our space

Someone has a bad case of the mondays.  

Can you guess which one?

an apology to my body

Dear Body,

I am sincerely sorry that I put you through that spinning class last night. I realize that you haven't had that hard of a workout since Gwen was born. However, it was for the best. I think I am more sorry for not having worked you that hard in such a long, long time. I also realize that I need to take better care of you and that the extra pounds you have been carrying around these past few years are even worse than the spinning class from last night. Yes, even worse.

So if you will cooperate with me, I believe it is in our best interest that we continue attending these classes. If we do so, I see a bright future ahead of us. And believe me when I say that I will feel the pain when you do.

You know I love you.

h o ll y

a day in our life

Yesterday went down like this:

Woke up feeling rather lazy and lethargic. Talked to Kristy on the phone and made a deal. I had to go workout right then and she would go today(wednesday). I took the girls on a 40 minute walk (the big loop) so I hope you went today Kris! When I got home and put the stroller back in my car, I locked my keys in it as well. Errands were scratched off my list of things to do at that point. I am just so smooth sometimes, it really is quite impressive.

Inez came up to me and said, "Mom look what I'm doing! Do you want to take my picture?" After returning with my camera I had her pose again. I'm not sure why this was supposed to be so impressive and/or picture worthy, but I humor her.

Felt overwhlemed because of this

and this

Trying to get creative for a little craft party that I'm wanting to hold (a.k.a. "stamp camp", but I really hate that name, it's so cheesy).

Decorated for Halloween.


"Do you want me in the picture too Mom?" she asked as she got in front of the lens.

Okay Mom K., remember how last year I found the last one of these guys after Halloween at Roberts or some place like that?

Well, I found them again this year at Tai Pan Trading Co. and bought one for you (you're welcome).

Dave loves this decoration and said to me when we got out our boxes of decorations the other day, "We should get rid of all the decorations that aren't like this and we should only buy this kind of stuff from now on." Hmph. How do I interpret that one?

After getting Gwen down for her nap, Inez and I made pumpkin cookies for the second time this week. A bad thing since it was only Tuesday.
And Liz you would LOVE these.

Inez tried on her new skirt.
She decided that she wanted to keep it on all day because it was good for dancing.

Impromptu dance party(USA)



Danced to this song:



After feeling rested, Gwen rejoined us and proceeded to follow Inez around everywhere.



But got hung up on the chair, climbing up and getting down, climbing up and getting down. Again and again and again.

Then she refocused and followed Inez around again, this time under Daddy's desk to check out the vent where Inez was playing Jingle Bells(don't ask).

After eating some fresh zucchini from our garden (which Gwen loves but Inez won't touch with a ten-foot pole)

we got our jim-jams on. Thanks Aunty Kiki for the cool hand-me-down jammies!

The girls went to sleep without a fight (another prayer answered).

Dave went to work tweaking our blog, but should have been working on some freelance. He finally did, for hours.
And I finally got in a groove and kicked out a few cards. This is one of my faves.


We went to bed at 2am.

Today I am EXHAUSTED and it's time to start all over, again.

just when I thought I was a decent parent...

I keep hearing that I should listen to a podcast called This American Life. I've been meaning to give it a try for the past few weeks and yesterday, on my way home from work, I finally listened to my first episode, Unconditional Love.

I've given you the link to the episode, but If you are a parent, I recommend that you do not listen to it. Unless you have a desire to feel that your parenting skills are on par with those of Britney Spears, don't listen. It will convince you that your children are the ones enduring you (not the other way around) and that you've never had a difficult day in all of your selfish life.

It might also make your eyes watery as you drive. When you reach home, it's possible that it will cause you to give your surprized wife and daughters lengthy, embarrassing hugs followed by lengthy, embarrasing (watery) gazes and a few clumsy declarations, like "I love you guys" and "No, seriously—I SO love you guys."

Nobody wants that. Don't listen.

no more barbie

The only thing that happened between Nezzie's innocent three-year-old kisses of yesterday and the tilted head, eyes closed, mushy kiss that she tried to give Dave today, was the watching of Barbie of Swan Lake.

This morning I overheard this dialogue between Inez & Dave:
I: I love you Dad.
D: I love you too, Nezzie.
(pause)
D: Nezzie we don't kiss like that.
I: But sometimes girls kiss boys like that.

Lesson learned? Even if renting a movie from the library is only $1 for a whole week, the answer will be NO.

