The State of the Union Address is on but I'm not watching it. I can't stay up late enough to watch the whole thing anyway, and regardless, I'm sure I'll hear all the salient sound-bites tomorrow on the radio.
I was really TIRED today, but I am proud of myself that I made myself accomplish all the things I needed to do. This afternoon I was so sleepy, I even asked the boys if they would be good while I went upstairs to take a nap, but they had been counting on going to Target (had to get a prescription there) and were very sad not to go, so I sucked it up, loaded the kids in the car, and off we went. I'm glad we did too, because I know the boys had a good time (they always do at Target). We went into the garden section and there was an area with a bunch of small house-cactuses (cacti?). I told them not to touch because the spines were sharp, and it was very sweet how protective they were of Moses, especially Joseph. He watched Mosey the whole time and pulled him away whenever he got too close for Joseph's comfort. I told them the story of when Brigham (big Brigham) got the cactus thorn stuck through his big toe in Arizona. You should have seen the look on Joseph's face as I was telling that story! His eyes got SOOO big and he just stood there transfixed as I spoke. Afterwards I worried that maybe it was too scary a story for them so I assured him it was very rare and that I'm sure we will be totally fine next time we are in Arizona. Just don't kick a cactus!
Mosey picked up this "fortune ball" in the dollar area. It is this squishy ball filled with pearlescent fluid in which floats a dice with 6 phrases on it (one on each face). The phrases are: "Absolutely," "Without a Doubt," "Perhaps," "Time will Tell," "Dream on," and "Not!" I showed the boys that you are supposed to ask a question, shake it up, and then see what the dice reads. They got SO into this thing, I'm telling you! I ended up buying the darn thing (only a dollar) because they were so funny with it. They asked every question under the sun from, "Am I going to have baked potatoes tomorrow for breakfast?" (from Brigham), to "Is my name Joseph?" (from Joseph, and to which the answer was "Not!"). They maybe took it just a bit too seriously, though, because when Brigham asked, "Will I ever have a Spiderman motorcycle?" and the answer came up, "Dream on," he was genuinely upset! I had to reassure him that it was just a toy, that the ball didn't have a brain and couldn't see the future. I had him ask the question again, and this time the answer came up "Perhaps," so he felt much better.
Here is a FUNNY story from Joseph. One day a week ago or so, we were driving home from school and he asks me, "Mom, why are workers dumb?" I was really shocked by this question. In conversations with the boys, particularly at stores, etc., I refer to the employees as "workers." And recently there have been a lot of "workers" at their school since there is something of a remodel going on. I tried to learn more by asking where they heard such a thing. They didn't know, and I asked them if they heard it from one of their friends at school. No. So I tried getting into an explanation about how workers are NOT dumb, they are just regular people doing their job. Joseph interrupted me and said, "No mom, not *workers,* oer-kers!" I tried to understand what he was saying, but with the typical 4-year-old difficulty with pronouncing "r," it was tough. Finally I asked, "What kind of workers?" And Brigham said, "The green ones with the ears that stick out the sides of their heads." I was even more confused. Then Joseph said, "The oer-ker that has a donkey." Finally it clicked! Not "workers," but "ogres!!" I guess they had been watching Shrek and there is a line in one of the movies about ogres being dumb. I totally laughed out loud sitting there in the drivers seat. Phew! I was getting really worried I was going to have to already start combating bad things my boys hear from their classmates. I explained to them that ogres aren't real, but that in Shrek the people that don't like Ogres try to make other people not like them too, by saying they are dumb. Crisis averted!
Oh, the other news is that it is bulk trash time again! Yay, time for scavenging! I found a completely new-looking computer desk, a nice office chair that Ben will probably take to work since he doesn't have a good one in his office, a little tikes car-- you know, the red ones that the child climbs into and then scoots around pushing with his feet? Mosey loves those whenever we are at someone's house who has one. I got a new little tikes picnic table, which I will use to replace the one we currently have in the backyard and which is in not as good condition. I found a little-girls 2 wheeler bike that I intended to give to one of the student families in our ward with a kid the right size, but which Joseph and Brigham really seem to like... I got a little wooden rocking horse (good prop for photos), a large metal tub (another fabulous photo prop-- you've all seen those pictures of babies sitting in the metal tub, right?), a real doctor's stethoscope which the boys have really loved, listening to each other's hearts and the like. Let's see, what else. Oh, a nice real wood high chair-- not the kind with a chair, but the kind you scoot up to the table. Moses likes it! And another interesting wooden chair with a black leather seat that I am currently using as a chair for the art table. Eventually I want to make a bench for that table, but until then, this chair is nicer than the folding chairs I was using. And the last thing that I think is REALLY cool, are these 2 inserts from an old screen door. You know how some screen doors will have a metal grate or some other kind of design on the lower half of the door? Well, someone was throwing out this screen door and the bottom part had these really interesting inserts with tree designs. I managed to slide them out so I didn't have to take the whole screen door. They will look really awesome as wall art. I will be sure to take a picture when I get them up. So are you all completely embarassed to be associated with a scrounge such as myself? If it makes you feel any better, my 3 friends Rena, Janette, and Melissa are all just as into scavenging as I am...
All right, that is it. I'm going upstairs to get ready for bed. Hope everyone's Wednesdays are great.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Sunday, January 29, 2006
I really should be cleaning the kitchen right now, but I think I'll write a quick note instead.
It has been SUCH a busy weekend. Saturday I spent literally all day from 8:30 AM until 9:30 PM at the church, minus about 2 hours in the late afternoon. Saturday morning was the Young Women camp certification. I'm not a camp leader but sort of got roped into helping since I have some dutch oven experience. It actually turned out to be a VERY good thing that I was there because of the 3 women in charge, one had to leave halfway through for a class, and the other was only there for about 2 hours due to really bad morning sickness. So it was me and the other girl for the rest of the time. It was definitely an adventure. First of all, when we got there no one had the key to the camp shed so we had to wait almost an HOUR before the bishop got there with the key. We had the girls start to cut up vegetables and stuff so it was ok but we were really nervous about the time since dutch oven food takes a while to cook. Then we had been told there were 13 dutch ovens in the shed, and we planned on using all of them (80 girls plus leaders, for a stew, corn bread, and cobbler lunch). Turns out there were only 6. Aaack!! I had brought mine, thank goodness, and one of the other girls ran out to Walmart and bought another so we ended up with 8 total. We decided to just do the stew and cobbler in the dutch ovens and luckily there were two really big foil baking pans in the church kitchen so we used those for the corn bread. And THEN, we had been told there were some chimney lighters to get our charcoal lit. Nope, there were none. So we laid out a bunch of foil, poured out piles of charcoal, tucked in bits of twisted up newspaper, doused it all in lighter fluid (requiring yet another trip to walmart for more lighter fluid), and finally, FINALLY got enough lit to start the stew cooking. And then it started raining. So we dashed out there again and managed to drag over some big rocks and draped foil over all of it (thank goodness we had lots of foil), anchored by the rocks, and it all seemed to be ok. Amazingly, through the grace of God, really, it all ended up cooked and ready at the same time, at the RIGHT time! And there was just enough food. It all got mostly eaten up, just a tiny bit of stew left, really. But I think everyone ended up with enough food since we did have enough for those who wanted seconds on cornbread and cobbler to have seconds. I was really worried about the cornbread. You know those giant foil baking dishes that you use to cook turkeys in and stuff? I used those for the cornbread and it was filled way up high. After baking for 45 minutes, I checked on them and they were golden brown on top and looked perfect until I tried to pull the oven rack out to take them out. Then I saw that the whole thing was still LIQUID inside! Oh no! So I turned down the oven a bit so the top and sides wouldn't burn, and let it bake for probably another 30 minutes, and it turned out just perfect. Perfectly done and not a bit burned. And the girls LOVED it. We did a recipe with 2 or 3 jiffy cornbread boxes to 1 box of yellow cake mix and it was really good.
Anyway, the other adventure at camp certification was the lost 2 year old. One of the stake leaders had brought along her 2 year old. She had been following her mom around all morning. At around 11:30 or so Nikki (the mom) came in the kitchen and asked if we had seen Maya (the little girl). Nope, we hadn't. About 15 minutes later, she came back, this time a little panicked, saying she still couldn't find her daughter and was asking all the girls to search the church and the parking lot, etc. You can imagine the scene that followed, with dozens of girls and leaders going from room to room, searching cars in the parking lot, checking the canal on the other side of the road. It was really scary. The first time Nikki had come by asking about Maya, one of the other leaders asked if she had checked the nursery and Nikki said she had, and she wasn't there. And then when the big search party started, I followed some girls into the nursery, they looked around, and she wasn't there, still. I was about to leave when something just told me to look again. This time I got down on my hands and knees and looked all the way under the train table they have in there. From a standing position, you can see most of the way under the train table, and it was clear. But when I got down on my knees, I saw 2 little feet. I stood up and ran around, and there she was. She had fallen asleep in just exactly a position where she couldn't easily be seen unless down on your hands and knees. I scooped her up and ran out calling to everyone that I found her. It took me a couple of minutes to find Nikki, but I finally found her out in the north parking lot. It was really something to see the look on her face when she saw Maya in my arms. Thank goodness it all ended up that way. I know Nikki felt just awful. Later I asked her if she really got to the point of panic. She said at first she was just sure that she would be found in the *next* room, but room after room, and she wasn't there. She said she knew how it must feel for a parent to lose a child without a trace. There one minute, gone the next, with no reason, no explanation. I know she felt like a bad mother, but the thing was, Maya really *was* in exactly the first place her mother thought, doing exactly the first thing her mother thought-- sleeping in the nursery. It is just that no one could find her in the nursery. Anyway, that was definitely a little more excitement than any of us were looking for.
After I got back home (cleanup took nearly 2 hours after certification was over), Ben, the boys, and the Curtises went to a park to shoot off a rocket the Curtises have. I decided to stay home and clean a little bit before dashing off to the church again for stake choir rehearsal and then the stake adult session. So I didn't get back until almost 10:00, completely exhausted.
This morning I was back at the church at 9:30 for more choir rehearsal and then for stake conference from 10:00-12:00. The conference itself was broadcast from Salt Lake. I guess all the southestern states had their stake conferences this weekend so we all watched the broadcast at the same time. Sister Tanner, Sister Hales, Elder Hales, Elder Faust, and another man and woman (can't remember the names) spoke. They were good talks, although I wasn't really able to tease out what the theme of the conference was, if there was any.
This afternoon the boys and I rode our bikes to the park, played a while, and then rode back. It is more than a half mile to the park, so a pretty long bike ride for the boys (Mosey was on my bike), but they did pretty well. A little complaining on the way back, and then a few minutes of frustration when one boy wouldn't stop and wait for us and the other boy wouldn't go and catch up with his brother. What do you do? I was yelling for Brigham to stop and wait, but he couldn't hear me (those big wheels are loud), and Joseph just stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and refused to go any further. I yelled at him for a minute and then just said, "Ok, fine, I'm going to catch up with Brigham. See you later!" And after I got going for a few seconds, I heard him madly pedalling behind me to catch up. And we all ended up at home in one piece, thank goodness!
One funny thing from Brigham and then I have to close. Ben was wrestling with him and trying to hold him in the rocking chair and said to Brigham, "You are MY boy!" Brigham says back to him, "No I'm not, I belong to MOM!" Hee hee, that made me smile.
Ok, I hope you all have a great Monday. Love ya!
