Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Technically the whole day wasn't bad, just big chunks of it, and really the only reason I titled it as such is because I was in pain all day. Had I not been, I probably would've been able to laugh at just about every "terrible" occurrence.

So that is where my day starts...with pain. I have woken up several days now with a pain in my neck. Literally. Last week the pain was so bad that by the time Ben got home I was holding back some serious tears. I am pretty sure the culprit is our super soft bed and the compacted stuffing in my pillows. So despite how much I loathe taking medicine I crushed up some Ibuprofen so I could tolerate life for the rest of the day. It barely touched the pain. That was my first hint that it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Surprisingly, Miss Chevious was not on her usual behavior and the damage caused by said child was minimal. *Thank you, Lord*  But she did manage to get into Ben's pictures while I was taking a shower and spread them all over the bedroom floor and the family room floor.
Then afternoon came and it was time to put chicken in the crock pot. (You should know that the trash had been full to the brim all day but because it was snowing outside I gave in to my lazy side and decided to wait as long as possible before taking it out.) While throwing away the plastic that the raw chicken was wrapped in I tipped over the garbage can and everything spilled into the pantry. It was turning out to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Once dinner was cooking in the crock pot I got a burst of energy and decided to clean the jet tub since its' been a few weeks. I filled the tub above the jets with hot water and poured some bleach in the water near the intake, and then I let it run for about 15 minutes while I was cleaning the kitchen. After loading the dishwasher I decided it was time to turn the tub jets off and drain it. Before opening the bathroom door I realized that it seemed much louder than before but thought nothing of it until I saw the steam escaping through the crack of the door. Water was spraying EVERYWHERE!!! I guess I didn't tighten the plug good enough and water has slowly drained out of the tub decreasing the water level below a couple of the jets. The floor was flooded and water was dripping from the walls so I hurried in, soaking my socks and getting my second shower of the day. It was like someone was spraying me with a very warm water hose that smelled like bleach. Everything was drenched and I immediately thought everything would be bleached as well, but so far so good. Nothing bleached, I guess I didn't use enough to do that kind of damage. The bathroom scale was ruined, obviously as it spewed water when I picked it up from the mini lake it was resting in. I wiped down the walls, baseboards, counters, toilet and soaked up Lake Gimmeabreak using several towels. I thought I had done a good recovery job and at least now the bathroom looked and smelled clean. I was actually laughing to myself about this incident,the whole scene was pretty funny. But the bleach smell mixed with the pain in my neck was now turning into a migraine. You know, the kind that makes you really nauseous. Which only contributed to making it a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

I could tell by the smell of dinner that it was not going to turn out as I hoped. It was one of those recipes I got from Pinterest in an effort to change up and ease the whole dinner process. Let me just tell you that 3 1/2 hours is TOO LONG to cook chicken breasts in the crock pot. AND, brown rice needs more liquid than other rice in a rice cooker. My intentions were good, and Ben ate it anyway, but not before he asked..."Why is everything wet in the bathroom?"

*sigh* I think I'll move to Australia.

Those Kids...

Mom: C'mon let's hurry and clean up, it's prayer time.
Hope: I hope Jesus isn't mad at us.

When walking into the steamy bathroom a few minutes after his shower Noah says: Whoa! Its....moist in here. *Michelle if you read this I know you will appreciate that one! Haha!*

During a lengthy phone conversation with Noah one night...
Mom: Is there anything else you wanna talk about?
Noah: Mmm Hmm. What color socks are you wearing?

While Ben and Hope are in the bathroom flossing one night, Hope says: You have big teeth, my friend.

Ben: I need to find my boots.
Hope: Okay, I will help you. I can smell them.
Then she proceeds to sniff around the room.

A Busy Day for Miss Chevious

Eden has been recovering from a nasty cold, but that hasn't slowed her down. This morning, I gave her some cereal. She took a bite, coughed and sprayed it all over me. After that she wanted no more cereal. She did want some toast. She ate most of it, but crumbled up the rest and threw it on the couch/floor. Then she wanted some banana bread. Her appetite hasn't been great with this cold, so I am giving her anything lately hoping she'll eat it. I think she took a nibble, but the rest of it ended up like the toast. Crumbled on the floor and couch. Then she found a marker. Thankfully a washable one. She proceeded to tattoo herself where ever her skin was showing and also marked the couch for good measure. I cleaned it off her face, tried to clean it off her hands, but just cause they are "washable" doesn't mean they come off easy.  I decided to get the rest of it tonight at bath time. I put her down for a nap. That is my vacation time. It only last about an hour and half, but I'll take it on a day like today. After her nap she took advantage of the fact that I had forgotten to lock the fridge latch and went for the eggs. Most of the eggs were still in the carton, just out of their little nooks and waiting in the lid of the carton for their turn to get smashed on the floor. She broke probably three on the floor before she came to tell me she had made a mess. In the middle of cleaning it up I ran out of paper towels and headed to the bathroom for the tp. While I was away she tried to help clean it up and got it all over her clothes in the process. So here she is sitting on the couch (yes, the mess on the couch is from her) half naked tattooed with green marker, probably with a running nose. No, actually, I will give myself credit for wiping noses efficiently. :) I deserve it.

