21 is a Good Number of Months

Well little thing, you've made it this far. So let's enjoy this month in review.

After church, which is about a 2 minute drive from home(because your mommy? she is lazy) and I promised you that we'd see our kitty if you got into the car. You acquiesced to my request but when we walked in the front door, and you saw the kitty you pointed and said "Kitty!' like "Holy crap! I didn't know he was going to be here! This is so awesome!" which made me giggle.

But not all the days have been roses and sunshine. Camping this past weekend, you went with your grandparents on Wednesday, but I couldn't come up until Friday. When I got there, everyone wanted to tell me about what funny thing you had done, mostly about how you threw a fit and laid on the dirt or smacked your great grandma in the face. So when someone came up to me and said, "Your little girl is so cute" I finished her statement "but so evil." Unfortunately, I don't think that was where she was going with her statement, but honey, you really are evil. Last night brought 2 time outs in the period of 4 minutes. They seem to work temporarily but not long term. I guess your logic skills aren't advanced enough to know that when you do something bad you get punished. Just so you know, your grandmothers are both requesting corporal punishment for you, but I have not given in to their demands for "soft smacks on the hand" mostly because I don't think I'll be able to do that without being angry and super nanny hasn't given me the go-ahead yet.

Feeding you is insane. There is nothing that you consistently will eat that gives you any nutrients. Broccoli is still okay, but you won't eat a meals with of it. Mac'n'cheese? You need the spiral noodles and then it's only a maybe. Even cheese, you'll be loving it and 2 seconds later you're spitting it out and cursing its name. Hot dogs can find favor with you, but I haven't figured out what the trick to those are.

You are really into singing right now. If there is music you will generally sing your own words and tune with it. At church you sang your little heart out during the hymns even though your words weren't English, but it was totally cute.

We did make it to the park this month. We stayed forever! I brought a picnic lunch, but you were too interested in sliding and running and swinging to even think about eating. Not even the juice box could keep you all there for long. You do have a very short attention span, so we swing for about 3 minutes, then it's run to the slides for a few times up and down. then push the keys on the broken xylophone then, hey! swinging! and then, wait, there are slides? and so on. We both got a bit too much sun even with our sunscreen and you went down hard for your nap.

There are still good times and hard times, I guess that's life and i wouldn't trade you in for anything else. Probably not even a pony.

Love,

mama

Window Shopping for Blinds

Okay, Niki is putting together a yard sale for our mutual friend Mindy, who is having some health issues. I'm sure there aren't many people that read my site, and those who do probably already read Niki's post http://wrappedinivy.blogspot.com/2008/06/de-clutter-your-living-space-help.html but I figured if I get to one more person that's enough.

Please donate any unused/unneeded items to this sale. So start going through those garages and closets!
We are in need of items in good to fair condition such as:
Books
CD's / DVD's
Furniture items
Kitchen items such as dishes
appliances in working condition,
Clothing (especially childrens clothing)
Home decor items such as lamps, picture frames, clocks, vases, etc.
Toys
Etc. etc. etc.

Any items that fail to sell will be donated to The Road Home of Salt Lake City and Deseret Industries.

So I know that I have some crap to donate and I bet you do too! Don't be lame and let me know!

Yikes! Okay, so when I said this blog wouldn't be all about my child, I lied, since nothing else will make me motivated enough to post.
Going camping this weekend, in theory that should provide a lot of blog fodder next week, but knowing me I'll only think about blogging and then, poof, my brain will magically ignore it all. Husband is leaving next week, he'll be gone for 3 months. I've known this was coming, but since it kept getting pushed back, I could almost pretend I would never have to deal with it. Now I'm going to have to deal with being a really real single mom (without the dating) for that long. Husband has been doing good lately, picking up our daughter since I'm working extra to take Fridays off and helping with the chores. So now that he's doing well, he has to go! It's for the best, he needs to get there and get this thing done with, but he's going to miss our 7th anniversary, my birthday and our little one's birthday, not to mention the rest of the summer, which since it's finally warm, just started.
I know I have the awesome help of my family and friends and I really do appreciate all the things everyone does for our little family, but I haven't had to do this solo thing since before Hayley was born, so I don't know how well I'm going to be able to handle it. Of course I will handle it, because there's nothing else to do but keep trucking, so I will, but things have been so hard as it is right now and they are going to get just a little bit harder.
But I do have you, Internet. Thank goodness for that.
In other news, I'm totally starving. Okay, I'm not one of those kids in Africa, but holy smokes I could devour a sandwich! Or a Goat! (only in gyro form of course) Mmmm smothered in tzatziki sauce. Anyway, so camping this weekend, hope your weekend is lovely too.

