Trying to be like his daddy

Ben played basketball this year for the first time. Brian is 6' 5" and has always loved basketball so, naturally, we signed Ben up even though he is a little shorty. Since he only has one game left next week I thought I would highlight his amazing basketball skills. He ended up being the shortest person on the team except for one girl who was the same height. Even though he was lacking in the tallness category, he still picked up some top-notch skills that he will probably use the rest of his life.

Some of which are:

Crying in the corner. (This only happened on the first day.)

Seeing how long he could stretch his wrist band.

Spinning in circles.

Looking in the opposite direction than the rest of his team mates.

Standing far away while the coach was giving the team a final pep talk before the game.

Smiling for the camera when he should be watching the ball.
And again.

While he was off court he didn't sit idly by and stare off into space. (At least most of the time.) He set to work doing things like:

Inspecting the brickmanship of the walls.

Playing roly-ball.

And running up against the padded wall to see how high he could jump.

We are so proud of our little guy. The team could not have done it without him. I don't want to brag but he might just be the MVP of the entire season. We are going to invite our entire family to the last game to see the awarding of the trophy. I'll film it so you all can see.

(Sorry for the dark pictures. They were taken far away and in a low-light building. I realize that when you are in a dark building you are supposed to put your camera on manual and open the shutter up or something like that but I haven't ever read up on how to actually do that with this camera. Or maybe I just have a crappy camera. Just kidding, I love my camera. Maybe just like. I like my camera.)

A tribute

Hello fruity fruit snacks.
I do love you so.
I know you are supposed to be just for kids,
but what is a grown woman supposed to do when she craves a mega-punch of sugar rushing through her veins?
I know what:
Turn to you and your colorful, sticky, sweetness.
That's what.
You've never let me down.
My husband wonders how our kids go through a box so fast.
Hmmm... I don't know. (gulp)

Postscript: that was a nervous gulp and not an I-just-ate-a-fruit-snack gulp.

Favorite books

1. To Kill A Mockingbird - I know a lot of people have this in their favorites too. I first read it in 10th grade. I think it was just the first amazing piece of literature that I had ever read and I liked it so much then and still love it now, so it will always remain one of my favorites. I love books written from a child's point of view. I laugh so much as I read about how they view the world.

2. The Princess Bride - I read this in 11th grade the first time. I had seen the movie several times and the book is just as good and a little better. Very cleverly written.

3. The Good Earth - This book just took me right out of my little world and put me in China in the early 1900's. It was so shocking to find out how people lived on the other side of the world in at that time. And when I read it I crave Chinese food! I like how it shows what can happen when someone grows up poor versus when someone grows up rich with everything at their fingertips. It's interesting to see what people do with the lives they are dealt.

4. Huckleberry Finn - Child's point of view. Mark Twain is soooo funny and can even be funny while writing about serious things. Huck Finn has just about the saddest life you can imagine and yet he is still so innocent and I find myself laughing throughout the book.

5. Dandelion Wine - When I first read this in a book club I was in, I didn't quite understand what the point was. It seemed like it was just jumping around to different characters and different stories. But after we talked about it in our club, and discussed what we thought the theme was, I found that the moments I liked the most were about no matter how old someone is they all feel a lot younger than they actually are. It made me look at people from different generations differently. I used to think that people who were older than me were just in a different mind set than me but it makes sense now, since I always feel younger than I am, that everyone still remembers what it's like to be a young and that I can even relate to and be friends with someone who is the same age as my mother or even my grandmother. I loved what the book made me think about afterward and I definitely want to read it again.

If a book changes my perception of real life (for the better) and if it makes me think even after I'm done reading then I will love that book. I have read each of these several times (except Dandelion Wine - I'm planning on reading it again soon) and still absolutely love them more and more each time I read them. I love a lot of other books too but these are my top 5.

What are some of your favorite books?

I FINALLY saw it

Lars and the Real Girl. I don't know what took me so long. And I loved it. It was such a sweet little movie. Ryan Gosling was amazing. -ly good looking. Just kidding. Okay, he was both. He was a good actor and he was pretty easy on the eyes. Mustache and all. hehe. It was just definitely my kind of film. A little quirkiness and a lot of originality. I just loved it.

