It's Chore Time

For my good friends, you all know one of my big stresses are that my kids don't do chores. I admit it is so MY fault, and a little of my mom's too. Don't get me wrong, I did have chores when I was young, I remember doing dishes... oh and cleaning my room on Saturdays. My house when I was young was PERFECT! My mom is crazier than I am and thinks cleaning is therapeutic! (I warned you she was crazy!) So our house always looked beautiful. I few things I forget when I compare it to mine now....

1. My dad is a little compulsive, ok a lot, and for the most part picks up after himself and keeps his area very clean, including his laundry in the hamper and soda cans in the trash.

2. There were only two of us, me and my older sister, and we were smart! We learned quickly that if we picked up after ourselves we didn't worry about it later.

3. My dad worked a lot, my mom worked, and my sister and I were the only ones home and it just didn't get that messy.

Now, my mom may remember things differently, and she's probably right, but I have and always had way too high of expectations for my house. It's caused problems! We have tried tons of chore charts and different ways to do it but what happens is either they do it and I re-do it to my moms high standards. Or we would get caught up with other things and I wouldn't stay on them and I would end up doing it myself.

NOT THIS TIME! For the last 5 weeks straight it has been good, not great, but good. They each have the same chore for one week. Kitchen, Dishes, Bathroom and laundry, and living room. Then Monday night at Family Home Evening we discuss how they did and they rotate. They can't leave their job messy or they have it another week, plus their next station. (so far that hasn't happened)

Last night Trever was doing dishes, he is still so little. I had to teach him and still have to help a little but it was great to see and he was so proud of himself for doing it. Wow things MAY change, I may not have lazy kids after all!

Just my luck

My van is again broken, has been since about a week after I got it back from the catalytic converter fixed, we thought it was O2 sensors but after fixing those, it's still broken! I HATE HONDA! (I may have mentioned that once or twice before) So we take my mother in law's new Suburban to Mammoth for the kids opening day for football and cheer and it gets backed in to, HARD!!!! When are these trials going to stop? It's just too much to take!

First day of School 2009

First day of school.

Alex in 8th grade, king of the school. 14 years old, taller than me, all big and muscular. He is too big.

Jimi, miss 7th grade hot stuff. At least in her mind (ok, mine too).

Sami, going in the middle school the big 5th grade, baby of the BIG kid school. She looks too old!

sorry about the pictures of Sami, the kids broke my camera and I had to take them with my phone. They didn't turn out very well.

And little Trever, the baby. The same old kid that will give the teacher a run for her money. Good thing he has the same one as last year, I think it's because the others didn't want him.

All Trever wanted this year was a Hurley backpack, so he did get one. I am hoping it will last for a few years, I hate buying new backpacks every year they are expensive. I am a little emotional about them going back, maybe because I am depressed with all the crap that is going on in our life or the fact that as I was driving Jimi to school the first day, I saw Sami walking down the road to the bus stop and didn't recognize her. She looks too old, tall and grown up with her straightened hair. Going to the middle school. I cried and have a lot since then. I sound like the old women that used to tell us how fast they grow up so fast and to enjoy every moment. But they do and I feel like I missed it. Only 5 years until Alex goes on his mission, only 2 until he drives a car. Only 2 until Trever is in Middle school. It has gone so fast and I wanna cry just thinking of my babies. I have wanted to pick them up every day but I know I can't. I miss them!

Sleepovers

I don't really like sleepovers a whole lot. Maybe it's that I have 4 kids already, or that my house is a cracker box, but occasionally I'm nice and let them go ahead with a sleep over. The other night was a Family Home Evening when Tylee slept over and we had Trever and her put it on. We did a coloring contest, and I think I won. Jim and I "won" a foot massage... but I think they forgot. They are so cute together, I wonder what they will be like when they are older, married with their own kids. I hope they stay close, they are best friends.

Another night Jimi had one of her friends, Sami V. stay over. I love this kid. She is ornery and can take being teased by me. I coached her a few times in cheer, and she has attitude, but mostly in a cute way. They had a lot of fun, although I think they bugged Ryan (Jimi's boyfriend) and Josh (they love of Sami V.'s life) all night long!

A different night Tylee stayed over. I say stayed over instead of "slept over" for a good reason. They decided to stay up ALL NIGHT LONG! The problem is they did! They went outside to play at 6am, until we told them it was too early to play and they came back in. Then they started trying to wake us up at 7am because they heard Jim's alarm going off for work. By the time he got up 15 minutes later, they were all asleep on the living room floor. I let them sleep until at least noon.

Jimi had her friend Breanna stay over and they were being cute and taking cute pictures. Some turned out really good, others not so much.

