What a lovely place to live!!

We moved into our house about 7 years ago. We have spent lots of time and money but finally have things the way we like them. We would like some more space but we have worked with what we have. I have always thought that change would be good and I wouldn't be to upset if we had to move.
Now that that is a very likely possibility, I don't want to move. I like my house, I like our ward, I like the school my boys go to, but most of all I love the people that I call my friends. I belong to 3 groups of women in our ward. One group, we do a little preschool, so I only have to host once a month. One group is for babysitting on Saturday's, so we can have a date night with the hubby. Again, once a month, I babysit all the kids. And the last group is taking turns watching kids while the others go to the temple. My temple attendance has been seriously lacking for the last few years, so I am very grateful for this. Especially with so much uncertainty and other trials that are occurring, I feel like crying all the time. I so enjoy the peace I get from going and look forward to that time.
I just have to say how much I appreciate all the wonderful friendships that I have made and I truly hope that they will last even if we have to move. I also love my family so much and I can't believe how lucky I am to have a family as awesome as mine. And I am doubly blessed to have and even extended family that I do. I drug my feet for along time on this blogging thing, but it is a highlight of my day to login and see the postings of the Perrins family. Never a dull moment. I would love to see more of you guys. I think Walt applied to jobs in all of the 50 states except Utah. Sorry!!
Sorry this is so sappy, but it is not intended as a farewell and there is no new news on the job searching front. I just don't express my gratitude very often and thought it was about time. Love to all of you who read this.

MP3 and Me

I have finally done it and gotten a MP3 player. I am slowly joining the 21st century. Now that they are cheap I was willing to spend the money. Here is the story.
I don't like to exercise, especially walking or running. Extreme hatred would better describe my feelings but I need to do something. With my back, I am limited on the activities that I can do so I try to do what I can. With the weather being so hot both morning and night and that I didn't renew my gym membership, I have been lazy all summer and definitely feeling the effects. Two nights ago I really got fed up with feeling awful and declared to Walt that I wanted to start walking again. But I get bored which causes me to come home after about 10 minutes. Plus I need to know when I can stop. So I wanted to listen to something while I walk. For instance, if I listened to the whole Wicked soundtrack, I would be getting some good exercise. I then declared for him to make it happen.
He sweetly said OK, honey. So, yesterday he bought me a MP3, which I have just successfully uploaded my music. I have to pat myself on the back because I did it myself and actually figured it out. I am so excited to start walking at nights. I do not function in the morning. I am so excited that they are so small. I remember walking with walkmans and diskmans that were so bulky. I wonder why they call them ipods? They should have called them imans. Get it?

I'm A Mormon Now!!

I think now I am able to claim to be a real member of the LDS church. I have food storage under my bed. But since I still have a box spring and not sleeping directly on the cans, I am not sure. I will have to let you readers decide. I would have preferred the food going in the garage, but with this heat, no way. I had always thought that we had a lot of food storage, but when under the bed still has room, I think we need more. I guess it also would have been a great time to write down what and how much we have of everything, but I didn't. We actually have more food but it could still fit in the closet without be to disruptive.
We had put shelves in our master closet a long while ago to keep our food storage. It got to the point where there was little room for our clothes and you couldn't open the door all the way. I was also thinking that if we by chance have to move, we should probably start putting the house in sell able condition. So that will be occupying me for the next little while. Going room to room touching up paint, and putting the finishing touches on unfinished projects. It also gives me the chance to throw things out. I love that.
I should probably slow down a bit otherwise Shanell will have nothing to help me with. We decided last year to help each other organize our homes. Since that didn't happen, we rededicated ourselves to this year. We started in her house and have accomplished a lot. She has even allowed me to rearrange furniture. I have inherited this gene from my mother. It isn't truly clean and organized unless furniture has been moved. I think I need help most in the decorating department. Shanell has the creative mind where I am lacking. It is a great partnership.

The Happiest Day in this Mother's Life is.......

The first day of the school year. I know this may make me sound cruel, but after 2 1/2 months of being stuck in the house because of the heat with 2 fighting boys, I was more than happy to see them off. But my boys love and thrive at school. They need to have a break from me and I am so lucky that they can go to a good school with teachers that I know love them. Max is now in 2nd grade and Ian is now a 1st grader. I can't believe it. I won't say time has flown by because it hasn't but every once in awhile when they are talking to me I wonder I came to have kids that are old enough to go to school and read and write. After all, I am only 23 years old. Shocking!!



But in getting rid of 2 all day, I have gained one. As most of you know, Walt was laid off of his job this week. So now I have both him and Van during the day. But since he can take pretty much care of himself and is not asking me to get him food and drink, I think I will survive. It wasn't a complete shock that he was laid off but it is still not a comforting thought that we don't have a job. He had starting looking around at jobs weeks ago and contemplating a new direction so who knows what will happen. Luckily, his job was still offering severance packages so we have some time before the money runs out. And I still have my job. So we are good.

Random Cuteness!

Anyone that talks to me about my kids know how I feel about Van. He will give us so much trouble when he gets older since he get away with a lot since he is so cute. So here are just some pictures of his cuteness.




A story to explain these next photos. Father's Day weekend our young women were at girls camp, and my good friend Shanell had to go. I agreed to watch her girls on Saturday since her husband Dale has to work. I took all the kids to the in-laws to swim. The Gambell girls are the ages of my boys, with the exception of Sophia, since I don't have a 4th child. Eliza is the youngest and I couldn't find any clothes to change her into after swimming, so Van and Eliza were both wearing just their diapers when they fell asleep on the way home. Since the older kids were still playing, I decided to put the 2 little ones to sleep in my bed so they wouldn't be woken up. I am not sure how inappropriate this is but I thought it was cute. I did think it was best to cover Eliza with her blanket.(Since they were both without a shirt)

Another one bites the dust!!

OK, so do you remember when I was commenting on the fact that after 7 years of boys, I was surprised that I had only one instance of staples/stitches? Well, I spoke too soon and now Ian has been injured.

Last Thursday, Walt made an appointment to speak with the Bishop, but since his car was sporting a radiator crack he took my car. His keys have a pocket knife on them and Ian decided to play with it. Well Surprise, Surprise he cut his finger. I was pretty nasty and since it happened at about 8pm, the Urgent Cares were closed and so it was off to the ER. I guess bleeding children are not a priority at the hospital anymore, so we had to wait a long time. It gave me a chance to catch up on all the latest news of Michael Jackson's death, which I didn't know about until we got there. He had to get 7 stitches and he did awesome. He barely made a sound when they had to numb his finger. But as always, they bounce right back and keep smiling. It is just now a battle to keep him from swimming on our hot days.

HAPPY 6TH, IAN!!!

So, Ian turnded 6 yesterday and since I haven't blogged in a long time I thought this was a good reason to to do one.