Prayer

"Our prophets have admonished us repeatedly to make family prayer a regular part of our daily worship. President John Taylor asked the Saints:

" 'Do you have prayers in your family? . . .

" 'And when you do, do you go through the operation like the guiding of a piece of machinery, or do you bow in meekness and with a sincere desire to seek the blessing of God upon you and your household? That is the way that we ought to do, and cultivate a spirit of devotion and trust in God, dedicating ourselves to him, and seeking his blessings.'"

L. Tom Perry

“The Lord has said, ‘Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers’.

“What a tremendous promise is given in this statement. If we are without conceit and pride and arrogance, if we are humble and obedient, then the Lord will lead us by the hand and answer our prayers. What greater thing could we ask for? There is nothing to compare with this.”

Gordon B. Hinckley

Melinda has her first talk assignment for Primary...and it's next week! Ack! The topic is "I learn about prayer from the scriptures". So. You know what we're going to be focusing on the coming week. :)

Sounds of Summer

One thing I complained heavily about Maryland for the first few years we lived here was the summer weather. Oh, how I hated it! Too hot, way too humid, and the nights never cooled off enough to make opening the windows at night actually refreshing. But you know... the longer we stay here, the more I find things I like.

For instance, the sounds we hear during the summer time. I wanted to share them, so I took two videos. The visual isn't the draw, here, so feel free to close your eyes and just listen. Turn up your speakers if you need to.

First: Nighttime crickets and frogs. A true symphony. In Colorado, you'll often have crickets, but they never seem to blend together this well, and just become one of those annoying noises, not unlike the persistent dripping of a faucet. But the crickets (and frogs) here in Maryland just become the most beautiful white noise.



Second: Daytime cicadas (sick-AY-duh). I had never even heard of these before moving to the east. And soon after we moved here, we discovered we were just in time for one of the rare "13 year" breeds, coinciding with the arrival of the "7 year" breeds, and it was truly an infestation. It was absolutely deafening in some places, and every tree was covered in the little beetles. In normal summers, though, while the cicadas are loud, they aren't overwhelming. Their high-pitched drone fades in and out, and it actually feels fairly relaxing to listen to them. Kind of like the crickets, in their own way.



I just really find myself appreciating the two different symphonies that nature provides - one for the day, one for the night. I think I'll really miss it, someday.

Sitting

I knew it would happen soon... still, it took me by surprise. Saturday night I set Alex on the floor, tummy down, free to roam around while I took care of a few things. I walked back in the room... and he was sitting. Nobody had touched him, he just did it all on his own. (A full month earlier than Melinda. Again. I guess I shouldn't be surprised if he ends up walking about 3-4 months from now, terrifying as that thought is.)

He has sat up numerous times since then, getting quicker each time. I finally wised up and got it on camera last night.

Proud smile. Unpacked box.

Leaning inquisitively towards the camera.

Not-so-graceful dismount. But he seems to be learning fast.

Simply in Season

Recently, while visiting with a friend, I was introduced to the Simply In Season recipe book, by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert. I was able to flip through it, and right away I could tell that this was a cookbook I wanted to have.

The format is broken up by season: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Each section is divided into the following subsections: Breads and Breakfast, Soups, Salads, Sides, Main Dishes, Desserts and Extras. This is such a fantastic difference for me - usually, cookbooks are divide into sections like Poultry, Beef, Pasta, Eggs, Cookies... But I don't plan my meals based on main ingredients, usually. I tend to look for simply a main dish, or a dessert, etc. So the Simply In Season cookbook has a HUGE positive going for it, right there.

But the even better thing about this book is that by dividing recipes into seasons, you can use it accordingly and buy food when it's at it's cheapest and freshest. As the back of the book says, "Eating in season is a great way to improve your health, support local farmers and help the environment." Health wise alone, I definitely agree with that - I believe that our Heavenly Father provided the foods that would be most appropriate for our physical needs to be harvested in the correct season. But I've always had a problem accessing ideas for eating in such a way, simply because of the cookbooks I have access to.

So I got my copy of Simply In Season in the mail just before our move. I took the opportunity to flip to the Summer section of the cookbook and plan several meals (and desserts!) for the upcoming week, exclusively from the selection provided. Tonight I tried the first one, and it was great! We ate a main dish with a huge portion of vegetables, some dairy, some grains, and a very small amount of meat. It was satisfying, tasty, fresh, easy to prepare, and easy on the pocketbook. I'm very very eager to try more of the recipes!!

There's also so much potential to make this a very whole-foods type of meal. I took some shortcuts today, since I knew I'd be coming home from the grocery store very close to dinner time, and wanted this to be as fast to prepare as possible. But I could have used plain yogurt instead of sour cream. I could have used the recipe for a Cream Soup Substitute instead of buying a can of processed cream of chicken soup. There was even a recipe for herbed croutons instead of buying them processed, or using the other option of a stuffing mix. Bottom line, it was a delicious, healthy meal, and it could be even healthier without being at all difficult. All the ingredients were easy to find and already familiar to me.

