First Day of Joy School

Today was the first day of Joy School, Nan had been looking forward to for the last week, actually the entire summer.  She was so excited to go to "her school" and have a backpack to wear just like J. 

She seems so young to me for school.  Probably because she is!  She is only two and half, but she has decided she needs it, so luckily we have friends we are obliging, all the rest of the girls are already three. I kind of wish we had one more year of no scheduling for her, but she has convinced me and I know this will be for the best for her.  She loves school.  I stayed and shadowed the class today, I wasn't sure if I could teach two hours of Joy School, why I was unsure I have no idea, I teach two hours of three year olds every week in church.  Anyway, Nan did great if I do say so myself, but she has more experience than most of the girls in class since she did group speech therapy last spring. Eventhough none of the mom's are trained speech therapy I'm hoping the social interaction well help her speech to continue to improve. She is in class two days a week, with five little girls total. I teach one week every five weeks, and then assist another week.  So two mornings a week for three weeks at I time I will be childless.  I don't know what I'm going to do with myself! I guess go to the dentist and all that stuff.
It makes me sad that my babies are all in school, but I'm glad they have the social interaction, and that I do too.  I love seeing the mom's at Joy School, and seeing the mom's at Kindergarten pick up.  Its so fun.

P.S. I love living here.

Update on Homeownership

Update on Homeownership:

• There is no grass in the xeriscaping (rocks) in my front yard, and have been wearing a bandaid on my hand for the last three days from a popped blister. But boy is my xeriscaping beautiful, don't believe me, ask my neighbor, Ms. Mary. If we are lucky the xeriscaping on the side of the house, will be beautiful by next time this week.
• My garage door is broken, there is a gigantic spring on front top of garage doors, it popped broken.  I didn't have a car for two days because it was trapped inside.  Finally when the repairman said he was late and couldn't come until 6 pm on  Friday, Brent said let's reschedule on monday, and so we manually opened the door to free old subaru-y. After calling around and getting a lot of answering machines, I decided to cut my losses and take the $140 bid, after hearing the $260 bid. No my home warranty does not cover it. Blah.
• My two year old now has a big girl bed (twin mattress) but it is hiding in the garage until next weekend.
• My dryer is very loud and squeaky and probably needs someone to look at it.

Needless to say, we are house poor and broke.
But in case we aren't having enough fun, we are thinking about reseeding our grass.
Did you know I absolutely love living here?  Because I do, I never want to leave.  Although one day my husband does want to upgrade to a large than a quarter acre property lines.

Did I mention I have shin splints?  The walk to kindergarten and back, twice a day is getting to me.  Pushing the stroller up the steep hill twice a day is gets rough.  But in good news, I'm walking over three miles a day.

Growing up

You know how old people always talk about how one day you'll miss the toys everywhere?
I don't know if I believe them, to clean the house and it stays clean seems like a dream... ahh.. dreams...
But I've been feeling a little emotional about my kids growing up.  I have a kindergarten, and both children wearing underwear.  I have no baby! No body will be wearing a onesies next summer! Few things are as great as a baby in the summer wearing a onesie without pants.
Well today, I've been quite busy, and so there are toys everywhere!  I was putting away laundry, and every room upstairs including our master had toys littering the floors.  It honestly made me sad, thinking about one day when I'm old, when my children are growing up, and toys are no longer on the floor.  Sad day, why do children have to grow up, can't they just stop crying, and stop peeing their pants, but stay little?


Here is another sad thing.  My daughter will essentially be in school from the age of 2.  She was in speech therapy last year, that we called school, and it piked her interest.  She is a social butterfly and loves loves school.  So we are doing Joy School this year, and hopefully next year, and then maybe pre-k, something that year, then kindergarten. Speech therapy piked her interest, and she WANTS to be in school so bad.  It makes her sad that J goes to school without her.  I kind of wish we had more time without school for her, even if is only Joy School, but she needs it.

A month

Its a month until my birthday!
I really haven't been planning much this year.  I don't know if that means I'm growing up, or house poor.
I assume I already got my present from my husband, this computer desk I'm typing at.
But I would also love to paint our bedroom, and finish it up, ie hang the curtains, get lamps, hang some wall art.  But that is now getting pricey, and winter is approaching-- we want new winter coats, and I want new boots.
My coat is starting to get cold, its nine years old, and my boots leaks. So other than painting my room, and hanging the curtains I'll put the rest off.
I did tell my husband to take my kids down to Sam's and pick out a cupcake/cake combo for my birthday.  Plus he said their orange chicken.  When we came out to buy our house we ate at PF Chang's, and I told my husband maybe this should be my yearly birthday date.  Well he decided he liked Sam's orange chicken better, and hes right that I would rather spend the other $40 on the house, than dinner out.  Anyway, we'll see what my birthday brings me.

