Student of the Month

We were so pleased to learn that our crazy, wild, busy, active 5-year old came home from Kindergarten with an annoucement that he was being awarded Student of the Month for Safety for February. We went to see him at the assembly at the school on Thursday afternoon. It was a good day for Gunnar. Each class at the Elementary school hass 4 students each month; one for Academics, one for Responsibilty, one for Safety and one for Respect. So, Gunnar got the Safety one. He's very Safety conscious, which is great. We were very happy with him. He's starting to be a big boy - less drama and more good behavior. We still have drama days with homework and sometimes with showers, but overall he's growing up.

Not to detract from Gunnar's good day, but there is a story about Paden for this day too. I ran home from work, picked up Neil and Paden to go to the assembly, which wasn't a great idea, but at any rate we all went to the assembly. So, then I had a meeting I had to get back to at work, so we had to leave the assembly early. So, we leave and I felt terrible we had to leave early. I dropped Neil and Paden off at home. Paden was crying uncontrollably because he didn't want me to leave to go back to work. So, then Neil calls me to vent frustration that Paden was crying so much that he puked everywhere. He's done this a few other times before, but it's still NOT GOOD! Neil doesn't do well with puke, so I felt bad he had to deal with that. They had to go back and pick Gunnar up from school, so Neil rushed to get the puke cleaned up. As they were leaving the house, Paden was still crying a bit and stood on the porch (Neil was ahead of him walking to the truck) and said forcefully "You are just jealous! You are just jealous that I want mama!" On the way home from picking up Gunanr from school, he was falling asleep (it's about a 3 minute drive) and so Neil drove around the block for a couple extra minutes until he fell asleep. He stayed asleep until almost 6pm! That was Paden's afternoon!

SPT(W)

For this week's SPT, I'd like to call it "Someone else's Portrait Tuesday (or Wednesday for me)" rather than "Self Portrait Tuesday" since I am having a hard time with getting myself in there somewhere!

The challenge: SPT-Scavanger Hunt: in honor of february, the month of L.O.V.E., all of the items begin with the letter "L"
lips
light
little
laughter
lavender
lunch

Well, I didn't get all the items on the list 'cuz, well, I guess I just didn't try very hard. In fact, I am going to consider this cheating, as these pictures weren't taken just for this SPT. However, these pictures came to mind when I saw the challenge.

LITTLE:

I LOVE these little feet. They are so cute, so chubby and so clumsy. Padey Boy. He just turned 3 and still isn't quite as graceful as his older brother. He's pretty funny and I think his feet are cute!

LIPS:

I couldn't resit posting these lips. They belong to a cute little girl (daughter of friend of ours). Her oldest brother is Gunnar's buddy from Kindergarten and Primary class at church. Her other brother is about 6 or 8 months older than Paden. They all get along pretty well. She is about 16 months old and she's hilarious! She was doing grumpy lips and grumpy eyebrows at the camera at Paden's little birthday gathering. Once I took her picture she then brightened her eyes and was trying not to laugh. Funny girl. You kind of had to be there to appreciate that story!

LAUGH:

Ok, so I did find a picture of myself laughing at my two boys. They do make me laugh quite often. Paden is always saying funny stuff and sometimes I shouldn't laught because he should be in trouble over what he has said, but really I can't help but laugh. Gunnar is always trying to make people laugh. He's growing up so fast. He still has bad days of meltdowns about random stuff that shouldn't be a big deal, but he's starting to get better can be such an excellent boy. He used to not mind having his picture taken, now he doesn't like it. However, if he can make a funny face he seems to be accepting of photo-taking. Silly kid!

Daily Walk

I am so glad that spring is on it's way! Where we live, the weather has been pretty warm compared to other places. We live right on the Columbia River and not near mountains, so we are getting to spring quicker! It's been in the 50s for several weeks. It got down to about 32 one night and we were freezing! Yeah, I know - that's not so cold! Funny how quickly we got acclamated. So for the last week or so we have been fortunate to take a quick walk down at the river where there's a good walking trail. It is full of goose poo, which is the only bad part about it. The dog and the boys sleep so much better after taking this daily walk. We've only been doing about 15 minutes right now. It's warm, but still a little nip in the air. Plus, we are a little out of shape, even the dog, so we'll be just working our way up to a longer walk. Once it gets a little warmer, we'll start on a different part of the trail and go longer. Today, we were the ONLY people at the park. It's great to let the dog run free! He loves it. Gunnar scoots around and gets ahead, the doubles back, so he gets quite a bit of exercise too. These pics are of the boys today at the start of our walk. They are really into making funny faces these days for the camera, but I guess it's better than no picture at all, which is usually what I get out of Gunnar - he has been anti-picture for about 2 years!

