Doo Bee Doo Bee Doo...

So... yeah. Really not that much exciting, it feels like. Maybe I should start making stuff up just to feel like I have a reason to post more!

I taught in Relief Society this weekend. I taught on Elder Bednars talk "Pray Always", which is amaaaazing. Really, I think it's one of my favorite talks ever. It's one of those that you can read over and over and have something new strike you each time. I had a scare that I had prepared the wrong lesson, but luckily the note was from the other ward. *whew* Then, just as I stood up to give the lesson, the Bishopric walked in. Are you KIDDING me?! I am NOT teaching in front of them. Almost had a heart attack, I swear. Luckily they were just coming in to talk about the emergency preparedness fair we're having March 7th *ahem, anyone in Sierra Vista, please come! I'll be there in all my coolness*. So I got to teach my lesson with no testosterone in the room other than the babies. I'm SO thrilled to say it went great! Sometimes our Relief Society doesn't participate much, which can make lessons drag out, but yesterday everyone seemed to have a comment, and I can really say that I learned some new thoughts. Yay!

After that I went visit teaching, and the sister we taught had some square foot gardens, and she really lit a fire in me to try it out! She had grown some parsley and it was HUGE. She gave us each a bag full of it, mmm, I love the smell of it! We have a retaining wall in the back that seems the perfect size, so I'm thinking of trying my hand at it. I'm excited/scared, I've never really "done" a garden.

Went to Kim and Tims for dinner, turkey and mashed potatoes and pie. OMG, yum. We all tried to watch the Oscars, but sad to say... it was boring. What's with that!! Poor J had a fever and was coughing a bit, so we went home and put him to bed. He seems a lot better today, I'm so glad. It makes me so sad to see him upset, he's such a sweet little man. Doesn't this photo look like it's from the 80s? I love photo editting a bit too much I think.

Going to try to get some digital scrapbooking done tomorrow, stay tuuuuuuuuned.

Whoop!

I *KNEW* she could do the dance... little stinker. Here she is, in all her glory! Excuse the nose picking... she's four.

Valentines day was woooonderful! I love V-day. I got to sleep in and I woke up to the scent of crepes, yum! M gave us a beautiful little tantrum because it was Ps turn to say the prayer, what a great way to start the day... we gave the kids a bath and then set off for the mall to try to find CJ a Arizona Cardinals shirt. No dice, apparently Sierra Vista doesn't support the Cards....? I'll have to order one I guess. Wandered around a bit, which, in our teeny mall, doesn't take long. Went to Texas Roadhouse for lunch, mmmm. Funny that CJ and I ate there for V-day a year ago too, mum was here (when I got my gallbladder removed) and watched the kids then. Deeelicious, my steak was perfect and the kids hot dogs were snarfed down. J loves the mashed potatoes there. I love going there for lunch because there's never a wait! After that we went to Target to look for presents. CJ decided to get a new Gerber knife, and I couldn't pick, so CJ said we would go home and I could chill out with the kids and he'd go find something as a surprise. Okay...

So we got home, I cleaned a bit and tried to get J to take a nap. Didn't work, so I put in the "move it move it" movie (Madagascar 2 to those who don't speak Humpheryese) and we watched that then played/destroyed J's room. I did some ChaCha and CJ came home and woooo!!! He got me 2 dozen roses (1 dozen white and 1 dozen various colors), and a bouquet of gerbera daisy and such. He also got me an iTunes gift card, the new(ish) Taylor Swift CD, the book "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister", and some truffles. The man doesn't do surprises much, but this... this was great. He rented Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist too, which was good.

What else... M had her V-day party at school on Friday. I made up some cute little Valentine treat bags, and was worrying that she shouldn't bring candy... no worries! She came home with a ton of candy, which she and P and J proceeded to eat all of. Apparently I need to hide things better. Anyways. I used Shabby Princess' new kit Yours Truly to make M's valentines, they turned out pretty cute!

