Funny and Not So Funny.

Nick and I went to dinner with the Paey's and Lym's.  The babysitter for the night was a cute girl that had just turned 12.  I think, if it wasn't her first babysitting job, it was one of her first.  Personally, I love getting the younger girls to babysit.  They are so excited to be doing it, and have such enthusiasm! 

Our babysitter, for that night, brought a babysitting bag with her- filled with books, and toys.  My kids loved it.  When Nick and I got home for the night, I found this on the counter:

It's a memo of what they did while we were gone, and her own babysitting business card.  Nick and I both got a good laugh out of it.  It was just so cute!

Not so cute, is Cohen's haircut.  About a month ago, my little brother trimmed the hair around Cohen's ears.  But Cohen wouldn't sit still, so that was all Brian did.  The end result is that Cohen has a full-on mullet.
Nick, ever the comedian, said that if Cohen was going to have a mullet, he needed the attire to match.  Nick put Cohen in his Sunday vest, without anything underneath it:

Har Har (or should I say: hair, hair?).  Next Saturday, Cohen will be coming along with Reagan and me to get a haircut.

And now for the stuff that has not made me laugh.

I got new Nike running shoes for Christmas.  I ordered them from Amazon.  They have shredded my feet!  They cut in to the back of my feet/ankles, my socks and the shoes themselves have been soaked in blood after every workout.  And I got a blister on one of my toes.  That blister got infected.  Like, really infected.  Like, so infected I saw a doctor about it.  She prescribed Cephalexin.  And the antibiotic has not touched the infection.  I am going to have to go see a podiatrist about it, I guess.  I wore the shoes for two weeks, thinking I just needed to break them in.  Instead, they broke me.  I've gone back to wearing my Nike Airmax's.  They don't hurt my feet, but the do irritate my IT band.  I just can't win.  I'm going to go try on a pair of Nike Pegasus shoes today.  Maybe it will solve my problem?

At the beginning of February, I opened an email from Delta Airlines, reminding me to check-in for my flight.  The only problem was, that I didn't think I had a flight to check-in for?!

I logged in to my itineraries, and found that the flight I thought I had booked for Nick and I to go to Seattle: March 2-4, was actually booked for Feb. 2-4!

REALLY?! 

This is so unlike me!  First, the fiasco with Nick's flight home from Tampa, and now this?!

I called Delta, to see what could be done.

I spoke with a woman first that told me there would be a $300 change fee, and that I'd need to pay the difference in the plane tickets too. 

I decided to wait, before I ponied up the money, and see if I could work something else out.

Many minutes, and headaches later; I found that there was nothing I could do.  I called Delta back, and was connected to another Delta employee, a man, this time.

He was so great!  When I told him that the occasion was for my wedding anniversary, he said he'd waive the "change fee".  So, I was able to change the tickets, and it didn't cost me anything.  That was a relief!

But lately, I can't win, for losing!

I filed our taxes the first week in February.  Nick and I refinanced the house in March 2012.  And I was nearly certain we had paid points on the mortgage.  But when the tax statement arrived from the new mortgage company it didn't say anything about points being paid.  I shrugged my shoulders, and submitted our income tax returns.

OF COURSE, the day after the whole airline ticket FIASCO, a tax statement arrived in the mail, for the points we had paid on the mortgage.  Apparently, the mortgage refinance had originated with Shore Mortgage in Michigan (that's where we paid the points), and then a week later Shore Mortgage in California bought the loan (that's where the mortgage interest statement had come from).

I wanted to bang my head against a wall until I was unconscious!  Too many frustrations at once.

If I add the mortgage point information to our taxes, we will get another $500 in a refund.  BUT: the process to amend your income taxes is time-consuming.  BUT: it's $500.  I have a two year window to make the change.  I daresay it won't take me two years to do it.  But it may be close.

I could use some more laughs, and less not-so funny situations.

Angel and Demon.

Elsa.  Oh, my middle-child.

I'll confess to the fact that I had been searching on eBay to find her an angel costume to wear for Halloween in 2013.  But as of late, that has to change.

I honestly thought Elsa would skip the terrible-two's.  How could my precious pink cherub ever be anything less than perfect?