Simply In Season also comes spiral-bound... perfect for laying open to read while you're cooking! And there are enough recipes in each section that you may find that you rarely to never have to repeat them, if you're willing to try them all!

I strongly recommend checking out this recipe book, I'm very excited about it! I can't wait to see how cooking with foods in season affects our lives for the better.

Here's the recipe we enjoyed tonight (taken from page 136 of Simply In Season). As we ate it, Jesse said, "Becky, this is really good. Where did you get this idea?" I told him I got it from the Simply In Season cookbook that my friend had introduced me to, and he said, "You have that??" and went on to describe how he heard about it on NPR as he was driving to work recently, and how awesome it sounded, and came highly recommended by a local chef. I'm glad he was so impressed by my purchase. ;)

Summer Squash Bake

• 6-7 cups zucchini or yellow squash (shredded or chopped)
• 1 small onion (minced)

Combine with enough water to cook or microwave until tender, 3-4 minutes (shredded zucchini may be used without cooking). Drain, reserving the water to make Cream Soup Substitute below. Set aside.

• 1 recipe Cream Soup Substitute or 1 can condensed cream soup
• 1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
• 1 cup carrot (shredded)

Mix together in a separate bow.

• 2 tablespoons fresh oregano (chopped; or 2 teaspoons dried)
• 1 cup cooked chicken (diced; optional)
• 1 cup cheese (shredded; optional)

Add and mix thoroughly. Stir into squash mixture.

• 1/4 cup butter (melted)
• 2-3 cups Herbed Croutons or herb stuffing mix

Mix together in a separate bow. Put half into the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan or deep casserole dish. Add the squash mixture and top with the reserved croutons. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.


Cream Soup Substitute

• 2 cups dry milk powder
• 3/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 cup chicken or beef bouillon granules
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 teaspoons dried minced onion (optional)

Mix together and store in a covered container in the refrigerator. To use combine 1 1/4 cups cold water with 1/3 cup of the mix in a small saucepan. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Substitute this sauce for a 10-ounce can of condensed creamed soup. Add herbs such as thyme or dill or 1/4 cup minced fresh onion when preparing (optional).


Herbed Croutons

• 4 cups whole wheat bread cubes

Spread on an ungreased baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees until crisp and dry, 10-15 minutes. Lightly spray dried bread cubes with oil.

• 1 1/2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese (grated)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley

Mix together and toss with the bread cubes. Return the cubes to the oven and bake until crisp, about 5 minute.

I Should Have Bought a Lotto Ticket

Since I still haven't made it to the grocery store to re-stock my fridge and pantry after our move, we ended up having waffles and eggs for dinner tonight.

I cracked open 3 eggs, went to crack the fourth, and noticed it was significantly bigger than the others. I buy large eggs (and this particular batch was brown/organic/cage free/etc.), but this one was more of a jumbo. I shrugged my shoulders, cracked it open, straight into the pan, and HOLY MOLY!! It had TWO YOLKS!!

I squealed with delight. I had never even heard of such a thing. I looked it up later, and it is indeed a rare abnormality (although one person out there on the internets said she and her husband once got a full dozen that all had double yolks!). And they say that if you find an egg with two yolks, it's a sign of good luck.

If only it had been a lotto ticket, I tell ya!

(As an aside, I read that two yolks will only turn into a successful hatching with human intervention - because otherwise, the chicks will fight each other and both die. Yikes!)

On Your Marks....

Maybe it was moving, and having a million tantalizing, baby-inappropriate items strewn around the house, all within sight, beckoning to him. Maybe it was the Olympic spirit that lit a fire within him, urging him to move. Maybe it was just that Jesse is his father, and it's in his blood.

But whatever the reason, Alex has really taken off over the last few days. We went from just barely moving to:
"Jesse, can you grab that plastic bag on the ground and take it away before Alex gets to it?"
"... Nope, I can't. ... ... He got to it first!"

Just like we predicted, fully mobile by the time we moved.

He seems to have mostly given up the idea of crawling, and has settled for scooting. He nearly always starts off on all fours, taking one single crawling "step" forward, then finishes with his belly dragging across the ground.

And of course, this is just such perfect timing, right? When I have no safe spot in the house for him to play in? Ah, well. It's still so much fun to watch him try to be such a big boy! And like Melinda has noted several times, he's also "trying to sit up!" He's getting oh-so-close to getting himself into a sitting position. All he needs to do is lean a little bit, and it will be enough to get himself upright. I just wish wish wish the carpet padding were thicker - I'm afraid of the upcoming first several tries and resulting head bonks on the floor.

But here, a video is so much more fun than me trying to describe it all, isn't it?

Sweet Rewards

Holy exhaustion, Batman!! I am T-I-R-E-D!!

Today we ran out of the new apartment as fast as we could and got to the old one at 8:30am. To put it bluntly, we started cleaning our brains out.

