Cold Washington! Do I have to?!

I have to admit that I'm really enjoying our sunny 70 degree weather. The weekend is suppose to be getting in the 80's and I'm thinking we might need to hit the pool since it's been a while. Well maybe just the hot tub, I'm sure the pool is freezing. But I'm sure the sitting in the sun in a swimsuit will feel nice and warm!


Not looking forward to coming home for Christmas, due to the cold weather, not family! I have the best family, in-law included! Maybe everyone should come to South Cali for Christmas. Christmas at Disneyland, hot tubbing at night. Who's with me family! We can squeeze everyone in a two bedroom apartment, just find a place on the floor or out on the patio!

I've Got Talent

I was on my way home from running errands, when I just couldn't stand another second of the gum I had been chewing for over an hour. It had to go and I wasn't going to wait the couple minutes left until I was home. While stopped at a stoplight, I rolled down the window to spit it out. The light changed at that moment, so I quickly spit the gum out. Apparently I didn't turn my head enough, because it landed right on my side mirror! I laughed at myself, quickly brushed it off and hoped no one saw my talented skills. I don't think I will be winning any spitting contests anytime soon.

Late Night Dinner

On a lighter note...

The other night Matt was studying late to get ready for his test the next day, so I decided to forget about making the shepherd's pie I was planning and let the boys choose something. Malcolm picked ramen, so ramen it was for them. I ended up not eating before Matt got home at 11pm. After a little snuggle and talk about our day, Matt went off to bed to study some more and I really wanted to eat. So nachos at 11:30, why not! Nothing extravagent, just cheese melted on tortilla chips, some sour cream and salsa, sounded delicious!

Just needs a little salsa!

Crap! Good thing I had another jar in the pantry.Guess what, I ate my warm nachos before cleaning up the mess. Haha!

Yay For Me!

This month alone, I've posted almost more than I have this whole year! Yay me! Counting this little post, I've posted 8 times these last few weeks, and 9 times before that. So sad!

I've missed blogging! I love writing blogs and coming up with pictures to share. I usually love sharing lots of pictures, and sometimes write way too much, but I just have to remind myself, it's my only journal and I don't want to forget anything.

I've really missed reading blogs as well. I'm excited to start reading them again, now that I don't need to be reading textbooks and packing and unpacking. Life has been crazy this last year for me. I love being back to my full-time mom days, instead of the full-time mom and full-time student!

For the time being, I'm on a facebook vacation. I've wanted to be on one for a long, long time. I was finally ready for it. I was so tired of so many things about it, especially how I like to go there just to waste time when I'm bored, or putting off my housework. I would rather spend that time blogging. Yay for me!

So there's lots to catch up on, I plan on back posting as well. I know it might be pointless, but not for my journal and family memories!

The Nobodies

The great thing about living somewhere you don't really know anyone, is I'm not as embarrassed to go out in public all frumpy. We go swimming nearly everyday, and I learned really quick, that my hair gets ruined no matter what. So it's been in a ponytail, bangs pulled back a lot of afternoons.

So yesterday I needed to go grocery shopping (my thirst needed quenching) so after the boys were in bed and Matt was home I went. My hair was pulled back from swimming, no make up, my pink free glasses on, a cute sweatshirt and leggings. I actually went out in leggings and no makeup, but I did put on some lip gloss to give my lips a nice shine.

It's easy doing this when I feel it's unlikely I'll be seeing anyone I recognize, and if I do happen to recognize them from church, they'll probably have no idea who I am!

I had to go out in the same manner again this evening (after being in the middle of making dinner and not having the key ingredient, ugh!), but with three kids in tow and all in jammies. I bet people thought we were looking good, a little white trash as my two oldest just happened to be wearing the jammies that are getting too small! Lucky for me, they don't know who I am. We're the Nobodies!

On another note, why don't they make all cans so the bottom fits in the top of the other can below it. My cans of corn are stackable, but french style green beans aren't. Hello people! Consistency! Preferably the stackable consistency!

Thirsty

So I love cold water. I love having a fridge that has the water and ice dispensers, but unfortunately apartment living isn't that high class! You know how you move somewhere new, and the water always tastes weird!?! Well the water here tastes really weird, to the point that I pretty much refuse to drink it. So I buy bottled water and keep them in the fridge. There is nothing more refreshing then pulling one out and drinking it. Plus it's convenient when you are on the go and want to take one with you, and the kids love having one of their own, that I write their name on.

