Celebrate!

This is my 201st post. Fabulous. Happy day. I am a rock star.

Moving on.

Remember this picture? You should. It is from my 199th post.


Well, that very same night this is what Marie looked like. She is the cutest mess ever.


The best part of these two pictures? Brandon, William, Marie, and I all had the same thing for dinner that night. The same thing. All four of us. It was even in the same form. No mushy paste version of spaghetti for William or Marie. Just regular chunky delicious spaghetti for all for of us. It was beautiful.

You are tired of hearing about my food woes. I know. I, however, am not tired of feeling ecstatic about the improvements William has made. So, buck up. I am sure there is more to come.

P.S. Why is it we were smart enough to take William's shirt off, but not Marie's? Silly parents.

Today

I don't frequent the show Grey's Anatomy. Actually, I don't frequent TV much at all. Unless you count PBS. If you count PBS, I am an addict. Anyway. Earlier this month I dusted off the remote and turned on the TV while I was feeding Marie a bottle. I caught the end of Grey's Anatomy where Meredith does her little monologue that ties all the lose ends of the episode together and she said,

Don't wonder why people go crazy. Wonder why they don't. In face of what we can lose in a day, in an instant, wonder what the hell it is that makes us hold it together.

The next day was September 11th. I thought about the tragedy that fell upon our nation 7 years ago. I thought about the tragedies that have fallen upon our world since then. We are living in very tumultuous times. I thought about how blessed I am to know what I know.

I wanted to write a blog then. I wanted to tell all the Merediths out there where they can find the glue to hold it all together. I just couldn't quite find the right words.

Today, I heard them.

Today the Primary children had their annual Sacrament Meeting Program. Today the young children of our ward shared simple truths. Today those sweet spirits reminded me of what the glue is.

Today they taught that we are all children of a Heavenly Father. He loves us and wants us to return to Him.

Today they taught that Heavenly Father has given us commandments to help us to return to Him.

Today they taught that the family is central to Heavenly Father's plan and that He wants us to be together forever.

Today they taught that Heavenly Father has given us temples so that families can be together forever. Not only our family that is living today, but also those that have passed on.

Today they taught that Prophets and Apostles have been called and appointed to lead us on the path which we should follow.

Today they taught that we must share this knowledge with all who are willing to hear.

Today I gained a renewed sense of hope.

Today I realized what a choice group these children are. These children have a knowledge that so much of the world longs for. These children have hope when they are surrounded by despair. These children have the glue to hold it all together.

Today was a good day.

Want to know more about my faith? Click here.

I Am a Child of God

Dear William,

Where have you been lately? I am lonely. For over a week now I have sat in the cupboard gathering dust, no one cranking my rotary handle, allowing me to turn chunky food into delicious, mushy paste. Now you are eating chunky vegetables, enchiladas, spaghetti, and even tater tot casserole without me. Please come back. I miss you.

Love,

Your (turning rusty) Food Mill


__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear William,

Disregard the above letter and keep up the good work! We are so proud of you!

Love,
Mom and Dad

Dear Marie,

If these pictures inspire you to be a ballerina one day, I am totally OK with that. Please don't get any ideas though. When you're all grown up, you'll have to wear a leotard.

Love,
Mom

Check It Out

Not much to it right now, but it will soon be command center for my etsy shop.

Toodles

P.S. For those of you who don't know, if you are ever reading a post on my blog, or any blog for that matter, and the text is a different color or underlined, it means that that text is linked to another internet site. Pretty nifty, eh?

Stay Tuned

I have decided to open an etsy shop. Yikes. Seeing those words in writing makes me nervous.

It's just a little something that I might also call, "A Mother's Sanity." Something to keep me busy during the kids naps because cleaning the house, doing laundry (avoiding it is more like it), reading, napping, and blogging don't keep me busy enough already.

Anyway, the grand opening is coming soon. Soon is relative, just so you know.

Whenever that grand opening does happen, there will be a giveaway, or so I've heard.

In the meantime, here is my logo/header. I like it. How 'bout you?

