Alana's Portraits

19 months old

My Search for Spring

Spring Break started yesterday, logging in at 34-degrees.

A little anticlimactic, if you ask me. 

So, we went in search for a warmer climate and budding flowers.

 And we found it at Garfield Park Conservatory!!  Wow!  It was BEAUTIFUL! 

 Going from 34-degrees, gray, and dreary to 85-degrees, tropically lush and humid was so rejuvenating!

 

Dare I say we even sweat a little!

  

Free Admission.

Free Parking.

And Free Pride knowing you were just on the set of Vince Vaughn's latest movie.

We loved the turtles, fish, and waterfalls.

And the Children's Garden had great activities for kids.

 story time, a tree house slide, watering the plants, and making their own pre-historic garden.

Before leaving, the kids sketched some plants.

Carter: an orange and green Fisca.

Addison: the black dirt was the easiest thing to scribble.

 I've been asked 10 times already to go back,

and with how beautiful and invigorating it was to escape into spring and summer,

I know we will be back soon.

Of course, being 10 minutes from Steve's work, 

we spoiled ourselves with an

Ed Debevic's lunch.

A great kick off to a fun spring break.

(Any more great places I should take my kids?  I'm a little low on ideas)

Garbage Day

My Favorite Pick-Up-From-The-Curb find to date:

March Madness Ping-Pong Tourneys,

here we come.

You in?

1 out of 5 people do this in someone else's bathroom...

Someone came over and turned our toilet paper around.

And it's not even April Fool's.

Which one of you did it...fess up :)

Interesting tidbit:

According to Cottenelle's TP-directional study,

"If you roll over, you like taking charge, crave organization and are likely to over-achieve. If you roll under, you're laid-back, dependable and seek relationships with strong foundations. If you don't care as long as it's there, you aim to minimize conflict, value flexibility and like putting yourself in new situations." 

Well, that narrows it down--it was one of my calm, trust-worthy best friends.

I've caught you red-handed.

The proper way to eat a cupcake

There may be no wrong way to eat a Reeses,

But when it comes to cupcakes,

you couldn't be farther from the truth.

Normal:

all the good frosting on top

with the rest of the dry cupcake left at the bottom.

What a waste.

Better:

Take off the bottom

Plop it on top.

Puts all the frosting right in the middle.

MMMM.

It may not be lady like, proper, or polite.

But I guarantee, it makes every cupcake taste better.

Conquering Our Fears

Watching the Thunderstorm

The best way to conquer fear is to look it straight in the eye and say, "I'm not afraid of you!"

22 Randomnesses of Kerri

As today is the 22nd of March, today you get to know 22 random things that make me me.  Survey asks: How many of these did you already know?

1.  My favorite sound of all is that crinkle-crinkle sound that the vacuum makes when it picks up all the good stuff.

2.  I never remember if "Vacuum" has two c's or two u's.  In my humble opinion, both are useless, but to avoid looking uneducated, thank goodness for spell check.

3.  My Secret to pit-stained-free white shirts: Before wearing it the first time, iron baby powder on the underarms. My second secret if that didn't work: throw them out before anyone notices.

4.  My Secret to perfect jeans:  Wash inside out.  Hang Dry.  Never put them in the dryer.

5.  My Secret to perfect cookies: Chill the dough before baking, and place dough on cooled cookie sheets each round.

6. My Secret to opening that impossible jar:  hit the lid with a knife all around the edges then tada, you can open it as if you had super-human strength. 

7. I love smell-goody soaps. I'm a sucker for them. I feel like they offer the life of luxury. A good gift.

8. I can't wash my hands with bar soap. I think it's nasty. I believe it hoards the germs.

9. I still love the movie  "Annie".

10.  I love rainy days.  I thrill at thunderstorms.  If I was brave enough, my dream job is still to be a storm chaser.

11.  I enjoy knowing that there are 4 Tbs in a 1/4 cup but only 3 teaspoons in a Tablespoon.

12.  Two things I'm grateful for in my life:  learning to play the piano and lasik.

13. I seem to have a talent for making chocolate chip cookies. (and eating them too).

14.  I have a "toilet flushing" phobia.  I think that a flushing toilet is gross.  The whirring air and water is bound to spew those germy molecules up and into the air -- right back at you.  To get around this, I always flush with the seat down.  But in a public restroom, you can be sure I am OUT of that stall before the toilet is done flushing! -- how did I get so weird?

