Old Vacation

I never posted pictures from our vacation to Seattle for Christmas. Here are some family photos that were taken of us four.

January Blues

I have a tendency toward Seasonal Affective Disorder, so January is quite the blah month for me, (luckily this year hasn't been bad). I need holidays to keep me going through the cold dark months and January is void of such celebrations. Luckily Valentine's is a very busy week for us. To help up get there, my son and I made this:

We made the paper chain the second week of January, 40+ days is a lot of days for a almost 5 year old to count down, but yet he is diligent. Around June when J's cousin has his birthday, J wonders when his is, and he has a long count down, the end up summer, his mom's birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, his baby sister's birthday, Christmas, then after all that, comes Valentine's day, then his birthday. One problem its a month and half between those last two holidays. So we are waiting and dreaming...

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The ugly: I ran out of Say Yes to the Dress episodes and so I picked up Cake Boss the next one of my netflix instant queue.  I knew I couldn't make a cake like his, but I was in the mood to make at least something, I ended up making the ugliest cake I have ever made, I almost threw it out multiple times during the process.

The Bad:  The other day my 5 year old neighbor was over, I also happened to teach him at church, although he has subpar attendance.  Yesterday I asked in my best show excitement to a 5 year old voice, if he was going to come to primary tomorrow?! He said no, I think I'm going to be sick that day.  My heartbroke.  Really is that the legacy you want your children to learn?  Planning to be sick on Sunday? I tried to convince it would be super awesome, but he wanted to be sick. 

The Good:  I honestly can't remember what I was going to say.  So I have a few to replace the lost thought.

My daughter is doing so much better in church, but she still cries at least twice if not three times. But can actually be happy during church. We rarely take her out, because eventhough she is required to stay in a chair and not move if she comes out, she admits victory at leaving.  So yes we are that couple that holds a crying child on the pew.  We have no choice, I don't care if some judge.

In December we started reading the Book of Mormon with our kids instead of the cartoon books. It has been so fun to read about Nephi with J.  We originally planned one verse per person who can talk, three verses a night.  But J has gotten so into the story I often read him a whole chapter.  Although I'm sure our process will wain once we get to Second Nephi.

J is starting to read.  I was very scared the dyslexic mother in me, wouldn't be able to help him, but I'm so excited I'm not hindering him.  He is picking it up on his own so fast.  He often amazes me at what he read or wrote himself.  He is very close to being able to read books on  his own.  But still has a way to go, we are pushing phonetics, not memorizing plots.  More just reading words here and there, then "read" this book.

Best Friends

My daughter's best friend is blond just like her and born less than 24 hours after her.  They are so silly and girly together.  Sometimes they jump up and down screaming in glee at each other. Its quite humorous how silly and girly they can be. 

Her friend also has an older sister 20 months older than Nan.  So clearly they are also bestfriends.  Although it turns out the sister has a crush on J which was so funny.  J told me he wanted to be lonely.

But sadly Nan will be lonely.  These girls are moving next month, we'll miss them so much.

Less than a Month/Should use Bookmarks

This post is actually over due, my son's birthday is less than a month and I got planning to do.
First I was thinking a spiderman/pokemon theme because he is 5 and really what else is there in life than cartoons, and those are the only two he'll watch unless its educational.

But lately, wouldn't something be more fun if it wasn't licensed?
I was think....

          GOLD

Because golden is his very favorite color.  But maybe licensed is more fun?

Gold sprinkles on the cake eaten on gold paper plates

Gold Ribbons (#1 friend?... #5 Birthday) (golfer, these look like a good mold) 

Gold Gift bags

Treasure Chests?  

Gold Paper Latterns 

although all of this would require a lot of gold paper
Gold Crowns

I don't know maybe its not fun, maybe the artsy hippy blogger in me isn't really as cool as I think.  Sure I think I'm cool driving my subaru listening to classical music driving REI to do things like taking my kids snowshoeing and other such stuff.  But the problem with people like me we always think we are way cooler than we really are.  

Maybe spiderman cake is cooler.

I already have the spiderman cake and web already planned in my head.  But its always best to have multiple party ideas. 

You also may wonder why I don't use my bookmarks/favorites, because I lose links that way its much easier to search my blog and find everything.

