Ode to BFF

So do you think your BFF is funny? Available whenever you need her? Smart? A problem-solver? Super beautiful?

You might be right but it would all pale in comparison with this young lady:

























Today is her 34th birthday. Normally I would not share a lady's age but she is just like that--what you see is what you get. She has a fantastic, happy marriage and a great husband who has been the envy of many since they met, three hilarious kiddos and a great home. Not to mention her great looks and the other coolness that is Tiffany.

In honor of her birthday I am going to share my favorite things about her in the form of top ten list:

Top Ten Things I LOVE About Landeelu Landerson

1. When you go to her house, it is perfectly acceptable to sit around and watch a full season of Project Runway all in one day. No pressure, no worries, and no guilt.
2. She is totally casual about everything but her home is impeccable. How does one pull that off? It's a mystery really.
3. She has no qualms about telling people straight up how it is.
4. She is extremely loyal and becomes illogical if someone is hurting someone she loves
5. She mocks and then mourns but is not a fool
6. She reserves judgment of people (this is a newer quality she has developed over time)
7. She hates California yet has never lived there and loves everyone she knows from this great state
8. She is on top of every trend including the latest technology
9. It is impossible to be sad around her. Except maybe if you want to play unlimited Nintendo, then you might get sad on occasion.
10. She is my surrogate sister, mother, cousin, and most of all the best friend I have ever had.

I feel very sorry for all of you who do not have the history we have or who doesn't really know all her deep dark secrets because they are really good ones. But don't worry, if she calls you friend she has got your back anyway.

Repost

So my hilarious friend Maren has her blog all locked up so you can't read it but she told a great story about how much she dislikes the kinder registration process and I wanted to just echo that here.

I am going to repost my comment (with modifications) from her site even though she was funnier because, well, if she has her site all locked down she probably doesn't want her post reprinted by a free-for-all blogger like myself.

The gist was that the hoops you have to jump through to register your child for kinder are annoying. To share one small example of this, every year (2 kids so far) I have to make an appointment to take my children into the dr. to get them to sign some paper saying they are kinder ready. Both times I made the appointment so late that the school was harassing me for weeks about it. So this time I totally was ahead of the game and made an appointment in February! Yay for me! So you know what the school told me? It has to be after March 1. Well too bad for them.

I think that if you already have a kid in school they should just give you one paper with a checkbox that says "same as everything on the other kids but with a new name." I happen to know that you don't have to actually have a social security number to enroll so why pretend?

When I went to enroll my #3 in kinder and they gave me the same huge packet with the rest of my kids I took my sweeeet time. I turned it in one piece at a time just to prove to them how annoying it is (or because I was disorganized). I still have to drop off her birth certificate which, again, shows that she was born somewhere. Can't they see that that by looking at her?

As for the emergency card,if all my kids have the same last name, they only need one card. If they call our emergency contact and say "Fleming No. 1 needs a ride home because the school is on fire" then the person on the other end of the line had better say "what about Fleming 2 and 3?" Problem solved. To make it tricky, I think the emergency card has different contacts for each of my kids so they will get three different rides home. That is what they get, I say.

Because I like the school people who organize all of this I make genuine attempts so I don't mess up their job which inevitably is monitored by the state or something.

Oh one more annoyance--if I don't get anything free out of it, I don't want to list my salary. They should have a box that says "I make above or below this amount per kid." I am not super private but I get tired of the "you might qualify" argument when we all know we don't. In fact next time I am going to write 1.5 billion under salary. Yeah.

The thing that makes me the MOST irritated by all of this stuff is that there are people with no social security number, who are not immunized, who do not read or write and their kids are still enrolled in school. Are they trying to say that if you don't have that paperwork turned in you can't attend public school? That has GOT to be a line. So little tommy jones (or fulano de tal) shows up to school and they say "sorry sweetie you can't come to your class because your mommy didn't feel out the pink card indicating your race." So why is it that they call me and ask me for info from the packet when I know that whether or not I send it in they will not turn away my child.

Kinder is optional anyway.

T-1

Steve is leaving the country tomorrow. His dad bought him for a couple of weeks at the price of an all-expenses paid trip to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. I am totally excited for him and hope he remembers to pick up the three items I requested (European Chocolate, some piece of jewelry, and a ceramic piece.) I am sure he will get the chocolate though the other two items might go by the wayside.

