A true series of randomness

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. My day was very nice. Hubby did dishes for all the meals! I love it when he does dishes. I hate that chore. Hubby is arranging for a house cleaner to come in a few times. I have mixed emotions on that. I am embarrassed because I'm home all day, I should be able to clean everything. Second, when she does come, I have this feeling that I should clean before she arrives. However, if she does bathrooms, I would be so happy. I hate cleaning bathrooms, especially the kids. Also if she dusts, that would be fantastic. Most of the house isn't that dusty and it is nothing that I can't keep up with, but my hubby's computer room is a different story. He collects Lord of the Rings and Star Wars nic-nacs and toys and they are all displayed in the computer room. They are always covered in dust and I don't want to mess with them. They are his toys and collections and I think he should take care of them. So, I might have clean bathrooms and a dust free computer room. That will be so nice.

On Friday, I attended a girls night out at the church. We were about 25 women there from about 6 pm until midnight. It was lots of fun. One thing I did there was paint my nails bright red. I came home and my hubby saw them. He called them devil's claws. I really like the red, but it startles me each time I see my hands. It is so strange. I've never been one to paint my nails much, but to go bright red? It is shocking.

Have you ever seen older ladies who are what you might call eccentric? I'm sure you've seen them, they have a pony tail on the top of their head, wear 50 gold bracelets on each arm and drive a red convertable? Or the lady at the restaurant with leopard print clothes and enough bangles to make a gypsy jealous? When I get old and eccentric, I want to wear big hats and red lipstick. Wouldn't that be great?

I saw a blog where they talked about being a one car family. It said there are more cars than drivers in the US. I would believe it. The family across the street from me has at least 5 cars. We are a one car family, but it is not because we wish to be "green". I would love a second car. We are a family of 7, so we need to have a big vehicle to get our family around. Big vehicles = big gas prices. I would love a second car for several reasons. One, so hubby can drive his 60 miles of commute each day and save money in the gas prices. Second, so I can have a way to get out of the house. I don't need to go somewhere everyday and I wouldn't spend just a lot of time out and about, but it would be so nice to get out if I needed to, or to take the kids to the gardens once in a while (they get cabin fever too), or if there was an emergency, I could get out and take care of it. As it is, I'm stuck at home, while hubby drives our huge family SUV, puts a ton of miles and a ton of gas and money on the thing. I think we would be more "green" if we had a 2nd vehicle than we currently are as a single car family.

Peanut had a rough evening last night. She screamed and cried for hours. This is very unusual for her. Something must have hurt. I don't know what, but something had to have hurt. Poor baby. At least this morning she is sleeping and acting normal. Hopefully, whatever it was that hurt is gone.

It is mid May, almost. Last week we had temps in the 80s. Now it is in the 50's. I don't mind, although it does feel more like an October day outside rather than a May day. Anyway, I looked at the temp on the weather.com site. It says it is 52 degrees and it feels like it is 52 degrees, but the wind is blowing 17 miles an hour. I'm sorry weather station, but when it is 52 degrees and the wind is blowing almost 20 miles an hour, it doesn't feel like it is 52 degrees outside - it feels much, much colder.

Well, I think I've taken care of most of the random thoughts floating about my mind. If not, I'll be back.

diapering

I've started using cloth diapers on Peanut. I'm not very good about remembering to change her as often as I should, which means I end up changing her outfits as well as her diapers when it starts to leak. Still, I've been happy using the cloth. While searching the Internet for the plastic pants that go over the cloth, I found a neat little invention that is called Snappi. It takes away the use of pins in the cloth diapers. I ordered one, to test it out. It arrived a week ago and I'm loving it. It is such a handy little device.
See the little pink Snappi?


I still use regular diapers at nights and for church.

Gosh, I've had so many ideas lately and I can't remember them by the time I finally get to sit down and write. Today has been a tough day. It is one of those days when I'm ready to throw in the diapers and say "I'm done!" Really, the day has been a normal day with a few of the normal kid "crisis" thrown in. It is just I'm in a not so happy mood today and I'm not coping well with the normal stuff, much less the crisis going on.

Why does a day like this have to happen so close to Mother's Day? On a day that I should feel happy for the choices I've made to be a mother and a stay-at-home mother at that, I am instead feeling very inadequate and like a failure. Like I said, I'm just having a cloudy kind of day. I would love to go sit in my room, alone, for about an hour (or two). No kids, no one allowed to bang at the door, and I want to write. I just want a little bit of peace to rejuvenate and feel creative.

Well, Peanut has woken up, thanks to Princess. Right now, Princess yells everything she says, often waking Peanut and often making my ears ache with her volume. OK, time for Peanut.

Smiles

My sweet baby is now 5 weeks old. She has left behind the newborn and turned into a baby. She smiled today, a lot. She has been giving us random smiles off and on for a few weeks. Today, though, she smiled at daddy when he talked to her. She smiled at me when I came into view. She smiled at the angles that seem to live over my shoulder and right behind me. Peanut if often looking very intently just over my shoulder and talking. I'm guessing she is still seeing her gaurdian angles. I love her sweet smiles and I can't wait to see more of them.

Well, I was ready to do a month of limited grocery spending. I had most of the foods necessary to make it through the entire month without buying much more and it would cost us around $250. Well, hubby decided on Saturday last that we were going to have our first BBQ party of the year. He invited 3 or 4 families from church. Then, last night he went shopping. He had my short list of things we needed. Instead he came home with 20 bags and I'm sure the budget I had planned for the month was probably more than doubled. Well, it should be a great BBQ and pot luck!

I hate car seats!

I've got three kids in car seats now. Princess is in a booster, Toddler is in a regular car seat and Peanut is in an infant. Our family vehicle at the moment is a large SUV. Because it is so tall, I half to climb into it to buckle anyone in. Princess is getting better at being able to buckle herself in, but about half of the time, she still needs help. To help her, I have to go to the other side of the SUV from where Toddler and Peanut are and climb into the vehicle. Peanut's car seat is an old infant carrier. I won't say how old, I might get in trouble. The SUV is too high and she is in on the drivers side which means I have to use my left hand to pull out the car seat. Because of the height of the SUV, I can't lift the car seat out. That means, when I'm alone out with the kids, I just have to take her out of the car seat and leave the car seat in the van. Not easy when you are going grocery shopping.

To get everyone in their seats and everyone out of their seats takes quite a bit of time. Everytime I'm dealing with this all I can do is grumble, I hate car seats.



Can you imagine sleeping like that? At least she is legally buckled in.

garden, budget and other ramblings

I've sat down many times in the last week to write, but I never get to do it. I've usually got Peanut in my arms, like now, and it makes it so hard to type.

Peanut is growing fast. She is leaving that newborn stage and is becoming a true baby. She sleeps less and fusses more. Her face is very round and her eyes are still brown. I love her. I've had lots of thoughts about her and babies in general lately, but now that I sit here to type, I can't remember any of it. Oh well.

The garden we planted is growing. I want to start a few more rows of things. It is funny, I hate veggies, but I'm so excited about this garden. Hubby and I keep talking about our longing for a "homestead" where we can raise chickens and have a much bigger garden. I would like some fruit trees as well. If there is enough room, I would like to have a dairy cow. We go through so many eggs and so much milk. We will continue to dream for now.

