Snails in Toothbrush cups and popsicles

So Sugar just asked her daily question of can i have a popsicle? Today, reluctantly, I gave in. Then after the girls were outside eating thier popsicles, Sugar said, "here mom, I need to give you something." I went to the door and she handed me the girls' toothbrush cup. "What"?? "What is this doing outside"? "I used it for my snail." she sweetly said. Needless to say that cup is in the sink waiting to be washed. Yuck!!

food fights, jumping frogs, and flip flops.

Hello friends!

I am deciding to follow a friend's/fellow blogger/sister-in law's advice and blog to find the humor in things that my kids do. Something that my kids have started to do is have food fights. For the past few days at each breakfast and lunch the girls have had food fights when I have left the table. When I return I find milk and cereal all over the table and on the girls. I try to not get too upset since I am kind of snickering inside and I have them clean up some of the mess. For any of you that have children you will realize that this is easier said then done. I ask the girls to do this and they may wipe up for about ten seconds and when I return to check up on them they are both jumping on their favorite household furniture, the upstairs couch like a pair of happy jumping frogs. Well, I keep checking up on them and then eventually they go in and wipe up a little of thier mess. I, of course, have to finish cleaning up the mess but just want them to own up to some of thier mess. This is how cleaning anything goes.

Another thing that these girls do is they both have morbid obsessions with their flip flops. No matter what time of the day it is, the girls will keep asking me, "mommy, where are my flip-flops?". It could be after breakfast, after snack, after nap, before dinner it does not matter just constantly, where are my flip-flops?? I guess it is kind of funny that they are so obsessed with this accessory. I guess they definitley are shoe girls and it sure makes it easy to find things that motivate them to get things done. In fact, right as I am writing this, Berry just said out of the blue, where are my flip flops? I snickered and said, " I don't know." In response to this, Berry just smiled and said, "you stinker butt!"

Terrified!

Hi, I am writing this today as my two cute little girls are sleeping. I guess I want to write about a recent decision that I have made. A few weeks ago I got a burr in my butt that I needed to decide if I need to quit my job or not. For those of you who do not know, I am a SLP and as of last week employed by the current school district.
I absolutely love being an SLP and I think that I am starting to get the hang of it. I mean, I am not perfect at it and am definitely still learning but I am starting to see alot of improvements in my clients and loving it. It feels so good to be able to call a parent and say ,"Johnny has completed all of his goals and I would like to test him to see if he is able to be released from speech and language services." It is an even bigger thrill to be able to call the parents and let them know that "Johnny has just passed his articulation exam and has completed his goals. If you have no concerns I would like to release him." Wow, what a great thing. But, I digress, as I was saying I started to wonder if since I have these lovely girls if I should stay home with them. Maybe for some people, this would be an easy decision, but let me tell you, I tossed and turned with this one. I love my girls but I also love my job and I figured that I could work part time. Well, I did not feel right about that and in the end, I had to call my department head and let her know that I needed to quit. Only then did I feel peace.
So here I am, as of a 7/25 at 3:14 p.m. I am officially a stay at home mom. I feel good about my decision but terrified. Can we do it financially and am I physically, emotionally, and mentally capable of this decision?? Well, I decided to follow my feelings and this is where they led me. I know that everything will be okay and once next year starts I am sure that I will be able to see why I needed to make this decision. However, sometimes, right now I feel like I have lost my identity as an SLP which is a hard thing for me because for so many years that was all I was a wife and an SLP. When I did not have children at least I had my husband and my job to bring me joy. Now, I do have children and they do bring me joy and I want to be there for them but it is such a big change. I want to end this blog some clever way but nothing is coming. I am just a scared, new mom. Has anyone ever felt like this??

Our Church is great!!

So I just wanted to post a blog that our church is absolutely wonderful! For those of you who do not know which church I am talking about, I am talking about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!! Not only is it completely true, inspired, and brings true happiness, but what other church helps you prepare for calamities as well as ours does??

