Why me?

One thing that I am finding that I really do not like about my new home is all the mosquitoes. If I want to do anything (and I mean anything, because the second I step outside in the cool parts of the day I am swarmed) in my garden I have to get the repellent out and coat myself in it. My poor legs seem especially tasty and are dotted in itchy bites. I woke myself up scratching last night and I am sure I will again tonight until the bites are healed. The crazy thing is that the boys do not even have a nibble on them and my husband only got one or two bites. I guess that I am mosquito prime rib. Here's to smelling like bug spray all summer!

Questions #4

I am in Kansas right now having a blast house hunting and missing my kids. This post has been auto posted.

Gina from Just Another Day asks a tough question: "If Clinton and Stacy from "What not to wear" came to your house, would you take the five grand for clothes and a makeover? And would you wind up crying, just like all the other people on the show?"

I can tell that the seduction of satellite TV is getting to Gina. Luckily I have actually seen a few episodes of this show while Evan was in the hospital, otherwise I might not have been able to answer. I preferred Clean Sweep and Animal Planet, but when you are bored you will watch anything.

I would go for the makeover in a heart beat. I am sure that if they saw my closet they would come very close to keeling over dead from the shock. I have a few nice items, but I know that they are not anything like what they like to steer people towards wearing. I am just not really trained in how to pick out fashionable yet classic items. I go for comfort and cheap prices.

I know that I would have the hardest time spending $5,000 on just clothing. That would be the hardest part of the show due to my thrifty nature. My entire wardrobe only costs a few hundred dollars at most (and I am sure that I am way over estimating). If I were to win a billion dollars I think I would still shop at Target, that is just how I am. Now if I got $5,000 to spend at a yarn store I think that things would be a bit different.

As far as the crying goes I am not sure that I would. I am not a crier unless I am pregnant and then I tear up at the drop of a hat. If it is a scene in a movie where an animal dies I will be sobbing uncontrollably.

Questions #3

I am in Kansas right now having a blast house hunting and missing my kids. This post has been auto posted.


My awesome mother-in-law Diana (who has just recently started visiting here after a lot of badgering from me) asks: "What is the weirdest meal or incident that happened at a restaurant?"

We don't eat out a whole lot, so nothing too strange has happened while we were eating out. We did have a nice lady come by our table and compliment us on how well the boys were behaving while eating out. That was pretty unexpected. And of course the boys had to act up the next time we went out. I guess they had to show the Children's Guild that they were not being too soft on the parents.

Questions #2

I am in Kansas right now having a blast house hunting and missing my kids. This post has been auto posted.

Ginger asks: "I always did wonder if a zebra was black with white stripes or white with black stripes? Which is it?"

This is an easy one! The answer is neither, Zebras are rainbow colored!

Photo credit

Questions

I am in Kansas right now having a blast house hunting and missing my kids. This post has been auto posted.

I am answering the questions from Ask Awesome Mom Anything in the order they were asked.

Kelly from Don Mills Diva cuts right to the chase and asks: "What was your most embarrassing moment?"

My parents are people who love to tease (which is a nice way of putting it). Over the years I have had to learn to have a rather thick skin. However when I was a teenager I was not quite so thick skinned, but I was learning.

Some back story: When I was a youngster of about 5 or 6 years of age we lived in a area that was being newly developed. There were a lot of vacant lots that were waiting for houses to be built. In one of those lots there was a massive weed. My friend told me that it was a man eating plant.

I rushed home and convinced my mom to call my dad at work to warn him of the neighborhood terror. I was rather literal minded about the idea of the man eating plant and thought it only ate men. Eventually I was convinced that it was just a weed and that my dad was safe.

Fast forward to Jr High. I hated parent teacher night with a passion. My dad was a high school teacher and I always felt that my teachers and parents were conspiring to do evil deeds to me behind my back (I was not wrong in my paranoia as you will see). I would do every thing possible to hide any kind of advertising about parent teacher night from my parents. The school was too good about getting the word out and invariable something leaked through.

