One Hundred

i'm like way behind in the blogging world and am finally getting around to posting my "100." 100 what - i don't know. random things about me, thoughts i have, etc. so have fun.

1. i was just called in to my kids' bedroom and ordered by my almost-3 year old to "turn the heater on mommy and then give miles a drink of water." aye-aye Captain.
2. i have an almost 3 year-old and a 13 month old - both boys.
3. i was inducted into the "popular group" in 5th grade. i think natalie c. and i were decided upon becoming members of the group because we were born in "exotic" places.
4. i was born in honolulu.
5. natalie c. was born in new york city.
6. my mother-in-law gave me her copy of "the sisterhood of traveling pants" and i read it in one nite.
7. it was not my favorite book and so i don't know why i had to finish it in one nite - but i really did enjoy reading it.
8. i think my favorite book is "Gone with the Wind."
9. my sister was mad at me for making her read it because she really, really loved it - until the lame-o ending.
10. i drive a subaru forester that is full of mashed nutri-grains and smooshed cheerios.
11. i should care more, but i don't really care that my car is full of mashed and smooshed items.
12. i should let you all know i worked last nite and am working off 2-2 hour naps today - so don't hold me accountable for all that i say
13. i've never been superstitious about the number 13
14. we have 3 space heaters in our 1200 square foot home
15. our home is still pretty much freezing
16. i just got my first "assignment" in my new calling (compassionate leader person) - i just realized how much i detest having to call people and ask them to help out; it's awkward sometimes
17. our car's windshield has a huge crack in it and developed even more cracks this past weekend in denver
18. i love my husband
19. i don't think i'll see my husband at all today because he left before i got home from work and i plan to be in bed sleeping when he comes home from his stake meetings tonite - which he went to straight from work
20. my husband likes to play the mandolin and is quite good at it
21. i think i like the guitar better
22. this is kind of fun
23. i took first place on beam (my usual worst event) in a level 5 (the beginning of competition level) gymnastic state championship competition
24. my coach's name was hernan felix
25. he was an olympian - i think
26. i used to spend an absurd amount of time - in junior high mind you - getting my bangs just right (and just high enough, i'm sure my friends and family would say)
27. perhaps i had to compensate with my lack of height with making my bangs a little taller??
28. i have only gotten 1 ticket so far - for speeding
29. my husband got like 4 tickets in one day back in new york - i don't think any were for speeding
30. i don't like how in today's society people can't take responsiblity and have to blame someone or something other than themselves
31. don't blame me for saying that - i was born to think that way due to the genes i inherited
32. my 2 favorite movies are "sound of music" and "while you were sleeping." i looooove them.
33. the only movies i've ever seen my husband watch over and over and over are: 1. dances with wolves, and 2. napolean dynamite. they must be his favs.
34. i'm stopping for the nite once i reach 50
35. i really love all my family - in-laws definitely included
36. i get cold right when hopping into bed, then about midnite on i am burning up and pushing all the covers off me and onto my cold husband
37. the first neighborhood (sugarhouse, utah) my husband and i lived in as a married couple will most likely be the nicest neighborhood we will ever live in
38. my husband likes to have as many lights on as possible while at home
39. i don't
40. you don't find out this stuff until you get married
41. to me, everything bascially has a 50/50 chance - none of this "the chances are 90% that it will snow." then it doesn't snow. to me it is either gonna snow or not - 50/50.
42. my sister, the statistician, will probably disagree with me
43. my dad's b-day is sept. 4th, mother-in-law's AND brother-in-law's sept. 6th, and my mother's sept. 8th
44. my grandma's b-day is feb. 27th, mine is march 27th (and perhaps Baby Haslam, too), our anniversary is april 27th, my parent's anniversary (i think???) is may 27th, my half-b-day is sept. 27th, and 2 of my sisters-in-law have anniversaries on dec. 27th.
45. a sentence is less impactful when the phrase "i think" is used, i think
46. the book i am now reading is entitled, "the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime." it is bizarre and funny.
47. my favorite bagel store used to be brackmann's bagels - before einstein's bought them out. now it is rich's bagels.
48. there is no rich's bagels in montrose
49. neither is there a target, an old navy, a michaels, or great harvest here
50. see number 34
51. (it's now like 2 or 3 week later)
52. a 10 year-old girl today told me that some grown-ups like me were called midgets
53. i told her that's nice and all but i am not a midget
54. i don't have anything against midgets, i'm just not one
55. i did enjoy watching "little people" on TLC at my folk's place
56. we do not have cable in our house
57. we have dial-up internet, but hopefully will switch to DSL soon
58. i have no idea what DSL stands for, but i'm sure i'll like it
59. my best-friends were all random roommates at BYU
60. i made "healthy" jalepeno poppers last nite and they were pretty good
61. since i touched the jalepenos, however, i cannot put contacts in my eyes - it burns too much!? 62. i just finished the first coating of paint on the kids' bookshelf
63. i spent 6 weeks in guatemala with fellow nursing students
64. my relationship with ben really grew while in guatemala - via lovely emails
65. ben is really quite witty and writes really great and funny emails when he wants to
66. my wedding ring is very loose (see #15)
67. ben and i have almost been married for 5 years
68. i can't remember what ben and i did when we did not have kids
69. my boy miles is doing absolutely fantastic with the whole potty training thing
70. when outside i get 5 times as many bug bites as ben - or most other people for that matter
71. during high school my mom and i would play tennis
72. i'm not sure i ever beat my mom in a tennis match
73. i've lived in hawaii, florida, virginia, utah, new york, and colorado
74. i like my toes
75. i pick-up but hardly deep clean
76. cleaning the toilet and bathtub makes me want to puke
77. ben gets to clean the toilet and bathtub
78. i really love running - especially in the wintertime
79. i think YOU should move to montrose
80. we (i.e., usually ME) make homemade pasta every week for pasta nite
81. my 2 new favorite things to eat: mini ranch rice cakes and cherry nutrigrains
82. my old favorite thing to eat: ghiradelli chocolate chips
83. i had to look up the right spelling of "ghiradelli"
84. i am 12 weeks pregnant, surprise
85. my youngest boy's fav. thing to do now is stick food in his ears - so gross (see below picture)86. i ate oatmeal this morning for breakfast

