Whining + Cafe Rio Joy

Lunch at Cafe Rio... last year?

Deep down, I'm extremely thankful that Heavenly Father has blessed us with modern medicine. That we have things like biopsies to identify problems so that they can get taken care of (or put our minds at ease).

Right now, however, I feel no gratitude for the insane amount of pain that my biopsy this morning caused. I look like a chipmunk, who decided to store all of my nuts in one cheek. I can't turn my head, I'm so swollen, and am in a serious amount of pain.

Did I mention yet that I'm in pain?

Did I also mention that I'm a baby?

I am.

I am also feeling extremely guilty because I scheduled this appointment weeks ago, and on last Wednesday, Adam's kindergarten teacher scheduled his parent-teacher conference at the same time.

So, I had to send Mike (and the kids) instead.

I hate that I missed it.

We got home at about the same time, and I anxiously asked Mike what his teacher said.

And he told me that he couldn't really remember.

Sigh.

This afternoon, Mike had to leave to take care of some work stuff, leaving me with the kids to do some RS visits. One sister wouldn't come out to talk to me.

I can't blame her; I look like I have the mumps or something (on one side of my face).

So, all in all, not the greatest of days.

Tonight, however, Mike brought home a Cafe Rio barbecue pork salad for us to share for dinner. (These salads are so huge, they can easily feed the four of us, with some left over).

And I think that salad is so insanely good, that it can cure anything:

Guilt over a missed parent-teacher conference, frustration at a husband who had nothing to report from the conference, and rejection from being, well, rejected.

AND...

Even the whining in a baby like me.

(If you are not fortunate to live by a Cafe Rio, and need something cured ASAP, try Becky Higgins' recipe here. It's sure to fix whatever ails ya.)

You Know Your Son is a Nerd When...

... you grab some bath markers at the store as a special treat, and when he sees them he yells,

"Yes! This is SO great! I've always wanted to do math in the bath!"

I thought he was kidding/being sarcastic. But as soon as I got them in the bath tonight, this is what he did:

So, yeah, he's a nerd.


But I love him anyway.

:)

Edited: You guys, I'm totally kidding! Adam is not a nerd. And I would never say that to him (even if he was), and who says being a nerd is a bad thing, anyways?

Easter Dress Equation

Hopefully in the next 15 days this:

+

=

a cute Easter dress.

Even though I seriously want a baby, I'm kind of glad that I only have one girl to sew Easter dresses for, at this point. Any more, and I'd probably have to stop procrastinating these things or something. :)

(Dress pattern found here. I've heard great things about her patterns, and hoping this one turns out well and is relatively easy).

Update on Us

So, I've taken the hint, and decided to update this thing on what we are up to, and how we're doing. And since I have a knack for writing way too much, it's probably going to be long.

Sorry.

Mike

He's so gonna love this picture!

Mike's supervisor area at work got changed, and he's now over the clothing and cashiers. He's loving it! It gives him a chance to really work on customer service skills with his associates. He's developing a Cashier Certification program, that he's hoping to implement soon. Basically, at D.I. the two most marketable skills for the job market are being forklift certified and having cashier training. He wants to actually develop a certification program so that (hopefully) his cashiers will be better-trained and be able to get jobs where they can use that skill.

His calling right now is ward clerk. When he first got called, I had a hard time not giggling, because the stake president told him that he needed to be really organized. And organization is really not Mike's thing. But, he's been awesome. And he really loves it (though he misses being in Scouts), Sunday morning meetings aside.

Allison (moi)

Old picture. I just don't take too many of myself.

I've been so super-busy with Relief Society. We had our Relief Society Birthday Dinner this past Tuesday, and it went so well. Our theme was "Portraits of Sisterhood", and we had gotten black and white portraits of the sisters, their mothers, and grandmothers, and displayed them on all the tables, and had a few speakers, talk about growing up in the Relief Society, in their culture or age. It went really, really well, and everyone had a great time (or so they tell me).

I went to the ENT a few weeks ago for a follow-up on the swollen lymph nodes I have in my face/neck, and since they haven't grown at all in 2 years, he thinks that it's nothing. But, just to be on the safe side, he wants to do an ultrasound biopsy. So, that's happening on Monday morning. Seriously hoping that having a needle inserted in my cheek isn't painful. Yeah, right, huh?

