Artic Circle mini corn dogs have got to be about the best thing in the world. I'm such a five year old. Every time I roll up to the drive through and order these babies, they ask me what kind of drink I want with my happy meal. "Um, not the happy meal, just the mini corn dogs." But there really is nothing better than an order of mini corn dogs, a large root beer, and two courtesy cones for the kids. I think I've earned it, after a fun-filled afternoon at Walmart. I'm pretty sure there's absolutely NO nutritional value whatsoever, but I don't really care. A LITTLE self indulgence hasn't killed me yet.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Buyer Beware
Craig should have come with a disclaimer: if you marry this man, you will be miserable.
Don't get me wrong. Almost every minute I'm WITH Craig is bliss. I'm so hot for him even now after 5 years and three kids, it drives me bonkers. Here's the dilema. I'm never with him. Ever. He works 45-55 minutes away, so that means he's gone at least 10 hours a day, he's had extremely busy church callings for the past three years, and his latest, YM president means he's away on all sorts of campouts and youth conferences, mutuals, presidency meetings, etc. When he's not doing that, there are 3 little munchins that need daddy attention. So we're apart alot. Too much. I'm not the kind of wife that needs much "girl time." It's not my thing. At all. I need Craig time, alot of it, all the time and I never get enough.
So why is it that when you are dating everything is perfect and you can totally be together almost non-stop, and then the second you slip that ring on your finger, you're never together? WHY WHY WHY? I'm sure it has something to do with responsibility and being an adult, and actually going to work, and bla bla bla bla bla, but dang it all, it stinks. I actually find myself feeling a little bit jealous of the guys Craig works with, or the young men, or anyone else who gets to see my husband more than I do (And sleeping doesn't count, buy the way) isn't that pathetic?
It really is all my fault. I walked right into it. I married a man I was totally, insanely, ridiculously in love with. But now I'm cursed, because weekends like this, are agony for me. I've had fun, sure. It's been a blast to hang with the fam, and they've totally saved me from a weekend of misery, thanks Tash. But everything's a little grayer when Craig's not around. I swear the sun doesn't shine as bright. I guess life really is a trade-off, I may have married the perfect man, but I'll spend the rest of my life love-sick and miserable.
hangin' with the folks.
Craig's at youth conference... as a mentor. We were totally cracking up when he was packing up, like a kid all excited to go. Making sure he had his toothbrush and pillow... nerd. I love that boy. Anyways, I decided I didn't want to spend 3 days moping around the house like a zombie, (for some reason when Craig goes out of town I feel like there is no joy left in the world, I better never be a widow) So anyway, I decided to head up to Logan and spend some quality time with the fam. Tashi and I took the kids to the aquatic center today. Totally awesome place, and I do believe Carter overcame his one and only fear, water. I may or may not post about the benefits of a well chosen bathing suit. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. But I spent the rest of the evening just hanging with my parents. Apparently, my sisters without kids had better things to do, haha. It's pretty dang cool to watch my parents interact with my kids. Hannah decided after dinner that she wanted to play house. She was the mom, Carter was the dad, my dad was the kid, and my mom the friendly neighbor. I didn't get a role :-( I have a slight suspicion that she secretly made me the dog. So she walked around all night ordering my dad around, and calling him "kid." Sounds reasonable enough, maybe I should consider that name for our next offspring?
Kid Robinson....it has a nice ring.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Mechanically Challenged
So I mowed the lawn today.
Yay, go me.
And then I decided to top it off, I would edge the lawn and then Craig would come home from work, see the amazing job I did and float into the kitchen proclaiming that there just is no one as amazing as me.
HA HA HA.