Through some good friends, I'm finding various food programs in the area that provide food for good prices. There is a bread thing here where every Saturday morning at 8 am sharp, you can go get free bread. I love that! I go once a month and get enough to last all month long. I just stick a lot into the freezer. Another friend just introduced me to the SHARE program. For $19 I'll chicken thighs, chicken nuggets, beef steaks, Italian sausage, frozen waffles, 3 lbs of potatoes, and 3-4 various fruits and veggies. I'm excited to get the package in two weeks. I'm working hard to stretch our food budget. I'm hoping to spend no more than $200-250 on food for our family this month. Hubby wants to do a big BBQ party with lots of friends. That wasn't included into the budget. As long as he doesn't have the idea that we are providing meat for everyone. That would kill our budget. Still, I'm hoping to keep our personal budget down. Two hundred and fifty doesn't get much for a family of 7. We'll see, we'll see.....

OK, Peanut has had enough of me typing. Time to rotate laundry and check on the kids.

My 100th post!!!

It is the 100th post today. I've been meaning to do this for several days, but my hands are never free when I sit down at the computer. I've always got Peanut in my arms. So, my idea for this post was to have 100 tid bits about me. You probably don't want to know 10 things about me, much less 100.

Well, I couldn't come up with 100 things - you are going to get 50!

50 Things about me you may not know

Childhood
1. Born and raised in Texas, I will always be a Texan at heart
2. One summer I watched the Parent Trap everyday (Hayley Mills, of course)
3. Was know among fellow Girl Scouts as The Moss Boss
4. I wrote lots of stories
5. Spent lots of time in my room listening to music and singing and writing

Education
6. Decided when I was very young that I would attend BYU
7. Have an Associates Degree and a Bachelor Degree in Recreation
8. Want a Masters Degree in Library Science
9. Would love to study history of English and Geology
10. When I was young I wanted to be a meteorologist.

Hobbies
11. I love to cross stitch – it is my favorite hobby.
12. I love to write.
13. I love to play Sims 2
14. I love to study names – onomastics.
15. I also love learning about the history of English

Favorite movies
16. Willow
17. Singing in the Rain
18. Lord of the Rings
19. Pride and Prejudice (A&E version)
20. Any Doris Day movie

Favorite books
21. Any name books
22. The Secret Garden
23. Peter Pan
24. The Magician’s Nephew – Chronicles of Narnia
25. Prisoner of Azkaban – Harry Potter

Interests
26. NAMES!
27. language
28. My children

Secret Desires
29. Publish a book
30. Head a research team to study Indo-European names
31. Meet any or all of the following actors: Liam Neeson, Peter Tork and/or Colin Firth
32. Get a full time job at Philmont
33. Have a successful home business

Places I’ve been
34. Scotland
35. Italy
36. France
37. Hawaii
38. London – Kensington Gardens to see the Peter Pan statue.

Misc.
39. Formally played the bassoon – 8 ½ years
40. Use to have a great singing voice
41. Love to bake
42. Had tubes in my ears for 20 years
43. Love the fall season
44. Lived in a tent for 3 weeks on a campout in Idaho
45. Lived in a tent for 10 weeks as a Philmont staff member
46. Hate veggies!
47. Never learned to drive a stick shift vehicle
48. Monkees fan
49. Can do a convincing English accent
50. Love to Disco!

I'm not superwoman

Yesterday I took my kids to a birthday party. One of the moms there had her newborn son in her arms. He was born the day after Peanut. That little baby is currently weighing in at 8 pounds. My Peanut is a whopping 10. She looked so enormous next to this little boy. It was so funny!

Anyway, the mom with the little boy said, I heard you had your baby at home. I told her I did. The question I get asked every time someone finds out that I did that was would I do it again. My answer is yes! I would do it again. I wish I had done it sooner than baby #5. She then asks if I was worried if something would go wrong. No, I never worried. I had faith in my midwives. That was something I never had with the doctors. We talk about home birth a bit longer, then the conversation ends with, wow, you are just amazing to do that.
No I'm not. I just did what was natural and with what I felt was best.

Our present to this little friend who's party it was was an outfit I sewed for her and some cloth diapers I had sewn for Peanut and made them way to small for my 9 pound baby. These little cloth diapers are the perfect size for a baby doll. My daughter plays with them and changes her baby's diapers over and over. The conversation turns back to me. You made this? Wow, how do you do it? How do you find time with a newborn? Well, right now it is easy. Peanut is a newborn and spends most of her time asleep. When she is awake, she has four siblings who fight to hold her. I can easily have one of my three older children hold Peanut while I work on something.

Then they ask, you were going to use cloth diapers? Yes, and I'm still planning on doing it. The reason she is not in cloth diapers right now is because she was given 3 large boxes of size 1 diapers. I'm going to make good use of those diapers before she outgrows them.

My friend mentioned that I painted my kitchen cabinets when Peanut was 5 days old. I had my mom and Mom did more work on it than I did. It wasn't anything spectacular.

Anyway, these ladies are just saying you are so super, you are Superwoman. I smile and thank them, but inside I'm ready to cry. No I'm not. I'm not Superwoman. Come to my house - you will see dishes in the sink, a carpet way over due for a vacuuming, toys all over the floor, a pile of laundry waiting to be washed and a lot of clutter. Spend some time with my children - you will hear a lot of arguing, teasing, and my toddler doing a lot of screaming. Listen to me at the end of the day. I'm short tempered with my children, and I "raise my voice" often at them. I wouldn't have to raise my voice if they would just behave or do what I ask when I ask them to take their part in helping to care for the house. If I were Superwoman, my house would be clean and my children would not find pleasure in annoying and teasing each other. If I were Superwoman, I wouldn't be overweight and I wouldn't raise my voice at my children.

I'm not super. I just live day to day. I am a stay-at-home mom. That is all.

Princesses and trucks

Yesterday, some friends gave my kids some good old fashion metal toy trucks that their children had long out grown. My thought is they will be perfect for the sand box. Toddler took one and started playing with it. Princess took the other two outside to the sand box and began her play. Later I hear Toddler crying his frustrated cry. I went to see what was wrong and I find a little Polly Pocket Princess stuck inside the cab of the truck. It was Ariel, to be exact. Toddler had decided that the truck needed a driver and those little dolls were the perfect size. The problem was that Ariel was not dressed appropriately for truck driving - she had on a Cinderella dress. Ariel was taken out. Toddler continued to play with the truck and several other of his cars. They drove about the living room and crashed into each other a lot.

Princess on the other hand, was outside with the two other trucks. She dug in the sand and moved the trucks along the mounds of sand. She decided that her trucks also needed drivers. She came in and picked up the discarded Airel that Toddler had taken out of his truck. She places Ariel in the cab of one of her trucks and continues to play.

It is funny to see a bright red headed princess sitting in the cabs of these large yellow trucks. It is funny how Toddler quickly decided it was better that his truck had no driver, rather than have a princess in full ballroom gown dress sitting in the cab and how my Princess decided Airiel in full ballroom gown dress was perfect for her truck. Ah boys and girls. They are so different.

Lovely day

It is a lovely day here. Peanut is 3 weeks old today. It has gone by so fast. It feels like she has always been a part of us now. She still has her cold and so she snorts a lot when she breaths. Hubby was really worried about her, so I took her into the doc yesterday. Doc looked her over and said, yep, it's a cold. She weighs 10 pounds now! What a big girl.

It is a sunny day and I'm drying my clothes on the line. I do love that. I could have done it yesterday, but I was feeling lazy. Today I have energy (I don't know where it comes from, I've had very little sleep thanks to the snorting baby) and so I've taken my clothes outside to dry.

