Day: Who Knows

Hey, remember me? I'm that lady that use to write on here a lot. Where did I go? I don't know, but it was a far a way busy town where everyone is always running a hundred miles an hour and often forget the purpose of life.

So, I've fallen so far behind that my goal of writing once a day is long gone. Oh well. There will come a time in my life  when I am not so busy that I can actually write every single day, but that is just not a possibility in my life right now. I'll give a brief recap on why I'm so crazy busy and that will have to do. I'll also write a couple funny things that have been going on and quickly, briefly catch myself up here. Then I promise I'll be better, but I can also promise I won't write every day.
What's Keeping Me Crazy:

1. I'm training for the Epic Relay
2. I'm doing my darnedest to potty train my 2 year old
3. I'm working from home writing SEO articles (and that's the big one)
4. I have a 6 month old baby (the other big one)
5. I'm babysitting 2 kids for the summer, no, wait, 3
6. It's summer.

So in between all these happenings I am also doing churchy things, feeding my family, planning meals, couponing, doing yard work, folding laundry, cleaning toilets, and desperately, desperately trying to find five minutes for myself, but I honestly (and I really am not just saying this) can't remember the last time that happened, hence my not writing on here, I simply have not had 5 minutes to do it. These are some crazy times right now, but we'll get through them and be better people on the other side.

Now, on to the latest happenings around here.

1. We bought ourselves a minivan!
2. We've started over potty training about 100 times
3. Alivia now says "mama"! (First word, first said Thursday July 14, 2011)
4. Lucy has been taking swimming lessons
5. Alivia started sleeping through the night
6. Alivia stopped sleeping through the night
7. Alivia now eats her weight in baby food every day.
8. Jack has turned into a little demon child, hoping this phase passes quickly.

I'm sure there is much much more that I am forgetting, and many more things that I am blocking from my memory intentionally.  Now for the longer more detailed version of the brief summaries listed above:

1. We bought a minivan! So, about 5 weeks I found the PERFECT minivan through out local Honda dealership, and it was an awesome price. I was a silver 2005 Honda Odyssey that seated 8. I was totally pumped about it. It had 90,000 miles on it, but it's a Honda so it still had a lot left to give. I was so excited about it but we couldn't get into the dealership until Saturday because of Shawn's work. So, on Saturday morning we called in to make sure they still had it there while we were driving home from Denver. It was still there. So I took Lucy to swimming lessons and then came home and cleaned out our CRV until it glistened. Then we headed over to the dealership. I saw this van parked right out front and I knew it had sold. It sold about an hour before we got there. I was devastated. A week later I paid our CRV payment and then checked the dealerships website. They had just put up a new listing for a 2004 Honda Odyssey with only 70,000 miles on it that cost $3000 less than the other one, and it included a DVD player! Down side, it only seated 7. At this point it didn't matter. We rushed over to the dealership that night, looked at it, and then we were back there the next morning to buy it. Now our monthly car payment is lower than what it was with the CRV! The day we bought it was crazy because I had a hair appointment that I scheduled a month ago right in the middle of things, Lucy had swimming lessons on the other side of town, and Shawn had Youth Conference he had to get to, but somehow we pulled it off, and we LOVE our new van.
2. Potty training Jack, I really just don't even want to talk about it, it's just terrible.
3. Alivia said her first word! And it's "mama"! She doesn't just say mamamamamama either. In fact, she only says it when she wants something, or when she feels like I'm neglecting her, she calls for me. It's so cute. She scrunches up here little face and squints her little eyes and says "mama!" She actually pulls a lot of funny faces lately. There is the closed mouth, gums together cheeks puffed out look, her cabbage patch doll look, so stinking cute. Her eye brows up look, and then scrunched up squealing "I have something to say" look. She says mama. I love it. It melts me. I've earned it.
4. Lucy's swimming lessons. So, I signed Lucy up for some swimming lessons at the pool in our neighborhood. Problem was I didn't want to pay $80 for one child for swimming lessons, especially since I used to teach them, it frustrates me to pay anything at all. So, I signed her up for the Saturday only lessons. There were only four of them so they were half price (still a total rip off). So she went and they basically just played in the water with her. It was frustrating for me because I knew she was ready to learn more than how to play motor boat. Anyway those lessons simply accomplished a little bit of water awareness and taught Lucy how fun it is to play in the pool, something she didn't need me to pay $40 for her to learn. Then Shawn found a groupon deal for $25 swimming lessons for two weeks. Now that's more like it. So we signed her up, I drove her across town for two weeks, with 5 kids each trip (babysitting Haylee and Caleb), and now she is a swimming junkie. Well, sort of, but at least she knows the basics which is what I expected her to be able to learn at the first lessons. Jack has his turn coming up in December sometime.
5. Alivia decided that she was good and ready to start sleeping through the night. She's been doing this for basically 3 weeks. It's the solid foods that are the secret here. The only problem with her sleeping through the night is that she feels like 5:30 is an appropriate time to say good morning to the world and wakes up her brother and sister in the process. Has anyone ever noticed that I'm not a morning person? Because I'm pretty sure my kids and my husband are noticing.
6. Alivia decided she's done with the whole sleeping through the night thing too. After about 2 weeks of sleeping through the night, Shawn and I went to the 7th Harry Potter movie and left the kids with a sitter. I told the sitter that Alivia (who I'd already put to bed) would sleep the entire time, and I think she did, she just woke up right away when I got home. Then she spent the next 4 nights wake up to make sure I was still there. But for the past two nights she has reverted back to her old habit of sleeping through the night until 5:30. I don't know which I prefer, either way I'm totally sleep deprived.
7. Alivia LOVES baby food. She pounds the rice cereal, the oatmeal cereal, any kind of vegetables, fruits, and her personal favorite is the new fancy stuff I've been buying her, things like granola blends and meals in a bottle. Basically, I have yet to see her refuse anything! I'm loving this! It's making me feel much better about leaving her tomorrow to go run for 2 days. I know she for sure won't starve even through the one thing she refuses to take is a bottle. Little stinker.
8. Jack has been giving us a run for our money. He use to be my sweet little boy that melted my heart no matter what he did. Honestly, he could do no wrong. Now, I have NO IDEA where my sweet little boy went. Today Jack throws the biggest tantrums known to man, he is deliberately defiant in a way that I never knew was possible, and he is constantly dreaming up new ways to make my day even worse. A couple of days ago he had 6 accidents on my floors, 6! So it's back to the pull ups. He scatters board game pieces around the entire house, gets into my bag of sugar (the bag is a thing of the past, it's now in a good Jack proof (hopefully) container), smears my walls with mud, wipes his face on his chair, some how pees around his pull up at night (not entirely his fault, but still), throws rocks into the street, hits the car with baseball bats, sticks his arm up tail pipes, spits (oh how I hate that one), hits small unsuspecting children (boils my blood), kicks his nursery teacher (right in front of me, so I kicked him back), and at the end of a long hard day of a combination of all these things, he throws a brand new roll of toilet paper into the bath tub. Who knew something so little could be the straw that breaks the camels back? Oh my sweet little Jack, where ever you are, will you please, please come back to me? I don't like this little demon that is taking your place.

