A day in the Life of Payne...

Wednesday 1/19/09...This is our normal morning routine. 6:30 the alarm goes off and we all roll out of bed and read our scriptures together. Ok not usually all of us, Mason and Liberty usually sleep in. This particular morning Liberty got up with a stuffy nose. So did Makenna Amy and Emily. Nobody felt great. Can you tell by the stack of used tissue how our day was getting started?So then I got the girls off to school and decided to skip playgroup at the park since it seemed a little too cold and windy to take runny nosed kids to the park. Instead we stayed home and I got a few things done around the house. Then I tried to get rid of a trojan horse on my computer. Couldn't do it. Ryan fixed it for me tonight. Thank Heavens again for Ryan. He is the greatest! So I am on the internet and Liberty loves to come in and do my hair. So I had Makenna take a picture. I love when Liberty gives me this kind of attention. Her little fingers in my hair are so sweet. Oh and I let Makenna stay home cause she felt yucky and missed the bus by about 50 yards. Yeah I could have taken her but like I said no one felt great, including me. In addition to Liberty playing with my hair Mason likes to come and sit on my lap and snuggle with me sometimes. Here is one of those times. Makenna and I started having fun making kis face look weird. This goofy little boy is such a great sport. Of course he loved it cause I took pictures so he could see them. Then I had to post the sweet picture of him cuddling with me too.
Liberty changes her clothes at least three or four times a day. No they aren't dirty. It is just a phase I hope. Anyway, she also brought a toy vacuum downstairs so she could help me clean the house. This little vacuum is actually strong enough to pick up lint. So she and Mason were fascinated for a while with it. I started working on the quilt for Emily's bed. She is doing a pink ballerina bedroom. Here is what her quilt is starting out like. The whole quilt top is finished now but no pictures yet. I will post a picture of the whole thing when I actually get it done.

I got interrupted from my sewing cause Liberty finally woke up. It took her forever to go to sleep. She laid in my bed and talked to herself for about 1.5 hours. Then right before it was time to wake her and go to swim class she finally fell asleep. So we skipped it since she was so boogery anyway. When she woke up and came walking out of my room with no pants on I took her back into my room to find this below! Why are my kids so into poop. I always have poop stories to tell. This is supposed to be my sister Shanna's lot in life. She is the one who used to finger paint me with my diapers when we were kids.What goes around is coming around to the WRONG SISTER! Good news! Since my bed is a tempurpedic and is not supposed to get wet there is a moisture barrier sheet under the fitted sheet so there was no harm to my mattress for those who are grossed out by this picture.
After finishing the quilt top and getting my sheets in the wash I started a project in Makenna's room that she has been wanting me to do since she moved in. Well I waS ORINGINALLY going to paint some circles on the walls but since we don't want to repaint before moving I decided that this was going to have to be enough. I hung paper lanterns that I got at last years Spring clearance at Hobby Lobby. Those were about $1each. Cheap decor. Great!

Then I hung the chiffon flowers on the wall. What do you think? Should I paint green stems and some leaves down the wall? That won't be too hard to paint over. Her name above her bed is done with black cardstock. The font is Opposites Attract Cricut cartridge. I decoupaged the letters and the scrapbook paper sheets directly to the wall and hung the giant daisy too! It looks so bright and Cheery in there. It fits well with her personality. She loves it and that is what matters. The bad thing is that all three of my girls compare their rooms and all say how come her room is better than mine? Ugh. I can't keep up with that. They each have something great and special about their rooms. Oh that flower night lamp on the wall is from Ikea. Very cheap too! Gotta love decorating on a budget!

When they get along like this...

LIFE IS SO GREAT! These are the times I live for. Mason and Liberty fight so much but really they are the best little buds. They decided to play a duet together.












Makenna and Emily were making a "bedroom rules" sign for Emily's door. Amy was off minding her own business. She usually gets along with everyone cause she isn't much of a tease. Thank Goodness I have one of those.

Update on my mental status...

Ok I have to say YES I was suffering from temporary insanity. I am not really considering another baby. I realize that if Mason really wants another sister and not a brother then there is no reason to have another. I love my girls but four of them is enough for me. I think Mason will just have to have his dad as a best friend or maybe one of his cousins. Thanks for your honesty in your comments Joanne. That made me laugh.

So most of the things I have had to do lately have been finished. The only really big thing now is my home for sale and living apart from William. It actually isn't so bad. He couldn't stand to be away for so long so he is here now visiting again. Right now his work schedule is great. While in training still they don't want him to get too much overtime so he worked 4 tens this week and came home Thursday night. He was here by 11:30 to my surprise. We are glad to have him home. Good timing too cause the van broke down last night and he was here to fix it today. And of course he did a few honey do things too.

