We're baaaaaaaaaaack!

We got home late last night from our trip to California, and it was so, so, so, so, so much fun!!! Okay, really that's not true -- it was even more fun than that. I hadn't been to Disneyland for many years (pre-mission), and Paul hadn't been in even longer. (Obviously our kids had never been.) Going with kids was totally different and fun in a completely different way.

In any case, tomorrow I'll post about 1,000 pics. (My mom and sister had a bet about how many pics we would take. I think the highest guess was 750, which was less than a third of the pics we took! We're having fun playing w/our new camera, if you couldn't tell. :)

Okay, back to posting pictures ... tonight I'll give you a little preview. These are pics we bought in Disneyland (you know, the sucker pictures). Don't I have some good lookin' Jedis and a hottie hubby?

More pics and details to come tomorrow ...

Stuff

This morning was kind of eery. As I hear a neighbor mowing their lawn, I look out to see it snowing! Huh?!? Crazy how cold it got so fast. Good thing we're headed to S. Cali, where it's supposed to be sunny and warm.

I took the boys to the dollar store to get a toy for the car. They actually took their own money, so I let them pay. You know what Tyler was the most excited about? He actually got a receipt. He said it was his first time. He wouldn't let me throw it away. I've let them pay in the past, but usually they hand the checker their money, and then that just gets applied to all of our items. So, individual receipts was very cool.

I got my new tires after a long, frustrating time trying to get them. I had done my shopping by phone to make it easier. The cheapest place (least money per mile) was Costco, so I headed there. That way I could also do a little shopping while I waited. Turns out when I got there that they said I need a hydro edge or whatever for my vehicle, so the tire price was going to be $130 instead of $86. Uh, no. This was annoying news on top of arriving at Costco and finding the tanker truck there so I couldn't fill my tank with gas. (I hope you all know this -- never fill your tank while the tanker truck is there. It stirs up the sediment at the bottom of the tank and actually ruined my poor nephew's engine.)

So, I called a few more places (fortunately I had written down all their numbers), and Discount Tire said they'd do a similar tire for $75. (It was guaranteed for fewer miles, but I was okay with that.) I asked if they had them in stock, and they said yes. So I headed to DT.

Costco and DT are a few blocks away from each other. I arrived, and they said they had none in stock. Hello, I called 10 minutes ago! Turns out right as he was hanging up with me someone else had those tires put on their car. They said their wait was 90 minutes, so they could send someone to another store while I got put in line. Sigh.

I actually wasn't totally frustrated or annoyed, more just tired of the whole thing. I ended up driving back to Spanish Fork (25 minutes) to drop my kids at my brother's and back to Orem for my tires. When I came back he informed me they had forgotten to send someone to the other store. Grrr. I would go elsewhere, but I forgot to mention that they were also giving me $25 off for being a first-time customer, making this a way better deal per mile than any other place. Okay, I can wait ...

So, I sat down and started reading a magazine. (I'll have to post later about my annoyance with liberal media.) I was sans kids, so the wait wasn't too bad. However, I was just tired of the situation. Next time I'll try not to wait until the last minute so I can have my neighbor (whom we call "the tire guy") to do it so I can sit in my house and do anything I want while getting new tires.

At least now it's done and we should be done with car repairs for a while ... at least on this vehicle. :) Paul's car needs new tires and a repair we've put off, but it's the first repair it's needed in five years. I LOVE Toyotas. I wish the American car-makers would learn a thing or two about their quality ...

Oh, and Paul gets to go to the BYU game today thanks to Hilary. If you ask me, she picked a great day to give up tickets -- it really is freezing here!!! Go, BYU! Beat 'em fast so my Paul doesn't freeze his goatee off. :)

Found 'em!

Just wanted to let everyone know the screaming over here was that of joy -- I FINALLY found my keys. :) They were just in an unusual place. I'm sure I stuck them there at one point to get them out of my pocket. I'm just glad I finally found 'em.

Still not sure where those sunflower seeds went ... but they weren't with the keys. :)

I'm losing my mind!

Okay, have you ever had one of those days when you just realize your brain isn't working to the same capacity as it has in the past?!?

Yesterday for school Tyler needed a seed that turns into a flower. I thought this would not be a problem, because for scouts recently I had to get seeds, and I had something like 20 packets of sunflower seeds as leftovers. Hmmmm ... but where did I put them?

