Napoleon?

Quote of the week:

Tania (piano teacher): "Ethan, do you want to be first at the recital?"
Ethan: "Whatever. I don't really care. I just want to show off my skills."

Ok Napoleon!

All Better

The next loose tooth which had been loose FOREVER (well, just a little less than forever) came out on Thursday. The tooth fairy visited Kate before midnight.


My watch got a new battery and is put back together- good as new.

The watermelon watch was found safe and sound (on Jason's side of the bed, under the covers).

Thank you Jason!

What time is it?*!#$?

My watch battery has been dying for a LONG time. For the last week my poor watch has been limping sadly. I bought a battery and finally this week I pulled the back off the watch to change the battery. Much to my dismay there is some little thing I have to unlatch to get the old battery out. I tried to "unlatch" it but I think a special tool is required and my leatherman micra isn't it. I may have caused irreparable damage. I have been going absolutely insane without my watch. I had no idea how much I depend on it. I time everything (a little OCD tendency)! I set the alarm a couple of times a day to remind me of something. I set the timer for food, kids, reading, anything. Jason suggested I wear his old watch until he gets home and he will see what he can do. His watch is about as heavy as a watermelon and hangs on my wrist like a size 16 dress on a size 4 gal. That lasted less than a day but I did carry it around with me for a while just to have instant access to the time. When I lost his watch (sorry honey, I am sure you will find it when you get home) I was timeless again. You'd think I don't have a clock in the house. I do, just not one in every room and I think that's about to change. . .

Gecko Hunt

Nathanael: "Mom, Do you remember when we were at our Grandma's house and all of our cousins were there and there was this chocolate swirly thingy?"

*silence while I figure out what the "chocolate swirly thingy" could be.*

Mom: "Yea, I remember. Do you remember why were at Grandmas?"

Nathanael: "Well. . . I don't know, but me and my cousin Ti and my other cousins were gecko huntin'! And you know Mom, geckos are lizards. And we found a frog. And that's all I remember."

This exchange happened at lunch time this week and I had to laugh about it. Our family spent a lot of time talking about the big event he's referring to and what he remembers is the "chocolate swirly thingy" aka a chocolate fountain. Does he remember the temple or his beautiful aunt in her pretty white dress or his new uncle in his cool black tux? Nope. But the chocolate swirly thingy was right up there with the geckos.

Finally!

Kate lost her third tooth this week. It has been quite an ordeal. She started telling us about it's "looseness" when it was questionable as to whether it was really loose or not. It's seriously been at least two months, probably more. She has played with it so much that she would even talk while messing with it with her tongue and that would make her talk weird. In the final stages she was showing me the many possible positions it could sit in. I kept telling her to just pull it out. She couldn't do it. She gets this from me. I never could pull my teeth out either. She told Jason if it wasn't out by Friday she wanted him to pull it for her. I am certain she would have renigged. But it never came to that because it came out Wednesday morning while she was eating toast.


She was so thrilled to put the tooth under her pillow for the tooth fairy. I was very busy Wednesday night and I crashed into bed late without another thought to the tooth. At 5:50 am my alarm went off and I remembered the tooth. I jumped out of bed, immediately wide awake. I quickly snatched up some round cha-ching and went to check on Kate. She was wide awake in her bed. My hand closed over those coins faster than fast. I was surprised to find her awake. Nearly every day we seriously DRAG her out of bed kicking and screaming at 6:30. I asked how she felt this morning. Good she said. I turned to leave the room and then asked her to check on Elijah so I could check on the broken sprinkler. (During the retell to Jason, he was totally mocking me at this point). I was quickly weaving a tangled web. . . As soon as she went into my room I hurried back to her room to check for the tooth. It was all alone and out of it's bag under her pillow. I had no pockets but luckily I was wearing socks because they doubled as a pocket and I made a quick exchange, just in time to hear her coming back into her room. This all happened really fast and I couldn't figure out why she wasn't with Elijah. It turns out he wasn't awake and she, being the wonderful obedient child that she can be, didn't wake him. She quickly returned to report what she had found. I was startled and asked if she had seen my shoes. "No," she said. I randomly commented that maybe I left them in the boys' room. Under her watchful eye I found no shoes in there either. Funny how I then found them in my closet. I stepped out the front door to check the broken sprinkler. It was freezing and I was in a t shirt and pajama pants. Burr. All the time I was wondering if Kate was buying this ridiculous blunder of mine. Sprinklers are totally Jason's job, even if he isn't in town! She didn't seem to notice. When I came in she wanted to help with Elijah. I asked if the tooth fairy came. She said, "No, I woke up early to check and she didn't come so I took my tooth out of the bag and left it under my pillow without the bag." I snatched this opportunity. "Really? When I was in the hall just now I heard a noise in there and I thought maybe Ethan or Nathanael were in your room but they were both still in bed." Her eyes sparkled and she ran/skipped to her room. She came back with some jingle jangle clinking in her hand and huge smile on her face. "It was her Mom! You heard her!" "Wow," I said and thought to myself, how did I get away with that?


