Is It Naptime Yet

In April we went up to Utah for my cousins wedding.

Here’s when we saw Zarina before the wedding.

The girls love her and had so much fun rubbing her head, holding her hands, letting her touch them and touch their soft dresses.
It was too cute and that is why I have a lot of pictures from it and a video.

I love the last two because of Lilah’s smile and then in the last one you, or at least I, can tell that Eden has a smile on her face.

Here’s how cousins interact when one’s a baby and the other two love her.

I thought I’d be home all week doing nothing so I’d be able to blog, but uh, I haven’t.
I’ve decided my scar will be big no matter what and that sitting at home is no fun.

Tuesday at 10:30 am they have story time at the library within the Springs Preserve so I thought it’d be fun to go, plus we could visit Jon’s parents and then hit Trader Joe’s ’cause they’re all relatively close together and I only needed light things like bread and crackers.

So we went to story time. The grandma aged worker, or around 70 aged worker, read stories and then began interacting with the family of three kids and a mom that had been there when we got there. The worker/ volunteer was interacting with the other three kids and not talking to Lilah, like at all. Eden was by me and not wanting to sit at the table so she wasn’t there to ignore.  I felt like it was a little awkward  and left, but I’m pretty sure that the three board books she read was were all she had planned since the last book was read at the request of the little boy.

We had fun and visited the places the girls love. Lilah was a huge help. She carried all we needed in her back pack, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to go. She did leave it behind one time and we had to retrace our steps to find it.  I don’t mention that she forgot the bag to others while she’s around because it was an honest mistake, I forgot it too, and I want her to remember how much she helped me and not that she almost lost the backpack.

We went to the Blake’s for lunch and the girls had fun playing. Lilah ate two pieces of half corn on the cobs and finished Eden’s off. That has got to be her favorite way to eat corn, or any food.

I then got a little lost looking for Trader Joe’s and had to call Jon to look it up for me. We got there and it went mostly OK. I was the mom letting my kids run a little wild in the frozen food area. They were just being silly until they almost tipped over my cart by climbing onto the side of it. Then they stayed by my side.

Today I did a number of errands in my Target shopping center. The girls got pretty good at staying by my side once we got to Target, we’d gone to three other stores, and they behaved the best they ever have in Target, at least for not being in the cart. The worst part was the heavy shopping cart that I had too push.

I’ve left all the stuff in the trunk for Jon to get out when he gets home. Most of the bags would be fine for me to lift with my left arm, but I’m too lazy and Jon would want me to wait anyways.

Britta had made gifts for Lilah and Eden so they came by this afternoon. The girls played and Sam and I talked. It was nice since she wasn’t up to doing much and I’m not suppose to do much.

I also had my car washed this morning and it rained this afternoon.

On Saturday I dished out the last pieces of my birthday cake to the girls and I. I hadn’t asked Jon if he wanted any at first because he usually doesn’t like the temptation. In fact he’s decided next year he doesn’t want a cake for his birthday and he mentioned not wanting one this year but we baked him one anyways since the girls were already looking forward to baking him one. I ate most of his carrot cake birthday cake because he was trying not to.

Apparently avoiding my birthday cake was not as easy. He likes German chocolate cake more than regular chocolate cake and the buttercream frosting was tasty too. I’m sure being home all day and having the munchies didn’t help. (He’s always hungrier when he’s at home and the only snack foods I have for him is cereal, crackers, cottage cheese, nuts and fruit. He goes through his daily intake of each snack food easily each day, as a snack and with meals, when he’s home all day. )

So I dished out my piece of cake and asked Jon, mostly to be polite, if he wanted any of the cake. He said he did. I didn’t really want to share and pretended to be sad as I gave him a small piece. He joked that he was eating the cake to help me. So I joked back that he thought I was fat. His response was he didn’t think I was fat but wanted me to live longer. My response was I probably am going to live longer than he does, so I need to catch up with him so he doesn’t die first. (I should outlive him by sixteen or so years if you look at the life span of men verses women and the fact that he’s eight years older than I am.)

