Kudos to Me

Remember that "Successful Mothering" convention I went to with Angie? I learned a ton of cool idea for motherhood wife-hood and being happy with yourself-hood. One of them was,

Don't wait for other to praise you. Praise yourself.
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Here it goes. I took the kids to Carls Jr the other cold, cold evening to play and burn some energy. Carls Jr has the most fantastic burger EVER on their menu. This, my friends, is the Guacamole Bacon Six Dollar Burger. It is mind-numbingly good. There was a time in my life that I could and would eat a whole one by myself. But since we checked the nutritional information, Adam and I split one two or three times a year. But Adam wasn't there and I wanted one REALLY BAD. Really!

But I didn't. I got a much smaller and plainer hamburger that was good but not mind-dumbingly good and I was okay with that.

BUT, if you're ever in the mood to blow 85 grams of fat on one hamburger, this is the burger to do with. Mind-numbing y'all. Mind-numbing.

Multi-tasking at its finest

DISCLAIMER

Though poop is mentioned in this post, this is a picture of Joseph after eating a chocolate donut. Promise!

When a child reaches a certain age, as a parent you start to relax about the possibility of a blowout diaper. I thought Joseph had reached that age yet he's blown out the back of his diaper TWICE this past week. TWICE.

The last one happened at bed time, in a brand new diaper, of course. I got him all cleaned up and changed then put him in bed and started in with a bedtime story and song. For some reason, in the middle of singing I Am A Child of God to the kids I thought I'd text Adam about the blow out. I don't know why then, I just did.

I quickly typed this text,

"God pooped out his diaper again."

The moral of the story is: Don't text and sing bedtime songs. Better yet, don't text during bedtime story and song at all. DUH!

Little Tiny House Guests

This is my niece, our niece, Olivia. Joseph started calling her Ee-ah months ago and now we all do. Well, Ee-ah stayed with us Wednesday day and Wednesday night while the rest of the family was out of town. My kids loved having Ee-ah around the house. Ella and Grace got to mother her to within an inch of her little sanity and Joseph got to be the watchful big brother type that would follow her around saying ,"No Ee-ah" if she got into drawers or cupboards. Ee-ah really likes emptying drawers and cupboards so Joe was pretty busy. Poor little Ee-ah!

Thankfully all parties involved survived with minimal if any psycological damage.

This little guy is another case entirely. This is Floppy the bunny. I was asked to feed Floppy while Randy and Angie were out of town. I, yes, I suggested that Randy just bring Floppy over in his cage since its been so cold. At home in their backyard Floppy has a heat lamp in his hutch and is nicely outfitted there, I just felt sorry for the little thing. After less than a day I, again, got to feeling sorry for Floopy being cooped up in his cage so I blocked off the kitchen with large Rubbermaid containers and put Floppy in there to hop around.

Did you know rabbits are jump clean over a large Rubbermail container? THEY CAN!

Floppy lasted at our house for three whole days then . . . he went back to his hutch at home with his heat lamp. I just couldn't take it anymore. I don't do pets. I realize this makes me unAmerican, a mean person and weird in every way but that's just me. A mean, weird, unAmerican animal hater.

Does this mean I'll never be elected President?

A Sparkling Blessing #4

Ten years ago yesterday I got officially engaged. "Officially" meaning, I got my ring. I picked out a similar ring at a local jewelry store but when we returned to buy it, it had already been sold. They couldn't get another so we found a guy to make it for us. We drew a picture, chose a center stone and waited.
A very nervous Adam surprised me with it (it wasn't supposed to be done for another week) on January 29th 1999. I love to tease him about trying to put it on my right hand.

Adam was very patient while shopping for rings. He was perfectly okay with my, "This is the only earthly thing I will look at everyday for the rest of my life." attitude.
I love, love, love my ring. I still think, after looking at it everyday for ten years, that I have the most beautiful ring I've every seen. Bar none!

I hope every wife thinks that about her wedding ring.

So, without being all materialistic and vain, I'd like my wedding ring to be blessing #4. Not that its the 4th most important blessing in my life, the date just came and went and it was on my mind.

Happy Birthday Pappaw, yet another blessing

My dad had a birthday last week. I don't think he'd mind a bit if I told the blogworld that he turned 59. My dad! 59! Is that possible? Is it possible for parents to make their kids feel old? Isn't it usually the other way around?

My dad is the youngest 59 year old I know. His graying hair looks very distinguished, his smooth face (thanks to him listening to the woman folk in the family years ago about using . . . lotion), his handsome smile (also thanks to the women folk) and his tall, lean build make him look much younger.

