Mornings are.....LONG!!!

So mornings at the Wolford's are generally hectic. Jordynn is SLOW and takes her time no matter how late we are. Plus it's cold. We use a wood stove to help heat the house so every morning I have to start a fire to warm up the house. This is usually done around 7AM while yelling at the kids to hurry up. But today Ben had early morning basketball practice and by early I mean 5:30 AM. YEAH EARLY!! Well since I went to bed around 7 pm last night (I had a horrible headache) that meant I was up for the day at... 5:30 AM. So the fire got started early, there was less yelling and we had a few minutes to spare. So what did I learn? Did I learn it's worth it to get up a few minutes early? Is it worth it to have the fire roaring when the kids get up? NOPE I learned that 5:30 is FRICKIN' EARLY and I'm tired!!!!

On another note when Dani gets up in the morning it takes a while for her to look awake. She has what we have come to call sleepy eyes. She looks still tired for about an hour after she wakes up. Well this morning this is what Dani looked like and Jordynn was soooo funny. She kept saying that Dani's eyes were "So cute I can't stand it!" I thought that was pretty funny. But I have to admit she IS pretty cute. Even though she's been crying for the last half hour about wanting toast for breakfast and we're out of bread!!!

Have a good day!!

Who's pencil is the smallest?

So there's a new fad in the kindergarten. The goal and the cool thing is to have the smallest pencil possible. I'm NOT kidding. Then to make your pencil really really cool you need an eraser topper on it. So last night after a blizzard I needed to go to Rock Springs to get Danielle some meds. (she has an ear infection) and Jordynn had a request. She wanted me to get her some NEW eraser toppers. Why I asked when the one she had is still fine. Here's her reply "Mom new ones are cooler!!" Of course how uncool of me. So here's a picture of Jordynn's tiny pencil (before the new eraser topper).



Here's the funny part. Jordynn tells me that her pencil isn't small enough!!! She needs it smaller because other kids have smaller ones than this. So I guess I can use this opportunity to teach her a lesson about peer pressure and not having to be like every one else in school. But then I think how funny that this is what's cool right now. And how innocent this all is. At least it's not who can wear the shortest skirt or wear the most makeup or kiss the most boys. No, I'm glad we're dealing with pencils.

Look!!! A moose spoon!!!

Look at the cool thing Ben found out on snowmobile patrol today!!! A MOOSE SPOON!! This is soooo cool. I love moose. I have for about 10 years now. I have moose on my walls, moose dishes, moose blankets, stuffed moose, moose shirts, I even have moose socks. This is a shed from this winter. It's from a young bull moose. So now the question is what to do with it?? I've seen these stained so they hold their color, carved on like a wildlife scene (my favorite option) or have a scene painted on. I know most of you are thinking EWWW gross a moose horn. But really I think it's cool!!! On a sadder note, President Gordon B. Hinkley, prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints passed away this evening. I love this man. His wisdom in leading this church, his vision of Temple work and his sense of humor has uplifted, comforted and given me strength for my entire adult life. Michaela and I share the same birthday as Pres. Hinkley and so every birthday we would remember to wish him a good day where ever he was. I know he's now home in the presence of our Savior and his beloved wife. He will be missed. But the beauty of the organization of our church is the work goes on seamlessly. Pres. Monson will be a wonderful and powerful prophet for our church.

Happy Helpfull Birthday Ben!!!

We did Ben's birthday today because he was gone on an away Basketball game until late last night.

Yesterday was Ben's birthday but we celebrated it today. And as you can tell from the pictures he had a lot of help both with presents and blowing out the cake. For every present Zach would hand it to him and make a guess. He got some of the more obvious ones right like a movie and socks. But some of the other gifts (in boxes) he couldn't get. Some of the guesses were, a toy, and a shirt (for a VERY heavy one in a box). Then it came time for the cake, I guess it takes the help of 4 kids to blow out 2 FLAMING candles.
They had fun and I hope Ben had a good 33rd birthday!

Adult Themed Candy???

A Green M&M update: I just now (12:05 AM) turned over the bag of green M&M's and there is a disclaimer. It says..."Mportant notice: Consumption of the Green Ones may result in elevated Romance Levels. If you experience this effect, contact your Significant Other immediately. No official agency has verified these statements...but what do they know about romance anyway?" Seriously FUNNY!!!! I think these are a great gift either seriously or as a gag gift!!!

So I was at Wal-Mart today and going down the Valentine candy isle and couldn't resist these!!! OH MY GOSH!!!! Now I think it's hilarious that M&M's would put out an ENTIRE bag of green M&M's. And in case you can't see it, the bag says "The new color of love" and "Sweetie...it's all true" Now I don't know how many of you "get" all this but right there and then in Wal-Mart I HAD to call my sister. She thought it was the best thing she's ever heard of. Then I had to call my mom she thought it was funny also. I kept saying I think it's daring of M&M to do that. My mom had a good point, she said they are marketing a product based on the current popular thought of green M&M's. I then called everyone I could think of that would appreciate the "adult" M&M's and after getting WAY more info than I wanted (mostly about the need to go out and get some IMMEDIATELY) the general public consensus is these are a great idea. So kudos M&M's for making a blog worthy Valentine Candy!!!!

