I don't have a good title, so deal with it...

I know a lot of you thought that last post was goofy - "get a stat counter and move on Val" - yeah, yeah, yeah. But look at how many comments I got! Wahoo! That's a personal best for me. Look at me do a little dance....didja see that sweet move? Probably not since there's no video feed. Well, maybe next time. If you really want to see me move you should come on over and we'll have a dance party in my living room.

In other news, I went to church today (that's not the news), and spent a lot of time in the mother's room. Some of it was because of the baby, but some of it was just personal interaction with other lactating women. You can learn a whole lot about people when you're crammed into a little closet with three recliners that your grandmother bought new in 1967.

There's this one sister in my ward who is funnier than funny. If she would blog she would get all the attention and there would be none left for me, so I guess I'm glad that she doesn't. Except that it would totally make my day when she posted because her family is more screwed up than mine (no offense to my family, you know who you are).

And then there are the people very similar to dear, dear Sheena who are so introverted that you actually think they don't like you, when really they're just shy. (I'm not hurting Sheena's feelings, she knows how she is, but she's working on it. Way to be Sheena!) So, I may have slightly accosted this particular sister, but in a very nice way, and encouraged her to come to RS Thursday night. Hopefully she shows and begins making some friends, because I swear, she was a little jealous when I said I had a girls night.

I know what you're thinking, and I will invite her to girls night, but I have to get the anti-social one to come first. I've got her committed, she just needs a small group. So I'll rescue the shy one next month. Valerie C.- mother hen. Yeah, I totally stole that line from Janet Evanovich. But aren't we suppossed to liken all great books unto ourselves? You know, throw your name in instead of "ye", etc.? Same principle, just different author. And there might be some controversy about just how "great" the books are. Whole other tangent though...

Experiment Upon the Word, er, Comments

I'm wondering how many people are viewing this blog and not leaving comments. So, as an experiment, and to satisfy my curiosity, please leave me a comment. I don't care if it's annonymous, I don't care if you have nothing to say - you can leave a fetchin' exclamation point if you want to. I'm just curious, and if you value our friendship, or my self-esteem you will do me this solid. Do people say that anymore? Did people ever say that? I'm so not up on my hip lingo, as you can probably tell by my use of the term 'hip lingo'.

Oh, and please notice that I did say please. Pretty please, with sugar on top? Or maybe you don't go in for the begging. For you I say, I dare you. I DOUBLE-dare you. I DEE-DOUBLE-DARE you, which I've never heard of, but it's in the Berenstein Bears Double Dare book so it must be real. Right?

Maybe I'll give something away to the comment I like the most. I don't know what, and I don't even know IF, but you'll never know what you might've missed out on if you don't comment. Oh, and this is a family-friendly blog so you won't win what might be given away if you leave some sort of dirty, sweary-ish comment. But sarcasm is always appreciated.

Look at that - a whole post about nothing. I could totally get a job writing for Seinfeld if it was still on, and not just in re-runs.

Oh, and if you want to check out a super-funny post head on over here. That is all.

Blog On

I worked hard today. I got dirty and sweaty and smelly. And so at the end of the day I took a shower. And then in my towel, and only my towel I checked my Google Reader, and my email, and looked at pictures that fabulous Billie took of my family and kids. And then I wrote this post. Please notice the time, I'm not being inappropriate in front of my kids; they are all in bed. Um, do ya think I might be just the tiniest bit OCD about blogging?

Prior to starting a blog I didn't understand what people got out of Facebook or My Space, and probably not blogs, if I'd heard of them. I thought it was just one more way to distance yourself from human beings - which I'm totally all for, depending on the human in question. But since bowing to the pressure of society and Kendra I now get it. And I think that it's the same for everyone, no matter who you are or what you blog about. It's about letting your voice be heard, and sharing your point of view. It validates you as a person, and we all need that.

Okay, baby's waking up, and this is getting kinda deep for being written by a person in a towel, so, there you go.

Sigh

My Dad is going to Iraq for a year.

Observed: Sign-holder guy totally rocking out to Ipod on street corner.

