Sweetspirited: With Great Potential

Sunday, March 16, 2008

With Great Potential

We bought this house "with great potential" which is so tender isn't it. I love the idea of investing a lot because of your vision of what it can be. It's the Dulcinea, or 8 cow woman vision that is so inspiring.
Here is a slideshow that Daniel put together of the work so far we've done (or paid for) on our yard. The week after Easter is when the aesthetic part will go in and we'll get pictures of that. For now you can enjoy the vision:

http://picasaweb.google.com/DSMadsen/OurBackyardProgression

2 comments:

April said...: I love it...you are going to LOVE that money pit in about two months. I sure wish we had one.

Maybe when you guys finish your backyard you could help us with a little vision for ours...it is sad, sad, sad.; March 16, 2008 at 10:15 PM
April said...: LOVE your new banner...how clever are you?; March 17, 2008 at 12:09 PM

Post a Comment

Made Me Laugh

Daniel asked me to get a compass for Lindsey. Then he quickly said do I "even knew what a compass is?"
At Angelo's and Nancy's wedding, Kimmer (who had never met Nancy) went into the bathroom and saw a lady (Nancy) getting dressed in a wedding gown. She quickly asked "are you going to Angelo's and Nancy's wedding too?"
Rachel was holding Janey up in a "standing" position and came running to us saying "Janey took her first step."
Gracie was threatening Rachel saying"If I don't get what I want I will hit you 100 times." I said "Gracie, what in the world?" And Gracie responded "not in the world."
Kimmer's class gets rewarded with bills for good behavior. Every once in a while they have a bill sale where they can buy things from each other with the bills they earned. So, ocassionally Kimmer has to come up with a product to sell. Sometimes I am not included in this decision. For example: she wanted to have a face painting stand but only had poster paint at home. She brought it anyway assuming it was good enough. Another one was rainbow ice frozen in mini-cupcake pans. The problem of the ice melting didn't occur to her.
Every time I listen to a song on the radio that swears (for example "hell yeah") Lindsey turns the radio off. I need to work on my righteousness.
I asked Gracie if she wanted to take a shower with me and she responded "no, I don't smell bad."
Lindsey was commenting that not having school out for President's day is "un-patriotical".
Rachel was trying to decide whether to go to St. George for Grandma Spencer's 95th birthday party. If she went she would miss Kimmer's birthday. She justified herself and said that since Grandma Spencer would die before Kimmer, she should go to St. George. After I told her that she would also miss her friend Alya's birthday party, she decided to stay.
Gracie said "I have a head ache, right here on my tummy."
When going to the lab to do my routine third trimester glucose test, I had to park in the family planning parking lot. I felt the need to run from there to the lab so no one would be concerned or suspicious about my intent.
During the night I heard growling noise, over and over again and started looking for my glasses so I could see the assumed mountain lion right outside the window. I soon realized it was my stomach.
Rachel has been learning about "Martin Luther King Jr and that other guy, what's his name? Oklahoma I think?" When I corrected her that it was Obama, she said, "that's almost the same isn't it?"
Rachel was very concerned and said "Mom, Gracie is playing with the CPR . . . I mean the GPS."
Rachel does not like Jam. We keep telling her it's just strawberries and sugar. Today when we reiterated that she said: I know, I like strawberries and I like sugar, just not together. Just like Kimmer likes rice and she likes pudding, but not together.
Daniel was asking Gracie what she would be when she grew up. After making several suggestions Gracie resolutly said "No, I want to be a butterfly!"
Daniel took the girls to help with a med group community service project: painting a bridge and cleaning the area around it. Daniel took the girls but they couldn't find the group so they cleaned up a bit on their own. When Rachel came home she told me that they "picked up a lot of glitter."
On General Conference Sunday Rachel suggested that "We go swimming to celebrate that we dind't have church today."
Outside one night Gracie pointed to the half moon and said to Daniel: That moon broken.
When Kimmer saw the street sign that read Tucson Blvd she laughed and said: Look Dad, this street is called Tucson Beloved.
Gracie loves to sing around the piano and often asks me to play "Popular" from Wicked so she can sing it, and she does, even belting out the last "Like Meeeeeeeeee." She also likes to sing primary songs and when she doesn't know them she asks me what they're called and repeats the title over and over in whatever tune she wishes while I play the accompaniment.
We were talking about religions in the car with Lindsey and she determined that Grandma and Grandpa Madsen are Orthodox Mormons because they don't like video games and they didn't allow homework on Sundays.
Around the dinner table I told Daniel that I don't really like the book -What To Expect When You're Expecting- because it is so critical of people that are overweight, to which Rachel replied "you mean like Doug?"
Speaking of the olympic athletes Rachel said "wouldn't it be fun if one of the "best in the world" were someone we knew, like Grandpa, or Doug?"
We were asking Gracie what color her hair is, teasing her that it's green from swimming so much. She didn't believe us and said it's "yeyo" then pointed to my teeth and said they're "yeyo" too.
Lindsey told me that every time she gets on the wii fit board it asks if she's seen me and to encourage me to get back to the wii fit. Message received.
In response to being asked to do her dinner chore, Rachel said, first I want to learn to read.
Daniel's wii fit age is around 47. Mine is 35. Do you know what this means? One, he doesn't have very good core balance, and two, he sersiously robbed the cradle.
Whenever Gracie is aware of anyone using the toilet she cheers and claps for them.
My kids often tell me that my music is too loud, which brings me to question myself: when am I ever going to grow up?
After Rachel farted, instead of saying "excuse me" she said "Nothing to worry about"
Rachel saw a tan suburban in the Costco parking lot and excitedly said "that looks like Grandma Madsen's submarine."
Rachel desperately wanted to wear a dress but couldn't find a play dress so told me she would wear the "un-ist Sunday Dress" she could find.
Daniel was replacing a round, white lightbulb cover which when Gracie saw she said "Daddy fix moon." It did look just like the moon.
Kimmer told her cousins that she was doing research on fairies, but not in school, just on her own. She said her research has shown that fairies are learning telepathy and possibly some bad animal is killing them off.
Rachel who was doing math problems with her cousins stumped them all when she asked "what is orange + red + red + purple + orange +1000? The answer was 957
While walking to the bus stop and snooping in on a conversation between an 11 year old boy and his mom who were talking about a play station I confidently asked "Oh, do you have a play boy?" having mixed a game boy with a play station. There was a long silence before I realized what I had said and when I explained myself we (gratefully) all laughed
While playing a trivia game in the car Lindsey asked "who invented the telephone?" Rachel who was desperate to be a part of the game immediately yelled out "Jesus!"
Rachel says to me "A sticker is really just an "er", but since it sticks, it's called a stick-er."
Rachel asks Kimmer if at the bus stop they can do the macaroni (macarena) dance
Rachel told Gracie when she gave her a glass of grape juice "don't spill it on your dress--it stinks" (rather than it stains)
When I asked Lindsey's friend how her dad was doing (her dad and mom are in the middle of a divorce) Rachel turned to me quite concerned and said "Mom, don't you remember, her dad is doing bad things."
Rachel said jubliantly "You betcha artichokie" (rather than okey dokey artichokey)
Lindsey made apple cobbler with cumin instead of cinnamon. Yum!

