Saturday Projects

Remember this picture?

Back in the day Dave only had one lazy person in his life who liked to watch him work.

Now he has two.

Things I wonder about

here are just a few:

• What if the hokey poky IS what it is all about [I stole this from a bumper sticker]
• How much wood would a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck?
• What exactly is a satchel? [my mom has many but no one else I know has any]
• Does anyone really like the taste of Girls Scout Cookies or do we all buy them out of habit and a sense of guilt?
• Did the singer who "they tried to make go to rehab" ever "go, go, go"?
• Is the answer "I've always known it" a viable and reputable answer to the question "How do you know that?"
• Why do people trying to learn about the Mormon religion turn to anti-Mormon literature?
• Why do we drive in parkways and park in driveways?
• Is knowing "who killed Jeane Bennet" a requirement at the pearly gates to get into heaven?
• Speaking of heaven, who came up with the idea that angels have WINGS?
• Are people who say they "love their job" just trying to make the rest of us feel like crap?
• Is there a job that pays in individual to exercise, bake, and read books?
• Why do we tip people for doing their job? Shouldn't I get tipped if a tax return I prepare results in a refund?
• When exactly did "thongs" become "flip flops"? [in Hawaii they are referred to as slippers]
• Is the guy on first base [Who] from Whoville in "The Grinch Stole Xmas"?

About nothing in particular

Sometimes I forget I have a blog. Well, not really. But sometimes, even if I have totally blog-able events to report on, I just don't. I think my new blogging apathy stems from the fact that you can't win a gold medal for doing it. So even though I want all the blogs I read to have new posts every day, and I'm annoyed when they don't ("There's nothing on the Internet!"), I'm not willing to pull my weight with new posts. If blogging were a relay, no one would want me on their team.

So back to the Olympics. I know, it's all anyone can talk about. I'm no different. Last night I was bowled over by two things: 1) That girl Lolo, who hit the last hurdle of the race she was totally going to win, and ended up losing. I could not BELIEVE how fast those girls were running, and how sad I was for her that she had been in first place, and then lost. She has such an amazing body. I totally want to start running hurdles, if my stomach could look like that. 2) Shawn Johnson! Come on, you know you love her. She looks like Mary Lou Retton's little sister. She is so cute, and all American. I think that other girl, the tall blonde who looks kind of snarky, is a great gymnast and all. And I'm glad she won 2 gold medals; I don't begrudge her that. But I was so happy last night when Shawn got the gold for the balance beam. I nearly cried. Is it almost time for my period?

Speaking of the Olympics, I have a new event for them to add. This morning I headed out for a run with Oz, and was struggling more than normal. As I've said before, running with a baby is hard. But this morning, it was damn near impossible. It only took me a mile to figure out that the left tire was flat. FLAT!  I promise you, Michael Phelps would have had a hard time running with that jogger. It was so totally hard to push, and I think a bug flew in my eye, because I was having major contact issues. Every time I took my hand off the jogger to rub my eye, it would veer dangerously to the left. I kept hoping I would see someone I knew, so I could ask them to go call my mom to come pick up the baby from me. It got to the point where when I was by the high school, had I seen a high schooler, I would have borrowed their cell phone. No luck. I had to run the entire 5 miles like that... by the end my hands were all cramped from trying to keep the jogger straight. So yeah, I'm just about as tough as all those kids you've been watching on TV.

On a totally unrelated note, but going with the theme of randomness, I included this picture of my kids with their cousin Ella at a farm in UT. I have yet to post about the trip, but I think this picture sums it up pretty nicely. My kids are freaking hilarious (do you see Calder in the back with his arms up?).

Peace out.

Flying the Friendly Skies

Last weekend I had the pleasure of flying from CO to UT with these three:

My regular gig is NY to UT or CO and back, so the 50 minute flight didn't scare me a bit. The only variable that made me nervous was that when I purchased my tickets, there were only 5 seats left... 5 seats all over the aircraft. The best the ticket agent could do when I checked in was give me 2 seats together, and Scout was a row behind us. They assured me they would speak to the person who was to complete the row with Calder, Oz and I to see if they would switch with Scout.

On the way out, this plan worked without a hitch. I mean honestly, wouldn't you rather not sit in a row with the baby Carrie has dubbed, "The Wrecking Ball"? I really thought I was doing these people a favor by having them switch with Scout. The only thing that happened on the outbound flight that bugged me was the stewardess asked me to put headphones on the baby, who was watching Dora on my laptop. Yeah, right. I explained that there was no chance he'd wear them, and then she snottily said, "Well, it's just common courtesy for the other passengers. They shouldn't have to listen to that." I knew for a fact that no one around me had complained, AND they were all wearing headphones. Plus I could barely hear it... there's no way anyone a row behind us could. I said back, "I'm sure they'd rather hear Dora than him screaming" and turned away from her.

