Inspired by my good friend Nikki Weekes I would like to post a few of the little things.
My daughter woke up this morning and stretched one of her big stretches, then she turn to me (she was sleeping in my bed this morning) and with a giant smile said "The Sun is awake!"
Then she followed that outburst with "Hugs? Hugs?" and reached for me.
This is 2 things I am grateful for. The sun shining in my window reminds me that I have a bright future and a day of possibilities and potential.
A little girl with optimism and a cheerful countenance shows me that the future is in wonderful hands. This is a beautiful world we have to live on.
Other little things: My husband last night made a comment while we were typing across 1100 miles. At first, in my defensive and frustrated state of mind (Alisabeth had a hard night) I thought he was chastising me for something I had written. Instead he was consoling and showing that he understood my pain and was right there beside me.
My mom has graciously changed her life around to make our lives easier, taking time out of her work schedule so that we don't have to pay a baby-sitter so much, giving up her Saturdays and Friday nights so that I can work, and always asking to make sure that she isn't stepping on my toes as a mother, while still being willing to step in when it gets to be too much for me.
My mother-in-law who hear a badly worded plea and made time so that I could see how much she loved me. She cleared her whole busy schedule just so we could spend time at her house and enjoy each other.
My boss, who was willing to buy us all steak for lunch, even though we found out that the restaurant wasn't open that early. He is also constantly showering us with praise for our good work and encouraging words to get us to improve. He daily tries to show me the deeper parts of accounting which will help me succeed at a test that I am terrified to face.
My step-mother who, despite the hardships that she is facing in her own life and with her own blood relatives, always treats me like one of the family and has ALWAYS gone out of her way to make sure I was included.
An amazing cousin who constantly shows me she cares about our lives and wants to have a relationship even though we won't have the opportunity to meet face to face for a few years yet.
I am surrounded by astoundingly amazing people who have made my life a joy. There are so many little things that they do and each one makes me feel special and unique. So this post is dedicated to them and to the many others that I didn't mention, but who have been constant and firm in their friendship and love, Autumn, Crystal. . . I mean you too.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Adventure
"Give it back! Give it back?!"
Imagine the above being said in a little sad 2-year old voice from a tired little girl. You would do almost anything to get 'it' back for her wouldn't you?
Ha!
After almost 2 hours at the zoo we were standing by one of the final scenes, two otters playing and swimming. These are her favorite animals, so we stood there for quite a while. She was tired by this point and it was past lunch-time. I asked if she wanted to get down to better see them. She said yes.
I placed her gently on the ground and continued to watch them play. Suddenly I noticed a little brown head beginning to poke through the gap between the leaning post I was on, and the rope barrier that she had been leaning against. She was actually trying to climb in with them .. .
For those who have been to the Tucson Zoo you may know why this was more of a problem than normal. If it were the monkeys I wouldn't have been so quick to respond. In fact earlier she had almost joined the zebras. For those who don't know the Tucson Zoo, let me explain. The otter exhibit is a very large and deep pool of water with a small land area on the far side. If my daughter had succeeded she would have been swimming in water that was deeper than I am tall. Previously she had also been running headlong toward the duckpond. Not very deep, but deep enough, and with her propensity to trip I swear I had a heart attack right there.
Anyway, back to the otters. As I saw her little head poke through my heart immediately jumped into my throat (not that she was in any danger at that point), and I began holding her down while my other hand reached under and around the leaning post to get a better and lasting hold on her. Then I began to kneel to talk to her. Suddenly I saw a small white and pink object leave her hand and a small splash on the other side of the net. I stopped dead in shock. . . was that . . .? Did I just see . . . ?
Children all around us were suddenly squeeling with laughter and delight as both otters came to investigate a new toy which had been introduced to their habitat. They nuzzled the shoe and bumped it around. I stood and watched helplessly for a second, still trying to fathom how she'd done it. . .
"A shoe! A shoe mommy!"
My dear friend Autumn willingly headed toward the front of the park to get the attention of someone who could help.
Meanwhile Alisabeth and I stood and watched them play. They dunked the shoe, rolled it around in the water (it was floating 1/2 submerged by now) and kept on going. New little children were coming now who hadn't been a party to the excitement and the sound of "Mommy, there's a shoe in there" was heard every few seconds.
Parents were looking around in amusement for the child with one shoe and then grinning that "Oh how embarrassing, I'm glad it was you and not me." smile at me.
After about 5 minutes Alisabeth started reaching toward the exhibit and then looking at me, "want shoe mommy."
"I'm sorry honey, you can't have it, you gave it to the otters and they don't know how to give it back."
More children came and the chorus of "there's a shoe!" started again.
Tear welled up in my over-tired and over-hungry child's eyes. "Give it back! Give it back!"
We walked over to the nearest bench and sat down to wait. Finally Autumn came back and we left her to wait a little longer while we went and got some food in my poor child's belly.
Autumn later told me that after they had fished it out and handed it to her a little girl asked why she had thrown it in. The mother, with great understanding responded "Her little girl probably threw it in like you did when you were 2."
Other than that it's been a pretty boring week. My motivation slipped during the middle of it, but I still managed to get everything essential done, so that's okay. I had my first flop as far as dinners go (I only really cook 1 a week). I tried to make ham-bean soup. I used the white beans my mother has had in her food storage since I was a teenager, but I didn't allow them extra time to soak in water, I just followed the directions, so they were nice and crunchy. The flavor of the soup would have been great except for that little problem. Ah well, can't be perfect all the time right :)
As an update to last week Alisabeth went to bed really well for the first half of this week. Just when I thought the new method was working great she reverted and we had two or three of the worst nights yet, but yesterday and Friday night were wonderful so I think maybe she's just a little crazy and I'm not doing anything wrong. . . anyone want to back me up on that :)
Work is going great. I love taxes.