Plans

Do you have plans for a year from now, two years from now, five years from now, 10?
I don't. I remember being a sophomore in college walking towards the New Engineering Building (is it still called that? its newer, but hardly new by now) and she telling me she didn't know where she would in five years.  I remembering thinking, mom you are talking to a sophomore in college who is engaged, I barely have a one year plan let alone a five year plan. If was concerned about my five year plan, I wouldn't have been engaged. My five year plan that I sent as a senior in high school crumbled all to pieces when I started dating my boyfriend, and I knew the minute I admitted I was dating him every piece of my plan would crumble, except for the get my bachelor degree in a timely manner. My mom continued say, that she had always had a five year plan and she didn't have one. This apparently was worrisome to her, in her defense, she had just recently sent her last baby to college and missed her beautiful, tall, delightful, intelligent children that she had spent almost every day for the last 33 years with. My mother now has a five year plan, and seven years have passed since that conversation, but yet it always pops back into my head, whenever anyone talks about their plans. (Hopefully I don't get in trouble for the story about my mom.)
Seriously how does anyone have a five year plan?
I can't even plan what I want for a year from now.  Seriously!  Seriously, I might say that too much.  I guess I still have a bit of growing up to do.
Back to the point, we aren't even a month into the year and I think my one year plan might have changed at least three times.
The closet my we ever got was planning to the MBA next year not now, back in 2008.  Then knowing we couldn't do anything drastic until he graduated.
I really don't know if I have any big plans?
Get a back yard and a driveway for my kids?
Thats what I want in less than 18 months, but I hate putting time limits on things because then if they don't happen I'll be disappointed
Yeah, when I gave up my original five year plan, I pretty much gave up all five year plans.  It was so hard to decided to give up everything I had planned for Brent, I don't really want to do that again.  Because I know I pick the better option, and my five year plan would have been pathetic in comparison, but it was like ripping out a part of me.  So I don't like to plan, I like to wander around in the dark, until I hear the voice, then plan excessively and act as soon as possible and let my relatives all wonder if I'm thinking clearly. But actually there is a method I like better.  Let my husband plan excessively, let my husband plan more excessively, wander in the darkness, and say, wait for it, now this, right now, here. And then there we are.  Is that weird, is that too personal, too much?  I'm feeling all blog confused and fickled lately.
So the question is what are you big plans?
Have any?
I loved your comments last time, don't you want to share some more!

Hair

I'm really quite sick of my hair, and planning to get it cut in the near future.  But I can't decide what to do with it, all you readers out there, that never comment will you once just for me tell me your opinion?  Even if I don't listen it doesn't mean I love you less. So here is my hair:

 I have spent a long time growing it out and once I saw my daughters birthday pictures I hated it.  I grew my hair out when I was 15-16 and then had a bad hair experiment and had cut it all off.  Then I grew it out 18-19 and cut it quite a bit at barely 20, and then really cut it off 20 and half.  Then I've pretty much been growing it out since my daughter was born.  I have dreams of getting it about two to three inches longer than it is, but always hate it when it gets to long and cut if off.  So I am cutting, and giving up on my goal, its just a bad goal for me. I'm try to decide to trim it three inches to a length I do enjoy or to cut it all off.  I am enjoying my pony tail, but other than that... not much currently.  Maybe I just need a trim and then I'll enjoy the length again, without all the split ends.  Last summer I really loved the pictures of my hair. But now, I'm bored.
When I look around at other styles the only ones I like are long or this, I really like this hair cut of kiera knightley,  we have different shaped heads though, so I keep putting my finger or her face to see what the just the hair looks like. I might just go crazy and cut off all my hair.
Or I might just trim four inches off.
I don't want to cut off all my hair and then look like I have matching hair cut with Nan.
What do you, my beloved readers think?
I think I might do it, and then if nothing else, my hair grows fairly quick, by Christmas it would be to at least my shoulders and in a pony tail, and in less than three years from the cut it could be back at the current length.  When talking to Teresa in the past my opinion has been its only hair, and hair grows back.