I guess no child is immune.

Lately:  Elsa is bossy.  Elsa gets in to EVERYTHING, and makes gigantic messes.  And Elsa bites.

I asked my pediatrician what I could do about Elsa biting?  The majority of the time she bites Cohen.  Right now Cohen has a circle shaped bruise on his arm, from where Elsa bit him!  Dr. Swensen said that she was probably doing it because she couldn't verbalize her frustrations.  I told him that I didn't believe that was the case, because Elsa can speak better than some adults I know.  She yells at Cohen a lot.  And she frequently tells Nick and I to, "Go to Time-Out!", or that she, "Is Going to Spank Our Bum!".  I really need to stop laughing when she says things like that to me.
What I ought to do is bite her back, or hope she grows out of this?

I have been struggling with Elsa for months, trying to potty-train her.  Last week, I finally threw my hands up in the air, and admitted defeat.  I figured I'd wait until Spring, and try again.

Well, earlier this week I was in the basement vacuuming, and I heard Elsa yelling at me from upstairs.  When I came up I found Elsa in the bathroom.  She had moved a stool over to the toilet, and put her training seat on the potty.  She had pulled down her pants and pull-up, and had pooped in the potty.  ALL BY HERSELF!  She had been yelling at me to come wipe her bum. 

For the past three days Elsa has continued to take herself to the bathroom when she is going to have a BM.  If she potty-trains herself, does that re-instate her angel status?

I'm willing to entertain the idea.

Nick and I have been excited at one of Elsa's new developments.  The two year old can do a perfect chest pass with a basketball!  Nick has been working with Elsa on her basketball skills, and they are coming along nicely!  I'm fairly positive that Elsa is going to be tall.

Is it too early to be dreaming of basketball scholarships for her?

February.

I feel like I get in to a blogging funk more frequently these days.  But it's like exercise.  I never regret it after I do it.
February has given us a lot of snow.  I hate it.

We've done our fair share of hibernating.  Thank goodness for playdoh, and other indoor pastimes.

I've been doing a lot more cooking.  In the cold weather I find that I (almost) enjoy cooking a nice warm meal.  Jill's Mom's recipe for pot pie has been on the menu a lot.  After I made it the first time Nick said he could never go back to eating the Marie Calendar's microwave version again.  The same thing can be said for my Grandma's spaghetti sauce, that I now make by the stockpot-ful.  Nick used to hate spaghetti!  But these days we have spaghetti 2-3 times a month, because he loves my Grandma's recipe.

In other February happenings: Cohen had his 15 month well-child appointment.  He is in the 75th percentile for height, and the 3rd percentile for weight.   Which puzzles me, because the little man eats all of the time, and isn't yet walking!  He and Elsa must have their Dad's metabolism.  Cohen also seems to have broken his nose.  He falls on his face a lot, and has a nice bruise across the bridge of his nose.  The pediatrician said that it's fortunate that Cohen's nose isn't crooked, and that there isn't anything you can do for a broken nose.  It'll heal on it's own. 

Reagan went to the pediatrician for her Kindergarten check-up.  Brains and beauty, that is what my oldest child possesses!  She is so excited at the prospect of going to Kindergarten in the fall!  I can't say that I have the same amount of enthusiasm, I'll miss my big girl.

Nick spent the last 3 days working in Vernal, UT.  I stayed at home with the kids, so that Reagan wouldn't miss her Valentine's Day party at preschool.  Yes, this meant that I didn't even see my husband on Valentine's Day.  But it truly didn't phase me.  Nick and I have never been big on celebrating V-day.  In fact, having him in Vernal actually beats last year's Valentine's Day; when we didn't see each other, because Cohen was in the hospital.

We'll celebrate our romance in two weeks, when we go to Seattle for our wedding anniversary.

Dance Class is Paying Off.

I don't usually post video's, but this was too good not to post.
Nick took the video when they were in Florida, at a Coldstone Creamery.  I still can't get over the "ick" factory of Reagan laying on the nasty floor/rug.  But even after watching it several times I still laugh.  It's too bad Nick only caught the tail-end of her performance.