oh yeah, baby!

I have beautiful flowers in the spring- bulbs sprouting all over my front flower beds. Hyrum already picked the crocuses, but there are tulips and irises budding, and the daffodils are [obviously] already blooming beautifully. *sigh* I like spring!


Now I just need to add some plants for summer and fall color. LOL, I always remember during the spring, and never think to plant when it's fall. Maybe that will change this year...

Well, I'm off for a week of vacation- going to West Virginia to hang with my college roomie. I'm taking Myles- he isn't weaned yet- but since he has little or no opinion on how we spend time as long as we feed him, it's all good! The older kids will be in school, and Jared took the week off of work. By this time tomorrow, I'll be across the country- yippee!

random thought

"I am NOT anti-gun. I’m Pro-knife. Consider the merits of the knife. In the first place, you have to catch up with someone in order to stab him. A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness. We’d turn into a whole nation of great runners. Plus, knives don’t ricochet. And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives. " ~Molly Ivins

A friend shared that w/me, and I especially liked the physical fitness part ;). I, just to be clear, am totally for guns. Not because I have anything against knives, even though I had to get *8* stitches in my thumb once because I was using Jared's pocketknife and it slipped...

On to other topics- we had SEPs today. Which means parent-teacher conferences. Except now the kids have to come, too, and the weird acronym [I can't remember the exact words] sort of means that the conferences are student-led discussions of what they're learning in class. And I'm all for hearing the good part of what you're doing in class, but it totally bites if your teacher has anything bad to say about you. Luckily, I heard only good things this time- Walker is an awesome speller. And I can actually read Morgen's sentences now- she's putting spaces between her words, and getting better with spelling.

Myles rolled into a bookcase today. I know because he suddenly began to cry, and it was his 'you hurt my feelings' cry, and when I went to rescue him, his head was right up against the bottom shelf. I really wanted to laugh, but I managed to contain my amusement until he wasn't looking at me- I guess laughing at your kids is supposed to be bad for their self-esteem...

Hyrum picked all my crocuses on Monday, and put them in the mailbox for the mailman. Unfortunately, the mailman didn't want them, and left the poor wilted blossoms scattered on the street. Apparently, Hyrum forgot to put postage on them ;).

It's spring!!! I know because I feel like cleaning. Only happens once a year; I'm thinking it is linked to the sudden emergence of baby insects from wherever they go in the winter time.

j

just a quickie

Myles is so grumpy! He's had a full dose of Tylenol, and I've given him teething tablets [they help with the pain, but they're safe to mix w/the tylenol], and he's been fed and bathed and changed, and he's still screaming. So he's now screaming from the comfort of his own little bed. Poor little tyke.

boom!

so I asked, the other night, exactly what Jared was learning about in Chicago.
Explosives.
I KNOW- he has the coolest job! Well, except for the traveling 3 weeks out of the month of February part...

More snow this morning- before we were up, though, so I couldn't sit at the window and watch it falling down.

No school tomorrow. Because it's end of term. Sometimes I think the people who make up our school schedule are the same kids who used to skip school at any excuse. So now they let the kids out for reasons no sane adult understands. Aargh.

;) enjoy your Thursday

odds and ends

It snowed all day Friday- big fluffy flakes, and tiny threads of sleet, and most of it melted in the sun we got on Saturday. Sunday it snowed again, for a while, but didn't stick to the pavement. Today when I woke up it was snowing- sprinkling really, at first. It kept coming down, thicker and thicker, until I almost couldn't see our backyard fence through all the flakes. Now it's sunny again, and people's roofs are beginning to drip. In the late morning, after the kids were off to school and my neighbors had driven to work, the snow had filled in all the footprints. I loved the silence of it.

