pa rum pa pum pum....

Here are my drums! Aren't they beautiful?

Happy 2nd Birthday!

I sure love you, little guy!

No words

Spud came down to me resting on the sofa (I'm sick today) and handed me these silly plastic blue glasses from their doctor kit.

"Awan gasses on."
"Okay...there!"
He looks at me expectantly.
"Cute," I say.
"Nono."
"Smart," I say.
"Nono," complete with finger wagging.
"Handsome," I say.
"Nono!" he says, emphatically.
Pause.
"Nothing," I say.
He walks away happily.

A half minute later he returns, glasses in hand.
"Awan gasses on."
"Here you go."
He looks at me for a moment, then says "Nuffing."
"Nothing," I say.

He smiles and walks away.

Feathered Friends

All the cool birds are chillin' at my bird feeder this winter. Finches, sparrows and red-winged blackbirds to name a few. On Sunday we had about 60 flying between the front yard trees and the feeder.

Here Kitty Kitty

Here's Noodle and "her" cat, Noni.

The House of G

We did this a week or so before Thanksgiving and had a lot of fun.

An answer to a prayer

I've been a rotten mother lately. So I have been working really hard about not yelling at the kids, but Noodle has been going through a very yelly and sassy stage and while I've done a good job not yelling back, my feelings have not been as loving and calm as I would like them to be. Plus, I've just felt a lot of frustration lately when things go wrong and have had a hard time letting go of small irritations. I decided I'd start fasting again for Fast Sundays this month (I can't fast while I'm pregnant or nursing because my body doesn't handle it well AT ALL) and I did. And until I got to church and through a good part of Sacrament meeting, I was feeling very hungry. But the last 15 minutes of church, during a testimony meeting at the end of relief society, I got the answer I needed. A sister in the ward who speaks some English shared her testimony with us, and parts of it were hard to decipher because her word choice wasn't always exactly clear, but she talked about God's love for us and how if He could part the Red Sea for His children with Moses, he could help us too when we ask Him with faith. That point really hit me hard. If God can help Moses part the Red Sea, He can certainly help me be a good mother to my children. I had been feeling like things were so impossible and I didn't know what else to do, so this answer seemed almost too simple. But in my life, the major challenge right now is being a good mother to my kids. I believe that God loves all of His children, so my challenge of being a good mom is no less important than Moses' challenge of leading the Israelites away from the Egyptians. I am as entitled to utilizing His power as Moses was, as long as I am being faithful and obedient.

I am feeling much more hopeful about things now. Sometimes I think all we need is to see a glimmer of light/hope to keep us along the right path.

Kids in costumes

So, I realized the day of Halloween that Noodle's leotard & tights weren't gonna cut it for our COLD halloween. (I should have learned this by now...) So I bought her some new thermal pajamas and she doubled up on those, plus we added gloves by the end of the first street. Spud was going to be a firefighter, but he didn't like wearing the helmet, so we'll save that for next year. He did like wearing the devil horns that I'd bought that day, along with my cat ears. I was feeling pretty lazy this year and wasn't that into prepping for the holiday, which was kind of disappointing to me. Last year I went all out with our Little Red Riding Hood foursome but I think after planning & executing Ichthoberfest, I was out of creative energy.

Sleep, beautiful sleep

Last night Spud actually SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! Granted, he didn't go to bed until about 10:30, but he didn't wake up this morning until about 9:00! It was amazing. We recently starting having him sleep in his own bed in the kids' bedroom, but he usually wakes up and we bring him into our room. I'm sure it won't happen every night, but it was certainly a milestone for all of us.

And our Ichthoberfest party a week ago went really well. We probably had about 50 people turn out, and the food and company were both excellent. It was a fun get-together, and I look forward to next year's party. We're trying to come up with a springtime festival as well, so if you have any ideas...

Oh, and I just got the decal that I ordered for the rear window of The Box, it's the rat from the center of this sign (though the decal is white):


I also bought the sign to post in the rat room/office. After I wash the car & get the decal on, I'll post a picture.

Thought for Today

I had to give a talk in church today, which is one of my least favorite things, but I had occasion to share a poem I wrote several years ago as it tied in with the topic I was assigned: Faith. I thought I'd share it here for Spiritual Thought Sunday, which I haven't done in a while. (I really should learn how to do cool font things here, but I have no clue how.)