I'm totally challenged when it comes to any type of machinery, so my little surprise was ruined when I had to call and ask Craig how to turn the dang thing on. Rats! He was still totally stoked, but not quite the same ecstatic surprise as if he road in on his motorcycle and realized that I had saved him from a night of domestic chores. The sad thing is, it took me twice as long to edge as it did to mow the whole dang lawn, and half way through I almost gave up because the stupid plastic thing that whips around to cut the grass kept getting caught and I'd have to stop every half a foot and pull it back out again. Arrrr! What really peeved me is that I would really love to be a Jane of all trades, but I'm not. I'm not really naturally talented at anything. Nothing comes easily to me. I'm okay with this, most of the time. (Excepting of course when it's 90 degrees outside and I still need to feed my kids lunch and it takes me an hour and a half to edge our whopping .10 of an acre, and yes our yard is actually that small, pathetic) I feel a kind of pride knowing that I have to work for everything I get. It might not look as good, (I secretly covet peoples craftiness and decorating abilities) but for the most part I feel good about my ability to overcome my lack of artistic ability. So I don't really know where the heck I'm going with this, but I'm feeling pretty good for mowing AND edging the lawn today. It looked dang good this evening, go me, go me.
Monday, June 23, 2008
karma
So after writing the previous and slightly self-righteous post, I go into my bathroom to take a nice hot shower, turn on the facet and guess what happens? Nothing. Nothing but a dribble. Long story short, a well broke in Eagle Mountain (again). No water for 5-8 hours. So guess who's not getting a bath today. Ironic.
bath nazi
I have a small suspicion that I am a little obsessive compulsive. This is especially manifested in my morning routine with my children. In fact, I think I'm a bit of a bath Nazi. I don't know exactly how early I came to believe that children need a bath everyday. I'm pretty sure it was instilled in me by my mother, she was a bath Nazi as well (in a good way). In fact, I have trouble remembering a single day of my childhood where I didn't have a bath. This may seem extreme, but I don't really think it is. We all know that adults and teenagers need to bathe everyday, can you say B.O.? And yes, children do not get B.O., but they still get dirty. In fact they get filthy... let's take an inventory shall we? They sit in their own poop and pee. Can you imagine sitting in your own feces and then Not bathing? They play in the dirt, and occasionally walk through dog poop (sick). Have you ever watched a toddler eat pancakes? Babies spit up and get breast milk and/or formula in every little nook and cranny between their chin and their belly button. Kids that are potty trained don't wipe all that well. I mean, come on, their hand barely even reaches back there, how can they possibly get all the remnants off? Still not convinced? Check behind their ears, in their fingernails, between their toes. Occasionally I'll catch Hannah with a strand of hair in her mouth, sucking on it. Yeah, sucking on her hair. Nasty, and I remember doing it as a kid. Kids get sweaty, really sweaty. Have you ever pulled them out of their car seat on a hot afternoon? Think about all the moments you catch your kids getting into something gross like the toilet. Remember how you shrieked, as you watched them stick their hands in their own poop filled diaper? Now think about all the times you didn't catch them, ug.
There are usually two reasons I don't bathe my kids, which maybe happens twice a month. 1. I'm late. Baths seriously add an extra hour and a half. 2. I'm lazy. And it's never worth it. I spend the day feeling vicariously sticky.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
What would you do?
Here's a little senario for you, and it's TOTALLY hypothetical. You're in Walmart with your 3 kids who are all under the age of 4. Like an idiot you decide that this will be the day to try your 8 month old in the cart without a carseat, you're just running in to pick up pictures real quick, afterall. Until you get in and they say it's going to be another hour, and then your 2 year old doesn't want to ride in the cart anymore, and your almost 4 year old is "too big" to hold your hand and the baby all the sudden starts freaking out and wants to be held, and you're trying to act normal and have a civilized conversation with a ward member who you just bumped into who also happens to be your next door neighbor. And then you turn around and your 2 year old has taken off halfway across the store, and you leave your 4 year old and baby with your neighbor and take off running like an absolute lunatic, then later the 2 year old takes off again when your in the line and finally you end up with all three kids, 24 rolls of toilet paper, 12 rolls of paper towels, pictures, a package of napkins, a bag of reeses pieces, a stick of chapstick, and a partridge in a pear tree shoved into the cart. And yeah, you're totally getting that "can't you control yourself?" look from everyone in hearing distance of your screaming 2 year old. So what would you do... a friend wanted to know.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Hola from Cancun!!!
