In The Friend

Remember when you were little and thought it would be the coolest thing to be one of the Friends in the News? Well, this isn't quite that cool, but check page 13 of your Friend magazines this month to see a picture of Hannah at her first Primary activity! That's us, the San Diego 6th ward...and that's Hannah, the only girl with buzzed hair, grinning at "the camera" off to the side somewhere. So fun!

The Search

Today we went searching for a new couch. I know, we just got our futon a few months ago, but I like to change things around. A lot. And anyway, we decided a futon is no good. We just need a real couch with a good bed, so it's comfy to sit on as well as sleep on (the futon is not either of those things, for an extended period of time). As a side note, the kids have actually been sharing their room again for several months and doing great. They are good sleepers, but when Joshua goes through a "transition", it is major and takes a loooong time to iron out. So once we got him back on track Hannah moved back into their room.

Anyway, we of course began our search at our favorite playground store, IKEA. As you can see in the pictures, the kids made themselves right at home, trying out all the sleeper sofas and couches, anything they could climb into. Unfortunately, Hannah felt so much at home, she took her shoes off to get into bed and didn't put them back on, and the shoes have now been sucked into the black hole of IKEA. We spent awhile down at Lost&Found and Customer Service, but no luck. By this time, it was too late for me to drop the family off at home to go to my massage, so they all came with me, missed their naps, and we continued our sofa-search all afternoon with two tired kids, one of them shoeless. I'd be surprised if her tights don't have holes in them by now. But the kids were troopers. We were proud of them. (By the way, continuing our search was pointless, because we of course liked our IKEA pick best. now we just have to wait for our "extra" paycheck to come in so we can buy it. I love this time of year!)

Mommy, Wow! I'm a Big Girl Now

I am now officially an adult. Last night I filled the car with gas all by myself! No, this is not a joke. I think I have done this maybe twice in my life before now, and someone else was there with me guiding me through it both times. In fact, one of my more humiliating moments in life was going to the gas station, by myself, to fill the car and then leaving again without any gas because I couldn't figure it out and I was too embarrassed to ask for help. (As a result, I almost ran out of gas on the highway on my way home later that day, which was definitely one of the most panicky moments in my life! And yes, this was after I was grown up and married, I am ashamed to admit. I was almost 21 by this time.)

So anyway, be proud of me :) I did it, not because I wanted to, but because I forgot to make Seth do it earlier and I had no choice. But I made it all the way through without even a phone call to Seth, and I was only a little paranoid, looking over my shoulder to make sure no one was watching and could tell I didn't know what I was doing. Which goes to show that we really can do hard things when there's no way out of it!

More Funny Sayings

I know that 90% of my posts are about the things my kids say. But they are so funny I have to share them. Here are some things Hannah said to us this past week:

#1: Mommy, did you know that you are my woman?!

#2: Hannah is required to spend 1 hour each day in Quiet Time, which means she plays by herself in our room. When she is tired she has a really hard time entertaining herself and staying in the room until Quiet Time is over. Yesterday was one of those times, and she finally just came downstairs and sat there. When we requested that she go back in the bedroom, she sat down, put her chin in her hands, and said, "Shucks, I don't want to have quiet time!!!"

#3: Seth was trying to explain to Hannah what a joke is, so he used the most basic example he could think of. So for the last day and a half, she's been going around saying, super-fast, "A-guy-walks-into-a-bar-and-says-OUCH!" We hope she forgets this joke before she goes back to Primary next week (we had stake conference today).

Joshua has his own brand of humor and some unique quirks. He is such a boy. His favorite thing to do lately is to pretend to be a cat. He crawls around, snuggles, meows, and licks everything. However, we prefer him licking his pants or our arms to him licking the carpet, chairs, etc. everywhere we go. The worst is at bedtime, because he licks all over my face and chest while I am singing his songs. But if for some reason he's not doing that, he gets a kick out of pinching his nose and sucking in air, and then letting go to see how long his nostrils can stay stuck together without holding onto them!

You'll notice in the pictures from the last post that Joshua has a favorite round straw hat, which is stinkier and more battered than you can see in the pictures, and he wears it everywhere. All the time!