Monday I ran out of my beloved water. I never made it to the store. So Tuesday, I suffered gross water during my work out, because I have to have something to drink during it. The rest of the day, I refused to drink the water. I didn't have anything else to really drink, so by the end of the day, I was dying of thrist! So at about 7:00pm, I pulled out the only cold drink in the house, a mountain dew, and downed it.

This little mountain dew didn't do the trick, I was still thirsty, but it sure put me on overdrive and woke me right up. Matt went to bed about 11:00pm, I played on the internet for an hour, stalking some blogs, looking at clothes I can't afford. Then I started a load of laundry, folded laundry, unpacked the suitcase from the weekend trip, scrubbed my kitchen, shined the sink, swept the floor and lastly mopped it. Matt got up about 1:00am, wondering if I left him (which I was tempted to go to the store for water), and then he woke up at 3:30am wondering what the heck I was still doing up. Well I'm scrubbing the floor of course. What else do you do at that hour. Needless to say, that mountain dew that did not quench my thirst, kept me company until 4:00am when I finally got in bed.

I finally went shopping tonight!

I Blogged! (It's a miracle!)

So as we all know, my blogging has become non existent. I have terribly missed this, as it's been one of my favorite past times these years of doing it. But my life has been busy with school and kids, and so it hasn't been something I've been able to keep up on. I have a few posts in draft, and I plan on back posting as I go. I decided to just start posting anyways, because since I'm behind, it was keeping me from blogging about the here and now. I'm tired of it, so I will eventually fill in the gap as I get time. I can't just have 5 months of our lives missing from a blog. So I will fill in what I can, when I can.

So here's to hoping I can get some blogs up and keep up on our current adventures. We have some fun ones coming that I will post about soon.

For now, you can read about my fun girls weekend!

Boys Will Be Boys!!

A new PlayStation game came out, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" which both Matt and Tom both love and play all the time. I swear they were the first ones in line to buy it, just kidding. They did buy it the day it came out and that night, Tom and Brianne came up and stayed the night, since the next day happened to be Veteran's Day, so that Matt and Tom could play it together.
They even had to go steal Matt's parents TV so that they could both play at the same time, online, against other people.
They stayed up until 3am playing that game. Since we knew they would be staying up late, Brianne just shared my bed with me, and we figured they could crash together. They ended up on the beds in the basement in the spare room. Matt's on the left, curled up in a ball, and Tom is on the right feet hanging off the bed.
They are hardcore with there game playing! I'll just have you know, although I don't understand the game playing, and I think it's rather silly, I do love and support anything that Matthew likes. He's just not allowed to play those type of games while the kids are awake!

November Randomness

Just a bunch of things that are really random with no rhyme or reason to them, but I wanted to
get posted!

I don't know how this started, but one night at mom's Winston was riding Quinn like a horse. He did it over and over, they both thought it was the greatest thing ever. I just love the excitement on Win's face, Quinn's as well for that matter!
Malcolm started pouting, because he wanted in on the fun, but Winston only wanted to ride on Quinn. I finally convinced Win to ride Malcolm too, and then Malcolm was much happier!
I was doing a lot of playing with my new flash, so I was taking a lot of random pictures inside, mostly of Matt. He has given me a lot of funny faces. Just a few of the many! Mack and Matt, Mack is learning that on the Islands, the peace sign is the thing to do, must have learned it from Matt. Matt is a cross between a pirate and a gangster.
Malcolm's not getting a scolding, Matt just posed this way! Ha!
I don't think Winston wanted a love Matt, but I love your face!
I got a lot of these wide eye pictures! I love you Matt and all your silly faces!
Winston loves his Paka!! He loves his glasses too. He looks even more like Paka with those glasses on.
He likes to have him on his shirt just like Paka does. You are a doll Winston, and it's not a bad thing to be a pretty boy!
Grayson and Holli came for a visit one day (They came from a long ways, just down the road!), and I was still playing with my camera, so they got pictures taken whether they liked it or not! I think Grayson might have his mother's profile. Cute boy!
I love this picture of his eyelashes. I love eyelashes. I think all the boys in our family have long eyelashes, at least my boys do as well. I just hope our girls are blessed with the same thing!
We had our first snowfall the middle of November. Of course it didn't really stick much, and didn't snow long. When the boys saw it they were SO EXCITED! They were jumping up and down, asking me to go play outside, and were planning all the things they were going to do in it. Snowball fights, snowmen, build an igloo. I think were a little deflated when I told them they couldn't go outside, it wasn't going to stay around, and it wasn't barely sticking. But there is nothing like the first snowfall of the year!