On our return flight, I got on the plane first so I wouldn't have to ask someone to move who was already settled. We sat there and waited, and waited, and finally one of the last people on the plane was an attractive girl in her late 20's. She approached me with a demeaning, "you're an idiot in my seat" smile, and said, "I'm in 22C." I asked very nicely if she would mind switching with Scout, who was nervous to sit alone. She glanced at the row behind us, rolled her eyes, sighed loudly, and said, "Well, it would be a HUGE inconvenience." 

Really? Huge? What planet is this girl living on? Rather than backing down, since she clearly didn't want to sit ONE ROW BACK, I met her gaze head on and said as nicely as possible, "I would REALLY appreciate it." I mean seriously. Would she rather sit by Oz and I? Didn't she realize I was doing her a massive favor? Finally she said, "Oh all right..." and walked by, all annoyed. The family behind us had been shuffled around by the airline as well, so they could be together, and the woman and her 14-ish daughter asked her if she'd rather have the aisle or the window, and the diva was like, "Whatever. It doesn't matter. I'm on airplanes all the time." She took the aisle seat diagonal from me.

Normally Oz is pretty squirrely, but I  I amped it up so it would look like a full blow wrestling match to her, so she would maybe realize she was better off NOT in her seat. He had been acting weird all day long, and I knew something was strange when he turned down a Lego fruit snack. Suddenly he turned around and threw up ALL OVER Calder and I. And both seats. It was EVERYWHERE and smelled horrible. Calder was so grossed out he started dry heaving a little bit, and I panicked and threatened to take away his Nintendo DS if he tossed his cookies. I was trying to clean up with the wet wipes I had but it was everywhere. Luckily we were taxiing by this point, so I didn't have to endure it for too long. 

Often I have moments where I wish I were my friend Ashley, who always has perfect comebacks for annoying people, and delivers her comments with the right amount of humor and venom. It was evident to everyone at least 3 rows ahead and behind us what had happened, mostly because a mentally challenged teenager in front of us popped up in his seat, turned around, and started yelling, "EWWWWWWWWWWW. DISGUSTING!!! GROSS!!! UGH!!!" I was so focused on cleaning up the mess, and getting out of there, I didn't think till later how much I wished I had looked her in the eye and said, "Bet you're glad you didn't sit by us!!!" or something along those lines. 

Oh, Oz. Your timing was impeccable, as always.

Brig's pad

The nursery is basically done with the exception of the mobile I've been planning to make for the past 7 months (mobile creation is looking less and less likely). So I thought I would post some pictures of the nursery as is.

Here is the infamous crib you all have heard so much about. The bedding I won in a give away on designmom.com


Here is the dresser/changing table. My favorite part is the antique style glass knobs.


Here are Brig's guardian angels. Dave and I were going to buy some wall art with animals like these...but they were $90 each! Ouch. So Dave came home one day with the brilliant plan (and supplies) to paint our own animals. Which animal do you like the best?


This might just be my favorite item - the most comfortable glider in the world, but still small enough to fit in my tiny room. The pillow came tan, but my mom recovered it with some cute fabric to add color. Also the mini book shelf was a home depot special for $12.99. Gotta love that...


This is the door off one of the original windows that was in the baby's room before we replaced them. Dave sanded it down so you can see all the different layers of paint (which conveniently enough ended up being mostly blue). We are going to use this as a picture frame...we just need to order some pictures and get them in there.


Ta Da - almost done (just needs a mobile.) Thanks to Nana & Grandpa Lewis and Grandma & Grandpa Denham for helping us buy all this baby stuff!


So you might be curious - does Brig enjoy his new room? Well turns out Brig has an affinity for the sound of the exhaust fan in the new bathroom. In fact the bathroom fan seems to have the magical ability to help put Brig to sleep in the middle of the night. So, Brig has taken over the new bathroom. I knew we were in a rush to finish the downstairs bath for a reason. Poor Dave...after all his hard work, he has be demoted back to the old, small, upstairs bathroom.


And now I will take a minute to brag about my son. Last night he only woke up twice to eat and then went right back to sleep. He had a 5 hour stretch and two 4 hour stretches. The 5 hour stretch should have been glorious, but Dave was convinced he was going to starve to death and kept waking me up - trying to convince me to feed Brig.


Could he be any cuter? He is such a good baby...definitely a keeper.

Welcome to motherhood...

The wreckage of last night: everything shown below was either pooped or peed all over during the course of the night. As a result, Brig will be getting his first bath today.


Obviously Dave and I need to work on our diapering skills.

I should really be packing for UT right now...

but I can't keep the fans (well, liz, anyway) waiting any longer. Here is the Lego cake... let's call it phase 1, since I still have to throw Calder 2 more b-day parties (1 in UT; 1 in NY). 

These are the shots with the artistic lighting (note the cat toy in the background. The cat has been dead and gone for at least 3 years, but my kids get out her old toys every time they come here):

The treasure hunt for presents that Yah Yah made. He LOVED it.
We all pretended to be excited about Calder's birthday, but here was the real main attraction:
Blowing out the candles.