Home sweet home

We are back from Disneyland! We had so much fun and we are still all pretty tired from the long week of walking everywhere we wanted to go. The few days before we went seemed to take forever and then the five days that we were at Disneyland just flew by. Before I knew it it was Friday morning and we were loading the car up to go home to Arizona. Where did the week go?

So now we're home and I'm drowning in a huge pile of laundry and putting off doing the dishes until tomorrow. One last day of semi-vacation won't hurt anything.

Our vacation was so much fun and we did so much that writing on big blog about it would take an eternity. So I've decided to write a bunch of small blogs and include the pictures from that specific event to reduce my work load a little bit. So stay tuned for more info on our awesome Disneyland trip. I'll probably write all about it over the next couple of days, I just have to figure out what to start with.

I'll just post one pic of our trip for now since I updated the slideshow at the bottom of the page with lots of new Disney pictures.

Happy birthday Grandma

Today is my Little Grandma's 80th birthday. They are having a big party for her and I'm not gonna make it due to vomit, so I thought I'd dedicate my newest post to her.

First of all, why is she "little"? My cousin Amy started calling my great grandma "big" grandma, so naturally my grandma became "little" grandma, since she was next in line on the grandmother totem pole. As a little kid this confused me to no end. Why was Little Grandma called little and Big Grandma called big? Little Grandma was like a foot taller than Big Grandma, so in my opinion the titles needed reversed. It was explained to me that Little Grandma was little because she was younger than Big Grandma. I didn't see it. They were both over fifty so in my opinion they were both old.

Little Grandma was the go to babysitter for us during the early part of my childhood. We would go over to her house if we were sick and my mom had to go somewhere, or if my parents were going dancing. She almost always had ice cream and ice cream cones to go with that, and that was always a highlight. Sometimes the ice cream cones would have names on them, but they were always old fashioned ones like Bob or Mary so I was "Mary" while I was eating my fudge marble ice cream cone.

I remember her always watching the same shows at the same time everyday, a little Rosie O'Donnell show, some Oprah and a healthy dose of the White Horse Cafe. If you don't remember White Horse Cafe, it was a country music dancing show on TNN, and all it ever showed was people dancing to old country wearing snazzy cowboy hats and boots and fringe on their shirts.

I don't get to see my grandma very often now since we live far away from each other, but sometimes I miss her. I always think back to going to her house with the brown couch that you'd sink into and reading some back issues of Reader's Digest. She was a staple in my childhood and she will always be my favorite grandma.

High school dances

Today I heard a sappy cheesy song on the radio that took me back in time a little bit. It was Firehouse "Love of a lifetime". For those of you who don't know, that song is awesome. Every time that I hear it I can't help but think of a simpler time in my life, a time without bills and jobs and responsibilities. A time of high school dances.

When I was a freshmen/sophomore in high school I went to every single dance that the school had. There was always a dance after home football games and that was the perfect opportunity to do a little bit of socializing. Of course there were going to be boys there so that made it even more appealing. I'm married now so I won't elaborate on any boys who I may or may not have danced with. There's only one boy that I dance with now and he's the best dancer of them all. He is who I dance with on every last song.

First thing when you got there you had to find a good spot on the bleachers/chairs set up around the cafeteria for all of the wallflowers to sit on. K-hall never seemed more romantic. In St. David circa 1997, everyone was a wallflower (during the fast songs anyway). NO ONE danced during the fast songs. Sometimes there would be one or two random alternative type girls out there, but everyone else just looked at them like they were weirdos.

Back then it was all about the slow songs. The slow dances mostly. Just sitting there waiting for that cute boy to ask you to dance, then holding his sweaty hand to walk to the dance floor and hoping you didn't have stinky breath to scare anyone off. We usually stopped off at Tiger Mart before the dance for some Winterfresh gum, just to insure no one had stinky breath. After a few minutes of stiff, awkward dancing you would be escorted back to your spot on the bleachers by the same sweaty handed boy who then politely thanked you for the dance.

Of course the whole experience was way different if you had a boyfriend. Then you knew at least one guy would ask you to dance, you were guaranteed someone to dance with on the last song and sitting there in the bleachers was a whole different experience. Dancing with your boyfriend meant dealing with your hands being sweaty too and then of course the butterflies. Those butterflies plagued me quite a bit in high school. They were a constant presence whenever I danced with anyone special. If you haven't experienced the butterflies, then you've never experienced high school infatuation.

At every dance I ever went to they played exactly the same songs. November rain, Nothing else matters, Always, Bed of roses, Love of a lifetime, Wind of change, etc. Always lots of slow rock songs with sappy lyrics. Awesome. November Rain was a good choice for the last song since its like ten minutes long, but you have to remember that towards the end of the song there's a pause, which causes most people to think its over. You just have to wait out the pause cause afterwards the song continues for like 4 minutes and that is a significant amount of time to keep dancing. We used to laugh at everyone who started to leave the dance floor and then get all confused when the song started up again.

Everyone knows the last song is reserved for that someone special, so if you didn't have a "date" or anyone special in mind then you always hoped you'd get asked. No one wants to be that one person left in their chair like a leper during the last song. Its like being picked last in PE, its just not cool.

Going to the dance when you just broke up with someone is probably one of the worst ideas ever, especially if they're there with someone else. Then you just give them the evil eye all night, and go to the bathroom when staring at the two of them across the room just gets to be too much to handle. Another strategy is to pretend like you are having the time of your life in a lame attempt to make them jealous, assuming they are watching you. Its not proven to work, but you can try it.

