thanksgiving things

None of our family was in town this year and we didn't go anywhere...so we went to the Old Country Buffet with our buddies, the Jensens. Can I just say it was an awesome day? Ok, I just said it. The food was stupendous and we came home to a "clean" kitchen!

I've been online shopping eversince. And squeezing Alex. Then I gave him a bath because he's just so cute and slippery in there. Plus it was waaaay past his bedtime but it's not a school night.

Kris put Alex down in his crib and said, "Night-night, Alex. I love you."
Alex: "Night-night. See you later!" (Sometimes he will wave, also.)

Kris is putting up Christmas decorations. He is a DIE-HARD Christmas fan, and I think it's great. It is rubbing off on me. I have liked Christmas but only off and on, for different reasons. Now that Alex is around and coherent, it will be fun. Plus he's just so squeezable and cuddly. He giggles a lot.

His Grandma Tate let him take home a football from their house Sunday night. (She made us an early, delicious Thanksgiving meal.) The football was in the toy box, and he's been territorial lately about any football he sees. He wouldn't put it down the other night to "go potty" (he just sits there and doesn't do anything but I let him go through the motions anyway. One day...)

I made some pies, but I already had a plateful of everything at the Country Buffet so I haven't tasted anything I made yet. Kris said my chocolate pecan pie was delicious. I made the crust from scratch [gasp]!

Twigars

What do you call the "older" Twilight fans?
Twigars.

That's right. Twihards + Cougars = Twigars.

I know, I thought it was pretty creative myself.


I saw New Moon this morning with my ladies: Tracie, Teena & Erin, plus Teena's daughter and her friend.


New Moon was done SO MUCH BETTER than Twilight: less overly-dramatic teen angst; more "real" acting; less pastey white makeup. I LOVED the special effects.

It looks like technology will catch up so a Breaking Dawn movie will be do-able.


Um, can I get me some more of that Jacob Black? The older I get, the more perverted that will sound. [sigh] For 45 minutes, I was officially on the Team Jacob train.



The Volturri vampires and the scenes in Italy were delightfully creepy and fascinating - just as I'd imagined.


Thank goodness for a new director, Chris Weitz. Catherine Hardwicke, director of Twilight, made the movie too fluffy and less substantive than the book. New Moon is understandable, even to those who never read the book.

Organized Chaos

I've been having crazy, funky dreams lately. To summarize: (1) I was driving up a mountain (in traffic, oddly enough) and saw teenage kids horseplaying and some of them slipped off the cliff and landed to their deaths. (2) Our neighborhood [not our real one] flooded so badly our house fell apart and was submerged.

I don't feel like my life or my emotional state is in a bad place, but our family life is quite complex. As long as I don't compare my life to anyone else's, I feel great. A "busy" phase happens to every family at some point in time. Kris and I both work full time; I drop off and pick up Alex from daycare and keep in touch with his teachers to see that he is doing OK; I have hefty church assignments; Kris has church assignments that take time and focus; I have three departments at work in which I have responsibilities; Kris has been preparing to enter a graduate program. Once his master's program starts, there is no saying what odd schedules our lives will consist of. Kris and I remind each other to deal with one thing at a time. As I look back, that is how everything got done anyway - because I fell "bass ackwards" into something or I got it done one thing at a time.

It's true that I feel bad about some things - especially that I work away from home and Alex goes to daycare. That's the biggest thing. I always said I would never send a kid to daycare. Then I turned 30 and still didn't have any children, and Kris and I both needed to work. What's strange is that I only feel bad about it because I assume other people feel bad about it. It actually works out great for our family. (I mean...I'm only assuming Alex is not deeply scarred and one day he will need many years of therapy.) When I look at our family's progress socially, emotionally, and spiritually since the day Kris and I got married, I am happy. We have grown by YARDS! MILES, even!

At church today I had a realization that we are OK. Isn't it strange that we have to remind ourselves of that sometimes?

