Disneyland or Bust

We're heading to 'The Happiest Place On Earth' (and California Adventure) in the near future and we're super excited. We've gotten some good tips on which rides to go on. I've heard great things about the one where you're gliding over California - orange groves, orange scents. It better be good cause it's been talked up a lot. We also heard that you can get free fast passes at the kiosks around the park. Sounds like a good way to go. What about the character breakfast, is that worth the money? Any good tips you've got, just let us know.

We bought our tickets on Ebay for a really great deal. We've paid for them and we won't have them til the seller drops them off at our hotel. Are we crazy?? Yes we are - crazy, trusting people. But hey, it was a great deal! I'll let you know how it goes.

I just checked the weather last night and it will be sunny and 70 degrees. I can't tell you the last time I've seen such weather - Its quite exciting to say the least. The only downfall to the warm weather is pulling out my short sleeved shirts and capris again. First of all, I can't even remember what I've got cause its been so long since I've worn them, and who knows if I'll still like them or if they'll still fit. It's a dilemma. What about head gear? I really don't want a burned head. Maybe a baseball cap with flaps? That would take care of my head and neck at the same time. It doesn't get any cooler than that. I just mentioned to Chad that we should invest in a couple of fanny packs - a baseball cap with mud flaps and fanny packs - we'd fit right in with the typical Disneyland tourist. At least that's what they wore in the 80s, since that was the last time I went.

Never Mess With Chocolate Milk Friday

There are two things you need to know about Ethan:

1. He's afraid of dolls.

2. Chocolate milk Friday is the highlight of his week.

I'm not exactly sure why or how Ethan became afraid of dolls, but he has a strange phobia with them. He hates to be in the same room with them. If he absolutely has to be in the same room with a doll he'll strategically place himself on the other side of the room. I think it started when he was about four years old when my sis and I were showing him a doll and explaining that dolls are like fake babies. How were we supposed to know that the phrase "fake baby" would be traumatizing him 2 years later?? Mistake #1: Calling a doll a fake baby.

On Friday I went into Ethan's class to help with the Dr Seuss party. His teacher asked me to get 10 milks from the cafeteria. Not really thinking twice about it I went and got 10 white milks, knowing that one or two of them would be used for the green eggs we'd be making. Mistake #2: Forgetting to get chocolate milk. As Ethan and I were walking out of the classroom to go home, Ethan told me how disappointed he was that he didn't get chocolate milk that day. Mistake #3: Admitting that it was my fault that he didn't get his chocolate milk. Never admit such a flub. Not only did he not get his chocolate milk, but it was his own mom's fault that he didn't get it!

We headed up to my sisters that day where Ethan refused to come in. Weird, cause he loves Courtney and Maddie. He stayed out in the locked car for about a half an hour (don't worry I was watching him from the window). He was even crying out there. Hard. I went out and very impatiently tried to get him to come in. He wouldn't. Chad, who was also at Courtney's, went out to try and get him to come in. After a few minutes Chad comes back in to do a "doll sweep." Ethan sent Chad on a quest to get rid of any doll that might be in sight before he would come in. Duh. I totally forgot what an issue dolls are for him. He came in but wasn't really being himself.

Courtney: "What's wrong Ethan?"

Ethan: "Well...I'm just having a really bad day."

Courtney: "Why?"

Ethan: "I didn't get my chocolate milk today at school."

Me: "Tell her whose fault it was."

Ethan: He just looks up at me with total disappointment. "Hers."

How was I to know it would ruin his whole day? If only my life were that simple that my day would be ruined over chocolate milk.

On the way home I asked him why he didn't just tell me about the dolls. He said, "I would have, but you just didn't give me any time to explain." Admittedly I was quite impatient with him while trying to coax him out of the car. Mistake #4: Not taking the time to listen to my child's concerns.

Parenthood is definitely a learning experience. 4 great life lessons learned!

