We hosted our first White Elephant gift exchange at our house last night. I dare say it was a rousing success!
I've had many different experiences with white elephant gift exchanges over the years ... it seems that often times my first experiences end up being bad/traumatic ones, so let's get the first story out of the way.
At my first white elephant gift exchange, I received a bag of pencil shavings. I still remember the girl who brought the present. At my first non-school white elephant party, I had to leave early, but instead of keeping the gift I had at the time (some DVD that looked mildly interesting) they kept trading and my husband ended up coming home with the gift he brought to the exchange, and DVD of a truly HORRIBLE 1943 film. I think I was mostly disappointed my husband came home with his own gift and didn't say anything.
Then it was followed by a few hilarious and awesome White Elephant/Ugly Sweater parties, and it restored my faith in white elephant exchanges. Yes, Virginia, there CAN be hilarious white elephant gift exchanges that don't end in bitterness and tears!
When Carmen was a baby, some friends hosted a white elephant gift exchange and we brought a HUGE 2 gallon jar of pickled jalapenos. We brought home a Barbie, and one of the most interesting gifts there was some warming massage lotion from the dollar store. Hmmm ... highly suspect ... we would all know what happened when, late some night, our neighbor busts out the front door screaming, "IT BURNS, IT BURNS! OH MY ... BACK!! MY LEGS!"
So we wanted to host a party where, generally, everyone could go home with something they didn't hate. I'm sure it helped that our friends were more familiar with what kinds of things were appropriate white elephant gifts (ie. NOT pencil shavings) ... and we invited kids, who I think can be excited about ANYTHING if you say it's a gift. ;)
I decided we should pack some extra presents so that either people could go home with a gift if they didn't bring one, or they could take home an un-lame present along with a lame one, or whatever.
So we packed a present I've been wanting to do for YEARS - a goofy autographed self-portrait. I had an 8x10 photo I printed of Mark earlier this year. There is a long backstory behind this ... in short, I have a friend whose little brother went on a mission, so they made this huge blanket of his face and had the blanket with them when they took family photos of major events while he was gone. Imagine something like, there's a wedding, and one of the wedding photos would have his face in it, or he's at a baby blessing, or whatever. I thought it was hilarious so I copied it. Mark was unable to come to a family reunion because he had very little vacation time from work. I ended up never using his photograph in a real picture, but hey! It was a funny thought!!
~~~AAAAAAANNNNYYYWAAAAAYYYYY. I had Mark autograph the photo and wrapped it up. My friend Kirsten opened it and was a very good sport and jealously hugged the photo all night long. She was even upset when her stepson stole the picture from her, and after they brought it home she told me her husband wanted to display it in the bathroom. That is probably the BEST place to display Mark's photo.
We figured if whoever took it didn't like it, they could always take out the photo and have a nice black picture frame!! Mark would never know. ;)
Carmen also has way too many bottles of nail polish. So I took a handful of the brightest neon-colored nail polishes and put them in a bag. SOME little girl would LOVE to have bright neon nail polish, right?
Last Christmas, we got TWO copies of the movie "17 Miracles". So the unopened one got wrapped up in pretty paper.
Several years ago, we went to DI and bought a whole bunch of Living Scriptures movies on VHS. We still don't have a VHS player, and ordered DVD sets of the Living Scriptures. As much as Mark makes fun of the movies, I LOOOOOOOOOVED the Living Scriptures movies as a kid!!! They made me the smartest kid in my Primary class because I knew all the stories!!!
When I was in high school, I had a weird obsession with scented candles. I have a ton of half-used scented candles stored in Carmen's closet ... so when I was at the dollar store, I saw a Skittles Cherry-scented candle and thought, "I HAVE to get one of these! Because I always think scented candles are nice, then I take them home and go WHAT WAS I THINKING?!" And since it was only a few dollars, I decided I had to include some kind of crazy fruity candy with it, so I found one of those fruit-flavored Twizzlers licorice things that is that nasty bright yellow color.
So that was our 5 weird presents we contributed to the gift exchange. Here are some of the things that got passed around:
~A metal combat helmet that looked like it was from WWII.
~A 4000 piece puzzle. It measures 98 cm x 138 cm. It probably weighs 5 pounds.
~A multi-purpose grater (it grates cheese and stuff). There were 5 or 6 of them all together in the bag. LOL!!!
~A set of 4 pretty sake glasses
~An abacus
~A corkscrew
~A set of pink measuring cups/spoons
~A Winnie-The-Pooh puzzle
~A checkers board
We ended up with a puzzle, the checkers board, and the Skittles candle/Twizzlers. Carmen wanted the candle and candy SO BADLY that she hid them under a pillow on the couch and sat on them. When one of the little boys came over and tried to steal it from her, she started crying until he decided to change his mind and take something else. ... Oh, three-year-olds, you are so funny ... At the end of the night, we traded the abacus for a 500-piece Kodak puzzle, because he would probably make better use of the abacus RIGHT NOW than we would.
I figured it would be fun to teach Carmen how to play Checkers. And the Checkers board is perfect - all of the pieces are plastic and cheap and the board will probably disintegrate in a year or two because it looks like it just laminated card board. Whoever brought that gift is a genius. Actually, ALL of the gifts at the exchange were genius! I'm so thankful for all of my friends who made this party AWESOME!!!!
Another great memory from last night is that we invited our next-door neighbors and they were gracious enough to come. When it came time for Richard to open his present, he opened the "17 Miracles" DVD and it was kind of hilarious to watch him read the back of the DVD, which proclaimed, "THE BEST FILM YET FROM MORMON CINEMA!"
"Oh, great," our friend Jonathan chimed in, "We are setting the bar pretty low here!!"
Ultimately, some Mormon who didn't own the movie went home with it. Phew. Glad it's found a new home!!
And our friend Tyler opened up the nail polish. He painted one of his nails neon green. His girlfriend, Gretchen, took home the measuring cups. Everyone was such good sports. I AM SO HAPPY. HAVE I TOLD YOU ENOUGH TIMES THAT I AM SO HAPPY OUR PARTY DIDN'T SUCK?!
But today I have a cold. I am staying home and hoping to rest and drink enough water that I can get better soon. Mark's sitting in with my Primary class (the other teacher is teaching today!) and I'm at home with the baby. Mace always cries during church because he usually takes a long nap after breakfast and wakes up around 10. (This year, church is from 8:30 to 11:30. It was good until Mace developed a sleeping schedule that involved a nap from 9ish to 10ish.) He just woke up from his nap and is happily playing on the floor, so I'm feeling pretty good despite my hot, scratchy throat and general exhausted-feeling-ness.
Showing posts with label funny stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label funny stuff. Show all posts
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
Mace's Names
There are three things Carmen calls Mace most often.
(in order of popularity)
(in order of popularity)
- Mister Macey Man
- Sweetheart
- Silly Dude
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Crazy dreams
I've always had crazy, vivid dreams. Not every night, of course, but it seemed like I had more to talk about than most. Then yesterday, I was in my Bradley Method (child birthing) class and we were practicing visualization. I think visualization is a kind of silly and it makes me feel awkward, but I tried to humble myself and do it anyway.
It was okay.
Our instructor told us something like, when you're pregnant (or actually when you're giving birth), your hormones make you more receptive to things like visualization and you're more creative or something. I can kind of see that ... while you're in labor, visualization of those things that helps set you apart from the pain. I bet it's a really useful tool for some women.
Anyway, this morning after I woke up, I realized I've been having even CRAZIER dreams than usual for the past few months. I don't remember them all, but they're as exciting as movies and sometimes they stress me out.
A few nights ago, I dreamed that Mark couldn't find his swimsuit or it was dirty or something, so he borrowed my teal one-piece swimsuit and wore it around. IT WAS SO DISTURBING. Men should not wear one-piece swimsuits. In my dreams, they are as creepy as Speedos. When I told Mark about it, he was like, "Hm, so now dream Mark is not doing evil things to you, just embarrassing you." Is this a good sign? I dunno. :)
Then last night, I had this CRAZY EPIC WEIRD DREAM.
Get this. It starts out with we're getting attacked by these giant ... I don't know. Transformers robots? Suddenly a place will get demolished by this thing that looks a bit like a giant gear or the bottom of those track-thingies on tanks. Later I find out that Russia has declared war on us. Even later, I find out the REASON why Russia has declared war on us is because of this reality TV show we recently came out with called, "Meet the Blogoviches" (but Blagojevich was American; this makes no sense!) and the Russian mafia wanted to destroy all evidence of the series. I was confused, because it was all out on the Internet and the existence of BitTorrent (at the very least) means it can never be eradicated.
There's a book series by Patrick Rothfuss that I started reading a month ago that has these people called the Chandrian who are trying to remain secret and fairy-tale-esque who come and destroy people who get too close to finding stuff out about them.
So we're going to war with Russia, which I think is sad because apparently half of my "best friends" have immigrated from Russia (I think I might have about a dozen Russian friends IRL?) but we're at war now. Apparently The Joker (the one from the animated series, only with green skin) was our big military leader and he had some stupid name like "Mr. Man" and he had this "military strategy book" that he used called "The Book of Counted Shadows" (something from Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series - by the way, I stopped at book 3 and don't miss it) ... and because the first edition of the book was in Japanese (what?) apparently Rurouni Kenshin was going to fight for us (uh, yay Samurai assassins?). And suddenly this Japanese anime music I haven't heard in about 7 years starts playing.
Then we go back to our homes, and apparently I live in a town where everyone floats around on inner tubes in a lazy river (like Schlitterbahn?) and everyone looks like they're under 25. And everyone swims around naked. Then Mark and I went to my old piano teacher's house in Ahwatukee (we stayed with her for a few nights last January when we attended a Renai's wedding) with an ugly middle school teacher (she has Princess Vespa's old nose - yes, from Spaceballs) who teaches trampoline jumping. Apparently the place is safe from Russian attacks, or that's where the military meets to defeat Russia, or ... something.
AND THAT WAS IT.
I'm pretty sure this dream says a lot about me. At least my teeth didn't fall out.
It was okay.
Our instructor told us something like, when you're pregnant (or actually when you're giving birth), your hormones make you more receptive to things like visualization and you're more creative or something. I can kind of see that ... while you're in labor, visualization of those things that helps set you apart from the pain. I bet it's a really useful tool for some women.