Wherefore Didst Thou Doubt?

Lord I see Thee in the distance
While my ship is tossed at sea,
How I long to be in Thy Presence;
Thou proclaimest, "Come to me."

Can I leave my ship of comfort
To step out onto the sea?
Though ragged, the ship's familiar.
Surrounding it, uncertainty.

Fixing fast my gaze upon Him
I leave my safe ship far behind
I have faith in Him who called me,
He, the Savior of mankind.

Ere my faith stays strong, sustaining,
And my sight fixed on His face
I shall reach HIm, though the winds blow
And be clasped in His embrace.

(Matthew 14:24-33)

Brush with near-greatness

I saw this guy http://www.fox.com/dance/bios/13_bsusak.htm today at Wal-Mart, of all places. He was a finalist on "So You Think You Can Dance," which is one of the few "reality-type" shows that I've ever followed at all. I nearly asked if it was him, but after checking the website I'm sure it was, as I heard his friend call him Ben. Plus, how many people look like that? (He's an interesting character.)

funny website of the day

http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/

I love the hairless "Kitler," #413.

Blogging sloth

While I think it is generally a good thing that I spend drastically less time at the computer since the move, I do have to say that I have missed blogging as much as I did before, and I've also missed keeping up on reading my favorite blogs. But between doing homeschool-preschool with Noodle, keeping Spud out of mischief and keeping the house kept up, I simply don't have the time to do more than 20 minutes a day on the computer, and that's if I'm lucky. So, that's life lately. David has nearly finished the bookshelves for the office -- tomorrow we'll start priming & painting. We're also busy planning our Ichthoberfest (celebration of fish) party for next month. It should be a good time. The weather here has turned cold the past few days, and we have been getting the hang of our wood-burning stove. It's nice. I love the heat from a stove/fireplace. It's so much more warming to me than electric heaters, and it doesn't have that heater smell.

David turned 29 on Saturday. I bought him the Lord of the Rings DVDs as well as a Ghostbusters 1 & 2 set. We watched the LOTR movies Saturday-Monday, and I really enjoyed them. Having never read the books nor seen the movies previous to then, I didn't know anything about them. This allowed me the privilege of zoning out anytime anyone would talk about them (which seemed to be quite frequently) and also of thinking myself superior because I wasn't tossing ridiculous names like "Gollum, Frodo, Aragon, Gandalf, etc" around. I don't know if other people are like this, but I tend to be repelled by super popularity of things. The hype around the LOTR movies made me even less interested in seeing them. I was the same way about reading "The Da Vinci Code," and still haven't read it, though I did see the movie. I guess sometimes I figure that if EVERYONE likes it, it must not be that great. Because obviously the masses have no taste. But in the case of the LOTR, I have to repent and say that I did think they were pretty great movies, and that I really liked the story. I will probably even read the books one of these years. I did get bored of all the battle scenes though. Which wasn't a surprise to me, as I also got really bored of the battle scenes in the Star Wars movies. Speaking of which, I've still not seen Episode 2....

The Latest

Our current home improvement project is to build bookshelves for the office/library. We bought the wood and David cut it all to size tonight. It will be great to get these done, as we've got lots of books, videos and games that could dearly use a home outside of their boxes. We'll also be building a case/shelf for the rat cage, which will be nice as well to keep it protected and secure.

Other than that, we are really loving living here. The backyard is absolutely wonderful. I love having the playground and the trampoline. And the garden remnants have even yielded some tomatoes. Next year we play to construct garden boxes to ease in the process of protecting things from dog & kids.

Oh, and Spud has been weaned! Whoo hoo! It's been a rough week, in that he still has wanted to nurse at times, but I figured at his age it is almost easier to go cold turkey than to try and help him understand that it's okay sometimes. He's two months older than Noodle was at weaning age. Thanks to David keeping him in our bedroom with him, I've been able to get some GOOD sleep in the spare bedroom. The first night it was absolutely bizarre to wake up and have slept uninterrupted for several hours. Ahhh, sweet slumber.

Hey hey he's a monkey

These moments are the reason this little menacing messmaking monkey is still around and not doing time at the coal mines.

