Sorry folks!

No pics today!

School is finally over and the awful weather is scheduled to subside just in time for us to catch our plane in Omaha. If our Secret Santa is reading this, thanks for the toothbrush holders (I was actually thinking I needed these) and for your psychic abilities in knowing that my husband LOVES Chex Mix. Good job, Santa!

I'm trying to clean the house so I don't come home to a mess after being gone three weeks. My back is really slowing me down. I hope I can survive travel and different chairs. I'm so excited to see Crimson and for her to spend time with Rejeanne and Cyrus. I'm determined to get some decent photos of all of us, together, looking like a family, so keep checking back for those!

I'll probably be posting like a fiend while in California, as long as I can find a way to get my pics from the camera onto the computer out there. If I can't, I'll just play catch up when we get home.

I've decided to make Christmas break weekends a work time for me. My kids are going to be busy climbing grandma all weekend and Crimson will be at Jason's, so what to do??? My current plan is to do a set of divorce papers for a friend and work on my genealogy. Thanks to Mr. I remember Swedish from my mission, Bro. Ric Jensen, I managed to give the Swedes another try. I've had a wall on the Swedish lines since I was about 16. I finally managed to break through and I have added 3-4 generations back on all of the Swedish folks!! How exciting! It is so wonderful for me to have FINALLY accomplished this! I started out only knowing back to about 1880 with only sketchy details and very little about their locations and families in Sweden. Now, I have a TON of stuff and totally detailed back to the 1790's on most lines. There is so much more for me to find too! I just ran out of time and had to work on other things now. So, after so much success, I'm planning to work on some of Lee's family history as well. Since I'm doing so great with Swedish records (which I have to say are REMARKABLE, especially compared to the American records available in the same time frames), I'm going to work on Lee's Swedish great-grandmother and see what I can find. It's been a long time since I've been excited about researching families because I just hit so many walls and felt kinda hopeless with it. I'm glad I set it aside for so long. Technology had a chance to catch up with me! That said, if anyone wants help with Swedish stuff, I'm in the mood to do it!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas. Hopefully, I'll be posting during CA time, but if not, I'll be back January 9th with photo overload!

So sleepy...

I'm sleepy. I'm going to try to coax Lee off of the couch and try to get him to sleep in bed. I think it is funny that he can answer my questions in his sleep. I asked him if he wanted to sleep on the couch or in bed and he says "I want to sleep on the couch but I want to lay down with you". Hrm. That's a mighty narrow couch we have. I think I'm just gonna sleep in bed...

In other news, there may be a possibility that Cyrus' mohawk will be spiked and photographed again tomorrow. I'm kinda excited about that!

We went to a very early Christmas party tonight. Rejeanne looked around more and was generally more engaged, but still stayed on a lap all night. It's still improvement though. Her speech is rapidly improving. She can say "shirt" and "stick" now so she's getting some hard consonants going on. Hopefully there will be more phrases soon.

I have a ton of homework to do tomorrow. I think I better just go to bed now. Oh, wait, it's the last week of school!! Then the week after is just finals and another semester is over. Yay!

Shock and Awe

I recently posted on Charity's blog about fire drills in elementary school. I suppose that growing up in a really bad town with a lot of violence is assumed to be a bad thing. In fact, I've always assumed it's a bad thing. But as Crimson gets older, I find myself torn. Part of me wants her to go to rough schools so she'll be able to get along with ANYONE in life and have empathy for people. The other part of me just doesn't want her exposed to that stuff. I kinda see Garden Grove as more of the latter than the former so I guess it isn't too bad.

Anyways, something occurred to me today. For as bad as Duarte was when I was a kid, it seems to have bred something special too. It was a small high school, about 1000 kids total. Just out of the people I knew there (probably about 200) there has been 2 NFL players, a VP of Goldman Sachs, a few doctorates, some housewives, some regular people, some criminals, and apparently a rock star! I've been living under a rock this century and had never heard of Spineshank or Silent Civilian. Turns out my "sleep through English class" partner in crime, Jonny Santos, is the lead singer of both bands. Even more surprising, if you like metal, these bands are both good and both very much like the Jonny I remember: not boring and bouncy yet growly.

