MY ETERNAL NEMISIS

Last week, in preparation of Gracie's blessing, I tried to climb the Mt. Everest of my life, laundry. I had been running loads quite frequently but had been unable to get them all folded. So, a week a go I sat down to fold and fold and fold. I remember well, the days as kids when my mom would load up several large black garbage bags full of laundry and head off to the laundry mat to catch up on the never ending task. I have also been known to make such trips to the quarter eating carnival. In fact, just days before we were married, I took all of Brandon's laundry and my own to the laundry mat. I ran out of cash and had to go get some more. A sweet lady that had made conversation with me loaned me ten bucks to keep my machines going while I ran to get cash. When I returned, I found a note stuck to one of the washers that said congratulations and that the ten dollars was a gift for us. What a sweet lady!!! I had just as sweet an experience this summer while I was sick. My mom had come to help out while I was on bed rest. She peeked in my room, AKA the laundry hamper, and demanded that Brandon give her some of our laundry. Brandon bundled up a few loads to get her off his back...so he thought. Every time we saw my parents over the next few weeks, they would bring back piles of clean clothes and take bags of dirty ones until we completely caught up. I am proud to say that I have stayed pretty on top of it since Gracie was born. The several loads that are pictured were the most behind I have gotten. My punishment... as I was caring the basket to put the clothes away, I slipped and fell...HARD. I laid on floor for a moment waiting to feel the throbbing pain of broken bones. Luckily it never came. However, I did ache and moan for several days. The laundry gods have spoken...lesson learned!!!

P.S. My slip covers for the couch and chairs were in the dryer!

Gracie's Blessing

For any who are interested, Gracie's blessing will be this Sunday, Sept. 21st, at 11:00.

Not the best picture, but it's the best I have of her smiling.

CRAFTY

• My neck hurts




• My head is pounding




• It's past my bedtime




• Grace hasn't been fed




• My kitchen is a mess




• I may sparkle for a week

But I think it turned out great (if I do say so myself) and It screams Reagan, LITERALLY!!

Hopefully it looks good on her walls!!!

Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing

It's kind of weird for me to have Bailey in fourth grade. I really remember fourth grade. I remember Miss McCloud was my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Hirschi got married, and Mrs. Hansen taught Utah History. ( I can't remember the other two teacher's names. Any help from my fellow Silver Mesa Eagles?) Mrs. Hansen was the best teacher ever!!! I loved Utah history!!! We made salt dough maps, Indian fry bread, and weaved bags out of yarn. Almost every unit had some hands on project. Making the bag made such an impact on me, we used the same method to weave a bag out of rafia for Bailey's Native American report last year. Now my baby is learning Utah history and I am so excited. Last week she made a map at school from a cake and candy. We were instructed to cut then frost a cake in the shape of Utah and send it to school with candy. The frosting was in three colors marking the mountain region, the Great Basin, and the plateau region. We sent kisses for mountains, Reeces for plateaus, crushed up Oreos for the desert and blue frosting for lakes and rivers. It was really fun.

I also remember them reading a book about Santa Clause and finding out for sure that Santa wasn't real. I was bummed. I remember the student teacher (name anyone?) telling us to scoot in close so the first graders wouldn't hear. I didn't want to hear!!!! I remember doing times tables tests on transparencies and it taking me forever to pass them off. Bailey has hers shaped in a race track. She is working on her 4's and hopefully will pass them off tomorrow.

I remember feeling like I could read "Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing" because I was in fourth grade. Kind of like reading "Ramona Quimby: age 8" when I was eight. Now those books are on my daughter's bookshelf. We talk about authors like Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, and Roald Dahl. It is all going by so fast, and I am sure the nest few years will seem to go even faster. For now, I will just enjoy learning about Utah all over again.

