Self time-out

About a week ago, Brady started (what I call) squawking when something happened that he didn't like. This could be as simple as Aidan touching him. Every day the squawking became louder and more frequent. I thought a teradactyl had moved in! After several days of squawking, we finally had enough and anytime he did it, I would quickly swoop him up and put him in his crib for a time-out. So effective was this method, that after two days, this happened...sqawking occured and Drew responded with, "Do you want to go to your room?" and he actually said "Yes" and proceeded down the hall to his room. After getting over the shock, I went to rescue him. He was crying holding onto the crib as if waiting to be put in. The day after that, I just told him to go to his room when he squawked and he did. When I went to get him, I found him in his crib. Later that day after another sqawking incident, I followed him without him knowing. That kid went in his room, got on a step stool, got on the night stand by his bed, and flopped into the crib to take his time-out.

The result of all of this has been a almost squawk-free house in only about 5 days!

Utah State Fair

Drew and I took the little boys to the fair this year. Brady and Aidan loved seeing the animals and I did too since they were sparkling clean. Everything was going great until we made the mistake of letting them play in the Legos area. Note to self: Never ever, ever try to take Aidan away from Thomas the Train Lego toys before he is ready. Um, enough said there.

So the disappointing part was that I wanted to try a fried twinkie. The advertisements to the fair said they had "fried everything." So we searched and searched, but the best we could find was a stand that had a big sign advertising fried brownies and PB&J's. I took a pass on those.

We later found out that the stand we saw was the very stand that had my twinkie. SOOOO the next weekend we went back to the fair. I was very curious all week about the so-called smallest woman in the world stand they had a the fair. I figured it was a hoax. For $1, come see the smallest woman in the world..."she's real, she's live, she talks to you." So, when we returned to the fair, Tyler and I went in. See the picture above? See how there is a box behind the person selling tickets? Well, that folks, is where she is! She apparently sits in that thing from 10-10pm everyday! Imagine walking around to the other side of that box and "Oops, oh my, there she is..." You are so close to her and amazed and feeling awkard what you really want to do and what most people actually do is quickly look away and get out ASAP. I started to flee, but then, feeling so awkward for me AND for her, I said "Are you really the smallest woman in the world?" She kind of rolled her eyes, wiped her brow, and nodded her head. Tyler and I fled and I still can't get over the feeling of complete weirdness that the experience brought on. To all those who contemplate going to see her, I say, DON'T!

Someday I would like to go to the fair without kids and buy a beer, grab a seat and just people watch. Oh the sights we see at the State Fair. One such was a guy who worked there, apparently dumping garbage. He was probably in his 40's, sported a gray-haired ponytail, and looked like he's done way too many drugs. The fun part was that he had on a Cottonwood Football t-shirt. Maybe he played football back in the day. Maybe he was a star quarterback before all the heroin. I'm not gonna judge him.

Oh yeah, I got my fried twinkie. Yum.

Humiliated

I vow to never email a radio station again. I was compelled to email x96 dj's after months of listening to them tell us in no uncertain terms that anyone who listens to FOX news can't think for themselves and that everything Obama is doing is gospel. The particular day I emailed, they also kept saying they couldn't believe anyone was upset about Obama's speech that they had grade school students listen to. SO, I sent this email:


At the risk of being made fun of by all of you, I would like to bring a couple of things to your attention. One is that people were not worked up by Obama's speech...it was the homework assignment that was going to come after it. All of the hype about the speech came before we were actually made aware of the content of that speech. The government was asking that the kids write letters about what they can do to help the president. Whatever you think, I do not think that is appropriate and that is where I had issues.

My husband and I are in awe on a daily basis at the way that the 3 of you demand that EVERYONE who doesn't believe what you do is stupid. You ought to listen to yourselves sometime. You sound the same as the people you complain about. We love Radio from Hell, but at about 6:30 every morning, we get berated with hate towards those that don't conform to YOUR way of thinking. We have often turned off the show during that segment.
I know you don't really care what I have to say, but it feels good to me to just let you know what I think.
Thanks,
Julie (I also included my last name)

SOOOO, the next day, Bill (one of the 3 morning dj's ) reads my email (and states he will try to read it seriously and not make fun) and then says "let's open the phone lines." They spent a good 15-20 minutes of their show on this! They said my name at least half a dozen times. I was absolutely humiliated. And, of course, everyone missed the whole point of my email cause they were so stuck on the politics. The day after this nonsense, they read some other guys email in response to mine, saying that whoever wrote that email (me) probably believes that creationism and abstinence being taught in school as well. I'm like "what?"

