This is Awesome! :)

Tagged Again :)

Sarah tagged me like a week ago.. I've been a total slacker and am just getting to it.. mostly because I've SO not been a slacker in every other part of my life than my blog.. I've been really really busy this week. :)

OK, so here's what I do.. The rules are as follows:1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

The facts:
1. I have a perfect, pin-sized whole in the center of my right index fingertip. I had my finger ex-rayed once because I sprained it and thought it was broken (don't ask..), and my doctor pointed it out to me. He said that you actually could thread a pin straight through my finger. Gross, huh? :)

2. I have a ridiculously clear memory when it comes to certain things. Like who said what 15 years ago and where I was standing when I heard it and what they were wearing and what their hair looked like, etc. I'm also able to remember details of a room in almost a photographic nature. As long as I've put something somewhere, I know where it is. This particular skill comes in handy because I'm married to Steve. He can never remember where he puts anything. :) Now, short term remembering to take something with me somewhere memory, I don't have that at all. I always forget SOMETHING whenever I go anywhere.

3. I have eyebrow dimples. I hated them until I had Kathrynn. She has them, too and I think they're adorable on her, so I love them now. Funny what you offspring can do for your self perception. :)

4. I got appendicitis the night before my first ever college final. I spent the entire finals week in the hospital and got out of all of my finals, thanks to the mercy of my professors. And, bizzarely, most of Ricks College somehow knew about the fact that I got my appendix out and people actually came up to me on the plane ride home to ask if I was that girl who got her appendix out (probably because I was limping around like I was in some serious pain).

5. I have expensive hobbies. So, unfortunately I am unable to do those things I can do particularly well. I love tap dancing and have done it off and on since I was 10 - most recently in college and, let me tell you, I was in the best shape of my life. I miss it terribly and still have my shoes, but can't justify the $50 a month studio fee. I also took up pottery in college and love and miss that too, but pottery gets VERY expensive. Steve's promised me a wheel and kiln when we get older and more financially secure, but it's out for now. So, for now, I TRY to garden and make quilts and cook yummy things and read fun books and keep this beast of a blog up. :) Oh, yeah, and hang out with my cute kids and husband. :)

6. I was a ridiculous over-achiever my last few years of college. I went to school full time, worked part time and took on insane amounts of different kinds of extra-curricular activities while maintaining church callings and a rather interesting social life. I think I averaged 4-6 hours of sleep a night then and never stopped moving. Maybe that's why I'm so tired now...

7. On a good week, I do a MINIMUM of 10 loads of laundry. I've done 11 already this week (since Monday - no backlog of laundry, it's all completely clean at each day's end). Isn't that insane?! I think I did 1, maybe 2 loads a week when I was single. I blame it on Steve - he's 6'5" and two entire outfits can make a load sometimes. Plus, it's winter.. wait, it's spring, but it's acting like winter.. so, we're all in bulky clothes and wear lots of layers and sleep with several bulky blankets, so that doesn't help. It should tone down if it ever gets warm.

OK, the people:
I tag Emily, Sally, Nissa, Paige, Jackie, Christine, and Nicole.

If You Complain About Something Enough...

...it'll happen anyway.

Looking outside as Steve was getting ready to leave for work this morning..


Looking out my kitchen window at lunch..
The pictures don't really do it justice. It looked like I was sitting in a snow globe at lunchtime.

So, I've decided I DON'T CARE ANYMORE! It can snow every day for the rest of my life. I've come to accept that notion, because it surely seems like that's what's going to happen. Steve and I were talking about it this morning (while shaking our heads) - he said it was never this bad in St. George. I remember it never getting this bad in REXBURG! It's end of term and I remember wearing sandals up there before coming home. Ugh.
So goes the saga of our weather woes in Logan, Utah.

More Twilight Stuff

OK, I'm a total Twilight freak, I admit it. :) Summit Entertainment, the group that's putting the movie together, posted a promotional video on MTV.com this week. Instead of posting the video here, I'm posting the link to the article that takes you to the video HERE (mostly because it drives me insane when videos automatically play on their own when I go to my blog).

I'm way excited! Trying not to be too impatient for December, though. It's too soon to think about the beginning of snow season since we're finally getting out of the end of it. :)

Mitt Romney's Top 10 Reasons for Dropping Out of the Campain

I thought this was pretty hilarious! #5's my favorite. :)



(If you didn't catch it, #5 was in reference to Al Gore.)

Any Good Book Suggestions?

Steve keeps telling me that I should get books on CD from the library and I keep thinking, "Well, what's the point in that?" :) Well, I was blog lurking a minute ago and saw someone who said that she listens to them while she cleans - what a great idea!! Have something totally distracting me when I'm doing something I don't really like to do. So, I've put the obvious books on CD on hold at the library (Twilight series.. I'm trying to catch everything I missed the first read through), but I'm like 30th in line for all of them.. surprise! So, I'm looking for others that I might enjoy listening to, too. Any suggestions?

Utah or Texas?