15.  I love the smell of dryers.  It makes the house just seem productive.  (Tide + Pink Downy = my not so secret recipe)

16.  I was a Macaroni and Cheese addict as a kid. I praised the day my first kid turned old enough to enjoy it with me.  Now it makes me cringe.  I guess I'm growing up.  

17.  In high school I was a morning person, kudos to Early Morning Seminary.  In college I was a night person, kudos to dating.  Now I'm neither a morning or a night person.  I think I hit my high around 9 AM and it's gone by naptime.

18.  Aside from childbirth, I've remained Hospital-Free my whole life.

19.  I've never had a cavity.

20.  I went skydiving in college but bungee jumping scares me.  (I had to buy a video as living proof before my family would believe it.)

21.  I was in a Famous Footwear Commercial in high school.

22.  I have a "tatoo" on my knee from 6th grade when I knelt on a pencil and the tip broke off in my skin.  Hurt like crazy.  Steve has a matching story on his finger.  Ahh...

20 Sabbath Day Activities

I came across this list.  I'll add some of my own ideas in later posts.

1. Children and adults could read their Church magazines from cover to cover.
2.  Prepare any future talks or lessons.
3. Use crock pot recipes to cut down on extra cooking.
4. Prepare Family Home Evening lessons for the next day.
5. Visit those you know who are homebound or in the hospital.
6. Invite someone who may be unable to cook for themselves such as an elderly person or shut-in, to share dinner with your family, or take dinner to them.
7. Make a list of members who may need a ride to sacrament meetings. Invite them to ride with you.
8. Surprise someone in need with a visit.
9. Find a unique way to fellowship less active families.
10. Have family scripture study. Younger children may want to draw representational pictures beside their favorite scriptures. This will enable them to find the same scripture and remember what it was about in the future.
11. Visit the temple grounds as a family.
12. Give time to a nursing home or to others who may need help reading letters from loved ones or writing them.
13. Re-visit families on your Home and Visiting teaching routes who may need to be visited.
14. Utilize time together in the car or at dinner to discuss what each family member learned at Church that day.
15. Check out movies from the library and view them.
16. Rest and reflect on what was taught in Church classes.  Reread the material and scripture passages.
17. Listen to scripture tapes or view scripture videos.
18. Read material that is Church-oriented or uplifting.
19. Watch General Conference on DVD or on lds.org, or have the talks playing in the background.
20. Prepare talks.  You may not have been asked to give one yet, but it never hurts to study as if you are.  Help children prepare a talk they can give in primary in the future, or as an FHE lesson. 
     

Let This Be a Lesson To You

Worst movies ever made:

Elizabethtown

Ray

The Curious Life of Benjamin Button

Hours of my life I will never get back.

My favorite Kid-ism

All the time our little ones hear:

"Can I hold you?"

sounds like: "holju?"

So Addison adopted this into his vocab and comes up to me daily:

"I want you holju me, Mommy!!"

Love it!
Steve tries to correct him, and then I glare, "Don't You Dare!"
Then my friends kid said this at the park the other day.
Does yours say something like this?

Some Call it Mardi Gras

But Steve calls them Mr. T. necklaces.

Hey, she likes her bling long and sparkly.

Or is it that she's nearly bald?

Slippery Surface Ahead

My kids Pledged the floor last night while I was upstairs.

Now we have an indoor skating rink.

And, it was only a matter of time.
Ya win some ya lose some.

 

My Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, and the silver linings behind it.

Welcome to last Saturday, March 5.  

There probably was kissing on TV

and I didn't get to wear my favorite pajamas either,

and by the end of this day,

moving to Australia and leaving it all behind 

didn't seem like a bad idea.

