Let's Hear It For the Boys

Warning: this is a kid update post. Let's shake it up a bit and start with the youngest for a change. Justin! He's 14 and a half months old now and has been crawling around for maybe a month or so. In the last week he's conquered stair climbing and goes up our stairs pretty much 20 times a day now. He's starting to look pretty skinny from all that climbing and crawling (no worries, he doesn't seem to be in any danger of losing his cute thigh rolls yet...). His favorite room to play in is the kitchen. I don't know why exactly, but he seems to have a kind of routine down: go to fridge, throw off all magnets within reach, turn stool over and put magnets in slots, throw magnets as far as possible, open tupperware cupboard, get into recyclables under sink, then finally make way to last cupboard in kitchen to see if there's anything worth pulling out. I know, sounds like fun, to Justin it's grade A entertainment. Justin has also discovered the bathroom and pulling himself up into a standing position. He usually leaves the toilet alone, but can't resist sometimes. He also loves to close doors then cries when he can't open them again. He's been pulling himself into a standing position at his toy chest and pulling books down. As you know, I'm always eager for more things to clean up. It's fun to see Evan and Justin interacting more. In some ways Justin wants to be just like his big bro: has a growing attachment to a blue blanket, doesn't like white milk, and sticks to mom like glue. Justin is still my happy little guy and I'll be sad when he's a full fledged toddler because I still can't help calling him my baby. sigh!

Evan and I are still so much alike sometimes it's scary. We know what the other is thinking and the same things make us mad. However, it's not fun when we are both mad at the same time, but we are working on that! Evan's favorite thing to do is to build. Building with pipes is number 1 but he'll build with legos, castle blocks, and his kinex too. He also likes to draw and recently has discovered video games. I honestly thought I was in the clear on that last one, after 4 and a half years in a house full of video games and NO interest in them, I figured he just wasn't going to ever like them and I was happy about that. Alas, I was wrong! It's become our newest battle: how long he can play, when he can play, what he can play. Ugh. At least he likes going to preschool finally. He rarely fights me on it (a day I thought would NEVER come) and I've seen how he's grown and learned from his experiences there.

Even though raising kids has been the most demanding, exhausting, and frustrating job I've ever had, I know it's what I'm meant to be doing right now and there's things that only my kids can teach me that I need to learn. I've found, especially in my struggles with Evan, that even though I wish I could just snap my fingers to make things better on the bad days, I know it's not in vain, I'm not being punished, but molded into the Mom I need to be. It's a hard process, one I'm not always eager to go through, but with Heavenly Father's help, I know it's one I won't regret and one I'm determined not to fail at. I love my kids and even though I don't always love myself for the shortcomings I see in myself as their mother, I know there's a reason we're together, and I think it's mostly for my learning and growing benefit at this time. So kids, thanks for loving your imperfect mother, just know I'm trying!!

"I'm the Boss!"

Evan yelled at me the other morning from across the kitchen table "I'm the boss and you're not!" Great, I sighed to myself thinking our day was already off to a sour start. Evan then proceeded to stand up in his chair, give me his most defiant look and just in general try to lord over me, giving an even further sinking feeling to my stomach. But then, I thought, heck, why not kid? Why don't you just be the boss already? You practically rule our house anyways! So, then, I looked at him and said, "yep, Evan, you're right, you are the boss, so let me tell you about your duties." I then started to tell him all that he needed to do as "the boss", starting from everything I do from the moment the kids get up. I told him how, as the boss, he was in charge of getting him and his brother breakfast, oh, and breakfast for me for the matter. This was getting fun, so I told him I wanted waffles on Monday, cereal on Tuesday ect. Of course, then I had to tell him how he had to put the dishes away in the morning and change Justin's butt and on and on. Finally, he stops me and says "But I don't know how to do all of those things!" To which I replied "Oh, that's too bad, because, as the boss, you're going to have to learn because the boss is in charge of everything, right?" He starts thinking about it again, we talk about how I'm willing to teach him all that stuff so he can be a proper boss, and then finally he sighs and says "That's ok Mom, you can be the boss, I don't want to have to do all of that stuff." Ahh, the morning was starting to look up again...however, now I did have to go do all of that stuff I had just described to him...oh well! Merry Christmas everyone!!!

The Story of My Life Part 6: The Move to a Senior Citizen Trailer Court

All good things must come to an end, right? And thus it was with our blissful time in the country. My parents eventually did get worn out from tending their one acre and from driving back and forth into the nearest "big" town, so they decided to move into town and make us city folk. Tiffin isn't a big place, it's got about a population of 18,000 people in it, but out of all the places to live in town, my parents picked a trailer court for people who were over the age of 60 for us to call home. Ok, my parents were in their mid 30s at the time, so how did they get us young people in? They hid us. Just kidding! They bribed the trailer court owner I think. Tee-hee. His name was MJ Brown and he liked money and him and my parents came to an agreement that got us a nice blue double-wide. Now, you have to understand something about Ohio, there are trailer courts everywhere, but they are much nicer than the ones I've seen out west. I promise you, you'd be impressed. Plus, there's no stigma attached to living in one in Ohio like there is out here. I never thought twice about it, the house was really nice.
The trailer court wasn't half bad either, it had a swimming pool alongside a rock quarry "lake" to swim in, lots of places to ride my bike and a shuffle board court. My sister and I even got a paper route. Well, Jenn had it officially as her own at first, but she felt so bad asking for people to pay up, I started to do the collecting for her and when Mom found out she made me Jenn's official partner and I started delivering papers too. We got to know a lot of the residents that way. Plus, you really stick out when you're 8 and everyone else is over 60. I got all the lemonade and cookies I wanted, it was like I had 20 sets of grandparents. I used to go pick wildflowers and give the flowers to my favorite residents. They were all so sweet (except for one guy who would yell at Jenn and I whenever we'd ride by on our bikes--which we responded to by biking up onto his driveway any chance we got--but even he too eventually warmed up to us). But living in a senior citizen trailer court isn't as bad as you'd think when you're 8.