Joshua is the biggest Mama's boy this planet has ever seen. If Mommy is home, Seth can't do anything for him at all. He will cry and cry if Seth even tries to lift him out of his booster seat or pour him a bowl of cereal. It's ridiculous -- but kind of sweet too :)

He also is so cute with the way he talks. He loves to participate in scripture reading, and it's so funny to see such a tiny little person repeating words like stiffneckedness, visionary man, land of their inheritance, genealogy... you get the idea. He talks really well and has very grown-up sentences, but he still has a few funny words for things, like "helocoaster" instead of "roller coaster".

Anyway, they can be cute, even though at the moment I'm listening to them scream at each other...guess it's dinnertime!!!

Bad Blogger!

I know I have been really terrible about blogging this summer. Too bad, because we've actually had a really fun summer!

Anyway, here are some recent pictures of fun things we've done. The first two pictures are the kids in Las Vegas, where we just went to be with my parents and sister+husband. The kdis' favorite thing is the M&M store, followed closely by swimming at the resort my parents stay at. Unfortunately Joshua got sick the day we drove up there, and then I got it (the cough and cold thing), so he was really grumpy and clingy and I didn't get many pictures. That makes twice in a row that we have been quite ill when with my family. Even so, we always have lots of fun with them!

The pictures under that are Seth surfing for the first time -- he at least is finally a real coast-dweller! Our next door neighbor Phil is an expert surfer, so he taught Seth while I watched Kirra and our two kids, which was actually a lot easier to do at the beach than it is at home!

(Of course now that I am trying to blog again I can't get it to work, so the pictures are not where they should be at all. Enjoy anyway.)

Food

I am so in love with the grocery stores here. Most of them carry mostly whole, natural foods; plus, in the last few weeks I have gotten the following foods for the following prices:

watermelon: 10 cents/lb (is there a cents sign on the computer?)
raspberries: 77 cents/package
peaches and grapes: 39 cents/lb
strawberries: 88 cents/lb
green peppers: 3 for $1

One of these stores also has a great bulk section, so I no longer have to make monthly trips to Costco. I can get whole wheat flour for about 89 cents/lb, brown rice for 69 cents/lb, etc. I LOVE it!

Plus, we can always get milk for $1.89 a gallon. And people think San Diego's too expensive! (Okay, so rent's not cheap, but some things are worth paying for!)

Diseased

Yessiree. Picture this...

...all over my body. I think I have six patches just on my neck. I will now share the information from the handout I got from the dermatologist. Info in parentheses is my own addition.

Pityriasis Rosea

The most important thing about this benign skin disease is to understand the following things:

1. There is no common name for it.

2. Cause is unkown. It acts like a virus in some ways but is not contagious as most viruses are. Two cases in the same family are practically never seen. (And I'm the lucky one!)

3. It is more common in the spring and fall, but it is seen the year round.

4. Usually there is a Herald or Mother Patch which looks like a "ringworm". (See above photo.) It heralds the oncoming generalized eruption of small "ringworms" by hours to weeks. The usual distribution is neck to knees. (Not true. I have at least five patches on my calves.) It is rare on the face in adults (let's hope that's true) but relatively common in children.

5. It runs a natural course of 6 weeks (unlikely) to 3 months (more likely). (BTW, the doctor guesses I'm at just under two weeks right now.)

6. It leaes no marks or scars. (Praise be!)

7. It is extremely rare to have it the second time. (I repeat...praise be!)

8. It may or may not itch. (It may. Especially on my legs.)

9. Soap aggravates. Hot water aggravates. (Sweat aggravates. Scratching aggravates. Clothing aggravates.)

10. Sunlight helps. (I'm supposed to expose the spots, unprotected, as long as I can each day wthout getting sunburned. I'm told this gets tricky as the spots dot your "unexposable" areas. But my neck at least will be really wrinkly by the time this clears up!)

So if you see me coming down the street, please do not turn and run away. I know I look scary, but I am not leprous, and you do not need to scrub yourself down with sanitizing wipes if you walk past me. Just be thankful it's me and not you!