Icekimo & Family

Crawfish adventures...

2011-05-23T13:01:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we went fishing with some friends. We loaded up their Trail Blazer and headed for Strawberry Reservoir. We were only slightly concerned about weather conditions justifying our excursion by saying that the overcast weather would help the fishing and it would be totally worth a few raindrops on us. Once we found a spot we drug all of our gear down the hill and started to make the fire... and continued to try to make a fire. The wind was blowing so fiercely that we all had to huddle around our little pile of sticks to keep the wind from blowing our little fire out before it grew big enough to handle that much wind. Needless to say we were cold for a while. Once we got the fire started I began roasting the hot dogs we had brought for lunch while Dave strung up his rod and had a round of unfruitful casting. Bradley was off to investigate every inch of the new area and see just how much trouble he could get into since mom was busy with the fire. We had a wet lunch given that as soon as I cooked the first round of hot dogs the clouds fell open and dumped right on us. I was beginning to think 5pm couldn't come soon enough. The weather calmed down a little bit later and since there was still no fish to speak of, Dave suggested that I tie a piece of hot dog on a line and see if we could catch some crawfish. I did as I was instructed thinking that it was the most ludicrous thing I had ever heard. I sat on the edge of a rock watching to see if I could see a fish or something swim by when suddenly I saw a shadow moving quickly across the rocks a little ways under the water. "Hey!" I called, "I think I see one!" Dave came running over and confirmed my suspicion. By then there were two of them and being the impatient person that I am (and not wanting to ruin a piece of hot dog if I didn't have to) ran over to get the fish net we had brought. I balanced myself on a dry rock by where the crawfish was crawling and reached out as far as I could without falling in. It wasn't quite far enough. The water was deceptively deeper than I thought so I had a decision to make. Either wait for it to get closer or step down into ankle deep, freezing water. Now this is our dinner we are talking about here. Not just some creature I wanted to poke. We had gone out to get dinner and no one else seemed to be having any luck so I made my decision. I stepped into the water as smoothly as I could and I ever so slowly glided the net over the crawfish. As I pulled the net up from the rocky bottom of the lake I couldn't believe what was in my net! One medium sized crawfish clung to the fishing net probably a little more shocked than I was. I ran him over to the cooler and dropped him in as quickly as I could so I could go scout some more. About 3 hours later we had 4 pieces of hot dog out on different lines in a few areas of the lake and I was scooping them out of the water every 15 minutes or so. As we were packing up there was a whole slew of them coming out to eat and I was able to come home with 16 in total!! We didn't catch anything else that day but with soaking wet clothes and my lucky net I was able to bring home the bacon (or in this case the crawfish). That was enough for my ego! I came home and started looking up recipes for what to do with them. Normally when you get 16 of something it's a pretty good meal. However, with crawfish you don't get that lucky. After boiling them with some spices and veggies I peeled them and barely got 2oz of meat out of them. My poor little ego shrank in embarrassment. We will be eating my spoils tonight with dinner instead of as dinner.
Not to fret though for I will be out there again very soon and this time I will bring home enough bacon (crawfish) to feed the whole family!!

Costco is domesticating me!

2011-03-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

This past week Dave was able to get a discount on a Costco membership through DSA. We decided that even if we didn't have the money to go there for groceries all the time, it would be worth it to get the membership for the gas. Lately it's been all doom and gloom about the economy, gas, and all other things financial. I get it. People are scared, and it's better to be paranoid and prepared than ignorant and helpless. So we went to Costco last weekend and picked up some groceries since we had some extra money from our tax return. Costco also gave us a cookbook for signing up. I thumbed through it for two days, drooling over every picture. I have a soft spot for cookbooks. I get so excited just holding one in my hand. Yes, you can get a lot of the recipes online and there are tons of websites that are very helpful no matter what skill level you are cooking. I just don't get the same feeling from a website that I do when I am scouring pages in a cookbook. It feels like I am sitting in their kitchen talking with them about these recipes. Whomever "they" may be. I just love it. I could only hope to come up with enough of my own recipes that are worth publishing. I'm on my way though. With our Costco membership we have decided to expand my repertoire. Twice a month I will be experimenting with new ingredients. This time was a bag of frozen seafood. I saw it and immediately became enamored with the idea of a seafood medley alfredo. I love seafood. I ache for seafood at certain times of the year and the bag that I bought is enough to do three different dinners. Here is my first:

I used a simple alfredo recipe that only took about 20 minutes from start to finish. Added that to some spaghetti noodles I had in the pantry, and steamed some broccoli. It came out delicious! Even Bradley has been asking for more days later. I haven't decided what to do with the rest of the bag of seafood, but if it comes out good, it will be on here.

While at Costco I also picked up a few "dream" items as I call them. You know what I'm talking about. The items that aren't necessary for existence but they make your existence worth living... like strawberries. I love strawberries! I found 4lbs of strawberries at Costco and try as I might I couldn't leave the store without them. Best decision I have made in the last month or so. I have strawberries to snack on, strawberries for baking, strawberries for cereal and best of all... strawberries for pancakes with freshed whipped cream made by yours truly.

By the way, I make the best whipped cream on Earth! Not gloating... just fact. :)

I also made some rhubarb hand pies this past week that came out pretty good. It was the first time I had ever attempted anything like this. I got the recipe from a link to Kitchen Confidant on foodgawker.com. Best website ever by the way. Mine don't look nearly as good as hers, but I was pretty proud of my first attempt.

That is what I have been up to for the past week or so. I've spent more time in the kitchen lately than I ever have before and I couldn't be happier. Bradley loves coming and helping as well. Especially when it's tasting time. :) I hope that Bradley will remember these times and will be able to look back and smile.

2011 in a word...

2011-02-28T08:27:00.000-08:00

This year seems to be cruising by, don't you think? I mean where did February go? It's the last day!! At least I have something to show for it this year. Two weekends ago we decided to tackle a pretty gigantic problem area of our house... the basement. The laundry room in particular. It has been our "out of sight out of mind" area pretty much since we moved into the house. We had so much stuff in there that it was starting to overflow into where I actually do the laundry. So we left all reasoning behind and decided to tackle it. Nine hours and eight garbage bags later we had defeated the mess! We threw away a lot of junk and gave some of the stuff to DI. My laundry room is HUGE!!! And everything we kept is nicely organized and we have extra tubs to continue storing things in. I am so proud of us!

Dave decided that he wanted our big screen tv on the main floor and the smaller tv in the basement. I told him that if he was going to move the tvs I wanted the basement cleaned up and organized. So he went to town. He rearranged the basement so we can all do our desired projects (crafting, music, tv, reading, etc.) while still keeping an eye on Bradley. It is so open and spacious now! I took the next day organizing all of my craft stuff and let me tell you I have quite a bit. Everything has a place now and I love it!! Here are some pictures of my craft area...

I papered the little boxes on the wall next to the window so they could be pretty while they hold some handy craft supplies. It was my first craft project with my new area. It worked out wonderfully!

My wonderful husband brought home a big box to hold all of my magazines. For the record I have 101 magazines that are now all cataloged and categorized. Sooo happy!!

In other news I have a few food pics to post as well. I have been slacking on cooking new foods. But I have done a few things here and there. Most of them were eaten before I could get a picture. Having two boys in the house is like having a pack of wolves nipping at your ankles every five minutes when food is being prepared. Not to mention WRX is a food fanatic. She ran off with a piece of raw chicken the other day.
It was ridiculous. So here are a few that I have been able to catch before they were devoured...

This is a chicken caesar salad that I threw together last month. The bowl that it's in is one that Dave did for me at Color Me Mine on our 1st wedding anniversary. Sweet isn't it? The salad was amazing and surprisingly filling with the chicken.

Now I've never been one for soup. I don't like slurping my food. Now there is a cure for that... BREAD BOWLS!! Bread bowls make everything amazing. I have done sourdough bowls and french bread bowls. I've made taco soup, clam chowder and I also did the spinach dip for the super bowl in a bread bowl. If you ever get bored of just soup and crackers, I highly recommend shaking it up with a bread bowls.

So here's to next month! Maybe I can get around to experimenting so more in March!

PS. The word for 2011 is ORGANIZED, and I love it!!

Super Bowl 2011

2011-02-14T08:01:00.000-08:00

This year for the Super Bowl Dominique and I decided to go all out for the menu. We had an almost proper 3 course meal. (That ended up as more like a 6 course meal.) We started planning said menu about four weeks in advance, and broke the shopping list up so we were both spending about the same for groceries. Our menu consisted of the following: Stuffed jalapeños wrapped in bacon, spinach dip in a homemade sourdough bread bowl, shrimp dip, and homemade onion rings for the appetizers. For the main course we had bacon wrapped chicken strips with homemade BBQ sauce, homemade sweet chili in mini sourdough bread bowls, and asian peanut slaw. Dessert was white chocolate covered pretzels and Dominique's dad was bringing cheesecake. Needless to say, we had WAY too much food for the six of us. I figured we could pace ourselves and get through the food.... Boy was I wrong. We brought home so much food! It took us three days AFTER the Super Bowl to eat it all! At least the Packers won. Though that was little comfort for the tummy ache we all had for the next week. Here are some pictures we took of the food before it was attacked by the boys.

Dominique and I have decided that since we overdid ourselves this year, we will be using a much simpler menu next year - Pizza and wings. Because no one should have to be up until 3am prepping food to then stand in the kitchen for 4.5 hours to cook it. It was pretty delicious though. Maybe I'll do this menu again in a few years.

2011-01-21T09:06:00.000-08:00

This week has been pretty crazy. I thought that last week would have been the week that I pull my hair out. What with Dave's birthday on Monday and then Bradley's birthday AND the Iron Dickson Cooking Competition on Saturday. The amount of to dos was never-ending! Monday we had plenty of getting out and checking items off the "out of house" checklist. It was long and painful but we got through it. Frankly the rest of the week is a blur of monotony. Saturday came bright and early with Bradley opening his door and saying, "Hello? It's my birthday!" We let him eat cereal and watch a movie that he picked out for his birthday. I love that he is still young enough that it is a treat to pick out a movie and cereal. It makes my job a little easier. I was running around so much trying to get the house clean and organized for the competition that I didn't get to sit down and watch it with him. Before long (definitely before I was ready) it was 3:30pm and it was time to put the cleaning supplies down and move away from the kitchen. I ran upstairs and got myself presentable. Everyone filed in around 4pm and we all hung out for a bit and got cozy. The competition kicked off around 4:10 with an opening ceremony including "pre-fight doughnuts" for everyone. Then another 2 1/2 hours of blur. Here is my dish:

I made apple cornbread and southern fried apples. The secret ingredient was apples, if you couldn't tell. All of the dishes were amazing and my house smelled incredible through the next day. Lisa is compiling all of the videos that Dave took during the competition and putting the together in a video. Hopefully it went well enough that we can continue to do this on a fairly regular basis and maybe we will have our own mini tv series!

