Randomness

This post is a compilation of little snippets of everyday memories I wanted to record. And the pictures don't necessarily correspond with anything, they are also random photos.

• Going out the door, or if she is done “talking,” aka “listening” to me, Rain will say, “Okay, bye!” and walk away.

(I forgot to buckle the high chair seat belt and Mesa started falling out the bottom. It was worse, but I adjusted her before I took the picture for safety's sake.)

• If I get after Rain for something, she cries and runs to me saying “scaredy.” I’m not sure where she learned this word, but she uses it frequently. I promise I’m not abusing my children. If it helps, whenever the dogs bark, she will run to me saying “scaredy.” And oddly enough, she always brings me string and wants to be "tied up". Don't ask me where she is getting that one.

• Lately, we have watched Tinkerbell, almost every night, in 8 separate 10-minute clips from YouTube. When one segment stops, she says “Uh-oh, uh-oh, drop it” (Stopped) in a traumatized voice, and I have to go to the computer to load the next segment. We have really been working on learning patience.

(One of the girls' favorite pastimes:

"Let's See How Fast We Can Empty the Dresser Before Mom Finds Us")

• Rain is getting quite vocal, especially when singing. It’s quite common for her to sing for two hours in her bed during naptime before finally falling asleep. Some favorite lines are:
• “Everbuddy, everybuddy, everbuddy wants to be a CAT!”
• “Wet’s go fwy a kite! Up to the highest hite. Wet’s go fwy a kite!”
• Ol’ Mcdonald had a farm, ee-ii-ee-ii-oooooooooo!”
• “I often go walking, in meadows of clover, . . .”
• “Hakuna, matata”
• “Hey-ya, hey-ya . . .” the drum song from Pocahontas
• Colors of the wind
• Jingle Bells
• Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer
• If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands
• "Tew everbuddy I'm wah, wah, way" (Tell Everybody I'm On My Way from Brother Bear)
• "The wheels on the bus go roun' and roun', doors go opie an shut, opie an shut, etc"

If you haven't noticed, we sing a lot. I use it to distract from unpleasant situations such as diaper changes, or to pass the time in the car when sitting in the car seat for one more milisecond has become insurmountable.

Rain goes to sleep with the Primary Children Songs on cd. I think the Nursery leaders were a little surprised when she could sing all the words to the songs they sang. 

She also has a few medley/combo songs where she will start singing one song, and end with another. Example: “Tinkerbell, tinkerbell . . . jingle all the way”

• One afternoon, I was trying to catch a few winks, so I laid down on the floor while Rain was watching Pocahontas. How long I dozed, I’m not sure, but I awoke to Rain screaming hysterically, and sobbing, “Kokoum, No, Kokoum.” Needless to say, this is a part I always have to fast-forward through now.
• When watching movies where there is trauma such as when Nala is chasing Pumba in The Lion King, Rain starts yelling, “Be nice! Be nice! BE NICE!!!”

(Rain loves to help with anything that Mom is doing)
• When Rain wants to wear her shoes outside, she will say “Get the boots on?” But when she doesn’t want to wear shoes, she will say “Outside, toes in da grass?”
• "Lidol"- mix between little and lidon, I think. It means “lid on.” When I get her a sippy cup she’ll say: “Where’s the lid-o? OH, der it is!"

(Rain plays for hours with the squirt bottle)
• She also says Thank YOU! and then You're Welcome immediately afterwards. It has lightened my load considerably. =)
• Rain, watching a jet leave a trail in the sky: “Look, he’s coloring . . . Make an elephant?” (One of the Baby Einstein movies has an airplane that flies in the sky and draws animals with the jet trail).
• At bedtime, Rain wants the door closed, and the light OFF so it’s all dark. Thus, during naptime when I can’t turn off the lights to make it dark AND I have yet to put up her curtains, she has decided the light is “broken”. I leave it at that.
• We have two new little baby cousins in the family and Rain loves to hold them.

(Rain has a zoo of animals that have to sleep with her every night. They have their very own pillow.)

