Top Four Reasons to Stay Up Late

I'm sitting here about ready to fall asleep, but I can't bring myself to go all the way upstairs to go to bed.

Reasons four and three are in the form of two naughty little boys. Drew and Owen have been in and out of their cribs a billion times, and I'm worried about what may happen to the house. I'm staying up 'til they go to sleep, in case I need to pick up another broken object (the first one was a little lamp they asked me to put in their room as a nightlight) or turn the oven off again. These boys did the same thing at nap time; up and down, up and down for two hours, until finally we let them out of their room. Fifteen minutes later, Drew was climbing onto my lap saying, "I'm sleepy." Add to all this getting up an hour earlier than usual to watch the garbage truck pick up the trash (they look forward to it all week. I don't think they wake themselves up, but the truck wakes them up). I'm surprised they weren't tired sooner.

Reason two for staying up is also a kid; this one in the shape of a little girl who took a long, late nap after a night, a day and another night of not sleeping well. I could probably let her play in her crib, but she's so content right now that I figure I'll just let her enjoy herself for a few more minutes.

The main reason for not going to bed is that I'm a little bit lazy, and there is a lot of non-lazy stuff to be done before I can settle down into full-on lazy slumber for the night. You know, brush teeth, get jammas on... okay, just those two things. But it seems like such a chore at this point.

The noise coming from the boys' room has stopped, so I suppose it's safe to wrap this up and head off to bed. 'Night!

Writers Block

Whenever I'm doing something that doesn't involve sitting at the computer, like dishes or making dinner, I think of all these things that I want to have record of. Oh, I gotta put this on my blog. It was hilarious. But when I get a chance to sit down and write it, I can't for the life of me think what it was I wanted to write. Oh, well. Here are a few things that are going on with us that aren't really hilarious, or maybe even interesting, but it's our life these days.

I started running in the mornings (okay, today was only my second day, but I plan on going again tomorrow). I run with a neighbor gal who is doing the Pocatello 5K Series, so she's like a serious, in-shape runner compared to me. I plan on doing a 5K on June 14 in Rexburg, ID, then I plan on signing up for the remainder of the Pocatello runs. I don't know if I'll get to do July's 5K; we'll be in Seattle the week before that, and I'm not sure when if we'll be home in time. But I'm going to do the August and September races for sure (I'm going to send in my money today; I'm of the attitude: "If I paid for it, I gotta do it"). I put a new box on my side bar to track my progress. I'll post race times up there, too.

I don't have much to update on the rest of the family; Drew and Owen are up to their usual rowdy business. Though, they did help me clean their room the other day and they were quite proud of it. When we started, Drew tried to get out of it by saying, "I'm to little to clean." I told him he was big enough, so he said, "I'm too tired." I told him if he was so tired he could go straight to bed. That must have sounded like a bad idea to him, so he started picking up toys. I hope they can remember that sense of pride in having a clean room and pick up more stuff as they drop it rather than leaving it on the floor for days at a time.

Samantha is being unusually grumpy these days. She's been waking up at odd times rather than getting her full naps. Normally when she wakes up, she cries once to let me know she's awake, then she just sits in her crib and chews her blankie and plays with her little doll. Yesterday, though, she woke up and screamed until I picked her up. She had a sore throat (it sounded sore, anyway) and a stuffy nose, though, so I think that was part of the problem. And I think I see a few spots on her gums where teeth might show up. Maybe I'm imagining the spots, but at least it's an explanation as to why my usually cheerful baby is so darn cranky. Samantha still isn't interested in crawling. I wish she'd just go for it because I think it would make play time more fun for her. Then she could, you know, reach the toys and stuff. But I guess the ol' stretch-and-scoot (more often the stretch-and-cry) works for now.

So that's us these days. Boring, boring. But it beats the alternative which is likely to include more vaseline or some other mess.

Busy Weekend

I haven't had a whole lot to blog about lately. But I haven't had a whole lot of time to blog lately, either. We were gone pretty much all day Friday. We went down to Salt Lake City to rescue my sister Roz's dog, Bagoda, from her irresponsible roommates. It's about a three hour drive from here, which wasn't too bad; it goes by pretty quickly once we get to Utah where the good radio stations are. We made the mistake of leaving Salt Lake too early, though. We got there around 4 p.m., got some McDonald's (not my favorite, but I knew how to get to it and back to Roz's house without getting lost), hung out at Roz's house and fed Samantha (Drew and Owen kept asking, "Where's Roz?" I don't think they understood what "Alaska" means, but they knew it meant she wasn't home), then loaded up the dog and headed out a little before 5 p.m. At rush hour. On a Friday. Bad idea. The 17 mile drive from Roz's house to Lagoon took 45 minutes. After we passed Lagoon, traffic thinned out quite a bit and we made good time the rest of the way home.

