A Jumble Of Thoughts

*Yesterday Abygail and I were in the living room reading and I could hear Jackson playing with the magnets on the fridge. I knew there was nothing that could harm him where he was so I finished reading with Abygail. Afterwards I decided to go in the kitchen and get Aby and myself a snack. Jackson was not in the kitchen! I checked the library - he wasn't there either. I knew he wasn't in the living room/dining room because I had just come from that direction. To my horror and astonishment I looked up and he was 7 STEPS UP THE STAIR WAY!!!!!

I was so panicked, I wanted to get a picture but I didn't want him to fall while I was scrambling for the camera. By this time he was twisting around to see me and Abygail (who by this time had climbed up beside him). Well, I got a picture and then quickly scooped him off the stairs. He had chased one of the magnetic letters from Abygail's Fridge Phonics game up the stairs. Time to put up some barriers :o(
*On another note, I was actually surprised by the 'bring your own bag?' survey. I was really excited to see that more than half of those that participated either already brought their own bags to the store or were going to. YOU GO PEOPLE!!!

We now own 4 bags. I've been buying them as I need them. If I don't have enough when I go shopping than I just buy however many more I need so that I don't have to use the plastic bags. (There is a plastic bag hanging in a tree across the street, it was blown up there yesterday during the high winds. I hope the neighbors will be able to get it down, it's pretty far up there.)

*The book club I attend met on Tuesday night. It was so much fun to get out and chit chat with the ladies. This month we read The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. We met at Diana's house and she made pumpkin soup and some of us enjoyed fake 'bush' tea (I wasn't in the mood for herbal tea so I passed on that one but the soup was yummy) - they refered to pumpkin soup and bush tea in the book. (see my new book review on the side bar)

*We are glad that the city left us the stump of our tree. We are going to try and haul it to the back yard and make a bench out of it and then put it in a sitting area or something. I'll have to make a mental note to update the blog with whatever comes of it.

I guess that's all the updates for now. Happy Thursday!!!

Before And After

This is what the front of the house looked like before
This is what the view looking out of the house is after

Here's a short video of the clean up not even an hour after my post yesterday. The city came and cleared it up. Now we just have to figure out what to do with the large stump.

Our Tree

This morning at 3am it was 50+ degrees outside. It is now 19 degrees and the temp is still falling. I noticed that the windows in our bedroom were completely frozen over when I woke up this morning. When I raised the blinds in our living room (as I do every morning) I was shocked.

This is what I saw:
The wind gusts are up to 50 miles per hour!!!

We are so grateful it did not fall on the house, the neighbors cars or the street.

Potty Training

For the last few days Abygail has not wanted to wear anything, including her diaper. So, we've dabbled a little in potty training. So far it's not worked but I think she's becoming more aware. She has gone pee-pee on the potty once, poo-poo on the floor twice and pee-pee on the floor twice. I guess we should get more serious about it because she is showing signs of interest. She'll sit on the potty, she just doesn't like to DO anything while she's on it.

I just know that soon enough she'll be a big girl and although I'm tired of changing so many diapers I really don't want her to grow up!!!

**UPDATE** She went poo-poo on the potty tonight! Ya Abygail!!!

Winter Weather

This post is for my family back in Texas and other parts of the country that don't get to experience all four seasons, but it is especially for Alicia who posted a picture of her kids playing on the swingset in their backyard wearing only socks, jeans, and shirts. Seeing the picture made me pause at the stark contrast to the weather we have been enjoying. I don't have pictures of Abygail's random tracks in the snow, nor do I have pictures of Amber's snow angel, my shoveling snow to clear the drive and sidewalks, or Jackson buried under coat, hats, and blankets galore in his car-seat, but thinking I wanted to share our winter weather (which I do so enjoy), I did take a couple pictures this morning looking through windows in our house. The first is of our backyard through the library window, and the second is of our front yard through our living room window.

We Are...

