Good thing

Good thing I took Conner in -- turns-out they are no recommending a varicella booster (Varicella is the chicken pox shot) sometime between 4 and 8... so he got that today.
Shockingly, no crying for the shot (but don't be around him if he stubs his toe).
I let him play Mrs. Pac Man on my cell phone while he got the shot, it was a big hit.

In other news, most annoying quote of the day:
Let me set the scene, I'm working the swing shift tonight, and then I'm on call tomorrow like 7 hours later. I figure I'd better take a bit of a nap, so I lay down an hour before work... Conner comes-in like 5 times while I'm asleep asking to play a computer game. I say, "NO, and you have to ask your dad, your dad is in charge right now."
Conner's response? "But mom, dad's sleeping."
WTH WAS I DOING?
Seriously, I need a new job.

Check-ups

So, Conner has a 7 year old check-up today.
I'm torn, do you take your older kids in for check-ups. Our doctor kinda left it up to me... and I totally don't want to waste anyone's time, but since I haven't taken him for being sick in over 3 years I feel like he should see the doctor at least once a year...
Do you guys take your older kids for check-ups?
Thankfully there are are no shots (see pain entry).

A little bird told me...

that there's new pictures on my photography blog (see right sidebar).
That same bird must've messed-up my will to make videos anymore. I think my computer froze 10 times before I have now officially given-up making them.
Dang bird.

Crying

So, just lately I'm thinking Conner's 7.... it's time he was turning into a bigger boy... right?
We have an issue.
Pain.
The kid can NOT deal with pain. A little bonk on the head sends him into a headspin. Full on tears, runny nosed, crying. Screaming to go along with it (kind of the cherry on top).
Now, I know he's doing this for attention, and I'm trying to give attention in the positive ways and not to this particular type of begging for attention... but do you guys have this problem? How have you delt with it?
I mean, I can't tolerate it any more. You'd think I pulled his eyes out with my bare hand instead of him tripping over a step.

Super Glue, Snippy Managers and life

So, now there are 2 things I am no longer allowed to play with. One being bleach, and the 2nd being super glue. I've ruined about 3 pairs of kahki pants (always Kahki, who knows?) due to bleach, and yesterday I freaked-out all day trying to figure out how to get super glue off my glasses (I was fixing a necklace and somehow when I popped the bead in, the glue popped-up and onto my glasses -- in retrospect it's lucky I wore glasses or it'd been in my eye). So, I'd seen that acetone might ruin the finish on your glasses, and I called me optomitrist and they confirmed that i'd probably just have to get a new lens (uh huh, funny that THEY wanted to sell me that lens)... so, in a last ditch attempt I used some fingerpolish remover on an old pair, it didn't ruin them so I tried it and it WORKED. Now, it wasn't straight acetone, and it did involve a bit of rubbing, but I wasn't bitter about that. It's gone now. I'm so happy. :)
So, I finally got to go to work yesterday, it'd been a while since I played adult. I really had to play adult yesterday. My manager got a tad snippy with me in a really crisis-type situation, and then she came and apologized profusely... it was amusing. If only she knew how many managers I've had since I started this job.... she's nice though, and she's lucky that I just found it amusing instead of leaving her to her own crisis situation.
I feel like I'm deeply intrenched in how little money we have lately. I haven't worked very much this summer and I just keep checking our bank account and wondering how it's all gonna work out. I mean, I know it'll work out. We're not by any means down to our last dollar... sometimes a girl just lacks faith... and I just realized last night that's what I was doing. I needed to stop praying to get more money, and to start praying to relax about it, and figure out better ways to spend my money more wisely... interesting how that goes, isn't it?

