He's home

Two

Another significant number. Thanks for all your comments on my first post.
Just a few months left. Not annoying at all right?

A welcome visitor

While Jacob is out of town on a business trip, his mom came to visit. Hurray! We love having her.
She flew into town yesterday and will be staying with us for a week. It has been so nice to have
her and the kids are in heaven having their Nana here. She is so sweet to play with them
constantly and I definitely enjoy visiting and laughing with her. The only problem will
be on Monday when she heads home. Until then, happy day at our house for sure.

I'm so glad of that

Sitting at the computer to request a book at our local library, I hear Matt humming to himself in the other room. Annie brought home a packet of worksheets to do for fun and let Matt work on several of them. And then the humming stops. And I hear these words, sung to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell,"

Another connect the dots.

Another connect the dots.

I'm so glad of that,

Another connect the dots!

I hate it...

...when the nightstand on his side of the bed is empty.

Caption please ~ Repost

Okay, you people continue to be way funny. I loved every single comment I received when I posted this picture a few days back. I really didn't have a title in mind when I posted it the first time, so I will spare you from my coming up with something just for the sake of coming up with something. And although I loved them all, I do have to say "electric youth" made me laugh hard.

(If I were to make a comment on this photo, it would have to be the fact that if you look closely, you can see Ben laying on the floor in the background. Nothing unusual for a one year old, but kind of funny considering Annie looks like she has been struck by lightning, while Ben lays flattened in the background. If it were not for the fact that it all takes place in the living room, it might even make me laugh. Not as hard as your captions, but maybe just a little.)

The name game

Remember when we were the best bird sitters ever? Well, those fun few days has turned into a change in living arrangements. For the birds, not us.

When we returned the birds to our friends, we made the mistake of telling them how much we had loved having them. And they have spent the last month and a half begging us to take them home. But I felt like a nerd taking someone's birds away, so we kept telling them no. And they kept insisting that no one in the house really even liked them. And just to increase the guilt factor, my friend told me more than once, "I can only keep seven breathing things alive at once. So either you take the birds or two of my kids might not make it."

So when I showed up to a little birthday celebration on my behalf, I truly didn't expect any gifts. But I especially didn't expect a black cage with one yellow parakeet and one blue parakeet. But I have to be truthful and say that I love them. They are so fun to have and the kids think it is the greatest. Even Jacob seems happy to have them back.

Okay, there is my cool story. But I'm not done. Because I need your help. The birds were named by my friend's darling daughter. Oh man, I love that girl! She named them Heather and Derrick. Beautiful names, don't you think? And yet, I am weird and have a hard time calling birds by names that I feel were invented for humans. So with permission of my cute friend, I am going to rename these cute birthday birds of mine. Here is where you come in. Help me out friends. I am positive I will know them when I see them. Okay. You're up. Comment away.

The yarn ball tradition

Remember this tradition? Well two days ago it happened again. The yarn balls were a little smaller
than most years, but the kids had a great time anyway. Super fun at the Allen household.

EcoTarium

Yesterday we met Jacob's cousins, Xaidie and Rob, at a cool science center near their home. The kids
loved it and we especially loved being there with cousins. A great way to spend Valentine's morning.

Happy Valentine's Day!

To my darling friends...

Thank you for making me feel so loved. You have no idea how much today meant to me. The lunch
was fabulous, the birthday signs were awesome, the gifts were so generous, the cake was delicious,
the company was the best! Thanks for the birthday party. Man, you fabulous friends are the best!

Once there was a snowman

From the back porch

Conversation around the dinner table tonight

Annie: "Dad, did you know Ben got in trouble today?"

Jacob: "Oh really? What happened?"

Annie: "Ben took a box of cereal out of the cupboard and poured it all over the ground. So Mom picked him up and told him 'No-no Ben.' She made him sit on the kitchen rug while she cleaned up the cereal. And he just sat there crying."

Cam: "And he wouldn't stop crying. Even though Mom kept telling him, 'I sure love you Ben.'"