Ramblings of a Shy Blogger

Sometimes I feel inspired to write on my blog and sometimes I don't. This is one of those [many] times when I feel uninspired cause I have nothing interesting to write about. Sometimes I read others blogs and they're so entertaining, original, artistic, funny - you get the picture. I read them, and I want to go into my blogger's shell. Nothing I write about seems interesting enough, so why write at all? Why do I feel the need to write something that really gets a good reaction or get a comment? Why? I'll tell you why, cause I'm a people pleaser. I want to please the 3 people that actually read my blog. Well not today. Today my post will be filled or not so filled (cause that's my prerogative) with random thoughts that no one really cares about. Cause, well, it's MY blog and I can write whatever I darn well please. That's so liberating!

Pegged pants - they're back. I guess I should have guessed they'd make their appearance again but I always hoped they wouldn't. I'm slowly warming up to 80s fashions that have made their way back - see my 80s post - but sometimes I just can't accept certain fashions. Pegged pants, for instance. I'll never do it again, and if I do, slap me.

Trust me, I was a pegger at one point so don't say I didn't try. In my pegger days I remember seeing certain people without their pants pegged and I'd think, 'like, how unfashionable are you?' Remember when the deacons would pass the sacrament in their suits with their pants pegged? Just a matter of time when I start seeing that again.

Do I really look like Celine Dion? I'm not saying I get that comment a lot but when I do, its a little offensive to me. Not to say Celine isn't pretty cause she is, but I just don't want to look like her. I'd rather look like, I don't know, practically anyone else. Kate Hudson, for instance. She's so cute. If I sang like Celine, now that's a different story.

I've also gotten that I look like Mindy, on Mork and Mindy. Honestly, I can kind of see where they're coming from. Na-nu, na-nu.

So anywho, I 've got to feed the missionaries tonight. The dilemma is always what to feed them. I try to guess what they've gotten a lot of lately, and of course try to avoid that. I also try to avoid making anything with too many veggies cause they never seem to eat them. I've decided on lasagna, french bread and caesar salad. They've probably eaten a lot of that but oh well. Dessert for missionaries are a must. I don't stress out as much about dessert cause anything sugary will do. When I was a missionary and we didn't get dessert it was always so disappointing. Even worse was getting fruit for dessert. Its those simple things you really live for as a missionary.

I can't believe the judges on AI put Tatiana back on for the wildcard round. They just want good ratings - that's all they want. At least they didn't go so low as putting Normund Gentle back on. That would have been ridiculous. They really seem to love that Meagan girl with the long hair and huge arm tattoo. She better bring it tonight cause she sure didn't impress the last round. I couldn't help but be turned off by her little dorky dance moves.

The Bachelor drama was definitely good TV. My parents even got sucked in during 'After the Final Rose' as they were flipping through the channels (my dad's favorite pastime). I didn't get to watch part 2 so please let me know what happened.

I love this picture of Ethan (even though he refused to smile) cause he reminds me of E.T.

Chad and I decided to go snowboarding for our Valentines date. We haven't been for 7 years. I really mastered the bunny hill and was feeling pretty good about myself so we went and did a blue run. Uh, it was way too steep for me so I had to snowplow practically the whole way down - it really works the ol' thigh muscles though. It was back to the bunny hill and greens for me for the rest of the night. It was super duper fun though and Chad was very patient with me to stay on the bunny hill for so long.

Scoop

Its been a while since I've blogged, here's a little update:

(Grandma Lynette, Ethan, Grandma Judy)

Grandma Judy came to visit us for about 10 days and she just left this morning. We're sad to see her go! I've been blessed with a wonderful mother-in-law and we had a great time. Here's what we did: We took a little roadtrip to Chad's cousins wedding, ate out a lot, got spoiled by her, she cleaned my toaster and my stove, did my dishes, put up with Ethan's coughing fits as they shared a room at night, she watched The Bachelor without too much complaint :), watched movies, ate out some more, she and my mom had a 7 hour ladies day out, we went bowling where she bowled 105 (she claims she hasn't been bowling for years. We don't really believe her, Chad and I didn't even break 100), not to mention all our great conversations. It was a blast. Thanks for the great time Judy!!

