Summer (not so) lovin'!

When finally sitting down to my computer for some blog time, I couldn't wait to get the pictures downloaded from my camera to show you the landscaping adventures- and a whole lot more.  We're getting our sprinkling system installed on Wednesday and will be getting more stuff done to the front.  I am simply excited for it all to be coming together.  However, when I went to put the cord in to connect the camera to the computer, I found the SD card missing.  Our kids (I truly don't know which child this particular crime) took that card that has so many pictures... and lost it.  It's been a hard summer.  Bleach cleaner spilled on a spot of carpet in a room.  FREE HD TV broken at a simple touch... of discarded PVC bashed into it.  The SD card stolen and lost.  A car door scratched horribly (more on this in another post.  Still too ticked to talk much about it).  It's been a hard summer!!!  For now, I'll leave on a good note.  In less than 12 hours, my sister and her family will be traveling up to spend 12 days with us.  Now that makes this crappy summer a whole lot better!

Investments

If any of you know Randy, you know that he's always looking for an investment.  Always!  Well, we found one.  Or two, however you want to look at it.  We found a condo in Utah that we were hoping to rent to the ultimate renter.  My sister and her little girl!  During the house hunt, we came across a complex that had a few for sale.  One of which was a HUD.  So, we bought one for her to live in now while we fix up the HUD for her to ultimately live in.  This is the one she lives in now, and the blueprint for what we want the HUD to look like.  Only with nicer everything:)

 Bathroom.

 The carpeted room that you see is the Front Room.  The wood floor you see is what it called the Breezeway.  It's the addition that was added onto the back of each of the buildings.  Ours still has the brick wall that was once the back, so we're, at this very moment, having it replaced with real walls:)  Love demolition!  And reconstruction!!

 View from the back of the Breezeway.

 Front Room with peek at Kitchen.  And door to the bathroom.

 Kitchen.  

The cabinets are still the original cabinets from 1964- when these were built.  We've gutted the entire place in the HUD, so we'll have better cupboards and countertops.  Can you say Cherry Wood, anyone?!  We also wanted a dishwasher.  Who lives without one of those anymore?  Not me, that's for sure!

 We moved the fridge to the other wall so that we could have a water line to the fridge.  I can't live without ice and water at my fingertips.  We didn't want Danielle and Payton to suffer!

 Master bedroom.

Second bedroom.

We have a little over a month to get it all put together for her to move in.  Then we'll get renters for this one and Randy will have his investments.  He'll probably then get the itch again to start looking for his next project.  He never quits!  And never will!!  Such is life at the Dirks' house!

Haircut

Isn't this the cutest face?!  I'm guessing he likes it?  No?!  How can you tell? :)

Living The Dream...

Laundry Day Today!  Awesome!!!

Hillbilly Bone

If only this beauty was for sale!  It should be noted that the owner is standing on the other side filling up with gas.  Do you see his head?  Nope.  It's that tall!  Only in Wyoming:)

Pottery By You

For years Caden has been asking me to take him to Pottery By You.  I've always had an excuse.  Since we didn't have an activity planned for FHE a few weeks ago, I decided it would be a fun surprise.  And man am I kicking myself for not taking him the first year he asked.  It's AWESOME!

 Lefty painting his dog!

 Beauty painting her birdie!

 Cutie Pie painting her flower!

And Cute-Tongue painting his dolphin!

It's funny that we didn't get a picture of Caden since he's the one that wanted to go the most.  Randy said that while he was taking the pics, Caden went to get another paint brush and he simply forgot to get one of him when he sat down.  Not to worry, there will be many other opportunities for us to get a picture of him.  In fact, as I type, he's with Randy there right now:)