87. i had leftover fajitas for lunch

88. i enjoyed doing our federal taxes since we'll get back money

89. i did not enjoy doing colorado state taxes since we owe money

90. i have never had to pay/owe tax money before

91. i am a registered nurse

92. it seems like i've put in more hours nursing (i.e., feeding) my babies than nursing patients

93. my brother lives in Alaska

94. my sister lives in the DC area

95. ben, at 5'7, is taller than everyone in my immediate family

96. i , at 4'10, am shorter than everyone (who have reached their full height) in my immediate family and in-law family

97. i have run 1 marathon - and that's enough for me

98. i have made 1 quilt - and that's enough for me

99. i wear flip-flops like 90% of the time

100. i'm hungry right now

so there ya go! if you read it ALL you got some very interesting news - if you didn't read the whole thing, you better go back and do it. :)

to the Teachers of Little Learners

so this post is for all you teachers out there - school teachers, church teachers, moms, dads, etc.

after church today i was asking miles what he learned in his primary class today. he didn't give me any answers. so i tried to help him along with silly questions like "did you learn about porcupines?" "No." "did you learn about fish?" "No." "did you learn about Jesus?" "Yeah." and that was about it. but i've learned in my almost 3 years as a mom that kids have really great long-term memories (like, ummm, miles can remember things that happened 8-10 months ago) and really crummy short-term memories (like miles can never tell ben what he had for lunch that day or what other activity he did that day).

however it turns out that kids, even 3 year-olds, listen and actually learn! amazing.

so after nap i'm holding miles and out of the blue he says something to the effect of "what is that one that doesn't have a body?" we hadn't been talking about anything church-related or such. but i answered, "the Holy Ghost?" and he lit up and said "Yeah!" then miles went on to talk about how the Holy Ghost has no body. he said he has a "warm coat," and then miles started laughing at himself, saying, "no, no, not warm coat, warm ummm. . . ." i tried to help him by saying "warm spirit" but that wasn't it. i finally said "warm feeling" and he was excited that i got it right! so he talked again how the Holy Ghost has no body but that when we get "an owwie" He can come and help us feel better. i was really impressed with all that he had absorbed that day in church. i don't think ben and i have really talked about the Holy Ghost with him and so he really did learn this all from his great primary teacher. i'll have to call her tomorrow and tell her she actually is teaching.