Although there is chaos, we run pretty efficiently as a family:
The laundry gets done
The cleaning gets done (Kris has often cleaned the entire house by himself)
I balance the checkbook
and Alex gets attention.

There is some chaos when contingencies occur: Alex gets sick; there is a last-minute meeting scheduled; someone needs my help at work or at chuch. It's as if we are balancing on a pin and any change of wind will send us rolling. In fact, if there is ever an extra meeting at church, I will be the first one to [politely?] ask the relevance of it. If it is an important meeting, I will determine whether it has to be a priority for me - and sometimes it is; sometimes it's not.

I have been in the "raking" process to keep unnecessary demands out of our lives.

There is a tendency to compare your life to others' lives and assume that people have fewer problems and better situations than you do. Regardless of whether I fall into the Pit of Comparisons, over time I have been learning to have gratitude for every moment and allow myself to feel peace with where I am. It is difficult, and I still get the Guilty Syndromes:
Guilty "My Kid's in Daycare" Syndrome
Guilty "I Shouldn't Be Too Busy" Syndrome
Guilty "I'm Not Doing Enough" Syndrome
Guilty "Should Have Cooked Dinner for Husband" Syndrome.


My 2-year-old son just delivered my bra to me, which was downstairs in a chair since it's Sunday afternoon and all of us just finished nap time and - come on, do I really need to explain? I don't dress up when I'm home on Sundays. Alex is in this stage: "Here, Mom. This is yours." He will pick up Kris's contact case and say, "Dad, this yours?" and he calls whatever he wants, "Mine." So, as long as he seems to be relating with his environment in a positive way, that's all that matters I suppose. As long as he doesn't try to put my bra ON one day when he's a teenager ... but then of course I've been practicing: "We love you anyway, Alex." Or, "We love you" without the "anyway" because that makes it sound like the "but" between one good thing and one bad thing.

I AM IN LOVE

with the Children's Museum.


The museum is such a happy place, especially for wild children. We can let Alex run and play without worrying that he will break anything.

Kris was cracking me up how he got into things and played with Alex. Here they are "making" Egyptian drinks at a mock-Egyptian cafe or whatever it was called.

Every display is Alex-friendly.

We go to the museum maybe once a month but this winter we will go more often. Our membership was the BEST purchase we've made in a long time.

Want A Good Read?

I love this post! Check it out... HERE.

Thanks to old buddy, Tiffany de Berry ("Wiff" or "Wiffany of the Berry") for drawing my attention to it.

Before and After

This is an apple before Alex gets to it...

This is an apple that has been "Alexed."

Surprises from Alex

...No, I'm not talking about what we find in his diaper. This little story goes under the "My Kid is a Genius" category. I just have to share (or you can skip this post if it's annoying.)

As an important side note: I realize not everyone knows I am somewhat sarcastic when I talk about my kid being a genius. His dad and I are very average people. Alex will most likely be average. We are trying to talk him into being really smart so he can support us in our old age. But if you have a good sense of humor, keep in mind that I do also before you read anything by me entitled, "My Kid is a Genius." These observations of mine are mostly realizations that he is actually learning. I am the LAST person on earth I know that would be a "stage mom" or one of those ladies who stands on the sidelines of a little league baseball game and yells at the umpire.

Last Wednesday we were at a restaurant with my in-laws for my husband's father's and brother's birthday. Alex (27 months old) got unruly near the end - as usual. Kris took him outside to walk around.

As they walked around the building, Alex pointed to a car and said, "That Jared's car!"

He was right. I don't even remember what Jared drives - especially not in a dark parking lot!

When they were on the other side of the building, Alex pointed again and said, "Gwampa's van!"

Good heavens! He said, "van" instead of "car" and can tell the difference.

I will need to get used to having a genius child like my sister. She just accepts it. I don't think she is surprised anymore that her boy could draw maps of the city when he was 5, or tell someone exactly how to get to the airport from their house.

