I'm It

I have been tagged, so ready or not, here I come!

5 things I was doing 10 yrs. ago
1. Finishing up Trents first year of Law school, where I was paid to attend all his classes in case he needed help. What a gig! He never needed help, it was more so I could have a job, and I was bored out of my mind at all those classes!
2. Hired on at the Law School at UCLA
3. Loving the Los Angeles Weather
4. Living in Married student housing
5. People Watching at Venice beach, and being pulled on rollerblades behind Trents wheelchair along the boardwalk. Good times!

5 things on my "to do" list
1. Make a to do list
2. Tear up the to do list
3. Do whatever I feel like doing
4. Read a book? Take a Nap? Eat chocolate?
5. Wake up from my daydream, and make a to do list,


5 Places I have lived:
1. Pocatello, Idaho
2. Jerusalem, Israel
3. Provo, Utah
4. Los Angeles CA
5. Seattle, WA

5 Bad Habits
1. Staying up too late after everyone is bed...Alone time!
2. Eating too many goodies at any given time
3. Very Sarcastic
4. Making stacks of papers "to be filed"
5. I can't even think of another bad habit...is that bad? :)

5 Things I would do if I were a Billionaire
1. Pay off all our debt, (family included!, and some friends...better be nice to me people!)
2. Buy Trent a "cool" handicap vehicle, and exercise equipment...
3. Travel, Travel, and more Travel
4. Build a house more "handicap" friendly, includes someone to mow my lawn and cook!
5. Invest, Invest, Invest!

5 Favorite food/snacks
1. Chocolate
2. Fresh, hot bread with butter and honey, or homemade jam
3. Virgin Strawberry Colada
4. Peanut Butter Meltaways from Gardners Chocolate
5. Mint Truffles from Kara Chocolates

5 People I am tagging
Anyone who wants to play. Come out, Come out wherever you are!

Sanity Saver

Sometimes in life, people surprise me. Today was one of those days. I have been on the brink of losing my sanity for the past month or so. There has been a lot of "stuff" going on around here that has not been very fun. Usually I can work through the all the crap and stay pretty sane. Lately though, it has gotten the better of me, and I have felt stuck and frustrated and pretty much not very nice. I still treat others fairly nicely, but inside my head I want to kill everyone and run away and never come back. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Anyways, I had a weak moment and emailed a friend about my frustrations, and it was not a pretty email. It is hard for me to admit how I really feel sometimes, because in my head I can hear my dad telling me to "think positive", and all that jazz, but sometimes (I swear as I get older, I am getting less and less patient) I just don't feel....chipper? Blah...Blah...Blah...I will not bore you with all the details. No one wants to hear me complain I am sure. "toughen up, buttercup"

Today I came home to this on my front doorstep as the flower lady was leaving. I was in total shock! Someone sent me flowers AND chocolate? Feel the love!

The note said, "Think happy Thoughts and if that doesn't work, pull out a flower and slowly pluck off the petals." I laughed right out loud, that is after I stopped tearing up. I am rarely suprised in a good way. It was so nice to know that someone out there cared enough about me to do something like that. At that moment, it felt like my burden got a little bit lighter. Friends...how does one live without them? Thanks Arlyn, I needed that today, more than you will ever know.

PS...if any of you are wondering what you can do to brighten my day...cold hard cash is always a nice option...heh heh

Stuck

Jonathan and I went to WinCo to get some groceries. Yes...I actually went grocery shopping...my most favorite thing in the whole wide world to do. I'm so lucky. (can you feel the sarcasm?) Anyways...Jonathan was sitting in the front of the shopping cart when all of a sudden he starts crying. I look down, and lo and behold, he has somehow got his foot stuck in between one of the tiny metal slats. He had pulled his leg out of the kid seat and pushed his foot through the teeny tiny space next to it! How on EARTH did he do that? He was crying as I am trying to bend his foot sideways to shove it back through the hole. It reminded me of a time when I was little and we had a family reunion in Provo Utah. We stayed at a hotel there, and we all went swimming. My cousin didn't want to go all the way around the pool and go through the gate, so he decided to squeeze through the metal fence. He somehow got his head through, but that was it. It was quite the ordeal...think we even had to call the fire department for that one. Family Reunions...time for makin memories. I dont' remember much about anything else we did, but I remember him standing there with his head stuck in the fence.

Anyways...back to WinCo. Jonathan is really crying now, everyone is looking at me (thus...the "LOOK"), and I am two seconds away from going to find a jar of vaseline to see if that would help, and badda boom, badda bing....I was able to twist his foot just right and shove it through. It was a nightmare...the poor kid. His foot was all red. When we got home from the horrendous adventure, he started to play with Nathans power ranger motorcycle. And what do ya know? He gets his finger stuck in the little space between the handle bars! What the??? It took a while to get that one out. Twice in one day. Parenting...ya never know what lies ahead. Who knew that shopping carts could be so dangerous, even when you are using them correctly. I'll make sure that he has shoes on next time, that should solve the problem.

New Toy

I found a way to use my beloved $200 cell phone. (If you are not sure what I am talking about, refer to this post)

When I went to replace the cell phone, I found out just how nice it really was. $200 nice.
Anyways...it is now a toy. Only the best for my precious baby. :) I get the "look" from other parents when I let him play with this cell phone. You other parents know the "look". It is the look where it tells you without any words that you are doing something that goes against the parenthood handbook. Guess they forgot to give that to me at the hospital, cuz I sure get the "look" alot. Maybe I should wear my bra on the outside of my clothes for a day and see what kind of looks I get. It would be kindof comical. I could act all normal, and if anyone said anything I would give them the "look".