I have a really awesome dad. I do. I'm old enough to admit it freely and openly. My dad has aways been a big fan of . . . well, me. To this day my dad will call me out of the blue and ask me what I've done for myself that day.

My dad is a big fan of being a dad. He took/takes the job very seriously. I learned to cut and "weed whack" the yard, change a tire, properly wax a car, demo an old vinyl floor, work real hard and follow a good dance partner like nobody's business.

My dad is a big fan of fun. When I was three, my dad took me and Audra (5) to Myrtle Beach for a week. He even took us to the "Santa's Land" theme park in July (now that's dedication).
When I was 12, my dad took all four of us kids to Myrtle Beach for a week by himself (my sweet mom doesn't beach). He took off his watch and did whatever we wanted all week long.
When I was 15, dad took us four kids to California, by himself (my sweet mom didn't fly back then. Something about barfing from her heels the entire flight.) That's just my dad. He loved being a kid, having kids, acting like a kid. I think it keeps him young.

Since I am blessed to have an awesome dad, my kids are blessed to have an outstanding pappaw. If you were to check my cell phone usage I guarantee that my dad's number gets talked to the most. My girls know that they can call pappaw anytime, day or night. And they do. My dad says that if he can keep them talking and wanting to talk to him now, maybe, just maybe, when they are teenagers, they'll still want to talk to pappaw. I love that my dad worries about that. I think his plan just might work.

I could write a novel about the caring example he sets for me, the friend he is to my kids, the lessons I've learned and all the fun things I've done with my dad.

A few years ago, as a gift, each of us kids wrote three stories/experiences that we remember most about our dad. Once compiled there were 12 different stories. Wonderful reminders of a fatherhood well spent.

I love you dad. Happy Birthday

Sa-tur-day is a spe-cial day . . .

Quick! Name that song. If you got it you were obviously a regular in Primary circa 1985.

I seems like we don't sing that song anymore in Primary. Why not, I wonder?

Anyway, not the point of this post. The real point is that Saturday really was a special day for me. I spent most of Saturday with Angie at the "Successful Mothering Convention." I had so much fun with Angie and I learned/was reminded of a lot. We spent a good seven hours soaking up insights, advice and information about how to enjoy this journey called motherhood. As I get around to re-reading my notes I'll post interesting things I learned and cool facts I gleaned from the day.

Adam had worked a late shift the night before. As I left the house at about 9:45 am, I put a movie in for the kids, snuggled them in with blankets and told them that when the movie was over daddy would be ready to wake up so go jump on him.

Well, when the movie ended Ella decided to "let daddy sleep." Ella proceeded to be the mommy for the day. She "made" lunch for everyone, including me and Adam.

The kids played games and went peacefully about their day. Mind you that Adam was here the whole time, just asleep, much to his surprise. Adam was shocked to wake up to happily playing children and already made lunch, a bit later that day.

How sweet is our Ella is be so thoughtful of Adam and so responsible for her siblings. She continutes to amaze me with new grown up things she says and does.

Thank you, Angie, for inviting me to the convention.

After the convention Adam and I got to go out on a real live date. Vickie watched the kids so we could go to dinner (for Adam's birthday). Thank you.

It was so strange being away from the kids pretty much all day. I got an awfully warm reception when we picked them up at grandma's after our date. I got more hugs and kisses for the next 24 hours than I could count. You'd have thought they hadn't seem me in a year instead of just 12 hours. It was cute, funny and heart warming all once.

Should I Be Worried?

Probably!

Grace goes to preschool at a local high school. I chose this preschool because of the high "teacher" to student ratio. "Teacher" meaning high school students that are learning to teach preschoolers as part of their chosen high school curriculum. I've been very pleased with the program but then Grace brought this home last week.

Three! Three of ten words are spelled correctly. Three! Bananas would make four except it is spelled "Banana's" like the banana is possessing something or its some new-fangled contraction.

I'm leaving Grace in this class since (1) finding a new preschool is impossible this time of year (2) I'm trying not to be a spaz and (3) they aren't teaching Grace to spell.

FOR MY DEAR, SWEET, HILARIOUS HUSBAND

Elementary schools in Tennessee have full day kindergarten. I went to full day kindgarten and children today, in Tennessee, go to full day kindergarten. Adam thought it was so funny (back when Ella started kindergarten in Tennessee) to joke that it must take kids in Tennessee twice at long as other kids to learn the same stuff. Ha. Ha. Maybe Utah should consider switching to full day kindergarten!

Just for the record, having experience both full and half day kindergarten with Ella I, actually, prefer half day. Call me crazy.