Halloweenie

Is this NOT THE CUTEST UPS GUY you've EVER SEEN? (OK, Emily. I know Toby was all right, but I think Alex still beats him by a mile.) Thanks to my boss, Kathy, for the great Halloween basket idea - and to my mom for helping with the implementation. I arranged the stickers and got the cable ties from work (free of charge via the Quality Assurance Department. Love working in the fastener industry!)

Earlier last week - Monday the 26th - Alex said goodbye to his Grandpa and Grandma Day. They always leave too soon.

Friday morning of course I had to take Alex in his costume and show him off at work. He made out with some good treats - as you can see by the sucker in his mouth. His basket was almost full, too. He kept saying, "Myyyyy sucker." A couple warehouse guys gave him a dollar each for his basket. (I think I bought a gallon of milk with it later. I was going to put it in his savings account ... Whoops!)

Saturday evening - Halloween - while I answered the door for trick-or-treaters and also worked on a lesson for church the next morning, Kris took Alex trick-or-treating in another neighborhood with friends, Shaylie and Bridger Jensen. Alex is too young this year to really trick-or-treat and eat a bunch of candy, but we wanted him to hang out with the older kids and see what it was like. He had a kickin' costume anyway and we couldn't let it go to waste.

That night when he got home, he kept telling me, "Scaaaarry. Scary Bridgers!" (Bridger had a gorilla costume that apparently freaked him out."

In the bathtub:

"Did you have fun tonight, Al?"

"Scaaaary."

"Everyone was dressed up and being silly. It's all for fun."

"Scary!"

(He takes after his mom.)

From the Smokey Mountains

My parents arrived from Utah on Saturday, October 17th - they drove 1,500 miles - and had the car packed with some of our wedding gifts we hadn't brought back with us yet (after 5-1/2 years!!) and other old stuff of mine. They wanted to clean out their house.

Alex warmed up to them pretty quickly. He Web-cams with his grandma on occasion, and he sees them in person about twice a year.
Last Thursday, Kris and I took off to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. (Just so you know, this was totally cool with the parents. They planned on this little getaway of ours while they stayed and partied with the Boy.)
Alex still went to school (daycare) a few hours a day - he loves that place. My mom told me she was impressed at the people there and the curriculum. Alex did well while we were gone, and I knew he would. Whenever my parents are here, it is really the only time I am comfortable leaving Alex overnight, so Kris and I wanted to take advantage of having some high-adventure time. Doesn't every couple need this once in a while?

Kris did all the research and reservations on his lunchbreaks at work. So I had some idea of what was going on, but I have been too busy for lunch these days, remember? I let him do all the footwork. We stayed at Deer Ridge Resort in Gatlinburg which literally balances on top of the Smokey Mountains.
Here I am in my white, pastey glory:

That night we ate dinner at the Greenbrier Restaurant which teetered on a nearby mountain ledge as well. Just about every place you go in Gatlinburg has a "ghost" story. Too many advertisements for "ghost walk" tours gave me the willies, but I tried to ignore it all. However, there was a presence in the town - not really creepy, just something very watchful. This is a well-loved place.

Kris built us a fire that evening at the resort. I had no idea how to help him, but I knew he was an Eagle Scout so I just left him to go it alone.

This place was actually a condominium, and each place was owned separately but managed and rented out by the resort. We felt very at home here.

These are all the magazines I have gotten in the mail over the last few months that I've had no time to read. I had shoved them under the bed until some point in time. On the trip, I only got through a few of them.

We do a lot of this kind of stuff on vacations:

The first day we've both been able to sleep past 6:30 in quite a while, we got up late and went to the outlet malls (this was not Kris's favorite day.)

I stay pretty tidy on vacation.

