life will stay exciting, even the mundane aspects ;-}

So, first words I hear this morning involve the onset of puberty (not my story to tell), but I will mention that Ddonn told her husband Jack Jack had best be a boy because she already has two more such experiences in her future.
Today is the day we find out if Jack Jack is a brother or a sister!
Unless Jack Jack takes after the oldest squirrel and doesn't afford the ultrasound a definitive view :-o
As for Monday's car registration adventure, I took the liberty of lifting my response to Le's comment: (edited for context ;-)
the DMV was a 2 1/2 hour wait - that was after an hour at the insurance place, 20 minutes at the smog check, and 30 min in the DMV parking lot at the vehicle inspection bldg (VIN verification) not to mention the drive time involved. The DMV I went to was just past Costco so I stopped for breakfast/lunch on my way home (1430) and they Don't have rootbeer, stoopid Coke products anyway so Sprite was the only choice - yeesh!
I was supposed to pick Fred up from school at 1400 but called Ddonn at 1230 to let her know just how long the line was at the DMV and that I was doubting I would be able to get to Fred on time so she called extra kid's mom and I was no longer in the loop. My dmv # was called at 140?, left the bldg at 1417, the parking lot at 1427 - with my NV plates on poor Betsy ;-Þ She is not sure Who she is anymore!
Yesterday was far calmer, mostly at home until I went to WalMart for straight pins, Costco for croutons and salad, dance to pick up JR and the Post to finally get my two lost bills in the mail! Except Costco was out of croutons, a member purchased 8 cases of them recently and they only have a weeks supply on hand - there you are!

4 day weekends will seem longer -

and not as refreshing as I remember them being! It was nice sleeping longer, no key in the door at 0500 ;-}or people getting ready to leave by 0630 but Thursday and Friday people were up and clicking computer keys by 0715. Amazingly no one was up before 0800 on Saturday, when the middle squirrel was at someone else's house for the night, but I was up by 0700 to call Wil for her official birth time call from her ol' mom - which Wil was not available to answer!!! Yeesh
Made it thru the first installment of fabric to measure and fold (the loose stuff), now neatly stacked on the Weyerhauser table, and will start on tubs of fabric now.
Laundry got behind a day or so, but dishes stayed done! I really wanted to conquer the loose fabric before bedtime on Saturday and if you consider midnight thirty bedtime, I did it. :-o
On the plus side we had Honor Choir Concert at UNLV, temple sealing of friends, trunk or treat and a trip to WalMart ;-Þ I was able to go to the temple with ElCid and Ddonn which was really nice.
Have to look up the address for the DMV, my tabs expire today. Last day of the month, NOT the recommended day to go to the DMV but I had NO money until this morning.

technology will let me see my loved ones, LIVE, from miles away ;-}

Sunday afternoon the squirrels, El Cid, Ddonn and I video conferenced with Buh, Le, Tiney and MATEY. Two computers here, one on their end - not because of any limits in the technology - and it was Amazing! Everyone here enjoyed seeing Matey and his assorted grown ups and everyone there got to see Ddonn's expanding silhouette...that'd be her pregnant tummy fyi.
I had tried out the conferencing Sat on Drox, 3 computers again, and he showed us his bedroom, his toes and a string of facial contortions that prompted me to inform him that there IS a "record meeting" function to which he replied "How about if you Don't do that, I may be famous some day."
Well if he becomes famous for his faces he will be sad NOT to have an early sample of 'em!
I told Tiney I want to do this on a regular basis to keep up with Matey and She said that would be up to me and Uncle Buh. I know she doesn't enjoy the phone but this is so NOT the phone, oh well, just have to sweet talk Uncle Buh!
Next is to contact Wil and make sure her computer or laptop has a camera so we can connect with her! The squirrels would love it almost as much as I (her aging mother) would ;-} Hi Wil!
As we finished on Saturday with Drox he told me this will be a great way to involve everyone when he opens his future mission call, I totally agree. Maybe my brother Schmedly could have my mom at his house and she could get in on it too. Note to self: contact Schmedly
;-Þ xoxoxox

I will forget - for 2+ weeks - to update my oldest daughter's age!

