The Blame Game. And Other Fun Games

Everything is Drew's fault. At least according to Owen. Ask him just about anything and he'll say, "Drew did it." Drew threw the toys all over the room. Drew colored on the wall. Drew even peed Owen's pants. While Owen was wearing them.

This morning, Owen asked me to fix his Lightning McQueen car for him. I noticed the tires on the wheels were askew, so I asked Owen if he'd tried to take them off. He said, "No. Drew took them off." I straightened the tires, but still nothing. I had seen Owen drop the car a few minutes earlier, so I told him, "Maybe it broke when you dropped it. You need to be more careful with your toys." Owen said, "Drew dropped it." I fiddled around with it for a minute and couldn't get it to work. I told Owen, "I think the batteries are dead." He replied, "No. Drew's batteries are dead."

Last night, the boys and I played hide and seek with Vito. This game involves telling Vito to sit at the top of the stairs and stay there 'til I whistle. Then he comes running down the stairs sounding like a heard of elephants and runs around the room trying to find us. Generally we hide in very obvious places--like under the pool table in the middle of the room, or between the couch and the TV. It cracks me up to hide from Vito because I can never tell if he actually knows where we are and is just pretending to not know, or if he really can't find us. I got the idea that he just pretends that he doesn't know where we are because when we were playing with Drew and Owen, they kept yelling at him from our hiding spot and he just stood there two feet away from us looking around like, "Which way did they go, George? Which way did they go?" Then I whistled and he looked over at us all surprised and came bounding over. The boys have never had so much interaction with Vito (he usually stays as far away from them as possible while remaining in the same room), and they loved it. When we were all tired out from running around and hiding (Vito and I got tired long before Drew and Owen did), the boys jumped up and down yelling, "We'll play again tomorrow! We'll play again tomorrow!" I guess they had fun, too.

Feelin' Spoiled

The view outside our window Christmas morning; snow, snow, snow! And lots of it

piled on our screens, too. It practically dwarfed my homemade snowflakes...

We had a low-key Christmas celebration this year, which was nice. The in-laws came over Christmas morning, after digging themselves out of a couple feet of snow drifts. The kids woke up at their usual time between 8:30 and 9:00, and we kept them downstairs until the in-laws got here so they could see the kids' faces when they saw all the loot under the tree. Drew and Owen were pretty excited. They ran around for a couple minutes yelling, "Presents! Presents!!" before they even thought to sit down and see which presents were for them. Samantha was interested in pretty much every present Drew and Owen got, particularly the trikes that we got for them. Whenever we handed her a present and helped her unwrap it, she promptly threw the contents of said present on the floor and toddled over to play with whatever car or truck her brothers were playing with.

Santa brought the kids a Thomas the Train set, and expansion kit (it's sorta visible in the bottom of the phot0). David and I got them a trike and Grandma and Grandpa C. got them another trike.

I got so much good loot this year. I wasn't expecting much because whenever David asked me what I wanted and I told him, (take new frying pans for example) he said, "Why would you want pans? You've already got pans, and they work just fine." (Except that they don't, because they're warped, because a certain husband loves to hear the sizzle of a hot pan under cold tap water.) I also asked for a drill, to which he replied, "Why don't you just borrow my dad's?" (Because I never know when I'm going to need to fix something or put a new hole in the wall real quick, and it's kind of a pain to be borrowing stuff from people all the time.) Finally I got sick of trying to justify my wish list, so I told him to get me some textbooks.

After all that, I was pretty surprised when there was an electric griddle and a cordless drill under the tree with my name on them. And my father in law loves to get people tools, so I've got a gazillion piece drill bit set, three tool boxes to put stuff in, an electric screwdriver (not sure how that's entirely different than a drill fitted with a Philips bit, except that it has thirty different sizes), a leveler, and a new tape measure.

It seems like Christmas is still going on; I'm still finding bits of wrapping paper here and there, and I haven't even started sorting through old toys to figure out which ones to donate (and where to donate them), which ones to keep and which ones to put in the trash. I'll have to do all that when my boys aren't looking, though, because they seem to think everything is a toy, even if it's missing the majority of its parts. A beloved favorite of Drew's is a red truck that has no wheels, no bed, only one door. I don't know why I haven't thrown it away yet; at clean up time we just throw it in the toy box with everything else. Drew digs it out from the depths of the toy box on a regular basis to play with it, and it's one of his preferred toys to take to bed with him. So tomorrow I've got that big project to do, as well as pretty much scour the house and get it all fresh and clean so I can try to keep on top of things (it's one of my New Year's goals, and I figure I might as well start right away, before school starts--only two more weeks!).

So much snow! We went out and shoveled a couple times on Christmas day, just to stay on top of it all. We got even more snow Christmas night, so the next day David went around the neighborhood with a few of the neighbors and various plows, snow blowers and shovels to dig people out. Then of course the good ol' Idaho wind picked up (not that it ever really stopped) and blew all our carefully shoveled snow every which way. Happily, though, it didn't cause too much trouble.