Old Notes

Years ago, I took notes from a church meeting on a scrap of paper in my purse.  I want to throw away the paper so I'm typing the notes here:

1. Don't feel guilty about what you don't do
2. Things that are important will always happen
3. waiting is a gift of downtime
4. revisit goals every month or day even
5. Give time off and have rewards when finished with a project
6. File things immediately
7. Ask what is the best use of my time

                 Success

By the way if you use an RSS reader, you are going to end up with a lot of old posts of mine.  I have a tendency to start posts and forget to publish, but some I want in my blog book, so feel free to read or skip.  Whatever, sorry if I clog up your RSS reader.

No good at Sabbatical

My family needed to be updated.

• Nan officially gave up her highchair booster seat, she still isn't tall enough but between a week of vacation without it, and her dad being gone for a week directly afterward freeing up his chair so she never sat in her chair.  It was officially over, she wouldn't touch the seat with a ten foot pole except when I took it off and she tried to put it back on.  She wasn't ready for the end of an era.  The seat has lifts and all though I would shake the food out from under it, I never wiped it.  Which in retrospect was a bad idea, it took a little chemical soaking and a pampered chef brown scrappy thing. I looked forward to the day she would out grow it for months, I was going to give it away afterward and it would be one less thing.  Then push came to shove and although I'm not planning any children for another year or so, I can finally dream about a baby in a year instead of dread it, so instead I threw the seat in the bath tub and scrubbed it down good.  I don't think its look so good since I pulled it out of the box, I definitely didn't clean it off that good after J grew out of it.  The real reason I kept it, is I'm cheap and didn't want to buy a new one in two years.  I knew I would be annoyed if I had to spend $15 on another.  Not to mention I like it because it doesn't have seams.  So Nan is officially highchair less, her pants are cleaner, but her shirts are messier.
• I've always been hesitant to put this in the family history, but it needs to be said so we can watch the signs in the future.  My son is a hoarder, but my husband and I try to keep it in order. He is always on the hunt for trash, and use to come out of the craft store with his pudgy little hands full of spilled beads and broken flowers, and lint buddies.  I allowed it to happen, because it was the garbage off the flower, he never once broke anything to collect.  He got stressed out enough this summer he started collecting lint again.  The last time he did it was when his sister was a newborn and crying all the time.  Today I realized he was stock piling newspapers under the craft desk.  He has multiple "treasure boxes" full of odds and ends, that I periodically "organize" to make room for the new.  Whenever he can't find something he blames me for throwing it away.  Although I dejunk plenty usually the item he is looking for is just misplaced, not thrown away. Although guilty as charged, J and my dad found out they have another thing in common other than being Logan babies, their mothers throw/threw away their toys.
• There is a chance we might move once my husband finishes school.  So we have been dreaming and looking at real estate some more. The positive thing is we would be in driving distance to all of our family except maybe three of my siblings. Although a move would obviously mean more travel time to Brent's siblings and parents, we would only be 9 hours away, but finally be close enough for some of my family.  Right now we are hoping for a promotion in a few months.  My husband and I both have senioritis and are both making mental wish lists and plans for graduation. Not to mention right now I often think, why do you even need to go to class, we are close enough to finishing right?
• My daughter perks up and becomes more pleasant during december, I guess with the constant flow of parities and presents with Christmas and her birthday, but then gets a bad case of post holiday blues come January.  She is on her third January, and always makes the rest of us miserable with her constant January screams.  I think she might be getting her 2 year old molars, but I haven't really stuck my fingers in to feel.
• She tripped in target the other day and face planted on a clothing rack foot, she has sad scratches on her face. Its sad.
• She sucks her thumb so much and its so dry and wintery that her thumb is red, crusty, cracked and flaky, it looks awful, and I'm sure it doesn't feel pleasant at all.
• J is learned to read and can sound out quite a few words, and is picking up quite a few sight words, but we are still a while away from independent reading, but its still very exciting and he is making great progress.  Over Christmas he said I need a piece of paper, I need to write cat.  He walked out of the hotel bedroom holding a hotel note pad, in which he had sounded out and wrote Cat, all by himself.
• Brent has worked two nights in a row on top of his normal 40 hours, needless to say is exhausted and looks exhausted and doesn't even bother changing out of his pajamas he is so tired. Remember he works at home. I feel bad for the poor guy but I'm glad he is willing to work so hard. 
• I think I have postpartum carpel tunnel.  Yes I do know that I'm not in postpartum. Carpel tunnel is a traditionally a work accident ailment, but in recent years it has been popping up more and more in new moms and even in other primary care givers of infants.  They think it has to do with the increase weight of babies these days.  Well my daughter is hardly a baby, but she is probably a 23 lbs now, something that many infants reach before age 1.  I didn't think it was related to her, until I tried to lift her out of her carseat today, and I almost dropped her from the pain in my hand/wrist. I'm going to have to come up with a new way to get her out of her carseat.  I must admit sometimes I dream about a new carseat for her, because it would be easier to get her out. I know I have such expensive taste, but her carseat doesn't expire for another two years so I'm sure we will not spend the money on a lower one. Although maybe my carpel tunnel comes from reading to much, I found it impossible to hold a book in my right hand today.  I guess I need to use my Nook, but I'm waiting for my cover, I don't want to ruin it. It clearly doesn't come from typing because it feels fine currently.