Hmm.. which am I more of?

how much utah are you? Your Result: very much utahn well you know everything about this place. you must live here or know it very well. you know where to go to have fun and that this is the only place to party.
not so much utahn
how much utah are you?

You are 77% REAL Texan!!

You're way more Texan than average. You're parents were probably from here too. We're glad to have you. You probably go to the border for Christmas shopping and are well versed in BBQ, Mexican Food and .. well thats pretty much it.

How Texan Are You?

I Need a Life-Sized Poster of This in My House

...more for me than anyone else. I was such a baby with my post yesterday. OK, I was having a mommy meltdown minute, we all have them, but I have NOTHING to complain about. I have an amazing husband who busts his bootie 24/7 so I can stay home with our kids. I live in a cute little house that I really do love - sure it's not OURS, we're renting it, but we will have a house that's ours soon enough when OUR house in San Antonio finally sells (which it will, it's just too beautiful). I have two darling children who love their mommy to extreme amounts and even though it's accompanied by days of intense clinginess from sweet Kathrynn and bossiness from my ever-confident Joseph, I wouldn't trade it for the world. And, sure it's snowing outside as I type this, but maybe that's a good indication that we're going to have a gorgeous summer this year.
I have so many blessing to be so grateful for. I feel like I don't do them justice when I moan and complain like I do sometimes.

Insanity!!

Way back when I worked in Primary a very wise mom told me that changes in the barometric pressure make kids crazy... YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW!!! My kids have been driving me nuts today! I love them to death and would do anything in the world for them, but I've actually been making an effort the last couple of hours to isolate myself from them. *sad*
Kathrynn's been screaming nonstop and being super sensitive since she woke up this morning. She's asleep now, thank goodness. Hopefully she'll be over her crankiness when she wakes.
Joseph is on a 'my way or the highway' rampage today and everything - I mean EVERYTHING - has required negotiation. Ever negotiated with a 3-year old? That'll make you nuts.
On top of all of this, our beautiful spring is back to being the slushy dreariness it has been for the last 6 months. It will come back, I'm hopeful, but there's something unnatural about putting a big coat on a boy who has pink cheeks from being out in the sun too much. We also had to go on yet another milk run today (because the male members of my family drink milk like it's water and we don't have the room to buy 20 gallons at a time.. a cow would be more effective..), so there I was running as fast as I could with two little kids through the store parking lot as the three of us were pelted by massive lumps of slush. Fun fun.
I'm struggling today. :( Nothing's done. I've been reading blogs to calm myself down and I've - sin of all sins for me - eaten chocolate. sigh.
It WILL get better and I'm kicking myself into cleaning gear NOW and drinking lots of water to get the sugar sludge out of my system...

Just had to vent. :)

Weather

Look at what our weather is doing this week (remember it was 75 yesterday).

It's like spring is just fighting to come through.

First Park Trip This Year!!

We had a GLORIOUS day today!! The weather was unbelievably perfect - it actually got up to 75!! So, to celebrate we got out and went to the park. It's our favorite park in Logan and is only a block away. When I told Joseph that we were going his face lit up like I haven't seen it before. He was SO excited!!

Kathrynn had her first ride in the swings today - and she LOVED it!


Joseph didn't waste any time being adventurous when we got there. Within five minutes I heard him yell, "Mom!" from the highest point of the playground (he's in the blue shirt).








Totally unrelated, but worth writing about.. Kathrynn had me and Steve rolling tonight! Joseph was sitting on Steve's lap for some Daddy time, and Kathrynn was standing beside them and would get a huge smile on her face and then touch Joseph (she knows it bugs him when she touches him - especially when he's on Dad's lap). When he would pull away, she would just laugh. :) She did this over and over and over again, each time getting this huge smile on her face before touching him. She was purposefully trying to bug him! She's a true little sister (and a little too much like her mommy..). :)

Baby Animal Days

The kids and I had such a fun outing on Saturday! (Unfortunately, Steve was working helping someone with their house, so it was just the three of us.)
The American West Heritage Center in Wellsville (not too far from Logan) hosted Baby Animal Days where they let everyone come and visit - and pet - the new baby farm animals. We all had a blast!! Joseph loved being about to be so close to all of the animals that we've talked about (and hasn't stopped talking about it since) and Kathrynn just LOVED being there - she was smiling and squealing almost the entire time. :)

Baby Sheep


Baby Cow (There was a little boy in the pin who asked what the cow's name was. A farmer on hand answered that he had no name and then leaned over to the boy's dad and said "I guess you could call him 'Big Mac.'" The sad irony is that Joe and I got hamburgers on our way home that day..)


Joseph keeps a safe distance from the cow.. he was like this most of the time - very wary around the animals, but loved seeing them up close.




Kathrynn was a total trooper - never complained about staying in the stroller and just LOVED being there. :)


My munchkins. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get them both to look at the camera at the same time!



Mama Horse and Baby Horse


Joseph got a massive kick out of the baby chicks. :)



The only animal he actually pet - a baby duck. He loved it!


