This week I realized...

This week I realized that now is the only time in my nearly 15 years of marriage, that I have not been earning any money. I have never brought in tons of money, but now that my FBI job is gone, I am making zero dollars.

I realized that although I am willing to watch my friends children when they go to the doctor/dentist/other kid class, I am not willing to do child care to any degree. On this same note, I do not miss having multiple little kids in my house. I am enjoying my kids growing up. Except Wave, she can stay little.

I have not had dinner with the whole family all together a single night this week. I hate it when this happens. Here is our schedule for the week:
Monday: Soccer at 6:00, Tuesday: wrestling 6:00 - 7:00 & scouts (court of honor) at 7:00
Wednesday: Temple night sealings at 6:00, Thursday: wrestling 6:00. school open house at 7:00; Friday Madsen has a scout camp out and Saturday I will go to the Women's broadcast dinner. Sounds fun doesn't it?

I really do enjoy institute. It is good for me to have forced scripture study.

I am very blessed. All my basic physical.temporal needs are met. I have an amazing family. I have a much longer list of things that I am grateful for than wants.

solicitations

I have a little favor. If you are on Facebook and saw my new status, you already know. If you are part of my Madsen family you already know. So that leaves maybe one person I am reaching!

Declan and Cannon will be doing a fun run fund raiser at their school on October 9. They are now collecting sponsors/pledges. That is what I am asking for! If anyone is willing to send them money there are two ways to do it. You can do a flat pledge or pledge per lap. The school asks that any pledge per lap be at least $1.00. They expect the kindergarten to do about 13 laps. They expect the 3rd grade to do about 11 (they are on different tracks, 3rd grade is a bigger track).

Money can be sent to me in cash or check made out to FWES PTA. I will send an address in an e-mail if anyone needs it in order to help!

I really hate traditional fund raisers where the kids sell over priced useless stuff. I never have my children participate. I like this one because the kids actually have to put forth some effort and all the money goes to the school instead of only a percentage.

I will still love you if you do not donate. I just thought this would be an easy way to get the info out there for anyone who is willing!

Feeling abandoned

Mom and Dad are finally gone. Not that I did not enjoy every minute of it or that I was tired of them and wanting to kick them out. I just know that Dad is so relieved to be cleared to go that I am glad that they are gone. Every time they leave I feel so alone and far away for a while. I love my parents. They are amazingly good people. Mom is sweet and compassionate and good. Dad is smart and concerned and goofy. I know they really love me and my little, ok, big family. What a blessing it is to have such great parents.

My friend and neighbor is moving. I have known this for a few months and really not thought that much about it. Today the movers are here packing up her house. They will be driving away Sunday morning. Now it is very real to me. Although there have been little things that made me crazy about Alexis, she has been such a great friend and I love her. It has been a great blessing to have a Mormon neighbor these last 3 years. She has truly touched my heart in many ways. I will miss her tremendously. I really did not think it would be so hard. I thought she would go and I would not think much about it. Now I find myself in tears.

I am just feeling a little abandoned.

Bum Biting Trolls

My mom told my sisters I would explain this and I thought lots (all 5 of you who read this) might get a little giggle out of it or at least have a glimpse into my mind and now know that I am crazy.

On our little vacation camp out in August we were on a little hike. On this hike there were a couple of bridges. I told Cannon he needed to hurry across the bridge just in case there was a troll living under it. He ran quite quickly. The next bridge came up and he was curious about the troll. I was behind him and told him there was a Bum Biting Troll under that bridge and then I pinched his rear several times. He squealed and giggled and ran! For the remainder of that hike the troll came out at every bridge and bit several different bums.

When we were frisbee golfing the other day there came a bridge and Cannon mentioned the Bum Biting Troll. He would then get right next to the bridge and say "this is bum biting troll territory, come and get me..." as soon as I stepped near him, he ran off giggling. Have I ever mentioned that he has the best giggle?

So now every bridge we cross he checks for bum biting trolls. If I remember before him, he gets bitten.

This may come back and bite me some day, for now it is a little fun with my boy.

Sorry there is not a picture, those bum biting trolls are tricky!

Declan's baptism

Declan was baptized on September 5. It was such a good day. He was very excited and had a great smile on his face all morning. This is such an important milestone in his little life. I am grateful for such a good boy who is learning the truth and gaining a testimony of the gospel. He is such a blessing to us. I am also grateful to have a husband who holds the priesthood so he can perform these ordinances for our children.

Here they are in the fancy white clothes prior to the baptism.

He was a little worried that the water in the font would be cold. He reported that it was nice and warm. So with the feeling of the Spirit and coming up out of the water all fresh and new, he said he had a nice, warm feeling.

We thought this would be an appropriate opportunity for a new family picture. I guess this is as good as it gets! Despite funny faces and sleeping baby, not a bad looking crowd!

It was a good day. My parents made it into town Friday night. Dad is battling a nasty MRSA infection in his hand, but is now on the mend. Our friend, Aurelie, joined us for the day. She is not a member of the Church, so I hope she felt the spirit with us and it may influence her for good. Matt's Dad, brother and the girls had a nightmare adventure with their plane flight so they missed the baptism. I felt bad about this. We held off confirming Declan until Sunday so Doug could be there to participate in that part of it.

