Grown up

I just can't help but notice how much my Angie-Angelina has grown up lately.

I feel like she grows right in my arms. Like every time I pick her up she's taller, heavier, and cuter. Her language has EXPLODED and she's.......not a baby anymore. She's so sweet and cuddly- especially when she's tired. And just when I feel like I've bought enough clothes for a season....she outgrows them and I have to get all new ones. Her hair is FINALLY starting to get a little longer.....although still very much like a baby chick: fuzzy and out of control. But she's at least getting some length in the back near the top of her head. She has a nice "alfalfa" tail at times.

She's obsessed with shoes, her blanket, and her sippie cup. Her favorite game is to put a bag over her shoulder (purse, tote, whatever she can find) and then walk into the closet, and while closing the door she'll say, "Bye bye!" And she'll KEEP saying it until you acknowledge and say, "Bye Angie! See you later." Then she'll shut the door and wait quietly for a minute, before emerging from the closet and yelling, "HI!!!!"

She's a genius climber, which means she's a genius faller. :) She always has bumps on her forehead, and must have a "kiss it better" for every bump, bruise, or scratch. If she finds nail clippers lying around, she'll pick them up and try to clip your toenails while saying, "Feet! Feet!"

She won't say her own name, but she will point to herself. She refuses to say "please" but she will use the sign for it.

She loves to be read to, especially her favorite book, "B is for Bear" touch-and-feel book. She knows it by heart.

She'll eat anything, but if she doesn't like it, she'll just hold it in her cheeks forever and won't swallow.

I just thought I'd post a few things. This all seems like common knowledge to me right now. But I know a few years from now I may not remember. She's adorable. And a pain in the butt. Always climbing and dumping. Today she emptied the utensil drawer so she could SIT in it. She'll refuse to eat her own food....but as soon as I get her out of the high-chair, she'll climb up on a bar stool and finish Caleb's meal. Even if it's the SAME thing.

She's FINALLY letting me brush her teeth by saying, "CHEESE!" and I can usually get a few scrubs on those top front teeth before she decides to bite the toothbrush.

And she LOVES to dance! Any kind of fun music and she'll start to bend her little knees and nod her head. She ALWAYS dances to the credits on "Tangled."

She's my little sweetheart, and she's gonna be TWO in just a few months!

Wash the Washer

Meet my washing machine.....

It's ancient.
When Parker and I got married, we needed laundry machines. My parents found this guy that had repaired these old dinosaurs, and we got the washer and the dryer (A MATCHING SET!) for 300 bucks.

It has NEVER failed me. But it's nothing special. If you've got stains on your clothes, you'd better spray them with shout or spray-n-wash and let it sit for 30 minutes before throwing them in this thing. Even grass stains (which from all of my childhood memories SHOULD come out in the wash with NO special treatment) must be spot-treated first. But....honestly a little spray and even the stains go away. The point is it works, and it always has. I really don't care for it, but it works and if I get a new washing machine- I want a front-loader. And those get expensive.

For a couple months now, my washing machine has been emitting a ...... smell...... when I run it. My clothes smell fine, and don't seem to be any less clean than ever before. But it smelled like.....a dirty pipe. Mildew. Scum. Rank. Anyway. I started thinking to myself, "Maybe it's gonna die!" (wouldn't THAT be awful.....) I told Parker we need to be prepared to be getting a new washing machine within the next few months because I had NO idea how long this old thing was gonna last. We shopped around a little. The ones I wanted are pretty expensive. Ok. Maybe we can hold out a little longer.

Then one day I saw something on Pinterest (another story for another post). "How to clean your washing machine." WHAT? You're supposed to CLEAN your washing machine? (Maybe THAT'S why it stinks....). Simple really. Fill the machine with hot water and then STOP the cycle and add 2 cups of vinegar. Let it sit for 1 hour. Finish the cycle. Then repeat, only this time add 2 cups of bleach. So I did.

While I waswaiting for the 2nd hour (with the bleach) to go by, I decided to scrub some of the grime off the lid. I did NOT take any pictures before I cleaned. It's too emberassing. It's too gross. The AFTER pictures look bad enough because of all the rust. Anyway. I couldn't believe how much grime could reside on a FLAT surface! And in each of those corners!......ick. It was nasty people. I used an old toothbrush and lime-away. I tried to not let the lime-away drip into the actual machine that was full of water and bleach. Although some DID get in.