The Great Bug Hunter

I couldn't help but think of Steve Irwin (may he rest in peace) today when little Noodle was so proud after capturing this dragonfly all on her own.

sad news

My rat Berkeley died tonight. He's been sickly for the past few months, and after the medication didn't seem to make any improvement, I discontinued it, and kept his energy up by feeding him baby formula mixed in with yogurt/cottage cheese. Last night when I was cleaning out the "hospital cage" I keep him in at times (so he had a chance to eat leisurely, he really wanted to get out and run around a bit. He climbed up the cage (haltingly so, but with determination) and ran around a little bit, and it seemed to wear him out. Today it was obvious he had taken a turn for the worse, and when I just checked on him, he had passed away. I am relieved, though, that the end came so quickly for him. Up until yesterday he was still eating and doing as well as he had been.

How do I love thee?

Let me count the ways.

I'm referring, of course, to my new high speed internet connection. Yeah baby!

1. It doesn't take www.homestarrunner.com ages to load every toon or strongbad email
2. PICTURES! I can look at PICTURES!!
3. Actually able to use alphabet learning/reading webpages with Noodle
4. Those petfinder.org adoption pages load right up, allowing me to search the adoptable doggies and kitties at lightning speed
5. Shopping at iTunes Music Store
6. Not having to dial up!!!
7. An added bonus is that my dot mac mail account works with this browser, whereas NetZero wouldn't allow it.

I'm surely forgetting some, but BOY is high speed fantastic!

Blast from the Past

We've moved! We're in the new house, surrounded by boxes on every side. Also, David decided to take out half a wall and we opted to paint the family room, so we've also managed to make a huge mess. I spent all day yesterday cleaning the old apartment, but it'll probably take another full day. The new washer & dryer (Kenmore HE2Plus series--they are awesome!) were delivered yesterday, the computer was back online last night, and today we got our TV/cable set up. Now if I can just do something with all this stuff!

The weekend of August 4th-6th we drove up to Idaho to attend my ten year high school reunion. I'd vascillated about going, but in the end decided I would rather go than wonder how it would have been. I had a great time. It was fun to see so many familiar faces and remember high school for a bit. I was surprised to enjoy it so much, because I was more than ready to leave high school when I graduated, and unlike many of my classmates, I never returned for summers. I haven't kept in touch with anyone, at least not consistently, and to a large extent I have felt like my life began after high school. But I really enjoyed hearing what people are up to, and I came away feeling really happy and satisfied with what I have accomplished in the last decade. And it didn't hurt any to have so many people tell me how great I look, including a friend overhearing a guy I dated comment to his friend that I was HOT. So I'm not above ego stroking--sue me.

Tidbits

So the kids and I were eating Nutella on Graham crackers and being the thinking ahead sort of mom that I am, I took Spud's shirt off so it wouldn’t get all chocolatey, and put the shirt on the back of one of the kitchen chairs. He was finishing up and I went to the bathroom. When I came back to the kitchen, there’s my little messmaker, holding his shirt with chocolatey hands. He’d obviously been handling it a bit, as there was chocolate ALL over it. So much for my efforts to cut down on mess!

-----

Spud has recently learned the phrase “Night night,” and has realized that it is a farewell. So now he’s combining his two farewells, “Night night,” and “Bye bye” into “Bite night.”

-----

We should be ready to close on the house any day now. The holdup was either the title company or the mortgage company was supposed to send paperwork to the other one and instead of the 1-2 days it should have taken, it took a week. We are thinking we can have our furniture delivered a week from Friday, and there should be enough empty rooms downstairs to store it in until we move all the way in.

-----

I’ve been dogshopping on petfinder.org. I fell in love with a sister/brother duo today, though I really don’t think we are up for two doggies. Here they are, if you want to take a gander:

http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=6765321
http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=6765372

I’d love it if we could get the girl and my in-laws, who are dog shopping too, could get the brother. But that’s probably a fair amount of wishful thinking.

------

My ten year high school reunion is this weekend. I’ve gone back and forth about attending, but finally decided I’d rather go and not enjoy it (though I think I will) than not go and wonder if I would’ve enjoyed it. Plus, the organizer sent me the RSVP list, and enough people that I know and would enjoy seeing are planning to attend, so I think it’ll be nice.

