I Am A Groupie

Okay, so last night I got to see this band...it was really great and the music is nice and all but oh my, the drummer is HOT! He was totally making me swoon! And even though there were 100 people there, I know he was playing just for me - even if he couldn't see me. I tried taking a picture but after one shot, my camera died. So do you want to see this fantastically gorgeous drummer? But I warn you...

HE'S MINE!

The Man has played percussion in a community orchestra called Wasatch Winds for about a year now. Last night he played bells, timpani and crash cymbals (and probably at least one other instrument I can't spell). He really likes it and I like watching him play. The kids like it, too, as long as I have enough fruit snacks for them. This was their fourth concert. I think they are really good, but then again, I know nothing about music and am tone deaf. :)

Sweet Dreams!

It's here! It's here! Yesterday I received my beautiful bedroom set and last night, we got it all arranged.

The Bed.

I wanted a canopy, he wanted wood. We both won. It's convertible so if in the future we decide canopies aren't cool, we can take it off, remove posts, etc. There's also a cute little bench for the foot of the bed. The Man didn't think we needed the bench. I disagreed.

The Dresser.

The Other Dresser with Mirror.

But wait! There's more! Check this out:

Sliding doors. Pretty cool, huh? There are two nightstands, also, but my picture was really blurry so I didn't post it. They had a swell slide-out tray for writing or breakfast in bed.

Thanks, Anita and Brock (my in-laws), for getting the ball rolling! (And for watching my kids so I could go look at furniture.)

Now...what color do I paint the walls??

Where are they now?

I recently read this post from one of my favorite bloggers over at ClubMom. And I can't stop thinking about it! I can't help but wonder where are these people today? Where is Kate from elementary school that was my best friend until 4th grade and then I did nothing but pick on her? Where is Justin from 6th grade that came to school with bruises? What have they made of their lives? What could I have done to help them instead of make them squirm in their seats?

And most of all...what if my kids become them? What if da Boo sits all alone at lunch? What if the Boy never gets invited over for playdates? What I can tell my kids to help the tears? What did their parents tell them and did it help?

Chocolate Poetry

A few days ago, my chocolate calendar had this cute poem:
C if for chocolate,
H is for hand,
O is for overweight, I understand.
C if for chocolate,
O is for out,
L is for last piece, when most of us pout.
A is for apple,
T is for treat,
but when we spell it,
E is for eat!

And just so you don't think I'm the only one that quotes my calendar, look here.
The Man comes home tonight! And so do the rest of my in-laws. To celebrate, we are going here. Envy me.

Slacking...AGAIN!

I am a widow for this week so I've had my hands full. And my in-laws are in town. Well, not all of them...just my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law. They are here because it is Spring Break and because the boys in the family are riding bikes down in Moab. Not all the boys got to go. The Man is here and the Boy has to stay with the girls. Still, he got to try out Grampa's equipment before they left. My sister-in-law is a senior in high school this year. Her main objective on this trip was to find a modest prom dress (secondary objective was to tour BYU). So we went shopping for a dress. It was so much fun, like having my very own, life-sized Barbie doll! She looked amazing in everything so I got to make her try on dresses that I would have loved to wear. "Try this one next!" "But I wore green last year." "Who cares? Try it on!" "But it's over $300." "Come on! I must live vicariously!" She did find an amazing dress (the ruffly one in black with a white sash). Now she just needs to find a date.

Tomorrow I am assisting in da Boo's preschool field trip to the Bean Museum. Should be fun! Then I get to go spend the night with the Man up in SLC. He's promised to take me out to a really nice restaurant. "Really Nice" means they don't ask if I want fries with that. Also, we're supposed to go shopping for a bedroom set. We have our clothes in laundry baskets and rubbermaid drawers since we got married. I think it's time my nightstand doesn't have a snap-on lid...

Reasons Why I Haven't Updated...

Okay, I know it's hard to not hear from me for a few days but I have some really good reasons. Ready?

1. Still not quite over this. I hate coughing. I especially hate coughing since I had children. Moms know what I mean.

2. Monday a good friend asked me if I had time to make a cake for her daughter's first birthday. Her birthday was on Wednesday. Of course I said yes. She looked through my portfolio and really liked the cake I did for da Boo's first birthday so this is what I was doing most of Tuesday and into the wee hours of Wednesday...

3. Wednesday was one of those days where I don't even have time to sit still for a moment. I had my first dentist appointment in nearly 3 years. Turns out that they couldn't do a cleaning because I have a metal shoulder and there's a risk of infection (supposed to take antibiotics before). In the 14 years since I became a third less "humerus" I have never had a dentist tell me this. Oh, and I have one cavity.