Family Photos

Who doesn't love a good photo session with the kids? It's such a relaxing time for everyone, one free of stress and worry, full of smiles and happiness and golden unicorns. I think we should do a photo shoot at least once a month from now on.

A Parenting Book Made for Me and Evan

Some of you already know that a book I put on hold at the library awhile ago finally came in this week (because I've already started to talk your ear off about it!) and it's called "Raising Your Spirited Child: a guide for parents whose child is more intense, sensitive, perceptive, persistent and energetic." I first heard about this book on my friend Tristan's blog. She has a child that fits this description too and talked about how this book was immensely helpful to her so that's when I immediately put it on hold because I said "hmm, this sounds like me and Evan!". If you are wondering "what is a spirited child?" "do I need to read this book?" then my answer would be nope! you probably don't need to read it! If you have a spirited child, there's no need to wonder about it, you KNOW it. lol!
The really interesting thing is when I'm reading this book it's like I'm finding all the answers to my concerns with how to deal with Evan answered (I feel like this book is reading my mind!) that I've been wondering about for forever, but I'm also finding out things about ME that I never knew how to deal with before. I know Evan and I are a lot alike. I was a very spirited child and there's a lot of things, as a now spirited adult, I'm able to manage well, but there's always been things about my personality I've never understood or knew how to manage. And it's really worried me that I'm supposed to teach my child how to manage something I can't manage in myself. My parents did a great job raising me and helped me out in a lot of ways, but I was really, really hard to deal with as a small child and some of those things carried over as an adult. It's like, if you don't learn how to manage some things as a child, you grow up and still don't know how to manage them. One of those things is my intense temper. I've struggled for years with my blowups, and having a child just like me with the same tendency really gets things crazy around here sometimes. And the book talks about intensity and how not to be afraid of it and how to watch for cues when things are getting too intense and how one needs to get out of the situation and go do a calming activity. So, this morning for instance, we were all in the same room and the baby was starting to cry and fuss and Evan was getting whiny and demanding and Steven wasn't engaging the situation like I was hoping he would and I could feel myself getting steamed and overwhelmed. Then, I realized these cues in myself that I needed to get out of the situation before I blew, so I picked the baby up, and went downstairs to have breakfast. And it worked! I didn't blow up and I could feel myself immediately calming down. In the past, I would have picked a fight with Steve to get him to help which would have made the children even more agitated and then blown up when my "plan" to defuse the situation backfired. Instead, the baby and I got breakfast and Steve dealt with Evan in my absence like I sensed he would. And these same tactics work for Evan. I really could go on and on, but it's amazing how finding the right book has suddenly given me the tools I've been formerly lacking in my life to deal with so many things so much better. It's a true blessing!! One which I can tell I'll probably blog about several more times! Lucky!!
here's a link to copy and paste that leads to a really good article that sums up the book and what spirited children are very well: http://parenting.ivillage.com/gs/gsbehavior/0,,45pv,00.html

The Story of My Life Part 5: Treehouses, Gardens, Ponds and Cornfields

I don't remember if we mentioned it to Dad just once or maybe it was a million times, but at some point in our young lives my sister and I told him we'd like a treehouse. So what does good ol' dad do? He builds us one of course! My dad is the sort of person who once he decides to do something he doesn't wait around, he does it NOW and doesn't stop till it's done. Thus it was with said treehouse. He chopped down the trees, laid the planks, got the ladder up and everything in what pretty much felt like one day. We lived on an acre of land and we had 2 small forests right behind our house each going down the same hill. A big swath of grass divided them (I think the bare spot was there just so we had something to sled down in the winter). The forest he built the treehouse in was considered the "tame" forest. You could actually walk through it, the other one was too wild and you had to climb over tons of underbrush to get through it. Anyways, the treehouse was right at the beginning of the tame forest and my sister and I played in it for hours. We always dreamt of upgrading it--give it things like a roof, more rooms ect. but I thought we were pretty lucky to have one at all. Most kids only dream of having a treehouse, but we actually had one! I remember Jenn loved to climb trees, but I didn't so I'd always use the ladder to get down, but Jenn would liked to grab onto the nearest tree and climb down. She's such a daredevil!!
My dad is the most enthusiastic gardener I know. And having an acre of land to tinker with meant he put as much of it as he could to good use. We had every kind of fruit tree imaginable, and a gigantic vegetable garden. Every year Dad would expand the garden somehow so we even had flower gardens with brick paths through them and everything. Thinking about how much work that all must been, I wish I would have inherited Dad's energy!
When I was really young, we had a big pool in the yard. But Dad got tired of maintaining it, so one summer he took it out and what remained was a huge mud hole. One day my sister Jenn, my foster sister Crystal and I decided it would be fun to jump in it. Of course, it turned into a big mud wrestling match and I still remeber trying to climb out of that mud pit and just being covered, head to toe, in mud. It disgusts me to think of it now, but back then, that was called some good country fun! Eventually, the mud hole grew some cattails, got some frogs in it and became a regular looking pond. I remember catching tadpoles and frogs for hours, but I never went "swimming" in it again!
We lived by a lot of farms, so there were tons of cornfields to go exploring in. I remember one time, walking through one to this little island of land that had a small forest in it and in that forest were a couple of graves. Yet, what really scared me away from cornfields? Not graves, but E.T. Yep, pretty much after that movie I wouldn't go near a cornfield for a very long time. And I still look behind the shower curtain when I go to the bathroom to make sure he's not there either. Ok, just kidding about that last part, really...