If you have made it this far you are a trooper. I needed to write these things down for my own good. There are so many nights when I lay down and think to myself, "Someday I'll look back and actually miss these days, or so I've been told." And as terrible as some days are, I know I'll want to look back when I wonder how I ever got threw them. That, and my kids do some funny things everyday and if I write more I'll remember more.

One last thing, I have to write about my day yesterday because it was a doosey. We woke up and came downstairs only to be reminded that neither Shawn nor I did the dishes last night. My kitchen was in shambles! My love seat had a mountain of laundry on it that I could not get to because I was SWAMPED with work, my desk resembled New Orleans post Katrina, and I don't even want to document what the kids bathroom looked like. As I walked down the stairs I could feel my stress level and blood pressure rising. Shawn must have had the same feeling because he knew I was so busy with work that day. I was on the verge of tears. I HATE when my house is out of control which is funny because it is more often than it's not these days.

Anyway, I had a noon deadline for 5 articles to write, Jack was being TERRIBLE, and Alivia was being high maintenance. I knew right then there was no way I was going to be able to meet my dead line. Shawn did what he could to help and got a load of dishes in the dishwasher. Too bad we had about 3 loads accumulated. Seriously, I've been SO SO busy this week with work. Anyway, I did my best, missed my deadline, and my house still looks terrible. That said, once I did get my articles in (3 hours late), I implemented my friend Haley's filing system, so now my desk looks AMAZING! That's probably why I'm sitting here typing. My desk is so clean and organized that it's become my own personal stress free zone. LOVE IT. So now I need to stop typing and start cleaning. It will feel good. But I wanted to take a minute to just write, because it needed to be done.

Days 104-113: On Pause

I've been so terrible lately. Once I get behind, the task of catching up is daunting and it turns into a big mess really quick. So, a brief summary of days 104-113:

Day 104: Monday: Kids are on the mend from being sick, I clipped a lot of coupons, have a lot more to go. Boring day, no highlights., and Monday night TV is terrible.

