VT Question #4

Sorry, it's been a while since I've done one, but the jar disappeared. I suspect, by little hands. But today it was sitting on my desk, like it had been there the whole time. I know it wasn't!

Did you have a favorite TV show as a child or youth?

I remember most the Kroft Super Show hour. They had all these little shows, like: Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, Lost in Space, and my favorite, The Bugaloos. The spelling and names of the shows could be slightly off. They had other shows, but these are the ones I remember most. The Bugaloos were these little bug/fairy people who were really a band from England or something and there was some witch that would try and capture them in pretty much every episode. I'm sure the writer's never won an emmy. I can still sing the theme song, though. The Buggaloo's, the buggaloo's. We're in the air and everywhere. Flying high, flying loose, Flying free as the summer breeze! Pretty sad, huh?

Oh, look! I found a picture of them on the internet! Wow. Brings back fond memories! Got to LOVE that seventies style!



I used to love to pretend to be the girl. I think her name was Joy. Maybe. Anyway, I can remember going to Lake Mission Viejo, which we could walk to and spend everyday in the summer swimming, and pretending to be her. I would swim through the water and pretend I was flying like her. HEHE. I wish I still had the great imagination I had as a child. But I get just as much fun out of seeing my kids imaginations at work.

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend was a busy one for us. Scott and I actually had a date night on Saturday. We decided we would do a double feature at the movie theater. We saw both Indiana Jones and Iron Man. I liked them both, but Iron Man was better. Anyway, we still wanted to do something big for the holiday, so Sunday afternoon (we have 9:00 church) we packed up our trailer for a quick overnighter. We drove up to Farmington and stayed at the campsite right next door to Lagoon Amusement Park. We had every intention of spending our Memorial Day riding rides and eating junk. Well, some time during the night, the heavens opened and didn't stop for most of the next day. So, we never got into the park. But we had a lot of fun just using the trailer and spending time together.

We were so close to the park that we could walk along the fence and see the animals in the zoo area.
My kids are so spoiled that we can't even go camping without being able to watch movies.
My son. I really don't understand him. He came up to us all upset that he couldn't get this chair off over his head. Why he put it on in the first place is beyond me, but mean mom, left him in the chair long enough to get the camera and take pictures! Wow, I'm going to have some great things to embarrass him by when he's older!
A couple of week ago, Scott took Porter on the Father/son camp out in our ward. And while there, he taught Porter how to pee outside. He has unleashed a monster! Porter couldn't get enough of peeing anywhere and everywhere. He'd just whip it out and go! He didn't care who was there or if anyone was in the way. I knew we were in trouble, when he was standing in the doorway of the truck, pulled his pants down and let it go. On my shoe (I was wearing flip flops). And the car door. He almost got Regan, but she's pretty quick when she wants to be. He'd never give any warning. Just point and shoot. Luckily he knows that it only applies when we are camping. He doesn't try this at home.

A Very Different World

You can tell that we are getting closer and closer to the Second Coming. The world is a different place than when I was a kid. I rarely told my mom where I was going to play, just that I was going outside to play. These days, my kids have to tell me where they are going and who they are playing with. If they decide to go to someone else's house, they have to come home and let me know.

So, my sister has been getting some anonymous comments on her blog that were really creepy. And frankly, kind of mean. We had many conversations about it, contemplating who could be leaving these messages. They had the tone of someone who knows her and we thought it could be this woman, who has recently, really made life difficult for my sister and her family. It was all very sinister! And we both, started taking measures to protect our blogs. It really started freaking us out.

Then, yesterday, I noticed that anonymous left a comment on my mother's blog referring to my dad as "dad". All of a sudden, all the "mean" comments took on new meaning. MY STINKIN' BROTHERS!!! And they are probably getting a real kick out of knowing they freaked us out! Just goes to show that brother's never stop being POOPS! It's a good thing we love you or you'd both be dead! Rotten, stupid, brothers.

A Love/Hate Relationship

I have a love/hate relationship with otter pops. What could be better on a really hot day then sucking on one of these babies?! And I love having something easy to hand out to pretty much ALL the neighborhood kids. I think I'm the only mom here that lets kids in, so they all congregate at my house. BUT. I hate the wrappers! I find them everywhere! All year long! My kids have a great aversion to the garbage can. It seems like I'm the only one in the house who ever throws anything away! And otter pop wrapper seem to really bug me. Hence the love/hate thing. And I just bought a box today. And so another season begins.

Adventures in Potty Training 2

Porter has started a new phase in the potty-training-a-boy cycle. He stopped aiming. Today, he sprayed his little sister. Yesterday it was the toilette paper, the wall, the floor. It's really gross to walk into a bathroom with your bare feet and find it's wet. And you know it's not water. I don't get the missing part. It's not like your aiming for the point on a pencil. The toilette bowl is HUGE! And he used to get it in there just fine! UGH. Every new phase we go through with Porter I think, "Man, I'm so glad that God only sent me one!" My hat is off to all of you ladies dealing with multiples.

