A new hobby

My oldest has picked up a new hobby. For lack of a better name, I will call the hobby...paper. Yes, just paper. Every day she makes new things, writes new stories, glues, cuts, and manipulates a variety of paper products.

While I'm happy that Ains is so creative, I must admit that I'm getting tired of the 'paper hobby'. One significant problem with paper toys is that they just don't last. Especially in the presence of a 2 year old. I'm tired of resolving paper related sibling issues. I'm tired of MILLIONS of little scraps of paper. I'm tired of jagged, torn pieces of paper covering every surface of my daughter's room posing as decoration. But mostly I'm tired of hearing sobs when a paper product is torn. The other day Ains and I had a discussion (okay, it was more of a fight) about the never ending piles of paper and scraps, it was quite heated and ended with me banning paper (not a proud mommy moment).

The picture above is a picture of a few of Ainsley's creations that are very special and not allowed to be thrown away. Seriously, I would say this is maybe a fourth of the "important" documents we currently have. Some of her creations do make me laugh though. She made a purse with a baggie and some paper, a fire hat with paper and a water bottle lid (I'm still not sure what the significance of the lid is), and she has illustrated some great stories. My favorite story involves Joseph Smith, a rainbow slide, and a call to Jesus. (I would scan it for you all to read, but my scanner is having issues.)

So for the time being I guess I will just have to accept my daughter's hobby, and appreciate the quirkiness of her inventions, until I go crazy and then I'll have to convince her that throwing some of the paper away won't be that bad.

Winner, winner!

Typically John and I are the opposite of winners. We seem to do things at the wrong time, be in the wrong place, and are very unlucky. Lately however, we have had a streak of luck! Earlier this summer we won a drawing for this free DVD player. It doesn't work (I guess you can't expect much when something is free)but I'm still counting it as a victory, because normally our name would have never been chosen!
Our streak of luck continued when I got a call yesterday and was informed that my child's name had been chosen to win this gift basked full of books, DVDs, and CDs. I signed the kids up to win when we were at the zoo. It was actually Ainsley's name that was chosen, so maybe I shouldn't be counting her luck as mine, but she is my daughter.
Who would have thought that a family of very unlucky people would win 2 drawings in one summer. I now have a new found faith in drawings, and I will ALWAYS sign up!

Newly Employed

It's official. I have reentered the work force. A while ago we decided that our family could use some additional income. I spent some time figuring out my options and decided to pursue every one. I looked into tutoring (I'm still planning on trying to tutor, but I think it might be a few months before I can get that all worked out). I talked to friends and people in my ward and got a few good recommendations. On a bit of a whim I decided to pick up a few applications from the strip mall across the street from us, a job across the street couldn't be that bad right? I went into Bath and Body Works first, asked for an application, and the manager told me she was doing a group interview in 15 minutes and asked if I could have the application filled out by then. I filled out the application, had and interview, and now, 2 days later, I have a job. Not a great paying job by any means, but one that I think will be good for me. It was almost like an answer to my prayers that everything worked out so smoothly.

I'm thinking that if I can get this tutoring thing under way in the next few months, I can continue both jobs and earn a decent chunk of moolah. I know I can make a lot more money tutoring, but I'm kind of excited to have a job that gets me out of the house for a few hours a week, where I get to do mindless work, and meet new people. I was impressed with the people working at Bath and Body works from the time I walked in. They were friendly, really laid back, and everyone that I talked to seemed to be really happy with their job. The schedule should be okay too. I will be working random night shifts (7:00-10:00) and some Saturdays. My time spent working will be sporadic at first, but as we get into the holidays and the new year, I can work as many hours as I want. So, now I guess I'm a working mother. And hopefully my attempts at other forms of money making will go just as smoothly!

Our Day

I decided to make a post just about our day today...because it was a bit different than usual. Ains woke up with a fever last night and was still slightly warm this morning, so she got to stay home from church with John. It didn't help the situation that our church was earlier than usual today. The Twin Falls temple dedication was being broadcast in local church buildings today and so church times had to be adjusted. Our allotted time was from 8:30-10:30. So while Ains was home (not feeling too sick apparently) she made this funny video....

