Things I Love:





Check out these gorgeous brows!


1. Getting my eyebrows waxed.  Who knew? I love it! I can't believe I just realized how amazing it is until I was in my 25th year! Plucking is so out. So 2010.
2. Onsies. Very multipurpose. They are the best thing to wear when sick or very cold. Also, they make getting dressed easier. You only have to find one article of clothing. They are not helpful, however, when you are about to pee your pants and have to jump around while undoing 40 little buttons.
3. Renting movies from the library. I know, Denae, you told me this along time ago, but I was having none of it. Well, I have realized how awesome it is to rent music and movies from the library for free and you don't get in trouble for returning then late, because you have a month to do it in!
4. Using recipes on packages. Does anyone use these? I just looked down on the package once and realized I was given a gift of free recipes, so I started trying them. Some are awesome-some are not. Add garlic powder to the ones that are not.
5. People Magazine + Bath = Love. When in doubt, get a magazine and get in the bath. A diet Pepsi by your side helps too. Adam doesn't understand. Oh well.

School

The day is here—the first day of my last term as an undergraduate! Whoo!

I have been in school since I graduated high school in 2004 and am finally seeing the fruits of my labor! Did you do the math? Yes… I have been in school for seven years! For a four year degree! Ha

I jumped right into school at BYU-Idaho the fall after I graduated high school and went there for a year and a half before I was wooed by Adam and convinced to stay home. We went back together (road trip!) to get all my stuff out of storage. Since I came home at the end of winter term, I couldn't enroll in Eugene and was out of school for half a year. In the fall, I went to Lane CC where I discovered all those classes I worked so hard for in Idaho would not transfer for anything. Lame.

After two years at Lane and an associates transfer degree to show for it, I was told not to apply to the Education program at UofO by my Lane counselor. She said that I needed more volunteer work before I would be able to get it. Wrong. She was so wrong and I was very mad for a long time. I was set back a year. Ugh.

So I went to the UofO anyway and tried a major in math. That. Was. Hard. Hahaha So I finished up as many graduate school prerequisites that year and applied for the Education program the following year. I got in. You don't need volunteer service to get in, by the way. And now after two years in the Educational Foundations undergraduate program, I will be graduating in June! Yay! Finally!

I will be graduating with a whopping 225.5 credits, 60+ of which counted for nothing. Oh well, live and learn.

And because I know I can handle so much school, I decided 'Why not throw in a master's degree?!' so I will start that up at the UofO in June and be done in August 2012 as a full-blown teacher!

I Love...

..having a best friend.

Well, Griffey has learned to assert himself and our lives have been filled with the effects of it. Good and bad.

I taught Griffey to say "no". Why would I do that? Aren't you supposed to teach them not to say that? Or at least not to scream it in your face, especially in public when everyone stares at you to see how you will react? Wondering are you a fit mother? Do you punish effectively? Not too hard, not too soft? That's the worst.

I taught him to 'just say no' instead of screaming or whining when he doesn't want something. So now he does. Do you want more oatmeal? No. Do you want to read a book? No.

Unfortunately it also goes like this:

 

Do you want to snuggle with Mama?

No. (casually, as if he isn't breaking my spirit and making me want to hug his bear tighter than he does.)

Do you want to give Mommy the biggest kiss in the world?

No. (as he walks away to read the book he just said no to, by himself)

 

Well, in case you were wondering, when you teach a one and a half year old to say no, they will. A lot.

No, I do not want my diaper changed.

No, I would rather not go to bed, thank you very much.

Oh boy, the worst is when he says 'no' an inch in front of your face and then decides saying it wasn't clear enough. I will now scream it, still an inch from sweet mother's face. I give him the stern look that holds 48% effectiveness and he laughs and walks away. The audacity. So that is what Adam and I are dealing with. I appreciate the 'no' but the dancing on my motherly power and then walking away smugly as he knows he has won? That part is that part I do not know how to deal with.

He's too young to understand that he is in trouble for saying the very word I taught him because the context has changed and he is too young to understand how much it hurts Momma's heart to scream and run away victoriously, but he is definitely old enough to be held accountable a little, right? Otherwise, before I know it, I will have a 4 year old brat screaming wildly in my face in public.

Well, I guess it's time to peruse the message boards and let the internet train my child.