It has been SUCH a busy weekend. Saturday I spent literally all day from 8:30 AM until 9:30 PM at the church, minus about 2 hours in the late afternoon. Saturday morning was the Young Women camp certification. I'm not a camp leader but sort of got roped into helping since I have some dutch oven experience. It actually turned out to be a VERY good thing that I was there because of the 3 women in charge, one had to leave halfway through for a class, and the other was only there for about 2 hours due to really bad morning sickness. So it was me and the other girl for the rest of the time. It was definitely an adventure. First of all, when we got there no one had the key to the camp shed so we had to wait almost an HOUR before the bishop got there with the key. We had the girls start to cut up vegetables and stuff so it was ok but we were really nervous about the time since dutch oven food takes a while to cook. Then we had been told there were 13 dutch ovens in the shed, and we planned on using all of them (80 girls plus leaders, for a stew, corn bread, and cobbler lunch). Turns out there were only 6. Aaack!! I had brought mine, thank goodness, and one of the other girls ran out to Walmart and bought another so we ended up with 8 total. We decided to just do the stew and cobbler in the dutch ovens and luckily there were two really big foil baking pans in the church kitchen so we used those for the corn bread. And THEN, we had been told there were some chimney lighters to get our charcoal lit. Nope, there were none. So we laid out a bunch of foil, poured out piles of charcoal, tucked in bits of twisted up newspaper, doused it all in lighter fluid (requiring yet another trip to walmart for more lighter fluid), and finally, FINALLY got enough lit to start the stew cooking. And then it started raining. So we dashed out there again and managed to drag over some big rocks and draped foil over all of it (thank goodness we had lots of foil), anchored by the rocks, and it all seemed to be ok. Amazingly, through the grace of God, really, it all ended up cooked and ready at the same time, at the RIGHT time! And there was just enough food. It all got mostly eaten up, just a tiny bit of stew left, really. But I think everyone ended up with enough food since we did have enough for those who wanted seconds on cornbread and cobbler to have seconds. I was really worried about the cornbread. You know those giant foil baking dishes that you use to cook turkeys in and stuff? I used those for the cornbread and it was filled way up high. After baking for 45 minutes, I checked on them and they were golden brown on top and looked perfect until I tried to pull the oven rack out to take them out. Then I saw that the whole thing was still LIQUID inside! Oh no! So I turned down the oven a bit so the top and sides wouldn't burn, and let it bake for probably another 30 minutes, and it turned out just perfect. Perfectly done and not a bit burned. And the girls LOVED it. We did a recipe with 2 or 3 jiffy cornbread boxes to 1 box of yellow cake mix and it was really good.
Anyway, the other adventure at camp certification was the lost 2 year old. One of the stake leaders had brought along her 2 year old. She had been following her mom around all morning. At around 11:30 or so Nikki (the mom) came in the kitchen and asked if we had seen Maya (the little girl). Nope, we hadn't. About 15 minutes later, she came back, this time a little panicked, saying she still couldn't find her daughter and was asking all the girls to search the church and the parking lot, etc. You can imagine the scene that followed, with dozens of girls and leaders going from room to room, searching cars in the parking lot, checking the canal on the other side of the road. It was really scary. The first time Nikki had come by asking about Maya, one of the other leaders asked if she had checked the nursery and Nikki said she had, and she wasn't there. And then when the big search party started, I followed some girls into the nursery, they looked around, and she wasn't there, still. I was about to leave when something just told me to look again. This time I got down on my hands and knees and looked all the way under the train table they have in there. From a standing position, you can see most of the way under the train table, and it was clear. But when I got down on my knees, I saw 2 little feet. I stood up and ran around, and there she was. She had fallen asleep in just exactly a position where she couldn't easily be seen unless down on your hands and knees. I scooped her up and ran out calling to everyone that I found her. It took me a couple of minutes to find Nikki, but I finally found her out in the north parking lot. It was really something to see the look on her face when she saw Maya in my arms. Thank goodness it all ended up that way. I know Nikki felt just awful. Later I asked her if she really got to the point of panic. She said at first she was just sure that she would be found in the *next* room, but room after room, and she wasn't there. She said she knew how it must feel for a parent to lose a child without a trace. There one minute, gone the next, with no reason, no explanation. I know she felt like a bad mother, but the thing was, Maya really *was* in exactly the first place her mother thought, doing exactly the first thing her mother thought-- sleeping in the nursery. It is just that no one could find her in the nursery. Anyway, that was definitely a little more excitement than any of us were looking for.
After I got back home (cleanup took nearly 2 hours after certification was over), Ben, the boys, and the Curtises went to a park to shoot off a rocket the Curtises have. I decided to stay home and clean a little bit before dashing off to the church again for stake choir rehearsal and then the stake adult session. So I didn't get back until almost 10:00, completely exhausted.
This morning I was back at the church at 9:30 for more choir rehearsal and then for stake conference from 10:00-12:00. The conference itself was broadcast from Salt Lake. I guess all the southestern states had their stake conferences this weekend so we all watched the broadcast at the same time. Sister Tanner, Sister Hales, Elder Hales, Elder Faust, and another man and woman (can't remember the names) spoke. They were good talks, although I wasn't really able to tease out what the theme of the conference was, if there was any.
This afternoon the boys and I rode our bikes to the park, played a while, and then rode back. It is more than a half mile to the park, so a pretty long bike ride for the boys (Mosey was on my bike), but they did pretty well. A little complaining on the way back, and then a few minutes of frustration when one boy wouldn't stop and wait for us and the other boy wouldn't go and catch up with his brother. What do you do? I was yelling for Brigham to stop and wait, but he couldn't hear me (those big wheels are loud), and Joseph just stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and refused to go any further. I yelled at him for a minute and then just said, "Ok, fine, I'm going to catch up with Brigham. See you later!" And after I got going for a few seconds, I heard him madly pedalling behind me to catch up. And we all ended up at home in one piece, thank goodness!
One funny thing from Brigham and then I have to close. Ben was wrestling with him and trying to hold him in the rocking chair and said to Brigham, "You are MY boy!" Brigham says back to him, "No I'm not, I belong to MOM!" Hee hee, that made me smile.
Ok, I hope you all have a great Monday. Love ya!
Friday, January 27, 2006
Here are a few of the photos I did for Logan last week. It was fun to do pictures of an older child who could/would actually sit as I told her to, look where I told her to, and was patient while I adjusted my tripod, etc.
This is the 13-year-old I give violin lessons to in exchange for babysitting. She had a really horrible experience at the public middle school last year and so her mom pulled her out and is homeschooling her. She is such a nice, sweet girl, but doesn't have a very good image of herself, thanks to some rotten comments by some of the rotten classmates she had at school. But she is so pretty! I'm going to show her these pics tomorrow at her lesson and maybe it will help her to see herself as everyone else sees her.
Aaaahh, I'm going to be so tired tomorrow... It is 2:00 AM and I just got back a little while ago from scrapbook night. It was fun, of course, but boy will I pay for it tomorrow. It is outing day tomorrow so I'm going to have to think of something really low-key.
Today after preschool I took the boys to the Weston park that we like. By coincidence I ended up sitting on a bench next to another woman with her two kids who turned out to be Mormon too! She was on her cell phone and was talking to a friend about her mom and grandma in Idaho, so I thought maybe she was LDS, and then I saw garment lines and so I was pretty sure. I made sure to call out to Brigham by name a couple of times when she was within earshot, and sure enough she approached me and asked what church I went to. This may not seem so weird to some of you but there are not that many LDS people out here so it was kind of a strange coincidence that she was at that same park as us.
I like that park and the boys played well and even let me read a few pages of my book. At one point Joseph and Brigham tried to climb over the 4 foot high chainlink fence that surrounded the sand area, and they could actually do it, too! They did get various clothing articles (shorts, shoe laces) caught on the top of the fence but once I freed them, they could scramble over pretty well.
Joseph stayed busy digging a big hole in the sand, looking for "treasure." He was very excited when he found a dime *and* a bolt in the sand. He really loves looking for "treasure," which can be anything from a scrap of paper to an old beer bottle top. I guess I should make a little treasure box for him where he can keep these treasures. It would be pretty funny years down the road to look at all the things he found. Yesterday when Cassidy was over for the afternoon, he spent about 15 minutes drawing chalk "x's" on the sidewalk all the way around the block, making a pirate's treasure map. He's told me a couple of times that maybe he will be a pirate when he grows up so he can find treasure.
Brigham made me laugh out loud today at the park. He got some sand in his eyes and wanted me to get it out. I told him I couldn't really get the sand out of his eyes, but not to worry because his tears would wash it out (it was just a tiny amount). After a second he goes, "Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh" (imagine your best fake crying sound) and then says, "Mom, I can't make my crying work so I don't have tears!" It was just so funny that he thought he could just immediately start crying and make tears come on demand! I told him that if he just blinked his eyes a lot his eyes would water and flush out the sand.
Mosey just never fails to amaze me. He really thinks he can do anything his brothers can. At the park there is this ladder-type-thing leading up to the play structure. It is a ladder which then curves horizontally to meet the play structure platform. This is a tricky piece of equipment to master, and it was not too long ago that the big boys finally got it. Well, I was sitting on my bench reading my book and I notice Mosey walking across the platform to the slide, and then sliding down, walking back around behind the play structure and then appearing again on the platform. He did this a few times before it occurred to me that the only way to get up to the platform from back there was on that ladder thing. So I went over there to watch, and sure enough, he was climbing up all by himself! It took him a minute or so to stay balanced and move from one rung to the next, but he did it! His talking is getting better by the day, too. He can now say multi-word sentences such as "I don't want to, mom," and "Open this orange, mom." He often will add "mom" on to the end of his sentences when he is talking to me, and it is so funny how he says it. His inflection on the word "mom," sounds almost accusatory, like, "Mo-om," with his voice dipping down first and then coming back up. He also has been taking showers with me recently, and letting me wash his hair and everything. Even the big boys won't take showers!
Our afternoon project was making orange juice. The boys really wanted to squeeze some orange sections into a cup at the park to make juice, but I convinced them to wait until we got home and we could make real orange juice with my citrus juicer. Joseph wanted to make the juice, put it on the table, and then hide till Ben got home. His idea was that Ben would come in the house, see the juice on the table, wonder who possibly could have left it there, and then when he drank it, we would all pop out and surprise him and tell him we made the juice! It was a good plan and would have worked except that Ben got home before we were done making the juice... And naturally, during the making and drinking of the juice, 3 not-quite-empty cups of juice did end up on the table, kitchen chairs, and floor... Ah well, I needed to mop the floor again anyway, right?
Ok, that's it for tonight. I'm off to grab 3.5 hours of sleep before I have to get up again.
Today after preschool I took the boys to the Weston park that we like. By coincidence I ended up sitting on a bench next to another woman with her two kids who turned out to be Mormon too! She was on her cell phone and was talking to a friend about her mom and grandma in Idaho, so I thought maybe she was LDS, and then I saw garment lines and so I was pretty sure. I made sure to call out to Brigham by name a couple of times when she was within earshot, and sure enough she approached me and asked what church I went to. This may not seem so weird to some of you but there are not that many LDS people out here so it was kind of a strange coincidence that she was at that same park as us.
I like that park and the boys played well and even let me read a few pages of my book. At one point Joseph and Brigham tried to climb over the 4 foot high chainlink fence that surrounded the sand area, and they could actually do it, too! They did get various clothing articles (shorts, shoe laces) caught on the top of the fence but once I freed them, they could scramble over pretty well.
Joseph stayed busy digging a big hole in the sand, looking for "treasure." He was very excited when he found a dime *and* a bolt in the sand. He really loves looking for "treasure," which can be anything from a scrap of paper to an old beer bottle top. I guess I should make a little treasure box for him where he can keep these treasures. It would be pretty funny years down the road to look at all the things he found. Yesterday when Cassidy was over for the afternoon, he spent about 15 minutes drawing chalk "x's" on the sidewalk all the way around the block, making a pirate's treasure map. He's told me a couple of times that maybe he will be a pirate when he grows up so he can find treasure.
Brigham made me laugh out loud today at the park. He got some sand in his eyes and wanted me to get it out. I told him I couldn't really get the sand out of his eyes, but not to worry because his tears would wash it out (it was just a tiny amount). After a second he goes, "Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh" (imagine your best fake crying sound) and then says, "Mom, I can't make my crying work so I don't have tears!" It was just so funny that he thought he could just immediately start crying and make tears come on demand! I told him that if he just blinked his eyes a lot his eyes would water and flush out the sand.