First Lesson

On Alvin and the Chimpmunks: Chipwrecked, Simon said something that was pretty profound for me.  "Sometimes if you just show a little trust, your kids will rise to the occasion and surprise you."  That was true for me on Monday night.  For our whole marriage, I've been in charge of the Lesson at Family Home Evening.  The Treat and Activity were traded between Caden and Keilie.  The Song, Scripture,  and Prayer were traded between Shelby, Brennon, and Tyson.  That's just the way it has always been.  I recently decided that Caden was old enough to do a Lesson, so I gave him the challenge Saturday afternoon to do one.  He skimmed through the book and came to one, said that was the one he was going to do, and shut the book after looking at it for 5 minutes.  I kept hounding him that I expected it to be a good lesson and that he should probably take a little more time reading the material.  He assured me that he was ready.  And boy was he ever!  His lesson was, "When illness strikes."  He asked us when we'd been sick and who helped us through.  He asked us if we'd ever been the one to help someone get better.  He then asked what everyone was doing to help me.  The questions were perfectly timed, well thought out questions.  He then brought in a bucket and asked me to lift it up.  (Whispering, he told me to pretend that it was too heavy)  He then asked each child in turn to come and help me lift it.  He then asked the whole family to come and help me.  He asked me if it was easier to handle my burden when we all pitched in.  He bore his Testimony and ended.  I sat there in awe of my sweet little boy.  His lesson was better than ANY that I'd prepared in our 7 years of doing FHE.  My son rose to the challenge and surprised me! He is such a spiritual warrior.  He is often the one to remind us of scripture study and family prayer.  He helps keep the kids quiet to keep the Spirit in our home during all of the above.  Some think I was too young to have babies.  Looking at kids that are 19, I realize that I probably was.  However, Caden was sent for me.  He is a better boy than I could have ever imagined.  He hasn't waited until he is 19 to serve a mission.  He's on one now!
On a side note, it did make me intensely sad to hear him say things like, "When mom sleeps in until noon," or "Mom has to sit on the couch all day," or "When I have to make lunch because mom doesn't feel well."  I'm sad that my kids have to know these trials.  I'm sad that Caden has to grow up so much because I'm sick.  I'm grateful that it isn't anything more serious, but for my little family, it's enough for my son to choose that topic as his first lesson.

New Closet

Yesterday was one of those kind of days that I totally love.  I've been wanting to do some organization, so I asked Caden to help me.  He LOVES to organize (giddy clap/jump) so it was such a good bonding experience.  The WHOLE day!  I got the kitchen, two linen closets, and my pantry organized.  There was two big garbage bags full of crap!  While fixing dinner and cleaning up the kitchen after I watched an episode of Hoarders.  Like I've said before, that show makes me want to clean!  After I had everything clean, feeling so great about my day, Caden asked if I would come look at his room.  He'd spent the time cleaning (another giddy clap/jump).  I realized that so much of his closet was still filled with stuff from our initial move/finishing basement so, I started to tackle that closet as well.  Halfway through, he turns to me and says, "I'm so glad I asked you to come look at my room after you'd watched an episode of Hoarders!"  Um... Punk.  As if I haven't spent the whole day going through the house like a woman on a mission!  Punk:)

ps. There was not a giddy clap/jump after that comment.  Just a slight giggle!

F Words

Tyson has a pretty good vocabulary and can speak pretty well.  You can understand most of what he says.  However, there are a few words that he says incorrect.  They all begin with F:)

Fwanket... Blanket
Faw... Straw
Fwing... String
Fwink... Drink
Fownies... Brownies
Fwim... Swim

There aren't many times when you can't understand him, (unless he's crying and doesn't enunciate his words) there are just some times when you have to know what he's talking about!

Summer Wear

I love the independence that comes along with age and growing up.  I love it when I can tell the kids to get their seat belts on.  It's nice not having to do up the straps for three kids anymore.  It's nice when I can tell them to get their sandals on and get in the car.  So, a couple weeks ago we got ready to make our debut at the pool- something that I hadn't attempted with the three younger kids before, and definitely not with all five.  I told them to get all their stuff and get in the car while I tried to find a few remaining things for the trip.  We got to the pool and ended up seeing some friends we hadn't seen in a few years.  One friend said how big our kids were getting and laughed at Brennon's footwear.  I hadn't even noticed!  Without his shirt, in his swim trunks, he'd decided to wear his Napoleon Dynamite Moon Boots!  Perfect for those freak snow storms in the dead of July!

