Behind the Scenes

Monday, March 31, 2008

Yippee!

Yahoo! My walls and baseboards are getting cleaned today! Thanks Nathan and Claire for not minding and getting in trouble. :-)

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Yesterday morning Claire was laying on my bed while I was getting dressed. She looked at me standing there and touched my bra. She says "Mom, are these your new bibs?" I laughed and said "These are called boobs. And no, they are not new, but the bra is." I want new "bibs", but daddy hasn't bought me any yet! :-)

Friday, March 28, 2008

Wishes

Star light, Star bright
First star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Get the wish I wish tonight.

Me: What do you guys wish for tonight?

Logan: I wish I was in the army in a helicopter.

Claire: I wish Jasmine is happy at her new home with her new doggy.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

What in the World....

is wrong with teenagers these days?? I was in Walmart earlier and was in the deodorant aisle. At the end of the aisle I noticed 2 couples- teenagers. They were looking at the pregnancy tests and deciding which one to buy. They were looking at the prices, etc. And they were all so happy and excited about it! I'm assuming it was probably just for one of the girls. (course you never know- could've been for both of them.) I just shook my head and thought "What is wrong with this picture?!" They couldn't have been out of high school. Do kids really understand what it means to be pregnant and have a baby? Do they think about the long term affects on their life? It's not just a cute little game of house. I guess it hits home to me more because I have been through it- only I was 21 when I had Nathan and was finishing my associate's degree. So I had a little bit of education that would get me somewhat of a decent job to support myself and my baby. I just want to tell these kids out there having babies how difficult it is. There are so many consequences to your decisions and your decision affects so many lives.

Have any of you seen the movie "Juno?" I loved it- it was so good. It's about this 16 year old girl who gets pregnant and considers abortion. She decides against it and decides on adoption. It takes you through her trials and how at high school- everyone can see her belly and know what she did. She gets mad at the dad because he doesn't have to be responsible- nobody can see what he did. Anyhow, the movie really hit home to me because.....(here it goes, I am totally opening up to my blog readers and friends) I gave a son up for adoption too. I have been down both roads- keeping a baby and adopting out a baby. (in that order.) Both were the hardest choices I've ever had to make. But, they have shaped me into the person that I am today. I have worked hard to overcome those trials and to better my life and to "Come Unto Christ" more. Giving my son up for adoption was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. But I had to have faith that I was doing the right thing. It made me stronger in knowing that I had to trust in Christ that I would be able to get through it. And I did! Anyhow, I know this is long so I will end it for now. I hesitated in sharing this because I know a lot of people can be judgmental and I hope that no one will judge me. I will share my adoption story on another posting if anyone is interested in it. My dream is to be able to help other young women who may be in the same situation that I was in. Someday I would love to go into social work in the adoption field. I feel I can help since I have been down both roads. Anyhow- I'll stop rambling!

My Four Beautiful Children - August 2007

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

I Give Up

I talked to a few friends last night to get ideas on parenting strategies and how to get my kids to do what I ask them to do- and on my time schedule instead of theirs. One of my friends said with her kids she starts at 5 and counts backwards to 1. Then there's no where else to go- instead of counting up where there's a billion numbers you could count to. Then if she gets to 1 and if they're not doing what she asks then they get 30 minutes of cleaning the mopboards or floor, etc. So I thought I would try that. Well, Logan was giving me a hard time about staying in bed. So I told him what we were going to start doing. He asked what "mopboards" were. So I pointed out the trim along the floor. He goes "Oh, I love cleaning that!" UGH! I give up- it's hopeless!

First thing he said when he got up this morning- "I have to clean the walls don't I mom?" I got out the bucket and PineSol and let him clean away. I'll have an undisciplined kid- but at least I'll have clean mopboards! :-)

Monday, March 24, 2008

Easter

So this year for Easter I called the Easter Bunny to see if he could come on Saturday morning instead of Sunday. He was more than glad to accomodate my needs. We dyed eggs on Friday night and did egg and basket hunt on Saturday morning. I wanted Sunday's focus to be on Jesus, and not the easter bunny. I am so glad that I did that. It made Sunday so much better.
Spence, Claire and I got up early and went to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing for their "Music and the Spoken Word" broadcast. They had the symphony playing with them also. It was soooooo beautiful! And Claire did such a good job being quiet while they filmed for the live TV broadcast. I wish I could start every Sunday watching the choir in person. Senator Orrin Hatch was there, so Claire and I got our picture taken with him. Just an added bonus I guess. :-)

After church we went over to Spence's parents' house in Murray for honey baked ham (yum!) and the kids had an egg hunt their with some of their cousins. They had fun. So it was a good Easter weekend for the McDonald Family!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

The Question of the Day

How can someone use an entire hot water heater full of water to clean a 3-gallon fish tank??? My husband decided to clean out the fish tank today. As he was finishing I got into the shower. Freezing cold! Not even one drop of hot water. I know, you're asking yourself "Why didn't she just get out and wait for the water to heat back up?" Well, after already being undressed and wet, who wants to get back out. So as I was in there, slightly cussing as I was jumping in and out of the cold water in between cleaning and rinsing, I thought "Okay. I'm going to turn this around. I should be thankful that I even have indoor plumbing with water to shower in." It helped a little, but I still let Spence know that it was utterly ridiculous that he used up all of the hot water. As he was putting his fish into the tank, he was worried about them because the water was cold. He put them in and goes "Yep, I think they are in shock from the cold water." I smiled and replied "I know how they feel!"

