"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Thomas A. Edison

Paraphrasing this one:  Don't look negatively on your failures, but look at them as successful data.

These were from my Relief Society Activity last night.  Afterwards we had a swap and it was like a giant free garage sale... awesome!

I started re-writing one of the Youth Messiah pieces on Tuesday... it will be much better now!

So, we had a fun Easter and birthday.  My Dad came down for a couple of days and it was good to talk with him.  He played songs on the guitar for the kids... I'm glad my kids get to have memories of him doing that.  We alternated between David's house and our house to spend time with Dad.  I had a good birthday! I woke up to hearts with messages cascading down the stairs.  We had all of the in-town family and Dad over for dessert (my favorite Nadler's cake from Carol), I opened presents and cards from everyone, and then we had an Easter Egg hunt for the kids.

The big news is that we're having a girl!  So excited!  The baby is healthy and measuring a little big, so the baby might come a little earlier than expected.  I wrote "It's a girl!" on pink paint sample cards I had picked up from the store and delivered them to the kids' schools.  The kids are very excited.

I spent a few days this last week trying to teach Emma to swim with a 1-week trial membership I got to a gym.  While she's made a lot of progress she still will not leave the wall or let me hold her away from the wall without screaming bloody murder.  So, I don't think she'll do Swim Team this year... next year definitely though.  Try-outs are in two weeks and its just not enough time to fully teach her to swim on her own without a pool I can go to every day.  I bet she'll be a good swimmer by the end of summer though.

Logan lost one of each of his two pairs of tennis shoes and so he was wearing his church shoes all week.  I had the kids go check the mail and down at the end of the street they found Logan's other tennis shoes.  Apparently, he had worn them mismatched to play and left them at the end of the street.  *Rolling my eyes.

On Friday, I took the kids to the zoo and Emma and Logan had a great time seeing the animals.  When we got to the zoo we realized that Emma had somehow taken off her shoes before we got into the car to leave and nobody had noticed... and the zoo was far away and we got one of the last parking spaces available.  So, luckily I had an extra pair of crocks in the car that Logan was able to wear and then Emma wore Logan's shoes.  We tried buying shoes in the gift shop but they didn't have Emma's size or anything near her size.  Nobody complained and we got to see everything, so the shoe situation worked out.  The 3 oldest loved feeding the Lorikeets and Cameron at one point had one bird on his head eating nectar and another on his arm.  No, I didn't get pictures because my camera died just before we got to the Lorikeets.  Then we went to Jason's Deli (the kids' favorite place to eat) and then swimming.  I was exhausted but we all had a fun day.  Then yesterday was a work day.  Errolyn and I worked hard on the inside cleaning and Mike and Cameron worked hard on the front yard.  Logan cleaned inside and then also went out to help the boys.  Emma enjoyed helping Errolyn with her chores.  I think we all worked for 5-6 hours straight.  My motto is "work hard, play hard."  Since we'd had a fun day the entire day on Friday the kids knew Saturday would be our work day.  I'm glad that my kids know how to work hard... I think its an important habit/ skill to learn.

Kathy and Grandma just came over to get some of my extra artichoke plants that sprouted to the side of my big one.  Apparently they were $24 a plant at the nursery, so I was glad I had some extra offshoots that they could have.

Other than that, my left ear is still slightly clogged but a lot better, my ptyalism is still ruining my life (not really just super annoying), but at least I'm not sick and able do things with the kids and around the house now.  :)

So, Emma and I are trapped in the kitchen while the carpet guys clean our carpet.  We have to get our carpet cleaned every 1- 1 1/2 yrs. to keep the warranty valid on our new carpet... and it needed it anyway.  So, we cleaned the entire house yesterday, and now it is in complete disarray with furniture moved everywhere so they can clean the carpet, lol.  But, we should get everything put back tonight hopefully.

The Symphony conductor asked if I was feeling better because they could really use me on this next concert.  I am feeling better, so I decided to play with them one more time since I'll take off all of next year to be with the new baby.  I've played in a couple of weddings lately, but its really been hurting my back to play for 2-3 hours with the baby, not to mention, not being able to use the restroom when we're in the middle of playing... so, I probably won't do any more weddings until after the baby is born.

My left ear is still clogged, although not as much.  The doctor says we just need to wait it out and it will eventually unclog.  She doesn't want to prescribe anything stronger because I'm pregnant, so I'll just be disoriented for a while and keep asking people to repeat themselves when I can't hear.

