Catch of the Day

It's Fall. The weather has been beautiful lately- rainy, breezy, cool. Standing by the open kitchen window is very refreshing when the wind picks up. Nichole discovered she didn't have to go outside to play with her pinwheel in the wind.

Am I cute, or what?

From time to time in my life (and I'm sure others experience this as well), I have moments where the only way I can explain myself is that-
I'm cute.
I'm not talking about cute in a vain, narcissistic, "how great I am" way. I'm talking about cute in a sheepish, silly, "oh deary me" kind of way.
I recollect quite a few years ago looking up at the stars one night and thinking, "Gee. I remember the stars being much brighter." Then I realized I wasn't wearing my glasses. They were much brighter once I put my glasses on. That was cute.
Tonight I had another experience. I came out of the grocery store and went to my car to put the groceries in it. Just as I was turning the key in the trunk to open it, I noticed through the window that there was a light on the dashboard. Oh, no. Had I left a door open? Then I realized (since I was wearing my glasses), it was the light to let me know the trunk was open. How appropriate as I had just then opened the trunk.
What can I say? I'm cute.

How My Weekend Went

The weekend started out pretty good. Friday morning, the kitchen was pretty clean. Dishes done. I was doing laundry. The kids helped me bake bread. I was wearing an apron that my mom made for me. There's something about wearing an apron that makes me feel suitably domestic. I even remember noting the time and mentioning to Jeremy that we had already accomplished so much by 10am.

Friday afternoon, I started feeling kind of icky. I didn't know if I needed to eat something or if I was sick to my stomach. Jeremy had felt that way Thursday. He finally threw up and felt much better. He was feeling well enough to stay home with the kids while I went to a class I've been taking Thursday nights. O.K. So maybe it was the same thing, and it wouldn't be so bad.

Friday evening after throwing up several times, I realized I needed Jeremy to stay home from work because I wasn't going to be leaving the bathroom anytime soon. So, wonderful husband that he is, he stayed home, made dinner for the kids, helped them make monkey bread for dessert, played with them, got them all ready for bed, got them to bed. In between all this he would come to the bathroom to check on me, refill water for me so I would have something to throw up. He even brought a rug from the hall to put my pillow and towel on so I wouldn't be lying on the bare bathroom floor.

I don't want to go into too many details about how awful I felt. I'll just let you know I ended up staying in the bathroom for 11 hours. That's right. 11 hours. After getting the kids to bed, Jeremy got a book and plunked himself down in the hall to be available if I needed anything. He slept there. At about 3 something in the morning after I had finally gotten some sleep (not just dozing) on the floor, I woke up realizing that I wasn't going to throw up right away. Phew. I took a few minutes, got up, woke Jeremy up in the hall, and crawled into our bed with him. Then a few minutes later I got up and went back to the bathroom to throw up. But... I was able to walk all the way back to our bedroom again. That's what I call progress.

I think my favorite part of the whole ordeal was looking up from time to time while throwing up and seeing my compassionate little boy standing in the bathroom doorway, laughing at me.

So, the rest of the weekend was spent recovering. Saturday morning our ward was having a Primary Activity for the children to bring their families to the Mount Timpanogos Temple grounds and walk around and experience the good feelings you can have at the temple and get their pictures taken there. I obviously didn't feel up to going, so Jeremy took the kids while I stayed home and watched Star Trek II, the Wrath of Khan. After my 11 hours spent in the bathroom, Jeremy and I were both feeling pretty awake (at 3-4 in the morning), so we decided to put the movie on in the living room. I was too distracted with achiness to sleep and Jeremy had gotten up to help me and so was awake and felt like staying awake. I watched the first few minutes while lying on the couch, then fell asleep. I guess it was just the distraction I needed. So, I finished it while Jeremy and the kids were gone that morning.

Wow, this is getting to be a long post. The End.

Catch of the Day- Making Pancakes

Such a good helper

The KAT's Meow

Jr. wanted to help with the dishes so I told him to go get all the bowls and bring them to me. A little bit later he came in carrying something purple and round. Apparently I needed to put all the balls in the dishwasher.

How to Make Cookies with Marshmallows

One marshmallow for the cookies. One marshmallow for me.

Repeat.

Talk Like A Pirate Day

September 19 was Talk Like a Pirate Day. To celebrate, we played the game Monkey Island most of the day. We're fans. We continued our celebrations this morning. My husband rearranged the furniture in the living room to make a pirate ship. Nichole was very happy to see it when she woke up. She's been into the Monkey Island and pirate thing lately. Here are a few of my favorite quotes we've heard around here recently.

Nichole: I'm Elephant Princess Darby.
Daddy: Hello, Elephant Princess Darby.
Nichole: I'm a pirate.

and when her brother was bothering her while she was trying to steer the ship (with the unicycle wheel)-
Nichole: You're going to break my beautiful little boat. Get off.

After church we all got in on the pirate fun and had a battle. Jeremy built a balloon cannon around a fan so when the kids stuck a balloon cannonball in the cannon, the air would shoot it out.
Later we battled with balloon swords. After beating the adults and chasing them off their ship, the kid pirates took their balloon shovels to dig up buried treasure (a balloon treasure chest).

Spontaneous fun. We weren't planning on doing so much with pirates today. The furniture ship was a good idea and it was wonderful for us all to get in on the fun and see where it led.

Catch of the Day- Parody

My husband and I were watching... Well honestly this is the husband writing- I don't have a husband myself. Anyway we were watching the old Star Trek series and had to pause it in order to help our daughter with something. When I say we, I mean my wife helped my daughter. I used the time to capture the screen and edit the picture with disturbing results.

