Feeling Old

So today in church there was a new missionary that had just been transferred to our area. It turns out we are from the same home town! We were only able to chat for a few minutes but long enough to play the Who Do You Know game. It ended up just making me feel old. We knew none of the same people from either church or even the same teachers from high school! It was awhile later after talking with him that I realized he is probably about 10 years younger than me.
Yeah.
I would have been a Senior in high school when he was in 2nd grade.
Man that made me feel old!

For those of you who still live there - it was Elder Allred.

When did I become a grown-up????

Rating: Some sort of retro candy bar. Maybe an Apollo Bar?

CSA

(Spinach, Rhubarb, Radish, Asparagus)

We signed up for a CSA a few months ago. It officially starts the first week of June but they told us we could go today to get some "extra goodies" before the season officially started. On Saturdays they have a booth set up at the local Farmer's Market (versus going to the farm itself) so we headed over there. It is always fun to check out the different booths. We found a place that does on-site knife sharpening, a booth for fresh artisan breads, a place that makes homemade soaps, and of course all the farms selling their produce.
In our neck of the woods pretty much everyone has a dog, and since it is an outdoor market, it seemed like everyone had their dog with them! Liliana was thrilled to see so many "Foo-Foos" everywhere.

Since this is an "extra" week - we ended up with about 4.5 lbs of fresh produce for free! YAY!

Rating: 1 Rhubarb Cake (to be made later)

First Haircut

Liliana is just shy of two and a half years old and I finally took her in for her first haircut! I have been trimming some bangs for awhile just because it kept getting in her eyes but this is the first real trim to the back. I didn't have them change much - just evened it out. I was really worried that she would be a pill during the whole process but she was great! I told her she was going to get her hair done - something she is always happy to do at home - and she happily jumped up into the chair. She sat very still and was fascinated by the whole process.

I fear with how much she observes and does with other stuff, that it is only a matter of time before she finds a pair of scissors and tries to cut her own hair. Of course that would serve me right. I had *several* hair cutting incidents to my name growing up. If Liliana ever cuts her own hair I promise to tell my embarrassing stories - but not until then!

Rating: 5 Lollipops

Craft Weekend

Usually we have our annual Craft Weekend over Labor Day but we changed things up this year at almost the last minute when we realized that Labor Day weekend didn't really work for anyone anymore. Craft Weekend started as a chance to get together and get unfinished projects that have been left undone through the year. Mostly though it is a chance to eat yummy food and hang out! We did some shopping, ate yummy food, and we really did complete some projects too. I managed to get the quilt top done for Liliana's bed (I bought the fabric for it last craft weekend!) and together we all sewed 22 school bags for humanitarian aid (we'll fill them with the back to school sales).

Overall it was a great weekend and the BEST part of all is that I came home to a house that was every sparklier and cleaner than when I left it! AJ seriously must have scrubbed the house the entire weekend!

Rating: 5 Lollipops

The Difference Between Men and Women

This is based on real conversations between AJ and I.


Scene #1
AJ: Hey, I just heard John and Mary Smith had their baby.
Bethany: That's great! When was it born?
AJ: Yesterday
Bethany: Boy or a Girl?
AJ: a boy.
Bethany: How big was it?
AJ: I don't know
Bethany: What did they name him?
AJ: I don't know.
Bethany: Did you ask?
AJ: No.
Bethany: Why not?
AJ: I don't know.
Bethany: *sigh*

Scene #2

Bethany: Hey my sister just got a new car!
AJ: Really? What kind?
Bethany: A Ford Windstar
AJ: What did they pay?
Bethany: I don't know.
AJ: Well what is the mileage?
Bethany: I don't know
AJ: Well does it have any extras?
Bethany: I don't know.
AJ: Do you know anything else about it?!
Bethany: Well, it's red....
AJ: *sigh*

Rice Cream Cones and Other Fun Stuff

We had an early dinner and the weather was gorgeous today so we went outside and played this evening. I am sad to say that this is the first time any of them have had ice cream in a cone! It's not like we can exactly go to 31 Flavors and all pick a scoop! Emmaline has of course had Rice Cream in the past - but this is her first cone. I am a bad parent. Anyway though, they loved the treat, they had a blast playing, and it was so nice to get out in the good weather!

And we even have things blooming! Lilacs, Cherry Blossoms, Strawberry Blossoms, and Quince Blossoms! (Quince is disgusting FYI - purely a decorative bush. Don't go trying to make jam out of your quince bush like I did last summer. Gross)

Rating: 2 Rice Cream Cones

Mother's Day

I've declared Mother's Day a complete wash. We are going to just celebrate another day. I did get some great gifts (Pampered Chef Garlic Press, a Coupon Wallet, and some CD's I wanted) but other than that, things have been going wrong today. So we are going to try again another day!