Brennon has always been my snuggler.  Always!  He gives the best hugs and would rather be on your lap than anything in the world.  Well, maybe he'd like cereal more, but not by much.  He's been saying, "Mom, I love you the most!" for a few weeks now.  While doing the trees on Tuesday he was out riding his bike.  I walked by him and said I loved him.  He again told me that he loves me the most and went on riding his bike.  Before I made it to our tree-hole he called out to me and said, "Look, Mom, I forgot to give you one of these..." A Wink!

Babysitting

My friend Raquel took me to see Snow White and the Huntsman for a birthday present this afternoon.  She found a babysitter to watch her kids and I had Caden watch mine.  I put the babes down for a nap close to the time that we left, to insure a longer time that he didn't really have to do anything.  I told him that he could play the computer while they were asleep and that when they woke he was to take them down and watch a movie.  Keilie walked home from Summer Bridges an hour after the show started, so I knew he'd only have about an hour where all of them were awake and home.  What could go wrong, right?!  Wrong!  I came home straight after the movie to the smell of fire in the house.  Something had been burning.  Caden looked at me with a total guilty face and said he'd tried to bake the break-and-bake cookies I'd purchased as a reward for the kids staying home and being good while I took a little break.  He'd put them in the oven and forgot about them while playing the computer.  I raced to the garbage where he was showing me the BLACK cookies that he'd had to throw away.  I prayed in that instant, thanking Heavenly Father that my babes were all safe.  The house was a wreck after his neglect.  I called Raquel and told her the story, "Back to reality for me!"  I was then reminded of one such time (although there were many) when I myself was about his age and left to babysit one summer.  We were sick of watching TV and didn't know exactly what to do, so I decided to take a bike ride up to U&I Thriftway to visit our mom at work.  If you can imagine me leading my three younger sisters on a 2 mile bike ride that had us crossing two of the most busy streets in all of Roy!  As we neared U&I, I told everyone to only ride to the center strip because the traffic was slow on the side closest to us.  We took off to beat the lull.  Danielle, being like 5 or so, didn't understand what I meant by center strip, so she just kept right on going.  Into on-coming traffic.  I now realize that that might not have been the smartest thing to do on a boring summer day and I commend the woman that slowed down to yell at us to "Use the crosswalk!!!"  Sometimes kids just make stupid choices without thought for the end result.  That is why I asked Caden to take out the STINKY garbage and ended with that.  It will be a long time before I do something like that again.  Sometimes mom's just need a little break.  And other times, they just need to put a stiff upper lip and wait for their husband's to get home!  I did have such a good time laughing with a friend at a movie that had love, suspense, and Thor!

Landscaping

When talking to Russ about if he'd be willing to come up and help us with our landscaping, he said that if we'd be willing to pay for the gas to bring his whole family, he'd do our landscaping.  Um... Done!  They talked to Ashlee's daycare families and set up to come in just two weeks.  Two LONG weeks!  With that, we realized that we probably needed to start planning what we'd like to do.  On one of our trips to Menards and Home Depot for our recent investments we found out that Menards had a sale on all of their trees, 40% off.  We jumped.  With that, we bought 6 trees!  Tuesday we set to work at around 10 AM digging.  It soon became clear that it was going to take us FOR.EV.ER to dig in this wonderful Wyoming clay, so we headed back to Menards for the right tools for the job.  They made it a lot easier, however it took us until 7:00 to plant 5 of the trees.  Randy had to be in Scottsbluff, NE on Wednesday, so we planted the other one on Thursday.  You can see that it took us all day, most of which left the kids unattended in the house.  Let me tell you, if you ever thought that our house might stay cleaner because we have five kids to clean it, let me bring them over to your house for a day and we'll put those thoughts to rest:)  NIGHTMARE!  I'm so excited for our landscaping.  We will no longer be the only house on our section of the street that doesn't have grass!

Best Friends

Tyson has been slowly picking up the little sayings that all kids learn.  While in the Toy section of Target he asked me to buy him a new Lightning McQueen car.  "Mom, will you buy this for me?  Please, Please.  I'll be your Best Friend!"

