Please don't make me take Katelyn to Walmart ever, ever, ever again!

I just got home from what was supposed to be a quick jaunt through Walmart to grab milk and some feminine hygiene products. I'm surprised the police weren't chasing me home with lights flashing and sirens blaring, because I'm pretty sure half of the other shoppers were tempted to call and report me. I assume that the two ladies who walked past me and said, "Oh, my!", and the other 57 people who stopped to stare as we went by, thought that I was somehow the cause of Katelyn's tantrum. (This must sound all too familiar since I just barely wrote about my kids being terrible at the grocery store.) I have said this so many times, but this really was the worst-behaved Katelyn has ever been in a store! Here's what happened. I put the two kids in the back of the cart and they were sitting there coloring. Katelyn must just have been in a bad mood because she refused to share the crayons and she kept pushing Carter. She had been warned several times when she tried to smash Carter into the side of the cart. As promised, I placed her in the child seat at the front of the cart and strapped her in. That's when she lost her ever-loving mind. She shrieked and screamed and took swings at me, over and over. I pulled over and tried to calmly talk sense into her, but it was clear that she was incapable of being reasonable, so I proceeded to rush through the store and grab the last few things I needed. The entire ordeal couldn't have lasted more than 10 minutes (from the time the screaming started), but it felt like an eternity. She continued the behavior throughout checkout and the walk to the car.

As a mom, do you really look at people and think they could control their kids better? I used to, but that was before I had any, or when Katelyn was still bound to an infant carrier and couldn't possibly cause trouble. Now I know better. Apparently I have the brattiest kids on the face of the earth, so I'm learning my lesson for ever having judged another mom's parenting skills.

Despite the drama, I'm in good spirits. I came home and sought comfort in blogging, and found a very funny story written by another frazzled mom. Thanks, Christianne, for putting a link to this on your blog. It was perfect timing. If you haven't read it, check out this E-bay post. It's hilarious!

Happy thought: I'm making progress! I didn't raise my voice one time throughout the ordeal - not even when we got home.

Drum Roll Please.......

The time has come for me to have a job in our new ward. I have been wondering what they would ask me to do. Last week I was asked to substitute for the pianist in Relief Society and I was really excited. I would be thrilled to have that as my calling, because it seems to me to be the easiest thing to do - no preparation, no pressure, not in the spotlight at all. However, I knew in the back of my mind that because I wanted that calling, I would probably not get it. When the first counselor in the bishopric, who happens to be our next door neighbor and one of the nicest people I've ever met, approached me and said he had a calling for me, I didn't know what to expect. When he said that they would like me to serve as the secretary in the Primary presidency, I was shocked. I've never had a calling in Primary! I was so surprised that I stood there trying to decided if I had heard him right. I think he was a little worried by my reaction until I regained my composure, smiled, and assured him that I would be happy to do it. And I am happy. I think Primary is so important, and I can share the experience with my children. I have to say, I'll miss Relief Society. It's my favorite part of the 3-hour Sunday experience.

I was sustained today and, after dropping the kids off at their classes, I reported for duty. I was nervous and didn't really know what I was supposed to do. We're preparing for our Sacrament program in a few weeks, so we went to the chapel to practice. Needless to say, I didn't really get a good idea of what my role will be. But I'm excited. Our primary is tiny. We have so few children that there is just one sharing time. I would be surprised if there were 20 kids there today. So I don't think the work load will be super heavy, but I think I'll have an opportunity to get really close to the children. I hope they'll benefit from that as much as I know I will.

Happy thought: I am so grateful for a husband who let me sleep in this morning, and then hung around to get the kids dressed for church. I know he was just dying to get out the door so that he and Tanner could get at the fish before too much of the day was gone, but he showed no signs of impatience. What a great guy!

Blast from the past

I am a very nostalgic person. Painfully so. For example, last time I traveled to Germany, I practically had a panic attack on the plane ride back to the U.S., fearing that I would never make it back to Germany again. I struggle with organization, largely due to the fact that I have a hard time parting with things that evoke memories. I have a hard time letting go of the past - I still wake up in the night now and then with a painful memory of something stupid I did or said years ago.