Me to Ryan: Is that what you do on the bus?

Ryan to Me: That's why he has that job.

It's A Nice Place To Visit...

I have wonderful inlaws, I'm just lucky that way. The parents are great, the brothers- and sisters-in-law are great, and so are the myriad of nieces and nephews. But there are a lot of them (8 original children) and when we all get together it gets kind of crazy. These people just keep reproducing, and so the family just keeps growing (33 to date and 1 on the way). The really mind boggling thing is that 2 of the original kids are not yet married, and 3 have not yet begun to have children. But most of them are passive-agressive so there's not a lot of fighting like you would expect with a family that size.

Whilst we were visiting the relations this weekend we took a LARGE family picture - which would have been great fun IF we had started at 10:00 like we planned. Instead, the photographer stood us up. But those Carter's, they're resourceful. Since it is so rare to have everyone all together at once we decided to do it ourselves, which of course took a little time to run back home and get the necessary equipment. And then more time to figure out where in the park would be best, and then even MORE time to figure out an arrangement that was pleasing to the eye. All this on top of standing around for a good half hour before deciding that we had indeed been stood up. But we finally got it together and took a bajillion pictures (probably more like 20 or 30, but it felt like a bajillion) and got it done.

By the time we finished it was 1:00 which every mommy knows is past lunch time and now into nap time, and the children were evidently willing to prove it. I do have to give the little ones credit - for the most part they held it together really well, and the fit throwing was kept to a minimum. Our kids were rewarded with happy meals and ice cream cones at McDonalds (don't leave me comments about the evils of using food as a reward - it totally works). I would post one of the shots but of course our copy of the CD doesn't work (of course).

The worst thing about this trip is the magnificent colds that we had - it just makes every bit of life seem harder when you want to rip your head off and use the dental spit-sucker-thingy to clear out the sinus cavaties in your face.

Medaling in ?

I'm loving the Olympics! At night Ryan and I settle into the couch for some vicarious sports living. In my head I totally have Dara Torres' body - in real life I have more of the sumo wrestler variety. At any rate, I'm actually enjoying them this year - largely due to the fact that they're not interrupting regularly scheduled programming right now. Can't wait to find out where they'll be in 4 years so that I can get excited and then immediately stop caring until right beforehand.

The other night we caught some badminton. Seriously? Badminton is an Olympic sport? Even when they hit the shuttlecock (my inner teenager giggled when typing that) hard it can't go very far - it's full of holes! I also can't believe that walking is an Olympic sport - uh, you walk everyday, don't you? Shouldn't walking be reserved for the paralympics? It's way more impressive when people who can't walk, walk. But I digress. Ryan tells me that he could medal in badminton. Of course I had to make fun of him about that.

But it got me thinking....If I was an Olympian, what would be my sport? I think I could totally get into the platform diving, except for the whole 3-stories-head-first thing. Or gymnastics would be awesome! But I'm no longer a prepubescent girl....

Hmmm, maybe I need my very own sport to be added to the games. Some kind of tri-athalon maybe? Deep cleaning 1800 sf of house while balancing the checkbook and feeding 3 kids....or a marathon of laundry - washing, drying, folding, ironing (look at her go!). (Umm, who irons anymore, that's what the fluff setting on the dryer is for...). Shouldn't childbirth be an Olympic sport? I know I'd totally take gold in that because once I hit 4 cm it only takes an hour to deliver. The only problem there is that we're all done (YAY!). I guess I'll have to keep thinking.

What would your sport be?

It is, afterall, the key to discipline

This is turning into a depressingly pictureless blog. For those of you who are checking for family updates, I apologize. For everyone else, you could care less, so whatever.

FYI on our FAM-ily:

Caden starts school on Tuesday. He only had a six week summer, which on the one hand was really short, but on the other hand was just right. He's going to be in first grade, and for the first time in his life he will be spending more of his waking hours with his teacher than he will with mom and dad. He's feeling a little conflicted because he likes school but he "just loves (his) family so, so, so much," that he doesn't want to leave us during the day (as he sobbingly told me the other night). I think once we get back into the swing of things he'll be just fine.

