Dream house

Last weekend I was able to have a big, nice, 3 hour nap. I think I dreamed a weeks worth of dreams in one vivid dream during that time. I dreamed that the house I had lived in for a while had several floors beneath it and I didn't even know it. When I finally found out, I, of course, wanted to see what was on those floors. There was an elevator that I had never seen before that went down to each floor. The house was a regular sized house but the floors beneath were gigantic.

The first floor down was like a huge clothing warehouse. It had all kinds of clothes and shoes of all different sizes. I was like, THIS IS ALL MINE? YEEHOOO! I tried on some weird looking shoes but maybe they were some type of high fashion cause that's sometimes weird looking to me.

The next floor down had a sewing machine and all kinds of needles, threads and fabric. All I could think was that I could finally learn how to sew and I could make all kinds of things: skirts for my girls, stuffed toys like uglydolls, and let's not forget curtains!

The next floor had a trampoline! YES! An indoor trampoline that was the same level as the floor and there was a huge curved wall of windows that you could look out and watch the sunset while you were jumping. I know, we were underground but, hey, it's a dream. Anything can happen.

Next came a playroom with all kinds of toys. I opened one cupboard and it was filled so full of wooden blocks. Enough that we (me and my kids) could build a real block castle around ourselves. Fun. And there were lots of other cupboards filled with lots of other great toys.

On the bottom floor there was a fancy restaurant. Hello! I could leave my kids on the toy floor while I went and had a delicious meal right below them.

I kept thinking, I can't believe the people who sold me this house left all this stuff down here.

-end of dream-

I wish that was my real house. I'm sure the movie Inception had lots to do with my brain coming up with this dream. The elevator, the delving into my subconscious to see things that I would love. Yes, I would love to have an indoor trampoline; yes, I would love to have someone else cook for me whenever I wanted.

It was just a dream.
It was just a dream.

That's usually what I have to tell myself when I have a bad dream but this time it is to bring the excitement down and realize I don't really live there.

No title today

I usually blog about things that I am thinking about. (Blogging secret revealed!) Lately I've been thinking about, well, nothing. Except for:

waking up,
babies,
fixing lunches,
potty training,
picking up toys,
brushing hair,
eating vegetables,
going to bed.

If I wrote about that stuff, I would probably bore the socks right off you. Each boring word you read, your socks would ever so slowly inch themselves off your feet until your little piggies would be bare. So don't worry, I will not write about that type of stuff. You can keep your socks on. Except probably none of you are wearing socks since it's summer.

The end.

But I have still enjoyed reading other blogs because that helps me think about: something... anything. So thanks to you for writing.

The real end.

The day Addie almost gave herself a Bert unibrow

I would first like to say sorry for my whiny last post. I don't like to wish away any part of my babies lives but those first few weeks are tough. Thankfully things are getting better. I know when little Will is going to sleep and going to eat. I know that he is going to poop every 10 minutes. Everyone is getting used to the idea of having another person in the house. And Will is starting to smile. Why does seeing that little smile make me love this baby more and more? I don't know. It's like a little reward for all of the lack of sleep. It just makes it not matter anymore. Cause he's a cutie.


Anyway, right before I had my baby, I came upon Addie using my makeup. She was playing in the sink with her ponies.

No, it wasn't a good idea to leave my makeup right next to her toys. It's just that I had to have it out on the counter in case I had to rush to the hospital and Brian had to grab the necessities for me. If it were in the drawer, he would have no idea what to get.

She's seen me put on mascara many times but I guess she thought it was for eyebrows. I'm glad she didn't try for her lashes though. She could have lost an eye.

From 3 to 4

Whoever said four kids is the same level of hard as three kids -- LIED!! Four is so much harder. It's just pure chaos in this house lately. (Heh! - I just watched a little independent film the other day and they pronounced chaos with the hard ch like check. Ch-aos. It was funny to me. They said it like 20 times in the movie. Zach Galifianakis was in it. I think that's how his last name is spelled. Speaking of Zach, did you see his opening monologue on Saturday Night Live a few months ago? It was the best one I've seen in a long time. Seriously.)

Sorry. I went off on a tangent there.

