Friday, May 23
Don't hate me 'cause I'm gone
There's a whole world out there to see, so I'm going to see it. Not Europe, not China, not even New York. We are going to the Midwest. Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, South Dakota, to name a few. Wish me luck because it's going to involve A WHOLE LOT of driving, with a 3 1/2 year old and a 1 1/2 year old. Thankfully I've got good friends and relatives who let us borrow stuff and who make and wrap presents for the kids to open when they get bored (thanks mom!), so I think we'll be alright. See ya in June!
Monday, May 19
The great* nail polish incident of '08
*And by "great" I mean "oh great, there's an asteroid headed straight for my house" and not "oh great! We're going to Disneyland!"
Last Friday I decided to make a quick run to Wal-Mart (which is never quick) before Jeremy got home. While there Alexis and I both picked out some nail polish, and being the responsible mom that I am, I didn't let Tyler hold them. Instead I gave both of them to the three year old and continued my shopping. Note the sarcasm in those last two sentences. As I was weaving through the aisles of the store I was vaguely aware of the steady stream of "clink" sounds coming from Alexis' end of the cart, but didn't think anything of it. It was in the bike aisle, headed towards the swim stuff that I heard Alexis suddenly start to cry. Now if you remember my previous post, the sound of her crying isn't too alarming. It was the absence of the "clink" sound that made me nervous. I looked over at her, and there she was sitting in the cart, looking like a purple marshmallow peep had thrown up on her. After repeatedly tapping the two bottles together, she'd finally broken one. I quickly grabbed the wipes and started to clean up the polish that was still dripping all over her, the cart, the floor, and now me. That's when I noticed the glass. Duh, broken glass bottle means broken glass pieces. I picked a piece of glass off her arm just as she reached up to rub her eye. Before I could stop her she gave it a good rub and then let out a blood curdling scream. My first thought was that she had rubbed some polish in her eye and it must have stung, so I decided to find an eye wash station. I hefted Alexis up with one arm and dragged the cart (where Tyler is thankfully sitting nice and quiet) with the other. Then I noticed the little spots of blood coming from just below her eye. That's when I really panicked because I thought she had probably rubbed some glass into her eye.
I quickly ran to find an employee, and she looked up where an eye station was. I started to follow her but she went down an aisle I couldn't fit down, so I went down the next one. When I came out the other side she was no where to be seen. I assumed I wanted to be where the customer service was so I just kept walking, while trying to calm Alexis down and keep her from rubbing her eye more. The employee finally found me and showed me the way to the eye rinse, which presented the next problem. Alexis HATES water on her face, especially in her eyes. I think she would actually rather have a piece of glass in her eye than water. So I had to hold her head above the water and pry her eye open. With the way she was screaming it must have sounded like I was doing something horrible to her, like chopping her toes off. After several LONG minutes and a lot of screaming, we got whatever was in her eye, out. Whew, I was tired.
So we left the back room, and headed out to pay for our stuff. I was 98% sure there was nothing in her eye, as we had had her look all around while we looked at her eye. But while she was sitting in the cart she started to scream again, "it's going to explode! it's going to explode! my eye is exploding!" I kept looking at her eye, and it seemed fine until I touched a certain part on her eyelid, and then she'd scream again. After a few more minutes of that she seemed relaxed enough to lay down in the cart and close her eyes, and eat a snack. Fortunately she didn't have any more problems after that, but if you look at her today she's got a little mark on the outside of her eyelid that's scabbed over, like a cut.
By the end of that trip my nerves were shot; the day before this happened, Tyler fell through the springs of a trampoline, which was not a fun experience either. How am I supposed to deal with these kids constantly getting hurt? It'd be a lot easier on moms if they were made indestructible. Or at least made so their eyes don't explode.
What I'm wondering is, how come, when you have a baby, you aren't required to learn CPR, First Aid, and go through at least 4 years of medical classes before they let you leave the hospital? I'm thinking that would really be helpful.