*cough* *hack*

It was a pretty fun week, despite the fact that my voice decided to go on vacation on Sunday, and still hasn't really returned. Super Bowl was fun, we had a little party here with Kim and Tim and Jessie and Aaron, and kids of course. Suzy and Joe, we wish you'd have been able to come, I'm sorry you all got sick too! This town... anyways, I can't say I really cared too much about the outcome of the game, but the last few minutes WERE pretty thrilling. Sad for AZ though, but now CJ's decided to hop off the 49ers ship and onto the Cards, and has decided to become a permanent Cards fan. Which mean I absolutely *must* find him a Cards shirt to wear. But I found this instead, and think it's so much more fitting for him...

So perfect for him... happy Valentines honey!!

Anyways, back to the SB. It was a blast, but I think I'll be perfectly content to not eat another chicken wing for at least 100 months. Soooo winged out. Curse you, Buffalo Wild Wings.

So... I killed another vacuum. What. The. Crack. This is the second vacuum in 6 months. Our old one was a wedding present, so it was 6 years old, but this was my parents vacuum they gave us, not that old. I think I killed the motor... or maybe it just hates me. I'm going to say it probably just hates me. Too bad, it was a great vacuum, cleaned way better than our Hoover did. And our carpet is cheap and cruddy enough that lack of vacuuming shows within, oh, I'd say minutes. Anyone have an extra $330 to give me to get the Dyson that's on clearance at Target? Anyone? Bueller? I *KNEW* I should have worked more on ChaCha this month...

Now that I've figured out my sewing machine finally, thanks to making M's tutu for the dance recital (yeah, that's right. I MADE THAT PIECE OF ART. yay me! All us awesome mummies made the tutus!) I feel like I want to make more, like a dress for M. But I'm still intimidated, especially at the thought of where you have to gather fabric and sew it or something. Eeeeks! I know I just need to be brave and conquer my fears, but I have so many other things that I keep thinking about that I want to do... and then none get done. Like the vacuuming.

One thing I finally DID get done was hanging up J's planes in his room. I love it!! Now I need to paint the walls, but we'll see. I got the planes a few months ago in the Target Dollar Spot (sweet...) and painted them to match J's bedding. He loves them, when he wakes up in the morning or after his nap he loves when I hold him up so he can bat one around and watch it spin.

Next project is the photo wall... I finally ordered the photos, I got 5 8x10s, 5 5x7s and 5 4x6s from Winkflash for only $10.55 shipped! Score. That's where I ordered our holiday cards from too, their quality is pretty good. I have the frames, I just have to spray paint them black since the wood is a wierd color. I've been thinking about getting a vinyl word quote on the wall, still not sure. Should probably figure that out soon though.

We went to Jessie and Aarons tonight for dinner and games. It was so fun, even though I can not BELIEVE the guys beat us at Catchphrase. I swear it gave them such easy questions... they had to have rigged it. We laughed a lot, and Jessie and Aaron know some of CJs cousins from BYU-Hawaii, so they were swapping stories. M and P had a blast playing with Maile and Emmy too! And ooooh my, their house is gorgeous, Jessie your decorating is great! It made me realize how tired I am of our white walls. Hahahah!! We should paint, but our living/dining room is so intimidating because it's so big/tall and attached to the kitchen, painting will be tricky tricky. I'll have to talk CJ into it, I think. I have other home decorating thingies on my mind too... like painting our bed, our room, our bathroom... why I didn't really care two years ago when we moved in is beyond me, but now it's starting to niggle at me.

Okay, it's getting late and I'm frickin' freezing in here, to quote Dr. Evil. Oh!! One more thing: thanks for the M love and laughs at the video. Seriously, this child gives me so many opportunities for blackmail in the future...

Dancing Queen

M and her class had their dance recital last week, and... well.... just watch.


More photographic evidence, and yes, some will be saved for blackmail opportunities of the future...

I Must Be Crazy.

I have to be. There is just no logical reason I feel like this!! Any sane person {stop snorting in laughter at the thought of me being called sane, Mandy and Sam} would not feel like this, they just wouldn't. What am I feeling?


