Snoogi Sunday

*Day 60*
Woohoo! 60 days! That feels like something.

You'll never guess what we did with our snoogi this week! We were just being wild and crazy, and did something with it they never advertised on TV. We unzipped it all the way, spread it out flat on the floor, and had a picnic. I know, I know, we just get crazy around here sometimes. We enjoyed cheeseburgers and Phineas and Ferb. Then we washed the snoogi because Logan spilled fry sauce on it. But that's the only bad thing I can think of that comes from using your snoogi as a blanket to sit on.

Cats

*Day 59*
Logan Loves cats. I don't know when he started loving them. I think he loved them even before he met Macho cat. I don't remember when he got his first stuffed cat, maybe one. But that wasn't the last. I counted. We have 18 cats in our house. (If tigers and lions count as cats.) Logan has to sleep with one, or two, or three, or more every night. He just got a new cat from his Aunt Jennifer. It's his new favorite. It hasn't left his side since he got it. (Except I wouldn't let him take it to school. But, he held until he got to the door before throwing it onto the couch.) Logan's number one wish in life is to have a cat. Every time he has a wish bone, or birthday candles, I know he wishes for a cat. I know because after he's done, he tells me we need to get a house. We told him a long time ago that we couldn't have a cat in our apartment. I think he was three when we drove past a house that had a For Sale sign in front. Logan asked me if it was for sale or rent. I told him for sale. He told me we should buy it so we could have a cat.


He was a cat for Halloween when he was 2.


This is Logan with Macho cat (Steven and Andrea's). It was a highlight of his life to meet and play with a real cat. He still talks about Macho.


They do a reading with cats program at the Humane Society. I took Logan. He loved it. I thought it would be special thing to do... once. He wanted to go back every week.



With his new cat Fer. (The end of Jennifer.)

What Was I Scared Of

*Day 58*

Ok, so, I'll do real post today.

I enjoyed Jenn's book review. I admire people who are able to get through a "big kid" book, because I'm just not good at it. If I get the chance to read, it usually ends with me falling a sleep. More than once, I've checked books out from the library and renewed them my max 3 times, without finishing them. I know it's sad. I guess it's just not my time in life to be a reader. Maybe someday.

What I do know is children's books. Dr. Seuss has been my favorite since I was little. A few years ago, we came upon Dr. Seuss story that we hadn't heard before. It's called "What Was I Scared Of". It was originally printed in "The Sneetches and Other Stories". I love this story. Now that I'm older I tend to really enjoy the Dr. Seuss stories that have a hidden meaning. Like the Lorax, the Sneetches, and Yertle The Turtle (possibly the best book ever written on the subject of stacking turtles). Anyway, this story has been published (in glow in the dark form!) by itself now. I read it to Logan so much that he asked me not read it anymore. When I finally got Matt to listen to it, he laughed at the pictures, and the story. I never notice the pictures in the books, I'm too busy looking at the words. So, I had to take this one and just look at the pictures. I loved it even more then. I really wanted to scan in the whole book, but I didn't. Check it our from your library, or borrow it from me. Or, on a good day, I could quote it to you.

I will settle on my favorite quote from the book.
"I said, 'I do not fear those pants with nobody inside them. I said, and said , and said those words. I said them, but I lied them.'"

Here's a picture. I chose this one because Matt's post "The Ice Man Cometh" (Day 83) made me think of this book. When Logan got that guy with the ice, this is what he looked like. I'm not kidding!

Day 57

?

Quote of the Day

*Day 56*
This is what I overheard as Kya and Diego were playing.

"The horse is my partner. That's OK if the horse is my partner?"

"No, a person, like a dog."

Sweating To The Oldies and B-ball

*Day 55*

For young women's tonight we dressed up 80's style and did Sweating To The Oldies with Richard Simmons. It's pretty funny, but actually a pretty good workout. I laughed the whole time, just to burn some extra calories. Then I played basketball with the Elders. They invited me to play because the people around here somehow got the idea that I am a very competitive person.? I'm sure it has nothing to do with the young men's president getting tackled in a mud football game. (He got revenge!)