20 Months of Wow

This month has been one of words! You know what animals make what sounds and where the fish live (water, obv) and can repeat most of the alphabet on cue if I tell what to letters to say. Q, R U & W are tricky ones, but you try and that’s good enough.
Dancing is your new fun thing. You are totally into New Wave, but as Daddy proved with his country “music” you’ll dance to anything with a beat. You’re also a real TV addict now. If you can con someone into turning on your videos you will watch them over and over. If the TV isn’t on, you’re miffed about it and keep pointing and grunting. Sorry babe, I can’t let the TV babysit you, apparently they rot your…hey what was I saying? Oh well.
It’s getting warmer and so we starting to take little walks some evenings, you’re still into just watching the world from your stroller, and so that’s fine with me. I’ve been wanting to take you to the tiny park near the house, but that has not been in the cards, but this weekend, fingers crossed, we’ll make it. I say this as it’s raining buckets outside, so we’ll see. But you love swings, our at your uncle’s house, they have a swing set and every single time you went back and forth you said “Whee” so I figured you were having a good time, but then when we had to leave you sobbed and threw a fit! Speaking of throwing a fit, I tried one of the shopping carts that is also a little car for you to drive. We were shopping for a long time, so when it was time to get back into the car, I figured you would be done with it. No sir! You had a little meltdown there in the parking lot. That was fun.
Feeding you is still tricky. Some days mac and cheese will cut it, but some days it’s like poison to your little mouth. But I have discovered that you love raisins, so there is one thing I can get you to eat and they are very portable. We can take raisins to church!
That poor cat, you love him, but it’s very tough love. He will sit there and let you pull out his hair trying to pull him onto your lap or when you try to turn his head for him so you can kiss him. Every time we pull into the driveway you always starting exclaiming “kitty, kitty” and the only way I can get you to leave to go home is by reminding you that there’s a kitty at home who needs you.
I’ve been scrambling to make sure you have a summer wardrobe as when that oppressive summer heat hits us, you’ll need something other then long pants. Time will only tell if I’ve gotten enough shorts to manage the long sweaty days ahead.
You’re going to have to have some more patience with me, as I have very little patience left at the end of the day and can get very frustrated with you. It doesn’t help that your very stubborn and independent now. You have to do everything your way, heaven help us all if I try and tell you no about something. Oh don’t get me started on time outs. They seemed to work for awhile, but now, I can’t get you to sit on the naughty stair for all the tea in China. You melt right off it and onto the floor and then you think you can just go chase the cat as long as I’m not paying attention. I’ve got news for you kiddo, I’m always paying attention. Which leaves us in the middle of our power struggle. I don’t think we’re going to get this resolved any time soon, no matter how much Super Nanny I watch, but I’m sticking to my guns. There will be some kind of discipline in our house!
But for every fit or meltdown is a moment of spun gold where you want me to read to you and climb up on my lap, or you repeat something I just said out of the blue. When that happens all my tensions are released and we just giggle and go back to having fun.

Here’s to more fun this month,
Mama

Where I Get a Little Serious

I had a funny little ditty post in my head to post today, but in light of recent tragic events in my not so immediate family. I wanted to write some thoughts instead.
http://obits.kutv.com/search/show_listing/2506
At first I was reluctant to attend the funeral, no one likes funerals and I had meetings at work and it was 30 minutes away. One of my meetings was canceled, so I took that as a sign I should go.
Lindsey was my second cousin or something, my mom could tell you, she is good at all that relative-figuring-out stuff, but all I know is that her dad is my dad’s cousin. I didn’t know her. We may have meet a few times, but we rarely saw each other and so would spend out time playing with our closer cousins that we knew better.

During the funeral I was introduced to a person I would have really liked and would have liked to have known better. Sometimes you hear stories about inspiring people, they do inspiring things or overcome inspiring odds. But Lindsey through the way she lived, has inspired me. I sat there and listened to the beautiful memories and wondered if there would be that much good to say about me. I’m not saying that I’m a terrible person or that everyone hates me and will be singing “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” but will I have lived the life that would tell it’s own story. Lindsey lived with passion and excitement that I could feel just hearing about it. She lived life to the fullest at all times. Going hiking and running marathons. She worked hard making sure that the boys she worked with all knew that she was no delicate flower and could keep up with them. She also knew what is really important. She was friends with everyone she knew and that was evidenced in the high attendance at the church. She also had a wonderful testimony. It was high praise indeed that her bishop said when she shared her testimony with him before leaving on her mission it was the most spiritually filled his office had ever been, and that’s a man that gets the Lord’s help every step of the way.
I found it very interesting and poignant that during the funeral they sand a song from the musical Wicked “For Good” which I’ve only known for about a month now. This song makes me cry driving around in the car and I thought it especially beautiful today:

It well may be

That we will never meet again

In this lifetime

So let me say before we part

So much of me

Is made of what I learned from you

You'll be with meLike a handprint on my heart

Like a comet pulled from orbit

As it passes a sun

Like a stream that meets a boulder

Halfway through the wood

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you

I have been changed For Good

I guess I need to say that because I knew of Lindsey, I have been changed for good. It’s hard to know that her family had to say goodbye to her so early, but while there may be regrets on our end of things she never got to do, but there aren’t regrets over the things she’s done. She lived more life in her 23 years then I have, and I envy her that and vow to live in a way that there won’t be regrets for the things I said or did.
Death is always hard on those left behind, but life is so valuable because it ends. It’s precious and fleeting, we only get our own lifetime to live and while sometimes it seems like things happen for no reason, there is reason, it’s just that we don’t understand what it is. That’s why the gospel is so important, it really know that we can be together forever, it does take the sting of death away somewhat. And as Psalms 30 tells us, weeping may endure for a night, but Joy cometh in the morning. It may be a long night, but eventually comes the morning. Knowing that Lindsey will be with her family again makes it easier for them to let her go, because it’s only for a season.
I hope that I can make changes in the way I live and make them stick. Even after her passing Lindsey is still motivating people to live better!

Floating Through the Atmosphere

I feel so directionless at the moment. I have virtually no life goals, or than the basics of "live and let live" that sort of thing. I no longer have a date of action events. I could very easily end up just like my boss who just got the "35 years long service" award. My work is a black hole. It's comfortable and I know it and most of the time it's pretty easy as long as I don't actually care about trying to go by the state policy and just do whatever my bosses want instead. I'm looking for a new job, but in a very lazy way. I'm looking for jobs online and i even applied to one since it was all online and perfect. It was working with numbers. I'm through working with people, I just want to punch them all in the face, so I should work with numbers, they don't have faces to punch. But I didn't hear anything about it and it's been a while. The problem is, I make decent money and I can't seem to find anything that I would actually want to do that would pay me more and more is the only way to go.

I was at a bridal shower for a cousin with all the family I rarely see and people asking me about working, etc and I can't even smile and say "It's fine!" I told my cousin-in-law that I'm going to die at my current job and I couldn't loathe it more. I'm sure that's what she was looking for in conversation from me while her daughter used the restroom. I'm a regular ray of light.

The problem is going some place new will require effort and it's easier just to stay put and not make quite enough money and despise my job then it is to find a new job and learn new things.

