Shopping

Before I married Michael I was not much of a shopper. My idea of shopping was to go to the store only when you needed something, and when you got there you went in, got what you needed, and left. The only time I would go to more than one store was when I was looking for the best price on a specific item that I knew multiple stores carried. Since then I have discovered the art of browsing and window shopping.

Now I think I like shopping too much. I still love to find good deals and the best price on something, but I spend more time browsing just to look at things. Going to the store to only get the things on my list is not interesting any more. I want to have time to look at some other things as well. I also find myself doing a lot of online browsing. Whether it is an online store for Target or the classified ads on a news website, I like to browse. I have also discovered that if I do my price comparisons online, than I save the travel time going to the different stores to make the comparisons. I have been able to save a lot of time and money with the internet.

Shopping with children can be interesting at times. When we go to a store that has a "car" cart, Benjamin insists on riding in one. The children have busy hands that like to reach out and touch things, sometimes for things we need although mostly for things we don't. Bekah loves to smile at people and Benjamin will ask complete strangers what their names are and what they are doing. I find myself trying to remember the three things I came in the store for while pushing a cart and carrying on a conversations about why this and why that with an inquisitive three year old. We also come prepared with snacks and drinks so that the children will not have the opportunity to ask Mom to buy things that were not on her list.

Children also limit the number of stores that are comfortable to go to because of getting in and out of the carseats. I think that strip malls were invented for mothers because you have a variety of stores that are close to each other that do not require getting in and out of the car multiple times. Our children have been very good sports with all of the shopping we have been doing lately. They even enjoy shopping more when Mom buys them something simple at the end of the shopping trip (usually candy or something from the dollar isle.)

Shopping seems to be what we work all day long to do. We can shop at the grocery store, the clothing store, the hardware store, the office supply store, etc. to buy all those things we think we need to make our lives easier or more beautiful. What would we do without shopping? We would have to produce everything ourselves. So instead of spending all day working for someone else, we would spend all day working for ourselves. I am certainly glad that I don't have to make everything for my family. I find enough challenges in trying to clothe, feed, and clean our family and home on a daily basis. It is fun to learn how to make and do new things, but I am certainly grateful for the variety of stores available that provide the things I do not have the time to create myself.

I like to shop, what more can I say.

Updates

Moving:

I am down to four boxes half filled with miscellaneous stuff, two boxes of pictures and decor, and making curtains for the back door. Not bad for having been in the house full time for a little over a week and having company for four days. The painting, packing, and heavy duty cleaning are all done. Now we are down to the everyday messes and life going on as usual. Hooray for being done with our move!

Gardening:

I need to take some more pictures of how the garden is growing. The pumpkins and weeds are taking over because weeding has been sadly neglected with all of the moving that we have been doing the last couple of weeks. We have been eating onions, spinach, lettuce, and zucchini. (If anyone has some good zucchini recipes, let me know!) A few peas grew but the birds ate most of my seeds and we didn't get much. Hopefully, we will have cucumbers, corn, potatoes, watermelon, and bell peppers before the summer is over. The tomatoes and pumpkins are growing great! We spent a couple of hours over at the garden tonight watering and weeding. I would say that we got caught up on about 1/5 of it. I am grateful that we get to keep our garden even though we live across town.

Bekah:

Our little girl crawls proficiently up and down the stairs, but still insists on scooting across the room on her bum. Her vocabulary is growing to include words like "brover" and "g'n'pa" and "see that." She loves to play in the water: bath tub, pool, sprinklers, you name it. Her smile and laughter brighten our house every day. It is a joy to watch her play with and tease her brother. Today Bekah learned how to open the bottom of the entertainment center where we keep the VHSs and started resorting those for me like she does the DVDs every day. We are grateful to have her as a part of our family.

