Twilight Update

Just an update for those of you who I talk to regularly that told me that Jacob will not be played by Taylor Lautner in New Moon, I checked Stephenie's website and he will continue to play Jacob and will be making the necessary changes to facilitate the changes that Jacob makes in the book. Also, the release date for the Twilight DVD is Saturday March 21st. You can pre-order the special edition DVD set at Amazon. There are a lot of cool bonus features, including 5 extended scenes on disc 1, 5 deleted scenes on disc 2, 3 music videos, and a 7 part documentary. Personally, I'm going to pre-order because who wouldn't want all that extra stuff? I'm eagerly looking forward to watching the movie again several times in the comfort of my own home. One last note, someone told me the other day that Stephenie would be publishing Midnight Sun (the book from Edward's point of view that was stolen) and there has not been any mention of this whatsoever on her website. The last I read about it was when she stated that she would never publish it and put the first part of it on her website for all to legally read.

Gone With the Wind and Other Good News

I can see clearly now the smog is gone...it was a bright, bright, bright sunshiny day. So yesterday there was a birthday miracle on Cart-man's birthday. The sun came out. It was a glorious sight. It's here again today. My spirits are lifted quite a bit even though it's only like 30 degrees out today. Who cares when the sun is out. For the first time ever, I was happy to hear the wind when I woke up yesterday. I hate the wind, normally. I always have since I was a little girl. Where I grew up the Santa Ana winds always came in the fall and started fires, so as a little girl the wind scared me. But yesterday I was thrilled to hear it because I knew it was blowing away the yuckiness.





We had our neighbors and my sister and her husband over last night for cake after our special 2:30 p.m. church time now. It's seriously the worst time for the baby. Anyway, we put his cake in front of him and he put his hand right in. (We learned with Peanut that the whipped icing cleans up way easy compared to the oil in the buttercream). Then the next hand, but he was trying to shake off the icing. So he was frustrated by that and wouldn't even taste it and the kids (all 6 of them) were screaming in delight at watching him and he absolutely freaks at loud noises, so... he started screaming. And I mean a loud, ear piercing scream. So the like actual 3 pictures I got of him with his cake are of him crying. I've never had a baby do that. I feel so sad for him. This picture is so pathetic. Oh well, at least he liked opening his presents. The neighbors gave him an animal book and a pack of cars that he really liked. We gave him a plastic piggy bank that he can put the giant plastic coins in and it sings and counts them, and some squishy blocks that he really likes. He also learned how to climb up the first step of our stairs yesterday. That's as far as he goes so far, but he doesn't realize that when he sits back, he'll fall. Today while I was lying on my back doing pilates on the floor, he stuck his head between my knees and pulled himself up to a standing position and even let go for half a second.
Bubba has his first research paper due at the end of the week. It had to be 3 paragraphs of at least 3 sentences each and he has to put it on a poster board with pictures and then do an oral report sometime next week I think. So he chose George Washington and did really well with his research by himself during computers at school. He got his paper typed up yesterday (with mom doing the typing) and is going to use a dollar bill as his 3-D element for the poster.
So in other good news, though I'm not losing weight, I am losing inches at least. In 2 weeks, I lost 2 1/2 inches in my waist, 1 inch in my hips, and a half inch in my thighs. My super awesome sister-in-law has offered to send me some extra strength training exercises to help me out. Thanks Janet!
So our ward was split two weeks ago and yesterday was the first day with our new bishopric. Poor bishop called all new presidencies for high priests, young mens, young womens(except for the president who stayed), primary, elders quorum and relief society. We also lost about half our missionaries that are out. We went from a ward with 17 out to only having 8 with our remaing families. They created a new ward from 4 different ones. The stake president said we went from 2000 members in 4 wards of 500 each, to 5 wards of 400 each! We only lost about 3 of our 30 deacons though. There are 2 quorums of deacons! We used to sit almost all the way back to the stage of the 2nd cultural hall before. I've also decided that I don't go to church to make friends, I have enough of those. I'm there to feel the spirit and to learn about the gospel, so I don't really need to sit by anyone or participate in any activites involving the "skinny" women. So all in all, the days are looking better, all because of the sun. I don't know how anyone could ever live in Forks without going insane.

Things and Stuff

So sorry I depressed everyone the other day. I still haven't seen the sun in over two weeks now. I'm really about to go postal. We were supposed to have seen sun several times now, but I really don't think the weathermen ever know what they're talking about. I'm amazed it's a real profession when their success rate is so minimal. Anyway, a storm was supposed to blow through yesterday to get rid of the smog(because let's face it people, they can call it what they want, but it's really smog). So instead we got a teeny sprinkling of rain/snow mixture last night that resulted in absoluetly nothing today. B said we can go for a drive tomorrow to get out of the valley. They've had huge amounts of people up at the ski hill because it's about all this yucky crud.