In the apple spirit, Shayla brought "Apples to Apples". It's a vocabulary card game. It was sooo much fun! I thought we were all going to kill over from laughter! It was the best!

On a side note, I made the birthday cake for all of the January birthdays. We have made carrot cake the traditional January birthday cake since Bradley turned two. We learned the hard, carb-overloaded way not to have a birthday cake for each birthday in January. Dave and Bradley are five days apart and I have tell you.... You CANNOT eat a whole birthday cake in time to eat another one five days later! We have tried it a few different ways. A cookie cake for one and a regular cake for the other, a pie for one and cake for the other, etc. We decided that it was in our best interest to just make one for the two birthdays and we just have it on Bradley's birthday. This year I decided to play with my recipe a little. We bought a coconut for Bradley to try so I used some of the coconut milk in the cake batter and I baked coconut flakes into the bottom of the cake. Of course when I had to take it out to ice it the coconut flakes were on top but I think it was still pretty good. I made my own cream cheese icing and was pretty proud of it.

Everything went pretty smoothly that day and I was very impressed with everyone's dishes. Plus my cake was THE BOMB! I was a bit nervous about it but I will definitely make that one again!! Bradley had a wonderful birthday! Thanks to everyone who made it happen!!

Where's the fluff setting on this thing?

2011-01-14T08:52:00.000-08:00

We have a fairly good schedule for our morning routine at the moment. I say at the moment because we have a problem keeping schedules. We have tried and tried over the past 5 years to make and keep to an orderly schedule. Something always seems to come up. We have an early morning or a really late night and can't seem to pull ourselves out of bed at the right time. I say "we" but it's usually me. I'm sure most of you know that once you slip or stray from your routine just once -even if you have a REALLY good excuse- you suddenly realize how good your bed feels and covers are just right and well just this once you want to stay in bed for another 10 minutes.... Well, there goes your routine. Yep, did you see that ghost-like figure fly out your window just now? That was your sanity. He didn't want to hang around for all the mayhem that is about to ensue from that 10 minute deviation. Now you are 10 minutes behind schedule (20 minutes if you are like me and took your sweet time pulling yourself out of bed and getting dressed) and you race around like a crazy person all day trying to get that 10-20 minutes back. Good Luck!

That is exactly how my day started on Tuesday. We have had a pretty good schedule since about half way through December. So it lasted almost a month. That's a pretty good record for us during the winter season! As I was saying.... Tuesday started out 20 minutes behind schedule but hey no big deal, right?! I got my list of to do's and headed downstairs. MAKE BREAKFAST...check! OPEN BLINDS...check! UNLOAD DISHWASHER.......

It took about another 20 minutes to coax her OUT of the dishwasher. Needless to say, my day never got back on track and one day I hope to find the time-space continuum that fixes this routine problem.

The Saturday Concoction

2011-01-08T13:56:00.000-08:00

Today's adventure began when I loaded my dishwasher and thought to myself, "Hmm I don't have enough dishes to start a load yet, what can I do about this conundrum?" Within about 30 minutes and with the help of some facebook friends, I had a rough idea of what I was going to do with my day.
I successfully baked my first pie (peach) about a week ago and I'm still getting over the ego boost from it. Thus, mini apple pies were born.

Dave is going to a LAN party tonight at a friend's house so I thought they would make fun little treats for them to eat with their pizza. It didn't come out quite how I envisioned them, but I don't think they are bad for a first try. As I become more familiar with pie dough I will start being more creative. Plus, all I had to make the mini versions was a cupcake tin. Next time I make these I would like to have a tart tin. We shall see. I think they taste pretty good, which IS the main point of food, right? I should have brushed the tops with butter or egg yolks but they work just fine like this.

This is the first time I have ever "posed" food for it's photograph. So, don't laugh... yeah, okay you can laugh. I don't have much space or lighting so I did the best I could. My neighbor has a studio in his basement, but he is not here at the moment so I used what I had. I thought the block of wood was a nice touch. What do you think?

A day to remember a year

2011-01-01T16:38:00.000-08:00

I can't really expect anyone to follow my blog in any form of regularity given that my posts are occasional at best. I do what I can to write when things of interest arrive, but generally it is just a passing thought that is then forgotten until I realize it has been months since I've written anything. Once I sit down to write a few paragraphs I end up sitting in front of a blank screen wondering what I have done with my life. Being a stay-at-home mom is wonderful at times and heartbreaking other times. By the end of the day I just can't put words down on a page. Day to day things seem monotonous and uneventful and the extraordinary things are usually too big of a mess for me to clean up. Once again I have arrived at a new year with the same resolution: To blog the memories so we have more than just pictures to rely on when we want to take a walk down memory lane. Don't get me wrong pictures are wonderful, but you can't capture everything in a picture. You can't capture Bradley saying, "Oh barnacles" when he is working on a problem. All you see is a kid with his mouth open and a quirky look on his face. So, here I am on the first day of a new year, trying once again to capture more of life this year than in years past. I will do my utmost to post at least more semi-regularly, and I will also try to not start out every post by apologizing for the lack of posts. I am sure you understand that life gets in the way and sometimes I am just too lazy to post. However; I will try this year to not think of the everyday tasks as mundane but as a peek into our life as a family. We maybe inexperienced and a totally out of our element as we raise Bradley and try to shuffle life around as need be, but we do the best we can and I can't wait to see how this year unfolds.

An Update...

2010-04-08T19:10:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot has happened aside from the normal crazy ninja-like conundrums. Last weekend was Easter and Bradley had a blast hunting Easter Eggs with his aunts and uncle. His entire cache of candy lasted all of two days. I think I'm still dealing with the effects from that. Yesterday was our wedding anniversary. 4 years now!! We always joke about how we can still stand each other, but to be completely honest, Dave is a wonderful husband and I can't imagine being married to anyone else! I love you Dave!!
I am starting a new cookbook that promises to make me a better chef. *fingers crossed* I've just been taking notes on techniques so far but hopefully next week I can start using some of the recipes. I'm pretty excited about really learning how to cook. Other than that everything is pretty much the same. However, I do have a cute story to tell real quick. We were eating dinner this evening and I was putting the leftovers away for Dave to take to lunch. Then Bradley turns to Dave and says, "Daddy, Mommy is hooking you up!" I thought it was so cute. We couldn't stop laughing.

A story for your day...

2010-03-08T16:28:00.000-08:00

Let's just skip the introductory apology about how I don't ever write anymore. I've gotten requests for an update and I have a story to write about today so let's begin...

Once upon a time there was a cute little boy who liked to do very devious things. This little boy was very smart and very sneaky. Today this adorable little boy had a friend come over to play. They played on the stairs and in every room that had an unlocked door. While they were playing in this little boy's room, he decided to open the window. He could do this only because he had super strength and had been able to take off the window lock on this particular window a few weeks before. So he proceeded to open the window and THROW EVERYTHING IN HIS ROOM OUTSIDE!! All of the clothes that his mother had previously put away in his closet, and a good percentage of his toys. All of these items were thrown onto the front yard during a mere 10 minutes of playtime. The only reason the fun stopped was because his mother saw a bright yellow tennis ball bouncing down the sidewalk in front of their house. So his mother walked up the stairs to see what this little boy was up to. While his friend was quietly playing in a corner of the room, there was this little boy running towards the window with a handful of toys to throw out through the screen that he had so carefully ripped to the size he needed to fit his toys. Although this ingenious little boy had succeeded to destroy the clean room he had, he did not get off so easily and is now grounded for life. The beginning of a sentence that I'm sure will be added to every few months.

I hope that this story can bring a smile to your face and allow you to remember the good times you had/have raising your children.

Saying "hello" again

2009-12-29T07:41:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a while, daytime projects were so hard while I was working graveyards. It was pretty much all I could do to drag myself out of bed and try keeping track of Bradley. So for all of you that are curious... Walmart laid me (and all of the other holiday help) off on the day before Christmas Eve. They did give us 5 days notice, but it still sucked. So now I'm jobless again. I'm looking at probably trying to become a glassblowing apprentice, and maybe doing some web design/updating for a friend of mine. So we'll see.

Our Christmas was small but filled with love. I got sick on my last day at Walmart and I'm still fighting through it. Sad, huh. Bradley received plenty of fun new things, his favorite of which is the Fisher Price SmartCycle. He calls it his motorcycle and will spend about an hour in the basement playing the different games. It has been a HUGE help for me while I'm sick. Thank you to Grandpa Jeff and Grandma Ali for getting it for him! We went to the Dickson's house Christmas Day where Bradley got a DoodlePro and Dave and I got a faux fur throw that is pretty much the bee's knees. I love cuddling up in it and watching a movie!! It's so comfy!!!!! Thank you!! Thank you!!! We had a wonderful time there and you can see pics of our time there on Lisa's facebook page. Please comment on how absolutely adorable Bradley looks in his Christmas jammies!!! I love them soooo much!!

So now that I'm not working, I'm trying to spend a good amount of time with Bradley to make up for the time that we lost while I was working. I'm also trying to get used to having a normal sleep schedule again. So far that has not been going very well. I wake up around 3:00 every morning and can't go back to sleep for hours. It truly sucks. On the upside, I've been getting up and ready for the day around 8:30 which has been giving me about 30 minutes to myself before Bradley gets up. That has been really nice. Having the time to write out a to-do list or writing on my blog, or just sitting in the living room watching the cats play. It's my quiet time that I desperately need some days.

Well I guess I should go, my quiet time is almost up and I don't want to risk losing this post to an internet malfunction. I hope all is well for everyone and may you be blessed in the new year!!

Let the chaos begin!

2009-11-16T07:52:00.000-08:00

I got the job at Walmart and started my orientation process on Friday morning. It was very long and extremely boring but I finally got through it. All of their training is done on a computer so I spent 8 hours on Saturday and an hour on Sunday working through the training modules. I was pretty much brain dead by about 2pm on Saturday. I had soo much information racing through my mind. But I got through it and thankfully I'm done with the training. Now I have my schedule and I start working tonight!! I will be working from 9:30pm to 6am. I know that it will be really hard to do this but hopefully it will help us get back on top of things. It's definitely going to take some getting used to. I really hope they can keep me after the holiday season is over. I'm going to try very hard to make it worth their while to keep me on after. I would like to work through at least next summer. I think that it would help us tremendously through the tough economic times and also help us save up for the things we need to do with the house and getting another car, etc. So keep your fingers crossed everybody! I know your fingers are probably sore and cramping from all of the finger crossing I ask for. You can take a break when you need. I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt trying to give me luck. But I really appreciate all of your well wishes and luck that you have sent me! I will post more soon on how my new job is going!!

Where's my chalk?