Mosey just never fails to amaze me. He really thinks he can do anything his brothers can. At the park there is this ladder-type-thing leading up to the play structure. It is a ladder which then curves horizontally to meet the play structure platform. This is a tricky piece of equipment to master, and it was not too long ago that the big boys finally got it. Well, I was sitting on my bench reading my book and I notice Mosey walking across the platform to the slide, and then sliding down, walking back around behind the play structure and then appearing again on the platform. He did this a few times before it occurred to me that the only way to get up to the platform from back there was on that ladder thing. So I went over there to watch, and sure enough, he was climbing up all by himself! It took him a minute or so to stay balanced and move from one rung to the next, but he did it! His talking is getting better by the day, too. He can now say multi-word sentences such as "I don't want to, mom," and "Open this orange, mom." He often will add "mom" on to the end of his sentences when he is talking to me, and it is so funny how he says it. His inflection on the word "mom," sounds almost accusatory, like, "Mo-om," with his voice dipping down first and then coming back up. He also has been taking showers with me recently, and letting me wash his hair and everything. Even the big boys won't take showers!
Our afternoon project was making orange juice. The boys really wanted to squeeze some orange sections into a cup at the park to make juice, but I convinced them to wait until we got home and we could make real orange juice with my citrus juicer. Joseph wanted to make the juice, put it on the table, and then hide till Ben got home. His idea was that Ben would come in the house, see the juice on the table, wonder who possibly could have left it there, and then when he drank it, we would all pop out and surprise him and tell him we made the juice! It was a good plan and would have worked except that Ben got home before we were done making the juice... And naturally, during the making and drinking of the juice, 3 not-quite-empty cups of juice did end up on the table, kitchen chairs, and floor... Ah well, I needed to mop the floor again anyway, right?
Ok, that's it for tonight. I'm off to grab 3.5 hours of sleep before I have to get up again.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Hey everyone,
I am so, so tired tonight, but I'm trying to stay awake until 9:00 so I can watch "24." I would video tape it but our VCR recording function doesn't work when connected to our digital cable box.
It seems like Mondays are always hard days for me. Maybe it is just the prospect of another whole week looming ahead of me. Maybe it is because I always seem to be up too late on Sunday nights so I'm sleep deprived on Mondays. I need to get the house in relatively good order before Monday mornings when my cleaning club comes because I really like the house to be all clean by the time they leave! And they're only here for an hour and everything can't be done in just an hour, so I try to have the rest done before Monday morning. Confusing, huh? I know cleaning on Sunday night is horrible, but if I do it on Saturday it will get all undone on Sunday and I'll have to do it again anyway...
I wouldn't have been up so late last night (nearly 2 AM) except for the fact that I got roped into Stake choir. Stake conference is next week and Sister Hathaway practically begged me to come because the sopranos I guess are in need of a strong voice. So I reluctantly agreed, even though practice was at 6:30, an awful time for me. I like to be getting the boys to bed at 7:00, and I didn't want to leave it all to Ben by himself. So I took the boys with me thinking the practice would only be 45 minutes or so. It lasted 2 1/2 hours!!!! Ridiculous. So the boys were way overtired and wound up after that (they had been playing with a few other kids waiting for their parents and eating chocolate chips I brought to keep them occupied) and refused to fall asleep in the car on the way home so I had to do the whole bedtime routine when I got home and they weren't in bed until after 10 PM. This was especially bad for Joseph since he had been up till almost 1 AM the night (morning) before.
Anyway, needless to say I was tired and short-tempered and Joseph was grumpy and tired pretty much all day.
The big news of the day is that Mosey got his first official time-out... He hit Joseph in the head with a magnadoodle, hard enough to make Joseph cry *real* tears, and it was on purpose. He was sort of wrestling with Joseph and Joseph was sitting on a cushion that Mosey wanted to sit on and that is when the incident occurred. So off to the couch in the family room for a time out where I sternly told Mosey, "No hitting. Hitting hurts. Hitting is not nice. No hitting." He cried for a little while, but sat in his spot until I told him he could get up. I guess the terrible twos have officially begun...
Brigham was pretty funny today. We were walking to the park and he saw a flock of birds flying overhead. He pointed to them and said, "Hey mom, look at that! Why is there a team of birds flying in the sky?" I thought it was so cute that he called it a "team" of birds. I explained that birds like to fly together and when there are a bunch together like that they are called a flock.
On the same park trip Joseph got interested in the owls. In the greenway behind our house, where we were walking, there are several owl holes where pairs of ground owls live. While Brigham and Mosey were playing at the park, Joseph was examining the owl holes. He came back and told me that the mommy owl and brown eyes, the daddy owl had yellow eyes and the baby owl had orange eyes. I'm not sure he actually saw a baby owl, but anyway he was pretty excited about the owls. He asked me all about owls and other birds and migration and if birds could fly from Florida to Australia. He's my little veterinarian in the making!
Ok, "24" is on and I'm going to go upstairs and lay in bed and watch it. Have a good Tuesday everyone!
I am so, so tired tonight, but I'm trying to stay awake until 9:00 so I can watch "24." I would video tape it but our VCR recording function doesn't work when connected to our digital cable box.
It seems like Mondays are always hard days for me. Maybe it is just the prospect of another whole week looming ahead of me. Maybe it is because I always seem to be up too late on Sunday nights so I'm sleep deprived on Mondays. I need to get the house in relatively good order before Monday mornings when my cleaning club comes because I really like the house to be all clean by the time they leave! And they're only here for an hour and everything can't be done in just an hour, so I try to have the rest done before Monday morning. Confusing, huh? I know cleaning on Sunday night is horrible, but if I do it on Saturday it will get all undone on Sunday and I'll have to do it again anyway...
I wouldn't have been up so late last night (nearly 2 AM) except for the fact that I got roped into Stake choir. Stake conference is next week and Sister Hathaway practically begged me to come because the sopranos I guess are in need of a strong voice. So I reluctantly agreed, even though practice was at 6:30, an awful time for me. I like to be getting the boys to bed at 7:00, and I didn't want to leave it all to Ben by himself. So I took the boys with me thinking the practice would only be 45 minutes or so. It lasted 2 1/2 hours!!!! Ridiculous. So the boys were way overtired and wound up after that (they had been playing with a few other kids waiting for their parents and eating chocolate chips I brought to keep them occupied) and refused to fall asleep in the car on the way home so I had to do the whole bedtime routine when I got home and they weren't in bed until after 10 PM. This was especially bad for Joseph since he had been up till almost 1 AM the night (morning) before.
Anyway, needless to say I was tired and short-tempered and Joseph was grumpy and tired pretty much all day.
The big news of the day is that Mosey got his first official time-out... He hit Joseph in the head with a magnadoodle, hard enough to make Joseph cry *real* tears, and it was on purpose. He was sort of wrestling with Joseph and Joseph was sitting on a cushion that Mosey wanted to sit on and that is when the incident occurred. So off to the couch in the family room for a time out where I sternly told Mosey, "No hitting. Hitting hurts. Hitting is not nice. No hitting." He cried for a little while, but sat in his spot until I told him he could get up. I guess the terrible twos have officially begun...
Brigham was pretty funny today. We were walking to the park and he saw a flock of birds flying overhead. He pointed to them and said, "Hey mom, look at that! Why is there a team of birds flying in the sky?" I thought it was so cute that he called it a "team" of birds. I explained that birds like to fly together and when there are a bunch together like that they are called a flock.
On the same park trip Joseph got interested in the owls. In the greenway behind our house, where we were walking, there are several owl holes where pairs of ground owls live. While Brigham and Mosey were playing at the park, Joseph was examining the owl holes. He came back and told me that the mommy owl and brown eyes, the daddy owl had yellow eyes and the baby owl had orange eyes. I'm not sure he actually saw a baby owl, but anyway he was pretty excited about the owls. He asked me all about owls and other birds and migration and if birds could fly from Florida to Australia. He's my little veterinarian in the making!
Ok, "24" is on and I'm going to go upstairs and lay in bed and watch it. Have a good Tuesday everyone!
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Another reason to love Florida (besides 75 degree weather in January), is that strawberries are now in season! I just got 2 lbs for $4, and they are sooooo good. I just had a bunch for a late-night snack. I'm afraid this letter might be a little disjointed because I'm trying to write it while also carrying on a conversation with Joseph. He took a nap this afternoon and consequently is up till all-hours tonight... I just got back from a movie, "Memoirs of a Geisha." I conned Ben into letting me go tonight while he stayed home with the boys. I didn't think he would really like the movie (and I think I am right on this judgment), but I really wanted to see this one on the big screen. I really liked it, and in fact there were some aspects of it I liked better than the book. Although the book is really long and so there was no way the movie could encompass the whole book. I would have loved to have seen a 20-hour movie (although maybe in segments) of the whole book because the movie was really beautifully done. I did think it was weird, however, that the actress who played the main character is CHINESE. What, there were NO Japanese actresses that could play the part? She was wonderful in the role, but to me it was a little distracting that she was chinese. In my eyes at least, I can generally distinguish between Japanese and Chinese phyical traits.
Brigham is getting so, so good at his puzzles! I'm going to have to get him some more, because he is really into puzzles right now. He has done his 100-piece Spiderman puzzle by himself about 5 times now. He just sits on the tile floor and spends an hour or so putting it together (the first couple of times it took him a few hours, but he is getting pretty fast now), and after he is done he disassembles it and starts over again!
Yesterday was our outing day. I took the boys to Parrot Jungle Island. Our annual pass is up in about 6 weeks so we need to go a couple more times! It was really fun, and in fact I had to practically drag the boys away when it was almost closing time. At one point Joseph and Brigham foud these millipede looking things. Not millipedes, but sort of like them, about 1 inch long with a whole bunch of teeny tiny pink legs. The boys were entranced by them! They carried them around (they each found 2), examined them, talked to them (Brigham introduced himself by name), showed them to other kids, and begged me to let them take them home. I told them they needed to leave them at Parrot Jungle since we didn't have any container to take them home. They tried to convince me that their pockets would serve as suitable containers, but I wasn't swayed. One of Brigham's ended up suffering an unfortunate end, however. He was holding it with both hands and was a little too rough and ended up pulling it in half. :-( I quickly told Brigham to put it in the grass so it could find a place to heal. Brigham can be quite sensitive (breaking down in tears when a spider gets squished), and I wasn't quite willing to inform him that he killed his beloved worm. I hope it was a quick and painless death for the little thing. Do you think those kinds of creatures feel pain? I hope not.
After Parrot Jungle Island we met Ben down on Key Biscayne. Shorter drive for him from work to Key Biscayne than back home, since it was against traffic. We walked on the beach for a while, found a beached jelly fish (Ben wanted to squish it but I convinced him to nudge it back to the water which he kindly did), and let the boys play at a little playground until we got kicked out because the beach was closing. The whole day Mosey was such a little trooper. He barely rode in the stroller at all and must have walked a couple of miles at least. When we were walking back across the sand on the way to the playground, he was toddling along beside Ben. It was just so cute to see my two men, one big and one little, side by side, trailed by one big set of footprints and one little set. I tried to take a picture of it, but it was getting pretty dark so I doubt it turned out. I took a ton of pictures that day, practicing a few things I'm learning, but haven't uploaded them yet so you'll have to wait for pictures.
Ok, I better wrap up here. Joseph is still up, talking to Angel. He really loves our animals. He's definitely the kindest and most attentive to them of probably any of us! He talks to them as if they can understand every word. Just now he came up to me with a big smile on his face and told me he made Angel think he is a giant mouse. I asked him how and he said, "I put a bell on my bum and crawled around like a giant mouse." He wants to be in charge of getting food for the cats and dog. He desperately wants either the dog or one of the cats to sleep on his bed at night. The other morning I woke up to hear him downstairs talking to Angel, and then he came upstairs with a lizard in a container. He told me that he and Angel caught it together. Angel had it in her paws and then let it go and he trapped it in the container. They are quite the pair!
