I'm a Copycat

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. Thanks!

Now, no one is required to play in order to read my blog. Just thought it might be fun.

P.S. nothing too personal, this is a family sight you know! :)

RYAN IS HOME!!!!!

So I won't be blogging for a little while.....:)

I screwed around with my background and lost all my links, so if you don't see your name or site on the right and you want it there, leave a comment and I'll add you in.

Yes, I know it's still the same background. Why mess with perfection?

5 Pet Peeves: not necessarily the most annoying of all time, just the most annoying currently

1. People who take the sacrament with their left hand. (Check this out if you think I'm silly) - scroll down to the 2nd question.

2. People who talk OVER you.

3. Punctuality - I'm for it.

4. People that try to make me feel stupid because they don't understand what I'm saying.

5. People who use "always" and "never" as qualifying terms when they mean "sometimes".

I know I have issues with "people". This is why it's good that I don't work out there in the "real" world - I don't get along well with others. That is to say, I get along well with people that I enjoy and choose to be around, but I've never had a job where I got to choose who to be around. Although the last time I actually held a job was 6 years ago, so maybe things have changed.

Don't hold your breath.

I Really, Really Love My Kids

I got inspired a couple of months ago by Kendra's post of the things her kids said that she remembered to write down. And lest we forget that this is a "family" blog, here's my own, much shorter list:

I don't know the date for this first one, but Caden was about 4:
Caden (saying the prayer for dinner): Dear Heavenly Father, To Infinity and Beyond,...

5/15/08
Lincoln (after singing Wheels on the Bus): You're a mommy!
Me: You're right
Lincoln: I'm a kid - I'm all growed up!

Lincoln: I want to play My Little Spy

Caden reading from Highlights magazine: When is a dog's tail like a farmer's cart?
Dad: I don't know, when?
Caden: When it's a waggin' ha ha ha!
Dad: Do you get it?
Caden: Yeah, do you get it?

Lincoln pointing at the moon: There's the Earth

5/19/08
Me: We have to go home and get ready for Kimber
Lincoln: So you can go run?
Me: Yeah
Lincoln: Run for your lives?

5/21/08
Me: Lincoln, come here, I want to check your teeth
Lincoln: My teeth can't shine!

5/22/08
Lincoln: What kind of chicken is that?
Me (cutting up chicken): It's raw chicken, don't touch it.
Lincoln (running to the table): YUM! We're having raw chicken!

5/25/08
Lincoln: Ow! My bum hurts!
Me: Your bum hurts? We should probably change you.
Lincoln: No! There's marshmallows in there!

5/26/08
Lincoln: I want to touch the clouds.

6/1/08
Caden to Lincoln: Your breath smells like rotten cheese!

Caden to our friend Dave: That's ball-pit-in-the-ocean funny!

6/13/08
Caden: Where did you go for your date?
Me: We went out to dinner
Caden: Where?
Me: Outback
Caden: Outback where?

Me to Lincoln (after his shower): Are you all clean now?
Lincoln: Yeah, and shiny!

6/15/08
Lincoln (during dinner, Dad holding Aile): Can Aile have some?
Me: No, she doesn't eat food. What does she eat?
Lincoln: Milk - from your thingy's.

6/18/08
Lincoln (pointing at a picture): What's that?
Me: It's a bat
Lincoln: Bats are scary. It have a pig nose.

7/1/08
Grandpa to Lincoln: Do you want me to give Annabelle a squirt bottle and let her squirt you?
Lincoln: NO
Annabelle: Well it's gonna happen anyway!
(admittedly not my kid, but still very funny)

Caden: I know how to say yellow in spanish: Armadillo!

7/8/08
Lincoln (after passing gas): Excuse my bum. My bum burps!

Lincoln: I'm hungry
Me: Me too. What are you going to cook for breakfast?
Lincoln: I don't cook, you're the grown up, you cook the cereal!

Lincoln: Can I have a cookie?
Caden: Yeah, today I need to lower my sugars a little bit.

7/10/08
Lincoln (outside in the wind): Can you turn off the wind thingy?

I promise to post shorter posts in the future...just keep commenting! I'm finding my self-esteem tied into comments in a most depressing fashion - and after several posts with high quantities of comments (well, high for me) I've become an addict. Am I the only one who gets like this? It's probably just me. Is it? Yes, it's just me. Right? You don't have this problem do you? No, it's probably just me.

Horses Sweat, Men Perspire, Women Glow

Yesterday we had another flood in the basement, so my dad came to the rescue with a big shop-vac and a big fan. He stayed and hung out with us and did a lot of the clean up for me, for which I am very grateful. I tell you there's nothing quite like stepping out of the shower to the sound of the flood alarm and running into raw sewage wearing nothing but a towel. Caden and Lincoln were so helpful - they turned the TV up so that they could hear their show over the shrieking alarm. SO HELPFUL.

Caden's been riding a little bike that he's had since he was three and the training wheels needed to be adjusted, so my dad my hero, took the bike and the two boys to his house to fix them. Then he took us all out to dinner - wahoo! (I love to eat out - I have a very unhealthy relationship with food = treat, anyway...)

