Saturday, June 28, 2008

Pint-Sized Parade






My children really dig parades. Jack experienced his first parade last year on the 4th of July. He was enraptured with the marching bands and the princesses. For weeks afterwards, he begged us to go to another parade.
We went to New Jersey instead.
Well, Provo does a Children's Parade the Saturday before the 4th of July (that's this Saturday, for those of you still needing to purchase sparklers). The kids from church were invited to march along in the parade, and Jack was...mildly excited. Oh, I mean ECSTATIC over the opportunity. We decided that Tyler could march with him and us girls would cheer them on from the shade with plenty of snacks. We weren't too sure how Sheridan would do.
Fortunately, this parade is not nearly as long or as well attended as Provo's 4th parade. We showed up at 9:45 to drop off the guys and took a leisurely walk to get a bagel (I had missed breakfast and was ravenous by that point). Another leisurely walk back to 200 East (it's a 6 block parade) near the end of the route and we only had to wait 30 minutes for the action. That's good, because (surprise!) Sheridan was bored and tried to find friends. She settled for picking the "flowers" (weeds) out of the sidewalk and proudly presented them to me.
Well, the parade received glowing reviews from both kids. Jack liked walking in the parade (when it finally got started--he was bored out of his mind before that) and Sheridan liked dancing to the music of the marching bands and eating the candy the kids threw out.

When Widgets were the worst....

I was doing ok. So, not everyone understands widgets, that's understandable. I can make some fairly believable and persuasive arguments to support that.

I was very sad this week, thinking I'd been a little clever and would surely get some clever comments in return.

For days and days, nary a comment.

Can we be honest for a moment here? I, like many of my blogger friends, enjoy the comments. Sometimes we write blogs specifically because we know we'll get a good reaction in the comments section. I think my ego is regularly fertilized through comments appreciating my work (not to say that your comments are poo or anything like that, more like Miracle Grow). Like any artist, I appreciate knowing that people at least get a chuckle out of my work.

Hey, if nothing else, I figured that when Tyler wrote about me being 30, we'd get something.

Nothing.

It's really good that my wonderful friend Vanessa wrote me to tell me that I'd enabled comment moderation on my blog so that no comments would be published until I'd cleared them.
How embarrassing! It doesn't matter that I did it to save you all from the relentless (ok, 2) comments that were really advertisements for other people's "fertilizer" comments (no, they aren't Miracle Grow or even Miracle Whip comments, they're poop). I felt much better after she jogged my memory and I saw that 22 lovely comments from some lovely people awaited.

Thanks for helping this "geriatric" 30 year old continue to grow (ego-wise, not physically--baby #3 is taking plenty care of that!).

Sunday, June 22, 2008

An enthusiastic reception for Raggedy Chan!


I have been a little slow about posting some important things on this blog, like...

MY BEST FRIEND PUBLISHED A BOOK!!!

Ok, Camille is my oldest friend (well, we've been friends for the longest amount of time but I have much older friends) and she recently self-published a chapter book (about a 4-6 grade level, but Jack LOVED the condensed version and I really enjoyed the deeper messages). It's called Raggedy Chan and deals with cultural alienation and assimilation in legendary tale. Serious fun for kids, lots of thought provoking action for the adults.

Check it out at raggedychan.com!


Sheridan really REALLY loves her Raggedy Chan doll. She carried it around the house the rest of the day chanting "doll, doll" over and over. It was cute...annoying but cute :)

Start summer with a SPALSH!

Well, it's summer. The weather has turned FREAKIN' HOT and the kids are ready for summer fun. So, with help from my good friend Jenni and her cute daughter Aubrey, we got this party started.
Requirements for summer fun:

A third-hand toddler-sized slide (swingset optional)

A $15 inflatable pool

Sun

Kids
"Watch out below!!!"
"Get out of the water?!? Are you crazy, mom? Who cares that my goosebumps are visible from there? I'm not getting out of this water until I'm as purple as my tankini!!!!"

Friday, June 20, 2008

The BIG 3-0!

Somebody extremely special is celebrating three complete decades of mortal existence today! I tell her every day how much I love her...if it has been awhile for you, please let her know on this special day what a blessing she is in your life.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Oops, I did it again...

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I am not technologically savvy. The reason I like blogs is that I don't really have to know what I'm doing to do well. As a result, though, I sometimes do dumb things.
Take, for example, when I put up my new wallpaper.
It said "I may erase your widgets."
I said, "Who really needs 'em anyway."
In my head, I was thinking "What's a widget? Do I have those? Are they important?"
Well, it turns out that they can be, like, when they're the sidebar that has all your links to friends' blogs. And then, your husband comes home from work and announces that all of his bookmarks have been deleted by his bipolar Firefox browser. BAD timing! I thought I put it back together properly.
I was wrong. I've been missing several friends' blogs from my sidebar and thus haven't checked their blogs. Take, for example, my friends Pat and Jen who had their baby 12 days ago, and I only found out today!
So, Readers of the Blog, this is an appeal. If you see that I'm missing your blog link (and I actually know you, you're not just someone trying to get free ad space on my blog), please, let me know. It's not that your blog is one I'm trying to block out as a painful memory (unless it's visual anarchy, but that's just because I'm seeing my life in 4 years). It's just that I have a horrible memory (which horribleness has only been exacerbated by pregnancy) and I probably don't even realize your blog isn't part of my virtual world anymore. If you see a friend's blog that should be in my list but isn't, really, let me know.
I need all the help I can get in whipping my widget back into shape!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Free to a Good Home

