do you have your year supply?

headbands - rediscovered

tagged - 25 things about me

A friend of mine tagged me on facebook. I answered the tag there, but I spend more time here, so I figured I'd also post it here.

I tag anyone who feels like writing 25 random things about herself. I just wrote the first 25 things that came to mind . . . .

1. i'm vegan.  

2. i have the greatest husband.  

3. i love my girls more than i can say.  

4. i like teaching--especially the Gospel. i got to teach relief society on sunday and really enjoyed it.  

5. i've broken 11 (i think) different bones.  

6. i'm not accident prone, but i have been hit by a waverunner, and i've fallen off a ski lift.  

7. i'm trying to organize my life. thanks to my sister's comprehensive household task list, it might actually happen. (all of today's tasks are done!)

 

8. i've recently organized our food storage; i feel so much better now that i know what we have and don't have.  

9. i fear for our country--economically and otherwise. i'm so grateful for the Gospel perspective that brings us peace in troubled times.  

10. i used to teach women's self defense. i don't like bad men.  

11. i have a child who, i believe, is smarter than me.  

12. i loved my job as an evidence & crime scene technician; however, the images i have in my head bother me more now than they ever did while i was working.  

13. i have a neck phobia; i can't stand anyone (or anything really) touching the front of my neck.  

14. i'm hooked on 2 tv shows: lost, and glenn beck. this is embarrassing to me. i never even wanted a tv. i dream about lost all the time; mike and i are usually characters in the show in my dreams--trying to figure things out.  

15. i love reading; it's been way too long since i've picked up a good book.  

16. i miss my tri-athlete/marathon days (and body).  

17. my hair used to be straw straight. now, thanks to pregnancies, it's curly-ish. i would love it to look like meg ryan's on you've got mail. it doesn't.  

18. i had lasik 10 years ago, but my pregnancies messed with my eyes, and i wear glasses again. blah.  

19. i used to dread change; life has taught me to love it.  

20. i do bikram yoga.  

21. i used to be a perfectionist; life taught me that things rarely go the way i plan, and getting upset about it doesn't help a thing. i'm much better now at "going with the flow." 

22. i contributed to the mitt romney campaign; i wish he were president.  

23. i have "the sound of music" and "mary poppins" memorized. so does mariah. she took a bite of something last night and said, "mmm! delicious!!"  

24. i love it when my children are sleeping.  

25. i love camping, dutch-oven cooking, and campfires. (don't tell my children, but i'm a bit of a pyro . . .) we're hoping to go on a couple of short camping excursions this spring before mike starts dental school.

angels on vacation

I think poor Mariah's guardian angel squad has been downsized.  Maybe they figure when a child turns 2, she doesn't need as many?  The poor girl has had more crashes since she turned 2 . . . .  The sun was finally shining today, and the rain had washed away some of the red-alert air.  I decided as soon as Elaine was down for her next nap, I'd take Mariah outside.  So, I put Laney down, and out we went.  Mariah had only taken 2 steps (literally) when she went face first down the stairs.  Her nose, cheek, and forehead met the very jagged edge of one of the steps.  She was one sad girl.

Look closely.  Just under her clips, you can see a bruise left over from her crash down the same stairs on Tuesday (3 days ago).

the moments

Being a mom is hard.  (I know, big news flash.)  I often remind myself that this is really what I want to be doing by singing the song, "When I Grow Up, I Want to be a Mother."  My mom taught it to us when we were little.  The past few weeks have been especially trying.  We have been sick; it's been cold; and frankly, I think we're all a little tired of being cooped up together.  (Actually, Laney doesn't seem to mind, but I and Mariah can get pretty cranky at times).  I can't wait until spring!  I was trying to figure out this morning what's so hard about being a mom.  It came to me that pretty much anyone who spent 9 hours a day inside with a 2-year-old as their nearest companion in both age and intelect would have moments of frustration, impatience, etc.  But, all that said . . . there are definitely moments each day that make all the mundanenous worth it.  I love my girls, and I wouldn't trade this time of life for anything.

"Who's your mom?"

Good friends.

Watching Einstein with Dad on Saturday morning, so Mom can sleep in.  (8:45 is sleeping in big time).

My Squishness.  Enough said.

Mariah decided Laney needed all of the Beanies.

Laney with her favorite toy.

The girls are great friends most of the time.

Watching Mary Poppins together.

