September 09 Movie

Things

Did you know that I have never - NEVER - bought new clothes for any of my own kids when they were babies? And not once have a wandered through a store with my own child in mind and bought the clothes that I love most. In fact, in Elijah's nearly three years of life I have bought him a total of two items. Both shirts. Both for family pictures. Which means there were specific perameters. Enoch tops Elijah at two shirts AND a pair of pants. Family pictures again. Seara has gotten three outfits (you guessed it - family pictures) and a set of onesies. That's it. Sure, I have had moments where I wished that I could choose what my kids wear. And you bet I have longed to buy a few new outfits when I first found out the gender of each of my darling baby bellies. But the truth is, mostly I feel really grateful that I have a sister with kids just older than mine who is supremely generous with her old clothing.

Want to know what else I haven't? I've never had a changing table. Or a chest of drawers. Or a saucer. Or a bouncer. Or a play mat. Or a walker. Or a swing. (Actually I did get an old swing from a friend once, but it broke after a couple weeks.)

All my infant car seats were hand-me-downs from friends. I've only ever used cheap umbrella strollers for my infants. My crib was $10 at a garage sale. I fished my rocking chair out of a trash pile, but the arm rests ended up being too high for my monkey arms so I rarely used it.

I've never decorated a nursery. I've never bought pictures, shelves, letters for a name, decorations, display toys, or blankets. I've never painted anything for my kids' room. There were just always more responsible ways to use the money.

But the weirdest thing of all is that I don't really mind. Do I wish that I would have waited a few years to have kids so that we could have afforded more? NO! Never! The truth is, the children don't know or care. The truth is, fancy things don't make a whit's worth of difference in how your child grows. The truth is, things don't make you happy. People do. And I have three little people that are worth every single sacrifice I've made - and so much more.

Flu Shots

Elijah was only a few hours old when my glands started swelling and my sinuses started aching. For the next six months there wasn't a single day that at least one of us wasn't suffering from either a severe cold or a severe flu. We got every mutation of the cold and flu that existed. Weeks of sinus headaches became normal. Finding the kids - and their cribs - covered in vomit (or worse) was a regular occurrence. It was a miserable winter.

So every winter since then I have absolutely insisted that every single one of us get flu shots. And in the two and a half years since that winter ended ...

Seara has had one cold.
Elijah has had one cold and one flu.
Sam has had one cold.
And I have had three colds and two flues.

Honestly, it is a MIRACLE that my two toddlers have been so healthy for the last 2 1/2 years. I, on the other hand .... well, either the flu shots don't work on me, or else I need to wash my hands more often.

So we're off to get our flu shots this afternoon. Sam doesn't want to go. He swears that every time he gets a flu shot, he gets the flu. But we were supposed to go get our shots on Friday (didn't make it) and true to form, on Sunday afternoon Sam had flu symptoms. I swear it's all psychosomatic.

I'll let you know if we all get the flu this weekend.


_______________________________
Just got back. It was uneventful. (As soon as Elijah knew there was a band-aid involved, he was game. That's as good as it gets.) The most exciting part was when I looked in the passenger side mirror on the way home. And saw five ginormous, new freckles on my chin and cheek. My spaghetti lunch. How humiliating. Why do husbands not notice these things?!!

The Wimp

Yeah, I'm a total wimp. I don't mind admitting it. We all have our talents, mine just happens to be wimpiness. So when my friend Katie announced last week that she was doing the One Hundred Push Ups Challenge, I was intrigued.

Confession: I have never been able to do a single real (not on knees) push up. Not one. Ever.

Yeah. Am I the epitome of wimpiness, or what? Well, heavens. I'm Janae. I'm either on or off. 100% or 0%. So if I was gonna do the One Hundred Push Ups Challenge, I might as well do the Two Hundred Sit-Ups Challenge and the Two Hundred Squats Challenge, too. And Sam might as well join me. Isn't he so lucky to be married to a girl like me??

We started the six week program on Monday. And guess what? I did 18 push ups yesterday. EIGHTEEN. Yeah, be prepared to be amazed 5 1/2 weeks from now. To make a good thing even better, I took a before picture of my arm. That way I can do before and after pictures.

Be excited. Be very excited.

You're Not Allowed to Blog Any More

Look, guys. I've been busy. I mean, super busy. "Why?" you ask? Well, you see, it all started with the realization that Seara will start kindergarten in a year. (Yikes.) And that she hasn't done preschool yet. (Double yikes.) But yeah right I can afford preschool right now! If we could afford preschool do you think we'd be living in MY PARENT'S HOUSE? No. Definitely not.

So I decided that I'm doing my own preschool for Sease and Lije. (I know, I know. You're thinking, "Who is this, and what have you done with the intimidated-by-kids, never-want-to-be-a-teacher Janae that we all know and love?!" I'm wondering the same thing.) The last few weeks have been spent preparing: reading hundreds of curricula (is that how you pluralize curriculum?), scanning dozens of books, making scads of activities, and preparing my very own, individualized preschool. And thanks to my artist of a husband, it is one GOOD LOOKING preschool. (Sorry Sam.)

Well, in the midst of all this my google reader has been filling up with blog posts. I was weeks behind. This morning I finally tackled it and I'm DONE. I'm all caught up. Phew. (Thank you, Dora the Explorer.) But honestly guys, I can't do this again. So I've made a very hard decision:

You are not allowed to blog any more.

Millions of peaches ...