Then she was hungry again. Of course. So I made her a peanut butter sandwich, knowing my fate, but hey, the kid has to eat. Surprisingly she ate most of it, but left the last bite face down on the couch. But then she wanted Doritos. I gave her one. She stood right in front of me, right after I gave it to her and smashed it in her hands and let it drop on the kitchen floor...all while looking up at me with a little grin on her face. *Sigh* Oh boy. Then she asked for another. No, I didn't give her one this time. Then she took my water jug that I had just filled up with water.  Soon I hear Hope yelling, "Mom! Eden's making a mess again!!!" Somehow she managed to pour out the entire bottle on the carpet/couch. It took one and half towels to soak it up. It's only 5 pm...she has another three hours before bedtime. What are the chances she is done making messes today?

Reading over this I realized that much of the problem is that someone lets this child eat in the family room instead of her high chair. Doesn't that person realize that once the screaming tantrum about having to eat in the high chair is over the messes will be significantly less than if she doesn't eat in her chair? Actually, that is not at all true. Last night while sitting in her high chair she managed to throw her food all the way over to the couch and the garage door. *sigh* This is just a stage right?

Oh, I decided that "Destruct-Or" is too masculine for this little lady. Her new nick name is Miss Chevious. Both fitting, but I can think of no better way to describe the look on her face when she is doing something she knows you don't want her to do.

Noah & Hope Say...

Noah: Why does your voice sound weird when you hear it on tape?
Mom: Because you are used to hearing yourself from the inside and when you hear yourself from the outside it sounds different.
Noah: Hmmm...I sound manly from the inside.


Mom: It's bath time!
Hope: Mom, I'm not very pleased with you taking us a bath.
Translation: Mom, I'm not very pleased with you making us take a bath.


Hope: Can you read another story?
Mom: I told you, you only get one story tonight.
Hope: I will be frustrated if we don't talk about this.


Eden and Hope are irritating eachother in the grocery cart.
Hope to Eden: Stop it!
Eden to Hope: Stop it.
Mom: Why don't you both stop it?
Hope: We can't help it because we are little humans...that is why we can't help it.

Valentine's

I read about this cute tradition called "14 Days of Valentine's" on Pinterest. I loved the idea and began planning 14 little surprises for Ben. Unless you use other peoples' ideas it gets a little difficult after a while to think of new ones, but it was fun sneaking around leaving love notes for him to find. I don't really think he understood what was going on because occasionally I will leave him love notes here and there anyway. In fact, I still don't know if he caught on that I was doing a Valentine's thing. A few of the surprises were a tin of mints and a note that read "we were 'mint' to be", a teddy bear with attached note that said "you give great hugs" I fastened the bear into the seat belt of the driver's side of his car so he would see it when he went to work. Later I found out that he didn't see it, and sat on the poor bear. I also gave him a donut with a note that said, "'Donut' feel good to know you're loved?"....yeah, cheesy, but cute and apparently hard for him to find some days. One day I kissed a bunch of sticky notes and put them on the screen of his lap top. Later that day I asked if he got his surprise. He said no. I guess he never really opens his laptop at work, he uses a different computer. Argh....so I told him to look. I guess I will have to do some extra detective work next year. The one he seemed most excited about was a "spicy" note I wrote on the bathroom mirror with soap. Maybe next year I will have to keep that in mind as well.

On the actual day of Valentine's, I gave Ben a bobble head of himself!

In the sitcom "The Office", Angela gives Dwight a bobble head of himself, and it is hilarious. I wanted to have it delivered the same way as in the show, but Ben had to go to a career fair and wouldn't be in the office. I need to have him take a picture of it sitting on his desk. He says his co-workers think it's awesome and I have to agree.

Here is the bobble head chasing Eden for a kiss.

Love that silly daddy!

Ben and I gave the kids cards and little paint cans filled with M & M's. Simple, but it will have to do for this year.

Hope loved her kitty card and thought it was quite funny.

Eden cared nothing for her card, but gobbled up the M & M's.

Noah was at his dad's house this Valentine's Day because it was a Tuesday, so I sent his card in the mail. He loves getting mail. Today he came home for the weekend and he got his paint can full of candy.

Today the kids also got a Valentine Card from grandma Bosley in the mail! Hope and Noah both gasped with delightful surprise when I told them they had mail.

I had to bribe Eden to take a break from her destruction to pose for a picture with grandma's card.

