Happy Promotion to me!

Justin has a tradition of giving me a gift when he gets promoted.  Last time I got to choose a pretty necklace from Tiffanys.  This time he let me pick out a new laptop!  I'm so excited!  This is the first time I have had my own computer.  It is sleek, fast, and new.  So I'm hoping to blog more, now that I don't have to fight for computer time or wait hours for our old dinosaurs to upload a photo.  As soon as I get my camera software on here, beware!  I have over 1000 pictures on my memory card!

Dang!

I had such great plans to do more before and after photos of my house--but now we are moving and I am overwhelmed with the lists of things to do.  Oh well.  Next time?

Justin accepted a position with Enterprise in southern California, so we are returning to one of the places we started.  I'm sooo sad to leave the good Texas people, and I'm trying to console myself with thoughts of cool ocean breezes.  Time to start over on getting settled!

Toddler Woes

Nate is such a toddler.

     Opinionated, stubborn, moody, mischievious, active, and clever.  I have more trouble with him because he is more certain of what he wants.  He has become a very picky eater--he will hardly eat any meat.  He loves cereal and any crackers, fruits, and snack foods.  He won't eat veggies.  What does a mother do about that?

     He loves to swim.  He has started telling me, with his best pout, "Mom!  House is boring!  I want to go to the pool!"

     Today I took away a cd he found in the car and he threw a little fit, crying and carrying on.  I sat down and snuggled him for a minute and he cried into my shoulder.  I asked, "Aw, what's wrong?" and he said, "I'm mad at mom!"  Then he seemed to realize who was snuggling him because he wiggled away and told me, "Mom! You're a bad boy!"

     He learned last week to climb out of his bed, and I had a fleeting glimpse of the rest of my life when I won't be swarmed with kids every minute.  I'm not ready to put him in a big boy bed, but he is almost three!

     He gets into the pantry every day and helps himself to whatever he needs, then usually brings his snack to the couch and makes a mess there.

     He and Justin have slow motion boxing matches at church, and Justin laughs when Nate hits too hard.  I don't think it's so funny!  But you have to see Nate fall over into my lap in slowmo, it makes us all irreverent!  I'll have to record him saying his name when we ask, "Nathan James Wisonbee." 

Before and Afters

Ash the gut buster

Ash (fooling with my coupon file) "Mom, why do you keep your coupons in here?"

Me "So I can find the ones I need when I'm shopping to save money."

Ash "So you can save money?"

Me (folding laundry and half paying attention) "mmm hmm"

Ash "Save money, live better, Walmart!"

Ash "Mommy is this macaroni the cheesiest ever?"

Me "Uh, yeah."

Ash "Good! Cuz I like it cheezy!"

Me "Why are all these toys in the closet?"

Ash "Emma's kids are sleeping in the storage room for the weekend and I'm watching them."

Ash "Mom, did you go shopping without me again?"

Me "No."

Ash "Good. If you go shopping, be sure to bring me!"

Ash "Lightning stuck!"

Proud Parenting Moments

Anyone with kids knows the feeling of pride when they see their kid do something great by their own choice. For example, a month or so ago Emma asked, "Why do you read your scriptures at breakfast?" I responded, "Because it is usually quiet then and it gets my day off to a good start." The very next morning I came down the stairs and there she was reading her scriptures with her cereal. She has been fairly consistent with it since then too. What a cutie!

Though Katie disagrees with it being a proud parenting moment, this next example was priceless! We were at Emma's soccer game and Camille, Ashley and Nathan were not in to it. They asked if they could go play on the bleachers about 20 yards behind us. There were a couple of boys playing over there (one 7 and the other 4.) After a minute or two I glanced over to see how everything was going. Just then the older boy takes a swing at Nate with this toy sword looking thing and stops just shy of his head. I know the older kid and he is usually really nice to our kids so I decide to let it play out for a minute before I go over to separate them. Then, the younger kid (about 4 and a head taller than Bubba) runs up to Nathan, growls and makes clawing gestures right up in his grill. (According to Camille he was pretending to be a dinosaur) Nate has a curious/scared look on his face and at this point I have just about seen enough of this. As I stand up to walk over there, Nathan clinches both fists, puts his head down and starts rapid firing punches to the kid's gut. After a few seconds both kids take off running. So fast in fact that they left their sword behind. Nathan quickly picked it up and started chasing them with it. A teary-eyed moment for sure.

CRAP!

I'm so mad. It is fast Sunday, and at the risk of being struck by lightning I'll say that I hate fast Sunday!

I struggle through lunch, feeding the kids stuff that in my desperation looks delicious, like ramen noodles and ritz crackers with processed cheese. I lay down for 10 minutes after lunch because I'm exhausted and then get up to start making dinner so we can eat early.

I spend an hour and a half putting together my shepherds pie. I doubled the recipe, but I was worried there would not be enough with everyone coming to eat with us. (Dale, his 3 kids, Tammy Adam and their daughter.)

I put the two pans in the oven, then decided to lower my oven rack so they would cook faster. I set the bigger pan on the oven door and then grabbed the rack with two hands with the smaller one still on it to move it down real quick.

You see what is coming here. The smaller pan slides off the rack and bumps into the side of the oven before tipping over and crashing on the tile floor, as I yell "____!" Nevermind that.

Now it is dinner time, I'm starving, grumpy, and facing a night of cereal after all my hard work so I can feed my guests a decent dinner. DANGIT! I feel like crawling in my bed to cry I'm so hungry and tired.