Jason Says

Kids say super funny things. Sometimes husbands say super funny things too.

The following conversation took place at 8:22:

C: It's 8-5-5

J: No it's not. {Laughing a little at the mix up.} You're anorexic.

A: {Laughing a lot at his mix up.}

California Love

As I mentioned, we took a little trip to California. Staying with Emily and her family turned out to be a great decision. I now know what it feels like to have a personal chef and lots of extra hands always around to help out. It feels awesome!

In addition to just hanging out and enjoying time with Emily and her family, we visited Swirlz (the quaint little candy store that has become a must), watched Justin's football game, laughed about Emily, Mick, Alexis AND Justin all cramming into the back seat (you better believe they loved that bonding experience!), visited the beach and had lunch and visited with Nikki and her two girls. Hazel experienced a lot of firsts during the weekend besides her first trip to California. It was also her first time meeting Mick, first time pulling herself onto her knees (she used my leg a bit, but still, progress!), first time on the beach (which also means she had her first sand feast) and first whole apple (why haven't I done that sooner?). She also met their dog, Sydney, for the first time and laughed so hard when Sydney licked her. They couldn't quite get enough of each other.

I love visiting Emily and her family. I don't know if it's Emily's personality or if it's the fact that she's the oldest of 9. Regardless of the reason, she is always right there to help when she sees someone needing it, especially with babies and little kids. She doesn't mind if she's holding a screaming baby, as long as it means I get a break. She doesn't wait to be asked to help Clara. She doesn't waste any time when she notices someone could use a hand. Even though her kids are teenagers, she is still very aware of what makes little kids (and moms of little kids) happy. It makes it so much easier to enjoy a vacation when she's around.

Photo credit: Angela

I loved having Angela with us. And not just because she taught Clara how two Pringles can turn one into a duck in a matter of seconds. I loved having someone to talk to and laugh with in the car and take candid pictures of my kids. An extra set of hands during pit stops is pretty awesome too. And I could talk about that little miracle in her belly for hours.

Last three pictures thanks to Angela (obviously she didn't take the one of us, but she edited it).

Emerging From Survival Mode

I can't usually let a week elapse between posting. The truth is, sometimes I go into survival mode. I am just now emerging from survival mode and hoping I can avoid it in the near future. After enjoying a lovely vacation in California with Emily and her family, Angela and my two beebies, I met back up with reality. On top of the usual, I had a tight work deadline which meant I did the bare minimum around the house. I didn't have a spare minute to do anything but work for the first few days after we got back. No laundry (well, it's been washed, just not folded... are you noticing a trend?), no dishes for two days, no getting ready for two days (I did shower, hooray for me), no finishing unpacking, etc. I guess I could have neglected my children too, that does happen on occasion, but luckily, I pretended to be free as a bird when they were awake. This meant plenty of time laying in the grass to read books and have picnics.As soon as some of my other responsibilities lighten up a bit, I'll tell you all about our trip, how wonderful Saturday was and the sweet cake Kathryn and I made for Lilly's birthday. Can you believe she's 13? The caboose of our family is growing up!

Make It Stop

I still remember this article I read here a few years ago. Clever. I laughed so hard when I read it and today reminded me of it, as is evidenced by Hazel's extremes today.

Super Happy (it appears as though she got my sweet, involuntary, I-look-like-a-pig nostril flare from laughing)

Super NOT Happy
This is how our whole day went. Unfortunately, the latter dominated the day. Let's hope we can blame it on teething. And if that isn't indication enough how great my day has been, at 10:34pm, I had only checked off 4 of the 12 things I had to get done today. On a more positive note, it looks like I'll get to bed within 30 minutes or so of my targeted 2am bed time.

Productive & Lazy

I had an unusually productive Saturday. I grated and froze 10 pounds of cheese, cut and froze about 10 pounds of peaches, trimmed, bagged and froze 20 pounds of chicken and canned another 20 pounds (16 pints) of chicken. It got a little tricky with the chicken since Jason wasn't home, but my little kiddles were great. Later I trimmed/hacked down the rose bushes while Dan and Jason cleared out my garden. Days like that feel great.

However, relaxing (ahem, being lazy) feels great too. This week has been so nice. No school, no music, no set schedule. Just how I like it and precisely the reason I had so much anxiety making a preschool and music class commitment (although we've enjoyed it). I also enjoy having all the time in the world to play with my babies, laugh at Clara, let Clara play in the bag of flour she accidentally dumped out, spend the night at Grandma's, hang out with family and friends and come and go as I please and when I want.

