Sister Love

I LOVE YOU TOO!!!

This morning the girls were playing upstairs while I cleaned downstairs. Pretty soon I heard a loud scream, but surprisingly it came from E's little throat instead of M's.


"What's wrong?" I asked.


"M is being mean," said E.


Generally I try to stay out of their fights, especially ones where people are being "mean" (also known as "not doing what I want"). I think it is better for them to learn how to work it out with each other, so I only intervene when limbs or eyeballs are looking to be lost. Too much collateral damage. Anyway, usually my response is something like it was this morning:


"Well, you both need to be nice to each other and just play."


When E is more on the bossing end of things (the usual order of the day... speaking of which I don't know why people are always assuming she learned this from me....) I also make comments like, "M is not a doll. If you want to tell someone what to do, go get a doll." I had said this earlier this morning when they were "camping." Anyway, back to the story at the hand:


Screaming continued upstairs and I dusted the furniture.


Screaming continued upstairs and I cleaned up the toys so I could vacuum.


Screaming continued upstairs and I got out the vacuum.


Finally E stopped screaming (by the way, she was completely fake screaming so I knew her arm was not pumping blood at the wall or anything).


Then came THE statement of the morning:

"M, I wish you WERE a doll."

I suppose they do say that honesty is the best policy.






A picture from the good ol' days when we only kept dolls around the house.

Going on a Trip: Part II

I was scrolling through my blog feed and saw the Wood's were going on a trip. I wondered, where are they going? Then I realized it was me, and I wasn't going anywhere. Well, then. Definitely false advertising.

Going on a Trip

All morning E's dolls have been going to "Yew Nork."

Sounds fun. Can I go?

A Secret

I forgot to post about this, and really, it is too crazy to not mention.

Last Monday, our family went to WalMart and when it was time to check out there were four checkers waiting at the front to help us.

You know, like in real stores where they stand at the end of their check-out line and say, "Are you ready to check-out, I can help you here. Right now."

What?

Four of them?

I would tell you what day of the week it was, what time, and where, but I think I'm doing all my shopping at that exact time from now on. And I definitely plan on being selfish and keeping it all to myself. That's not very nice, but when it comes to WalMart, I am just big on survival.

Picture Impaired

A friend of mine had a fun idea on her blog. She posted one picture from each of the years they'd been married to show what they'd been doing on their anniversary. I thought I'd try it, but I failed miserably.

May 1, 2004: Okay, this one's easy. After all, there were several photographers there.

May 1, 2005: Ummmm, okay, we didn't own a camera then. We didn't buy a camera until E was born. And then we apparently didn't take a picture of our entire family until Christmas. Yep, Christmas 2005. Our first family picture of the year. What an accomplishment!!

May 1, 2006: This one is a little closer to actually being in May. Sometime in the summer of 2006. This picture was taken at Lake Tahoe, the last time Justin got to visit before his grandparents let the property go. Sigh. Also, this is one of the last times I saw that jacket... which I loved. It disappeared soon after. Sigh again.

May 1, 2007: This may look like Spring, but don't let Vegas deceive you. Yep, it's November 2007. Way to go on finally getting a family picture!

May 1, 2008: Okay, this one is actually on the 4th!!! Can you believe it? Thank goodness for weddings.


May 1, 2009: In my entire 2009 picture file for the year 2009 I have not one of all four of us. Hmmmm. But here's a cute one of the girls and Justin. So there you go.... Us, year by year.

Kinda....

Where in the World is????

M? Okay, I know where she is. She's just upstairs sleeping. And sleeping. And sleeping. And sleeping. This means I can't go run my errands. Which means you get to listen to my musings. Aren't you excited?

Other than two years of my life spent in Vegas, most of my time has been spent living within about a sixty mile span of I-15.

Along this pathway is the lake below:

For those of you who haven't memorized a zillion topographical maps (is this even a topographical map?) this lake is known to most people as "Utah Lake."

Very creative name.

But wait, I haven't got to the sad part. You see, whenever I drive from my house to I-15 I have a lovely view of the lake mentioned above. And EVERY time I see it, I am surprised it's there. Literally.

As in: "Huh, there's a lake there? I never knew that."

How is this possible??????

It's not like it's easy to completely cut a lake out of the map in a person's head. It's not like the lake hasn't been there for much longer than I have. It's not like it doesn't look like a lake. But I just can't seem to get it through my head that it exists. Ever.

Maybe it's because I've never been there.

Or maybe not.

I'm not sure.

For the past few months I've tried to "learn" that this lake exists. I look at it and think, "Look, a lake." But then, the next time I see it, I'm surprised once again to find it exists.

I'm pretty aware of the duck pond on BYU campus. I even believe in the Great Salt Lake.

But Utah Lake?

I'm not so sure.

Maybe it's just a hologram.

Speaking of which I've almost convinced Justin to go see Star Trek with me. Shouldn't that be the other way around?

E-isms

On F.H.E. treats:

E: We're going to have those square ice cream treats.
Mom: But we don't have any of those anymore. (We bought them last week and I've enjoyed them nightly on my own.)
E: (Looking at me like I'm insane.) You ate them all!!!!

While going to bed:

Silence
E: M! M! M!
M: bkjlsh
E: We haven't talked for awhile.... do you still remember me?

How To Get M to Come Quickly & Notes On Justin

Yesterday afternoon our family went on a walk. We decided not to take the stroller because the girls had a late nap and we wanted them to get tired. Well, let's just say that M was very interested in exploring other people's lawns, toys, flowers, trees, etc. Let's just say we were sure we would never actually get home. Finally Justin and I found the perfect way to keep her from falling too far behind. All we had to do was hold hands. M is pretty certain she should always be in the middle of any group hug/love/holding hands experience. As soon as we took hands with each other and E, M would come running. I mean, how dare we leave her out????

On another amusing note.... earlier in the afternoon our entire house was taking a big power nap. I knew the home teachers were coming so when a knock came at the door, I ran to the bathroom really quickly. I thought Justin understood what was going on, but apparently he was more asleep than I thought. He didn't even know who was at the door. He says he's pretty sure he gave them a funny look when he opened the door - as in, "who the heck are you? and what are you doing at my house?" - and the rest of the visit's conversation went very slowly. Justin just could not keep up. It was so funny to listen to him try to formulate a coherant sentence. Sometimes he would just stop mid-thought and think that he made sense. I just tried not too laugh. If only we could have got that on video!