That is more than enough updates.

Reading not blogging

In all my spare time not blogging I've been reading JF.  Luckily they are quick to read.  But apparently I found not blogging so liberating I couldn't come up with a good review for a book I enjoyed. Both books were so fun I'm scared to read something else!

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought this book was cuter than the first.  But then again it had more of a love story and it had no cheese.  This book follows the story of the four Penderwicks sisters after their vacation after the come home and start school again.

The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon referred this book to me after I read The Penderwicks.  I got it because hello Willoughby!  Any Jane Austen/Children's Lit fan could not not get the book. It was my first Lois Lowry book, I'm ashamed to admit, but the time period most people read Lowry wasn't a good reading time for me in my life.  Maybe that's why I read Juvenile Fiction to make up for my dyslexia, maybe in two decades I can upgrade my reading choices. Back to the book, Lowry has a bit of a dark sense of humor in the book, and I wasn't really sure where it was going.  I was unsure about the book for most of it, but then by the end I loved it and I could appreciate the dark humor. Some dark humor I love, other is a little iffy. It all comes down to how talented the author is at dark humor, or if just comes off bitter. Lowry wrote out of talent not bitterness. The book is about four kids who decided they should be orphans based on all the great classic literature written about orphans.  That's another thing I like about this book.  I like when modern books reference classics. The book is very clear in telling you its about an old fashion family. Just to set the record straight this book has nothing to do with Sense and Sensibility, but it was the second children's book in a week I read with a reference.  Not to mention I love the cover.  

View all my reviews

I also love the outlines of the kids playing on the Penderwick books, I just stare at them and feel the cover with the palm of my hand like Meg Ryan does in You've Got Mail, and wonder how do I get a picture like that when my youngest unborn child starts running before J stops being a kid. By the way I think my oldest niece on my husband's side should read the Penderwick books because the oldest daughter sort of reminds me of my niece.  Sure my niece's mother is living, but they both have dark eyes and dark hair, and the oldest girl of a big family and oldest girls just get an unfair share of the burden of raising their younger siblings, so I thought she might relate. I kept picturing my niece with curly hair (it was weird), but if she does read the second someone should tell her she cannot date at 13.

January YA

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought this book was cuter than the first.  But then again it had more of a love story and it had no cheese.  This book follows the story of the four Penderwicks sisters after their vacation after the come home and start school again.

View all my reviews

The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amazon referred this book to me after I read The Penderwicks.  I got it because hello Willoughby!  Any Jane Austen/Children's Lit fan could not not get the book. It was my first Lois Lowry book, I'm ashamed to admit, but the time period most people read Lowry wasn't a good reading time for me in my life.  Maybe that's why I read Juvenile Fiction to make up for my dyslexia, maybe in two decades I can upgrade my reading choices. Back to the book, Lowry has a bit of a dark sense of humor in the book, and I wasn't really sure where it was going.  I was unsure about the book for most of it, but then by the end I loved it and I could appreciate the dark humor. Some dark humor I love, other is a little iffy. It all comes down to how talented the author is at dark humor, or if just comes off bitter. Lowry wrote out of talent not bitterness. The book is about four kids who decided they should be orphans based on all the great classic literature written about orphans.  That's another thing I like about this book.  I like when modern books reference classics. The book is very clear in telling you its about an old fashion family. Just to set the record straight this book has nothing to do with Sense and Sensibility, but it was the second children's book in a week I read with a reference.  Not to mention I love the cover.  

