One and a Half Perfect Days

I just can't figure out the weather patterns here. I know being aware of the environment and one's own personal toll on it is important, but I'm starting to wonder about all those global warming claims. It has been much colder than usual (sure, it could just be a phase), and I'm seriously considering bustin' out the Aquanet and spraying some outside toward the ozone, just to get something going.

Monday was an absolutely gorgeous day. I took advantage of the warm sunshine to get some yard work done. Mowed the lawn (hadn't been done since last September, so it looked pretty bad even though it obviously doesn't grow during the winter), pulled some weeds, gave the tulips a drink.

Later in the day, the boys and I went for a "walk to the hills," as the boys call it. There's an area not too far from our house where we can let Vito out to run while the boys and I walk up and down the dirt road. It's great exercise for the boys, and the uneven ground helps improve their balance. I should probably start running up there rather than just walking.

[top left] Samantha loves going for walks in the hills, too. Notice her left foot is bare; she started out with two socks but when we back got to the car she only had one... Oh, well. [top right] Owen is giving Drew a "flower." It was really a peice of sagebrush that he plucked from the bush. [below left] The steeper the hill, the better for Drew and Owen. I decided to stop here rather than go all the way to the top because I forgot Samantha's carrier and my arms were getting tired. [below right] Owen and Vito. Notice Vito's big ol' grin. He gets soooo excited when we take him for a run in the hills 'cause he doesn't have to have a leash.

Yesterday was beautiful until about 2 p.m. I had to babysit the neighbor kids while their mom was in class. We all went outside and played, and David took them for a ride in his Camero. They loved that. Even Drew went for a ride, which was amazing because usually every time he sees it he says, "I'm scared Camero." I guess he's not scared anymore.

Around 2 p.m. the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up and cooled things down. It's like Mother Nature knows we have soccer and doesn't want us to enjoy it. Thankfully, the wind stopped shortly after our game started, and the clouds provided cover from the sun so we didn't roast out there.

We have another soccer game tonight, and of course the weather is simply horrible. I looked outside this morning and saw dark grey clouds and the trees practically bending in the wind. My thermometer said it was 38 degrees. Brrr! Hopefully it will warm up or the wind will stop (or both) before our game tonight!

Overheard

I eavesdrop on my kids' playtime. I have to, so they don't end up killing each other over a Matchbox car (not that it's hard to overhear those "conversations;" I imagine the neighbors can probably hear them...).

Here are a few things I've heard them say recently:

Drew: [in his best "stern" voice]: Turn the light off, now, Owen.... One...Two...Three! Thank you, Owen.

***

Owen: Can I have the car, Drewbie?

Drew: No. Mine!

Owen: Drew! Gimme the car! One.Two.Three! You go time out!

***

Owen: [riding the wiggle rider] We goin' faaaassst!

Drew: You wanna trade, Owen?

Owen: Not yet.

Drew: You ready trade, Owen?

Owen: Not quiet!

Both: [laughing, yelling] Not quiet! Not quiet! [I'm pretty sure they meant "not quite" but whatever...]

***

Switching gears: Samantha discovered she can control the game of Peekaboo. She was a little cranky yesterday and I was trying to get some cleaning done, so I put her in her swing while I finished. She got all giddy, and started laughing and kicking her chubby little legs. I put a blanket on her (she loves to snuggle with a blankie). She pulled it up over her face, then pulled it back down and laughed. She pulled it up again and I said, "Where's 'Mantha? Where are you?" She yanked the blanket back down and started laughing so hard. It was way cute. I love when she laughs, but I can rarely get her to do it. She always laughs at Drew, and I'll try to do the same thing he does, but she just looks at me like, "Mom, you're so lame."

Sometimes It's Easier To Pretend

Drew and Owen like to call their grandparents on their toy phones. They like to talk to their grandparents on the real phone too, but there's a huge difference between actual and pretend conversations.