Hubby left this morning for a short business trip. We miss him, of course, but I really have fun when he is gone on these little trips. I have the van all to myself! I don't have to cook nice meals. Not that I always cook nice meals anyway, but at least the pressure to cook nice meals is off. After taking hubby to the airport this morning, we went to a large plant nursery and got some pretty plants. Hubby likes purples, blues and silvers. I found several purple flowers, some blue ground cover and I got lambs ear. A nursery is a place I really have to stay away from. I could spend so much money there. So many beautiful plants.

Our garden we planted is growing. We planted carrots, cucumbers, beans, and pumpkins. We have a very small area for planting and that is all we could fit into it. I've also got some dill, parsley and mint growing. It is neat to see the little plants poking out of the ground and their green leaves getting bigger.

In a week and a half, a friend of mine is going to our nearest cannery. It is strange how is works here, she had to give her order a month in advance to make sure they have what she wants in stock. Our cannery/storehouse is 2 1/2 hours away and I never make it out to that area. She was good enough to call me up and ask if I wanted anything. I placed a nice order with her. I wanted to get enough that it is worth the time and energy it will take her to go there, but not so big that she couldn't accommodate my stuff as well as hers. I'm excited to get my stuff. Mostly it is oats. I can do so much with oats - breakfasts, cookies, grind it for flour and make breads. Oats are so versatile and we use them a lot.

Well, it is time to go rotate laundry and bring in the dry stuff.

Family size and soap

In this society of 2.5 kids, having 5 children must seem really bizarre to a lot of people. We haven't got out much as a family since Peanut was born, but when we have gone out, the seven of us, we've gotten some comments on our large size. Even in our ward at church, we are now tied with 2 other families for largest number of children. Hubby and I each grew up in families with 4 children. We've passed our parents. It has been strange.

What has really been strange to adjust is that even after sending hubby to work in the morning and the oldest son to school, I still have 4 kids in the house. With Peanut's cold, I stayed home from church today to care for her, but Hubby still left the house with 4 children. This will take some adjusting. I realize that 5 isn't as large as some families I know, but the adjustment has been bigger for me than I anticipated.

OK, a random happening in our house. I finished a bottle of dish soap and so I dug deep into the cabinet under the sink to find more. I found a bottle of blue dish soap labeled Deseret Dish Washing Soap. Yep, soap from the storehouse. I was using it and I kept getting these strange nostalgic flashbacks to when I was very small and in my parent's kitchen. I smelled the dish soap. The smell was oddly familiar. I mentioned it to my hubby and he said the same thing had happened to him when he used it. This dish soap must smell the way all the dish soaps use to before they all started to have "scents", like cucumber-melon and spring breeze. I wonder if after this soap is gone I can get more of it. I like the way it smells and reminds me of my childhood.

Peanut

I've decided to give my baby a blog name. From now on, (or until I change my mind) she will be called Peanut. I call her this because when I hold her, she curls up into a ball and it just reminds me of a peanut.

So, Peanut is 2 weeks old. She has a very different disposition from the other kids, so far. She spends a good deal of her awake time looking around at the world through her big eyes. Her eyes are brown! I'm so happy. I have brown eyes, my husband has green eyes and I've got four green/blue eyed children. Peanut's eyes may not stay brown, but for now, they are and I'm very pleased.

Two nights ago, Peanut caught a cold. I'm not surprised since the other kids have all had colds and I can't keep them from putting their hands all over Peanut's face. Princess (the 4 year old) insists on kissing her on the cheeks all the time. Poor Peanut. She has had the hardest time breathing. Her nose is stopped up and she insists on trying to breath through it. Early this morning, she started to panic because she just couldn't get air through her nose. It made her upset and she started to cry. I let her cry. At least she breaths through her mouth when she cries. Poor baby. It is hard to have a cold.

Princess has been a huge help lately. A few days ago, she was helping me wash dishes but it had been a while since she went potty and she had an accident. I put her in the tub. Toddler got into the tub too. I got them cleaned and then I went to check on Peanut. Peanut needed me, so I was holding her and caring for her when Princess and Toddler got out of the tub. I couldn't put a diaper on Toddler right away, so I let him run naked. Later, he came up to me and was wearing a diaper and a t-shirt. I hadn't dressed him and I know my seven year old hadn't done it. Princess had. I didn't know she knew how to put on a diaper, but she did! Then, yesterday, Peanut wanted a bottle. I was busy and hubby was going to get it, but suddenly, Princess appeared with a bottle. She had made it herself and did it just right! She really watches me. I'm so glad to have my sweet Princess.

growing up

Last night was baby's 2 week check up with the mid-wives. They declared her perfect. Of course, I already knew that. She has grown. She is 21 3/4 inches long now and is back to birth weight - 9 lbs 5 oz. She screamed through the entire check up - making quite sure they knew her lungs are good and strong. She loves to be warm. She loves to be held. This is good and bad. I love to hold her, but sometimes, I just need to put her down and take care of life. It makes her upset. She is very alert and watches me when I walk past her. I'm absolutely sure she has smiled at me and I'm not talking gas smiles. Perhaps they have all been gas smiles, but it seems she has smiled at me just because. Let me think that anyway, it makes me happy.

We are trying to get back into the swing of things. My seven year old is doing his homeschool work. My two and four year olds are playing. The toddler seems to be having a rough time. He screeches when anything happens that he doesn't like. He drops a toy and screams. He can't carry something and he screams. His older siblings annoy him and he screams. It is an awful screech. I'm hoping he will get over this phase soon.

I have to admit, I've not had much time for thoughts beyond baby, kids and household duties. Right now motherhood and homemaking are consuming all my thoughts and energies. Can you believe it?

A week and a half later....

Well, it has been 11 days since the baby was born. She is beautiful and sweet. She is still in that newborn state where she sleeps a lot during the day and even quite a bit a night. I have gotten better and more sleep in the last week and a half than I did the three months leading up to her birth.

My mom came two days after baby was born. She left today. It was so wonderful. My mom is the best. She left the house spotless! She did three loads of laundry a day (at least). She did all the dishes. There was never a dirty dish sitting in the sink while Mom was here.

Mom and I got a little crazy too. We painted the kitchen cabinets! They are now a glossy white. The kitchen is so bright and looks so much cleaner now. We also cleaned out several closets, sewed my 4 year old a new pair of shorts and a t-shirt, and made a several shopping trips. We had plans for fixing the inside workings of the downstairs toilet, but we ran out of time. Of course, there was lots of laughing, and we read several Women's World magazines. We went out one evening together with the plan of just getting some lemonade and chatting at a restaurant. We went to three restaurants before we found one open (this town shuts down at 9 p.m.) and the restaurant that was open had Karaoke going that night. We had our lemonades, listen to some really bad singing and laughed the whole way home.

Tomorrow I brave the world of 5 kids on my own for the first time, after hubby goes to work. I might be a total wreck. I appreciate all that my mom did for me, but what is the hardest about her going is the fun companionship that I enjoy with her around. We have a good time laughing, talking and working. I hope one day, years from now, I can have the same relationship with my daughters. I hope we can always be good friends and laugh together. It is hard to say good bye, but my white kitchen will remind me of good times.

Baby's Here!

