Inquiring minds want to know.........

Why do you have friends?
Why do you want friends?

I want friends for a few reasons. One of the biggest reasons I make friends, particularly within my ward, is that I never want anyone to feel like they have no friends. I know what that's like, and it is not fun. I never want anyone to feel that way, if I can help it.

Also, I want people to know that they can call me whenever if they are in a bind. When they think they have no one they can call, they can call me. I also know what it's like, feeling as though you have no one to call in an emergency. I want all my friends to know that they can always call me.

I'm not exactly sure why I'm like this. Maybe I just need to be needed. Although my children "need" me all day, and I get a bit weary of that at times. But it's different when it's a friend. While I'm not a huge fan of cleaning my own house, or doing my own dishes, I have no problem doing them for a friend in need. And it's actually easier to take care of my children when there are other kids over playing with them.

I also need friends, just like every other woman. I have friends on a superficial level, but I need friendships that go deeper than that. My SIL has been my best friend since before I married her brother, and I love the girl to bits. We talk on the phone frequently. But she lives 6 states away. We never see each other. It'd be nice to have bosom buddy a little closer to my bosom. As in within an hour's drive, not right on top of my chest. Ü

I guess this is also one of my favorite things about blogging. I feel much closer to some of the women I've met online than others I've known for 2 years. ♥u, girlies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why do you have friends?

If it's Friday, it's gotta be random

Are you a procrastinator? Or a planner? Or some crazy combination of both? I'm the combination. I always want a plan, but rarely have the focus or determination to make a complete plan. I also want everyone's opinion. What if the plan I come up could be better? What if there are things I haven't considered? But if there's something I have no idea what to do about, I'll just not plan it. Avoidance is my answer. If I ignore it long enough, it will plan itself or go away, right?!

Case in point: Our pack meeting last Tuesday. It was the Raingutter Regatta. For different reasons, we have to come up with an alternative method of making boats. The longer I tried to figure something out, the bigger blank I drew. Then suddenly it was the day before and I still had no idea. I was in major panic mode. Thank heavens my family is in town. My dad is what you might call a "super scouter," and had an idea. We went to Dairy Queen and bought a stack of banana split containers. We cut one in half, then put it on another whole one. Bada boom, bada bing-- we had a boat! Thank you, Dad!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We've started potty-training again this week. It's actually going pretty well. Much better than in the past. It helps to have 2 other women around who can keep track of the trainee. We also found an Elmo coloring book about potty-training, complete with a two-week chart and stickers. We've progressed to the point that he'll actually hold it in and run to the potty! And yesterday morning he woke up and told me he needed to go potty. It's very exciting. So thanks, Mom and Grandma!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Having my family here has been so awesome. And they're here for another week!!! I get to sleep in. I only have to do dishes every 3 days. I can run errands alone! Spiderman is completely in love with my 15 y/o brother. They've been playing hard. We went to see the Manti Pageant the other night. We're going to the Iquirrh Mountain Temple open house on Monday. And the Freedom Festival next week. We'll celebrate Christmas and birthdays next week.

We are all so spoiled when they come to visit. I am not looking forward to the days after they leave. Spiderman in particular will be in serious withdrawals. I will, too. I'll have to clean my own house, do my own dishes, cook my own meals, take care of my own kids..........gah. I'm gonna really savor this last week.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally, ten random tunes from my player. Quite a mix this week, if I do say so myself. (I'm actually listenting to india.arie right now, a fabulous artist I discovered through Motherboard's Random Fridays.)

1. How to Save a Life -- The Fray
2. I Heard it Through the Grapevine -- Marvin Gaye
3. Falling Slowly -- Kris Allen
4. Push (Accoustic) -- Matchbox 20
5. Before it's Too Late -- Goo Goo Dolls
6. You Pulled Me Through -- Jennifer Hudson
7. I Will -- Allison Krauss
8. Vulnerable -- Secondhand Serenade
9. Elephant Love Song Medley -- Moulin Rouge Soundtrack
10. Angel -- Sarah Maclachlan

**Bonus: My Girl -- The Temptations**

That time of the month.