(Sometimes she even opts for the baby cradle so the animals have more room)

We went to a cousin’s missionary homecoming in Las Vegas. We only made it to St. George before we had to stop and get Rain out so she could throw up. We BARELY made it before it was too late. She only lasts an hour in a car before she starts throwing up. I hope this car sickness stage doesn’t last long. Rain was awake the whole drive there. Fifteen minutes after arriving for dinner, she announced she was ready to go home and go “nigh-nigh.”

On the way home, Mesa was done being in her car seat and was inconsolable. As she lay there fussing, Rain looked over at her, stating matter-of-factly, “Mesa needs to go “nigh-nigh.”

We had to make another lay-over in St. George on the way back so Rain could get some fresh air and Mesa could have some time out of her car seat, relieving our poor ears. There truly is NO PLACE LIKE HOME!

(I've given up trying to keep Mesa out of the mud)

(So we get lots of baths, and of course, Rain wants to join in the fun.

Is there anything cuter than two girls in a sink full of bubbles?)

When I Grow Up, I'm Gonna Be . . . A Beautician

Valentines Day dawned like any other year, except this year it landed on Sunday, so it was a mad rush to get to church on time, so we weren't banished to the hard chairs in the back of the chapel. The weekend had been busy, so trying to stay awake at our early meetings, even with two wiggly girls, was a challenge. But we survived. After unloading the girls at home, I laid on my bed for a few minutes, thinking about the week ahead. Shane came in and we talked a little before Rain hopped on the bed, not wanting to be left out. She was pretending to "go nigh-nigh" by mom. But she quickly grew tired of that and soon found a bag of hair accessories that she began putting in my hair. Her favorites were the claw clips, which she was learning to open and latch onto things--like my hair. It was at this point I slipped into precious dreamland. Swirling in and out of my dreamy frame of mind was the feeling of the claw clips tickling my scalp as Rain put them in and out of my hair.

Then suddenly, my mind started registering a slightly different, more horrifying feeling--and accompanying sound--of scissors cutting hair. It took me a little longer to register that it wasn't the clips anymore. When I heard that sickening sound of cutting hair, I flew off the bed so fast, saying "No, No, No, NO, OH NOOOO!" as I ran to the bathroom mirror to survey the damage that I KNEW I would find. Clumps of hair started combing out with my fingers.

Of course, Rain started crying. I didn't want to make her feel worse, so I didn't cry. It was  a good thing I had already chopped a foot off my hair recently so I was mentally prepared to cope with something like this. My hair had been in a clip, so of course she didn't cut at the bottom where it would be easy to disguise; she cut on the very top, front of my head, too far back to even make bangs.

Luckily, she is still learning to manuever scissors, so her bites of hair weren't really big. And she cut them at slightly different lengths, so I am not dealing with as big of blunt cut areas as it could have been.

It was a little difficult to capture the effect because the scissors hacks were so haphazard that the longer hair was getting in the way of sorting it out for pictures. I guess it does help disguise it that way. This is only one clump that I was able so salvage enough for a picture.

It has been a little bit of a pain dealing with the short chunks as they grow out-especially when the wind blows. Those areas are also more prone to curl being as short as they are.

But my new hairstyle has probably been tried in some professional salon at one point or another, so if anyone needs a new modern haircut, I have an excellent recommendation-- and the price isn't too shabby either. It's FREE! 

These Days

I'm having a hard time getting new entries posted. Not because I don't have anything to say, but because I feel like if I can't write the "perfect" post about something, and usually in about a 5-10 minute timeframe, I don't write it. Throughout the day, I see things happening around me, or I have thoughts, and I think, "That would make a good blog entry" and then I go about my merry way and never even write it.

So, I've have to rethink my purpose in having a blog, and that was to help me cherish each day with my girls--on good days, yes, but more especially on crazy days, trying days, slow days, sick days, and BLACK days. Black days are the ones that I wish I could just erase from my calendar. They are usually days when I lose my temper, or I am so wrapped up in the latest "emergency" that I neglect to give the attention to my girls that they deserve, or I am overwhelmed and I run around all day trying to catch up from the day before, and by the time I get to the part where I get dressed for the day, it is time for bed--and usually later than I wanted to go to bed in the first place, which bodes evil for the next day as well. But I guess I have black days, partially because I create them for myself by going to bed late, or not planning ahead well enough, but also because I am human and they are part of this earthly experience. Every time they come around, I get to practice being patient, being humble, being charitable, and enduring them WELL.

