dear nursery ladies, thank you...

Will's first week in Nursery was last week. He cried. The. Whole. Time.

However, yesterday was a bit different. He actually stayed. For the full two hours. Well, almost (he didn't like when they tried to clean up the puzzle he was playing with. He started crying, and they could never console him. But really, can you blame the kid?).

After having so many separation woes with Ethan and nursery, I was skeptical as to how the whole Will + Nursery thing was going to go down. But seriously, I'm impressed.

It was a very peaceful Sunday School/Relief Society for me.

I love free babysitting.

Now I'm just looking for somebody to take the boys durning Sacrament Meeting.

Any takers?

hey, at&t, i think we can be friends again...

Have you ever had those mornings when you wake up and know right off the bat it's going to be a bad day? That was me today. I slept in, missing my spin class, I felt overly exhausted, poor Will was upset about having alphabet cereal yet AGAIN, Ethan stayed in the bath for over an hour because he didn't want to wash his hair, Jon needed a ride to school early, and to make matters worse, it was cold and cloudy. Yeah, doesn't sound that bad to me either, but it was at the time.

Anyway, the rest of the morning went similar to the start.

After a few hours of moping around, I figured it was time to get going. After paying some bills online, I quickly pulled up my cell phone usage for the month. Imagine my frustration when I saw a huge, red line screaming "OVERAGE" at me. Great? Seriously?

Apparently, while Jon was in India last week, he racked up a huge bill in data usage on his phone--just checking a few emails, or so he claims. Turns out, while you are overseas, you can't actually use your iPhone for free. Hmm, who knew?

Ok, only kidding, of course we knew that. But, before doing anything web related on his phone, Jon DID take, what he thought were the correct steps to turn off the roaming on his phone, preventing any unnecessary usage.

Clearly, it didn't work.

After seeing the gaping red line glaring me in the face, I called Jon in a panic (secretly fretting over all the things I could have purchased with the money), ate a couple cookies that were supposed to go to the neighbors (comfort food, I guess), and practiced my stern, yet calm speech I was about to give to the, "I know our cell service is horrible, but I can't do anything about it", " just waiting for my shift to be over", over-worked and under-paid, rep at at&t.

To my surprise, it was all a bunch of wasted energy. The guy on the phone was totally cool. The fees: gone. I know, unbelievable. (and to be fair, they have waived activation fees, given me three free phones, waived call overages, and let me out of a two-year contract.)

While they most definitely do NOT have "more bars in more places" and absolutely do NOT have "fewer dropped calls", their customer service was certainly spot on today.

And in other good news, I did end up getting to spin tonight, where I won a free Jamba Juice.

Aubry went home on The Biggest Loser.

Oh, and I'm on day number 24 of driving on an expired license plate, ticket-free.

I'd say, it turned out to be a pretty good day.

caution: domestication in progress...

On more than one a occasion, I've been referred to as one of "those domestically challenged girls". Whether it be a justified statement or not, I won't go into. I will admit, I do leave a bit to be desired with my typical dinner: colorful, curly noodles and a can of diced tomatoes (sometimes, if my family is lucky, I even throw in a few veggies, and on really special days, pine nuts). Forgive me if sweating away in the kitchen, or hurting my fingers trying to mend clothes, and getting blisters on my knees from cleaning doesn't quite conjure up an image of excitement in my mind. (ok, a bit dramatized)

"I don't have the right tools", has always been my excuse (and it is not so much that I don't like these things, but more that I'm simply not good at them).

Apparently, by the time Christmas rolled around this past year, everyone was tired of hearing my excuses. From my dear husband, I received a Kitchen Aide (think "Father of the Bride" blender wedding present. Seriously.) and my sweet, adorable 11-year-old niece gave me a sewing machine (more to come on this later). However, I'm still waiting for the perfect "tool" to help with the whole "blisters on knees" cleaning problem. Any ideas? Maybe you could just give it to me for Christmas.

Unfortunately, having the right tools around has not magically improved my life. A couple weeks ago I tried to make something with my sewing machine, but I can tell you that if Jon's reaction to my creation is any indication, I am NO seamstress. Unless of course I'm going for the zig-zag stitch, in which case, I've got it mastered.

Seeing as how I haven't found much success (yet) with the sewing machine, I figured it was time to use the neglected, monstrous mound of brushed silver that has taken up permanent residence on my counter top. The poor thing hasn't seen much use- *ahem*- alright, ZERO use.

Until now.



Turns out, I'm not nearly as pathetic as you've all assumed.

