 | 114 As a 1930s wife, I am |
is who gave this child permission to grow up?
Malia got her hair cut yetserday, and while I love it and it looks adorable, it makes her look older! We also found out on Tuesday that she now needs glasses, and while she picked out some great frames-they too make her look older! I'm slightly afraid of the combination when the glasses arrive in a couple of days....
It's a good thing I have a baby to cushion this one growing up. What in the world will I do when my youngest baby is the one who is 10 and looking older and bugged with us for not letting them go to the school choir concert instead of being home with the fam....
And only because you were asking for it Dawn and Lisa! : )
Really, how could I NOT share these??
Just in case you were wondering.
1-Pink Eraser. Really. Thank goodness. 
2-Germ-X/Purel; Be warned, this may also remove paint, so this works best on, oh, say, the fridge, linoleum floor, etc. Although it also works pretty on fake wood furniture (think Sauder). 
3-Dry Erase Marker; I know, who'd have thought? Again with the whole paint/furniture finish thing, so best for other hard surfaces. Color the dry erase marker right on top of the sharpie and wipe it off. Default to Germ-X/Purel if it's stubborn.
If all else fails, try a combination of all three. Good Luck.
Unless it's fabric, then you're just out of luck.
Or the bathroom door, in which case I'm gonna have to just suck it up and paint- since this is how we learned that Germ-X also removes paint. Go figure.
(since apparently I have an issue with keeping her blog updated despite dozens of pictures)
If you aren't familiar with Old Town Imports, you should be! Especially if you live around here! If you're not local and have no idea who I'm referring to, check out the Old Town Imports website.
Their things are gorgeous!
My mom has a number of their pieces, and it seems that no matter what they are used for the just really make everything look amazing. She emailed me about their warehouse store and their new blog not too long ago. I check out the blog when I can, and keep hoping to find a free day (sans kiddos) to make it back to their store again. Well, the blog checking has paid off!
I won this: 
Yay! Do you not just love that?!
The way today has turned out to REALLY be a Monday made it even sweeter. Merry Christmas to me. : )
To my best friend, my love, my favorite person.
Aaron turns 29 again today for the 8th time. (that would be 36 for those not big on math)
What does one say about the person who means more to them than anything? I don't even know. Is that bad? I think it would be more appropriate to say that there are no words to express my thoughts on my wonderful husband, my gratitude for the endless sacrifices he makes for me and for the kids, the joy he brings me just by being there.
Maybe it is sufficient to say that my favorite thing to do is just to be with him. Whether it's working in the yard, the months (years?) we spent finishing the basement, having him watch movies in the room with me while I go through my randomly occurring need to paint, or our favorite default date night. So to my love, thanks for not complaining that the office has more fabric in it than anything else, for letting me have so many babies, for never oinking at me, for giving the best foot massages EVER, for supporting me in my crazy endeavors, for staying up late while I read-just because I'm still awake, for enjoying the fact that I eat twice as much as you do, for buying me unconventional gifts, for letting me paint our room yellow, for always pushing me a little bit further when I'm ready to quit, for laughing so hard at swordfish that it makes me giggle just thinking about it, for being fun, exciting, passionate about everything you do, and for dancing in a Mr Incredibles suit. Good times.
Here's to a Freschetta and Redbox.
As the family calendar, I was reminding the kids that today was Aaron's birthday as they got ready for the day. Since we've been trying really hard to get them to be more responsible as far as keeping their rooms clean, this was then followed by me asking, "What do you think dad would appreciate the most for his bday?"
In the generic kid voice extolling the feelings of "I know the answer but don't want to do it" I hear a chorus of:
"A clean house"
"And what else?"
3 of the 5 answered "Obedient children" in the same enthusiastic droll. Lincoln's mouth was full so he didn't answer, but the most intriguing was Jacob's answer that could be heard above the other three mumbling "obedient children."
Jacob's thought?
"A Gun!! I'll get dad a gun! "
Ok then son.
Sorry babe, the Cx4 Storm just wasn't in the budget this year. Maybe for Valentines Day.
I Love you!! Happy Birthday!
Yes, Mymby! It's here!
What is Mymby? My new little baby. (No, I'm not pregnant again. Although I did get asked this week. great.)
Remember that project I mentioned I'd been working on? Well, I'm a little slower than I had hoped, but I'm not putting it off any longer! After dabbling in custom orders for the past couple of years, I decided I'd start putting a little more together and getting it out there. So here it is! Those of you who live close also know how talented Rheanna is, she has joined me to graced us with a few of her projects as well!
And now the good part.
Everyone loves a giveaway! So what better way to start something new than with a giveaway?
Check out the Mymby homepage HERE to get in on it. Nothing like bribery to help spread the word, right? : ) Check out "The Mymby Goods" listed on the left hand side to peruse the various offerings currently available, or use your imagination for you own project! And yes, capes for boys are coming soon too!
Big fat reality check that is.
Do you ever have those moments where everything comes screaming at you in super speed? Kind of like in a movie and it's a big picture that zooms right in tight on someone's face?
I don't like those moments.
Well, I do when they turn out well.
I got an unsettling call from our pediatrician a couple of weeks ago. We had taken Jacob in to have some huge lymph nodes checked out. His throat was pretty darn awful looking, so we did a strep test, but since that was negative, he wanted to do a blood test just to rule out a few other things. He wondered about EBV, and joked about the possibility of TB since we're known for wild vacations to Honduras and we have an exotic South American maid. (ha ha) He then mentioned that it could come from a cat scratch as well, and since Jacob-despite his allergies-has a fondness for picking up the neighbor's cat on the way to and from school, we thought we'd check TB just to be safe. Being the great dr that he is, he did one of his rare in-office blood draws so that we could avoid the whole lab at the hospital. (it's a small office, just him, so he doesn't do a ton of extras there in his office on a regular basis)
It was a little surprising then when my phone rang the very next day and I was greeted with, "Well, the good news is that it looks like we can pretty safely rule out leukemia." Pardon?? "Yep, thankfully his CBC came back perfect, so that's great!" Well I should say so. Thankfully it was a gentle little smack in the face. I can't imagine what it would have been had he been sharing the opposite news. It also made me glad that he hadn't mentioned that before the blood draw.
Today we found ourselves back in his office again, this time for Charlotte's 4 month check up. We still hadn't heard back on the EBV screen, so I asked him about it while we were there. He went and gathered everything and proceeded to go over all of the labs with me. Everything looks absolutely perfect, all of the screens came back negative. Yay! But as I was reveling in the good news, I had a bit more news of the sobering type. I could actually see the relief on the dr's face as he turned to me and said, "you know, I'm really very very glad that his cbc came back so good. I was really quite positive that it wasn't going to. I was preparing for the very worst, I was quite certain that's what we were facing."
wow.
