The last few months have brought on some life style changes for our family. We are trying to eat healthier and more naturally (but not be freaks about it). In order to provide my insides with more fruits and veggies, I have been trying some new tricks. One of these tricks is that I have started making daily smoothies (100% fruit and the healthy yogurt only). Tonight I decided that these smoothies aren’t doing anything for me. I tried to open a new bottle of 100% pomegranate and blackberry juice to put in the food processor and it was just an embarrassing situation. I could not get the bottle open. I felt like such a wimp. It was just a regular bottle with a plain lid on it. How sad is that? What’s the point of all the fruits and vegetables if I am still going to be a weak sap? Sure, I could start pumping some iron but I not concerned about huge muscles right now. I just want the small muscles I use for my fine motor skills to work. You know... The same muscles I am trying to get my 1 year old to use. Is that too much to ask?
We attended our first stake conference in our new area. It. Was. A. Disaster.
First of all, I got home around nine pm the night before and we had to leave our house by 6:30 am to make it to the stake center on time the next morning (Benjy gets home from work at 6:30 so that is tough). Well during the night, the power went off and stayed off! Benjy got home and I was still sacked out. So he woke me up and we got ready crazy fast in the dark. We shared one flash light between us and had to shower, get dressed, and groomed in the dark (it was pouring buckets outside so there was no sunlight). Needless to say, I am just proud my top matched my skirt when we left, forget the fact that my hair looked like a haystack and I was wearing no make up. We also had no milk in the house and were low on food anyways because I got back after the store (I had spent the week at my parents house) had closed the night before. We finally left the house and were starving because we couldn't cook anything and there was no milk for the stinking cereal. We ended up breaking down and bought breakfast at McDonald's in Hawthorne (i know, tisk, tisk). We made to stake conference late but we made it. It's okay that we were late though because they went WAY over at the end. By this point, Benjy is exhausted (he had worked a 12hr grave yard so he had been up since 4 the day before), I looked like death warmed over, and Rees had smashed food all over himself so we had had it. Unfortunately, we needed to have the Stake Presidency sign our temple recommends so we waited around the extra hour for that. By the time we headed home, Rees had screamed the whole 3 hour drive.
I think we complained away all of our blessings that day.
Now that it is all over, I kinda think it is funny but I was totally ready to kill someone that day. Isn't it funny that when ever your trying to attend things like the temple, a conference, or even just church EVERYTHING goes wrong? I figure those are the times you really need to be there. We are making a temple trip in two weeks. Better start praying for us now folks. Our track record lately shows that we need to weight the scales more in our favor.
Benjy refers to our Reesie Boy as my little helper. See how much help he is?
Rees helps me dust by turning everything on and clearing the shelves of all dvds.
After I had finished vacuuming, I had to wake up Benjy for work. While I am in the bedroom I can hear the kid laughing and making horsey noises. The kid had un-tidied the room for me and was riding the vacuum like a horse. Mr. Helpful loves to do laundry. He likes to run around with the clean clothes on his head. He also likes to take out the drying rack and pretend it is a maze. After a hard after noon of helping momma, the kid is tired. Nap time! This would be momma's reward :)
...like the fact that you are boring and don't have anything to say.
Seriously, I might as well become a mute. My conversation skills have gone right out the window. Today I took Rees to the park. Going to the park ever single day gets pretty dull for me so sometimes I call Toni and she takes pity on me and comes out too. Well, today she came out with us and then I realized I don’t know why I called her because I have nothing to say. There is nothing going on in my life to report, I haven’t learned any new tricks, and though I am finally catching up on current events, I don’t know enough about the topics to have a constructive discussion about any of them. So I have spent all evening mulling over this sad discovery and I have come to a few conclusion.
1)It’s not that I’m boring; I am just not that interesting at the moment. I have tons of hobbies and little thrills that keep me busy all day long. I actually have a hard time going to bed at night because I want to stay up keep playing. The problem is that most of these hobbies are solitary things and not good convo starters. Benjy, bless his heart, does a great job of acting interested in my little ventures. He asks me questions and tries to come up with new ways to do what I’m doing but lets be honest, he is really just humoring me.
2)Part of the problem is that there aren’t that many people where I’m currently living. The whole mommy and me thing doesn’t exist here. I have only met one woman here with kids that is a stay at home mom. When you have something exciting like a job to focus your attention on, who wants to hang out with the other crazy moms and the nutzo kids? My point is lack of people equals lack of entertainment/striking conversation.
