11.23.2008

Things I have done . . . and have yet to do!

The game is to leave in bold the things that you HAVE done. This really made me feel good about my life!Things I have done on this list...in bold:
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (does marching band count? How about Jazz band...)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower (on the trampoline!)
6. Given more than you can afford to charity (does tithing count on basically no income?)
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (then me and my mom slid down the banister with our sleeves!)
18. Grown your own vegetables (Besides my family garden, I have failed trying.)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train (well, we tried to sleep)
21. Had a pillow fight (just the other day with Sevy and Jon)
22. Hitch hiked (in the 'burg!)
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (to my shame)
24. Built a snow fort (I am from Idaho)
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon (I wish)
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run (I may have on accident in church ball, but I don't recall, so I won't count it!)
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (I think)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language (I don't think my spanish should really count)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (In high school I totally was satisfied with my long since gone savings.)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David (and have sketched it in person)
41. Sung karaoke (never again . . .)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant (not a full meal, but have bought a side order for a bum in San Antonio)
44. Visited Africa (one day)
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (not painted but sketched in art class)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (Family sport)
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud (love it)
54. Gone to a drive-in theater (like every weekend in Lubbock)
55. Been in a movie (4 square . . . the movie . . . if you haven't seen it, you are missing out!)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business (yes and no)
58. Taken a martial arts class (kickboxing count?)
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (but I have consumed my fair share)
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (I cannot believe I spent so much time donating plasma)
65. Gone sky diving (in Canada of all places)
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp (I can't remember if we did or not when we were in Germany to pick up Brandi)
67. Bounced a check (after my study abroad. That was before Internet banking and a costly mistake on my behalf.)
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy (hello, packrat here!)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar (never)
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job (lame Atlas Marketing)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone (I've had bones be broken in for a surgery. I think that counts.)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (owned, but never personally bought)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (Thank you Liberty Tax, and small town living!)
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox (twice)
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit (not me, but Jon has, does that make me involved too since we're married even though we weren't married at the time?)
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Crafty Weekend

I've been super productive with my crafts this weekend thanks to a Branch craft activity Saturday. It really got me pushing finishing the majority of my projects. Here's a collection of them!










The cape is for my nephew Anders and the skirts are for my neices with the hair pieces to match! I'm also making these cute crayon rolls, but I'm not those are still in the works. I taught the bookmaking on Saturday, and also made the card tree and the 3 tree, and then the O we did at a girls craft night, and the tray I added the tree paper on the bottom because it had a really cheesy saying on it and I thought it made it more Christmasy! The hockey frame will be put up in Jon's office/soon to be Teik's room also so they can have a total boy/hockey/airplane room and so I can make Sevy's room all girly! It's already halfway there! Anyhoo--I love projects! Now I just have to finish Teik's stocking and Christmas will be set!

11.19.2008

A Full Day

Who knew a Tuesday could be so eventful! After I taught at the gym, we met up with our friends the Polls for story time at Barnes and Nobles and then wandered around the wonderful Pearland Town Center. These girls are crazy together, yet a lot easier to handle when they are together.
After Jon got home from school, we decided to have a Chick'fil'a dinner (it's a once a week tradition basically) and let Sevy play in the playplace. Well, as luck would have it, she tripped and yet again busted up her chin in the same exact location. The good thing is she is now well trained in getting it cleaned and bandaged and is very cooperative in the process! (ps-don't you just love her punk rock bangs?! I mentioned to Jon that we should have dressed her up as Jem for Halloween. If you don't know who Jem is, you obviously weren't an 80's child!)
To finish off the day, we decided it was time to introduce Teikers to solid foods. At first he wasn't so sure about the new food . . .
Then he decided it wasnt' so bad and actually enjoyed a few bites . . .
And finished it off with some finger-lickin' seconds! My favorite part of this picture is the fact that the slobber/cereal is pooling on top his belly! I'm so thankful my kids are good eaters! What a great fun-filled day!

11.09.2008

Oh Sevy!

Today on our way home from church, I washed Sevy's hands--which usually means treats. I have a stash of Swedish fish in my car that Sevy knows about, but brought fruit-by-the-foot as our special treat for the drive home. Here's the conversation.

Sevy: I want fishies.
Me: I have something better than fishies, but we can't tell daddy because it's a secret.
Sevy: I don't like secrets.

two minutes later after eating a fruit-by-the-foot.

Sevy: Mommy! I like secrets!

Oh Sevy!

11.02.2008

One Bad Week

We just had the most unbelievebaly bad week--but it could have been worse.


Manic Monday: Actually, the best day of this week. We only had Sevy try to wash her toys with diaper rash cream. That was fun to clean up. That night, both her and Teik decided to wake up about every 2 hours since neither of them ever do that normally.


