Grandma to the Rescue

I recently had the busiest week I can remember. I suddenly had a million things to do every day, errands to run, babysitters to coordinate, meetings to arrange, a very crowded little day planner. Taking care of children is a full time job in itself, but add the following, and your brain might explode:

six piano lessons,
a co-op day in Josh's classroom,
parent teacher conference,
three dentist appointments,
Bible study,
volleyball practice,
volleyball game,
pumpkin carving date with friends,
Josh's gymnastics,
preschool scheduling/parent committee responsibilities,

birthday cards to send out, 

trick-or-treating,
library books due,
book group coordination,
visiting teaching x4,
a friend's birthday party,
husband leaving town for a four-day business trip,
not to mention the new church calling I recently received that required me to lead a presidency meeting, attend a stake leadership meeting, somehow fill 15-ish primary positions immediately, and arrange everything for a baptism that weekend.

My body actually had a physical breakdown and got sick at the end of the week, but it was nice to be forced to rest.

I realize that what I just described might not even compare to some of your average weeks, but for me...yeah, I was gonna explode all over. Brains and guts everywhere.

But...BUT...

It just so happens that my fairy godmother-in-law had scheduled a trip to visit her grandsons that very week. What are the chances?? She was able to make my life one thousand times easier by serving as my 24/7 babysitter, my laundry fairy, my child bather, my dishwasher, and my therapist, among other things. She basically kept me from a mental breakdown that week. The timing couldn't have been more perfect, or the company more delightful.

Grandma Cheri, we cannot thank you enough. I know you might feel like The Help when you're here, but please don't stop visiting! We love you to pieces!

Something New: Weeks 45, 46, and 47

November 4 -- This week, I broke out of my shell a little bit when it comes to phone calls. For some reason, Shy Mimi doesn't like talking on the phone -- especially to people I don't know, people I need something from, professionals who might think I sound stupid, or insurance/credit card companies. Basically just about everyone.

This Sunday, I ended up with the urgent responsibility of calling as many church families as I could to remind them about a little girl's baptism that afternoon. Since it wasn't announced at church that day, people were concerned that no one would show up.  I had to call to ask people to come to a baptism that I myself was too sick to attend or help out with. Uncomfortable for me, but I did it without too much hesitation. Baby steps, people!

November 5 -- Ordered Girl Scout cookies for the first time. You would too, if you saw how cute this little neighbor girl was who knocked at my door. I also tried a new recipe that night with noodles, bacon, spinach, and butternut squash. Kinda weird for me, but such is butternut squash. I tried to be healthy.

November 6 -- Voted for local people at the polls. I'm a bad enough citizen that I'd never done that before. Goal for next time: care more about my local government. This means research the candidates and make careful, intentional decisions instead of just voting for people because they are women.

November 7 -- Met with my friend Annette so she could teach me Cub Scouts 101. I knew pretty much nothing about Scouts before that morning, and it's important that I at least learn enough to be able to follow what's going on with my Scouts in Primary. I'm coming along slowly.

November 8 -- Got some beautiful new dishes in the mail, which were an early Christmas gift from my dear mother-in-law. Now that we finally have enough plates to serve company with the same set, we are officially grown ups!

November 9 -- Started a little scripture study journal. With Primary constantly on my mind lately, everything in life has been relating to my calling, especially stories in the scriptures. Also, with so much new information coming my way, I've learned that I have to write everything down if it's going to be remembered and executed. Hence, the scripture journal.

November 10 -- You may want to sit down for this one.... I ate fish. FISH! In my mouth! And I didn't even gag or spit it all out! (Maybe just some of it.) Matt bought three kinds of crusted tilapia and cooked them for me to see if I could tolerate any of them. We found a potato-crusted one that tastes kind of like a hash brown, and that was the winner. I'm not saying I smiled during dinner, but I almost cleared my plate and didn't even try to run away. After years of feeling nauseous from the slightest smell or texture of fish, this is a huge victory!

See my new dishes? I love them!

