I’m Baaaaaack! June 1, 2009

     And I’ve got a new basement!  (But we’ll get to that in another post.  I even have pictures.)

 

     Looking back, I can’t believe it’s been over three weeks since I last posted.  Actually, I can, because the past five weeks of cleanup and restoration have been mind-blowing.  One of my Facebook friends asked me if having a new basement was worth all the trouble, and the short answer is yes, even though I still have a lot of stuff to sort through.  It looks completely different, which it sort of is, and my kids still get rug burns when they play on the (new!) carpet, but I think it’s just par for the course for anyone who rolls around on it and/or pretends to swim over it the way they do.  I just shake my head and smile.

 

     And walk over to my pretty painted walls and caress them lovingly.

 

     So, the past few weeks have been insanely busy.  I have neglected friends, family and internet, and I’m finding my footing again, slowly but surely.  I have so many things to write about, so many things to share.  (I promise that after I show you “after” photos of the basement, I’ll stop writing about it.  Even I’M getting tired of hearing about my basement.) (Okay, so that’s totally untrue.  I am completely enamored with my new space.  You would be too, if you saw it before.  It’s pretty!  It’s so, so pretty!)

 

     Since I have so much to share, and also to get me back into a more regular blogging habit, I have enthusiastically embraced June’s NaBloPoMo challenge.  That means thirty days (THIRTY!) of daily postings from yours truly.

 

     Aren’t you excited?  Didn’t you miss me terribly? 

 

     I’m so happy to be back! 

 

     (Did I mention my new basement?)

 

 

My kind of Saturday February 28, 2009

     I had hoped to end my fifth month of NaBloPoMo with a bang, but unfortunately, the day was a slow one (nice, but slow) and I have nothing interesting to post.

 

*woke up

*made pancakes

*built furniture out of popsicle sticks for Kendra’s Tinkerbell doll

*got some good glue-gun burns

*did some laundry

*fell asleep on the couch while the kids played video games (and Anthony put himself down for his OWN nap!)

*finished a book (Pushing Up Daisies, by Rosemary Harris…  LOVED it!)

*looked at Hannah’s dress pattern, read the instructions, stressed, and then put it all away for another day

*spent a brief time online

*did a little cleaning

*ate pizza for dinner

*helped kids set up their sleeping bags for a sibling sleepover

 

     Tomorrow I’ll continue my nice, relaxing, un-interesting weekend in a similar way.  (No church due to Stake Conference.  Well, *technically* church, but we plan to take the week off…  Sssshhhh!)  Pajamas, movies, good food, tasty treats, and lots of family togetherness.  It will be nice to have Kenny home– we haven’t seen him too much this week.

 

     I know that February is a short month, but come on…  can you believe it’s already March? 

 

I want… to do NaBloPoMo in February February 1, 2009

     It’s that time again. 

 

     I’ve neglected my blog, and it makes me feel guilty.

 

     I got an e-mail last week from NaBloPoMo, and when I found out the theme was “I Want…”, I knew it was going to be an easy one.  Plus, February only has 28 days, so it’s like getting half a week off.   :D

 

     I WANT to blog every day.  I WANT to do it without spending hours (hello, last post!) agonizing over it.  I WANT you to continue to make comments, to laugh at my jokes, and be the wonderfully supportive readers you are.

 

     Are we all on the same page?

 

     Fabulous.  See you tomorrow.  *wave*

 

November Wrap-Up November 30, 2008

     As we come to the end of the month, I am shocked to realize that it’s over already.  (What happened to October?  July?  Really, weren’t we JUST celebrating Christmas?)

 

     I love this time of year.  Thanksgiving marks the end of my favorite season, and all things Autumn.  (Technically, I know that Winter doesn’t begin until December 21, but honestly, doesn’t “Christmas” seem to take on its own seasonal status?  You have Fall, Christmas, Winter, Spring and Summer.  I don’t think I’m so wrong about this.)

 

     November 30 also marks the end of my first “official” NaBloPoMo challenge.  Sure, I have done them in the past, but it’s my understanding that November is the ORIGINAL challenge, and I am happy to say I completed it for the first time.  (I believe this makes the third month I have posted every single day.)

 

     As I look back over the month, I am so grateful that I accepted this challenge.  It’s a busy time with the holidays and Hannah’s birthday, and I’m happy that I have journaled so much of what we did/celebrated.  I won’t be doing the December NaBloPoMo challenge, but I am certainly going to try to post every day on my own, even if it’s something small. 

 

     Thanks for the encouragement you’ve provided for me during the month.  I appreciate the time you take to read my jumbled thoughts, and I especially love your comments.

 

     May your December be blessed! 

 

Just Wondering… November 16, 2008

     Today is one of those lazy, cold Sundays that makes me long to curl up in a ball and sleep away the afternoon.  In fact, if it weren’t for NaBloPoMo, I wouldn’t be posting at all.

