A grateful heart

Tonight I'm just grateful. For health, for home and mostly for family.
Shea wanted to nap today in mommy's bed so I put him down and came out to get some work done. 10 minutes later he came out so I put him back in bed and sat down again to try and get something done. He came out again, same thing and I put him back again. This time I asked him why he kept getting out and he said, "Mommy, I just want you to lie beside me." So I laid there and just held my baby. How lucky am I??? How could any amount of work be more important than cuddling that perfect little boy as close as I can for as long as I can? Tonight we read stories and sang songs and cuddled some more. I vow to cradle him to me as long as he'll let me.

(On a side note, there was a little earthquake tonight while we were sitting here reading stories. He looked up at me and said, "Why did our house shake mom?" How exactly do you explain an earthquake? :-)

Johnny Depp!!!

Ok, not really, but SERIOUSLY! This was some great casting Disneyland!! I couldn't take my eyes off Captain Jack as he was talking to Shea, he looked and sounded sooooo much like him. Shea's favorite ride has always been Pirates. He loves it so much that when we go down a hill in the car, he'll raise his arms up and go, "wee, just like Pirates."
Yesterday; however, we discovered the little roller coaster in Toon Town. Oh. My. Gosh. I can't remember when I've seen smiles that big. I love you Disneyland, that you bring this much joy.

Ridiculously handsome

A few weeks ago I noticed out on the playground that Shea's shorts more resembled hot pants and that 6 inches of belly showed when he raised his arms. After inspecting his tags, I realized that almost all his clothes were still 24 months. Shame on mom! So he got an entirely new wardrobe. (Including two slightly too large ties.) I was sadly disappointed however, as we were leaving Target, I, very enthusiastically said, "Shea, are you excited about your new undies?" He looked at me and said, "No." Well, ok then. I am not raising a girl here.

And on that note. On Sunday, to church, little miss spoiled, for the first time in her life, wore a dress twice. She has that many dresses. So this is a giant, giant, giant! THANK-YOU to all of you who donated to our cause when she was born. And know that your generosity will benefit future little girls. (Jaimee! I'm looking at you!! Have a baby! I have so much to share!)

My new all time favorite thing

I love this!!!!!! Walking into a room and seeing them playing together. Families rule!!!

Congratulations Shannon!

Our friend Shannon got baptized on Saturday. We are so happy for you and we love you!!
Good pic of Chris and Shea, Shannon and I however, closed eyes and red eyes. Lovely! - But you get the idea. It was a good day!

Look what I can do!

Happy Birthday Chris

33. Man you're old! Wait, I'm about to be 34 so I guess I can't talk. I made a list of 33 things you don't know about Chris. Most are pretty funny and all are interesting. Chris begged me not to post these. Sorry honey! It's my blog and I'll post if I want to!! :-)

1-Chris has the most ridiculously long outer ear hairs. (I trim them. You're welcome!)
2-He went to the Idyllwild music school on a summer scholarship when he was a teenager.
3-He was a drama geek in HS and college and did a ton of plays.
4-He can eat his weight in candy each week. (Yes, it's a financial hardship.)
5-He loves Halloween and coming up with original costumes for Shea esp.



6-He does not think our 46 inch TV is big enough and covets the 52 inches as Costco.
7-He allegedly walked back from Tijuana once with illegal fireworks strapped to his chest. (I do not believe this still - but he swears it's true.)
8-He learned to swim by being thrown repeatedly into the pool by an old German guy.
9-He loves scouting and is an eagle scout.
10-He is an accomplished tubist.
11-He also plays guitar, sax, piano, banjo, accordian, etc. (All of which, I'm forced to store in our tiny apartment.)
12-He knew I was supposed to be his wife the first minute he saw me.
13-Chris loves dogs and can't wait until we live someplace where we can have one.
14-He is the middle of 5 kids. There is a 9 year span between him and his siblings on both sides.
15-He can (and has) made braised lamb with mint sauce.
16-He will do anything around the house I ask him to help with.
17-He will do almost anything to get out of doing dishes.
18-While in a French PhD program, he prefers London to Paris.
19-He has been on Jeopardy! and won $2,000.
20-He has perfect vision and perfect teeth.
21-His best friend from Jr. High through college is a self-proclaimed fat Mexican named Tacho.
22-Ragtime is his all time favorite musical.
23-He believes Tommy's chili is the food of the Gods.
24-He never really liked or played video games until we got our Wii.
25-He has correctly guessed every single birthday, Christmas or Father's day gift I've ever given him before he opened it. I hate that I can never surprise him!
26-He is a really good teacher.
27-He hates, really hates having family pictures taken.
28-His teams are the Angels, Lakers and Rams.
29-His dream is to go on a cross-country trip to visit all the baseball parks and temples in the US.
I have 4 more but he's making quit posting this "crap."
So I'll end with,
I love you party pooper. :-) Happy Birthday.