Day 105: Tuesday: Something really funny happened today that I was excited to write about. Wish I had, now it is forgotten for the ages. That said, I did clip more coupons.

Day 106: Wednesday: Another day of little happenings. Lucy is coming along really really well on the piano, she is obsessed. I think I will start punching holes in the wall if I have to listen to Mary Had a Little Lamb one more time, but I'm happy she loves it, and I know this is something I need to get use to and encourage. Thank goodness she is starting to play Jolly Old Saint Nicolas and Old McDonald just as much, at least I have variety.

Day 107: Put Jack down for a nap in my room since it worked wonders yesterday. Ran back up to his screams of pain 10 minutes later to find that Jack had gotten into my deodorant and picked it to pieces with his fingernail, then he rubbed it in his eyes. I could see chunks of white antiperspirant in his eyes, and Jack was screaming. I had to fish chunks out with a q-tip. Jack: lesson learned.

Another highlight of today was the kids and I were in a tornado storm. No, we did not see the actual tornado, but it definitely was crossing my mind before I even heard there was one. I took Lucy to dance, which was only a half hour today. When we got there the weather was calm, cloudy, but calm. When we walked out it was unbelievably windy. The gusts were so strong (even by Colorado Springs standards) that the thought of a tornado crossed my mind. As soon as I shut my door after loading the kids the hail started. As we drove home out of the major part of the storm, sure enough a tornado warning came across the radio warning people to bunker down and get the heck out of mobile homes. Lucy has been very paranoid about this ever since.

Day 108: Just in case I didn't learn my lesson about Jack sleeping in my room for naps yesterday, we got the message today. I put him down, Shawn came home from work early to leave for Utah, I went back into our room to find this:

No, he was in our bathroom dumping 3 different kinds of cleaners into our toilet bowl and stirring them up with my toilet wand. He poured a bunch of Commet into the bowl, sprayed some Windex in it, and tried his hardest to pour the Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner in there, but that was closed with a child proof lid. Oh he's so lucky he is cute.

Day 109: My full day with Shawn gone. Kinda had a knot in my stomach most of the day. We had a rough morning. At one point I finally just made Lucy call her dad because she was having attitude issues. She burst into tears before I even handed her the phone. Shawn asked her what was going on and she said through giant crocodial tears and sobs "I'm just having a hard time being obedient." My poor little girl hates to disappoint. I couldn't help but hold her in my arms while she talked to her daddy. As naughty as she was being (throwing little tantrums) so that we got to the point that she had to call daddy, she still wants so bad to be our helper and make us happy. I've got news for you, she has me wrapped around her finger.

Tonight at about 6:00 I was ready for the kids to go to bed, more than ready. They weren't being bad, I was just EXHAUSTED! So, since I couldn't put them to bed yet, I laid on the living room floor by Alivia and let Lucy and Jack play with my hair. This is something Jack did for a full hour! Good thing I have a hard head and actually like pulls and tugs. It was so relaxing, I LOVE when people play with my hair, LOVE IT! And it got me through the hardest part of my day.

Day 110: Sunday. You know my feelings about Sundays. It's a love hate relationship. This Sunday wasn't going to be too much different. Shawn is always gone all morning anyway so it wasn't going to be any different for me until we got to church. My friend Megan Vest called before church to see if she could help me with anything, she's so sweet. Her husband and Shawn went out to Utah together for the BYU Rugby game, so she knew I was on my own. I just asked if she would sit by me at church. She gladly helped me man the kids, but they were actually really really good. Then she even brought dinner over to our house and we all ate when the boys got home. It's so great to have such awesome friends in our ward, I don't think I ever want to leave this place.

Day 111: Shawn is home, but I got no weekend. I was given a really big project of articles to tackle for work, and that has consumed every extra minute I have. I worked on it through the weekend (one reason why I SO didn't want Shawn to leave me this weekend), and all through today. My house was spotless yesterday, but took a major hit today, and I still have 3 more articles to get done tomorrow.

Day 112: Worked on articles again all day today. Jack decided to take advantage of my distraction and throw our Blu-ray remote into the toilet bowl. I love my little boy, I do, I love him. That remote is now sitting in a bowl of rice on our counter and we are offering silent prayers that it will work again. I'm a little concerned about it since I had to hold it upside down for 10 minutes to let the water drain out of it.

Day 113: Good news in the Blu-ray department, the remote has been saved. I took a day off from work today partly because I couldn't force myself to sit at the computer for one more minute, and partly because my kids needed there mom today. That big project took more time than my normal ones do and my kids were starting to notice by yesterday afternoon. We didn't do anything exciting, weather was pretty crummy. We just played. My kids have become big fans of tickle parties as we call them. That's when I sit on the floor of the living room for 20-30 minutes and they run around me. When I catch them, I pin them down and tickle them. Easiest thing in the world, and the LOVE it!

