The Time Has Come

I was burned pretty badly the last time I had to do this. Really badly. Oh, the stories I could tell. And I would, but trust me, you don't want to hear them! Suffice it to say, thank God we had bleachable berber carpet in our last house!

But little sister Aulora is now nearly 2 1/2 and she's been showing great interest in the whole potty thing for some time now, so potty training for #3 has officially started.

I wish I could say that we're making some great progress, but so far we're not. I bought her Dora panties and we already had the Dora potty seat. She loves sitting on the seat and wearing her new panties, but so far nothing has happened other than a few tee-tee accidents. She doesn't like the way that feels, so that should help speed things along (I hope).

One other thing I think we'll have to work on. She enjoys taking off her panties and admiring them and them putting them back on. Problem is, she can't quite do it. Please see Exhibit A:


Yes, we'll definitely be working on this.....

Oh No You Didn't Girlfriend! (to be said with attitude and snaps)

Last night I was enjoying a luxurious scratching and rubbing session from Julia - according to her, she went to "scratching school and rubbing school". It's not so unbelievable if you've ever been on the receiving end of one of these sessions! She's pretty good!

On to the story. She decided at one point to scratch my legs. She pulled up the bottoms of my pant legs, yet stopped scratching as soon as she started. She leaned in for a closer look and said, "Wow girl, you need to get rid of all these hairies on your legs! These look like boy legs! Daddy's legs look like this, but yours aren't supposed to."

The sad thing is, you'd think I would have shaved last night.

Do keep in mind that 1) it's the dead of winter here so my legs haven't' seen the light of day in quite some time, and 2) my husband has been gone for four weeks now so who really cares?

The Best Job

The other day Julia was sitting in my lap stroking my face. For a child who is so strong willed, she is also so tenderhearted and loving.

She asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I smiled and told her I was already grown up. She seemed quite amazed that I was an adult. (What does that mean???)

She wanted to know what my job was. I told her I was a mommy.

"What??? That's your job? No it's not! Really, what's your job?"

I insisted that I was just a mommy. She insisted that just couldn't be.

"What do you do all day? What's your job?"

I resisted reviewing all the many things I do all day, every day and just told her again that I was her mommy. And John David's and Aulora's and Joshua's. And I told her that it was the best job in the whole world.

She smiled and nuzzled against me.

I smiled too because moments like that are exactly what make my job the best there is.

Potluck Post

I'm too tired to separate the different thoughts that are jumbling through my head. So I give to you a late night potluck post:

School was canceled today. The roads here are all very icy, and I have no doubt that is true since I watched people (who for some reason or another felt they had to get out) slide all around in their cars today. I heard the distinct sound of two cars smashing into each other too. I've learned that sound since living near a street.

(On that note I will take a moment to say that although I wasn't sure how I would feel about it beforehand, I kind of like living right off a main road. The front of our house doesn't face it, so I can look out those windows and just see pretty neighboring houses. But our kitchen sink window is on the side of the house so you can watch the intersection if you look to the right. I like it. I feel connected and safe. I don't feel as alone as I think I would feel otherwise with John being gone so much. It's soothing to watch the cars go by.)

Anyway, I was alone in the house with four children all day long. I was with all four of them by myself, with nobody else, the whole day. (Was that redundant? Sorry.) It was not a short day! In all honesty though, they really were pretty good. They played and played and then played some more. We made dinner and read a book and watched American Idol. Julia is a pretty good judge of who can sing and who can not. If my five year old can recognize bad singing, why can't these other people? Amazing.

I checked online tonight and much to my, uhm, delight, school is canceled again tomorrow! So we're going to make the most of it and learn a new game we got for Christmas, make popcorn and watch a movie, bake some blueberry muffins, and I don't know what else. The main goal is just to keep everyone occupied enough that they don't try to eat each other!

I've been listing and selling some things on craigslist. Man I love that site! I started listing my maternity clothes on there, but I think I'm going to bite the bullet and sell them on ebay. It's such a hassle to mess with that, but the money will be so much better I think. I've also got tubs and tubs of baby clothes to start listing. Such a love hate thing I've got going on with ebay.

