Life at the Moment

This weekend we are auctioning our old house. That will be this evening. I'm a little nervous. I'm happy that the spirea, clematis, and roses are in bloom so that there's plenty of curb appeal. It's such a cute house, I'm sad to leave it. I hope the person who buys it will love it. I just had to remind Jared Not to tell prosepective buyers that we had 2 babies born in the large soaker tub in the master bathroom...


Most of the stress in getting the house ready was finishing the bonus room. Rob did the texturing, my dad and I painted, Jared did the trim and windowsill, and the carpet... well, that's a whole nother story. But it looks great. I wish we had finished it while we lived there, but Jared had so much stuff in there it seemed like too big a task to move everything out, do the work, move it back. So the next owner will be the first person to enjoy our hard work and money spent on that room. The cost wasn't too bad though-- less than $1000.



My sister Emily sent me some of her daughter Sophie's clothes, and so I took this picture of Ellie in the pink toile suit for Emily to see:


Ellie has been teething and grumpy a lot lately. If someone is holding her and playing with her though she's usually OK. We need to get this house sold so I can spend more time playing with her, and with the boys. I've been more busy with getting the old house ready than I thought I would be, and the kids have been getting the short end of the stick.

Last night I sat through the second half of the open house (Friday afternoon was slow, so I worked on cleaning windows and scrubbing scuff marks off floors, etc.) I was so tired afterwards that I hid upstairs and made Jared feed the boys dinner. He took this picture of them eating their "bean fanchets."

Joey's Blog

Joey wanted to have a blog too, so I made him one. You can look at it if you want, http://joeybean.blogspot.com . He always comes to me when I'm on the computer and says "let's check and see how my blog is doing." He wants it to be long so he can scroll through it, so we're working on that.

Super Saturday Crafts

Last Saturday our ward Relief Society had a Super Saturday and I wanted to show my sisters the things I made. We did tile art again this year, and I did a picture from the back cover of the Ensign a couple years ago which I just love. I wanted to buy a print of this but I checked Valoy Eaton's website and he doesn't sell prints of this one. So now I can hang it on my wall anyway thanks to tile art. It's going to go in my bathroom.

We also did jewelry making and I made mother-daughter bracelets for me and Ellie. Everyone laughed at me because it was so predictable that I made mine blue.


Making the bracelets was a lot of fun. I can see why it's a hot trend right now. I just might get into it myself.

Backyard Nature Lesson, Final Chapter

Alas, a neighborhood cat got into our robin's nest. My kids are sad. I'm sad too, but I'm relieved that it wasn't my kids that smashed the eggs.

Birthday Birrd

So, I just had a birthday and it was great! My parents came to see me, which is always lots of fun. My kids love Grandma and Grandpa. I appreciate their efforts to be with us even though we live far away, since I didn't see my grandparents much as a kid and so I really value the time my kids have with them. Sam wasn't even shy with them at all, as you can see in this picture:



Both of them spent a lot of time reading to the boys:

Eleanor loved being rocked by Grandma:
Jared and my dad spent the whole time discussing politics:



Party hats are an essential birthday accessory at our house:

I got cool presents. Jared gave me a cool-looking food processor that you can see in this picture. You can't really see the CD player that mounts under my kitchen cabinet, but that was my other present from Jared. And in the middle of the table is a vase of roses from my yard.

Looking at the food processor box, I found it very amusing that the french word for Food Processor is Robot Culinaire. So I plan on referring to my food processor as my Culinary Robot.

Joey spent the day wrapping up his toys in towels and bringing them to me, saying "here's another present, mommy!" He is so sweet.

In the evening Rob and Eve and their kids came over for cake and ice cream. Isaac is always interested in Eleanor, and since we always joke that one of our kids has to marry one of their kids this is the marriage that I'm hoping for! : )

Oh, and Sam wants you to know that he likes to tunnel under the rug:

The Wells Fargo Wagon is a-comin'

The UPS truck delivered three different things to our house yesterday, two of them quite exciting. The boring thing was a cover for Jared's new barbeque. The first exciting thing was Jared's new computer.

