Melissa and Girls

I’m beginning to think that I have a terrible memory because now that I’m finally sitting down to write up our month of October I can only remember a few things. Is that normal to not really remember anything that only happened one month ago? Maybe it’s because there’s been so much going on that nothing has had enough time to imprint on my brain! But, I’ll do the best I can. Most of the beginning of the month was spent moving from Mapleton to Spanish Fork. I only moved about 12 minutes away so I wasn’t going to spend money hiring a moving company. So, after work I would pack up 3 boxes for the trunk, 2 that would fit on the floor beneath the girls feet and 2 that I could put on the front passenger seat. I’d make 1 or 2 trips depending on how quickly we could get it all done. The girls were excited because I bought them a “new”, old movie, The Cat in the Hat and they’d watch it on a little TV at the new place while I was trying to get everything unloaded. So, the first week of October went on this way and the first level of the house went pretty smoothly even though it got tedious and boring really fast. The basement, however, was a whole other story. My lovely daughter Brooklen had spent who know how much time going through every box she thought looked interesting and emptying them all over the floor and, of course, nothing ever got put away even though I asked the girls every time the came upstairs if they had cleaned up after themselves. So, when I finally attempted the move I couldn’t even bother with organizing or it would have been impossible to move on time. So, in the end, my mom and my sister ended up just shoving whatever they could into whatever type of storage device they could find. I have to admit that I was overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have collected over the years. I’ve kept everything that I’ve ever bought for the girls and myself. So I decided to use this as an opportunity to purge what we don’t need anymore. I was able to give away some of the bigger, nicer “baby” toys to the day care my kids go to. Anything else that the girls didn’t play with and some stuff that had just been sitting in the garage I just sat on the lawn hoping people would come take them. One woman and her daughter came and took a lot of the baby items. It was really nice because she kept telling me how much this was going to help her. It’s nice to know that I was able to help at least a couple of people. On Saturday, October 10th the Elder’s Quorum in my ward helped me move all the furniture and then Monday, October 12th I had the day off because it was Columbus Day. The Relief Society came over and helped me clean the house. I can’t even begin to express how grateful I was for all their help. Since I had only been in the ward for a couple of months I didn’t even know some of the people that helped. I haven’t been one to ask for very much help in my life and this experience was very humbling and also strengthened my testimony of service. It’s amazing how much my burden was lightened by others being so willing to help. Well, after everything was moved into my new townhouse everything was so chaotic. I wasn’t able to park in the garage for a few days. My sister Lisa would come over at night and help me get boxes where they needed to go so I was finally able to squeeze the car into the garage. However, the biggest challenge was going through all the boxes we had shoved everything from the basement into. Oh my, I never realized how many clothes I had for the girls. I decided that it was finally time to let go and wanted to give the clothes to my friend Jennifer’s little sister Christina. She had twin girls in September and her husband recently lost his job. It took me a couple of weeks to wash everything and get it organized. I kept all of the outfits that had a strong memory attached, such as the outfits I brought the girls home from the hospital in etc. but gave everything else to Christina. I only got up to size 2T the clothes filled 3 big plastic bins and 3 smaller plastic bins. All full and some almost over-flowing. Holy crap!!! I was shocked. So, I’ve now decided that I really need to stop buying so many clothes for my girls! I’ve said that for a while but this really put it into perspective. In addition to the move we did a few other fun things. We went to the cabin for the deer hunt which we do every year. I love knowing that my kids look forward to this as much as I did growing up. It was really warm this year so Jordyn and Maegan spent most of their time outside playing with MY cousins (lol) Kylee and Sione. There was an old bike that they would take up to the top of the “road” that goes down the side of the cabin and they peddle as fast as they could and then coast towards the cabin. For me, the highlight was being able to take Brooklen on her first hike. It’s not that difficult of one but for a three year old it was pretty intense. We just went to the big rock that sticks out of the side of the mountain like we do every year. At first everything was fine but once we started going up hill she got a little scared. I told she just had to pretend the rocks were like stairs and show her where to step. I also stood behind her and helped push her up a little but eventually we made it. The older kids hiked up to the “top” of the mountain (it was actually just the top of the hill we were on). After a while Brooke was bored so we decided it was time to head back. The trip back was not so pleasant. She was scared to death to go down hill so this time I had to stand in front of her are show her exactly where to step. Which wasn’t that bad. The problem was when we were walking through the bushes she was the same height as them. Every time someone stepped past a bush the branches would snap back and hit her in the face. She was crying so I had to pick her up and carry her the rest of the way. That’s a little difficult to do because she’s getting to be a big kid! But, we all survived and hopefully next year’s hike will be a little better. My cousin Andrew was able to shoot his first deer, a spike that was barely legal. My dad and a couple others got a deer but none of them were spectacular. There was one funny incident when my Uncle Danny forgot to put sugar in the pumpkin pie filling. Jordyn ate a piece of pie and thought it was delicious but as soon as Uncle Dan bit into it he knew something was wrong. I didn’t ever try it but I wonder how Jordyn didn’t notice it was not sweet. Well, feeling in the mood after the hunt, on Monday night I made deer steak for dinner. Now, Maegan is a little funny about meat. Almost every night we have a lengthy discussion about what type of animal we are eating, where it came from on their body and why we are eating it. I was a little worried that after seeing the deer hanging under the cabin during the weekend would throw her off and she wouldn’t eat it so I wouldn’t tell her what we were eating. However, after dinner she said, “this is the best meat in the world!” So, that’s when I told her it was deer steak and her mouth dropped to the floor. To my surprise, she said, “I love deer steak!” Phew! Guess I can make it for dinner without it being a big battle. After the deer hunt Halloween was fast approaching. My friend from work, Heather, has never really watched the Harry Potter movies. I love them and we watch at least one a week. So, she and her daughter Bailey came over a few times and we watched movies 2 through 4. On Halloween we were watching the movies and we also carved pumpkins with the girls. While watching the movie I was still scrambling to finish making Maegan’s costume. She wanted to be a mummy this year. I was able to find some “bloody gauze” but it was really thin and a pain to work with. I bought a sweat suit and “tea dyed it so it looked old and dirty. She then had to wear the sweat suit while I told her to turn while I used spray glue and sprayed the suit and then stuck the gauze to it. It turned out really cute and she was happy with the way it turned out. I was starting to stress that I wasn’t going to finish it on time and then remembered that I had spent the month moving/cleaning/organizing and I could cut myself some slack. Brooklen is obsessed with The Little Mermaid and wanted to be Ariel for Halloween. Thankfully I still had the costume I made Jordyn at that age, which Maegan also wore in 2005, and I didn’t have to do any hard work for her costume. Jordyn ended up being Little Red Riding Hood. I was able to make a cape out of red fleece and sew a really poor “fake” blue and white checked dress to wear over her clothes. She used a basket instead of a pumpkin bag and she looked really cute as well. After Heather and Bailey left the girls and I headed to Justin and Jennifer’s house so the kids could go to their neighborhoods “Street of Treats”. The older kids took off on their own while Jen and I went with the smaller kids. Brooklen makes me laugh because at home she is so LOUD all the time but she is so shy around strangers. She would only quietly say “Trick or Treat”. Maegan and Bailey went around 3 times so they were loaded up with candy. Eventually we ended up back at Jen’s house for dinner. I had made chili in my Crock Pot and she made cornbread and dessert. We all ate dinner and hung out for a while before the girls and I headed home. I felt bad that I didn’t have time to take the girls around our new neighborhood but then realized that I was glad I didn’t have to spend time introducing ourselves at everyone’s door so it was probably easier. The last thing to mention was that Jordyn got to be a helper at lunch this month. She loved it and wasn’t even embarrassed to wear the had they made her wear. I am keeping the girls in their old elementary school until Christmas break so it’s been pretty busy just keeping up with school, piano, gymnastics, theater and all the demands of every day life but we made it through! Also, I wanted to mention a little about my “Thoughts” post. Yes, I was feeling a little down but it’s amazing how a few days later I was back to my old self. I do still need to work on everything I posted. However, I am much more optimistic about everything. I think I was just feeling so stressed because I had a whole bunch going on at home and at work things were insanely busy. I was trying to put together a big training, get hundreds and hundreds of boxes of files moved to a new location, deal with all the every day issues that come up with my employees and answer the 500 or so emails I have in my in box. It just got to be overwhelming. At the training I mentioned above my boss gave me a “Silver Medal” (something she created, not done by the state )award for everything I had been doing and gave me a $50.00 gift certificate! I was really surprised and honored that she did that for me. That helped boost my spirits and getting the house in order helped too. Well, that’s it for October. Hope I didn’t miss too much of anything.I'll post pictures soon.