I bought a different detergent and I keep smelling myself, or rather my clothes. Every so often I catch myself sniffing my shoulder or my arm. I'm glad nobody else is here to see this odd behavior. It's just weird to not smell like my normal self. Please don't think I'm a weirdo now.

I think I was poisoned yesterday with a peanut butter granola bar. No, seriously. I ate one and within an hour I was sooo sick feeling. The worst part was that I took the kids to Walmart right after eating it so I was sick the whole time we were grocery shopping. We had to finish though because I knew the icy weather was coming. As soon as we got home I brought in the bags, put away the stuff that couldn't wait, put Joshua down for a nap, changed Aulora's poopy diaper, gave the girls some lunch, and then, THEN, was able to lay on my bed with a bowl. Isn't it amazing that even when moms are sick, they still have to take care of everyone else first. I couldn't even throw-up in peace. The girls were asking for things (Polly Pocket needs her dress on, Can I have a juice box?, I wanna watch cartoons, whah, whah, whah!) even as I was in the midst of being sick (and I mean that as an action verb). After that and then a nap (while the babies napped too), I felt mostly all better. So strange. I think I'm going to throw out the rest of those granola bars.

Shhhh.....Joshua turned one on Sunday, but we're not telling him that! We're waiting until Daddy gets home next week to celebrate. Such a big, excuse me, BIG guy he is!

I can't figure out when to vacuum. I can't do it when kids are sleeping because it will wake them up. I can't do it when they are awake because their toys are everywhere. This has become a dilemma in my house. My temporary solution has been to not vacuum. Problem solved.

Aulora is finally weened off of a bottle. Please keep all negative comments to yourself. I know she's two and it's bad for her teeth and all that other stuff. I've just had a busy year! ;) When she was with Clay and Sandy, they just told her they didn't have any bottles there and that was that. It wasn't quite that easy once she got home and saw Joshua with his, but we're making it. It's getting easier every night. Thanks, Gran! (now if I can just send her there to get potty trained!)

I going to go to bed now and sniff my pajamas some more. At least I don't have to get up super early in the morning! Yea!

Strange New Addiction

I had to get a google map today and in the process I discovered a new feature they have. I can't quit using it! When you enter an address and the map comes up, click where it says "street view". You will be shown a picture of that address! Sometimes the pictures starts down the street a little, but you just move the little person icon down in the lower right hand corner closer to the desired address. You can pan all around and zoom in. The picture of our house in SA had John's old car in front of it. That was just too funny. Try it out! Look at your current house, the house you grew up in, your friends' houses, your workplace, everything! So, so cool!!!

Here's the house we moved into when I was in the 9th grade. My family lived there until a few years ago when they moved to Colorado. See that tree on the right? It should be the same as the one on the left, but when I was in high school somebody (it wasn't me - really) drove through our yard and ran down that poor tree. It never has recovered!

These are the apartments John and I lived in when we first got married. We were there for about 14 months before moving to SA.

I can't show any other place just because of safety reasons, but it's just so stinking cool!

Lazy La Learns Her Lesson

Yesterday, when it was time to register for my defensive driving online, I had to enter my license plate number. I didn't want to go outside and look and I thought I remembered it. I entered it in and went on. Everything has been going great, even the validation questions where they ask you personal things about your car and driver's license, until this morning. My answers were all wrong for the validation part! They locked me out until I called support.

I entered the wrong plate number when I registered! By mere coincidence, someone else with the last name Sullivan has the number I entered so it didn't raise any red flags. Dumb, lazy me.

Now I have to go to Mimi's house to print a form, go to the bank and get it notarized, and then go to Office Max to have it faxed to them - all to verify that I am indeed the La.

Always go look at your plate number. Better yet, memorize it.

Lesson learned.

Redemption

Well, somewhat anyway. I just finished another section of torture, but I found a new favorite snack in the meantime. (My ticket might get dismissed but I'm going to gain 20 pounds in the process!) Chex chocolate and peanut butter mix is soooo good! I easily could have eaten the whole bag (no, it was not snack size either!), but I practiced self-control. I only ate half of the bag. Next time I should probably pour some in a bowl and then hide the bag from myself. Seriously, am I the only person who will buy or make something super delicious and then, in order to control myself, I will store the food in the some ridiculous to get to place? Somewhere I will have to go to great lengths to get to it? How dumb is that! You'd think I just wouldn't buy the stuff in the first place. Nope, not me.