This picture was taken at Nathans last baseball game a few weeks back. Yes it was June, and Yes it was Fa-reezing! and we were even blessed with wind AND rain. Nothin like livin in the Northwest. Ya never know what you are going to get.

Where is the baby?

It took me a few minutes to find him the other day. I am not accustomed to looking under tables. Garage...yes...tables no. I found him stuck behind the couch the other day. He tries to squeeze himself into spots that he is far too big for.

R & R

When you see R&R what do you think of? I think of white sandy beaches, virgin strawberry coladas, aqua blue water....ya know...Rest And Relaxation. Well folks, no longer. From now on R&R means Rain gutter Regatta. What is a Rain gutter Regatta might you ask? For those of you who do not have cub scouters, it is an annual event where one puts together a boat and you race against others to see who wins (in a rain gutter of course). Here is a video of his test run so you get the idea. (it's always interesting to hear what I say on the video's, I have no clue how vocal I am sometimes, you should have heard me when the real race began)

Many boys work tirelessly on their sleek, aerodynamic boats to make sure they are in tip top shape. We, on the other hand, remembered the night before and had to throw one together. You might ask, why did I put a picture of myself holding the boat when I am clearly NOT a cub scout? Well now, let me tell ya. Nathan painted 98% of the boat, and that is where his efforts ended. I was in charge of putting the thing together. The instructions looked easy enough. Only 3 little sections. As I began to put it together, I realized that the instructions were too "easy"...there was not enough information given to figure it out easily. So...TWO hours later, I got the thing put all together. Nathan was tickled with his boat, I was more ticked. :) The event was fun. The boats we made ended up being too top heavy, thus falling over, so we all used boats from last year that they had sitting around. All that work to have a "model" boat. The boys didn't care, they had a blast. I was needing some real R&R by the time we got home though. It had been a long day. Rain gutter Regatta. Interesting experience. Something to look forward to for the next couple of years. (?)

Looky what I did

Wow...not sure how I feel about the new blog layout. I will say that I am feeling pretty clever though. I've been trying to figure out how to do this for a while, and now that I have figured it out? I am feeling rather special. We'll see how long or "if" I keep it. It goes against my anti-scrapbooky type of personality. But for now...I shall keep it. What do ya think?

Monkey See...Monkey Do

My boys imitating each other. It is too cute. They'll do this several times a day. They have now added the clicking of the tongue, along with the banjo lip thing. Pretty soon I am sure it will be farting noises. Nathan anxiously awaits the day when they can bond through bodily function noises. He is trying to teach him. Jonathan will catch on soon I am sure.

Hi Ho Cherry-oh!

It was a beautiful sunday afternoon. Nathan, Jonathan, and I went over to George's (my adorable neighbor) to pick some cherry's. We were in his back yard...there was a slight breeze....it was sunny...it was one of those Anne of Green Gable moments. (until Jonathan started crying in the stroller, and I had to balance his 22 pound body on my hip AND pick cherries...kindof difficult). We picked quite a few cherries. We came home and decided that we (I) would make a cherry crisp. I have never had the experience of pitting cherries before. I didnt' realize the work involved in this little "adventure". I tried to cut the seed out....too long of a procedure...I read that you could use a straw...well...no straws to be found...so I started to squish the cherry between my fingers until the seed came out. Let's just say that it was quite the sticky and juicy experience.

I, once again, overestimated how many cherries one needs to make a cherry crisp. (I am starting to twitch remembering my post about the strawberries) An hour later of squeezing and squishing, I have enough cherries for 3 HUGE cherry crisp's, a big batch of jam (cherry jam? didn't even know there was such a thing), and left over cherries that I have no idea what to do with them. They are currently in the freezer. My Anne of Green Gables moment turned into a lot of work for a lazy sunday afternoon. I have just finished cleaning up after all the cooking I did, everything was sticky. You can rest assured that I am not going to do that again. A can of cherry pie filling is the ONLY way to go.

Caught on Camera

I caught it on film! My little orangutan. He is fearless. He'll fall down and get right back up again. He took 7 steps yesterday.

4th=Food, Friends, Family, Fun...and did I say FOOD?

Happy 4th Of July! We had a great day. Our church had a breakfast at 8:30. It was good. Things taste better when they are free for some reason. Later, we went over to our friends, the Morgans for the traditional 4th of July Feast. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon, 7 layer dip (it officially only had 6 layers, I couldn't think of anything else to add to make it 7?), German potato salad, veggies, homemade chocolate ice cream and good ole Henry Weinhard's root beer. The kids played, and played, while we ate and ate, until the mosquito's came out with a vengeance. Mosquito's really like me...not sure if it is because my diet is so horrible that they can feast upon me or what...even with repellent on. I am so tasty I guess. :D

Anyways...the Morgans neighborhood goes all out with the fireworks. There are 4 families who seriously probably must have spent 500 bucks each? It was spectacular. And it was all free to me. Free makes it even more enjoyable. Each time they would light off a huge firework, like the kind that go up in the sky and spread out, in my brain I kept seeing myself lighting a 100 bill. Glad I could just sit and enjoy.

All in all it was a great day.

He Walketh!

Jonathan took 3 steps yesterday! We were all in shock. He just let go of the couch and took off. He looked like an orangutan monkey. Arms above his head, wide wobbly steps, and long shaggy bed-hair and all. All these changes. Speaking, Walking, opening doors...he even had a tantrum today where he was on his back crying rolling from side to side. Nathan and I just sat there watching it, chuckling. Nathan was like, "WHAT is he doing, rolling around like that and crying?" It's called a tantrum, son. "Are you just going to leave him like THAT?" Yes. Yes I am. "Huh". Yes sir re, there are lots of changes around here. When I catch him in the act of walking, I'll post it to the blog.