I know it is thursday, but...

I am having a hard time thinking of thirteen things today,

so I will just share one.

this is Maggie and my most eaten snack-

( and I just love my bowl I got at the best store in Rexburg, Idaho. I would love to go back there some day just to go to that store again. although they are all over the states, and the name is completely escaping my mind, but if I remember I will let you know, because if you have the means to get to one of them, I would definitely highly recommend it. so cute. and lots of stars. just saying. )

I think I will go and make some popcorn right now.

yum.

little

me: try not to make a big, huge mess.

her: I'll just make a little one.

Thursday again?

so, what's up?

1. I haven't left the house in a day and a half. I don't think I will have to leave it today at all.

but tomorrow, I will have to go out. a bit weird. but a lot nice.

2. seminary is on hold for 2 weeks, due to the high school being on exam week now.

and let me tell you, I am loving having no seminary. I could get very used to this. I am so happy we have next week off too. but don't tell my class this. no way!

3. my kids tell me that hot chocolate tastes better when you make it in a pot. I am not sure why, but I agree, it does. so sometimes I will make a pot of it for when they come home from school.

sometimes I am a really good mom.

sometimes.
4. I love the hot chocolate from the church cannery. yummy. and good price. if you have the means, I highly recommend it.

5. Ben just signed up to deliver the local paper. they were dropped off today, and need to be delivered. we will see if he will keep the route or not.

6. we had a route a couple of years ago, all of us did it together. it was okay, but the paper would come, and each flyer separately, so you would have to load all of the flyers into the paper, or into bags. around christmas time when there are a ton of flyers, it was a big pain.

now they come all stuffed with flyers- you just have to put the sports section into the paper. way better!

7. earlier this week my kids were running around crazy.

that is nothing new.

they are crazy kids.

and Jed was hiding behind the girls door,

and Ben was pushing on the girls door, squishing Jed,

then this happened.
8. Ben said he doesn't know his own strength.

and the door wasn't put on well.

I say he is a pain and needs to stop torturing his brothers.

9. I put Maggie in her room yesterday when she was having a major fit, and went to shut the door, but couldn't. I forgot it isn't attached anymore.

10. man, this house has so many little things that need to be done. yikes. I think I might need to buck up and start fixing them myself! scary stuff.

11. Sadie wants to learn how to knit.

I want her to learn how to knit! she can knit some hats and help me keep up with etsy. that would be sweet. but she's not the quickest at picking up on things, and I am not the most patient teacher, so we shall see.

12. alright, now that Thursday is almost over, I guess I should get this posted, and get on with things!

13.have a very happy Thursday!

pretty

although winter in these parts gets pretty cold,

sometimes it is just pretty.

13 things about yesterday

1. the olympic torch came through our city! pretty exciting.

2. so Maggie and I headed out to the route, and got a spot to see it.

3. it was chilly. not as cold as it has been, thank goodness, but chilly none the less.
4. Maggie decked out in red and white. a red and white dress, and red pants with white polka dots. how very patriotic. and funny.

5. the school kids all got bussed over to the route, so they could see it.

I thought that was great.

when I first heard it was coming I wondered if I should take my kids out of school to see it, but it turns out, I didn't have to! yay.
6. I think I see Jack in that picture, but I didn't know he was there at the time. the road was packed like this for a long ways. so, when it came close to the time, I saw a few people go out to the median, and I pulled Maggie out there with me. turned out to be not a very good idea.
7. so, the truck on the very left had some loud music, and some peppy young adults grooving out on top and waving. for the bank that is sponsoring the torch, or the olympics or something.

then the bus behind it held some of the torch runners. and you can see that it has the bank logo, and the coke logo. then the rest are all coke trucks.

about now I was thinking- is there a torch? really. crazy. advertising like crazy.

interesting.

8. but then, there it was- the flame!
9. pretty cool. and the guys (and gals) who got to carry it didn't just pass the torch on, no, they all had their own holder,and just passed the flame along.

I didn't know that.

10. Ben said that if the runners wanted to keep the torch, they had to buy it. I don't know where he got that info, or if it is true. but it would be kind of cool to keep. I wonder how much they had to pay. if anything.

11. so, when we crossed to the median, the snow was deep, being that no one really ever goes out there, and snow got into Maggie's boot.

12. and being the great mother that I am she left the house with no socks on, so her feet were now freezing. and the mittens she had on were not the best.

mother of the year is lost for me this year!

so this is what she looked like from the time we crossed the median, till we got back to the van.

and sometime in the middle of that I was giving her a piggy back and slipped on the sidewalk. that was classy. good thing all the junior high kids who we had to stand and wait to pass were all gone, and only a couple of ladies saw us, and they were very kind.

how embarassing!

13. but we came home and had some fancy hot chocolate, and all was okay again.
what a day.

this is normal

so,

guess what-

if you look in your refrigerator manual-

under the trouble shooter section,

and you see under the problem section- 'orange glow in the freezer'

and then you look under possible causes- and it says 'defrost heater is on'

and then under what to do it says 'this is normal'

so then, you clean it out really good, because it is empty,

because last night some nice young men came and moved the fridge you have out in your garage- just because, and that is sitting in your dining room.

good times.

then you move all the food back in, and are so thankful that you didn't have to pay some repair person a bunch of money to tell you that you are a fool!

and you really hope that the extra fridge that is in the dining room doesn't stay there too much longer.

let that be a lesson to you.

orange glow in the freezer is normal.

but at least now my fridge is super clean,

and no more yucky leftovers in it.

and that wouldn't have happened if I hadn't have freaked out over the orange glow.

so all is well that ends well.

smoking hot!

so, Maggie and I just got back from buying groceries.

good times.

and I was putting the food away.

always fun.

while putting things away in the freezer, I was hearing a strange spitting sound.