November 11 -- Had the Bassetts over for dinner. This is Matt's old boss, his wife, and their teenage son (the youngest of seven), who is the BEST with my little boys. It was a good night. I'd been intimidated to have them over, but they were really glad to be here. They said they actually don't get invited to dinner much, so I was proud that I sucked it up and played my best mature, sophisticated hostess for the night.

November 12 -- Called my credit card company to ask them to drop a late fee, and actually got them to do it! Old Shy Mimi would never do this. Remember how I suck at talking on the phone? Well guess who's been growing a pair this month...

November 13 -- Cooked acorn squash for the first time. Someone at church was giving them away and I grabbed a couple. That stuff is like candy! I love it!  I also got to try an amazing dessert that Matt brought home from his work dinner at the Country Club. It's called peppermint oreo pie, and it's divine.

November 14 -- Checked out The Hobbit from the library so I can read it before the movie comes to theaters. Can you believe I've never read this before? Matt is ashamed to call me his wife.

November 15 -- Tried a new recipe for dinner -- Curried Lentils from OurBestBites.com. Smelled like Indian food, and tasted like Indian food. It was filling, but not heavy. It felt healthy sitting in my stomach, and it was easy to make in the crock pot. I just don't have a husband who likes curry, so there is a ton of it still sitting in my fridge.

November 16 -- Took my boys to the doctor for the sole purpose of getting flu shots. I've never done that before, because taking my kids to the doctor has historically been the worst, and I'm still not sure how I feel about flu shots. But, I did it. It took two adults to wrestle Josh onto the table because he is a really strong, stubborn fighter, but once they poked him with the shot, he suddenly stopped screaming and said "Hey, that didn't hurt at all!"  No, Josh. I'm sure that poke was nothing compared to the death grip I had on your legs and arms. Maybe next time won't be so bad. Again, baby steps...

November 17 -- Wrote the first installment of a book that Matt and I are going to write together. This one is about our relationship. We have a funny love story, and I want to write it in a way that our kids might want to read someday. It will be a perfect keepsake.

November 18 -- Participated in my first 3-way G-chat (eww, that almost sounds dirty) with some of my Chicago friends. G-chat is like Skype. I say "Chicago friends" because that's where we met, but they are currently living in Boston and San Francisco, WAY too far away from me. It was a really fun chat, and it made me very homesick for them.

November 19 -- Tried a new recipe: Nutella cookies. (Actually Matt did most of the baking, but I ate them.) The cookies weren't bad, for using only four ingredients. We gave them to Josh's little friend Luke for his birthday, because he really really loves Nutella.

November 20 -- Visited an assisted living center here to scope out a place for a Christmas piano recital. It looks like it will be just right.

November 21 -- Made the brine for our Thanksgiving turkey all by myself. I didn't actually touch the raw turkey or pull out the gross giblets (thank you Matt), but I did the whole brine alone. Maybe someday I'll get the guts to prepare the whole turkey without help, but I think I would ditch the turkey altogether before sticking my hand inside one.

November 22 -- Had a new family over for Thanksgiving dinner. They're not actually that new to Midland, and we met them a while ago, but we had never had them over. It was a crazy, chaotic afternoon with a lot of small children, but we ate good food and played Rockband, so I'd call it a success.

November 23 -- Made a sensory bin for my boys. Jude loves to help in the kitchen, and sometimes it's the only thing that can prevent a meltdown. So I got out some really old lentils from the pantry and let him mix them around in a bowl. Josh decided to play too, and asked for rice, which resulted in a big mess and lots of inedible tiny grains. I put them in a big tupperware for later and added a bunch of little random toys for them to dig for. It was a big hit! (And, did I mention, a huge mess?)


November 24 --  Went to the huge fund raiser warehouse sale here and bought a bunch of cutesie holiday things that I would never buy at full price. Like a Christmas tree serving platter, or snowmen salt and pepper shakers, or a Santa cookie jar, or eleven very cute rolls of wrapping paper. I came home so giddy, I took a picture! Christmas, here we come!

