i {heart} my vacuum

I bought a Dyson at Home Depot just about 3 months ago b/c they had a returned one that was marked down $100! I had been wanting to buy one for a while & had almost talked myself into spending the money when I saw the returned one so how could I say no? It did look like it'd been dragged across the parking lot, but since I'd still get the 5 year warranty on it I figured why not? We liked it but it wasn't like, "Omigosh, this is the most amazing vacuum ever!" BUT if I leaned the handle down too low or hit the baseboard or anything more than ever so gently it would make a real loud screechy sound until I put the handle almost upright again & then resumed vacuuming. I had no idea if this was normal and it took me nearly 3 months to take it back to HD. So this morning I went in with my vacuum & asked if they'd be willing to turn on a new one so I could see if it made the same noise. I didn't want to return it if there wasn't really a problem. The lady back in flooring said she had a Dyson too, although not the same model, but plugged mine in & we took it for a spin. Of course it didn't make "the noise" but it made a more mild variation of it & even that was bad enough that the flooring lady said my vacuum had issues & they ended up doing a straight across exchange! That's right! So I got a brand new Dyson for the returned Dyson price! Woohoo! I opened it tonight and guess what? It almost has a new car smell! And it vacuums even better than the other one. Oh, the power! I love my Dyson! Thank you Home Depot for making this blessed union possible!

Best in Show

Callie had her first ever gymnastics meet on May 1. She's not in competitive gymnastics, but the gym holds a "Cartoon Classic" once a year so that even the non-team gymnasts can do a meet & get the whole experience. They'd told the girls that they could win trophies & ribbons & medals & Callie was SOLD! She BEGGED me to sign her up and then she started to get cold feet as the event drew near. She was able to do it though & she LOVED it! Here are her results (mind you this is out of 6 girls in her skill level):

Vault: 1st
Bars: 3rd
Beam: 2nd
Floor: 5th
Overall: 2nd

She also got a special judges award for having the most grace (and that was out of all levels of all the kids there)! We were just a little proud! :) Yay Callie!

Here's a video of Callie doing her vault "routine."

Alas, another month passed

So here it is, in pictures...

Ellie has got into my makeup a few times. She's very proud of herself each time she does. She's in a phase where she comes to me constantly & says, "Close your eyes. [I close my eyes] Dah, ta, dahhh! Makeup! [or I have a shirt, or I have shoes (that she's put on herself), or I have candy.]



On this day she had some help...



...from this guy!



We're on a little strawberry milkshake kick. Some people do smoothie kicks. We're all about the milkshakes. That's how we roll. Here the kids model their milkshake mustaches!



Grandma Darcy was giving the kids a bath one night & they were playing with foam. She told me to come look at the kids and I found all three "kids" with blueberry moldable foam soap mustaches! Ellie laughed so hard that when she took a deep breath the foam went up one of her nostrils!



And here's a few of my fashion-forward children. In each instance they dressed themselves!



She put on the hat, vest, & Jack's shoes.



Target.



I went to pick Jackson up from school one day in the Rhino. Ellie LOVED going for a ride. She had a better time on the way back though when Jackson was with us - they giggled the whole time!



I ran my first ever 5k this past Saturday. I hated it! I signed up for it because all my friends were doing it & I caved to peer pressure! Abby & Summer ran the 10k, while Ashley, Lacey & I ran the 5k. Up until last Monday, I'd never run 3 miles in my life! I run 2 miles about 4 days a week. Even that is huge for me! I started running in the fall, and if you would've told me even a month before I started running that I would ever run I would've definitely known you were wrong. I used to joke that I couldn't run to save my life - seriously! If someone were chasing me I'd die because I don't run! But here I am running. I run because I like to eat and I want to stay healthy, so I don't really care if I don't ever run more than a couple miles a day. I think that's plenty healthy! Even since I've started running I haven't had the slightest desire to do a race, and this 5k sealed the deal! LOL It made me feel better when a couple of seasoned marathoners told me that this race was actually one of the more difficult courses they'd run.