You would not believe the damage two kids, a few crayons, and an odd rhythm stick or two can do to the walls of a 2 bedroom apartment. Especially an apartment with cheap, flat, evil paint. Deep-cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms took about as long as expected, and could definitely not be considered in any way, shape, or form to be even reminiscent of fun (although, honestly, I'm glad I gave the kitchen to Jesse, because it took him longer to finish that one room than it took me to finish 2 bathrooms and get started on the other rooms, while taking a nursing break in between...). But oh, the walls. The walls!!!! If I were a cursing woman, you would have heard it all today, as I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed those walls. You remember the walls. Actually, now I can't remember if I've ever shown them to you before. Well, this is ONE wall. Granted, it's the worst of the bunch, but you get the idea. The kids had colored all four walls of their bedroom like this one. And a few other random spots throughout the house. I had tried just about everything to get it off, but was alarmed by the amount of elbow grease each method required. In the end, I just left it, throwing up my hands in true quitter fashion. But moving out sort of required us to revisit the issue.

We ended up taking Scotch Brite pads (the green kind) and Lysol (ugh, I'm still coughing) and essentially wet-sanding the top layer of paint off, and with it, the crayon. It was by far the easiest of the methods, but my arms and shoulder muscles are already aching, despite that. I'm afraid of what they'll feel like tomorrow. Again, I would be spouting a constant stream of profanities at that paint if I were anyone else. The semi-gloss covered doors were a breeze to wipe down. Not so with the ... (pausing to find the will to type a family-friendly word) evil ... flat-painted walls.

While I was scrubbing, Jacob made me laugh: "Grandma told me not to color on dee walls. Yah. Onwee on paper." I was working on cleaning the one wall that Jacob colored on just a day or so after Grandma had cleaned it. She had visited for Alex's birth, so that was almost 5 months ago. I was impressed he remembered that Grandma had cleaned it, that he had colored on it again, and that Grandma told him not to color on the walls. Now, I just wish he would remember before he colors on the walls. I am desperately hoping they don't color the walls again in the new place. We're seriously thinking of going crayon-free over here, but that would almost be heartbreaking. :(

Anyway. We cleaned our brains out, like I said. And got the place completely, 100% empty. All the while, we were putting off lunch. I would have happily ordered a pizza, but one (pretty big) problem: Pizza places apparently don't accept personal checks these days. At least none I called. And I couldn't use a credit card, because - guess what? - they got cancelled. On Friday night, of all the "perfect" timing. Because of a widespread hacker potentially gaining access to our information, thus compromising the security of our credit card. We no longer have a back-up credit card, we got rid of it. And over the weekend, we used up all the cash we had so luckily earned from Craigslist sells from decluttering our possessions. We couldn't run and get cash from an ATM, either, because our credit card acts as a debit card, so we both stopped carrying the debit cards with us. And yeah... they're currently buried in some random, unknown box. I have no will to try and track them down. We'll be getting our new credit cards in about a week (though I'm guessing less, based on our credit union's track record with mail). In the meantime, we were out of cash and didn't know what to do for lunch. So we kept putting it off.

FINALLY, at 2pm, we got our move-out inspection. The FANTASTIC news is that they won't be charging us for anything. We did a great job on the walls (and we can feel it, ugh!!), and despite the millions of stains on the carpet. It's over 4 years old, after all, and they expect to replace it after 5 years. And, when we pulled up our tall bookcase, we found mold on the carpet underneath it. Undoubtedly, it was from a plumbing problem with the laundry room we had experienced a couple years earlier. We had to throw out the bookcase, too, because the mold was all the way into the wood. Just one more piece of furniture to plan on replacing, I guess. They aren't even going to charge us for the broken blinds (which would be on all but one window). So we are expecting to get our entire security deposit back!! Both of us said to each other that we would be perfectly happy to just not have to pay anything extra. So yeah... that hard work? It all paid off. Who wants to join me for a happy dance????

So, tired and exhausted, and all the last of our possessions crammed into the van, we took off to the grocery store, where I know they accept checks. We could have just grabbed some lunch food, but no. We went to the home of the Colossal donuts. And ya know? We got some. We deserved a treat, after all. And after getting home and cramming some lunch into my rumbling stomach, I didn't even hesitate to snatch my chocolate donut.

And let me tell you, it was heaven. And that, my friends, is a sweet reward. A full security deposit returned, and a delicious donut to enjoy for all your hard work.

Momentary Repose

Thank heaven that our move is spanning over a Sunday, and that our beliefs cause us to take a day of rest. Because heaven knows that we certainly needed a whole day to rest after the last couple we've had, and before we get right back into the thick of things.

Jacob's birthday went just fine - and I'll definitely be making a post (when I have time) dedicated to sharing how we celebrated - but the days after that was when things really got crazy around here.

