Super Ben

I discovered last Saturday that I had married a superhero! We woke up on Saturday and decided to rent a rug doctor (see previous blog) and clean our carpets. I had the joy of herding the kids outside while Ben cleaned the carpets. If you've ever cleaned carpets you know it's exhausting work just pushing that huge thing back and forth and having to empty the nasty water. An easy thing for the man of steel, SuperBen!

Around noon I ran to McDonalds to get SuperBen some food. He wolfed down 2 cheeseburgers and then had to go help a sister in the ward move. It was in the upper 80's on Saturday so not an ideal day to have to move furniture etc. Not a problem for SuperBen and his ability to just fly that furniture to the next apartment.

He returned home a couple hours later, and then took off again to return the rug doctor and pick up a few things for me at the store. Actually, he ended up going to two stores because one of the stores didn't have some of the things I needed. Thankfully, he could just rely on his super speed to get the job done.

After he got back from the store he then washed both of our vehicles while I vacuumed and cleaned the inside of them. He looked like he might just pass out at this point since the temperature was still climbing, but no SuperBen decides to wax one of the cars too!

At 7:00 we finally take a break to eat dinner. We're outside visiting with some friends, when one of our neighbors asks if SuperBen could show him how to change his break pads. So he once again puts on the tights and cape, and rushes to the aid of the neighbor. Unfortunately, these are super tough break pads and take forever to get off! When they did finally get them off an hour or so later, they were only disappointed to discover that the mechanic who told them the pads needed to be changed was crazy. The pads were only worn down half of the way. SuperBen would have to deal with the mechanic later.

It's about 9:00 at night now. SuperBen comes inside all dirty from the break job and asks if it would be alright if he fertilized the lawn. Little did he know I also held a secret identity as Wonder Woman. I pulled out my invisible lasso and tied him up until he came to his senses and realized he needed a break.

I think we both decided that next weekend we are going to give up the super hero job and just play civilians!

I'm Rejoining the Human Race!

So, apparently it wasn't death circling over me, but strep throat. Yep, Ella started out with a fever and a runny nose a couple weeks ago. She had no signs of a sore throat or anything, so we waited a few days to see if she just had the virus that was going around the neighborhood. Finally, I decided to take her in to see the doctor and he said that not only did she have strep throat, but an ear infection as well. Plus we noticed she had two new mollars. Poor Baby! He did the strep test on me as well, and to my surprise, I had strep too! I hadn't been feeling great, but I had no idea that I had strep.

A few days went by and Ella started to improve when, ka-pow, Hyrum started feeling sick. Unfortunately, he got it worse than Ella and I. He was throwing up and having "accidents" all over the house. However, the doctor took pitty on us and just called a prescription in to the nearest pharmacy, instead of making me drag two sick kids to his office.

Today was the first day that we were able to go to play group and do something normal. I hated being isolated for the last 2 weeks! I'm so happy to rejoin the human race! Now I just need to rent a rug doctor. . .

Death

Lately, it just seems like death has been circling like a vulture over me and I'm just so terrified that one of these days it's going to land. On Sunday I found out a woman in our ward passed away. I didn't even know the woman, but the death was unexpected and I still felt so sad and sorry for her family.

Then on Monday, I was online to check my email and I see a headline for "Mass Killing at Virginia Tech". I've read alot about it yesterday and today to try and make sense of why someone would take innocent lives. I just feel sick inside that we live in these latter days where we are surrounded by evil.

A while ago I was discussing death with my mom and dad and I came to the realization that I really haven't had to deal with death yet. I had a great grandmother die when I was a junior in high school and although that was hard for me, I was glad she wasn't in pain anymore and could finally rejoin her husband after such a long time of being alone.

Months ago I had a counsin tragically killed in a jet ski accident, and it really upset me because it was so unexpected and he was so young, but I handled better than most because I really never knew this cousin outside of a few reunions. Most of my hurt was for my aunt and uncle who had already buried two children previous to the accident.

