Tuesday, Tuesday

Today was nearly a replay of yesterday:

A conversation with Sarah as we cleaned up the house before my husband took the children out on an errand:

Sarah: Why do we always have to clean up before we go?

Me: Oh...so we don't have to worry about it when we get home.

Sarah: But Mommy, I won't worry about it.

And a picture of a sleeping child in the corner of the couch:

This is Jason. He fell asleep during the Mork and Mindy hour today. If you have insomnia, just come sit on my couch.

Monday, Monday

Tonight I had a conversation with Sarah as she helped me dry the dishes:

Sarah: Mommy, why are knives sharp?

Me: Because they need to be sharp to cut things.

Sarah: Why do we need to cut things?

Me: Because we need to make things into smaller pieces.

Sarah: Why do we use knives?

I thought I had just clarifed that but I continued..

Me: Because.

Sarah: But, why don't we just use a saw?

This is Rachel. She fell asleep during the Tom and Jerry hour today and she still has those thigh butts. I'm going to savor them while they last.

Spring Shoes

Today was was the first Sunday my girls wore their brand new white shoes to church. Sarah stepped in a muddy puddle.

The good news is they washed up just fine. Thank goodness for white patent letter and rubber soles.

The Stepsister

I have to do it. I have to mop my floors.

There's no good reason that I didn't blog yesterday other than I wasted a whole bunch of time doing nothing and wasn't in the mood to write/type anything. I have lots of stuff that I could write, but it takes too much effort to get it out of my head and onto a digital medium. So I'll leave you with a moment I caught on camera today. Jason somehow got himself into a hanging position on the table and used Rachel as his stepstool.

That little girl is so tolerant!

Flash to the past

I'm beat. I babysat a little girl today. Not that watching one more kid is all that exhausting, but the fact that I'm watching somebody else's kid means that I actually have to pay attention to them. She got along well with my kids. I couldn't understand much of what she said. She was 3 years old. She babbled some nonsense at dinnertime and my kids were laughing at her. She was their dinner comedy entertainment. I don't think she liked them laughing at her, but it was funny. I understood her when she told me that she didn't like my kitchen. She wouldn't tell me why she didn't like it. She just didn't like it. I think it might've had to do with the fact that my husband was in there and he had just finished punishing Wendy who had to stand in the corner in the kitchen. The little girl was probably afraid that she was going to get in trouble.

I sometimes can't even understand my own 3 year old. I often depend on the resident translators. Tonight as Wendy was getting ready for bed, she was trying to tell me something, but my translators weren't around. She told me that she wanted "those fings in her hair." I didn't know what she meant by "things" so she proceeded to explain, "You know dat doggy."
"Doggy?"
"Yeah."
"What about the doggy?"
"You know. Dat waydee dat melts."
"A lady that melts?"
"Yeah."
"What lady that melts?"
"You know. Her has hat and her melts."
"Ok. You want a hat?"
"Nooo! (laughs as if I'm a moron) You know. Dat waydee dat melts wif dat big hat. We watch dee udder day."
I didn't recall that we watched any lady melt in our recent past, then it clicked that she might be referring to a movie. Yes! I tried to quickly recall which movies we had watched recently in reverse chronological order -- Curious George, Barbie and Magic Pegasus, The Brady Bunch, Barbie and Magic Pegasus, The Letter Factory, Barbie and Magic Pegasus, Cinderella II, Barbie and Magic Pegasus.
"Does somebody melt in Pegasus?"
"No! (laughs) You know. Doggy, waydee melts."
I thought back a little further, "Ohhh! The Wizard of Oz?!"
"Yeah!!! Da Wiz uh Ah! I want doe fings in my hair."
Great! Back to the beginning. "What things are you talking about??!!"
Finally I used my smarts and made an educated guess. It ended up that she wanted braids like Dorothy in her hair. Either that or she got sick of me not understanding and finally agreed to my guess.

