monday mash-up

Here's a bunch of random Monday thoughts, again.

-All of a sudden I am really relieved that I signed Alexis up for afternoon kindergarten (lets hope she actually gets it!). I had been second guessing myself, but now I'm sure I did the right thing. For this week only she's attending a summer camp that is only for 1 1/2 hours a day, but it starts at 9 AM, also known as "wake-up time" for Alexis. I woke her up this morning at 8:15 and boy has she been making me pay for it. She had fun at the camp, but otherwise she's "having a bad day", "just really grumpy", and mad at me because I "woke her up too early". So my attempt at putting her in a better mood by giving her something to do and be less bored seems to have backfired. Now she's taking a 3+ hour nap, which means she won't go to bed before 10 PM, which means she won't wake up before 9, which means we'll start the whole thing over again tomorrow.

-Now, I know I'm not the only one who hates bugs. Isn't it funny how finding a bug in an unexpected place in your house can make you scared of your house for a little while? When it happens to me I usually have to put on shoes (to protect myself from the bug invasion that is likely coming), and then I spend the next 10 minutes pondering how that bug could have gotten there, and where the rest of them are hiding--because there is never just one. And I have to muster up all the courage I have to check for more, only to never be fully sure that I'm safe. Earwigs--eew!

-Little Ty-guy is sick. I'm not exactly sure with what, but it gives him fevers and A LOT of gas, and makes him very tired. Except for last night at 2:30 in the morning when I woke up to his singing his ABC's in his room, over and over and over, cheerful as can be, though as hot as lava. So we went downstairs, had some Tylenol, ate a cheese stick and watched a movie. Then we fell asleep facing each other from across the room, him on the love seat, me on the couch. And I had dreams all night about him wandering around the living room, which may not have really been dreams. I can't be sure.

-On Saturday we went on a short family hike. Alexis was a trooper and walked the whole way, though she let us know in the beginning that she doesn't really like hiking. I just now plugged in the camera to upload the pictures onto the computer and found that Jeremy took two different pictures of my butt, I think on purpose. And let me say, they make me rethink my wavering commitment to my diet.
-Have I ever mentioned Paperback Swap on here? It's a great site for getting rid of books you don't want anymore and getting books you do want--especially if you can be patient. It's not as cheap as a library, but has more options than a library (or at least my library), and I LOVE it!

Both kids are up and grumpy, so it's back to the land of the whining for me. Also, I now have apple juice all over me, thanks to Tyler. Better than snot or puke, right?

I mean, really!

I signed Alexis up for soccer for the fall and just got an email with the names of the other kids on her team.

What is with parents these days?

Is it so hard to name your child something normal? And to spell it in a way that doesn't require me to repeat it to myself 100 times before I have it memorized? And can you name them something that will give us a clear idea of whether they are a boy or a girl?

I'm about ready to go back to the days where everyone is named either John, Thomas, Laura or Ashley.

7th

**Here's a rare post with very few pictures of the kids, and not much mention of them either. So if that's why you're here, scoot along.**

June has flown by, as it usually does, and so have the first few days of July. Now is about the time when I start to panic (OH NO! Only two months left of summer!!), but not this time. Maybe because June didn't feel much like summer anyway, but mostly because it's been so busy that I'm ready to slow back down and enjoy life. In fact, I am actually looking forward to cleaning my house today--something must be off.

For the Fourth, we headed up to Jeremy's parents to celebrate. We started the day off with our very first 5k run! Jeremy's sister Ashley asked us awhile ago if we wanted to run with her (and by with, I mean, behind), so we got ourselves all ready for it. I expected to run it in about 36 minutes, but I exceeded my expectations. Jeremy and I both finished in just over 29 minutes! And Ashley finished in 26 1/2 minutes!Here we are after the race, feeling pretty proud of ourselves. And feeling pretty sweaty.

We spent the rest of the day with Jeremy's family and enjoyed watching their city's fireworks show from my in-laws backyard. After that we headed home because we had to be at our church meetings on Sunday. It was the longest hour drive of my life--we were tired! Then after church on Sunday we headed back up to their house and dropped the kids off.

On Monday Jeremy and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary. We don't normally do much for our anniversary, but I decided that I wanted to this year. And since our kids only existed as mere thoughts 7 years ago, I thought it would be fun to have that be the case again! So while they got to play at grandma and grandpa's, we stayed at a family cabin and went out on the Rhino on Monday. It was fun, relaxing, cheap, and QUIET. After dropping them off I asked Jeremy if our lives used to be that quiet, I guess we just never appreciated it.

