Da da-da DA: I'M OLD

I've tried to fight it; I've done my best to avoid it, but today the inevitable has happened. I'm thirty, 30 aka, old. To celebrate this fated day and in an attempt at self confidence, I'm going to divulge 30 facts about myself.

1. Born around 2:00 pm
2. Hate red meat (and ham)
3. Voting for Mitt Romney, not because (4) I'm Mormon but because he's the most qualified.
5. Almost drowned in a lake when I was 5, my dad saw my hair on the top of the water and dove in to save me
6. Love backpacking, hiking and mountains
7. Traveled to Isreal when I was 15
8. First crush was a boy in my 3rd grade class named Matt McKormick
9. Have had many, many roadside emergencies (not the car, me)
10. When I plan a meal, I start with dessert and base everything around that
11. When I'm pregnant I can't drink Diet Coke, it makes me sick
12. Met Adam Duritz, (from Counting Crows)
13. Wish I was an opera singer
14. Usually gain around 55 pounds when I'm pregnant
15. My older sister and I shared the same bed until I was 12
16. Love BYU Cougars!
17. Water skiied in my underwear
18. Married my high school sweet heart
19. Good at driving in the snow
20. Love Shakespeare
21. Been arrested and went to jail
22. Wrecked on a motorcycle (dirt bike)
23. I'm the opposite of a perfectionist, I'm a get-it-done-ist
24. Purposely burned my sister's neck with a hot curling iron (So sorry Jess)
25. Ran a marathon
26. For many years growing up, I used to wake up at 5:00 am to practice the piano.
27. Don't get offended very easily
28. Offend very easily (sorry everyone!)
29. Love a good controversial conversation
30. Don't listen to music anymore, just talk radio

Since it's my birthday (finger snap across my face), I get to ask for unreasonable things, right? So I want you, gentle reader, (that includes you, all you stalkers who never leave comments) to leave me a comment with an interesting or boring fact about yourself. You can be anonymous, I don't mind.

Now I want some cake. Happy Birthday me.

So long, farewell...

Tomorrow I will wake up sweating and running, packing and cleaning.  Then around high noon, the gold jeep, which will be filled with my family will pull out of the driveway and head north on the interstate.  A big turkey and lots of family awaits us in the north country.  That means snow and freezing and such. I shopped my legs off last night trying to outfit my little ones for the harsh weather on a shoestring budget.  Here are ten things I'm looking forward to:

1) Seeing my brother who is on leave from the army where he's been serving in Afghanistan and still has 6 months to go.

2)Waking up at 4:00 am to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving with my mother-in-law.  She is 70, but is the best shopper I know.

3) Pigging out on Thursday.  I was pretty sick last week and lost about 13 pounds..... It'll be nice for once not to feel totally guilty.  

4) Talking politics with my liberal brother and my feisty mother.  

5) Seeing dear friends like these and these.  

6) Spouse not working.

7) Littlest sister getting hitched.  I love weddings.

8) Staying up late talking with my family (or kicking everyone's butts in Cities and Nights)

9) Spending the night at my in-laws beautiful cabin in the canyon.

10) Having the chance to shower EVERYDAY!  YAY!

Faithful blog readers (all three of you), never fear.  I will check in a few times while I'm in the land of perpetual cold.  There is a very important post coming up next week, so be sure to check back.

Tribute to #1, as she turns 5

She's five! My baby, #1 is five! Born on November 10, 2002 at exactly 6:01 pm she weighed a whopping 9 lbs 2 ozs. Five years ago, #1 was in the NICU trying her hardest to breath. I was wiped out by strong pain medicine and hardly aware of the crisis going on upstairs. #1 has always been an ideal child. She was sleeping through the night at 5 weeks, eating 8 ounces of formula every four hours (take that you breast-feeding Nazis!) By two she was singing the ABC's and aiming to please. When #2 was born, she threw herself down our stairs begging for attention. Of course, I am so proud of #1, in every way. Her greatest talent is making friends. Everywhere we go she makes a friend, or two or three. When our neighbors moved in over a year ago, being the Christian people that we are, we never introduced ourselves. They seemed very different, and I totally regret that. We probably would have gone forever without talking to them if it hadn't been for #1. What a precious talent!

Here are some pictures to commemorate #1's 5th birthday

three months old

one year old

Valentine sweetheart, two years old

Disneyland train, 2 1/2 years

on her 3rd birthday

tight jeans update: ITS A MIRACLE!

