Three for Thursday

Three wedding day memories:

1. I forgot Superman's ring in the hotel room. I used my dad's ring when we exchanged rings, then gave Superman his real ring outside the temple. The ring I got him -- Joseph Smith's Eternity ring -- was a surprise, so we were able to capture the moment on film and it was kinda fun.

2. Superman crying during the ceremony.

3. Pulling up to the hotel and realizing I was vastly under-prepared for what was going to happen.

Three guy movies I actually like:

1. The Bourne trilogy (really, I like anything with Matt Damon)

2. The Dark Knight

3. Lord of the Rings trilogy


Three things that I will try to sneak into heaven:

1. Cadbury mini eggs

2. a DVR

3. My Vellux blanket. I'm pretty sure it was made in heaven, but in case it wasn't and there aren't any there, I want mine.

Three 4th of July traditions:

1. A parade!!!!!!!! I don't know why, but I honestly get misty-eyed when I hear the marching bands. And I wasn't even in band. I seriously don't know why I get so nostalgic. And don't even get me STARTED on the bag pipes. Whooo, Nelly.

2. Fireworks. Ideally I love to be at a show of some kind with huge fireworks and patriotic songs playing in the background. But if not, at least having sparklers and smaller fireworks for the kids.

3. A BBQ. Since we don't have any family in the area,we either make our own family each year or find a way to get invited to someone else's BBQ.

Three words that describe me:

1. Blue

2. Yellow.

3. Libra.


Three favorite summer time desserts:

1. Creamies -- chocolate ones, to be precise

2. Snow cones. Tiger's blood.

3. Watermelon.


Three fictional characters I would like to meet in real life:

1. Sheldon Cooper.

2. Mr. Schuster.

3. Christian from Moulin Rouge.


Three group games that I could play over and over and over again:

1. Curses. Who's played that game? I can't even explain it, but it is HILARIOUS!!!!

2. Hoopla. (Version of Cranium where every competes against the timer.)

3. Scum.


Three favorite summer time TV shows:

1. The Bachelorette, even though Ashley's an idiot.

2. So You Think You Can Dance.

3. Umm..........I think that's it. Now that I don't have a DVR, I can only watch what's actually on TV and it's a lot of reruns. I've seen some of Master Chef and America's Got Talent, but not enough to consider myself a faithful viewer.

Three pictures:

The boys have been pretty good about doing their workbooks each day. Chore charts and allowances are still working.

Miss Marvel is at that delightful stage where she needs a bath after every. single. meal.

A friend made some red velvet cake pops that Lil' Miss couldn't get enough of. And, yes, she took a bath directly after this.

Thanks, Evelyn, for coming back this week so I could link up!!

Things that I think are stupid

1. This gender-neutral preschool in Sweden. I think that they will find that no matter how hard they try, little boys will want to play with cars and little girls will want to play with dolls.

2. Bentley (from the Bachelorette.) I want to punch him in the face. And I kinda want to punch Ashley for falling for him and making him such a huge, annoying part of this season. I also want to punch the producers. A roast? A boxing match? You really thought those were good ideas?

3. Having 6 pimples on my chin at one time.

Seriously. Not exaggerating that number. You'd think that by 27 I'd have my skin figured out.

4. Our home not having a duct system for heating a cooling. We have radiant heat in the sheet rock, installed 35 years ago. Horribly inefficient and expensive. And we have a couple window A/C units we just hooked up. I really like this house, but the lack of central air is one thing I won't mind leaving behind in a few years.

5. Not having a DVR. I know that I'm much more productive now, but I really really REALLY miss all my shows.

6. Dog breath. No further explanation needed.

This kid is a keen one

Tonight I said something to my son that I regret. I hope that I have fixed it, and it won't have a lasting impression, but I can't be sure.

A week ago in church, The Hulk learned about Alma the Younger. Our conversation about his lesson went about like this:

Wonder Woman: Who is Alma the Younger?

Hulk: He's from the Book of Mormon. He was a bad guy, but then he was good.

WW: How did he become a good guy?

H: An angel came and told him to stop being bad.

WW: Then what happened?

H: Then he was good and a missionary. With Ammon! (Hulk loves the story of Ammon. What LDS boy doesn't?)

So tonight, The Hulk came to the dinner table with a red string wrapped around his head, Book of Mormon style. He told me he was like Alma with the red headband.

I said, "I'll bet you are like Alma." Superman chimed in, saying the same thing. We were both thinking about this sweet boy who loves to push buttons and oft-times takes prodding to do the right thing. Yes, I'll bet that Alma the Younger needed a bit of 'prodding' as a child.