So here's the question of the day. . . Am I a terrible person for perpetuating this falsehood?

The rest of Spring Break

While in Oregon we stayed at a hotel in a semi-ghetto area of Beaverton and survived our kids being crazy in the hotel and Elijah hardly sleeping. It was so bad that Jason left the king sized bed to Elijah and I and slept with Ethan on a hide-a-bed! Now that's bad. The next morning we went to a Krispy Kreme joint so the kids could learn the finer points of making a food that will add cholesterol to your vessels faster than you can ask, "How many calories per serving?" I think we spent an hour there.


The rest of our spring break was spent cleaning or laying around being lazy or working on the yard. On Thursday Jason was gone and Ethan had a friend over. On the way to our house he told his pal, "I am kind of glad my Dad is gone today because he would have me outside working!" I had to think of my own father and his 'crazy' idea that holidays were meant for yard work! I never did understand that but now it's sinking in, just a little. I can certainly sympathize with Ethan. I actually didn't work in the yard because I was taking care of Elijah and cleaning the house. But Jason and the kids spent a fair amount of time outside and by Saturday the weather was sunny and warm. They built grow boxes for our garden, weeded, mowed and bought $.12 goldfish for a little fountain in our backyard. The kids think it's fantastic. Now we have our own personal fish; it's almost like having a pet. . . almost. Jason and I are taking bets on how long they will last.

Quote of the week. . .

Yesterday Nathanael said to me, "Mom, do you know what my favorite part of our trip was?" "What?" I asked. "Going to Krispy Kreme and being at the hotel. My waffle was really, really good." I asked, "What about the zoo?" He said, "Oh yea, that too." I guess the way to his heart is through his belly.

The Zoo (a real one, not our house)

We were supposed to be on the Oregon Coast for all of spring break but the weather was looking rather sour so our "stop off" in Portland ended up being the whole trip. We went to the zoo with Tania, Miller and Dallin and then took our time driving home the next day. The zoo was great! It was chilly and a we had a little bit of rain but we practically had the zoo to ourselves which was awesome. We saw lions (if you count mountain lions), a tiger and bears (oh my). We also saw an elephant, a giraffe, penguins, sea lions, zebras, hippos, rhinosarus', naked mole rats, bats (these creeped Jason out but I found them very cool), a lot of birds (Pat I am sure Jason will have you identify some--don't get stumped on the robins :) ) plus some other animals that are slipping my mind at the moment. We got our environmentalist fill for the year as every time we turned around there was another sign telling us how bad humans are for the environment. I am all for being a good steward of the Earth but this was a little overboard.




On the way home we stopped at IKEA (love that place) and then took the scenic route home. It was so beautiful (an a touch rainy)! The kids would have been happy to spend a lot more time hiking but sadly we were short on daylight and Jason and I wanted to get home before midnight.

Love this kid

During conference, actually right at the beginning of Elder Ballard's talk, Nathanael came upstairs to our room where the rest of the family was watching conference. He had been with us earlier but the sitting still and being quiet got to him after a while. So he left and then came back with a piece of paper where he had written, "I love Mom s s s s ," and then some scribbling. He told me, "Mom, this paper is a note to you that says, " I love you so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so much! Only I don't know how to write so (long silence) and much." Then he climbed up on the bed and hugged me tight for like five minutes straight and then gave me a slobbery kiss on the nose. And I felt so happy. Love you Bug!