Superheroes and animals that say Rarrrrr!!

If you're like me, by the time you get around to posting about Halloween, you're pretty tired of Halloween posts. That's okay. I understand. So unless you're a grandparent, aunt, or uncle (in which case you are obligated to know how these boys dressed up), please feel free to skip this one.

Two nights before Halloween, we went to our friends' house to carve pumpkins in their garage. Josh surprised all of us by wanting to help clean out the pumpkin guts, and showed some pretty good knife skills in carving the face.

The above photo may or may not be two photos edited together, because it may or may not be flipping impossible to coordinate the timing between two smiles and a phone camera.

The previous weekend was the ward Trunk-or-Treat. We were able to take Josh's friend Luke Spiderman with us, which always makes the night more fun for everyone.

Thor and Spiderman always pose for a muscle shot before they battle. Didn't you know?

We forced our poor Baby Jude into a too-small tiger costume that used to be Josh's. The fact that he is TERRIFIED of tigers (real, stuffed, or costume) made for an interesting night.

By the time real Halloween rolled around, Grandma Cheri was here and saved the day with a new, comfy dragon costume for Jude. Fortunately, he could still use the "Rawrrrrr" he'd been working on for the tiger.

Please note Josh's Norse God faces coming up. He knows how to play the part.

Jude is now officially obsessed with candy. He can say the word, and runs to the pantry asking for it as soon as he wakes up until bedtime. He has even created stairs out of buckets to help him reach the candy high up on the shelf. Josh, on the other hand, is no problem. He eats maybe one piece a day, and that's all he asks for (when he even remembers it's up there). How many people can say they have twin-opposite-sons?

What's that? You'd like me to end on a SUPER cute picture? You want to see our grown up Halloween costumes one more time? Well alright. If yer gonna beg.

Something New: Weeks 42, 43, and 44

I'm stuck home sick today, so I might as well try to catch up here.

October 14 -- Altered my ever-growing pile of old clothes to make cool new things I might actually wear. Made an orange dress into a skirt, tailored a jacket, took in a sweater, and found a solution to fix the zipper on my favorite jeans. LOVE my sewing machine.

October 15 -- Made spiced brown sugar pecan coffee cake. It was good, but my hopes were higher. I made it for a preschool board meeting, but not many people touched it. For some reason I feel like I am the only one who eats the treats at these meetings.

October 16 -- Hosted the above mentioned preschool board meeting at my house. I've never had that group of people over before, and it was nice to have people to share yummy cider with.

October 17 -- Started reading Freedom and the Arts, a book given to me by my brilliant father-in-law because he knows I love music. It is a smarty pants books, so I can't read and process big chunks at a time, but it's interesting.

October 18 -- Went to my friend Mindy's new house. They painted their dining room the same pretty turquoise color that I painted my room as a teenager, so I love it already. Mindy was watching Jude that day while I helped in Josh's classrooms. Thank goodness for baby swaps!

October 19 -- Finally saw "The Lorax". I loved it! Our movie theater had free kids movies every Friday this month, so we went with a bunch of friends to this one. Jude was so surprisingly good and cute almost the whole time, and Josh just sat between his two friends like he didn't even need me anymore. So fun. If you haven't seen this movie, you'll love it, no matter who you are.

October 20 -- Bought some new rugs for the entryway. Still trying to find the right ones, but I think these will do for now. I cannot believe how long it takes me to furnish a house.

October 21 -- Finished writing the fall newsletter for the preschool. I've never had this job before, and for some reason I volunteered myself. I think it came out alright. No angry parents complaining  about typos yet.

October 22 -- Visited my friend Gretchen in her cute little country house. I love her. You'll love her too when you read her blog.

October 23 -- Started reading a biography of President Thomas S. Monson called To the Rescue. He's such a good man. I didn't get to read much yet because life recently kind of exploded on me.