Still, it's made me very pessimistic about life the universe and everything. And no plans. If you asked me what I would like to happen in 2008, I think I might to able to manage a blank stare, but there will be an underlining current of cynicism about the "future" as I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. And the tunnel seems more like an underground labyrinth (without David Bowie in stretch pants) in which I seem doomed to wander endlessly.

But hey, at least it's sunny today! Maybe I have SADS that works in reverse.

Is There Room in My Heart

About 2 weeks ago just as I walked in the door, Husband was calling me and telling me to head over to the PetSmart and bring the check book.
About 2 years ago, we gave our cat to Michael's brother and his family because he was going a little nuts being alone all day. Now the family is pretty tired of him and their little girls basically just torture him, so when they asked when we wanted our cat back, I decided that since they took him off our hands with the agreement that if things didn't work out, we would take him back, we should do the gracious thing and take him back.
So while we are still waiting for the return of our old cat, Nemo, Husband decided that Nemo would need a friend for when we're at work. I was apprehensive. Honestly, I've enjoyed not having to shut doors and vacuum everyday, not to mention that I don't love shoveling animal crap. Husband showed me the little guy that had won his heart. I still didn't really want another animal. I was done after the second cat died. I didn't want to be a cat person again. I was done with animals, I'm not a clean freak, so it makes my house that much dirtier faster, plus there's all the people that are allergic. My dad, my sister in law, my friends. I didn't want to go back to being the house where people can't go or the stinky house because I know that I'm lazy, and lazy people shouldn't be in charge of the litter box.
This cat is nice, he's very lovey-dovey and he's not black! He's a brown and black tabby with a white throat and paws. He actually looked just like the cat on the adoption flyer they gave us. So about $300 later we are the proud owners of a new cat.
So I am mildly allergic, I can't remember the last time I sneezed so much. I didn't want to like him. But Hayley loves him with the fire of the sun and he's really good with her, doesn't scratch her when she sits on him and he hasn't been meowing in the middle of the night and scratching on our door. We've named him Link because he has lynx-like black tuffs on his ears and Well, the Legend of Zelda rocks!
Last night Link and I were watching TV because he's the lappingest lap cat ever and I realized that i was smiling, grinning from ear to ear because of the little purring machine on my lap.
So I guess there is room in my heart for one more cat.

19 Months, Hey!

You are now 19 months, but will all the attitude you’re throwing around you might as well be 19 years old. I can’t even count the times you yelled “No!” at me, sometimes when I want you to do something and sometimes for just being.
We have recently acquired a new cat and you are in love. You chase the cat around the house and when we can get you to sit for a minute he has been known to curl up on your lap while you hug the crap out of him. Of course he has also been someone to face your wrath as you shake things at him and yell “No!” Seems I am not the only person you must express your displeasure at.
Your eating is still touch and go, some days you will devour things I never thought you would and some days you live on air and sunshine. Although macaroni is usually in favor now as long as there is ample ketchup to go around. You are definitely related to your grandfather, he is also a lover of all things ketchup covered. I didn’t try to make you this way, it’s the way you were born.
For as much trouble as you have been lately, you’ve also been a ton of fun. There have been days where I completely lost track of time while we’re playing. There is nothing better then your little giggle when I’m teasing you. You are also fine playing by yourself. You love to take blankets and put your stuffed animals to sleep and tell them little stories and sing them little songs. You also love to “read” your books while sitting in your chair and carefully turning the pages. You are big enough to climb up onto the paino bench and open up the keys and play all by yourself. It’s neat to hear you experimenting with sounds and sneak hearing you sing your little songs. You don’t realize that I can hear you over the wall in the kitchen yet.
You’re getting used to the nursery at church. You love with the other kids, but you are so sure about me leaving you there, but I have to! I’m sure you get over your crying quickly as when I come to get you (almost 2 hours later!) they tell me how good you were.
You are definitely more independent everyday. You want to walk (or run!) whenever possible. You don’t want me to hold you or carry you. This can create a bit of a problem at stores or in crowds or restaurants. Luckily I haven’t lost you yet, but it’s only a matter of time. But when we look back at you getting lost, we’ll both know it was completely your fault.
We’ve started time outs and they do seem to work, although sometimes I don’t think you know what it’s really all about yet. Give it time little one and you’ll be screaming your way through time outs and saying how mean we are to you.
Your vocabulary is increasing by leaps and bounds. Now you can mimic a lot of words and will even say “please” when prompted. Mostly it’s still gibberish, but you also make meowing sounds if you’re trying to play with the cat. It’s adorable.
I can’t wait to see what this next month brings!

