Because I'm a sucker

Guess what I got sucked into on Facebook?



I already do Dragon Cave, as if that's not enough. Sheesh.

Happy Thanksgiving

Just a few things I'm thankful for this holiday season:

* I'm thankful for this nation. No matter what happens in the future, no matter what I don't particularly like about the present, I will always, no matter what, love this nation for it's past. The United States of America is the birthplace of true religious freedom, a beacon of hope to the suffering of the world, and a nation founded with the help of God and the sweat and blood of some of the best men who have lived. John Adams is one of my favorite historical figures. Whatever this nation becomes, it has already made its stamp on the pages of history as one of the best and brightest civilizations ever. I love our nation. I love our flag, and what it represents. I love the Star Spangled Banner. I wish it were required to learn all the verses because they are beautiful and inspired. I love this country, and I hope the very best for it. No matter what.

* I'm thankful for my family. I'm not particularly good with small children in general, and I'm not a great housekeeper, so I spend most of my time doing things I'm not good at. It's frustrating and disappointing and sometimes I forget that I'm good at anything. EVEN SO!! I'm so grateful for my children. The moments I held each of them in my arms for the first time, touched them, knew them, are some of the very best moments in my entire life. They're bright. They're healthy. They're strong-willed, and even if that makes me pull my hair out now, I will be thanking heaven for it over and over when they're older and have testimonies of their own. I've got three sweet kids, and they're the best.

* Darcy is part of my family, but he gets a special entry all his own. I'm so thankful for such a wonderful husband! I'm one of the most blessed women on earth. I have a husband who personifies sacrifice, selflessness, hard-work, tenderness and concern. In spite of all my many failings and weaknesses he can still tell me (honestly!) that I'm wonderful and beautiful and amazing, even while carrying so much of my load and supporting me in ways unimaginable to most people. I don't know how I got lucky enough to have him fall in love with me. I'd say he has odd taste, but I think he might not like that. He seems to get irritated with people who insult me (including me.)

* I'm thankful to have a home that we own and are building equity in. We have a yard. We have apple trees (that will hopefully bear next year -- we've pruned them to nearly bushes) and grape vines and a garden, and still have room for the kids to run around. We have rose bushes. We have space. We have possibilities. Even if I can't afford to remodel (or paint!) right now, I have fun dreaming about what I could do if I had enough spare cash. And I totally COULD. Because we OWN this house!

* I'm thankful for my parents, for all they've taught me and instilled in me (you know, the good stuff, right Mom and Dad?) over the years and the way it's shaped my life and made me who I am. I'm thankful for their counsel and advice, some of which has been literally life-changing (in the best way.) I'm especially thankful that each of them gained testimonies of their own and joined the church, and that their love of the Lord and His Gospel continued to burn brightly all through my childhood. That light has guided me always. My parents are never more powerful than when moved by their testimonies.

* I'm thankful for good friends that the Lord has guided me to, for the ways they've changed my life, buoyed me up, and gladdened my heart. For the things they've taught me, the reminders they've given me, and the laughter they've shared with me (or inspired in me.) They are jewels to me.

* I'm thankful for siblings that I count as good friends, especially my sister. What a blessing to be friends with your closest relations, and what particularly awesome friends/relations I have! Darcy says that the one person who has shaped my life as much as or more than my parents is my sister, and he's entirely right. I'm so thankful for all the things she's taught me, and continues to teach me, and for the mutual support and admiration we have for each other. She is such a strength to me. (And my brothers are pretty awesome, too, especially as I get to re-know them as an adult. Sorry, guys, I totally don't mean to slight you by praising our sister!)

That's the shortlist. Time to get cookin'. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! May this day of gratitude usher in the Christmas season with the proper spirit as we prepare to celebrate the greatest Gift, the most joyous reason for Thanksgiving in the history of the children of God -- the birth, life, death, and Resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Love you guys!

A picture for today.

Poppet with her teacher for dance class.

(For some reason, I can't add another picture, so I'll just have to post another one tomorrow or something. ♥)

What?? It's November already???