I got a fever, and the prescription is...

MORE COWBELL!!

Actually, the kids had the fevers these past couple of days. Spud had it Sunday & Monday, and Noodle had it Monday & today. Poor kids. Luckily it only seems to be a fever. No vomitting or other problems. And I must say that I greatly prefer a sick 4 year old to a sick 19 month old. Noodle has probably slept or "rested" 80% of the time she's been ill, whereas Spud just stayed awake and whined and fussed.

As soon as I feel justified in spending money on unnecessary t-shirts, I'm going to order from these websites:
http://www.bustedtees.com/ and http://www.threadless.com/catalog

Here are a couple of my favorites from BustedTees




So, other than sick kids and house stuff, not too much has been going on. We have been shopping for furniture, which is quite fun when the kids are happy. I really am looking forward to having so much space to live in. The thought of all that room makes me giddy. We will be ready to close next week sometime, but I think the actual move-in date will be pushed back. The house M & S (the sellers of our future house) are buying won't be available until mid-August, so those people will be "renting" the house back for a couple of weeks after they close. I'm dying to get out of here, but a couple of extra weeks won't kill us.

Five Years

David & I have been married five years today! Though I am thinking that we have some sort of anniversary curse--last year we stayed home with two sick kids, and this year we both had uneasy stomachs, so we had to forego our dinner plans. We did end up going to see the new "Pirates of the Carribbean" movie, and that was a lot of fun. We'd originally thought to go have a little getaway without the kids, but it fell through for a variety of reasons.

Family Reunion

We had a family reunion for my mom's side last weekend at Bear Lake in Idaho. It was a lot of fun. We spent a whole day at the "beach" (okay, shore) and the kids had a blast. You had to go out a long ways before it was even waist deep, so all of the kids enjoyed the freedom that afforded. Noodle was too busy gallavanting around with cousins or on her own to be bothered posing for pictures, but here she is wandering about in the lake (she has the hat on).



And Spud had a great time splashing and mucking around in the shallows. He couldn't have been happier.

More house photos

Here are a few more pictures of the house--entryway, office & living room. We got the contract all signed, so now we just have to get the loan finalized. WHOO HOO!!!

HOUSE!!

We are buying this house!! I'm so excited! Close date is August 8th.

busy busy

Well, I know I have a couple of readers, so I just wanted to let you know what I've been up to. They asked me to be a guest blogger over at Feminist Mormon Housewives (http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org), so that has taken up most of my blog time & energy this past week.

But here is what happens when you give a kid a cupcake:


And this is what happens when you can't lock that same kid out of the bathroom when his sister is in the tub:

Jeremiah was a bullfrog...

Or rather, Spot (that's his nickname, his real name is Kermit) is an African Dwarf Frog. The newest species to join our family. Noodle's Pop-pop won him at the carnival for her today. So of course we had to go buy a little habitat & accesories for the "free" frog. And because I excessively worry about taking good care of all our animal companions, I'll probably have to go out and buy a little aerator for his habitat, too so he has abundant oxygen. But we didn't get that today, and I think he'll be fine. I might put Admiral Chubbs' aerator in there for a bit tomorrow.

In other news, while the kids were at the carnival, David and I went rollerblading for the first time in two years. It was a blast! The only injury was a large blister on David's no-arch foot. Poor guy. I'd forgotten how fun rollerblading is. And the river trail we went on was recently repaved and so it is just perfect for rollerblading. Very fun.

Then we went to the mall to continue our quest for the perfect bike trailer and ended up buying $$$ worth of Dead Sea salt nail/skin care products from this really cool Jewish guy named Eli. It's nice stuff, though, and isn't it always more fun to buy from people who are really cool? We think so.

AND David's best friend from high school and his wife welcomed a baby girl into their family this morning, which is really exciting. She was about 13 days early, 6 lb 7 oz and mother and baby are both doing great.

What more can you ask of a Saturday?

and he can sing, too!

