General Conference Activities

Did you know the church has a page with links to general conference activities for children on its website? I didn't until I read about it on my friend's blog. If you are interested, here it is:

http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&vgnextoid=ae20e975d2a2b010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Highlights of My Day

• Giving Katie a snack, and having her say, "Thank you" to me
• Having Aidan come in from outside and ask me to suck up the leaf pile he made, to find there was actually a good-sized pile that he had raked up all by himself, without any prompting from anyone
• Having the sister I visit teach actually want and need my help with something, and being able to help her

Escape Artist

All of our kids have been moved to a twin bed by the time they were two years old, and most of them before that. Until Katie, that is. We thought we'd keep her in the crib until she was closer to three, thus helping her to be a better napper.

Aidan taught Katie how to climb out of her crib last week. Yes, Mom, I've received my comeuppance. You see, I taught Jacob how to get out of his crib, and I wasn't even four years old. I was more like 14. I thought I was saving us all the trouble of having to get him out of his crib when he woke up. Of course, then I learned how that affects nap time.

So, at the moment I am hearing the volume of the CD player go up and down in Katie's room. Not only can she escape her crib, but she can also climb up onto the top of her dresser and reach the shelf that Aaron mounted two feet from the ceiling in order to keep the CD player away from children.

At least I have a child-proof door knob. Let's hope she doesn't figure that one out any time soon.

Pictures (click here to view)

Aaron took "school pictures" of the kids last night in the backyard with his work camera. The kids have their pictures taken at school, but we would need the $45 package for each of them to get the right sizes, so we do it ourselves. This way, it normally costs under $50 for the whole bunch of them.

I need a little help deciding which ones to order, so please add your comments to the Picasa web album.

Steep risk: Parents on slide can snap tot’s leg

I thought this was an interesting read. It could save a shin bone!

GovTrack: S. 1640: Text of Legislation, Introduced in Senate

I think this is an excellent idea for health care reform.

GovTrack: S. 1640: Text of Legislation, Introduced in Senate

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Tomatoes

Eight tomato plants is probably too many. I have given away over 50 tomatoes this year. Yesterday, I told Brandon and William, who wanted to put up a lemonade stand all summer (I never had any lemonade for them to sell), that they could sell tomatoes, and I'd split the profit with them. They made $7. There were still three large bowls of tomatoes left. So, I canned eight quarts of tomatoes this morning. I also froze one quart of diced tomatoes, as I didn't have enough jars handy - I didn't have any idea how many would fit in a jar when I started.

What is amazing is that I can can tomatoes on the fly. I don't have a baby anymore. I have not had that kind of freedom in a long time. It is nice! I have gotten so much done this week, and it feels really good.

Ode to Clean Bedrooms

Ye stained floor, ye are no more.

I rejoice in thy departure!

New carpet, "Cape Sands,"

I rejoice as you land

as my bedrooms and office's decor!

Okay, my poetry leaves something to be desired. But, I had to express my joy at having a bedroom that looks clean. Not just picked up, but clean!!! There were a few stains in the carpet when we moved in, and it has only gotten worse over the past few years.

No, we hadn't planned on replacing the carpet this week, but Dallin and Aidan forced the issue with Katie's carpet, so we did them all at once, in order to save a little money, as we were planning on doing it in a few months, anyway.

How did Dallin and Aidan have something to do with this, you ask? Well, they just so happened to dump a few buckets of water on Katie's bedroom floor, and I quote Dallin, "Because (they) felt like it." Tristin and Brandon were babysitting one day last week when I ran errands, and Dallin and Aidan were quiet for them, and they didn't notice what they did.

I noticed later in the evening, when putting Katie to bed, that the floor was soaked. I sopped it up the best that I could, but it wasn't enough. A few days later, the room stunk of mold. I ripped up the carpet, and the floorboards were still wet. The pad was very stinky. If her carpet had been in good condition, I could have just replaced the pad, but as we were going to replace everything soon, anyway, it made more sense to tear it out. We got a quote from Empire Today (you know the jingle, "800-588-2300 Empire - Today!" I've used them before, and they did a good job, so I used them again.

In case you are ever in the market for carpet, and decide to use them, make sure you beat the price down. They always quote high, and come down quite a bit. In our case, they said it would be $3500, but I brought it down to $2500 with upgraded waterproof pads in Katie's and Aidan & Dallin's rooms. $625 per room, installed, hauled away, and furniture moved (they even took apart and reassembled our bed frame), and the carpet is sooooo soft. I'm really quite pleased. I really didn't expect it to be any less than $800 per room, but labor is cheap right now.