Later tonight we went to Johnathan Farr's graduation party. He is one of the young men in our ward and our kids LOVE him. It was so fun. We ate hamburgers and hot dogs, and the kids got to take a minute to enjoy a real back yard since ours (for lack of a better word) sucks. It was a good, laid back night out of the house, something this mom desperately needed.

Day 103: A Sick Day

This Sunday I stayed home from church on account that Jack and Alivia were both sick. Jack was way behind on sleep, so when we got home from Denver I got Lucy ready for church as quickly as possible. Since Jack was beyond exhausted and actually sick with a cold, I gave him some cold medicine, prayed that it wouldn't excite him like it did Lucy at his age, and put him down for a nap. I love when I'm allowed to drug my kids and they actually get drowsy. The moment Shawn pulled into the driveway from his meetings I laid the baby down, sent Lucy off to church, and climbed into bed myself.

At 4:30 or so I woke up. I have never needed or enjoyed a nap so much in my entire life. I'd forgotten what those feel like, and just writing about it now makes me want one terribly bad again. I didn't cook dinner this night. We had left overs from feeding the missionaries on Friday. I guess my lazy attitude from yesterday carried over to today. I'll have to write more details about feeding the missionaries another time. All this talk about naps has made me more than excited it is bed time.

Day 102: Running to Catch Up

So, blogger being down about a week ago now has really messed me up. I went to post on Friday when it was down, and that put me behind a day, so Saturday I posted for Friday, and now today, Thursday I post for Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and today. Needless to say these posts will be brief and to the point, at least to the best of my abilities.

Saturday was probably one of the laziest days of my life. Jack woke up at about 5 am with a cough. We were all sharing a room, so I made Shawn take Jack downstairs so he didn't wake up the baby. I spoke too late, the baby was up, and Jack never went back to sleep so neither did Shawn.

Fast forward several exhausted hours, I put Alivia down for her morning nap and Shawn and I went for a 6 mile run together. It was so fun to do that together. We've been running for several weeks now but we've always had to do it on our own. It was so nice to have someone to talk to, and even better to have some uninterrupted time to talk with Shawn, even if most of our conversation was about how horrible running is. Big thanks to my in-laws for watching my kids, sorry about Jack wetting his pants.

The rest of my day was 100% lazy. I have to admit it was pretty nice to have a lazy day, it's been a while. That said, my definition of lazy is a lot different to day that it was a few years ago. I was popping up and down every 15 seconds or so for one kid or another. I watched Les Miserables with my in-laws, oh how I love Les Miserables. Shawn went to the BYU rugby game, so I spent my evening on my own. I'm pretty sure my kids exhausted their aunt Rebecca who may or may not ever want to see us again, and somehow I ended my lazy day slightly frustrated, it must be the stress of manning 3 kids.

Day 101: Blogger Down?

I tried to blog yesterday, on the real day 101, but blogger was down. Did anyone else have that problem? Well now it's a whole day late and I'm a whole lot less creative. All and all I think I am a pretty funny person in my mind. Unfortunately my mind and my communication skills have a disconnect, so when it comes time to get that really funny joke out, I always mess it up. I think I panic a little when I'm put on the spot. What can you do?

That was my random thought for the day. Jack and Lucy had a really funny interaction today, but now that it's tomorrow I can't remember it. I blame blogger on this one hundred and ten percent. I need to write all about tomorrows crazy day, but I can't right now because it's 1am, and I'm too mad at Shawn for not coming to look at my running route that we had hoped to do together tomorrow, no wait, in two days from today (that's getting confusing). He told me to wait, but this just in, I don't wait at 1 am. Goodnight!

Day 100: A 100th Day Miracle

Wow, 100 days (give or take). I really thought I'd make this a monumental day, but nothing all that monumental happened. There were no joyful 100th day celebrations or thoughts even. Just another day, except for one little thing...

Today is marked as a milestone in the potty training of Jack. Something clicked in his little mind today and he's learned that when he goes potty, he gets candy (which is a very big deal to this little guy who has mastered climbing and scooting chairs since Easter to get the aforementioned treat). Not only did it finally click to him that candy is the joyful consequence of making potty substances, but even bigger news is that he has learned to tell me when he needs to go. It was funny to watch him connecting the dots this afternoon as he told me that he needed to go pee pee, went, and then told me again 15 minutes later that he was ready for round 2. Usually when he makes this announcement it is after the fact and it just means I have a puddle to clean up, so instead of excitedly racing to the potty, I moan in annoyance that I waited too long as I fetch the carpet cleaner or mop.