You know, I realize life is only going to get busier, which makes me tremble for the future. Ah well. Poppet has two more weeks of dance class, and then her recital (actually on the last day of dance class) and then that's over. I'll try to make sure my camcorder is all set and record it. Maybe I'll figure out how to edit it into segments and post some of the best ones here. :)

In other news I have a bunch of stuff to do for the SCA this month (which is fun but also stressful) but that will wrap up after the 15th. Then we have some holiday plans for Thanksgiving that I need to start taking from the vague realm of "general plans" to the more concrete realm of "well-laid out, detailed plans" and then to "reality." And then I need to figure out how to make a Christmas out of what's left of our budget. :P Not that Christmas needs to be expensive, but when the purse is thin you have to pick and choose your activities more.

One thing I definitely want to do is make cinnamon ornaments. You make a cookie-dough like substance out of cinnamon, apple sauce, and GLUE, roll it out, cut it into shapes, poke holes for strings and let them dry. You can also decorate with, for example, those little silver ball candy things. I think that would be really fun to do with the kids, and they smell great. :D

Anyone else have ideas for cheap, fun, child-friendly Christmas-y things? I'm just about ready to wrap the presents I've gotten for my kids (one big-ish thing each) but I want to get some small, cheap things, too. I'm thinking replacement play-doh. But I also want to get one of those cheap little child suits you find at, like, Wal-Mart (and a tie!) because Blue Eyes is going to be a Sunbeam in Primary come January!! I also love getting a Christmas dress for Poppet. Hm. Not sure how to go about that this year. Can't put it under the tree if I want her to wear it the Sunday before Christmas, now can I?

Also on the horizon: Doctor's visits. Insurance doesn't cover much these days (like all the shots your infant has to have to be allowed to go to school. Yeah, they only pay so much per year per child so most of those first two years of visits and shots ends up being out of pocket, the scumbags) so more frugality. I need to go in, too. Something's wrong with my adrenal glands, apparently, and I need to get it fixed.

And now I feel like an old lady, discussing medical stuff. I'll stop. (Bleah.)

What else is new? Darcy and my brother worked on pruning the apple trees on Saturday. There's a lot more to do, and some of it will involve calling the power company so we don't bust the lines that go to our house (through one of the apple trees.) Apparently our grapes can wait until February? but there are still some grapes out there and we might be able to get a few more quarts of juice out of them. Gotta bake bread sometime this week. Busy busy busy. And I'm already dreaming of our garden in the spring.

And poor Little Hungry is sick. He's really congested, poor fellow. He's having a hard time eating and sleeping. I need to go run errands, but I just CANNOT wake him up. I'm sure he needs the rest, the little guy.

And I think I've about babbled myself out for the moment. :P Anyone doing NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) this year? ... Yeah, I'm not.

Back in the Saddle Again

My completely awesome brother-in-law fixed our computer so now we're online again!! And in our new house, which we closed on a couple days ago. Holy freak, we're home owners!!! Now when we get mail addressed to "the homeowners at" it's actually for US! WOOOO!

No pictures just now. Real Estate Lady hasn't changed the "under contract" sign for the "sold" sign, and I want to take pictures that show we bought the house. But it's all legal and stuff, and we're officially in a whole lot of debt. XD

Life is turning out awesome, and after three weeks there's SO much to say, but obviously I don't have the time tonight. Just wanted to let those of you who watch this thing know that we're back online, and no, nobody died, and yes, we're doing well and we got the house. :D

I'm extra excited to be online again because my other amazing and awesome brother-in-law, Paul, is playing in a Paralympic Semifinal game at what will be 6am tomorrow for us, and now we get to see it live on www.universalsports.com!! YAY! It's going to be freaking intense. Canada is the #1 team, and USA is #2, and two years ago we beat them in double overtime. Yeah. Should be exciting. I'm sad that it's on Sunday. It's not really Sabbath material, is it? Well, it will sure wake me up. I'll have to sing lots of calming, soothing hymns afterwards to get ready to say the prayer in Sacrament Meeting. They'll probably want me to do opening or something. (They already have us speaking next week.....)

Time to nurse the Milk Monster (2). He's gotten SO big. I think he just had another growth spurt. He's noticeably taller. (sigh)

Baby Chuckles

The promised video:

My update record, it's not so good....