As for me, I suppose I am going to have to take some time off of work or something. I haven't even checked on this but maybe I have a friend in Bakersfield who is willing to host us for one night next week (Wed or Thur?) or a friend who lives up further north on the 99 to let us stop by on the way up, maybe after school on Thursday or Friday? I am going to see my Aunt up in Sonora and then go the beloved Mother Lode Round-Up Parade. If you are too lazy to follow that link, it is the second-largest parade in the state of California (Rose Bowl of course as numero uno) and I was in it every year of my life starting when I was 4 until I graduated high school. I know, I am famous.

There is also a rodeo that afternoon and I am thinking of taking the kids. Does that sound fun? Or crazy? Anyone have experience doing this?


I will Mother's Day up in Sonora and then head out Monday early AM to get back home. Steve gets back that next day, Tuesday, then I leave Wednesday (May 13) to go to Napa. We will then spiral out of control into summer and if you want to know where I am you are going to have to follow my tweets.

On Food Issues

I grew up in with a petite mamá. She averaged around 115 lbs at 5'4"

After I outweighed her in 9th grade she would regularly make comments like "if you want to be thinner, just lose weight!" Or better yet "I eat to live, you live to eat." I was not allowed to eat sugar under any circumstances and Trick-or-Treating was out of the question. Yes, I know, it seems abusive. We had Grape Nuts cereal or some other cereal that as a kid seemed horrible but as an adult I love. No dessert except on holidays when my mom would make some reasonably tasty apple pie and ice cream. She was constantly saying she was too fat and that made me, who was clearly bigger than her, feel super insecure.

She wasn't super mean she just made me feel like I was a little fatty. Once my oldest was born she called me and said I should be a model for plus size magazines.

Anyway so I have some kind of confidence issues with my body and I do have to work to keep my weight down. I am currently engaged in a reduction of calorie experience which is going well, thank you. You can imagine, however, that the last thing on earth I want to have happen to my daughters is that they too have food issues so I have vowed never to say things like "I am so fat" or "I need to lose some weight." I of course track my calories on Lose It! the best app ever invented, but I try to refer to it as healthy maintenance and not even mention weight.

Enter my children and their love affair with sugar and dessert. They unfortunately inherited this so I am trying early on to build in a sense of healthy and unhealthy but without the psychosis of body image. This morning Bridget was slicing up some bread that was on the counter and she got out the ingredients to make some honey butter. I was opposed to this for two reasons:
1) The total mess that she would inevitably create and
2) The sugar overload

We eat too many desserts as it is and to throw some honey butter on some perfectly healthy bread that already has honey in the recipe was just too much for me. Also I am cranky and tired from transition weekend (the two days immediately following a work trip in which I realize that I can no longer operate independently of others) so it turned into a showdown.

I told her she could choose between the honey butter and the pancakes/syrup that we were planning because it was just too much sugar. It ended with her running into her room shouting "I don't understand why it is so important to be healthy!"

My spouse wisely commented that the implementation of the policy was not ideal nor had we discussed this low sugar policy as a family so I stormed off and took a shower to get over my irritation and get ready for church.

While in the shower I realize that THIS is a food issue. This is precisely what I promised myself I would never do to my daughter. She is 7 years old and very healthy and active. Her clothes are all stained (which resulted of course in later showdown over clothing though I threw most of them away which has resulted in much fewer clothing issues thanks for the advice) from running around and playing hard at school and in the neighborhood. Honey butter isn't super healthy but was it really worth disrupting everyone's morning? I also realize that I am glad that I have a hands-on hubby who isn't going to just sit back and let me dig myself into the holes in which I have promised never to fall or push my kids

So I decide on two things:
a) I am going to decide what exactly is the policy on sugar items
b) I am never going to forbid my kids from eating something without making the policy clear prior (like you can not have dessert without eating your veggies, etc.)

I called Bridget in the room to discuss it and told her that if that comes up again she should say to me "let's not make food an issue, k?" to remind me of my own agreement. She laughed and said "it's okay mama."

So what do other people do out there to keep their kids healthy without overly focusing on the body thing?