Scrapbooking

I just can't get into it this summer. It seems like in the past I've done a fair amount of scrapbooking.... but not this summer, which is suprising since I'm not working a lot. To be fair to myself any free time that I've had I read the harry potter book, and now I'm making some pee-pee pads for Spencer's bed (the endless summer fun)... so I am getting stuff done, but I really even haven't had the urge to scrap.
Til' last night.
I pulled-out a scrapbook magazine to read before bed. I was inspired, I wanted to do some fun stuff on paper. Doubtful any of that will get done today (because I still have 2 more pads to sew) but it was exciting to be inspired regardless....
Maybe scrapbooking will help me get out of my summer funk.
On a brighter note, when I checked my sitemeter referals yesterday I came-up with 2 google querys that found my blog. "recipe for guspatcho" (did I spell it wrong, I'm guessing that's what it is, since me and 2 other blogs are the only ones that show-up) and "'chastity line' bathroom" pretty funny, since it's me and BYU that come-up when you query that.
Check your sitemeter referals, you might find a little joy. :)

Summer Frenzy

Marching band is just weeks away. I feel like it's creeping up on us like something from the enchanted forest in Harry Potter... I make no bones that it's my least favorite time of year... and here it comes. BUT, before it does, that doesn't mean I can't make my husband clean this house from TOP TO BOTTOM every inch of it. :)
So, on Tuesday it was the main bathroom, yesterday it was the kids room, with both of us diving into the never-ending chain of children's too bit/too small/just right clothing, and today it's the computer area and the bookshelf behind it.
Oh, the horror.
But, nothing makes me happier then to have a clean house. Well, maybe if marching band season got rained out... but clean house will have to do. :)
It's just a perk of having a husband home all summer, although I doubt the word perk is the first one that comes to HIS mind. :)

HP

So, I finished Harry Potter. I loved it, I won't give away the ending to you, my peeps, but I will say I wanted more aftermath... and frankly, I find myself wanting that in a LOT of things... most of the books I read, more of the movies I watch.
I want to know what happens AFTER. I am a sucker for a sequel, although they are rarely as good as the regular thing. Mostly, I just want another 15 minutes. Something that says if they got along once they were married, something that shows they built a better life for themselves.
SOMETHING PEOPLE.
Framkly, I like neat little bows, I like a story with a neat little bow on top.
In other news, I finally printed myself up some business cards. I've been toying with the idea of having them printed by a professional printer. Do you any of you have busines cards you got done fairly cheaply?

I needed to read this

We're having a time-out fest right now.
I read this blog, and I loved how she put the stuff... yes, it's the worst job, yes it's the best job... a vicious dichotomy.
My Happy Little Life's blog on being a SAHM.

I am a rockstar

People were screaming in the isles, dropping at my feet, loving my lesson... actually, I think they really did like it... but I worry if I made anyone want to change anything about their lives. Except me -- I think I learned quite a lot about forgiveness.
An interesting topic came-up in class. Two women argued (argued is for-sure not the right word, but I can't think of a better one) between if forgiveness needs to be a final act -- which you only have to do once and then the person is officially forgiven, or if it's a fire that needs to be built initially -- but you have to keep feeding it with thoughts and feelings of forgiveness.
I tend to lean towards the latter. I mean, oftentimes I'll feel like I've forgiven someone but then I see them and feelings come back up -- and I'm in my head mentally pushing the feelings out the back door of my brain.
However, Heavenly Father does forgive us fully the first time and doesn't think about it and loves us fully from then on. Of course, I believe lots of that has to do with the fact that Heavenly Father loves us perfectly. Like, my kids -- I mean, they've done plenty of awful things, but even though in the moment I want to pluck all their air off I get over it pretty quickly and those feelings don't usually creep back up on me. So, there you go. No false doctrine, sad... next time's lesson is on reverence... if anyone needs to be more reverent it's me. No kiddin'.

The Good News

I'm teaching my first lesson today... most likely my last... I tend to want to put just a hint of false doctorine in a lesson -- you know, just to make sure people are awake.
However, today's lesson is on forgiveness... hard to come-up with some new falst docturine on forgiveness... but that doesn't keep me from trying.