Life continues to be hectic and exciting, in spite of the fact that busier people would certainly make fun of me for saying that. Poppet is 3 days too young for Kingergarten, even though she was reading Thomas Aquinas's Treatise on Law the other day. (I don't know how much she understood, but she could pronounce all the words correctly.) Yeah. So I'm probably going to be homeschooling her this fall. (E!GAD!)

We realized early this month that the house we had verbally agreed to rent was not going to be un-occupied by the owner's son before we had to move... so new housing arrangements needed to be made. And fast. .... So we're buying a house. (.....E!!!!GAD!!!!!!! -- But now I can eventually have a cat.)

Last Monday we found out it was for sale and decided to look at it. (My sister-in-law's cousin owns it and she was wrong about the price by about $40,000.) We fell in love with it. (It also happens, ironically and interestingly, to be the house my parents owned when I was born. My neighbor pointed out that it will be my first house ever in two different ways now.) We decided to see if we could do anything at all to buy it. We found that we could, miraculously. We agreed on a price and terms on Saturday and began the intensive mortgage approval process today. We will be literally around the corner from my oldest brother and his five kids. Apparently our neighbor to the north is super excited we're moving in. It seems she likes kids. :) (Good to know, and a relief. We'll be in that house for probably many many years.)

So now I'm all nervous about meeting people I will know for a long, long time. New ward, new neighbors. It will be nice to live in a less transient area. Less students, more actual families. But we've never lived anywhere for more than two years, so it's intimidating to me. First impressions and all that.

I swore I'd never live in Utah, or at least get out before Poppet started high school. Yep, nope. Sounds like not. I'monna raise me some Utards (and clearly, I will have to remove that word from my vocabulary) -- no offense to any of the truly awesome people I know who were raised in Utah!

I wonder how seminary will work if I homeschool the whole time....

And now, a few pictures of our summer:



I painted this butterfly for Poppet at the Stake Picnic a month or two ago.



He oozes charm -- what a funny little guy.



Made. Of. Cute.

I won't put up pictures of Darcy and I. No one wants to see us anyhow. :P No, I'll probably put one up from Friday. It's our six year anniversary, and we are going OUT. :D

I do, however, need to post a video of Little Hungry laughing. I'll make it it's own post, though. Baby gurgles are the happiest sounds EVER.

Because it's fun to do pointless things on the internet!

I have dragon eggs. Please love them. (clicking the eggs will help them hatch, you see.)









Maybe I will see if I can adopt more. ... I wonder what will happen when they hatch. I will update. :)

Milestone?

more cat pictures

My children have discovered potty humor. I kind of regret letting them watch Nanny McPhee. Awesome movie, but unfortunately they really enjoyed some of the kids-being-naughty parts. Being preschoolers, of course THAT'S what they would remember. *sigh* I hear Poppet saying "poop bum" rather more often than I'd like, and laughing riotously over the baby "tooting in her diaper." (It sounds like "toot" -- imagine a rather musical rendition of the word that makes one thing more of musical instruments than bodily functions, but there you go.)

I guess I'll just need to put up with this for the next.... 15 years? How much longer will I be having kids, I wonder?

Plus also (I totally go that from you, Bex) if you haven't become a frequenter of the site I got that picture from.... you should. Boy and how does it give me my belly-laugh exercise on a semi-regular basis. I get my jollies from the LOLcats, I do. Always worth a chortle or so. Probably even if you hate cats. (You can imagine what must have been done to them to get some of those awesome expressions. Or you can just enjoy the captions, like me.) There are some inside jokes, but you catch on quick... unless you're obsessive like me and spend several days going through all the old ones til the very beginning. ... Did I just admit to that in front of... oh, well, there's only, like, 12 people who read my blog anyway, so I guess it's okay. *GRIIIIN*

.... It's officially late. I'm going to bed. And my parents are flying out for a visit tomorrow! YAY! (Blue Eyes sounds like he thinks they're coming out to see and play with HIM. *chuckle*)

Father's Daughter

They say be careful because the girl you marry will grow up to be just like her mother.... Well, I like to think I'm just like my mom SOMEWHERE, but really, I'm turning into my father instead. I do tease my dad about it. For example, I spill things on my shirt when I'm eating, and say, "Man, I am so my father's daughter!" (Actually, this happened Sunday night, and inspired this post.) I also rough-house and get extra cuddly with my children, and think, "I'm just like my dad." Dad, you'll love this one: I've even started telling my kids it's time for bed, at, like, 6 pm. (Them, not me, of course, but sometimes me, too!)