I don't think I ever told the story of my grandmother's birthday card. Excitedly I ripped open the envelope on my birthday, glad that my loving grandmother had remembered me only to find that it contained her social security statement and her retirement statement with a small note "Here's the stuff for my taxes, can you send me a copy of whatever you send to the government."
Gotta love my family.
My boss is not stressed at all this year (and with three weeks to go, that is saying A LOT), so we had a blast on Saturday reviewing a really complex return together. I did all the work on Friday (about 6.5 hrs) and then Saturday morning I came back and we went over it together. I had missed a lot of minor details, but the whole process was hilarious as we watched his taxes first shoot up when I missed some income amount and then plummet back down when we found three extra deductions. All in all the guy ended up owing $0. That's what I like to see.
Jason got a few calls this week in response to a flurry of resumes that he sent out. Several companies in Tucson seemed excited to interview him. Whether it's because of his experience, or because they're desperate for people I don't know, but I was pleased either way because it relieved my stress about him being able to find a job.
In other exciting news on his front! He is taking two classes this semester which required the rebuild of an entire engine system. The engine performance class and the transmission class. In both classes he has got the completed thing back into the vehicle and will be starting it up on Monday to make sure it's working right. With cross-ed fingers he may be done with the one and only project of the semester. Then the last few weeks will be doing minor leak checks, flushes and inspections. That would mean the major stresses are done. Wish him luck.
Imagine the above being said in a little sad 2-year old voice from a tired little girl. You would do almost anything to get 'it' back for her wouldn't you?
Ha!
After almost 2 hours at the zoo we were standing by one of the final scenes, two otters playing and swimming. These are her favorite animals, so we stood there for quite a while. She was tired by this point and it was past lunch-time. I asked if she wanted to get down to better see them. She said yes.
I placed her gently on the ground and continued to watch them play. Suddenly I noticed a little brown head beginning to poke through the gap between the leaning post I was on, and the rope barrier that she had been leaning against. She was actually trying to climb in with them .. .
For those who have been to the Tucson Zoo you may know why this was more of a problem than normal. If it were the monkeys I wouldn't have been so quick to respond. In fact earlier she had almost joined the zebras. For those who don't know the Tucson Zoo, let me explain. The otter exhibit is a very large and deep pool of water with a small land area on the far side. If my daughter had succeeded she would have been swimming in water that was deeper than I am tall. Previously she had also been running headlong toward the duckpond. Not very deep, but deep enough, and with her propensity to trip I swear I had a heart attack right there.
Anyway, back to the otters. As I saw her little head poke through my heart immediately jumped into my throat (not that she was in any danger at that point), and I began holding her down while my other hand reached under and around the leaning post to get a better and lasting hold on her. Then I began to kneel to talk to her. Suddenly I saw a small white and pink object leave her hand and a small splash on the other side of the net. I stopped dead in shock. . . was that . . .? Did I just see . . . ?
Children all around us were suddenly squeeling with laughter and delight as both otters came to investigate a new toy which had been introduced to their habitat. They nuzzled the shoe and bumped it around. I stood and watched helplessly for a second, still trying to fathom how she'd done it. . .
"A shoe! A shoe mommy!"
My dear friend Autumn willingly headed toward the front of the park to get the attention of someone who could help.
Meanwhile Alisabeth and I stood and watched them play. They dunked the shoe, rolled it around in the water (it was floating 1/2 submerged by now) and kept on going. New little children were coming now who hadn't been a party to the excitement and the sound of "Mommy, there's a shoe in there" was heard every few seconds.
Parents were looking around in amusement for the child with one shoe and then grinning that "Oh how embarrassing, I'm glad it was you and not me." smile at me.
After about 5 minutes Alisabeth started reaching toward the exhibit and then looking at me, "want shoe mommy."
"I'm sorry honey, you can't have it, you gave it to the otters and they don't know how to give it back."
More children came and the chorus of "there's a shoe!" started again.
Tear welled up in my over-tired and over-hungry child's eyes. "Give it back! Give it back!"
We walked over to the nearest bench and sat down to wait. Finally Autumn came back and we left her to wait a little longer while we went and got some food in my poor child's belly.
Autumn later told me that after they had fished it out and handed it to her a little girl asked why she had thrown it in. The mother, with great understanding responded "Her little girl probably threw it in like you did when you were 2."
Other than that it's been a pretty boring week. My motivation slipped during the middle of it, but I still managed to get everything essential done, so that's okay. I had my first flop as far as dinners go (I only really cook 1 a week). I tried to make ham-bean soup. I used the white beans my mother has had in her food storage since I was a teenager, but I didn't allow them extra time to soak in water, I just followed the directions, so they were nice and crunchy. The flavor of the soup would have been great except for that little problem. Ah well, can't be perfect all the time right :)
As an update to last week Alisabeth went to bed really well for the first half of this week. Just when I thought the new method was working great she reverted and we had two or three of the worst nights yet, but yesterday and Friday night were wonderful so I think maybe she's just a little crazy and I'm not doing anything wrong. . . anyone want to back me up on that :)
Work is going great. I love taxes.
I don't think I ever told the story of my grandmother's birthday card. Excitedly I ripped open the envelope on my birthday, glad that my loving grandmother had remembered me only to find that it contained her social security statement and her retirement statement with a small note "Here's the stuff for my taxes, can you send me a copy of whatever you send to the government."