Adam


Adam is doing great. His reading has really taken off, and he is reading everything. It's actually made me really regret our decision to live in Las Vegas. We will be driving, and he now reads all of the signs we pass, and questions what they are. "What's video poker, mom?" "What does a loose slot mean?" And my personal favorite, "Nude girls? Mom, doesn't 'nude' mean 'naked'?" So fantastic, huh? I pretty much tell him to close his eyes whenever we're out now. :) For March at school they did a "plants" theme, and grew a bean sprout and flowers. He brought the bean home, and our job is to keep it alive. His teacher obviously hasn't heard about our lack of garden skills here. :) He really loves school and is dreading summer vacation. But, he is looking forward to getting to take swimming lessons this summer, and we're thinking about letting him take some kind of sports class at the community center. He is all about basketball right now (he walks around the apartment dribbling and begs to play at the park daily), so we're leaning toward that.

The Bean Sprout

Grace

She loves broccoli. Can't you tell?

Grace is having fun being 2. She's talking a lot now and speaking in sentences and it's so much fun to actually get to have conversations with her. She loves her friends in nursery, and looks forward to our play dates at the park and Sunday all week. She was having a hard time learning her colors, so I decided to have a "color day" once a week. Every Thursday, the kids wake up to a different color of balloons, we eat food with that color in it, we do an activity/craft, and Grace and I paint our nails. She loves it, and it's really helped her. Her favorite game now that she's getting her colors is "I Spy." She loves her babies and pretending and singing. She's such a joy... when she's not coloring her arms before church, that is. :)

Orange Day

So, that's us right now. We're busy, but we're all healthy and happy and having fun! And incredibly blessed.

This is officially updated. And I officially feel less guilty now.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Our St. Patrick's Day celebrations began yesterday with a surprise package in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa W*, with a box of Lucky Charms and a fun, green tablecloth. Thanks so much! The kids loved it! And then later, we made a leprechaun trap for Family Home Evening (forgot to take a picture). Adam had such a hard time sleeping, because he so wanted to catch a leprechaun and keep him as a pet.


I'm not sure if that's offensive or not, because technically, you shouldn't keep tiny people as pets. It's wrong. But, seeing as how they don't really exist, it's probably not terribly offensive.

Unfortunately, this morning, he woke up to find that the leprechaun escaped, but not before making all sorts of mischief around our home:

green footprints and confetti all over the floor,

green milk (which made our dinner green),


and they took the green crayons and markers that were left in the trap as bait, leaving behind 2 pots of gold, before making their escape.

They really did love the pots of gold (can't you tell? :) ). Adam is just bummed about not getting a new "pet."

I'm not going to lie; I was glad that the leprechaun escaped the trap. It's hard enough keeping a fish, a mouse, 2 kids, and a husband alive and out of trouble.

A little, green mischievous leprechaun would be more than I could handle at this point. :)

Why We Were Late for Church

This morning I got the kids all ready for church, gave them some paper/craft supplies for writing letters to grandparents, and hurried to go get ready.

I came back 15 minutes later to find this:


Scrubbing that much marker off took some serious time. Apparently, she likes to be very thorough when coloring.

I think that there should be a church policy about men with young children having callings where they have to attend Bishopric meetings before church.

Or maybe we should just have a no-markers-before-church policy in our home.

Or a crayons-only policy.

Something like that. :)

Teeth, Teeth, Teeth

Last week I was flossing Adam's teeth, when I noticed that another permanent tooth was growing in behind a baby tooth.

Seriously? Again?!?

And since this baby tooth wasn't one bit loose, he had to go in today to the dentist and have it pulled. He did great, and is incredibly excited about the tooth fairy coming tonight.

The last time she came she left $1 under his pillow and some magic gold fairy dust (glitter) sprinkled all over the bed and to the window. I thought it was very magical and fairy-like and cool.

Adam woke up and asked, "How come the fairy left all of this fairy poop on my bed and floor?"

What a horrible thing to say about fairy dust! Sigh. I need Grace to lose her teeth so that someone can be excited about magical kind of stuff. (I mean, when she's older. I don't want her teeth knocked out or something.)

Also, question for all of you: what do you DO with the baby teeth? I have the last one Adam lost in my drawer, and I just can't throw it away. But at the same time, that's super-gross and I know he's never going to want it, you know?

