Pain in the...

I have a horrible pain in the knee. How did I injure it you ask? Did I try to run a 5K. Was I hiking. Was I running to save a little puppy that was about to get run over? No ! I did it by kneeling down to help Griffen go to bed. I even said a prayer. So basically I hurt my knee praying. How old and decrepit do you have to be to injure your knee praying.
Being out of shape and old is really a pain in the butt. I swear that everyday I find a new joint that hurts. I feel like I am in my eighties and not my thirties. I sound like a little grandma saying oi my aching back my aching knee.
My new favorite hobby is to explain to the girls in my young womens all the lovely things they have to look forward to with getting older. Like finding random whiskers on your chin or realizing that what you wore in high school is hip again because it is now considered retro. My favorite is how many moles and skin tags I am growing. On top of that I have more pimples now then I did when I was a teenager. What the heck is up with that. I have noticed that as far as a metabolism I have none. If I look at food I gain weight.
I hoping that when I hit my forties I will discover the fabulous forties are the new twenties. Oh lets hope. Otherwise I will be driving around in my jazzy moaning oh my aching body.

Any Ideas

So how do you teach a 3 year old to listen? Because I am really not succeeding in that area. I have tried rewards, time outs, and even an occasional spanking. We have been trying and trying to teach Griff not to hit. We tried time outs and now I tell him if he hits me I will hit back which seems to be helping a little but I am not such a fan of that method. I know being consistent is the key but ugh that key sure takes a long time to work.

Thanksgiving

The funny thing about Thanksgiving for me it becomes a day to remember the good old times. It is a day when I think back on the Thanksgivings of my childhood. In some was it is a day I grieve the inevitable changes of life brings.
This Thanksgiving I have been thinking a lot about my extended family. And all the big parties we used to have. Eric and I were talking about how when we were kids we looked forward to Thanksgiving but now not as much. I started thinking about why I loved Thanksgiving when I was a kid but as an adult it kind of makes me sad.
When I was a kid we used to go to my Grandma Gygi's house for Thanksgiving. I loved Grandma's house. My Grandma had 10 kids and a gazillion grandkids. Needless to say the house was crowded. I remember it always getting really hot. I don't know how we all fit in the house. I do know that I loved it. I loved playing with my cousins and watching my aunts put the final touches on the food. I loved watching my Grandpa skillfully carve the turkey. My Grandparents were farmers and several years they had raised the turkeys we ate. One time we ate one of their geese. Holy crap that thing was good. And well when it was a live it was mean so the vindictive side of me loved the fact that the little buggar was part of my dinner. My Grandpa always seemed to be very proud of the get together. I think he loved being able to have all of his children around him and to be able to provide for them. Grandpa wasn't a big talker but he was a big influence on all of us. My Grandma is one of my favorite people in the whole world. She used to babysit me a lot and I loved talking with her. For some reason everything was better at Grandma's house even pb&j tasted gourmet when Grandma made it.
Eventually the family got too big to have Thanksgiving at their house. And then Grandma and Grandpa had to sell their home and then the year I got married Grandpa passed away. Grandma isn't well and doesn't really know who we are anymore. She has had such a huge impact on all of us. I often think of all the wonderful times at my Grandparents' home. When I am really stressed I have dreams of being back there and I wake up calm. I am so grateful for my Grandparents and the memories I have of them. I am so grateful for my amazing aunts and uncles who have taught me so much. I really have been blessed to have so many incredible people in my family to love and support me. I think God knew that I was going to need extra help so he sent me a huge extended family and wonderful friends to surround me.
I miss what my family used to be. I miss the family members we have lost. I miss being crowded into a small house that was full of great food and great people. But with all change there good and bad . I am so grateful that I get to watch my son enjoy going to his grandparents homes and enjoy playing with his cousins and creating memories that as an adult he will look back on and be grateful for.

