A blog to keep... and show to boys in 13 years.

Alright, a funny story for you all.

Ever since Joci has been drinking from bottles (in December) Chaela has taken to imitating her when we give her something to drink.  She does it every single time.  Observe:

This is the position I'm talking about, only with Chaela and a sippy cup.

 No problem, right?  Right.  Because sippy cups have lids.

Regular cups, however, do not.

So, Chaela and I were hanging out because Will is working tonight and Joci was already in bed.  She asked for a cup of water, so I got her one.  Not a sippy cup, like I usually do, just a normal one.  Chaela's really good with them; she usually has them with meals at the table.  This time she was sitting on the couch.

Now, I don't know if she was extra tired because it was a little past her bedtime, or maybe it was her first honest-to-goodness blonde moment.  I will never know.  What I do know is that within ten seconds of me sitting down at the computer, Chaela screamed.  I jumped up, wondering how on earth she managed to hurt herself that badly laying flat on the couch (never doubting, however, that she could find a way).  She threw herself into a sitting position and gasped, "MOMMY!  I have water ALL OVER ME!"

By this time I was next to her.  Yes, indeed, she was soaked.  I attempted to muffle my laughter as the truth dawned.

"Chaela... sweetheart... um, [snort] did you just try and [giggle] drink that open cup of water laying down?"  I couldn't help it.  I barely made it through the question.  My intelligent, precocious three-and-a-half-year-old had just dumped a cup of water on her face.  Now I had tears streaming out of my eyes.

"Yes," Chaela replied, with a tone and expression I can only call prim.

I lost it.  Ok, it's probably just me, or maybe you had to be here, to hear her scream of shock and horror when it happened.  Or it could be that I'm really, really tired.  Either way, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.  Even now, writing this, I can't get over how awesomely hysterical it was.

Thank you Chaela, you made mommy's night.

Joci!

Joci turned one on April 20th this year, making her close to 13 and 1/2 months now.  She's not walking, but she does pull up and cruise, so I'm still holding out hope it will happen eventually.  I've decided one of the things I'm going to do is work on it with her, because part of me wonders if she doesn't walk because I carry her everywhere.  I'm not too worried about it, though the pediatrician did say they might want to look into it if she isn't walking by 15 months, so my goal is to have her on her feet by then.  We'll see.

What Joci does do is communicate.  Her favorite way to do this is an obnoxious scream that sounds like 500 nails on a chalkboard.  However, she also says a few words:

Hi!
Mama
Dad
Uh-oh
Ki (kitty)

She signs for:
All done
I want that (it's the milk sign, which we taught her for bottle, and she decided meant "I want")

She also nods her head yes and no, but I'm not sure if she's quite got the point of it yet.

She might be saying:
Sha! (Chaela)
Buh (Blankie)
Ba (drink, the ba sound coming from "bottle")
Yaya (Love you)

She'll repeat a word if you ask her (not perfectly of course), which I think is pretty cool.

So that's our Joci.  She's such a fun girl!  I a little high maintenance, maybe, but when she smiles, she can light up a whole room.

Pictures

 Hey everyone.  I just posted about 50 recent pictures on Facebook, so if you want to see them, go check it out!  Here are some favorites:

 

Coming soon!

So the girls and I have been in Utah for almost a week, and a few people have asked for pictures of the new place and things like that.  Don't worry, they're coming!  Now that I have the fast computer back, uploading won't be such a pain.

Will hasn't worked much because there's been a lot of rain, but as soon as he gets back into work and we settle in to a routine of some kind, I'll post more.  For now, though, things are going well and I'm glad to be back with my husband again!

Things work out.

Everyone probably knows this since I'm pretty sure all of my non-accidental readers are friends with me on Facebook, but in case you're not, or you don't check, our move to UT has taken a turn for the better again.  We got a place to live!  Instead of Bountiful, we'll be living in Orem, which will save us a lot in gas, as that's where Will's work also happens to be.

I'm not really sure what it looks like, since I haven't been there.  From stalking it on google maps, it seems to have a fenced-in yard (or at least it did in 2007 when the picture was taken), and that's pretty exciting to me.  Even if it doesn't, there's a park with an affordable pool within walking distance.  Yay!

Now I have to head back to the basement and get packing.  Don't forget about the garage sale in our neighborhood on the 13th and 14th if you live in the area!

Things fall through

Well, I've just been informed that we can no longer live in the house that we were going to live in when we moved to Utah.  It is now 12 days until the girls and I are flying out there.

