President Bush Tribute

This morning on TV I caught a glimpse of a video the Bush daughters made for the Obama girls about being the daughter of a president...and it was so beautiful! They warned the girls that people we going to say hurtful and untrue things about their father and advise to get through it all! Its was sooo sweet. If you get a chance to google it or see it, DO!

I also would like to say public opinion is only surface opinion. He was a great president who did good things in the midst of bad situations. We should be thankful to him for making the hard decisions & keeping us safe.

I have read articles of the quiet, compassionate things he has done for others behind closed doors, which inspired he staff and commended intence loyalty.

In one article I found a new favorite quote and this was campared to

President George W. Bush.

"God dosen't call me to be successful. God calls me to be faithful."

-Mother Theresa

OKAY...so it wasnt so bad!

Flood Update!

Its Thursday...our carpet is back...we're spring cleaning (not by choice)....
but this could have been WAY WORSE!!!

It is not unlike me to be way overwhelmed at times! but isn't that typical when you fear the worst and gripe & complain and everything turns out fine!
Our carpet has been put back. The maintenance guys made 3 giant holes (looking for the leak) they patched them but left them unpainted and a lot of dust. We are vacuuming & cleaning like crazy, which is a good thing!

Time to Vent...

Okay I am SOOO tired so this is going to sound very whiny but this past Saturday I notice a water sound coming from the wall! I know that sounds weird but we live in a duplex so it could be coming from the other unit. Anyway I thought the neighbors forgot to turn off their faucet since our bathrooms are placed in the exact spot on opposite sides of the wall...okay we thought oh they'll notice it and turn it off when they come home sometime...

Sunday evening I was playing with the kids and walked in the hall and guess what...water! in the carpet... we looked further... we were flooded. The water was obviously on our side! Long story short a pipe burst under the concrete slab and it has been running and running and running... Well luckily we are renting and called the emergency phone number and all that so they could come over and address the problem yada yada. but after hours we had to ask them to put us up in a hotel... and they said "well we'll have to see about that... okay, sure you can stay at the Motel 6!" I put up a small fight but said I will pay the difference to stay somewhere else if we have to. So last night we stayed at the Stillwater Plaza (not as fancy as it sounds) with the kids, which to them was a blast! They loved it!

Today Monday, they figured out where the leak is (after 3 holes) our closet carpet is gone, which means our closet contents are in our room and everywhere. else. The master bedroom & bathroom are unusable and gross because the water coming up was dirty... Luckily the kids bedrooms are fine & they can sleep in their beds. Chad & I are sleeping in the living room on an air mattress and we're not sure when it is all going to be put back together. We should have been put up in a hotel until this whole mess was taken care of but for fear that we will not be reimbursed we are currently putting up with it.

I guess I am just really irritated because these things do happen to good people. Our neighbors (not to say they are not good people) work for the property management company! why couldnt this have happened to them? (btw the property management co is by far the worst in town & we got stuck with them because our previous landlords sold during our lease) This is the first time Chad & I have experienced renting and all its happy moments. Our experience with Stillwater Property Management has been horrible!

Today was my first day of my last semester and I am fatigued looking over the past 4 years. I pray that we will not be out any money when our water bill comes in. I hope that I can be a stern person and make sure that we are reimbursed for our trouble. When thinking of the kind of people I am dealing with this is questionable. I know that there are much bigger problems than this but the past few weeks have been very hard for me. I am wondering, though with me desperately trying to finish this semester of school it will just be hard. I am sure that many of you have experienced the same when you or your husbands were coming up on the long awaited graduation that things just seem to go wrong... & then right. I am thankful for the light at the end of the tunnel & I can learn a lot from this experience.

For instance: (another of my lists)

• Don't let people push you around!
  
• Some people WILL let you down... they will take your honesty for granted.
  
• Continue to be honest even though
  
• Stand up for your family in any way you can!

and last but not least...

• If you live in Stillwater, OK invest in a water softener system

Chad thinks I am a little dramatic. Now we know where Elayna gets it!

To Shine for Him each Day!!!

Last Sunday was Elayna's first day (finally!) of Primary! She has been begging to go to Primary since the last sacrament program where she actually cried because I would not take her up on stage.

After church the common phrase was..."I'm in Primary! I'm so excited!"

It went on all day & at dinnertime Chad was trying to get her to eat her veggies and she said (with attitude) "Dad, you dont have to tell me that...I'm in primary now!"

Then later that evening she was bossing Corbyn saying (more attitude of course) "I'm in primary now and you have to listen to me!" Of course Corbyn looked at her with his usually

"so what" look with always makes us giggle.

She is a changed girl! It's great to see your children grow & I'm so excited to see her progress in primary and in life.

Back to Normal...

Finals are officially OVER! I got my grades Tuesday and finally felt the sigh of relief I had been missing since August!

This was the best semester for my GPA! I just have to announce 4 As & 2 Bs! It feels really good to get through a semester without that one slacker class in which I obtain the dreaded C!!!

After finals I felt like the little character Dr. Seuss told
"Your mountain is waiting so get on your way!"

My LAUNDRY mountain was waiting for me on the couch! My tests were two weeks ago and TODAY I put the last item of clothing away!!! It is so hard to recover from a week of NO cleaning!!

Disclaimer: If you have only seen my messy house in December and/or May just note that its not necessarily the way it looks all year round!

The semester is over...
Christmas is less than a week away...
I think the kids, my husband & myself are okay...
One more to go...

Pictures...overwhelmingly more pictures

I think I have a problem!!!

I take pictures of the kids all the time and I'm obsessed with getting professional pictures every so often but I don't have time to do anything...and I mean nothing...with them!!! I have a million-and-one pictures on our computer that have never been printed. I started an online album on Shutterfly but O MY! it takes countless, I feel, wasted hours to complete and not worth the money... I used to scrapbook my photos...but again...takes too much time.

I need ideas!
What do you "normal" chickas do with your kiddos photos?!?

I am glad I have them, of course, but oh, my A.D.D. comes out when I think about organizing them... While your thinking check out their latest smiles! so sweet!

Trick or Treat!!!

Happy Halloween!!! What a fun time for the kiddos! We had a blast. This picture was taken at the end of the night and the kids were exhausted! Can you tell?!? Corbyn was Tigger and Elyna was Princess Aroura (Sleeping Beauty) Which was not her first choice. I just could not bring myself to letting her be Jasmine with the mid-drift stuff going on or Little Mermaid with the bikini top...boy are we going to have troubles with our growing young girls! yikes!

Anyway our family had a great Halloween and made many memories.

Our kids trick-o-treating in style! We walked around our neighborhood with Tiffany Queen and her kids Madison and Garrett. At one of the first houses we went to, the girls went up to a opened door. They were so excited running quickly to ring the door bell to their suprise a small yippy dog jumped out at them barking wildly and scared them to death. Elayna is not afraid of dogs normally and It was the tiniest little thing! It was a 'had-to-be-there-moment' but seeing their faces in horror was actually very funny. They quickly calmed down but almost every house in our neighborhood has small house dogs and it was funny to see the girls jump a little every time they heard a dog bark and nobody wanted to ring the door bell if they could see a dog or hear a dog. It was fun to watch. But here they are (Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Batman and Tigger!) getting some candy from a neighbors house. Corbyn was adorable walking up to the door. He knew exactly what his goal was when he got up to the door. candy! Everyone who saw him gave him 2 pieces- one for each little paw! who could resist?! and after they handed it to him he said "Tank- ooo!" It was absolutely TOO sweet!!!