Happy Birthday Cody and the Top Ten Reasons Why Cody Adams Rocks!

With his two new XBox 360 games from Uncle Chris and Auntie Anne, (posing just like Uncle Chris-do you see a resemblance?) Birthday cards from Aunt Suzanna and Uncle Ryan (thanks for the moola) and his new back pack from Aunt Dena and Uncle Chris Zundel. Thanks everyone for remembering him.

Today my teenage son turned 15-yes I would like to throw up-does anyone have a bucket? He is super good boy and we are so glad to have him in our family. Happy Birthday Cody! We love you! He is having a party Friday night with his friends-Food, Pictionary, Scavenger Hunt and Transformers. Pics to follow.

And now the Top Ten
1. He is very helpful with his brothers. He especially loves Cayden and plays with him enough to make him scream. He definitely is the oldest child and his mother's son as he is quite authoritative and occasionally bossy.
2. He is good student. He had semester exams today and stayed up til 2am studying.
3. He does not complain about early morning seminary-he got up and went this morning even though he was studying all night. He has to be up by 5:30-what a good boy!
4. He is an awesome debater as seen in his numerous wins at tournaments even taking first place once. This is his first year and he is doing great-hmm learning to argue better, a good idea?
5. He is a fabulous piano player. He has not been taking lessons now for about 9 months but he still plays quite regularly. He can play quite a few songs Phantom, and Les Mis, mostly self taught.
6. He likes musicals and Broadway shows-He has seen Phantom twice in Vegas and wants to go again. After Don and I went to New York and saw Les Mis I was listening to it for days and he decided that he likes it too. He has both on his IPOD and listens to them all the time. Auntie Calley has him currently listening to the musical Hunchback of Notre Dame in French.
7. He is an avid reader and finishes books faster than me (sometimes) He has read just in the last few months Hunchback of Notre Dame (in English), Les Mis and Count of Monte Cristo. Of course we have to throw in all of the Wheel of Time books that he has read 1000 times. He even read Twilight and liked it.
8. He takes care of mom and the house when Don is gone-the man of the house so to speak.
9. He is a great example of what a good Priesthood holder should be. His teachers and others are always commenting on how polite and respectful he is and what a good example he is to the other young men. He knows his stuff at church too.
10. He is a homebody. He would rather stay home and play XBox or computer games then 'hang out" with his friends.

Cody Michael Adams-You Rock!

And now for Count Your Blessings

So today has been a better day so far-I can actually laugh about yesterday-thanks Su, Mom and Ashley for their sweet comments (big internet hugs) You are all at the top of my blessings list! This blogging thing is quite therapeutic.