Favorite Things

Plain Frozen Yorgurt
Hidden Camera shows
Bath sheets
Warm blankets and a cold night
Brian Regan
Clean sheets that still have the fabric softener smell
Left over dessert for breakfast
Disney's Mulan
Pixar short films
Sunday afternoon naps
Listening to Harry Potter read by Jim Dale
Watching fighter planes fly overhead
Winter in Tucson Arizona!
Kimmer's long beautiful hair
Gracie's verbal explodings, which only the select few can understand
Lindsey making bread on Sundays
Rachel wearing roller skates at almost any minute she can
Camping with Daniel and him not shaving for a week. What a good lookin scruff he has. He won't admit it, but it has some red in it. :O)

Confessions

I cannot stand the acronym LOL. I think anyone who uses it is belongs in a trailer park.
I use to think that the orange drink from McDonalds was the best drink ever. And even now, I steal tastes from my kids drink and still think it's really good.
I often add peanut butter to my cold cereal (a habit I picked up from my Dad).
I won't drink juice if it has pulp in it.
I am partial to 100% cotton, for sheets and under-garments. I oppose any substitution.
I can't stand it when people assert authority simply because they can and not because they are right.
When I find moldy left overs in the fridge I will most likely throw out rather than clean the tupperware it is in.
When I voted in Utah, if I didn't have a strong preference, I would vote democratic.
I was glad when David Cook beat Mormon David Archuletta in American Idol
I can likely count on my hands how many times my laundry has been completely done: washed, folded and put away.
I often wear the same shorts several times a week
The only things I have hit with a car have been stationary
I keep finding "old lady" whiskers on my chin and it's freakin' me out!
I don't really like oatmeal
The only R rated movie I've seen is Shindler's List
Sometimes I go for longer than I should without shaving
I'm really good at Texas Hold 'em (though I've never played with money involved)
I am more likely to do dishes in the morning than in the evening
I pretty much believe in evolution
If I have to wash out a can before putting it into the recycling bin, I have to fight with myself to not put it in the trash
I'm really bad at taking vitamins

