eLDER sCHULTS

This is Elder Mark Schultz (notice the Z at the end of our last name). Mark is a very smart kid - pretty much got straight A's his first year at the University of Utah. However, he like many his age relies heavily on spell check and types faster than he should. When he was in the MTC and sending hand written letters it took several attempts to figure out his words (between handwriting and spelling) so we were very excited for him to start emailing his letters so they would be legible. But....this didn't help because he types fast and doesn't proof-read and can't spell worth beans. Here are some of his best spelling errors.

eLDER sCHULTS - yes that's right he did caps locks wrong and spelled his last name wrong. I had no idea someone could misspell their own last name.

Weelky Letter - about half of his emails say this instead of "weekly"

"other side of the tracts" - funny since he's on a mission but I don't think this was done on purpose

take them for granite - yes that should be granted

her boyfriend/pheonca - this is the best of all misspelled words! I actually couldn't figure it out until Kami told me it was fiance.

Here are some other gems that I grabbed out of 3 different emails....notice that 2 family members names are misspelled:
deffiently (definitely), meating (meeting), deppresing (depressing), compaion (companion), sutes (suits), Jeanie (Jeannie), streach (stretch), werid (weird), campions (companion's), mussles (muscles), chuch (church - spelled twice wrong in 1 sentence), phiscialy (physically), Christene (Christine), policties (politics), quieting (quitting)

Todd and Folak

This is Todd's best friend "Folak" he is a troll who trained as a holy priest then later as a shadow priest (apparently one heals more and one does more damage) in the world of Azeroth. Todd spent endless nights with his friend and even had a group of friends (some were even real-life - although they didn't use their real names) who created a guild called the Midnight Mauraders.

Recently Todd made the decision to leave World of Warcraft and pursue other adventures - like more work and family. This isn't an easy decision for anyone who has ever been to the world of Azeroth so to truly cut the ties he sold Folak. I can't say I'm extremely upset because all that hard work and love brought in a good $250. Of course this is still much less than was spent over the years on the monthly fees, buying gold, paying for other characters, etc..... But at least it really is goodbye.

My kids

We recently got new pictures taken and I just had to put my favorites on here for you everyone to see them. Amazingly enough the kids were really good - first time ever I think with pictures.


Can you believe how great they look in those jeans...I need to get a pair to see if my rear can be that cute!



Claire of course never smiles or shows any emotion - but she is actually smiling in one :)

The search for the binky

Last night at bedtime I realized that there wasn't a binky in Claire's crib. I normally keep 2-3 in her crib so that during the night she can always find one. She doesn't use them except to sleep so they are rarely just laying around the house like they always were with Luke (who was never seen without one). So I went out to the Durango to see if there was one in there the car and to my suprise I found: 4 1/2 pairs of shoes, 7 sippy cups, 1 bottle (still full of milk - yuck!), 3 water bottles, 5 cars (the big ones from chevron), a volleyball, a small basketball, a pair of pants, a shirt, 2 coats, a blanket, a big box of goldfish, more old french fries than I could count, enough trash for 3 trips to the trash can and.....2 binkies!!!! The trip was a success and ended up taking me an extra 15 minutes to sort and put away everything I found. The sad part is I cleaned out the car last Saturday. WOW.

Now for all of you who think I'm a slob...I don't drive the Durango on a daily basis our absolutely amazing nanny does. It's just hard to clean up after the kids sometimes :)

Shadow

Today I took Shadow to get a bath ... he was really stinky. He's a big dog (around 75-80 lbs) and much stronger than me. We got in there and after I checked him into the salon the girl took the leash and he pulled himself out of his collar and made a break for it. I chased him down as best I could (I was wearing dress pants and heels since I went straight from work) but he got out of the store and to the middle of the parking lot before he stopped. I yelled his name (which is a common occurrence and one of Claire's only words since we yell it so much) and he stopped dead in his tracks cowering knowing he was in big trouble. When I got to him he just sat there cowering and wouldn't come with me so I grabbed him by the skin on the back of his neck but he's too big for me to lift, pull, drag, etc. So we just sat there for a minute .... looking ridiculous I'm sure....until the girl came out with a better collar. This is the second time he has done this to me. The last time it happened I was 8 months pregnant with Claire and all I could do was kick him as hard as I could (which didn't even stop him in his tracks) as he pulled me out of the store and to the car. Today when I picked him up I decided that was enough of him making me look stupid at the PetSmart so I bought a choke collar and it worked like a charm. Now I'm in charge!!!

Potty Training - Day 2

Well we are done.....he's simply not ready. We set his watch and he wore it great, he ran up to the bathroom to sit on the potty every time the alarm went off. Tayson continued to cheer him on and do the robot dance (I'm still not sure how this has anything to do with going potty - but Tayson seems to think it's inspirational). After Luke sat on the potty for 10 minutes he got off saying he didn't need to go then within 5 minutes peed a lake on the kitchen floor. So I'm thinking he's not quite ready yet. I guess we'll try in a few more weeks .... or years.

Potty Training - Day 1

Since Luke has been 3 for a few months now it is time to take serious action with the potty training. So last night Luke, Tayson and I took a trip to Wal-Mart to buy all the necessary supplies. Luke got to pick out new underwear (or undeeway as he calls them since his "L" struggles) he tried 3 times to buy the Dora panties but Tayson and I wouldn't let him. Then he got to pick out a special treat to have after he goes - he picked ice cream (what a Schultz) so we got a few varieties of small ice cream treats. Then we got some fun new fingerpaints for him, posterboard to make a potty chart and star stickers. We made his chart last night and hung it in the bathroom and he was really excited. I am taking tomorrow off work so I planned on starting then, but when he woke up this morning he decided he wanted to wear his new undeeway and he got himself all dressed in them. I told Tayson that everytime he goes to the bathroom he should take Luke too. So I walked by the bathroom and they were both completely naked and Tayson was trying to get him to "race" him going pee. Luke didn't quite manage ... but he tried. Then a little bit later Tayson told him to sit on the potty to go poop. So Luke was trying and trying and to be motivational Tayson offered to do the robot dance for him - and he did it. I was cracking up!!! I have no idea how the rest of the day will go, but at least they are excited and Tayson is the best potty coach around so far.