You Live, You Learn

This is my last catch up story for the night before I need to head to bed.
We actually have one room that we have designated as a guest room. Right now it is actually occupied by 2 guests for the week. A friend of Jake's and his friend just got hired by Northrop, only they can't get into the apartment they will be sharing until Friday, so they are staying with us until then. They are 2 really great guys that have been helping around the house and are both really great with kids, and I am grateful for that. Anyways. We actually previously had a spare bed but I got rid of it because we were trying to downsize and thought we wouldn't be having a guest room. You live you learn. I shouldn't have gotten rid of it.
So now we are looking for a gently-used cheaper but still nice bed to get. I saw a queen-size mattress on craig's list that looked really decent and was only $40. Plus it was a really nice mattress that is usually close to $1000. It was out in Benson which is 30 minutes away. I went out to get it and everything looked good. They already had it outside, and there were no stains and it still felt firm and good. I didn't notice anything. After I started driving with it in the back of the car I started to notice. They were obviously smokers. They probably didn't smoke in bed, but the smell would be in your hair, on your clothes, on your hands, etc. It made the car smell like a smokey hotel room. Not super smokey like you walked into a bar or something. But faint smokey that sneaks up on you, and then gets unbearable. I should have taken it right back; I should have asked, before committing to buy, if they were smokers; I should have taken a closer smell before loading it into my car; I should have grown a backbone and confronted those people. That is something people should disclose. You live you learn. Now we have this mattress that is sitting in the shed that we don't know what to do with. There is no way it is going in our house. Our car smelled of smoke for several days after, that is not how I want my house to smell. It will probably just get taken to the dump because my conscience won't allow me to resell that to some other poor unsuspecting fool like myself. $40 down the drain.

By the Way

The girls had a lot of fun on their field trip. They have been talking about it all afternoon. They went to an apple orchard and learned all about trees. They did lots of different activities and they got to pick a whole bag full of apples to take home. The apples are pretty sour, but they'll probably make a good apple pie. I am glad that schools do fieldtrips. It really helps re-motivate kids to keep liking learning and going to school. Everyone needs a change of scenery now and then.

New Car

Jake and I have lived for almost 6 years together with only having one vehicle at a time. Of course, almost 3 of those 6 years Jake was deployed, but still. I thought if we got me a bike I would be able to do okay without a car for awhile. However, Jake called me from work saying that a guy was deploying and was really trying to get rid of his car and it would be a good deal. I probably would have put up a fight, EXCEPT... That very morning we missed the bus for the first time since we moved into this house. Luckily the bus comes pretty early, so I thought we would have plenty of time to walk. It took a LONG time. It really isn't that far. Maybe a little bit over a mile. But my girls walk really slow, and get get distracted really easily. We ended up being a little bit late for school and when we got there the girls were hot and tired and not ready for a day of school. I started thinking, what if they got sick and needed me to come and get them? I would have no way to do that? What if there is an emergency? What if, what if, what if? Not 3 hours after that experience Jake called about his friend's car. It was in really good condition and has been really well cared for. Plus, it was inexpensive so we could pay cash and not go into debt. It is a 2000 Volkswagon Jetta. It is green. It only has 70000 miles on it, and no scratches or anything. Plus, it gets good gas mileage and Jake does a lot of driving for his job. I will post pictures whenever we find our camera charger, and I will have use of our van during the day whenever I find my keys.

Lost, Lost, Lost

Though I have restored order (or at least functionality) to the main rooms we use, I have been feeling very lost lately. I have lots of pictures that I have taken over the past while that I have wanted to post. And actually some pictures that I took specifically to post and write about. Anyways, my camera is dead. AND it has a custom battery that came with a custom charger that is, yep you guessed it, lost. I know it is somewhere. We had it in the car with us and with our stuff this whole time, but now that we are in the house and everything is jumbled together I can't find it. I have to have a charged battery in order to put pictures onto the computer, so no pictures until further notice.
Also, today the girls had their first ever field trip. They were so excited that they got ready super quickly without any trouble or anything. We were supposed to take them to school early because the bus for the field trip was leaving at 8:15, when school doesn't usually start until 8:40. Only when we were all ready, you guessed it, I couldn't find my keys. I looked everywhere, but after a while of ripping things apart I got nervous that we would miss the fieldtrip. So, luckily for me we have an across-the-street neighbor who is in our ward and her kids go to the same school. Though they weren't ready for school, she let me take her van to drop the girls off so they wouldn't miss the fieldtrip. Today I super-super cleaned everywhere. I turned the house inside out. Still no keys. Oh, and did I mention that my purse and wallet and cell phone are locked inside the car? yeah. So if you try to call my cell phone I am not going to answer. Hopefully things get less lost over the next couple of days.

