14 days of Valentines

Josh and i have a tradition that dates back to when we were dating. That first year (while josh was waiting around for me to decided that yes i really did want to marry him) is when he melted my heart by doing the 14 days of valentines. Since then we have had years that are hit and miss but we both try to do something to express our love for each other throughout the first two weeks in February and not just on Valentines day. Some past years have included poetry, chocolate, kisses, notes, knick nacs, and dates.

Well, tomorrow is the first day and my mind has been spinning as to what i'm going to do forJosh this year. i think i have decided to dedicate 14 blog entries to him over the next two weeks. I've a few ideas on what some of them will be, others i'm not quite sure yet--we will see (any ideas?) Some of the days will probably involve food so i might have to just write about those. anyway, I'll try not to get too lovey dovey on you, i imagine that would get old ;)

earlier today i got the rare urge to clean my kitchen. not just clean, but do the little areas that get ignored on the day to day basis ie. the cracks and corners. I popped in an old Celine Dion cd "color of love" and went to town. (i hate to admidt but my kitchen really really needed it! so imagine dirty kitchen and sarah singing to celine as i scrub away.) anyway, the kids had been amusing themselves and playing quite nicely without much supervision and i found out why. a good while later when i imerged i was hit with a living space of total chaos. Crackers ground into the carpet, puzzle pieces and train tracks all over the floor, elijahs blankets and "friends" piled two feet hight in his tent... oh my! I realized there are reasons why my kitchen hasn't been deeply cleaned in a while-- there names are Elijah and Sammy. deep breath and here we go again!

Commercial songs

it happens that i have come across some new music that has intriqued me in the past week or so. Both these artist have reached my ears (and probably yours too) initially through commercials.

The first one is the song from the new apple air laptop commercial entitled "New Soul" by Yael Naim. Apparently she is an Israeli singer born in Paris that sings mostly in Hebrew... very interesting. (her last name is also the same as my grandpa's first name-a nice little connection buzz)

The other artist that has reached my ears lately is Ingrid Michaelson. She did the "sweater" song for the Old Navy ads this past fall. The song is titled "The Way I Am". She has also had some of her songs featured on Grey's Anatamy. She has a different sound and some interesting lyrics. I came across her through a Borders concert to promote her new cd. You can see the video on Borders website. I especially like the song "Overboard".

Hope you enjoy.

(ha, i figured out how to put a YouTube video on my blog! watch out world!)

Elijah: self portrait

On sunday Elijah wanted to do his paints. I asked him if he could paint a face and he took off. He ended up doing close to 10 faces of various family members. He painted the letter E on the picture of himself.

here fishy fishy...

Sam has discovered our fish, Bob. He begs to get up and look at him. Bob is far from an exciting fish. (the only one that has survived) He is a placostamus (sucker fish), brown and ugly, that doesn't move very much, but Sam loves him and gets very excited about watching my suck the rocks. In all acutallity i think Bob is a great fish-- he doesn't have to be fed regularly and he cleans his own tank. what could be better. it more than makes up for his lack of beauty or energy in my mind.

the purl bee

I came across this blog through a chain of blogs somewhere, can't remember now, but it is one that i go to to drool over the craft projects they have posted. This is where I first found the picture of the babbette blanket i am making. This blog just makes me want to run to the fabric store and buy tons of fabric and notions. There really are some talented people out there. They also have a great links page to many other talented bloggers. let me know if you find any you like.

Check it out!

Teething or Cold

why does it have to be so hard to tell if your child is teething or if they are sick? In either case they are grumpy as all get out. Sammy is suffering either from teething or a cold--likely even both. He has cut one molar and I'm sure the other three are dying to make their apperance known soon. Meanwhile poor Sammy is all out of sorts, refusing to nap, cranky, runny nose, etc. I guess either way it will pass eventually. We all may just be a little ragged around the edges by the time it does (or worse--down with a cold ourselves).

Wii play together

Elijah gets quite a kick out of playing our wii. He especially likes the wii sports and is pretty good when he wants to be (he will purposly throw gutter balls). Sammy likes to get in on the action and is a pretty good boxer and pitcher (as demonstrated in this clip).

more fun for whom?

