Cousins Day

Hunter and Evie came over yesterday to play.

Since I know their Mom worries about them so much,

I thought I would do a blog post to show her

how very content they are at their cousins' house.

 

We had apples and cheese for a snack.

Jesse and Hunter were too busy playing.

They played for hours and I didn't see them for a loooong time.

The kids huddled around the heater.
I can see Rachel's face now, brows furrowed, mouth open in shock.  
If there is one thing Rachel can't stand it's a cold house.

We had leftover lasagna and peas for lunch.

Then we had smarties.

See?? We have treats at my house, too.

(The other thing Rachel can't stand is a house with no treats...)

 

This was the part Rachel was most worried about. After lunch we went for a walk to take Jesse to school. But it went off without a hitch if you can believe it. Hunter was always in the front leading the way. Jesse followed close behind. The BEST part was Evie, imagine this tiny little girl keeping up with us like a champ. Sometimes she ran, mostly she just walked fast. But she was happy happy happy the whole time. Breanna, on the other hand. She doesn't hurry for anyone or anything. Period.

Here are Jesse and Hunter jumping.

I don't know why they were jumping.

Hunter changed his shirt 5 times while he was at our house.

He came with two shirts on.

 When the first got wet he took it off.

When that got wet he borrowed one from Jesse

 and when that got wet, he put his old (now dry) shirt on.

But when that got wet, he put on the Superman shirt and that is what he was wearing

when he left.

See, Rachel?
 See how perfectly happy she is, just to be at her Aunt Sarah's house?

Then I made supper. The kids watched TV.

Then we ate supper.

I made Salmon fishsticks and pureed sweet peas and butternut squash fries.

(To be fair, I didn't have very many groceries.)

 But Hunter took one bite of the peas and said "Blech. Blech."

And did so until he left.

HAHA. Sorry, buddy :)

So, the moral of this story is, bring your kids back soon, I promise we won't get swine flu! :)

Sarah

I'm Awesome

My house is always clean. 


My kids and I are always dressed and presentable by 8am. I never get mad at my kids. Why would I, they're always delightful. 
Oh, and my marriage is perfect, too. 

This Princess

This little princess's world has changed somewhat in the last few weeks.

   

(Yes? Hm? Can I help you?)

She's gotten bigger. I know because when Daddy lays her down to rock her and sing to her she says emphatically "Dad, I'm NOT a baby!" She points at the moon and says "look Mom, a sliver moon!" And she's right, and I don't remember teaching her that. She sings "I am a Child of God" almost all the way through. She knows all her colors. She puts on her own pants and can almost put on her coat. She takes off all her clothes and when I ask why she says "I like being naked, Mommy!"Yes, she has gotten bigger.

And that means Brad and I have had to start to discipline her.

Oh how I wish I could just kiss her little lips and poke her little tummy and hear her little giggle and feel her little head resting on my shoulder forever and ever, just love her like that forever.

But then I wouldn't be doing my job.

 So, now, if she's not helping pick up toys she has to sit in a chair all by herself. If she whines I have to ignore her and say "talk nicely, Breanna!" If she won't eat her supper she can't have a glass of milk or a banana. And when she purposely spills her water all over the floor and Brad, (who I have never heard raise his voice to her or get mad at her in any way), yells "HEY!" really loud...

I take her aside and whisper, Breanna, go tell Daddy you're just a little girl.

And she does. With a tiny little, heartbroken pout to accompany it.

Yes, she is getting bigger. And I must say wiser. Because now every time I discipline her she cries helplessly in her teeny tiny voice with her teeny tiny little pout:

"But MOM! I'm just a little girl!"

And my heart just aches.

I'm on a Diet

Every once in a while I treat myself to a workout at the Talisman Centre because my favorite instructor Margaret teaches an intense class there. Part of the reason I go is for her little tidbits of motivation.

This was today's:

"Someone sent me an email asking me if she could get slim in 14 days. With a magic pill.  I told her, keep your hard-earned money. Do what you know works. Put one foot in front of the other. I call it the head up, eyes forward diet. The breathe on the body in front of you diet. The run faster, jump higher, work harder diet. Do what works. You don't need to starve yourself. You don't need to eat some strange food. You need to get your heart pumping and your body moving."

You don't know me Margaret, but I'm the girl with the red sweaty face kicking butt in the back row for 7 years now :)

The Date

Yes, I realize I said "magical" 5 times in my last post. But magic it was!

The Place on a windy evening.

The Handsome Date and my favorite person and best friend in the world

The Buffalo Head above the Fireplace

The Food. Ooooooooh it was amazing. Whew! Mmmmmmm....and everything in between.

The Coat Room...and....the....coat....(Rachel!!!)