Week in Reveiw

Geesh, it's been kind of a long stretch of a week or more! Been kinda busy, but I wanted to at least recap what's been keep us busy, starting with our baby turning 3!

2/15 - Paden's THIRD birthday. We had a somewhat quiet day. Grandma and Grandpa Livingston came to visit. They came bearing gifts for the birthday boy, which he opened before I got home, but that's ok. He loved his gifts. One is the Fisher-Price Digital Arts & Crafts Studio. It's pretty cool. He also got some new books and he wanted a new Ben 10 watch, so we went the day before to let him pick out his own gift from us. We had some friends over for cake (forgot the ice cream). Paden was a little cranky and had a meltdown. It was quite the evening. Check out pics on www.deadrockcrew.shutterfly.com.

2/16 - Cleaned the garage & took the boys & dog for a walk. It was a pretty nice, warm day out. Our garage NEEDED to be cleaned and organized. Neil had broken his RC monster truck and needed some help fixing it, so he went up to the Tri-cities to the hobby store to get help putting it back together. The boys played outside and I cleaned the garage. I was dog-tired after that! It was great though. I think I got most of the yard-sale boxes out to the shed. We have FOUR wardrobe boxes (those nearly 5ft tall ones), plus about 4 smaller boxes of yard sale stuff. Hopefully we make some good money in the spring with those treasures!

2/17 - Not sure anything really happened out of the ordinary on Sunday.

2/18 - HOLIDAY! It was a holiday for school and work, so we had previously decided we would go on an adventure. We thought about the aquarium, but it's pretty far. So, we decided on the Oregon Musuem of Science and Industry in Portland. It was REALLY cool. Check out their web site. We spent 5 or 6 hours there. It started to get crowded. We left our house at about 7:30am, which was so miraculous for us! :) So, we got there and it wasn't too busy in the morning, but there was a lot of peopel there. We think we'll go back on a Friday when our kids don't have school, but Portland schools will be in school, so maybe it won't be as busy. We all had a great time! Pictures are on ShutterFly.

2/19 - I had to go to a career fair at Oregon State University in Corvalis, which is like 4.5 hours from our house! I went into work a little after 5am to finish up some copies that I didn't finish on Friday since I was in a hurry to get home for Paden's birthday. Anyway, it was a long day at OSU, to say the least. I think I got home between 8:30pm and 9:00pm. (We got home about 9:00pm on Monday too after our OMSI adventure!)

2/20 - Had to get up early to go administer employee surveys at work. Our grave shift at one location was getting off at 6am and 7am, so had to catch them. Did two survey groups in the afternoon and came home about 4pm. Went for a walk at the park with the boys and dog. The park is awesome for walking, except the goose poop! Rushed home to cook dinner for the missionaries - steak, twice baked potatoes and broccoli. Luckily for us, they came at 6pm instead of 5:30pm, like we thought they were. Dinner was great and crazy with our kids, as always!

2/21 - Had to get up early again to do more employee surveys. Had to sharpen more pencils for bigger groups at our main location. Fun stuff! Got home, went for a walk with the boys and dog! Actual fun stuff!

2/22 - DID NOT GO TO WORK EARLY, yeah. Took Gunnar to school. Worked 4 hours. Came home. Took Paden to doctor for three-year check-up. Was surprised at how quickly that went and not sure I was satisfied with it or not. Good to be quick, but the doc didn't really spend any time with Paden checking him out. Our old pediatrician would talk to the kids, ask us questions about different stuff developmentally, etc. The guy we went to yesterday basically checked eyes, ears, nose, legs and said see ya in a year! I need to get his shot records and make sure he's current. I forgot to bring them since it's a new doc, they don't have them! Duh! So, that was weird. Anyway, went to Wal*Mart to buy Paden's birthday present from Grandma Pam with the puppies - a Thomas couch. She sent us the money rather than sending the couch, to save on postage! :-) We came back to pick up Gunnar from school. Neil had a craving for Chinese food. No good Chinese food around our area, so I suggested PF Chang's China Bistro - newly opened location in Kennewick. We headed there right after we picked up Gunnar. IT WAS SOOOO GOOD. The boys were pretty good for being in a nicer sit-down restaurant. We went to Baskin Robbins, then Hastings, then home. We should have went to see our friends, the Perez family, but we forgot we left the dog outside and he spoiled and has short hair, so we thought we should get home. We will make better plans next time to go see them though! (Sorry, Carrie!)