Some eight month old little girls in our party didn't think we were making good enough time. Samantha screamed and cried for the last hour of our drive. I was going to pull over at the rest area and feed her, thinking it would be good to let the dog out for a drink and to use the tree, but the rest area was closed. I didn't really want to stop at a truck stop (just seemed weird), so I just kept drivin'. Drew thought maybe he'd help out by screaming at the top of his lungs, "Stop screaming, Sabanta!" Of course it just made things worse. But we finally made it home safe, if not sound (I don't really even know what that part of the phrase means: Safe and sound. I'm picturing "of sound mind" and I definitely wasn't after this trip).

We kept Roz's dog 'til Saturday. My dad came over in the afternoon to pick up Bagoda. I think Vito was pretty relieved to see Bagoda leave. Vito is pretty territorial these days. I think if Bagoda had been here for more than a day (like, for a few weeks) Vito might have gotten used to him, but as it was, Vito was pretty cranky for a day. Owen and Drew were not very happy to see Bagod a leave. Their sorrows were assuaged by the idea that Bagoda will be at Grandpa's farm and that they can go visit him, but they still ask, "Where's Bagogo?"

Right before my dad and step mom left with Bagoda, my mom little brother showed up. They're staying with us for the holiday, and will be heading home this evening. Drew and Owen were so excited when they pulled up. They especially love to see Kevin and they started jumping around on the furniture yelling, "It's Kevin! It's Kevin! Hi, Kevin!" That went on for about an hour.

It's been a pretty fun weekend; not doing a lot except hanging out with the family. But sometimes that's the most fun that can be had.

My New Intestine-Destroyer

My mom got a gift basket for Christmas (yeah, I realize that was five months ago) which contained this little innocent-looking jar of marinade.

I guess my mom didn't think it looked so innocent, because she passed it on to me. It says "Tastes of India" in the corner, which probably means spicy.

I have some chicken in my freezer (the most boring meat on earth, but it sure dresses up nice--almost everything makes it better) which I've been meaning to thaw and marinate in this stuff. I decided that before I marinate a bunch of chicken, I should see if I like the flavor of the sauce, so I opened up the jar and gave it a little test. [Insert sounds of Heavenly Choirs here.] Beautiful, delicious, sweet and spicy nectar! The ingredients include mango puree, ginger, paprika, "spices" (whatever that means), and a bunch of other stuff that I've never heard of.

I still haven't marinated my chicken, but I've been eating this sauce like it's going out of style (well, you have to use it within so many days of opening it, you know). It replaced my favorite Pace Picante Sauce, which I previously put on everything* from chips to breakfast burritos to quesadillas, to fish sticks, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese (this is sounding a lot like the way my dad uses ketchup)... I wonder why my stomach sometimes feels like it's being stabbed from the inside at random intervals throughout the day. Move over Pace, and make room for Patak!

*Sometimes David looks at me with suspicion as I'm pouring salsa all over everything. He asks, "You're not pregnant, are you?" I'm pretty sure I'm not (well, okay, I know I'm not), because when I was pregnant, I never craved anything. But when I'm not pregnant, it's all about salt, fat and spice.

Three Years Already

Yesterday was David's and my anniversary. One of our friends told us we seem like we've been married a lot longer than three years; we're like one of those comfortable old married couples. I'm pretty sure it was meant as a compliment... The third anniversary is the leather anniversary. I didn't get David any presents that had any leather (we actually didn't get each other anything, because neither of us thought of anything we wanted), but I did lace up my leather-uppers cross-trainers and go for a bike ride (David's idea of a fun anniversary activity. It actually was really fun).

This is the trail we rode up; I'm standing about half-way up the trail, looking back toward our house (marked with the red arrow). The trail wasn't incredibly steep up to this point, but was pretty long. I was pretty tired already because we had ridden our bikes to the trail head, which was a steep uphill ride itself. Behind me, the rest of the trail got a bit steeper, so we decided to stop there and walk over to a different trail to ride back down.
Had we continued on the other trail, we would've ended up at the top of this hill, up by those telephone poles. It doesn't look as steep, in this picture, as it is in reality.
The trail we started on is on the other side of this hill. We had to walk down this hill to get to the start of the other trail. I felt bad going off the one trail to get to the other, but I don't think we left too much of an environmental impact*.
We came down this trail a couple days ago. (I had to walk half-way down then hop on my bike because it was just too steep for my tastes--and abilities.)
I'm not sure if this was a car kicking up dust on a dirt road, or if it was a little dust cyclone in the middle of the field. But it looked cool.

After our bike ride, we got cleaned up and went to David's favorite restraunt, Red Lobster. I had some delicious shrimp linguini alfredo. David actually branched out from his usual order of chicken strips and had some steak and shrimp. It turned out to be a great day!

