I DID IT!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, March 29, 2006, I wrote this here on my blog:

I have a dream to become a Child Passenger Safety Expert. I love learning about this, especially about carseats. I spend a lot of time researching and reading about them and take pride in knowing how to install and use carseats correctly. Did you know that 80-95% of carseats are used incorrectly? Even a properly installed carseat won't work if the child isn't in the seat correctly. Also, a child who is in a seat correctly won't be fully protected if the carseat isn't installed correctly. I am passionate about my children being as safe as possible. I pay attention to carseats. I pay attention to how people use them, how children are harnessed in them, and to how the carseats work.

Dream fulfilled!! I am now a Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician! Four days of training behind me and I completed my first carseat safety check yesterday. I had a blast and four kids in my city are now safer because I helped their moms secure the seat and the child properly and safely.

One of my instructors is a Police Officer in my city. He has asked me to volunteer doing checks at my local Police Department. I am very excited and I am so happy that I have finally done this. As silly as it may sound, I feel like this is part of my calling in life.

Look for future blogs with carseat safety tips and features!

~Constant Gardener & Carseat Technician

the time has come...

...for this mom of a certain Little Boy to start checking pockets on laundry day.

Marbles, wood chips, rocks, coins, nails, beads, foam, and crayons have made their way into my washing machine hitchhiking in Little Boy's pockets. I'm starting a collection and refuse to empty it because it makes me smile every time I do the wash. I'm just adding to it and maybe I'll take another picture in a couple months.

I'm just grateful that dark crayon didn't make it into the dryer.

evidence i'm a terrible mother...

It is 60 degrees outside and very windy and my almost-two-year-old daughter is playing outside.





Naked. So much for modesty. Or warmth.

wouldn't it be nice?

Wouldn't it be nice if life were easy? Wouldn't it be nice if choices were easy to make? Wouldn't it be nice if every choice we made had no negative consequences? Wouldn't it be nice?

Life isn't easy, choices aren't easy to make, and every choice has it's pros and cons.

I wrote a post on May 1st all about making choices. There was a story behind the post, but one I couldn't share yet. The way I described feeling in that post is the way I have felt all summer long as we have had to make choices regarding employment and where we live. Steve was approached twice by others in his company about considering a new position within the company. The pay would be good, but we'd have to move to Arkansas. Thanks, but no thanks he told them. The third time he was approached it was by a Vice President in the company. Saying No to him didn't seem like a good thing to do, so he said he'd consider it. I was thinking about it and suddenly felt like God was saying to me "I'm trying to give you something here, but I can't force you to accept it. What more do you want me to do?" Sobbing like a baby, I told Steve we should consider it seriously. This is the right thing to do I told him. We made a trip to Arkansas, found a beautiful house, and sat back to wait for the offer. It didn't come and didn't come and didn't come. Finally, Steve's boss approached him and said that it hadn't come through because he asked them to hold it. He had another position he wanted Steve to consider. This position is the one Steve has been working towards and the one that he really wants. We put Arkansas aside and headed to Arizona. While Arizona is a great place and has it's own kind of beauty, we definitely weren't in Boise anymore, Toto.

We have only lived in Boise for 2 1/2 years, but it feels like home. Neither of us have family here and we are both far from our first homes, but we love it. We had hoped to spend a very long time here. The friends we have both made here and reconnected with here mean so much to us and I'm scared that I'll lose them. Just the idea of us moving I feel has pushed a couple of them away. I don't blame them---Why spend a lot of effort cultivating a friendship with someone who will be leaving soon? But it still hurts and I miss them. Maybe I've done some pushing away too. Maybe it won't hurt so much to leave if we aren't that close anyway.

Sometime after the New Year, we will be packing up our family and head South to in the desert among the cactus, scorpions, and rock landscaping. But for now, I'm not going thinking about it. It's not happening. Maybe in January I'll think about it again. Maybe. If I have to. But I don't to. Wouldn't it be nice if I didn't have to?

:(

It's September 16th and I had to turn on my heater this morning. This is so uncool.

happy, sad, and everything in between

Where have I been!? I can't believe it's really been pretty MIA for a week. But I have a good excuse...

Do you remember Mandy? She came to visit me! She brought her adorable baby boy, Special K, with her and made me all kinds of happy! We had a great visit that went completely too fast and ended entirely too soon. As I dropped her off at the airport this morning and hugged and kissed that sweet baby boy I became so sad. We live so far apart and I don't know when we will see each other next.

I thought that at the end of 5 days of being together she'd be sick of me and my kids and that she'd be itching to get out of here. I thought that I'd be ready to get back to normal (as I always am when company leaves). Neither proved true. While she did want to get home to see her husband, she wasn't ready to leave and I didn't want her to leave!