Anyway, this morning after I woke up, I realized I've been having even CRAZIER dreams than usual for the past few months. I don't remember them all, but they're as exciting as movies and sometimes they stress me out.
A few nights ago, I dreamed that Mark couldn't find his swimsuit or it was dirty or something, so he borrowed my teal one-piece swimsuit and wore it around. IT WAS SO DISTURBING. Men should not wear one-piece swimsuits. In my dreams, they are as creepy as Speedos. When I told Mark about it, he was like, "Hm, so now dream Mark is not doing evil things to you, just embarrassing you." Is this a good sign? I dunno. :)
Then last night, I had this CRAZY EPIC WEIRD DREAM.
Get this. It starts out with we're getting attacked by these giant ... I don't know. Transformers robots? Suddenly a place will get demolished by this thing that looks a bit like a giant gear or the bottom of those track-thingies on tanks. Later I find out that Russia has declared war on us. Even later, I find out the REASON why Russia has declared war on us is because of this reality TV show we recently came out with called, "Meet the Blogoviches" (but Blagojevich was American; this makes no sense!) and the Russian mafia wanted to destroy all evidence of the series. I was confused, because it was all out on the Internet and the existence of BitTorrent (at the very least) means it can never be eradicated.
There's a book series by Patrick Rothfuss that I started reading a month ago that has these people called the Chandrian who are trying to remain secret and fairy-tale-esque who come and destroy people who get too close to finding stuff out about them.
So we're going to war with Russia, which I think is sad because apparently half of my "best friends" have immigrated from Russia (I think I might have about a dozen Russian friends IRL?) but we're at war now. Apparently The Joker (the one from the animated series, only with green skin) was our big military leader and he had some stupid name like "Mr. Man" and he had this "military strategy book" that he used called "The Book of Counted Shadows" (something from Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series - by the way, I stopped at book 3 and don't miss it) ... and because the first edition of the book was in Japanese (what?) apparently Rurouni Kenshin was going to fight for us (uh, yay Samurai assassins?). And suddenly this Japanese anime music I haven't heard in about 7 years starts playing.
Then we go back to our homes, and apparently I live in a town where everyone floats around on inner tubes in a lazy river (like Schlitterbahn?) and everyone looks like they're under 25. And everyone swims around naked. Then Mark and I went to my old piano teacher's house in Ahwatukee (we stayed with her for a few nights last January when we attended a Renai's wedding) with an ugly middle school teacher (she has Princess Vespa's old nose - yes, from Spaceballs) who teaches trampoline jumping. Apparently the place is safe from Russian attacks, or that's where the military meets to defeat Russia, or ... something.
AND THAT WAS IT.
I'm pretty sure this dream says a lot about me. At least my teeth didn't fall out.
Monday, August 29, 2011
2-year-olds are hilarious
I love talking to Carmen and hearing her talk. We had a blast on the Oregon coast with all of her Dewey cousins and aunts and uncles.
Mark's sister, Karen, has a sweet husky named Koda. Carmen fell in love with him and figured out how to get along with him. They snuggled a lot and did a lot of chase, and the most common phrase I heard from Carmen was, "Ohhhhhhh, he give me kisses!!!!"
On one of our last nights there, we had the following exchange:
Carmen: Koda's my doggy!
Me: Actually, he's Karen's doggy. Karen is Koda's mommy.
Carmen: *thoughtful pause* No, he's my doggy. We'll buy him!
Ben (Karen's husband, happens to be walking outside at that moment): SOLD!!!
They had offered to trade their dog for our two-year-old. I'm sorry to say the offer wasn't the least bit tempting. ;)
Another time, we were doing a final load of laundry before packing all of our stuff to go home. We got some clothes from Mark's parents, and Mark's dad decided that this might be a good time to sneak off and take a shower. Carmen walks past my in-laws' bedroom and goes, "*gasp!* Grandpa Larry is naked!"
I nod my head a little and try to talk about something else, hoping she's done with her announcement for the day. Sometimes they'll stop if you don't draw attention to it. But this is an exciting deal to her. She continues. "Mommy, Grandpa Larry is naked! HE'S NAKED, MOMMY! Grandpa Larry's NAAAAAAAKED!!!"
Finally, my father-in-law manages to stand up for himself and he squeaks out, "Carmen, I'm not completely naked! I'm wearing a towel!"
"Oh, he's not completely naked, Mommy. Grandpa Larry's wearing a towel!"
"Thank you." and he scurries off to the bathroom without further incident.
You just can't hide anything from a 2-year-old.
Mark's sister, Karen, has a sweet husky named Koda. Carmen fell in love with him and figured out how to get along with him. They snuggled a lot and did a lot of chase, and the most common phrase I heard from Carmen was, "Ohhhhhhh, he give me kisses!!!!"
On one of our last nights there, we had the following exchange:
Carmen: Koda's my doggy!
Me: Actually, he's Karen's doggy. Karen is Koda's mommy.
Carmen: *thoughtful pause* No, he's my doggy. We'll buy him!
Ben (Karen's husband, happens to be walking outside at that moment): SOLD!!!
They had offered to trade their dog for our two-year-old. I'm sorry to say the offer wasn't the least bit tempting. ;)
Another time, we were doing a final load of laundry before packing all of our stuff to go home. We got some clothes from Mark's parents, and Mark's dad decided that this might be a good time to sneak off and take a shower. Carmen walks past my in-laws' bedroom and goes, "*gasp!* Grandpa Larry is naked!"
I nod my head a little and try to talk about something else, hoping she's done with her announcement for the day. Sometimes they'll stop if you don't draw attention to it. But this is an exciting deal to her. She continues. "Mommy, Grandpa Larry is naked! HE'S NAKED, MOMMY! Grandpa Larry's NAAAAAAAKED!!!"
Finally, my father-in-law manages to stand up for himself and he squeaks out, "Carmen, I'm not completely naked! I'm wearing a towel!"
"Oh, he's not completely naked, Mommy. Grandpa Larry's wearing a towel!"
"Thank you." and he scurries off to the bathroom without further incident.
You just can't hide anything from a 2-year-old.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Happy Birthday to Me!
We went to Disneyland for my birthday. Our vacation was an unexpected adventure, which I will write about later (what is it with life and not having time to type?!), but anyway ... we got home and I noticed a big package on our doorstep. Mom said she'd mailed me a birthday present, so I assumed the package was from her.
I went into the backyard to quickly water our garden before going to bed, and I heard this mysterious ripping noise coming from inside the house.
"Mark! Don't open my birthday present!" I shouted.
"What? How do you know it's your birthday present?"
"Because Mom said she sent me one. Does it have my name on it, and is it from my mother?"
There was a slight pause, then a sheepish, "Um, yes."
"Okay. THEN STOP OPENING MY BIRTHDAY PRESENT. Thank you."
Hahahaha. I love my hubby.
And don't tell anyone ....... but I open his mail, too. ;)
I went into the backyard to quickly water our garden before going to bed, and I heard this mysterious ripping noise coming from inside the house.
"Mark! Don't open my birthday present!" I shouted.
"What? How do you know it's your birthday present?"
"Because Mom said she sent me one. Does it have my name on it, and is it from my mother?"
There was a slight pause, then a sheepish, "Um, yes."
"Okay. THEN STOP OPENING MY BIRTHDAY PRESENT. Thank you."
Hahahaha. I love my hubby.
And don't tell anyone ....... but I open his mail, too. ;)
Monday, April 18, 2011
You know the phrase "retarded cat" is redundant, right?
Random thoughts of the day:
A few things I love:
It's so much fun watching Carmen pick up new words and express her interests and thoughts. Every day, we pass the Mount Timpanogos temple on our way to Sadie's school. I've pointed it out a few times, and today on our way back Carmen pointed out the window and said, "Temple!!! Look!" (Sure, it was "tampoo" but still!) It reminds me of my friend's kid who was watching Star Wars and said, "Hey, it's Moroni!" when he saw C-3PO. Ha ha!
I also like how instead of asking to be picked up, Carmen says, "I hold you!"
Carmen loves the song "Popcorn Popping" and knows two parts: "me" in "Spring has brought me such a nice surprise" and "Soooo!" in "It wasn't really so".
This morning, we stopped at the Wal-Mart by Sadie's school before dropping her off. Carmen recognized the direction we were going, and when we pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot, Carmen turned to Sadie and waved and said, "Bye bye, Sadie!"
I went to the gym last week and when I came back to pick Carmen up from the day care, the ladies said, "Carmen had a rough time this morning. There was a baby crying and she really wanted to comfort it, but every time she would snuggle the baby and try to pick it up, the baby would cry even harder. We had to tell Carmen to leave the baby alone and told her to sit away from the baby, and Carmen sat there and pouted and glared at us." I'm sure that actually it was quite comical.
I love kids' empathy. They are the biggest sweethearts in the world!!!
Also, our cats are hilarious. Every time I open a closet door, Ravis comes BOUNDING across the house and DIVES into the closet. So I shut the door on him, and a few minutes later he starts meowing. I open the door and he's got this confused look on his face, like, "What just happened?" and he comes out of the closet. So our cats are both retarded AND gay.
Some things I love about having a 2-year-old:
~Fewer diaper changes (looking forward to when she's ready to potty train!)
~Able to feed themselves
~Able to talk and express themselves
~HILARIOUS when they talk
~They understand you
~They are independent and can move and climb onto things and do things for themselves. Sure, they can get into things, but exploring is so important for learning!
~I even love temper tantrums. It gives us a chance to learn how to appropriately express emotions and deal with them.
I'm also looking forward to when Carmen gets even older. We found a "letter" Sadie wrote in her kindergarten class, and it says, "Dear SADIE To SADIE From SADIE." Guess what word Sadie knows how to write? ;) It's adorable!!
The first year is pretty hard because it seems like it's all maintenance. But then it pays off for the rest of time!!!! Awesome awesome awesome!
A few things I love:
It's so much fun watching Carmen pick up new words and express her interests and thoughts. Every day, we pass the Mount Timpanogos temple on our way to Sadie's school. I've pointed it out a few times, and today on our way back Carmen pointed out the window and said, "Temple!!! Look!" (Sure, it was "tampoo" but still!) It reminds me of my friend's kid who was watching Star Wars and said, "Hey, it's Moroni!" when he saw C-3PO. Ha ha!
I also like how instead of asking to be picked up, Carmen says, "I hold you!"
