Baby Fun

I have been lucky enough to have my sister and her husband bring my new barely 4 week old niece to visit for the weekend. We have had so much fun. Well, I've had lots of fun. Katelyn & Chris did some napping, which I didn't mind a bit! That meant baby Taylor was ALL MINE! Don't jump to any conclusions, I'm pretty sure we're not going down that road again. It is very nice to cuddle a tiny baby when I'm not the one nursing it, or quieting the screams or getting up at night. *shiver* Not envious at all. But here's some wonderful pictures we were able to capture on Saturday.

Mairyn enjoying some one on one time.

Grant & Taylor; doesn't his face look a lot better?

Sage waiting patiently for Jacqui to drop a morsel of cheese stick.

Eliza & Taylor

And here's my gorgeous sis. I took her to the old grain elevators for the amazing backdrop and she provided all the beauty. And photogenic goddess-ness. How's that for having a baby just 4 weeks ago?

What the . . . ?

I came out on my porch yesterday afternoon to this sight.

Our pseudo-see saw in the front yard. (wonderful thing. i bought it in Egypt for 25 LE or about $5. two kids can sit on each end and rock or one kid can sit in the middle and still have the same effect.) It's still wrapped up because I just extracted it from our garage and frankly, it's been a bit cold to play on outside and what with the ominous winter coming, I thought it would be better protected in yards and yards of plastic sheeting. But the fact that it was in the front yard as opposed to the back yard (where I had placed it) was the disconcerting matter. It wasn't hard to figure out who was the culprit. The wind. Rexburg is a windy place. If the temperature doesn't get you, the windchill does. Frequently, the weather on wunderground.com will say 43F but feels like 28F. Brrrr. I've lived in Alaska where the temperature can live at -50F. Negative fifty! But without any windchill. People hear it's my first winter in Rexburg and just grin, "Wait till winter comes!" they say smugly. What they don't know is that I've been married to an Idahoan for almost 11 years and I've experienced Rexburg winter. That and I lived in a northern climate from the age of 5 until 13. (North Dakota, Northern Minnesota, and Alaska) I'm still coasting on the thrill of having actual seasons right now; I relish the chill!




So . . . . . I wanted to post the video I took. I don't know why my video isn't working. Hmmmmm. That's a pain.

Progress

How is it possibly Friday? This week has felt so short, but yet felt like an eternity at the same time. Grant has been improving day by day. He has been on a soft & liquid diet and since Wednesday, allowed soft & cut up food. It's like I have a baby again! Applesauce, yogurt, jell-o, cut up cheese, turkey, & bread. We're taking the wait and see approach with his two front teeth. The dentist wants to try and keep them around for as long as possible. So we're trying to enable that. Though he did say that from the x-rays, he could tell Grant has bumped these teeth many, many times. True dat.

The other progress I made this week: my sideways bookshelf. I was measuring some storage boxes and realized I could put in 3 shelves on the end sections! That extended the project a bit. But now they are all in. I'm spray painting it a textured multi-color black. Meaning the color is black with teeny tiny flecks of white and gray mixed in. As you can see from the sheet, I've started with the back; hiding any early screw-ups. It's not coming out exactly the way I want it to. I may have another run to the spray-paint store to try and remedy this. Don't worry, I'm motivated! There is a slight chance of precipitation Friday night. Though in Rexburg, that means, "Not a chance!" But that doesn't mean there won't be ice! I hate scraping!

Pay it Forward

I've never seen the movie; but I know the concept. Well, friends, we were on the receiving end of a random act of kindness last night. Let's start at the very beginning. (a very good place to start)

Wednesday is a "busy day". Not that other days aren't busy, this is one of the busier ones. Shuttling to and from school, gymnastics for Grant and then in the evening Eliza has a Rock Climbing class. Not too bad seeing as how Jacqui's gymnastics class used to be at 1pm and has now been moved to Friday. But things were compounded a bit today by the mountains of unfolded laundry and hideous dirty dishes in the kitchen. It's called "House Hang-over" or "Weekend House". What with Grant's accident and Spencer leaving, I just haven't caught up yet.

