I Deserve a Break

I felt like giving myself a pat on the back so I am writing this post. I had set aside this day to clean. It had a rough start. I felt like it took forever before I could get myself ready for the day. I think this happened by about 9:30 AM. I made the difficult decision to skip my workout and institute because it was such a slow going morning. I also told myself that I will workout tonight and/or the amount of work I did equaled my workout. There was no reasoning for institute besides I will go next week.

Even though it was a rough start this morning I was able to finish up at 1:30 PM and I do have to say the house looks wonderful. I did have to take a lunch break. I can't believe kids have to eat throughout the day.

The best part about cleaning is Brian showed me the 80s XM radio station through our Direct TV. I openly admit I love 80s music. I know the words to many of them, but don't ask me the titles or artist. There are exceptions to this. The same goes with music from the 90s. Brian knew as soon as he found it that I would be hooked and I am. It made the chores so much more enjoyable. It is amazing what music can do for you. This music is another reason I don't need to workout because I did do a little dancing while cleaning and eating lunch.

The other reason I deserve a break is because yesterday I played the good mom and took my kids to the park for lunch day. There is a group that usually takes their kids to some eatery on Wednesday afternoons, but yesterday was an early release day at the schools so the park was a perfect option. The problem was it was 98+ degrees outside. I don't want to complain too much because I really enjoy chatting with all my friends and yesterday was no exception. The kids also had a great time because there were some many other friends to play with. I just had to take another shower when I got home. Thanks for planning this Emily and Karen.

So tonight the kids are going to bed early and I am going to watch some of my TV shows. Brian has some things going on so I don't think I will make it to Relief Society, but if I do that will be a break too.

Some Favorite Products This Week

Goo Gone Mess-Free Pen: This is like magic. I used to believe that there was no way to get gum off of clothing and shoes. A WHOLE LOT of elbow grease and some ice cubes helped a little. The chisel tip on the pen and whatever chemicals makes it an easy job. If they could event something for hair that wouldn't kill the kids, then we would be in business. PS For those of you who throw gum out your car window, please stop. Honestly, is gum going to biodegrade on asphalt? No it just gets stickier in the heat and is bound to end up on the bottom of my shoe (even if it is tossed on the freeway).

Grease Monkeys: My cousin in Utah recommended this place on her blog and then one opened up right by my house. I decided to give it a try one day and it was great. The place was clean and the staff friendly. I believe they had hot chocolate chip cookies but I didn't stay around to find out. The best part is that it took them 10 to 15 minutes to do my oil change. They said that they are really slow because of the economy and because they are new to the neighborhood. Their price isn't Walmart, but it is the same as Jiffy Lube and some of the others.

Green Works All Purpose Cleaner: I decided to try this because I had a coupon and then I felt better about letting my kids really get in and help clean. If I forget to make them wash their hands after, I don't worry too much. It works really well and has a great scent. The only problem is I don't believe it disinfects and I like to have clean toilets.

Least Favorite Product: Generic window cleaner from the dollar store. I was at the dollar store and walked by some of this I remembered I was out. Big mistake. It tends to leave awful streaks and no matter how much I wipe there is still streaks. If the paper towel is remotely wet, there is no hope so you use twice as many paper towels.

Is this safe?

My kids sometimes love to help. Macy did a wonderful job cleaning up the playroom yesterday and it required very little persuasion on my part. Kelsey is still not sure about helping out. She generally refuses to pick up and will only set out her placemat for dinner. Heaven for bid that she set out a few other things or clear her plate. She does have her moments and likes to help with the bathroom sometimes.

The one thing they both love to help with is shredding paper (mostly junk mail about credit cards). I had let this stack pile up quite a bit so yesterday I sat down to the task. When Macy heard the shredder going she was quickly up from her nap and sitting down beside me ready to put papers in. Kelsey soon followed and all I had to do was hand them a paper each time their hands were empty. I am grateful for the help but a thought of safety did cross my mind when I saw the warning symbol of the hand being placed in the paper slot with a cross through it. I warned the girls and Macy over reacted and was very melodramatic about putting each paper in. Kelsey took no heed so I watched her carefully. As long as they are helping and I unplug it when I am out of the room I guess I will let them help.