Thanks grandma!!!

A Bunch of Random Stuff...

The first two weeks of February has been somewhat eventful and stressful in our home. Lots of learning, messes, life changes and so forth. Of course there are always good times. Last Saturday Uncle Brian's family came over for a while and it was warm enough to play outside, so the kids decided to dig for treasure in the sandbox.

All they found was some cat poop (not from our cat). I wouldn't really call that treasure, but you know what they say..."what is one man's trash is another man's treasure." There were also rides in the wagon...

and lots of fun in the sun.

This is Caleb in the box.

Cameron getting ready to slide.

Caleb and Hope running around the trampoline.

Cameron and Hope taking a juice break.

Autumn, Cameron & Brian

And of course Destruct-OR in all her glory.

Noah and Hope have been saying that they want to switch rooms. I figured why not since I had done it a few months before. So I spent ALL day last Thursday switching their rooms and trying to get everything ready before Noah came home Friday. Muffin of course was very concerned/interested in what was going on and had to explore everything. He managed to jump up onto a shelf in Noah's room while some furniture was close by.

Turns out switching the rooms just wasn't a good idea. Eden still cries at night some times and it is very upsetting to Noah. When I switched the room he was right next to her room so he could hear her very well and didn't like that. Hope's bed in her new room was also an issue...so Saturday, Ben and I switched everything BACK.  *sigh* Oh well. At least it was a distraction from some of the more stressful things that have been going on.

Sunday morning Ben made pancakes.


So that was our first two weeks. It actually did snow after the unusually warm day that Brian's family came over, and Noah and Hope played outside for a while making giant snow balls. I didn't get any pictures of that though.

Another one of Noah's drawings.

Hope & Eden Says...

Hope toots
Mom: Do you need to poop?
Hope: No. That's just how I make magic.

Eden and Hope are jumping on Hope's bed after being asked repeatedly by dad to stop.
Dad: You girls are going to make me crazy.
Hope: Like mommy?

Eden is playing in the sandbox and Mom notices it looks like she's put sand in her mouth.
Mom: Aren't you supposed to be past this stage?
Eden: Yes.

Little Sillies...

1/20/2012: Tonight after the family prayer Ben grabbed a volleyball from Eden, layed on Hope's bed and put the ball under his head like a pillow. Eden climbed onto the bed and tried for several minutes to unlodge the ball. Finally she stopped, stuck her finger in her mouth and jammed it into Ben's ear and smiled. Of course everyone laughed hysterically. She showed him!

2/05/2012: Today the Bishopric was released. They all bore their testimonies afterward and one of the counselors in particular was quite emotional. When he finished Hope looked at me and said with concern, "That is one sad man."

Art

This is what Noah did during testimony meeting yesterday.

The boy can draw...



Play Time

We have had play time at the mall twice now. I like it because the play place is enclosed and I can watch the entrance to make sure Eden doesn't try to escape. It is kind of small, but it is toddler friendly and Hope seems to enjoy it too. Hope has blossomed into a little social fairy and flitters to and from each kid, asking their name and if they want to be her friend. Then she "organizes" a game of tag (sometimes dog tag, where they act like dogs while playing) and they all have a great time running around. Tag is a game she only recently learned about with daddy. He would tag her, run across the kitchen, jump over the loveseat into the family room, then hop onto the side table back through the kitchen and down the hall. This was all after asking the kids not to jump on the furniture. ;) Since then it has been her go to game with new friends. I'm very proud of how friendly she has become and how much she has grown socially in just the last few months. When I first started taking her on playdates and such she would just crawl around like a dog and bark in response to the other kids. Needless to say, I was VERY concerned. Now it seems she can make friends with just about any willing child.

I didn't want to take pictures of her little friends, because I figured if a stranger were taking pictures of my kids I would be very uncomfortable. One of the little boys she made friends with was probably closer to Eden's age. Probably around 2 1/2 or so. She kept calling him "little boy". Finally, I suggested she ask his name so she asked his name probably 10 times and he would just laugh and run still playing their game of tag. Hope gave up and decided to just call him, "little fella." I thought that was pretty cute.

Eden is more shy. She stays with me for the first several minutes and observes. After a while she ventures a few steps to get a closer look at someone or something and runs back to me. After she does this a couple times she'll go further, only to get knocked down accidentally by another kid. The corners of her mouth droop dramatically and I can see that she just doesn't understand why someone would be "mean" to her. She cries for a minute or so and I comfort her, but not for too long. I try to encourage her to go back out as soon as possible. Then after a while she sees the opening of the play place and I make several trips out to bring her back in.  Hopefully it won't take long for her to get comfortable around other kids.

Her favorite part of any visit or outing is when we are leaving. Suddenly she is shy no more and yells "Bye!" to everyone waving until they take notice of her.