Either I lost ten pounds in 5 days or the Modbe Naomi jeans really do indeed stretch to fit. I've been wearing them all morning, just feeling good to be alive and finally wearing cute jeans. In fact, I feel so young and hip that instead of playing Disney Sing-Along, right now we're listening to the "mix CD" (is this a real term?) my friend down-loaded for me from the Stephanie Meyers web page. I've got 18 more days of youth and I'm going to live it up! My kids are dancing to My Chemical Romance, instead of dealing with my aging chemical imbalance of hormones.

To celebrate this fine day of youth, hip-ness and tight-jeans-finally-fitting I'll probably visit my daughter's preschool class with birthday cupcakes, then party on down to our local Costco to buy rockin' things like bulk cheese and diaper wipes. When spouse comes home tonight, he'll be so excited by my new-found youth (and tight jeans), he'll probably sweep me off my feet and carry me into...... the family room where we'll cut, build and paint games for #1's birthday party games tomorrow. Definitely a hot night.

Then tomorrow I'll put on my baggy, shapeless, four year old capris and be a mom again.

tight jeans

I'm sitting here hoping to stretch out the new jeans I'm wearing.  They are the Modbe naomi jeans.  The promotional material promised that these jeans were cut to fit the typical 30 year old, three kids later and STILL look hip. We're not talking Mom Jeans here.  It may have been manipulatively flattering to also claim that these jeans run big, so order down a size.  I'm a sucker.  Five months post-natal and I've still got at least 10 pounds to go...... I definitely should not be ordering a size down.  But I did. When the package arrived I excitedly ran to the bathroom to see my out of shape body transform into sleek, hip, expensive jean hott-ness.  NOPE!  It was like putting on panty-hose; coaxing the pant leg up.  I could barely button them. My bum looked like link sausage against my legs.   They were so tight I started to sweat and then I had an even harder time peeling them off.  

I've kept the jeans around for a couple of weeks with the irrational hope of loosing enough weight to fit into them before we head to Utah for my sister's wedding.  Today I emailed the company with my problem and this is what they replied, "The jeans are made with Lycra so they do tend to stretch when you wear them. If you haven't already, I would suggest wearing them around for awhile and see if they stretch out at all."  

This was just enough encouragement to give them one more try. So here I am, watching the clock tick, waiting for the denim death grip around my thighs to loosen.  How much time should I give these babies?  When do I face the music and admit I will never fit into these "size down" jeans. Oh I wish, I wish, I wish these jeans would fit!

To be continued.....

It's November!

In this house we love November. November holds two birthdays, turkey-day and it also means we're that much closer to pulling out our Christmas CDs and putting up the lights. Happy November everyone!

Halloween

Have you ever had a Halloween BBQ? We did. Then we took our kids trick or treating. #2 was so excited by the whole event most of the time he just ran up to the door, said "trrrr treat....ganks!" and ran away without receiving a morsel. #1 was more savvy, she brought home about 55,000 calories.

#2, Peter Pan #1, Tinkerbell

#3, the most amazing baby of the world

According to #1, #3 can do all sorts of amazing things for a 5 month old. For instance, she put these wings on herself:

Allegedly, she has also put on a variety of hats and dress-up accessories by herself. She can also transport herself into other rooms, even though she can't crawl. I don't know why I can never witness these things myself. They usually only happen when I'm in the shower or otherwise indisposed and I come out to find #3 all dressed up, or in another part of the house. When I ask #1 about it, she tells me that #3 has done it herself.

My mom tells me that I used to blame my older sister for wetting my pants. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Making Room

This past week we moved #3 out of the bassinet in the master bedroom and into a crib in a room she now shares with #1. We have a tiny house, so there was a lot more work than you would think. We had to take down #1's double bed and put a twin bed (thanks, mom and dad). And then we had to put up the crib. Spouse had to basically re-build the crib because #2 had literally destroyed it. (Have you ever heard of another baby that won't climb out of the crib, but will BREAK out of the crib?) In the process of totally re-organizing the house to make one tiny crib fit, I found a huge stash of #1's preschool projects and papers. I knew her little heart would break if she ever discovered that I had trashed her precious things, so I decided to let her throw them out. Long story short, after a million tears she decided that there were only about 12 things that she could part with. In order preserve their special memory we took a picture:

She's wearing her "Hawaii-girl dress"

Just like Dad

#2 worships his dad. When dad is around, #2 doesn't know I'm alive. When Dad isn't home, #2 wears Dad's shoes, tries to use Dad's electric razor and finds the screwdriver to "fix" things. This is #2 "working"