Something to Remember Us By

My parents are now residents of Jacksonville, Florida.


Last night we had a little going-away gathering at my house. My dad brought a so-called present for Sam in the form of a dead frog.

When I asked my dad why on earth he would bring this nasty thing over to my house (much less lay it on my clean countertop), he replied by saying he figured it was something Sam would like.

Boy was he right.


We talked about this frog all morning. We had to stop what we were doing multiple times to say hi to the frog. Sam even insisted the frog take a turn in time-out.

Now that Sam is asleep and the frog is in the trash, the reality of my parents' move is starting to sink in. We will miss you, Dee and Jappa. Happy Trails! We'll be anxiously awaiting our airline tickets to Florida!

Our Week

Monday.
Jumping off the bed. We do this at least once a day per Sam's request.




Tuesday.
Hanging out in the closet while Sam was still napping.




Wednesday.
(This actually happened on Thursday but I didn't take any pictures Wednesday. The OCD in me won't let me just put 2 pictures for Thursday and forget about Wednesday altogether).
Trying a new method for curling my hair. I used to do this back in high school and it actually turned out really cute. When I tried it on "Wednesday" it just turned out like dredlocks once I took out the little buns. Plus I got a bobby pin headache as a result. 2 hours of my life wasted.




Thursday.
Enjoying a treat in Gogo's bathroom. This woman has white carpet yet freely gives out blue treats. Now that's love.




Thursday evening.
King family party at Becca's house celebrating Jappa's birthday. (Don't we sound like a family of gypsies with names like Gogo and Jappa?) My parents are moving to Florida next week. Weird.





Friday.
Sam and B bonding time.





Today.
Hanging out in the ER waiting for a friend to be discharged (nothing serious, just a sprained ankle).





Did you notice that Devin was not pictured once? Here's what he spent his week doing:

Like Mother Like Son.

Did you know that I sleep on the floor?

Yes, on the floor.

Here are the questions that usually follow when I confess this to people:

1) Why?
I like it better. Beds are too soft and shaky for me.

2)Why?
See above answer.

3) Do you have a bed?
Yes. I just don't like it. When we go out of town to hotels, the cabin, etc., I sleep on the floor there too.

4) What about Devin?
For a while there he slept on the floor next to me. Isn't that a sweet husband? Now he's back on our bed. Well, his bed.

5) How long have you been sleeping on the floor, you weirdo?
Ok so here's the full story. Back in high school my bff Beth Ciaramello got a new bed. This bed was amazing. It was the perfect firmness and everything. I fell in love with this bed. I would often go to Beth's to hang out and end up taking a nap in her wonderful bed for hours. I loved this bed so much that I begged my parents to buy me the identical frame and mattress when my old pink daybed finally died. We went to the Roomstore and I found the match. We ordered it and within a few days it was delivered and set up in my room.

And then tragedy struck.

My new bed was awful. It was too rigid, too short, too everything. I tried to be a good daughter and love my new bed anyway, especially since I had campaigned for it for weeks, but after a month or two of frustrated nights I finally got so fed up I decided to sleep on the floor. I hate this saying, but I really did sleep like a baby. And so my condition was born.





Sam has found an alternate to his bed also.

This has been going on for the past few nights. I guess we really do pass on our crazy to our kids.

You Ants are Pathetic.

A few minutes ago Sam was playing by our sliding glass door when I noticed a gathering of ants. They were outside, luckily, and they were all on this one spot that was clearly a mouth-mark from Sam. Are ants really that desperate that they have to feed on dried-up saliva?I hate ants. I went outside to find a huge trail and sprayed them with soapy water (I read online that it kills them). I was singing in my head, "I hope you die!" to the tune of "I hope you dance." I really hate them.


On another note, my Mollie is 11 months old today!
You can see her 2 big honkers coming in on top. She is also getting her 2 bottom teeth right now.



On yet another note, this is probably the worst picture of Sam I have ever taken:
Granted we were trying to make ugly faces on purpose, but I honestly think this is just his dinosaur face aftermath.

We Take This Seriously.

Last night Jessica's cute mom had the whole gang over for a swim party. Everyone came to our house for the after party.

We played games.

Some fights broke out.

Check out Amy and Jessica's intense faces during one of the games:


I love when Jessica and Amy come into town!

Starring Charlee, Jaxson and Oaklee

This past Friday Charlee, Jaxson and Oaklee came over to play. We made a video.

Breakthrough!

3 of Mollie's teeth are finally poking through her gums!

Mollie's grumpy teething face


This means that I won't have to put her birthday cake in a blender when she turns one next month.

Good job, Mollie!!!

The Devil Wears Garanimals

Here I am again writing another post about my darling Sam being not so darling.

Sam has started throwing tantrums. Not only are they embarrassing, they are violent.

Those are bite marks on my arms. The very top one was through my shirt. That boy latched on and dug in with all his might.