But I hope I'm learning some of my father's sense of duty. I hope I'm learning even a fraction of his generosity. If I had even half his generosity, I'd still be one of the most generous people I know. Dad gets the number one spot, hands down. I hope I've inherited some of his positive outlook -- I want to be able to tell my children the same things about the potential I see in them as he's always told me. I think I got some of his intelligence, and it's done well for me. I got his love for football (after I sat next to him and had him explain the rules to me.) He taught me how to put together furniture from a box (and love every minute of it.) He taught me, with tears in his eyes, to love the gospel because life was a dark place without it. He's taught me what patience and long-suffering look like, because he's been so patient and long-suffering with me and my parental abuse. *wry smile* And he's shown me what it means to listen to the Spirit and try to fulfill your responsibility as a parent. He gave me the best advice I've ever gotten, and I met my husband because I followed his counsel.

It's not Father's Day anymore, but I was thinking of you, Dad. Maybe it's because it's almost the Fourth of July and you also taught me your patriotism, and gave me my love for our flag. I was thinking of you even before you gave me a call today. Love you, Dad. You're one of the best men I know, and it's a compliment to my husband to tell him he's a lot like you sometimes. (I wish I had a picture of the two of us when I was little -- that one of you with your head on a rolled-up sleeping bag and me on your tummy. That's how I feel right now. I still feel like a little girl when I think of you, and miss your awesome hugs.)

Now I'm all weepy. Gotta get a tissue.

Incredible

My family is sick. Blue Eyes has caught what Poppet has, and he is Crabby. Peiwen is starting to get a sore throat, poor guy. I still feel okay, so I have decided to get off my behind and actually do some of the things that need so desperately to be done and have been really bothering me. Like dishes. And cleaning the floor. The red rug will be impressive when I'm done, and if I weren't so embarrassed about it's current condition, I'd take before and after pictures. Instead I'll just try to document cleaning it after I've got it vacuumed and off the floor.

Blue Eyes has requested to watch The Incredibles. Good background for my heroic planned day. My kids tell me I'm Mrs. Incredible -- they like to assign roles, and so Poppet is Violet, Blue Eyes is Dash, Little Hungry is Jack Jack, Peiwen is Mr. Incredible, and instead of Helen or Elastigirl, I'm always Mrs. Incredible. I just smile and say thank you. In my head, Mrs. Incredible is not a character. It's a state of being. It makes me want to try to be Incredible.

He was early. Everything else has been late.

Shame on me for not posting before now, but I've been enjoying New Baby Bliss and haven't been on the computer much. It all started with a routine Fetal Non-Stress test....

May 5th was going to be an exciting day. I had my bi-weekly non-stress test at the hospital in the morning (for polyhydramnios and variations in the baby's heart rate during previous tests) and after that I'd be seeing my midwife and she'd check to see if we'd be able to induce the next week or if we'd have to wait longer. Well, that visit never happened. At my non-stress test there were more variations -- the baby's heart rate dropped with every contraction, more than once in a contraction. The specialist was consulted, and recommended I go immediately to the hospital I'd be delivering at to be induced (two weeks early.)

Being completely and absolutely unprepared, there was quite a bit of juggling to be done last minute. Fortunately my sister was heaven sent and watched my other children while I headed to the hospital. I called Darcy. He was working at a client's office 45 minutes or so north, but he could leave right away to meet me at the hospital. I got to the hospital at around 11 am, met with my midwife not long after to discuss the situation -- we'd take the specialists advice and get started, and got stabbed for my IV.

I'll skip the details. Suffice it to say that everything went smoothly, and at 7:28 that night our newest son joined the world, healthy, whole, although rather purple and slimy at first. (There was so much vernix. My other two babies were late, and much of the vernix had already absorbed into their skin.)

