We will see how that goes.  I was really just so happy that I got to do that for them, and hopefully for the Lord.  

I hope this doesn't sound like me trying to talk myself up or something.  It really was just a neat experience and something I haven't done in a long time.  I miss being helpful to people other than my family.  And I know that home is where I belong, and that my family needs to come first.  But today, I really needed to get out of the house and serve.  I really felt it was needed.  And I know why now.  It was just such a huge boost!  It was really cool.  

After talking with the elderly couple, and talking with my friend, I headed down to where the men were and they were practically done.  Nate said I should just go get the kids.  I had gotten my fill for the day, but it still was sad to be done with it all :).  I know that sounds silly.  I had to thank my Heavenly Father, on my way back up to my Dad's, for the opportunities, for the prompting, and for the amazing feeling I was feeling all day.  It was incredible.  

I'm sure this is not something that will happen too much more in my life.  I've never been in an Ox in the Mire situation like this one.  It was strange at first and took a minute to wrap my head around it, but the thought that it had come from the Area Authority, Stake President, and Bishop, I knew it was the right thing to do.  That those men would not lead us astray.  What a beautiful thing the Priesthood is. And our obedience to our leaders, and the faith that we can show our Heavenly Father through our obedience to their cousel.  It's just SO cool!!  So amazing!  I'm getting chills just thinking about it!  So anyway.  Strange way to spend the Sabbath,  but same Spirit as usual :).  What a neat experience.

Hurricane Winds

So just as Nate predicted (I'm sure he had a little help with the weather man :)), we were hit with some pretty crazy, hurricane, strong winds this Thursday!!  Who would have thought that WIND (just wind) could do SO MUCH!! 

The kids all woke up early to the blowing.  Especially the boys. Apparently their room is not very well insulated in the window area... they actually had posters that blew off their walls!  (They even have window screens, so I was surprised!)  So they made their way down to my bed pretty early in the morning.  I call it mine because Nate had already moved to the couch thanks to Erika.  

The tiny little window in my room didn't let much of the noise into my room, so it was hardly noticeable.  Nate told me about the wind when he was getting ready to go to work, and THANKFULLY we still had my Mom's car, so I didn't have to either load up all the kids in that crazy wind, so early in the morning, OR have to leave them to freak each other out while I took Nate.... it was a huge blessing.  Nate also informed me that the power was out.  That was a surprise.  I laid there in bed thinking of all the things that would not work, and I assumed since the wind was so strong, it would be a while.  

This is the point where I realized I am not pregnant.  My heart always just sinks.  It was weird this time, because other than a little unusual heartburn, I had very little reason to think I would be.  But being 2 days late I guess just pushed me over the edge of wondering again.  I don't know how that happens.  We haven't been trying long, but I can see why people who do have to try for a long time can get so discouraged!  I remember this every month during the long 9 months it took to get pregnant with Noah.  It's hard for me.  And I'm sure I sound stupid to some people, with my six kids, worrying about getting pregnant.  I don't care though, that's really how I feel.  I know there are more little people waiting to come to our family, and that thought makes me happy.  It feels like time to me, we just have to wait until Heavenly Father and those little spirits are ready.  I can be patient.  I know I can!   But at that moment, I was just sad.

I had been pretty anxious for my day since Thursday is normally my cleaning/laundry day.  It's the day that I recover the house from all my days of sitting around with my Sweetie :).  So the power outage kind of put a damper on all my plans for the day.  It was easy to look at the bright side, sitting around playing games with my kids sounded much more fun than cleaning and laundry.  Not to mention the pain I was in.  I seriously took 3 ibuprofen, and 3 tylenol, together, and they barely touched the pain!  

So I started getting my sights set on relaxing!  I wondered what would happen with the school once I found out that the power was out clear up to my Dad's house.  But we continued getting ready for school.  Not long after it went off, the power came back on.  That was a little bit of a let down, if I may be so bold as to say it.  I was sort of looking forward to my fun day of not doing work.  Course I have to admit, I never really did get my motivation to clean back.  It was pretty much gone all day.