Gotta love my family.
My boss is not stressed at all this year (and with three weeks to go, that is saying A LOT), so we had a blast on Saturday reviewing a really complex return together. I did all the work on Friday (about 6.5 hrs) and then Saturday morning I came back and we went over it together. I had missed a lot of minor details, but the whole process was hilarious as we watched his taxes first shoot up when I missed some income amount and then plummet back down when we found three extra deductions. All in all the guy ended up owing $0. That's what I like to see.
Jason got a few calls this week in response to a flurry of resumes that he sent out. Several companies in Tucson seemed excited to interview him. Whether it's because of his experience, or because they're desperate for people I don't know, but I was pleased either way because it relieved my stress about him being able to find a job.
In other exciting news on his front! He is taking two classes this semester which required the rebuild of an entire engine system. The engine performance class and the transmission class. In both classes he has got the completed thing back into the vehicle and will be starting it up on Monday to make sure it's working right. With cross-ed fingers he may be done with the one and only project of the semester. Then the last few weeks will be doing minor leak checks, flushes and inspections. That would mean the major stresses are done. Wish him luck.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
I really did a lot!
I read through last week's post with fondness. I was in a great mood when I wrote it.
I didn't get to the fans like I promised I would, but I did better than that. My mom decided that she wanted to organize her garage so she went online, found some rolling shelves that she liked and I went to the store and bought her 4 of them (because I work right down the street from Costco.)
The next day was my day off so I put together the first one (I didn't do more than that in case she didn't like them.)
I loaded it up with all of the household goods she had. (1 full shelf plus 3 feet in front of it, all stacked and disorganized) then I went through the other shelves that line the walls of her storage shed. . . I mean garage and pulled out all of the other household items that I'm sure she didn't know she had.
She ended up with a total of 2 4-packs of the large iodized salt containers if that tells you anything about her organization skills.
She also had about 18 different packages of various types of lightbulbs. (All indoor and all the same wattage)
I filled the entire 6' by 5' space, but it was nicely organized. This cleared out an area of about 8' by 4' along the back of the garage. It was an amazing change.
Then Thursday I built the second one. With this accomplishment I cleared out almost everything else that was cluttering the right side of the garage and brought a little bit of order to the left side. I emptied one of the left-side shelves completely, but my mom says she wants it arranged differently, so I'm sure that will change.
Then today she and I built the third shelf and completely emptied the right side of the garage, shelves and boxes included. there was a decent amount being sent to the DI, but, sadly, most of the items stayed :)
It looked a lot better. She shelves are imposing, but the idea was that they are on rollers, so when not in use they can be compacted into a space of about 5' deep and only about 5' wide. It leaves a lot more room than she had before. Plus now we can tackle the left side of the garage and see if we can whip it into shape. The last shelf is still nearly 1/3 empty, so there's plenty of space to organize better.
As for work it was a good week. We have on client that is amusing me greatly, but I finished the business part of their work on Friday, so all I have left is their individual returns so it shouldn't be too bad. Sadly they use QuickBooks for their personal finances as well as their business, but they don't really sort the expenses properly so I basically have to go through every transaction and try to see if it's something deductible or some sort of income item that I need to worry about. . .
Everything is going very well this tax season, we're not really stressed at all yet, and my boss says he's getting about the same amount of revenue as last year, so that's a good sign.
I will probably start working a little more after this next week just because it's 1 month until the deadline and it's crunch time.
Alisabeth is doing well too. We enrolled in a mommy-and-me tumbling class on Thursday mornings and it is so fun to watch her learn and love it. She is so eager to try and to do. She has learned how to balance on one foot, how to do a tummy roll around a bar and how to walk the balance beam. The teacher is great. Apparently he has at least two small ones at home and his focus is getting the parents to understand how to exercise their children's muscles correctly. Each week focuses on a different area of the body and he starts by explaining to the parents why that area is key and the excercises that we're going to do. He doesn't expect or demand the kid's full attention and his directions and "focus" time is really limited so this allows them the freedom to be themselves with the structure of a class. Hopefully this will help her learn the skills of focusing on and listening to an instructor when I'm not around. Usually there's at least one child that is all over the gym during the sitting time, but he doesn't get bothered by it, and he encourages the mothers, who are usually embarrassed and scolding, to just keep involved and show them that the fun is happening with the group.
They have a new schedule each week and I REALLY love the program. It's one of the medium-priced ones that I found when I was researching, but it seems worth it so far.
Alisabeth loves it, she has mentioned it several times before and several times after going. She calls it "thumblin" though we really don't do much of that, it's more like structured play.
The other exciting thing we did this week was a play-day at a friend's house. Crystal has been my best friend since she came home from her mission which was shortly before I left for mine. She's been great to me since I got home and organized a day out at her house (which recently emptied out when her parent's moved out to Utah). We had loaded baked potatoes and hotdogs. The kids played really well for several hours inside and out. All in all it was a very fun day. I hope we do it again sometime.
The only battle we've had is bed-time. If anyone has any ideas let me know. She plays hard all day and does great, she drinks a glass of warm milk, lays down and we sing some songs and after about 3 I say "Okay, all done, sleep well."
Then she goes ballistic. Suddenly she is screaming and crying and fussing, she won't stay in bed and there's no way for me to stop her from opening the door besides standing there and holding it. Getting angry or yelling doesn't work. I even tried (in my desperate attempts after 2 hours of this) laying on top of her enough so that she couldn't move around in hopes that she wouldn't enjoy it and therefore would not want to get out of bed. Yeah, that didn't work. She seemed to be content to lay there as long as I was with her, but as soon as I stood up she went insane again.