Resolutions

I won my 4th set of tickets from the radio last week. I went to see Kate Nash. I went to a Meet and Greet and I had my picture taken. I got all dressed up in what I thought was my hippest outfit. I thought ok I am looking good. So I just saw the pictures. Hmm can you say Jabba the hut in plaid. Holy crap what a rude awaking. Photos are a very mean reality check. So I decided that I need to make some new years resolutions. I started thinking about past years resolutions and how I never succeed at keeping them so I am taking a new approach this year. The child psychology approach. My first resolution is to not lose weight. My second is to be a less patient mother and wife. Third is to be more judgemental. Fourth is to be less helpful to friends and family. Fifth is to read less. And last I am going to blog more.
I really think this is a win win sort of idea. If I fail at my resolutions then I accomplish some good things. If a succeed then I have finally succeeded at following through with my resolutions.

I Was a Much Better Mom, Before I Had a Child

I think I was a much better mother before I had a kid. It seemed so simple. You just teach them whats right and then everything is perfect, right. Uhm nope. They come packaged with personalities, tempers, and that pesky free agency. Granted at 3 my child isn't really exploring much of his free agency...yet. I was thinking about the difference between the theory of child rearing and the actual application. See in theory I was never going to yell at my child because I wouldn't want to lower his self esteem. In theory I was only going to serve him healthy food and avoid that evil fast food and junk food trap. In theory I was never going to use TV or DVDs to distract my child. I was going to take ever opportunity to teach him all the things he needs to know to be a happy well adjusted child. In theory I was going to be patient and peaceful and be the mother equivilant of Budda.

In practice some days are full of McDonalds, PBS and Nick Jr., and me trying not to lose that last shred of sanity I cling to. And yep there is yelling. Often you will hear such phrases as, stop jumping on that, don't touch that, Argh stop climbing on me, get that out of your mouth, and stop putting your feet on my head. Yep theory and practice are two very different things.

I was thinking about the difference between the great mother I was as a childless woman and the adequate to below average mother I am now. At my child's gym the other day this woman had brought her niece to my son's class. It seemed no matter where little G and I went she was right there telling me what I should be doing with my son. Actually most of the time she didn't even seem to notice me she just followed Griff around telling him what he was doing wrong and what he should be doing. I have to admit that it took everything I had not the knock the witch out. But I still believe hitting others in front of your child isn't the best way to teach them to be kind. Luckily that theory stuck because I would have liked practicing some kick boxing on her *ss.

In the short amount of time I have been a mother I have been surprised by how many people are willing to share their opinions on how you should raise your child. From strangers at the store to well intentioned women at church or even preschool teachers I have been given ample advice as to how to raise my son. Funny thing is when I ask friends that I admire or family I usually get something along the lines of I don't know, I guess you just do the best that you can do.

So that is my rant of the day. Basically opinions are like butt holes and I don't want to smell strangers butt holes.

T-Shirt contest

So I entered this t-shirt contest on Sugardoodle.net and I didn't win. I was a little disappointed but then I got an email from the t-shirt company and they want to make my design even though I didn't win. Which is kind of cool. I wont get money like the winner but I will get my t-shirt made. The other cool thing is that I can use the whole experience as one of my value projects toward my personal progress. I am so excited that they let leaders earn another medallion. I think the new ones are so pretty. No I just have to read the Book of Mormon. That is going be a bit harder. It is so hard to read scriptures. I wish you could just watch the movie or buy the cliff notes :)

I am back..maybe

I haven't written forever. I always plan on writing but then I want to add pictures and other fun stuff and that gets a little overwhelming.
Man today has be rough. It actually started last night. I went to New Beginnings which was wonderful but it was during the academy awards which was soo wrong. I mean the Academy Awards people!! Forget the Superbowl the Oscars are where it is at for me. But I was trying to be responsible and I went to New Beginnings instead. Luckily I have a dvr so I recorded it. Unluckily the dvr quit when the awards were supposed to be over instead of when they were really over. I missed the Best Actor, Actress, Director, and Film. Only the 4 most important awards. Ugh!
So this morning I woke up to the reality that yesterday I lost a design contest, missed the academy awards, neglected my family, missed my sons bedtime and basically just sucked at about everything I touched. So I took Griff to his little gym class today and well all heck broke out. See Griff is finally getting his 2 year old molars and they are coming in with a vengeance. He is ornery, I am ornery and the combination is deadly. So after multiple warnings that if he didn't start behaving, stop pulling hair/screaming/ and disobeying that we would go home, we went home. It broke my heart he was so sad and cried and cried. I almost gave in and went back in but I don't want to raise a brat and I think you are supposed to stick to your guns on these things. I don't know. Now I wonder what I should do it those situation.
So the morale to this story is that being a responsible adult and parent sucks sometimes.