Playing Catch Up Again!!

I'm doing this again! It seems to be a trend for me lately, and I really hate it. I think I will be better for the coming months though, since I really do have a good reason for my lack of blogging lately. I haven't ever blogged about what's been going on with me lately, since I haven't had the time to do so.

Before we moved back to ML, we decided it would be a great time for me to go back to school while we were here, since going to BBCC would be really cheap. We'd thought about staying in Pullman and me going to WSU, but it would be so much more expensive, and we'd have to take out loans, and there wasn't a point of that. So on September 21st I started back as a college student. It was so weird after not being in school for 9 years. I'm a lot older, a lot more mature, and a lot more responsible. I'm going full time and taking 3 classes. I have a public speaking class, which is easy, but a lot of busy work outside of class. I have a art history class, which again is really easy, just busy work outside of class. I also took a math class, which I love math, and it's easy for me, but sometimes the homework is time consuming.

I couldn't believe how much all this busy work took up of my time. I have felt like I've had to give up a lot of being a mom and wife to keep up with my homework. It's been hard on me that way. My house has been a disaster, keeping up on laundry has been nearly impossible and my family misses me, plus my blogging has taken a hit as well, ha! I only have a week left of classes for this semester, then finals week. But I don't have a final in Art, and I get to take my Math final early, because I'm going to be out of town the day of the final, and for speech class, if we finish our final speeches a day early, we get to take the final on the last day of class. So I'm really hoping I won't even have to go on campus finals week.

The great thing about these last few weeks, is either my load is lessening coming to an end, or I've finally figured out how to balance better. I don't feel like I haven't had any free time. So I'm hoping next semester will be better on time management!

I'm grateful for all the support I've gotten from my family. My mother-in-law Cynthia has been watching my kids most of the time while I'm at school, and my mom takes them on her days off as well. The great thing about BBCC, is it's only Monday - Thursday, so it's not too bad. Matt has also been a great support, and very encouraging. I appreciate him pushing me to take this step in my life. I have to work at this a lot harder then he does though, I have to do all my homework, when really I never saw him doing much homework ever!

Another thing that I've never blogged about this last May I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. I've had some symptoms for the last 10 years or so, and talked to my doctors every once in a while, but I was always pregnant or nursing when I did so, and I've ended up just learning to live with my pains, and write it off as being me. After a walk in visit one weekend, and the Dr questioning my family history and my symptoms, she strongly encouraged me to talk to my Dr about a possible autoimmune disease.

He ordered x-ray to check for rheumatoid arthritis, which came back normal, and sent me to see a dermatologist for my eczema and to a rheumatologist for my joint pains. In the end after taking tons of blood work, they found out I was vitamin D deficient, iron deficient and my SSA antibodies were over 300 hundred where the normal persons is at 60 or 80 (I can't remember which one now), and it also showed that I did have quite a bit of inflammation in my body. Basically, I have an over active immune system, and it's targeting my body, since it doesn't have anything else to attack. I hadn't even been sick with one little cold for 2 years. I think it's great, but apparently it not good for the body, ha!!

They diagnosed me with either sjogren's syndrome, or lupus. They aren't sure what I have at this point but said time will tell. Either way, my Dr. thinks I have a mild case, and doesn't think it will ever get extreme. They put me on iron, vitamin D and also plaquenil, a drug to lower my immune system. After not being sick for 2 years, now that I do get sick, I hate it! Never getting sick seems like a great thing, until you think of what it could end up doing to your body in the long run!

So that's what my life has consisted of these last months. Now I'm going to try to catch up on some blogging. Although I should be writing my final speech, I'm going to get a few blogs started.

MIA

I've been MIA for a while now. I don't want to be, I've just had a lot on my plate, and it just keeps getting more full. (Story of my life, I can't ever stop eating even when I'm full!) I have lots to blog about, so I'm just going to back post. I have to get it all down, even though I've forgotten half the stuff already. I gotta get it done this week, before next week when life will get a little more crazy. I have lots to fill you in on!! Hopefully you can keep up!

All Moved In (Almost)

Well we finally got to move in to our own place at the end of August. It was so nice after living with our parents, basically all summer. Especially since we moved from one to the other and lived out of suitcases. It's been a crazy summer.

We've been really blessed with this move. When we decided to move back for the time being, it was a hard decision to make, period. It would be hard to leave the life we were used to in Pullman. Living by people all in the same circumstance, poor college students. Really hard to leave our best of friends (We miss you Poteets!), and hard to see our really good friends move away too (I love you Erica!!). We decided it would be best for us, and there was nothing going for us in Pullman anyways.

