Angel

Peyton loves this commercial. He actually loves and quotes a lot of different commercials. He's always telling me, "Don't get mad! Get Glad!" after he's done something naughty. It usually works, too. I need to learn to resist that imp and his devilish charms. ☺ Anyway, this is one of his favorites.

He came up to me last Monday and said, "Mom, say, 'you look amazing'". I asked why and he said, "JUST DO IT!". Okay, okay. "You look amazing", I said. "You look like a beach angel!", he replied. (I immediately caught on. ☺) I screamed and he said, "It's go time!". We've done that about 50 times a day since then.

Fashion Sense

I've never claimed to have any fashion sense. Basically, I have none, but I do like to browse the internet, looking at clothes, shoes, handbags, jewelry, etc. Especially when I get bored. Today, I'm really liking this swimsuit. I think it's super cute. I'm not sure if it's effective enough to hide my thunder, unfortunately. A large tarp would probably be more efficient to do that.

These shoes=fantastic. These remind me of an old librarian, but I still think they're cute. Finally, these might be a good choice to fulfill my desire for red shoes.

I'm kind of digging this dress. I think it would be fun with the librarian shoes. This skirt looks like it would be fun and just a little bit twirly.

I like way too many handbags. Like this one. This one. Oh, and this one, too. This could go on and on.

I think that's enough window shopping for today. If I start looking at jewelry like, I might start buying. ☺

Seeing Red

Does anyone have a color they tend to gravitate toward? I do. Red. Most definitely, red. It's a color that makes me happy. It's peppy. It's lively. It makes me feel good.

I had a red wall in our first house. I loved it! The front door of that house was red, too. We painted our television wall in our family room in this house red, but had to move the location of the TV a couple of years ago. The first wall was a little too small to be left red without a focal point like the television. So, I repainted the whole room one color. I need to find another wall to paint.

I chose a design kit for my blog that featured red heavily. My new couch is red. My toaster is red. My tea kettle is red. I bought new dishes last weekend and their color? You guessed it. Red. I have several red shirts. Strangely, I don't have any shoes. I think I need to fix that. Maybe something like these.

Red, you make me very happy!

Minty

I have a serious thing for the white, whipped, minty goodness that is the center of a York Peppermint Patty, or a Junior Mint. It all started with my first pregnancy and continued with the others. (I think it had something to do with being anemic.) Anyway. I craved it non-stop. If someone would have given me a huge bowl of that delicious, white goodness, I would have eaten all of it. Probably, in one sitting.

Well, I've been craving it again quite a bit the past couple of months. (I think it probably has something to do with anemia again. Time to start loading up on iron.) So, I pick up one of those two kinds of candies about once a week to get my fix. Today, I saw these and because of the colors on the package, assumed they were mint. I snatched those puppies right up and opened them as soon as I was in my car. I was a little confused with the first bite. Put in another. Still didn't get it. Around about the third one, I finally looked at the package and figured out what they were. (I've never claimed to be smart.) I was slightly disappointed about the lack of mint, but HOLY FLIPPIN' COW! They were totally good and made up for being non-minty. Try them.

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On another note, just to be clear, I've kind of been thinking that I was trying to make myself sound like a martyr, or something, in my last post. (Stupid Blogger won't let me link to it right now!!!!) So, to clarify, I really didn't mind doing all of the cooking. I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. It wasn't hard. I didn't stress myself out overly much. I made it through just fine. And so far, I haven't heard of any deaths related to my cooking. I just wish I didn't have to get sick the week I was doing it. That is all. ☺

Never Again

Never again do I have want to have a week with a dance concert rehearsal on Monday followed by getting sick on Tuesday followed by going to the doctor on Wednesday to find out I have a sinus infection (I would have said bronchitis) followed by a dance concert on Thursday followed by another dance concert on Friday followed by me cooking dinner for 50+ people in our for a Young Women fundraiser on Saturday.

Actually, it wouldn't have been so bad if I just could have left out the getting sick part. I'd do all the other stuff again if I didn't have to do it while sick. That's kind of made this week not so fun. I've woke up almost every night since Tuesday so I could hack up one of my lungs. After coughing, gagging and gasping for several minutes, I've been wide awake and left to think about cooking the dinner. I haven't felt any stress about doing it until this week and I only have because I've been sick. If I could have slept, I wouldn't have spent endless hours thinking about it. I know I can handle it, but when my sinuses are pounding I think to myself that I can't. But I can and I will. Now, I'm off to cook.

The Upside

Tyler came out of the basement bathroom a few days ago and said, "Mom, you need to come in here and look at this". I went in and what I saw was bulging paint and damp to the touch sheet rock on the ceiling directly above the toilet. Great! You don't have to be a plumber to figure out what bulging paint and damp sheet rock means. Especially when there's a bathroom directly above that one with a toilet in the exact same place. The toilet above was leaking.

Ryan cut a small hole into the ceiling in the basement. He couldn't see much and had to go a little bigger. Still couldn't see much and had to cut a little more. Then a little more. On about the fourth widening of the hole, pieces of wood started to fall out. My first thought was, "Holy crap! (censored) Is it rotting out the floor joists and sub-floor? How in the world is the whole bathroom up there not collapsing?". Ryan kept cutting and eventually took out the entire ceiling with pieces of wood falling the whole time. Pretty messy.

So, what did he find? Simply a leaking toilet. It had shifted, or not been put back on properly, or something, a few months ago. (Ryan took it off for reasons I can't remember anymore.) It was easy enough to go upstairs, remove the toilet, replace wax rings and other seals and stop the leak. Problem solved.