Twilight

I went and saw Twilight today with my husband, sister and her husband. I wasn't expecting great things, but I was expecting better than what I saw. It's funny how everyone interprets things differently--I thought Edward was almost painful to watch, with his grimacing expressions and the feeling like it was hurting him to talk (I was screaming inside for him to just get it out and talk like a normal person!!) and my sister said she actually liked the movie better than the book because it cut out the endless talk of how beautiful Edward was, you could just look at him. On a different note, I was glad my hubby went with me but was afraid he'd find much in the movie to make fun of, however, I was the one finding lots of things that were making me giggle and squirm. How about that they filmed half of the movie 2 inches from Edward and Bella's faces?! Geesh! And the special effects were of the made for tv movie quality (example: Edward climbing trees...). On a positive note, I ended up liking Bella's performance. I wasn't happy with who they picked to play Bella at first (I guess in my mind I was imagining more of a Rory from Gilmore Girls type) but when I saw her in the movie I decided she hit Bella dead on.
One last thing on Edward that made watching him awkward: He lives in my ward and his name is Arthur. Yes, awhile back Arthur was Edward for the release party for Breaking Dawn at Barnes and Noble and seeing Robert Pattinson's onscreen performance suddenly seemed uncannily similar to seeing Arthur at Barnes and Noble. I swear they even talk the same. Here's some pictures that prove the weird similarity:

(sorry Edward is in miniature)

I could continue to dissect the movie, but I know most of you have seen it and already have your own opinions. lol. I just felt like sharing mine!

5K-Way!

I finally gave in on the Monday before the race, stopped fighting all my self doubts and just mailed in the dang registration. It was a relief actually. And then, the day before, I tried to do 3 miles on the treadmill just so I would know I could do it (I did Sherry's secret formula of jog for 3 min. then walk for 1 min (or 2 min in my case :)). I ran out of time, but I did get to 2.7miles, enough to give me confidence.
So, at 7am Thanksgiving morning, Mindi and some other crazies from the ward (Alison, Fred, their Uncle, and Amy) came and picked me up and off we went to Draper. It was about 40 degrees and lightly raining. About 1700 other people were milling around when we got to the outlet mall. It was a little unreal that that many people (including lots of kids in jogging strollers!) were all willing to race this early in the morning.
I didn't run with anybody, I didn't hardly look at anyone I was concentrating so hard on keeping my pace. (Though, I did notice when 4 year olds would pass me by...). About mile 2 Fred passed me by and it started raining pretty good. But I got through it and did the race in about 38 min (that's the official time on the website, but I clocked myself at 35 min--so maybe they counted the time I had to stand in line before I turned in my racing slip?). I was proud of myself and hot and wet and tired. And had the even crazier notion that I'd do it all again next year. lol.
As a sidenote, running this race did give me hope that one day I will be in shape again. I was in great shape before I had Evan, but since having kids I've let eating habits slide and kept on these extra 15-20 pounds that really feel like they are weighing me down lately. So, after doing this race, it makes me think I can do other things too, like feel proud of my body again :)

sorry, no pics of the race here (check out mindi's blog)
but this was me 1 month before I got prego with Evan, not bad eh? someday...someday...

The Story of My Life Part 4: School

I attended the Mohawk school district kindergarten through second grade. Most of us rode the bus but not for as long as my sister and I got to! We were the first ones picked up in the morning and the last ones dropped off at night. Whoever made that bus schedule must have had something against us because that meant we were on the bus for an hour in the morning and an hour after school. Not fun, so we tried to get our mom to take us and pick us up from school as much as possible.
School itself wasn't so bad. I have fond memories of kindergarten, I even remember my first day. Up until that day, I had pretty much attached myself to my poor mother's leg. Would not leave that woman's side without as big of a tantrum as I could throw. I'm sure she was hesitant about my reaction to kindergarten and having to be left there all day. Well, I remember looking around that room at all the crying, screaming kids and I thought "humph! i'm not gonna be like those sissies!" so I looked at my mom and without hesitation said "You can go now mom, I don't need you anymore!" I think that shocked my mom a bit.
In second grade we had a race to see who was the fastest kid in the class and I won. I must have impressed my biggest competitor because he became my first boyfriend. His name was Wayne. We also had lots of assemblies about railroad tracks and how dangerous they were. We also watched Davie Crockett and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory every year. I guess I do have a lot of good memories from that school.

Exercise: It's Either Going to Help Me or Kill Me

You may remember my previous post from a way long time ago about me doing a program called "From Couch to 5K". Just so you know, I didn't do it for 2 weeks and quit and then forget all about it! I actually did it for 4 weeks and then quit. However! I did not forget all about it--after about a month, I picked it up again and am currently on week 6 of the 8 week program (I'm actually in week 7 but am repeating week 6's routine because of some reasons I will explain shortly). So, week 6 goes something like this: 5 min. warm up walk, jog 5 min., walk 3 min., jog 8 min., walk 3 min., jog 5 min. And I'm no speed demon--I walk at 3.3 mph and jog at 4.3 mph. But every time, my body rebels and reminds me of me so not having a runner's body. I just about die doing this week 6 routine! Which, is why I'm repeating it. Another problem, at the speeds I'm going, when I'm done, I'm still a mile short of the 3 miles I need! There's no way, at this point, my body is capable of going any faster (I tried) and even at the speeds I'm going, I'm already in need of borrowing Richard Simmons' sweatband!! I can't imagine working out harder and producing even more sweat than I already do in a half hour's time. Now, some of this sweat is paying off, I've lost 5 lbs and my spare tire is slowly, ever so slowly, shrinking. But, my eating habits are holding me back too. I exercise and then think I should reward myself with a quarter pounder or a pint of ice cream. Yeah, a little counter-productive...Anyways, I keep waffling on actually doing that 5K Thanksgiving morning. I just don't think I'm ready for it. Hmm, will I ever be though??

