Well, she is happy...

Ben thought he was soooo funny by putting this on Addie's back. It says "happy". He laughed and laughed at himself for coming up with the idea. I don't even know where he learned to do anything like that. He loved the fact that she had no idea it was there. More little boy laughter.

Of course, all the laughing from Ben made Addie laugh and then that in turn made Ben laugh even harder because she just had no idea.

I finally did it!

I finally made some strawberry freezer jam. I've been wanting to for years and I keep asking my mom how it's made and I keep forgetting. Finally, I bought a big box of strawberries and I knew that we weren't going to eat them all before they went bad. So I got a couple boxes of Sure-Jell and it had the recipe in it. It was so fast and easy. I'm definitely doing this every year. Now I just need to make some homemade bread to put it on.

Yay for Wal-Mart! Sort of.

A new Wal-Mart just opened up by my house. I went there this morning. It started out really nice. Everything was new and clean. I learned the new layout. Everything was good. I went to the check out line. There were several check out lines opened up. Hardly any lines at all. Yay! This should be so fast! I chose one with 1 person in the line. Her stuff was placed up on the belt. I waited patiently for her stuff to start moving so I could put mine up there too. The cashier didn't have the belt set to move forward. It felt like forever, but finally it started to move. I looked for one of those separators to put between my stuff and hers. There weren't any. Oh, there they are. Two of them. The lady in front of me has them both. She has 3 transactions. By the time her first group is done she realizes she bought too much. She starts looking through her bags to take things off of her bill. Search, search, find. Beep. Search, search, find. Beep. She removes about 5 items. Still trying to think positive, I think, "Well, at least she is good and sticking to her budget. That's what I should be more like." Then her next two transactions are WIC. Hello, this is a new employee. She doesn't know how to do crazy stuff like that. Take your WIC stuff to an older Wal-Mart where they know how to do it. Just kidding. I guess they need to learn here too. I look in the lanes next to me. Lines three people long come and go before my eyes. One person is in line behind me. We haven't moved for a very long time. Oh wait, the person behind me is leaving now. I can't leave since my stuff is all up on the belt. I guess I can leave but I know as soon as I get all my stuff back in the cart, the line will move forward. Another person gets in line behind me. We still don't move for ages. She ends up leaving too. The lady in front of me is spinning her child around making a piercing noise. I want to plug my ears, but I don't. Her two older kids steal balloons from the nail salon's opening day display. The lady starts playing a new game with her baby, where she goes close to the debit card machine and then pulls him away saying, "DON'T GET IT! DON'T GET IT!" as loud as she can. Over and over. Does she think we can't hear her? The whole store hears her! Finally she jams her baby's fingers on the machine so he starts crying. A beautiful crying noise instead of her crazy lady voice. I look at the lanes next to me again. Entire lines have come and gone again. Finally she is done! My turn! Wow, I don't know how they do that WIC stuff but it sure takes a long time. The whole time being in the line I am holding my toddler, since she is done with the cart, and my arms are starting to feel like lead. My transaction moves quickly and I get everything put back into my cart. I toss one final bag under the bottom so it doesn't squash anything. Pushing the cart one-handed is not easy. Especially when I get outside on the slightly slanted parking lot. The cart keeps pulling toward the cement curbing and I have to steer it with one hand and one foot. Finally I get too close to one of the curbs and it bumps a little. The bag on the bottom spills open and items roll out onto the parking lot. I put down my toddler and warn her to stay by me as I clean up my items. A Wal-Mart employee walks by me and watches me put my things back into the bag. "Thanks for your help," I think in my head. Exasperated, I get everything put in my car and buckle up the baby. WHEW!!

I definitely need an attitude adjustment. But why, oh why, do I always choose the lane that takes half an hour?!

A sad Friday

Yesterday I went to the funeral of my little baby nephew, Paul. He was just over a week old. He was named after my dad Paul who passed away 30 years ago. His name was picked out by my brother and sister-in-law way before he arrived. It was a normal, healthy pregnancy for my sister-in-law. He had complications at birth and wasn't able to stay with us here on Earth. He was such a sweet little angel baby. While he was here he was read to, sung to, prayed for and loved more than words can describe. His mission in life was to gain a body. He did that. A beautiful, strong body. Now he is in Heaven with his grandpa and many other relatives fulfilling his mission there.

"Each of us will have our own Fridays--those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.

"But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death--Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.

"No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or in the next, Sunday will come."

- Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

Shows I wish were still on the air:

1. Arrested Development - Funniest show ever made. It was hard to watch it regularly while it was on air because they kept changing the time and days that it showed. I heard there might be a movie in the works which will be exciting but I just wish that I could see a new episode every week. It was genius. Plus Jason Bateman is heavenly to look at.