Just this last week, my husband and I went with some friends, C and J, to do some dry food canning. It was so great!! We went to the center and chose which types of dry foods we wanted to can and then went to work. We canned some spaghetti noodles, macoroni, and dry milk. They had some extra dry onions and beans so I bought some of those as well. The great thing about this is that they will last up to 30 years. It was a wonderful experience and we are planning going canning with my friends at least once a month. I encourage you all to try this!! You just need to find the center closest to you and call to make an appointment, but hurry, because they are extremely busy lately with everything going on in our economy. I feel so much better just going one time and I plan to go many more. Well, just a toot for our church! Our leaders truly are inspired and trying to help us prepare in any way that they can. :)

The Fourth-something to celebrate!!

So it has been a little while since I have blogged. The other day was the fourth of July and as this blog's title states I had something to celebrate. I will break up what my celebrations were into categories..

Family! We went to my parents for the fourth and my sister M and her little boys Gand N came as well. We had a delicious lunch of hamburgers, salad, melon, and other delectable things that go along with picnics in our family. We then got out a wading pool and the kids played in the pool for a while. It was awesome to watch them get each other wet and M and I also waded in the pool and ran through the sprinklers. Very refreshing!!! During this time G chased Grandma and soaked her it was so funny!

Life!Well, as we were sitting around my sweetie, C, was taking pictures of random things. He believes that he has become an expert insect photographer. There was a beautiful dragon fly that flew by and C stated, "land on me!" Would you believe that it did? It landed right on C's pant leg so that he could take close-up pictures of it. He got some great pictures too. In fact, some of them are in my opinion close to the caliber of a famous wild life magazine. I will try and post a picture that he took.
Anyway, after taking many pictures of this creature it took off flying. Later, I was playing monster with the kids and Numero Uno pointed out to me a dragon fly lying on the ground unable to fly. I immediately went in to tell C and he came out and closely examined the dragon fly and determined that this was his dragon fly. It was so sweet to watch C care for the little guy that he had bonded with earlier and agonize with him as the little insect tried and tried to fly away. C could not determine what was wrong with the little guy and grew mesmerized by it, watching it struggle and then watching its little abdomen breathe in and out. I guess it was neat because even though it was an insect and we see thousands of them everyday and even call them pesky sometimes it reminded me that they are alive as well and we need to respect them. This does not however mean that I won't kill spiders if needed. I always feel bad when I have to do that.

Snaps!! I forgot how much fun snaps are and as Numero Uno, Dos, G, and N were playing with them it was hard not to get caught up in the magic of snaps. I remember having snap wars with my sister and friends as a kid. Great memories!

Freedom!! I am ashamed to say that I started getting lost in all that goes along with the Fourth of July and forgetting why we celebrate it. As we were lying on our backs at the park watching magnificent fire works light up the sky it hit me that we were celebrating our freedom and thanking people for giving and sacrificing their lives. I was very touched and then at that exact moment some people behind us started blaring some rap crap and I was offended. How dare they! I bet they don't even remember the reason that are celebrating so I started to sing "I am Proud to be an American" and even though I don't remember all of the song it helped me feel better.

Being a Parent!! So this is our first Fourth of July to have our two cute little girls and let me tell you it was great! It was great to watch the magic of them throwing snaps, lighting fireworks and playing with our family. It was wonderful to lie on the grass and look up at the massive fireworks over head and have a little hand rested on yours and hear the little girl say, "mommy, you are my best mommy" or "mommy, you are my friend" as they toggle between me, C and my parents. Truly a great experience and so different from fourths in the past. Not to say that Fourths in the past were bad, I loved watching fireworks with C but as any holiday did I always would get a little wishful and depressed. Not this fourth, there was a lot to celebrate!!