anyways, i thought it was fun to hear all this stuff he had learned. i credit good, dedicated teachers and kids' spongy brains. :)

More Valentines Pictures

so i did take some photos of Jonas and so i thought i would post them, too. i have some more of miles, too. we had a fun valentines - not that we really did much. but miles thought it was way cool to get some valentines' cards and treats. i lucked out with a nice card and a HUGE bag of skittles - yum. i've really been wanting skittles for a while and so that was perfect. ben ummm lucked out with paper hearts with messages hanging around the house. valentines is kind of a juvenile holiday and so i wanted to keep it that way. :) anyways, here are the pics.

some brotherly love.















ben probably won't be super thrilled that i posted this pictures - but, come on, it's cute. like father like son?

Happy Valentines' Day - 1 day early

Well I thought I would post some stuff today since I have the time right now - tomorrow I work and so during my "break" I usually just try to nap the entire time.

So I had playgroup at my house today - and boy was I ever lucky! Only 1 girl showed up - Claire. Luke hasn't been coming since his li'l bro was born, Anwen is suffereing from severe separation-anxiety issues, and Sydney just didn't show up. So it was just Miles and Claire. Ben was off today and so we had already decided that he'd go grocery shopping with Jonas and so it was an unusually quiet and calm playgroup. I liked it.

I took pictures of the kids in the chair and then printed them off and then we made some Valentines' Cards with the pics inside - actually each kid just made one. Next year I need to be better and do this like a week before so we can make a bunch and actually give them to people. But they had fun with the glue. But Miles was unusally "hurried" with his craft - because he was ready to frost, and mainly, eat the cookies!






So after they glued on a sufficient number of hearts to satisfy me, we frosted the cookies and put sprinkles and such on it. Then Claire and Miles got to eat their homemade cookie - yum. Although Claire just said "Yuck" when she ate the cookie - all she wanted to do, and did, was lick off all her sprinkles and frosting! It was pretty hilarious. But my camera batteries were dead by then - too bad.




Anyways, there are no pictures of Jonas because 1. he wasn't there, and 2. my batteries are all dead and I tried scrounging up batteries from alarm clocks, toys, etc. in attempt to get some photos of him too, but to no avail. Maybe tomorrow I will take some pics of him - and then again, maybe not.

M2M

so yeah, M2M stands for "move to montrose." do you remember one of my new year's resolution was to get somebody to move here? well part of that resolution was that i would post, monthly, a reason why you need to move out here. i meant to do it last nite (technically still january), but i was SO SUPER BUSY at work i had no time. i literally did not sit down until 1am - that was 6 straight hours on my feet. they hurt. and it's 5am and i just finished up my chart checks, med checks, etc., etc. i still have stuff to do, but i wanted to get this done as close to january as i could!

so, since i don't have much time to write, not much brain cells left, and little energy, my post is going to be short. i really haven't thought about it and so it isn't anything brilliant or real exciting.

but, let's get on with it. . . i'm sure you're all dying to know what is so great in montrose and why you have to move here. one word: GESSEPPI'S. it's a local pizza place. and it is SO DANG delicious. seriously. i have never ever been a pizza lover and have never ever desired to order pizza. but GESSEPPI'S has made me a pizza lover and creates in me a desire to order their pizza. it is really that good. and it's not that gross, greasy cheese 'n pepperoni stuff. it's gooooood stuff. like pesto pizza with garlic chicken. YUM. i LOVE it.

so, if you love good pizza then you have to move to montrose. and if you don't love pizza, then come to montrose and become a pizza lover like me. how fun!

k, back to work. . .

little bitty update

well i have a few moments as my kids are pleasantly entertaining themselves for the moment. jonas is carrying a large (and green-eyed) tiger all around - it's bigger than he is! and miles is moving his train along the tracks i've set up for him. we'll see how long it all lasts. . .

so jonas tries to say just about everything we say! he can say balloon, bubble, "ack" (snack), "nana" (banana), stand up, book, moo, etc., etc. he really says a ton - more than we pick up on. he continues to be a non-stop climber. when i tell him to "sit down please" he looks at me, smiles, and then waits a few seconds before he slowly, slowly starts to sit down. that happens 1/2 the time - the other 1/2 he just doesn't even attempt to sit down. now he is playing the piano. he survived a hair-cut by me - it actually turned out pretty good. it's not too difficult as i just have to cut his hair pretty much straight across. the picture of him is him wearing sydney's pink boots - BEN put jonas in them and so i can not get in trouble for dressing my boy in pink.