I'm not really sure why, not because the reasons aren't valid, just because at this point I'm only getting 3rd hand accounts and no one really seems to know what is going on.

The most upsetting thing to me is kissing all those awesome plans to fix up that house and yard good bye.  I had so much to do that I was looking forward to.  Deep breath... I'm letting it go.

Luckily, Will is making a bit more money than we had anticipated, so paying rent will be doable.  We found out about an hour and a half or two hours ago, and we already have leads on a few places, all of which have yards (which I've decided is a requirement).  So we will no longer be living in Bountiful, and our search is once again directed to the helpfully vague "somewhere between Provo and Salt Lake," which may be upgraded to "somewhere between Spanish Fork and Salt Lake."  We shall see.  In the meantime, your thoughts and prayers are appreciated.  I'll keep you posted.

What's New.

Hello all,

I just wanted to let everyone know what's going on.  The girls and I have an official date to leave: May 17th!  Yay!  We're staying here long enough to sell a bunch of stuff (hopefully) at the neighborhood garage sale (remember, May 13th and 14th, 9am-4pm in Jefferson Farms... tell your friends!) then leaving OH the evening of the 14th to head to Chicago for my cousin's baby shower.  Then on Tuesday, the 17th, we'll fly out of Chicago to SLC.  The tickets have been bought.  This thing is official. We should be able to afford to move everything else out there in July sometime.  It means a few weeks of sleeping on an air mattress, but it will be worth it to be with Will again!

In other news, Joci has picked up another word, "kitty."  Yes, it sounds more like "zzzgh-dii" at the moment, but she says it consistently says it while pointing at the cats, so we know that's what it means.  Fun times.  She's also pulling up on stuff all the time, not quite cruising yet, but soon!

I have to say, my time alone with the girls has been... difficult.  Pretty much all my fears of becoming the Worst Mother Ever have been confirmed, since I feel like I'm spending all my time yelling at my kids.  Yeah.  I'm trying to work on it.  And it doesn't help that literally every day above 65 degrees here has meant severe thunderstorms for the past month, and that big, fat bumblebees have taken up residence somewhere on our deck, so I can't let Chaela outside to run off any of her energy.  Ugh.

Happy First Birthday, Jocelyn Eve!

Today my baby turns one.  We already celebrated, since we wanted to do that before Will left for Utah, but I have a gift that I made for her, so she'll get something.  Since I've never posted about Joci's acheivements, I wanted to do that, as well.

Joci, at one year old you:

-Can talk, and have been talking for just over a month.  Your first word was "Hi!"  You can also say "Uh-oh," "Dad," "Mama," and "Hi, dad!" (which she says to everyone, not just will... I'm pretty sure she thinks this is a longer version of "hi.")
- You shake your head 'no' and can sign 'all done.'  You don't point, but you reach for things you want.  If I ask you if you want to go to bed, and you do, you reach towards your bedroom.
-You and your sister play constantly, and I have high hopes for you being best friends.  She takes toys from you every five seconds, which I do my best to stop.  You used to just let her, but lately you've been screaming your infamous banshee scream any time she tries, and you've started snatching toys from her.  Not sure if this is good or bad.
-You can pull up on the table/let yourself back down, and army crawl.  You show no interest in actual crawling, and you don't walk yet.  I'm not really surprised, since you didn't care even to be held in a standing position until after you were six months old.  But, you're making progress!
-You are obsessed with electronics (a true daughter to your father) and if you see my cell phone or iPod and I don't give it to you, you banshee scream in my ear.
-Speaking of that banshee scream, you do that ALL THE TIME when you don't get your way, especially if someone won't give you something you want, usually food or electronics.  I'm surprised I don't have any hearing loss.
-Because you don't walk or have much hair, because you're little, and probably  because you're my second baby, I feel like you're much younger than you actually are.
-Everyone agrees that you look exactly like your sister, and everyone loves your smile; it completely lights up your entire baby face!  You're my beautiful little girl.
-You and I already fight about what you wear, as you absolutely refuse to wear headbands.  I put them on you anyway, then make you keep them on all day.  You probably miss your dad, because he would take them off of you when I wasn't looking and hide them from me.
-You love music, especially relaxing music.  Your dad plays Enya for you on his iPhone to get you to go to sleep.  You love it when I sing to you, and you almost always start 'singing,' too.

There's so much more I could say about you, but I should probably get you, since you're standing there banshee screaming at me.  I can already tell you're intelligent, beautiful, cheerful, and stubborn.  I'm so happy you're part of our family.  We love you!  Happy birthday, baby girl!