I looked around everywhere I could think I may have put them. I even said a prayer to inspire my mind to remember where I put them. No luck. Then I thought maybe I should have Tyler pray. On the one hand I was worried that the prayer wouldn't be answered and it wouldn't be a good prayer experience for him. On the other hand I realized it really wasn't up to me, and that the Lord has the power to inspire my deteriorating brain to remember where those darn seeds are.

Turns out his prayer wasn't answered, either. That made me sad, because I want him to learn as a child that prayer works! However, I was even more frustrated that after two hours of looking everywhere I could think of, I still never found those seeds!

In the midst of all of this I can't find my car keys. It sounds like I lose stuff all the time based on this post, but really I tend to be somewhat organized, even amidst our clutter. Nope, I haven't seen my keys since Friday. Usually not a huge deal, but to get a new minivan key, it would be something like $100. Our key has some dumb microchip in it that is required to make the car run, so you can't just get the key copied, you have to get the whole big keyless entry key. (BTW, how is the entry keyless if I have to have the key to use the keyless entry?)

So, anyone out there seen my keys? If anyone took them they've had five days now to steal our "valuables," mail or car seats. (Yes, my sister did once have car seats stolen out of a car!) Otherwise I'm really at a loss ...

Happy Happy!

Yesterday unbeknownst to me we received a statement from our dental insurance. Remember that I had to get two crown a few months back? Well, we were double insured for those crowns, so we were hoping our cost would be a couple hundred instead of more like almost a thousand. I had questioned the dentist staff a bunch about the insurance, because once in the past when we were double insured it actually ended up costing us more -- the first insurance paid their portion, and the second one said they wouldn't pay anymore, because the first one already paid what they would have. Turns out the second insurance alone would have been cheaper since they had lower caps on what the dentist could charge. Grrrr ...

So, in the statement yesterday it said that our portion was more than $800. I was getting sick when I came upon the statement this morning. Good thing I didn't come upon it until the dentist was open so I didn't have to wonder all night about it! I called to find out our portion, and she said was just paid and we have a $0 balance! HOORAY!!! I think I paid less than $100 total for two crowns. You can't believe how happy that makes me.

In other happy news, our trip to Disneyland is coming up soon. The kids (and Paul) are really anticipating this trip. I hadn't made a big deal of it earlier than about a month ago, and I was wondering if I was making the kids miss out on some of the anticipation, which is part of the fun of a trip. However, now that they ask me EVERY day (even though we have a count-down chain) how many days until we leave, I'm glad I didn't bring it up until we had only a month left.

We also went last night and bought a harness for Shayla. I remember going to Disneyland when I was growing up and seeing kids on those things and thinking their parents were just mean to treat them like dogs. Well, now here I am doing it. Walmart had really cute "backpack" harnesses that look like either a monkey or a dog. We decided on the monkey since it was a darker fabric and will show dirt less. Zachary, who loves dogs, really wanted that dog backpack. In the car he informed me and Paul, "Sometimes I wander off." It was hilarious. I love that boy! We assured him that he wouldn't wander off in Disneyland.

This morning the boys found the monkey backpack and asked if they could open it. We agreed, and they put it right on Shayla and had a blast following her around holding on to the monkey's tail. She then asked for it to be taken off, and then asked for Tyler to wear it. She got a kick out of pulling him wherever she wanted him to go. They're liking it now, but I'm sure she'll get pretty sick of it when it limits her mobility.

Any good road trip ideas? My bro-in-law's family had a 100-mile treat. He says he's not sure whether it really was 100 miles or not, but that's what they were told and they love it. I have clipboards filled with games (slug bug tally, kids' sudoku, auto bingo, dot game), and we plan to bring the portable DVD player. Any other brilliant ideas? This trip really is short compared to the other two we've done in the past 11 months, so I'm not too worried about it. We've got snacks coming out our ears for the trip and Disneyland itself.

Oh, and we're so happy to be helping the economy any way we can. :) We're hoping nobody else feels like they want to spend the money and we have the park to ourselves. Sweet dreaming, huh?

I survived General Conference ...

... I suppose I really should say my kids survived General Conference. I love the talks and inspirational messages we get to hear on conference weekend, but I also very much dislike trying to keep the kids quiet for eight hours so I can listen and be touched and inspired!!! I was e-mailed a conference packet that helped, but the four hours today were painful ... and my kids are lucky to have survived!