miles found a friend in luke - his one-time enemy. :) they played and played yesterday and had a great time. luke has really mellowed out and has stopped hitting and pushing for the most part. i'm so happy - now miles can have a friendly buddy! (my peaceful moment is quickly vanishing as a fight is starting over the trains!) i have put miles in the accelerated potty-training class. i just stuck him in underwear. it's been 2 days and we've had 2 accidents. not too bad! i don't know how long that will last. we still are battling poop-issues. he's sick today - i'm not sure with what. nasty head congestion perhaps? i love that he has an AWESOME attention span. he's always the last one to finish up with his craft at playgroup (and not because he's slow!) and will sit the entire time i'm reading books. i love it.

i had a busy week full of tons of kiddos and family. tuesday was playgroup at my home - 6 or so kids. it was crazy and hectic, but we survived. then that afternoon my father and brother came down for a visit. my brother derek, from alaska, has never met my 2 kids and so we had a fun time together. miles couldn't remember the name "uncle derek" for the life of him, but i think he liked him nonetheless! miles loves the table (the one they are all sitting upon) my brother made and gave to us - we all love it! then on thursday we watched luke for about 7 hours - his mommy had a baby the nite before. the same day, at about 3, another gal in the ward dropped off her THREE kids for a couple of hours and so it was crazy insane for a little bit! luckily (FOR ME) ben was home from work that day and so he helped out tons.

anyways, i didn't mean for it to be too long. jonas has lost interest in whatever he was doing and is now having fun playing with the wall and the corner. miles is now sitting on my lap, "miles needs to be held mommy." having a sick kid definitely has its benefits. :)

denver

well i'm real mad cuz i spent a bunch of time writing and uploading photos last nite only to have the blogger kaputz on me. truthfully it was probably our computer cuz we have the lamest computer in the world (but the nicest flatscreen monitor - thanks to erin and chuck!).

so this will be short. we went to denver and had a fabulous time - mainly spending time with family. we spent time with grandma diana and grandpa max, great-grandmas dee and gwenn, and even auntE and uncle chuck. it was awesome! we already miss everybody.

i'm just going to post a few pictures - mainly from the denver children's musuem. so here they go:



the fireboys in front of the firetruck - with "spotty" the dog, of course!






looks like jonas has some serious issues weighing on his mind.









fishing for some magnets - i mean fish.








miles had lots of fun painting some fine pictures. jonas just wanted to eat the paint (he did manage to get some in his mouth), so he was quite upset when we had to end our art session early.




miles and ben went to "super dogs," a show at the stock and rodeo thing in denver. here is miles clapping!

My Day. . . thus far

Well typical of how the last few hours have gone: I just wrote my blog, uploaded pics, etc. and then it all erased on me! Sheeesh.

So you get the shortened version of my day: started out by us all (except ben) sleeping in until 6:30! Wahhooo. (Anything beyond 6 is sleeping in at this house.)

Miles went to playgroup, Jonas and I got lots done. Then we had lunch and that was grand as both kids were very excited about eating yogurt, YUM I guess. Then the day started going KAPUTZ. I was finishing up with Jonas when I heard a loud crash. We have crashes and bonks and bangs all day long here, but something was special about this one. I knew it was. . . serious. So I go out into the living room and saw that our big window pane was shattered. Lovely. So I scooted Miles away, picked up the large pieces of glass, then vacuumed up the rest.

Then. . . I go back into the kitchen and it is all smokey! I had no idea where it was coming from and started opening windows, unplugging things, etc. Then I realized it was from the microwave. I opened it and sure enough found tiny flames still blazing in there! My gosh. I had stuck a dish-sponge in there to "sanitize" it. I have done this many of times before - but never had it catch fire! So that was exciting. . . and stinky.

But now all is calm and merry and bright. Or something like that. The kids are napping, the window guy came over and gave me an estimate (yikes), and now I think I want to take a nap.

Hopefully when I wake up it will be on the right side of things. :)

Hope your day is going better. . .

