Faces

Masquerade. Will was sick so Reese was my date to the masque.

Just some faces:

Reese asked to hold Liam. I think in the picture he looks bigger than her. When I pick her up, she feels like she probably only weighs as mush as he does.

One Last Moment

Last post! Lets celebrate with something unusual.

Eee eEEEE eeeeeEE eeeeEE eee EEEEE

I have a friend who used to work at Jamba Juice, a smoothie shop. At Jamba you have the option to put a "boost" in your smoothie- basically add certain vitamins or something to make your drink healthier. At the time, they had a "femme boost" with calcium and iron, and folic acid. My friend told me about how the workers got all annoyed when someone would order the "fehm-mee" boost rather than the "femm" boost. After all, my friend noted, what word in the English language actually ends in a long "ee" sound when the only vowel at the end of the word is an actual e to make that sound?

What word indeed?

Ever since then I've taken special notice whenever I find such a word. I've come up with a short list.

Daphne

Penelope

Chloe

Phoebe

coyote

adobe

catastrophe

apostrophe

synecdoche

posse

recipe

maybe

me

There was one boy's name- but I can't remember what it was. So here's the challenge: What words can you think of that end in the letter "e" (not "ie" or "ee") that also end in the long e sound?

And how would you have pronounced the word "femme?"

If you don't know what this blog entry is about, here's the list. Check it out

Your Aspirations

I began thinking about this post when it occurred to me that I must not be a very ambitious person because I couldn't think of something right away that I aspire to be. I'm already a wife and mother, two things I've wanted.

Okay, okay, I've got it. I want to be an expert. In... something. I want to be the person who, when other have question about something they'll come to me. I thought cooking was going to do it for me, but it turns out that since I've become a homemaker, I haven't had a chance to practice my commercial cooking skills or learn new ones. I've never even made a wedding cake.

I want to be an artist. I don't care what the medium is, really. If I had further training in pastry, food sculpture or cake decorating I could be perfectly happy doing that. But I've also considered writing and sewing. Sometimes drawing comes to mind but then I don't think I have a particular talent for that. I think I've posted exactly one drawing on this blog that I thought was good enough to show off.

So. Yeah. I want to be better at things than I already am. That's what I aspire to.

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Something That You Miss

The sun. I miss warm days. I miss walks. I don't know why walks were infinitely easier with only one child, but we got out a lot more often when it was just me and my Reesy. Today we used a Kohl's coupon to get some free sandbox toys- normally something that would make me pretty excited. Then it started snowing. The forecast doesn't predict good weather until Wednesday.

I miss the sun.

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Your Favorite Place

Right now, it's Chick-fil-A. I've recently had tons of coupons to get free stuff, they have the only indoor play place in northern Logan, the food is great, the service is friendly, the place is clean, Reese likes it there, they make an effort to be a part of the community by holding family nights, date nights and craft time for kids, they do feel-good charity stuff and I don't have to do the dishes. Heaven.

Chick-fil-A has it figured out, because I actually enjoy spending my money with them. Not many places that take my money can say that.

PS: recently Chick-fil-A came under fire for catering at a political even held my someone against gay marriage. I am not one of the people who boycotted the restaurant. And I'm not asking for an apology. And if it were me, I would cater such an event, too.

To any one surprised that I didn't list "home" as my favorite place, I've been sick for the last week and my place is a mess. Messy places are not my favorite places.

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Your Fears

Happy St. Patty's day. I'm not wearing green, bu'cher gonna have to come visit to pinch me!

Right now my biggest fear is not having a job lined up when Will graduates. Terrified, actually.

My other fear is for my kids. I've been taught to avoid vain repetition in my prayers, so that they'll be more sincere. Well, I confess that I repeat the same thing every day in my prayers- Lord, please protect my babies! However I don't think this is "vain repetition" because I mean it from the bottom of my heart every single time. I'm terrified of what the world is going to do to them.

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A First

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We're Going To The Zoo Zoo Zoo

Spring Break! We decided that it would be fun to go to the zoo. Though the day was pretty nice, it had snowed and snowed and snowed the night before. As a result, the elephants and the rhinos weren't out. But, the ticket girl explained, the tigers are usually more active in the snow! Also, I think we spotted maybe four or five other small groups of tourists. Other than that, just the heaths, the animals and the zookeepers.

Can you see the tiger? Yeah.... not so active after all.

Feeding the ducks

Reese and Mama spread our wings like the small owl in the background

Reese poses by the baby croc that jumped up and snapped at her. Poor girl was terrified.

Turtle

I forget what this one is called.

"wild cat" that I thought looked like a common domestic cat.

Wolves. Notice all the snow. We had the zoo to ourselves.

Leopard. Or was it a jaguar? Either way, funny spelling and/or pronunciation. (I never understood why "leotard" and "leopard" were pronounce so entirely different, and I keep hearing people say "Jag-Yoo-arr", which may be right, but I grew up hearing it like "jag-wire")

Some type of cat hiding in the snow. Will tried to lift Reese up so she could look down and see more of him, but even I had a hard time.

