Costco

running out of milk and eggs at the same time pretty much guaranteed that I'd need to get myself to Costco soon.

and somehow this alllllways happens.  go into Costco for milk and eggs and then bury your baby under $200 of groceries.

8 gallons of skim milk, 10 dozen eggs, four loaves of bread, a tub of sour cream, a tub of cottage cheese, giant package of toilet paper, box of yogurts (these have been great for when I don't have the motivation to make food for myself), tortellini (I was feeling ambitious about actually making dinner), hummus (because it was on sale and Brady's favorite number is four so we got four), two packages of snap peas (because we need something to eat with all that hummus!), bananas (even though I never have good luck with Costco bananas, I just keep trying), and a package of bottled water (because we had a door to door salesman come by the other day and it was so hot so I offered him a drink and he asked for a bottle of water to take with him... I was so embarrassed that I didn't have a simple bottle of water for him... I ended up filling up a water bottle with ice water and told him to just throw it away when he was done with it because I didn't care about getting it back. I'm still wondering if he ever drank the water or if he was sketched out that it wasn't safe or something... who knows).  and a box of orbit gum with something like 252 pieces of gum inside... that has proved to be an excellent purchase so far but more on that later.  we got other stuff too like gogurts and magnesium vitamins but holy cow it was amazing how my simple list just filled my cart to the brim.  probably didn't help that I started with three kids though.

eating lunch and hanging out with our new neighbor friends.  we seriously couldn't have lucked out any more with our new neighbors.  I looooove that Brady has a friend on the street now.  I mean, he had Presley before, but it's really great now for him to have a boy to ride bikes and scooters with.

we got that 100 easy lessons reading book on Wednesday afternoon and did five lessons that day and then no lessons on Thursday.  at Costco, I bought that huge box of gum to be Brady's rewards for completing a reading lesson.  he was so excited to get a piece of gum that he asked to do a reading lesson.  I started the stopwatch on my phone (because I'm roughly timing how long lessons take us) and he was so whiney and not very cooperative. finally he told me that he was just too tired so I told him fine and I just got up and went to put Andrew down for a nap.  came back to a sleeping Brady.  and just 9 minutes and 33 seconds before, he'd been begging to do a reading lesson.  I'm glad I let him nap.  also, this is why he won't be doing four days of afternoon preschool.  I think if he just does Tuesday and Thursday of afternoon preschool, he'll be able to nap/rest on the other afternoons and still be totally fine.  he just really still needs naps.

while all three kids were napping, I cleaned out my car.  honey spent some quality time with Andrew since it was his second day in a row that he was more high maintenance and needing to be held/tended to.  we watched part of the big friendly giant but none of us were into it and both kids eventually requested that we turn it off and they could go to bed instead of finishing the movie.  ha. fail.  I got in a screaming match with Abigail during bedtime because she wanted me to stay with her forever until she fell asleep and wasn't willing to compromise at all on any of the suggestions I made to her.  she seems to be the only kid right now that thinks she's an only child and it kills me.  and I sat in Brady's bed forever texting honey who was on the bed in Abigail's room like 20 feet away from me.  eventually I made my way to the kitchen where I cleaned up and made the bread/egg part of baked French toast and stuck it in the fridge for the morning.  mentally, the day had some highs and lows and I'm grateful that my honey really text therapied me through the lows.  night times can be rough on me mentally.

Mouths wide open

This is an actual, candid, completely not staged series of photos from tonight after we got some Costco ice cream. 

Brady kept getting annoyed that he was only getting every other bite. He started physically using his arm to block Abigail out of the way while he kept grunting and reaching for more. The kids just really love ice cream. 

out with a bang

my whole weekend has been kinda magical.

obviously, friday night was awesome.

saturday was really great too though.  we all slept in and then hurried out the door to run errands together.  hit up vitamin cottage for some tahini (so we can make hummus now!) and then to costco where we filled up on a ton of amazing samples (greek yogurt cheeescake, delicious cheeses, chicken sandwiches... some old favorites and some new stuff i hadn't ever tried before) and got groceries and these cubbie things i've wanted forever, and then i ran in walmart for a they're-never-ever-quick return.  it was a luxury to be able to run in vitamin cottage and walmart by myself without having to drag two kids along.  even if i did always have to hear from honey about how long that took.  yes, but it would have taken me even longer if i'd taken two kids... and would have been infinitely more painful for us all.

