Music Coming Out of My Ears!

My daughter has a little MP3 player that she got for Christmas. She loves it and it plays constantly. Music varies from children songs (Wheels on the Bus) to Primary songs (Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam) to strange soundtracks (Danny Elfman's Willy Wonka). She sings with all of it.

Recently she has started complaining about "music coming out of her ears". We figure this means she has a song stuck in her head. She has mentioned this off and on since Christmas, but the other night, at dinner, this problem was really bothering her. We were eating dinner and she keeps saying she has music coming out of her ears. She looks at me, "Mom, do you hear the music coming out of your ears?" I had to deny that I did. "Yes you do," she insisted, "I can hear it!"

This was really making her concerned. Hubby had an idea, no MP3 player for a while and see if we can get rid of this music in her head. I was fine with the idea. For one thing, she plays her MP3 so much, I have to change the battery every day - it is an expensive habit. Second, she has The Macarena on her MP3. I hate that song, but she loves it. I can only stand to hear it so many times a day.

There has been very little talk from my daughter about music coming out of her ears the last few days. I wish I could say the same thing. I woke up this morning with Barbie's Princess and the Pauper coming out of my ears.

Sharing is making me crazy!

My children don't know how to share. I've tried teaching the principle. I do my best to live the principle. I've showed them how to share and I've praised them when they do to re-enforce it. I've done it just like the books teach. Still, my kids fight so much about everything.

My two oldest have dart gun with Nerf-like darts. Each gun had four to start with. Now only four remain of the original eight. My oldest claims he has lost none and all four belong to him.

This morning, three of the kids were playing with blocks. Instead of just building something great, it became a greedy fight. Who can get the most blocks? Daughter insisted she needed one certain block that brother had. He would not give it up and declared he needed it more. Screaming and crying soon followed.

Last week at dinner, the table was set. The cups we use for the kids are colored. No color is assigned to each kid. It is just a random thing of who gets what color. After I pour the drinks, daughter announces she wants the purple one that her oldest brother has. He quickly takes a drink out of it and says it is his. She refuses to drink from the red cup in front of her.

When we pop popcorn for a family movie, they eat the popcorn as fast as they can, to make sure one of the others doesn't get more.

At various times during the day or week, you will hear one of the children yell, "Don't follow me! I want to be alone!" Several things happen after this. Either they announce they want to be alone, but stay in common rooms and get mad when they others are in there or they go off to their own room or outside and one of the others will spitefully follow them and knock on the door or yell at them through the door.

They are so greedy. Does anyone else have greedy children or am I the only one dealing with this? I can understand my two year old having a hard time with sharing, but why are my nine and seven year olds fighting about sharing? I'm going nuts with all this meanness that is going on. All these things they are fighting over - the darts, the blocks, the colored cups, the popcorn - are completely ridiculous things to fight over too. It is all so stupid! Ahh!

Farewell, President Hinkley

Last night, President Gordon B. Hinkley died. He will be greatly missed.

I must share a memory I have of him. I attended college in Rexburg, ID at Ricks College, years before it became BYU-Idaho. The very first Sunday after school started was a special fireside. The speaker was First Counselor, Gordon B. Hinkley. We waited in long lines to get into the huge gym. My friends and I were lucky enough to get seats on the floor just a few sections away from the pulpit. In front of the pulpit were about three rows of seats that faced the audience. On these seats sat all the stake presidents from the area. Behind the pulpit sat Pres. Hinkley, the college president and other important people.

When Pres. Hinkley was announced, he came up the pulpit and said he was having a hard time seeing all of us because of the glare coming off all the stake president's heads in front of him. We all had a good laugh over that.

It was my first memory of him. He had been in the General Presidency a long time before then, but it was the first experience of my adult life with the good Prophet. I don't think I've had the opportunity since to see him live and be in the same room with him. Still, everytime I saw him on the TV, he brought a smile to my face and usually a good chuckle. What a wonderful sense of humor he had, to the end.

