Pudding Painting

Ever since my last attempt at finger painting with Jack I've been really stuck on the idea. I really liked the painting he did and still have it hanging in my apartment, but I'm not really cool with him eating his weight in paint, albeit the paint was non-toxic but still! so we tried painting with pudding. And I have to say I was surprised. he was much more excited to paint with and eat the real paint than the pudding. He cried alot at first, then sort of got into it, then got scared and as I was about to go give him a bath discovered the delicious taste of pudding and gobbled up as much as he could. I think we'll try it again, but probaly not a for a few more months.

St Patrick's Day

I am proud Irish lady. Growing up we always celebrated St. Patrick's day as both my parents are mostly Irish. We would have corned beef and VOMIT Cabbage. When Branden first kissed me it was a bit before St. Patty's day and I was wearing a kiss me I"m Irish pin. I honestly thought it was my good luck charm for awhile and still have it tucked away in a memory box somewhere.

Now that I'm out on my own I do not celebrate St. Patricks day with the revolting meal of my ancestors past. In fact we barely did anything to celebrate it (although I did gather all kinds of fun ideas for when Jack is older). What I did do is dress Jack and I in our green irish best for the day.


We went grocery shopping all decked out and as I was checking out a very old Irish man came up to me nearly in tears. He spoke in a thick Irish accent of being an Irish immigrant and profused over the adorability of Jack and how proud he was of me for displaying my Irish pride. It made this old man's day to see Jack and I all decked out. I must have spent 10 minutes talking to him. Listening to a few of his stories and him telling me over and over again how happy his wife would be when he told her about our wonderful Irish outfits. It really made my day that something so simple made this man so happy. It was a great day!

Memory Corner The Oppertunity

Me and Opper on a camping trip a few summers ago

Today I share with you a memory that involves one of my dearest old friends Opper. This guy is hilarious. If you meet him, you love him. I honestly have yet to meet someone that does not adore this kid. He is amazing. That being said he also can bit a SMIDGE of an idiot from time to time and my memory from today definately involves him being an idiot.

It was a wonderful summer evening back in our days of singleness. We were having a ysa bonfire/bbq for our ward out on the farm of a man in our ward's. We were way back in the woods and making an enormous bonfire. When I say enormous I really mean it, like this was a serious stack of wood. Opper was having some trouble getting the bad boy started and we had all gathered around the pile of wood on our camping chairs waiting for it to shed its warmth on us. I watched only mildly interested as Opper tried and failed to light the fire. He then got out a jerry can of gas and poured it all over the pile of wood. I then took more notice as he couldn't find his matched and fumbled around for several moments searching for the matches. Finally he found them and as he struck the match it occured to us... the fumes. someone (I have no clue who) screamed the fumes and you could see the look of horror on opper's face as the match lit ( I might be embellishing the detail here just a bit! haha! I was far to terrified to notice this) Anyways he turned and ran as the match ignited the pile and seriously the biggest fire ball I have ever seen wooshed out from the centre of the fire. It came back a good 3 to 4 feet from the pile of wood and I swear singed us all. We were terrified. I just remember Heather and I cuddling together terrified unable to do anything but laugh as the fire went back to its normal place. It was seriously insane and Opper should not be alive! He wasn't even hurt, just a little freaked out. Seriously though anyone who knows ANY opper should know (from this and other stories I've heard) never let an Opper touch fire!!

Sunday Ponderings

This Sunday in church I had the rare opportunity to actually listen to all the talks (Branden had Jack out in the hall). My good friend Heather was talking about marriage etc. and one thing that she said really stood out to me. It was a quote I had heard before, but hadn't remember and to be honest I still don't remember who she said it was by. Someone amazingly spiritual and intelligent I'm sure. Anyways it was something to the effect that We need to have our eyes wide open to our own faults and half closed to the faults of our spouse.

This really struck a chord with me. In general I am acutely aware of my many, many faults. I am a deeply flawed person and I don't kid myself to pretend I'm not. Most days I spend perhaps too much time focused on my own faults. Although to be honest not in a constructive, better fix em', way; more in a I stink and boo hoo kind of way. I so need to work on being more constructive with them. Anyways, TANGENT, the point is most days I am so fully aware of my faults and Branden's tend to fade into the background. Most days I think he's quite delightful, wonderful and perfect.

BUT for some BIG reason whenever we get into a disagreement, arguement, a battle of wills my eyes immidiately shut to my own long list of faults and focus in like a laser on his. WHAT THE HECK! This makes life so much the more difficult for both of us and I'm not sure why I do it.

So this quote really struck home to me. I am going to try more and more each day to focus on my own faults and not focus on feeling sorry for myself over them but focus on being better on fixing them and becoming the kind of person I want to be. AND I'm going to clear the laundry list of Brandens faults right out of my mind.... well atleast try on that one I"m sure its easier said then done.

Wish me Luck.

