Miscellaneous Mumbo Jumbo

Ha! This picture kills me. Here is Evan with some of Anton's spy gear. I asked Michael if he told Evan to make a "serious guy" face. Nope! All on his own accord. Looks very threatening.

Through the summer reading program at the library, kids who read (or were read to) for 15 hours got a prize of going to Oaks Amusement Park one afternoon. Since it is hard to have much fun on our budget, we decided it would be great for Evan. Here is his first "real" ride. He was steering his steering wheel and waving as he passed us each time. I told Michael he is definitely ready for Disneyland now. The second thing he rode was some rockets that go up and down. He was Mr. Stoneface. Wouldn't even give us a sideways glance. He was too cool for his britches. Then he said he wanted to go on this roller coaster which we were sure he would be too short for and which he most certainly would chicken out of anyway. When we went up to the height thing, we found that he wasn't too short, miraculously. Of course, I volunteered to be the one to take him on the ride (thanks, Michael!) but I was still sure that as we had to wait for about 5 loads of people to get on and off and he saw them going around and around and up and down really fast and screaming that he would want to bail. Nope! He went on it! Unfortunately, Michael couldn't get a picture because it was going too fast and I put him on the inside of the ride to reduce his whiplash. :-)

I can't even believe I'm putting this picture on here. I look so gross! Anyway, Oaks Park has a skating rink. I was all nostalgic, picturing myself in junior high going skating with my friends to "Walk Like an Egyptian" and "Pump Up the Volume". So, I thought Evan should give it a try. He was all gung-ho about putting the skates on but had a rather difficult time getting the hang of it. It took us about 3 minutes to get to the actual rink when we decided it was time to go for the real thing. About 10 feet into it he decided he'd had enough. Truthfully, so had I. With having to hold him up, keep myself on my feet, and balance both of us at the same time, I would've had to have years of physical therapy and massage to fix the problems I would've had if we had even gone around once. But, the idea was fun anyway.

This is Evan and Jaren playing today in our (itty bitty!) sand box. They love it. It's about the one thing they can do together and not fight. I forgot to mention last night that Evan is all about doing things by himself lately. He gets all his clothes on (although yesterday he wanted everything backwards. His underwear didn't look too comfy that way and it looked like his head was turned 180 degrees because of his pants and shirt. He pours the milk into his cups and his cereal bowl. Surprisingly, we've had very few accidents with that. He's becoming Mr. Independent. It's good and bad, but most times very cute.

50 Things List

For those of you who are confused, and a couple of you have already said that you are, my 50 Things List only has about five items right now. That's because I haven't finished it. Hopefully some day I'll have some time to get working on that. I did see that PCC has violin lessons for $69. Really good deal, but it will still have to wait for another year.

Kids Update

Just thought I'd put a little note in here about what's new with the kids. That way in ten years I can remember some of these sweet things that were happening in our little house with little kids.

Evan: He is really using his imagination lately. We can frequently hear him having little dialogues with the things he is playing with or nothing at all. People call him on his phone all the time (maybe even you!) and he asks, 'are you going to come to our house today?' Sometimes he tells them he is on the train but he'll stop by anyway. One of the "grown-up" words we like lately that he has acquired is "actually". It's just so cute to hear his little 2-year-old voice use that word correctly. Speaking of talking, he won't stop. He talks and talks and talks all day. There isn't a word he doesn't know, I'm pretty sure. :-) Since the second day of being potty trained, he hasn't had an accident. Whew! One day we were waiting 45 minutes at the MAX station to pick Michael up and he really had to go pee. Just then Michael got there and I told Michael he would have to help Evan find a bush. Well, Evan thought that was the coolest thing ever so whenever he gets the chance to try to pee outside, he takes it. He keeps getting in trouble for it, but he goes out on a limb anyway. Even tried it right outside the church doors the other week! Um, he loves Nursery. Especially singing time, I think. He knows tons of songs. It always amazes me when I hear another one come out of his mouth that I had no clue he knows. Lastly, a funny conversation this morning. I was feeding Maren in her room. He was in the bathroom. E: I have a great idea! Me: Really? What is it? E: No, Mom. I was just talking to myself. Um, okay, I thought. Then he proceeded to share his great idea with himself. What a goof!

Maren: She is our rolly poly...for more reasons than one. First is that she has rolls all over her body. Her legs are especially rolly with the last count being five. Second is that she is rolling to get everywhere now. It is so fun. I'm not sure what happened to my baby, or where the time went, but life is getting really exciting with her. And she is so beautiful. I just want to eat her up sometimes. Of course she loves that. She absolutely adores Evan and will pretty much crack up over anything he does. We really have to work for a laugh! Hmm...I guess there's just not as much to say when you're not talking, talking all the time and saying funny things. I can't think of anything else about Maren right now. Pictures to come...

