Katie’s birthday wish

I asked Katie yesterday what she is going to want for her birthday dinner, so I could start planning ahead for the family party. Her answer?
“Ice cream.”
“What flavor?”
“Chocolate… and strawberry… and vanilla.”
“Okay, I can do that.”
“And strawberries too, with the chocolate ice cream.”
“All right, so you want ice cream and strawberries. That’s dessert. What do you want for the main part of your dinner, the ‘healthy food’ part?”
“Hmm, let me think about it… I know! Dinosaur chicken!” (You know, those breaded frozen chicken nuggets they sell at Costco? This is an emergency dinner staple item in our house, especially with our two dino fanatics.
“You need something else with it, too. How about some rice? You really like white rice.”
“Yeah! White rice with… what’s that stuff I like on the rice called?”
“Teriyaki sauce.”
“Yeah! White rice with teriyaki sauce!”

I present Katie’s idea of a healthy meal. I think the rest of us will be eating something else!

Adventures in crazyland

I haven’t posted in a while… yeah, mommy-hood gets in the way of that sometimes. So here’s a sample of some of the things we’ve been up to lately:

Dress up. We found a few good deals at thrift stores in town, plus I raided my old stuff for some fun things they could use. Hence the medal for being a member of the National Honor Society in high school, now a medal for winning various footraces.

Amanda said that she was “Miss Lady” when she dressed up like this. I asked Mike if he thought maybe that was her hobo name.

(Notice me laughing in the background, behind my laptop?)

This was Katie’s dress up outfit for the day. I’m not sure if she was going for the “Pancho Villa” look, but I think she got it, even down to the sort of grimace on her face.

(Also notice the attention hungry big sister in the background. It sort of looks like she’s about to attempt her first cartwheel.)

I think this picture speaks for itself, really. I have to say, though, I think my favorite part of this picture is Katie’s pretty plastic heels along with the rest of the outfit. And Amanda just threw together all of her favorite things into the one outfit. That butterfly in her hand is usually known as the “swiping butterfly,” thanks to an episode of Dora the Explorer where Swiper makes a robotic butterfly that he’s programmed to swipe something. Or, if you’re listening to Katie, it’s the “hyping buttewfwy,” since she has a hard time with the letter S.

Since it’s summertime, we’ve also been spending lots of time in the yard, looking for everyone’s favorite bug. The girls are obsessed with roly-polies. Katie saw one through the window today, and immediately demanded to go outside and get him. She also told me that he wanted his picture taken. Well, the roly-poly told me, in a squeaky little high pitched voice that sounded suspiciously like Katie.

She’s also very ticklish.

Funny faces (also known as, this post is an excuse to put up pictures)

So we got a big box in the mail. I’m not even sure what came in it; it may have been the nice new pillow I bought Mike for his birthday.

The girls loved that box. They spent hours in there. They gave mommy a headache – because when they have fun, they get obnoxiously, high pitched, screeching, LOUD. But they were having so much fun, I couldn’t take the box away.

This is what happens when I try to get a good picture of both of the girls, and they KNOW I have the camera out.

About writing

I love to write. I get a kick out of it, and it’s a good creative outlet for me as a mom with young kids. (When I can find quiet time to write, that is.)

I’m trying to get back in the habit of writing at least a little bit most days, and to that end, I’m posting up a short story I just finished working on. Read it and comment if you like. If I had to pick a genre, I’d say it’s sort of a surrealist fiction. Fantasy, maybe. Enjoy!

Ad Infinitum

We’re so in trouble

Do I really need to say any more?

(Especially when Amanda’s wearing a GIANT princess ring on her hand in the second picture. Maybe we shouldn’t have taken the girls with us when we went ring shopping a while ago.)

Birthday party #2

Like I said in the last post, Amanda ended up with 2 birthday parties this year. Her second, smaller one was on her actual birthday. Mostly we just played together a LOT that day, and then she got to open the rest of her presents. She also chose to go to the doggy store for her special birthday outing. Totally her idea. She loves the adopt a dog store in the mall. (I also tried to buy her a treat at the mall, but she wouldn’t eat it.)

 This was hilarious. We bought her a new crown to replace her old, broken one from last year. It didn’t quite fit right, and she was not too happy about it. I think it’s actually supposed to go on sort of like Cinderella’s crown does, around the bun in her hair, and not actually around your head. So the crown did not pass the royal princesses approval.

This was much more to her liking. You can’t see it, but what she’s holding in her hands is a bucket full of dinosaurs. She loves them. She likes to dress up like a princess and play with them.

 

 

Amanda has been trying to figure out rhyming lately, so we thought this would be a great book for her. She was quite excited about it, once I told her it was all about rhyming. Of course, we haven’t read it yet…

 

So, Amanda got a lot of Princess gear. A LOT. And what could be more fun than putting it all on at the same time?

 

 

 

 

The “less is more” approach. I can’t believe how pretty and grown up she looks. She’s excited to be a princess for Halloween too.