Some of you voted in a poll awhile back about whether we would get pregnant when we moved. History: When we moved to Rexburg I got pregnant within a week. When we moved to Buffalo I also got pregnant within a week of moving in. Both times we were not trying but it just happened. (Well, sort of, we DO know how babies are made and it was not spontaneous combustion!)

Since moving in I've started having lots of signs that only added up to one thing, so we took a test. We were both very surprised that it came out negative. We still didn't believe it...until now, we are not pregnant so the 3 of you (2 of you 1 of me) that voted NO, well pat yourselves on the back because you were right.

Just to avoid future inquiries, no, we are not trying but - that's never stopped my body in the past.

Gardening

I am really getting excited for my garden this year. One of our goals for buying the house was to plant a garden where we can grow some of our own food and work with the kids out in the yard. I know, I know...it's still winter and the ground is COVERED in snow, but...my seed catalogs are coming in and I can't help but get excited.

Over at Food Shed Planet they are having a Victory Garden Drive and this has really excited me. Also I have found a companion gardener online, which will be so much fun.

Well, that's all for now. I better get back to cleaning and perusing my seed catalogs. Go Victory!

This And That

the entry way to our kitchen (never mind me - yucky WARM sweats)

our dining room that is being used for a playroom (and diaper changing room) until the basement is finished (it has to be started first)

Well, I've been putting off making a post for a little while now. So it seems like a perfect time to get caught up on life in the new digs. This may be a long post so I'll warn you now, I'm going to write about the night time, the house, transportation, NoWaste and snow. You can read all the sections or just one. Have fun!

Night Time:
I think the correct title would be "The fiery pits of hell". The first week after we moved in was fine but Abygail has just gotten worse and worse since then. Bed time was good at first too, she would walk up the stairs and happily climb into her bed. Now it's kicking and screaming the whole way and "hold you, hold you" (instead of "hold me" which is what she really means) and at the slightest movement she wakes up and screams, thrashes around and bangs her head repeatedly on the floor or the walls. It truly feels like torture. I'm sure she thinks we are torturing her, we feel tortured by her, Jason feels tortured by me and I feel tortured in return as well. What a sad state of the nights! We are all just at our wits ends and don't even know what to do or where to start to make things right again.

The House:
As I'm sure I've mentioned in previous posts that the house is pretty filthy. Yesterday I started cleaning the windows. I got one window done in about an hour to an hour and a half - and that was just the inside of a small window. I truly love our beautiful big windows, I'll just have to pace myself and do one window at a time. We still have lots of work to do, but in the end it will be totally worth it!

Transportation:
We've worked it out that Jason will take the bus to and from school. He rides to South Campus where he then gets there he switches from the city bus to the school bus and rides over to North Campus. Most of his class/lab work is on North Campus but he does have one class on South Campus. I think he's enjoying riding the bus, he calls it his "contribution to the environment". He rode the bus almost everyday when we lived in Provo so this is nothing new to him, it's nice to live in a city where public transportation is available. Now if they would only offer a student discount (or better yet, students ride free like Provo). This month we'll be able to tell how much it will impact our overall budget and our gas budget, I think I change it to just transportation budget!

NoWaste:
Well, I think the verdict is in, we are the biggest wasting family in all of America. Actually we did ok (not fabulous, but ok) until the last day of the challenge. We forgot to put our left overs from dinner away that night and well, there were a lot of left overs. It was an eye opener and I still look at our meals, and our left overs and think, how can I reduce our food waste. I think about food in a new way now and that's exciting and good.

Snow:
Yesterday Abygail and I went in the backyard and played. It was so much fun. It was also bitter cold so we were not out for long. I did try to dance in the snow a little instead of walking straight but it wasn't something that came natural...o to be young and innocent again!

Jackson Milestones:
The following was set to be posted on the 14th of this month:
Last week Jackson's first tooth finally cut. He's got one little sharp tooth now!
Yesterday I noticed he was cruising the furniture and toy box - this kid is unstoppable!

