Tag!

I've been tagged to write seven interesting things about myself. I understand that "interesting" is based completely on one's perspective and so I guarantee nothing.

1) My biggest ambition in life when I was growing up was to be a brain surgeon. I collected everything anatomically correct and for Christmas when I was eight years old I even asked for--and received--a true-to-scale model of the female human body. You couldn't have found a happier girl.

2) I really enjoy brushing my teeth. I brush them about four times a day and when I'm finished I'll run my tongue over my top teeth. I just haven't gotten over the smooth feel of them ever since I had my braces taken off after five years of being a metal mouth.

3) I'm pretty much obsessed with gardening. But, I think everybody knows this, so I will move on.

4) I've also taken quite a fancy to geneology and family history. I have many pictures of Weston and my ancestors on our wall and am in the process of compiling as many stories about our families into a book.

5) I try to eat as healthy as possible, but I do battle a serious sweet tooth at times. Actually, I have a condition that triggers my fat cells to grow whenever I eat sugar in excess. This has caused me to buy several exercise videos.

6) I started writing a novel when I was in middle school. It was a love story set in the civil war era of the 1860's. I would literally write in class and then give manuscripts to my friends between classes to edit. (By the way, thanks for all your help, if any of you are reading this! If I ever publish for real then I'll be sure to dedicate something to you) I wrote about a hundred pages but for some reason I never finished it.

7) And finally, I recently found out that we are expecting our fourth child, which is great news. The bad news is that I don't know if I'll still be able to climb Mt. Borah this summer.

Thanks for reading! I tag:
-everyone who's name begins with a "C"
-all those secret "blogger stalkers"
-and anyone who has a pet.

My Child's Poses

Today I rediscovered yoga. I used to do yoga a lot when Brooklyn was a baby and I remember it being very stress-relieving as well as great exercise. So I set up my mat and prepared to begin, excited for a quiet and meditative workout. Brooklyn saw what I was doing and was interested in joining me right away. So I placed a little blanket on the floor for her mat and we started our downward facing dogs and sun salutations.

Now, I think yoga was really invented by a little kid to be able to make fun of adults. I say this because each time I was stretched to my capacity in a demanding pose, Brooklyn would do the same pose and with a triumphant look on her face say, "this is so easy!" I'm amazed at her flexibility. She is truly the master in this game and I am the struggling student.

It was when we attempted to stand on our heads that Roman's attention was caught. I think he was a little impressed that his mommy could stand on her head, and actually, I was a little impressed myself. I asked the children if they could do this particular pose--while upside down--and Roman immediately replied, "no, but I can do a donkey kick!" So, while I was supposed to be upside down on my head in a peaceful and serene state of mind the kids were giggling like crazy trying to do donkey kicks within inches of my face.

Next, came the child pose, which is in itself an oxymoron. I mean, have you ever actually seen a little kid resting on his bended legs with a serene look on his face for long moments at a time? As soon as I relaxed into child pose, it was as if I had given the little monkeys an obvious invitation to do a dog pile on their mommy. By this time, I had given up on my idea of a peaceful workout and resolved to try again another day.

So even though I didn't get an exactly quiet workout, it was still stress-relieving with all the laughter and giggles and I think I'll invite the squirts to join me for next week's session.

Oh, Greggy...

My youngest son has sure been growing up and developing lately. Some of the things that he's learned are pretty cute, such as promptly throwing his dirty diaper away in the garbage and then clapping excitedly for himself.

He's also discovering that his older brother and sister are actually pretty fun to play with and many times I'll hear them all laughing hysterically in the next room. I have even taught him how to dust. He's not really great at it, but at least he's trying.

But there are some bad habits that he's acquired. For instance, for some reason he has taken up the paganistic ritual of idol worshiping and his God of choice is, of course, the toilet. He sacrifices many things to the Toilet God. (How a Toilet God would be beneficial to a one year old is a mystery to me.) I have found many victims in the porcelain bowl, such as, toy mermaids, blocks, cars, even a stuffed teddy bear--this one he decided to rescue at the last minute and was hugging the dripping bear around the house. He has even thrown in our cordless phone, which I might add, is the second phone that we have lost to the toilet, the first being tossed in by Roman when he was about that age. Toilets and phones are enemies I'm learning.