Little Hungry is beautiful. I think he'll have brown eyes. Even at two weeks early, he was 9 lbs, 8 oz, and 22 inches long. We're all glad he was early. Blue Eyes was three days late and he was 9 lbs, 5 oz (and 22 inches long.)

After a crazy week (where I spent all 48 hours after birth in the hospital being pampered -- it was kind of hard to leave) with Darcy taking much time off work to take care of everything, my mom arrived. She left this past Tuesday, having taken care of cooking (or buying something that didn't really require cooking) laundry, and dishes, and chasing small children for two weeks. I really appreciated it, of course, but you always appreciate that sort of thing MORE when it's gone.

Life is now settling into the new normal with Darcy going to work each day and I staying home with our three children. ... Eventually I'll get used to it. .... Eventually I'll be able to do more with my day than nurse, hold my baby, make lunch, and put Blue Eyes down for a nap. I look forward to Little Hungry getting on more of a schedule. He's still doing the newborn erratic unpredictable thing. (gosh darn if he isn't so cute, though.)

Little Hungry (who will hopefully get a better nickname in the near future) is the sweetest baby. He hardly ever cries, and then only briefly, as if to get my attention that he needs something. He's so sweet while he's awake, looking curiously around as best he can. He has the most mobile little face -- makes the most wonderful expressions. Darcy commented that babies are a little more interesting when they can move and play and talk and stuff. I agreed. Newborns are for mothers, I said. They sleep, and nurse, and cuddle, and love and need you, and that's about it. (They don't talk back, they don't climb on you and hurt you, or break your pretty things, or DRAW on your PILLOWCASES -- that's a story for another day -- or tell you they're going to shoot you and get a new mommy -- yes, my daughter said this today when I made her lie down for quiet time. Where did she learn that sort of thing??? -- they're just sweet.)

Every day I watch my newborn grow, and it makes me a little sad. I try to remember to treasure each moment as much as I can because I know how much I'll miss this time when it's gone. Anyway, welcome to the world, my boy. As beautiful and fascinating as it is, it's much more wonderful with you in it.

My daughter is an empiricist.

I've noticed an interesting habit my daughter has of refusing to believe me if I correct her pronunciation. For example, on a show she was watching they talked about telescopes. Poppet heard "tele-spoke" and will not, for love or money, believe me when I tell her that's not right. Apparently she only believes the evidence of her own ears. Well.... no history-changing scientific breakthroughs for her, I think! (I learned in one of my philosophy classes that people like Galileo and Newton were actually NOT empirical at all, like some people like to believe, and that if you think about it, none of their assumptions made sense based on observation and conventional wisdom. They were all leaps of logic. Shame on me for already forgetting the term that's the opposite of "empiricist."

As brilliant as my children are, they have not yet developed any kind of understanding of logic. For me this means rather frustrating conversations on a daily basis. My daughter's argument style is to simply say "because (restatement of position here)." My son is more straightforward, and therefore easier to deal with. He doesn't attempt to use any sort of logic syntax and goes straight for "no I don't want to!" I like their concept (or lack thereof) of cause and effect, too. They seem to be the same thing.

Me: Why did you do that??
Child: Because I did it.
Me: But why???
Child: Because that's what I did. ??

Tonight, while I was tucking him into bed, Blue Eyes reminded me that someday he will be a daddy and have the priesthood, and it got me thinking. Yes, someday he will be taller than me, and independent, and no way would he let me tuck him into bed. (Obviously, this made me rather melacholy.) I told him I'm excited to see him grown up because I know he'll make a really good daddy someday (to which he laughed the most delightful "mommy complimented me" kind of laugh *heartthrob*) but that when he's all grown up I'll miss him being little like he is now. Then he snuggled up to me in the most endearing way. This is what makes all those mess-cleaning, disobedience-punishing, "I-don't-like-you-mommy-leave-me-alone" days worth the price.

So what gets you through when they're teenagers??

The Dreadful Blank Page

This post is the equivalent of the phrase "testing, testing." There will be no content. Nothing to interest. It is a cypher. A place-holder. A note with no meaning.

But I'll write more tomorrow. :)