After outlet mall shopping until our feet hurt and we had had just about enough of each other, Kris talked me into race cars (or whatever they are called.) We probably got our money's worth. Nobody else was on the track, so I'm sure they let us go around more than they normally do. This set-up reminded me of the movie "Adventureland" - the people and everything.

Your General Store just isn't complete without a "Jesus Saves" sign on top.

I can guarantee we walked out of this place and the Arcade with a few non-necessities. This town (Pigeon Forge) is all about tourist traps and cheapy souvenirs! That's why the white folks like us keep coming back.

Kris would have disowned me had we left Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg without an ATV tour. The mountainside was owned by a family (6500 acres) and rented out to tourist attractions. Only five of us were in this tour plus our guide. We went up about 2500 feet and were able to see the entire Knoxville area.

What is up with those bags under my eyes???

I have to say here that Kris wasn't sure whether I'd enjoy the ATVs but he hoped I would. There are times he and I surprise each other, but this time I really didn't surprise myself. I've flown small airplanes, driven jet skiis and other small watercraft, and balanced myself successfully on a snowboard throughout several seasons. I am able to take control when I need to. It's about being the machine. LOL!

This was Sunday morning, as we got ready to come home. We will miss you, little Smokeys.

The Waffle House somewhere between Gatlinburg and Knoxville was the largest and best breakfast we'd had on the trip... Reminded me of my family's cross-country trip when I was younger.


Now back to real life. We were sure glad to see Alex when we got home, even though it was good to have the break. My mom had an early Thanksgiving dinner cooked for everybody (bless her heart).

Catching Up

Family Pic from 2008 after we moved to our new big city.

I realized that I CAN e-mail pictures from my phone to my e-mail account. DUH! I had no idea until last week.

Alex has been hilarious lately. Everyone already knows I think he is a genius. I found a UPS Guy costume (that's actually what it's called: "UPS GUY".) It will be comfortable for him - after I wash it to get the "itchy" out.He either looks like a UPS Guy or a YMCA dancer, I'm not sure.

One evening last week in the car, he started screaming. This happens every so often. I had to get some relief. I grabbed a tissue and pulled two pieces off to shove in my ear. Later Alex calmed down and he started sniffing. He asked for a tissue. I handed him one because I thought he'd wipe off his nose. He did this instead:

Then I just felt bad.

At night we sometimes sing to him. He especially likes the "John the Baptist" song. (If you're LDS, you know what I'm talking about.)

We have no idea where he got this, but at the end of the song, he'll say, "burger."
For example:
Jesus came to John the Baptist
In Judea long ago
And was baptized by immersion
In the river Jordan's ...
Burger.

Instead of "burger" you're supposed to sing "flow."

Last night we got his pajamas on, and Alex crawled into my lap so I could hold him like a baby. I rocked him and hummed "John the Baptist." At the end, he took his bottle out of his mouth [I KNOW . HE STILL DRINKS FROM A BOTTLE. I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW. LEAVE ME ALONE.] and he whispered, "burger." It sounded more like, "Boh-goh" because I'm not sure he can say his "r"s yet.

I cracked up. I couldn't help it. I have no idea why he says this but we encourage it because it's funny. That's what parents do to their kids and I think eventually they are emotionally scarred. Oh well.

Overworking

I typed this post a month ago, but I haven't posted it until now. [November 15, 2009] I wasn't sure I would post it, but I figured it's a description of my life and might as well go in my blog.

You know those stories of companies who have downsized so much that they've got people working 2-3 jobs, and those "survivors" are overworked and stressed even though they are glad to still be working, but still feel guilty that so many people are out of work?

I'M ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE. I used to take lunch breaks and run errands or post things on my blog a lot. Those days are over. My day is compressed into a 9 1/2-hour block of non-stop work time. It used to be split into two 4- to 4 1/2-hour segments. I'd have a break in between the workloads. But because I work non-stop now, my personal errands and blog posting have to be done after work instead of during the now-non-existent lunchbreak.

