24

So, on facebook friends/family keep tagging me to say 25 interesting things about me. I am a really boring person but since I turned 24 today I guess I can think of 24 things about me.Here we go....
1. Today I turned 24. It would be nice to be 30. 30 sounds like a mature, responsible, and all knowing age. If I think about it long enough though 30 scares me. What will I become by the time I am 30? Will I be knowledgeable enough to help my kids with homework? Will I be able to cook an entire meal without burning something? Will my house be painted and organized? Will I have become the kind of mom and person I really want to be?
2. For an entire month and 2 days a year I am the same age as Seth and Spencer. I am not sure how my mom had 3 babies and stayed sane. Super woman!
3. Growing up I moved often. 1o moves, 5 states, and a bunch of fun memories.
4. When my family first moved to Smoot, Wyoming it was a big change from hot and sunny Arizona. I had 3 friends that summer Anna Barnes, Jenna Welch, and Laura Keeley. One day Anna and Jenna said they were going to come and pick me up to go play....3o minutes later they showed up to get me riding horses. HORSES!!! I couldn't believe it!
5. I love putting cottage cheese on my hotdog. I rarely eat a hotdog with out it.
6. I hate pizza. Gross!
7. I cried last season when DeAnna didn't pick Jason at the final rose ceramony on the Batchelorette. Idiot! This season I think Jason will pick Melissa, Molly, or Jillian. DeAnna you snooze you loose!
8. I played high school volleyball, basketball, and tennis.
9. I have trouble sleeping at night. Caleb is only part of the reason!
10. The summer of 2001 me and Ashley Thompson spent every chance we got in Shalimar with the Mullican brothers. That was an awesome summer! I even got to drive Ashely's POS rosebud!
11. I bought my first car...Red Honda Accord 1992. It was awesome...Steffaney crashed it a couple years later.
12. My first job was at McDonalds. On the 4th of July Brandon let me and Sabrina stand on the roof and watch the fireworks.
13. I blame Spencer for breaking mom's glass table in Idaho. I was just watching:)
14. The first year me and Andy were married Andy bought 1% milk. I looked at him like he was crazy. Gross! To this day I can only have skim milk in my cereal, I cant even drink milk. It is my dads fault. In Wyoming my dad bought Milk from the farm across the street. Have you ever truly had cows milk?? Yuck!!
15. I love going to family reunions. The same traditions, family fun, and crazy stories every 2 years. It doesn't get any better then that!
16. On my 18th birthday my parents bought my wedding dress.
17. My Great Grandma and Grandpa Clark made me/siblings sing the Wyoming state song all the way from Ashton, ID to SV, Wyoming. I sang the song at my Grandma's funeral and I can still remember every word.
18. I love the Disney movie Meet the Robinson's. Every time Aubrey/Caleb watch it I try to watch it with them. I cry at the end every time. What a good clever movie!
19. I was married almost 6 years ago in the Nauvoo temple.
20. In college we would all get together and drive out to the mines. We had cases of glass rootbeer bottles from Frontier Pies (where we all worked, but never got paid:), filled them with gasoline, lit them on fire, and watched them fall hundreds of feet until they exploded. Oh, the college days with Andy were so much fun.
21. I think Andy is a great dad.
22. Growing up I wanted 9 kids. All boys. Can you image me with 9 Calebs!!! I wouldn't survive. I am so thankful for my little girly Aubrey she is such a joy to have around. Everything is princesses, dresses, dolls, and lip gloss. I am not sure if Ainsley is a girly girl or not. She is more like a mini Caleb. Oh boy!
23. Caleb was Colici until he was 1 and 3 months. The discovery of Boynton was crucial to my sanity. So much so, that when Caleb took Boynton into the baby pool with him (making Boynton unavailable for bedtime) Andy and Nate ran to Kohls and bought 2 more. You can never be to prepared!
24. I love where I am in my life. I love being a mom, learning, growing, and over coming challenges daily. I hope when I am 30 I will be able to look back on 2009 and laugh. What a crazy couple of years I have had!!!

These are a few of my favorite things...

There are 3 things I could live off of for the rest of my life. If something ever happened and I could only pick 3 food items to eat every day for the rest of forever it would be....
Mash Potatoes (of course, that is a given)
Dad's home made whole wheat bread (made by dad not me)
and the most important
GRANDMA'S JAM!!For Christmas 2007 I wanted more then anything to have Grandma's jam. I knew that was impossible because my grandma was hurt and could not travel. 2 weeks before Christmas I received the usual large UPS box from Pocatello, ID. Upon opening I expected the usual gifts for the kids, banana and zuccini bread, and yummy nuts. But that year I received 8 specialty packaged frozen jam containers along with the bread, nuts, and gifts for the kids. Talk about the best Christmas ever!!! Well we ran out of jam in August so life was pretty sad. Luckily Seth got married in January and I was able to bring home 8 more yummy jam containers!!!

The goal was to use it sparingly so that it would last until August (when the baby is due, Grandpa and Grandpa Rasmussen usually come up for the blessing)....but that does not seem like a possibility. It has been 2 weeks and one containter is gone and another going fast!

Maybe if the kids would get more in their mouth and less on their face it would last longer. Boy is it good!!!!

