Just Here to Share My Expertise

Does it seem like every blogger out there has become an expert at something?

Or several things?

Fashion, budgeting, cooking delicious-healthy-organic meals from scratch, cleaning, organizing, hair, makeup, weight loss, child-rearing, spirituality, photography.

Well, I'm here to share my expertise, offer advice, and give tips.

1

 I am expert at getting my kids out the door for school in a record amount of time when I have overslept for the third time in a week.

Tip #1:  Poptarts and bananas are fast, easy, convenient, and can be eaten in the car.

Tip #2:  Keep gum handy when there is no time for brushing teeth.

Tip #3:  Downy wrinkly release is a life-saver for clothes pulled from the bottom of the clean laundry pile that has yet to be folded.

Tip #4:  Buy a brush that doesn't yank out your daughter's hair when brushing quickly and vigorously.

2

I am expert at placing dishes in the sink in such a way so that, from a distance, the kitchen appears clean.

Tip: plates on the bottom, silverware in glasses, bowls stacked nicely on plates, etc.

3

I am expert at a never-ending system of laundry rotation.

Tip:  Just keep everything in the laundry room and the kids always know where their clothes are.  Easy.

4

I am expert on scouring bathrooms.

Wait a minute.

Nevermind.

5

I am expert at time-outs.

 

6

I am expert at fast, easy, questionably nutritious meals for my kids when I have exactly 25 minutes between carpools to fix something for dinner

New invention:  Pizzadillas

Tortillas

Spaghetti sauce

Cheese

Pepperoni

Olives

Top with another tortilla

400 degrees

8-10 minutes

Voila! 

My kids think I am the best chef ever!

(I won't mention that we ate this 3 times last week.)

7

I am expert at starting a project and NEVER finishing.

Remember my closet makeover?

Yep.

Still pretty much looks like this.

8

I am expert at worrying.

Give me any situation.

I will find something in it to worry about.

I once walked into the dance studio and, without even thinking, started baby proofing (throwing away plastic bags, picking up choke-able objects off the floor, etc.)  

9

I am expert at impulse purchases and buying stuff we don't even NEED just because it's on sale.

Oh, this is such a problem--I can't go to the store anymore.

10

I am expert at extending the life of my hair so I can wash it as infrequently as possible.

Baby powder, dry shampoo, curling irons, lots of hairspray...and lots of ponytails.

Okay, so I am not an expert on being the perfect mother/housewife/fashionista

BUT

I am expert on LOVING my kids and family and doing the darn best that I can.

And that's good enough for me.

Week in iPhotos 2

I have been sick all week and so have some of the kids, so the blog has taken a backseat.

I did still manage to do some documentation of my week with my iPhone.

Josh stayed home from school because he had a fever.

Even though he felt lousy, he still LOVED staying home and having some free time....

 ...free time to make this awesome paper airplane.

I wish you could see how well it flew.

Amazing.

Jake was in charge of our Family Home Evening lesson.

He looks thrilled.  :)

He did a great job, though, and we had a great discussion about the "Wise Man and the Foolish Man."

We finally got a sizable snowstorm.

I took a trip to my favorite store...

...and found these.

Why, oh why, didn't someone think of this sooner?

It's brilliant!

Candy packages that you just write your name on and PRESTO!  DONE!

I am far, FAR too busy at this stage in my life to attempt anything super creative (or copy someone else's super creative idea from Pinterest).

This is a life saver.  Bless you Skittles!

Why do I document my torture chamber?

This is DAY FOUR of laundry.

I just couldn't get my butt off the couch to change the loads.

 Have I mentioned how much I love my job hobby that I happened to get paid for?

I love my students.

What is the deal with my weeks-long tension headaches???

I don't get migraines.

I get tension headaches for weeks at a time, and no amount of ibuprofen, acetaminophen, ice, water, rest, makes them go away.

Here is Sammy trying to "make mom's head feel better" by playing with my hair.

I love this sweetie pie!

I finally got feeling better on Saturday so I thought I would get caught up on everything.

Nope.

My plans changed when I dropped my phone in the Smith's Marketplace parking lot and shattered the screen.