Weenies and Junglemints

I mopped my kitchen floor today (yep, it's that time of year again...I almost put it off 'til spring because of all the dirty snow that gets tracked in these days, but all that dirty snow made mopping mandatory). I piled all the kitchen chairs into the living room, putting one of them on the stair landing. Drew and Owen were very good to stay in that general area and not tromp all over the wet floor in the kitchen. As I was mopping along, I heard Owen yelling the strangest phrase over and over. I could tell he thought he wasn't pronouncing it like he knew it should be pronounced, because the words changed each time he said it:

Weenies and Junglemints!

Babies and Winnamence!

Lalees and Ambience!

Wallees and Jellamence!

I peeked around the corner to see what the yelling was all about. Owen was standing on the chair on the landing, with his arms outstretched, making declarations to the people (which people included Drew, Samantha [held captive in her booster seat] and Vito): Weedies and Mimamints!

I cracked up! It took me a few minutes to figure out he was trying to say "Ladies and Gentlemen." It reminded me of a favorite poem that I heard when I was about four or five that I've always tried to remember and finally thought to look up online. There are lots of versions of it and no one can seem to agree on who wrote it, but here's my favorite version:

Ladles and Jellyspoons:

I come before you

to stand behind you,

and tell you something

I know nothing about:

As next Thursday is Good Friday,

there will be a Fathers' meeting for Mothers only.

Wear your best clothes if you don't have any,

and please stay at home, if you can be there.

Admission is free, pay at the door,

have a seat on me; please sit on the floor.

No matter where you manage to sit,

the man in the balcony will certainly spit.

I thank you for your unkind attention,

and now present the next act:

The Four Corners of the Round Table.

Holiday Sap

I find myself thinking in third person a lot lately. It's all because of Facebook. For those of you who don't know anything about Facebook (where have you been?), it's a networking site basically. For me, it allows me to keep up with people I wouldn't normally be in contact with since life gets busy and crazy and people tend to drift in and out of my life. But with Facebook, I know where these people are, or at least how to send them a message. Some of the people I haven't seen in a decade or more, so it's nice to see what they're up to. I don't mean to turn this post into an advertisement for Facebook, I just wanted to explain that a little bit.

Another part of Facebook, that has a little more to do with the point of my post, is the Status; there's a text bar next to my name on my front page that asks, What are you doing right now? I can write whatever I want in there, but it has to be in third person because after I click post, it will read something like the following: Heather is tired. Or, Heather thinks snow is pretty. Or whatever I type in there.

I only update my status every couple days or so, but throughout the day almost every day, I find myself thinking of things to write in the status bar. Last night as I was doing dishes, a bunch of different things floated around in my brain:

Heather owns the loudest cat in the world. Her cat is the epitome of [whatever the antonym for stealth is].

Heather's knuckles have taken a beating from dishes, household chores and winter in general.

Heather had a lot of fun making snowflakes with her boys this evening.

Heather is tired of thinking in the third person.

Heather thinks housework should be included somewhere in the definition of insanity (you know, the one that says 'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results').

Heather hates the feeling of being overdue for a really good cry.

That last one is the main reason for the post. It bugs me because there is no logic or reason to crying at this point in my life; things are going well. I'm all sorts of blessed (and that makes me want to cry). It's such a happy time of year for us (that makes me want to cry), but not for others (that makes me want to cry, too).

Yesterday was the Christmas program at church. A gal and her five year old daughter sang a beautiful song about the story of Christ's life (it made me want to cry).

My friend Marissa had a beautiful baby boy last week. I read all about him on her blog. He's so sweet. (And, of course, it made me want to cry.)

Drew and Owen have been watching Christmas episodes of their favorite cartoons. Wubbzy helps Santa deliver the Christmas presents for everyone in Wuzzleburg and Santa give Wubbzy a special gift that turns out to be the exact thing Wubbzy had been looking for to give to his friend Daizy. (I got all teary-eyed). Little Bill's great grandma was stuck at the airport on Christmas Eve so Little Bill and his siblings wrote a letter to Santa asking him to bring her back for Christmas. She shows up Christmas morning having "gotten a ride with someone who was headed her way." (Teared up some more.)

And has anyone seen the Pampers commercial? The lady singing "Silent Night" and the pictures of all the little babies sleeping almost sends me over the edge every time.

Last night as I was doing dishes, I felt like I wanted to cry again. This to me makes more sense; housework is like having teeth pulled without anesthetics.

I felt quite a bit better this morning, so I'm attributing most of my emotional distress to fatigue. And I'll probably blame some of it on hormones, just because, as a female, I can do that.

Drew's Magic Trick

Samantha is 15 months! We took her to the doc for a checkup yesterday. As is our style, we were running a little late for the appointment, even though we started getting ready a little early. We finally got every one's coats on and were headed out the door when I noticed something around Drew's shoe. It was his favorite striped underpants! I thought, "Oh, maybe they were just on the floor in his room and he stepped on them and they got stuck..." but then I thought, "I'm pretty sure those are the ones he was wearing earlier today..." So I peeked in his britches and sure enough, he was going commando. I'm not sure how he did it; as far as I remembered, he had nothing around his ankle when I put his shoes on, and nothing around his shoes when I put his jacket on. I guess he's just magic!