As high school went on I went to fewer and fewer dances. They just weren't necessary when I could date and drive without chaperones. But I still have fond memories of sappy slow songs, sweaty palms, flickering fluorescent lights in the bathrooms, winterfresh gum and of course the butterflies.

One awesome pic!

Here you go Krystal, memories that you thought were safely secure in your mind. After you commented earlier I was racking my brain trying to think of what your dress looked like so I dug around some and with minimal effort I found this picture. Look at it this way, it could be worse, you could've done your hair like Melissa's!

One half David + one half Jennifer = Alana

Whenever I look at Alana all I see is her resemblance to David. She has crazy brown curly hair, big brown eyes with super long eyelashes and even his eyebrows. But as soon as she speaks she turns into a mini me. Yesterday she pushed the button on the TV and when it didn't turn on she said "What the heck?" The other day she was making some dolls play together in a little ice cream shop toy. One of the asked "Do you want some ice cream?" - The other one said yes. So then the first guy responds "Well get in here then!" I wonder where she learned that? I'm never that blunt. Ha ha.

The other day she was playing with Jayden and everything she said to him was telling him what to do. She definitely got her bossiness from me. Or maybe its just the natural tendencies of the first born.

Sometimes she takes Ava's toys and insists that they are hers and Ava's, which is just like me always "making" Nicole let me play with her Barbies. Then when we got older I had strict policies on sharing. She could borrow and wear my clothes but if someone complimented her on them she had to tell them it was mine.

Sometimes Alana can be a bit dramatic. She cries easily when she's tired and she can be very gullible. I've outgrown being gullible, but she will still believe everything you tell her. Did you know the word gullible isn't in the dictionary? The other night when Alana was taking a bath she had her ears under the water, so David mouthed words to her and pretended that he was talking. She sat straight up because she thought she couldn't hear. It was a little bit mean but  mostly funny.

Besides her dramatics, screaming when she doesn't get her way, insistency on having her toenails painted at all times, extreme bedhead, and constant cuteness, she's nothing like me.

Random Memories

After writing my last blog and remembering random things about my life I kind of realized all of the things that we tend to remember are sometimes so totally random. I can't for the life of me remember what it was like to hold Alana when she was Ava's size. But I can remember my phone number from when I was in fifth grade and live in Tucson. 795-4872. And my address? 4626 E. 15th street. I remember the name of my 2nd grade teacher, but I cannot name a single one of my classmates.

I can recall our dog Lady having seizures, but can't remember ever having played with that same dog. I remember when my cousin Alissa dared me and Rhonda to eat the weird prickly pears growing on the cactus in her yard, but I can't remember if either of us actually did. (I'm pretty sure I didn't). I remember begging to stay the night in Catalina, because it was awesome, but then being kind of homesick in the middle of the night.

When I was in kindergarten in Illinois I remember going down to the basement of our apartment complex when there was a tornado warning. I would bring toys and random crap down there with me, like that was all I needed to salvage if there ever was an actual tornado. Once while we were on vacation in Missouri there was an actual tornado. It broke the windshield of our suburban and flattened a shed. Then Nathan walked through the rubble left behind from the shed, even though he was told not to and he stepped on a nail. Then he got Dairy Queen along with his tetanus shot. There is no justice in this world.

I remember defending Janette's honor in algebra in 8th grade, because Mr. Bryant made her cry. I called him a male chauvinist pig. But I can't remember what he said to make her cry in the first place. I remember when Mrs. Smith got hit in the face with a wiffle ball during P.E., so we all laughed, then we all got in trouble.

In high school I remember the junior and senior boys seeming like they were all 6 feet tall, because I was a puny little freshmen. I was probably like 5'4", 90 lbs, but they seemed like giants to me. Just going into the breezeway to go to the soda machine was intimidating. Then when I was a senior, all of the freshman seemed tiny, even though I'd only grown a few inches and about 5 lbs.

I remember when Kendi wiped her face with a booger washcloth during halftime of an away football game, and Ami and I just watched and tried to contain her laughter. Probably wasn't the nicest thing I've ever done, but it could've been worse. I also remember standing there in my cheerleading uniform, the first time I tried it on, thinking it was the coolest thing ever. Cheerleading brought me out of my shell a little bit, so I could actually act like the crazy person that I am.

I remember having a permanent smile on my face during graduation, then at some point I realized I would probably not see most of those people again. I had gone to school with most of them for 6 years, but that was the last time we would all be together. Or during eighth grade graduation, when we were paired by height to who we would walk with, I remember just hoping it wasn't Nathaniel Arters. I know that's mean too, but I couldn't help it.

I hope I can hold on to a lot of the memories of my ladies the way I can hold on to my memories. It almost seems sometimes that by the time they get to the next stage we've already forgetten the previous one. When they are born and they are so small its always amazing, because we forget how small they start out. Then before we know it they are 10 lbs, then 15, then they can crawl and roll over and sit up, then they're 20 lbs and they can walk. What happened to that tiny little girl who just slept no matter who was holding her? Who didn't even fit into newborn clothes, designed for little people who only weigh 5-8 lbs?

We do have a little bit of selective memory when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth too. If we really remember how nauseous we felt during the first trimester, how hot we were the whole month of August, we probably wouldn't have any more kids. If we remembered how crappy contractions really are, how anxious we feel leading up to our due date, wondering when we will get to meet our newest lady, we would probably stop at one. I'm lucky when it comes to pregnancy, I don't get swollen ankles, I only gain 25 lbs, I'm only nauseous till about 20 weeks and I never throw up (knock on wood). But even if I suffered the whole time I probably wouldn't remember.