Modesty

Yet another reason to modest, and not wear spaghetti straps. A few weeks ago, Brent and I were at his graduation dinner, as you walked in they gave you name tags.  We talked with many people that night, a few were females wearing very thin strapped tank tops.  I watched one of put on her sticker name tag, she didn't know what to do with it, eventually she did what the other females with tank tops did, they put it on their skin.  I saw another one fidget with the sticker, it looked terribly uncomfortable. I was grateful to have a full coverage shirt on. I wasn't so grateful to have long pants on, it was miserably hot, a skirt would have been preferable.

Talks that Spoke to Me

This month's Ensign (Aug 2011) there is a talk by L. Tom Perry.  He quotes Spencer W. Kimball a few times, and they are great quotes.

In contrast to this secular lifestyle, President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) taught us the importance of seeking knowledge from God:
“In proper sequence, first comes the knowledge of God and his program, which is the way to eternal life, and then comes the knowledge of the secular things, which is also very important. …
“... Mortality is the time to learn first of God and the gospel and to perform the ordinances. After our feet are set firmly on the path to eternal life we can amass more knowledge of the secular things. …
“Secular knowledge, important as it may be, can never save a soul nor open the celestial kingdom nor create a world nor make a man a god, but it can be most helpful to that man who, placing first things first, has found the way to eternal life and who can now bring into play all knowledge to be his tool and servant.”

That quote was good, and I know when I was getting my bachelors degree I always had time for my homework as long as I studied my scriptures first and attended the temple regularly. While Brent was doing his MBA, he decided to read the entire LDS standard works in a year, once he did that he seemed to have the time to meet all his obligations.  Work was such a mess, homework was getting done, and the kids and I were finally getting some attention.  But the quote I loved was this:

President Kimball reminded us of the importance of consistent scripture reading when he said: “I find that when I get casual in my relationships with divinity and when it seems that … no divine voice is speaking, that I am far, far away. If I immerse myself in the scriptures the distance narrows and the spirituality returns.”

I just love it.  A few weeks before that I read that talk I read, Boyd K Packer's May 2011 Conference Talk, and I've been thinking about it ever since. I love the first paragraph.

It has been 400 years since the publication of the King James Bible, with significant contributions from William Tyndale, a great hero in my eyes. The clergy did not want the Bible published in common English. They hounded Tyndale from place to place. He said to them, “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scripture than thou.” 

As President Packer said that is has been fulfilled ten fold, by ever child who reads the Book of Mormon and Bible, but I was more thinking of Joseph Smith when I first read it.
The whole talk was good in my opinion, and inspired me I marked it all up in my magazine, but I've also dwell on the last paragraph.

If you are carrying some burden, forget it, let it alone. Do a lot of forgiving and a little repenting, and you will be visited by the Spirit of the Holy Ghost and confirmed by the testimony that you did not know existed.

I think maybe I'm always thinking about forgiveness.  My husband is a master at forgetting and forgiving.  His ability to forgive is always inspiring to me. I'm the opposite I love to hold grudges, to hold on to them until the fester and grow.  But between my husband's righteous example, and my father's wise counsel when I was a teenager I'm learning the blessing of forgiving and forgetting.  I remember my dad teaching me, "what does this have to do with your relationship with the Lord?"  Inevitably the answer is nothing, and with that knowledge you can move on your spirituality.

Club member

Years ago we bought our tires at Sam's so we of course bought the membership.  Back in January I decided we weren't saving any money going to Sam's, because who ever walks out without spending at least $100.  Sometimes I can get out with only giving them $60.  Then we bought a house three months later, so it seemed no big deal not to go to Sam's I was trying to use what I had, not stock up. Since our move, there has been a few times in the last few months, I've thought what? where am I going to buy my bulk kleenex or my trash bags. Not to mention the orange chicken, we love Sam's frozen orange chicken.  In fact a year or so ago we thought about trying out Cosco, it was closer than Sam's so we borrowed a card, and bought stuff checked out the prices, it was bigger than our Sams, but the orange chicken was terrible, so we said forget it.
But like I said there was only three things I wish I had my Sams card, oh and paper towels, so I figure life would go on.  I was working on the orange chicken we hadn't found any frozen orange chicken we liked at Walmart yet, but we still had another four brands to go, and we have two other grocery stores in town I figured eventually we could find something.
Then last week my husband got a nail in his tire, it wasn't flat but it did need to be replaced.  So signed back up, we are now proud card carrying Sam's club members.  Again.  Guess what, we spent more than $100, in our first visit.  But at least we had good tasting orange chicken again, its the first time in six months.
I don't know how I feel about myself anymore, I was kind of feeling smug for pushing of the shackles of the club membership.  Now I've bought back into the man.