after lunch, i put brady down for a nap and honey took baby girl to see monsters university.  we're not big movie theater people and honestly, the only reason he even took her was because we got four free movie passes when we recently bought new tires for my car, but baby girl had never seen a movie at a movie theater before and honey really wanted to take her.  he wanted to use the other two passes to take me on a date night but long story short, i'm actually going to use the other two to take baby girl to see turbo (that snail movie) later this week.  i'm excited for our girls night.  while honey and baby girl were gone, i put together all those cube organizer things.  the first one took almost an hour but the other two were quick.  like 20 minutes.  steep learning curve.  i really like putting things like that together.

we went on another walk/bike ride to the playground and it was great.  perfect weather and baby girl is so adorable.  she's so quick to make friends.  or at least try to make friends.  a little boy at the playground looked to be her same age and was wearing a thomas t-shirt so baby girl  kept following him around and talking to him like they were bff.  he ignored her much of the time but there did seem to be some moments that they were actually communicating and playing together.  i think one or both of his parents speak german... so maybe he just doesn't understand english that well.  either way, it's always a whole bundle of emotions watching baby girl make new friends.  it fills me with pride that she is so sweet and innocent and friendly and it wracks me with fear that she'll get her feelings hurt or learn how to be mean.

so then we all walked home and got our kids in bed early (brady has been crazy tired lately... probably from a growth spurt or something) and baby girl didn't nap (we put her down for a really early nap in case she wanted to sleep a bit before the movie but she just played in her crib the whole time) and finished our movie from the night before.  i actually really enjoyed the movie (the big year) which probably means that most people wouldn't enjoy it.  i don't like movies that are too emotionally charged and this one was perfectly middle of the line without being too boring.  it's a given that i don't like movies that are too sad or scary but i also don't like movies that are too happy or uplifting.  romance movies portray an ideal that can make it hard to be satisfied with the day in, day out of your wonderful but simple marriage.  and movies like ruby or the blind side make me feel like i'm not doing enough with my life.  i do really love super funny movies though... but then you get in to the question of if it's risque or inappropriate.  so here's my plug for a funny enough to make you smile but not too emotionally charged in any way sort of movie.  also, i like the bbc pride and prejudice.  but i bet you already knew that.  (even though it portrays a romantic ideal, my honey is actually a lot like mr. darcy and it only portrays the courtship, and it takes place in a time with completely different social norms).  it's a perfect movie... i can find no fault.

and then today.  i wasn't really looking forward to today (maybe i'll look forward to sundays again eventually but not quite yet... too busy and hectic) but, as usual, i was pleasantly surprised.  byc was good.  sacrament meeting was awesome.  i got to go to some of sunday school (like maybe ten minutes) which was really good.  and yw third hour was good.  it was a bit hectic because i was on my own since honey was tied up with a church auditing meeting and i took baby girl to the bathroom twice (she never ended up going til we got home) and brady needed two diaper changes (neither of which coincided with the time i took him to the mother's lounge to feed him).  so it was like most other sundays where i'm making my way back and forth across the church building in heels with my church bags and a baby carseat and a three year old that only knows two speeds, one of which is running and the other which resembles a drunken kitten.

but it was okay because we all left happy and honey's auditing meeting actually got out on time so he got home right after we did.  and after a quick lunch, all four of us took spectacular naps.  we went on another walk/bike ride tonight around the neighborhood a little bit and just sort of hung out as a family.  those walks are amazing though.  abigail is so cute on her bike and so obedient stopping and looking for cars at each intersection.  brady is so happy and content in his stroller.  honey is removed from technological distractions and just puts his arm around my waist while we walk and talk about life.  is there anything more to want?  i think not.

so that was my weekend.  start to finish, just wonderful.  sometimes it's rough to have a stellar weekend when it starts out so great because it's hard to keep up the greatness.  but this time, it was great the whole time and we went out with a bang.