So when we went on our honeymoon five years ago, we were pretty much lamo. Aside from the obvious we basically did nothing for the entire six days we were there (and we were in Maui so that's saying something) besides go to a luau, snorkel once, and rent a sea kayak for a couple of hours. Yeah, about enough to fill up one afternoon. We were total dweebos with each other, didn't know how to act like a married couple, didn't know how to vacation, and we were sooo worried about spending money. We were coming back to school right after, and so we wanted to keep the cost down. Pathetic. It wasn't until we got home and everything got really stressful that we learned a very valuable lesson: Spend the extra 500$. How often do you go to Hawaii? Fast forward 5 years. So as we were getting ready for Cancun, we really didn't want to make the same mistakes we had last time because it had been like 5 years since we had gone on vacation, and I'd always regretted not living it up on our honeymoon. So that's what we did. We just lived it up for 8 days, and I've got to tell you, I highly suggest it. Here's a little taste of our week in Paradise, enjoy:
Saturday June 7: Getting There
Our first day we got up super early to catch our flight at 9am on Frontier Airlines, and side note here: What is up with their advertising slogan, "A whole different animal." Raar, what the h?! Did someone actually pay for that? And I love having a demented dolphin smiling at me from the wing for 4 1/2 hours, yeah they've actually got animals painted on their wings, sick. So we got to Cancun at about 2:30, went and got our ghetto fabulous "upgraded" piece of junk rental car, and we really felt like we were in Mexico. After we got to our hotel, which was Gorgeous and way more luxurious than I imagined, we jumped into our suits and headed for the beach. We spent about an hour letting the ocean beat the crud out of us, before we changed and drove down the hotel zone to get some dinner at Johnny Rockets. Yummy. Craig and I walked on the beach that night.
Waiting for our rental car, yeah super ghetto
Sunday June 8: Chichen Itza
So there's a toll road and a free road to get to Chichen Itza (Mayan ruins about 100 miles from Cancun). The toll road is like a freeway and takes about 2 hours, the free road is nothing at all like a freeway, winds through every tiny little village (huts and all) with random speed bumps everywhere, and takes about 4 hours. So we decided to go with the toll road. Only problem was none of us speak Spanish and when we went to get on the road there are two signs. Both say Chichen Itza, going 2 different directions, only one says Chichen Itza Libre. So we whip out the Spanish/English dictionary(that book seriously saved our life) and look up the word libre, which means free so we all think "free...freeway! Yippee, that's our road!" No, not at all. Free meant free, as in no cost. Yeah so we literally drove 4 hours through the jungle and every little village looking for the cuorta or toll road, and trying to communicate with people that literally spoke zero English. At one point Craig was trying to ask a guy how to find the toll road, "Donde esta el..." and the guy is just shaking his head and saying "no comprende" when Craig just starts saying okay okay , in Russian. I look up at him and start busting up. "Honey, if they don't understand English, I don't think Russian will help." Finally we figured out that there is no way to access the toll road but in Cancun and Chichen Itza. We were in it for the long haul. We finally made it, ate lunch in some hole in the wall, with chickens cut in half, BBQ'd and stuck on top of rice, seriously good. We got to the park and had a guide who was no kidding a head shorter than me! I looked up at Craig and said, is this how you feel around me all the time? She was pretty cool, though and knew just about everything about Chichen Itza there is to know. I can't believe that place, seriously incredible stuff. On the way home, we took the right road this time, we noticed that our gas needle was getting a little low because of our excursion that morning. Of course there are no off ramps on the toll road, which also means NO GAS STATIONS! Oh lovely. So we get to the army checkpoint at the state line, seriously there were guys with machine guns, gulp, and we say "Um, Yo necessito gas." The guys there go, "Oh yes, yes, we fix you up. Ten liters for ten dollars." Great we say and they pull us around the corner and a minute later this guy comes around the corner holding a bucket filled with gas and a funnel. Are you serious? And he's sloshing it all over the ground and Lori and me are just dying we're laughing so hard, so they put the funnel up to the car and filled her up. Okay we thought, we are DEFINITELY in Mexico now. After we got off the cursed toll road we headed to Walmart and stocked up on snacks to fill up our condo fridge. That was interesting, Walmart is exactly the same whether you're in American Fork or Mexico. We walked on the beach again that night too. Craig on the balcony of our hotel
