MamaDrama: February 2008

Friday, February 29, 2008

Monday, February 25, 2008

Progress

Yes, still our kitchen. And yes, the kids and I had to move out at this point. Thankfully the "Newman Hotel" was open.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Looking at this picture you'd think either I had a lot or very little self esteem.
Actually, it was to demonstrate to a bunch of girls 8-11 yrs old at a stake "Faith in God" girls activity my thoughts on 'Self-esteem' and being 'Daughters of God' in the class I was asked to teach. Except in my class I dressed up one of the girls instead of myself. They all thought it was hysterical.
It actually turned out to be a really good class. I had all the jewelry, scarves, etc displayed all beautifully for the girls to see as they came in. After I got a consensus that it was all beautiful I put it all on one of the girls and asked the rest what they thought of her. When they all giggled and said it was, "too much," I asked why when they had just told me it was all beautiful; so why wouldn't she more beautiful the more we put on her?
Then I told a story I just heard at a YW event -- about Buddhist monks in China that had to go into hiding when the communists came into power. They also had to hide their statues of Buddha since the soldiers would come to the monasteries and destroy them. One such monastery the soldiers came to housed an enormous Buddha, but it was made of dirt, mud and clay. They figured it would be easy to topple. Not so. They had to bring in a crane. It broke the crane. So they brought in a bigger crane. It finally cracked the mud only to reveal that underneath the dirt there was a statue of pure gold.
The lesson, of course, was that there are beautiful things everywhere in this world. And putting them on (or partaking of them/in them/whatever) was great. But any time we told ourselves that we needed it to be beautiful we were putting some mud covering on our pure gold worth.
Then I directed their attention to a covered surprise sitting on a red velvet pedestal. I dramatically whipped the cover off to reveal this:

Amidst all the oohs and ahhs I asked if anyone recognized me? Anyone watch Miss America 5 years ago? And when they all gasped I told them I wasn't on it or anything, I was just joking. Then I told them how my husband got me this crown for Mother's Day and we have it displayed in our home to remind us that the point of everything we're going through here on Earth is to be able to live as Kings and Queens. Literally.
And after that they all got to try on the crown and then go home with little ones of their own.
Lots of fun.
Sometimes it's really good to "teach" a class on something you need a reminder of yourself.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Our home.

Our cabinets.

Our living room.

Our kitchen.

Our solution to a leaky roof.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Comments

Just wanted to give a shout out to yall that comment on my posts - especially the "Challenge." I really do enjoy reading your responses - especially to one so exposing. And yes, it did take me a while, but it's kinda gratifying to go through and almost define yourself. Especially when your identity has become blurred with "mom" or "wife" or whatever. Anyway, I really do challenge everyone to do it. And I am dang interested to read them! And not that you'd want to "copy & paste," but the idea that so many of them are similar to someone else is really interesting. I'm way curious to see/hear which ones...

Monday, February 18, 2008

Challenge

Recently blog-reading has led me to this interesting challenge I thought might be interesting to take. It's to list 100 things about myself. So here goes:

1. I'm an all-or-nothing kinda gal.
2. I worry way too much about things out of my control.
3. I'm a control freak.
4. I like to change my hair. A lot. Frequently. Drastically.
5. I don't consider it a real hair-cut unless I see piles of hair on the floor. (see #4)
6. I secretly believe I have multiple personality disorder.
7. I'm pretty sure I have ADD.
8. I have no fear of talking in front of people.
9. I direct the ward choir and I like it.
10. I think I'm a pretty good driver.
11. I hate bad drivers.
12. I'm really bad at finishing projects.
13. I own a Miss Universe-sized crown.
14. I love the color pink.
15. I love to make 'To Do' lists, but I never follow them.
16. Laundry is my enemy.
17. Dinner is my nemesis.
18. I think I make an awesome teacher.
19. I'm way too good of a liar.
20. I am an emotionally-based being.
21. Good words to describe me: dynamic, intense, animated, shy.
22. I have very low self-confidence.
23. I worry way too much about what others think.
24. I have credits from 4 different Universities.
25. I got my Associate's degree in 1 school year.
26. Nigun by Bloch is my signature piece.
27. I graduated from Massage Therapy school but never got licensed.
28. I'd rather get a massage than give one.
29. I'm a fairly selfish person.
30. I have to eat my words on a daily basis when it comes to child-rearing.
31. I once had an anxiety attack so severe that I made Mark go to our neighbors' houses at 2 am and warn them not to pretend to rob our house as a joke.
32. And then set booby-traps just in case.
33. I try to write funny emails about my life.
34. I want to write a book, but I never can figure out what I should write about.
35. I wish I were a soprano. Alas, I am not.
36. I need to lose a significant amount of weight and I am horribly ashamed by it.
37. I hate being disliked by anyone - even if I dislike them.
38. I don't have to be right, but you have to prove me wrong.
39. I love interior design, but I did poorly in my interior design class.
40. I am the most disorganized organizational freak.
41. I love labels.
42. I love sparkly things.
43. I don't have a lot of self-discipline.
44. I have the classic middle-child syndrome.
45. Patience is not something I have much of.
46. I've had insomnia since high school.
47. I broke my tailbone in 2 places giving birth. I fear it will never heal.
48. One of my deepest fears is to be considered "white trash."
49. No matter how hard I try I can't stop comparing myself to others.
50. My kids have WAY too many clothes, and I love it!
51. I don't believe in global warming.
52. I could watch movies all day long.
53. I am a closet-Dr. Pepper drinker.
54. I wish I could claim I was a Southern Belle.
55. I dream almost every night.
56. My sister lives in a house I literally drew the blueprints for when I was 11.
57. I stay up way too late at night.
58. I hate yard art.
59. I am constantly haunted by past dumb decisions/actions.
60. Sometimes I daydream about heroically saving an auditorium of people from some crazed lunatic.
61. I don't like reading books I don't love, and if I love it I have to read it all in one sitting, regardless of the size.
62. I am a grammar nazi, but it's usually just in my head because I've had complaints.
63. I stink at Boggle.
64. I am a coward when it comes to pain.
65. I think sleeping babies are the most beautiful sight ever.
66. I need to be needed.
67. I hate that I'm pretty lazy.
68. I like buying toys more than my kids like playing with them.
69. I'm not angry, I'm ANIMATED.
70. My "perfect pitch" went 1/4-step flat and I had to work like crazy to correct it.
71. I don't let my kids play outside enough.
72. I hate doing 'prep work.' If I'm going to do something I just want to dive in and do it.
73. Office supply stores make me happy.
74. I am not a knick-knack-y person.
75. My last job was to foreclose on people's homes.
76. Jealousy is something I struggle with.
77. For some reason I have a ridiculously hard time mailing things - even if they're in the envelope, stamped and addressed.
78. I usually think of awesome 'come-backs' 2 mins too late.
79. I went to Ricks College because I thought it was a party school. I didn't realize they even had an honor code.
80. I once found out in a geneology class that I was related to my boyfriend at the time.
81. I've never seen it rain in Seattle, and I've been there many times.
82. I'm addicted to the Twilight series to the extent that I had to have a friend remove them from my house so I could start living in reality again.
83. I am terrified about our country's future.
84. I am devastated that Mitt Romney dropped out of the race.
85. Taking showers is a dangerous time of the day for me.
86. I'm not a racist, but I am a "culture-ist."
87. I wish I could type faster.
88. My favorite food is pizza.
89. My blood type is o+.
90. I am almost done putting our family 72-hr kits together and I am dang proud of it!
91. I love writing with Sharpee markers.
92. I am semi-ambidextrous.
93. I talk on the phone way too much.
94. I gained a testimony of the gospel in 9th grade because of a Geometry test.
95. Having a full pantry of food makes me feel safe.
96. I'm not half bad in the kitchen.
97. I need a lot of reassurance/praise.
98. I don't feel satisfied talking about something until I've told 3 people.
99. I hate using hand lotion.
100. I love attention.

There. Much harder than I thought. Now you try.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Dang Disney!

So I'm starting to notice the effect all these Disney movies are having on Andrea. And though they may at first glance appear quite innocent, they are not! They keep ending in these "happily ever after weddings" and now I have a 3-yr-old who rides around the house on her stick-pony saying she has to find her prince, then turning the horse's head around to face her and smooching it! Aahhhh!

The reason I haven't blogged lately...

This is my kitchen.
It's being remodeled.
It's a big project.

ta-da!

In case you can't tell, that's a plastic mold of spaghetti suctioned on her mouth.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Happy Valentine's!

Happy Valentine's Day to one and all! Our day was not quite the event-ful celebration I had hoped due to all the craziness lately. Oh well. But we did receive a fun package from Grandma and Grandpa Lund, much to the girls' delight!

They got all kinds of markers, pens, notepads, some darling puppets and 2 awesome boas. You can see they got to town using their loot immediately! What is not shown is what happened about 5 mins later when I left the room for, oh, 2 seconds and came back to find their arms and legs COVERED in marker! Ach!

Thursday, February 7, 2008

A fun day

I decided to get creative one day with our "quiet time." Ya know, resistance to naps and all. Anyway, I think it just riled them up even more! Oh well, I tried!

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

The Holy Ghost, part 2

After learning about the Holy Ghost, Andrea has been rather obsessed with him. Each night she prays that Heavenly Father will send him to us so we can feel him but not see him.

The Holy Ghost

We were sitting down at dinner one night, reading our "Month of Love" scripture for the night. It mentioned the Holy Ghost, so I attempted at an explanation and in the process realized that this is a really difficult concept for a 3-yr-old to understand!
Net: "He's like us but you can't see him or touch him....but you can feel him...hmmm..."
Andrea: "Can I touch his head?"
Net: "Well, no, we can't touch him, but we can feel good when he is with us."
Andrea: "Can I say 'hi' to him?"
Net: "Yes, but he might not say 'hi' back, because, well, ummm...."
Andrea: "Where is he?"
Net: "Well, he can be with us when we pray and ask to have his comfort or have him help us."
Andrea: "He can come here?"
Net: "Yes, but we don't see him."
pause...
Andrea: "He can't eat my dinner!"

MamaDrama