Backyard Friends- The Chipmunk

*Day 54*


In our backyard we've had a few friendly visitors. Today is dedicated to the chipmunk that lives in tree across the fence. We actually see a lot of chipmunks around here. There are a lot that live in the park down the street. We see them running along the telephone wires and jumping from tree to tree around the neighborhood. I think it's fun to see (most) animals in our backyard.

We've watched one chipmunk a lot in our backyard. When you wake up in the spring and summer, you can hear the chipmunk outside. We watch it run along the fence and over the garage. One day we heard a lot of racket on the roof. We went outside to see what it was. There was a chipmunk in the rain gutter way up on the second story. He was there for a while making noise. He looked like he was trying to get out, but couldn't. We thought he was stuck and were wondering how we could help him. Then all of the sudden, he jumped out of the gutter, ran the power lines to the garage roof and was gone.

The neighbors had a walnut tree. Some walnuts would fall over the fence. While me and Logan were raking leaves, we collected the walnuts we found and put them in a bucket. We left the bucket outside the front door. I came home one day and the bucket was tipped over. I picked it up, but I couldn't find the walnuts. Logan didn't know what happened to them either. We picked up some more walnuts another day. The same thing happened. I couldn't figure out who would take our walnuts. Then we decided that the chipmunks were probably taking them!

My favorite chipmunk story: Logan was playing in the snow in the backyard a couple of weeks ago. When he came in, he told me that he had to come in because the chipmunk was just sitting on the fence watching him. It was scaring him. He thought it might jump down and get him or something. A few days later, he came in from playing outside. He told that same chipmunk was watching him again so he had to come in.

I know I've been talking about chipmunks, and this video is about squirrels, but talking about chipmunks made me think about this. It's a clip from Phineas and Ferb. It's pretty funny, especially if you see the whole episode. Enjoy!

Snoogi Sunday

*Day 53*


It's sometimes (What am I saying sometimes?) cold in our house when I have to get up early to exercise. I thought, of course, the snoogi can keep me warm while I exercise. Well, it's not so good for yoga. Now I know why it wasn't on the box. You really don't get the range of motion you need while wearing a snoogi. I mean the warrior and dance poses were entirely impossible.

Battle of the Books

*Day 52*


So, I did a stupid thing. I was at the library, and I saw some Where's Waldo books. And I thought, "Hey, Logan would probably like that." And I figured it might keep him entertained while we drove to Salt Lake on New Years. So I checked some out. New Years was how long ago? And we are still looking for Waldo and all the stuff that goes along with him. It's really easy for me to get addicted to these books that I get for Logan. The problem is that I get addicted. And I can't leave them undone. I have to finish finding everything. And when I get stuck, I put the book down, but I can't leave it. I try to let Logan help, but sometimes I just need the whole book to myself to get a really good look. I'm wondering if my backache is from leaning over these books to get a better look. I know they gave me headaches. The current book is all done, except that I can't find the stupid key on one page. I give up, I just skip that page now. I wish. I have to look at it every time I pick up the book. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to turn the book into the library if I don't find it. Do you think I need help?



Besides Waldo, these are some other books that can be highly addicting, and annoying if left undone.


We started with the I Spy books. They really do have riddles sometimes. You have to figure out what they really mean if you're going to find the pictures. Like, we were looking at one that said it had 4 bows. Well, we found two easy, but couldn't for the life of us find any more. Than I realized that there were bears playing violins. You play a violin with a bow! So, it's not always straightforward what your looking for. I like the pictures though. It's fun to see all of the little things they put into it.






Then we found Spot 7. They give you two pictures that look the same. You have to find the 7 things that are different between them. There could be things added or removed, something turned a different way, a shadow missing. The good thing about these books is that they give you the answers, so you don't have to go crazy if you're stuck. You can make sure you found everything.



If you like to finish things, make sure you have plenty of time on your hands before you pick up these books.