The guilt from the neglect was eating at me and because I had a few bananas that were beginning to look more like something you avoid even driving over, I got ambitious and made banana bread. For real (and it was even healthy and edible). Now, I understand to some of you, alright, most of you, this is a simple, possibly even common event. However, for the rest of us--the less talented--the task is a bit daunting and overwhelming...

but most of all: blogworthy.

what, megan doing a tag? no way...

I usually stay far away from the silly game known in the blogging world as: "tag". However, tonight I'm caving.

Why?

Because, Jon is late at school for the umpteenth time. Because, I have "AI" on pause so I can get something productive done and then happily fast forward through the commercials (something productive as in: blogging. Yeah, it's productive, I promise). Because I was really good at tag in elementary school. But most of all, because this is my blog and I'll do what I want.

Who knows, maybe I'll even do another one during the next "pause" break.

Until then....

(Ethan, 5 months. While I absolutely adore the kid, I was really hoping for an "oh, how embarrassing" picture. Oh well.)

6th folder, 6th picture, 6 people (I'm not sure all these "6's" are a good thing. Maybe we should change the number to 5. Just a thought. Can someone please take that up with the Blog Master? There's got to be one, right? Otherwise, where do all these silly "trends" come from?)

Oh, and I tag: Sadie, Hannah, Angie, Moenika, and Les


After thumbing through all my picture files, this was the best "embarrassing" picture I could find: my beautiful, classy mom zonked out in the car. Love you, Mom. Just remember, it's my blog.

"Remember Lot's Wife"...

Do you ever find yourself wasting entirely too much time dwelling on the past, whether it be something negative or something really great?

If not, congrats, pat yourself on the back.

However, if you're like me and it happens all too often, I have something just for you. Go here to read Elder Holland's devotional address given at BYU a couple weeks ago.

It's a good one.

it's been one of those weeks...

Sunday:


I spent all morning at InstaCare with Ethan (with Will in tow. Wow, that was fun). He was put on an antibiotic to treat Impetigo (rash on face).



Wednesday:


I went downstairs and noticed water backing up. I called the plumber and they came and fixed the water heater. It was a quick fix and they charged an arm and leg. Naturally. He also played "dooms day" with me and bluntly informed me that I was crazy for having the furnace I do, especially with kids in the house. He claimed if anyone else were to come check it out, they would immediately shut it off. I worried about it all day, wondering how in the world I was going to replace my furnace (however, in the back of my mind I had to remind myself that he is indeed in the "heating" business). Later that night, I went downstairs only to find more water. Are you kidding me? We called the guy back, luckily, this time Jon was home. After he fixed what he needed to, Jon asked him about the furnace. It's really amazing how the woman of the house is treated much different than the man. Let's just say we are not getting a new furnace, nor are we in any real immediate danger.



Saturday:


Jon got a nasty case of Strep leaving him completely out of commission.

We also found out that Jon's grandma had just been life flighted after suffering from a severe heart attack. She is still in the recovery stage right now.



Sunday:


I took the boys to church while Jon stayed home sick. When we returned home, there was a plumbing truck behind our house. As I drove down the street I was praying he was not at our house. No such luck...and apparently they had been there for a few hours, so poor Jon had to deal with it while he was feeling horrible. After working all day Sunday trying to break through the clog and scoping the line, they finally concluded that the sewer line outside was broken. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do at that point, so they scheduled to come back in the morning (mlk day) to locate the exact spot of the break. In the meantime, we were left without full access to water, a mess in the basement, and another nasty plumbing bill (there went my OTHER arm).

They came back on Monday, located the break (luckily it was in the best spot possible. No digging up roads, or patios, or driveways, or even our newly installed sprinkling system. Oh happy day.), dug an eight-foot-deep-hole, fixed the line (which wasn't even broken after all, just had huge roots growing through it. Go figure.), gave us another HUGE bill (there went my other leg, and almost every other body part. I must look pretty bad, huh?). But hey, we have water, and a clean sewer line...if that's even possible.



Tuesday:
Wondering if Will had an ear infection, I decided to take him to the doctor. I also wanted to have Ethan's eczema checked out. Because neither of the boys seemed sick or bothered by anything and me not wanting to be an over-protective mom, I almost canceled the appointment. But in the end, I figured it was better to be safe. Turns out that the seemingly healthy Ethan and Will have strep throat and a ruptured ear drum, respectively. Hmm, who knew?



It's been an interesting week.

snow, snow, go away...

900 square feet*, 12 hours of Disney and PBS, no car, and two ultra curious climbers. Enough said.



*Today Ethan felt like the house was so small that he tried pushing on the walls to make the house bigger. Unfortunately, it didn't work.