The other quandary I have with blogging, is finding the balance between recording "real life" and recording what I want to remember in life. If I dwell on the black days, then I tend to have more of them, but if I only blog the positive things, then I feel like I am painting an insincere picture of my life. Is it fair to only paint pictures about the positive days on my blog, or will doing so, actually help me have more positive days? So my question is, how do I stay postive, but stay "real life"? Or am I totally missing the picture altogether? Is there something wrong with me?

So, aside from my own personal struggles, the girls are growing quickly and I love them.

Rain is forever finding little things and poking them places. I should have taken pictures, but whenever I go to use my sewing machine, I find pins poked in all the little holes on the machine, or foil wrappers shoved around the knobs, or jingle bells in the bobbin compartment. She also sprinkled the pins all over the carpet. This might have been okay if they were the decent kind of straight pin with the bright yellow head or something. However, those are still packed somewhere, so I've been using a few cheap, flat-headed, really short pins that I dug out here and there so I could do some sewing. It's a miracle we haven't embedded one in anyone's foot yet.

She also has a certain fascination with "pokies". This includes pins, stitch-pickers, screws, forks, and a myriad of other items that I can't seem to recall at the moment. It you don't believe me, I will issue a warning that you should check anything you are eating at my house before you eat it. See pictures below for a better expanation.

Here is Rain eating an innocent cluster of grapes.

Here is what I found when she was "FINISHED"

Need a closer look?

YUMMY!

Need a little iron in your diet?

Mesa is getting so grown up, too. Since I was on a blogging hiatus and didn't post results from Mesa's last Well-Baby checkup, which was a month and a half ago--ack!--here they are:

Head Circumference: 18"

Length: 30-3/4" ---97th percentile

Weight: 22.2 lbs ---95th percentile

She's been horribly sick for a week now, and doesn't really appear to be improving, even after a round of antibiotics. Not good. I have my suspicions that it might be RSV since there have been some cases popping up. But she has been amazingly good-spirited and I am thankful for that.

(Stealing Rain's sippy and feeling pleased about it.)

Poor sick baby, but still has a smile for Mom.

But I guess that will have to do for now because it is WAAAYY past breakfast and I'm headed into another "already-behind-but-I'm-okay-with-it" kind of day. Thanks for bearing with me through my long and comma-punctuated sentences.

Where Does the Time Go?

As I scroll through days and days of pictures on my computer that are piling up since the last time I posted, I get overwhelmed and think that there will never be enough time to post everything that has happened since then. So I think, that's okay, just start from now on and do better. But I can't help but think of all the memories we had that I didn't record. So, I've decided to just do my best to post a couple smorgasbord entries that will probably only haphazardly cover our crazy life right now. But for now, enjoy a couple of random pictures.

Skye's mini dachshund puppies were a big hit at our house.

Puppy Love!

Okay, maybe a little TOO much love.

Puppies, or not, we have LOVED having a good winter.

Our attempts at a snowman.

I had to go to the driveway and dig under the snow for enough rocks to make a face. Unfortunately, I didn't pack the snow hard enough and it was decapitated within an hour.

Rain kept saying, "Snowman, broken," and "Mommy, six it." (Fix it)

I bundled Mesa up and plopped her in the walker. I slipped some of Rain's old boots on to keep her toes a little warmer. I also shoved the broom under the walker, in an attempt to keep her from rolling off the sidewalk ledge and tipping over into the snow.

She was a happy camper and was just excited to be outside and amid the excitement.

How can you NOT smile at this grin?

Blogging? What's blogging?

I know I have been sorely vacant from the blogging world, but forgive me. I have much to catch up on and I have several partially completed posts, but "our" internet is on the fritz--or should I say our neighbor's wireless signal isn't reaching us as strongly as it was in the past. But once I post all these, you better read fast to keep up with me. Ha ha!

Our Christmas Jar

The evening started out like any other night--diaper changes, last drinks, chasing a half-dressed Rain around the house, trying to complete her night ensemble. Then after herding her to her room, it was tickle time and then prayers. We were just kneeling down when the dogs started barking and Shane went to see what had set them to barking. It's not unusual for that time of night as there is the occasional neighbor walking a dog, or a teenager that roars around our corner that gets the dogs excited. Shane went to tell them to be quiet while I finished saying prayers with Rain.