I just love this shot of both the girls. They’re smiling, but not so much fake smiling. And for the moment at least, they’re getting along quite well. Katie was actually very good about her sister’s birthday, I have to give her credit. She didn’t try to open her presents or take her gifts away. And she probably ate more cake and ice cream than Amanda. So everyone had fun.

Someone had a birthday, shout hurray!

Amanda just recently turned 4, and here are the way overdue pictures.

Amanda playing with Aunty Erica and cousin Nadia outside after birthday lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting ready to blow out the candles on the strawberry cupcakes and oreo cupcakes.

 

 

 

 

 

Trying to figure out that the fluffy, foofy skirt (which is totally her style) was actually a skirt, and not more tissue paper. She loves it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She actually kept asking us if she could plant flowers for her birthday. Aunty Erica managed to find her the perfect sized watering can and flower pot and seeds. I’ll let you know how the flowers turn out.

 

The John Deere green dump truck was also a big hit. Especially once she made it all pretty with stickers.

 

 

 

 

 

Our little baseball fan now has her own glove – pink, of course! Now, if only we had a yard for her to play baseball in…

 

Amanda loves lollipops. And balloons. And hats. And pink. In case you didn’t know that already. She quite enjoyed her party. (This was actually her first party – she had two. One the week before her birthday, with all her family in our area, along with one of her aunts and one of her uncles whose birthday’s are about the same time. Pictures from the little family party on her actual birthday are coming soon.

Amanda cracks me up

This isn’t really news; we’ve always known she was funny. But she got me good today, and I had to share it.

I was changing Katie’s diaper, and she reached over to grab her blanky and her pants. I said, “Oh, you’re collecting soft things?”

So Amanda asks me, “Katie likes soft things?”

“Yes, Katie really likes soft things.” (And she does. She loves blankets, pillows, clothes, stuffed animals, anything cuddly.)

Amanda’s reply? “Oh. I like NOISY things. Like fire trucks, whooooo whooooo whooooo! and motorcycles! Vroooom! And french fries! Crunch crunch!”

She paused for a minute. “Mommy, you like QUIET things?”

“Yes, honey, Mommy likes quiet things, like books, and music, and naps.”

She’s got us all pegged. It’s pretty funny.

Shameless self-promotion

Last November, I participated in an event called National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. Your goal is to write a 50,000+ word novel in the month of November. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to write a story. There’s a website devoted to the event, nanowrimo.org, which I loved using. They have a word count tracker, so you can monitor your progress. Things to keep in mind: You can’t write a word of the novel beforehand. You can plot, outline, and think out all you want, but you can’t start the novel until November 1st. Another thing to keep in mind: When you’re writing in just 30 days, your goal is not to have a polished product. It’s a first draft, and the idea is just to get the main story out on paper. It will need revision later.

I think that’s why I enjoyed the event so much. As a writer, it forces you to let go of that obsessive need to edit and revise while you’re writing, which is a great way to get bogged down and never finish the story. It forced me to keep going even when I got stuck, and because I really wanted to finish the event and fill up my little stat bar, I managed to do it. It was a great motivational tool.

So after I finished my novel (or novella, really), I let it sit for a little while before I started revising. I was lucky enough to have a few friends volunteer to read it for me and critique it a little. And now…

You can buy my book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1440483914?ie=UTF8&tag=2donecom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1440483914

I am so amazed at all my friends and family members who’ve already bought the first few copies – you guys can’t imagine how good it makes me feel to know that you believe in me enough to spend $9.99 on my book.

So here’s a little synopsis for those of you who might be interested in reading my book. It centers around a society of winged humans, who live in isolation from the rest of humanity. Lady Vara, the heroine, is engaged to marry Prince Markus, the heir to the throne of Angelus. Vara finds herself drawn to Markus’ liege man, Phillip; neither of them want to hurt the prince, so they fight their feelings for each other.

But Vara finds out that something sinister is happening beneath the surface of Angelus. Evil forces are gathering in an attempt to take over Angelus, and Vara realizes that she is being drawn to Phillip because he is the only one who can help her save her city.

The book ended up being a lot more about eternal families than I thought it would be. It’s not pure Mormon doctrine; the book is fantasy, after all, and so there are some fantastical elements in it. It is very clean, though; it’s not aimed at middle-school kids, but the book is clean enough for them to read.

Hopefully that gives you a good idea of what the story’s like, and whether or not you’d like it. There are a few formatting issues with the book, and those will be fixed someday. If you have any other feedback about the book, I’m open to it. Just leave me a comment, or you can post feedback on Amazon too.

Smushing

On our way to church every Sunday, we drive along a little curvy section of road next to a good sized open field. The squirrels love that area, and they, unfortunately, run out into the road fairly often.
As we were driving to church this morning, I saw one sitting by the side of the road, watching our car coming. I crossed my fingers, hoping he would run out of the road, instead of towards us. Luckily, he did.
Amanda noticed the squirrel as we drove by, and she said “We almost drove the squirrel! And we smush it!”
(Picture the adults in the car laughing at her, and wondering how she learned that we would “smush” the squirrel if we ran over it…)