The Short Version

I think I am the President of the Procrastinator's Club.  Of course, I wouldn't know, because procrastinators would just put off having their meetings, wouldn't they?

Anyway, I've been gone WWWWAAAAAYYYYYY too long from my blog.  And so much has happened!  But I'm afraid if I try to do super detailed posts of everything, then I won't get around to doing any posting at all, because I'll just fall further behind.  So, I'm going to do the highlights, and you can fill in the details in your mind.  I trust you to make up awesome things.

So, without further ado...

Pete had his birthday.  He got a computer mouse, and then some drawings done by the kiddos.  It was very chill.

I started a chore chart for my kids. Jakob had been doing bathrooms with me for forever, and the other kids didn't have any chores.  I revamped it, and now we have a rotation of several chores.  My kids have been really great about doing chores-eager, even.

I have to supervise them, but for the most part they do pretty well.  A couple of weeks ago Troy was on dusting, and I didn't know that he was trying to do it by himself.  Needless to say, I had to scrape off oodles of dust stuff off of my dresser.  But he tried, and I guess that's what counts.

I also got a laundry basket for each of my kids, and now they fold their own clothes.  I have to help Ivy a lot, but they do well folding their own clothes.  I'm not quite ready to have them try and run the washing machine by themselves, but it's helped me a lot to divvy out their clothes for them.

Brock lost his two top teeth in the last little bit.  I love the toothless smile.

We spent mother's day with my parents.  It was really fun.  My mom is a spaz.  She's so cute!

My cute friend Sara got some free tickets to a show called "Handsome Little Devils", so she invited me and our other friend Anna to go. The actors do a lot of juggling tricks-that kind of thing.  It was really impressive. And I got pulled up on the stage!  The actor next to me had me hold some roses out in front of me, and he whipped the tops of them off while balancing on a ladder!  It was really cool.

We had an Easter egg hunt at my parents' house, in the 400 mile-an-hour wind.  Idaho "spring" is very, very windy.

Ivy had her third birthday.  For some reason, I always space on the candles for cakes.  Also for some reason, I had a brand new "1" candle, but that's it-no others.  Awesome.  So that's how we ended up with two matches as the other candles.

She got some clothes, and some hair things, a Tinkerbell doll, and the movie Bambie.

I was outside on a Saturday, and Troy ran out to be with me.  His hands were in his jacket.  He tripped, and fell flat on his face on the driveway.  I saw the whole thing and couldn't do anything to stop it.  So very sad.

A few days later, Troy graduated from preschool.  He loved preschool, but he is so ready to go to kindergarten in the fall.

And speaking of graduations, Brock graduated from kindergarten.  Their program was really cute, and I thought I would cry a lot, but I didn't.

(Okay, so here is where I tried to insert a video of Jakob's piano songs, but it wouldn't load.  Good job, blogger!  So, maybe someday I'll get it to load, but until then, just pretend that you can watch that video here.)

I had my piano recital.  I've been teaching Jakob this year as well.  He did an awesome job!  He was all, "My legs were shaking a lot!"  And I don't know why he decided to stand while playing, but whatever.  He did great, as did my other students.  I played as well, and did pretty good, but botched the end of my last song.  Oh well, though.  It's not the first time I've messed up a performance, nor will it be the last, I'm sure.

Also, I look like Beaker when I play the piano: my eyes are really wide, and my mouth turns down at the corners.  It's neat.

Right after school got out, I got sick, for a week!  It was way super awesome.  I love being sick.

We took a quick jaunt to Utah for Pete's mission reunion.  I was a little bored but I think Pete enjoyed seeing some of the people from his mission.  We hung out with family, and went to Thanksgiving point, to the dinosaur museum there.  I had no idea why Ivy is crying in the above picture.

They have a digging spot at the museum, where you can uncover "bones".  All my kids enjoyed that part.

All of my boys have individually told me that they want to either study or dig up dinosaur bones.

We ate at Benihana on the way back home.  The kids' menus folded up into hats.  Troy zonked out with his hat still on.

And, this last Sunday, Ivy decided to take some scissors to her own hair.  The pile of hair she chopped off is in her hands in this pic.

She did a very thorough job on both sides of her head.  It was very mullet-esque.  It's kind of hard to see in the pictures of it.  Needless to say, we needed to get it fixed up.  I figured a cute little pixie hair cut would work.  And, of course, all this happened before I got her 3-year-old picture taken.  Because I've been really on top of things lately.  (Pres. of the Procrastinator's Club, remember?)