Carmen loves the song "Popcorn Popping" and knows two parts: "me" in "Spring has brought me such a nice surprise" and "Soooo!" in "It wasn't really so".
This morning, we stopped at the Wal-Mart by Sadie's school before dropping her off. Carmen recognized the direction we were going, and when we pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot, Carmen turned to Sadie and waved and said, "Bye bye, Sadie!"
I went to the gym last week and when I came back to pick Carmen up from the day care, the ladies said, "Carmen had a rough time this morning. There was a baby crying and she really wanted to comfort it, but every time she would snuggle the baby and try to pick it up, the baby would cry even harder. We had to tell Carmen to leave the baby alone and told her to sit away from the baby, and Carmen sat there and pouted and glared at us." I'm sure that actually it was quite comical.
I love kids' empathy. They are the biggest sweethearts in the world!!!
Also, our cats are hilarious. Every time I open a closet door, Ravis comes BOUNDING across the house and DIVES into the closet. So I shut the door on him, and a few minutes later he starts meowing. I open the door and he's got this confused look on his face, like, "What just happened?" and he comes out of the closet. So our cats are both retarded AND gay.
Some things I love about having a 2-year-old:
~Fewer diaper changes (looking forward to when she's ready to potty train!)
~Able to feed themselves
~Able to talk and express themselves
~HILARIOUS when they talk
~They understand you
~They are independent and can move and climb onto things and do things for themselves. Sure, they can get into things, but exploring is so important for learning!
~I even love temper tantrums. It gives us a chance to learn how to appropriately express emotions and deal with them.
I'm also looking forward to when Carmen gets even older. We found a "letter" Sadie wrote in her kindergarten class, and it says, "Dear SADIE To SADIE From SADIE." Guess what word Sadie knows how to write? ;) It's adorable!!
The first year is pretty hard because it seems like it's all maintenance. But then it pays off for the rest of time!!!! Awesome awesome awesome!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child
Well, I'm back from my vacation in Sammamish! It's fun to go out and see my family, but at the same time it's wonderful to be back home. I have my own bed, my own food, my own neighborhood, my own schedule ... Carmen loved staying up late partying with her uber-exciting aunts and uncles. She also loved sleeping in and napping right before dinner. We're still slowly adjusting her schedule back to normal. ;)
I really appreciated Elder Cook's talk in Conference on Saturday morning. I have to wait until the transcriptions come out online before I can do a lot of analysis on the talk, but I loved how he talked about how valuable mothers are and acknowledged all kinds of mothers (those who work, those who stay at home, and those who are single, etc) and praised them. I felt appreciated and loved, even though motherhood tends to be undervalued (read: unpaid!!) I liked how he talked about telling a nonmember about women serving in the Church and she said, "The last thing women need is another unpaid job."
I've loved and valued work and education so much in my life that it's sometimes hard for me to keep things in perspective. When Carmen was a baby, I had a hard time feeling like I was much more than an unpaid robot. She'd lay there (and cry most of the time ... she was very colicky) and my job was to simply be there and hold and comfort her and feed and change her until ... I don't know. Until she needed something else. I felt like I had very little to offer her different from what anyone could offer her.
Now, however, life is great! Ever since she started noticing the world and crawling and walking and wanted to know things, I feel like I've been able to do a lot and I'm thrilled to be a mom! (So things got much better after 5 or 6 months, then after a year, then after 15 months, then after 18 months, and now she's turning 2 next month! WHAT HAPPENS TO THE TIME?!) She is so expressive and loves to talk and we share such sweet moments together.
It's been wonderful to watch Sadie every morning. I love watching her learn and grow, too. Today, she told me how she can count by 5's and 10's to 100. She told me she doesn't know how to read yet, but I told her at least she knows how to spell her name and loves to look at books together so at least that's a start. She told me the other day that her mom gave her permission to get her ears pierced when she asked, but has decided she doesn't want to get her ears pierced because it will be painful. She and Carmen are learning how to get along together and I get to practice more of my teaching and mediating skills.
I'm enjoying the book Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child. It talks about empathizing with your children and helping them learn to address and deal with their strong emotions instead of dismissing or demeaning them. It requires a lot of intimacy with and attention to your child, so ... I guess I feel really thankful I have the opportunity to stay at home and develop that kind of a relationship with my children without having other major distractions in my life. There is nothing else I'm doing that is more important than teaching my children to be the best they can be! (And yet, I find room and time to do so much and my life is full!)
A few Carmenisms:
Carmen put a sticker onto a piece of paper then tried to pull it off.
"Stuck!!" she complained, surprised.
A few months ago, we got a free broken key from a locksmith. It's got buttons on it. Carmen found it in the toy basket and started pushing the buttons. "Beep, beep!" she said (because that's the noise cars make when you lock and unlock them.) She walked over to the window and looked outside, to see if any of the cars were reacting to her key. "Papa's key." she said. (Grandpa has a key like that to his Honda Pilot.) This is proof that Carmen loves Grandpa Brad and pays attention to him.
Sometimes, Carmen blows her nose with toilet paper, but more often than not, she rips it up into tiny pieces and sticks the pieces up her nose. Then I hear her snort and sniff for a few minutes and she goes, "Stuck! STUUUUCCKKK!!!"
(PS. I remove the toilet paper with tweezers to make the extraction process as excruciating and obnoxious as possible.)
Last night, our friends blessed their baby, Phoebe. Carmen loves babies and has been picking up names really well this past month. While we were getting into the car, she sat in the back seat talking to herself about how excited she was to go see "Baby Pee-Pee." She also learned our friend Sterling's first name: "Durling." IT'S ADORABLE.
I guess while I'm talking about names, I'll have you know she calls Marissa "Sissa", gets ridiculously excited about our friend Ray (and can say his name no problem), and loves her friend Braxton who is 6 months older than she is. She calls him "Bobby". One time we were playing at Braxton's house and the conversation went something like this:
Braxton: Carmen, I am not Bobby. I'm Braxton.
Carmen: Bobby!
Braxton: No, Braxton!
Carmen: Brrrrrrrrrrrr-obby!
Me: *lol*
I love hearing Carmen talk to herself. She walks around the house and plays with her toy kitchen or her tool set and talks about what she's going to cook or fix. She carries her babies around and changes their diapers and puts medicine on their ouchies. (She's got a sad history of diaper rashes and so she is quite familiar with Bordeaux's Butt Paste.) When I was a kid, I'd put my stuffed animals in time-out and spank them for trying to leave. Carmen kisses her babies and gives them medicine. Hmm.
I really appreciated Elder Cook's talk in Conference on Saturday morning. I have to wait until the transcriptions come out online before I can do a lot of analysis on the talk, but I loved how he talked about how valuable mothers are and acknowledged all kinds of mothers (those who work, those who stay at home, and those who are single, etc) and praised them. I felt appreciated and loved, even though motherhood tends to be undervalued (read: unpaid!!) I liked how he talked about telling a nonmember about women serving in the Church and she said, "The last thing women need is another unpaid job."
I've loved and valued work and education so much in my life that it's sometimes hard for me to keep things in perspective. When Carmen was a baby, I had a hard time feeling like I was much more than an unpaid robot. She'd lay there (and cry most of the time ... she was very colicky) and my job was to simply be there and hold and comfort her and feed and change her until ... I don't know. Until she needed something else. I felt like I had very little to offer her different from what anyone could offer her.
Now, however, life is great! Ever since she started noticing the world and crawling and walking and wanted to know things, I feel like I've been able to do a lot and I'm thrilled to be a mom! (So things got much better after 5 or 6 months, then after a year, then after 15 months, then after 18 months, and now she's turning 2 next month! WHAT HAPPENS TO THE TIME?!) She is so expressive and loves to talk and we share such sweet moments together.
It's been wonderful to watch Sadie every morning. I love watching her learn and grow, too. Today, she told me how she can count by 5's and 10's to 100. She told me she doesn't know how to read yet, but I told her at least she knows how to spell her name and loves to look at books together so at least that's a start. She told me the other day that her mom gave her permission to get her ears pierced when she asked, but has decided she doesn't want to get her ears pierced because it will be painful. She and Carmen are learning how to get along together and I get to practice more of my teaching and mediating skills.
I'm enjoying the book Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child. It talks about empathizing with your children and helping them learn to address and deal with their strong emotions instead of dismissing or demeaning them. It requires a lot of intimacy with and attention to your child, so ... I guess I feel really thankful I have the opportunity to stay at home and develop that kind of a relationship with my children without having other major distractions in my life. There is nothing else I'm doing that is more important than teaching my children to be the best they can be! (And yet, I find room and time to do so much and my life is full!)
A few Carmenisms:
Carmen put a sticker onto a piece of paper then tried to pull it off.
"Stuck!!" she complained, surprised.
A few months ago, we got a free broken key from a locksmith. It's got buttons on it. Carmen found it in the toy basket and started pushing the buttons. "Beep, beep!" she said (because that's the noise cars make when you lock and unlock them.) She walked over to the window and looked outside, to see if any of the cars were reacting to her key. "Papa's key." she said. (Grandpa has a key like that to his Honda Pilot.) This is proof that Carmen loves Grandpa Brad and pays attention to him.
Sometimes, Carmen blows her nose with toilet paper, but more often than not, she rips it up into tiny pieces and sticks the pieces up her nose. Then I hear her snort and sniff for a few minutes and she goes, "Stuck! STUUUUCCKKK!!!"
(PS. I remove the toilet paper with tweezers to make the extraction process as excruciating and obnoxious as possible.)
Last night, our friends blessed their baby, Phoebe. Carmen loves babies and has been picking up names really well this past month. While we were getting into the car, she sat in the back seat talking to herself about how excited she was to go see "Baby Pee-Pee." She also learned our friend Sterling's first name: "Durling." IT'S ADORABLE.
I guess while I'm talking about names, I'll have you know she calls Marissa "Sissa", gets ridiculously excited about our friend Ray (and can say his name no problem), and loves her friend Braxton who is 6 months older than she is. She calls him "Bobby". One time we were playing at Braxton's house and the conversation went something like this:
Braxton: Carmen, I am not Bobby. I'm Braxton.
Carmen: Bobby!
Braxton: No, Braxton!
Carmen: Brrrrrrrrrrrr-obby!
