Tagged

I was tagged and am finally getting around to doing this. I asked Macy these questions and here are her answers. I am not sure she understood what I asked her.

1. What is something mom always says to you? "To not do stuff"
2. What makes mom happy? “By not hitting my sister and not eating candy unless you say I can."
3. What makes mom sad? “By not doing stuff that is not right. You do not get into candy until mom says you can."
4. How does your mom make you laugh? “Mmm. I don't know. By making us happy."
5. What was your mom like as a child? “You used to get into stuff."
6. How old is your mom? counting on her fingers, "9"
7. How tall is your mom? “I don't know.”
8. What is her favorite thing to do? "I don't know"
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? "clean up the house"
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? "I don't know."
11. What is your mom really good at? "I don't know. I can't answer these questions. I don't know how"
12. What is your mom not very good at? “basketball"
13. What does your mom do for her job? “to do chores”
14. What is your mom's favorite food? "macaroni and cheese"
15. What makes you proud of your mom? "By being happy"
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? "care bear"
17. What do you and your mom do together? "watch a movie as a family"
18. How are you and your mom the same? "I don't know."
19. How are you and your mom different? "By different names"
20. How do you know your mom loves you? "The Macy"

What a Compliment

Tonight was a stake Laurel & Priest activity (16 to 18 years old girls and boys in my church). As the laurel advisor I went mainly so I could drive girls to the activity because we discourage them from driving to activities for safety reasons. Well I only had one girl in my car, Vanessa, and when we got to the park she saw some of her male friends. Not wanting to be in the way I slipped on over to the rest of the leaders across the field and let her make her way with her friends. Later on when I drove Vanessa home she told me that after I left, her male friends wanted to know who her friend was. She kind of laughed and said "you mean my advisor?" They thought I looked too young to be a leader.

I was so excited to come home and tell Brian that his pregnant wife received a compliment like that.

Oh the things they say and do

Kelsey has been getting in trouble for using potty words. She would say them to make her sister laugh and she would say them as a way of name calling. On Saturday night Kelsey got mad at me and shouts "You potty word, mom". At least she has stopped using them.

On Sunday Macy showed her very discreet nature. During Sacrament Meeting, she sat on Brian's lap. All of the sudden she gets this disgusted look on her face and she starts pushing away from Brian saying "Eww, gross. Your breath really stinks." She tries to sit back but immediately does the same thing saying "Your breath stinks bad" and pushes herself off Brian and gets as far away as she can from him. Now mind you Macy's whisper is really her regular voice down, maybe, just a notch. I believe this took place during the Sacrament hymn, so a time when everyone is being really reverent and quiet. Brian was just waiting for her to shout it out because that is what follows at home. She must have gotten away quick enough. Note: Brian did snag himself a piece of gum afterwards. I didn't have any mints or gum in my own purse, but I think I might start carrying them to avoid my child embarrassing me.

Sometimes People Say it Better Than Me

My friend, Ashley, from California wrote a wonderful post about why she is voting for the marriage proposition in her state. I think it is applicable to Arizona and it follows my same sentiment. She gives all the same reasons that I am voting yes to proposition 102 here in Arizona.

Laundry Tip #1 & 2

If you leave the clean laundry in the baskets for a week, you will have less to fold. Of course you may spend more time digging in the morning. Besides does it really matter if socks and under garments are wrinkled. And another thing do socks and undergarments really wrinkle.

If you leave clean sheets in the hamper, you never have to fold them. Just swap the old for the new and start the process all over again. No one better be seeing if your sheets are wrinkled besides you and your spouse. And after sleeping in them once, no more wrinkles.

These tips seem to be followed more easily on busy weeks.

News Flash

I just saw a gas station with prices below $3. Of course it was $2.99 and 9/10ths so pretty much 3, but I saw a 2. What is with the 9/10ths? Is it so that it is easier to calculate the gallons more precisely or is it someone mind trick for the little folk? In no other industry could you get away with charging a percentage. Can you imagine going to the counter of a clothing store and the total is $31.07 and 1/2. Would you round up or down? What do you do when you go to the gas station and somehow magically hit exactly 1 gal? Do you ask for a 1/10th credit? Weird!

Silly Kids

Kelsey has found a new phrase she likes to use. "Well... Dad said so." She will ask for something and I will say no and that is what she replies. He will have been at work all day and she still gives me that excuse. I just say "Well... Dad isn't around." Sometimes I throw in there "you haven't even asked your dad."