That brings us to today. I HAVE TO DO LAUNDRY. Notice I did not mention any housework all week! My wonderful husband did do many dished and floor scrubbing the last couple of days. THANK YOU. I normally do the dishes every night after dinner, but I did not do my part! Anyway, we are on it today. There's not a lot to clean, just the family room and LAUNDRY!!!

TTFN!

Lessons I Learned While Painting

It is Tuesday and I really couldn't think of anything to do for Self-Portrait Tuesday. The challenge was to document what we would be giving ourselves for Valentine's Day. Well, I do have to admit that Valentine's Day is a hard one for me. I would have liked to do many little cutesy things for friends and co-workers, but really couldn't think of that either. I really can't think of what I would actually be able to give myself. So, no SPT.

I do have some lessons to share, however. The house we bought is nice, older, but nice. It's in really good condition (one day I'll put pics on shutterfly for you Aunt Pam since you haven't seen any pics of it yet). Anyway, the walls are all plain, which is good. We painted the downstairs bathroom and it still needs some touch up work. We also wanted to paint our boys' room as the next project. Gunnar got to pick the colors, as the older brother. He loves blue, of course. We looked through all the sample books and found the Glidden Team Colors brochure where Gunnar found he liked the Seahawks colors - how convenient as that is our local NFL team! So, we have blue, green & gray. He found a design he liked and so we all agreed and away we went.

LESSONS LEARNED in no particular order . . .

1. DO NOT wear your favorite Old Navy pajama (yoga style) pants because you will never be able to find replacement for them when you get paint on them!

This was not even at the end, this was toward the start, so not good!

2. Finish ALL taping including where the wall meets the carpet BEFORE you letting a 2-year old loose with a paint roller. Also, we didn't tape off the door/window frames because we bought this cool edger tool and after using it on the bathroom project, we knew we theoretically wouldn't need to tape off the framework & ceiling, so we didn't. The ceiling is out of reach for aforementioned 2-year old, but door frame is not out of reach. I wasn't planning on painting the frames, but I guess I am now.

"What? I was painting where I was supposed to . . ." says 2-yr old.

3. Do NOT get paint under fingernails. I am not sure how to avoid that, but it's kind of a pain to get that paint out of from under there.

4. Do NOT expect to finish project all in one day. I am sure some people could do it, but not us people. I really, really would have liked to finish it, but wait until you see the pics of what we were painting. I had totally unrealistic expectations.

5. Buy extra rollers so that you don't have to wash and use for color change. That just doesn't really work well. Being the cheap skate, I thought washing and reusing would be fine, but not when trying to do two colors in one day.

6. Buy extra refills for edger tool. It works great, but I think it's meant to be disposable and use refill pads for it. Trying to use edger tool with old-school popcorn ceiling was a little challenging, but it still worked pretty well.

7. Lastly, do NOT do designs involving clean lines with textured walls. Well, you can if you want to spend several hours of touch up. No matter how much you try to get the tape stuck down well enough to not seep through, it does NOT work. My fingertips and hands were starting to feel raw because I was trying so hard to press the tape down into all the little textures. It didn't seem to make a difference and it was wasting my time pressing tape over and over!

Here's some more pics of our project, which is still not quite done, but it's really close. We wanted to paint before we put but the boys' bunk beds. For those who have seen the homemade beds know how massive and heavy they are, so we really wanted to finish painting before the beds got up. But, good news is that we finished putting up the beds over the weekend. Gunnar has his "tent" on the top, we did it a little different this time and it looks pretty good actually.

Gunnar did OK, but as you see he didn't stay where he was supposed to either - inside the "teeth" wasn't supposed to have gray paint.

Even though painting is not first activity of choice, my husband did help which was greatly appreciated.

Lovely me . . .

We are glad Gunnar decided he wanted the "teeth" to be blue instead of the walls. The blue would have been too dark on all walls.