Our sweet baby girl was born on April 3rd at 2:40 in the morning. She is a big 9 lbs 5 oz and is 21 inches long. She is a sweetie who is loved so much by everyone here. Her siblings keep wanting to hold her. I won't tell the name here, but here is a picture of my newest pink bundle of joy.

Doris Day Show

This is my 90th post. I'll have to think of something special for the 100th.

Today I was watching one of my Netflix - The Doris Day show. Can I tell you what a fun show this is? It is so, so, Clean! When the biggest concern is getting her children milk to drink at school or helping some dogs that were left in a car during the heat of the day, you know that you are watching something special. This kind of entertainment and way of thinking no longer exist in today's world.

There are a few things in the show that would be considered shocking, however. During season 2, Doris gets a job in the city near her farm home. She is a secretary for a magazine. What else was there for a women to do in the late 1960's? There is a lot, and I mean a lot of what would be called today, sexual harassment. The men in her office love to ask her out to dinner. The clients her company meet love to work with Doris and have dinner with her. They send her on special assignments for the company because she is beautiful. The CEO looks at her with adoring eyes. Of course, Doris is sweet and just takes it all in with a smile. She isn't a push over, mind you, but she just lets the comments and googoo eyes roll off her back. It is a sweet TV show and in the end, Doris always comes out with a smile and all is well.

So, today, I was watching it and she and her boss were on their way to Florida to do an interview for the magazine. Their plane is hijacked by a nervous white American man and re-routed to Cuba. While she is there, the Major of the army at the airport, falls in love with Doris and takes her to dinner. When the passengers are released and allowed to re-board the plane to take them home, she agrees to help the major who detained them. There is no International help or incident. It is shocking!! If this were to happen today, can you even imagine what it would be like? We would have to start a war with the other country.

What was simple then is not so simple now. This was Doris Day, after all, and it all turned out well with no harm done to anyone. I think I would rather live in Doris's world than ours. I would rather watch the silly Cuban hijacker than the drama of our own country brought to us courtesy of CSI and other such shows. Thank you Doris Day! Thank you for being such a sweet woman who cares for her children, works as a secretary and makes everything so happy.

Hooked on shrink wrap

I recently got the Hooked on Phonics program for helping my homeschooled 7 year old and 4 year old to learn to read better. I have high hopes for what it can do for my preschooler.

Anyway, it arrived yesterday afternoon and I didn't get a chance to really look at it until this morning. It boasts at least 30 original books for helping the children learn to read. There was a section of 10 books in a shrink wrapped package. I opened it. Each individual book was then in its own shrink wrapped packaging! It took a long time to get into it. My two year old really wanted me to read to him, but by the time I got into the books, he had lost interest and gone off to another activity.

The program has a 30 day money back guarantee. I think it should be 31 days. You need one day just to get into the program and get the wrapping off 9 sets of flash cards and 30+ books.

Yesterday we went to the Botanical Gardens. I do enjoy it there. It is lovely and the children's area is very nice with lots of things to do, play on, look at, and a nice hill to climb up and roll down. We spent three hours there just letting the kids run and play. We all received our first sunburn of the year. Everyone came home with pink cheeks and noses. Luckily for the kids, the pinkness seems to be mostly gone today. For some reason, I'm the one that burns the worst. My children are all fair haired and fair skinned, but me, with my dark hair and slightly less than fair skin ends up with the worst burns. My nose is still quite red and I could feel the burn on my head while I was brushing my hair this morning. It is defiantly time to pull out the sunblock.

Sales, thoughts, and general randomness

Well, yesterday I reached the 39th week of pregnancy, but who's counting? Early this morning I realized that I had given birth to all my sons by this point. It is my daughters, it seems who are in no hurry to join us. Well, I'm taking my kids, who are on spring break, to the Botanical Gardens today. I'm hoping that some walking and good exercise can get things going.

So, my lack of posts haven't been because of baby or lack of random thoughts, just lack of patience to sit down and type.

Let the Random Thoughts begin:
Have you ever noticed that the local furniture store is having it's biggest sale of the year every weekend? Our local Haynes has it's biggest sale of the year every week. They closed early yesterday so they could spend all night reducing prices for this week's biggest sale. They probably wanted the night off for some big game that was on TV or so they could watch Dancing With the Stars. Do they think the public is so stupid that we don't see what they are doing? Do they really think that we believe that this week has the biggest sale and that we will forget that they have used the same tactic last week? It is amusing. I keep hoping that if I wait long enough for their absolutly BIGGEST sale that everything will cost a dollar, like the dollar store. Only then will I be there for their sale.

My daughter had a funny idea recently. She told my hubby and I that we don't think because we don't have clouds over our heads. Well, that idea totally went over my head, but hubby got it. He laughed and said only cartoon characters get clouds over their heads when they think. Then I understood - thought bubbles! She got the idea that because we don't have thought bubbles hovering over our heads when we think or speak that we must not think! Isn't that the most clever, funniest thing? My daughter defiantly thinks outside the box, even without thought bubbles and clouds.

My daughter also informed me that she is cute and people think she is charming. She is telling the truth. I can't tell you the number of times we have gotten super treatment at stores and resturants because daughter was with us.

I had another really random thought, until now. Now I can't remember....

Oh yes! With baby coming, I told hubby that I really wanted to get a new digital camera. Our old camera died during Christmas. It didn't like the airplane trip apparently. I've been using my cell phone to take pictures, and that has worked very nicely, but the quality of the photos aren't great. I wanted a nice camera that wouldn't take grainy pictures. Hubby consented and we went to Best Buy. We found a nice camera and got it. Cameras are expensive and we chose one of the cheaper ones, but we still spent over $150 for it. Now, Hubby thinks that he can justify getting a new computer. He let me get a camera and I should let him get a computer. Hmmm, let's see, $150 vs. $1000. I just don't see how they balance out... He told me about a co-worker who a while back bought a TV stand that was big enough to hold a 60 inch screen TV. Their 36" TV looked quite silly on such a huge stand, so he was able to convince his wife into getting a 54" HDTV to "fit" the space.

What men don't realize is they aren't convincing us. We women aren't stupid and we see the set ups, even though most of the time, we don't call them on it. We keep the men happy by letting them think they have the upper hand and letting them get their toy that we get to enjoy too. A 60" screen TV isn't necessary, but I would love to watch Singing In the Rain in hi-def! And with a good sound system too!

I'm bored!

Can you believe I'm saying that? Of course there is a bunch of stuff to do (general cleaning, laundry, etc.), but really, how many times can you vacuum the living room in one day?

I like having a project and I can't think of anything right now. I'm out of the color thread I need to continue my cross stitch. It is a silly thing, but I can't do anymore with out this one dumb color. Hubby has the van all the time, day and evening, and I never make it out of the house.

With baby coming anytime in the next few weeks, I don't want to start anything too big that I might not be able to finish.

In the house I can't think of much to do. I've made all the cloth diapers I'm going to for the moment. I figured I'd better wait until baby gets here to make sure these diapers I've sewn are any good before I go and make more. I've painted the ugly room.... I could start the garden, but being a city girl who has never planted a garden before, I don't know how to get started and I'm afraid of messing it up and ruining our garden. I've been contemplating repainting the downstairs bathroom. It is a funny blue color right now. It isn't bad and it really doesn't need to be painted, but I would like to eventually. Do I do it now or later?

No books sound good to read right now... Yep, I guess I'm just being bored and ornery.