Now, don't get me wrong, it's not like we encourage this kind of behavior. We don't have flashing neons arrows pointing towards the bathroom. I have seen him run to the bathroom with the nearest object in hand as soon as Brooklyn has come out of the bathroom. Nobody told him the door was open, I just think this kind of knowledge is built internally in the little squirt.

But alas, this too shall pass. In the mean time, I guess we'll just stock up on phones, try to keep the toilet as clean as possible, and try to keep him as busy as possible with a duster in hand.

Until, that, too, becomes the next victim.

Is It Almost Spring, Yet?

Yesterday, there was a family party scheduled at my Grandparent's house in Blackfoot. The plan was for me to take the kiddies in the early afternoon and then Weston would meet us there after work. Before we headed out, I shoveled off all of our walks and driveway and as soon as I finished it started snowing a bit. I shrugged it off knowing you can't prevent more snowfall and the kids and I trudged down to Blackfoot (white-knuckled all the way, I might add. The roads were difficult at best).

After the party, and after Weston finally made it, I decided that because the roads were so bad, we would leave one car in Blackfoot (along with Brooklyn and Roman with Grandma and Grandpa) and I would drive back with Weston. Well, the driving conditions on the freeway were the worst I've seen in a long time. The wind was blowing which made visibility almost non-existant, not to mention the snow and ice already on the road. We passed 6 or 7 slide-offs along the way so you can imagine how grateful we were to finally make it to Rigby.

As we approached our subdivision we wondered if we would even make it inside with all the snow drifts we were seeing. To our extreme luck we were able to squeeze by the many drifts that were fingering the road and it seemed like we had actually made it home!

Well, we turned into our culdesac and immediately stopped in front of our driveway for the huge snowdrift that spanned our driveway. It was as if a huge tree had fallen directly across the way blocking any access into our driveway, except this was snow. I could not believe it because the driveway had been cleaned only hours earlier. The drift had been created from all the wind from that day. So, Weston and I got out and started shoveling. It took us an hour before we could even pull into the garage. In short, we finally made it home from Blackfoot after 2/12 hours!

One piece of good fortune for Weston: he has been trying to persuade me of the neccessity of us getting a snowblower for quite some time. Well, when I saw that huge snowdrift on our driveway, I gladly conceded.

It 's a little difficult to see, but that huge pile of snow is only a small remainder of the drift that was there last night.

You can kind of see where we shoveled through the drift to pull through.

Beep!

Today I was sitting on the couch resting for a moment when Brooklyn and Roman approached me with their arms filled with toys. They set them down on the coffee table in front of me and then Brooklyn grabbed a toy, put in my hand and said, "Say beep." I said it, thinking nothing of it, because actually my mind was on other things. She then grabbed the toy out of my hand, set it down, picked up another toy, placed that in my hand and commanded me again to "beep." It was about the eleventh mandatory "beep" that I finally asked her why I had to do this and she said very matter-of-factly, "Because we are buying these things."

I guess when I take time out from being a housekeeper I automatically transistion into becoming a cash register with built-in scanner. The things I learn.

Who needs decorations?

I think that we have set a new record!

On Sunday, Weston, the children and I set up all the Christmas decorations, put up the tree, and we even put three presents under the tree.

Well...

When I woke up this morning, I discovered half of the tree's decorations missing and all the presents unwrapped with a not-so-innocent-looking little boy sitting in the middle of a pile of torn wrapping paper.

Wow. Three days. Maybe next year we can make it a week, eh?

You Goal-Girl!

I am a goal-oriented person. I like goals. I like being able to check them off my goal list. I also like making new goals for the new year and because I like this so much that this year I started early and made my New Year's Resolutions in October.

Here's just a few:

1. Hike Mt. Borah (has anyone done this? and would you please share any experiences?)
2.

Okay, that's all I've come up with, but I'm super excited about this one!