library, costco, baby oil

i had a conversation with weed a while back about waking up in the morning and being insanely tired.  so now when i wake up tired, i think of weed.  this morning i woke up so unbelievably tired that i texted weed immediately.  she mentioned that minus being mormon, she'd be a huge coffee drinker.  which made me want hot chocolate.  so i made some.  i love when you just want something and then BAM you can make it happen.  had i wanted doritos that would have been annoying because i would have had to go to the store for that.  

i actually got a shower and did my hair and makeup this morning and still made it to the library for storytime!  i turned in our reading card (one of those things where you read a bunch of hours and you get a prize) and helped abigail pick out a book (although she had no idea what was going on... i wasn't about to explain "we read 12 hours so you get to pick a book from the library that you don't have to ever bring back" especially because she hasn't stopped asking me when we can go on another easter egg hunt.  some things are better just glossed over.)  she picked start saving, henry! which made me smile, because i'm pretty money conscious, and i'm pretty sure my honey will appreciate it too.  then jodi and elle joined us.  baby girl is obsessed with elle.  i kind of am too though.  she's adorable.

 

 

 

blurry pictures because they were sooo hyper.  seriously make me think of monkeys.

swinging on the rails and everything!

and then we all went to costco.  baby girl ate her entire bowl of oatmeal for breakfast but that didn't stop her from eating every bite of every sample.  basil chicken and cheese sandwich, cheeseburger, bacon wrapped steak, ice cream with frozen cherries, broccoli salad, chicken alfredo, pasta with olive oil and parmesan cheese, and a few other things i can't even remember right now, SHE ATE IT ALL.  i don't even try to share samples with her anymore because she eats every bite.  also because she refuses to touch it if i've even so much as sniffed it.  she is very particular about having her costco samples all to herself.  brady was awake and fussy the whole time but finally drank his bottle and fell asleep as we were checking out and walking to the parking lot.  

 

 

 

baby girl learns so much from elle.  she ADORES her.

 honey ditched texas this morning and arrived in boston and sent a few pictures showing me "rainy boston."  so i sent him this picture of "sunny parker."  i seriously have to pinch myself sometimes.  i can't get enough of my view.  don't feel bad for honey though.  the pictures he sent me of harvard were gorgeous.  even if he did look slightly frostbitten.  

i try a lot of cleaning tips from pinterest.  today i had a few fails and one major success.  i always scrub and clean my dishwasher door so i know it's clean but there are water drip marks and finger print smudges on there that never ever go away like they're stained on the stainless.  well, let it be known that a tiny bit of baby oil rubbed on there made it look brand new!  like this has never been touched by human hands.  absolute perfection and i am in heaven.

 

 

also, i love my friends.  when i have no husband for days on end, texting helps me keep a grip on life. these past several days have been going really well but i still appreciate those "maybe you're on crack" texts that make me smile.

 

and because i am trying to be better and not stay up til obscene hours of the morning, i'm going to actually close my computer and get to sleep before midnight!  yeay for sleep! 

Sick and poop

today was rough.  sunday morning i woke up with a sore throat.  monday morning it was worse.  by monday night i was kind of dying.  then i finally got in bed around 11 and was able to soak up some sweet sleep.  for an hour.  not sure if it's the teething or if brady has what i have but he woke up a midnight, two, five, seven, and then for the day at 9:30.  baby girl woke up for the day at 8:15.  so between my multiple nightmares about our new beginnings program (in one of the dreams, i got there and had forgotten to make the banana muffins that were apparently oh so crucial to the refreshment table), the crazy full body aches, and then the alternating chills/sweats and that time i couldn't fall back asleep for 45 minutes?  i woke up feeling great.  or maybe i woke up feeling like death.  like i got beat up on the side of a road and a good samaritan never came for me.

so my day included wearing my down puffycoat constantly and spending as much time as possible in my bed with my electric blanket turned on high.  when i worked, i never called in sick.  like seriously never.  a few times i remember getting sent home for throwing up on the job, but i never called in sick.  at my nanny job interview in california they asked me how many sick days i took at my previous job and i didn't even understand the question.  they had to explain it to me before i answered that i never took any time off unless it was cleared in advance.  all day today i kept thinking to myself, "this is worthy of calling in sick.  i might die."

