My hat, Pinewood Derby, Opening Day and Scrapbook Pages!!

Hi there everyone!! Such a busy week and I am finally posting pics! First off, here is a pic of my cute hat I borrowed from my sister, Jenny, to hide my stitches! Thanks, Jen!

Next is pictures of Connor's Pinewood Derby. It didn't go quite as we had hoped, but there is one more year to get it right! I love the pit passes they made for the boys. Really cute!

Connor with his good friends Nathaniel Brown and Scott Murset. (I had to work really hard to get Scott to look at the camera!! lol)My mother, Carolyn Standage, came to see Connor.The final pic!These are pics Bryan took of Opening Day Ceremonies for Red Mountain Little League. Jenna is on a team with several friends and her cousins Tyler and Ashton. Their team is the Ironbirds and the logo is really cool!

If you look behind Jenna, Ashton is the one poking his head around! Cute kid!

In the back of this picture you can see my brother, Todd Standage (who is also asst coaching) and the head coach, Rich Murset on the right holding his son, Mason.

Connor is on the Owlz, also a cool logo.

He is excited for the season to begin!

Lastly, some of my scrapbook pages I have been working on. The first 4 are from our trip to CA last year with JoAnn and Daniel and my parents. We had a blast! 2 of these pages are NOT from my scrapbook group and I made them out of my own ideas! Yeah for me!

This page is to celebrate Jonathan and his making the Regional Orchestra this year. We were so proud of him making this because very few freshman make it and he beat out a lot of older kids to earn a spot. The music that afternoon was so amazing!

The last 2 pages were all about our camping trip last month. I took a lot of pictures but I neglected to take a group shot!! Don't know what I was thinking there!! These 2 pages, as well as the one of Jon are also my own creation! I get excited when I feel creative!!
Well, back to reality! Naptime is almost over!! Have a great afternoon!

Can I have my old neighbors back?

I like this house, I really do. I like the neighborhood. I like being close to the kids Grandpa and cousins. I like the ward and I am beginning to like the school. I hate being on such a busy road and I am seriously tired of most of my neighbors. It all started with the neighbors directly behind us yelling at my kids in a really loud and hateful voice to "shut up!" or other such nice words. He would yell this a couple times a month and scare me and the kids. This would happen during the daytime at like 2pm or when the kids are just playing. However, my kids are loud and the ones I babysit tend to be screachers when they are playing. I understand his frustration and finally I had a conversation with his wife and just told them to call if they are being overly noisy and I will bring them in. He was apologetic for the way he handled it.

Before all of that, though, he (I believe) called the city and tried to get me in trouble for running an in home daycare. The city representative came out and tried to see if I was breaking the rules and such and I found out the rep didn't even know the rules himself! Stupid! So, I informed him politely that I know what the rules are and I am not in violation of any of them. So that is over and I think things are getting better. Uh huh. Not quite.

During spring break, my kids are having a koolaid sale to raise money for the book fair and they have included the kids I babysit. While we are out there, the police come by. Now, I am thinking I doubt they are stopping just to support a koolaid stand. I wish! No, one of the neighbors complained that I am not supervising my kids, that they are out alone on this busy street. My next door neighbor was outside with me at the time and we both were shocked! I was like, are you serious? I am ALWAYS oustide when my kids are, it's just too busy of a street. What the heck?!? The officer was very nice and said he could see the instant he pulled up that there was no problem and I am just thinking I dislike my neighbors! It could not have been the ones that yell at us cause there is no way they could have seen us unless they drove past and wanted to stir up more trouble. So I am thinking it's another jerky neighbor.