Me on the beach in the morningChichen Itza, yeah, I know I'm a midge. This is the gasoline episodeYeah, our super ghetto rental car
Monday June 9:Snorkeling Puerto Morelas
There's this awesome little town about 20 minutes south of where we were staying called Puerto Morelas, and it's got some pretty good snorkeling about 200 yards off the beach. So we grabbed our snorkel, mask and fins and headed out there on Monday. We saw a Barracuda which seriously sent chills down my back and Craig found a Conch shell that we brought home. After snorkeling we laid on the beach and read, and then had lunch at this little restaurant right there on the beach. After lunch we packed it up, headed back to the hotel and got ready for the evening. We spent an hour driving around Downtown cancun, and the driving and roads are insane there, no order what so ever, looking for this flea market called Mercado 28. We finally found it, did some haggling, (I bought a necklace) and then went to find some grub. We walked on the beach that night too. My sexy pose on the beach picture, I'm so seductive, haha.Mercado 28
Tuesady June 10: The cursed day on Cozumel
We got up at 4:20 am so we could leave by 5 am drive an hour down to Playa del Carmen, catch a ferry over to Cozumel and make our dive boat at 8:30. Yeah, that didn't happen. First we missed the ferry. We weren't too happy about that. There's no ferry at 7 am so we missed our dive trip as well, luckily they let us reschedule for and afternoon dive without charging us double. So we caught the 8 am ferry and decided we would rent scooters in the morning, dive in the afternoon. Sounds great right? Yeah, first turn out of the scooter shop and I totally wreck, scratch the heck out of my arm, and completely embarrass myself. It's hard to drive a scooter when your feet don't touch the ground. Then our scooters almost got towed because we parked them in a "no scooter zone" although there wasn't actually a sign saying no scooters, so what the heck is up with that? Then came the good part of the day, we drove half way around the island, it was beautiful, then went for our dives which were fabulous. We had this tiny little perverted Mexican named Chino for our dive master. Every time we drove past a boat with bikini clad girls he and the driver would start yelling cat calls, nice... real professional. But our dives turned out amazing, and is everybody listening? WE SAW A SHARK! Yes you heard me right, Cori was in the water with her biggest fear and I didn't freak out. It didn't even scare me, and it was like 8 feet long! Our dives went so well, we thought our luck was changing for the day. Um, no. We went to return the scooters, and told the guy we thought we put one scratch in the side when I tipped over, and all the sudden he starts trying to charge us for every scratch in all 4 scooters! Um, I don't think so. They were saying we owed them something like 1500$ when all the sudden it hits us, this is how they make their money. They charge 20 bucks for the rental, and 500 dollars for a scratch. Luckily Craig laid the smack-down on them and we got away only having to pay 400 dollars for 3 scratches 2 of which we didn't do. Ouch. The worst part was coming home and looking at our pictures from before we took the scooters out, and right there on front are the scratches we DIDN'T DO and paid 400 dollars for, I guess we learned our lesson.
Sleeping on the FerryMy war woundThat's our dive master Chino behind Craig
Wednesday June 11: Laying By the Pool
We were a little gun shy after the cursed day on Cozumel so we decided to stay at our resort on Wednesday. It was just what the doctor ordered. We played tennis, laid by the pool, swam, read, ordered virgin strawberry daiquiris, and built a mini Chichen Itza on the beach. Fabulous. That night we went out and Craig did this bungee jumping thing where you can flip, it was pretty cool.
