*sigh*

All 3 of my kids are in bed before 8 o'clock. Now I know some of you may roll your eyes, others might have a slight case of disbelief, and some may even have a jaw-dropping thud. (and the rest of you will say, "Oh, that's nice." But it's true, I tell you. And it gets better. One of them was in bed and asleep by 6:45...and it wasn't my youngest child. It was my 5 year old. Shannon J. was the only one priviledged enough to read our dinner dialogue that I posted. I felt bad and deleted it. I've been complaining about Emma a lot lately (she's been hard to handle lately), but she's definately getting better and I've realized that the majority of times when she's cranky, it's mainly because of a lack of sleep. Monday she was insanely cranky so I sent her to bed for 5 minutes and when I came back in (7 minutes later...I know I'm terrible) she was conked out. We were having the missionaries over for dinner that night so I woke her up a little bit later, but sometimes I need to remember that her crankiness isn't her fault, it's mine for not putting them to bed early enough. I'm editing this almost 13 hours after I put her to bed and she's still asleep... But I've got to wake her up to begin our new day!! (We have to leave in a 1/2 hour!)

Square what??

The pictures speak for themselves, but if you want to read about them, here is the article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1390088.stm (it's from 2001, I can't believe I'm just hearing about this modern marvel now!!!)

Shan's wedding pics

I just realized I totally forgot to post their wedding pics!! Go here: http://www.kingphotographystudio.com/individuals/Shannon_Jed/index.html

You're in the right spot!

Yes, it's still my page, I just jumbled things all around. I didn't want anyone to think they came to the wrong place. :)

Topsy turvy

I've never thought my children were capable of turning their super-saucer over....until now. David just rocks out in it.

More bow stuff

I just love this stuff!!! SO fun!

These are a few of my favorite things...

So this summer has really helped me gain an appreciation for this:
If you need a better picture to fully understand what I'm talking about, here you go:

As we were getting ready to walk to school last Thursday I ran back in the house to grab the camera because I was just so darn excited for CLOUDS!!!

Another favorite thing...my sleeping ballerina.

And my sweet sleeping babe...

Books

Just finished Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult. I really enjoyed this book. I got a little frustrated with the characters everynow and then, but it made me think about a lot of things. Picoult tends to write about controversial issues and usually opens your mind to new perspectives and this book did just that. There are a few times were the language was pretty harsh, but it didn't bother me.

Before that I read Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen. OK Other than some ridiculously harsh scenes that I learned to skip right over, I really enjoyed this book. Its about a man who joins the circus...sounds silly but it really was a neat book. Theres one scene early on that I read and very much wish I hadn't and theres at least one more scene that I'm sure got very graphic but I saw it coming and just skipped it completely. The book refers to it later on, but you don't have to read it to know what happened. Anyway, I would not recommend this if you are easily offended or if you like perfectly clean and happy books, but I liked it!

What are you reading right now?

My hero

We have had a mojor ant infestation this summer. They got so bad that when when we went to WA last week we had everything completely spotless and clean when we left and then 3 days later when we came home, there were still tons of ants just roaming around our kitchen sink, bathroom sink, and pantry. They weren't finding anything, they were just looking. So when we got back I went to Lowes and bought these:

And oh my goodness you would not believe how many ants attacked those things. I put one by the sink, one in the pantry, and one on the bathroom floor. There were so many ants inside that it looked black. And there was a huge trail coming and going for about 36 hours. But at the end of the 36 hours...not a single one!! I haven't seen any ants in our house for about 3 days. Thats ridiculously amazing. I also bought some outdoor ones but they haven't seemed to find them yet, because I still have ants all over my dahlias. And snails... And black widows on our porch... Those should all be tackled by next weekend, but I was just so happy to have won the ant war!

Ugh

Went to the grocery store today at 12:30....And look what my car had to tell me...



I texted this pic to my sister who later texted back a pic of her car's thermometer which said 104...and she lives right next to the beach!!! This weather is insane!!! Thank goodness for AC. Can I buy a portable AC to keep in my food storage? I think I'll die if the power goes out for more than a day. We have had the power cutting in and out all week but never for more than a minute. And we had a 4.7 earthquake yesterday. It was actually no more than 20 miles from out house, so we felt it pretty good. The girls didn't even notice it and Emma was bummed because she learned what to do in an earthquake last week at school and she didn't get the chance to do it. I think I'd rather have a minor earthquake and have her not feel it than have a huge one where she would need to kneel under a desk with her arms folded over her neck...

Today was an absolutely fabulous day. Ian and I started cleaning our house at about 1 and cleaned till 8:30 with a few breaks in between. Our house looks shiny and new! The floors are clean- mopped and vacuumed, the laundry put away, the bedrooms are spotless, kitchen shining, desk cleared(we cleaned that out last week...whew!), the lawns mowed. Ian was even able to tackle some "honey-do" projects I've been wanting him to do for a while. Taya - he finally hung your "HOME" letters downstairs and they look awesome!! I was stoked to have the time to organize our linen/medicine closet. I know it's strange but there are few things on earth that make me feel better than having an organized linen closet. Organized pantries may be a tiny bit higher on the list but not by far... Anyway, we really got a lot done. Thanks honey!!