Last Friday I decided to make a quick run to Wal-Mart (which is never quick) before Jeremy got home. While there Alexis and I both picked out some nail polish, and being the responsible mom that I am, I didn't let Tyler hold them. Instead I gave both of them to the three year old and continued my shopping. Note the sarcasm in those last two sentences. As I was weaving through the aisles of the store I was vaguely aware of the steady stream of "clink" sounds coming from Alexis' end of the cart, but didn't think anything of it. It was in the bike aisle, headed towards the swim stuff that I heard Alexis suddenly start to cry. Now if you remember my previous post, the sound of her crying isn't too alarming. It was the absence of the "clink" sound that made me nervous. I looked over at her, and there she was sitting in the cart, looking like a purple marshmallow peep had thrown up on her. After repeatedly tapping the two bottles together, she'd finally broken one. I quickly grabbed the wipes and started to clean up the polish that was still dripping all over her, the cart, the floor, and now me. That's when I noticed the glass. Duh, broken glass bottle means broken glass pieces. I picked a piece of glass off her arm just as she reached up to rub her eye. Before I could stop her she gave it a good rub and then let out a blood curdling scream. My first thought was that she had rubbed some polish in her eye and it must have stung, so I decided to find an eye wash station. I hefted Alexis up with one arm and dragged the cart (where Tyler is thankfully sitting nice and quiet) with the other. Then I noticed the little spots of blood coming from just below her eye. That's when I really panicked because I thought she had probably rubbed some glass into her eye.
I quickly ran to find an employee, and she looked up where an eye station was. I started to follow her but she went down an aisle I couldn't fit down, so I went down the next one. When I came out the other side she was no where to be seen. I assumed I wanted to be where the customer service was so I just kept walking, while trying to calm Alexis down and keep her from rubbing her eye more. The employee finally found me and showed me the way to the eye rinse, which presented the next problem. Alexis HATES water on her face, especially in her eyes. I think she would actually rather have a piece of glass in her eye than water. So I had to hold her head above the water and pry her eye open. With the way she was screaming it must have sounded like I was doing something horrible to her, like chopping her toes off. After several LONG minutes and a lot of screaming, we got whatever was in her eye, out. Whew, I was tired.
So we left the back room, and headed out to pay for our stuff. I was 98% sure there was nothing in her eye, as we had had her look all around while we looked at her eye. But while she was sitting in the cart she started to scream again, "it's going to explode! it's going to explode! my eye is exploding!" I kept looking at her eye, and it seemed fine until I touched a certain part on her eyelid, and then she'd scream again. After a few more minutes of that she seemed relaxed enough to lay down in the cart and close her eyes, and eat a snack. Fortunately she didn't have any more problems after that, but if you look at her today she's got a little mark on the outside of her eyelid that's scabbed over, like a cut.
By the end of that trip my nerves were shot; the day before this happened, Tyler fell through the springs of a trampoline, which was not a fun experience either. How am I supposed to deal with these kids constantly getting hurt? It'd be a lot easier on moms if they were made indestructible. Or at least made so their eyes don't explode.
What I'm wondering is, how come, when you have a baby, you aren't required to learn CPR, First Aid, and go through at least 4 years of medical classes before they let you leave the hospital? I'm thinking that would really be helpful.
Friday, May 16
Thursday, May 15
It's tough being a girl
Especially when you're three. Sometimes it seems like the whole world is conspiring against you, looking for ways to make you cry.
Like when you wake up in the morning and your mom greets you using a deeper than normal voice. And when you ask her to not talk like a boy, and she drops her voice even lower, you're left with no choice but to lean into the couch and sob silently.
Or when your brother refuses to play with the broken Jasmine doll, and chooses instead to steal the beloved Cinderella from you, what else is there to do but prostrate yourself on the floor and sob loudly?
And when you're using the bathroom and you see an ant crawl across the floor, you can think of no other reaction than to shriek, and then cry into a wad of toilet paper.
Or when you are at the jumping place and another kid jumps on your trampoline and steals your bounce, there simply is no alternative to soaking your mom's pant leg with your tears.
Just wait until you're a teenager, and the boy you like doesn't like you back (which won't happen because you are the awesomest!), you'll cry. Or when you don't get invited to a party, or get a really bad grade on a test, or get your first speeding ticket, you'll cry. And I'll understand because I'm a girl, I cry too.
But for right now, until your reasons for crying are actually heartbreaking, I'll continue to find the things you cry about a bit humorous. But I promise, I'll develop some sympathy by the time I need to.
Like when you wake up in the morning and your mom greets you using a deeper than normal voice. And when you ask her to not talk like a boy, and she drops her voice even lower, you're left with no choice but to lean into the couch and sob silently.
Or when your brother refuses to play with the broken Jasmine doll, and chooses instead to steal the beloved Cinderella from you, what else is there to do but prostrate yourself on the floor and sob loudly?
And when you're using the bathroom and you see an ant crawl across the floor, you can think of no other reaction than to shriek, and then cry into a wad of toilet paper.
Or when you are at the jumping place and another kid jumps on your trampoline and steals your bounce, there simply is no alternative to soaking your mom's pant leg with your tears.