Me: *lol*
I love hearing Carmen talk to herself. She walks around the house and plays with her toy kitchen or her tool set and talks about what she's going to cook or fix. She carries her babies around and changes their diapers and puts medicine on their ouchies. (She's got a sad history of diaper rashes and so she is quite familiar with Bordeaux's Butt Paste.) When I was a kid, I'd put my stuffed animals in time-out and spank them for trying to leave. Carmen kisses her babies and gives them medicine. Hmm.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
At least *WE* think we're hilarious
So I'm in Sammamish visiting my family right now and I've been having a great time.
In fact, I'm going to tell you a story.
My sister and I did this today while using the two upstairs computers, and I think we're hilarious. If you don't get it, don't give up. Read on, and maybe gain a little insight into our family's sense of humor ...
Several weeks ago, my friend Jorgen introduced our family to a British sitcom called The IT Crowd. Mark and I had started our free month of Netflix and were looking for a new show to watch. I've got to say ... we love it. We're engineer types, so the environment and the humor REALLY click with us. "Hello, IT, have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again? ... are you sure it's plugged in?" Often times, I can watch things once and be satisfied. I don't have to watch it again. This show, though, I think I will actually buy on DVD so I can watch it repeatedly.
I told my sister about it and now I've got her into watching it. Unfortunately, only seasons 1 and 4 are currently available on Netflix so it will be a while before I can get Marissa to finish off the whole series ...
A few fantastic scenes from the show are in the second episode where they have a NEW (and shiny!) EMERGENCY RESPONSE SYSTEM with an easy-to-remember number with a handy jingle ...
I can't embed the video, but here's a link so you can watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8GtuPdrUQ
I think it's ridiculously hilarious. In fact, I have the jingle memorized: 01189998819991197253. When I sing it a few times, Carmen starts dancing around the house singing the "Nine nine nine!!!" part of the song. That girl is going to get voice lessons and become a Broadway star some day. Srsly. Does your 22-month-old sing on pitch?
Later in the series, there's a social networking site called "FriendFace" (obviously Facebook) and there's a scene where the three main characters are sitting on their computers in the office FriendFacing each other instead of having real conversations. You don't know what they're saying to each other, but they're laughing and saying things like, "Oh, that was SUCH a Moss comment! Ha ha ha!"
***Anywho***
Does anyone read Snide Remarks? I first heard of him when someone showed me his fake 'Titanic' screenplay. This has since been followed up by a rejected 'Twilight' screenplay and a few other things. He offered some interesting insights on gay marriage, and it got me thinking I'd like to read more of this guy so I added him to my RSS feed on Google Reader. Now I've realized he also does movie reviews and has his own blog, which is all updated more often than just his "Snide Remarks" column. Click, click, click, RSS, RSS, RSS, check, check, check!
Last week, he posted a Snide Remarks column mocking one of my favorite songs to work out to at the gym.
(Frankly, I never thought of this song as rap ... it's not, is it? Isn't it hip hop or something?)
This song is my favorite part of Zumba. HECK YES. This song and Usher's "DJ's Got Us Falling In Love" are the greatest feel-good songs to work out to at the gym. And it makes me feel like a total dork. But I'm not in high school any more, so I can be a dork and love it, right?! I also make Carmen rock out and dance with me in the car when these songs come on the radio.
PUT YO' HANDS UP.
Anyway. So Eric Snider made fun of this song.
"This is perplexing and perhaps even frightening. Why wouldn't the club be able to handle him? Is he wired with explosives? ... What is it he plans to do that he thinks is going to test the club's limits? Is he accompanied by a troupe of circus lions? Is he currently on fire, or in imminent risk of being on fire?"
I don't know why this article had me in giggling fits, but it did.
Today, I was on the computer in the office and Marissa was on the computer in the hall. Marissa and I were recently sharing our plans for the evening (she's going to someone's house for a game night; I'm staying home and making s'mores with Dad if it decides to stop raining) ... and then I got a notification on Facebook saying my sister had written on my wall. Uhh, aren't we 10 feet away from each other?
This is what happened:
So maybe it makes a little more sense now, if you know of our love for The IT Crowd and Eric Snider.
I'm glad we're related. I get the feeling most other people would think we're just weird ...
In fact, I'm going to tell you a story.
My sister and I did this today while using the two upstairs computers, and I think we're hilarious. If you don't get it, don't give up. Read on, and maybe gain a little insight into our family's sense of humor ...
Several weeks ago, my friend Jorgen introduced our family to a British sitcom called The IT Crowd. Mark and I had started our free month of Netflix and were looking for a new show to watch. I've got to say ... we love it. We're engineer types, so the environment and the humor REALLY click with us. "Hello, IT, have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again? ... are you sure it's plugged in?" Often times, I can watch things once and be satisfied. I don't have to watch it again. This show, though, I think I will actually buy on DVD so I can watch it repeatedly.
I told my sister about it and now I've got her into watching it. Unfortunately, only seasons 1 and 4 are currently available on Netflix so it will be a while before I can get Marissa to finish off the whole series ...
A few fantastic scenes from the show are in the second episode where they have a NEW (and shiny!) EMERGENCY RESPONSE SYSTEM with an easy-to-remember number with a handy jingle ...
I can't embed the video, but here's a link so you can watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8GtuPdrUQ
I think it's ridiculously hilarious. In fact, I have the jingle memorized: 01189998819991197253. When I sing it a few times, Carmen starts dancing around the house singing the "Nine nine nine!!!" part of the song. That girl is going to get voice lessons and become a Broadway star some day. Srsly. Does your 22-month-old sing on pitch?
Later in the series, there's a social networking site called "FriendFace" (obviously Facebook) and there's a scene where the three main characters are sitting on their computers in the office FriendFacing each other instead of having real conversations. You don't know what they're saying to each other, but they're laughing and saying things like, "Oh, that was SUCH a Moss comment! Ha ha ha!"
***Anywho***
Does anyone read Snide Remarks? I first heard of him when someone showed me his fake 'Titanic' screenplay. This has since been followed up by a rejected 'Twilight' screenplay and a few other things. He offered some interesting insights on gay marriage, and it got me thinking I'd like to read more of this guy so I added him to my RSS feed on Google Reader. Now I've realized he also does movie reviews and has his own blog, which is all updated more often than just his "Snide Remarks" column. Click, click, click, RSS, RSS, RSS, check, check, check!
Last week, he posted a Snide Remarks column mocking one of my favorite songs to work out to at the gym.
(Frankly, I never thought of this song as rap ... it's not, is it? Isn't it hip hop or something?)
This song is my favorite part of Zumba. HECK YES. This song and Usher's "DJ's Got Us Falling In Love" are the greatest feel-good songs to work out to at the gym. And it makes me feel like a total dork. But I'm not in high school any more, so I can be a dork and love it, right?! I also make Carmen rock out and dance with me in the car when these songs come on the radio.
PUT YO' HANDS UP.
Anyway. So Eric Snider made fun of this song.
"This is perplexing and perhaps even frightening. Why wouldn't the club be able to handle him? Is he wired with explosives? ... What is it he plans to do that he thinks is going to test the club's limits? Is he accompanied by a troupe of circus lions? Is he currently on fire, or in imminent risk of being on fire?"
I don't know why this article had me in giggling fits, but it did.
Today, I was on the computer in the office and Marissa was on the computer in the hall. Marissa and I were recently sharing our plans for the evening (she's going to someone's house for a game night; I'm staying home and making s'mores with Dad if it decides to stop raining) ... and then I got a notification on Facebook saying my sister had written on my wall. Uhh, aren't we 10 feet away from each other?
This is what happened:
I'm glad we're related. I get the feeling most other people would think we're just weird ...
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Man, that was just a little awkward ...
Since the dawn of time, we have had friends over once a week to play Dungeons and Dragons. I stopped playing after 3 or 4 years, but I still enjoy sitting on the couch doing my thing while listening to the guys play. We make homemade pizza. It's delicious.
For the past few years, we've been playing with a really awesome group of guys: Stu, Ray, and Trevor. I love them.
Today, I made a trip to Costco for an eye exam and some grocery shopping. When I came home, Ray greeted me as Mark pulls the first pizza out of the oven.
"Hey, Kamis, get out!"
I laughed and said, "Well, fine!" and turned to go.
He continued his sentence with, "We're having a sausage party!!"
I paused for a moment and cracked up even more. "You know, Ray, that sounds really, really wrong!" ;)
These are the two thoughts that went through my head:
"Aw, man, he's right ... even the cats are male!"
and, "I wonder if he truly was only thinking about pizza?" (because sausage is his favorite topping, and Ray only eats the meat pizza we cook.)
When we make pizza at our house, we always make two pizzas. One is all meat: sausage, pepperoni, and chicken. The other is one I like a lot: chicken, pineapple, and pepperoni. Back in the day, we used to experiment with things like onions, olives, and bell peppers, but I concluded it's too much effort to chop those things up and too many people aren't huge fans of the extras. Now we cook everything up, put 'em in snack size plastic baggies, and stick 'em in the freezer. That way I cook up a few months' worth of pizza ingredients at a time and assembling the pizzas is a breeze.
Anyway.
Sausage party.
*snerk*
For the past few years, we've been playing with a really awesome group of guys: Stu, Ray, and Trevor. I love them.
Today, I made a trip to Costco for an eye exam and some grocery shopping. When I came home, Ray greeted me as Mark pulls the first pizza out of the oven.
"Hey, Kamis, get out!"
I laughed and said, "Well, fine!" and turned to go.
He continued his sentence with, "We're having a sausage party!!"
I paused for a moment and cracked up even more. "You know, Ray, that sounds really, really wrong!" ;)
These are the two thoughts that went through my head:
"Aw, man, he's right ... even the cats are male!"
and, "I wonder if he truly was only thinking about pizza?" (because sausage is his favorite topping, and Ray only eats the meat pizza we cook.)
When we make pizza at our house, we always make two pizzas. One is all meat: sausage, pepperoni, and chicken. The other is one I like a lot: chicken, pineapple, and pepperoni. Back in the day, we used to experiment with things like onions, olives, and bell peppers, but I concluded it's too much effort to chop those things up and too many people aren't huge fans of the extras. Now we cook everything up, put 'em in snack size plastic baggies, and stick 'em in the freezer. That way I cook up a few months' worth of pizza ingredients at a time and assembling the pizzas is a breeze.
Anyway.
Sausage party.
*snerk*
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Perceptions of reality ...
