Pinching Pennies

We have officially made the plunge, and our land line has been cancelled. Along with our Internet connection (on Friday). Our Dish Network is still active, for now. We may cancel that too, but the price is a bit steep to get out of that contract! Yikes!

Anyway, if you need to get a hold of the Peterson residence you will have to reach us on my or David's cell phones now. I don't know how comfortable I feel about putting our phone numbers out to cyberspace, so I will be sending a general email out to everyone that we have their email addresses. If you don't receive an email, you can email me (sallywoggin81@yahoo.com) and I will send you the numbers. I will be getting a hold of the RS President to change the phone number listed on the ward list, for those 2ND ward readers out there! I will do my best to let everyone know...Be patient with us as we make this adjustment. =)

How to spell Mississippi

This morning while waiting to leave for church, and trying to kill some time and keep them clean in their Sunday duds, David randomly asked Nathan how to spell Mississippi. Here is how he answered...

"M R S (period) S I P P Y"

Yes, Mrs. Sippy. Just say it out loud, and you will find that you have "Mississippi". =)

Happy 32nd Birthday!

Today is the birthday of the best man on earth...

Here he is last night with one of his b-day gifts from me. Lots and LoTs and LOTS of candy!! He loved it...

HAPPY 32nd BIRTHDAY DAVID! WE LOVE YOU!

Quick update...

Nathan has been fine all day yesterday, last night and says that he feels great this morning. I don't know what the heck all that was about, but I am glad he hasn't thrown up in over 24 hours now.

I ended up taking Jay into the clinic last night. The doc says that he has cocsacheye (I know I spelled that wrong) Anyway, it is a virus, very contagious, and just has to run its course. She said that as long as I am making a good effort to keep him hydrated, there is nothing they can really do. So now we just wait, keep trying to get him to drink, and maybe offer him some more apple sauce or pudding...

...and we will just stay put today, not go out, and keep the sickness to ourselves.

Sickness...

Almost all of us are sick right now. I had pick eye last week, and just this morning Emily woke up with it. Poor girl. It doesn't seem to bother her much, so that is good. Nathan has been throwing up randomly all weekend. He acts like he feels fine and isn't sick at all and then all the sudden, he screams, throws up, and then is just fine 3 minutes later. What is that?!?!? I don't know what to do with that. And then there is Jay. I am most concerned for him. He has terrible, painful sores all over the insides of his mouth. He hasn't been able to eat hardly a thing since Friday. It is all I can do to force some liquids down him so he doesn't get dehydrated. He is also teething on top of that. He has fevers randomly, and I don't know if that is from the mouth sores or from the 5 teeth that are breaking through his already sore and swollen gums. He is just miserable and sleeping like a newborn (at least 16-18 hours in the day, and waking up often in the night from pain). I am taking both Nathan and Jay into the clinic tonight. My poor kids. And I am just trying to keep up with it all. My house is a disaster and I am trying to get that cleaned up, do a few loads of laundry, and tend to sick kiddos. Not at all how I had my Monday planned.....

17 months ago...

Just 17 months ago, my last and final baby was born. Such a sweet day it was. I love that little boy we named Jay Clayton.

Here he is now. I took this picture just moments ago, and can't believe how big he is and how fast time has flown. I keep trying to convince myself that he is still a baby, but these last few weeks the truth has come out... he is a toddler now. It is a bittersweet thing for me. I will never hold an infant again, I will never be able to cuddle a fresh-from-heaven baby again. And my sweet Jay is growing up, and I can't stop it. BUT, on the flip-side; I love the boy he is growing into. He is incredibly curious, quite destructive, and always toddling behind his older siblings. He has such a sweet laugh, bright blue eyes, and a very outdoor-sy personality. He ALWAYS wants to be outside. He has a built-in attraction to balls, and is always carrying or throwing one (or something else...)

We love our Jay, and I can't wait to see how much more he will grow and learn and be. He has a very special place in our home and in his mommy's heart.

Con-graduations!