On the funny kid side of things, my older son and I were doing some math work together and my toddler toddled off to the kitchen. A few moments later I hear him scream in a very unusual way. He came running back to me looking quite scared. I couldn't understand what he was saying so I asked him to show me. He led me into the kitchen and pointed to his sandwich. On it was a fly. He was scared of the bug! I showed him how to wave his hand and say "Shoo fly!" Then I used a fly swater and killed the fly. My toddler thought that was pretty funny, but he stared at the wall where I killed the fly for a long time. He was quite worried that it would come back. With summer coming with all it's flies, mosquitos and spiders, it could be a real scary summer for my toddler.

Oh, another funny thing. Today is a really windy day! It is also trash day. A lot of trash cans have been blown over by the wind. Luckily for us, we have so much trash that our cans are very heavy and can't blow over.

Mrs. Grumpy

I've been grumpy a bit lately. Can you blame me? It is 7:20 in the morning and the two youngest have already thrown tantrums. They have only been awake for 7 minutes! It has been like this for over a week. My hubby was out of town all last week so I never had a break from the kids. I can't even go into my bedroom or the bathroom without one of them following me to the door. If I go into the bedroom and lock the door, the two youngest pound on it and yell at me. If I go into the bathroom, they stand on the other side of the door talking to me. My two older ones do this a lot too. They don't have anything to say to me while I'm in the same room as them, but the moment I enter the bathroom and shut the door, they suddenly need to ask questions or tell me stories.

I'm also now 38 weeks pregnant. Having this baby is about the only thought my mind is capable of thinking of. I just want to know when it is going to happen. Then I could relax and plan, but knowing it could happen anywhere from tomorrow to three weeks down the road is making me crazy.

My kids seem to talk back to me more. My homeschool son gets annoyed when I ask him to do his work. He wants to do only one page in his book and be done for the day. Yesterday I decided to read out loud from Peter Pan to him. When he saw what I was about to do, he exclaimed loudly, "Oh no."

Perhaps it is always this way and it probably is, but my pregnancy induced grumpiness is making things all the worse.

On the positive side, my two year old is super cute (when he isn't throwing a tantrum) and his vocabulary has improved by leaps and bounds lately. He can say just about anything he wants. He can tell me more specifically what he wants to eat, not just num nums. He can tell me his tummy (leg, tongue, etc.) hurts. He can tell me what it is that his sister did to him to make him upset. His phrases are usually only 2-3 words long, but he is really amazing what thoughts and emotions he can convey with those 2-3 words.

Long rambling thought on Language and Music

Over the last 5 years, I have made English language history a favorite subject. I found the evolution of the language fascinating. English’s earliest roots are the Indo-European language. As people moved and centuries past, the language changed and took on many new forms with new names. What we now call Germanic is where English really separated from the other main branches of languages. The Germanic language changed and became many more languages and we finally reach the period of Old English. Although mostly unrecognizable to our modern eyes, it is not hard to see that this strange language is the basis of what we speak now. Only about 20% of Old English remains in our current vocabulary. English was almost squashed as a language during the Norman Invasion. It was the language of the common and poor people. Yet, it endured. It was able to survive thanks to it’s flexibility and it took on new words while keeping the old. To this day, English is a very flexible language, creating new words constantly to fit with the changing times. It is versatile and expressive.

I wish I knew more of the language and could use great vocabulary in my daily expressions, but I must confess, I do not and it really doesn’t matter because the average English speaker wouldn’t understand the vocabulary anyway. For instance, if I were to mention in general conversation about the size of a vomitory, most people would think me being quite gross, but I’m not. A vomitory is a large doorway.

To switch subjects for a moment, I want to talk a bit about music. Music is a universal language. A group of people who can’t speak to each other because of spoken language barriers can sit together and listen to music. Music is fantastic. My parents introduced me to classical music at a very young age. Later when I entered middle school, I needed to fill some class time and I wanted to fill that time with music. I choose to play in the band. I picked an instrument I knew nothing about – the bassoon. I loved being a part of a large body of music. I loved the small, yet important addition that the bassoon provided to each song. I learned to appreciate the little changes and little additions found in a score.

This love of the small changes in music has continued in my life. Some of my favorite music to listen to are movie soundtracks. They are the “classical” music of this modern age. John Williams, John Barry, Harry Gregson-Williams and so many more and the modern form of Amadeus or Beethoven. Instead of writing for operas that people go to for entertainment, these modern men write for movies. My two youngest children love to listen to the Danny Elfman version of Willy Wonka. I must admit, I love it too. There is one song that I love and it is a silly song, but it has one moment that last for 2 measures or eight counts that I find lovely to listen too. The song is building into it’s main chorus and a flute joins in and plays probably 5 notes, but I absolutely love those 5 notes! It is silly and yet, I love that part. I’ve noticed this with other music. There will be a song and a trombone will come in playing a counter line in it’s lower register and it gives me the goose bumps.

Now, I want to tie in this English language thought and music thought. English has over 600,000 words, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. That is a lot of words. Music is the universal language and that makes the vocabulary able to describe music in the millions and billions! Yet, with all these words that are available to me, I can’t put into words what it is that music does to me. I can’t describe the way it makes me feel. I can’t tell about those 5 notes of the flute without using silly words like goose bumps.

I hope that when my life ends here and I enter into the world of heavenly beings, I will find the way to express the feelings I have for music. Perhaps something so heavenly as music can not be described in any other way than with heavenly words. Until then, when I listen to music and I say, “Oh, this part I love, listen to the flute. Isn’t that beautiful?”, just listen to what I point out and try to make a polite, yet meaningful comment like, “That was beautiful, it gave me the goose bumps.”

projects

My hubby has been gone all week and instead of sitting in my rocking chair, cross stitiching and watching all the bonnet movies I can, I've been working like mad. On Monday we had a bunch of dirt (compost) delivered to our house. I spent two days moving a lot of it, but my back gave up and I haven't moved any since Tuesday. So, yesterday I decided it was time to paint the ugly "school room". It is the extra room in the house that should be a dining room but never became one. Instead it became the sewing room/school room/toy room/whatever room. It has awful 70's wallpaper on it. See:



So, I decided I had had enough of it and I pulled off the moulding and yesterday I primed all but one part of it. My kids have all helped. Some have helped a little too much, if you know what I mean and have gotten paint on the carpet and their clothes.



Now the walls are white and I've started painting them their new color, which is basically, the same color as the primer - white! I really don't like white walls, but I don't feel like I'm in the frame of mind to make color decisions. I don't like painting and I'm not very good at it so I went with what is easiest.

(This breaking news is being told to me as I type - my daughter doesn't know any more JennyJenna's. They have died! JennyJenna is her imaginary friend, as you might remember. Well, not the queen JennyJenna died, just the kung fu JennyJenna. Yeah, I don't get it either....)

OK. So, a few nights ago, I was laying down to sleep on the couch and was blinded by the street lights flooding though the living room. Since I was getting the whatever room ready to paint, I had taken the curtains down to puddy holes in the wall. Without the curtains, I couldn't sleep. During the middle of the night I started to wonder if I could shoot the street lights from my window with a BB gun. I decided as much as I would like to do that, it wouldn't be a good idea. First, I don't have a BB gun, second, it is probably illegal. I wondered if I could shoot the street lights with my bow and arrows. Then I decided I shouldn't try this either. My arrows have blunts on them and I can't aim that well. Also I only have three arrows and I really wouldn't want to loose them. So, I slept poorly. Last night, I rigged up a blanket to hang in the room and block the window. It was so classy you know, and my toddler kept pointing at it and saying "ghost!"