I better get to bed now since I think I probably have child-duty in the morning since I had the night off. Ben and I try to alternate weekend mornings to sleep in since we now have afternoon church. Morning will come early!
Brigham is getting so, so good at his puzzles! I'm going to have to get him some more, because he is really into puzzles right now. He has done his 100-piece Spiderman puzzle by himself about 5 times now. He just sits on the tile floor and spends an hour or so putting it together (the first couple of times it took him a few hours, but he is getting pretty fast now), and after he is done he disassembles it and starts over again!
Yesterday was our outing day. I took the boys to Parrot Jungle Island. Our annual pass is up in about 6 weeks so we need to go a couple more times! It was really fun, and in fact I had to practically drag the boys away when it was almost closing time. At one point Joseph and Brigham foud these millipede looking things. Not millipedes, but sort of like them, about 1 inch long with a whole bunch of teeny tiny pink legs. The boys were entranced by them! They carried them around (they each found 2), examined them, talked to them (Brigham introduced himself by name), showed them to other kids, and begged me to let them take them home. I told them they needed to leave them at Parrot Jungle since we didn't have any container to take them home. They tried to convince me that their pockets would serve as suitable containers, but I wasn't swayed. One of Brigham's ended up suffering an unfortunate end, however. He was holding it with both hands and was a little too rough and ended up pulling it in half. :-( I quickly told Brigham to put it in the grass so it could find a place to heal. Brigham can be quite sensitive (breaking down in tears when a spider gets squished), and I wasn't quite willing to inform him that he killed his beloved worm. I hope it was a quick and painless death for the little thing. Do you think those kinds of creatures feel pain? I hope not.
After Parrot Jungle Island we met Ben down on Key Biscayne. Shorter drive for him from work to Key Biscayne than back home, since it was against traffic. We walked on the beach for a while, found a beached jelly fish (Ben wanted to squish it but I convinced him to nudge it back to the water which he kindly did), and let the boys play at a little playground until we got kicked out because the beach was closing. The whole day Mosey was such a little trooper. He barely rode in the stroller at all and must have walked a couple of miles at least. When we were walking back across the sand on the way to the playground, he was toddling along beside Ben. It was just so cute to see my two men, one big and one little, side by side, trailed by one big set of footprints and one little set. I tried to take a picture of it, but it was getting pretty dark so I doubt it turned out. I took a ton of pictures that day, practicing a few things I'm learning, but haven't uploaded them yet so you'll have to wait for pictures.
Ok, I better wrap up here. Joseph is still up, talking to Angel. He really loves our animals. He's definitely the kindest and most attentive to them of probably any of us! He talks to them as if they can understand every word. Just now he came up to me with a big smile on his face and told me he made Angel think he is a giant mouse. I asked him how and he said, "I put a bell on my bum and crawled around like a giant mouse." He wants to be in charge of getting food for the cats and dog. He desperately wants either the dog or one of the cats to sleep on his bed at night. The other morning I woke up to hear him downstairs talking to Angel, and then he came upstairs with a lizard in a container. He told me that he and Angel caught it together. Angel had it in her paws and then let it go and he trapped it in the container. They are quite the pair!
I better get to bed now since I think I probably have child-duty in the morning since I had the night off. Ben and I try to alternate weekend mornings to sleep in since we now have afternoon church. Morning will come early!
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Ben is currently in Texas again, for a meeting about the homeowners insurance venture his company is diving into. He left yesterday morning (early-- 5:30 and he didn't miss his flight!), and will be back tonight probably 9:00 or so. Not a long trip, thank goodness. Last night was whine-city for the boys. All three of them. But they all three woke up really happy today, so hopefully it is out of their system. It's hard on them when Ben is gone, though.
We've had a cool couple of days. Cool enough for long pants and long sleeved shirts, anyway. It is a nice change and I'm enjoying it. Not too cold that I can't send the kids outside, though! Monday and Tuesday there was no school for the boys (MLK day and teacher prep). I'm trying to think what we even did. On Monday we had some shopping to do, groceries, Target, Sam's Club. On Tuesday we had the Curtis girls over (plus Melissa this time) which was fun, but crazy.
After dinner on Tuesday we went to the Pines Mall because Ben needed to buy some new pants and there was a sale going on at JC Pennys. I took the boys aroundl the store while Ben was trying stuff on. We rode up and down the escalators twice, and the big boys got on and off by themselves! It is a tricky thing for little kids to learn, and a little scary. We went up to the children's department and the big boys admired the Spiderman and Batman pj's. We passed a display of stuffed animals and Joseph told me to stop, that he was going to scare me. He came out from behind the display with a stuffed tiger and let out an enourmous, "ROOOOAAAARRRRR!!!!" which must have startled half the store. Of course this got the other two boys interested and soon I had 3 boys roaring at me with various stuffed animals. Mosey wanted to join in the fun but he didn't really get the idea that you are supposed to choose a ferocious animal to go along with the ferocious sound effects. I got roared at from behind a pink stuffed doggy and a squishy green fishy.
On the way back downstairs we went through the women's intimate apparel department. I'm sure it won't be too long before my boys would rather go to the dentist than walk with mom through displays of bras and panties but for now they have no notion that this is something to be embarassed about. Instead they happily pointed out to me the items they liked the best. "Look at this beautiful bra, mom!" "Mom, this one has flowers!" On the way out Brigham asked me why girls like to wear beautiful undies. Hmm... I guess for the same reason little boys like to wear superhero undies! Superhero undies make little boys feel strong and powerful and beautiful undies make girls feel pretty and delicate. And so the gender-based socialization continues... Back downstairs we admired the jewelry ("jewels") and I gave each boy a squirt of cologne. They were pretty excited about that and when we met back up with Ben they each wanted him to see how nice they smelled. In fact, yesterday they asked me if they could wear some of dad's cologne to school! Oh, and they want their hair to be gelled and combed, too. There is a little boy in their class, Peter, who they tell me always has hair that is wet and combed really beautiful. So today they went off to school all slicked down (but no cologne).
Oh, I forgot one of the most important news items of the week! On Sunday after church I went to the nursery to get Mosey. Ben had already picked him up, but while I was there, Julie Trapnell, a dental wife, stopped me. She asked me if I liked to read and I answered that yes, I love to read. Then she said that she's in a little book club with some other girls in the ward and wanted to know if I'd like to go. Oh my gosh, I think I was just invited to be in the exclusive dental wives book club!!!!! I've told you about this book club before, right? The really really exclusive one?? Well, you could have blown me over with a feather right then and there. Not knowing what else to say I told her that it sounded like fun, and what book are they reading this month? Anne of Green Gables, apparently, which fits in perfectly with the dental wives book club. On the way home I joked with Ben that I guess I must be skinny enough now to qualify to be in the dental wives country club. I'm not entirely sure if I will go to the book club, all joking aside. I'm pretty busy and not necessarily looking to vastly expand my social circle, if you know what I mean. On the other hand, it would probably be a really good way to network my photography business. How grasping and selfish is *that* of me?
All right, that's enough for the day. I just got back from getting the boys from preschool and I gotta get some stuff done.
We've had a cool couple of days. Cool enough for long pants and long sleeved shirts, anyway. It is a nice change and I'm enjoying it. Not too cold that I can't send the kids outside, though! Monday and Tuesday there was no school for the boys (MLK day and teacher prep). I'm trying to think what we even did. On Monday we had some shopping to do, groceries, Target, Sam's Club. On Tuesday we had the Curtis girls over (plus Melissa this time) which was fun, but crazy.
After dinner on Tuesday we went to the Pines Mall because Ben needed to buy some new pants and there was a sale going on at JC Pennys. I took the boys aroundl the store while Ben was trying stuff on. We rode up and down the escalators twice, and the big boys got on and off by themselves! It is a tricky thing for little kids to learn, and a little scary. We went up to the children's department and the big boys admired the Spiderman and Batman pj's. We passed a display of stuffed animals and Joseph told me to stop, that he was going to scare me. He came out from behind the display with a stuffed tiger and let out an enourmous, "ROOOOAAAARRRRR!!!!" which must have startled half the store. Of course this got the other two boys interested and soon I had 3 boys roaring at me with various stuffed animals. Mosey wanted to join in the fun but he didn't really get the idea that you are supposed to choose a ferocious animal to go along with the ferocious sound effects. I got roared at from behind a pink stuffed doggy and a squishy green fishy.
On the way back downstairs we went through the women's intimate apparel department. I'm sure it won't be too long before my boys would rather go to the dentist than walk with mom through displays of bras and panties but for now they have no notion that this is something to be embarassed about. Instead they happily pointed out to me the items they liked the best. "Look at this beautiful bra, mom!" "Mom, this one has flowers!" On the way out Brigham asked me why girls like to wear beautiful undies. Hmm... I guess for the same reason little boys like to wear superhero undies! Superhero undies make little boys feel strong and powerful and beautiful undies make girls feel pretty and delicate. And so the gender-based socialization continues... Back downstairs we admired the jewelry ("jewels") and I gave each boy a squirt of cologne. They were pretty excited about that and when we met back up with Ben they each wanted him to see how nice they smelled. In fact, yesterday they asked me if they could wear some of dad's cologne to school! Oh, and they want their hair to be gelled and combed, too. There is a little boy in their class, Peter, who they tell me always has hair that is wet and combed really beautiful. So today they went off to school all slicked down (but no cologne).
Oh, I forgot one of the most important news items of the week! On Sunday after church I went to the nursery to get Mosey. Ben had already picked him up, but while I was there, Julie Trapnell, a dental wife, stopped me. She asked me if I liked to read and I answered that yes, I love to read. Then she said that she's in a little book club with some other girls in the ward and wanted to know if I'd like to go. Oh my gosh, I think I was just invited to be in the exclusive dental wives book club!!!!! I've told you about this book club before, right? The really really exclusive one?? Well, you could have blown me over with a feather right then and there. Not knowing what else to say I told her that it sounded like fun, and what book are they reading this month? Anne of Green Gables, apparently, which fits in perfectly with the dental wives book club. On the way home I joked with Ben that I guess I must be skinny enough now to qualify to be in the dental wives country club. I'm not entirely sure if I will go to the book club, all joking aside. I'm pretty busy and not necessarily looking to vastly expand my social circle, if you know what I mean. On the other hand, it would probably be a really good way to network my photography business. How grasping and selfish is *that* of me?
All right, that's enough for the day. I just got back from getting the boys from preschool and I gotta get some stuff done.
Monday, January 16, 2006
Hello Everyone,
Well, I had to break my swearing-off of TV last night and tonight, and possibly the next 20 Monday nights... I was tempted to not watch it at all and instead wait for the DVD's next year, but Ben really wanted to watch it, so I succumbed. And now there is no way I can NOT watch next week! Still, 1 hour of TV a week is not bad, is it? I really have sworn off all other TV, aside from maybe Fox News being on in the background while I get ready in the morning.
No school today for MLK day, which meant the WHOLE day with the boys and no break. They were pretty good, though. They played pretty well all morning and then we had to do a major grocery shopping trip to Sam's and then to Target. So we have food in the house again which is good.
Brigham has this Spiderman puzzle that he is pretty obsessed with. He is getting very good at putting it together on his own, but he still needs my help. It is a 100 piece puzzle I think? So not a small one. But the problem is that there are certain pieces of the puzzle that HE really wants to put in, and if anyone else puts it in, watch out!! We put it together twice this morning (and once last night) and the first time Joseph accidentally put in one of the treasured pieces. Brigham fell apart, tears and everything. After a while he calmed down and took apart the puzzle and began again. But he still wanted my help, so I went to help him. And then *I* accidentally put in one of "his" pieces and again, tears and hysteria. Poor guy. He doesn't have meltdowns too often, but when he does, they are doozies.