Then this morning, I am walking home from the bus stop when my next door neighbor, with whom we have a pretty good relationship, starts in on me about how we are not doing our fair share in the yard maintenance. He was a bit rude about it, but he had a very valid point. We hadn't been doing our fair share. In case you have never been over here, our front lawn is not divided and so we end up sharing this big expanse of lawn with them. Our sprinkler systems are even interconnected. It is weird! Keep in mind that we also have landscaping service included in our rent, but they only come every other week and apparently that is not enough for him. He told me on Monday that he wanted to have the lawn mowed and I told him we couldn't get to it until Saturday. I meant it. We have no time with 4 kids in bball, we are both gone in separate directions EVERY night. We both work and Jon is never around either. So, Saturday wasn't good enough so he did it himself. I thought it was nice but now he was a bit steamed. I understand, I really do, but I am in over my head and am just trying to hang on every day. I don't have time and my husband doesn't have time to maintain the yard to his standards. He is very particular about it's upkeep. A little bit anal. But, they are very nice people and their son has become a good friend to Connor. And he really does have a valid point, he got the lawn fertilized and even fixed our side of the sprinklers.

So I tell him I understand and will try to stay on top of it, but I don't know how I will do it. So, I tell Bryan about this and he, of course, gets a bit upset too and is frustrated by our lack of time. We did it to ourselves with allowing the kids to all play, but I felt like our kids have sacrificed so much that this was something they all really wanted to do that I would try to make it work. So, I came up with this compromise: our neighbor (who doesn't work right now, btw) would continue to maintain the lawn until baseball is finished (middle of May) and we would maintain it from that point through the summer. He thought that was a good compromise and even apologized for coming off a bit to strong. So all is good there now, but man, how am I gonna ever keep the lawn up to his standards even then?!?

At this point, we are considering moving when our lease is up at the end of July. We will see what happens between now and then! Anyway, just venting a little bit and missing my old neighborhood really bad!!

Loser Tag!

A while ago, my sister JoAnn's husband, Daniel, hit his head and got stitches in the shape of an L on his forehead. My sweet sis thought it was so funny and called it his Loser tag! Although, she meant it lovingly...she is really not mean! Anyway, I bring this up because I finlly took off my bandages last night and I have a big L on my forehead! My own Loser tag! I had to call my sister and laugh about it! I have 8 stiches on a horizontal row and the spot they biopsied is a vertical line completing the L. Now I won't be laughing if it scars into a permanent Loser tag! Lucky for Daniel, you can't see his anymore! So wish me luck on losing my Loser tag!!

Big bandages and cute hats!

Well, it is done. My forehead is clear of cancer, we think! There is a small thing they sent off to be biopsied off a new growth, but they don't think it is cancer. It took less than 4 hours so it went good. I have 8 stitches in my head and it actually hurts! A really thick bandage on my forehead which I am doing my best to cover with a super cute hat I borrowed from my sister Jenny. I won't have the stitches removed until next Friday, so I will be wearing that hat a lot! Anyway, I know a lot of people were worried/wondering how it went, so there is the update! All is as well as it's gonna be!

Scrapbook pages

Hi all! I just wanted to share some of the scrapbook pages I made this weekend. The pics don't do them justice as the colors look so great in person. I especially love the pages made on Emporium paper from CTMH. We put them together in scrapbook club this month and I love them. The blues, yellows, browns and greens go so well together and I think it is such fun paper! I am not a huge fan of the pic I put on the big flower page, but I think I am just overly critical of pics of myself. I would rather not be in pictures but then I feel bad if I am never in any! Oh well! I will be making pages all week, just to stay sane and I will post them when I can.

Pages made using Emporium Level 2 kit

Pages made using Serendipity paper pack.

If anyone ever wants to scrapbook together, let me know! I love to have company! Have a great day!!

I am so sick of ...