We picked up the keys to the new apartment during Jesse's lunch break, and brought over our TV and computer to be ready for the cable transfer which was to occur between the hours of 4 and 7pm. We took a quick look-through of the apartment, and were fairly pleased with it. Downsides: The layout is reversed from what we saw at the demo apartment, and thus it feels almost exactly like our first apartment. But that's a minor downside, since it's much bigger than our first place. It also has very thin padding under the carpet, and it's already caused Alex a few upsets after he's lost balance... and my feet and tushie don't much like the hardness, either. Jesse really hates that he can feel a lot of uneveness to the concrete, too. But again, that's something we'll adjust to. And the common hallway absolutely reeks. Like a mix between a (clean) portable toilet, and somebody over-using deoderizing spray. Or perfume? I'm so very very glad that the front door has a fantastic seal, because we don't smell it at all while we're in the apartment. But the hallway is definitely not a nice place to be, and it's unfortunate that we have to use it to get outside. We'll be writing a letter about our disappointement with that issue. And the sliding door doesn't have any blinds, and we were under the impression that all the windows would have blinds. Instead, it's set up to use pleated curtains (with hooks). It won't be a big deal to get some, but if I had realized that ahead of time, I might have considered sewing some. As it is right now, I'm more concerned about getting something to cover the door ASAP so our front room isn't open to the world.

Okay, now the positives: The kitchen!! Weeeeee! We can fit our whole family in it! In fact, we started staying here as of Saturday night, and we've eaten several meals cross-legged on the kitchen floor- all five of us!!- to avoid spills on the nice new carpet. The stove and dishwasher are pretty old, but functional. I'm a little worried about the oven - I made some cookies today and needed to set the stove at about 275 to get a temp of 325. I'll have to experiment with that more. An obvious positive is the den, which will be a dedicated playroom. Hooray for not having our living space overlowing with toy storage anymore! And of course, no pest infestations, as far as well can tell. Ahh, relief. There are more windows - one in each of the bedrooms, each larger than our previous windows, the sliding door, and smaller windows in the kitchen and bathrooms. It's nice having more natural light! Unfortunately we don't get any direct sun until afternoon/evening, and then only in the kid's bedroom. And then there's just the niceties of having a clean slate: walls without crayon markings, carpets that are new or at least very, very clean, depending on the room, things like that.

Anyway... I did mean for this to be a short post, but it's not going to be. So, moving on: After we dropped off our TV and computer at Jesse's lunch break, the kids and I went back home and packed more boxes. Jesse got off early and came home just a couple hours later, and I came back to the new apartment with the kids to wait for the cable guy. Turns out, if you sign up for someone to come between 4 and 7pm, it really means they won't be here until 7:03pm, when you're just calling Comcast to start ranting about being kept waiting. Nothing like getting the knock on the door just as you're getting through to a representative. Anyway, we got the cable set up, and while I sat here with the kids with very little to do, Jesse was busy bringing in some very very heavy boxes from the other apartment all by his lonesome self. And actually, that turned out to be the theme of our early weekend: He did all the muscle work, I did all the herding of the kids and sorting/packing/unpacking. I can't say which was the more exhausting side of the coin. Jesse was obviously working hard, sweating like crazy, red-faced, earned sore muscles, the whole bit. On the other hand, I felt very, very ready to murder some kids by the end of Saturday. No, obviously, not really, but I don't know if there's ever been another point in time where I was so absolutely, completely, overwhelmingly frustrated with them. It's like someone turned on the switch to "Let's make mommy go crazy while she's too busy and has no way to do anything about it!" Seriously. Like, during the first 2 hours we were in the new, fairly empty apartment, do you want to take a guess at how many different times urine was deposited on the nice clean floors? By two potty-trained children? Do you?? I'd rather not think about it, myself. It was a bit too much of a nightmare. And then add the screaming and yelling (all in good fun, supposedly) in a very echo-prone apartment. And the 3 (count 'em, THREE) goose-eggs on various children's heads (Melinda picked up Alex without asking permission and dropped him on the previously-mentioned hard carpeted floor, and that made Mommy OH so very angry). Thankfully, things calmed down a bit once we were out of the new place and back in the old, I managed to keep a hold of reality enough to make it through the rest of the evening, and Saturday went much better. Still, I had a very very hard time, upset with myself for how much I let the kids get to me, feeling guilty about how it was one giant downward spiral into me yelling and feeling like I was completely losing it. I ended up not getting to sleep until at least 2am on Friday night... after some cathartic cleaning while everyone else was asleep. And maybe just a little bit of dancing (and probably not very attractive dancing, at that) to Coldplay's Strawberry Swing. ;) Because there's just something about the beat that screamed "DANCE TO ME!!".

A funny side note about Friday night, while I was sleepless... Alex woke up before I had fallen asleep, crying. Jesse was asleep, and suddenly, he was rolling over in bed, rubbing circles soothingly over my back, and "shhh-shing" me. As soon as I realized he was doing this in his sleep, I made a face and not-so-tactfully shoved him off of me, so I take care of Alex. I was right, of course, he was doing it in his sleep, so no hurt feelings. About an hour later (yup, I still wasn't asleep), Jesse was suddenly giggling in his sleep. The kind of giggle that babies often make in their sleep, the kind that make you go "Awww", and wonder what they're dreaming about. I was absolutely mystified. Jesse sometimes has dreams he realizes are dreams but can't wake himself up from them, and will make somewhat terrifying noises in those cases, but I've never had him do anything like either one of these things in his sleep before, in the 8 years we've been married. And he did them both in the same night. And had no memory of them in the morning at all. It was very strange.