Yes, it was unnerving to find a number of lumps in the side of my 5yr old's neck, especially just weeks after my brother-in-law underwent surgery for very invasive cancer that was discovered through a lump in his neck. I suppose the possibility of the worst always crosses your mind, but like every other parent, I instantly began hoping for, and thinking only of, the very best. I realize that, sadly, not everyone gets the news that we did. I ache for those parents who are faced with the other side of what test results bring. I can't imagine how that must feel, and pray I never will know that.
So tonight I find myself extremely grateful for this and other recent events that are a very specific reminder that prayers are answered. It may not always be exactly when or how we might think they should be, sometimes we luck out and it goes that way, but even when it doesn't happen in our time frame or how we might have wanted it, it still happens. Don't ever doubt that.
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The Potty Train! Woo-hoo!
Seems to be the trend in the neighborhood this week I guess. : )
I am very excited to report that Lincoln has made it through the day with no accidents. Hallelujah! Loving this! (and hoping it continues!)
None of my other boys trained this early so I'm doubly thrilled. Maybe he's just making up for his habit of dumping toiletries. (This month's current count 3 full bottles of shampoo and conditioner-3 of each that is-and one tube of toothpaste. Hey-it's still cheaper to lose toothpaste and 6 bottles of the cheap stuff than it is to buy diapers!)
We are late tooth-losers in our house. Our first child lost her first tooth at 6 1/2. The next one was about the same. We figured that's about where things would continue, but Alaina has decided to set a new record. She waited until 7. Apparently there was something wrong with losing a tooth at 6, so she waited until her 7th birthday for this milestone. Her body wasn't as patient as she was for a tooth to come out, so she is completely skipping that whole toothless gap thing-she already had two big teeth popping through!
(boy is that one of those goofy childhood pictures or what?)
One of the teeth she lost was actually two teeth. When her bottom teeth were coming in, one of them was actually two teeth fused together. Odd little thing. So she lost her double tooth in addition to a regular tooth. Yes, there is no doing things halfway with this child-if you're going to lose a tooth, make the most of it! Get three out of the way at once!
My favorite part of the whole thing was this letter she wrote to the Tooth Fairy. She is desperately wanting to write in cursive, so some of her letters kind of loop together. I guess that distracted her because she is an impeccable speller. (seriously-last May during placement tests she tested at a 5th grade level in spelling-yikes!) Not sure where she got that from! : ) Certainly not me.
Anyway-here is this little gem, digitally preserved for all time. My favorite would be the little picture. Apparently while I was out for a bit Aaron did some fancy work getting that tooth out! And sadly, she was disappointed when the Tooth Fairy left a noet saying that she didn't have a camera so she couldn't leave a picture for Alaina. She drew her signature sparkly silver tooth with wings instead. :)
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Her note reads:
It's been too long since I kept up here, so I'm trying to catch up on the things I've missed.
Today's installment...... the annual costume party!
It's been nearly a month, so it's about time!
First, a few things I learned this year-
Amy is quite the limbo competitor.
Cory looks killer in spandex.
Steve brought extra spandex.
Why do our costume parties always involve spandex?
We know who's really in charge at Tiffany and Mike's house.
Kammi has a killer accent.
The Greeks sparkled.
Greg wears skirts. At least it wasn't spandex.
You really can get Rheanna to dress up.
Peter Pan wields a real knife.
A few name changes can really stir things up.
We have some very competitive friends.
It's hard to speak in questions.
And my favorite, if you don't know what to say, go with Steve's default: "I like cheese."
A few pics-sorry, no dancing footage this year. The dancing was a bit slim. But we had a great time, and there were a few ambitious people already planning costumes for next year!
That stinks.
*sigh* Got the cancellation email. Darn fine print covering their hiney's for "pricing errors". They'd like to know if I'd like to reorder at the correct price of $279. Hmmm, a minor $236 difference? Um, no thank you.
Shoot. Now I have to go find another car seat. Looks like Jacob will get to move up to a booster after all!
Oh well. It was a fun bargain rush while it lasted.
I'm cheap. Sometimes cheaper than cheap. People try to correct me and say "frugal". No, for the most part, I'm just cheap. There are a few things I'll splurge on, because a splurge feels great every once in a while.
Yesterday someone alerted me to one killer deal.
A car seat.
Love 'em or hate 'em, you gotta have them.
We are kind of on a rotating car seat schedule. About every year we do a shift up in the seats. Then we of course replace the ones that hit their expiration date. I will admit that I thought the whole expiration date on a car seat thing was just a ploy to get people to buy them more often until I saw a crash test with an older car seat. Sold. Now we are diligent about that.
So the point is.....??
It's November, and the oldest of the 7, yes, seven car seats that we are currently occupying is hitting it's expiration. It's been a lovely 6 years. Time for a new one. Currently, it's Lincoln's seat. So my option was either buy a new full car seat, or buy another booster, move Jacob out of his seat (he's big enough, I'm just not sure I trust him to stay buckled in only a booster), and switch Lincoln into Jacob's seat.
What to do......
Behold, the Britax Marathon:
(do you hear the hallelujah chorus?)
Why you ask, is the queen of cheap showing you a $250 car seat?
Because she paid $42.99 for it. And the shipping was free.
I decided what I want to do when I grow up. I want to sew fabulous things just for fun. Although how hard must it be to give these things away?!
Nordic Bo Peep and Long Lost Sheep Costume GIVEAWAY!!!!
Does this mean that we get to hear less from the likes of Jesse Jackson? Can we stopped being accused of being a bunch of racist jerks now?
Hopefully he will live up to some of the hype, or then again....hopefully not? Or at least hopefully comedians will now be brave enough to poke fun at him (the way they do every other politician), without worrying about repercussions.
Besides, he doesn't scare me nearly as much as so many others I've talked to. Odd that I feel the same way about this presidency as I did 16 years ago. I'm much more scared of the new First Lady than I am of the new President. It will be interesting to see how that one pans out.
So I'm a little behind-still trying to round up some pics for Alaina's bday post.
But I couldn't NOT post this.
Is this not the cutest thing ever? 
Charli wasn't anything exciting for Halloween, just a Halloween kind of outfit, so I had to take a minute to dress her up for a few pictures. What is the point of having a baby girl if you don't take advantage of dressing her up? ;)
Eventually I'll get Alaina's bday pics up, along with our Halloween pics (and our wonderful costume party!).
So what does one say about starting a new decade?
I don't know.
Everyone always makes such a big deal out of it...I guess I figured maybe I should feel different, or older or something.
Nah. Not really. What's the big fuss about?
Maybe it's because people start acting old and no one else welcomes in the official start of their birthday by doing the limbo with a Nun and being sung to by a group of good friends. While dressed like Martha Washington. More people should. It's really quite fun.
But I have been reflecting on the past decade.
What is it that I've done for the past 10 years? I guess more accurately the question would be what haven't I done?