2009-11-11T09:22:00.000-08:00

I'm sure most of you that read my blog understand this frustration of raising a child. Those that don't understand, I hope that what I write will help you make a decision about having children. (THEY ARE EVIL!!!) I'm sure that most of what I go through is normal mothering stories and the hazards of raising a child. However, I have yet to encounter a child who can ninja 7 gallons of milk into his room in a 2 months. That being said, I often encounter children that I simply cannot stand. I don't know how their parents deal with them on a day to day basis. But as soon as I think, "Wow, I'm so glad my child doesn't act like that," he goes and does something horrible and I'm pulling my hair out trying to deal with him. I don't know how to deal with the complexities of this child. Perhaps I'm just not cut out to be a mom. I just don't think like a mom. I think like a homeowner. It's not a good way to think when your child constantly ruins something in the house. It's a rough way to live, you know? Note to anyone thinking about having children: Don't buy a house that you hope to sell if you are going to have children in that home! It's impossible to keep the house clean and worth looking at. Unless you are rich enough to buy another house where the child will live until you sell the first one. And it will still take you 6 months to a year to completely fix the house you are trying to sell. Unless you have an angel of a child. In which case, congratulations!! Go hold that child so close and tell him/her that you love them!

All of that introduction is for this purpose: I'm drawing the line at power tools! I know that makes no sense to you now, but you will understand shortly...

I'm currently on a medication regiment for anti-anxiety and depression. (No surprise there really) I'm also taking a prescription at night that allows my other medication to work better and also helps me sleep at night. The problem that arises from taking the night-time prescription is that I sleep deeper once I finally go to sleep. I'm sure you can see where this is going.

A few months ago we bought the child door knob covers to try to keep Bradley out of places like my bedroom, the pantry, the linen closet, etc. We also put one on the inside of his bedroom door so that he couldn't get out at night and early in the morning (like 5 or 6am). It has worked wonders for my sanity at night and I loved being able to get up in the morning and he was still in his room either sleeping or quietly playing in his room. It was also really nice for nap time. It really gave me a break from chasing him around the house all day long. He could go in there and either sleep or play quietly while I went to the bathroom finally or just took a break to scoop up the shredded pieces of my brain. It worked really well and I guess I got used to the security that it brought me. So Heaven decided I had it too good and He chose to throw a wrench into things and see how I dealt with it. Bradley figured out Monday last week that if he hung on the door knob cover, it would snap into the two pieces and then he would have full use of his door once again. At first I thought it was just an accident - and it may have been to start out with - but he cataloged that little tidbit of information and continued to use it all week long. I told Dave that Bradley had figured out how to take of the door knob cover (I didn't know how he did it until later) to which Dave replied, "No problem I'll just put some 3m adhesive on it and he won't be able to take it apart unless he has a large, heavy professional tool. So I thought, "Okay, problem solved! I can go back to my secure 30 minute-a-day break." WHICH I WAS SO GRATEFUL FOR! So one night Dave took Bradley into his room, reinstalled the door knob cover, and asked him to take it off. Bradley walked right up to the door, hung on the cover and it happily snapped into two pieces for him. I'm make this part of the story short. There is NO way to fix that thought process. You can't 3m it back together, you can't screw it into the door, there is NOTHING. So we are back to square one...AGAIN!!!

I've been dealing with square one for a week and a half now. It's horrible. There are no naps during the day, no waking up to happy ideas of making the most of the day. I wake up listening to the sound of my child doing something destructive. The worst part of it is that I sleep so deeply because of the night-time medication that he can ninja into my room and pretty much take whatever his heart desires - because we can't close our door for fear that he will move on to another room in the house and destroy something more important than tooth brushes, contacts solution and vitamins (And no that's not all he has taken). This morning I woke up and heard him doing bad things in his room with a towel rod that had previously been placed in our room. So I jumped out of bed, ran across the hall and surveyed the damage. To my dismay I found: the towel rod, a skate board, an empty bottle of cucumber body spray from Avon (and yes the house smells like cucumber was smeared all over the place)and worst of all... Dave's power drill!....Yes the drill that Dave had used to hang up some shelves in the guest bathroom. And perhaps I'm being over-dramatic with this statement, but here it goes... I DRAW THE LINE AT POWER TOOLS!

So out of this ridiculously long post rampant with the nonsense babble of a psychotic mother, I'm desperately begging for something to draw my line with. Chalk, pencil, marker, PERMANENT MARKER, anything. Because this line will not be taken back, It will be burned into the carpet of this house if it must. That line represents the last straw, the foot of authority coming down. I cannot deal with power tools! And as soon as I have an extra $70 I will be buying a door knob that has a numeric code on it so that I can get back to my sanity...if I live long enough to get that money....

Update?

2009-11-10T13:14:00.000-08:00

Okay so we all survived the toilet incident. YAY GO US!!! However yesterday Bradley decided that he was going to be sick. His fever was up and down between 97.5 and 104.5. I called his pediatrician and they told me that if his fever went back up that he would need to go to the hospital. Otherwise, it's probably just the flu and it would just take some time for it to run it's course. So yesterday was miserable for both of us. Dave came home early while I was waiting to hear back from the nurse. I don't think any of us got very good sleep last night. Dave got up with Bradley once, but the rest of the time we were both restless. So Dave took today off in case we needed to take Bradley to the doctor and so I could go to my job interview this morning. I got there early and had to wait a little while. While I was waiting I found out that I'm being hired as an over-night stock and price person. My hours will be hard as I'm working full-time over-night. I had both interviews one right after another and they said that as long as my background check and drug test come back okay and no one is hired in between that time then I should get a call next week sometime for orientation. FINGERS CROSSED EVERYONE!!! This afternoon we have been running some errands. I finally got my license renewed while I was out doing the drug test. So I'm finally legal to drive now. YAY!!! Now I just have to not get a ticket. :) So I guess that's all I really have to update with. Sorry we are boring. You should have figured that out by now. lol Hopefully I will get to post if/when I get the job!!

Our First Homeowner Repair

2009-11-07T21:38:00.000-08:00

So tonight has been interesting to say the least. We have owned our house a little over a year now. For the most part it has been a decent house: lots of space, nice sized kitchen, 2 bathrooms (which is so convenient), wonderful closet space, etc. I have loved that ,unlike our cars, we haven't had to dump a bunch of money into repairing this place before we could live in it. We just moved in and made it our home. I love that! And I love that I haven't had to repair anything in the house since we moved in. (Aside from the fridge/freezer which is a totally different story that your don't want me to get into.) Structurally our home has been very nice to live in.

Tonight is payback for the 15 months of smooth sailing.

A few months ago, Dave and I woke up one Sunday morning to Bradley messing around in our bathroom. Yes he is THAT ninja!!! We got up as quick as we could and we cleaned up all the mess, etc. Well apparently we didn't get everything. Our master bathroom toilet has been clogged since then with something that our child decided to try to fluch. We've tried dealing with it, but finally we just decided not to use that toilet anymore. So we've been using the hallway bathroom. THANK HEAVENS FOR 2 BATHROOMS!! Although inconvenient for us in the master bedroom, I didn't complain because of the fact that we finally had 2!! Tonight we went from having one toilet to having 0 TOILETS!!! Let me run that by you again. 3 people + 0 toilets = VERY BAD!!

Let me start this part of our story by saying that Bradley has been extremely difficult this week. Just plain naughty. So now that it's Saturday I was thinking it would be nice to have a bit of a break. My friend came over this afternoon with her little boy. The two boys play wonderfully together. They never fight or scream at each other. It's so nice to have someone that I enjoy Bradley playing with. I LOVE having them over! I can just hang out with my friend and I don't have to worry about Bradley beating up her kid or the other way around (which is normally the case). So my friend and I were getting dinner ready and just talking in the kitchen and the boys were upstairs playing. I thought they were playing in Bradley's room. I know...My mistake....

We had dinner and everything went fairly smoothly. Dave came home and we hung out for a bit and then our guests left and we started getting ready for the night-time routine. Suddenly I had to pee... Yes this all started with "I HAD TO PEE". Crazy, Right?!?!! So I go pee. And then I flush OUR ONLY WORKING TOILET..... And guess what happens......NOTHING.....It tried. It was trying so hard. So I get the plunger....NOTHING HELPED. So you know what we did? Do ya? Dave and I ripped that toilet out of the floor and got to business!!!!!! After about 30 minutes of heeing and hawing I finally feel something!... We tilted that toilet every angle it would go and finally with the aid of our newly purchased plumbing snake (THANKS DAVE!!) I was finally able to pull my hand out with our culprit....A plastic Snoopy. Ironic I know. As I am typing this I'm wearing my Snoopy Jammie Pants and I still feel gross even after showering and scrubbing tons! So we put the toilet back together and figured, "Why not go ahead and check the other one." So we go tear that one apart.... After the same procedure and a little more elbow grease we pull out............... an open contacts case. That was the cause of ALL of our problems!!!! Unfortunately that particular contacts case held Dave's old contacts. I don't know what upsets me more. I'll think about it...... the open contacts case. So that has been our evening. Fun, huh?

I hope I never have to do this again. It's going to take weeks to get over this one. If anyone has any ideas to keep this from happening, I'd be more than willing to read/listen to them!

My world revolves...