Love you,
Mama

Berlin, Baby

It was Friday night. I had just gotten home and dinner was in the oven. Then Erika calls and says Berlin is playing in Park City later that night and we should totally go. I agreed, mostly because I needed a night out, but I was stressed as I didn’t know how quickly I could finish dinner, get ready put the child to bed and go. I was also thinking that I would probably only know about 2 Berlin songs, but Erika and I would find a way to make it fun.
Getting ready for a concert takes time and effort, neither of which I had. I wanted to be a bit eighties so I threw on a bright red shirt and tried to be slimming by wearing black pants.
Erika and I headed up the canyon. It was a nice drive because it was so late in the evening. The doors didn’t open until 9 and when Erika had called, we found out that Berlin wouldn’t even be taking the stage until after eleven.
When we had almost gotten there I pulled out the newspaper with the ad in it to find the address. That’s when I saw this concert was for the Park City Prom Night. I’d heard just a little about that and thought it was awesome! I wanted to go and wear a bridesmaids dress or something super cool and 80’s. Doh! Hopefully next year! We went in and they were spinning 80’s tunes and there was a small dance floor! Erika and I got our picture taken and wanted it to be a true prom picture and I think it turned out that way.
Neither of us were prepared to be dancing our little butts off, but it was so fun! It was like going to the club on 80’s night and having no one else on the dance floor! Mostly it was me, Erika and some skanky lady grinding against her boy toy. But it was super fun! They played George Michael’s “Faith” and I totally shook my booty for it. There was an opening band. They mostly played 80’s covers, which was awesome, but they mixed in there own songs a little, which weren’t awesome. But if I had known there were really people like that, I would have had them play at my wedding! Of course then the colors would have had to be hot pink and turquoise to fit the theme, but fun!
During the opening band the “dance floor” got pretty packed but Erika and I ended up state right at the very front. Then Berlin. Terri Nunn came out in a cute coat and started the rocking with “Masquerade.” Everyone thinks of the song from Top Gun when they think of Berlin, but because I watch a lot of VH1, I knew that song was the reason that band broke up, because they hated playing it because really Berlin is a new wave punk band. But I didn’t know how hard they would rock! Terri was coming to the very front of the stage and the crowd went nuts, we could have reached out and touched her. She almost hit me with the microphone once. It was sweet. I didn’t recognize all the songs, but we also heard “No More Words”, “Sex (I’m a…)”, “Shiny”, “Hideaway” and during “The Metro” she sat on the speaker right in front of us and held Erika’s hand and Erika being totally flustered but her other hand on her knee! Mostly Erika was just trying to remember the words to the song, so we could look like real fans.
They played a cover of a Prince song, but I don’t like Prince, but I was excited for Erika, she does like Prince. I was excited to hear her play Depeche Mode's "Never Let me Down Again", she also played a very slow acoustic version of Duran Duran’s “Come Undone” which she said she added to the setlist after her mother passed away. IT was sweet but she was sitting in a chair, with her legs open. In a short skirt. You see where I’m going with this? Luckily she was wearing tights (which were grey and awesome), so basically it was just trying not to look at her crotch, since we were at that just right angle. But Terri looked amazing, absolutely gorgeous. She’s aged incredibly well and now me and Erika have girl crushes on her. I was very impressed with her energy. At one point she got on the shoulders of a security guard and went through the crowd a little. She was such a rock star! There was a little musical interlude. The keyboardist played a song while Terri had a costume change. She came back all gothed out! She was wearing a corset and these awesome high heeled boots with the toes and heels cut out! We were so close that not only could we see that she has a mole on the side of her stomach, we could have also touched it! Eww!
The very last song was “Take my Breath Away” and it was really lovely, but kind of out of place. But I was very impressed because Terri had been screaming and doing all the rock singing all night, but her voice on this song was soaring and flawless. For the encore Terri came out with a black feather boa and asked if we wanted to dance. Then she told the people up front to climb onto the stage and dance with her! I went totally retarded but I was all about that! The security guard reached down for my hand, but then I didn’t know how to pull myself up without using both hands, so the poor guy had to dang me onto the stage while I flopped like a fish. I have some nasty bruises on my thigh from it! But I got a bright pink boa and while the stage was pretty crowded, I was up on stage dancing with Terri Nunn while she performed! Unfortunately it was a cover of that Mason Song “Dope Show” and I didn’t have to listen, I just had to dance! It was super sweet. Unfortunately I was not a genius and left my camera at home. Erika was able to get one decent picture on her ancient cell phone camera, but it doesn’t do justice to just how close we were to her. If I had brought my camera, I’d have evidence of the mole!
It was such an incredible night, Erika and I left on a major high. Even getting pulled over and told that ‘stop signs look the same from the east coast to the west coast’ didn’t put a damper on our excitement!
Berlin, I’d definitely see you in concert again!

Someone Looks More Like Mommy!

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Holy Crap! I've been Tagged!

Okay, so Tari tagged me! Of course I had stopped reading her blog because she never updated it, and then when i wasn't looking, she tagged me!
So I'll try to do this some justice.

10 Years Ago: I was going to college at Westminster and living at home and probably working for Convergys where I would try and retain just a little piece of my soul before they crushed it all out. I was all sorts of dark and depressing too, don't forget that.

5 Things On My To-Do List: Read some more blogs, get a better job, go to my stupid weight lifting class, look busy, make some awesome Salmon Pasta for dinner!

5 Snacks I Enjoy: What snacks do I not enjoy? Marshmallows, hostess cakes of any kind, Ranch Wheat Thins, chocolate, ice cream (what? Desserts = snacks to me!)

5 Places I've Lived: Murray City, UT, Littleton CO, Orlando FL, Sandy UT and Taylorsville UT

What Would I Do if I Suddenly Became a Billionaire: After I gave my job the finger (metaphorically, of course) I would buy a huge house, with a pool and hire a personal chef and trainer. I would buy a really cool car like a mini or some Hybrid so that while I look down on the poor people I can feel that I'm doing good things for the environment.
After that, I may spread the wealth, give family and poor people some money or whatever, but that's after I'm earning like $50,000 a day on the interest from the loads of cash I have in the bank!

5 Jobs I've Had: Residency Approver, Refund Issuer, Customer Phone-In Punching Bag, Sales Clerk for Big Box Company, Cash Register-Runner for the Little Guy

5 Things You Don't Know About Me: That I'm a chronic liar (or am I?) I love Hannah Montana! (Hey! Some people might not know!) That I have a phone phobia when talking to strangers. That INVU because URAQT! My head is filled with so much celebrity info that I can't remember why I headed into the kitchen.

Now I tag: Whoever! I don't want to put any pressure on anyone unduly, so just if you feel the urge, post some randomness about yourself!

Can It Be? 18 Months?

Oh my little girl, you are SO big now! You said with clear distinction "Shoe" yesterday. You are starting to really mimic things we say, or at least try to, where you used to stop talking if we tried to get you to repeat a word. Now you know that you're trying to communicate!
Easter was a blast! We did a little "practice round" with the plastic eggs in the living room, but boy were you happy to find these little treasures outside! You looked so adorable in your little pink dress and you curls running around in the bright morning light and finding all the (completely unhidden) eggs. You were even happier to find out that in some eggs, there was chocolate. And the heavens opened and the angels wept with joy.