He now loves crawling everywhere and finding new rooms to explore as well as cruising a little. He's bit me a few times and because of that and my 'problems' with the cold weather we are trying to switch him over to formula. Sunday he took 2 ounces - yea!

Jackson LOVES peas, don't you agree?!

A Bee Line

This morning I awoke to a snow covered lawn. I promptly declared "SNOW DAY"! We really didn't do much of anything, just another regular day in our house.

One thing did happen of note today:

While Jason shoveled the drive and walk Abygail played in the snow. I watched from our lovely large windows in the living room and dining room. As I watched I noticed the difference in the paths she left in the snow and the paths that Jason left. Abygail's were the paths of a busy bee round and round, here and there - no preplanned course, just having fun. Jason's were straight, direct and from here to there.

Words cannot do justice to how much this really struck me at the time and even now. The path of the child (in this case, Abygail) is free and unencumbered by the lessons and heartbreaks of life. It's unmeasured in time. It's unrestricted by self doubt or preconceived limits. It's unmarred by defeats and failures. It's free to take on a life of it's own, to be creative and enjoy the newness of it's surroundings.

I hope that I can remember this the next time I play in the snow. Instead walking straight from point "a" to point "b" let's dance the path in between!

My Mantra

"Better Today Than I Was Yesterday"

This is a mantra I've repeated to myself several times (sometimes more than once a day) for a few weeks. We had a lesson at church a few weeks ago, becoming more like Christ, and I had a thought which I shared at the time and have held on to since. The thought: 'we aren't asked to be the BEST right now, we are asked to be better than we were yesterday'. At least that's my take on the council we've been receiving from The Prophet for several years now, "be a little better, do a little more".

This is something I have to keep reminding myself of because I am my biggest critic and worst judge, often I think 'If I can't be the best right now than why even try'. That way of thinking is just wrong, we only become the best by trying everyday and making goals to be better today than we were yesterday.

(this is in my head because I was chanting it to myself last night when I was doing dishes that I had left over from the night before. I was tired and didn't really want to do them but...better today than I was yesterday got me through - at least most of them)

My First Bag

I know, this is another environment post. Well, this is a journal of our family and the things that matter to us. So as things happen or thoughts hit me I'll share them. There's no preaching here, just sharing. If you don't like it, don't read it!

Last night I went to the grocery store and bought my first canvas bag! I have been tempted on other trips to buy one but haven't had the $ to do so. I decided to just buy one last night with my monthly allowance money so I would be able to pay cash for it.

It was so exhilarating to start one of my New Years goals. It's a really good bag too, it is structured much like a paper bag and holds it's shape well - AND IT WAS ONLY .99 CENTS!!! (1.08 with tax). I am excited to have the goal to buy one bag each time I go to the store. Jason says I should just buy 10 or 15 bags right now, and I know that's what would be best for the environment but, I like the idea of WORKING towards completing my goal and SACRIFICING my allowance money. It makes it more personal. Am I being dumb? Should I just bite the bullet and buy all the bags now? I'd like to know what others think but honestly, I think I'll still stick to my plan of action.

Another thought, I could make it a hodge podge collection! As I see different bags available in different stores I can buy a new bag, that way they aren't all the same - how fun! We'll see how that goes, I don't want to spend a lot of money on this but I do want to make a difference.

Thinking It Over

Two of the blogs that I frequent are running challenges right now. I really enjoy the different challenges because they are helping me to really think about things differently than before.

The Crunchy Chicken is running a month long No Waste challenge. As I ate dinner this evening and served my family (especially the little ones) I really thought about how much food I was putting on the plate and trying to not over serve them. This week we are to collect all our wasted food and weigh it at the end of the week. I'm keeping ours in a zip lock bag and so far it's not too much (but who's to say what's too much). I've noticed that normally I throw lots more away so I think this is helping me to really think about our food consumption and food waste.

Another challenge is at Chile Chews. The challenge:

Presenting my very first challenge. Reduce-Reuse-Recycle: Rethink it! The purpose of this challenge is to help you reduce your consumption, expenses, and garbage by getting you to think about every aspect of the recycling logo. Break out of old habits and find new ways to reduce your consumption, reuse what you can in creative ways, and recycle everything else.