Lilah has taken off with my comment about dying.
After our joking she asked if I was gonna die soon and then insisted that I was gonna die soon when I told her that I’d live for a while longer.

At church she mentioned I was gonna die soon.

Then today after lunch she mentioned it again.

I’m not dying anytime soon!
At least of natural causes.

On Thursdays the Springs Preserve host the Las Vegas Farmer’s market in the pavilion there. You don’t have to  pay or have a pass to get in and go to it, but you can’t go into any of the exhibits unless you’ve paid and gotten your hand stamped.

Jon and I thought it would be fun to go, so I told Sam, since she had also mentioned being interested in it, and we met up with her and Britta that night. It goes from 4-8 and we got there around 6:30pm. All the produce vendor’s were from Southern California. Their were also hand made items like necklaces, bears and other more natural products. I thought of my BIL Brien when I saw the handmade necklaces because they had colored fresh water pearl necklaces and he buys those for Andrea. She has like twenty different pearl necklaces that are all different colors. OK maybe not twenty but a lot.

The produce prices weren’t too bad. We bought most of our produce for the price of sales we’ve seen around town.

Avocados: $1.25 each
Cucumbers:$.50- down from $.75 each
Cantaloupe: $1 each

Then what we paid the most for:
Peaches: $3 a basket, a basket held 4 small peaches
Strawberries: $3 a basket, or 3 baskets for $8. A basket being around 16 oz. (The small strawberry baskets that strawberries use to come in.)
We were buying the 3 baskets for $8 but the guy only had 7 baskets left, so he tossed in one more basket, so we got 4 for $8 and then he had only one more “deal” left. He also told us a reduced price for asparagus, but we didn’t need any asparagus.

I learned if you go later in the evening the vendors start reducing their prices if they still have a lot left or if they’re trying to move out the last of it, so I think they just reduce their prices as a whole.

I got my cucumber for $.50 because she was talking to a man there who buys a lot of cucumbers and she reduced the price for him, no doubt to encourage him to buy more. I think they were gonna buy 15, then I bought one and the vendor said they were going fast, so then I heard him say around 20.

The produce we bought has been delicious. Literally the best peaches I’ve ever tasted and the strawberries have been sweeter than we’ve gotten at the store. Sunflower Market has had some pretty good strawberries, but these were much better as a whole.
The cucumber was also very tasty, I wish I had bought 2 or 3 and the cantaloupe was ripe and ready to eat when we bought it.

My avocados are still ripening but that’s normal. They’re nice large avocados so I can’t wait to put them in a salad or on a sandwich.

After the market we went and looked at the animals with Britta and Sam. Lilah wanted to show Eden the fox. It hadn’t been in it’s cubby hole when we went there as a family but she saw it on her date with Jon. Sam hadn’t even seen the fox yet because it’s always hiding. We were lucky and it was awake and in the display area. The girls loved watching it and loved it when the fox  would yawn. They love it when any animal yawns for some reason. I guess it’s just funny to kids. Then we let them play and they had lots of fun before we packed up and went home.

Jon was also a doll. He took Eden to the bathroom since you have to lift her onto the toilet, carried our bags of produce, and held my purse for me.

I’m so happy my husband is manly enough to carry/ wear his wife’s purse.

This is going to be the birthday post for May. Jon and I both had our birthdays so here’s what we did.

Jon didn’t like my idea of bowling so we went to the Springs Preserve for his birthday. Lilah had gone earlier in the week with Britta so she was a pro at showing us around.

 

Getting ready to hit the road.

 

Posing for a picture in the “canyons”.

The lizards were fascinating.

Jon was looking at Eden for this shot and Lilah was looking at me.

 

Jon likes stopping and moving the stone.

I’m tired of walking.

I’m happy to walk.

In the garden demonstration area.

Playing with the oranges in the trash place. (This was Lilah’s favorite and we didn’t find it until on our way back from the gardens. It was about recycling and energy use.)