Whatta Man

I skyped with my beautiful family tonight and the first thing out of Bridget's mouth was "guess what we read tonight?"

Kids:
-Showered
-Fed

Steve:
-Read the scriptures AND Watership Down
-Led scout meeting

We don't always get all those things done when we are together as a family.

My beloved husband, with four kids

I miss them soooo much.

Help Wanted

My mommy left me this morning to go to Indianapolis and my dada is all
alone wif me and my bruver and sistaws. Please stop by my house and
give me some mommy love if you are in the fisinitty.

Board Out of My Mind

I am the president of something. I love to see change but it is s-l-o-w. I have to tell you what my pet peeve is, and please don't get offended:

People who talk off topic in a meeting.

Idea: If we have a topic, lets talk about it. If it isn't on the agenda, let's not, k?

I know, I know, I am weird.

So far my strategies have been to say things like "process check: in the interest of time, how much time do we want to spend on this topic?" That works well because people usually say "oh I am done, lets move on."

But how many times can I interrupt a person? Any advice here?

Randomness

I haven't had a lot of big news or post-worthy items but here is a list of recent happenings:

1) The meds for the acid reflux (prevacid) gives me headaches. It could be that I just have a lot of headaches lately but the variable seems to be the medicina. I have had recommends to call the ENT and demand a new drug, one that won't make me crash my car, or come in a pill. That would require a) Time to make the phone call b) Time to go to the pharmacy and c) Another 12 bucks. So I think I will deal with it a few more weeks. I think it makes me tired too, but wait, that might just be my life.

2) Podcast with Tiff Friday. Yay!! It was way fun and I really do wish that Tiff and I recorded every time we get together and talk because seriously, it is some funny stuff. Even if we are the only ones (and Markie!) who think so.

3) My husband knows a ton of stuff about Church History. Today in Sunday School someone said something incorrect about J. Smith but he just sat there. He never says anything because he says there is no purpose in correcting people and he has committed to only saying something if it is edifying. Sheesh the nerve. If you were to watch us in Sunday school, every time someone says something I poke him on the arm and he just shakes his head yes or no. If people were smart they would watch to find out the real deal. He is smaart people, super smart. In fact, if I could brag about one thing in my life aside from my very beautiful children, I would tell you that I married the smartest person ever. Do you know why he is so smart? Because when he doesn't know something he says "I dunno." And when he does, he is always right. Really, its true.

4) Dinner guests. Love, love, love the Magnussons. If you don't know them, you should befriend them.

5) Katie stopped by and wondered what was for dessert. She said she estimated the time we would be eating and then came by to see. We were having strawberry shakes, fresh strawberries blended with vanilla ice cream. Do you know what she said? "Oh well we already have ice cream." Sorry to disappoint Katie, but we were out of butter. For reals.

6) Angela gave me some great advice when I called and asked her about my parenting woes. She suggested that "Backtalk" is defined as "anything that makes you feel deflated" or bad about yourself. I loved the definition and when I presented it to Bridget she said that she could identify when something she said made someone feel bad about themselves. We agreed that she would go in her room, no warning, anytime she said anything like that. So guess what? I was the first violator because when Gillian cried that she didn't like the dinner I said "good for you." Turns out I am a bad model. But I went in my room for time out to set the example anyway even though Gillian kept yelling "come back mommy!" Today on the way home she did the mean person thing "why don't you get out of the car if you don't like the sound of us fighting" so Steve and I both said "oh, in your room when we get home." We got home, she went straight to her room for five minutes, and then she was all cured. So success day one. We are going to keep trying and hope we can put a dent in her 'tude.

7) Decided to leave Meg here and I leave on Wed. morning. Please have lots of positive thoughts/prayers for her and Steve (and me) so we can get through it. I am sad about it and she is really attached to me these days. I am sure she will be fine, right? Right?

Headache coming back... Any advice in any of these areas is as usual, welcome.

For sale by owner

We went to an art show tonight, the kids' stuff. This lady loved Casey's piece and approached him with an offer to buy. She asked what he thought it was worth and he didn't know so she offered $5. He said yes because he told me in his mind he had been thinking $3. The art teacher told me that he said he thought it was worth more than that (I think she planted that in his mind) and he decided not to sell after all. I thought it was kind of a cool idea, though. He has demanded $10.