So after I picked up Grant, I decided it was an eating out night. I drove to Winger's because their kid's menu is fabulous. Cut up food, fruit snacks and drink included with the entree. Oh, and popcorn before the meal! I herded the kids to our booth and they settled in, sorting through the crayon bucket and playing tic-tac-toe. There was a man & a woman across the aisle from us. I could tell that it was a son taking his elderly mother out to dinner. I sighed inwardly and hoped that the kids would behave and not ruin their nice evening.

Somewhere in the aftermath of ordering and then receiving our food, I noticed the man & elderly woman finish and then he helping her with a jacket. The waiter wheeled her walker over to their table and the son held it steady while she found her grips. And they left. We enjoyed our meal; Eliza especially, because I let her order off the adult menu and get an adult sized drink. Her eyes were too big for her stomach because she was left with half of her meal unfinished. And I had a huge portion of my BBQ Chicken salad as well because their portions are enormous. Our waiter brought us one big box and then said,

"Well, enjoy the rest of your meal and the bill has been taken care of."

"Oh ok. Um, excuse me, huh? I, uh, how, er who?" I kind of trailed off after the spout of stuttering.

"The couple that was over here paid for your meal." the waiter said.

"Oh my, well, thank you, uh, to them, and uh, thanks again!" I managed to blurt out.

I have never had that happen before! I felt kind of guilty, I think it would have been a $40-something meal. I just about wept right there in Winger's. There really are kind people out there! Thank you whoever you were!

A new project

While Spencer was home, we teamed up and conquered the garage. Lugging in box after box of junk (why do we have so much?), slowly clearing out the wreckage. We accomplished that and the first night we parked the car in the garage, it snowed! And hence, there wasn't any snow or ice for me to scrape in the morning! But then I started moving things into their permenant place inside the house and discovered a new project for me.

I have this huge, tall bookcase; one of those put it together yourself deals from WalMart. We've had it for a loooong time and since we've had mobile children, I haven't liked it. The only reason we have kept it around is because of the insane number of books we own. I would usually put it away in the corner of a room where children did not frequent. The strap that anchors it to the wall broke long ago and I haven't fixed it. I put it in my office due to said book overload and it's just too overbearing in my short-ceilinged house. Darn you, Egypt, getting me used to 12 foot ceilings. I was originally going to flip it on it's side, anchor the moveable shelves at even intervals and then divide each now vertical shelf in half and use it as a shoe bench in the garage for the kids. The only problem? It's too tall even when it's laying down. So, I'm going to do the same thing, except use it for my own uses (crap catcher) and pretty it up with some paint. My motivation? Get it done so I can park my car in there again!

YouTube Tuesday

I wavered a bit about picking this video for YouTube Tuesday. I don't want to scare anyone off with Showtunes. But back in January or so, we were doing some music appreciation at home. Yeah, I sound all "home-school-y mama". The real reason was that it was an I'm-sick-of-Egypt week and my Amr Diab & Umm Kulthum saturation was beyond healthy. We were picking music out for Family Dance party and I realized that the kids hadn't been exposed to any Broadway music lately. So I found some music and then we watched some on YouTube. We had to get into the whole explaining what Broadway is and why they sing that way. I found this clip from "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" and it has resided in my Favorites list ever since.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween. Personally, I'm not an active Halloween-y participant. I can count on one hand the times I've actually taken kids Trick or Treating. I'm not against it, I'm just not a huge candy person. And tramping around in the cold with sugar-hyped kids does nothing for the experience, either. But since Spencer was around, we did a lot of "festive" things. We made sugar cookies with Grandma, put together worthwhile costumes and Spencer took the kids Trick or Treating. I still got out of it! I did all the work getting costumes in order.

This was the best picture I could get. And I like the guy in front, too! From left to right, we have: a blood-thirsty doctor, a pumpkin, Dash Incredible and a vampire. Spencer wouldn't take the kids trick or treating if he had to dress up. I thought it was a fair compromise. Mairyn's costume, though, is my favorite. Two nights before Halloween, she lost her other front tooth, making perfect fangs. Someone even thought they were fake. She just loved the make-up and snarling.

Halloween also included the traditional homemade chicken noodle soup and making homemade root beer with dry ice. Dry ice is so fun. I think it's kind of like safe fire. The bubbling, volatile chunk of white ice, creating the never-ending "smoke". Fun times. I did have to send Spencer back to Iraq today, though. Not to end on a sour note, but that's today's update.