I had an interesting moment earlier today.
Carmen loves babies. I found this "Baby Slide Show" on YouTube and Carmen watches it daily. "BABIES!!!!" she squeals.
Today, Sadie (the kindergartner I watch) started watching the slide show and was interested in all of the cute Anne Geddes photos.
"Whoa, does someone really take these pictures?" she asked.
"Yes." I responded.
"Of dead babies?????" She seemed really concerned about this.
"What? No! They're not dead babies. They're just sleeping. She takes pictures of babies while they're sleeping."
"Then why did that one have wings?"
"Because they're dressed up in costumes. They're sleeping. She dressed them up and took pictures of them while they were sleeping. See, sometimes they're just sleeping, other times they have wings, other times they're dressed like flowers ... they're not dead. Just sleeping."
"Oh."
Phew.
To think Sadie could've grown up thinking all those cute Anne Geddes photos are dead babies .... O__o;
Carmen loves babies. I found this "Baby Slide Show" on YouTube and Carmen watches it daily. "BABIES!!!!" she squeals.
Today, Sadie (the kindergartner I watch) started watching the slide show and was interested in all of the cute Anne Geddes photos.
"Whoa, does someone really take these pictures?" she asked.
"Yes." I responded.
"Of dead babies?????" She seemed really concerned about this.
"What? No! They're not dead babies. They're just sleeping. She takes pictures of babies while they're sleeping."
"Then why did that one have wings?"
"Because they're dressed up in costumes. They're sleeping. She dressed them up and took pictures of them while they were sleeping. See, sometimes they're just sleeping, other times they have wings, other times they're dressed like flowers ... they're not dead. Just sleeping."
"Oh."
Phew.
To think Sadie could've grown up thinking all those cute Anne Geddes photos are dead babies .... O__o;
Friday, February 11, 2011
Carmenisms
I love the funny little things Carmen does.
For example, we have this smoke detector in our bedroom right by the bathroom door. If someone takes a hot shower and doesn't close the door, the steam sets off the alarm. My sister, Marissa, is notorious for setting off the fire alarms once every time she visits and spends the night. Often times, it's about 30 minutes after Carmen goes down for a nap, and we feel SO BAD we've woken her up. Sometimes, Mark sets off the alarm in the morning when he gets back from the gym. The cats might push the door open or he might forget to turn the fan on, so when he opens the door to leave the bathroom, all of the steam escapes and our house starts beeping loudly at 7:15. O_o;
You'd think all of these rude awakenings would cause Carmen to have a fear of smoke detectors and the sound of the fire alarm. Strangely enough, she doesn't seem to mind it (even though it drives me crazy!) Lately, when Mark's putting Carmen through her bedtime routine, she'll look up at the ceiling and point to one of the alarms and go, "Beep!" Mark says, "Oh, are you looking at the alarm up there?" and she goes, "Uh-huh. Beep!"
It's a beep! So cute! Not a, "ZOMG THAT THING IS SO NOISY IT WAKES ME UP IN THE MIDDLE OF NAPS AND SCARES THE CRAP OUT OF ME!" Phew. One potential psychological bullet dodged!!
Carmen developed a rash on her stomach a few weeks ago. The doctors couldn't figure out what it was, but they prescribed me this antibiotic ointment that seemed to help clear it up. Carmen was terrified at the doctor's office because she KNEW she only goes to the doctor's to get shots (why else go to the doctor when your kid is perfectly healthy all the time?) ... and it was hard to convince her that we WEREN'T going to hurt her that time. Poor girl. But one thing she loves about the pediatrician's office is their aquarium. She loves to watch the fishies, and the SADDEST part about going to the doctor is not getting the shots - it's the having to say goodbye to the fishies. ("FEESHIES! FEEEEEESSSHHIIIESSSS!!!")
Back to the rash. Carmen's been really good about letting me put the medicine on her. She calls it "Memmin." I put it on her in the morning when I change her diaper and in the evening when I put her pajamas on. It goes a little bit onto her back, too, so when I need her to stand up, she stands up and turns around for me. It's so sweet how helpful and obedient she is! <3 She then likes to take the little tube and pretend she's putting the medicine on herself. "Memmine." she says. "Ouchies."
Remember how she calls fingernail polish "candy"? Turns out it's definitely her word for fingernail polish, not just the fact that the shiny colors makes your nails look like Jolly Ranchers. I put clear sparkle polish on my nails the other day for the heck of it, and no less than 2 seconds after I finished, Carmen grabbed my hands, touched the sparkles, and cheered, "Candy!! Hannals!" (She's learned the word for "fingernails" and it sounds a lot like "hang nails".)
Some of her favorite things to do these days are to color (either with real crayons on paper or with this free "Doodle Kids" iPod app) and ... well ... play pretend. It doesn't matter if it's with her play kitchen, a play phone, a real phone, an iPod, a baby, her little doll stroller, her big (umbrella) stroller, or someone's shoes ....... she's really creative! It's fun hearing her sit and chat away about how excited she is about her kitchen, or taking her baby for a walk, or wrapping her baby in a blanket ... and it doesn't matter whether the baby is a doll or a stuffed animal. I'm sure I could convince her a crayon was a baby if I wrapped it in a toilet paper blanket for her. IT'S AWESOME.
Speaking of toilet paper ... she does this funny thing where she rips up toilet paper or tissues into little pieces and wipes her nose with them. It's winter - kids get runny noses. The other day, we were at Mark's work and she was stuffing the tissue pieces up her nose. I heard her inhale through her nose and gasp a little bit. "Oh! Stuck!" she gasped. I laughed and said, "Yup, you've got that stuck up your nose! You probably don't want to put stuff up there!" and helped her pull the tissues out. She looked at me and said, "Yes! Stuck!!"
It will be less funny when they're frozen peas.
For example, we have this smoke detector in our bedroom right by the bathroom door. If someone takes a hot shower and doesn't close the door, the steam sets off the alarm. My sister, Marissa, is notorious for setting off the fire alarms once every time she visits and spends the night. Often times, it's about 30 minutes after Carmen goes down for a nap, and we feel SO BAD we've woken her up. Sometimes, Mark sets off the alarm in the morning when he gets back from the gym. The cats might push the door open or he might forget to turn the fan on, so when he opens the door to leave the bathroom, all of the steam escapes and our house starts beeping loudly at 7:15. O_o;
You'd think all of these rude awakenings would cause Carmen to have a fear of smoke detectors and the sound of the fire alarm. Strangely enough, she doesn't seem to mind it (even though it drives me crazy!) Lately, when Mark's putting Carmen through her bedtime routine, she'll look up at the ceiling and point to one of the alarms and go, "Beep!" Mark says, "Oh, are you looking at the alarm up there?" and she goes, "Uh-huh. Beep!"
It's a beep! So cute! Not a, "ZOMG THAT THING IS SO NOISY IT WAKES ME UP IN THE MIDDLE OF NAPS AND SCARES THE CRAP OUT OF ME!" Phew. One potential psychological bullet dodged!!
Carmen developed a rash on her stomach a few weeks ago. The doctors couldn't figure out what it was, but they prescribed me this antibiotic ointment that seemed to help clear it up. Carmen was terrified at the doctor's office because she KNEW she only goes to the doctor's to get shots (why else go to the doctor when your kid is perfectly healthy all the time?) ... and it was hard to convince her that we WEREN'T going to hurt her that time. Poor girl. But one thing she loves about the pediatrician's office is their aquarium. She loves to watch the fishies, and the SADDEST part about going to the doctor is not getting the shots - it's the having to say goodbye to the fishies. ("FEESHIES! FEEEEEESSSHHIIIESSSS!!!")
Back to the rash. Carmen's been really good about letting me put the medicine on her. She calls it "Memmin." I put it on her in the morning when I change her diaper and in the evening when I put her pajamas on. It goes a little bit onto her back, too, so when I need her to stand up, she stands up and turns around for me. It's so sweet how helpful and obedient she is! <3 She then likes to take the little tube and pretend she's putting the medicine on herself. "Memmine." she says. "Ouchies."
Remember how she calls fingernail polish "candy"? Turns out it's definitely her word for fingernail polish, not just the fact that the shiny colors makes your nails look like Jolly Ranchers. I put clear sparkle polish on my nails the other day for the heck of it, and no less than 2 seconds after I finished, Carmen grabbed my hands, touched the sparkles, and cheered, "Candy!! Hannals!" (She's learned the word for "fingernails" and it sounds a lot like "hang nails".)
Some of her favorite things to do these days are to color (either with real crayons on paper or with this free "Doodle Kids" iPod app) and ... well ... play pretend. It doesn't matter if it's with her play kitchen, a play phone, a real phone, an iPod, a baby, her little doll stroller, her big (umbrella) stroller, or someone's shoes ....... she's really creative! It's fun hearing her sit and chat away about how excited she is about her kitchen, or taking her baby for a walk, or wrapping her baby in a blanket ... and it doesn't matter whether the baby is a doll or a stuffed animal. I'm sure I could convince her a crayon was a baby if I wrapped it in a toilet paper blanket for her. IT'S AWESOME.
Speaking of toilet paper ... she does this funny thing where she rips up toilet paper or tissues into little pieces and wipes her nose with them. It's winter - kids get runny noses. The other day, we were at Mark's work and she was stuffing the tissue pieces up her nose. I heard her inhale through her nose and gasp a little bit. "Oh! Stuck!" she gasped. I laughed and said, "Yup, you've got that stuck up your nose! You probably don't want to put stuff up there!" and helped her pull the tissues out. She looked at me and said, "Yes! Stuck!!"
It will be less funny when they're frozen peas.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
My Best Friend's Wedding, Part I
Last weekend, my best friend from school (Renai) got married. She lives in Arizona, and I thought, "You know what? It's really not that far away, it's the perfect time of year to visit, and I haven't been there in a long time. What better excuse to visit Arizona than my friend's wedding?" So I filled out the RSVP card and said I was coming. She seemed pretty thrilled that I was going to come! Apparently, one of her OTHER best childhood friends (from New Jersey) was coming out, too! "How awesome is it that my best friend from Arizona and my best friend from New Jersey are going to be at my wedding!" she gushed.
On Wednesday evening, we drove down to Richfield to stay with my grandparents. It would cut off about 2.5 hours from the total length of the trip, and it's always nice to stop and visit with family for a while.