Moral of the Story: Sometimes growing up rough is a good thing. It makes you a fighter.

If only there was a photo...

Rejeanne has already surpassed me and she's not even three!

She did a full, unsupported headstand today.

I don't normally do this...

...but I'm feeling the urge to post and say that I'm not going eat sugar again until Christmas Eve. Now that I've said it out loud, I guess I have no choice but to keep my word :)

My diet has been out of control lately (read: I've gained 30 pounds in two months) because I'm doing a very, very stressful therapy to treat my Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Since the normal vices that people use to bury painful feelings are off limits (ya know, the classics like booze, drugs, bulemia/anorexia and doing the naughty with random strangers), it would appear that I've taken up some serious emotional eating. I actually didn't realize I was an emotional eater until I did Operation Keep Shirt. Going without sugar for a few weeks without gestational diabetes as a motivation was significantly harder than I had expected. I think I might have to consider it an addiction. All I know is that during OKS, I felt a new emotion for the first time in my life and that's what kicked off this compulsive eating thing I have going on now. I don't have this huge range of emotions like most people. I have "happy", "loveybuggy" and a bunch of negative feelings that move quickly into anger and/or tears. When I take the sugar away, there is more feelings there. Now, I know this is healthy and all, but it is very scary to have a new feeling. I guess I'm kind of set in my ways. The thing is that I deeply, deeply want to get rid of the PTSD. I'm sick of being so jumpy/paranoid/testy/unpredictable/gimpy and all the roads seem to lead back to the PTSD.

Anyways, I'm trying to find a middle ground. I might feel like blogging about it, I might not. I just felt like doing it right now.

Gobble Gobble

We went to da hood of Siouxer City for turkey. It was awesome. I drank lots of this stuff.



We miraculously were photographed TOGETHER! This never happens. Sure, the kids were looking away and Lee is sick and looks it, but it is evidence that my kids have two parents, so it's a keeper!


These are our hosts, Miss Alisha and Senor Mateo. Can you see the love in the room? The love makes me happy :)



I hope you all had an awesome Thanksgiving. Before I move on to Christmas carols, here's just a sample of things I'm thankful for:
The trials of life that taught me understanding and the knowledge that my children will never understand me ~ Each of the children I have borne or borrowed ~ Every loving exchange ~ Life going well ~ Being happy ~ Having hope ~ Laughing til I cry ~ Blooming where planted ~ Dancing with my kids ~ Singing when I’m alone ~ Remembering to pray when angry ~ Moving through fear ~ Twinkies and Cherry 7up

You're The One For Me, Punk Rock Baby!

Cyrus is so punk rock that he has sprouted a natural mohawk! That's right, folks. The boy is definitely my son. If only I had let people photograph me in my mohawk phase, we could compare photos :) Of course, I just shaved my head. Cyrus has it in his blood. A bonafide mohawk. It's crazy. I've never seen one appear on its own before!

The top view:


The side/back view:


My boy is a rebel?


Nah, he's too friendly for that!

Video Attempt #2

I'm so amazed at how large Cyrus is! Rejeanne wore this onesie when she was about 9-12 months old and it totally fits him already!

As happy as he is in these, he can smile even bigger. I'll try again tomorrow!

Since I'm not taking photos lately...

I'm just going to have to steal my friend's photos and post those! :) Actually, I just had to show everyone this hella awesome ladybug costume Marlee wore on Halloween. Her baby sister had one too. They were the cutest costumes EVER!!!! So, yeah, everyone be jealous that you didn't get to sport anything anywhere near this rad on Halloween!

A Poem for Today

I, Too, Sing America
by Langston Hughes


I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--

I, too, am America.

