Mommy-brain strikes again!

I think I've hit a new low in the forgetfulness category. This morning, I forgot to EAT BREAKFAST. I never forget to eat! I love to eat, and I really like breakfast. And I'm always nagging my kids to eat breakfast. It's the most important meal of the day, you know!

Our routine was a little different this morning. Ben had to get to school at 8:55 for a field trip to Seattle, so we left the house at 8:35 to pick up his friend, drop Jillian off with a friend so she could catch the bus, and take Ben and the friend to school early. I got home, excited that I have the whole day without the kids. I put dinner in the crockpot and did the dishes while listening to a few General Conference talks, then went upstairs to pay bills. I was sitting at my computer entering electronic transfers when my stomach started growling really loudly.

"That's strange," I thought. "I'm usually not hungry at 10:30 in the morning." And I'm not, because I usually eat a good breakfast.

Then I started feeling kind of shaky and light-headed. Sure signs that I haven't eaten recently.

That's when it hit me that I hadn't eaten breakfast! Sometimes I get really busy and knowingly eat a meal later than normal, but I never actually FORGET to eat.

So as I'm posting this, I'm eating a big bowl of homemade granola mixed with "Crunchy Nuggets" (Safeway's generic brand of Grape Nuts) and dried cranberries, and a little bowl of vanilla yogurt. The shaky, light-headed feeling is subsiding, and my stomach isn't growling anymore. Hopefully I won't forget to do anything else really important today, like pick up Ben and his friend from the field trip this afternoon!

Bug Eyed

Ben had three friends over to play before school today. They all got along very well; for the most part they played up in Ben's room. I'm not quite sure what they were playing, though. When I went up to tell them it was time for lunch, I saw one of my bras on the floor of his room. It definitely hadn't been there earlier. I picked it up and asked Ben to come out of the room with me for a minute. I asked him why he was playing with my underwear. He said he was using it for their game. "What game were you playing?" I asked cautiously. "We were being bugs. It made really good fly's eyes," he responded.

Ben-isms

I've read a few really cute things that my friend's kids (Brooke & Michelle) have been saying recently, and I thought I'd better record some of Ben's before I forget.

The other day we were enjoying the sun at Faye Bainbridge park and talking about how happy we were that it was nice enough to be at the beach. Ben said, "I want to go to Foint Noint Noint." (translation: Point No Point, our favorite beach)

This evening, Kylie was singing a song she learned in her Spanish class. Here's Ben's version: "Mamasita, oh where is Santa Claus? I hope he won't forget to cross the neck and hit, and hear his reindeer say Oh Dixie! Ole! Ole! Ole!" Hmmm...I'm not really sure of the real lyrics, but I think it's something like "I hope he won't forget to click his castanets..."

Then a while later, he came upstairs coughing and gasping for breath. He told me that Kylie and Jillian had been smothering him with pillows. I got him a glass of water and told him to take a break from their playing. He went back downstairs and told his sisters, "Mom says I won't last a day."

Mormon Kids Got Talent

We had our annual Primary Talent show last night. What a hoot! The kids are so adorable, and so talented! We had some amazing displays of physical talents: pogo-sticking, cartwheeling, jumproping, skateboarding, hoola-hooping, dancing, funny face making, handstands, splits, roller hockey, baseball. And musical talents: recorder, trumpet, oboe, flute, piano, singing. As well as creative talents: reading, story writing, joke telling, acting. Several kids set up displays of: art work, card collections, car collections, scientific labeling of frogs, lego creations.

I was very impressed by the variety and quality of the kids' talents. For the most part, the kids were very confident and not afraid to get up in front of the crowd, a talent in itself!

Jillian's display of her artwork. She has been taking an art class with Chantal Kollodge and is really enjoying it.

Ben reading "Puddles". The sound isn't good, but you can at least see. The story goes like this:

"Mouse jumps in a puddle. Mouse gets his boots wet. Mouse jumps in a puddle. Mouse gets his pants wet. Mouse jumps in a puddle. Mouse gets his shirt wet. Mouse jumps in a BIG puddle. Mouse swims."