I'm so grateful that she was able to come out here. It was so fun and exciting to see each other on a new level. We've been fun and irresponsible college kids together. Now we got to see each other as wives, mothers, and women. It was eye-opening, a bit surreal, and so wonderful!

The connection that Mandy and I have never ceases to amaze me. It's like we can read each other's thoughts. It's sappy, I know, but I have no doubt that Mandy and I knew each other at some other point in time and were meant to meet and be friends at this time.

I completely fell in love with her little 9-month-old son! Check out the cuteness of this kid:

He the most sweet and loving baby! I miss him already. I kept telling Mandy that she could just leave him with me, but for some reason she wanted to keep him around.

In other news...A few of you asked to see the paint in Little Sister's room...here you go!

I can't figure out what those two reflections are (the round one and the square one)...but I couldn't get a picture without them!

no points awarded

When I tell you what the red cup taped to the window is you're going to say "Oh, duh!" I did when Little Boy said, "Mom, it's a siren on the police car!" Looks just like one, don't ya think?

late night ramblings

Having friends who blog is usually really fun. But, it's a bit of a nuisance when something really funny happens and you think "Oh I should blog about this!" just as your friend says "I'm totally blogging this." If you dare mention blogging about it yourself, she will look at you like this:

She totally scares me, so I'm not going to blog about it. You'll have to check out her blog to hear the funny story.

Today was the first day of preschool. Sad mom? NO WAY! I am thrilled to have someone else listen to Little Boy's incessant talking and answer his five-billion questions for 6 hours a week! He was more than a little excited in his new school clothes that are too big and his new Nemo backpack. I couldn't get him to stop dancing and act normal for the picture, so this is what you get:Who the heck sizes kid's clothing anyway? Size 5T fits him perfectly, but I don't want his new clothes to fit him perfectly. If they fit perfectly now, they will fit very imperfectly in two months. I want a little big, not looking-like-an-orphan-drowning-in-my-clothes big. So the next size? Kids 4/5. Huge. Apparently kids are supposed to hit a huge growth spurt between those sizes. Little boy didn't get the memo.

I painted Little Sister's room over Labor Day weekend. It looks fabulous, but it doesn't smell very fabulous. The paint smell is overwhelming. I've had a fan on and the window open for days now and it still smells toxic when I open her door in the morning (and it's not just her diaper). I've tried Febreze and air freshener and now it just smells like citrus paint. Any tips here?

This Febreze air freshener? Lovely. Just not mixed with paint stink.

This painting tool? Incredible. We are now very good friends and may take on more new and exciting projects together.

Little Boy has been redecorating again. This is our new window treatment: You get 10 points if you can guess what it's supposed to be, specifically, the red cup taped to the window. No guessing, Emily, I already told you.

invasion of the brothers

Little Boy insists that he has brothers. If you ever wondered if children really do have imaginary friends, wonder no more, because Little Boy has three real live imaginary friends. They live in a striped monster truck in the mountains. They have red hair and red eyes. They are big kids. "You know mom, 6 year olds." Their names? Little Boy never tells me out loud, but writes them down. Sometimes their names are AWNTYNOPA and other times it's more like GHCDHOEGYAHIODTY. I think they're from a lost tribe in South America.

I normally encourage such creativity, but Little Boy's brothers are becoming a nuisance. Apparently, their mom lets them do and have whatever they want and they a bad influence on Little Boy. I don't know how my 4-year-old learned to be passive aggressive, but he uses his brothers to be just that.

Me: Don't jump on the couches, please.
Little Boy: My brothers can jump on their couches.

Me: Eat your green beans, please.
Little Boy: My brothers don't have to eat their green beans.

You get the idea.

When Little Boy started his Brother-Style-Arguing on other adults (my awesome friend Emily who was babysitting for me), well, that was just embarrassing.

Emily: Don't lean back in your chair, please.
Little Boy: My brothers can lean back their chairs.
Emily: Well, you can't because the chair could fall and you could get hurt.
Little Boy: My brothers have really cool chairs that don't fall over so they can lean back in their chairs.

When the Brother-Technique fails to work, he moves on to other tactics:

Me: You need a haircut.
Little Boy: I don't want a haircut!
Me: Well, you have to have one. Your hair is getting way too long.
Little Boy: My brothers don't have to have haircuts.
Me: I don't care what your brothers don't have to do. You are my little boy and you have to have a hair cut.
Little Boy: Well I don't want to be a boy anymore. I want to be a girl.

Perhaps the Brothers are the least of my concerns.