Memory Corner Request

Okay so I feel like in my old age (yes 25 IS old) my memory is failing me and many hilarious experiences from my past are escaping me. So I am inviting all you, all my old friends who know me well enough to have had a hilarious experience with me to share in my memory corner. Email me a hilarious story from our past and be a guest poster on my blog and let me laugh as I remember our antics.

Do it.. now. I promise you might regret it!

Memory Corner-the 14 years old edition

Hilary and I on better days (although not THAT MUCH better UCK!)

One time when my good friend Hilary and I were a mere 14 years old (or atleast somewhere in that age neighbourhood) we went down to the major metropolis of London to visit my brother and babysit his oldest over night for him and his wife. There was many an adventure that night, but I will not discuss that here for fear of far to much embarrassment. However the next day when my brother and his wife returned home to relieve us our babysitting duties we headed on over to the mall. We were shopping and looking around and happened upon Le Chateau which was a store that at the time was unfamiliar to us. We were looking around and saw these fabulous Neon Blue and Neon yellow Lycra skirts. We thought they were so fabulous and hilarious so we decided it was necessary for us to try them on. We went into our separate change rooms to try them on, we were positioned in change rooms on completely opposite sides of the store. Once we had them on I scurried on over to Hilary's change room to laugh with her at our wonderful skirts. We were in the changeroom together laughing hysterically at our skirts, which fit most oddly being far to large at the top and small at the bottom when we hear the saleslady speaking to us from the other side of the curtain. This sales lady most snottily informed us that these were not skirts they were tube tops. We were soo embarrassed. Seriously how retarded, stupid and just plain newbieish were we that we didn't even know tube tops existed to know that those "skirts" could possibly be tops. I scurried back to the other changeroom as fast as I could, with a face redder than could be. We changed and were out of there as fast as we could. We were soooo embarrassed, but it was so hilarious for us!

It has been way to long since I've posted. Lots has happened, but I'm too lazy to go into detail. I feel so unmotivated to blog lately, mostly because some days I'm pretty sure only my Mom really misses my blogs.. haha. Good ol' Mom's. Anyways I think I'll do a quick update on life in our neck of the woods.

Jack is getting cuter and more adventurous by the minute. His favourite place currently is the bathroom. We do our very best to keep the door closed at all times, but trust me if we forget that kid will bolt for that bathroom with speed you have never seen. He will spend hours trying to scale the side of the bathtub, recently discovered he can throw his toys in the toilet and has an ever growing love of unrolling the toilet paper with a mighty vigour.

The other day we found him scaling a bookshelf, crazy kid. He is so infested with bruises all the time lately. He face planted off a kids lap in primary in sunday, has a joker-esque bruise extending in a perfect line from the corner of his mouth up his cheek from falling on the edge of our tv stand and has a perfectly carpet burned nose from propping himself up on his face when he feels the need to be on his knees and use his hands beneath himself.

He also loves books, but prefers the adult kind to his lovely board books. He spends hours each day ripping all the books of the bottom shelf and then pretending to read them. He's hilarious.

He is getting more and more vocal all the time. He has dada, mama and baba down and the other day he was playing in the corner and dropped a toy and Branden and I both swear he said Dangit.. it was AMAZING but we can't get him to repeat it. I wish we had it on video you would all die laughing.

Jack in the process of crawling out of his pants.

Jack is working on getting the top two teeth through which makes his bowels, shall we say, slightly loose. This has resulted in him losing 1.5 pounds this week (according to my wii fit which I weigh him on several times a week) He's gone from about 19 pounds down to 17.5 pounds. its ridiculous. He's rather skinny right now and the other day he crawled right out of his pants.

Peacefully sleeping baby

Jack is finally sleeping well. Its amazing and consistent (except when teething) and has been for a few weeks now. I've been afraid to even mention it for fear I would jinx it. But it appears good sleeping Jack is FINALLY here to stay. He sleeps 12 hours straight most night and has a 1.5 to 2.5 hour nap each afternoon (depending on how tired he is) Its amazing and I love it.

We are also spending alot more time outside and Jack loves it. He's still not fully comfortable with grass and swings and slides and everything, but whenever we go he figures it out a little more and loves it a little more.

Sorry no pictures of us together lately, just with Jack

As for Branden and I we are doing well too. Branden is heading into the end of the semester, so is going into a busy time, but is doing well in all his classes. He has a job lined up for the summer, its a really great one at a great company right near us. Which is AMAZING since we have only one car and i'll be needing it in May.

Me I am dreading going back to work. May 11th is my official return to work date and we still don't have day care firmed up for Jack so I'm a little stressed about that. I don't really want to go back. I love spending my days with Jack so much. But there are parts of going back I'm excited about.... like more money and adult interaction every day and more affirmation.

anyways thats all for us lately, I'll try and blog more often.