So now I just have to focus on keeping my kids fed and house cleaned and make a few more doctor appointments. Liberty is getting her eyes checked for glasses, Makenna is starting physical therapy for some ongoing numbness in her back, Makenna needs braces, I need dental work done, and I need to get a physical since I haven't had it done in over two years.

The most wonderful and stressful thing right now is that I filed to increase child support payments, finally. It will take some financial stress off. Makenna is growing out of everything again. Clothes, shoes, jackets. And she wears Make-up that she has to buy herself and goes through like crazy. The stressful part though is Richard still has to be served papers and after that I am sure to get an angry phone call. Ugh, that makes me feel sick just thinking about it. But it has to be done. I won't give out details over the internet of what he is paying now or what he should be paying but I will say that the increase is about 310% more than he pays now. Crazy huh? I should have done this years ago but I was making it easy for him to afford to see her whenever he wanted. Well, since he sees her only 2 times per year I have decided I need the help supporting her.

Ok that is a ton of babble but it sure sets my mind at ease. Have a great day!

A Lot to Think About...

Hmmm... Lately I have had a ton on my mind and I haven't been sleeping well. Ok once I fall asleep I am great but I used to fall asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Now I think it takes me at least 5 to 10 minutes to crash. I think my mind is having a hard time winding down. Some of my worries lately and things on my to do list are these.

• Getting my house website finished with pictures loaded.
• My brand new 250GB external hard drive is already full with movies I converted and added to my Ipod. Now I have to delete them or get another hard drive to be able to download my new Photoshop program I got for Christmas so I can download the pictures off of my camera.
• I have had to keep the house clean just in case someone calls to see it. (no interest BTW)
• I got the garage totally cleaned out and organized.
• I finally decided to take Mason out of the free preschool program he was in for many reasons. And I am now taking him 1 day per week to his old preschool at Calvary Baptist Church. He loved it there last year and it starts at 9 am instead of 8. That will be easier.
• I had to renew my kids medicaid applications before their current benefits expire.
• William and I finally got medical insurance coverage which is so important cause I need to get new glasses, dental work done (I lost a filling), and a mamogram, Yikes! William needs to get a PSA test done since he is a high risk of prostate cancer.
• I stress over how long the rest of our savings will last. (Maybe till Summer if I am careful.) Me, careful with money is a hard thing. I can do it but it is tough.
• I am taking Richard back to court to increase his child support which I should have done back in 2005. Dang, 4 years he has been so lucky. That is going to be a huge fight I expect and I am dreading it. But it needs to be done for Makenna's sake. She is getting expensive.
• Oh BTW, she is showing signs of entering "womanhood" soon. Ugh! It came so soon.
• ok and one more thing that keeps me awake at night. I really want Mason to have a brother but I am NOT baby hungry and I don't want to be pregnant again. So I have to decide how much I really want him to have a brother. I can't be sick right now while I am alone in raising the kids and selling our home. I just don't know how much is too much to expect of my children. I swore we were done and gave everything away. I guess it is time to really pray about this. Not just IF we should have another but WHEN. I really don't want to go back to the baby stages of life. All my kids are potty trained and I love that I am going to be able to get rid of some car seats soon.

Ok does that sound like rambling to you! Me too. That is what my mind does nearly every night. Some nights are worse than others. The good thing though is that a bunch of the pressing things I have had to do are done and my kids are actually doing pretty well with keeping the house clean lately so I now have more down time than I used to. I have scrapbooked a little at my girlfriends houses. I have done a couple of puzzles during the holidays that my mom gave me and I am just getting around to putting them together years later. I also have some time to read and I watch more TV than normal too. There are only a couple good things about William being gone. I don't have to share the big TV. Hehe! And I can stress less about cleaning and having dinner ready when he comes home from work. Other than that I am missing him so much. You getting this Honey? I love you and miss you terribly. I am letting Liberty get into the terrible habit of sleeping with me cause I hate his side of the bed being empty. I hope we can live together again soon. Please everyone who prays at all say a little prayer for us selling our home. We need all the prayers we can get.

Ok it is 3:26 am Saturday morning and I am awake and rambling. I did however fall asleep on the couch for about an hour earlier this evening. Ok I better get to bed before Liberty gets up.

Christmas recap...

We had a fabulous Christmas this year. William has been living in Farmington since Thanksgiving and we all missed him a ton so to get him home on the evening of the 23rd was a treat. The kids and I were excited to get some days with him.

