That's What He Gets

Neil went to Moab for a long weekend, and the girls keep asking every day, "When will Daddy be home?" I'm not cool enough for them, I already know. He called me this morning and asked what I was doing. I told him I was cleaning my house, because my husband likes a clean house. He reminded me that it was Saturday (what makes Saturday any different for a mom? Really?), and suggested I take the girls to see "Alvin and the Chipmunks", since it's still at the theater. It would be so fun for them to see it at a theater (side note: I suggested we all go see it there last Saturday...). I said, "Hey! That sounds like fun! I'll take all three by myself to the theater!" He didn't understand my sarcasm. So, I cut my hair instead. That was a much funner Saturday for me. My neighbor, Kim, did it, and I love it! Neil likes long hair, hence the reason I don't usually cut it, but "when the husband's away, the wife has to play, too". I had to get the before and after, so you realize how surprised Neil will be when he comes home.
Thanks to Kortney, my photographer, whom I now trust with the camera (in my sight).
Oh! And thanks to all of you who have cut your hair recently who have been my inspiration!

Orange Hot Rod

A few days ago, I acquired a box that was already cut, and as Kortney and Taylor sat in it and played with it (for nearly an hour- how great is a cardboard box?!), it started looking to me like a car, especially when they would push each other around in it. I got them all excited about making it into their own car with stuff we had around the house. Kortney especially loves to get creative and make things, so she was all for it. She made Taylor help, too, and this was our wonderful orange creation (the orange, of course, is for Dad). It lasted all through Emmrie's nap. Once she woke up and got in the driver's seat, the steering wheel came out, and the wheels and the "paint job" somehow randomly disappeared. But thanfully we have a camera to save the moment, since packaging tape just isn't all it's cracked up to be! They had so much fun, and were sure proud to show Dad the photos when he got home from work!

The Lord's Hand in My Life:

I love a creative mind. Seeing the girls figure out new things to manipulate and create just makes me smile. How blessed we are that Heavenly Father gave us an imagination!

Easter

This is a few days late, but then again, I'm always a bit behind on things... We drove down to Salt Lake to have our Easter egg hunt at Neil's sister, Rhonda's house on Saturday, since Idaho was still pretty cold. It was so nice to eat a picnic outside, and to be able to spread a blanket on the grass and lay in the sun all day. The kids had so much fun filling their baskets with eggs and little toys, gourding themselves on sugar, and playing with cousins, dogs, and Grandma and Grandpa. The drive home late that night was actually kind of fun, and went quick, since Neil and I had one of the best talks ever, as we kept each other awake while the girls slept.












The Lord's Hand in My Life:
I'm so grateful for our Savior's Atonement. I'm amazed when I really sit to think about the fact that He loved us all so much to suffer for us, whether we would want to follow Him or not. How simple it is for us to just accept Him and live right, repenting when we need to, so that we can become perfect like Him, and inherit everything He has. How wonderful to know that we can live forever because of Him, that our families can be together forever, that this life isn't the end, and that there's so much more to look forward to. I'm just so happy to know this.

The Things That I Forget...

I forget that acne isn’t just for puberty.

I forget that I need to pack snacks – for me!

I forget that even the news can bring me to tears.

I forget that running up the stairs slowly becomes trudging.

I forget that all my out-dated fat-girl clothes are still out-dated.

I forget that sometimes I just really want to lay on the couch all day.

I forget that I’m always in the mood for some crazy midnight snack.

I forget that everything smells gross, and my husband gets lots of leftovers.

I forget that frequent bathroom breaks don’t contribute to a good night’s sleep.

I forget that my dresses and skirts suddenly shrink from one Sunday to the next.

I forget that I get to wear those lovely ace bandage-type nylons for 7 months straight.

I forget that this will really be a wonderful experience.

But don’t worry... It’s all coming back to me!

My Turn to Have One of Those Days

Should I have just stayed in bed?

#1 Neil came into the kitchen before work this morning to tell me that he had left his tools in the back of his truck last night, and now they were getting snow on them. What?! What the heck did he just say?! I didn't even want to look. Oh, how glorious is a spring snowshower, just when the grass was starting to show through all the old, melting stuff! When will it END?! I'm so sick of white!