Tonight for Family Home Evening, we will talk about him. I realized that he has been Prophet since before my children were born. My two oldest have only known him as the Prophet. They will miss him, too. The two younger ones will not remember. Thank you, President Hinkley. We love you.

Monday holiday

Today is a teacher inservice day for the schools here, so the kids are off today.

I've kept them busy this morning, but if I don't come up with something for the afternoon, they are going to drive each other and me a bit crazy.

This morning we cleaned! I had them wash the kitchen walls, the kitchen floor, the stairwell walls, the walls upstairs and we cleaned the kids rooms. Then we came back down stairs to pick up stuff off the floor and vacume the enitre down stairs. I did more than half of the work, while the kids did the rest. I'm worn out, but the house looks pretty good.

Now, without something organized to do, they are annoying each other. Isn't that the way it goes?

I think this afternoon will be play time and a movie (if they don't keep getting into trouble for making each other cry). I plan on cross stitching!

pictures of my projects!

If you read the entry below the photos, you will understand what these photos are about.

This photo is the Winter Queen by Mirabilia. This picture came with the pattern and is not my own. There is a lot of bead work in this, but you can't tell from the photo. Itn't she gorgeous?



This is my attempt at the beautiful Winter Queen. She isn't looking quite as pretty, but I'm working hard on her. Right now I'm working on her hair.



My frist cloth diaper! Isn't it so cute?



The diaper on the baby doll:

Random thoughts and happenings

Several thoughts were running through my mind today. I just can't remember most of them.

One is sick or rather I should say about being sick. My family has had a weird illness. Last Monday and Tuesday, my oldest was home from school with a fever. Nothing more than a fever. Several days later, my youngest gets the fever. On Saturday morning, my daughter gets it, that night my other son gets it and by early Sunday, my husband has it too. I just want them all to stay away from me. So, the weekend was miserable for all with fevers and me for having to deal with all the people with fevers. By Monday, my husband and one son were the only ones still with the fever. Yesterday, my husband stayed home from work still with a fever. He slept all day.

This morning, hubby goes back to work. He is complaining a great deal about how miserable he feels, but he went back anyway. Everyone else seems to be over theirs. Now, one son has a constant cough and another one a very runny nose. Will it ever end? So far I have been lucky and have caught none of this. (knock on wood)

Other happenings - each day I work a little on a cross stitch I'm doing. It is a Mirabilia and it is called Winter Queen. It is beautiful, but what I'm doing to it isn't so beautiful. I'm trying though. I hope to have it complete by the time baby arrives, but it is slow going.

I want to use some cloth diapers with this baby (we really need to save some money). Diapers are so expensive and I thought cloth would be a good way to go. I have lots of the old fashioned diapers that are rectangles that you pin. I wanted to make some that Velcro. I found a great pattern on the Internet and pulled out my fabrics. My biggest problem has been making the pattern. I'm a terrible judge on size. So, I made a nice pattern that seemed like it would be the perfect size for a newborn. After some work (less that one hour), the diaper was complete! It is tiny and oh so cute. I think it might be too tiny though. It might fit her if she were born right now, two months early. My daughter's baby doll is wearing it and it fits perfectly. So cute, way to small!

Still, it was a good trial run and if I make the next ones bigger, it should work and I should be able to sew it together faster.

new pet

My toddler has moved out and a kitty that looks like the toddler has moved in. He spends much of his time (when he isn't crying) pretending that he is a kitten. He crawls around the house, meowing and he climbs into my lap for a snuggle once in a while. I pet and stroke the kitty and call it "sweet kitty" and such. Sometimes it is not a kitty. Sometimes it is a puppy or a piggy. Mostly, though, it is a kitty that hangs out around me these days.

annoying weathermen

When I was in the 7th grade, for whatever reason, we were talking about the TV weather man in science. We talk about how it always seems he is wrong. We don't remember when they are right, only when they are wrong.