It's amazing how much of life I have lived in the past 10yrs. I would venture a guess that it will be the most life altering 10yr period of my life. So many major life changes packed into a short period of time. 10 years ago it was Aaron and me, and a little two week old Malia living in our little 2 bedroom condo. That year he bought me Grease for my birthday, we watched it, took Malia to her 2wk doctor appointment, and had a visit from the lactation consultant before he headed off to work. I had just embarked on my journey to becoming a stay at home mom (although technically I was still employed, working for The Ritz-Carlton, just on leave). Aaron was selling cars-yah, yah, we know. It was great money really, just too bad that the environment and hours sucked so royally.
Just a few things I've done.....
I've given birth to seven children (ok, technically Malia was born 2wks before I hit 20).
We've lived in 4 different homes.
I've spent some of those years homeschooling-something I really never thought I'd do.
I've spent nearly all of that time serving in Primary! Apparently I fit in better with children than adults. ;) Shocker, huh?
I've taught myself how to sew, learned how to frame (the basement), drywall, done plenty of painting, and even dabbled with some electric work in a house where it probably should have killed me to play with the wires. No, I don't do plumbing.
I've learned more than I thought possible, changed some of my opinions on things, made choices that I never thought I'd make, and decided that a piece of paper doesn't make you educated; your desire to learn, and efforts to do so, whether you are in a pompous university or a humble home is what provides education.
I've fallen more madly in love that I thought possible. I knew I loved Aaron long before we married, but never imagined that it was only the tip of the iceberg.
I've learned a lot about what is important to me and what I want from life. I've learned that although this life that I live today is very much not what I had planned, it is very much the one I really did want, and I wouldn't change it for anything.
Oh, and my personal favorite highlight of my 20's......(drumroll please).......in the past 10 years I have gained 217 pounds. Yes, you read that right! Thankfully I have lost 209lbs (still working on the last 8 from Charlotte-they'll stick around until she weans).
As of 11:36am yesterday morning, I am now officially 30 years old. How did I welcome in today, my first day officially waking up as a 30 year old? With German Chocolate Pie of course! What? You don't eat dessert for breakfast? I've been told that metabolism tanks when you hit 30. We'll just say I'm just conducting a little experiment or something.
Any big plans for the next ten years? Not so much. Just more of the same. I'm not a huge fan of change most of the time. Hopefully at least one more baby, but it will be odd to finish that stage of my life. By the time I hit another decade mark, I'll have a child that is out of her teens (ACK!!!), and 4 more in their teens with the next one not far behind that. Wow-Charli will be Malia's age..... Strange. Considering how fast the past 10 years have gone, and the fact that each day seems to go by faster than the one before, unfortunately I'm sure it will be here before I know it.
So to celebrate being old now, I'm embarking on a new little endeavor. After being told "you should sell that!" enough times to get me thinking, I'm finally doing something about it. I was hoping to have everything up and running for my big b-day gift to myself, but between finishing up Halloween costumes and a couple of custom orders, I just haven't gotten around to finishing it yet. Hopefully by the end of the week! I'll of course link that here once I get it ready, so keep an eye out for that. : )
Another year older, hopefully a little bit wiser, and looking forward to the next ten. Hopefully with a killer tan. (Thanks Babe!!)
Could everything I'm looking for be?
We did the big WalMart trip last night. We have a costume party tonight, so we were grabbing those few last minute things we needed to finish up the costumes, and getting all the munchies that we wanted on hand. (no, we don't get the munchies from our parties-you know what I mean).
So, now that I have less than 2hrs until things get under way, I'm making sure we have everything ready to go. My spine starts tingling as my inner radar indicates that I cannot locate my giant party size bag of M&Ms in less than 30 seconds. Or less than 5 minutes. And now that I'm looking, where are the olives? And all the bobby pins I got so that I could get my hair done? And where are the chips? And hey, WAIT A MINUTE-I'm missing all sorts of things!! Panic ensues at the thought of being M&M-less, and though I do love them so, I'm not sure I can justify a 45min trip to the store at this hour just for my beloved little rainbow colored melt-in-your-mouth-not-in-your-hand goodness. Did we leave them at Walmart? (Oh please no!)
No, I distinctly remember seeing at least some of the missing items in the car last night.....
Checked the car. No.
Checked my stash. No.
Checked all of my little secret hiding places. Nope. No luck.
Dang.
Oh wait, where haven't I checked?
The freezer.
Good crimeny.
Lo and behold. The missing bag; M&Ms (PHEW!), Thread, buttons, bobby pins, drink mix.....In the freezer. Of course. Why wouldn't one of the kids have stuck those things in the freezer?
But now the baby is finished nursing so I am off to finish getting ready!
Ever googled yourself?
I did today. Stupid reason, I entered a giveaway contest and now can't come up with where it was, so I figured I'd google for a bit and see if it came up anywhere. You know, my name as the winner of the giveaway. Oh c'mon, I'm hopeful!
So, what comes up with "Catey" and hmmm...what did I add? Winner? Blog? Blogger? Can't remember! Oh well.
Turns out that I've become a bit more popular since last time I did this little exercise. In the past the only things that came up were some comments on natural induction methods (my experience with reflexology), and the Catey Awards. Turns out I'm more involved in the hospitality industry than just a few years with Marriott and The Ritz-Carlton all those years ago!
I do wonder if Aaron suggested the title for this little bit?
Now what is there for me? Well, I've been turned into a comic strip. Yep, that's right, Bev and Catey. Still trying to figure out if I'm the black woman with the beehive, or the blond with a 'fro. If you figure it out let me know.
Also, apparently I have a 46yr old lover named Michael who wished me a Happy Birthday back in February. A picture of a postcard.....hmmmm.....wonder if his last name is Scott by any chance?
I coming up as a little 2yr old as well. With much darker hair. Though I'd love her tan. ;) I'm not posting that link 'cause that's just a little too scary/stalker/creepy.
I am a chick in the UK with a crafty little blog. Apparently I've already celebrated my birthday-two weeks early-with a brownie and a walk on the beach. And I topped of the evening with a bag of Jelly Bellys! Sounds good to me! Maybe I'll leave a comment there......
This one cracked me up too....Catey's scrapbook profile. Mostly because she is obviously LDS and in her gallery had a bday card for Kelsey (my sister's name).
You must check out www.catey.org-this just kills me! Check the picture and the caption under it. "Inspiring confidence globally". Oh really? Slap happy dude with a pilsner in a pub? Not exactly what comes to mind for me when I think "global confidence". But whatever.
The Catey Fam has their own website, wonder if it's the same Scott that's out there "inspiring global confidence"? I didn't know my name was also a last name. But hey, it's made the baby name books here.
I am a really odd caterpillar that will not, I repeat NOT help sell your house.
And here I am rockin my new glasses. Good Times.
I had a great photoshoot here. Totally rockin the rain boots too. And look, I am {fun-tastic}!
I am also a company with my own logo. In addition to that, there is actually a company called Catey Control in Salt Lake City. I just wish I could figure out what it is exactly that they do........
And I love this. You think people who see this will start calling me "c-unit" now? Apparently "i heart ...hugging people. Just heaps and heaps. Touching people is so my style". Wow. Who knew? Honestly, I'm just not sure what to make of that statement. Especially in light of having watched dozens of episodes of The Office lately....it just seems like something Michael would say.
