Rambles

This is not the same yogurt as the previous battle.  This mess is a daily occurance at out house.

Spike has been miserable for the last few weeks.  I have heard horror stories about slowing moving teeth but have for the most part lucked out until now.  This kids molars have been working their way through for weeks.  The kid woke up early this morning cried for about an hour, then Jeff sat him on the couch next to me.  He sat there looking tired and shell shocked for about 30 min before I put him back down to bed. 

He likes being held upside down.  It is his favorite position.  Just a little weird.  He waves and claps now which is adorable.  His first claps cracked me up because they were so slow it looked like he was set on slow motion.  It looked like he was actually fighting to get those hands together.  He likes to get out and about and he likes to play in the toilet.



The most disgustingly cute thing ever is when Max gets off the bus.  Each day Mae and I wait patiently outside in the driveway waiting for Max to get home.  (He is on the bus for an hour every day after school.)  When he gets off the bus, Mae rushes up to him and they hug.  I didn't even ask them to hug the first time.  Mae loves buses.  If we pass one in traffic she screams out, "BUS!"  She thinks that Max is on all of them.  Despite this sisterly affection she does not miss him at all.  There has been no fallout or adjustment to Max being gone all day.  Honestly it is just as great for all of us as I imagined it would be. 

As predicted, Max is doing fantastic at school.  His teacher has sent glowing emails about him and he comes home so happy each day.  It stinks that they have to spend time on shapes and colors, which Max already knows, but I accept that some kids don't know those things and I trust that the teachers will have everyone challenged and up to level soon.  So many studies show that any advantage of early reading is lost by the third grade.  I am not saying don't teach your kid to read before they start school, but I am glad I didn't push Max.  Nothing makes me want to roll my eyes more then people who complain that their kids are bored in kindergarten.  Well if that is the case then they did a bad job parenting because they taught their kids how to read instead of teaching them to have patience and an imagination.

We started soccer again this fall and I am glad to say that the soccer camp we sent Max to this summer seems to have paid off.  He appears to be less intimidated and makes more of an attempt to wrestle the ball away from others.  I don't really care if he is good at soccer, but I think that having improved his skills, he will enjoy it more, and if not then we will try something else next year. 



My Aunt Maryanne nailed it, this guy looks like my dad.  I think it is the eyes.

Part of the downer of having the house on the market is that we don't have any plans for the future.  It seems like all decisions are awaiting the house to sell.  I always like having something to look forward to but nothing is on the books for us.  It would be nice if the house sold by our anniversary next summer.  We have talked about maybe celebrating 10 years by dumping the kids off at the compound and going somewhere.  But we will have to wait and see. 

The Mormon world sure is tiny. Thanks to facebook I reconnected with an old friend from my short time at BYUHawaii.  We lost touch shortly after I left but it turns out that she was mission companions with my BYU Provo roommate Jen.   I only noticed the connection when Jen mentioned that she was in Colombia for a few weeks which happens to be where my old friend lives.  So long story short.  My friend Amanda and I met in Hawaii and became friends after we realized we had both lived in Nebraska at different times.  I left and became friends with Jen in Provo, who left to serve a mission in Taiwan with Amanda, then both moved on until they met up again almost ten years later in Colombia.  Quite the global connection.

I should travel somewhere. 

Snapshot before I finish.  Spike is downstairs napping, Mae, wearing her snow white dress is playing with some ribbon and books, and Max is jumping up and down talking smack while playing Lego Star Wars.  Not too shabby.

Weak

I never considered myself weak before we put our house up on the market.  I talk a good game, but everytime we get negative feedback I am reduced to tears.  I understand that my house is small and the market is flooded with inventory; it doesn't bother me to see those comments.  Too small, overpriced, not what we're looking for.  Those don't hurt.  It is the;

SHOWS POORLY,
NEEDS TLC,
WORST HOUSE WE'VE SEEN.
NOT TAKEN CARE OF

Those hurt.  I try to steel myself against them but it does no good.  Last night we were at the house mowing the lawn and weeding when a family drove up with their realtor.  Luckily we were done and on the way out.  We exchanged pleasantries.  The feedback this morning was that the house didn't look as though it had been cared for.  Needed new paint.  It has brand new paint throughout and all in neutral colors.  How could they say it hadn't been cared for when they saw us there caring for it! 

These are the latest pictures taken this summer by the realtor.  She assures us that in the price point there is no need to stage the house, but I am starting to wonder if it would help.

Yes, it doesn't matter what they think, all we need is the one right buyer.  I am starting to wonder if this is perhaps a humbling experience from The Lord.  I suppose I needed one, I just hope it's duration is shorter than longer.  In the meantime if I seem depressed or you see me in tears now you know why.

Baby vs. Yogurt

After every meal I am tempted to take the whole chair and kid outside and hose them down.  We cut his hair so Mae would stop pulling it, but now I am thinking I should just shave it to reduce the sticky food encrusted hair.

Happy Day from Spike, Max, and Mae!

An Angry Bird Cake for his bowling party last weekend.

Happy Birthday Mom!  Congrats on your ability to fight off death for another year.  Job well done!

Mae's Room

So I painted Mae's room before she was born. I was a bit ambitious and painted it green and yellow with pink stripes. Being afraid of going too pink, the stripes were a very faint pink color that ended up being almost invisible. Flash forward to three years later and thanks to a Lowes coupon I bought some pink paint to spruce up the stripes a bit. I would like to put on a chair rail some day and the changing table in the closet will go soon, but overall I am quite pleased with how the room turned out.

I love that she is using the bedding I picked out as a girl. 

I am so excited to dump the changing table soon.  Both Mae and Max's rooms have huge closets.

The desgin magazine told me to do the stripes that way, which ended up putting them in very funny places.  Oh Well.

My favorite part of the room.

Too

Mae has a bad habit of responding to my declarations of love with, "too."  As in, "I'm to lazy to say I love you too."  At first I thought it was adorable but now I got to admit I find it really annoying.

Popular Demand

So I am not satisfied by this picture, but I don't know if I could ever like a photo of myself.  (Although my sophomore photo came the closest.)  I don't even like my wedding pictures.  But since I went ahead and talked about my drastic hair cut I thought I owed you a photo.  This is my hair just scrunched.  I am satisfied with the length of my hair but was hoping for less of a bob and more of a dramatic cut.  Maybe in a few months.

Nope, I just couldn't do it. Deleted!   I think the older I get the worse my self esteem gets.  Even with all my weight loss I cannot stand to look at my own photos.