Full week of fun!

What a week this has been! It's had many mood swings, for everyone in the family, 2 birthdays and lots of family time!

Monday Jan. 25

Today I spent the majority of the day deleting files on my computer. My hard drive was over half full, and it was starting to get a little too sluggish for me. So I started early in the morning, and didn't finish until late afternoon. I thought the process would only take an hour or two. WRONG! I had forgotten how many things I keep on my computer "just in case I need it again". My computer is much happier now after the cleaning and defragging! Nathan is really big into movies, mostly Cars and Animusic (I'm ready to throw both of them away at the moment!) This is how I find him most times while watching a movie. He stuck his tongue in right before I took the picture, so I missed the best part!

Tuesday Jan. 26

Today was a full day too! I focused on organizing all the pictures of Emily's birthday party and getting them ready to be printed so that I can send out thank you notes. I had to do it today because there was a promotion at Snapfish that expired the next day that if I bought anything (like a 9 cent 4x6 picture) I would get 100 4x6 pictures for free plus shipping! Score! So I ended up with 101 pictures, all of which I needed to get! I saved $9! Then I decided to make a quick run to the store. However, my quick run turned out to be very slow. I went to Superstition Ranch Market, which is often really busy, but it was so busy that I walked around the store for 5 minutes getting my fruits and veggies, then stood in line for the next 35 minutes. I'm so grateful I didn't bring the kids. Then I made a quick stop at Fry's and headed home. We had friends over for dinner and to fix their laptop. I made yummy homemade pizza (the only kind to have, of course) and then settled the kids in the family for movie time. My cousin posted on Facebook that she was having a S'mores party tonight and invited whoever wanted to come over. I left the kids with Robby and headed out the door. We tried to start a fire, but we only succeeded in making the wood smoke. We had to wait until my uncle came home and he started the fire with gasoline! We talked and laughed and had a great time just being together! I love my cousins!

Wednesday Jan. 27

Today I went over to Jessica’s to pick something up and she told me that Allison decided she wanted to be awake from 2 to 6 in the middle of the night. So needless to say she was exhausted! I offered to pick up Allison after Emily finished preschool and let the kids play at our house. Emily was tickled pink when she found out her cousin was coming over! She was stuck to Allison the whole time she was here!

Thursday Jan. 28

Today Emily found music on the Playhouse Disney website and she and Nathan listened and danced to the music all afternoon long. Emily received some scissors in her Kindergarten packet, so she decided to mutilate a paper on the family room floor. Thankfully she was really good about picking up every little piece! Emily is really good at cutting out shapes and cuts pretty accurately on the lines! She’s amazing!

Friday Jan. 29

Tonight our friends offered to watch the kids and for Robby’s birthday gave us money for a date night! Woohoo! Robby chose Golden Coral because Friday night is Fish Fry! He was hoping for catfish, but he had to settle for all the other kinds of fish they had! For dessert, he chose coconut cream pie…YUCK! I do not care for coconut, not even the smell of it! He also picked up a chocolate chip cookie which looked really good, but I’m trying to stay away from sugar right now, so I refused the cookie when he offered it to me. Then he somehow convinced me to try a bite of his little pie. I almost gagged! So then he offered the cookie again to get rid of the coconut taste. Tricky, tricky man! I wasn’t going to have any dessert, but after that taste I went to the dessert bar and got myself some jell-o, another cookie, a rice krispie treat and some banana pudding. So much for staying away from sugar, right? We picked up the kids and started to head home, and we came across a train! We were the first car in line and the kids were so excited because they have never seen a train moving before! Today was a great day!