Can something I am consuming be used/recycled in a new creative way? This is what I was thinking about as I threw away the packaging from Abygail's snack of blueberries and cheese. "How can I reuse these containers/packaging?" I thought to myself. Well, I didn't come up with anything, but the point is I'm trying to think of things in a new and creative way. What I did realize is that if I made my own cheese, which I hear is easy to do, and grow my own fruits and veggies there is no packaging/containers from the store to worry about.

Along those same lines, on Sunday I made chile. It was a super simple chile that consisted of 2 cans of beans, 2 cans diced chile style tomatoes, 1 can of rotelle tomatoes, 1 can of tomato sauce, mexican seasonings, cumin and 3/4 lbs of ground beef (I always buy the ground meat in the large size, which usually equals out to be 5 1/2 lbs, and then section it into 6 portions for later use). I realized that if I had my own garden (when I have my own garden) I could have (can) make this meal with my own canned tomatoes, beans and spices and only have to buy some spices and meat, if I still chose to use it. What a money saver that could (will) be!

Anyway, those are just my thoughts, enjoy.

Today

Jason started school today. Although I'm sad to not have him around all the time I am looking forward to getting the kids back to a more regular schedule. His earliest class starts at 11am and his latest class gets out at 5pm. Yes, this may sound like a dream but I assure you it will keep him more than busy. We are trying to figure out his transportation so that I can have the car more. We've figured out the bus route, which if used 3 days a week (his classes are Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, a seminar on Thursday and he'll audit a class on Tuesdays, but 3 days is a conservative estimate) twice a day than it would cost about $50 a month - which is our total gas budget!!! So we are looking at some other options too, I'll let you know what we figure out.

We slept late today. Our bedrooms are all facing North and they stay dark even after the sun comes up - this might be good for some people, but not for us. We are too much of a sleepy head family as it is. I guess we'll have to start setting the alarm.

I had a Relief Society meeting this morning so I dropped Jason off at school and then we went over to Alaska's house. Abygail had fun playing with her kids. After we got home we did some finger painting at Abygail's request (she knew exactly where the supplies were) and then she got a bath. You can tell from the picture that she hasn't quite understood that paint is for the paper on not for the face. SO FUNNY to watch!

Now it's nap time and it's snowing outside - so beautiful.. I hope we have just as much fun the rest of the day as we have so far. (and I hope Abygail will forgive me one day for making her cry herself to sleep all alone in her room. New schedule, new routine, right?!)

Bits & Pieces Part 4

WARNING: VIDEO MAY INDUCE UNCONTROLLABLE LAUGHTER. VIEW AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Yes, her hair is always sticking up in back (she likes to rub her food in it).

Bits & Pieces Part 3

Peek A Boo Jackson

Bits & Pieces Part 2

Bits and Pieces Part 1

We're Back!

Well, we are finally back online. Here are a few things to keep you busy until I get a chance to put up a better post. Enjoy!

Abygail likes her backyard

Jason trying to kill himself on an old wooden ladder - Amber made him go and buy the cool orange one in the background. What you can't tell is that the ladder is propped up against one of the rafters of the garage's roof, and bouncing too!

Jackson climbing

Ringing Out The Old And Ringing In The New

With the move it seems like Christmas and New Years happened months and months ago. They were both fairly uneventful and we didn't do as much with the kids (teaching them about traditions and explaining the holidays to them) as we could/should have. Here are just a few highlights. (I wrote part of this several days ago so if it seems disjointed, well-it probably is and I'm just too tired to fix it. Keep your fingers crossed that the blog gets back to normal as the days progress)