VT Question #3

Describe your first car.

My parents bought me a Ford Festiva. I actually found a picture of one on the internet, but mine was a dark grayish/black color. Gosh, I forgot how small they are.

My friends called my car the Black jellybean, because as you can see, it's not exactly the biggest car around. It was surprisingly roomy inside. You should have seen the amount of people we managed to squeeze in! Oops, I mean, only as many as there were seat belts, mom and dad! And I could fill it up for about $6.00. Yeah, those were the days. The car had NO upgrades at all. It was a stick shift with no air conditioning or even a radio. My dad installed the radio and he wired it wrong. The light would stay on all the time and if I went a day without driving it, the battery would die. I have fond memories of that car. My parents sold it to someone my dad worked with, while I was on my mission. I understand it ran for many years after. Go little jellybean!

VT Question #2

Hey, everyone, feel free to answer any of these questions yourself! I would love to hear some of your answers.

Where is the most exciting place you've ever been?

I'd have to say, Austria, where I served my mission. There really is no substitute for actually living in a foreign country. It was so beautiful and many times I would be walking around and just stop and think, "wow, I'm really here." You get to see lots of smaller towns, too, not the normal tourist places. You get to know the people and really understand their culture and language. I really wish I had retained my German.

The other night I had a dream that I met some girls who were speaking German and I started to ask them (in German) where they were from. And in my dream the whole conversation quickly turned to English. I was really sad. I kind of thought that at least in my dreams all that German that is stored deep (DEEP) in my brain would have been able to come out. Bummer. I guess that blows that theory.

This is a picture of a little town called Villach on the Italian border. It was my first area, so you can imagine how blown away I was about being in Austria.

I just had to add this picture for Christie and Tammy! These were all my companions (not at the same time) when we happen to meet in the train station in Vienna while all transferring to new areas. I thought they'd get a kick out of seeing themselves, what, 16 years ago? Holy cow. I shouldn't admit to that. Eek, scary me without the flat iron!
This is me in my favorite castle of all time. I can't even remember what the name is, but I know that it's north of Vienna. I took my parents here when they picked me up.

There's a story about that lovely coat. I had this beautiful black wool coat that my parents had bought me and I wore a hole in the side of it from my bag the very first winter I was there. So this bea-u-tiful coat I found in the closet of one of the apartments I lived in. I had it for the rest of my mission. It was still cold when my parents came to pick me up and my dad HATED that coat. He complained about it all the time. So finally, in London, he bought me a new coat and had the sales lady throw this one away, because he couldn't stand to look at it! I must keep coats for a long time, because I still have the one from London!

Mom

Yes, I will proclaim for all who read this blog to see:


Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you!

Visiting Teaching Challenge

On Monday morning, my visiting teachers came and instead of a message, they handed me a small jar full of paper. On each slip of paper is a question, that is suppose to help with writing a family history or journal. So, I thought I'd start to answer a question a day, maybe less, on the blog. Here goes:

Tell a courtship story about your parents, how they met, etc. Tell the same about your courtship.

Well, lets see if I remember my parents correctly. I believe they met when they were paired up for a Dance Festival Dance. See, in Southern California they used to do a big dance thing, it hard to explain. The whole region of the church would perform different dances, with costumes in a big stadium. I only got to do one when I was like 13 or 14, before they changed the budget. Or maybe they met at a Stake Dance. It was a dance, that's all I remember. But my mom was really young and they got married right after she graduated from High School. I guess I should have my mom review the story for me, because I'm woefully unknowledgable about it. Sorry, mom!

As for me and Scott, we have conflicting stories about our courtship. He makes me seem really awful in his version! We met through a mutual friend in the Institute Choir at the University of Utah. This friend was planning a trip to California to see the football team play in the Freedom Bowl in Anaheim. I had a little crush on this boy(not Scott) and decided to let them crash at my parents house so that I could get to know him. Scott was one of the people on the trip. I thought of Scott as a good friend after that trip, so it really took me by surprise when he asked me out afterwards. I was really uncomfortable on that date, because I didn't want him to think that there was more than friendship involved.

This is where our stories differ. Scott says I lied, and blew him off. I say I blew him off, but didn't lie. But we didn't go out again for a while. I went through some personal AH-HA moments in the next couple of months and realized some things about me and then ran into Scott again. I started looking at him differently. About a month later, my roommates and I were planning a HOW TO HOST A MURDER party and one of the boys cancelled at the last minute. We were trying to find a replacement and Scott's name popped into my head. So I called him and he came and I flirted my butt off, to let him know that I was interested. Frankly, I was surprised he gave me the time of day. But we started dating and two months later we were engaged. We were married a year and a month after we met.