The boys got geotrax for Christmas from my parents. Talk about a great train set! They are so much fun! The question is who are the more fun for--the kids or the parents? I must admit i enjoy the challenge of creating a new track everytime we pull them out. It is fun to see how you can get all the pieces to work together and some of them are pretty cool pieces. We have two electric trains that run by themselves (when Elijah lets them). Sammy is figuring out how to use the controller to make the train stop and go and gets the biggest kick out of it.


This picture is of my latest track creation. I was rather pleased that i figured out how to use the two levels of the clock tower at the same time.


If any of you have boys that like trains (i have two of them) keep your eye out for the geotrax sets. We got ours from a consignment store. new they can be pricey, but they are very well made and last forever and are good second hand toys. they are all over ebay and craigslist has the occasionally too. I've got my own eye out 'cause i wouldn't mind adding to what we have!

best buds

Elijah and his best friend Caed.

They have a love/hate relationship--they love each other and love to be together BUT they hate to share their toys (especially Elijah). Caed gets physical and Elijah just puts up the biggest fuss imaginable. Despite that, we are sure going to miss having Caed 50 steps away.

They are rather active boys when they are together. The only reason they are sitting still in the picture is because we just put in a Thomas movie. They share a love for trains (and apparently just hanging out in their diapers too).

Scientific Method

1. Ask a Question
2. Do Background Research
3. Construct a Hypothesis
4. Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment
5. Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion
6. Communicate Your Results



I want you to imagine two graduate students, one in Physics the other in Chinese Lit, huddled over a toilet watching the water go down. Do you have that wonderful image in mind? now here's the story...

Sammy has this awful fascination with the toilet. He will bee-line to the bathroom whenever the door happens to be left open in nothing flat. He has taken more than one toilet water bath and loves to unroll all the toilet paper. it's a nightmare! anyway, he happened to do this while we had some friends over and then the comment came up that someone had heard that if you flushed the toilet with the toilet paper dangling in it from the roll (still mounted on the wall) that it would unravel as the toilet flushed.

Then, the big question: Does it really work???

This brings us the the mental image of two grown men huddled over the toilet. They were thoughtful enough to even close the door and do this experiment in private (i really didn't need my kids getting ANY ideas).

The conclusion to this hypothesis and experiment: it doesn't work-- at least not with our Costco toilet paper and our toilet--didn't move an inch off the roll, just hung in the toilet while it flushed.
thank you Josh and Jon for answering that burning question!

if you so desire, feel welcome to conduct your own experiment and let me know your results!

Wives and Daughters

I amused myself this week by watching the BBC video of Elisabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters. Beware, it is a long one at 300 minutes, but it was a rather enjoyable movie (Josh would be shaking his head at this point, but he didn't watch it so he really doesn't know). I am now anxious to get my hands on the book. You can actually download it off the internet for free at http://books.google.com/, it's public domain apparently.

The movie is along the line of Pride and Prejudice and is a story about a girl named Molly and "her efforts to cope gracefully with an impossible stepmother, a beguiling stepsister, burdensome secrets and burgeoning romance." So, if you find yourself husbandless for a weekend, or just burnt out, grab some chocolate, a cozy blanket, and watch a satisfying movie.



Other amusing and long BBC Movies based on books:
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskel
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (long time favorite)

Sidenote: PBS is doing a Jane Austen marathon every Sunday night through April. They are showing the BBC movie versions of all Austen's books.

Anyone have any suggestions on other good ol' english books made into movies?

silence

there are holes in my recorded history; times in my life when moments and events have inoked strong emotion. it is then that I am emotionally not recorded-

except for the silence

depressing

it is one thing to have your closest friend move 600 miles away, it is quite another to have it all happen in a matter of 6 days!