I have to get this room painted by tomorrow. Hubby comes home Saturday and I would like at least one day to sit on the couch, cross stitching and watching a bonnet movie! I'm hoping all this is a sign of nesting and this baby will come soon! I just wish the nesting would extend to the rest of the house and I would want to clean it more. While I'm painting, the rest of the house is getting ignored and starting to look pretty messy.

ice cut update

This evening while my children and I are having dinner, one of my sons remarked how the drinking water was ice cold. (It wasn't ice cold, just refrigerator cold) My daughter immediately began talking of how ice can cut you. My older son rolled his eyes and said, "Don't talk about it!" My daughter replies with, "But ice can cut you, I've had one."

The Paranoia of a 4 year old

My 4 year old daughter has an amazing memory and mind. She can remember things that happened long ago in her short life. I’m astounded when she brings up a specific incident that happened a year ago. We must be careful with her because of this great memory she has.

She also has a habit of getting “fixed” on an idea or incident and she will talk about it for a long, long time. Several examples:

-About two weeks ago, she got a small cut from a piece of ice she was sucking on. I wasn’t there for the incident so I don’t know the particulars, but she got a cut on one of her fingers from this bit of ice. For days and days she talked constantly of “ice cuts”. When I told her I didn’t want to hear anymore about ice cuts she told me she wasn’t done talking about them. Luckily, he wound has healed and she has not thought of it in a week.

-Black Holes! I don’t know where she heard about black holes. I’m guessing it was a know-it-all older brother who told her about black holes and their ability to suck up all things. Several weeks ago daughter was quite concerned about these black holes. She asked if they really could suck us up. I answered truthfully, yes, they could. She wanted to know where one was and if it was anywhere near our house. I answered her they are far, far away in outer space. She talked about these black holes for several days and then I heard nothing about it again, until this morning. She brought them up again.

-Crocodiles. This morning through what seemed like random chatter coming from my four year old which started while she was watching me trim my hair, she came across the idea of crocodiles. She then asked if crocodiles can eat people. I said yes, they could. She then asked, would they eat us in pieces? Probably, I answered. She went on talking about how she doesn’t like crocodiles, alligators and T-Rex’s. The T-Rex gave me a clue as to where this idea came from. Her brothers made her watch “Walking with Dinosaurs” yesterday while they were in the van. Those brothers!

-The biting chair. This will sound strange. I love Doris Day movies and one of my favorites to watch is “Pillow Talk”. In the end, Doris’s character redecorates Rock Hudson’s apartment in the most hideous way. Good friend Tony Randall, in a state of shock, sits down in a chair in the newly decorated living room. He immediately jumps and yells, “That chair! It bit me!” My daughter was amazed. A chair that would actually bite someone. She couldn’t stop talking about the biting chair. She talked about it all day long. I’m afraid I might have traumatized her.

The most incredible thing about my daughter is, we will be doing something and she will bring up these things from out of nowhere. You can be sure this isn’t the last time I hear about biting chairs or black holes.

Spring is in the air

The lovely season of spring is beginning here in southern Virginia. The daffodils are blooming. They are so bright and yellow. They make you happy just to see them. The last two days have had temperatures in the low 70’s. Today will be cooler, but still in the 60’s. At least for this week, it is spring here. Of course, this being Virginia, next week could be in the 20’s and 30’s again. You never know from week to week what it will be like outside.

But let’s forget for today that winter is still the official season and that it could snow in April. Today is a bright, slightly cool, spring day. For two days now I’ve been using my clothes line again. I will use it again today. Two days ago, my son and I made can stilts. He has enjoyed wandering the backyard in them. I wish we had sidewalks here that he could go up and down the street. The kids have spent hours outside jumping on the trampoline and digging in the sand box. We planted an herb garden this week. I hope in another week or two we will see the first little shoots of our plants. My tulips that I planted last year are starting to poke small green leaves up from the ground. It is a good day.

Last night we had a thunderstorm. I love those. I opened the curtains up so I would watch the sky light up. The storm sang me to sleep.

It’s one of those days that makes you happy to be alive. I just wish I could imagine the busy street and the sounds of zooming cars and school buses away.

All about Moi!

Dahling, I know your deepest desire is to know all about Moi!

1. What is your occupation? An actress, of course!
2. What color are your socks right now? Socks? How horrid. No, I’m wearing black silk stockings.
3. What are you listening to right now? My surround sound of Moi’s beautiful voice singing the greatest show tunes of the 40’s.
4. What was the last thing that you ate? The most delicious crème broulie.
5. Can you drive a stick? A what? I don’t drive, I have a chauffeur.
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Dahling, don’t you know there is already a crayon named after me?
7. Who is your favorite singer? Moi
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Not really.
9. How old are you today? (giggle) Oh, Dahling, I’m a lady and lets just say I’m over 21.
10. Favorite drink? I know it is so common, but I love Root Beer. It just tickles my nose in the funniest way.
11. What is your favorite sport to watch? I loath sports. So common, so vulgar, so primal.
12. Have you ever dyed your hair? Of course not! My hair is naturally this blond, always has been, always will be. That reminds me I need to set up an appointment with my hairdresser, Pierre.
13. What is your favorite place to vacation? Europe, dahling. I adore Paris.
14. Favorite food? Caviar
15. Last movie you watched? My movie. Is there anything else worth watching?
16. Favorite Day of the Year? My birthday – an entire day devoted to Moi!
17. What do you do to vent anger? I shoe shop. Yesterday, I was mad at my gardener for planting ugly seeds and I was so mad that I went and found the most adorable red, strappy, 5 inch heels that have the biggest red jewel on the big toe.
18. What was your favorite toy as a child? A mirror.
19. What is your favorite, fall or spring? Spring. There are so many more cuter outfits for the spring.
20. Hugs or kisses? I’m not going there, dahling…
21. Cherry or Blueberry? Chocolate covered strawberries, thank you.
22. Do you want your friends to email you back? No, I’m not interested in their pathetic lives.
25. Living arrangements? I have the most gorgeous mansion on a hill over looking the ocean. My private swimming pool has a movie screen on one end and I love to sit in my luxurious floating chair and watch my movies.
26. When was the last time you cried? Last night while I was watching my death scene in my movie. It was so tragic.
27. What is on the floor of your closet? Plush carpeting.
28. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? I’ll send it back to myself. I’m the only one who matters.
29. Who is the friend you have had the shortest that you are sending this to? Ditto
30. Favorite smells? Chanel No. 5, is there any other fragrance?
31. What inspires you? Moi
32. What are you afraid of? Wrinkles
33. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Hamburgers are so common. I dine on only the best filet mingon.
34. Favorite car? Stretched limos.
35. Number of keys on your key ring? I don’t carry keys! I wouldn’t want anything making that horrid jangling noise in my fashion handbag.
36. How many years at your current job? I was born to act and be rich.
37. Favorite day of the week? I love Saturdays, it is my day to soak in my hot tub and my personal masseuse works on me for hours.
38. How many states have you lived in? Just one.
39. How many countries have you been to? I’ve been to more than I can count. My favorite countries to visit are France, Africa and Hawaii.

There you go. Now you know my deepest secrets. I hope, Dahling, that this has been enlightening.

Books

Last night I had an activity with the Activity Day Girls at church. To encourage the great pastime of reading, I had each girl tell us about her favorite book or a book she has recently read.