***************************

At dinner tonight we were talking about Monster Inc. and Emily asked what "Inc" meant. Daddy explained it stood for "incorporated" which led to me singing the Kids Incorporated theme song, which led all the kids to ask why I was singing that song, which led to me looking it up on YouTube, which leads to me posting this tonight. I thought we could all enjoy a little flash to the past. (Sorry if you are too young to remember this or too old to care, but this show was AWESOME! I so wanted to be Fergie!) And Holy Cow! I just now realized after Googling "Stacy Ferguson" that she is the actual Fergie in real life! How did I not know that??!! Probably because I no longer subscribe to People Magazine and news to me is that Johnnie Depp is the voice for the surf guru in an upcoming new Spongebob episode that priemeres April 17th (can't wait!) Anyway, here is the clip of Kids Incorporated:

Check List

Clean kitchen - Check!

Filed Taxes - Check!

Read - Check!

(Do a little dance.)

I don't have much to write about today because I've been a boring person and didn't pay much attention to my kids today because I was working on working out my finances, which pretty much involved me staring at an Excel spreadsheet trying to figure out what more we can cut from the budget and beginning to think that food and health insurance are waaay overrated!

My husband ran some errands this morning. I had 3 simple tasks for him:
1. Deposit checks at bank.
2. Return library book.
3. Mail state tax return by certified mail, buy a book of stamps, and mail 2 bills.

He did really well with the first two items on the checklist, and he successfully mailed the tax return certified mail, but he neglected to put stamps on the other two letters before mailing them. It was a blonde moment for him (I can say that because I'm a native blonde.) Thankfully the bills weren't due this week. Hopefully they will be returned to us shortly and we will try again in a couple of days- brunette style.

Blog Pause

I have things to do tonight:


1. clean my kitchen
2. file my taxes
3. read

I'll be back. Meanwhile here is a picture of Jason's bed head:

Just another manic Monday.

I called our mortgage company today to see if we could get our mortgage payment reduced. Apparently you need to have an income to qualify for a reduction. Ok, if I HAD an income, I wouldn't be asking for a reduction. Anyway, I guess it makes sense? I'm going to buy my husband a pair of roller skates so he can serve burgers at Sonic in order to qualify us.

Every Monday night we have Family Home Evening and part of the agenda is "Musical Numbers" when each child gets to sing a song, do a dance or both. Tonight Sarah sang her ABC's:
Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz. Now I know my abc's, next time won't you visit me.

She's my social child. I guess I've never taught how to sing the song correctly.

I should probably also teach her to hold her fingers correctly. (She's not flipping the bird.)

My favorite thing to do right now is watch this little girl walk. She's finally mastered it by the age of 14 months. Her heart definitely belongs to me.

The Gospel According to ABBA

First of all, my apologies to those who I go to church with:
I've discovered that I'm immune to my own children's noise. My child can bang the hymn book open and closed in church and I don't even hear it until I see him doing it. Who knows how long he had it slapping together and driving the childless couple behind us crazy. So I apologize for the past and I apologize for the future -- I'm sorry if I can't hear my own children.

Now here is some lovely poetry for the Sabbath:

People Need Love

People need hope, people need loving
People need trust from a fellow man
People need love to make a good living
People need faith and a helping hand

Man has always wanted a woman by his side to keep him company
Women always knew that it takes a man to get matrimonial harmony
Everybody knows that a man who's feeling down wants some female sympathy
Gotta have love to carry on living
Gotta have love till eternity

People need hope, people need loving
People need trust from a fellow man
People need love to make a good living
People need faith and a helping hand

Flowers in the desert need a drop of rain like a woman needs her man
If a mans in love and his woman wants the moon
Then he'll take it down if he can
Somebody who loves you and somebody who cares
Isn't that what you'd call a friend?
Gotta have love to carry on living
You can have peace if you understand

People need hope, people need loving
People need trust from a fellow man
People need love to make a good living
People need faith and a helping hand

-ABBA

Now a quote from President Thomas S. Monson that I heard in church today. He said this without a moment's hesitation when he was asked on his birthday this past August what would be the ideal gift that members worldwide could give him.:

“Find someone who is having a hard time, . . . and do something for them.”

I like that. People need faith and a helping hand.

Just a lazy Saturday...

...watching Spongebob with my kids. I love Spongebob.

Happy Spring!

It's spring!

Time to bring out the fake snakes to keep the deer away from our garden.

My favorite part of Spring is when the Dogwoods are in bloom.

Tonight Rachel was so frustrated that she couldn't get her bottle out of her crib.