Friday Family Night

*Day 51*

After Logan's day at school yesterday, I needed to bribe him with something to encourage him to be good at school today. (On the way home from school, the neighbor boy in Logan's class told us that he got three warnings and lost his recess privilege. After I emailed his teacher, I found out that she sent a tracker home with him yesterday because he was so off task. I never saw this tracker. When I questioned him about it today, I found out that he hid it under his bed!)

I told Logan that if he was good in school today, we could make treats and watch Phineas and Ferb. We got our treats all made and got ready to watch. And it wasn't on! There was a Wizards on Waverly Place marathon instead. (The worst part of watching Phineas and Ferb is that you have to sit through a million long commercials for the cheesy tween shows they have.) So, we watched Star Wars the Clone Wars. At least we had good treats.

Indoor Smores
2/3 cup corn syrup
2 Tbsp. butter
1 pkg. chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla
8 cup golden graham cereal
3 cup mini marshmallow

Mix syrup, butter, and chocolate. Heat over medium heat until melted. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour over cereal and marshmallows. Pour into 9x13 pan. Cool and serve like rice krispie treats. (Or, ours don't last very long, so we just eat it out of the bowl.)

Phineas And Ferb

*Day 50*

This is our new favorite TV show. It's on Disney channel. New episodes come on on Friday night. So, we can bribe Logan with that all week. And if he's good, we spend family time Friday night watching Phineas and Ferb. It's pretty funny. Sometimes I think that I laugh a little too hard, but, oh, well. I promised Logan I would put in "Hey, where's Perry?" (Perry is their pet platypus.)

Logan: The Cousin-Brother

*Day 49*

Logan has wanted a little sister for years. He just loves little girls. When my sister had her her daughter, Kellie, Logan instantly fell in love with her. She was his favorite. He named his stuffed kangaroo Kellie. But, Kellie lives in Salt Lake so we don't get to see her very often. Then Lynn had Jessica. Well, Jessica was different because we go to her house everyday. (I work at my sister, Lynn's house.) Logan took an immediate liking to Jessica. Of course, she was a little girl. He was so excited about her that he called her his sister. He told me he was her brother. When I told him he wasn't her brother, he was just her cousin, he told me, "I'm her cousin-brother." And that's how Jessica got a cousin and a brother at the same time. But these two do have a great relationship. They love each other. Maybe more than a brother and sister do because they don't have to live with each other, so they don't fight. They've loved each other from the very beginning. When Jessica was just newborn, there were times that we had a hard time getting her to stop crying. Logan wanted to hold her once when she was crying. I asked if he really wanted to, and wondered how he would handle a crying baby. He wanted to hold her, so I let him. He didn't have to handle a crying baby because she stopped crying. Logan became our magic charm. If nothing else worked, we called Logan to come and hold Jessica. And he was happy to sit on the couch and hold her, and she would stop crying. It's been sweet to watch the two of them grow up. Logan doesn't have to go to Lynn's anymore because he's in school all day. Jessica still asks about Logan, Logan still talks about Jessica. And when they get to spend time together, Logan watches out for her, and shows her new things, and tries to teach her. He really is a good big cousin-brother.

"I" is for What?

*Day 48*

At preschool we have this book to help teach the kids the letters and their sounds. It has a picture that starts with each letter to help the kids associate the letter with the sound it makes. It helps the visual learners. So our picture for the letter "I" is an igloo. We were learning the letter "I" so we were practicing. We say "What does our "I" look like?" The kids look at us blankly, then start guessing stuff. I guess they really just couldn't remember the word igloo. Because when Grace called it an (I'm going to try to spell this how it sounded) eye-glube, all of the other kids agreed that it was an eye-glube. It took me a minute to figure out what she was saying, and another to figure out the she was probably right, she was just saying it wrong. It sounded funny when I was expecting to hear igloo.

Happy Birthday Heather!

*Day 47*

Heather is my sister-in-law, married to my little (OK, younger) brother Aaron. We love having her in the family. I guess the biggest thing about Heather is that she is doing what I always wanted to do. She stays home with her three children. I've got to admit, I'm a bit envious that that's never worked out for me. I'm glad she's been able to make it work for her. It's always great to watch her with her kids. Hopefully she'll get a chance to get out of the house for a little while to enjoy her birthday.