We found an apartment to move into here, but a week before the move, we found out that the Earl's were needing someone to live in their house while they went off on another mission. (Just got back from Peru, and now off to Madrid, Spain as mission presidents!) What a blessing for us! It saved us money, but gave us a TON more space. So it wasn't a hard choice to move in the Earl's and here's why. It's a HOUSE! It has a YARD! It has a fire pit. (We've already roasted marshmallows twice!) It's 3 story with 5 bedrooms and 3 baths. The best thing of all, it's RIGHT NEXT DOOR to my in laws!!! Seriously, no competition to living in an apartment. Plus, it might be the biggest house we will ever live in. We had to take advantage of that.

I've scrubbed, scrubbed, scrubbed this house. I like to know that the dirt I see is MY dirt. I'm weird. Toothbrushes are seriously my best friend when I clean, can't live without them in my cleaning bucket. I'm not all the way done cleaning though. I haven't even TOUCHED the basement, and since we really aren't using it as a living space, it's the last thing on my list right now. We still have some boxes at Matt's parents, so we're not all the way moved in, technically. I have unpacked most of the stuff we have here though.

The Earl's still have all their furniture here, so it's been really interesting to add our stuff to it. Not that we have a lot, but we've had to figure out where to put things, but it's looking good. They already had two dining room tables in the house, so we've put ours out on the deck. It's a nice touch to the deck, and if anything "happened" to my table, not a big deal, since I bought it for $50 at a garage sale.

Anyways, I'm loving the house. It's great to have so much room. There's too much room in fact, I could never fill all the cupboards. I'm also loving have a room dedicated to a playroom. If the kids don't help clean up, I lock it and they can't play! Ha! I'm mean!! I also LOVE having a laundry room. I've always wanted one!

So if anyone wants to come hang out with the Hardy's and stay for a while, we have plenty of room for you!! Thank you Doug and Connie for being so generous and letting us call your house home!

So I've only taken a few pictures when I've been outside with the kids. (I love that I can send the older boys out by themselves, but Winston needs a little outside time every now and again.)

This is the view from the pergola. (I just learned this word from my mother in law. I had no clue what it was called.) It over looks this waterfall my father in law built in the back of his yard. Matt just power washed the pergola out and also power washed the hammock, so I'm looking forward to some relaxing times out there.
This is the view from the kitchen window and off the deck. I love to look out a window while doing dishes!
I was reading a photography book while watching the kids outside, so I had to get my camera out and play a bit. I just loved this macro shot!
These other pictures are just some random pictures I took this month, but didn't have any real post for them to go in.

My mother in law has tons of orchids in her house. I love orchids, thanks to her, and had some of my own, but they didn't like apartments, so she's inherited all mine as well.
Winston is so adorable. I love this little beast. I'm afraid he's going to be the child I always worry about. He has no fear, and doesn't learn from climbing stuff and falling off. His hair is getting so long. He looks so cute, but seriously has the mullet going on. Since the mullet isn't coming back in style, along with all the other 80's trends, I think it might be time to cut it. I'm dreading it though. His hair has cute blond highlights from the sun this summer. I had to look back through the blog when his last haircut was, it's been since April. That's a long time without a haircut!

Random Things

I have random pictures that I wanted to post, but I don't have a good title for the post.

Matt's dad ended up having work for Matt, so we have been staying with his parents since Father's Day. The boys love playing with Cynthia's iPhone and Merle's iTouch. One day while I was getting ready, Quinn came up stairs. I saw him go into Merle and Cynthia's bedroom and a few minutes later poked my head out of the bathroom to ask what he was doing. He was standing by their closet and gave the typical Quinn answer, that he was doing nothing. A while later I realized it was really quiet. I went into their room to hear music coming from their closet. After getting Cynthia to look what he was up to, this is how we found him.
Cynthia wanted a picture of the boys for her iPhone, so we went outside to attempt a few pictures. Of course they weren't cooperating. Winston didn't want his brothers sitting next to him. When Quinn made this pose, Winston thought he was folding his arms, so he did it too, which made Malcolm do it as well. I think it's such a cute picture, and they are all actually looking at me.
After that, Winston was done.
Cynthia bought the boys these classic toys. They've had a lot of fun with them.

Playing with sun flares.

Lost?

Have you lost an earring? You might want to check the garbage disposal before turning it on!