She kills me!

I just laughed SO HARD!!!!!!!!! So Jenna started bugging me that she had to go potty, and there’s one RIGHT HERE so I’m like, okay, go to the potty! (she somehow needs ME every time she has to go but when I’m gone and Nate’s here she suddenly can do it all by herself.) Anyway, she was like, “NO I want to go UPSTAIRS!” probably cause her potty seat’s up there, and I’m like “Okay, just a minute... just a minute...” trying to finish what I was doing (the tag below) when suddenly she RUNS into the bathroom behind me and I hear this huge SPLASH!!!!!!!! I’m like, what the!!! and go in there and she’s on the toilet and I see water ALL over her back and she goes in this chipper voice, “I jump in, mommy!” I about died. She’s gone in big toilets countless times, but she’s never fallen in before!!!!!

25 Random Things

So since I spent like FOREVER doing this facebook tag, I decided to post it here, too.

25 random things about me.

1. I can't seem to finish a jar of peanut butter, probably cause I hate scraping the bottom. I always buy a new one before the other one runs out and then I never use the rest of the other one. I just counted, and there are 4 jars of PB in the pantry. All right, we're off to a good start of useless facts about me...

2. I love having babies. Obviously. What I mean is labor and delivery is so dang cool. Painful and hard but I'm so excited for it again.

3. When it comes to shoes, I'm at a loss. I have no idea how to buy them, what goes with what, and I buy them so rarely that I end up really wearing out the shoes I have. I need some fashion help, definitely. That goes for skirts and dresses, too.

4. When I think about other people eating tuna fish sandwiches it grosses me out, but the truth is, I actually LOVE EM!!!!!! I eat a whole can--with mayo-- in one sitting. I KNOW, GROSS!!! BUT I LOVE IT!

5. I'm so NOT germaphobic about most things (about important things I am) but if the kids eat off the floor, or play in the dirt, so be it. My kids are healthier than most kids I think, they hardly ever get sick.

6. I honestly feel like I was born to stay at home and do housework and be a mommy, and not only that I love it. You know, mostly. :)

7. When Nate first wanted to be more than friends, when I was 15, and again at 17, I honestly thought to myself there's no way it could ever happen because the thought of holding his hand sorta put me off and made me feel all weird.

8. Then when I changed my mind a couple months later (i was a fickle girl) and decided I was just afraid of ruining our friendship, and I said OKAY I DO WANT YOU! it was the most fluttery, excited, i-can't-get-enough-of-him feeling I'd EVER had in a relationship so my first instincts were completely wrong.

9. I faked sick the day of the geography bee in 4th grade cause I didn't study and really, my geography has STUNK ever since. Like, it's really embarrassing I don't know the world I live in.

10. I did, however, win the class spelling bees in 4th, and 6th grade, maybe 5th too I can't remember.

11. When I was in 3rd grade my best friend Amy and I saw an ugly old woman walking past the playground and then got it in our minds she was a witch about to take over the world and everyone else was under her spell. I don't know about Amy but I totally believed it that whole year.

12. I also totally and completely believed there were little elves and fairies living by our front porch.

13. And today I'm really not superstitious at all.

14. For my sociology senior capstone course in college I did a study on cosmetic surgery and did online interviews with 25 people who'd had work done, it was totally fascinating. And made me more convinced I'd never get work done.

15. My first kiss was not the simple sweet kiss I'd always envisioned (NOT my fault)... anyway I was chewing gum at the time and I'm pretty sure I bit the guy. Probably cause he told me I did. I had NO idea what I was doing. But don't you worry I got better.

16. For a brief period in my life, okay, a whole summer, I was very into rap. Nate barely believes me, but I KNOW I have a mix tape I made of rap that I so wish I could find just to prove it. And as the summer ended, so did my relationship with the guy I was dating, and curiously, so did the rap...

17. The household chore that I never ever seem to get around to is ironing. As people can probably tell from Nate's work clothes... :) mostly I try to get them out of the dryer while they're still warm so they don't get wrinkly, but hey if it doesn't bother Nate... oh man what a bad wife I am.

18. I used to think I'd definitely have pets for my kids but the more I think about it the more I don't want to take care of smelly animals that shed everywhere. I guess I'm less of an animal lover than I thought. We'll see.

19. I haven't been to the dentist since I've been married. FIVE YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have such good intentions and then it never happens!!!!!!! Can you believe it?!!! I know I'm so in for a horrible horrible time. Let the lectures begin.