Melodrama. Macy is a little melodramatic. Yesterday a bug bit her and so of course it itched this morning. I used some anti-itch stuff but that doesn't always work. So for 5-10 minutes she is rolling on the ground, rubbing her leg on the carpet, and crying and moaning about how it still itches. She gets this way when she is sick too. It is so very pleasant for a mom who is supposed to be compassionate. Sometimes I want to say buck up. Okay, I think I have before but it doesn't work.

Last night she decided to play with a knife while I was on the phone. She got a minuscule cut and came in here crying. The problem was I had just used the last band aid on a real cut. She was crying ouch, ouch, ouch. I am sure the YM president, who I was on the phone with, thought I was a heartless mom when he overheard me tell her to be quiet and she shouldn't have been playing with a knife and that it wasn't that bad. After the phone call I informed her that we had no more band aids because bleeding sore can have band aids and that makes everything wonderful again. Wrong choice. More melodrama came from her vocal chords. Well I looked at her hands and realized that most of the pain was due to the fact that her hands were filthy. So I sent her into the bathroom to wash. This time she came back in fake crying and screaming because she couldn't find the cut anymore. I tried to tell her this was a good thing because it meant it was gone. She just cried some more and kept looking over both her hands trying to find it because it was awful for that the cut disappeared.

Another melodramatic moment came several months ago when she asked what the hard part was on her elbow. The answer was a bone. She got mad and wanted me to take the bone out. She didn't want any bones. I tried to explain that we needed our bones and that I couldn't take it out. She didn't believe me and then the drama came. Over the course of a days she asked me about leg bones, arm bones and back bones getting upset each time that I couldn't get rid of them. She didn't want bones and would cry and moan each time. Finally she has accepted the fact that she has bones and there is nothing we can do about it. Occasionally she will ask about a bone but there is no more drama.

Last Week

Three important events took place last week. The first was we cooled off into the high 70s over the weekend. At night the low was around 54 degrees. It was great to awake wrapped up in blankets and not have our air conditioner turn on for two whole days.

This weather made one of the other events blissful. On Saturday we put in our winter lawn. For those of you who don't know but the perennial grass that grows here can't take cold or frosts so it goes dormant in the winter. I don't mind this because this perennial is called Bermuda and it is such an awful grass. It isn't soft and comfortable to sit on and it is the worst weed I have ever seen. You should see the strangling runners it sends out. Anyways, so we can have green lawn in the winter we scalp the lawn and put rye seed down. This rye grass is so green and is the softest grass. I love to just go outside and lay on this blanket of nature. I can't wait for it to start growing. We did do it a little differently this year so we hope it grows. To save time and money we did not cover it with a compost or mulch. Some people have said that it is not necessary so we tried it. Besides golf courses don't do this step. The problem is I think it give the birds easier access to the seed and we have flocks on it every time I turn around. It is the girls job to chase the birds away.

The other event was a fun murder mystery party my friend Carri and I hosted. I let everything in my life go to pot to work on my costume and do things for the party, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Because of this lack of chores I am playing catch up this week. (I guess that is not entirely true. The weather was so nice on Monday and Tuesday that I took the kids to the park all day on Monday and for a couple of hours on Tuesday and that threw things off too.)

Carri did such a great job of writing about our party that I will just link you to her post if you want to read more and check out all the wonderful costumes. It was really fun and I would recommend this type of party to anyone. The only problem is that you are limited to the number of guests you can invite which is dependent upon the package you buy. As a side note, we have always purchased a clean version of a murder mystery. We don't really want to find out what the normal version entails because the clean ones still involve some affairs, obviously a murder, blackmail, and bribery. Just nothing graphic. For instance, at the party my husband was not Brian but at least I was interested in Brian.

Of course I forgot to get a picture of my whole costume, so a sideways shot will have to do. Poor Brian was made fun of all night for his small guns. We borrowed some kid ones from a friend. Everyone else seemed to find larger ones.

Confessions

A couple of weeks ago I lied in church to a friend and this was no white lie. Does it count that I had a good excuse? During Sunday School I had to get up and leave in the middle of the lesson because of a bad stomach pain. I went and used the restroom and one the way back I saw a friend in the hall. I mentioned to her that I was debating about returning because I didn't want to have to walk in front of all those people again. She asked if I was pregnant because that is why women usually have to use the bathroom so often and would have to leave in the middle of class instead of waiting until the end. I laughed and said no it was because I forgot to go before class when my kids went and I really had go. That was my lie (I was able to come up with that on the spot, how bad is that?). I am pregnant, but I hadn't told any family yet and felt bad for letting it leak before I told my mom. I also worry about miscarriage. I don't want to have to tell everyone the sad news. Brian thinks I am funny for waiting so long before sharing the news.