Annie: "He would actually cry harder every time she said that."

Matt: (spooning food into his mouth and not looking up) "I think because Ben thought she kept saying, 'I don't even love you anymore.'"

Tell me it isn't so!

Okay, so there might be one piece of information that would have been important to know before I started this whole "I'm going private, please email me" thing. Were you all holding out on me? Were you all laughing behind your hands until I realized Blogger has a fun rule? Am I the only one in this vast blogosphere that did not know that you can only invite 100 people to a private blog? Now that would have been a fine piece of information to know before I gathered many more invitation requests than that.

So after the big hurrah, I will be staying public for a while. I know the odds are incredibly slim that anything would happen. And I know that I have only ever received one or two creepy comments. (No invitations here creepy people. I'm expressing gratitude, not asking for your disturbing presence). So, to all you that were hoping that you would have to log onto our blog each time you wanted to look at it, I am sorry to disappoint you. Until I can make quite a large number of people mad at me, I'm afraid we will be staying public. Although, I've had a good year in the making-people-mad-at-me department, so keep your login fingers ready just in case.

Mostly my darling friends, THANK YOU to all of you who requested an invite to our private blog party. It was going to be a good one. But I'll do my best to make the public blog party even better, just so the disappointment isn't too much for anyone to bear.

And last, a big thanks to anyone who links to our blog and has brought so many fabulous readers our way. And an especially big thanks to anyone that links to our blog and has turned off the options to "Add your blog to our listings" and "Let search engines find your blog." Now that was a subtle hint. I know, I know. Another one of my gifts is in the understated-no-one-can-tell-what-I-am-trying-to-hint-at department. My gifts are numerous. Finding out that Blogger only allows 100 readers access to a private blog before I announce to everyone that I am going private...not one of them.

Rebel

A bit of an introduction for those that do not go to the same church that we do. In our church, the kids usually call the adults Brother or Sister So-and-so. (Ha, ha, save your comments about calling everyone in the church by the same name. You know what I mean.)

So a darling friend of mine brought her family by to visit and wish me a happy birthday on Friday night. And while they were here, they sang to me. A few minutes after the song, her daughter walked up to me with this funny smile on her face. She leaned in close and whispered, "Sister Allen, don't tell my mom or dad, but when we were singing Happy Birthday to You, I sang Linn instead of Sister Allen."

That might well have been my greatest feat of self-control. Keeping a straight face on that one near killed me. I felt it my responsibility to mention it to her parents though. A rebellious soul like that can wind up in trouble if not kept in check.

Many thanks

I just wanted to make sure and say thank you so very much for all of your kind birthday wishes! Between the comments on the sweet post my darling husband wrote and the birthday comments on the Facebook post, I definitely feel loved. And the birthday calls and emails only added to my feeling so cared about.

And especially thank you to my incredible husband and wonderful kids. I cannot tell you how perfect they made the day. Just so you all know, Jacob is the most amazing husband in the world! I am so grateful to have him in my life and the privilege of being married to him overwhelms me at times. And I could never be grateful enough to be the mom to the four cutest kids I know. I am now officially thirty-two. And life is good!

Feliz Cumpleaños

Happy Birthday Linny!!!

Yes, I know you like having everyone (in the world, apparently) know you're one year older. And yes, I know you'd prefer to let this day pass quietly by. But I couldn't resist. I have to enjoy the entire four weeks when you're an entire year older than me.

Okay, maybe that's not the real reason. Much more importantly, I wanted to tell you (and everyone else out there) how much I love and adore you. Most days I can't believe that I'm the one that's lucky enough to spend your birthday and every day with you. You make my life so happy. Thank you for being the best mother, best wife, best friend, and best woman ever. I love you very, very, very much!!! You mean everything to me. I can't wait to spend the next 32 years of your life with you, even if that means I'm getting older as well—as long as it's by your side.

I LOVE YOU!!!