In any case, I LOVED President Monson's talk about enjoying the moments we are having. He seemed to be speaking mostly to moms of young kids. I think that message was aimed right at me! I enjoy being a stay-at-home mom, but I definitely don't enjoy this mothering thing as much as I thought I would. I love my kids tons, but I don't think I ever realized how much work and mental effort it takes to raise kids! (Mom, no wonder you keep thinking you're having "senior moments" -- having eight kids used your brain beyond repair!) I think sometimes I focus too much on how much work my kids are instead of just enjoying the journey.

This is exactly what President Monson said to do -- enjoy the journey. He said that one day we will surprise ourselves by actually missing smudges on newly cleaned surfaces, toys scattered about, and piles of laundry. I still don't think I can miss doing so much laundry, but I guess that's why it may surprise me one day to miss it.

I do know that I will definitely miss these days of the kids depending so much on me. I do get annoyed at times when they have to be in the same room I am in (I kicked them out to write this blog), but I'm sure one day I'll wish they wanted to be with me more.

I really do think my kids are at the perfect ages, and I am enjoying them a lot. Becca is still very enthusiastic about trying new things and feels grateful for what she has. Oh, and she's not driving yet! :) Tyler is very well-behaved and is just a great friend to those around him. He is especially sweet and often comes home and thanks me for the lunch I made for him to take to school. Zachary is enthusiastic about reading and loves that he gets to go to school now. He is behaving well and has learned to communicate rather than to hit! :) Shayla is just a doll. She's doing some "terrible two" things that I think will be solved the second she actually starts talking. In the meantime we still can't resist her fun and enthusiastic personality -- some may even call her spoiled ... :)

Anyway, I enjoyed many other talks during conference as well, and I'm grateful for inspired men and women who seem to know exactly what we need to hear, and for the Holy Ghost for whispering to our hearts the actions we need to take to become better followers of Christ.

Speaking of parents that bug ...

Funny that I just posted about things parents do that bug me, and today I came upon three children (very young children -- maybe 2, 1, and 8 months) asleep in the backseat of a running car. I actually heard the car running and thought it was strange, but my sister noticed three kids in the backseat. No, we're not in the heat of summer, but we are unusually warm for this time of year. Today it felt muggy to me, and here the sun is shining on the poor little boy on the one side. I'm guessing the car was running with the air on, but c'mon!

So, I went into the neighboring business and asked around to see if a parent was inside. When I couldn't find one, I called 911. I gave them the address and the license plate of the car. They asked me to wait and to call 911 again if the parent came back to the car to leave, but asked me not to confront the parents. Well, we waited. After 12 minutes of waiting, I was getting really annoyed that a cop wasn't there yet! After I called 911, we also discovered that the doors of the car weren't even locked. Hello! Someone could carjack your kids, kidnap them, or set them out anywhere they'd like and steal your car. Are you serious?!?

At that point I wasn't sure if I should call 911 back and offer to get the kids out of the car, but I also figured that may freak out the kids to be awaken by a total stranger. Plus, then if the mom did come back, that could be messy ...

So, we waited. After 15 minutes of waiting (so 20 minutes after discovering the kids), the mom came back to the car. I called 911 again to tell them she was leaving, and right then is when the cop pulled into the parking lot. I jumped out of my car, hung up on 911 (after telling them the cop was there), and flagged him down. I pointed out the mom and he flipped around and went to pull her over. Phew!

I got back into the car and was shaking. I don't even know why the situation made me shake so much, but apparently I was feeling some adrenalin! As we were driving past the mom and the cop, the mom looked at us and waved. I thought that was totally weird. I'm sure she saw me talking to the cop and pointing her out, but maybe she didn't? Did she just think she knew me? Or did she know I was the one who called the cops? In any case, I found it strange that in the midst of being questioned about leaving children asleep in the car on a hot day she she seemed calm enough to wave at a passerby.

I don't know what they can do if the cop didn't see the kids in the car himself, but I was glad to know that we did what we could. I have to admit that once in a while I'll leave a child in the car while I run into a gas station or something like that that takes 3 minutes max. However, I ALWAYS lock the doors and never leave the car running. It's just too scary of a world! I did feel bad for the mom, but I know I would have felt worse had we done nothing.