So, take it from me, don't ever email a radio station!

Take Away my 4 day work week? Over my dead body!

Ok, first let me say that I am really upset that the government has now taken two of our governors...first Governor Leavitt becomes Secretary of Health and Human Services during Bush's term. Now they make Huntsman Ambassador to China. We're left with his dorky Lt. Governor, Herbert. So this dude doesn't like the 4 day work schedule that Huntsman started for state employees and wants to go back to 5 days. Maybe he needs to see the data...all I did was google it and this was EVERYWHERE....
After 12 months, Utah’s experiment has been deemed so successful that a new acronym could catch on: TGIT (thank God it’s Thursday). The state found that its compressed workweek resulted in a 13% reduction in energy use and estimated that employees saved as much as $6 million in gasoline costs. Altogether, the initiative will cut the state’s greenhouse-gas emissions by more than 12,000 metric tons a year. And perhaps not surprisingly, 82% of state workers say they want to keep the new schedule.
COME ON, HERBERT, GET WITH THE PROGRAM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Naptime

OMG, I have a blog?

I cannot believe I actually forgot that I have a blog! Um, so I guess I've been pretty damn busy. Would ya like to hear another story involving Maximus and diarreah? Ok, here it goes....

So it's a beautiful Saturday and Aidan is all excited to go to a birthday party. Meanwhile, we are montoring Maximus, who has had diarreah for the past week and is acting lethargic. I called the vet before I left and they said they have no appts open and he would need to go to the ER if it can't wait until Monday. I take Aidan to the party and when we get there, Drew calls to say Maximus isn't doing well and he is worried. A couple of calls later, Drew is pretty frantic, stating that Maximus needs to go to the ER. I started crying and told my friend I needed to go and asked if Aidan could stay. So I left him without another word and rushed home.

I picked up Maximus at the house and headed out to the ER, which of course is not too far from the party I was at. Drew couldn't go because Brady was napping and also had diarreah (go figure). I called Zac on the way and asked him to meet me.

Yada, yada, yada, Zac and I are were in the exam room and Maximus was pacing. The tech was there gathering info. I finally realized after he did a quick squat, then back to pacing, that he had to go potty real bad. Being the good dog that he is, he wasn't about to go in that room. However, the tech said since he might have something contagious, they couldn't take him to the grass outside. She said he could just go on the floor and they'd have a sample. WELL, first off, I told Zac to stand clear cause Maxi could blow at any time! I felt so bad for him cause he looked like he felt the way I did on the drive back from Disneyland. ANYWAY, like 10 minutes went by and he refused to let loose so I asked the tech "Really, there's nothing we can do?" She finally decided to go ask someone and when she got back, poor Maximus was so close to exploding that he had leakage. We whisked him (actually he whisked us) outside to the grass and oh my, it was like a firehose!

In the end, we found out he had roundworm. I picked Aidan up and heard from those there that he was a perfect angel. He had a great time and I got to run around town.

I WANT TO HAVE TWO CARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back in the saddle

It took me a week of staying home with the kids to start getting the hang of being a stay at home mom. At first I thought I was going to go crazy. I'm a social worker. I preach how to raise kids. I couldn't believe how I reacted at times. Not that I abused them, but certainly I had little patience when one or both was crying every couple minutes. I literally couldn't sit down for a minute without one of them calling me. Then by the 3rd day home, I started planning things...going to the playground worked wonders. 3 hr naps after. Doing stuctured activities so they wouldn't get bored. Now I think it's not so bad. If I had a car it would have been better too. Get out of the house. Not cooped up, ya know? Again, I preach these things. Easier said than done I guess. I just want to be a good mom. I want to be the type that can just roll with things. I'm working on it.