Back again

So I am back online after a long long break. We have been hopping around from place to place and have finally gotten moved into our new house! We actually moved in 2 weeks ago, but we just got the internet set up this past week. Plus, then we had to dig out the computer and all of it's components. I am really glad to be moved into our house where we can stay put for awhile, but not excited about all of the work we have to do on it. So far we are doing okay though, I have the kitchen and all 3 bedrooms completely unpacked and put away. Of course there are two extra bedrooms full of boxes that we aren't sure what to do with, and I have yet to touch the office. It's a work in progress. I can only get things done during Jaxon's naptimes really, because he is still being quite clingy right now. Little by little we will get there. We're just happy to have a place now!

First Day of School!!

The girls were so excited to start school they could hardly sleep Monday night. They had picked out the clothes they were going to wear and laid out their backpacks and everything. If I had pictures of them that morning, they would have looked extremely excited and happy. BUT...
I am the one mother who didn't have a camera when dropping my kids off for the first day of school. Actually I did have a camera, I took the battery out to charge it so it would be ready. Then we went to school without the battery the next morning. So I got pictures of the girls after they had had their first day and it's not quite the same.

Lyla did really well and was excited, but Mckayla didn't do so good. She got in trouble and was throwing little fits and stomping her foot towards the end of the day. So we didn't have too much success in helping her to be happy and pose for "first day" pictures. We were trying to decide what the consequence should be for acting up at school. Any suggestions? Though Jake said he couldn't even talk because he broke some poor kid's arm on his first day of kindergarten and got sent home after the principle threatened to kill him. So a little tired fit is nothing.
She tried to be happy though, after I begged her to give me a smile.
Lyla tried really hard to help Mckayla cheer up. We decided to put them in separate classes. It was hard for them to be separated for the entire day. Both teachers said that they were asking for their sister. I think it will be better for them to get their own identity. In their preschool class none of the kids could tell them apart, so they were just called "twin girl." The teacher tried, but she didn't always get it. Mckayla can also tend to dominate over Lyla, and they can be a bit bullyish towards other kids when they are together. Anyways, I hope we made the right decision; only time will tell.
I took pictures this morning when the girls lined up for classes. It is funny because all of the kindergarteners look so lost and confused when they line up.
This is Mckayla in line for her class. She concentrated really hard on staying right behind the girl in front of her. They had been working on "how to walk in a line" ( I know because she sang the song for me last night), she followed the other girl really good, though that girl kindof went off to the side leading Mckayla and a few others that way.
Mckayla had a much better day today. She is so exhausted when she gets home from school. Lyla doesn't seem to be as tired or grumpy. But both days of school so far Mckayla has fallen asleep in the car on the way home. The girls really want to be able to ride the bus home, but that will have to wait until we move into our house.
We have managed to be early both days so far. Now I just have to figure out what to do with my free time. The house was so quiet! I got really bored too. I don't know what to do with myself. Jaxon got bored too. As much as he whines and complains when the girls touch him, he kept crawling into their room to see if they were there.

Back to School Shopping

I took my girls shopping for back to school clothes and supplies for the first time. I remember going shopping with my mom, so it was neat to take my girls. I had them pick out some new outfits and shoes. Plus we had a list from the school to fulfill. My girls are born shoppers. I haven't ever been a hard-core, love-to-shop kindof girl. But Mckayla and Lyla are different stories. They went around the store picking out clothes like pros. It was funny, also I wanted to post a story that I had shared with my family on our family website:

I don't let my girls watch spongebob or cartoon network or any other mindless cartoons. I feel like if they are going to watch cartoons it should at least be teaching a moral lesson or have a point. Spongebob regularly came on after the dora/diego on Nick Jr., and that is when we'd always turn it off. Everytime the girls asked why we couldn't watch spongebob I would say that we don't watch it because it is a stupid show. Even listening to it really annoys me. so, we were at the store doing back-to-school shopping, and they of course had lots of school things in the spongebob brand. Everytime we saw something with spongebob the girls would loudly comment with one of these, "we can't have spongebob, because he's stupid" or "spongebob is for stupid people" or "we hate spongebob, he's stupid." They would shout these things out, and attract a lot of attention, maybe offending some nearby spongebob lovers. The word stupid certainly is what stuck with them. Maybe I'll try different explainations, though we are in school now, so no chances for spongebob run-ins anymore.