So my teeny baby will be 1 on Sunday. I'm so sad. Where did this year go? It went by really really fast. I think it's gone by faster with each one. He's doing everything he can to stay the baby, though. He still won't sleep thru the night, he hates food with texture, he just barely started to put any weight on his legs, and he still won't hold his bottle unless he's lying flat on his back. Personally, I think he's just being lazy, and we're allowing it since he is the baby. Well, I guess he's starting to eat a little texture-he'll eat bread, french fries, and chicken if I break it up into teeny pieces. He just won't eat the stage 3 baby food that has pieces of pasta or veggies in it. I probably wouldn't eat it either. So I'll just have to keep pushing people food on him. Any sleeping thru the night suggestions? JP was my best sleeper. Both he and Peanut could just be layed down in their crib and they'd go right to sleep, but our bookends(oldest and youngest) have insisted on being held to go to sleep, so that makes for not very good crib sleepers. I've tried the whole "ferberizing" thing, but he'll just keep crying-no screaming-for an hour. And it's a really ear piercing scream that we've never experienced before. I wonder what happened to my sweet baby who sounded like a little piglet squealing when he cried. We're just having a few friends over for cake after our new lovely 2:30 p.m. church time on Sun. I didn't really want to do anything, but felt bad since we did for everyone else. I don't want him to feel jipped when he gets older.

I just want to thank all of my wonderful friends and family for their support after my last post. I guess I kind of went off the deep end a little, but with this weather I get even more agitated than usual. As my visiting teacher said, it really has become a Nordstrom ward. I shouldn't dread attending church each week. There are a lot of nice people too, but the majority makes me feel uncomfortable there. Sometimes I wish we could start over somewhere else. That's all I'll say about that anymore since my husband keeps reminding me anytime I say anything negative about anyone, this is public domain and something I say might come back to bite me in the bum. But this is really my outlet to get things off my chest, so I figure whatever. If I offend someone it's not because I'm doing it on purpose, it's just the way I feel.

So Peanut peed his pants 5 times on Wed. Since then I've been asking him every 10 minutes if he has to go. Anyone else had regression problems? It really stinks because by the time we had to go to scouts that day, he was wearing pajama pants because he'd gone thru the rest. Not a fun day.

Still no sunlight. None until Wednesday. Staying in to watch 3rd season of Northern Exposure all day. Also, buying a one-way ticket online to Newport Beach. (If only I had the money and could leave my husband with the kids *sigh*). "Worst day of my life!"
I also want everyone to know (because some have already commented on it) that I don't want to be like the ladies in my ward when I grow up. And thanks for all the love and support.

Blogging Blues-Warning--somewhat depressing and long

So I haven't written in a week, which if you keep up with my blog at all, is rare for me. I just haven't felt like writing. We've had this nasty icky "inversion" for over a week now. It has made me seriously depressed and I just want to sleep all day. So today it was the worst. I was having a major self-loathing party. I've been working out now since Dec. 1st and still have only lost a whopping 6 pounds, which my sweet husband is like "Wow! 6 lbs. is good," but I'm thinking at this rate it will take me 2 yrs. to lose the weight I need to. For all of you who think I look just fine, Wii Fit says I'm overweight and that my BMI is too high. Just to make you feel even better, it shows your Mii character staring at a fat belly. I just feel so crappy. It's one thing to have a little ponchy tummy after having a baby, but my arms and legs are what's really flabby. I can't wear half my shirts because the arms are too tight and I have to wear jeans that are baggy in the bum and waist because the others are too tight on my legs. Then there's the adult acne that's rearing its ugly head. I would've much rather had it as a teenager because those years are way shorter than the adult ones. I'm also really getting sick of the women in my ward who are obsessed with their looks and weight. I feel like I have to be really done up on Sundays and even then, nobody ever sits by me. I'm not even kidding when I say that 95% of the women in my ward are a size 4 or less. There might be a few 6's in there, but not many. It's really awesome when the RS Pres. gets up for her monthly lesson and says, "I've never had to worry about my weight, but so and so challenged me to exercise more, so now I do." She's not the president anymore, but that's all I can think of anytime I see her. Everyone is obsessed with what they eat and ask each other what they eat or what diet they're on. Give me a flippin' break. What about those of us who have a hard time losing weight after having kids? The only thing I've lost is a little in the chest. Which I know half of you are annoyed at me for, but you don't know how much it has always sucked to have a big chest. The only reason anyone ever dated me in school was because I had a big chest. They're always in the way too and they hurt when you run. So be happy with your awesome smallness. I guess we always want what we can't or don't have. And by the way, I don't want to be thin to fit in with everyone else, I want to be fit and healthy for myself so I don't cry every time I look in the mirror. So I guess it's going to take me longer than I thought to lose weight, but the hard part is not getting discouraged. I'm doing yoga, pilates, aerobics, and strength training. I'm really not eating the sweets like I used to. I'm living mostly on slim fast bars during the day and not eating after 8 p.m. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Why do some people lose weight faster than others? Okay, so I probably depressed everyone else with this post. But now I don't feel alone by getting it out there. I really hope I see the sun tomorrow or I might just have to get out the credit card and fly to a beach somewhere. I decided that inversion is even worse than snow. At least when it snows, the sun comes out. And no comments from anyone in AZ on how wonderful the winters are because it still won't make me move there!