I was reading some of my friends blogs that show when the last time someone posted when I noticed it said my last post was 5 weeks ago. I was shocked. I can’t believe how quickly time is flying by. Just wanted to let everyone know that my venting was great because I was able to get a few of my feelings out there but I’m back to my old self. I still need to work on what I posted but I have a much better attitude towards everything. Eventually I will have enough time to sit down and get my October/November posted. I have just been insanely busy between work and home. But, until then, be assured all is well with us.

I love blogging. I love being able to keep up with my friends and what cute things everyone is up to. I usually post about once a month to give everyone a chance to keep up with me. I don’t usually post too many of my feelings however. For whatever reason, I’m feeling the need to express some thoughts I have been having lately. I know that I am a pretty open person and am not shy about what is going on when I’m talking with my friends. Posting this for the world to see, however, is a little different but here goes. I am fighting a battle of opposites in my life. I am both satisfied with my life and unsatisfied, I think I am a good mom and I think I am a horrible mom. Is that possible? Everyone is always telling me how amazing and strong I am but truly, I am not. For those of you who know me, you know I am not a crier. Other than getting frustrated with the stupidity of others :-) I generally have a pretty even temperament. So, how shocking is it that I cry all the time now! Even typing this I feel like I need to have a good cry. It’s so confusing! I wouldn’t say I’m depressed necessarily, maybe just kind of stuck in a rut? I don’t know. I kind of feel like my life is passing me by. When I was in high school I had all sorts of grand plans before I settled down, I wanted to get my pilots license, I wanted to travel, I wanted to join this cool theater/singing group that I can’t remember the name of now and bust most importantly I wanted to live in the Seattle, WA area and become a Marine Biologist. I always thought that I would get married but I never dwelled on whether I would have kids or not. Needless to say, my life is nothing of the sort. While going to UVSC I worked at a care facility for handicapped kids called Tiny Tots. While working there I discovered I had an interest in the medical field. I was a ‘do-er’ so I signed up for an EMT class. I also found through a graphics art class that I had taken that I was also interested in that field. So, by the time I completed my Associate’s Degree I thought I should take some time off from school to figure out the direction I wanted to go. During this hiatus from school my lovely bff, Stephanie, introduced me to a friend of hers from work (don’t worry, I have absolved her of all responsibility.) Obviously I am talking about Sean. I was 20 years old and thought I had met the person I was supposed to spend my life with and stopped living my life. I started to live the ‘married’ life that I thought all good Mormon girls are supposed to live. I’m not going to get into all of the details of what happened on here. My point is that my post married for nine years, three kids, financially struggling semblance of a life is nothing like my fun-filled, friend-filled, dating-filled pre-married life. I’m the broken down car on the side of the road while all the shiny working cars are getting to where they want to be. But as I’ve been trying to figure out these feelings I think I’ve narrowed down the specifics and I want to get them written down so I can make sure I have addressed everything I am feeling and then figure out what to do about it all. Wish me luck!

1) Being broke sucks. Thankfully, I have a stable, okay-paying job but by NO means do I have a lot of money. Because of that I have to be really good with money. I know how to budget, pay my bills on time and how to stretch a dollar. But, to be honest, I’m tired of it! I want to be able to go buy a pair of shoes and buy the ones I WANT! Not the ones that are on sale and aren’t quite as cute as the ones I want but I’ll get them anyway because they are so much cheaper. Not all the time because I am pretty frugal by nature. But, every once in a while it would be so nice to splurge. Also I want to travel, a lot! I want to take my kids to do fun activities. I want to be able to go on trips with my friends every once in while. I want a new car! Mine literally is falling apart. It has 190K miles on it. I just finished moving from my house in Mapleton to a townhouse in SF. It took me a while to be ready to give up the big, nice house but it finally got to the point that I needed out so I could live again.

2) I need to lose weight. I think this plays a lot into my feelings of discontent. I still think of myself as the cute skinny girl and I hate the reality check I’m faced with every time I look in the mirror. My excuse is that I don’t have enough time. That is BS. I do have enough time. The real problem is that I am exhausted all the time. I am constantly thinking about when I can finally go to sleep. I hate being tired so I make sure I get around 8 hours of sleep each night because if I don’t, the next day I can tell. I need to quit complaining, get my life in order, suck it up and wake up early enough to get on the treadmill. Most adults don’t get enough sleep. I need to get off my pity party and start moving.

3) I am not a good mom. I mean it. I am way too short-tempered with my girls. They are kids for goodness sake! I expect them to act like adults and get mad when they don’t. I want my kids to understand the value of hard work and discipline but also relaxation and fun. I want them to be able to feel like they can come talk to me about anything. Right now, some one else is filling that role and it makes me angry. I need to work much harder on this.

4) I need to get out of the house more. I love being at home and I love my hobbies, reading, playing piano, crafting in all of the many projects I have worked on, cooking etc. But, I don’t feel like I’m ‘living’ anymore. Not that I want to go wild and crazy but I want to experience life again. I have a great support system because of my wonderful friends. I am blessed to know so many people with different personalities, struggles, triumphs, strengths and weaknesses. I have so many good examples to follow. But, I hardly ever get to DO anything with them. Every once in a while is not enough for me to be satisfied. There is work Melissa, mom Melissa, church Melissa, divorced Melissa etc. All of these “personas” are part of me. I need the social Melissa to have a little bit of a bigger role.

5) I need to follow the gospel. Don’t get me wrong. I have a strong testimony of the gospel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. What I need to do is better follow the actual practices and have more faith in trusting the Lord. If I had a better sense of this in my younger years I wouldn’t have made some of the mistakes I’ve made in my life. Although, I guess I never would have realized this if I hadn’t gone the trials I’ve had right?

Well, these are most of the things that are bothering me right now. And yes, writing them down as helped a great deal. I guess the important thing now is what I’m going to do about them. That will take some time to figure out but I feel like I’ve taken the first step to get back to me.

Oh, don’t be surprised if I end up deleting this.....I am embarrassed even putting it up. I just needed to vent.

