Seven things

Seven random topics that have filled my thoughts lately:

1)  Icicles.  Aren't they amazing?  We had a pretty killer winter storm last week and it's been too cold to all melt away, so the roads are still icy, the snow piled up, and icicles decorate gutters everywhere.  I think it is really quite incredible that water from the snow on the roof can melt just enough to make it down to the edge, but can freeze before gravity can bring those drops to the ground.  Brian pulled a 4 foot beauty off the gutter of the church building last night.  It scares me ever so slightly thinking about walking through a doorway knowing that several sharp weapons are dangling over my head.

2)  I ran 6 miles today.  My longest ever.  Without walking or stopping (other than to reset the treadmill that stops after only 30 minutes).  It felt really good.  Usually I do my longer Saturday runs outside to save me from the dreaded treadmill boredom, but it is way too slick & icy outside, so the treadmill it was.  Normally after about 2 miles, the treadmill becomes more of a mental battle than a physical one.  I get bored on them quickly.  Even my ipod full of music can't get me through more than about 3 miles indoors.  Thank goodness for that Season Finale episode of Project Runway I bought from Itunes.  It kept my mind off my running and the time FLEW!  Can't wait for my next long run...Part 2 of the Season Finale awaits.

3)  I love my calling.  LOVE IT!  I must admit, however, that it has majorly stressed me out lately.  Like can't-sleep-at-night-because-of-the-stress stress.  Filling callings, auxiliary trainings, and the dreaded Cub Scout banquet/fundraiser that has been the bane of my existence for the last 2 months.  At the last Worldwide Leadership training on the 12th I think I finally received some enlightenment about my calling.  HUMILITY.  Yep.  I've been concentrating too much on the silly rules & regulations and not enough on ministering to the sweet children I serve.  They are really amazing and I am so lucky to be able to be with them and love them.  Once I kind of "got" that, I decided to let the rest go.  It worked.  The stress was gone.  It wasn't my calling stressing me out, it was me.  Doh!!! Remind me about this post next time you see me running around the church like a chicken with my head cut off.

4)  Money.  I hate money.  I hate that it has so much power over us.  It seems to always be on my mind.  As much as I tell myself that how much money you have doesn't matter, I really, really wish I had more of it.  There, I said it.

5)  Education.  I have been really flared up lately about education.  All that talk on the news and facebook about Idaho's education reform, as well as our local levy vote coming up.  I have a friend on Facebook that is a representative in the Idaho house and a friend from my old stake in Boise.  I went as far as posting a piece of my mind about the Luna bill for her to pass on to her coworkers.  I think it is unacceptable that education should take a large hit because of our country's self-inflicted financial woes.  And as a reminder - if you are a local friend, don't forget to vote YES on March 8th for the education levys.

6)  Drivers here are RUDE!  I can't believe it sometimes.  Completely rude.  For instance, I was almost all of the way pulled out of my parking space @ TJMaxx and a car pulled up and WENT AROUND ME.  They couldn't wait for another 30 seconds while I finished.  And this literally happens to me almost every day I use parking spaces.  Also, tonight Brian & I were going to a store and needed to switch lanes, and the car behind us in that lane sped up instead of letting us over.  This is also not a rare occurance.  What the heck??!!!!!  And don't get me started on the running of the red lights.  Do they teach this stuff in drivers ed here?  Look out for those K license plates.  Jerks.

7)  I've decided I'm tired of buying chemicals labeled as food.  I stopped buying products with HFCS & Hydrogenated oils years ago, but I have taken it to the next level.  I thought I was pretty safe with sour cream, for example.  I usually buy the Freddy's brand of lite sour cream, and finally (for the 1st time ever) took the time to actually look at what was in it.  What I thought I would see on the label was CREAM.  Instead I saw: cultured cream, grade A whey, modified food starch, sodium phosphate, sodium citrate, guar gum, carageenan, calcium sulface, potassium sorbate (preservative) and locust bean gum.  What the HECK do they need all that other stuff for?  I bought the Daisy light instead.  It's ingredients: cultured cream, skim milk & vitamin a palmitate.