Brigham is also pretty interested in how strong he is. He periodically comes up to me to show me his muscles. He tries to flex his biceps muscles, but sort of ends up just curling his fists up by his shoulders and sticking out his elbows chicken-style. Still, I try to admire his muscles. Today he announced that his shoulder muscles are as big as Spiderman's! Wow! He is also pretty sure he is faster than me running. I think one time he asked me, "Am I really fast mom?" And I'm sure I answered, "Yes, you are SO fast!" And then he probably said, "Am I as fast as you mom?" And I probably said, "I don't know, maybe. You are pretty fast." Which for Brigham pretty much comprises an admission that he is faster than me. Ben has been trying to convince Brigham that I am probably faster than him, butI dont' think it's working. Brigham also said another funny one-liner today which was, "When I'm 12 years old I can beat you up, dad!" Huh. We'll have to see about that one I guess!
Mosey is getting more and more insistent on doing things himself. Ah, the joys of 2 year olds. Like Brigham, though, if I start to help him do something and he objects, it is not enough for me to just stop helping him. He needs to start the whole process over again. So if I'm helping him get into his carseat, I'll have to lift him completely out of the car for him to start the entire process over again. Tonight going to the gym playroom, Ben made the mistake of opening the little gate for him to go in. Squealing began and we had to completely close the gate before he could start over and do the whole thing himself. I know he needs to learn independence, but it sure can be frustrating!
Oh, one more funny thing. We were driving home from the gym tonight and from the backseat, Brigham calls out, "I can feel my beard coming in!" He was so excited! And then Joseph piped up, "I can feel my beard growing too!" I told them that this must be some kind of record-- 4 year olds with whiskers! Please Lord, I need my boys to at least by tying their own shoes and brushing their own teeth before getting whiskers! I can tell raising these three boys is going to be bringing me chuckles for many years to come.
Ok, that's it for tonight. Oh, one more thing. Ben and I are still working on my website, but I have a feeling it might be a while before it is up. So I put up a temporary (free) site with a few galleries of my pictures. I got another client on Saturday-- a mother with twin girls turning 16. She wants sweet 16 pictures taken, and I told her I'd send her a website with some of my pictures on it, so I put this together quickly this morning. If you want to see, it is http://heartscenesphotography.photosite.com
Have a terrific Tuesday everyone!
Well, I had to break my swearing-off of TV last night and tonight, and possibly the next 20 Monday nights... I was tempted to not watch it at all and instead wait for the DVD's next year, but Ben really wanted to watch it, so I succumbed. And now there is no way I can NOT watch next week! Still, 1 hour of TV a week is not bad, is it? I really have sworn off all other TV, aside from maybe Fox News being on in the background while I get ready in the morning.
No school today for MLK day, which meant the WHOLE day with the boys and no break. They were pretty good, though. They played pretty well all morning and then we had to do a major grocery shopping trip to Sam's and then to Target. So we have food in the house again which is good.
Brigham has this Spiderman puzzle that he is pretty obsessed with. He is getting very good at putting it together on his own, but he still needs my help. It is a 100 piece puzzle I think? So not a small one. But the problem is that there are certain pieces of the puzzle that HE really wants to put in, and if anyone else puts it in, watch out!! We put it together twice this morning (and once last night) and the first time Joseph accidentally put in one of the treasured pieces. Brigham fell apart, tears and everything. After a while he calmed down and took apart the puzzle and began again. But he still wanted my help, so I went to help him. And then *I* accidentally put in one of "his" pieces and again, tears and hysteria. Poor guy. He doesn't have meltdowns too often, but when he does, they are doozies.
Brigham is also pretty interested in how strong he is. He periodically comes up to me to show me his muscles. He tries to flex his biceps muscles, but sort of ends up just curling his fists up by his shoulders and sticking out his elbows chicken-style. Still, I try to admire his muscles. Today he announced that his shoulder muscles are as big as Spiderman's! Wow! He is also pretty sure he is faster than me running. I think one time he asked me, "Am I really fast mom?" And I'm sure I answered, "Yes, you are SO fast!" And then he probably said, "Am I as fast as you mom?" And I probably said, "I don't know, maybe. You are pretty fast." Which for Brigham pretty much comprises an admission that he is faster than me. Ben has been trying to convince Brigham that I am probably faster than him, butI dont' think it's working. Brigham also said another funny one-liner today which was, "When I'm 12 years old I can beat you up, dad!" Huh. We'll have to see about that one I guess!
Mosey is getting more and more insistent on doing things himself. Ah, the joys of 2 year olds. Like Brigham, though, if I start to help him do something and he objects, it is not enough for me to just stop helping him. He needs to start the whole process over again. So if I'm helping him get into his carseat, I'll have to lift him completely out of the car for him to start the entire process over again. Tonight going to the gym playroom, Ben made the mistake of opening the little gate for him to go in. Squealing began and we had to completely close the gate before he could start over and do the whole thing himself. I know he needs to learn independence, but it sure can be frustrating!
Oh, one more funny thing. We were driving home from the gym tonight and from the backseat, Brigham calls out, "I can feel my beard coming in!" He was so excited! And then Joseph piped up, "I can feel my beard growing too!" I told them that this must be some kind of record-- 4 year olds with whiskers! Please Lord, I need my boys to at least by tying their own shoes and brushing their own teeth before getting whiskers! I can tell raising these three boys is going to be bringing me chuckles for many years to come.
Ok, that's it for tonight. Oh, one more thing. Ben and I are still working on my website, but I have a feeling it might be a while before it is up. So I put up a temporary (free) site with a few galleries of my pictures. I got another client on Saturday-- a mother with twin girls turning 16. She wants sweet 16 pictures taken, and I told her I'd send her a website with some of my pictures on it, so I put this together quickly this morning. If you want to see, it is http://heartscenesphotography.photosite.com
Have a terrific Tuesday everyone!
Friday, January 13, 2006
Hey Y'all,
Today was a pretty decent day, considering the fact that I was really tired. I've been up too late every night this week. I WILL be better next week! 2 nights ago was horrible, at various times of the night all 3 boys were up, including Mosey at 3:30 AM coming upstairs with a container of yogurt, apparently hungry, forcing me to wake myself up and help him to eat it and then get him back to sleep. Yawn...
Anyway, today was outing day so we went to the zoo. I love the zoo, I always feel happy going there. Today was no disappointment. It was a beautiful day, upper 70's, blue skies, nice breeze, nearly empty zoo, happy kids. Got individual attention at all the little animal show thingies since not many people were there. I only took the single stroller and had the big boys walk, so they got tired at the end, but not too grumpy. At one point the big boys sat on each other's lap in the stroller and I perched Mosey on the handle bar as we walked the last little way to the exit.
The boys had a great time throwing their sandwich crusts to the white ibis and seagulls that strangely always seem to be hanging out near the eating areas. We went to the petting zoo and Mosey got to brush the hair on the pig. We went to this other animal discovery place and got to pet this hedgehog type thing from Madagascar. Mosey was pretty nervous about that and reached his hand out to pet it about 5 or 6 times before actually taking the plunge and stroking down its quills. He was less apprehensive about petting the tortoises, although one of them kept slooowly coming at me, his mouth snapping at me.
Did you know there are legless lizards? Yep. The difference is that they have eyelids and ear holes where snakes do not, and anatomically they have a tail segment which, like other lizards, can actually detach. Weird, huh? The Eastern Glass lizard is native to Florida and is about 12-18 inches long, shiny grey (almost silver), and when a predator grabs it by the tail, the tail falls off, wriggles around for a while, and then breaks into pieces! Hence the name glass lizard. Pretty cool. We saw one of those too and got to pet it as well.
We ended up staying at the zoo longer than I thought, and didn't leave until nearly 6:00 PM (late afternoon is the best time to see the animals anyway). So I knew the boys would fall asleep in the car if I drove home so instead we ate at Ruby Tuesday and then went home. And yes the big boys did fall asleep in the car, although Mosey resisted. So Ben got a night to himself which I hope he will reciprocate for me soon! The boys were very good at Ruby Tuesday, and for dessert we all shared the Chocolate Tall Cake. You should have seen them devouring that thing! It was so cute. All 3 of them were standing on their seats in our booth, leaning over the dessert glass and just shoveling it in as fast as possible. Reports are that it was the "best chocolate cake EVER."
I am about to give up on Mosey ever wearing shoes. I put shoes on him this morning, he took them off. I put them back on at the zoo, he quickly takes them off. I put them back on him 2 other times at the zoo, and he takes them off. Finally I just said forget it and let him run around without any shoes. I'm sure everyone who saw him was wondering what kind of mother would let her two year old walk around the zoo with no shoes, but honest, I tried! He just hates shoes. And these shoes actually fit him. They're not too tight, don't give him blisters. He just doesn't like shoes. Like his mama, really. Anyway, you should have seen his feet when we got back to the van. Totally black!
I wanted to go running, since there is a full moon out tonight and I will actually be able to see where I'm going reasonably well, and plus it is Friday the 13 and how often does that fall on a full moon? But my eyes are literally closing on me so I think I better go to sleep. Hope you all have good weekends!
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Hey Everyone,
Ugh. I'm dissatisfied with today. First of all (or I guess last of all) I'm up way too late. Wanted to be in bed 2 hours ago, *should* have been in bed 2 hours ago, but I wanted to get Mosey's 2 year pictures edited and uploaded and it took longer than I thought. I didn't have a very good mommy day. I seemed to have NO patience. Every little thing was driving me crazy even though the boys were not too bad. We had the missionaries over for dinner last night, and they all had late appointments, so they didn't get here till 7:30 which meant the boys didn't go to bed until nearly 10:00. So today there were a few more fights and hurt feelings than normal. But mostly it was me. Brigham is really deep into the "why" phase. Both of them have been doing the why's for the last year or so, but in the past couple of weeks it has really accelerated for Brigham. Whenever I say *anything,* his immediate response is "why?" Sometimes I can tell he's not even really expecting an answer. But other times (most other times), he does expect an answer and will not stop asking why until I give him one. It is driving me CRAZY!! He'll do things like say, "Hey mom, I got my car. Why did I get my car?" "Hey mom, I'm hungry for lunch. Why am I hungry?" "Hey mom, I want to go outside to play. Why do I want to go outside?" Ben's gotten to the point that when Brigham asks these types of questions he will just make up something like, "Because someone ran over a chicken in Russia," at which point Brigham will will look at him like he's crazy and say, "NOOO, I want to go outside because it's fun to jump on the trampoline!" Which of course begs the question of why he asked why in the first place! But for me, I am just tired. Every time I say ANYTHING, I know he will ask why. I tell the boys it is time to get in the car to go to school. "Why?" BECAUSE IT IS TIME TO GO TO SCHOOL!! Or, "Ok guys, come sit up for lunch." "Why?" Because lunch is ready! Ugh. It's not like it is so hard to answer him a question, but it is just continuous, non-stop, relentless... It has gotten to the point that I suspect the next time I hear "Hey mom..." my head will literally explode! But I'm sure this is a very important developmental stage he is going through and he's NOT doing it intentionally to drive me to distraction, so I must remain calm...
The other frustrating thing was that I tried to get the child carrier I got for Mosey's birthday installed on my bike, but my bike does not have the seat post bolt required for installation, so it won't work. Bah humbug. I tried to rig it so it sits on the front handlebars, but after about 2 hours of work, it doesn't work all that well. Anyway, I'm glad today is over and I hope tomorrow is better!