He still looks 5, but he really is 6

A few weeks ago we had a birthday party for Ben. We had a couple of boys over. Not loud at all. Mine wasn't the loudest of them either. Okay, he was. The very loudest of them all. Now I'm all for boys to have fun at a birthday party and be loud and crazy, but it is nice to have a small moment of quietness to gather your wits about you and be ready for the next wave of loudness. I found out how to do that. We played "Ben 10 hide and seek". What's that you say? Well, it's VERY different than regular hide and seek because you pretend to be a Ben 10 alien while you are hiding and seeking. The rest is the same as regular hide and seek.

Let me tell you though, it was very nice to have everyone be so quiet while they were waiting to be found, even if it was only for a minute or two. I was able to breathe a little, which is not possible when they are all noisy. I could look around and see what needed to be cleaned up and get the next thing ready. Then I was ready for some more noisiness. (That is the correct spelling of noisiness even if it doesn't look like it is. I looked it up.)

I'm just saying, next time you have lots of kids over at your house and you just need some quiet time for your ears: hide and seek is your answer. Your welcome.


Ben had a lot of fun though and he had his most favorite friends in the whole world there so he was in heaven.

No, Ben isn't praying in this picture. He just blew out his candles. I just had to use this one because he was making a face in this one:

Little Ollie hiding. I thought it was a very clever hiding spot but he was found right away. Maybe it was because someone was taking a picture of him. We'll never know.

Not the plague

I'm FINALLY getting better from that horrible cold. I am so glad. Elli always gets the sicknesses first in our family. She gets them from school. I asked her over the weekend,
"Does your class wash hands before lunch?" and she said,
"No."
"Does your class use hand sanitizer?"
"No."
She had a small bottle of hand sanitizer hooked onto her backpack but if she forgot to use it before she left her class room then it was too late. So I told her that now we have to clip it onto the belt loop on her pants so that if she is in line for lunch or even sitting down to eat then she can still have it with her to use it if she forgets until the last minute. How mean am I? Making my daughter WEAR a bottle of hand sanitizer!! She's fine with it though. She even remembers if I forget. She'll grab it and clip it on. It's crazy that they don't make kids wash hands before lunch. Maybe they do in other classrooms that have sinks but Elli is in the portable classroom and there is no running water. I know that they talk about germs and ways to prevent them. I have gotten papers that they (Elli and Ben) have gotten about the subject. So you'd think that they'd really force the hand washing.

So to all the people that I have, or my kids have, spread this to:
1- I am sooo sorry. And
2- It takes about 10 days to go through your system. But it feels like longer.

I'm sorry, could you speak into my good ear?

I am so thankful for my hearing. And my voice. Right now I don't have either. I currently have the worst cold of my life. I don't even know if I could call it a "cold". I think it's actual term is "the plague". Late Friday night I started getting a sore throat and achy all over. The next day, the achyness was gone but the sore throat was still there.

Sunday, my left ear was hurting and all of a sudden it went all muffled with a nice clear ring in it. I decided that in the morning I would go to the doctor. I thought for sure a sore throat this bad was strep.

Monday, I went to the doctor. Not strep. Good. But now I have to live through the pain. (Okay, I can take pain medicine.) No ear infection, and it wasn't excess ear wax. He said it was probably just my eustatian tube plugged up in connection with my sinuses being plugged up. I'm supposed to take Mucinex to clear all that up and I didn't have a cough before (just a little hard to breathe) but when I started the Mucinex it sure loosened things up. Now I have a major cough. He said if things don't clear up in a week then to come back.

Tuesday, when I got home from Ben's basketball game, I noticed my eye was all red. Pink eye. Luckily we had some unexpired medicine from the kids left over to clear that right up.

Wednesday - everything the same.

Then today, Thursday, I woke up and had no voice. Laryngitis. Now, I've never had laryngitis before. I thought people that had it were kind of whiny. They could whisper as loud as they wanted. I thought, well, if they have this much control of their voice then they're probably faking it. Now I know. It hurts to talk normally and it sounds all froggy/squeaky. But whispering doesn't hurt at all. No matter how loud. The only bad thing is that you just sound silly to kids. (And to people who have never had it.) My baby has been whispering back to me when I talk to her all day today.