So seeing this I understood that she was craving more time with me so I instituted the last half hour before bed as a time for us to just be together and I hoped that maybe this would fix the issue, but after another 4 days of this I haven't had any luck yet.
My current answer? I sit outside her door with my book and read while holding the door-knob until she stops crying and I can be fairly certain she's not going to get out of bed again. This takes about 45 minutes but it's a lot faster than the 2-3 hours that I was dealing with before. I have no idea what the issue is, and I have tried everything from soft words to loud and hard ones. I can bet she'd be happy to go to sleep with me laying there beside her every night, but I don't want to be that mom. I want her to be able to put herself to sleep, and she used to do it really well. It's a stage, it's only a stage.
Jason is doing well too. He signed up for a few more of his ASE tests and is studying hard for them. His classes are going well, and he was recently asked to serve in the temple until he leaves in April so his job is to sit at the front entrance and be a greeter and scan everyone's recommends. He says it's really peaceful and that he gets a lot of time to read the scriptures (he's there for the later shift on a Tuesday night, so I guess there aren't a lot of people going.)
He has also been working on his two cars. One is about the size of his hand and the other is full-size. They're both going well. He's going to put something like $100 more into the full-sized toy to get it in better shape for when he moved back down here to me. Then we should be able to sell it. With the money from that he'll buy a new toy. :)
I didn't get to the fans like I promised I would, but I did better than that. My mom decided that she wanted to organize her garage so she went online, found some rolling shelves that she liked and I went to the store and bought her 4 of them (because I work right down the street from Costco.)
The next day was my day off so I put together the first one (I didn't do more than that in case she didn't like them.)
I loaded it up with all of the household goods she had. (1 full shelf plus 3 feet in front of it, all stacked and disorganized) then I went through the other shelves that line the walls of her storage shed. . . I mean garage and pulled out all of the other household items that I'm sure she didn't know she had.
She ended up with a total of 2 4-packs of the large iodized salt containers if that tells you anything about her organization skills.
She also had about 18 different packages of various types of lightbulbs. (All indoor and all the same wattage)
I filled the entire 6' by 5' space, but it was nicely organized. This cleared out an area of about 8' by 4' along the back of the garage. It was an amazing change.
Then Thursday I built the second one. With this accomplishment I cleared out almost everything else that was cluttering the right side of the garage and brought a little bit of order to the left side. I emptied one of the left-side shelves completely, but my mom says she wants it arranged differently, so I'm sure that will change.
Then today she and I built the third shelf and completely emptied the right side of the garage, shelves and boxes included. there was a decent amount being sent to the DI, but, sadly, most of the items stayed :)
It looked a lot better. She shelves are imposing, but the idea was that they are on rollers, so when not in use they can be compacted into a space of about 5' deep and only about 5' wide. It leaves a lot more room than she had before. Plus now we can tackle the left side of the garage and see if we can whip it into shape. The last shelf is still nearly 1/3 empty, so there's plenty of space to organize better.
As for work it was a good week. We have on client that is amusing me greatly, but I finished the business part of their work on Friday, so all I have left is their individual returns so it shouldn't be too bad. Sadly they use QuickBooks for their personal finances as well as their business, but they don't really sort the expenses properly so I basically have to go through every transaction and try to see if it's something deductible or some sort of income item that I need to worry about. . .
Everything is going very well this tax season, we're not really stressed at all yet, and my boss says he's getting about the same amount of revenue as last year, so that's a good sign.
I will probably start working a little more after this next week just because it's 1 month until the deadline and it's crunch time.
Alisabeth is doing well too. We enrolled in a mommy-and-me tumbling class on Thursday mornings and it is so fun to watch her learn and love it. She is so eager to try and to do. She has learned how to balance on one foot, how to do a tummy roll around a bar and how to walk the balance beam. The teacher is great. Apparently he has at least two small ones at home and his focus is getting the parents to understand how to exercise their children's muscles correctly. Each week focuses on a different area of the body and he starts by explaining to the parents why that area is key and the excercises that we're going to do. He doesn't expect or demand the kid's full attention and his directions and "focus" time is really limited so this allows them the freedom to be themselves with the structure of a class. Hopefully this will help her learn the skills of focusing on and listening to an instructor when I'm not around. Usually there's at least one child that is all over the gym during the sitting time, but he doesn't get bothered by it, and he encourages the mothers, who are usually embarrassed and scolding, to just keep involved and show them that the fun is happening with the group.
They have a new schedule each week and I REALLY love the program. It's one of the medium-priced ones that I found when I was researching, but it seems worth it so far.
Alisabeth loves it, she has mentioned it several times before and several times after going. She calls it "thumblin" though we really don't do much of that, it's more like structured play.
The other exciting thing we did this week was a play-day at a friend's house. Crystal has been my best friend since she came home from her mission which was shortly before I left for mine. She's been great to me since I got home and organized a day out at her house (which recently emptied out when her parent's moved out to Utah). We had loaded baked potatoes and hotdogs. The kids played really well for several hours inside and out. All in all it was a very fun day. I hope we do it again sometime.
The only battle we've had is bed-time. If anyone has any ideas let me know. She plays hard all day and does great, she drinks a glass of warm milk, lays down and we sing some songs and after about 3 I say "Okay, all done, sleep well."
Then she goes ballistic. Suddenly she is screaming and crying and fussing, she won't stay in bed and there's no way for me to stop her from opening the door besides standing there and holding it. Getting angry or yelling doesn't work. I even tried (in my desperate attempts after 2 hours of this) laying on top of her enough so that she couldn't move around in hopes that she wouldn't enjoy it and therefore would not want to get out of bed. Yeah, that didn't work. She seemed to be content to lay there as long as I was with her, but as soon as I stood up she went insane again.