It is that time for me.

That one week that just about drives me, my children, and my husband

BONKERS.

It's always the fourth week. And I wake up Monday morning just wanting the week to be over.

The fourth Tuesday is pack night for Cub Scouts. The fourth Thursday is our Enrichment night.

Guess who plays major roles for each event?

Yup, yours truly.

I'll be glad when this week is over.

The motherhood that is mine

My motherhood is smiling at the boys' bare backsides after a bath. Those love handles make my heart happy.

My motherhood is turning a corner to see my children spontaneously hugging and expressing love for one another. And my heart melting on the spot.

My motherhood is getting teary-eyed as I check on my children before going to bed each night. These sweet boys who love sleeping on the floor in the same room seem to grow right before my eyes.


My motherhood is explaining what "calm down" means, and making my kids laugh with exaggerated examples of "calm down" and "acting crazy."

My motherhood is tears in my eyes as my child writes his name for the first time. Completely unprompted and unassisted. I had no idea he could do it!

My motherhood is answering desperate cries for cereal by telling my child he is starving because he didn't eat all of his dinner the previous night.


My motherhood is grinning ear to ear when I hear my child say, "I'm the mom, and this is my baby," in tones of tenderness I rarely hear from a toddler.

My motherhood is hearing new words being put to songs from SuperWhy, Star Wars, and Primary, and Paramore.

My motherhood is my heart melting as my boys sing lullabys about not crying to their babies, then laughing as they say "Calm DOWN!"

My motherhood is breaking up multiple fights some days.

My motherhood is taking an extra 5 minutes to read a book while utilizing the facilities, only to find the entire bottle of sunscreen has been poured onto the kitchen floor. Or unfrozen otterpops that have been ripped open in the living room.

My motherhood is overcooking the maccaroni & cheese noodles because I'm blogging. Then being grateful my children are still too young to notice.


My motherhood is taking quiet satisfaction in making my kids think, "How did she know what we were doing?"

My motherhood is finally feeling like I'm getting the hang of things, just to have a new phase start that I am in no way equipped to handle.


My motherhood is answering endless queries of "Why?" Then crying when one of the answers I come up with is that I'm a bad mom.

My motherhood is longing for number 3 when I know I'm not doing a good enough job with numbers 1 and 2.

My motherhood is atoning for my shortcomigs by reading book after book on the couch before bedtime, instead of the usual 2.


My motherhood is wanting to protect my children from every bad influence in the world. From every bad choice they could possibly make.

My motherhood is knowing that I can only do the best I can within the walls of my home, and pray that they have the courage to do what they must.

My motherhood is realizing that I'm not doing the best I can right now.


My children's future depends on me being better. Starting now. I came across a quote today, "A person can stand almost anything except a succession of ordinary days," by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. When I first read it, I thought, Ain't that the truth. It is far too easy for my days to be ordinary, day after day. At the time, I only applied the quote to myself and my boredom and desire to avoid my duties of late. But after writing this post about my children, I realize that my children are also suffering from a string of ordinary days. Perhaps this is where the abnormal messes come from? The bickering? They're just doing what they can to make their days not ordinary. But it's my job as their mother to make the days extraordinary.

So I guess we're going to the park today. And I'm gonna play with my children at the park.

Wonder Woman out. Trying to live up to her name today. And her motherhood.

Takin' it down a notch

I don't really have much else to say.

Well, that's not exactly true. I have a lot to say, just no desire blog it right now.

Blog lunch = AWESOME. All you Utah bloggers who couldn't make it missed out on a fun (if slightly overpriced) lunch.

Host a Murder party = COMPLETE BLAST. So glad we did it. Looking forward to the next one.