To top it all off, I have a boil on my chin so that when I talk everyone stares at it. There is no other word to describe it. It's a huge boil. I guess it could also be described as a giant zit. But it sounds more plague-y to call it a boil. Yeah, I DO have the plague.

So I've only had half my hearing since Sunday and I can't sleep very well because of the coughing. I can't wear my contacts for a week so I am looking real lovely with my outdated glasses. I have a giant red dot on my face and I sound like a frog. I'm tired of the monotonous 'eeeeeeeeeeeeeee' in my head that I'm hearing. Come on, learn a new tune, ear! And my throat still hurts.

Tomorrow, it will be a week since it started. I don't know if I'm supposed to go back then or a week since I went to the doctor, which was on Monday. He probably meant from Monday.

My visiting teachers have been so amazing though. They were supposed to come over Monday but I canceled and so they brought me dinner. Then today, one called to see how I was feeling and she heard my voice and knew that I wasn't any better. So they brought me dinner again today! So nice! I told them that this 'cold' doesn't affect my arms but they just insisted. They have offered to do anything for me from doing my laundry (I wouldn't let them) to taking my kids to school. They are too good at their jobs. It makes me want to be a better visiting teacher. I'm not off to a good start though since I couldn't go on Wednesday with my partner.

Anyway, I thought that by this time that things would be nearing the end, but now I'm not sure when this sickness will be ending. It definitely makes me realize how thankful I should be when I'm healthy.

I love language

Ever notice how in England they use an adjective that's normally used when describing something bad in front of an adjective that's used when describing something good and it means something good?

For instance:

"That's awfully nice."

"He's terribly friendly."

"This is frightfully delicious."

I've always found that interesting. I wonder why they didn't carry that little piece of grammar over to America...

Meet my pet Chias

Yes, aren't they adorable? I know! I am loving my little guys like they were my real pets. Okay so I might have a slight Little Red Hen Syndrome with these things.

Over the last year Ben had said every few weeks or so, "Mommy, I really want a ch-ch-ch-chia pet!" So somehow Santa found out and decided to bring one for Ben and Elli. But then when it came time to soak the seeds and to spread the seeds, no one wanted anything to do with them. They came with clear plastic trays to set them in while growing, but you know how it is on Christmas day, anything cardboard or clear plastic-y gets thrown out. So we had to use our own dishes. Anyway, I ended up soaking the seeds, spreading the seeds, and watering them several times a day. And then when they started sprouting... WOW! I cannot even tell you the satisfaction that I was feeling. The pure joy of bringing a tiny seed to life is just overwhelming. Oh sure, the kids thought it was neat for about 2.7 minutes total, spread out over 3 to 4 days. And yes, Elli did spray them lovingly with the spray bottle two times. But I got the real satisfaction out of all of it. It has been an amazing journey.

Okay... I lied. There was no satisfaction in this process. These have to be the stupidest thing ever! Tell Santa to bring something of equal value instead of these. Maybe if they grew a flower or a vegetable they would be worth something. I don't even know what to do with them. Do you just let them grow for a year? Do you pull off all the growth and start again? (The seed packet contains more than one growth.) They just take up space and look sort of odd with faces coming out of the tiny leaves. Now don't think that I am anti-plant. I love plants. Just take a look around my house and you will see that. What I am is anti-growing-sprouts-in-strange-shapes-that-take-up-lots-of-counter-space plants. I don't even know if I have the strength to do a second growth.

Spring IS just around 12 corners or so

Thinking about what's outside my door right now, the frozen ground, ice, all my plants and trees asleep under a thick blanket of snow, has turned my mind to... yard work. I know that shouldn't have happened but it did it and there's no undoing it.

