Because I Thought You Might Be Interested

I saw this tutorial and decided I had to make one for Zach and Eli. Zach was first. He picked out these fabrics. (From my stash of Amy Butler, so he didn't have a lot of choices.)

Zach was less than excited about it once it was done. He didn't like it. I made him wear it once but I thought it was too small for him anyway. So I gave it to Eli and Zach picked out new fabric. (Again from my stash of Amy Butler. I love her.)

It's too big for Eli but I love it. I'll make another for Zach. It's really easy, mostly done by hand. I didn't follow the directions completely; I added a complete lining instead of the interface and small corner linings. Does anyone want to join me to make one?

The One Where I'm Over It

Zach received his brown-decided belt. One year till black belt!


Zach's Self Portrait

So, I'm really totally over the whole blog thing. Really. I haven't decided if I'm going to just delete it or leave it for some unforeseen need. But really, if I just copy and paste the wanted posts to my journal, I won't miss this at all. I did give it a try. But I do have adorable kids.

The One With Outside Findings

We were outside on Saturday enjoying the warm and sunny. J was mentioning how we got this crappy soil for part of our yard from some guy who was supposed to have really great soil. But it's all weedy and crabby. J pulled out this bundle of weeds. He then asked me what it smelled like. Smells like? Sure, I'll play along.

Onions? They really smelled like onions. And not just a little bit. Very potent onions. So we dug some up and found these roots.

Crazy, I think those are really green onions. I'm a little scared to actually use them though. I envision them full of poison and a few weeks after consumption someone will find my family dead in the house completely decayed with... I'll stop now, you get the point.


I love the red and orange buds of Spring. The red is from our trees and the orange is from bushes we planted this past Fall around the deck.

Mushrooms growing in the mulch under the swing set this past Fall.

These birds are from a couple years ago. We found a nest on our porch light. The mommy bird would sit on the neighbor's fence while we went in and out of the house. She would sit and stare at us.

The One With More Whatever

So, I've been super busy and I'm way tired. I actually used the phrase "pushing deadlines" to my mom the other day. She called to tell me about her scanner that didn't work and she always calls me when she has technical problems as J and I have become her official tech support team. But we actually were trying to finish a few things that had deadlines. I told her I couldn't talk, busy, deadlines. However I have never needed to say that in regards to my work. I have said, "It's 86ed" and "¿Para fumar o no?" and "I need parsley on that."

Which actually leads me to this funny story about work. I worked as an expediter in the kitchen at Marie Callender's. Among other things I had to make sure all plates were garnished correctly before being sent out. The cooks often would forget to put chopped parsley on the plates. Well, as most (all) the cooks were Hispanic and spoke little English I used that as an opportunity to advance my Spanish. So, as I often did, I asked them, "¿Como se dice parsely?" Well, the one guy, my very good buddy who would always save me the last chicken pot pie because I loved them, answered, "mota." My friends, let me tell you that mota does not mean parsley. However, I went weeks (maybe more??) thinking that it did. And now I wonder if I should tell you what mota means as it's funnier if you figure it out yourself, I think. I told my BIL about it, who speaks fluent Spanish, and the second I said mota he just started laughing. So, go out and ask your Spanish speaking friend what mota means. And then go about your laughing as you imagine me saying, "Necisita mota" or "Mota por favor" to the Hispanic cooks in the back of the kitchen. And if you were wondering, parsley is actually "paraji" though I'm not for sure on that spelling.

What was my point? That I'm busy? And more work is coming as Jason forms his new company into another new company for tax, legal and investor benefits and I have to make sure all the books are straight and accurate and investor worthy so that they can give J lots of money and we won't have to move in with my parents. My parents are already in their own dire straits as my dad watches everyone around him get laid off at work. He's a building inspector for the city of Henderson (next to Las Vegas) and I guess they aren't building so much these days. He's been there forever and so would only be laid off if the whole department was shut down and maybe not even then.

Apparently Zach and Eli were playing "spys" the other day. I'm not sure how one would normally go about playing with an 11 month old but Zach does it by pulling, pushing, yelling and laying on the floor so Eli can climb on him. Then Zach can grab him and roll around with him.

Eli is not too sure about playing spys.

Zach is giving me his best spy face.

Is there anything better than this? I was actually hoping the picture taking would wake him up because I had to go get Zach from school. I've never been more tempted to leave Eli home for the 10 minutes it takes to get Zach, then at this moment. It seems as though it shouldn't take that long to get Zach but it's actually 5 minutes round trip. 6-7 minutes total for drop-off and about 10-15 for pick-up. Maybe more if I get stuck waiting for the crossing guard to cross kids. That lady rocks the stop signs. She has two signs so she can stop traffic in two directions at once. Seriously. But look how perfect he is here. Not whiny or needy or hungry or poopy or mischevious or loud or crying. I can't get over those little feet sticking out with the little baby toes.