Snoogi Sunday

*Day 46*

Well, Logan loves the snoogi. It was useful today to watch football with dad. We got to watch the Jets beat San Diego. Go Jets!!
Logan saw a commercial for a kid sized snoogi. He was so excited, he called us out of the kitchen to watch. Then he kept talking about his snoogi.

Winter Wonderland

*Day 45*
When I agreed to do this blog, I agreed that I could at least post a picture a day. Yesterday and today have been really pretty days. The smog from the air has settled on the trees and I love the look of frost (or snow) covered trees in the morning. We got a close up look at some of the frost formations on the way to school yesterday. I'm glad I have a kid who can appreciate the beauties of nature. (I'm not a professional photographer, so I hope you can appreciate the beauty that should at least be in this picture.)


I also learned a lesson yesterday. I really should start taking my camera everywhere with me. We saw the turkey at Lynn's house again (see day 40). While we were walking to Library, we saw that turkey fly across the street and land in a tree. I have never seen a turkey fly! And I didn't know they perched. Wow, I wish I had a picture of that!

One of those weeks...

*Day 43*
Computer problems again! Luckily Matt gets to deal with them. Poor guy, downstairs in the cold computer room swearing his eyes out.

Logan's Sign

*Day 43*

I kind of thought it would take longer for this sign to show up on my son's door. The good news is that when I knocked to see if I could come in. Logan told me sure I could come in. I didn't need to knock. So, I'm not sure who the sign is for. Good, I have a little while longer. But, I was impressed. He didn't ask for any help with spelling, and it is pretty good penmanship, for him.

Computer Failure

*Day 42*
So, my internet isn't really working well right now. It might bring up a page, it might not. I could only get here if I closed everything else down. But it won't upload my picture. Plus, I'm not feeling super today. I even skipped basketball, and I was way excited to play again. So, I'm tired of waiting for my computer to work. I want to go to bed, so this is my blog. Sorry!

Quote of the Day

*Day 41*

"Now I look like a monster!" When Jessica saw her static hair in the mirror. (Earlier in the day she said she looked like an alien.)

Turkey

*Day 40*

This turkey was just walking down the street. It looked big too. Made you wish it was Thanksgiving.

Snoogi Sunday

*Day 39*

We learned that the snoogi is good to use while finding Waldo. (Especially when it is 10 degrees outside.) But my eyes are killing me!

It's How Cold?!

*Day 38*
I get home from walking Logan to school, pick up my water bottle that has been sitting in the living room all night and get a nice drink of ice water. Then I turn on the radio to hear that it is -9 degrees outside. I realize it's cold! Then I think of my Uncle Curt (on my mom's side). He would always ask us why we want to live in Logan. He would say, it's so cold there. I would always say, It's not that much colder than Salt Lake. But I know now that I am wrong. It is colder here. I watch the news where they give Salt Lake temperature. Then see that the temperature in Logan is 10 degrees lower. I think the other day that our daytime high was the same as Salt Lakes overnight low. It's just kind of sad that we walked to school the other day and were happy that it felt warm. It was 21 degrees. On the days we've broken above freezing, it feels like spring. Well, we're either getting used to it, or wearing more clothes. The worst thing about it is that there's not that much difference in the summer. In the summer when Salt Lake is in the 100's, I could deal with 90. But it doesn't happen, we're almost just as hot in the summer. Not fair.

Speaking of weather, you've probably heard the saying, so hot you could cook an egg on the sidewalk. Well, here's a new one. It was so cold, you could freeze an egg on the sidewalk. Here it is.


Matt, maybe we should be glad they didn't break eggs on your car at our wedding.

No Dull Days at Daycare

*Day 37*
OK, so fellow 365 day blogger Luann does daycare too. I made the stupid mistake on commenting on one of her posts that I could do with a boring day at daycare. Why do I curse myself?! Of course, after I say that we had a day that was anything but boring. I was ready to call it a day and go back to bed by about 10:00. (We only start preschool at 9:30.) So as you read this, don't think we don't love our kids. Don't think we don't pay attention to them or take good care of them. Just remember that kids are kids, and some days are like this. And it may be worse than average if you have 8 or more kids 4 and under.