The month of September was pretty mellow except for a few things. On September 5, 2009 my cute cousin Hannah was married. She kept the ceremony really small so we didn't go to that but the girls and I went to the reception at her home that night. It was so much fun. She wanted it to be informal so there was no reception line. At first everyone ate the refreshments and mingled. After cutting the cake she had her first dance with her husband, Nick. It was so sweet because she was fighting back tears. After dancing with their mom and dad the DJ started playing some more upbeat music. My girls went crazy! It was so funny watching Jordyn trying to dance to hip-hop. She told me that she was going to party all night long! Coming from Jordyn that was quite hilarious. All three girls did end up sleeping over, however, so they could play with my cousin's daughter Carly Rae. On Friday, September 18th their elementary school, Hobblecreek Elementary, held their annual school carnival. They hold this carnival to raise money for the school instead of having the kids sell things. It is great. They have a lot of games and food and a bunch of blow up slides and some rides. Jordyn once again wanted to be with her friends and took off for a little bit and then would check in with me. It's so weird to know that she's getting to the age that she'd rather be with her friends instead of her family. On Tuesday, September 29th I was able to go on a field trip with Maegan to UVU's theater presentation of Charlotte's Web. I had one of those little moments where I was taken by surprise with Maegan. We were sitting together on the bus and it was so chaotic because the kids were so excited. She decided she wanted to play 20 questions and singing songs. Then she decided she wanted to sing I am a Child of God so we sang it together. Sometimes I worry about Maegan and how she will accept the gospel in her life but maybe I don't need to since she wasn't embarrassed to sing in front of her peers. Well, when we walked into the theater I was quite surprised at how cool the stage was. They also had a live band dressed up like hillbillies on a broken down tractor so the music really set the mood. It's kind of hard to explain but they did a combination of puppets and acting. But they weren't really puppets in the way I thought they would be. They were more like marionettes made out of wood and paper mache. The actors would act and speak the part while moving the puppet so the animals looked realistic. The whole time I kept thinking how much I wish Jordyn could have been there. They have a few more productions set for the year so I might have to take the girls to some of them. After the play we sat in the grass and ate our lunches. It took a while to get the lunches distributed so we played some games like "Down By the Bank" and Duck Duck goose. Little kids giggling is such a fun sound! I must say that while this was really fun for me to be there but Maegan is CRAZY!!!!! This girl thinks it is the best thing in the world to tease boys and then get chased by them. But then, she complains that they're chasing her! No matter how many times I tell her to stop running and they'll stop chasing she doesn't see it that way. All I know is that I am in for an adventure over the next 10 years while she is in school! Along with the new school year comes activities. Jordyn and Maegan both wanted to do soccer but I missed the deadline so then we were on the hunt for other things. We settled on Maegan doing gymnastics and Jordyn joining a little theater group called Up With Kids. After Maegan's comment about joining the circus I decided I had better get her in some structured activity so she actually learns how to do her flips correctly. Jordyn on the other hand is constantly singing (and I mean that literally, she sings in the bathroom, in the car, in the car, in the car, at home...you get the idea.) She also shows me how she sounds just like the commercial, tv show etc. she just saw and re-enacts it for me. At this class they learn some basic acting and singing techniques and then they will be cast for a play called Wonderfully Wicked Wizard of Oz. Every kid gets a speaking part so I can't wait to see how it turns out. At the end of the month Sean's sister Keri put her house up for sale which Sean and his wife Ashley have been renting so Sean and I decided to do the big switch-a-roo of houses and I will be moving to a town house in SF. I already knew the areas I was interested in looking at and was able to find a cute townhouse in SF. I will be moving at the beginning of October so I'll write about it next month but I am SO EXCITED!!!!! I will finally be able to live again. I hope to buy a new/used car sometime next spring. Well, that's about it. Take care everyone!

Okay, so I am still new at this coupon shopping and I’m sure that eventually I will be even better at spotting deals. But I am excited with what I bought even though I’m still a novice. My goal was to only spend $50.00 per week on groceries. Keep in mind my parents gave me 100 lbs. of hamburger for Christmas last year and that is in my deep freezer. I also did make a couple stops at Ream’s to pick up some fresh veggies I did not have for the meal I was making. For the most part, I am trying to build up storage. I’m copying this report card idea from the girl that taught the class I went to. I always like going to her blog and seeing how she did for the month. Here goes:

I spent $199.65
I saved $469.42
Total savings were 70%
The average price per item is $1.31

Here is what I bought:
8 boxes Betty Crocker Brownie Mix
7 boxes Reese’s Puffs Cereal (My families favorite!)
8 boxes of Honey Bunches of Oat’s cereal
3 tubs Betty Crocker frosting
1 Betty Crocker cake mix
15 boxes Gushers/Fruit Roll-ups
4 boxes Nature Valley Granola Bar
2 boxes Lipton Rice boxes
3 Betty Crocker Warm Delights
5 tubs of Breyer’s ice cream (we love ice cream!)
1 jar Best Foods Mayonaise
1 jar Wishbone salad dressing
3 boxes Macaroni Grill pasta dinners
3 bags Chex mix (2 Turtle/1 Cheddar)
1 tub Country Crock buttery spread
4 cans Pringles
1 bottle Crisco Olive Oil
2 bags spinach
8 boxes Gogurts
6 boxes Pillsbury Toaster Streudels
6 bags totino’s pizza rolls
2 Twix candy bars
4 cans of Emarald Almonds
2 boxes Aunt Jemima pancake mix
1 bag Tyson frozen chicken
2 Degree deodorants 2 bottles All liquid laundry detergent
2 Dove deodorants
2 packages of 6 mega-roll Charmin toilet paper
1 Bounce dryer bar
6 boxes Puff’s tissues
1 bag Iams cat food
1 Colgate toothbrush
1 package 12 pack Cottonelle toilet paper
2 packages of 4 mega-roll Scott’s paper towels
1 box of quart sized ziploc bags