Back to four kids. Maybe it's because my third was really easy since I had quite a space between her and the older two. Elli and Ben played really well together and were old enough to understand when I couldn't help them right away. Number four has come along and my 2 1/2 year old is freaking out. When the older two kids play with Addie everything moves along smoothly but there seems to be a new game in the house called "Tease The Little Sister And Don't Share Toys With Her And See How Many Times In A Day We Can Make Her Scream". It's not pleasant around here.

Today I got my hair cut (someone comes to my house to do it) and I had to bribe Elli and Ben with the promise of an ice cream cone to play nice with Addie while I was stuck in one place

1 - so she wouldn't be screaming and crying the whole time and
2 - so she wouldn't be "playing" with the baby. (She's a little rough.)

It worked (while the other person was here). But mostly, I think, cause my kids don't like to make a scene when someone that they don't know is in our house. But I can't be promising all kinds of ice creams just for a normal day can I?

So I guess if someone has 4 kids, each spaced 2 years apart then, yes, maybe going from 3 kids to 4 would be the same hard. Very hard.

I'm hoping that when school starts things will settle down a little. There won't be anyone here to play with Addie but there also won't be anyone here to tease Addie. Something lost - something gained. Then it might feel like I only have 2 kids. Whew. Until the homework starts. Then it will feel like I have 7 kids.

Not an alien

I had my little boy last Wednesday. A human boy.
His name is Will. Brian and I both have grandpas named William but we just decided on Will. Why just Will? Well, I have a 13 letter and 5 syllable last name. 13 letters! That's half the alphabet! So we like to keep the first names short and simple around here.

The kids are excited. Maybe a better word for how Addie is feeling is "indifferent" about it all.

But Ben is the most excited of all. He is so excited that he now has a brother to play Legos with. I told him he still has to wait a few years. Or seven years. He says he knows.

Oh and these little blankets are so cool. They're like mini straight-jackets made out of fleece and velcro. I know, it sounds so mean to bind them all up like this. But when one's flailing arms are the reason for waking oneself up from sleep then the best thing to do is to strap one's arms down.

I hope he takes on more of my side.

Are you ever worried about what your baby is going to look like before you have him? That he might be less than cute? Well I have a little bit of a reason to have this fear extra strong this time. No lie. This is a real ultrasound of my baby at 3 months along. I am totally not kidding.


I think I might be having an alien baby:

No offense to alien babies. I'm sure they're very cute. I mean, come on, just about everything baby is cute. (Especially baby shoes and baby chimpanzees.) But when aliens get bigger... I don't think they stay so cute. And that's where I worry. He'll probably be picked on growing up about his large diagonal eyes and over sized head. Who knows what color his skin will be!

Oh, my poor little boy/being.

I can only wait and see...

And hope and pray that he is of the human genus.

To the beach!

If you happen to see a beached whale at Bear Lake next week: DO NOT BE ALARMED! It's not one of those white Beluga whales that you've heard about. Those aren't very common around the northern part of Utah. It's just my 8 1/2 month pregnant self. The best thing to do is keep me doused with cool water to lessen the sunburn. You could also toss me some food. Maybe some Swedish Fish (mmm..). And maybe, when the tide comes in, you can gather a group of 20 people to inch me slowly toward the water.

Addison post

Even after 3 kids, I'm still amazed at how much a baby can learn in her 2 little years of being alive. The things she thinks up! I laugh several times a day at things she says.
She has already mastered the art of crossing her eyes. And she knows how to whistle. I'm pretty sure she's the youngest whistler in the world. (Probably not, but the youngest that I've ever met.)

The other day we were watching one of the Harry Potter movies. It was showing the returned Dark Lord. You know, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. What?! I'm not afraid to actually say his name, I mean it is just a story after all. It was Voldem-m.... Vol... come on, you all know who I'm talking about so what's the point in spelling it out for you? Anyway, the snake-like face came on the screen and I covered Addie's eyes and said,

"This might be too scary for you."

She peeked around my hand for a few seconds, then sat back and put her eyes behind my hand again and said,

"Yep. It's too scary."

During dinner, Brian was talking about someone saying they were a "Debbie Downer". Addie started laughing,

"Hahahaha, Debbie Downer, hahahaha..."

then she paused and said,

"What is Debbie Downer?"

When she wants to play a few minutes longer she counts on her fingers:

"Just one, two, free... W more minutes."

Her 3 little fingers look just like a W.