*I went to Arches National Park one spring with my friend Jen. There were signs at the beginning of every trail head that basically said if we stepped off the trail at all, we would kill the microorganisms living in the dirt, and it would ruin the entire ecosystem. So every time I step of a trail (which really isn't often) anywhere, I have this surge of guilt the entire time.

Happy Birthday, Jer!

Today is my favorite Jeremy-brother's birthday (so, he's my only Jeremy-brother; that doesn't make him any less favorite)! Woo-woo! The big 3-2!

This is Jer (at age 5), holding me (age a-couple-weeks-or-months--I don't really know...)

Left: This is Jer with his own beautiful children, Naomi, Eleanor and baby James. He's such a good dad!

Right: (going clockwise) Awesome Jer, Beautiful Laura, Pretty Naomi, the Cutest James Ever, Adorable Ellie.

Happy Birthday, big brother! Thanks for always being such a great example and a good influence. And thanks for introducing me to the wonderful world of Nintendo games! I can't wait for you and your family to come visit us this summer so we can play some Wii together (we've got Zelda)!

Snuggle Up!

My kids are weird. I think most kids are, but mine seem weird in different ways. Like, most kids take a favorite toy to bed, and that isn't weird, but mine take their cars, trucks and puzzles to bed. And that is weird. But, whatever... I guess to them, if they get bored or lonely, there's just nothing like cuddling up to a cold, hard, sharp-cornered metal or plastic thing.

Here's Owen, all tucked in with his "handy-nandy notebook" (the boys love them some Blue's Clues), and a random assortment of other bedtime toys:

And here's Drew with his bedtime toys He opted for a train for this picture, but lately he's been taking his "pimp-mobile" which is a tricked out stretch Cadillac, about the size of a loaf of bread, but a lot heavier. Notice the lack of blankets and pillow; he doesn't like extra stuff in his crib unless its a toy:

Catching Up

I've been meaning to post for a while, but I keep getting interrupted. Like right now, for example, the little neighbor girl is over here and she wants to cook for me on the toy stove, so she comes up and asks me, "What would you like to have, Madam Customer?" I tell her I'd like a taco (we have some toy Mexican Restaurant food) and some chocolate milk. She looks around and says, "We don't have the ingredients. You might have to have soup." Then she brings it over and wants to watch me "eat" it in front of her. That was just my snack, so she's making me something else. So we'll see how far we get with this post.

Mother's Day was fun. We had a dinner at our house and invited the in laws and David's grandma and uncle. It ended up pretty good, except my roast came out of the crock pot really tough and kinda dry; I must've left it in too long. Here, I thought crock pots were fool proof. I got some nice gifts. A book from David and the kids, a necklace and some earrings from the in laws (well, sort of--my father in law didn't see me unwrap it, so he had to ask me, "What did we get you?" leading me to believe he had no part in choosing the gift. But oh, well...) I got two yarn-and-macaroni-noodle necklaces from the boys. Drew gave his to me with this warning: "We don't eat the noodles." They also handed out the traditional flowers at church, so I have something beautiful to add to my yard (if I ever get around to it). The best part is that Mother's Day has been on-going: Drew and Owen will, at random intervals throughout the day, say, "Happy Muvvers Day, Momma!" (that's Drew) and "Happy Muttah's Day, Mom!" (that's Owen). I will say, "Thank you." They'll say, "Your welcome" and then say, "Happy Muvver's Day, Dad!" "Happy Muttah's Day, Vito!" And then they laugh and ask, "Is that funny?" Yes. Yes it is.

Yesterday was a full day. We mowed the lawn (front and back! Usually we just do the front since that's what the Homeowners Association sees), raked up all the clippings, scooped up all the Vito-messes from the back yard, pumped up the bike tires (this is really a feat, because for our purposes, we just can't figure out the usefulness of the Presta valve as opposed to the Schrader valve, other than to give us a headache when trying to fill our tires with air, though if you check out the links it kind of explains why the Presta valve is "better"), took the boys for a spin in the "fun bike" (this means the little bike trailer that goes behind the bike), and we went for a walk on the high school track (the boys love this because they can just run free, which usually involves running to the pole vault mat and jumping and flopping around on it). Oh, I also started and finished the book I got, which arrived in the mail yesterday morning. That, of course, meant ignoring Drew and Owen while they jumped in their cribs and didn't nap for a couple hours. But I've always been very honest with them about the fact that whether they are tired or not, nap time is mandatory. For me.

Well, I'd better wrap this up; I've got a tasty-looking plastic quesadilla that's just been cooked for me and it's getting cold.