My phone was unusable and I couldn't get a new one because this one was less that 3 weeks old.

I drove to three different places in Salt Lake until I found a place that could fix it.  It took 3 hours and $175.00.  

Ouch!

After driving home and trying to use my phone, I realized it didn't work right, so I drove all the way back up to Salt Lake and sat for 2 more hours while my phone underwent a second surgery.

Ask my husband what kind of a mood I was in on Saturday night.

Actually, don't.

I bought this ridiculously ugly and ginormous phone cover.

I'm a dropper.

It is necessary.

Aunt Keri came over and spent a couple hours coloring with Lu.

My Saturday night improved a bit when we met Grandpa, Jeff and Jake (who were at the BYU basketball game) at USwirl for some frozen yogurt.

Handsome boys.

Here's to a healthier week with less laundry and a fixed phone!

Week in iPhotos

This was my first Instagram photo.

Breakfast at McDonalds

Teaching ballet

(My student, Meg, while putting on pointe shoes)

Cousins, Kate and Sophie, over to play 

Friday night with friends

I asked Josh to put together some shelves for me.

Sam was his little helper.

I had a burst of energy and cleaned out and rearranged Sam and Jake's room.

Then I lost all that energy and motivation and my closet still looks like this.

 

Baked some homemade Oreos for Sunday dinner.

Sam and Sophie dancing at Nana's house

I've been Diet Coke free for almost one month!

Be so proud!

It was HARD!!!!

Now I drink lots and lots of water everyday.

(More on why I quit later)

Samster came down with a bad cough and cold.

I pulled out all my scrapbooks to start the process of copying them onto our computer.

Just one of my three green smoothies that I drank this week.

(Whoa!  Look at me go and be healthy.  What the.....?)

Lucy and I worked on this Disney puzzle.

Someone is feeling better.

Costco run.  I love my errand buddy.

Just thought I'd document how I spend at least 3/4 of everyday....in the car.

And last, but not least, after two weeks of hassle on the "old" new computer,

we broke down and bought a Mac

and guess what?

I figured out how to sync my iPhone onto the Mac and find these pictures ALL BY MYSELF!!!

(Well, and with two phone calls to Jeff, but still, that is some sort of record!)

So the Mac passes the Computer-Idiot-Amy test.

Thank you Mac!

Nostalgia

December 2004

Josh 6 1/2, Jacob 4, Lucy 6 months

Can you believe there was a time without digital cameras?

Remember when you had to buy a roll of film, take all your pictures without knowing what they looked like, take the roll down to a camera center, wait 2-3 DAYS for them to be developed, drive back to the camera center, pick them up, look through them, and be glad that maybe half of them turned out?

I do.

I'm currently in the process of getting all (most? some?) of our old photos from the scrapbooks onto the computer.  It's going to be a lengthy process, so I thought it would be fun to share a few at a time on my blog.

Four generations

 June 1998

(Yes folks, way back before the turn of the century.  Crazy.)

Josh is one month old

And my cute, squishy little Joshy.

He is 3 months old in this picture.

He is now 13 1/2 years old.

Where did that time go?

Makes me cry a little bit...

Lucy's Room Makeover

I need to state, for the record, that this was the most difficult post I've ever done!

Not because the amount of work that went into cleaning and organizing Goo's room.  Noooo!

It was trying to load and then find these d@&! pictures on our new computer.

There were some serious tears.  Nothing, NOTHING frustrates me more than learning new computer stuff.  I just don't get it.  I don't get the files and the folders and the drives......

Anyway, here are the pictures.  I didn't remember to take a picture until I was almost done cleaning out and putting things into bags.  This picture doesn't do Lucy's hoarding saving abilities justice.

New bedding, new furniture arrangement, a few new accessories, and voila!

(I am so so glad Lulu still loves pink and purple.  I know she will outgrow that in a few years.  In the meantime, I'm squeezing out every bit of pink and purple that I can.)

I bought a rug and bean bag and made a reading corner for her.

I organized her hutch and put all her American Girl accessories in the little, pink boxes from Target.



 My next project....

 *Sigh*

It never ends.