I am pretty sure she won't mind at all if I downgrade it instead ;-}
I have one week til Wil's birthday and that is what tipped me to the fact Ddonn was 'un-aged'. The three oldest girls are either odd together or even together when we reach Wil's birthday :-o
George and I agreed to do laundry together on Saturdays. One load of shirts/undies/socks/jammies and one of jeans. (Delicate loads I will do on Monday so a dress and sweater are in the hamper waiting their turn.)
This morning when I said "Let's get the clothes sorted so we can put our first load in" she was all kinds of not having it! The essential part was keeping her protests down so we didn't wake her mom because Everyone was warned last night that waking mom this morning would lead to sure and painful d e a t h. (Or a close approximation thereof) (unfortunately the hamper is in the bathroom across the hall from mommy's bedroom door)
Took me 3 trips to the family room to get her to come help, then she thought she was just there to observe, but by the end of the ordeal (only one hamper involved so about 3 minutes due to foot dragging) she carried out the basket of shirts/undies/socks/jammies to the hall for me. I figure that is good for a first time, especially while the exhausted mom is sleeping, so I went alone to her bedroom to round up any jammies or jeans that hadn't made it to the hamper. I left Jr's hamper in the bedroom untouched because her laundry day is Monday (and it is nigh on Empty) and I want to establish a routine for the girls so that when I leave next April it is so natural for them it will be easier on their mom to get them to maintain it. (Plan A)
[No, I am not running a fever. No, I haven't had any drugs - why do you ask?]
I plan to have her help me carry the jeans to the washer when our first load is done so she can help switch stuff to the dryer. She has done laundry with her mom in the past but I am NOT her mom so we have to build up to a workable system ;-Þ
* Adventures in everyday life doing everyday things *
(Old people are easily amused)
It is Stake Conference this weekend so we have the adult meeting tonight and El Cid has leadership meetings this afternoon. The current Stake president was our bishop when JE and I lived here 5 years ago. ;-}

I will still be struggling to appreciate my own baby steps!

I have no problem appreciating "baby step" progress in other people but still get impatient with "baby steps" progress on My part! I am noticing that as part of someone else's household there are few chances to make really "big" changes. As a minion instead of a policy maker my only real abilities are to support and change in small (baby step) ways. My 'power' will lie in consistently making those baby steps so that they will add up to big change over time.
I have firmly come to believe that patience is the virtue the Lord is giving me opportunity to achieve. I also believe that I will know I have "arrived" (at 'patience') when I truly rejoice in each baby step on its own merit - Not because of the greater future result.
The here and now just doesn't get enough attention, appreciation and/or credit from me, working on that.
Back to work - family room is my focus today. The family will all be gone most of today, Harvest Festival involves them all, so I plan to spread socks out on the dining room table - matching socks is part of clearing the family room of the clothes I unearthed in the "little" girls' room - and sort/match/weed out the too small or worn- to my heart's content. Or til I run out of steam, lol.

the words of the prophets will sink deeper into my heart -

and more quickly! I loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk at the Relief Society general meeting. I am including an excerpt:

" Third, forget not to be happy now.

In the beloved children’s story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the mysterious candy maker Willy Wonka hides a golden ticket in five of his candy bars and announces that whoever finds one of the tickets wins a tour of his factory and a lifetime supply of chocolate.

Written on each golden ticket is this message: “Greetings to you, the lucky finder of this Golden Ticket … ! Tremendous things are in store for you! Many wonderful surprises await you! … Mystic and marvelous surprises … will … delight, … astonish, and perplex you.”³

In this classic children’s story, people all over the world desperately yearn to find a golden ticket. Some feel that their entire future happiness depends on whether or not a golden ticket falls into their hands. In their anxiousness, people begin to forget the simple joy they used to find in a candy bar. The candy bar itself becomes an utter disappointment if it does not contain a golden ticket.

So many people today are waiting for their own golden ticket—the ticket that they believe holds the key to the happiness they have always dreamed about. For some, the golden ticket may be a perfect marriage; for others, a magazine-cover home or perhaps freedom from stress or worry.

There is nothing wrong with righteous yearnings—we hope and seek after things that are “virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy.”⁴ The problem comes when we put our happiness on hold as we wait for some future event—our golden ticket—to appear.