The day after the parent teacher night I thought that I was home free. I was not grounded which was a good sign, or so I thought. I was sitting in band (I played trumpet at the time) warming up when it happened. The band teacher, in front of the class, asked me about the man eating plant. I wanted to die! But I oh so carefully feigned ignorance. The teacher then admitted that my parents had told him to ask me about a man eating plant. Again I told him that I had no idea what he was talking about. I am sure that I was beet red and my voice was quavering, but the band teacher then dropped the subject much to my relief. I wanted to die and at the same time obliterate my parents.

So, there you have it! That was my most embarrassing moment... so far.

Loner?

Generally I am a loner. I would rather spend my time at home with the kids or pass my evenings at home with my husband quietly. I have, at times, pondered the life of a hermit with a bit of envy. My lonely hut would have to have internet though for it to be perfect.

I was discussing the future today with one of my mom friends. The word has spread about our possible upcoming move next summer. Our ward is loosing people left and right so everyone gets interested when the topic of moving comes up. One of the possible assignments that my husband is kind of thinking about, maybe, would involve him being gone for six months at a time (but he would be home for the other six). When I talked about it here eyes got wide and she wondered if I could rent an apartment near family while my husband was gone so that I would have family near by to help with the kids.

Honestly that thought had never crossed my mind. I had pondered the possibility of having a housekeeper coming in to help out and even a regular babysitter but never spending half of the year in one place and half in another. I think that is the loner in me speaking. And yet it really is not lonely to consider staying where we are put waiting for my husband to come back from his assignment. We will have the military family around us to help out when needed. We will also have our ward family to help out and to worship with.

One of the reasons I will miss this area so much is that my ward really feels like a family. They have been there with us for so many things. Even after Evan's surgeries are over the other mothers in my ward are who I spend the majority of my social time with. When I left the park after spending some time with my friends I felt so uplifted and refreshed. Despite my loner tendencies the mother in me craves the friendship of other mothers and a sense of community.

I think that one of the biggest changes that has happened in me since becoming a mother is my need to connect with other parents. I need to know that my crazy kids are not the only weirdos out there. We need to be able to commiserate someone about some stage or behavior. That is one of the biggest reasons that I keep blogging and keep reading other blogs. It is nice to know I am not the weirdest mom out there, right?

Woah!

You know you have spent too much time reading Science Fiction and Fantasy when you have a dream where you are in the woods hiding from talking wolves who you end up slaying with a special magical sword and, in the process of that fight, you are nipped leading you to wonder if you are now going to become a werewolf. Then, suddenly, you are in a spaceship and you realize that the reason you were hiding in the woods is that the evil maniac floating over you was trying to capture you as part of his evil plan to turn everyone into robots.

Reading

I am a hardcore book worm as you probably have figured out by now. My reading time took a huge hit with Evan's birth but even then I still read some keeping to short stories so that I could put it down and still be able to follow the plot of the story I was reading. When I have a baby in the house I also keep to light reading, avoiding heavy tomes like the Lord of The Rings series. I did not even have a library card for many years, instead I made use of the used book store at the library. I knew that if I did not own the book I would be paying a ton of money in over due fines.

Now that I have a toddler and a preschooler I am able to read a whole lot more. It helps that I am a super fast reader, something that I never consciously taught myself to do. I spent hours in my room as a teenager lost in reading, so I guess it is no surprise that I can tear through a book super fast. I am also watching a lot less TV now that we have cut the cable leaving me with a ton more reading time in the evening. I guess I make it more of a priority now that the kids are not quite as needy since it is something that I enjoy so much.

I am feeling a lot more chipper about my reading stack now. My library has a special spot out in the front where newly released books are. They have a special seven day check out time but it is worth it to be able to find fresh new reading. I have not had too many over due fees from them. That mostly happens when I try and take out more than two of the seven day books at a time. While I was at the library yesterday I found another addition to an ongoing series that I have been following. This one is not disappointing at all, in fact I think that I am going to ditch you all right now so that I can read some more of it.

PS If you love really good Fantasy you have to check out Elizabeth Haydon.

Reading frustrations

I have had a series of very frustrating books lately. My first book frustration was that inadvertently I read the first book of a series that had not yet been completed. I hate doing that. I prefer to wait so that I can gobble down the entire series, one book right after another. I love reading series books and I got tired of trying to keep track of when the new books would be out, or if they even came out.

