High-Ho, High-Ho

The government's newest employee.

Roman was peeing his pants! He got to go to work with Shane this morning. It's a Saturday so they were just assembling new chairs and such. Roman could not have been happier. Before bed on Friday he said "I'm going to sleep in my clothes so when I wake up I can just put on my socks and go!" He was up extra early begging to go to work.

I rented Madagascar 2 for him to watch on their spiffy T.V. while he ate his special breakfast from Burger King. I don't think he cared for the movie much, but he watched it anyway.


After breakfast and a movie he helped dad put together chairs and throw away the boxes.

Roman's mad photography skills.

He seriously thought he was the coolest thing on the planet. If only we could have the same attitude about going to work every day. (or in my case, just waking up in the morning :))

If you could read my mind

This is what you would have heard today:

When the clock says 8:00 I'm going to get out of bed and be positive.... is it 8 already??? ugghh

Alright! Roman didn't ask for Pancakes this morning. It's going to be a good day!

Friends coming for dinner on Saturday.... better start cleaning...... now. (yes, it's that bad)

Why, why why???? does the government feel they must "bail out" failing businesses? .

Why does Governor Huntsman feel like now that he's governor, he gets to say and do whatever he darn well pleases?

Why aren't Ezra's diapers working? Do the laundry gods hate me?

If it's possible, Marisa has been crying more than she did as an infant. And that was a lot! How many times in a day can she go in time out for crying uncontrollably over NOTHING?!?!

If you say no to Roman, he says...."but if you say, yes no, yes no, yes no... then I can?" WHAT??!??!? That child's brain is confused!

Ezra works so hard to get his fingers in his mouth only to spit them out in disgust. Funny boy.

It's a beautiful day.

Roman is such a good kid.

I feel bad hauling 3 kids to my visiting teaching appointments. Oh well, at least they have little kids too.

I don't know whether to be proud or embarrassed that Marisa has been saying "ho ho's.... Nummmy!" all day.

I wonder when Kindergarten Registration is.

Why is Marisa crying now?

How did my car get so dirty?

How come installing a car seat is SO hard?

Roman is such a good kid*

Uggg that Roman..... drives me nuts!

I gotta get out of here

I love running.

How did I get so out of shape?

I hate running...just kidding. I still love running.

My to do list just keeps growing.

Why is it that if I have a list of specific things I need from the store, they don't have any of it? If I go to the store to "browse" they have everything I need and more :)

When are mothers supposed to shower exactly?

How is it that 8 hours in the day goes so slow and 8 hours in the night goes so fast.

Tomorrow,.... tomorrow I will fold that basket of laundry that has been sitting in our living room for two days now.

Ahhhhhh silence.

*Side note:
I say this to myself a lot. Today at gymnastics class, all the kids were not listening, being mean, butting in line etc. Roman... he does what he's told, waits patiently and is usually really nice to everyone. He's just such a good kid! He still has him moments, but the more I interact with other kids, the more I realize just how lucky I am with this one.

Please read me

So, I got my book. I'm quite impressed. Money well spent if you ask me. The pictures I took of the book are.... minimal though. It's hard to take pictures of pictures and words with a little point and shoot camera, but it gives you an idea.

YEA!!!!

My Funny Valentine

We did not do much for Valentines Day this year. In fact, we did not leave the house until 4 pm. When we did.... we went to Sconecutter for dinner. Yeah.... kind of lame but that's OK. It was kind of nice to have the place nearly to ourselves. Our kids weren't bugging anyone. I didn't feel like I had to keep them quiet or contained so as not to ruin anyone's "romantic valentine dinner" (not that they were running wild or anything) .

I did, however get the kids some balloons. I figured Roman's treats from preschool would be quite enough sugar. And all they need is more toys that they won't play with. So, I though balloons would be a fun surprise that I wouldn't feel guilty about throwing away when they are done with them.

They were a winner. They seriously ran around the house the ENTIRE day with these balloons. They would punch them like punching bags, clip them to their shirts and run around the house with balloon "tails", run down the stairs, let them go and watch them float up into the kitchen. They had a blast. Best $6 ever spent on Valentines day, that's for sure. They slept great after a day like that. Anyway, here are some pictures of my funny valentines:

These are the valentines we made for Roman's preschool class. I thought they were such a cute idea. A little more effort than buying a box of valentines at the store but fun. I got the idea here.

Get around

The tub surround is in! It looks great! And, the bathroom is even closer to being a real, functional bathroom! Woo Hoo!


