Is It Naptime Yet

Yesterday a new season of Fetch with Ruff Ruffman started on PBS. This is one of Lilah’s favorite shows. I was sewing so I mostly listened in.

That night at dinner Lilah told Jon how she saw a new episode of Fetch, and they had given the kids new names. I had seen that the contestants were different so I commented on how they were all new people. Lilah insisted that one of them was the same kid as last time.

Since I caught the tail end of the show I saw that once again they had an African American boy, like the previous two seasons. I learned in a criminal justice class that cross racial identification is difficult and often the witness incorrectly identifies if the suspect is a different race , especially when it’s a Caucasian identifying an African American.   I figured she thought it was the same African American boy from the last season.

I put my theory to test and asked Lilah who was the same kid. She replied the brown haired boy. There was a white boy with brown hair and he came on screen before the  black boy. I asked if it was him, she replied no. I then pointed out the black boy and she replied yes.

So my knowledge of cross racial identification gave me some amusement today.

I haven’t forgotten all I learned in college after all.

These aren’t the best pictures, but they were the best I could find.

Could you tell the difference between them?

I was giving the girls a bath this morning. I must not do this often enough because they were asking, “Where are we going?”. My reply nowhere, which is only partially true.

They need a bath ’cause it’s that time of the week, they get baths twice a week unless something makes them unusually stinky. I just don’t see the need to bath my children every day when they’re little and don’t produce body odor and it can be a big chore. Just see it as one way I’m conserving water for our drought ridden valley. They also need a bath because we’re running errands tomorrow and we’ll be spending lots of money since it’s the start of a new month, which means a new budget, which means I can spend a lot.  Well, I won’t be spending that much, but  we will be going to a few places and it will add up.  (Picking up contacts, buying fabric, going to lunch with Anna, going to Costco, buying gas…maybe even Target.) I have a lot of errands I’ve needed to run but have been putting off because of a couple of reasons, the first being the budget, the second being they’re all in Henderson and until I can spend money I should wait to go run errands. I could have picked up my glasses and contacts, buy why do that and waste the gas when I need to buy fabric and food out there too?

Anyways, I get sidetracked easily, if this was a phone conversation you’d probably have tuned me out by now, or in this case maybe you’ve stopped reading, but this post is for two particular people so all that really matters is they read this.

Eden was waiting to get her hands washed and wondering why they took a bath and said she wanted to go see Carolyn. I said we weren’t going to see Carolyn today but we might tomorrow while we run errands and have lunch with Anna.

Eden replies: “Anna and Carolyn are my best friends.”

So there you go, Eden loves Anna and Carolyn  a lot, I’m not even a best friend, I’m just the mom. 😉

I also love it because they’re a couple of my best friends too.

Update:
Just now Eden was wanting to talk and play with Lilah, but Lilah did not want to play. Eden was next to our fridge and I’m making lunch. Eden says she doesn’t have a friend to talk to, so I say she can talk to me. She says she’ll just talk to herself. I really am just the mom.

I’m not sure why I’m titling this post “Monkeys”, but I had a couple thoughts I wanted to jot down.

The first thought is something I overheard Lilah say to Eden this morning.

“That’s my throw-up bowl, don’t play with it!”

Thankfully it was never used, nor do I think Lilah really needed it, but she said her stomach hurt.

Something I said:

“Let her play with the bowl, you never threw-up in it. It’s fine.”

Also Eden takes after me in a silly way, besides looking just like me.

She is obsessed with tickling us. At home, at the store. She likes to take her hair and tickle you with her hair and once she decides to tickle you she keeps tickling you, for like a long time, at any place and at random times. I have to tell her not to bend down on the dirty store floor and tickle my feet at times. I think she starts playing with her hair and just decides it would be fun to tickle someone and whatever part of you which is easiest to reach, she tickles.

I also like to tickle my family members, but I don’t use my hair, nor do I tickle feet, unless you’re a member of my little family. I think they have cute feet to tickle, and eat, but I only “eat” their feet after a bath, ’cause it’s just gross any other time. ( Just for clarification, I will tickle Jon’s feet, but I will never play “eat” his feet, they are way to big and have hair, and that’s just gross to eat feet on anyone older than like…seven, or whatever age I decide to stop eating my girls feet. Their feet may be forever cute, but once they’re bigger than my 6 1/2 sized feet I’d definitely stop. )

So there are some random fun memories and an insight to my craziness.

Remind me not to write blogs after being awake for 17 hours and only getting 5 hours of sleep the night before. I know some might call this motherhood, I call it torture.  I need 8 hours of sleep.

I was going through our mail from the week and I looked at a credit card statement of a card we no longer use and it said we had like 17,000 points.  I asked Jon what the points were for and if we could redeem them. We ended up redeeming about $170 in gift cards to Target and a gas station.

Needless to say I’m glad I noticed the points.  We are needing to up our gas budget since I’m driving around town more for yoga and homeschooling events.  The Target card will go towards Christmas presents.

We’ve spent a lot this month, like a lot in extra expenses, so it’s always nice to find extra money.