First Day of Kindergarten

Our first day of Kindergarten started at 5:30 am.  J came in our room and told us he couldn't sleep.  We all cuddled together for the next hour or so, sleeping on and off.  I seem to remember my husband telling him he was not allow to talk if he was in our bed.  I honestly have no idea what time my husband wakes up, somewhere between 6:30-6:45ish maybe a few minutes later some mornings.  At 7:30 J and I got out of bed, its best to give him a full hour to get ready.  School starts at 8:55, but we needed to leave at 8:30 because we walked. I'm glad we walked, it took us 20 minutes with Nan in the stroller.  Its about three quarters of a mile.  Lots of parents were walking their children, but even more were driving.  (They cut bus routes this year, with budget cuts.) I was glad we walked so we wouldn't be in the traffic.  As we started to join more people walking their children, I had to try to not get emotional.  Kindergarten is way different than preschool!  

 Everything went well, I didn't want to be late, and we were there early, J ran part of the way out of excitement I think. That is J's teacher on the left.  The surreal moment was when the kindergartens went inside, and Nan and I started walking home.  There we were in a large group of parents walking home childless.  My mom use to walk us to and from school, I never once realized she had to walk to get there.  It was weird.  It is weird to be a parent of a elementary school kid, his school reminded me so much of my old elementary school.

Kindergarten went great for him.  But poor two year old sister was beside herself in grief all morning, mourning the loss of her favorite person. At one point she was about to drive me over the edge with whining, I asked what is wrong, why are you so upset?  She looked at me and said "miss Osh!" But he came home and all was well.  She can't wait to start Joyschool next week.

I love my church

Now you are expecting some spiritual reason, this is not the post.  I love it because of all the instant friends.  We went to meet the teacher this afternoon.  We met the kindergarten teacher, and J already knows four kids in his class!  We only moved here four months ago, and he knows four kids before the first day of school.  That is just so awesome!  Not to mention as we walked around the school, we ran into familiar face after familiar face. I love that we only moved here four months ago and we already knew so much of the community.  I think I talked to at least five other families I go to church with, that aren't in J's class.   I love that we have only lived here four months and I ran into nine different people who were happy to see me. Actually ten, I forgot about the tenth.

My Son

He starts Kindergarten tomorrow.  Well actually Tuesday, Monday is the open house in the afternoon.
He is so excited.
He has been talking about it for the last four months, he can't wait to meet his new friends, and asks me if I know what they will be like.
I'm not quite sure what happened to the last five years.

My daughter

Would you like to hear about my daughter?  I thought you would.

• She is very emotional, which we knew from before day one. It is sometimes good and sometimes wearing.
• She is enjoying her new found maturity of potty training, but she loved all the attention so much she has become very clingy.
• She kicked me in the eye during church, that was pretty awesome. Not!
• She was accident free during church, went twice during the almost four hours.  (We got there a half an hour early for a soft pew, and left a half an hour late because we had lots to business to talk to everyone about.)
• Church was the only successful time concerning her underwear.  That's not true at the end of the day, she actually told us she had to go. I'm still telling her when to go, its only been three weeks.
• She will be a sunbeam next year.  Most of the soon-to-be sunbeams are in the same nursery class, she is not, we have three nursery classes in our ward.  I really don't care where she is, but I just didn't know if they knew how old she is since we moved into the ward this spring. (I have sunbeams who I only know their names no birthdays because they are new-ish.) I asked the Nursery leader about it, she said I know she is about to be, but the three year old class already has 12 kids in it, I need to add the last three but I just don't have the space.  Plus her class only had 5 in it today... I'm getting there, I'm just not there yet, I promise by October I'll have her switched.  I said oh don't worry she'll be fine, I'm honestly not concerned I was just wondering.  She said no, I'm aware.  She also mentioned some of the kids aren't quite ready for the three year old class.  She said they are still learning to stay seated in their chair which I need for the three year old class, the older class plays with toys less.  I said is she one that needs to help in those areas?  She said no actually she is ready, she is just the youngest.  I said ok, that's fine.  I'm really not concerned in the slightest, she loves Nursery, so I'm not worried at all.  I was just checking, its nice to hear good things about my daughter. Some children you try modestly say thank you when someone complements them, others like my daughter, you are sincerely grateful to hear compliments, it makes life a little less trying.
• In case you didn't do the math, that is 15 sunbeams next year.  That means two sunbeam classes.  I was wondering if I'm still a sunbeam teacher, would I want to teach my daughter?  I've always been adamant that I won't teach J in primary, in SLC I was suppose to teach him, and I told the president no. (That would have been toxic, and you have to stop toxic immediately.)  I mentioned it to Brent, we discussed it for a minute one whether I would want to teacher her.  I thought it might be fun, she has a drastically different personality.  In the end I realized she would excel with someone else, but come January I'll let the president make the choice. 
• Its funny how drastically different my children's personalities are.  
• My son and daughter have a lot of friends, who are siblings.  But the interesting thing is, since they are three years apart, my son is always the oldest of his friends by a few months and my daughter is always the youngest by a few months, if they both have friends from the same family that are siblings. 
• In close she is an excellent napper and sleeper.  Napping was an acquired skill, but she has always been good at sleeping at night, its been a much needed blessing in our life.

