Inspiring Individual

I think my happy marriage is great, because I can be inspired my husband.
Sunday it was snowing, my husband went next door to start shoveling the church lot with a small handful of other men.  He finished 5 minutes before church started, came home and showered after 45 minutes of service. He consequently showed up late to Elder's Quorum, we have church backwards.  A great day to show up late, since he is the Elder's Quorum secretary and they reorganized the Elder Quorum.  The Presidency all moved out of the ward this month except for the two secretaries. Once he showed up the Stake President said oh good the whole presidency is here now.  I asked Brent if he explained why he was late.  He said no, and with an aire of it doesn't matter, I'm square with my accountability I don't need excuses.  I wish I could be so humble.
I on the other hand, am having problems with pride.
I want to tell everyone I meet, I only live in apartment so we could save money and have my husband go to school without student loans.  Yes, that is not humble. I'm sick of the second year of student life, I mean the sixth year of student life.  Even-though I could hardly say this was like the undergrad, we live like kings in comparison.   I go through cycles, sometimes I totally accept our choices in life, other times I want to defend myself to people I don't even know, I don't know why I even care.

Thank you internet for functioning as my therapist, you are free!

Christmas Time is Here

Christmas time is here
Happiness and cheer
Fun for all that children call
Their favorite time of the year

Snowflakes in the air

Carols everywhere

Olden times and ancient rhymes

Of love and dreams to share

Sleigh bells in the air

Beauty everywhere

Yuletide by the fireside

And joyful memories there

Christmas time is here

We'll be drawing near

Oh, that we could always see

Such spirit through the year.

The kids have christmas sunday clothes, the tree is up, some nativities and other decorations are out, there is a foot of snow outside, and we have even watched three Christmas movies.  Of course Charlie Brown's Christmas, which is where those lyrics came from, but also Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, and the Little Drummer Boy (you know those old movies from the 60s with the puppets or clay or whatnot). Nan loves to hold the baby from the Nativities and suck her thumb, and when J took it away to set up for the picture, she cried, don't take her babies from her. Yes, that picture of the Nativity on the couch was all J's idea.  Oh and its true I rarely comb my son's hair.  I do comb my daughter's but it still looks like that.

Thanksgiving Pictures

If you want to see pictures of my family's thanksgiving, you have to go to my sister in law's blog.  Please go, you won't be disappointed, there are some stellar pictures of me and my crew.
I totally remember throwing my camera in my purse, but then once I got there it was gone.  Luckily I remember wrong, it was at home on my desk waiting for me to throw it in.

Thanksgiving Post

I tweeted that I wasn't going to do a obligatory thanksgiving post. Normally I do, because I want to record what I'm thankful for for posterity, in my blog book, but this year I chose a different venue.
I still want to say what I am most thankful for this year... that I'm not pregnant.
Let me explain.
All I could think about this thanksgiving was two years ago, when I was near the end of a very LONG pregnancy.  I was grateful to be pregnant, and that it was looking like it was going to be full term baby.  (You never really can fully appreciate a full term pregnancy unless you have a bad pregnancy, a preterm baby, a miscarriage, etc. I had the bad pregnancy that I was convinced was going to come early.)
So I was glad to be near the end of a long pregnancy, I was glad to be pregnant with my baby girl, but it was a very miserable holiday for me.  I had no room for any food in my stomach, and ate seconds, yes a bad decision. So I laid on the couch at my sister in law's, uncomfortable for the whole rest of the day wondering why I wasn't at home.  So I'm grateful, I am not pregnant.
I'm sure there are many who are grateful to be pregnant this holiday, but I was not one of them. I was glad to sit on a hard bench and snack and stuff my face, chatting pleasantly with my sister in laws.
I saw a extremely cute newborn today, she was one the cutest thing I've seen in a long time.  But boy was I grateful that it was just my stomach, I was feeding this holiday.
P.S. I wish I had some real cute thanksgiving day pictures to post, but instead I left my camera on my desk.  Maybe if I'm really lucky, Becky will email me some.

Oh what to do what to do

About once a week in the evening, Nan tells me she has to go potty, then climbs on and off the potty for at least 20 minutes if not more.  Refusing to put on diaper.  She has wanted to be potty trained since August, but with preschool I just haven't had time.  But we are on break, should I potty train her on Friday?
She wants it so badly, and even though I hate buying diapers, I don't think I'm ready.
I would much rather wait after vacation.  Does 2011 sound like a better time to potty train than 2010?
What to do, what to do?
The first time I potty trained, I woke up one morning and said tomorrow is the day, after I had all the supplies for months.  Now I have all the supplies, I'm just waiting for that morning, to think tomorrow is the day.  Do you think thanksgiving is the day I should wake up and say tomorrow is the day?
The other problem is even though she has been sitting on the potty since summer, she has never actually pottied in it, she has only once gone of the floor.  She has the badder of a mammoth.
I've never potty trained a small bladder, but I think small bladder kids pick it up easier because they have more practice.  But once the big bladder understands, then its great. As it my daughter only pees a few times in the morning, that means we have three accidents then nap time.

Juvenile Fiction

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved this book.  It made me miss Texas, and all the things Texan, like the peeling Crape Myrtles. I originally grabbed this book off the shelf at the library because the cover features a beautiful paper cut. Since it was the author's first novel the book does start off a little slow moving, but I quickly picks up the pace. The general premise of the book is about a girl named Callie Vee in 1899 who starts becoming fascinated with science, and the relationship she gains with her granddaddy, a retired cotton farmer, through scientific exploration. The author did a good job of making Callie relate-able and helping the reader get into her shoes. (At least I found her relate-able, I'm a middle child girl who grew up in Texas at the turn of a century, with a house of brothers.)