Pot o' Gold

Picture courtesy Marie at Make and Takes

On Tuesday, the leprechauns will be leaving this little gift for Adam and Grace after they escape their trap. Sneaky little leprechauns.

Too cute and super easy.

Last year, the leprechauns played all sorts of tricks on our family before getting caught (and then escaping their trap), like dyeing our milk green and stealing Adam's green crayons.

Hopefully, they are a little nicer to us this year.

Or not. :)

St. George Getaway

St. George Temple

Mondays are Mike's day off, and they are normally reserved for grocery shopping, car-fixing, house-fixing, and errands.

However, today we decided that we'd go without groceries this week, forget about the brakes on the car, let the shower continue to drip, and have our library books be over-due, and we went on a day trip to St. George.

And, wow! Do I ever love St. George. How could I not have sacrificed my grocery shopping earlier? St. George is lovely, less than 2 hours away, and is completely awesome.

St. George rocks my socks.

(And I have no idea what that means. But, I really, really love that city).

Anyways, we walked the temple grounds, went to the temple visitor's center (and watched a movie), went to Brigham Young's winter home, saw the Tabernacle, went to the D.I. (because visiting a D.I. in every city we go to is a must for Mike), and went to the dinosaur museum.

Digging for fossils at the dinosaur museum

We also went to Smith's to pick up some snacks for the trip back.

But, that's not very exciting.

And I also found a house that I really want to buy.

But Mike told me, "no."

When I got the rejection on the house, I almost moved into the gas station when I saw that gas was only $1.75 there.

But Mike told me that would be ridiculous.

Anyway, we had so much fun on our little spontaneous trip. It was so nice to get away and visit such a beautiful place, and spend some really fun, quality time together. I love our little family so much!

Tabernacle

Brigham Young's Winter Home

I might love them a little more if we lived in St. George, however. I'm just saying.

The Fruit that Made the Animals Wild

On Monday, we were talking about the 2nd Article of Faith (they memorized it in February in Primary), and Mike asked Adam what he thought it meant.

He said:

"It means that when Adam and his wife-I don't remember her name-ate the fruit that made all of the animals wild, and got in trouble for it, that we aren't in trouble for it."

I've never heard it phrased quite like that before, but, hey, he's pretty much right!

The 'fruit that made all of the animals wild' part makes me smile.

A lot.

'Summer' School Project

Adam's school is project-based. And I have no idea what that means really, besides the fact that he has a project due every month. And I honestly don't know if that is an advantage or any different from other elementary schools.

But, doesn't it sound all snooty and pretentious?

"My son's elementary school is project-based and is modeled after the Montessori curriculum."

Saying pretentious things brings back all kinds of warm-and-fuzzy feelings of my snobby days.

Sigh...

Anyways, today he had a project due based on the seasons. He had to choose and research a season, write a poem about it, and create a 3-D project. He chose summer and wrote a super-cute poem:

Summer makes the world so hot and dry.
You see bugs crawl and you see birds fly.
Lots of kids come out and play in the pool.
Oh, I love summer-because there is no school!

On each of the suns on his mobile is something that represents summer, with an explanation typed on the back (cicadas, reptiles, temperature, monsoons, and vacation). The projects have to be memorized and presented to the class. Grace and I went down for his presentation today, and he did a great job! We were so proud of him.


Okay, and yeah, I totally helped him with the poem and putting the project together. And that's probably horrid or something. But, come on! This school is filled with snooty and pretentious moms who do the projects completely for their kids (one boy in his class brought in a professionally-done PowerPoint presentation and a fish tank of water that actually rained). Seriously. And he really did do the the research, thought of the idea, and did most of the work. Really.

So, yeah, I pretty much feel guilty and am trying to justify it.

Justification is how I get through the day sometimes.

Especially when Adam has a major project due that we've procrastinated because I've been so seriously busy with church.

Or when there are chocolate chip cookies around.

She's Quite the Little Lady

It's pretty self-explanatory:




And, no, despite the awful rumors you may have heard, she does not get her snoring from me.

;)

I Hope... (Part 1)

I hope... that she never, ever stops falling asleep randomly on the floor, when I turn my back for just a minute.


Because it's just too sweet.