LIVING WITH HOPE

Wednesday night was a good night to be a Pfunder. Not that there is a time that is not, bet Wednesday was particularly special. For those of you who don't know, Brandon's younger brother, Kevin, was diagnosed with MS about four years ago. Although I do not really know the extent of his symptoms, I know that he suffers from occasional eye problems and is affected at times with his legs. I am sure there is much more, but he is not one to always be up front with his extended family about his disease. He jokes around about it alot, which personally I see as both good and bad. Good that he has a sense of humor and can still be happy - Bad that he doesn't always take it as seriously as I think he should, like by taking daily therapy medicines ---KEVIN!!!! Right from the first year of his diagnosis, Kevin jumped into the MS walk fundraising with both feet. He got his sixth grade students involved and last walk raised $26,000 for research. Amazing!!!! Well, the MS Society of Utah realized just how amazing he is and honored him at The Dinner of Champions. Kevin received the "Living With Hope" award. Kevin and his practically perfect wife, Marolyn, Neil & Roxanne (Brandon's parents), Verna (Brandon's Grandma), Brandon and I spent a very nice evening at Little America for the awards banquet. Several awards were given, but when it came time for Kevin's, there was a short video of fun pictures and interviews with Brandon and Kevin's friend. Then came the speech. Kevin was hysterical and moving. I was laughing so hard I was almost crying, yet he got a neat message across. After the awards ceremony, we were all inundated with people congratulating and saying that Kevin stole the show. It was incredible!!! I think I had an emotional hangover Thursday, but I'm back on track now.

CONGRATS KEVIN!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

The Evil Eye

Brandon and I saw this on his cousin's blog.  Needless to say, this will be the first trick we try to teach Gracie.  Enjoy!!!

Look at me... I'm a regular Handy Manny!!

Home projects continue...they may never stop!!! Today I put together one of these...

Then I stacked it ontop of an existing shelf.  ( I only banged up the newly painted walls a tiny bit)  To top it all off, I anchored it to the wall.  I even found a stud to screw the anchor into.  All by myself.  O.K., the longest screw I could find may not have been long enough to reach the stud, I tried.  I told Brandon he may have to replace the screw with a longer one, but that may be tricky due to the fact the screw I used may or may not be stripped. 

With new storage intact, I now have the fun pleasure of cleaning out Reagan's old room and putting her stuff in her new room.  I started with books.  I really wish I had a sliver of my sister-in-law, Marolyn, or my neighbor, Kara, housekeeping and organization skills.  I also wish I had an ounce of my other sister-in-law's easygoing outlook.  But no, I am a high-strung mess!!!  So, I started making piles of books trying to organize.  Then came the trouble... do I separate by size, content, hard bound, soft cover.  What do I do???  Should a hard bound Elmo book be put with "Giggle, Giggle, Quack" or the Sesame Street board books from the dollar section at Target?  Totally perplexed, I did my best and left plenty of room for toys in the lower shelves.  Wait, am I discouraging reading because the books are on a higher shelf.  I may have to "re-organize" tomorrow.  Tomorrow, I will try to tackle the insane amount of stuffed animals and toys.  I figure the stuffed animals can go on the rarely used top bunk bed, cutely arranged of course.  The webkinz will be placed in one of the empty cubes.  Yes, my three year old has multiple webkinz.  Yes, she does play with them on the computer.  

Speaking of Roo and webkinz, I was playing with her on webkinz the other day (a job I normally give to Bailey) and realized that she has like 8000 webinz coins but no furniture for her pets.  The other kids only have a couple hundred webkinz coins, but they have at least bought their pets each a bed.  Brandon and I decided that we are going to play the webkins games to earn her more coins and deck out her webkinz "house".  Then we will anxiously await Bay and Ike's reaction when they are forced to play with her.  Anyway, enough rambling, I'm off to bed to prepare for tomorrow's attempt to organize Reagan's room.  Hopefully now I won't have to hear Brandon make fun of me for my Twilight  post. 

TWILIGHT QUIZ

"Twilight": who are you? (now w/ pics) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Esme Cullen You're Esme. The sweet, loving, mother figure of the Cullen clan. You're extremely happy that Edward has found Bella and are very careful not to scare her off. Esme Cullen 88% Charlie Swan 75% Alice Cullen 75% Bella Swan 75% Emmett Cullen 63% Edward Cullen 63% Jasper Cullen 50% Carlisle Cullen 50% Rosalie Cullen 50% James 38%