"The Children"

Mariah has started calling all of her little people and animals "the children." Once in a while she says, "my children," but it's usually just "the children." She carries them everywhere, many times in a little bag, cause she wants to carry more than she has hands for. The children watch her eat; they watch her take baths; they help with Mom's make-up, etc. In short, the children are a big part of our lives right now.

Helping with Mom's make-up.

Playing with the children while wearing a bath seat and Mike's wristband.

"Smile."

"Open your eyes when you smile . . . ."

My girl with all of her children.

"I'm putting all the children in the basket."

I've tried to figure out where she picked up on this. I couldn't think of any time I've referred to her or anyone else as "the children." Then, today before her nap, we read Sylvester.  When we got to this page, I thought, "maybe . . . ."

Laney moves . . .

. . . backwards.  I set Laney down by her toys this morning, and then sat down to read some email.  I was somewhat conscious of the fact that she had been growling/whining about something for a while.  I finally turned around to see this.  At least she can move now.

I've told her that Mariah was doing push-ups and rock-a rock-a at her age, and crawling (hand, knee, hand, knee) 2 weeks from now, but she doesn't seem to care.She usually just does the full locust yoga pose, high centered on her belly, with arms and legs flapping, and yells if she can't reach something.  She does roll front to back, and has even rolled back to front a couple times, but she usually just stays put.

At least she's happy about her sedentary life . . . .

Big Sister Mariah

Mariah is learning to be a good big sister. She often talks about "Big Sister Mariah." She'll ask Elaine, in a very high, sweet voice, "You love Big Sister Mariah?" or she'll tell me, "Eyaine love Big Sister Mariah." I even heard her singing today, "I love Eyaine, she loves me . . . ." (I use the term "singing" very loosely here. It's mostly words said in the rhythm of a song).

She also talks a lot about being a good sharer: "I'm such good sharer!" And she likes to go find toys for Laney to play with. She hands them to her, telling me what toy she's sharing with Laney. (She lets Elaine keep the toy for about 3 seconds before taking it away again. We're making progress).

Anyway, we have more and more of what I think of as "sisters are smecial" moments (thanks, Liza).

Yesterday, I was sitting at the computer, not really paying attention to what the girls were doing behind me. At one point, it registered in my brain that Mariah had been saying, over and over again, for quite some time, "Where's Eyaine? There she is! Where's Laney? Peep-o!!" etc. I quickly turned around to make sure Laney was ok. Then I grabbed the camera . . . (Put the cursor over a picture to see the caption).

let it snow . . . .

(Just put the cursor over a picture to see the caption.)

During one of Elaine's naps yesterday, Mariah and I went out in the snow. I tried to do some shoveling; our driveway is very uneven asphalt, so I was not very successful. I ended up mostly just playing with Mariah. We had a good time. Mariah loves the snow. She insists that it's called ice. Once in a while, she'll say, "It's ice called 'snow.'" But usually, she just says it's ice, no matter what I say:

me: Is there lots of snow?
Mariah: Ice.
me: It's kind of like ice, but it's snow.
Mariah: Lots of ice!

or

me: Do you like playing in the snow?
Mariah: Ice.
me: Hmm. Are you eating the snow?
Mariah: I'm eating the ice.

You get the idea . . . .

Fun with Food Storage . . . .

My mother-in-law told me about this site. Seems kind of like FlyLady, only for food storage. Just what I need!

Temple Square

On the 30th, we went up to Temple Square to see the lights, etc. Mariah loved it! She has asked several times since to go see another temple and lights. We had a gift card to Marie Callender's, so we picked up dinner on the way up. We ate in the Nauvoo Cafe in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and then headed out to see the lights. Mariah wanted to duck under or step over all the little fence things, mostly to go see the sheep. She loved listening to the nativity story; one of her favorite requests lately is to "have a sesson (lesson)'bout when Jesus was born."

An aside: Mariah loves Family Home Evening, and asks often to sing songs at the piano for Family Home Evening. She also brings me the nursery manual, usually a few times a day, and asks to "have a sesson 'bout . . . ." and then she tells me what she wants to talk about: "when Jesus was born," "animals," "Joseph Smith," or "Holy Ghost."