It's the first time in his life he's purchased an acutal "new" computer, and he got a really cool one. I'm excited to get everything switched over so I can do my blogging and stuff really fast (we're going to get cable internet!) and look at all my pictures on that groovy flat-screen monitor. Seems funny to me that my computer monitor is the same size as my television set. And the aquarium screensaver is awesome!


There's a story behind the second thing that came in the mail. I love those sign boards everyone has in their house these days. I've been looking at them in every store I go in for months. Usually the saying is nice, but not something that really expresses me. And the colors almost never match my decor. I realized I'd better make one myself. I found a website where you not only can order custom vinyl letters but they had an interactive sign designer that was so much fun to play with: www.stickerz.com. I'm going to make another more "serious" sign to hang in my living room, but this is the sort of tongue-in-cheek sign I created for my dining room:

My dad saw a sign that said that in a restaurant years ago. He thought it was so funny, and when we used to misbehave at the dinner table when we were kids he would say, "Act respectable. This is a high-class place" in this very Dad sort of voice. On one hand it was funny, on the other hand it gave us kids a subtle understanding that our home was a place where we strived to have a bit of dignity, which is one of the gifts my parents gave me that I'm grateful for. Jared thought it was pretty funny when he first heard my dad say that, and I think it was actually him that first suggested we hang a sign on our wall with those words. But I don't think he was that serious, and I think he's surprised that I actually did it. But I want my kids to have "we act respectable at home" sunk deep into their psyche (one of those old-fashoined virtures I'm fond of) and this sign will do just that.

The vinyl letters are so cool-- after you use the interactive sign designer to set them up just right they mail them to you pre-spaced on this double-stick paper-- all you do is peel off one side, stick the paper to the board (bought at Home Depot and painted blue with craft paint) and smooth it with the enclosed smoother tool, then peel off the other side and voila! There are your letters. It was easy and it looks great. I'm glad I didn't try to hand-letter.

Next I think I'll do a sign for Eleanor's room that says "Where Flowers Bloom, So Does Hope-- Eleanor Roosevelt". In pink.

Commonplace Miracle

I planted some more of my garden tonight-- beans, pumpkins, chard, carrots, basil. Planting seeds seems like such a strange thing to do-- take this shriveled little thing and put it in the dirt and cover it over and put some water on it. I always think they can't possibly grow, and I'm always amazed when they do. I will be even more amazed this year because my kids are probably going to trample them to death as soon as they do sprout. I've Got to get that lock for my garden gate!

I am thinking of the Frog and Toad story my kids love about Toad's garden, how he says, "Okay seeds, start growing!" and when they don't grow he reads to them and sings to them and plays his violin to them until they finally sprout. If you haven't read it, you need to.

Another one of my favorite books is Unclaimed Treasures, by Patricia McLachlan. I just reread it a couple days ago, actually. In the book Willa's twin brother draws a picture of the garden before the seeds start to grow-- just the bare dirt. His mother looks at it and says "where's the rest of it?" because she doesn't understand that it's all there under the surface, unseen but vital.

Amazing things are going to be happening in my plot of dirt over the next few months.

Boring Garden Notes

I shall bore you all by telling all about what my garden is doing in my blog. Today I planted tomatoes and marigolds and broccoli and corn, then Ellie got fussy and it got dark and I will have to do the rest tomorrow. I started all of that (except the corn) from seed, but I was so busy I forgot to fertilize the seedlings, so they are very small. And I should have planted my garden a week ago. I'm just not very on the ball this year, with the move and the new baby (poor excuses, I know.) I'm sure everything will catch up, with sunshine and water and Algoflash.

My Kind of Website

I spent this evening visiting with my friend Eve. She's Isabelle's mother-- she has 5 boys and then Isabelle, so our families get along great! Anyway, she had just discoverd a great website where you can order a lot of the herbs and natural supplements I use for excellent discounts-- best prices I've seen. It's www.worldhealthdepot.com and I'm really excited about it. It's the next best thing to working at the health food store, and the health food store didn't even stock Dr. Christopher brand, which is what I use the most. Since I've started learning about health and natural stuff I've been so frustrated with how expensive it can be to really take care of yourself. Finding this site where I can get stuff half off is a blessing.