The Story of My Life Part 3: The Day My Sister Hit Me in the Face With a Shovel & Other Stories

Yes, my dear sister Jenn did hit me in the face with a shovel, really, but luckily I was young and healed quickly. You just have to realize, there were many perils associated with living in the country. We were always stepping on bees or rusty nails (that was my dad), getting poison ivy, or having sledding accidents. It just came with the territory.

This one particular day, my sister and I happened to be outside with my mom. I don't remember what we were doing exactly, but my sister for some reason had a full sized shovel and was swinging it around. I think I was about 4 or 5 so that would have made her 7 or 8. Anyways, my mom, of course, saw the danger in this and said "Jenn, put that shovel down before you hit someone!" What happened next is classic. Jenn whirls around with the shovel saying "what?" and hits me right in the face. She chipped my front tooth and gave me a bloody nose. At least it was an accident right? No worries Jenn! I love you despite indenting my face with a shovel!!

Every fall my dad would buy lots and lots of bales of hay. I think he used the straw to put on all of his garden beds for the winter. Jenn and I loved the bails of hay because Dad would make us a big fort/house out of them and we would then proceed to climb all over them to our heart's content. The only downside was that, inevitably, afterwards Jenn and I would then come down with a bad case of poison ivy. Why, knowing this, we still proceeded every year to play on the bales of hay, I'll never know (love of fun over common sense? a popular childhood malady). Plus, my mom then had to put up with 2 itchy, screaming kids (I know she stocked up on poison ivy spray every year for this purpose). Wow, we have a nice Mom.

Date Ideas Anyone?

You know, I'm always curious as to how the other half lives and so this question is no exception to that. I'd like to know how you all like to spend your date nights (assuming you have them--though I know some of you at least do!). Is it always dinner and a movie (Steve and I's personal fave) or something that doesn't cost money or do you like to go somewhere as far away from the kids as possible? Yeah, I'm sort of digging for ideas. Steve and I could use some better planned nights out so I'm wanting to know what the options are. So, let the good ideas flow!

More Cute Evan Stories

It's time for more cute Evan stories! I know you just can't get enough!!!

Story #1: I went collecting for "Pennies by the Inch" on Saturday to raise money for Primary Children's Hospital and decided to take Evan with me (good bonding time with Evan, and people less likely to slam the door in my face with a child around). Anyways, I didn't really explain to Evan very well I guess what exactly we were doing, but he's a smart kid, so at like the 4th house or so, he pipes up and asks "Can I have some money?" Of course, this is said to a person we don't know and Evan is requesting some cash on his own behalf, ah, my little beggar child. By the end of our route, we are, once again, talking to a person we do not know and she hands a couple of dollar bills to Evan telling him to give them to me so I can put it in our collection envelope. So what does Evan do? Try to make a getaway with the cash of course! So, here I am running around this lady's house trying to get the money from him, sharply saying "It's for the sick kids, not for you Evan!" Thankfully, the lady seemed more amused than offended. Fast forward a few days. The wheels in Evan's head have been turning. I'm reading him a book in bed and he suddenly turns to me and hands me a sweaty pile of coins (how long has he been holding these? and how? he was running and jumping around the room the last 20 min?!) saying "Mom, can we give these to the sick kids at the Primary Children's hospital tomorrow?" Awww!! So, sweet!

Story #2: We have a fireplace we don't use. Mommy is paranoid that starting a fire in there will lead to burning the house down. Anyways, over time, Evan has become obsessed with getting me to start a fire in there. It's gone from talking to me about it a lot, to proactively doing something about it. Back to our Saturday walk around the neighborhood. The whole time he's collecting these little sticks saying he's collecting firewood for our fireplace. Cute, right? Not really keeping track of these sticks, I forget about them. Well, today, I look into our fireplace and see this:yes, it's the little pile of sticks he collected!! That kid has some perserverence.

Weird Things That Bug Me (but maybe not you, so don't be offended)

I was getting my hair cut the other day and my wonderful stylist and I were discussing how to make popcorn balls. Well, she tells me the easiest way to make them would be to throw all the popcorn in my kitchen sink and form the balls in there because then clean up would be a snap. I don't think she expected the horrified look on my face at that idea. She should have just told me to drain the toilet bowl and make the popcorn balls in there because I feel like the kitchen sink is just about as clean a place. I know, you can bleach the sink, clean it out ect. but I'd still feel the same. The kitchen sink is just YUCK in my mind. You throw meat blood, rotten milk, all kinds of disgusting things in there and I just can't get past that. I never bathed any of my babies in the kitchen sink and whenever I do any dishes by hand I either use a tub or don't let them touch the sink. Tease me all you want, but my opinion on this matter will not change, so this sink thing is Weird Thing #1 that bugs me, and here are a few more:

#2: People who name their black dog Shadow. Sorry, if you're petting your pet Shadow right at this moment, but it really does bug me that a more original name was not picked. It's not the dog's fault he was born that color, so give him a name that fits his personality, not his furry coat.

#3: Wet hair. I HATE wet hair. Want to really get me going, make me put a sweater on over my wet hair. HEEBIE-GEEBIES!!!

#4: Leaving the blinds open after it's dark. My roomates in college used to tease me about this one because they said I was like clockwork, as soon as it was dark, I would appear out of nowhere and close our blinds. Maybe I just don't like the idea of people looking in at me. Hmm.

#5: Not washing your hands after touching raw meat. I absolutely FREAK at this one. I wash my hands at least, well, let's just say, constantly, when I'm handling icky raw meat.

Ok, I could add a few more, but I bet after reading this you are thinking of your own weird, perhaps unexplainable, things that bug you. So, you better share, then we can be weird together! mwhahaha!