This is my very own Christmas tree. I have decorated it for myself for three years now. The first year it was a photo tree. Last year I added a few pink ornaments and this year I added a bunch more pink ornaments. Next year I plan to update the photo prnaments and add a few more pink ones I got after Xmas. The kids don't get to touch this tree. It should go in my craft room but instead I put it in our crowded living room where everyone who came over could see it. I think maybe next year I might upsize this thing. I am getting more and more pink ornaments. On Christmas Eve we had Grandma Payne and the Udall family over for dinner. I cooked a Ham and the Udalls brought salads and desserts and veggies. I made some potatoes and gravy and rolls too. So we had a yummy feast.

And this is the first time I made something in my Pampered Chef trifle bowl I bought months and months ago. I think this looked much better than it tasted. I used sugar free jello so it wasn't the greatest dessert. Good thing Nicole made the yummiest of all. Layered chocolate something. Mmmmm... I can't even think of it without salivating.

Then after that we had a new twist on our Nativity program. Last year didn't go so well with our kids dressing up. So this year I found a nativity left/right game and bought a bunch of the candy from Walmart that is $1 a box. You know all that movie candy? Anyway I wrapped each box and the kids passed the boxes as they listened to the story to hear which way to pass them. It was a great way to get our kids to listen. It worked! Yeah! Then the kids opened their Christmas jammies and got dressed for bed.It was actually an early to bed night for William and I. I had all our presents wrapped before the last minute. And there were no toys to assemble this year. Yeah for the kids asking for easy stuff. Here is what Santa brought Amy...

She has wanted Heelys for months. She loves to wear them in the house and since our floors are so durable I let her. We have wood in all the walkways and so she can skate all over the house without the carpet breaking her momentum. And Makenna bought a pair too. I got a wrong size really cheap online and so I let Makenna buy them from me. So the two of them are having a blast with them.

Mason's favorite gift was his Iron Man playset he asked Santa for. It is awesome. The figure is about 10 to 12 inches tall and he talks. He has all kinds of parts to go with him and Mason is in heaven.

Emily got a Baby Alive that really pees and poops in her diaper or on the toilet. It is the coolest thing. I played with it for a while with Emily cause I was amazed at how much technology is changing. Remember the dolly that you could squeeze her bottle into her mouth and then when you tipped her up the water just dripped out the bottom? Not this thing, it is totally high tech. She actually tells you she has to go potty before she does it and she gives you time to take her diaper off and sit her on her potty before she wets. It is wild. Thanks to Brooke for posting on her blog about her Amazon deals. I never would have paid full price for a doll like this. I think it retails for about 50 buck and I paid half that. The cool thing is that Emily had no clue what to ask Santa for. I told her Santa would just bring her something he thought she would love. She did love it!

Amy found the pickle this year. The prize was a giant box of Sweettarts which she has been rationing and still has them.

Liberty's favorite toy has been her puppy she got at the Udall family's Santa Claus breakfast. She sat on Santa's lap and asked him for a puppy and he handed her a present. When she opened it she was so excited to see the same puppy she asked for. She loved it so much she kept kissing it.

Speaking of the Santa breakfast at the Udalls... I got some cute pictures of Amy and Emily with Santa this year.

I was taking a picture and told Amy to look at me and smile. Santa, who was Jared Udall, told her to say "I love Cole Udall". Amy went scarlet red and started to beat Santa up. Here are two pictures I caught of it.

William must have seen my post on my blog about the Doghouse. I got these gorgeous white gold and diamond earrings. I have no idea what made him buy them because he is always talking about saving money but I have to say how impressed I am that he picked out jewelry that I love this much. They are so much my taste. I even suggested that he look for a matching necklace for Valentines or our Anniversary if our house sells by then. I hope he knows how much I love them. Thanks Honey!

Another cute picture I don't think I ever posted was this adorable one of Liberty kissing Minnie's nose. She liked Minnie better than Santa at the Tresco Tots (speech therapy) Christmas party.
Ok and finally the last picture to post is Emily's broken arm. It is finally feeling a lot better. But here it is almost three weeks later and she still has a pretty ugly bruise on her arm. Believe me when I say that this looks much, much betterthan it used to look.

Holiday Traditions...

Happy New Year! We fell asleep early last night. Well, I did. After putting Liberty and Mason in bed the rest of us sat down to watch a movie and within 5 or 10 minutes I was out cold. Anyway, I slept great on the couch for a couple of hours and the New Year came and went without me "celebrating". But here is one of our favorite holiday traditions. Doesn't matter if it is Christmas, New Years, or birthdays we get powdered donuts for breakfast. That is what the kids pick and little do they know that it is to mom's huge relief. I get to sleep in if I want and let them get their own breakfast. And Liberty Loves donuts. If you ask "who is a donut piggy?" she raises her hand and says "MEEEEE!" So Christmas pictures are going to have to be posted later when I find more time. For now, Happy New Year!