1.  8:30 AM--We were supposed to be leaving out the door for our boys' first swimming lesson.  But we weren't.  We're still home, Despite the fact that we'd been up for 2 hours and everything was ready the night before...why were we late, people!  Does this bug any other mothers out there?  So in a mad rush to get there in time, Mom's mood made a drill sergeant look like a pansy.

2.  9:00 AM--Swimming Lessons started, and we aren't there.  Nope.  We are sitting in a busy intersection, right off the exit, out of gas.  Blocking Traffic.  Here come the tears.  And the self pity of no matter how I try, I can't do anything right.  Moms:  WHY do we do this to ourselves?

The Silver Lining:  

Our friends had signed up for the same class, so they weren't too far away.  Thankfully, they came to our rescue:  got our kids to class and lent us their van.  See, it's not so bad.

3.  9:20 AM--I take Steve's credit card and my friend's van and head to the nearest gas station.  My tears have dried, my mood has calmed, I think we might just make it through the day.  Then, standing in line to buy my yet another gas can to join the 4 others sitting in the garage, I am greeted by the attendant with: "We don't take credit cards."  WHAT?  Who doesn't take credit cards?  All of a sudden, I look and feel pathetic.  We just ran out of gas, my husband and baby are stranded in the car on the side of the highway, and you are refusing to help me.  I didn't say that, but I felt it.  The tears started welling up as I turned to put the can away.  Until, enter Weslie:

The Silver Lining: 

"How much do you need?"  She asked.  A stranger, from the line of people 7-deep.  Embarrassed, I told her the cost of the gas can, and that I'd need gas to put in it to start our car.  She offered to pay for it.  Wow.  I'd never had a stranger help me like that before.  Somehow, "Thank You" still didn't seem like enough.  The only way to repay a favor like that is to pay it forward and serve someone else in need. Now the gas can stays in my car as a reminder...and in case I need it again.  So now, if you run out of gas, you know you can call me, because I have a gas can in my car, after all.

  9:40 AM--I get the gas to Steve, who puts the gas in the car -- and on his hands, the street, the car  --it was a lame gas can.  BUT, at least we got gas, and we can get on our way to pick up our kids from swimming, which has been over for 10 minutes by now.  I told him how to get to swimming and meet me there.  I'm about to leave when:

4.  9:45 AM--Our van won't start.  Despite Weslie's goodness, our problems were not solved.  This opened up more tears.  Battery's dead.  Awesome.  We may have exchanged some "I told you so"s at this point, and my mood was atrocious (didn't have to look up the spelling on that one).

The Silver Lining:  

I had not yet left with my friend's van, so we precariously pulled it aside and jumped our van.  It worked.  Now you also know that if your battery's dead, you can call me, too.  Now, can we please be on our way?

5.  10:00 AM--We arrive FINALLY at swim lessons.  The boys had a good time.  Our friends were angelic.  And Steve was forgiving.  We might make it a good day after all.  But then, in the car I lost something important I JUST HAD.  Does this happen to you?  I beat myself up about it the whole drive, convinced I'd dropped it during the whole gas fiasco.

The Silver Lining:  

I found it an hour later when I got out of the car.

6.  12:00 PM--We took a mini-road trip up north to the Temple and my parent's house with these save-the-day friends.  Unfortunately, we got there with some bad timing and didn't get to do all the work we had hoped to do.

The Silver Lining:  The Temple is an extremely peaceful place, and this time with the way my day was going, I noticed it especially. 

7.  1-4 PM--I was just a stressed out mess.  My kids were cranky.  I was cranky.  My friends' kids were being angelic, and we were just the opposite.  Embarrassed.  Ashamed.  I was convinced that I was the worst mother ever.

The Silver Lining:  

I suppose we all have days like that, so our friends have turned out to be quite gracious and forgiving.