Everyone once in a while I get the notion to watch a t.v. show I used to be attached to. In Spokane I went through a Three's Company phase, and filled the DVR with reruns aired on Nick at Nite. It didn't take me too many episodes to realize that the show was hopelessly stupid, no matter how much I thought I liked it when I was young (I wasn't even supposed to watch it, but I did). I ended up deleting 10 or 12 episodes and canceling any future recordings. Right now my DVR is filled with The Cosby Show and Brady Bunch. I've stopped recording cartoons because almost everything the kids like is available On Demand. So when Katelyn wants to watch something and I am fed up with cartoons, I treat her to one of my recorded programs. She has fallen in love with the Brady Bunch! She asks to watch it daily. She's not as fond of Cosby, but it'll do if I insist. I can't let go of my love for these shows, but I do recognize that they're not really that entertaining. Things that were funny when the scripts were written are pretty boring these days, especially the stuff meant to tickle the funny bone in 1970. Still, I'll keep looking for my favorite shows of yore and I'll enjoy the memories they bring. (My family watched The Cosby Show and Family Ties together every Thursday night from 1984 to 1992. My dad popped popcorn and loaded it with butter, and it was a far better bonding experience than the family home evenings my poor parents agonized over every Monday night.)

Recently I happened upon Cartoon Network's Boomerang channel. The channel's lineup includes The Jetsons, Flinstones, Smurfs, Snorks, Popeye, and Pink Panther, just to name a few. I was prompted to turn to the channel when I saw Smurfs on the t.v. guide. As I had hoped, Katelyn loved the little blue guys, but I was disappointed to see that the episodes are more about Gargamel than about Smurfette or Brainy Smurf. Actually, I have found that all of the cartoons I enjoyed as a child are really lame, even though I've always insisted that cartoons were better "when we were kids." Wrong. I think they do a better job these days of trying to stimulate kids and get them involved and active. Of course, I'm referring to the cartoons on PBS and the Disney Channel and the likes. I still cannot appreciate anime, or the junk geared toward teens and preteens that they play on Saturday mornings or on Cartoon Network. I was actually glad when Katelyn chose to watch Little Einsteins this morning. I mean, they're trying to teach classical music, and rhythm, and curious exploration. Much better use of time than watching a balding man in black chasing little blue creatures around a mushroom village. Oh, and in case you're wondering, I do realize that my children have watched more t.v. this week than they should in an entire year. That's what happens when mom tries to paint the house while the kids are awake, and one kid is really sick so we can't go to the library, etc, etc. I know, there will always be excuses.....

Happy thought: I love how little kids are so hungry for knowledge. Carter spent a full 30 minutes before his nap asking me what every item in sight was. I thought it would never end, but I loved it because he's just drinking in everything around him. And Katelyn just brought me her alphabet chart and asked to go over her letters. She just loves it, and we laughed and laughed as we went over it last night before bed. Kids are awesome!

That look.....

Carter has rotavirus. I'm almost positive that he got it from the nursery (shocking, I know), since he started having symptoms on Tuesday morning and the incubation period for the virus is 2 days. So I have been holed up in the house with the kids, doing my best to not infect everyone else with this disgusting bug, since Tuesday. I'm dying to go to the library, or shopping, or visit my sisters. But this morning I had to go the the grocery store. It was 7:30 am and Carter had already vomited twice - he was guzzling milk because I'm sure he's starving! I decided I had to get him some Pedialyte and maybe some crackers or something else really boring. So I got the kids dressed and combed their hair, and threw on some scrubs and flip-flops. I didn't think it was fair to shower and put on make-up while Carter waited in misery for me to take care of him.

The kids were awful at the store, as you would expect. We couldn't get Katelyn to sleep until after 10 last night and she woke up at 6 this morning (I'm so worried that she's getting this virus, too), so she was tired and cranky, and Carter was starving and had a stomach ache. They both cried (well, actually Carter was screaming) through the entire store, and I was so thrown by the situation that we went from one end of the store to the other twice, just to get our 6 or 7 items. I finally got to the checkout line and realized that we had forgotten crackers. I turned to the couple behind us and said, "You can go ahead. I just realized that we forgot something." They couldn't even get out of the way so that I could turn my giant monstrosity of a fire engine shopping cart around and get out of line. They were too busy staring at me, mouths agape, with that look that says, "What is wrong with you? Why can't you keep your kids from screaming? Why do you look like a homeless person? Don't you ever comb your hair?" I managed to push by them, but they never changed their judgemental expressions or even attempted to get out of my way.

Usually I find myself at home in Utah. There are so many kids here, and I often exchange sympathetic looks with other moms when our kids are being terrors in public. But there are still those people who either don't have kids, or just don't understand what it's like to have a hard day. It's so tempting to fight back when I feel like I'm being judged, to explain everything we've been through in the last 3 weeks, and how much sleep I haven't gotten. But I don't want to be mean, and I don't owe anyone an explanation. I'm doing the best I can.

Happy thought: I walked outside this morning and there was a nip in the air. I got excited at the thought of wearing jackets and cute pointy-toed boots. I think I'm ready for autumn.