One of my former roommates introduced me to the music of Sarah Brightman, and on the one album of her's that I bought she sings a couple duets with the male singer Andrea Bocelli. I remember this roommate and a fellow vocal-performing friend of hers discussing Andrea Bocelli, and they were just raving and gushing over him, and how amazing it is that he is such a good singer, blah blah blah, because he's BLIND. I didn't think of it too much at the time, but after David & I were married and were listening to this CD in the car (it's "nighttime" music for the kids) I thought of it again and realized how inane it was. He's blind, but he can still sing!! Amazing. Oh wait, being blind wouldn't really make it all that hard to sing now, would it. As long as you have a good memory, it seems like you could do just fine. I think I'm a bit more impressed by blind players of instruments, or deaf singers. A deaf singer would be truly amazing, but I think that's about impossible. Well, not for them to sing, but for them to be good at it. Which reminds me of poor Beethoven in his last years, trying so hard to hear the music he was composing that he cut the legs off of a piano to better feel the vibrations. I love Beethoven's music. When I was in Vienna I got to visit his former home, and also his grave. He was a neat man.

D-O-G

We were at my niece's birthday party today, and I think Noodle would have been perfectly content to spend half the time decorating cupcakes and the other half petting their basset hound, Diogi (dee-oh-gee). She did spend most of her time on those two activities, anyways, but did take breaks to watch the gift-opening and break the pinata. Diogi is a BIG boy basset hound, and as bassets are just a dwarf breed of dog, he has rather large "boy parts," too. I don't understand people who don't neuter/spay their dogs, especially neutering males. It generally makes them much more calm. That, and we certainly don't need any more randomly bred puppies in the world. I think my brother hasn't had him neutered on the chance that they might stud him out & recoup some of their "losses" in buying him. Lame.

But, on a bizarre related note, did you know that you can get prosthetic testicles for your dog? They're called neuticles.
http://www.neuticles.com/ Because you certainly don't want your dog to feel insecure about his masculinity.

Today I ordered

I've had my current Chaco Z2 sandals for four years, and while they show some wear, they are still going strong. I'm excited for the Zongs, even though I thought they were called Chongs and I think I prefer the name Chongs. All the convenience of slip-on, with the comfort and stay-on-your-feet factor of sandals.

boy with ball

Movie Review Monday

Noodle and I had a mommy-daughter date to go watch "Cars" on Saturday. I really enjoyed it, and she did, too, though I think it got a bit long for her attention span at the end. There were a lot of very laughable moments and scenes, and that alone is enough for me to recommend it. Also, we sat next to a couple who were very hearty laughers, which made it seem even funnier. I give it two thumbs up.

Photographing your own kids...

...is tougher, sometimes, than taking them to JCPenney's or Sears because they really don't see the need to pay attention to you. You aren't interesting or novel or even scary, so why look at you? I tried to take Noodle's "official" 4 year old pix today and it was a challenge. I did get this pic, though, which I do like as it captures her "essence," especially the crazy happy part, so well.



This is just a picture of Spud when the kids were playing in their under-the-stairs clubhouse earlier this week. I think he's saying, "Welcome to my kitchen!"

Sharks

Yesterday David's mom (aka Nana) and I took the kids to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. We also went to Farm Country where they got to ride the ponies, feed chickens and goats, watch baby ducklings hatch, and listen to a deranged biting donkey bray. Good times, I tell ya.


But one of the funniest things to me was when I tried to convince the kids to stand with Nana by the railing in front of this shark. They would have nothing to do with it. Nothing. In fact, they kept backing away and getting closer to the wall. I can't say that I blame them. I personally believe that sharks are in league with the devil, way more than snakes are. Sharks just have soulless eyes. Plus, how can you get all those rows of teeth except by selling your soul to satan? Huh?

Milo & Otis

I love this movie. I'm watching it right now with a non-sleeping Noodle. I've not seen it for years, but I'm a sucker for live action movies starring animals.

(But I do wish Noodle would go to sleep....darn those late afternoon car naps!)

Belated Carnival Pix

The kids, especially Noodle, had so much fun! David and I had a good time, too, and went on a couple rides as well. We were there with his folks (Nana & Pop-pop to the kids) and two of his sisters. Afterwards we all walked a few blocks and had Mexican food for lunch. YUM!



I love this pic of Spud with his Pop-pop.

RATS!