I wonder if Chuck E. Cheese will give me free tokens because of all the perfect scores I'm getting on my quizzes? They should.

Primetime Thursday Night

Guess what I'm doing. The best night for tv and I'm watching a defensive driving dvd course. (wimper, wimper) I got a ticket a couple of months ago for not coming to a full and complete stop at a stop sign in a parking lot. Yes, I said a parking lot. It was not a happy day for me.

And this is not a happy night for me. I'm only blogging because the course makes you take breaks. The quizzes are so easy that I might take a nap during the next segment. Or maybe I'll put it on and then come to my bedroom and watch some of that great Thursday night tv! Yea!

Just kidding. I'm a good girl. I will go suffer some more on my couch. Think of me......

Piece Pictures are Finally Here....

some of them are anyway. I'll keep adding more as I get them in. On a side note, do you know that I can't figure out for the life of me where all of the before pictures went?!? So crazy. They've just disappeared! I did a couple of computer searches and everything. I guess I'm glad we posted most of them on the blog.

Picture Tag From Stacia

I was tagged for a picture post from my friend Stacia. This is the 5th picture from the 5th folder of my pictures. We started a birthday tradition of eating at Ihop for John David when he was little. He LOVES Ihop! This was on his 4th birthday and I was sure to have Daddy take a picture of me with my boy so he would know I was there! Love that little man.....

A Picture, A Picture!

Do you know what this one picture means??? Several things:

• first off, I have cute kids (am I allowed to say that?!? well, i did anyway.)
• second, Christmas is all over :(
• third, my bedroom is now somewhat ugly because I had to move our big computer into the corner so I could upload pictures......which means.....
• I can now upload pictures!!!
  

I'm going to be a blog picture posting and craigslist listing fool! More to come later today once Joshua is in bed.....

My Weirdo Boy

My son has always been on the peculiar side - we know this, our extended family knows this, and many of you probably know it too. His peculiarity has made our job as parents more difficult at times, but also way more interesting and entertaining!

A battle we've had lately has been toothpaste. For some reason, over the past few months, his taste buds can no longer accommodate any flavor of toothpaste on the market. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Obviously, the child has to brush his teeth, so I've just been making him endure the torture of bubble gum, fruity bubble, or the worst ever, berry blast. Can you imagine? Such an evil mommy I am!

When the girls left with Clay and Sandy I sent the only tube of kid toothpaste we had with them. I meant to buy some more at the store, but we forgot. So when bedtime came and he had just eaten a fruit roll up, I knew we had to improvise something.

Enter baking soda. I expected an all out fit of ridiculous proportions. I prepared myself for an onslaught of reasons why he could just wait until the next time we went to the store. I braced myself for any and all methods of refusal he might try. I was ready to hold him down if I had to!

Do you know that my weirdo child was happy at the idea of using baking soda? He cheerfully went to the bathroom and he brushed more thoroughly than he ever has. He liked it. He wants to continue to use it!?!?!

I knew it was okay to use baking soda sometimes, but all the time? I wasn't sure. I googled it and came across this insightful blog post.

And then there's all the sites that say how harmful baking soda can be because it's so abrasive. So it looks like he'll have a mouth full of enamel-less teeth that smells like poo if he continues to brush with baking soda.

Would that really be too awful?

Won't You (not) Be....My Neighbor?

I always loved watching Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood when I was little. His little song timed perfectly with the removing of his sweater and shoe change. How did he do that every time? So talented, I tell you.

Anyway, I don't think Mr. Rogers would have been singing happily about neighbors if he was blessed with one of ours. My first encounter with her was before we ever moved in. She came over one day to complain (without even introducing herself first) about where we were parking. I was as friendly as could be and tried to smooth things over, but I think we have the right to park a car in the street in front of our house, do we not? It seems that she is not a good backer-upper though, and so she doesn't want any cars parked where she might hit them as she leaves her driveway. Fair enough.

