Food for Thought

Nothing really new to report.
Our first week of rotations went fairly well.
Only about 723 more to go.
And because I have nothing interesting to share, I will therefore be pestering you with some rather obscure thoughts.
Numero uno, I may or may not have felt a little smug when Scott told me he needed to finish vacuuming and organizing his closet before leaving his "dorm" at the VA hospital, and that his non-married roomies were, for lack of a better word, slobs.
Once you get used to a certain standard of cleanliness, there is no going back.
Even if it is a slightly neurotic and unrealistic standard.
Set by one's wife.
I am just saying.
And may I just say pregnancy flatulence is borderline out of control.
TMI? Sorry. You know you all had it.
And as far as my mothering skills are concerned, I feel they may be deteriorating in relationship with Scott's departure.
For ever day he is away, my patience shrinks exponentially smaller.
Good thing he will be home on weekends.
And speaking of haircuts or lack thereof, Ryan is begging to grow out her hair.
Is it mean to force her to keep her perfectly adorable style?
I mean, I know what is best and will also be held responsible when she looks back on childhood pictures of herself.
Plus, if her hair is anything like mine, she will end up with a head of hair as thick as a My Little Pony's mane. (That one is for you Tracy :)
So to wrap things up, here are a few photos of my latests acquisitions:

A super cute hammered metal vase.
I am not sure how I lived without it before.
I smile every time I see it.
And the best part is that I got in on sale at Target and purchased it with a gift card. Booyah.

And a little footstool. I have yet to determine what material it is made out of, but it looks like leather and wipes off easily. $4 at Goodwill.
Fun.
Well, I am off. Scott is returning any minute and I can't wait.
I will probably kiss his face off.

And so it begins

Scotty left on Friday for Tacoma.
And six months of craziness starts now. Ready go.
It is only day three and I am so over it.
What was I thinking?
Anyway, we don't have much to report around here.
The most exciting thing to happen is Ezra's semi-regular bowel movements.
That and I saw Water for Elephants last night with some girlfriends.
So good.
As if I need more reasons to love Robert Pattinson.
Oh and I was able to attend Relief Society today for the first time in 7+ months.
That is noteworthy I suppose.
Hmmmm, I am really reaching here.
According to my blog sidebar I only have 74 days left of pregnancy!
So here comes the belly shot.
It has been about 8 weeks since the last HOT picture.

I think I am about 30 weeks along, 10 more-ish to go. I think it sounds shorter in months (2) so that is how I count it.
And here is a picture I forced my kids to take. I instructed them to hold hands and be happy, dammit. Ryan's smile looks a little strained.
They are getting so big, I cannot believe it.
Please stop growing.
Oh well, once we add to our brood, I am sure I will be happy they are a little bigger.
And by the way, I like the names Micah, Jude, Graham, and Hudson.
Scott isn't a fan of any of them.
I told him that it is therefore his job to come up with stellar name.
We'll see.
Gotta be off.
Peace out.

Week off ...

Scott has been home the entire week!
This is a Christmas miracle of sorts.
The down side is that he will soon be gone all week, every week.
For. six. months.
However, it has been nice having my honey home.
To help nurse a bunch of sick kids back to health.
And give me back rubs.
Last night, Scott got to take Ryan to the E.R. at 1:00 a.m.
It was her first ear infection, and she was screaming bloody murder.
I thought the neighbors were going to come knocking, to see who was strangling our child.
But after 45 minutes and a good dose of drugs, she was sleeping like a lamb.
And as a side note, Ezzy is still refusing to go #2.
Awesome.
My kids are super fun to be around right now.
Oh well, I am sure we are on the mend.
And I have no pictures, yet again.
Obviously.
And on a happy note, my fugly baby bangs are growing out.
This is how I measure my days now.
That is where the time continuum starts.
Almost six weeks since the hack job, and six weeks closer to have a grown-up hairstyle again.
I know I am pathetic and need a hobby.

Crappiest. day. ever. literally

So we have been sorta busy. (Too busy to take pictures apparently).
It started with a potty training test run.
Ezra has been asking me to change his diaper frequently and exhibits signs of discomfort if I don't do it right away.
He is quite insistent.
So I thought perhaps he would rather wear undies and be dry and comfy all the time.
And he took to it rather well.
The first day he had one tiny accident but successfully used the potty five, I say 5, times!
He was enthusiastic and loved his ca-uuute underwear.
What is it about a tiny person in tiny underoos?
Anyway, the next day was different.
He was annoyed and wouldn't sit on his potty.
And every day since he has been unwilling to cooperate.
Except to tell me when he needs to go but and how much he doesn't want to go on the potty.
Plus he defiantly held his ... well, poo for four days.
Finally after trying to coax him to use his diaper with no avail, Scott administered a suppository.
It was traumatizing for all three of us.
Traumatizing, yet quickly effective.
So effective in fact, that I became the potty as he shat all over my leg, the carpet, Scott's shirt, and everywhere else within a 5 foot radius.
It was awful.
That was on Saturday.
Scott's birthday.
Happy Birthday to him.
He said it was definitely his crappiest birthday ever.
Pun intended.
However, as soon as we emptied an entire bottle of carpet cleaner on the floor and had baths, we proceeded to do Scott right and fix up a cake and decorations.
I didn't take pictures because Scott isn't a huge fan of celebrating his big day and I was in my skivvies.
Anyway, other than that we have been enjoying Scott's time off before he heads to Tacoma for his first rotation.
After passing his 1st set of boards with flying colors he is starting his final year in optometry school!
We are so proud of him and all his hard work.
What a smarty-pants.
This year will be a little hairy.
More on that later.
I am feeling a little lazy and secretly want to watch Dancing with the Stars.
But I will leave you with one happy little picture ...