There was an event called the "Candy Cannon." They shot candy out of these little cannons and the little kids (5 & under) ran out to this field and gathered as much candy as they could. In this picture, Joseph is being his total self and giving a handful of candy that he found to a seriously cute little girl. He's such a lady's man. :)


This is the view from the ranch. Isn't it just GORGEOUS?!

The Rebelling Sunbeam

(for those of you who don't know what a 'Sunbeam' is in this context, it's the 3 year olds' sunday school class at church)

Joseph has decided that he HATES Primary now. He wasn't like this when he first transitioned from Nursery over, it's just been since we moved into our new ward (almost 6 weeks ago). He will not step foot in the Primary room without me and I'm not allowed to leave. It's getting frustrating because I know he has done better than this in the past and I just don't know what to do about it. Any suggestions?

The only cute part about it all was yesterday, anytime they would do anything fun in class I would ask him if he wanted to participate, to which he would answer, "NO. I crying." Kind of made me giggle (because he wasn't crying.. he was sulking). :)

Mexican Standoff by Elbow

I don't know what it is about this song, but I just love it! It seems like whenever I have a really undesirable task at hand (cleaning the bathroom, scrubbing floors, etc.), listening to this song just kicks me into gear and I'm totally motivated.

Little Angel

There's nothing sweeter than a baby sleeping.

Joseph's Cereal Fort

He just cracked me up today. We have developed quite a store of cereal in our house. Complete story on that one HERE. Joseph loves having a lot of different kinds of cereal on hand. He seems to take a lot of pleasure in pulling out the cereal drawer and thinking very deeply about which kind he wants (which always seems to be Fruit Loops, but hey, he has fun). Today he took the cereal fun to new levels. He built a fort with it. And I was, on no uncertain terms, not allowed to take it down (until I got him distracted with a movie..).

The Sky Opened Up and Utah Said, "I Hate You, Julie."

This was this morning and it's been snowing/melting/snowing on and off all day. It's April 9th, people!!

Quote was taken (loosely) from Little Rascals.

A Taste of Twilight

OK, I've turned into a total twilight nerd!!! But, I'm SOO excited about the movie coming out and saw this video on it today. Enjoy! :)

The Star Wars Gene

I knew from the moment that I agreed to marry Steve that Star Wars would be a big part of my life from then on. I knew this because I spent the first blissful hours of engagement watching Star Wars: Episode 2 at IMAX. It was my own fault. I was trying to be practical and suggested that we get the tickets early so we would be guaranteed our seats. Little did I know that Steve was going to propose within half an hour of the ticket purchase and I would HAVE to watch it when I would rather spend the rest of the evening being sappy. Anyway...

I knew that eventually Steve's affinity for Star Wars would rub off on Joseph. I imagined him sitting with Steve about 10 years from now watching the movies enthusiastically, after much encouragement from Steve. Well, it took no effort at all, Joseph did it all on his own.

We had dinner at my inlaw's house tonight and after we were done, Episode 1 was on TV and Joseph got really into it and stayed glued till the bitter end. Not only that, but he was jumping up and down on the couch during the fight scenes with his invisible lightsaber in hand, yelling at the TV and making the lightsaber noises as he joined in the fight. He's all boy. And, he's definitely Steve's boy. He has the Star Wars gene.

In other news, Kathyrnn almost ate a LIVE bug today. This one, in fact. It's a Box Elder bug and they're EVERYWHERE. I had one of those total ninja mommy moments. Everything went in slow motion and I ran across the room as soon as I could to save them both from the misery that was about to ensue. Ugh. That girl really keeps me on my toes. :)

Heheheh.. :)

My favorite is the last one.. if only (not the man, the words out of his mouth). :)

Tagged

I was tagged by Kara. Here you go!

You're feeling: Sooooooooo tired and groggy
To your left: Cross-stitched picture of bluebonnets and an oak tree that always makes me homesick for Texas
On your mind: Strategies on how to stay focused on what needs to get done today
Last meal included: Hamburger stroganoff and green beans
The weather: Cold - but at least it's 26 degrees right now as opposed to 19 yesterday morning.. might end up being a nice day
Something you have a collection of: Christmas ornaments and rubber ducks (it's supposed to be the kids' collection, but I buy them)
A smell that cheers you up: Rain. It reminds me of home.
A smell that can ruin your mood: The way my kids' breath smell right before they get sick.
How long since you last shaved: 24 hours
The current state of your hair: bed head
The largest item on your desk/workspace (not computer): pile of books being read
Which section you head for first in a bookstore: childrens, music, the specific thing I came for
Something you're craving: nice, sunny, warm weather
Your general thoughts on the presidential race: Democrats are driving me nuts
How many times have you been hospitalized this year: None
Favorite place to go for a quiet moment: the family room after the kids are in bed
You've always secretly thought you'd be a good: CIA Agent :)
Something that freaks you out a little: falling
Something you've eaten too much of lately: I can honestly say nothing. But, I've had more banana smoothies than normal.
You have never: been skiing or anything of the like.
I tag Emily, Myndie, Rosanna, Christine.