30 Days of Giving

If you haven't discovered Etsy yet or http://thirtyhandmadedays.blogspot.com/ here is your chance! 30 days loves to highlight her golden finds from browsing Etsy shops and then generously offer a giveaway of the cute things she finds. This time, she found BeeBee Mod, "something special for the little one". If you go to 30 days' blog (see link above) and leave her a comment you will be entered to win a super cute hoodie. And when you browse either BeeBee Mod's site http://www.beebeemod.com/ or her etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6227206 and buy anything during the month of November, half of her sales will go to help a family or organization in need. I know you'll find something, so check it out and feel good about getting gifts and giving twice as much with them this year!Enter to win this hoodie from BeeBee Mod on the 30 days website!

Photo Tag

Cool! I've never been photo tagged before! I was supposed to go to my 4th folder and post the 4th picture, but wouldn't you know it, my 4th folder only had 3 pictures in it! so, here are 2 from it :) one is (appropriately) Evan at Halloween in his spider costume (2006), and the other one is from my June 2006 trip to Ohio. Alex, Ashlee and Evan in the Amish Country.
I tag my sis Jenn, my sis-in-law Brittney, Mindi, and Kathleen!

The Story of My Life Part 2: Animals, Animals and More Animals

As I mentioned in Part 1, we had a lot of pets. I think one of the requirements to live in rural Ohio must have been the number of animals you must have, I think it's something like 20. Hehehe. Our main pets were our cat Snowy Anne (who had a litter of kittens pretty much every year. Though Mom and Dad were very diligent about us finding homes for the offspring. ), our dogs Angel (the nicest mutt ever) and Sheena (a collie) and later our toy poodle Peaches and another mutt named Liz. Then there were the rabbits. We had silver martins in the beginning then later added Lops and Netherland Dwarfs. And of course, there were the wild animals. We'd pretty much adopt anything we came across--mice, orphaned baby birds, frogs, and one time, a garter snake. My mom was pretty tolerant when it came to all these pets, but the funny thing was, the toy poodle was our only indoor pet. That was, until....the snake! How we ever convinced our mother to let us bring that reptile into the house, I'll never know, but she did. We put that snake in an old aquarium in our bedroom. Now, my mom would come and check on us at night, and apparently she checked on our friend the snake as well, because one night Mom woke us all up in an uproar: the snake was gone! So, Mom was pretty freaked out thinking this snake was roaming around our house somewhere, so she vowed we could not go back to sleep till it was found. Come to find out, the snake hadn't gone far, it apparently had abandoned the comforts of the aquarium for the comforts of the kleenex box that was on top of the aquarium to keep the lid on. It was asleep on the tissues. Well, needless to say, that poor snake was booted out of it's bed and sent out into the cold night. But the rest of us slept pretty good after that :)

Watcha Got to Hide?

Cassie and I talked about this phenomenon the other day: the "hiding" of the packages with the doormat. So I avowed that the next time the ups man came by and ever so thoughtfully draped my welcome mat over some boxes I would snap some pics. Seriously, this camouflage is not fooling anyone, so why do they do it? Did the delivery guys have to take "Draping Doormats 101" in delivery school or something? Is it an ancient art form that I am unfit to appreciate? My favorite was once, a stack of boxes 4 or 5 high with my doormat perched on top. It looked like the cherry on top, not a cloaking device! So, maybe I'm being too hard on the delivery guys, after all they are in a hurry, and I am amazed at their ability to ring my doorbell and be in their truck when I open the door two seconds later thinking they will still be there so I can take the packages from them rather than scoot around my front door to wrestle them into the house myself. But, I digress, I will give them the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to kindness, but if any delivery guys who come to my neighborhood happen to read this, I just want to let you know, you can save yourself a second and just leave this girl's doormat alone. Thanks!

The Story of My Life: Part 1

Maybe you think you know me. Heck, maybe you really do. But here's the true story and I'm going to start from the beginning for all of those who might be interested in the details. I was born Sept. 9th in Tiffin, Oh at Mercy Hospital. My mom went to take a pee and, oops!, I was ready to come out! I was tiny, a mere 5 lbs. 6 oz. but I was fierce. I had the cord wrapped around my neck, and I came out purple, so I blame any emotional instability I suffer from on my lack of oxygen for the first bit of my life. My mom and dad took me home to their rural Ohio house where my 3 year old sister Jenn eagerly awaited her new playmate. Disappointed by my inability to play, she promptly decided to feed me since I was crying and must need something and of course she wanted to help. So, my poor mother comes in the room to find Jenn stuffing crackers into my mouth. Mother promptly saved me from a death by crackers and by then poor Jenn probably realized she was going to have to wait a few years until I was any fun.
But fun we had together because, if you noticed the mention above, we lived in RURAL Ohio. As in, most of my friends lived on farms (we didn't) and Jenn and I were the only playmates we had within a few miles. We were lucky though, we lived on an acre of land, had two small forests to play in, fruit trees to eat off of if we got hungry, a nice hill in the backyard to sled down in the winter, lots and lots of pets, and tons of gardens to run around in thanks to my Dad. We had a great life!

Justin's 1st B-day!

happy Justin before his doom at target awaited!