I can barely stand it. So. dang. cute.

A big weekend

I finally got off my patootie and am sitting down to write the post I don't really wanna write.
This last weekend marked a really big day for our family;
My mom's passing, one year ago.
Has it really been a year?
I sometimes still don't really believe it happened at all.
That Friday, April 23, was without a doubt the worst day of my life.
And every day since then has been just as hard.
I lost my mom, my best friend, and my mentor.
She is the most incredible woman I have ever know, and dare I say, will ever know.
I miss her every day.
I want to call her every day.
I have so many questions, and fun experiences, and not-very-important tidbits I wish I could share.
And sure, she is "always with me," but I would really prefer her here in person.
I have never known loss like this and find myself in tears almost every day.
And yet, I know there is hope.
I guess it was fitting that this weekend also included Easter.
Our Savior's sacrifice for us all is the ultimate gift of hope and love.
We can be an eternal family and see my mom again because of the Atonement.
I am grateful for my family, for my husband, and kids.
This year and brought us closer together.
I feel that now I try harder to cherish every day with the people I love.
We started off the weekend by dashing down to Eugene and basically opening the door to our car and throwing the kids out at my Dad's for him (and mostly Heather) to watch so Scott and I could go out on a date.
We were also celebrating our wedding anniversary (8 years)!
We wanted to make the weekend as busy as possible.
So we went to dinner at a little place called Johnny Ocean's.
It was mostly island-inspired foods but don't worry, I found the biggest cheeseburger on the menu and devoured it in about 2 minutes (literally).
Then we went to see the play "Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," at the community theater.
It was really good, disgusting fun.
The following day we went on a walk commemorating my mother, organized by one of her best friends.
We had a great turnout.
It was beautiful and sunny, and although Ezra screamed bloody murder the whole time, it was the perfect way to celebrate my mom.

My brother, his daughter Adelaide, Brit and Olivia, and me and my Elvis-like pompadour. Barf.
After that, we packed a picnic lunch and drove to the Cottage Grove cemetery to visit mom.
The weather was nice, and we just spread out and ate and chatted for hours while the kids roamed around.
It was really peaceful.
On Sunday, we attended church and the kids went decked out in new Easter clothes (Thank you Heather!). So cute. Look at that tie.

This was the best family shot we got (sorry honey). And yes, that is me and not Edna Mode from the movie The Incredibles. I officially hate my short bangs.

Then the kids enjoyed an Easter egg hunt, scarfed 10 pounds of candy, and then we all jumped back into the car to drive home.
It was a busy weekend, but couldn't have been any better.
I still feel a bit sleep deprived and emotionally drained so I apologize for the lackluster post.
I promise to get my wit on next time.

A visit

We had a few visitors yesterday.
And any change in routine becomes the highlight of our week.
My dad and his fiance Heather dropped by for a little dinner,
and a little racing.
My kids seem to be starved for attention and convince anyone within earshot to watch all their talents.
And since Ryan's new trick is bike riding ...
well you get the picture (Ezra feels he is faster on foot).
We enjoyed our short visit.

And on the home decorating front, I finally redid our living room wall.
Again.
I just get tired of having things the same all the time.
And plus I thought the first arrangement was barfy.
Anyway, it keeps me busy whilst my hubby is toiling at school.

I like it way better.
The frames are not as close together as they appear in this picture.
It looks like I nailed them all on top of each other.
I must be at a weird angle.
They look better in person.
Come over and you will see for yourself.
And while I am day dreaming about my wall decor ...

I would like one of these.
Isn't that mirror amazing?
Only a mere 250 smackaroos.
Ahhhh, well a girl can dream.
And that folks, is all that happens around here.

Twinsies

I got my hair cut.
It was turning into a mullet.
Between that and my mexi mustache I was starting to resemble Joe Dirt.
So I don't know what I was thinking and zipped to the hairdresser on the way home from the grocery store with both kids in tow.
I am not sure what I thought they would do while I got my hair done.
They started off quiet, sitting in the chairs designated for waiting customers.
Angelic.
That lasted about 10 minutes.
Then Ezra started getting squirmy.
And Ryan started in with the running commentary.
It sort of resembles tattling and sounds like this:
"Mommy, Ezra is taking off his shoes. And his socks."
"Mommy, Ezra is crawling all over the chairs."
"Mommy, now he is licking the carpet."
"He found a fruit snack under the chair, with hair on stuck to it."
"He's eating it."
Helplessly, I am yelling warnings and instructions from the chair, while the hairdresser is becoming increasingly flustered.
Frantic for us to leave, as Ezra is now eying all the shelves displaying hair products, she snips my bangs, and rips off the cape.
I hurriedly pay and we make our escape.
Then I come home to style my freshly shorn hair, I realize that I have been given baby bangs.
So that is how Ryan and I became twins.
I love the cut, but may have to grow out the front a bit.
And I am never taking my kids with me to get my hair cut again.
Ever.