The Date is Set

It's official!

Fox News is coming on September 30th to interview us for the pre-baby segment. My house needs help. That was the first thing I thought of when I hung up the phone. So I started doing paint touch ups and painting the trim around the floor, and then moved on to painting our built in china hutch. It's been interesting trying to keep kids away from all this.


Then I realized I need help. I've never been good at clothes, makeup and hair and now I'm going to be on TV (assuming everything goes according to plan, I doubt they'll air the interview if  10-10-10 doesn't happen). Anyone want to come over and help me and my house look good?

Coming Down From a High

Have you ever experienced a crash from a book high? You know, you finish this really great book or series and it ended how you wanted and you couldn't have asked for more. But for some reason you find yourself driving to the grocery store and thinking of the characters and what they are doing now? You're anxious about what to read and feel listless when you realize, the story is over. You keep walking back toward the bookcase, thinking you'll just read a chapter and then make dinner before you realize you finished the book already.

Then what's worse is when you've read the book before. . .like three times now. . .and it still gets to you. It's not like it's even the best book you've ever read, just a really good one with characters you love, and if you were a kid and could get away with it you might be one of them for Halloween.

This is me right now.

Tonight I'm going to start a new book that I haven't read before (I have seen the movie, however). I have to read fast because book club is coming up. I hope it cheers me up because I'm really bummed.

Then after that I will be reading a book I read in college. I loved it and now that I'm in Cleveland, I thought it be good to read it again. In my opinion, it's a must read. Especially if you live somewhere like Cleveland. I opted to buy this instead of borrow from the library because our closest Borders is closing and was having a huge sale.

Sadness abounds when a book store closes. I went to this particular Borders all the time when we first moved here. I hated living in Cleveland where I knew no one and had no place I could go and feel comfortable. The Borders wasn't in the nicest part of town, but at least it was familiar. I went as often as I could, which was usually at night after Nathan was home and could put the kids to bed. Sitting there with a book or my laptop reminded me of being back in the Logan Borders and made me feel comfortable again. When I bought this book I told the cashier this and she said that she'd heard similar stories from most of the people that had come in the store that day. I thought it was really interesting that so many people would choose a bookstore to help them find solace in a crazy city.

It's amazing the feeling we can experience in a bookstore or library. One of my favorite children series has a line that is repeated through most of its 13 books. It refers to a library and it goes, The World is Quiet Here. I love that. The World is Quiet Here.  When you are with books the world takes a backseat and only you and the characters exist. The dirty dishes, lint on the carpet, and kids begging for juice can all fade away. Ok, maybe not the toddler begging for juice, that one's a little harder to tune out, but still, I think you get what I mean.

When you're reading a book, all media is turned off. You aren't thinking about that sewing project, or the stupid game on Facebook that has sucked up so much of your time, or the fact that your toilets need to be cleaned. This is why I am anti-Kindle or any other electronic book thingy. Give me a paperback, please.

All of the thoughts that usually rage in your head, bouncing around begging you to pay attention to them are calmed and quieted when there is a book in your hands. Which is why, I think, I have such a hard time letting go of a great book. I've finished it, but I'm not ready for it to be done with its therapeutic work on me.

Homemaking

This past weekend was very busy. It started on Thursday with me doing something everyone else thinks is part of the ploy to get me to go into labor early. Then continued on Friday with me sending out a simple email. See, I decided that since Nathan wasn't willing to take out the nasty bushes in front of our house, that I would do it myself--at 35 weeks pregnant.

Take a trip down memory lane and remind yourself of these nasty bushes. I'd already cleared the ground cover to a certain point before tackling the bushes.

 Did you notice how huge those bushes are? I hated them. Really.

So Thursday I got out a saw and cut them down to a point where they could be dug out and in 3.5 hours, they were stumps. On Friday I took out a shovel and jumped on it, trying to break up the earth around the roots of the bush. It was a no-go. I went back inside and wrote an email asking people from Church if anyone was interested in making some money by digging out my bushes. Our bishop got the email and called one of our newest members, Darren, who is trying to save money to go on a mission. Darren came over and got to work. In a little less than 3.5 hours, the stumps were gone. Leaving us with dirt. A lot of dirt.

Nathan didn't want to leave it plain (ha! part of my plan worked!) so Saturday we went to Home Depot and bought these.

In this second picture you can see how much space the bushes and little ground cover took up. After planting the mums, Nathan spread out grass seed over the dirt. When payday comes again, we'll do some more. Also, all those other plants there in front of the house, those will be coming out ASAP, which might be in the spring.

Also part of our day was a lot of canning. I actually got up really early and went to the Church where a bunch of girls got together to can peaches and tomatoes. I was lucky and got to bring home half of the left over tomatoes (we ran out of jars). So Nathan and I decided to can homemade salsa. We did this in Logan years ago and afterward couldn't stomach store bought salsa for a very long time (we did the same thing with spaghetti sauce in Logan--ours is just the best). So after putting the kids in bed I ran to the store and got the peppers, onions, and garlic. Then it was on to salsa heaven.

Too bad I didn't think to buy tortilla chips while I was at the store!

