The Country Store House

After pulling away from the gas station Koen told us we had a cool house. Intrigued where this could be going we asked what made it cool. "We have yellow lines painted in our driveway!" Apparently, he thinks our new house looks just like the Maverik Country Store gas station--but without parking lot lines. Hmmmm, I guess he's been noticing the house plans since they do have a big front porch and beams similar to the front of every Maverik. So there you have it. My dream house looks like a gas station!

Sister and Elder Peck

This one is a little FHE lesson dedicated to missionaries (that I just remembered I had on the computer). We made name tags and talked about what missionaries do and followed it up with a door approach. *This is a tactic that a few families do after every FHE. They use it a summary/reminder of what the night was about. Example: knock on the door and introduce, "Hi! I'm Sally and I thought you might be interested in why family prayer (food storage, sharing, or whatever the topic is) is important to me."

And no, Koen did not eat jumping beans. He was just VERY excited to be a missionary. Wasn't Daradie super funny with the curtsy and all!

The Return of Amelia Bedelia

Remember reading those stories of the housekeeper named Amelia Bedelia? The collection of books were somewhat comical due to how literal Amelia Bedelia was. The other day I was reading one to Daradie and Amelia was to "give a shower" for her next door neighbor. Amelia turned on the hose and showered her neighbor when she was suppose to be giving her a wedding shower. Daradie did not find the humor in the book whatsoever. Anyway, Daradie has reminded me of dear Amelia.

While eating breakfast, Dan told her to finish up her bite of waffle and then wash it down with a glass of milk as he pointed to her plate. After chewing her waffle and still having some left on her plate she began to pour her glass of milk on her plate. "Stop! What are you doing Daradie?" we both asked. "You told me to wash it (pointing at her plate) down with a glass of milk, Dad." That's exactly what he told her to do.

At first Daradie had on her typical black church shoes, socks, skirt and pants. "Hey, we need to run to the store in a few so be ready!" I said to the kiddos. Moments later she comes back up with her shorts, t-shirt, bangs pulled back in a clip and her running shoes. We then had a discussion about her attire and the degrees of coldness of the day. But silly me, we are "running" to the store (and that's apparently what I look like when I go running).

Journal Nightmare

Well, I'm at it again with starting almost every journal entry, "Wow! It's been a long time since we've last talked. Let's get reintroduced...." A lot of things have happened and I mean a lot!

First off, Dan's dad has been diagnosed with colon cancer. He's been in radiation and will be doing chemotherapy in the next few months. His doctors look hopeful because it is the non-growing kind (I can't seem to remember which one is which). They will be doing surgery after the chemo treatments and that will be probably be in the late summer. LeRoy is doing good. He's still out painting here and there and I think him and dear Debbie are still planning their anniversary Alaskan cruise in the summer.

Daradie had her 5th birthday. She wanted a princess tea party and that's what she got. All her friends came dressed up in their best. We had a treasure hunt for nail polish, princess stickers, hair clips and some other girly things. I served appetizers, cupcakes, chips and chocolate milkshakes with LOTS of Reddiwhip and pink sprinkles. Every girl gave her a Barbie of some sort. So, we now have 11 Barbies strewn throughout the house. I forced them to do the treasure hunt. The girls just wanted to play in Daradie's room with the Barbie's. It was cute to see all the girls in their dresses playing dress-up with their dolls. It ended up being an extremely easy party. On the way down the stairs, I heard Daradie say to one of her friends, "Isn't this the best party ever!" Love you girl!

We'll continue discussing Daradie for a bit. She's been struggling in the "time management" area. I know she's five. But she's cutting into my schedule and making me late for appointments, etc. I got tired of the yelling and she's not old enough to leave behind. I put a sticky note next to her digital clock of when my car was picking up carpool for preschool. During breakfast (in which she has at least 1 hour of preparation time for preschool) I mentioned to her my plan. Never yelled, bribed or threatened. Eight fifty-five rolled around and dear Daradie was still downstairs playing Barbie (should not be a huge surprise for you all). "Gotta go. Preschool time. See how the clocks are matching. Get your coat." I never saw that girl move so fast trying to pull clothes out of her drawers. Too bad. I hauled her out to the car kicking and screaming. "Mom! I don't want a cavity! I didn't brush my teeth! Everyone is going to laugh at me! Mom...." I sent her to school in her pajamas, serious case of bedhead, cream cheese on her face and a note to her teacher explaining her situation. She'll thank me when she's 23 and early for her first official job interview or at 16 to get her driver's permit. Notice the picture. This is her the next day with 15 minutes to spare. The plan worked and that was almost 3 weeks ago. Good mom moment.

Koen. Seriously "pooped out" during all this potty training business. I sent him upstairs to change into a dry pull-up and couldn't figure out why I hadn't seen him for awhile. He fell asleep on the floor in front of the bathroom door. But he's been successful and loves to show EVERYONE his Batman underwear.We've got our house 100% repainted and closets and garage cleaned out and and even repainted. That's how it goes, right? Get the house all organized to sell it. We don't know if we're insane or smart. We are about ready to start building and as soon as the house sells, we'll start digging the hole. It's been 2 years of planning and discussing. Dan is taking care of the majority of exterior things (my only requirement/dream is to have something red on the front porch) and I've handled most of the floor plan. Like I said, we're either insane due to unpredictable job income or smart to take advantage of the record low interest rates. What to do? What to do? And yes, we'll be renters again.