To start things off, I brought along four of my favorites. My books were The Secret Garden, Peter Pan, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Anne of Green Gables. The Anne book isn't high on my list of favorites, but it is a fun read and I thought the girls might really enjoy it. First of all, it was sad when I introduced each of my books and the girls would say, I've seen that movie! While I enjoy the movie versions of these books (I've never seen an Anne movie, although I know there is one) the movies are never as good as the books. One girl said she hated each movie.

Then, each girl took a turn to tell us about her book. One girl brought in a fantasy novel she had just finished. Another girl told us about one she was reading in school. Another girl said her book was called Spiderwick, but it wasn't the Chronicles book. The other girls didn't believe her. I felt bad. She could hardly tell us about the book because the others were saying there was no way that was a Spiderwick book.

Anyway, after it was over, I thought back to when I was in school and the books the teachers made me read. I didn't like most of them. It seems teachers are keeping this up. They like to pick depressing, thought-provocing novels based on true events and wars instead of great classic literature. I told the girls thank goodness for summers when you can choose your own good books to read. I was lucky enough to have a teacher in the 11th grade who told us to pick any book by an American author in the 20th century. What a huge choice! I picked a Star Wars novel. It was acceptable and I got an A on my paper. I loved that teacher for letting us do that. I'll never understand why some people choose to read depressing novels about people who always end up with a fatal disease and dying a sad death. To each his own, I guess.

This has been a rambling, random thought with no point brought to you by the letters B, G, and the number 4836.

It's never a dull moment with children

Time flies by and yet it is going so slowly....

Kids are fixing their lunches. My two sons each have a sword and fight inbetween waiting for the toaster and eating the toast. My daughter has been wearing a cape for two days. Half of the time she thinks herself a queen while wearing the cape. The other half of the time she says she can fly and she runs around the house holding the cape out. We went to WalMart and the library this morning - she had on her cape. Her cape is a blanket and since it is in the 40's today, it works well as a warm wrap.

She has always had her own sense of style. When she was very, very small, she loved to wear her best dresses all of the time. Really, I didn't mind. The looked so pretty in them and I knew the phase would not last. We would be at a store and people would ask me if we had just had pictures taken. No, I would say, she just likes to wear her dresses. Now, instead of her pretty dresses, she prefers to wear purple t-shirts with red plaid skirts or she will wear a bright yellow skirt with a pink long sleeve t-shirt. Nothing matches anymore. Still, right now it isn't worth fighting about. As long as she is appropriatly covered, if she feels good in her outfit, I don't mind.


My children feel it a need to out-do each other. I guess most children do. The "game" King of the Hill didn't come out of nowhere. My daughter will just start to sing. She has a lovely voice. Her brother finds the song annoying and he tells her so. She starts to sing more loudly and begins to add annoying sounds in her singing. Seeing she isn't going to stop, he begins his own annoying noises. They raise to a terrible level until I have to loudly command they both stop.

Then, son begins to stomp on the floor. "What song am I doing?" Daughter wisely and candidly points out it sounds like stomping. He gets upset, again asking us what song he is stomping out. I tell him I agree with daughter it just sounds like stomping. He informs me he is doing the song "Popeye". I listen more closely.... nope, it still sounds like stomping to me.

Pile of pink

I just love the pile of pink. I washed all the baby clothes yesterday. It was fun to fold and look at the tiny onesies and pajamas. There is still lots of time before I'll need these things, but I couldn't resist washing them any longer.

Today two of my sons will be getting Haircuts by Mom. They are looking like John Denver in the early Eighties. My toddler is very good about getting his hair cut, but it is so hard to hold still when you are two. He also has a runny nose and likes to keep his hands in his mouth (although he is no longer teething). This could make for a hairy face while getting the haircut.

Well, my daughter needs a bath and the toddler can't resist time in the Splashy, so we are off to get clean. Then we'll do haircuts and he can have a second splashy.

A history of random thoughts

My toddler broke a bowl today. Whoever said Correll doesn't break, hasn't been to my house. We have broken more bowls in the last few months then I can remember. Today, it was the toddler's fault. Why is it when you yell "Don't Move!" that they have to keep moving? I yell at my toddler not to move and he starts to back up from the shattered mess. I tell my daughter to stay out. This hurt her feelings, it wasn't her fault the bowl broke, so why should she have to stay out of the kitchen?

Anyway, I'm cleaning up this bowl and I was disappointed to find that it was a clean bowl that had fallen to the floor. Now, I have to clean up the remains of a clean bowl and I still have as many dirty dishes as before this one broke. Does that make sense? If a dirty bowl had broken, it would have been like cleaning up one mess, not two.

I guess that is pretty ridiculous.

I have a history of silly random thoughts. I'll share a few with you.

When I was quite young, I thought how silly a vacuume cleaner was. As you push it around the room, it leaves it's cord all over the floor. Then, when you are done with the vacuume, you have to clean up the cord off the floor. With a vacuume you clean twice!

Another random thought I had as a child was about dust. (Cleaning is on my mind, can you tell?) When you are wearing white, and you roll around on the floor, you get black dust all over your clothes. However, when you are wearing black, and you roll around the same floor, you end up with white dust on you. This was, to me, very odd. I remember this thought came to me after watching Star Wars. Princess Leia was wearing a white dress and when it got dirty, you could see black. Luke Skywalker was wearing an all black outfit and after rolling about on the floor he is covered in a white dusting.

Yes folks, strange random thoughts have been a part of me for a long time. I'm glad they never go away.

going to Vote!

Today is voiting day in our state. I like going to vote. I feel like I'm doing something important. There isn't much in the way of choices this year, but I went and done my part.

Before heading out I had to find my voters registration card. That took me a while. It wasn't exactly where I thought I kept it. It was close by and took a bit of digging through papers, but I found it.

Next I had to get the kids ready. My 7 year old says, can't I stay home? No, you are going to watch me vote. My daughter starts to whine: I don't want to go. Well, you can't stay home alone and I want you to come with me while I vote. My toddler is excited to get out of the house. After much whining on my son and daughter's part, we made it to the elementary school down the street. My daughter had a sour look on her face the entire time. It's too bad because she is such a pretty girl. While does she have to spoil that sweetness with a sour look? Anyway, I get my card and go to an open booth. My toddler sees a big wooden crab hanging from the ceiling. He thinks it is a spider and starts to head for it. The voter people don't like him going behind the machines. They pull him away. He gets upset. I finish my voting - it was very quick since there is only one vote to make. I turn the group around and we start to leave.

My toddler throws himself to the floor and starts to cry "speeda" which means spider. I have to drag him to the door where I turn in my card and they give me a sticker. They offer one to my daughter, but she gives the guy a dirty look. I have to carry my toddler who is kicking and screaming out the door. He makes himself stiff and heavy making it very hard for me to hold him. I carry him out to the van and we load back in. He cries the whole way home "speeda, speeda"!

Maybe next time, I'll leave them all at home. Without all the loading and unloading into the van, I would cut my time in half. I could be home in 5 minutes.

My book club has been reading Anne of Green Gables this month. It took me a while for me to get over the shock in the book of letting the children run outside all day, walk to school alone, and stay home alone while parents walk to the neighbors. I forget that at one point you could leave your child home while you went down the street for a few minutes. Now, the thought of leaving my kids home for 5 mintues is terrifying. I'm not worried that anything will happen to them, they are good kids and if I put on a movie, they would not even notice I had gone. What is terrifying is that someone might find out I did it and call police on me. What a terrible world we live in now. I wish I could go back to the time of Anne's world and not worry so much about those things.