and we had our young womens new beginning program tonight (side note: HOLY COW why does it take so. many. hours. to plan something that lasts for 45 minutes?!  sooo much planning and prep and setup, etc.  so glad that it went well and is out of the way now!) and i had to be there because i was part of the program.  and that dream about forgetting to bring was i was supposed to for the refreshment table?  actually true (except it wasn't banana muffins) and i had to drag both kids to the store today in the cold rain so i could get stuff to make the treat.  i bet people thought i was a crappy mom for dressing myself in a puffy coat and fur boots while my kid was wearing a long sleeved tee.  glad no one asked about it because i probably would have yelled/croaked "I'M COLDER THAN I'VE EVER BEEN IN MY LIFE!!!  IF I OWNED A SNOW SUIT, I WOULD BE WEARING THAT RIGHT NOW TOO!"

anyways, it's 10:45 and somehow i survived.  all day i just kept thinking "thank goodness i'm not throwing up.  coughing, sneezing, sore throat, full body aches, and chills all suck... but thank goodness i'm not throwing up too.  especially because i felt too sick to eat anything... so that would have been a pain.

want to know my silver lining of the day?  it's about poop so if you don't like hearing about poop you should probably say goodbye now.

well when brady was down for his morning nap, i convinced baby girl to cuddle in bed with me and bring me books to read to her.  i had the electric blanket turned on high and if i wasn't too cold and didn't move then my body wouldn't hurt so bad (ohmyheavens i don't know if i've ever gotten the aches this bad in my life).  at one point i realized that baby girl hadn't gone potty in a long time so i sent her to the bathroom to do that and i crossed my fingers for the best (sometimes it's tricky for her when she's wearing her footie pj's) while i stayed in my warm bed.  i'm not sure what happened but she came back naked holding two pairs of wet underwear and telling me that TWO undies got wet.  seriously really confused about that.  so i told her to put those in the washer and go upstairs and get some clean undies.  she did that and came back just fine.  so then she's just hanging out in my bedroom talking to me while i'm still in bed, and she looks up at me and says all matter-of-fact...

"I'm gonna go get new Thomas undies cause I'm gonna poop in these."
What?!

you'll have to understand that for the last year or so of her life, she has pooped exclusively in a diaper, in her crib.  never ever ever poops around anyone.  never gonna poop at the park or costco or a friend's house or while she's playing with her toys.  n-e-v-e-r.  apparently she needs her privacy.  so i told her that poop goes in the potty and she should bring me another book.  then i thought to myself, she's pretty legit these days and i'm going to feel like an idiot if she actually poops in her underwear.

so then I dragged myself out of bed to accompany her to the bathroom. Sure enough, she just sat right on the potty and did her thing.

a picture of my sweet girl with her precious little poop nugget.  just kidding, it's a dark chocolate truffle*.

and then she told me she wanted a truffle and i happily obliged.  and then we called christopher at work so baby girl could share the great news.  the best part was just seeing how she was so proud of herself. it made my heart melt.

*did anyone actually believe that?  happy april fools... second.

butternut squash soup and random thoughts

i'm too tired to post pictures or stories or anything else that requires a brain.  but i'm also too ummm i don't know the word, to go to sleep because my christopher is out of town again and i always procrastinate going to sleep when he's out of town.  getting in bed?  i do that the first chance i get.  actually closing my computer and falling asleep?  i procrastinate as much as humanly possible.

anyways, i got this butternut squash that costco has and it's awesome because it's already prepped for you (click this link to read someone else's rave about it) and realized i should have used it ummm, a few days ago.  i'm not a stickler for things like that (i inherited that from my dad... my mother would have probably tossed this out) so i took it as a challenge to make a dinner out of it using only what i had on hand (we got snow last night and i pretty much never go out that first day of snow... because parking lots are still being cleared and really it's just kind of a pain) and it turned out to be much easier than anticipated!

i googled "allrecipes butternut squash" and checked out a few options before picking the most appealing (that means easiest) recipe.  it was so simple and foolproof and so delicious and only dirtied one pot (that's huge in my book) that i'm posting about it here for when i am looking for dinner ideas.  anyways, it is this butternut squash soup recipe and you should make it.  especially if your "i just can't get full off of soup" husband is out of town.