It started when I was helping Owen put some things away. I turned around and felt my knee hit something. That's when I noticed Grace down on the floor picking something up. I felt bad. I just kneed her in the back. I felt so bad. I tried to console her as she cried that her back hurt. (I'm sure it did, that shot probably would have made me cry.) For some reason she didn't seem to feel better about it with me there. I do love Grace, you just need to know that before I go on. Once a week we go the the assisted living center and have singing time with our Grandfriends. The kids love it, and so do the grandfriends. We were walking down to grandfriends in a fresh dusting of snow. Grace was holding my hand as she "skated" along. Right before we got to grandfriends, she slipped and fell. So, I bent down to help her up....and stepped on her fingers! Oh my gosh! She looked at me like I was trying to hurt her. That's when I suggested that she stay close to Lynn the rest of the day, and I go back to bed.

So, the kids are having fun at grandfriends. Owen has a big smile on his face as he walks toward us with his hands in his pockets. The next thing we know, he's on this face on the tile floor. He hit so hard, that by the time he looked up (maybe a second later) he already had a bruise and a pretty good bump. I have never seen a goose egg happen that fast before. Lynn took Owen to take care of him, and I stayed with the rest of the kids while we finished our program. But, then I was really scared watching them run around. I didn't want someone else to end up like Owen. So, here's another reason Grace hates me today. She was doing this funky dance, and when she stopped, she was swaying like she was dizzy. I was picturing her falling, and ending up with a huge bump on her head too. So I told her she had to stop. Well, I hurt her feelings and she cried all the way home that she wanted her mom.



Can't get worse, right? I should have gone home.

We get back to Lynn's, and I'm just watching Owen, ready to catch him in case he falls. All of the kids head downstairs to hang their coats up. Owen started to follow, when I stopped him. I really didn't want him to fall again so I didn't want him on the stairs alone. I went down to help the kids with their things, and Camry was crying. She fell down the stairs!

I decided that I'm definitely going home early. I didn't go soon enough. I figured if tomorrow was going to be like today, I'd better get everything for tomorrow ready before I go home. So, I was sitting down on the bench to work. The problem was that Jessica leaned over the bench just as I was swinging my foot over it. I kicked her in the head. I think I need to go to bed early tonight. I hope I still have a job and kids that like me in the morning.

I've never had a day like this before. It's usually crazy in other ways. I think I like them better. I don't like being the problem.


By the way, Owen is fine. His mom took him to the doctor. They said he looked fine. But, they said he might have an ear infection, and they gave him some drops and pulled a huge chunk of wax out of his ear. The nurse said maybe that's why he fell. Makes me feel a bit better.

Happy Birthday James!

*Day 36*

James was about 4 when Logan was born. He was the youngest grandchild at the time. So, Logan was a little bit younger than the rest of his cousins. The thing I love about James, is that that didn't matter. He's always loved playing with him. When Logan was little he helped to make sure Logan was taken care of, and would help him do things. In fact, my story about James involves him (trying) to help Logan. Like I said, James liked to help Logan. The problem came when Logan started getting bigger and didn't want so much help. I think Logan was about 4. They were running around playing. James kept trying to pick Logan up and do things for him like he used to do when he was small. Logan was getting irritated because he was trying to be independent. Finally he'd had enough. James came over to him and Logan just shoved him down. I'm sorry James, but it was kind of funny to watch. And, you didn't get hurt. Logan still loves to play with you. And I'm glad he has such a great cousin to be a good example to him. Love ya James!

Happy Birthday Jace!