Oh well, the point to all this is, I VOTED!

no news but always busy

I knew I hadn't written in a while, but I was surprised to see that I had not all the month of February.

The thing is, not much is going on. I mean, with kids, there is always stuff going on, but nothing mentionable.

Hubby is going on a work trip to Colorado. I'm so jealous. I want to go to Colorado! It has been my favorite place for as long as I can remember. We'll miss him for those 4 days, but we will have fun. My sister is coming to see me on Wednesday!!!! I can't wait. We have so much fun together and it will be the first time she comes to my house since we moved here. We are planning a Monkees Marathon.
My hubby is glad he won't be around for that.

There is something going on every night these days. Last week it was all church stuff. This week is it all church stuff too. Last Tuesday I had my first appointment with the midwife. It is a small team of 5 and they were all very nice. All seems to be going well. I was at 32 weeks for the appoitment, but I measured at 37. They were all concerned, but I'm thinking I've just got a good layer of extra pounds they measured which made the numbers high. Baby is good. She is busy. They had a hard time pinning her down to get a heartbeat on her. She kept moving and squirming. I think it is pretty funny, but you know what that means for my future... another super busy kid.

My son has been devouring his Magic Tree House books. I had to take him to the library twice last week because he would read all his books. I'm proud of him. My toddler still likes to be a kitty, puppy, pony, whatever. He has been playing with Star Wars action figures lately. He likes they all have lightsabers. My daughter has decided that her Polly Pocket princess dolls are now Jedi's too. It makes for interesting play. I'm glad she has such a great imagination!

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!

Merry Christmas!

I won't be here for about 2 weeks, so I want to say to you Merry Christmas!

Our family leaves tomorrow for Arizona. The kids are very excited. My daughter was so excited about packing her suitcase, she emptied out her dresser drawers. Then, to be helpful, she emptied her younger brother's dressers too. Then she packed it all into their suitcase that they share. She was so sweet to be so helpful. I took everything out and she helped me fold and put into the suitcase what she would be needing. She is insisting we bring just about every stuffed animal and baby doll she owns.

This morning I gave my two younger sons a haircut. They were starting to look like Luke Skywalker. Now they have nicely trimmed hair and everyone got showers. I'll do my older son when he gets home from school. My to do list is so long, there is laundry and packing and I need to get to the library to return some books, and cleaning the house.

I've been learning, recently, about web pages. I'm learning some HTML and enjoying that. My hubby, who loves to do cool projects in Photoshop taught me a few basics and I'm creating things. It has been fun and my attempts aren't very good right now. I'm hoping to fix up my blog and make it fun and when I'm better at that, I want to create some web pages. Anyway, I'm having fun learning a bit of something new. When Christmas is over, I'll fix up my blog.

Well, I've goofed around enough. Merry Christmas everyone, and a very happy new year!

Typical Monday

Things have been quiet around here. A little too quiet. This week's schedule is crazy and this Monday morning we received an omen foretelling us of the week to come.

I got up this morning and went to start breakfast. I checked the dishwasher and found that I had forgotten to start it - again. I've done this a lot lately. I load the dishwasher, put soap in it and forget to turn it on. So, annoyed with myself, I start the dishwasher and start cooking oatmeal. At 7:13, the phone rings. I knew who it was before I answered it. None of our friends get up this early and most of our family are in later time zones so they wouldn't be calling us either. It was my husband's carpool companion asking "Is he coming today?" The answer was no. They had made arrangments, but she forgot. My daughter comes down a few moments later. She had wet her bed and was soaking. So, while the older kids are starting to eat the oatmeal, I take the princess back upstairs and start the bath. She bathes. I go into my bedroom to talk to my hubby while he gets dressed.

After a nice morning conversation in which he told me all about the lack of sleep he got because of the princess going in and out of his room all night, we went down stairs together. The kitchen stank. There is smoke coming out of the dishwasher. I open the dishwasher expecting a fire, but thankfully, there isn't any. It seems the smoke was in the front electrical compartment on the door. OK. The dishwasher is history.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my friend Kristi, who gave me her dishwasher when she remodled her kitchen. We will be installing that dishwasher very soon. Thank you!

Now the downstairs skinks of electrical fire smoke. It is 30 degrees outside, so I can't open windows and doors to air out the kitchen. I lit some incense. I don't like that stuff much, it gives me a headache, but I was hoping it could mask the electric smell. Hubby leaves and I take a couple of things out to the mailbox. When I came back in, the smell nearly knocked me over. The house smells like electric fire with a hint of cinnamon. Ewww.

The week is packed. I have a to do list a mile long, a mountain of laundry awaits me and there are no free evenings this week to get extra things done. I do get the van tomorrow so I can run errands. We leave Friday for our trip to Arizona to see family. I'm dreading the airport!!!! With all the storms going on and all the canceled and delayed flights, I am going to be getting plenty of snacks to take along.

So, do you think the dishwasher fire is a bad omen or is it just one of those things that happen? I'm hoping it is just one of those things..... time will tell.

Boys will be boys

I looked out my kitchen window, just now and saw my two older sons jumping on the trampoline. They are laughing and jumping and flicking underware at each other. They each have a pair of their undies and they are shooting it like a rubber band at each other. Obviously, it is tremendouly funny to them.

What is it about boys? What is it about an underware fight is so hilarious? We live on a busy street. Anyone who walks by or drives by can see this going on. I'm horrified and amused at the same time. Do I let them have their underward fight, or do I stop it?

Ugg, boys!

Run Away Mom

Can I run away today? My youngest didn't get much sleep last night. That is his own fault, but he makes the rest of us suffer when he doesn't get enough sleep. He and his sister can't get along. He wants whatever toy she has. When she doesn't give it to him or she takes it back, he screams a horrible scream. It honestly makes my nerves jump when he lets out a scream like that. Most people would think he had just broken his arm because of the way he screams. No, he is just mad. What do I do to stop him from screaming like a banshee when he doesn't get his way? I've tried popping him in the mouth and telling him don't scream, but he does it again and again and again. He refuses to nap too and I can't hold him. He is too strong for me to stuggle with and my big baby belly just doesn't give me the lap room to hold him in.

So, I was working with my homeschooler and asking him a question. He didn't know an answer and spent more time hitting his head with his hand in a supposed deep thought than he actually spent time thinking. While he is doing this, he sits on his desk, knocking it over. As bad as it is to do that, he had a cup of milk on his desk. I didn't know that was there. The milk went everywhere all over his books, his calculator, and the floor.

Today is a rare day for me that I get the van. But the 2 year old is in a horrible mood and just throwing constant tantrums and crying spells because he is so tired. I wanted to get some copies of pictures at Sam's Club so I could give them to Grandmothers as gifts, but last night hubby told me we went over in our checking account. No money, again. He tells me I should use the credit card, like he does, but I can't stand the debt and I am not going to add to it. What errands can I run with a tired toddler and no money?

I guess it isn't all that bad. I'm in a bad mood today, I guess. I need to get moving. My hubby has had a headache for two weeks and has been in a terrible mood about it. Of course, he won't do anything about it but take pain relief meds and complain. I guess his mood is rubbing off on me. All I know is, if when we get old and he has a lot of medical problems, I'm going to have to get him a private nurse and I'm going to get my own apartment.