See all those many tiny "nubs" around the top of that agitator? That was full of grime. And what comes next was BY FAR the worst part of this entire endeavor. Apparently there's a little rubber liner near the opening of the machine. I've never noticed it before and so OF COURSE I've never cleaned it!
The under-side of that rubber liner had a slime-layer SO thinck that the toothbrush came out FULL of grime after a 2-inch pass. Yuck. And then if you look below....
This little hole? It was almost half occluded by grime. I'm confident that THAT'S where the smell was coming from. That hole is where the water comes out for the rinse cycle or something.....I think.
And then there was near the hinges around the lid. I had to spray lime-away and LET IT SIT before the grime would come off.

Then lets not forget the lid itself:
And there was some rust that wouldn't come off no matter how I tried. And lets be honest. I wasn't gonna try TOO hard. This thing's a dinosaur.

And this pictuer below made me laugh. Once I cleaned this spot, I realized that wasn't a blob of rust. That's the BUTTON that stops the washer when you open the lid. Rusted on all sides, but it still works!
And the lint-catcher. I'm SO emberassed to say that it was a completely different color before I cleaned it.
And now the finished product.

It's still old and rusty. But at least it doesn't stink when I run it anymore. In fact. It actually smells good when I run it! And another tip I learned from pinterest: add 1 cup of lemon juice to your whites to brighten them up (and it smells good too).

Fat

After about 3 weeks with no updates in the "90 day challenge" department, I decided to let everybody assume whatever they wanted to assume. Either I was still at it and quit blogging about it (I WISH that were the case) or I'd quit all together, and just never said anything. Well, it's true I quit. It all happened about the same time that school started for Caleb. And with Fall creeping in, I was no longer running in the morning sun. Around the time I quit, it was dark when I started and dark when I finished. I can't believe how much harder it got!! During this time, we also had some things going on with our back yard.....and honestly though it's nothing more than a garb of "EXCUSES"......they began to pile up. It's just too hard I would tell myself everytime I thought about it. And I LIKE to run outside. I DO NOT enjoy working out inside the house. And I don't exactly feel very safe running in the dark. Morning or night. I'm busy! I work! My kids are little! My son just started school. I'm lucky if I can make a meal at the end of the day, let alone fit in a 30 minute workout. It's something I SHOULD do, but at this point in my life it's just not possible.

But here's something that HAS happened in the last 3 weeks. All those inches that I've lost...... well they're back. No I haven't measured. I'm too ashamed. But I can feel it. And I hate it. All those size 8 jeans sitting in my drawer that I was SO CLOSE to fitting into. Now I'm back where I started. Everything is tight. And for lack of a better word, I just feel FAT. I'm sorry to be graphic, but the roll on my waist that presents itself every time I sit just makes me feel...... so awful. I know my size and the challenge it presents IS NOTHING compared to what so many others have to deal with. But it's an honest dilema for me, and it weighs on my mind heavily.

THE ABSALUTE WORST part about all of this, is that when I decide to get back with the program.....I will be back at square one. That alone was a HUGE reason to keep going. But I didn't. Now when I run, I'll be out of breath. My lungs will burn. And I will feel like I have to slow down and walk.....either that or die. And for the first week I will be sore. The first week is painful. And SO un-fun.

But I see other women, thin and toned. Most have had at least 2 children as well (the onces I compare myself to). If they can do it why can't I? LOOK AT HER! Does she have to try as hard as I do? Most likely not. But forget about comparing myself to others. Everybody knows you're not supposed to do that. If there's anything that will get me back into this, it's the way I feel about myself. And there are times, when the way I feel is nothing short of disgusted. I have the makings of a double-chin (shut up. It's MY blog.) I notice in some pictures of myself, and every time I look in the mirror. And my waist. The constant reminder that I am NOT where I want to be. 2 kids is NO excuse.

So now, I have to turn this.....blah feeling.....into motivation. Again. Parker keeps telling me he'll get up with me at 6:00 (seriously....it's really NOT that early. But when you're a night-owl it truly feels like it) and he'll either work-out with me or do homework. Maybe if I can get him to commit......I can get myself back to where I was. But even without him.....I've gotta do this. Because hating myself for quitting- is no way to live.