So, why was wood falling out of the ceiling down below? Well, it seems that a few years ago the old toilet had leaked and caused a lot of damage to the sub-floor, requiring it to be replaced. Some genius decided that it was easier to just let the rotted stuff fall and sit on the ceiling of the bathroom below rather than clean it up and throw it out. Lazy. We've discovered several "home improvement projects" around here that were done in the same manner. I kind of think that this house was previously occupied and remodeled by monkeys.

There is an upside to this situation, fortunately! We got the disgusting wood out of the ceiling. Definite plus. Ryan stayed home from work the next day (which means I got to spend time with him which is another plus) and replaced the ceiling properly. The other one was kind of saggy because it was held up with about 4 screws. Stupid monkeys! The sagging wasn't really visible to the naked eye and we never would have known how shoddy it was if the toilet hadn't leaked. The new one is held up nice and tight and the height raised quite a bit. Another plus. And since he was home, he was also able to finally fix the walls (to about 90% complete, need to paint a little more) I made him beat down to get my new couch into the family room. Another plus. I no longer feel guilt about destroying walls just for a couch, too. A plus for me! And finally, he brought me lunch after coming home from one of his 4 trips to Home Depot. Not having to make my lunch myself is a definite plus in my book.

*P.S. Another upside I've found! I had this scheduled to post the day that Blogger was down (last Friday),but it disappeared for a few days. I was pretty sure it had been munched and lost forever. (Sad, because there's like 2 people who read this blog and are so sad when I don't post. Haha, yeah right.) Fortunately, it appeared again as a draft on Wednesday! I know I'm the only one who cares, but that's okay. I'm happy!*

Some Things I Refuse to Do

• I refuse to wear a bikini in public.
• I refuse to covet these shoes, or at least a pair similar to them. This one is really, really hard because I really, really want them. NO! Must resist. I need them like I need a hole in the head. But I really, really want them. AAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
• I refuse to give up sugar entirely. Eating less of it. Fine. Totally stopping eating it. ABSOLUTELY.NO.WAY!
• I refuse to complain about the current weather we are experiencing. This is something I've been thinking about for weeks. Then, a couple of weeks ago, she (really love her by the way) said the same thing on facebook and I was so glad that I wasn't the only one who felt this way. I just can't complain about a little soggy weather when there's such sadness and tragedy caused by natural disasters all around the world. Think of the terrible floods in the Midwest. I can't imagine watching my livelihood being washed away. Think of the people in Japan who are still being affected daily by the earthquake and tsunami and the damage they caused. And will be for years to come. Think of the people in Haiti, for heaven's sakes. They're still trying to recover from they earthquake they experienced. I can live with the rain. I can deal with cooler temperatures because, for the moment, it's keeping my grass green. All too soon, it's going to be hot and dry and then the constant, uphill battle of keeping it green will begin. I know I mentioned last year around this time that winter does seem to throw me into a bit of a funk. I tend to stay inside when it's cold out. Doing that isn't good for me. If I stay in for too long, I tend to get weird. And when I get weird, I want to stay inside for longer. It's not good because I get even more weird. I think it's why I tend to take long breaks from blogging. The weirdness prevents me from forming coherent thoughts. But I'm fighting it now. It's why I'm blogging more frequently. I'm fighting the weird. I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to let the silly weather get me down. Each day is a gift whether warm & sunny, or wet,dark and cold.
• I refuse to complain about my husband's job because he has one. He has one. Sure, he can work long hours. Sure, the traveling he did in the past was rough. Sure, he was on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 11 years and that affected our lives constantly. I was very rarely able to count on plans I made. I had to keep all plans "soft", or realize that I may have to interrupt them and leave, or cancel them altogether because he had to go on a service call. But at least he had one then and still has one. And has been with the same company for 17 years. That's practically unheard of today. I can't remember what the average number of jobs an American will have in their lifetime is, but I know it's a lot. As long as this company is still afloat, Ryan will have a job and that's a blessing. There are still millions of people in this country who are without one and would trade him places in a heartbeat.
• I refuse to let a day go by without telling someone I love them.
• I refuse to let the fact that my children complain about chores, stop me from having them do them. They need to learn the value of work and they also need to learn that sometimes, work can be hard. They may not think it right now, but they're going to thank me. Someday.
• I refuse to let my bedroom continue to be ugly. I found a new (to me) desk and nightstand at Deseret Industries. I've painted them white because I really want to lighten up the look of my room. Plus, it kind of reminds me of the French Country style that I am finding myself drawn to more and more. I used to think that I was more of a Mid-Century modern, or contemporary type of girl. I've found that I'm really more of a comfortable, lived in type of one. I'm still using my old desk because I'm going to need help getting it out. Plus, I still need to figure out what to do with the stuff that's in the drawers. Probably toss it because I very rarely look at any of it. I think that means it must go.
• I refuse to let my faults, shortcomings, weaknesses, and things I can't do, or may not do very well get me down. Because there are plenty of things that I can do. I refuse to compare myself to others. I refuse to think that what I have and am isn't enough. I am a person of worth. (Am I the only one who has to give themselves pep talks like this?☺) This quote says it all for me on this subject:

"Every day we see allurements of one kind or another that tell us what we have is not enough. Someone or something is forever telling us we need to be more handsome or more wealthy, more applauded or more admired than we see ourselves as being. We are told that we haven't collected enough possessions or gone to enough fun places. We are bombarded with the message that on the world's scale of things we have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. Some days it is as if we have been locked in a cubicle of a great and spacious building where the only thing on the TV is a never-ending soap opera entitled Vain Imaginations. But God does not work this way." Jeffrey R. Holland.

Yep! Another quote from him. I told you I love him so, expect to see many more from him.