We spent most of the day at the Springs Preserve and the girls and I got Jon’s cake in the oven after we came home.

Lilah choose the blue sprinkles and Eden choose the orange.

Happy Birthday Honey!

For my birthday we went bowling. They didn’t have a shoe for Eden in her size, the smallest size they had for children was 9 and Eden wears a 6 1/2. Eden started crying and the nice attendant let us use a size 9 on Eden free of charge. She did wear them even though I was sure she was going to trip and fall a few times, but she always caught herself.

The battery went low after I caught these few shoots.

 Lilah had a blast.

Even before we left she was talking about how much she was gonna love bowling.

I don’t remember the scores but Eden and Jon actually got a strike and I’m pretty sure Eden’s score was higher than mine and Jon’s was the highest.

After bowling Jon and the girls baked my cake and I took a nap.

Then for dinner I picked us up a pizza, that’s what’s on Lilah’s face.

It was a fun birthday.

Was my last day of work. Like real work in an office, not taking care of children work. I worked for Distance Ed at UNLV as a student worker and my due date for Lilah was a month away or June 27th.The contract ended on May 23rd 2003 and rather than put people through  the work of renewing a contract for a lousy 2 or 3 weeks I decided to quit the final day of the contract. ( They renewed student worker contracts every semester and once at the beginning the summer. )

Today I am filling in as the receptionist at my sister’s work. Theirs called in sick, Jon’s home and my mom was already at her other job, who is the normal sub. Any money is good money and this happens to be easy money.  (Jon’s getting the bedroom organized, but most of it’s his books and I have a few boxes, so I don’t feel too bad leaving him to the resettling of the room after I painted it for two days.)

I’m at the office now, but I don’t have my password for my blog so this will not be posted til I get home tonight.

I was a little nervous, but I know the people in the office and they’re very nice, even if they swear like sailors and watch you while you answer the phones to make you nervous. I don’t know real-estate lingo or what goes on so when the people on the phone fire off questions I really wish I could answer them, but all I can do is redirect.

I just think it’s funny. Five years from the date of my final day at work I’m subbing  and “working” at least for the day.

Note from home: Jon had dinner ready when I got home and most of the stuff back in the bedroom and the dishes done. He even did some laundry, and folded it! (I admit I don’t always fold the laundry when I do it.) When Lilah was at the table waiting for dinner to be served and she had overheard some of my thank yous she said “Yeah, Daddy’s such a good housekeeper.”

“I don’t want to smell your bum!!” This is what Lilah was telling Eden when Eden wasn’t going to wear pajama pants to bed. By the way if we’re at home half the time she doesn’t wear pants during the day ’cause the whole potty training thing.

“I’m gonna throw you to the ceiling. Oops, I missed.” Eden said while throwing teddy into the air and then landed on the floor.

“I was frustrated.” Eden said this after being frustrated about something, I just thought it was cute.

“Anyways” How Eden closed a story she was telling me.

“Ey, yi yi.” Eden said this during a short awaking in the middle of her nap. I asked her why she said it and she told me she thought she was still at Britta’s but she was really home. (The girls had been there for 5 hours, two of which I was there talking with Sam, and Eden went down for her nap right after we got home.)

Jon’s taking the last two weeks off in May….So we’re finally going to paint our bedroom! (Shh, don’t tell him or he may not take the time off.)

Now we’ve lived in the house for nearly three years and haven’t painted, even though the walls are not a bad color, they’re just not me and they’re the same in every room, except the bathrooms. (We’ve never painted because of the amount of stuff we have and it’s all heavy stuff.)

I’m so excited and overwhelmed at the same time.

Andrea and Brien have the exact pattern for their curtains as we do, and they did a blue in their room with an accent wall.

I’m also wanting to do blue. The curtains have an obviously green color to the pattern, with some blue, brown and cream, so I want blue, but I want a lighter blue then they have. Our room is usually on the darker side and the lighting has a tendency to yellow the room. I open the curtains during the spring, but not during the summer because it gets too hot.