Christina, my sister from a different mother, found out Monday that she is moving to Oklahoma and will be gone forever on Sunday. Break my heart news that has turned my week (let alone my life) upside down. We have been frantically scrounging up boxes (which includes dumpster diving at Sonic), packing up an entire apartment, and the cleaning is yet to come.
Until all this settles you probably wont hear much from me; sad, cause I had a really funny toilet paper story to tell... I guess it can wait.

winter wonderland

we went to utah for christmas last month. we made it into town hitting a storm head on in spanish fork canyon (i have never seen snow pelt anything like that before and there was lightening too--totally white knuckle craziness!)

anyway, needless to say the next day there was a lot of snow on the ground (close to two feet of new stuff, not including what was already on the ground) and Elijah was just dying to go out and play. It is quite a process to get a little boy dressed to go outside and as soon as sammy saw what was going on he wanted in on the action (that boy just loves to go, especially where ever Elijah goes).

pictures: Elijah with my sisters and sammy and josh ready to go out to play.

apparently i dressed Elijah too warmly because he didn't want to come in. Sammy just didn't quite know what to do with himself. the snow was almost as tall as him and he could barely move in all his getup.

Sammy's hood makes him look like a gnome. I just love it!

Josh bum deep in snow and the view of mount loafer from my parents front yard. i just love the snow covered trees!

review: ticket to ride switzerland

Josh and i got a chance to play the new switzerland expansion to ticket to ride. it is an independent game board and tickets, but you use the train cards and trains from one of the three original sets. it is a 2-3 player game and you only use 40 of the trains (instead of 45). overall the game play was pretty nice and very similar to ticket to ride usa (which we play often. its a great 2 player or multi-player game. i highly recomend it).

major differences to usa: tunnels, use of wilds, discarded tickets, duplicate tickets and generalized tickets (country to country/city)

the thing that threw josh and i off the most was the duplicate tickets. there are some country to country tickets that are exacly the same. which means if you get one you get both and you are very lucky (and the other player is very annoyed. it makes for a big point pay-off if done correctly)

Overall, both of us enjoyed it and are happy to have it in our collection. I am sure it will be pulled off our shelf regularly.

multi-purpose playthings

after a trip to the oft visited costco (it is THE place to buy soymilk), my sons found a use for the loads of TP. Turns out they make great blocks, "birthday cakes", bowling balls, and just plain old ammo. who would have thought. i guess you just have to think like a toddler.

Note: i would only recomend doing this with the individually wrapped rolls!

true defeat

i will admidt there are many times when i feel defeated by my three year old-- the most common is at night when i'm tired and he is pulling out all the tricks in his bag to stay up late and i haven't the energy to fight him.

but i experienced true defeat today...
today my son beat me at boxing on our wii. he simply knocked me out cold despite all my best (and i might add practiced) efforts.

all i can say is- i'm in trouble!

blogging: beyond reason

here are a few i came up with anyway:

• it's a great way to keep my family in the know.

• i enjoy catching up with friends without going to too much effort; i know i'm lazy (hence the lowercase "i"'s). i enjoy just taking a few minutes from my kids and wasting time on the internet, so i use that time to read up on what my friends and others have to say. i figure if i enjoy reading ramblings of friends why wouldn't they enjoy reading my ramblings.

• i needed a place to vent the ramblings going on in my head. i spend all day with a three year old and a one year old. i needed some outlet for my thoughts and observations. let's face it, my brain is suffering from under-usage.

• i like to waste time on the internet and thought this might be a productive use of my wasted time-- i.e.wasting time and keeping a personal history of sorts at the same time... sounded good to me!

• i have the cutest kids and a pretty good life and figure if i don't write about it no one will know and that seems sad.

• blogging seems like a great medium for sharing your talents, interests, triumphs, life's challenges, everyday comings and goings, blessings and trials, etc. it's something you can look at and say "hey, i accomplished something. i am learning and growing"

• the truth is i am opinionated. i'm just quiet about it.

• and really it is just the thing to do. everyone is doing it so why not me. (i've always been a great follower)

and in the beginning...

Well, here it goes. One of my New Years goals was to start a blog and I'm diving in. I read a few blogs regularly (yes, my friends, I do keep up on you and haven't forgotten you even though I'm quiet about it) and thought I would join the band wagon; or should we call it the "blog wagon". There may be some bumps on this unknown road. If you have any initiation suggestions, please let me know.