Yesterday was a pretty good day, though. Sang happy birthday to Mosey when he got up and tried to give him a special day. We went to Walmart after preschool to get him some presents and then had lunch at Burger King where he got a toy meal and played in the play area for quite a while. Got stuck twice in the ball pit and I had to crawl in and rescue him. In the afternoon I did his 2 year pictures and then a few of the big boys. Then it was to the gym, the grocery store, and home to get dinner ready. I made the soup mix I gave away at Christmas and it was really good! Frozen dinner rolls and then also chocolate birthday cake for dessert. I tried a new cake recipe-- chocolate cake mix, 1/2 cup pumpkin puree, 1 cup egg beaters, 1 cup fat free sour cream, 1 pkg sugar free pudding (didn't have chocolate so I used pistachio), and mixed in some semi-sweet chocolate chips. Frosting was the old sugar free pudding mixed with fat free cool whip. Everyone liked it and Mosey made a big mess with his which was what he was supposed to do! For his birthday I got him a Care Bear (actually a care bear cousin-- the yellow monkey) which he LOVES and has been carrying around ever since. Also got him a little book "The Poky Little Puppy"), a small helicopter toy, and then the bicycle carrier and helmet, which I may have to return. At the end of the night he fell off the slide in the family room, bumped his head, was VERY sad, and then quickly fell asleep in my arms. Phew! I can't believe he is actually two...
So, that was the last couple of days. I am hoping tomorrow is better!
Ugh. I'm dissatisfied with today. First of all (or I guess last of all) I'm up way too late. Wanted to be in bed 2 hours ago, *should* have been in bed 2 hours ago, but I wanted to get Mosey's 2 year pictures edited and uploaded and it took longer than I thought. I didn't have a very good mommy day. I seemed to have NO patience. Every little thing was driving me crazy even though the boys were not too bad. We had the missionaries over for dinner last night, and they all had late appointments, so they didn't get here till 7:30 which meant the boys didn't go to bed until nearly 10:00. So today there were a few more fights and hurt feelings than normal. But mostly it was me. Brigham is really deep into the "why" phase. Both of them have been doing the why's for the last year or so, but in the past couple of weeks it has really accelerated for Brigham. Whenever I say *anything,* his immediate response is "why?" Sometimes I can tell he's not even really expecting an answer. But other times (most other times), he does expect an answer and will not stop asking why until I give him one. It is driving me CRAZY!! He'll do things like say, "Hey mom, I got my car. Why did I get my car?" "Hey mom, I'm hungry for lunch. Why am I hungry?" "Hey mom, I want to go outside to play. Why do I want to go outside?" Ben's gotten to the point that when Brigham asks these types of questions he will just make up something like, "Because someone ran over a chicken in Russia," at which point Brigham will will look at him like he's crazy and say, "NOOO, I want to go outside because it's fun to jump on the trampoline!" Which of course begs the question of why he asked why in the first place! But for me, I am just tired. Every time I say ANYTHING, I know he will ask why. I tell the boys it is time to get in the car to go to school. "Why?" BECAUSE IT IS TIME TO GO TO SCHOOL!! Or, "Ok guys, come sit up for lunch." "Why?" Because lunch is ready! Ugh. It's not like it is so hard to answer him a question, but it is just continuous, non-stop, relentless... It has gotten to the point that I suspect the next time I hear "Hey mom..." my head will literally explode! But I'm sure this is a very important developmental stage he is going through and he's NOT doing it intentionally to drive me to distraction, so I must remain calm...
The other frustrating thing was that I tried to get the child carrier I got for Mosey's birthday installed on my bike, but my bike does not have the seat post bolt required for installation, so it won't work. Bah humbug. I tried to rig it so it sits on the front handlebars, but after about 2 hours of work, it doesn't work all that well. Anyway, I'm glad today is over and I hope tomorrow is better!
Yesterday was a pretty good day, though. Sang happy birthday to Mosey when he got up and tried to give him a special day. We went to Walmart after preschool to get him some presents and then had lunch at Burger King where he got a toy meal and played in the play area for quite a while. Got stuck twice in the ball pit and I had to crawl in and rescue him. In the afternoon I did his 2 year pictures and then a few of the big boys. Then it was to the gym, the grocery store, and home to get dinner ready. I made the soup mix I gave away at Christmas and it was really good! Frozen dinner rolls and then also chocolate birthday cake for dessert. I tried a new cake recipe-- chocolate cake mix, 1/2 cup pumpkin puree, 1 cup egg beaters, 1 cup fat free sour cream, 1 pkg sugar free pudding (didn't have chocolate so I used pistachio), and mixed in some semi-sweet chocolate chips. Frosting was the old sugar free pudding mixed with fat free cool whip. Everyone liked it and Mosey made a big mess with his which was what he was supposed to do! For his birthday I got him a Care Bear (actually a care bear cousin-- the yellow monkey) which he LOVES and has been carrying around ever since. Also got him a little book "The Poky Little Puppy"), a small helicopter toy, and then the bicycle carrier and helmet, which I may have to return. At the end of the night he fell off the slide in the family room, bumped his head, was VERY sad, and then quickly fell asleep in my arms. Phew! I can't believe he is actually two...
So, that was the last couple of days. I am hoping tomorrow is better!
Oops, should have posted this 2 days ago, it is from January 9.
I've been really busy the past several days. In accordance with my New Year's Resolution to get organized, I am trying to get my house physically organized so that I can move into maintenance mode and have a good schedule for keeping up with everything. Since I last wrote I have gotten all the toys sorted and put away, the garage cleaned out and re-organized (now we can park BOTH vehicles in there AND park all the boys' bikes), the art table cleared off and papers put away, the backyard cleaned up, the movie and game cabinets organized, and tonight I tackled the computer room. It took me about 3.5 hours but now all the filing is done, I have clear surfaces, and I am going to keep up with this! I have a nice basket on the desk to put current bills and every week (Thursday I think) I am going to go through all the bills, pay them and file them. I have a humongous laundry basket filled with papers and other trash that needs to be thrown away, but because of all my organizing, our garbage can is totally full so I'll have to wait until after garbage day to throw it all out.
My remaining household-organization tasks are the exercise room (that is really mostly Ben's stuff that he took back here when moving offices and hasn't taken to his new office yet), my sewing desk and cabinet, the CD shelf (most of our CD's are currently not in cases). Then I have about 100 other projects I haven't gotten around to that I will take on one at a time. But the pressing day-to-day stuff will hopefully be routine.
The boys seem to be adjusting well to the new schedule. They now ask me during the day what our "schedule" is. But I think I can also be pretty flexible, in that my designated hours can be rearranged as long as I have 2 good hours with the boys, an outside play hour, and a clean-up hour.
Ok, enough of the boring business. Did you know it has been COLD here recently? Seriously, on Saturday it was really cold! I think it must have dipped down into the 40's at night. At church on Sunday I had such a chill that I just couldn't shake, I had to wear Ben's suit jacket. But today it was back to 78 so I'm happy. I actually like these little cold snaps, just to shake things up, as long as they don't last more than a day or two. Hope I'm not upsetting you cold-weather folks too much! This is Florida's beautiful time of year and I love it. On the way home from church on Sunday Brigham was telling us that it snows in Utah and if we go there we will get frozen and have to wear jackets (having to wear a jacket is the ultimate in cold-weather behavior I guess). Then he asked why Utah gets cold and we tried to explain that the higher elevation and weather patterns in Utah made it cold. I guess he sort of understood because his response from the back-seat was, "Oh, that sucks!" Oh my goodness! My boys are picking up on my language. I will have to watch it. Although I personally think that cold weather sucks too! I just looked at Ben and laughed, though, because it just goes to show how closely they listen to us. I am quite sure I have never used the word "sucks" in conversation with my boys, so they clearly have picked it up (as well as its proper usage) just from listening to me talk to other adults. I guess it is good that "sucks" is pretty much the extent of my questionable language.
Tomorrow (I guess actually today) is Mosey's birthday. He will be TWO! Amazing. The big boys are aware of his birthday and have consequently become re-interested in their own birthdays, constantly asking me when it will be. Every day they ask me if their birthday is "going to be on the other day" (which means tomorrow to them). I keep telling them that it is not for a long time-- after winter is over and after summer vacation and after school starts again. But they are not really grasping the concept. Since today was Monday and school started again for the week, they asked me if their summer vacation was over and if it was going to be their birthday. No! I keep telling them not to worry about it, that I will tell them when their birthday is getting close, but that is not cutting it I guess.
Joseph's behavior is getting better, I think. He is still having a lot of anxiety about pooping in the potty, and both Ben and I agreed that his really bad behavior seems to correspond to when he has to go to the bathroom but can't. So our plan (as agreed upon over dinner at the Cheesecake Factory-- thanks Brigham and Christine!!-- and isn't it lovely dinner conversation?), is to really back-off on the pooping thing and let him continue to use pullups for a while. I had been trying to encourage him and pressure him a little since I know he CAN do it, he just THINKS he can't. His big incentive is that we have promised a night at Dave and Busters if he successfully poops in the potty. Anyway, we're not going to talk about any of that for a while and see what happens. I keep reminding myself that he will not be 18 years old still needing pullups. I don't think so anyway.
Joseph's spelling is also getting really good! He can sound out pretty much any 3 letter word now. Oh, and the boys re-discovered our Leap Pad as I was organizing toys. I got it for them when Mosey was born, but they really were not interested at the time. But now they love it. The one little book I have is too easy for them, though, so I'm going to go see what other books I can find. I bet Joseph would do great learning to spell and read simple words with the leap pad.
Let's see, other exciting stuff. Ben got me Photoshop Elements as part of my Christmas present, and I have been playing around with it. There is a steep learning curve, but I'm really excited about what I've learned so far, and a great book just came in the mail yesterday (I ordered it from Amazon) so hopefully I'll be an expert soon. I decided I need to really get good at Photoshop before I start thinking seriously about a digital SLR camera. Pretty much all digital portraiture these days (high-end anyway) employs quite a lot of Photoshop techniques that I really will need to learn well. There is a 1 week course in New York for only $900! @@@ I think I'll try to learn on my own first.
Mosey was a snickerdoodle last night. He had no nap yesterday afternoon and was a real bear by about 6:30, so Ben got him to sleep somewhere around 7-7:30. Then about 10:00 he comes down the stairs, apparently thinking it was morning. He followed me around for a while until I headed to bed, and then proceeded to sit in the bed and talk to himself (loudly!) for more than an HOUR. Didn't go to sleep until after 12:30 AM. I've got a night-owl on my hands. Today he had a nap, but only a very short one (less than an hour). I hope he'll sleep all night. I can't believe he is already giving up naps.
Ok, that's it for tonight. It is 12:30 and I am 3 hours behind schedule! But the computer room is clean and that feels great.
Have a great Tuesday everyone and think of my big 2 year old today!
I've been really busy the past several days. In accordance with my New Year's Resolution to get organized, I am trying to get my house physically organized so that I can move into maintenance mode and have a good schedule for keeping up with everything. Since I last wrote I have gotten all the toys sorted and put away, the garage cleaned out and re-organized (now we can park BOTH vehicles in there AND park all the boys' bikes), the art table cleared off and papers put away, the backyard cleaned up, the movie and game cabinets organized, and tonight I tackled the computer room. It took me about 3.5 hours but now all the filing is done, I have clear surfaces, and I am going to keep up with this! I have a nice basket on the desk to put current bills and every week (Thursday I think) I am going to go through all the bills, pay them and file them. I have a humongous laundry basket filled with papers and other trash that needs to be thrown away, but because of all my organizing, our garbage can is totally full so I'll have to wait until after garbage day to throw it all out.
My remaining household-organization tasks are the exercise room (that is really mostly Ben's stuff that he took back here when moving offices and hasn't taken to his new office yet), my sewing desk and cabinet, the CD shelf (most of our CD's are currently not in cases). Then I have about 100 other projects I haven't gotten around to that I will take on one at a time. But the pressing day-to-day stuff will hopefully be routine.
The boys seem to be adjusting well to the new schedule. They now ask me during the day what our "schedule" is. But I think I can also be pretty flexible, in that my designated hours can be rearranged as long as I have 2 good hours with the boys, an outside play hour, and a clean-up hour.