A pretend conversation will go something like this:

"Hi, Grandpa ... This is Drew?... Yes... We're watching basketball... You like hamburgers?... Talk to you later!"

An actual conversation will go something like this:

"Hi, Grandpa... ... ... ... ... ... ... yes ... ... ... basketball ... Bye." They won't say much of anything, and if they do say something, it's in a barely audible whisper.

The boys are learning how to say prayers. We let them have a turn blessing the food at meal times. Sometimes they try to pray at the same time, sometimes when one of them has a turn, the other doesn't want to wait til next meal for his turn, so he says a prayer too. (I'm not a horrible cook, but I guess the food could probably use the extra blessings anyway.) Sometimes I have a hard time not giggling when they pray. It's just so cute. They squint up their eyes, but keep them slightly open and look around as they're praying. And they say cute things. This morning, Owen's prayer went like this: "Heavenly Father, blessings, house, garage car [what they call David's Camero--it stays in the garage during the wintry months], Dad work train ... blessings, house ... food ... name of Christ, Amen."

Samantha is working on her sitting skills. She's been able to sit supported for a while now, but she's still a little wobbly sitting on her own. She's not at all intersted in crawling. She still gets mad when I put her on her tummy. She does a little scooting around on the back of her head and that's how she gets her toys. Owen did the same thing when he was her age. Here's what it looks like (this is Owen; I haven 't got any Samantha footage yet. Also, turn the sound down--Drew is crying loudly in the background...):

Isn't It The Thought That Counts?

Well, David's birthday didn't quite go as planned. I ended up cleaning an apartment instead of decorating a birthday cake, so the David's cake ended up a boring double-layer cake that said simply, "Happy Birthday, David! 30" It had 30 candles on it which almost set off the smoke alarm when he blew 'em out.

Jackpot was only slightly disappointing; the slots just didn't pay like they do in Vegas, the prime rib was way too rare. But I did win five bucks at the Roulette wheel, and five bucks playing three-card poker so it was fun anyway. And there's nothing disappointing about a day and a half without the kiddos.

Drew and Owen had a lot of fun staying at my dad's. He has a farm with some sheep, donkeys, horses and llamas. The boys got to go out and help my step mom bring the sheep in from the pasture. They loved that. They also loved feeding the animals and petting the horses and donkeys.

Samantha didn't do quite as well, at least at first. She was kind of scared of my dad (he's got a big ol' beard) at first. He won her over by feeding her a jar of mooshed up veggies, but as soon as she figured out that we were leaving her, she wasn't as interested in eating. I was cracking up every time she would take a bite of food, glance warily at my dad, then look up at me and cry--peas and carrots falling out of her mouth--then she'd stop crying long enough to take another bite of food and start the cycle over again. By the end of her stay, though, she was mostly calm and if she did get riled up, my dad was the only one who could get her to settle down.

So all in all, everyone had a good time, and my dad and step mom even thanked us for letting them watch our kids. I of course told them, "Any time!"

Salutations All Around

There's lots of cool stuff going on this week. Here's a quick run-down:

Congratulations go out to my sister in law, Dr. Ace (you really need to update your blog--or get a new one or something. I miss your funny stories)! She passed her exams and got the big dissertation finished and now is a PhD in the exciting field of History! (I promise there is no sarcasm to be read into that statement; I really do enjoy History.) Now all you have to do, Ace, is get a job at a university somewhere awesome so we can go visit! Not that Pullman isn't awesome...

Happy Birthday to my dear hubby David! He is no longer in his 20s. I decided not to dedicate an entire post to his birthday, 'cause I didn't think he'd appreciate it. I still need to make his cake and get his presents, so I'll post pictures about all that later. I'm just that certain that the cake will be amazing.

We're going to Jackpot, NV, to play a little blackjack and eat a little (0r a lot of) prime rib. And my dear old dad is watching the kiddies, so I don't have to hang out in the hotel room most of the time like I did last time we went to Jackpot. Yippee!

