Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Just Do It! Or Don't! It's really up to you though...

I hate political rants and posts on Facebook and such but I saw something today that said:

"like if you believe birth control should be a woman's decision, not a politician's."

I am a woman and my birth control has always been my own decision and I have always paid for it myself.  Even as a flat broke student.

So I am making my own:


"Like if you believe your birth control should be your responsibility and not the taxpayers'."  

There is always the option of not having sex... and that is free.  I just don't think I should have to pay into a system so that others can continue to enjoy biologically consequence free sex.

Ok, climbing down off my soapbox now... :)

Friday, October 5, 2012

Ok, I admit, I suck at this...

I can't stand the feeling of shame I get everytime I log on to the internet any longer. 


You see our home page is our blog and well as you may have noticed I haven't posted anything since January 26th.  Almost ten months...  Now, don't get me wrong, I still love reading all of your blog posts and seeing all of the cuteness that is your families, and truth be told, plenty has and is going on in our lives, I just can't seem to find the time to blog it, what with my very busy Facebook and Pinterest schedule... :)

So here is a quick recap of us for the last ten months:


  1. Still working out of the new office and we love it and it was the best decision for us for sure!
  2. Finished working as a TA for my professor in Holbrook.  So happy to never autoclave again if I can help it!
  3. Passed my CNA boards and am now basically licensed to be a mom... :D
  4. Kiddos all passed their grades this year (DUH) and we had a FAST summer break.  Tons of swimming lessons (all 4 kids can swim across the deep end of the pool now), playing outside and short trips for the family.  Our favorite: a quick trip to the Grand Canyon!  It was Greg's and the kids' first time, and they all loved it!
  5. We had our first Girls' Camp as the Stake YW Presidency.  It was absolutely fantastic.  We have to give credit to all of the amazing ladies who did know what they were doing because we sure didn't and a lot of the time we were just running on faith.  Implemented a new plan for YL's and it was a bit sticky but a huge tesimony builder for me and I know it was the right thing to do.  I love serving with the ladies I get to. They rock!
  6. Ethan turned 11 and since our 11-year-old scouts meet with the rest of the scouts in our ward, he has been getting to go to Mutual with Greg for 3 weeks a month and he is absolutely loving it!  Greg is loving having his Buddy there too. :)
  7. School is back in session for the kiddos and for mom!  Ethan is in 6th grade and is super lucky to have Ms. Leonard.  Emma is a 3rd grader and in her first year at the Magnet School.  She has Ms. Garner and boy has she loved it all! The twins are now over at Jefferson in 1st grade with Ms. Bratt.  I love that we actually know all of our kids' teachers and that they are all such fantastic people! I have started my Anatomy & Physiology I class and yes it is hard but I really love it.  I will be applying for the Nursing Program in January so I am really getting close now.
  8. Somehow I got roped into being a TA again this semster.  I have got to learn to say no!!  But it is good (so far), and this semester I am in Winslow with two other TA's which makes my job infinitely more easy!  Luckily I have already told the professors that there is no way I can do it next semester.  It is a great way to get extra study time and Christmas money though...
  9. Greg and I are still being band boosters and it is so much fun to work with the music teachers in our district and the great kids in the music programs.  Ethan is playing the baritone this year and he is so in love with it.
     The kid has loved music since he was a baby and I am glad that he has a real passion (and talent) for something NOT technology related.
So that is a quick gloss over of a few highlights from the past 10 months.  Here is to yet another attempt at keeping up with the blog better! 


Thursday, January 26, 2012

"Here's a stick to beat the lovely lady with..."

Ok so we don't REALLY want to beat anyone with sticks... That is a quote from one of my favorite movies, "The Quiet Man".  It is from a scene where John Wayne has decded that Maureen O'Hara has avoided being his wife for long enough and he marches across their Irish village to bring her home with him.  A helpful villager offers the Duke a "stick to beat the lovely lady with."  Greg and I often (jokingly) repeat this line when one of our girls gets into a full on rant or some other kind of misbehavior... 


I found this on Pinterest today and aboslutely had to share it!  We are having all of the same problems with discipline that families have when they have kids the same age as ours.  The problem is we have a couple of kids that "traditional" discipline simply doesn't work for.  These ideas are fantastic and I think they will definitely help cut down on the mom-screaming-and-yelling part of the day... :)


Disciplining our children takes dedication and effort.  It also helps to mix in a little creativity when needed.  The consequences below from parenting expert, Lisa Welchel, might seem a little strong, but let them inspire you to come up with your own.


1.    If time-outs don't work, try a "time-in." This can be accomplished by sending your child to a designated spot where he must complete a task that has a definite beginning and end. This could be putting together a small puzzle, stringing 50 beads on a piece of yarn, or tracing the alphabet. A time-in diverts his energies and encourages him to focus on something positive.

2.    Timers set definite boundaries. For example, with a timer, you can say, "I'm setting the timer. I want your room cleaned (or your shoes on, or the dishes unloaded) in 15 minutes. If you haven't finished by then, your correction is…." This method not only spurs on easily distracted children, but it also leaves little room for arguing about a job that isn't finished and whether the correction is warranted.

3.    Make a homemade "Correction" can and fill it with tickets or slips of paper with various consequences written on them. Instead of giving your child a time-out, send her to the can for a slip. A few ideas might include no TV or computer for a night, early bedtime, or an extra chore. Toss in a blank piece of paper, a "mercy" ticket. This gives you an opportunity to talk about how God gives us mercy even when we deserve punishment.