(Shea at dad's party wearing all the hats!)

Melted cheddar delivery system

I LOVE and I mean LOVE cheese. I've always loved it, but then I went to France on a mission and, well, now I love it even more. All types of cheeses. Cow's, sheep's, goat, hard, soft, oozing, moldy, melty, you name it, I've probably tried it and loved it. On special occasions we love this sheep's milk cheese from Costco. Possibly the best cheese on the planet. Although I had this tiny goat cheese round a few months ago with sweet, dried apricots on top. That was heavenly. So while I love special occasion cheeses, right now (really since I was pregnant with Shea) my daily love is a good extra sharp cheddar. And melted, it has to be melted and bubbly and oosing. So, my problem is the melted cheddar delivery system. While pregnant with Shea it was fries, luckily that didn't last too long. Unfortunately, my current choice, tortilla chips isn't much better, although I try to use baked tortilla chips. Today we were out of chips and I was forced to use some old, stale triscuits. Surprisingly delicious!!! This might become my new favorite. What cheeses do you love? What haven't I tried that I need to try?

Shea '08 update...

Apparently candy is not the only issue that inspires our young politician.

The other day I took Shea out to play. He immediately jumped on a little car and started circling the playground yelling "It's one o'clock, I'm late!" He finally parked the car and ran past me explaining that he was late for an "important meeting." He climbed to the high platform of the jungle gym, announced that he (the president) had arrived, and began taking questions from his imaginary audience. In response to one unwelcome question, he yelled, "We're talking about Star Wars, not soldiers!"

Personally, I think adding Star Wars to the platform can only expand his appeal and further motivate the base... Good move, son!

But, on a serious note... should this worry us?

Couponing

So I started couponing again.

What I hate about couponing:
-Sorting through 3 Sunday LA Times every week
-Collating my coupon pages
-Stapling my coupons
-Cutting my coupons
-Organizing them into my coupon caddy
-Making a grocery list (i.e. matching up what we want to eat w/ what's on sale and what has a coupon.)
-Shopping with coupons.

What I LOVE about couponing:
In case you can't tell (grocery receipts don't scan so well) "Today's Total Savings: $167.83"!!
That's a savings of 69%!!! I will take groceries at roughly 30% of their cost ANY DAY!!

I also LOVE that my food storage closet is FULL, no BURSTING with food! Soup, cereal, fruit snacks, fruit cups, peanut butter, juice, granola bars, treats, pasta, pancake mix, cake mixes, condiments, chips, water etc. etc. etc. I have no place to store all this, which is a bummer, 940 square feet are not conducive to a big food storage, so we're forced to stick food under cribs, in drawers etc., but other than that, all this food storage makes me happy happy happy!!

Tent

I'm not sure what exactly it is about boys and tents. Shea got this tent for Christmas and every once in a while wants to set it up. Two Sunday's ago I was on duty and had to stay home from church. To keep him busy while I was on calls I set up the portable DVD player inside the tent. He loved it!! Big success. Take note moms, this will keep a kid busy for a l.o.n.g time! After a while he asked if Clare could come in his tent with him. She seemed to think it was cool too. :-)

Swings

I wish I were talented with a camera like my cute cousin Jodi alas, I am not. But I sure do love my subject matter. Here they are out on the swings yesterday.

Something I learned today.

Things you never want to hear your 3 year old say while holding a large wooden object over you: "Don't worry mom, this is only going to hurt a little."

Shea's political platform

With all the political coverage over the past couple weeks, our TV viewing choices have been less Shea-centered than usual. Nonetheless, it appears that he has been paying attention.

Shea was playing on the giant, rubbery food playground at the mall the other day when we noticed that he was standing at the high end of a giant slice of watermelon passionately orating, complete with exaggerated hand gestures. We asked what he was doing and he said, "I'm the President!" So of course we started listening...

"Let's all have candy! We all want candy! Let's give everyone candy!"

Given the absolute corruption of both political parties, two-faced pandering and deception by both candidates, and general shadiness of everyone involved in presidential politics, such sincerity is truly rare!

Vote Shea '08!