B

So a few weeks ago my friend and wonderful blogger Shop Girl did an ABC game which I opted to participate in. She assigned me the letter "B" and my task is to list 10 things that I love that start with the letter B. Its taken me forever to get around to it, but I've decided that today I will do it.

1. The Most obvious thing I love that starts with the letter B is Branden. Yup, thats right big shocker I love my husband! Branden is really pretty much the most amazing thing ever and I absolutely adore him. He is the most supportive husband I could hope for, no matter what I want to do he helps me and always encourages me to try new things. I love this about him. Add to that he's hilarious, bodacious and such a major looker and I just love this boy more than I could ever say.


2.Next is Baby. Please notice I say Baby, not babies. I love one baby in particular right now and thats Jack. I mean babies are great. I love to cuddle them and snuggle them, but spend more than a few hours with one. No thanks. Except for Jack, I could snuggle that little boy and play with him every minute of every hour of every day. I majorly dread the day he turns from baby to toddler and its coming far to soon.


3. Number three on my list is Butts, Bums or Booties. I love tushies! Why, you might ask, because they do funny things like fart or poop that make me laugh so hard! Without bums, I would laugh atleast 50% less in a day.


4. Berries. I love berries, strawberries-good, blueberries-delicious, raspberries-I can live with; blackberries-scrumptious. A wonderful berry smoothie in the morning is the right start to the day, berries on waffles AMAZING and a big bowl of strawberries on a hot summer day make the whole world feel better.


5. Baths. I love a good bath, so relaxing. Its the one time of day I can just drift away, its the cure to all my problems in a day. Baths make my sore muscles hurt less, make my mind less stressed and as an added bonus, make me clean(ish).


6. The colour brown. I love brown, its my favourite colour. It was one of my wedding colours and I wear alot of brown. Its just so warm and flattering. LOVE LOVE LOVE the colour brown, its FAR superior to boring old black.


7. Next is Barbeque. Oh how I adore bbq. I miss bbq food (as we don't have one) nothing beats a deliciously barbequed steak or burger.. YUMM!


8.And directly related to that one is Backyard. What I hate most about not owning a house yet is having no BBQ and no backyard. Branden and I both dream of the day of having friends over in our beautiful backyard, sitting on the deck eating delicous BBQ while the kids play on the freshly mown grass...mmmmm..


9. Basketball. I love to play/slash/watch basketball. It (and soccer, but I was not assigned S) are my favourite sports. I'm no good at it, but its fun. Such good exercise and a bit of competition its just amazing fun!


10. And finally, most appropriately is Benediction. Benediction is great because it means church is over and my tired, grumpy baby can go home and sleep and my starving tummy can go home and eat. It means the end of church and the beginning of Sunday afternoon a time of relaxation, naps and PJ's for the whole family. I love me a good benediction.

And thats that folks. Let me know if you want to play and I can give you a letter!

what a week!

Cute picture of Jack that has nothing to do with the post, except that its about him!

Last week was interesting to say the least. It was long, gross, worrisome and tiring! On Wednesday Jack got that hershey squirts and BAD! (for those of you who don't know, the hershey squirts is clearly diahrea!) They lasted all day and he pooped all the way up into and through several sleepers and pairs of socks. It was a catastrophe. Then near the end of the day his little peepie doodle (penis) started looking like it was going to fall off. His poor little cash and prizes (penis) was so swollen and red and every time he peed or pooped he would scream in horrendous pain. We spent all night changing his diaper, checking on it and giving him naked time hoping the air would help. This was all made ever the more unfortunate because my wonderful cousin Zach and his Cousin Keira (a recent highschool graduate and still high school student) were over for dinner and some games and had to bear witness to this giant catastrophe.
After they left it just got worse and worse and Branden and I spent quite a bit of time phoning nurses, his Mom (a nurse) and going back and forth on whether or not to take Jack to the ER. I was terrified if I didn't deal with his ever inflating and reddening whoo whoo pronto it would be rendered useless for life. We eventually ended up calling the ER to ask how long the wait was, it was late at night and Jack was exhausted so we didnt' want to wait forever and just make him worse. the wait was at 7 hours! So we decided to stay home and go to the doctor first thing. It would be about the same time we would have been seen at the ER and Jack would be well rested.

So the next day off to the doctor we go, all the while expecting the worst. A terrible UTI or some random infection. But not so much, apparently just a really bad diaper rash from his squirts being so acidic on his pee pee. She gave us some extra strength rash cream, told us to bathe him every time he went poop-dee-doop and give him mucho naked time and sent us on our way.

Jack enjoying doctor prescribed naked time to give his manhood some air.

Jack later that day ate the rash cream and was such a mess, but his pee pee cleared up very quickly and he is back to normal again. I however still had to tackle the mounty of poopy and cream infested laundry. I spent quite a bit of time on stain removal, but now our lives are back to normal.

Jack after he ate the diaper cream being restrained by his Aunt Sarah.

Jack's many stained clothes from the day.