Monday, June 30, 2014

Weeds

I have SO been putting this job off, but have gotten to the point where it MUST be done.  These weeds, that are taller than I am?  Yeah.  They are infesting the east side of my house, and pretty much obstruct the garbage can.  The landlord came by and thought to spray them, but it would have been crazy amounts of weed killer sprayed on them to kill them entirely.  He sprayed a few, and left the rest.  So I hunkered down, and figured I'd get going on it.  Fully expecting it to take hours.  I mean, what weeds come out with any amount of ease?


Well, apparently THESE do!  They came right out!  These giant weeds have exceptionally shallow root systems, and they come right out of the ground.  Even where the soil was not properly wet from the hose.  There were only a couple that required the use of my new shovel.  I was astounded, and so grateful the job ended up being as simple as it was.  Small mercies!  Here I am, pretty proud of my accomplishment for the day!

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Half Marathon Training

I've definitely decided to run a half marathon this fall...likely at Halloween time.  I had originally looked forward to Derek being here and possibly running it with me, but as that's not to be, I will run it myself and keep myself both busy and fit.  Training as the only adult in the house with three small children has been interesting.  Trying to get in the necessary runs each week has been less than entirely successful, but I will keep plugging along.  I hope to see some progress, here, soon, if I can keep up the training.  I wish I was one of those people who could just get up and run a half marathon, but I am not.  I need the time to train and get my body used to the exercise, slowly upping my mileage.  It's good I know this about myself, and it does force me to get out and move around more than I would otherwise.  

Friday, June 27, 2014

You Live in a Zoo

Headed to the zoo, today.  They've done a lot of work here, changing some of the animal habitats, and adding new attractions.  The girls love the old standbys, though.  And the old standbys definitely include climbing on the statues!  It's all fun and games until a sister gets in another's way!  Leiden wanted to be sitting where Mac was, and refused to smile for the picture.  And that, my friends, is life!


After Mac climbed off, there wasn't anyone immediately waiting, so she hopped up and plastered a smile right back on her face.


This beautiful creature was seen wandering around the grounds.  I hope someday to see one with its tail feathers spread wide.  He ruffled them several times, gave us a couple false alarms, but it stayed largely down.  I'm always surprised at how big they are.


Another favorite:  the gorilla!  For adults and children alike.  I'm not sure how close to life size it is, but it's pretty big.


Leiden chose to stay out of this one, but Mac looks pretty excited.  I think Mimi liked sitting in its lap.


The zoo is a fun place to visit.  We have had a year pass, and have gotten our money out of it, but probably should have gone more.  Especially since we won't likely BE here for another whole year.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

 Today we did an Independence Day craft with pipe cleaners!  We got out the red, white, and blue paint...and some silver glitter paint for fancy, and went to town on our black night sky papers!


It's actually a fun little craft.  The pipe cleaners are twisted together and spread out to look like fireworks.  You can twist together as many as you like, and vary the length of the cleaners used. 


This was Leiden's.  She very appropriately added the flag in the corner. 


Mac's night sky has tons of stars in addition to the fireworks. 


Mimi did her own variations.  Sometimes she is able to stay on track with a guided craft, and sometimes she's not.  She did pretty well, today. 


Independence day is coming!

So, Derek sends me pictures all the time, and I haven't been including them on the blog, necessarily, but then I thought, why not?  This is supposed to be a record of my life with the girls, and he is now a part of that life...albeit thousands of miles away.  So from time to time I will include him in our story here on the blog.  Obviously he will be much more present here on the blog when he's actually present here!

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

This morning was a little stressful for Leiden.  She has a cavity that was scheduled to be filled, today, and hasn't been quite sure what to expect.  She took along a little stuffed animal to keep her company, and chose watermelon laughing gas.  I'm amazed that they can drill surface cavities without using shots of novocaine!  I guess little kids don't sit in the dentist chair just waiting for that shot of pain that comes suddenly when the dentist hits something!  I know that's what I do...BUT.  She did great!  The dentist is very fast, and it is done in a matter of a couple minutes.  Hopefully we won't be doing this ever again!


I've got Derek's Independence Day package all ready to send off to him.  It's full of red, white, and blue stuff...from food to sunglasses and little flags.  Hopefully it will brighten his holiday next month!