Today I didn't finish a book. I tried to finish the last 2 books I borrowed from the library, since we always go to the library on Tuesday, and I like to return everything at once. Otherwise I forget, and get charged outrageous late fees. Anyway, my point was that, for the second time in my memory, I chose *not* to finish a book. I've returned books without reading them before; I get home and they don't appeal to me like they did at the library. But reading this collection of short stories, I could feel depression setting in. And the author was quite talented, and it made me mad that because of her skill, I was drawn into this hopelessness that spreads through her stories. Ick. I finished almost half of them, and it felt like she [the author] didn't believe in God, or in goodness; not that her stories were depraved or perverted, but *nothing changed* in them. People didn't save things, or become stronger or better, and it was like a weird universe where nothing has meaning at all. The people in her stories didn't learn *anything.* How utterly bleak, to be so completely self-centered that NOTHING can break through! I feel like I just swam through oil- not the light olive oil I cook with, but the nasty sludge we drain from the oilpan of the car. So I'm off to read something that will clean off that sticky, slippery, gritty feeling.

This month...

This month, Jared has gone to:

• Alaska, for cold-weather scenarios. It was the same temp [low 50's] as it was in Utah. So all that cold-weather gear he packed? yep. Didn't need it. But hey, they got lots of happy hours in at the local bars...
• Las Vegas, to help another unit prepare for certification. Jared got to play "mad scientist" and come up with a training scenario, to test their preparedness. *evil laughter* I suggested he take the little dead mouse bodies from the freezer, but he's apparently saving those for a more appropriate time.
• Tennessee, to learn all about radiation. Now he has a t-shirt, and I have a mug, that says "Where you learn to handle the hot stuff." That's actually one of the better slogans I've seen as far as classes go. Some of them are just lame. And no, I'm not digging through my pile of free hats/tshirts/mugs/keychains/etc to share the lame ones w/y'all. Mostly because I *gasp* threw them away. [hope Jared didn't read that...]
• Chicago, and I have no idea what he's learning there. That's this week, though, so I'll be hearing about it shortly!

*sigh* I love the military. No, really. At least he gets to come home, sort of! He flies in Saturday, does his laundry, repacks, and leaves Sunday for the next class. Oh, except for the one week he was home this month. He did buy me flowers, though... xoxo
So, while Jared was away, Myles has learned how to roll over, and is chewing on everything to prepare for his teeth. Hyrum has learned how to scrape the top off every batch of brownies [3 so far] I have made. And this last time I found him behind the couch with a gallon of milk and a cup he'd filled with that milk to drink with the brownie shavings. The gulping milk noise gave him away. Morgen got to have "BUG" [being unusually good] lunch with her principal, and she also got "Student of the Week." Walker went on a 10-mile hike, and is excited about doing a 50-miler this summer with the boys' youth group of our church, and his dad.
And, I found out my library offers e-books, which I can check out and download over the internet. Cool.

babies

Last weekend we had a wedding [Jared's sister] and a baby christening [Jared's nephew]. Melinda and Jon right after the ceremony- we were all on our way outside [brrrr!] for pictures.

Since his family was all together for these events, we got all five of the baby boys together for some pictures. They range in age from 5 months to 1 month. We laid them down in order of age- Saxon, Myles, Carson, Zachary, and Sloan-left to right.

Myles was sleeping until Saxon punched him LOL. But he kind of got it from both sides, since Carson was waving his hands around too. I have to say, though, if Myles had been awake, he would have been waving his hands around and hitting his cousins too.

Once he lost his thumb, he got a bit upset. LOL, he's used to lots of touching and "loving" from his siblings, and normally he handles that fine, but he started teething this weekend [I know, I am SO lucky!].

Found this at Target- it's a cool little seat for babies. He's old enough that he likes to look around, and coo a lot, which means I spend a lot of time holding him. The view from the floor is a bit limited, after all. Anyway, I can put Myles in this, and talk to him while I scrapbook, and he drools all over my papers. He can't get out of it, but he wiggles around until he can chew on the arm rests. And he can coo at me, and I'll talk back, and I get some creative time in while he's happy.

