Unload!

No, I am not going to "unload" on this blog, though it is tempting. . .Instead, I would like to talk about the joy I have found lately in unloading my dishwasher.

My friend Desiree introduced me to a new product this year -- Lemi Shine. I could not find it on the shelves, and so she was kind enough to bring some over to my house last week.

Lemi-Shine is rocking my world right now. It's for dishwashers in homes without a soft water treatment systems.

Since we have moved into this house, a cake of hardwater has invaded my dishes, my cutlery, my utensils. Argh! It has been everywhere! Just this opaque film making everything that was clear, frosted, and everything that was black, well, now it's grey.

But Lemi-Shine strips it all away! My glasses are shiny, my dishes feel cleaner, and my utensils feel great as well.

Yes, I know it's a silly thing to blog about, but, hey, it's the little things right now.

Someone Should Say Something. . .

There was a time when it seemed as though I could not keep up with all of the blogs that were out there that I wanted to read. There were blog posts aplenty out there; always something to read. But I have found that blogs seem to be slowing down. Why write a few paragraphs when you can write just one line on Facebook?

I told my husband that it seemed people were vacating blogland, and he pointed out that my own blogging speed has been sub-par lately. He's right. I am on my work laptop a lot and when I finally get off I am too busy with other things (remember dishes and laundry, and, oh ya, kids?) that it is hard to jump on the family computer where Garry loads all of the pictures.

But, I thought I would write what I've learned this week. From my work laptop. So, sorry, no pictures.

SLEEP BEGETS SLEEP!

Braden has finally started sleeping through the night, and I have learned that sleep truly does beget sleep. Not only is he sleeping better at night but he is napping better during the day. The trick? I turned off the monitor. Now I do not hear those late night fusses while he searches for his pacifier. I sleep right through them. And he does fine by himself. Everyone is happier. It only took a year!

STOP SHOVELING WHILE IT SNOWS!

If you ask me, I will freely admit that my house kicks my butt. There's so much to clean, and it's hard to want to do it because didn't I just do this, well, yesterday? I am living the longest Groundhog Day ever. So I decided to stop cleaning the living room until the end of the day. This room I would clean five, six times a day, I just let it be until the end of the day. And then I make the kids clean it up. It leaves me more time to tackle upstairs, which was always ignored. My living room looks like a tornado just hit, but, hey, I am happier!

Those are the lessons from the week!

Well, I Tried. . .

Last night Utah held its caucuses. I've been looking forward to this night for awhile as I was determined that what happened to Senator Bennett would not happen to Senator Hatch. It's infuriating that 4000 people (state delegates) got together two years ago and determined that Senator Bennett did not even deserve a Primary. It was not right.

So I got a new Social Security card (Molly threw mine in the trash awhile ago), got a Utah's drivers license, registered to vote, attended State Delegate training. I did everything. . .but get elected.

In my precinct is the former Salt Lake County District Attorney. She is well known, and she beat me quite easily. She seems to be really nice and really smart and obviously capable, so I understood my defeat. And she supports Hatch, so it all worked out. All of the "undecided" people there voted for a guy named Ed Rock. He had a lot of support there from his community. Sigh.

I might try again. It's important to be involved. You cannot complain about the way things are unless you try to do something about it. Se, we'll give it another two years and see.

Shopping. Cunningham Style.

Every week Garry takes the girls and heads off to the grocery story. They each get their own cart and are able to help their Daddy get the groceries. Notice that I wrote that he takes the girls. Braden is too little to go as yet as he cannot push his own cart. So we've been in training. If I can get Braden up and walking and able to push a cart, he can join the rest of the family. And I will have one hour completely to myself. It's going to be awesome.

My Dad loves watching the girls with their little grocery carts as they pile up food for the week. He thinks that it is great and will ask to go along when he is in town visiting. Which is fun. More power to my Dad because I love being left behind. In fact, I cannot wait for the day when I am left completely behind!

Courtney Got Married!

My niece Courtney got married to Taylor Wilcox last Friday. It was a really beautiful day. We met at the temple at 9:30 for a 10:00 sealing. Then we went to Provo for a luncheon and, after we took the cousins to a showing of The Lorax, we met up again for the reception.

It is great to see Courtney so happy. She has always been a sweet, kind niece. When she was little I teased her and told her that I did not have any Christmas presents under the tree. She was just little little, but she offered me some of hers. I always thought that showed what a great heart she has. And I am so grateful for the example she has set for my girls by getting married in the temple. The girls are still talking about it!

This Could Take ALL Day

This year Macey's birthday seemed to be the event that would never end. Good thing that she was off track at school, because we had a lot to do in order to celebrate this amazing girl!!

She had a birthday party with family the Sunday after her birthday but a party with friends the Saturday after. We met at the movie theater. They have a big food court inside so we got the girls ice cream and pizza at the theater and then went and saw The Secret Life of Arietty. A movie based on The Borrowers. I think that it went really well because I did not have to clean my house and it was really contained. And it was different, so the girls were excited.
The day of her birthday we woke up, made a fancy coffee cake and hot cocoa, went to Kids Club at the gym to let her play with friends, went to Family Fun Center to let her play with even more friends, went to Barnes & Noble to let her pick out a book, came home and opened presents with Daddy and went to Red Robin for dinner and then I took her out for a mani-pedi. Like I said, good thing she did not have school that day as there was a whole lot of celebrating to cram in!
We love Macey! She is beautiful and smart and really nice! She seems to make friends wherever she goes, and she is a neighborhood favorite for play dates. She loves to dance and is her teacher's favorite because she listens and really tries at everything she does. If she would just put away the laundry without whining, she would be perfect!

How LAZY Is This?

On President's Day we took the kids up to the canyon to go sledding. There is a really popular tubing hill in Park City where you show up, grab a tube, get on a conveyor belt (I kid you not, a conveyor belt) up the mountain, and then you go down the perfectly groomed hills which keep you right in line, right on target, all the way down the hill until you are at the bottom. Then you grab your tube, walk a few feet and get back on the conveyor belt. It's a lazy way to do it but it is kind of awesome. I told the kids about the days way back when we had to walk up the hill AND carry our sleds with us. Not sure they completely believed me.All together!
Molly on the conveyor belt. Awesomeness.