Here are the two quotes I like:
Granddaddy says to Callie, "The lesson for today is this: It is better to travel with hope on one's heart than to arrive in safety... (233).
The Callie pondering on the new century: "Part of me wanted our lives to go on as they always had, with all of us living together in our teeming old house.  The other part of me yearned for desperate and dramatic change, to leave Fentress far behind. ... Granddaddy had told me I could make whatever I wished of my life. Some day I believed him and other days I did not. (328).

But before I read about Callie I read this, it was shorter and I need something after the challenging child.  Did I post about that?

Me and the Pumpkin Queen by Marlane Kennedy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was a cute Juvenile Fiction book, I grabbed off the shelve while my kids picked out their story books. It was of course a fast read, I finished it in two sittings. Its about a little girl who has a desire to grow a giant pumpkin for the Circleville Pumpkin Show in Ohio. I won't tell you the ending, but the beginning is she wants to grow one after her mom prematurely passes away because her mom loved the show and always said
"maybe we could grow one". Cute book, especially if you were 10.


And since I just realized I never posted about this:
Alisa refered me to this book.
The Challenging Child: Understanding, Raising, and Enjoying the Five "Difficult" Types of Children by Stanley I. Greenspan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First off Alisa referred me to this book, because J's personality is not what they write parenting books about.  He isn't a challenging child, but he is definitely not the norm, and so I'm always worried he is overlooked, if that makes sense.  But I didn't need this book for J I need it for Nan. Nan is a challenging child.  Turned out to be helpful, for both though, because it turns out based on Greenspan's opinion J is not being bypassed, but in fact is excelling. Even with Nan being challenging, we are doing some right things according Greenspan, and we have implemented some more. We just need patience and edurance.  But I knew we were doing things right, because she is getting better, slowly. I also know we are doing things right because I have a mysterious blessing with Nan, with J I second guess everything we do, but with Nan I know when something is right for her, and when something is not.

But to the review of this book that I wrote on Goodreads:
This book was very long and boring, I thought it should have been half as long.  But it was extremely helpful and informative. It was one of the few helpful parenting books in my opinion, and I've read a lot of parenting books.  It has five different personalities, and explains how to help those personalities become more well-adjusted.  It was great to read because it turns out my daughter is Highly Sensitive child, and boy is she hard to care for because everything results in screaming. We can do no right in her life, everything we do makes her upset.  She often reacts with screaming, drooling, pulling her clothes, and complete jello state of melted toddler on the floor. It was such a relief to read the chapter about the Highly Sensitive child, and start implementing some action plans.  My son is the self absorbed child, and now after reading that chapter, I'm relieved to know he is actually very well adjusted for his age.  Although you shouldn't compare your children to others, after watching him in correspondence to other kids his age, is doing well with his imagination and his communication. Since we moved last year to a neighborhood with lots of kids, he has made great progress from a weird quiet self absorbed child, to one who interacts well with others, one who explores a vibrant imagination, and one who for his age is good at diffusing problems with friends. With all that said, I should do better about giving him 30 minutes of "floor time".  I give my daughter that time, but I'm not as good with unstructured time with my son. My husband and I are both inattentive children, and it was helpful to read that chapter to understand better some of our different quirks.  For example my husband was in the gifted program in elementary school, and since then has appeared "lazy" in college and high school.   Apparently that is a extremely normal. He isn't lazy the education system just makes a switch in between those years. While I still need to work at closing conversations, and completing thoughts. (We are both inattentive children but in different ways.)
After I read this book, I have to give my parents and in laws props.  As I read the book, some of the personalities were very much like some of my siblings (myself included), and my parents seemed to do a good job of teaching us to be well adjusted and less challenging.  While my in laws are extremely good at teaching kids to complete thoughts, questions why they complain, and have a full conversation that closes the complete thought.  I now realize after reading the book, that my husband (taught by his parents) has done a very good job of getting me to complete a conversation, especially when we were dating. Which has helped me be less inattentive.

Last Birthday Present

After my last two posts, I decided I wanted to buy my daughter one last birthday present, a book of babies showing feelings.  A quick amazon search showed they did not have exactly what I was looking for.  Then I realized I have more than enough picture of Nan showing all of the emotions.  I was just going to print them up in a quick flip book,  long story short, instead I went to ritzpix.com. Turns out they have some really great prices, for all you locals they are the national brand website for Inkley's.  So I just finished making Nan her own photo book with her own pictures of her being happy, sad, laughing, crying, etc, I got a 6x6, 20 page hardcover book for $8.50 including tax, that is ready in the store, a Monday only special. (You can do it any monday, shipping or pick up.)

I'm super excited, thats how much it would cost to buy a book with generic babies in it.  

To mention, you can make a photo book with all the scrapbook embellishments for that price, if you like that thing.

In my opinion its better printing then most photo sits. I got a metallic 8x10 print for under $10 including shipping a few weeks ago. (I know a photo of a photo in a frame doesn't turn out well. I let my son pick out the frame.)

No I'm not getting paid for this post, I'm just so excited for a inexpensive photo book, I hate spending $20+ on a photobook.  Plus its good quality printing.