Here is the low baller below. I wonder if she just liked the "bull by the horns" bit which evidently took Casey a long time to decide upon as his quote. This is made out of tin and he has "horns" etched into the side. It is a cool piece and maybe we will keep it after all. Bridget's piece is coming later but I am too tired for now.

First Piece?

The Few or the Many?

We are having a friendly dispute around this place about summer plans.

Do you think we should see more people for shorter periods of time or fewer people for longer periods of time?

Don't worry about disagreeing with whichever option you think I am choosing because I will ignore you as I am ignoring my husband.

He reads this blog so my only hope is that if you are voting with him, that you will not say something so compelling in his favor that he makes me change my mind by saying "see, even _________ agrees with me."

Whoops pt 2.

We had this magnificent plan to go to Costco and get our tires changed. Over $400! We didn't do it yet though because it takes 1.5 hours which we don't really have right now.

Anyway I walked down there with Meg and Steve and Gillian joined us later. Since I walked and we didn't think about it, we left the car seat at home and here I was faced with Gillian and Meghan, a short timeline, and no carseat.

It was then that I realized I should indeed make a sacrifice and put on brand new tires for my very trustworthy car that provides built-in carseats for such occasions. It isn't for her quite yet but it seems to work well enough to get her home.





























I know you want to see that face close up:



























I was kind of freaked out but then realized people used to do weirdo stuff all the time. Like my friend who told me she used to nurse her baby while driving sometimes. Wha? I would totally do that if it weren't illegal.

I thank my lucky stars it is illegal.

Learning to Cook

Bridget has taken to cooking lately. I love to watch her mind because it is so sharp and quick.

Her outlook on life is mirrored in her food preparation and I am beginning to wonder how she came into this world with such power and confidence. My biggest fear is that she will lose that confidence and doubt herself.

I only want her to be mousy with me so I can keep this place in some kind of semblance of order. As I have said before, I want my children to question authority, just not mine.

The following are real-life examples of what she does when she cooks:

--No partial measurements. If it calls for 1 3/4 cups, she either does one cup, or two. I asked her about this and she simply responds by saying "I don't want to measure a portion of a cup."

--If she doesn't have an ingredient she doesn't blink an eye, she just throws in a substitute or leaves it out. Tonight she made some sort of shepherd's pie. No meat? No problem. Let's use refried beans instead. Have you ever had refried beans with carrots and cheese? Surprisingly, not bad.

--She reads the instructions and decides whether or not they are legit. Tonight she was supposed to boil potatoes and then mash them. She cooked them in the oven instead so they were way underdone and then she tried to use a meat mallet to mash them. I actually intervened on that one but still, she was adamant that she could mash the potatoes that way.

--In spite of changing up recipes, she is actually making a conscious choice to skip those parts--others she HAS to have the right way. She asked three people in the neighborhood for avocadoes before I told her she was running out of time on the dinner preparation and decided to substitute tomatoes instead. I tried to tell her that you can borrow things like a cup of sugar or pasta, but you do not borrow three avocados which she immediately dismissed as being ridiculous logic. I have no idea who all she asked so hopefully people don't think I actually sent her to borrow something like that.

--Time is meaningless. If the recipe calls for 45 minutes of cooking time, she just cooks it for 20 because that is when she wants to eat. She made some frozen yogurt and then instead of freezing it for 2 hour minimum, she pulled it out in one hour and it was kind of liquidy still. I asked her if it was runny and she said "yep" as if she planned it to be runny like that.

All of her dishes come out fine so she has no incentive to change this behavior. Once she doubled an entire recipe for pancakes except for the flour so the batter was very thin. I asked her why she did such a thing and she told me she didn't feel like measuring out more flour. Sadly, the pancakes turned out perfectly. Also the beans and carrots (not cooked) were surprisingly good (also helped that dinner was 90 minutes late) so she doesn't see any problems with her substitution magic tricks.

I definitely am proud of her kitchen antics but I see some patterns that are troubling. I will have to limit her endeavors to vegetarian efforts as I am not interested in a bout with e.coli or other raw meaty kind of stuff. I wish she would work WITH me and not insist on working alone but perhaps we can find some kind of middle ground if we plan it out in advance.