Saturday, we woke up and got right to work. We started in the kids' room, completely emptied it, then moved to our room, emptied it as much as possible, and then grabbed what we could of the kitchen before we headed to the new place. Jesse made something like 5 or 6 trips in our van (with all of the seats pulled out), stuffed full of boxes, and did all the lifting by himself. I just hung out filling boxes as fast as I could, between taking care of Alex and trying to redirect Melinda and Jacob into activities that wouldn't drive us crazy (which is hard when, you know, all the toys and games and electronics are in a different house, and they're too young to help pack without significantly slowing the operation). We managed to do it all fairly well, and were able to get enough things set up that we could spend the night at the new place. Kids' bed set up, mattresses on the floor in our room, clothes and towels pulled out for the next day, things like that. Enough food in the fridge to eat for Sunday. We didn't bring anything but a couple small lamps with us, so it's a good thing we were tired enough to go to sleep soon after dark!

So yeah.... I'm glad we can rest today. Jesse's body seriously needed it (his wrist was starting to go, from all the lifting), and my mental wellness also needed the break. Melinda and Jacob have been happy to run around the apartment today, familiarizing themselves with the layout, playing with their toys, and mostly staying out of trouble. And what would a blog post about a move be, without pictures to go with it??

One wall of the master bedroom, where there is a generous pile of clean laundry, and suitcases filled with yet more laundry, while we wait for the transportation of our dresser:


The kids' bedroom. It's bigger, it has less stuff in it, and still, this is probably the cleanest you'll ever see it! (Notice I even managed to capture Jacob taking a nap, how's that for cool??)
Our current seating situation, which will likely stay fairly close to this until we have found ourselves a new couch (or two? or couch and chairs? Still not sure).
This is our fun little computer corner for right now. LOL. I'm so glad Jesse decided to take the time to put the working computer on the desk for me this afternoon. Otherwise I certainly wouldn't be blogging. I tried to read my emails (*30* after being offline for just a day and a half?!?!) down on the floor, and my body definitely didn't like that arrangement. And just because you can never get tired of baby pictures.... here's Alex in the new place, showing off his new favorite position. A mix between all fours and semi-sitting. Jesse calls it the "Grecian Lounge".

Tomorrow (Monday), it's back to work. We'll be cleaning out the rest of the house, moving everything but cleaning supplies over to the new place. Our friend Russ is so kindly stopping by after work to help Jesse muscle some of the heavier of our possesions that he can't do by himself, despite this friend having a fairly new baby at home, and a long commute. We didn't ask, but he offered as soon as he learned we were moving. Hopefully at the end of Monday, we'll have everything transferred, and maybe even have a good bit of move-out cleaning done. It would be so nice to be completely finished on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, after all... and then tackle the unpacking and organizing over at the new place!

Can't Sleep

Note the time of this entry.
I can't sleep.

....*sigh*.... It happens every now and then, although I have no idea why. Anyway, I stayed in bed for a couple hours, hardly able to shut my eyes, and eventually gave up. I decided to come out to my computer and at least read some blogs or something. Nothing like wasting time in bed in a room too dark to see anything, and with a husband snoring next to you. Yikes.

And so while I'm sitting here, in a dark room with my bright monitor on, there's a little fruit fly walking around on the monitor, all over the place. And I find myself trying to "shoo" it away ... with my mouse pointer. Oddly enough, it works about half the time. Darn little thing keeps coming back, though.

Lucky me, I'll be super tired tomorrow. And since it's the day before Jacob's 3rd birthday, and we still haven't gotten him a gift, Jesse's going to go hunt around some stores during lunch tomorrow (errr.... today, I guess...) instead of coming home like he usually does. (Anyone see any Tinkertoys in a brick-and-mortar store recently?) And then in the evening he has Boy Scouts to attend, so he'll be gone pretty much my entire parenting day. My entire sleepy parenting day. Goal: make it through the day without becoming Ms. Super-Grouch.

And ya know? Speaking of grumpy. While we've been getting ready to move, we've been trying to get rid of things we simply don't need anymore. Which means I've been dealing a lot with Craigslist and Freecycle recently. We managed to make about $140 from Craigslist, which is awesome, but the hassle of arranging for a time for someone to come by and pick up free things is driving me absolutely crazy. If I wouldn't feel so terrible about just throwing them in a dumpster, I'd seriously be reconsidering the effort. Why can't people just get back to me in a reasonable amount of time? I just want this stuff gone, folks!! Before I have to worry about moving it out of my apartment myself!

Tomorrow: more packing, maybe some afternoon snoozing, thanks to tonight.
Thursday: Jacob's birthday, just the fam'.
Friday: spend the evening at the new apartment to get cable hooked up.
Saturday: work like crazy to move as much as possible.
Sunday: take a break. Hopefully in the new place.
Monday: finish moving stuff, start cleaning like crazy.
Tuesday: finish up anything that needs to be done.
Wednesday: say goodbye for good to the little home we've known for 4 years.

Well. Maybe it's time to go give the bed a second chance, eh?