Overall, it was a great weekend and event for Declan.

Cannon's first day of Kindergarten

Cannon started Kindergarten this year. Our schools do kindergarten all day every day, so he is gone as long as the brothers. It is a long day! He rides the bus with Declan to the big school now. He is excited to tell me about his homework but not so excited to do the homework! So far his favorite thing at school is rest time and lunch. I hope he learns a lot and makes a lot of friends. I hope his funny personality will still shine through, and not drive the teacher crazy! He can read really well, he was reading this as I typed.

The first day he was excited to get on the bus but when it pulled up he came and gave me a big hug and told me he missed me. Oh, I miss him too! I have had so much fun with him in these five years. He is my buddy.

It is so quiet at the house with just Waverly to entertain me!

Birthday fun for Declan

For Declan's birthday we went to a park in Raleigh that has an old carousel, train and little boats. It also had fun trails and a playground. It rained the entire time we were there. I was hoping the rain would stop, no such luck. The kids had fun any way.

He turned 8 and will be baptized this weekend. Here is his new Captain Moroni tie.

We opted for cupcakes instead of a cake.
Declan is a fun, smart boy. He adds a lot of spunk to our house. He is pretty small but he packs a punch! He likes to play soccer, he is usually one of the best on his team. This year he is trying wrestling for the first time. He is in the 3rd grade.
He will be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on September 5. We are looking forward to this exciting event. How time flies!

He has started going to Cub Scouts now. He really enjoys it. Now I get to go to Pack Meetings and Pine Wood Derbies and all that fun again!

I love this boy!

Getting bigger

We think this picture is so funny. Matt's Dad is so much bigger than Declan. That is real size, Declan barely reached his knees!

Climbing rocks in Bailey

Playing Baseball, he was about 3 in these pictures

Days of Declan

Declan was pre-digital here so not so many baby pictures of him available for a blog!

He was so cute and little and adds so much to our family.

This was the giant snow storm in Denver. The snow was deeper than he was tall. This is probably the only time he ever saw snow, real snow.

Cannon at the beginning

He came out strong and just keeps going. How I adore that little boy.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the first days with Cannon. Declan was so cute.

He had a ton of dark hair that was quickly replaced with nice blonde hair.

Cannon's birthday

I took Cannon and two firends to Hopper's House, one of those places with inflatables. They had fun. They hopped and slid and climbed walls and played basketball. After that we went to a park across the street for cupcakes and running around. That was good enough for us!

Cannon turns five

Cannon turned five on August 18. He was very excited about all the fun gifts and cupcakes

We had a very little party with friends.

Waiting to open presents
He has a list of things that he can do and learn now that he is five. According to him, it feels much bigger.

Ants and the rest of the family

Cannon kept finding black ants all around the camp ground. He would put them on his arms and let them crawl around. He even named them. They were black ants, he named one Michael Jackson, another was his brother. He was a little upset when they disappeared. Look closely, you can see the ant on his arm. We only spent one night out there. We kayaked and hiked and roasted marshmallows and hot dogs. The boys swam in the lake and carved sticks into wands.

Wave slept better in her dad's arms than in the tent. It was not a very restful night. First of all it is really hot in North carolina in August and tents do not have air conditioning. Waverly did nto sleep well so I was dealing with her. There are a lot of noisy creatures in the woods. I actually really like the insect sounds. We had some crazy animal come crashing throught the trees right next to our tents in the middle of the night. We are pretty sure it was a deer. It stopped by our tents and we could hear it breathing. That was slightly unsettling even feeling confident that it was a deer. Then a huge bird landed in a nearby tree and it made a very loud whooshing sound as it took off.

It was another fun adventure. I honestly would rather camp for several nights than just one. It is a lot of work for such a short time. I would rather put in all the work for a little more return. I did love that once we were all packed up (it took both cars to get all of us and all the equipment) we were just minutes from home.

Camping

The last fun we had was camping at Jordan Lake. The lake is about 10 minutes away from home so it was just perfect. We were about the only peopel there. Our site was next to the lake, it had a path from the camp area down to the lake shore. There was a nice little beach area that we had all to ourselves.

We brought the kayacks with us, obviously, what else would we do at the lake? This was the first time Cannon tried a boat all by himself. In true Cannon fashion, he got mad when he could not make the boat go the way he wanted right off. So he paddled around yelling for a while and then gave up. I finally convinced him to ride with me once.

Daddy's little helper

We spent Wednesday of our vacation week at home, resting. Actually, Matt worked on the kitchen floor and I did laundry.

She really was not much help, but she sure was cute!

FYI, laminate flooring is not quite as simple to install as all the brands advertise. And as too just taking out a plank to replace it if needed, yeah, whatever. You would have to undo the entire floor to reach the damaged board and then replace it. I am done replacing floors in this house!

Waverly learned a new trick of climbing up the stairs. She sneaks away and is always found half way up. She is so proud of herself!