Kids get restless after spending long periods of time in the car, so we took a few breaks at rest stops to change diapers, eat snacks, and run around.
She's just so cute ... I can't resist!
We got to Phoenix early Thursday evening, and I took the opportunity to go by the house I lived in until I was 8.
We used to have bunch of cacti and stuff in the front yard. It looks a lot like the last time we came by (about 8 years ago) ... I'm disappointed they haven't gotten around to landscaping the front yard. It looks terrible. But they DID put a pool and a hot tub in the backyard. I wanted to peek over the fence to get a good look at the yard, but there were a few ladies in the hot tub out back and that would've been awkward ... "Um, hi, I lived here 15 years ago and I just wanted to see what you've done with the place! Don't mind me ... can we steal some of your neighbors' lemons, too?"
After making that quick trip down memory lane, we went to Ahwatukee and had dinner at my friend Carmen's house. Yes, that is the Carmen my little Carmen is named after. We met her sweet boyfriend, James, and her scaredy rottweiler puppy, Eza. (I'll refer to my friend Carmen as either Big Carmen or CJ from now on ...) Carmen was so excited to meet them both she learned a bunch of new words quickly.
CJ had fun playing with Carmen. She and her mom (Gina) showered Carmen with gifts - clothes, a bead necklace CJ made when she was little, and a pink Beanie Baby bear. Gina tried offering Carmen TWO Beanie Babies, but Carmen soundly rejected one. (Like, smacked it onto the floor saying, "No!") Carmen's favorite activity was bouncing down the stairs with Big Carmen.
Soon, it was time for bed so we went to Jeanni's house, where our family was going to sleep. Jeanni was my piano teacher and Beehive leader when I was 8-13. She's pretty much one of my other favorite people in the world ... but Mark won't let me name a kid Jeanni. Yet.
I had baked a big batch of tasty oatmeal chocolate chip butterscotch cookies (with coconut, too!) to give as a gift to Jeanni when we arrived. The bag of cookies made it the whole trip and Mark and I enjoyed snacking on them ... then something must've happened on that final stretch to Phoenix, because when we got to Jeanni's house the cookies were totally smashed up.
Mark walked into the house with the bag of mooshed cookies and said, "Hey, was I supposed to give these to Jeanni?" and she was standing right there in front of him. I was thinking, "Oh, great presentation there, Marky." and Jeanni looked at him, looked at the bag of cookies, and totally cracked up. She graciously accepted our offering and went into the kitchen to get some milk. "Brian," she called to her husband, "Would you like some incredibly tasty cookie crumbs?" We still managed to find several intact cookies!!!
Speaking of that particular batch of cookies ... when I was making the final pan of cookies, I turned off the oven when the cookies were almost done and forgot to take the pan out of the oven. They weren't really burned, but they were incredibly crunchy. Want to know something I learned from this experience? FEED THEM TO BABIES. They'll be highly entertained because they're getting cookies, but it will take them forever to eat each cookie because they're so hard! Our trip to Phoenix was made a lot easier because Carmen was kept quiet in the back seat with her crunchy cookies. ;)
Or, just don't overcook your cookies in the first place.
You know. Lemons, lemonade.
Recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies:
2 c butter
2 c sugar
2 c brown sugar
--cream ingredients together--
4 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
--cream ingredients together--
4 1/2 c flour
4 1/2 c oatmeal
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
--mix ingredients together--
12 oz chocolate chips (if you want butterscotch, make it half and half)
(If you want coconut too, you can put in about 1/2 c coconut flakes. I didn't measure it ... I just added the stuff that was left over from making coconut shrimp the week before. hahaha.)
Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes, like you do with just about every other cookie recipe.
I decided to invent this recipe because I bought butterscotch chips at Winco and didn't have the right ingredients for magic cookie bars.
Tomorrow, I'll talk about the wedding and how much I love Renai's new husband!
On Wednesday evening, we drove down to Richfield to stay with my grandparents. It would cut off about 2.5 hours from the total length of the trip, and it's always nice to stop and visit with family for a while.
Kids get restless after spending long periods of time in the car, so we took a few breaks at rest stops to change diapers, eat snacks, and run around.
For the record, scorpions are arachnids, not insects.
We got to Phoenix early Thursday evening, and I took the opportunity to go by the house I lived in until I was 8.
After making that quick trip down memory lane, we went to Ahwatukee and had dinner at my friend Carmen's house. Yes, that is the Carmen my little Carmen is named after. We met her sweet boyfriend, James, and her scaredy rottweiler puppy, Eza. (I'll refer to my friend Carmen as either Big Carmen or CJ from now on ...) Carmen was so excited to meet them both she learned a bunch of new words quickly.
CJ had fun playing with Carmen. She and her mom (Gina) showered Carmen with gifts - clothes, a bead necklace CJ made when she was little, and a pink Beanie Baby bear. Gina tried offering Carmen TWO Beanie Babies, but Carmen soundly rejected one. (Like, smacked it onto the floor saying, "No!") Carmen's favorite activity was bouncing down the stairs with Big Carmen.
Soon, it was time for bed so we went to Jeanni's house, where our family was going to sleep. Jeanni was my piano teacher and Beehive leader when I was 8-13. She's pretty much one of my other favorite people in the world ... but Mark won't let me name a kid Jeanni. Yet.
I had baked a big batch of tasty oatmeal chocolate chip butterscotch cookies (with coconut, too!) to give as a gift to Jeanni when we arrived. The bag of cookies made it the whole trip and Mark and I enjoyed snacking on them ... then something must've happened on that final stretch to Phoenix, because when we got to Jeanni's house the cookies were totally smashed up.
Mark walked into the house with the bag of mooshed cookies and said, "Hey, was I supposed to give these to Jeanni?" and she was standing right there in front of him. I was thinking, "Oh, great presentation there, Marky." and Jeanni looked at him, looked at the bag of cookies, and totally cracked up. She graciously accepted our offering and went into the kitchen to get some milk. "Brian," she called to her husband, "Would you like some incredibly tasty cookie crumbs?" We still managed to find several intact cookies!!!
Speaking of that particular batch of cookies ... when I was making the final pan of cookies, I turned off the oven when the cookies were almost done and forgot to take the pan out of the oven. They weren't really burned, but they were incredibly crunchy. Want to know something I learned from this experience? FEED THEM TO BABIES. They'll be highly entertained because they're getting cookies, but it will take them forever to eat each cookie because they're so hard! Our trip to Phoenix was made a lot easier because Carmen was kept quiet in the back seat with her crunchy cookies. ;)
Or, just don't overcook your cookies in the first place.
You know. Lemons, lemonade.
Recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies:
2 c butter
2 c sugar
2 c brown sugar
--cream ingredients together--
4 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
--cream ingredients together--
4 1/2 c flour
4 1/2 c oatmeal
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
--mix ingredients together--
12 oz chocolate chips (if you want butterscotch, make it half and half)
(If you want coconut too, you can put in about 1/2 c coconut flakes. I didn't measure it ... I just added the stuff that was left over from making coconut shrimp the week before. hahaha.)
Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes, like you do with just about every other cookie recipe.
I decided to invent this recipe because I bought butterscotch chips at Winco and didn't have the right ingredients for magic cookie bars.
Tomorrow, I'll talk about the wedding and how much I love Renai's new husband!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Candy Toes
I generally avoid painting my fingernails and toenails because I'll always ruin my nails less than 10 minutes after they're done being painted. A week before Carmen was born, my friend Kara (who was in cosmetology school) gave me my first pedicure. I thought it was really cool looking down at my purple toenails while in labor.
But still ... I'm usually too lazy to paint my nails, whether they be my fingers or my toes.
Last Sunday, I decided to change things up and paint my nails! The next morning, Carmen was playing with my feet and started poking at my shiny pinkish-red toenails. She gave me a curious look and said, "Candy." She was right! My toes DID look a little bit like Jolly Ranchers!!
Yesterday, we went over to our friend Jorgen's for dinner. His fiancee, Nicki, is in love with Carmen and has been asking to paint her toenails. I haven't done it yet because Carmen's a bit squirmy and I'm afraid I'll screw up or make a mess (seriously, how can you 'mess up' on a baby's teeny toenails?) ... so I happily gave her permission. Carmen would love it.
Carmen picked out some purple nail polish and was SO EXCITED when Nicki was done painting them. We taught her the nail polish was "purple" and she still seemed to think they looked like "candy". I love her purple candy toes!!
Also, we had something I consider a "big girl" moment today. I was getting ready to go to the gym, and I came down and Carmen had put her own shoes on! Granted, they were on the wrong feet, but she had velcroed them on and everything! It was awesome!!! I love 20-month-olds!!
But still ... I'm usually too lazy to paint my nails, whether they be my fingers or my toes.
Last Sunday, I decided to change things up and paint my nails! The next morning, Carmen was playing with my feet and started poking at my shiny pinkish-red toenails. She gave me a curious look and said, "Candy." She was right! My toes DID look a little bit like Jolly Ranchers!!
Yesterday, we went over to our friend Jorgen's for dinner. His fiancee, Nicki, is in love with Carmen and has been asking to paint her toenails. I haven't done it yet because Carmen's a bit squirmy and I'm afraid I'll screw up or make a mess (seriously, how can you 'mess up' on a baby's teeny toenails?) ... so I happily gave her permission. Carmen would love it.
Carmen picked out some purple nail polish and was SO EXCITED when Nicki was done painting them. We taught her the nail polish was "purple" and she still seemed to think they looked like "candy". I love her purple candy toes!!
Also, we had something I consider a "big girl" moment today. I was getting ready to go to the gym, and I came down and Carmen had put her own shoes on! Granted, they were on the wrong feet, but she had velcroed them on and everything! It was awesome!!! I love 20-month-olds!!
PS. I did actually take an inventory of everything in the freezer today. Now I'm going to go through the pantry and count up how many cans of cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, pineapple, and refried beans we have. That way I know when we're getting close to "need to stock up time" and can scan the weekly ads for good deals. Nothing stinks more than running out of cream of mushroom soup or frozen broccoli the week after it goes on sale for 49 cents! (did you know frozen veggies are often times more fresh than the 'fresh' produce at the grocery store?)
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Carmen's Shoe Obsession
Last month, Mark and I went to Famous Footwear to find him a new pair of snow boots he could wear to work. We're very cheap frugal and don't often go out to buy new stuff unless the old stuff is completely worn out.