Here it is, all fixed up.  Pete thinks it's kind of boy-ish, but I think if I keep a barrette in it then it will be feminine enough.

Well, that pretty much catches us up to speed.  Sorry it's not heavy on the details, but I just wanted to get 'er done, you know?  So that maybe, someday, I can step down as the President of the Procrastinator's Club.  You know, when I get around to it.

Memory Monday: Window "Pain"

Sorry my Memory Monday is a bit late.  It's been a bit crazy today.

See that scar on my finger?  You know, the scar that I circled in bright red?  This is the story behind that scar.

It was wintertime, January of 2006. We had lived in our current house for all of 5 or 6 months.  I was about two months along in my pregnancy with Troy.  Now, this is important.  Because I honestly was super crazy the whole time I was pregnant with Troy.  The kids would walk by me, and I'd be like, "DON'T WALK SO LOUD!!!!  AAAAHHHH!!!!"  In that spring we had planted some grass, and I went out and used the weed wacker on the weeds growing above the new grass on the whole entire lawn.  And we have a big freaking lawn.  Everything made me mad, everything made me sad.  I was the epitome of crazy.

So that day, my sister Lexi and I were going to get together to scrapbook.  You know, back when I had time to do cool things like that.  I went to the store with my two kids in tow, bought some stuff, and when I came home I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if I shoveled the snow off the walk for when Lex comes over before starting dinner?  Look at me be productive while having morning sickness!"  I had set the meat out on the counter, along with our other groceries, and went outside to shovel.  It wasn't quite dark out yet.

So I shovel-shovel-shovel, and then I went to go back inside.  Right as I reach for the doorknob, I hear a "click".  Jakob, all of a little over two, and Brock at 9-ish months old, had been inside.  And...Jakob had just locked the door on me.  Of course my keys were inside my house, and of course we hadn't made a copy of our key to give to anyone else or to set outside the house for just such an occasion.  In a nice voice, I said, "Jakob, honey, open the door for Mommy.  Just turn the little, um, thingy, the other way."  And my 2-year-old tried flipping the dead bolt part of the door.  Then I go, "Jakob, honey, keep trying.  It's the bottom one."  Of course he didn't get it.  I mean, he was two.  So then I knocked on the door, and the urgency built in my voice.  "Jake, please open the door.  You just have to turn the thingy on the knob.  Please, Jakob.  Wait-I'm going to the back door-please let me in."

And Jakob then ran downstairs.

I kept knocking.  I checked the front door.  I checked the back door.  Everything was locked-including windows.  Tight-like unto a dish.  Which, normally, would be a good thing.  On that day, not so much.

I ran around the house.  I rang the doorbell, and heard Jakob run upstairs.  I begged at that door for him to let me in.  He ran back downstairs to watch TV.  I climbed down into our window well and banged on the window, hoping he'd peek through the blinds at me.  Nada.

I sat down to try and figure out what to do.  Now, a normal person would think Hey!-run next door and ask to borrow their phone and call a locksmith!  But remember, I was not a normal person at this time.  I was Crazy Pregnant Nat.  I thought about going next door, but to call Pete, but knew he couldn't get to me for another two or three hours because of traveling back from work.  I thought, hey, I could just hang out over there until Pete gets home, but no, that would leave my kids in my house all alone.  Hmm, what in the world should I do????

I did the only "logical" thing that I could think of.  I would just have to break in.  Literally.

I grabbed a big hammer thing, and tried to find a suitable window.  Which one?  I didn't have a ladder (hm, still don't), so it would have to be one into which I could easily climb through.  The only one that I could see that would work was our big sliding glass door in the backyard.

So, right now I'm making it sound like I was being all calm and collected at this point.  Far from it.  Which kind of goes without explanation, because hi-I was about to break a big glass door.  But my mind was all, "THE MEAT IS ON THE COUNTER-IT WILL GO BAD!!!!  BROCK IS DOWNSTAIRS CRYING-WHAT IF HE'S HURT?!?!?!?  I WILL NEVER REACH MY CHILDREN!!!  THEY ARE GOING TO DIE IF I'M NOT WITH THEM RIGHT THIS SECOND!!!!  AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!"  Kind of Mama Bear meets Axe Murderer meets Xena the Warrior Princess.