(kind of like water when it hits a fire.)

and then I notice the back of the freezer is glowing orange.

this cannot be good.

so in a panic, I do what I always do-

call Cory.

he said to unplug the fridge.

isn't he so smart?

and he will look at it when he gets home.

( hopefully he is as handy as he is handsome!)

I hope it is nothing serious,

but I am thinking it probably is.

I mean, the freezer was practically on fire.

great.

I think I will eat some ice cream.

wouldn't want that to go to waste, now would we?

see, it's not all bad.

little stinker

she ate all the cheese out of the little ritz bits sandwiches.

when I asked her why,

she said she doesn't like the crackers,

only the cheese.

what a stinker.

* just to let you know

* I went out yesterday (it was cold)

* I chatted with my friends at the post office ( they are nice to me)

* got the last Meg Cabot book in the series (and came home from book club to Cory half way through it- and him telling me I should really read better books, not just teen fluff- while he was reading it. I just laughed)

* it is warmer today. thank goodness.

* I put too much snow in the snow ice cream, but the kids all had seconds anyways

* life is good.

13 random Thursday thoughts

1. I just found out that Amy Adams (Gislele in Enchanted) is 35.

really? that old?

I mean, that young?

one year younger than me!

why do these things always surprise me?

and intrigue me?

weird.

( I mean me, I am weird.)

2. the eating less sugar this year thing is not going well.

just saying.

I love me some sugar.

especially in the chocolate form.

love.

3. etsy.

I love you. as much as I love chocolate. and that is saying something.

my store there has taken off the last few months.

it is amazing.

what a great idea. etsy, I mean.

there are some smart people out there.

and those smart people are getting rich.

how do they come up with these things?

4. speaking of etsy-

it has made me a frequent visitor of the post office.

we are friendly there.

buddies.

I need to go visit my friends there soon.

like today.

5. Meg Cabot.

she is such a good writer.

mind you, I have just read a bunch of her teen books.

I hear her adult books have a lot of cursing.

just beware.

at goodwill before Christmas I found a set of 3 of her 1-800-where-are-you books,

thinking I would give them to Ben for Christmas.

silly me. he didn't even read a page,

so I guess I really bought them for me.

I ate them up. loved them.

now I believe the 4th and last book in the series is waiting for me at the library-

and conveniently, the library is right beside the post office.

6. but I really don't want to leave the house.

that is a problem.

7. it is -20, with a wind chill of -30.

can you blame me for not wanting to leave the house?

8. the weather report is saying it will be up in the plusses after the weekend.

this place is crazy.

crazy cold. but hopefully soon to be not so bad.

9. we haven't gone sledding yet this winter.

I think we might have to remedy that sad state.

after the weather changes. and it is not so bitterly cold out there, of course.

10.alright, time to get off the computer (again)

and get something good done around here.

11. like cleaning the house,

cooking some dinner (the missionaries are coming over tonight)

and if I have a can of sweetened condensed milk downstairs, we are going to make some snow ice cream for dessert. and if I don't have a can of it downstairs, I just might have to leave the house today and get some!

12. and finish knitting up a hat for etsy,

13. and smothering a cute little girl with some kisses.

just because I can!

work it, girl!

we had a fun time last weekend.

after a long drive down south,

we got to have fun with lots of family.

(it was Grandpa's birthday, so we got together to partay!

so, while we were at the school gym- (the only place in town big enough to hold us all!) the kids were sitting against the wall waiting for their turn to be pushed on a little wheely cart by a sweet big cousin.

I saw Maggie holding hands with her two cousins, and thought it was very cute, so I pulled out the camera- and got her attention-

picture one-
picture two-

picture 3-

hilarious.

she is working the camera.

and those two cousins on either side of her didn't even move a muscle.

I think it is so so so funny!

(and cute Matthew is just watching and smiling!)

I LOVE it!

so fun for our kids to have so many cousins their age to play with-

growing up I only had a few, and they were all older than us, or younger than us, so we never had anything like this!

love it.

the coat that got away. x2.

so- I am sort of on the look out for a new winter coat.

my Sunday one I have had for many years.

my everyday one I picked up at a garage sale.

they are both okay still,

but getting old.

(kind of like me)

so, I am on the look out. for a cute one, for a great price.

because you just never know when you will find one.

but I found one.

at Goodwill the Saturday before Christmas.

it was longish, and grey,

and I saw a lady trying it on, and thought that it was a very cute coat.

so a bit later I walked down the coat aisle, and there it was. for $11. It even fit.

fabulous! It could be my every day and Sunday coat!

so, I hung it back up, just to try on a coat a bit down the aisle, to see if I liked it any better,

and along came that lady who was trying it on before and took it.

darn it all.

I followed her for a bit, to see if she was going to put it back, but she never did.

it was a sad time.

then, after christmas,

when Cory was on a cleaning rampage-

(when he is on one he cleans, and he cleans good.)

he was cleaning our room. and our closet.

and in the bottom was a bag from Reitmans, with some jeans that I had bought a long, long time ago, and had never ever worn, and the receipt was still there, so I headed to the store to get some money back, and get rid of some clutter- (love that!)

so, there was a bit of a line- three of us on one side.

the lady who was paying (lady #1) was asking if there was a clothing donation box around, and the lady in the middle (lady #2) said there was one by another store in the parking lot, and lady #1 said she was going to donate her coat that she had because it just never fit her right, and she was so done with it, unless someone else wanted it. so lady #2 tried on this super cute, nice coat, which unfortunately fit her very nicely, so she said she would take it.

darn it again.

one person away from a nice, free coat.

I have a feeling if I wait long enough, and keep looking, I will find it.

that fabulous, and cheap coat,

that is out there waiting for me.

when I find it, I will let you know.