I really haven't had anyone close to me pass away, and sometimes I wonder how will I deal with death. Knowing my personality, I'd say fall apart, but it's hard to know until you're actually in that situation. I just feel so blessed that I have the knowledge that death isn't really the end. I wonder about the people in Virginia and how they, or anyone for that matter, would handle death if they didn't believe that they would get to see their loved ones again. I think that knowledge will be the most comforting thing to me or anyone who has ever experienced a loss.

Ideally, I'd like to say I just hope I never have to deal with death, but I know that's not possible. No one is ever really prepared for death, but we can gain a testimony that this is not the end, and that will in a sense help us be prepared to cope with the anguish of losing someone.

Tag! You're It!

Three Things That Scare Me:
1. Being Alone
2. Driving
3. Crime

Three People Who Make Me Laugh:
1. Ben
2. Karen
3. My Kids

Three Things I Love:
1. Reading
2. Theater
3. Having people in my life

Three Things I Hate:
1. Dishes
2. Conflict
3. Waiting

Three Things I Don’t Understand:
1. People not doing their callings at church
2. Why everyone wouldn't want to be friends with me?
3. I'm going to echo Evaly and ask Why I STILL get acne- at 25 (o.k. 28)!

Three Things On My Desk:
1. Scrapbook scissors (haven't been used in a long time)
2. Enrichment Group Activity Binder
3. Flower pens in a flower pot

Three Things I’m Doing Right Now:
1. Typing (obviously)
2. Procrastinating doing the dishes
3. Enjoying the sounds of kids sleeping

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die:
1. Visit Europe
2. See all my children married in the temple
3. Go on a mission with Ben

Three Things I Can Do:
1. Musical Theater
2. Yoga (when my back's not killing me)
3. Scrapbook (although it's been like a year)

Three Things I Can’t Do:
1. Most sports (except for soccer)
2. Play an instrument (only a tiny bit of piano)
3. Sew (I wish, but I don't have the patience for it)

Three Things I Think You Should Listen To:
1. Promptings from the spirit
2. Your children
3. Celtic music

Three Things You Should Never Listen To:
1. Rap
2. Swearing
3. The news- it’s too depressing (I'm stealing a lot of Evaly's good ideas)

Three Things I’d Like To Learn:
1. Sewing
2. Tap
3. French (I took 2 years, but I can't remember much)

Three Favorite Foods:
1. Pizza
2. Smoothies
3. Homemade Ice Cream

Three Shows I Watched As A Kid:
1. Gem (she had the cool earrings)
2. Perfect Strangers
3. The Snorks (does anyone remember what those were?)

Three Things I Regret:
1. Worrying so much
2. Not traveling before I had kids
3. Wasting so much time on boys when I was young

Three people I tag:
1. Jayne
2. Karalenn
3. Jessica

Miss Domesticity

Easter Weekend was so busy! On Thursday we had an Easter Egg hunt with our ward play group at the park. Hyrum had half the park cleaned out in a matter of seconds, while Ella was just content to carry her basket. She wasn't too interested in the eggs until she realized they had candy in them. Ah-ha!

On, Friday I found strawberries for $6.99 a flat, so I thought I'd be ambitious and buy two flats to make into strawberry jam. A large portion of Saturday was dedicated to making jam, and I must say I felt pretty domestic! I'd never made jam before though, so we underestimated how many jars and such we would need. Wow did it make a lot!

Finally, after we finished the jam, Ben went outside to put the kid's sandbox and swing set together. He was still working on it until it was way too dark to even play on it. I'm sure the neighborhood thought he was a bit crazy out there, but now it's set up and the kids finally have something to play with out there in our jungle of a yard.

Sunday, the supposed day of rest, was busy as usual. After being late to church for the millionth time, we got lots of compliments on Ella's Easter dress. (No I did not make it, I'm not that domestic, but I did get it on sale). Since we have no family nearby, I had the pleasure of making Easter dinner by myself, but it sure was good! Later that night we had strawberry shortcake (due to the abundance of strawberries) and colored eggs. I love holidays, but I'm glad we have a nice big break until the next hoopla.

