AC/DC

This winter as I was skimming the clearance racks at Target I came across a T-shirt. It has the silhouette of a guy singing into a microphone and says "AC/DC" off to the side. The shirt cost maybe $1, so I figured I wouldn't be out a whole lot. I could wear it walking, sleeping, or to paint in.

I have worn it on many morning walks and added couple of my own paint splashes to it.

Today I was wearing it, since I was planning on going walking--but ran out of time before we got out of the house. My visiting teacher came to visit and as we were talking she told me of her niece, whom she is concerned about. She told me of how this niece has been wearing AC/DC apparel--she has an AC/DC beanie and an AC/DC shirt she wears. Basically this girl is on a track straight to hell.

I quickly grabbed a pillow from the couch and hugged it.

Covering up my very own ticket to hell, hopefully before she noticed.

I'm "IT"

Jamie tagged me. So here goes nothing.

4 Jobs I've held:
1. Summer camp at Sage Gymnastics
2. Evergreen Nursery
3. Partners in Business at USU
4. USUAL

Movies I Can Watch Over & Over:
Seriously people, I can't even stay awake the first time through a movie--much less watch it over and over.

Places I Have Lived:
1. Burley, ID
2. Logan, UT
3. Boise, ID
4. Blackfoot, ID

T.V. Shows I Enjoy:
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Extreme Home Makeover
3. Oprah (select shows)
4. The Office

Places I have Been on Vacation:
1. Russia (St. Petersburg and Moscow)
2. Victoria, BC
3. Florida
4. Honolulu
5. Washington D.C.

Favorite Foods
1. Any combination of peanut butter and chocolate
2. Lasagna
3. Fajitas
4. Cake--I really like cake plain-no frosting for me.

Websites I visit (almost daily)
1. Zions Bank (love online banking!)
2. Favorite Blogs (via Google Reader)
3. Dealnews
4. Etsy Store

Places I'd Rather Be Right Now
I'm not picky. I'd take the beach, mountains, city or country. This weekend is our anniversary so it would be nice to go somewhere with Chod.

Now I get to pick 4 other blog buddies to do this!
1. Tameka
2. Mom
3. Sarah
4. Corrine

Now its their turn! Answer these questions and then tag 4 people.

With the best of intentions.

This evening as my patience were very thin and Bentley's second meal of the day had ended up on the floor I about lost it.

I was in the process of picking up green beans and macaroni and cheese when Bentley walked right through the mess, tracking green beans down the hallway.

"Bentley!" I said with clenched teeth.

And then the sweet little boy picked up the Kleenex he had thrown down earlier and came back and started wiping the mess.

It didn't help the mess a whole lot, in fact I think it probably worsened it, but it helped this mom realize that he really wasn't that naughty. He was just a little boy who didn't feel good but was trying hard to be good.

I picked him up and we rocked for a while. It was what we both needed.

Kinda gross I know...

I wish I had an exciting story to share or at least a funny picture...but there isn't much going on around here. We are all sick. Just the common cold (or maybe West Nile?), but its the pits.

We are pretty much a mucus factory in full production.

Nice Hair

Saturday night we went to a surprise birthday party for a friend. Since he was born in 1977 we were supposed to dress in our best 70's apparel. Suspecting that people would have a hard time coming up with clothes his wife had borrowed bins of wigs to help those of us without any imagination.It was hilarious to see people walking around with their Fros, and the hair made it a little difficult to recognize who people really were. It was a great party!

Camp Hangover?

Three days later and we are still trying to recover from our camp out...
We made it through the night without waking the whole camp. Bentley woke up in the middle of the night freezing. So into the sleeping bag he went with us. I don't think any of us got much sleep, but the important thing is that we made it through the night.

We have been napping and sleeping in, who knew 1 night could do so much damage?

A camping we will go

We are heading on our first family camp out ever...and hoping it goes better than when Chod and Bentley tried it alone. Hopefully we can wear Bentley out enough that he will forget how fun tents are and go to sleep tonight. I think he will have a great time playing in the dirt and gathering pine cones and since it is a camp out with the ward there are sure to be lots of other kids to play with, so being tired shouldn't be a problem...

...maybe we need to pick up some Benedryl...just in case....for his allergies of course.

Royal (pain in the) Highness

I've created a serious problem. Every morning around 2-ish Bentley wakes up screaming. I let him scream for a while, but then it gets old and I go into his room. He is usually standing up with his arms outstretched. So I pick him up.

The little fella just wants to be held and rocked and loved.

So I hold and I rock and I love for about 2 minutes and then I decide that this is ridiculous seeing how it is 2 in the morning and I am tired.

