Potty Training Funnys

Potty training nearly always includes something humorous. Justice was sitting on the potty trying to figure out how to pee. Holding on to his part, as he has seen his brothers do, (he apparently thinks there is a button that you have to press to make it happen) he says "I can't press the button. Can you help me Mommy?"

A Screw Up That Makes Me Giggle

On my cd version of Little Women (my fav. book), there is a little mess up that cracks me up everytime I hear it. Here it is:

...Little Brothers!

Various Bits of Fun

Last night was our ward Halloween party, so we all dressed up in our costumes again. (The first time was for J&L's party, but that's been posted enough on other sites, so I'll refrain here. I'll only say that it was splendid.) Here are the kids in their costumes:

Mark as a Vampire

Ross as a Werewolf

Justice as "Inda Jones"

Lydia as Lola from Hannah Montana

And Clayton went as a Cute Baby

I didn't really have a costume. I always run out of energy and $ after I get my kids' costumes, so I rarely dress up anymore. I happened to be wearing my favorite t-shirt: a red and pink Super-Girl t-shirt, and my red jeans. I threw on a pink cape and went as "Super Mom." Clayton decided my outfit wasn't quite complete, and put on the finishing touch by pooping all over me 15 minutes after we'd gotten to the ward building.

Bruce had to work overnight last night. I had my whole bed to myself. NOT. Ross came up and got in my bed around 3 am, Mark came up around 5 am, then Justice joined in the fun around 6 am. Very shortly thereafter, Clayton decided he was hungry, so I had to kick them all out so I could feed him. My bed just isn't big enough! I will miss these days though. I just smiled and enjoyed having little boy stinky morning breath in my face and my hair pulled as my children rolled on it.

On another subject, Ross and Mark have learned to work their sister. They paid her a quarter to clean their room. Then I asked them to clean up the rest of their mess in the living room and other parts of the house. They asked Lydia if they could just throw their stuff into their room and have her put it away. For another quarter, she agreed. I'm not sure who is working who. But hey, as long as everybody's happy, and the house is getting clean...

Beans and Dollars

We've been using the bean system for quite a while now. It works well. The only problem is that it could break me financially. We've been at this for what, a year and a half, and we haven't been too broke yet, so I'm not actually that worried, but all three of my older children cashed in 20 beans this week to get picked up from school and go out to lunch with me. I love going to school and seeing my kids there. They are always so happy to see their mother at school. I love my dates with them too! This was just not a good week for me to afford to go out to eat 3 times.
Oh well, spending time one on one with my children is better than money. Good times!

Funny Church Things

Does this strike anyone else as funny? Someone from the Primary presidency handed me an envelope containing our children's parts for the Primary program. On the way home from church, I opened it up and was looking at the parts. Lydia's entire part is a quote from Satan. (No, we LDS persons are NOT Satanists, the quote was to point out that he is bad.) It tickled my funny bone.

Also, after church today, Justice (my 2 year old) was in the Primary room talking on the microphone, as all children love to do. He was babbling along, and I didn't catch much of what he was saying, but he mentioned Jesus. Then he mentioned something about "punch you in the face."