Party Time

I am throwing a big family Bday party for Griff this weekend so hopefully I will have some pictures to post. I tell you what, he is only 2 and I am already going crazy with his parties. I am trying to do a Curious George theme. Not the easiest theme because there isn't hardly anything out there. I have checked everywhere for a Curious George cake and no one has one or even a cake pan. I finally got smart and looked up cake toppers online and found one that was $3 of course it was another $15 to ship and I am getting too close to the deadline so I am going to make one. The fact that I am making the cake is hillarious because I don't decorate cakes. I suck with frosting. But it should be an interesting endeavor.
I just got back from Costco and Harmons and I do not recommend going there the Thursday before Memorial Day. It was a mad house. So here's praying that we all survive the weekend :)

Birthdays

When I was 3 I think I wanted a doll. When I was 13 I wanted guess shorts. When I was 23 I wanted jewelery. Now that I am 33 I want a nap and a clean house. It is funny how the decades change you.

It's Potty Time

I have no idea how to potty train or when to start etc. but I have noticed that for the last couple of months Griffen tells me as soon as he has pooped. He either orders a" Clean Butt" or says " I Kucka" (sp) or he tells me "I stinky". I have tried to sit him on the toliet and he freaks out so I went to walmart on Wednesday last week and bought him a potty. He was so excited that as soon as I pulled it out of the box he sat on it, even before I put it together. On Wednesday he sat on it forever, saying " I pee pee" he didn't pee but he was excited to try. He did however fart which he was very excited about. He kept yelling " I fwarted" I should recorded how he says it because it is way cute. Then on Thursday I thought what the heck I will see if wants to sit on it again. At this stage I figure I will just let him sit on it and praise him for trying. He was excited to sit on it and he sat there forever and wouldn't get off and then I thought wow it really stinks in here. So I looked in and Holy Crap he pooped in the potty. I was so excited I called his Grandmas and his dad to tell them about it. I let Griffen tell them and he prouldly exclaimed I pooped on the potty. He didn't even want a candy as a treat calling and telling everyone was treat enough for him.

This whole experience got me thinking about how important praise and pride are. Griffen was on a potty high that whole afternoon as was I. I wonder when in life we stopped getting so excited for the little things. Why don't we jump up and exclaim "Hey I accomplished ....". I think it is because at some point in our lives some dough head or another says, "so what thats no big deal". Then we start down the horrible path of comparing ourselves to others. " Oh look what she just did, what I just did is crappy compared to that". And well I think that is a load of crap so here I am exclaiming with pride " My little boy pooped on the potty and I don't totally suck at being a mommy" :)