Samantha is healthy and doing well. The doc asked all the development questions and she's right on track, except I had to rack my brain to think of four words that she says. He told me names count, so she's got more than four. They are: kee-ee (kitty), a-dah (lay down; this she says to Vito and points her little fist at him. It's so cute), Ooooo-weeeeeen (Owen), hi, 'aye ('bye), mum (some), muh (more; she also signs this one, and does the sign for milk, too). She babbles quite a bit, but not as much as she used to it seems.

Samantha's height, weight and head circumference are on a steady upward curve, and she's on the 25th percentile for all of them. She weighs 21 lbs, 14 oz. She's 30 inches long and her head is 18 inches. So far she's following the same pattern as her brothers: she eats a ton, but she's still a little shrimpy. I love it.

Whatever, Martha!

I like Martha Stewart. I really do. But I also like her daughter's show, Whatever, Martha. It's so stinking funny. The basic premise of the show is that Martha had countless hours of video footage from her show that she didn't know what to do with, so she gave it to her daughter, Alexis, and Alexis' friend Jennifer to do with it what they will. So pretty much the girls watch it, rip it apart, sometimes participate in the building of crafts, and rip Martha's stuff apart some more. Apparently, Alexis has a lot of issues from growing up as Martha Stewart's daughter, and the show is a forum for her to work through them. Or something. In any case, I find it hilarious.

I tried to make these cookies today. I got the recipe from Martha Stewart's website. The cookies didn't turn out--they're a little too crispy, and I even took minutes off the timer with each batch I baked. The recipe says bake 15 minutes; I baked them for 10 and they were still overdone. Maybe it's because I used regular ol' cocoa powder instead of Dutch Processed (whatever), or because I don't have a kitchen mixer with a paddle attachment (whatever), or because I didn't bake them on parchment paper or let them cool on said parchment paper, or even store them on the parchment paper (whatever, Martha! Parchment schmarchment). At least the cookies taste good.

Easy As Pie

I made pumpkin pie yesterday. For the first time ever! I've watched my mom make plenty of pies for Thanksgiving throughout the years, and I've made a cherry pie (I can bake a cherry pie, Billy boy, Billy boy...) , but yesterday was the first time on my own with pumpkin. It turned out great! It's much easier than I thought. I had this idea in my head that it would be difficult, I guess because the pie has to bake forever and cool for even longer. But I don't have to do anything for those parts of the process, so no worries. I was also intimidated by the crust. Even though I have made pie crust before, my tastes have become more refined (read: picky) when it comes to crust. It has to be flaky and all-around perfect. I found a recipe on my favorite non-friend/relative blog which boasted the most perfectly flaky delicious crust ever. So I tried it. Turns out, it is perfect and flaky and delicous! Here's the link.

In more family oriented news:

Samanth is walking pretty much full time now. She falls a lot, but rather than revert to crawling when she falls she just stands up and walks some more. It's very cute and I always think of what my dad said after he watched the kids for a weekend a while back: "Now I know why they call kids this age toddlers." A word that both rhymes and describes Samantha's movements pops into mind: waddler (I don't know if that's really a word).

Drew and Owen are getting so excited for Christmas. They are a little confused as to the occasion (or are they?). We occasionally ask Drew and Owen what they'd like for Christmas. We have a book that we read to remind us why we celebrate Christmas. The boys know that Christmas is Jesus' birthday. So now they go around asking people, "What do you want for your birthday?"

I recently made some head scarves for my step mom; her hair is gone from her chemo treatments. She's doing well and is going to go back to work, so she had to have something to keep her head warm. I'm hoping I'll get some pictures of her wearing the scarves, but for now I'll post the pictures of me wearing them (I had to test them out to make sure they were good enough to give away). I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out and I'm thinking of making a bunch more to donate to chemo wards.

Here are all five scarves lined up (well, four scarves and a cap).

Above is a chemo hat that I made from this pattern.

Below are some scarves I made from a pattern I pulled out of thin air. They're all my favorites.

Once There Was A Snowman

A couple weeks ago (while the weather was still warm) the boys and I went outside and cleaned up all the weeds and dead flowers from our front yard, in preparation for snow. Ever since then, the boys wake up almost every morning shouting, "Let's go sledding today!" Except that there's not really any snow.

This past Monday we got a storm that dropped about 2 inches of snow in a fairly short time. Then the storm passed and left us with cold, cold (but sunny) weather. Drew and Owen were ecstatic to see the snow! They wanted to go outside that second and play. David took them out when he got home from work and showed them how to build a snowman. They had a blast.

I couldn't get any pictures of Owen with the snowman. He came inside before Drew and refused to go back out for the photo. He was pretty frozen because he actually helped with the snowman-making. Drew didn't help, but he was really proud of the results.

Hide and Seeking

Drew and Owen have a new favorite game: hide and seek. Or hide and seeking as Owen calls it. We played a couple days ago and had so much fun. I was cracking up the whole time because the boys never really grasped the concept of being the hider; the point is to not be found, but apparently that's not as fun... I walked around our basement pretending to not know where Drew and Owen were hiding. I searched here and there calling, "Where could my boys be? Are they in the toy box? No... Are they under the couch? No..." Then, from under the blankets in the spare bedroom I heard, "We're in here, Mom!"

