Random bits of life....

It's never good to hear your four year old yell, "Mom, Zach's got the plunger," while you are taking a shower.

According to Kaitlyn, you have to use a lot of 'focustration' on the iPhone games.  It seems focus and concentration are not quite enough.

Unlike our home in Lexington, we can clearly hear the tornado sirens from our Cincy house during an intense storm.  Monday morning we had a huge, scary storm blow through and at 5:15 am we hauled everyone to the basement when the sirens started blaring.  We had high winds, lightning, rain, but were in no real danger.  A tornado did touch down in Kentucky closer to Louisville and destroyed three homes.  Spring ushers in severe weather, which can be very scary.

Josh designed and decorated this sweet confection on Cake Doodle on Monday night after Rich's brother Danny called and gave us the shocking and abysmal news of Davies' dismissal*. 

BYU.  Man, it really hurt to see them lose THAT BAD at home last night. In fact I couldn't even watch the highlights from Sports Center because it made my stomach sick.   #1 seed chance gone long before Selection Sunday.  There is no joy in Mudville....

(*Even though he broke the honor code and should have been kicked off the team, my heart goes out to him because of the PUBLIC frenzy this has become. What a mess for everyone involved.)

My girls were running in circles around the kitchen shouting, "We are trout girls."  Maybe they are hoping we can find a high school in Utah who's mascot is a fish.  Or they might just be future TRACK stars.  I'd pick the latter.
 

I'm in love with all the fun iPhone camera apps.  We've spent way too much time snapping Polaroid type pictures on ShakeItPhoto and making cool looking pictures with Instagram, Hipstamatic and CameraBag.  So much fun!

Life has been so busy around here lately that I've gotten to March 3rd and have not even read one single book (well, short bedtime stories to the girls at night don't count).  I have a stack like no other near my bed, calling out to me to dive in and get reading, but I've started reading CNN, Fox News, The New York Times, The Salt Lake Tribune and USA Today on the iPhone while I workout, which leaves me no time for fiction.  I'm missing my books!

We've had so many showings of our home in Lexington with not even a nibble of an offer.  After ten months of waiting, I'm starting to feel like the girl who goes on a million first dates and never gets a second phone call.  We all know that that is never any fun.

The boys do not have school tomorrow due to spring conferences.  They are already asking if it's going to be a repeat of President's Day.  It's suppose to rain and the girls have ballet in the morning.  For all our sakes, I hope it is far better than their last day off.

We fly out to Utah in three weeks from today.  I haven't been home since December 2009, so I am very excited about seeing our families.  I am hoping and praying that we have an 'ah-ha' moment about where we are suppose to live.  I am also crossing every finger that Zach is a sweet, quiet baby on the flight, instead of the 'I screamed all through our last Kroger shopping trip and people were giving Mommy the evil eye' attitude we've had lately.  Yeah, I REALLY hope he sleeps for most of the flight, but I have serious doubts about that.

After a mere FOUR MONTHS I finally made it to level 3 on Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred.  How come it took me 120 days to get to the last level on the video, and yet, I'm still not even close to shredded?  Maybe it's all those almond M&M's that find their way into my mouth.  On Tuesday Kaitlyn told me I needed to try level 3.  I admit I was quite comfortable with level 2, but took her advice.  I think I had the Eye of the Tiger tune from Rocky in my head while I did my traveling push-ups.  I was exhausted at the end.  Did  I mention the video is only 25 minutes long?  And yes, I happily ate my M&M's  upon completion (as a reward, you know?).

I really don't eat candy all day, just most of the day.  The other things I am loving eating right now are Tostitos Restaurant style salsa warmed with a heap of cheddar cheese, and eaten with baked Scoops.  I could eat that for every meal, but I usually only have it for lunch and dinner.  I also die over Cinnabon cinnamon almonds, Chick-fil-A chocolate shakes, Chobani Greek yogurt (especially the pomegranate and pineapple flavors) and caffeine free Diet Coke.  Good stuff.

With February behind us, we have decked out the house with 'Green Day' decor.  I found a Shamrock plant at the store and fun little white Daisies, a cool St. Patty's snow globe, a tiny green wreath, tinsel, beads and other green things we stashed around the house.  The kids eat it up, which I appreciate, since I need things to celebrate while we wait for this fellowship year to end.  Who cares if it might look a bit tacky?  My kids love every holiday because it gives us another opportunity for a party.

On Monday night our opening song for FHE was Follow the Prophet.  I had a little laugh when Brynn belted out Adam was 'from a place called Egypt' and we should follow the prophet, 'don't go a strange.'  I love kids' versions of things.

I am loving the extra sunshine we have now it's March.  It finally isn't dark when I pick the boys up from piano every Thursday at 6 pm and it's not dark when I take them to basketball practice.  I love to crack my window so I can hear the cardinals beautiful call and love my fat squirrels that are constantly darting around, climbing and digging in my backyard.  I started sharing my almond stash with them.  They are big fans of the sweet cinnamon ones.

On my birthday, Kristi introduced me to Land's End swimsuits.  She wanted to give me a 'birthday suit', which I greatly appreciated.  I had no idea what I was missing!  These suits hold you in, lift you up and are so dang cute.  After placing two orders (free shipping, extra 20% off and all were on clearance) I ended up with 4 'birthday suits' for the price of one regular priced one.  Love good deals and swimsuits that actually make you look better than you really do.

I have two nephews that were born in Salt Lake City and Milwaukee this past month.  In fact every single married sibling on both sides have had or will have a baby this year, except me.  (Jenny and Julianne's girls were born in 2010, but it's still within 12 months.)  I am completely content (and often overwhelmed) with my brood.  Yes, I would give anything to snuggle and cuddle with any of these new bundles of joy, but I'll happily hand them back after I get my baby fix.

I totally ate up this year's Academy Awards.  I didn't get to see any of the red carpet, so I set my DVR (which I am still looking forward to watching).  After a quick look online I got to see all the beautiful gowns.  I thought everyone looked pretty.  No real 'WOW' standouts, but none I really hated either.  I loved all of Anne Hathaway's looks.  Her first dress she wore during the show was white with crystals and was really lovely.  I thought she was really relaxed and cute as host, while James Franco was very stiff.  Hard job.  Zach had taken a late nap after church (1-4 pm church is a killer for toddlers), so he stayed up with me to the bitter end.  I was very happy for Colin Firth.  Amongst the many wacky actors, he seems nice and normal.  I am excited to rent some of the movies that did well that I haven't seen.  My boys flipped through the show the next day and they died laughing when they saw the fake musicals from movies.  I don't know how many times I've heard the He doesn't own a shirt bit.  Very clever.

It's no nursery for Zach.  The kid hates it.  That makes 5 haters and 1 lover of nursery.  Trey was our only one who cried when he wasn't the last to leave.  Lucky Rich still gets his Z bonding time every Sunday.  What a sweet Daddy.

My new favorite quote is this:

We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.

It's totally true.  We are all strange and weird and you just have to find that someone who is strange and weird like you and then you both think you're normal.  I love it.

Enjoy your weekend!  Happy March!