Sample of what the "teeth" look like - it turned out pretty well actully. I am pretty happy with it, even thougth it was really more time and work than I wanted it to be!

Rocker, Pirate and a 'lil something for the Livingston Family Movie Buffs

This post has been in the drafts for a long time. I had problems with blogger a while back - could have been the ill computer that we've had in and out of the computer doctor, but either way, there's been a post out here in draft-land for a while.

THE ROCKER: So, Gunnar got a guitar for Christmas from my mom. The boys totally love it. They play it quite bit. So, I wanted to share Gunnar the Rocker . . . yeah, it's just an acoustical guitar, not electric.

THE PIRATE: While my mom was visiting, we went to dinner and to Wal*Mart - ya know 'cuz there's not much else to do around here. So, we were looking at the clearance items and the boys picked out a toy. Why right after Christmas do we buy them toys? Not sure - they might have used their money they got, but I don't recall now. Anyway, Paden picked out a Pirates of the Carribean little costume. He has always liked Pirates - not sure where he picked that up from (Sunny Lynn, maybe). So, here's the adorable Paden in his Pirate stuff.

A 'LIL SOMETHING FOR THE LIVINGSTON FAMILY MOVIE BUFFS: One day we were coming home from Portland and we stopped along the way to find a couple scrapbooking stores because my husband is awesome like that - he helps me pursue my habit, er, I mean hobby! So, we drove down some little side streets in The Dalles and we found this:My husband tells me that all the Livingston family movie buffs would know what this is from and that it's called "electic sex in the window" or something like that. I HAD to post it for you all! I, however, am not a movie buff and it is probably blasphemous to say that I don't know what movie its from . . . sorry, don't kick me out of the family! :)

Request for Pictures

It's a little hard being a little further from family. I originally started a blog to post pictures of the boys so that friends and family members could see picutres of the boys as they grow. Well, the blog has turned into a place for me to vent my mind and thoughts and not as many pictures. I think I need both. So, I have opened a Shutterfly account to post pictures of the boys. This is for you Sunny!

So, you can click on this link to http://deadrockcrew.shutterfly.com. The photos are set up in albums and I hope it's not too difficult to navigate. There quite a few recent ones, but that is just a small dent in all the pictures we have. All the scenery pictures of the snow are for my grandma (who doesn't have a computer), but they remind me of her because she's always taking a million pictures of scenery and sometimes there's animals in the far distant. Anyway - enjoy the pics and check back often! Link to the site will be on my side bar here too.

SPT: Move it, put it away, throw it out already!

Lelly's challenge this week is certainly fantastic, as always!

Fill in the blanks:
the other day, i was in my _____________, and i noticed this _______________. my only thought was, "why do i still have this hanging around my house?!?"

I have been thinking about this for a couple days and rackin' my brain. Not that I do not have many things lying around that need to go, it's just that they are in a HUGE, GIANT, ENORMOUS pile in the garage.

So, I was thinking . . . I know I still have my most favorite brown corduroy maternity pants that ripped the seem before my last pregancy was over - how dare they rip like that!! I think I had like two months to go (yeah, I think I gained a few too many lbs that go around!) So my son turns THREE next week - why in the world would i still need these pants? No reason. I do know they must be burried in the garage someplace. That was the first thing that popped in my mind on this challenge, but no such luck finding the pants at this juncure. I am not sure why I am still hung up on these pants in the first place. Why was that the first idea I had? Weird!

Side note: So, let me explain the piles of piles in the garage. We moved about two months ago in our new house. We have done really well at only bringing stuff we really needed into the house. We have several boxes - we're talkin' those tall wardrobe boxes - of yard sale material. We have taken much to the curb for the nice folks at waste management to remove for us. We have done well at getting rid of CRAP we don't need! However, we still have much CRAP we don't need in the garage and our goal is to deal with in in the spring when it's warmer and we can have the yard sale. My husband keeps thinking he's going to sell some of the bigger stuff on Craig's List before the yard sale, but we can't seem to clean a spot big enought to take a picture of the items to get them online to sell. That's pretty bad! I did take a picture of the garage, but as I was walking up the stairs to the computer, my husband sheepishly asked why I took the camera to the garage. So, I think I have elected not to air that "dirty laundry".

I did find several other things lying around that need to be "dealt with".