She is Destined to Be a Great Mother

Last Thursday I watched a friend's baby during my time for the babysitting swap. Well Macy just loves all babies. The minute the baby came into the house she was right by him. She was begging me to take him out of the car seat so she could hold him. As soon as he was out she scooped him up and held him for 30 minutes. She played with him, gave him his binky, tried to rock him to sleep, had him watch TV with her, etc. When he wanted to be laid on the ground she brought toys and made him laugh. She is such a nurturer and a lover. We would have never guessed that when she was little. She wasn't much of a cuddler. Of course the call of other friends took her away, but she came back often to check on him.

Last Saturday night we had our friends the Knoblocks over and they have a baby. Again Macy was all over the baby. Kelsey even got in on it a bit. They could easily make Ava laugh and giggle and had such fun doing it.

Since we have no babies in the house, Kelsey has become the designated baby. When they play Macy calls her baby, picks her up, carries her, puts her to bed, gives her doll binkies and rocks her. Kelsey usually plays along and does the baby talk thing and crawls around dragging her blanket from her mouth.

The girl is destined for great things. She has such wonderful potential and I can't wait to see her fulfill her roll in this life. She is so caring and loving that I hope she will learn to use that to "lift the weary and strengthen the weak" and to have charity for all mankind. In fact I know she can teach her mom a thing or two. I am so glad she is part of our family.

Faulty planning

2 weeks ago I went to a church luau. Brian was supposed to come but wasn't feeling well that day so we cancelled the babysitter and I left Brian at home with the kids. I had a wonderful time laughing with friends and was in great spirits when I came home. Brian on the other hand was in okay spirits, mainly because he wasn't feeling the best. And secondly just before the kids bedtime, Macy went down the hall and slammed all the doors shut. She slammed the bathroom door so hard that it caused the cabinet drawer closest to the door to open. So what is the problem with this you might ask. Well the bathroom door opens into the room so the basically the door was locked without a key. It could only open a half an inch. The first thought was to remove the knob and stick a hand through to shut the drawer, but the screws to the knob were located on the opposite side. Then he thought about taking the door off the hinges. Problem here too. The hinges are also on the other side of the door. He tried to find something to work for 30 minutes. Then enter me. He shows me the dilemma. I go through the same thought process. Then I start to panic because I am thinking we will have to saw through the door to solve the problem and then we would have buy a new door (of course then I could get new doors on all the rooms). While Brian watched some football, I fiddled around. I got a hanger and contorted it to see if I could somehow use leverage and the new shape to push the drawer closed. (I wish I could draw my mental picture of this tool.) Alas the hanger was not strong enough for the task but it did uncover another evil. A roll of toilet paper had rolled off the counter into the drawer at the start of this fiasco. There was no way the drawer would shut with that in there. I thought we were doomed to one bathroom. Luckily my hanger had grabbed an end of the toilet paper, so I unraveled the whole thing to get it small enough to shut the drawer. We wasted a lot of toilet paper. Then Brian came back with some flimsy 3 foot tall sticks he found in the garage. He slid those under the door, got his hand under as far as it would go (to about his palm) and tried to stand the stick up and then use it to shut the drawer. This may sound simple but you should try this someday. The leverage was against us and the process felt like microscopic surgery without the monitor showing us where to go. Well the sticks were not strong enough so it was time for some more football, but Brian had given me an idea. I had wooden dowels for campfire eclairs from our camping trip. So I tried Brian same trick but with a heavier stick. Finally I got the stick to be straight up in the air and then managed to have it fall the right way and it was big enough to shut the drawer. And so we did not have to break our own door down. This ordeal only took a hour and a half of our night and we can laugh about it now.