Pet Peeves

"Some Weirdos Pile of Orange Yarn"

As I lay in bed last night and was slipping into unconsciousness, I was thinking about funny things from high school and I remembered something I used to do called "Pet Peeve of the Week". Each week I would pick something that I found annoying and it would win the award for "Pet Peeve of the Week". For example one week I decided Orange Yarn is annoying. I mean how much demand is there really for orange yarn? Sure enough the next day my locker was full of orange yarn. So in honor of the great tradition of "Pet Peeve of the Week" I decided to come up with my top ten pet peeves. Well, actually they aren't really my top ten, but they are the least likely to offend or tick people off who do some of these things.

1. Empty Toilet Paper Rolls

You've all been there before, you're sitting down and you realize all too late that there is no toilet paper on the roll. I mean how often do you really take the time to inspect if every thing's in order before you sit down. The worst is in a public bathroom. At least at home you can scream for your husband or kids to bring you another roll.

2. Flipped Up Collars On Polo Shirts

I know it's all for the sake of being trendy, but it just reminds me of Count Dracula.

3. Soggy Cereal

Do you ever feel like you in a race with the milk? Who can get all the cereal first. And you can't let anything distract you once you've poured the milk or you'll be eating a bowl of mush instead.

4. Products With No Price Tags

Your in the middle of the store, and your kids have ran out of fruit snacks so they are screaming their heads off and you can't for anything in the world find out how much the stupid thing costs. So, you can either hunt around the store for one of those scanner things that 9 times out of 10 are not working or you just dump it into your cart. Of course it's not until you get home that you realized you just bought and $8 bag of grapes. (True Story!)

5. Cash Only

Cash? What's that? We live in the age of technology for heaven sakes, but you will still find yourself in a restaurant, having ordered food and ready to pay, and they reply "Oh I'm sorry we only accept cash or checks."

6. Loud Cell Phone Conversations

Who really wants to have to listen to the lady across the way discuss her yeast infection in full detail to her friend for 30 minutes? (Unfortunately, another True Story!)

7. Loading Dishes into the Dishwasher Before Pre-Rinsing

I know it sounds crazy to pre-rinse your dishes when supposedly that's what a dishwasher is for, but unless that thing has got a pressurized power washer installed into it, you're going to have dishes come out with food cemented on after the dry cycle. Perhaps if you have one of those fancy pantsy new dishwashers this may not be a problem, but if you are sporting the Flinstone model like us, pre-rinsing is a must! My Dad is totally responsible for warping me on this one.

8. Waiting

Yep, waiting just in general! Waiting in the line at the grocery store, waiting for your kids to get dressed in the morning, waiting for the scale to finally say you've dropped a pound, etc. I'm just not patient.

9. Channel Surfing During Commercials

Have you ever felt the carnival ride sensation when you are sitting next to someone who is just cruising through the channels at warp speed just because the show you were watching is in commercial. And of course then they finally do find something interesting and start watching and don't get back to the original channel has already been back on for a few minutes. It just makes me nauseous!

10. Mustard/Ketchup Juice

Ew, so gross when you don't shake the bottle enough and the mustard bottle ends up spitting on your bread. It just doesn't look any different than nasty spit to me.

Young Summer Days

So, I have no idea what I'm doing, but I thought "Blogs" that sounds trendy. I've barely even read one before, but I thought it might be an easy way for people who aren't on facebook to still keep in touch with me. So, I guess now I must wow you all with my unbelievably interesting life. Well, lets see, most of today consisted of a play date in the backyard with some of my neighbor friends and the kids being coated in a mixture of dirt, ketchup, and chocolate cupcakes. I miss those summer days when everyone just ran around in their swimsuits and jelly shoes and kind of grazed from yard to yard to see who had the best popscicles. Ah, to be young again.