I keep thinking of things here and there that I forgot to post. I guess that’s why I should post more often! I’m just going back in and adding things as I remember them.

I know I’ve said this before but I’m going to give this another try and see if anyone notices I posted something since it’s been so long! Summer came and went so quickly. The last weekend in May we spent in Vernal visiting with Stephanie and her family. It was great to be able to go wave running on Saturday. Jordyn is a big wimp when it comes to this sort of thing. I can barely get on top of the water before she is freaking out. Maegan, on the other hand, cannot go fast enough. I was pushing 40 mph and she still wanted me to go faster. I didn’t want to push it too hard though and told she’d have to be happy with that. I also joined a card group with a few people from work and some other girls I haven't met yet. Every other month we get together and exchange cards. We all make 2 sets of 12 cards so we end up with 24 cards every other month. I am so excited because I love making cute things with paper but don't have time to scrapbook anymore. Steph is the most amazing person with paper so she helped me with cards while I was at her house.

June was a very rainy month so we didn’t really do much because it was so cold. I must admit though that I absolutely LOVED it! On June 17 - 19 I was able to go to Snowbird for a leadership conference. Basically all the managers in the court system statewide attend seminars to become better leaders. I found it to be very informative. I was the “odd” person out of my district and didn’t have a roommate so I ended up staying with a probation supervisor from SLC. It is such a small world! As it turns out, her parents and sister live in Mapleton. In fact, her sister only lives a few blocks from me. But what was even more amazing to me is that she grew up in Provo and was really good friends with a family friend named Trent Halladay. Technically he was Sean’s friend from Provo PD but he was a great guy, mentor for Sean and really cared about my kids. Sadly, Trent passed away in 2006 from cancer. He was one of the many officers that tore down meth labs in the ‘90's before it was known how contaminated the labs are and hazmat suits were worn. It was nice to talk with Debbie about him. It kind of put a couple things back in perspective for me. It’s always amazing to me that I am always so quickly sucked back into the whirlwind of life and so easily forget the important things. Anyway, talking with her just reminded me of some of the things I am striving to work for and what is important in life. At the end of the month I was released from my primary teaching calling because I was moved to a different ward in Mapleton.

In July I was able to switch my work schedule to four ten hour shifts so I could take Wednesday’s off. It was wonderful to have an extra day to spend with the girls. We did a lot of swimming up at “the res”, went bowling, saw quite a few movies, spent days at the park and also went to a couple of the outdoor movies in Springville. July 4th Lisa and I went swimming and then we made the usual trip to Nephi to spend the day with my dad on his birthday. We were able to eat outside but then the weather changed and it was freezing cold. The city was not able to do the big firework show so my dad lit some in the back yard. The kids were bundled up in blankets in the house looking out the door. Not the most exciting Fourth of July but certainly a memorable one. Jaxon was afraid of the fireworks just like Brooklen was last year. The next weekend was the annual Ute Stampede. It’s always fun to watch the rodeo and then go to the carnival afterwards. Brooklen did not like the rodeo this year. She was very upset every time a cowboy was bucked off. She kept saying, “I don’t like those guys falling off the horses”. In fact, she kept telling me how much she didn’t like the “radio” because of the guys falling off their horses for a few weeks afterwards. At the carnival Maegan and Jordyn had a blast on the rides but unfortunately Brooklen wanted to go on a roller coaster that ended up being a little too much for her. Jordyn was with her and tried to make her feel better but the ride operator let it go on forever because, of all people, he was talking to my dad and let the ride go on forever. She was not happy by the time it was over. Later in the month the girls were able to go on a 10 day trip to Washington with Sean and Ashley. At first I didn’t know what I was going to do with my new found free time. I ended up spending a day in Tooele visiting my good friend Sarah. Then, I was able to drive to Austin, Texas with Jen and her kids. I spent the week with her family at her sister’s house. I took a few books and was able to get a lot of good relaxation. After I flew home I drove to Moab with my sister to stay with the my family at my grandparents house while celebrating my great-uncle Garth’s 88th birthday. Next thing I knew the 10 days were gone and I picked up the girls. Ryan and Ali (Sean’s brother and his wife) were in Utah on vacation and came to our house for dinner on July 28th. It was so nice to be able to spend some time with them. The girls loved playing with their cousins that they don’t get to see very often. All in all it was one of those fun, relaxing summers.

August was mainly spent getting school supplies and playing with their friends. I can’t believe that it went by so fast and school has started again. On the day before school we went through all of their new clothes and picked out the outfits they wanted to wear for the week. I made sure everything was washed and ready to go for their big day. So, on the morning of Wednesday, August 19th I woke them up and got them ready. Maegan was excited because she has the same teacher Jordyn had for 2nd grade, Mrs. Pugh. Jordyn loves school and was excited to meet her teacher, Mrs. Cannon. I drove them to school, wished them luck and dropped them off. It’s so cliche for moms to have a hard time with this day and I don’t know why that is. All I know is that I got all choked up while driving away. Up until now I haven’t really given much thought to how big my kids are getting. Not that I don’t see them growing but it hasn’t really dawned on me until this year how not little they are anymore, if that makes any sense. Almost every time I look at Jordyn I can’t believe how big she is getting. I guess it’s such a hard day because you are so proud of them yet so sad they are another year older all at the same time. Anyway, Brooklen and I went to a work meeting I had for the “Unity Committee” I am on. It’s actually quite fun because we get to plan all the parties and activities we have at work. We were having our own party at a bowling alley. We ate lunch, played one game of bowling (thank goodness for the ramps they have for little kids) and then after the meeting we went shopping. Next thing I knew it was time to pick the girls up from school. They both loved their teachers and were excited to be back. On Saturday, August 22nd, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. and went hiking with my friends from work, Laura and Laicy. We drove up to Sundance and went hiking to Stewart Falls. I haven't been there since I was in elementary school. It's not a difficult hike but I am out of shape so it kicked my but in a couple spots. It wasn't too bad most of the time though. I haven't been on a hike in about 12 or 13 years so I was really excited to get out and go. Laura has made some cute bags she's selling on Etsy so she was able to take some pictures of them along the way. I'm hoping that now that I have this initial hike out of the way that I'll be able to go more often and start doing something that I used to love before I got married. By the time I got home it was a little after 10:00. My cute cousin Angie Scoma was getting married so I had to hurry to get ready for the day. I thought it was funny because I went from hiking boots and dirt to some pretty impressive high heels. Anyway, she had a luncheon at 11:30 in Mapleton. Then I went with my mom to SLC to the temple. It took us a little while to find a parking spot but we finally made it inside and had plenty of time to spare. I haven't been to a temple wedding for a very long time and I really enjoyed being there. When I got married in the temple they were living in California and they drove to Utah for the wedding. After the ceremony her dad, my uncle Tony, gave me a big hug and thanked me for being and example to his kids and it was nice to be there for her on her special day. After pictures we picked up my girls from Sean and got them ready and then went to the reception. My girls were able to play with all the other kids that were there while I was able to visit with my extended family. Angie is working at my aunt's daycare where my kids have gone in the past. Maegan, was so upset when Angie left to go on her honeymoon and would not stop crying because she already mised her. Luckily there were pictures of Angie and Phillip on the tables and Maegan was able to pick a few to take home with her and she finally calmed down. On Monday, August 24th we went to the last outdoor movie for the summer, The Princess Bride. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and we were rained out. On Tuesday, August 25th we went to my Grandma and Grandpa Madsen's house in Woodland Hills for dinner with the family before my Aunt Amy and her family left to go back home to Oregon. Wednesday nights are always my girl’s favorite night because I don’t make dinner. We have “Whatever Wednesday’s” where I let them eat whatever they want for dinner as long as it is reasonably healthy. On Thursday I took the girls to Sean and then went to their school for Back to School Night. As I’ve mentioned, Maegan has the same teacher that Jordyn had in 2nd grade so I knew what to expect with Mrs. Pugh. Jordyn’s teacher Mrs. Cannon seems great but she is very different from her 3rd grade teacher. Mr. Hart never sent homework home the entire year. Jordyn is going to have to do monthly book reports and weekly homework assignments in addition to her daily reading. I know homework is supposed to beneficial but I hate it! I guess because Jordyn is such a smartie and picks up on everything right away that I think it’s a waste of time. I can’t let her know this though or she’ll be trying to get out of it so I just have grin and bear it. Oh the joys of being a parent! When back to school night was over I headed home to work on my cards for my card group while I watched some TV. After work on Friday I picked the girls up from Sean and then went back to work for a movie night. Every couple of months we play a movie on the big projector we have. Everyone brings blankets, chairs, pillows etc. and whatever snacks you would like to share. This night we watched Race to Witch Mountain. Maegan ended up with Heather’s little girl Bailey in the hall playing jump rope for a lot of the movie. After cleaning up we headed home and the girls were really tired so they fell asleep even though it is their late night and they normally like to stay up until midnight. Saturday morning turned out to be “torture day.” I think I have wonderful girls, they truly are well behaved most of the time. That said, Jordyn has really been struggling with her attitude. Every time I ask her to do something she always has some excuse of why she can’t do it or how she could do something else instead. I’m really tired of it. She keeps pushing her limits lately so instead of going to the kite festival in Spanish Fork as planned I kept everyone home and told them we were working. They were going to follow me around the house and do whatever needed to be done until they finally appreciate how good they have it. I know, this is the perpetual lesson every parent is trying to teach right? Well, a couple hours into it Sean called and asked if he could have the girls come over again since he isn’t going to be able to see them next week. Lucky their dad saved them from a long day of chores! After dropping of the girls I went and saw Harry Potter again. Then I went to Robert’s and bought a few more supplies for my cards and headed home. Lisa came over a little later and we watched What Happens in Vegas and then Traitor. After she left I read some of the book I’m reading but at around 2:30 a.m. I finally had to go to sleep. Lucky me that the girls were with Sean because I didn’t wake up until 11:30! I was being really lazy so I read mor of my book. At 1:30 p.m. I picked them up and we headed home. The girls just played around the house while I finished reading my book. It was kind of late so I didn’t really make much of a dinner like I usually do on Sunday. I got the girls ready for bed and then finally cleaned up the house. After working on my cards there was paper everywhere! Monday, August 31st was a typical day. I got the girls’ lunches made, got everyone ready and headed out the door at 7:40 a.m. I dropped the girls off at school and then took Brooklen to “the daycare house.” This is what my girls call the daycare my aunt and uncle run in Mapleton. I headed to work and around 11:00 a.m. was leaving to run to the AF Juvenile Court when wouldn’t you know that Maegan is calling from school saying she is sick. She was sneezing, had a runny nose, coughing and had a sore throat. I had to call in so much earlier in the month because of the stomach bug we had that I called Sean to see if it was possible for him to take the rest of the day of instead. He couldn’t right away so I picked her up and went home to eat lunch with Maegan. Then when Sean was home I took her to his house so I could get back to work. At 4:30 he dropped her back off with me and we went to pick up Jordyn and Brooklen. My friend from work Ashley had a baby a couple weeks ago and I haven’t been to visit yet so I had offered to take her dinner. We stopped at the grocery store for a few supplies and then headed home to cook. As with almost everything in my life I’m trying to be better about FHE. So, since it happened that we were taking Ashley dinner I thought we would do a lesson on service. I wouldn’t let Maegan help cook so I had her do other things to help. I had Jordyn help cook the onions, peppers and hamburger and she did a great job. I made Baked Spahetti, Peas, Garlic Bread and Brownies. At 7:00 we took them over to Ashley. Her little boy, Tanner, is sooooo cute! Jordyn and Brooklen both took turns holding him. I wouldn’t let Maegan get near him but she was happy because she was running and jumping onto their big love sack and apparently that’s a good substitute. It was so nice holding such a cute, warm, wrapped up little baby! I’ve got to admit that I was surprised that I was NOT baby hungry after holding him! It just brought back all of the memories of my sweet little girls but then I could go home and get some sleep! lol. Well, after leaving Ashley’s we went home and ate our portion of the dinner and then we moved on to the FHE lesson. Continuing with the ‘service’ theme we said a prayer, sang a song and then I start by asking the girls the question, “Does anyone know what service is?” Maegan raises her hand and says, “Service is when you are at a hotel and the people bring you towels and pillows and stuff so you can live.” Oh my gosh! Here I am trying to have a spiritual lesson and I was biting my lip so hard so I wouldn’t start laughing! She is the funniest kid. I told her that was service you have to pay for and not the kind of service I was talking about. Well, we finally made it through the lesson and I introduced a new activity we’re going to start. It’s called, “Secret Service Agent”. Each week we will draw papers and one person will draw the paper that says “Secret Service Agent”. The rest of the week they have to find something to do everyday to help serve someone in our family and they can’t get caught. Sunday night we’re going to have that person announce who they are and what they did for the week and then we will draw again for the upcoming week. I hope they learn from this experience. I’ll keep you posted!

Even with all this going on I spent a lot of time this summer trying to get my life a little more organized. I've organized my garage and basement and cleaned out closets. But, the exciting thing for me is now my grocery shopping! Everyone who knows me knows that I LOVE to shop but especially bargain shop! But, it gets to a point when we have WAY too much stuff. My girls have so many clothes that it would take a month for them to wear everything they have. I finally have decided that is ridiculous and so I have put my bargain hunting into much better use and I am now an addicted coupon grocery shopping! I can't believe how much money can be saved by spending time organizing your shopping and then using coupons. My food storage is already looking so much better than it was even at the beginning of summer. Once I finish getting all the food organized I'll see if I can get some pictures of that posted too. In addition to organizing I wanted to work on different ways to discipline the girls. For those of you who know me, I am not the most patient person in the world and unfortunately I tend to be really hard on my girls. I hate that about myself. One day I ran across a book called Do What is Right with 52 ideas to motivate and discipline for LDS families. The reason I bought the book was because of the ‘S.T.A.R Sleepers’ idea. When it is bedtime I really need my girls to go to sleep so I can have some me time. I know there are lots of moms who thrive on being with their kids constantly but I am not one of them. So, when it’s bedtime and I’m spending the next hour dealing with, “Mom, I’m thirsty,” “Mom, I have to go to the bathroom,” “Mom, I’m scared,” “Mom, I forgot to tell you...” with three kids it could go on forever and I lose my patience. This program uses visual motivation instead of me just getting upset and yelling. So, I designed a chart that has 14 squares after their name with a little star that moves when they earn points. There is a big star for each of them with their name on it that goes in their room. The point is that they want to become a Super Star by keeping the big star in their room from moving. If I have to come in and move their star because they are not being quiet, instead of yelling, they see me move the star and they are a Falling Star. If the star stayed in place they get 2 points on the chart, if their star moved they get one point and if their star ended out in the hall they got 0 points. Every two weeks we would decide on an activity we were working toward and once all 3 girls got 14 points and were Super Stars we got to go on the activity. I was AMAZED at how quickly this worked. In fact, I am not even doing this anymore because they go to sleep so well. There are a lot of other fun ideas and I am going to pick a couple more to work on over the next couple of months. Last thing, I promise! We also adopted two cats and here is the story behind this decision. My friend Jennifer’s mother-in-law works at the South County Animal Shelter. There are so many cats that most of them are put down. Well, my friend Jennifer started fostering some of the kittens so they wouldn’t be euthenized. The girls and I were over at Jenn’s house one night and she had the cutest little black and white kitten that was about 4 weeks old. She had been rescued from a fire and was named Smudge. Her whiskers and the fur on her sides had been singed from the fire. She wasn’t going to the bathroom and her stomach was really distended. We were worried that her bowels were going to burst and we had to put her in warm water and massage her to try to get her to go to the bathroom. The girls were really sad and didn’t want to leave her behind so I agreed that if she made it through the night we could keep her. Well, she finally went to the bathroom so we bought the supplies we needed and took her home the next day. We had to supplement her diet with kitten formula for a while but eventually she was big and strong enough that we moved her to solid food and she has done just fine. The problem however is that she is a VICIOUS cat! I think because she didn’t grow up with any other kittens to play with that our hands and feet are the prime targets for her biting and scratching. My kids were afraid of her and I thought that maybe because we are gone a lot during the day that having another cat to keep her company would help calm her down. So, one weekend we went to Petsmart to adopt a cat from Lost Paws. There were quite a few cats to choose from but wouldn’t you know that my girls see the cat with 3 legs, yes she is missing a back leg, and HAVE to have her. The volunteers said they think a dog attacked her when she was a kitten. My girls felt so bad for her and kept asking why the dog would eat her leg. I couldn’t change their minds so we ended up taking “Tripod” home. I don’t like the name so I shortened it to Tripe. At first she would just hide out in the house and didn’t come out much. Eventually she warmed up to us and she is a really sweet cat. The girls love her to death and she doesn’t bite at all. She does “talk” a lot but at least we can actually pet her. Funny thing is that I was worried about her being able to hold her own with Smudge but that was proven to be unnecessary. She keeps Smudge in her place and chases her all over the house. It’s amazing because you would never know she’s missing a leg if you watched her run. If you read this entire post I am honored and impressed! Thank you everyone for all your love and support. Melissa

I'm going to try and do a basic overview of what I've missed for the last few months. So, I'm starting with Halloween! Jordyn and Maegan both wanted to be scary this year. I’m more concerned about them being warm. Jordyn originally wanted to be a corpse bride but I wasn’t able to find that costume. Luckily I was able to find a “Zombie Prom Queen” costume that she really liked and I was also able to find a long sleeve gray shirt that worked with the costume. Maegan wanted to be a “vampire girl” and I had no problems finding her a costume. I was also able to find a long sleeve black sweater that worked with her costume so both goals were accomplished! Brooklen is still little enough that she doesn’t really have a say in what she wears so I picked out Maegan’s old Carebear costume so she would be nice and warm. She was ornery at first but then she was really happy and actually wore the costume around for a few days. The other thing I decided to try was having a Halloween party instead of just Trick-or-Treating. I figured we’d use this as an experiment and then we can make some adjustments in the future. So, the girls invited all of the girls in their school and/or primary classes. We had a few RSVP’s so I was really excited. We planned the menu, bought treats for the gift bags and were ready to go. On Halloween we went to a few houses and then headed home. The problem was that only a few girls actually showed up. I figured that would happen but luckily Jordyn and Maegan had a great time. Sean’s parents, Roy and Bonnie, wanted to see the girls in their costumes so they came over for a little while and we are able to catch up. By about 10:30 Maegan and Brooklen were passed out and Jordyn ended up going to her friend’s house to sleep over. All in all it turned out to be a good night. Over the next few days I had a lot of apologies from moms that said they were planning on the party but their girls were just too tired to make it. So, next year I think we’ll still have a party but have it on a different night.

So, Jason and I broke up. Well, to be honest, I broke up with him. He asked me to take everything off of my blog so until I actually have time to do that I'm taking everything down. I'll get it back up soon!