Mediocre

Finally, I don't know why I haven't mentioned this before, because it's so important to me...  Just one of those things, I guess?

Anyway, I had been working in the presidency with women that are over the primary children at my church.  I was with them through my pregnancy with Elsa, and Cohen.  Right before I delivered Cohen a new group of women were put to the primary.

I was certainly ready to do other things, but I didn't realize how accutely I would miss being so close to the three other ladies I worked with.

Here is a picture of us together (I was just pregnant with Cohen).

It's: Lee, Louise, Me, and Sue.

I adore these women!

Nowadays I am playing the piano for the women in Relief Society.  If I am going to play the piano for church, this is my preferred place to do it.  But I don't love it, the way I loved being in primary.

I never have liked doing any form of accompanyment.  Probably because I am not very good at it.  I'd much rather sit down and play classical music.

And while I'm thinking about it... I wanted to record a conversation that Nick and I recently had.  I'm not being "down" on myself.  I just thought Nick's observation was comical.

I made the comment that there isn't really anything I excel at.

Most everything I do, I do on a normal scale.

Sewing, playing the piano, athletics, etc... are all things I can do; but I'm not phenomenal at them.

So Nick said to me, "that's not true.  You are gifted at vocabulary and grammar".

He spoke the truth.

But I still wish I could be unbelievably talented at something useful.  Being a walking Thesarus is never going to translate in to financial prosperity.

Odds and Ends

Six years!  It only took me six years to complete a craft project!

Back when Heather was pregnant with my nephew, I was so excited at the prospect of becoming an Aunt; and I wanted to make something for baby Lance.  So, I bought all of the supplies to make him a quiet book.

Before I knew it...  two years had passed and the quiet book was not finished.  I was pregnant with Reagan, and changed my game plan.  I decided that the book would now be for baby Reagan.

Four years from that point in time, the book was finally finished.

And the only reason it is, is because my friend, Stephanie, invited me to take part in a quiet book group she was doing.

The idea was that everyone would make several copies of a single page for the quiet book, and then we'd exchange our pages; the end result would be a quiet book.

When I got the email there were 8 other addressee's.  I thought, "I can handle making 8 pages".  When the finally tally came in 21 people had signed up for the book!

Yowza!

I muddled through and finished 21 pages.

No one that contributed to the book reads my blog, so that I can say this.  Some of the pages were total crap.  Near the end people were trying to get out of their commitment.  And it was obvious that a half-hearted job was put in to some of the other pages.  But, on the flip-side.  Some of the pages were very well put together, and so creative.  I guess it all comes out in the wash, right?!

I took the 21 pages I acquired, and made them in to two books.  I finished my never-ending quiet book project.  And now I have 3 books.
Even though they all turned out well  I'll never do it again. 

The book with the barn is the one I did completely by myself.
The ocean page in the middle, is the one I made for the quiet book project.

It took nearly a year, but Reagan is finally 100% potty trained.  She even gets herself up in the middle of the night if she needs to go.  I never thought I'd see the day.

I just need to remember that with Reagan I need to do everything "cold turkey".  This method always works best with her.  I took away the bottle, and her pacifiers; and never let her have them again- and it worked.  The slow-weaning of baby things will never work for Reagan.  I had let her wear a pull-up to bed for far too long.  I was really lazy, and hated the thought of having to change her sheets on a daily basis.  Turns out it only took a few accidents for Reagan to realize that she wanted to make it to the bathroom all of the time.

Reagan found her Easter dress, and put it on all by herself, the other day.  Her hair had been done earlier in the day, I don't know what happened?  She's completely given up naptime, so on this particular occasion I let her make rolls with me, while the other two were sleeping.  She obviously, had a good time! 

I think Elsa and Cohen are going to be good friends.  Elsa is innately more maternal than Reagan.  She loves her baby dolls, and her baby brother.  She is always trying to climb in the crib with him.  And when I let her she plays with him, and shares a binky with him. 

My darling girl is such a joy!  And hilarious too.  She has her Daddy's sense of humor.

She spends the better part of the day singing, and dancing around the house.  I wish I would have had a video camera handy the other day.  She saw a commercial for P90X, and she was imitating the workout she saw on the TV.  What a crackup!

She likes to go outside and ride her bike.

Where did this little girl, with the blonde hair and blue eyes come from?  I don't know where she got her looks from, but we'll keep her!

And then there's my little boy.  I can hardly believe he will be 6 months old next week!

Too bad he is still sleeping like a newborn.  The kid seems to be hungry all of the time.  This includes during the night too.  He isn't a fussy baby.  But twice a night feedings are getting really old.  He's taking baby food now.  In fact, he loves it!  He can't slurp up his pureed squash fast enough. 

And he's bottle-fed.  I would think this would be the perfect equation for a baby to sleep through the night?!  Not so.  It won't be forever. 