It reminded me of one of my favorite poems as a kid:

Hiding by Dorothy Aldis

I'm hiding, I'm hiding

And no one knows where;

For all they can see is my

Toes and my hair

And I just heard my father

Say to my mother -

"But, darling, he must be

Somewhere or other;

Have you looked in the inkwell?"

And Mother said, "Where?"

"In the INKWELL?"said Father.

But I was not there.

Then "Wait!" cried my mother —

"I think that I see

Him under the carpet."

But It was not me."

Inside the mirror's

A pretty good place."

Said Father and looked, but saw

Only his face.

"We've hunted," sighed Mother,

"As hard as we could

And I am so afraid that we've

Lost him for good."

Then I laughed out aloud

And I wiggled my toes

And Father said —"

Look, dear,I wonder if those

Toes could be Benny's?

There are ten of them, see?"

And they WERE so surprised to find

Out it was me!

In case you're wondering what my other favorite poems are:

My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson

Mud by Polly Chase Boyden

Crowded Tub by Shel Silverstein

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Birthday Wishes

Here's a Happy Birthday shout out to my favorite Andrew brother! 29! Since Andrew is my closest-in-age sibling, we probably spent more time together and thus fought more and had more fun than my siblings who are much older or younger than me.

Andrew is the best at building things, taking things apart, figuring out how they work and fixing things. There are plenty of things that I associate with Andrew every time I see them: blanket forts over the heater vents; cardboard box forts of any kind; spook alleys in the basement; paper towel tubes (can be used for anything from making periscopes to pummeling one's sister); duct tape. My brain contains random memories of licking nine-volt batteries (gives a little zap on the tongue); cooling myself with my own personal teeny-motorized fan, the blades of which were usually made of cereal box, built 'specially for me by Andrew; building dams in irrigation ditches and racing boats in them.

Happy Birthday, big brother! Hope your day is a great one!

Andrew with his wonderful family

Well Fed

I went to a Relief Society (women ages 18 and up in our church) Christmas party last night. It was so wonderful to associate with other adults and have real conversations! In fact, the mention of kids was kept to a minimum, even. Amazing. Of course my boys couldn't handle that, so they had to wander out of the nursery and ask me to help them use the toilet twice (within 25 minutes) during the evening.

The food was scrumptious. I tasted crème brûlée for the first time in my life. Loved it! I need to go around and get recipes from people. A gal brought a jello (for a church dinner, go figure...) parfait sort of dish that involved a meringue and cranberries. Yum!

For the program some of the gals were asked to share what they do to bring the Christmas spirit into their homes. Then at the end we were treated to this beautiful slide show that wonderfully depicts the true meaning of Christmas. If you feel like your Christmas cheer could use a boost (or even if you don't feel that way), watch it!

Tagged

My good friend Erin tagged me the other day. Here are the 8s:

Rules:
1) Post Rules on your blog
2) Answer the six "8" items
3) Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving them a comment

8 favorite TV shows:

1. Chuck
2. Ugly Betty
3. The Mentalist
4. Psych
5. Jeopardy!
6. My Boys
7. The Daily Show
8. Samantha Who?
   

8 things I did yesterday:

1. Folded Laundry
2. Turned in my cleaning work order and got paid. (yay!)
3. Worked on headscarves for my step mom. (I haven't forgotten you, LuAnn! They're just trickier than I expected)
4. Wrestled with David and the boys, showed them tackling and dog piles.
5. Played Mario Kart with David after the kids went to bed.
6. Drank milkshakes with David after the kids went to bed.
7. Cleaned the kitchen.
8. Listened to Christmas music on the radio almost all day.

8 things I look forward to:

1. Going back to Thailand
2. Finishing school
3. Getting a good job so David can quit the Railroad and pursue a career he likes.
4. David quitting the Railroad and pursuing a career he likes.
5. Christmas
6. Date nights with David
7. Setting up Christmas decorations
8. Spring
   

8 favorite restaurants:

1. Sister Dograk's (a lady in Thailand had a restaurant in front of her house. She had dozens of delicious versions of fried rice!).
2. Formosa
3. Roldolfo's (they have yummy, massive breakfast burritos)
4. Texas Road House
5. Winger's
6. Buddy's (scrumptious, garlicky Italian; I'm not allowed near David for two days after eating there)
7. Papa John's Pizza
8. Burger King

8 things on my wish list:

(no one said all of these had to be realistic)

1. A live-in housekeeper
2. A Winter home in Thailand (and the money to actually travel there every winter)
3. Cute, trendy clothes that will never wear out or get stained, and never get too tight.
4. New paint in my kitchen.
5. Some kind of organizing system for all my sewing and craft stuff.
6. Candy making supplies (not for making candies, but for making cake pops).
7. More time to practice baking and cooking(this wish would come true if wish #1 came true).
8. Supplies (cookware, spices and sauces) for making Thai food.

8 people to tag:

I tag whoever wants to do it. Just let me know if you decide to write down your 8s and I'll pop over to your blog to check it out!

This Made My Day

And it made me think of my big brother, Jer. He's a big Star Wars buff. Maybe not as much as this kid, though.