So seeing this I understood that she was craving more time with me so I instituted the last half hour before bed as a time for us to just be together and I hoped that maybe this would fix the issue, but after another 4 days of this I haven't had any luck yet.
My current answer? I sit outside her door with my book and read while holding the door-knob until she stops crying and I can be fairly certain she's not going to get out of bed again. This takes about 45 minutes but it's a lot faster than the 2-3 hours that I was dealing with before. I have no idea what the issue is, and I have tried everything from soft words to loud and hard ones. I can bet she'd be happy to go to sleep with me laying there beside her every night, but I don't want to be that mom. I want her to be able to put herself to sleep, and she used to do it really well. It's a stage, it's only a stage.
Jason is doing well too. He signed up for a few more of his ASE tests and is studying hard for them. His classes are going well, and he was recently asked to serve in the temple until he leaves in April so his job is to sit at the front entrance and be a greeter and scan everyone's recommends. He says it's really peaceful and that he gets a lot of time to read the scriptures (he's there for the later shift on a Tuesday night, so I guess there aren't a lot of people going.)
He has also been working on his two cars. One is about the size of his hand and the other is full-size. They're both going well. He's going to put something like $100 more into the full-sized toy to get it in better shape for when he moved back down here to me. Then we should be able to sell it. With the money from that he'll buy a new toy. :)
Sunday, March 7, 2010
My Birthday week
So last week a few days before my birthday I must have been having a bad day. People kept congratulating me on my upcoming day and they were obviously more excited about it than I was. I was not looking forward to my mother's plans, and my husband kept asking me if I'd gotten his card yet which annoyed me. All of this led up to the actual day. I still can't figure out why I was in such a mood, but when the actual morning hit I was a different woman :)
It started out with Alisabeth sleeping until 9am. After we got up we made breakfast and relaxed most of the morning. My mom took Alisabeth for most of that time and allowed me to enjoy a nice relaxing shower and smell my bouquet of three colors of my favorite flower from my husband (purchased and put in a vase by my mother still in the cellophane wrapping)
At about two thirty I suddenly realized what time it was and tried to get Alisabeth into bed. As I came out from putting her down my mother had left to pick up the baby sitter and her friend Susan had arrived with her daughter Bella.
Needless to say Alisabeth's sixth sense kicked in and she was having none of that boring nap stuff, but that wasn't my problem today so I just told the baby sitter that if she wanted to try to get her down after Bella left she was welcome to it.
We went to the pedicure place and spent an hour there laughing and talking. After this we rushed across town and were 15 minutes late to being able to see Alice in Wonderland so we bought tickets for the next showing (sadly not in 3D) and called the restaurant to change our reservation to 7.
Then we went shopping and my mom treated me to some new. . . I'll edit here for our male viewers.
Alice in Wonderland turned out to be a lot better than I had anticipated. Tim Burton is sometimes a lot bit wierd to me, so I was nervous, but it turned out to be very well done. After we got home the babysitter mentioned that she had seen it in 3D and hadn't been very impressed, so it was just as well that we didn't.
Then we went to a new restaurant for me. Aparently everyone knows it but me, it's called The MeltingPot.
It is a fondue restaurant, and my first glance at the menu pricing told me I would never be coming back, but after going through the whole experience I am well pleased :)
Our first course was a spinach and artichoke cheese dip. Oh MAN was it good. For those who have tasted this dip you know that sometimes it goes right and other times you don't want to be within a mile of it, but this one was SPOT ON!
We had barely scraped the fondue pot clean when that was whisked away and replaced with an amazing salad. I at the whole thing and would have been delighted for another bowl.
The third course could have been a little better as far as the fondue sauce we chose, I'll definitely try a different one next time, but the meats were well spiced and the side sauces (especially my favorite flavor of teriyaki) were perfect.
After we had finally devoured everything we could hold (did I mention that you can refil the plates on anything you want. We didn't use this option, and I don't see how many people could, but I thought it was a nice feature), our table was again cleared.
When she came back this time she was carrying a plate of all sorts of desert delights. One included a small birthday candle for me to blow out :)
There were 12 types of chocolate to choose from for the final course. We chose the turtle dip. Chocolate, caramel and nuts. The items to dip into it :Strawberries, cheese cake, rice krispie treats, chocolate and regular marshmellows, fudge brownie chunks, bananas, apples, and I think there was something else but I can't remember. It was beyond good.
Then we went home where my daughter was delighted to see me (again, a miracle).
All in all it was a wonderful week. (Did I mention that we got our income tax refund?)
Work is going great for me. I love that my boss is making me do research, not only has this improved my skills in that area, but I am learned an incredible amount of information. We are keeping up with him quite well considering we both only work 3 days a week. (We being his middle son who works for him and myself, him being our boss.)
Alisabeth is doing well too. We missed the tumbling class this week because for some reason I thought it was at 10:15 and when I double checked at 9:00 I found out it was at 9:15 and we were both still in pajamas.
We did, however, go the playground this week and met a few other mothers. Strangely every time I go there is at least one two year old who's birthday is in October, it's kind of creepy, but I just go with it :)
The other exciting thing is that I should be done cleaning all of my mother's fans this week, they were black and now they're white and it's such a pretty sight.