here's how i did it:

i melted a square of butter (i'm not big on measuring but it was probably the correct amount) and used it to cook the onions (i chopped up a whole onion... but i love onion and it was on the small side) while i turned on winnie the pooh on dvr for my precious two year old because the tv remote decided to act up on the day i was parenting alone, leaving no access to our awesome thomas the train dvd collection. should you be in this situation, periodically run back to the kitchen to make sure your onions don't burn.  (hint: they won't... because they're swimming in such a glorious amount of butter)  after you get the show set up, dump in your squash (don't forget to recycle the container!), water (i only used two cups instead of three), four chicken boullion cubes, pepper, marjoram (this was my first time ever cooking with it... i know that for sure because i had to open the seal on it), and let it all hang out and boil for a while... at least 20 minutes... stirring periodically while you scavenge your kitchen for stuff to snack on.  instead of dirtying a bunch of dishes and a food processor/blender, i got out my hand mixer and those beaters did just fine and left some nice small chunks of squash while making a perfectly desirable consistency for the soup.  the recipe calls for two full packages of cream cheese but i thought that was excessive because that stuff is expensive.  so i just put in what was left of the one we had opened (maybe 3 ounces?) and it was wonderful.  although that didn't stop me from adding straight up cream to my bowl. the costco HALF GALLON of cream is now a regular staple purchase for me.  it's so cheap and so sinfully delicious i just can't help myself.  seriously... i catch myself daydreaming about ways i can use it... like this soup.  also, i'm not a huge fan of oatmeal these days (although i've gone through stages where i ate it three times a day because i was that in love with it) and i've found that pouring a bit of cream on top makes it taste like dessert.  like i found a packet of some sort of flavored instant oatmeal and when i poured that cream on top it was like i was eating a cobbler with ice cream.  i used to think i wanted to lose this baby weight so i could fit into my clothes again but now i've decided that my clothes really aren't that cute and i would prefer to have curves and buy new clothes instead.  i hate shopping for clothes but when i'm eating creme brulee or anything with heavy whipping cream actually, that seems like the least of my worries.  right now food is my therapy.*  and i'm okay with that.

welcome to the brain of the add... that paragraph started as instructions for making soup and ended with my shopping habits and my physically and emotionally unhealthy addiction to cream.

anyways, my head is still a jumble so wish me luck that i can sleep tonight.  and make this soup.

*milk is always my therapy and my drug... like when i drink it, my whole body relaxes and it makes me think that must be what smokers feel like when they finally get their nicotine... so maybe it just makes sense that i've expanded my milk horizon to include straight up cream.

okay, apparently i can't sleep without getting my thoughts out so here we go...

in other news:  baby girl took a nap again today which is fabulous... she actually finished her lunch and declared that she was all done eating and was ready to take a nap (it was way before her nap time but i just went with it).  what is not fabulous is that she's woke up at 6:15 this morning.  two times in the past two weeks, she's woken up during the night (once at 11pm and once at 1am) and frequently she's been waking up early (that means anything before 9am) although never at 6:15 before!)  luckily i gave her a binky and she was okay to hang out and read books for an hour before i got up with brady and came back to get her out of her crib.  anyone have any ideas what this could be?  is it just a new phase?  or is it because she's not quite done with her molars coming in yet?  kids are mysterious.  also, having both kids awake for the day at 7:15 made this feel like the longest day ever.  it wasn't bad, it just felt like it should always be four hours ahead of what it actually was.  maybe more.  this morning actually kind of feels like it was yesterday morning... it seems just that long ago.  that's a long day.

my electric blanket on my bed is awesome all the time but when my christopher is gone it is especially amazing because it tricks my body into thinking that someone else is in bed with me.  like when i get back in bed after feeding brady in a few hours it will be warm, even though i will be lacking a bed-mate (when was the last time you used that term?  i try to use it as frequently as possible).

nursing makes me super thirsty.  especially at night.  maybe because i'm overheating from my electric blanket but we'll just never know.  since i don't drink water, i keep milk on my nightstand.  it's not unusual for me to drink 30 - 35 ounces between midnight and 7am.  i am well hydrated.  although we already knew that because i'm drinking at least a gallon every 24 hours.  can i say again how wonderful it would be if i could tolerate water?!  i've done the math... we spend over a thousand dollars on milk each year.  ONE THOUSAND!  like a one with THREE zeros.  it is painful to me.  although i can't think of any other way i could spend $1000 that could possibly bring me more happiness than a few hundred gallons of milk.