If it had been a story about Ben, it would have had a few extra pages. Insert "Ben takes his boots off." after "Ben gets his boots wet." and "Ben takes his pants off." after "Ben gets his pants wet." and "Ben takes his shirt off." after "Ben gets his shirt wet." with the final page reading "Ben swims naked!" But then it wouldn't be an appropriate children's book!

Why I Love Spring

"The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle
And the hills the greenest green, in Seattle..."

I learned that song in elementary school music class when I was about 9. I'd forgotten the rest of the lyrics until I Googled them, but those two lines describe one of the reasons why I love spring.

Here are a few more:

Our AFV moment

Too bad Brad didn't have a video camera running this afternoon, he's certain we could have won the $10,000 prize if he did.

Here's what happened:

One of his hives died, so he got more bees this afternoon. If you've never seen a box of new bees, this is what it looks like (these pictures are from 2005):

It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon, so I decided to go outside and watch him put the new bees into the hive. We have a chair out close to the hives where Brad likes to sit to watch his ladies, so I thought it would be a good place to sit. He asked if I was sure I should be so close, and I said, "I'll be fine, I don't mind the bees." So he proceeded to open the box, put the queen into the hive, then release the rest of the bees. Kind of like this:

I had forgotten that there are literally thousands of unhappy bees streaming out of a small box, anxiously trying to find their queen. Brad was wearing his bee suit, like in the picture above, but I was just wearing my normal clothes. Within seconds, bees had honed in on me. I sat very still, trying not to aggravate them. I closed my eyes and took calm, steady breaths. But I could feel them crawling in my hair, over my face, on my legs.

Brad wasn't paying any attention to me since he was trying to get all the bees out of the box, but eventually he looked over at me and said, "Uh, Jen, there are bees all over you!" and I said, through clenched teeth, "I know, and I'm trying not to freak out!" He got his brush and came over to brush them off me. He told me to slowly stand up and start walking towards the house. He brushed the bees off me as I walked. When I was about halfway to the house, he said he'd gotten them all off. Then he said, "Stop, there's another one in your hair." So I stopped and let him brush it off.

The next thing I know, our dog Matzo is running towards me, crashes into my legs and knocks me flat onto my rear end. I hadn't seen it, but he'd gotten stung on his nose and took off like crazy, straight at me, for some reason! Brad was laughing hysterically and saying, "Poor dog!" Every time he tells someone the story, they all say, "Oh, poor dog, is he OK?" Poor dog? Poor me! Good thing I've got lots of padding on my rear! I think I twisted my ankle a little when I fell, it still hurts.

So what do you think, should we try to reenact the scene and send it to AFV?

16 Years

Today is Brad and my 16th wedding anniversary! I can't believe it's been that long. It feels like just a few years, but an eternity at the same time. I can't really remember life before being married. Is that because of the mommy-brain syndrome, or the fact that being married is so wonderful it overshadows everything else? A little of both, I guess! I have been very blessed being married to Brad. He's a wonderful husband and father, and my best friend. I just dropped the kids off at my in-laws and Brad is downstairs cooking dinner. He told me to go up and relax until dinner is ready. He's the best! Here are some pictures of us over the past 16 years:

Our wedding day, April 10, 1993.

Christmas 1994

At a friend's wedding, October 1996.

2001

Our 10 year anniversary, April 2003

Valentine's Day, 2005

October 2007

It's Finally Garden Time!

"The prophet said to plant a garden,
so that's what we'll do.
For God has given rich brown soil,
the rain and sunshine, too.
And if we plant the seeds just right
and tend them carefully,
before we know, good things will grow
to feed our family."


LDS Children's Songbook, #237




Tomorrow is the big day! We're getting a late start, but with the crazy winter weather we had, plus being gone the past three weekends, we haven't had a chance before now. We already have garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus, and rhubarb growing. Garlic and onions were planted in the fall; leeks, asparagus and rhubarb are perennials. I'm looking forward to another year of yummy fresh veggies!