J

Caption please

Talk to me

Please talk to me about Facebook friends. I want to know how many of you are addicted to it. Or how many of you enjoy it, but keep it to a minimum. I have many a friend asking me to join and I just haven't done it. Not because I have any problem with it, or because I think it is bad, but because of me. I know I spend enough time on the computer as it is and I worry it would increase my computer-time too much if I did. So I want all of you Facebook people to tell me honestly how much time you spend on Facebook everyday. And if it is worth it to you. So if you can pull yourself away from Facebook for a few minutes, help me out here please. Thanks much. I appreciate it.

Our little man

I feel like I haven't written about Ben in a while and our little man is definitely growing up. He is thirteen months old today and acts more like a toddler than a baby. He has been walking for almost two months and loves exploring the whole house. He sleeps like a champ. About twelve hours at night and then a morning and afternoon nap. I am astonished at how well he talks and how many words he says. His favorites are mama, dada, Ambel (Campbell), ball, Jesus, biper (diaper), bubble, purple, mo (more), no-no, buh-bye, nana (banana), arf-arf (when asked what the dog says) and sssss (when asked what the snake says). He is such a happy little guy and we are so grateful he is in our family.

Goodness we sure love this little man!

The finale...I hope

Could this whole water pipe disaster really be over?

This is how the front yard look early this morning. But I won't complain too much as
the contractor actually showed up and was working hard. Well at least he appeared
to be working hard, as he was covered with mud from head to foot. Poor guy.
But as the day came to a close, he let me know that he was almost finished.

Near the end of the work day, we had a handful of people to make sure the water pipe was
indeed fixed. It looked like a war zone out there for quite a while, but it all paid off in the end.

And perhaps my favorite picture of this whole experience. The excavator leaving the
 premises. I think I got a little emotional. Okay, not really, but I was really happy.

This is what remains on the front yard. (That and a huge pile of dirt that you cannot see in
this picture. They seemed to have overlooked it when they were leveling out the yard. Errr.
Not hugely happy about that, but the landlord said he would get it taken care of.)
But our water has officially been turned on. And our yard is excavator-free.

Can you hear my sigh of relief coming from Boston?

The gate is closing, the gate is closing...

Okay, so I feel kind of silly even posting this, because there have been SO many respond to this first post. And because we feel so loved. But I can't stand the thought of losing any of you. Not a one. (Well, not a one that doesn't want to be lost of course.)

So I just wanted to remind anyone that wants to continue reading about our darling, crazy family to please email me and ask for an invite.

Just so you know, I would recommend you do it soon. Very soon. That reminds me of an email I received a few days ago from my darling friend, Brenda. It made me laugh. She had not been on our blog for several days and when she finally found the time to get on, she sent me an email and wrote the following:

"...I was just so excited to look at your blog. Well, PHEW! I feel like the last car through the railroad crossing before the gates shut. PLEASE send me an invite."

Did I mention how nice you all are to us? I never in my wildest dreams would have imagined how many of you read our blog or how many of you are crazy enough to continue reading it. I mean seriously. Going private could cause a problem though. Knowing it is not open to everyone may cause me to start weekly installments like "Who was rude to me this week and what they should expect in return." Or "Thank you for telling me that you are appalled at how many children I have, please let me tell you what I would have said had my children not been standing there." Or not. We'll see. Join us and you just might find out.

Caption please ~ Repost

You guys make me laugh! I love the captions you came up with for this picture.
I guess I'll share what I was going to title it before I put it out there for all of you.

Does my General Authority haircut look as good as I think it does?

If that makes no sense, you are probably not a member of my same faith. My apologies
for confusing you. Just so you know, it's funny. Super funny. At least to me.
Thanks again friends. I am totally trying this again in the future.

Angry eyes

This is how I am feeling about right now. Without the skinny face. Guess what we still have in our front yard? Guess how many inches of snow we are supposed to get tomorrow? Guess who did not show up to fix the water pipe yesterday? Or today? Or last week for that matter? Guess who is still giving us vague promises for when the water pipe will be fixed? Just to be very clear, not our landlord. He has tried his best to be helpful. The contractor on the other hand...not so much. Errr.