Little Boys Are Funny

I should give a little background, first. Jacob had potty trained pretty much completely. We were still working on getting him to run to the toilet instead of a closet when it was time for a bowel movement, but otherwise everything was golden. Except when he got sick last week, I stuck him in training pants so we wouldn't have to worry about what might happen while he was deep in sleep on the couch from a fever. Well, that really backfired. We were back to square one, after that mistake, and suddenly Jacob couldn't remember how to keep himself dry. It was really frustrating. Much of the problem was solved when Jesse broke out a couple extra potty chairs we had, and encouraged Jacob to try using them.... standing up. Well, Jacob just loved that idea, of course! I should say that I am actually pleasantly surprised at how good his (ahem) aim is.

Anyway, the other day, he needed to go potty, and I went with him. The two extra potty chairs were sitting side by side in the bathroom, and he picked the smaller red potty. He stood over it, went pee, and then stopped.... and took two steps to the left, positioned himself over the larger white potty, and started going again. And then stopped, took two steps to the right, and went in the red potty again. And yup, you guessed it, he stopped and finished off in the white potty. I just watched and chuckled. Leave it to a young, newly-potty-trained boy to get the crazy idea of using every available potty in one trip. When he was finished, he turned around and grinned at me as widely as he could, and exclaimed, "Look, mommy! I went pee-pee in the red one and in the white one! Yeah!!" (I am glad that he didn't make a mess!!)

*****

Tonight we had some Chinese food for dinner (and not just because of the Olympics, either!). I ordered Bourbon Chicken, and it has a fairly bright red color to it. As we were sitting at the table to eat it, Jacob asked me if he could have a bite of my strawberries. LOL.

Tagged

I got tagged for this meme over at Laughadaisy. :)

Here's the thing: This was actually incredibly difficult for me to write. I've been thinking about it for days! I'm in an odd spot in my life where I really feel like I'm almost just going through the motions of living, and haven't been putting much real thought behind my actions. So when presented with the task of explaining my joys, fears, goals, obsessions... well, I kind of got this blank look to my face and realized how extremely little I've been thinking along those lines. Almost like my thoughts have been essentially empty.

Who am I? What do I think about? What makes me tick? I used to be able to answer these questions without too much hesitation, but I've sort of lost myself over the last couple years, with the exception of random, rare moments. Or maybe I'm not so much lost, as I just don't remember very well because I'm just too darn busy going through the motions. I'd prefer to think of it that way, at least. At any rate, I had to think hard for this meme. And that's a good thing.

RULES:
Post these rules on your blog.
Answer these 15 questions about yourself on your blog.
Tag five people at the end of your post by leaving their names.

Here it is:

JOYS:

1. I love watching my kids learn or experience something new for the first time. Anything from seeing a new animal, hearing a new sound, singing a new song, understanding a new concept.... I love it! It's so amazing to me. And sometimes, it also makes me feel just a teeeeny bit nuts. Like, sometimes we sit down to watch a movie that I used to watch all the time when I was a kid. Cinderella, for instance. The first time we watched that movie together, I was literally in tears and choking up... simply because this was their first time seeing it. I don't even love Cinderella all that much! It's just that it was something new that I thought they would love. And yesterday, we got a new music CD. New for me, even. As soon as the first song started playing, I was tearing up again, holding back happy sobs. I'm crazy, aren't I?
   


2. I love the satisfaction of creating something. Cooking a delicious meal from scratch (something I couldn't always reliably do!). Sewing a blanket. Drawing a detailed picture. Playing music. Maybe I should explain that last one, as it doesn't normally fall under the "creating" category. No, I've never composed music. But I did play clarinet all through junior high and high school, and during my college years. I loved being a part of a band, and creating beautiful music. Sometimes I performed solo's. They were incredibly nerve-wracking for me, but I did absolutley love creating that music for other people to enjoy. And of course, for myself to enjoy. I also used to play piano, back when I had regular access to one, and I loved being able to play something from start to finish. And singing in the church choir also brought me immense satisfaction. But as I said at first, even just cooking a good meal or drawing an original picture are things that make me feel satisfied, and maybe even a little bit giddy.
   


3. Drawing a bit from #2, music. I love beautiful music. I connect to it, part of my soul feels like it has a voice when I hear it. It could be classical, or hymns, or even silly kids music or upbeat rock 'n roll. I love all sorts of music, there's always something appropriate for my mood, and invariably I will find that something in whatever I'm listening to really "speaks" to me.
   

FEARS:

1. Number one true fear in my life is speaking in public, and/or being the center of attention in a group setting. I can handle intimate groups of close friends or family, but make me stand up in front of a group of even children I don't know, and I start losing it. Voice gets shaky, palms get sweaty, train of thought goes kaput, nothing I say makes enough sense, I can't put sentences together right... I'm just a wreck. I absolutely hate speaking in front of a crowd. Just as bad is being the center of attention, in any situation. Wedding and wedding reception, anyone? Yeah, that's something I'm glad I only had to do once. Seriously.
   