Imagine my shock, excitement, and amazement when I went to my boy to find that he was still dry and actually needed to go. There was some seriously ridiculous celebratory dancing going on around here after the successful completion of that potty trip. He received 2 potty prizes, one for going, and one for telling me. What's even better is that it happened at least 5 more times before bed. Each time my heart felt lighter. Here I've sat for so many months stumped that their is a potty trained male in all the world, how did their mothers do it? And now I'm slowly preparing myself to join their proud ranks. It truly is something to be proud of.

What is funny about Jack learning to tell me when he needs to go potty is that I don't think holding it is involved in any way. I think Jack's entire motivation in going potty right now is his precious candy prize. I think that Jack has learned that if he wants candy, he has to go potty. So whenever the thought of a chocolate treat enters his little cranium, he decides to sucker his mom into assisting him empty his bladder so that he can indulge in a little piece of chocolate bliss. Hey, at least he knows he has to work for it right? I wish I had something I had to do before I allow myself to satisfy a chocolate craving, maybe then I wouldn't find myself perplexed by the pile of 15 Wonka wrappers that mysteriously accumulated around me in less that 5 minutes.

But seriously, I'm just stoaked that my little boy is catching on to this whole potty idea. Can you tell? He's worn underwear for weeks now except for during naps and at night, but I've been the one doing all the work, so there have been a lot of accidents and cleaning up as I've misjudged his bladder capacity and the length of time between bathroom visits. But today I will take back the mind that is rightfully mine as I begin the transfer of my son's bladder responsibility to him. Truly a marvelous 100th day.

Now if I could only bribe Alivia to sleep through the night... I kicked her out of my room last night at 1am. To do this I also had to kick Jack out of his room and he and Lucy are sharing for a few months. I'm only thinking of this now as I'm listening to Alivia squawk upstairs, not cry, literally squawk, and how is she making that thumping noise? I sounds like she is jumping on her bed, but I just know she isn't.

Day 99: Personalities

My kids have very opposite personalities. Shawn decided to evaluate our kids tonight over a dinner personality test. It went something like this:

Shawn: Jack, what color is your shirt?
Lucy: Green!
Jack: Green!
Shawn: Jack, What color is Lucy's plate?
Lucy: Purple!
Jack: Purple!
Shawn: Jack, what do you see at the zoo?
Lucy: Giraffes!
Jack: Giraffes!
Shawn: Jack, where do we go on Sunday?
Lucy: Church!
Jack: Church!

Test Results: Lucy is the brainy know-it-all that sits in the middle front row right under the teachers nose whose hand pops up before the question has completely left the teacher's lips. She cannot not answer a question. When we confronted Lucy on this issue,it went like this:

Shawn: Lucy, why do you keep answering the questions that we are asking Jack?
Lucy: "Because I wanted to win this game."

Lucy's Personality: A sad combination of Shawn and myself. She is the sweetest little girl who is more than happy to help out, she gets this from Shawn. She hates to disappoint, this is so me. She is a bit of a know-it-all, which both Shawn and old family videos have recently taught me is 100% little Shawn. And most of all, she is extremely competitive, but that is both of us (but me just a little bit more than Shawn) and I don't think any of our kids will escape this.

Jack's Personality: Jack is a bit of a copy cat, but I don't think that is really part of his personality, I just don't think he has a choice. One thing is for sure, he's patient little bug to never get annoyed at his sister's constant insistence of stealing his thunder. Jack is a stubborn little boy, this is becoming more and more evident as we get deeper and deeper into the terrible twos. Jack is also a very tough little guy, which might not be obvious, and I don't think he even knows it yet. Because Jack is such a copy cat, he thinks he needs to cry at the bat of a butterfly's wings, like his extremely dramatic big sister. But when Jack get's in trouble and we have to swat his hands or his little bum, it DOES NOT phase him. It get's fairly frustrating as a parent trying to discipline an extremely stubborn little boy.

Alivia's Personality: A bundle of few words and all smiles that is more than happy to sit on the table in her bumbo to be a part of the family dinner. When she has something important to add to the conversation she'll let out a high pressured sigh of excitement usually accompanied by a small projection of spit up. When she is acknowledged (which happens a lot with her mom and big sister melting over every little sound she makes), she snaps her hands together in excitement and shoves them in her mouth, smiling all the while.

In the end, I wouldn't change a single thing about my kids. We love them to pieces and it is so fun to sit and analyze who they are and how they got that way. I want to give them each a big squeeze right now, sweet little buggers. I'm one lucky lady.