Quick Recap

I was watching Bones the other night and at the midway point they did this funny recap of what had happened so far in the show. I decided that is what I needed to do for this post. So since the last episode this is what has happened.
I started going to the gym at 6am. I was actually going 5 days a week for about 3 weeks. Then like the decrepit old person that I am a sneezed and threw my shoulder out. Which also made my lower back freak out. It is a bad sign when your only extreme sport is sneezing and it sidelines you for a week. After that week my little dude got sick. It was horrible. I suppose the other sport I am involved in is worrying and that week I think I won the gold. He was coughing so hard it made him puke. Sunday it was croup, Tuesday it was pneumonia , Friday it was just an ear infection, Saturday it was the antibiotics making him sick, Monday it was the antibiotics and a stomach flu. From the visit to the doctor on Friday to the one on Monday he had lost a pound from all of the vomiting. I on the other hand gained 5lbs from the week of all the worrying. See I bought a ton of different things to try to get him to eat and in the end I just ate them. After 4 visits to doctors, one panicked call to the on call doc and two blessings we finally got him back to somewhat normal. Now I am trying to get myself back to the gym. 6am is so dang early.
So here are a couple random things the Gman has started doing. He sing bitsy bitsy spider and tinkle tinkle little star. He has become excellent at spotting airplanes, helicopters and home depots. Every time we drive passed a Home Depot he yells "Home Depot , boards, nails." Eric has taken him several times. For Easter he got a orange home depot brand tool kit. As soon as he saw it he started yelling Home Depot. So I guess we are raising a very brand conscious kid. Maybe my interest in branding has warn off on him.
It is amazing the things he picks up. The other day Eric took him to a comic book store where he ran around singing the Batman theme song at. He also loves to tell everyone Thanks Hun and when he needs something he yells Eric in the same tone his mommy does when she needs something. He unfortunately has picked up a few choice words that his dad says.
I took him to the Draper Temple open house. I was worried about it because I didn't want him to freak out at the temple and start vomiting as he has been known to do. Someone in my ward told me that the spirit is so strong there that all the kids behave beautifully. Well yea not so much. Griff started yelling NO NO NO when we watched the opening video. He didn't like going around the temple. When we got to the Sealing room he tripped over a rug fell and cut his lip open. Then on the bus ride back to our car he pounded on the window and used one of his daddy's favorite words that I tried to play off as Truck. Once again I exhibited what a truly spiritual, wonderful mother I am.
I was watching Oprah the other day and they had a bunch of Mothers talking about the pitfalls of motherhood. One mother compared it to a 12 step program with the first step being taking it one hour at a time with the hopes that you can make it to bedtime and then wake up and repeat. The second step was to make amends by calling your mother and apologizing daily and thanking her for letting you live. It was nice to hear that I am not the only mother that has to attack motherhood one minute at a time with the main goal of both my child and myself getting out of the whole thing alive and unmamed.

The Gym

So I have been telling myself for months that I was going to start going to the gym. I had it all planned out I would go workout for an hour and Griffen would go to the daycare and just play and have fun and then we would go home and have a healthy lunch and he would take a nap while I did housework . The result of course would be I would get fit, Griffen would be rested, and the house would be clean. As in all my blog post reality decided to bite me in the butt, and this time it was hard.
Tuesday, I finally made the 5 minute journey to the gym. I was feeling good. My sneakers, that I have worn 3 times, were bright, shiny and cushy. Griffen was sweet and happy. He had been asking me for a ride in the car. He sings it " Ride in the car" it is cute. As soon as we got to the gym parking lot he started to cry. He has been to the gym with his dad. He usually cries a little at drop off but then quickly calms down when he sees the other kids. This time as soon as we got out of the car he started crying " Ride in the car" then he got more frantic and screamed "ride car fast" by the time we made it to the check in counter between his sobs he would moan "car". I could tell it just wasn't going to happen this time but I was meeting a friend so I started the check in process. Well actually all I did is pull out my wallet and then Griffen threw up all over me, then the diaper bag and then the floor. The lady working the daycare rolled her eyes and handed me a roll of paper towels. Service with an attitude that's a rule at the gym. Griffen at this point is hysterical and is using the death grip to climb my back as I try to clean up his morning cottage cheese with a roll of cheap paper towel. Just then my friend showed up to help. The both of us were on our knees trying to clean up when a cute young fit mother (no venom in my tone at all)decided to give me advice about how to get my child used to coming to daycare. She told me to bring him for five minutes and then ten and then twenty and that way he would get used to it. I don't see how that works when he threw up at the entrance. What do I let him puke and leave him in it for five minutes? I was confused. I don't believe that the best parenting advice is given when the person you are giving advice to is covered in puke. Finally, another employee came and said she would take care of the rest of the mess. Let me tell you a roll of cheap paper towels is not the most effective cleaning tool for vomit on carpet. So I took Griffen home. As soon as we got in the car he was fine. When we got home and cleaned up he at a healthy lunch and then took a nap. I on the other hand couldn't eat because I couldn't get the vomit smell out of my head. I didn't get the house cleaned because I was busy emptying my diaper bag and wallet and cleaning all of the contents. The next morning I woke up with a cold. So I didn't exactly reach my goals for this week. In fact I think I have found someone who hates the gym more then me and he has come up with a very effective way of communicating that . So I didn't get fit. My house is a disaster because I have been sick all week and as far as a healthy meals I have been taking shots of dayquil with OJ chasers. Griffen has napped well this week, otherwise I would probably be blogging from the insane asylum. At least I think I lost a couple of pounds from the different organs I have coughed up. And I think my abs have gotten a pretty good work out from hacking up the afore mentioned innards.

