Month: January 2007 (Page 1 of 4)

Me: How was your day, Natalie? (as we were driving home from choir)

Natalie: Good. Maggie and Amy and me are in a Club. Jacob and Josh and Cameron are in it too. I’m the president, and Maggie’s the vice president and Amy’s the secretary. Lindsay used to be the secretary, but now she’s working on making money. We trade snow for ice. Sam’s group finally came to use and wanted our ice, and we traded him some of our ice for some more snow. We made a snow cave and in it we keep important things. Like pinecones. We have to guard it so that no one will smash it. If you are in our club you get a horse. You have to feed it and everything. Jacob got a stallion for his horse.

Me: So, you get a horse when you join your club? Where do you get these horses?

Natalie: (giving me the “duh, Mom” look) The horses are just pretend, Mom. We pick out what color horse we want and we name it.  We were thinking of changing our club name to the “Hot Chicks”.

Me:  Won’t the boys care if that’s the name of the club?

Natalie:  They are kind of like optional members.  They can come in or be out whenever they want to. Jentry has 4 Tamagotchis. She has 3 V3’s and one V4. I wish I had that many Tamagotchis. When is my Tamagotchi going to come in the mail?

Me: It should be here by Friday.

editor’s note: My kids have been obsessed with Tamagotchis lately, and when Natalie earned enough to buy a new one (she lost her first one, I took her to 3 stores on Saturday to try to buy Tamagotchis for her, Megan and Jenna. Then I came home and in 5 minutes had ordered three from ToysRus.com. Why didn’t I try that first? Because I’m stupid, I guess.)

Natalie: I hope so because I’m so tired of everyone asking me Every time I get on the bus if I have found my Tamagotchi. Maggie’s little sister even has one, but it got ruined because Julian slobbered on it. Now it just sits there and beeps, and doesn’t do anything. The V4’s can even get JOBS! I’m so glad I’m getting a V4 so mine can get a JOB! Jenna’s won’t be able to get a job, since it’s only a V3, but she can have the matchmaker come and she can let it get married, and ……..etc.

Here’s a tip for you all–Don’t leave your carbonated beverages in the garage.  They will not survive.  I just rescued almost a full 12 pack of diet coke, but unfortunately, there’s a 12 pack of rootbeer that’s exploded and is frozen solid.  Another 12 pack of something (pepsi, I think) sprayed itself all over the lawnmower when it exploded.  So, bring those drinks in from the cold, and save yourself some clean-up time when it thaws.

Just a little update on Jenna:

Jenna got her cast put on on Saturday, instead of today. Our doctor said he would go in on Saturday and put it on her if we’d rather, and of course we would. So, Saturday she could be moved without the worry of bumping her leg or hurting her. It’s a nice bright red cast, and she’s doing well. We were going to take her to church, but since John threw up, no sense taking her if Ryan was going to stay home with John anyway. She was a bit worried about how she was going to get around, too. (as a sidenote, I bought a cute pink stroller, since I figured it would be much cheaper than renting a wheelchair, but she thinks the stroller thing is a dumb idea, and doesn’t want to be taken anywhere in a stroller. Whatever!)

So, today, since she had the cast on, it was time to take her to school. She’s been home for a week and that’s getting a bit old (for all of us!). So, I parked as close as I could (I should look into getting a temporary handicapped sticker!), then carried her into school. All the kids flocked around her and welcomed her back. Since I didn’t know how she would do, I stayed the whole time and was the teacher’s aide for the day. While down at the work room, I was talking to the lady who works there and mentioned that it was Jenna’s first day back after breaking her leg, and she suggested I used the school’s wheelchair. Oh! They have a wheelchair? Wow, so my friend in the office went and got it from the nurse’s office, and then I took it down to Jenna’s class. Hooray! Then she was a real celebrity, sitting up in her throne. We wheeled her to the rug, and she even got to go down to the library in the wheelchair. She was so excited! And all her little friends wanted to sit by her in her cool wheelchair.

After we got home and I hauled her into the house, she’s been much braver about hopping around, and not content to just sit in her chair. We had suspected that once she got her cast on, she’d get a little braver and want to be more mobile, and it’s nice to see that happening. Hopefully in two more weeks they’ll put her in a walking cast and she can do more of her own maneuvering.

So, that’s the update. I’m hanging in here, although my neighbor just told me to get some sleep, I look frazzled. Hmmm. (I am frazzled, tired and exhausted, but that could all be attributed to the fact that I’m on my period.) I don’t really want to LOOK frazzled, even if I am, so I’d better go do something with my hair and put on some lip gloss, lest people should think I’m a total slob.