I have about 5 posts swirling about in my head, but I'm just gonna get to 'em when I get to 'em. My family is coming to visit for a few weeks. Between getting ready for their arrival and playing with them, I'm making no promises and will adhere to no imaginary deadlines I set for myself.

But I'm sure that voicing these plans outloud will only make me want to blog more, so we'll see how it goes.

What about you? Slowing down with summer? Or is life less crazy with no school to worry about?

{insert random title here}

"Seriously? Bleach pen? On the carpet? Great. Just great......"
--wonder woman, about 5 minutes ago

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why does it seem like everytime I turn around, there's a huge mess? Just this morning I was doing the dishes, then walked into the living room to find that the Hulk had pulled out all the wet wipes from the container. Individually. Yesterday I was folding laundry, then walked into the kitchen to find the boys helping themselves to a bowl of cereal. (Note: 3 and 4 y/o boys aren't good at this.) I've found all the sunscreen squirted out of the bottle and onto the carpet. An entire roll of toilet paper rolled out. All the bedding pulled off the bed. Kids playing with puff paint. And it's not like I'm upstairs while the kids were downstairs. We don't have an upstairs or a downstairs. I wasn't blogging every time these things happened. I swear.

I guess this is just life with little kids. I still haven't gotten it through my mind that silence = BAD. Or that alone time for me doesn't come without consequences. I need to hone my mommy-sense a little more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't you hate dumb books? I checked out a few books from the same author the other day at the library and now I'm going to return them all after reading one. The storyline was interesting enough, but it was so poorly executed that it just made me mad. I hurried to finish it so I could get on with my life. And it didn't take me long. I'm a fast reader, but no novel should take less than 3 hours to finish. Unless it's incredibly lame. Which it was.

And the characters were idiotic. The two main characters were always jumping to conclusions and acting rashly. I still can't figure out if this was a trait the author really wanted the characters to have and took it to the extreme, or if she was just trying to keep the reader guessing about what they would do next. Either way, it made both characters completely unbelievable, unauthentic, and immature.

(I'm not sharing the title or author because it was LDS fiction and that's a pretty small world. Don't worry, Annette, it's not you or any of the authors I remember being your friends.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wanna win an iPod? Yeah, I didn't think so. Most people have one now. But in case your one of the few LIKE ME who has never owned one, you have a chance to win one. Motherboard really must live in Crazyland, because she had a birthday and is giving stuff away!!!! An iPod, if you didn't already catch that. I'm just telling you because it increases my odds of winning. (Though if any of you actually enter, my odds are decreased. Dang it.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My mind is going about a mile a minute right now. I've got approximately 379 things to do in the next two days. Tonight's a ward party. Tomorrow our ward is weeding our library's flower beds. (And yes, we're one of those families that goes to every single activity. I told you we were nerds.) Then I'm going to Kristina's blog lunch. Then tomorrow night, we're having a "How To Host Murder" party. Which is where the real stress comes in. I've gotta get costumes. And food. And mood music. I've still got to get invitations to the guests because the guest list was just finalized about an hour ago. Which means I need to figure out which guest is going to be which character. (That's a lot of whiches.) My house is a disaster. Gotta wash the sofa cushions. Spot clean the carpet. Clean the bathroom. The living room. Mop. Stay on top of the dishes. And remember through all of it to be a good mom. I also need to remember not to make that the last thing on my list.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And without further ado, 10 random songs from my playlist.

1. How to Save a Life -- the Fray
2. If I Were a Boy -- Beyonce
3. When I Come Around -- Green Day
4. Every Day -- Rascall Flatts
5. Short Skirt, Long Jacket -- Cake
6. Come Home Soon -- SheDaisy
7. Hey Jealousy -- Gin Blossoms
8. Breakfast at Tiffany's -- Deep Blue Something
9. This Town -- O.A.R.
10. Name -- Goo Goo Dolls

***Bonus: My Life Would Suck Without You -- Kelly Clarkson Because my life would suck without you, my bloggy friends!!! Have a fantastical weekend!!!***

Things that make me happy right now

1. My voice is back!!!!! I can finally yell at my kids again! Yessss!

2. Lavender Vanilla fabric softners. I may or may not have said that I could get high off the scent. It's honestly one of my favorite things about going to bed.

