Last night Ben and I were reading a book. This book-On one of the pages there is a an illustrated picture of a cow from behind which shows the cows udders. Ben asked me what they were, so I explained and told him that milk comes out of them. This was the rest of our conversation-

Most of us have guilty pleasures. Since I feel guilty about a lot of things, I have a lot of guilty pleasures. Here's one of them-

Do you ever wonder exactly who all the people are on other's blog rolls? Maybe you don't, but in case you do here's who is on my blog roll. I use to keep them in alphabetical order, but not they are in no particular order.

Austin-My sixteen year old cousin who lives up the street from me. My kids love him.

Daring Young Mom-I've never met the hilarious person who writes this blog, but I was friends with her husband when I was in high school. Daring Young Mom is an awesome writer. I love the way she looks at life and then the way she writes about it. I recommend you blog hop on over to her blog. If you ever blog hop. (I don't think I'm the only person who does it. I use to do it a lot more before everybody started writing blogs.)

Family of Three- Amanda is a friend that I met at my last job. She is the cutest mom and I'm so glad she was able to adopt a cute little boy. She writes about adoption quite a bit on her blog. She and her husband are trying to adopt again.

The Best of Becca- I've know Becca for almost 13 years now. I met her when I was working at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Every once in a while we lose track of each other, but we always connect back up. I've really enjoyed doing stuff with her lately.

Mind Numbing Rantings- My handsome husband's blog.

Hope is Power- I had a really awesome friend in high school named Derek. Since it can be awkward to keep track of guy friends after high school, it's kind of nice that his wife has a blog. I love the way she writes too. And sometimes she posts really tasty recipes.

Jennifer-My awesome sister who lives across the street from me. She doesn't write much because she isn't addicted to blogging like me. She does more productive stuff like painting her house, redoing her front yard, etc...

Laughter & Loveliness- Carrie is another one of the awesome friends I had in high school. She as an awesome personality and constantly made me laugh. She is still making me laugh with her blog.

Marginalia-Brent, a friend Chad and I worked with at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, writes this blog. His blog is a lot more serious than the other's I read and it's the only political one. It definately gets me thinking, but he doesn't write much anymore.

Mel's mind-Melanie is married to Ben (one of Chad's almost lifelong friends). Chad and I love hanging out with them, but they live so darn far away. It kind of bums us out that they will probably never live close to us again.

Valerie-use to live down the street from me. She is so nice and I feel so comfortable when I am around her. She has a sweet little girl that's close to Ben's age and Ben loves to play with her.

Michelle- is my little sister. Her and her husband live about five hours away from me. I don't see her much, so it's fun to read her blog.

Natalie-lives in my neighborhood. She's fun to talk with and hang out with. She is one of the people I will really miss when we move.

Shannon-is a girl I grew up with. She lived up the street from me and is the same age, so we went to school together. We hung out with some of the same friends in high school.

Sharlene- is a friend from high school. It's fun to read about her life and adventures.

Sucking on Oranges-Is the first blog I'd heard of. Our friend, Ben, writes it. He is hilarious sometimes. He has the funniest and refreshing way of looking at life and he has an amazing ability writing about it. Ben is just finishing up his master's degree in Georgia and will be moving to Florida, this summer, to start on is PhD. He wants to be a philosophy professor.

There are a few more blogs that I read that I just haven't put in my blog list yet. I'll be putting them soon and explaining who they are.

That's my day in a nutshell. The root canal wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting, but it's not something I want to have done again any time soon. I still have to go back two more times for them to finish things up. I wish I didn't have to go back.

Ha, Ha! Wouldn't that be cool though?

This afternoon my nieces and nephews came over to watch a movie. My niece was using the bathroom and when she tried to get toilet paper the roll fell off the toilet paper dispenser, so she just threw the roll (half full) in the toilet.

Speaking of the bathroom, Jack comes in the bathroom with me and now he can't leave the toilet alone. It drives me crazy when I'm trying to go potty and he's trying to reach his hands in the toilet.

