There are Reasons...

First off , to the two people who read my blog, I'm sorry I haven't posted in FOREVER. There are reasons.

#1: I cut my hair. Not just a little. A lot. It really freaked me out and first and I felt truely ugly. But, now I'm okay with it. Sort of....

#2: We spent Christmas at an awesome farmhouse on the Key Peninsula in northern Washington and there was NO internet. It was nice and relaxing for the first few days and then I starting wondering what was going on outside my little bubble of awesome-ness....

So enough excuses, lets get to the pictures, right?! Props to my brother Erik for the pictures, he does a great job with kids and making them smile with his fart noises. :) Love it. Evie and Erik's little girl Kali were BFF's on this trip. They are about 4 months apart in age and are so cute together. They would literally hide out in closets tells "secrets" and having girl time. It was cute, but scary at times because sometimes we couldn't find them, one time even involved them getting into some deep mud out in the field and Aunt Angela having to rescue Evie from being stuck out there. BUT good times. They are thick as theives now. :)

Pearls of Wisdom from the Pot

I stumbled into this conversation as I passed the bathroom. Ethan was on the pot and Evie was "washing her hands", aka playing with the water. Ethan was doling out the wisdom. It went something like this.

" Teenage boys say,'Random', 'Awkward', and 'Lamesville'

"Teenage girls say, 'Twilight', 'Edward', 'tea party' and 'Baby' (huh???)

"Mom's say, 'Clean your room!'

"Dad's say, 'You're not getting anything for Christmas!'

Etc. Etc. Etc.

It was really precious. (Insert eye roll here)

It's always nice to see what the kids pick up even when you tell them a million times a day that you love them and shower them with kisses and whatnot, but the things they pick up on are the negative. Its too bad really...

Just a Glimpse into Parenthood

I didn't want to give away all the details of this gem of a story with the title, so here goes. My mom's parents live in Salt Lake so we have been fortunate to get to know them better. You see, growing up in Alaska we didn't get to see much of our grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, anybody, really. And some of the only memories I have of my grandparents are limited to sharing them with my 9 siblings. Didn't leave much time for bonding or anything like that. SO, this has been good to live by them. I've been trying to visit them every two weeks.

Which brings me to yesterday. We stopped at their house for lunch before we went to clean the office. My grandma is always so sweet and leaves a little Dixie cup with a cookie and a carrot stick and usually some other little sweet and the kids LOVE it. On the menu were hot dogs/turkey noodle soup/pizza. I chose turkey noodle soup along with my grandparents and Bucky and the kids had hot dogs.

Ethan finished fairly quickly with his hot dog and wanted another one. Okay, I thought. Then after lunch we had our choice or ice cream cones/cookies/banana cream pie/ dream-y orange jell-o stuff. So the kids had an ice cream cone and Evie had a cookie half way through. I didn't think anything of it because they hardly ever get sweets at our house ( I'm not mean, just not that good of a baker).

So we say our goodbyes after a rousing game of Pig Sty ( a game the kids like to play with these miniature pigs that you toss and get points for) and get in the car to clean the office. While we are
there Ethan starts complaining that his stomach hurts. So he lays on the couch and moans. Yes, I have a moaner. :) We finish up the office and decide that we are going to go get massages from the massage school that we went to. But, we don't have anyone else to watch the kids in downtown Salt Lake EXCEPT my grandparents. I give them a call and they accept. See, they're great! But after we get done with our massages I go in to get the kids and Bucky's illegally parked out front. When I get there Ethan announces that he PUKED in grandma's bathroom.

What?! Uhhhh. "I am so sorry grandma!" She tells me it's okay because he's feeling so much better now. The kids spare no details as they tell me about how grandma had to scoop it out of the sink with a cup and the color and BLAH BLAH BLAH. They don't seem to mind the fact that it so so gross, because THEY ARE KIDS.

*Parents of young children: prepare yourself mentally for the time when this will happen. Don't be naive and think that it won't. IT WILL. It's just a matter of when.

We get in the car and there is horrible traffic on the way home. They have the freeway down to one lane of traffic. We are stopped when Ethan announces that he has to puke again. I give him a double lined bag and he makes it into the bag the first time but misses with the second heave. Dude. I'm dry heaving in the front and rolling down the window trying to get the smell out and we are stuck in traffic. Luckily we were right next to the exit that we used to live on. I called my old neighbor Julie and luckily she was home! We cleaned up and were on our way. This time we were prepared because we got one of those gigantic re-fillable drink cups and an old towel. Julie: you are a saint! He puked one more time on the way home and went right to bed.

This morning he is fine. But, it begs the question... When is your little angel going to blow chunks all over your car? :) Have a good day!

Who Was Right?

Well, Shannon was right. It was a raccoon! I couldn't think of what on earth it was!

Evie continued with her clues and said,"And it has sharp teeth. Remember when this animal got into our trash."

I was feeling a little dense.

"A goat!"

" Mom, those don't climb trees!"

"Alright I give up."

Schooled by a four year old. Face.

Riddle Me This...

So in our car sometimes we play this game called "What animal am I thinking of?". It's a nail biter let me just tell you. Bucky and I try to stump each other sometimes because we get tired of the horse/cow/dog answers, so we do newt/vampire bat/ emu ect. ect. But this morning Evie had me, she asked, "What is black, grey, and white; climbs trees and eats marshmallows."

Uhhhhhh.

Panda?

No.

Koala??

No.

MOUSE????

No.

Evie, is this a real animal?

Yes!

Anyone? I was stumped...Guess away and I'll post later what it is. It's a good one.

A Surprise Visit from Santa

We got a surprise visit from Santa tonight, as you can tell, the kids were just a LITTLE excited.

Did you happen to catch...

Did anyone happen to catch Oprah yesterday? I'm normally not one to watch the TV billionaire, but yesterday's show was life changing. Really. The premise of the show was about how many woman are raped/enslaved into brothels/die from pregnancy related health issues every year. A woman dies from pregnancy and labor every minute—the equivalent of five jumbo jets of women dying every day. It was astounding to me. Not just as a mother, but as a woman!More woman have died from pregnancy/rape complications than men have died in all the wars in our century.

I guess it hit me hard because I was stressing about what I was going to buy for Christmas for everyone and then I see these woman who have NOTHING. And not just nothing, but being raped, stolen from their homes to be used in brothels, and being outcast from their communities because they've been raped. It just doesn't register to me that that mindset is prevalent in other parts of the world.

The thing that gives me comfort is that there is something you can do. Something I can do. I can donate minute amounts of money for education, micro loans, and birthing kits. Things that we in this country take for granted and bitch about on a daily basis ( my kids' school isn't great, Our health care system sucks, I'm broke, etc. etc. etc.). But we do live in such a prosperous country. And it really is a land of opportunity, even if it is a $7 an hour job, it's something. Check out this short video to get the point of the passion.