Ringing Out The Old

It was a bitter sweet move, saying good bye to the apartment was fast and unorganized. Usually we are pretty organized in our moves and are able to pack in just a few days. This move was a whole different animal. The day after Christmas we packed up our decorations and started packing a little. Let’s just say that on Friday the 28^th at 3 pm we closed on the house and I think we had a total of 8 boxes packed, Jason stayed up all night packing and got the majority of it done by morning. A few guys from our church came over Saturday morning to help Jason at 9 am, while the kids and I went over to our new neighbor’s house to play. At noon Jason called it quits for a break and sent the guys home. At 3pm he started again, packing bringing stuff over to the house. I believe he finished around 4am. Monday we moved the last of the stuff and were glad to say good bye to the old place. That was the oldest apartment we’ve lived in but I have to say that the management and maintenance staff were better than any other place we’ve lived. We’ll certainly miss having a handyman to fix things with just a phone call and a weekly scheduled lawn maintenance as well as morning strolls from the staff to pick up all the random trash on the grounds. I’ll also miss all their bright faces and greetings of “good morning” every morning we met.

We also said good bye to a few bad habits, like having Abygail in the bed with us. More news on the NEW STATE OF THE NIGHTS to come.

Ringing In The New

Along with the New Year we are now enjoying MUCH, MUCH more space. I am acclimating myself to the small kitchen (it’s bigger than the old one but still too small for more than one person to occupy at one time). Upstairs we have a HUGE master bedroom, with a tiny nursery next door, a large storage closet in the attic and a space just for Darwin (the cat). Downstairs is our kitchen, breakfast nook, dinning room, library, large living room and mud room. Our car was finally able to spend it’s first night in the garage on Friday (the 4^th). In the basement we have a workshop, laundry room, storage room and a future play room once we finish cleaning and complete some repairs.

On the third night after move in we finally had all the beds in their proper rooms and set up. That night Abygail slept in her bed, it was a very rough night but we all made it through. It’s been hit and miss since then, never making it through a whole night with out waking up but she’s stayed in her bed until morning. It’s nice to have the extra room in our bed. (any guesses on how long it will take us to get pregnant? it also seems that it's in the water around here, while disconnected for a week and a half I am reading blogs and finding out the two of our friends here in Buffalo have announced they are prego!)

Jackson is no longer just pulling up to things, he has figured out how to get back down and he’s just getting everywhere. It’s just a little bundle of joy. He loves to laugh and smile all the time. He also climbed up two stairs so far. (we’ve got to get some gates up on those!) Abygail fell half way down the stairs on the first day. We’ve set up some rules for the stairs but they are still a big temptation for her.

Plans for the future/Wish list:

• Replacing all the insulation (well, really there is none so we’ll be putting some in)
• Scraping and painting EVERYWHERE (the upstairs hasn’t seen a fresh coat of paint since the place was built 60 yrs ago and the downstairs was painted very sloppily)
• Remodeling the kitchen (set for March, during spring break)
  
• Changing the large storage closet in the attic to a master bathroom
• Removing all the nasty brush along the fence line in the back yard and by the house
• Plant a garden in the back
• Clean and repair gutters and down spouts
• Clean siding and paint as needed
• Remodel basement
• Replace all windows
• Update windows in basement to glass block (security and energy savers)
• Remodel downstairs bath
• Install carpet upstairs
• Replace carpet downstairs
• Put addition over garage
• Extend out the nursery

So far Jason has been busy with things everyday: installing a new thermostat, fixing light switches, installing a garage door opener, learning from the electrician how to install a 220 line, cleaning, unpacking, demo-ing part of the basement, installing washer and dryer, installing dryer vent. He's been to Home depot 3 times now and still has at least one more trip planned before school starts on Monday. AND we still have to get the car into the shop for it's $6,000.00 repair job for the accident (3 days before Christmas!!!).

Additionally we said goodbye to a speedier internet and downgraded to a slower connection because it's cheaper so videos and pics are taking a bit longer to post, I'm quite inpatient so you may see less of those.

Catching Up On Others

Missing a week or two of internet has really put me behind. I'll just have to start fresh, so if you posted something that you think I should know the next time we talk - just assume that I don't know it and just tell me.