Friday, June 30, 2006

why me?

why are kids contagious?

Why does every kid that is sick, give it to my kids? Why does this have to happen on a week like this one? when I am all by myself and have no time to think anyway?

why is it that when kids are sick, they tend to be more grumpy and resist the sleep that they need to get feeling better?

why is it that kids who are sick, smell worse to a pregnant mom who has a hard time keeping her lunch down without the stinky smelling kids?

why do they both insist on being clingy to me?

why do they try to play baseball with each other and hit each other with a hard baseball, only to be grumpy and complain and cry at me, even though I warned them not to do it in the first place?

Why must the six year old act worse than the 3 year old when both are equally miserable?

I guess the only good point is when you are all grown up, your mom, who went through all of this before, can literally sense when you need a good cry, and is there with listening ears while you vent and cry and are all upset. Out of nowhere she calls and just asks how you are doing, and no matter the controll you had when you answered the phone, that all goes and you're crying like one of the kids.

So that is it

The last day of Kindergarten. And it was a short day as well. Harry got up early and still dawdled around the house. Chilly had to be woken up again to take his brother to school. Harry was upset because he had to take a sponge. He got a treat and a present for his teacher that we put in a bag and put stickers all on. Off he went this morning. When I went to pick him up, he gave his best girlfriend a hug and jumped in the van. We came home and he got his backpack stuffed full and I found a yearbook I didn't think I paid for, and a cute message from his teacher. His homework book and a lot of crayons.

that is it, the end.

I'm a little sad though. I mean kindergarten was still a little kid. He will be in 1st grade. I'm thrilled about the whole day thing, not having to pick him up after 2 hours or so, but I am sad that he will be gone so much.

Well, we have three weeks until he goes back. I'm sure by then, we both will be begging for the longer school day.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

one day down

I've dealt with all sorts of things today. I even had to call big d and vent just a little bit. My boys are wonderful kids, yet for some reason, I guess you could call it being 6 years old and 3 years old, I don't think their ears work. Well they did have a bad night last night, and a bad morning this morning. So it does all add up.

so one day down. I only broke down once, and that was just due to the fact that I've eaten a bucketfull of fresh peas, and they don't like me. I was self medicating. The peas and nasty stomach acid are feeling a bit funky. Add that funky feeling to laying down with Chilly to get him to sleep. Add that to the fact that my phone kept ringing and waking chilly up. So no matter how close he was to sleep, and how funky I felt, I had to keep right there with him.

One day down, more to go.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

just a couple of things...

1. Watch out for moody posts. Big D just left this morning and won't be back for 3 weeks. I'm officially a theatre widow again. At least I'm not sending him on a mission across some ocean to be gone forever long. At least we still have cell phones and can call each other whenever. At least I'm not really co-dependent....Right??? Oops, yup, I am. This is going to be hard.

2. The news is out. The big news. I think everybody knows, and although it has been a fun secret for a while, it is getting harder to keep (as is my lunch, breakfast, and dinner) . So the family knows, the internet world should be catching up, and kids couldn't be more excited to both be big brothers.

3. Harry is on his last week of kindergarten. Of course he has had his report card for about 3 weeks already, and I don't think they are necessarily actually doing ANYTHING productive at school. In fact, it wouldn't take much for me to keep him home, especially seeing that I don't really want to take him to school when I'm feeling like harfing up my cheerios.

4. Only 2 more weeks until my event filled trip to pick up big d, with my mom. I'm looking forward to some serious girl time, talk and advice. You know, she raised four kids, and I'm scared as hell when I think I'll be in charge of 3. I mean, I like being in charge. It is cool being the boss, but something about having 3 makes me break out in a sweat. (maybe that is just hormones too). It could be the outnumbered factor.

5. That movie...Cars? Yeah, little boys love it. The feel good redneck movie of the year. And now all Chilly is saying (besides anything to do with "stinky buttcrack") is gijow or gabow or however you would spell that. Thanks for the movie big d, and thanks to shopko and walmart for the toys.

6. And the last thing I wanted to mention. Well, I didn't witness this one, but since big d isn't going to be blogging anytime soon, I thought I'd talk about how gross little boys are. I know everybody knows their topics for conversation are a bit lacking, but apparently, my boys, when they had been sent upstairs to get their pj's on, they had stripped down and were folding cards and sticking them in their buttcracks. I know this topic is horribly crude, but I couldn't get over the fact how mortified big d was. Terribly funny if you ask me. Of course every time we see one of those card it gets thrown away. And we get to talk about our bodies again. AND hopefully get the boys to stop saying "stinky buttcrack" to each other. Not that it isn't amusing, it is just getting old.

so there you have it.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

So I had this big post to commemorate being a mom now officially for 6 years. I paid tribute to my dear sweet wonderful boy Harry on his 6th birthday. Well blogger sucks and my pictures didn't work. In fact I think my post is lost somewhere in cyberspace.