When Shane got back, he had a silly grin on his face. He handed me a book, wrapped in gold ribbon. I had seen the book before, and had even wanted to read it, but hadn't quite ever run into it again to do so. It was called Christmas Jars by Jason F. Wright. I thought that was a nice gift and asked who had left it. Then I realized that Shane still had his hand behind his back. Sure, I thought, keep the cookies to yourself, and give me the book. Probably a fair trade at our house.

 Then, he pulled out from behind him a huge glass jar filled to the brim with silver coins and green bills. Whoa, I thought. That's a lot of money. Most of the silver coins were quarters. I asked again who had left it. Shane said some teenager that he had never seen before had given it to him. Shane wanted to give it back to him, but the kid said that somebody else had asked him to deliver it to us. Truly anonymous.

At first I thought it was my mom because the handwriting was so familiar, but after a little sleuthing, and flat-out asking, I found out it wasn't her. So, somewhere, out there, is a family that I owe a heartfelt --

THANK YOU!

The questions tumbled around in my mind that night. Who? Why? How can I repay . . . someone for this gift? After the girls were in bed, I sat on the couch in the silence staring at the jar and the book. Then I started reading. I read the entire book right then, even though the dishes weren't done and the toys weren't picked up yet. Tears rolled down my cheeks. Shane, who had fallen asleep on the floor amid the day's tornado of toys, woke to my sniffling and soggy shirt cuffs.

This year has been one of faith and prayers. It's one of the reasons that Mesa's middle name is Faith. Shane hasn't had actual employment since May and every month we have seen many miracles that have helped us get through to see the next one.

It's also been a challenge to be on the receiving end of service, gifts, and help. But there is also a lesson to be learned in receiving and it brings good growth. Even if we don't have a lot right now, I want to help others where I can, and when we are more on our feet, I want to help even more. I am thankful for a gospel that teaches us to look out for one another. We shouldn't tear each other down, or be spiteful, if someone else succeeds. It may be that success that will help you out in your own low spot at some point. And when you do succeed, you can help others. We are all in this journey together and I hope I can be better at giving someone a hand when they need a little lift. I know I need it now and again.

Tangled Forest

The other day we went for a spontaneous family hot dog roast

while the uncles worked on building a corral.

 Rain absolutely adores her cousin, River.

They immediately found each other.

Hand in hand, they set off on a marvelous adventure
through the tangled forest to find the sticky swamp.

HUP, two, three, four!

First, they had to conquer the tangled forest.

"Wriver! Whey yare you?"

"Over here!"

Finally, success!

Next, it was the Canyon-With-Only-One-Way-Out, which was UP!

And UP we went,
clamoring, sliding, clinging, grabbing, dragging, and carrying.

Rain turned out to be quite the hiker and didn't want much help
from the rest of us. She is Little Miss Independent these days.

We grown-ups were invited merely for the fact that

they needed a little help traversing the area.

The girls had fun climbing up the sandbanks and sliding back down.

River was a very constructive mentor for Rain

The two younger cousins enjoyed the warmth of a perfect fall outing.

Believe me, it's a challenge to hold a little one on your hip, navigate a camera and take semi-decent pictures, all the while trying not to impale the said little one with the newly cut--and sharpened--hot dog roasting sticks that are somehow entwined in your fingers, the crook of your elbow, or poking out of a pocket. Somehow we all managed.

Watching my mom help on our adventure, it made me remember all the Saturday "Bentures" we had growing up. I'm sure I always did my share of complaining about things not being perfect--the sand in my shoes, or my hot dog falling into the fire, or the smoke in my eyes--but I remember my mom always being so cheerful about being out, doing something together as a family. Now I'm a mom and I get the challenge of tackling not-so-perfect circumstances and still being positive.

When we returned after giving up on the Sticky Swamp, the little explorers were ready for some grub. But first we had to roust the uncles away from their work.

If one little girl in a hole is fun . . .

. . . then two little girls in a hole is even more fun!

Yum, hot dogs, finally. River wanted both varieties--
cooked and uncooked.

"Hey, how come you got two, I only got one."  

This was a good day!