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Thursday, January 31, 2008

Wisdom Teeth

So tomorrow morning, I'm going in to get my wisdom teeth out. And yes, it's the full blown surgery, and I am totally dreading it. In fact I'm terrified. I know it's ridiculous... I've given birth 3 times and I'm afraid to go in and have my wisdom teeth pulled. I'm a loony. But I've never been put out before, AND I'M SCARED! Also I hate mouth pain, and I mean hate. Anyone who has ever had braces will agree with me that it is not the most fun. Also, I don't want to look like a chipmunk for a week, kind of funny as a teenager, not so cute when you're a mother of 3. I mean who has to get their wisdom teeth out when they are 25? Shouldn't this have been taken care of, like 10 years ago? But no, I have a freakish body that has always taken it's merry little time to do everything. I am the epitome of a late bloomer! I mean I didn't lose my first tooth until the end of 2nd grade, and I didn't finish growing (and I am not making this up) until I was 22! Anyways, back to my original point, I'm not looking forward to tomorrow. I'll post some chipmunk pictures after. Oh, and does anyone have any good smoothie recipes?

Hot chocolate and chapstick


Anyone who knows me really well, knows that I am a little nuts about 2 things. Hot chocolate and chapstick. When I think about something really unique about myself these two things are about the only thing I can come up with... well that, and the fact that I am totally mini, and still look like a 5th grader, and by the way, most 10 year olds are taller than me, sick. But anyways, back to my original point. I have an almost sick obsession with hot chocolate. Craig says I drink it like coffee, because I have at least one cup a day, I even turn up the air conditioner in the summer so it's cold enough to have a cup, and I am very grumpy if I don't get my fix. When I was a kid my favorite lunch (and don't ask me why) was a lovely little concoction, consisting of hot cocoa, chili, and cranberry sauce. I just figured, "hey, my 3 favorite foods, why not eat them together?" My sisters still bag on me for that one, isn't family great? And I CANNOT live without chapstick. For some hideous reason all the Meaker girls are cursed with extremely dry skin, great for avoiding acne, terrible for eczema. So I have cronically chapped lips, always have. This is only agravated by the dry Utah weather, and so, I am NEVER without chapstick. I came home from school in 6th grade with a nasty dry skin rash all around my lips, and my mom handed be that beutiful little black and white tube and told me to always keep it in my pocket, that way my lips wouldn't get chapped like that again. I swear, and everyone in my family can vouch for me, that ever since then I always have chapstick in my pocket. So thank you mom, and more importantly I'm sure the chapstick company thanks you more.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Party at the Meakers


I just wanted to wish a very Happy Birthday, to my Lovely Mama! 58 is quite an achievement. You are the best person I know. I hope to be half of what you are someday! You've earned every beautiful candle on that cake!

Snowshoeing





Everytime my parents take the kids for the weekend it's like a mad rush to fit in every single solitary activity that would be otherwise impossible with them here. So last weekend was no exception. We did a diving demo friday, went out to eat with friends afterward, I cleaned the carpets Saturday morning, we went snowshoeing Saturday afternoon, and spent several hours in IKEA Saturday night, whew! Needless to say I had a little trouble getting up on time Sunday morning. But, Sat. afternoon was a blast! We went up little cottonwood canyon and when snowshoeing with our friends, the Fishers. It was the most beautiful perfect day to go trekking through a winter wonderland. The sun was shining and it had snowed pretty much all week so the powder was incredible. We took Ethan with us and Craig put him in the baby carrier and then zipped him up in his coat. He was quite toasty and slept virtually the entire time. Although, Craig looked a little bit like he was pregnant. I told him to imagine adding 20 more pounds and carrying that around for 9 months! So, the Fishers have these super sleds that they brought. Your supposed to be able to take them on a ski slope, and you strap your knees into them and can actually carve your way down the mountain, so that was fun. Oh, except for the fact that I am completely unable to control the things. It was like Clark Griswald spraying the no-stick spray on the sled. Those things are fast! I was shooting down the mountain, and every little bump became a wicked jump. Fun, until you realize that you have to hike all the way back up... I decided after Saturday that winter isn't so bad after all, actually it can be quite heavenly.