And since I am way too lazy to do it all again, I'll just forget it ever happened.

Happy Birthday Harry. Sorry I can't treat you to some pictures of him now, but trust me, he's cute. When we went to our annual founder's day festival, this six year old of mine, climbed a rock wall. You know the kind, the ones that those teenagers are doing. Harry did it. And he almost made it to the top. He only freaked out once, but he got over it. He did, and he went to do it again. What a cool kid.

So that is it. I've got a six year old who is trying to keep up with his 10 year old cousin. He is growing up fast. In a couple of weeks, I'll officially be sending him to 1st grade. That is after he gets out of kindergarten. Another rant for another post!

Thursday, June 22, 2006

mmm...chocolate.........

24 chocolate donuts
+
1 gallon of chocolate milk
=
one very happy kindergarten class



And now Harry thinks he is the king of his class. All the kids love him. Yes, popularity can be bought. And for as little as a trip to the local walmart for stale donuts and chocolate milk. Happy birthday Harry a day early!

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Sweet peas

Is there anything more yummy than that first pea pod full of ripe peas fresh from your garden? I don't think so.


So I'm going to gorge myself when they all come on, but I don't care. My favorite part of having a garden as a kid was snitching the peas before mom could shell them all and either can them, freeze them, or cook them. No way, fresh peas are meant to be eaten by dirty fingers, fresh from the pod, and raw.

As are cucumbers and tomatoes. Now only if they would show as much promise as my peas, I'd be in heaven.

Friday, June 16, 2006

ugh! where does the time go?

I spent the whole day scanning in slides for my class reunion. You know the OLD kind of slides that we had in 1996? Yeah, almost 200 of them. And my scanner isn't new either. Although it did a great job, once I figured out what I was doing, and once I let myself only scan in 4 at a time. It only took a good ten minutes for 4 of them to be scanned. I can't imagine how much easier this would have all been had they been digital files in the first place. Boy we sure have come a long way.

The ironic part? For some reason, the kid that is putting together a slide show; his email can't handle my puney little slides. So I get to mail him all the hard copies anyway.

maybe we haven't come a long way.

anyway for your viewing pleasure, and because I have only about 200 of them:


Yeah, I know it's backwards, but that gorgeous looking brunette is me. And some of my "friends" Yeah? My friends! No really, that great looking girl there in the front is my rebel buddy. She was with me when we got our first tattoo. What a sweetheart!

Here's me again, the goofy face in the sweater. yeah a silly tradition of singing the school hymn. Oh the memories are flooding back *snicker*

Here's our mighty football team. If I remember correctly we won 1 game. Our chear was "1 and 8, we'll take state!"

And our cool hockey team. I can't remember if we won a lot, but the games were fun, and man, those hockey players were COOL

Out of 200 or so slides, this is the only one I could find of ANYTHING to do with our drama department. This is our horse from when we did "Into the Woods". I was the giant. There is this line, that Jack sings....something refering to the Giant ....about being held next to her giant breast. Hmm, do you think I was teased about that?? um yeah. I'm sure with good cause. I hope. Also at the end, instead of saying "I think I see a glimer, it was reported that our baker would point to the cat walk (where I was) and sing " I think I see a Meemer" a proud moment for me. Anyway, you can tell this guy, he's a drama geek, check out the t-shirt. Phantom of the opera. And I'm pretty sure I know where he bought it. The same place I got mine.

And this is the extent of our music department show. One picture. well, this guy, he was pretty much the coolest guy I ever knew.


I'm having so much fun, but the only other pictures are of football, soccer, baseball, track, swimming. And I am so not in any of those pictures. Hey, this is my blog and I don't have to put anything that I don't want to.

So there ya go. A day wasted for me, and probably a good 5 minutes wasted for you.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Your Word of the Day is...

Skelecope.

Yup Chilly was wandering around the house carrying an empty toilet paper roll up to his eyes yelling SKELECOPE!

Now, why do I spend all that time and money on actual toys?

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Overwhelmed anyone?

You know when you sign up to help with some kind of event, thinking you'll have all sorts of time, latter realizing that you are in way over your head? Anybody ever do that? Is it just me?

From helping out the PTA, to doing my class reunion, church callings and my boys, I feel overwhelmed. Why? You'd think it would be easy stuff. Oh there's the answer, I just don't want to do it.