Just wait until you're a teenager, and the boy you like doesn't like you back (which won't happen because you are the awesomest!), you'll cry. Or when you don't get invited to a party, or get a really bad grade on a test, or get your first speeding ticket, you'll cry. And I'll understand because I'm a girl, I cry too.
But for right now, until your reasons for crying are actually heartbreaking, I'll continue to find the things you cry about a bit humorous. But I promise, I'll develop some sympathy by the time I need to.
Wednesday, May 7
100 more things than you ever cared to know about me...
That's right, it's my 100th post. So I've compiled 100 facts about me, split up into different categories. It has the potential to be boring, and it's kind of long. In fact, I feel kind of vain for even posting this. Like, I'm so cool that I know you all want to spend your precious free time reading this stuff about me. But oh well, I've spent the time putting it together, so I'm putting it up. Have fun.
11 things I love:
1. How Alexis randomly hops when she's talking, especially if she's excited.
2. Jeremy's "sports" laugh, which is what I call the laugh he does when a really awesome play happens during any game.
3. iPhones. I want one but will never get one because the only function I'd actually use is the phone.
4. Bookmarks. I used to collect them. I know, I'm really cool.
5. Tyler's "secrets". He puts his mouth by your ear and whispers "rararara".
6. Knowing who I am, where I came from, where I'm going, and what is really important in this life.
7. Rain, thunder, and lightening storms. And watching them with the kids all snuggled on my bed.
8. Target. That store just makes me happy.
9. That Jeremy and I both have normal (relatively!) parents who support us, love us, and don't do anything that would give us any "crazy in-law" stories.
10. How Tyler now lets us know when he's doing something cute by pointing at himself and saying "toot, toot".
11. Alexis' true, laughing, not forced smile. It's wide and beautiful and makes me smile every time.
11 things I hate:
1. That Tyler poops at least 3 times a day.
2. Most LDS films. Not the ones put out by the church, all the other ones. They are all too cheesy.
3. Folding laundry.
4. The sound of cotton, like when you rub a cotton ball between your fingers. Ah, even thinking about it makes me cringe.
5. Washing dishes.
6. The L.A. Lakers. I don't even really care about basketball that much, but every time I see them play I just hate them a little more. And it's not because I'm a Jazz fan, I'm not one of those either.
7. Most animals (yes, I'm one of those horrible people who hate puppies).
8. Movies with animals doing human-like things.
9. People who put other people down to make themselves feel better.
10. Pears, because they make my teeth feel grimy and gross.
11. That I can't talk to or see my older brother, and it's been that way for 4 1/2 years already.
5 books I've read recently:
1. Empire Falls by Richard Russo
2. Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
3. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
4. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
5. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
5 books in my To Be Read pile:
1. The Chosen by Chaim Potok
2. The Promise by Chaim Potok
3. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
10 things I do daily:
1. Brush my teeth at least twice.
2. Snack on more stuff than I should.
3. Get dressed--usually.
4. Check my email.
5. Stress about what to make for dinner.
6. Look at the blogs in my bookmarked folder "daily blogs".
7. Look at the blogs in my bookmarked folder "not daily blogs".
8. Dodge objects being thrown at me by Tyler.
9. Read Alexis a princess story.
10. Kiss Jeremy.
9 things to do before I die:
1. Go white water rafting.
2. Enter and win a quilt contest.
3. Learn how to play piano.
4. Visit Australia.
5. Go Parasailing.
6. Serve a mission.
7. Work in the temple.
8. Try oil painting again.
9. Spend a whole day on the beach of some tropical island reading and sleeping in the sun.
7 recent-ish loves:
1. Aerobics
2. Wakeboarding
3. Indoor rock climbing
4. The Rhino
5. Books by Shannon Hale
6. Tyler's Mohawk
7. Dish Network's DVR. I can't even tell you when the last time was that I watched a commercial.
10 things I loved about college:
1. Late night runs to the vending machine with Karly during freshman year.
2. Having the best roommate you could ask for during your first year at college and first time away from home. One bizarre enough in her own right to not think of me as too bizarre. And dang funny too.
3. Playing pool in Q Hall.
4. Making possibly some of the best friends of my life, whom I still keep in touch with today.
5. Discovering lots of new things about myself.
6. Meeting Jeremy. Marrying Jeremy. Going everywhere with Jeremy because we only had one car. Graduating with Jeremy.
7. Listening to Jeremy complain EVERY DAY about how dumb the school newspaper was, and then watch him read it EVERY DAY.
8. All of my psychology classes, except for the statistics and gender ones.
9. Having an English class with both my brothers. No class was ever more fun or more precious to me.
10. Learning, during my final semester when circumstances beyond my control became almost too much for me, that when I've worked as hard as I can and I still fall short, the Lord will make up the rest for me.