Fruits of our "Labor" Day weekend

On the south side of our property, the neighbors put in a beautiful white vinyl fence. It runs from our front yard all the way down the side to the end of our backyard. The back of our yard is a chain link fence, but is almost completely covered with grape vines, so it looks nice and gives us privacy. The north side of our house, however, is a big old wooden fence. John decided he wanted it white so it sort of looks like the vinyl on the other side. (Katelyn insisted on helping, and ended up covered in white paint!) John did most of the work, but I pitched in a little and the project was finished in 2 days. It looks great now!

John has been planning on building a work bench in our garage, since we have enough space in there for a third car, but we've been waiting for the money to buy wood. We got lucky when our friend Shane took John to his old work site where they were giving away a bunch of benches and shelves. Here's the result, and John couldn't be more pleased!

Our other big project this weekend was to texture our ceilings upstairs. We finished scraping the popcorn off of our living room ceiling a few weeks ago, and the rest of our ceilings needed new texture because they're all different. So John, being the man who can do anything he puts his mind to, spent Saturday and part of Sunday morning finishing all of the texture. I'm so impressed - it looks awesome!

With our new beautiful texture up, I was excited to get going on the painting. Last night I primed the ceiling in the living room. Can you tell the difference?


I'm so excited to get this room done! Today I'll prime the walls and hopefully paint the ceiling. The walls will be Bonjour Beige and the ceiling and all of the moldings will be Antique White, which will continue through on all of the moldings in the house and the kitchen cabinets. I hope to have more pictures to show you tomorrow!

I have to add that we couldn't have accomplished nearly as much this weekend without the help and companionship of our good friends Shane and Becky. They spent over 12 hours with us on Saturday, and then when I thought they were sick to death of us, Becky and I were on the phone planning to hang out and relax Sunday night. We're so glad to live so much closer now!

A-Quilting We Will Go

While I was in Spokane, my sisters Julie and Stephanie signed up for a quilt block class. As a gift, Steph paid for my enrollment and mailed the blocks to me each month. Being so far away, it was hard to catch the quilting fever, and I got very behind on my quilt blocks. But when I got here and had some time to work on them, I realized how much fun it is! And the fabrics are really beautiful, so it's fun to see the finished products. Yesterday Julie came over and we spent most of the day trying to catch up. Here are 2 of my favorite blocks. I have one more to do and I'll be caught up with the class, which is amazing.


Warning: Do not enlarge these pictures! They look much better from afar, so you can't see the mistakes!


Happy thought: I'm so grateful for sisters who live close and share my interests, and who have time to hang out with me. I also get a lot of support from my sisters when I am struggling with something in my life. (I am also grateful for my sister who does not live close anymore - thank goodness for blogging!)

Snakes & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails

There is something so sweet and special about little boys. I have 3 sisters and no brothers. (I always wanted a brother, particularly an older brother. Katelyn is lucky because she gets the benefits of an older brother, but she doesn't see Tanner enough to get on his nerves or to get torchered and teased like all of my friends who had older brothers.) Anyway, when I got pregnant with Katelyn, I wanted a girl so badly. Lucky for me, I got what I wanted and have adored buying pink clothes and stuffed animals and dolls and all that goes along with having a little girl. When I got pregnant with Carter, I wanted another little girl. Not that I didn't ever want a boy, but I justified my desire by saying that Katelyn should have a sister close to her age to play with. Really, I was terrified to have a boy. Growing up with no brothers, I have no idea what to do with boys!

So I was blessed with my little Carter, and I have gotten to experience the love of a mother for her son. Of course I love both of my children, not one more than the other. But the bond between mother and son is different from the bond between mother and daughter. I can relate to Katelyn because she likes girly things, and doesn't prefer trucks and motorcycles and wrestling every minute of the day. But Carter is the loviest little guy. I can feel that he's going to adore me for the rest of our lives. I sit next to him at the dinner table and sometimes, in the middle of dinner, he'll reach over and hug me for no reason. I end up with food all over me, but it's the sweetest thing!

I think Carter is in a grace period. He doesn't get into things quite as much as he did a month or two ago - or maybe I've gotten really good at heading him off - and he's not quite into the terrible 2's. There are days when he throws tantrums and screams all day, and of course he is so wild that he's bound to break a tooth or dislocate an arm from time to time. But he is very sweet and I find myself thinking how awesome he is more than being frustrated with him these days. I'll have to make the most of it while it lasts, because thanks to Katelyn, I know what's coming.

Happy thought: I find myself feeling grateful almost every day that we bought this house. That is due in large part to how much I love the neighborhood. I never would have thought that would be the case when we started looking at homes in this part of town!