I have been thinking I need to update my blog and can't think of what to say. So, I don't know! There seems to be constant comings and goings over in this house. We are being pulled in so many directions all the time that sometimes I can't tell up from down. We very nearly went back to working for my dad again, which would probably have been good for the bank account but so bad for almost everything else! So much family drama and nonsense! We decided to have Bryan stay where he is and remain stuck in the never gonna have enough money to survive job, but at least we are semi-sane. I know that it is the right decision, I can't do the being stuck between my husband and father thing again. The stress from never knowing how much money will be coming in everyday takes such a huge toll on me and I don't want to be there again. So we will keep plugging away at the boring, dead-end job that at least offers some stability. I am so sick of this stinking economy and no one being able to get a decent job. I am so sick of my husband being under-employed. I am so sick of being told that I should be grateful that we at least have a job. I know that and I am grateful (so what if I don't sound like it at the moment!). I am sick of wondering if things are ever going to turn around for our family. I am sick of trying to be strong. I am sick of my dreams being on hold, again. I am sick of wondering if I will ever own a home again. I am just sick of all the doom and gloom and sick of the fear that is everywhere. I am just tired of it all! I hope things turn around soon, and not just for us, for our friends, for our immediate and extended family, for our country's economy, for our global economy. It is all connected. I am sick of being strong, but I am still trying. I am not going to stop having faith and trying to be positive. I may break now and then, but I will not stop having hope. One of these days things are bound to start turning around. So, if you are sick of it too, stay strong and if you are breaking, call me and you can break down on my shoulder anytime!

This post is almost too personal, I am going to post it anyway but know that even though it may sound as though I am depressed, I am not. I do not put any blame on anyone for my situation in life and while it may be hard right now, I would choose this life and my family all over again in a heartbeat!

"My teacher loves me!"

First off, I have been in a little bit of a church slump. Yes, it's true. I think I am a touch angry sometimes and feel like things are always going to be a major struggle and sometimes I think I blame the Lord a little bit. I realize that's counterproductive but whatever, it's the truth. While I have been trying to overcome that bit, my attitude about going to church has suffered. I have too much guilt to not go, again the truth, so I always go and give my full efforts into my calling. Every time I go, it has been a touch grudgingly lately and then by the time I am walking home I am so glad I went. I really enjoy being in Primary. The kids are so fun and I really do like it. It is worth it to me to put in all the time and effort because I can see the kids really like being there, too. So, my attitude has been slowly changing back! About time, I suppose! Anyway, Sunday was no exception. I had a pretty bad headache and was stuffed up. I just didn't feel 100% and wanted to stay home. But, I feel its kinda mean to ask a sub to fill in at the last minute. Singing time is hard and requires time to plan effectively. So I went anyway and figured I would suffer through it. Bryan and Jon both stayed home because they weren't feeling good either (yes, they were actually sick!). I almost left Alex home so I didn't have to deal with him in Sacrament meeting. But I know how much time and effort Alex's teacher puts into her class (he is the only regular kid that comes) and I didn't want him to miss it. Well, she bore her testimony on Sunday and was saying how much she loves her class, especially little Alex. He was playing quietly with cars on the bench and looked up at me with this big open mouthed smile and says"My teacher loves me!". That was such a cool moment! He knew that she loved him and it meant a lot to him. This ward has the best Primary and teachers of any ward I have been in (no offense to the Ellsworthers cause I loved that Primary too!). They put in extra effort into lessons and extras. Maybe more than is necessary, but all of my children feel their love and that means a lot to me. So, I am so glad I went and that I took Alex. I had a lot of fun during singing time, even with a headache. I think my attitude has been adjusted in the right direction! I am really grateful for loving teachers!

In the embarrassing side, cause there usually is one in my family...Alex is now potty trained and is sometimes still trying to get it right, had to go to the bathroom in the middle of sacrament meeting. He had to go #2 (sorry!) and it took him 3 tries during sac meeting. Finally the third time was right during the closing song. Connor took him and he runs back in during the prayer (Connor waited in the foyer and Alex ran away from him) and announced in a really loud voice that he want poo poo! I am like"hush!" we are in a prayer!!! He didn't get it and kept announcing it! Love that kid, but sometimes you just need a mute button! Anyway, congratulations to going poo poo for the first time that wasn't at home! LOL

Have a great day!