I've kind of wiggled my way out of the class reunion junk, demoted myself to just emails and website upkeep. Good for me right? Well these people who I am working with are the type who always want to make sure that the whole world is okay, and that everyone knows about the reunion and that everyone is coming. I hate to tell them that even I won't be attending. I was done with high school a couple of months before I graduated, and honestly, I don't really care to go back. And I'm going out of town. See, I'm kind of a bum.

There is just this really nice person who asked for my help with the PTA stuff. I feel like the biggest jerk because I just don't want to do it anymore. It isn't exciting for me, and the "event" doesn't happen until October. I give her advice and help her out with writing an all, but I just don't have the "fire" to do any more.

As for my church work, well there is something about 8 year old boys and me that don't mix. I know, I'm headed for it by having two boys of my own. But I just don't like having these older boys and all their weird boys' stuff and questions and hyper junk going on. I'm too tired for that. Part of it has to do with my "partner" who helps, (or I am supposed to be helping) but she has done it for a while and is pretty much done too. So imagine two ladies, one who doesn't know what she is doing, and the other who doesn't care anymore, wrangling and shushing eight, 8 year old boys. Yeah, it is a headache every week.

My boys. My sweet boys. Chilly won't sleep, and Harry won't get out of bed. They are both interested in how to make the other one cry, or be angry. And big D, well he is working hard at work, getting his stuff together so he can go out of town for 3 weeks. For work. Again.

And lastly this. Tie it all up together and add this and you get me, tired, worn out, grumpy, and wishing for a vacation. Overwhelmed? Just a little bit.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

The drive in

We are a fun family. I promise. WE do all sorts of fun stuff all the time. Really.

So yesterday, being board from weekends past of doing what-everyone-else-has-planned, and knowing that the next weeks of summer we will be doing what-everyone-else-has-planned, we decided to do something fun, you know, just for us.

Do you remember being a youth and going to the drive in movie with your family or friends? Wasn't it fun!? So we decided that is what we were going to do. We fed the boys, bathed them, snugged them in their jammies. Big D took the back seats out of the van, inflated an air mattress. We were on the road by 7:00, with a quick stop to sugar ourselves up at the local grocery store, and off we went. The "box" office opened at 7:30. We pulled in at 7:35. The place was almost packed by then. I guess everyone had the same idea.

We finally settle on a spot. We back the van in, put the blankets down and start the wait until dark. 2 hours to go until movie time. We played some games, ate some junk. And waited. I took Harry to the porta potty (which was a new experience for him) Sunset at 9:00. No problem. The boys routinely stay up until then. Movie starts about 9:10. We watched Over the Hedge. It was okay. We went into it with low expectations, and were pleasantly surprised.

The next movie, The Davinci Code started. Boring. Harry fell asleep after the first time the albino beat himself up. Chilly, well, he kept himself awake munching on Swedish fish and popcorn until probably the heroes were in London.

So picture this. Two adults and 2 kids, squished into the back of a minivan. Laying on an air mattress on the floor. Pillows, blankets, and popcorn everywhere. Melted ice cream creamies, and empty bottles of water. I am pretty much pinned down due to the weight of my soon to be six( who has his legs thrown on top of me) and my 3 year old, who apparently mistakes mom for a pillow almost nightly. Big D is squished agains the side of the van by the soon to be six year olds upper body. He really is getting big. The boys are both asleep. Dead asleep. The movie gets over at 1:30 am, and the boys are nothing but dead weight. That is really almost 100 lbs ( at least it feels like it) of non-responsive kid. So what do two responsible parents do?

We drive them home, rolling around on the back of the air mattress. You know, it is kind of like the truck rides we had as kids. Just rolling around in the back of a pickup. Only I probably was always awake for that, and there were no seatbelt rules back then, and I think I lived in a small town where there was no traffic on the road at 1:30 am.

Irresponsible huh? Although big D still wouldn't stop at his dad's house to toilet paper him. I guess the drive-in didn't bring out too much of his irresponsible youth. Just the part that let him stay up well past our already too late bedtime, and have two unrestrained balls of kid ramming and rolling into each other.

But you know, we had fun. We bonded, I hope. And it was totally worth it when Chilly kept pretending the mustard bottle at dinner today was that cheese stuff and kept sticking it up his nose.

See, I told you we are a fun family.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

I just love pictures.






We had a wedding on Saturday. My niece. Can you believe that I'm old enough to have a niece get married?? Well this is Utah, and we all get married young here. Although she isn't as young as I was. She is officially 21, and she was born on my parents wedding anniversary. I think she holds a special place in my parents heart too. She was the first, and maybe her parents had a rough go. There are dozens of sweet pictures of her with my parents. Who can doubt the love of a first time grandparent! Of course, it hasn't always been easy to have a beautiful niece so close in age. I was jealous of her for her first few years of life, especially when she lived with us. I was suddenly displaced as the youngest, but it all works out in the end, and to be honest, I feel that she is more my sister than my niece.