And there you have it. Now I feel like a creepy stalker.
Go google yourself and see what you come up with.
Ahhh, from the mouths of babes.
Jacob's wisdom, imparted as we were out driving around on Saturday.
"Hey mom-I know a good rule. You should never touch a porcupine."
Yes, so true. Not sure what prompted it, but glad to know that should this ever be a temptation for him, he's already made this decision.
After a few minutes of quiet reflection he followed that with:
"Oh, and Mom, You should also never sniff a skunk's bum."
Slacker mom late on a birthday post again.
Malia is 10. Double Digits. How is it possible that I am old enough to have a child this old? Ok, so I am just barely old enough, but still! ;)
I loved Aaron's post for her birthday, and his little slideshow of pictures, so you can see those here. For last year's birthday post and the birth story tradition, you can go here. 
It's crazy to watch the years fly by faster and faster. I think that is compounded lately by the fact that Charlotte looks a lot like Malia did when she was a baby. Nothing like having a little clone of your first baby to remind you that she certainly isn't a baby anymore!
Malia is so helpful, really a sweet kid. For example, after doing a Service Scavenger Hunt a couple of weeks ago with her Activity Days group, she decided when she was bored the other day that she wanted to do it again. Imagine what a mean mom I felt like when I brushed it off at first and ended up with my daughter actually pleading to go out and see if anyone needed help with anything. She went, she helped someone, and she came back thrilled to death. (now if we could only play that game at home every once in a while!)
Shortly after Charlotte was born she wrote me a little letter telling me that she knew I was busy with the house and the family and the new baby and getting homeschooling things together, so she was going to try harder to be more helpful and more kind to her brothers and sisters. Who does that? I hope she never loses this part of her. I hope that I can do a better job at encouraging these things in her.
I love her enthusiasm and her comfort with who she is. If you have sat near Malia in church, or been around her anywhere else where singing is involved, you know that she is tone deaf. This is really a bummer because she LOVES to sing, and she has an amazing ability to learn lyrics very quickly. But you know what? That doesn't stop her. When she sings, she sings her little heart out. She isn't embarrassed to sing in front of friends or family, and she sings with all her might in church as well. When I was serving in the Primary, I remember other kids laughing at her while she sang because she really was singing particularly loud that day. I was absolutely heartbroken for her, and hoped she wouldn't realize that they were laughing at her. Sadly, she did, but much to my surprise, she kept right on singing anyway. The saying "dance like no one's watching" could be altered for her to "sing like no one's listening".....or better yet, "just keep singing, who cares what they think!" :) I'm so impressed with her ability and desire to press on and to improve-not just in that aspect, but in most aspects in life. She tries so hard. What a great example she is. I wish I were more like her in that regard. 
Of course we have our issues with each other, but it seems like most of the time when we do have issues with each other, it's because we are so very much the same! Two very stubborn females.....it ought to get really exciting around these parts in the next few years!
And even though the other kids hate it now, she'll be a great mom someday! :)
Last weekend I determined a way to realize if you have a blogging addiction. We had been out late, not getting home until nearly 12:30, and by the time we got the sitter home, the house shut down, the kids all checked on and all that other end of the night stuff, it was 1:15 am. Thus I was a tad bit surprised to find my most wonderful dear sweet husband wandering into the office to check.......his blog. I'm going to chalk it up to his 31 posts in 31 days thing and say that I'm sure he could stop blogging (or blog stalking) at any time. Really. If he wanted to. ;) (love you babe!!)
Then over the past couple of days I've come upon a few other "how you know" moments.
How you know you're a mom: You decide to get up early to work out. The kids foil you by getting up early on a weekday. You try anyway. A 42min cardio workout, coupled with a 10 min ab routine take you 2hrs and 13minutes to complete. This is because interspersed in those 52min of exercise you poured 4 bowls of cereal, changed two diapers, showered two boys, tied a pair of shoes, curled hair, sent two kids off to school, nursed a baby and answered the phone twice. Yet you persist. Even if after all of this you still weigh more than you did yesterday. Whatever.
How you know your kids have a sixth sense: They resist getting out of bed on a weekday that involves school. No matter how early they went to bed the night before. Mom must go to get them out of bed more than once, pleading with them to get up so that we don't have to rush to get them to school on time. Yet on a Saturday or Sunday, when mom and dad don't have to be up and somewhere first thing in the morning, or a weekday with no school, they are up at the crack of dawn. Or before dawn now that the sunrise is later. This also is the case on a weekday when you decide to work out. See above.
How you know you like chocolate too much: You sneak it in when you can, but in effort to not weigh more tomorrow, you make sure you get it in healthy doses, like via a protein shake and such. When you do splurge, you try to sneak it in in small increments here and there. Unfortunately this results in finding out-after you finish nursing the baby-that you have dropped something chocolate on her, it landed on her hand which she then rubbed her face with, leaving a trail of melted chocolate across her cheek, eyebrows, nose and eyelids. Oh, and part of her ear. Not to mention it melted under her little fingers into the crevices where her fingers meet her palm and into her fingernails. Wow. Who knew one stray chocolate chip could do so much damage? (I swear I had Aaron take a picture of the sleepy grin on her face as she was covered in chocolate, but I can't find it on either camera!) At least it came out of both her shirt and mine.
How you know it's not your first or only child: When it's "Red Day" at Kindergarten and your child gets up in the morning and puts this on: 
and you don't argue. Hey, he's wearing red. Who cares if it's two different shades of red.
Also when it if your Kindergartener's turn for "snack day", and you send in a box of generic Vanilla Wafers. Even though there are some people who on their "snack day" take in little airplanes with the bodies made of little tubes of mini M&Ms, wings of laffy taffy, etc,etc. You get the picture. heehee....you can tell when it's a first or only child in Kindergarten! lol Bless those cute little moms....
How you know you have a wonderful husband: When he comes home each day he tells you how wonderful and beautiful you are, even with no makeup, spit up stains on your shirt, snot wiped down your jeans, and the infamous mommy ponytail (or bun) going on. Then he asks what he can do to help with dinner, and gladly relieves you of whichever child is currently clinging to your leg to give you a blessed 3 1/2 minutes completely alone to go to the bathroom. Even if you don't really have to go and just go in there to experience the sensation of walking in alone, locking the door, and not having someone either sticking fingers under the door, trying to jimmy open the lock, or banging on the door saying in their most polite little soft and gentle voice: "MOMMMMY!!!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THERE????? COME OUT!!" Hubby gets bonus points when he realizes without being prompted that you've managed to get into a jeans a size smaller without popping seams, zippers, or buttons, or holding your breath.