After doing a few flips on the ground she came and told me that she did a somersault and pepper.

Elli taught her the color 'aquamarine'. She is now always talking about 'auker-wauker green' things. Sometimes she even talks about 'auker-wauker purple'. I don't know what color that is, but it's pretty darn cute to hear her say it.

The Wild West

I live in an interesting little town. Dry hills above it, swamplands below. I think it used to be an old Indian burial ground. (That's just a rumor, but it makes my town sound more interesting.) There are a lot of kids on my street but sometimes when I'm outside it is very quiet and calm. Not a kid's voice in earshot. Every once in a while during these calm moments I see a black crow flying around. Cawing. I grew up about 12 miles north of where I live now and I don't remember seeing crows flying around. It feels so fairy tale-ish. Very unreal. I just have to stare at the huge bird with the strange voice and watch him fly and land on houses and fly again and land on light posts. I can't take my eyes off it. The caw is the only sound breaking the silence. What the...? Do I live long ago in a land far away or in Utah? Why do the crows like this area? There aren't many trees in the hills above. Maybe they nest in the swamplands.

Whenever I see a sagebrush roll across my path, I don't feel out of place. Utah is filled with the weed. But the thing about sagebrush rolling across a street is that it makes me laugh. I can't help it. Sometimes it's a "holy cow giggle" and sometimes it's a "no way roar". I just point and laugh. I think, "it's just like in the movies!" HAHAAA!

One time I drove over a big one that blew toward my car. Then I forgot that I drove over one. For the next few days my car made a strange sound. I thought I was having engine problems. It turns out, the sagebrush had just gotten stuck under my car and the stem was rubbing on my axle or something and making a weird sound. It was wedged in there good. After lots of prying and swearing* I pulled it out and told myself to dodge the next sagebrush that came blowing my car's way. That was not funny and I did not laugh.

*My swear words aren't normal swear words. My latest words when I get frustrated are "blog!" and sometimes "blogger!". I think they're spelled more like "blagh!" and "blagher!" but still.

Speaking of strange craft ideas...

Alright, no one was speaking about that but I sure got the subject changed didn't I?

Ben decided to make himself a gaggle of Cinnamon Toast Crunch guys. Or is it a "school" of Cinnamon Toast Crunch guys? I'm not so good with the groups of cereal terminology.

The one on the bottom left is folded over and stapled. That guy needed to be doubly thick for some reason.

Creative... yes, creative. But a little weird.

Kids' bath toys

As I was looking at the toys that my kids play with in the bath, I have noticed there are a lot of things that I would like to throw away.

First is some sort of box "toy" from a kids meal. I do not know, nor have I ever known, it's purpose. Why do I still have it? That's another thing that I don't know. I have thrown away another one just like it long ago but I guess this one wasn't in my sight that day or it would have had the same fate. Thank you Chick-fil-a for such a mind challenging "toy". It's sometimes used by the kids as a soap dish so I guess I don't mind not having soap scum form on the edge of the tub.

The next is the bottom part of a bubble container. The lid/wand part broke so it got thrown away. The bottom part is still good apparently so it is used for... holding water?

Moving along, we come to a half of an Easter egg. I'm not sure if this was added to the bath toys during last month's Easter or a different Easter. You know, like last year's Easter.

Then there are the tiny sponges. The ones that you "hatch" from the pellets in warm water. As soon as they are hatched I always wish that I could toss them right into the trash but they are a favorite bath toy for my kids. Let's just get it straight that these are "tiny" sponges. The only thing that could actually be cleaned with these miniature sponges is maybe a few fingernails. And we all know that my kids do not spend that kind of cleaning time on their nails. Maybe I should have them scrub the bathtub with a handful of these at a time. That would be a good use for them.

A gel mattress sample. Brought home from my husband's work. I guess there is a high demand for good mattresses in the flooring business. I do not know in what kind of ways this could fun be for my kids to play with in water.

Ohhh, I'm sure glad my children bathe in garbage.

Heavenly dance party

Today Addie and Ben were dancing as we listened to Lex de Azevedo's super 70's music on the album, "My Turn On Earth". It always reminds me of when I was little. I used to listen to this record all the time with my brothers and sisters. It's just so much fun. My favorite songs are "My Story" and "Where on Earth can I find Heaven?"