If you are ever in the neighborhood, stop by and we can see if she can make you one of her signature dishes. I promise I make her wash her hands.

Easter Happenings

Pictures in no particular order.

1. In case you wanted to know what it looks like where I live:






















2. Kids on Egg Hunt #2. At some point Casey came in crying, claiming he "hates little kid hunts" because he never gets as many eggs as the little kids (I always tell them to leave the obvious ones for the little kids). He said he considers four year-olds to be "the oldest kids ever." This was reminiscent of our Christmas meltdown so trying to diffuse it I said "Hey, don't stress, why don't you tell me what do you think the rules should be?" and he said "everyone should get as many eggs as they want." So I said "okay we will do that next year." It was weird, it totally calmed him down. He has a really strong sense of justice and I think he can't handle perceived inequity. They also got these little bunnies that go "boooyoyoyoing" when you throw them down in a package from their grandma they opened yesterday and when Bridget traded bunnies with Baby Megs he was really unhappy. I said "hey buddy, she is just a baby" he ran out of the room crying "You are the meanest mommy ever." I talked to him later and he was upset that no one was standing up for the baby. He was fine about it eventually but man does he dislike injustice. Is that an oldest child thing?





















3. Got a haircut too. Here it is, pictures by Gillian.






















































4. Dying eggs (round two) with some friends. They buy brown eggs and I had never died brown eggs before--the ones in the back and on the right are the brown ones (I contributed white). The brown ones resulted in nice earthy tones, don't you think?





























5. We went to the Train Museum again for Easter and the kids had fun. Casey only went because one of our friends came that he likes to hang out with so you can tell he looks a little bored but it was a fun time overall. Gillian is blocked by Katie who I guessed they moved to the back of the train because her legs were so distracting to the conductor.





















6. My local BFF family. I blog about them frequently though not by name because they are paranoid of having their names on the internet, but I am super good friends with these guys. They used to be my upstairs neighbors and though I miss having them as neighbors, I try to get over there at least twice a week to hang out. We watch Idol together and talk about how much we love our Apple products. They were mocking me Saturday afternoon because they claimed that in every picture they took I had out my iphone. Of course I was trying to take pictures!






















7. General pics of good times at the Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday. I won't repost it but my favorite pic of the day was the one I posted on Saturday with Katie's girls. A fun time was had by all except Katie, who was confused on the time. She came out and the hunt was already in full force (each parent was supposed to hide 10 eggs per kid and then all kids would be allowed to find 10 eggs) so she just threw her eggs around and said "here kids, go get these." I wish I had pics of her throwing handfuls of eggs--a few cracked against the wall, candy flying everywhere. It was like a living piñata. See how much we bond as a community?

Strength of Youth?

My eldest daughter is in one of those phases right now, testing every limit possible.

I can't really describe what is going on because if I understood it I might actually have a solution myself.

I will try to say what specifically bothers me, the tactics I have tried, and then you can give me some more advice, thanks.

Annoyance: Likes to wear clothing that is either really ugly or really stained or ruined.
This bothers me because: it looks bad. I have no other reason to care other than to say that it embarrasses me. That seems superficial, though, and if it doesn't bother her, am I pushing her to care more about her appearance than she ought to?
What I have tried: Sitting down with her and talking about the criteria for what is acceptable clothing. We decided that it could have no more than four stains (yes the standard is low which ought to indicate how bad it was), no holes, and had to cover her shoulders and tummy for modesty). We have left her at home when not clothed properly before.
Why that doesn't work: She magically forgets that we made the list. When I call her on it she says "but that was like when we are going someplace special like church!" I say "but we are going to church (pancake breakfast)" and she responds with "but no one cares what you wear to that." Sooo... I tell her she can't go unless she changes and suddenly she HATES ALLLLL her clothes. She now knows that we will leave her if she is not getting dressed but all that does is keep her from attending certain events, like school for example and then I have to explain to her teachers that she didn't come to school because she refused to change her clothes.