We Are Thankful

The boys and I made turkeys last Sunday. I was trying to explain to them about Thanksgiving, but I don't think they quite got it. The next evening, for family night, we talked about being thankful for things that we have. We asked the boys what they are thankful for.

Drew is thankful for Corvettes, Grandpa, Samantha, Owen, the lamp, and the green crayon.

Owen is thankful for Mom and Dad, Samantha, Drew, the trains, and the book.

I've been thinking a lot the last few weeks about what I'm thankful for, and the list keeps getting bigger and bigger. I've been unbelievably blessed with a fantastic husband, wonderful kids, good health (we all have colds at our house, but at least we don't have Strep like last year, though even that is something we could deal with).

David works really hard (well, really long hours anyway; he doesn't actually do much at his job) to provide for us. I'm grateful that he has a job even if it's one that keeps him away from home a lot.

I can't imagine my life without Drew, Owen or Samantha. They drive me crazy, yes, but they've taught me so much about how to be a better person. I don't even pray for patience anymore; I've already got so many opportunities to practice it.

I have wonderful parents, step parent, in laws, siblings and siblings-in-law. I have amazing extended family and friends. All of these people have had a huge impact on who I have become.

I'm grateful for our friends with the property management business that let me work for them on my own schedule. I made enough money weeding and raking leaves in the last couple days to pay for a textbook (or two, if I can find them used at a good price).

I'm grateful for my beliefs and knowledge of my Savior. I'm looking forward to the Christmas season to celebrate His life and what it means to me.

A New Record!

I realized my last two posts were about Drew. It's not that Owen and Samantha are boring, they're just quieter. Squeaky wheel gets the grease and all that.

Samantha can now walk up to six steps in a row! She's practicing more and more. She can stand up by herself, now, without grabbing on to anything.

'Mantha has been pretty crabby lately. Turns out she's getting three new teeth (I don't know why the odd number; must be she's odd herself. She takes after her mom)! All the new teeth are molars. I gave her a good tickle the other day so I could get a peek inside her mouth. Her laterals and cuspids (gotta practice using the proper names for teeth--school starts in January) show no signs of popping through, but she's got tips of molars shining bright and white toward the back of her mouth.

Owen is getting really good at baseball. Well, really good for a three year old. He has a miniature wooden bat that Aunt Ace got in Louisville a while back. I don't think it's meant to be a toy, but it's the perfect size for a kid of his stature to use for practice. We pitch a smallish Spiderman bouncy ball to him. His batting average is probably about .200; there are professionals with only slightly higher averages!

Drew and Owen are watching the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special for the billionth time since it originally aired 24 hours ago. I'm looking at the "feast" Charlie Brown and Snoopy prepare for Peppermint Patty who invited herself over for dinner. It consists of toast, popcorn, pretzels and jelly beans. Peppermint Patty complains, but I think it looks delicious. Not that I would want it for Thanksgiving dinner, but it looks pretty good for kids pretending to have a feast.

A Somewhat Productive Day

Today was a go, go kind of day. My house doesn't show the proof of it, because I was kept busy doing other, more important, things. I cut hair for Drew, Owen and David. I've been threatening the boys with haircuts for a while now (to them it's a threat). We usually try to bribe the kids to sit still for the haircut. Last time we must have bribed Drew with a ride in the Camaro because the other day when I told him I wanted to cut his hair he said, "I'm not going in the Camaro. At all."

Today I cut Owen's hair first. He is less prone to tantrums than Drew so I thought if Drew could see Owen getting his hair cut without any crying or problems, Drew would not mind sitting still for his own hair cut. I let Owen play with a squirt bottle while I cut his hair, but I started to wish I hadn't when I looked up from cutting to see Samantha standing next to Owen soaking wet (at least she wasn't mad about it. She was probably just glad to have Owen pay attention to her).

When it was Drew's turn, I somehow came up with the brilliant idea of snipping off a few rows of stickers from our sticker book. He sat really still and put stickers on his pants, on the chair, and on Samantha while I cut his hair. I also showed him how to blow the hair off of his arms and belly after it fell from the scissors, so he didn't freak out and end up wiping hair all over his face. It worked! I got his hair cut with no incident. It was like a pre-Thanksgiving miracle.

Here are some before and after photos of Drew (Owen is not cooperating for a photo at this time):

This is the pile of hair that came off Drew's head. The comb is for scale.

I spent most of my afternoon cleaning the Pocatello Business Park and Storage. PBP&S is a group of five buildings--a few businesses and a few storage sheds. David and I have friends who have a Realty and Property Management business. I don't know if they own PBP&S or just manage it, but in any case they hired me to clean up the grounds. The grounds look like your basic storage unit place; lots of pavement and grey buildings. I spent about two hours just sweeping/raking leaves and picking up trash, and I only got to about 1/3 of the property.

I found a lot of stuff in front of the businesses. M & D Auto Detail had a ton of litter on the ground in front of the door that looked like it'd been there for a long time. Here's a run-down of my loot:

• 27 cents (17 pennies and one dime).