Not that you forget everything, it just gets a little fuzzy. I just hope to remember how excited I was when I found out I was pregnant, how I texted David to tell him the news with Alana, after I took a pregnancy test in the bathroom at work. How David thought it would be funny to tell me my test with Ava was negative, when it obviously wasn't. Ha ha. How happy I was to hold each of them for the first time. I hope my memory holds onto the good ones.

Embarassment

Its crazy the random stuff we remember. My mom asked me to think of something embarassing that she's done and I'm drawing a blank. I can however, think of plenty of embarassing things that I've done.

I once walked around the entire grocery store as carefree as possible, then when I got to the register the courtesy clerk told me my zipper was down.

At the same store I opened the dairy case and three gallons of milk fell on the floor at my feet, they all broke and made a giant mess. When I got up front my boyfriend at the time and his friend were standing there laughing. They were in the dairy cooler and pushed the milk out when I opened the door because they thought it would be funny. Ha ha.

I fell a ridiculous amount of times ice skating, then had to crawl to the side to get up while little kids passed me by pointing and laughing. Then when I finally pulled myself up the whole front of my pant legs were soaking wet from the ice.

Once on a van trip to who-knows-where in high school I was sitting there, minding my own business, listening to my discman (which was awesome by the way), I decided to make a suggestion about where we should drive. So I said "WE SHOULD TAKE THE CARPOOL LANE" in my "kloos" voice, not realizing how loud I was since the volume on my discman was turned up so loud.

More than one time I had pen marks on my face during class, and of course I didn't realize it. Someone had to point it out. After that happened a couple of times I became very careful when I was writing or putting my pen behind my ear. Its even worse if nobody tells you, then you go to the bathroom and look in the mirror and wonder how long that mark has been there.

I never personally experienced this next one, but I know plenty of girls who got their monthly visit from their "Aunt Flo" at very bad times. Sometimes it was in the middle of class or during lunch, but more often than not they didn't realize it and someone had to point it out, usually a boy. That would be really humiliating.

All of my most embarassing memories are all from high school, since at that point in most people's lives they are so unsure of who they are. If any of these happened to me now, as a self assured 27 year old, I wouldn't even care. But in high school I'm sure my face turned red and I thought I was going to die of embarassment.

Excited and impatient

Only four days left until we go to Disneyland and I can't wait. Hopefully the next two days that David is working will go fast because when he's not home time has a tendency to drag on. I'm not by nature a patient person so the days before vacation always drag on forever.

I liken them to the days before a really awesome field trip when I was in school. Just waiting to go to the renaissance fair or a leadership conference in high school always made me so excited. I would pack my backpack/bags like a week ahead of time. In elementary school I always liked the field trips where we had to bring our own lunch, because that meant I would get something extra awesome, usually a lunchable (a days worth of salt in one convenient package), a bag of chips and a candy bar. The candy bar was always my favorite part so of course it had to be eaten last for full enjoyment. I'm surprised I didn't eat the candy the night before because I was so excited to have a candy bar!

More than one time I ate like half of the candy for girls camp that I had bought for handouts/mail to my friends. I would have them rationed out to give to my "secret sister", my actual sister if she was an adventurer that year, and whoever else I had previously determined. Then I would eat the rest. Its a miracle I'm not a giant fat person.

I'm so excited to go to Disneyland its actually a little dorky. David said the same thing. Here we are, 27 and 30, and we're counting down the days till we go see Mickey Mouse. We can say its for our kids all we want but the reality of it is that we love Disneyland just as much as they do, probably more.

Stinky rat boys

A few years ago David started referring to my nephews as rat boys. The nickname stuck for a little bit, at least in our house. About six months ago I referred to them as "stinky rat boys" to Alana. I asked her if she was excited that her "stinky rat boy cousins" were coming over. Of course she said yes, they are awesome! Since then she has been calling all three of them stinky rat boys. She knows their names, but most of the time they are just stinky rat boys.

Yesterday at Walmart she picked out a clearance box of valentines because she wanted to give some to her cousins. She proudly carried that box around the store and while we waited in line she told EVERYONE who they were for. She is a hot lady, so naturally people always smile at her and say hi. That gives her an open invitation to have a conversation about her purchases. Everyone that looked at her got a whole mouthful about how she was buying that box of candy to give to her stinky rat boys. They have no idea what she's talking about so I always have to explain so they know how to respond. What do you say to a three year old at Walmart who's talking about rat boys and you have no idea what she's talking about?

I can't even tell Alana in advance if her cousins are coming over, because she'll bug me all day until they get here. Yesterday I told her that Dole and her stinky rat boy cousins were coming over in the afternoon and she asked me at least ten times when they were going to get here. When they finally did get here she got so excited. She said "hi stinky rat boys", and then Grayson said something along the lines of "aah" to her and she laughed really loud and said "mommy, Grayson said aah to me". She was that excited just because he said something to her, and it wasn't even a real word. After that she mostly played with Jayden since they are so close in age they have more common interests, even if her idea of fun is playing with dolls or playing "doctor" and his idea of fun is taking off his shirt and showing off his bike riding skills.

Grayson and Colby are really cool to her because they are older, especially Grayson. He is the epitome of awesome. Everything he does is cool to Alana, after all he's older and wiser so therefore really awesome. I remember thinking my older cousins were cool too, just because they were older than me. Older = cooler.