7:00 PM--I was a featured speaker in Stake Conference, an adult meeting we have at church just twice a year.  Some might have numbered this as a bad thing, but I LOVED it!  For those two hours, I actually remembered that this was just another day in our story--one that adds character and life.  My save-the-day friend was a speaker, too, so together, we chuckled as we looked out on the 300-400 member audience and remembered how this morning I ran out of gas...and here I was about to talk about "accentuating the positive" and "living a bloggable life."  For a moment, it all seemed like water under the bridge.  

The Silver Lining:  

none needed, because this was the best 2 hours of my day.

8.  9 PM--Our Babysitter called us 5 times, but Steve's phone was on silent.  Way to go responsible parents.  2 Kids had woken up sick.

9. 10:30 PM--Getting ready for bed, I discovered that somehow my finger was totally totally totally swollen and I could not for the life of me get my wedding ring off.  We tried everything but it was permanently stuck.  We both knew that if it didn't get better in the morning, we'd have to get it cut off.  I didn't sleep all night.  There were lots of tears.

The Silver Lining: 

The swelling has gone down, and when we took the "crises out of the situation"  (good advice, Dad), I calmed down enough to realize that I wasn't going to cut my finger off to save my wedding ring.  

I still can't get it off, so I am now that woman who wears her ring all the time.  To bed, to shower, to the beach, to make bread dough.  And I guess that's alright for me.  Because the ring is like marriage.  It goes with us in the good times and bad, sticks with us when we deserve it or not.  And at the end of these terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days, that marriage is still there holding your hand and helping you wipe away tears.  Telling you you're not the worst mom ever.  Reminding you that this is just a stage of life we're in and our kids will grow up.  And reassuring you that if you saw yourself as he saw you, you' might, in fact, love yourself.  Marriage is forgiving and patient.

And for that, I'll keep my ring on forever.

Good morning!

It's 8:30, and this is the headstart to our day:

Alana picked out her own outfit.  She picked the shirt and the skirt.  I picked the leggings.  She picked her ballet socks.  I thought the outfit was complete, until 10 minutes later she came in with the hat.  "Ta-Da!"

Addison pretended he was asleep in the bathtub!  Then he told me how cool all the sounds were under the water!  Clever boy!

Carter's still celebrating Mardi Gras!

The only argument so far whether this is a fort or a space ship.

I think we're off to a good start.

Secret Service = Ding Dong Ditching

Despite our best efforts, our kids may not always learn the lesson we're trying to teach.

Observe:

The other day I allowed Carter to ride his bike around our block while I got lunch ready.  When I opened the front door to call him in, I saw him a few houses down, walking calmly up to their front door.  I watched as he rang the door bell, and then sprinted back to his bike to speed away.   

Are you kidding me? I stood there, stunned!  How many houses did he do this to and where did he get this?...Then I realized what was happening.  The 4 year old innocence of this situation.

We had a little family game once upon a time of making yummy treats and leaving them on doorsteps, ringing the doorbell and running away.  This is Carter's reenactment of the kind service we were trying to teach.  Minus the cookies.

Enter in one of my best Mommy-Teaching-Moments.

Carter, What were you doing?

I was ringing the doorbell and running away.

I know, but I think you forgot the most important part.

What?

I think you know.  What did you forget to leave?

Well I wanted to leave cookies, but we didn't have any.

Well, we need to leave something, or even just say hello!  When we ring people's doorbells, we just want them to know that we were thinking of them and wish them a happy day.  When you rang the doorbell and ran away, you forgot to make them feel good.  (then we did a role play thing...no lecture is complete without a good role play).  So what do you think we should do?

I think I should go back and make them feel special.

I think you're right.  How about I help you make some cookies for them, so we can do it right this time.

So, off we went to the kitchen to make the most kid-friendly recipe I knew -- since this was HIS fiasco he got himself in to, it was HIS job to do it.  No Bakes -- the chocolate peanut butter oatmeal kind.  (Click here for a good recipe).

After they cooled, he put them in baggies, added this cute little note, and off he went on his bike, on his own, to ring every doorbell again, HAND them the cookies, and apologize for ding dong ditching.

