The "Too Much" Chronicles

I don't know why, but I have this urge to talk about the things we have too much of. I guess I find it kind of amusing how we seem to accumulate way too much of certain things, but can never have enough of other things.

Chapstick. Hello? Ten. Ten different chapsticks in the house for a family of five. I'm sure Daniel has some too but I wasn't going to go picking through his room just so I could count them. And the boys each keep one at school. So really it's twelve, that I could find. I'm sure there are a couple behind the dryer.

Oh, wouldn't my dentist be proud of me now. Actually, no. Because most of these are from him. (Hi Greg. I do floss. Really, I do!)

And now for a couple of things we can never have enough of...Can you say C E R E A L ?

What's the deal with cereal, anyways. It's so expensive and it leaves me feeling hungry an hour later. So why do I buy it? Because I'm a lazy, terrible mom, that's why. I've already made a rule that it can only be eaten for breakfast. If I didn't do that, we would go through two boxes a day. I'm thinking about only allowing it on school days, too. On the weekends I usually cook breakfast, but the kids choose cereal over my home cooking! Maybe they're trying to tell me something.

On to our next item...graham crackers. Seriously, folks. Dipped in milk, yum! I have loved this treat since I was a kid. And don't get me started on graham crackers with cream cheese frosting. I can feel my rear end getting bigger just thinking about it.

So there you have it. That's what's on my mind tonight. Don't know why. More to come when I get a chance. I know you can't wait.

Soooo, what's been going on with us lately? Let's see....
Daniel finished up with the spring musical, Pirates of Penzance, a couple of weeks ago. It was a really cute play and he did a great job! Now he has more time to focus on other things like friends, girls, prom and graduation. His family will be here from Germany at the end of this month to visit and watch his graduation. We can't wait to meet them.
Keaton is still doing tennis and is making big improvements. He won the last two matches and he's got two more this week. Then he'll be done. His serve is improving a lot and he's really enjoying it.
Carson and Jantzen are still doing track. Their last meet is this Saturday. I like this track program, but it's always nice when it's over. That frees up two nights a week for other things like...
Presidency meetings! Yep, that's right folks. You're talking to the new Primary president here. For those of you that might not know what that means, it means I DON'T HAVE A LIFE ANYMORE! Just kidding... Kind of. It means that I oversee the children's organization at church. So I make sure that we have teachers on Sundays, nursery workers, and music leaders. I also make sure that the cub scout program is staffed and running smoothly. We also put on quarterly activities for the kids and a yearly program that includes all the kids and is performed during church. There are tons of other things I have to deal with, but that's the basic idea. So I'm pretty busy with that. Not to mention taking care of four kids, running my Scentsy business, training for another half marathon and finishing up this gosh-darned-diggety-doggety-blasted kitchen! (Which, by the way, is so close I can taste it!)
Chris' life consists of going to work, then coming home and working on the kitchen. Yesterday we worked together to put in some of the flooring then he worked the rest of the day putting in the dishwasher. He worked until almost 10 last night! Needless to say, things did not go smoothly, but after four trips to Home Depot and several hours of him laying on the kitchen floor with his head under the dishwasher, he got the thing hooked up and working. Yeah Chris! Thank you so much!
Two weeks ago Chris and I started a little challenge. It's called The Biggest Loser-Wrathall Edition. You see, we both gained a bit of weight this winter and we've been starting most days out by looking in the mirror, groaning and saying something like, "I've gotta get my butt into gear." Or, "Who's that fat person in the mirror?" So for six weeks we're trying to lose weight, and at the end the winner gets $100 to spend on whatever they want. Well, Keaton got wind of our little game and he wanted to join us. Nothing motivates that boy like money. So we decided to let him in. So far here are the standings:
1st place-Chris 8 pounds
2nd place-Keaton 6 pounds
3rd place-Jodi 1 stinking stupid measly pound!
I have a feeling I'm not going to be the biggest loser!
Whose idea was this anyways? Oh, nevermind.
So there you have it. As always, we're pretty busy. And it doesn't seem to be getting any better. So when I don't update my blog for awhile, you understand, right? Right?
Thanks.

Ode to my New Dishwasher

Dishwasher, oh dishwasher
How I missed you so.
You were gone for two long months.
I thought you would never return
But now you are back in my loving arms
And I shall never live without you again
Absence made the heart grow fonder
Fonder, fonder, fonder

You work so hard while I sleep
or play or wander through the aisles of Walmart
And you never complain about the work
Scrubbing, washing, working so hard while I'm away
So I can have a clean surprise when I open the door

I wish my kids were more like you.

I just came across these pictures from Christmas. They were on a camera we don't use very often. I got a kick out of them.Every Christmas Eve we give the kids new pajamas. We call them their "magic pajamas" because they make Santa come. Here they are modeling them.

Aaaaaaand....I'm not sure what they're doing here.

Carson and Jantzen had their first track meet of the year last week.Apparently, there was some "down time" in which Jantzen could practice warming her ears with her legs.

Check out her smile! You can even see it through the blurry picture.This is Carson running the 1500. He loves this event, but I'm not sure why. I can't figure out if he loves the winning part or the actual running part. As Carson would put it, he "owned" this race. The next kid was almost a minute behind him and he beat his personal best to finish in 6:25. I love this picture because it shows his friend, Parker cheering him on. His friends would run around the inside of the track and try to run along side so they could help encourage him. Carson is so lucky to have a good group of friends at church and at school. On Sunday he and Nick kept laying their heads in each other's laps and then stroking each others hair. Weird, I know but I think they just did it so I would laugh while I was trying to lead the music. It worked.