And now 12 years later, here we are with four kids. My parents are going to celebrate their 46th anniversary in June. They have four kids and have 20 grand kids! Go Mom and Dad!

The Host

I bought the new Stephanie Meyers book last weekend and was a little unsure about it. I mean I LOVE the Twilight series and can't wait for the movie to come out! And I really think that Bella belongs with Edward. I'll take Jacob for myself! Anyway, I had a really hard time getting into The Host. I was really annoyed by it for some reason. Then somewhere between page 100 and 200, it got GOOD. Yes, capital letters GOOD. All day yesterday, I couldn't put it down. I barely got dinner on the table and had to force myself to go to bed at 11:00 pm. I just finished it this morning with a big smile on my face. I just love it when you read a good story!

Highland Stake 5K

Our stake held it's second bi-annual 5k on Saturday and we decided that we would go as a family. So Saturday morning we got the kids up and to the park across the street by 8:00 am. The first half a mile we dealt with DRAMA REGAN. She walked so slow and pouted, then started to cry that her ankle hurt. UGH. We were way behind anyone. Luckily, I had grabbed my ipod shuffle and handed that over to her and the drama was finally over. They did lay out a short cut, which we took, so we actually only walked 2.35 miles. Scott has this computerized pedometer thing so he could tell us how far we had gotten. We did catch up to the rest of the slow ones and weren't the last in, so I was happy. I know that Scott was chaffing at the bit to go faster, but Regan and Hali just aren't that fast. (Yes, I will sell my children out!)

They had fruit and water waiting at the park after and we let the kids play (miraculously, they were fully recovered from the walk even though we heard complaints practically the WHOLE way). There was a man there with a prosthetic leg and before we could stop him, Porter ran up and asked the man if he was a robot! The man laughed and said he was actually a Transformer. Porter thought he was SO cool.

They Call Him Flipper!

Regan had to do a different kind of book report this week. They had to read a book that had some sort of animal in it, then write the report as if the animal were speaking. Then they had to make the animal out of a small milk carton. Since Regan LOVES dolphins, she read one of the Dolphin Diaries books. And here is the dolphin that we created (yes, we!):

I'm quite proud of our little dolphin! I think he turned out really cute!

When you have children, you never really stop going to school. Especially when it comes to reports and projects!

Say, What?

Last night, while Scott played Halo with a bunch of guys from work, I was watching the Colbert Report, I think. Anyway, he brought up this study that was done that found women's voices get sexier when they are ovulating. They recorded women counting to ten during different times in their cycle and found that their voices became sexier while they were ovulating. Huh? What I would really like to know is, whose bright idea was this? Who had the dumb thought, "Hey I wonder if that woman is ovulating, because her voice is sooo sexy!" And who put up the money to test something like this? Seriously, WHY? What's the point? Can someone explain this to me, because, frankly, I don't get it.

Sometimes I Wonder....

When we got into the car today to take the girls to school, I noticed that Porter had a bloody lip. When we got home I cleaned him up and asked him if he had bumped his lip on something. He kept saying something about a "pokey". So I told him to show me what he had bumped his lip on. He took me upstairs, into my shower and pointed at my razor! I don't think I ever want to see the thoughts that actually flit through his mind! I mean, seriously. What goes through his head that he doesn't act on? Wow.

Adventures in Potty Training

You know you're potty training when not having to clean poop out of underwear makes for a REALLY good day.

So, I've been forcing myself to finally potty train Porter. I know, he's going to be four next month, but for some reason I just had a major mental block on this. I've been half heartedly doing this for about 6 months now. But pull-ups were still my best friend. So, on Sunday after church, Scott goes to change him and we realize that we have NO pull-ups. So, Scott looks at me, I look at him and I say, "Hum. I guess we are potty training Porter." So all of Monday, I had to force myself NOT to go buy some more. I don't think he made it to the toilette once. Miserable day. On Tuesday, something clicked. I think he figured out that Mom was serious this time and if he didn't want to spend his day wet, he'd better get on the ball. Not one accident since. Two days and counting!! Can't you hear the angel choirs singing the Hallelujah chorus?

My son is such a strange kid. He makes me laugh. So, yesterday, we were trying to get him to poop on the potty (he didn't poop all day Tuesday). I'm thinking this kids has got to be backed up and I kept sitting him down and making him stay for a long time. So, he was trying to entertain himself. He kept pointing at his toes and saying, "Mom, look!" and when I'd look, he'd smack me upside the head! And I fell for it like three times! Just shows how mushy my brain has gotten. And then he starts doing these karate moves, while sitting on the toilette. And he insisted that Grandpa (my dad) had taught him his moves. Now, I've racked my brain, but I don't think I have EVER seen my dad doing karate moves. Cowboy shuffled, sure, but not karate moves. Where does he come up with this stuff? And yes, he did finally poop in the potty!!