awfully fond (because addicted and obsessed sound so negative)

of spending massive amounts of time on etsy these days. wishing i was creative to come up with something to sell. will settle for browsing and adding to my favorites...sigh.

Life With A Soon To Be Teenage Girl

Miss Madison will be turning 13 soon. February 20 to be exact. Living with a teenager is quite an experience. My days are currently spent listening to this song over and over.

I believe I have heard this song at least 2,694,301 times. We've all heard it so many times even Elek can sing it. I suppose it could be worse it could be gangsta rap or death metal.

Life also involves lots of discussion of whether Edward or Jacob is better. (Personally I'm team Edward...lol. Yes, I am one of those Twilight moms.)

Mad's bedroom currently looks like a tornado hit it. Clothes as far as the eye can see. Clean clothes, dirty clothes tossed here and there. Every event requires numerous outfit changes until just the right combo is achieved. For Thanksgiving dinner alone she needed to try on no less than 10 items of clothing. She finally settled on a red plaid skirt, black leggings and her New Moon shirt. Maddy has a unique sense of style and makes sure that she always looks different from everyone else.

We hear a lot of "you're ruining my life" and "you just don't understand". Oh yeah, these phrases need lots of eye rolling to go along with them. The "you're ruining my life" is used when we won't give in and give her what she wants. It usually has something to do with hanging out with her friends. I'm sorry, but I am not dropping my 13 year old at the mall and letting her walk around unsupervised with 4 other 13 year olds. It's just not going to happen. And as for the "you just don't understand" I think she forgets that I was an almost 13 year old girl once.

Mad has been a complete drama queen since birth and everything is cause for major dramatics. She got her progress report from school a couple of weeks ago and she had a B+ in math. You would have thought that she was failing the way she carried on. Maddy has never gotten a B, she's always had straight A's and apparently the thought of a B was more than she could take. She sobbed and whined and moaned for an hour. It got to the point where I had to leave the room and ignore her. (She did get the grade up to an A.)

Even with all the aforementioned fun we wouldn't trade our Maddy Beth for anything. She is a constant ray of sunshine in our lives. She blesses us beyond words.

Happy Thanksgiving!

>

Today, I'm thankful for:

* Jesus Christ, a loving and patient Father in Heaven
* An amazingly wonderful family
* Friends who care are always there and love me no matter how many quirks I have!
* For my body that is healthy for the most part most of the time.
* For talents and gifts that make life fun!
* For the peace and safety of living in a free nation.
* For the little tender mercies that come my way each day!

Today

Today I am home sick with the flu. Very thankful that Mad and Ian have school off today and tomorrow and that Mad is a tremendous help with Elek. I am fevery and woozy and not much use. (Ian is a good helper, but went to work with Michael) Manda has offered to come swab my nose to see if I have the swine, but I'm not sure that I want something shoved up my nose.

Today I am mostly lying on the couch with my Snuggie, reading. I am reading Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall. She is the woman who pressed charges against Warren Jeffs. Very interesting book. It's a good thing that I was not born a FLDS, I would not do well with sister wives!

Today I am posting Halloween pics because I am too lousy feeling to do anything else.

Having A Meme

I stole this from Pat, so that I would have something to blog about.

Six names you go by:
1. Kelly
2. Kell
3. Kellerbell
4. Mom
5. Ms. Kelly
6. Hey You
Three things you are wearing right now:
1. Gray T-shirt
2. Jeans
3. white socks
Three things you want very badly at the moment:
1. quiet
2. elek to leave his clothes on
3. 3 children in bed
Three things you did last night/yesterday:
1. made dinner
2. watched 18 kids and counting (i love those duggars)
3. bathed a 21 month old
Two things you ate today:
1. hummus
2. pita
Two people you last talked to on the phone:
1. maddy
2. michael
Two things you are going to do today/tomorrow:
1. take a bubble bath
2. go to bed
Your three favorite beverages:
1. Iced tea
2. diet pepsi
3. orange juice
Here's what you're supposed to do. Copy and paste the questions into your blog. Then delete my answers and type in your answers.

It has been forever since I've done one of these, but I have a lot of stuff I did not do this week, so...

I did not say to my three children that I “was about to have a moment” if they didn’t get it together and my 9 year old did not respond “and it’s going to be ugly”. I did not laugh out loud at said response.

I did not utter the phrase “if you don’t all quiet down I am going to pull this van over and not move until its quiet”. No way would I ever utter such a cliché to children.

I did not join a cult this weekend. The Snuggie cult! I have not sworn up and and down that I would never wear a Snuggie because they look like something a cult would wear. I was not so cold on Saturday that I didn't buy one. I'm not totally looking for the comet I'm supposed to be following.

I am not about to go take a nap.

Oh yes, I am going to take a nap. I can barely keep my eyes open. Goodnight!

Unexpected Vacation

Monday started like any other day. I got kids ready and out the door, went to work, picked kids up, cooked dinner, did homework, etc. Once everyone was in bed I decided to stay up and watch a little TV by myself and enjoy the peace. Around 10:30 my cell phone rang. Thinking "who the heck is calling me at this hour?" I got up and answered it. It was my friend Sherri, who I work with. "Kelly?" "Yes." "Sorry to call you this late, but Greg just called me and Randall is on fire." (Randall is the school we work at and Greg is a coworker.) "Are you serious?" "Yes, Greg says he can see it from his house." "Are you going up there?" "Yeah." "I'll meet you there in 10 minutes." When we arrived this is what we saw.





I have to admit it's a bit surreal to see someplace that you spend quite a bit of time on fire.

Within a few minutes a group of my coworkers are standing outside the school (most of them were still in their pajamas). The fire was put out within about 15 minutes and the firemen did an excellent job. We ended up hanging out for 2 hours and finally decided to head home.

Tuesday afternoon Sherri, my other friend, Jen and I went to the school to see things after the fact. This is what we saw.







The smell of smoke was extremely strong throughout the whole building. This may be TMI, but after I had been home for a few hours I blew my nose and for a minute couldn't figure out why my snot was black. There was a layer of soot on everything. Ceiling tiles were being yanked down. Carpet was being ripped out. It was kind of like walking into The Twilight Zone.

Needless to say school has been canceled since then. We're supposed to go back on Monday. Depends on the smell in the building. I have to admit I'm ready to go back. Slightly bored and I miss my 400 other kids.