October 24 -- Tried a new recipe for apple sour cream muffins. They were pretty good, if you like apples and muffins. I made them for Bible Study the next day.

October 25 -- Wore a new outfit! Remember that one I bought about a month ago on that special shopping trip to Detroit? I finally took it out of the bag. I didn't intend for the items to go together, but when I put them on, I think they worked. I actually had to send my sisters and mom a picture to get the okay, but let's pretend I didn't tell you that.

October 26 -- Went to an awesome Halloween party at some awesome friends' house, and I hope it's the start of a tradition. Matt and I dressed up as nerds and he stayed in character the whole night, complete with a nerdy nasal lispy voice, and frequent mentions of World of Warcraft. He won us second place in the costume contest. Hiding in the picture: a science fair ribbon on my shirt, and toilet paper trailing from my back pocket. And yes, Matt already owned those sweet shorts.

October 27 -- Met some new church kids at the Trunk-or-Treat.

October 28 -- This Sunday, I was sustained as our ward's new Primary President. (Yeah. I don't think the bishopric knows how old I am.) Remember how life exploded on me? This is why. Primary has been the number one thing on my mind since I was called a few weeks ago, and my brain is overflowing. So if you talk to me and I don't make sense for a while, please cut me some slack. I have over 90 kids, 20-ish teachers, and about a zillion auxiliary activities to learn everything about asap!

This was me all week, minus the coffee pot. Wouldn't mind that bright green skirt though.

October 29 -- Saw Misty's cute house for the first time. She's my new Primary secretary and is amazingly awesome in every organized way. Had to bring a bunch of secretary stuff to her.

October 30 -- Tried to use bleach in my washing machine for the first time. I've always been afraid of bleach for some reason, but I had to get those whites whiter! Of course I splattered little bleach spots on one of my favorite dark shirts, because those stupid big bleach bottles are impossible to pour from without a mess. FAIL.

October 31 -- Read the whole 2013 Primary Sharing Time Outline to prep for a meeting.


November 1 -- Went to my first parent-teacher conference for Josh. He's doing really well academically, except he doesn't seem to befriend the kids in his class. He won't play with them, but he will play with his old friends when they get together on the playground. Not sure what to do about this one, because I was a shy little introvert as a kid.

Fire truck day at preschool

November 2 -- Held my first Primary presidency meeting. We had a lot to cover, but I think it was a good start. I have the best presidency. Just meeting with them one time and feeling their support made me feel like a big weight was lifted off my shoulders. We can do this!

November 3 -- Attended my first Stake Leadership Training Meeting. It was good. There are a lot of great people doing a LOT of work in the church for absolutely no pay. It's inspiring to meet them.

Josh-ilosophy and Jude-itude

This post has been collecting more and more tid-bits over the last few months. Some of it is pretty old in baby years, but better late than never.

If you didn't already know this, my boys are crazy. Crazy in a very good and cute and funny way. Life is never ever perfect around here, but we find a lot to laugh about between the angry outbursts and the mess-making.

JOSH (4.33 years old) is growing up fast. I suddenly had to buy him all new clothes because he grew out of everything in, like, a week.

At preschool orientation, I saw him get chased down by a girl and kissed on the cheek. Seriously? Already? 

He knows about kisses, and privacy, and loves to say the word "awkward!" at the most inappropriate times. Matt gave me a long passionate kiss in the kitchen one day, and after a few seconds of silence, Josh shouted out "MOOOOVIE!!"  As in "movie kiss". He knows what they look like. Note taken.

Don't ask me who taught him the cheesy second-grade-picture-day pose.

One of my favorite things about Josh is his ability to make songs out of his random thoughts. He'll be sitting at the table playing with Legos, narrating an entire make-believe episode, and quietly start singing whatever words he knows to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song. Or he'll be taking his sweet time finishing lunch, and suddenly start laughing at himself because he thought of some funny alternative words to a primary song.

Or, my personal favorite, the stuff he makes up when he's overtired and slap happy on a long, nighttime car ride. His most recent rap went something like this: "Where's those cowwwwwwwws?....I wonder where they aaaaaaaare..." Over and over. And over.