One woman wanted more than anything else to marry a righteous priesthood holder in the temple and be a mother and a wife. She had dreamed about this all her life, and oh, what a wonderful mother and loving wife she would be. Her home would be filled with loving-kindness. Never a bitter word would be spoken. The food would never burn. And her children, instead of hanging out with their friends, would prefer to spend their evenings and weekends with Mom and Dad.

This was her golden ticket. It was the one thing upon which she felt her whole existence depended. It was the one thing in all the world for which she most desperately yearned.

But it never happened. And, as the years went on, she became more and more withdrawn, bitter, and even angry. She could not understand why God would not grant her this righteous desire.

She worked as an elementary school teacher, and being around children all day long simply reminded her that her golden ticket had never appeared. As the years passed she became more disappointed and withdrawn. People didn’t like being around her and avoided her whenever they could. She even took her frustration out on the children at school. She found herself losing her temper, and she swung between fits of anger and desperate loneliness.

The tragedy of this story is that this dear woman, in all her disappointment about her golden ticket, failed to notice the blessings she did have. She did not have children in her home, but she was surrounded by them in her classroom. She was not blessed with a family, but the Lord had given her an opportunity few people have—the chance to influence for good the lives of hundreds of children and families as a teacher.

The lesson here is that if we spend our days waiting for fabulous roses, we could miss the beauty and wonder of the tiny forget-me-nots that are all around us.

This is not to say that we should abandon hope or temper our goals. Never stop striving for the best that is within you. Never stop hoping for all of the righteous desires of your heart. But don’t close your eyes and hearts to the simple and elegant beauties of each day’s ordinary moments that make up a rich, well-lived life.

The happiest people I know are not those who find their golden ticket; they are those who, while in pursuit of worthy goals, discover and treasure the beauty and sweetness of the everyday moments. They are the ones who, thread by daily thread, weave a tapestry of gratitude and wonder throughout their lives. These are they who are truly happy..."

http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/forget-me-not?lang=eng

The entire talk is amazing but this part seems very pertinent in my world right now.

El Cid is 2nd counselor in the bishopric and I can feel changes already in him. Humility and love especially. I have always seen both qualities in him but they are magnified somehow. This is going to be good for Ddonn and the squirrels as well. xoxoxox

I will live in Las Vegas for 6 months to help with baby #4!

I didn't leave Idaho until Monday - but I was well rested!

The trip was 14 hours (the car was loaded so heavily I couldn't go over 62mph without "wallowing"), driver's side turn signal assembly literally fell off the car in the night in the Nevada desert (discovered what I had heard the next day when there was light to see) and I was sick my first two days here, I hate throwing up!!! I totally blame it on the oversized hotdog wrapped in bread dough from Flying J. Never bothered me before and never will again! NO WAY I will ever buy another one. All my food this trip was from Flying J, to cut down on stops. Going home I will return to my usual practice of a well stocked cooler with celery, cream cheese, craisens, juice, crackers, apples, grapes and a roll or bagel. Took me two days but I cleared my system and am doing great now ;-Þ

Lindsay's birthday party was a great success and we ate leftovers for dinner, a nice plus. I made fruit salad from the leftover fruit tray ;-}

It was Fun going to church today and just sitting in Sunday School and Relief Society, attending Choir right after church...

I was the last one to bear my testimony in Sacrament. "... I am Valinda O'Gara's, I mean Valinda Gubler's mother..." Tried to tell her that at least I got the right first name!! I enjoy this ward, Drox and I were members of it 5 years ago for 6 months and now two of the boys he was in class with have received their mission calls - Richmond, VA and Charlotte, NC.

Have to get to bed on time these days because people invade my "bed room" at 0545 each morning - I am in the family room part of the kitchen - dining - family room area for now. We unloaded my car after the party yesterday, set up the seats so I can drive Tuesday in Ddonn's absence.

I slept on my mattresses last night in the front hallway, just for one night. I actually find that the futon (folded even) is quite comfortable but it was nice to stretch out.

Keeping dishes done and got a feeble start on laundry, Ddonn still does dinner ;-}

Tomorrow I am helping with wedding dresses for assorted small family members. Sashes to be exact.

No Matey fix in days - sob, sob, shuddering sob!