25 Facts About Me

1. I was born and raised in Provo Utah. (A place where many are born and few are raised).
2. My uncle was a General Authority and when I was a child I use to play in the church office building with my cousins during general conference, and we would wander around and use the copy machines and phones at our whim.
3. When I was 5 years old I lived in China (the only child to go (out of 8) with my parents--there is something to be said about spoiling the youngest)
4. I spoke Chinese fluently but refused to speak it when I came home from China so lost it all, except for a few communist songs.
5. My only broken bone happened in a competitive sports class during Junior High. I was one of two girls and trying to make a point when I "slid into first."
6. In high school I got caught with a police officer's son (Matt Messick for anyone who knew him) driving before we were 16, a habit I took up to prove how ready and able I was to drive.
7. I have skinny dipped in lake Powell (because of Page Clark's, (the bishop's daughter) challenge) during a YM/YW super activity, and gratefully got my suit back on before the YM and bishop got back from water skiing. Whew!
8. I tutored math in high school, a feat that still surprises me.
9. When I was 16 I lived in Moscow Russia for a semester and attended a local high school there, which gave me credit for taking chemestry, geometry and physics. This translated into never having to take those courses in an English context, and thus still lacking a lot of core knowledge.
10. While in Russia a friend and I took an over night train to another country (I can't remember which one, maybe Latvia?) without the right documents, so we got detained by Russian soldiers. Luckily they didn't think us a threat and let us go after a while.
11. While in Russia Beverly Albrechson and I went SCUBA diving in the Black Sea, which, turns out to be, well, pretty dark and un-interesting.
12. My freshman year of college was at BYU-Hawaii and both semesters I got very close to a 4.0, which was suprising because my high school gpa was, shall we say, not close to a 4.0.
13. While at BYU-H I lived with my sister and brother-in-law in a beach front home with huge windows overlooking the ocean, I even saw a whale from the front room once.
14. Between freshman and sophomore years I spent 3 months in the Baltic countries (Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia) where my father was the mission president.
15. During my sophomore year at BYU I received a mission call to Taiwan a few weeks before meeting Daniel (the first time we actually met was at a missionary prep fireside by Elder Scott I think). I decided that marriage was the greater calling.
16. The night before my farewell was mine and Daniel's first kiss at the base of Provo Canyon.
17. We got engaged after I had my mission farewell.
18. When I called to tell my parents (who were mission presidents mind you, their eye was single to missionary work) that I was engaged and wouldn't be going to Taiwan, my father said I should change my mind.
19. Daniel met my father for the first time a week before Lindsey was born.
20. Lindsey was born in Bethesda Maryland the day before Daniel started medical school.
21. One of our Air Force assignments was to Guam (as a flight surgeon). While there we had 4 major natural disasters: two earthquakes over 7.0 and two typhoons, one a super-typhoon (equivilent to a category 5-hurricane). All knocked out power for weeks.
22. During both typhoons I was pregnant and Daniel was not with me (the last one I was 8+ months pregnant and Daniel was skiing in Utah. I got an emergency OB kit just in case).
23. I have loved every place we have lived and every ward we've been a part of. (Since being married we have lived in 8 wards and 6 cities)
24. I am expecting my 5th baby girl in March; this one was persistent and maybe a little rebellious in "testing the limits" because I had an IUD at the time of conception.
25. I honestly lucked out with how great my kids are. They surpass any parenting I provide--they were just born great. And I am grateful and look pretty stellar because of them, which kind of makes me giggle. I just hope my parenting doesn't hold them back.

Brilliant Parenting/Household Advice

Sunday, March 16, 2008

With Great Potential

2 comments:

Check Out My Family Blog!

Help Mary and Jared adopt!

Made Me Laugh

Favorite Things

Favorite Dreams

Confessions

25 Facts About Me

Alternate Blog Names--after reading several of my posts, these might be better names for this blog

Brilliant Parenting/Household Advice

Famous People/Characters I Have Had A Serious Crush On

Blog Archive

About Me

My favorite blogs