View all my reviews

Another Quote of the Day

J: We can't move far away.
Me: Why not?
j: Because all the stuff in the fridge will dry out.
Me: giggling, I think we'll throw out the stuff in the fridge if we move far away
J: But I like the ice cream, I want to move it, BAWL! Screaming and crying
Me: Don't worry we'll eat the ice cream first and buy new stuff once we move
J: Ok, I like the three flavor kind

I for the life of me can figure out who taught J to like neapolitan.
Before this he was talking about his bestfriend at preschool and their playdate tomorrow.  I thought he wouldn't want to leave him, but no he was concerned about the ice cream.  Do you think ice cream is code for friends?  In case you didn't catch that the quote of the day, is "all the stuff in the fridge will dry out".

Funny Story

We interrupt this sabbatical for a funny story.
We are driving home from preschool when my son asks, mom how do construction workers build big heavy things in the sky?
Me: I don't know, I'm not an engineer
J:  What are you then?
Me: A political scientist
J: What do you know then?
Me: I read the news, study politics, debate--
J interrupting:  I don't know what any of that means, what type of scientist are you again?
Me: A political scientist
J: What is political?
Me:  I study Politics
J: What are politics?
I proceeded to try to explain to him politics, but he isn't even 5 yet, so needless to say the conversation didn't go far.
I probably should have told him Political Science is a soft science, and I'm not a scientist at all, but I was enjoying my high horse, and am quite prideful about my college degree.  Not to mention he doesn't really understand the difference between soft and hard sciences.  Plus by the time we were out of the car, he was much more concerned about stomping ice then anything his mom ever studied in college.

Books of 2010

Its the cool thing to do in my husband's family to read a whole lot of books every year, like 50 or 100.  But I'm pretty sure most don't actually read that much, just the ones who try really hard to look cool. Since its so cool, I counted up how many books I read last year.  I didn't try hard to achieve a big number, I just read what I read when I wanted to read.  But I am super cool, because I got a great number without trying 25, when I include the Old Testament in the number, and Jehovah and the World of the Old Testament, a LDS reference book. Which I do include, because I read every chapter and page of the Old Testament and that is 1184 pages.  I didn't actually read all of the Jehovah and the World of the Old Testament, quit after about 350 pages because the chronologically got so screwy.  But that isn't the reference book's fault that would be King James's workers I guess.  But I still count it, and you would too if you saw the size of this reference book.  Actually now that I'm thinking about it, I read the Book of Mormon again this year with my husband, so I actually read 26 books this year, which is really cool because I'm 26. So I am really cool which is the moral of the story.
In other really coolness, Brent and I take about a year to read the Book of Mormon as a couple, and I know this because every Decemeber we end up reading 3rd Nephi which is really cool because December is Christmas, and 3rd Nephi is about Jesus's sign of his birth in the Americas and him coming to visit after his death.

 Here are my reviews for my most recent books.  As you can tell I did not list all 26 books, because over the past year I think all 26 books were reviewed on my blog.

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought this was a super cute book for kids.  A perfect book for a girl ages 8-14 probably, but I bet a boy who liked to read could enjoy it too, it is about a "very interesting boy".  It was predictable, but not too predictable, it was happily ever after, with not too perfect of a happy. It all worked out in the end, but not everything was perfect for everyone. It was just a good book about some sisters on summer vacation.  It falls under the archetypal of girls who's mother passed away, and a boy who never met his father. But no it does not end with the girls' dad and the boy's mother marrying, the book never even goes that direction, so it doesn't count as a spoiler.

I'm not quite sure what year this book counts for, I guess 2011.  I read 3/4 before Christmas but didn't finish because I was on vacation and didn't want to bring a library book out of town.
Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did because I think the author is so interesting.  I got this book after hearing an interview with Rushdie on NPR about Luka and the Fire of Life.  It was a fun adventure book, but I think there might have been a culture gap with some of the humor, and other points of the story.  It is an allegory about some of India's problems, and I'm embarrassed to say, I am not informed on India.  But I did enjoy the book and I would recommend it, the author wrote the book for his son when he was around 9. Maybe I'm just too far removed from a 9 year old boy.  Maybe my nephews would like it more.  Maybe their parents should see if they like it?  Not to mention even if I had a culture gap problem all the more reason to read another book by Rushdie or another author not from the Western World.  Although he is from the Western World now, he's lived in England for decades.
I didn't tell you anything about the plot want more info, here is wikipedia's post on it.  How about their article on the author.