Tonight we went to a fundraiser barbecue dinner. The food was tasty and it was fun to sit and visit with friends. It's nice to be outside when it's not blazing hot. The dinner was at a house in our neighborhood that has a really, really nice backyard. Ben had so much fun playing with the other kids (there was about 40 of them.) When we left the house Ben asked if we "could go to their house again, and they would have food again."

Our house has been innundated by ants. They are everywhere. I try very hard to keep the kitchen clean, but it's a little tricky with two little kids for our house to be void of crumbs. It's strange this year though, the ants aren't just on the floor, they are crawling on the counters and walls. It's driving me crazy. Also, the ants bite and it hurts. We bought some stuff called Tero, that we've heard works really well. I hope it does.

This is my handsome Chad. He is sooooo wonderful. I know that his number one priority in life is to make me happy. That's why he does the dishes pretty much all the time now. That's why he's so supportive of this. (My attempt at photography. It's seems like everybody and their dog is doing this now, but Chad thinks I should keep doing it.)
I am one lucky girl.

This morning I feel like I have a hangover. I've never actually had a hangover, but the way I feel this morning I think is best described as a hangover. I took a painkiller that a dentist prescribed to me because my mouth hurt like crazy. I rarely ever even take Tylenol, so the painkiller knocked me out.
Yesterday morning I woke up and discovered I'd broken a tooth. I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but I'm thinking it probably happened when I was grinding my teeth while sleeping. My tooth was probably weakened by a cavity and I already had a filling in that tooth. Needless to say, I was in a bit of pain yesterday.
I am not a big fan of the dentist. I have a small mouth and even after just a cleaning my jaw hurts for a week. The biggest thing I don't like about the dentist is actually finding one that I like. I really liked my last dentist. A friend suggested that I should go see her brother who had just graduated from dental school and needed patients. He felt really bad when I almost passed out after laying on my back in the dentist chair (I was eight months pregnant.) We saw him for a couple of years, but then our insurance changed. He also changed to being a pediatric dentist only so we couldn't see him anymore anyway.
I haven't seen the dentist for a couple of years. Stupid, stupid, stupid, I know. Yesterday I had to see a dentist though. I called one of the places on our insurace and fortunately they got me in yesterday. I now need a root canal and crown. They started the root canal yesterday, but now I need to see an endodontist to have it finished. I have a temporary filling in my mouth, and man does it taste foul.
I've had a strange couple of weeks. I just haven't felt well. Chad made a comment that he felt bad that it seemed like my body was falling apart. I told him maybe it has something to do with the fact that I will be thirty in a couple of weeks, and he'll have his turn next year. :)

Could you only use a tank of gas for an entire month? My sister was thinking about trying it out this summer. I thought I'd like to try it too. I've already been through a tank and a half of gas this month, so this month is a bust.
When Chad and I were dating and first married we put a lot of miles on our cars. We would take drives, go all kinds of places to eat, take quick trips on the weekend. I definately drive a lot less now than I did then, but I should still cut back. Especially now with the high gas prices.
It kind of amazes me how many miles I put on my car just running errands around town. I try to consolidate trips, but the miles just add up. I think it's good for all of us to assess our "carbon footprint", but it's definately difficult to make changes. It means that we don't go see Chad's parents very often. It means I don't often go out and visit friends that live further away.
Do you think you could only use a tank of gas a month?

I have a difficult time making decisions, especially when it comes to big decisions. Because of this I often feel like I am in a state of limbo. I never got at least a bachelor's degree (even though I want to) because I could never decide what I wanted to do. I never moved away for school, because I was too scared to make a decision about it. And right now I feel like I am in a state of limbo because we are still living in my aunt's basement.

• I really like our neighborhood. I know that there are wonderful people almost everywhere, it's just that finding them and developing relationships takes time. It's just hard to start over.


• The basement we live in is beautiful. I especially love the kitchen. It has an island, which I've discovered is especially nice when feeding kids. It has beautiful cabinets and tons of cupboard space. And we have a nice big pantry under the stairs.