How you know you love your kids: Even though it is hours past your bedtime, you go down to check on them just one last time, and instead of being irritated, you laugh that two bedrooms still have lights on (though children have thankfully fallen asleep), more than one child fell asleep with a book on their lap, one child is trying to sleep on three stacked pillows with "necessities" stacked in between pillows (a pair of slippers, plastic tools, weapons, stuffed dogs, etc), you turn down obnoxious "children's" cds so that they don't wake you (again) in the middle of the night, or keep you from falling asleep after getting up with the baby at 2am, then admire all those sweet sleeping faces and remember what a blessing they are. Even if they make it so that your house never is clean, your laundry never is done, there are always dishes in the sink, you rarely have a free minute and you (almost never) go to the bathroom uninterrupted and haven't for the past 10yrs. And then your arms feel empty as you climb into bed because the baby (bless her!!!) has finally started sleeping in stretches just a little bit longer.
Apparently I'm it.
Allrighty.
Here we go. In nearly two years I have successfully avoided being “tagged”. Since Chris hit me with this, and Justin decided he’d hit me too, I’m going to humor them. But only because they both had birthdays last week. Gentlemen, Happy stinkin’ Birthday, this is just for you!
But in the spirit of being annoying, I will tag 7 others at the end! ha!
Unfortunately most of the “7 interesting things” I came up with, um, well, NOT sharing them! Either you wouldn’t want to know them or I’m not about to admit to them. ; ) I pulled a Chris and kept a little note card with me today so that when I came up with something, I could jot it down and not forget it and spend time actually trying to come up with something else. And I made this looooong and tedious so as to avoid anyone tagging me in the future!
So here’s what you get:
1-I have some OCD issues. I’m sure the light switches and toenails have been mentioned before, so I’m hitting the closet part of it here. My hangers. They are all the same. They came from I think The Limited or Lerner or some store like that, when a retail thing that my dad was managing took over their store space at Crossroads Mall. I don’t like any other hangers. I prefer mine evenly spaced, and my clothes are sorted by color, the sweaters are all at one end-not sorted with the other shirts by color-but are still sorted in color order. And my shoes are almost all in their boxes as well.
2-I am an anti-dentite. “A RAAAABID Anti-Dentite!” :) I really hate having my teeth worked on. I would rather give birth than have cavities filled. My dentist knows this. He at first figured it was b/c I, like most of the world, used an epidural. I think he was a bit shocked to find out that, no I don’t, and when I meant I’d rather give birth than have my teeth worked on, I meant giving birth w/out pain meds. I do hate dental work that much. I guess the bonus of my dentist knowing this is that he’s REALLY nice when he works on my teeth! : ) It would then stand to reason that I am very good about always brushing and flossing. Nope. I’m not. at all.
3-I like Crayons. New, pointy Crayola crayons. I like to buy them when they are on sale before school starts every year, so I have a lot of them stashed away. When I am coloring something I get out “Mommy’s crayons” and thoroughly enjoy not using little bitty broken pieces of crayons. Yes, I do share some of the new ones with my kids when the need rolls around!
4- When I eat M&Ms, I eat them by color. I will eat them so that I have an even number of each color in my hand, then eat them in color order (yellow, orange, red, brown, blue, green). Green is eaten last. Or occasionally I’ll eat them in a pattern. Like if I have two of each color except one and have one of that color, I’ll line them up and eat them. So if I have just one green, I’ll eat blue, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, yellow, orange, red, brown, blue. I know. I’m retarded.
5-I’m awful at Thank You notes. I really am. I swear I am not ungrateful, I just for some reason procrastinate them. Like from my baby shower in July? Yah. Unfortunately half of the people haven’t received thank you notes yet. (maybe this will motivate me to finish? I have names on each of them, just haven’t finished writing them). Thankfully I have very forgiving friends and they know I love them even if I suck at putting it in writing!
6-My pain tolerance is weird. Labor/childbirth, sure. (I even had a video camera filming this last labor to see if I tolerated in the way I thought. No, you don’t see anything-it was at the head of the bed, behind me!) With pitocin, why not? Bring it on. Huge challenging work outs, aching muscles? Yep, love it. But if Aaron tries to pop a zit for me? Oh heck no! And we’ve already mentioned the dental work issues. And the nurse who did my IV at the hospital last time? It took everything in me not to deck her. I guess then I do well with endurance/building type of pain, but not the more sharp instant pain? I don’t know.
7-If I had to label myself, I would say that at heart I am a black-tie red-neck. I believe in pearls with jeans. I love getting dressed up, love the theater, ballet, symphonies, a fancy evening out. I would also love to live on a ranch/farm. I love getting my hands dirty and working hard. One of the reasons I love where we live is that there are fields and farms around. I love driving the main road out when the herds are out grazing. I love visiting a friend’s dairy farm up a few hours North of here. I loved the smell of the cows out in the field in the crisp fall air when I took my long bike ride last time. (yes, I realize that no one loves that smell) I would love to have a big truck (Ford F-series, black, lifted, extended cab, tinted windows), and if I ever get it I will even be nice and let Aaron drive it occasionally. I like to blame this whole thing on my Dad’s parents; I guess I am the result of what happens when you combine a London born and raised Grandmother and an Evanston WY cowboy Grandfather! : )
There you have it. My one and only tag. Now, Kelsey, Rheanna, Rachel, Stacy S., Lisa, LL(who gave me a cute blog award that one day I'll get in gear and pass on!), and Tina. Go for it.
It was a Thursday night and I had just come home. Taylor had asked me why my tummy was still "so big" even though the baby was out now! lol Instead of a chunky little two month old in pink, I had a skinny little bird-legged baby boy. My little Lincoln.
As odd as it sounds, it seems like he's always been the way he is now. A wild little light-haired boy, climbing into everything. It seems odd to think of when he was a tiny baby.
Since I've written a birthday post for him before with his birth story, if you are interested you can read that here. Otherwise, this year I'll expand to a 'pre-birth'story, and say that Lincoln wasn't in my plans when it was time for him to join our family. I knew very specifically that it was time for him to come. It had been very directly impressed for two months in a row that it would be time for our next baby to join our family. But I felt like I wasn't ready. Ironic considering how close all of our kids have always been. I wanted just a couple more months to just be me. I didn't want another October baby, especially considering that the big family California trip (my family's Oct tradition) was already lined up. I'm sure I had a whole list of selfish reasons why it just "wasn't the right time yet". I remember actually having the audacity to attempt a mental bargaining with the powers that be...."I'm not saying 'no' to another baby, just 'not right now'......just give me a little more time....". I'm embarrassed to admit that right out loud. Thinking that I knew better what I needed.
I didn't even need to take a test those few weeks later, I knew. When I didn't have that surge of excitement at the realization that I was pregnant, I feared that maybe this pregnancy wouldn't go smoothly, maybe it was my subconscious way of not getting attached to the idea of a baby. I cried when I told Aaron I was expecting. He was more excited than I was, and for that I felt guilty.
