Sick Bay

Everyone is vomiting today. The only thing worse then being sick with the kids, is being less sick then Jeff with the kids. Grrr. But we will survive. Max and I are already on the rebound after last night. It was odd to be the only member of the family awake at noon today. Unfortunatly I had a sleeping baby boy in my arms, so I couldn't really leave the couch.
Some random thoughts....
     I am still not a big fan of the holidays. I thought that having kids would put me more in the spirit of things, but really all it does is put more of a stress on the situation. I am trying really hard to get in the Christmas spirit. I have even done the unthinkable and tried to listen to Christmas Music. All that has done is make me hate Maraih Carey and want to watch Love Actually; (and make me sad that we don't have cable so I can catch the edited version.) (On a side note to all my Utah readers, if you can get your hands on an edited version for me I would love to reinburse you with extra.)
     I do love our decorations though. I got some garlands on black friday at Lowes for 5 bucks and they have brought back the fresh pine smell to my house. I have even decorated the outside, something I swore I would never do.

It always seemed to me that it was a waste of time, effort, and money to decorate the outside since we don't go outside in the cold christmas season. I suppose it is the, "for everyone else," spirit of the season. Well this year I did it because my house was just screaming for decorations. I have a foot bridge up to my front door and if that doesn't demand lighted attention I don't know what does. (I only plug it in right before Jeff gets home from work though.)
     I don't love having a fairly busy street, (Riordan,)in my backyard, but I do adore that when you pull up that big hill and turn a slight corner the first thing you now see at night is the light from our livingroom Christmas Tree. One day I may even string lights up on the back of the house, (Jeff and I are thinking maybe a glowing zombie thing for Halloween.)
    My most favorite Christmas tradition is fairly new to me. Jeff's amazing Aunt Marty knits stockings for each new family member. Spike got his in the mail last week and it is perfect. These stocking could eaisly be my favorite thing about the Larkins even more then Jeff himself. On a side note I would like to give a special thanks to Marty for knitting Spike instead of Jeffrey, she double checked with Jeff last fall, and Jeff said she still seemed a little hesitant.

Now these girls are a bit of a puzzle for me. Jeff found them in the attic two years ago, and since I have no way of contacting the old owners of the house, I am stuck with them. The thing is I am not sure what to do with them. It seems like there should be a whole nativity right? Just two angels seems a bit unfinished. So here they sit waiting for inspiration, but atleast they made it out of the garage this year.

I am on the constant look out for the perfect advent calendar. The perfect one in my mind was my grandmothers. It may be the only Christmas tradtion from my childhood I remember and miss. It was a wooden tree that you added an ornament to each day. I really need to scour more craft fairs to find one, but then I would have to go to craft fairs. A friend suggested making one, but you all know how my DIY projects turn out. (By the way if you were wondering, yes, the mailbox is still messed up.)

I hate it when Christmas is on a Sunday cause then not only is everthing closed, but then even the stuff that would be open you can't go to cause it's Sunday. Then to add insult to injury the shorten church-the one time to get it. Effectivly it the LONGEST DAY EVER! Grrr..

My Point Exactly

Elf on a Shelf Must Go!

My To-Do List

So the same item has been on my to-do list for the last month and a half;

 1. Take pictures of the kids in their Halloween Costumes.  

Yes, I should have done it on Halloween or at one of the many parties we attended, but it never worked out.  There were either battery problems, or Mae was a total crab.  The costumes were pretty adorable if I do say so myself.  Max wanted to be Spiderman and when we were discussing costume options for Mae he suggested she be Spiderman also.  I asked him several times and he was sure he wanted her to be Spiderman.   As luck would have it about a week before the first of the parties they had a girl Spiderman costume at the Associate Store in Mae's size.  You can't say no to half price.  Max's costume I got from a new lady in the ward.  I didn't know it at the time but she actually went to high school with Jeff.  Small Mormon world.  I saw Spike's costume in September and paid full price cause it was just way too cute.  I mean come on, a blue crayon.  We attended preschool parties, the Walmart Candy-a-thon, which was a bit different this year cause they were hoping no one would notice that they cut the company picnic if they threw in a few funnel cakes with the Halloween party.  Nope, I noticed, but the funnel cakes were good.  I skipped the ward party cause my ward is mentally retarded when it comes to scheduling and set the trunk or treat for the same day as the elementary school carnival therefore deciding to make it super late at night.  (I could do a whole blog post about the stupid scheduling decisions my ward makes.)    We did take the kids to a few houses in the neighborhood and I used the time to get my neighbors to sign a petition against the school board.  (post about this to come later.)  All in all it was a busy time.  We ate a lot of candy and had a lot of fun, we just didn't properly document it, until now.

P.S.  Spell check does not accept Spiderman as one word but does accept Superman as one word.  What's up with that?

Things That Must Go XVI

1.  Jeff's drawer o' cords.  I think the above picture speaks for itself.

2.  Elf On a Shelf.  It is not cute it is creepy!  They have a word for that and it is called peeping and is illegal in most states.  And even more creepy then the whole concept of someone watching you is the actual ugly doll that accompanies the book.

3.  Keep Calm and ... Now don't get me wrong I am all about the original WWII message of Keep Calm and Carry On, and the idea of persevering through tough times, but it is now popularized and twisted to fit so many different ideas and most of them stupid.  It is so over used in crafts that I have to be a hater and say that it belittles the sacrifice and struggle of the British people during WWII.