Late Night Crazies

Well, it finally got cold enough that we turned on the heater. Around midnight, Bruce and I both woke up and decided we were cold, so he turned on the heater. He also planted the evil thought by asking me where the carbon monoxide detector was. Well, I couldn't remember. That thing was always too heavy for it's prongs and wouldn't stay plugged in. Yes, I know you should have them in more than one location in your house, but those things are expensive! Anyway, I rolled over and went back to sleep. I dreamed about finding the CO detector; I dreamed about knocking on my neighbor's door at 1:00 in the morning, asking to borrow one. I woke up at 1:00 am with a headache. "Oh crap, I have a headache! Now I have to worry about it!" which of course, I did. I got up and started looking all over the house for the CO detector. I couldn't find it. I was tired, so I laid back down, couldn't go to sleep. So, telling myself that I'm a lunatic, I got up and drove to Wal-Mart at 1:45 am, going 70 mph. I bet I looked a bit crazy with my make-up that I didn't bother to take off from the day before, smeared under my eyes, my hair sticking up everywhere, etc. I was in good company though. It really surprised me how many people there are in Wal-Mart at 2:00 am on a Saturday morning. There was actually a longish line in the cigarette line. I found that amusing through my foggy brain. There were also some seriously freakish people there with the way gothic look going. Piercings out the wazoo, gothic make-up even on the guy, gothic hair, etc. Anyway, I walked to the CO detector aisle at top speed. (I can walk really fast when I want to. This stems from having long legs and from walking to school in jr high and high school always at least 10 minutes late). I'm sure I looked absolutely mad. I made it back home in 20 minutes total, plugged the thing in. It didn't go off. I went downstairs where the boy's bedroom is, plugged it in there. No alarm. Good, back to bed. I still have a headache this morning, but the thing isn't beeping, so I guess I just need to snap out of it.

My Sweet Boys

There was no school today. Those wonderful teacher's institutes - I loved them so much as a child! My boys got up about the same time as usual and knocked on our bedroom door. I opened the door to see Ross and Mark carrying a tray with two plates of leftover pancakes and three carrots. They each carried a tall glass of juice. Justice was tagging along carrying a bottle of syrup. "We brought you breakfast in bed!" says Ross "The one with a bite out of it is Justice's." he says (meaning the carrot.) They hung out and shared our leftover pancakes with us. Aren't children great!

On a side note, I noticed that Justice's diaper was extremely soggy, and I asked him: "Are you poopy, Justice?"

"No, not yet." was his reply. I laughed. I've got to get that one potty trained!

Good News, Bad News

The good news is that my fat dog has lost 8.5 lbs. The bad news is that she had a tapeworm. She's fine now. The vet fixed her up.

The Awesomest Weekend! (Now back to Reality)

I of course forgot to bring the camera, so I have no pictures. We went camping in Nauvoo with my parents and all of my siblings. Everyone was there, except my sister-in-law, Liz. I hear she had a good weekend too. We actually did almost nothing in town, but I didn't mind it one little bit. We were at a great campground with heated cabins, and a playground just a stone's throw from our cabin door. We just farted around and let the kids play all day. We played some volleyball. John, Trent, Ashley and I all went for a morning run. I was by far the slow poke of the group. Oh well, I'll get it back eventually. Well, I'll never be as fast as John or Trent, but I'll be able to keep up with Ashley at least. John, Lydia and I went for a midnight walk all the way down to the river. That was nice. Basically we just relaxed and socialized. About mid-day, our friend Colista, who lives in town came over and brought her boys (who are nicely just the same ages as my boys, so they all played). Ross really liked Tristan! Too bad we don't live closer. We just hung out and chatted. That's about it. It was just sooo inexpressibly nice to be able to let the kids run around, with no TV or video games to fight, no homework to do, no place to have to go to. The weather couldn't have been better either. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Now I'm back home, I've completely unpacked, I took Clayton to the doctor to investigate a bug bite that looked nasty. Turned out to be a wasp sting. He never cried. Weird. He's fine. We put the basement back together, and cleaned up the downstairs family room. I found out the Chloe has worms (not heart worms), so I have to take her to the vet tomorrow. I have to spend tomorrow paying bills, and catching up on piano practice. And our water heater broke. Fun, fun, Fun. Vacation is over. However, I'm still good and chilled out from the weekend. I care not, it will all be well.

The Solquid

Ever wonder what to do with all those boxes of cornstarch you have just laying around? Try making cornstarch feelies! I highly recommend it. We've done it several times on a small scale, just enough to play with in your hands. I've wanted to do enough to walk on for a long time. I was wanting to fill a kiddie pool with the stuff, but after doing a bit of calculation, I realized that it would take like 100 or so boxes. Not too cost effective. However I did blow 13 boxes at once here. It was great fun!