• A Saint Anthony pendant (Made from sterling silver. It's been scratched up and the carving is smooshed and unrecognizable. Around the edges I can just barely make out the inscription. It's interesting to me that I found a pendant of the patron saint of lost articles, though it would probably mean more to me if I were Catholic.)


• A token for some batting cages. (If I'm ever in Salem, Oregon, I'll be sure to redeem it; I do love batting cages. I need to find out if Pocatello has any.)


• A token for an arcade at MGM
  
• A flattened penny with a tree imprint that says, "BOISE" under it.


• 5 fat earth worms. (I found them under big, damp piles of leaves on the pavement. I put them in some nearby grass, hoping that they would burrow underground before they die, also hoping that not throwing them in the trash bag with the leaves would offset the damage done moments before when I threw an aluminum can in the trash rather than saving it to recycle later. Always conscious of my carbon footprint.)

I probably could have gotten more work done if I had just scooped everything into the trash rather than take the time to pick the stuff up, examine it, wonder over it, et cetera. But it was back-breaking work and I was grateful for the chance to stand up straight for a few seconds here and there while I admired my finds. Besides, in this economy, who am I to throw away money, even if it is covered in months worth of mud and grime?

Captain Commando

I can't figure out Drew's aversion to clothes. He hates getting dressed, and tries to get away with as few clothing items as possible. Generally, he walks around throughout the day without his shirt and rarely sleeps with a shirt on.
Drew is learning to dress himself (hence all the backward outfits). He wants to control the whole process from selection of the clothing to putting it on.
When he selects a shirt, it has to be short sleeves. When we go out, he rolls up his jacket and coat sleeves, no matter how cold it is outside. He tries to wear shorts as often as possible, too. Pants are too constricting, apparently. Heaven forbid any cloth touch his skin!
Oh, and his selection rarely includes underwear. TMI? Sorry.

Jump! Jump!

Remember these guys?

Every single day I flash back to sixth grade when it was cool (for my neighbor friends and me, anyway) to wear huge baggy clothes--and wear 'em backward, if we were feeling extra hardcore.

I reminisce every day because every day Drew wants to dress himself and every day he puts on the Corvette shirt that Grandpa gave him for his birthday (whether it's clean or not), that will fit him better when he's about five, and every day he puts it on backward. Then he puts on his jeans. Backward. I don't know about Mack Daddy or Daddy Mack, but my boy wears his underpants backward, too.

And every day I walk around the house singing, "Jump! Jump! Kriss Kross'll make ya jump! Jump! & Daddy Mack'll make ya Jump! Jump! Wiggata wiggata wiggata whack!"

Fun With Leaves

Adventures in Shopping: Part V

I've been going crazy trying to think of ways to keep the kids quiet while David sleeps; he's been working the graveyard shift for the last week and a bit, and goes to bed about the time Drew and Owen get up. We've had really nice weather lately, but I haven't taken advantage of it because even though the sun is shining it's a little chilly and the boys have had bad colds for the last week.

Today we made a somewhat unnecessary trip to the store. It was necessary in that we needed to get Samantha some diapers, but I could've done it Saturday while I was out. I sort of purposely "forgot" to get diapers Saturday so we'd have something to get us out of the house today.

Shopping with all the kids in tow is getting to be a huge pain (not that it was ever a ton of fun). Drew and Owen are too big to sit in the cart now, so they run around touching everything and getting in the way of others' shopping carts.

On the way out of the store, Drew ran way ahead of me toward the gumball machines and the pay phones. One of the phones happened to ring as Drew ran toward it. So he picked it up and said, "Hello?" Then he paused, then said, "Yes." Another pause, then he said, "Okay, 'bye!" Then he hung up the phone. I have no idea who was on the phone or what they said. I wonder if they realized they had called a Wal*Mart pay phone and a three-year-old answered.

Drew was so proud of himself. The whole way home he went on and on about how he answered the phone.

My Current Obsessions

I have been going nuts about two things lately (okay, three, if you count chocolate covered popcorn):

*Sunsets (I've taken pictures of the gorgeous Southeast Idaho sunsets almost every day this month. Following is a selection of some that I've seen this year. I love how they change with the season. Late Summer, or fire season, makes some really beautiful ones):

June, 2007: Saturn, Venus and the moon were in perfect alignment. I tried to get a photo with my cheap little camera.

April, 2008: I don't remember what was causing all the haze, but it looked cool.

July 2008

August 2008

September 2008

October 2008

November 2008

*Play Kitchens (Every time I see one I say something like, "Aww! It's so cute! I want it! I mean, uh, the kids would love this!" I want to purchase or make one. They're kinda pricey, and I think it would be way beyond my skill to make one. So we'll see if we ever get one. But I love them. I remember having loads of fun playing on the one at my friend's house when I was a kid. Here's my current favorite play kitchen by Little Tikes):

Learning To Walk

Samantha has finally decided she'd like to try walking. She started standing on her own the other day and now, just two days later, she's pretty good at standing on her own for a while. Until she tries to move...
Yesterday she tried to take a step but couldn't decide which foot to put forward first, so she did a little hop and fell to her hands and knees. She thought it was pretty funny. Then in the evening we went to Outer Limits Fun Zone to let the kids run around and play. It was really fun! They have a big play center that's sort of like what you'd see at McDonald's, minus the unsanitary ball pit. It's like a giant, netted-in jungle gym. Samantha thought it would be a good idea to try to walk on it. She wasn't successful, but she did have a ton of fun.