2. I hate any form of confrontation. I don't like to openly disagree with someone, even in the most innocent of situations. I don't like correcting someone, even when it's valid. It's about as bad as the public speaking thing. I have a hard time verbalizing my thoughts, I get the shaky voice and sweaty palms, etc. It leads me to keep my thoughts to myself most of the time. It's not quite so bad with family - for instance, I usually don't have an issue telling Jesse when he's losing touch with reality and needs to get a grip... but if it's something more sensitive, it takes me a lot of effort to gear up to blurting it out.
   


3. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I really have a big issue with talking about my feelings. As a teenager in love, it often got reduced to expressing myself in a silly, playful voice. Luckily for me, that didn't scare away my boyfriends. But even after I was married, and still now, 8 years into a marriage, I still have a really, really hard time with it. If something has been bothering me and I know I need to talk about it, I honestly, truly spend a good 30-45 minutes running a constant stream of dialogue through my head trying to find the right words to say, rehearsing how I will say it, and trying to give myself courage to say it in a genuine manner, before I finally get it out of my head and use my voice to express it. And then it takes all of about 5 seconds to say it, with a single breath, and usually less than 2 sentences. And it's much less eloquent than I was planning on. And then I'm immediately embarrased by what I said. It's times like that when I just wish that I could give people a temporary ability to hear my thoughts, because it just never comes out right. Quite honestly, I'm afraid of ruining my relationships with the people I love because of my inability to express my feelings, good and bad alike. I just can't get them out there, and it's so frustrating! I can be completely genuine, honest, expressive, and even verbose when I can share my thoughts and feelings in writing (see this post for proof), but all of that vanishes when I try to be verbal.
   

GOALS:

1. This will probably take the entirety of my life, but I want to improve my parenting. I have this whole set of ideals, and I fall short constantly. Bottom line, I want all (or at least most!) of my interactions with my children to be cheerful, calm, and loving. I want them to always think of me with love and appreciation, and never with resentment for the way I handle things.
   


2. Short and simple, I want to improve my spirituality. Truly make it a huge part of myself.
   


3. I want to learn how to forgive myself for my faults, and almost hand-in-hand with that thought, learn to stop procrastinating. If I would make improvements to myself as I think of them, instead of saying vaguely in my head that I'll work on it "someday", then I think I probably wouldn't be quite so hard on myself for my failings.
   

OBSESSIONS/COLLECTIONS:

1. I absolutely love new books. The smell, the crispness, the feeling of simply possessing them... love it!! I know it makes so much more sense to get books used, but I crave the newness. I've been buying books faster than I'm reading them, lately!
   


2. I love all things dragon! Dragon art, stories with dragons, dragon sculptures, kids clothing with dragons.... Mmmm, all good stuff! My sisters-in-law got me an awesome gift one year - as much as I generally don't enjoy wearing jewelry, they got me a silver dragon charm pendant, and it's seriously one of my favorite gifts ever!
   


3. This almost goes without saying, but I'm obsessed about checking my emails/blogs/forums. Even if I don't always participate in commenting and discussing, I always LOVE reading.
   

RANDOM SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT ME:

1. I took fencing in college and excelled at it. I was better than the rest of the girls, and only one boy was better than I was- and he cheated a lot (not making that up!). Interestingly, Jesse also took fencing, but it was the semester after I went home from college. After we were first married, we sometimes tossed around the idea of buying fencing equipment so we could play each other, but it never happened - too much money, and we were poor. And now I'm completely out of shape and don't even remember the rules. But it was a fun time! I felt so powerful and disciplined.
   


2. I don't mind my kids making a mess with art supplies, but I cannot stand trying to involve them in even simple cooking. It drives me absolutely crazy that they want to touch everything and help with everything, the control freak inside me just screams in terror. But Jesse does great with kids & cooking, so I leave that part to him.
   


3. I've never had much of a desire at all to see and travel the world. I'm generally happy in my own four little walls. A trip around town, or a quick window-shopping jaunt, is often enough to satisfy my need to "get out". And yet, ever since I saw a nature special on TV, I'm absolutely dying to go to Fiordland, New Zealand. It seems so breathtaking. If ever I have enough money to take a vacation of my choice, and I can leave my kids behind (hey, maybe they'll even be out of the house...), my first and only choice would be to go to Fiordland and see Doubtful and Milford Sounds, and maybe even challenge myself with a 4-day long, demanding hike from the sounds through the mountains. I can't imagine how thrilling that would be - it's supposedly some of the finest scenery on earth. And from what I saw on TV, I can absolutely believe that.
   

TAGGING:
As always, please don't feel obligated to participate simply because I'm tagging you. If I have your email address, you've probably learned by now that I simply don't circulate forward types of emails. I've never liked the silly obligations that go along with them, and I don't want to put people in that situation. So if I tag you and you want to play along, please do. If you don't want to play, no need to, and you don't even have to give me an excuse. Okay? :) And if you weren't tagged, but want to play along, you can do that, too! But please leave me a comment so I know where to go read your answers, because I'd love to do that!

1. My sister Jacy
2. My sister Melissa
3. My sister Megan (who is just starting and could maybe use something to blog about!)
4. My "cousin"(?) Melissa (sorry, I really can't figure out exactly what our relationship is, it's so extended! Melissa is also new to blogging, and I'm interested in her answers!)
5. My friend and awesome blogger, Summer.