This episode happened outside of the mall on Monday. Sam loves to go to the mall. We go to the DIsney store and look at all the Cars toys, we go to the pet store to see all the puppies, and we play with all the kids in the play area. Usually Sam is worn out by the end of our mall excursions and is ready to go home. Not on Monday, though. He started kicking and screaming when I told him it was time to start heading to the car. I had Mollie in the stroller, so I was trying to carry him while pushing her at the same time. It was not easy. Since I was pushing Mollie, Sam had full access to my arms to bite me (Devin keeps asking me why I didn't just stop him when he was biting. That's why. Obviously I let go of the stroller when he started to bite, but by then he had already latched on). I tried all the methods I've ever heard of to get him to calm down. I explained to him plainly and calmly why it was time to go, etc. I gave him some space and let him freak out while me and Mollie were a few feet away. Nothing worked.

Finally I said the last of about 10 prayers, picked him up and somehow made it to the car, suffering a few more injuries along the way.

I don't ever plan on spanking Sam or Mollie. That's just not the way I feel I'm supposed to handle things. I've prayed about it. When I tell that to my friends and family, I often get the response, "Yeah, but sometimes you have to..."

I was starting to agree with them when I found this talk by President Gordon B. Hinckley that reiterated my belief that you do not have to spank to be effective. I am not saying that spanking is wrong, but I am saying that it is wrong for me.

I know how I don't want to handle things, but I have no idea how I should handle things. How do you deal with tantrums, especially public ones? How do you punish your children when they are violent?

I know all the things like, focus on the good behavior, praise him for the good things he does, tell him the consequences before a tantrum occurs, etc. But what I am wondering is what in the heck you do IN THE MOMENT. Because that moment was awful.

Dateline

I was minding my own business this past Friday night, doing my usual routine of watching Dateline NBC and trying to decide whether or not to use one of my cheat meal/treat on cookie dough when my phone rang. It was Selena wanting to know if she and Russ could come stop by. A few minutes later they were at my door and I said goodbye to Dateline. I'll never know if the innocent convicted murderer was set free or not. The interruption was well worth it, of course. Although I really do want to know the ending, so if you're lame like me and watch Dateline NBC by yourself on a Friday night, could you please let me know what happened? Thanks. Here's what happened with me and the Sorensens. No murdering involved.

Selena sporting her new haircut


Me trying to take a picture of the back of my and Selena's heads (for hair length comparisons)


So Selena is better at taking pictures than I am. Surprise surprise.



Russ was captivated by the conversation that was going on.



Pregnant Selena. She just glows, doesn't she?

Shower TIme

Whitney and Brad had a shower for their little one yesterday. It was not a conventional shower, because it was co-ed, and because they unveiled the baby's gender at the party (they themselves didn't even know yet!).

My house has never felt so small or hot! There was a crowd.



We're sisters.


Are you curious to know the gender?

It's a BOY!!!!

Cross-Dresser

Whitney and Brad are in town, so I had the kids up late last night at my parent's house until 10:30. When Sam woke up at 6:45 this morning I was not having it. I took him into our room to sleep with me. He started spouting off requests, one of them being juice. As he was drinking it, he spilled it all over his shirt and immediately started crying for some dry clothes. I was half-asleep and was too lazy to walk all the way to his room, so I just grabbed something for him to wear from my closet.

He totally pulls it off in my opinion.

Look Who's Here!

Whitney and Brad are finally visiting after their move to Atlanta one year ago.




Things I love about today (besides Whit&Brad being here):
-I made it the whole day without throwing up even though I felt sick all day. I hate to throw up and I would rather spend an entire day in misery rather than have an episode over the toilet.
-It is storming outside right now and is only 88 degrees!

Things I don't love about today:
-It is 8:36 p.m. and Devin isn't even close to being done working.
-This is what my living room currently looks like:

Our Great Escape

Last Friday I got an itch to get the heck out of here. Like I have mentioned in previous posts, I am on mama duty 99% of the time lately since Devin is getting Barry Fresh up and running. The kids and I probably saw Devin maybe 90 minutes last week. While this is very hard, it is also a blessing. Devin has work to do! With his absence, I am getting a little antsy with my normal routine and find that I am taking "mom shortcuts" a lot lately (i.e. more tv time, earlier bedtimes, etc.). I needed some refreshment, and I know Sam and Mollie did too. So, we drove up to Prescott for the day. Just the 3 of us. We enjoyed cooler weather, actually played outside while not in our bathing suits, and did things we normally don't do, like...


eating out for lunch.



buying new toys for no reason (notice the giraffe that cost all of a dollar in Sam's hands)



Letting the kids (and myself) eat an unlimited amount of treats





On the way home we even saw snow on the mountains!
Ok, so it's not snow, it's the sun shining brightly while all the other mountains are shaded by the clouds. The sad thing is that it took me at least 5 minutes to realize that.



It was a good day.