Ok, enough of the boring business. Did you know it has been COLD here recently? Seriously, on Saturday it was really cold! I think it must have dipped down into the 40's at night. At church on Sunday I had such a chill that I just couldn't shake, I had to wear Ben's suit jacket. But today it was back to 78 so I'm happy. I actually like these little cold snaps, just to shake things up, as long as they don't last more than a day or two. Hope I'm not upsetting you cold-weather folks too much! This is Florida's beautiful time of year and I love it. On the way home from church on Sunday Brigham was telling us that it snows in Utah and if we go there we will get frozen and have to wear jackets (having to wear a jacket is the ultimate in cold-weather behavior I guess). Then he asked why Utah gets cold and we tried to explain that the higher elevation and weather patterns in Utah made it cold. I guess he sort of understood because his response from the back-seat was, "Oh, that sucks!" Oh my goodness! My boys are picking up on my language. I will have to watch it. Although I personally think that cold weather sucks too! I just looked at Ben and laughed, though, because it just goes to show how closely they listen to us. I am quite sure I have never used the word "sucks" in conversation with my boys, so they clearly have picked it up (as well as its proper usage) just from listening to me talk to other adults. I guess it is good that "sucks" is pretty much the extent of my questionable language.
Tomorrow (I guess actually today) is Mosey's birthday. He will be TWO! Amazing. The big boys are aware of his birthday and have consequently become re-interested in their own birthdays, constantly asking me when it will be. Every day they ask me if their birthday is "going to be on the other day" (which means tomorrow to them). I keep telling them that it is not for a long time-- after winter is over and after summer vacation and after school starts again. But they are not really grasping the concept. Since today was Monday and school started again for the week, they asked me if their summer vacation was over and if it was going to be their birthday. No! I keep telling them not to worry about it, that I will tell them when their birthday is getting close, but that is not cutting it I guess.
Joseph's behavior is getting better, I think. He is still having a lot of anxiety about pooping in the potty, and both Ben and I agreed that his really bad behavior seems to correspond to when he has to go to the bathroom but can't. So our plan (as agreed upon over dinner at the Cheesecake Factory-- thanks Brigham and Christine!!-- and isn't it lovely dinner conversation?), is to really back-off on the pooping thing and let him continue to use pullups for a while. I had been trying to encourage him and pressure him a little since I know he CAN do it, he just THINKS he can't. His big incentive is that we have promised a night at Dave and Busters if he successfully poops in the potty. Anyway, we're not going to talk about any of that for a while and see what happens. I keep reminding myself that he will not be 18 years old still needing pullups. I don't think so anyway.
Joseph's spelling is also getting really good! He can sound out pretty much any 3 letter word now. Oh, and the boys re-discovered our Leap Pad as I was organizing toys. I got it for them when Mosey was born, but they really were not interested at the time. But now they love it. The one little book I have is too easy for them, though, so I'm going to go see what other books I can find. I bet Joseph would do great learning to spell and read simple words with the leap pad.
Let's see, other exciting stuff. Ben got me Photoshop Elements as part of my Christmas present, and I have been playing around with it. There is a steep learning curve, but I'm really excited about what I've learned so far, and a great book just came in the mail yesterday (I ordered it from Amazon) so hopefully I'll be an expert soon. I decided I need to really get good at Photoshop before I start thinking seriously about a digital SLR camera. Pretty much all digital portraiture these days (high-end anyway) employs quite a lot of Photoshop techniques that I really will need to learn well. There is a 1 week course in New York for only $900! @@@ I think I'll try to learn on my own first.
Mosey was a snickerdoodle last night. He had no nap yesterday afternoon and was a real bear by about 6:30, so Ben got him to sleep somewhere around 7-7:30. Then about 10:00 he comes down the stairs, apparently thinking it was morning. He followed me around for a while until I headed to bed, and then proceeded to sit in the bed and talk to himself (loudly!) for more than an HOUR. Didn't go to sleep until after 12:30 AM. I've got a night-owl on my hands. Today he had a nap, but only a very short one (less than an hour). I hope he'll sleep all night. I can't believe he is already giving up naps.
Ok, that's it for tonight. It is 12:30 and I am 3 hours behind schedule! But the computer room is clean and that feels great.
Have a great Tuesday everyone and think of my big 2 year old today!
Thursday, January 05, 2006
My daily schedule has been going pretty well, I think. Remarkably well. But it is pretty tiring. I hope I get used to it! Yesterday afternoon I had the Curtis girls (11:30-4:30) so that definitely made things a little harder. Liberty just turned 3 and she is in to EVERYTHING and is not very obedient yet. So basically I made them stay outside almost the whole time except when they watched a batman cartoon and when we went upstairs to my room to play with legos. I'm so glad we have the trampoline now.
I had a little "incident" with Joseph, though. We had just gotten home from school with the girls, and I told them they were to all play outside while I made lunch and then I'd bring it out. Well, Joseph has lately been in a VERY contrary mood, and he immediately said he was tired and wanted to go inside. So I told him that was fine, if he was tired he could go inside and lay on his bed for a while. Well of course that is not what he wanted to do. He got pretty smart-alecky with me and when he wouldn't make a choice I told him I would choose for him and I carried him upstairs to his room. I told him whenever he was ready to go outside and play he could do so. Well, this was the beginning of a few rounds between me and him. He came down from his room and I carried him back up and told him if he came down again he would get a spanking. He came down so I carried him back up and gave him a spank (I do NOT spank hard, by the way-- I actually despise spanking with all my soul, but when he won't stay in time out I'm not sure what I can do). Then I went back down to continue making lunch, and soon I hear a big crash upstairs. I go up and he has dumped out a big box of legos all over my bedroom floor and scattered them everywhere. So he got another spank and put back in his room. I go downstairs again. Then I hear some loud banging up stairs. I had locked all the doors up there so he couldn't go in and destroy any more rooms, and so he was kicking the doors with all his might. I took off his shoes and put him back in his room. This time he stayed until I finished making lunch. As I went outside I called up to him that I had lunch and if he was ready to eat he should come down. And in just a minute, down he came, happy as can be, sat on my lap and ate lunch. Phew! Crisis over. I think the key was that I remained perfectly calm and cheerful the whole time. I didn't get mad at him and I told him how much I didn't want to spank him but if he kept getting out of his room, that is what he would earn. I also tried to help him separate himself from his grumpy mood. I told him, "You've sure got a bad mood! I hope you get rid of that bad mood soon!" As if it were a cold or something. My intention is to get him to NOT identify himself as *being* angry, but instead to recognize that he is a happy, good boy, temporarily being controlled by this feeling and that he can get rid of it. Anyway, I guess it worked for the time being.
One more note on Joseph. When he gets in these moods, his favorite word is "Nothing!" So when I ask him if he wants to go upstairs or go outside, he just spits out, through clenched teeth, "Nothing!" Anything I say to him, his response is "Nothing!" It's driving me just a bit crazy!!! But on the good side, Joseph was so sweet almost all day today (little rough going to bed, but not too bad, really). He plays with Moses so well. He likes to get Moses to say things, so he'll say, "Mosey, can you say_____?" And Mosey will dutifully parrot it back to him. They both think it is hilarious. AND, he volunteered to help me fold clothes, although I suspect it was really a ruse to get to stay up later...
The boys are really into s'mores now, since New Years Eve. A couple of days ago they invented a new kind-- graham crackers, marshmallow, and sliced banana! It was actually really good! And they invented it all themselves. They made me one and one for Ben, including slicing the bananas themselves.
And while we're on the subject of food, I MUST share two fabulous recipes with you. I'm serious try these!!!
Key Lime Pie
1 reduced fat graham cracker crust (find these in the cake mix section)
1 can fat free sweetened condensed milk
8 oz. fat free cool whip
1/3 cup key lime juice (around here at least you can find bottles of key lime juice right next to the bottles of lemon juice-- and key lime is different than regular lime).
Blend the condensed milk with the key lime juice until well mixed. Fold in cool whip. Pour into pie crust. Freeze until set (4 hours?).
1/8 pie is 4 WW points, or roughly 200 calories, and very low in fat. I'm totally serious, you can NOT tell that this is a reduced calorie dessert. It tastes EXACTLY like the real thing.
Banana Cream Pie
1 reduced fat graham cracker crust
1 1/4 cup skim milk
1 package sugar free, fat free pudding (banana cream, vanilla, your choice)
8 oz. fat free cool whip
Slice the banana and lay slices at bottom of pie crust (or you could dice up the bananas to add to the filling).
Whisk together milk and pudding mix until well combined. Fold in 3/4 of the cool whip. Pour into pie crust. Top with remaining cool whip. Put in refrigerator or freezer to set up for a couple hours.
Again, 1/8 pie is 4 points. I made this for Ben on his birthday and he was a big fan. The best part was that he could eat a BUNCH of this pie and not feel guilty!
Ok, last thing. I'm taking this online photography course and my first assignment is to take an abstract photo (meaning the subject is not readily identifiable) concentrating on composition rules. The focus of the photo is supposed to be composition, NOT the subject. So I took a bunch today and here are the ones I narrowed down. I have to choose one to submit. Based purely on your instinctive gut-preference (and I'm talking aesthetics here), which do you like best? I asked Ben and he chose one because he said it was symbolically cool. But that's not what I'm looking for, I'm asking which one is most interesting, most pleasing to look at.
I had a little "incident" with Joseph, though. We had just gotten home from school with the girls, and I told them they were to all play outside while I made lunch and then I'd bring it out. Well, Joseph has lately been in a VERY contrary mood, and he immediately said he was tired and wanted to go inside. So I told him that was fine, if he was tired he could go inside and lay on his bed for a while. Well of course that is not what he wanted to do. He got pretty smart-alecky with me and when he wouldn't make a choice I told him I would choose for him and I carried him upstairs to his room. I told him whenever he was ready to go outside and play he could do so. Well, this was the beginning of a few rounds between me and him. He came down from his room and I carried him back up and told him if he came down again he would get a spanking. He came down so I carried him back up and gave him a spank (I do NOT spank hard, by the way-- I actually despise spanking with all my soul, but when he won't stay in time out I'm not sure what I can do). Then I went back down to continue making lunch, and soon I hear a big crash upstairs. I go up and he has dumped out a big box of legos all over my bedroom floor and scattered them everywhere. So he got another spank and put back in his room. I go downstairs again. Then I hear some loud banging up stairs. I had locked all the doors up there so he couldn't go in and destroy any more rooms, and so he was kicking the doors with all his might. I took off his shoes and put him back in his room. This time he stayed until I finished making lunch. As I went outside I called up to him that I had lunch and if he was ready to eat he should come down. And in just a minute, down he came, happy as can be, sat on my lap and ate lunch. Phew! Crisis over. I think the key was that I remained perfectly calm and cheerful the whole time. I didn't get mad at him and I told him how much I didn't want to spank him but if he kept getting out of his room, that is what he would earn. I also tried to help him separate himself from his grumpy mood. I told him, "You've sure got a bad mood! I hope you get rid of that bad mood soon!" As if it were a cold or something. My intention is to get him to NOT identify himself as *being* angry, but instead to recognize that he is a happy, good boy, temporarily being controlled by this feeling and that he can get rid of it. Anyway, I guess it worked for the time being.
One more note on Joseph. When he gets in these moods, his favorite word is "Nothing!" So when I ask him if he wants to go upstairs or go outside, he just spits out, through clenched teeth, "Nothing!" Anything I say to him, his response is "Nothing!" It's driving me just a bit crazy!!! But on the good side, Joseph was so sweet almost all day today (little rough going to bed, but not too bad, really). He plays with Moses so well. He likes to get Moses to say things, so he'll say, "Mosey, can you say_____?" And Mosey will dutifully parrot it back to him. They both think it is hilarious. AND, he volunteered to help me fold clothes, although I suspect it was really a ruse to get to stay up later...
The boys are really into s'mores now, since New Years Eve. A couple of days ago they invented a new kind-- graham crackers, marshmallow, and sliced banana! It was actually really good! And they invented it all themselves. They made me one and one for Ben, including slicing the bananas themselves.
And while we're on the subject of food, I MUST share two fabulous recipes with you. I'm serious try these!!!