Ellie Today

You've seen lots of pictures of Ellie, but you haven't seen any pictures of her today, so here you go!

Why People Have Toes

So that their mothers can enjoy playing with them when they are babies.

Mother's Day Tradition

It's become a tradition with us to take a picture of me with my kids every mother's day. Here's this year's:



I had such a lovely mother's day. I feel so blessed to be able to be a mother.

Oh, Sam!

Potty training Sam is Not going well. He has never gone in the potty chair, he just plays with it. Sigh.

My Mother's Day Breakfast

While I was up here blogging Jared cooked me an Enormous breakfast-- biscuits with bacon gravy, hashbrowns, fried eggs, and peach smoothie. Wow! It was yummy. Now he's downstairs doing all the dishes. So I can blog some more! Hooray for mother's day!


I want my sister to take a picture of the bouquet her husband brought her this morning and put it on her blog!

Why I like Blogging

This blogging thing is really addictive. It's right up my alley because:

1. I have always loved writing in a journal, and I have always loved family photo albums
2. I like to talk about myself but I don't want to bore anybody. I also love to go back and read what I've written long ago.
3. A blog entry can be short or long, depending on how much time I have-- even if I only have 5 minutes I can post something and feel a little bit more fulfilled
4. I have everything I need to do this-- it's not like scrapbooking where I need to keep going out and spending spending spending. Too often we keep focussing on acquiring more things when we forget how many neat things we can do with what we already have. I've got a digital camera, a computer, and the internet, and that's enough for endless fun.
5. I LOVE taking pictures of my children! Here is Joey lookin' handsome in his blue Sunday shirt this morning:

Something I Never Want to Forget

When Ellie is all grown up I want to remember how she looked sleeping on my bed as a baby. Especially her little curled fists!

I haven't been Tagged

No one has "tagged" me, but I saw this on a friend's blog and I want to do it.

4 Jobs I've had:
1. Weather Station Technician (my favorite job ever)
2. Secretary (not again, thank you)
3. Sandwich maker at Blimpie's
4. Health food store clerk (awesome)

4 movies I can watch over and over:
1. The Music Man
2. Room With A View
3. Chariots of Fire
4. Persuasion

4 Places I've lived:
1. North Mankato, MN
2. Salt Lake City, UT
3. London, England
4. Burnsville, MN

4 Places I Want to Live:
1. Switzerland
2. Rural England
3. Vermont
4. Oregon Coast

4 Highly Regarded TV shows I've never watched a minute of:
1. Seinfeld
2. Sex and the City
3. Friends
4. American Idol

4 Places I've Vacationed:
1. Kenya
2. Europe
3. Boston
4. New York City

4 Places I Wish I Could Vacation:
1. Tahiti
2. Hong Kong
3. Antarctica
4. Egypt

4 Favorite Dishes:
1. Chimichangas
2. Eggrolls
3. Bratwurst
4. Good authentic Italian pasta

4 Sites I Visit Daily:
1. weather.com
2. google
3. blogger
4. ebay

4 Places I'd Rather Be Right Now:
1. Walking along the beach in Oregon
2. Wandering the streets of London
3. Eating chocolate with my sisters
4. Snuggling my baby in my rocking chair

Haircuts!

Backyard Nature Lesson, Part 2

We have four eggs in our nest:


And a mommy bird to sit on them!



I have learned that it will take 13 days for the eggs to hatch, then about 2 weeks for the babies to start leaving the nest, then another couple weeks before they can really fly on their own. So this nature show will go on through the end of June. And they may lay 2 more sets of eggs over the summer. However, I'm thinking I might move the nest after this batch-- it's risky enough going through this once with small children! I don't worry about my kids so much as other kids who come over to play. (Like tonight we were coming back from a walk and some kid that I had never seen before, probably about 9 or 10 years old, comes up to me and says "hey, can I play on your swingset?" This is the part of having a fabulous backyard that I've been dreading. Pretty soon my doorbell will be ringing constantly-- "can I play in your backyard?" And if I let these strange unknown neighborhood kids come I will have to watch constantly to make sure they don't break stuff or go in my garden or kill my baby birds or hurt my kids... Sigh.)