There's a Snake in My Boots/Strawberries

Well, I wanted to sit down and do a blog for today but I think I will write about yesterday as it was a better day. Yesterday we drove to see mom and dad and had lunch with them. Mom was taking me to see some flowers in the back yard and she noticed a green scaly tail belonging in a snake!! It was really quite exciting and all of us sat and snake watched until it slithered away. It was quite exciting! Who would think that a snake would live in mom's back yard in the terrace?? Anyhoo, the rest of the day was nice and we went to see a family friend to introduce them to the girls and then just sat in the front yard and played catch with numero dos. During this time, numero uno played in the grass and took pictures with dad. All in all, it was a pretty good day.

So did I mention that I am a new blogger??

Well, I just opened this blog today and already this is my second blog of the day. I must say that I am addicted. So here I sit listening for any signs of movement from my two children's room and contemplating the day. Today was just like any other day, I was awakened to Numero Uno coming down stairs and announcing that she wanted milk. My days really start out like the movie Ground Hogs Day. I went and got her milk and then changed numero dos's diaper, after this, I let them watch tv for a little while while I wake up. They like waking up alot earlier than I am used to. We then go for a walk and come home and eat breakfast. After this, the girls each need to make thier beds and straighten their room, which usually has about 5 toys and 4 pairs of clothing on the floor and then straighten one other room of my choice. The girls usually break down after the first room so these two small tasks take anywhere from 15 minutes to an entire hour. After this, we turn on the TV to do thier hair and then they can go outside and play or we will take a trip somewhere. That pretty much is how my summer days go now. It is so strikingly different than how they used to be. I am not saying this is a bad thing, in fact, it is quite the opposite. It is a great kind of different that keeps me on my toes and brings meaning to my life. I did not tell you that these girls are new to our family, they entered our home last October because of Foster Care, a great organization that I am sure to blog about at a later date and joined our family permanently about two weeks ago. Whew!! What a giant blessing for me and my husband! Anyway, not surprisingly, summers used to be quite different for me but now they have more meaning and life. Lots more life, diapers, toys, dirty faces, dirty clothes, smiles, giggles, hugs. Lots more of everything.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about today and some of my great finds at the Deseret Industries, a church owned thrift store. I know that people will think that this is strange but I am starting to think that I actually have a talent for finding cheap things ( I can't give myself all of the credit though, it seems whenever I think/pray about what I need and it is for a good cause, I find it. I definitely get help staying within my means). I was so excited to get to go to the DI today since I have not dared go very often with my two cute girls. We arrived there and both girls were so excited grabbing everything and putting it in the cart. I ended up with lots of differnet non-matching shoes that I am sure the workers just loved finding the mates for. We then searched the store for hidden treasures. I was lucky enough to find a strawberry shortcake house shaped like a berry and three "my first scripture" sets, as well as a brand new dress for the girls. I was so excited! Both girls got to pick something that was worth one dollar as long as they behaved in the store. Numero Uno picked a grab bag of rings, necklaces, and hair accessories (which I must admit was kind of icky) and Numero Dos grabbed a small electronic game that seems to occupy her time. I was very happy about this as she is a very active little two year old. Well, on the way home, Numero Uno shared her spoils with her sister and they both adorned thier selves with the rings and necklaces. We then had lunch and the girls went down for a nap.

During their nap, I talked to my friend and opened up the strawberry house which to my surprise had three strawberry shortcake dolls, clothing, furniture and much more. I was so excited and the girls were even more excited to see the treasures that it beheld when they woke up.

Later, at bed time more DI treasures were used. I got out the "my first scripture" books and the two blue soft back Book of Mormons that we got. Both girls were so excited and wanted to read from the "my first" for thier nightly book and then Numero Uno asked to read from the Book of Mormon for her book. It amazes me how much these girls delve into things relating to the gospel. They both just sit there and pretend to read thier Book of Mormon and are very careful with it. Numero Uno is constantly asking me to hold my Book of Mormon. These girls are spiritual giants and I am sure that someday they will do amazing things. Right now, they are just great examples to thier mommy and daddy.