The One Where I Want Warm And Sunny

So, do you ever have those days where you're like, ok, I'm going to get all this stuff done? I'm going to clean [such and such] and go to [here or there] and to the [chiropractor, bank, dry cleaners] and make dinner and play games with [child] and work at the computer. And then you don't get any of it done at all? But instead these other mysterious tasks comes up and you spend most of your day wondering why you are doing these things and not the other. I have yet to figure out how that happens but I think it happens way too often to me. And it's very possible that it's my ADHD that does it to me. But I haven't figured out how to get that to stop. Well, of course I'm on medication for it but giving a pair of glasses to a blind person isn't going to help them much. But right now I'm excited that Eli still hasn't woken up. But it's early yet.

I'm not sure why there aren't any street lights around here. There should be street lights so you can see at night. I hate driving here at night because I can't see. Jason says that's what headlights are for. And of course I get that, but headlights don't light everything up. And I want to see everything at once. Otherwise you can't drive so fast.

Have you ever thought of the person who goes around and collects the change out of phone booths? You probably never thought that was a job, or ever thought of it period, right? Who thinks of that anyway? I once new such a person (a person who collected the change not the person who didn't think it was a job.) That person never wanted change back from their dollars.

I recall a time where I sat at the Sand's Casino (I think it was the Sand's but it could've been somewhere else) around 1 or 2am playing Uno on the floor waiting for a bowling lane to open up. I can't remember if it was with friends or cousins. I did try out for the bowling team once my Sophomore year of high school. My friend and I did because we liked to bowl. But the other girls were very serious about it. And I sucked.

Today I was driving down Cumberland and I wasn't going too fast but this car ahead of me was going like 30 and I got a little close to them, but not so close like I was attached to their bumper. And then the dude just started to break and then stopped. Right in the middle of the road. Hello? Anyone home? Think McFly, think. Then after about 3 seconds they started going again.

Have you ever been ready to go to bed but kept stalling and not going because you knew that once you did you'd either A) have to get up again in about an hour to feed your baby B) not be able to fall asleep because your mind just wanders or C) just wake up in the morning and have to repeat your day over again?

I've been having this chronic pain in my lower ab region, possibly around my uterus portion of my tummy and I don't quite know what that's about. I thought perhaps that it was scar tissue forming as when the doctor was inside my tummy getting Eli out I had an obscure amount of scar tissue. I'm not sure I just used obscure correctly in that sentence but I am too lazy to look it up and I liked the way it sounds. But the point was I thought maybe it was scar tissue formation pain, if there is such a thing. So, I called my sister and she's like, that's not right. Go to the doctor. And I called my mom and she's like, that's not right. Go to the doctor. But I haven't yet because if I ignore it, it will go away.

And perhaps this is all sounding a little bit like whining. But I don't feel all whinish. I'm actually quite ok today. I'm glad I can feel ok about utter chaos. And I quite like the term "utter chaos." Utterly chaotic is good as well. I am stalling going to bed because of A,B&C above. I really, really want a vacation all by myself somewhere warm and sunny. I don't mind if you or the other came with me but you or the other are not allowed to talk during the warm and sunny parts.

The One With My Digressions

Remember a couple of weeks ago it was so, so nice outside and you could wear shorts? Jason finally replaced his struts in the Beemer after having his new ones in a box in the hallway for like, 6 months. Then he had to get it aligned. Which one would not think to be a big deal, right?

He took it to Pep Boys (because they had time last night and J has to drive to Indi tomorrow and wanted to take his car because you can't drive the Jeep over 60 mph and I don't want to drive it because trying to get Eli's car seat in the Jeep is like trying to get your 5 year old to fit in the overhead bin on an airplane--kind of hard and people stare.) They had it all night and then today they called and said they couldn't do it because on a BMW you have to place 150 lbs in both front seats and back. Why couldn't they just get 4 mechanics to sit in the car and the 5th align it?

Now he has to take it to the dealer. Which I'm guessing will lead to the service manager asking J how our X3 is working for us. And he'll have to tell him that we got rid of the piece of hud because you people couldn't figure out how to fix it after 6 attempts and I don't like being stranded with no gas and a gauge that says half full.

But here are a couple of pictures of that really nice day, which was my point to begin with. I love that big, huge, baby smile.

Today Jason got up with Zach and Eli while I slept because I didn't get any sleep last night, again, and I didn't feel so hot. Whenever J gets up with Zach he always forgets to give him his pill. So, we had such a fun afternoon... It's actually really funny for a few minutes because when Zach is in his crazy, jumping off the walls mood, he can be very entertaining to Eli. Zach was playing "tag" with Eli this evening. Eli was having fun crawling as fast as he could away from Zach. I'd be trying to get away, too.