Thankfully, I got sweet calls from neighbors, instead of the citizen's-arrest type.  And before you dole out the Mom-of-the-year award, mind you this was ONE moment of ONE day.  I'm just as surprised as you how well the teaching worked.  Just goes to show what saying a prayer first can do.

Reflections on an art exhibit

What kind of Mom would voluntarily allow her kids to graffiti her home like this:

And this:

I'll give you one guess, and she writes this blog.

The help of Crayola's Washable Glass Mirrors help.

But you can do this in your own home with dry erase markers.

If you're that kind of Mom.

(ps...it's a cute way to leave sweet "I Love You" messages, "Happy Birthday" notes, or "Don't Forget" reminders for your family!)

2 AM thoughts

Why is that I have no problem spelling

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

but I have to double check the spelling of 

Atrocious.

Not to mention why I've been spelling the word Atorcious.

It just seemed to be the word of the day yesterday.

Hopefully it can be a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious day today.

Which, of course, would include snapping my fingers and the toys put themselves away.

Somehow I'm not sure that will happen.

Which would mean my house will keep on looking atrocious...

See the vicious cycle I'm in?

And on the subject,

Can you explain why people say 

"I could care less"

when what they are really trying to mean is that they care very little and therefore they

"Couldn't care less".

And then, of course, why do we add "-ay" to the end of "okay"?

Seems a little pointless to me.

It's just one of those things that keep me up at night.

Did I ever tell you about the time...

Alright.  Here's a story that will blow your mind.  Maybe.  Possibly.  Depends on how hard bent you are in finding good entertainment.  But that's besides the point.  This is what happened to me, and it still blows me away.

It all starts the day after Valentines Day.  Steve got me tickets to see Les Miserables for my birthday --via my parents' generous birthday money.  It is our favorite show and we would scrounge up money to go see this ANY DAY.  It just so happens that my dear friend Ashley's birthday is close to mine, and her husband also used her parents' birthday money to go see the same show.  on the same night.  with seats right next to ours.  Coincidence?  I think not.  And that was so fun!

 The show was incredible!  So powerful!  I could end my story right there with the wonderful date that we had.  But that's not my story.  That's only half of it.  So there we were, completely wrapped up in the magic of it all -- the story, the music, the orchestra -- wow --  when Fantine sings her song, "I Dreamed A Dream."  The song gave me chills.  But not for that reason.

I turned to Steve and commented that she sounded JUST like my friend.  I sat back and enjoyed the show, but the goosebumps just got more and more intense as I listened.  Poor Steve kept getting interrupted by, "Steve, I'm sorry..I just can't let it go.  That sounds JUST like my friend Betsy."  I scrambled for enough light to look in my program, but to no avail, so I tried to swallow that strange feeling causing my heart to leap out of my chest and just enjoy the dang show, but every time she sang, I couldn't bare it.  By intermission I was convinced. 

House lights up.  Program already in place.  And then my surprised and enthusiastic yelp, that, yes, surprised the surrounding patrons and most likely embarrassed our dear double-date friends.  It WAS her!  It WAS Betsy Morgan, one of my best friends in junior high who used to sing the entire score of Phantom of the Opera in my music room as I played the piano.  It WAS Betsy Morgan who was in all the theater shows with me way back in the once upon a time times.  It WAS her!!!  I knew the starring actress of a real Broadway show! 

You have GOT to be kidding me!  And the magic of all of this was that I recognized her from her voice.  I hadn't seen Betsy for at least 12 years, but I knew her from that voice...the voice I got to know starting over 19 years ago.  And I still knew it!

So, excitedly we sent her a note via the head usher, then the stage manager, who eventually got it back to Betsy during the second act.  And then, as true Broadway Fans do, we were able to find our way to the backstage door at the end of the show and meet up with my dear friend from times past!!!  It was so much fun!

Of course, the only picture we have of us together is blurry.  Dang paparazzi.  Whoever took this picture, I'll fire them.  Sorry Brian.  But at least Ashley got Jean Valjean's autograph while we waited!