(This picture captures The Hulk's personality perfectly.)

But then The Hulk said, "Because I'm bad?"

Zing.

That kid saw right through us and hit the nail on the head.

We quickly tried to smooth over what we had said.

"No, because you're good. Alma repented and turned good, right? And you do that, too."

"Yeah, sometimes I'm good. But when I'm bad I'm like Alma when he was bad."

I was still trying to find a way to turn the conversation around, so I went with what we could do in the future.

"Hulk, if sometimes you are being bad, should I remind you about Alma?"

"Yeah! And when I'm being good, you can say that I'm being like Alma, too! When he was good!"

"Yes. I will definitely say that when you are being good."

Superman and I have made conscious efforts to catch our children being good, and commenting on their strengths. But it's kind of ended up that Spiderman is the "good" one, and The Hulk is the "smart" one. And while both of those things are great in their own right, I'm worried that we have unintentionally labeled each child as one thing and not as the other.

Since Spiderman has started reading and writing in kindergarten, we have pointed out how smart he much more often. But we haven't had the same frequency of opportunities to catch The Hulk being good.

So now that's my goal -- to point out when BOTH of my children are being good and making the right choices. I'm also going to tear off any labels that I have unintentionally given them.

Slowly, but surely, I'm getting the hang of this parenting thing.

Make it blue!

Instead of writing about last night's sleeplessness and the raging beast of a mother it has transformed me into, I am going to post pics that I should've posted months ago and pretend that I am really REALLY happy to be awake right now.

When we moved into this house last August, we painted a lot. Every single wall in the house was white. We went with a creamy yellow in living room -- this was my inspiration:

Bright and cheery.

But this is what I ended up with:

Nice, but since Superman only wanted black and white in the room, it ended up looking very stark. Not enough contrast between the cream couch and chairs and pale wall.. I attempted to change that with the red pillows, but Superman wasn't a fan of them and though it was too much color.

So after 6 months of growing dissatisfaction, I picked a new color and hoped for the best.

I think it turned out quite nicely.

(The view from the entry way. Sorry there's some glare.)

The blue/gray gives the room a much more serene feeling -- exactly what I wanted.

(View from the back corner, where the piano used to be and bookshelf currently is.)

The black and white elements really pop now, instead of the couch blending into the wall and black furniture giving too stark a contrast. The couch kind of has a patriotic feel. I like it.

We rearranged the furniture, too. Originally we thought the piano would be perfect in the far corner, nestled between the windows. It ended up just eating the space and not being the focal point Superman wanted it to be. We moved it to the corner that is immediately visible as you walk in, and it give the impression Superman has always wanted it too. I found the white armchair on KSL.com (a non-creepy Craigslist) for $25. Now we have enough seating in the room to actually entertain in there.

I am much happier with this color than I was the yellow. I love sitting in my chair and reading, and often go into the living room just to sit and take a deep breath. It's a very calming room stays fairly clean now that we have our basement back. When the kids are running crazy and I feel like I'm about to lose it, this is my time out room.

Hmm. Maybe I should go spend a few minutes in there now to try to tame the emerging Mommy Beast. I need to get her under control before we head to Seven Peaks this afternoon. Disaster is imminent if Mommy Beast goes to the water park.

So. . . . . . .yeah. I'm headed up to my time out room for a while. Peace.

Happiness is.....

A trampoline.

Spiderman doing a flip. Gotta love the sprinkler under the tramp!

Playing with friends on the trampoline.

Yes, I let Miss Marvel on the trampoline with her brothers. They know not to jump. I love seeing this out the kitchen window.

They usually just spin until they all fall down. It's adorable.

And one last picture of Miss Marvel, enjoying a popsicle. She would argue that THIS is what happiness is!

I argue that happiness is being able to FINALLY post pictures!!!!! Between losing the camera cord, losing the camera, the battery being dead, being unable to find the charger, and the basement flooding, I haven't posted pictures since like January. It's been ridiculous! So I'm quite happy to be able to post pics of my kidlets.

Things I've learned over the past month

1. Nothing is ever as easy as it looks on HGTV.

2. Press-on tiles are a beast to cut.

3. Don't try to put up sheetrock yourself, even if you're with someone who supposedly knows what they're doing. Just call a professional.

4. Move EVERYTHING out of the room when said professional sands the sheetrock and mud. Otherwise, a fine layer of dust will cover every.thing.

5. Rooms with white furniture were not meant to be living rooms for young children. My white furniture is no longer white.