Next was a book in a very ongoing series that I had thought was over with. The author seems to want to milk it out and this book really strengthened that theory. Normally the stories are action packed and filled with intrigue. This book was not like that at all and the only reason I finished it that it was so short. After every chapter I kept hoping that action would pick up and we would have some better reading. I was very disappointed to say the least.

My next book illustrated the dangers of having the book catalog online for reserving books on a whim. This book was one that I did not remember reserving and I had no idea why I did reserve it, it was not the genera that I would generally read. The most frustrating thing is that the book could have been saved if it had been a bit longer. It was a quasi romance only it ended before the romance could resolve and the couple could fall madly in love and live happily ever after.

My final frustrating book was a medical thriller by Robin Cook. I read her now and then when I want something light, generally she delivers, but this book just drove me up the wall. The plot involved a young female doctor discovering that some doctors were conspiring to spread the Ebola virus around. The doctor worked for the CDC and thought her boss was in on the plot since he was being so rude and cold to her after she had rejected his advances. It turns out that he was not in on it, he was just a jerk and at the end this stupid stupid woman asks the boss out on a date. Argh!! Where is her common sense? First off, office relationships are a huge no no for so many reasons. Second, why would she want to go out with a guy that acted like that just because she said no to him? Third, what happened to the co worker that she had been dating that had also helped her solve the case? He apparently dropped off the face of the earth after his usefulness to her was over. Sigh. I am hoping that my next books are much more satisfying.

Sunburn lessons

Thanks for all the tips and well wishes in regards to my poor legs. One important thing I have learned is that the aloe vera gel that you can buy in the store is nothing like getting your aloe vera right from the plant. I have had an aloe vera plant for most of my marriage but our plant was killed this winter by a sudden hard freeze. I had not replaced it since I had not really used it for more than minor burns from cooking accidents. I thought that the gel would have the same exact effect as the plant with the bonus of not needing any care on my part to keep the bottle of gel alive. The gel stings!!! They have some sort of chemical, probably an alcohol of some sort which hurts worse than the burn. I am not sure how they can sell this stuff as a sunburn aide.

I slept with some cold wet rags on my legs last night which helped a lot pain wise. It only hurts when one of the kids tried to sit in my lap when my legs are crossed (it was my inner calves that got the worst of it due to my habit of sitting cross legged a lot) or when I am trying to change a diaper with them on the floor. It seems that they love to wiggle and end up kicking me right on the sunburn. That seems to be the way with kids, no matter where the injury is suddenly that area becomes the repeated victim of a rambunctious child.

Owie!

We went to the beach today with one of my mom friends and her kids. It was quite fun and the boys had a blast. The only super bad thing about the day was that I ended up with a sunburn. I am normally very careful about slathering on the sunscreen (as a child I got a lot of bad burns and I finally decided that I did not like getting bad burns and increasing my chance at getting skin cancer) but I forgot my legs. Normally when we go to the beach the water is so cold that if you do wade you don't wade for very long. This time we went to a new (to me) beach where there was a creek that made a nice shallow pool of fresh water for the kids to play in. I had to roll up my pant legs so that I could get in the water with the boys and keep the daredevil harry from going into the deeper areas.

Here is a little secret: I had not planned on showing off my blindingly white legs because I had not shaved them recently. Now I will not be shaving them for even longer. I am going be be wearing long skirts for awhile.

Here is Evan all decked out in his cool shades. He fell in the water multiple times and ended up with a lot of sand in his diaper. I think he kind of looks like a college frat boy in this outfit.

I was drawn to this outfit because it looks like one of those old timey bathing suits. Harry turned it into a bathing suit and it's one piece construction kept Harry's diaper sand free. He is also wearing Evan's water shoes from last summer. Poor Evan had to go barefoot since I had neglected to buy him a pair for this summer. They are very handy shoes, if you go to the beach a lot, which we don't really despite the large number of beach pictures that I have been posting lately.