He, of course, didn't get the preview of the box, but he did get this one, where we are off to the post office!  Amazing that this little package will travel 7000+ miles away and find him in Afghanistan.  Crazy.  I wish I could.  Well, I wish I could find him in a non war-torn country.  :) 

Monday, June 23, 2014

We went for a treat this evening after dinner.  This particular cupcake shop has this beautiful mercury glass dresser, that I admire every time I go in.  Thought I'd show Derek what he's missing--except he doesn't like cake!  More for me!


Mac was funny.  Instead of choosing a cupcake, she went, with obvious enthusiasm, for the mustache sucker!  Very funny. 

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Days Down v. Days to Go

Made this little visual countdown...trying not to think not about the lopsided-in-the-wrong-direction reality, here, but rather the fact that every glass stone taken out of days to go not only subtracts from it, but adds to days down!  The glass is (becoming) half full, as it were.  :)

Saturday, June 21, 2014

We headed up to Heber, this morning, and had breakfast out.  I actually really like breakfast in restaurants.  I never eat full breakfasts like that unless it's dinnertime.  :)  It's far too heavy for someone who isn't using the calories that aggressively.  But every once in a while?  Heck yes!  The girls were crazy, crawling around and struggling to obey, but we had a good time.  We stopped off at Mike and Leigh's house afterwards to deliver some of the baptism poofy pom decorations so they can use them for Britta's baby shower here in about a month while she and Brett are here from Singapore!

Friday, June 20, 2014

Violin

THIS happened today!  Leiden has been talking about wanting to learn the violin for some time, now...I was finally able to get her in with a teacher in our ward, so we were off to get her supplies.  Including a violin!


She has a 1/2 size, which seems so small, yet they tried her with a 1/4 to begin with.  The tiny little 1/16 violins were amazing to see.  She wanted to get it out first thing after we got home, and start tooling around with it.  This should be fun!


For fun I got mine out as well, and did a little comparison.  So little!  Or mine is so big, I'm not sure which.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Diving Board Day!

Diving Board Day!  The girls love this day at swimming lessons!  And frankly, so do I.  These pics are kind of hard to spot the kid in, but here's Mimi off the low dive.


Leiden attempted the high dive, and then decided it wasn't for her.  Which is funny, because she went off it multiple times last year.


And here goes Mimi off the high dive!  This child has no fear!


And HOLY SMOKES!  I just happened to turn on the video for this.  It's dark, and there's not much I could do to improve it, but check out the Meemers!

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Hair!

Haircuts for everyone but Leiden, today!  My hair is getting long...but definitely needed a good trim.  So the Macdonald girls descended on Fantastic Sam's.


They took off about an inch.  It needed it, for sure! 


Mimi got a little stacked a line.  We are ALMOST in business as far as her self-induced hair cutting spree goes.  She only has an inch or two and the discrepancies will be leveled off. 


SUCH a cute little profile. 


Mac somehow eluded the pictures...but she got her little stacked bob trimmed, too.  Perfect for summer!

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Wow.  I had a screaming child in my room this morning, which we did NOT go to swimming lessons.  It is something like 50 degrees outside this morning.  Anyway, a screaming little Mac in my room.  I refuse to let them be in my presence if they are throwing a fit, so she was given the choice to either stop her crying or go cry in her room.  She didn't stop crying, so was given the choice to take herself to her room, or have me take her.  She stayed right where she was, pitching her fit.  So I calmly walked over, and just (I thought) as I have always done, bent down and picked her up off the floor to carry her to her room.  Well.  Just as I'm lifting her, I feel something pull and tear in my chest...ouch!  I managed to get her to her room, but I was in pain.  I was meeting some friends in a couple hours, so I broke out the frozen peas and laid down on my bed.  I sure hope I haven't done anything terrible...


Later this afternoon, it was friends together, again!  Emily arrived late last night safely from Oregon, and we went our separate ways this morning.  We met up with Kim and Claire at Kim's sister's house, and spent the day chatting and talking while our children played and explored this beautiful home.  So great to see these ladies, again.  Claire wasn't able to come visit in Oregon last fall, so it was great to see her and spend time with these women that I'm stunned to realize I've known for 9 years!  What a great afternoon.