Last of all . . .
Nathan took Megan out with him while I was canning the peaches and tomatoes (Jeremy and Emma were on play dates) and bought a new pane of glass for the garage door (if you look in the post from yesterday where the kids are playing in the rain, you'll notice how bad the door looked before) and some paint. Here's our "new" door--complete with raccoon prints all over it. Yes, I didn't shut the door as soon as I got home and a raccoon got in. Then when I shut the door, the stupid thing was still in there. While the door was up it must have climbed on to the door from the top of our van, leaving it's muddy prints everywhere. I guess it freaked out because our stuff was everywhere in the morning, there were muddy paw prints all over the car and van, as well as a messy, stinky present on the van windshield. So now we just have to wash it to make it look nice again.

Rain, Rain . . . Don't Bother Going Away!

Love them rain boots

I love the action shot Nathan got here!

Dancin' in the rain

Please note the garage door's nastiness. My next post will show it corrected, finally!

Felt Pirate Maps

I made Jeremy a pirate map for Christmas a couple years ago and since then I've made quite a few as birthday presents for little boys in our ward  or at school. Last year the kids had a week at preschool where they learned about pirates and Jeremy and Megan (who now has one as well) offered their pirate maps to the class to play with for the week.

At the end of the school year I offered to each of the preschool teachers to make their classes a couple maps. I figured it would take less than a week to get them all done and that I had all summer to do it.  Well, I completely forgot about it until the week before school started. Luckily, it really did only take a week (I finished sewing literally two minutes before we left to take Jeremy to preschool orientation) to make 9 maps. I gave each class two boy maps and one girl map.

If you want one (or two) I'll be happy to make you one for $5, or I can put a tutorial on the blog and you can make your own.

The Vibe Posts, Or What's Been Going On

Funny Emma

Emma has made it a habit of falling asleep during dinner at least twice a week. This is her sleeping and eating at the same time. Honest. She is difficult to wake up when she gets to this point. Sometimes Nathan picks her up and throws her in the air (which will wake her up and cause her to laugh, but if we wake her up any other way she is not happy). Other times we just take her upstairs, wipe off her face, and put her in bed.

 Mommy's Day Off


Also, I don't know how I missed this one, but Nathan took the kids camping and gave me a day and a half to myself. They drove out to Pennsylvania and had a great time while I cleaned the house, got a massage, and took myself out for lunch. It was much appreciated! Thank you, Nathan!!!!

My Attempt At Being a Copy-Cat

Remember those awesome pictures that my friend Mary took of Jeremy and Emma? Those were their birthday pictures, so I didn't bother having any of Megan taken. Well, I decided that was stupid and I should have had her included anyway. Too late now. Mary had her baby the other day and will most likely not be taking pictures for a while.

Let me apologize, Mary. I know I'm totally copying your stuff, and I'm really sorry. I wanted pictures to match the awesome ones you did and didn't want to bother you so close to having your babe. Mine are nowhere close to the awesomeness of yours.

I tried taking Megan to the same locations on the Case campus. Only problem? I didn't check the setting on the camera before starting, so most of them look really bad. I'm more of an Automatic Setting kind of girl, where Nathan actually uses the different settings on the camera where you have to know what you are doing. He was apparently the last one to use the camera before I took these. Also, even though I worked with PhotoShop for years when I worked at the USU archives, I am not that good at it. Nathan, is like the He-Man of PhotoShop. So when I eventually get around to re-shooting these, I'll have him run them through PhotoShop and make them look good.

Backtracking

I realized that I've missed quite a few posts, and a couple of them I feel bad about missing. Others are more of the "this is what's been going on" vibe.

So here's the first of the I-feel-bad-for-missing-this-post post.

Wahoo for Jeremy's First Day of Preschool 2010!

Jeremy is actually doing really well so far this year. I know we haven't even had a full week of school yet thanks to Labor Day and Rosh Hoshanah, but he seems excited to go, he's practically running into the classroom (instead of me shoving him in and then running away), and he's trying to be obedient to his teachers even when he doesn't want to. He's told me the names of a couple other students in his class and has even admitted to me that one of them is his friend (huge improvement since Jeremy doesn't really like other kids much). He's enjoying gym, where last year those days were almost impossible for him. I'm really proud of him and all the growth and improvement he's made. 

The second I-feel-bad-for-missing-this-post post is . . .

Happy 30th Birthday, Nathan! Congratulations on being old!

Yes, we celebrated Nathan's 30th birthday at the beginning of the month. While I think this birthday should mark the end of his teasing me and calling me old, it probably won't. Nathan wanted flan instead of a traditional birthday cake this year and lasagna for dinner. It was all quite tasty. Nathan is now one year closer to having his age make sense of all the gray in his hair. Don't worry about it! You know it will make your patients trust you more than those young'ins.

Here Comes Fall

The first day of school hasn't quite arrived for us here in Cleveland. However, Megan has had her orientation day for kindergarten. They are phasing the kids in and her day was Tuesday. She doesn't actually go back until Friday for the Teddy Bear picnic. Jeremy's preschool orientation day (which is also phased for the students) is Friday, and then his first real day of school is next Tuesday.

So here are a couple pictures of Megan on her "first" day of kindergarten.

When I saw that Lisa Frank was still around, I had to buy her the lunch bag. She wanted it because it's a cool rainbow horse, I wanted it because it was Lisa Frank.

All excited:)