Mirror, Mirror

I can't decide if it's a cool thing that Brock can write his name so it looks like it would in a reflection, or if I should be worried about dyslexia or something.

This isn't the first time he's written his name mirror-image, either.

My Thermostat is on Crack

I love fall.  But with the awesome weather comes some not-so-awesome thermostat fiddling.  You know, because it's cold in the morning (I need heat!), then warm in the day (uh oh, too hot-better flip on the a/c), then cold at night again (and back to the heat).  Not that I'm constantly flipping back and forth-I try to either hold out when it's too cold and don a sweatshirt and/or blanket, or just stay a little bit warmer than I would like.

But yesterday it was cold in our house at the kids' bedtime, so I decided to turn on the heat.  Now our downstairs vents are still closed (because we've been mostly on a/c, and if the vents are open then I would have to wear a parka).  I thought nothing of it, because the thermostat was set to turn itself off after reaching a certain temperature.  Pete and I watched a show, exercised, etc.  When I came upstairs, though, I felt like I was stepping into a sauna.  The temperature?  83 degrees!

WHY did the thermostat not kick off?  Dude.  It's done this every once in a while (like three times ever), but I've caught it before it gets too high.  So then I flipped it to a/c.  And...it did nothing.  So then I forced it to blow cold air.  We also opened a few windows to try to cool it down even just a little bit.  We slept with the windows open, which means that this morning-you guessed it-it was freezing cold in our house again.

But I didn't dare touch my thermostat, because I didn't want it to do the weird stay-on-even-though-I'm-supposed-to-turn-off thing.  Also?  I don't know where it senses what temperature it says that it's at.  There are times when I am boiling, and it says it's 66 degrees, and times when I'm shivering under a blanket when just the air in the house should keep me warm enough on its own.  What's up with that?

My only conclusion: crack.

Memory Monday: Molten Chocolate Cake

This may not have been the first time I had Molten Chocolate Cake at Chili's, but it's the first time I really remember having it.  Which is weird, because dude.  It's chocolate.  You'd think I'd remember the very first time I tasted this yummy gooey goodness.

Chili's was one of the hot new restaurants to land in beautiful Cache Valley, Utah, when I was in college.  So it was a given that when one of the roommates suggested we eat there, we were all over it.  We invited some of our guy friends to join us, and for some odd reason, Pete was the only one that took us up on the offer.  Yep, Pete was pimping it with 5 very hot women.

When we sat down, Pete ended up sitting across from me at our table, and we were on the end.  Good food, good company.  When the waiter asked if we wanted dessert, I looked at Pete and asked if he wanted to split a Molten Chocolate Cake with me.  He had never had one, so sure, why not.

As we waited for our dessert, we started talking.  And...clicking.  The group conversation became a me-and-Pete conversation.  Rachel, the roommate sitting next to me, had to basically snap us out of our connection.  "Um, hello!  There are four other people sitting here at this table!"  I realized that we had been leaning into the table, eyes completely fixed on the other's.

When the dessert came, we split the cake, halfway down the middle, and pushed the ice cream to the side.  That's how we still do it.

Molten Chocolate Cake had never tasted so sweet.

Memory Monday (Yeah, I know it's Tuesday)

So, I've been wanting to do this for a while, but every Monday comes and goes, and then I think, "Dangit!  I'll start it next week!"  And, I'm tired of missing Monday, so even though I missed Monday again, I'm going to start.....

Memory Monday (Monday, Monday, Monday)

(That's an echo, by the way.  I was trying to make it all announcer-y, so it seems way cool.  Because even though it may not be cool, I'm okay with pretending.)

Hey, now that I'm halfway into this post, maybe I should explain myself, eh?

I have never kept a journal.  Wait, that's not true.  I kept a journal when I was in 8th and 9th grades.  And then I went back and read it, and it was all, "Oh, so-and-so boy looked at me!!!  AUGHH!!!!  I can't believe he looked my way in the hall!  AUGHH!!!!  He is SOOOO CUUUTTTEEE!!"  Yeah, total worthwhile journal.  And I was embarrassed, and never wanted anyone to read it, so...I threw it away.  For real, yo.

I have kept scrapbooks, though.  And I've written what's happened, and some of my thoughts and what-not.  But if I die, what will my kids know about me, my childhood, my thoughts?  They'll have some pictures.  But I wanted to write down some of my memories.

I like to blog (it may not seem like it because the posts are few and far between these days).  It's awesome to catch the moments as they are happening.  But I'm going to try this Memory Monday, so I can reflect back on some of the things that have happened to me, or what I've done, in the hopes of someday putting it all into a journal-esque thing.  And even if my kids don't give a flying crap, I still wanna do it.  I'm hoping to shoot for Mondays on this (off to a great start, huh?).  It may end up being "Memory of the Week", or "Sentimental Tuesday", or "Therapy Thursday"...but for now I'm sticking with Memory Monday.

So, without further ado, my first Memory Monday!

My mom recently reminded me of this event.  When I was a senior in high school, I was applying for college and scholarships and whatnot.  Utah State (Hey! Aggies all the way!) had a scholarship program called University Scholars.  As a senior, you go to Utah State, hang out, and then take a test that's a lot like the SATs.  I've never felt dumber in my whole life as when I took that test.  They gave you an example of "Black is to white as big is to.... a) clothes, b) little, c) green, d) humongous".  Then the actual test question would be "Egregious is to flagrant as vestigial is to... a) some other big word that I don't know the definition of, b) how do you even pronounce that?, c) relic, d) better not mark any answer unless you absolutely know for sure, otherwise guessing wrong gives you negative points!"  Good times.