Carmen had a blast running up and down the aisles, chanting, "Shoes! Shoes!" and trying on everything that wasn't in a box - whether it was her size or not.
So I guess it's not surprising that one night she decided she really wanted to put Mark's boots on:
She even tries to walk in them! It's amazing that she can actually shuffle around a little bit in those monstrous boots!
On Sunday, I was reading a book on the couch while Carmen played with her toys on the floor. She was sitting out in the middle of the room, and I watched her take her pants off and put on a pair of the long fuzzy comfy socks Mom gave me for Christmas (my mother rocks. I love the fuzzy comfy socks she gets me for Christmas ... I wouldn't think to spoil myself in that way! She makes up for those mental blocks I have!) They went up to her thighs. I got a good laugh out of watching my pantsless baby run around the house in my big long socks. I didn't have the heart to tell her it's probably not very practical to take your pants off and expect your mom's socks to keep you warm. But then again, what do I know?
Today is another day that's not too out of the ordinary. Carmen decided to put socks on herself again today. (Oh, good, does this mean she's going to dress herself from now on?)
I think she's nothing short of adorable. (I took this picture right after I put her down for a nap ... not sure how I'll capture this otherwise, because when she's awake, she runs around like crazy!!)
Seriously, Universe, having a toddler is just about the most hilarious thing ever. It's funny the things they pick up and fixate on!!
Carmen had a blast running up and down the aisles, chanting, "Shoes! Shoes!" and trying on everything that wasn't in a box - whether it was her size or not.
So I guess it's not surprising that one night she decided she really wanted to put Mark's boots on:
On Sunday, I was reading a book on the couch while Carmen played with her toys on the floor. She was sitting out in the middle of the room, and I watched her take her pants off and put on a pair of the long fuzzy comfy socks Mom gave me for Christmas (my mother rocks. I love the fuzzy comfy socks she gets me for Christmas ... I wouldn't think to spoil myself in that way! She makes up for those mental blocks I have!) They went up to her thighs. I got a good laugh out of watching my pantsless baby run around the house in my big long socks. I didn't have the heart to tell her it's probably not very practical to take your pants off and expect your mom's socks to keep you warm. But then again, what do I know?
Today is another day that's not too out of the ordinary. Carmen decided to put socks on herself again today. (Oh, good, does this mean she's going to dress herself from now on?)
Seriously, Universe, having a toddler is just about the most hilarious thing ever. It's funny the things they pick up and fixate on!!
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
What does a ninja say?
This is the best age.
Me: Hey, Carmen, what does a ninja say?
Carmen: ROAR!!!
Me: No, hi-yah!! Hi-yah!!
Carmen: Yah!!
Me: Yes! What does a ninja say?
Carmen: ROAR!!!
Me: *facepalm*
I love that little bug. She now says "iPod" and calls me "Mommis" (a cross between "Mommy" and "Kamis"). She follows me around the house and tries to help me clean. She wraps her toys (any toy) in blankets (or washcloths) and carries them around, calling them her babies. She calls the Prophet "hoppit". I'm also trying to teach her that there are more ways to dance than just head-banging. This is THE BEST.
Oh, and this week in Senior Nursery, one of the kids was in a sour mood and wasn't too excited about going to Primary. The little boy turned to Mark during Sharing Time and said, "I don't like Jesus."
I'm gonna miss those kiddos!!!
Me: Hey, Carmen, what does a ninja say?
Carmen: ROAR!!!
Me: No, hi-yah!! Hi-yah!!
Carmen: Yah!!
Me: Yes! What does a ninja say?
Carmen: ROAR!!!
Me: *facepalm*
I love that little bug. She now says "iPod" and calls me "Mommis" (a cross between "Mommy" and "Kamis"). She follows me around the house and tries to help me clean. She wraps her toys (any toy) in blankets (or washcloths) and carries them around, calling them her babies. She calls the Prophet "hoppit". I'm also trying to teach her that there are more ways to dance than just head-banging. This is THE BEST.
Oh, and this week in Senior Nursery, one of the kids was in a sour mood and wasn't too excited about going to Primary. The little boy turned to Mark during Sharing Time and said, "I don't like Jesus."
I'm gonna miss those kiddos!!!
Friday, December 17, 2010
They don't pay teachers enough
Oh, also ... I found this a few months ago...
If they paid teachers more, I would so be a math teacher. But they don't pay good teachers what they deserve, so I'll just stay at home and tutor math on the side, hoping to protect children from teachers like these ...
Monday, December 6, 2010
Provo, Utah girls ...
This is hilarious and oh-so-true!
It is also a six bajillion times better than any of Katy Perry's songs. (Eight out of five dentists agree!)
Watch this video:
Now that you've watched it, I'm going to spoil/explain it to those who might not be familiar with Mormon/BYU culture ...
"Way different celebrities"
Pictured:
Elder Uchtdorf - he's one of our Apostles and most of the women in the church are in love with him because A) JUST LOOK AT HIM. HE IS A GOOD LOOKING GUY, B) he's German and has a hot accent to boot, and C) he was a pilot. Don't'cha love him now??
Brother Bott - He's one of the most popular Church History professors at BYU. I had him for the first half of the Doctrine and Covenants. Marissa couldn't add him to her class schedule, but she came in and took the class with me anyway. Unregistered. No credit. BUT SHE CAME BECAUSE HE ROCKS SO MUCH.
The thing with Kronk and the white diverse culture here should be pretty self-explanatory. Did I tell you I freaked out with utter joy when I saw lots of ASIANS in Sammamish? Yay, someone who is not white! And they're speaking ASIAN!!
Directories at BYU have photos in them, so we call 'em menus.
For the "Travel the World" part, the first place is the ever-so-popular dollar theater. The second place is the naked Indian statue by the BYU library. It's a popular landmark. Don't ask why we love it ... we just do. The third place, the Hookah Collection, is on Center street a few blocks from our old apartment. Clearly it is a place where BYU students do NOT shop. ;) Just look at her face!!
You can't beat rabid BYU brides. Love the gun, the roller blades, THE MACE (did you see it?!?!)
"Provo, Utah girls, we're terrifying ..."
"Eighteen, clueless, and baby-hungry ..."
(ack, I met Mark when I was eighteen and got married at nineteen! Luckily, I didn't rush straight into having babies and got a real degree!)
And at the end, those four brides with the pimp makes me think "FLDS!" (those are the infamous Mormon polygamists who are NOT associated with the mainstream LDS church)
For anyone who didn't catch my "dentists" reference, here you go:
We love spoofs.
It is also a six bajillion times better than any of Katy Perry's songs. (Eight out of five dentists agree!)
Watch this video:
Now that you've watched it, I'm going to spoil/explain it to those who might not be familiar with Mormon/BYU culture ...
"Way different celebrities"
Pictured:
Elder Uchtdorf - he's one of our Apostles and most of the women in the church are in love with him because A) JUST LOOK AT HIM. HE IS A GOOD LOOKING GUY, B) he's German and has a hot accent to boot, and C) he was a pilot. Don't'cha love him now??
Brother Bott - He's one of the most popular Church History professors at BYU. I had him for the first half of the Doctrine and Covenants. Marissa couldn't add him to her class schedule, but she came in and took the class with me anyway. Unregistered. No credit. BUT SHE CAME BECAUSE HE ROCKS SO MUCH.
The thing with Kronk and the white diverse culture here should be pretty self-explanatory. Did I tell you I freaked out with utter joy when I saw lots of ASIANS in Sammamish? Yay, someone who is not white! And they're speaking ASIAN!!
Directories at BYU have photos in them, so we call 'em menus.
For the "Travel the World" part, the first place is the ever-so-popular dollar theater. The second place is the naked Indian statue by the BYU library. It's a popular landmark. Don't ask why we love it ... we just do. The third place, the Hookah Collection, is on Center street a few blocks from our old apartment. Clearly it is a place where BYU students do NOT shop. ;) Just look at her face!!
You can't beat rabid BYU brides. Love the gun, the roller blades, THE MACE (did you see it?!?!)
"Provo, Utah girls, we're terrifying ..."
"Eighteen, clueless, and baby-hungry ..."
(ack, I met Mark when I was eighteen and got married at nineteen! Luckily, I didn't rush straight into having babies and got a real degree!)
And at the end, those four brides with the pimp makes me think "FLDS!" (those are the infamous Mormon polygamists who are NOT associated with the mainstream LDS church)
For anyone who didn't catch my "dentists" reference, here you go:
We love spoofs.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Carmen loves ...
I've been running errands like a madwoman since we got home Monday night.
Mark needed some new shoes, so we went to Famous Footwear after work on Tuesday to go on a quest for new shoes. They were having a "buy one get one half off" sale (which someone pointed out can be abbreviated to BOGOHO) and I received a 20% off coupon in the mail. SWEET! Mark tried on shoes and I grabbed some black Bearpaw boots and Carmen ran around the store excitedly screaming, "SHOES! SHOES!" and trying on every pair that was out on the floor.
It's really hilarious watching an 18-month-old put on men's size 9 shoes and try to walk around in them.
She found a few pairs of shoes that were more size-appropriate but couldn't figure out how to unfasten the shoes to get them on. Then she found a pair of pink sparkly size 6 kids shoes (close enough?) and carried them around the store like they were her precious babies. It was awesome.
Before we left, she found a girl who looked to be about 5 and fell in love with the girl's jacket. She followed the girl around and would touch the girl's buttons saying, "Oooh, jacket." The other girl was very tolerant and only looked a little bit awkward. Ha ha. Her mom was in line in front of me, and Carmen sobbed hysterically when the girl and her mother left. Luckily, there was another girl (probably about 4) with another jacket that Carmen could follow around. They chased each other in circles around the sock display.
Awesome.
We found a Christmas tree in the place they set up in the Big Lots parking lot here in American Fork. We like having a real tree because they smell SO GOOD. We like small trees because they're easily carry-able and we don't have a truck. Mark and I quickly found a tree we both liked (but of course I have to look at ALLLLLL the other trees to verify that the first tree was, indeed, our favorite) and it fit perfectly into our trunk!
Here's a quick picture of our tree:
I've been reorganizing the house since we got home, so it's kind of a mess. Also, the camera's batteries are dying.
STUPID STORY TIME! (You've been waiting for this, you know it!)