Thankfully by a couple of months into the pregnancy, I was excited for and looking forward to this addition to our family. We just knew it was a boy, and we prepared for a blue bundle before it was even confirmed that there was indeed outdoor plumbing. As soon as we confirmed for sure it was a boy, we had decided on a name within minutes. We walked out of the ultrasound room and I told Aaron his name would be either Calvin Christopher or Samuel Gregory. He suggested Calvin Gregory. That was it! When we had our 20wk ultrasound and found cysts on the baby's brain, I tried not to worry. We had been through this before with Taylor and everything turned out fine. For some reason this time I was terribly disturbed. I knew the cysts would go away, and that they wouldn't pose any problems, but couldn't get over the fear that something would go terribly wrong with this baby. I'm sure people thought I was nuts when I randomly burst into sobs. At least it didn't happen often, and I guess they just chalked it up to pregnancy hormones. Although I know I shocked a couple of friends when we went to the temple one night and I was not just crying but actually choking out sobs. It was very humbling. I still don't know why I felt that way, as obviously everything turned out perfect with this crazy little boy. Perhaps I was greatly in need of some humbling.....
Shortly before he was born Aaron called and hesitantly told me that he just felt like Calvin didn't fit anymore. He really felt strongly that this baby needed to be named Lincoln. I scoffed, told him I'd mull it over (just to make him happy), and hung up. I tried to push it out of my head for a number of days, but as much as I didn't like the suggestion in the beginning, each day it felt more and more right. Lincoln it was. I suppose if you are going to give a tiny baby boy a very grown up name, it must be the name of a very great person. In this case, two. Our little Lincoln Gregory.
Two years ago today.... I gazed in awe at my perfect little baby boy who had finally come home to our family and very humbly admitted to him, and to my Heavenly Father that I had had no idea what I had been talking about when I figured it wasn't time for him to join us. What had I been thinking? How could I have even considered putting him off for even "just" another month? He was exactly what we needed, and arrived at exactly the right time. I can't imagine the past two years without Lincoln. He has provided laughter and moments for reflection....he has played the role of my security blanket more than once. How blessed we are to have him in our family!
Lincoln-year one to two....
....."Gee, I'm glad we have insurance!" You see, I was going through the recent onslaught of medical bills (baby's delivery, OB's bill, Aaron's ER visit, Dallin's stitches in July), and noticed just how many thousands of dollars we'd owe people if we didn't. We still owe a lot more than I'd like, but I'll certainly take this over the alternative! I noticed in particular how expensive stitches are. Dallin's bill for 5 stitches in his chin would have been $487. Holy Moly! Ouch. Hallelujah that we only have to cover $26.29.
Double Hallelujah since tonight was just a quiet night at home.
On the agenda, a quick stop in at the Stake President's office, then I was off to do some inventory (have I mentioned I like shoes? rofl!), and Aaron was home with the kids. Well, since the barcoder ended up in The Big City to the north of us with one of the party managers, and entering hundreds of pairs of shoes barcodes by hand is tedious to say the least, inventory was called off and I got to be home. Good Timing since Aaron is on call and apparently people do not know how to function this evening so he was busy with computer illiterates.
Anyway-I headed home, hung out with the kids, helped Malia with homework, watched Aaron cruise around on facebook (he sucommed to the hysteria), and just enjoyed the evening. Clean house, happy kids, husband off the phone with the people who don't know how to run their own computer systems....good times.
Kids got all wrapped up and ready for bed, we had prayers and sent the little ones down to their beds. *sigh* Bliss.
Yep.
You know where this is going.
Enter the scream, one child running upstairs in a panic, continuous crying, and oh yah, lots of blood.
Any guesses on who?
Dallin. Again. Just over two months since the stitches in his chin. At least he's going for variety and did the forehead this time. Apparently he doesn't want anyone else's scars to take all the glory (Daniel! lol Just kidding! Although I know Dallin will love yours!).
We made it through 9yrs and 9+ months of parenting and only had stitches happen once. And that wasn't until child #4. Now in the past two months we've tripled the count. Dang.
Two sets of stitches in two months. I really hope this kid isn't trying to establish a pattern.
When we have pancakes, our kids like to have "gross pancakes". Honestly, I don't remember how it started. I think it was with Aaron (blame dad, right?). Something about wanting to experience the infamous Bill Cosby "Dad is great!" (relating to breakfast) thing. You all know about my sweet tooth, so I'm sure it's not shocking that when we eat pancakes I often break out the powdered sugar and chocolate chips. Nothing starts the morning like a good sugar buzz!
Well, one morning it evolved from syrup, chocolate chips and powdered sugar, to the addition of a cinnamon/sugar mixture and brown sugar as well. If I remember correctly, I walked in on this and commented that it was gross. And, well, "gross pancakes" were born.
Last night I made pancakes for dinner. I love a good simple default. :) I was also in the process of doing about a hundred other things (they typical situation for a mom making dinner), so I poured the first round of pancakes on the griddle and stepped away for a minute to do whatever else needed my attention at the moment.
I came back to flip the pancakes and saw this:
No, I wasn't making chocolate chip pancakes (thank goodness-I might have missed it!). Look closer.
Yep. That's a pancake with extra protein. Apparently the fly thought he'd be sneaky and have some pancakes for dinner too. Tough way to learn that he should've just stayed in the path of the fly swatter. Hopefully he at least died happy. (and warm! ha!)Have you seen Emperor's New Groove? You know when Kuzco (as a LLama, dressed up as a woman) and Pacha go out to eat and Pacha breaks the bug open....you know that sound that Kuzco makes? (best description I can think of is *hork*-thank you Lisa) That's the sound that echoed through the kitchen. Yummy. Ironically that sound makes me think of castor oil, but that's completely a different story.
Ironically it was almost exactly one year ago when I posted under the title "If the Shoe Fits".
Happy two months to my little munchkin. Wow....the time really does goes faster with each one. It's just not fair. 
So it's only been almost a week and I'm finally getting to it! Geesh! Hate it when life gets in the way. ;)
Last Sunday we blessed Charlotte. It was a wonderful day-something that was very needed in the midst of all of what's going on at the moment. Nothing fancy or exciting, just some of the fam and a close friend. But we were super excited that my older brother drove all the way out here, even if he did only stay for about 15 minutes. Thanks for coming, we were very happy to have you there! (even if I do apparently owe you $50 for wearing a shirt to church)
It was great to have Aaron's brother out with us too-it was fun watching the two brothers and Aaron's best friend bantering back and forth all afternoon. Nice to see the mood lightened a little bit, despite his recent diagnosis.
My sister spent the night at our house on Saturday so that we could go to the temple and have someone we trusted home with the kids (including baby! eek!). She was great-and still talked to us when we got home late Saturday night so we take that to be a good sign. heh Having her there on Sunday morning was a great help in getting everything ready to go for lunch right after church, as well as getting all the kidlets ready to go and out the door with time to spare. Not to mention she made some very cute cookies! Thanks Kel! (make sure you see my favorite picture of her cute family...Nick was SO excited to be here! ha!)
Though I had finished Charli's dress months before she was born, I realized on Friday that I had never put buttons on the back or made the shoes. Whoops. Thankfully I was able to knock that out in a little extra time on Saturday. The shoes weren't exactly what I had planned (can we say improvise??), but they turned out better than I expected! We went from this:
And they look darn cute on!
