A Bunch of Random Stuff

Lots of funny, cute and noteable little things have been happening lately, and I haven't been writing them down, so if you'll forgive my ramblings for a bit, I'd like to share a few.

1. Today as we were driving past the restaurant my brother, Michael, works at, Chloe got really excited and said her version of "Uncle Michael's work" (really more like "unca mika wook" but it was very clear if you speak chloe-ese) as she pointed to the building. I was surprised she recognized the building, we do go there a LOT though.

2. Chloe follows instructions so well lately...well, at least when she wants to or thinks it isn't too inconvenient. I tell her to put a book away where she got it and pick out another one and she puts it in its exact place and picks out one she wants to read next.

3. Chloe loves to sit in my (or anyone else's) lap. She stands with her back toward me and scoots backward with her bum sticking out until she is close enough to sit on my lap. ALL books must be read while she is sitting in the lap of the reader.

4. Morgan has been a HUGE pain about going to bed for the last 6 months or so (probably more on the "or so" side). He would get out of bed repeatedly or turn on his lights and play in his room and I have tried everything. The only solution that worked was taking away his lights (unscrewing all of the lightbulbs in his room) and locking his door from the outside. Now before you go thinking we are abusive parents, note that his vent and our vent are connected and I can hear everything in his room. Well, since potty training him, we knew that we had to give up the locked door in order to get him night trained, so I started a reward box and he is doing so well with it. It is so great to put him in bed and have him go right to sleep for just the promise of a prize in the morning. A $.50 dinosaur is a small price to pay for a seamless bedtime.

5. I cannot handle anymore whining. It should be outlawed. Morgan is adjusting to his new role as a preschooler and Chloe is just a dramatic girl, but since I am the only parent around lately, I never get a break from the whining and tantrums.

6. Mondays are now officially "Girly Mondays". Once Seth leaves for school and Morgan is at preschool, Chloe and I spend our morning doing girly stuff. Last Monday we painted Chloe's toenails for the first time and she danced around in her tutu doing the "tutu dance" where she shakes her hips and sings "tu tu tu tu tu tu tutu". So cute. She walked around for 3 days saying "pitty toes" and pointing to her toenails. This Monday we went to Gymboree for some girly shopping and read books. I love girly Mondays!

7. Since school started, I am already overloaded with Morgan's art and the front of our fridge is not magnetic, so I had to come up with a plan. Today, I had Morgan hold up his pictures one at a time and took a picture of each one. Then he got to pick one to keep and I got to pick one to keep. I plan to put all the pictures of him holding his artwork and all the "keepable" artwork in a photo album. Problem solved - an uncluttered, non-magnetic fridge, and one less box of keepsakes I have to find a place for, without sacrificing all the memories I want to keep!

8. The other day we met my mom for lunch at Shivers. They have this cute little train that the kids can eat in and Morgan thinks it is the greatest. This particular day there were two other little girls about Morgan's age eating in the train and Morgan introduced himself to them and found out their names. Then, he said to one of the girls, "Would you please scoot over to make room for my sister? Her name is Chloe." I loved that he was so concerned about including Chloe.

A little bit later, Chloe was literally falling asleep eating the fry sauce off her french fry. I wanted to get a picture of her drooping eyelids, so I took out the camera, but the second she saw it she perke up and said, "Cheese!"

9. Morgan and Chloe love our new driveway. I love that the big area of the driveway is in the fenced part of the backyard. Morgan loves to drive from the garage to "home depot" (which is by the fence) and back to the garage or "home" as he calls it. He loves it when I knock on the door of the garage and he gets to answer the door and ask me to bring him pineapples (which I have to pick off our neighbor's peach tree - why pineapples, I don't know). Now if only we had 2 tricycles, our outside bike riding time would be perfect!

These Little Piggies

Make this mommy so so very happy. Now that Chloe FINALLY has some hair, she got her very first pig tails for church yesterday and they could not have been cuter! Now it's on to a new phase of bow making...bows for pig tails, baby buns, and all sorts of fun girly hair adventures!