So I've had this camera for just over 3 years now, and I've kind of hated it for the past 2 years. It's because the beast eats through batteries like candy. I thought it was because I was using rechargeable batteries, and maybe those batteries had a hard time holding a charge, but no, the camera is just evil.
At least that's what I thought.
We went to my in-laws' house after Thanksgiving and I spent some time looking through all of the store ads, trying to get ideas for new things I might want to hunt down on Amazon (amazingly, things are generally still cheaper online than when on sale at the store!) and saw a spiffy-looking new camera for somewhere around $200. I thought, "Man, my camera drives me so nuts with its battery-eating, maybe I should use this as an excuse to get a new camera!" My next thought was, "Maybe I should look up reviews online of my camera to see if other people think the battery life sucks, or if I'm just retarded."
It's the latter.
Some reviews complained about poor battery life, and other reviews said, "Those of you who think the camera eats batteries ... READ THE USER MANUAL. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO USE LITHIUM ION BATTERIES, NOT REGULAR ALKALINES. YOUR BATTERIES WILL LAST A MILLION TIMES LONGER."
I stared at the review for a good 30 seconds. ......... duh. How could I have not noticed that the lithium batteries at the store are all like, "Great for digital cameras!" and are even next to the digital cameras?
I thought I was a smart person. But seriously. YEARS of battery-induced-hating drama.
Instead of buying a $200 camera, I spent about $25 on eBay for a huge box of Energizer uber-something lithium ion batteries. Hopefully they'll arrive before Christmas. And this means I will feel a lot more comfortable pulling out my camera without fearing the batteries will die while I'm out.
Lessons learned? Even if you think you've read the user manual, read it again. You might miss little details like what kind of batteries to use. Other lesson? Actually do what the user guide suggests. Go figure!
Mark needed some new shoes, so we went to Famous Footwear after work on Tuesday to go on a quest for new shoes. They were having a "buy one get one half off" sale (which someone pointed out can be abbreviated to BOGOHO) and I received a 20% off coupon in the mail. SWEET! Mark tried on shoes and I grabbed some black Bearpaw boots and Carmen ran around the store excitedly screaming, "SHOES! SHOES!" and trying on every pair that was out on the floor.
It's really hilarious watching an 18-month-old put on men's size 9 shoes and try to walk around in them.
She found a few pairs of shoes that were more size-appropriate but couldn't figure out how to unfasten the shoes to get them on. Then she found a pair of pink sparkly size 6 kids shoes (close enough?) and carried them around the store like they were her precious babies. It was awesome.
Before we left, she found a girl who looked to be about 5 and fell in love with the girl's jacket. She followed the girl around and would touch the girl's buttons saying, "Oooh, jacket." The other girl was very tolerant and only looked a little bit awkward. Ha ha. Her mom was in line in front of me, and Carmen sobbed hysterically when the girl and her mother left. Luckily, there was another girl (probably about 4) with another jacket that Carmen could follow around. They chased each other in circles around the sock display.
Awesome.
We found a Christmas tree in the place they set up in the Big Lots parking lot here in American Fork. We like having a real tree because they smell SO GOOD. We like small trees because they're easily carry-able and we don't have a truck. Mark and I quickly found a tree we both liked (but of course I have to look at ALLLLLL the other trees to verify that the first tree was, indeed, our favorite) and it fit perfectly into our trunk!
Here's a quick picture of our tree:
I've been reorganizing the house since we got home, so it's kind of a mess. Also, the camera's batteries are dying.
STUPID STORY TIME! (You've been waiting for this, you know it!)
So I've had this camera for just over 3 years now, and I've kind of hated it for the past 2 years. It's because the beast eats through batteries like candy. I thought it was because I was using rechargeable batteries, and maybe those batteries had a hard time holding a charge, but no, the camera is just evil.
At least that's what I thought.
We went to my in-laws' house after Thanksgiving and I spent some time looking through all of the store ads, trying to get ideas for new things I might want to hunt down on Amazon (amazingly, things are generally still cheaper online than when on sale at the store!) and saw a spiffy-looking new camera for somewhere around $200. I thought, "Man, my camera drives me so nuts with its battery-eating, maybe I should use this as an excuse to get a new camera!" My next thought was, "Maybe I should look up reviews online of my camera to see if other people think the battery life sucks, or if I'm just retarded."
It's the latter.
Some reviews complained about poor battery life, and other reviews said, "Those of you who think the camera eats batteries ... READ THE USER MANUAL. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO USE LITHIUM ION BATTERIES, NOT REGULAR ALKALINES. YOUR BATTERIES WILL LAST A MILLION TIMES LONGER."
I stared at the review for a good 30 seconds. ......... duh. How could I have not noticed that the lithium batteries at the store are all like, "Great for digital cameras!" and are even next to the digital cameras?
I thought I was a smart person. But seriously. YEARS of battery-induced-hating drama.
Instead of buying a $200 camera, I spent about $25 on eBay for a huge box of Energizer uber-something lithium ion batteries. Hopefully they'll arrive before Christmas. And this means I will feel a lot more comfortable pulling out my camera without fearing the batteries will die while I'm out.
Lessons learned? Even if you think you've read the user manual, read it again. You might miss little details like what kind of batteries to use. Other lesson? Actually do what the user guide suggests. Go figure!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Yulefest Adventures
Mom was trying to find something to do today, so she looked in the newspaper and the most interesting-looking event was Yulefest at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle. We invited Logan's friend, Spencer, to come along with us.
It kind of reminded me of the Danish Days festivals we have in Elsinore over the summer ... only it was indoors and there were a lot more old people. ;) It was kind of funny being surrounded by a whole bunch of white people again ... it almost felt like Utah! Honestly, it was kind of boring, but it's fun being out!
First, Carmen enjoyed some ebelskivers:
Ebelskivers (Æbleskivers) are like ... little round pancake balls. Grandpa (the bald one) sometimes makes them at his house during the holidays.
We went out into the hall to see if we could get in to some semi-interesting-sounding dance thing, and it started getting really crowded. People were moving towards the back door, and someone said, "There's a fire and we're supposed to evacuate." I didn't hear any alarms going off, but a minute later I could smell smoke. It was like ... an electrical-smelling smoke, not a wood-smelling smoke. Ick.
Apparently some wiring caught fire in the auditorium during a performance.
Everyone went outside and the fire department came! It was kind of awesome.
It made for a great photo op:
Logan and Spencer are awesome goofballs:
After they let us back inside, we went upstairs and looked at all the crafts they were selling. They had some cool knitted flap hats ...... that were made in China. -_-; We found some hats this lady knitted. They were only $1 so Torrey bought one for Carmen as a Christmas present.
It looks like the excitement wore Carmen out:
We joked they could make t-shirts, like, "I survived the great Nordic Heritage Museum fire" or "I survived the Yulefest fire!" (You know, like "I survived the Carnival Splendor Cruise Spamcation!")
Speaking of the Carnival Splendor, that's the ship we were on in February when we went on our Mexico cruise. For anyone who is worried about Carnival after the engine fire ... Carnival is amazing, I think they handled the situation fantastically, and I would totally cruise with them again. If I were rich. And could actually afford a cruise. ;)
It kind of reminded me of the Danish Days festivals we have in Elsinore over the summer ... only it was indoors and there were a lot more old people. ;) It was kind of funny being surrounded by a whole bunch of white people again ... it almost felt like Utah! Honestly, it was kind of boring, but it's fun being out!
First, Carmen enjoyed some ebelskivers:
We went out into the hall to see if we could get in to some semi-interesting-sounding dance thing, and it started getting really crowded. People were moving towards the back door, and someone said, "There's a fire and we're supposed to evacuate." I didn't hear any alarms going off, but a minute later I could smell smoke. It was like ... an electrical-smelling smoke, not a wood-smelling smoke. Ick.
Apparently some wiring caught fire in the auditorium during a performance.
Everyone went outside and the fire department came! It was kind of awesome.
It looks like the excitement wore Carmen out:
We joked they could make t-shirts, like, "I survived the great Nordic Heritage Museum fire" or "I survived the Yulefest fire!" (You know, like "I survived the Carnival Splendor Cruise Spamcation!")
Speaking of the Carnival Splendor, that's the ship we were on in February when we went on our Mexico cruise. For anyone who is worried about Carnival after the engine fire ... Carnival is amazing, I think they handled the situation fantastically, and I would totally cruise with them again. If I were rich. And could actually afford a cruise. ;)
If I were bald ...
My maternal grandfather looks a bit like Charlie Brown - he is bald. When my brother was 3 or 4 years old, Mom informed Logan that because her father was bald, he had a chance of being bald when he got older. (The gene for baldness is carried on the X chromosome ... and I have no idea why some women don't go bald like men do. I should look that up.)
A few days later, Mom found Logan checking himself out in the bathroom mirror. He was pulling his hair back, as if pondering what he would look like if he were bald. Mom asked him what he was doing.
"You know, I guess I wouldn't mind being bald ..." he said thoughtfully. "Then I would have more time to wash my armpits!"
I thought of this story because I noticed the kind of shampoo my brother uses:
I won't ask who picked it, because I think my thoughts are funnier than real life.
ETA: So I broke down and asked Logan about it. He said his friend borrowed some shampoo from one of the leaders at High Adventure over the summer and all of the guys thought the shampoo smelled amazing. (Everyone gets really really stinky after a week of camping.) So Logan went out and bought some Head & Shoulders shampoo and now his friends are jealous of how good he smells (he's kind of like the Old Spice guy!) I pointed out that he bought the "Hair Endurance" kind and it cracked him up, too.
A few days later, Mom found Logan checking himself out in the bathroom mirror. He was pulling his hair back, as if pondering what he would look like if he were bald. Mom asked him what he was doing.
"You know, I guess I wouldn't mind being bald ..." he said thoughtfully. "Then I would have more time to wash my armpits!"
I thought of this story because I noticed the kind of shampoo my brother uses:
 |
| Head & Shoulders Hair Endurance for Men |
ETA: So I broke down and asked Logan about it. He said his friend borrowed some shampoo from one of the leaders at High Adventure over the summer and all of the guys thought the shampoo smelled amazing. (Everyone gets really really stinky after a week of camping.) So Logan went out and bought some Head & Shoulders shampoo and now his friends are jealous of how good he smells (he's kind of like the Old Spice guy!) I pointed out that he bought the "Hair Endurance" kind and it cracked him up, too.
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