This morning I adjusted the seat on Caden's bike, and even all the way up he couldn't extend his leg out to get enough power to ride on the grass. Since I am such an awesome mom I said, "let's go get a new bike." My kid actually complained about this for five minutes. I had to convince him that he would like a new bike as much as the old one, that as we grow we need bigger things, blah, blah, blah.

We hop in the car and go to Toys R Us and he picks out a bike that he can live with (and more importantly, that we can afford - ha!), and we get training wheels, the bike assembled, the whole shebang. We pay, get out to the car, and the stupid thing won't fit into the back of the car. I tried everyway I could to get it to fit, but short of laying the backseat down (which I can't do 'cause of the three kids sitting in it) the stupid bike is not going in.

But I'm resilient, I figure it will fit in the front passenger seat - after all, no one's sitting there. I finally do manage to wrestle it in there, never mind that it's halfway in the drivers seat. I go around and get in the car and Lincoln says I haven't buckled him. Back around I go and buckle him up. Have I mentioned it's like 10:30 am and boiling outside? I'm glowing like a pig. Okay, so we finally get going and I manage to get us home.

By the way, ALL of the roads around my house are torn up and closed off because they're putting in sewer lines - so we have like a 9 mile detour to get anywhere. I'm not exaggerating - 9 FREAKIN' MILES!

We get the bike out and I'm handy, so I'm putting together the training wheels and then go out to put them on the bike, and I can't make them fit. I called my dad - Hero Extrordinaire. He comes over and he can't make them fit either (which made me feel a little bit better - it wasn't just me).

WARNING: Do NOT buy a chinese bicycle and american training wheels; they are NOT compatible.

I got ready to take the training wheels back to the store and try to find some others that would fit, when Ryan called. He said Caden doesn't need training wheels, so we went over to the church to give him some space to practice - Caden needs training wheels. I take Aile and do the running around. By now it's about 3:00 pm, I'm sticky with glow and the kids have been driving me crazy, traffic's a witch with a capital 'B', and I'm hanging by a thread.

I finally get home, my dad put the new training wheels on (which still barely fit), Caden got to ride his new bike, everything worked out great. But the process - HOLY COW.

It may be my own fault though, I think I prayed for patience when Ryan left.

Okay, in an effort to get thin, my blog now has a "Sista From Another Mista". Check it out and join in if you want to - this is my way of being accountable to someone.....y'all.

Please tell me that I'm not like this. If you read it, you'll notice it's satire - completely making fun of people who are like that. And I guess I'm feeling a little insecure because I totally do like some of the things that she's making fun of....I think it's fun when people get creative with announcing pregnancies, and I LOVE TWILIGHT, and what's wrong with posting pics of your kids? I do get it, I do, I just don't want to be what she's talking about.

And if I really am like that, at least I have better grammar and know how to spell. ;)

Men Should Look Away, NOW!

Seriously, look away. You really don't want to read this. Okay, but you've been warned!

I'm fat. Just to get that out of the way. Whew! They say that admitting you have a problem is the hardest step (I don't think so, I think taking the weight off is the hardest step.) I've passed the demure title of overweight and now fall squarely into fat. Since the time that I've been married I have at most 3 or 4 times found the resolve to lose weight - then I'd get pregnant or have some kind of emotional stress and put it right back on.

But here's the deal: Ryan has one year of school left for his BS and he wants to go right into his masters, and he's looking at several different schools one of which is WWU in Bellingham, just down the road from where I grew up. Now, I don't care if we move to Arizona and new people get to know me and I'm still the size I am now - because that's all they'll know. But I reeeally don't want to move back to Bellingham and run into someone I used to know when I was a size 6 looking like I do now.

(music to You're So Vain starts playing)

Someone I Used To Know: Oh, is that Valerie (last name here)?

Me: Yes, yes it is.

Someone I Used to Know: Wow! I hardly recognized you (looking me up and down).

Me: Ummm.....

Someone I Used to Know: You really have changed over the years, haven't you?! (staring at my muffin-top)

Me: Well.....

Someone I Used to Know: I'll have to tell my son (you used to date) that I saw you and how different you look now! 'Bye! (Translation: Boy, will he ever be glad he married a woman who cares about her appearance and hasn't let herself go.)

Fortunately for me, Someone I Used to Know is fatter than me so I can leave with my self-esteem intact, only a little bruised.

So, help me find my resolve (and I'm not talkin' carpet cleaner) because I don't want to have that conversation, and it really is uncomfortable when nothing fits, and a muffin-top looks good on no one. What's worked for you in the past or currently? Or just keep leaving me comments addressed to "Fatty, Fatty, two-by-four".

I think what I really need is someone to email me everyday and make me responsible. I've tried assigning this to Ryan in the past and it doesn't go over that well, because even though I told him to say things to me, it makes me mad when he says the things I told him to say. Can you believe it? Any takers? Uh huh, didn't think so.

Apparently, I have selective vanity.