Annoyance: Loves to cook, sew, and do anything artsy and then before finishing a project move on to something else, NOT cleaning up after herself.
This bothers me because: she leaves stuff all over the house, loses items of value, and then by the time you catch up with her she has so many messes it takes forever to clean up and then a fight ensues about how she will do it tomorrow. Also I am missing about $80 worth of scissors in my house and that is not an exaggeration. What I have tried: making her clean up a mess one at a time. I have also tried a trust point system in which if she says she is going to clean up and then doesn't do it, she loses points and then can't be trusted the next day to clean up after herself.
Why it doesn't work: She suddenly has to go to the bathroom, finish one thing really quickly, tell someone something first, or finish a project. When I say no then a fight ensues and we end up fighting over literally nothing. The trust point system would work if I could catch her enough times or be more consistent in general.

Annoyance: Doesn't come when I call her
This bothers me because: Waste of time to try to convince her to come inside
What I have tried: Threatening her that she will go to her to her room and go to bed if she doesn't come in (no other threat works)
Why it doesn't work: She will just go in her room and then come out later all apologetic and she doesn't want to go to bed now.

I will take any advice, critique or criticism. Keep in mind two things: 1. We don't spank (but she is the child who drove us to discover why people do) and 2. All four kiddos are in one bedroom. I would like to see some nanny show come help us out with that.

Easter Egg Hunt

The Local Scene

The community garden is blooming with beautiful flores. I couldn't possibly capture all of them so I decided to just capture one up close and hope it conveys what I was feeling. Gillian had to touch every flower in the garden so it took us about 30 minutes to get through it. I put in my loseit app that I had walked for 30 minutes and got some extra calories for that but really it was only like 1 minute of walking during 30 minutes. Is that cheating? I didn't eat the extras btw.




























A new friend of mine lives up the canyon south of here at this private boarding school (her husband teaches there and they have a sweeeet gig with a nice home overlooking the canyon and ocean.) The campus was very pretty and here is a sign at the entryway. We had a great time playing except for some reason Gillian likes to ask people for food at their houses which embarrasses me. She will suddenly say "I am hungry" the second we walk into someones house. I guess we don't have cool enough snacks. I had a conversation with her about it when we got home but she started crying and said "but what if I am hungry?" so I had to layoff. If we come over and she asks for food, just know it is out of my hands.





















The local library getting a copy of the Q&K of Attolia. My kids think the library is for movies. Sorry that I have not done more to mitigate that but really, we don't lose the movies like we do the books so I kinda prefer it. They read (in order to gain time to play on the computer, lame) but they read books that they get from other places, who knows where. I will say "where did we get this book" and Steve will say "I don't know, there are like 15 books that just showed up one day." If you are missing juvenile lit, please see me.

Anyway the bougainvillea is gorge here right now and I had this adorable little girl hanging around so I snapped her too.




























I have to admit, living in a two-bedroom, 4-kid-per-room scenario is noooo bueno sometimes but the environment is just stunning. I know we will never find a place as physically beautiful as where we live, and I appreciate that the good weather makes our time here so enjoyable. I guess the prices here will make us later palate a new environment even if it might not offer us daily views of the ocean and year-round floral eye candy.

FAQ

What is YOUR favorite pokemón?

Get the Smelling Salts

This is a boring story but since it consumed my day I am telling it anyway. Cuz its my blog.

So I have been having problems singing for the last 8 months or so--not that I am some kind of star anyway but I noticed that I have a super limited range and it hurts to sing. Some people might not notice something like that but I am a sing-in-the-shower type so it was totally life-altering to have singing be out of whack. It had happened off and on for the last few years so I figured it was seasonal, like allergies or something.

I noticed it was really bad the last several weeks, even in my talking voice (I think no one noticed but me) so I started to think it could be something more. Then I remembered that was a symptom my dad had prior to his cancer diagnosis so I was like hmmmm an opportunity for some paranoia.

Anyway I ended up going to the ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) Has anyone ever gone to one of these guys? They have this little dentist looking chair and I was lulled into the trap of thinking all the shiny tools were interesting. I even commented when the doctor came in "you guys have all kinds of fancy stuff in here." I think I challenged her because she was like "oh yeah you haven't even SEEN the fancy stuff yet." Dun dun dun duuuummmmm.

She said she wanted to take a look at my vocal chords and I asked her how she planned to do that.

