The Truth Hurts

The other day Bennett drew this picture of our house. I asked him to tell me about it. He pointed to different rooms and explained that dad was eating breakfast in the kitchen(some scribble somewhere) and he was on the stairs. I then asked him who the person was in the top right corner of the house. He said "That is you mom laying on the couch with your pillow." Apparently I lay on the couch so much that is the one thing he thinks about when he decides to draw me. Forget about all the times he has seen me do more productive things (cook, clean, read, laundry). He just remembers the lazy side. I guess I had better get off the couch!

It worked!

Now I am not recommending breaking a kid's arm to get rid of thumb sucking, but if it accidentally happens, thank your lucky stars! It appears that the thumb sucking habit is officially broken. I did go out and buy Bennett a bunch of Power Rangers. He got one for every three days he did not suck his thumb. If I caught him sucking, then I would take them all away. He did great! I think the hardest part on my half was trying to explain to a four year old what every three days meant. He wasn't too thrilled about the wait time. In fact, he was trying to convince me that he could trade in his old Power Ranger for a new one, so he didn't have to wait the required time. That didn't fly.

Thankful

Call me crazy, but one of the things I am thankful for are shelves. When we moved into this house over a year ago there were no shelves. Ample space, just nowhere to put anything. So as embarrassing as it is, this is how my storage room has looked for the past year. It was neat when we started, but when you are continually trying to find stuff, you just forget trying to keep it that way.



For the past six months I have tried to convince Scott to go buy shelves from Costco. He wouldn't budge. My frugal, do-it-yourself husband will not buy anything that he can make. So my wait is now over and I have wonderful shelves! And I will even admit, they are much better than anything I could have bought at Costco.

True Enough

Flashback Friday - Balloon Fiesta 2004

Although we are very glad Scott's parents moved up here last year, one thing we will miss about Albuquerque is going down to the International Balloon Fiesta. We have loved going to the fiesta and watching 700+ hot air balloons take off in waves. They claim that it is the most photographed event in the world and I believe it. Yes, we have to get up extremely early in the morning. I think it is still considered the middle of the night. And yes, it is very cold (one of my favorite parts). But every time we go we get excited all over again about all of the different balloons. That and the fact that you get to walk around the field and get a close-up view of them all is pretty cool as well.

These are pictures of the last time we went to the fiesta back in 2004. Taylor was 4 1/2 and Ben Ben was 1 1/2. They both thought the balloons were great and if I remember correctly, it was not as cold as it normally is. The boys loved picking out the shape balloons. We have seen everything from beer cans to rockets and everything in between!

Emily

I'm an irresponsible reader. I always have been. I am not one that can read a few chapters of a book at bedtime. When I start a book, or series for that matter, I read gung ho until they are done. So you can imagine the state of my house when this happens. Unfortunately, it happens more than it should. As soon as I finish a book I am itching to start a new one. I love to read. I have always loved to read. I enjoy re-reading my old favorites just as much as reading new books. I remember when I was young reading the "Little House on the Prairie" books over and over. I still have my original ones and they have definitely been well loved.

Yesterday I finished reading the "Emily" series by L. M. Montgomery. I haven't read them in years. They are a very similar, yet not so famous, and just as good of a series as "Anne of Green Gables." I must give credit to my mom for starting me on L.M. Montgomery. "Anne of Green Gables" is one of her favorite books and I remember her reading it to me and my sister when I was 10 years old. That love has definitely passed on. Thank You Mom!

So what makes a good book a good book? One thing - and it can be found in "Emily Climbs." Emily is an aspiring writer who likes to get opinions of her writing from her teacher Mr. Carpenter. Her latest story, "Hidden Riches" is not so good. "... It's a machine. It creaks. It never made me forget for one instant that it was a story. Hence it isn't a story." So that, my friends is what makes a good book good and why I love to read so much.

I have promised myself to lay off the books for the rest of November so I can get some much needed things done around my house! Now, where are those "Little House" books anyways?

Loaded Pajamas

How many things can you fit in your p.j.'s? Owen can fit a lot. Last night Owen walked into Scott's office and was pulling stuff out of his p.j.'s looking for his hammer. The hammer was not in there, but all of this stuff was. You would think it would be difficult to get around with all this baggage, but he had no problem with marbles, sticks and various toys jostling about. Funny kid.

Taylor's Talent Show

Have you every agreed to do something and then put it to the back of your mind? Ever day you know that it is coming up, but you are not sure when and you don't bother to find out? Well, maybe you don't do that, but occasionally I do. That's what happened with the talent show at Taylor's school. One of Taylor's fellow Tae Kwon Do students asked Taylor if he wanted to be in the talent show with her. He said yes, I said sure and that was the last time I really thought about it. Sure enough, two days before the big show her mom calls me to confirm. "Uh yes ...I remember that. When is it again? In TWO DAYS? Sure no problem." She then goes on to ask me if I wouldn't mind talking to their instructor, Master Augustine and remind him about helping them out at the show. Luckily, he remembered and was more than willing to help them. It turned out great despite the fact that I did not do anything other than show up. I wish everything was like that!