Saturday Jan. 30

Happy Birthday Robby! As Robby puts it…he is one year closer to antiquity! Today for Robby’s birthday, he chose to go and help a friend with some plumbing issues they were having. But for Robby, that is the best kind of day when he is helping someone! They were able to finish the project in a manner of hours with only one trip to Home Depot! I was able to purchase 6 packages of chicken breasts today (36 total), so when we got home I stood there and trimmed all the fat and put 2 breasts per labeled bag and put them into my deep freezer. I love having food storage! It makes me feel so much better knowing my family has extra right now that we can share with others or have on hand when we are having financial struggles. We had a birthday party for Robby and Allison, who turned 1 this week, at my mom’s house tonight. Robby got his very own personal carrot cake, and my brother told him to blow out the candles with his nose. I’m so grateful he didn’t because I’m eating a piece now! (Yeah, remember the no sugar thing, I’ve been good today, so I’m having a little piece!-So sue me! LOL)

Sunday Jan. 31
Thankfully today was a relaxing Sunday. We had church and then our home teachers came over this afternoon. Emily and Nathan didn’t want to listen to boring adults talk, so they decided to drive me crazy by playing with and fighting over a balloon. What a great spirit builder-um, NO! Nathan is really big into movies and books, all of which have to happen at the same time. I will be working on something at my desk, and he will bring a book to me and not leave me alone until we have spent a good 10 minutes looking at everything in the book. I’m so grateful that he loves books and he’s really improved his speaking skills because he can now count to 10 and name most of the things in the books. But it hurts when he comes to your chair and turns you around without you realizing what’s happening! I think I’ll take a little pain in return for the love of reading! Yesterday was one of my friend's birthday, and on her blog last week she posted a beautiful poem. I knew the second I read it that I had to make it into a picture and frame it for her. So I gave that to her at church today and she loved it!

Flooding, Tires and Birthday Party

Another great week here at the Sandling home! Crazy as always, but if it wasn't crazy, we might think something was wrong!


Monday Jan. 18
This morning started out ok, but deteriorated quickly for some reason. I was frustrated at everything, so I decided to do a mindless activity to try and clear my frustration levels. I cut out all the shapes for Emily's party gift bag boots, and then I sewed them all. Good frustration outlet...sewing!




Tuesday Jan. 19
No more frustration, but panic has now set in that Saturday is Emily's party with 20 invited kids and I don't have everything done. So tonight I made the stick horses. They didn't last past the next morning when the kids played with them, so they had to go back to the horse doctor to get re-sticked! I loved listening to the rain and being safe and warm inside!




Wednesday Jan. 20
Today was full of blessings and miracles. While Robby was driving home from an appointment in Phoenix, the Spirit directed him that something was wrong with his driver's side tire. So he said a quick prayer saying "Please get me home safetly." Well, as he was turning onto the off ramp on Gilbert road off of the 60, his driver's side tire blew. The tread came completely off. Robby was prepared for this and he had both hands on the wheel at the time. He was able to bring the car to a stop safely and pull into an apartment complex and change the tire. Then he drove directly to Discount Tire to get the 2 front tires replaced. The business had just recieved a check from a customer that covered the exact amount of the tires. As I ran to the bank to deposit the check, they pulled the car into the bay. I was gone maybe 10-15 minutes and as I was pulling back up, they pulled the completed car out of the bay. They moved the back tires to the front and put the new tires on the back. I am so grateful that Robby is safe and that he was listening to the still small voice guiding him to safety.








Thursday Jan. 21
Today the rains came down and the floods came up. We were all sure that we were going to be washed away. By mid morning the water was halfway up our patio, and by tonight the water was within inches of our back door. A song comes to mind (I changed a few words): "The rains came down and the floods came up, the rains came down and the floods came up, the rains came down and the floods came up and the toys on the porch washed away!" I am so grateful for the new tires on Robby's car because as he was driving around today, he said that he was driving through 3 feet of water at times and he knew that his old tires would have never stuck to the road. Major blessings! Nathan right now is really big into pickles. He wants one 5 minutes after he wakes up in the morning! Tonight was Emily's Kingergarten Preview. We were able go to the school and meet all 4 teachers and go to each of their rooms and see a little about how they teach. Emily flourished and raised her hand to answer questions, and was content to sit with the others kids and not cower with me. That made me really excited that come August she will go to school (hopefully) without a fight or too many tears. I also put names on all the bandanas for the kids at the party. They will color them with crayons at the party.