Drew and I are taking turns over the new Harry Potter book. Last time we bought 2 and gave one to my neice, but this time I felt like we could only splurge on one copy (thanks to Walmart for delivering it yesterday). So far, it's good stuff....
Anyone else reading it?
Lara? Have you finished it?
We all need lives.
It's official.

Owen

My friend Cindy took the gigantic leap into the world of 3 kids just last week. She was gracious enough to let me come take their pictures today.

Yes, I am aware that Owen is a boy... but this song just fit too perfectly, and he most defintely belongs to everyone in that house. I fear some of them might love the little dude to pieces. :) So, sing along that he's gonna be a big boy too... K?

Cindy, congrats and good luck with everything!

(P.S. the mamma part is pretty dang true too)

No Pictures

I finished my class, and promptly came home to a HUGEMONGOUS headache.
Thankfully, Drew let me take a little nap and I'm feeling better.
Perhaps I'll do some pictures of my fine beading another time.
It rained here today.
First time ever, on July 18th, word on the radio this am.
Funny.
It's so rare for a first anymore.
I don't think I should write blogs pumped-up on tylenol anymore.
BUT, I do have to say that I am meeting my life-long blog friend Lara tomorrow. Now coincidences of coincidences is Lara and my story. She saw my blog off of 2P's (scrapbook website) and I saw hers, and I noticed that she'd had 2 or 3 blogs on almost the exact same topics as my blog, so we started emailing, turns out she married a guy I knew in high school and I married Drew, and he's a guy they both knew in college. Anyway, isn't it a small world?
Lara and I only had a chance meeting at Brick Oven last summer, but they're spending their anniversary in the bay and have deemed us important enough to spend a night with. We're going to Absinthe and then to the symphony. So, we're going from talking daily online (and by daily, I mean all day every day, almost -- when she went into the hospital with extremem morning sickness, I still called her, because I needed my Lara fix) to a real date.
It's even a grown-up date, I am very excited.

Gluey Fingers

Condolences for me please, I have a class tomorrow. I hate classes. My brain doesn't really work like a full-time person's brain works... Luckily, it's NRP so I know most of the answers by heart (since we do it a lot), but still... filling in those bubbles, etc. I just have the urge to make cute little patterns.
Speaking of little patterns, I got cancelled from work tonight, so I was able to go to enrichment (I was cancelled last enrichment too -- weird stuff). We were just getting together to work on projects we already had. I bought some new beads when I went with my mom to the bead fair in San Mateo, so I worked on those. I did one of them on elastic, but I had to superglue the ends (per my mom). I did, and then I glued my fingers together. Thankfully, they were just in the sticky stage, and I didn't have to peel off any skin -- but it's like I have a second skin now, and it's totally buggin'.
But, I will look so uber-stylin' in my new necklace and bracelet (which, btw, do NOT match).

Logan 4 months

Love

I LOVE to look at photography sites.
I'm doing a shoot for my little friend Logan this afternoon, it was his mom's birthday and what with the festivities of my mommy being here -- I completely forgot.
So, in exchange for her forgiveness, Logan and I are gonna make some magic today.

It's obviously not the way I want to make my living, but I love having people see the people in their lives through my lens... and knowing those are the pictures they'll cherish when Mr. Logan goes on a mission some day.

Here's my favorite photography site that I looked at today.