Today has been raining beautifully. I'm quite glad, but it's made the roads quite soggy, especially where I have to go off-roading to see my dad. :) We went today and I got pulled to the left or right quite a bit on the road outside his house. I enjoy it, because I love to feel the power of 4-wheel drive kick in, but at the same time I'm always nervous that we're going to get stuck :p
Jason is doing well too, now, in his last semester, he's finally figured out that studying will improve his quiz scores. :) Love you honey.
He's also being well cared for by everyone back there so that brings me a lot of peace (I know he's not going to waste away from mal-nourishment). thanks for that everyone in Idaho.
It started out with Alisabeth sleeping until 9am. After we got up we made breakfast and relaxed most of the morning. My mom took Alisabeth for most of that time and allowed me to enjoy a nice relaxing shower and smell my bouquet of three colors of my favorite flower from my husband (purchased and put in a vase by my mother still in the cellophane wrapping)
At about two thirty I suddenly realized what time it was and tried to get Alisabeth into bed. As I came out from putting her down my mother had left to pick up the baby sitter and her friend Susan had arrived with her daughter Bella.
Needless to say Alisabeth's sixth sense kicked in and she was having none of that boring nap stuff, but that wasn't my problem today so I just told the baby sitter that if she wanted to try to get her down after Bella left she was welcome to it.
We went to the pedicure place and spent an hour there laughing and talking. After this we rushed across town and were 15 minutes late to being able to see Alice in Wonderland so we bought tickets for the next showing (sadly not in 3D) and called the restaurant to change our reservation to 7.
Then we went shopping and my mom treated me to some new. . . I'll edit here for our male viewers.
Alice in Wonderland turned out to be a lot better than I had anticipated. Tim Burton is sometimes a lot bit wierd to me, so I was nervous, but it turned out to be very well done. After we got home the babysitter mentioned that she had seen it in 3D and hadn't been very impressed, so it was just as well that we didn't.
Then we went to a new restaurant for me. Aparently everyone knows it but me, it's called The MeltingPot.
It is a fondue restaurant, and my first glance at the menu pricing told me I would never be coming back, but after going through the whole experience I am well pleased :)
Our first course was a spinach and artichoke cheese dip. Oh MAN was it good. For those who have tasted this dip you know that sometimes it goes right and other times you don't want to be within a mile of it, but this one was SPOT ON!
We had barely scraped the fondue pot clean when that was whisked away and replaced with an amazing salad. I at the whole thing and would have been delighted for another bowl.
The third course could have been a little better as far as the fondue sauce we chose, I'll definitely try a different one next time, but the meats were well spiced and the side sauces (especially my favorite flavor of teriyaki) were perfect.
After we had finally devoured everything we could hold (did I mention that you can refil the plates on anything you want. We didn't use this option, and I don't see how many people could, but I thought it was a nice feature), our table was again cleared.
When she came back this time she was carrying a plate of all sorts of desert delights. One included a small birthday candle for me to blow out :)
There were 12 types of chocolate to choose from for the final course. We chose the turtle dip. Chocolate, caramel and nuts. The items to dip into it :Strawberries, cheese cake, rice krispie treats, chocolate and regular marshmellows, fudge brownie chunks, bananas, apples, and I think there was something else but I can't remember. It was beyond good.
Then we went home where my daughter was delighted to see me (again, a miracle).
All in all it was a wonderful week. (Did I mention that we got our income tax refund?)
Work is going great for me. I love that my boss is making me do research, not only has this improved my skills in that area, but I am learned an incredible amount of information. We are keeping up with him quite well considering we both only work 3 days a week. (We being his middle son who works for him and myself, him being our boss.)
Alisabeth is doing well too. We missed the tumbling class this week because for some reason I thought it was at 10:15 and when I double checked at 9:00 I found out it was at 9:15 and we were both still in pajamas.
We did, however, go the playground this week and met a few other mothers. Strangely every time I go there is at least one two year old who's birthday is in October, it's kind of creepy, but I just go with it :)
The other exciting thing is that I should be done cleaning all of my mother's fans this week, they were black and now they're white and it's such a pretty sight.
Today has been raining beautifully. I'm quite glad, but it's made the roads quite soggy, especially where I have to go off-roading to see my dad. :) We went today and I got pulled to the left or right quite a bit on the road outside his house. I enjoy it, because I love to feel the power of 4-wheel drive kick in, but at the same time I'm always nervous that we're going to get stuck :p
Jason is doing well too, now, in his last semester, he's finally figured out that studying will improve his quiz scores. :) Love you honey.
He's also being well cared for by everyone back there so that brings me a lot of peace (I know he's not going to waste away from mal-nourishment). thanks for that everyone in Idaho.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Oops
I forgot why I named the last post like I did.
Alisabeth and I watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang this morning while I was cleaning. There was one song in there that was very poignant and I thought I'd share the lyrics:
Every bursted bubble has a glory!
Each abysmal failure makes a point!
Every glowing path that goes astray,
Shows you how to find a better way.
So every time you stumble never grumble.
Next time you'll bumble even less!
For up from the ashes, up from the ashes, grow the roses of success!
From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success!
(spoken)Yes I know but he wants it to float. It will!
For every big mistake you make be grateful!
Here, here!
That mistake you'll never make again!
No sir!
Every shiny dream that fades and dies,
Generates the steam for two more tries!
(Oh) There's magic in the wake of a fiasco!
Correct!
It gives you that chance to second guess!
Oh yes!
Then up from the ashes, up from the ashes grow the roses of success!
From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success!
Disaster didn't stymie Louis Pasteur!
No sir!
Edison took years to see the light!
Right!
Alexander Graham knew failure well; he took a lot of knocks to ring that
bell!
So when it gets distressing it's a blessing!
Onward and upward you must press!
Yes, Yes!
