Random Thoughts Thursday

The best way to make 95 degrees feel cool is to spend a week with cousins in St. George in 108 degree weather hiking, crawdad fishing, swimming and going to plays.

One of the absolute best things about our house is the neighbors. We have one neighbor who has Christmas lights all though the very large trees in her yard...and she turns them on every night. It really is beautiful.

I vacilate between loving my yard and being overwhelmed by the weeds. By the time I've made it around weeding the flowers in the front the part that I weeded first, needs to be weeded again.

Nathan is sleeping for THREE HOURS right now! This is huge because for the last week I've been lucky when he's slept for longer than a hour during the day and a max of a three hour stretch at night....The downsides to vacationing with baby.

Savannah has finally decided on an animal theme for her birthday party. This is option number 200 that has been discussed in the last six months. She is not allowed to switch this option in two days like all of the other ones.

Today I sat down and watched Annie with my girls. It was gloriously relaxing and, I felt, an educational necessity for them.

Random Thoughts Thursday

Before I was pregnant with Nathan and after I had potty-trained Savannah, I talked to my mom about how I might be interested in trying cloth diapers with my next child because I have several friends that use them and love them. She, as a baby gift, bought me a kit of cloth diapers.Me and my big mouth. But today, for whatever reason, mostly just not to waste them I thought I'd give it a go. Things are great so far...but we haven't had any poopies yet.

Since we moved into our house the ice maker in the fridge hasn't worked. A little light next to it flashed red. but it hasn't made the list of things to get taken care of yet. Yesterday for no explicable reason it started working. The red light is still flashing. I'm just grateful to have ice in the summer.

My mother-in-law is staying with us this week. In addition to helping me get a nap, and make my "I forgot an ingredient" run to the store, she has been helping me identify the myriad of plants in my yard that I don't know what they are or how to take care of them.

I just re-read The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. Still loved it, but am now on the hunt for new reads.

I am addicted to two things. Reading and milk. In my ideal world I would read a book and drink an gallon of milk a day. I'm not really joking.

I really will get pictures of our house...promise.

When we moved into our house we decided to get Netflix streaming, and not cable. So far this seems like a good choice for us. Anyone have any Netflix recommendations?

Happy Birthday!

Sorry, no Random Thoughts today, Because today Abbie turns 6. Abbie has grown up so much this year. She is friendly, daring, and fun. She is my adventurer that loves fast bike rides, roller coasters, and slip and slides. She has a tender heart that cares about everyone and everything around her. She makes sure if we find any bugs in the house they are humanely taken outside (she did not get this trait from me). If someone is sad, Abbie tries to do what she can to cheer them up, but this hasn't stopped her from become a hilarious tease. She loves to be silly and crazy and make people laugh.  Abbie has such a strong desire to do what is right even when it might be difficult. Abbie loves reading and math. She was given some math facts to practice over the summer by her old school. I was planning on ignoring them, but she was so excited to do them and asked if she can do more. I love my Abbie so much and am so excited for what this next year will bring for her.

Parenting Advice?

We are one week into Summer Break and if I hear, "I'm booorred!" One more time I think I might scream. I don't believe it is my job to constantly entertain my kids but they seem to want to do nothing but watch My Little Pony's on TV (something I am not okay with). So....how do you encourage your children to play with their toys, go outside, get creative, or sadly just have fun when they are boooored?

Random Thoughts Thursday (Friday Edition)

Sometime I'll get back on the ball to doing these on Thursdays. Now I'm just grateful to remember to post anything.

For all those wanting pictures of the house I apologize. At the moment you would see pictures of half set up rooms, combined with boxes everywhere and decorations on the floor because we don't know what to do with them. I'll get to it, it just might take a bit.

I went geocaching with the girls today! We found one of the two caches we were looking for. I find this an incredibly addicting activity. The girls like treasure hunting.

Nate Update: Nathan's nick name, at least from me, has been Mr. Smiley. He is such a happy kid and very content with the world.

Russ has to work late tonight and some this weekend. Blast.

We got a new washer and dryer yesterday The benefit was twofold. First, I actually enjoyed doing laundry. Second, the girls got a big cardboard box to decorate and turn into a house.

Savannah is starting to read. She is so proud of herself and wants to do it All by myself!

