A huge disappointment

Long before I met Brent, he had been thinking of himself as a mt. biker. He loved to be on his bike, still does. He craves it. I believe that when he met me, he had great hopes that together, we would raise a family of dedicated mt. bikers. When we went for our first bike ride together and I spent the first half of it crying as I struggled to haul my bike up the hill and the other half walking it down the hill out of sheer fright, I think he died a little inside. I'm afraid that my children have been equally disappointing in that department.

Case in point: this evening's "bike ride."

When Lizzy wasn't pushing her Barbie trike around Fred Flinstone style, she was dangling, motionless from Jane's bike.

Meanwhile, even though Jane has a bike that fits her, she stole the Barbie trike and did her best to take it at top speed around the circle without banging her knees into the handles.

And Charlie was much more interested in wearing the appropriate protective gear than actually riding anything.

All the while, I just sat on the front porch and complained about how tired I was.

I don't think that these are the kinds of "family bike rides" Brent had in mind.

My 15 minutes

My sister has a sister in law who has a sister who has a blog. It's a cool blog. She invites fellow bloggers to answer 5 questions about themselves and then posts a different set of answers every day. It's really fun to read all the different answers and get to know other people. It opens the door to some good blurkes and I'm all about the blog stalking.

So today is my day. Head on over to 5 Questions and get to know me even better... if you dare.

p.s. - i have come to the realization that my last post was really. freaking. long. my sincerest apologies. you don't have to read all those words. i won't be offended, promise. as i was posting, i was admittedly distracted by thursday night TV on NBC (was that the Community season finale? what a sad day.) i'll try to stay more focussed next time. try.

Did I ever tell you about the time....

that Lizzy turned 3?

Well she did. A while back. It was a good time. I took a lot of photos.

Since her birthday WAS a while back, I'm a little foggy on the deets. I recall that it was a really fun day. We pretty much allowed Lizzy to pick everything that we did and 3 year olds only want to do things that are fun, hence the fun.

The birthday girl wanted to go to McDonald's for breakfast... in pajamas.

And so it was.

Charlie was required to wear his jammies too. This photo was pre-haircut. He looks a little "i eat paper" here...

In retrospect, I see why just a few days later, Leslie forced me to pin his arms down while she savagely shaved his head... and then wondered why he didn't seem to like her very much for the rest of the day. It's all for the best.

Hmmmmm. This must have been before McDonald's had the Barbie/Hotwheels toys. Does anyone else HATE the dragon toys because their wings are constantly falling off? Does anyone else think that I spend entirely too much time at McDonald's?

Ya.

Brent and I like this photo because the light hits her rat's nest just right. I'm also fond of the mismatched jammie jams. Oh Lizzy, How do I love thee?

So after that, I forced my family to go home and shower.

It took several hours to get us all presentable and by the time I was finished, I was ready for lunch. Brent and I lured the children to Hagermann's by offering them frosted sugar cookies.

Cookies generally do the trick.

It's amazing what small children will do for frosted sugar cookies.

I tried to get Charlie to pose for a photo with me.

a couple of times.

I was unsuccessful in my attempt to capture his love for me in a picture.

And now I want Hagermann's.

Lizzy was all 'gung ho' to go to Chuck E. Cheese. I was a little ticked because it was really Jane that was so desperate to go to Chuck E. Cheese, so for like the month before Lizzy's birthday, she was prepping her.

"Lizzy, have you ever been to Chuck E. Cheese?"

"Lizzy, have you seen the commercials for Chuck E. Cheese? Doesn't it look fun?"

"Lizzy, wouldn't it be great if we could go to Chuck E. Cheese for your birthday? I bet that Mom and Dad would take us all if you asked them."

So we went to Chuck E. Cheese.

Fortunately, our best bud, Brooklyn, was willing to come with us and show us the ropes. She has a brother that works there, so she knows her way around.

For the record, I don't like that place.

It feels damp in there.

There's no reason for that.

No reason for dampness in the Chuck E. Cheese.

The lighting also made me uncomfortable. Particularly bad for someone that might have been wanting to take a couple pictures. This is the only one I got.