**Good news:
1. Caleb went an entire week without destroying everything. He had two minutes of weekness that had to do with Cherry 7 up and the same couch cussion that he colored yellow on one side and painted with red nail polish on the other side. But overall I think he has a very good week!!
2. Ainsley finally cut 2 more teeth. Yahoo!! Will she stop crying??? To Be Determined.
3. After looking every where and turning the house upside down yesterday the car keys (which included the main car key, a key to the toy/snack nursery closet and a house key) had completely vanished. They were on the table one minute and gone the next. I asked the kids, opened up 2 trash bags from that mornings cleaning, and looked in the washer/dryer. Gone. After confessing to Andy he said "Sara, they do not just vanish. They are here somewhere." I heard him move stuff around in the kitchen drawer for a minute and then he came to the conclusion "Sara, why do you misplace everything?" I thought in my mind...they were on the table at 7:55 and when I went to grab them at 8:00 they were gone. Vanished!!!
Well, this morning Andy called me from work and said "I found the keys." He found the keys, how did he find the keys? So I asked. He made up some story so I asked him again. He said "They were in my pocket." HIS POCKET!!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!! I would say he owes me big but that is an understatement!

Getting Out!!Today was the first day in January that the Griner house hasn't been sick. The sun was out and neighbors were out and about playing football in the street and walking their dogs. At 4:45 Andy opened the front door and we were ready. Aubrey/Caleb put their helmets on, got on their bikes, and we put Ainsley in a wagon for a 2 hour walk. Talking to neighbors and smelling the outside was wonderful. Caleb has to slam on his brakes ever 2 minutes "What's that?" and he can name every neighborhood dog or cat within a 3 block radius. Aubrey just kept saying "Oh, this is wonderful Mom!" It was a nice evening and of course Ainsley has to SUPPORT THE TEAM!!!

**Ainsley can say:
What's that?
Ball
MaMa
**Ainsley can also identify 8 body parts!!! Go Ainsley!!!

What do you cling to when you are sick?

Well, it has been 9 days. 9 days of sneezing, crying, no sleep, and throw up. 9 days. I have washed, re washed, and cried over why I still smelt throw up. I haven't been out of the house (really) in 9 days...I am actually some what okay with that because it is freezing cold out there. The kids are reverted back to old ways of comfort. I haven't seen Boynton in month...but for some reason Caleb needed Boynton. He said, "How will I feel better without Boynton, Mom?" After a long search, and finally going down into the basement I found Boynton smashed behind the couch and covered in dust.Aubrey has reverted back to princess life. She has been in "I am a good mommy mode" for the past month and all of her princess stuff was shoved out of sight.

And Ainsley....well. Her blanket...her one blanket that I had to wash 5 times in one day and by bed time it was thrown up on again.

On day 2 of Ainsley's sickness she has absolutley no more shirts but she did not care because she had her thumb and blanket!!!

By last night everyone seemed to be feeling better. FINALLY!!! They seemed to be full of energy, I had finish all laundry, and Max and Ruby was almost over (which means time for bed). Unfortunately that was short lived and by 2am Ainsley was sick again. What a week. I hope that in July when the weather is perfect and we are all eating corn on the cob and watermellon I will look back at this week and laugh. Gotta love January.
**Something funny among the sickness...Aubrey calls the Pocahontas movie "I want to watch the Joseph Smith movie" (we think because of John Smith) and during the opening of the Arizona/Eagles game Jordan Sparks sang the National Anthem and Aubrey said "Look Dad, Pocahontas!" Obviously, there is much confusion and hopefully we can sort in out during FHE tomorrow night!!

Welcoming 2009

Our start to 2009 was different this year. It was the first year since the kids were born that we haven't gone to Florida. With my brother Seth getting married on January 2nd I left Andy behind with the kids and headed out to Utah. It was nice to take a mini vacation and spend time with my family. I rung in the New Year with my Clark family and spent New Years Day with my entire extended family on my mom's Hyde/Grayson side!!! It was the first time we have all been together since 2002. As much as we have all change and been through over the past 6 years its nice to be a family, still competitive during games, and old joke's and memories never forgotten! I wish I had a picture. Maybe next time.

Well, after the wedding my parents drove me home. It is nice to be home. Andy had the house clean, laundry done, and the kids were still alive, clean, and happy!!! He did a great job.

2009 brought 1 BIG ANTISIPATED change. Caleb is a SUNBEAM!!! We thought it almost wasn't going to happen because he had the flu on Friday. 12 hours later he was all better and 24 hours later we were headed to church. Ever since Caleb was 8 months old he has been in Nursery with us. To say that Andy and I were excited was an understatement. I sang the SUNBEAM song all morning and told him all about Sister Dallman and how he would get to sit in front of Aubrey now because she was a CTR 5!
Ainsley was very excited too! She gets to be all by herself in Nursery. No Caleb around to out show her. She even let me curl her hair and she wore a bow without crying!!!

Well, 2 pm came and Caleb headed to Primary with Aubrey. 5 mintues later the Primary President came and told me Caleb was crying and they couldn't get him to stop!! I quickly went in to his class to reassure him I was close by. I told him he was 3 1/2 and way to old and big to be in Nursery (since he was the only 3 year year old boy in Nursey he was twice everyones size and twice as loud)! He said "Okay Mom. I love you. You can go."

Overall, Sunday was a good start to the week. To bad Ainsley and I got the flu bug late Sunday night. After a long and very sad Monday we were finally feeling better, but around 4am this morning Aubrey was sick. I figure I have about 11 loads of laundry to do today, sheets, blankets, clothes, conforters, and towels. Boy oh Boy. What a week! We just hope Andy doesn't get sick!