Anyways...

Keaton wasn't too excited about going to his little brother and sister's track meet but I reminded him of how they came to his tennis match to support him and that he should return the favor. To that he replied, "Tell them they don't need to come to any more of my tennis matches." Very funny, Keaton.

And because I know you haven't heard enough ramblings about our kitchen...

What do you know? It's still not done! A million dollars goes to the person who can guess what's missing.

But seriously, folks I can't complain about not having a dishwasher or a complete backsplash. Mostly because I'm the one doing the tile on the backsplash so complaining to myself gets me nowhere. I'm afraid there might be retaliation if I file a complaint, anyways. Plus, after living for a month with nothing but a microwave, this is small beans! Washing dishes by hand is a pain, but I've definitely lived through worse!

I'm really happy with the way things are turning out. Chris and I were talking tonight about all the yard work that needs to be done, and how we can't afford to do it now because of all the money we spent on the kitchen. But we decided it's okay. We'll just camp out in our kitchen all summer and try not to look at the yard.

Beware...Lots of pictures

Well, we're back safe and sound from our trip to Utah. I'll give a quick update of what's been going on. It's all out of order and disorganized, but I'm really short on time because I have a Scentsy booth at the home and garden show in Pendleton this weekend and I need to go to bed! Plus, I rented Twilight...

Well, usually the highlight of our trip is the skiing, and this day was no exception. I was sick the whole week and didn't ski at all, but the boys had a ski day with Grandpa Tom and Uncle Spencer on Monday. The six person chair lift is so cool because they were all able to ride it together. You can't understand the coolness of that until you've skied with family. It's just so much fun to sit on the lift together and relive the run you just took. Maybe even laugh at your Uncle Spencer for skiing into a tree! Then top it off with a five dollar hot cocoa and some ten dollar fries and the day is complete.

I love these pictures because it shows the craziness of the family I married into. This is at Robbie's indoor soccer game that we went to after celebrating Grandpa Tom and Grandma Fay's 40th anniversary.

It's pretty much impossible to get a normal picture with these guys!


Next up we have Keaton's 13th birthday. Yes, you heard it right folks. Keaton is 13! An official teenager. We're so glad he doesn't act like a typical teenager. He's such a good kid, I mean guy, and we're lucky to have him in our family. For his birthday he wanted nothing more than to go play paintball, so that's what we did. Here he is joining us in singing Happy Birthday to himself.

We also went to a Utah Jazz game against the Houston Rockets. What a blast! It was our first NBA game.
This was our kids' first experience on public transportation so I had to be a dorky tourist and take a picture. What can I say? We're hicks!

Fay, Jennifer, McKenzie and I went to the Young Women General Broadcast on Saturday night at the LDS Conference Center. Wow! That place is huge and beautiful! The meeting was great and I really enjoyed the talks. This was my first time seeing the prophet in person, and it was such a neat experience. I'm so glad I went.

Then to top it off we came home to.....

Countertops!
Yip yippee yippito! Now I can start to put things back together. It has been so nice to be able to unpack some boxes and now when I need a fork, I find it in a kitchen drawer, not in a box in the living room. Words cannot describe how much better I feel about life now. Those who know me know that I do NOT like disorganization and chaos!
Nevermind the fact that I don't have an oven, a dishwasher or running water in the kitchen yet. Because what I DO have is a stove and a microwave convection oven. And although I don't really LOVE doing the dishes in the laundry room sink, we're making progress toward normalcy and I'm loving it!

Then today was Keaton's first tennis match. (Note to self: learn how the scoring works before the next match. I had no idea what was going on. Duh!)
It was so windy and cold that I had a really hard time paying attention (So did Jantzen!). And I couldn't manage to pull my cold butt off the bleachers to take a better picture than this one, so you'll have to believe me when I tell you that that IS Keaton in the black pants and camo jacket. I actually kinda like this picture because there's so much going on in it. Keaton playing tennis, Carson rooting for his big brother, Jantzen being Jantzen, her hair telling the story of the windy day and the dark clouds in the background. I know it won't win any photography awards or anything, but I still think it's kinda cool.

Oh happy day!

Monday we had a very special visitor...

(Cue the singing angels)And we've had very special visitors every day since Monday because we chickened out on installing the cabinets ourselves and hired some very talented guys to do it for us.

(Yes, that's my breakfast cooking)

And it's a darn good thing because it turns out that our walls, ceiling and floors are "like the rolling hills of Kentucky", as our installer put it, and I'm sure we would have said a few swear words, messed it up beyond all repair and then took a torch to the whole kitchen.

We are paying the installers by the hour and it has been taking a REALLY long time, due to the hill situation. Chris and I did a little bit of mental math and we started to get really sweaty. Especially when the owner of the company said, "This has been one of the most challenging jobs we've been on in a long time." In my mind I was starting to see dollar bills fly out the window, but later he said that this has been really a good training experience for his helper and that he would just charge us a flat rate. What a nice guy!

So now we are off to Utah for spring break and when we get home the countertops and sink should be installed. Then we will be VERY CLOSE to a normal life again.