What a sucker

Fisher is our sucker for ads.

This morning we were walking to school (just the two of us, 15 minutes late. another story for another time) and he told me the plants got too much water because of the storm. They looked sick from too much water. No, what we really need to do is use AquaGlobes. You see, all you need to do is put them in the plant, fill them up with water, and when the plant wants a drink it just uses the AquaGlobe. None of this natural God-given rain stuff, right? What the world needs now, is AquaGlobe. He tells me that he "learned" this on Qubo. And he takes it for science! What a sucker.


Last week we were listening to Radio Disney in the car and were on our way to Target to buy a birthday present for a friend. An ad came on telling us that if we bought both Camp Rock AND Hannah Montana DVDs at Target we would get something else - a gift card or something... I paid little attention. Little did I know, however, that Fisher was rapt. We walked into Target and he, in his most excited voice, started bubbling over about how we could totally get BOTH movies and save all this money and get something for HIM. See how this little mind works?

I love a good storm!

Last night around 9:30 I stood by the back door to watch the amazing storm we were having. Lightning everywhere you looked. At one point there were several loud loud bursts of thunder right above our house. But I realized while I was standing at the door that the low rumble I was hearing wasn't an airplane flying overhead. It was the storm. I don't know if it was just a 30-minute thunder cell we were in, or if it was the electricity in the air or what, but it was eerie. Just a constant grumble like my stomach on fast Sunday. I touched the glass of our back door and it was vibrating (no wind). It was so cool! It would have made the perfect backdrop for a Halloween party!

Nothing but nutrition here...

First, before I get into my intended topic, allow me to answer a burning question left on the comments portion of my last post. Yes, Jessica, I DO really love the Carpenters. Especially their Christmas Portrait album (not so much Old Fashioned Christmas for some reason). I remember listening to Karen croon about rainy days and Mondays when I was just a wee tot, and my mom singing along with her. I think my favorite Carpenters song, though, has got to be Superstar. I taught Emma the lyrics to this song when she was four in the hopes she would sing it for talent night at our family reunion, but she balked. Any other closet Carpenters lovers out there?

OK now on to my ruminations for the day. I'm not sure why, but Tess and Case have a hard time calling foods by their proper names. For example, a year ago, everything was pizza. That phase passed and to Tess everything became pancakes (now she only calls tortillas pancakes). Just yesterday I caught Tess rummaging around in the cupboard looking for a cheeseburger. She pulled out a loaf of whole wheat bread and called it a cheeseburger. Also yesterday I had the twins in the cart at Target and Case saw some carrots. Louder than anything he started yelling "carrots, YUCK!!" Many times. Today Case announced he wanted a Dr. Pepper, which is funny because I don't usually drink Dr. Pepper, but I found a 12-pack of caffiene-free diet Dr. Pepper at the store last week and wanted to try it out. So he learned the name (nasty stuff by the way).

Based on these little tidbits, you would think that I feed my kids nothing but junk food, and actually have taught them to dislike things that are healthy for them. Not true! But to the casual observer a logical assumption. So let me tell you here and now, I do feed my kids things other than pizza, pancakes, cheeseburgers and Dr. Pepper. Oh, and chocolate chips. That's another frequent request from Case when he wants pretty much anything to snack on.

I think I've found a solution though. I'm going to start giving fake names to things. I'll call cookies "carrots" and brownies "salad" and chips "yogurt." This way, when my kids want something horrid, other people will think "hey, that is a GREAT mom! Her kids are ASKING for a salad!"

So smart, I am.

Emotion Explosion

I've been on a roller coaster today. I was released this morning as a Laurel Advisor in our YW program, and I am so sad about it. I have loved loved loved working with the girls in our ward. They are so amazing to me, just so strong, sweet and stalwart in spite of the world they live in. I love them. It always sounded so wierd to hear that as a youth, but when you spend nine or ten months praying for and looking out for and worrying about these girls every single day, there is definitely a love developed that you can't imagine having for kids other than your own. I really feel like I'm not "done" there - does that make sense? I feel like there's some way I need to keep my connection to them so I can make sure they're OK. I feel responsible for them! To top it off I had to teach today, and miraculously I was able to hold my emotions together.

Not so once I got home. Poor Fisher keeps finding me crying, and trying to get me to not cry. At one point I was cleaning up dinner dishes, standing at the sink. It was just Fisher and I in the room and I started to tear up again (and I'm sure I was making ugly-cry-face trying not to cry), and he rolls his eyes and says "oh no, not this again. You are NOT going to cry! Just think about Christmas!" This kid knows me well. He knows that whenever I think about Christmas I get happy :).

One of my girls just stopped by with a plate of cookies -- and tears streaming down her face -- to say goodbye. I lost it too. Just when I thought I was done crying about it. Who ever would have thunk it? That I would learn so much from a few teen-aged girls. But there you go.

The happy part of this whole thing is that I've been asked to serve as the first counselor in our Primary Presidency. I don't know the other ladies very well, but I am looking forward to getting to know them better, and it will be so fun to be able to be with my kiddos in Primary! In our last ward I was in the Primary presidency twice, but I didn't have any kids there myself. Emma was in nursery when we moved out of the ward. So I'm sure I'll have a totally different perspective on how to work with the kids, how to relate to them. How to get them to shut up :) That was for you Rochelle. I'm really looking forward to this new assignment, but it is bittersweet to leave my girls.

Emma has been so sweet today, knowing how sad I've been. She's been trying to hide her excitement about me being in primary with her out of sensitivity to my sadness. I'm sure Jarad thinks I'm such a boob about this, but he knows how much I've enjoyed being with the girls so he's not giving me too hard a time. I have such a great family.