2009-10-07T05:43:00.000-07:00

As I was doing my morning stuff this morning I realized that I hadn't blogged in a while. I apologize for that, but it has been a bit crazy around here. Nothing exciting I assure you. So I guess I'll just update everyone on what has happened in the last week:
I got up for my paper route early Friday morning. Dave went with me to help ease the stress of starting a job (It's been over 4 years since I worked and I was a bit nervous).We got down there at 2:30am and Annette (the manager) helped walk me through the process. I picked a route and started "stuffing" (putting the inserts in the paper). Then the main paper came and we rolled and bagged all of the newspapers that had to be given out that morning. My trainer, John, was wonderful in helping me to understand how things went. He has been doing the newspaper for 6 years!! We went on the route (which was all student house equipped with the most stairs I've ever seen in my life!!) We got done around 6:45 and came back home. I didn't do too bad, but I was in such pain for the rest of the day!! My legs ached and my knees felt like they were about to collapse. Soooo many stairs!!! So I called Annette and asked if they had any routes that weren't student housing. She had one that was mostly residential and just a little student housing. I accepted it and was totally excited to do a new route. We got to bed late that night and as we were laying down, Dave explained that he had a bad feeling about it. He listed off reasons that he didn't want me to do the paper route. All very good and logical reasons, like "how was I going to get to the warehouse to do the papers when none of the roads were cleared?" and "what happens when there is a problem with the jeep?" I understood all of his ideas and agreed that if he had a bad feeling then we should probably not do it. I called Annette that morning and explained that it just wasn't working out and apologized for the inconvenience. She understood and told me not to worry about it. So I'm done with the paper.
We went to a fire department breakfast that morning with the family and had a pretty good time (aside from the fact that it was freezing outside and I was exhausted still). We planned on working on the jeep at the shop that morning so after the breakfast we headed down to Doug Smith. We got down there and Dave honked the horn to get someone to open the bay door. Except when he pushed on the horn, nothing happened. He pushed on it again and guess what happened... the car died. Great timing, huh. I will say that if we had to break down somewhere, Doug Smith was probably the perfect place to do it. So we pushed the car into Dave's work area and began testing everything. We were dumbfounded. I began to panic about 30 minutes in to this diagnostic attempt. If my husband can't fix it, I just don't know what to do! I was of no help during this time as I have no clue what does what in that area. So I started tearing out the brake booster while Dave worked on the electrical stuff. I successfully pulled out the brake booster (after about an hour fighting with the interior bolts that held it to the firewall) and put the new one in. By this time Dave had been working on the electrical problem for about 6 hours. I finished up what I could do and began working with him to try to resolve the problem of the car that does not start. I was looking up wiring diagrams and ignition switch information in my Jeep Bible to try to find a solution or at least another angle to look at. After another hour (about 7 hours total) we gave up and went and got lunch. Scott came and picked us up and we got Cheryl's car to use until we could fix the jeep. The rest of our weekend is a bit of a blur. We were so stressed out about the car and how we were going to fix it. Plus we had to get our sleeping schedule put back together after the paper route didn't work out. It was just plain exhausting!
On Monday I started applying for a new job. I ran through a bunch of ads and looked online. One of the places I applied at was a hotel chain. Basically they rent out studio rooms, one week at a time. So it's like week-to-week renting. Cool idea but I don't think they have the logistics worked out all the way. Anyway, they called me yesterday for an interview and to fill out their personalized application. When I got there, the manager had to print off an application and he gave me a list of jobs for me to look over and choose from. The only problem I could see at that time was the fact that almost all of the jobs required you to live at the hotel. They gave you a studio; paid your utilities, phone, internet, and cable. All you had to do was live there and earn a paycheck. Which would be great...if I didn't have a family that I loved and would like to see every once in a while. There was only one job that didn't require you to live on site, but the hours are from 9am to 3pm. Which would mean that I would have to hire someone to come take care of Bradley while I went to work. Yeah, not going to happen. I filled out the application anyway and the manager said that he would call me in a week if they had any openings. I also went in and applied at Walmart last night in the hopes that I can find a job fairly close that will allow me to work at night and earn a decent paycheck. I know your fingers are really cramped by now, but please keep them crossed for me!!

So that's pretty much the update. Lots of information, I know, but really nothing all that interesting. Today Lisa and Cheryl are coming over to help me work on Bradley's room (we are going to paint a jungle scene on his closet doors) and so I'm totally excited for that!! I hope all is well with everyone!!

If I had only thought about it...

2009-10-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

You know how annoying it is to lose something, right? You need that particular thing right now and so you rip the house to pieces and do a complete autopsy in every room looking for it. Then you get so frustrated because you have spent the last 3 hours of your life looking for it. And the smaller it is or the less important it is makes you more and more frustrated because you still haven't found it and it's not very important, but you just can't stop looking for it because you needed it and now it's gone. So you finally give up, you throw your hands in the air and wave the white flag of surrender.... Then a few days later, the item that you wasted so much time looking for, shows up. Just sitting there still laughing at you. And you are so mad whether at the item for not saying something while your tore your house to bits or at yourself for not looking in that one spot where it was. That's how I feel right now. And yes I'm angry at my book for not saying anything.

In other news, I received a call this morning from the paper. I'm to go to Provo at 3am tonight (or tomorrow morning, however you want to look at it). Wish me luck!! I'm so scared!!

Games, children and cats...OH MY!

2009-09-30T10:01:00.001-07:00

Yesterday one of Bradley's friends came over to play for a while. They wanted to watch a movie and given that they had already destroyed Bradley's room, I conceded. I made the mistake of not wanting to watch Curious George all over again. I went upstairs while the boys were in the basement watching the movie. Things were fine for quite a while. I would periodically sneak down the stairs and check on them. For the most part they sat beside each other laughing at the monkey and the silly things he does. I got quite involved in a conversation with Bradley's friends' mother and neglected to sneak down in time to see the devastation they had created. All of the games that I was storing in a bookcase were thrown all over the floor!! Not just the boxes, oh no, all of the pieces and boards and cards. They chose the games with the most pieces and pulled them down. They then decided to take all of the pieces out and throw them, I guess. Titanic, Life, Monopoly, Scene It, etc. ALL OVER THE BASEMENT!! I know, I know, it was my fault. I'm virtually hitting my head against the wall, I promise.

In other news: The newspaper hasn't called me back. Not once in 3 weeks!! So I'm exploring other options. If you know of a job, please let me know!

The week so far...

2009-09-22T06:15:00.000-07:00

Let me start by saying I kept my word about the fridge lock. I scoured websites online and found plenty of items...online. As a last ditch attempt to buy one that day, I went to Walmart and looked in the baby section. And there it was...the answer to my prayers! Plus, it was only $4.50!! I quickly grabbed it before another anxious mother took it right before my eyes, and I guarded it with my life until I got it home and installed it. I followed the instructions carefully, making sure I didn't miss any steps that would create a glitch in this wonderful invention. I placed it where I wanted it, took off the paper backing to expose that magical adhesive that would save my sanity, and pressed down REAL hard..... 10 minutes goes by and I'm celebrating (physically giddy with all the excitement this brought to my life). Life is going to be great from now on!! I can enjoy my life once again! I don't have to worry about bad milk any-.... What was that noise? Would you like to know what that noise was? Would ya? That noise that I heard coming from my kitchen? Are you sitting on the edge of your seat? Holding your breath anxiously waiting the answer to that noise I heard? That noise was Bradley. Him and all of my hopes and dreams being drop-kicked out an 80 story building and crashing on to a busy street being run over be 25 semi-trucks...and 3 dump trucks. That was the sound that my oh-so-wonderful, life-changing item (that I guarded WITH MY LIFE) made when my 3 year old pulled with all his might (with the help of gravity and his ninja brain) on the refrigerator door and popped that door lock right off!! That was the sound!! I called Dave frantic and on the verge of tears to tell him of this travesty. He calmly explained that maybe it needed to set up a little before the adhesive stuck the right way. I not so calmly ran that idea through my head and decided that he was probably right. SO I re-installed this magical invention and gave it a stern talking to explaining all of hopes and dreams and how I wasn't going to scrape them up from that busy street again. *TWO DAYS LATER* I have regained my confidence in this lock of all locks and I am starting to get used to the idea of grabbing the top of the fridge to open it. Dave hasn't had much success in remembering, but he's at work all day in a child-free environment, so I can't blame him much. I am going to get something from the refrigerator thinking nothing of it...and what happens?...I forgot to open it with the lock....That's right, after the testing and experimental phase of this wonderful lock, once I had regained my confidence in it and truly believed with every fiber of my being that it had had enough time to set up and the adhesive was perfectly sound, IT POPPED RIGHT OFF!!! I was devastated!!! It was like someone close to me had died. I lost all faith in humanity for creating what looked like the best thing ever and turned into just a drawn out misery maker. Dave once again was at my side with a creative idea to console me. I had given up completely but he had the brilliant idea of spraying 3m adhesive on it instead of leaving the stupid plastic adhesive on there. I had no energy to argue with him. "Sure," I said. "Do whatever you want with the worthless thing." So he did. He sprayed the special adhesive on it. Waited the allotted time frame and placed the lock back on the top of the refrigerator. We tested it out a few times, but I didn't hold my breath. I didn't want to put my faith in anything again....It has been 3 days since we made our improvements and I must say that I am impressed. Not once has it budged from that spot that Dave specified for it to go. And it has been 3 days since Bradley has gotten into the fridge. I am not quite used to sleeping in peace, but I'm sure I will acclimate soon.

Dave's blog

2009-09-18T06:22:00.000-07:00

So I mentioned Dave's blog a few posts ago. Apparently when I typed the address for the blog, it didn't show up in my post. I apologize. Here is Dave's blog address: http://sonandi.blogspot.com. Hopefully that will show up.

In other news, I'm buying a fridge lock today. Yep! I'm not going to bed tonight until the refrigerator is securely locked. If I had the money I would have a motion-detected laser field placed around it, but alas it will not be today. Yesterday I went to Bradley's room around 7:30 to get him ready for the day. What do you think I found in that room?... An empty Sprite bottle and a newly re-filled hand soap bottle (not as full as I remembered). So I decided to have a grown up discussion with my ninja. I sat him down on his bed and asked, "Bradley, why is the soap in your room?" To which he answered, "Because my hands were sticky." A reasonable answer I must say. For a 3 year old, his logic in unparalleled. So I continued my discussion, "Why were your hands sticky." Without one hint of hesitation he replied, "Because of the Sprite." "Why is the Sprite in your room, Bradley?" "Because I was thirsty." Again with the logic!! How will I ever overcome that logic!? So I told him that if he continued to take drinks up to his room that the bugs would come in when he's sleeping and bite him. Faulty reasoning on my part, I know. For now, every night he still finds some ninja way to get liquid up there (last night he pulled a nearly full gallon of milk out of the BACK of the fridge!), but he is also terrified of getting eaten alive by bugs in his sleep. I will now accept my award for dumbest mom of the year. Thank you. So today I am off to find a fridge lock and I refuse to come home until I have it in my hand.

Comments are welcomed again!!

2009-09-15T06:42:00.001-07:00

I don't know what happened with the comments area of this blog. Whatever it was has been fixed now. I'm sorry that it has taken me this long to fix the problem. I kept looking and looking at the account and couldn't find anything wrong with it. I finally decided to look at another blog that I have and just copied the comment settings. So, now we can post comments!!!

In other news, Bradley is now quoting Juno and if I have to look at one more liquid in his room (on the carpet or otherwise) I'm going to scream.

Thank you for keeping up with my blog. The Wonders of Motherhood will soon be imported to this blog. I don't repost stuff there so I figured I'd just put the two together.

Dave in Denver Sucks!!

2009-09-12T23:11:00.000-07:00

This week Dave went to training in Denver for the new model updates on the 2010 subarus. Which basically means my life would pretty much be quite miserable from Wednesday to Saturday. I don't know how excited Dave was to go, but I couldn't wait until today (which is actually yesterday given the time.)