On this same night, we had a rather incoherent conversation about how Josh's pee thinks and plans to jump out into his underwear, and that's why he can't hold it. It was very enlightening.

  

Josh is also very interested in the badness of cigarettes these days. Whenever there's a slightly bad smell anywhere (skunks, gasoline, it's all the same), he complains about the cigarette smell. He had a bad cold for a couple weeks, and after it was gone he kept this little fake cough for a while. His favorite excuse was, "I can't stop coughing because I know I smell a cigarette!" Not sure who's smoking around here, but I suspect Baby Jude.

Brother time on the Kindle.

More epiphany-like outbursts from Josh:

"If you were taking a nap on the road in the parking lot, you would get run over by a car, and then you would DIE!"

"If your head or your belly falls asleep, then you're dead. But not if your arm or your leg falls asleep, because my arm and leg have falled asleep, and I didn't die!" (This was after a conversation about bad places to get shot, i.e. bullets that could kill you because your brain or heart stops working, or "fall asleep".)

Josh: "We don't wear just our underwear outside. Because if you forget to put on pants, if somebody sees your underwear, they'll want to STEAL it!"

Me: "No, they won't steal it. We just don't show our underwear to people because that's the rule."

Josh: "BUT...if someone has really super COOL underwear, like Star Wars underwear or something cool, then someone WILL want to steal it!"

We like puzzles.

He got a magic eight ball (or "magic eight baller" if you ask him) from a kids meal. After testing it to see if it could give correct answers ("Is the TV a triangle?"), he started in on the big ones, like "Does the Earth explode?" and "Are there guns in real life?" I think we need to have a little talk about life.

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JUDE is my little sugar coated stink bomb.

He is in severe independent mode lately. He won't sit in his high chair (only a tall, twirly, precarious bar stool will do), fights against being buckled in his car seat, and wants to ascend and descend every staircase by himself (which takes forrr-evvv-verrr).

They both need hair cuts. I know.

Nothing gives him more pleasure than choosing his own socks in the morning from the top drawer, putting on someone else's shoes, or pouring water back and forth between two cups until the kitchen floor is a minefield of puddles.

He thoroughly enjoys experimenting with his food still. Not experimental eating, mind you. I can't get him to eat anything but his few basic staples. But whoever heard of a chef who didn't taste his own food?? Jude makes sandwiches out of banana slices and ritz crackers; soup out of hot dogs, applesauce and peas; and the rest of his concoctions we'll just call "salad stew", because that's the most flexible food term I can think of.

Jude says a lot of words now, but at the beginning it was always a loud "Yay! Yay! Yay!" and some hand clapping whenever he was excited about something -- usually food, and usually when I successfully understood what he was trying to tell me, like "go outside". So so cute. Along the same lines, when someone takes his toy or tries to get in his way at the faucet, he yells "Hey! Hey hey! Hey hey hey!" until we get the point. Also so cute.

Jude is kind of a work horse. He voluntarily sweeps all the time. If you ever say a word that even resembles "sweep" or "broom", you'll hear a little excited screech and the pitter patter of his feet running to the pantry for the cleaning supplies. 

He also really likes running errands for me, now that he can understand more. He takes pride in throwing away his own dirty diapers (thank you very much), bringing me the wipes, and climbing down to pick up whatever snacks or Legos he drops from the table immediately.

The cutest chore he does, though, is unloading the silverware. He LOVES this. And with the exception of most utensils being placed upside down, and occasionally feeling the urge to slice frozen peas with a plastic knife, he's pretty good at it. Not bad for a 19-month-old.

If he didn't spill so much, I would almost call him helpful sometimes. The slave driver in me is getting ideas...

But then, he's pretty much the best snuggler (maybe tied with Josh), so I can't complain too much. The blood, sweat, and tears turn into hugs, kisses, and squishes at the end of the day, and that's  worth it.