6. Being without the internet makes me a little sad, but awfully productive.

7. Superman and I love Mad About You. We found a channel playing reruns 4 nights a week and we love laughing at Paul and Jamie. And seeing all the similarities to our own marriage.

8. Superman likes my hair voluminous and curly/wavy more than straight. (I hypothesize that it's because it looks more like Jamie Buchman's.)

9. Miss Marvel can CLIMB. Like, I'm contemplating changing her blog name to Spidergirl because she pulls herself up onto everything now. Chairs, table, book shelves......she pulls with her little arms and lifts her feet as high as she can. My Sunday School students were marveling at how she was pulling herself onto the table in our classroom the other day.

10. Legos will never ever go out of style. My boys love them as much as I did as a kid. Also, we need a lego table.

11. Family rooms are AWESOME. I didn't realize how much we used ours until it was gone. It is SOOO good to have it back.

12. I missed blogging. I've got a lot to catch up on.

Vegas, Baby!!

Superman and I are contemplating a couples getaway to Vegas. As always, we're looking for the cheapest way to do it. We've found cheap hotel rates, but we're a bit up in the air for entertainment.

Ideally, I'd love to see the Cirque De Soleil LOVE show. We may end up splurging on that, but what else could we do (that's not drinking or gambling)? I've only been to Vegas once, and I was 10. I don't remember much, but I'm sure there's tons of stuff to do.

So, great void, help a sister out.

What can you do in Vegas that doesn't cost too much?

Confessions of am Eternal Optimist

I really am a silver linings kind of gal.

Some examples:

I have a bit of sunscreen in my eye right now. My first thought? "At least it's warm enough to be WEARING sunscreen! So glad I got to be outside today!"

And a few days ago when it wasn't sunny and I started to complain about rain on Memorial Day, I realized that with cooler weather, our electric bill was going to be really low. We have yet to turn on the A/C this year.

We are sheet rocking the basement today and I will be losing the computer in the process. That just means that I will accomplish a lot more without the internet to distract me.

The other day my SIL/BFF sent me a text: "My son licked the car window, then drew eyes on it. But it doesn't look like eyes, if you know what I mean! I'm driving around with boobs on my window!"

My response: "Well, at least he didn't add a nose and make it man parts!"

I can see silver linings almost anywhere. Sink full of dishes? At least we ate food yesterday. Living cramped with extra furniture? At least it didn't flood in here, too. Pimples signaling that time of the month? I'm grateful to still be able to have babies. Have to spend hours each Saturday mowing, pulling weeds, trimming trees? We've got a great yard that the kids can play in and I'm thankful for it.

I'm not entirely sure where this undying optimism came from. I know it's a little unusual. Sometimes I worry that people feel like I'm minimizing their problems.


--I don't have time to artfully wrap up this post, as my husband's friend is here to help with the sheetrock. But I going to post it anyway so that I have something other than memes up for the next while. Ciao.

Three for Thursday

1. Three of my favorite Pandora.com stations
-Matchbox 20
- Journey
- Pink
(Superman and I have created our own)

2. Three lessons learned since I have graduated from high school
- You will never have more money.
- It's possible to survive on Ramen noodles and cereal.
- Life doesn't get easier. But it does get better.

3. Three people I was remembering on Memorial Day
- The Hulk (since it was his birthday)
- My Grandpa
- My brother, who just graduated from BASIC training

4. Three bad habits
- procrastination
- passive aggressiveness
- eating when I'm bored

5. Three foods I will NEVER put in my mouth
- sushi
- frog legs
- liverl

6. Three things that sounded like a good idea at the time
- turning on the sprinklers
- using hair color from the clearance shelf
- buying a home in August of 2007

7. Three plans for Father’s Day 2011
- Let Superman sleep in as long as possible
- cook him his favorite dinner
- Keep the kids out of the bedroom so Superman can take a super-long nap after church.

8. Three things that make me a “mean mom” (aka a GOOD mom)
- I do not cook/make more than one thing for dinner.
- Enforce the doing of chores before the playing of games
- Make my kids go to bed.

9. Three things I'm supposed to do today:
- Find carpet pad
- Find a carpet installer
- Teach piano lessons
- Zumba
- unhook the computer so Superman and a friend can begin repairing the basement
- cook dinner
- upload 247 pictures so the grandparents can see recent pics of Miss Marvel

Oh, wait. That's more than 3. I had better get off the computer and start working on that list!

Check out Evelyn's Three for Thursday list!!!!! Feel free to link up!