I was going to do a big long post about the Jimmy Eat World concert that David took me to, but I never got around to it, so I'll just do a quick summary:

A couple weeks ago, I was sitting on the couch just folding laundry and watching the ever-awesome "What Not to Wear." David came home from the gym and other various errands and said, "I have a present for you." I have to admit the first image that popped into my mind was a big ol' diamond or something equally sparkly. I got all giddy: "Really? What is it? What is it?" He pulled out of his pocket two tickets. I flipped them over and there it was: Featuring JIMMY EAT WORLD with Paramore. Then I got really giddy. Jimmy Eat World is one of my all-time favorite bands, and I hadn't seen them in concert for oh, so long.

The concert was fantastic. Dear and the Headlights was the opening band. They had a good sound, but we couldn't understand their lyrics because of the way the equipment was set up.

Paramore is a fun band; the lead singer is absolutely tiny--maybe five feet tall on a tall day. She had so much energy. She was a little fireball up there with her red hair floppin' around. And she kept spitting on the stage, which I thought was weird but understandable. I think most of the fans were there to see Paramore. I'd never even heard of them before a few weeks ago, but they sure are popular among high school students and young college students.

Jimmy Eat World put on a great show, as usual. I'm not huge into the music scene these days, so I hadn't heard much of their new stuff. It's good stuff, of course, but I was also glad to hear my old favorites, too.

It turned out to be a fun evening, and I decided maybe I'm not getting so old, after all...

Happy Birthday, Kadee!

Haven't we had a lot of fun(ny) times together?
(Boy, I'm glad I got braces...)

It's amazing what a few years (5 or 6) will do to get a girl out of her "awkward-looking" phase. I'm referring to myself of course; you've always been cute.

Thanks for being such a great friend all these years!

Hope you had a great birthday!

Finally, Some Meat!

http://www.texasroadhouse.com

It's been almost a year since I found out Texas Roadhouse was coming to Pocatello. The restaurant opened last August. And finally, just eight short months later, we ate there. Was it worth the wait? Of course. But do I wish we'd gone there, oh, let's say, eight months ago? Totally.

I guess the hang up was that our schedule is crazy (well, not mine, really; I'm always available--it's David who has the crazy schedule) so we had to find a time when we could both go and not have to wait an hour for seating. Turns out today was just right. The place was busy, but not totally packed and we didn't have to wait at all.

I had a deliciously marbled Rib Eye steak. David got the New York Strip so that we could each try some of both, but I think he wishes he'd gotten that fatty, juicy Rib Eye that I had. The boys enjoyed the hot dog kids meal that they got and Samantha looked on enviously as she slurped down mashed up chicken-noodle-veggie from a jar. I did slip her a fry to munch on for which she was quite grateful.

Here's hoping we'll get a chance to return before another eight months goes by!

Who Will Clean For The Cleaning Lady?

I've been working to earn some extra cash during the past week. David says if I make the money to pay for it, we can go see Jim Gaffigan in September. I realize September is many moons away, but I gotta get my tickets before it's too late. I've been waiting for this event for a long time.

Some friends at church manage various apartment complexes around town, and when they have a tenant move out, they offer me the opportunity to clean it up before the new people move in. When I first heard about the jobs I was a little apprehensive. I'd heard a few horror stories from my cousins who grew up cleaning apartments for their dad. But the two places I've cleaned so far weren't too bad.

I also scored a job to clean up the in laws' rental. It was the house David and his siblings grew up in, so it was kind of fun to get a visual to go with all the stories he's told me. And he wasn't exaggerating when he said his room was the tiniest room in the house.

I spent a lot of time cleaning the rental. I rented a carpet shampooer and spent almost six hours shampooing all the carpets. Then I spent another three or four hours cleaning cobwebs out from between the storm windows. I guess the tenants hadn't found it a necessary task in the years that they lived there. But who am I to talk? We've lived in our house almost three years and I've cleaned inside and out of our storm windows exactly once. Last Fall, it was. I do plan on cleaning them again this Spring, though, before I put the screens back on. We'll see if that actually happens.

