New Leaf

Today is the last day C is two. Here's hoping the terrible twos are behind us (bathroom accidents, temper tantrums, brother biting, and mess making). Hope turning three helps us turn over a new leaf. If not...you know we will still love her anyway. Can't believe 3 is already here! What happened to my baby?

Grouch

Just a warning that I have been a bit grouchy the past couple of days. It could be from the paper I have been slaving over that was just given to my advisor this morning (more word on that after we meet tomorrow), it could be from the statistics final I just finished, it could be my worry over our house getting done in time,  or it could from several weekends as a solo parent since John has had soccer so often. Whatever the cause, sorry if I don't seem myself, complain, or ignore you. I don't mean to take it out on you!

Driveway, sidewalks, and curbs

So this may be the most boring post for some of you, but believe me this is very exciting to me! Progress is being made on the house. Not that this is news, but at certain points of building the progress is not as visible. This was the case for a while, but this week we added curbs, the sidewalk, and a driveway. The addition of a driveway has been a bit stressful because we knew it would be a bit steep. Well we tried it out this afternoon and no problem. It is steep, but not nearly as bad as we had feared it might be. This was not the initial plan, but you have to be ready for the unexpected if you want to build. Doesn't it look beautiful? Here's hoping it isn't too bad when it snows. We will have ice melt on hand for sure. Now back to the interior so we can move in!

Gun lessons

As was mentioned in the birthday post, H has been getting gun lessons. First he had to learn the parts of the gun. This is his first lesson on how to hold the gun. Don't worry all precautions were taken and there is no ammunition involved at this stage of learning. J is very careful and thoughtful about how he teaches. C has been trying to learn with H, which is cute, but she isn't allowed to touch the gun. Nana, the gun is always stored in the ultra secure safe when lessons aren't in session. Don't you think he looks cute? I think that is the best smile I have on camera in quite a while.

Attention hog

Anyone have ideas for how to deal with a little girl who wets her pants for attention? C has been having accidents when mom is clearly occupied. Only thing we can figure is that she wants attention and wetting the pants always works. I am trying a few things, but advice would be welcomed.

Writing

I am still working on my Comp 1 paper. I had it to a super point and then last night discovered another article that needs to be included. I had missed it in my past search because it referred to support staff/paraeducators as "carers". Needless to say I didn't think to put the word "carers" into my search terms. So now on to revisions to add the article in. I need to have it to my advisor by Monday, so it will be fun filled weekend for me. Luckily my class was cancelled for tomorrow so I can work on it most of the day...interspersed with mother duties of course.

Permission granted...

to show you a photo of the poison ivy. After several nights of endless itching and days of great discomfort, J finally went to the Dr about his poison ivy. I had been telling him to do this for days, but sometimes you need to learn the hard way. The Dr determined that yes he had poison ivy, but his skin had also become infected from the reaction. He was prescribed an antibiotic, steroids for the reaction, and a stronger antihistamine. After taking the medication he felt much better! The photo is his reaction before. It isn't the best picture, but you can get the idea. He had it on his arms legs, and it spread to the stomach, etc. He even had pink arms and legs for our anniversary date (he was covered in calamine lotion). How romantic! Good thing it wasn't our first date. Anyway related to the anniversary, we went on a nice date to celebrate our 9 years as a married couple. So glad to be married to this man, poison ivy and all!

Poison Ivy

J may not like me posting this, but I hardly ever update about his life. About a week and a half ago J went to a service project for a family in the ward. He helped do yard work while he was there. The men came into contact with poison ivy that day and J was among the men who didn't realize what it was right away. Hey, he grew up in AZ you can't really fault him on this one. When he arrive home he took precautions to safely remove it from his body. Well about a week and a half later and he is fighting some symptoms. He had just a few small sores at first, but it flared up this weekend. No fun for him, but this one risk living in this area. To be fair in the J update, the house is coming along as well. The curb and sidewalks went in this week. The counter tops are in, just need to be polished. The porch is coming along as well. Looks like we will move in July since we have had so many delays. Can't really put it off past that since our lease will be up. Also soccer has been keeping him busy as well. He has had games nearly every weekend, which is super for him, but sometimes tiring for me. He also passed his latest soccer assessment, so he is moving along in this area.

Pickin' Berries

Saturday J was out of town doing games so after a couple of other errands I took the kids to pick strawberries at a local farm. We filled a whole bucket in about a half an hour. The kids were dying to eat them, even H and he really doesn't care for strawberries. The only drawback is that we had to share the bushes with bugs. C has bug bites today from our adventure. H spent most of his time examining the strawberries. This is the weirdest strawberry he found. He thinks it looks like a bum, so he threw it across the field. He said he didn't want to eat it because it would taste like bum! Hum, now that is a strange thought. Most of the berries are already made into jam. Yum!

Happy Birthday Nana!

Today is my mom's bday. This year for her birthday she got to pack up a house she lived in for 21 years and move on to a new place without any of her kids or friends. That doesn't sound too perfect, but hope your birthday is perfect! I would post a picture, but then I would be her least favorite child, so you will have to believe me when I say she is aging well. Happy birthday mom!

Just wondering

Just wondering if any of you have tried to study statistics (not just basic stats but correlation, simple and multiple linear regression, etc.) when you aren't feeling well. That is me today. Took me about 3 hours to prepare my notes for the test, but I think it makes sense. We will find out. Now I am just wondering if my headache is from this flu bug, or statistics. That should take me the rest of the week to sort out! Hope your Saturday is headache free!

h turns 6

H turned 6 this week. He was very excited about this age - he has been asking all year why all his classmates are 6 already and he was still 5. Since we did some celebrating in AZ we had just a small party at home with the family. I have to say that made me happy - I didn't feel up to a friend party this year.
H got lots of cool gifts. While in AZ he got gifts from family members. This included money, a gift card (which is also for C) to get a pool for the summer, coloring books, a cool toy construction machine, walkie-talkies (see I do know what they are), and a super pool party. At home H got a rifle (well actually a rifle that his dad will teach him to shoot with, but it isn't his really), a cool spiderman/batman cape that mom made (turned out pretty cool huh, even if it did take several hours - I found the pattern online for FREE), rainboots (he has been begging for these, and they are useful here), new ScoobyDoo underwear (yes I know I am embarassing), Froot Loops, pop tarts, darts for his nerf gun, etc. C even wrapped a gift for him - yes it was a play cell phone he already owned, but he thought it was funny and nice of her. When he was asked what he liked best he told Uncle David "the Froot Loops". Good to know that all we have to do is buy junk food to please this kid.

Side 1 - Spiderman - I realize he doesn't actually wear a cape, but H loves him best.

Side 2 - batman, notice the rainboots.
For dinner we had a repeat of the AZ party - Pizza, and same with dessert - key lime pie. Here is the big boy blowing out candles. He didn't even wait until we were done singing. He also took cupcakes to school and went out on a dad date after school. He had a super day!

I have noticed one difference as he ages: he just gets goofier! Check out this pose - nice H!