So How Was Your Day? or Jenni and the No Good Very Bad Horrible Day

So Don left for Denver today at 4:30 this morning-not a good start to the day.
At 7:10 Cody called and said that he had left his PE clothes and his birthday invitations home and I could I bring them to him. I threw on my slippers and jumped in the car to get to the high school and back before 7:30 when I needed to get the other kids up. OK not such a bad start but it gets worse. I got the other boys out the door on time and jumped in the shower because I wanted to go to the temple but get home before the boys did. I was in the shower for about 5 minutes when the hot water started to go-no big deal I thought because I had started the dishwasher and thought that maybe that was where all the hot water went. So I hurried out of the shower, got dressed and headed to St. George to go to the temple. I got there and turned the corner to drive into the parking lot and it was empty-and there was a sign on the door that said closed. Nice! I called 411 and had them give me the # to the temple so I could call and really confirm that they were closed and not just all out to lunch or being translated or something. Yes, the very nice lady told me that they were closed until the January 21. Super! I was totally bummed and of course started to cry because I really needed to go to the temple today and I had driven for an hour to do so and couldn't. I drove around St. George and did a little shopping-Cody is having a Bday party on Friday night so I got a few things for that blah blah blah. My last stop was the Great Harvest Bread Store. I like their bread but what I really wanted was their pink frosted sugar cookie that is mostly butter frosted with butter-they were out-it was not even 3pm there and there were no pink cookies. What is going on? I drove home in time to get the kids and go to the dentist-thankfully only one cavity between them (it is an old one that needed to be filled in the summer but they canceled the appointment and I forgot to reschedule so technically no new cavities). Caleb has plugged the toilet with booty wipes because there was no toilet paper in their bathroom. It is so bad that Don may have to take the toilet off-he is the toilet removal king because there have been toothbrushes, and cars and all sorts of fun stuff get plugged up in there thanks to my curious boys-but of course Don is in Denver. So negative one working toilet-thank goodness for 3 others. Anyway tonight I had forgotten about the whole hot water thing until I put Cayden in the tub after dinner-where I did dishes again- and there was not alot of hot water for him. I checked the fuse box-it was fine, checked the water heater itself and it was humming along so I called Don's dad. He came over and had me run all the hot water out-I had the other two boys shower and then he unplugged the wires to one element to see if the other heated up. If the other did heat up then we would know that the one that he unplugged was bad. He stayed here for an hour or so and said that he would come back tomorrow after he gets back from Vegas and just wait and see what happens-if the bottom element is really out then we will have to empty the whole water heater and put in a new one which he knows how to do but it will just be a pain. So just to sum up-Has anyone been keeping score? (Insert a huge and loud buzzer from a gameshow here)

Don in Denver
+ St. George temple closed+$70 for gas + $10 for food + $100 at Target + $100 at Seagull Book
-No pink cookies+$20 on bread that I did not need (but will take to my visiting teaching ladies if I can get over there before it all goes moldy)
-No hot water+cold shower
+ Clogged toilet(lovely)
= loss of my sanity (very costly) So how was your day?

I am really tired now but hopefully tomorrow's post will be entitled -Count your many blessings or How not to have an mental break down when your husband is out of town. Has anyone seen my marbles?

Top Ten Reasons Why Connor Adams Rocks!

Birthday pasta at grandma and grandpa's house, dinero from Aunt Laurel and Uncle Jim, dinero from grandma and grandpa
Harry Potter for his new DS from Uncle Chris and Auntie Anne

1. He is the most hardworking child you have ever seen and has been since he was little. He would rather pull weeds or shovel dirt than watch TV. He asks about chores for Saturdays and quickly gets them done so that he can play.

2. He is very concerned about others-he is the only child of mine that consistently gives me birthday, Christmas or Mother's day presents that he has picked out or told his dad that he needs to get it for me. I got a lovely pink ring for Christmas-and last Christmas he bought me a bracelet from a student store at school with his own money and did not tell anyone what he had done until Christmas morning and I unwrapped it. He helps others in class and worries about other's feelings going so far as to tell the teacher that so and so has been mean to so and so and they might be sad.

3. He tries to do his best and he does not quit! He spent over 24 hours building the playhouse outside with his dad. None of his brothers wanted to help.

4. He knows that he is going on a mission and he already is a missionary now. He talks to the neighbors about church. He was given a missionary assignment in Primary a few weeks ago where the kids were given 2 copies of a lamb. On the first lamb they were to write their name and then on the second one they were to write the name of a nonmember. Then they were to take the second sheep to that nonmember and give it to them and tell that that lamb represents all of us and that Jesus is our shepherd. The minute that he got home from church him and Caleb wanted to go across the street and give their lambs to two of our nonmember neighbors.

5. He hardly ever complains about his diabetes. Even though he has to have numerous shots during the day and constantly check his blood sugar by poking his finger he does not fuss about it.

6. He is willing to try new things-sports, rollercoasters, new foods, etc

7. He can drive the Rhino by himself. He can entertain himself for hours outside driving or riding around in the Rhino with Grandpa or on the 4-wheeler.

8. He loves his family. He always wants to give and get hugs.

9. He says funny things and everyone of his teachers have loved having him in class. I saw his teacher yesterday at Parent Teacher Conference and she said "he is a joy to have in class".