Children under 8 were not able to go to the dedication. So there were a lot of families like ours that couldn't go to the dedication together. Either one member of the family was going or none at all. We decided to just stay home as a family. And rather than sit at home for hours on end with not much to do on a HOT Sunday, we decided to invite some friends over for brunch. I had fun baking yesterday and made a ridiculous amount of food. I made breakfast pizza, cinnamon rolls, lemon poppy seed muffins, and zucchini chocolate chip muffins (I had to make at least one thing with zucchini in it :). Ains said the prayer on our meal and made sure to point out that we were thankful to have friends so that mom and dad could talk and so that the kids could play, I thought it was funny that she prayed for that.

John and I did have fun talking with other adults and apparently the kids had fun playing. They got a hold of our camera and recorded their fun. They took about 30 pictures and about 6 videos. Here are 2 that I thought were cute.

On a completely unrelated note...I just have to write this story down somewhere so I don't forget it, and it might as well be here.

On Friday night we were sitting outside eating dinner. We had finished and the kids were wandering around playing. Ains came up to John and I at the table at one point and John said to her, "Isn't your mom pretty?" (What a kiss up! Just kidding John) Ainsley turned and walked away and casually said, "I'm prettier." What was funniest about it was that she was so matter of fact. John and I started laughing so hard, and then she started crying because she thought we were laughing because we thought she wasn't pretty. I still smile every time I think of her saying that.

I'm ready.

I am officially ready for some down time and (dare I say it?) for summer to come to an end. Don't get me wrong. I love summer. I love staying up late, warm summer nights, long days, sleeping in, and everything else that's great about summer. But, I'm worn out. It seems like summer is trying to go out with a bang this year. We have managed to cram all the fun we could into these last few weeks of summer and I'm ready for a break. We've swam, barbecued, played with friends, had birthday parties, and taken family pictures. We have also had our schedule filled with church stuff too. It seems like every week I think, "Hey, I will have a somewhat boring week this week"...and then I go to church. This week every night seemed to fill up with some church activity or another. Not that I'm complaining, it's been a lot of fun, I'm just ready for a few days of nothing. I'm not sure that things will slow down when the fall comes and we get into a schedule again, but a change will be welcomed at this point. I guess I'll just have to relax and enjoy this last week or so of crazy busy so that I will be able to fully appreciate the break when it comes!

Headache

My SIL Shelly recently made a comment in a post that she thought her sinus headache might actually be a mother-0f-2 headache. This really struck a chord with me because I have been dealing with the same thing...for the past 2 years. And after realizing that I have been dealing with this headache for the past 2 years, I decided that I needed to make mention of it on my blog.

I've always gotten headaches. They are nothing new to me. But after Owen was born I got horrible headaches, and it was more common for me to be in pain than to be headache free. At the time I blamed it on my sleep deprivation. I was sure that the moment I got a good night sleep the headaches would go away. Long story short. They didn't. I still get headaches often. I would say almost daily.

Owen hasn't been effected by my headache crankiness, but unfortunately Ains has. Every afternoon when Owen goes down for a nap, I usually have a headache. And often times it's bad enough that I know the only thing that will get rid of it is a nap. So it has become daily routine that Ains (bless her self-entertaining heart) plays for a good chunk of Owen's nap while I rest and try desperately to get rid of my headache so that I can make it through the rest of the day.

Yesterday when we were in Twin Falls Ains was asking questions about Tarzan, I couldn't remember the part of the movie she was talking about and told her that I would have to watch the movie again with her sometime to refresh my memory. To this Ains replied, "But you always have a headache." She didn't say it in a whining or complaining tone, just matter of fact. It made me really sad. And now I'm more determined to try to figure out a solution to my current health condition.

I've noticed several things that cause my headaches, the sun (particularly driving in the sun), lack of sleep, and unfortunately, too much computer. The computer problem I can take care of, the other 2, not so much. I have had days where I have taken 12+ Advil and still can't seem to get any relief. So....any suggestions. I'm ready to be rid of this annoyance for good.

Twin Falls Temple

Today we drove to Twin Falls to tour the new temple before the dedication next weekend. I remember touring the Boise temple before it's dedication when I was about Ainsley's age. And while my memories aren't profound (I only remember the booties I had to wear on my feet and gold chains that were blocking off certain rooms) I hope that Ainsley will have some memories of this temple as well.