But I do keep reminding myself that we do have heat (and our house didn't even blow up). And we do have water (thanks to our poor neighbors). And the faucet that has been running constantly for over two weeks has only frozen up once (unfortunately for the city it was late on a Friday night). And that this long, involved, boring story is giving me blog material during an otherwise dull winter. See, look at all my blessings. I'll focus on those. And forget about the non-helpful-super-vague-answering-contractor man who is so totally not getting any cookies from this lady with the angry eyes.

My children have redeemed me

A visit to the dentist today. Not a single cavity in the bunch. Oh my mother's heart! 

The kids are going on six years with only one cavity. Okay it really cannot continue

much longer, but boy am I grateful today. And they were so excited and proud. I love our 

new dentist and her entire staff. They were so good to the kids and just kept telling me how
wonderful all three of them were during their exams. "Yes. Yes I know," I said bowing over

and over again. Okay, so maybe I was just relieved and super pleased with them. Either way.

What do you mean your dentist doesn't use a similar drill?

Some cool pictures taken by Jacob

Sickness, excuses and quotes

Don't mind the quarantine sign on our front lawn. Although, I do think it compliments the excavator, don't you? (Don't even get me started on the fact that we still have an excavator in our front yard. All my funny joking about water pipes and gas lines have left the building. Stinkin' Lewis I am not amused any more. But back to the point of this post.)

We are a mess at our house. Seriously, living in San Diego for the past four years is going to ruin us. Experiencing winter, for the first time in many a year, is just a huge party for all of us. I'm pretty sure we've picked up every available bug going around, as well as those from the past four years that we missed. (Oh, and one of two from Paul Revere and his brave-yet-germ-sharing-late-night-ride.) The kids have each been sick two or three times already this winter. Ben is getting over the first ear infection of his long, long life. I'm not sure it helps that in getting over it he had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. Both of the older boys have had fifth disease. (Look it up it if you are in the dark, like I was, about what in the world this childhood illness could be.) Jacob was more sick last night and this morning than I have seen him in a long time. This sickness he is experiencing rivals times he would come back from some foreign country with some crazy worm that had joined his insides. Not good. Not good at all.

And me. I'm not sure I have even been that sick, but I just seem to keep coming down with a calmer version of anything and everything the family is getting. You know how I claim to be semi-organized? Baahaa! Not this week for sure. Or the last. Or the one before that. You know when the kids run out of socks and you tell them, there are some clean ones in the dryer? Not anything terrible right? I think it crosses the line when they have fished clean socks out of the dryer for four days in a row now. I don't need a house cleaner (although I won't cry if you send one my way), I need a laundry-folding human who doesn't mind freezing basements.

Oh, and I really should mention a couple of thoughts for those that are disappointed that I haven't posted on my organization blog like I should. First, I'm working on it. Even if they are late, I will make sure I catch up. Second, when you are as unorganized as I am right now, writing on your inspirational site is hypocritical at best.

In conclusion, this quote from Annie about sums up our life right now. It happened last summer, a day or two before we left California, when our life was chaotic to say the least. Annie and I were out running errands, when she turned to me and these words came out of her mouth, "We're a disaster. And our hair doesn't look so good."

Caption please

My seventeen-year streak has come to an end

True statement. I went to the dentist on Monday. And for the first time in seventeen years, I have a cavity. Well, technically not a new cavity. Just an old filling that was wearing out and let bacteria in. Devastation. (Okay, not really, just going for drama here.) The dentist could not imagine how it had not been hurting me, but it truly has not hurt even a little. Until she jabbed that sharp instrument into the tooth to make sure the nerve still had the ability to react. And react I did. Reacted myself right over the top of the dentist chair.

Next month, when the lovely filling is in place, I will be cavity-free again. But somehow I don't imagine I will have another streak that lasts so long. I'm getting old you know. And my teeth are joining me. So here's to my seventeen-year streak. Raise your floss high friends. And say a little farewell to my cavity-free streak.