Key Lime Pie
1 reduced fat graham cracker crust (find these in the cake mix section)
1 can fat free sweetened condensed milk
8 oz. fat free cool whip
1/3 cup key lime juice (around here at least you can find bottles of key lime juice right next to the bottles of lemon juice-- and key lime is different than regular lime).
Blend the condensed milk with the key lime juice until well mixed. Fold in cool whip. Pour into pie crust. Freeze until set (4 hours?).
1/8 pie is 4 WW points, or roughly 200 calories, and very low in fat. I'm totally serious, you can NOT tell that this is a reduced calorie dessert. It tastes EXACTLY like the real thing.
Banana Cream Pie
1 reduced fat graham cracker crust
1 1/4 cup skim milk
1 package sugar free, fat free pudding (banana cream, vanilla, your choice)
8 oz. fat free cool whip
Slice the banana and lay slices at bottom of pie crust (or you could dice up the bananas to add to the filling).
Whisk together milk and pudding mix until well combined. Fold in 3/4 of the cool whip. Pour into pie crust. Top with remaining cool whip. Put in refrigerator or freezer to set up for a couple hours.
Again, 1/8 pie is 4 points. I made this for Ben on his birthday and he was a big fan. The best part was that he could eat a BUNCH of this pie and not feel guilty!
Ok, last thing. I'm taking this online photography course and my first assignment is to take an abstract photo (meaning the subject is not readily identifiable) concentrating on composition rules. The focus of the photo is supposed to be composition, NOT the subject. So I took a bunch today and here are the ones I narrowed down. I have to choose one to submit. Based purely on your instinctive gut-preference (and I'm talking aesthetics here), which do you like best? I asked Ben and he chose one because he said it was symbolically cool. But that's not what I'm looking for, I'm asking which one is most interesting, most pleasing to look at.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
I am amazed that it is 2006. Wasn't it just 1996? Pretty weird to think in another 10 years it will be 2016 and I will be 39 years old!!! That just can't be real.
We had a fun New Years Eve. We ran errands and did this and that during the day and then in the evening we had a little family party, Frandsen-style. We roasted hotdogs on the grill and then made s'mores afterwards. We ate outside on the patio (love Florida's winters) and jumped on the tramp and had fun. Then we got the boys down for bed (this took some doing since Joseph didn't want to go on a drive, and Moses and Brigham failed to go to sleep on the drive they did agree to), and then Ben and I went to our New Years Eve party. Logan Curtis and Carter Allred came over to our house to hang out while the grownups went to the party. Vanessa and Jorge Holden threw the party at their house on the lake and it was really fun. Way too much good food, a hilarious exchange game (we all had to bring thrift-store items to exchange and then wear), fire crackers, and dancing (yes, I even got Ben to dance a little). Brazillians know how to throw a party, I guess. The Allreds, Holdens, Doberlys, Winstons, Curtises, and Deckers were there (oh yeah, and Ben and me). We ended up staying till nearly 3:00 AM. So we were a bit tired the next day.
New Years Day was great because we now have afternoon church!! Yay!! No more morning rush to get to church! Especially good since we were up so late. And I finally don't mind afternoon church since I don't have any napping kids. Well, Mosey still naps sometimes, but if he does it's not till later in the afternoon anyway. Ben took care of the boys after church and I crashed for a few hours with Mosey (who did fall asleep on the way home from church).
Yesterday (Monday), I thought the boys had school, since their school schedule is supposed to follow Broward schools' schedule, so I got the boys up, fed, dressed, and out the door *almost* on time. We got to their school at 8:04 only to find an empty parking lot. Obviously no school. I was frustrated since I had been planning on cleaning the house during those 3 hours, but we quickly revised our plans and decided to go on a family outing instead.
So we went and had breakfast at IHOP and then to Butterfly World. It was a nice day there, not too crowded and nice warm weather. The boys were determined to get a butterfly to land on them, but the closest they got was a butterfly that crawled onto a stick Joseph was holding. Butterfly World also has a "bug zoo" that just opened-- a room off the bug museum that has glass cages with live cock roaches, millipedes, scorpions, tarantulas, and other cute cuddly creatures. I showed the boys the brown recluse and told them if they ever see one of those they are to run away as fast as they can and come tell me. They are found down here occasionally and are the deadliest spider in North America. Great.
On the way home we stopped at Big Lots for Ben to get some pots for some plants he is taking to his office. While there, Mosey spotted a little white rocking horse. He became completely enamored of it and wouldn't get off! I tried to pick him up and he clutched onto the handles, picking it up with him. I decided he could get it as an early birthday present, and he really does love it. He freaked out for a bit when I had to put it up on the counter to pay for it, but as soon as we got to the car I put it down for him to ride on until I got the other things loaded.
Ben went for an afternoon/evening out with Glenn and Aerin Curtis. Aerin's birthday is the same as Ben's. They went to Game Works and spent the afternoon playing. I spent the afternoon de-Christmasing. I got most everything down and mostly put away. It's always sad to see the Christmas things go, but kind of nice to have the house back again, too.
Today was cleaning club, and boy did I need it! I intended to clean house yesterday afternoon and evening, but the de-Christmasing took longer than I thought and getting Mosey to bed last night was a very long, very loud ordeal and by the time he finally calmed down, I was so spent that I fell asleep with him on the trundle bed. So instead I was up by 6:15 finishing taking down decorations and trying to get the house at least de-cluttered before Rena and Janette got here. Those two ladies really work miracles. In an hour the house was clean!! Now all I need to do is organize toys and fold about 5 loads of laundry and I'll be caught up on housework.
Today also marked Day 1 of my daily schedule. Here is what it looks like:
6:00 get up and do miscellaneous chores
7:00 get boys up and ready for school
8:00-11:00 do personal fun projects (photography, scrapbooking, etc.)
11:00-12:00 get boys from school, play on bikes in front yard
12:00-1:00 eat lunch, play in the back
1:00-2:00 project time (fun project that I do with the boys)
2:00-3:30 play time (ideally outside while I can work on chores inside)
3:30-4:30 clean up time and dinner-prep (I'll be working with the boys to eventually be doing the clean up themselves)
4:30-5:30 go to the gym
5:30-7:00 dinner and family play time
7:00-8:00 get ready for bed, read books, tell stories (one parent will do this while the other does dinner clean up)
8:00-9:00 personal time (I can go jogging, Ben can surf the internet)
9:00-10:00 get ready for bed, scripture study
Sound good? I did *ok* today. Somehow got about an hour off and so skipped the gym (I was trying to make a special birthday dinner for Ben anyway), and bedtime with the boys took longer than I thought (didn't start bedtime routine till 7:30 anyway), so I didn't get out jogging till almost 9:30, and then I still had dinner cleanup (let Ben off the hook since it is his birthday), and then flipping some laundry and then email. Now I am 2 hours off and it is midnight. But, still, it's only the first day and I expect to get more efficient.
So, that was our day. And Ben is now 31! I asked him if he could remember his 21st birthday, but he couldn't recall. It was just days after he got back from his mission and I think those early post-mission days are pretty hazy for everyone.
We had a fun New Years Eve. We ran errands and did this and that during the day and then in the evening we had a little family party, Frandsen-style. We roasted hotdogs on the grill and then made s'mores afterwards. We ate outside on the patio (love Florida's winters) and jumped on the tramp and had fun. Then we got the boys down for bed (this took some doing since Joseph didn't want to go on a drive, and Moses and Brigham failed to go to sleep on the drive they did agree to), and then Ben and I went to our New Years Eve party. Logan Curtis and Carter Allred came over to our house to hang out while the grownups went to the party. Vanessa and Jorge Holden threw the party at their house on the lake and it was really fun. Way too much good food, a hilarious exchange game (we all had to bring thrift-store items to exchange and then wear), fire crackers, and dancing (yes, I even got Ben to dance a little). Brazillians know how to throw a party, I guess. The Allreds, Holdens, Doberlys, Winstons, Curtises, and Deckers were there (oh yeah, and Ben and me). We ended up staying till nearly 3:00 AM. So we were a bit tired the next day.
New Years Day was great because we now have afternoon church!! Yay!! No more morning rush to get to church! Especially good since we were up so late. And I finally don't mind afternoon church since I don't have any napping kids. Well, Mosey still naps sometimes, but if he does it's not till later in the afternoon anyway. Ben took care of the boys after church and I crashed for a few hours with Mosey (who did fall asleep on the way home from church).
Yesterday (Monday), I thought the boys had school, since their school schedule is supposed to follow Broward schools' schedule, so I got the boys up, fed, dressed, and out the door *almost* on time. We got to their school at 8:04 only to find an empty parking lot. Obviously no school. I was frustrated since I had been planning on cleaning the house during those 3 hours, but we quickly revised our plans and decided to go on a family outing instead.
So we went and had breakfast at IHOP and then to Butterfly World. It was a nice day there, not too crowded and nice warm weather. The boys were determined to get a butterfly to land on them, but the closest they got was a butterfly that crawled onto a stick Joseph was holding. Butterfly World also has a "bug zoo" that just opened-- a room off the bug museum that has glass cages with live cock roaches, millipedes, scorpions, tarantulas, and other cute cuddly creatures. I showed the boys the brown recluse and told them if they ever see one of those they are to run away as fast as they can and come tell me. They are found down here occasionally and are the deadliest spider in North America. Great.
On the way home we stopped at Big Lots for Ben to get some pots for some plants he is taking to his office. While there, Mosey spotted a little white rocking horse. He became completely enamored of it and wouldn't get off! I tried to pick him up and he clutched onto the handles, picking it up with him. I decided he could get it as an early birthday present, and he really does love it. He freaked out for a bit when I had to put it up on the counter to pay for it, but as soon as we got to the car I put it down for him to ride on until I got the other things loaded.
Ben went for an afternoon/evening out with Glenn and Aerin Curtis. Aerin's birthday is the same as Ben's. They went to Game Works and spent the afternoon playing. I spent the afternoon de-Christmasing. I got most everything down and mostly put away. It's always sad to see the Christmas things go, but kind of nice to have the house back again, too.
Today was cleaning club, and boy did I need it! I intended to clean house yesterday afternoon and evening, but the de-Christmasing took longer than I thought and getting Mosey to bed last night was a very long, very loud ordeal and by the time he finally calmed down, I was so spent that I fell asleep with him on the trundle bed. So instead I was up by 6:15 finishing taking down decorations and trying to get the house at least de-cluttered before Rena and Janette got here. Those two ladies really work miracles. In an hour the house was clean!! Now all I need to do is organize toys and fold about 5 loads of laundry and I'll be caught up on housework.
Today also marked Day 1 of my daily schedule. Here is what it looks like:
6:00 get up and do miscellaneous chores
7:00 get boys up and ready for school
8:00-11:00 do personal fun projects (photography, scrapbooking, etc.)
11:00-12:00 get boys from school, play on bikes in front yard
12:00-1:00 eat lunch, play in the back
1:00-2:00 project time (fun project that I do with the boys)
2:00-3:30 play time (ideally outside while I can work on chores inside)
3:30-4:30 clean up time and dinner-prep (I'll be working with the boys to eventually be doing the clean up themselves)
4:30-5:30 go to the gym
5:30-7:00 dinner and family play time
7:00-8:00 get ready for bed, read books, tell stories (one parent will do this while the other does dinner clean up)
8:00-9:00 personal time (I can go jogging, Ben can surf the internet)
9:00-10:00 get ready for bed, scripture study
Sound good? I did *ok* today. Somehow got about an hour off and so skipped the gym (I was trying to make a special birthday dinner for Ben anyway), and bedtime with the boys took longer than I thought (didn't start bedtime routine till 7:30 anyway), so I didn't get out jogging till almost 9:30, and then I still had dinner cleanup (let Ben off the hook since it is his birthday), and then flipping some laundry and then email. Now I am 2 hours off and it is midnight. But, still, it's only the first day and I expect to get more efficient.
So, that was our day. And Ben is now 31! I asked him if he could remember his 21st birthday, but he couldn't recall. It was just days after he got back from his mission and I think those early post-mission days are pretty hazy for everyone.
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