So I take him to bed with me, put him in between Chod and me and he is all comfy and snuggly like a bug in a rug.

At 6 am he somehow manages to position his little body so it takes up the maximum space possible in the bed and Chod and I are both forced to get up as opposed to waking the Little Prince.

We then stand and watch him sleep, sprawled out on our pillow top mattress between our 800 thread count sheets....

A Knife too Sharp

My husband is obsessed with sharp knives. It doesn't matter if it is a pocket knife or a kitchen knife--it has to be sharp.

Saturday he spent a half hour (he insists it was only 10 minutes) sharpening a little knife. Seconds later he went to cut a grape in half with the same knife and ended up filleting his finger.

Last night he cut a tomato with the same knife, thought it was getting a little dull and sharpened it again. Since Saturday I am pretty sure the knife had only cut the grape and tomato.

But he sharpened it again.

I then grabbed it to cut up some lettuce for our tacos and ended up taking the tip off of my thumb.

Some may say we have no knife skills...but this is a paring knife for crying out loud. Paring knives are used in close proximity to hands all the time and I am pretty certain that they do not need to be razor sharp. I am fine with my larger knives being super sharp but Chod has been banned from sharpening the paring knives.

Summer Days

This weekend was the first that actually felt like it might really be summer. About time since June is halfway over!

Bentley had a busy weekend. On Friday he sipped water from a large tub on the patio.On Saturday the railing Dad and Chod made went up. Making our patio a little safer for Bentley to play on. We have a canal right behind us and Bentley has figured out how to open the patio door...scary.Then we constructed a makeshift sandbox for the little monster.

He did his best to empty the sand out of the box. And yes that is his shoe he is using as a scoop.
I think he likes it! Thanks Grandpa for giving him a place to play outside.
Then we went boating with the Hillman's. Bentley practiced flagging while Uncle Brent gave gold medal tube rides.

Happy Father's Day

To my dad. The man who can fix anything!

Different Approach

I am constantly surprised at how differently Chod and I handle situations with Bentley. Yesterday morning Bentley woke up very grumpy. This is how we handled it

Me: I picked him up and cuddled with him hoping his whining would soon end. Because moms are comforters

Chod: "Bentley, if you will be happy you can watch Curious George." Because dads are fun.

Bentley sat up looked at Chod, smiled, jumped down and ran over to his chair and waited for the movie to start.

I never would have thought to turn on a movie, but it worked.

New Job

Last week the floral shop I helped with on Valentine's Day and Mother's Day called and asked if I would like a job. A job designing flower arrangements and they would teach me how! It is something I have wanted to learn how to do for a few years, but haven't been able to bring myself to pay the thousands of dollars to do. Now they will be paying me and I will be learning.
I will only work 1 day a week--and today is my first.

Shopping Spree

Grandma bribed the boys with M&Ms so we could take some pictures at Gardner Village.

The results:
It was a good trip. The boys had fun jumping on the bed and swimming in the bathtub and we hit a few of my favorite stores.

I'm Off

to IKEA! I'm sure I'll be back with a few good stories and maybe a couple pictures since I am traveling with my mom, my sister, and the two boys.

The Worldwide Breast Cancer Project

I have a friend who has a dream of educating women around the world about breast cancer. If you are an American Express carrier then you can help make her dream come true.

If you aren't an AmEx (or even an affiliate) card holder, but you know someone who is--please encourage them to participate in The Members Project, because isn't it their money that is being given away? Shouldn't they have a say in who gets it?

I thought so.

Home Again

Bentley and I spent the day recuperating from our weekend. It was a weekend filled with family, food and a funeral. A weekend of late nights and early mornings for Bentley. Napless days filled with cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents to play with. He was beat.

It was so good to come home. Home to a quiet house with somewhat of a routine. While it was nice to see everyone, it was really nice to put him to bed last night and not worry about him waking the whole house up during the night.

So nice to be home.

Whassat

Yesterday was filled with Bentley walking around, lifting his shirt, pointing to his belly and asking "Whassat?"

Each time I would answer "your belly" or "your tummy". To which he would nod his head and walk away.

Only to return seconds later with the belly exposed asking "Whassat?"

Drive Me Crazy

On our morning walk (which happened inside the church due to rainy weather) Bentley insisted on being held by me. Even when I sat him down, surrounded him with toys from the nursery, and had three kids entertaining him there was a tantrum thrown.

Wailing, gnashing of teeth, and head hitting the gym floor.

So I picked him up. Carried him on my right side until I was tired and then hoisted him on my shoulders.

Again a tantrum. He threw his whole body back and I it was all I could do to hold on to him.

So again on the right hip he went. He was content, so content he was singing happy songs. Until again my arm was tired.

I shifted him over to the left side. And again he started crying and kicking and hitting.

So I sat down with him. He played with toys and ran around.

Thinking it was safe, I start walking. He followed after me bawling with his hands stretched out.

This time I picked him up, walked out the door to our house and immediately put him down for a nap.

Its all about the follow through

Last week I watched a two of my friends kids for a couple hours. Bentley was supposed to be taking a nap, but Nate thought it was fun to open his door and talk with him.

I told the visiting children that the next person to wake Bentley up would get a spanking. About, oh 2 minutes later, Nate comes and tells me that he had opened Bentley's door with a look on his face that said, You said you would spank, but I am pretty sure you won't, so now what are you going to do?

I thought "Shoot. He is testing me. What do I do now? I can't actually spank him, but I don't want to be giving out empty threats..."

So I picked him up and sat him on the couch and told him to stay there.

Apparently that was enough to get my point across, cause he started crying....

Fast forward to today. All three kids and the mom were at my house and the kids were doing something (I can't remember what) and I said "Oh you better quit that or you will be scrubbing my toilet." Nate immediately stopped and sat there. The older brother said, "You wouldn't really make us." And Nate said "Oh yes she will!"

Good thing I followed through last week, or else they both would think they can walk all over me.

What does she do all day?

On Thursday we fed the missionaries. As Chod was driving them to their next appointment the one asked, after learning that I was a stay at home mom, what I do all day. He then proceed to ask if I sit around and watch soaps.

Chod told him that I actually managed to keep myself quite busy--without watching soaps. He told him that I am involved in the community, take care of the house and Bentley, have a church calling, and that I also have hobbies.

And the jerk of a kid did not believe that those things can actually fill up my day--and insisted that I must watch soaps, because seriously I just stay home all day with 1 kid.

One kid! One tornado of a kid.

I feel bad that he has such a negative stereotype of a stay at home mom ingrained in his brain. I have never watched soaps (okay except for my junior year of college when I lived with 2 GH watchers...) and I do manage to keep myself fairly busy without turning on the TV.

My house was clean, dinner was fixed from scratch, fresh flowers were on the table and Bentley was mostly clean. Maybe he thinks we have a housekeeper...and a cook...and a nanny.

Grandpa Parish

My Grandpa, Oel Elihu Parish, passed away this morning. He was 88. And just ask anyone, his grandkids were the best athletes ever.Grandpa was an old cowboy and raised race horses. He thought Bentley would make a great jockey!

Strap of Shame

Before I had a child of my own I would see the strap in shopping carts (you know the little seat belt) and I would think "Why can't people just keep their kids under control..."

Now that I have a little monkey of my own who likes to show off his coolness by standing up in the cart as soon as I turn my back (I am now one of those mothers who can't control her child) it gets used by me.

I don't put it on until Bentley starts doing tricks--and then on it goes. Chod refers to it as the "strap of shame". I would much rather strap him in that have his skull cracked from falling out of the shopping cart and landing on the concrete flooring. Bentley absolutely hates having it on, and by his facial expressions you know it really is the strap of shame. He probably sits there plotting a way to get back at me when I am old and crippled and he is caring for me...

In all fairness Bentley is a pretty good kid and usually only gets strapped in when his patience for shopping are gone.

Case of the Missing Husband

Last night at a little after 7, Chod called and said he was on his way home from Rupert, but needed to drop some stuff off in Aberdeen. I figured he would be home around 9.

At 10:00 he still wasn't home. I called but there was no answer.

10:10 I call again and again there is no answer.

This repeats a few more times, each time I become more worried.

At first I thought he probably was in the car and couldn't hear it ringing.

Then I think maybe he decided to stop by my parent's house and visit. That is possible, although he never mentioned anything of the sorts.

Then maybe he was dead along side the road.

At 10:30 I called my parent's, just to see if they had seen him. My dad says no and asks why. I tell him how Chod was planning on being home by 9, but he still isn't...Dad agrees that he should be home by now and is starting his own investigation of the case. He asks where Chod was when I last talk to him, what roads he would have taken, if there any dead cell phone reception places along the way...

Then Chod walks in the door.

Case solved.

Apparently he left his phone on the seat of the truck he was driving. His stop in Aberdeen took longer than expected because he decided to fill out the paperwork--instead of waiting to do it on Monday since our Friday night was already shot. It never once crossed his mind to call and let me know he was still alive.

In the mean time Nancy Drew and Frank Hardy were hot on the case!

Doughnut Day

Today is National Doughnut Day! I post about it on the other blog, but didn't want anyone to miss out on an excuse to eat a doughnut today!