The KAT's Meow

Nichole:
Mom, can you say, "Elephant, are you hungry?"
and I can say, [trumpeting sound]
and you can say, "Yeah?"
and I can say, [trumpeting sound]
and you can say, "Okay, I will fix you something to eat."

A Mom's Self Control

I wasn't paying attention and he's only two years old. It was a colorful pen. How could he resist?

The KAT's Meow

Jr.: Here forks. Put in dishwasher.
Mommy: Oh, okay.
Jr.: Here cups. Put in dishwasher.
Mommy: Okay. Thank you for being a big helper.
Jr.: Here pancakes. Put in dishwasher.
Mommy: Oh, thanks, honey. But I think we'll leave the pancakes out of the dishwasher.

Catch of the Day

Father and son

I Am Blessed

Here's how my dinnertime went. The kids told me they wanted spaghetti, so for dinner I made spaghetti. I like kidney beans in my spaghetti sauce (and Jr. likes beans), so I put kidney beans in the spaghetti sauce. The kids were hungry enough and as I was making the sauce I was also doing laundry, so I didn't really have time to make a side dish. I figured, okay- spaghetti, sauce, and parmesan cheese on the top would have to do. I sat the kids down at the table. I was afraid that Jr. would get sauce on his shirt so I wanted to put a bib on him. He did not like that idea, and Nichole did not like the idea of having sauce with her spaghetti. Nichole is a very picky eater. She refuses to eat vegetables and says she doesn't like beans (though later she said to me, "I like purple brown beans," and later changed her mind again). She was so upset about the plate I put in front of her that she shoved it away. Some of the sauce slid off the plate and onto the table. To spill something out of anger is bad manners, so it was time to send her to her room. In there she was screaming and hollering and carrying on. I went back to the table and tried to put Jr.'s bib on him again. He pulled it off and threw it on the floor- several times. Finally he was being upset enough that it was time to send him to his room. Same thing. So I had two screaming and hollering children and I felt grateful to have the calm and patience I needed to get through the situation even though I felt like crying myself at times. I didn't know how to get my daughter to really understand that the vegetables will help her be healthy. Telling her just doesn't do it. Jr. threw a tantrum while running around the apartment. Nichole calmed down enough to sit with Mommy for a little bit. I realized that it was too quiet in the other room. I told Nichole I needed to go see what Jr. was up to. He was sitting on a chair just being calm and quiet. I gathered both the kids on the couch and read them some books, then they decided they wanted some spaghetti. Jr. gave in and decided he would wear a bib when Nichole said she wanted to wear one. Nichole gave in and decided to eat her food when she realized I wasn't going to take the sauce off the plate. She managed to eat around the sauce, but at least she ate something. Jr. ate some of his food.
As I was sitting there with the calm children I realized that I am blessed to have an only picky eater. Although she doesn't like certain foods, she's not allergic to any. She doesn't have to have a strict diet of certain foods she can or cannot eat. Both children are healthy. I don't have to give them medications for any medical conditions. I am blessed that I only have to deal with picky tendancies that they'll probably grow out of.

Perks of the Job

Sometimes Jeremy leaves to do a show carrying something like this:

Sometimes he comes back from a show carrying something like this:

This one's for you, Honey

I made dinner. Enough gourmet sauce chicken and pasta and veggies for everyone (including you when you came home from work). Of course Nichole didn't want any veggies. I was out of the room for a little bit. I left a plate full of chicken on the counter and came back to this:

I guess our little independent girl is good at helping herself.

Catch of the Day- Sprinkler Fun

The KAT's Meow

Nichole: I'm done. Now I can watch Kermit the Frog?
Mommy: After Jr.'s done.
Nichole: O.K. Jr. Can you say, I'm done?
Jr.: I'm done.

Perspective

Is it just me, or does my son look taller in one picture than the other?

Our Inspiration

My brother likes to tinker. He invents. He does some pretty fun things with PVC. You can see instructions and videos for some of the things he's come up with at http://goodenoughstuff.blogspot.com/

My kids love to watch Uncle Paco's videos. In our home, pieces of PVC are known as "treepods." Nichole likes to take the PVC and build things of her own. The other day I decided to let her go at it. I gathered a whole bunch of PVC piping and connectors from the office and brought it out for the kids to build with. Nichole built her version of a house





and Jr. helped.




Because of their engineering, Jeremy and I were inspired to build the house I mentioned in an earlier post.

The Candy Man

There's a man at our church who always has candy to give the children after the meetings. It's a tradition to see the "candy man" before going home. One Sunday during dinner conversation this is what came up:

Mommy: What did you learn in church today?
Nichole: I learned candy treats. I learned suckers and I learned candy.
Mommy: Oh, so that's what you took away from church, hm?

This is the House that JAT Built

Inspired by my brothers who like to tinker with PVC, Jeremy and I built a little house for the kids out of PVC and scraps of fabric. It had a door on one side and a window on the other. We put a couple of kid size chairs in it for the kids to use when they got up in the morning. Next time we figure it will last longer when our son is around if we can find our safety pins to attach the pieces of fabric together. Where are those safety pins?

LOUD & quiet

We were practicing the difference between loud and quiet.
Mommy: Children, can you show me an example of being loud?
Children:
Mommy: Can you show me an example of being quiet?
Jr. (screams): NO!

Catch of the Day

For our Family Home Midday Activity, we turned on music and danced.