It's started at 6am Wednesday morning. Bradley woke up and wanted Daddy. 6...IN THE MORNING!! I woke up with Dave so I could spend a few precious minutes with him before he left. ENTER BRADLEY... He was fairly well behaved aside from being in the way. We saw daddy off safely, but he immediately wanted eggs for breakfast. So I scrambled 2 eggs for him and then we went downstairs to watch Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I was about to crash, so I stopped the movie and talked him into coming upstairs with me. I put him in his room and fell back to sleep. He then destroyed his room and started kicking down the door at 8am. I woke up and began my day. He went and played at the neighbors house (the one from the last post) so that I could get some things cleaned up around the house. Then we went down to American Fork and spent the night with a friend. Bradley took no nap that day and was miserable (as was I) until he finally went to sleep around 10pm.
We awoke at 7 (I didn't fall asleep until around 3:30 that morning) and started the trek back home. He was still fairly tired that day so I put him down for an early nap and got another section of the house cleaned. A friend of mine came over that night and our boys played quite well together. Once they were leaving the horror show started. A brand new gallon of milk disappeared from the fridge as well as a pitcher of lemonade. The milk carton reappeared in Bradley's room but the milk inside of the carton seemed to have exploded...all over him and the room. It must have something to do with the black hole that it travels through. There is also a mysterious stain on his walls that even the Mr. Clean magic eraser can't get rid of. (That was my saving grace when Bradley got into my makeup) I thought the Magic Eraser got everything...but I was wrong. Again let down by cleaners I reduced myself to straightening up the house. Trying to keep up with stuff so Dave would have a nice house to come home to.

Friday was much the same. Another pitcher of lemonade in the room, more of a mess to clean up and another friend staying the night to keep me safe (at least mentally). Bradley ate 6 tacos Friday night (taco night) and then 3 more Saturday morning. We cleaned Bradley's room together so Daddy would see it all nice and semi-clean. Daddy came home this afternoon and Bradley latched onto his leg practically. I wish I could have done the same!! I missed him sooo much!!! I checked on Bradley a few minutes ago and so far I can see no liquid containers in his room. Please send advice for breaking this habit!!!

We are hoping to have a quiet weekend here at the house, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it won't happen as long as Bradley is alive and well. But at least Dave is home to love on when things get too rough for me to handle.

The ninja brain strikes again...

2009-09-04T09:25:00.001-07:00

So last night we had some neighbors over for dinner. They have three kids and Bradley LOVES to play with them. Rachel (the children's mother) has been taking Bradley off of my hands a little bit here and there and it has been a life-saver!! So I invited them over for dinner last night as a "Thank You" for taking Bradley. We had wrapped meatloaf, asparagus and mashed potatoes. It was quite delicious and the picky eaters even ate some! Anyway, they brought cookies for dessert which were really good. Bradley kept sneaking in the kitchen and scraping off the icing and eating it....This coming from the child who FREAKED OUT when we gave him his "smash cake" on his first birthday!!! And now he willingly scrapes icing off of a cookie and eats it? (Not eating the cookie, just the icing) Dave tells Bradley that it's time for bed and he is done eating cookies. I'm not exactly sure when he did this but Dave went to his room to get Bradley ready for bed and there is a gallon of milk in his room. AGAIN! This is the 4th or 5th time he has done this!! Almost consecutively!! So Dave brings the gallon of milk down to the fridge, cap missing (because Bradley usually leaves it in the fridge), and THERE IS NO CAP!!! WHERE IS THE CAP?!?!?! IT'S ALWAYS IN THE FRIDGE!!! So Dave looks for it and asks Bradley where it is and Bradley is all, "I don't know, maybe in the fridge?" Oh the panic. They can't find the cap so Dave just puts the gallon in the fridge and hopes that we can find it eventually because how gross is it leave a gallon of milk in the fridge without a cap!?!?

All of that to say, I went in Bradley's room this morning to get him ready for the day and clean up from where the 4 category 5 hurricanes came roaring through his room last night. (Complete with water from the toilet, by the way) I'm bending over to grab a handful of toys when WHAT DO I SEE HERE UNDER THE BED?!??! What is that? Is that a plate under his bed?.....YES IT IS!! A PLATE OF COOKIES!!! About 3 missing from the last time I saw it, but yes a plate of cookies. So I ask him, "Bradley why is there a plate of cookies under your bed?" To which he replies, "I got hungry." How can you argue with that?! As I'm reaching down to grab the plate of cookies, what do I see right next to the plate?... THE CAP FOR THE MILK!! At first I'm completely thrilled that I found it and then I realize...this was probably here all night and a 29 year old father and his 3 year old son can't find a cap that is right next to the cookies under the son's bed!! If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was training to be Santa Claus!!

Ninja Brain: 1
Parental Figure(s): 0

So sorry!!

2009-08-29T17:48:00.000-07:00

I know I have been horrible about posting on this blog. Things have been so crazy and I never have time to sit down and write! Things will happen during the day and I'll think, "Oh! I should blog about this!!" But then it never happens, and I apologize. So my end of the year resolution is to blog more.lol

So since my last post, I have fostered another litter of kittens and we adopted one of them. Her name is WRX (pronounced REX) and she is about 6 months old now. When I was fostering the litter, Dave picked her out as his favorite and they would pal around the house together after work. He would let her sit with him and play with him and all of these other things that he would NEVER let another cat do. So I talked to him about her and their "attachment" to one another. We decided to adopt her and I would quit fostering. Two cats is enough in the house right now. I miss fostering terribly, but watching the two of them play and lay down together is so cute! A few weeks after we adopted WRX I knew that she was going to be one of those cats that you have to look after like a child. She's not independent at all, in fact she is quite the love bug. She is the first long-haired cat I've ever owned and at first I was a bit worried about how she would handle living in a desert in the summer with all that fur. The only problem she has had with her fur is that she can't stop on the linoleum floors when she runs. lol She cracks us all up when she is chasing something and spins out of control on the floor in the kitchen. It's quite hilarious. Ibanez was a bit of a pain to begin with, but she has gotten used to the fact that WRX is staying and there's really not anything she could do about it.

That is probably the most exciting thing that has happened since my last post. Sad, huh. Ummmm.... trying to think.... OH! Dave got a big flat screen tv for $100. So that was cool. It's one of the old school kind. (Big box with scratchy screen) It's still cool though and you really can't argue with $100 now can you? By the by, Dave has started his own blog . Apparently this one isn't cool enough so he started his own about how he and Bradley interact. So follow his blog because he writes funny little stories about Bradley and their little world that they live and play in.

I can't really think of anything else that should be said, so I guess I'll leave it at that. I shall try super hard to be worthy of your followings and write more often and hopefully better stories.

Vitamin or Toy?

2009-05-10T13:06:00.000-07:00

Bradley has gotten to the age where he should have a multi-vitamin every day. When I took him to the doctor for his 3 year old check up the doctor told me that as long as he had a vitamin and a glass of whole milk a day he would be quite healthy. We went to the store after his appointment and picked out some multi-vitamins. Dave was there too and the boys decided that Transformers vitamins were way too cool to pass up. We have created a routine in the morning to get the days started. I make Bradley a bowl of cereal, a small cup of whole milk and a vitamin. Bradley has come up with his routine as well. He picks up his vitamin and says, "Okay mom is this a toy or a vitamin." I say, "It's a vitamin, Bradley so eat it." He then proceeds to either quote the movie or making flying noises as he puts it in his mouth. And that's how mornings go at the Dickson House.

Our much needed date-weekend

2009-05-04T20:40:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon we dropped Bradley off and went to see X-Men Origins:Wolverine. It was pretty amazing. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not a big fan of the ending, but all in all it's definitely a movie worth watching if you like X-Men. When X-men ended we had about 2 hours until our next movie. (Yes TWO movies in one evening, we're CRAZY people!!) We walked over to the mall next to the theater and went window shopping. We found some cool stuff and THE CUTEST PAIR OF SHOES!! They were for newborns and they had a little black skull with a pink bow!! I told Dave that if we ever have a girl that is going to be her first pair of shoes. We ate some dinner at the food court and then headed back to the theater for our 7:30 movie. We got in early, sat down and prepared ourselves for the new Fast and the Furious. Again, awesome movie! Much better than I expected. I was a little concerned since the third one was way out there. But this one was better, but it wasn't like a 4th story. I think Dave and I decided that it was probably supposed to be between the first and the second ones. Which I think is a bit Star Wars-y. We got out of the last movie satisfied and exhausted. We went and picked Bradley up and came home and crashed.

Sunday, we woke up late and had 15 minutes to get ready and head up to Shayla's place. We got up there 30 minutes early!! Go us, right?!?! We came back home with about 4 hours until we had to meet everyone to go to shooting. So after a quick trip to Walmart for breakfast foods we came home. We made shelves for our closet and they turned out really nice. We even put contact paper on them to make them a bit prettier and to keep from getting splinters. I love them. We then played Scrabble on the Xbox and then got ready to go. We met everyone and headed up to the hills. We stayed out there for about 3 hours and shot a range of different firearms. It was tons of fun!! I even came back with a little bruise on my shoulder from the shot-gun. After that we headed up to get Bradley and then came home exhausted...again.

So that was our weekend. It was tons of fun and I wish we could do stuff like this every weekend!! I have so much fun doing things with Dave!! I love that guy!!

I have a new mommy trick!!

2009-04-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, Bradley doesn't easily take naps. He hasn't for about a year now, and much to my dismay it doesn't look like it's going to be a phase. (Unless you call 12 years a phase) As horrible as it seems, I've kind of just come to terms with it and tried to keep him entertained throughout a whole day. I still try most days to get him to at least calm down enough that I can go to the bathroom without something catastrophic happening. The other day, Bradley comes up to me and complains about his eyes hurting. *Enter brilliant thought* So I tell him to come closer and I look at his eyes real close. I say, "Your eyes are telling me that they need to take a nap". He bought it. He took a 1 HOUR nap that day!! I figured it was just a lucky chance. A few days have passed without naps. Today Bradley just finished playing outside for a little while. I desperately needed to pee so I told him to come over to me. I looked in his eyes again and said, "Well your eyes are telling me that it's time to take a nap." Bradley said, "So they won't hurt?" "Yes", I said, "And then when you wake up we can go ride your bike for a little bit." Bradley looks at me and then says, "okay so I take a nap and then we go outside so I can ride my bike?" "Yep", I told him. AND THEN HE PUT HIMSELF TO SLEEP!!!! He just laid there with his eyes closed and within 5 minutes he was asleep!! He only slept for about 30 minutes or so but I was being a bit loud and I couldn't believe that he fell asleep in the first place. It was wonderful!! So I'm going to see how long I can drag my new mommy trick out!

Here's to 3 years...

2009-04-07T09:22:00.000-07:00

Dave and I have now been married for three years. On one hand it seems crazy that we've been married for that long. On the other hand though it's like, "We've only been married for 3 years?!?!" lol Last night after going to the "After Conference Potluck" we came home and watched Corpse Bride, an anniversary tradition that was inadvertently started the night before we got married. We stayed up late and watched it since we were too excited to sleep. I'm pretty sure I watched that movie about 8 times that month.lol So last night we stayed up way past everyone's bedtime to continue the tradition. As a result, we'll probably collapse around 8 tonight. We've decided that we don't like our anniversary being during the week. I think next year I will begin making my own calendar that allows our anniversary to be on a weekend every year. Wendover was lots of fun, but going with another couple kind of made it not feel so much like a nice romantic get away. Instead it was like getting 4 people locked in a two door car for 5 hours round trip and in a hotel room for a day. Wait.... Maybe next year we'll just get away by ourselves. Tonight we're ordering a heart shaped pizza from 5 buck and sitting on the floor with plastic tumblers and our cell phones for light.lol Just kidding. I might even pull out our pretty glasses. If Bradley is asleep anyway. So yeah, not much on the agenda tonight, but that's what this past weekend was for. We decided last year that every year for our anniversary we would do something crazy. Last year we went ghost hunting and this year we went to Wendover. All in all I think we've done pretty good on our decision. It's going to take all year to figure out what we're going to do for our 4th anniversary. Our 5th anniversary is going to be pretty crazy! Anyway, I'm glad we survived this past year and I'm very excited for what will come in the next year!