"Oh I am just going to put this microscope up your nose and look down at your vocal chords. "

Enter image, 11th grade, field trip to San Francisco and on the bus Levi Campbell, one of my classmates, is flossing his nose by sticking dental floss up his nose and hacking out phlegm until the floss appears in his mouth, then grabs the end sticking up his nose and the end coming out his mouth, pulling back and forth to demo this technique. On a school bus there is no place to wash your hands which made this doubly disgusting. I told her about this and she said "oh yeah flossing your nose" as if it were normal.

I have to blame Levi Campbell for the nausea that set in I suppose but here is the thing, they spray this anesthesia up your nose and then you can't feel inside your nose. This is extremely uncomfortable not to mention the fact that the contents of your nose start running down your throat and down your nasal passage as well.

Doc left the room for a few minutes and I sent a couple of text messages and lost at qwordy for the 50th time to jespy (you are welcome sorry I am still in the february challenges). Thank goodness for the phone.


She came back with this machine and I said it looked medieval. "Does it hurt?" I naively asked and she responded by saying "It is uncomfortable but not painful. I have only had maybe two people say it was totally horrible."I should have taken into account the fact that she just finished her residency last year in Ohio.

She made me stare into her eyes as she shoved (sorry, gently guided) this tube up my nose and down into the vocal chord region. It became blurry and then I think I remember saying I don't feel good or something to that effect. She quickly pulled the thingy out and then she was like are you okay?

Then I fainted in the chair. I was trying really hard to be a good patient, I swear, and I was super embarrassed that I couldn't even make it through the appointment.They brought me some smelling salts and I was like ?? smelling salts?? What century is this? But those things work tho. I was trying to apologize but they just kept telling me to relax.

The bad part is that I had a video conference scheduled for 11:15 (passed out right before 11) so I started freaking out when I came to that I was going to miss my appointment.

They brought me some kiwi-strawberry juice and she told me that I have acid reflex (EDIT reflux) and to take some Prilosec. I asked if it was okay for nursing women and she was like "we do use it for women who are breastfeeding but there are no studies on it." She told me to take a pill a day and then come back in 4-6 weeks so she can check to make sure that it is better. I think I would rather give birth again and that is no lie. If my voice has returned to its former range than I will just figure everything is okay.

Yeah so... I rushed home and made it just barely to my video conf but I had a wicked headache all day and still have it this morning.

I was so out of during the conference so I kept saying things like "oh right, great question--lets talk about that when we have more time." I would have canceled it but Jack Black's voice was in my head along with the pounding singing "but you're not hard core... unless you live hard core."

So I finished up the conference, ran to a play date I had already set up for my Gills (who was at playgroup again thanks to Katie, shoutout for yet again taking care of my little Gillian) and then to school to pick up the kids.

The only good thing about the day is that I was able to lie in bed for a bit and read the sequel. Now I just have the King left.

PS The meds have a yellow warning label saying that it is not for breastfeeding women. Do I believe the FDA or my doc?

Multitasking

I used to be so efficient I could do multiple things at once. Now I do so many things at once I have become not only inefficient but have also developed ADD.

Here are the signs:

• Five minutes into a conversation if I haven't heard the phone ring, the instant messaging window popup, or a kid ask a question, I can't come up with anything new to say
• I can't talk for more than 2 minutes in a row (see last point)
• I can't recall important details, like names and my own phone number
• When people ask me questions, I have to pause for a second and process before I answer (something that used to highly annoy me about my husband so I beg his forgiveness for my previous impatience)
• I twitter in my dreams (seriously, I am subconsciously updating my status in my brain and that freaks me out)
• When I don't have my phone or computer out my hand starts twitching
• I get irritated when I use a computer that doesn't have exposé or their corners set up. Who has time for alt+tabbing?
• When my kids ask me for a glass of milk I feel like they asked me for a major effort.
  

I think I need a break from making decisions. I think that would ultimately help me to refocus. Church doesn't even help these days since I am there with a crying baby who has to be taken to the hallway.

Does anyone have any tips on how to keep your sanity?

Free Trainrides and Ducks

So Thursday we went to the train depot/museum. This is about 1 mile from my house and I had never been in the three years we lived here. Shameful, really.