I took my big hammer, and swung at the door.  It hit.  And bounced off.  Nothing!  So, I try again, but a little harder.  Everyone and their dog was like, didn't you know it was going to shatter everywhere?  Um, no, I did not, having never broken a window/door before.  I actually thought I'd break a little hole right by the handle so I could reach in and flip the lock, and the glass would just have a little hole in it.  But no.  The whole entire pane shattered into little pebble-like pieces.  But then I discovered something else-our door was double paned.  So I had to do it again.

Each time I swung, I turned my face away and closed my eyes.  Smart point-the only smart point of the night-for me.  But, stupid point for me-I was holding my gloves in my left hand as I swung with my right.  Why I didn't put my gloves on while swinging my hand at broken glass is beyond me.

I hit through the second pane, and barely realized that my finger got sliced in the process.  I immediately started crying.  There was glass everywhere in my kitchen, and outside.  I went to the kitchen sink for my finger, dripping blood as I went.  And then I got on the phone, trying to find anyone that I could to come and help me.  I called my mom's cell, then my parents' house, then Lexi's cell, then my dad's cell, then my dad's work.  No answers anywhere.  I called Pete and told him what happened.  I went downstairs and said, "JAKOB!  Why didn't you let me in?!?!?"  He was calmly sitting on the couch, watching TV.  I think he thought he'd be in trouble if he came back up, which is why he was hiding.

I finally got ahold of my mom, and she came over.  In the meantime, I tried to sweep broken glass with a bleeding finger.  I tried to calm my baby Brock while bleeding everywhere.  We went to the urgent care.  My skin on my finger was hanging on by a thread, so they basically pulled it off and then sewed it back on.

For the next week I had a brace thingy that I couldn't get wet.  Showering left-handed (I'm right) was quite the adventure.  Then I had to take the brace off and could barely bend my finger.  That night my family had to stay with my parents until a replacement door got put in.  We propped up some cardboard to help keep snow out of our house.

And now I have a reminder of my Crazy Days.

And my glass sliding door doesn't work as well as the original.

Fragments

Brain scattered.
Back hurting.
No drugs for three days. (Hooray!)

Ivy three stitches on chin/lip.

Bonked on couch.
Trooper.

Progress with potty.

More stickers than shown.
Very few accidents.
Still glad in Pull-Ups for now, though.

New blinds finally put up.
After 2 months.

Better late than never.
LOVE them.

Now curtain rod holes to fix.
Home ownership standard, I think.


Shopping done.
Christmas cards done.
Lots and lots to still do.
New "must do"s coming this way, every day.
Got Coke.
Should be okay, then.

Hot Fun in the Summertime

It's weird. I feel like I've been having a super lazy, laid back, just kickin' it kind of summer, but then I look at all that we've been doing, and it's been kind of jam-packed. I feel very oxymoron-ish. You know, jumbo shrimp, and pretty ugly. Busy summer. Or maybe the oxymoron is calm summer. Either or.

I mentioned in passing that Jakob took an art class at the beginning of the summer. They learned about mixing paints, and about different artists like Van Gogh and Picasso. Here's one of Jakob's masterpieces:

When I saw it, I was like, my 5-year-old painted that?!? I was impressed. He also did a clay thing, where they pushed different items into the clay to create molds and texture, but it was so brittle that it broke. Doh.

We've been playing outside, a lot. Especially the boys. This means that even though the boys are pretty good about keeping the doors closed behind them, sometimes they forget. So the ever-curious Ivy was leaning out the door, and either tried to step out onto our stairs or just fell out, and over the edge onto the cement. Don't worry, though, her forehead caught her fall:

Poor thing. I've been wanting to get a rail for forever, and I just haven't gotten around to it. Maybe that will happen this year (you know, now that the threat has passed-I doubt Ivy will be hanging out of the door again).

We got a swing set, which the boys have been loving. Pete's parents came to visit us a couple of weekends ago, and Pete and his dad put it together. The first day they kept doing different poses down the slide-on their bellies, with arms folded, backwards, as a train, etc.

I love this picture, of Jake's little grin. And it looks like Troy had just fallen off of his swing. Pure awesomeness.

We started swimming lessons for the two older boys yesterday. No pictures yet, mostly because they don't allow the parents to stay close by ("Go up to the viewing area! I'm the pool Nazi!"). But hopefully I'll sneak some in soon. Jakob stays busy during the lesson splashing around and wiggling a ton, and Brock stays busy refusing to do anything the teacher tells him to do, and will only go in if he's attached to her like a baby koala to its mom. I'm glad I pay money for these things.