I've noticed something else though, about TV weather people. When it is summer and the temps are in the 90's+, the weatherman always says stuff like, "there is no relief coming up from this heat" or "we will finally see some rain that will bring these temperatures down." Then the anchor people agree, yes it is so hot and too bad there is no relief soon. Then if it is raining, comments are made by these same people, all this rain is soaking the area and it looks like by Friday we will finally see some sun. Then, if it is cold, like it often is in winter time, they will say something like, it was 41 degrees today and the temperature will be dropping more, but it will come back up by Saturday and we'll be happy to have it back in the 40's.

No matter what the temperature is they act as if they are never satisfied. Do they "forget" that in the summer time, it is HOT? Do they forget that in the winter time it is cold and temperatures are usually in the 40's or below? If it has been raining, they talk about how nice it will be for the sun to come out. If it has not rained they talk about how much we need the rain. Just make up your mind! It is hard to explain, but listen to your TV weather person.

I don't care if they are right or wrong anymore. Just be satisfied with the current weather and tell us if there will be changes, but you don't need to tell me if they are for the better or worse. Let me make up my own mind. I just might like the rain that we are having and don't want it to get sunny just yet...

The Sopranos

My home has been invaded by the sopranos. Not the Sopranos mob from the TV show. A different mob of sopranos have found their way into my home - singing Barbies. My sister-in-law gave my four year old daughter a Barbie movie for Christmas. Now, each day we hear Princess Barbie and Pauper Barbie sing duets together in their matching soprano voices.

It's not so bad. I mean, it is not as bad as I thought it would be and my daughter loves to sing along. I love to hear her sing. There is one song that the Barbies sing together that I have a little problem with. There is one note in that song that really grates on my nerves. One harmonizing note that sounds very harsh to my ears. Unfortunately they sing that harmonized note many times during the song and hold the note out for several beats.

Other than that one hideous harmony note, I don't mind to much about having the sopranos invading my house. The brothers don't seem to mind it either. They claim it another pink princess movie to be avoided, but they seem to watch it whenever it is on. It is a cute movie with a fun, if very predicable plot. The bad guys are out to ruin the perfect pink kingdom, but in the end the pink princess and the well dressed pauper in purple save the day and the kingdom.

Sing on sopranos!

Vocabulary

Two year olds have an amazing year. When they have their second birthday, they are still babish in so many ways. Many don't have big vocabularies yet. They are just starting to talk with "real" words. By the time they turn three, they are full talkers, often talking their parents to death. There is much to learn during that year. Many new words to learn how to say and how to use.

My two year old has surprised me with a few. Here are some of the new words that have entered his expanding vocabulary.

Batteries - So many toys these days require batteries. My two year old would bring me a toy and fuss and whine at it that it doesn't work. I tell him it needs new batteries. Now, when a toy doesn't work that should be making noise, he starts repeating "batteries".

Booger - This one really surpised me. He said it for the first time a few days ago. He has had a cold for a few weeks. His nose is constantly running the lovely ooze that comes with a cold. Whenever he needs a wipe down I just say, let's wipe off that icky stuff. I've never used booger in front of him. Somehow he picked it up (no pun intended) and he uses it the correct way. He sticks his finger up his nose and says "booger". I laugh and agree.

Then last night he told me a new part of his body - eyeball. He and I talk about his body and I'll say, where is your knee? and he points to his knee. We plau this game with most of his body and face and I've always just used the word, eye. Last night he is sitting in my lap and he pokes his finger into his eye and says "eyeball". He was right, it was his eyeball that he was smashing with his finger.

Isn't the two year old amazing? He still can't tell me with words that he wants help with something, or he wants to be held. He just usually points and whines. He can, however, now tell me that he has a booger.

giving up a name

With three months to go before I get to bestow a name on a new little person, you can imagine my mind is well on names. Anyone who knows me, know that I think about names more than the average person, ok, MUCH more than the average person, but with the opportunity approaching to name a new person, it is on my mind most of the time.
I love names and I wish I could have a hundred kids so I could use two hundred names.