Angie Language

Angie has NO volume control. She is always yelling at me. And it's always the same thing, "Mom!"

"Moooom!"
"MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!" Each yell is louder and louder, and does NOT stop until I respond. But....she doesn't ever give me TIME to respond either. She just yells my name over and over again. Riding in the car is a nightmare, because she's CONSTANTLY yelling my name and most of the time she doesn't have anything to say. And since she can't carry a conversation. Sometimes the response, "What Angie?" is not enough. She wants me to interpret what she's trying to say. So when I hear, "Mom! Mom! Maaaaa! MAAAAA!"
"What Angie?"

"Dah guh bee!" (or WHATEVER she jabbers at the time) if she's pointing out the window at something, I have to try to interpret:

"Do you see some cows?" (or whatever may be interesting at the time). Usually that satisfies her. For about 30 seconds. Then she's at it again.

Also she is the queen of "No." It's her first response to EVERY question. She'll point at her sippy cup and yell "A Guhink!" so I'll ask, "Do you want your drink?"

"No."

Since I KNOW that's what she DOES want I'll tell her, "Say YES Angie." Then she'll say it in her own adorable way, "Yyyyyyyeah!" (usually included with a little jump or clap.) Here's a video of her doing JUST that.


I don't really recall Caleb being as busy or difficult as her. It may be because she hit the terrible two's so early, or that Caleb's terrible twos were so long ago I've just forgotten. Either way, she's a HANDFUL. Very sweet and much more cuddly than Caleb ever was.....but BUSY. Very busy. She'll be two in 4 months. I just can't believe she's been with us that long. She is JUST ABOUT the age that Caleb was when I graduated Dental Hygiene School. I just can't even fathom that. She's saying so many things:

"Uh cowwer" (I want to color)

"Day doo" (Thank you)

"Bee bee" (Baby)

her FAVORITE: "Naaaaakk!" (Snack) This one can be heard at FULL VOLUME every sunday in church when the sacrament trays are being passed around.

"Kayb" (Caleb)

"Pa pa" (Grandpa)

"Uhh yuuu" (love you)

"Mom"
"Daddy"

"Uh Shoe" (I want my shoes)

"Pree" (pretty)

"Owwww-shy!" (outside)

"Uh haow" (my hair)

"Feet"

"eyes" (always included with a poke in the eye)

"Go go!"

"Bum bum" ANY mention of her bum and she patts her fanny with her hand. Then she has to go around and find YOUR bum bum and pat it too.

"Guhink" (drink)

"Kiyyyeee" (kitty)

I'm sure as soon as I think of all the words she can say, it'll be time to make a new list because she says about a new word a day. "Cowwr" (color) was yesterday's word.

I love my girl. She really is a sweetheart.

Caleb Language

Caleb is constantly growing and learning "phrases of the world" special thanks to school, and daycare with older kids. Now don't get me wrong. The daycare my kids go to is a member of our ward. The primary president actually. They are very good people and I trust them completely. But her kids are much older and I find Caleb learning words or phrases that aren't necessarily "bad words" but not exactly things I want my 5-year-old saying either. For example (and Caleb ALWAYS asks before he says it, which is good. But he asks me SEVERAL times a day about different things which we can or cannot say) he'll say,
"Mom- can we say stupid?"
"Well CAleb, we don't call people stupid."

or

"Mom I HATE Angie's shoes. Can I say I hate her shoes?"
Puzzled, at why he even cared, I asked, "WHY do you hate her shoes? You don't wear them?"
"Mom, I just hate them."
I decided to take a different approach (since he CHERISHES his own shoes).
"Well would you like it if I said I hate YOUR shoes?"
"No! MOM! These are my NEW shoes!"
I then went on to explain to him the golden rule, how we don't say things to other people if we wouldn't want them to say it to us. I think he understood, but it still hasn't stopped the questions. He's also asked if we can call people "fat." This is a hard one, because of course the people/person he wants to call "fat" usually is. Once again, I tried to explain to him that we can't say things to people that would hurt their feelings. I'm glad he's asking first, but my first instinct is always, "Where did you hear that?" I suppose I should quit asking since he's in school, and there are things entering his brain other than what I CHOOSE to teach him. I just have to make sure I teach him right when he DOES ask.