Poor man's diet

Right now I am kind of starving but I have nothing to eat. Its not that we don't have anything in our pantry, its just all crap that David or my ladies eat, not me. I'm not really a Chef Boyardee kind of girl, and stage 2 baby food isn't that yummy either. Usually on Wednesdays we have lots more food, cause that's when I go grocery shopping. But I hate to buy perishable food a few days before we go on vacation for a week. We probably won't finish it and by the time we come home it will have gone bad. Bananas don't exactly have a long shelf life. So that leaves me rummaging through the cupboards looking for something I like to eat. I ended up with a big glass of instant breakfast, not the most filling food in the world but if I eat anything too filling I won't be hungry for dinner at 6. Plus I want to use up all of the milk left in the fridge before Saturday. At least this way I won't overeat before vacation so the half a dozen chocolate chip cookies I eat at Disneyland will be okay.

McNugget Buffet

McDonald's has a special every weekend of February: 50 "chicken" mcnuggets for $9.99. The very idea of that made David excited, he said we definitely had to go get some nuggets. So that's what we did. On Saturday I went up to McDonald's and bought a giant box of nuggets with a bunch of different sauces for our dipping pleasure and the obligatory Happy meal for Alana. We had sauce buckets lined up on the floor next to our nugget buffet. My personal favorite was the sweet chili sauce, which is kind of like the sauce on the orange chicken at Panda Express. A close second was a combo of ranch and buffalo, it was reminicsent of a hot wing. Between the two of us we probably ate at least 30, with Alana taking only a couple. We wouldn't let her just dip them in ranch and lick it off so that made her stop eating them. I think I ate at least ten, and my stomach was really full afterward.

I'm not always a big fan of the McNugget. They have their moments but I'd rather eat almost anything else on McDonald's menu than the weird breaded chicken concoction, that claims to be made with all white meat. Just because they are made with all white meat doesn't mean they are healthy. They are "white meat" glued together with some of the crap leftover from making hotdogs or dog food, then they are breaded and fried. I'm okay with me eating it, I'm a consenting adult. But the fact that people feed them to small children under the pretense that they're healthy because they're chicken is total crap. They're no healthier than a cheeseburger and they don't actually occur in nature. But I still eat them so I guess I'm either a hypocrite for saying they're unhealthy or I just have a big weakness for junk food.

Cyclops, an action movie and a sports bar

Today David and I decided to go to a movie and out to eat as a partial effort towards Valentine's Day celebrations. We aren't a very romantical people so we don't exactly go for candlelit dinners and sweetsy movies. David is also a big fan of saying that "flowers die" so he usually doesn't buy flowers. Plus I don't really want to spend a bunch of money on flowers and candy when we're going on vacation in less than a week. Regardless of my pre-vacation thriftiness we felt we should take a stab at some sort of "celebration" of our love.

Being the awesome and great wife that I am I let David pick the movie. I'm not a huge fan of chick flicks and since that's almost all that's out right now I didn't really have an opinion one way or the other. So David picks "From Paris, with love." Sounds romantic right? Don't let the title fool you, its about John Travolta being some sort of bald and goateed secret agent guy with an odd couple pairing for a partner, running around Paris trying to stop some harebrained terrorist plot. It wasn't exactly a cinematic masterpiece, but David says that's cause I don't fully appreciate slow motion bullet action.

So right after we get out of the movie we go outside the theater where its blindingly bright. So I reach into my bag and get my brand new sunglasses and put them on. Besides the fact that one side seems a little brighter than the other I don't notice anything out of the ordinary. I walk from the theater to the car, get into the car and we start to drive away. Then I glance at my reflection in the rearview mirror. My glasses only had one lens in them! I looked like a pirate! Or some kind of weird cyclops - or even when people have a bandage over one eye but still wear glasses anyway. My wonderful caring husband either didn't notice or didn't bother to tell me that I was walking around in public looking like an idiot. He was probably too busy looking at my boobs to look at my face. Luckily I didn't go too far before noticing and the missing lens was in my purse.

After that romantic movie and my embarassment of looking like a pirate we did the next most romantic thing we could think of. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings. For most people a sports bar doesn't put them in the mood, but for David anywhere they have TV's in the bathroom and sports on every channel is a dream come true. Plus, they serve hot wings! After eating a meal where almost everything had BBQ sauce on it we came home, Valentine's Day celebrations complete.

Even though David didn't tell me I was walking aroung looking like an idiot I still love and appreciate him and everything he does for me and our ladies. He goes to work every day without complaint, does the dishes more than I give him credit for, is a great husband and father and even puts up with my crazy "crockpot moments" when I'm pregnant (inside joke!). So I guess he deserves to see a cheesy action movie and eat hot wings every once in a while.

One Half

Today Ava is officially one half of a year - she's six months old! That first year always goes by so quick, one minute the doctor is handing you a perfect pint sized little lady, the next that baby is looking up at you smiling as she walks across the room.

Ava's not quite to the walking stage yet but she still finds a way to get where she wants to go. She rolls in every direction and then once she's on her belly she uses her arms to turn herself around to face whatever she wants. She really loves to bounce in her jumper, like REALLY loves it. She eats two meals a day of solid foods, her favorites are apple/blueberry and strawberry yogurt. She finds everything that Alana does to be hilarious and gets excited when Alana even comes near her. She still takes all of her naps in her swing, she prefers to be put down when she's really tired rather than be held, which is completely opposite of her sister. She reaches for everything that catches her eye and if she happens to get ahold of it she puts it in her mouth. She can sit up by herself, but still occasionally tips over to the side so I have to stay nearby to prevent any catastrophes. She is lovable, huggable, kissable and squeezable. I love her more every second and wish she would stop growing up so fast!