Tagged

My friend tagged me with this 7 things list and I thought it was fun so here we go.

7 Things I can Do Well
1- Brainstorm. I can come up with lots of different ideas. Implementation is another story.
2-Problem solve.
3-Talk. ( I am stealing this one from Jamie) I too can talk as y'all can tell by my lengthy posts.
4-Retain useless knowledge i.e. Did you know if you ate a Polar Bear's liver you would die. And that Worcestershire Sauce is made of anchovies and named after the town that produces the most anchovies
5-Remember what actor played which character and lines from movies.
6-I excel at making up voices for children's books
7-Waste time/ daydream.
7 Things I Can't Do
1- Stay caught up on housework.
2- Run.
3- Exercise .
4- Eat enough fruits and veggies
5- Control my whining.
6- Spell
7- Manage my time effectively
7 Things that attracted me to my husband
1- His kindness. He is one of the gentlest souls on the planet
2- He is usually an amazing listener (as long as there aren't any sporting events on)
3- He truly enjoys people and their eccentricities.
4- He is one of the smartest people I know.
5- He is non judgemental
6- He is quirky.
7- There is nothing more beautiful then his big blue eyes
7 Things I always say
1- Son of a monkey's uncle
2- Whatever. (Stealing two of Jamie's but I really do say them all the time)
3- Unacceptable!
4- Yepppp
5-Can I steal that ? ( My mom hates it when I say that)
6- I don't know
7- I love you guys
7 Things I love to eat
1-Cinnamon rolls
2-Oreo ice cream
3-cookies
4-Bread
5-Hamburgers
6-Chicken Gyro
7-High fructose corn syrup in the form of cereal
(And I wonder why I have a weight problem)
7 People I tag
I don't think there are 7 people who read this blog. So whoever.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

So like every good mommy I wanted to provide my son with a Norman Rockwell Christmas. For some reason I thought that since I am a stay at home mom now that I would be able to pull this off. I thought that somehow I would miraculously be transformed into a wonderful housekeeper and patient loving wife and mother. You know like good old June Cleaver. Well part of my plan for the perfect Christmas was to send out perfect Christmas Cards. I decided I needed to get Griff's 18 month pictures done so I might as well get family pictures done that could be turned in to a wonderful Christmas card so that we could share our perfect joy with our friends and family.
We have always gone the JCPenney's to get our pictures done and they have always done a good job. They usually take a lot of time to get the little man comfortable enough to smile and when Eric starts smiling Griffen isn't too far behind. Now that I have become somewhat of a tech geek ( not really in fact you are looking at this weird background because I wanted something different but I was too lazy to really figure it out.) I decided that I would book our portrait experience online, that way I could make sure that no one was scheduled before or after us so they would spend as much time as we needed to get our inner model groove out. Eric scheduled the day off and we were ready to have the perfect day. We were going to get our pictures,go shopping and finish all of our shopping list, go to lunch, after a nap, decorate the tree,then I would make a perfect meal and then follow it off by going to see all the lights around town , then we would all come home have hot cocoa and drift off into blissful slumber.
What really happened is I got the stomach flu on Wednesday and had it till Friday (picture day) Griffen started getting sick on Thursday, followed by Eric Friday morning. I for some brilliant reason believed it would be OK to continue on with our days events as long Eric and I took Imodium AD and Griffen seemed OK. (Onward and upward you know.) We went to JcPenney to start our portrait experience by being greeted by a room full of screaming kids. The room to recreate the true experience of Hell was heated appropriately. Families in perfect red,black and white plaid outfits were squeezed into every inch of the room. They were playing a movie for the kids at a volume level that could deafen the dead. Underneath that was cheery Christmas classic being played on their stereo. Peace on Earth my butt! So after waiting an hour which was spent chasing Griffen away from the breakable Christmas displays that surrounded the store. We finally got our chance to go in the room and make it work. The photographer snapped a couple a pictures after shake Elmo in our faces told us we were done and kicked us to the waiting room to wait another hour to pick our favorites and pay the bill.( I felt a little like the kid in the The Christmas Story when Santa kicked down the big slide before he could tell him he wanted a red rider bee bee gun) Little G and Big E were done so I sent them to a playground in the mall. Which they lasted 5 minutes at before Little G called it quits. Eric took him to the car and drove him around the parking lot for the rest of the time. Meanwhile I sat and listened to other perfect mommies hemming and hawing about what they wanted to get. Finally my turn came. I told the dude listen I don't want any of your enhanced photos( over priced, over designed photoshop pieces of crap) The dude insisted on showing me us in sepia, in black and white, with elves, with bows, with holly with snowflakes and messages of Christmas cheer. ( If he had photoshopped a gun in my hand and a skull and crossbones he would have been closer to a sell) So after looking through all the pictures where my double chin is accentuated and Griffen expression is something along the lines of " Lady if you shake Elmo at me one more time I shoving him where the sun don't shine." I picked what I wanted. The Dude continued to sell me and told me if I would buy this much more I would get this much free stuff and like any prisoner of war I said "whatever". So now we have $100 worth of crappy pictures to remember our "Perfect" day. And I suppose my inner model did find her groove when I came home I ate lunch and threw it up :) That damn June Cleaver I hope she rots in her TV grave. And Norman Rockwell can bite me.