Tears of Joy

I cried a little tonight. I really didn't think a black man, no matter how eloquent or intelligent, could be elected president. Thank you America for proving me wrong. Now I just have to pray that none of the militia-types assassinate him! I know a lot of people don't understand how important it is that Obama won, but it is. I think the undercurrent of racism was hanging out in the light for all to see, especially in the South and in McCain's most ardent supporters (to be fair, they were just there for Palin). I'm thankful that McCain is still the politician that I've admired all these years. Real shame he didn't remind us he isn't a right-winger until his concession speech. If someone would have told me in,say, 2004, that in 2008 I'd vote against McCain in a presidential election, I would have laughed in their face. I think Obama should thank Palin for making so many people sick to their stomachs.

Crimson's Halloween

Crimson wanted to be a "headless zombie who is carrying a head" for Halloween. It turned out really awesome!

Cyrus on Halloween

He did some eating and smiling too, but by the time we took his picture, it was dreamtime for CyGuy.

Rejeanne's Halloween

Rejeanne was totally BRAVE! She did much better than we thought she would. She made a small effort at getting candy, which unfortunately ended with her throwing her bucket while retreating as soon as someone tried to talk to her, but she did still get a little bit of candy. She ran around the Halloween party instead of hiding the whole time, so I think she is starting to come out of this shy phase just a tinsy bit! I'm really happy she was able to enjoy the party!

In the beginning...


In the end...

#100

In honor of my 100th post, here's Ms. Rejeanne in a snail hat and some makeshift bracelets.

More pics

There's a couple pic posts today, so be sure you scroll down far enough to see them all


This pic isn't photoshopped or anything. I'm just that bad of a photographer. I thought it looked kinda neat though, so I posted it anyways.

Mostly just pics.

I guess I don't have anything to blog about, but I finally got some pics of Cyrus smiling! He's been smiling for awhile, but he gets all surly as soon as the camera comes out. I was persistent tonight though, and it paid off!

Totally Funny

Per the last post...ask and you shall receive! I found the Christensens online. Well, not all of them, but the important one, her I found :)

So happy to find this!

Okay, I'm so happy to find out what happened to one of my most favorite families from the ward I grew up in that I had to post a link:

http://melreevesfamily.blogspot.com/

So, if anyone else has an urge to spy on the Mission President of Riverside, CA and his family, you've got a link now! They lived in Duarte when I was a kid and I knew their oldest 3 children pretty well. I remember when their mom was pregnant with her 12th kid and they were like "yup, we're stopping at a dozen!" and then they found out it was twins and they had to amend it to "well, a baker's dozen!". Mel & Linda have 13 kids :) I was very blessed to have families like theirs in my life and I love them very much. I've never seen Linda without a smile on her face (though I'm sure it must happen at least once a year :P) and Mel has the world's best handshake. If you don't believe me, you'll have to go to Riverside and check it out.

Now, if I could just find the Christensens online, my internet wanderings would be complete!

Cyrus is bigger still...

Sir Cyrus Vanderpants grows like a weed



and yes, I really do love this onesie.

The Fluffy Blue Girl aka CyGuy's Girlfriend

For some reason, I thought waking up to a floofy blue little girl right in his face would scare the heck out of him, but it totally didn't. He smiled like a fool the whole time and cooed at her. Cyrus hearts Emma big time!

Rejie is Crazy

In case anyone still had doubts, here's proof that Rejie is a little nut:

While the cat's away...

The birthday girl's little sister, Makenna, took an opportunity for some binky jacking.

First we have the reach...



And then the grab...


Looks like Dax got jacked.

Marlee's Birthday

This is the birthday girl..er...princess, Marlee, after a green cupcake indulgence
Here's a couple photos of Bianca's brother and sister, also after a green cupcake indulgence. Well, I guess I actually caught Ava in the act.

Where's Rejie?

Rejeanne likes the couch pillows.


Yes, Miss Rejie IS in the photo...