New Pics

We took some new family pics today - nothing special, just some shots at my favorite brick wall of all time. I'd like to thank my tripod, my self timer, and my husband for cooperating. Special shout out to my ladies, for looking good in every shot. I would not like to thank the obnoxious kid who kept riding his bike in front of my camera. I wanted to stick a broomstick in his bike spokes to knock him over. After much anticipation here they are:

Lovable Troublemaker

Alana has been a class 1 poophead the past couple of days. Her potty training is going good, she has pretty much "trained" herself, but when it comes time to dump out the potty into the toilet the stubborn brat comes out. She insists on doing it herself and she's not exactly careful. Then she wants to rinse it out in the sink by herself, but she can't reach the sink. She has also not been a fan of taking no for an answer. I tell her no and she screams like a little devil child. The other night Ava was chewing on a toy of Alana's and Alana decided sharing isn't her cup of tea, so she took the toy away from her. The next morning she kept trying to play with a bunch of different toys that all belonged to Ava. I told her that if she can't share with her sister then she can't play with any of her sister's toys. So she begrudgingly handed Ava the toy she had taken away from her the night before, as some sort of trade off for all of the toys of Ava's that she wanted to play with. She is also a TV tyrant. Even if she's in the other room she will insist that you leave the TV on whatever she was watching. This morning she went into her room to play and yelled out "Don't turn off Mulan!" Like I was going to take orders from a 3 year old.

Even with all of her brattiness its not possible to stay mad at her. When I was blow drying my hair today she kept yelling "Mommy, I wuv you!" as loud as she possibly could to drown out the hair dryer. Then I would answer her and she would say again "Mommy! Mommy! I wuv you!" After I turned off the hair dryer again and answered her she yelled again "MOMMY! I wuv you again!" How could I be mad at a bratty little girl who says she "wuvs" me again?

Helpful Advice

Just a few things I've learned recently in my day to day life. Nothing out of the ordinary, but helpful to me nonetheless.

*Don't go to Walmart without combing your hair - you will inevitably see someone you know and their hair will be combed.
*Don't stand in front of the open fridge door and complain you're cold - your mommy won't feel sorry for you.
*Don't tell your daughter in law about your lady problems - she doesn't want to know. (The same goes for your son, he doesn't want to know either)
*Don't leave a baby who can roll over on the couch, she sees that as a challenge to roll off.
*Don't rent a movie from the Redbox unless you have at least 30 minutes scheduled to return it.
*If your baby is still awake after swinging for 30+ minutes, she is probably poopy.
*If you suck at baseball in real life, then you probably aren't going to excel at baseball on the Wii.
*Baked beans can be eaten cold, directly out of the can and will taste just as good if you're a hungry 3 year old.
*Always soak clothes that have been pooped on in warm water, or else you're gonna end up washing them at least three times.
*Babies always look sweeter when they're asleep on your lap.
*If something made your baby sister laugh one time, then its bound to work every other time you do it from now on.
*The only way to stop a stubborn 3 year old from turning on the bedroom TV when she's in trouble is to unplug it.
*Never say you will never wear maternity pants with a panel, they are deceptively comfortable (especially the secret fit ones from Motherhood).
*The cutest maternity clothes are the ones for sale when you're not pregnant, and all cute clothes are for sale when you don't have any money.

I don't know if this advice will be helpful to anyone else, but its all stuff I'm gonna stick to.

Killing Time

Its ten days until we go on vacation and time is passing so very slowly that I can't believe it. I am so bored right now and that just makes it worse. I have no good TV shows on my tivo, both my ladies are asleep, David's at work until 6, I don't need to start dinner for at least another half an hour.

To top it all off I just finished the book I was reading, which always leaves me feeling a little bit empty. For 2 days I read all about these characters and their lives and I got sort of attached to them, then at the end of the 750 pages I am kind of sad that I'm done with it. I try to find long books so I don't finish them so quickly, but I read fast and have a lot of time on my hands so I'm usually done in a couple of days.

I had actually bought the book to read on the drive to Disneyland, but I was too hyped to read it since it was by one of my favorite authors, Wally Lamb. He has only written a few books and he spaces them out like ten years, so when I saw the book at Target I had to buy it. I knew he had another book coming out last year, but I was too cheap to buy it even though I really wanted to read it. It's called "The hour I first believed" and I highly recommend it. It starts out with fictional characters in a non-fiction setting, which happens to be Columbine High School. The book follows the main character and his wife, who work there at the time of the school shootings in 1999, and then follows their lives afterward as they try to move on. It was really good and it made me kind of sad to finish it.

Now I'm left with the next ten days to fill with activities, and the whole time I'm ready to be on vacation. The ladies and I are getting a little bit of cabin fever and Disneyland is the only cure. Plus when you are staying in a hotel someone else makes your bed, takes out the trash and cleans the toilet.

So now I've got to kill a little bit of time so the days don't pass so slowly. I could scrapbook, but I'm out of adhesive. Or maybe I'll find something else to read, but every book at Walmart is crap and magazines are mostly ads. Hopefully my ladies will wake up soon and want to play.

Put on your dancing shoes

At the beginning of March, as long as I can get David to agree, Alana is going to start going to dance classes! I've seen the sign in the storefront here in Benson a few times, but I always forget to write down the number to get info. Today when I was driving by I got my phone out and punched the numbers in so I could call when I got home. That doesn't count as using my phone while driving either. When I got home I called the number and I'm in luck, they accept 3 year olds. So every Monday and Wednesday evening Alana will be dancing the night away.

She has been dancing around like a crazy person since she could stand, so I think she'll really like it. She used to mimic the cheerleaders dance moves at practice, like really mimic them. She picked up on little moves that they did and she looked so cute standing next to them copying them. She also repeats moves from music videos, so I tell David to try to steer clear of some rap videos when hes flipping through the channels. He channel surfs through MTV video channels just to get Alana to dance.