That's chocolate on Eli's face. I made cookies tonight and they were so very good that I ate too many, of course, and feel all bloated and fat now but that should motivate me a little more to exercise tomorrow. Which I have been exercising much more often except on those days when I didn't get any sleep and am still so tired that I feel all weak-like and can't do anything for fear of passing out from exhaustion. What? Eli is only 11 months. You thought he might be sleeping through the night by now or something like all the other babies his age? My kids don't do that.

Here is the short version of our evening:

Then at bedtime, after I got Eli to stop crying and settled down in his bed, Zach kept begging me to go to bed as well. Normally I wait 20 minutes after putting Eli down before letting Zach go in because Eli just wakes up at Zach's fake coughs and sneezes and other lame attempts at waking him. But Zach went in and fell right asleep. I love it when he does that. It happens, like, never. Now I can watch The Unit in peace.

So, these days my main computer is my laptop. And I generally would use a mouse with it. But the one I had kept breaking or needing batteries or whatever so I got rid of it and just used the keyboard touch pad and buttons. This drives J crazy and so he hooked up a new mouse for me, complete with a fabulous little bluetooth adapter. But I didn't like that mouse. So, he got another one and hooked it up. And it worked. For one sitting. Then he fixed it again and it worked. For one sitting. And so on. So, I started using my touch pad again. Until the button stopped working and I now have been tapping the touch pad to click with. And I really like my laptop so I guess I need to venture out into the deep, dark garage and find another mouse I like.

And now I'm afraid that I had an actual point when I began writing all this but seem to have lost it in my mind-wandering. I guess it wasn't all that important and should probably go to bed as I have a long list of things to do tomorrow. Including trying to find time to get to the store as I've been trying all week to do. I'm not sure how my life got crazy enough that I don't have time to go grocery shopping. But seriously, I meant to go last Monday as I ran out of bananas last Sunday. And now I'm afraid I'm out of peas as well, which is Eli's favorite dinner. I just hate going to the store with both kids and Eli naps while Zach is at school and I don't really like going at night because I'd much rather be relaxing reading a great book. (That was a joke. I don't read great books--only crappy ones. No, really, I jest. I don't read at all because I don't have time for that. Which may actually be contributing to my declining IQ. And there goes my meandering mind again.)

Because If You're Awake At 3:00 In The Morning, You Need A Cookie

It's true. Put a stash of cookies wherever you feed your baby during the night. You'll feel better if you get a little sweet snack as well. The best ones are Girl Scouts' Thin Mints or Pepperidge Farms Mint Brussels. Run out of cookies? Try Cinnamon Toast Crunch or little powdered donuts. Those are good, too.

So, the night before we went to the Children's Museum, I did have a cookie when I was up with Eli. But that didn't get me any more sleep. Eli was having a worse-than-normal night and I got no sleep. Which is why Eli and I didn't wake up until 10am. Which is why I couldn't get to Gigi's by 11. Which is why we didn't get to the museum until 1-ish.

We finally got to the museum and headed straight to the Lego exhibit.

I love all the awesome things you can build if you have enough Legos. And I'm not sure why Zach won't look at me when I take his picture. Whatever.

Zach really wanted to build a castle in the little play-with-Legos area. But there were a lot of kids there and he didn't want to share. He wanted to go home so he could play with his own Legos. But he got over it.

Eli liked playing with the big baby sized Legos. He crawled all over them and chewed on a few.

Eli also loved this dragon seat. He crawled to it and started climbing all over it. He was fascinated by it for minutes and kept going back to it for more.

I think we spent an hour in the playscape area. The kids had so much fun. I love that they have a couple little safe areas for babies. Eli had tons of fun there and totally forgot he needed a nap.

Of course we had to try out the race car. Zach took a "fabulous" picture of me and Eli. Eli hates the stroller so we used the baby carrier for part of the time.



We had lots of fun. I wish we had known it closed at 5. I also wish I would have woken up earlier so we could have had more time. We didn't have time to see the Comic Book exhibit. (Which I blame myself because I was an hour late...) I also wish we could have gone next week when the Star Wars exhibit would be there, too. Because when little boys keep seeing Star Wars posters, they want to see something Star Wars. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is going to be there starting March 23. Cool thing is they will be there until Jan 2010. I think I'll plan our next visit for this summer when Tutankhamun (Golden King and Great Pharaohs) is there.

I also wish Eli didn't cry the whole way there and the whole way back. Because crying gets very, very old after 1 1/2 minutes, let alone 1 1/2 hours driving time. Zach thought it was great to hit Logan and then tell Logan to hit him back. And of course, Logan took him up on that--who wouldn't? Gigi and I heard our share of Spongebob (fill in the blank)pants jokes the way down. Even Bergen got in on that. Zach also felt the need to try to wake up Bergen and Logan on the way home since Eli wasn't doing a good enough job with the screaming. If you'd like to join us for the next Zach and Eli Freak Show on the Road (i.e. driving with us), hurry! Seats go fast.