Anyway, I was pretty nervous to go down and take the test.  And I have never been a morning person.  So we had to wake up really early.  My awesome mom drove me down, and my two younger sisters went with us.  I think we stayed overnight, but I stayed in a hotel room with a few other girls while my mom and sisters stayed elsewhere.  So, Brianna and Alexis were in the back seat, and I was attempting to get a little shuteye in the front seat while making the 2 1/2 hour drive.  And Beej and Lex were fighting over some Elmo toy.  I have no idea why, but whatever.  And my mom kept threatening, "If you don't stop fighting over that toy, I'm going to take it away!  I'll throw it out the window!"  And they would just not stop fighting over it.  At least, that's what it seemed like in my sleep-deprived brain.  So finally, I sat up, rolled down my window, grabbed the Elmo toy without saying a word, and threw it out onto the side of the highway.  I closed the window, and laid my chair back down and attempted to sleep again.

And my sisters were all, blink blink.  Blink.  Jaw drop.

They could not believe that I had the audacity to actually follow through with throwing the toy out the window.  I don't think anyone was expecting that, including myself.  I just...wanted silence.

I remember my mom promising to try and find it later on.  I don't remember if that ever happened, though.

I did not get the University Scholarship (though I got offered a different one).  I did end up going to Utah State.

But I have never really liked Elmo.

Because Ivy Needed a Post

So, I totally had a way awesome, clever title for this post, and it was all clever in my brain, and then when I went to type it out, it just kind of...plopped out, instead of flowing out.  But, as we say, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit!  Onward...

This little girl of mine is getting so big!

She's my barefoot baby. Ivy is always going outside without shoes on.  She loves to suck on blankets, just like Brock did. She loves to be where the boys are, doing what they're doing.  But she's very girly, all at the same time.  She loves it when I do her hair and demands that I hairspray it when we're done.

(the perfect "girly" shot!)

When she says yes, it sounds like "nyeo".  Which is awesome, because it sounds like no.  So for a while, after she would answer a question for me, I would ask, "Yes? or No?"  And she would reply with "Yes or no."  Super helpful, eh?

She is so very determined to do things her own way.  My mom took me and my kids to the zoo, and we were all absolutely melting into the sidewalks.  And Ivy just had to push the stroller the whole time.  She even tried to push it with Troy riding in it.

She and Troy love to go with me and Brock to the bus stop, that's only two doors away.  While waiting, Ivy found a rock, that she dubbed "Baby Rock".  But because she can't say her k sound, she would say "bee-bee raw!"  It's still around here, somewhere...

Love my Ivy-Lou-Who!

Dynamite!

This song makes me want to shake my booty. Whenever I hear it in the car I turn it way up and start drive boogy-ing.

I throw my hands up in the air sometimes, sayin' ay-oh, gotta let go!
I wanna celebrate and live my life, sayin' ay-oh, baby let's go...

Oh, Their Bags are Packed, They're Ready to Go...

(I wanted to wait to post about the kids going back to school until Troy had gone to preschool, too. Just...FYI. Mostly I'm just sayin' because I want to make myself feel better about not doing this 2 1/2 weeks ago.)

The first day of school for Jakob and Brock was cloudy and rainy and cold. But despite the nasty weather, they were still excited to start school again.

Jakob insists that he hates school, but whenever he says that, he says it with a big smile on his face. The little punk actually really likes school.

Every year I've taken the kids' picture out by our dogwood bush. I made Jake stand out there in the rain. You can just read his thoughts on his face: "Mooo-oom, do we have to do this in the rain? Come on!" Yes, yes we did.


The weather got a little bit better (not warmer, but not raining) by the time afternoon kindergarten rolled around for Brock.

He's been looking forward to school for forever. And he absolutely loves it.


He gets so excited. Every day he's like, "I LOVE homework! Let's do more homework!" Our kindergartners get a packet of homework on Monday and it's due on Friday. He finished it Tuesday. So today he's all, "Mom, I need to do homework!" And I'm all, "Um, it's all done already." And Brock says, "But Mom, I need to do homework!!!!" So we did a couple of extra things today.



Such an eager little guy.

It was so weird and quiet to have two boys gone at school. I was so excited for them, but a little sad, too. I missed them.

While the older two were gone, Troy and Ivy played together. Troy built a cat plane (that's what he calls it).

I picked the boys up from school, and Brock ran over and gave a great big hug to...Jakob. Well, at least he was excited to see someone.

After school the weather was much better, so I got a few pictures by our humongous bush.

Here are Jakob and Ila. They've gotten way too big in the last few years.

Last week Troy finally got his first day of preschool. He just could not wait!

He insisted on wearing his old scroungy Bumblebee shirt the first day. *sigh*

Ivy and I went with him the first day. But then Monday he went all by himself. When I got back in the car from walking him up to Miss Karla's door, Ivy gave me a look like, "So, we're not going with Troy? And he's not coming back to go with us?" It was really weird to have just one kid with me.

So far school has been great. Both Jakob and Brock have been champs at doing their homework without complaint. Brock rides the bus home with Jakob, and the first day they walked hand in hand. They both have been looking out for each other, which is so wonderful and sweet. I'm glad to be back in a routine, and getting up early-I get way more done now than I did in the summer.

But it's still kind of empty and lonely without my boys all home.