Random Pictures

Here are some random pictures that I have taken over the past little while. Enjoy!

Carter taking a nice little foot bath. He thought that the foot bath is what made my toenails turn red, so he kept excitedly asking "what color do you think my toenails will come out?" I would have painted them for him, but I know that Mike frowns upon that kind of thing...Here I was really trying to get a picture of Carter with his ginormous headphones on, but I love the dirty look I got. He loves to take his time, listen to a little music, watch a little TV, just hang out on the potty. It must be genetic.

We resorted to making houses out of the cardboard boxes that we had downstairs. Where is spring?Samantha insists on crying herself to sleep every time she goes down. It makes absolutely no difference what we do, and we have tried everything. Apparently the other day it was just too much for her. When I went in to wake her up for church, this is what I found:

This is the best way to show you her new laugh. It totally sounds fake, and she does fake it, often. She just opens her mouth and lets out this loud laugh that almost sounds like a fat man coughing. It is hilarious. She does it whenever you laugh at her, or when anyone else is laughing around her, whether she gets the joke or not. Man, where did she get that big mouth?

She has discovered raisins. It makes no difference that she only has 2 teeth, she will gum them forever. She found a box in the diaper bag the other day and was so pleased with herself that I couldn't take them away. She probably had half of the box in her mouth at one point, she just kept shoveling them in!

Here she is doing the aforementioned laugh. She discovered that she got a reaction out of me when the nasty half-gummed raisins fell out of her mouth, so she kept doing it. After a minute of this, I was able to bring myself to take them away. Yuck!

Mike and Carter out trying to break up the ice on the driveway. My dad said that they have some green things coming up in Utah (plants). NOT FAIR! Look at all the nasty dirty snow. Why are we still here?

So much to say

It feels like forever since I have blogged and I have had so much to say, I know I will forget it all but let's see...


The highlight of this week had to be my run this morning. It wasn't long, only 1-2 miles, but it was so refreshing. I did have to run in the middle of the street because there is at least an inch of ice on all the sidewalks, and I almost slipped and fell a few times, but it was great to get out. Usually when I am getting back into running it is miserable the first few weeks. I guess it is because I am in better shape now, but it felt sooooo good and I am looking forward to going tomorrow. Unfortunately the weather will be crappy again this week, so it will probably be a little while before I can actually start going on a regular basis. I am finally living close enough to a good friend who will be my running buddy once things warm up. We are planning our races for the summer to help keep us motivated. Yay!


I am officially off the Slim in 6. It is a great workout and I lost weight with it, but quite honestly, finding a full hour out of my day to do the workout everyday was a little much for me. I have been working out everyday though, and feeling better about myself. I watched a show the other day called "How to Look Good Naked". Carson Kressley helps these women get over their body issues and just learn to like themselves the way they are. It has lead to a break through. I have found that when I am working out for me to be healthy rather than to be skinnier than all the other girls out there it is a lot easier and a lot more rewarding. I swear I picked up more from the skinnies in the eating disorder center that I worked at than they did from me. Who doesn't have issues though?


On another note, things are getting better with Carter. My sister-in-law sent me a book called 123 Magic. I know it is a lame title, but it was great! It is very logical and very simple. It basically reminded me that I need to chill out and stop letting Carter get me so upset about little things. I would highly recommend it to anyone with a kid over the age of 2. Fabulous...

I seem to have forgotten the other things that I meant to write about, so I am off to bed.

Tagged Again!

TEN YEARS AGO: I was living at home, working my booty off at Brick Oven to save money to move out and pay for BYU. I had graduated a semester early from High School, so I was just working full time. Not a lot of fun. I should have had more fun.

FIVE PLACES I HAVE LIVED:
Provo, UT
Orem, UT
Sussex, WI
Menomonee Falls, WI
Milwaukee, WI

FIVE THINGS ON MY TO-DO LIST: Long-term or short term?
Short term - Laundry (always), grocery shopping, dishes, organize the office/file the foot-high stack of papers on my floor, then there are a million house things to do (mostly paint).
Long-term - Move away from this arctic tundra that we currently reside on, get my Master's Degree, write a book, raise good kids, finish all my house projects.

I ENJOY: Cooking and reading are probably my favorite things. I get to cook a lot, but I really miss reading. I also love outdoorsy things, but I am starting to think that I may never get to go running, camping or swimming outside without dying of exposure.

THREE BAD HABITS:
Too much TV!
Snacking constantly.
Picking at my kids (see below).

FIVE THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT ME:
I have been in 13 car accidents (most were very minor, 3 were totals, some were my fault, most weren't and it has been at least 5 years since my last one).
I am the 4th of 10 kids.
I am OCD when it comes to cleaning out holes - I can't stand boogers (of the nose or the eye variety), ear wax, or dirty belly buttons. I have had to back off with Carter, he fights back now, but poor Samantha gets picked at way too often.
I have a little crush on Detective Stabler from Law and Order SVU. I don't know if it's the tattoo or what, but I love him.
Speaking of tattoos, I have one on my lower back. Me and my sister got matching ones when I was young and stupid. It means "forever". Ironic, eh?