20. That Paige Davis from Trading Spaces and now the RC Willey commercials??? I find her SO SO SO annoying.

21. I'm now embarrassed to admit I was a Taylor Hicks fan, since it appears he's fallen off the earth.

22. People magazine is one of my guilty pleasures... I don't indulge often but I really enjoy when I do.

23. I loved the Babysitter's Club books, even joined the fan club, and went to a book signing and met Ann M. Martin. Me and my friend even tried to start our own club.

24. I'm really running out of things to put. Um, I really like looking at all the raw meat at the grocery store, especially the fish. Is that weird?

25. I really want to run a half marathon in the fall. Sure I'll have a tiny baby and I'll be nursing and probably get no sleep... but I want to try...

I'm DONE I'M DONE I'M DONE!

I'm bored

I got nothin’. Seriously, I haven’t posted anything in over a week and it’s cause I GOT NOTHIN! So I thought I’d make myself come up with something.

So why is it that there’s a couple of REALLY good days where my kids behave and are so adorable and everything goes smoothly. And then there are days like yesterday and today where they drive me CRAZY. What changes? They’re not sick, they even slept in today. I guess they’re like me. Some days I’m fine and other days every little thing gets on my nerves. Maybe we just feed off each other.

Okay, and WHY is it that when I had Jenna sleep in underwear at night she’d wake up wet in the middle of the night, but now that I’ve had her in pull-ups she gets me up a couple times at night to go potty and wakes up in the morning with her pull-ups completely DRY! I want to say, and I think I have in the middle of the night, “JENNA just go in your pull-ups that’s WHY you WEAR THEM!” Isn’t that awful, cause I really should be proud.

I’m definitely getting tired again, where I need a nap every day. Jenna doesn’t wake up any earlier and yet she has a harder time getting me up in the morning. I’m like the lazy teenager. “Come ON mommy!” “But I’m TIRED!!!!!” Now every night when I put her to bed and she says, “I wake you up in the morning” she’s been adding, “And don’t get mad at me.”

Carter’s definitely talking a lot more, except I don’t know what he has against learning. Every time I try to TEACH him oh like, the ABC’s, numbers, colors, shapes, all the things Jenna knew when she was his age (it’s hard not to compare), he immediately says, “NO no no” and acts completely annoyed. Well FINE, I tried. Um. He is really good at puzzles. Like, almost better than Jenna. That’s something right. Also he has NEVER pooped in the tub. By this time Jenna had a few times. So. Good for him.

Okay. This is the end of my post. OH except I just realized it is the 10-year anniversary of my oma’s death. Wow, 10 years. In our last conversation I told her I just got my driver’s license, and she asked if I had a boyfriend. I laughed and said no. Then she said, “I love you all.” I just want to say that I miss you, oma, and I love you.

Opa, oma, me.

My dirty little secret

I have a dirty secret.

I really really really REALLY want to eat dirt. Sand, in particular, makes my mouth water and I can’t stop thinking about it. I swear I am not making this up, and I’m not exaggerating. I told Nate how much I crave sand and he totally doesn’t believe me. He was like, “You mean if I brought you a cup of sand you would eat it.” I said, “YES, yes I would.” And he said, “No, you wouldn’t.” And I said, “YES I WOULD.” He said, “NO you WOULDN’T!” I said, “Well I wish you WOULD go get me some sand I’d really like some!!"

HELP ME!!!!!!

I’m pretty sure it’s the pregnancy. And this actually happened with Carter, too. I still remember, Jenna and I were watching Baby Einstein, the water one, and there was this scene with some puppets playing in the sand. Well, suddenly I felt this intense urge to EAT SOME cause it looked so good. It was during the last few weeks of that pregnancy, too, and went away after Carter was born.

WELL it’s BACK, stronger than ever, just in the last couple weeks, and I’m going CRAZY!! I think about it all the time. But wait people, it doesn’t even stop THERE. A couple other strange cravings have popped up in the last while. I was doing laundry in San Diego and got Tide out of the vending machine and oh my heck that smell... I couldn’t stop smelling it, and I SO wanted to eat it, and then I wanted to chew on the freshly laundered clothes cause it smelled SO GOOD. Even now, I want to go grab a bite of detergent... I really am NOT trying to be dramatic, I am being completely serious.

And THEN a couple weeks ago I was getting something out of my parents’ food storage, which is the cement area underneath their front porch. I opened the door and caught a whiff of that musty, cold, earth-y aroma and it is like DIVINE!!!! It was all I could do not to lick the walls.