And it's not even one of Lizzy. Jane won the jackpot on one of the games and got, like hundreds of tickets, or something like that. We took a video. I'm not posting it. Jane is a glory hog (remind me to tell you about the time that Leslie accused her as such) and this post isn't about Jane and Chuck E. Cheese. It's about Lizzy's birthday.

I WAS going to post a video of Lizzy blowing out the candles on her cake, but computers are dumb and make life hard, so nevermind.

All the family came for dinner and brought presents and had princess cake and Brent was in charge of the camera and Brent thinks like a boy and DOESN'T think "Oh, I'd better take some photos that are in focus and some cute ones of Lizzy having the time of her life because if I don't have them, how will I post them on my blog later?"

So this is what I got instead.

Brent's a good man. And he tried.

Notice how quickly Lizzy is capable of becoming disheveled even after I spend extra time trying to make her look as though she's loved and cared for? I swear I try.

All in all, it was good. Miss Biz has been asking for another birthday ever since, so I think she liked it too.

In conclusion, I want you all to know that I feel very much relieved now that I've posted this. NOT sharing the details of my middle child's third birthday via blog has been eating away at my conscience for the last month. I'll sleep good tonight.

Rain

Today, it's been rainy.

By the time I get to June, as a resident of the greater Salt Lake metropolitan area, I'm always a little confounded. I am aware of that fact that the weather in Utah is incredibly reliable in that it offers no reliability at all. One day it's hot in April and you're thinking about turning on the A/C and 2 days later, you're lighting a fire. You have freak snow storms in May sometimes. I am aware of this. Each year I begin bracing myself in March for a long, drawn out Winter. But still, no matter how long you've lived here, after a while you just start to wonder if a higher power just finds it amusing to taunt us with tastes of spring.

Today, it's been rainy.

But yesterday? Yesterday was glorious.

So glorious that Brent ran the sprinklers for the second time this year. BTW, when your sprinklers turn on, are you supposed to her a banging, clanging sound throughout the house? I'm thinking no. I'm thinking we'd better get on that before we have to turn them on again. Good thing that today, it's been rainy.

Anyway, the girls were so excited about the sprinklers that they ran upstairs and before you could say "Bob's your uncle," they reappeared in the their new swimsuits. Never mind their adorable Sunday dresses or their hair that took me all morning to curl (I'm in serious need of some better hairspray, I swear the stuff I have is counterproductive).

I took deep offense at their lack of appreciation.

But after some time and introspection, I decided to forgive them.

Because their swimsuits this year are pretty cute too.

(I'd like to bear my testimony of buying swimsuits and bikes and anything else from Target.)

And, let's face it, my girls are also pretty cute.

And the fact that they were so happy to be playing together on a warm, sunny Sunday afternoon is pretty cute as well.

So you see, for the sake of the cuteness involved, I really HAD to forgive them. And I'm glad that they were able to out and enjoy the warm sun, because today... it's been rainy.

A Gift.

My mom was in town for Mother's Day today. I woke up and I told my husband that I wanted to get pictures of me with my mom and and my kids. Sometimes I amaze even myself at my inability to accomplish something so simple.

Brent got me a bike "for Mother's Day" and by that, I mean that several weeks ago, Brent, myself, my sister and her husband went to Target on a date night (yes, we often go to Target on date night) to get a bike for my sister and whilst there I decided I needed one too. Even though it was technically purchased for "Mother's Day," we ended up getting it out to ride on Friday and if someone was riding a bike, we all had to be riding bikes (my family is in sync that way), so the kids came out too.

From far enough away, that grainy photo up there makes me look uncommonly serious and chic. It's very unlike me. It makes me a little uncomfortable.

This must be rectified.

Ah, that's more like it. Much less dignified and with a child in tow.

Why was this photo even taken? I think I told Brent to "take a photo of me on my bike," but let me assure you, that is NOT what I meant.

Sometimes I worry that Charlie is determined to get run over by a car. He's on the sidewalk here, but generally speaking, it's next to impossible to keep him out of the street. The best part is that he likes to crawl down the curbs, keeping him nice and low to the ground where no one could possibly see him. If you have business in our circle, do me a favor and drive slow.

I really like him. A lot.

Ah, Miss Biz.

Why are your shoes always on the wrong feet?

Brent needed to put the training wheels back on Jane's bike. She wasn't quite ready for the two wheeling experience.