Becoming Real

Now that Seth is into the groove of school and homework and studying and working, everything has become real. I knew in the back of my mind that it would be like this, but it didn't become real to me until this week. Seth is very rarely home, and when he is, he is either studying, fulfilling his church calling, or trying to spend quality time with me or the kids or the dogs despite utter exhaustion. As far as the house goes, I am on my own. This is probably normal for many of you wives/moms out there, but I am used to a husband who helps with the cooking, cleaning and kids on a regular basis. No longer (he still tries, but he just doesn't have the time). The dishes, the laundry, the endlessly sticky dirty floors to clean, the dogs, the kids, the clutter, the cooking of every meal, the shopping (have I mentioned that I HATE grocery shopping before) and the total weight of it all on my pregnant shoulders - let's just say it is harder than I thought it would be (not to mention that I have been canning up a storm). So, it is real and it is hard, but we are pressing on, hoping that this first sememster really is the hardest as they say. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Lesson #36

As I've been preparing my Young Women's lesson for tomorrow on marriage standards, I can't help but feel utterly qualified to teach this lesson. It just so happens that I "chose" the most perfect man for me to be my hubby and I still think so 5 years later, so I must know something about standards for picking a mate! Part of the lesson is making a list of the qualities to look for in a spouse - if you went to young women's as a teenager, think back, I know you had this lesson at least once a year, and if you are a married man, ask your wife, I bet she remembers this activity and you may even get her to pull out that list and see how you stack up. Since I dutifully made this list every time I started a new journal, I dusted off a couple of my old journals and looked to see if there were any pearls of wisdom I could share with my girls. My lists are pretty awesome...luckily I was less superficial then than I am now - more cheesy, but less superficial...but the real jewels were the pages and loose inserts and letters that caught my interest.

After reading all about my relationships with this cute boy and that cute boy and how in love with them I was, I got to the amazing part of my journal where I met Seth. WOW! I am more grateful than ever to be married to the man of my dreams (and to not be 16 anymore - whew!). I think sometimes it takes some serious reflection on what life has thrown at you to realize how glad you are that you ended up where you did. Even though today hasn't been one of the best days and I feel like I saw Seth for about an hour total all of last week combined, I don't think I could be happier than I am with the life I have right now. I also can't help but be grateful that I took the time to record every detail of my life, and I mean every detail. While some of this stuff happened only 6 or 7 years ago, I had totally forgotten about so many things that were so impactful to me. And sure, a lot of it, I'd rather skip over because it just isn't that interesting, but sandwiched in there are a lot of priceless memories that I am glad I won't forget.

A Canning Palooza

If your calls have not been answered or your messages not returned, have no fear...I am probably just canning...well, bottling really, but I call it canning. Yesterday I made 2 batches of fresh salsa to freeze, a large batch of pesto to freeze and put up 12 quarts of peaches (which may not seem like much for you seasoned pros, but this was my first time canning anything but jam, so this was quite an accomplishment). Today we have peach and raspberry jams on the agenda, and only a few more weeks before we start on applesauce.

Oddly, while I do proclaim the process of harvesting, prepping and canning foods to be hard work (especially on my little pregnant feet), I am having so much fun seeing the results. Since I did apricot jam in late-July, we have already been through a whole bottle and boy is it delicious! After finishing up my peaches last night after midnight, Seth and I stayed up chatting for almost an hour about the things we will plant next year (when we finally have a REAL garden that isn't just makeshift while we try to move or remodel), where we will plant them and the things we will be able to can and freeze when we harvest them!

Oh, and I did dry-pack canning with my ward a few weeks ago which was so much easier and quicker than I had ever imagined. My newly arranged long term food storage area in my crawl space is brimming with sugar, rice, flour, oatmeal, Macaroni and Cheese and soon-to-be jam and peaches (yes, those are our basics). Not to mention that my storage cupboards are all organized and stocked with pastas, canned goods, and cereals. Now, if I could just get Seth to run the electrical to the garage in the 15 spare minutes a week when he is not at work, school or doing homework, I could get my 2nd freezer hooked up and be really set!

A Glimmer of Hope

My kids love Sundays, but as a mom, I would say that Sunday is my least favorite day of the week. There is no such thing as a convenient church time in the LDS faith, even the coveted 11:00 slot has its challenges for kids (and mommies) who like to eat around noon. Juggling 2 kids at church, often by myself up until Seth started school, is not a fun job and Sacrament meeting ends with me feeling like it was just another hour and 15 minutes that, though it would pay off someday....hopefully, for now felt like an utter waste of energy I didn't have to start with. Thankfully, I then get to send both of my kids off to nursery where they are in heaven as I get to recover from juggling them for the last hour.