If she does get to join she will have her big dancing debut in May, all glittered up in a fancy sequined costume. Since she loves to dress in fancy pretty clothes that will be another highlight for her I'm sure.

Keeping my fingers crossed that David agrees with me on how much she will love it because she is such a social person and I know she would really enjoy getting to play with girls her own age.

Twinkle Twinkle

Alana has discovered her singing voice! Her rendition of Twinkle Twinkle is the best I've ever heard. It goes a little something like this:

Twinkle twinkle yittle star,
How I wonder what you are,
Up above da world so high,
Yike a diamond in da sky,
Twinkle twinkle yittle star,
How I wonder what you are

I may be biased but its almost the cutest thing I've ever heard! She also has mini versions of other songs, including the ABC's and Old Mcdonald. I love how 3 year olds just sing the alphabet the way they hear it, not necessarily the way its supposed to go. She's adding more songs to her repertoire every day but none of them are as cute as twinkle twinkle.

12 days and counting!

Only 12 days left till we go to Disneyland! I am such a nerd that I actually have the number of days written on the calendar leading up to the 21st, which is when we leave. We got a good deal for 5 day park hopper tickets (I know 5 days seems like a lot but we leave to take naps midday, which I highly recommend) so we are going to the park the same day we get there. We are leaving at 4 am Sunday, to try to get a good chunk of the 500 miles out of the way while our ladies are still asleep. To top that off we will gain an hour because of daylight savings time in California, so after you subtract the time we will lose to stop at McDonald's for breakfast and stopping to feed Ava and pee, we hope to get there about 1. We can't check into our hotel till 3 or 4 so we're just gonna get out the stroller and go straight into Disneyland. It helps that we're staying at the Disneyland hotel so everything we want to get to is within walking distance.

I'm really excited and can't wait to go. Going to Disneyland with your kids is a whole different experience, because you get to see it through their eyes, and they get so excited over everything. Mickey Mouse is so much cooler when he's taller than you. As far as Alana is concerned that is the real Mickey Mouse, not just some guy in a costume. It doesn't matter that we see him more than once a day and depending on where you see him he's in different clothes, he is "the" Mickey Mouse. She has never been afraid of the characters, with the exception of a little hesitancy to hug Captain Hook, which is understandable. Her favorite part is definitely seeing all of the princesses and Tinkerbell, because they are all so glamorous.

David's favorite part is the Toy Story Mania ride, because its 3D and you get to shoot at stuff, so I imagine that we'll probably go on that a couple of times. I don't care which rides we go on, as long as I get at least one chocolate chip cookie per day. That's my favorite part.

The days will pass slowly from now till then, then once we get there time will fly. But it will be fun while it lasts.

Stay of execution

This morning we attempted to take Alana to the dentist. They had scheduled her for an all-in-one visit because she has to be sedated. My last attempt didn't go so well, she wouldn't even let the dentist look at her teeth without screaming. I had to pry her mouth open while he looked in and x-rays were not something that was attainable. I know she has a cavity in one of her top molars on her left side, its obvious, but getting her to cooperate is a whole other story. So they said to come back, schedule her to get gassed so they could look at her teeth and bring another parent to help.

We got there at 7:45 am for a 9 am appointment. They were supposed to weigh her, take her blood pressure and give her some kind of drink to make her drowsy before they gave her more sedation at 9. Ava and I went to the waiting room while David took Alana to get her pre-appt stuff done. Within a couple of minutes I could her Alana screaming and before I knew it they came into the waiting room where I was at. They weren't even going to attempt to do any of the procedures with just a little sedation, she is so combative that she needs to be completely knocked out. They didn't think that she would be sedated enough to restrain her when they did stuff to her teeth.

That's not the greatest news I've ever received at the dentist. There's a waiting list for the two days a month that the anesthesiologist is there and then even when you make it to the top of the list you still have to wait for prior authorization from your insurance company. They could have just put her on that list last time she went there and refused to cooperate, instead of making me sign papers giving permission to put her under general anesthesia, and then changing their mind and saying she could just be sedated with gas. It would've saved me time because within seconds of trying to look at her teeth they threw in the towel. I could've slept past 5:30 this morning and Alana could've eaten breakfast this morning. David could've gone to work and I wouldn't of had to go out when it was 30 degrees out.

So until Alana gets a little closer to the top of the list or lets people look at her teeth without screaming, she has been given more time to live with her cavities. She has been given a stay of execution.

Super? bowl

David considers the super bowl almost like a mini holiday. For two weeks prior to it he asks me daily "What are we gonna eat for the super bowl?", like that's my main priority in life. What I'm gonna cook so that he can sit on the couch and watch stupid football. I should drop everything and start planning the menu of hot wings and whatever chip/dip combo sounds appealing that day. It doesn't really matter what we're eating that day anyway, unless its ramen noodles or macaroni and cheese, David isn't cooking it. We usually end up having something easy anyway, cause I'm not slaving over a stove for food that is eaten mindlessly while watching TV.

The past two years in a row I haven't really wanted to host a super bowl party. I don't want to have to clean up the mess, and my living room isn't big enough to fit lots of people. Its easier to just go to my parents house. Then they can clean up before and after and the kitchen is separate from the living room, so I don't have to even listen to the game. The kids have a lot more rooms to play in also, so they aren't right on top of us and if they want to watch TV its not my bed they're jumping on.