Meanwhile, he has also been testing his "respectful" boundries. He knows that we are supposed to be respectful to people that are older than us. But sometimes he'll say things with an attitude and it completely shocks me. He really is such a sweetheart, and very tenderhearted. But sometimes I get a glimpse of the attitude. It seems we get more outbursts in the evening, when he's tired, hungry or both. The other evening I had put Angie to bed a little early, and he was still up. He was whining about something (probably having a snack before bed, which is usually out of the question) and I said to him, "Caleb be quiet, you're gonna wake up Angie." and he looked at me and said,
"No YOU be quiet."

Whoo. I had to surpress my first instinct to walk over there and slap his mouth. Instead I got a very stern look on my face and said, "You do NOT talk to me like that Caleb." I gave him his hundredth lecture on respect, which was quickly followed by an even LOUDER tear-filled sob, "I'M SORRY!!!!" He does NOT like to get into trouble. Once this happens, explaining ANYTHING is almost pointless because he just won't stop crying. At this point he usually starts rattling off made-up excuses between the tears,
"Mom, I wasn't talking to YOU! I was talking to a DIFFERENT mom!"

Ok. Now the LYING lecture. This is a new one. He's said things like this a few times to get out of trouble. I've had to explain to him that it's more important to tell the truth than to try to keep out of trouble. I think he's understanding this pretty well. He still does it once in a while, but now when I ask him why he did or said that, it's followed by a tear-filled
" MOM, I just wasn't THINKING!"

Ok. Some honesty. I can handle that. No you WEREN'T thinking.

I want my readers to know, I've just made a list of about all the bad things Caleb says, it probably sounds pretty bad. But he's not like that all the time, or even most of the time. He is an awesome kid, and most of the time very nice, and respectful. He's just learning I guess.
On a lighter note, as a 5-year-old he still mis-pronounces several words and it makes me laugh. I have chosen to NOT correct him on these ones, because it's just so cute. And I know it will correct itself with time. Especially now that he's in school. One I hear the most,
"Mumber." This is how he says "Number." I hear this one several times a day, and he's been learning his numbers in Kindergarten. So cute.
Another one, (my personal favorite) "Wuffabout?" This is how he says, "What about?" Example:
"Mom, wuffabout Dad? Is he coming too?"
Then there's "Not opposed" which is how he says "not supposed." I hear this one all the time too as he's correcting his sister.
"Angie! You're not opposed to throw food on the floor!"
Then there's "That whys." instead of "That's why." That one makes me smile every time too.

Then finally I just had to share this. On Thursday morning, Parker gave Caleb a father's blessing before his first day of school. After Parker left, Caleb asked me, "Mom do we get magic when daddy gives us a blessing?"
I wanted to laugh, I explained to him that a blessing is when daddy uses the Priesthood, the power of God, to help you to choose the right and be happy. He then asked, "Is DADDY magic?" Smiling again, I told him the difference between magic and the power of God. Mostly that the power of God is real, and that magic is not. I told him that with the power of the priesthood, you could heal the sick, or do miracles like Jesus did. Then he asked my favorite question.
"Do I have the priesthood like daddy?"
Then I got to tell him that if he could choose the right, and be good he would get the priesthood when he turned twelve. Satisfied with that answer, we went on with our day. Caleb is such an awesome kid. He is so full of faith, and very sweet. I have loved watching him grow and I am so excited to see what an awesome young man he will turn out to be.

Kindergarten Orientation

This morning we took Caleb to Kindergarten orientation. They're doing it kinda weird I think. They've split his class in half for orientation, and the first half goes Tuesday (today) and the second half goes Wednesday (tomorrow). As a result his first REAL day of school isn't until Thursday. So today we got to meet his techer, and he got to see his classroom and put all his stuff in a cubby.
I must say, I think I held it together pretty well. His teacher, Mrs. Snow, had the kids color a picture and try writing their name while she talked to us about schedules, pick-up and drop-off times and so on. Then she had some papers for us to fill out while she read a story to the kids. Not a bad idea. Parker went into work late so we could both meet his teacher and see his classroom. I was glad he was there. But, THEN I started listening to the story she was reading to those kids. It's called "The Kissing Hand." Have you ever heard of this book?!!
It's a New York Times best-seller, and HOLY COW! I really thought I had it together until I started listening to this book. I turned into a blubbering basket-case, and could hardly read the writing on the papers I was supposed to be filling out. Luckily I wasn't the only mom in there that was wiping her face. But I have no doubt I was the worst.

