Friday Fave Five!!!

1. Kiddo is going on an overnight class trip next week. I remember going to the same place but for longer when I was her age. So excited, she'll have a lot of fun. Also nervous. lol.

2. The car saga: It is no longer overheating since the radiator, and the tranny flush means the tranny is functioning better as well. They finally found the oil leak this morning and finally heard the creaking in the front end. They will be fixing that stuff next week and giving me a loaner car again for the duration. Love the extended warranty -- it's covering it all. We may get our money's worth for it after all.

3. Using my mom's sewing machine ... mine is in the shop (i'm not even going to think about what else needs to be fixed around here), so I get to use her nicer one she has at her house here. (she lives in another state but has a house here). It's super nice. Very helpful in finishing a quilt a friend commissioned me to do. Thank you mom and disgrace!

4. Kiddo is learning to change the dishwasher in a more timely fashion. It helped to write "hug your parents" on her chore chart as her chore twice a day. bwahahaha

5. Mojo is learning to stand on his own - he can, he just chooses not to. He *almost* took a step today, but decided to sit at the last minute and crawl instead. stinker.

Look! You can see my tooth!

Another story from Mojo.


Actually, I now have a second tooth, but it's still pretty short so you can't see it in this picture.


And Mom says this is what I looked like a year ago today.

Lazy Mama

My husband told me very lovingly tonight that I'm lazy. The worst of it is, I couldn't argue with him.

Those who know me well know that if something doesn't come easily to me, I'm not likely to work at it. Unless I'm really, really motivated.

Music always came to me, not super easily, but it wasn't like the struggle I watched other folks go through to learn a piece or a new instrument. Once I'd learned the notes and techniques, it snowballed from there. So I would ditch band and orchestra in high school and show up for the rehearsal before the concert and play my solos and no one could gripe because they were done right.

College anatomy was a breeze to me ... good thing because I don't think I would've worked at it if it hadn't been. My "withdraw" from chemistry is proof. They were both required for my major. ha.

I'm not so motivated to pick up Tongan or Spanish or any other language really. They aren't that easy for me to really learn -- I can learn pronunciation just fine. My mother-in-law and the sisters in their ward were surprised I could sing the hymns in Tongan with the right accent and diphthong usage. I just listened to those around me and mimicked. But I had no idea what the words meant! I still haven't learned much beyond "'Ofa 'atu," which means "I love you."

Knitting is the only thing I've tried in the recent past that hasn't been super easy (aside from mother/wife/gospel things). My sister made the CUTEST bag, so I had to try it too. I ripped that sucker out about 50 times before I got it to look right. It's completely knitted, but I need to make a liner and stitch it together. Then I'll post pictures. But I worked HARD on it.

Anyway. We were discussing playing card games. We game with some of his friends sometimes. I'm barely learning the rules. I have bad luck and can't play anything for turns on end, and by the time I can, they've killed me. I nearly cried the first time. lol. It's not easy for me, so I haven't played them much or learned much about them.

So yes, dear, you can call me lazy as pertains to my motivation level on certain things. If you try to call me lazy as it pertains to my job, housework, or caring for you or our children, well, it's a good thing you have a huge life insurance policy. That's all I'm saying.

True Story, by Mojo.

I only *look* cute and innocent.

Yesterday at church, I behaved until Daddy went home. He wasn't feeling well and I know Mommy was tired from working until late, so I did my best to try and convince her to take me home with him, but she wouldn't.

First I whined and cried and punched my sister.

Mommy just took me out in the hall.

She didn't even take me home during Sunday School, when I went from playing with my toys and feeling the carpet on the wall to smearing people with soggy cheerios and pushing a man's wheelchair into a wall and shaking him to pieces. Those wheels were awesome, dangit! I couldn't resist!

Mommy sure moved fast to get our stuff and get me out of there. We still just went into the hall!

Or in Relief Society, when I tried to rip up hymn books and pulled the beautiful blond hair of the sister in front of us. More than once.

Mommy yanked me out of there just as fast as I pulled that hair.

But I stayed stuck in that darn hall!

All of you at church laugh and say how cute I am, when all mommy wants to do is put me back to bed and cry. I pushed her buttons good yesterday. Score!

Then our home teacher came over. His little boy is my age, so he didn't mind the gooey pretzel smashed on his pants so much or me ripping up his pretty magazine. I hope.

I can't wait until NEXT Sunday. Mommy says I don't get to go to church. She's going alone with Sister because it's some temple dedication or something. That means I get to be home alone with Daddy and drive HIM crazy!

Friday Fave Five!!

1. Drop Dead Diva.


Seriously funny show -- a dramedy, if you will. A size 2 model dies and returns herself to earth, accidentally landing in the plus-sized body of a lawyer. She has to live the lawyer's life and can't tell anyone. If you haven't been watching, you should be! It's on Lifetime and has been on for about a month. If you go HERE, you can see all 5 episodes so far, then watch it on Lifetime on Sunday nights.