4. Wednesday was also the second one of the month so I had the Activity Day girls to deal with. We made bird feeder by smearing peanut butter on pinecones and rolling them in seeds. HUGE mess, but fun.

5. Also had HFPE that night. Lots of fun! We each came with our purse, an index card with a "purse"-onal service we would offer and one item that showed our "purse"-onality. My service was having dinner with our family (with the chocolate fountain for dessert) and my item was a multi-colored pen ('cuz I like to pretend I'm a writer and those colors I had used in the cake I made the night before). For a service, I will get a dozen roses! It was a really fun night. But I was exhausted when I got home.

6. This morning, I went here. I stood in line for nearly THREE HOURS just to check out! I was done shopping! It was insane! They offered no apologies, no additional offers. Despite the awesome deals, I will not be going back. My feet still hurt.

7. A girl at church just had a baby. She's new to the area and they don't have any family close by. A friend was throwing her a baby shower...so guess what I did? Oh come on, guess! You really should know me well enough by now...

I made it to match the plates at the shower. Not as cute as some of my other ones but still fun to make.

So I got home from the baby shower earlier tonight and put the kids to bed. The Man is still not home. It's crunch time at work. I'm used to not having a husband for the month of March...and did I mention that my in-laws are arriving on Sunday? There's no rest for the weary.

Welcome to Family Home Evening (AKA: WRESTLEMANIA!)

Tonight, we had a quick dinner, then the kids were sent into the living room to pick up toys and set up the chairs for Family Home Evening. Here is how it went:

Song: da Boo pouts because we can't think of any good animal songs ("But, Mommy, we sang Old MacDonald last week!") so we decide to sing Kookaburra.

Prayer: Daddy's turn.

Lesson: The Boy's turn. This ought to be interesting...A couple weeks ago, he came home from Church with paper cut outs telling the story of Noah's Ark. The lesson consisted of me telling the general story, letting the Boy show the corresponding pictures of Noah and a rain cloud, etc. Then, when it came time for the animals, I would hold up a picture and he would name the animal or make the corresponding noise. Then he would tuck the picture into the Ark (foam plate cut in half and stapled together). Some of the animals da Boo had to help with (what noise, exactly, does a turtle make?). We end with the birds and the rainbow. All are spiritually uplifted, I am sure.

Song: BINGO (This one goes over BIG TIME...I have a feeling I'll be singing this for the next several days).

Prayer: By default, the Man gets to do it again.

Activity: The kids are not adjusting to the time change (we had breakfast at 11am this morning) so the Man thought he would try and wear them out. It started out throwing balls back and forth to the kids. At some point, one child jumped on him and of course the other one had to join in and soon we had WRESTLEMANIA!



Treats: Cadbury Mini-Eggs all around! (I was in charge of those, of course!)

Jeepers Creepers, Look at Them Peepers!

Da Boo finally got new glasses! Yippppeee!! No more old glasses! No more digging out the super glue to glue an arm back on five minutes before preschool starts! No more wrapping wire around the arms to keep them from spreading too far! No more weekly jerry-rigging sessions so her glasses will stay on! WooooOOWHOOOOOO!!!

And now for your viewing pleasure, da Boo will model her new frames.


The new ones have silver rims and then a cute, sparkly-pink arm. The sparkles don't show on film, unfortunately. She was being a little shy about taking pictures. I had to bribe her with reading her new library book before she would smile.

Welcome Baby Benjamin!

Well, I have a brand new nephew! He was born at 5:15pm yesterday. Weighing in at just a smidge over 6 pounds, the little guy is 19 inches. They are naming him Benjamin, with the middle name Porter. Cute name for a very cute kid!

It's NOT Fair!

I'm still sick. Like hacking cough, spewing mucus sick. And the Man is sick (and whiny). Da Boo isn't feeling so hot and coughs a lot. Of course, the Boy is perfectly healthy. I took a nap Thursday while da Boo was at preschool and the Boy just played. I woke up to find my nightstand filled with his toys. Apparently, he kept himself well entertained within three feet of my unconscious form. Hey, nothing was flushed down the toilet or eaten.

So here's my complaint: why is it that Mommy is never allowed to be sick? I have to cater to the needs of everyone else while I am feeling like death warmed over. I am tucking little ones (and big, whiny ones) into bed while I'm trying not to cough up a lung. I answer to every call for comfort while I am desperately in need of some TLC myself. IT'S NOT FAIR! And then again, the irony of it all is that when I am sick, I really, really want my mommy.