You say "to -may- to" I say "to -mah- to"

When my family moved from Wyoming to California a lot of things in our life changed. No more snow. We could now spend Memorial Day at the beach instead of building snowmen (You think I'm kidding don't you. You've obviously never lived in Eastern Wyoming). School consisting of multiple buildings, instead of just one. I remember walking into the office of my new elementary school and wondering where the rest of the school was. I was a confused child. No basements in the houses. Earthquakes. Water Polo. Big roads. Traffic. So many new things! The lingo was even different. All our lives we had known soft drinks to be POP and now we were told it is really SODA. Well, naturally, we made an effort to conform to our surroundings. After living there for several years I couldn't think of it as anything but SODA.

And then I moved to Utah and married a boy from Utah. Here within the confines of our very household the POP vs. SODA battle rages. Brandon insists that it is POP. I, on the other hand, with childhood memories of ridicule for calling it POP, just can't bear to conform again. Now we have a real problem. William can talk. Last week, William was introduced to the word POP. Everyone around us calls it POP. William is going to grow up saying POP. I think I am going to lose this war ...

Just for the record, the word SODA did come first. It says so right here.

And there is a small little bubble of SODA converts in Utah. It says so on this map. I don't do Utah geography very well. Is that Salt Lake County? Honey, we need to move ...

I am so over my hair ...

I was trying to grow it out. Long. Super long. Can you say super high maintenance? And in the hair world I have only made it to the medium length stage. Forget you long hair.

Hmmmm ..... what to do, what to do ...

It's true ...

... you did see Marie in the background of that last picture wearing pigtails.

It's true ...

... you did see Marie in the background of that last picture wearing pigtails.

Rejoice!

In the past (nearly) 3 years I have cleaned up more than a lot of throw up. Courtesy of our sweet son, William. Brandon and I both have catching and cleaning throw up down to a science, so much so that within about 5 minutes after the dreaded event we can be sitting down at the dinner table once again enjoying our meal. We have caught it in our hands, in napkins, in bibs, in bowls, on trays. You name it, we have done it. It has made me cry. It has made me yell. I have stomped my feet. I have wanted to pull my hair out. This *cough* "small" issue of William's has been the most frustrating thing we have dealt with in regards to parenthood.

Why, you ask, does he throw up so much? Well, here is the equation for you:

William
+oral sensitivities (aka texture issues)
+ gag reflex like a pregnant woman
___________________________
lots and lots and lots of throw up

Even when William doesn't throw up, getting food down him can ofttimes be extremely exhausting. Begging, pleading, time-outs, bribes. I am not ashamed, I have tried it all.

Phew!

That being said, last night was a time of rejoicing in our family.

I made this delicious soup for dinner on Sunday night.

Brandon was feeding some of the leftovers to Marie. William showed some interest in it. We gave him a bite. He chewed. He swallowed. He asked for more. He fed himself two bowls full! Hallelujah!

Perhaps there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It is a very long, windy, curvy tunnel, but there is a light at the end of it, none-the-less.

I Have Issues

Pretty much, there are certain topics that I can get really heated about. Worked up. Agitated. Fiesty. I try to keep those topics away from my blog. No one really likes to read another person's personal rants. Unless it is Dave Barry's personal rants, of course, and that is because he is hilarious. I am not. Hilarious, that is. Plus, I'm not really in this game to offend any one or to get anybody else worked up or agitated or fiesty because they have an opposite opinion from mine. So I just don't share hot topic opinions. Most of the time.

That being said, I just have one little rant.

How is it the world has come to term unmedicated births as natural births? If a medicated birth isn't natural, would it then be artificial? I had an epidural with both of my children, however, I don't recall there being anything artificial about their births. They seemed pretty natural to me.

OK. That's all.

The end.

William learned how to do a somersault. Over and over and over and over again. And I have to watch every time. And cheer him on when he is done. Over and over and over and over again. He really is quite good at it. Over and over and over and over again.