–Oh, and we’re planning her birthday party for Friday. Julene’s going to make a “broken leg” or cast cake of some kind, and we’ll put “Happy Broken Leg Birthday” on it. I’m thinking of sitting down games and crafts that can be fun, without a lot of moving around. Because, really, I just don’t have enough to do.

I ordered a set of new sheets recently (on sale) and they came yesterday. Nice sheets. 1000 thread count sheets. I figured it was time I branched out from my “one good set of sheets and two scratchy sets of sheets to use when I’m washing the good sheets” mentality. So, I put them on my bed and enjoyed the luxurious feel of soft sheets.

Since they were new, they had to be broken in.

John helped with that little detail. By throwing up in our bed. He came in around 4:00 this morning because his bed was cold (little wonder, since his diaper had about 4 cups of pee in it, and his blankets were all wet). He stayed in our bed just long enough to start throwing up. I wisked him away into the bathroom, so only the tiniest bit of barf got on my lovely new sheets, but it’s enough.

It’s like telling those sheets “You might be fancy high thread count sheets, baby, but don’t get a big head about it. You’re no better than the rest of us around here, and here’s a little sum’en to prove it to you.” Way to stick it to the new sheets.

My brother-in-law, Tom (the one who writes the ultra funny Christmas letters) apparently has too much time on his hands. He has built the most amazing snow and ice slide in his front yard I have ever seen in Utah. I mean, it’s not like we have mountains of snow like Denver or Alaska. But he’s managed to scrounge and scavenge the extra snow from gutters and neighbors to build an awesome luge in his front yard in South Jordan. They were even on the news! Fox 13 news came out and ran a little story about their huge slide, and the sports guy even went down it (that clip ran on Monday night).

Here’s the Clip!

I’ve been trying to get my kids over there to slide, since it’s been so cold and the slide’s not been melting. Yesterday the temps rose above freezing (or rather, hovered around freezing), and I knew our time was running out. We had actually planned to go over there Monday night, but then with Jenna’s unfortunate accident, we haven’t really been going anywhere. So, last night, I bundled the kids up, Ryan came home a bit early from work to stay with Jenna, and I took 4 of the kids over to try out the slippery slopes.

I should have tried harder to get there earlier. When I pulled up, I saw Tom manning his spot as sled stabilizer, and about 15 kids in line on the steps of the slide. Yes, they have 8 kids of their own, but I only recognized about 4 of them, so the others must have been friends and neighbors. While we were there, their son’s 2nd grade teacher came by to slide, and more neighbors and friends. Tom must be out there every night supervising this thing!

It was AMAZING! It starts out right in front of their front porch, and you climb up the stair (made of ice) and see the lovely bas relief sculptures of a monster and Davy Jones. It’s a bit scary, since it’s about 8 or 9 feet up. You sit on a sled, and then Tom gives you a big push. I screamed the whole way. There’s a huge drop right at the first to give you speed, then you go grooving down the yard, bank left at the light pole, and then coast down the side walk almost to the neighbor’s driveway. We were there for only an hour, as their family had somewhere to go last night, and we couldn’t take up all their time, but the kids each did 12-15 runs. I went once, and John was too scared, but I did get him to just get on the sled and go on the flat part. If you live nearby, you should check it out. It’s a few blocks north of Jordan River Temple, right off of 1300 West on Palmer Park lane. I don’t know how much longer it will be up, though. Once you get on the news, then the city takes notice that you’ve got snow covering the sidewalk, and they give you a little warning notice telling you to clean it up or face a ticket. On the way home, my kids were SO excited to build our own snow slide (we’ve got the back yard for it, after all), and were planning and plotting (“If only we had a blizzard tonight and it dumped 3 feet of snow, then we could build our own slide tomorrow!”) and hoping, but alas, alack, we have only a few little clumps of snow–not even enough for a 1/2 decent snowman.

In keeping with my itsy bitsy organizational goal of cleaning out one drawer per day, today I cleaned out one of my dresser drawers. It was the underwear drawer. I had garments in there from my mission. Let’s see, that was…16 years and more than 16 pounds ago, do you think they are going to still fit? Why in the world are they still there? Oh, I know. Because it’s a pain to dispose of them. Well, they are now out of the drawer. It was nice to put sports bras and other underwear in there, along with some t-shirts. Hooray!