Shelby and Brennon are still talking about their Birthdays.  They always ask, "Will you get this for me for my birthday?"  After eating all of his Alfredo on Sunday, Ty said, "Will you make this for me for my birthday?"

We bought the kids a soda to share the other day.  While passing it around, each of the kids got a little antsy if one of the others took what they thought was too long of a drink.  Keilie was saying, "Ty, that's enough.  It's my turn."  He looked back at her, gave her his "stare", and slowly said, "Just. A. Minute," and continued to stare her down.  He then took half a sip, smiled at her, and said, "OK, it's your turn."  You now know who wears the pants in this house!

FYI, if you do something that is not up to Ty's standards, or contrary to what he wants at that second, he'll look at you with said stare and say, "You're not my Best Friend."  And with that, the world ends!

Doughnuts

I'm one of those ridiculous moms that sings everything to their kids when no one else can hear.  Yesterday I was singing, "I love my doughnut babies."  Shelby said, "I'm not a baby."  Immediately after, Ty said, "I'm not a doughnut!"  We all had a good laugh at that:)

Training Update

I've been meaning to update you all on Bella's training, but have been busy with other things.  Like training Bella!  When we very first heard about Sit Means Sit, our painter was telling us how he was ready to shoot the dog he bought for his Grandkids that had just moved in with him.  His wife and son had seen a demonstration and won a discount on training, so he was kind of pressured into getting the dog training.  When he came back to finish the job, we asked how it went.  With astonished look he said that it was the best thing he'd ever done, that it was the best investment in his dog.  The dog came on command, went to it's place, relieved itself in one spot, and completely was a different dog.  Fast forward to us getting Bella.  I had NO clue how to train a dog.  I'd gone to classes with Sadie and didn't learn a thing to teach her.  She was out of control and ultimately went to a home that was better for her.  I didn't want to be frustrated with Bella, so I had Sit Means Sit come and give us a demonstration and sent her to her week of training.  I was skeptical that they'd be able to have her be 100% off leash control.  After seeing her lose all control with either another dog or a bunny, I was actually thinking that he'd lost his mind when he emphatically said "Oh that will be no problem!"  As the moment of our first walk without a leash came, I was getting more and more anxious that I was going to have to chase this dog all around town trying to get her to come.  But, my fears were useless.  She walked the entire walk by my side.  She saw a bunny, started to get all worked up, but as soon as she heard my command to stay, she stopped!  Even after the bunny took off!  I, like my painter, am 100% amazed and completely satisfied!  It was the best investment for our Bella.  She is truly one of the family now.  I still have a lot of work to do with her, but with as well as she's doing, it doesn't seem so daunting anymore!

Empty Threats

Shelby and Brennon have been playing with some walky-talkies all week.  They are in heaven with those things.  They find the funnest hiding places and just sit and talk to each other on them.  It's been fun to watch.  And listen!  Brennon got distracted one day with a movie that Keilie was watching.  He sat down and started to watch, which meant that Shelby was pretty much having a one-sided conversation.  (Typical of a man, huh!  Just kidding!  Kinda.)  She was telling him to "get off the chair and play with her."  He kept telling her that he wanted to watch the show.  She was getting pretty heated and said, "Brennon, if you don't talk to me, I'm going to turn this off!"  What do you think he did?  He turned his off first and gloated about it:)  And then she joined him for the show.

So Big!

There are many things I love about Randy, but one thing I love is that he always wants us to go with him on his errands.  We usually end up sitting in the car while he runs in, but we love just being with him just the same.  I captured this picture on one such outing.  Doesn't he look so big?  My baby isn't a baby anymore.  I calculated at that moment that he'll be THREE in now (since this was a couple days ago and I now have a running countdown) 131 days.  Barely enough time to come up with a birthday party:)

