Thursday, June 19, 2008

"The Altos" by Rebecca

This is the alto section of our ward choir. I am on the left (looking like a school marm), Monique is in the middle, and Tiffany on the right. Becca's artistry is wonderful good, jah? I secretly, well, no, openly, wanted to steal her magna doodle during choir.
Come join our choir, and you too can have your portrait done, and maybe learn a new song.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

My goal PosteR

To those few of you who may have been to my home recently, you may have noticed my fab poster on my wall entitled "MY GOALS". Well, it does look like Samuel made it in primary, but, oh well. To those of you who have not been to my house, don't take it personally, i have been anti-social and can't clean my house. So my poster reads as follows:
My Goals

1. Be a fun mom
2. Practice personal hygeine
3. Have a clean environment
4. Exercise self control
5. Feel good about meself
(yes, i say it like a pirate)

1. Be a fun mom
As soon as I made this goal, I ran into the living room where the kids had pulled every cushion and blanket in the house and were jumping on it (a favorite past time of mine, though I gave it up when I bounced the wrong direction and my leg went through a glass table) well, I thought, "I will be fun". I jumped over there with the kids and tried to be a cat. They rejected me. Sam actually hid from me and claimed he was afraid. GREAT! Today, I pretend to spnak him and he thinks that is SUPER!
2. Practice personal hygeine
I can't be the only one out there who has a hard time getting a good shower. I mean a good shower in the following ways: no child is crying or present holding a crying child. So, laugh if you will, but I dream of taking showers in which I don't have to choose between washing my hair or my face, showers where the curtain stands still until I move it, and then having time to dry fix and apply as I want. And all of this before 9 am.
3. Have a clean environment
Okay, I used to be a great housekeeper all of the time. Lets say it was a little obsession I fostered. Now, I qualify maybe once a week now. And never the whole house. THE LAUNDRY IS THE ENEMY! If I am not washing it, then I am trying to put it away, or fit it on my body, or stuff it in a drawer, or Cooper likes to try to eat it, so its no good for me. Its my bane. If I could stay on top of the laundry, I could the world.
4. Exercise self control
Snacking is an addiction. Impulse shopping is an addiction. Blogging is an addiction. The computer is in the kitchen so I get sucked in real easily when I am waiting for the oven to preheat or something. Easy to snack as I blog even! I am working on that. Doesn't it seem like when you over indulge in one thing, its so much easier to do the same in others? Whether its junk food, good food, tv, reading, or email? Come now, I can't be the only one. There has to some scab pickers out there. Maybe not, but its a worthy goal nonetheless.
5. Feel good about meself
Sorry, I just kind of fizzle out, especially with all of these fancy hormones raging in my lactating body. Fancy? Sorry, been reading an amish book and I apparently have been dying to use that word. I never said I was intellgent. Just sensible. Ha. Everything goes better when I feel good, I can even do all of the above.

Monday, June 16, 2008

"I didn't know Collin was in a movie"

So my good friend gave me a magazine and said, "Hey, I knew Collin made movies at work, but I didn't know he was in the movies too."
I laughed hysterically. This guy looks like Collin with bad hair superimposed on him.
So, Collin had been having a crummy day and I emailed him this picture with a charming message. He replies: "I don't have long hair or a beard." (only because he had recently changed that) and was mad. "What the heck?" I thought.
Eventually, he thought it was funny, and even admitted that the man looks like him in this picture, and only in this picture. So, Callie, maybe this is why he seems so familiar. He's a star!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day!



Saturday, June 7, 2008

There was something about a tree and a blimp...


This is me telling Collin my dreams every morning.
He obviously can never see how very exciting they were because
1) I am verbally challenged,
and
2) I, like this cartoon, never remember
all of those key events that made it so
remarkable. I would like to have dreamt
last night, but I didn't.
But I did get to sleep from 11 to 4.
A definite improvement.

oh what fun it is to ride


We went to Water World for a very fun birthday party, and this is what my kids did:
Cooper sat on Collin's hip the entire day, Sam ran around and went on all of the water slides (I can't believe that he is big enough to do that), and Jacob, poor thing, sat in the car seat nearly the whole time.


These are just a few other pictures I wanted to put up for my lovely momacita:

This is Sam consoling the other kids while the vacuum was running, and apparently Cooper needs two pacifiers to sooth those troubles away. He already does things just to get my goat.

Friday, June 6, 2008

were you raised in a barn? or by monkeys?

