It's been this long...

Since we went camping. (This pic of Abby is from our last trip.) The drought is about to be OVER. Have to say, I am VERY excited! Next post you see will be of our trip, yeah!

Really???

I caught the tail end of an interview this morning of a doctor saying people could lose weight be doing three things: stop caffine soda and coffee consumption and get at least 7 hours of sleep. That was it! They had testimonials of 3 people, each had lost 8 to 10 pounds and counting...

My first thought was, "Wow how easy..." Now at 12:35am, I am wondering if I could give up my favorite, quiet, me time, time... let alone my diet soda!

Interesting thought, I might just have to try it.

Tower of London, Alcatraz, Abu Ghraib... ain't got nothin on me!

My darling daughter is a picky, picky eater. I can't count on anything I make being a success to her except maybe chicken nuggets from "Uncle Ron's" (Yes, we eat there enough to use 'family' names...) Mike and I have made a rule that for her exposure, she needs to eat a 'scoop' of whatever we are having. Usually, we end up bribing her with dessert, but if we don't have dessert nothing else will be served for the evening.

Well this morning I decided to be especially cruel to her. I served banana and walnut pancakes (I made sure the walnuts were finely chopped so it wasn't a texture thing) and to top it off, poured homemade raspberry syrup on it (from canning raspberries the day before) and link maple sausage. I thought it was really good and nutritiously sound... well, she took one bite or taste (the bite didn't end up in her stomach) and declared, "I don't like that!". Me the horrible parent brought out the rule, since normally I don't have dessert for breakfast I decided I would get out my strong mom side. I gave her the choice of a "spank on the bum" or to eat the three bites. To her, the choice was clear, she wanted the spank. I completely baulked. Inside I was screaming, "I can't spank her for THAT!" My mind raced, I went to the freezer and started offerring her dessert; Abby you want chocolate? Otterpop? popscicle? Yes, yes popscicle it was! I felt relieved. She took one more taste, then spit it out. The popscicle wasn't good enough anymore. I became "strong mom" again and declared... "You need to sit there until your bites are gone." She took one more bite, chewed a couple times and spit that one out too... AND then, she threw up on her plate. Well, what do you say to that? She was upset that she threw up (I did check if she had a fever or was actually sick), after she got over it, she looked at me as if to say, "Now what do you got?" I was majorly irritated and couldn't stop my gagging reflex... afterwhich she went upstairs and that was that. I still don't know what to think.. and that was 8 hours ago...

What do you do at your house?

Lets Get Ready to Rummmmbbbbllllleeeeee!

Saturday, Mike and I drove to Idaho Falls to spend the 4th of July with Melissa and her family. We had a great time! There was lots of food, trampoline jumping, swinging, visiting, and High School Musical. We also visited the "Title of Liberty Flag" exhibit, very patriotic and humbling and walked up the road to watch fireworks at "The Falls". BTW, I have wondered who has better fireworks... Mellaluca or "Stadium of Fire" and I have to say, Mellaluca's was more intense, we LOVED it! Lastly, we had a Wii beat-down! Melissa kicked my butt at boxing, KOed me twice, my arms are still sore! It was loads of fun. I'm sure I beat her in bowling because of my college bowling class;) rrriiiggghhhtt!

Either way, we had a great time!

Our Little Picassa

Today during church Abby didn't want to go to class... I was substituting in another junior primary class, so she went with me. While in class, I realized we had a little Picasso in our midst! Notice this man holding a balloon.

This woman is probably nicer than she looks. This one kinda scares me... It reminds me of the "The Scream" painting by Edvard Munch. After church, Abby and I played with several mediums. This is a colored pencil drawing from the "Giant Head Era". (Notice all the teeth, but then again, maybe he is part shark OR he has a drug problem. Meth really screws up your mouth!)

This one Abby told me was a "Flying Rabbit" on the Bottom Left (I think it looks like the Hamburger Helper Glove). Top Center and Right is a "Momma Bee and Baby Bee". The Object to the left is a flower, very pretty!

This picture is a little more obscure/impressionistic, can you guess what it is? It's a family portrait. Mike is the green circle in the back (Top Left), I am the large brown haired "thing" in the fore-front. I'm not sure what is coming out of my face... hopefully it isn't yelling. Abby is the green face to my Right. She has flowers in her hair, love the large head and small features... (At least we are all smiling!)

I wish I could post the picture she painted of Gpa and of Kiki, the cat. Both were REALLY good. However, they didn't make it and were painted over. Gpa was great because it looked like he was jumping rope. If you know my father, well I can't picture him jumping rope and that makes me laugh. The picture of the cat was amazingly like a cat. Maybe she will make another one!

I hope these make you laugh and be in awe as they did me, remember she is only 3!

Our Crazy Obsession

I remember watching the cartoon at home in the early 80's. I was completely frightened. I hated the scene where they cut Aslan's hair and killed him in the ceremony on the table. Infact, when the movie came out, I was not a fan until after I saw it again.

Jump twenty-five years.... Abby has opened the wardrobe, and loves it. I think it WAS on constant rotation at our house until yesterday, after five days. The first day, she watched it 3 times in a row. That Friday night, with a long power nap to sustain her, we stayed up until 2:00am only with her fighting me when I turned it off. Now the movie is on, she gets upset when it's off, but she will bring her activities to the movie and play while it is going on.

Can you guess which scene she stops to watch, no matter what we are doing? Yep, the scene where they cut Aslan's hair, he dies, and resurrects. I not only do we watch, but she claps, whistles, and cheers when he appears!

She loves it so much, that when our deaf mentor came to our house, she told him about the movie... IN CONSTANT ROTATION.

I do love this version of the movie. I love the religious undertones. I love that Abby understands, but right now I need a break!

Perfect, Perfect, Perfect

Today Abby had an audiology appointment in Sandy, Mike wanted to come, so he took the day off. After the audiology appointment, we went to the Olive Garden for lunch (thank you Kathy and Hilary!) As we pulled into the parking lot, we could see across the street to Sugar House park. During our meal, we talked about how fun it would be to feed the "ducks".

When our meal was finished we decided to follow it up. We had breadsticks leftover, usually we take them home, this time we decided to give them to the ducks. Abby had a blast! The weather was perfect, lunch was perfect, spending quality time with my family... was perfect; best of all, Abby loved it!

As it turned out, the "ducks" we could see from Olive Garden parking lot were seagulls posing as ducks. They have a pretty good "racket" posing as ducks, there were five other families feeding them while we were there.