brady really is doing so well, i have to keep reminding myself of how bad things were just last month.  gotta keep myself humble.  but seriously, even though i complain that he's a pretty terrible sleeper at night, he's great during the day and fantastic in his carseat.  i don't let him stay awake longer than 55 or 60 minutes at a time and it is perfect for him.  then he naps for a few hours and we repeat.  having a newborn for an hour at a time is completely manageable.  and the fact that he's happy during that time is just icing on the cake.

everything baby girl says is hilarious (do i say this every day?) and although it includes a lot of funny things, most of it is just her sweet baby voice and strange voice intonations (like the "goes in noses?" phrase).  just today i figured out something that i hadn't been able to put my finger on before.  she has somehow developed a southern accent in certain things that she says.  where does this come from?!  also, i'm loving it.  today she also experimented (in the way that she has the confidence of someone who has totally mastered the concept) with phrases using the word remember.  i told her "remember thomas is broken so if you want to watch something you have to watch pooh bear?" and i never heard the end of "remember abigail was crying in the crib because i was all done napping and i wanted to read skippyjonjones?" she was pointing upstairs with her tiny little pointer finger and telling me this elaborate story about what happened when she woke up from nap today.  and everything started with "remember."

okay, i really need to go to sleep... especially if brady's night is anything like last night...

a giveaway!

just kidding... kinda.  you know i'm not that kind of blogger.

my mom just sent me an email this morning with a link to get a free razor in the mail from costco.  it took me two seconds to fill out the info so i thought i'd pass it along to anyone else that always seems to leave their razor every time they go on vacation.  just kidding... i really don't do that very often anymore...

http://www.costco.com/Venus-Embrace-or-Venus-Spa-Breeze-FREE-Sample.product.100017027.html

and even if you don't need a razor or hate free things... we all know how fun it is to get a package in the mail! worth it just for that.

Another free zoo day

who knew it was even possible?!  i took two kids to the zoo today!  i woke up at 7:30 so that i could shower, pump, nurse, eat breakfast, etc. and we didn't even get out of the house til 10:05 but i managed it without yelling at either of my kids!  as a bonus, brady cried himself to sleep in this swing while i was getting abigail dressed and out the door.  good job brady!  but aren't swings supposed to be magical enough that they make babies happy without a binky in their mouth constantly?!

parking was a pain and the weather was nowhere near as nice as forecasted (15 degrees colder and no sun?!) but we met up with some friends and had an excellent time.

baby girl kept kicking her shoes off so i decided to let her exercise her agency and go barefoot (she was staying in the stroller the whole time) so my child was the one barefoot (with black feet from dragging her feet along the stroller wheels) in 50 degree weather.

a pygmy something or other.   or a glorified monkey rat.

we came home, ate a banana for lunch while watching thomas, had a quick bath and took a nap.  oh, did i say we?  i meant baby girl.  i ate no lunch, took no bath, and had no nap.  but i did sit in bed for three hours with a baby that refused to fall asleep.  and baby girl stayed in her crib until after 7 because she didn't get down for nap til 3:30 and i wasn't keeping track of the clock to get her up by 6.

i took brady to costco and the library with me tonight.  i got a lot of sympathy looks.  in case you're confused, yes, he's doing so much better than he was before the zantac, but he is by no means a "happy" or "easy" or even "average" baby.  and the reason i rarely post (or take) pictures of him?  because they look like this...

one of honey's clients sent us this coat and hat made in her hometown in germany!  

this is the very best picture we could get.  it was a tag team effort between honey and me.

ps- i got some awesome yoga pants at costco.  you should too.  i'm in love.  they come in talls!

Wednesday Wednesday

Story time, kaiser heel poke, Costco, nap time, and Texas Roadhouse with the Hilliers.

didn't get the memo about sitting down.

story time with griff

at texas roadhouse to celebrate john going through the temple!

most comfortable camp chair.  ever.

awesome play house at costco

"i wanna nap!" transforms this into another napping cart.