Several months ago, I read a books series. It was alright. A secondary character that I liked had the lovely name, Esme. Later, my husband and I were looking through a name book and came across Esme again. It is a Scottish name. While there are probably people in America with the lovely name, it has not really become an American name staple. I like this in a name. I like the unusual names that are rarely used. This seemed like the perfect name. It was top of our list for a while.

Then, something happened. I found out these books where I saw the name for the first time are being made into a movie. Well, that's that. I'm not naming a baby after a character in a teen movie. The lovely name, Esme, was promptly removed from our list.

So, I've moved on, looking into new names. Then something really strange happened. I was checking out my daily celebrity news on imdb.com and saw that actress Samantha Morton had a baby this week and named her Esme. I don't know who Samantha Morton is, but she is apparently a famous enough actress for imdb.com to mention her. It is a bad thing (to me) when a celebrity names their baby. If you happen to choose the same thing, people are going to think you are just doing what the stars do. I will NOT go down that path of the dark side.

So, Esme, you are definitely out of the running. I'm sorry, too. You are such a pretty name. Well, the name hunt continues....

The New Look

Well, what do you think? Do you like my new look? It is very purple. Purple is a nice color. It is of my own doing and I'm very happy to have done it. I have other web projects I'm going to work on now, but now that I know this, perhaps I'll be able to do some theme projects in the future and hopefully, I'll get better and things won't look so purple. How about pink? Valentines day, here I come!

It is Friday! Hooray! Tonight's menu is Kalua pork, mmmmm. I've been meaning to make this for the last two days, but I kept forgetting. It takes 5-6 hours in a lower temp oven, so it isn't something you can start around four to have at dinner an hour or two later.

I hope I'll remember to do this....

New blog, new year, same old trouble

Now that Christmas is over, I want to update my blog template. I've decided I want to do this myself. Can I tell you what a heck of a time I'm having with it? I'm brand new to html, photoshop and web design. My attempts have been tacky and silly. In photoshop, I've created a nice "Random Thoughts" title but I just can't make it fit right into my header. In the end, it still may be very tacky still, but it will be of my own creation. It is turning out to be very purple. I'm not good at picking out colors. I never was. Want proof? Come see my house.

So, I hope to have a new look for the new year, but it may take more time. Until then, you will continue to see "Merry Christmas!"

Over the years I've made an amazing observation with toddlers. If you give a 2 year old an oatmeal raisin cookie, they can eat the entire cookie minus the raisins. These they store in the cheeks until the rest of the cookie is swallowed then they spit out the unwanted fruit. My two year old did something like this with a mini-Snickers bar. He stuck the entire candy into his mouth, chewed it, swallowed it and then spit out the nuts into my hand. It is incredible! What amazing things two year olds are!

Happy New Year

Last night we went to some good friends house to celebrate and stayed up way past midnight to bring in the new year. We had a Star Wars partial marathon. We watched Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. We had to stop RotJ about 45 minutes before it was over to watch the ball drop in New York. Then, after the new year kisses and hugs, we went back to Star Wars and finished the movie. All the kids except my 2 year old stayed awake.

At our friends house, there was food galore. They are the best at having appetizers. We hardly ate dinner, just snacked on chips and dip, crackers and cheese ball, veggies, fruit, cheeses, and cookies. Mmmm. A delicious way to end the year.

Now, life will be getting back to normal soon. We got home from our trip on Sunday, spent the day unpacking and recovering from a midnight flight. Yesterday I cleaned like crazy and took Christmas stuff down. Today we will play and relax and then tomorrow, school starts! I guess I will spend part of today working out a lesson plan for the next week or two.

Happy New Year 2008!