Sooooo...

Mae absolutely loves peanut butter--whenever she gets to choose a snack she asks for peanut butter on a spoon. Well, often Mae will wake up early (around 5:45-6:30) and we will tell her to go back to bed. "But I am hungry and I want breakfast," she will say. We tell her that we will get her up when we are ready to make breakfast, etc. Anyway, it turns out that after one of these conversations, Mae decided that she would get herself some peanut butter and a spoon--which apparently she did and then hid in her closet so that we wouldn't find out.

Enter Ian.

One day it was abnormally quiet and whenever that happens we know that Ian is doing something that he shouldn't be doing, so I went to look for him. He had found the jar of peanut butter and the spoon and had had himself a meal....seriously, that kid keeps us busier than anything else!

What A Week!!

Well, I would have to say that I am glad that this week is over...Two sick kids, a mom on antibiotics for the mother of all UTI's, and an absent father/husband. That actually sums it up, but the details are what make it interesting, right?

The week started with me being up most of the night Monday. I was in the bathroom every 10 minutes from 12:30 to 4:00 am. Why didn't I call and get something from my doctor?? Because there is not a 24 hour pharmacy here in Stillwater, so I had to wait anyway.

So enough about my pee...we are all good there now. Mae has been out of school with a fever and cough since Tuesday. She and Ian have been waking up a few times every night crying which in unlike both of them. Then they were up at 5:30 ready to play. I thought Ian had dodged the sickness, but then....I was up with him last night for two hours with a Croupy cough...ahhh. Both he and Mae woke up this morning looking terrible. Their eyes were red and swollen and both had pretty bad coughs.

So that was our week...Brad has been completely absent from our home this week due to his first year PhD qualifying exam tomorrow (I did feel privileged to have his sleep next to me for 6-7 hours during the night though) Other than those hours of sleep and the short breaks he takes for meals, he has been studying for the exam and trying to keep up with his regular weekly load.
Does life ever slow down??? And will I feel like I am not a single mom ever again?

Could it be a sign of the times?

...I will leave it up to you to decide:

A "Little" Update

It's just about bedtime at the Foster's!

Well, things have been busy busy for our family. Brad is in full swing with this semester. I have never seen him this busy. He spends all day at school either teaching his freshmen or reading for his two seminars. On the one night of the week we are all home as a family he eats dinner, we do FHE, and then he reads until late. I feel bad having him do any housework because I think that he really may go crazy if he doesn't have a few minutes where he can just do nothing. I work Tuesday and Fridays, so Brad gets to come home from school early and spend some time with the kids, but since he has night classes Wednesday and Thursday, we don't see each other for more than 20 minutes from Monday night to Saturday morning--at least we have the weekends!! (or we will as soon as he takes his first year PhD exams the second Saturday of February--until then, he spends Saturdays at school studying for those). I have also been busy with Young Womens. We have an activity every Wednesday, and then this week we had a slumber party on Friday night and we have youth Fireside tonight (Sunday)--its been quite a week.

The kids are healthy and happy. Ian is as much trouble as ever. Mae wishes we would give him away to someone so that she could play with her toys without him wrecking them, throwing them at her head, or tackling her--this happens EVERY time he tries to play with her. I feel the same as Mae does on some days. I am constantly cleaning up after Ian's messes--he is a master of mess--we call him, "Ian the Destroyer." Mae was never quite this bad.

Our latest module of destruction was an entire bottle of liquid shower soap squirted out all over our bed (see the posted picture). Last week he poured almost an entire can of comet out while I was cleaning a bathroom, then when I kicked him out of the bathroom he went to the kitchen and shredded a paper towel like a little dog would. I cleaned that up and started cleaning our second bathroom. While there, Ian went into the bathroom that was already cleaned, put whole role of toilet paper into the toilet, then fished it out of there and threw it in my nice clean bathtub. This was all in about 15 minutes. Earlier that morning he had already emptied a half gallon container of bubble bath into the tub.

Caught in the Act!

Mae, on the other hand is actually quite a delight to be around. She is getting more helpful around the house. She can set the table, clears it after dinner, and is actually quite good at cleaning her room, although this is not her favorite thing to do and usually gets done with plenty of threatening (something like: "I am sure there are plenty of little girls that would like their toys enough to put them away where they go.").

Mae is loving school and Primary. The entire Primary church wide is reading the Book of Mormon together. There are assigned chapters that we have to read to Mae each month. Mae can not get over how funny of a word "spake" is and and giggles every time it is said-which is a lot. During our last reading she said, "There is lots of spake'n going on!"

So our little family is doing well and anxiously awaiting the arrival of our addition. Noah should be coming at the of April--the week of finals for Brad (we don't like to make anything convenient). I will try to post more often so Brad doesn't have to do it single handedly, which he had been doing from school the last few months...I have a great husband.

Here is another quick video for you...Enjoy!

Just Push the "Play" Button^^

Nothing like a good, looooong Sunday morning

Because we still meet at about 1:00 for Church every week (no, we didn't change times in Jan like the rest of the world--and I think I am still bitter about it), we typically have a few hours of time to enjoy one another's company every Sunday morning. We like to read stories about the First Vision:


And we like to watch a "Sunday Appropriate" cartoon (mostly short cartoons from the Book of Mormon or Bible series). This week we watched "Prince of Egypt" and Mae wanted to dance at the end of the movie--and even Ian gets in on the action. Enjoy!

Politics, Politics...

Because election year is upon us, and because I constantly get asked questions here in Oklahoma from my colleagues about where I stand politically now that a Mormon is in the race--I thought it would be helpful to see where my political allegiances lie...

In my search for information, I came across this handy little quiz:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/candidate-match-game.htm

Cut and paste the link, go through the brief series of questions--you answer according to your personal beliefs--and you will get tallied up at the end as to which candidates views are most like your own. If you are unsure on some issues, just make as educated a guess as you can.

It is interesting to see whose ideas mesh most closely to your own.

Kinda cool--enjoy (you may be surprised).

Just a quick reflection on the Loooooooonnnnnnng drive home over the holiday.

At this point we were only a couple of hours away from home. The kids are in their PJ's because we basically pulled them out of their hotel beds that morning at 5:30 in order to get back to Stillwater at a decent hour. Lindsay is here represented in her 2nd hour of driving (out of the twenty or so total).

Apparently we have to go back to Utah at some point this summer to see family and all... I am hoping we can find a great airfare deal in order to avoid a situation like this one!