Walking out to the car with everyone was a real treat :).  I couldn't stop laughing.  The wind was blowing SO HARD!!!  I think they said around 84 mph at that point.  Cute, Kelly was carrying Erika and I swear the wind picked them up and carried them over to the car!  But they made it!  Noah was crying pretty hard.  The big kids are awesome in these situations.  They switch into disaster mode :).  That's what I call it.  Where they're all anxious to help, their senses are heightened, seriously, if we're ever in a REAL emergency, I know I can count on them!  They think of EVERYTHING, and say it!  It's a lot like me actually.  I love emergencies :).  But anyway :).

As we got out to the car, Brad's friend Jackson's Mom pulled up.  (sorry, I can't remember her name right now, I'm horrible with my kids' friends' moms' names!)  She was so nice to stop and let us know that she had been up to the school and they were sending people away since the power was out and according to them, it's against Fire Code Regulations to have the kids in the school when the power is out.  I wondered why, since I remembered being at school when the power was out, but I'm ALL for a day off!  So after a little fretting from Kelly, she was going to miss a field trip, we hopped out of the car and went back inside.  

This is always an awkward time for us.  The kids love school so much that staying home is not their favorite.  I, on the other hand, love having my kids home!  So I was happy :).  They made their way downstairs and I thought I'd let them veg for a bit.  The day was pretty interesting from that point on though!

I found myself sitting and watching the wind a LOT!  It was SO WINDY!!  We noticed our neighbor's HUGE pine tree had fallen over.  Then we looked up the street and saw ambulances and police cars.  It was pretty strange!  I was so worried that some of our old trees would fall and possibly hit the house.  

We had the radio on most of the day and listened to all the disaster that was happening around our small little county.  Port-a-potties blowing away, semis tipping over on the freeway, shingles from Davis High impaling vehicles in the parking lot, a UofU student being picked up and dropped, Trampolines on the freeway!  It was all so crazy!!  Exciting too, in a way (since we weren't the ones dealing with all the torment I guess).  

Later in the morning my Dad called to see if he could come down and use our internet.  His power was still out and so was most of Davis County.  Most of our friends, even in the ward, close by here, were still without power!  They kept saying on the news that it could be 48 hours before the power would come back on.  I was SO grateful that we still had power and said several prayers of gratitude.  I kept wanting to help everyone who didn't have power!  It was so frustrating to me that it was difficult to communicate with them.  

The kids had a blast playing with Grandpa Hatch and then shortly after that, Sarah and her boys came over too.  They had been without power all morning and were frozen little popsicles by the time they got here.  

We all just kept busy all day.  Played some games (since I'd gotten my heart set on it ;) ).  I still feel kinda bad that I wasn't a better hostess at the time.  I was dealing with so much pain, it was rediculous.  I kept thinking, 'when it blows, it pours'.... yeah, that's kind of disgusting, sorry.  TMI.  But I really was hurting. 

I wish I'd taken more pictures and documented more, but I did get some when things settle down a little....

Later on in the day, after Nate came home, we started making plans with several people to have them overnight.  My Mom and Simon were planning on coming over.  The Holleys in our ward.  We secretly hoped that Brent and Sarah would change their minds and just stay :) and Grandpa and Steve.... I got started on dinner. 

And then just minutes after I pulled the dinner out of the oven.... our power went out.  UGH.  As much as I like emergencies and disaster situations, I was slightly bummed that it would happen then.  Right when I am finally able to help someone. It was however, a HUGE blessing that it didn't happen until AFTER the dinner was cooked!  That really couldn't have been better timing.  It's times like those that I KNOW I have a Heavenly Father and that he loves me and knows my needs and wants.  It gives me chills when I think about it.  

So we ate our dinner in the light of our cheap little latern.  And Kelly's flashlight ;).  And then ran around the house like crazy people looking for all of our flashlights and batteries.  I say this everytime we have a power outage, but WHY CAN'T WE JUST KEEP THEM ALL IN ONE PLACE AND NOT PLAY WITH THEM!!!!!  But it never really helps to say that either.  We got some fun in-the-dark-with-flashlights fun in, and then the kids were "bored".  As if they're supposed to be entertained during a power outage!  It was funny.  My Mom and Simon came just after our power went out and spent the time they were here, calling hotels and trying to find a different place to stay.

Sarah and her boys found out that their house might be getting warm before the night was over and wanted to get a head start on their camping trip in the dark, so they left. 

We did make sure to do some strobe light dancing :)  I got pictures, but obviously you can't tell it was even dark....