More House

Do you notice something?  No?  

Exactly the point! 

A few Saturdays ago, the kids and I were gone all day, and I came home to this!

It was amazing, while we were gone, Brent put all the TV wires inside the wall!
It was a like a mother's day miracle.  Except it wasn't mother's day. (You would have had to be there to understand.)

New Blankets

I bought the kids new blankets.  This is all very exciting to me, because we rarely buy new blankets in the house.  Homemade, or no made. I have never even bought a new blanket for my bed, my mom did buy me a duvet cover that I picked out for my birthday year or two ago, but other than that nothing.  If you recall, I mentioned I wanted to make a new blanket for my son.  Then I got a thinking and, I thought hmm, if I could find a blanket on sale for him, that it would be cheaper than buying the material and it would be a lot faster.

But I got distracted and had to buy this for my daughter even though she doesn't have a big girl bed yet, because it is perfect for her room, with the hot pink which she calls red, and the green accents. Eventhough she doesn't have a bed yet, I decided to buy it now, because it was on sale, but we didn't get a sham.

 Luckily right after I bought that for my daughter, we found this on clearance for my son.  He wanted an orange comforter, and this is reversible orange on the back side. We bought it and I know he was excited about the orange, but who knows his real feeling because when I asked him he said, *sign* its fine.  He is such a boy! I firmly replied do you like or not? He responded all put out, yes. We did get a sham, he was trilled, and I was surprised.

On a last note, since I mentioned duvet covers, I hate the movement towards them.  Its such a rip off, they aren't any cheaper that a comforter and then up being twice the price because you have to add the insert.  We didn't get the inner blanket thing for our queen duvet, we just used our old handme down comforter.  Yeah, we're cool like that.

Here is the question when we get a big girl bed for my daughter what do we do with the crib?  There is no logical reason to keep it up, I'm not pregnant, but it does come in handy once in a while.  The other day my friend put her baby to nap while we chatted.

Probably the end

This is probably the end of the potty training posts.  Number two was so uneventful in comparison to three years ago. She has made a lot of progress since day one.  I'd pretty much say she is potty trained, plus she no longer goes in the kitchen.

Sure we are going to have 10 million accidents between here and her third birthday but she is potty trained.  She goes when she wakes up, and I still set the timer, and every hour she sits on the potty and about every other time she pees.  She knows how to sit on the potty and pee so that is good, because I don't think she figured it out until Saturday and we started on last Monday.  But I know my daughter's personality, and I knew once she figured it out she be done.  We can leave the house for about two hours and we stays dry while we are gone. Her diaper is dry after naps, but not during the night.  She doesn't need a diaper for naps, but since she is a crib, I decided better safe than sorry. She goes potty at church, she can sit on a big toilet all by herself, but she of course has no desire to leave Nursery to try and go, and so she had a pull up on.  I put pull ups on her when we run errands because I hate cleaning up pee in the grocery store, but I do the same thing I did with her brother and that is keep their underwear on under the pull up so its uncomfortable if they do have an accident. She doesn't care about potty treats, which is awesome since my five year old still asks for them!  He has been asking for the last 3 years! She stopped caring about potty treats on Friday, and the only thing she ever REALLY cared about was lip gloss not candy.  She was furious if I wouldn't let her put it on when she had an accident.  Which is why I bought the lip gloss because I knew she would like it better than candy.  Now she doesn't even care about that after she goes potty.
Overall its been way less painful, but its been super nice to have a husband home by 5, and almost completely take over parenting her.  Its been so helpful, since last time for some reason I potty trained my child while Brent was camping.
Nan only held her breath once during training, causing her to fall off the toilet so its been pretty painless.  Mind you I was still beside myself with grief from potty training for the past week, but it could have been worse.  She has no need of her little potty, but it scared me to watch her turn herself purple while crying and fall off the big toilet, so the little potty is still around for her to choose. Ever since she passed out crying on vacation she has figured out how to turn herself purple might quick.  Its so weird, she has held her breath crying since the day she was born, but it has only been in the past month, she makes herself turn purple when she holds her breath.