The fun part was getting together with family. I rarely see my big brother, he lives in Logan and I do not, and he is apparently pretty busy. The fun thing, is we have boys that are exactly 1 year apart. Yup, my brother's youngest boy (he has 5) and my 2nd boy, were born on the same day, 1 year apart. They became best friends fast, and it was clear to all the family, that they are going to be trouble. Hopefully the good kind of trouble, but I'm not holding my breath.

As for the other cousins, we missed 2 of my sisters' boys, but again, we rarely see them. But we had all 4 siblings, and we didn't even get a picture! What was I thinking? We were missing only 2 of the grandkids...And again, no picture. GRRRR. I really need to be better at this. Who knows when the next time we are all going to be together...The next wedding shouldn't be for a while.

While there, we saw my nephew who has had some hard times, sometime the cards get stacked against you. But he is pulling through and we are all proud of him. He is become a very handsome man. That is weird, not that he is handsome, but that he just graduated from high school.


and then we had the regulars. My nieces and nephew that we see pretty often, and that my kids adore. When you get them all together it is crazy. Wild and crazy.

It was a nice ceremony. And we had a fun time. We were a little tired, as we had our ward campout the previous night, but I'll save that for another post.

Congratulations to my Niece, and to her handsome husband! Best of luck and we love you both! Yes, you can have your cake, and eat it too.


Oh and these last pictures are for you dad...

Friday, June 02, 2006

The Mouse

I was sitting quietly, big d was using the downstairs bathroom, when I heard a shriek of terror from him.
"are you okay?"

He swung open the door, and yelled "MOUSE!"

apparently big d was sitting, doing his thing, when big fat rodential mouse ran under the door and scared the crap right out of him. Almost.

I ran over and looked, and sure enough, in the corner by our shoes there sat the little devil. Big and fat and quick. Looking at me. Staring at me. Darting in and out of the shoes with mouse like efficiency.

Well, my question was. Where did it come from? Quickly followed by, Why is it in my house?

We have known we have a problem with mice, but it has been in our chicken coop. We have seen them several times. freaky, yes, but for some reason, outside and seeing a mouse doesn't stop your heart, or make you climb furniture, or scream like a little girl. No seeing a mouse in the chicken coop was...Expected?

So we knew they were around, but we had no idea why one would invade our house on a warm spring eve. Much less, why would one encourage his own demise by making itself known to big d and I. Oh yes, don't be fooled by the screams, jumping up and down, and all other assorted foolish behavior we exhibit during a mouse invasion. We are HUNTERS. We will seek out and destroy. With a baseball bat if needs be.

So we tore the shoe shelf apart (with a baseball bat) and it jumped out and ran for us, across the floor under the desk. He sort of hid himself under our table with the printer. Tricky little devil. But the mighty hunter and I were much trickier. Yeah, I got the video camera, big d got a mouse trap. We set him up, there was no way out. We wiggled the table, we moved the table, and finally the mouse bolted....over the trap to freedom. Into my laundry room, skidding into the wall on the way. Mass of activity as we know tear the laundry room apart. We got our trusty hunting tools, a flashlight and a baseball bat. He'll never get away!

Well, we spent the better part of an hour and we still couldn't find him. We did find a mouse size hole in where our dryer vent connects to the outside. We figure the vermin escaped. Feeling defeated, but still awake enough to accomplish some much needed organizing, we cleaned up our mess and went to bed. Big d recovered his pride a bit by setting out more traps and temporarily covering the holes in the wall.

We went to bed, upstairs. We still couldn't get our hearts back to normal and were laughing about the whole experience. Stupid mice! It isn't even winter! When suddenly we heard it. The click of a mouse trap, and we knew the rodent had met his end. Big d jumped out of bed triumphantly! He ran downstairs and disposed of the twitchy intruder. A smile on his face as he returned. The mighty mouse hunter.

yeah, and the dog in all of this was hiding under our bed. I guess she isn't so much of a mighty hunter.

The 3 year old, and his day

What a fun day, and what a fun boy! We started off the day at the build a bear, where you and your brother got to pick an animal to build. Then we walked down the stairs to the big fountain, where you reluctantly played in the water. You fell asleep in the car, which let us stop off at the store and get you some balloons! We decorated the yard. We had told everyone to come over at 7, because of brothers t ball game, but for some reason we can't read, and the game was at 7, so we bumped the party up to 6. You had lots of cousins, and a really fun time playing. In fact you had so much fun, we couldn't get you to blow out candles, or open your presents! It was a good day, and I think you had a lot of fun. Now you have a new friend "bear" to cuddle all night with.