It's Officially Spring!

Yesterday, March 20th marked the first offical day of Spring! The snows may come, the temps may drop yet again...but nonetheless...it is Spring.

To celebrate this blessed day, I decided to pull out a project that I purchased last year but then never did get started on. I had Matthew the week after I bought it, and then I just didn't feel like painting an Easter craft during fall...or winter...but now that it's SPRING, I started and finished it all in one day! I love tole painting, and think this little guy turned out pretty good. You can't see the details very well in the picture, but I added some pink tulle underneath the bunny to give it some depth...and a little bit of leaf green fabric to balance out all of that fluffy pinkness! Happy Spring everyone!

LOST...and FOUND

The past couple of days I’ve been very congested. Last night was terrible, I could hardly breathe and I could feel my chest getting heavier with congestion as the night progressed. This morning I woke up, and have no voice. Nothing. Not even a whisper escapes. So, I trudge around the house feeling like I have an extra 20 pounds on top of my lungs, wheezing along, wondering why I even got out of bed. (Well, of course I know why…because I can’t call in sick to my job.)

It’s days like these that make me realize a few things.

One: When Mom doesn’t have a voice, the kids also decide that mom’s eyes, ears, and brain are also dysfunctional, and therefore it is an “anarchy day” to do as you like as fast as you can.

Two: When Mom doesn’t have a voice, Zippy the cat thinks he rules the roost. Well, secretly, Mom thinks he ALWAYS thinks that, but on days when she can’t yell at him to “get down,” “I’m not playing now, Zippy!”, and “Zippy leave the goldfish alone!” he just simply turns a deaf ear to her miming techniques and does as his feline brain sees fit.

Three: When Mom doesn’t have a voice, the phone doesn’t have to be answered. See? Losing your voice isn’t always a bad thing. No, the phone can ring all day if it feels like it, and Mom can just sit and smile at it, knowing that she's not neglecting any duty, she's not shirking responsibilities, and she's not cowarding away from the “do you think you could help with….” phone calls that always find their way through any calling filter system. No, she doesn't even have to answer messages because she simply cannot talk.

Four: When Mom doesn’t have a voice, she doesn’t have to make telephone calls. Nope. The Young Women will wait, Recognition/Broadcast Night will wait, the school will wait, the appointments will wait, the visiting teaching will wait, the bills will even wait, Idaho will wait, everything... Will. Just. Wait.

Five: When Mom doesn’t have a voice, she has a temporary vacation from those inquisitive, bizarre, and sometimes unanswerable questions that come from her three talking children. Questions like, “Mom? When the Sun comes around the corner of the N. Pole, how long does it take for it to hit Cleveland?” “Mom? Why is daddy always putting crowns on people’s teeth? You have a few crowns. Did your dentist give you your crowns? Why are your crowns so big? Do they fit in your mouth?” “Mom? If Heavenly Father created the dinosaurs, and He loves everything that He creates, why did He let them die?” or, “Mom? If you’re so happy, then why are your eyebrows coming down and making lines in your head?”

Hmm. No, she gets a vacation from all of that. She simply has to shrug her shoulders, point to her throat, and smile sweetly. Not bad.

Sometimes, it takes a small thing like us losing our voice to compel us to quiet down and realize what all the voices around us are saying. It takes a small thing like us losing our voice to help us realize which questions should be answered, which phone calls should be made, and what directions should be given to those around us…a small thing…but very profound.

Can You Say MEG-uh-loe-SAWR-uhss?

Two weeks ago, Taylor was given the assignment to write a report, make a poster, and do a presentation for his 2nd grade class on a dinosaur called Megalosaurus. He was thrilled--about all the parts except for the presentation--which was very scary to him.

But, I took him to the library, and he found some great books and a picture encylopedia about his dinosaur and he got to work. It was so cute to see him sitting at one of those round library tables with his books spread out, scanning through the pages to find what he needed. He looked a little too grown up for 2nd grade. With his backpack on the table, and his coat slung over a chair and the look of concentration on his face...he reminded me a little of how Andy used to look when we'd study together at the ISU library.

We had a lot of fun on his poster. I let him use my stencils, his new markers, and I even let him use the rubber cement instead of glue sticks. (I think that was his favorite part...being upgraded from glue stick duty) He was pretty proud of it, and rightly so, when he was finished.

The night before he was to hand it in, he was having a difficult time going to sleep, so around 11:00 Andy and I got him back out of bed to let him run through it a couple more times with us. He did a great job, and those last few practice runs seemed to do the trick because he was finally able to fall asleep.