Mormon Superhero

So when I told Eric what I was going to blog about he was like you really are going to tell people that. So I figure I better warn you of the embarassing/scarey visuals I will be painting for you in this blog.

The other night right after I got Griffen to sleep I went downstairs to do some laundry and I threw the clothes I was wearing into the load. I went into our office/gym that totally needs to be redecorated and realized that I have really, really let myself go. I realized this because that room for some weird reason is full of mirrors. One whole wall is mirrors. It has been like that since we bought the house and I find the room too scarey to go into long enough to figure out what to do with it. Sad being that is where I store my eliptical trainer. So Eric was down working in the evil room and I went to say good night to him. I was wearing my garments with a breastfeeding top. I haven't bother to seperate them from the normal tops and when I am grabbing clean clothes out of the basket I just don't care what kind they are. Well on this day Mother Nature had brought be my monthly gift and I had accessorized my Jesus Jammies with a pair a purple panties over the top of the bottoms. For you that don't wear JJ's they often hang low in the croutch area and are not the best support for pads. When I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror I started to laugh because in my off kilter brain I thought I looked like a Mormon Superhero. I wanted to run upstairs and add a oven mitt to the ensemble so that I could finish off my costume. I imagined that my superpower was to save the world one casserole at a time. Then I realized that I don't ever really take casseroles to people. I always think about it when I hear that someone is having a rough time but then I figure I don't want to make the rough time worse by making them eat one of my casseroles. I also thought it was funny because if this Mormon Superhero was to be mass marketed it would have to include an innertube to be worn under the jj's to replicate my belly/butt. It would be just like the six pack abs that come with the real superhero costumes but more realistic for my super mormon charactor. That is when I came back to reality and realized I need to use that eliptical trainer and whip myself into shape. So after I polish off Griffen's halloween candy and watch a few programs I am going to get right on the whole weight loss thing.