Benjamin:

Our son tells us that he is growing big "like a giant." He likes to watch this show called Word World where everything is made up of words, even the characters. One day the ant wanted to be a 'gi'ant and so they added the letters g and i to ant and the ant became very large. So now Benjamin thinks that in order to be big you have to be a gi-ant. His vocabulary is expanding as well, not so much in words as in phrases. Mom is having to watch what she says because Benjamin is starting to mimick her by saying "You've got to be kidding me!" or "That's wonderful!" or "You say d*** it when you are mad." Oops! Kids are too smart for their own good. (I am working on curbing that habit. I now know why our parents and leaders try to encourage us not to start bad habits because they are extremely hard to overcome once they become a part of your life. I have been trying to stop swearing for a decade now and do good most of the time.) He is a great helper and is learning to help himself. Benjamin's greatest accomplishment of late is learning to dress himself. He still needs lots of encouragement and a little supervision, but he does a great job of doing it by himself correctly.

Michael:

My husband is still as wonderful as ever. We butt heads every so often (a lot lately because of the moving stress) but that is because we are individuals not clones and we both have strong opinions and distinct ways of doing things. He is thoroughly enjoying his job and his work environmeny except for when I'm gone too long during naptime and the kids wake up. He has been a good sport about watching the kids while I did a lot of cleaning and moving.

Charlynn:

I have been busy with sifting and sorting, gardening and moving, trying to maintain some normalcy in the midst of chaos, and continuing to work on my other challenges. I spend a fair amount of time blogging and attempting to read. I even squeeze in time to myself once in a while and need to do so more often. After this last month, I think I am ready for a break. What that means I'm not exactly sure beyond sitting around doing nothing with no one demanding my time and attention every five minutes or so. I make a mental list of what I accomplished each day so that I don't concentrate on my to-do list so much. If the mental list isn't working than I try the pencil and paper method. That definitely helps me focus on the positive.Life is continuing to move forward.

I think that about covers it for now. We are still learning and growing each and every day.

Library Story Time

Our library has a great story time program. They have story time 4 times a day, 4 days a week. Each session they read three or four stories and have two or three activities, which is great for young children who have a hard time sitting still. Every week the children are sent home with homework, and Benjamin feels like he is going to school. Homework usually consists of a simple craft or coloring page to do at home. We love the library and are grateful for all the work these women put into making story time an enjoyable reality for the children.

Playing a musical instrument and parading around the library.

His latest homework assignment: a caterpillar hat.

Before and After: Benjamin's Room

Benjamin insisted that he wanted his own room in the new house. Since one room was already painted a pastel green we opted to give him the "white" room. We also decided to paint it and have Benjamin help us pick out the colors. He said that he wanted dark blue in his room. We compromised on that and painted the base boards dark blue and the walls a light blue green (more blue than green).

I tried really hard to get pictures of his room clean, but he is so talented at enjoying his room this was as clean as it got. We need to hang pictures on the wall, but since we have only been here for about 10 days I'd say we are doing pretty good. Benjamin even has a little reading corner in his room. The green crate is his bookshelf and he likes to sit in his Elmo chair and look at his books. Painting was more work than I thought it would be, but the result was definitely worth it.

I found my camera cord!

I finally located my camera and my camera cord. Hooray! I am now back to doing some independent picture taking as well as using my husband's pictures. This is a picture of our children eating cookies in our old house. In case the background isn't explicit enough, this was while we were preparing to move and that is why everything is empty and messy. My children love to eat cookies and Benjamin is really good and helping to make cookies too.

The Playground

I was told yesterday that one has to have a certain amount of self obsession to blog often. Someone else commented that it is a certain amount of child obsession that creates the desire to blog often. That would probably be partially right on both counts. I blog because I like to share my life with those around me, and I don't always have someone to call to share something fun or funny that happened during my day (especially at 11 p.m.). I am also an organizer and blogging helps me organize my thoughts and pictures in a way that makes sense to me. Thus, the multiple posts today.

We had a lot of fun at our picnic with some of Michael's family last night. It was nice to be outside and have a chance to walk, play, and visit with family. The kids loved playing in the water and at the playground. The parents even got in on the action (I came home soaking wet because Bekah wanted to play in the water, but still needs help because she can't walk.) Michael brought his camera along so we got a lot of pictures of everybody. He was even nice to share his camera with his sisters, brother-in-law, and brother-in-law to be which was great because I actually got pictures of him this time. Thanks, Honey!