Today, while I was talking on the phone with my mom, Samantha took her first step! She was standing by the computer and decided she didn't want to stand there anymore, so she tried to walk away. She moved one foot and when she went to move the other she fell down.

Here she is standing by the computer, getting ready to try again. (My camera is too slow and I wasn't able to capture any of her actually taking the steps.) Note the shirt; more on that later.

I had to take a break typing to change a dirty diaper. After I changed her, I stood Samantha up and let go of her hands. She took three steps this time! As she walked I clapped my hands and when she fell down I told her she did a good job walking. Owen got down on his hands and knees and said, "Mom, you see I crawl like Sabanta? Clap, Mom!"

This shirt Samantha is wearing belonged to me when I was a little girl. I think it looks so cute on her and it's fun to share (soon enough she'll be raiding my closet without my permission). I have a bunch of dresses that I wore and that were purchased when we lived in Taiwan. They won't fit her for a few more years, but I'm looking forward to seeing Samantha wear them.

What We've Been Watching

I got a call a few weeks ago from Nielsen Media Research, Inc. inviting us to participate in a study on what people watch on TV. I said sure, no problem. They even offered me 30 bucks to do it. Bonus!


Thursday I got the packet in the mail and started filling it out right away. There is a booklet with tables in which I have to write what time we watched TV, what show we watched and whether or not we were watching in real time or a previously recorded show.


The whole process has been sort of enlightening. I was thinking my boys watch too much TV. For kids their age, they probably do. But as I've been recording everything in the little booklets I'm thinking, it's not so bad. I have noticed that we watch almost no real time television. Pretty much everything is pre-recorded.


Here is a sample of the booklet, which I have scanned. It reminds me of ledgers my grandma would give me when I was a kid that I could play bank or school with.

We have two booklets; one for the family room TV and one for the master bedroom TV. The master bedroom TV has more written in it; it's pretty full from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. or later because that's when I fold laundry and watch my non-cartoon shows.

Here is a sample of what we've got recorded on our DVR for the kids (we record plenty of episodes to choose from so I don't get bored listening to the same ones--my boys would be happy watching the same one or two episodes over and over, but I'd go crazy):

• Little Bill (29 episodes )
• Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! (18 episodes)
• Shaun the Sheep (17 episodes--this is my favorite of their shows; check out a sample on YouTube)
• Random Disney movies on TV: Finding Nemo, The Rescuers Down Under, Chicken Little, Tarzan
• Alvin and the Chipmunks (two Halloween movies that the boys love)

Shows that I record for myself to watch later include:

• Chuck
• Ugly Betty
• Jeopardy!
• Psych
• My Boys

David records things like:

• Criss Angel Mindfreak
• Any sporting event involving Penn State, Notre Dame, Boston Celtics, or the Pittsburgh Steelers
• Lots of comedy shows
• True Crime documentaries

We haven't been to a movie or even rented one in months! We've got so much TV to catch up on.

Oh, and the packet that arrived Thursday already had the $30 in it; in cash! Woot! Now I gotta decided what to buy with my "hard-earned" moolah. I'm thinking dinner somewhere fun sounds good--I'm really tired of cooking.

Six Random Tidbits

Lura tagged me a while ago, and I've been slacking on answering because I'm pretty boring. I am very random, though, so I think I can come up with six things (we'll just pretend the "interesting" clause never existed).

1: I love that my boys are big enough to come wake me up now. Especially since they don't usually wake up 'til around 9 a.m. (except on Fridays when the garbage truck wakes them up before 8). But I love hearing them clomp up the stairs yelling, "We brought you cake, Mom!" ("Cake" is a pillow covered with a blanket.)

2: I hate waking up to a messy kitchen. Not that it never happens, because I also hate cleaning up right after dinner, and sometimes by the time I get the kids to bed the last thing I want to do is clean the kitchen. But I try to make it somewhat livable--at least wipe the table and counters--so I'm not greeted by total chaos first thing in the morning.

3: I'm a total "foodie." I especially love to try new foods. I have a motto that I learned in Thailand: Try everything twice because chances are you won't like it on the first try, and you never know if that's because of the way the cook made it or because the dish itself is gross. Check out my favorite food website.

4: I don't get embarrassed easily--anymore, that is. I used to be incredibly shy and easily embarrassed, so I have a few embarrassing moments. Like the time I jumped on a skateboard in the hall in front of the Athletic Trainer's office after track practice. I was trying to show off for one of the boys in there 'cause I had, like, a total crush on him. The skateboard went flying out from under me and I landed on my tush right in front of the door. It would've been fine if the boy had seen the skateboard, but he hadn't, so he thought I was just running in the hall and fell for no reason. (Incidentally, my other most embarrassing moment involves a skateboard, too. I'll save that story for another day.)