The FHE that rocked the chocolate

Had a devinely inspired FHE tonight.
Well, we had a delightful dinner. We had kabobs. The steak was marinated in a teriyaki type marinade (with pineapple juice as the acid) and then we alternated steak, green pepper, pineapple, onion and mushrooms. We basted with butter and everyone loved it. and no one was more shocked at Spencer eating his right up then me. I don't know why I don't make kabobs more often, other then the fact that it's annoying to chop-up all the stuff, but they cook fairly quickly and boy oh boy were they good.
Our FHE was on the 7th article of faith. It mostly talks about the gifts we can receive from our Heavenly Father. This particular article of faith has a lot of important words that my kids don't really understand. So, I did papers with each of the gifts on one side, and their definitions on the other side. I put all those gifts in gifts bags and they all got to "unwrap" a couple of gifts. The kids were excited to pick the gifts and it was fairly easy (I thought it'd be very fun to put some in boxes and wrap them, but I didn't want to waste wrapping paper and frankly, we don't have a a lot of boxes, so I went with the gift bag part -- we have plenty of gift bags).
Then, we had our treat. Family fun came through again, with chocolate mud cake made in the crock pot. Everyone got a scoop of ice cream on the top and a candle in it. We all blew-out our candles and thought of our favorite spiritual gift. The cake was VERY good, and in my larger crock pot it took about 2 hours to make, but didn't heat our house up since it was just in the crock pot.
So, there you go. The kids had a great time with that FHE. We hadn't had FHE for almost a month due to vacations, and some fun family activities that sadly got in the way.
And now, to read some Harry Potter -- I'm trying to read the last book again before my next one arrives from walmart.com on Saturday.

Lessons

So, I'm gearing up for my first time teaching in Relief Society this coming Sunday. The topic's forgiveness (Elder Faust's talk in the last conference where he talked about the Amish people and how quick they were to forgive the killer).
I'm kinda stuped as what to assist me in the lesson... my aunt happened to write an article that Elder Faust quotes in his talk, so I looked it up. But, it is a newspaper article. Is that OK to use that kind of thing in a lesson?
Does it bug you when someone uses a little out of the mainstream item in a lesson (aka, not scriptures or a talk by one of the GA's)?
Does it bug you when they don't?
What are your main pet peeves about RS lessons in general.
Remember, you can be anonymous here... and I'll have to forgive you since that's what my lesson is on. :)

We're All Different

So, today I just had weird patients. Well, 1 patient who screamed for near an hour... it's amazing I can hear anything at this point. Another doctor who can't pull his head out long enough to give proper orders, and then another patient that I would just call different.
At first I'd say fa-reaky...
But, after looking at her more, I realized she's just different. She had very strong opinions on what was best for her and her children (much like myself) they were just VERY different then what I would've done. If I looked at everyone that was different and called them a freak, I'd be saying that about a LOT of people, which -- by the very definition of the word freak, wouldn't BE a freak....
But, I digress... just thinking about how we're all different and how it's OK... I am very different from you for instance. But, we seem to get along, don't we?
Went to Harry Potter tonight, very cool movie. Wish I'd done a book review before going.
Does that make me a freak?

Happy Birthday Conner

Unlike the cake episode, the birthday came without a hitch. After my little freak-out, we took the train up to Palo Alto, ate lunch at the creamery and picked up my neice (btw, split a sandwich at the creamery -- they're huge, as well they should be for the price), rode the train back, then Drew took Conner and Grace to Chuck E Cheese, Spencer and I ran to the party store for a few favors and a balloon for the birthday boy. Then, it was home for macaroni and cheese with grandama and grandpa, then the Popes came over along with the Yuens for presents and cake. The cake was fairly sugary and gross, if you ask me... but you didn't, so I digress.
It was a great day for a great boy. It's fun to shower your kids with love. So often I'm worried about things with them, but a birthday is just for fun... just as it should be.

Birthdays and inanimate objects

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CONNER. To think, just 7 short years ago I could wake-up and not have to use the facilities before 5 minutes had past... {sigh} ahh... a youthful vaginal wall.

But, I digress.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUDE... who knew I was old enough to have a 7 year old?

Not I, that's who.

I will do another entry titling all the things I love about having a 7 year old, but that will just have to wait, for we are off for a little train ride in a few minutes. I just had to show a picture of the cake:

Seriously, people -- I was YELLING AT THE CAKE.