#2 How do you handle a dog with a sweet tooth? I let the girls help me make no-bake cookies in the afternoon. They were so excited to try them! We had just set the cookies on the wax paper on the countertop to cool while we jumped in the car to run a quick errand. When we got home, I went straight to the cookies, and noticed that about half of them were missing. The half closest to the edge of the counter! I look down and see messy, chocolatey footprints on the floor. So I yell, "Kali!" and I see our dog slowly get to her feet and try to slink down the stairs before I notice. Besides the fact that she was the only one home with the cookies for that short time, and is the only member of our household that could consume half the batch in those 10 minutes, she has done this exact thing before. And gotten in big trouble for it, too. So I dragged her by her collar to the kitchen to show her the mess (because dogs do forget, and I needed to remind her), and then I booted her into the garage for the rest of the afternoon. She is now Neil's dog for the rest of the day. And to make me feel like a half-crazed, raging, kill-first-ask-questions-later lady, Kortney asked me, "What did Kali do?" I explained to her, "She just jumped up to the counter and ate all our cookies! Can you believe that?" Then Kortney asked, "Mommy, if you know Kali can get the cookies, why didn't you put them farther back on the counter?" Okay, so I do take the blame for knowing and not preventing. Thanks, my beautiful, all-wise four-year-old.

#3 Is it my kids, or is it my lack of patience with my kids that drives me crazy sometimes? Okay- most of the time? I confess I have a short fuse. At that confession, Neil would be nodding his head, raising his arms in the air, and shouting at the top of his lungs, "AMEN!" - if he read this blog. Thank goodness he doesn't. He's my sanity. Once he gets home, the kids all run to him (probably out of fear from me), and I take a short break. So today, after I broke up about 11 fights between Kortney and Taylor (Emmrie's getting old enough to squeeze her way into them every once in a while, too), Neil came home. He burst in the door and said, "Girls! Get your coats! Get your gloves! Get your boots! We're gonna build a snowman!" (the blessing of today's snowfall) I thought, "Sweet! I'll just sit and relax while they go out there". Then he added, "Mommy, once you get your boots on, bring Emmrie out with you." So I grabbed my boots, my camera, and the little pink "tick". I took photos of their snowelkman, and then ran back inside. Then, after dinner, Neil had to go help a friend haul some furniture. So again, the girls were at my mercy. Emmrie had scarfed down her dinner in record time, and was screaming for more, while Kortney and Taylor ate like they they were already full. Not wanting to ruin my mean mom reputation, I made them stay at the table until they were done. Kortney was there for about 1/2 hour after Neil left. At one point she came into my room to tell me that she was all wet, as she held her shirt out from her chest. She had been sitting backwards on her chair and somehow spilled her water all over her. "Go change, and get back to the table." 10 minutes later, I see her, still in her wet shirt, talking to Taylor in their room. So I raise my voice, "Kortney! Get that wet shirt off, and go eat!" Finally the shirt comes off, but another 10 minutes later, she comes in to me in just her pants (as I'm taking my moment to read all about how to be a great parent), "Mom! Taylor keeps making me cold because she's swinging her shirt around like this!" So I tell her that's because she's naked. "You know what? Just go get your jammas on, then get back here and take your last bite!" (all this for one bite, I know) She says "no!", and I threaten time-out, so she goes to get dressed. Once Taylor hears the word "jammas", she runs in to change, too. I put Emmrie to bed early, and ran downstairs for something. All of a sudden I heard one of those gut-wrenching crashes right above me. I sat there for a second, waiting for what I knew would be coming, and then I heard it. Two very fearful cries. I ran upstairs to find the verticle dresser in their closet tipped over them both. Thankfully their laundry hamper stopped it from falling completely on top of them, but the drawers had all slid out and one hit Kortney in the chest. All the toys and junk on top had fallen all over, and once I saw that they were okay, I lost it. It was like Superman strength I threw the dresser back up and into place, slammed the drawers closed, and picked up both girls and lectured them for the 50th time about not climing or hanging on the drawers. "NOW you know why I tell you not to do that! You're lucky you weren't killed!" So they both start crying all over again, and I tell them, "Don't you dare come out of this room until it is all cleaned up, and your jammas are on!" Well, that's what it finally took, I guess.

#4 Emmrie learned how to climb up onto the table today. I took some cute photos of her. Before she fell. At least it was from the chair, and not the table.