Simple Pleasures

Lately I have been thinking about little things that make me happy so I thought I would share some of them with you.
1- An empty sink. I love to see an empty sink in front of me. I especially love it if someone else has done the dishes. Of course I am focusing on real pleasures and not daydreams.
2- Nap time. I love cuddling my little man until he finally goes off to sleepytime.
3- I absolutely love reading friends blogs and seeing what they are up to. It makes me so happy to see how lucky I am to know such wonderful people. And even though I don't get to see them very often I still get to keep up on what they are doing.
4- Itunes!! I adore the "you might like this" feature and the "if you liked this artist you might like this artist". You can find the best music that is never played on the radio.
5- A good program. Mama loves a good program. There is nothing better then a good program and a diet caffiene free coke. Like today Oprah was so good. It was about a nuerosurgeon who had a stroke. It was totally fascinating. And they played with real brains and you could tell Oprah thought it was gross.
6- Finding an unknown/independant/foreign movie that turns out to be awesome. It is like finding treasure.
7- Netflix. I get so excited to see the red envelope in the mail. I know I pay for it but it feels like I just got a present.
8- Non Junkmail/Bills mail. I love snail mail that comes from a friend. It is the best to get a card in the mail. I feel like a little kid when I get one. I dance around and say oh oh oh I got something oh oh oh.
9- Random acts of kindness from strangers. I love to be reassured that the world isn't full of a@#holes. It is so nice to have a stranger smile at you and do something simple like offer to return your grocery cart for you.
10- Slippers! There is nothing better then putting your foot into a little piece of heaven. Its like walking on clouds. I don't like grown up slippers. I like ladybugs, fish, hedgehogs etc. They have to flip flop, otherwise I feel like my feet are suffocating. I really don't like bunny slippers they are just way to cliche.

mamasprograms

What Are They Thinking

I was just thinking how much I was enjoying the Mormon Light Program. I would go to Sacrement and Relief Society twice a month. If there was a ward party that needed food I would cook for it but not attend it. I am a Visiting Teaching supervisor so I call people about their monthly visits but never do any of my own. I don't drink or smoke but I am a democrat and shop on Sundays. The MLP has been the perfect for me. But now I have been called as the Secretary in Young Womens. They obviously don't know me very well or they wouldn't have put me in a position were I could influence/corrupt the youth. Luckily as callings go I think I will only be doing the Mormon Medium program (no I am not becoming psychic). I will have to go to activities on Wednesday but I don't think I have to teach or do anything else. I think I just have to take roll and be a chaufer. And though I am a scary driver I do believe I can make beautiful check marks next to the girls' names. And since they are all teenagers I finally have a group that understands my love of Edward Cullen.

First Trip

Griffen took his first trip out of the state last week. We went to exotic Paris....Idaho. He camped in a tent and experienced going without his favorite thing, a bath, for 3 days! Griff seemed to like camping. He found a great little thinking spot. He would always wonder off to this little spot in the trees. At Bear Lake he was able to chase seagulls and play in the mud two experiences he had yet to have before this trip. When we got home he immediately started walking around saying Bath, Bath, Bath. He loves his tub. He gets that from me. Camping was fairly successful. I did learn that camping as a mom isn't nearly as relaxing as it was before I had a kid. Of course it wasn't nearly as fun before either. It is amazing all of the dangers that exist out there. I kept working he would fall in the fire, or the river, or the lake. That he would get too cold or too hot. That he was getting too little sleep,that he was going to get a tick, that he was going to get sunburned, that he was going to get sick. So I realized that next time Mama needs to bring what the Rolling Stones call Mama's Little helpers..Valum. (I am not sure how to spell it but I sure would like some) I find that over the last 15 months that I worry all the time. I worry about ever little thing that could happen to him. I have never experienced this kind of love. It truely is like having your heart walk /stumble around in someone else's body. But some how he is still alive. And he doesn't even seem like I have screwed him up too much yet. Of course I am still putting money into his therapy fund just in case.

Faux Hawk

So I think I have too much time/mousse on my hands. I decided that I would encourage my little anarchist by giving him his first mohawk. I think I might make this his new sunday hairdo. That should go over well. Especially after last Sunday when I nearly broke into laughter as they discussed how evil Diet Coke is or is not. The RS presidency noticed my smirk and since I have not been exactly active they were a little concerned and even checked with me after church to make sure I wasn't too offended. I wasn't offended at all I just found it humorous that of all the things to worry about that is what they picked. When I am looking over my list of shortcomings/sins I don't even have enough room left to consider caffeine consumption. Luckily I am on what is called the "slow track" when it comes to mormonism so I am still acceptable, at least according to my assesment.