My New Year's Resolutions

I usually like to make New Year's Goals and such, but I've never been one who is really good at sticking to them. So this year I have only made two - although I actually want to make a few more with Ben but we haven't quite had time yet to sit down together and get that taken care of. Anyways, I'll share my resolutions since one of them involves YOU ("YOU" implying my family and friends reading this).

The first one should just be a given, really. And it doesn't involve YOU, it just involves ME. It is that I will read my scriptures every day. Every day. Every single day. I used to be so much better and would get up and read my scriptures, go running, etc. But when I'm "forced" to wake up around 5:50-6am every morning, I just don't feel like getting up much earlier to read, etc. So I usually try to find a moment here and there to read. I'm still not going to get up any earlier, I'm just going to make more of my "here and there" moments. Like today: I read the scriptures while Jonas was taking his mini-morning-nap and Miles was playing with playdough. I, of course, had to "participate" in playdough-playing and so it was not a truly focused scripture study, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

And so now for my second resolution, the one that involves YOU. I resolve to convince either family members or friends (YOU) to move out to Montrose, Colorado. It is a great place to live, but would be a million times better if we had some good family and/or friends out here to enjoy it with us. :) I've realized that it isn't so much as where you live (especially when you get "established" with kiddos, etc.) as to who you live close to. Luckily we are very close to family and friends, but we actually wish we were closer. We have met wonderful people and friends out here, but nothing beats a long-time friend, sister, sister-in-law, mother, mother-in-law, etc.! So part B. of this resolution it to monthly write a blog on why YOU need to/should move out to Montrose, Colorado.

Wish me luck. . .

Burn Hut - our Home away from Home

(from left to right: Lara, Andy, Shanna, Paul, me, Ben, and Christian in front)
So Ben and I had quite the adventure this past Friday and Saturday. Ben's friend, Paul, had organized a cross-country ski trip near the town of Ridgway - which is just about 20 miles from our home. I was dreading this trip - as well as looking forward to it. I was dreading it because Ben and I had never left our kids for more than 4 or so hours - and this was going to be a 24-hour ordeal. So I kind of hoped that a snow storm would force my parents to stay in Utah and thus we wouldn't be able to go - but it didn't happen. Thank goodness. Ben and I had an awesome time - and so did our boys and Grandma and Grandpa (in fact, the only one who showed signs of missing us was Wilson - I guess he would stand up at the window and whine a few times each day).

Ben and I headed out at about noon on Friday - about a couple hours after the rest of the gang since Ben had to work. We skied about 6 miles to the hut - it was all uphill except for maybe 10 minutes of the 3 1/2 hours of skiing. But it was beautiful and fun to be out together in the wonderful snowy mountains. We got to the hut a little before 5 and hung out for a while. Then we ate dinner and then at about 9pm that nite we all went out frolicking in the snow again. Ben and Christian skied while the rest of us walked in our boots and sled down hills on a shovel - which I was pretty pathetic at doing.

The 10 minutes of down-hill on the way up translated into about 30-40 mintues of uphill for our trip back down. Thus it took us 1/2 the time to get down - a little under 2 hours. It was challenging in a different way - going down hill on cross-country skis is quite difficult since there is not much control and we also had pretty big and heavy packs on us! So we had some fun falls - luckily nobody got hurt. It was a fun ride down!

We met my parents and the 2 kiddos in Ouray for lunch. Miles and Jonas seemed excited to see us - but not overly so. And I guess that's a good thing. They really had a great time and even went to bed well - and Jonas wasn't even cranky for them. And Miles only had to go to time-out once.

In a couple of weeks Ben and I are going down-hill skiing at Mary Jane Ski Resort, outside of Denver. And this time the kiddos get to stay with Grandma Diana and Grandpa Max. They are excited out it - and so are we! This whole idea of leaving our kids for a day or so with the grandparents just might become addicting. . .

Here are the pics of our trip:


Here I am on the way up. We got soooo hot amazingly enough!














This is to show the inside of our hut. It had 2 bunks on each side, a wood-burning stove in the middle and a little "kitchen" area in the back. Here is the gang washing the dishes in the snow-melted water. Fun times!


Ben and Christian getting some nite-time skiing in. More fun times!















Here is Ben on Saturday morning getting the fire started to warm up our hut. The hut actually stayed fairly warm all nite - I never got cold.


These are taken on our way down. I love these pictures! It shows the beautiful snowy trees and the amazing moutains - and one handsome man. Once again - very fun times were had on this trip!