Had another weird moment driving home.  I didn't mention before, but Derek chose to extend his tour in Afghanistan (for many reasons), so he will not be coming home when we had originally planned.  I have struggled with the news for several days, now, but seem to be getting a grip a little better.  But I'm definitely still having moments where I will think 'this is what it will be like when he comes home'...about the weather, or seasons, etc.  Like with the autumn decorations yesterday.  Today was SUPER cold.  Driving home from our friend day, there was newly fallen snow on the mountains.  In that split second before I remember that he's not coming home in the fall, I get so excited...THIS is what it will look like!  And then I remember.  Very interesting moments.  It's fascinating to watch my own brain work, really.  Fascinating to pay attention to what I look forward to, what emotional significance I attach to things, and how I mark the time in my head.  I just had to take a minute, feel the sadness of prolonged separation for a moment, then remind myself that when the weather looks like this all the time during the fall, we will be that much closer to him returning, and my favorite time of year, anyway.  I can do this.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Mimi and Mommy at swimming lessons.  It was COLD today.  Like cold enough I considered not taking the kids to lessons.  We fully needed jackets, let alone the girls swimming!  
Mimi is loving her lessons, and is surprisingly patient waiting for her lessons.  By that I mean she doesn't cry because it's not time yet.  She does, however, ask me like fifty times when it will be time for her lesson.  Then, because she has no concept of time, she asks how long 20 minutes is.  And then repeat every couple minutes all the way up to yes, you can go to your lesson spot!


THIS was crazy to see at Hobby Lobby, today.  Goodness, it's only June.  For a few seconds I was super excited...I can't wait for fall, and it will be that much closer to Derek coming home.  Then I remembered it's only June, and stores are notorious for jumping the gun!  But the day will come, and likely sooner than I think, that these fall decorations will be appropriately timed! 


We have tiny little broccoli florets from the garden!  It's all very exciting.  I've never grown it before, and I thought that the florets were larger, like the ones in the store, but if I let them get bigger, they open up and flower.  They taste great!

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Happy Father's Day!


It's Father's Day!  I'm so glad that I got to spend the evening with this guy!


My mom was super thoughtful and got him a Backer's cake, as they are always closed during the month of July...when it's Dad's birthday.  White cake with raspberry filling!  A definite family favorite.


How I love this man.  He is an excellent example for me, and so many other people, as well.  Fathers, good fathers, are so integral to their children.  I am so thankful for you, Dad!  On this day, and always.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

We took a trip to the library, today.  The girls love to walk out with piles of books.


So do I.  :)


In other news, I spent the whole night after the girls were asleep cleaning the basement the rest of the way.  They helped largely in the large family room and play room, but I needed to clean the craft room.  Because...my friend Emily is coming on Monday!  I am so excited to see her.  We were together in Oregon about 8 months ago, and she and her children will be staying with us for a couple nights next week.  We will be meeting a couple other friends next week, also.  Super fun!

Friday, June 13, 2014

M&M

This makes me laugh...I couldn't choose between the two of Mac and Mommy...I look better in this one:


and Mac looks better in this one! 

I finally determined, hey.  This is my blog, and I can put both up!

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Those molds are terrible...the giant plastic trays that stretch your mouth out, filled to overflowing with that goopy stuff.  Breathing through your nose and trying not to gag at the goo in the back of your throat...ick.  BUT, it's done in about 45 seconds, so we are good.  The girls were fascinated at the stuff I had in my mouth.  I don't think the girl who did my molds was very careful, because little bits of stuff got all over the place!  My face, my clothing...and little bits in my mouth after she took the tray out.  Glad that's over!  I hope this will work out for me.


Swimming lessons were funny, today.  The teachers had the girls attempting to dive over pool noodles into the deep end.  It only kind of worked.  Both their little legs kept trying to jump over the noodles.


The teacher, a probably 17 or so year old kid, finally got wise and grabbed their feet and kind of flipped them in to the pool over the noodle.  


Mimi's class is only 25 minutes to the others' 50, so she gets to play and run around for a bit while they finish up.  Today she was being super.


SO cute.


For the last few minutes, the class headed to the diving board.  


Leiden is not interested in the high dive.  We will see how she feels on diving board day.  Mac, on the other hand, is.



Headed to Lifetime this afternoon.  Their cancellation policy is highway robbery.  You have to pay for one billing cycle after you've canceled, so we are still members until the end of July.  I took a turn on the treadmills, and did a pretty good job!  Averaged 9:40 mile for 30 minutes, which is pretty good.  Of course it was a flat run, but we must start somewhere!  


After exercising, I went and got the girls from the child care and we went swimming some more!  I need to take as much advantage of this as I can before it expires.