Getting ready for kick-offs

This year for kick-off meetings I had to present on a new mobile app we are creating.  I was a little stressed about presenting but even more stressed about my outfit. So I went online and bought 2 dresses and 2 pair of shoes then ended up shipping them to Uncle Milo and Aunt Gale's house in California on accident.  Nothing like giving myself a heart attack 2 days before I left.  So I packed up the kids and Timmy and Megan went shopping with me.  Luckily, after trying on about 50 different outfits I found the perfect one.

 

Sophie and I went and got our nails done

Trying to figure out my shoes

Texting Timmy asking which shoes I should wear.

Shopping with my girls

My girls love to go shopping with me and I love hanging out with them.  While we were waiting in line at Banana Republic I turned around and saw Sophie sitting there holding the mannequin  hand so I had to take a picture - then Claire jumped in and said "mom take one of me too".  I love it.

 We also went to Sports Authority and they both "had" to get a running skirt just like mom.  Who cares if neither of them run yet - they look darling in their skirts and they find places to wear them.

Saturday Mornings

Saturday is the only day Todd gets to sleep in and he usually gets up with the kids so I can go running so when I get home I try to let him go back to sleep for a few hours. This happens to be prime grocery shopping time in my schedule so I usually take 2-4 kids with me so he can sleep. Some weeks I question my sanity, some weeks I get really mad at the kids, other weeks we do just fine. This week the kids were being fine (they weren't sitting still or anything) but they were being good.

The seat belt in the car didn't work so I couldn't keep Sophie in the seat. She kept climbing out either while I was looking for items to buy or while I was cruising down the isle. At one point a nice lady saw her and grabbed her before she dove out.

The part that sucked was that some older lady stopped me to let me know that Luke had stepped on her foot and "nearly knocked her over". WHAT? Seriously - how could a kid that size do that much damage if he wasn't running (and he wasn't). He was doing me a favor and grabbing something from the other side of produce (banana's I think) when the foot stomping occurred. The lady was so rude and rather than get mad I just apologized and had Luke say sorry to her. But honestly it was ridiculous.

Then I decided to take care of business so I ordered balloons for YW new beginnings for the following Wednesday. Then later that day realized that I was 3 weeks off. WOW! I had a really bad day at the store to be that off.

Claire and Luke in the cart

I finally found a place where Sophie didn't cause trouble. She loved getting into my purse.

Something to make me smile

I was looking at the pictures on my phone and I saw this picture. Totally made me smile. This was a Saturday when Todd had stayed up late the night before so I decided to take all 4 kids to the grocery store with me. It was snowing outside so they all wanted to get bundled up in boots, coats, hats and gloves. I thought they were so cute I snapped a quick picture.

I also remember how bad shopping with all 4 of them was that day. I put the girls in one race car shopping cart and Luke in another race car cart that Tayson was pushing. We ran into things, the kids yelled a lot, I bought way more than I meant to because they kept things in the cart (especially Tayson). By the end of shopping I finally made Luke get out of the cart when I was checking out and go stand by the wall where he couldn't touch anyone. At that point the checker said "so what do you think works the best with kids? time outs? spanks?" I am pretty sure I just looked at him like "really you think I know....can you see my kids right now?" but I answered "well it really depends on the kid and the age."

I'm so glad that I can look back at this picture and smile and remember how funny my kiddos were that morning before we went shopping.

An Eventful Weekend

Todd planned a big Schultz Family "fathers and sons" camp out for this weekend. He researched and found a good spot that wasn't too close or too far away (Coldcreek Campground). Todd planned and planned figuring out who was coming what meals and activities. He made about 4 trips to Wal-Mart in one day trying to get everything ready and perfect. He took enough food to feed an army (seriously....way too much food). Todd took both boys, my dad, Mark, Steve and his boys, and David all went up together.

However, he forgot to bring the boys sleeping bags, blankets and pillows....oops! Friday was the coldest night we've had in months and they all froze and didn't get a lot of sleep. Which meant they came home Saturday afternoon instead of Sunday (which I was very happy about). I asked Mark afterwards why he didn't let the boys use his sleeping bag and he said "I slept with a table cloth cause I forgot mine too". So classic.

Luke and Tayson showing off a sweet rock they found (and brought home)

Todd told the boys to smile again - but instead Tayson gave Luke a noogie (sp?)

Steve and Ryan. Isn't that a beautiful campsite?