I am feeling old; probably because of my upcoming birthday.  I had no problem turning 30, but 35 is so much closer to 40 and it just seems old. 

Errolyn is rocking the house in volleyball... go Errolyn!  And Logan is the Superstar player in baseball this year and can outrun almost anyone on the field to get the ball and then tag the runner before they get to base, lol.  We're trying to teach him to stay in his position, but he gets frustrated that the other players aren't bright enough to know where to throw the ball to so people will get out.  I think we'll have to put him on an older team next year.

I'm excited to see my parents this weekend!

So 1 1/2 years ago, the Scouts went to a Garden store in town and let the Scouts each pick a veggie plant to take home.  Cameron got me an artichoke plant because he knows I like them so much and that I've never planted one before.  Well, I finally got my first artichoke!  :)  It's kind of small... next time I'll let it grow a little bit longer.  I have 11 more buds growing... I'm excited!  :)

 

So, I'll start with the non-April Fool's stuff first.  I went to the ENT and I had a fever still, that I didn't know I had, and I still have an ear infection AND sinus infection.  So, I'm on my 3rd set of antibiotics... Hopefully it'll work because I only got 3 hours of sleep last night because I was so miserable.

I'll just paste my Facebook status for the April Fool's stuff: "Happy April Fool's Day! My mother-in-law got me the best. She said they were on a road trip and turning onto our street... I was excited!... but panic also set in as I've been sick with multiple things for 2 weeks and my house isn't exactly clean... but it was an April Fool's joke and I totally fell for it. I used the same prank on my kids, saying Grandma was on her way and they were all excited... but it may have backfired because now they're sad she's not coming, lol. 

Errolyn laced my water bottle with salt... that was an interesting one. Logan put toothpaste on the toilet last night for the first person who used it in the middle of the night, he stuffed toilet paper in the toes of everyone's shoes so they couldn't put them on, and he taped the phones to the bottom of chairs so they would ring and we couldn't find them. The kids have decorated each other's rooms with hearts or cute April Fool's messages. After the Facebook post that's been going around with the toothpaste Oreo cookies (that I knew Cameron had seen), I bought Oreo cookies and did NOTHING to them and he wouldn't eat them for a while because he was convinced there was toothpaste in them, lol. I've been promised there are more pranks to come... wonderful."

So, it's been a fun day... kind of, lol.

Emma is the sweetest little girl ever.  Since I've been so sick lately I've been taking naps occasionally.  The other morning I was fading out, on accident, on the couch.  Emma turned off all of the lights downstairs, turned on the bathroom fan (she knows I like white noise when I sleep), brought me a phone and blanket, and then she went upstairs to her room, closed the door, and played.  She certainly is a mother at heart.  Of course, I woke up to her singing Frozen songs at the top of her lungs an hour later in her room, but even that was still cute.

I've talked with some friends who have had clogged ears, and they all said it lasted a couple of months.  Joy.  At least the pain is starting to die down.  I guess I'll just have to get used to hearing out of one ear for a while.  But, I'm still going to see an ENT just to make sure there's nothing that can be done.

Errolyn auditioned for the Middle School orchestra yesterday.  She's still a beginner, but she's way better than the other 5th grade string players and doesn't want to be stuck with the other kids playing super easy music in the 6th grade orchestra.  The 5th grade strings teacher doesn't teach them anything, but plays on his computer and just tells them to practice something.  I volunteered one week to kind of show him how to teach and to help the kids (he's a choir teacher and knows nothing about violin).  Errolyn said the practice after I taught, the choir teacher had them open the book and all play together and was going over my instruction sheet I'd left on posture and technique.  She was excited that he was teaching them something.  But then the next 6 rehearsals he did nothing again.  So, she dropped out.  I normally don't let my kids quit things in the middle of the year once they've committed, but the teacher obviously is not committed to helping the students at all, so I let her drop out as long as she promised to have lessons with me instead.  She agreed and has improved a lot.  She'll find out what orchestra she'll make in a week or two.  The Orchestra Director said she's automatically good enough to make the Upper Intermediate Orchestra, but depending on how the other auditioners do, she may even make the Lower Advanced Orchestra.

Oh, and I think I need to ground Logan more often... just kidding.  But he's been grounded to his room this week and he's been reading his Scriptures, reading the Friend, he drew and colored a beautiful picture of the temple, and he's been singing Primary songs in his room all week.  I feel like he's grown spiritually more in this grounding than all year, lol.  He really is a good kid... other than the reason he's grounded for.  ;)