P.S.Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Dickson, Shayla, Lisa, Scott, and Cheryl for watching Bradley over the weekend so we could have a bit of a break.

Bradley decides to cook dinner...

2009-04-03T08:22:00.000-07:00

Last night I made a sweet potato souffle and I had chicken with a dry rub on it sitting out to be barbequed. I had just put the souffle in the oven and I had to go to the bathroom REALLY bad. So I told Bradley to come upstairs with me. I know that's creepy but it's what you have to do when it's your son and he's got ninja brain. He got off the bar stool and started heading to the stairs with me. I made it upstairs and realized that he wasn't coming up. I figured he just had the skillet and a spoon and was pretending to make something. So I finished my business upstairs and invited him to come watch Curious George while the souffle was baking. The time went off roughly 30 minutes later and I went up stairs. I pulled the baking dish out and placed it on the stove to cool. And that's when I found what he had done.... There was the chicken I had set out. In the skillet that was too small for it. Then I saw a small tupperware that used to have cinnamon sugar in it...used to. Because now it was all over my chicken!!! And the floor!!! And the stove!!! I rinsed off the chicken and cleaned up the mess but I was furious the whole time. Dave cooked it anyway and it ended up coming out pretty normal. I just had a bite but Bradley had 1/2 a piece and Dave had a whole chicken breast. He's taken the rest of it for lunch today. So lesson learned. When you have a child make sure your spices are in a locking medicine cabinet!

Boredom leads to a new web browser...

2009-03-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

So I was doing some stuff online today while I was hoping that Bradley would take a nap soon. And I found Google Chrome. Normally I don't care about new web browsers but I thought I'd look at this one since my Ipod had just updated safari. To make a long story short, I now have Google Chrome and probably will not be getting off the computer until Dave says it's time to eat. I LOVE it!! I don't know if any of you use it. I'm sure it's been out for a while and I'm a moron for not getting it until now, but whatever. I have it now and I'm loving it!!

PS. Bradley got into another ice cream sandwich yesterday. Any suggestions on how to keep him out of the deep freezer without putting a deli-slicer on it?

A funny story...

2009-03-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

So the other day I was getting things ready for dinner and Bradley had just woken up from his nap. He comes running into the kitchen with his blue, silky blanket. He walks right up to me, puts the blanket around his belly (it draped over his feet) and said, "Look mommy, I look just like a princess!"

2 posts in 1...

2009-03-10T16:02:00.000-07:00

New Washer And Dryer

Friday afternoon our beloved washer died. Not a pretty die in your sleep kind of way, more like a bloody slasher movie type way. It was not pretty. I put a load of clothes in and came back about 40 minutes later to a laundry that was soaked and had standing water in all of the important places. Boy am I glad we got those shelves last month!! So we went out in search of a new washer or a washer/dryer set depending on prices. We hit Home Depot where we found my heart's desire. An LG washer and dryer set. It's even a cool green color! (They call it Bahama Blue, because it's green) We talked to the sales guy about features and warranties and things and were able to get a killer deal out of it. We got the washer and dryer with 2 stands (the kind with the drawers) all for $1600. Now normally this whole package is about $2600 so I was totally head over heels in love with these machines! We got them home and set them up and sat. Dave and I stayed up until about 1:30am just watching them and commenting on how cool they are, and how quiet they are. Since then I have washed just about every article of clothing and bedding still in use in the house! I love my new washer and dryer!!

New Me
So I made a decision last week. I was doing some online window shopping and got all discouraged and decided to finally do something about it. So I have decided to lose 20+lbs by my birthday. I turned my eating and exercise habits over to Dave and said, "Here, do with me what you will." So he found a website called freetrainers.com. It's a wicked awesome website that calculates the calories, carbohydrates, proteins and fats that you need to intake everyday. It's really helpful. They have workout schedules that have modifications on some workout routines so you can do them at home. The nutritional guide has a tracker with a food database so you can search what food you want to eat and it breaks it down for you. They also have chats and forums for motivational support and ideas for other things to do to help you with your weight loss goals. Although this is only my second day, I'm very optomistic. I feel better (aside from being sore from working out last night) than I used to and I'm never hungry. I'm totally looking forward to the end result. Wish Me Luck!!

The best date ever...

2009-03-07T22:45:00.001-08:00

So Dave bought a Subaru Impreza that needs a new motor and a few other things done to it. It's our first project car since the Jeep and I was ready to work! We had our wonderful family watch Bradley today so we could the engine apart. I was so excited when we got to the dealership! It has been way too long since I got my hands dirty! We started around 11 and Dave let me do a lot of the work. It was so much fun! I got to use air tools (which I was nervously excited about) and I got really dirty!! I have decided to name the engine...Tinkerbell. The previous owner ran out of oil and the engine couldn't handle it. So there was a big hole in it and the pieces had fallen into different parts of the engine itself. As we were pulling out bolts and tearing it apart we would find different pieces. Dave showed me how everything works and it was tons of fun!! I even got to pull one of the heads off all by myself. We pulled out a piston (which shouldn't happen) and it was a wreck. There were huge pieces of the block in the oil pan. He said that he had never seen an engine look like this. Thankfully a couple of the pulleys are in good shape and the heater core doesn't seem to have any damage either. Anyway, it was tons of fun and I can't wait to get started putting the new motor in the car when it gets here!! I'm really glad that I was able to do this. Dave had to pull some strings at the dealership to let me come in and work on the car. It was so much fun being there!

So after we finished up pulling the motor apart, it was about 1pm. We went to Yapona (my favorite sushi resturaunt on the planet!!) and had lunch. Then we cruised up to Jordan commons and saw Watchmen in the IMAX. It was an okay movie, but I was expecting more from it given all the attention it's gotten. But the theater itself was cool. For those of you who read this but don't live out here, they have all of these resturaunts there and you can buy your food and take it into the theater with you. I've only been up there twice I think, but I wish we went more often. It's really cool. The IMAX theater is cool. Anyway, after the movie we came back down to Utah County and went to Dave's parents' house to pick up Bradley. He was finishing dinner and we all decided to watch a movie. After all, we are a movie family now. So, Dave and I went and picked up dinner real quick and brought it back to watch Australia. It was a decent show too. A bit on the depressing side and they have the most tortorous ways to die!! Like being trampled by a herd of cows or being shot with an arrow and stuff like that. Quite morbid but still a good show.

Now we are settling down for the evening. Bradley is fast asleep in his bed and Dave and I are doing some computer work. We realized earlier today that in one month from today (well technically yesterday now) we will be celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary. So far I have to say I'm still glad I married him! Weird, huh. I'm so glad that I found someone I can be truly happy with and enjoy getting hideously dirty with while pulling apart a motor or playing with our son! Today was a wonderful day and I plan on them getting better and better!

Bradley is growing up...

2009-03-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend Dave took Bradley out to play at the park. They came in a little bit later and grabbed Bradley's bicycle. We put it on the sidewalk out back and he jumped right on. Then the miracle happened. He started pedaling!! Just like that!! I was thoroughly amazed at what he was doing. Dave let him ride his bike to the park a little ways from the house and he pedaled all the way to the fence. Then he jumped off his bike and told Dave, "You take my bike, okay?" And then he took off into the park. By that night he was exhausted and I'm surprised he made it through dinner! He went out yesterday and pedaled through 4 parking spaces! I was so proud of him. He's so cute on his bike. His whole body has to shift to put enough weight on the pedals to push them all the way around. It's hilarious!

Bradley's Disappearing Act

2009-02-23T10:50:00.000-08:00

Last night while I was making dinner rolls, Dave was doing some magic for Bradley. He'd put something small in a towel and then "make it disappear". Bradley was fully entranced. Then we decided to make Bradley disappear! So Dave put the towel over Bradley's head and moved it around and when he pulled it off we'd act like we couldn't see him. One time Bradley got off the chair that he was sitting in and walked over to where I was. At this time he was "invisible" to us so we were calling for him. Dave called and called and suddenly Bradley put his hands up to his ears and started saying, "Hello! I'm over here!" Apparently when you magically disappear, putting your hands over your ears helps the people who aren't invisible hear you. At least according to Bradley. So Dave told him (or the air) that he had to come sit back in the chair if he wanted to come back. It took a while but we finally coaxed him into the chair and he came back, just in time for dinner.

Importing Music

2009-02-22T11:07:00.000-08:00

Dave and I are spending our weekend putting more music on our ipods. Since he is leaving for Denver tomorrow, we are spending these last few hours together laughing and talking and goofing off while our computers are sweating over the amount of work they have to do so suddenly. We have now become quite aware of our difference in tastes in music. We have maybe 3 artists that we like and the rest of it we are polar opposites on. It's really a wonder how we have lasted this long without killing each other. We truly are the opposites that attracted. It's a good thing we are fairly passive towards one another, otherwise I'm pretty sure I would be bald by now. Luckily the only damage I seem to have incurred from this relationship is baby fat and a few extra grey hairs (which have suddenly popped up again since February 1st). Fortunately, I'm willing to sacrifice my body, my hair (and my mind) for what Dave has offered and will offer to me in return. He's so lucky. :)I'm going to miss him terribly for the next week. Bradley is going to go crazy!! Hopefully Dave can be responisble enough that he will come home in one piece! I'm not going to hold my breath though. I can't sacrifice that for very long!

Funny Picture

2009-02-17T09:03:00.000-08:00

I couldn't stop laughing at this picture!

What the next two weeks hold in store...