We have started our own mini tradition the past couple of years of leaving sometime late in the third quarter. Its not really because we want to, mostly because my drama queen Alana is crying about something and she's so tired from playing hard the past couple of hours that she is inconsolable. Last year there was an altercation involving Alana, Jayden and a bottle of carb cleaner. I won't mention details but Alana was not in a party going state afterward. This year whatever happened only involved Alana. There were no rat boys around and no real witnesses. The only fragments of story we can get from Alana involve her somehow falling on the dog. I was sitting in the computer room with Josh and Alana came in. She wasn't crying or anything, but I noticed that a little bit of blood was dripping from her nose. I handed Ava off to someone else and took Alana in the kitchen, where I put her up on the counter. Then I got a paper towel and tried to wipe her nose to keep the blood from getting everywhere. As soon as she saw the blood she freaked out and started screaming and crying. After David came in and we were both unsuccessful at calming her down we decided to call it quits and go home. She hadn't taken a nap and she was emotional because of it. So once again we went home at the end of the third quarter.

On the way home David said we should watch the game from home next year. Great, just what I want, to host a party for something I consider to be stupid.

More Barbie love

It would appear that I'm not the only one in this family that loves Barbies. Ava is not even six months old yet and she goes out of her way to get to Alana's Barbies when they are laying on the floor. If there is one within 5 feet of her she will slowly roll and maneuver her way to it so that she can give it hugs and attempt to eat it. Alana let her play with this one when she was on the bed and she has been hooked ever since.

Small bits of success

I will probably jinx myself by writing this, but so far today Alana has worn underwear all day and consistently used her potty chair. I bought her cute valentines day underwear at Old Navy and she was really excited about wearing them, so this morning when she woke up she took off her diaper, used her potty chair and put on some new duds - they have hearts on them so they are officially awesome in her book. So as of 5 pm today we are accident free and I have dumped out the frog potty about 5 times. She's taking a nap right now so hopefully she doesn't pee in her sleep, especially since she is on a chair in the living room.

I heart Barbies!

Today I was over at someone's house and I noticed that her dog had chewed on a couple of her daughter's barbie dolls. The thighs had some teeth marks and the arms had little stubs where the hands used to be. It reminded me of all of my chewed up dolls and made me a little nostalgic for the days when I had my love affair with barbie dolls.

As far back as kindergarten I can remember playing with Barbies. I dressed as a Barbie for Halloween that year, even though the costume basically consisted of a plastic smock and a mask I wasn't allowed to wear. Instead my mom put makeup on me, probably blue eye shadow and pink lipstick, because that was Barbie's official makeup look of the 80's. I tried to give Barbie a makeover once too, so I cut off her hair. I thought with the shape of her face and her high cheekbones she would look cute with a bob. She didn't. If you've ever experimented with the length of Barbie's hair then you know if you try and cut it short it sticks straight up and you can see all of the little places where they put the hair into her head. It's not attractive at all.

Nicole and I always played Barbies together. I remember always trying to convince her to let me play with whatever brand new doll she got for her birthday, even though at my birthday there was no way I was gonna let her play with my new Barbie. I used my newest Barbie for bartering when I tried to convince my sister to let me play with her doll. If she let me play with her brand spanking new doll with its permanently in high heels feet and still untangled hair then I would let her play with my "new" Barbie, even though it was 5 months old by that point. She usually gave in too. Never underestimate the bargaining skills of a bossy older sister.

We played Barbies together pretty much our whole childhood. Sometimes we would gather them up, get them all dressed up nice and do all of their hair. Barbie needed to look her best in case the one Ken doll that we had showed up. We also liked to make Barbie go swimming in the bathtub. In case you didn't know, the faucet makes an excellent high dive and Barbie can do lots of awesome dives and flips off of it. She will even jump off of the shower head when she's feeling extra brave. When we got to the age where modesty was a factor when in the bathtub, we did the only logical thing to do. We put on bathing suits. We took baths with our Barbies diving off of the faucet wearing our bathing suits. It's even more awesome than it sounds.

Sometimes when Ken would come visit Barbie they would lay together in the bed. Thats all they did. Just layed there. Pretty risque, I know. Other times Barbie enjoyed doing gymnastics. She is infinitely flexible, she can always do the splits, even without stretching. She performed countless floor routines of awkward cartwheels and flips and splits across our long dining room table. She was really quite talented. Barbie always let me braid her hair, sometimes even a french braid if she was going for a fancier look. That's how I perfected my braiding technique and she never complained if I pulled her hair too tight. Barbie was always happy to entertain the dog, even if that meant it chewed off her arm. Some of my Barbie's were scarred for life where the dog had gnawed on their hands, leaving their permanently bent arm disfigured. She always took it like a champ though.

One year at Christmas time my mom told me and Nicole that we could open one of our presents if we guessed what it was. The only guess we could come up with was that it had to be a Barbie. The box was long and thin and pretty much flat, but we still insisted that it contained a Barbie. Is is a Barbie? Its gotta be a Barbie. Are you sure its not a Barbie? It wasn't a Barbie, it was a rack you hang on the wall and hang junk on. Definitely not as cool as a Barbie.

Barbie was a good friend. She never let me down, never talked about me behind my back and she always let me get the last word. She taught me lots of lessons, including never leave your toys laying around because the dog will chew them up, legs can never be properly reattached once they've come off, and blue eye shadow is always classy. She was my favorite toy for a long time and now I get to play with her again because of my ladies. Alana is just starting to appreciate Barbie and all of her girly characteristics, but for me its like I've been reunited with an old friend, and I didn't even realize how much I missed her.