I want to move back to Utah.


*gasp!*


This is the same crackhead who was soooo excited to move to SoAZ and away from the "bubble" and the snow? Yes. But I miss it. We were watching the local news and they mentioned that it had snowed all day in Salt Lake, and what was my reaction? My heart twinged and I said "aww... I miss snow." Remember, I'm a Canadian, so I'm not a wimp about snow, but one does get tired of it after awhile, but I guess I'm over that tiredness. I miss snow, and it makes me sad that J has never seen a real snowstorm, and that P and M have never gone sledding. When I was M's age I'd already sledded my way headfirst into a cement pole, for cripes sake! Come to think of it, that might explain my personality... but I digress.
I miss the Mormon-ness too. I complained my way all over about that, but in all honesty, I really miss that. I hate walking into the supermarket and having to wave smoke out of my babys face. Plus the shopping in Utah is so much better. One word: IKEA. *swoon* Mum and I used to go there all the time back in Hamilton, to peruse and to have lunch. Great food, so cheap! The housing market is so much better there, bigger houses for about the same as we paid for our house, whaaat.
And I miss the family and friends there. Half of CJ's family lives there, and even though we didn't see them all that often, it was nice knowing they were there. Plus my polygamist husband and wife Sam and Mandy live there, and I miss going out with them and getting looks!
Not that SV is so horrible, it's not. The shopping is eh, Target only gets you so far, but the ward and the friends we've made here are INCREDIBLE, and CJ really does love his job. I wish I could combine the two worlds.
Maybe we'll get back there soon, for good. Fingers crossed, right?
So, to end on a high note, here's something that makes me crack up laughing every freaking time I watch it, it just never gets old. Thanks to Crazyland for making me think of it, and making me snort soda out my nose watching it.

In Honor of the New President...

I had a dream. I dreamt that I was at the inauguration. It was so cool!!! Patriotic flags flying, people crying, cheering, so on and so forth.

But.

It wasn't Barack Obama, or George W. Bush on the stand. It wasn't even the Presidential inauguration. It was our Bishop that was being released, and a new one being sworn in. Fanfare and all. And the {old} Bishops wife was up on the podium with him, he escorted her off to band music playing, as the new Bishop took his place, but not before being sworn in on a Bible by a Supreme Court Justice. Or maybe it was a Book of Mormon... I can't remember. But I remember crying and thinking how special it was to be present on such an important day.

I think I need to stop watching the news so much.

Calming Down...

Ahh... okay. Breathing again. :) Still feeling a bit in limbo, but meh, it's fine.

Parents came for the weekend. Kids were in HEAVEN. It was short, but very fun! Their hotel (which was soooo nice) had an indoor swimming pool, and the kids loved playing in it. P even got used to the water a bit more, and even jumped to CJ's arms. Woo! Haven't uploaded the pics yet tho. We also went on a {long} drive to a lake and had a picnic and CJ and the kids fished, but didn't catch anything. Didn't get M and Ps room painted like we planned, but we had fun and that was much more important.

So, since I don't have any pics of the weekend up yet, how about some of my favorite 365 photos? You can see all of them at A Year of Fish ...

Like A Dog...

Ever feel like a dog chasing its tail, just going round and round and never really getting anywhere? Well... that's me right now, or at least how I feel. I have so many things that I want to get done or do, but as soon as I start on one thing, I start thinking about something else that I want to do. Ugh! I just need to get it cleared out already! Ha.

M told me an interesting story at bedtime on Saturday. I was about to leave she said "mummy, I have to tell you a story."
Me: "okay"
M: lots of mumbling and wierd word placements, arm waving "the boys.... they were fighting... and they HIT." *mimics punching*
Me: "oh... someone hit you?"
M: "Nooo. The boys. They HIT."
Me: *slightly lost* "Who did the boys hit?"
M: *exasperated* "THE BOYS. THEY HIT."
Me: "They hit eachother? The boys?"
M: "yes!!"
Me: "Oh... why did they hit?"
M: "The boys just hit. Like this." *mimics punching again*
Me: "Oh.... okay."
M: "Yeah. They're naughty boys." *shakes her head*
Me: "Yes, they are."
M: "Night, mummy, I love you!"
I leave, still wondering what exactly we're talking about.