View all my reviews

Number 3

I know I should be on sabbatical.  And I will have three posts published after my sabbatical post, but I typed them all up before I started sabbatical, and sometimes don't publish so timely.


Before christmas we watched all the Toy Story movies, J had never seen any of them, we got them from netflix.  Toy Story 1 is fine, but not on my top Disney movie list.  Brent and I share that opinion.  I enjoyed Toy Story 2 more than one, I actually kind of like 2.  Then we got Toy Story 3, none of us had seen it before.  The beginning was sort of sad, because I don't want my babies to grow up.  But then it was just weird.  I thought it had some really dark themes.  The movie actually gave me nightmares, I had nightmares about communist toys for a few nights, I was glad when my subconscious let go of it. I guess you all think I'm wierd now.

First Day of School

I was one of those kids that dreaded the first day of school.  Who would be my teachers, where would I sit, would I have friends in class, what would people think of my clothes, what about lunch, oh lunch what an awful part of the day until friends and routines were established.  The night before the first day of school was the worst, because you could no longer put off the inevitable, it was coming tomorrow.  Well I had one of those nights last Sunday.  I was dreading Christmas break to finish, I even suggested to my husband that we stay up all night in hopes it wouldn't come.  I wasn't serious, I was tired as all get out which is why I was so worried.
Primary had been miserable earlier in the day, church in general had been long, it started later which I wasn't trilled about, and then later in the day I totally stuck my foot in my mouth, and then pushed in as far as possible.  The first day of primary with a new class had not gone well, I was not happy about Christmas break being over.  In the morning, my husband was leaving on a week long business trip, and preschool was starting up again.  I wasn't ready for preschool again, although it was for the best that J had preschool while Brent was gone. But whoa was me, please Monday do not come.  I was feeling so terrible that eventhough I slept through the night, I had fit-full dreams, full of violence, embarrassment, confusion and more violence.  Did I mention violence?  I haven't had a violent dream in ages.
But luckily Monday came and went, and nothing was as bad as my Sunday night.

And as always this is posted later, because I don't post about my husband gone until he comes home.

Shoes

Clearly based on my last post, I was going a little nutty in life, especially when it comes to money.  I guess that is what $40,000 does to my mental budging.  That the total cost of my husband's MBA, I know its not the most expensive program out there, but still not cheap.

Well on Wednesday after I wrote that post the kids and I went out with some friends and we lost Nan's shoe, I was so furious, fuming for a long time.  But then with a few phone calls I tracked it down.  Once we found it I realized woah, I have gone psycho with my mental perception of money. I did a little writing therapy that night and realized where I've gone wrong and what I need to do to fix my thoughts.  

The long and short of all of this, is I think a need a blog sabbatical. I need an internet cleanse.  Although I find it oddly liberating to hang my dirty laundry out for all the world I need some personal journal writing therapy not post for the whole world wide web therapy. Maybe when I come back I'll have switched blogs.  I think I need to re-invent my blog. I don't want therapy blog, I also don't like have political posts anymore, even though I loved those when I started.  Maybe its time to go truly to a mommy blog/family blog.  I won't go away forever.  Just a week or a month or long or something shorter. Maybe I'll blame it on Shannon for her Jess post, but that wouldn't be fair. I've been thinking about it for a while that I need to get back to personal pen on paper for my personal posts. Until next time.