Meanwhile....Timmy, the girls and I were at home so we decided to go shopping. Timmy cut his hair as a deal to get to go clothes shopping for some work clothes so we headed up to Nordstrom Rack for the afternoon. We got lots of great deals and he got 3 shirts, 2 pair of pants, and 2 pair of shoes for less than $300 (not bad). While we were there Claire had to use the bathroom and I almost cried when I saw how constipated she has been. Not to get too graphic but honestly my sweet tiny little girl has bigger poop than she is. It is so sad and it breaks my heart. Then like 15 minutes later Timmy says "I think Sophie is poopy" and I went to grab her to go change her and we see that it was a massive blow out ... all over of her clothes .... all over Timmy's arm .... so nasty. So I ran to change her and took off her clothes so she finished shopping in a bow, diaper and pink shoes. It was hilarious.

The Grocery Store

I had to make a quick stop at the grocery store on my way home from work and several things drove me crazy. I have a lot of pet peeves and I try very hard to let people be who they are and try not to judge but honestly some things are just common courtesy.

So here are a few things that really annoy me at the store:

1. People who leave their empty carts in the parking lot. It's just not that hard to put it back. You don't have to go back into the store but putting it in an empty parking spot is just uncalled for. I saw a young college aged fella do this yesterday and I almost said something to him - there was no reason for him not to walk 50 feet and return it but instead he put it in a prime parking spot. UGH.
   
2. People who leave their carts right in the middle of the aisle while they look at every single price point of an item. I don't care how long you stare at the tomato sauce but don't block the entire aisle so that I either have to run into your cart on accident or wait 10 years for you to make up your mind. Yes someone was doing this yesterday at the store. Her cart was at an angle and was honestly taking up so much room I had to move her cart to get past it and she didn't even say sorry or move her cart. ANNOYING.
3. Talking on your speakerphone. Seriously I don't need to hear your conversation or what you should be buying at the store. There was a BYU couple at the store yesterday walking (slowing strolling at best) through the store holding hands and taking up more than their fair share of room in the aisles chatting it up on the speakerphone. REALLY?
4. People with kids at the store who are yelling, crying, throwing the food out of the cart onto the floor, adding extra food to the cart and still getting a treat at the checkout. OH WAIT I don't hate that .... that's me at the store.

I'm so glad I got that off my chest. It was really driving me bonkers.

Wal-Mart

So I am not one to shop at Wal-Mart - it's too stressful for me. The aisles are too small and there are too many people. I have been hit by people's carts one to many times so I avoid it as much as I can. Last Saturday I was on the go all day trying to get a few things done (like going to breakfast with the girls and buying some new maternity clothes) but I absolutely had to go to the store before my big fun date with Todd that night (we went to see "The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee Contest" - so fun!). I was completely out of trash bags and diapers...so no waiting until Monday.

So I thought since Todd was home with the kids all morning while I did fun stuff I should let him go play volleyball in the afternoon. So I took all 3 kids to Wal-Mart for a "quick" trip. Yea right. First we got there I get all the kids out of their car seats and through the parking lot only to find no shopping carts. So we all head back out into the parking lot. Since I only have 2 hands and 3 kids it can get a little crazy in a parking lot and one option for the boys is to hold my back pocket so I know they are close and where they are. This is Luke's favorite way to walk in a parking lot and while we went to get our cart he kept pulling on my pants until I swear they almost fell down! So we got our cart which only sat 2 and was so big it was hard to steer and headed into the store. Because it only had 2 seats Tayson just stood next to Luke's seat and they were so close there was no way to keep them from constantly touching each other.

We made it through the food section with only a few extra items that I would normally not buy thanks to Tayson being my "runner" and loading up the cart. On our way past the diapers and over to the toys I was telling Luke to stop touching Claire and she was yelling at him when I ran into an old friend who I haven't seen in over a year. Just how you want your friends to see you....3 kids out of control! She has 5 of her own kids (lucky for her they were at home) so she just laughed with me at the insanity. We had to get lots of toys for the boys for their book and potty charts (yep, I am all about bribery), and the kids were amazingly good during the toy shopping part of our trip. Then we headed to the checkout and I ran into my sister (good thing I showered and wasn't wearing pajama bottoms since I always run into people at Wal-Mart). I let the kids each buy a treat at the checkout so we made it through without any huge meltdowns. Then when we walked outside some huge wind and rain storm hit and we got soaked and almost blown away in the parking lot. I am so the mom I swore I would never be before I had kids....I just sat there while they fought in the shopping cart then I even bought them treats to keep them quite! Oh well we got our diapers and trash bags. I swear I am never going anywhere near Wal-Mart again on a Saturday, especially with all my kids!!!