And this is the latest trick Myles has learned: he rolls! front to back and back to front, now he can move all over the floor when we set him down. Usually he'll spit up somewhere, then roll to a new and cleaner spot before spitting up again ;)

Oh, and my younger brother just got engaged- they're getting married in May. Wow!!

family ties

I look at this photo and see happiness, cooperation and playing together as siblings should. I want desperately for them to continue to play together, to be closer than friends, through their growing up years and into adulthood.

I know a lady who is dying, and her children are bickering [already] and fighting with each other, making these last few days of hers painful and chaotic. And it tears my heart, to witness the hate and cruelty they harbor, when they should be supporting and loving each other. I know that death brings out many emotions, but jealousy and greed are so ugly to see. *sigh*

Okay, so in the spirit of togetherness, we played a game together for family night last night. Over Christmas, we ended up playing a lot of games with family members, and I've realized how much fun I have doing this. So I've made a goal [may be silly, but if it works...] to play a game with my kids at least once a week. LOL, and we got a few family games as presents, so there we go!

Time to be together with Myles- he's demanding food again, LOL.

spiders and glee

Just found this- my sister gets the best wrapping paper! She worked at a college publication and graphics dept, which means she scored big with funky tags, paper, etc. Don't you love these reindeer?!?

Have to put in a plug for Charlotte's Web. Awesome movie, loved it. And all the kids loved it, too.

**went last night- poor planning on my part so we got home about 10:30pm, but even Myles stayed awake and watched it.

Haven't been all that interested in taking them to 'kid' movies lately, as so many of them have potty humor, or double entendres, trying to 'spice it up' for teen and adult audiences. But I totally loved this movie. LOVED the illustrated feel of the beginning and end of it. The cinematography was so clear and crisp; Dakota Fanning was a great Fern; and Charlotte [voiced by Julia Roberts] was funny and frank and dear. Definitely a movie I'll buy; may even go see it again in the theater, it was that good!

okay, must clean off the desk again. Order in my house is often achieved, and easily destroyed LOL.

late pics

Had a few issues with the google/blogger thing, and I really meant to fix it the day of, but... well, Jared's TDY 'till tonight, and the furnace was leaking gas, and I had kids to corrall, so it took me a bit over a week. But I have many pictures to atone for my recent absence! Here's a few recent ones since Christmas-

So do you see any resemblance between these two? Pretty sure they got it from Jared, but there are rumors that I had a pretty effective pout as a kid. And you can see that nobody loves them- instead of rushing in to comfort them, their mom is taking pictures. And mocking them in their pain LOL. Wish I could post a video, though, as the pout is much more heartwrenching when you can see the little quiver of the chin that goes with it!

I finally captured a giggle- had to change the settings on my camera so the flash would stay off. I took a bunch of startled photos, too- Myles blinking as the flash went off in his eyes. He's chattering a lot now, mostly when he's happy. When he's grumpy he whinges- not quite crying, but close. LOL, he'll start his fussing, usually with me sitting next to him, and H will announce that Myles is hungry, and am I going to feed him? Silly boy, of course not. We only feed the animals on Saturdays.

This is my leg with the spit-up on it. And this is the cute little culprit who decorated me. He's always so happy after he spits up, and I'm always so messy...

These big fluffy flakes of snow are my favorite. This was last Friday- it snowed like this all day, the flakes dropping slowly and steadily, until we had about 4 inches of snow. Horrible to drive in, but lovely and peaceful from inside a nice warm house! And this past week we have enjoyed the snow. Of course, I haven't been driving in it much- we had to rebuild the transmission on the dodge [that was the anniversary gift we gave each other LOL].

But we did go out for dinner- 11 years we've been married now! I cannot believe he's put up with me for that long. And I tease him that he joined the guard so he could get away, but he's always more tense about his TDYs than I am, I think. Probably because things happen when he leaves. Like we find a gas leak, and have to turn off the furnace until a pipe is replaced [which I took care of, thank you very much]! It's all good though. It took a prayer to loosen it, and another visit from the gas guy, but it's all fixed. Just in time for him to be home today LOL.