Tidos back! Tido just got home today from a 10 day vacation and he's got a few extra pounds to show for it. I don't know what they fed the guy but he is fat! And good news - you might be looking at a potential father.


You've got to be kidding me! I can't believe they put these two through to the top 36. That makes me angry. As I was watching, in my anger, I vowed I wouldn't watch the show anymore. Chad called me on it and I quickly relented. Ok, so I'll watch it this season, but I'm not happy about it.

They took this guys spot. He should have been on the show. Jamar got gypped!

Give me sun or a tanning bed cause I'm so tired of these cold, gray skies that never seem to end!

Pseudo-baby

Tido has become my pseudo-baby until I get a real baby. He fulfills my need (kinda) to cradle something small. And he lets me! Yeah, I'm crazy. At least I'm not carrying around a doll in public that looks like a real baby. Did anyone else see that Dateline?? Weird.

People sometimes ask us how the adoption process is going and all we can really tell them is nothing is happening. We're still waiting, and for that reason we're trying to be more proactive about getting the word out. Oftentimes an adoption happens through word of mouth.

We're signed up with LDS Family Services and you can check out our profile at itsaboutlove.org . Feel free to send any pregnant ladies our way!! (Unless of course they're happily married and want to keep their baby).

I also want to thank all of you who are rooting for us and have supported us through this whole process. Thank you for being true friends!

Many Faces Of Our 6 Year Old

Today is Ethan's birthday! It seems that every year he gets just a little bit sillier (and tired of me always taking pictures of him).

This year we opted for a no friend party. Yay! I don't know why, but those parties always stress me out. Instead, Chad took him out for donuts (one of his favorite treats), then I took him out to MickyDs, we then went to see Bedtimes Stories at the theater, he got his choice of dinner - meatballs, and his choice of dessert - Reeses peanut butter dessert, and of course presents. It doesn't get much better than that when you're six. The rest of the night was spent putting together legos and Chad and Ethan wrestling - currently his two favorite activities.

Happy Birthday Ethan! You are our joy!

Christmas and New Year Recap

We had such an enjoyable Christmas! It was the first time we've had Christmas at our own house and it was really fun. We got together with most of my family on Christmas Eve where we had an awesome turkey/ham dinner. We then had the kids dress up and do the nativity from Luke 2. Ethan was a shepard this year, and he even had a pool cue as his staff. We then had a little talent show where the kids performed piano and dance solos, and Ethan did some magic tricks. Courtney uploaded a funny video clip of the talent show on youtube if you want to go check it out here.When we got home on Christmas Eve, Ethan got to open one gift and he was super excited. When he opened the present and saw that it was just pajamas he went from super excited to super disappointed and was sure he could talk us into letting him open another gift, which of course didn't happen.

On Christmas morning Ethan slept until 7:20 - not so bad! We opened presents and ate Rhodes Orange Rolls (so good!). One of my favorite parts of the day was just hanging out and playing
with Ethan and all his new toys.

This is a video clip of Ethan showing his excitement on Christmas morning. WARNING: My voice and laugh are sooooo annoying and for that reason I hesitate to post it (if only I could edit myself out), but if you can get passed it, I think you'll enjoy it. This "performance" was totally spontaneous. He's really into opera singing these days.



In the afternoon we went sledding with the rest of the family. Soooo fun! And Ethan was a champ - he went down any run.


After sledding, we met up with the rest of the family who didn't sled and ate leftovers, talked to Elder Chase on the phone, and played games til midnight. As I said, it was just an ENJOYABLE Christmas!

For New Years Eve we went to a ward party where there was dinner, face painting, movies, and dancing. It was really fun. At around 10pm we headed to Spence and Mel's and played Pictionary - a new family favorite. At midnight, we stopped for a second to exchange 'Happy New Years!' and kisses and then quickly resumed our game.

I love December and I'll miss it, not only because I love Christmas and what it represents, but also because I became addicted to goodie plates and to all the Christmas cards that come in the mail. Thanks everyone!

Happy 2009 everybody!!