So the kids had today off school so we went bowling this afternoon. They love to bowl. We get a bumper lane next to a regular one for us. They really had a lot of fun.


Peanut needed a little help, but he still hit a lot of pins most of the time.

This was a super duper hard throw! Go Bubba!

Sat. was my sister's open house up here for all the people who couldn't drive down for the wedding. They got way more gifts and money than at the wedding. Anyway, it was in a pretty cabin in the middle of nowhere and there was a cowboy hat hanging on an antler thingy and I couldn't resist putting it on Jo Jo.

Earlier in the day big daddy decided to re-arrange his home office and Jo Jo was a big helper. He found a drawer to sit in and chew on stuff.

Peanut just looked too handsome in his Sunday clothes. He really wanted to wear a tie.

Wedding Day

So my sister's big day finally arrived this past Saturday. We drove to Utah on Friday afternoon after dropping the 3 big boys off at Papa's farm. JP said the wedding would be "boring," but Peanut said he wanted to go to her next wedding after he found out we were staying in a hotel because he "wikes hotelws." The temple ceremony was really nice. Elder Featherstone performed it since he lives in my mom's ward. He is such an awesome man. I love to hear him speak. Then I got to help my sister put on her wedding dress and I got changed into my bridesmaid dress. We waited forever for my mom who had disappeared somewhere to get stuff out of her car that she forgot to bring in. So finally they just went ahead and made their grand exit outside to the waiting crowd of family and friends. It was FREEZING, but at least the sun was out. This first picture is of baby Cart-man and Alicia. She looked so pretty and I loved the way the sun hit her face.

We took lots of family pictures outside of one of the temple doors and then they decided to just do the couple shots. I volunteered to carry my sister's mega long and heavy train for her because it was already getting dirty. For some reason I had left my scarf and gloves in the temple and none of us had nylons on. So after awhile, AJ (her husband) said, "Your legs are about one step above amputation." I looked like I had gotten really really sunburned. I couldn't feel my hands or legs the entire hour and half we were out. I seriously couldn't feel my legs until hours later. This is a neat shot they took in front of the Lion House restaurant (where the luncheon was held later). She had a coat she was putting on in between shots. And luckily her dress was long so her legs were warm at least.

We went back into the temple after pictures to change back for the luncheon, which was immediately after. B and I sat at a corner table by my aunt and gramma, so we were able to put Jo Jo monkey on the floor after he ate so he could bang on the wall and talk to the wallpaper. When he was in his high chair before the lunch came, he had two metal spoons that he was banging on his chair. Everyone thought it was funny because it expressed what we were all thinking. I had my most embarrassing moment during lunch. I honestly have never had a really embarrassing moment, so I guess it was my turn. I went to the restroom and came out with my dress kind of tucked up into my g's at the waist. It was my regular dress that I had changed back in to and it was that stretchy material, so I didn't even notice until I walked back in the room and I think it was his mom who said something. They all decided to mention that we got lunch AND a show. Thanks, as if I wasn't already mortified.
We went back to our hotel afterwards for a nap for baby and then went over to the reception place an hour early to help my sister get ready and help my mom with table set-ups, etc. It was at this cool old mansion downtown. So my brothers are both on their missions, and we were sad they couldn't be there in person, so my mom made cut-outs of them to put up. They were John McCain's body with their faces. When we took a picture with them, I got a little veclempt.

I wanted a picture of just me and my sissy because one of her lame bridesmaids kept standing next to her in pictures instead of letting me. She's really obnoxious. She's one of those people who knows everything because she's an expert. There was another girl there who wasn't in the wedding, but her husband was and she never shut-up about herself.

And finally, here's evidence of the toilet paper game. Unfortunately, the toilet paper was really low to the ground and he didn't even have to get up on his knees to reach it.

So the other night I was tucking Peanut in to bed and he said the cutest things. He first told me, "Your dammas(pajamas) are tute(cute)." Then he said, "You're my frayvite(favorite) mommy. I should teep(keep) you." This was totally unwarranted by the way. I'm going to try and be better about writing things down that they say because otherwise they all blur together. B asked me the other day which one of the boys was the one who used to rip off his bibs, forcing us to buy the tie kind rather than the velcro. I had no idea. I was so sad that I couldn't remember. Of course there are a few that we really remember like "Santa Closet." (That was Bubba). But for the most part they blend together.