You are now officially in nursery at church so your father can quit being such a baby about how hard it is to watch you, because I have to watch 4 kids you are so much worse! But I actually have to try and teach those kids something, at least with you, it's all about making sure you don't scream too loudly. But with our first week in nursery comes the first week of getting the Treat Bucket. I have to fill it with nutritious snacks for babies. I can't get you to eat any nutritious snacks, so I don't see why other people's kids should get anything from me!
Speaking of eating, I don't know what to think of you. I thought I figured out the trick to getting you to eat macaroni (ketchup!) but the trick only worked once, you have now figured out my game. I was so clever, I kept giving you things to dip into your ketchup and you would eat them! Now you just eat the ketchup and throw the food onto the floor. Thanks for that by the way.

You are so getting more lovely (possibly because of the hunger pains you must be feeling) but you hug! you hug me! Usually it's you hugging other people and trying not to actually touch me, but the other day you ran up to me and put your stubby little arms around my legs and it wasn't because you were afraid of something! Hurrah!
Now that you are starting to grow out of your 18 month sized clothing we've hit a snag. There aren't too many items of clothing in the next bigger size. And what we do have, is definitely summer wear. And March? It's not very summer-like. So I'm hoping that you can squeeze that tummy into your old clothes for just a little while longer while I figure out how to make a weeks worth of outfits out of 2 outfits. I think it might take some cash and going to the baby section in ShopKo (they have the cutest stuff!)

With the approaching warm weather comes "doing things outside" and so I've been trying to take you outside more whenever I'm home. You love it. There is nothing funnier that you running down the sidewalk. Although it gets less cute when you are headed for the street, which is where you always head. Which is weird. i know the yard is not green and lush, but it's got to be better than blacktop, right? So keeping you in the backyard is a must, behind the fence. Your fascination with rocks and the sprinkler heads is good watching. I think you'll definitely be a rock collector when you've out grown trying to put them into your mouth.

It's been a hard and interesting month, but you're weathering the storm quite well!

Love ya!

Mama

Laugh like you mean it

Looky Daddy had this post and it was so funny that even though my boss was waking past my desk at the exact same moment, I still had to laugh outloud. Good times.

Newness Squared

Okay, I just wanted to draw attention to my new masthead. Most of you have already seen it, but I just have such a little crush on it. I love the colors and the way that things blend (except that part that doesn't. Curse you Photoshop!) I seriously spent a lot of time this weekend just staring at it. That was of course, when I wasn't staring at my new fish (see how this works, when the fish are interesting, they are mine, when they are lame, they are Husband's.)

Did I mention the new fish? My brother, who is a fish expert, heard that we only clean our tank once or twice a year and almost had heart failure right there. I guess we're suppose to clean it every week. Every week? Are you kidding? When we had a cat, he was lucky if we cleaned the litterbox every week and that thing stank! The fish tank doesn't bother us if it's all grimey, because we're like that. Anyway, my brother came over on Saturday and helped to clean it. He also knew that most of our non-guppy fish had died/were eaten and so took me and Hayley to the pet store to view fish. My brother spent a lot more time diciding what out tank needed then I even thought possible. Meanwhile Hayley was trying to run through the store and take things off the shelves. Note to self: No trip inside a store is ever too short not to get a cart.
So after getting 3 bags full of different fish our tank is full to the rafters. There are 3 fish that zoom back and forth and up and down all day long. If I had known there were fish like this, I would have gotten some long ago, because these fish, they make it so interesting to stare at the tank. I spend a good 15 minutes Saturday night just watching the fish. Not the the TV, not playing with my daughter or reading a book. Watching the fish swim. Back and forth and back again. I think it's probably just that I'm easily entertained now that I watch so much Hannah Montana on the Disney channel. But man, I even had think "Okay, you're just watching fish, go to freaking bed!" and it still took another 5 minutes before I left! Like the fish were going to start a conga line just as I turned the lights off. They probably did, just to spite me.

Ice Cream Week

So this has been an ice cream kinda week here are the rockstar mom palace. Grocery shopping Monday evening I brought home nice things like pizza and marshmallows and thanks to Niki, I know the pleasures of Ben and Jerry's Cinnamon Bun ice cream. It's like a cookie dough inspired ice cream, as it has chunks of cinnamon bun dough with swirls of cinnamon strudel. Let me tell you, I am not a cinnamon person, but this is pure decadence. So I got me some and that night after Hayley went to bed I picked up my spoon and the pint and sat on the couch and went to work. I finished it off without meaning too. I did feel slightly sick but oh it was worth it.
The next day was Erika's birthday, so we went to lunch, but Erika was in no mood to go back to work, especially not on her birthday and so we decided that we needed some more ice cream. We went over to Cold Stone and I got my usual of Cake Batter ice cream. I can't put into words how much I love to eat certain things that you are suppose to bake before they have been baked. So that was the second day in a row that there was ice cream involved.
Today Erika decided that work was killing her and off to lunch we went again to La Puenta's (not that one that burned down, the one just south of that) and ate smothered burritos. We decided that since we were here, the least we could do was to eat some fried ice cream. After we split the creamy goodness I realised a pattern, I'd taken a few days off in between, but my ice cream splurge was continuing. i pointed this out to Erika and she reminded me that tomorrow I'm joining her family for birthday dinner which will, more than likely, involve ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.

So I ask you, is there such a thing as too much ice cream? At what point will I die of sweet cream poisoning? And of course, will you wheel me around after I've lost the ability to stand upright due to my ice cream obsession?

Bringing the Sexy

Watch Matt's new video and vote for him on yahoo's "Who's Next?" section.