Day One

Well, as I've announced on Facebook, we're moving to Utah.  It's kind of complicated, because we don't have enough money right now to move like normal people.  So here are the steps to our plan, for those of you who are curious:

1) Will takes a car full of stuff (computer, electronics, etc.) and goes to Utah to work for an old boss doing road construction while staying with a friend.
2) a. Will works and makes enough money for us to move our stuff and looks for an apartment.
    b.The girls and I stay in Ohio and I try not to be the Worst Mother Ever.  I also go through our stuff and get ready for the Jefferson Farms neighborhood garage sale (May 13th and 14th, EVERYONE TELL YOUR FRIENDS!) then pack whatever is left.
3) When we have all the money we need, Will finds an apartment.
4) Here in OH, we rent the largest U-Haul trailer available, cram it with all of our stuff, then pack my dad's SUV to bursting and haul everything, including myself and the girls, out to Utah.  This (fingers crossed) happens around the beginning of June.

So, that's the plan.  Will should be in Utah sometime tomorrow in the early afternoon, and I'll still be here.  Sigh.  I'm glad that I have more time with my parents and with the Young Women I work with at church, but at the same time, I wonder how I'll cope without Will to remind me every few minutes that there's no reason to be cranky all the time.  So far I'm doing ok, but we went to church right after he left and Joci's been sleeping since we got home, so when she wakes up the real test will begin.

Aside from selling pretty much everything extra we own and packing, there are a few things I'd like to accomplish while Will is gone.  I'm hoping to have a little more time to work on my book, and maybe pick back up on my weight loss.

I feel bad for my girls.  I don't know if they really understand what's happening.  Chaela has already asked about 50 times where her daddy is.  We did try to explain it to her, but I don't think she gets it.  Thank goodness for modern technology, though.  Chaela and I have already talked to Will on the phone once and we're planning on skyping often.  I'm so glad I can at least see his face and hear his voice, and this small, one-time separation is nothing like what military families go through. 

More Books

Hey everyone,

I've been reading a lot again instead of writing as much as I should (even though I have a feeling I'll be starting again soon), and I've stumbled on a few authors in the YA fantasy/romance genre I feel I can recommend.  So if you're someone who asks me which books they should read (meaning, if you're my sister Lindsay) this post is for you!

Bree Despain - The Dark Divine (series)
Kind of typical, but with a few interesting twists that I won't give away.  The reason I'm recommending this series is because the female protagonist didn't get on my nerves (my main problem with this genre) and, as most of my readers that I'm aware of are LDS, these books are very clean.  Bonus: the female lead is also religious, so she faces a lot of moral quandaries that are glossed over or ignored in other YA books.  And she has a family who remains present throughout, so not only is she dealing with the normal, "Oh, I'm in LOVE!" stuff, but family issues as well.  When it comes to family, most YA fantasy/romance books use an easy way out by saying the main character is an orphan/only only child/in the foster system/their parents are kidnapped/they are kidnapped/they have a broken home and hate their parents/they go to an enchanted boarding school, etc.  I like that she kept it in, and that the relationships felt real.  It did incredible things for fleshing out her protagonist.

Alex Flinn - Beastly and A Kiss in Time
I have to admit, I read (well, listened to, it was an audiobook) Beastly because my mom and I saw the movie and I was curious.  The book is better than the movie.  In fact, as I was listening to it/playing Angry Birds, I kept thinking to myself, "Why did they change that?  Why didn't they include that?!" over and over again.  Let's just say the movie was a shiny, high school version of a dark, much more interesting book with an action-packed ending (as opposed to, SPOILER: Oh, no, I came outside and the whole SCHOOL can see my UGLY! wekisstheend).  The entire book was told from the perspective of the Beast, which is way more emotionally fraught than Beauty's story and probably what made it so fascinating to me.  All in all, a good read, or listen.  The movie, which was fine when I saw it, is now kind of a let-down, because they could have made it so much better.  There was some cheesiness, but over all, good.
I read A Kiss in Time because I liked Beastly.  I read them both in one day.  Now, I don't know if Kiss is as deep as Beastly, but it was fun and entertaining and I still enjoyed it a lot.  It's more of a romantic comedy.
Alex Flinn also has several other books out, but they're not in this genre, so I haven't gotten to them yet.  Currently I'm very narrow-minded.

Let me know if you've read anything good lately!