The cool thing about cornstarch feelies is that it really isn't a solid, but it's a weird kind of liquid. See, it's a surface tension thing. As long as you hit it fast, it feels solid. You can run and jump on it. But the second you stop moving, you sink into it like a liquid. When you roll it around in your hands, it will roll up like a ball, and it feels really solid. As soon as you stop rolling it, it runs all our of your hand just like any other liquid.

The formula is about 1 part water to 1.75 part cornstarch (give or take a little). That's about 1 2/3 cup water per 1 lb box of cornstarch. It does seem to dry out pretty quickly as you play with it, so you'll have to add a little water as you go. Give it a try! We love it. Oh, and here's a hint: A box of cornstarch at Shop -n- Save will run you about $1.40, but you can get one at Wal-Mart for $0.84. I haven't checked the Aldi, Save-a-Lot type stores yet.

Unfortunately, it was getting dark as we were doing this, so some of the video is pretty dark, and you can't see it so well on this little window.

A Picture for Mary's Mother

(sorry, but I don't know your name)
She was wondering about this picture that I had in YMCA. It's a man milking a horse, sort of. It's from Monty Python.

Things You Don't Hear Everyday

At Wal-Mart today, I had a snip-it of conversation that struck me as a funny kind of thing you don't hear everyday, especially not in a casual conversation.

As I was getting ready to leave the check-out counter, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something fall out of my cart. I said "Uh-oh, I think I dropped something."

To which a lady walking past calmly replied "It's the baby's head."

"Oh, thanks!" I say, picking it up and walking on.

And incidentally only a boy would carry around the decapitated head of a baby doll.

How Do I Miss These Things?

A few years back, Bruce laughed at me for singing along to a song which I thought went like this: "Get your rock salt, get your rock salt, Honey!" Well, as it turned out, the real lyrics were a bit obscene. Then there was the time when I thought "Money for Nothin" from Dire Straits went like this: "We got the movies refrigerators. We got the movies color TVs..." I can't remember how old I was when I was finally corrected on that one.

Of course there is the Primary song that has always been so confusing for us Mormon kids, you know the one about "... by this shimeno, ye are my disciples..." I still can't figure out if we are supposed to go to Zambia, or if I need to purchase a certain fishing reel in order to be "saved." This could be important information for my salvation!

Seriously though, Bruce and I were just talking about movie Dances with Wolves and he said that he thought it was sad when Wind in his Hair was about to cry over Dances with Wolves leaving. "What?!" Says I. Apparently I totally misunderstood the ending of this movie. I've seen it a million times (it's been a few years now, but still.) Heck, we own that movie. I never got that Dances with Wolves and his wife leave for Washington! I just thought the whole tribe moved away to some other part of the wild west. How did I miss that?

Recent Amusing Quotes From Our House

"Do not throw balls at open cans of paint!"

"I'm sorry that you can't paint on my face with your spit."

"Everyone fall down the hairplane! AHHHHH!"

My First Post-Partum Race

I did the Challenge of the Bluffs yesterday. It's only 5 miles, but the first 3/4 of a mile is straight up hill. (The name should give you a clue.) I felt slightly queasy before the race. I just dismissed it as pre-race nerves, which very likely it was. The race was tough (I've only been back to running for 6 weeks.) I pushed myself and didn't stop to walk at all. As expected my time was significantly slower than previous years. No disappointment there. I was just glad to finish.

Here's the weird part: As soon as the race was over, my body freaked out! I started getting chills within minutes, and I just spiraled down from there. I was VERY sick yesterday. Fever, aches, chills, headache everything. I felt like I was going to pass out just getting up to go to the bathroom. It's the next day, and I am still feeling pretty horrible. So I'm wondering if pushing myself so hard at the race did this to me. (I have a hard time swallowing that theory. I've pushed myself pretty hard before without this happening.) Or was I already harboring a virus, and racing just pushed me seriously over the edge? I just hope I don't get everyone in my family sick especially Clayton. I had to snuggle him a lot yesterday and through the night to feed him. He has been sick for a few days, so I hoping that I just caught what he had, and not the other way around. (Did that make sense?) Okay, got to go lie down.