A Side Effect of Snuggies

Last December at my work Christmas party, we got the best gift ever: two matching Snuggies. You may think I'm being tongue in cheek, but I'm truly not. I've wanted a Snuggie for ages, and the only thing better than one Snuggie is, you guessed it, two Snuggies. I have noticed though, that Snuggies bring with them a whole lot of static. I always get shocked after I wear one, and it always makes my hair fly away.

Addie loves the Snuggies as well, but she too has fallen victim to the Snuggie Static Side Effect. Yesterday, she got a major dose of hair static and I was lucky enough to catch these pictures:


Love. This. Kid. So much.

Oh the Irony....

This is a picture of a plaque. That I made. Me. The most craft challenged person in the world. How did this anomaly come to be? Well, I decided to make an effort to attend a weeknight Relief Society meeting for the first time in, oh, 8 years. For some reason, I just really, really wanted to make this plaque and I doubted anyone's ability to teach me to do it in under an hour. Don't look too close, because it is in fact crooked, but I'm still quite proud of it. After I finished the plaque, I sat in the cultural hall and basked in my own creativity, looking forward to going home and showing off my new found craftiness to John. I imagined how proud he would be of me as I showed him my tribute to the family unit.

However, as I opened the door to the house, I sensed danger. The tub was running, Addie was laughing in an evil, triumphant laugh, and John was shouting "Stop! Stop!" Turns out, Addie picked Relief Society night to mess with Daddy, hardcore. First, she had what we refer to as a major blowout in the diaper department. Usually, these blowouts are strictly a two man job to clean up, but John had no choice but to handle this one on his own. As John tried to clean what he calls "the worst diaper ever", Addie decided to "help" by sticking one of her hands in her own poop. When John tried to stop her, she laughed at him and stuck the other hand in too. He grabbed both hands and she managed to wipe poop on him and his shirt. He tried to secure both hands and both feet, which angered Addie. She started screaming for Mommy. John says he did too. He got her as clean as he could and transferred her to the tub, dumping in probably half a bottle of baby soap, judging from the amount of bubbles in the tub. She proceeded to do her best to splash as much water on John as possible, laughing the entire time. Keep in mind that John still has poop on her shirt, but he couldn't leave Addie alone in the tub, so he couldn't change. That was about the time that I came into the bathroom, proud as can be, carrying a plaque stating that family is life's greatest blessing. John quickly yelled for me to put the plaque down and get in there and take over for him while he changed out of his poop covered shirt. As I rushed to get the plaque out of the bathroom, I was struck by the irony of the situation. But, the truth of the matter is, family really is life's greatest blessing, even if they occasionally get poop on you. Now that's something I should put on a plaque...

Why Indeed?

My husband is a self proclaimed food snob, which I love. I embrace his food snobiness and appreciate the fact that he doesn't want me to ever compromise on the quality of what we eat. I just wanted to illustrate his disdain for what he considers to be poor quality food with this conversation he and I had shortly after the Tiger Woods scandal hit the airwaves:

Me: Can you believe the mess Tiger Woods has gotten himself in?
John: No, that's crazy.
Me: I can't imagine how bad his wife must feel. She's this beautiful model and he's been sleeping with girls who are not as attractive as she is. I mean he's been sleeping with the most random people including prostitutes and I even heard one of his mistresses was a waitress he met at IHOP. His wife has got to be asking "why?" And all these girls are trying to cash in their "celebrity" now.
John: He was sleeping with an IHOP waitress?
Me: That's what I heard.
John: (Shakes his head head in disbelief)
Me: You know, I just don't get it. If he's going to cheat, why would he pick people who are gold diggers? Why sleep with people who have a financial motivation to expose your indiscretions?
John: (Still shaking his head in disbelief) Why would you ever eat at IHOP?

Why indeed? Love that man of mine :)

A Late Christmas Dance

I should have posted this BEFORE Christmas, but didn't. And yet it's so cute I still have to put it up. This is a video of Addie doing some interpretive dancing to Jingle Bells. We shot this in Hawaii which is why she's dressed like it's summer.

Hello 2010, let's get down to business

On the 1st of January, John and I sat down and listed our goals for the year. It's an annual tradition for us. There is something liberating about making the effort to start fresh and be better, and believing that you really CAN be better. We not only plan our goals, we also plan our fun and vacations and make a conscious effort to make sure that we're balanced in work, play and spiritual growth. We have a very long list of things to do, but I'm happy to say we've made some progress already. Of course we have the standards, which we've tried to be really good about already (working out daily, eating healthy, etc) but here are some of our goals we hope to have finished by the end of 2010:

1. Run a 5K this spring! I know, some of my runner friends will scoff at this, but for me this is a VERY big deal. I'm working with a completely rebuilt left knee and had giving up the notion of ever running again, but I've been working up to it on the gradually over the last 4 months, and I'm feeling more confident. I won't be very fast, but I think I can do it. It's no marathon, but it might as well be for me.
2. Meal planning a week in advance. I'm hoping this will stop me from buying everything I see in the grocery store and will make meal times more enjoyable and more balanced. Thanks to John for being so incredibly supportive in this area.
3. Church stuff includes a big one for me--being on time. That hasn't happened in a long time, but now that we start at 1:00 and Addie just started Nursery and I actually made it being only 3 minutes late yesterday. HUGE! I also resolved to take more time in my lesson preparation and to plan better FHE's this year.
4. I have a list of books I want to read, although I'd love some suggestions from people of good books.
5. I also want to become at least semi-proficient in video editing. Not the hard core stuff, mind you, I'm talking about home videos but I want to do more than just fade in and fade out. I'll be spending some time with Lynda to get up to speed.
6. We have a goal to have our house rebuilt by the end of this year! This may be tight, since everyone is estimating that it will take about 9 months to complete, and we still have to get bids and choose a contractor, but we really, really, really want to be done with construction by next Christmas.
7. I want to spend more quality time with Addie, doing cool things. She's learning so fast and I want to take a day a week and take her someplace that will be exciting for her. I'll be honest, this may not happen every week, but I'll work on it. Any suggestions here from my mom friends would be really appreciated too!
8. One word: De-clutter.
9. We would love to grow our family by one this year. We have our adoption papers almost all the way completed and we're hoping to add a sibling for Addie this year. She needs someone to train in the ways of her mischief.
   
10. Lastly, I plan to appreciate every single day with my wonderful family. What a huge blessing they are to me! Every single day with them is a gift, and I'm so grateful for them.
    

I hope that 2010 brings happiness, renewal and good things to all my friends and family. I'd better go plan some menus and work on an FHE lesson...