The Inexpensive Road to Self-Discovery

Today was the "Favorite Things" send off. Susan if you see this- don't read it! ;)

I've been looking around my house, racking my memories, taking extra long at the grocery store, and reading old journal entries, trying to figure out what the heck are my favorite things. The catch- they have to be things I can put in a box and mail to someone.

August 28th: Hoping to have original, creative, maybe even exotic and impressive favorites that I can wow my swap partner with. By September 22nd: I had realized I can't afford jewelry or vacation tickets, and settled for quirky and well-intended.

The results of a kind of disappointing scavenger hunt- a list of my favorite things (that I can put in a box) in the order I thought of them:

1, 2, 3 and 4) Chocolate. Very boxable. Very favorite. I couldn't decide which was my absolute favorite, though.

5) A little book of Mad Libs- for the nerd in us all. No- really, because I remember them helping me remember sentence structure, and one of my favorite things right now is home-educational tools, especially those disguised as games. An odd materialization of this particular joy in my life- maybe. We tried one at home, and laughed at least as much as we groaned. I highly recommend doing at least a few with your spouse. Nothing like a little word disassociation to shed some light on that weirdo. "I love our computer lab at school. It's so fuzzy! Every morning after navel class, our teacher George Clooney takes us to the lab so we can work on cool projects like finding out what flying squirrels eat for breakfast."

6) A book of Sudoku puzzles. Before I even heard of these I was most enthusiastic about the video game my brother let me try, "Brain Age." It felt great to stretch my deteriorating brain muscles, turned almost completely off since college, (to which Zach will quickly attest after my most recent brain fart. "Why don't you guys borrow our space heater?" offered as a solution to the chilly mornings without power. Yeah.) Anyway. One of my favorite things is not being stupid, so Sudoku went into the box.

7) A Secret Platinum- Vanilla Chai. Yes. Anti-perspirant. After much deliberation I realized I love it when someone (in my family) says I have a scent. One of my favorite things is being all nice and clean (you don't savor it as much until regular showering is prevented and replaced by regular feedings, do you) and my honey saying I smell so good. He likes his sweetheart smelling like food. I also love it when ordinary, humdrum things we have to deal with every day come in sparkly packages- (see "deteriorated brain.")

8) "Better than Bouillon." The best kept secret of Molly Mormon. Thanks to one of the most incredible ladies in the world, who came to help when the babies were born, I know the secret to the perfect pot roast. After seeing my amazement when she described how to cook a pot roast, she took pity on my ignorant self, went to the store, bought me my own jar, and some oven bags. We had just bought a new jar, but when I went to get one for my swap partner, they were on sale! I didn't know they had chicken, too?! We are well-stocked on bouillon. One of my favorite things is finally getting that durn recipe right. This stuff is like the magic you stick in, so the dinner makes itself. Please nobody tell me the magic is fat and salt.

9) Last, but not least, Burt's Bees Lip Balm. This covered a few of my latest favorites. I just read "The Secret Life of Bees," and have inducted it into my bookcase of fame. I also love the whole Bee-line. (hee hee.) I'm not proud of it, but the lip balm is not my favorite Burt product. It was just the cheapest. So I abandoned "quality" and went for "quantity." Now you know.

My point? No point, really. I'm just hoping to hear what everyone would put in their favorite things box.

Lucky Pocket

So, after a really bad wind last night, I guess 2 million homes and businesses in Ohio didn't have power today. We did. How nice.

My VT came to check on me. I checked on the people I visit teach. Is that our ward's emergency situation plan? It seems like it should work. But how would I have contacted them if I hadn't had a phone or car?

We only know two of our neighbors. (We only have two actual "neighbors"- tons of the houses around here are foreclosed on and empty.)

I've got an appointment to go do food storage in a few weeks. We're using up the stuff we got for Christmas a few years ago. Some of it past the expired date already, but it's still good.

We keep getting wake up calls and finding ourselves generally unprepared for an emergency longer than a few days.

Mimi's Big Day

I spent four times the hours on this cake than I did on labor with the kid it was for. And it self-destructed twenty minutes after the party started. I can't believe I didn't get an "after" shot. (We were kind of busy. Eating it.)



Zach did a good job decorating, cleaning, and keeping the babies out of the kitchen. (Thanks again, honey.)



She had a good day. Her Princess Party started at 11:00ish. First, Princess primping. All the girls got to put on makeup. I knew I carted those Costco makeup samples around three moves for a reason. Yet one more argument for the pack rat in me. Mia liked the lipstick. Didn't like it when Mom started "helping."