Concrete and detergent sound awesome, but sand is #1 on my list right now. I think about it all the time. Nate's convinced I’m pretty much INSANE and making this up but I am NOT!!!!!!!! It’s the strongest craving I’ve ever had. But do you know what, I’m not alone. I totally looked up pregnancy and craving sand on the internet and yeah it’s called pica and tons of pregnant women get it. And you think MINE are weird, well here are some others women admitted to:

Cotton
Comet Cleanser
Fingernail polish
Paint
Baking powder
Car exhaust
Pine Sol
Vicks vapor rub
Lighter fluid
Gasoline
Permanent marker
Bricks
Sponges

Some think it means you’re lacking iron. Well guess what, I found out my iron IS a LITTLE low. The doctor says he's not concerned. Then again, I didn't tell him I was eyeing his potted plant.

I can only hope this goes away after I have the baby... it has to, right?

Hello internet!

I discovered in the last couple weeks that I am like the biggest baby ever. Nate had to take a class in San Diego for work and since his per diem every day was so generous and they'd pay for everything, and since it was such a long time, me and the kids decided to go with! I mean, SAN DIEGO, sweet, right! Yeah it wasn't so sweet. I can't even believe I complained about being in San Diego but I did. Just ask Nate. I had a pretty bad attitude. BUT LET ME TELL YOU WHY!

So they had us stay on the base there. I mean, that's where the class was, so yeah, we knew we'd be on base. Well let me just say... it was like prison. YES I am being DRAMATIC, but STILL! We were dumb enough not to get me a special "base" card or whatever they're called, so basically I couldn't do ANYTHING unless Nate was with me. And he was gone all day for training so I couldn't do ANYTHING! I couldn't use any facilities on base, I couldn't LEAVE the base, and to make things worse it was pretty dang small so not many places to walk, and definitely not "family oriented" meaning nowhere for kids. The place we stayed even told Nate that "word's not out yet" whatever that means, but they don't like kids under 12 staying there. Anyway. And then... yeah no internet access. So the REAL question was... did my bad attitude have to do with missing home, or missing the internet??? I'm so pathetic.

ANYWAY I really tried to change my attitude after the first few days cause I realized I was being pathetic, and things did get better. Plus Jenna and Carter were SO good. And we got to go to Sea World on Saturday!

So here's how I spent 11 days in San Diego feeling cut off from the world:

Read a book.

Actually wrote in my journal and got all caught up.

Watched Carter put cars, cups, diapers, wipes, and pull-ups in the microwave. Don't worry he didn't know how to turn it on. He tried, though.

Built Jenna forts out of blankets.

Walked by the harbor every day (across the parking lot! yeah that was nice) and getting stared at by everybody because it's not every day they see a pregnant woman strolling around with two kids on a naval base. I think I saw 3 other kids there the whole time I was there.

Wished I could jump into the harbor. Or onto a sailboat.

Watched Jenna go potty every half hour (or it seemed!) Yeah she's still doing awesome. I did have her travel in pull-ups for the car ride and she did protest putting underwear on the next day, but only for a minute. She wears pull-ups at night now too, but switches to underwear without a prob. WHEW!

Wondered if I should call a doctor about Jenna's fever (gone after 1 night) or her strange rash all over her torso (gone after 3 days. It was weird.)

Wondered if I'm ready for a newborn after getting up 15 times in the night for Jenna and her weird sicknesses.

Counted down the minutes till Nate would come back for lunch, and then when he'd get back for the day. Happy reunions every time.

Figured out different ways to balance all our garbage into the 2 tiny wastebaskets in our room until housekeeping would come.

Raged inside about the fire alarm "test" they had one afternoon where they felt the need to test it about 20 times. Really. Didn't they realize it was naptime!

Sorta missed doing my OWN housekeeping. I even made the bed myself one day. I even missed cooking.

Watched a lot of Gilmore Girls season 1 and Alias season 1. Again.

Wished the swimming pool were open. Then decided I probably wasn't allowed to use the pool anyway.

Wished there were actually newspapers in the newspaper "dispensers" (what are they called??) Come on people. I checked every day.

Being grateful my kids were with me at least.

Going out to eat every night. Wahoo!!

So this is the view from our hotel. Not bad eh!


I found a gazebo surrounded by fake grass. But the trees were real.


This is Jenna smiling.


We did have fun on our walks. The weather was so nice!






Carter came up with this fun game: shove his cars across the vent till they flew off. It was so cute.