4.    If you repeatedly open the door to your child's room only to catch him in an act of disobedience, take your child's bedroom door off the hinges. It sounds harder to do than it actually is. And it works wonders!

5.    Adjust bedtimes according to your children's behavior that day. For each infraction, they must go to bed five minutes earlier, but if they've been good, they can earn the right to stay up an extra five minutes.

6.    An especially tough but effective correction for teenagers who forget to wear their seat belts is to add an additional day past their sixteenth birthday before they can take their driver's test. Hey, it's important!

7.    If you have dawdlers, try this: Whoever is last to the table at dinnertime becomes the server. But there's a catch. Even if you're first, your hands must be clean, of you'll end up serving the food, pouring the drinks, and fetching the condiments (after washing your hands, of course!).

8.    If your children are constantly turning in sloppy schoolwork, get a few photocopied pages of printing or cursive exercises. (These can be found at any teachers supply store.) Then ask your haphazard child this: "What takes longer: a report done neatly in 15 minutes or one you've sped through in 10 that must be redone and warrants a page of handwriting practice?"

9.    You've heard the reprimand "Hold your tongue!" Make your child do it-literally. Have her stick out her tongue and hold it between two fingers. This is an especially effective correction for public outbursts.

10. My friend, Becki, tried a variation on this idea in the car. If things got too raucous or there was too much fussing between siblings, she would cry, "Noses on knees!" Her children then had to immediately touch their noses to their knees until she determined that they had learned their lesson.

11. Next time your child "forgets" to put something away, like video games or sports equipment, put it away for him. When he asks where it is, tell him that he'll just have to look for it. Believe me; he will learn that it's a lot more trouble to find something that Mom has hidden than it is to put it away in the first place.

12. If you have younger children who are messy, try this: Put their toys in a "rainy day" box to bring out later. This has the added benefit of making an old toy seem new again. Or set the toy somewhere out of reach but within sight for a predetermined number of days. This increases the impact of the correction by keeping the forbidden toy fresh in their minds.

13. I heard from a mom who had tired of her three sons' ceaseless noises and sound effects—so she got creative. If her boys did not take their commotion outside, she would make them sit down and listen to the "Barney" theme song cassette for 10 minutes. For adolescent boys, it's torture!

14. If your little one gets too hyper, come up with a code word to remind him to stop the action without embarrassing him. Whenever Tucker started getting too rowdy in a group, I would yell, "Hey, Batman." He knew that he needed to calm down before I had to take more drastic measures.

15. Does your child slam the door when she's angry? You might tell her, "It's obvious that you don't know how to close a door properly. To learn, you will open and close this door, calmly and completely, 100 times."

16. If your child likes to stomp off to his room or stomp around in anger, send him outside to the driveway and tell him to stomp his feet for one minute. He'll be ready to quit after about 15 seconds, but make him stomp even harder.

17. The same goes for throwing fits. Tell your child to go to her room to continue her fit. She isn't allowed to come out and she has to keep crying for 10 minutes. Ten minutes is an awfully long time, and it's no fun if your parents tell you to cry.

18. Another way to handle temper tantrums is to simply say, "That is too disruptive for this house. You may continue your fit in the backyard. When you're finished, you are welcome to come back inside." When there isn't an audience, the thrill of throwing a temper tantrum is gone.

19. If a job is not done diligently, have your child practice doing it. She'll learn to be more thorough if she's made to sweep the floor three or four times because her first effort wasn't good enough.

20. When one of my children is acting disrespectful, disobedient, or defiant, I will instruct him or her to choose a chore from the Job Jar. The jobs include scrubbing the toilet, organizing the pots and pans, moving and vacuuming underneath the furniture, weeding the garden, matching up odd socks, defrosting the refrigerator, and cleaning the closet, garage, or under the bed. And those are just a few possibilities. You could add ironing, vacuuming the refrigerator coils, scrubbing the inside of small wastebaskets, polishing the silver, cleaning the window wells, brushing the animals, cleaning the fireplace, shaking the kitchen rugs, vacuuming the couch, alphabetizing the spices, and using wood cleaner on the dining room chairs. Not only does the Job Jar help to get my house clean, but it also keeps my little ones from complaining that they're bored. They know that with the Job Jar, Mom will always have an antidote for boredom.

21. I have a friend whose son's morning chore was to get the pooper-scooper and clean up the doggie gifts littering the backyard. The boy was not doing this job with much diligence, so his father came up with this creative solution: After the boy had completed the task, he would be required to run through the yard barefoot! From then on, their lawn was perfectly clean.
Taken from Creative Correction by Lisa Whelchel.
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So, what was one of the best "punishments" you have come up with?  One that really was effective?  Or maybe one that you were on the receiving end of?  I need ideas here... :)

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Whatever helps you sleep at night...

I found a giveaway that I really hope to win!  As most of you know I don't usually sleep.  I want to, but it isn't until about 4 AM most nights that my body finally gives in and lets me.  I am hoping to learn a little more about my sleep patterns using this:
The Zeo Sleep Manager will track your sleep habits and sleep quality and then sends the information via blutooth to your smart phone.  From there it will give recommendations specific to you to help you have better sleep, be more rested, and just be healthier overall.  It is like your own private sleep lab right there in your home!  So wish me luck and hopefully sweet dreams!