A few money things about me

A few things about me:

• I use to love buying things, I loved walking out the store with bags of new things, now when I buy stuff I feel guilty.
• I want to upgrade to blu rays on Netflix but I'm having a hard time justifying the extra $2.  But they are so nice looking on my tv, and I don't pay for cable.
• About once a year I get the itch to buy new carseats, my husband stomps that out, he has no need to buy new carseats.  Why I do is beyond me?
• Whenever my husband shows me something he wants, I say, if you think we can afford it, get it.  Then when he doesn't buy it I feel bad, and wonder if I should buy it for him.  I don't buy it for him.  Unless I say no, before he finishes his sentence.
• I don't like people buying my family stuff, I like to feel independent, but then when I hear about people who never have to buy stuff for their kids because other people do, I think that is really awesome.  
• I think I had decided to adopt my cousin in law's budget of $40 a month for crafts, some months I spend more some I spend less.  I want to be a budget so $40 is my cap, if I don't spend it, it doesn't roll over. 
• I have a lot of things I want to save up for, so that is why the neflix $2 extra is hard.
• I am tore between thinking I deserve to dress fashionable and thinking my life will survive quite fine if I go without out.  Think the conference talk about the father who went without a new suit so he could send his son a mission, and the mother who got a part time job.  Ok, so I'm not saving to put my son on a mission, but a little doing without never hurt anyone.
• I don't have a full time job, or a part time job.  Sometimes I consider it, but right now, its a wrong time.  I know all about jobs stay at home mom's have, but right now I that is not my stage of life.  Maybe some day.  
• I always tell my husband I'm going to tape a picture of what we are saving up for on my wallet, so I'm less likely to pull out my credit card.  But like I said sometimes I think I deserve what I want to buy.  I'm always torn between a deserving conceit and guilt.  I think I need to find a middle ground.
• Sometimes I get mad at my children if they break a toy I just spent money on.  Even though my children't would never purposely break something.  I hate spending money on something that turns out to be junk.
• That is one of my fears in life wasting my money.
• My dream is to be as cool as the cow gravy boat giver guy, that doesn't mean anything to any of you, other than my husband.
• I often wonder how many times my husband and I are going to talk to real estate agents, and mortgage brokers, before we decided houses have dropped enough in price.  We are currently not talking to any, I just wonder so far we are up to three times.  Thank goodness we have always left our agents high and dry, and we are not underwater.
• One of my brothers use to always ask me if he had a ton in savings, since we were cheap or frugal.  I said no, we didn't. I'm not convince not spending gets you any closer to anything.  I always feel broke, and people that spend never seem to feel broke.

Bragging About My Baby Girl

This is my blog so sometimes I get to brag.  I think my daughter is a rock star right now because she is fulfilling requirements of a 4 year old in preschool. She sits on the ground puts her baby next to her, and "reads" her baby books. She knows that the words on the page make up the story, and drags her finger along the words making baby babble.  (Since baby babble is still her primary verbal communication.) I know that any child that is read to often knows the story comes from the text, so its really not that amazing.  But I'm still proud that my 2 year and 3 week old knows one of the requirements for an almost 5 year old.
In other cuteness, I tell her multiple times a day what a pretty girl she is.  (Its my coping mechanism to get through the fits, tantrums, screams and cries. I actually find the terrible two tantrums enjoyable because they are weak sauce to her previous aged tantrums and screams, and she as good times of the day now, instead of just whines.) But back to the cuteness, today we were looking in the mirror together, and I once again said what a pretty girl you are.  Then I squished our cheeks together and said look how cute we are?  She said, "Yeaahhh!" Then I asked who is prettier, Nan or Mom?  She said, "Mommy!"  Ha Ha, how awesome is she.  It was nice to have a pick me up this morning, because I had a rough night.  My kids slept through the night, but the same could not be said for me.  Luckily my husband's pillow smells all type of wonderful like him.
I would like to  post a super cute picture of my daughter on this post, but I'm out of space, which is the reason I need to switch blogs.  Which also be the reason I'm not posting about my recent vacation.

Heart Healthy

You know how some cereal boxes and other things say "Heart Healthy"  well I've never really thought about any of that.  I am in good health so I don't care about those things.  Until we went to Seattle for a week, and we didn't eat much homemade food, I ate waffles everyday all week for breakfast, and we went to Fast Food almost everyday for lunch.  As the week progressed, I felt worse and worse.  I started to crave homemade food, like anytime you are on vacation for a week. I dreamed of cooked wheat, whole grains, all natural food that hasn't been processed in a factory and bought at a store.  Not to mention, I started to get shortness of breath, and lose of stamina, yes after only a week.  Now some might wonder if I maybe not be in good health if that happened after only a week.  Who knows maybe not, but as long as I eat right I feel fine, so long story short I'm happy to be home, and eat heart healthy food.  Luckily I naturally eat heart healthy food, because I get sick when I eat junk food.  Honestly I have no idea how people eat out all the time, eat processed packaged food and lots of fats and sugars, because honestly it makes me feel so yucky.