And today we went to the park, and had a picnic with my sisters and mom. Here's my Brocky-foo-foo eating some watermelon:

It was fun to just go and play. It's been hot hot hot, but the kids don't seem to notice as they're running around being crazy and cute. Here's a little slide show for the picture pirates:

Like I said, I think it's going to continue to be a good summer.

Things I Haven't Done in a While. Or Ever, for That Matter. And, Why I Should be Famous.

Blogged. (Which is obvious.) As my excuse, I've been reading Harry Potter books. I've also been doing really exciting, bloggable stuff, like laundry, and scrubbing bathrooms. Yes, I live a life of constant entertainment. I'm surprised the paparazzi hasn't found me by now.

I let my two-year-old play with sparklers.

Look at that sweet little face.

And then, while we were trying to see the fireworks by the river from my front porch, I pulled a super great parenting moment and wasn't paying attention, and he grabbed the sparkler and burned his hand. The best part: as we were running him inside to get his finger under some cold water, an ember or something landed in his hair, and singed his hair off, and blistered his head. He'll have a sweet bald spot the size of a quarter for quite some time.

Sigh.

My kids are spazzy. Oh wait, that's a constant.

Jake, doing some kind of karate move.

Brock with his aunt Lex.

We went to the 4th of July parade. I go every year, yet it's really not my favorite thing to do. But the kids got candy, so who am I to complain?

Me, my boys, and Dylan.

I ran in a 5K. My first, and most likely my last. I'm a super wuss, and so out of shape. I didn't even run the whole time, either. My macho dad pushed my gimpy sister in a stroller thingy the whole way, too, and he was still outrunning me. On Sunday I swore that my legs were going to suddenly detach from my body, they hurt so bad. Good times.

My sisters, mom, and I got a pedicure. I should seriously do this once a month (I've only gotten a pedi maybe three times). They have seat massagers that massage your back while you're getting your feet pampered. Love it.

Kar and me, feeling the massage love.

I ate a Tootsie roll.

A Tootsie with my cute tootsies! I'm so clever.

Went to the zoo, with my cute sister Beej and her hubby Spencer (they visited this last week from New York).

Uncle Spencer with Troy boy.

My kids were being little lazy butts at the zoo, so they rode on Lexi's lap with her healing knee while my mom pushed them all.

Brock, who wouldn't smile for a picture with his new favorite aunt Beej until her back was turned.

Brock and Brianna.

Trying some new little hair ideas with Ivy's hair. She's a constant mover, so it's pretty hard. But we're trying.

The 'do.

Ivy from the front. The hairdo looked great from the back, but made her look bald from the front. Oh well-live and learn.

I also went to a drive-in movie, went up for an evening of girls' camp, and swam at Heise Hot Springs. But you would know all that if the paparazzi were following me.

Here's to new experiences, and fun summer things that I don't get to do very often!

And a slide show for those that want to steal pics:

Noteworthy or Not Worthy?

Well, been keeping busy. Some stuff has been eventful, but mostly we've just been hanging out. Pete had last week off, and we started listing-literally-the things we wanted to do as a family. So I wrote stuff on a ratty receipt.

I think we did everything on the list, except go to a drive-in movie, firstly because it's been raining (where are you, warm weather?) and secondly the shows out right now are not ones I'm dying to see. Pete redeemed his birthday massage that I had bought for him, we went swimming at Green Canyon, we took Tuna in to get checked out, Ivy got shots, I picked up the super cute yearly pics from the store, and Jakob started a once-a-week art class.

We also got sick, and the boys got super sunburned:


I've been re-reading Harry Potter-just finished #1. Can't wait for the movie!

Jakob finished Kindergarten. He says he's glad to be done, and I'm both glad and sad that he's done. He's still reading up a storm, and I know I need to harness that this summer so we don't let the skills slip. He and Ila have grown so much! Here's the first day of school (top) and last day (bottom) pics to prove it:


We ate Olive Garden and got it to go; and because I have bad customer service karma, my order got messed up. So I had to take it back, but then got a $15 gift card. Aw, yeah!

And Ivy is starting to take steps without holding on to things. Oh, and I am trying to learn the ways of the baby girl hair, and have done pigtails a couple of times. Knowledge in progress, my friends. (Could you just die from that smile?)

I think it's going to be a good summer.