Ah... gotta love kids.

I Hate HTML

Well, took me most of the time I was home today to figure out how to get the three column thing going on in here {smooches to Lacie for listening to my ranting and helping me figure this crap out} but taa daaahhh!!! New blog look for a new year. Score. Seriously, I swear I'm fairly good with a computer, but HTML and I just do NOT get along. At all. A few expletives escaped my saintly mouth while trying to figure this out, I'm not ashamed to admit it.

M is back at preschool, and I'll show my crappy parent side by admitting just how glad I was to see her get on that school bus. P, J and I celebrated by sharing a personal pan pizza at Target. Getting out with just two kids is so much easier than three, trust me. I admit, I'm one of those moms who secretly rolls my eyes at the overdramatic people who complain about getting out with one kid and mutter to myself "I remember those days...". And secretly I wish I could go back in time and smack myself for thinking it was just so hard to get out with one OR two kids. Teehee. Now I'm not saying I roll my eyes at people who have a hard time with two kids, I've been there and done that. It's the people who think they have it SO much worse than anybody else POSSIBLY could, blah blah blah. Really, it's a select few people that I've ever met, and chances of them reading this blog are slim to none, so untwist your knickers, because I'm not talking about you.

Tried to start potty training P this week... yeah. I stopped. My kids enjoy their diapers too much. The boy is scared of the potty, so I had it out in the living room. Well, J thought it was mucho fun and P still wanted nothing to do with it, so that idea tanked. So I set the peepee timer, and about 2 minutes before it went off I hear P start crying, I turn around and he's walking towards me like he'd just been horseback riding for 5 days straight, and there's a zig zag of a pee trail behind him in the hall. Really... crappy parent in me *still* wishes I'd gotten a picture of it. All I could do was laugh hysterically, which instead of making HIM laugh too like it usually does, upset him more. Oops. So I comforted and stripped the undies off of him and slapped a diaper back on. We'll try again in a week. Or more. Another hilaaaaaarious part of this was him calling the Thomas underwear I got him "panties". Oh law, it's awesome. CJ hates it, it's not manly blah blah, but oh my gosh, I crack up. Especially in Target when we walk by the toddler underwear and P says at the top of his high pitched lungs "look mummy! Look! It's CARS panties! Look look! I want those panties!". Even the Target worker was snorting in laughter. Priceless.

Happy New Year!

And, to celebrate the new year and all its potential and possibilities and blah blah blah, I have reopened my 365 blog!

*cue applause*

http://ayearoffish.blogspot.com/

Three pics of three cute kids, what better way to celebrate January 2nd.




Ah, what else.

Oh.

Yes.

Congratulations to the Utes for a games freaking awesomely played. {I think I threw up in my mouth a little typing that.} Yes, pains our Cougar blue blood to say so, but the Utes kicked some Bama butt. That should shut Nick Saban up, and maybe get some more respect for the MWC. So three cheers for the Utes, and BYU alum Kyle Whittingham. {sorry, had to tie the win to BYU somehow...}

Took the tree down yesterday, and spent today wandering around our not-design-oriented enough town looking for fun things to dress up the entertainment center with. I want to decorate with pink and red and cheesy Valentiney shtoof, CJ's a totally party pooper and wants to be klassy. Boo on that, I say! But we found some nice vases which I have promptly put Valentines M&Ms in, which took me too long because I'm anal and had to sort by color, and M&Ms TOTALLY skimped on the white ones!! I had four times the amount of red ones as I did white. Rude. But I got clever and figured out a pattern I like... not that it matters. Grubby little CJ hands will eat them within the week, I'm sure. Although I got the peanut ones too, to use as distraction... we'll see.