BTW, do NOT wait for your cake to thaw before frosting if you're gonna do something dumb like cut i apart to make the space shuttle. The thing just kept peeling apart and I, being apparently dumber then the cake, kept YELLING at it for crumbing up. Needless to say, I just kept the mantra in my head that all things can be fixed with frosting, and it turned-out OK... but just so you know -- those wings, there'y probably about 50% cake, and 50% frosting -- Conner will love it. I think I was freaking out more because the cake was pink and no 7 year old wants a pink frosted space shuttle cake. What do you guys think?

Drew, being the awesome feller that he is took the kids away from me as I was screaming at the cake to "COME ON AND STAY TOGETHER YOU @#%&(*) CAKE" and didn't even mock me. Hence, I made him his own strawbery-chocolate twinkie, filled with love and devotion (know that if I'd ever divorce him, he could use this particular day for grounds of insanity).

Goin' to the temple?

Well, not until you get a new temple recommend, at least according to my bishopbric. Problem is, NO ONE I know from outside our ward or stake has heard of this.
Word from the pulpit is that we'll be getting new recommends with something akin to a UPC that we'll scan to get into the temple. That will keep people who don't active temple recommends out of the temple, etc. I guess it's a security measure.
Have you heard of it?
Poor bishopbrics and stake presidents will have to renew everyone's recommend.
Sad, but true. My condolences to all bishopbric families.
PS, cake is out of the oven, out of the pan and cooling. I believe I will freeze it tonight and cut/frost it in the AM. New poll on the right (I took the 100 bucks from Sears, and ran).

GUESS WHO

Just got her business license in the mail today.
Me, that's who.
I was just gonna send you the web page that shows my #, but that's just too much personal info...
so you'll just have to know that I'm licensed to photo now.
Now YOU need to help me with my cake debacle (see below)

It's Cake Time

So, it's nice that my kids are almost 6 months apart during the year, so I can recouperate and gird up my loins for yet ANOTHER jump into the world of cake making.
Conner has requested this one.
For those of you too lazy to click on that, it's a spaceship cake. I have to do a 9X13 basic cake and then I have to take it out of the pan and cut off parts of it to be the rest of the spaceship.
Me, cutting cake AFTER pulling out OUT of the pan, most likely in one piece.
Is anyone else sensing a recipe for disaster?
Do I make the cake tomorrow and freeze it?
Do I do it when the cake is fresh (although obviously cooled)?
Should I just go in the corner and start sucking my thumb now before the house caves in?
Please people, I need advice.

Comments

For some reason Gmail was putting all my comments in my spam file (I've been getting a lot of spam too, so I think it's just very sensitive all the sudden)...
So, I thought my blog was just a loser, but now I know better.
{sigh}
Love my blog peeps. :)

No YOU are a rockin' girl blogger

Alrighty peeps, I am a rockin' girl blogger -- at least that's what my friend Lara says. Frankly -- I am. I could fill many a book with this fine blog (and I'd like to find a decent way to do that if anyone has any thoughts). So, it looks like I'm supposed to pass it on... and while Lara already named a few favorites of mine (herself, Kayla Aimee and Shannon's in particular) I will try to share some of my other favorites:

Slices of Light by Emily Kate -- she is a school teacher (and heavens knows I love a good teacher), and just has good stories. Love to hear all the Utah stuff. :)

{me} by Tara Whitney -- she is obviously cooler then me. But I sure love her photos, I strive to look as fun as she does. It's hard to look something you are most decidedly not. :)

NDG by Nora -- I just love all the color and scrapbook pages on this blog. She's not necessarily my style, but I do love her use of color.

And Baby Makes 3 by Brittany -- close nursing friend. She just has some good ideas on life. I appreciate a blog that not only has the mundane of everyday life, but thoughts on how to make your life better, or what works for them. Brit totally does that.