So this was funny: all the girls were going to meet at 7:15 for a picture. Ashley & I were there but didn't see any of the other girls & so after about 10 minutes we went to my car & tried calling Abby (whose race was starting at 7:30). We didn't get a hold of her so we walked up towards the start as the 10k group was taking off. Except we didn't see Abby or Summer in the group. But we did see a couple of other people we knew were doing the 10k. So we got up to the start & got to looking at the next group that was getting ready to leave & noticed they looked like they were the 3mile walkers. We looked around for another minute trying to find people we knew doing the 5k & finally asked one of the organizers where the 5k group was. Turns out that was the group that we'd thought was the 10k group that had left a couple of mins before (obviously the 10k-ers we saw had missed their start too!). We felt so silly as we took off completely by ourselves way behind the back of the pack & were laughing as we started our run. We kept pace till we got to the top of this steep hill (the halfway point), and then on the way down Ashley ran a little ahead of me. I didn't get my official time & haven't seen it posted yet, but it was by far my personal best! Okay, you runner friends can totally laugh, but I normally do an 11 minute mile. And that's more of a recent thing too! Ashley looked at the huge timer right next to the finish (that I failed to see) and she got in right at 30 minutes. I was about 45 seconds behind her. But then since we left late I'd have to guess I did around a 9 1/2 min. mile. I'll never know for sure! The entire time I was running I was thinking about how much I was hating it & why in the HECK did I decide to do it! It really sucked. But I'm glad I shared the experience with some of my besties! :)

Me with Ash

Me with Summer

How to Train Your Dragon

Oh wait, first you'd have to catch one. And this is what my children set out in the backyard to attract & trap a night fury after they swear they saw one fly across the yard:

(Of course this happened while I was in the shower.)

It's hard to be too upset when the naughty thing they've done is semi-amusing.

Missing children

After our company left on Saturday, Jeremiah took Callie with him to run some errands while Jackson & Ellie stayed home with me & had some lunch. I vaguely remembered hearing Jack telling Ellie to come with him & they ran down the hall, or at least I thought. I was working on sharing time for Primary and I realized after 10-15 minutes that the house was too quiet. Sometimes the kids play real quietly in their rooms, but they weren't there. The backdoor was locked so I checked my bedroom/bathroom & the garage. Still no kids. I checked the backyard anyway, in case they'd gone out & locked themselves out. Not there either. I started to kind of worry as I was going to check their rooms again. Ellie's getting pretty good at hiding so I checked on the sides of the beds you can't see from the doorway. I finally got to Jack's room & had checked the side of his bed when I noticed the lump under his bedding. I was sure it was just his sham &/or blanket under his comforter, but I patted it just to be sure. And that's where I found Jackson & Ellie, sound asleep!

(the lumps weren't defined when I first looked. I took the picture after I'd discovered them & covered them back up!)

Visit from Condie Co

It was so fun to have Condie Co at our house for a couple of nights last week! It had been probably a record length of time since Wendy & I had seen each others kids (since July I think!). After a day at the Grand Canyon, Wendy & co got to our house around dinnertime. We couldn't get everyone at the table so we brought in the kids' table & thought the older 5 could sit there. Emily found a seat before the older kids & was not about to give it up. When Ellie came on the scene there was no way in heck we were talking her out of leaving the party! I think more goofing around was done than actual eating!

On Friday Mike went to check out Jer's operation (as in the business) & then we met the boys for lunch. Thank goodness we got the party room at Pizza Hut! I would have felt terrible otherwise for all the other people wanting a normal Pizza Hut volume lunch! Jeremiah & Mike went 4-wheeling after lunch & Wendy & I took the kids to the park. That night we got a couple of babysitters & did my favorite date night: dinner & a movie! When we got home the kids were asleep in all sorts of places, and here were Ellie & Emily (they're just a couple weeks apart in age).

The little girls really got along fine for the most part, but they weren't too happy with each other over breakfast Saturday morning! Notice the matching pj's? Wendy had left out Emily's pair for the babysitters (not even knowing we had the same ones) but when we got home Emily was in a pink sleeper & Ellie was in her own set of the pjs. Wendy & I have always done pics of the girls together in matching shirts so it was totally a fluke that we were able to this time with the matching pjs! :)

It was hilarious watching the kids on the jeep. From the time they got to our house on Thursday evening until the time they left, we could look out the window at any moment & there would be multiple kids trying to get a ride on the jeep.