The next morning, I drove him to school while he carefully held his poster. I wished him luck and watched him disappear through the school doors. That was one of those moments when a mother just prays that all will go smoothly so as not to make the next time even more traumatic.

He got home from school that day and was so excited to show me his grading sheet. He had been given full marks in all the categories, and had said that it was actually fun to tell his classmates everything he had learned about the Megalosaurus. Hooray! Prayers answered. :)

Matthew's First Haircut

Matthew turned one, so it was time to cut the hair.He didn't really enjoy it...poor little guy didn't know what to think of those clippers.
But he looks so handsome with his new "do"!
And he's right back to his "old self" being silly and everything so we don't think that the clippers traumatized him too badly.
Here is a video for your viewing pleasure...

A Little Motivation

Cross-stitching has been one of my favorite crafty hobbies for a long time and I'm currently working on another wall-sized creation for our living room. (Audrey, Katie, and Kyla...you'll remember it from our temple trip a few months ago!) Anyway, the wall-sized pieces get a bit tedious and sometimes it's just nice to finish something quickly, so I made these little bookmarks for Taylor and Rachel. They were fun, and it only took a few days to complete both projects. The best thing, is that my two little bookworms are now reading even more furiously than before because they each have their very own special bookmark.

A ballerina for our little dancing princess...

And...a dinosaur for Taylor, who is currently reading a book entitled "Megalosaurus." Go figure.

Highlights of Matthew's First Year

I hadn't remembered until today, but I had started this slideshow of Matthew's first year a few weeks ago. So, in fear of being completely redundant...here are some more pictures of the little guy and some of his first year highlights.

Watch Out World! I'm One!

On Sunday, March 9th, in the midst of the Cleveland snowstorm...little (yes, that can be argued) Matthew turned one year old!

He has been such a fun baby, right from the start. He came into the world weighing more than double the size of our little 4 lb Brooklynn, weighing 8 lbs, 6 oz and measuring 21 1/2 inches long. Yes. He was a "healthy" baby! In the hospital, he was very content to stay right in the room with Mama...and he didn't want anyone else to touch him. No Way. He made his point clear right from the beginning whose babe he was.

Just when Mommy thought she couldn't take anymore sleepless nights, Matthew did two very smart things. The first, he said "Mama" very clearly, and continued to say it as he goobered her with baby kisses. And second, he started sleeping through the night. What a brilliant child. At around 6 months he further displayed his genius by very clearly saying "dada" during a middle of the night crisis. What a sweetheart. Mommy was able to wake up Daddy and say, "Sorry dear, he's calling for you," and then peacefully roll over. ahhh......

He loves food (could you tell?) and his favorites are (in order of when they were presented to him) peaches, pears, carrots, then he graduated to other foods and this is what he loves now. Oranges, bananas, mac-n-cheese WITH hot dogs (gotta have the hot dogs), homemade bread, and....(drum roll)....POTATOES. Matthew loves his taters.

He is also a bit of a tank. Size does not intimidate Matthew. If anyone is on the ground, he will run to them at full speed and push them over. If he bounces off at the first try, he will keep pushing until they are laughing so hard that they collapse over. Taylor doesn't last 5 seconds with Matthew.

And even though he has his own toys...his favorite toy to carry around the house is Taylor's light saber. He is a cute little "youngling" and we do think that he will make a good Jedi Knight someday.

Lastly, at his one year checkup, he weighed in at 22 lbs, 11.5 oz., and he is..... 32 1/4 inches tall. He is nearly as tall as I was when I was three years old. Wow. I was such a little midget. He definitely takes after Andy for size. Oh, and out of all our children, I think he looks like Andy the most...

Bring Out the Buckets! It Snowed!

It is so interesting the way different types of weather bring out the best, or worst, or the strangest parts of people. Snow is a wonderful way to bring out the quirkiness (is that a word?) of people...and we thoroughly enjoyed our being snowed in here in Cleveland.

Unlike our old neighborhood in Idaho, where at the least hint of snow the neighbors would be out with their huge tractors with full plows, ready to play and wreak havoc with gutters and sidewalks, here in our little Cleveland Heights neighborhood...people tend to go at it a little differently. Sure, you get the occasional snowblower, the occasional pickup truck with a little plow in the front with a driver who couldn't make a straight shot into a driveway if it was 200 feet wide with yellow flags lining the edges, and you know? You even get a few people who just go out and grit their teeth and use a ..... what is that?? A SNOW SHOVEL!!! Whoa!

But...this video is dedicated to those of us who think outside the box...who put a little imagination into the everyday...who...if nothing else...provide some great entertainment for the neighbors on a day when there's nothing much else to do but gawk out the window at everyone else. House number 3809? This is for you....