*Day 35*

Today is my sweet little nephew, Jace's, 2nd birthday. I'm lucky enough to be able to see him almost every day because he comes to our daycare. It's great! Like today he was looking out the window when I came. I waved at him and grinned his big grin, but tried to hide it, like he usually does. I love his curly hair and cute smile, and his fun laugh. He's a pretty quiet kid (unless Dax is around). Watching him sometimes reminds me of Logan. He loves cars. He's has good hand coordination. He can concentrate really well on a task, if he wants to. He's been so much fun. I love to see his personality develop, and can't wait to see what he grows into. I love Jace!

Poor Ducks

*Day 34*

I went running one morning. As I was going past the canal, I was noticing how pretty it looked mostly frozen over and covered with snow. Then I saw the ducks. And I felt bad for them. I thought how cold the water must be. BRRRRRR!


Feeling sorry for the ducks made me remember another duck story. The park by our house has a canal that runs through it. There are ducks that hang out in it on occasion. One day me and Logan we coming home from work past the park. I saw a duck in the road that had been hit by a car. I started to say something, then I wasn't sure if I wanted to draw Logan's attention to it, so I just said, "poor duck." We got home and Logan told Matt that we saw a "poor duck". Then he wanted to go back and look at the "poor duck". It made me laugh that he just called it the "poor duck".

*Day 33*

Well, we finally got all of our Christmas stuff put away today. As part of our Christmas traditions we had to take a picture of Logan in his stocking. Logan was born close to Christmas, so at the hospital they put him in a huge stocking. I said "I'm going to take a picture of him in this every year until he can only fit one foot in it and is looking at me like, do I really have to do this." The stocking looked huge then, and I didn't figure that would happen until about the time he moved out of the house. But, he's already filling it up pretty quick. Here's how he's grown.

Snoogi Sunday

*Day 32*

*For information related to this post refer to Day 25: The Gift That Changed Blogging.

We watch TV sometimes. While watching TV before the holidays, we saw commercials for the Snuggli wrap. You know, a blanket that you can wrap around you and do all sorts of things. On the commercials they show a variety of things you can do in your snuggli. Well, we used to mock these commercials. Afterall, we figured we could do those things with a regular blanket too. I got a Snuggli (actually mine is Cozy Wrap) for Christmas. But, hereafter it will be referred to as the snoogi, since that is what Logan insists on calling it. (And it sounds funny.)

Check the picture on the box and the suggested uses for this product. Well, after owning one of these fine products, we think that we can make it much more useful than the box suggests. That is what this post is about. I am introducing to my blog, Snoogi Sunday. Stay tuned next week to see one of the ways that we have figured out how to use our snoogi that's not listed on the box.

Wedding Cake

*Day 31*


During the holidays my father-in-laws wife asked me if I wanted to do some baking for her. She knew she just wasn't going to have time, and knew we do that kind of stuff. She asked if I could make a white chocolate cake with Oreo filling. I said sure, I could probably figure that out. I was thinking for some holiday office party or something. Then, when I was discussing the details with her, I found out that this cake was for a wedding. Then I started worrying about this assignment. I usually just worry about making edible food, I don't have to worry about what it looks like. Plus, this cake needed to travel to Las Vegas for the wedding, and still look pretty. I hope they like it. It should taste good. I think I need more work if I'm going to get into the business of presentable food.

Happy New Year

*Day 30*
I like New Years Eve. Not because we ever do something super exciting, but because I get to spend it with my family. I love to be able to spend time with my whole family. We've always had a lot of fun playing games together. That's one of my favorite things. And when we get together on New Years we have plenty of time to play lots of games. And, as an added bonus, we get tired, then we get silly and then there is a lot of laughing and joking involved. I love it!




Another great thing about New Years is the new tradition that Steven started after starting cooking school. That's breakfast. He decided that we should celebrate New Years with breakfast at midnight. Last time Steven treated us all to an omelet bar. It was delicious. This year he decided on a a waffle bar. If Steven's cooking, it's worth going. Steven was cooking, so we went to Salt Lake to spend New Years with my family.




We had good company, a lot of great food, and some fun games. We had a good time, gained weight, and are still tired. But those are the things that we'll work on next year for our resolutions, so it's all good for now.


Here's our visit from law enforcement, as most of our parties seem to have.