Tonight as we were going to bed Joey said, "I hope the mommy bird has a nice sleep."

Ellie and Belle

Here's Ellie and her friend Isabelle, born a day apart, delivered by the same midwife. It's really hard to get two babies to look cute at the same time. Most of the time they look like this:



Then you get one of them to smile...



And then the other one, but never both at the same time!



Here's what Joey and some of Isabelle's older brothers were doing while I was taking pictures of the babies. Looks precarious... in fact Joey did fall out of the chair just after I took the picture, but he fell onto sand so he wasn't hurt.

EllieEllieEllie!

Ellie is a very happy baby. She makes this squeaky shriek that is different than any noise my boys ever made. Maybe she's a soprano.

I said what I said about dresses but we still have to wear them to church. Here is Ellie yesterday before church, JUST after I pulled her skirt down : )

Tilling the Garden

8 bags of Soil Pep: $22.71
2 hour tiller rental: $38.00
A garden plot for Sarah: priceless

Healthy Boys

Jared remarked to me today that the boys seem healthier and happier since we moved in. It's true-- playing on the playground every day has made them stronger, has made them sleep better, and has made them less ornery (slightly!)




Sam is always your stereotypical grubby little kid now: face and hands covered with dirt, sand, food, and boogers. But what a cutie!



My parents gave me a Peace rose for my birthday a couple years ago and I brought it to the new house with me. I'm very excited that it's starting to grow again after the transplant:



And there's a clematis in bloom on the garden fence: wow!

The Adventures of Wonder Woman

I should change the title of my blog. I AM Wonder Woman. Having three kids is giving me so many Skills.

I took the kids to a wedding reception tonight. This is what they look like loaded into my car (we never take pictures of mundane stuff like this, and this is what will be the most interesting to our great great grandchildren!)



Ellie is so adorable with her big wide eyes...



Anyway, I digress. I was getting to the Wonder Woman story. But first, two pictures taken on the grass outside the wedding reception:



So after the wedding reception we had to go to Home Depot to buy this mulch stuff for my garden. Jared's going to rent a tiller tomorrow and I want this stuff tilled in, lots of it. Eight bags worth. Big heavy bags. So, how do you get 8 big heavy bags of dirty stuff from Home Depot when you're wearing dressy clothes and have three small children with you? Plan A was to get someone to help me. I loaded the kids into a cart and wheeled them over to the mulch and looked for help. There was an employee, but he was very busy helping some guy load a big bunch of bricks. So I went to the front of the Home and Garden Dept and asked the lady there. She said she couldn't help, but she would get someone-- she radioed Michael. Then she left. I waited and waited, no Michael. Kids are getting wiggly. I need this mulch, and I need it tonight. Hmmmm... I'm going to have to do this myself. Time for Plan Q (Plan Q always saves the day.) I took the kids back outside to the front of the store (long walk) and found one of those flatbed carts. I set Ellie in her car seat on the flat bed (not exactly secure, but I was desperate). I herded the boys back through the store and over to the mulch. (Sam was on a leash or this never would've worked). I set Ellie on the floor by the mulch, then loaded my bags onto the flatbed. But now what to do with Ellie? I wasn't going to balance her on top of the mulch. I had to carry her carseat (heavy!) sort of half-balanced on the bar of the cart while pushing the cart (heavy!) and herding the boys to the checkout,("Joey, stay where I can see you, Sam, THIS way!") where there was a long line, of course. ("Sam, don't touch that! Joey, stay where I can see you! Oh Eleanor, you adorable smiley sweet little girl!") Then out to the car, load everyone in, load the mulch in the trunk. My shirt was totally filthy, but I had what I needed and I hadn't lost or injured any of my kids. Made me feel like Wonder Woman.