3. Kids that fall asleep during dinner. Seriously. Does life get better than that?! (I took a picture, but I've having problems synching my phone to the computer. The Hulk looked so adorable asleep in his booster seat. It cracked me up.)


4. So You Think You Can Dance. I think this is the most impressive top 20 ever. Spiderman and I watched it last night, and he would get mad if I turned the channel. "Mom, we gotta watch the dancing!" It made my heart smile to hear him say that.

5. Shellie, also known as Shell. That girl has always got me in tears, either from her hilarious antics with boys or chronicling her journey through cancer as a teenager. Seriously, go check out Shellie.

6. Stephen Colbert. In Iraq. The man is the most powerful person in the world, after Kim Jong Il. (Speaking of which, we gotta do something about him blasting rockets in the ocean. Suggestions, class?) Why is Colbert the 2nd most powerful person in the world?




He got the president on his TV show. I know that Obama is more of a celebrity than most other presidents, but he's still the president. Kind of a busy guy. And Stephen Colbert got him to make an appearance on the Colbert Report.

I ♥ that man. I think I'm feeling the beginnings of a new celebrity crush.

7. Shabbyblogs. They've given me the change I've been itchin' for.

The front porch swing

Growing up, my family lived in this cute little bungalow-style home. It had hardwood floors, big closets, a basement that was perfect for tornado warnings, and a big front porch. Complete with a swing.

I loved that swing. I've always wanted a home with a swing because of it. We do not have one now, but I have faith that someday we will.

I loved reading books on that swing. And pretending to take naps. (I wouldn't pretend anymore!) But the thing I loved most about that swing was sitting on it with my dad and my brother, enjoying a good thunderstorm.


I grew up in Kansas, and boy did we get a lot of thunderstorms. It's probably the thing I miss the most about Kansas, aside from my family. Those humid summers with thunderstorms every other night. I love the scent of rain on warm pavement. And hearing the rumble of thunder. I love the lightening, too. The streaky kind and the kind that lights up the entire sky because it's behind the clouds. I love seeing the dark clouds roll in. (Seeing the dark clouds turn an eerie shade of green was always bad, though -- it meant a tornado. Seriously. Green.)


But my absolute favorite part of thunderstorms was going out on the porch swing with my dad and my brother. We'd bring our blankets and curl up beside him. Sometimes we'd talk about stuff, school and whatnot. Sometimes he'd sing to us. Sometimes we'd just listen to the rain and and thunder. And sometimes he'd tell us stories.

My dad has such a fantastic imagination. He'd make up stories for us night after night. There were two sets of characters: Cowboy Dan and his horse Lightning, or the elves Geek, Peepo and Dido and Princess Leilani. It was hearing the story of Cowboy Dan encountering some Indians that I learned that Native Americans were descendents of the Lamanites. And Geek, Peepo and Dido (I have no idea where he came up with those names!) were always off getting Princess Leilani out of whatever trouble she had found herself in.


To this day, thunderstorms (even lame, short rainshowers like we get in Utah) make me want to sit on the front porch with my favorite blanket and escape into some good fiction. In fact, I'm off to do that just now.

Blast from the past

This morning, I saw that someone had tagged me in a Facebook photo. Now, this is always a bit scary for me. If someone else is putting up a picture of me, how can I make sure that it's a good picture of me? Once someone put up a picture that Spiderman had taken of me in the morning. I was caught off guard. It was taken from Spiderman's height (read: unflattering angle.) Still in my pajamas, with no makeup on and hair not done. (I wasn't even wearing a bra.) And the guy put it up!!! I removed that tag faster than you can say "Bob's your uncle." But the picture's still there. {gah!}

So when I saw that someone had tagged me in a random picture, I was understandably scared. Imagine my surprise when this is the picture I saw!