10 things on my "To Do" list this week:
1. Figure out food storage and work out a plan for us. Yikes.
2. Laundry, laundry, and more laundry.
3. Attend a Pack Meeting.
4. Make strawberry jam.
5. Go see "The Other Boleyn Girl" with my book club!
6. Finish up Mother's Day things.
7. Buy Tyler new sandals. His make his feet STINK!
8. Deliver invitations for my Story Time Felts party. Next Thursday (15th), 7 PM, my house. If you didn't get an invitation and want to come, come.
9. Clean the kitchen (when is that not on the list?)
10. Work on my quilt.
10 foods I like:
1. Chicken Cordon Bleu
2. White bread!!
3. Twizzlers
4. Sugar cookies
5. Braeburn apples
6. Shrimp
7. Beef Stroganoff
8. My dad's fried rice
9. Cinnamon Toast Crunch
10. Watermelon
7 things I'm excited for this summer:
1. Family camping trip in Silverton, CO.
2. Alexis turning 4!
3. The neighborhood pool opening.
4. Teaching Alexis to swim.
5. Our trip to Iowa.
6. Jeremy's family moving to Utah.
7. Wearing shorts and flip flops!
5 T.V. shows I love:
1. The Office
2. Gilmore Girls
3. Veronica Mars
4. House
5. America's Next Top Model (Yes, really. I can practically see your opinion of me dropping.)
11 things I love:
1. How Alexis randomly hops when she's talking, especially if she's excited.
2. Jeremy's "sports" laugh, which is what I call the laugh he does when a really awesome play happens during any game.
3. iPhones. I want one but will never get one because the only function I'd actually use is the phone.
4. Bookmarks. I used to collect them. I know, I'm really cool.
5. Tyler's "secrets". He puts his mouth by your ear and whispers "rararara".
6. Knowing who I am, where I came from, where I'm going, and what is really important in this life.
7. Rain, thunder, and lightening storms. And watching them with the kids all snuggled on my bed.
8. Target. That store just makes me happy.
9. That Jeremy and I both have normal (relatively!) parents who support us, love us, and don't do anything that would give us any "crazy in-law" stories.
10. How Tyler now lets us know when he's doing something cute by pointing at himself and saying "toot, toot".
11. Alexis' true, laughing, not forced smile. It's wide and beautiful and makes me smile every time.
11 things I hate:
1. That Tyler poops at least 3 times a day.
2. Most LDS films. Not the ones put out by the church, all the other ones. They are all too cheesy.
3. Folding laundry.
4. The sound of cotton, like when you rub a cotton ball between your fingers. Ah, even thinking about it makes me cringe.
5. Washing dishes.
6. The L.A. Lakers. I don't even really care about basketball that much, but every time I see them play I just hate them a little more. And it's not because I'm a Jazz fan, I'm not one of those either.
7. Most animals (yes, I'm one of those horrible people who hate puppies).
8. Movies with animals doing human-like things.
9. People who put other people down to make themselves feel better.
10. Pears, because they make my teeth feel grimy and gross.
11. That I can't talk to or see my older brother, and it's been that way for 4 1/2 years already.
5 books I've read recently:
1. Empire Falls by Richard Russo
2. Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
3. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
4. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
5. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
5 books in my To Be Read pile:
1. The Chosen by Chaim Potok
2. The Promise by Chaim Potok
3. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
10 things I do daily:
1. Brush my teeth at least twice.
2. Snack on more stuff than I should.
3. Get dressed--usually.
4. Check my email.
5. Stress about what to make for dinner.
6. Look at the blogs in my bookmarked folder "daily blogs".
7. Look at the blogs in my bookmarked folder "not daily blogs".
8. Dodge objects being thrown at me by Tyler.
9. Read Alexis a princess story.
10. Kiss Jeremy.
9 things to do before I die:
1. Go white water rafting.
2. Enter and win a quilt contest.
3. Learn how to play piano.
4. Visit Australia.
5. Go Parasailing.
6. Serve a mission.
7. Work in the temple.
8. Try oil painting again.
9. Spend a whole day on the beach of some tropical island reading and sleeping in the sun.
7 recent-ish loves:
1. Aerobics
2. Wakeboarding
3. Indoor rock climbing
4. The Rhino
5. Books by Shannon Hale
6. Tyler's Mohawk
7. Dish Network's DVR. I can't even tell you when the last time was that I watched a commercial.
10 things I loved about college:
1. Late night runs to the vending machine with Karly during freshman year.
2. Having the best roommate you could ask for during your first year at college and first time away from home. One bizarre enough in her own right to not think of me as too bizarre. And dang funny too.