**Currently, my Mommy is in Florida with my Air Force brother and his cute wife. Rumor has it that they are the proud parents of a little boy! I don't have all the details, as he was just born a few hours ago, but I'll update as soon as I know! Congrats to them!

My Turn

I am sick. I know who infected me with their evil, gooey germs. I'm not going to mention any names (but his initials are THE BOY). So I am going to curl up on the couch and watch the kids through a medication-induced haze and pray I don't run out of the good tissues.

So you don't feel completely lost without a post from me, here is what my chocolate calendar says today:
"All the really good holidays are celebrated with chocolate in some kind of festive shape."

Way Back When...

Since people are giving flack over no pictures of me posted here, I decided to post one. Kristie and Amanda recently posted pictures of them with their spouses from before they were married. Since I tried for many, many years to be just like Kristie, I am going to try once more. Here ya go!

November 12, 1998.

This was taken in my apartment just before we left for the Preference Dance. It's a "Ladies' Choice" dance at BYU (actually, all of the dances seem to be ladies' choice...). We went with all of my roommates. ALL of them...even the ones that didn't go to BYU. This was the night that I knew I was falling in love with him. Ain't he cute? Looks a lot different now with his goatee. In fact, we have our wedding picture on top of the entertainment center. Da Boo was looking at it and said "Mommy looks pretty. Who is that man?" hehehehe...

I tell people we met on a blind date, set up by our roommates. This is true, but only partially. I went home to Texas during the summer of '98 and the Man moved in down the hall. My roommate noticed him and thought he would be perfect for me. So as she and I talked or emailed through the summer, I got updates on this mysterious guy. Within a hour of moving back to Provo, I was hauled down to his apartment to meet him. We weren't interested. I was dating someone else and he had just ended a rough relationship. Fast forward to a week later, when my computer stopped working. I went down to his apartment to get his roommate who was a computer guy. He was the only one there and offered to take a look at it. It took him about 6 seconds to fix it! That's when I realized he was kinda cute. I don't do things half-heartedly so I immediately started stalking the Man. Seriously. He could have called the police. I showed up where he worked, at his apartment, with his friends...it was kinda creepy and I'm surprised he didn't run away screaming. He asked me out on a triple date with two of his roommates. No, he still wasn't interested in me but he knew I would go out with him. We went to a dollar movie and to Dairy Queen ("hey, big spender"). It was more than a little awkward because of the other two girls...well, one was staring at me a lot and the other one was just rude. As we were getting in the car to go home, I asked him how he knew the other girl, the one that stared. His response: "I guess you could say she's my ex-girlfriend." Great. He did ask me out again, on another double date (see how scary it must have been to be alone with me), where we went to dinner and then to a corn maze. By the end of the night, I had won him over and we started dating.
Of course I asked him to Preference and, in grand BYU tradition, I had to think of a way to do it in an interesting way. I wrote "Will you go to Preference with me?" on paper in six pieces, like a puzzle then wound then very tightly and wedged them into the centers of a half dozen roses. I had them delivered to his apartment. Not the most spectacular but it did the job.

We were married on May 15, 1999 and have been blissfully happy ever since. :)

March Forth!

I have beening driving the Man crazy and keeping him up late at night talking. The reason I keep talking is because I really, really want to take a class! Surely by now I would have worn down all resistance and he would give in to my whims. It's not that easy. The problem: I don't know what class to take!

Wilton has a new cake decorating class with gum paste and fondant (fondant and I aren't currently on speaking terms). Maybe ceramics (lots of special tools), maybe a foreign language (I would love to learn Esperanto but I don't have the time something like that would require). My desire to take a class has gotten so bad that I have signed up for nearly all of the HFPE classes through the church, even the cooking one! I don't cook!

So help me here, people! What kind of class can I take that will last long enough to satisfy the need to learn (longer than 4 weeks) but doesn't take me out of the home too long. And doesn't require a lot of unique/expensive tools or supplies. And you don't have to be really smart to do. And I can do with one arm. Any suggestions?

What I Did This Morning...

Birthday Party for a friend of da Boo's. Her mom really helped me out with my Christmas cards so making the cake was the least I could do. It was a My Little Pony-themed party and for those of you without little girls in the house, this is Pinkie Pie Pony. I got the idea from Family Fun and then proceeded to mess everything up so it would look like one of my cakes.

P.S.
Happy Anniversary to my beautiful sister, Lyn, and her husband, Mark!