How stinkin' cute is that?! I was probably about 5 here. That dress is one my mom made for me. She used to make all my clothes. I loved this dress. I called it my Alice in Wonderland dress.

A few more old time pictures for you:

Me as a widdle baby.

My younger brother and I, cuddled up with our blankets. We were best friends growing up. Fun fact -- He and his wife are getting sealed next month!!! I'm so happy for them. It's been a long road, but they've finally made it. Way to go, guys. ♥♥

Things I can't do right now:

• respond to my children, which means they repeat their request over and over and over again.
• holler, "Just a minute!" to whatever it is my children want.
• be funny. No witty quips spewing from my lips.
• share thoughts in church.
• chat with friends. The ones who are at church for the first time after giving birth.
• talk with my mom on the phone. Or my best friend. Or anyone.
• answer Superman's questions when he's more than 5 feet away from me.
• enjoy time with my sister-in-law and her family while they visit.
• yell outside to call the boys in.
• sit on the stand during sacrament meeting without drawing immense amounts of attention to myself.
• eat popcorn.
• reprimand my children for any number of offenses.
• get a decent night's rest
• read/hear things that make me emotional

"Why?" you ask? Because I have no voice. I talked in my last post about my allergies being annoying. The sore throat from them grew very quickly into laringytis.

Hearing testimonies at church today was physically painful because the lump you get in your throat before you cry HURTS when you have no voice. And I couldn't stop coughing, which made my eyes water and my nose run. I actually had to run off the stand between testimonies and gulp down half a bottle of water, wipe my nose till it chapped, then run back up to play the closing hymn.

I couldn't comment on any of the lessons. (And I usually comment frequently.) At one point, the Relief Society teacher said, "I can just see Wonder Woman's gears churning. Too bad she can't talk!" Two friends who've recently had babies were at church for the first time today and I couldn't gush.

Superman's sister and her family were visiting from Chicago for a few days. And the best I could manage was a whisper. It sucked! I'm so mad I couldn't talk and have a good time with them.

Do you know how incredibly hard it is to be a mom with no voice? I have to be right in front of them if they're gonna hear me. Disciplining without raising my voice is maddening. Of course I don't yell and scream in their faces, but my voice normally gets a bit louder when I want to make a point. If I see the Hulk about to walk in the path of Spiderman on the swing, I can't yell for him to move. I can't play games with them. Or read bedtime stories. And did I mention the difficulty of disciplining? Reprimanding? And it's not like I can write messages for them.

I really hope my voice comes back soon. I am literally going crazy. And I'm using that correctly, Annette. I will honestly LOSE MY MIND if this goes on much longer.

I can't even scream in frustration! THIS IS SO ANNOYING!!!!!!!

random. that's all i got.

Are any of you Utah bloggers going to Kristina's blog lunch next Saturday? I'll be there. (Mostly because she's promised to bring a lifesize cutout of The Hoff. But don't tell her that. She thinks I'm going because I like her.) So if you want to learn my true identity and vouch for my funniness in person, you should go. Even if you don't "know" Kristina yet. Pop over to her blog, say hi, then come to the lunch. It'll be a rockin' good time!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have allergies. I don't think I had them as a kid. Or really as an adult. But right now, I sure as Hades do. In fact, all four of us have allergic stuff goin' on. The Hulk had some goopiness that I thought was pink eye, but turned out to be allergies. And Superman, Spiderman and I all have sore throats. I've got all kinds of itchiness and mucus and soreness going on. It's lovely.