It has been a whirlwind weekend, and it is just now slowing down its pace. We had a busy and quick trip to Mesa to visit my family and help celebrate my brothers graduation from college (CONGRATS Justin!). We left Friday morning to Mesa and arrived after an uneventful drive (the best kind) at about noon. The kids all wanted to go swimming in Grandmas "pool", and so we let them have a quick dip in the jacuzzi before dinner. We got them changed into their PJ's just in time for the babysitter to arrive. At 5:30, we (David and I, with my mom and dad) met my sister Heather and Jacob over at Mangos mexican resturaunt (the BEST mexican I have had in a LoNg time...YUM!!!) We had a great dinner and then drove over to Hale Theater where we got to see a very funny play called "Charly's Aunt". It was a great evening, topped off by seeing the new water park across from the theater, and the kids all tucked in bed by the time we got home. Anytime I don't have to do bedtime, it is a great night! David left to play Halo with all the boys, and I went to bed.

Saturday morning, we got the kids ready for the day, went to the park (good ol' Chapperel, or as the kids call it, "the Yellow Park") and then went over to Wal-Mart to the photo studio with my mom. We took Betsy and Jay in for an update to thier pictures. Betsy's last picture taken was when she was 8 months old... and Jay is only about 10 hours old in the last photo we had of him, straight from the hospital. A little behind.. I know! The kids did really well, smiled great for their pics and we hurried home. We enjoyed a couple quiet hours while most of the fam went to the ceremony to see Justin "walk". We decided to stay home with our 5 small kids that wouldn't have sat still for a minute. Wish I would have decided to go, but I don't think David would have liked that too much =).

At 5pm the whole crew showed up at my moms house and we had a graduation BBQ and a nice FHE on temples. The kids had tons of fun running wild with their Barton cousins, and I enjoyed visiting with my family. At about 9pm we got the kids in their PJ's and hit the road back toward Snowflake. We traded drivers every-so-often, stopped to take a cat-nap in Payson and made it home by about 1:30am (I think, but I was sleeping so I don't really remember seeing a clock). We got home, threw the kids in their beds, and collaped in ours. NOTE: Do not drive over the rim half-asleep!!! BAD idea. We are all alive, no problems, but GOSH was I tIrEd.

On Sunday...Mothers Day, I slept til about 8am, stubbled out of bed and found that David had got me a brand new set of red canisters for the kitchen. They are really cute, and just my style. I love it when that happens! The kids gave me pictures they had drawn me, and we all got ready for church. It was obviously the Mothers Day program where I cried like a baby. The Primary kids sang "Mother, I love you", and I played the piano. Then Nathan and I sang together "Mother, Do you love Me?" He did such a super job, sang really well, and he carried the song pretty well when I had to stop to cry. I have such a sweet boy, and I was overwhelmed by the feeling of how much I really do love my Nathan. When we got home from church David allowed me to have a nap (unheard of!) and I slelpt until it was about time to go to chior. I got up, went to chior, and came home to dinner on the table. What a great hubby I have. =)

Yesterday (Monday), I focused on getting un-packed from our trip to Mesa, and getting the house straightened up after my incredibly lazy mothers day. I took Aubrey over to the school to have her "Kindergarten Placement Test". She seemed to do okay. They didn't let me in the room, but according to her, they threw beanbags back and forth, sang the ABCs, and talked about shapes, numbers and colors. She said that she had fun, but it wasn't long enough. She wanted to "go to school!" The primary choirister came by in the afternoon and we planned and talked about the next couple months in primary and what we wanted to do for music. It was nice to get a plan and be a little more prepared for what is coming.

Todays plan is to climb and defeat my mountain of laundry. I have 12 loads right now waiting. 12! YUCK. I really don't like laundry. At least I get a break for an hour or two when we all get to go to playgroup at the park. I am looking forward to that. So, with that, I must get to it. UUGGHHHH!

My day:

A picture journey of what my days are filled with...