Slow and steady wins the race

I have become something I used to hate: a slow shopper! When we used to go on vacations to Illinois and Missouri we used to go to boring old antique stores and it would annoy me so much because we spent so much time there. Lynnell would have to look at EVERYTHING  and it was so boring. Now whenever we go shopping, especially at Target, I'm the one who wants to look at EVERYTHING. Well maybe not everything, I don't want to look at men's clothes or the automotive section or anything, but I want to take my time and look at all the stuff I like. David just wants to look at electronics and baby clothes and then leave. Sorry, but I don't get to go to Target very often and I want to look around. I guess I should be grateful that I have a husband who at least wants to look at baby clothes, but I want to spend a little time looking at picture frames, kitchen stuff, makeup and maybe even the bedding once in a while. I could be missing out on good deals by not looking at everything!

Too friendly?

Sometimes Alana is so friendly, here are two examples:

Yesterday we went to Taco Bell in Sierra Vista to eat lunch. When we walked in I noticed a cardboard cutout of the "drive thru diet" lady in the corner by the bathroom, but Alana didn't notice it. After we ordered I went to the bathroom and took Alana with me. When we came out she noticed the cardboard cutout but she thought it was a real person. The cutout was right by the table she wanted to sit at so she went up to the cutout and said hi, even though I was telling her it wasn't a real person. She walked right up to it, said hi in her friendliest voice and reached out to touch it. That's when the lady folded in half at the waist and fell right on top of her. She screamed and ran away crying. I couldn't help but laugh as I propped the cutout back up against the wall and went to comfort Alana. She was really mad after that, even after I tried to tell her it was just a big picture of that lady. Then when David came to the table she made sure to tell him not to touch the big picture of that lady.

Today we were driving by Liberty Tax and since its tax season they have a person dressed up as the statue of liberty outside. In the past they have had a low budget costume, which was pretty much just someone with a greenish robe, a fake torch and a crown. This year they decided to go big or go home and went with a person with a giant foam statue of liberty head and ugly green robe. I guess to Alana this looks like a potential character at Disneyland and since she loves to meet all of them she said she wanted to go meet that person. She wanted me to pull the car over right there so she could get out and meet the liberty tax mascot. She wanted to give it a hug. I told her that at Disneyland she could meet whoever she wanted and she asked if that guy was going to be there.

Maybe sometimes she is too friendly!

Favorite new things

 

These are my two favorite new things from this weekend's shopping spree. David was a little harder to please, he had to get a new TV to be happy with his purchases, but all I needed was a couple of things and I was happy. I spent most of my money on clothes for my ladies, partly because everything at Old Navy was on sale for 30% off. I usually can only get a few things when I go shopping, but Saturday I got a whole cartful of clothes and new fun stuff. I've been wanting those butterfly wall decoration things for a long time and I was too cheap to get them. And I've need new slippers forever, my old ones went in the trash last year because they had holes in the bottom. David is not a fan of my new awesome cat slippers, he said he can't take me seriously if I'm wearing them, but I don't care. I think they're awesome.

Battle of the giant TV

Yesterday David bought a new extremely ridiculous 50 inch TV. He has wanted to buy a newer bigger TV for a couple of years, probably ever since my dad got a 46 inch TV that made our 37 inch look a little smaller in comparison.

He bought a 37 inch TV 4 years ago right after we got married. We were in Las Vegas and I said if he won enough money to buy a bigger TV then I didn't care if he got one. I also said he would have to buy a new entertainment center to put it on since our old one wasn't gonna cut it. Never bet against David in Vegas. He won $1500 playing roulette. We were eating dinner at a food court like area in NY NY and everyone thought David had gone to the bathroom or something. Then he came back with a stupid smile on his face. He had turned $250 into $1500 in less than ten minutes. He just kept doubling his money until he decided to stop pressing his luck. So on the way home we stopped at Costco and bought the biggest TV that we could get for the money we had to spend. Then we bought a big entertainment center to put it on that happens to be adjustable so you can put giant TVs on it.

Yesterday after we went to Walmart to buy the new giant TV we brought it home and had to rearrange our whole entertainment center and all of the crap on it to fit the TV. Without adjusting it or moving it the space is 46 inches x 32 inches. The TV measures 49 x 33. So we had to move the stupid towers apart about 4 inches and take down the shelf that was right above the old TV. The whole thing is really heavy and I'm not exactly helpful when it comes to moving stuff, given my skinny chicken arms. The most I can lift is about 30 lbs, about the size of Alana. Then after we finally got the cabinet space big enough to fit the dumb thing in I had to hook up all of the video game stuff, dvd player and cable.

I happen to have a husband who likes to watch TV but has no idea how to hook up any of the eqiupment for it. So while I'm behind the TV trying to figure out the diagram of which av plug goes where and what cord belongs to what gadget, he wants to make small talk. I don't really care if you want to eat G & F's crappy cardboard pizza for dinner while I'm trying to make sense of all these weird diagrams and cords for a stupid TV that I don't even want. So I told him to leave me alone or he can figure out all of this junk and I will go watch TV in the bedroom. Why not just watch TV in the bedroom anyway? It now houses our "old" 37 inch TV that was in the living room. It makes the 25 inch TV that was in there before seem tiny. After a while and a trip to Walmart in search of an av splitter I figured out how to hook everything up without having to turn the TV around everytime David wants to play stupid video games.

I personally wish he hadn't gotten a new TV because it was a giant thorn in my side, but he really likes it. I don't like that the cable remote won't adjust the volume on the new TV when it worked perfectly fine with the old one. I also hate that I lost a shelf over the TV where I had a bunch of picture frames and there is now a 2 inch gap on either side of the middle of the entertainment center, when before there was no space at all. But I do like having a bigger, nicer, non buzzing TV in the bedroom.