Tuesday: It started with finding Sevy on the couch with her frozen chicken nuggets poured into a bowl with crumbs everywhere. She also had 3 mini packets of Sixlets (previously located on the top shelf of the fridge), and an Otterpop amongst her pile of crumbs. I got her upstairs and changed and focused my attention on myself and Teik, and of course it came to the time that I had to be out the door to get to work on time (and I wanted to get there early because I just got clip-in shoes and had no idea how exactly they worked). I gathered up the troops and naturally, Sevy had changed her outfit into basically pajamas again--her favorite outfit. I give up and load 'em up and we get to the gym, and I hear wheezing coming from my back tire. I give it a look over and sure enough, a huge nail and air rapidly coming out. I drag the kiddos in, ask the front desk for the closest tire store (same parking lot!), run into my class explaining the situation and saying I would be back (I had 10 minutes to do this), and quickly drove to Firestone before I would have to change the tire to avoid ruining the rim. I explain I'm in a hurry and I know I'll need a new tire (they were balding and this was a huge hole), and the guy takes his dear sweet time, so I have to sprint back and get to my class 5-10 minutes late huffing and attempting the new shoes. After class I lug back to the tire store with Teik in his carrier, 3 bags, and Sevy walking. We get a new tire and head home. My class told me that at least nothing else should go wrong, but apparently, they don't know Ormson luck. Sevy turned into demon child later on, just to make sure the day ended with a bang.


Wednesday: I teach at the gym on Wednesday nights, so this week Sevy came with me so Jon could study. Afterwards we stop off at Salvation Army to see what they have. Sevy refuses to listen to me ever, so while I'm checking out, she runs off. Next thing I know I'm hearing a wailing cry. I go over and pick her up, not worried because she falls all the time, but this cry is worse than normal. We head outside to the car and I stick her in her seat when I notice blood all over my shoulder. I look at her face and she is still bawling with blood on it, but I am thankful it's not coming out of her mouth. I try to clean our hands good enough to analyze her boo boo in the poor lighting of the car and parking lot, hand her a tissue, and head home. Not being able to contact Jon, I call my sister Brandi to find out how bad a cut has to be for stitches. At home, Jon freaks and insists on stitches (I'm the calm parent in these issues thanks to my Dad's beliefs that butterfly bandaids are a fix-all). We take her over to our friends' house--who is a doctor--and he agrees that she'll be fine. Too bad Sevy's not really old enough to realize that this is the "hurt" that comes when mommy says, "Sevy, listen to me or you'll end up getting hurt."
Thursday: We had bought a pumpkin, and finally decided we needed to carve it. We found a pattern, and Jon worked his magic. Well, Sevy is scared of everything, and so when we went outside to have her and Teik's pictures taken with our masterpiece, she freaked because we stuck a candle in it. Teik stared at her freak out (nothing new since she's been terribly 2 this week), and she begged to go inside. Not really a bad day.

Helping Daddy carve
Screaming at the "scary punkin" and trying to get back inside while Teik stares at us.

Friday: We did our best to keep Sevy happy on Friday knowing we would be going trick-or-treating later on and I really wanted her to cooperate for once. About an hour before we were to leave, I had noticed her playing with this blue bath bead bunny thing, and had that thought of, "oh, maybe she shouldn't be playing with that," but didn't act upon it. A little while later she comes walking up to my bathroom crying that her bunny is gone. The first thing I see is my child with blue drooling out of her mouth. She has it all over her hands and face and teeth and legs and feet. I holler at Jon and he finds the huge spot on our stairs and wall. He attacks the house while I attack the daughter, and to be honest, they both still have blue on them. Thankfully, she did cooperate when it came to the fixing of the hair and wearing of the costume, and we had a fun time with friends at the Pearland Town Center. Oh, but we did notice the other back tire starting to look flat and Jon found a nail in that one.

Cow in her costume.
Yeah, you can still see the remnants of blue on her face and fingers.

Kenzi and Sevy.
And poor Teikers didn't even get put in a costume because of all the drama leading up to us leaving the house. What good parents are we?
Saturday: I was in debate Saturday morning on whether or not I would go to the gym. Jon had a school thing, and I didn't have to teach a class, but remembering the tire, I wandered in the garage to see how it was fairing. Yeah, it was completely flat. That was my decision maker. I spent the morning looking up tire prices around town and decided to go again to Firestone. Jon gets home and we attempt to air up the flattening tire to get us to the 5 mile drive we need to take. After two air compressors and a jack, he gives up and just puts our spare on. We drop the car off and head over to Jiffy Lube to get Jon's cars oil changed. Jon's car has issues. Well after being there for over an hour and having some kid who sounded like he was speaking jibberish, it comes out that Jon's oil cap had been put on wrong and someone tried to screw something weird into it, and all this mess that caused a 15 minute oil change to take an hour. Sevy meanwhile thought it would be fun to lick a magazine and roll across the floor. Gross. Well, thankfully we ended up with both cars fairly working by the end of the day--just in time to watch the Texas Tech game against Texas (Tech won!)! Later on, Sevy found a box of her bandaids and thought it would be fun to open every single one! Oh, Sevy also decided she could pour her own milk in her bottle (she gets her own water bottles all the time), so I found her milk carton basically emptied and her cup running over on the stepping stool in the kitchen sitting in a puddle. She's so independent.


Sevy was excited we let her "drive" the car while Daddy worked on the tire.


Sunday: Well, Sunday's are always a trial thanks to Sevy's new found tantrums and a branch of only 30 someodd people. We actually faired almost well, until we got home. After her nap she wandered upstairs and managed to draw on every single piece of paper in our printer. The impressive thing is she brought one drawing down to me saying it was a monster, and you could actually tell it was a body and four legs! Late, because it is the week of her getting into everything, she managed to go into my room, take off her poopy diaper, drop her poop off in a box with nail polish, and paint her nails--and the box--all in the space of like 2 minutes. Seriously. Where did this child come from?
I haven't decided if we are just really neglectful parents or just have an amazingly sinister 2 year old. Between the fits and the destruction, I don't think I could handle another week like that! At least not any time soon.