I had a minor breakdown today regarding the messiness that is my house. I had busy week last week, running from cleaning to soccer then more cleaning then to cleaning a different place. In all of this I had time to make messes in my house, but not to clean them. I made meals, but never got around to emptying and reloading the dishwasher. I washed and dried a few loads of laundry, but never got around to folding and putting it away. (How do all you working moms out there do it??) So today was a busy day for all that. Kinda makes me want to spend my money on having someone else clean my house.

That's Funny! (At Least, Owen and I Think It Is)

Drew and Owen have recently discovered the fun of lists and naming things. For example, we like to play a little game that starts out: "Do you know..." and insert some one's name.

Drew: Do you know Grandma?

Me: Yes, I know Grandma.

Drew: Do you know Kevin?

Me: Yes, I know Kevin.

Drew: Do you know Steps? (this is how he refers to his cousin Stetson)

Me: Yes, I know Stetson.

It goes on and on and on. We list all the relatives: grandparents, my siblings, David's sisters, cousins, neighbors, babysitters. Lately, Drew has been claiming them as his own:

Drew: Do you know Amy?

Me: Yes, I know Amy.

Drew: Do you know Drew's Amy?

Owen sometimes gets in on the game, but not as often. His new thing is to dispute any information I might have just given him.

Owen: What is this, Mom?

Me: That's a car.

Owen: It's not a car.

Me: What is it then?

Owen: It's a car.

He also likes to see if I can say stuff like he can.

Owen: Can you say 'Wow wow'?

Me: Wow wow!

Owen: [laughs] That's funny, Mom! Can you say 'Rraaaarrr!'?

Me: Rraaaarrr!

Owen: [laughs] That's funny, Mom!

It cracks me up the most, though, when Drew and Owen play these games amongst themselves:

Drew: I see a car!

Owen: It's not a car. It's a truck.

Drew: It's a car.

Owen: It's not a car, Drewbie. It's a truck.

Yes, recently, Owen has started calling Drew "Drewbie." I'm pretty sure he got it from me. I call Drew that because his middle initial is 'B'. I also make up clever songs like, "Drewbie, Drewbie! Don't smoke doobies!" and "Drewbie Drewbie Drew, where are you?" So now Owen will go up to Drew in his high-pitched slightly patronizing little voice and say, "Hi, Drewbie! You playin' school bus, Drewbie?" Drew just looks at him like, "Whatever, Dude."

As my favorite cameo character from "Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!" says: Kooky!

Dave Is Dead

Dave the Fish, that is. We had a plecostomus that we inherited from Brytton and Madeline, who inherited it from Seth and Abby. He was named Dave because Seth and Abby know so many people named Dave they figured, we need another Dave around. I thought it was too confusing at my house when I'd say things like, "Dave's hiding under that rock again." or "Dave, quit sucking on the other fish!" So I gave him the nickname of Carl. He died last week. Even though we got off to a rocky start, I was sad to find him belly-up on the bottom of the tank. Here is a little eulogy I wrote for him:

Carl, Beloved Pleco

You lived your life sucking algae;

Your job was to keep fish tanks clean.

You did it well.

You were admired despite your eerily bulging eyes,

Your dull brown-bespeckled scales

And your fat, gaping orifice through which,

The world could see your insides.

Drew and Owen thought your name was

Dora.

They speak of you and often search the tank

In hopes of watching you clean a plastic plant

Or one of your fellow tank-mates.

You are missed.

Carl was preceded in death by The Frog, Roy and Siegfried. He is survived by Dori, Woot and D.C. Though not very old by Pleco standards, Carl lived a long, full life of swimming; hiding behind plastic plants, fake rocks and miniature boats; and keeping things generally neat and tidy in the fish tank. The cause of death is unknown. The funeral services were held in the main-floor bathroom where Carl was lovingly dumped into a watery grave.