Nuggle

I saw an idea that I've implemented in our home that has made bedtime a little bit funner in our home.  Our kids go to bed great (always have) so this was simply to make it funner for them, not easier for me.  If they're the first one in bed, they get a secret.  It's now turned into them all running to bed, racing to be the first, so they all get a secret.  They LOVE it.  And so do I:)  So, as I was racing to get the boys into bed for naps, thinking the whole time of all the stuff I wanted to get done, I quickly gave them their secret and hurried from the room.  As I was shutting the door, Ty burst into tears saying he wanted to give me a secret.  I hurried to his side, hoping he'd hurry so I could get my stuff completed within their nap hour.  I bent my head to his lips and waited.  "Mommy, I love you.  I want to nuggle."  As he was saying this, he reached his arms up around my neck, pulled me down to his lips and kissed my cheek.  All chores were forgotten as I climbed under his covers and napped with my son.  It's times like this one that I'm grateful to be a stay at home mom that can do the dishes when they are in bed for the night.  Or not at all!

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and make up a bed.
Sew on a button and butter the bread.
Oh where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Awaited Dr. Appointment

I finally made it down to Denver to meet with the Specialist about my condition.  I went with Hope that she'd have some answers and Faith that no matter the outcome, Heavenly Father would always watch out for me.  I got some answers.  I know I was directed to her.  I am so happy!  She said first we needed to test for exposure.  All of these symptoms started around the time that we moved into this house.  I was passing off Randy's remarks that this might be the case because 6 other people live in the house, one that actually sleeps in the same bed, and no one else was having these symptoms.  However, she said different things affect different people.  Just like anything else, something may be affecting me and causing me to have all of these symptoms.  So, we were told to test for Carbon Monoxide and Mold.  We already have a Radon Mitigation System, so we know that we are safe with that.  We got the results for the CM, they came out negative.  We have 24 more hours for the mold test, but so far we don't see any.  If there isn't any, we'll wait another 48 hours just to make sure.  I'm also sleeping upstairs to see if it may be something that's in the basement.  If these things don't produce anything, I'll then take a saliva test to see if I have a virus.  The Dr. has a lab of her own that tests for things that cause my exact symptoms.  Told you I was directed to her!  So, we'll take that route.  For now, she has placed me on some meds that will help with my constant headaches.  I'm on a baby dose that we'll increase each day to get me up to the recommended dose.  It is making me extremely tired, so I've had to put a lot of stuff on the back burner.  Again!  Just like the last 6 months!!  But, this should make it easier to cope once I'm up to the dose I need to be at and the side effects have worn off.  I also have meds to take when a migraine hits me.  So, for now, we wait to see if the meds work.  We also wait to see if anything comes up positive in our basement.  My first reaction was to put the house on the market the moment we got home.  However, I love my house, my playground, my ward, my friends, my storage room, my closet, my kids' friends, my laundry chute, and so much about this house, that I really don't think that should be the first thing we do.  So, I'll take the trial for a month and see how it goes.  For now, I'm just happy to be in the hands of such an AWESOME doctor!  Technology is amazing.  Once you find someone that knows exactly how to use it to help you!

Sleepwalking

Bella loves to take naps on our front couch.  I kind of hate that she leaves white hair on the couch that has to be wiped off after, but it's so cute the way she puts her head between the arm rest and the cushions, that I really can't boot her off.  Anyway, she was taking a nap a couple minutes ago and suddenly jumped up, ran to the back door, and intently looked out.  I opened the door and hid to watch what had made her jump up so fast.  She looked around the backyard, sniffed a bit, and turned to be let back in.  She instantly went back to her couch.  I thought it funny that she seemed so intent on going to the backyard after waking up so fast.  I realized she probably had dreamed something.  I can relate to this.  I'm a HUGE sleepwalker/talker.  I've stood up, broke our ceiling fan, and stepped on Randy.  I scream in my sleep, wake Randy to help save a bleeding man in our hallway, and even ripped out "stuff" from under our bed (we never have anything under our bed) to save Caden from drowning in the sea.  Dreams are very real to me.  Always have been.  Looks like they're very real to Bella as well!  Caden even takes after me with his night frights.  I really hope they go away soon.  They say they can last until around 12.  Weird to think that's only10.5 months away!