Friday Jan. 22
Nathan grabbed his hat this morning while we were getting dressed and decided to go all gansta' on us! So cute! I laughed so hard! Isn't that face the greatest? Today was the dreaded doctor's visit that Emily has tried everything to get out of. Both kids had a well check today and needed to get 1 shot each. Nathan must have known something was up because he was a very grumpy boy the entire time we were there. Emily took a great picture of Nathan getting his shot! Emily chose lunch at Taco Bell for our lunch with Gran-Nana. The kids got nachos, and all Nathan wanted to eat was the cheese dip with his finger. Tonight we set up for Emily's party tomorrow. Late night, but everything but the kitchen floor is done for tomorrow.














Saturday Jan. 23
P-Day has arrived-Party Day that is! Nathan was up at 6:30, so I was able to get lots done before the party started at 10 this morning. We had 16 of the 20 invited kids come today and we definitely had a full house! We took pictures of each child with the horse pin-up and then moved onto coloring their bandanas and making necklaces. Then we all moved to the family room where each child signed their name on an autograph horse for Emily. We played Pin the Brand on the Cow, and someone actually got a bullseye! Then we had an obstacle course. We divided into 2 teams and each team had a stick horse. They had to 1. lasso the horse with a wooden ring, 2. throw the horse in the corral, 3. Jump over snakes at Poison Pass, and 4. Shoot the bad guy and then run back and pass off the horse to the next person. They had lots of fun with this. Then we sang to Emily and she got to do the first cut on the cake. My friend Kara made the cake and it was amazing! She does it as a side business: go check out the other cakes she has made http://www.karaskustomkakes.blogspot.com/!























Sunday Jan. 24
Today we had a very relaxing afternoon with me taking a nap, and Robby playing the Wii and with the kids. The kids love to just sit and watch him play, and will do that for hours at a time. Emily even got in on the action of the game by sneaking into Robby's chair when he got up and so Robby sat on her!

Awesome Giveaway

Julie over at Flitter Bugs http://flitterbugsblog.blogspot.com/ is having an amazing giveaway! All you have to do is leave a comment on her blog http://flitterbugsblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/free-giveaway-just-leave-comment-to.html Plus... you can leave up to 4 extra entries....for a total of 5 chances to win any one garment (any size and fabric) of your choice!

I hope I win!

Whoosh!

Yes, whoosh! That's what this week felt like! For the past few months, weeks have been taking forever to get from Monday to Sunday. This week flew by so quickly, that I'm amazed that it's Sunday again!

Monday Jan. 11

Is it bad that I can't remember a thing we did today? LOL I do remember Nathan trying to walk around by sliding his feet on the pot holders. I think that must have been the highlight of my day. No wait. I do remember something else. Today is the day my ear clogged in the afternoon. It lasted all week long.

Tuesday Jan. 12

This morning I went to the memorial service for the sweet little baby girl that my friend lost last week. The spirit was very strong and there was a healing feeling also in the room. It helped me remember that everything is eternal and that Heavenly Father knows the beginning to the end, and He knows what's better for me than I know for myself, and He does it all because He loves me. Today was a crazy day for the kids! Nathan woke up crazy from head to toe! Literally!!! His hair was not standing up...it was everywhere! It looks like someone teased his hair, but his hair is to thin and fine (like baby hair should be) to tease!!!! Nothing I did tamed it, so I just let it go! We stopped by to see Gran-Nana, and of course the kids had to see if they could catch one of her 4 fish. Thankfully I can report the fish were faster than my kids and they are all safe! Mom called and said she had a 2 gallons of milk that had expired the day before and needed to be used quickly. She knows we go through almost a gallon a day, so we picked up the milk and made TAPIOCA PUDDING! Emily loves to help cook, and stirring is her favorite thing to do. So I was more than willing to let her stir and I took a break. That's the one thing I don't like about tapioca pudding...you have to stand there for what feels like hours, just stirring. No fun, but the taste afterwards really makes up for it, so I shouldn't complain!