2. Getting a call from my supervisor tonight asking me if I wanted to add my hours to my shift. I told her no because I can't commit to set hours during the day but need to work around the baby's naps. She said *I* could work as many hours as I want/need/possibly can. Nice. They love me still. Awesome!

3. School starts next week! I'll miss Munchkin terribly, I'm sure, as will her brother. (not dad because he sleeps during the day, lol) But she's bored and driving us all bananas, so she needs to be in school.

4. Water. Dunno why, but I'm feeling the H2O love tonight.

5. The pictures I took tonight of the dragonfly in our tree. This one is my fave.

Friday Fave Five!!!

1. Little Mister has learned to climb up on the couch. It's quite cute how he does it ... picture a tiny toddler standing next to the couch, then hiking his right foot up so he's almost doing the splits, then heaving with his hands and foot with all his might to get the rest of his body up there. Yep. It's funny. Only now he's trying to go over the back of it too, so not safe. *sigh*

2. This picture of my nephew.


3. The Architect's 8-year-old daughter slept over last night. She and kiddo had a lot of fun and played with Mojo a lot, so I did indeed get a break, even with an extra child in the house. She's a sweetie and helped me feel better about something B.A.D. that happened to me. lol.

4. Finishing projects. Like this.


5. The rain and clouds that came in the last couple days, cooling down the valley. *love*

No wonder Chrysler is going out of business...

I took my car in to the dealership to get a few things looked at. Just a comedy of errors.

First was the oil change.

Yeah.

They put it back the way I wanted and I took it in the next week for new tires and a couple other things: warranty item, new transmission fluid, and our "overheating" light keeps going off.

They had to order parts. No problem. They would be there that afternoon.

They broke the warranty item installing it (rear window).

They had to order a new one, which wouldn't be there that afternoon.

They also had to order tires. They would be there in two days. No problem, they don't take long to install.

They got one in correctly and the other was the wrong size. They had to re-order it. It was supposed to be there Monday (4 days ago). I went back in on Tuesday. It wasn't there. It got there Wednesday instead. I didn't have time Wednesday or Thursday to get it taken care of, so I had hubby take it back first thing this morning.

The coolant/overheating issue: They told me was caused by low fluid, after pressure checking the whole system. Or so they said. They topped it off and charged me $90 for the opportunity to look at my vehicle and sent me on my way. It was still doing it. So when it went back this morning, I had them look at that, too.

By 2 this afternoon, I still hadn't heard anything. I called and left a message. No return of my voice mail. I called again at 3, and found out there actually was a problem in the system (duh) -- first they thought water pump (ack) but then the radiator cap failed the pressure check (remember, the one they said they did last week? yeah, I don't think they really did it.). Anyway. They replaced it and said, "we didn't charge you labor for this since I already did, just for the cap." Okay. Thanks. I arrived to pick up the car, and had a feeling I needed to check the tires before I drove away.

The front tire was new, but the back tire (the one they were supposed to replace and rotate to the front) was still the old bald tire. I insisted they fix it, as the former front tire had tread and no bald spots. They did and apologized.

It now creaks when going over bumps in a way I don't remember it doing before. I asked hubby to let me know if he thinks it's any different.

As for the overheating problem, the temperature gauge still went up ... but not to overheating ... and then dropped per its current normal. I popped the hood when I got home. The radiator cap was on securely, but the cap to the reservoir was wide open. I snapped it closed and am crossing my fingers that's the end of it.

Then I came in the house and read the note from the tech. "have the customer not add any coolant and if it happens again, bring it in immediately." that would've been nice to have heard from the service adviser -- what if I wasn't such a reader and just went on my merry way? *sigh*

MEN.

ahh, Monday

I missed the friday fave five. Bother.

It's Monday now, who cares? hahaha

Actually, it's more than Monday. It's kiddo's 10th birthday. Both my kids had huge milestones in the last few weeks ... *sniff* They're growing up. *sniff*

I never thought I'd be this weepy over them getting older, but I really do love and enjoy my kids. I'm not one of those parents (yet) who can't wait for the kids to get older and grow up and get out of the house. I do find myself thinking, "I can't wait until ..." y'know, Mojo can feed himself, is walking, is able to eat more food ... or Kiddo can have makeup (2 more years on that one), is in young women's, etc. But then I stop myself and remind myself to enjoy the here and now. Mojo is just plain adorable, charming everyone everywhere he goes, loving on us, playing tiddlywinks with his Cheerios at restaurants, giving slobbery kisses and hugs, saying "no" ... and Kiddo is a hoot and helpful and so sweet with our whole family (unless she's being a preteen with attitude) ... I really am blessed and will miss this when they do get bigger. *sniff*

Happy birthday, kidlet. Love you.