Speaking of the Holy Ghost, we've had a bit of doctrinal confusion concerning him. Ever since Mariah saw ghosts in the haunted house at Disneyland, we have had to have several conversations about how ghosts are not real. She has kind of a morbid fascination with them, though; I often find her with her Angelina at the Fair book opened to the ghost page. And she loves talking about how "ghosts not real." Anyway, I happened to be subbing in nursery when they had a lesson about the Holy Ghost. I immediately realized my error, and thought, "Uh-oh. I've told her the Holy Ghost is not real." So, I decided to talk to her about it after church. This was our conversation:

me: "Did you talk about the Holy Ghost in your class?"
Mariah: "No."
me: "Actually, I think you did; I was there."
Mariah: "Nope."

So, the next day, we had our FHE "sesson" about the Holy Ghost. We explained that the Holy Ghost is different from the other ghosts. He is real, and is a spirit who helps us be good, etc., etc. I was hoping that would clear things up, but still Mariah insists, "Holy Ghost not real." We're working on it. (This experience is an illustration of why we don't have Santa at our house).

Anyway (long aside), we had a great time looking at the lights. We took both girls in their pajamas, so we could just plop them in bed when we got home. It worked great with Mariah, but Laney had other plans. Just before we left to come home, she had a huge blowout, all the way through her cozy. So she came home in just a diaper (and I was able to clean up the cozy enough to make do). Such is life.

fun indoors . . . .

oklahoma for now . . . .

I realized I've been terrible at keeping the blog updated on Mike's dental school status. So, an update: Mike received 2 acceptances on December first--Indiana (Indianapolis) and Oklahoma (Oklahoma City). He's decided to put down a deposit at Oklahoma, so that's where we're headed for now! He's still waiting to hear from a few other schools: Pitt, Marquette, VCU; and he interviews at UNLV on Thursday. So . . . we'll keep you posted.

first real blood

Well, Whirlwind Mariah finally had her long over-due crash last night. Neither Mike nor I witnessed the event, but we think she was climbing on the couch or her chair and fell, hitting the coffee table on the way down. She came up with a pretty good gash on her eyebrow. She was actually a really good sport until she saw it in the mirror. Then she had a 2-year-old come-apart, demanding that I wash it off! (The picture is after it's all cleaned up and ready to glue together.)




We did our best with some superglue and toilet paper. She REFUSED to have a bandaid on it, and has had several tamtrums about the little teeny tiny piece of toilet paper we glued to it to help the glue dry. (Thanks, Aunt Ann, for all the nursing pointers).











Every time she walks past a mirror today, she is reminded, and has yet another 2-year-old moment.

Christmas

We had a wonderful, quiet Christmas. Because of her birthday a few days before, Mariah new all about presents. I had explained to her that on Christmas we get presents because it's Jesus' birthday. She was pretty excited about that. Whenever anyone asked her whose birthday it was, she would whisper, "Jesus."

Mariah got the biggest Christmas she will ever get in her life (at least from her parents). Mike's Uncle Scott and Aunt Simone gave us all of their kids' Fisher-Price Little People sets--all five of them, plus accessories--just in time for Christmas! Mariah loves them, and so does her mother. They provide hours of self-sufficient 2-year-old entertainment.

Laney was quite content with her 3 beanies (thank you, Craigslist) and a book. She also got a colorful wooden stacker toy from Ikea, but I opened that one later while she was napping. She still doesn't know about it.

Mike surprised me with a new dress and a sweater. I love them both. He also got the family (me) a Phil&Teds Traveller bed! I've wanted one forever, and somehow my dear husband pulled it off!



I gave Mike a blurb.com book of our courtship, engagement, wedding, and honeymoon. I've been working on it for almost 2 years, I think. I finally pulled it together in time to order it for Christmas.

After a very relaxed present-opening party, we made hashbrowns for breakfast. After Laney's nap, we headed to Grandma Shirlene and Gramp's for their fabulous tradition of making Christmas breakfast for the whole family! You can show up anytime from 11 to whenever, and they serve the works! Hashbrowns, pancakes, eggs, ham, juice, etc. Grandma Shirlene made me some yummy 7-grain cereal with apples. She always takes care of me! While we ate, Laney tried out the new Traveller.

We came home, and both girls got naps. Then we headed over to the Georges. We visited, ate, and played games. As Mike was getting Mariah ready for bed at about 8pm, she said, ". . . and then we will eat dinner?" Oops. Everyone had just been snacking all evening, and we totally neglected to feed Mariah. After she was fed, she happily went to bed in the Traveller; Elaine slept on the floor.

We missed the Johnsons, who were in Texas, but overall, we had a wonderful Christmas.

Here are 2 videos of Christmas Day. The first is very long; don't feel obligated to endure. The second is much shorter--the girls with Grandma Shaunna.