Certifiable


We are going to Cancun June 7th! Yipee, 4 months away! So for our much anticipated vacation, we decided to get Scuba certified. So on Friday we went with our friends who are going on the trip too, to do our "diving demo" to make sure it was actually something that we want to do, before we drop $800 on it. It was a blast. When they first get you in the pool they put all the gear on you and then they have you kneel down in 4 feet of water and just try to breath in and out without having a panic attack. Sounds simple enough, but to be perfectly honest I was FREAKING OUT when we did that. I have a slight case of claustrophobia, and for some reason it kind of felt like that. It took every ounce of self control I had not to hyper ventilate! I kept thinking "this is not normal, I should not be breathing under water!" After a few minutes it started to feel a little more natural, and then it got to be pretty fun! We tried things like clearing our masks and using our partners air thingy (whatever that thing is that you breath out of), all of which is much harder than it looks. In the end we decided it is definitely worth it! Now all I have to get over is my fear of sharks...

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Manic Reader

I think I've come to the sad realization that I have absolutely no ability to read at a normal pace. If I find a book that I like, I am completely unable to put it down, which inevitably ends with an all night reading session. During which I play a stupid game with myself where I keep thinking, "At the end of this next chapter I'll stop and go to sleep," and then when I don't I'll look at the clock and think, "O kay when it's (fill in the time) o'clock, I'll stop and go to sleep." Etc. Etc. Till it's 5 am and Craig's alarm clock is going off for him to get up for work. This ridiculous habit wasn't such a big deal when I was single in college, or before we had kids... I could just take a nap after work/class. But now, I'm completely shooting myself in the foot. Because taking a nap when you have 3 kids that are 3 and under, is pretty much an impossibility. But it's hard to just sleep away the only time I get to myself... when they are snoozing. I'm an idiot.

Snow Day

I love the snow... it makes the cold more bearable. We had a wicked awesome snow storm on Monday! Sunday night the weatherman was dropping words like blizzard, whooo! I don't think it was a full on blizzard, but it must have been pretty close. It was so crazy that Craig couldn't even get to work, (and he grew up in Idaho, so he is not sheepish about driving in the snow!) so he got to stay and work from home! Yippee! Snow day. I took the kids out in the late morning to play in it, and I shoveled our driveway which seriously had about a foot of snow on it. It has never taken me so long to shovel anything! It was so cute to watch the kids go down our neighbor's slide and fly off the end, landing lightly in the snow. They must have done it 20 times, but it was cute every time. On his "lunch break" Craig came outside and played with us. We pulled the kids around in their sleds and then had a monster snow ball fight. Of course, Carter cried every time the tiniest flake of snow got on him. Go figure.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Frigid

I miss California, I used to wear my biggest coat if it was 50 degrees. Now... that's t-shirt weather. Sick. It is so cold right now. We have an atomic clock in our kitchen that tells the outside and inside temperature, and when I got up this morning it was 10 deg. outside...brrrr. Eeeewww, I get chills just thinking about it. Plus, we live right by Utah lake and when the wind blows off of it, it feels about 10 deg.'s cooler. You know it's cold when you have to keep the water running in your bathtub all night to keep the pipes from freezing solid. I'm not leaving the house for the next two months, I don't want to get frostbite, ha ha.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

The Fun Stage


I'm happy to announce that my perfect baby Ethan is now entering "the fun stage!" The stage when they start cooing and laughing and smiling AT SOMETHING REAL! The stage when they start sleeping through the night (5 hours in a row is "through the night," by the way) and best of all eventhough you get all these things... they still can get into ANYTHING! Yippee!

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Snaps to Craig!