A New Blog

I started a new blog that I'll be posting on in addition to this one. It'll just document our experiences in toilet training Drew and Owen. I started it on a separate blog 'cause I figured maybe some people don't want to read all about the bodily functions of toddlers. But if you do want to check it out feel free to head over to http://adventuresintoilettraining.blogspot.com (the title itself is just riveting, isn't it?).

Around the House

I was going to mop my floor the other day, but I ended up changing a headlight in one of the cars and weeding the garden instead. Our flowerbeds look really cheery this year, thanks to Lura, who planted a ton of tulip bulbs last fall.

Don't they look great?

This is my first soon-to-be strawberry!

Here is our new furniture:

The coffee table before I put the correct legs on it.

The finished project; still a pretty tall table, but at least you can see over it.

This box contained two lamps. I figured it would be something I'd have to assemble myself, but I was still skeptical as to how they would put two lamps in one box.

This is how they did it: a lump of styrofoam surrounded by the lamp shades. Inside the styrofoam, two lamps! Clever, clever.

And here is one of the assembled lamps. I turned it on and it worked, and I didn't get electrocuted or burn the house down, so I must have put it together correctly! And it's really nice to have a place to sit in our living room again.

Dandelion Delight

This is what a kid enjoying a tasty dandelion looks like.

This is what the kid looks like after you take her dandelion away.

This is what she looks like when she realizes she's not getting it back.

Luckily, she has a short memory and is back to happy soon.

Two little boys about to tromp on the flowerbed.

We'll Take Uneventful

We got new furniture in our living room, which is great except that it stinks (my guess is it's the Scotch Guard emitting that stench--hopefully it wears off soon). I had a small adventure putting the tables together (made me especially glad the couches were pre-assembled). I put the legs on the coffee table first. It took almost an hour. When I stood it up I thought, this has to be the tallest coffee table I've ever seen. It seriously came almost to my hips. It's almost as tall as Drew and Owen. I decided that it would half to go against a wall; I didn't want that monster taking up all kinds of space in the middle of my living room. So I parked it in front of our windows and went to work on an end table. I got the legs put on the end table (almost another hour) and stood it up. It started leaning like crazy toward one side. I thought, Aaak! I must not have tightened the bolts enough! So I flipped it back over and realized that two of the legs were about six inches shorter than the other two. Enlightenment: Ah Ha! Those must be the coffee table legs! Then, slight dread: Now I have to take all those legs back off and put the correct legs on the correct tables. Why, oh, why did they not just lable the boxes? So I took the short legs off the end table and put some long ones on. I still haven't corrected the coffee table or even started putting together the other end table. I guess I have my afternoon all planned out.

Other than that whole debacle, there's not much going on here. Owen's hair and scalp are slowly starting to absorb the rest of the Vaseline. I rubbed a bunch of baking soda in it and let it sit for a few minutes. Then I washed it out with dish soap. It seemed to make a big improvement, even though it didn't get it all out. Now Owen's hair just looks like it hasn't been washed for weeks--but it's actually been washed five or six times in the last three days.

Since I don't have a lot of my own excitement to share, I'll share someone else's: Pioneer Woman has a blog with different stuff on it--stories and things, but I love her cooking blog. And this particular recipe looks delicious. Go check it out!

Will Eat Veggies For Candy

I decided it was time to get Drew and Owen some new short sleeve shirts. The 18 months and 2T sizes just weren't cuttin' it now that they're closer to three years old than two. And with Drew's rather large head and thick hair, it was a daily battle getting his shirts on and off. So it hit up my favorite place to get kids' clothes: K-Mart. That's right. They have nice shirts, pants and shorts for $2.50 each. When a kid grows out of their clothes in six months or trashes the clothes before they grow out of them, I can't see spending much more than that. (Another place for cost efficient clothes is the Children's Place Outlet. I found shoes for the boys for $6.50 each pair!) Here are a couple of the outfits I got them:

Above left: Owen loves the "candy shirt." He walked around all afternoon going, "I want candy. I want candy." Above right: Drew loves trucks (even though if you offered him a ride in one he'd say, "No! I scared a truck") so he was pleased with the truck shirt.

Below: Today's "thrash our new clothes" weapon of choice: Vaseline. I was making pancakes and when I went upstairs to get the boys, Drew asked me, "Is it cute?" Owen asked me, "You like mine hair?" They were both slathered in Vaseline (Owen much more so than Drew, if you can see those lumps of it on his cheeks. I washed his hair three times--once with Vito shampoo--and it's still completely greasy).

May Day! May Day!

This is what I woke up to this morning:

Brrr!!!

Years ago, for May Day, my friend and I picked flowers from my backyard and took them around to the neighborhood widows in paper baskets we had made. One of the ladies was from Germany and said she had memories of delivering flowers on May Day when she was a girl.

This year, all my flowers were buried in snow. It melted by the afternoon, but still... Crazy, crazy weather!