Chasing the Birds

At the park Benjamin had fun chasing the seagulls and ducks whenever they got close to our picnic table. Thus, we don't have any pictures of the seagulls. We did determine that seagulls don't like carrots or cherry pits and are not very agressive. (Thankfully there were no geese around because they would have done more chasing than being chased.) Benjamin even had his arms out like wings to make the birds fly away. He thought it was great fun and he did a great job of staying close to Mom and Dad while waiting for the birds to come back.

I got 'em all! Do you think they will be back soon?

Victoria, Roger & girls

Victoria & Roger came down to the picnic with their girls. After the picnic we went to the playground so the children could play on the swings and in the water. We were glad that everyone could make it.

Wait, Mom. I wanted that. - McKayla

McKayla wasn't a big fan of the spraying water.

Roger was playing in the water with his girls.

McKynzie liked the water better when she had her swimsuit on.

But the wet water sure made the children cold in the evening breeze.

McKayla has bright blue eyes!

Grandpa holding Kynzie

Scott & Alisabeth

Michael sister Alisabeth is getting married next month, and we are excited for her! Yesterday we were able to spend some time with them at a family picnic, and everyone took turns using Michael's camera. Alisabeth took the pictures of Scott (her fiance) and Scott took the pictures of Alisabeth. I think Michael took the pictures of everyone sitting on the bench. Anyway, here are some pictures of the new couple.



Getting a bird's eye view of the playground.

Were you looking at me?

Visiting with Victoria & Grandpa Bruce

Our View

No, I haven't found my camera cord exactly. I stole these pictures off of Michael's computer because his second wife is his camera and his third wife is his laptop. Meaning, Michael keeps better track of his electronics than his wife does hers because of his job and so he was able to take pictures and download them to his computer. Here are some of the views around our house.

This is the south side of the house and the backyard is very similar, except you get to see a lot more of the powerlines.

Here is our street view. You can see the mountains in the distance and the stake center across the street. We live in a quiet, newer neighborhood with several young families.

Curly Hair

We waited and waited for Bekah's hair to get long. Here is a picture of her on Christmas morning when she is 8 months old. Check out how short her hair is!


Since about March her hair is getting more and more curly and voluminous every day. Below is a picture of her on the 4th of July when she is almost 15 months old. Check out all that curly hair! She has a score of tiny curls across the back of her head that look gorgeous when combed just right. Bekah has such beautiful, soft hair that it just tickles me to play with it every day.


The one down side to curly hair is that Bekah often looks like she has permanent "bed-head" every day because of naps and curly hair that wants to do its own thing. The up side is that she usually cooperates when I try to put her hair in a top pony tail or just comb it out for the day. We'll see how long that lasts. :D

Where's my camera cord?

I'm not sure where my camera cord got put. I take cute pictures, look through a few boxes, and decide that I will post pictures after we are all unpacked and I have a specific place for my downloading cord and I can remember exactly where it is. Until then, I will keep finding funny pictures online to go with my posts.

My kids are still being as adventurous and cute as ever.

Last night at dinner Benjamin was a bunny while eating carrots and a lion while eating his chicken. We didn't know we had invited animals to the dinner table but if it helps him eat the one meal a day he struggles with, so be it!

Bekah's vocabulary is expanding dramatically. She says see, I did it, please, brother, and a variety of other unintelligible words. She loves to talk and she even folds her arms for prayers once in a while. We love our bright and beautiful children.

Donations or Vampires?

Since I have been able to donate blood again, I try to do so as often as possible. Then, the other day I got a phone call asking me to participate in an upcoming donation. I was pleasantly surprised to be personally informed of such an opportunity, but I couldn't recall them calling people to donate before. The thought came to mind, "Are they really vampires just pretending to collect donations?" Not really, I think what the Red Cross does is amazing and I am grateful for the blood donations that save lives. I look forward to this opportunity to do waht I can for someone else.

In Need of Sleep

After an exhausting week, we are down to unpacking, organizing, and cleaning our rental. All of the heavy lifting is over with and all of the packing is done. I am thankful to have all of our stuff in one place now instead of trying to remember what I have at the other house. However, the long hours and heat are getting to me (Mostly, the heat. It seems to zap the energy right out of me as soon as a I step outside.) and I need some sleep. Do you think my kids will give me a break and let me catch up on som Z's? Not likely, but such is the life of a mom. Maybe I will have to settle for some time with a good book during nap time. Hmmmm...........