Justin's 1st birthday was last Friday the 10th and I decided to "start" (our appointment was at 10:40am. hehehe) our day out with going to Target to have pics taken of Justin. In retrospect, I don't think I would do that again! Justin hated the whole thing and it stressed me out to get him and me ready and off to Target. For some reason, at the time I made the appointment, I just thought it would be more special or something having his pics taken on his birthday day. Anyways, here's a pic of Grandpa holding Justin while we shopped for a present for the little guy once the photo session was out of the way:
Once we got home I got Evan his lunch and then took him to preschool and afterwards I stopped at Zurchers to pick up balloons. It was time to do all the party stuff while I had the chance! So I went home and decorated, hid treasure hunt clues, frosted cupcakes, all the things that are done faster without the help of children (sorry kids!).The party started at 6pm and I had only invited family (pretty typical thing to do for a 1st b-day) so Steve's parents were here visiting from CA and my sis and parents and then Steve's sister and her family were there, so still a pretty decent crowd. Everyone loved the food:
and the kids loved the treasure hunt and we all had a good time just sitting around chatting and stuffing our faces. Now, of course, the highlight of any 1 year old's b-day party is how are they gonna react to the cake? Steve called it on Justin: not very well! Justin usually goes to bed at 6:30pm so he was already tired and then we strip him down, put him on some towels and all stare at him expectantly. Yeah, he didn't like that.
So Steve gave Justin a taste of cake:

and then Justin decided it tasted good enough to play with and tried to pick the cake up, put his foot in it, things like that:
Finally we had one messy baby, then came the bath from hell and then we opened presents :)
And that was basically the party! I felt like I gave a lot of party details in my last post, so hopefully you get the gist of how things went. But it really was a fun and simple party and Justin loved all of his new toys. So happy b-day little guy! I'm just so blessed to have my Justin in our family. He's such a happy little kid and we needed someone else in the house who was laid back to even things out! Hope Justin enjoyed his day too, from this last pic you can see he's come quite the way in the last year!!

My Secret Weapon

I know this isn't the post you've all been waiting for (you're like--what's up with all the pumpkins and a secret weapon? wah?) , but I promise the one where I talk about Justin's 1st b-day is next. I just had to do this post first because, without what I am about to talk about, Justin's party would not have been possible. The secret weapon I am talking about is a woman who saved me a lot of grief and stress over what to do for Justin's 1st b-day and was none other than the domestic goddess herself (dgoddessblog.blogspot.com)! What started out as a shot in the dark in the form of an email tentatively asking if she had any ideas turned into her becoming my very own personal party planner. seriously, how have I lived without this woman and her ideas for so long? She is creativity incarnate and she volunteered lots of time and energy on my behalf (and justin's too of course!). She made these uber cute invitations that had "hooray for J" on the front (a lot of you will know what I'm talking about since you probably got one in the mail. sorry people, the secret is out, I didn't make them!) and she also made Justin a happy birthday banner:
She also made a take home favor for the kids and gave me an awesome idea for a treasure hunt that the kids LOVED (my 4 year old is already planning one for his b-day!). She also called around to find me the best deal on sandwhiches and balloons and came up with the color scheme of light blue and brown that looked great. My party planner also had connections in the form of a cousin, Katie, who made Justin the sweetest little cake:

Not to mention she also got the cousin to hook me up with some cupcakes that I decorated with light blue M&Ms "J"s (also her idea :):

My party planner also emailed detailed instructions on how to make my own veggie and fruit trays which turned out rather beautiful if I do say so myself!:I'm so glad I sent that email out, I never dreamed I'd have so much help! Having the Domestic Goddess on my side truly made all the difference in how Justin's 1st b-day turned out. She's the best party planner ever and she has my eternal gratitude :)

A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

I'll be the first to admit that we have very few family traditions, but one of them that has managed to stick around is our annual visit to the pumpkin patch on 90th before Halloween. Last year, we went right before Justin was born. So I was walking around 9 months pregnant (we literally went days before I was due) looking like I was hiding a pumpkin under my shirt. It was awesome. This year, we decided to go while Steve's parents were here for Justin's b-day. I had the bright idea that I would pick up some groceries at Ream's that I needed for Justin's party and then meet everyone at the pumpkin patch. I literally made it in time to give Steve enough money to pay for our stuff at the checkout line. Sigh. At least Steve took some pictures for me...go family traditions!

Steve and Evan pumpkin hunting

Look! Justin is letting someone else hold him!

the happy family--but wait? where's mom?

proof I did show up! lol!

Funny Random Pictures

I was looking through my picture files and came across so many good, cute, funny pics that I really don't have any use for, but it's fun to reminisce, so I'm digging them out for your viewing pleasure as well! You're welcome!

July 2006--my star!

February 2006--want a kleenex? what happens when daddy falls asleep...

christmas 2005, meet down south steve!

Sleep: A Thing of the Past?

Justin will be 12 months 10 days from now and he still does not sleep through the night. Do I know why? Maybe? Is it my fault? Probably. What am I going to do about it? I have no idea! I just thought by now he'd be sleeping. It was one of those things where the doctor told me not to expect him to sleep through the night (if he wasn't already doing so I guess) till he was 9 months old. So, I eagerly awaited that mark, but it came and went with still no sleeping through the night. This was not a problem with Evan. Evan gave me many difficulties, but luckily, sleeping through the night was not one of them. So I feel I am at a loss as to what to do with Justin. He still drinks a bottle at night and sometimes frequently wakes up in between. Since he has eczema I know that's probably a factor too since the doctors told me kids with eczema wake up more than kids that don't. So I was thinking I'd wait till Justin's skin got better to let him "cry it out". But I think his medicine is making him wake up too right now b/c since he's been on it he's woken up a lot more at night with last night being the worst. And even with my going to him he still was crying enough to wake up Evan (who is normally a deep sleeper) which just compounds the fun. Ugh. It's been a year without decent sleep, I want it to stop!!! Any suggestions?