When she finally calmed down, she decided to drink it hamster style.

Happy Spring!

A Happy Day!

I woke up today to some kisses by Rachel. She has learned how to lean forward and touch her lips to mine. With David as a witness, we heard her grunt, "kisses." That was awesome and it made me happy.

Laundry day! I washed, folded, AND put away the clothes all in one day. That made me happy.

Rachel helped me fold. When Track 04, Mama Mia, came on, Rachel looked at me, stood up, and started dancing by turning in circles. That made me super (trouper) happy.

I bleached my shower curtain liner.

I know. It's a picture of a boring white shower curtain liner. But if you had seen the before picture, you would be impressed that I was able to get it white again. That made me happy.

I bleached my white washcloths. They were becoming a dingy orange.

That made me happy.

We took a portion of some rare earnings (which made me happy) this week and ate at McDonald's for dinner. We splurged and bought the kids ice cream cones. While we were there we witnessed 64 ounces of Fruitopia spill on the floor -- 32 oz. by Bradley and 32 oz. by Rachel. We witnessed Jason fall off his chair, smack on the floor, and manage to keep his ice cream cone in hand without touching it to the floor. That made me happy, but I wish I had my camera.

I used the money I saved from not having to buy a new shower curtain liner to optimistically buy three $2 clearance maternity shirts. I'm not pregnant, but there are only 22 more waiting period days for the maternity coverage on our new insurance policy. Those shirts will make me happy when I'm fat and pregnant and wanting new clothes to make me feel pretty.

I asked Wendy this evening on our way upstairs to bed why she was so short. Her reply was, "Cause..... I like it." Apparently she thinks she is in control of her height. That made me smile.

On the way home I saw a gas station with an upside down '8' on their $1.85 price sign. That bothers me. It makes me uncomfortable to see a top heavy 8.

I'm sitting here at 10:11 PM in a quiet house. That makes me happy, but I still have dirty dishes to wash. That makes me cringe.

I would say today was a HAPPY day!

I do have something to say

I can't let a day go by without expressing something.

I'm not sure what Mattel was thinking when they came up with this product

Barbie Totally Stylin' Tatoos

Every time the commercial comes on TV my little girls say, "Mommy! I want that for my birthday!"

I say, "NO!"

Call me old-fashioned, but I'm just not keen on the idea of putting the idea into a 3+ year old's head that she should be sporting tatoos. I think I'd rather have my kid run with a stick.

What happened to the days of Pink 'n Pretty and Golden Dream Barbie? Oooo! and Barbie and the Rockers! I LOVED the neon spandex, leather mini skirts, big hair, and Ken's mullet. Everyday after school my best friend and I would walk home and play Barbies at my house. Here is a flash from my past. I LOVED this cassette. I don't know how many times I played this tape in my bubblegum pink cassette player. I don't recall any of the Rockers having tatoos.

What was your favorite Barbie?

I don't have much to say today. I'm that boring. Not even a picture!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The Fondue Was a Hit

I didn't think this would be able to satisfy 8 people. But it did!

This is the container of frosting that I didn't open yesterday to frost the sides of my husband's cake, all to save $1.25. This frosting has been kicking around my kitchen (and I mean that literally) for the past 3 months. I bought it before Christmas for Christmas cookies. I can't count the number of times I've picked that thing up off the floor and put it back on its shelf. Tonight when Jason wasn't coming upstairs to bed I came downstairs and caught him with a white index finger up to his top knuckle. I guess he enjoyed the whole dipping

stuff into sweets thing.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

He got pictures from the kids.

A nice homemade red velvet cake.


I call it the unemployment cake. I was too cheap to open a new can of frosting to frost the sides.


Double checking the number of candles. Indeed there were 38. I wasn't too cheap for candles.

Rachel is starting to get the hang of this whole birthday celebration thing.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

He also got a ceramic fondue pot from me ($1.00 at Walmart's 90% Valentine clearance) and a FM portable wireless transmitter to plug the iPod into the car ($1.00 at Target's 90% Christmas clearance.) I hope it works. It was a good birthday.