We stopped by my Randy and Jackie's when we got to Twin so that we could drop off Owen and Bailey (she was gracious enough to watch them so that we could actually enjoy the tour) and then we walked across the street to the temple....this is a picture from her backyard. We literally opened the back gate and crossed the road to the temple. How awesome is that to have a temple in your backyard?!?
The temple was really beautiful. I would love to go back and do a session there one day. It was nice to be there with family, and to be able to walk through with Ains. I was impressed with all the workers that were there, out in the hot sun, ushering people. They even had the youth putting the little booties on people. They also had the cultural hall in the neighboring church looking amazing. That gym looked better than any reception I have ever seen. It was gorgeous. They had displays, cookies (my aunt later told us that they had spent $75,000 just on cookies for the tours!) and lots of missionaries. It was all put together so well.

After pictures we got to spend some time that afternoon with my Aunt, cousin Whitney, and my Grandpa. It really was a great day!

The Zoo

Yesterday the kids and I spent the morning at the zoo with Maria and Hayden (thanks for the invite!) The kids had a lot of fun, and now I think our zoo quota has been met for a while. Now our zoo is nothing fancy, but we did get to see a few interesting things.

We happened to catch this massive bird perched with his wings outstretched for all to see. What was weird was that he stood like this for a really long time!
The kids loved watching the penguins swim in the water right in front of them. At first Owen was scared and would run away whenever a penguin got too close to the glass.
Before we had even walked in the zoo entrance Ains was begging to go on the Merry-go-Round that they have inside. I made her wait until our trip was nearly over...I hope it was as amazing as she had remembered.
I just loved the look on Ainsley's face in this picture.
And last but not least, here is Owen going up the stairs to the giraffe slide...right before I had to climb up them and force him down the slide with Ains. We caused quite the hold up in the line. I think he wanted to go down, but just couldn't work up the courage to do it because he refused to let me carry him down the stairs. So, as my last resort I pried his little fingers off the metal bars he was desperately holding on to and sent him down with his sister. And from what I hear he was smiling on the way down (although he refused to try it again)!
I would have had more pictures to share of what we saw but my camera died after the slide incident...oops!

Family Weekend

Not only did we get to celebrate Owen's b-day this weekend, we also had a lot of family in town for Michael's 'home coming' (I guess they're not actually homecomings anymore, but family came to hear him speak none the less. My mom's sisters (Kelly and Dode (Melody)) and my cousin Aubri and her newborn got here Friday night just after Owen's party. They drove here all the way from St. George. We hung out with them Friday night and stayed up way too late...but it was a lot of fun. We just don't see extended family enough anymore.

On Saturday we just hung out around the pool and made pizza for dinner. It was a great and relaxing day. Just enough activity, and lots of time to talk. It's always fun to get updates about family we don't see much. There's a lot more babies, a few new in laws, fewer cousins still in school, Dode is teaching seminary, Aubri now has 3 kids and the list goes on. One story that I loved was about my aunt Kelly, and with her telling the story, it's hilarious. She just finished running her 3rd marathon, she ran the Boston marathon this year. She had lost her friend before the start of her previous marathon and therefore ended up starting the race 10 minutes after everyone else had crossed the starting line. So when she somehow lost her running group before the start of the Boston marathon she panicked (not wanting to run another marathon alone). When she searched and couldn't find them she ended up standing on top of a bus screaming"HELP ME!" She did end up finding them, and I just think it's amazing that she's still running marathons in her 40's ....I wish I were that buff now!

On Sunday we all got up early, after being up too late again the night before. and headed off to hear Michael speak. My grandpa Welch and my Aunt Jackie and Uncle Randy drove up from Twin. Michael did a good job on his talk...he had a lot of time to fill! He told a story of a man he baptized getting thrown in jail (for nothing you would ever be thrown in jail for here). Michael was wondering why he wasn't coming to church, so he called him on his cell phone that he had with him in jail...odd. This guy would call Michael every Sunday to find out what new member lesson they were on so that he could study it that day in his cell, what a guy! We hear he's now out of jail and doing great.

After church we headed back to my parents for lunch and more visiting. Unfortunately, family wasn't able to stay all that long, and every one left early in the afternoon. It was such a nice weekend. I wasn't smart enough to get a good group shot but I did get a few random ones.

Here's Kelly with the kids. I think Kelly is Ainsley's new best friend. Kelly taught her to swim with out having to stop and take a breath, and after that, a life long friendship had been forged. Kelly was great about playing barbies with Ains, eating with the kids instead of the adults, and playing endless games with them. She's still the favorite Aunt!
Ainsley was also enthralled with Aubri's baby Gavin...she asked to hold him every chance she got.
Here's another baby shot with Aubri and Dode.
Hopefully it won't be another 2 years before I get to see anyone from my mom's side of the family. There's a tentative plan for a reunion in SL in June...so maybe not!