I repeat this to myself on a regular basis.  And I am also lucky enough to have a husband that helps out in the middle of the night.  So I know we will all survive this.

One thing I do love about my house are the lilac trees in my backyard.  Lilac's remind me of my Grandma Imlay.  Growing up, she had lilac trees in her yard.

My lilacs are blooming early this year.  I wish they didn't have such a short life span.

I went out to take the picture of the lilacs and I discovered my old iPhone on the back porch.  I'd imagine it has been out there for at least the past two nights.  Fortunately, being out in the elements didn't destroy it.  I think Reagan must have left it out there.

Nick and I got new iPhone's a while ago, and I've let Reagan play with my old one.

Here is Reagan smiling and telling me that my iPhone is OK. 

Lucky for her...

Pintrest

I'm jumped on the bandwagon a little later than my contemporaries, but yes indeed, I am a member of pintrest.

I visit the site on a daily basis-ish.

For some of my friends' husbands, the word "pintrest" makes them want to head for the hills.  In our house, Pintrest does not send fear running down my husband's spine.
As I mentioned in a prior post, Nick refuses to engage in any more DIY projects (hopefully it is just a phase).

So, if I actually take on any of the crafts, or stuff for around the house from Pintrest; I'll be doing it solo.

I have let Pintrest inspire me in the kitchen.
I am STILL nowhere near being a proficient cook.  But I've been making a lot more effort, as of late (this may also be only a phase?).

I'm finding that the recipes I "pin" on my board are either stellar or crap-tacular.  There's not much in between.

The chicken and artichoke lasagna, cornmeal waffles with chili, and cornflake chicken tenders were all yucky.  With the grilled chicken pineapple skewers being the worst offender of awfulness (of course, this was the dish I made the night we had company for dinner).

The coconut crusted french toast, zucchini and yellow squash au gratin, Hawaiian pulled pork sandwiches, creamy bacon carbonara,  reese's peanut butter banana bread, steak enchiladas, and Parmesan honey pork roast have all been tasty recipes.

And: roasted smashed potatoes, delicious dinner rolls, chicken cordon blue pasta, pepperoni cheese stick roll ups, garlic cheesy bread, and peach enchiladas have all made it in to regular rotation on my dinner/dessert menu.

This is probably one of my more boring posts.  But since we are doggedly trying to reign in our finances and get out of debt I have been making an honest effort to do my part- by cooking at home, rather than dining out so much.  So I feel like the topic is noteworthy.
Dining at home.  Thank you pintrest.  Sometimes.

San Diego, Oceanside Vacation

Ever since Nick got his Mini Cooper he has talked about having it "tuned" by some dude in Irvine, California that specializes in Mini Coopers, and helping them reach their maximum horsepower potential.
Before I had Cohen I thought that I'd probably be wanting a vacation in the spring; so we made plans to go to California to have the Mini tuned at the beginning of April.
Nick drove his Mini Cooper to California. Nick's Dad also drove his Mini Cooper. And Nick's brother, Brian, tagged along in the car too.
The kids and I flew.
The cheapest tickets I could find were for flights in and out of the Long Beach airport. In hindsight, I should have just ponied up the cash and booked us tickets out of San Diego. Now I know for next time.

Day 1:
Nick left the house at 5:30AM to start his drive to California. He, his Dad, and his brother stopped at the Bellagio buffet in Las Vegas for lunch.
I woke up and should have had plenty of time to get 3 kids, and luggage ready for a short flight. But the "3 kids" aspect of the formula always leaves me running behind.
Reagan woke up sick with a cold. And Cohen was constipated. We had frozen pizza for lunch and Reagan and Elsa managed to get pizza sauce all over their clean clothes.
When we got to the airport I was informed that I couldn't sit on the right side of our Regional Jet, because I had an infant in arms.
With every new "rule" I encounter after each flight (in NYC it was, "kids cannot sit in booster seats on the plane", and in Orlando it was, "kids cannot sit in a row directly in front of, or rear of the emergency exit row") I am convinced that it will only be a short time before kids cannot fly at all.

Anyway, I had to get our seat assignments changed. And Cohen had a few crying jags on the plane because he was still constipated. This drew several "looks" from other passengers.
I wanted to tell those people that my kids are actually excellent air travelers. But whatever. Maybe next time those people will buy ear plugs.

We arrived at the airport; and picked up the rental car. We then had an hour car ride to our destination.
I thought that Nick would beat us there, but he hit the infamous California traffic, and they did the "stop-and-go" for several hours. So, we all arrived at the condo at the same time.

We stayed in Oceanside, CA. Right on the beach. It was amazing.
My Aunt and Uncle do property management for some of the rental condo's in Oceanside, so they cut us a deal on a 3 bedroom condo.

We unpacked, and walked over to the quaint retail area of the beach to get some dinner. We ate at Harbor Fish and Chips. I had deep-friend clams, and deep-friend pineapple. It was delicious, and I was surprised that the girls wanted to eat my clams, rather than the popcorn chicken we purchased for them.
The kids got ready for bed and I ran to the store to pick up items (diapers, formula, etc...).