3)My honey works a lot. I am in no way complaining about this. As long as he has a job and he likes it, he can work until the cows come home. However, this means we don’t go out and do a lot. There aren’t that many new and exciting experiences to be had while hanging out alone with Rees all day.
4)I have the mommy gene. There are no if, ands, or buts about it. I spend 95% of my time with Rees so he is mostly what I think and talk about. Also, I am convinced when you have kids your intellect shifts. Even though I feel much more stupid than I did while I was in school, I am haven’t lost that knowledge. It has just changed. I no longer spend my days studying the lifespan of human development. I could care less about why Jan Van Eyck’s painting of the Arnolfini Weddingis so profound. My brain now functions in providing balanced meals, making sure checks don’t bounce and that we are maximizing our finances, and whether or not I should immunize my son. All of these things do take thought but they aren’t things that spark amazing conversation (actually, the immunizing part does tend to spark heated conversations among some people). I have been spending a lot of time listening to the lectures Academic Earth but no one besides Benjy is going to want to sit and listen to me ramble about what I learned.
So there is it. Now that I think of this, I should have told Toni all of this. At least it would look like I have something to say. I do feel better after getting my feelings out there or maybe it was the feel good bowl of ice cream I just ate.
What do you guys do to feel interesting and give you something other than your kids to talk about? And by the way, no one is allowed to leave any, “I don’t think you’re boring!” comments. It’s the thought that counts.
Some days I get so frustrated I start making mental lists to make my self feel better. The sarcastic kinds of lists. For example, today I started a "Things I Will Not Miss When Rees Grows Up" list. Here are a few items. I will not miss
-Cleaning up Cheerios and milk every morning -Restacking all the dvds and books several times a day (I should just move them but I choose to delude myself into thinking I can teach him to stop) -Rees flinging the shower curtain back to yell something at me in jibberish just after I have gotten all nice and toasty warm -The kid yelling either park, nemo (pronounced momo), and truck constantly (Sometimes I hear him yelling these words in my sleep. Serious) -The running back and forth from the front to the back of the couch while Rees chucks either his pacifier or football ball over the couch. -Rees sticking his fist in my mouth and then laughing everytime I yawn (Proof that he is Benjy's son)
Even though these things drive me nuts, the thought of the kid being to old to do this stuff anymore makes me shrivel inside. I'm totally torn. Except for the fist in my mouth when I yawn. I don't think I'll miss that one.
We drove the June Lake Loop and it was GORGEOUS! It reminded me of Fish Lake in Utah only way better. If we had loose cash to burn and more times on our hands, we could of had some serious fun. The whole loop is less then 20 miles but it is jam packed. There are three lakes, tons of little resorts, spas, camp grounds, and cabin to stay at, and some way cute touristy shops. We also spotted quite a few cool looking hikes. Oh, and there were ducks. Lots of them. This impressed Reesie the most. Every time he saw a duck he would start running really fast in the same spot and pointing while screaming as loud as he could, "DUCK!" Everyone kept giving us mercy smiles. It was pretty funny. Anyway, we have decided that we are definitely going to have to make this little area our special spot. I already can't wait to go back. We have to hit some more sites first though. Namely Mammoth Lake and Yosemite. We can't wait to see all those!
It was so hot, so interesting, and such a fun little day trip. We found out that this was only an hour and a half from us (right outside Yosemite) so we figured, why not? We saw this and a couple of other places that I have pictures of too. I'll post them later. I am in love with having a whole new little region to discover. So fun.
Rees Story time. So the water there is disgusting. It was a salt water lake which makes it nasty on its own but apparently it is way more salty that The Great Salt Lake and the ocean. The lake is chuck full of brine shrimp and alkline flies which equals sick nasty smell and looks. Rees is standing there throwing rocks into the water (of course) when he stops throwing and starts pointing at the water. While he is pointing he starts yelling "poop! Momma poop!" The kid then takes off and runs into the water that he is calling poop. Of course Benjy just stood there laughing and I had to go into the water and get him. He was in the water up to his hip and now we both were going to smell disgusting the rest of the day. Luckily I got over my anger somewhat quickly and we just spent alot of the drive with the car windows down. This experience made me realize that I need to teach Rees that is he is relating something to poo it is not a good thing. Whatever. Maybe he can just add things like to the list of "Dear Therapist, my mom screwed me up by..." .
My husband and I met on my first Sunday after I had moved to Utah. We became friends, then dated, then didn't date, then had classes together, then became friends again, then dated again, then got engaged, then got married! We were hitched December of 2004. Rees joined our family in November of 2007. We are happy, healthy, and crazy all at the same time. All I can say is bring it on!