And of course there had to be matching accessories in the form of the flower headband and the bracelet! This is where having a little girl is FUN! And I think her two doting sisters enjoy it almost as much as I do.
I had wondered when Aaron was going to mention any of it and didn't want to step on his toes, so I hadn't said anything here yet.
Unfortunately this week brought some tough news for Aaron's family. His Dad who was hoping to wrap up a nasty divorce at the court date this week was pretty much just stomped on, so it will now be dragging out into a trial to end Dec 24. Merry Christmas. Poor guy.
On top of that we found out that the reason Aaron's brother hasn't been feeling well lately is that he has cancer. The original diagnosis was Thyroid, and with further testing it has been confirmed to be Thyroid that has also spread into his chest and lymph nodes. Of course everyone is trying to be optimistic and hope for the best. He goes into surgery one week from today, we'll see how it goes after that I guess.
You can read Aaron's take on things here.
So for the family members that happen to read this, there will be a family fast for both of them on Sunday. Anyone else who would be willing to join in the fast, or to add them to your prayers would be greatly appreciated!
I have to say that it's nice that even on the crazy days, my sweet little Charlotte greets me like this:
(although I think that bow might be a tad bit big still! lol)
Such a fun stage!
Oh yah. NO ONE.
All right-I'm going the way of the blogging gripe. Just because I can.
So today was one of those days. Of course it was. Too many things to do, not enough hours to do it. And I made the mistake of splurging 45 min on myself to work out this morning. Keeping baby happy for that long since she woke up just 10min into my work out was enough of a challenge. Add to that children (duh), schooling, 6 loads of laundry, two baskets full of ironing that I was trying to make a dent in, and planning on feeding the missionaries tonight, and you know the only answer to that equation is frazzled mom.
I miraculously did get all the laundry folded and mostly put away, got some ironing done, got through most of the day's school assignments, and got started on food. When the cute little Elders come for dinner, I try to make it nice. So I made a nice dinner. Some of it was time consuming. Plus since I wanted to do cheesecakes for my shoe party tomorrow (btw-I'm having a shoe party tomorrow! heh), and I prefer them to chill overnight instead of just for a couple of hours, I needed to get started on those. No problem I figured! I can do that and get the house clean-especially since Aaron is home by 4:30 and the missionaries won't be here until 5, he can help finish up dinner and get the table set.
Whoops-didn't figure for dessert for tonight. Oh well, Aaron can just swing by the store on his way home. So I give him a call. But he hadn't left work yet. Oh. So much for that. Thankfully we were offered some peaches so we could go the cobbler route and dessert was saved. phew. The other things I needed I can pick up tomorrow. But the bummer-Aaron *hoped* he'd make it home before company arrived. great. Oh yah-I was supposed to go pick something up from someone, and drop something else off sometime between 4:30 and 5. You know, after Aaron gets home, but before the dinner guests arrive. So much for that.
I enlisted as much help as possible from the kids, and they did pretty well, but there's only so much they can do, and not much I can do with a screaming baby. It was one of those times where I look at breastfeeding and am slightly annoyed. I love nursing my babies, and I usually love the sit-down break it gives me during the day. But on a day like today when everything I needed to get done was not do-able while nursing, spending nearly 3 1/2hrs just sitting and feeding the baby was hard. But hey, she's still alive, more than plump, and I guess the breaks were good for me on some level.
So, at this point I threw cheesecake #1 back in the oven (it has a double cook time after a second layer) for it's 10 minutes, got myself showered and presentable (including make up and hair!) in less than 8 minutes (so as not to let the cheesecake overcook. And yes I showered this morning, but after mad dash cleaning and a lot of time ironing and the lovely hormones, I was a sweaty pig and needed another shower). I then strapped baby up in a wrap, hoped she'd fall asleep and let me delay her dinner by a little longer, headed back in to take out the cheesecake and put the rolls in the oven.
I was thrilled when Aaron walked in at 10 minutes to 5, although I'm sure he didn't think that when saw me. Sorry babe. And the missionaries were not early. Good news. So at that point I just prayed that the chicken actually cooked all the way through.
With Aaron home, my frayed nerves calmed, and dinner finally coming together, we waited. And waited. And waited. And then the kids started asking "when are we eating?" And food was getting cold. And so we finally called the guy who sets up the dinner appointments. No answer. OK. It's now 5:45. Hmmmm.... Finally we get a call back and Aaron asks "So...where are the missionaries?" "OH", replies said guy. "They had a schedule change and aren't going to be able to do dinner tonight."
For real?
Aaron-still calm and polite then asks "So when did they let you know this?" (thinking of course it must have just happened)
"Ummm, last Wednesday. I should have called, but I just, um, forgot."
You just "um, forgot"??? To let the chick with 7 kids,including a less than 2 month old, and who is still occasionally prone to PP moments, know that she wasn't actually feeding extras? When you had a week's notice?
Bless my husband for being patient and kind. He just said "ok-thanks" and hung up. I would have probably explained just why said guy should be happy he wasn't in my presence when he made this announcement, 45 min after we expected them.
And really-I should go to more effort more often to make "nicer" dinners for my own family. But on a day like today, knowing that I could have had just a slightly less stressful afternoon and evening would have been helpful. Oh well. The house was very clean, dinner was great (the chicken did cook all the way), and we even had a great peach cobbler for dessert thanks to James.
And not only did Aaron calm me down, take over making sure that dinner was ready and on the table, he read stories to the kids and rubbed my feet tonight. He deserves a big fat gold star for today. : )
(and my cheesecakes are chilling in the fridge!)
Missed the game but the score was certainly worth noting.
UCLA got spanked. Hard.
59-0. ouch.
Funny thing is my first thought was "I bet that made my grandma happy!" heehee She complained about the officiating in last week's squeak past Washington. See-second marriages can be a good thing. After my (paternal) grandma died 10yrs ago, we never thought Gramps would get remarried. He couldn't have picked a better woman than Ann to fill in for our missing Grandma! :)
heehee
I'm laughing to myself here.
I got a package in the mail today. Hand addressed (I really hope that "limited" was pretty limited!), with a little embellished Thank You card in it-hand written. The girl is out of control. And absolutely genius. I'm quite certain she's laughing herself all the way to the bank.
So....What did I get? 
Good Timing. I needed the reminder this afternoon! ; )
As my days often blend together, this morning all that registered was that it was Thursday, Malia had a field trip today and I had to drive AM carpool. I got all the kids ready and piled into the car by 8:25 and headed to pick up the first carpool kid.
We drove past the school right by our house and I saw that the flag was at half-staff. i glanced to the South just a bit and saw that the city office flag and the main roundabout flag were both fully up. Huh. Feeling a little out of it I called Aaron. "Have I missed something? Why isn't the flag up?" After an awkward pause he said "Catey-today is the 11th."
Oh.
It was like a phantom sucker punch.
Have you forgotten?