Giraffe!

Giraffe again!

Ostrich

Camel

According to Reese, one was the "Reesy camel" and the other was the "Daddy camel"

Measuring up to the gorilla

Birds on the walkways.

Lunch at the Zoo. Since there was a foot or more of snow on all the outdoor picnic tables, we ate our brown-bag lunch in the dining room of a zoo restaurant. To be polite (since restaurant tables are only supposed to be for restaurant patrons) we got some ice cream for dessert.

Liam and the Monkey.

Reese imitates the birds.

And the monkeys

Giraffe!

Lemurs

I had to roll up my pant legs to avoid getting soaked in the snow slush and I griped a lot about it while we were there, but it really was a nice time. We took our time, didn't have to wait in a line or push through a crowd, and got out of the zoo at just the time we had preset to go- without even checking the clock. So it was pretty perfect. Except we missed the elephants.

Reese just told me that she needs ice cream cone. I told her "No ice cream cone." She got all upset: her face clouded over, she shook her finger at me. "No talking like me," she scolded. Then she ran off to calm down on her bed.

I think she meant "Don't talk like that to me," which is what I tell her when she sasses me.

Something That Makes You Cry

When I feel constantly overwhelmed and tired for days at a time and it's cold outside. That makes me cry. Also, I've heard a lot of crimes against children lately. In the news and in "The Kite Runner" which I recently watched. I get all scared and it makes me cry just thinking of one of my little ones in a situation like that. I'm terrified of that happening. I can see why some people are compelled to start movements and organizations in an effort to protect kids. I myself still believe that I'll be a foster parent someday.
Anyway, contemplating bad things that people do makes me cry. Depressing.

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Blue Tongue

After an Airhead from Chuck E. Cheese.

With cousin Ellie from Florida who came to visit Megan after having her baby.

Reese and Daddy make a snowman (theirs is the baby snowman that Reese is partly covering, the big one was built by someone else.) Reese said hers was the baby snowman, the big one was the Daddy snowman, and the Reesy snowman was hiding in the snow. Which makes sense because hiding is one of Reese's most recent favorite things.

Previous to Snowmen, Reese insisted on playing in the snow-covered playground.

Something That Makes You Feel Better

Cake Wrecks.

I especially like this one. Made me laugh again even though I'd read it before.

If you don't know what this blog entry is about, here's the list. Check it out.

Something That Upsets You

I watched "The Kite Runner" this past week. That upset me. Sad story.

I also get upset when I come home to a messy house. How does everything pile up so fast? Where the heck to all those PAPERS come from?

Woa, okay, that just hit the "irk me a lot" spot. Papers are officially what upset me the most.

Fliers

and junk mail

and scraps

. . . . and bills

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and handouts

and calendars

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and reminder slips

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and letters

.. . . . . . ... . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . and solicitations

. . . . . . . . . and to-do lists

. . . . . . . . .... . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . .. . . . . . . and pictures

. . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . and notes

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and receipts

. . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . . . . .. . and coupons

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and store circulars

.. . . and brochures

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . .. ... .. . . . . and instructions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . and

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... . . . . . . . . and

and Geesh! They're everywhere! We don't have enough space for

all those PAPERS. AAAaaaackk!

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No More Credit Offers

Okay everyone, I am about to write to some companies to reduce my junk mail. Wish me luck, I'll let you know how it turns out. If you have registered with any of the following, let me know how it worked out for you. I'm all nervous because it requires me to give out my personal information, which is how I started getting all the junk mail in the first place.

catalogchoice.org

optoutprescreen.com

Another Moment

Hey, remember this? Well, here's a follow up:

Will: I love you, Reese.

Reese: I Lub you, Daddy.

Will: Do you love Liam?

Reese: No

Will: Do you love Mama?

Reese: No.

Will: Reese, you can love lots of people at the same time. Do you love Gramma?

Reese: No. I lub Kenzie. (thoughtful pause) and I lub Shelly.

Will: Do you love Gramma?

Reese: Yep

Will: Do you love Mama?

Reese: Yep.

(Don't worry, Lauren, I asked her later if she loves you and she replied,"Mm-hmm." That's an affirmative.

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And now back to our regularly scheduled program: pictures of my cute kids doing cute things, this time with friends. (Thanks Amanda!)

Reese loves Ella and Sophia, and they had so much fun making these collages out of magazine pictures. Reese has since asked to repeat this project at home a number of times.

This Month

Okay I'm back. This "30 day" challenge is now bleeding into a third month, since it is now March. Oh, happy birthday Megan, by the way. So this month:

Spring break, hopefully spending time with the Greats and at the zoo. Hopefully Will gets a chance to see his family. Hopefully my brother-in-law's family will start having fabulously wonderful health, Will will apply to 30 more jobs (hint hint) and I will be able to start a better system that will enable me to do better at keeping house clean, studying scriptures and keeping better track of finances all at once.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, here are some of the top images that would result if you typed the words "This Month" into Google today:

And that is very interesting. Because I said so.

Oh, and I suppose this month I'll have to put up with March Madness.

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