Allergies suck. I put a hex on them. {hiss}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We saw Terminator: Salvation the other night. It was better than I expected. Most of the violence is blowing up robots and not people, so it's not horrible gory. And there was very little language in it. I was honestly surprised at how much I liked it. They give a breif overview at the beginning of the movie in case you haven't seen any Terminator movies before. Christian Bale's a great actor. I think would have enjoyed the eye candy in Star Trek or Wolverine a little more, but it wasn't bad.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you ever read Terresa at the Chocolate Chip Waffle? I'm a new reader, and I'm in love. She's a fantastic writer (she did the postpartum depression piece on MMB) and is honestly one of those women that I wonder if I'd be cool enough for in real life. Yesterday, she did a post about home-birthing. Personally, this is something I would never consider doing, but reading her post made me sersiouly think twice about it.

I guess it was on my mind as I went to bed, because I dreamt about giving birth last night. Some of the details are fuzzy, but others are crystal-clear. First of all, I wasn't the one pregnant. It was a friend of mine from church, though in real life she's not pregnant -- she has a 1 y/o son. We were on a beach and Superman was there with us. Suddenly, she was in labor and the baby was coming fast. I realized she'd have to give birth right there on the beach. I sat on a log and she sat/squatted between my legs. I was bracing her and holding her hands. Then I could see her belly move and knew a contraction was starting. I told her to bear down and push. This happened one other time, then I saw her skirt starting to move. I told Superman to take my place -- I had to catch the baby.

When I looked under her skirt, the baby's head was already out. I knew the rest of the body would just slip out, so I tried to gently pull on the baby to get it out. Didn't work. I told her to push just a little bit again. Out the baby came. It wasn't covered in goop like it would normally be. It was just a beautiful baby. I held it for a moment, then realized I should probably give the baby to its mother. I was about to say, "It's a girl," but realized I didn't know for sure. I pulled back the blanket (I don't know where it came from) and sure enough, there were no little boy parts. In the back of my mind I knew the baby should have had blood and fluid on it, and that she needed to birth the placenta. But I didn't want to deal with all that, I guess, and so it didn't happen in my dream.

I remember feeling so peaceful and empowered afterwards -- I had just helped a woman give birth! I think I had this dream partly because of Terresa's post, but I had also just read a short birth experience in a book. And two of my friends have had babies within the past month -- one just 4 days ago. I also know about 7 other pregnant women right now -- 2 of which I walk with in the mornings. Now I want to call my friends who've had babies recently and ask if I can hold their babies while they clean house or take a nap. (Actually, after reading Terresa's PPD post, I did call one of them to see how she was really doing.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now for 10 random tunes from my playlist:

1. I will survive -- Gloria Gaynor

2. I would have loved you anyway -- Trisha Yearwood

3. When you were young -- The Killers

4. Tears in Heaven -- Eric Clapton

5. Time after Time -- Eva Cassidy

6. Flightless Bird, American Mouth -- Iron & Wine

7. Billie Jean -- David Cook

8. Realize -- Colbie Calliat

9. Hey there, Delilah -- Plain White Tees

10. Viva La Vida -- Coldplay

**Bonus** Everyday -- Rascall Flatts

Have a fantastic weekend!!!

I just love Spiderman's new phase

Scene: pulling in to the Walmart parking lot

Spiderman: Mom, are we gonna see a baby at the store? (I had told him we were going to see a baby later on.)
Wonder Woman: Well, we might. We'll have to look for some babies.
S: Are we going to buy a baby at the store?
WW: Umm......no.
S: Why?
WW: Because you can't buy babies at the store.
S: Why?
WW: Because babies don't come from stores.
S: Why?
WW: Because babies come from heaven. And they grow in mommies' tummies. Now get out of the car, please.
S: Why?
WW: BECAUSE IT'S TIME TO GO TO THE STORE!!!!!

If only having a baby were that easy....

In case you missed the MTV Movie awards last night....

.....here's the most important thing for you to see:

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON trailer in HD




Let the obsession begin anew.