Who knows why I had a bad stomach pain that day. I might have been sick with a little virus (Brian was sick for a week) or it could have been the slowing of my digestive system because of the pregnancy and it being my third. The body starts to remember more quickly with each child.

To some this third child just proves that Macy is the boss of our home. Ever since July she has been commenting about how small our family is and that she needs another brother or sister. In Utah she comes up to me and says "we need a boy baby" right in front of everyone. Sometimes she counts each member (which totals 4) and says we need more kids, sometimes she is specific and says we need 2 boys because we only have one boy and three girls. These moments have not been rare. To calm any fears out there, we are in control of the family. I think she is just a little more in touch with the pre-mortal and knew someone would be coming soon. I think she also was the answer to tell us that we had made the correct decision. Of course I might have to put my foot down if she says something about 12 kids.

When asked what the girls want, a boy or a girl, Kelsey says "a princess baby" and Macy says a boy because of the logistics of everything being even. We will see how in tune she really is.

For those wanting to know the details: I am 13 1/2 weeks along, so just starting the second trimester. The due date is April 10th, right before Macy's birthday. She won't let us forget that. Because of this she thinks her birthday is almost here.

Our Week in a Nutshell

Well it has been over week again, but it has been a great week. It even cooled off for us this weekend. Below is a picture of the pumpkin Macy made and painted at school this week. She was so excited to bring it home and show us.

Last Sunday at church our Primary (children ages 3-12) put on a program about what they have learned this year. Macy loves to sing and has been practicing the songs for weeks. During family home evening she has to lead the music(because she is the boss and divides out the assignments) and when she does she imitates the primary chorister. She tries to do all the actions to remind us of the words. It is really cute. She uses a plant stand as the music stand and finds the right song in the Primary song book by looking at the pictures that accompany some of the songs. Obviously she is not always on the right page but she doesn't know that. Anyways, she had her part memorized and we tried to build up her confidence so she would go up in front of the congregation. Up until this point she has not sung with the other kids when they sang on mother's day or father's day. She is so nervous about being in front of large groups. I have also given a talk, a scripture, and a prayer in primary this year. Macy has hidden behind my legs each time. Maybe next year. So Sacrament meeting came and I asked an older friend of hers to help her go up front. That didn't work. She wouldn't go with Shea. I was so sad because I didn't think she would go and I as a mother had been waiting for this day. Finally she agreed to go up if I walked her to the front. Of course most of the kids were in place by this time and I was afraid I would have to sit on the stand or there might be a melt down. Luckily her courage kicked in and half way there she ran to her place. She sang every song and did not embarrass her parents. She didn't smile either, but neither did any of the other kids her age. I was so proud of her. Maybe next year I won't have to give a talk in primary.

This week my friend Carri and I got together to plan a Halloween party. Last year she did it all and she did a murder mystery. We had so much fun that we wanted to do it again this year. Because of the date we could do it we had to rush some things, so we put together and confirmed a guest list and then I assigned the characters (a fun task at times and not so fun at others, in fact my husband for the night is not Brian). After that I had to rush to get the invitations out so people could have some time to put together their costume. Monday Carri and I are getting together to hammer out the details. We are so excited.

This week the girls and I went to lunch with a bunch of friends. I always have a great time because I get some adult conversation time.

Friday night Brian and I went out on a date and Macy and Kelsey went to a friend's house. We are doing a babysitting swap with some friends. I think the kids really enjoy it. I know Brian and I enjoyed it and we are hoping our wallet enjoys it. We like to go out once a week just the two of us and that can get a little pricey.

Yesterday was a big day. I spent all day canning peaches. My friend Lara and I decided we could do this if we did it together. We are both trying real hard to get our food storage in order. We ordered 3 boxes of peaches from Utah (they are soooo good) and washed out our jars and met at 9 AM. We finished 46 quart jars at 4:40 PM. Not too bad for a full days work.

Brian kindly took care of the kids all day and what a dad he was. He painted the girls fingernails and their toenails. He got the lunch and dinner. I think the best part for Macy was when he gave them their new power wheels. He has been dying to give them one for I don't know how long. We didn't want to give it to them on a particular birthday because joint ownership would never happen. So this week I happened to do some looking on Craigslist and found the perfect used one. We picked it up as part of our date night.

Macy loves it. Kelsey not so much. Her dislike or fear may come from the fact that Macy ran her down two times. I don't know how long Macy was on it with dad, but during the priesthood session of General Conference she made us go out again and she rode it for another hour until I said we had to stop and run an errand. Kelsey during this time picked flowers and played with some magnet dolls (the new paper doll). Macy likes to go fast, skid the tires and drive it off the curb (Brian had to tell her to stop doing this). Do we see some more differences in personality?