2. Studio 60 - I loved this show. It was pretty much the only drama show that I ever wanted to watch regularly. I'm so sad that it ended so soon. It might have been overlooked because the show 30 Rock came out at the same time and they were both about comedy sketch shows. I do love 30 Rock too, but I guess since it had so much attention, no one watched Studio 60. I loved Matthew Perry in it too. I thought he would be too Chandler-y but he was perfect.

3. Punky Brewster - I know I have talked about this before, but I seriously miss it! Just the other day, a while after my kids were home from school, I was getting ready to make dinner and I just had the biggest urge to turn on Punky Brewster for my kids to watch it (and me). Maybe I was having a sort of flashback from when I was younger watching it in between the school/dinner time. Ohhh... I really need to buy the boxed set or something. It's just such a part of me. Does anyone know what channel it used to play on? Fox wasn't around back then was it? Was it on one of the main channels like CBS, ABC, or NBC? I can't remember, but now there are no kids shows on after school except for PBS and cable. We for sure didn't have cable growing up and I'm pretty sure it wasn't on PBS. It must have been on one of the main channels. All I remember was that Silver Spoons was on right after it.

Cute pronunciations

Addie: wants "tanny" every day (candy)

Ben: had a "scabeger" hunt at school

Elli: saw a hyena on TV and said "that's a cayeto!"

It's funny being a mom.

Just a little vent

Not a day goes by that I'm not annoyed at the pick up/drop off loop at the school. 95% of the time it is for one reason: people stopping in the "keep moving" lane. The school sends home a note at the beginning of each year telling people to not stop in this lane. Kids could get hurt, it backs up the lines, and it's very annoying to others. It's just like butting in line. All the people who are in the correct stopping lane picking their kids up the right way will have to wait for the people who come after them and let their kids cross two lanes to get to their car and they will block everyone behind them in both lanes until they are done and then they will get to leave before everyone else. (They come at the last minute to pick up). ANNOYING!! I know I have used the word "annoying" three times in this post, now four. But that's exactly what it is.

I have never liked butters. As young as I can remember in school, I have realized that it's not fair. All through high school, I disliked anyone who butt in line. And now as an adult, I still don't like it. But I have never dared say anything, ever. Recently, with the school thing, I have become a honker. Good for me for being assertive, bad for me for being rude. Maybe it's cause I have my car to hide inside that I am braver. I am a little nervous that the person who I honk at will be someone I know, or that I will have to work with later on (helping in class, etc.) But maybe they deserve it. Don't stop in the "keep moving" lane. Thank you.

Elli's birthday

Elli turned 8 on Saturday. 8! I can't believe she's old enough to be baptized. She had a little movie party with all her friends. She was so excited to watch the movie Bolt with them.

A few days before, she drew her cake design. Here's how it turned out:

On the left is Elli's cousin Kadee. Do they look alike?

Here was Addie during the movie. She looked so uncomfortable stretched out like that but she wouldn't move any other way.

Little men

Nemo the cat, Domo the ?, and Benji the dog - oh yeah, and Ben the boy

When I was little, I thought that all boys were loud, dirty, mean and bad. Except for my brothers. But every other boy. Boy was I wrong. So wrong.

I now know that boys are soooo sweet and loving and kind.
They love their mommy and daddy.
They want to do the right thing.
They feel sad when others feel sad.
They feel proud and happy when they clean their room.
They love to make people laugh.
They are very creative with their imaginations and their Legos.
They love kitties and puppies.
They get nervous when they have to give a talk in primary.
They are smart.
And they love to sleep with their stuffed animals! So cute! Ben normally sleeps with just one stuffed animal at night. He switches them out so that they each get a turn. But this night he decided to have all three at once.


Okay, so maybe my little boy doesn't LOVE taking a bath (until he's in and then he doesn't want to get out). And he can't comprehend what the word "whisper" means... but I love my little guy to bits and pieces and I hope that I can help him grow up to be a good, kind person.

Weird dream

I know a lot of people don't like to hear about other people's dreams so I don't mind if you skip this post. I used to annoy my sister with my morning recounts of my nightly dream. I'm sure I went into way too many vague details. (And then we weren't at home anymore, but I don't know where we were... And someone else was there but I don't know who it was...) But the other night I had such a strange dream and it was so clear.

I was at a beach and I was up on a hill so I could see down into the water. A lot of people were swimming and I looked to the left in the water and I saw a shark. Right as I yelled, "SHARK!" the shark zoomed over right into the group of people. Everyone scrambled out as fast as they could but one man had his foot bitten off.