My friend Kristi has also told me about honey cough syrup for my kids.  I usually don't medicate my kids, but they have had terrible coughs lately.  It worked like a charm. WAY better than any of those purple syruppy chemicals on the shelf and it was all natural!  And to top off this latest tangent, last month I bought a pressure canner and finally began bread making again.  Time to get my garden on!  (if only this stupid snow would melt.)  Look out, world!  We're going au natural!  :)

Lego my legos

I think I can safely say that my favorite toy in the whole world is, and always has been LEGOS.  I love that my kids love them so much because it gives me a reasonable excuse to play with them at any time of the day without judgement.  I love all the detail the little pieces have.  One of my favorite pieces ever is:

this beard.

I LOVE it.  I wish I could get my camera to focus in a little closer.  This beard is amazing.  It has so much detail and is so cute.  I love how it makes this lego guy look like he should be a member of ZZ Top.

Unfortunately for my kids, I only love BUILDING with Legos. I do try to entertain their want to "play" legos every once in a while, but it isn't the same.  Does that make sense?

Here is what I love to build most:

houses.

And when I build one I like, I won't let it be torn down.  Isn't that terrible?  I'll go a good 6 months or so of keeping it high up in the window sill before I'll turn it over to the boys for demolition.  This one I built a few months ago.  I'll let them play with it sometimes, but only if they promise not to break it or alter it.  Don't judge me.

Here are a few other views of this modern masterpiece:

Here are a few condos I built a while back.  I was quite proud that I found that many coordinating doors & windows to make it work.

I got a really cool castle set of legos when I was a tween back in the early 90's.  I was super anal about this set down to making sure that every knight had the right helmet and shield and that every single brick of that castle was accounted for (I'm such a nerd).  I made sure that every piece (plus the original instructions) was kept in a seperate large Ziploc bag as to not get mixed up with the other legos I had.  I saved them for a good 15 years and just a few years ago finally passed them on to my boys.  I was so excited at the prospect of them enjoying them as much as I had.  That castle set lasted about a week.  Pieces have been lost and broken.  And even though it makes me a tinsie bit sad, I would probably be more sad if they were out in the garage sitting safely on a shelf where no child was enjoying them.  Right?  Right??

Of course. I LOVE watching my kids play with them.  They are so amazingly creative.  Here are some of their recent creations:

Aren't they great?  And I look forward to adding to our lego collection so the kids (eh-hem...I) will have many more lego adventures to come. ;)

Go Number 4!

As stated in my last post, I recently bought a new video camera.  And just in time!  Kimball's basketball season just started and his first game was tonight!  I caught the best moments on film.  Kimball scored 8 points for his team, and they won 20-16!  Yahoo!  Watch this future super-star, he's #4 in red.

(and sorry it's not a crisp picture...it was clear before I uploaded it...I think it loses some picture quality when I upload. I'll have to work on that)

Flipped

The Waddell family (THIS Waddell family, anyway) has not owned a working video camera in over 2 years.  Isn't that terrible.  I get slightly weepy when I think of all the amazing kid moments we've missed out on capturing.  But NO MORE! :) I bought a Flip video camera last weekend and LOVE it!  No more missed moments for this family!

In fact, here's one now:

Yesterday we enjoyed the oh-so-rare non-cloudy day here in Coeur d'Alene.  We have seen the sun maybe a handful of times since September and it was out if full force today.  And brought with it a balmy 43 degrees.  We took the opportunity to spend some time outside.

Plan on seeing many more home videos from this family in the near future. I know you can't wait. :)



McAwesome

Tonight we went to a fundraiser for Kimball's school.  It was McTeacher's Night at McDonald's.  Our elementary school gets 20% of the proceeds from 4:30-7:00pm for one night while the teachers and staff WORK there. It was AWESOME!! There were people EVERYWHERE!! We had to park at Pizza Hut next door since there were no empty parking spaces and it was standing room only.  INSANE!!!!  Literally wall-to-wall people.  Ronald was there signing cardboard hats which the kids thought was super exciting.

What a cool fundraising idea! And McDonald's provides this opportunity FREE for local schools.  I LOVED it! Not that Mickey-D's is my favorite restaurant on earth, but hey - the kids love it and it was for a good cause. :)

Here is Kimball's teacher Mrs. Troxel helping man the French-Fryer.  What a pro!!

If your kid's school is looking for cool fundraisers - check with your local McDonald's to see if they do this (they should pay me for this free advertising).  Totally worthwhile.  When I get the numbers...I'll post how much the school made.  McAwesome! :)