I was walking through the kitchen and thought why do we still have this sitting here?

We had to do a project that required the use of this handy saw thing, but the cutting wood part of the project has been done about three weeks, I think! We only need to paint and put trim on. Definitely don't need a saw of this sort in the kitchen area. But it does belong in the garage, so that doesn't exactly fit the theme.

However, I was walking through/cleaning the family room when I saw this
and my only thought was why do I still have this hanging around my house? Really, why? Can you even guess what this is? This is a Play Station 2. Somehow we ended up with 2 of these obsolete Play Station 2 devices. One we had been using as a DVD player in the boys room until it got pulled off the shelf and broke (that was probably around August it broke, I'm pretty sure it made the move with us to our new house, but was tossed during the initial unpacking). The other we actually had used for a little Guitar Hero gaming. So, a couple of weeks ago, my hubby decides he's needing to play Guitar Hero and so he digs out the one remainig PS2 and hooks it all up - NOT WORKING. So, he takes it all apart and tries to fix it. No such luck, so there it sat on the floor in the family room, until today when I moved it to the landing of the stairs to photograph it. He drove an hour the next day to find a replacement gaming system. I know he wants something more than the old PS2, but I just frown on the idea, so he hasn't gotten a different one yet. But he finds a $70 refurbished PS2 and buys it. Gets it home and it doesn't work. Drives back the next day to return it and buys the new PS2 which was not much more than the refurbished one. So, now we still have the obsolete PS2, but we did end up with Guitar Hero 3 thanks to left over money on a gift card! Phew! That was a long story. I guess sometimes I just need to tell the details.


And lastly, there's this in my bedroom . . .


When we moved into the house, there was a nice large square mirror in one of the bedrooms, we put the boys in that room. We finally decided to start painting around the house, so about three weeks ago or so we started taping off that room (I will be posting about that adventure this week). We took down the mirror and there it sits in our room. Then, about two weeks ago we painted the downstairs bathroom and took down the mirror in there to paint. So, there the oval mirror sits in the room with the square mirror and I have no mirror in the downstairs bathroom! I don't like the oval mirror and we'll eventually put the square one in the bathroom after I peel off the decals off the corners - just not my style. Until then, I have a great view of my feet, I mean isn't that why we need mirrors?

What are you grateful for?

Instead of cleaning the house, which I should be doing, I have been just surfing the internet not really looking for anything. Many thoughts today are of Gordon B Hinckley, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What a great and wonderful man. Can you imagine if he was your grandpa? He became a world-known leader, many have commented on him here. There are many things which impress me about him. Today, I am grateful for his connection with the youth of the Church. In 2001, President Hinckley taught the youth what have become to be known as the "Be Attitudes". They are:
1. Be grateful.

2. Be smart.

3. Be clean.

4. Be true.

5. Be humble.

6. Be prayerful.

Later President Hinckley wrote a book on these same principles, but added three more:
7. Be involved.

8. Be positive.

9. Be still.

The book is called "Way to Be! 9 ways to be happy and make something of your life." This link is for amazon.com's preview of the book.

When the youth of the Church heard about the passing of Pres. Hinckley, text messages started flying and thousands of youth throughout many states wore their Sunday best to school on Monday in honor of President Hinckley. How wonderful is that? Read the articles here.

I am grateful for many truths I posses about the purpose of life, about the sacrifice of the loving and perfect Savior sent by a loving Father in Heaven, about repentance, about eternal families, about life after death. I am grateful for the influence of good and righteousness left by President Hinckley. Even those who do not believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Christian faith or who believe that the Church is wrong, they cannot deny that there is much good that comes from the Church. Families are held in high regard, youth are expected to live righteously, education is encouraged for all, humanitarian efforts stretch throughout the world, members encourage each other to improve ourselves, ill-will is not spoken of other faiths, children are taught about Jesus and his ministry, love is spread, humility, charity and service are practiced and life is lived to make the world a better place.

I am grateful today for the influence that President Hinckley has had on the youth out there struggling to make it through a rough teenage life. It seems as though there aren't many who can touch the hearts of teenagers and be a good example. And there are certainly many who influence the youth to covet the lifestyles of the rich and famous. We can all learn a youthful lesson from President Hinckley to "Be grateful; Be smart; Be clean; Be true; Be humble; and Be prayerful." That is some great and simple advice.