I've come to the realization as of late that my house is going to be perpetually messy until my boys are out of the house. Their room is a smelly mess that I've finally started refusing to clean for them. Even though it really bothers me, I'm not helping them out by doing it for them. As far as the rest of the house goes, there's always fingerprints on everything, sticky stuff on the floors and counters, sprays of who knows what on the base boards. Not to mention the walls and light switches always have dirt on them. Boys don't like to wash their hands. At least not in my house. Or if they do, they flip the lights off without drying them. Their bathroom is another story altogether. Actually it's more like a nightmare. I bought one of those Scentsy burners to put in their room, which has made a great difference, but I can't understand why it's SO hard to get the pee in the actual toilet. Sometimes I wonder if they're even looking. JP has toothpaste issues as well. He puts a huge gob on his brush and then starts the spinner before it's in his mouth. So it ends up on the counter, sink, faucet, mirror... Did you know that the kitchen floor is where you store your coat, backpack, shoes, and dirty socks? I didn't either, but apparently it is. And apparently your bedroom floor is where you should leave your full pull-up from the night before. But make sure you leave it in your pajama pants so that they smell too.

Another thing I've discovered recently are a couple of fun games to play while mommy's in the shower. One is to throw a ball in and then keep throwing it in after mama throws it out. It's called wet catch. The other game is called unroll the entire toilet paper roll. It's self-explanatory.

So some of you have suggested that I write a book of all of my mis-adventures with my boys. I have started this project, but I'm sure it will take forever. I guess I could probably cut and paste a lot from my blog. Plus, I would never have any idea on how to get it published, so maybe I'll just do it for fun as a journaling device and then send it around to those who would like to read it. I'll keep you updated.

So I just realized that the holidays are over so I needed to update my background. I decided that I hate winter and wanted something that reminded me of where I'd rather be right now.

Totally Awesome...Not

Hey I've got an idea...It should snow like 5 inches for two days and then get packed down from people driving over it because there's like 3 snowplows for 5 cities (of which none come to our city), and then it should rain on top of it so I can slide all over my neighborhood while I'm trying to get out to go to the grocery store. (I know that's a really long run-on sentence). And since they don't plow the store parking lot where I shop, it's complete slush, which in case you didn't know, also makes your car slide. I think there should also be some inversion crap so you can't see more than 100 ft. in front of your car, and then nobody should turn their lights on while driving. I didn't realize I was putting my life in my hands when I left to go to the store today.

You wanna know what else is totally awesome? When you exercise every day since Christmas and live off of twigs and berries and you gain 1.5 pounds and your husband eats like food might go out of style any second and he loses 2 pounds!!! Hello, totally not fair. Just another reason guys are lame.

So while I was at the store, I had to pick up a prescription and I found out yesterday that we haven't had any insurance since October, and so my medication for a 30 day supply was $122.46! That's for the generic by the way. It was like $10 for the exact same thing last time when I got it with insurance. Does it really cost the pharmaceutical company that much to make that stuff? I highly doubt it. Someone somewhere is getting very rich off people with no insurance.

I also discovered recently that when you're a baby, the worst thing your mom can do to you (besides drop you out of your car seat and break your arm) is wiping your face off with a wet wipe or paper towel. It is absolutely pure torture. Jo Jo monkey winces before I even get near him. As soon as he sees me walking towards him he closes his eyes and shakes his head.


Peanut made a house today out of Bob the Builder blocks. He's quite the little builder. He can also build cars and airplanes out of Legos. It's extremely annoying, though, when your baby brother crawls over and takes it apart and you have to re-build it-twice.


He's my big boy now and started Primary on Sunday! Last week they took them in for singing time and I looked through the window to see the only child lying on the floor under a chair-was mine. I was a little concerned, but he sat so reverently in his chair this time while several of his friends were screaming for their moms. He absolutely loves his new class and teacher. Bubba has now officially made the big move to Senior Primary! Wow, wasn't he just in nursery? He also has his very first research project due at the end of the month, and he's chosen George Washington. He bought himself a drawing book and it has a how-to-draw of Washington, so he's decided to try and draw it for his poster. I love being a mom. It's so rewarding. I love my awesome boys. Peanut was making his Spiderman boots squeak on the floor in the store today and the lady behind us in line asked if he could also burp on cue. I said, "No, but his brother can." That's one of JP's talents.



So the other day my mom was here and she bought the boys those candy canes full of M&M's because they were on sale after Christmas and Peanut was eating his at the table. Well, awhile later Jo Jo comes crawling out from under the kitchen table (where he always finds the best snacks) with chocolate on his face. I noticed he was green and realized he had managed to find a green M&M on the floor. His hands and mouth were all green. So I got a couple of cute pictures. He likes to make funny faces when you take his picture and I absolutely LOVE it.