Finally a real post

I have been kind of mum the last few days. Sunday evening my back started killing me, probably due to me standing forever while making a batch of peach jam. I tried to rest my back (as much as a mom with two young kids can any way) but yesterday I had to get on with preserving the peaches or they would start rotting. I decided to take the easy way out and freeze them for future use in peach crisp. I think we have enough fruit spread to last us for awhile any way especially since my mother in law is threatening me with apples when we come for Thanksgiving/Harry's second birthday (which are the same day).

I am finding a certain amount of satisfaction in my domestic endeavors. Some people claim that becoming a stay at home mother is mind numbing but I am finding joy in expanding my domestic abilities. I have been working on my cooking. When I first got married we had a pretty limited diet and despite my parent's attempts to teach me cooking I still was a pretty mediocre cook when I got married. Canning fruit is an off shoot of my newly found interest in cooking. It is very satisfying to look at the results of all that rather boring labor. Cleaning has a similar amount of drudgery to it but it never stays done, five seconds after you have finished picking up the living room some little child will be there right behind you undoing all that work. Fruit will stay done and you can enjoy it months later in the cold of winter.

Now I am not going to become some sort of crazy homemaker that can turn a dust bunny into a fun craft, but I do want to learn to improve my skills at the job I am currently working at. The hard part is that there is no real motivation other than personal satisfaction. I wish that I coudl get a raise or a promotion from all my hard work. A gal can dream can't she?

My new addiction

Hi my name is Awesome Mom and I am addicted to making jam. My addiction started when I had a ton of strawberries that were going bad quicker than I had expected. I had a box of pectin in my cupboard (I am not sure why) and I decided to make some jam. Then Evan's physical therapist gave me some apricots which were begging to be made into jam, it turned out heavenly. I wish I could hide the few precious jars and keep them all to myself.

One of the reasons I was so excited to make the visit to my inlaws was that they have a large orchard with tons of fruit trees. We barely missed cherry season when we were there for the reunion but now we have peaches, plums, raspberries and blackberries in season. I did not manage to find enough raspberries for jam but got a nice raspberry and peach jam recipe. I can't wait to taste it on some toast. I am hoping to bring home a bunch of peaches for some more jam. I think that I need a twelve step program before I go nuts and fill the garage with jam jars.

Stream of Consciousness

I have been having sleep issues for the last few nights which are probably related to feeling crummy due to my mild cold. We will be leaving on Saturday for my inlaw's house and I am having a hard time getting motivated enough to even think about getting ready to go. This vacation will be the start of a vacation from physical therapy for Evan. His therapist is taking six weeks off to go see her family in Switzerland. It will be nice to have more mornings free but also it will be frustrating to have to plan more things for the kids to do. Quiet mornings at home are anything but quiet. They are both so used to doing things in the morning that if I try and stay home I get crying and whining galore. It drives me nuts, but it also drives me to exercise more and longer as the kids are very good during long stroller rides. I have gone walking for two hours and Evan will ask for another walk as soon as we get back in the house. Maybe I will be able to remove a few ponds before my sister's wedding. A girl can dream.

I need a nap, but often when I fell this tired I will sleep too long during the day. That only adds to my sleeping issues as I am not tired in the evening when I need to go to bed. Evan is also giving up naps, so I can't even count on much quiet time. Often if I try and even just lay down to rest while Evan plays in the living room I end up getting smacked in the face with books and toys that he is trying to get me to look at. Harry has become a destroyer of books. He thinks that tearing out pages is fun. I now have a library book that needs a lot of tape. I also have library books that are long overdue. I will try and go tonight with out the kids so that I can find something fresh to read. It sucks being all out of books to read. Maybe if I had something to read I would sleep better at night.

I may already be a winner!

I was just checking my email and apparently I have won a large sum of money from the Irish lottery,£475,318(GBP) to be exact. A surprising thing is that they do not even ask for my bank account number so that they can wire me the money, all they wanted was my name, phone number, mailing address and marital status. They may have been just phishing for a date instead of the typical scam that is looking for money.

I also recently was sent an email telling me that my Paypal information needed to be updated. My first big warning that this was a scam was that it was not sent to the email account that is registered to my Paypal account. I have several different ones for different kinds of email. When I clicked on the link I checked out the URL. It was not a Paypal address but the actual web page was convincingly accurate which would fool an unwary person. I forwarded the email to the fraud department of Paypal.