10. He remembers everything! He remembers to get Caleb's lunchbox from school when Caleb has forgotten it! He remembers things that I say or what I say that we are going to do and reminds me when I forget. He remembers FHE and family scripture and prayer at night.

Happy Birthday Connor

To is Connor's birthday and he is 11 years old. Oh my gosh can I please throw up! I can't believe that he is that old-he will get the Priesthood in 1 year! YIKES!!! We are going to a hockey game in Vegas tonight for his birthday-he is a ginormous hockey fan-ok so he loves most sports! Hopefully I can get around to posting some pics later. Go Wranglers!

A Lesson from TV

Who knew that there could actually be a morally uplifting, lesson teaching show on TV these days? Ok so it is not a new show it is actually a very old show that is on reruns on TVland but hey atleast it is still on. I am talking about The Andy Griffith Show. It is on a couple times of day and I was trying to find something to watch last night other than Grey's Anatomy (which I love but have decided as a New Year's Resolution that I need to try and follow Article of Faith 13 more-so bye-bye McDreamy) and I started watching Andy. The episode was called "A Date For Gomer" and really was just the sweetest thing. Andy and Barney wanted to take their girls to a dance but one of the girls had a cousin in town and so the girls would not go unless the boys could find a date for the cousin (Mary Beth). Now here's the thing-Mary Beth would not be considered the most lovely or beautiful of girls. Homely would probably be the word. Andy and Barney are trying to get Gomer to take Mary Beth to the dance but as they are trying to convince her to go they are saying how nice she is and smart and funny but Gomer keeps trying to interject with "but is she pretty?" Andy and Barney just sort of nod and interrupt with she is really nice and so on avoiding the whole issue of her looks. So anyway Gomer agrees and when they get to the house the night of the dance to pickup the girls it is sort of awkward. They all sit down on the couch and they are making goofy small talk about the weather. Suddenly Gomer jumps off the couch and runs out the door saying he has to go and do something. So of course they all are thinking that it is because he does not like Mary Beth and the other girls get mad. Mary Beth pretends that she has had a headache all day and would rather stay home anyway and the others should just go on to the dance and she will go to bed. The girls don't want to go and think that they should stay with Mary Beth but she convinces them to go. Andy, Barney and the girls get in the car and go to the dance but they are all angry. They get to the dance and one of the girls won't get out of the car and so their evening is ruined n and they decide to go home. Here is the kicker-after they have all left we see Mary Beth sitting on the couch reading a book and the doorbell rings. She answers it and it is Gomer with a box with a ribbon it. She says to him "Oh you came back" and he says " I'm sorry it took so long but I had to go to a few places to find one that had a little bit of pink in it." He hands Mary Beth the box and she opens it to find a corsage. Gomer said that he saw that the other girls had a corsage and Mary Beth didn't and he wanted her to have one too so that's why he ran out. (he says this all in his obnoxious southern accent) Anyway they decide that they don't want to go to the dance and they start dancing in the living room when Andy and Barney and the girls come back and find them. Of course all's well that end's well! Gomer did not run off because he did not like Mary Beth he ran off to get her a corsage so that she would feel part of the group and not left out. The whole time I am watching this I am thinking of 1 Samuel 16:7 "For the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." Gomer saw the inward appearance of Mary Beth. YAY Gomer!

A Fabulous Book on CD

Don's mom gave me a great gift for Christmas this year, one that I have already used alot. It is the book on CD by Sheri Dew called None Can Take Your Place. It is just the greatest, most profound, spiritually motivating and uplifting thing that I have read or listened to since General Conference. I highly recommend buying the book and or the CD and listening to it over and over again as there is just so much to be learned and understood. I downloaded it to my IPOD and have listened to it on the way to Vegas, Mesquite, St. George and while I am in the house doing laundry and stuff. Sheri Dew just has a way of saying things exactly as they need to be said and she does not mince words. She is an awesome example of the woman that I am trying to become! So go and get it!