Anyway, off to probably cry a little more and get ready for the week ahead. August is almost over, which means September is just around the corner! And speaking of Christmas, it's four months from tomorrow! Woo hoo time to bust out the Carpenters Christmas Portrait!! That will make me happy.

Sunday Nap

We recently switched our church time from 12-3 p.m. to 8 to 11 a.m. It's been a challenge the last couple of weeks to fill the kids' time with Sabbath-worthy activities and avoid all the bickering and boredom when we're just home all day after church. Today I found the best solution yet. I fed the kids lunch, went into my room, put a pillow over my head and slept. For two hours. It was a GREAT nap! I have no idea what the kids were doing while I was sleeping, but I don't care! I didn't hear any fighting :).

I'm SUCH a proactive parent.

Love the Olympics!

We're having so much fun watching the Olympics. Although I must say I'm glad we don't have cable because, well, we all know it's possible to get too much of a good thing!

My favorite Olympic moment so far was last night when Emma was watching some swimming, remote in hand. It went to a commercial and Jarad reached over to take the remote to flip around the channels. Emma freaked out, grabbed onto the remote and held on for dear life. Unfortunately, she wasn't much of a tug o' war match for Jarad, especially when it comes to who's controlling the remote. Emma started to blubber about how she'll be 12 next time the Olympics are on... "I just don't want to miss ANY of it! It won't be on again for four years and I'll be TWELVE next time they're on!!"

It was all so very dramatic. As it always is with Miss Emma.

New 'dos

So it must be catching... Emma chopped off her hair about a month ago. It looks so stinkin' cute. I've been trying to talk myself into cutting my own hair for, oh, about two years. She inspired me, as did a few other mommies who look awesome with their new haircuts! So I hacked mine off earlier this week... Sorry for the self portrait, but I don't trust my two year olds with my camera!



Then yesterday I'm looking at Case and realize the Byrnesie/beach 'do is getting old and shaggy... so we took him to SnipIts today. He had so much fun, and I think he looks just plain dashing, doesn't he? He looks so old! There's a freaky shadow behind Case's head in the after shot, but you get the idea.

Before...


During...


After...


I just got off the phone with my sister in law and she said I inspired her to whack off all her hair too, so I'm warning you, it is catching!!

Blogiversary

Happy Blogiversary to ME!

I realized this week that I started this blog exactly one year ago today. It's been so fun to look back at the past year, as told to you all, through my posts, pictures, etc. I love that it's a family journal, of sorts -- totally different from my personal journal (ie there are a LOT more entries here LOL).

I found a place that will take all your posts, pictures, etc. and print a book of your blog for like $30 (see the widget at the bottom if you want to check it out - not that you want to print MY blog, but for your own!). Of course, it depends on how many posts you want to print, etc. But how fun to have a once-a-year printout of your family's story? I'm totally going to print out the first year of my blog.

Too much of a good thing?

This morning as we're walking the big kids to school, Teslin's little voice comes from the stroller in front of me:

Mama, wanna look at my blog?

Back to School

Fisher had his first day of Kindergarten today. I'm not sure whether I should be excited that he is so very independent, or whether I should have my feelings hurt that he just doesn't seem to need me anymore. There was no sign whatsoever that he needed me to help him get to class. In fact, he was planning on my leaving him at the crosswalk, and he'd have Emma drop him off at his class. Jarad agreed. But that wasn't going to fly for mama. So I walked all the way to the gate with him (beyond which you had to stand in an eternal line to get a visitor's badge and it really wasn't worth that for me -- after all, I had Breaking Dawn waiting for me back at home. A woman has her priorities, right?). I had to call him back to even get a kiss from him! Little turkey.


Emma, of course, is miss independent too. But she volunteered a kiss for me. Sweetheart that she is. She asked me to walk her to class, but was that because I was so obviously crushed that Fisher didn't need me anymore? A mom will never know.


Anyway, they both made it through the day unscathed, and both seemed to really like it. Yay! Another year has begun, and I can get my life back on schedule too.

Only three years until the twins start Kindergarten. I guess I shouldn't wish it away...

(here Fisher just wanted me to put the blasted camera away...)

sssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I never knew my house could be so quiet! It's been that long. Kids are in school, Jarad is out and about (he goes back to work tomorrow), twins are in our newly established quiet time. Me? I'M IN HEAVEN!

hammered

um, I'll just say this. Thirty-seven year old women should think twice before deciding to wakeboard. I mean, it was fun and all, but seriously my body hurts so bad today.

A strange phenomenon

There's something seriously wrong when you're in a group of great people, having a nice chit chat or something, and all you want to do is go home to read your new book. And it's even MORE wrong when you know that half the group you're with feels the same way! This has been the case since yesterday morning when I got my hands on the just-released fourth book in Stephenie Meyers' Twilight series. I went to the lake with our YM/YW yesterday played the martyr when I volunteered to stay on the beach to "watch our stuff." I really just wanted to sink my teeth into the book (pardon the vampire pun). I'm the lucky one who got to watch the stuff -- our YW president was also hooked and she "had" to go tubing with the girls :).

I got home from the lake and went straight to my brother in law's birthday party where three of us had started the book already and secretly wanted to just hole up in the bathroom and read. My niece Madison actually went out to the car, ostensibly to accompany her mother to the store for more hamburger buns, but she just sat out there and read the book in the middle of the party. I'm not mocking, I'm jealous! Brilliant move Madi!

And I don't need to say anything about being at church this morning. The hallways were all abuzz with talk of Edward and Bella (and Jacob). If only we could get this many people excited to read the Book of Mormon and talk about it!

Anyway, obviously nothing else is going on in my life right now, since I'm so distracted until I finish the behemoth 900ish page book.

Oh, school starts tomorrow? Hope the kids make it OK :).