Till up from the ashes, up from the ashes grow the roses of success.
Alisabeth and I watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang this morning while I was cleaning. There was one song in there that was very poignant and I thought I'd share the lyrics:
Every bursted bubble has a glory!
Each abysmal failure makes a point!
Every glowing path that goes astray,
Shows you how to find a better way.
So every time you stumble never grumble.
Next time you'll bumble even less!
For up from the ashes, up from the ashes, grow the roses of success!
From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success!
(spoken)Yes I know but he wants it to float. It will!
For every big mistake you make be grateful!
Here, here!
That mistake you'll never make again!
No sir!
Every shiny dream that fades and dies,
Generates the steam for two more tries!
(Oh) There's magic in the wake of a fiasco!
Correct!
It gives you that chance to second guess!
Oh yes!
Then up from the ashes, up from the ashes grow the roses of success!
From the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success!
Disaster didn't stymie Louis Pasteur!
No sir!
Edison took years to see the light!
Right!
Alexander Graham knew failure well; he took a lot of knocks to ring that
bell!
So when it gets distressing it's a blessing!
Onward and upward you must press!
Yes, Yes!
Till up from the ashes, up from the ashes grow the roses of success.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Two cool facts to start:
Did you know cookie monster was born in october of 1969?
Secondly did you know that though he can't remember his name he thinks it might have been Sid?
Also I need to start by sticking my tongue out at Michelle. . . with all the love in my heart.
This week was a good one, it was also quite fast. I didn't work as many hours, but that's no big thing now because we can't get into a house before the deadline for the federal grant so we may as well take our time now :)
This means that I spent a lot more time with my 2 year old who is currently subconsciously blaming me for the upheaval of her life. She is great with everyone else I'm told but with me she is being extra obstinate and even mean at times. Guess that's what I get for being her rock. It's so interesting that when we need to lash out we often choose the ones we know will never turn away from us. Shouldn't it be the other way around?
Also this week I had an eye exam. I go through the phases. I get glasses, spend the crap-load of money that it takes to do that and then use them for a few months before choosing to stop the addiction. A few years later I repeat the cycle. Since I spend most of my work hours reading small print from the IRS website I've started getting headaches so I figured it was time. The glasses I chose are really cute, and the whole experience was amazingly pleasant.
I came prepared with toys and books, but as every mother knows the kids will never actually play with them when you are out in public. We got to the mall a little after 1:30, my appointment was at 2 but I wasn't quite sure where it was so I decided to find it first. It took us about 15 minutes to walk the 50 feet to the elevator and press the button to go down. (Not because she was being a pill but because we had plenty of time so I try not to rush her or me if I don't have to. We're both much happier that way).
I filled out the paperwork while she pointed out the colors of the chairs and counted them (she still skips 5. She knows where it goes if you quiz her, but she won't say it in the line-up).
Then it appeared we would be waiting a few minutes so I decided to deflect the antsi-ness by distracting her with the line-up of kids glasses. She was delighted to try them on and we spent about 10 minutes doing this while we waited. Finally the lady came around the corner and i thought, "Oh good that was fast"
Ha!
Anyway I finished whatever it was she wanted from me and still no doctor appeared. By this time the antsiness had started to kick in and one of the ladies looked like she was going to be one of those people that every young mother fears, the ones that scolds your child while glaring at you as if you can't control your own kid.
So I took her out to look at the dresses for a bit (we were right next to the little girl's area). This was sufficient to cover the time needed but caused a bit of a fuss when it was time to go into the doctor's office.
As we walked into the office and they did the glaucoma tests and all of that fun stuff Alisabeth watched in fascination. She knew we were at the "doctor for mommy's eyes" so she wasn't at all nervous like she tends to get at her own doctor's appointments.
Soon enough her little hands began to creep out, but we were moved to another room before this could really take effect. This room was filled with even more expensive machinery and lots of things she shouldn't touch. (Can you tell I was a bit over-nervous about this trip?)
The doctor was an older man and when we first got in there he made some crack comment about her breaking something so my stress level shot up again thinking, "how am I going to control her and get an eye exam done?"
My fears were all excessive. She was fascinated again to watch the doctor doing all of his tests. At one point she climbed up on my lap trying to see exactly what the big machine on my face was for, and what the doctor had been flipping and turning. He obliged her by putting a picture strip into the reading chart and asking her what pictures she could see. She did a pretty good job. The only one she didn't recognize was a cake with 3 candles on it. She got well beyond the 20/20 line.
He also did a couple of tests where he drew a big E and then turned it in different directions and tried to get her to tell him which way the legs went. She didn't really grasp that one but he said it was a good one for me to do with her.
He also did some visual checks on her making sure her eyes were focusing/unfocusing correctly. He broke up each section of my eye exam by doing these things with her and in this way pretty much covered the whole session so that she didn't get curious enough to get into any of the equipment.
The next part I was dreading. We selected several frames while the lady who was helping me also picked out a few frames for Alisabeth to try and showed her the mirror. That went well, and as soon as we sat down, before I could even reach for the bag of goodies the woman pulled out a small pad of paper and a pen and had Alisabeth drawing. She drew the entire time we were working out the details. The lady even made comments on her "lion-kitty" and her "ocopus"
As we walked out of that store all I could think was "Thank you God for sending me to this store so that all of my fears would be unfounded."
After that we were able to go play at the food court and relax.
The rest of the week is a blur. Somewhere in there I had choir practise, but that's about it. I need to get in touch with the rest of my family, I'm sure they think I'm horrible. I've been here two weeks and haven't left the house once when I didn't have to. Well that's not true, I went up to Mesa to the temple this last weekend and had a great time. A couple from the church watches everyone's children while they go to the temple for the 2 hours. It was a great opportunity for me.