Hopefully it won't be such a long time between visits with the kids again. My kids are always asking about the next time they'll see the Condie kids. They loved spending time with our friends!

Happy Easter!

We had a nice Easter weekend. My sisters Tara & Kayleigh both came down for the weekend. Kayleigh hadn't dyed Easter eggs in years so she was totally excited to do it with the kids. Although Callie had told me a few days before that she didn't want to dye eggs this year. Her reason was that if we dyed eggs then the EB would hide them & she didn't want him to hide real eggs, she wanted him to hide candy-filled eggs. So if we just didn't dye any at all then the only choice he'd have would be to hide candy-filled eggs. She's a smartie! I told her we could leave the dyed eggs in the fridge so the Easter bunny wouldn't even realize that we had any. Problem solved!

Callie was really really hoping they'd get bubble tape in their baskets but Jeremiah wrote the EB a note after last year asking him to please not bring any more bubble tape for the kids. Sorry Callie! Instead they got to hunt for eggs filled with jelly beans, individually wrapped disgusting, plastic-tasting rainbow twizzlers, Reese's pb eggs, and fruit snacks. The EB was kind enough to put stickers on the eggs so each kid could hunt for their own eggs & the older two wouldn't end up with everything. Except for the jelly beans, the other eggs had only one piece of candy (or pkg of fruit snacks) in them. And since half the eggs were fruit snacks, I didn't mind if they ate everything that day. And they did! Starting with their chocolate bunnies.

dirty little secret

I'm a slob. Jeremiah's a slob too, but he grew up in a very tidy home. I wonder if he'd have had second thoughts when we were dating if he'd known then that I'd only clean our master bath toilet after it looked like a gas station toilet. Don't worry visitors, I try to keep the other bathrooms presentable! Bathrooms are just not my thing. Housekeeping is just not my thing. I think if I'd sent a pic of our bathroom yesterday to Jeremiah's mom & sister 9 years ago, they would have told him to run! If my b-i-l's wives had been sent the same pic, they may have changed their mind about joining the family. I had decided my slothen ways were just due to laziness. But I don't know that that's really the case. I do plenty of other things without laze. I think it's just that I don't want to, which to me is different than simply being lazy. That & my twisted thinking. Take my time issues for example. I've been "on time" for something just a handful of times in my life. I think that if I get somewhere 5 minutes before the start time that I'm early. Normal people would consider that on time. I've actually had the thought before that if I got somewhere a couple minutes before the appt, what would I do for that couple of minutes? I'd be bored! So instead of being a calm, normal, timely person my whole life is rushing from one place, taking my time, and rushing to the next! I create chaos for myself & my family. Back to cleaning - same distorted mentality. If my kitchen is almost completely clean it's good enough for me. I have to REALLY force myself to spend 5 more minutes getting it totally spotless - taking care of those few things on the counter that I just don't want to & that's why they've been sitting there for a couple of days anyway. So there you have it - TWO dirty secrets about me (and I thought I was just going to be writing about one). Pray for my children! LOL

junk comments

I keep getting bombarded w/junk comments so sorry I have to make the commenting process a little annoying. I'm going to have to resort to word verification if this latest change doesn't solve the problem. In the meantime, still leave me comments. I LOVE reading them!

Happy 2nd Birthday Ellie!

Ellie's 2nd birthday was Friday, the 5th & she had a great day! She had mac & cheese (her request) for lunch, pizza & chicken nuggets (the chicken nuggets also her request) for dinner, & delicious chocolate cupcakes with a cream cheese center for dessert! (seriously LOVE those cupcakes - esp w/ganache on top instead of regular frosting!) One funny thing - when Ellie blew out her candles Jeremiah was taking the pics & he used the flash. I wanted pictures without the flash so we lit the candles again & had her blow them out again. The second time she got too close & sort of burned her lips on the flames before she got them blown out! Then she was afraid & had to be coaxed into blowing them out! LOL She was fine. She loved ALL her presents! She's played with them a lot since her birthday.

St. Patrick's Day at the Divis house: creating family traditions one silly holiday at a time!