Clarification

This afternoon I attended a baptism at our church for an 8 year old girl. I brought Emily and bed-head Bradley (I forgot to comb his hair before we left) with me. For the opening hymn we sang hymn #116 from our church's hymnbook titled, "Come, Follow Me." It's a nice hymn. It's one of those that we commonly sing because of its generic lyrics. (Are they called lyrics in a hymn?) Anway, I'm always afraid that visitors might get confused when we sing verse 3. The words are:

Is it enough alone to know

That we must follow him below,

While traveling through this vale of tears?

No, this extends to holier spheres.

I could see a skeptical visitor who might have missed the first verse, sing the second line of the above verse and say, "Aha! I knew it! Mormons do worship the devil!"

So I want to clarify when we sing the second line of the third verse, "That we must follow him below," we are NOT referring to Satan. It simply means that we are following Him (above in Heaven) from below (on Earth.) Make sense? Phew! I just wanted to be sure that was clear.

Oh yes, and "Him" = Our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now I'll leave you with the first verse:

"Come, follow me," the Savior said,

Then let us in his footsteps tread,

For thus alone can we be one

With God's own loved, begotten Son.

Amen!

(That's not actually part of the hymn. That's just me saying Amen.)

Matthew 4:19

Phantom Child Syndrome

I told you yesterday that my husband took the boys camping last night which left me with just the 4 girls. I love a quiet house with only four girls. They played dollhouse and Barbies, made popcorn, and watched Barbie and the Magic Pegasus. We also worked on finishing off the rest of the non-chocolate Halloween candy that I forgot about. I'm not sure if the house was quiet because there were 2 less kids or because the boys were gone or both. Either way, I still suffered Phantom Child Syndrome. You know how when a person gets a limb removed such as their leg or arm, but they still feel that limb and get itching or painful sensations where the limb used to be? It's called Phantom Limb Syndrome.

Mother's can get it too when their children are gone.

While my boys were gone, I realized that I am constantly counting and checking on the whereabouts of my children. It doesn't always have to be visual. If I can hear babbling from another room, the toilet flush, or smell a poopy diaper, I know my child is near. All the senses play an important role in parenting.

This morning I lay on the couch and took inventory of my children. I saw Emily in the girl's tent, I heard Sarah dramatizing a Barbie saga, I felt Wendy sitting at my feet, and I saw Rachel on the floor eating a roll of Smarties (a couple of which I tasted.) My inventory was complete, but I could still sense a two year old in the other room making a mess. I sensed him climbing on the kitchen counter looking for chocolate. I sensed animal crackers and milk spilling on the kitchen floor. It was weird. There where phantom children in the house.

The phantom children are home now and here is a picture of Bradley shooting a BB gun on his camping trip and Jason walking off into the woods:

Keeping it short

I'm going to keep it short tonight. My boys are camping. It's just the girls and me. It's a night I can stick them in a tent in the family room, pop in a Barbie Movie, and do whatever I want. Don't know what yet, but I'll figure something out. I think I'm going to mop the kitchen floor. My floors are disgusting.

Justice

The other day I was feeling guilty that my youngest two children receive a lot of attention on my blog. So to be fair, they all get a photo today:

She's still growing into her teeth.

He was mad that we were highly encouraging him to try a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He is stubborn.

We celebrated Valentine's Day the other day (March 6th) with these boxes of chocolate I got at Walmart for $0.10 on clearance.

This probably would've been a great picture if there wasn't a huge 'ol banana in her face.

Her new favorite stool.

And of course Jason gets the video.

And a picture:
Seriously, how can you resist that? It's this look that makes me want to let him stay up and sit with me while I blog. I'm such a pushover! He put himself to bed at midnight after he ate a banana.

I know his charming cuteness isn't going to last long. I'm capturing while it lasts.

The Bachelor Blues

The Bachelor is over. I'm bored. Melissa is heartbroken in Dallas, Jason and Molly are probably making out in a tent somewhere in Seattle, and I sit hear looking at my popcorn and shredded cheese infested kitchen floor on a Monday night.

But wait. Here is a little love story that I have to tell. Have I told you that my husband and I met online? I think most people who know me, know that little tid bit about my personal life, but here's a brief synopsis of how it happened.

• November 15-ish, 1999 I joined www.ldssinglesonline.com/ for an $8/month subscription. (Yes, I was desperate. The California boys weren't my type.)


