a chocolatey update.

success!!
(sort of.)
two of my three little ones actually stayed in their own beds the whole night.
(no wakie-uppies.)
i was able to...
sleep..
kind of..
in a bed.
not my bed, mind you..
but peyton at least got the idea that she is to sleep in her own bed, and not mine.
i needed to clarify that in order to earn a candy bar, i would have to be allowed to sleep in my own bed, all night, as well.
the kiddo got half of it!
she woke up "fweaked out", and asked me to snuggle her.
it wasn't her fault that while snuggling, i fell asleep in her bed, and stayed there the rest of the night.
i replenished my cupboards with a variety of candy bars from the fall-apart (aka wal-mart).  all children were paid (with the exception of the youngest, who didn't nap today and fell asleep early).
i think i might just pay myself for surviving yet another night in a twin-sized bed with my littlest who also enjoys kicking the covers off.
yup, mars bar for me indeed!
(moral of the story is: bribery works.)

The latest obsession.

Being a Pitcher, comes with a few pre-requisites.
(Kind of like being a mother has the pre-requisite of being a female.)
- You have to patiently deal with punctuality issues.
- Be tolerant of flannel sheets year-round.
- Be okay with sharing items (i.e. the community cup, the community chapstick..  etc.)
- Loving Reese’s.
The first two have been trying at times, the last two, not that hard.
Especially the last one.
Loving Reese’s has come easily to those who live in our home.
Loving dark chocolate, however, is an art.
So I believed, that when someone who knows of my love for dark chocolate brought me a new-fangled treat, that the treats would be safe from other Reese’s lovers in the house.
This kind heart brought them to me in the check-stand form, the larger cups in the pack of two.  Two of those check-stand packs, to be exact.
So I had no problems, in theory, of sharing one of those with Merrill, who can appreciate dark chocolate from time to time.
Then the plans changed one day.
I have been doing pretty well cutting back on sugar, but this one particular day, around five o’clock, right during dinner preparations, I NEEDED sugar.  Thankfully, I had something three times as good.  (12 times if I am doing the math right, there were four cups..)
It was heavenly.
Peyton found her way to me, she probably heard the rustling of the wrapper, smelled the scent of something better than just good.
Being the kind mother I am, I gave her one of the cups that I had only taken one bite of.
In that moment, it was decided that there would be no package of two saved for Merrill.  I enjoyed every bite, every bite with the exception of the last two bites.  Peyton wanted more too.
Enter some awesome coupons I clipped in May.
I found the miniatures, purchased them and some of the regular miniature Reese’s intended for the consumption of others in the house, only to have the bag of dark chocolate ones practically inhaled in less than one day.
By Merrill and myself.
Yup.  He likes ‘em too.
So as I had to go to the bank to make the deposit yesterday, I found the perfect excuse to buy another bag.
(The bank is so conveniently located within the walls of our local grocery store.)
I don’t call it a total failure in my war on sugar.  Dark chocolate is so good for you!  As is the protein in the peanut butter.
How’s that for looking on the bright side? ;)

It's over!!!!

My headache is still a ragin'.. I thought it would be gone.. but I think it's hormones.
Yesterday was the Blue and Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts.. I was slightly stressed, as all the prep did not work out the way Christie and I thought it would.. there were a few small miracles though! I also had the Arrow of Light Ceremony to perform. It is the highest award (equivalent to the Boy Scouts Eagle) in Cub Scouting.. that equals a big deal.. I was slightly worried about that. I am told it was good..
I started my day of with a chocolate nutrition bar (aka fudge brownie from Paradise Cafe and Bakery.. go there.. yum!) and glass of milk.. a good start to any busy Saturday. I had Peyton, who wanted to live on my hip, so I did things that required only one hand. I suddenly got the urge to deep clean the kitchen, the WHOLE KITCHEN.. that was nice.. took my mind off the stress to come.
So here we are.. Sunday night, living with a headache, but excited to start the day tomorrow.. re-decorate the scrap room :)
We ate stir fry for lunch.. I am sure the chicken breasts came from a chicken that answered to the name "Mindy" when she was alive ;)...
Funnies from the girls to come tomorrow..

My battery is charged...

Well, my camera battery is charged...
Not much sleeping going on when there is coughing as your background noise...
Here's the yummy stuff I found yesterday...
It must be Christmas time if I can find these babies again!
Love them...
This one is for Jaclyn and Michelle...
Needed something for my hands. They are so chapped! It does not feel good to have soft yarn, sticking to my chapped skin, bleh! Almond smell.. we all cannot stop smelling this stuff!
So what's a mom with a not so hot feeling child to do on a Saturday?
Throw on my favorite lounge pants (well, it is laundry day too :)!) and my fuzzy slippers and sew away...