For most (normal) people St. Patrick's Day is just like any other day of the week. But not in our house! Last year a leprechaun snuck into our house & hid clues leading to chocolate coins & coloring pages for the kids to find. They loved it so much & have talked a lot about it throughout the year. Over a month ago they started occassionally talking about St. Patrick's Day. You woulda thought the night before St. Patrick's Day was Christmas Eve or something! The kids were super wired & couldn't stop talking about the leprechaun. Callie said she was going to stay up all night to catch it. They left a drink of water & some money out for him. We don't know what the leprechaun did with those things, but in the morning it was all gone, cup included. They found their note from the leprechaun when they went to have some (what else) Lucky Charms that Dad got them for breakfast. The leprechaun was so sneaky & skilled - he was able to leave the note w/the first clue in the box before it had even been opened! At the end of the hunt they found their gold coins & coloring pages (which Callie had specifically mentioned several times)! After breakfast the kids helped me make rainbow cupcakes. I saw the idea/directions in the Family Fun magazine (love that btw), and it would have been nice if they would have mentioned that the cupcakes would take like TWO HOURS to prepare! Okay, it might've just been an hour & a half, but seriously people, these cupcakes took a LOT of patience! I had to divide the batter into 7 bowls, color each bowl of batter, and then layer the teensiest amounts of batter on top of each other. Each colored layer took between 10-15 mins! I don't know if I could do these every year - they sucked to make. But SO SO fun to eat!!! And delicious! I just love cupcakes & I've recently discovered that I really like chilled cupcakes! YUM! Anyway, we completed our day of silly holiday fun with a semi St. Patrick's Day dinner. Semi because no, we did not have corned beef. I made it last year & they hated it (and Jeremiah hated it all the other years I'd sometimes made it too)! Instead we had an oven-roasted chicken, french bread, cabbage, a platter of cut fruit laid out like a rainbow (with strawberries, pineapple, oranges, kiwi, blueberries, & red grapes & marshmallows for clouds - also from FF mag), and our rainbow cupcakes for dessert! I know that Jeremiah can't help but roll his eyes at me sometimes, so it was nice when he told me he appreciates that I make an effort to create family traditions, since those are the things you look back on when you're grown that you really enjoyed about your childhood. At least in our cases.

And in case you'd like a leprechaun to hide clues for your children, here's some ideas for the little guy. (I know - they're SUPER cheesy!)



Oh yeah, one thing that I think is crazy funny, and when I say crazy I mean CUH-RAZY, is that last year I was looking online for some St. Patty's Day fun/inspiration and I came across several blogs where people had let leprechauns come into their homes & make SERIOUS messes! Okay, I may be a little too into this, but trashing your house?! What the!! That's just messed up! Why in the WORLD would somebody overturn couches, dump cereal all over, and make their house look like somebody had broken in?! I laugh every time I think of this one picture I saw. I wish I could find it. Please don't tell me you do this!

ANOTHER snow day!

We woke up to falling snow a few weeks ago. In fact the kids came & told me it was snowing but I didn't really believe them because they'd been mistaken several times. The snow came down pretty steadily all morning! Living in a place that doesn't get snow more than once or twice a year, nobody knows what to do when it happens. PM Kindergarten was cancelled! Can you believe it?! Of course by the time the school hour rolled around the snow was melting and getting to school wouldn't have been a problem, but Callie thoroughly enjoyed her day off. She tried sledding down our short retaining wall (at least the wall that's in progress). The kids convinced me to have a snowball fight & we had a seriously fun time! I creamed 'em! LOL And then just like our crazy weather, not 7 days later we were wearing shorts!

I have internet! Hooray!

Updates to come soon! (But tonight I'm slurping my blog & working on my Blurb book!)

My guy

Jack is constantly saying the cutest/funniest things. Like this:

He was looking at a book of opposites with Ellie, telling her about the tigers on the page. I repeated what he'd said: "One tiger was happy? One tiger was sad?" He said, "Yeah, because he's pink!"

I was watching The Amazing Race & the teams were in Dubai, India:

Jack: Is this a Christmas show?
Me: No, why?

Jack: It has wise men!

About pitchforks: They're cool because they can bust down towers & mountains & cars! (and that is why he HAD to be a devil for Halloween - it was ALL about the "pinchfork!"

(Photos by Angela Salazar)