No Cable!

Well, we've been poor before, but never poor enough to have to give up our $9.63 cable. The only reasons we had it were for the twice-yearly church conference and the Discovery Channel. Well, we're poor enough now that $9.63 makes a difference. Ha! So, it's gone. Yikes! Not that it matters all that much. I definitely don't have time to watch TV right now and Michael would be better off studying. If something good is on Discovery, it's hard to convince him to do anything else (this is only after Evan is in bed). So, this will be a social experiment to see how we fare. I'm sure it will be fine. I have two shows that will start next month that I may die if I don't get to see. Happily, they are both on the Internet so I will have to try to figure out when I can watch those. I think Evan will survive, too. His average is only half an hour a day anyway. I told him we can pick up some special DVDs from the library for those times when we just need to watch a show. So, for those of you who thought we were crazy for not having Dish and DVR and the like, now what do you think? Heehee.

Help me!

I need help...obviously. My blog needed a face lift. I needed some new, bright colors to ward off the stress that has been filling my life lately. Then I decided to add this cute picture to the title bar. Whoops! What the heck is going on with that picture? How do I make it smaller? Someone please help!!!

Too long!

You know, when someone else hasn't made a post in this long I want to call them up and make sure they're still alive. I want new, fresh info. Ha! Life has just been CRAZY BUSY! If you saw our house, you'd be instantly convinced. Poor Evan...he just needs a clean sippy cup is all. Anyway I have a couple cute stories and pictures to post. Hopefully there will be time tomorrow somewhere in between my 8 hours of work that I need to get finished. In the meantime, I'm trying to work on a list of 50 things I'd like to do or accomplish in my lifetime. I saw this ingenious idea on some other blogs (thanks, Darilyn!) and I love the idea. I like to dream and then make things happen. Hopefully this will help.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

It's quite a ways off, but Pacific Northwest Ballet (in Seattle) is doing the ballet A Midsummer Night's Dream next April (I guess a MidSpring Night's Dream?). This is one of my favorite full-length ballets (along with Coppelia). So if anyone is into ballet and is so inclined, I thought I'd send you the link to find out about tickets. Happy pirouetting! http://www.pnb.org/season/msnd.html

Random Randomness

We've just got some random stuff here. First, Mareney (as Evan calls her!) and her big smile. Finally got one! It's pretty much a guarantee that you can get a smile while she's in the bath. She kicks those happy legs like they would fall off if she ever stopped.

Michael had a couple of days off around the 4th of July so we decided to do something other than sit around home and watch me work all day. We went to the zoo! Thanks, Grammy, for sharing your pass with us! We took Anton with us, rode MAX there, got to see the bird show, go on the train, see the butterflies...all the good stuff! Here is Evan with his sunglasses on. Every time we walk out the door and the sun is even remotely out, he says, "It's sunny", and insists on either his hat or his sunglasses. Last night he had his sunglasses on until I coaxed them off of him at about 8:30 p.m. Ha! Look at Maren's arm rolls. I counted five rolls on her legs yesterday. Funny thing is that at her 6 month appointment today the doctor said she wanted to get her height and weight at 8 months instead of the usual 10 month appointment because she went from 50th percentile to 25th in weight and 80th to 45th in height. We had to laugh because she is so curvaceous. She certainly doesn't look malnourished. Then again, I never have had the greatest milk production. I'm sure she'll be fine, though.

And, last but not least, our lovey picture from this morning. Evan was laying down and he wanted Maren with her. I love those sweet moments.

Today at lunch:

Evan: Mom, can I have some candy?
Me: Evan, it doesn't look like you've eaten any of your sandwich yet.
Evan: We can use our imaginations.

Ha! What a cutie. Still didn't get the candy. :-)

Stolen Social Security Number?

I just found out today that a woman is working in a Chipotle restaurant in Columbia Heights, MN under Michael's SSN. Does anybody have any idea what I should do in this case? Do I call the police? Do I call the manager? If so, what do I say? Do I start by getting a credit report to see if she's done anything else with our credit? Well, that's an obvious. I have to do that no matter what. But what else do I do?

Laptop?

This is going to be a seriously boring post...and many of you have already seen this request. Anyway, it's my blog so I'm just going to put this on here. We could really use a laptop. I am working on the computer all day and Michael literally doesn't get a chance to get on the computer to do his school work. So, we are wanting to find out if anyone has a laptop they are wanting to get rid of for little money. I won't put a dollar amount on there, but things are pretty dire around here right now so we're going to have to go picking off our money tree in the back for any priced laptop. :-) If you know of anyone, please let us know. Michael would be so grateful.

4th of July!

The 4th of July is my second favorite holiday, after Thanksgiving. Or maybe they are tied. I don't know. I just love the BBQ, I love the weather, I love the fireworks and the patriotic songs. And I love spending time together as a family. Loved going to Chaffey college and watching the fireworks with my family growing up and now we enjoy going to the Oak Hills neighborhood as a family now that I'm all grown up. :-) This year we added the Hillsboro parade to the agenda. That was pretty fun. Evan waved to most everyone who passed by. He had the most perfect parade princess wave. It was hysterical. Unfortunately, Maren was the only one with patriotic clothes. The closest the boys could get was Mickey Mouse. Works for me! Both kids enjoyed the fireworks. Maren's eyes were humongous for the first half and then closed in a deep sleep the second half (babies can sleep through anything!). Michael will say that the color is all wrong on this picture of Maren, but I am in love with it anyway. Hope you all enjoyed your day, too!

Undies

I think we are on our way to being potty-trained!! Whew hoo! Yesterday Evan said he wanted to wear his big boy underwear. Wow...okay. We haven't really tried any strategies as of yet. Just waiting for him to show that he wants to do it the big boy way. He's peed and pooped on the pot plenty of times, but this was taking it to a whole other level. But, I had decided a couple of days before that it was probably a good idea and that I was mentally and emotionally prepared to clean up any messes he made. So, we put his underwear on around 9:15 a.m. yesterday. By 10:30 he had gone through all three pairs and that was it for the day. Each time I would hear, 'Mom, I'm going pee.' I'd run over and there would already be a puddle on the floor. So, I washed his undies and we tried again today. He went the whole day (minus trip to the park) with his undies on. Yipee! The first couple times he said, 'Mom, I'm going pee', I panicked and ran as fast as I could. But he was holding it for the toilet. Granted, we were in there about every 30 minutes, but it was still a fun day. Towards the end of the day, he stopped putting his shorts back on and I just loved the sight of his cute little underweared bum running around so I had to get a picture. If his shorts didn't stay up before with the help of a bulky diaper, I don't know what we're gonna do now! Suspenders? Oh yes, can't go anywhere without those " 'rocs".

Sweet Music

We had our niece, Melissa, over today and Anton was here for a few hours, too. I love it that kids like to be at our house...especially the tweens! :-) I've decided I really like 10-year-olds. They are just wonderful. Anyway, Evan pulled out his musical instruments and they all got together to make some raucous music. Even Maren got involved. It was pretty cute.

Critters

Yesterday Anton brought his new baby lizard over for us to see. Evan enjoyed getting to hold it, although Michael made him stand in the bathtub to do it. He's a fast little critter and if he had jumped out of Evan's hands in an uncontained environment, we would've never seen him again.

Now today was hysterical! Michael found a beehive in our Asian pear tree. There were literally thousands of bees buzzing around. We weren't sure what to do besides look dumbfounded out the screen door at them. But Anton wanted to "suit up" and go check them out. He said his dad had "suited up" before when they had a hive. So, after spraying them with cold water, Michael and Anton "suited up". Yes, I'm beating that to death, but it just cracks me up. So, Anton comes over with a sweatshirt on, a face mask, long pants and shoes. He asks to borrow some gloves and some tape to tape them shut. Michael puts long clothes on as well and then says to Anton that 'bees are attracted to dark colors. Look what you're wearing. That's why I'm putting this sheet around me.' Ha! Okay, weirdo. Oh, man. I can't type this post without busting a gut. Is this one of those you-had-to-be-there moments, or what? So these two buddies go outside and they're checking things out. Bees are swarming everywhere! Come to find out, it wasn't a beehive at all. They didn't have a hive. The over one foot long "hive" was actually a humongous mass of bees. Wow! So they collected bees and then sprayed them. They were out there probably half an hour. I told Michael that if he got stung 100 times and needed to go to the hospital, he'd have to phone a friend because I had too much work to do. Ha! That was mostly because I told him he was a total geek to go outside and do that. Well, wouldn't you know it, they didn't get a single sting. Neither of them! I would've gone into anaphlactic shock with my 500 stings, I'm sure. I thought the sight of them out there was too good to pass up. I like Michael's ghostly look. Oh, what a day! Never a dull moment around here.