Father's Day

I'm a little behind in my blogging, can't you tell?  The weekend following my dad, Brent moved in. Which happened to be father's day weekend. It was kind of funny we were separated between mother's day, and father's day. I also realized I would rather, have the most miserable marriage ever, than live without him.  Not that we have a miserable marriage, I think ours is super fantastic great, but I'm just saying, I found out I can't live without him.

Obviously the kids gave his a tie and soccer balls.  We now actually have three soccer balls, one sized for every size in our house. J thinks it needed to give Brent a tie for father's day.  

Air Force

My mom came out with my dad, two months ago.  My dad stayed for the weekend.  Of course you have to know we went to the Academy.

Shrubbery

Also while my mom was here...  I put her to work.  Thankfully my mom is the type that is totally willing to help.  Most people are shocked when they hear how much my mom helped me. Also while my mom was here, she helped me plant some shrubbery along our xeriscaping.  Which probably defeated the purpose of the xeriscaping, but they are all native shrubs, at least I think. My neighbors that I know, all told me how much more cheery the house looks now.  (Ok, it was only two different moms on the street, but its all it takes.)

We planted a lot of purple.  Are you noticing a trend?
Its that pink has never been my favorite color.

Kitchen and Dining

The paint job we have all be waiting for. It took a while to finish the chair rail. Just wait in a few months it will be better.  When we have a new computer desk, a different kitchen table and new counter tops.  But oh, I love the paint I picked out for my house, it makes me so happy to be in my house, and of course it puts me indebted to my mother, in case I wasn't already.

In case you didn't hear the story of the paint in the kitchen here it is.  I need color in my kitchen it was the way I was raised.  Brent and I like green it seemed like the obvious choice, but my house is tall and narrow, I didn't know if I really wanted a color in 2/3rds of my downstairs.  So that is where the neutral and the chair rail came in.  I love it.  Its the same color as the living room.

 I want you to know I did clean my kitchen before hand, I just don't know if it looks like it.  But I didn't take out the garbage. Its clean, its just also full.  We are learning how to organize our kitchen without a pantry.

 Ah, finally a shot that looks clean.

Secret #1, put the pantry at the bottom of the stairs. We tried putting it in the dining room when we moved in, but Brent and his brother said it was ugly, and if they say its bad, you know it wasn't working, because they are all about function over form.

 It also gives me mini workout while I cook dinner.  But snacks and cold cereal are kept in the kitchen in a bottom cabinet.  I don't want cracker crumbs from the kids on my stairs.

Potty Update

I thought I had progress potty training the wee one, after the first day.  The second day, not bad, at least I didn't have to clean dirty underwear, we only had lots of wet.  The third day no progress just wet undies, never once made it to the toliet.  Fourth day, Nan didn't wake up, I kept checking on her all morning, but she just kept sleeping.  Finally at 3:30, I could tell she was awake, albeit tired. I held her, and tried to get her to drink something.  Then she wanted to lie down again.  Finally around 5 I gave her some Tylenol, so she could interact with us. I kept a diaper on her, because she was so tried, lethargic and sick looking. She drank hardly anything all day, so she never peed in her diaper anyway.  I thought maybe this is a sign she isn't ready.  But then she said she wanted to wear panties again when she got better.  So this morning we started fresh, put on those cloth training pants first thing, and set the timer. Finally at 11, after no wet underwear, she sat on the potty and went!!!
Hooray.