Seven years ago I was just hanging out at home with my 15 month old and almost 3yr old. I was 6 wks away from delivering our third child. I always look straight to the clock upon waking and noticed that it was 6:42 am. I was kind of bugged that it was so early and I'd woken up even though the kids were still sleeping but decided to get up anyway. I remember Aaron calling and telling me to turn on the TV-that one of the Towers in NY was hit by a plane. I turned on the TV but was confused and told him it was just a picture of some other building on fire. I realized at the camera pulled back that it was the Pentagon. Coverage then turned back to New York and within minutes saw the footage of when second plane hit. Watching that was like getting hit right in the gut. I stood there in my bathrobe watching it unfold and just feeling sick. There was a slight feeling of panic-just how much worse was this going to get? Malia kept asking what was wrong-it was frustrating to tell her that I didn't know. It was a little eerie when I realized what time I had woken up that morning, I've not ever forgotten than.
What an interesting turn that day was. It was nothing short of horrific for obvious reasons. Anger, shock, disbelief, grief...it was all there. But also hope. What a refreshing change it was to suddenly have everyone wanting to work together. Everyone wanting to make our country better, no matter your political affiliation. Suddenly everyone flew the flag, choked up at the National Anthem, professed their love of our great nation.
I miss that.
As I drove the kids to school, the roads were lined with flags. One of them mentioned "oh, some other guy must be coming home today", as it is tradition in our little city to line the streets with flags and yellow ribbons when soldiers from our city return home-a small token of thanks for the sacrifice made by them and their families. I found myself struggling with my emotions as I told them why the flags were out today. The main response was "oh yah." And then conversation turned to the coming events of the day. It was interesting to me what little difference it seemed to make to them. A reminder that as a parent I must do a better job instilling in my children just how great the sacrifices are that have been made on their behalf, by countless people over the past 200+ years. They need to know that some of our friends and family members shipped off into the middle of it all so that we can be here, blissfully ignorant of just what they do on our behalf each day, as we go about our days.
(and yes, the other flags were fixed by the time I was home 2hrs later)
To those of you who sent your family out there, and continue to do so-thank you.
It's been a while, and since it's my official title here, I thought I'd go this route again and just dump my brain.
Dawn-props for posting your views. Love you!
To my dear cbett-welcome to the world of blogging! heehee You know now you'll have to start one.... I am embarrassed to say just how much I look forward to seeing your comments on Aaron's blog. But even more so on Kelsey's!
This was the view out my front door this morning.
I love the rain. Today is one of those great days where you open all the windows and it smells so wonderful. The perfect day for baking and reading. So guess what we did today? School's assignments were read-a-thon and practice reading a recipe. 4 loaves of zucchini bread so far. Now it smells even better in here.
I read Report Card (Andrew Clements). You should read it-it is much more profound that the audience it was written for will even pick up on. It reminded of me of this post from last year.
I love juvenile fiction. I could read Junie B. books every day.
Alaina read Ramona's World (Beverly Cleary) and There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom (Louis Sacchar). Before 1pm. The girl amazes me. And she retains all of it. Wish I could do that.
Taylor read about bats and Twisters. Then we looked up stuff with the National Weather Service to track Ike. I caught a conversation between he and Alaina shortly thereafter and he was telling her that he knew everything because he knew approximately when the hurricane should hit Texas. lol
These are things that make me love the flexibility of homeschooling. And help me get through those moments where I envy the moms who get to ship all their kids out in the morning and have some time to themselves. Or at least keep the house clean for more than twenty minutes.
I have vacuumed three times today. I will probably have to vacuum at least twice more. Maybe three times since they kids are making popcorn now.
I still can't decide if I like all the curriculum. Some of it I love. Some of it I could do without but am legally bound to use this year. blah. Oh well. 18 days down, only 162 more required by law.
Dallin cracks me up. He tried to duplicate the powdered sugar escapade yesterday. He failed.
I taught Taylor's Primary class two weeks before Charlotte was born. It was on gratitude. At the end of the lesson everyone drew something they were thankful for. This is what I drew. I was dumping Malia's camera onto the computer and saw that she had taken a picture of it. It made me smile. 
I can't wait until my new shirt arrives in the mail. It is Kick-A. Literally.
It makes me want to order a shirt for my brother that I'm not brave enough (stupid enough?) to wear. Or one for Aaron. Free Tibet (with purchase of Tibet of equal or greater value).
I made these little babies this weekend, 
courtesy of Bakerella. Love her website. I wish mine had turned out as cute as hers. Guess I'll just have to keep making them over and over until I have it perfected. darn. They are good enough that I would make them just for me. And not share. Well, maybe with a couple of people.
I have rekindled my love of sewing. It wasn't just a nesting thing after all. Now I'm going to put it to some good use. I hope.
I could easily spend hundreds of dollars on fabric. Specifically Michael Miller and Amy Butler. Who knew one day I'd be a fabric snob. Especially since I still happily shop the $1/yd table at Wal-mart.
Only one more week until my shoe party. Woo-hoo!
I saw this
and loved it. I want one. Apparently everyone and their dog has one though. That's ok-I'm a mom of seven and live in the sticks so I can be a bit behind the times. Even if it is overused I still love it.
I found this one
And laughed. hard. Thought of buying both and changing it on the days when I feel snarky, but I realized I don't want my children using that word. They've picked up enough garbage over the past year. Thankfully not from home. Sadly, from school or friends. *sigh* (Oh, the stories from the last few months....)
Everyone wants to come up with some brilliant invention, right? Especially us moms who are home all day. Many of us dream of hitting just the right niche in the baby/child market and making it big. This 
is not it. Honestly-a lot weird and kind of creepy. Good intentions gone wrong.
The worst part-it SOLD OUT on babysteals.com when it was featured. If I see your child wearing this, please forgive me if I scream. It makes me feel claustrophobic. And creeped out. Geesh, people think clowns are bad....
Charlotte won't nap today unless she is being held. Even then the most I have gotten out of her is about an hour while she was tucked up in my wrap. I love my wrap. It is the only reason I have gotten anything done today.
I love to listen to Dallin talk. He is so animated. We get many opportunities to listen to him because he never stops talking. Funny Kid. Look for his Magic Teeny Car story soon.
I saw someone's blog yesterday where one post was 18 pictures of their child eating. Rice cereal. Yes, 18 pictures. I counted because there were an awful lot. Granted, the kid was cute and it's their first kid, and I think they are in a different state from all of their family, so that made it ok, but still, 18 pictures a lot. It is funny to watch people with their first kid. I'd love to go back in time and watch Aaron and I with just one kid. I'm sure I'd find it very amusing.
Speaking of overkill with babies, this is the end of the newborn diapers. 
Charlotte is launching into size ones today. She's getting so big. I miss her skinny little bird legs. Now her thighs have little rolls like mine. :P
The word of the day is salsa. A neighbor of ours made some and brought us a jar. Lincoln has said "salsa" a lot. And it sounds funny.
And now I have to go wrangle kids together so I can pick up for carpool.