He made me so proud. He would raise his hand for every question she asked, even if he didn't know the answer, because he was so excited to participate. I could hardly even look at him without my eyes welling up. When did he grow up? Life is forever changed from this point on. He will be a student for the next thirteen years AT LEAST. He's not a baby anymore. He's not a toddler anymore. He's not even LITTLE anymore!! I couldn't let myself think about it in there. I was pathetic. And yes I took my camera to the school. I WAS that parent shooting pictures of my kid standing in front of the door. Because he IS my first kid. And as much as he grows, he is still MY baby. And I REFUSE to let myself forget what this boy was like when he was little.

He was excited to see all of the things there were to play with in his classroom. And then disappointed when he found out he was going to have to wait another 2 days before he could play with them. ANOTHER thing I was surprised about......they have KINDERGARTEN kids doing PE, and music, AND computer lab! I don't remember doing those activities in kindergarten. Oh he's gonna love it!
I am so excited to watch my boy learn from school. I think primary at church has helped him a lot to know how he's supposed to behave in a classroom. He's not too chatty, and he listens well and raises his hand.

Don't mind me, if this Thursday, I'm out there with my camera again, drying my tears as he walks into his classroom. I am hardly even working this week. Monday was a holiday. I took Today off so I could go to his orientation. And tomorrow will be the only day I work. Because since Thursday is his first REAL day of school, I took off work then as well. He will only have his "first-day-of school-EVER" once. So I will use my vacation to make sure I'm there for it.

I sure love my boy. He makes me so proud. I thought he'd be scared or nervous about today, but he wasn't. He's just so grown-up. I seriously don't know when it happened.

Back yar......back dirt. :)

Last Spring we had a ward auction. It lasted well into the evening, and although we attended as a family, after about 9:00 I decided I'd take the kids home and put them to bed while Parker stayed at the church to bid on the itmes we still wanted.

About 11:00 PM he comes home and I asked him how much he spent. He hesitated. He then informed me of a service package that had been donated. "8 hours of labor from Clark Construction". He tells me that the bids got REALLY high, and that such a service would be what it takes to get our yard ready to plant. Excited that he'd seen an opportunity to get our back yard done, I didn't complain about the extra cost I hadn't anticipated. I'm sure if we'd hired a professional it would have costed MUCH MUCH more.

Months went by. And I was so hoping that THIS summer I would get to send my children outside to play. Our back yard is FENCED! But it's been nothing but weeds for 2 summers now. Coordinating our schedules was.....difficult. Parker decided to take This Friday (yesterday) off work so we could spend some quality time on the back yard before it gets cold. We'd called Bro. C. several times and left messages that we'd like him to work Friday if he was available.

Yesterday morning came, and we were lazing around the house. Still in our jammies. Then the doorbell rang. When I opened the door, I saw Brother C. standing there. His truck was pulling his bobcat tractor which was parked on the street in front of our house. "Do you guys want me to work today?"
"Really?!! I thought you guys were out of town! Yes we'd LOVE to work on the yard today!"
So I went and told Parker (who was in the shower). He quickly jumped out, dried off, and threw on his work clothes to go help. I was so surprised at how well that Bobcat removed the weeds, and then the dirt!

The problem with our back yard is that since our house was the very FIRST to be built in the neighborhood, the entire yard is sloped and un-even. Honestly I think that the builders were kinda lazy with....MORE than a few things.


Brother C. and his bobcat removed 15 cubic yards of dirt from our back yard. That was 3 dump-trucks FULL! I couldn't believe it! And mostly because looking back there now.....it doesn't look like ther could have been an extra 15 yards of dirt on all that. But now the ground is even. There are only a coupld steps left before we can plant grass. We have to dig around the fence-line since the bobcat can't go RIGHT up next to the fence, we will have to do that by hand. But Parker did a little section while Brother C. went to dump his truck. It won't take long. Then we'll have to borrow Parker's dad's rota-tiller and soften up the ground. Then we'll lay grass seed. We broke some sprinkler lines in the process. Parker will have to fix those as well. But the hard part is done. And I'm so excited.

So now our back yard is no longer weeds. Not quite able to call it a yard yet. It's just all dirt now. But one more step in the direction of having a yard. I'm completely THRILLED!