While out on the Rhino we passed a ton of meadows full of wildflowers and the colors were gorgeous! We also passed many a mud puddle in the road. I'm pretty sure we drove through more while Jeremy was driving, but got muddier while I was driving. In fact we came to one and Jeremy said, "drive through this one as fast as you did the last one and I'll take a picture". So I did, but not much happened. Which meant, of course, that I had to do it again. I backed up, got more of a running start, and drove more to the left where the deeper puddle was, and this time something happened!
Let me tell you, that water smelled about as good as it looked.
After driving for several hours we finally loaded the Rhino back up, spent 20 minutes and a small fortune hosing it off at the car wash, and picked up the kids. Thanks to Mike, Cindy, Ashley and Trent for watching them, they had tons of fun!
Here we are, 7 years into this adventure. A little dirtier, a little fatter (we're working on that!), a little more tired, a little more experienced, a lot more in love, and a whole lot happier.

nothing specific

This morning Tyler and I were riding on a boat (aka our couch) and he asked where I thought we should drive it to. "How about Africa?"
"um...no"
"How about France?"
"nooooo"
"Okay, oh, Greece. I LOVE Greece!"
"No! I want to drive us to Smith's Marketplace!" At which point our boat grew wheels and sounded much like a car.

My kids think Smith's Marketplace (a store like Walmart or Super Target) is better than Disneyland. At Smith's Marketplace they have carts for kids to push around, and I'm usually crazy enough to let them--thus their love for it. It makes getting them to the grocery store a lot easier, and as long as their happy with it it makes for cheap entertainment!

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Last night I went running with a friend, who shall remain nameless, intending to do our usual route that I think is 3.1 miles long. When we got to the spot we normally turn she said, "do you want to go to the next stop sign, it's like one more block". I thought, sure, one more block will make me feel pretty awesome without being too much more work. So we run along and get to the first street (which was definitely more than a block) and I start to turn, only to notice my friend going straight. So I follow her. At the next street I ask if it's time to turn, she says no and points out a stop sign somewhere ahead of us that I can't even see. That's when I start to question her about how she measures her blocks. She says, "okay, maybe it's two." I said, "yeah right, this is 4 blocks". Finally we turn, and as we're running along the street I look for a street sign that will tell me how far we went. Fortunately all the streets are numbered here in Utah, and I knew the street we originally turn on is Center. Come to find out we ran all the way to 600 East, which was 6 blocks, not 1! I of course complained and made jokes about it all the way home, making my friend feel pretty bad about "tricking" me, but now I'm thanking her for it. We measured the route when we got home and it was 4. 1 miles. So if her theory is correct, then the 5k I'm running on Saturday shouldn't seem so bad in comparison.

Now after hemming and hawing over what to have for breakfast, I'm enjoying a breakfast of champions. Cake. (Don't tell Jeremy!) More specifically, this cake that my friend Jenn made.

It's a spool of thread!

It is so delicious and has been calling my name ever since it entered the house. I tried and tried to resist, but really a slice of cake is a lot easier to have than scrambled eggs and oatmeal. Give me 20 minutes and I guarantee I'll be regretting it. Maybe even 5. In fact, I think I already am.

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On Monday I began potty training Tyler. On Wednesday I quit. Despite the fact that his little bum looks incredibly cute in underwear, he was not 100% ready. He was probably 70%, which is about the success rate we were having. That's not terrible, but I don't want to be cleaning up 30% of his bodily fluids off my carpet, so we'll try again in a few months. I trust his bottom will still be just as cute.

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Now I must clean my kitchen before people come over and discover just how disgusting I really am. Have a fun (safe) 4th of July!!

Wordless Wednesday

*This is my last regular edition of Wordless Wednesday. I may still do it now and then, but I don't plan ahead enough to get good pictures. So I have to resort to pictures that make it look like my son abuses me.

Yellow Rock, aka Yellowstone

I'm back! I know you were all eagerly awaiting my arrival. Here's the sad news: I didn't see a single bear. Or wolf! I'm pretty sure I heard coyotes during the night, and we saw a lot of bison/buffalo and several bald eagles...but no bear.

I forgot to pack Tyler's tennis shoes, so we stopped at Wal-mart (I gagged a little because I HATE that store), bought him the only choice we had (white), and they actually stayed pretty clean. It was fairly cold the first night, but we took about 80 gazillion blankets so we all stayed warm and when Alexis woke up in the morning she said, "I can't wait to go to bed tonight so I can sleep in my sleeping bag again". They are turning into quite the little campers. My parents brought along a kid sized shovel and Tyler went to town digging holes and throwing dirt in true boy fashion. And in typical Alexis fashion we made new friends with a family who was camping by the bathrooms. They had four little girls for Alexis to play with, and she was very sad to part with them.

On Wednesday (my birthday) we got up at 4:45 AM to try and see wildlife, but still no bears! We spent the rest of the day in a cloudy sleepy stupor and went to bed at 9 PM. I got more sleep all in a row that night (10 1/2 hours) than I probably have since before Alexis was born.