Come On Get Higher

Me and the Rockstars Get on Fine

Matt Nathanson was one of the openers for Lifehouse here at the Depot. I’m not a Lifehouse fan, but we all know how much of a fan girl I am for little Matty. I had never been to the Depot and since I wasn’t a Lifehouse fan I figure no one else would be either, so I wasn’t worried about tickets. Lucky for me, my friend Trish is a little more anally retentive and she went and got us both tickets because the show, it sold out. I wanted Magen and Erika to come again and for Niki to join me in my Matt-love, but alas, it was not to be. So Trish and I arrange to meet downtown at the Gateway mall, since that’s where the Depot is! Who knew? So just over an hour before the doors are suppose to open I get there and check out the line. There were about 25 people in line, but it was freezing and Trish and I were hungry! So we headed over to the food court and ate and the dude at the Chinese food place tried to steal Trish’s credit card by inaction, and if she had not tried to use the ATM, we might not have known it was even missing. Seriously. We sat in front of this guy for about 25 minutes while he held onto her card and didn’t say anything! What a jerk! So after that we made it into line about 6:50 pm, thinking they would open the doors at 7 sharp and then we’d be fine. Unfortunately the line was now about 150 people long, so we got in the back and waited. And waited. And waited. 7 came and went and while the depot employees were trying to get things streamlined by going down the line and checking IDs for hand-stamps (21 and over my friends) but we were all grumbling at this point. Trish and I were right in the driveway for the valet parking, so we got to be very close to many fancy cars, which we had an intense desire to vandalize in some way. Perhaps we are more like teenagers than we’d like to believe.

Finally the doors opened after the venue people explained to us that the opening band was late for sound check and we all rushed in. As Trish expected the first spots to go were along the sides in chairs and up by the bar, so while the front of the stage was pretty packed, we were able to get fairly close on the side. Not an amazing spot by any means, but decent. Of course that wasn’t taking into account the rude drunks that had gotten pretty good spot right in the cent near the stage. They had to keep leaving to get drinks. I think they went back and forth about 8 times. I’m sorry? Can’t you go sit at the bar? I’m sorry that while pushing your way up front, your beer spilled, but that’s the chance you take when you’re a moron! Oh well.
Then of course standing right in front of me was the she-male. I swear that even with the dangling earrings and the sparkly vest-shirt (shest?) that this was a man. She was heavy set with a buzz cut, so imagine my surprise when I saw a woman’s face. She was probably in her 50s and a good 4 to 5 inches taller than me and this woman couldn’t’ keep her head still to save her life. She kept tilting it with the music, so while for a minute, I’d have a good view and then, tilt! Good view is now just a view of the she-males buzzed head!
Trish and I were ready to hate the opening band, called Honey Honey, since they were the reason we had to stand in line outside for an extra 25 minutes, and when they came out, I thought at first they were about 12, turns out it was just my view, as the lead singer is taller than me. They were so awesome. They explained that they had just gotten out of the car after the drive from Colorado and had not even had time to change their clothes. They had a very bluesy feel to them, which I’m sure was accented by the fact the lead singer also played an electric violin and the banjo! The drummer was so adorable, so goofy and animated, here’s their myspace http://www.myspace.com/honeyhoneyband definitely worth checking out. If I hadn’t needed my cash to get out of the parking lot I might have bought their EP. They won me over very quickly. The lead singer was so endearing, but there most memorable song is called “Screw” It was a very sweet soft sounding song about how “I’m not using you, you just look like you need it” So good times.
Then it was Matt. The band came out and was getting the equipment set up and I saw this spiky head backstage, and my heart skipped a beat! Which was a little weird, but I knew it was him! Hurrah! He came onstage to loud applause and seemed like he was really having a lot of fun. They started the rocking with “To the Beat of Our Noisy Hearts” and “Gone” I really have to hand it to Matt, he is excellent at dealing with loud drunks, the crowd was eating out of his hand. At one point he asked the balcony how they were and to keep drinking because the “more you drink, the better we sound.” When he asked the middle of the balcony how they were the applause was intense and he said “If you’re sitting there, we sound like Led Zepplin.” Next came “Princess” which I love, but I was sad because he didn’t start off by playing “Jesse’s Girl”, since I have so many bootlegs of him doing that, it’s my favorite. But then just as I was getting over that small disappointment he put it in as a bridge/sing-a-long! He did the second verse as well so that more people could sing along, I loved it! Then they finished up “Princess.” He introduced “Come on Get Higher” saying how it was a song to try and steal a little of the sexiness that you get from Usher and Ricky Iglesias. I liked this song a litter better solo, I really got into it when he played it in Provo. Still, very, very good.
I believe he played “Falling Apart” next, which is excellent live, but is very lacking on the album. It was a this point I was sad that I can’t get the same thing from listening to his new album. I love almost all of those song, and have since before they had titles and finished lyrics, but getting that album was such a let down. It feels like all the emotion has just been sucked right out of the songs. It seems very overproduced to me, and since it took about 4 years for the album to come out, I wonder if that’s what happened. It makes me so sad, because these songs are heartbreaking and wonderful, but you don’t get that when you listen to the album, they sound very plain and lackluster and they aren’t! It’s crazy!
He followed that up with “All we Are” and told us that while he likes Denver, it’s not Salt Lake and we deserved a happy song and since he only has written 2 of those, they are very special. I love this song, which has been on TV a bit. I heard it on NCIS and I was so excited but Husband didn’t understand. That’s my Boy! He’s making it in the big time!
He introduced “Detroit Waves” as the song he wrote when he was battle rappin’ in the streets of Detroit. He also added a bit of “Kids in America” so that we wouldn’t have to deny ourselves the sing-a-long. It was super cool. This is one of my favorite new songs, which I’ve loved since the first time I heard it. But once again the album doesn’t live up to the intensity you get hearing him play it. You may think I’m just one of those people that just can’t appreciate the music if it’s not being played just for me, but I’m listening to songs from Matt’s last album right now and they are beautiful and poignant and that’s the reason I love Matt as much as I do, so it definitely makes me very sad to lose this connection with the new songs.