Do you ever look out your window on a nice sunny spring day and see that your grass is getting quite long and it could use a mow? And you really don't want to start nagging your husband about mowing it because the last thing you want to be is a nagging wife and also you know that your husband has that one thing tonight after work and that other thing then next night and so you realize that it won't be mowed for a while so you decide to just go ahead and mow it. So you wait for the perfect time of day, your baby's nap time, and put her down to sleep and hope she doesn't wake up while you are outside and you set your older child up with a movie or video game and strict instructions to come and get you if your baby wakes up. You put on your grubby shoes so that your nice shoes don't turn green. Then you back out your car so that you can get your lawn mower out and you check the gas level and you fill it up to the top and you don't check the oil level because you never do that. And you go around the grass and make sure that there are no hoses or toys on the grass for you to mow over (another post for another day) and everything is ready. So you walk the mower down the driveway and push the cold start button 5 times. Then you grab the pull thingy and yank it as hard as you can. But nothing happens. So you do it again. Nothing. Then you start getting mad and your glad because that means that you can put some anger into it and give it a little more muscle. So you pull angrily 3, 4, 5 times and then even your angry muscles are getting weaker and you are pulling slower and slower each time. And we all know the mower doesn't start when you pull it slower. So you take a little break and a few breaths and think okay, I am going to pull it the hardest I have ever pulled right... NOW! And you give it one last try. And it doesn't start. By then you are wishing that you were a curser (the swearing kind, not the blinking kind) but you know that if you started cursing you would look like a person who doesn't curse but who is trying to curse. And you would just look silly. And so you just have to say things like, "stupid mower" and "darn thing". And then you have barely enough muscle left to push it back up into the garage and you just know that all your neighbors were looking out their windows watching the whole thing take place, laughing and pointing and then later they were going to tell their husbands, "Can you believe she was trying to mow her lawn?" And then you go inside and you are out of breath and madder than a hornet and your little boy is wondering what is wrong and all you can pant out is "The mower wouldn't start!" and your boy just thinks, "Oh, is that all." and you don't have enough words to describe the frustration and all you can add to that is "Aarrggghhh!" a few times and pace around the kitchen with your hands on your hips. There are times when it does start for you and everything works out nicely. Why not today?! So you just have to be the little wife that has to wait for her husband to mow it when he has a chance. In 2 weeks.

No? Yeah, me neither. he he. I was just wondering.

Please pass the Vaseline Intensive Care

I am not a lotion person. I should be. I have super dry skin and the dry/cold Utah winters make it even worse. I just don't like the feeling of it on my hands. I feel like I am leaving my perfect little lotion fingerprints on everything. But then when I'm somewhere like church or somewhere when I don't have any lotion with me I catch a glimpse of my dry cracked hands and think, "Who's old lady hands are those?" Oh, yeah... mine. I use it on my legs just fine (if I know that they will be showing). Because I don't worry about leaving my leg prints on things. But my hands are different.

I wonder if I'm making my hands age faster with permanent damage by not using lotion or if I just start using it now, regularly, it will make them all better and bring them back to age 31 hands.

When I wash my hands at home I sometimes think, "I really need to put lotion on this time!" And then when I'm done washing them I'm like, "Nah, look they're all moist."

A great workout!

I've found a new way to keep buns in shape. Push your baby around the kitchen floor on this little number:
Do 7 laps or a 5 minute set. When you feel the stiffness setting in on the 6th lap you know it's working! You can measure your success by how long you are collapsed on the living room floor afterward.

A new favorite movie

Addie loves the movie Bambi. She will either bring the box for Bambi or a Baby Einstein movie to me and say, "Sasasasasasa show? Sasasasasasa show?"

Ticklish

Sometimes when I drink water my ears tickle.
And when I eat real butter (when it is spread on bread or something) my tongue tickles.
Does anybody else have this strange happening?

Just... can't... put on... another... boot....

My kids love to play in the snow. And I love it when they play in the snow too.

But you know those days when you just don't want to get out all the snow clothes and you don't want to deal with all the wet stuff afterward? I have figured out the perfect solution:

My kids loved this. They seriously played in it for over an hour. And the snow hardley melted the whole time they played. I was suprised. I just used a bowl and scooped snow from our back porch while they gathered some toys and then we scooted some stools up to the sink. Zero wet clothes. Zero clean up.