Afterward I was in a beach shack where I was staying with two other girls. We had the foot in with us. Don't ask me why. Maybe we were the beach doctors. There was no blood at all, it kind of looked like a mannequin foot. Another funny thing (funny as in strange) was that it was cut smoothly off a few inches above the ankle. The shark must have had a nice straight bite and also must not have swallowed. But I was holding the foot and as the other girls were talking I wondered what the foot would taste like. I took a bite right out of the heel. It was hard, kind of like styrofoam or rubber. So it sat in my mouth for half a second before I spit it out. Then I was nervous that the girls would see that I had taken a bite so I had to hide the foot and the piece of heel in my drawer and then try to figure out how I could get rid of them forever.

Yeah, that was my dream. Does it mean I am psychotic? Do I have a tendency for cannibalism? Will I regret posting this on the world wide web? I don't know what my crazy subconscious was thinking. I have always had such vivid dreams (except for when I didn't know where I was or who I was with). Last night I was dreaming about construction on Redwood Rd. Oooh. Don't wake me from that dream. Let it stretch on and on in dreamy happiness.

Oh no!

Just as I said goodbye to the kids as they got out of the car for school this morning, I realized that I didn't comb either of their hair. Yikes! They are going to look scary all day. This is the first time that has happened. (Of course their hair goes uncombed sometimes on Saturdays or days with no school.) Oh well. I guess their messy hair will now match their pants with holes in the knees that are getting slightly short. And it will match their faded school shirts that they wear every Friday. Little orphans. Oh, I'm so embarrassed.

My sister

clockwise from top left: Lisa, Michelle, Ari, Eric, Mom, Sinika, and Lindsey

Blurry, yes. But also very cute.

My sister Sinika is one of my most favorite people in the world. We grew up wearing our jelly shoes, playing with our My Little Ponies (Moon Dancer and Apple Jacks) and with our Cabbage Patch Dolls. On the news one year certain dolls we had were suspected of having asbestos in them. (I had the boy doll that time. :)) They were placed in a box high up in the garage so we couldn't get them while it was researched by the toy company. We would go out in the garage and cry because we wanted them down. It turned out ours weren't affected so we got them back. (I still have that little guy. I don't know why. It's really not a very cute doll. None of my 3 kids have ever pulled it out of the mass of toys in our house to play with it. Maybe I should sell it on ebay.)

We were forced to share EVERYTHING. Rooms, toys, clothes. And when we weren't forced, we did anyway. Everyone thought we were twins when we were little even though I am a year and a half older. Nobody could keep our names straight so we just learned to answer to the other's name as well as our own. We had our childhood spats but by the time we were in high school, we treated each other as friends. You know how you were a lot nicer to your friends than your family growing up? That's how we started treating each other. Super nicely. (Most of the time anyway.) She has been my best friend for 30 years now. She has been and is always there for me when I need her.

We always said that we wanted to live next door to each other when we grew up. We're not exactly that close but our houses are only about 5 minutes away from each other. And I LOVE it. I know we probably won't live this close forever so I'm soaking it in as much as I can right now.

Sinika is BEAUTIFUL, loving, accepting, helpful, friendly, pure, spiritual, sweet, fashionable, uplifting, and always generous. I love how much she loves her kids. And I love that she loves mine too. :)

Today is her birthday.

Sini and our mom

Happy birthday Sini! I love you!

How does it end?

I have a sickness. It's called, "I have to read the last page of a book before I get to the end of the book". I know, it's horrible. I try to stop but I just can't help myself. I always try to not think of it until I get to the middle of the book and I hold the two halves between my fingers and eyeball it to see if I'm at the middle of the book. But then I have to just see how many pages the book has so that I can see if I'm in the exact middle. (Who doesn't do that?) So I flip my way to the last page and I tell myself I'm not going to look at any of the words. Just the page number. So I find the last page, look at the number and then proceed to glance down at the words just a little. Then I continue to read all the while telling myself,
"Stop reading.
Stop reading.
Stop reading."
Until I reach the end of the page.
It usually let's me know, who the person is with, where they are, or who just died.
Sometimes it's relieving, sometimes shocking, and sometimes I'm just mad at myself. But it cannot be stopped. My mind has tricked myself too many times with this. I can't trust it. Maybe I should just stick to eyeballing it.

Usually after I have done this and I go back to the page that I am on, I look at the page number and realize the real reason for looking at the last page and I find that I forgot what the last page number was and so I have to look at the last page again to look at the number and divide it in half. Then I finally know if I'm in the middle. (I'm usually not quite to the middle yet.)

Getting the mail

Addie's favorite time of day is getting the mail. Maybe cause we're outside and she can run around as much as she wants. Until she starts going into the road and won't stay out and so we have to go back inside. (Seriously, what is it with babies and roads?) Lately she has to ride the scooter to get the mail. And by that, I mean I push her while she stands on the scooter and says, "Wheee!"

Oh, and she HAS to ring the bell each time right at the first and right at the end.

Apple rings

My kids love to eat their apples cut into rings. They must taste better or something cause they usually end up eating the whole apple. (The two older kids anyway.)