I'm not sure if Tori stayed the night, or if she was over playing, but Sami and her have a website and were playing with the camera, here are their pictures... No wonder my battery is always dead.

Magic Mountain

We have season passes to Magic Mountain and because of our transportation issues we haven't been able to go as much as we would like, but we got the chance a few weeks ago (although the van broke down on the way home, more about that later on).
We didn't get to leave until about 1pm because Jim had to work so it was a spur of the moment thing. We didn't get in a lot of rides but we did get in quiet a few. No luck on the X2, my favorite, but we did get a chance to watch one of the shows. It was a few BMX riders and an in line skate girl that all dropped in on the half pipe. A few dirt bike riders who jumped HUGE jumps and rode in the gold ball, it was cool and Trever and Alex liked it a lot!

Can't wait until we can go again!

When I grow up

( Obviously that's NOT me!)

With all the car issues my family has I tried to tell Jim I needed to go to school to be a mechanic. He thinks I'm crazy. Yesterday Jim brought home a new thermostat for out Suburban, while he is closing jobs and doing some work I go outside and change it... yes all by myself. He was impressed, so was I. Until we realized that wasn't the problem... no that would be too easy and too cheap to fix. It's the water pump. So we call Alex outside with me (it will be his burb in a few years) Jim goes back to work and I tear into it! Don't panic I had a book! (Alex laughed when I said that) I tore the darn thing apart, it's not an easy fix, or easy to get to... but by 8 pm I had it ready for a new pump... I think...

this is the thermostat, don't ask me how it works, it just DOES
It goes here

This is the water pump, the thingy with the bolts sticking out... it's harder to get to than you think, refer to the pic above, all that junk had to come out first.

this is the silly water pump that is OUT! It has weep holes to let you know that it's out, all your coolant drains out the weep hole, all over the place and lets your engine overheat... good times

My house and laundry suffered, not to mention my back and poor hands, yes I broke TWO nails! But I figure I saved a lot of money, well if I didn't break the fan thingy taking it off, we have to ask cause I'm not sure.

Anyone need a good mechanic... just buy me a book and I'll be right over. I will warn you that it is defiantly rated PG-13, maybe higher. And you have to be in good physical condition so that your able to jump or duck under the tools I throw!

being negative

Sunday wasn't the best day of my life but I don't want to dwell and complain so here it is and I will TRY to never think of it again! We all wake up late for church, Bo asks me to teach his primary class, and because I was asleep I accept the challenge. We try deciding which vehicle to take to church lets see...

The van... oxygen sensors are out and won't go over 40mph and just doesn't go uphill. I'm not sure if we are doing more damage by driving it so I stopped last week.

The suburban... the thermostat went out and acts like it is overheating, I'm not all that sure if a broken thermostat is that big of a deal.

The truck a.k.a. "The Beast" ... well it's UGLY, and the tags are expired because it is insane the price they want me to pay for a truck we NEVER drive.

OK, DONE COMPLAINING! for now

We decide on the suburban. We get about 5 miles down the road when the thermostat pegs hot. Jim freaks out (like I didn't tell him it was going to do that) pulls over, pops the hood, and sure enough, it's steaming! So we gimp it back home and take "The Beast" to church.

Church was fine, I didn't even end up having to teach. We head home and Jim mentions something about needing gas. I assume that if we needed it that bad he would have gotten it. NOPE! We run out. Luckily Casey was already home and saved the day by sending us some gas to get home!

I ordered O2 sensors online last week. Jim is buying a thermostat for the burb today. Maybe by this weekend we will have at least one legal reliable vehicle. (Since we have to go to Mammoth anyways) The whole time the kids are reminding us that we HAVE to take them school shopping in Bakersfield... BRATS! I just ask if I can have a piggy back ride down the canyon since I don't want to walk that far!

And the season begins

The start of the football and cheer leading season has began. Practice every night of the week, and in a short three weeks the games on Saturday's will start. Time goes too fast and my kids are growing up before my eyes, so this year we are trying to go into the season with a much better attitude. Enjoy watching and not hosting the referee clinic. Stay out of the politics and drama and watch the kids have fun. They all love doing it, and Sami is even cheering this year.

On the down side, I got my van out of the shop one week ago today and last night the engine light came on and it died as we were pulling onto our street. Come to find out it had NO oil, we put in 4 quarts and it is running great. We checked it at Honda the day I got it back, but then they took it back because it was making a funky engine noise and all I can think is that they were getting ready to do an oil change and stopped in the middle. I can't imagine it burned that much oil. Ok I can imagine it on the van from HELL! I'm going to have a good attitude about it because there is nothing I can do and I should be used to it by now.