Random Thoughts Thursday (Sunday Edition)

Three things that don't mix well :
 1. Texting while driving
 2. Drinking orange juice after brushing your teeth
 3. Moving with a three-month-old baby

We finally moved into our house!! I'm so excited, although being surrounded by boxes is not my favorite.

I think it took Nathan having his own room to finally take a decent nap. Somehow sleeping in the hall wasn't conducive to rest.

I just finished reading The Journal of Best Practices. It is a memoir of a man who, at age thirty discovered he had Asburgers and how he worked to save his marriage. The language is not great, but the story is awesome, especially if like all the in-laws in my family, you are married to someone slightly obsessive.

Abbie graduated from Kindergarten this week. The girl next to her started to cry that school was over. Abbie? She has been counting down the days to summer.

Savannah has been counting down the days until she starts preschool. Unfortunately, that isn't until September.

My brother is probably going to be moving to Australia for three years. I'm sad, but mostly jealous.

When we were unpacking Savannah found a necklace that says, "I am Cinderella," when you push a button. I had so hoped that it had been thrown away.

My other brother and his wonderful girlfriend just came down from Seattle for a surprise visit. I really missed them.

Random Thoughts Thursday

When I have a lot going on in my life I tend to try to rush to get it all done so I can move past the stress. Moving doesn't really lend itself to that strategy.

I thought I'd put in some pictures of the kids that we took a few weeks ago. They don't have anything to do with anything, but because this blog is my weak excuse to never have to make a scrapbook, I wanted to get some pictures in here on occasion.

Nate Update: With today being the exception, Nate is a chill baby. He just takes it easy wherever he is. He loves his binki and has started to smile. His smile is so joyful, as if he is so excited and proud at what he can do that it just explodes on his face. He is smothered loved by his sisters, mom, dad, grandparents, aunts and uncles every chance they get, and he seems to love it.

 I know it isn't normal to be back in my pre-pregnancy clothes just two months after having a baby, so I don't really expect to be....but I do just wish I more than three outfits that fit.

I am so very ready for Abbie to be done with Kindergarten. We need summer around here.

This week Russ has been enjoying the joys of home ownership. Which in this case has meant he has been over at the house every night until late trying to fix the sprinkler system. Just when he has one problem fixed, another arises.

Random Thoughts Thursday (Friday Edition)

Yesterday we closed on our house! And today everything was sent, recorded, and signed! So now we are officially in a lot of debt.....and homeowners! (Yes, the overuse of exclamation marks is necessary here.)

As I've looked back over this process to get to this home that has been years and years in coming, it has reaffirmed my belief that God knows me, loves me, and His plan for my life is so much better than the plan I keep praying up to Him day after day.

Today I made a goofy comment to my girls as we were driving to the store. Abbie asked, "Mom are you being funny?"

 "Yes," I replied, "I was just being silly."

To which, she said, "I'll move you up to a two on silly. Daddy is, well, he is about 100, I am 90, Savannah is 80, and you are 2....well you can be 20......no you are 2 on silly." Clearly my whit is lost on my children. It did however make me laugh. A lot.

I think we are going to buy this couch from Macys. It's taken me awhile to not think that it looks like a restaurant bench or a grandma couch.  My husband and a few others have...almost convinced me it is the trend of the future.

Well the kids are hungry, gotta run!

I Hate Shopping

I am possibly the only woman in America to feel this way but I do. When I shop for clothes I feel fat, clueless about style, and my eyes are always bigger than my wallet. When I shop for food the yummy stuff always has just too many calories to justify..and then I buy it anyway.

These days I'm shopping for a couch. When I shop for furniture I feel much the same way as when I shop for clothes, clueless about style and with eyes bigger than my wallet (thankfully not fat). In the last month, I have been to about 10 furniture stores in my area. Through much discussion my husband and I have finally come to an agreement on what we want. A gray mid-century modern couch with a smooth back.

We saw the perfect couch online, under a blog about mid-century modern furniture at reasonable prices. After looking at stores in our area that carry the couch.....we found that their definition of reasonable is about three times what our definition was.

We went to the big furniture store....nothing really modern.

We went to the "modern" furniture stores......nothing even resembling reasonable.

Today I went to look at two couches we had seen online on Crate & Barrel (which store I am now in love with, despite my hatred for shopping.)

On the first couch, the color online looked nothing like the color in real life. On the second, it was too small, designed to be the perfect couch for an apartment.