That means if Alex is out of overnight diapers, he has to wait until we shop on Saturday. If I run out of deodorant during the week, I use my travel-sized spare in my desk at work. (That's hypothetical.) Because of my new assignment at church in the Young Women's group presidency, I have even less personal/family time at home. At least twice a week I come home from work and leave again within an hour. Once I get home after church activities, I pack up things for the next day and go to bed. On the evenings I do not need to rush back out the door, we sometimes have dinner together.

I haven't been on the treadmill lately. . . which is bad. Every once in a while we take Alex for a walk together, but mostly Kris will take him for a walk so I can clean up in the kitchen without a "helper."

I'm hardly on the computer at home, but when I am, I know I will get to bed too late. Then I have a hard time waking up in the morning (which aggravates the whole family because I get cranky), which makes me late to work, which makes me feel guilty even though I'm there plenty of hours per day, and then I just feel tired.

Tired tired tired.

WHY do some women like me still feel guilty for what they don't get done?

My Mother is a Superhero

This morning when Kris left the house I was still running around trying to get out the door also. Alex was upset his daddy had left and started whining. I had already pulled out my camera to take a few quick pictures of his new, skinnier body to show my boss. ("Look how tall he is now!") That's when he turned into this:You don't want to run into this version of Alex in a dark alley. He wanted my camera, and I had let him take ONE picture of the Backyardigans: but that wasn't enough for him. I started packing the car and he was having a COMPLETE END-OF-THE-WORLD MELTDOWN.

I remained calm.

I put Alex in the car while he was trying to pull my hair out of my head. I fastened him in while he was hitting my face. ("You are in time out right where you are!!" doesn't work.)

I handed him his sippy cup without talking to him further. He threw it across the car. I closed the door, got myself in and started to drive away. I turned on Mo-Tab (Mormon Tabernacle Choir) which usually calms him down but he was frantically crying in his car seat. He started reaching for me and I felt horrible. I knew he just wanted a hug.

I grabbed my phone and called Kris but his phone was still turned off. I wanted to call my mom but I knew she'd be sleeping. (7:40 am Eastern Time = 5:40 am Mountain Standard Time. Even though they ARE technically retired, that is still a bit early.)

I kept driving and focused on getting to daycare as quickly as possible. He will calm down as soon as we pull up. About 2 minutes later my phone rang and I saw that it was my mom. HOW DID SHE KNOW?

"Hi. Is everything OK?" She asked.

"No. Alex is freaking out. Will you please talk to him?" I turned on speakerphone and handed it to Alex.

For the next 15-20 minutes, he talked to Grandma Day; she sang to him the John the Baptist song (over and over because he kept saying, "Again?") She sang the alphabet song; she counted to 10. Alex kept saying, "Gamma! Gamma! I tie-oh'd." (I'm tired.)

When we were close to the daycare, Alex WAS in a good mood and calmed down. He handed me the phone and said, "All done!" because he knew what street we were on. My son is a genius. Have I mentioned that before?

I got on the phone and said, "Well, I'm not sure why you called but thank you!"

"You called me," she said. "We got a call from you at 3:46 AM."

"Whaaaaa?" I said.
Was it the ghost of Joanna Future that called to tell her to call me at a certain time? Then I realized. "Ooooooooh... I use my phone as my alarm. I must have accidentally called you as I was fumbling half-asleep to turn the alarm off!!" [5:46 am Eastern time, except I'm pretty sure my mom's clock was 1 minute off.]

"When I answered the phone, you weren't there! So I told your dad you were using your phone's alarm and you probably didn't mean to call. I waited until I knew you'd be up to call you back."

So of course my mother was in a semi-neurotic state for those 2 HOURS, not able to sleep until she called me back. Then that begs the question, if she really thought something was wrong, why did she wait two hours to call me back???

OH WELL. She knew to call me nonetheless and take care of a crying Alex.

Thank you, Grandma Day!