• The basement is nicer than most houses we can afford. Some people might say it's a little small, but it's perfect for us (especially since my aunts have room for us to store all our extra stuff.)

We feel very fortunate that we've been able to live where we do, but someday we should probably move on. Sometimes it's nice being in limbo because the possiblities are endless, but then at the same time it's overwhelming because the possibilities are endless. Should Chad look for a new job? Should we move out of state, out of country? If we stay in-state, where should we live? Should we rent or should we buy? Should I build a yurt in my sister's backyard? Decisions, decisions. Someday I'll make them, but for right now-

A while after Ben was born one of Chad's coworkers said to us, "despite the fact that you are completely exhausted with a newborn, you should know that the baby stage is the easiest part of raising a child." I did not understand what he meant at the time, but now I do. It took a little over two years before Ben started doing things that really frustrated us.
Sometimes I can't believe how mind numbingly difficult being a parent is. And I'm certain there will be moments when it is a lot more difficult than now. In between the difficult moments, and the monotony, I'm really trying to find joy in being a mom.
Tonight Ben's prayer made me smile. I love it when he comes up with things on his own and we don't have to promt him to say things. This was his prayer tonight-
"Heavenly Father, please bless that I will do what my mommy and daddy say and please bless the kids [his cousins] to be good for their mommy and daddy."
AMEN!

Last night we ended up at Primary Children's Hospital. With Ben's crazy climbing tricks lately you'd think we ended up there with a broken arm or something. But no, it was Jack. He fell and cut his face and we had to go get stitches. Here's what happened. Yesterday around noon, my friend Becca and I headed down to Monroe. Her mom lives there and we were going to go visit her. We were also going to go to her in-laws greenhouse to plant some tomatillo seeds to start for my sister.





Another one of my long stories, but here's just one more thing- They gave Jack some medicine to relax him so that they could do the stitches. It relaxed him, but it also made him laugh. The nurse practitioner, nurses, and tech thought it was so funny. It made me laugh too, despite the fact that I felt bad about what happened.

For almost three weeks now, Ben has been wearing these carabiners- Every day. He wants to go rock climbing. He will only wear pants that he can hook them on. The first couple of days he was calling them his hookers, but now he calls them by their correct name. (It's a good thing that he started calling them by their correct name before his nursery teacher asked what they were. Well, she probably would have just laughed.) As far as Ben is concerned, we all should be born with this 'hookers' attached to our bodies. They are so useful. Here's the latest discovery- He can climb the fence without the carabiner, but then he wouldn't be able to stop and do this-
He ripped these pants. We need to make/buy him a harness or something. However, he would wear it all the time and it would be a pain when he needs to go to the bathroom.

Ben is just recently coming out of a phase where he would only let me do things for him. He wouldn't let Chad do anything for him-get him dressed, make him food, play with him, wipe his bum (lucky Chad), etc. Thank goodness he's letting Chad do some things for him now.

Nine months ago my sister and I started a lunch group in our neighborhood. Every month we choose an ingredient and then everybody brings something that contains that ingredient. Sometimes it's hard to put ourselves out there and invite people to come, but it's fun to get together with some of the other girls in my neighborhood. Some of us like to cook. All of us like to eat good food. Lots of time for lunch I will just eat the crusts from Ben's peanut butter sandwhich, so it's nice to have something a little fancier (generally a lot fancier) than that.

P.S. I love taking pictures of food. It probably goes along with my obsession of making food look beautiful.

Most weekends it's hard to figure out what to do, but this past weekend was a fun weekend. We did lots of little things that made it fun. Friday night we met Chad at Liberty Park. We rollerbladed, had a picnic, and then played at the park. The weather was perfect. Saturday morning Chad went to the gym then came home and made a delicious breakfast. He made pancakes for Ben and a veggie omelet for him and me. After breakfast we went over to my parents and stripped copper wire (I'll explain in another post), went to lunch with my parents, and then ran some errands.