My Life with Only One Child

The 2.5 hours when Macy is at school is very relaxing. When you pull one child out of the equation the energy levels, the crying, the screaming and even the laughter diminish to almost nothing. Besides this Macy and Kelsey are two very different children that, I believe, compliment each other very well. Grocery shopping with Kelsey is very different than grocery shopping with Macy. (It has been a very long time since it has been just Macy and I so the memory may be fudged a little.) Macy has never wanted to ride in the cart. She loves to run up and down the aisles and she can be very demanding for the items she wants. Kelsey on the other hand is very quiet. She will do whatever I ask her, even sit in the cart for the entire hour. When she asks for something, I almost always want to let her have it because she is so sweet and innocent. When I tell her no she puts it back, says okay and moves on. When the two of them come with me, chaos breaks lose and I am sure the store employees are looking at me like "Can you control your children? They are a safety concern."

So what do Kelsey and I do with our time together? Well one is grocery shop or run errands. Some days we go to the gym. On Wednesdays she gets to play with friends and mom gets a break. One of my original ideas was to get stuff done around the house, but I feel so bad for the poor child as she silently plays or when she looks at me with tears in her eyes and asks when can she go to preschool. So today I thought the weather was cool enough so we went to the park. I found out the park is just not exciting enough when it is just you and your mother because after 5 minutes or less she asked to go home. The thing we do the most often is puzzles. The girl loves puzzles. She calls them "puzzle games". She is patient enough to keep trying until she gets it. Macy has generally struggled with this, but she is smart enough and old enough that she too will sit and do puzzles but not as long as Kelsey. Let me clarify the type of puzzles. Kelsey likes to do the 63 piece puzzles that are for 5 years +. She often sits down and does them by herself for awhile and then calls me in to help. I think she just wants someone to be with her because she can do most of them herself. I am really amazed at her patience and problem solving skills and also the way she can play silently.

Here are more opposites in the girls:

• Macy is a saver and Kelsey is a consumer. An example is candy. Macy will stash and Kelsey will eat it all in one sitting.
• Kelsey has always been a little bit smaller than Macy on all the growth charts.
• Macy is stubborn but Kelsey can easily be persuaded.
• Both are competitive with each other, but Kelsey doesn't mind taking the back seat.
• Macy hates animals. Kelsey loves them.
• Macy needs sleep. Kelsey needs less.
• Kelsey is a TV watcher and Macy is sometimes but she didn't start off that way.

Hair, Hair. It's Every Where!

Today I finally convinced Kelsey to get her hair cut. Her hair was getting so long. It was pretty but it had been in the hands of amateurs several times and because it was getting long it was harder to comb through in the mornings. So I have been working on her for a couple of weeks now. Today she agreed and I called up a kids specialty place called Lollilocks at 9:30 AM and made the appointment for 9:50 AM. When we got there she had changed her mind and was hesitant to go in. They had fun little chairs that we coaxed her into. It took her awhile to make up her mind which on was best and kept moving seats, but finally we got her settled. That is until the girl brought out the drape. She saw that and slid right out of the seat and I thought she was going to run right out the door. So again after more coaxing we got her back in the seat and put away the drape. I could clean her up after. She didn't smile or say a word the entire visit. She was very good and held quite still for a 2 year old almost 3. She kept her focus toward the movie that was playing, Enchanted. I had the gal cut 2 inches off because who knows when I will get her back in to a hair salon. So after $20 (not sure if it was worth it), a lollipop, and a bag of skittles the girl had a cute hair cute and an even cuter style with glitter hairspray.


Doesn't she just look thrilled in this picture?

I too have a hair story, but mine might be much sadder. I might have to be pulling out the Loreal hair coloring kit soon. I have found 2 grey hairs on my head. The first keeps showing up right around the widows peak area. I have plucked it several times when it is about a 1/2 inch long and I finally see the little bugger. I found the second hair the other night. It was more towards the top back part of my head. The bright spot in this find was that the first 1 1/2 inches was grey but the last inch (the side closest to the scalp) was my natural color. What this means I don't know? Maybe it says that I am an indecisive person and my hair is too. It thought about going grey, but decided to let me keep my youth since I am not even over 30!