5: I watch a lot of football with my husband. I have loved learning how to like football a little*. Actually, I really do enjoy football and if my favorite team is playing I'll even watch if David isn't home to watch with me. I like the Steelers because they're David's favorite so they're the ones we watch the most and I know the most about their team. I also like the Browns (the Steelers' rival) because they have my favorite quarterback (Brady Quinn) on their team.

* I stole this phrase from Brian Regen. He has a bit about trying to be open minded and learning new things. "I've been going to the opera. And have loved learning how to like it a little bit."

6: I have a goal to live in a city with a warm climate. Good thing it's David's goal, too. I had this crazy idea a while ago that I want to move to San Antonio, Texas. I will definitely look into moving there and other comparable warm climate areas when I'm finished with Dental Hygiene school, but for now we'll stay in Idaho.

To pass this on, I'll tag Abby, Adam (you need to update your blog!), Tricia (you need to update yours, too), Jen, Kadee, Tina, Madeline, and Marissa. And anyone else who wants to do it. Just paste the following little card on your blog and tag some more people!

For the First Time in Eight Years

The first (and last) time I voted, prior to today, was in 2000. I felt weird voting, since I knew basically nothing about either candidate except that Gore was the incumbent (am I using that word correctly?) Vice President and was running for President. I knew which way my mom would be voting, so I voted similarly.

Today felt different. I have spent the last few months paying attention; amazing the things one learns when one listens and studies! I felt proud to completely fill in the bubble next to my candidate-of-choice's name with the Number 2 pencil in the booth. As for the local candidates, I must admit that I haven't studied them much at all. I did recognize one name as the former County Clerk and I know she did a good job in that office so I voted for her.

So now David and I are watching the election results to see who will win. While we're waiting, enjoy some comedy:

Back Home

We're back! We went to visit my dad and step mom last Wednesday, and got home Saturday afternoon. We also took my sister, Roz, who will be living up there for a while to help out and save some money.

We had a good visit; I was glad to be able to go help out. Dad and LuAnn have been back and forth between doctor visits, so Roz and I cooked them some non-casserole meals and helped them catch up on cleaning. Drew and Owen "helped" by getting into everything. Samantha was actually really well behaved and just sat on the couch and chatted while Roz and I worked.

We also got to go trick-or-treating while we were there, in the little town near my dad's farm. I was skeptical, thinking the town is so small (like, 300 people), but I was pleasantly surprised (there might actually be 400 people there, and many of them were out on Halloween). The boys had so much fun knocking on doors and saying, "Churk-o-Chreet!" They were really polite and said "thank you" almost every time without much reminding. Drew even did a trick for an elderly lady who, as she handed him some candy, said, "Here's your treat, where's the trick?" I told him to make a Corvette sound, which he did. The lady looked all startled, then laughed.

Owen dressed as a cowboy (not really considered "dressing up" in a farm town, but whatever). I never finished the mummy costume so I thought one of the boys could be a scarecrow. But Owen ended up with the overalls and cowboy hat, and didn't want to keep the straw in his sleeves and collar (not that I blame him).

After much screaming, cajoling, wailing and gnashing of teeth, Drew dressed as Dracula. He threw a fit when I tried to put the cape on him. We told him if he was going to act like that, he could stay home. He sorta stopped crying and said, "Okay, I'll go." So I tried once again to put the cape on him. Once again he threw a fit. After repeating the scenario five times, he finally came running out the door after us with the loathed cape in hand. We put it on him in the car on the way to town.

Drew getting ready to suck the blood of a Teddy Graham.

Drew freaking out about wearing a cape, Owen sinking his teeth into some sugar.

Samantha was dressed as a pumpkin. I was really pleased with how the costume turned out, but couldn't get her to cooperate for a decent photo. Oh well. She had a great time trick-or-treating. We didn't take a bag for her, because she really didn't need a ton of candy (not like Drew and Owen did either), but a few people gave her candy anyway--she was so cute in her little pumpkin outfit, her chubby fists holding onto a Snickers bar for dear life.

My little Pumpkin Lumpkin.

Finders Keepers?

We have an unwritten rule at our house that whatever is left in pockets and goes through the wash is fair game. As of late the boys have been leaving all kinds of stuff in their pockets. I'm not in the habit of checking their pockets since they just recently perfected the skill of putting things in and taking things out of pockets. The only problem is I don't want any of the stuff I've found in the bottom of the washing machine after washing the boys' clothes:

When I emptied this most recent load of wash, I found two matchbox cars, some coins pilfered from my own coin jar, and a bunch of plastic coins smuggled from Grandpa's house.

Birthday Fun

Drew and Owen turned 3 yesterday! It's sort of unreal to me how fast their young lives are flying by!

The day started out right with a ride in Grandpa's Corvette.

The boys went wild opening all their presents. Even Samantha got into it.

I made two cupcakes for the boys so they could each blow out some candles and so they wouldn't spit on the cake.

It was fun to hear the boys sing along and to see them actually blow out the candles by themselves, then clap for themselves.

The boys requested a Corvette cake (Drew requested it, Owen went along with it). It didn't turn out as planned, but it tasted good!

Drew had to have the "engine piece." We had already started cutting the back of the car, so we tried to convince him that he engine was under the car. He's no dummy; he knows it's under the hood! We gave in and just cut the piece for him.