I feel so guilty about leaving alisabeth with other people. I know it has to be done but I don't think I could ever do it full-time. I'm greatful that my husband is willing to be the sole-breadwinner and make whatever sacrifices are needed in that area to make sure we have enough to survive because I want to be home with my kids! I can't stand to be gone for most of the week. (See if I still say that when I've done it for six months :p).
That's about it for this week. Not exciting sorry. Don't have an hobbies of projects, they're all packed and in Rexburg.
Did you know cookie monster was born in october of 1969?
Secondly did you know that though he can't remember his name he thinks it might have been Sid?
Also I need to start by sticking my tongue out at Michelle. . . with all the love in my heart.
This week was a good one, it was also quite fast. I didn't work as many hours, but that's no big thing now because we can't get into a house before the deadline for the federal grant so we may as well take our time now :)
This means that I spent a lot more time with my 2 year old who is currently subconsciously blaming me for the upheaval of her life. She is great with everyone else I'm told but with me she is being extra obstinate and even mean at times. Guess that's what I get for being her rock. It's so interesting that when we need to lash out we often choose the ones we know will never turn away from us. Shouldn't it be the other way around?
Also this week I had an eye exam. I go through the phases. I get glasses, spend the crap-load of money that it takes to do that and then use them for a few months before choosing to stop the addiction. A few years later I repeat the cycle. Since I spend most of my work hours reading small print from the IRS website I've started getting headaches so I figured it was time. The glasses I chose are really cute, and the whole experience was amazingly pleasant.
I came prepared with toys and books, but as every mother knows the kids will never actually play with them when you are out in public. We got to the mall a little after 1:30, my appointment was at 2 but I wasn't quite sure where it was so I decided to find it first. It took us about 15 minutes to walk the 50 feet to the elevator and press the button to go down. (Not because she was being a pill but because we had plenty of time so I try not to rush her or me if I don't have to. We're both much happier that way).
I filled out the paperwork while she pointed out the colors of the chairs and counted them (she still skips 5. She knows where it goes if you quiz her, but she won't say it in the line-up).
Then it appeared we would be waiting a few minutes so I decided to deflect the antsi-ness by distracting her with the line-up of kids glasses. She was delighted to try them on and we spent about 10 minutes doing this while we waited. Finally the lady came around the corner and i thought, "Oh good that was fast"
Ha!
Anyway I finished whatever it was she wanted from me and still no doctor appeared. By this time the antsiness had started to kick in and one of the ladies looked like she was going to be one of those people that every young mother fears, the ones that scolds your child while glaring at you as if you can't control your own kid.
So I took her out to look at the dresses for a bit (we were right next to the little girl's area). This was sufficient to cover the time needed but caused a bit of a fuss when it was time to go into the doctor's office.
As we walked into the office and they did the glaucoma tests and all of that fun stuff Alisabeth watched in fascination. She knew we were at the "doctor for mommy's eyes" so she wasn't at all nervous like she tends to get at her own doctor's appointments.
Soon enough her little hands began to creep out, but we were moved to another room before this could really take effect. This room was filled with even more expensive machinery and lots of things she shouldn't touch. (Can you tell I was a bit over-nervous about this trip?)
The doctor was an older man and when we first got in there he made some crack comment about her breaking something so my stress level shot up again thinking, "how am I going to control her and get an eye exam done?"
My fears were all excessive. She was fascinated again to watch the doctor doing all of his tests. At one point she climbed up on my lap trying to see exactly what the big machine on my face was for, and what the doctor had been flipping and turning. He obliged her by putting a picture strip into the reading chart and asking her what pictures she could see. She did a pretty good job. The only one she didn't recognize was a cake with 3 candles on it. She got well beyond the 20/20 line.
He also did a couple of tests where he drew a big E and then turned it in different directions and tried to get her to tell him which way the legs went. She didn't really grasp that one but he said it was a good one for me to do with her.
He also did some visual checks on her making sure her eyes were focusing/unfocusing correctly. He broke up each section of my eye exam by doing these things with her and in this way pretty much covered the whole session so that she didn't get curious enough to get into any of the equipment.
The next part I was dreading. We selected several frames while the lady who was helping me also picked out a few frames for Alisabeth to try and showed her the mirror. That went well, and as soon as we sat down, before I could even reach for the bag of goodies the woman pulled out a small pad of paper and a pen and had Alisabeth drawing. She drew the entire time we were working out the details. The lady even made comments on her "lion-kitty" and her "ocopus"
As we walked out of that store all I could think was "Thank you God for sending me to this store so that all of my fears would be unfounded."
After that we were able to go play at the food court and relax.
The rest of the week is a blur. Somewhere in there I had choir practise, but that's about it. I need to get in touch with the rest of my family, I'm sure they think I'm horrible. I've been here two weeks and haven't left the house once when I didn't have to. Well that's not true, I went up to Mesa to the temple this last weekend and had a great time. A couple from the church watches everyone's children while they go to the temple for the 2 hours. It was a great opportunity for me.
I feel so guilty about leaving alisabeth with other people. I know it has to be done but I don't think I could ever do it full-time. I'm greatful that my husband is willing to be the sole-breadwinner and make whatever sacrifices are needed in that area to make sure we have enough to survive because I want to be home with my kids! I can't stand to be gone for most of the week. (See if I still say that when I've done it for six months :p).
That's about it for this week. Not exciting sorry. Don't have an hobbies of projects, they're all packed and in Rexburg.
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