Sheesh, I've already posted Joanna's but since she's a great photographer, and has childrens similarly aged as mine, I love hers too.

Mostly I tend to gravitate towards blogs of women who love their families, make them their universe -- but also tend to take some trips to other universes. Moms who garden, who scrapbook, who photograph, who sew. And most of all, moms who are funny.
THAT is what makes a rockin' girl blogger. :)

Me want

So, I want a wide angle lens for the camera. My friend Joanna always does amazing stuff with hers. So, I found this one. It's a Sigma, but budget is purely my issue at this point.
Vacillating between the need to just save more to get a great lens, or just to buy this one (which still needs a bit of saving for -- since i just spent a fair amount on the dang business license).
Anyway, does anyone have thoughts for me in this instance?

A Rockin' Fourth

Although the fourth of July in Utah is much more exciting then the 4th of July here, my parents made the LONG journey to our house for a little visit. Words can't experess our excitement since my parents haven't come out in almost a year (my mom was here for Halloween, but my dad hasn't been out). The kids are overjoyed and to put the whole whipped cream, cherry and nuts (if nuts are your preference) my brother and his family are living in the area for 6 weeks. HO-RAY, look at us with family in the area!!!!!
So, instead of a parade when I feel the sweat start at the base of my neck and drip off my bum I went to work yesterday AM (a bit of filthy lucre to assist in my my mom and my shopping journeys), a little bike ride in the head of the noonday sun, swimming, BBQ'ing with family, and then off to the park where NO ONE else was to watch fireworks. I mean, we got there and not a single soul, so I was a tad bit concerned about seeing them but it was perfect, we saw them just over the tip of the trees, and the noise wasn't loud enough to make Spencer cry out in sadness.
So, just a perfect fourth of july just to remind me of the freedoms we're so lucky to have.

The Giants of San Jose

Last night, Drew's trombone group performed at the San Jose Giants. We got some comp tickets and it was pretty dang fun!
The San Jose Giants, I guess, are a feeder group to the rael giants in San Fransisco. The stadium's pretty small but the fun was big. Way better then the A's game we went to, just because it was so small, the kids could see what was going on better. It was a close game too, so they really got into cheering and figuring out what was going on (as well as constantly looking for the Mascot, that Spencer was deathly afraid of -- but was obsessed with).
Then, they had fireworks after. They light the fireworks off just behind the stadium in the parking lot that our car was parked in. It was SO LOUD, and I was AMAZED by the fact there were fireman just running around with torches to light them off. We'd left right after the game, planning to just watch the fireworks from our car (Spencer freaked-out with all the noise so that ended-up being a very smart move) but instead we got to see them light them... and feel each "BOOM" in our hearts. It was really amazing. I didn't know that there were people who still lit fireworks, I thought they were all done by computer... but it definitely gave Conner the idea of how very dangerous fireworks could be as you saw them whizzing out of the cannisters right after the people lit them. And it's nice to know that now Conner's no longer afraid of fireworks, and now we have a new little friend who is.
Feel the joy.

Welcome July

So, some of you might wonder about the "role reversals" on my banner. July is a rare month, in that I work almost full time, and Drew spends some quality time at home with the boys.
And, frankly -- we're glad it lasts only about 2 months. I don't do well working that much, and not having my hand in stuff at home, and Drew gets easily frustrated and wishes he had more of a "summer break."
But, in the end it's a win-win situation in that our bank account is ready to suffer through me working less during marching band season, Drew remembers how painful it can be to stay home with 2 little boys and I am reminded that home IS where I want to be.
So, for those of you who'd like to put your husband at home for a bit, I'll have a few blog entries for you. Sometimes it is amusing to call him and hear him freaking out like I so often do...
{sigh}
It's off to work right now. Wish me luck!

I really am a scrapbooker

Just a busy one as of late. I am not in the mood to scrapbook, this one was very much forced, but it does feel nice to have it done.