4.  Entitlement.  Not the idea, the word.  I am so sick and tired of people complaining about how entitled my generation feels.  They throw around this new buzz word to diminish younger people who are brave enough to stand up and say something is wrong with the world.  Now are there some people who are spoiled and idiotic? You bet.  But reducing all of us to our lowliest stereotype is lazy and demeaning.  Every generation feels they had it harder then the ones who come after them, "When I was a kid I walked ten miles to school, in the snow, uphill both ways."  Everyone has their own trials, Heavenly Father has made sure of that, but while youth has the disadvantage of solving new problems, i.e. the digital age, they also have the advantage of learning from the past.  I could do a whole series of posts about Occupy Wall Street and how I support the basic ideas behind it, but I won't because I try to keep my blog clear of politics. ( Mostly because I know that I am greatly separated on the political spectrum from most of my readers.) I just want everyone to think about the people you know in their 20's and 30's, those out in the mission field right now, and really ask yourselves if those people seem extraordinarily entitled to you.

Mae is Alive

With the lapse in blog posts, I recently sent my parents this picture of the boys in matching jammies.

My parents mentioned that they were a bit worried by the combination of Mae not being in the shot and my recent comments regarding my frustration with her. I have therefore supplied the following photo.

As you can see from the photo it is today's paper. So there, no worries.

 Bunny is also alive.  Well one of them is.

 At first glance it would appear that Jeff is under attack.

 But upon further inspection you can see he is protecting something.

I have a lot to say

but it just isn't gonna happen.  I am not sure when I am gonna get on here again.  I have enjoyed blogging a lot over the past few years, but in the last few weeks it has felt like a nasty chore.  It doesn't help that I have to switch over to Google Chrome to get it to interface correctly with my laptop.  But a few thoughts to help you through the dry spell.

I went to visit my parents in Colorado last week.  It was good to see them and even better to get away from Mae.  I didn't take any pictures cause my mom was all funny about me putting them up on the blog.  Which is kinda sad cause her house is the most lovely place I have ever been in.  There is not a more warm, comfy and yet totally stylish place.  The whole house could be pinned on pinterest.

Except the fire alarm that beeped every two minuets.  I can't even say anymore about it cause it was so awful.

It was brilliant seeing my parent's store.  I had never been there and so had very little idea what to expect.  Well I was blown away by my parents success.  The place is styled wonderfully and is so inviting for a furniture store.  It has lots of little rooms which is nice, I hate the overwhelming box feeling of most furniture stores.  My mom has truly found her calling in life.  Everything has her touch of class and exceptional taste.

Scottsbluff, Nebraska, where my parents store is, was pretty enough; but the whole time I must confess I was thinking, "Thank you Heavenly Father for moving them here after I left the nest!"  Middle of nowhere does not begin to describe that place.

I got to drive the Tractor and use a pitch fork!  It actually felt so amazing to work on the farm.  Doing that physical labor and knowing how important it was made the experience very rewarding.  I can see why they love it.

And I have more but Spike is fussing.  So I may not be back on here for awhile.  I still haven't taken pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes.  Yeah.....

Baby's First

Laugh and Spanking.  Monday was a day of big firsts for us here.  Spike laughed for the first time and it was a three minute joy fest.  Mae got her first spanking which was less fun for everyone involved.  So Mae is a typical two year old who wants to get into absoutly everything.  She has been a bit preoccupied with the toilet of late, not in a good potty training way, but in a "Hey, free available water," kind of way.  She received a little singing tea pot and cups for her birthday and has loved them and played well with them.  She feels that her imagination is lacking and therefore needs real water.  When not given tap water she was forced to see other alternatives.  Now I have told her on several other occasions to stay out of the toilet and actually had to fish a drinking cup out of the toilet earlier that morning.  She was put in her room.  Later that morning while I was feeding Spike I did notice it was a bit quiet.  A bit too quiet.  Then I heard the dreaded fall of the toilet lid.  No need to rush to the scene for the culprit came running out dripping from head to toe across the house and into her room spilling a toy tea cup of toilet water along the way.  I put Spike down and went to investigate.  Yup she was covered, and in the act of changing her I became covered also.  Then slowely creeping into the crime scence I saw bunny, beloved bunny, drowned in the toilet, May he RIP.  After extracting the body from the toilet I noticed that all that was left in the bowl was about a cup of water.

Now as for my spanking policy, I do not like spanking.  In most cases where I observe it I tend to think it is not the best option at the time.  I imagine that the number of time I was spanked in my life is less then ten.  My parents used it sparingly.  More as a final limit of punishment for extremely bad behavior.  Max in his five years has been spanked a total of once.  (Partly I am sure because he is a really great kid.)  Max was spanked because he blatently ignored me and ran into heavy traffic!  I felt it was a matter of safety.  I felt that in the moment it emphasized the danger of the situation and the importance of not ignoring my warnings.  So while Mae was not in immediate danger, I think we can all agree that this was a situation that could not be allowed to happen again, Max is not exactly stellar at flushing.  I could child proof the toliet or bathroom door but then Max couldn't get in.  Will spanking stop her from drinking more toilet water, well only time will tell.  Hopefully I haven't given her a severe negative association with the toilet, that could be awkward come potty training time.  I would also like to point out that later while pondering the moral implications of my actions, Highway to Hell came on the radio.

And now for happy news.  Spike laughed!  I have mentioned a few times that lately I have questioned my decision to have Spike and Mae so close in age.  I thought it was a mistake to not wait til Mae was more manageable.  Well I take it back.  Spike is a gift from Heavenly Father.  He always knows when to grin and be loveable.  I had just finished changing him when he turned his head and saw Max playing video games.  Now Max playing the Playstation is pretty funny.  He plays running and jumping along with his avatar.  He never sits down while playing.  Spike laughed for a good three min at the spectacle.