2 Fireballs

Where Wii learn a 4 year old can out bowl us

So AJ traded a friend recently - computer parts for a Wii! We hooked it up last night and today we gave it a try. I didn't think Emmaline would be very good at it but lo and behold that girl can bowl! None of us had touched a Wii remote before today and she was getting strikes and spares like crazy. Her high score for the day was actually a 198, though we didn't get that on video.

Do you have a favorite Wii game you'd like to recommend? Let us know!

Rating: 5 Lollipops

Sometimes, surprises are just not fun, Part Deux

Yes - it happened again. Though, not under quite the same circumstances. Bethany was discussing a collaborative effort with her sisters, and inquired as to how to handle something. But I already had it handled, so I was forced to indicate such.

*sigh*

It's going to be one of *THOSE* years with gift giving, methinks.

Rating: 5 Fireballs

Thirteen

We have thirteen My Little Ponies in this house. THIRTEEN.

Why do my kids insist on fighting over ONE of them?

Rating: 1 Fireball

School Room

We put up gates around the room so that Liliana and Idgie couldn't get in there and take things apart and destroy things. I did let Emmaline and Lil in there today to play and try things out and they played contentedly for quite some time and I got a few cute pictures. It was nice to not hear them fighting for once!

Rating: 5 Pixie Dust

Tornado Season

We absolutely love it here in Colorado but there is one thing I could do without - tornadoes. I didn't even know Colorado got tornadoes until we moved here! Those things make me nervous. At least with other weather things like hurricanes or blizzards, you get some *real* warning that they are coming. Tornadoes give you a few minutes to pluck your kids out of their beds and head to the basement. No thanks! The first sirens of the season just went off (for testing) and while I'm glad they test them, it just makes me nervous, especially after last year.

Rating: 4 Fireballs

Sometimes, surprises are just not fun

Especially when you have a nosy wife.

Dork.

I'm giving you my *angry* eyes!

Rating: 1 nasty, broken, used and rusty garlic press (because you're not getting the new one now)

Spring Cleaning

I will tell you a secret about our house, the office is the black hole of our home, a pit of despair and endless woe.

"Where does this go?"
"I don't know - put it in the office!"


Turns out we were VERY behind on our shredding. We carried more trash bags out of there than I'd like to admit but the end result is that it is clean and tidy in there. However, tidying up one area is like only painting one wall, it makes everything else look bad and suddenly you find yourself doing everything else too.

Part of rearranging the office involved moving some furniture out of there. That meant rearranging the music room (which is supposed to be the formal dining room). That meant moving the piano. We ended up moving the piano to the living room. But then we had to rearrange the couches in there. Then I decided I didn't like that arrangement at all, so we put it all back. Couches back to their original spot and piano back to the music room (but in a new location in there).

Did you catch that? AJ got to move the piano and two couches TWICE. Isn't he a saint to humor me? Back in our tiny tiny apartment living days we used to make a scale drawing on graph paper of our apartment and then scale cut-outs of the furniture and then rearrange everything on paper first (mostly to make sure it'd fit!). I think AJ would have been grateful if we had taken the time to do that today!


So how did it turn out? (I am SURE you were just asking yourself that). Well before I tell you I have to give a bit more background! Remember how we have decided to homeschool Emmaline for kindergarten? Well part of rearranging the office meant moving her desk out of there. So we moved it to the music room. But then we decided that room might make a good school room. And suddenly what was a small clean-the-office project turned into a big create-a-schoolroom project! We figured that even after the kindergarten year it might be nice to have a space for doing homework and that kind of thing. And if not, we can always put it all back later (when AJ is up to moving the piano AGAIN). We did it all with stuff we already had in the house so it didn't cost us anything extra to set this up:


BEFORE:




AFTER:

Rating: 3 Lollipops

Happy Blog-iversary!

Today is the one year anniversary of starting this blog! To celebrate, I give you a video! Emmaline insisted that I include that very beginning part on it too because she thinks it is sooooooo funny. Enjoy!

Now go leave us some love in the comments!

Rating: 365 Lollipops!

Na-Na

Liliana has started to make some real progress with her speech therapy. For the first time yesterday she said her name!!! YAY! She says "Liliana" as "Na-na". I'll take it! Also the other night she said "I love you too". It was very very muddled but you could hear it in there.

Her speech therapist says things are going well and in another few weeks we are going to start working on learning how to say specific sounds instead of allowing the sound substitution she does now. (like learning how to say the "k" sound instead of accepting "dut" as the word for duck)


In other news, Idgie's second bottom tooth has finally popped through!