Intuitive computer...

I was sitting at our desktop computer with my phone on the desk. The speakers crackled and a second later, I got a message. "Interesting, " I thought to myself. So I sent a text back and set my phone on the desk again. The speakers crackled again and then my phone started to ring. So apparently some cell waves crackle my computer speakers right before my phone chirps.

On Sunday, our ward had the Primary Sacrament Meeting Program. So the kids looked especially nice and ready for church and they all decided they needed a snack. I didn't want their church clothes to become soiled moments before heading out the door, so I made them all wear their aprons. Jack's apron made him look like a little, professional chef.



And lastly on my rambling post, the Tahoe needed new tires. I don't really want to buy new tires right now so I wanted Merril to find a set of used, cheaper tires. So he tells me what he really wants is a set of new, Nitto Dune Grappler tires because they have flames going down the sidewalls as illustrated here:

I informed him that he was not allowed to get new dune grapplers and that I just needed something used, cheap, and gets me down the road. So he comes home the other day and says, "You'll never guess what I found on KSL.com!" Oh great. He found a set of half-tread dune grapplers. When I raised an eyebrow, he said, "I swear they were the only set of 20-inch truck tires on KSL or Craig's List and they were a steal!" What a stinker.

Smells like teen spirit...

Ever since I had Juliet, I've developed seasonal allergies. It's an annoyance and I'm rather perturbed that my body suddenly decided to overreact to things like pollen. I become itchy and cough (not sneeze) and have chest and nasal congestion. I take Claritin and Flonase, which help a lot, but I lost my sense of smell around late February/early March. A lost sense of smell comes in handy when cleaning up vomit or poopy diapers but it's unfortunate to be unable to smell bread coming out of the oven, my husband, or sagebrush after it's rained.

So the other day, I was making toast and when it popped, I caught a whiff of warm toast smell and started to cry. I haven't smelled anything for 7 months and the sudden smell of ANYTHING brought me to tears. Since then, I've started to catch other whiffs but nothing on a consistent basis until this morning! I could smell my shampoo (which Juliet calls sham-poop), my hairspray, my deodorant, Merril's deodorant, that funky smell in the basement, and the laundry soap! Hooray! I'm actually a little overwhelmed because EVERYTHING HAS A ODOR!! I've forgotten how much everything smells.

And so I apologize if you've come over to my house this summer and thought, "Wow, this place stinks like garbage." or "Jamie has some really bad B.O. today". Sorry, I just couldn't smell the difference until today and I'll try to be more careful about it from now on!

Starting to feel better...

Jack is starting to get off the couch and play again. Today, Juliet and he wanted to pull carrots out of the garden. I still have some carrots, onions and a couple leggy tomato plants out there.

Now comes the dreaded task of weaning my children off television again. I have a no t.v. policy during the day but when kids get sick, it pretty much goes out the window. So here's one last shot of us in front of the t.v.

I swear, I'm turning it off tomorrow.

Leftovers...

I had 2 windows leftover from miscellaneous basement projects and decided to blow them out the door on Craig's List. It took about a week but I got a call today and the guy wanted to buy them! He came and picked them up tonight! Now I don't have these any more:

Instead, I have these:

And this:

House of sickness...

OHhhahahrhah cough cough. The flu is making its rounds at our house. First it was Maxine, followed by Merril, Juliet, Jack and lastly, myself. Yucky fevers and coughing fits. I've done nothing for a solid week because I was tending to sick family members and then whimpering on the couch. I'm on the upswing, which is a good thing and everyone seems to be mending except Jack. I'm hoping and praying that he sleeps REALLY well tonight instead of waking up and coughing every 30 minutes or so. Hopefully I'll be able to leave the house sometime this week.

This is Halloween...

I love Halloween! This year, I decided I'd make some tombstones. I would have liked to buy them but I was trying to save some cash and I was afraid the Styrofoam ones would just blow away. It can get windy here. I had some scrap wood leftover from basement projects and started sketching ideas. I came up with 4 patterns and started cutting. (Please try and ignore my open-toed shoes, I'm pretty sure they're not OSHA approved.)

Then I started painting. I coated them with some primer gray spray paint and added texture with a sponge. (I'm a little embarrassed that I was faux finishing something but oh well.)

This is how a few turned out.

Jack said he wanted his own tombstone for him so I made him this.

Next year I might make a Juliet one and a Maxine one but for now, I'm good. All told, I spent $1.96 on 2 cans of cheap primer spray paint. I had the rest of the paints from other projects and leftover brackets from basement plumbing. I was pleased with how they turned out! I made 4 total. Now I kind of wish I had a fog machine. Eeeeee eeeee eeeee!

My other homemade decoration was a spider's egg nest. It hangs from the front chandelier in the entry.

I really feel like my Halloween decorations are where I want them to be and feel pretty satisfied with the creepiness factor in my house.

Potty training update: Juliet has done really well and is going to the bathroom pretty much by herself. I haven't been able to get her to go #2 in the toilet so we're still working on that. Jack only had the one success that day but I'm hoping things keep looking up. Other than that, Merril and all the kids have/had the flu. I have somehow escaped so far.

I hoped, I prayed, but I never thought it would really happen...

We were eating dinner and Jack said he needed to go to the bathroom. He ran in there and did #2 in the toilet! (I know some of you are so bored with the toilet habits of my children and I apologize but I'M EXCITED!) We've been trying to get him to do this for 10 months! I don't want to get my hopes up too high but I hope the trend continues. Please. Please. Please. Please.

Progress...

I've been potty training Juliet this week and I'm excited this morning because she woke up dry. I tried to get her to go to the bathroom but she didn't go. So I went to have a shower. While I was showering, she said she had to pee so I told her to go ahead. She climbed onto the toilet and went all by herself! Yea! Here's looking forward to a productive day!

I must be out of my mind...

I decided to start potty training Juliet this week. *Duhn duhn duhn* I'm still struggling with Jack. (He still won't go #2 in the potty.) All last week, Juliet would say she needed to pee and then run to the bathroom and take off her diaper and climb onto the toilet herself. Who am I to hold her back? So I just threw panties on her and decided to jump in with both feet. Plus, I'm hoping if I start earlier than I started with Maxine and Jack, I can avoid the awful pooping in the underwear thing. (We're going on 10 months with Jack. Maxine did it for 8.) So far, she's made it to the toilet for a #1 and a #2. I think it was a coincidence. But today, she's had far fewer accidents which suggests to me she's learning control.

I'm hoping, and this is a huge hope, that Jack might get in gear when he sees his little sister showing him up on the toilet. She thinks she's as big as Jack. Guess what babe: You're not as big as you think you are.

Eureka!

I bought a DVD remote a few months back because we lost ours. Then the DVD player quit working so I ended up buying a new DVD player/recorder. Today I was vacuuming between couch cushions and found the original DVD remote and $1. 27. *roll eyes* Our couch cushions don't come off, they're attached to the couch. The remote was between the cushions and the back part of the couch, about to pitch into the couch underbelly. I thought I had checked all over in the couch when the remote became lost originally. I guess I didn't check good enough. I've decided that I'm going to sell the two remotes on Ebay and make $15 bucks. It'll be Christmas money. (I've wrapped 11 presents so far. Hee hee)