Wednesday Jan. 13

Now don't think badly of me. I really want my home decorated, especially my kids rooms. So when my sister in law gave me these cute frames and my kids initials that she painted to hang on the wall, I was so excited. Now here's the bad part. She gave them to me for Nathan's baby shower.....2 1/2 years ago! I finally put pictures in them tonight and Robby helped me hang them up!!!!! I was so excited! The kids love them and look at me like, "Why didn't you decorate my room earlier?" I'm now motivated to work on more of my home and make it feel more like home with all the items I have purchased to decorate, but have never actually decorated with.

Thursday Jan. 14

This morning Robby shocked me by waking up at 7am. That is big for a guy that never gets out of bed before 9:30 no matter what. So I took advantage of being up early and went to the grocery store for milk and fresh veggies. When I came home, Robby was making crepes. I thought I had died and gone to heaven! I love crepes, and so Robby found a recipe on line, and made a double batch. I had way to many, but I was one happy girl the rest of the day! All except for the earache that started late afternoon! No fun! Tonight Robby and I attacked, yes attacked, the toy area of our family room. 2 hours later we surfaced after finding carpet and reorganizing the toys and furniture. I had put cleaning this part of the room off for too long. The kids had dumped puzzles everywhere and mixed up the pieces, taken most of the toys out of the totes and spread them around, and taken all of the play food out of the bucket. It was a great time spent with Robby, so I'm counting it a sucess.

Friday Jan. 15

Remember my ear problems? Yeah, well I ended up calling the doctor and setting up an appointment for early this morning. I was sure with the pain I was experiencing I had an ear infection. Well, I go in-no temperature. Ok...good sign. The doctor checks my left ear...all looks good (duh, that's the ear that doesn't hurt). The doctor checks my right ear...she can't see into my hear because there's something in the way. She has the nurse come in and flush my ear. Um can we say OUCH?!?! She has a squirt bottle with a hose that goes into my ear. She squirts 3 times then stops. I was still ok at this point. Then she says she going to try again, and try again she did. This lasted for about 2-3 minutes and I thought my right ear drop was going to relocate to my left ear. She finally got the desired result. A piece of wax the size of a small pea comes out. EWWWW! No wonder I hurt and couldn't hear very well. I'm so glad that's out! Emily's preschool teacher had a bench that has a toy compartment that she no longer needed and asked if we would like it. So I brought it home and we love it. Emily likes that she fits inside, I like that all the stuffed animals hide inside. Emily helped me clean it off, and Nathan and Emily use it as a stage to show off their dancing skills.

Saturday Jan. 16

This morning we went to mom's house and Robby rototilled her garden. Funny thing...Robby is the only one that can start mom's rototiller. No joke. Everyone else has tried, begged, pleaded, bribed, and cried. Robby tweaks it with a screw drive, pulls once on the pull-string, and it starts. We all get a good laugh out of that. We can do they same thing Robby does, nope, it still wants him. So this is his yearly garden job. We are having a family garden this year and we are all really excited to have fresh veggies we pick ourselves. Tonight we started our "we will clean the entire family room before we good to bed" routine. It went well, and now I know where all of Emily's shoes were hiding. She decided to stack up all her shoes to carry them to her room. Yes she's a shoe freak.

Sunday Jan. 17

After church I let the kids play with the hand boppers that came yesterday. They had way too much fun punching each other. Nathan picked up another word today too. Punch. Everytime he hit Emily he would say it. However, Nathan would get frustrated because Emily hits harder and can knock him over. He would throw the "gloves" and walk away, then come back and try again.

What a Full Week!

This week has felt like a roller coaster of ups and downs, loop-dee-loops and way too many upside downs. Thankfully all the downs have ended in ups!

Monday Jan. 4

Today I woke up ready to attack our company website and I thought to myself, "I need to find a certain paper before I can start." Well, needless to say, I spent the ENTIRE day cleaning and organizing and shredding, and never even touched the website. But my desk looks fantastic! I'm glad I didn't take a before picture, it was too embarrassing to show to anyone!