Of course, you may be sick of Tae Kwon Do pictures and movies, but to be honest I spend 5 days a week down at the studio, so it is hard to ignore it. So feel free to skip this if you can't stand to hear another KIOP! This is the shortest of the 3 video clips. The others would take way to long to upload.

Tom Turkey

Homework Challenge - Disguise Tom Turkey. I think we did pretty good.

All Better

Yesterday Bennett had his cast taken off. You would think he would be thrilled about having his arm back, but instead he is treating it like he doesn't know what to do with it. He won't use it because it "feels funny" and is "still a little bit broken." That is understandable. So for now it is just hanging limply by his side. Hopefully soon he will realize he has a perfectly good arm ready to use and make his life easier. I will also be watching him closely to see if he tries to start sucking his thumb again. I have promised him Power Rangers if he doesn't suck it. I think I will take him down to Target and let him pick one out. Then I can display it at home as a motivation not to start again.

I've got myself a Howler

4 howlers to be exact. As if my house isn't loud and chaotic enough, my boys have decided they need to get our dog involved in the noise as well. She has been debarked so she makes hardly any noise, but she can howl - quite well. She just needs a little encouragement which my boys are more than happy to supply.

Flashback Friday - Our first home

While talking to my friend on the phone the other day, she told me of a great idea that she is doing with her blog. Every Friday is flashback Friday. Which means you post something from your past, be it a long time ago or more recently. I thought this was a great idea so I will attempt to keep this up. Maybe not every Friday though - we will see. And yes I realize that I am posting this on Saturday instead of Friday, but my idea came on what I wanted to post today.

Last night Scott and I went out to eat at my favorite restaurant, The Bombay House, down in Provo. It is only about 2 blocks away from the house that we lived in right after we were married. Good thing we didn't know about this place then, or we would have been poorer than we were. Because the wait was at least 45 minutes, we decided to take a walk over and see how it is holding up. Unfortunately it is looking worse, rather than better. Thanks to student living the entire block is rather shabby now. Scott and I both concluded that we are glad to be out of Provo and out of the basement.

As I thought of what to post I decided to dig up some old photos of our place. This was way back in 1996. Digital cameras were non-existent back then. In fact, Scott had just bought his first computer right before we were married. I figured the easiest thing to do was to take pictures of my scrapbook pages and post them. I don't know what is more amusing to look at, the pictures or my natural talent for scrapbooking at such an early age!

It's funny to see what I had in my first house. See the ugly couches? We left the big one there because it was incredibly uncomfortable and we couldn't get it out of the basement. The love seat we took and still have to this day. As ugly as it is, it is quite comfortable. It is now sitting in my craft room. One of the many reasons why my craft room isn't anything to look at. The bookshelf is now painted black and is in my dining room with its twin. The TV is also in my craft room.

Scott and I look like pups. What were we 16 or 17? Well I was close, 20 at the time. Notice my Girbaud jeans and my oversized tucked in shirt. In the very top picture Scott is wearing his "favorite shirt." I finally threw it away when it had more holes than it came with. Scott still gives me a hard time about getting rid of it. I think every time he goes to the store he longingly looks for a new one. To this day, he loves to hang on to everything and I love purging my house!

What is This?

I walk into the laundry room this morning and stop dead when I see this in my laundry basket. My first thought is "Who pooped in my laundry basket?" Notice my first thought isn't "Why is there...?" or "How on earth did...?" or "That couldn't be...?" I've gotten way past that. You see this sort of thing doesn't surprise me anymore. I'm use to finding all sorts of unappealing (to put it lightly) items around my house. Now it's just a matter of figuring out who did it this time.

First I think of our dog Maylee. I'm not sure why because she never has accidents in the house and I can't imagine her jumping into a laundry basket to poop. So I move on to other suspects. Bennett? Owen maybe? I am fairly confident I can rule out myself and Scott. Next I decide I need to confirm that it is actual poop or some other unrecognizable substance that one of my boys has left for me to find. Yes moms, you know how I have to confirm this is poop. I have to do the sniff test. I go in for the smell and then study it a little bit more. My conclusion - a chewed up Reeses candy bar and wrapper. And of course, once I figured out what it is I can solve who did it quite easily - Owen. This is one of his trademark behaviors. So considering he has been sampling candy constantly today I will not be surprised to find more of his rejects around the house.