 

     Instead, I’m going to pose this questions:  WHAT IS UP WITH ALL MY SPAM LATELY?  I have deleted at least 20 spam postings/trackbacks in the past few days, mostly about baby blankets and those annoying posts that say, “www.(something)  zlkdioa hwetly eslc slkdjligy uisi fhwaoeiv  vlkseil.”

 

     Do you go through phases like this, where you get dozens of spam messages each week, and then it stops?  (Oh, please say it stops!)  Do you have people ever steal your posts and put them on display on some anonymous website?

 

     Besides going private, how do you make it stop?

 

“It’s the Holiday Season!” November 3, 2008

     When Alex was about 20 months old, my dad taught him that phrase, and took great delight in coaxing my precocious boy into repeating it for anyone with ears.  Of course, eight years ago it sounded more like, “Issa haw-day sisson”, but it was still enormously entertaining and so precious it made your eyes tear up.

 

     Or maybe just mine.

 

     Anyway,

November NaBloPoMo November 1, 2008

     It’s been a while since I’ve committed to a NaBloPoMo challenge, but since this is technically the “original” one, I thought I’d give it another go.  After all, I have a few successes under my belt, so I know it can be done.

 

     Here’s to the next 30 days, and a post for every single one of them! 

 

Oopsie June 18, 2008

     I just realized this morning that, for all my good NaBloPoMo intentions, I have not blogged for the past two days.

 

     Whoops.

 

     The “old” Kemi (you wait…  someone will google “old” and “Kemi” and be led to THIS post, and then I’ll be forced to track them down and kick them) would have panicked, cried, felt like a failure, and either

Other people’s houses June 3, 2008

   Last night I stayed up waaaaay too late playing PackRat, while Kenny alternately read his book and surfed channels.  He finally landed on “The Holiday”, a movie we both enjoyed the first time we saw it.  If you’ve never seen the movie before, it’s the story of two women who switch houses for two weeks.  One is a big, beautiful, ultra-modern home in Los Angeles, and the other is a small, cozy cottage in rural England.  I watched the movie over my right shoulder while stealing from the rats, and I couldn’t help but imgaine what it would be like to inhabit either of the two houses for any length of time.

 

     My initial reaction was to choose the small cottage. 

June NaBloPoMo June 1, 2008

 

    So, I took a month off.  My blogging was spotty and sporadic.  I wrote when I wanted to, but I let myself get distracted by some things, other things (Amber, you darling, I have not forgotten you!), and still other things, and what I wanted to write about got pushed off.  Time passed.  Life moved on, and I have to ask, how many of you really care about what happened two weeks ago?  (Three consecutive days of field trips.  Holy cow, it was EXHAUSTING!)  or that I took my kids to Morgan for the traditional Smith Family Memorial-Day BBQ at my Aunt and Uncle’s house?  (And that every morning since, Anthony wakes up and askes, “Go to B-Q at Unka Vaughn’s house?”).

 

     Imagine my surprise and delight when I got the NaBloPoMo invite in my inbox this afternoon, and it said that June’s theme is “Home”.  Oh, I can SO do this theme.  Not only do I live in a home, but I care for one, my children destroy semi-clean parts of one on a daily basis, and my husband works darn hard to pay the mortgage on one.  Funny things happen in my home.  Disgusting things happen in my home, too, like toddlers who remove their diapers and sit on furniture with *ahem* clingies  that mash into the upholstery.  What a joy to scrub that out of the fabric!!!

 

     (I would totally not be offended if you came to my home and asked for a clean towel to lay on the couch before you SIT on the couch.  I’m just saying…) 

 

     Anyway, I’m throwing my hat back in the ring.  I missed blogging every single day (or most of them).  I can’t wait to report on something that happens tomorrow, because our church starts at 9:00 AM, I have an 8:00 AM meeting, and I am teaching the lesson in Relief Society.

 

     Perhaps I could write about how my husband got all four kids fed, dressed, groomed and ready for church ALL ON HIS OWN, but then that would be fantasy fiction, and I’m all about keeping it real.

 

     Clingies and all.  Yuck.

 

UPDATE:  The meeting went long and I came home at 8:45 expecting to get all four kids ready, but when I walked through the door, three fully dressed, neatly groomed kids were sitting on the couch, Anthony just needed shoes, and Kenny was putting on his tie.  HOLY COW!  He did it!  (Now he’s gonna have to do it again.  And again.  Every time I have an early meeting.  *grin*)

 

The lesson went wonderfully well.  I taught about motherhood and ways to make the journey a little less painful.  I started the lesson by reading No, David! by David Shannon, and finished it up with Love You Forever by Robert Munsch.  There was not a dry eye in the room, and it was funny to hear everyone sniffling during the closing prayer.  I had a lot of women come to tell me that they loved my lesson, and it was just what they needed to hear.  It was a good Sunday meeting.