2009-02-17T07:46:00.000-08:00

So this week Dave goes back to work. The doctor said part-time, but who are we kidding. It's Dave he doesn't do PART-TIME. So he's back at work at 7am and not coming home until between 5:30 and 6:30. Bradley is taking it particularly hard waking up as early as his little eye lids will let him and then running into the bedroom saying, "Where's my daddy!" So Dave's schedule is fairly monotonous this week. Bradley has come down with a cold and sounds like Darth Vader holding his nose. This Thursday we should be getting our new refrigerator!! YAY!!! So this week we have to get the house ready for the delivery people to pick up the old one and bring in the new one, still trying to grasp something of normality in home life. Next week is a little different. Dave is going to Denver for training. Monday afternoon/evening he will fly to Denver and won't be home again until Friday night. So while I'm looking forward to him getting some training, I really don't know what I'm going to do without him! A whole week without a husband. I'll be holding on for dear life by Tuesday morning, I'm sure. Bradley is going to have a really hard time with it. It will definitely be different. Luckily I have lots of things that I can do around the house to make it easier to stay busy and keep my mind off of the facts of the week. I'm thinking about going through the basement and throwing out all of the junk that we have accumulated throughout this 4 year journey. The only downside to that is Dave would probably kill me when he came home and all of his stuff was gone.heh My kitchen cart will be arriving next week as well and that will give me something to do. Yay for ordering things online! So if any of you have any suggestions for things to keep either Bradley or I or both of us occupied while our sole entertainment is gone, please let me know!

Pictures of Dave

2009-02-12T08:58:00.000-08:00

So I finally have some time to sit down and blog for a moment. Things have been crazy having Dave home for almost 2 weeks. On Tuesday he went to the doctor and got the go ahead to go back to work part time on Monday. He will be doing that for 1 or 2 weeks and then, given an examination will be allowed to return to work full time. A much better prognosis that originally thought, I'd say. He now considers himself one of the special people who heal like Wolverine. He's very excited to get back to work. I am posting the pictures that were given to us by one of the guys that he went to Park City with.

Fun in the snow...

2009-02-03T14:39:00.000-08:00

Okay, as most of the people who follow this blog know Dave had a bit of an accident this past weekend. I just wanted to post real quick and let everyone know how he is doing. He was released from the hospital yesterday after his chest x-ray looked good. So he came home that afternoon and is doing wonderfully! He had to bring home a respiratory exercise machine for his punctured lung which he is doing really well with. He is able to walk (carefully) and he can go up and down the stairs in our house. For the most part he can do just about everything himself. He's figured out how to use the rest of the muscles in his body instead of his back. So he's really sore from the injury and having to change the ways he does things, but he's incredibly upbeat and he's doing amazingly well with it all. They didn't recommend surgery or even a back brace. They said that using the brace would be a waste of time given where he broke his back. So YAY! :) He's going to be home for 3 to 4 weeks. The doctors said that he could do whatever his body will allow him to do. So we'll see how quickly this heals. So, I just wanted to let everyone know! Thanks to you all for all your prayers and well wishes!!

The Wonders of Being Sick

2009-01-27T10:15:00.000-08:00

So we came down with a little bit of a head cold. Bradley had it first and it came with a horrid looking rash. However he got over it within two days. I was not so lucky. I'm going on 6 days now and it's in my chest. Dave is doing okay with it I suppose. He's a bit cloggy still but feeling better than he did Sunday night. Over the weekend we (and when I say "we" I mean Dave) spontaneously decided to move the entertainment portion of our living room downstairs. Therefore the TV, all of our movies, the XBox, the HD DVD player, all of our Rockband items and all of our speakers went downstairs. Aside from bending my promise ring I survived moving all of that crap with Dave. I must say the basement looks good. The downside to doing this is that the front room now looks empty and awkward. I need to figure out what to do about that. I was thinking of putting all of my books in the now obnoxious looking entertainment center. On the bright side I now have room for a piano. I just need to get one. So now that the house has be re-invented I suppose I have some work to do.

2009-01-16T23:37:00.000-08:00

I simply had to put this picture up after we talked about putting people in the dryer!!
PS. I have safely hidden all of the screwdrivers that can be jammed in the dryer sensor for the door. :)

Motherhood is driving me crazy...

2009-01-13T09:59:00.000-08:00

I'm sure any mother reading this post will laugh at me about how silly I'm becoming, but I assure you , I don't feel silly. Bradley has always been the kid who will get out of his room when HE wants. We've done many things to try to combat that idea. I few short months ago he would climb over the gate we put up at his door and go open the front door and take off outside. I had no idea when he did this as it was usually between 7am and 8am. With the little bit of sleep I get, I would sleep right through him leaving. I would usually be awakened by him coming in to give me a flower or hearing him talk on the other side of my window. When we moved to this house I thought, "okay new surroundings, central air so we can close his door, and the bedroom doors lock!" We have lived in this house for about 5 months now and I have discovered in that time that my child is special. It took him less than a week to figure out how to unlock his bedroom door. So we switched the knob so that it locks from the outside. He then used a helicopter propelor to unlock the door and get out. That took about a week. It took us a while to find that helicopter because he has discovered how to use hiding spots. So we finally found it and threw it away. For the last week now he has been using cards from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Memory Game that we got him for Christmas. I'm at my wits end. The only thing I can think to do is to get a door know with a key. I've also had my eyes on the ones that you have to punch the number into. It would help him learn his numbers quicker probably. I have no clue of how else to fix this problem. I will lose what's left of my mind very soon now.

OK I'm gonna blog

2009-01-04T15:00:00.000-08:00

the wife talked me into writing a blog. i don't really do the whole blog/facebook/myspace/talk to people thing, but it thought i could try to be a little cooperative. so now i guess i have to figure out something to write about.... well.... lets see.... jessica and i are thinking about picking up the guitar. i think it will be fun for us if we can stick to it. that seems to be the problem with lots of things. i seem to have a problem sticking to one project long enought to get in a good habit or to get goot at something. itmaybe i'm just a big old cated individual. well as far as hobbies are concerned. i am dedicated to my family and to my work. maybe a bit to much to my work, but thats life. i guess i have to be dedicated to my work in order to provide for my family.

So it's 2009 now...

2009-01-02T09:34:00.001-08:00

I figured probably I should post something before 2009 really gets started. Being a stay-at-home mom, I don't see too many changes between one year and the next. It just means that for the first few months, I have to write twice as many checks because I'll write 2008 on the date instead of 2009. Dave's birthday and Bradley's birthday are both coming up too quickly. In 13 days I will have a 3 year old. I can distinctly remember thinking that this kid wasn't going to make it to 3 throught his existence so far. I think next year will be really hard though. With Dave turning 30 and all. And Bradley turning 4! That scares me more than you'll ever know! So in the upcoming year, we will see my brother graduate high school, my parents hopefully finish their kitchen remodel and maybe even get pregnant again. (Pleas don't freak about that last part.It is not set in stone. It's just an idea we had.) So good luck with all you have planned for the new year! And may we all have a less stressful year than 2008 brought!

That's a pretty big butt...

2008-12-30T11:22:00.000-08:00

So I'm sitting here folding laundry and minding my own business, when Bradley comes up to me with his Mr. Potato Head and says, "Mommy, look in his butt!!" I sit there kind of shocked and manage to stifle a laugh and say, "Yeah honey good job". Then he proceeds to put the Mr. Potato Head up to his ear and go, "Oooooh". (It sounds like a ghost.) Then he whispers, "Oh what was that?" And do you know what that was? Not the ocean, not the hollow plastic of a Mr. Potato Head. No, Ladies and Gentleman that was the sound of a DINOSAUR!! This Mr. Potato Head is very special. Not only can he balance a pizza on his head, but his butt is a worm hole for the Mesozoic Era!!

I was waiting for Dave...

2008-12-29T09:45:00.001-08:00

I wanted Dave to put a post in the family blog about Christmas, but he didn't get around to it. So, I guess I will!. We spent Christmas Eve at our new house! Our Christmas tree was so cute in our new living room. And the amount of snow we got right around Christmas was crazy, but it made the whole house look more authentic. I tried really hard to keep the house smelling like delicious food for the holidays. Even though we were going to Dave's parents' house for Christmas Day, I baked a lot of bread and dinners so it would smell yummy. On Christmas Day we opened presents and trucked through the snow storm to travel down to Orem. We built Stitch and opened presents and ate food pretty much all day long.

We did our sleep over the next day which included seeing Twilight. It was a decent show. It's one of those movies that I'm glad I saw, but probably won't go see again. All the girls came over and we had to dig and push Shayla's car and dig out a space for Lisa's. After we thawed out, we started baking. We made homemade oreos and cookie balls and a pizza. It was tons of fun, and the goodies were amazing!! We watched 27 Dresses and Juno. Then we called it a night and everyone crashed. We made breakfast burritos the next morning and did makeovers. Everyone looked beautiful!!! Then we all parted, not having to dig anyone out this time. YAY!!

All in all I had a blast! However, I am plotting something very mean for the jerk that ignored 4 shivering girls trying to push a full size car into a parking spot by themselves. I will get him for that!

Christmas 2008

2008-12-25T15:55:00.000-08:00

So another Christmas has come and pretty much gone. It was a small Christmas this year, but still well worth the effort. All of our Christmas decorations must be down by the 2nd week of January (as ordered by our "friendly" HOA). So apparently the birth of Christ isn't a good enough reason to keep global warming on the rise. Crazy, I know. This year, Dave got a Metallica DVD that he's been missing for years. Jessica got a baking cookbook and 2 matching breadpans. The rest of the living room is covered with everything that Bradley received, which included a Mr.Potato Head with accessories for fireman and chef, 2 sweatshirts, a book and matching puzzle, a snoopy doll, a memory game, 2 hats, and other things that I can't remember at the moment. Ibanez got a bag of catnip (which she was NOT high on when she jumped into the tree this morning). We went to the Dickson's house and got a book, silly puddy, and Firefly on DVD!!!! YAY!!! SO HAPPY!!!! We also created a stitch, not like the sewing kind...the Disney kind. Yeah, I don't know what possesses Lisa to do these crazy things, but they always come out amazing and I'm just glad I was able to be a part of it. I will post a picture as soon as I get one. Aside from that excitement, we just ate off and on all day. It's been great! Next year, we'll probably have to put some more work into the whole Santa Claus thing. Bradley was super easy to negotiate with this year. That will change I'm sure.

Anyway, Happy Holidays, hope all is well for you!

New Family Blog!!

2008-12-23T11:48:00.000-08:00

This is our new family blog. It will document anything worth documenting (and probably some posts will be not so worth while) My other blog (The Wonders of Motherhood) will be updated more often as well, hopefully. I'll try not to copy everything from one and put it on the other, but there maybe some posts that are the same. Sorry, we're just not that interesting.

As for the first post...

Our cat, Ibanez now fetches!! She has taken a liking to one of Bradley's cotton gloves. She will bring it to you and wait until you throw it, then she will chase after it and bring it right back. It's rather cute until 2am when she wants to play. She doesn't stop meowing until you throw it. But aside from the time issue, I love that she plays! Maybe I can take a video of it one day and post it so you all can watch!