Justin's Skin Issues: An Update

For those of you who didn't notice, or didn't already know, Justin's got skin problems. It's funny how, with Evan, we were soooo careful. Used only Dreft to wash his clothes, lotioned his skin religiously after baths, used special fragrance free/organic soap at bathtime ect. And Evan's skin was fine. Then along comes Justin, poor kid, no special soaps, he gets his clothes washed in regular ol' detergent, and lotion after baths? what's that? Justin doesn't need all that! Evan was fine, we probably didn't have to do all that special stuff after all with him and he probably still would have been fine. Well, apparently, maybe not, maybe we were doing the right thing with Evan and should have done the same with Justin.
At any rate, around June of this year, I noticed these red bumps on and around Justin's knees. Didn't think too much of it, thought they would go away. When they didn't and we went to Justin's 9 month check up I pointed the bumps out to the Doctor. He thought maybe it was this virus babies can get that causes a rash and lasts 5-6 weeks. Hoping the Doctor was right and that it would go away on its own, I did nothing for the following 6 or so weeks. However, the red bumps were spreading! By the beginning of September they were all over his legs and his arms as well. Something was not right! So, back to the Doctor. He says eczema and seborrheic keratosis and recommends I go see a dermatologist. So, today, Justin saw my dermatologist and she said there is more than one kind of eczema and he has atopic dermatitis. I was glad for a more definite diagnosis, but what do we do about it and is this something he's going to have to live with forever? Aparently, yes, but it can be controlled. This is what she said I had to do for the next 10 days. Put cetaphil cleanser on his skin, wait a minute, then put this prescription steroid cream on him 3 times a day. Meanwhile, baths are to be less than 5 min. and i am to use cetaphil cleanser only on him, use only liquid detergent (yes! i went out and bought dreft!), and no dryer sheets. After 10 days we are to come back and see her for step 2 and to see how the steroid cream did. But she said his skin looked very irritated and that it was probably bothering him and the cause of some of his night wakings. Poor Justin! I feel bad now for not getting the dreft and using special stuff like I did with Evan. But what's done is done and I'm just glad he's getting some help now.

Check Out This Giveaway!

My friend, Krista, has a cousin who has a blog called the Domestic Goddess and she loves to do giveaways. She's very much for saving the environment and so everything she gives away has something to do with how we can help save the earth. It's pretty cool and she's definitely done her research! This week she is focusing on using reusable shopping bags. She narrowed down her choices to 3 favorites and if you go to her site http://dgoddessblog.blogspot.com/, leave a comment saying you heard about her site from me, Erin, and she'll enter you in the drawing for one. You have until next Tuesday, so go now and check out her site, and all of her great ideas!! Go! Go! I say!

What Should Justin Be For Halloween? You Decide!!!

There's just too many cute costumes to choose from, so leave a comment and vote on which one you like best! (lil' disco, chewbacca or darth vader or a different suggestion altogether!)

An Interview With Evan

Here are the random questions (with sometimes equally random answers) that I asked Evan today:

1. What's your favorite movie? Star Wars

2. What's your favorite color? orange, white, and light brown (the list has shortened on this one, it used to be orange, red, yellow, light brown, dark brown and golden)

3. What do you like best about Dad? fighting and beating him up

4. What do you think Dad likes the best about you? Fighting with me and watching movies with me

5. What do you like doing the best with mom? watching shows

6. What's your favorite thing to do? build with pipes (on that question he looked at me like "duh! do you even have to ask?!)

7. What's your favorite thing about Justin? I like smelling his head!

8. What's your favorite thing to bake? Chocolate Chip Cookies on top of the towel (we sit on the kitchen floor and mix everything in the bowl over a big towel for easy clean up)

9. What's your favorite shirt? I get my my muscles from my dad shirt

10. Who's your best friend? Ashlee

The Most Stubborn Kid in the World

Here is a good Evan story. We were at the kitchen table one day and Evan turns to me and says "Mom, did you know that 8 is a letter?" I look at him and ask "Are you sure you aren't confusing 8 with A?" After all, they do sort of sound alike. But Evan says "nope" and insisted again that 8 was a letter and not a number. So then I tell him "Well, you know how to spell your name and A is in your name so you're SURE you're not confused?" He then looks me straight in the eye and says "My name is spelled EV8N!" LOL. Ok, ok! I just dropped it after that, goofy kid!

My Fab Five (I've Been Tagged!)

10 Years Ago I...
1. I was at BYU
2. Was a volunteer who taught life skills (ha!) to inmates at the utah state prison
3. Was in love with the BYU museum of Art and volunteered there too
4. My calling was to go to church with the patients at the Provo mental hospital
5. I'm pretty sure that was around the time I visited Ang in Spokane and made her drive to Seattle so we could go see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat!

5 of my favorite jobs I have had (going from easiest to hardest...)
1. Photographer's Assistant (spoiled gopher)
2. Zuka Juice
3. Customer Service Specialist at the Library
4. Receptionist
5. MOMMY

5 places I have lived...
1. Tiffin, OH
2. SLC and Provo, UT
3. Salinas, CA
4. Rexburg, ID (brrrrrrrrr)
5. Albuquerque, NM

5 snacks I enjoy...
1. Ice Cream
2. Pretzels
3. Pickles (I love to eat them at like 11pm!)
4. CHEESE
5. Candy Bars and Cookies

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire...
1. Pay off all debts, loans, home, cars, etc.
2. Invest in the my future (retirement for my husband) and my children's future (money for college, missions, etc.)
3. Travel EVERYWHERE!
4. Help my family
5. buy a house in ohio

5 things on today's "To-Do list"...
1. Fold Laundry
2. Dust Upstairs
3. Vacuum Upstairs
4. Watch Krista's Kids
5. Walk to get a donut


5 favorite Holidays...
1. Christmas
2. Halloween
3. Easter
4.Labor Day
5. Thanksgiving

5 favorite Movies of All Time
1. Whisper of the Heart
2. Pride and Prejudice (both versions!)
3. Room with a View
4. Galaxy Quest
5. Princess Mononoke

5 favorite T.V shows...
1. Gilmore Girls (it may be gone and over with, but i'll always love it!)
2. The Office (it's nice to know there was life after Seinfeld)
3. Jon and Kate Plus 8 (when i'm having a bad mommy day i watch kate for inspiration)
4. What Not to Wear
5. Avatar the Last Airbender

5 favorite vacations...
1. My trip to Russia and Europe when i was in college
2. Washington DC when I was in 3rd grade
3. Maine when I was 6
4. My honeymoon to fort bragg, CA
5. anytime i get to go back to ohio

i tag Krista, Cassie, Jenn, Tristan and Mindi

Rules: Each player answers the question themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment letting them know that they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person that tagged you know when you've answered the questions on your blog.