A truly historic day

With all that has been said about this incredible day, my hands-down favorite is something
written by my wonderful friend Michelle. Thank you sweet friend. I'm ready to lift.

225

This number is hugely significant to me today. But I'm not going to tell you why.

(I know, seriously annoying, huh?) You are welcome to guess if you'd like, and there
might even be hints along the way, but feel free to check back the last day of
August 2009. That is the day I will reveal why this number matters to me.

Our excavator needs to be excavated

I just realized that the common denominator in our recent crazy life is...me. Blast. And in case you were wondering, this morning was no exception.

Sunday mornings are usually a bit hectic in our home. Two mornings a month, all six of us have to be completely ready for church and out the door by 7:15am to make the twenty-five minute drive to our church building for an early meeting. The other two Sundays, Jacob goes early to his meeting and I stay home to get the kids ready and meet him there as church begins. Even that busy schedule was challenged this morning, as we had a few other complications to consider.

Two of the kids were sick (double-ear infection for Ben and some crazy MA infectious disease for Matt). We knew they were on the mend, but didn't know if they would be well enough to haul to church this morning. I really needed to be to our early meeting, Jacob was speaking during sacrament meeting and I needed to be to the Relief Society meeting, which was at the end of church. Oh, and I had a presidency meeting after church as well.

When we woke up and saw that Ben and Matt seemed a lot better we decided to try the following. I would go to the early meeting. Jacob would follow about two hours later with the kids. We would all stay for sacrament meeting to listen to Jacob's talk. Then he would take the kids home and I would stay for Relief Society and my presidency meeting. Okay, plan. Ready, break.

But just in case our crazy plan was too simple, we threw some snow into the mix. A few inches by the time we woke up, but nothing too serious. At least until I started my drive to the church and remembered that snowplows in MA do not plow the actual streets you drive on. And they especially do not plow them on Sunday. It was a scary drive.

I finally made it to church and into ward council. It started a bit late as many of the men that were attending were trying to make sure the sidewalks were safe for the church members to walk on. We finally began. Three minutes into it, a very loud noise joined the meeting. Yup, the fire alarm. And it was seriously loud. We all looked at each other like it was a joke, until the bishop told us we needed to get outside. We grabbed our things and went.

And because this post is already way too long (what is up with me and long posts lately?) I will give you the condensed finale. It appears the church's main water pipe broke. The church started to flood. The bishop cancelled church. Just as I got into my car to leave, two firetrucks showed up and boxed me in. I used the time to call half of the women in the ward. The first counselor in the Relief Society presidency called the other half (Thanks Lorri!). The firetrucks left. I then crept home at approximately 25 miles per hour because the snowplows were still honoring the Sabbath.

Seriously, what is it with my presence and broken water pipes slash gas lines? I think this is not going to bode well for getting invitations to visit others. I can hear it now...

Don't invite Linn Allen over, she is the Grim Reaper of perfectly well-working water pipes and gas lines.

The saga continues

This morning I woke up excited to think that this fun experience of ours was soon going to be over. Earlier than I expected, the doorbell rang. When I answered it, there stood the gas guy from yesterday. I think he saw the confused look on my face because he asked, "Didn't anyone call you? You weren't expecting me?" Well, I don't usually greet my guest in my pajamas, so I'm going with a no here. Apparently, someone from our city had driven by early this morning (you totally know he just wanted a good laugh and some pictures for his blog) and said he could still smell gas. So we had our friendly gas gentleman check out the inside and outside of the house. All was well.

As he was finishing, the contractor showed up. They talked for a minute and then the contractor came to the door. He also seemed very impressed with my pajamas. This is what he told me, "We won't be reopening the hole today blah blah blah blah have to be at least three feet away from box blah blah blah blah freezing weather blah blah blah possibility of an explosion blah blah. We'll see you Tuesday." Tuesday? Four-days-from-now Tuesday?

But I was going to make you cookies. And I'll change into jeans and my bag lady sweatshirt.
YOU FORGOT YOUR EXCAVATOR.AND YOUR ORANGE CONE.
But I was going to make you cookies...