And she's not too happy about it.

So if you see a woman out on a new bike, in a puffy red coat, looking most undignified, with a couple of kids following behind and perhaps a baby crawling in the street, chances are fairly good that it's me.

Happy Mother's Day to all!

1 blog for Laura to post on + 1 blog for Laura to post on = 1 too many blogs for Laura to post on

Point of business-

It's officially official.

I've gone mad.

Seriously. Like Cheshire Cat mad.

It's hard to pin point the exact moment that it happened, but I'm fairly certain that it was in the course of the last four days. Over the last several weeks, I've been hiding out in a remote corner of my upstairs and under the glare of hot lights, I've spent hours and hours in the late night frantically snipping, sewing, and gluing itty bitty tiny pieces of rainbow colored felt to little hair clips.

I defy you to try it and NOT go mad.

Anyway, this weekend it all comes to a head because this weekend is the weekend that both the boutiques I've been preparing for are open. Yay.

Normally, this would be the type of thing that I would be inclined to post on my crafty blog, but I've made the executive decision that I'm no longer keeping a crafty blog. I figure that I never get around to posting on it anyway and I rarely get around to posting on this blog, so perhaps if I combine the two, something might get posted sometime.

This is of importance to you, my average reader, because this means that every so often, you're going to have to endure my posting of photos of hair clips and other cutesy things and the occasional plug for a boutique that I'm selling at.

Sorry.

Well, not THAT sorry.

If I were THAT sorry, I wouldn't do it at all.

I'm sorta sorry.

SOOOOOOOOOO... This weekend I'm selling some adorable, crazy inducing hair clips at a couple of boutiques and in an effort to increase sales for all of us involved, I would encourage your attendance at said boutiques. I'm putting the buttons on the right, so click on them for info. Do it. Do it now.

I was going to spend this evening making a few more hair clips, but I've changed my mind. My mom (who is awesome) has been watching my kids for me all week so that I could make hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of clips and I can't TAKE it anymore! (say it like Squints from the Sandlot. It'll be more fun).

I came home from setting up at the shows today and my house looked like this:

And it smelled about the same.

And when I walked through the house and realized that every single room was its own version of the kitchen, I also realized that I'd gone mad. I went upstairs and my desk was a complete pigsty, the kids had dumped every single toy onto the floor, there were so many baskets of laundry lying around that I couldn't figure out which ones were clean and which ones weren't. I lost it.

In a fit of fury, passion and anger, I started cleaning. (my best cleaning is always done whilst in a fit a passion and anger. i fear the day that i learn to control my temper. if it ever happens, we may all be forced to live in squalor) I cleaned up the toys and the clothes and the dirty dishes that were buried under toys and clothes. I cleaned until our play/craftroom looked like this:

Then I had to take photos because it feels good to show other people that I cleaned. I AM aware that most people do this every day. I aim low.

I even cleaned my desk and put away everything I could possibly have used to make hair clips. It was empowering. Take THAT, felt!

So bottom line here is

1. I'm crazy

2. brace yourselves for crafty crap on this blog

3. go to my boutiques

4. my house is gross

5. my desk is clean

6. i'm not making hair clips tonight

7. charlie is cute...

Do you see what I see?

This photo was taken while I was cleaning the kitchen. If I say that I was half way through, will you excuse all the clutter?

Thank you.

So, do you see it?

No. You don't.

Trick question.

You've gotta watch out for me. I'm tricky like that.

See, here's the deal. There are currently six children at my home. Six. And not a one of them is in that photo because not a one of them is in the process of destroying my house.

Spring is a thing of beauty. And even though Spring is a totally hit and miss season in Utah, I'll take what I can get. Today is nothing short of spectacular and all the kids have retreated outside to reconnect with nature.

There's one.

And another... and another...

And.. what the? Oh goodness.

They're all in there somewhere. Climbing garden fences, roasting rollie pollies in the sun, picking the buds off of my flowers to give to their moms (who can say no?), roughing up the soles of their feet, getting used to the feeling of a scorching slide disappearing behind them, drinking hot lemonade that they left in the sun, letting their freckles free... it's a fabulous time of year for us all.

With one exception.

This little allergy ridden beauty has mixed feelings about Spring.

Poor sleepy baby.