We put a Princess tiara on every female in the room, and probably would have let the two daddies present join in the fun had we had any more. Tough luck, guys. Maybe next time. Hey- quit complaining, at least you got to give your daughter a makeover.

Played "Pin the Princess to the castle," (I have no idea what the game is called) where everyone got a chance to stick a Cinderella sticker in the vacant castle window while blindfolded. It was the only decoration up this morning when Mia came downstairs. She was so enthralled. "Looooook! It's my Princesses!" and she named all six. Then she turned to me and said "Thank you for putting this up while I was asleep, Mommy!" She stared at it, probably the least interesting thing I knew was in store for her today, for a good five minutes, thanking me over and over.

Then we had The Royal Lunch. My favorite chicken salad sandwiches that Zach's mom makes for special stuff. On croissants. Yummy. Some of the older princesses were very brave and tried them, but most of the kids, including Princess Mia, ended up with PB&J.

Then we ate the cake. There's something different about deconstructing a cake to eat it, and eating a cake that has already self-destructed. I felt pretty bad about serving our Royal Guests from the pile of chocolate, lemon, party sprinkle cake castle and toppled rice crispy treat towers. At least everything was fresh.

We opened some of the most awesome presents I've ever seen at a birthday party. Mrs. Potato head, Belle the doll, a Princess pillow, nifty little block set that is really a little house, an incredible art lap-desk complete with princess coloring book, stickers and coloring utencils, another Princess sticker/coloring book (thank goodness- she goes through those books like candy,) a dress-up kit with high heels and jewelry (no more pathetic imaginary dress-up! Yaaaay!) and last but not least- glow sticks. She and the babies were in heaven playing with every single present for the rest of the afternoon. Hobbling around on heels, glow sticks in the bathroom. They were very busy.

After presents everyone was getting a little too close to breaking into song and talking to mice, so our guests headed home.

As the day progressed, the surprises and presents got better and better, and Mia's reactions got smaller and smaller. So much for saving the best for last. By the time we got around to video calls with grandparents, Mia was pretty tired. She opened a cute gift and immediately said "Let's open another one!" I think she was overwhelmed, and was trying to get it over with. Maybe we'll put everything back in the gift bags for her to re-discover tomorrow.

One thing's for sure- we're set for clothes for another year. Yaaaay for Grandmas with Costco memberships! ;)

Thank you to everyone who came, and everyone who contributed to making this such a special, happy day.

Happy Birthday, Mimi

Last night at 11:40 I was in Mia's room watching her sleep and thinking, "Three years ago exactly, I was in an elevator throwing up." Mia was born at 1:33 am. (Not in the elevator.)

More Miminess:

Mia stubbed her toe: "Oww!"
"You stub your toe, baby?"
"Yeah. My foot huwts. I need to go to the store to get a new one."
"Do they sell feet at the store?"
"Yes. And I'm going to drive there by myself! Bye, Mom! I'm going to the stoore.... to get a new fooot!"

She see's a Blue's Clues notebook. "Look!!! It's a handy dandy!"
The first time she saw a question mark: "Look!! A clue!"

Anya swiped her tortilla. "Mom! Anya's eating my diarrhea!"

The clock changes from 7:59 to 8:00 (bedtime.) "Oh deeeaw. It's 8 o'cwock. But it's okay, that 8 is a nice guy, he won't huwt us."

Heard from upstairs: Mia rallying the twins, "C'mon, guys! Let's wock and woll!" followed by exuberant Playschool xylophone playing.

Comprehension check after reading the kid's version of the story of "Legion."
"So then what happened, Mia?"
"Jesus saw the pigs and they said, 'Hello! What's your name?' and he said, 'Jesus. Go away.'"

The next day after reading the story of Jesus and Peter walking on the water:
"Who walked on the water, Mia?"
"Jesus!"
"And who else?"
"The pigs!"

Exasperated: "Mia, you can't keep doing this (stalling) at bedtime. Who do you like to put you to bed, nice mommy or mean mommy??"
"I like Daddy."
Zach cracks up in the next room.

"I loooove dip!" (Warm V8 we dip grilled cheese in) "I want to drink it!"
"Okay, Mia! Can you eat two bites of sandwich first?"
"How 'bout fiiiive bites?!"
"Uh- okay."

Four hours 'til our princess party. Happy Birthday, Your Highness!! We love you!