Scriptures Movies (Super long post)

When I was a kid we had one Living Scripture Movie.  I always told the story of Nephi leaving Jerusalem wrong because of it, and my older brothers always told me, the movie was wrong, and I didn't know the story.
So a few months ago, when a nice little 22 year old boy came to sell me some, I wasn't too interested.  But I also don't like to be rude, and he told me he got credit for just telling me even if I didn't buy.  So he had to wait 30 minutes until my mom and I finished my kids' mosaics in the garage, then he proceeded to stay in the garage another hour telling me about it. Ahh! too long. (My mom and kids gardened in freedom without me.)
He had all these spiritual stories of how these movies touched his buyers lives.  Which I do not believe he had met all these people, I think his managers told him most of the stories.  Anyway, he had all these stories, and I kept thinking, yeah I've experienced that story with my kid, or that is what my daughter does, or a primary child told me something similar.  In all these cases that I had had these experience they were not from living scriptures movies.
Overall I have no problem with the movies, I'm all for capitalism, I just don't want to buy them for my kids. A few weeks before the salesman came by, my son just started watching the church's film strip DVD of the Book of Mormon. Still before I ever met the sales guy, I was totally impressed with all the stories J learned.  Long story short I like the $8 for the entire standard works, better than $30 a Living Scriptures DVD. $30! There is something like 10 dvds per set, four sets?! I don't even spend $30 on Disney Blu-ray. Plus the church doesn't put fictional characters in their film strip stories.  Sure the film strip isn't as exciting, and it has no songs, but my son is really getting his stories together.

It was just like the time I was at Temple Square talking to a sister missionary.  I had a bag from Deseret Bookstore, and she was from a different country.  She said I bet there is so many great resources to teach your children in that store.  I agreed, paying more attention to my children running in the grass so I didn't lose them. She kept talking then asked me, "What are your favorite things to teach your children in the store"?  She had me stumped.  I looked at her blankly, I didn't know.  I didn't usually buy stuff my kids there, it was expensive.  Finally I said, honestly the best teaching tools are from from Distribution. The best thing I've found for their age is the new Nursery Manual.  I continued telling her awesome it was and about the regional conference I attended where I had heard a talk about what a great resource it was. How it is great for even older kids, because they can learn how to teach Family Home Evening lessons using it.  I went on and on, and then realized she had a disappointed look on her face.  She wanted there to be something cool, and different she couldn't get in her home country.  But that is not the purpose of the church, the purpose is simple doctrine about Christ, which is why eventhough capitalism is great, it can't offer anything better than what the church offers at cost.  No one has to make it to Temple Square in Salt Lake to be saved, there is nothing you need to buy at the new fancy Deseret Book Flagship Store.  Its the same everywhere, and that was disappointing to this sister.
Which is why I even if I was interested in Living Scripture movies, I probably would not buy them anyway, $30 per movie is expensive, and there is nothing they are teaching that I can't teach myself.

That being said, I love leaning to the church for helping teaching the gospel.
A few months ago, my son told me his favorite story was the Escape from Bagel.  I thought Escape from Bagel, Escape from bagel?  I know this, I know this, what is he talking about? He told me about how someone told his brother to pray, and they built boats, etc.  I said oh! Escape from Babel!  He giggled and said oh yeah that.  The other day he told me the Story of Samuel the Lamanite was his favorite story in the scriptures, and then told me all about it.
And to think all these came because I told him he wasn't allowed to watch pokemon on sundays. Hooray for the Sabbath!  Our new rules go has follows, only LDS Friend online Games, only Disney movies, or Kipper, Nature Documentaries or Church DVDs.  Why Disney is ok, and Dora isn't, is beyond me, but I grew up watching Disney movies on Sundays, I think it might have been the only way my parents got a nap.  I was(/am) a talker! Eventhough we have a lot of Dora in our house, she is annoying as all get out, and Sunday is a day of rest. Turns out, you can watch all the film strip movies online. The major downfall to the film strip, is they have no appeal to a toddler, and there is no play all function, you have to individual select each 2 minute story.  I love what the online page starts out say about the filmstrips, "These stories are taken from a book that is sacred. As you read these stories, remember they are about real people who lived long ago."
Back to the living scripture sales guy, the only thing he had that interested me, was a free gift for signing up. I wanted a CD set of the Dramatized Golden Plates, because I also like the idea of my children using the own imagination to figure out what the prophets looked like since we don't know. It turns out Amazon has it way cheaper than $130. I still I don't know if we'll buy it.  I've yet to jump in the last 2 months.