4 months, going on 8 months

Alex turned 4 months old on August 1st. Incredible! How does the time fly by so quickly?

This past month, he's been growing and changing so much. He's so big that he's wearing his 6-9 month clothes already. He's growing out of the pouch sling that I made to carry him in, and I've been branching out to try other ways of carrying. Most recently I've been happy with a wrap style carrier. In effort to keep the money spending to a minimum, I just bought a 6-yard length of fabric and cut it to the appropriate width. It's versatile and comfortable. He's been spending so much time on his tummy that the worn-off bald spot on his head is growing it's hair back. He's grinning and giggling lots and lots. He's given me a nice percentage of nights that he's been sleeping "through" the night, a solid 6-7 hour block without waking me up, all on his own body clock, none of my doing. (This is a first for me - my other babies didn't do that for a LONG time.) He's been doing a high-pitched "squeal" sort of noise when he's just playing around. And he's doing his best to grab everything within his power to reach. For instance, if we go grocery shopping and I carry him forward-facing, he's constantly grabbing the grocery cart's handlebar, or reaching for items on the shelves, or trying to grab the credit card swiper-machine's pen. If you get your hair near his hands, it's going to get pulled. And he has a huge interest in paper right now - if he can get it, he mashes it around, crumbles it up, and even tries to eat it. As I type this, he's busy deconstructing a magazine on the floor!

And of course, he continues to be my "uber" baby. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since he started holding himself up so easily and rolling over at such an early age. Still, I was hoping that my 3rd baby would be a little more content to just be a nice immobile infant for at least an average amount of time. What do I mean exactly? Well, this is what he's been doing for the last couple weeks:

I know, right? He's been doing super-steady baby "pushups" for a couple weeks now, and even starting to work on crawling skills: rocking back and forth on all fours, pushing off of one foot at a time... all while he was still 3 months old. He's so close to crawling already - all he has to do is figure out that he can move his hands, and he'll be off and roaming the house! And really, that won't be far off, he's been making a couple small lunges today. And you know, I really thought Melinda was early at that stuff, and she didn't crawl until partway through her 5th month. Alex is just too eager to join the other two kids, I guess, and will not be content with just laying around watching them run around without him! I'm glad we're moving to a new apartment soon, and getting some fresh carpet for him to explore on.

We had a few weeks of a lot of frustration with him getting very cranky in the evenings, and not sleeping well during the day or during the nights. We finally decided to take him to the chirpractor - Jesse connected some dots and realized that he had been acting like that since the dropping incident during the family reunion in Ohio early in July. He remembered that his niece had a similar cranky personality change around 1 year old after she fell off of some furniture, and returned to normal after a chiropractic adjustment. I was happy to find that the chiropractor I've been seeing will adjust infants as well, and so Alex had a couple adjustments, and has been back to normal since then. Yay!

Anyway, here's just a couple more pictures and a video of Alex in action. Enjoy!

Breaking Dawn

Don't worry, I won't post any spoilers here!

I picked up my copy of Breaking Dawn on Saturday morning, and started reading it mid-afternoon. I just finished, and oh my!! I am in awe at how much I *loved* this book. All 754 pages of it!!

I re-read all of the previous three books (Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse) over the past week (and no, I was not a very productive person this week, but oh well, half of us were sick over the course of the week, anyway!). I enjoyed them still, but I was not completely in love with them as I had been the very first (and second) times I read them. I wasn't laughing or crying my way through them. I already knew them well enough, I suppose.

But Breaking Dawn? It got me right back into the swing of things, and I was immediately sucked back into the vivid world that Stephenie Meyer creates. I laughed out loud. I cried. I felt completely elated, blissed-out. I felt hopeless. I felt sheer determination. I felt free and on top of the world. I felt powerful. I felt confused. I felt love, I felt pain. The turns that were taken in the early part of the book were things I didn't like- I rejected them at first, felt disgusted that such a perfect story would be marred. But in the end? Oh, how perfect it really was! I had no idea Stephenie Meyer could make the Twilight story turn out like it did. BEYOND my expectations, completely beyond them! The whole of it really just clicked right into place! I will never read the previous three books with the same perspectives, now. Am I allowed to call the whole thing just ... genius??

Honestly, I would re-read the whole darn thing right this minute, if I knew I could pull myself away from it all willingly tomorrow. Although I know I wouldn't be able to... and with a move just a couple weeks away from us, I just can't allow myself become unproductive for any length of time until we're settled into our new place.

BUT. If you've read Breaking Dawn, please feel free to phone or email me privately (to avoid spoiling it for others!) so I just absolutely gush with joy with someone who will understand!!

Edit to add:
After poking around on the internet a little bit, it has come to my attention that a large percentage of readers really hated this book! I'm honestly shocked! Hope my "review" doesn't raise your expectations too high, if you haven't read it, and end up not liking it. I guess I'm just a sucker for a certain kind of ending. :) I really thought it was the best of the bunch, by a long shot!