General Conference, kid crushes and brain mush

I love General Conference weekend. It's awesome to look forward to four two hour sessions when I know I will be uplifted and touched and reminded why I am here, where I am going and how I can do better. It was great to see Pres. Monson step into his role as the prophet and I really enjoyed hearing so much from him. I especially loved Elder Ballard's talk. What mom didn't love this talk? I was also touched by Pres. Uchtdorff's, Elder Bednar's, and Elder Holland's talk and others but those are in my mind at the moment.


Here's Ethan in his new preferred computer chair. This week after cub scouts (I am now the assistant bear leader) I was trying to get out the door and Ethan was acting CRAZY, WACKO. I was getting irritated because we needed to leave and get him to piano. He was hiding from and flirting with Erin Child (she was there for activity days), a darling girl in his primary class who he DOESN'T LIKE. Get it? He DOESN'T like her. On the way home I was telling him that his behavior is a dead giveaway that he at least thinks she's a nice girl (but of course he doesn't need to worry about liking a girl until he's 25). Then he softened and told me that he told someone something and they turned on him and it ruined EVERYTHING. It turns out he told Brett Child (Erin's big brother) that he likes Erin. Guess what Brett did? He went and told Erin! Ethan was mortified of course. Ahh, to learn the cruelties of children. Sorry Ethan, but you can't trust kids to keep secrets like that, especially brothers. It just isn't going to happen. I was a little older than Ethan, but this reminds me of when my family moved to Utah (I was 11) and there were a couple of boys in our ward who I thought were SO cute and I would always watch them pretty closely as they passed the sacrament. Of course I wouldn't tell my friends because that would have "ruined EVERYTHING!" Any guesses on those mystery boys?

Quote of the week. . .

This afternoon after conference Nathanael and Kate were watching "the Jesus movie" when suddenly they began to argue. Kate was freaking out because Nathanael had turned off the TV in the middle of the movie without even pushing stop! (Can you believe the nerve? She can't.) Nathanael came in all worked up and practically yelled, "But I don't want my brain to turn to mush!" I tell him that if he watches too much TV his brain will turn to mush. I guess brainwashing really does work.

White bread

I am trying to shed 10-15 pounds before summer. For a good month I was trying to think it away (you know how that brain power burns calories). So when that didn't get me anywhere I decided that I needed to eat less and exercise more. Novel concept, I know. I have a hard time getting on a regular exercise schedule because Jason travels a lot and I have to work around Eli's schedule. Sometimes he rocks the boat and throws everything off. But recently I have been able to run short distances a few days a week and I am trying to cut down on the treats. As of this morning, I had lost three pounds in about ten days. I was so happy this morning! Four hours later while shopping at Walmart I found some cream cheese filled croissants with cream cheese frosting on top. Do you think I passed them by? Are you kidding? I just lost three pounds so I should reward myself right? I did exercise some self control. There were five in the box and instead of eating all of them before Jason or the kids came home I only ate one and that way everyone else got one too.

So this got me thinking about how much I love white bread treats. We all use wheat bread for our sandwiches. But for me there's something about white bread that says, "treat" to me. Here are some of my fav's. . . cinnamon rolls (good ones, like the kind Jason's mom made), croissants (filled or plain), donuts, white dinner rolls (the kind Eileen Cheney makes!) with jam, Great Harvest white bread toasted with butter and cinnamon and sugar or honey or homemade jam. I am getting hungry just thinking about it.

I know I will never completely cut these things from my diet. Why set myself up for failure? And why deprive myself when I know that after an indiscretion like the one I had today I can happily add an extra mile to my run tomorrow!

April Fools

Ethan tried to play an April Fool on all of us but unfortunately for him it all backfired. He was hoping for a big reaction and he got nothin'! Last night he snuck through the house moving all the clocks ahead one hour so we would mistakenly wake up an hour early. His first problem was when he realized that my clock radio is SO old (yes I got it for Christmas my 9th grade year and it still works great!) that he couldn't figure out how to set it. So he had to let me in on his little secret. Then he tried to get Jason to, "just let me look at your watch, I want to check it out." Jason was having none of it since it was after bed time and we wanted the kids in bed. Even if he had gotten a hold of it, it wouldn't matter because Jason has an atomic watch that automatically updates the time 24/7. So at 5 am (the clock said 6 am) when Jason's alarm went off he checked his watch, turned off his alarm and turned over. Ethan was out cold and slept through his joke. I guess there's always next year!