3/10: Nathan has worked hard in school this year and has received straight A's all year. He worked hard to get back into honors classes next year also. I am so proud of him.

I was putting Logan in his bed late at night because he fell asleep in our bed. Nathan was sound asleep in his bed. He talks in his sleep quite a bit. This was the conversation he had with me while his eyes were closed.
"Mom!"
"What Nathan?"
"What's there to do?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm bored!"
"Well, why don't you read?"
"Cuz that's BORING!"
"Why don't you just go to sleep?"
"mumble mumble mumble" (couldn't understand)

My crimany- even when they're sound asleep they still ask me what there is to do because they're bored! Does it never end? LOL

3/10: Logan was visiting some cousins and they weren't treating him very well. He hadn't been feeling well besides. When we picked him up he began to tell us all the "naughty" things that were said and done by them. He continued to say that these cousins liked to play violent computer games and that they watch R rated movies. (which I don't think is true...) At the end he sighed and said "Those kids need to get their life straight."

11/09: Our computer has had a virus and Nathan (our computer whiz) hasn't taken the time to fix it. Logan wanted to play a computer game on Spence's laptop. Spence told him no. Logan shouts at the top of his lungs "Then tell Nathan to fix the DAMN computer!" Needless to say, he went straight to his room for time out. I don't know where he learns those words!

2/09: I was playing a Memory Game with Logan and Claire. They teamed up against me. I HATE that game. They were of course, winning. Logan says with so much excitement "Mom! We're kicking your ass off!" I said "What?" Naturally, he repeated it for me. I don't know where he has learned that word because I swear- I have never used it.

-We were at the drive up at Wendy's and Spence gave his debit card to the cashier. Logan asked "Is there never ending money on dad's card?" Boy, I sure wish there was!

-Claire decided to suck her thumb in the car the other day. I told her that she is too old to do that and that there are so many germs on her hands that go in her mouth. Logan's response: "At least it keeps her from talking mom."

-We were coming home from Sunday dinner at the in-laws and were playing around with the GPS navigator we got for Christmas. The lady was telling us instructions on where to turn to get home. When we were almost home Logan (in sarcastic voice) says "Uh, we know how to get home. We don't need any stupid instructions!"

-Last night Logan was laying in bed. I was putting Claire to bed. It was all quiet, then Logan says "Mom!" I said "What Logan?" He then replies "I can hear my brain banging in my head!" I didn't even know how to respond to that one.

3/10: I got out some Sun Chips for Claire for lunch the other day. She was excited about the flavor of them and said "Oh I love this kind! This kind is made with weed!" (They are the plain kind that have wheat...)
1/10: Claire got the movie "Hannah Montana" for Christmas. She loves that movie and I cannot count how many times she has seen it. She turns it up and dances during the songs. She was going downstairs to watch it and said she couldn't take Simon (our new dog) down with her cuz she was going to be "rockin and rollin." I guess it was going to get a bit too wild and crazy in the basement for the new puppy... :-)

5/11/09: Claire brought home a "Sight Word Fishing Game" from preschool. You write different sight words on the back of the cards and fish for them with a magnent. I helped her to read the words. We came to the one that said "you." I told her the word and told her it was like "I love you." She then replied "Or like yooo gross!"

2/26/09: Claire went to the dentist today for the first time. She was nervous so watched while Logan had his teeth cleaned. She saw the "blue napkin" laying on him and asked what it was for. I told her it was to wipe stuff on. She said "Like your boogers." Hmmm- let's hope you can keep your finger out of your nose while the dentist is here. :-)

-I put Claire to bed and came down and sat on the couch to read. After about five minutes Claire got out of bed and came down. She pulled out the Friend magazine to sit by me and read. I kept telling her she needed to get back into bed. She refused. She ignored all of my threats and I didn't have energy to deal with it. She said "Mom, I'll do everything you tell me to do...tomorrow!" Ugh!

-We were in the car the other night and it was a bright full moon. I said to the kids "Look at the full moon!" Claire looked then asked "What does the moon eat? Cheese?" I laughed and said the moon doesn't eat anything. It's not alive. Then she goes "Well then how come it's so fat?"

-Claire came running up to talk to me and said "Mom! I need to tell you something. I need to talk to you FOREVER!"

-Claire has been a little stinker lately and really testing my patience. She has an "attitude." I was laying in bed with her last night and asked her if she was going to please start minding mommy and daddy. She just looked at me and shook her head and said "Noooo."

-When Grandpa Dee passed away we explained to the kids that when Jesus comes again he will be back "alive" and his spirit will enter into his body again. Spence later found a picture of his dog, Shasta, that died a long time ago. He was talking to Claire about the dog. She brought the picture up to me and said "Mom! Here is Shasta! He is dead, but when Jesus comes again he will come back alive. Jesus will bring her to us in his car!" Hmm, I wonder what kind of car Jesus drives. Definitely a Mercedes...

9/1/10- Samuel rolled over from his belly to his back today! He is smiling so much now and discovering his voice and hands more. He definitely loves to be held and especially likes to sit outside. He brings so much joy to our home!
9/12/11- Samuel is climbing everything now. He loves to climb up on the cupboard and kitchen table. He loves his bottle and blankie. His favorite things to play with are any kitchen utensil (spatulas, wooden spoons, etc), and the mop and broom. He dances when he hears music and has the BEST smile ever.