Then “Wedding Dress” I heart this song, although I liked it just a touch better when it was “Winter Dress” but it makes more sense this way I guess. He added some lyrics, I don’t know if it was a different song or just some new improve, I wanted to remember the lyrics, but now I can’t :(
Then of course the single that most people know “Car Crash” It’s been so fun to hear this on the radio, every time I get so excited that they are really playing Matt. He deserves it. Once again I’m a snob and like the early versions of this song where the chorus is a little different the best, but it’s a great song and should definitely make him famous or at least get people to buy that CD.
“Answering Machine” the standard closer. As he was telling people the song-a-long lyrics he told us “They don’t make any sense, but neither does REM… and I love them.” I think he added the love thing just because the Utahns would lynch him if he made fun of REM. But he does love REM as he will throw a little “Losing my Religion” into one of my favorite songs. It was fun and I decided that since I couldn’t really see through the she-males shaved head, that I would sing the whole song, not just mouth the words as I so politely did through the whole concert. Didn’t make a difference, but was a bit liberating. He announced he would be signing things back by the merch booth after his set and after Lifehouse played. I didn’t come to see Lifehouse, so I was a super friend and went and got Trish a new Matt shirt for her to wear, I hope it looks awesome on her (I’m sure it does) it had an answering machine on it! Get it? Ha ha! These two cute girls behind us, whom Trish had offered to trade places with since she was taller thanked me. I’m not sure why, they said “because you were here!” so for what that’s worth, I’ll take it.
I headed back to the booth which was stuck in a corner. Only one way in and one way out. There were so many girls waiting to talk to him! It was nuts and I had to ask someone I didn’t know to take my picture with him. I had him sign my “Slow but Speeding” EP which I figured was the neatest most rarest thing of his that I have, even though it’s not that neat.

I asked him if he had gotten used to being an opener again, since you know, I read his online journal, so I know the first show in Seattle, he had to really work to win over the crowd and it was a little strange for him after coming off his headlining tour. He said he had and it was getting better. He forgot my name again and I razzed him for it. I’m also such a nice person that I told him he was wearing the same shirt that he wore when he performed at the radio station here. You know, because I like to make rock stars feel stupid about thier clothing choices. I also decided to tell him that I’m a ridiculous fan girl that I found a belt buckle online to replace the one he broke, but it hadn’t arrived (oh, I’m going to kill me some online retailers) and that I “felt bad about it” and he looked maybe a mixture of surprise and fear, well, he didn’t show the fear he must have been feeling, but he seemed to think that my trying was really sweet. So the stranger took my picture and I tried to tell him that he had really won over the crowd, but all that would come out of my mouth was “All these people love you” so, yeah. My brain doesn’t work too good sometimes. So I left the surging mass of girls and was about to leave in triumph when I looked at the picture on my camera. I had my eyes closed. So I got my butt back into the line and tried not to be too pushy since I had already talked to him. After a bit I got to the front and said “Me again! I was blinking! Redo!” and some other stranger took my picture. He gave me a big hug (and I melted then I died) and I told him it was just like that time in Colorado where I just kept coming back again and again and again. And I had told him silly things like I loved him and that he was hot. I then rolled my eyes and said how long ago that was (3 years?) and he said how much we had both grown. It was super cute.

I decided to just hang out and listen to at least the first Lifehouse song, since I had paid all this money to get in the door. Matt was still signing and talking to people and then there was a group of older people (one of whom looked like a slimmer George Lucus!) that he stopped and talked to for a bit. He started to walk away and saw me and kinda waved and I waved bye to him, it was totally sweet. Then, I was trying to make my way out after the ridiculously long Lifehouse song which I didn’t recognize until the very end and Matt was also on his way out, there were two girls who were trying to talk to him and I was trying to get around them so I could leave (although to be honest, since Matt was right there, I wasn’t trying too hard) and then they asked me to take their picture with Matt. I agreed and the first picture was just a close up of his face since the picture screen on the camera was totally black due to the poor bar lighting at the show. But then I took another picture and everyone had their eyes open and it was really sweet. So I got to walk passed Matt on my way out and I didn’t even stop him to talk to him again. Mostly because he kept getting snagged by other people, but I didn’t stop and wait just to tell him the new things I had thought of since last time or all the things I wanted to tell him but forgot since he makes me so flustered. I just let him go. And hopefully he won’t be gone too long again and then I’ll make sure me and all my friends have tickets to that glorious occasion! Viva La Matt!

Not a bad picture, finally!

Sweet 17 Months

Oh my little pretty princess. You are just the worlds fastest learner this month. You're starting to say all kinds of words. just this morning you surprised me when I pulled out your day socks and you said "ock!" I just about fell over! And just yesterday you learned how to climb up on big people chairs and sit just like a grown up, of course that also means you can now climb onto the table. I'm excited!

This month has been a lot of attitude and stubbornness from you. You refuse to do anything if you don't want to and you don't want to do anything unless it's your way. This can be frustrating as I want you eat and you don't want to. You can be really good about it, as long as you can feed yourself, but you're a little ticked off if I try to feed you. So anything that is not finger food does not make it passed your lips unless i can trick you into eating it and that only lasts about 1 maybe 2 bites. But you did awesome with Thai food! You really liked it! That and you flirted with the waitress all night long! I hope that reduced our bill a little.

Your crazy eating habits are driving me nuts. You won't eat hardly anything, except yogurt, you'll eat tons of yogurt, but no fruit, no bread, no veggies, no pizza, no mac'n'cheese. I tricked you into eating tiny little bites by asking you you what something tasted like and you do try it, but that was about as good as it would get. You want soup of something, but your hand/eye coordination isn't really that advanced. You are doing okay with your oatmeal, but some days are better than others and some days you don't really want to eat it, you want to paint with it or toss spoonfuls onto the floor.

