memorial day 2011.

we had a fun long weekend with Aaron's sis & hubby. we swam, got sunburned, played cards, painted, had birthday cake, made pizza, colored our hair dark (coco & me), watched movies, talked a lot, listened to Jake strum the geetar and just had an all around good time. I have a cute picture of Cody blowing out her birthday candles, but not on this computer. These days I only blog from bed.

I am sleeping in a brand new bed tonight. In a brand new bedroom. I feel like I am in a fancy hotel suit. For our upcoming anniversary, we finally ordered bedroom furniture. In our 11 years of marriage we've never had matching nightstands or a headboard. It hardly feels like my house anymore. I will show you pictures soon.

Today was a pretty low key day. We organized our dressers, played a few games with the kids, went to Cafe Rio for lunch, napped, and cleaned. While sanding and painting my bathroom cabinets I tried to watch Lost, but honestly, I just don't have the interest. I hear it's good, but can I really commit THAT much time to it? I don't think so. I watched Footloose instead. It made me think of good times in high school planning Junior Prom.

I have also been thinking about last Memorial Day. It was the day Cindy arrived. We were so excited to have her live with us for the whole summer! Now she's a grown-up, married woman. She and her husband will be coming to see us on Friday but it won't be the same kind of visit. I keep thinking about how much more exciting this summer would be with my sister living with me. Did I relish it or appreciate it enough last year? I hope I did. Anyway, amazing how fast a year can go by.. and how quickly everything can change.

Having a laptop has kind of ruined my blogging routine. My pictures aren't on here, and there is no way I would rather sit at the computer than lay in bed. So instead I have a bunch of boring posts without any pictures. If I was really on top of my blogging game, I would write about Zack peeing in the bushes outside Cafe Rio. And how I yelled at him to stop when I saw what he was doing... and how he pinched his boy part and walked over to me with it out for the whole world to see. While Aaron and I lectured him about using a toilet, I looked down and saw that it was dripping... and his face was in agony. We told him to hurry and finish up in the bushes, but make sure he wasn't facing the cars. And then we laughed... hard. We shouldn't be allowed to be parents. Either that or Zack shouldn't be allowed out in public.

The only other noteworthy thing that happened this weekend was another lost tooth for Benjamin. After he pulled it out, he put it in the special toothfairy case and said, "I am going to put it under my pillow tonight, but I doubt the toothfairy will come." Since it was only minutes before bedtime, I assured him that she would. He wasn't convinced and said, "I will bet double or nothing that she doesn't." Without the other boys looking, I shook on it. The next morning he came into my bedroom shaking a little case with a tooth still inside. And then I cursed. Being the toothfairy is the worst job in the world.

must forward

it's early and i've got things to do. family is in town for memorial weekend. yay.

I turned on the computer to check a time for an appointment and somehow found myself on Blue Lily's facebook page. Which lead me to this completely hilarious story.

The Incident

I honestly have never laughed at anything written on the internet as much as I laughed at this story this morning. Aaron was in the shower and asked me whether I was laughing or crying. Both. Crying from laughing so hard.

Potty humor may be gross, but in the right circumstances, it can be so humorous. This particular story makes me laugh so hard because my husband had a similar experience to the husband who wrote this-- only it didn't turn out so beautiful. I have asked my husband several times for permission to write about it and the answer is always no. What I wouldn't give for a version written BY him. That would be the most romantic thing he could ever do for me..

Which brings me to the fact that I am completely and 100% jealous of this family. What a life they are living, huh? Traveling the world, spending ALL day together, creating the MOST beautiful photography, homeschooling their kids... I try not to envy the lives of other people, but honestly I just can't help it. what a dream!

And that's it for now folks. busy day. busy weekend. busy toddler trying to close my computer as I type. Time to go. I need to laugh like that more often..

what matters most.

I'm snuggling with my laptop trying to prepare a lesson for Sunday. I came across these Mormon Messages and had to deviate away from my "research" and do a little sharing. These short messages had me in tears-- the first one is a bit long, but fabulous. all of them are worth watching.

Sometimes we can get caught up in things we think are important.. but they are not. The only thing that really matters is how we treat other people.

Amen.

the kind of mother I hope to be

It's too bad I don't have time to sit down and write a decent blog post. A good one could come from a day like today...

breakfast was beautiful. scrambled eggs, hash browns, blueberry pancakes, fresh strawberries & melon. even a table cloth and napkins set. Too bad Simon had to ruin all of it by pouring his own cup of oj (while everyone else was busy doing something other than watching him.) it was a big, sticky, frustrating mess. Aaron had to leave for work before we were really able to sit down and enjoy it.

for lunch Ben and Zack made PB&Js. Luke warmed up some sloppy joe stuff in the microwave inside a glass bowl. It was a quarter size hamburger mixture barely visible in a humongous bowl. By the time it was "warm" the bowl was way too hot for Luke to touch. Instead of asking me for help, he put on two hot pad gloves, climbed up on the counter (he's still not tall enough for the microwave) and hopped down with the glass bowl barely staying in his protective hands. It was so cute, I took a mental picture... and I was glad there was no broken glass to clean up.

I spent the day painting my bathroom. It's a pretty gray color-- so light it looks almost blue, but not purple. Yesterday it looked purple so I repainted it. I am not the same girl I used to be. The girl I used to be could paint a bathroom in under an hour. This girl takes a week to get anything done. I am only halfway finished with the project.... and I wish I had never started. Have you ever painted around a bathtub with a toddler bathing inside it? I have. It's not that fun.

Aaron wasn't home for dinner which made my blah day much worse. But Zack still got a smile out of me when he sat up to eat. He saw his plate and said, "SO GOOD. SO GOOD. I got a FREEEEEE meal!" Anyone been to Cafe Rio recently? Zack has.

We watched Willy Wonka while folding clothes this afternoon. Gene Wilder is sexy.

Time to read Peter Pan. Peter is quite the stinker in the book. It's probably because he doesn't have a mother. All day long mothers cook and wash dishes and clean up messes and fold clothes and sometimes make messes while painting bathrooms, but also they allow little boys to grow up and teach them how to behave like men. At least that's the kind of mother I hope to be anyway.

living under a rock

Do you want to know how OUT OF IT I am?

Today while checking out at walmart, I found out that Schwarzenegger cheated on his wife... just today... like 3 hours ago.

The more I don't hear about things, the less I want to hear about things. I totally feel like my mom who never knew about ANYTHING going on in the outside world. Whenever I would try to talk about someone in the news, she would look at me with a confused expression that said, "who or what are you talking about?" If one of you would have talked to me about Arnold's love child 5 hours ago, I would have given you the same look. Say whuut?

Anyway, not that I care about this particular couple more than other celeb couples, but why can't anyone stay married anymore? Why do husbands want to have kids with other women when they can have perfectly beautiful kids with their perfectly beautiful and capable wife? What is the world coming to? (starting to remind myself of my mom again.)

I've heard through the grape vine that Bachelorette starts tonight. I don't have the option of watching but I might have to find it online tomorrow. I can't turn into my mother, just yet. But I have really grown accustomed to living under my rock and I am not sure if I want to crawl out anytime soon.

Sad. The Governorator who terminated his own marriage and the way that I found out about it. Just plain sad.