Spiritual music put to 70's harmonizing? Now that's what I call Heaven.

And a few shots of spiritual-jumpings-off-the-couch:

It kind of doesn't look like it but she really is in the air in this one.

Hook, line and sinker

If you go to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point, don't be lured in by the temporary food carts that are set up in the gardens. I was. I was lured by the thought of fresh cut fries and corn dogs. (They were out of hamburgers.) And they reeled me in with their strong clear line that was invisible to me. Me and Brian were about to get the kids meals right along with our kids since they were only $4.50 and the adult meals were $7.50 but then we noticed that the kids meals only came with chips and we wanted the fries. So we forked over the $6.00 extra dollars between us, I got a corn dog and Brian got chicken tenders.

It turns out that the adult chicken tenders are actually shaped like dinosaurs. Hmmm. That sounds like kids chicken tenders to me. They probably warmed the chicken and the corn dogs up in the microwave. The fries ended up being greasy tasteless strings of potato. Don't get me wrong, I like greasy at times, but tasteless greasy?! I do not like. Darn! I hate spending money on crappy food! We should have just gotten a light snack there and gone to a real food place after instead. Like JCW's. It's right outside the gardens! Now those are good fries. I always judge a food establishment by their fries. Even the Thanksgiving Point restaurant has good fries. Why, oh why didn't we go there instead! I will answer my own question. It's because it was already 1:00 and we still weren't all the way throught the gardens. We were hungry. And fresh fair-type food sounded good.

Learn from me and just get a snack and move along to some real food. I was blinded by the shine and glare of the spinner. Don't ask me why I'm using all of these terms. I don't even fish.

Live in the now, me!

I love history. I love looking at old black and white photographs and wondering what that person's life was like or if they were going through any hard times.

I'm always interested in hearing about how medical issues were dealt with ages ago - from a toothache to cancer. Or in biblical times if someone was mentally handicapped sometimes they were sent out of the city and forced to live on their own in a cave or some other shelter that they could find. Sad. Personally, I believe these are the "cave men" that have been found throughout time and paleontologists somehow think they are millions of years older than they really are.

I'm interested in hearing how hygiene was taken care of in other time periods. Like in the Elizabethan times people hated water. They thought it would cause sickness so they never bathed. Gross. They also thought that putting puppy pee on their faces would cure acne. Even grosser.

I think about history all the time. Sometimes when I say or hear someone say certain things, I immediately think about when someone has said that very thing before.

Like if I say "I just wish I had a nice pair of boots for church."
I picture a woman in the late 1800s saying the same thing.

Or if I hear "Did you hear that so-and-so lost his job?"
I picture someone saying the same, over the fence, in the 1930s.

When my little boy says "Do I have to go to school today? I don't want to!"
I picture a boy saying that to his mom in the 1950s.

When I see two friends hug after not seeing each other for a long time,
I think of friends finding each other circa 90 B.C. and it was a joyous reunion.

So you better watch what you say around me. I might be thinking of a little thing called "the past". And you don't want that to happen, do you? Do you?!

Does that plant have fur?

Yes and no. You are seeing fur here but it did not grow on the plant.

It's one of our kitty's favorite napping places. It's not one of our favorite though. He gets dirt stuck to him and around the plant as you can see on the window sill. One time he even knocked this very plant over onto the couch and floor. Lots of dirt everywhere. I always thought that cats were too small and nimble to do things like knock plants over. I thought that was something a pet dog would do. Now I know.

This is a much cleaner place for him to nap even if though a little strange. (Bathroom sink if you can't tell.)

At night he loves to snuggle. With me only. I don't know why he has chosen me as his snuggle buddy but he has. It's darn cute but it's a little annoying too. I have to move him away from me constantly. It's an all night battle. I feel bad because I want him to be snuggly but just not at 2 a.m.

I tried to make these pictures bigger but I'm not smart enough to figure that out. I think I just needed to draw it bigger. But why are the words so small?! Above is the "pillow hog sleeper"

And here is the "neck smother sleeper". It makes me feel like I'm wearing a vibrating wool scarf. (Vibrates from the purring.) It's a little too warm and a little too loud. If we close our door with him on the outside, he sits by our door and meows and I worry that he will wake everyone up. He's such a sweet little cat but we need to figure out a new plan soon.