NATHAN:

Where I found Nathan yesterday morning, waiting to leave for school, sitting on top of Davids' work truck. He is ALWAYS reading. He loves it. He has polished off his entire bookshelf of books, and has now discovered the joys of the public library. He has read at least 3 chapter books (60+ pages) this last week, and is on #4 now. He will probably finish that one tonight or tomorrow.Here is a shot that I added for my own amusement! This will be the kind of picture he turns red and all embarrassed over in a few years. Had to take it, had to post it. He came out of his room Sunday night, running and shouting "SUPER UNDER-MAN!" I can't wait to pull this one out for his girlfriend and/or wife to see!! I am such a mean mommy. =)

AUBREY:

She always has a flirty, mysterious look to her smile. You look at that picture and wonder what atrocity is she planning to do next.

Here is where I found Aubrey and Emily a few nights ago when they were supposed to be in bed. So, they took the pillowcases off their pillows, found a couple of my pajama shirts, put them on their pillows, gave them heads with their stuffed animals and called them their boyfriends. David and I were laughing so hard.... then it was bedtime.

EMILY:

Her very favorite thing to do. She loves to be swinging on the swing set. And yes, in that particular swing... many a fight, many times a day start when someone else is in her swing.

BETSY:
Yes, that is a toilet seat, stuck on her head. She has taken a liking to the toilet lately, which is a good sign that she is ready for the "potty train". But, she was pretty upset about it stuck on her head, but I had to get a picture before daddy took it off. We were all laughing at that one.

JAY:
At the "dinosaur park". I love this picture... it shows just how very curious my little boy is.
All the kids were sitting on the couch yesterday after lunch watching a cartoon on TV. I was coming to lay him and Betsy down for their afternoon naps, and this is how I found him, already asleep. So sweet. I love sleeping babies... and kids. =)

Random ramblings

WARNING... this will be LONG, so I won't take offense if you just skim this one. =)

I am happy to say that after a couple weeks of horrible computer viruses, we (along with help from Mathan), got our computer up and running like new again. It has been a while since I have seen it move so fast, and with no pop-ups every other second!! =)

I got to sing at Enrichment Night last week, and got quite a few compliments, which made me feel pretty good about how I did. I have been asked to sing the same song again in Relief Society as the closing song tomorrow. I am afraid that people are going to get sick and tired of hearing me sing, because I am also singing on Mothers Day with Nathan in Sacrament Meeting. Ha! My poor ward...

Yesterday I took our dog Max to get his rabies shot and tags. I have never seen so many dogs in my life.... It was a county, public shot clinic right there on the police stations front lawn. There was a dog behind me in line that was a Irish Wolfhound or something like that. He was HUGE. That dogs back, when standing, was 6 inches above my hip!! Yikes. The owner said he eats 8-10 cups of food A DAY. Yeah, so Max eats only 1 cup of food a day. Max did really well, didn't bite anyone, re-marked a spot that had previously marked by at least 4 other dogs, and is now current on his shots and tags. Now we just have to get him fixed....but that is for another day.

This morning I discovered a small flood and a fast drip coming from our water heater. I, at first, thought that we would have to replace the whole heater, but it turns out that the leak is coming from one of the pipes going into the heater up top. So, our good-ol' plumber friend Billy is coming on Monday. He was actually going to come last Friday for a totally unrelated issue, but we gratefully got it figured out before he came. Plumbers are kinda expensive!!

This afternoon, Nathan, Aubrey, Emily and Betsy announced to David and I that they were going to Mexico and we couldn't stop them. After a few moments of asking the whys and what- fors, Aubrey said dramatically, "because we are sick and tired of it here!" We laughed and asked her why she was sick and tired of being here, and she just said that she was bored and wanted to go play across the road. So, they went to "Mexico", hauling a red wagon full of toys, baskets, string cheese sticks, and Betsy. It was too cute. And don't you worry, I warned them not to catch the swine flu! =)

It was too windy again today to make much progress on the garden, which makes it 3 weeks later then we wanted to plant. Oh well, maybe next week. We did get a short 2 foot fence up around the garden area. If it isn't Max digging it up, it is Betsy trying to make snow angels in it. I got tired of yelling at the dog and kids to stay out of the garden boxes, so we just put up a temporary barrier instead. It has worked well so far.

So, on to another week....