Lincoln is now fully potty trained. But even as I write this I knock on wood because it doesn't mean he won't have accidents (as evidenced by the last couple of days), but it does mean that he knows where he's suppossed to go, and gets there 95% of the time. He will go to pre-school this fall, but not until late September. This will be a new experience for us, because Caden never went to pre-school. Lincoln knows the alphabet (upper and lowercase) and the sounds each letter makes (but he has a hard time with "y", he thinks is should say "wuh"), numbers (can count to 20), colors, shapes, etc. He's ready. He keeps talking about "his school". I'm excited for him.

Aile is crawling everywhere. We finally had to put the gate up because she is so fast that we couldn't chance just walking into the bedroom for 1/2 a second - she likes to follow and that's just a little too close to the top of the stairs for comfort. She is 5 1/2 months and since she's mastered crawling she has decided to start pulling up on the furniture and everything (and everyone) else. She just has to keep up with those big brothers. She also has cut her two bottom front teeth, and loves baby food. She is such a happy baby - I'm so glad we have her.

Ryan is working away at his summer job and doing fun things with the boys - tonight they're all sleeping in the tent in the backyard. Or at least they're suppossed to. We'll see how long Lincoln actually lasts....

Of all the fun things that we've done lately we have not managed to take a single picture, so sadly, this remains a depressingly pictureless blog. But at least I'm consistent.

Do You Understand The Title Of My Blog?

The other day as I'm having my daily Coke (wish I could do the diet route but it's so nasty), Caden, in all his 6 year old glory asks if it has caffeine in it. Crap. I've been getting around giving them sips when they ask by saying that it's a mommy drink. But we recently bought some 7 Up and since he can read (darn it all) he noticed that the can said caffeine-free. So that brought up a discussion of what caffeine is....well, it's a drug. And we've already had a drug talk, so he knows that you don't take drugs unless it's something that mommy or daddy give to you (because Tylenol is a drug too, I'm not giving my kid crack or anything).

Anyway, so now he's made the connection that the "mommy-drink" has a drug in it. He asks me, "Oh, so that must be a good kind of caffeine since you're drinking it." No, there is no good kind of caffeine. "Then why are you drinking it if it's bad for you and it's a drug?" Good question kid. I can't tell him that I can't get through the day without it, because I have a baby, and I need that extra shot of energy that it gives me (or at least I think I do), so the only answer I can give him is that I shouldn't.

Does this mean I have to quit Coke? It would probably speed up my weight loss, so that would be a benefit, but on the other hand, I don't want to.

Ahhhh, it must be one of my sins I'm not willing to give away. That and my Janet Evanovich books. I'm packing all of those in my handbasket.

I Have Arrived!

I've been getting all these comments (okay, so just two or three) from people I don't know who said that they found me on Mormon Mommy Blogs. I thought, "oh, they mean Mormon Mommy Wars and just are calling it blogs on accident." I thought maybe they were reading through the comments on the last post and liked my comment and then linked to me, because I'm certainly not listed on their side roll thing as something to check out.

I apologize, I am an idiot.

After the last comment I got suspicious and actually checked out Mormon Mommy Blogs. Imagine my surprise as I scrolled down through the section entitled "The Lighter Side" and found my blog.

I do know that this is another blog of one of my favorite bloggers that I have never met, Sue from Navel Gazing At It's Finest. And I've left comments on her posts before too, and I know she's seen my blog at least once because she left me a comment (and I just about died of happiness - that's a little pathetic, as I'm sure you're aware) so I guess she liked me well enough to add me to her listings even though I didn't request it (and even though I compared Stephanie Meyer to Jane Austen and she called it HERESY!, just like that in all caps).

Note to Sue: I am NOT complaining. Please do NOT remove me from your wonderful, wonderful site. This is doing so much for my self-esteem that I may even bend over and remove it from the toilet. Please note how many times I have linked to you and know of my (platonic) love for you. Here's one more for good measure.

So, Yay for me! Although now I'm feeling all this pressure.....must....be....funny!