In the spirit of cleaning it out and letting go of things I don’t wear anymore, I emptied out a big rubbermaid that has been sitting in the way back of my closet for…well, since we moved here. What’s in it? It’s my “skinny clothes.” You know, (because I’ll bet you have a few skinny clothes saved, too, don’t you?) those clothes that used to fit and hopefully will someday fit again? Yeah, you have some. Everyone does, right? That is, unless you are a guy (guys don’t save skinny clothes, as far as I know), or you are already skinny, and currently wearing your skinny clothes. Well, I opened up that big box to see what was even in there. You know what I found? 6 pairs of pants that were either tapered leg or pleated front, and if I’ve learned anything from the show What not to Wear, it’s that NOBODY looks good in tapered leg pants or pleats in the front. So, out they went. There were a couple of sweaters and shirts that even if they fit I wouldn’t wear them, and a jumper that I sewed and probably would never wear again. At the bottom of the box, I found my all time favorite denim jumper, but out it went.

I only saved a few things from that box. One was a shirt that I had bought in Germany that I used to just love. I still kind of love it, but I don’t know if I love it because it’s a nice shirt, or because I have good memories of it. I allowed it to return to the box. Then there were 3 dresses that I just had to save. One was a dress that I wore when I lost weight a few children ago. It’s pink and it’s simple, and I think it was kind of expensive for me at the time. I’m keeping it. One was the black dress that Melinda and her grandmother made for me to wear as her bridesmaid when she got married. I know what you are thinking–why would I possibly want to save a bridesmaid dress? But this one is so pretty, and I looked SO cute in it way back when, that I just can’t get rid of it. Ask Melinda if you don’t believe me. The last dress is the dress I bought to wear on the day we were married. Not the wedding dress, but the dress you wear to the temple, and then to the breakfast afterwards. Not getting rid of that. Besides it being a WAY cute dress, I can keep it for as long as I want, and it makes me happy that it’s still there in the box.

I have a big box of things to go to DI, and I’m happy about getting rid of some things, at least, even if my emotional attachment to clothes won’t let me get rid of everything that doesn’t fit me.

I gave Jenna my “Olympic” Cow bell, which is really quite loud, so that if I weren’t close by and she needed something, she could ring it and I would hear and come help her. I think that was a mistake. At 8:00 this morning, she had “called” me no less than 7 times.

–I’m thirsty

–I need to go to the bathroom

–Can you bring me my gameboy?

–Can you turn my lights up brighter?

–I want to go downstairs now.

–I want some toast.

and something else I can’t remember right now. Ugh. It’s going to be a long six weeks.

And I’d like to thank Chad, the treadmill repair guy, who came the very day I called, brought the part I needed after only hearing me describe the symptoms over the phone, and DIDN’T charge me anything for the repair, since he had just replaced that part last summer, and he happened to have that exact part in the car. How awesome is that?

I’m going to send him a thank you note with a gift card, because he’s THAT awesome.
(It helps to know the treadmill repair guy, I’d say. Ryan is even their slacker home teacher, and he didn’t hold that against us).

And I’d like to thank Ryan, who worked from home today so that I could:

a) drive Cole and his carpool to school because the “neighborhood bus driver” is out of town for a few days

b) drive Cole back home to get his Sunday clothes because today is apparently the day that they take pictures of the band for the yearbook

c) drive Cole back to school again

d) go and get the car washed and vacuumed (again, I love that Firehouse car wash place)

e) take John to his playgroup, to play with his pack of boys

f) go to Target to buy some things for Jenna, including a larger size of underwear that will hopefully fit over the cast a little better, and some birthday presents, since it is actually her b-day next week, and even if we can’t do the party we were thinking about, she will still need presents (I may even give them to her early to help with the boredom).

So, thanks, Ryan, for recognizing that I do go a little bit stir crazy just being the nurse all day, and giving me a little break. On the upside, I’m getting my upper body workout every time I have to carry her to the potty, to the table, to the computer or up the stairs.

I blew my nose, and in comes the 3 year old with a desperate look in his eyes.  “Mommy,” he said, “no more making weird sounds.”

Ok, then.

In cleaning out another junk drawer yesterday (I started to find the current insurance card, which somehow has vanished from my wallet, and since I had already gotten 1/2 of the stuff out, decided it needed to be cleaned out), I came across an amazing amount of lip balm.  I mean, you always need chapstick, right?  In college we started calling it our “fix” (thanks, Robin), and I am really never too far away from a tube of some kind of lip stuff.  Well, I think I have enough to last me for a little bit at least.  In that one drawer I had 14 tubes or pots or containers of lip balm.  Some opened, some brand new.  Got to be prepared for that cold winter weather, right?