• November 18 - David joined.


• November 23 - I got a message from some guy named "David."


• I wrote him back and told him to post a picture because his profile didn't have one yet.
  
• He posted a picture, I thought he was cute and we kept emailing.


• November 24 - we exchanged phone numbers. We talked on the phone on the 26th.


• November 30 - he bought a plane ticket to come see me. (We split the cost. $100 each.)


• December 4 - he arrived in L.A. for his stay through the 7th. He stayed at my friend's house. We liked each other. Actually, we like liked each other. We attended a baptism. We went to church. We ate lunch and went shopping in Santa Monica. We took a walk on the beach in the evening (it was sooo cold!) We walked around the L.A. temple. We ate fajitas and played Phase 10 with my parents. We reluctantly said good bye at the airport. (I might add here that my parents weren't too thrilled with the whole me meeting up with someone I met online thing. But I think they warmed up to him by the end of the trip.)
  
• I went to Hawaii for a month to help my sister-in-law while my brother was overseas in the military.


• David and I got to know each other more through email and a little bit of phone. We set a tentative wedding date for August.


• January 27 - David and I drove in my 1991 Honda Civic across the country from L.A. to east coast, stopping in San Antonio to meet his family. We drove 24 hours straight to San Antonio so we wouldn't have to stay in a hotel and 24 hours straight from San Antonio to final destination. I got pulled over once during the trip, but didn't get a ticket. (Probably because I was cute.)
  
• February 2-ish - we picked out an engagement ring. There was a 50% off sale at the jewelry store. I put it on my credit card because David was broke. (Hmm. Red flag? Nah! I love you honey, even when you're broke.)
  
• February 11 - we got engaged in the nasty and dirty kitchen of his and his roommates bachelor pad on the day they were moving to a new bachelor pad. (I know. So romantic.)


• April 21, 2000 - We got married.


• The rest is history.

That is our proof that online dating can be successful. We testified to ldssingles.com and wrote this. It's still posted on their website in their long, long list of success stories:

March 02, 2000

We would like to bear our testimony that LDSSO is the true Internet dating service. We LOVE this service! We LOVE LDSSingle.com! We LOVE it! So, Melinda and i are engaged to be married on April 21. Cool, huh? Yeah, it is. Let me see, i sent her my first message on November 23 and flew out to CA, (that's 2600 miles) on December 4. We fell crazy in love that weekend. Oh, yeah, we did. Then, she moved out here on January, um, what was it, 26? Yeah. Now she's a mule-driving tour guide, and we're looking forward to getting married and stuff, and all is well. Ok, good luck, all. Rock on.

David and Melinda

Ok. We are slightly embarrassed by that blurb, but I had to post it. It's a fun part of our history. I would definitely be more embarrassed watching myself kissing a guy on national television. I get embarrassed even when it isn't me.

Pay it Forward

Ok, so the other day I got a random comment on my sexy laundry post. I always get excited when new people comment and I always check out their blog as well. The current post she had for that day was this:

The first 3 people that comment on this blog post, will get something awesome handmade by me, within 12 months. Might I add that this generous time limit is awesome? If you want to join the pay it forward mania, tell me and then post something on your own blog to pay it forward.

She only had 1 comment so far and I didn't know if I should comment to get something free and handmade by this what seemed-to-be-a-cool-person. I timidly went for it and she seemed happy to make something for a stranger. Yay! I was so excited. So now I am paying it forward. The first 3 people who comment on this post will get something handmade by me within the next 12 months. I'm not promising great artisitc ability, but I will try. If you live where I have to mail it, it will likely be something small and light, but still awesome. I'm just cheap like that. So comment people! I want something else to add to my to-do list and I know you do to!

This is my monkey boy:

He was hungry for a banana. He used his concentration face while getting it opened. He refused any help. -- "MY do it!"

He used his sad face to express that he was upset that he peeled too much.

He used his pouty face during several failed attempts to replace the missing peel.

His happy face came back when Mommy salvaged the detached peel with some masking tape.

The stop-taking-my-picture-and-let-me-eat-my-banana-in-peace face.

Oo oo. Ah ah.

Now don't forget to comment.