6th Folder, 6th Picture

Brooke tagged me with this:

1) go to your 6th folder
2) go to your 6th picture (no cheating!)
3) blog about it
4) tag 6 people

So here's my 6th picture on my 6th folder. Although this was a little tricky since my 6th folder is titled 2008, which in turn has folders labled by month, which has folders labeled by the day the pictures are taken. Just a weird way my camera organizes the pictures. So this is the 6th picture in the 1st folder of the 1st folder of 2008 (my 6th folder). Are you confused yet? I sure am! Maybe I should have just kept going with the 6th thing...but guess what, when I did that, the folder only had 5 pictures!

I didn't even take this picture. I think Kylie must have. The big yellow football was Matzo's Christmas present. He can fit three normal sized tennis balls into his mouth, so Kylie decided to give him a ball that was more his size. He loved it! I haven't seen it around for a while, though...it's probably buried in the bushes somewhere.

I tag Corey, Tif, Ashley F., Erika, Michelle, and Lorilee. Have fun!

Back to Life, Back to Reality

That 80s song has been going through my head as I'm back to doing laundry, cleaning house, cooking dinner and running kids around after our wonderful spring break in California. At least we came home to sun, so it wasn't a huge shock to our systems!

About two months ago, I decided for Spring Break this year I would venture out of my comfort zone and drive myself and the kids down to visit Scott & Elizabeth and the Olivers, a trip of 20 hours by car over two days. Fortunately, Brad was able to fly down on Tuesday evening to join us and we both shared the driving on the way back. I was amazed at how well everyone did in the car. We've never been a "road trip" family, but with our new van, we've discovered that we can do it!

We left early Saturday morning and stopped a little over 1/2 way at the Parke's beautiful home in Cottonwood. It was so nice to have a welcoming place to rest. After being cooped up in the car for 12 hours, Ben was in hyper-drive and ran around their house with Caleb until we finally got them to bed around 10:30.

Deb, Troy, Ryan, Patrick (their "adopted son"), Caleb, Sarah, and Jon

We left the Parke's Sunday morning and made it to Scott & Elizabeth's by dinner time that evening. Elizabeth had so many fun things planned for us. It was a little crazy at times with seven kids and four adults (the video below is a perfect example of the craziness!) but we had a wonderful time.

The weather was warm and sunny, such a relief after our crazy winter weather at home.

We went to the beach every day:

(a cliff at Gaviota Beach, the rocks broke off in sheets forming this cool "bulls-eye")

hiked to the Wind Caves:

visted the Santa Barbara Zoo:

rode an 11 person Surrey Bike down the Santa Barbara beach path:

saw the Beifus mansion under construction:

walked around Solvang (little Denmark):

and downtown Santa Barbara:

Even our van had a good time! Doesn't it fit right in?

We did have a few relaxing minutes, too. I really enjoyed seeing Scott and Elizabeth interact with the kids, and watching all the kids get a long so well together.

Wednesday evening, we headed to the Oliver's. They live in a big, beautiful house surrounded by orange groves. The smell of the orange blossoms was heavenly. Brad really wished we could have bottled the scent and brought it home with us.

Ben and Emma picked up right where they left off, playing in the big Lego bin.

On Friday, Brad and Charles took Kylie and Nathan O. to Magic Mountain. They rode all the crazy roller coasters. Elisa and I opted for more sane activities and took the kids to the beach and a movie.

For some reason, I didn't take many pictures when we were with the Olivers. It seemed like old times, hanging out with friends, I guess I just forgot.

I was amazed at the beauty of California. I haven't driven through since I was in high school, and I know I wasn't paying attention to the natural surroundings then. This is the Ojai valley, most of the trees are orange trees.

Here's Mt. Shasta at sunset:

We left the Oliver's on Saturday morning and decided to drive straight through. It worked out pretty well since one of us could sleep while the other drove. We arrived home at 4am Sunday morning. It was good to be home after all that time in the car, except for the fact that Brad turned the furnace off when he left on Tuesday. The house was 50 degrees and our beds definitely weren't warm and cozy!

And now we're back to life, back to reality. But I'm definitely up for another trip soon!