Chocolate!

A girl after my own heart!
How could I deny her the happiness of sharing the bowl licking process with me?...
Now I've found something that she eats even better than carrots and pears...

Mmmm... cheap chocolates...

I got a lot accomplished today. It was mostly lists of places to go and things to find and get, all before baby comes. So a lot of "little things". But now, I am feeling it... we even picked out Peyton's first Pooh Bear, a tradition that all began when Lynn was small.

We were gone for so long, and kept so busy, as I was driving home (at 6:30 pm, late...), I asked the girls what they wanted for dinner. Lynn said little pizzas, Ashley yelled, "No! Olibe Garden!" We had been near Olive Garden earlier in the day when we went to Bed, Bath, & Beyond on one of our quests. She remembered. The more I thought about it on the drive home, the more I liked it. So we went, as an early birthday dinner. I have a lot to do tomorrow.

My blessing for the day... due to recent stories in the news, I am so thankful for the Gospel. The grounding it gives me in my life, but most importantly, the knowledge of how sacred life is. I am so blessed to carry a life inside of me. I am so blessed to be a mother. I am so blessed to be surrounded by mothers and other women who believe these same things, who believe that what they are doing every day, is a sacred calling.

Oh yeah, in my quest for groceries, I also got myself a treat... cheap chocolates. They are only $2.50 a box at Wal-Mart... but oh, so delicious! Merrill thinks they taste horrible, that just means more for me!!!

P.S. Ash and I had a night...

I realized last night, as I was getting ready for bed, I really didn't put my heart into my post last night. I think that should be against the rules. Same with scrapbook layouts. They shouldn't count if I'm not putting some effort into them.

So I was thinking about why I really didn't "try" last night.... My body hurt SO BAD, maybe it had something to do with grocery shopping, going to two different stores, dealing with #1 Crazy and #2 Crazy... and then coming home and carrying in all the bags and putting it all away, all by myself... I was really looking forward to a hot soak, that was all that I was looking forward to.

I finished posting to come upstairs to find Ash, still awake. She had a 15-20 minute nap when she disappeared earlier in the evening, and that little nap, threw it all out of whack...

Mer was so tired but he said she could snuggle with him, "Simpson's" was on. I went to take my soak only to find Q-Tips, stuffed in the heater vent on the bathroom wall. Ash... I got to clean that up. Then I went to start pouring the water... Then I realized that, I forgot, again, that I needed to fix the hot water handle in the tub... I really didn't want to do that. I was tired and sore. The last thing I wanted to do was go out to the cold garage and find the right size hex wrench, take apart the handle and fix it, again. You see, a year ago, I had to replace the valve stems, and because our blessed home is old and screwed up, you either pay an arm and leg to replace something, you can't find the same part to replace the old/broken part, and get to re-do the whole thing, or you get to use a lot of "universal" kits. These new handles are "universal" so I get to fix them a lot. I didn't get my soak. Ash was still awake by the time I was all ready for bed, and at first I was a little grumpy, but it turned out to be a blessing. She and I stayed-up for just a little while together, snuggling in my bed and talking. I got lots of hugs, kisses, and "I love yous", and "Mommy, you're so beautiful", and "I love Peyton", and kisses for Peyton... It really helped to make up for the humiliation I felt when she peeked in on me in the shower earlier that day, and stared, for a long time. I just don't have enough hands or hands that are big enough to cover everything. When I told Mer about it, he said, "Well, there is a lot to look at!" Thanks Mer...

I got a funny phone call last night too. It was a survey call. Usually I don't give them the time of day, I just happen to not fit any of their age categories, or the best is when they ask for a "responsible adult in the household", that's easy, THERE ISN'T ONE! But sometimes, I like to participate. This one started out as a political survey. That was fun. Confuse a poor Indian kid about how I am a Mormon, don't side 100% of the time with Republicans, and how I really don't identify with any party (it's really the candidate and what they stand for!), and have some liberal views... that was fun. But somehow, the conversation turned into Chocolate, an area in which I delve everyday...

"Do you eat Chocolate?"

"Yes."

"What kind and how often?"

"Any kind, mostly dark, EVERYDAY."

"Why do you eat chocolate?"

"Because it makes me happy, and I am pregnant."

This is just so funny to me, because I bought myself a box of chocolates today...

I had to cut the "survey" short though, "One Tree Hill" was starting, it was a two-hour season premiere... I know, I am a dork...