The dreaded terrible 2s

2007-07-20T07:14:00.000-07:00

Well, we have hit the terrible 2s! I don't have any pictures of it yet because I'm always cleaning up after him and I don't have any time to take a picture. Sucks, huh. This is usually about the time when parents start to get an inkling of what they got themselves into. Nothing up until now can come close to the disastrous things this child is doing! Take Sunday, for example; he pushed down his gate and got out of his room, from there he went to the couch and spilled a cup of milk all over my laptop, and went to the other couch and got a cup that Dave had left on the window sill and dumped that one on himself, then went into the kitchen and got a spoon out of the utensil drawer and brought it back into the living room to play with the cups that he had just dumped out. Later that day he got a hold of a box of toothpicks and threw them into the swamp cooler so that they were sticking out on the face of it. That was lovely to clean up. Yesterday, he got into the bathroom and got the toilet bowl cleaner brush and splashed half of the water out of the bowl. The list goes on and on and the horrifying thing about it is it's going to last! It's not going to go away in a week, it's here to stay and I'm really quite scared to be honest with you. This kid is so crafty, so meniacle, so sneaky that I'm really quite scared to go to sleep at night. I don't want to find myself duct tape to the wall in the morning. Well, if this is the way he's going to be for a while then I guess I should say good-bye to all of my loved ones before it's too late and he kills me or something. So to all of those people that have a special place in my heart and actually know that this blog exists (that would be you, Andrea)I bid you farewell and may God bless you with a nicer child than mine. :)

How I Feel Today

2007-07-15T11:41:00.000-07:00

2007-07-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

This is the fabric that I want to put in my kitchen. It matches my spice racks that I painted and it goes really well with my counter tops too!

2007-07-09T16:15:00.000-07:00

After a long days work trying to get out of his room... he just couldn't take it anymore and fell asleep. Poor little guy!!

How do you teach a 1 1/2 year old that going potty is good?!

2007-07-02T23:45:00.000-07:00

Ok for the last month or so, Bradley has been going potty at least once a day, fairly consistently. I dont' think he understands how incredible this is. I just don't know how to explain to him that he's doing so well. Everyone I talk to about it says that there is nothing that you can do for a kid this age. (Which is apparently why kids don't normally do it this early.) It seems to be sticking mentally though. He'll go in and sit on his little potty at night before we brush his teeth. And he usually goes at least a little bit. It's harder during the day because he has tons of distractions, and it's usually not at the same time. But when it's time for "aahh" (brushing teeth), he runs in and waits for you to take off his pants and diaper and set him on the potty. We usually do "aahh" while he's sitting on the potty just so he can't run off. And he says "Yay!" almost every time he goes pee. So, I think he understands that Dave and I are happy about it and therefore, he should be happy too; I just don't know how to help him develop this new talent of his.

On a different subject, Bradley is picking up words left and right. Dave and I have both noticed that he seems bored with simpler words like "pot" or "pan" and more interested in the 2 and 3 syllable words like "barbeque" and "flower". He tries real hard and watches you when you say it and then tries as hard as he can to immitate you. We have some birds that are making a nest in our carport and every morning he comes out with me and points to them and says "Bir'". It's really rather adorable. I went next door the other day and Dave was playing with Bradley. When I came back Dave said that Bradley had been walking all around the house calling me. But he wasn't saying "Mama or Mom", he was saying "Jess". It was cute but I kinda felt bad too. I don't want my kid to know me only as "Jess". Fortunately, tonight when I walked away from Bradley and Dave, he started calling for mommy. (That's me :) ) I don't know how to keep up with everything this kid is learning!!!! He's growing up a lot faster than I was planning. ( I think he's growing up a lot faster than most of us thought he would.) Before long, he'll be telling me what the most logical answers to life's little mysteries are and I'll just sit there - dumbfounded. I guess that's what I get for having a kid.... But I don't think I would change a thing.

Splishin' and Splashin'

2007-06-28T16:10:00.000-07:00

After all is said and done, it's still nice to take a dip in the water. Especially when you have a 1 1/2 year old. It makes it quite exciting. I must admit, he sure surprised me! He did so well under water. Dave wanted him to wear the life jacket thing so that if he fell or got knocked over by some kids running by, he wouldn't drowned. But honestly, he didn't need it. He did enjoy floating on his back with it though. But he got kind of upset when he tried to turn over and stand up and all he got was a mouthful of water.lol Anyway, we've decided to make it a habitual activity for the summer months. It's really cheap to get into and if you go during the week (not on a holiday) it's not all that crowded either. I love that I can go swimming again, I've really missed it. And as for my tan....well let's just say I'm a lot closer than I ever thought I could get out here. So all in all, it's been a good summer so far.

We got the box from my dad today. FINALLY!!!! It's was about 44lbs, so I didn't carry it in. I took it apart on the porch and brought it all inside. Bradley got sooooo much stuff!!! He's going to have plenty of new things to play with while he supposed to be sleeping. I got some stuff too, I think I'm really going to enjoy it! Dave got some running shoes ( I can never remember if he's been complaining about needing some or he just got some). And he got a new pedal for his guitar. It's the lead guitarist's from Queen. So, that's cool. My dad new him (Brian May) and got one of his guitars. Dave played it (and drooled all over it) when we went to Florida. So, YAY for Presents!!! I got like 5 cards from them too! It's funny because none of the kids signed any of them. So, I got 5 cards from 2 people. I thought it was funny.

Probably noone even reads this thing anyway, but I like to be able to type out things that happen without the repercussions of busy minds. So I don't feel like it's a loss.

2007-06-18T22:45:00.000-07:00

Last time I checked you're not supposed to gossip

2007-06-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

I'm tired of finding out through an email that's not even to me what people are talking about. Why do people insist on telling others about how I live my life? If you have nothing good to tell someone then stop talking!!! What gives people the right to tell people about me. If I want them to know then I would tell them!!! I was raised in the church too and I know that they don't support gossipping. In fact, last time I checked they are kind of against it. You are just as bad as everyone else out here!! You are all two faced and you don't care about anyone but yourself!!!! Just because you don't have a life doesn't mean you have the right to expose mine!!!! If you want something to talk about then why don't you talk about how you have no love life and how all you do is work and church. I'm so sick and tired of you!!!!

I finally did it!!!

2007-06-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

I know that most people who read this will be very upset with this post, but I'm still going to post it. I've wanted to get my eyebrow pierced since I was in 7th grade and I finally did it. And I'm proud of it. Dave pierced it for me Saturday night. I really like it and I'm glad I did it. If you're thinking about sending me a message about it saying that I shouldn't have done it or that it's wrong or something like that, don't bother. I didn't pierce my eyebrow for you, I pierced it for me because I wanted to. I know that you are upset about it and you don't have to lecture me about it. I know what you are going to say. I don't care how you feel about it. I like it and I'm not taking it out because you don't.

Night of my life

2007-06-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love it when you plan an evening and you are all excited about it, and then it all falls apart on you? Last night was one of those nights. We got tickets to go see a friend of ours play in Salt Lake. He's the drummer of a band called Nice and I was looking forward to seeing how they did. I got tickets for Dave and me, Catherine and Lucas, and Scott. Scott bailed on going, but said he could watch Bradley so we could go. Then he canceled yesterday evening because he didn't feel good. So, now I had an extra ticket and needed a babysitter. Noone could take him except for Cheryl. I felt bad making her watch him again, so I kept looking around.... nothing - it's like Bradley is a horrible child and noone wanted to watch him. I know it was last minute, but I guarantee you the rest of the people I asked just sat at home and did nothing. So, I started talking to Catherine to see if they were still planning on going. Lucas had to work, but she said that she wanted to hang out. I talked to Dave and he said that if we couldn't find a different babysitter then maybe we should just go hang out and play instead of going to see the band (in case it ran too late). I talked to Catherine and she said that we could do whatever. So then I asked her when she was getting off work so I could plan around her working. I never heard from her again. I called her a few times, sent texts, and got no response. So, we went down to Provo Towne Center to look around and see if maybe we could catch a movie while we were waiting for her to call back. Dave and I both wanted to see Pirates of the Carribean, so we looked at times for that. I thought it was longer than a standard movie, but Dave insisted that it wasn't. So, we got tickets for that thinking that we could see the movie and go to dinner and then pick up Bradley in the event Catherine never called back. Well, I was right. The movie was 3 hours long. We didn't even get out until after 11. And Dave was the one that said that he didn't want to keep Cheryl up late watching Bradley!!! So, we left the mall and went and got Bradley. By that time, every resturaunt between Lindon and American Fork was closed for the night. We tried Denny's and IHOP and Arbys. They were all closed. I was furious by then. I hadn't eaten since that morning so that I would have an apetite by later that night. Dave wanted to go to a sit down resturaunt after the movie so I didn't get snacks or anything. I was STARVING!!! And everything was closed. So, we came back home and went to bed. I got all excited and did my hair and my make up to go sit in a dark room and watch a movie that was a let-down. And all I have to show for it, is a ticket stub. My one night out was ruined because my husband tries to think. And it never turns out the way he thinks it will. And then he kept saying stuff like, "I'm sorry I ruined your night" and "I'm sorry you felt like you wasted your night". How am I supposed to feel!?!?! I said that I wanted to do something....not sit in a dark theater and watch a movie! I said I wanted to go bowling or play pool or do something active. And what did I get? A dark room with a big screen. I'm sick and tired of planning stuff and trying to have to just have something not go like Dave thought it would and be miserable for the entire day. It's not like this is the first time it's happened. It's always like this. He's always apologizing. I just wish he could understand how I feel. He doesn't get it, and he doesn't try to. I'm tired of being let down.

yesterdays tragedy

2007-06-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a fairly uneventful day. I mean we did stuff, but nothing significant and life changing happened. Well, other than we bought a dishwasher. YAY!!!! We took Bradley up to Bridal Veil falls and let him walk around. He fell in the water a few times which was pretty funny. And we did the normal run around and went to Sakura (a new teppanyaki/sushi resturaunt in Orem). When we got back from the dinner and got home and were playing with the new dishwasher, Bradley was playing on the stairs with Lily (our momma cat). We heard a thumping sound and screams of pain from Bradley as he fell down the stairs. We raced over to get him and check him out. Dave picked him up and I looked at him. Everything looked okay, until I looked at his nose. It was bleeding and I couldn't tell if it was broken or just bruised good. I got him in the bathroom and put a wet washcloth on it. He got upset that I had a washcloth holding his nose and it covered his mouth. So, I put a q-tip in it. It stopped bleeding and I cleaned up the inside of his nose a bit. We put him down after checking his eyes to see if he had hurt his head badly. And he ran off, happy as could be. That kid is so wierd.

Oh what a day...

2007-06-04T11:40:00.000-07:00

I've been a mother for a little over a year now and I must say, things don't get any easier with time. It's always something. For example, this afternoon while I was doing some computer work Bradley came into the room after playing with the kittens (or so I thought) his hair was covered in a thick liquid and it was all over his hands and stomach. I freaked!!! I didn't know what it was and there were some things of Dave's that he was supposed to put up and hadn't. So, I raced him upstairs for a bath in hopes that it wasn't some chemical that would burn his scalp off. It turned out to be hand soap, but that didn't ease the pounding in my chest. That boy is going to be the death of me.