Maybe next week I will get the change to help a Nigerian businessman get his large sums of money out of the country. A girl can always hope.

A crazy day

I have had a pretty mixed day today. I am sick but it is not flat out awful sick. Mostly I have a dry hacking cough caused by post nasal drip.

I had been dreading The Great Dress Shopping For L's Wedding. I hate shopping for dresses. I hate going into malls to shop. I am so super picky, plus the dress had to match her wedding color theme (fall colors), so I felt it would end up being a huge ordeal. My husband had the day off today so I figured I would suck it up and start the process. I didn't want to end up not having something nice for the wedding and have to shop for something at the last second. I felt my best chance at success would to be leave both kids and my husband at home.

Much to my amazement I found something! It is a skirt/shirt combo in a beautiful deep purple. It is made from a sheer fabric so it feels floaty. The only downside is that it is sleeveless, so I am going to find a brown cardigan to go over it. The sales lady that rang me up was very enamored of it, so I knew I had a winner. I will have to get final approval from my sister but even if it is not quite right for her wedding I may just keep it any way, I like it that much. I also found some nice shoes for the wedding. They are classic looking pumps. I decided to go form heels after 10 years of not wearing them. I wanted to be a bit taller in the pictures. I am going to have to practice walking in them as I have lost the knack. I almost twisted my ankle just trying them on.

My day took a bit of a nosedive when I came home. Both kids were super cranky all afternoon. Harry was especially bad even though he took a long nap. Both boys have the runs so we have been changing diapers like crazy. All the shopping gave me a nasty headache that has not been touched by medication but the pain is not too bad as long as I am not hearing my children shriek like monkeys while they are fighting. Hopefully now that both kids are in bed and sleeping I will be able to ditch the headache.

Nope

I am not getting sick. That touch of soreness in my throat is a figment of my imagination. My stuffy nose is not really there. Just because my kids and my husband are sick it does not mean that I will get sick too. No no no no no no I am not getting sick and that is my final word on this matter.

Mmmmmm

There is nothing more refreshing after a long walk while pushing 60+ pounds of children in a double stroller than some grasshopper cookies (the Keebler version of thin mints) right out of the freezer.

Monkey feet

I have been long teased about my feet. As you can see from the picture my second toe is longer than my big toe (the "normal" being the big toe being the longest toe). My mother and some of my sisters were born with "normal" feet so in their ignorance and jealousy they loved to tease me about my monkey feet. I love my feet and their usefulness. I can pick things up off the floor with my ultra flexible toes. I have even played Monopoly with my feet. I practice these things so that if I ever loose the use of my hands I will still be able to do many of the things that I can do now.

It tickles me to no end that both of the boys have feet like mine. It was no real surprise that they were born this way, as I married a fellow monkey footed person. What is really fun is that they both are making use of their extraordinary anatomy entirely on their own. I have not done anything to encourage them to use feet as hands and yet they are discovering the fun of it on their own. Evan is the best at the use of the foot, but Harry is picking it up by watching.

Super Powers

Last night while I was cooking dinner and keeping an eye on the boys while they played outside in the back yard my husband (who was in another room) asked me a question about something he was holding. I of course had no idea what he was holding and commented to that effect. My husband then teased me telling me that since I was Awesome Mom I should be able to see through walls. I reminded him that Superman was the one that could see through walls, I was Awesome Mom.

Awesome Mom has eyes in the back of her head to help her see when kids are fighting with each other and who is at fault. She is faster than a speeding toddler, but just barely. When the kids are in another room and suddenly it gets quiet her mommy senses tingle, telling her that something naughty is being done. Those same mommy senses also tell her when someone needs a nap (usually her) and when a diaper change is needed. She can leap baby gates with a single bound, except for the times when she is tired from a long day of caring for kids and does not lift her feet high enough. So you can see, I have different powers, but they are a lot more useful than knowing how to fly (How would you be able to carry both kids and all the junk you need?), or being able to see through walls so that you can tell what your husband is talking about.

Tags: super powers