One of the days Tyler had a kool-aid mustache that could rival any kool-aid mustache ever.

We only took a few pictures with our camera, my dad took probably close to 200 with his, if not more than that. He emailed me a few today but I still need to get the rest from him. Here's a few from our camera:That's Yellowstone Lake in the background--beautiful!

Yellowstone was really pretty, but here's a question for you people that go every year. What do you do there?? We felt we'd seen everything worth seeing (especially with little kids) in the 3 days we were there. I suppose we could go back and hike all the trails and do everything more in depth, but I'm not sure I could go back annually.

Now, here's something that will knock your socks off. My dad takes some gorgeous pictures and if you aren't stunned by this picture than you probably need to adjust the colors on your monitor because they are awesome.

Photo by Steve Hegji

I believe this is Grand Prismatic Springs?? I stayed in the car for this one because Tyler was sleeping. Or had been until we pulled Alexis out of the car kicking and screaming--which woke him up. Did you know Alexis hates geysers and hydrothermal pools of any kind? Well, she does. And seeing as how that's the majority of what you stop and see in Yellowstone, you can imagine the fun she was.

We also saw Old Faithful, which isn't entirely predictable. We showed up a little before we thought it would go off, sat down and expected to wait half an hour or so. 4 minutes later it went off! Talk about lucky.

Photo by Steve Hegji

We are glad to be home , sleeping in our own beds, using toilets that are closer than 50 feet away, and taking daily showers. And though I'm thrilled that it's the end of June and I have yet to turn on my A/C, I am a little tired of the gloom and doom. Some sunshine, PLEASE!

7 tips for throwing your spouse an awesome 30th birthday party

1. Invite three guests. Only have two actually show up.

2. Hang up streamers. Make sure half of them fall down before the party even starts, leaving them for the birthday person to fix.

3. Put the four year old in charge of making the birthday hat.

4. Wrap the presents with Christmas wrapping paper.

5. Cram all 30 candles on one average sized cupcake.

6. Wrap up things that are actually for the kids. Then when they "give" the kids "their" gifts, they lock in the coolest dad/mom status. (thanks mom!)

7. Make sure you don't give them gifts they actually want, or clothes that fit. That way they can return every gift they got.


I hope these tips help you when planning a birthday party in the future!

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If you don't hear from me for a week it's because I'll be too busy wandering around Yellowstone looking for a bear that will let me stick my head in it's mouth. Like the circus trick, except not with a trained animal and without any practice, I'm sure it's more thrilling that way.

Wordless Wednesday

30. Really?

Today, this handsome guy turns the big
3-0!

Wish him luck, and wish him a Happy Birthday.
Maybe give him advice on how to handle saying
"I'm in my thirties"!

To make him feel better I remind him that at least he has a wife who is in her twenties.
And that he is still incredibly cool.

stormy

Image found here

We have had some very inconstant weather this week. As we drove home tonight in another rainstorm that seemed to appear out of no where, I thought about how weather truly is similar to human nature.

We sat in the car watching the rain, listening to it on the roof before finally making our way inside, where it seems the storms would continue. Jeremy got the kids ready for bed while I vacuumed, though I still heard intervals of the crying through the steady whir of my Dyson. Vacuuming, I have found, is a good time for reflecting. And since children are my specialty in this time of life (and the ones crying in the background), naturally my thoughts turned to comparing them to the storms outside.

One day, one hour, one minute, even one second, can be completely different from the next. First their disposition is sunny, their outlook is cheery and you make grand plans for future events. But just like with the weather, the storm eventually comes. Sometimes you see it coming, a series of events to give you warning: gray clouds in the distance, a wind followed by calm, the smell of moisture on the air all give you a chance to brace yourself for what's to come. It allows you time to open your umbrella, and prepare yourself for the worst. Sometimes the worst comes in a downpour, sometimes it's just a sprinkle, and sometimes it resolves itself and the clouds fade before they even get to you. The same is said of children. A fight with their sibling, a missed nap, a cup/bowl/plate of the wrong color all lead up to a breakdown, which usually comes, but occasionally (for reasons we can't understand) doesn't.

However, then there are the storms that show up unexpected. Out of blue skies quickly develop those menacing clouds, and you're wet before you know it. Similarly, a perfectly happy child can wail some of their hardest and a parent will never quite know what hit them.

Fortunately the storm always ends. After the crying, no matter the warning or lack thereof, the child will again be happy. The sun will always come out. This realization came to me when, with a sense of dread, I turned off the vacuum. But instead of crying, my ears were met with the sound of laughter from their bedroom. It lasted for a few minutes...but I'm sure you can guess what happened next.

Just like I'm sure after reading this, Jeremy will say, "All the same can be said of you, wife".