FIVE JOBS THAT I HAVE HAD:
Waitress
Counselor at a girl's home
Counselor at an eating disorder center
Secretary/receptionist
Apartment Manager

I tag Christine.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Things have improved since my last post. We all just needed some sleep (I am still waiting on mine, but that's another post). I do feel terrible after a day like that. Luckily for both of us, Carter is amazingly forgiving and resilient. He is a good kid.

Mike gets home in an hour, I am so excited! These little trips always give me a chance to miss him, which is a good thing every now and then. For our V-Day celebration we are going to go to Pump it Up (it's an indoor gym with a bunch of the huge blowup toys) for Carter and then we promised him that we would go out for a treat with the cash that Grandpa sent us, so we are going to go to Cold Stone. Things sure do change once you have kids! For Mike and I, I think we are going we are going to follow our friends Jonathan and Angie and go see Lion King next week sometime. I love the movie, so I hope the play is great. I have heard good things, so I don't think I will be let down.

I have to go get the house semi-clean so Mike will think that I did more than blog this past few days. Have a great day!

World's Worst Mom

I am seriously feeling like the biggest failure right now when it comes to Carter. I just put him in bed yelling and screaming because I am too furious to deal with him right now. Why you ask? I don't even know. I am seriously sleep deprived, so is he, and both he and Samantha are still not feeling great. On top of that, Mike left for Vegas today and Carter always takes it really hard when Mike isn't around. We are both so oppositional and stubborn that we butt heads over the smallest things. The thing that set it off tonight was him refusing to sit on the potty. He has been complaining all day about how his tummy hurts. I know it's because the kid hasn't pooped in days, so I tell him he should sit on the potty for a while and see if he can poop. I brought all sorts of books to read and offered to entertain him if he would just sit there for 5 minutes. He just melted down and refused. It was downhill from there. Shouldn't I be the bigger person? I don't know why I let myself get dragged into an all-out battle with him. I guess I need more patience... a lot more patience. Part of me says this is just normal 3 year old behavior, but are all 3 year olds really this challenging? Don't get me wrong, it's not always like this and I feel horrible when this happens. When Mike is home he balances things out and keeps me in check. I seriously think this family would fall apart without him.
Anyways, I just needed to vent and it is impossible to get ahold of Mike while he is away on work (I think he is at a Manicures and Martinis party right now. Probably getting an awesome massage--it's tough work, right?)

Knock Knock

Who's there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad you don't live in Wisconsin?

This picture doesn't do it justice, but I didn't want to leave my front porch to get a better one. I swear we got 3 feet of snow yesterday. I went out and cleared the sidewalks and driveway around noon and by 9 that night, when Mike and I went out to shovel again, there was another 12" at least. Then the wind blows it into the huge drifts and there were spots where it was up to my thighs. Haven't we already had like 4 "storms of the season?" Can't we get a break? On a positive note, winter should be over in about oh, 4 months or so. Yuck.

Samantha ended up getting sick yesterday too, I don't know if she picked up something at the doctor's office the other day or what, but I didn't get around to posting anything yesterday. So, here are the before and afters of our projects:

Carter's room before:

And now: Samantha's Room:


Our Room:
And the dining room:

Good News!

I actually have quite a few good things to report. Here they are (not in any order):

Carter is now potty trained. Wait, didn't we start potty training him back in August? Yes. and he did great for a while. Then it became a power struggle and we were fighting about it all the time, so he went back into Pull-Ups. We went to the pediatrician a few weeks ago for his yearly check-up and the nice doctor told Carter that he was 3 now and it was time that he went in the potty. That was the end of Pull-ups. 1 week later he was fully potty trained. Apparently I hold no authority in my house. Now if only I could find someone to convince Mike to do the dishes...

I lost 10 pounds! I am sure that I gained some of it back with the Superbowl, but I am back on the Slim in 6 workouts (that would be Slim in 7 for me). That puts me back at where I was pre-Samantha. I would love to lose at least 10 more. 3 more weeks, we'll see! Mike has lost almost 20, go Mike!

I finally unpacked my last box from moving. We had the Superbowl party here and that was my motivation. The office has been a dumping ground for all of the miscellaneous crap that we didn't know what to do with. It took FOREVER, but I got it done. It feels awesome! I also finally got on Craig's list and found someone to take away all my empty boxes.

I finished so many projects last week, including the dining room. I need to take some after pictures, so I will post before and afters tomorrow. I still need to do some finishing touches--picutres on the walls, more decorating, but I have done all I can with what I have. Stay tuned for pictures...

I finished the first real, non-parenting book that I can remember. Honestly, Harry Potter was probably the last real book I read, right after it came out. It took a lot longer than usual (a month instead of the couple of days it usually takes), but I finished it! It was "Love in the time of Cholera". It was a little scandelous for my taste, but overall a very touching love story.

On a sadder note, Carter is sick. He poked himself in the eye yesterday really hard and today it was red and had lots of nasty eye boogers, so I thought maybe he had scratched his eye or something. So I took him in and it turns out that he has an ear/eye infection and it is just coincidence that he poked his eye. Weird. Anyways, hopefully he will get better soon, becuase those eye boogies make me sad (and really grossed out).