Number of peach trees: 1
Weeks of harvest: 2
Amount the kids eat each day: 6
Times the adults have had peaches & cream for breakfast: 10
Full-to-overflowing grocery sacks: 8
Workers: 4
Hours: 4
Gallon freezer bags with sliced peaches for shakes: 12
Freezer jam by jars: 40
Freezer jam by cups: 66
Freezer jam by gallons: 4
Large bowls of peaches still left in the fridge: 2
Weeks before peaches start coming out our ears: 3

Bring it On

They say that when it rains, it pours. I guess Seara's ER trip was just the beginning ...

 image from here

When we moved here from Maryland Sam left all his art supplies in storage.  We had the laptop so he could do digital art, and we figured that was good enough.  But suddenly the laptop battery stopped keeping charge, so you had to keep it plugged in all the time.  Then it started randomly losing free space - in one night it went from 20GB to 20MG.  Once that was fixed it stopped recognizing the power plug. That, unfortunately, was not fixable.  So to use it now you have to hold the plug in as hard as you can with your left hand and type with just your right.  Needless to say, we bought Sam a new computer.

Then there's the whole job thing.  Or lack of a job thing.  My friend Melissa's husband calls it "self unemployed operating an unintentional non-profit organization."  But I recently read that for each 10K you want, you should plan on spending one month job hunting.  So if you want $50,000/yr job, plan to search about 5 months.  Sounds good to me.  The longer we're here the better.  I'm shooting for at least a year or more. ;)

Okay, okay, back to serious things ... the car. We knew something was wrong when we left Maryland.  We just didn't expect the mechanic here in Utah to tell us that it was a miracle that we made it across the country alive!  And that we had to get a whole new transmission.  Three weeks later we had to replace the entire clutch.  (That's what we get for riding it.)  A week after that the check-engine light went on.  And couple weeks later we started leaking oil.  All that only made it that much funnier when a riding lawn mower ran into my parked car last week at the playground.  Yes, you read that correctly.  A riding lawn mower ran into my parked car. At that point I couldn't help but laugh!

They say that it's always darkest before the dawn. Well we surely haven't hit darkest yet, so bring it on.  I'm ready for the dawn!

Heard in Our House

Reading with Great-Grandma Baker

Announced loudly, while entering the sacrament meeting room, after dad (that detail is important) took her to the bathroom ...
Seara: Mommy, I went pee pee in the little boy potty!


While watching me change Enoch's dirty diaper ...
Lije: Hmmm...that's not yummy.  It's yucky.


Out of nowhere in the middle of the afternoon ...
Lije: Mom, you're the best kid I've ever seen.
Me: I'm the best kid you've ever seen?
Lije: You're the best kid.  I'm the fork kid.


While driving in the car ...
Sease: Mommy and daddy got married in the temple.
Me: Yup.
Sease: And mommy wore a white dress.
Lije: I'm gonna get married in the temple.
Me: Good idea.
Lije: I'm gonna marry Sisi.


During lunch one day ...
Lije: When you get married in the temple, you get married in the temple.
Me: Are you gonna get married in the temple, Lija?
Lije: Uh huh. But I have to get baptized first. When you get baptized you get wet in the water.
Me: Yup, you do.
Lije: Then I'm gonna get married in the temple. With Sisi.
Me: You're gonna get married to Sisi?
Lije: Yep.

Barbecue Picnic Dinner - Enoch was elated to be sitting at the 'big table'

As I combed her hair after a bath ...
Sease: You know, Mom, I'm supposed to be like afraid.
Me: Afraid of what?
Sease: Afraid.
Me: Afraid of what?
Sease: Afraid, Mom. Afraid is kind of like an amazing Jew.
Me: Oh.
(After much confusion and deliberation, I think she meant Esther. Esther was kind of like an amazing Jew, right? And Sease knows the story of Esther. We tell Bible stories at bed time.)


The next morning I told my mom about Afraid the Jew, and this conversation followed ...
Lije: A Jew is a girl.
Mom: A Jew can be a girl, but it can be a boy, too. Jesus was a Jew.
Sease: Yeah, Jesus was a Jew.
Lije: No! Jesus was not a Jew! Jew means you hold to the rod!
(So does that mean that only girls hold to the rod? ;)


Every morning during breakfast we do family scripture study, and I always wonder if the kids are actually listening. Well, today I got my answer. After reading one morning we had this conversation ...
Lije: What's hemla?
Me: What?
Lije: What's hemla?
Me: Hemla? Oh! Zara-hemla?
Lije: Yeah, what's Zarahemla?
Me: It's a city, where lots of people live. Like we used to live in Baltimore.

Sharing an otterpop with his little brother.

When he saw a bunch of his Aunt Anna's dance trophies ...
Lije: Look! Angel Moronis!


At lunch while discussing 'mommies':
Me: Who is Enoch's mommy?
Lije: Issagitar.
Me: [not understanding] Who is Enoch's mommy?
Lije: Issagatar.
Me: But who is Enoch's mommy?
Sease: [translating for Elijah with a "duh mom" sort of tone] It's. a. guitar.


Since everyone else in this house (Sam, my parents, my brothers) all call me Janae, Seara now does, too. She loves to compliment people, as well. Recent compliments include ...
Sease: Good brushing Sisi's hair, Janae.
Sease: Janae, I like your skirt, Janae.
Sease: Good downing the stairs with your feet, Janae.
(I was walking down the stairs. And I must admit, I am pretty good at it. :)


On the way to naptime ...
Lije: No! I don't want to take a nap! I want to watch Hannah Montana!