A Poem about Being Inbetween

In the process of moving, it feels like we are definitely inbetween. I remembered once reading a poem about being "neither here nor there" and found this one on the web. For those of who wonder how I find the time to blog during the moving process, just think of is as my five minutes of sanity amidst the chaos and it gives me something to focus on besides cleaning, packing, unpacking, etc.

NEITHER HERE NOR THERE
by Martin Maloney
If you are neither here nor there

you must be nowhere.

You can't be somewhere, since

somewhere is part of everywhere

which is both there and here;

and as you are neither there nor here

you cannot be somewhere.

But neither can you be nowhere

since you must always be somewhere

and somewhere between here and there.

But if you are neither here nor there

but somewhere, then somewhere must be

nowhere

between here and there;

Thus, somewhere must be everywhere

between here and there; and nowhere

Is between here and there, so

somewhere is everywhere and nowhere

But that's neither here nor there

What Makes our House a Home

Through the course of moving we have discovered the top ten things (in no particular order) that make our house a home.

1. Love & the Holy Ghost (a peaceful and welcoming spirit)
2. Being comfortable enough to explore without permission
3. Crumbs on the kitchen floor
4. Pictures
5. Ice Cream
6. A mess in at least one room
7. Personal Touches (decor)
8. One pile to be sorted
9. One clean corner
10. Laughter.

Thus, our new house is already a home even though we are still in the prcoess of moving in because we always have these things even when we are unpacked. What are the top ten things that make your house a home?

My Life in a Graph

I received this email from a friend a while ago. Today this is how I feel.

Life is Good

Today I don't have pictures to go with my post. This is one of Michael's pictures of the flowers growing in our yard. He is so good at taking pictures.

Yesterday I had my monthly therapist appointment. We talked about the progress I have made and the things I still need to work on. I have learned a lot about my patterns of thinking, letting other people handle their own problems instead of trying to do it for them, not allowing myself to feel guilty for other people's behaviors and choices, tackling things now instead of procrastinating (I am still working on this one every day), and clearing my head to sleep better at night. I still have a ways to go, but it feels great to finally be on the mend.

Moving is coming slowly but surely. It is so nice to be able to move and unpack a little bit at a time instead of doing a huge pack and dump like in the past. I will feel like I am moving into a house instead of from one mess to another. I will be glad when this is all over and I only have one house and yard to take care of instead of two. It is exhausting trying to take care of two houses at the same time.

Life is good. It is nice to feel tired from a day of hard physical labor. The children are learning new things and getting along well. They have their sibling rivalry moments but they seem to enjoy each other's company most of the time. I am grateful for the many blessings we have experienced in our life. Life is good.

Puzzled Picture

Occassionally, Michael and I do puzzles together for our date night. We got this 1000 piece puzzle a few months ago and it took 2 or three days to put together. We liked it so much that we decided to frame it. However, it has taken us a few months to find a frame to do it justice. So the puzzle has been sitting on piece of cardbaord under our bed, all put together because we didn't want to have to put it together again when we found the right frame.

A couple of days ago we found the right frame and some puzzle glue so that we could frame the puzzle. It only took about an hour to glue the puzzle together and frame it. We will probably take at least that long to figure out where to hang it and get it on the wall.

Unpacking

Today we started the process of moving in to our new house. The children helped me unpack the kitchen dishes and decided that the packing materials were as much fun as leaves in autumn time.

Benjamin counted the bathrooms twice, told us what color he wanted to paint his room, and helped unpack his toys in his closet. Bekah discovered she could crawl up and down the stairs safely and that the vacuum wasn't so scary when Mom was holding you while she vacuumed. Mom got a lot of cleaning, decorating and unpacking done. Tomorrow will be more of the same.

Inside the Cave

The Heart of Timpanogos

The Salt & Pepper Shakers

River of Carmel

Cave Bacon (according to the tour guide)

These look like frozen jelly fish.