Just a sidenote: After the gawking...we really did go out and help...

Remember this?

I was going through my baby book, comparing pictures of me to my kiddos and came across this picture. Oh the memories it brought back! I think I'm about 4 in this picture. That chubby little bumpkin of a baby is my "little" brother Kyle, (Ash, I hope you're enjoying this) and Emily, there's Trever "back in the day"! I think he was upset because I always got to "steer" Fancy and he always had to be in the back because he was the biggest. Poor kid. And this is Fancy in her younger days because her dapples are dark grey and not white.

Someday we will move out of the city and get some land so that our kiddos can have evening horserides before bed in their pajamas. I grew up on this horse. I used to go out and sit on her while she was eating in the pasture. My mom caught me galloping her around the pasture one day while standing up on her back (I had watched a circus and was trying to be one of the circus riders). My brothers and I used to take her down to grandpa's irrigating ditch on hot summer days and trot her up and down the ditch because the water would splash us...and Fancy liked it too because it cooled her off. Grandma used to get so worried and tell us we were all going to drown. Mom used to get mad because we were running a horse on a hot day...but we argued that we were running her in the water so it was okay.

Kyle, remember all of those mountain trailrides when we had to ride together on Fancy? Remember the day we saw that bear on the Rainy Creek Trail and you were facing backwards in the saddle and I was sideways? We both scrambled to get straight in the saddle as we went cantering up the trail. Remember how we used to lean over as far as we could reach to pick the huckleberries, and to grab the cattails to throw at mom's and Trever's heads? I remember getting loads of pine cones to throw at everyone ahead of us...and mom would just calmly call back "Knock it off guys" while Grandpa Orme would be chuckling from behind. And we thought we were being so sneaky. All of this done while walking along a mountain trail on our trusty steed. And Kyle, do you remember feeding her banana peels? Don't deny it buddy, it's on video tape.

hmmm....what else... oh ya, and my Jr. year of high school, my friend Jennifer and I dressed up and rode our trusty steed Fancy in the homecoming parade in front of our class float. (By the way, our class float won the float competition that year...HA SENIORS!) I found this old picture in one of my high school scrapbooks and I'm wondering whose cheerleading skirt I borrowed for the parade, YIKES! Oh well, Jen and I had a great time.

As I think back, I can't believe we won that float competition. First of all, we WERE the Trojans, and our float was the notorious Trojan Horse. For those of you who have read the Iliad...the Trojan Horse is NOT a good thing for the Trojan side of the War... (oops) and also, it was made from a big refrigerator box, with another box for the neck, and another one for the head and then covered with chicken wire and stuffed with napkins and then spray-painted brown. We put maroon and gold and white streamers for a mane and tail, and a big R on the side for Rigby...but even so, it just looked like a huge ugly boxy thing. And I can say this because I was one of the Jr. Class Officers and helped design and make the thing, and so have a right to say that it was very ugly. All I have to say, is that the Seniors' float must have been HIDEOUS.....

Oh the memories a picture can bring. Thanks for bearing with me folks. :)

What's on Your List Today?

Shopping. It's what we women do best, right? Well. I remember the "good ole days" when I used to spend an entire day just wandering the mall trying on clothes that I didn't need, didn't really like, knew I would never buy but just really wanted to try them on to see what they looked like "off the rack"....the good ole days when I used to spend a fortune of my hard-earned money on perfume for me, colognes for Andy, accessories that I wore once in a while, but that I "just had to have" because they went with a belt that went with some jeans that had stitching that perfectly coordinated with the stitching on a favorite sweater which HAD to have a scarf because a scarf would create "the look" that I wanted when I wore that one hat......

Okay.

Now I'm a MOM. Get real. Yes, I still do some shopping, and yes, I still enjoy it, and yes, I still have style. But. Most of the time...."shopping" really means "errands"....

Today I had a very light load. This is what I bought.

-posterboard for Tay's dinosaur report
-markers for Tay's dinosaur report
-ruler for Tay's math/design projects
-erasers for Rachel
-pencils for Rachel
-new puzzle for Brooklynn
-sippy cups for Matthew
-a toy that has knobs, buttons, levers, (boy things) for Matthew's birthday
-mechanical pencils for Andy
-pens for Andy

AND.......(drum roll)..........

-new sunglasses for ME because once again my sunglasses have been dropped/lost/broken/torn apart/drowned in ocean/dropped off cliff/smashed by bike/sat on by dear husband/accidentally tossed out car window/flown off while waterskiing/stolen.

I don't have much luck with sunglasses.