Anyway you saw the picture of Casey hanging out nearby the museum in an old ranchhouse that is on the property, quite pretty. Unfortunately, on Thursday, the train rides were not operating so I promised the kids we would return the next day. Normally I would not be keen on this but since Katie came with her cute kiddos it was infinitely more fun.

Pics of Case and Gillian on the steps. This is when I realized I am no photographer. But the place was pretty and the kids were cute.



















Kids on the train.





















Prior to the trainride, we went to feed the ducks with the old bread in Katie's freezer (she called and told me I didn't have to sacrifice my whole wheat stuff since she had a bunch). This duck made a guest appearance and we were really into his blue bill.




















I love this picture!




















Also this little girl has been kinda whiney lately and I appreciated the chance to spend some time with her cuteness. She was still whiney but I just love her little face.

Conference Weekend

1. It was absolutely beautiful here. A Eucalyptus tree fell in the front yard yesterday and the kids had a ball playing in the jungle. Don't you wish a tree would fall in your yard?















































2. Katie and family hosted a little get together between conference sessions and I made these little dealios:



























See all the shiny happy people?



























3. I am obsessed with Gordon Ramsay. I ran across one of his youtube videos and I was totally amazed by how quickly he does everything and how easy he makes it look. I made the profiteroles in the picture above in, no joke, about 40 minutes total. I think it might have taken longer to get it all assembled as you see it but it was so fun. Here is the vid

In Honor of Tax Season and Jammie Church

We got a hefty tax return as usual (sorry to everyone who doesn't have the massive number of deductions that we take a hit on daily) so we have some very exciting uses for it.

Not really.

But since this weekend is Jammie Church. We have two sessions today and two sessions tomorrow in which the President of our church, the 12 Apostles, and some General Authorities speak to us about topics that affect us spiritually and physically. Give it a listen if you have never heard it, good stuff.

Typically someone will talk about emergency preparedness so we have decided to send a portion of our sum on long-term food storage. Also we will probably get a talk on avoiding debt so we will pay off a portion of our debt as well.

Sounds fun, eh?

So here is the breakdown:

--1 Wheat Grinder
--1200 lbs of Wheat (we probably won't get it all at once)
--Big bucket of honey
--Salt
--Some canned stuff
--Property Taxes for the year
--Rice cooker
--Whatever leftover goes towards bills. Awesome.

Aren't you jealous? I just bid on ebay for a lot of 8 roxy tshirts so if I win you can add that to the list.

No Time for Friends

So lately I have discovered that I have to use my ical to schedule in my friendships. Doesn't that seem fake?

Would you want to be friends with someone who is like "hmmm let me check my schedule" ???

I think I can't have real friends, just digital friends. I am going to start asking people if they have a blog, twitter, or FB before I decide if it is worth investing in the friendship because it just ends in heartache.

Oh or skype. Word up landee.

Favorite Foto Friday

This post is dedicated to my eldest child whose sweet and contemplative nature has been captured by my aunt yesterday.

Dilemma

I will be in Indy on the 22-25 of April. Two days for travel are included so technically I leave on the 22 and get home on the 25 . I can't possibly fathom leaving my little Meg here and I have a lead for a sitter (holla K. Cook!) but I also can't imagine taking her with me. I have a very busy schedule on those days and I need the time to really focus on helping one my new schools get started. I only have two days and usually I go to dinner with them, etc.

Also I will be working from 7ish to 5ish not including evening dinner with the peeps (assuming they want to bond with me and all that) so the babysitting days would be long.

This summer during June and July I have to leave her for a week at a time so it is coming down the line at some point, I just don't want to do it now.

Steve is capable in spite of having left Meg at home during church and I am going to get an ankle monitor for her (kidding people) but don't you think it will be hard for him to be here by hisself? And what about Meg? Will she be so saddy?

The only consolation I have is that he is leaving fewer than four days later for two weeks and I will have all the kids by myself for all that time and the two days in Indy could be some solitude (sort of) so I could come home and take some vacation time and really just focus on the kiddies.

I won't think about the two weeks for right now, I am just focusing on the end of this month. What should I do? Will I regret it more if I take her or if I don't?

The After?

I don't know why my "after" pictures look like "before" pics here but I think you can kind of see the difference.

Here are the befores again:























































Welcome to our new garden:








































And for Katie: