Carpool cuties

Things I've heard while driving kids home from school.
"I'm glad Timothy goes home first so he won't bother us anymore."
"You can do it,(buckle seatbelt) you're in kindergarten. You can do everything because you're in kindergarten."
I love kids!

Pure evil

My friend Laura had a link on her blog stating that evil is real. I agree with her. Want to find out for yourself click here.
Mmmmmm, yummy!

Highlights from the week of September 22-28

• We get a visit from Buddy Bear. A homework assignment for kindergarten. Addy brought home a teddy bear and played with it, then we had to write in Buddy Bear's journal what things we did with Buddy.
• Ben and I got to watch a movie without children. The Spiderwick Chronicles, excellent movie. We love netflix!
• I learned that we have 28 light switches in our house (more kindergarten homework)
• Addy tells me that I am really old and that when she has kids I will be a grandma and then I will be even older. Aren't kids great for self-esteem.
• Babysat neighbors baby who had a cold.
• Tri-ward preparedness fair: It's the end of the world as we know it.
  
• Primary activity(no kids for 2 hours). The kids learned all about missionaries.
• Ben and I get the garage cleaned. We now have room for 2 cars in our garage, too bad we have a wall instead of a garage door.
• I actually went to the R.S. general broadcast and got to see the whole thing. It was awesome.
  
• Ran into a good friend, Andrea. I didn't even hurt her(that's for you Ben)
  
• Both girls have colds, left church early and watched ratatouille instead of going to primary.
• Both girls sick= more cuddle time for mom.
• Addy is well enough or drugged up enough to go to school, I get to see Mitchell (granola bar boy). He's a cutie!
  

T.V.P.

With the bad economy and all of the other unrest in the world, I thought hey, I'm gonna learn how to use my food storage. We have lots of wheat and spaghetti which don't work with my celiac disease. We also have lots of beans. On the back of one shelf, I found a can of textured vegetable protein. I thought hey, we're poor and we're out of chicken. I'll try it. I made a vegetable stir fry and after reconstituting the TVP, threw it in and added lots of soy sauce and served it over rice noodles. It wasn't too terrible, but I think we will save it for an emergency.

I'm not quite ready for all of this

It all started with a granola bar. Addy came home from school with a granola bar in her backpack. So I asked her where it came from and our conversation went something like this:

Me: Where did you get the granola bar?
Addy:Mitchell gave it to me.
Me:Why did he give it to you?
Addy: because he likes me and I helped him at school.
Me: Do you like him?
Addy: yes.
Me: Did he give one to anyone else?
Addy: no, just me.
Me: Is he your boyfriend?
Addy: Yes!

Okay, I know she's only in kindergarten, and it was only a granola bar, but I'm not ready for this.

Do I know how to have fun or what?

Last Thursday, I finally had my knee surgery. After a year of making snap, crackle and pop noises every time I moved, I decided it was time. After a long stressful day of waiting and wearing a lovely gown and paper shorts, the nice OR nurses came and gave me the good drugs. The next thing I remember was waking up with a tube in my throat. After the tube was removed and I woke up a little more, I was taken to the recovery area. After a dose of Percocet, I was allowed to get dressed which was oh so fun, and go home. Getting in the house was a joke. I couldn't quite get the hang of the crutches. I finally made it to bed and Ben helped get me all set up. Now that it's five days later and I am no longer on pain meds, things are okay. I get to start physical therapy tomorrow which really excites me. If you get bored and need a laugh, come watch me try to walk around the house or get up off the couch.

Rendezvous

Back in July Ben said that he thought it would be fun to go to a mountain man rendezvous. I used to go every year with my parents when I was a kid so I thought it would be fun. So, we loaded up the car and took off to lovely Evanston, Wyoming. We stayed at the motel 6, I would not recommend staying there. It was kind of a dive, but then we decided that everything in Wyoming is a dive. Saturday morning came and we drove to Fort Bridger. Wow! I was amazed at how big this event was. When I was a kid and went with my parents, there wasn't much at the rendezvous. This time, there was tons of tents and teepees, food and entertainment. The girls eyes were huge. I just hope they didn't notice all of the men walking around in their loin cloths. The girls had a great time watching people making candles and bullets and planing boards by hand. After a few hours, we had all had our fill of mountain men. We found a few little trinkets to bring home and found our way out of the maze. We then headed for our next destination, the booming metropolis of Rawlins, Wyoming. We wanted to extend our vacation and decided that Yellowstone was too far away, so we thought we would check out Martins Cove. My fourth great grandmother came across the plains with the handcart pioneers and I thought it would be really cool to see some of the historical places along the trail. This time we stayed at the Best Western, which was not a dive. The girls had fun swimming at the pool and we ordered Kung Fu Panda and watched it on our huge comfy beds. Sunday morning we headed to Martins Cove. We drove through some of the finer parts of Wyoming and wandered through a canyon. It was great, the road would go from paved to unpaved and back again several times. We saw lots of antelope and pretty scenery. When we reached the end of the line, we pulled into this little tiny city called Alcova. They had one tiny little convenience store and a few trailers. After looking at the map again, we finally figured out how to get to Martins Cove. We finally made it. The visitors center was very nice, but I don't think they get a ton of visitors. We were swarmed by the couple missionaries who were happy to have us there. We pulled a handcart around the gardens, watched a movie and wandered through the visitors center and grounds. We decided to hike out to the actual cove. We got to the fork in the trail and decided that we had gone far enough. We sat and rested and the girls found some rabbits that kept them entertained for quite some time. We made our way back to the car and hit the road again. After a nice dinner in Rawlins, Ben decided he wanted to go home. We drove through a horrible rainstorm and finally made it home at about 1:30 am. We had a lot of fun as a family, we haven't been on a family vacation in a long time.

It's finally here

It's finally here, the first day of kindergarten. I still am having a hard time believing that I am old enough to have a child in kindergarten. Addy was so excited this morning. At 7:20 this morning Addy climbed in my bed and asked "mommy, is it time to get ready for school yet?" It only took Addy about five minutes to get dressed since she had chosen her clothes several days ago. When we reached the school the kids lined up at the door and waited for their teacher Mrs. Durrant to come and get them. The principal had the kids wave and blow their parents a kiss as they walked into the school. And then she was gone. I have to admit I actually teared up for just a minute. I am so happy for Addy and I know she will love school. Meanwhile, Sydnee and I are having a blast playing together. Sydnee is all decked out in her Snow White outfit playing with the dollhouse. She ditched me a few minutes ago to play on her own. I love being a mom and I love both of my girls. It's always fun to turn the page and start another chapter in life.

What? From Ben.

Addy starts kinder garden tomorrow. She is very excited. I am excited too. I can be a home work helper and have one more person that is smarter then me. That is to say that everyone is smarter then mommy and daddy, even the 7 year old neighbor kid. Addy, this is it, from now on you work just like the rest of us. You need to like it or learn to like it. It will be great.

I had Peruvian food yesterday. It was quite good. I never would have suspected that one could serve a onion, tomato, zucchini and shrimp stir fry over limp french fries with rice on the side and have it be eatable. In truth it was actually VERY good. The kids actually ate there food so it must have had kid appeal too. Wow.

At work I took some time to work on a nifty little program call PRTG. It does easy SNMP monitoring not as flexible as cacti but easier to configure and has remote probes that allow easy monitoring of remote sites. It will also do WMI monitoring so I can get exchange metrics too. It saves me time. For $500 that is not to bad. Any one that needs SNMP monitoring should look at it.

Check out this video it is the best I have seen in quite some time:

What a week...

What a crazy week we have had. Monday, Addy went in for her kindergarten assessment test and to meet with her teacher. Addy was so excited that she was up, dressed and ready to go at 7:30 a.m. which was great except we didn't have to be at the school until 9:00 a.m. I can't complain because Addy is like a teenager in the sleep department, she doesn't like to be woke up and she complains and asks for five more minutes. Like I said before she's 5 going on 15.
The other exciting thing for Addy was that for the second time in her life she got something stuck up her nose. I couldn't believe it. Two years ago Addy stuck a bead up her nose and cried "get it out, get it out!" This time she came running upstairs crying and saying "my nose hurts." When I asked why, she told me she had a little bead up her nose. Sure enough there was a little rhinestone bead thing up her nose. Mom to the rescue, again. Now, here is my mommy tip. If your child ever does this you can usually save a trip to the doctor by pushing on the other nostril and blowing in your kid's mouth. Thank goodness it worked , yet again. The best part is that when asked why she had a bead in her nose. Addy's story and she is sticking to it, is that she was sniffing the floor for garbage and she accidentally sniffed the bead and it got stuck. Whatever!
Sydnee is my early riser, she loves to come in my room and crawl in bed with me. The other morning she climbed in and crawled over my legs. She then told me that my legs were scratchy like daddy's face. I guess it's time to shave.
Last night we went to a Salt Lake Bees game. We had awesome seats, free food and a great time. Sydnee had to wear her black ballet skirt over orange shorts with a gray shirt, yellow socks and these huge purple sunglasses. She has quite the fashion sense, or maybe not. Sydnee acted like she does at church, checking out what's on the floor, shopping for laps to sit on and asking for a drink. I am not sure the kids enjoyed it, but Addy and Sydnee swear they had a great time.

From 5 to 15

Addy is five years old going on fifteen. Some days I have to remind her that I am the mom and that she's the kid. Addy has been reminding me for some time that she needs new shoes and a backpack for school. Finally the day arrived that we could go shopping. The kids had to clean their play room before we could leave, I don't think they have ever cleaned so fast. Our shopping spree started at Payless shoes where Addy was very opinionated about the shoes she chose. She finally decided that she could get the Tinkerbell tennis shoes and some brown Mary Jane's. Addy reminded me again that she needed a backpack so we headed to the Walmart. After looking at every single backpack in the store she finally decided on a red backpack with pink flowers. I think we're finally ready for Kindergarten. Every day Addy asks if she can do homework, weird child. I am glad she is so excited for school. I am looking forward to it as well. Addy is full of additude (Addytude) I hope she outgrows it before she is a teenager.

Sydnee is still my totally laid back angel child. She is so easy going and funny. She and Addy are total opposites. It's amazing how different two children from the same family can be.

They grow up too fast

I can't believe it. My girls are growing up way too fast. It seems like only yesterday that they were wee little babies who were totally dependent on me. Now, they are both so independent that some days I feel totally unimportant.
Sydnee is now potty trained. Yea!!! For months I tried everything to bribe/encourage her to lose the diapers and be a big girl. Princess panties and M&M's just didn't do anything for her. One day Sydnee spotted a Snow White Barbie doll at the store and asked if she could have it. I told her that if she would go potty and keep her panties dry all day then she could have it. two days later she was wearing those cute little princess panties and playing with her new Barbie doll. As fabulous as it is to no longer have to buy or change diapers it's kind of sad at the same time. I am slowly dealing with the fact that I may never change a diaper again and that my babies are all grown up(sigh).
Addy is way too grown up too. She starts kindergarten in just a few short weeks. While at the store the other day, Addy informed me that she needed some school clothes and a new backpack. I just about fell over. My child is going to start school soon. Wow! We are now going to be part of the public school system, crazy. Getting used to being 30 has been hard enough, but having a child in school is making me feel really old. Addy is so excited and so am I, but once again it's kind of sad to see one phase end and another begin. Wow! That was like really deep and sappy. I think I'm suffering from the baby hungries something awful!

Girls Camp

I think I am almost recovered from girls camp. We spent four days at Camp Hunt which is a boy scout camp at Bear Lake. The lake is gorgeous, the camp not so much. After a three hour drive we set up our tents in a swamp like area with mosquitoes the size of humming birds (I have 60 bites to prove it). Going to the bathroom was quite an adventure, they were one step above an outhouse. You had to drop your drawers before backing into the stall. Then you had to hold the plywood door closed and pray for the best. Later I was told about the Adults only toilet. There was certainly more room and the door locked, but it was still a little awkward staring at the birds nest in the ceiling. The food was pretty horrible as well. I took my own bread and peanut butter thank goodness. Those are my two main complaints with lovely Camp Hunt. Now for the positive. I had wonderful girls and leaders to work with. I had ten first year girls who were very sweet and two leaders that I worked with that were lots of fun. The girls were able to swim, canoe, shoot rifles and try archery. We also made some crafty stuff. The highlight of the whole camp experience came on the last full day of camp. We participated in a trust walk. Each girl/leader was blindfolded and led to a ropes course. After receiving instructions we were given an egg to represent the most precious thing we have (mine was my family). As we felt our way along the rope blindly, holding this egg, people would try to take our egg. Others would whisper and try to get us to let go of the rope. When running into obstacles we could raise our hand and someone would come and whisper to us to help us know where to go. I raised my hand a lot. As I felt the end of the rope I stopped and held up my hand. I was given a hug and told "welcome home". What an awesome experience. Raising our hand was to symbolize prayer and the help was the still small voice. I don't think that I or any of the girls in the stake will ever forget this awesome lesson. If that is the only memory I have, then that will be enough for me.

Getting on the blog train

Alright everyone, here it is the Yancey family blog. Are you impressed, I finally got with the times so all of you can know just what is up with the Yancey's

Getting ready

Isn't it crazy how much extra work it takes to leave your home and children for four days? Ben and I are getting ready to leave for girls camp at Bear Lake. Addy and Sydnee ask every day (at least ten times) how many days until we leave. After buying them new princess pajamas and a few other special things for staying at Grandma's I think that Addy is actually looking forward to our leaving. Crazy kids!!! I think we are almost ready. We have one more trip to make to the Walmart for what Ben calls the important stuff, junkfood! I went and had cortizone shots in my knees today, that was exciting. I'm hoping that my knees will make it through camp. Wish us luck as we spend four days with 300 teenagers and leaders, while staying in tents. I love Camp!