Being a Poser

First off you can tell I was a kid/teenager in the 90s because I still use the term poser.
In a recent TIME issue they had an article about Mark Zuckerberg you know the facebook founder.  The article says on his facebook page he has "eliminating desire" which comes from the Buddhist phrase "Eliminating desire for all that doesn't really matter."  I really liked that Buddhist phrase and have been thinking about it for days.  I think I want to try to incorporate in my life.  Without knowing that phrase I've been trying to incorporate it in my life.  Am I the only one that goes to run errands and get overwhelmed at the amount of stores in the strip mall, and the amount of stuff there is to buy?  But then gets frustrated when you can't actually find what you are looking for?  I often find myself overwhelmed with our Nation's consumerism but then yet I always want to go buy new stuff.  Its terrible, I work really hard at not buying just anything, and not bring more into my house than is going out.  Overall I overthink it all, and I should be trying to eliminate my desires for uselessness and stuff.
But I'm terrible at that, because sometimes I really love that feeling of buying new stuff. In my opinion other than over-thinking everything, getting a high from new stuff is one of my worst traits.

Two last things, about the article. The article explained the progression of the Internet, which I found quite useful, and helped me understand Tron Legacy better. We went to go see it in 3D for anniversary, it cost $29 for our tickets, and I almost had a heart attack. We also went hot tubbing, which was fun, it was very cold outside and sprinkling in that Seattle rain way, but the water was plenty warm.
Last piece from the article, it said, "Zuckerberg is part of the last generation of human beings who will remember life before the Internet, though only just. He was born in 1984 " I too was born in 84, so I sort of feel like a failure for not inventing something like facebook.  But the point of that quote is, that is my claim to fame, the last generation of human beings who remember life before the Internet.  Yes, I remember getting AOL as a kid, I remember having no internet after my parents canceled AOL, I remember getting comcast cable internet before any of my friends.  One of the coolest things about my father is we were always up on the technology.  I never remember not having a computer in our house but I remember getting the internet, that is my claim to fame.  I also remember when we got the original iMac. Lets just say we were cool, cable internet and an iMac. Which back to my anniversary and husband is why Brent and I are perfect for each other.  I hate slow computers, slow internet, and bad screen quality.  Brent is always upgrading our computers, we always have at least one computer per person in our house, and we have fast internet. Not to mention I really love watching Blu-rays on our super nice TV.

Lots to Say?

I'm pretty sure I'd have lots to say if I knew what was going on in my mind.  But I'm not quite sure what I'm thinking, and what I want to share.  My husband only has two semesters left of school, hooray!  We have been lucky its been quite terrible, but not as bad as it could be.  We heard we wouldn't see him for two years, we see him all the time, and the terrible parts were really actually from me getting depressed last winter not from school. But I digress (do I sound like a blogger?) My husband is almost done so we are dreaming and scheming in ways I wouldn't have even dreamt possible.  I can see the end of the tunnel.  But what else is there to say?

That primary was miserable today?  Who's idea was it to get rid of opening exercises?  Why would we want to length the rest of primary by 20 minutes? But we will survive. Speaking of primary I'm not quite sure how my boy isn't a sunbeam anymore?  Remember when sunbeams became stars?  That was a kinder gentler world, sunbeam to CTR thats just too fast.

And since I haven't said anything here is a picture of me and my family in Seattle, its good to be home from vacation, no matter how fun it is. We have only been home for two days but yet we have done a mammoth amount of stuff, and I'm just slightly overwhelmed about the upcoming week. But I do adore my family. And since its the new year, I will say I'm in such a happier place this year then I was last.  Last year started miserable, I got very depressed, but I ended the summer and into fall on a high note, and so now I can be excited for a new year. Since I'm saying a whole lot for saying nothing at all, I will say from time to time I wonder why I still blog, but I'm so addicted to reading all about your lives on Google Reader I can't quit in fear you might quit.