#5 We have too many toys. I don't touch the toys anymore. It is fully the girls' responsibility to clean them up every day, whether they've had friends over or not. And every day they tell me, "I can't do it all by myself!" so I answer, "Honey, I have my own chores. Is it fair to ask me to do your chores, too?" That usually stops them right there. Tonight Kortney told me, "There are just too many toys to clean up!" So I said, "Oh, you know what? I think you're right. It must be time to get rid of some of them, so it's not so hard to clean them up anymore." So they ran right in to clean, yelling, "No! No! No!" About 20 minutes later, Kortney ran in to me, proud as could be, and said, "Mommy! The play room is alllll cleaned up! Almost!" Neil and I got a good laugh. Finally, when it was all done, they both came to get us to inspect the clean room. Neil performed his usual faint of amazement, and Kortney shouted, "We didn't give up! We just kept on workin'!"

The Lord's Hand in My Life:

If He didn't give me the crazy days, I wouldn't appreciate the sane ones. And if I didn't experience #1-4, I would never have appreciated #5 so much today. Despite the grey hairs I've received over the past few years (which Neil tells me are many!), I've learned that being a mom is the funnest, funniest, most rewarding job I've ever had!

Wii Finally Got One!

Yes, it's been a long time since we first played this little game at our friends' house a year ago, and fell in love with it. My poor husband really likes video games, and I really don't. So he still has an out-dated Xbox, and three games for it (because, even though he likes it, HE even admits he doesn't have the time to play it much, so he doesn't buy any new games). But when we played our friends' Wii, I instantly loved it because it wasn't a sit-on-your-duff-and-twiddle-your-thumbs, game (another side note: I'm no good at those kind of games, anyway -- maybe that's why I don't like them, besides the fact that I think they're a waste of time). So, once we got our tax return, Neil decided it was time to splurge on something fun, like the Wii. They're hard to find (those Japanese really know how to keep things in high demand). Well, he finally snagged one - not on the best day of the week, and without me knowing, and I was a little upset about it, too. But after 2 days of owning it, I decided to finally play it. Even Kortney and her friends loved it. They boxed each other and got tired and thirsty, and they bowled so hard their arms were sore. And they didn't even ask to watch a movie! I like it a lot. This is the kind of thing I should've had all winter, to keep them exercising when it was too cold to go outside! So, now wii've got it, and wii love it, and wii'll be playing it lots (okay, sorry for the play on words)!

5 Things...

I've seen this on almost everyone's blogs- even friends in other states who don't know each other, so I figured I'd finally have a go...

5 Things You Were Doing 10 Years Ago:
1.Waking up every single morning at 6:00 am.
2. Learning to cook exotic foods. =)
3. Dreaming in Spanish
4. Training a sweet "Chapina" greenie
5. Sweating to death, breaking out in acne from humidity, trudging through inches of rain in daily downpours, and teaching the gospel in Limon, Costa Rica.

5 Things You Were Doing 5 Years Ago:
1. Teaching spanish at a Montessori school and as an assistant in my cousin, Edith’s classroom.
2. Sleeping a lot after work.
3. Buying baby clothes, cribs, and a ridiculously expensive highchair for Kortney.
4. Counting down to the last day of school (work) forever.
5. Serving in the Relief Society presidency.

5 Things You Were Doing One Year Ago:
1. Freezing, wondering why "Spring" is still dead here!
2. Starting babysitting at home twice a week.
3. Cuddling with Taylor every day on the rocking chair.
4. Trying to get Emmrie to sleep through the night
5. Serving with the awesome girls in Activity Days!

5 Favorite Things You Like To Do:
1. Read to my girls
2. Hang out with my hubby
3. Take the girls to fun places
4. Vacation- anywhere, as long as I’m with my family
5. Take long bubble baths

5 Favorite Foods:
1. Dessert
2. Mexican
3. Dutch apple pie
4. Italian
5. Soup in a bread bowl

5 Favorite Memories:
1. Getting my first puppy ("Sugar")
2. Family reunions at the cabin in Greer with my cousins
3. Summers with my dad in San Diego
4. My wedding and honeymoon
5. Having my children

5 Jobs You've Had:
1. Concessions/Box office cashier at a movie theater
2. Receptionist
3. Customer Service at a credit union
4. Technical Service for medical software
5. Spanish teacher

5 Places You've Lived:
1. Heaven
2. Tempe, AZ
3. Costa Rica
4. Mesa, AZ
5. Idaho Falls, ID

5 Things You Would Do If You Became A Billionaire:
1. Pay off debt
2. Invest some of it for me and Neil
3. Invest some of it for the girls
4. Buy lots of land
5. Give an anonymous gift to someone in need (like the Big Give! How fun would that be!)

5 People To Tag:
blah, blah, blah- whoever!