Way Too Crazy!

It seems so long since I've talked with you! First things first, Dog Walker was not admitted to his waitlisted class, so that changes a few things, but hopefully not everything. It just means he will have to take that COMM 3000 class with his Capstone in the fall so he can graduate with his BS degree in December as planned.

The girls' room all ready for lavender paint.

I have been a bit distracted, what with Girl Scout cookie sales in full swing and this huge remodel project that just keeps growing. I think I told you we had a toilet go out in November and we had to lock the door to keep the kids out after we threw away the toilet (just to be safe...) and my sweetie wanted to have it finished during the holidays. Complications slipped it into the first week in January and that's when the second project (and the third!) fell into our laps.

My sweetie actually said he felt like we were living on Hoarders!

You see, Project #2 started with Scout complaining about back trouble and as a 13-year-old that is as big as an adult, it was probably past time to get her a real bed rather than a bunk bed where the mattress rests on plywood. So Princess was super excited to get the bunk beds after they were disassembled, loaded into the big van and driven to Santaquin...
 

Beauty and a couple of the babies at the Ordination party.

Then my sweetie purchased beds online (in tiny little boxes!) so with all that time to wait, we decided to paint. Then, after realizing that the girls still had 25-year-old original carpet in their room, we thought it was time to recarpet too.

Waiting for these mattresses to SPRING out of their boxes was a bit anticlimactic...

That's when project #3 came along. Curly has been asking and asking for us to replace his 25-year-old carpet, so now he is also getting new paint and new carpet. And guess where all of their stuff is being stored at the moment? Yeah, in my room! I will be so glad when this project is finished and I can actually move around my room again. Did I mention that Curly's bed is in the living room?

In other exciting weekend news, Sport and Burrito both received ordinations and advancements in the Priesthood. Basketball is back to 4 nights a week and we did dentist and eye doctor today as well since the kids were out of school. Curly and Baby Doll go back to school tomorrow for the first time since Christmas break began, and Sport took the Accuplacer assessment, met with a counselor, and was approved for Early Enrollment and summer school at SLCC.

And yes, he was very happy about that. How was your weekend?

Guest Blogger: Waitlisted by the Dog Walker

My mom asked me to write a post for her, since she's having a little bit of writer's block and she's also been busy with other daily routines, including taking care of my younger siblings' homework that is challenging for them to understand. And speaking of challenges, my mom and I just experienced a challenge that happened to me for the first time at college,...Waitlisted!

My mom has registered me into a college program that would help me go into graduating with a bachelor's degree and told me that after passing the Parenting and Finance classes, I only had 4 more classes, one of them being animal science and media ethics, and the two more for my last semester. Unfortunately, the media ethics class is the only one that is required, and they put me on the waitlist for a while and my Mom and I were hoping that they would change it a bit, since I was only the third person on the waitlist. I already attended the first week of the semester, but there haven't been any changes to my class schedule. I just had the feeling that I might have to take the media ethics class next fall and still be able to graduate by next Christmas. My mom and I are hoping by this week we might get a result to see if I'm accepted into the class for this semester or if I will have to wait until next semester. 

Either way is stressful and I don't like going to class if I might not be able to stay. Have any of you ever experienced being waitlisted? How did it work out?

Field Trip! Natural History Museum of Utah

As you know, Curly received his Arrow of Light and his Webelos patch for scouts in November. His leader wants all the boys to begin working on regular Scout badges, so he is finishing up Cub Scouts now and January will be his last pack meeting. It's pretty sad to see all of that ending, so rather than mope about it, he has decided to go out with a bang. We decided to finish every patch he could.

I'll let you know more about that in a couple of weeks when we have pack meeting, but one that we really didn't want to miss was the Natural History Museum of Utah patch. We have been to the Museum many times, but never with the babies. Teach, Twiz, and Twizlet met up with us there and we had Beauty drop off Little Warrior. That sweet girl is pregnant with baby boy #2 and she really could use a break.

Drama Queen drove us down to the University, and we ate Lunchables on the way so we didn't have to worry about dinner. We had the three youngest kids with us plus Puppy Lover since Dog Walker had to work. Wednesdays are Five After Five, so it was only $5 each for us and the babies were free.

We got inside the Museum about 6:30 and just started winding our way to the top. Little Warrior was a bit nervous (and a bit short!) so we had to carry him most of the time, but he loved the exhibits, especially the ones on the 4th floor where he could see everything since the walls were glass.

The Museum has a temporary Maya exhibit and we decided to visit it last, although after we got in there, I was wishing we had gone there first so we could see everything. The architecture and the colors were amazing!

We finally dragged ourselves away and we took Little Warrior home. Teach and her family had packed up almost an hour before since they didn't eat dinner before they came. I want to go back in February when the kids have free passes so we can spend more time in the Maya exhibit. Maybe then we can take all the babies!

Cave Tools Review: 3-piece BBQ Tool Set

Our good friends at Cave Tools are after me for another review and you know, I don't mind at all! It gave me the perfect excuse to pick up some beautiful steaks at the grocery store and convince my sweetie to fire up the grill in January.

Yeah, that stuff you can see in the background is that dirty "January in Utah" snow and we must have chosen the absolute coldest day to stand out in the drizzle, but it was so worth it!

We managed to feed the kids a regular supper and after most of them were in bed, my sweetie and I feasted on ribeye and nothing else. Can you believe I could actually eat that entire steak by myself in my bedroom at 11:30 pm?

It was so good...

Cave Tools makes the perfect set with tongs, a spatula, and a fork and the price is very reasonable for such high quality stuff. My sweetie loves this 3-piece stainless BBQ tool set. His only problem was trying to decide which piece to show you first!

You could probably get your sweetie to make you a Valentine's Day steak if you get these on order in the next week or two. If you want to order from the Cave Tools website, you know I have a coupon code for you. Just enter GRILLSET15 and save 15%. You could probably even use that extra few bucks to buy a box of chocolates.

If Amazon makes you more comfortable, you can get this set there too. You can even save 10% at Amazon if you want to buy an extra set for your dad.

I'm sure he would appreciate it... especially if you throw in a couple of steaks and a box of chocolates...

Time to eat!