Snaps to Craig ( the worlds best) for two reasons: first for fixing the master cylinder in our Ford Escape and saving us hundreds of dollars. Bravo, little do it yourselfer!

And second, for getting me a beautiful new kitchen table for my birthday! Yipee! I love getting new furniture for the house!

The Kid From Snowy River


Carter is pretty much obsessed with horses, and I don't use the term lightly. Like, 90% of his toys are horses, and he can pretty much imitate a horses lope and whinny perfectly. It doesn't help that Grandma and Grandpa Robinson have horses, so everytime we go and visit it further cements and deepens the obsession. So naturally he loves the movie "The Man From Snowy River," which I let him watch yesterday. Side note: on the climax part he likes to run around the couch with his stick horse and make horse noises, but he only does it when that music is playing. "Da da da da, dum dum dum, do di." So this morning we had a little "Jim Craig and Jessica Harrison" moment. After breakfast Carter comes lumbering in on his stick horse with Hannah perched on the front like his little damsel in distress. It was so hilarious, that I probably laughed for 2 minutes straight. And they just kept wandering around the kitchen for probably 20 minutes, Carter holding the reigns and Hannah in front, until finally I made them coral the horse and go take a bath. Another brilliant Carter moment, immortalized.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Little Miss Tea Party


How come all little girls just innately know how to play tea party. It's got to be something that we are born with, like playing house, because Hannah totally plays tea party and I don't ever remember showing her what was what. She got this adorable tea set from Aunt Meghan for Christmas (thanks for the awesome gift Megs) and a table and chairs from "Santa Claus" (for her and Carter) and now all she wants to do is have little tea parties all day long. She even gets Carter to do it with her. Should I be worried that my son likes to play tea party with his sister? Maybe not, because inevitably within 3 minutes he's chucking the cups across the table and yelling "Owww!" Anyways, it was cute until they figured out that they could fill up the teapot with water from the bathroom the other day, and they went a little nuts with it. By the time I caught them it was quite the soggy mess. Oh well, I guess it was only water.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Christmas Break








So I never posted anything about Christmas break, which was pretty much awesome so I thought I might now. We had a blast at home and with family. We went to temple square to see the lights, had a ham dinner at home, and an awesome Christmas morning. We went to Idaho to see Grandy and Grandma Shannon the day after Christmas, and Hannah got to ride on the snow machine with mommy and daddy. Carter didn't like it so much. We went down to Logan to visit Papa and Grandma Nora, for New Years and got to be there for the famous "Crab Feed!" Yummy. I also got to go shopping with Tashi and Meghan, and that was a blast for me. I love getting "Girl time!" The best part of all, is that we got to take Hannah skiing for the first time! Yippee! It was so fun to watch Craig skiing down the hill backwards hold Hannah's little mini skis, and hear her yelling weeee all the way!

Monday, January 7, 2008

Aquarium

Okay, so Meg and Ash got Craig an aquarium for his birthday (on Dec. 5th) and about a week later we put all the plants, rocks and water in, to let it acclimatize or whatever fish tanks have to do for a few days before you put the fish in it. Well, a few days turned into a few weeks and then a month. So basically we've had this big fish tank just sitting in our room with the rocks and water and plants, and the filter running for a month, but no fish. We looked like psychotic control freaks. Like, "hello, we wanted to have a fish tank but can't stand the smell of fish."
Anyway, tonight for FHE we loaded the fam up in the car and drove down to petsmart to "buy our fish." It was pretty fun until some psychopath brought a 5 foot boa constrictor into the store. (I thought the whole allowed to bring your pets into the store thing was cool until that moment.) So there I am having this mini panic attack in the isle, trying to come up with escape plans in the event that the snake should be let loose. None of them seemed very good especially since we had all three of the kids with us, so, as you can imagine, we don't quite have the quick get away thing working for us. Sorry Craig, you're definitely not Jason Bourne.