I also stayed within the grocery budget this month. Third times a charm. To help me stay in budget I used around $20 in coupons, which helped me come under budget. I had my Smith’s rewards coupons, where you get 1 % back, and I went to Fresh and Easy, yes I found it, and used a $5 off coupon. As long as they keep sending those I’ll definitely shop there, plus they seem reasonably priced for many things.   Now we need to work on our miscellaneous spending, or budgeting so we don’t have lots of high expenses in one month, tuition and my glasses being the two largest costs this month. Yuck.

Being an adult is so expensive.

Lilah has a small fever still.

My house smells like little girl pee.

I think I’m going to go insane

How can something so good stop at a drop of a hat and turn so bad and then become so good again?

At least I hope it becomes good again.

Saturday I went and did my duty to clean the chapel. Bro. Moe had called Wednesday night while I was at a dinner. He called at 9:09 pm so, he was at least closer to the 9 o’clock hour and it was three days before I needed to be there. Jon asked him to call earlier next time.  I’m hoping I’m not called to clean the chapel for another year or so. I figure we only have the responsibility every other month and we have at least 200 active families. Anyways, I learned who Bro. Moe is, an older gentleman who I would think by now knows not to call late and I don’t know if I could consciously be rude, or firm to him. Somehow it’s easier when you don’t know who they are.

After I returned home I got the girls ready to go to the Springs Preserve with Jon. It was Eden’s date with Daddy and she asked if Lilah could come. They went hiking and had lots of fun. I guess, since I wasn’t there. I stayed home and worked on my lesson and did various tasks around the house and watched part of a movie and enjoyed brownies ala-mode in the afternoon. It was a nice time, but I did miss them towards the end.

Our stake Relief Society Presidency had a dinner before the General Relief Society Broadcast, so I prepared and went to that at 4:00. It was very good evening.

After the broadcast I did some grocery shopping and came home. Once home I noticed Lilah asleep on the couch, which she had been for most of my time gone, Jon informed me.  I felt her head to find she had I fever. Jon suspected, so we took her temperature and she had a fever of 101.3.

Lilah continued to have a fever this morning so only Eden and I went to church. She still appears to have a fever tonight. I’m not sure what’s caused it, because a high temperature is the only symptom she has, besides being tired.  Eden has been doing excellent this week on going to the potty so I really want to take her to dance tomorrow. I think I will go and just not have Lilah participate in her class. I figure she has no other symptoms and if she just stays with me on my lap she won’t spread her odd fever only germs and Eden can still enjoy her reward for being consistent this week. It’s tough when you have two kids and they affect what the other can do.

I’m hoping Lilah gets over the fever soon.

Today would have been Lilah’s class with Beth but we had a change of plans.

While I was at a family dinner Wednesday night Sam called. I got home late, at 9:15, but I called her anyways. I know her, she’s my friend and my curiosity was too strong to wait till morning.  She was up when I called her at 9:20 pm. She called because the children’s singer Jim Gill was going to be at the Clark County Library today. Jim is Sam’s favorite children’s artist and we have a CD that we got through Sam with a few of his songs. The girls love his songs.  He only comes to Vegas about once a year, and it was going to be a free performance so I decided to cancel with Beth and have fun with the girls.

We got there early so we could get good seats, but they let the school kids in before us anyways. We still had nice seats and the girls had fun. Lilah had a total ball dancing to every song. Britta thought it was a little loud and had her ears covered at first and then got into it more later. Eden was a bit of a hermit and only danced when I wasn’t trying to get her to dance or when she really felt the music.

It was very entertaining and fun for us all.

I bought a CD he signed for us and took a picture of the girls with Jim.

Since the Clark County Library is right by UNLV we stopped by Jon’s work. I barely got a parking spot because the man pulling out pulled out in a advantageous way and I slipped in before the other car. We got there at the same time so it wasn’t obvious who should have gotten the spot.  I forgot to get change before we left so I only had 70 cents, which afforded us 41 minutes of parking, 47 with the added 6 minutes that was still on the meter. Lilah really wanted to go to the small museum there but we only had enough time to see Jon’s work cubicle and eat lunch. It was a beautiful day. The weather was perfect in the shade and we had a slight breeze. I think I’ll try to visit him a little more often during the fall and we can have picnic lunches till it turns cold, because I am a baby about cold weather and even though I live in Vegas and it’s not that cold here, it’s cold enough for my liking.

After lunch we came home and hung out. I took a short nap, well I took about two short naps before making dinner.

After dinner we went to Cold Stone for free ice cream, which wasn’t completely free since it was for Make a Wish, so we donated what cash we had. After that we tried looking for a new store, Fresh and Easy, but we couldn’t find it. We didn’t see it on the way there, though on the map we checked once home we should have spotted it on the way. Oh well, I’ll just wait till the one right across from my local Smith’s opens up.

Now it’s bedtime and tomorrow I will have a new sister-in-law and all of my parents children will be married. It’s a miracle.