Blue SteelOur Mini Chichen ItzaCookies, RAAAA RAAAA
Thursday June 12: Tulum
Thursday we drove down to Tulum and did our third dive of the trip. The ocean was too murky to dive, because of the rain the day before so we dove a Cenote instead. A cenote is kind of like a fresh water pool/crater thing that has also sorts of Caverns and caves to explore. And now here is my gripe about my size. Most of the time I don't mind being tiny, it's only mildly inconvenient and in fact I never go through my air very fast diving so that's good. But they never have anything my size! My wet suit was about 8 sizes too big and was just hanging off me, which totally defeats the purpose of wearing one, by the way. So it was giving me tons of buoyancy issues during the dive, because it kept filling with air when I would breath out, and that would make me start to float up, which is the last thing you want happening when you're diving in a cave with rocks about and below. Then to add to the buoyancy issues, about half way through the dive our dive master starts holding hands and playing kissy mask with this German girl named Anna who was on the dive as well. What?! I turn around and look at Craig and he just shrugs, so we finished out the dive watching their little love fest in the front. It's a good thing none of us ran out of air or anything, because there is no way he would have noticed. After our dive we hit the Subway, we all had Diarrhea at this point and wanted some totally American food, and then went over to the beach, explored some tide pools, watched a guy net fishing, and then headed home.
Craig is totally sucking it in for this picture, haha.I'm a butterfly, Meaker/ Thomson Girls may remember this...
Chariots of Fire Tulum style.
Friday June 13: Jungle Tour:
On our last full day we pulled out all the stops. We did a Jungle tour. I'm telling you, if Disney did a jungle tour this is what it would be like. It was SOOOO nice. They had this huge pavilion where you get all harnessed up and then they take you on 11 ziplines through the jungle, and the guys working there are seriously cool and go swinging around upside down on the ziplines. It was awesome. Craig even went upside down a couple times. Then you get on mountain bikes and go biking through the jungle to a cenote to swim. They have a zipline that you can ride out over the water and drop in. It was amazing and so refreshing. I totally side flopped it the first time I went on the water zip, and of course Craig did a perfect back flip off it. But the next two times I went I didn't have any trouble, so ha! After your finished swimming you ride the bikes back to the pavilion and they make you a fajita feast. Delicious. When we got back from the tour, we headed to the pool for a couple hours until 4 o'clock when Craig had scheduled me a massage at this little gazebo right off the beach. Seriously the most relaxed I'm ever been getting rubbed down with the sound of waves in the background. Thanks Babe. That night we got all dressed up (Cancun sweaty style) and rode the bus down to the heart of the hotel strip. Okay, so if you ever wanted to know what it feels like to ride the Harry Potter Knight Bus, um, just go get on one in Mexico. This guy was insane. He's go from zero to 4o in like 1/2 a second, weaving in and out of cars, slamming on the breaks and all the time counting peoples change. Yikes. We had dinner at this super nice authentic Mexican place with a live Mariachi (sp?) band and I accidentally had my first (and hopefully last) sip of alcohol when they brought me my not-so-virgin peach margarita. Um, I don't know how people can drink at all, that was disgusting! Other than the little oops, it was a totally romantic dinner. When the band found out we were there for our 5th anniversary they totally serenaded us with this beautiful Mexican love song that made me cry. I am so happy with Craig, and looking at him that night, I fell in love all over again. Sorry, I know that's cheesy, but it's true. Craig gave me a ring he'd bought earlier in the week half way through our meal, supper pretty silver with two blue stones in the middle. We finished it off with tres leche cake, and then caught the bus home.
After the bike ride
At the cenote: All greased up from my massage...The Knight Bus
My personal Mariachi Band
Friday, June 6, 2008
Bon Voyage
So we just got back from dropping the kiddies off at my parent's in Logan. Okay, seriously the hardest thing ever! I balled like a baby when we drove off, as I got further and further away from my kids, ESPECIALLY my baby. I'm doing okay now, but I was a mess earlier. I'm seriously lucky though, because we have like the most naturally secure children in the world. None of them cried at all, Hannah was comforting me, "It's okay Mommy, you'll be back soon." I know I'm pathetic. Today as we're driving up Hannah goes; "Mommy, you're going to really miss me... but it's okay because I won't miss you." Nice. Nine days of being spoiled at Grandma's, they're totally going to love it, and that actually makes me feel so much better.