But, today was different. It should have been much worse since it was Regional Conference for ours and 71 other stakes in the Salt Lake Valley, and we attended a 2 hour meeting at the Conference Center with no promise of nursery to persuade good behavior from the kiddos. Surprisingly, today was the best Sunday I have experienced in a long time. The kids sat quietly (excpet for one scream from Chloe when Morgan stole her magna doodle, which I quickly gave back and then all was well) and something really special happened...Morgan listened to parts of the talks.

When we first got there, Morgan kept asking me what was going on and why we weren't at our "white church". It is Sunday, after all, and he knows the routine. After I explained that we were going to hear the prophet speak and that it was a special meeting where lots of churches get together, even all of our Grandma's and Grandpa's and aunts and uncles churches, he sat quietly in his own chair for most of the meeting playing with his tractor, doing his puzzles with his mouth and sharing his grapes with Chloe. When Elder Ballard got up to speak, he said, "Mom, look, one of the Prophets is talking on that TV." I told him it was one of the apostles, Elder Ballard, talking and he dutifully repeated Elder Ballard's name, so I am sure I will hear about him again soon. Then, he told me that, "President Monson is sitting in the dark."

He got excited when President Monson got up to speak, and sat very quietly, holding his tractor in his lap. Whenever people would laugh, Morgan would say, "he told a funny story mom," as he giggled with the congregation. But, the real miracle came when he looked up at me halfway through President Monson's talk and said, "Mom, he is talking about the missionaries, did you hear?" He was, President Monson WAS talking about the missionaries and Morgan was listening enough to know.

The kids loved seeing the temple and all of the water fountains around the Conference Center and temple square, so we spent a lot of time walking around after the meeting was over. Chloe wandered around to every bit of water she could find saying, "water" and trying to get wet. I pointed to the temple and asked Morgan, "What is that?" "That's the temple, Mom" "What happens in the temple, Morgan?" "Mommy and Daddy got married there." "That's right," I told him with tears glimmering in my eyes, so glad that he knows about the temple and how important it is to our family.

President Monson talked about how 3 years-old is the most impressionable age for a child, and it really touched me. It seems that the things we are teaching Morgan are really sinking in. He understands and remembers so much, I just hope I am teaching him all the right things. Apparently all the painful hours of "teaching" him to sit quietly in church are paying off. Even if it is only for one week, to me, it is a glimmer of hope.

Quoteable

"Holy Cow, look at this mess!" -Morgan (in reference to all of the toys floating in the bathtub)

"There's not enough water in the bath, Mom. It doesn't even cover my button!" - Morgan (button meaning belly button, not enough water is apparently a cause for serious concern)

"Darn it! They are all gone!" - Morgan (referring to the cupcake he had just asked for, but didn't see in it's normal place on the counter)

"But the baby is hungry," - Morgan (as he carried a doll wearing one of Chloe's bibs downstairs for some food from his play kitchen when he was supposed to be eating his lunch)

"Come sit down right here next to me. I'm going to read the book to you, Mom." - Morgan (as he narrated every page of a Curious George book and The Missing Piece by memory, some of the pages were even verbatim. Did I mention that these are both library books that we have only read a few times - this kid's memory is amazing!)

I seriously wish I had these quotes in audio form...it was not so much the things he said but the very grown-up tones he used when he said them. I don't know if I will ever get used to the idea that my little boy is actually not that little, even though he reminds me that he is a "big boy" all the time!

A Little Getaway

After fulfilling all of our obligations last night, Seth dropped off the kids for a "sleepover" at Grandma's house and we snuck away for a little getaway. As we were pulling out of the driveway, I looked at Seth and said, "I feel so sneaky!" as if leaving the kids for one night was a criminal act! Since we got a very late start, leaving the house at 8:00 pm, and we aren't the night-owls we used to be, our escape was short, but much needed and well worth it. A car ride to Park City with no interrupting children, watching a movie next to a romantic fireplace (until it got too hot and we had to turn off the fire) at a fancy condo we had all to ourselves, and then back home to our own bed where we could sleep in until 8:40 without even having to turn on Veggie Tales or ignore Chloe's coos from her room! We were hoping to sit in the hot tub or one of the jetted tubs at the condo, but by the time the movie was over, we were both too exhausted! Next time we sneak away, we will have to get an earlier start!