Marie has decided that perhaps crawling is second rate stuff. She wants to try out this walking business. She has taken 1 1/2 steps unassisted. When we attempt to help her practice some more she gets really excited and her limbs turn into rubber. It won't be too long now... goodbye dirty knees!

Flashback

I love digital pictures. What could be better than to reminisce about last Halloween and pull out pictures from it, all in the same breath. Of course, if I were on top of my scrapbooking I could do the same thing. Huh. I am ignoring that thought. Back to Halloween. And pictures. And my adorable Peter Pan and tiny Tinkerbell.

Costumes for this year are already in the works. Not because I'm on top of things (you should see what I am neglecting to even write this post) but because I am a nerd and I get excited about things like children's Halloween costumes. Now that the creative process has begun I will have a dazed look on my face until the project is finished. Behind that dazed look, the wheels are turning, thinking, contemplating about making Halloween costumes. Seriously. I am that big of a nerd. And proud of it. And my husband loves me for it. That's all that matters to me.

Hears to Halloween 2008!

Zoo in Review

If going to the zoo two years in a row in September makes for an annual tradition, then we have added one to our family repertoire! This year Grandma and Grandpa P. came along and we had a great day. The weather was perfect, the kids behaved and the animals were pretty active. Days like that are refreshing. They are the ones I hold onto and remember on days like today, which I don't even want to talk about right now. Let's just say that William has been down for a nap for over an hour now and I have just barely cooled off enough to even be in the mood to type a blog. Anyway, back to the perfect day ...

I was actually surprised by how much attention Marie actually paid to the animals. As much as an almost 1 year old can, she really loved the zoo!

Darn giraffe walked out of the picture just as I was taking it. Oh well, Grandpa and Marie are cuter subjects anyway.

It's either a bird or the second coming, I can't remember which.

My little cubs, both of them, looking at the camera at the same time! See, I told you it was a perfect day!

Grandma and Grandpa treated Kiddos to the carousel. William couldn't decide which animal he wanted to ride. Notice he is on a different animal in each picture.

Marie just smiled. Typical.

This is most definitely my favorite picture of the day, and my favorite moment. This little orangutan was putting on a great show for us, jumping, playing, and swinging. We were all munching on some kettle corn while watching. She saw Brandon with a handful, came bounding over to the window, propped herself on the sill and just stared at him. Naturally, we brought William over and the two had a cute little bonding moment. So cute. After a few minutes she figured out that we weren't going to share our popcorn and went back to playing.

Milestones.

I have never been one of those moms that just pines over the fact that my children are growing up. I have loved seeing both William and Marie grow and develop and become, well, them. Wishing them to be younger again (I speak as if they are old. Ha!) would take away all the milestones that they have achieved. I wouldn't want that. I relish the moments when I see that they are learning.

Last night was one of those moments. William said his first family prayer all by himself.

"Heavenly Father. Grateful for this day. Jesus Christ, Amen."

I can't decide which was more rewarding to me. The actual prayer or the look of pride on his face as he finished. Both definitely caused a love burst in my heart for my sweet boy. Later that night he got a bit more confident in his personal prayer, or distracted, you be the judge.

"Heavenly Father. Grateful for this day. Grateful family. Firetruck. People on firetruck. Circle. Jesus."

I love my boy!

Back in Time

Wide Open Spaces
Who doesn't know what I'm talking about
Who's never left home, who's never struck out
To find a dream and a life of their own
A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone
Many precede and many will follow
A young girl's dream no longer hollow
It takes the shape of a place out west
But what it holds for her, she hasn't yet guessed

She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes

She traveled this road as a child
Wide eyed and grinning, she never tired
But now she won't be coming back with the rest
If these are life's lessons, she'll take this test

She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes

As her folks drive away, her dad yells, "Check the oil!"
Mom stares out the window and says, "I'm leaving my girl"
She said, "It didn't seem like that long ago"
When she stood there and let her own folks know

She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes

Was it really 9 years ago that I was doing the freshman thing at Ricks College? It hardly seems that long. Sara has now began her adventure there. May that wonderful wide open space be as kind to her as it was to me.