P.S. If you want your own bag, they were in the Valentine Candy Isle in the food part of Wal-Mart, and I'm seriously considering buying stock in Mars Candy!!!

What the HECK is on my ceiling???

I know...you're asking yourself "What am I looking at?" Well I thought the same thing when I first noticed this strange sight. Here's the back story. I was giving the little kids (Zach and Dani) and bath and while I was watching them I happened to look up. Yep those are GIANT spit balls of a sort. My kids discovered that if they got toilet paper wet, ball it up and throw it hard it would stick to the ceiling. I called in Michaela and Jordynn to question them and they told me Zach and Dani did it. Yeah the 2 and 4 year old had that good of an arm to hit the ceiling. NICE TRY!!!! It's actually funny but I'm not telling them that.

I'm currently trying to figure out how to get them to clean it up themselves. Any suggestions????

An exciting sleep-over update

This afternoon Michaela was telling me that her and her friend were watching TV at the sleep-over and then the mom came in to tell them it was time for bed. And here's the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT, she tells me "Mom it was AFTER 10!!!!" I was of course VERY impressed at my 8 year olds LATE night. She was soooo proud of herself it was hard not to laugh.

I'm sad...

Friday night was Michaela's FIRST EVER sleepover. She went over to the neighbor's house. She was OFCOURSE thrilled. But then there's Jordynn.....she wasn't so happy. She cried for about 3 hours and kept saying it's not fair. So Ben and I have tried to explain that it's not fair but Michaela's older and gets to do things she can't do yet. So to try to appease the distraught 6 year old we set up the new bunk beds we bought. We got the kind that has a twin on top and a futon bed/couch on bottom. Jordynn gets to sleep on the top and Dani is on the bottom. That seemed to help distract her for a while. Well until bed time where she cried agian for about an hour and kept saying, "I'm so sad!!! It's not fair!!!!" I know it's hard to not be the biggest or the oldest but we assured Jordynn that her time would come and she would be able to have sleep-overs also. Now I have to listen to her asking,"when can I have a sleep over?" about 50 times a day!!!

A hunting we will go....

I came home from school today and Zach was on my bed watching the hunting channel, (yes we have that channel) actually he was hunting along with the hunters on the TV. It was so funny to watch him "hunt" and get all excited when the hunters got a deer, or antelope or moose, because that of course meant he got it too!!! Ben and I say this a lot and I think it's proven by this incident..."our life is different from other peoples." Yeah I guess you can say that!!
Happy hunting!!!!

A picture of home!!!!

I know it's kind of hard to see but this is MY PICTURE!!!! I found this woman in Minnesota (Lucy) and she was selling her collection of Charles Peterson Prints. He's an artist form Wisconsin that does thiese neat Memories pictures. If you look close it looks like the people in the picture are ghosts. Well they represent memories. This particualr print is called "Late Arrival" and the reason I LOVE this print is it's from Wausau. This is the train depot in Wausau WI where I lived for 6 years. The train depot was at Wausau Insurance where my dad worked and we used to go and play there sometimes. My parents have this print and to me it represents the first place we stayed long enough to call home. I graduated from high school there. We moved there when I was 12 and my parents stayed there for 11 years. I've now lived in Utah more years than I did in Wisconsin. Manila is home to my family and I. But Wausau will always be the home of my teenage years.

More money please!!!

This afternoon after I was done with the dishes ( I HATE DISHES) Jordynn came to me with a question. She wanted to play house and store but didn't have any money. Hey that's like REAL LIFE!!! Anyway after I told her she could NOT use my debit card, even if she gave it back when she was done, and I told her she could NOT use some of her actual money out of her money jar...we decided to make her money. So we got some paper, cut out money shapes, and I started writing number on it. Jordynn noticed that I was putting 1 on quite a few in a row. She then asked if I could put bigger numbers on the money so she could have "Lots of money and be rich". Don't we all wish we could make our own money at home and put what ever number on it we want???