You are such a daddy's little girl. You are even saying Daah-ee now, which is cute, but come on! I'm the one you slaves over your every need (from the hours of 5 pm to 7 am) but you love to show me that you want to hang out with daddy instead. You'll eat for him where you'll spit the food out if I give it to you. You'll cry if I pick you up but cry if he won't pick you up. It makes him feel very loved, but me a little less loved, but I guess it's your finicky child nature and of course you're starting your terrible twos way early.

You love to babble and our morning and evening drives are accented with you talking Chinese all the way to our destination (unless you are tired, then you just stare blankly until someone gets you out of your chair and you're full of life all of the sudden) and it's so cute, You talk to your toys and on pretend phones. I swear I'm not on the phone that much, so I don't know where you learned all this.

It's been a silly month full of love and it's been a hard month full of new teeth and being sick, but at least every day with you is an adventure.

Love,
Mama

Would you be my Valentine?

I remember fondly the days of childhood spent making pink and red paper hearts and infusing them with white paper dollies and maybe some glitter and then in the advancing years trying to figure out which store bought valentines were the best to give to my favorite friends and boys i had crushes on. I really wish that i could keep some of the paper magic alive after all these years, but really Valentines holds little meaning to me anymore. It's a good time to buy and eat chocolate, but really, I don't think that I need a holiday for that. I like the idea that there a holiday to tell people that you love them, but once again, should we need a holiday for that? Perhaps I'm just a scrooge because I'm at work and I just got down with my "scult and tone" class and it was "butts and guts" day (which honestly, thank you to my teacher as I've been waiting for her work out our butts all semester!) so now I'm tired and faced with the prospect of a long commute home and perhaps that has made me cynical. Even still, it's nice to have a day where even though we don't get work off, we could (if we could be bothered) make little pink contruction paper hearts for our friends and boys we have crushes on and no one will think we're weird today of all days.

The Scissors-They Eated My Hair!

So I decided it was time to get my hair colored again since my roots were about 4 feet long and I desperately needed a trim as when I hold Hayley to put her to bed, she pushes my hair away from her face just like her father does. Bunch of babies. So I needed some inches off and new reddish red-brown and some new streaks. Last time I got some orange bleach streaks to compliment the month of October, which was very autumnal and lovely, but I was inspired by one of Hayley's dolls. What you can't see from the picture to the left, is that with her cute red hair, she has pale pink streaks in her hair and I thought this was so totally cute. So I decided I would ask if they could do that.

First things first, these people, they are beauty school students and also, the girl I got today? Very Chinese. Which is fine, if you can understand what she's saying. So I ask her if I can get pink, the instructors helps her figure out what I want and they say it's no problem, and I got the impression they just mix something into the bleach and I'll get pink! Hurrah! So my girl gets another Chinese girl who is not doing anything and they start on my color. I'm thinking that since there are 2 of them this will just fly by! Well it did until they got to the crown of my head. Where I wanted streaks. Except they must have thought I wanted a weave. A real tight weave. They spent, no freaking joke, about 30 minutes foiling my hair. They would take about 6 strands of hair and make that one color, then take another 6 strands of hair and make that a different color and so on until I was wearing about 5 pounds of tin foil on my head. I'm little nervous at this point, because these Chinese girls, they were like machines, where I would have given up and just slapped some color on my head, they were meticulous about those 6 strands until the whole top of my head was done. So the bleach and color sat on my hair a few more minutes and then rinse. After the rinse she then put the red color into my hair, which I wasn't sure how this red was going to end up pink but the instructor didn't seem concerned, so I didn't fret. That sat on my hair 10 minutes and got rinsed off. That's when I saw the mirror. My pink streaks were fire engine red. The instructor came and looked and said "looks good" and walked off. Um, excuse me? This isn't close to pink! But I looked at it for a minute and it's pretty cool and I look like a rock star and I was promised that it will fade when I shampoo it.

So the girls get to washing the color off my face. I always came away from getting a coloring looking a bit like a clown. I get red all over my face and it won't come off. So those 2 armed with Q-tips attacked the offending red. They were getting it off my scalp too! They would take a few centimeters of hair, go in-between and scrub off the dye. It was crazy, I have never had someone try to get color off my scalp before, but maybe since it was crazy bright red they didn't want me to look like a freak.

That's when I tried to explain what I wanted to happen with my trim. I wanted about 3-4 inches off it, so that hair doesn't get stuck in my armpit but still fairly long, about 2 inches past my shoulder is what I described. So she starts to cut, and cut and cut and cut. I told her I wanted one little layer that was about an inch off the rest just to add some body and shape. I think I should not have said that. So she layered and layered and then she was done. I looked objectively thinking, 'Well, it's shorter than I wanted, but it's still long enough, it'll grow.' So she dried it and flat ironed it. At this point it was now over 3 hours and while I wasn't itching to get back, I figured the end was near. She spent about 20 minutes flat ironing little tiny pieces of my hair. It was the most thorough styling I've ever had. Then she got her scissors back out. I thought she was just getting a few stay hairs or maybe it wasn't even. No. She was thinning my hair. My already thin, fragile, little hair. Thinning. To add texture I guess. I wanted to cry. I like my hair cuts nice crisp lines. I guess she does not. And with that thinning was more shortening. There was one point where she turned to get a different pair of scissors and I almost took off right at that moment. She took this pair of scissors and added a little really tiny layer about 4 inches from my scalp! I almost lost it right then, but this was some sort of texturing scissors and only cut a few hairs at a time, but still! And she was using her scissors almost like a razor near my face to make more layers! Then she had the gall to ask me if it was short enough. Now that it was about an inch above my shoulders. Yes, I think the 3 inches in length that I'm missing are just fine! Happy smiley face! It had now been almost 4 hours. Four freaking hours! She got me my coat and I ran out of there. I had been planning on giving her a tip, but not after she took the initiative and starting adding crazy layers to my hair. That I didn't ask for! and didn't want! Everyone is saying how cute it is. And they are right. I don't hate it. It very cute and edgy and rock starish, but this is not the color or cut I was prepared for.

So I guess now I have to take my hair vitamins to grows me some more hair fast!