33 + 3

Jason's 33rd birthday was 3 days ago. It's kind of hard to celebrate mid-week birthdays as an adult. We picked him up at his office to take him to lunch. We don't do this much, actually never, since his office is about 45 minutes away. It is always fun to see him midday. I sent him back to the office with some cupcakes to share with his co-workers. He felt really manly with a cupcake carrier that matched his shirt, can't you tell? It reminded me a little bit of elementary school.
That night he had softball games, so there wasn't much celebrating before or after. We celebrated during one of his games, but it was because of his inside the park home run.

Friday was a better day to celebrate. I wanted to do something different, so I lucked out when I got an e-mail about a LivingSocial deal. We took a ride on the Desert Belle (along with 140 senior citizens) for a cruise around Saguaro Lake. Lots of people commented on how beautiful Hazel is. I think an equal number of people thought she was a boy. One lady was shocked we would take our kids with us to celebrate Jason's birthday. A few people stopped us after to let us know our kids were very well behaved. Jason thought it was random, but we had fun enjoying the pretty scenery and live 40's music with our little family.

{Clara made friends with the captain}

After our boat ride, we had a late dinner with a few friends. I got to talk a lot and Jason got to eat a lot of meat. I think we both had a good time celebrating.

So Much Catch Up

Here's a recap of the last few weeks, since finishing work and thinking I could focus on getting my house in order last a brief moment until other things started popping up:

- Watched and played with Hazel as much as possible
- Hazel kind of started waving, except it's hardly a wave. It looks like she's beckoning, "Come here!" as she opens and closes her hand with the palm is up

- I brought a partial and lame dinner to my mom's hoping she'd add the finishing touches (beans! cheese!) to avoid ANOTHER night at home without Jason (we have about 3 of those a week these days). LELA (I just decided that's going to be my nickname for Lucy, Elsa, Leta and Annie) were also there so Clara had lots of fun. The highlight was Clara morphing into batman.
- Clara is getting much better on her bike. It's amazing what a little practice can do.
- Hazel kicks her leg up on things all the time (the stroller, the table when we're at restaurants and she's in the high chair, the wall, me, her crib, etc.)
- My happy hairs are growing! Now anyone wishing to relive the 'wave' fad from the 80's is so jealous of me
- Speaking of hair: I figured out how to make my hair wavy, all by myself.
- We celebrated my dad's birthday on the 29th at St. Francis.
- I almost cried after realizing the most darling picture of my dad with his birthday candle/dessert and his granddaughters got erased on accident. I guess this one will have to do.

- We had our walk through with our renter. I planned on taking money out of her deposit to replace the tree she killed when the yard water was off for a few months. But I decided doing that after they put up sun screens, a security door, installed new, bigger toilets, installed a soft water system, installed blinds on the two blindless windows and put in a digital thermostat, I came to a quick conclusion that I would be completely heartless and rather greedy if I did that. I am so sad to see her go. We still haven't had any luck finding a replacement, so that's a bummer.

- Jason's touchpad came, just in time for his birthday

- I watched and enjoyed 8 hours of conference

- Clara turned into a ninja during conference

- As did Jason!
- Clara was still a ninja 9 hours later when we went out to eat with my mom

- Hazel had her first typing lesson
- We got our Halloween decorations out (all 7 of them). Clara was a little excited, although it's hard to tell in the pictures.

- Helped my mom out (it's about time the tables turn, if only briefly)

- Hazel got her first fat lip. It wasn't bad, but I felt awful. Clara and I walked into Hazel's room side-by-side, Hazel in my arms. I stopped to pick something up, Clara walked in front of me and as I bent over, Hazel's little mouth smacked into Clara's head. (See right side, her left, it's a little fat)

- Realized we have no need for a theater room when we have a closet and a portable DVD player... had a portable DVD player until it randomly stopped working after this movie. At least Clara got to enjoy her movie closet once!
- The weather FINALLY cooled off. Last Friday it was beautiful. Clara asked if she could have some time to herself outside to enjoy the weather (And yes those were her words). She sat in the front for almost two hours just enjoying the weather. I kept checking on her and laughed when after an entire hour, she'd moved just a few feet.
- I love beans. Last year I canned tons of pinto beans in #10 cans. I was sick to discover that the beans aren't good. Moldy, stinky, ewwww. We did it as a group and I'm wondering if the people in charge didn't do it right or if mold just loves me. I threw out about 25+ pounds this week. There's still a lot more, but I'm thinking if I discard them little by little, it will be less painful. :) I'll never do that on my own again. What a waste!
- We finally cleaned out our garden. It was overtaken by weeds. Dan helped Jason. Meanwhile I trimmed all our rose bushes, which were really more like rose trees. I waited too long to get the garden started, again, but hopefully the warm weather next week will be enough warmth to get my winter garden going.

- Hazel watched from the exersaucer.