Not long after that, while we were in the middle of the Polar Express book, the power came back on!  I have to admit I was very relieved.  It's funny how hard it is to put kids to bed when the power is out.  I never like doing that.  I probably would have let them stay up listening to books all night.

The power being on wasn't convincing enough to my Mom, she insisted that she go to a Hotel.  Charity was SO bummed.  She tried so hard to convince Grandma to stay.  The kids had been through several ideas of several different people POSSIBLY staying the night and I think she saw this as her last chance.  I don't blame her.  I hate the calling things off part of life.  Disappointment.  So anyway, they left.  

By then it was really time for bed.  We had scriptures and thanked Heavenly Father for our electricity and our safety.  Then got the kids in bed.

They were all unusually tired!

Friday morning was kind of nice, we knew that school had been cancelled, so we were able to relax.  I let the kids have the day off from jobs, and we all just bummed around.

Around 10:30, Bradley, Kelly, Erika and I left to take my Mom to the Doctor.  And after that, we drove around looking at the wreckage from the day before.  It really was incredible to see how much 90 mph winds can do to a city!!  

I wanted to post some of the pictures I took, not to seem insensitive, but just to document it all.  It's really sad to me that some of these trees were standing during the pioneer times, and some of them were trees that people grew up with and got very attached to.  I personally do not have a tree like that in my life, but I can imagine it would be a huge let down.  It really is crazy to me how fragile our world is.  And how easily it can be disturbed.  We really do need to put our trust, and faith in our Father and Heaven and know that He is in charge.  He holds all the cards!  I'm glad he does.  So anyway, here are some of the things we saw.

our neighbors down the street- lost their siding!

Street light blew off!

My Dad's house.  But now we know why there's always so many hornets nests up there!  He has holes in his house!

This was my "favorite"... the tree is almost as big as the house!!!

here's the side view of it

And teh other sideview

That really is just INCREDIBLE to me!  

And even more amazing was how much of it they had chopped up by the time we drove home from my Mom's not even 2 hours later!  In fact a LOT of the trees we saw had already been taken care of, and it was just the stump and roots left, or the hole in the ground.

one of the few non-pine trees we saw.

Lots of store signs took a toll.

our poor little Common Cents Station!

Now that would just stink.  Thankfully most people have Home Owners Insurance I guess.... ugh.

Now that would just be strange!  What do you do with a tree like that!

  

We still need to get a picture of the few trees in our yard that did break, not blow over, but I haven't  yet.  

It wasn't all wreckage though!!  We actually had some really funny things happen in the wind.... 

1. our leaves in the front yard.... the ones that had been COVERING our front lawn for the last week or so.... the ones we had been putting off raking for days.... were gone :).  So nice.  (I try not to think about where they ended up :).... but they weren't our problem anymore ;))

and

2.  the patio in the back yard.

it's a little hard to see in this picture with the sun shining, but the wind swept our patio into a nice little pile!  And if you could see it in person you'd see just how cleanly swept it was!!!  I really was amazed :)  And delighted to see it!   

It wasn't all bad.  For us anyway.

More business for the Tooth Fairy! YAY for Kelly!

No, that big space in Kelly's mouth was not a result of our hurricane strong winds, those pictures will be in our next post...

Kelly had some teeth growing in BEHIND her top teeth, so she had to have them all pulled!

She was so brave at the Dentist.  Excited almost!  Something about catching up with Brad....  her little brother had lost six teeth and she only two, so this was a huge accomplishment, FOUR IN ONE DAY!!

I was so worried that she was going to be hurting and in so much pain after, but she insisted that she go back to school so that she could show her class.  Nate and I even stalled a little by getting lunch at Wingers and then stopping at the store for some things.  But the pain never really started, and she went back to school with a wave of her hand and a cheerful smile.  Crazy little girl.  I had to call her teacher to make sure she would let her call me if anything started to hurt.  She was just as surprised as me to hear that she wanted to come back.... But that's just how Kelly rolls...

Congratulations Kelly!  

The Tooth Fairy must have had to break her piggy bank open because she paid Kelly a WHOPPING $5.00 for those four teeth!  Kelly says she got more because she had to pull them at the Dentist..... I wish the Tooth Fairy would have given ME the extra money so that I could use it to pay the Dentist!  HA!  Just kidding.  

Good times.  Good job, Kelz!  You're my hero!