I wonder this about sam. When we went to the dentist the other day (where he is not welcome as a patient because he is so uncooperative), we walked in while this nice older man openedthe door for us. I put the kids in chairs, gave them magazines, and signed us in. Well, as soon as I returned, the hygienist was waiting for me to come back (fantastic, right?); I was delighted, but then my child casually, but forcefully throws his "Nick Jr" magazine and it luckily lands in this older man's lap. I am very thankful it didn't hit his eye or skim his toupee, but i was mortified. what am i supposed to do with that? Luckily, the kind, kind man laughed and said, "It's alright, I am only 7 myself." But what if it had been the man on the other side of the room, who was staring at me like I was absolutely ruining his day while my kids were behaving? Maybe it wasn't the stink eye, and was just the way he looked all of the time like Paulie's prom date. Nah.
I guess sam thinks all men are his playmates, regardless of hulking size or old age.

the sun is up. already?

i think that most of view our children with this adoring type of sentiment, but...
this morning is one of those where i wanted to ignore the cries from the next room and sleep forever. jacob likes to trick me into believing he is asleep at night. unfortunately he doesn't sleep well without a warm body nearby. half of the time i fall asleep with him on the couch, and when i wake up and stumble to my bed, sam is already snuggled into my pillows. this is simply annoying. cooper is still contained at this point and that is the highlight.

sam is pretty self sufficient in the morning. collin turns on curious george (whom we emulate most of the day), and i lay in bed,hoping cooper sleeps or plays happily, which he does. jacob is learning bad sleeping habits and it is stressing me out! it is stressing me out. it is stressin g me out, it is stresign nme out. i read babywise, and its stressing me out. i am sorry, but it is hard to let your little baby cry, but at the same time, i need at least an hour or so without that particular ray of sunshine resting on me. when i let him cry, i feel like a bad mom. when i don't. he doesn't get enough sleep, and i feel like a bad mom. when i am not consistent with either method, and he doesn't get sleep, and neither do i, i feel like a really bad mom. so, to those who have been asking if i am having more, i say never (but so ask again in four months or so, i am sure that i will have changed my mind).

so anyone who has tips or suggestions, or just wants to make me feel better, or to commiserate themselves, leave a message at the beep.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

SLOW DOWN!!!

So yesterday, I was bee boppin along to the dentist, a short five minute drive, checking out my teeth in the rear view mirror to make sure there is no lunch junk stuck in there. I still don't see why I bother to floss and brush right before I go, it deprives them of their job.
Well, as I was checking out the back of my throat in the mirror, I hear a "wock wock" (the sound I have assigned to play the part of the undercover police suburban) and looked didn't see anything (because he as in my blindspot). Well, I did look at my speedometer, and I do pay attention to my speed, and it is often too high, especially on that road, BUT I had just turned on that road, and couldn't have been going super fast. So I finally see the car and only look over because the window is down. He yells at me to "SLOW DOWN!!!" with very exaggerated facial movements, and scared me to death. In fact, I died right there on Union Street. I nearly wrecked after that and was obliged to drive painfully slow, with my speedometer reading a cool 34 mph (just for him) even though I know that my speedometer reads three miles over.
So my problems with the way this happened are:

1) I found his method a little too distracting, after all it was an unmarked car, and I am still not completely sure that it wasn't some kid who was in school last week. Except the "wock wock" was fairly convincing. Come on! He was being a little sneaky.

2) My speedometer was reading 40, and its possible that the three over thing went away, but I doubt it. That means I was really driving 37 mph. For real? Is that the protocol for two miles over the speed limit. I guess he was trying to scare me, and he did, but not from speeding.

3) I really think he thought that I was a kid. I mean I know I am 29, and look 15, but the windows are tinted dark, and you can't see the kids real well in the back. Not to mention its hard to be perfect at following the speed limit when you have three children who want things crammed into the back of your car. Of course, on that note, sometimes its hard to stay in your lane, or in your mind.

Monday, June 2, 2008

toothbrushes, toilet brushes, hair brushes

What do all of these things have in common?
Cooper likes to use them all to clean the toilet.

Bad: I find Cooper swishing the water in the toilet using the baby's hairbrush.

Worse: Cooper brings me Sam's toothbrush with wet toilet paper hanging from it.

Worst: I find Cooper sucking the water out of a toothbrush that he has been dipping in the toilet Sam failed to flush.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Collin vs. Turtle

Collin tried to save a large turtle like this on his way to church yesterday morning. Afraid that said turtle would attack him, he used golf clubs to guide him to the side of the road, where the turtle was hit by a woman talking on her cell phone. She must have been distracted by the man standing in the middle of the road, and never saw the giant, asphalt scraping, dinosaur like turtle that ended up under her wheel.

Sunday, Dreadful Sunday

Today at church was one of those days when I decided that I left a few important things at home like a burp cloth, extra baby clothes and a tranquilizer. I said it at least five times to different people, but seriously, what have I done wrong that my child is as wild as he is. All I could think was "What am I supposed to do about that?" I mean you can only threaten, spank, or threaten to spank so many times before you're insane.