So I'm signing out. We leave in less than 12 hours, eeek! So I won't be blogging again for a week, but look forward to some wicked cool pics when we get back! Love you all! Bon Voyage!!!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
The Breast is the Best
Yes, I am actually blogging about Breastfeeding. I am an official Earth Mama. But, I can't help myself. I was nursing Ethan this afternoon, and everything was so quiet and peaceful, and he was so sweet all nuzzled up to me eating, and I started thinking about how this is one of the last times I'll ever nurse him and it made me feel sad, and sentimental. (I'm weening him since we're leaving for cancun in a day and a half.) I love breastfeeding my babies. It's one of my favorite things about being a mom. There are so many wonderful benefits and it feels so comfortable and natural to me. I feel very lucky to have been able to do it. My milk always starts to dry up as soon as I lose all the baby weight, and so I've never been able to nurse much past six months. This has actually made me appreciate the fact that I can nurse at all. Some women are never able to nurse and I am so grateful for the time that I get. When Hannah was four months old, my milk started drying up and so I supplimented her until about 5 1/2 months and then she wouldn't nurse at all. On Carter, I started drying up at 5 months and I made it till 7months with him before he quit taking me as well. This time it was my goal (I set little goals for myself to see if I can make it a little longer) to nurse Ethan until we left for Cancun. He's almost 8months old. Well, someone is shining down on me because I've got barely anything left and he's mostly on the bottle, but we leave on Saturday morning, and HE'S STILL NURSING! I'm so lucky that he is a totally easy going baby and goes back and forth between the breast and the bottle without ever complaining. Actually I'm very lucky because all of my kids have had no trouble at all taking a bottle. But, I feel so happy that I was able to nurse him this long, and sad that it is pretty much over, If anyone out there is deciding between breast and bottle, I highly recommend nursing (If you are able). Here are a few of the many amazing benefits:
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Breeding Love
Hannah is completely obsessed with the Leona Lewis song "Bleeding Love." Everytime it comes on the radio she lets out a little 3 year old scream and starts singing along. She thinks the word "bleeding" is "breathing" so she is always asking if she can hear her "keep breathing" song. Only when she sings "keep breathing" it kind of sounds like "Keep breeding, keep keep keep breeding, love!" Now that kind of changes the meaning, doesn't it.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Petting zoo and our manic saturday
On Saturday (our last before Cancun, Yippee!) We went to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point with Maran and Scott. It was a blast and the kids loved the animals. This only fed Carter's horse obsession. I wish I could convey how big a part of Carter's life horses are right now. Everytime he wakes up in the morning he looks at me and goes, "Mommy, I love horsies." Anyways, back to the petting zoo, these pic's are totally repeats from Maran's website because we forgot our camera.Here's a funny little story. There's a little pony ride you can take the kids on at the petting zoo, and so on Hannah's second time she totally starts singing the "Man from
Snowy River" theme song at the top of her lungs, and she just keeps singing it over and over and over, for the entire 4 minutes of the ride. It was hilarious, especially since they were going about 1 mile an hour. Not exactly galloping through the mountains.So after the petting zoo, the rest of the day was spent in a manic rush to get all of our errands run, so we'll be all set to jet out of here next Saturday! Here's the breakdown our how the day went:
10:30-12:15 Petting Zoo, 12:15-1:00 Lunch, 1:30-3:00 Mall (aeropostale for the last bit of clothes we needed), 3:15-3:30 Distribution center to buy garments, 3:45-4:15 Walmart for hot dog buns to take to our friends surprise party, 4:30-6:30 Party, 7:00-8:00 Best Buy (in American Fork) to buy a new camera!!! (We love it, by the way), 8:30-9:00 Best Buy(in Sandy) to get the memory card we wanted (they didn't have it in American Fork), 9:30-10:00 go home and get the kids in bed, 10:00-11:00 Craig went out and ran 4 miles and I did my dance to enhance video (if I have to wear a bathing suit constantly for the next week I'm going to work out as much as possible, 11:00- 1:00am watched Raiders of the Lost Ark (Craig had never seen it if you can believe that, he's now decided to dress like Indy when we go visit the ruins in Cancun, do you think that will scare people?) 1:15am BED, I think we earned it after that day, Yikes.