We acquired three new rats last week. Two of the boys are about 9-10 weeks old, so past the little baby stage, but the other one was a late born (surprise) rat, and he's just barely 6 weeks. My friend D. from California (we knew him in grad school) brought them out. These three boys were born to his rat named Mindy (named in my honor).

The small hooded one is named Quito. The boy with the white blaze is Orion. The solid colored one is Tully. Aren't they cute?

is this really appropriate for children?

Noodle's friend had her birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's this afternoon. Spud & I were invited, too, and we went and had a good time on the rides and playing games (I'm great at the basketball shoot, in case you were wondering). But I must admit that watching the animatronic show is always a bit freaky for me, and has been since I was a child. Spud was completely bewitched watching the characters, especially Mr. Cheese himself. Freakier still was the fact that one of Chuck's eyelids wouldn't open all the way, so he looked like some leery mouse man who would hang out under a street light late at night in the scary part of town.

Clothes that fit

Are a very very good thing. I'm not referring to myself, or anyone else I know, though it holds true for all of us. We went to the Art City Days carnival in Springville today with David's parents, two sisters, and the kids. We rode rides, ate cotton candy, and generally had ourselves some good, lowbrow fun. But there are a couple of drawbacks that I always seem to forget about until I go to a carnival and am reminded. The first is just how many people smoke, and how stinky it is. Blech. The second is that there is a whole subculture of people who either don't care the tiniest bit what they look like, or they do care and just have some mutation in the gene that controls the ability to put together clothing combinations.

Case in point: The worst offender we saw today was a mother of two children, the youngest one only a couple months old. Now, being a mother myself I'm not about to judge any woman for not having abs of steel after having her abdominal muscles stretched beyond recognition for the better part of a year, but I do think you owe it to yourself to keep abs of unsteel tucked away nicely behind at least one layer of clothing. This woman felt differently. Her shirt was about 4 inches too short, and wasn't even styled to be a cropped shirt of any kind, and her capris were too tight, and too far down. This left what can only be called a dunlop around her midsection with no where to go. So, it just flopped around. And got sunburned. I can only imagine how tender the dunlop must be now, after its day in the sun. But I do hope it will serve as a reminder that some parts are really best kept covered, for everyone's sakes.

My 4 year old

It's weird, because in some ways it feels like Noodle has been a part of my life for so much longer than 4 years, but on the other hand, can I possibly have a 4 year old daughter? I wonder if being a parent always has this feeling of time bending and tweaking to it. They seem to grow and change so much, but I feel pretty much the same as I have. Though I guess once you enter full-on adulthood (defined in this case as married with children) the lessons you learn and the growth you experience are small compared to the growth of a child.

Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid

We watched this old movie (1969) starring Paul Newman & Robert Redford tonight. I think it’s a timeless classic, and a fun one to watch. The other day we watched the 1967 one with Redford, “Barefoot in the Park”. That is a great one, too.

I have this book of "Thumbs Up Movies" the Orem Library put out a couple of years ago that lists all the Best Picture winners and nominees. I think it'd be fun to make an effort to watch a lot of them, as I enjoy old movies anyways, so I might as well be watching the presumedly best of them. If only there were a similar ranking of foreign movies. I LOVE good foreign flicks. Maybe I'll have to start a weekly recommendation of them here, for any other foreign flick fans who might perchance happen upon this blog. (What are the chances?)

But for now, go get Butch Cassidy & the SK, and be weirded out as I always am about how similar young Robert Redford and Brad Pitt are. Yup. Never fails to weird me out. Pitt looks like a younger, slightly taller clone. Bizarr-O!

Clap if you believe in Fairies

Noodle turned 4 on Friday, and I threw her a Fairy Party. We had nine guests for a total of TEN little fairies. It was a lot of fun. Activities included: rescue a forest (plastic) animal to earn your wings, pin the horn on the Unicorn to earn your tiny jar of fairy dust, find the Tooth Fairy's lost coins to earn your wand, pink cupcakes & KoolAid, find the fairy house to get your fairy name, Fairy Ring Dance, opened gifts, then ended with a Unicorn Pinata. Everyone had a really fun time. I think the only thing lacking was unstructured time for the kids just to play together, but that would have been difficult as we were away from home and also running late from the start. But for future birthday parties I think some unstructured time might be good.