Likes

My daughter really likes Percy from Thomas the Tank Engine.  Slightly bizarre, I didn't know anyone would pick Percy as their favorite but its true, she loves him.
My son is really into fictional antiquity right now.  He got into Atlantis Legos, and Egyptian Legos.  Well I guess Ancient Egypt isn't fictional, and I've actually learned some cool little tidbits about Egypt lately through his interest, reading The Pearl of Great Price and listening to a friend.  We've been reading about pharaohs lately thanks to our public library, which definitely puts a different spin on the Book of Abraham.
In fact my 5 year old told me he wanted to start reading the Bible so he could learn more about Eygpt, I said there isn't really much about Egypt in the Bible then read a verse out of Exodus.

Updates on me

#1 don't you hate when your lip cracks while you are sleeping?
#2 Am not leaving the house today.  An answer to a unsaid prayer.  I've found those are the best.
#3 I can't stand the fly in my house.  I think someone fed him crack cocaine. We get lots of flies because we live in a barn based on the amount of doors I shut each day, but this one is by far the most annoying.  Its either crack cocaine or the watermelon rinds in the trash
#4 I've been constantly planning halloween for weeks now
#5 Bizarrely I haven't been thinking about my birthday.  I think I might have to skip it, no money for presents, because I spend it on remodeling our house.  Although I wondered if I should invite people over, that makes me sound lame I think, maybe make Brent invite people over?
#6 I tell Brent weekly, I'm going to throw him a surprise birthday party for this 30th this year. He asks me who I'm going to invite, I tell him, my friends and their husbands.  He says I'm just like the mom in Diary of  Wimpy Kid.
#7 I'm pretending to be optimistic to my daughter, but I've hit that point in potty training where I wonder what we are doing.  Since she just pees everywhere other than the toilet.
#8 I'm glad we don't have new carpet yet.
#9 I bought a new desk last night, so soon my kitchen will look better, and I'll have a sewing desk in my bedroom!  Hooray!
#10 My friend's 10 year old daughter told me she is saving money for a dog, so she'll come over and play with my kids for a dollar.  You mean I can sew without my kids crying, hooray I'm so hiring her.  Not a dollar an hour, a dollar.
#11 I'm still sad, I read this last night, it makes me sad.
#12 I found I have 12 followers thank you all, I don't encourage you at all, so I appreciate it.
#13 Don't you hate when the grocery store dupes you?  It says something like 2 for $1 a lbs, and all you see is 2 for $1, and instead of paying a dollar its like $6.
#14 I keep wondering if  three year old needs a birthday party, with more than her three immediate family members.

Stressed

Potty Training was potty training, after the nap was over.  That is not a positive statement.  Its hard to potty train in the evening, with dinner, and dad, and dad doing yard work, and him asking mom to help.  But I'm not giving a travel log.  What I am saying is, I'm stressed, I have to go visit someone tomorrow, and I have no pull ups.  I think pull ups are more effective than diapers, although I know not that great.  I really don't want my daughter to pee on someone else's carpet.  Although I plan on bringing my timer, and taking her to the bathroom every 30 minutes even if I'm at someone's house.
I was going to go to the store tonight, but it just didn't happen.
Brent is so not worried about anything, so when he agrees with me I get stressed out.  He agreed a pull up would be better than a diaper, but said we would survive either way.  Blah.

I take it back, some for a 40 pound boy, but that is not going to help very well for a 25 pound girl. I think the pull ups I have are the size of my daughters entire abdomen. Too big. I told you I made absolutely no planning, I have had the panties and potties for a year and other than that, nothing.