8-8-08

Today was 8-8-08 (in case you hadn't noticed) and the beginning of the summer Olympics. So, what did we do to celebrate? We decided to have a party commemorating Owen's birth. And just in case you were wondering what we did to make this day special, I'll tell you.

Owen got pancakes for breakfast, although I think he liked the grapes he got with his pancakes better. (In this picture he's trying to show me that he's now 2...it's just so tricky to get two fingers up at a time!)
Ainsley really got into Owen's birthday and decided to give him a special snack this morning while I was in the shower. She served granola bars, chips, and cheese crackers. When I got out of the shower I found them both on the kitchen counter cleaning themselves off in the sink. Ains told me she wanted to do the cleaning so that it wouldn't be a disaster.
Ainsley then entertained Owen with some fun games. Her games included emptying Owen's dresser drawers and turning the drawers into little beds, and then rearranging Owen's room. His crib is usually along the other wall.
After his morning of fun and games he got to watch his favorite show, Barney, it is one of the only shows Owen will watch.
After a nap, and a trip to Zurcher's to visit Syd at work and pick up the balloons, the real party started. Owen got an awesome bike from his parents...
and some super fun toys from his grandparents. Owen loves his truck that Grandma D sent and was freaking out because it took me about 15 minutes to get it out of the package....they packaged that thing with more wires than I've ever seen on a toy in my life!
He also now has his own mister, he even managed to get soaking wet from it.

The most significant part of Owen's birthday this year was that he got to share it with his great grandma. They share a birthday but live so far apart that I never thought they would be able to celebrate their b-day's together. Well it just so happened that this year my grandma was here visiting for Michael's homecoming this Sunday, so we got to spend the day with her as well!
We even got to have 2 cakes this year. My mom made my grandma an ice cream cake and I made Owen a 'boy' cake. I think it turned out cute. And in my opinion gummy worms are surprisingly good in cool whip (in case you were wondering).

Owen liked his cake so much that he ate a few bites and then promptly dumped it on the grass and continued his playing.
He seemed to have a ton of fun and was so excited to have new toys to play with (we only buy toys for birthdays and Christmas). He also seemed to understand that the day was all about him, and so did his slightly jealous sister!

The Unsuccessful Play Date

Last week Ains was asking why we hadn't been to the park in a while and was begging to go play in the water at a nearby park. We have only been over to play in the water once all summer so I told her we would call some friends and make a play date out of it. I'm sure there were some moments of fun...

but mostly, there were moments of not fun. Owen spent most of his time on my leg. And there was lots of whining from the kids (mostly mine). It was hot and muggy and for some reason the kids wanted to play on the playground equipment and not in the water. This would have been okay, except that I was so hot I wanted to be getting misted by the water, not sweating it out on the toys.
I must admit that there were tears shed when I forced my son to play in the water. What kind of a mother am I?

Needless to say, the fun day at the park didn't last long. And to top it all off I gave quite the lecture to a child that was not my own. I just couldn't take Ainsley's friend bullying her anymore and so I made it quite clear to her little friend that I knew what she was doing, that it was unacceptable, and that it needed to stop. I've had a week of standing up for myself and I just can't stop....it feels great! Too bad I didn't have the guts to give my lecture in front of the child's mother. Although she did start to cry when her mother came up to us and was wondering what was going on. (I told her mom what had happened and that I had had words with her daughter and that her daughter had apologized and everything was taken care of). (And in case you're wondering...yes this is the same little girl that Ains has always had trouble with, in fact it's the only child, that's not family, that she has ever fought with...I had to throw that last line in to justify my actions :)

I still can't decide if this little encounter was good or bad. Maybe I've made Ainsley a true enemy now? What have I done? Seriously, what kind of a mother am I???
And FYI : I didn't set Ains up for failure, there were several kids her age invited on our outing, it just somehow turned out to be a bad combination of girls that showed up...not that the girls were bad, just the combination.

So that's where she got it...

On Monday night after FHE we were reviewing the story of Nephi and his brothers acquiring the brass plates. We got to the part where Nephi found Laban on the city streets and Ains started laughing and said,"And he was drunk!" At least I know she's learning something from the scriptures.

1 thing...

Yesterday when I asked Ains to bring me her hair brush she said she couldn't because she was too drunk!

What????