As I was walking around I was feeling at my wits end. Then I saw their bedding. Russ and I also need a new duvet cover as ours is the one we got for our wedding....eight years ago....and is barely holding it together. The designs were fun, funky, and bold, and just the change we need from where we are. I called Russ. He looked online and we agreed on a design.

I could ignore the fact that along with the duvet I had to buy pillow shams that cost almost as much as the duvet itself. (Seriously? Who came up with that racket?.) I could ignore the reality that to really make the bed look like the one in the display, I had to purchase an extra blanket in a complimenting color, along with several hundred dollars in throw pillows (which also cost a ridiculous amount for fabric and stuffing). I could ignore this because finally, after weeks of looking and leaving empty handed I could leave a store with an actual purchase! A duvet cover! I could cross one item of my list as completed! I could say I was finished with shopping for this particular item and move forward.

I went to make the purchase.

The duvet is out of stock. It wont be in stock until mid-June.

Random Thoughts Thursday

I had this thought going through my mind all week that I wanted to post on Random Thoughts....now for the life of me I can't remember what it is.

While we are waiting to close on our house, I honestly want to drive over to the house every day and just look in the window. To bad I have a to do list a mile long.

Any Youtube videos that are your primary time wasters these days? (Sadly even with all I have to do I want to know.) This (along with everything else they do) is mine.

Updates on Nathan. He is now ten pounds, and moving from being my smallest baby to my biggest. He loves to smile, and his sisters and parents love to make him smile. He is also on track to be my most chill child. (Knock on wood.)

Shopping for furniture fun. Shopping for plumbers, electricians, and insurance, less so.

Random Thoughts Thursday

WE FOUND A HOUSE!!!  And it is close to the canyon. I am thrilled.

I love sleep, especially eight hours right in a row. This love is one of the reasons that the baby stage is so challenging for me. One of the up sides, babies don't whine.

I saw this off of  a link on my sister-in-law's blog. It is awesome.

Remember the offer if you want to decorate my home....still good. I don't think most of you will understand the extreme stress it is for me to think about decorating my home. It is the complete opposite of fun for me.

I just finished Stephanie Nielson's memoir. So very good. But have a box of Kleenex handy.

Today in the car Savannah asked what tomorrow is. I told her it was Friday. She then asked if Friday was when the elephant's smash the pumpkins. It took ten minutes of conversation with both girls to realize she was asking if Friday was Thanksgiving, during which, at the zoo, they give the elephants pumpkins to smash..... One of the many reasons I love my girls.

My Socially Acceptable Addiction

"Hello. My name is Emily."

"Hello, Emily."

"And I am.....a reader."

"Emily, when did you start reading?"

"I've been reading since I was a child. I mean really it made sense. My parents are readers and so they had books all over our home, so I had the access. My mother even read books to us, before we could read ourselves, which they say is a risk factor, so it really was only a matter of time. But, as is common, my reading really took off in adolesense. In seventh grade, all of my friends moved away so I would go to the library every day and check out two books and have them read by the time I went to school the next day."

"Whoa."

"I know. It was nothing heavy, just Sweet Valley High, but Elizabeth and Jessica got me through that year until I made new friends. "

"So when did you feel like you became, you know, an addicted reader?"

"It came on gradually over my life. In childhood I would reread the same books over and over again. The Boxcar Children, Heidi, The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, and Little Women. In high school it was the classics, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, the Brontes. I actually took somewhat of a break in college because my reading was so closely tied to school that when I had free time books were the last place I looked, but during breaks I would always binge. After college, I started expanding past the classics that consumed me in high school and explored modern authors until I found my niche. Now, I read memoirs and fiction, mostly. But I've started even reading the newspaper (online of course). Reading impacts my sleep, I often stay up late to finish a book because I HAVE  to find out what happens!"

"We've been there. We know."

 I read when I eat (but only at lunch so no one will suspect.) I even started reading after I had my baby...in the hospital."

"No."

"Yes.I read when I nurse.  And sometimes my kids, who I know have been exposed to books now because of my behavior, will ask me to put my book down and pay attention."

"We understand."

"I avoid housework, especially laundry so I can read."

"We are here to help, what can we do?"

"Well, the reason I'm here is I'm almost done with the last book on my reading list.........So, do you have any recommendations?"