Next, the vanity. Anyone know where to find one that isn't garbage? We already purchased one from Home Depot and returned it because it was GARBAGE!!!! Seriously, held together with staples.

We've gotten a quote from a place that will make it custom but it seems quite steep. At least it would be quality. Then, we've found a place that is middle of the road. Better quality, but not quite what we are looking for. And, it's made in China. I would rather have something made here... you know support our lagging economy, but it does seem to be about twice the price. I guess we'll see.

Oh construction..... will it ever end? Having this bathroom come closer to completion sure does make me want to finish the rest of the basement. All we have left is the hallway and the living room, both of which are about half done. MUCH more simple than a bathroom, but it will still take us forever I'm sure. I'm just so tired of the piles of drywall, paint buckets and wire everywhere. I would like a place to throw the kids and all their TOYS that isn't right in our entryway :)

I could write a book

Just over one year of experiences and writing, three different attempts at putting this thing together, A major set back with a software glitch that was luckily fixed, hours on the computer, a 5 hour session with my editor in chief, a.k.a. Shane, 200 pages, 370 pictures and a whole lot of love and the first year of My Life in a Nut Shell is on it's way to being published in print. I'm SO excited to see it.

I first got the idea from Jackie who said she wanted to make a book from her blog. Since my sad version of a Journal was last written in about a year ago, and the time before that was when Marisa was born. I thought, what a perfect alternative. I blog about just about everything I would write in a Journal and blogging is SO much more fun. Plus, (and this is a big plus) there will be pictures to go along with all the words. BTW, Blurb is the company I'm doing this through.

Oh I can't tell you how excited I am to see it, Estimated shipping date is February 17th. I will share some pictures when it comes. If I like what I see, I want to do this yearly. And we may also buy the kids their own personal set, since it's mostly about their lives too. We'll wait and see what we think of the first. It's not really all that expensive for what it is, but it's still kind of a lot of money, especially if we buy the kids a set of their own. I think it will still be 100% worth it.

Read my lips

I bought the Frontline Phonics System way back in September or so, and put it away just waiting for a time when I would have the patience to help Roman learn to read. (no, I did not pay $250 for it.... try $20. I love ebay!) Well, he has been asking me how to spell things and what words say for a while so about a month ago I broke it out and we've been working on his reading just about every day.

He surprises me with how well he is grasping it. He has mastered the first 10 books and is one book away from going into the books that have rule words i.e. silent e and long vowels.

He is so proud of himself and I'm pretty proud of him too. I'm kind of proud of myself as well since teaching is incredibly hard for me. I lack the patience and tend to get frustrated with my "students" really easy. But this system is pretty easy. I know I would be doing horribly without it. He is doing so well that the only time I get frustrated is when I have to tend the other two kids while trying to help Roman.

So anyway, here is a little clip of him reading Bugs Bugs and of course Marisa telling us she is stinky in the background.

Feelings

Suddenly, Marisa has feelings and they seem to be easily hurt.

4 times in the last week she has broken down crying because she was either embarrassed or someone laughed at her.

1. I was putting lotion on her after her bath last Sunday and she, not thinking I'm sure, dipped her finger in the lotion and put it in her mouth.

She doesn't typically put lotion in her mouth, in fact she LOVES lotion and begs for it daily and this was definitely a first. I think she just had a momentary laps of thought.

Anyway, after I said "no! we don't eat lotion" Roman and I were kind of giggling about it and she broke down in tears. I don't think it was because it tasted bad, she didn't seem to mind that there was lotion in her mouth. I think it was because we were laughing about it.

2. Later that night or maybe the next night, she grabbed a couch pillow and threw in on the ground and then totally body slammed it. It was SO funny to watch, but the fact that we laughed at her sent her bawling. She wasn't hurt, just embarrassed

3. We were all eating some ice cream and she got a HUGE spoonful (much more than would fit in her mouth) and was attempting to fit it in there anyway. I laughed at her and she bawled! You will never see me crying when there is ice cream in front of me. (Maybe just before, creating a need for the ice cream in the first place :))

4. Today she had just woken up from her nap when someone from church brought me a treat that I missed out on because, thanks to Marisa, we came home early. I opened it and offered her a bite. She grabbed the whole cookie and when I asked if I could have a bite, she quite rudely said "No". Daddy laughed out loud, and she bawled.

Lesson: Don't laugh at Marisa, she doesn't like it.


This is all so strange, if you laugh at Roman, he will spend the entire day trying to make you laugh again.