Becoming parents is a pretty silly thing. Acting all serious and then when Griffey looks away, giggling at each other for how crazy we sound as parenty adult types. Ha

Good thing we're relaxed or this business would eat us up. For example, Griffey was eating a squeezable mango tube thing. I don't know. It's from Market of Choice. And he learned it can be squozed (?)(sure) onto the ground just as easily as into his mouth.

Squeeze. "uh oh". Squeeze. "uh oh". Squeeze. "uh oh". Over and over. I wasn't looking okay? So sue me.

Well, back to my example of being relaxed. I put a towel over his mess and called it a day. I didn't feel like cleaning it then and I still don't.

Craft Time with Denae

When Denae was in town, she brought over a nifty craft project for us. 

She saw these headbands on Anthropologie's website and found a pattern to make them. 

Pretty impressive considering we made $19.95 headbands for less than $2!



This is my headband. Oh yeah, and I dyed my hair brown.



This is the Anthropologie headband.

Busy Being Happy

Griffey loves shoes just like his dad.  Isn't Adam's beard out of control? He shaved it shortly after this was taken (thankfully!)

We like to spend our mornings snacking, coloring, and wearing awesome sweatbands.  He loves wearing this "hat" and sometimes won't leave the house without it.

Griff loves yogurt in the tube because he can hold it on his own.  This one was frozen so he wanted a glove on when he ate it.

Although he is picky at times, Griff always loves noodles with sauce. (He kinda looks like the joker here, right? creepy..)

Of course, coloring is fun, but I must have been intruding on his artistic space when I came up to his face with the camera.

They both love naps. I love watching Hulu while they take naps. smile.

Denae (my sister half of Denandy) taught me how to bake an apple pie.  I ate a lot of it. It's apples, right?

We got a new car, which means we got a new carseat.  I was going to use the box for packing, but decided teaching Griff about forts was a better idea.  He agrees.

Every morning, we look out the window at the trees, birds, cars, and occasional kitty. G stands there while I slowly get up.

Oh, another big step for Griff- he's all about putting his hands in his pants. How do I intervene on this?

Back up to Christmas

While our Holidays consisted of a lot of running around to family gatherings this year, I was okay with it because we were able to spend a relaxing Christmas morning together, just the three of us. It has been fun to create new traditions with Adam and incorporate some of our families' traditions as well. Plus, it was very nice to have Adam here this year!

My mom made our stockings from a tattered old instruction sheet that has been use to make my family's stockings for four generation.

Griffey had fun opening his stocking for the first time.  He liked digging out all the surprises.



Our tree- with Griffey's present that wouldn't fit under it.  He figured out that it was a basketball hoop and started shooting balls at it weeks before Christmas.



Adam wearing his Christmas jammies!

Although I look ratty, I wanted to show off my Christmas jammies- a blue onsie that Adam picked out.  Also, Griffey is wearing his "Mi Mow" (Mickey Mouse) Christmas Jammie.

 

Note to Self

    Griffey and I just went out to lunch at Mezzaluna Pizza. He loves it because he is obsessed with the moon and he points to all the pictures of moons and shrieks, "MOON!" the whole time.
    While we were eating, I couldn't help get sucked into the conversation next to me. The two ladies next to us met up for lunch and were catching up on what had been going on in their lives because they hadn't seen each other in a while. I noticed that when asked what was new with each of them, they both dove into long detailed summaries of what each of their kids was doing and didn't say much about their own activities at all.
    It seemed very odd to me that they had nothing to say about themselves, but were raving about Ryan's trip to Spain and England and how he just got a scholarship and blah blah blah and Chris' new girlfriend who is kind of hippy-ish but very smart and blah blah blah….
    Basically, while I love Griffey very, very much and could easily dive into extensive detail about every cute thing that Griiffey does, I hope I don't get to a point where I have nothing to say about what is new with me besides what is new with Griffey. I have seen many moms who give up who they are for their kids, but I think it would be more beneficial for my kids if I show them the importance of hobbies, talents, and knowing who you are.
   I hope in ten or twenty years I can look back and think about what I am thinking now and stop bragging about my kids and find a life myself. Besides, when our kids grow up, Adam and I will just look at each other and think "Now what?" if we don't keep working on ourselves and remember who we are other than parents.

Hair!

I have really long hair and I like to try to do stuff besides just ponytails and wearing it down, so I decided I needed to learn how to do a fishtail braid. Well, I googled it and stumbled on to the best you tube videos ever! This girl has tons of easy to follow and understand videos.

It's okay if you think they are boring, I don't care. I am really excited about them because they make learning how to do hairstyles very easy!