3. Playing pool in Q Hall.
4. Making possibly some of the best friends of my life, whom I still keep in touch with today.
5. Discovering lots of new things about myself.
6. Meeting Jeremy. Marrying Jeremy. Going everywhere with Jeremy because we only had one car. Graduating with Jeremy.
7. Listening to Jeremy complain EVERY DAY about how dumb the school newspaper was, and then watch him read it EVERY DAY.
8. All of my psychology classes, except for the statistics and gender ones.
9. Having an English class with both my brothers. No class was ever more fun or more precious to me.
10. Learning, during my final semester when circumstances beyond my control became almost too much for me, that when I've worked as hard as I can and I still fall short, the Lord will make up the rest for me.
10 things on my "To Do" list this week:
1. Figure out food storage and work out a plan for us. Yikes.
2. Laundry, laundry, and more laundry.
3. Attend a Pack Meeting.
4. Make strawberry jam.
5. Go see "The Other Boleyn Girl" with my book club!
6. Finish up Mother's Day things.
7. Buy Tyler new sandals. His make his feet STINK!
8. Deliver invitations for my Story Time Felts party. Next Thursday (15th), 7 PM, my house. If you didn't get an invitation and want to come, come.
9. Clean the kitchen (when is that not on the list?)
10. Work on my quilt.
10 foods I like:
1. Chicken Cordon Bleu
2. White bread!!
3. Twizzlers
4. Sugar cookies
5. Braeburn apples
6. Shrimp
7. Beef Stroganoff
8. My dad's fried rice
9. Cinnamon Toast Crunch
10. Watermelon
7 things I'm excited for this summer:
1. Family camping trip in Silverton, CO.
2. Alexis turning 4!
3. The neighborhood pool opening.
4. Teaching Alexis to swim.
5. Our trip to Iowa.
6. Jeremy's family moving to Utah.
7. Wearing shorts and flip flops!
5 T.V. shows I love:
1. The Office
2. Gilmore Girls
3. Veronica Mars
4. House
5. America's Next Top Model (Yes, really. I can practically see your opinion of me dropping.)
Monday, May 5
razor
Alexis' latest obsession is scooters. Fortunately for us some kid left a scooter on my parents lawn last year and never came back to claim it. Alexis talks about riding scooters all the time, but I found out today that she would much rather talk about it than actually do it. She spent 65% of her time this afternoon talking about the kids she knows that ride scooters and where she's going to ride to, 25% of her time adjusting the handlebars, and 10% of her time actually trying to ride it. I'm sure that once she figures out balance she'll be great; however, she is my child so she may never figure out balance and coordination.
Gearin' up
Thursday, May 1
miscellaneous
Is there anything nutritionally redeeming in watermelon? Because the kids and I just ate about a 1/3 of one for lunch. We ate it because that's my way of pretending that it's not snowing outside right now. On MAY FIRST! It's snowing on May 1st. You don't believe me? Well, I'll take a picture for you. Hang on, let me get my coat...and my hat...and my scarf...and my gloves.
You can imagine what kind of mood this puts me in. Stay far away from Utah, people.
Now for the real reason of my post. This week I taught Alexis' neighborhood preschool for the last time. I had the letter z so I turned to my trusty old Internet friend, Jean Warren. This woman is a preschool genius, and had the following recipe for a snack. So for the young, young at heart, or people who just really love pudding, follow the instructions below and enjoy!
You can imagine what kind of mood this puts me in. Stay far away from Utah, people.Now for the real reason of my post. This week I taught Alexis' neighborhood preschool for the last time. I had the letter z so I turned to my trusty old Internet friend, Jean Warren. This woman is a preschool genius, and had the following recipe for a snack. So for the young, young at heart, or people who just really love pudding, follow the instructions below and enjoy!
| ZIPPITY- DO PUDDING Let your children make their own pudding for snack. | |
 | Pour ½ cup milk and ¼ of a package of pudding mix in a small sturdy zip-lock bag. |
| Zip the top and let your child, push, poke and squeeze his bag until the contents turns to thickened pudding. |
| An easy way to take the pudding out is to cut a slit across one bottom corner and let your child squeeze their pudding into a bowl. |
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