It is a pretty annoying movie to listen to, besides the music.

that nez

This morning after just having returned from our morning walk down around the temple, Gwen fell asleep in the stroller and was easily transported to the crib and fell back asleep. Miracle of miracles. It was 10:45 am and the leftover birthday cake was staring me down. Inez had been begging for cake all morning and I caved, but mostly so I could eat some of the frosting. I know what you are thinking and please don't judge. You will have to just trust me when I say that my Mom makes the best homemade fudgy frosting, otherwise I would not have eaten something of that nature right after working out. I am wiping the saliva off my mouth as I type, which is kind of tricky if you are typing with two hands.

Well, after a few bites of cake, Inez decided that it's not all it's cracked up to be. She often does this with desserts, which totally baffles me. Anyway, I gave her some of her soymilk to help wash it down and the following conversation occurred:

Inez: Mom, can I have a chocolate straw with my milky?
Me: No, you are had enough sugar from the cake.
I: MOM, you are not doing what Jesus said.
M: Oh really? And what does Jesus say?
I: He says you have to share everything.

At this point of my post, I would include a picture of the cake, but sadly at the time of publication there is no cake left to photograph. My sincerest apologies. Instead here's what is left.

summertime, and the livin' is easy

These are just two of the many reasons I love the mid-summer season.

1. Unbelievably delicious fruit like this

because I put it on my oatmeal in the morning, topped with a little brown sugar, and it is TO DIE FOR. It may even be better than chocolate, which may shock Dave because he doesn't believe that phrase could possibly ever leave my mouth, but it's true.
But look. See? Doesn't it look yummy?

2. Shark Week.

It scares me half to death, but I love it.

finished

I am done reading the seventh Harry Potter (no spoilers here, it's safe to read on).

My brain hurts from reading so late into the night(s) after the girls were asleep. I even read it at the gym the other day but it felt SO wrong! Harry Potter really doesn't belong at the gym.

I can now catch up on my blog with some recent happenings, so stay tuned.

okay. i won't go to australia.

It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Before going any further, I realize and acknowledge that there are many people on God's green earth that have it much worse than I do. But for me and my house, today was a bad day. I'm not going to list it all. But just a few highlights of my bad day include:

• being informed by our health insurance company that we can't cancel our insurance until the end of the month. Well, actually we can. But we will still be charged the full amount of $404.60 even if we faxed over our written request and cancelled it today. Dave's work finally got us on a group plan. And because it wasn't greenlit until yesterday, we hadn't cancelled our private insurance. So we are paying through the nose and not being supplemented by Dave's work (like we used to be), and having the new insurance money for the new plan taken out of the paycheck all in the same month. All this for our terrible coverage. Fantastic.

• dealing with THE grumpiest three-year-old in all of Utah County. She certainly woke up on the wrong side of the bed and it just went downhill from there.

• my rib(s) going out of place for the third day in a row. It's so lovely when it happens because I can hardly breathe, let alone pick up a ten month old while dealing with the most dramatic three-year-old.

• having super hairy legs, very dirty feet and going on the second day of wearing the same shirt. Day and night.

This evening I had to run to the library before it closed and I was still feeling sorry for myself, so I went to drown my sorrows at Target. And I bought this for myself.

I also made cookie dough. It was too late to bake them tonight, so I just had a few bites. I felt so much better.

Now, I'm not trying to generate sympathy or get cookies delivered (especially since I have some dough in the fridge right now). I'm just venting. I know it's on days like this that I need to write in my gratitude journal and remember the good that still surrounds me. For example:

• even after spanking (yes, spanking happens on days like today) my three-year-old, she still loves me.

• having my sister in town for a few more days, and sharing some quality girl time with her and my Mom tonight after all the kids were asleep and until my Dad came upstairs because it was 1am, wanting to go to bed and kicked us out (in a nice way) of his room.

• having a husband that loves me no matter how hairy my legs get and I'm sure, hasn't even noticed that I've sported the same shirt two days in a row.

So, no matter how terrible, horrible, no good, or very bad my days get, I know that I still have it good. Especially as long as Target is open.

my five best years

Happy anniversary, babe. I love you.

wood and silverware?

Today marks five years of our marriage.

 I love you Dave.

P.S.  Happy tenth Anniversary to Beth & Fo'ou today too!

crazy bees

Well, I admit I have been very neglectful of our dear little blog. I have about a million posts that are saved as drafts because I haven't had time to finish and post them. Life is just too busy right now. I feel like I have crazy bees in my head. I have a list of 29 things to do and we are leaving next Thursday to go out of town.

By the way, the marathon long list does not include anything I need to do to get us ready to leave for our vacation. Don't you feel sorry for me?