Day 2:
Nick and his Dad drove their cars to Irvine to get them tuned. The rest of us went to check out the beach.
The water was not warm. But the sand was.

Cohen took a nap in the stroller while we were lounging by the surf.

Elsa sampled the sand. Gross.


The Mini Tune took a LOT longer than Nick had anticipated. Nick realized that his two front tires were in bad shape after the drive to CA and didn't think they'd get him back to UT. He went to a tire store to get new tires, and OF COURSE they only had the most expensive tires in stock. Since we weren't staying long enough for them to order cheaper tires we had to get the pricey ones.

In the evening we went to Trader Joe's and purchased stuff to make for dinner. Then, we took the kids swimming in the (supposedly) heated pool at the resort.


Day 3:
We woke up bright and early and headed to the San Diego Zoo.
We had been debating about going to Sea World? But since we had just been to Sea World Orlando back in November we decided it would be OK to just go to the Zoo this time.

A week before we left my friend, Haley, wrote a blog post about their recent trip to San Diego. I took note of everything she said, and used it to shape our zoo itinerary. Thanks Haley.
We got to the Zoo as soon as it opened. And immediately went to the panda exhibit.

We were able to walk right in. Both panda's were active. We didn't have to hurry through. It was nice to be able to take our time and observe.

Here's Cohen, doing his impersonation of the panda.



We didn't opt to take a bus ride.
Instead, we hiked the hills around the zoo on foot.



Isn't Reagan so photogenic? Years down the road she'll probably hate me for putting the nose picking picture on the blog. Maybe it will teach her not to pick her nose?



In the afternoon it got pretty warm. And we were all tired of trekking around. We didn't end up seeing all of the animals. By the time we made it to the back of the zoo we were all ready to jump on the sky ride that takes you back to the front of the zoo to exit.

We stayed in San Diego and went to lunch at (where else?!) McCormick and Schmick's. Cohen fell asleep in his carseat. I hadn't brought a blanket to drape over him, so I used a napkin instead You can see it in the background of this picture.

That night Elsa and Cohen fell asleep easily. I stayed with them, and Nick took Reagan back to the beach shoppes to get some ice cream.

Day 4:
We went to Ruby's Diner for breakfast.
The diner is located out at the end of the pier. So it's like you're eating in the middle of the ocean.
You can see the pier in the background of this picture. The black dot at the end of the pier is the diner.


After breakfast we all suited up for a day at the beach.
I had purchased wetsuits for Reagan and Elsa to wear at the beach. Elsa didn't want to put hers on. Reagan did. Which is funny because Reagan is my warm-blooded child. She never gets cold. And Elsa will start shivering the second the bathwater starts to turn lukewarm.

I wouldn't have bought wet suits for the kids if I hadn't thought it was a good idea. And it was a good idea. Just not one that I thought through all of the way.
If I had been thorough in my thought process I would have picked up a wetsuit for Nick too. Because none of the adults wanted to go too far in to the cold water in their swimming attire.


Reagan still had fun. And she looked surfer chick cute.


In actuality, she didn't leave the wetsuit on for a long time anyway. I'm glad I bought one that is several sizes too big, so that she can wear it on future occasions. When, exactly, those occasions will be... I don't know? But I have to comfort myself some way. Ha Ha.

Cohen wore the onsie that New Zealand Kris gave him when she was here. It says: "Sweet As New Zealand" on the front. I had several comments about how cute it was, from passersby on the beach.


For the rest of the day we all played in the sand and had a great time!




Here are Cohen's cute little tootsies in the sand.

Cohen has already touched both the Atlantic and Pacific ocean. Not too shabby for a 5 month old! I think this kid is destined to be a world traveller.

That evening Nick took me out for a belated birthday dinner. I had done a ton of research, in an attempt to find the best restaurant in San Diego. I settled on a place called Urban Solace.
We got dressed up, and drove down the coast. We parked in a parking garage across the street from the restaurant. I was giddy with anticipation!
We got to the door of the restaurant, AND... There was a notice. Saying that the restaurant was closed to the public that night, in honor of their annual tasting event.
Just our luck!
I couldn't remember names of any of the other restaurants that had interested me, so Nick and I went back to McCormick & Schmick's and had dinner there. It was (again, and always) delicious.

Day 5:
We headed back to UT. Nick encountered a lot less traffic and made better time going home.
I was not as fortunate. There was traffic on the way to the airport and getting though security with the kids at the tiny LGB airport was awful. They are not family friendly. We were the last ones to board the plane.
The flight home was better. The kids were as good as gold!

The kids took naps when we got home, and when they woke up Nick arrived. We had a relaxing night as a family, and everyone slept well that night, in their own beds.

It was a fun vacation. And I can't wait for the next one. I love being with my little family.