Exploring the old mansion

The Play is about to begin

Fiddler on the Roof was awesome. Mom I wish I could say it wasn't everything you could ever hope for in entertainment so you wouldn't wish you could be there. But it was! I laughed, I cried, (really I did, lots. Brad didn't notice so hopefully no one else did) I thought about life and progress and faith. I laughed some more. It was beautiful to look at and listen to. The dancing was fantastic, the music was uplifting, the acting superb....everything was great. I wish I had more pictures but they wouldn't let you take pictures in the theater. I snuck one and if they would have asked I would have said I didn't know :)

The Kiss

The Chronicles of Sarah-land

I've been up to the regular things. Making snowmen, going sledding, playing  with my kids, cleaning the house, changing diapers, worrying about what people are saying behind my back, making suppers, reading books, exercising. But tonight- is not- going to be a regular night!

Below is a picture I had Brad take of me the other day when we went for a run together down into Fish Creek Park. Why did I have Brad take a picture of me in the dark in front of a mysterious building in Fish Creek Park?

Because every time I run past this magical looking place, called The Ranche, I long to go in. When it's dark and I'm on a run and I haven't seen a soul and I'm cold and tired, the warmth of this place sparks my imagination just enough to make me think I'm in some kind of  magical world. Narnia-ish.

Call me strange, but I've been a very imaginative girl since I looked like this:

Just ask my Mom.

  Anyway, I've been waiting for a special occasion to go to this restaurant. Which brings me to my next point. The special occasion has arrived!

My Mom, (who is not just the best Mom in the world, but is also the best person in the world-but that's another story), gave my husband and I tickets to see the musical...

Fiddler on the Roof

I am so excited, because tonight, we are getting a babysitter, leaving at 4:30, and we are going to have a magical night in a magical world. My kids and I have been listening to the soundtrack for Fiddler on the Roof for days in anticipation.  I'm going to (shamelessly) take pictures, although I don't know who's going to take them. Random strangers? Our waiter, perhaps? 

Meet you in the real world tomorrow morning!

"And now" cried Mom...

"...let the wild rumpus start!"

Sweet?

Brad: I think...if I could hang out with anyone....

like anyone, even a hot supermodel, like, super hot. The hottest supermodel in the world, ..."

Pause.

Pause.

Pause.

Me: Oh great. Now all you can think about is the hottest supermodel in the world. (walking away)

Brad: No. No. No. If I could hang out with anyone in the world, I would hang out with YOU!

When you're happy.

Awwwww!...well...

Sneetches

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's....

A Cool Group.

In crowd, popular group. whatever.

Last summer I saw it manifest in a group of 12 and 13 year old girls at a church girl's camp. They stood in circles the whole weekend, dressed the same, and gave fake smiles whenever you caught them looking you up and down.   It made the whole thing so totally un-fun for everyone else, because of course if you're 12, you care. And if you absolutely adore the 12 and 13 year olds who are being left out (as I do)...you care.

Why do I bring this up? Because today I saw it happen with a couple of 4 year old boys. Jesse was so excited to see his "friends." But they left Jesse out the entire time, ran away from him, ignored him- even though he was trying so hard to play with them. Jesse always had to be the bad guy even though he hates to be the bad guy. They even sat together and whispered secrets to each other at the lunch table-while looking right at Jesse- and wouldn't let Jesse hear the secrets. Okay, so they are four.  But  why don't you just put your hand down my throat, rip out my bleeding heart and let me slowly die as I watch? Hm. That got a bit out of control. But seriously, it was a bit painful sitting there with my dear friends watching this go on and having to bite my tongue and smile and pretend to ignore it.

I see it everywhere with adults, too. Gossiping. Judging. Ostracizing. Even outright pointing and laughing.

I wish we could all just be nice to each other. And I wish I was a big enough person to always love everyone, even people who aren't nice.

What do you think? Any tips? I would love to hear your thoughts! :)

A Whole Lot of Yah

Nurse: The test came back..... positive for strep throat

Me: Really? Oh, thank goodness! I'm so glad.

It's nice to know I'm not just making up excuses. I felt like crap for a reason....

Brrrrraaaaaaadd!! :)

And I so love modern medicine for making me better in one day so I could work out finally and get my house clean after the Christmas-slash-house-painting mess of the last couple weeks. I've also been getting more sunlight, taking vitamins, eating less sugar and going to bed earlier in my attempts to self-heal before I knew what it was. So there's the silver lining.

In other news, we are all geared up for the Olympics next month! (thanks to my mother-in-law)

GO CANADA!

Working Hard

Brad painted our entire basement the other day. Jesse helped. He is sooo proud of the wall he painted. (The green looks way better in real life)

Lots of Blah.

I grabbed this book, A Most Wanted Man, off the bookshelf spontaneously and just finished wasting several hours of my life reading it. Yawn! Oh my goodness, I could have cared less about the characters in this book. And it used too many big words and there was not a second of gripping suspense. Someone, please, recommend a good suspense/mystery/spy novel to me, and remind me never to "guess" that a book might be good again.

Also, I feel miserable. Tired, depressed and awful. I waited 4 hours to get my blood tested today and no, I don't have mono or low iron. Maybe I am not getting enough sunlight? Too much sugar, perhaps?