Potty Training #2

I have been dreading potty training since the last time I did.  So pretty much I've been dreading potty training #2, since she was only 2 months old in utero. She showed interest in the potty over a year ago.  But yet I always had a good reason to put it off.  She has been sitting on the potty a few times a week for over a year now, and never once peed in the toilet, and only ever had two accidents around bath time.
But enough was enough, I had to do it before J started Kindergarten.  So this was the day, I have had it on my calendar for about a month.  (We just got home from vacation Saturday night.)  As we got closer to the day, I often got nervous.  Until yesterday, I was excited.  My daughter was going through the rite of passage to become a big girl. Honestly, I went to bed with anticipation for what the new day would bring.
As a mom things went terrible with the first child.  I think he probably did an excellent job as a barely 2 year old boy, but as a mom I had stupid expectations from reading parenting literature. Honestly, potty training three years ago, was probably one of my lowest moments as a mother, once again by no fault of my son.
So this time things where going to change.  I read no literature.  In fact yesterday while talking to a friend, I realized, I had bought no juices or salty snacks.  I was ill prepared.  But this morning, I realized we would survive.  Turns out, we had apple juice, kool-aid and orange juice.  We have goldfish and ritz. I think pretzels would have been enjoyed if I had them, but we survived without them.
I had been saving M&Ms for months in anticipation.  She didn't care about them, luckily her dad had bought her a couple of pounds of gummy worms a few weeks ago.
But like I said I had done no preparations.  I put the baby potty in the kitchen, and we fed betsy wetsy water, and watched her pee in delight.  My children love to watch betsy pee.  Every 5 minutes I put Nan on the baby potty.  Two hours later, betsy had gone more than anyone could count, I had gone, but Nan was dry as a bone.
I was getting bored, so I called my mom to see if I had missed a step.  She said five minutes was a little excessive.  Twenty minutes is plenty.  So we upped the timer, which was good advice, Nan enjoyed the first hours, but was also getting bored.  My mom also read me Teresa's advice:

The day before take her to the store to pick out a special treat that your going to give her.  Also a timer is very crucial! I am not one to mess with a doll, kids understand what they need to do your just training their  bladder to do what their brain already knows. I DON'T LIKE SEPERATE POTTY CHAIRS ! they need to learn to sit on the big toilet otherwise if you train them on a small toilet you are training their brain that the big one is scary! they sell toilet seats that you sit right on top of the toilet and they feel very safe with these. Never let your kids potty train naked (I have heard some people strip their kids down and let them pee where ever they want don't ever let them run around the house  without underwear)
Day 1:   Show them the timer and let them hear what it sounds like, explain to them that when the timer goes off that is when you need to sit on the potty. .  As soon as they wake up set them on the toilet and then put underwear on after they get off. Set your timer & Sit them on the toilet every 20 min.  (they will have accidents in between but it is still very important to sit them on when the timer goes off ) every time she sits on the toilet give her a treat (even if she doesn't go) If she does go, make a big deal ex. way to go! you did it! good job! and then a treat. Naptime.... I am still a little indecisive on this whether or not putting a diaper on them is a good idea, I lean more toward no diaper and see how it goes after the 3 days... if it seems like their bladder can't hold that long after the 3 days they probably still need to mature a little more in the bedtime area.  At the end of day 1 you will feel like you didn't get anywhere or accomplish anything this is completely normal... DON'T WORRY i promise YOU DID!
Day 2: Same as day 1 but you are going to change the time from 20 min to 30 min. 
Day 3: Same as the previous days but you are going to change the time to 45 min.
As far as her going #2 Sometimes kids train them selves while you are training them.. They feel a sensation and know their brain knows that if they feel something going on they need to sit on the toilet, however it might not happen as you are potty training them. They will have accidents NEVER make them feel bad for having an accident.  Help them understand that its yucky and they no longer need to have this yucky poop on them because now they are big and can go in the toilet.  Don't give up and never never never put a diaper back on them (unless they can't sleep through the night without soaking themselves.)  They probably won' t tell you on their own for a couple weeks if they need to go potty, so you still need to ask every hour if they need to go.  They will eventually just go on their own when they feel comfortable with the whole situation.
HAVE FUN & GOOD LUCK!!!!!

An hour after that, she had a mini accident, the only time she ever left the kitchen floor and ventured into the living room she peed. She doesn't like pee running down her leg, and she has female muscles because she is female so she will stop once she realizes its not being adsorbed in her diaper, and running down her leg. Other than her one escape on to carpet, when she of course had her accident, we spent the whole morning on hard floors.  We played dulpo legos in the kitchen, played the ipod, sang songs, took care of baby dolls, etc. Turns out, have a huge kitchen, and a powder room right off from the kitchen all with hard floors, is invaluable during potty training.  It was so much better than being stuck in a small bathroom with a yellow shower.
I think finally a half hour after her accident she peed in the toilet!! First time ever in her life!
Funny thing is, we were using a little potty, because I kind of hate seat covers on large toilets, I hate pee dripping everywhere. But she didn't want to sit on the little potty by this point, she was watching Dora in the kitchen, so I said do you want to sit on the Dora potty seat?  Well of course, so she did, and the washer was going, and low and behold I heard drips in the toilet.  We jumped up and down, and called Grammy, ate two gummy worms.  After finished dora, eating lunch, she then wanted to take a nap.  It had been a full day.  I think that is a great record.  Once accident, one potty.  My children have the hugest bladders on the planet.