Tuesday Jan. 5

Today was spent working on my menu for the month. Nana offered to take me shopping at Fry's tomorrow, so I needed to have my list ready. So these are all our dinners for the month. They're not in order, or else I feel boxed in, so once I make a meal on the list I cross it off, and go until all the meals have been made.

Wednesday Jan. 6

Today was MAJOR grocery shopping day. Nana is absolutely wonderful and has offered to help us with food the last few months. She tells me to make a list, and she doesn't question anything. I make a menu plan for a month, then make my list, then go through my pantry and frig to see if I am missing anything on my list. My lists are always way too long, and I feel guilty for everything I put in my cart. However I am so very grateful for her help. The menu list makes it so I don't buy excess items that we don't need or candy that we really don't need. The last thing on my list this time was mushrooms and I handed them to Nathan to put in the cart. Well, I turned around for a second, and when I turned back Nathan had opened the package and was eating the mushrooms! After we came home and I put all the food away, we went to the park with some of the ladies and their kids in our ward.

Thursday Jan. 7

Today was definitely a roller coaster day. I received a call at 7:15 that woke me up. It said Maricopa County on the caller id, so I was instantly on the alert that someone in my family was in the hospital. However, I wasn't expecting the voice on the other end. It was a man in our ward telling me that I didn't need to pick up his daughter to take her to preschool today. He then told me his wife had a miscarriage at 21 weeks. I was heartbroken. My mind instantly went to getting a bereavement box to her a soon as possible. My sister Kathryn is part of an organization called Lanee's Legacy that creates boxes for women that lose their babies. http://laneeslegacy.blogspot.com/ I called up Kathryn and she told me where to go and pick up a box. I didn't know if the baby was a girl or boy, so I called back to the hospital and spoke to the husband. I found out that my friend still hadn't delivered the baby, so that made my ergency level go up even further. My friend was having a girl, so I picked up a box and arranged for people to watch Emily and Nathan, and off to the hospital I went. We sat there and cried together. I held her hand and we talked about anything and nothing, and it felt good to be with a friend. I cried most of the day because my heart was hurting for my friend and her family. I'm grateful I was able to be there for a friend, but this day really helped me heal in places I didn't realize were still broken from the time of my miscarriage.

Friday Jan. 8

Today the bugman was scheduled to come and spray the house, so that gave me the extra push to swept and mop my kitchen floor. It was scary! Then I went to Bashas' where they are having a sale that if you buy ground turkey (1.25 lbs. for $5.99-yikes! Can you tell I rarely buy ground turkey?) you get taco seasoning, shredded lettuce, taco shells and cheese for FREE! So we had tacos for dinner tonight! The ground turkey was really good! The whole dinner cost us $6, and we have leftovers for another meal! I like dinners like that!

Saturday Jan. 9

Today was a very full Saturday. I got up and cleaned and vacuumed the family room because we got a new (used) entertainment center from a family in our ward. It was delivered while I was with Mom, Jessica and Kathryn getting a pedicure. Then we went to Paradise Bakery for lunch. That was soooooo good! I loved everything, especially the warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie! There was tons of chocolate-just the way I like them! When I got home the new windshield was being installed on the van. We had a chip on the driver's side that was going to split the window any day. Sure enough, as soon as the repair man touched the window, it split and the windshield was in 4 pieces by the time he got it out of the van. What a blessing we had it fixed today! Then after Nathan's nap, Robby and I dropped the kids off with my mom and went to the mall. Robby received a gift card for Christmas and needed some new Sunday shoes. We had a great time walking around holding hands and talking. It was so nice being able to complete a sentence without a "Mommy?" piping in during the middle of the sentence.

Sunday Jan. 10

Today after church I mentioned to Robby that I had a sweet tooth and then went Visiting Teaching. When I came home, Robby was making a chocolate cake! He even used the heart shaped pans! I have such a wonderful husband! He knows how much I love chocolate cake with chocolate frosting! Well, I love pretty much chocolate anything, but chocolate cake is probably on the top of my list! And I'm not the only one in the family that loves chocolate cake...Look at the chocolate face on my cute boy! You could just eat him up! :)