He also tried really hard to do prenatal pilates.


Sea World!









Um, the freakiest picture I've ever seen.

RE-DO! Okay that's better.


Sunday we walked around the San Diego temple. It's GORGEOUS!!!!!




So we did have some good times. Nevertheless, when Nate got out of class early yesterday, we took off, even though we weren't going to leave until today. And I'm so glad to be home! And to have internet! And that is why I am blogging less than 24 hours after we got home...

Happy Under Wear! ...uh, New Year!!

BRACE YOURSELVES. Jenna is potty-trained. I KNOW!!!!!!! I don’t know how it happened. It just did. I don’t really know what was different. It just was. Not to say I wasn't holding my breath all week wondering if this was FOR REAL BUT I TELL YOU IT IS!

It all started on Monday. (I know I had my whole 2009 motto for getting her trained but guess what... “it wasn’t too late in 2008”!!!!) It was like 10 in the morning and my kids were just so happy all morning. (so hint #1 make sure your child is in a really good mood.) Carter had a dirty diaper and for some reason I said to Jenna, “He should go potty, huh. I think he needs to wear your underwear.” AND THOSE my friends, were the magic words. I suppose the mere thought of Carter wearing HER underwear was enough to bring the appeal back, and she put her underwear on and wore them ALL DAY and had NO ACCIDENTS! I was like, what the hay. And you know what, I started a sticker chart too, and that really seemed to help, even better than the candy. In fact, after the first day she didn't even ask for candy anymore, she just wanted that sticker. Wow. Who knew. Anyway, I was so afraid she’d want diapers again I just had her go to bed in her underwear too. And yeah she woke up at 6:45 a.m. shouting “Mom!” but it was too late. To be expected I think.

So Tuesday I was like... well let’s see if we can keep this going... yeah Tuesday was the most discouraging day, cause all Monday she’d tell me when she had to go so we could get to the potty. Tuesday she had like 3 wet accidents, it was like she realized, “OH it’s no big deal to get my underwear wet, cause it just gets changed too.” I kept getting so mad, like, I’m so stupid to think getting her to wear underwear was the hardest part, cause THIS IS HARD! I mean, she’s sitting there eating dinner in her chair and I look over and she’s peeing all over the chair as she’s eating. She didn’t say a THING! I was like WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM!!!!! That was the low point. I’m all trying to stay calm, like “JENNA, why didn’t you tell mommy you had to go potty???? We don’t go potty in our underwear!!! I know you get this, you did it yesterday!” and she helped me clean it up. Well right after that she went potty and POOPED IN THE POTTY FOR THE FIRST TIME! And from there things went up.

So the rest of the week she has had NO ACCIDENTS!!! And she’s gone potty at both grandma’s houses, she’s been 5 for 5 on the poo-poo in the potty (I shall count my blessings I haven’t had to clean up a #2 accident yet...), and yesterday we were out to eat for my birthday and she went TWICE, once #1 and once #2 which is huge cause we were at a restaurant WITHOUT her little potty seat. I was like by George I think she's got it! And I even walked past the bathroom yesterday and there she was going in the potty, she didn't even TELL me!!!

OH but I guess I should mention I've still had her sleep in underwear every night and she's called out to me every morning, but it's always too late. So besides night time she's had no more accidents... but I'm so afraid to put her in pull-ups, afraid it'll set her back again. But changing sheets every day is getting OLD. I don't know what I'll do yet, like I don't know what to do about an 11-hour car ride we have coming up (Nate has a business trip, and we're driving there so me and the kids can go for free!) Um. Yeah. I suggested Jenna could go on the side of the road but Nate quickly vetoed that. Anyway.

And so I have a big girl in underwear. I’m so happy about it I can’t stand it. WAHOO!!!!!!! And changing one less bum a day REALLY makes a difference!!! And just MAYBE I can get Carter trained before the baby, too.

Just kidding.

But he is pretty cute trying to be like Jenna. I found him on the potty a couple times.

He even wanted to wash his hands.

And while I was at it I got my big 6 1/2 month belly. Or 28 1/2 weeks. Whatever that means in months I'm never sure.


And so, it IS a Happy New Year!




And happy 26th birthday to me yesterday!

Jenna is sporting what I like to call her "Stevie Wonder" smile. She was funny when Nate told her it was my birthday yesterday morning, she kept bringing me her toys, one by one, and she'd say "happy birthday! here you go. But DON'T touch." Silly girl.