Well, we have a new feature at our house that is nice fer yer bum. It's called couches that haven't been through 20 years in a student apartment. While they aren't new couches, they are less than 5 years old. This beauty (which we've had for six years, since pre-marriage) now has to move over. In fact, it's been kicked to the curb in hopes that someone will provide it with a nice home. Barring that, it's off to DI. Now, the couch did not look so terrible in our home. With a couch cover, it looked just fine. But, have you ever dealt with couch covers? ARRRGH!! A source of 6 year frustration for me, I'll be honest. You sit on it, the seat gets all mussed and pulls away from your carefully placed tucks. Soon, the underfabric is showing (how embarrassing for the poor couch!) and it looks as though your preschooler decorated your house. I got so fed up with that this week that I turned to every Utah-Bargain-Lover's favorite site, KSL.com classifieds. It's like a clarified Craigslist. So, Monday I picked up our "new" velvet microfibre loveseat (it's a dark army brown) and today we picked up our "new" leather jacket-like couch. Man, it is 30 times more comfortable than the old one!

So, no, they aren't a set, and they are different colors (the loveseat looks much greener in the picts). But I didn't really want them to "match"--I'm pretending to be more eclectic than I really am! I think I need some accessories to pull it together (not to mention some different curtains!), but I'm already LOVING not having to re-tuck and arrange the couch covers every time someone is coming over!
If you'd like to reserve one of our cushions for yer bum's seating enjoyment, please contact our reservation line!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Words words words

Sheridan is starting to pick up a lot of words. It's good that we don't use naughty language around her, because she's also picked up quite an attitude and generally curses at us in baby lingo when we don't comply with her wishes.
However, she's also picked up some fun words. Here are a few:
Goo=goose
bubba=brother
beby=baby (she's obsessed with babies)
yeah=yeah
noh=no
mama=mommy
mama=daddy
nona=Fiona, our cat
duh=duck
dah=dog (she can also verbalize the 'oof' sound a dog makes)
pih=pig
mimi=mommy
mih=milk
caca=cracker
buh=book
cheese=cheese (her fav food)
pees=please

She has more words then that, but I can't think of them this late! A few of her favorites that she generally clarifies with signs are shoes, hat, bread, flower, cereal, and finished. Yeah, the kid can say a lot (like our cat's name!) but she won't say Daddy. Weird.

The Dinner Dilema

Late in the afternoon or early in the evening, I generally have a dilema:
Dinner.
I generally sorta enjoy cooking, but when I'm pregnant, NOTHING SOUNDS GOOD (except maybe sushi, and I don't think that'd work really well at this point!).
So, a few days ago, I enlisted Jack's help and asked him what we should make for dinner.
"Soup," Jack announced decisively.
"Soup?" I asked, knowing full well that the kid barely eats anything in soup. "That sounds like a good idea. You really think so?"
"Actually, we should have Candy Houses."
"Well, Jack" I say, trying to hold back the giggles. "That's a good idea, but Candy Houses aren't for dinner."
"No, they're for witches," he states matter-of-factly.
I think we've been reading too much Hansel and Gretel!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

A happy house of contrasts

Well, first let's thank Tyler's brother, Andy.

(Chorus: Thank you, Andy dear!)
Why are we thanking Andy today? Well, we went from this

To this

He works for K Designers and sells top-of-the-line windows, doors, and siding. Now, we have the NICEST windows in the neighborhood (really, they're the rolls royce of windows). 
Unfortunately, it just accents how much work the rest of the outside of our house needs! (Which this picture doesn't really show, but I couldn't get a good pict of the parts that need work, since it's raining and I'm a pansy). Just picture cracked and peeling paint in the off-white "wood" of the house. Large, dark cracks in the paint. Really, lovely.


Nice:
New Windows!
Not so nice:
The rest of the exterior of our house! The clean, sharp beauty of the windows is a sharp contrast to the weather-beaten, off-white, cracked and dirty fake vertical wood siding. I feel bad for the pretty windows on the beat up house!
Nice:
The wonderful energy efficiency of the windows!
Not so nice:
We still need to add some insulation to our R-10 value attic (about 1/4 the amount recommended in our area).
Nice: A more comfortable home!
Not nice: We still have blazing hot summers and freezing cold winters. He couldn't fix that!
Nice: Sheridan and Jack like to play with each other
Not so nice: Sometimes, they like to play "push all of mommy's buttons". This game involves one getting into something, me removing kid one only to find kid two into something worse. Or, kid one starts some horrific behavior, is berated for it, and is promptly copied by kid two. Actually, they usually do all that at once, plus throw a temper tantrum in the middle. 
Nice: Our next kid is due December 9th.
Not so nice: We'll be on zone defense from here on out.
Nice: A brother like Andy
Not so nice: Not having 10 more like him in various jobs (doctor, lawyer, general contractor, sprinkler installer, accountant, and car salesman, just to name a few!).

Ok, ok, so we like our other brothers just as much....but this is our little Ode to Andy and our Windows 2008 successful download!