So very, very, very tired

Yesterday we made the 3 hour trip down to Bountiful and Roy for Ben's brother's wedding!! We left a half hour early "just in case" well good thing. We got stopped for 30 min. outside of Evanston for NO REASON!!! Really we couldn't find a reason for the stop. Then we got stopped AGAIN going through Salt Lake. That was due to construction. There's ALWAYS construction. We finally made it to the luncheon, all 4 kids in tow. Had lunch with everyone, then had a 2 hour wait for the reception. So we went and got Ben's brother a wedding gift, stopped in on an old friend who ended up being on a cruise...so she wasn't there, and headed over to the reception 45 min. early!! Oh well. The good thing is I stuck the kids in the nursery to play during the reception and they did pretty good. So I got to chat and catch up with Monica and Kevin, and Grandma Wolford. Kevin and Ben stood in the line as part of the wedding party. All in all it was a good night. It's a long drive and we figured that we were out of our house for 11 hours and 7 of those were in the car. But we knew when we moved to Manila that the 3 hour drive to see family was part of the deal. So I'm a little wore out, I think it's funny that you can get so tired just driving in a car. But I'm glad we got to see Chris and his new wife in their special day!!!

Happy Birthday Jordynn!!!!

Notice the cake has the #4 on it...there was also 2 candles...it adds up to 6!!!!!

Today is Jordynn's birthday!!! She's the big 6!!!! She got to take cupcakes to her class and they all sang "Happy Birthday to you...you live in a zoo. You look like a monkey aaaaaand...you smell like one too!" Isn' t that nice???

I hope she had a good day. It was all Zach and Dani could do to NOT blow out the candles and "help" Jordynn open her presents.

Happy birthday Jordynn we love you!!!!

GO MUSTANGS!!!!!

So the first week back to school was home coming at the high school. I know, I know odd to have home coming in Jan. But when there isn't a football team....we do it during basketball season. The Cheerleaders take all the little girls pre-school - 6th grade and teach them a few routines to perform during half time at the games. They are called "Mini Mustangs"!!!!! WOW are they cute!!! Notice the less than thrilled look on Jordynn as she "holds" the foot of another girl being held up. She was soooo excited. They really did like it but they preformed it 3 times and by the end my impatient Jordynn was DONE!!! Michaela thought this was the "BEST EVER!!!" She got to wear a cool cowboy hat and show off her flexibility by holding her foot (see picture) All in all it was fun to watch and the girls had fun doing it.

As for the "home coming"games...unfortunately the boys AND girls lost!!! Then I had the joy (ha ha) of chaperoning the home coming dance that night. It was funny there was about 30 kids there (maybe) and NO ONE danced!!! It was....well....interesting. Yeah interesting. But I'm glad I got to go it was a neat experience, one I'll probably have to repeat a couple hundred times while I teach at the school.

New Year...New Goals

So I've decided that I need some goals for 2008. And I figure the best way to make sure I do them is to post them for the world to see. So here they are: 1. Take more pictures. I have a friend from HS and his wife took over 4000 pictures in 2007 2. Do more family things together. Ben and I need to SCHEDULE family fun or else life gets too busy. 3. Be a better teacher. I need to plan better classes and be a better teacher both to my students and my kids 4. Be more active. That's pretty hard in Manila, currently it's 4 degrees. But I need to try. These seem pretty generic but these are things I really do need to work on and I think these will make me a better mom, wife, teacher, friend and person. There are many, many more things I need to work on and could list as goals but I don't want to bore you and I don't want to frustrate myself. We'll see how it goes........

Old Thanks, New Year....

Well I think I'll take a minute to recap our 2007 and the good points Ben finished a successful 1st year as the HS Girls Basketball Coach - they took 2nd in the state I had my first experience as a High School Drama Director and did my first musical "Into the Woods" - public opinion was good We got to baptise Michaela in June and had all the families up for the event - it was loud and busy Jordynn graduated from pre-school and has now started Kindergarten - she LOVES it Michaela was honored with a 100% attendance award - she missed the first 6 weeks of the school year, how does that work? We went camping in July with Ben's family, horses, dogs and kids - I fell out of our trailer and ripped all the ligaments in my ankle I bought a 30Gb. video i-Pod - I LOVE THIS AND USE IT EVERY DAY!!!!! Michaela started 3rd grade, Jordynn Kindergarten, Zach pre-school - busy kids Danielle is 2 and BUSY - I enjoy our mornings together just her and me I was hired to be a REAL teacher at the HS and Elem. School - I teach band, Drama, 4-6th grade music and band Ben was hired to be the Boys Baseball coach - they didn't win allot but they learned a ton!!! Our three kids in school did a great Christmas Program - I got to debut as a REAL band director!!!! I got to spend time with my sister from KS who I love and miss all the time I got to spend time with 2 of my oldest and best friends - GO OLIVE GARDEN....YES WE'RE SOBER!!!!!! We have a great house that we don't have to pay to maintain - We had pipes and windows break this winter I'm glad I discovered blogging....even if no one reads it, it's a good way to journal. And mostly I love that we as a family are in a place that we love, Ben loves all his jobs, I love mine, we have good friends and great kids. We're happy, healthy and doing good in this tiny town you'd miss if you blinked!!!! May you have a wonderful 2008 full of all the righteous needs and desires of your heart!!!