So I’m mostly worried about how the lighting will affect the color of the room or the paint I pick.

I’ve also never painted.

I’m a little worried since I’ve never painted and I tend to be a perfectionist.

I will also be doing most of the work and Jon’s job will be to move his books and help me move any other heavy stuff and then to watch the girls.

I’m excited and nervous at the same time. Jon also wants an accent wall, but I’m just not sure what color I would do and which wall.

I also need to do tons more organizing so the room’s halfway neat before I move everything around, otherwise it will be total chaos during and after painting.

Luckily Jon’s also wanting to simplify our lives, to some degree, so we’re both allowing more purging to happen of ‘things we may need in the future, but are pretty cheap to replace so might as well let someone else use them if they need it now and get it out of our house’.

Like I swear he wanted us to keep our two desk lamps that were given as wedding presents and don’t match ’cause they were given by two different people and one we didn’t register for, but he says I wanted to keep them. Neither of us care now so it’s bye bye lamps, you’re taking up too much space and are only worth $15 when bought new anyways. OK, may they were worth more, but if we’re in this house for a long time we won’t need them and hopefully whatever house we move too won’t need them either.

I’ve got so much to do still.

In other good news. We might get the table that we refinished from his parents out and used. I found the brackets online that we need to set it up, we lost them somewhere along the way of refinishing and never setting it up, and now we just need to measure and order. That will free up space under our bed and in our closet! And then I can work on refinishing the chairs and we’ll have a descent looking table set. It’s only been nearly 4 four years since we’ve started this project. (I know we are such wonderful do it yourselfers.)

This week has turned out to be a busy one, not intentionally, so it’s hindered the potty training, but I’m still letting Eden give most of the direction as of now.

Monday I cleaned our back patio, to a degree since we still need to put one more brick in and add the sand to the sand box.

Tuesday Lilah’s friend Britta had her “Grand Opening” of her restaurant and invited all her class friends. It was so fun for the girls. Sam had made menus and Britta got the orders and served all the kids. Lilah now wants her own restaurant, but I tell her I have to clean my house first.

Wednesday we needed to go sign the papers on our life insurance. It turned out UNLV was doing some Earth Day events for elementary aged kids and it was open to the public so we headed over a little early to pick up Jon and changed our appointment to a later time. It was a windy day and there were only so many things to see so we just made our new appointment on time. Jon was a doll and parked my car in the boon docks, other wise known as the Thomas and Mack, and he got it for us, so we only had to wait for him to come back.

Thursday I cleaned my bathrooms because Lilah’s class was canceled due to do half the kids being sick and another mom being out of town, so it left two kids for Lilah’s class, including her and two kids for Eden’s class.

Today I was flipping through the channels, which I never do in the morning, it’s always just on PBS, and the weather came on. Today was to be in the 70’s with it being 79 by 5 pm and light breezes. I decided that I hadn’t spent much time with the girls and a morning at the park would be fun. ( I think I was confused with our bad attitudes last week being a sign I hadn’t spent much time with them.)

I called Sam and we had a long morning at the park, I mean long, like nearly 3 hours. It was the perfect day and the girls had a blast. It seems like the weather heats up so fast sometimes so I thought Jon would be happy that I took the opportunity to take them outside and enjoy it. (I have a tendency to get stuck in a rut and not take the girls outside even on beautiful days.)

Tomorrow who knows what we’ll do with this beautiful weather.

So I would post this video with my caterpillar pictures, but I still need to edit some of them and this was just too fun today.

We had read a book on the life stages of caterpillars from a little girl’s perspective who had a caterpillar in her class. Towards the end of the book she had taken the butterfly out of the jar while it was on her finger and then it flew away. Lilah had mentioned doing this, but I wasn’t sure how the whole release thing would go so I warned her that they may just fly away without going on her hand first.

She was so happy to be able to hold the butterfly before it was released. It actually makes me a little teary eyed now to watch the video and hear her talk about the experience.

I love being a mom.