Well, this lovely lady also has a boyfriend who is a horrible backer-upper. He's hit several parked cars already. (I know this because he admitted it AND because he ran into our carpenter's truck one day. Our carpenter actually sped after him to talk to him - the man didn't even know he had hit someone!) I can't prove who did it, but someone has backed into our yard and broken one of our new sprinkler heads off. If I were a bettin' girl, my money would be on the boyfriend.

John wanted to know if I was going to go over there and talk to the lady. I told him I couldn't prove anything so it wouldn't do much good. I think we should just get those spikey things to line our curb with so if they back up too far again they will get a flat tire. What do you think?

Jessica Simpson Uses Pro-active

For some reason, I've been blessed lately with more than my fair share of pimples. I've always had pretty clear skin, even as a teenager, so this is weird for me. I'm still washing my face every night with the same soap and I haven't switched make-up. So I'm just kind of sticking it out, hoping it goes away before my husband comes home!

In the meantime, my precious son tells me every day that I should get Pro-active. Thanks, Buddy! He's like my daily shot of self-confidence!

Sunday Afternoon Summary

So John is apparently rubbing shoulders with Tom Hanks and Steve Carrell as he listens to Josh Groban at the opening inaugural celebration right now.

I've been outside raking leaves.

That's all.

Closet Smoker and Giant Bobos here

I miss my man! He's been gone for a little more than two weeks now and he's not due back for three more! He's in Washington D.C. for work and for working at the National Cherokee Indian office. If ever he was going to be there, this is a pretty great time. He's at an inauguration kick-off party tonight and will be going to some more parties next week. There were all kinds of big name people at his thing tonight so he was excited about going.

I can't imagine how couples are separated for long periods of time. I cant tell you how much I just crave a hug so bad!!! At least I have been able to hug and love on our babies. He's there all by himself. :( That's makes me sad for him.

Last night John's parents had John David and Julia (they were in town for a couple of days for Clay's birthday) and there was apparently someone on TV who smoked. They began discussing how that wasn't healthy for that lady.

Julia: My mommy doesn't smoke.
Gran: That's right and she's healthy because she doesn't smoke.
Julia: Yeah, but my daddy smokes. Only on Fridays and Sundays though. And he spits out those ciggy things too.

Everyone in the car was just rolling laughing, except John David who was horrified that his little sister was saying such things about his dad. He was very sure to correct her. And John's grandma, Mimi, was in the car and I hear that the look on her face was quite priceless!

We have no idea where she got this idea, but it sure made for a great laugh! Apparently, spitting out the ciggy things mean using tobacco. Again, I don't know where this came from!

I guess she didn't want to leave me out, because last night she commented that we both had bobos (our word for our behind) and so did Aunt Kara. We all had bobos. "But you have the biggest one. You have the bobo of a giant."

Isn't she a doll? Would anyone like to borrow her?

My giant bobo needs to get up now......

Back on Board!

Wow, that was probably my longest blogging break to date. Is anyone still out there?

I was finally able to come up for air from underneath all the boxes. We're mostly unpacked (the stuff that we plan to unpack anyway) and settled pretty well for only being here for 2 weeks. It was a really happy day when the internet man came and then an even happier day when the Dish network man came! I will say that my work ethic was a lot better before all this happiness started. hehehe. Enjoy life, I say! At first I was staying up super late every night after the kids were in bed, but then I concluded that there would always be MORE to do. So that's when I started going to bed pretty soon after they did. Or on some nights I would watch a movie and make myself a treat! ("Some" is probably not very honest - it's more like "most".) I'm think I'm going to totally sabotage my "house flipping weight loss plan", but it just feels so great to relax!

Pictures. I know. Due to my ignorance regarding 1) my desktop not having a wireless card, and 2) transfering pictures from my camera to my mac laptop (or even putting them on here via a flashdrive), pictures are on hold. Right now the only way I can figure out how to do it is to actually move my desktop into the corner of my bedroom so I can hook it up to the cable modem. I wonder if I could find a super long cord at the store to avoid actually moving the whole thing. Hmmmm.....I really do want to show you pictures!

That's it for now since Joshua's nap time is quickly fading and I'm doing nothing except sit here in the silence. It's so nice though. I love my children, but seriously, can someone not invent a mute button???