My 30th Birthday

This is my first post as a 30 year old. Holy-Moly! I think I had a harder time turning 29 than I did 30. 29 was like you knew "old" age was coming, which is almost worse than it being upon you. I've kind of looked at turning 30 as like it's time for me to grow up. So, I've tried to curb my petty reactions to things, not get in slap fights with my 4 year old, be open minded with my husband instead of stomping away from something he says, and have a consistently cleaner kitchen.
So, what did I do to celebrate all this? Went to the spa of course!! I had never been before and when a got a timely email from the Cottage Retreat Day Spa at Gardner Village about a sale they were having on their mini-day of relaxation (this week only!) I knew it was heaven sent! So, I used my b-day money to treat myself to a pedicure, facial, 30 minute massage, deep hair conditioning and style. It was the best 3 hours ever and worth every penny! I recommend the experience to anyone who has never been--find a way to go!
If that wasn't enough, we also went out to eat that night to our favorite Korean restaurant--Ejo. A little known fact about me is that my favorite food is a pickled radish called gak dookie (spelling I have no idea--that's just how it sounds when you pronounce it). Anyways, I have no idea why I love this hot radish so much, but I do. I could eat the crunchy, spicy goodness all day (or at least until heartburn overtook me). Sept. 9th is also my brother-in-law's b-day and he served his mission in Korea, so him and my sister came along too and we all had a great and yummy time.
I also got great gifts from my hubby (a pretty necklace and a dvd) and a book from my sister as well as another trip to the spa on saturday with her and my mom (I'm SO spoiled!) to get a facial. If this is turning 30, I can handle it. What a wonderful day :)

Our CA Vacation

I know you all are just dying to hear about our family vacation! lol! I better get this out of the way first though--our camera battery died our first day there so there are only a couple of pics from Marine World! I was too cheap to buy another battery while there when I knew a perfectly good battery was on the computer desk at home. Sorry!
We had a decent flight to CA, all things considered. Though why we decided to fly so late at night, I don't quite know. So, of course the flight was delayed. We ended up having to go on a different plane because (and I'm not making this up!!) they had to glue something back on to the plane we were supposed to take and the glue takes 24 hours to dry. Hmm. Anyways, the kids did well, but there was the crying baby on the plane that belonged to me but after the crying he fell asleep. Phew!
We decided to go to Six Flags Marine World the next day to get it out of the way. But, there happened to be a heat wave moving through CA and it was HOT!!. I think we spent almost as much on drinks (at$4 a pop!) as we did on admission! We are wusses though and left after only 4 hours. LOL! But Evan got to ride plenty of rides and also got to see the whale and dolphin shows.
Saturday, Sunday, Monday and half of Tuesday were spent mainly hanging out at Steve's parents house. We got to visit with Steve's two brothers and their families, and got to meet our 3 month old nephew, Drew.
Some highlights were that Evan fell in love Aunt Ashley. He used to be in love with Aunt Irina, but this time he followed Ashley around (or was always asking where she was) and requested that she sit next to him at dinner. He also went to Grandma June's primary class (she teaches the 6 year olds) and told one of the girls there "you are so pretty. I love you"!!! So, after all this lovin, I asked Evan when we got home who the prettiest girl that he knew and he said with a big sigh "Aunt Ashley" !! He hadn't seen Aunt Ashley in two years so his explanation was that "he'd not seen her before". So cute!
Justin, my normally happy one, decided, on his first trip, he did not like traveling. Well, he did fairly well with the going places part, it was just he decided to cling to me as his only thread of normalcy. He wouldn't let anyone else hold him (and he's heavy!) and he would cry every time I left the room. I'm so not used to that!!

The flight back was great and now the hard part is getting back to a normal sleep schedule for everyone. Evan thinks his bedtime is now 11pm and the baby was used to waking up a lot during the night. Hopefully by this weekend we'll be back in the swing of things! In the meantime I'm so glad we went on vacation but it's great to be back!


Evan decides to pack himself, I mean, for himself :)

What is Your Opinion...on Opinions?

Something I've noticed about blogging, or with blogs in general, is that sometimes people (and i'm being general here b/c i'm sure i've done this too) leave comments to a blog that have NOTHING to do with the actual post. Now, don't get me wrong, i'm THRILLED when people leave me a comment. Even if you were to leave me a "I like puppy dogs!" I'd be like "hurray! someone commented" but it just makes me wonder why people leave irrelevant comments to a post. For instance, if say, you had a post about your vacation to malibu and one of your friends left you a comment that said "hey! let's go out for ice cream tonight!" wouldn't that have been better off said in an email? I just notice that when I read other people's blogs and then leave a comment and then naturally read the other comments left I sometimes see this phenomenon. It's just started to bug me a bit. So really? what's the etiquette on this one? Should your comment pertain to the post? I personally think it should. Since if you really need to get something out in a comment that has nothing to do with the post, well, that's what email is still for. Thanks, I'll get off my soapbox now :D

Evan's Picture Taking Skills

Like most parents out there, I like to brag about my kids now and then, show off their skills, say they knew the alphabet by age 1, could do a handstand on their own at age 2, wrote a symphony at age 3 etc. (all made up accomplishments people!). anyways, today, I am highlighting Evan's photography skills. View the following photos and enjoy Evan's unique and I'm sure, award winning photography ability!

hello camera!

our tv room in the abstract

jenn-this foot pic is for you!

is it me or a just a dream?

electric blue eyes under fan blades

thanks jenn for inspiring this blog!