Cyrus

Cyrus is HUGE!! He weighs just over 14 pounds now. He only likes to sleep from 6-9am and 4-7pm though. I don't know why, but those are the only times he really sleeps. Lee and I are sooooooooooo tired. Things are awesome otherwise though. I'll try for a better video tomorrow. He's always kinda grumpy at night.

My prediction

This behavior will not be tolerated in class, missy!

When Cyrus Attacks...

Cyrus is on the attack now!

Commander's Photos

Here's a couple photos of The Commander that we took today.




As you can see, he's awesome!

Operation Keep Shirt

Most people who know me know that I'm impulsive, lacking willpower and addicted to sugar. I've been trying various ways to curb the sugar intake and gain some control over my diet lately. I also really love clothes. Unfortunately, it is really hard to find cute, affordable clothes at the fat girl store. I did find this spiffy shirt though. It doesn't look like much in the picture, but it is super cute. I bought it as a bribe to see if bribery will work for me! I basically made a deal with myself that if I eat healthier and don't buy any random donuts or dessert items until September 13th then I get to keep the shirt. Until that date, the shirt keeps its tags and I keep the receipt. If I fail the shirt challenge, it goes back to the store. I really do not want to take this shirt back to the store!!

I'm on Day 4 right now and I'm still on track. I did spend some time at the grocery store this morning browsing for things that would be healthy to eat but still make me happy in the sugar category. I found something hella tasty and since it is pretty cheap, fast, healthy and delicious, I'll share it with you all:

1/2 cup of Dannon Light & Fit Strawberry Yogurt (55 calories)
1/2 cup of Kashi Cocoa Beach granola (230 calories)
Mix together and eat!

This stuff is seriously delicious and actually very filling. I ate it for breakfast this morning. It has enough chocolate flavor to keep me happy, it has nuts to help feel satisfied, coconut flakes that I love, and whole grains + yogurt for the health factor. I'm sure this would even be yummy with 1/4 c. of the granola too which would lower the total calories to 170 instead of 285.

I just thought I'd share all this since I've finally crossed over to the dark side and gone on a diet like every other person I know!

No More Lap Space

Rejeanne has learned how to share her dad! I guess it is a good thing we only have two kids clamoring for lap space.

Naptime?

Things have been pretty chaotic here since Cyrus was born. Lee has been sleeping at random times in random places. When Rejeanne finds him sleeping somewhere, she will usually grab her blankie and go cuddle with him for awhile. This time she actually feel asleep! I had to take a picture of it, especially since I think the toddler-butt-in-the-air sleeping position is one of the cutest things on earth.

Lee's family

My in-laws came out for a weekend visit a couple of weeks ago. It was great to see them and for Cyrus to meet them. I didn't really take many photos (and haven't been in general lately) but Lee did get this picture of them as they were leaving to the airport.

El Gordito

I finally remembered to weigh The Commander. It would appear that he has nearly doubled his birth weight just as I had suspected. He's about 12.5 pounds now! He's officially out of most newborn/0-3 month sized clothes although they still seem to fit him. Maybe he's carrying all his weight on his face! He has a very cute chubby face.

I love him so much! He's so cute :) Also being very cute is Miss Rejie. She has developed a big liking for me over the last week. I guess she's decided I'm not so bad after all :)

The Wild Rejeanne

Of course, Rejie is never one to shy away from the camera. I like this first one so much that I had to put it up, even though I don't have much to say about her today. We love the Wild One. She really knows how to enjoy life.

The Mystery Bridge

We finally were able to venture across the bridge to see what is on the other side. There is a trail back there and I fully intend to explore it, but not when it's soooooo dang buggy near dusk. I'm going to give it a try in late September when the bugs have died down but before it gets too cold!

Finally

Crimson hides her teeth if she knows you're taking a pic of her. I did the same thing when I was a kid(actually, I still do). Despite the snaggle teeth, Crimson has an awesome smile that is much, much better than her fake hide-the-teeth smile I've been capturing all summer. So, here are a couple