This week Eden had to skip her dance class. Lets just say going in the potty went out the window this weekend, but since she had to miss dance yesterday, she hasn’t had a single accident in the past two days. I’m focusing on staying home, except some special exceptions, and getting her to go to the potty. I think pull-ups at nighttime is the only acceptable thing right now. I know we can do this.

The second thing I’m focusing on is the dress I’m making. I get really absorbed in sewing, as long as it’s going well. I hate having to take out a seam, and I had to do that today. Had I read the directions I would have put the interfacing on the wrong side of the fabric, rather than the right, which was so wrong. I’m to a point where I need to fit the dress before going on because I want to make sure I added enough fabric before I sew in the two side seams.

My mom’s machine has been a dream. It even cuts the threads for you, except when it doesn’t, but I think that’s more because of me than the machine.

I wish I had a sewing room, that way I could just sew and get back to it whenever I wanted and sew til the second I want to stop. Until that day I will continue to sew and then clean up my mess for the meals. I think that’s one reason I try to finish things as soon a possible, to help get the chaos of fabric and sewing machines out of the way. To tell the truth I can’t wait to finish this project so I can make the girl’s costumes and then a robe for myself. I’m really looking forward to my sewing right now.

Lastly, I get to see Zarina tomorrow. Andrea and Brien are coming to town for my eldest brother’s wedding, and they have a dentist appointment, which means Auntie Lacey gets to babysit. Of course they’re staying with Carolyn so I’m a little jealous.

Jon and I were enjoying a nice quiet night at home. We had popped the Netflix movie in, Bridge to Terabithia, and we were watching the story unfold.

Then the phone rings.

It’s 9:54 pm.

Who’s calling us at 9:54? I wonder if it’s your parents?

It’s not a number I recognized and I fully expected to hear, “Sorry I have the wrong number.” after I picked up the phone.
Instead I heard “Hello, Sis. Blake this is Bro. Moe*. We have chapel cleaning duty tomorrow and I’m going through the names for it. Can you be there at 9?”

“Uh, I’m not able to make that.”

“You have something going on around  9 am tomorrow?”

“Yes, I do. I won’t be able to make it.”

“Alright I’ll put your name down for the next time.”

I wish I could convey my confusion and the exact conversation. I felt like I should know that I was assigned to clean the chapel, or even that I had volunteered, but I had no idea that it was our turn this month and no idea I was up to clean the chapel this Saturday.

In our old ward it went by auxiliaries and people volunteered. Of course it usually ended up being the presidency members from each auxiliary, and not many families or other members volunteered. They also liked to clean at ungodly hours of 7:30 am. 😉
But you knew ahead of time that you had volunteered to clean the chapel.

Now I have no qualms with being assigned to clean the chapel, in fact it might be a better way to get members to come and clean the chapel.  I  also find 9 am to be a much more agreeable time, especially if I wanted to bring my children to help. What I have qualms with is not knowing I’m assigned to clean the chapel until the night before, and especially not knowing until 9:54 pm the night before.

I felt like he was trying to sneak up on me. ‘You’re assigned and nobody has morning engagements on Saturdays, so you must be available and can’t say no.’

I do have a morning engagement, it’s at 10 o’clock, but I like to take my shower after I clean the chapel and I wouldn’t have time to do that before my blood donor appointment. I also want to save my energy and not exert myself right before I give blood because I already have a difficult time donating.  Now I could cancel, but I really don’t want to.  Especially when you call me at 9:54 the night before. It just brings out my annoyed side, not my give service side.

Would you be as annoyed by this too?

*Names have been changed to protect the identity of a brethren I haven’t met yet.

Tuesday turned out to be a very eventful day. I went to see my eye doctor to have my contacts checked out. (I’ve mentioned the problem in a post about not being able to pick up contacts.)

I had dropped the girls off at my mom’s house so she could watch them for me. I then came back to borrow a sewing machine, and I guess pick up my children. My free $100 sewing machine is starting to act up. I would love to get a new one, but that will wait until we save for it. In which I’d rather go to SLC for a friend’s wedding that’s in November, compared to saving for a new sewing machine, though neither is happening soon. I’ll just have to keep borrowing my moms. 😉

I’m mostly borrowing it because I’m making a period dress for Beth’s daughter and I want to have the best possible machine in hopes that it will instantly improve my sewing skills 100% and help me sew perfectly straight seams. Really I just need more seam options than straight or zig–zag. There’s like fourteen button holes, my machine does not do button holes, and they want me to hand sew the skirt that is like 5 yards of fabric long. Ha! Like that’ll happen. So instead I’ll just use the invisible seam setting on my mom’s machine and save lots of time.

My machine also has problems when facing thicker seams and hers does not. Mine has a mind of it’s own because it’s so low tech and I get too lazy to take out the stitches because I know it will just do the exact same thing. I’m hoping hers will actually obey me, but I’m also afraid that it might be smarter than me and take over as I sew.  I can just see the fabric flying through the air as the sewing machine sews everything in sight. I’ll have to keep the girls far, far away.

My dinky sewing machine

My mothers nice sewing machine, probably worth more than Jon’s car. ( It also embroiders.)

Hopefully it doesn’t spoil me too much because we can’t afford her sewing machine.