Hyenas in Canada

So this post is for Tati and for us all to remember how nasty and cute she is at one year old. We love this fool. She is a coo-koo bird sometimes though. I have to say I forgot how disgusting this age is. I mean as in need a new outfit after every meal, throwing food, smooshing food, eating food off of the floor, eating anything off the floor, wiping her nose on you, spitting on you or food spitting on you, the screaming, the independence, the sneaky mischief, the not wanting to get the diaper changed, the trying to touch everything you're working on while the diaper is getting changed and my favorite, the ole, "I'll hug you and then bite you while I'm hugging you so you aren't expecting it". I've been trying to get all these pictures of her being cute but she just hasn't been cooperating. So now you'll all get to see the true Tati in all her glory: bugars and all.

This is the "why can't I touch my poop face".

This is what you find when suddenly you think that your house is too quiet.

This is the "dang, you're too quick" face when she gets caught super speeding it passed the baby gate and up the stairs. White trash hair, bugars and all.

This is after a meal when she actually kept the bib on. Some meals look even worse. She somehow manages to touch about a billion things on the way to the sink to wash her off.

This is a new trick Daddy tried to keep her from dashing up the stairs. She LOVED it. She actually sat quite still and just smiled for a while. Looking over her kingdom for sure.

And if by now you're wondering about the title of this post and thinking I'm as random as can be (which is still true sometimes) but here is the explanation. So Tati makes this most bizarre noise lately when she wants something. We call her a hyena. It is pretty hilarious. This is from her Daddy's b-day. She wants CAKE!

Idle Threats

Me: Chloe please go clear your dishes off of the table.
Chloe: But I don't really want to Mom.
Me: Do it or I'm going to have to squish your buns off.
Chloe: (surprise face) What does that mean? You'd squish them right off?
Me: Yup, and it wouldn't make you feel too happy.
Chloe: Mom, that is inappropriate (yes, she really said inappropriate to me). You shouldn't do that to any kids.
(runs to clear her dishes)
Chloe: You were just kidding about my buns, right?
Me: Yup.
Chloe: Yeah, cuz you can't just squish things off your body--that's too hard to get them off (big smile).
Me: Right. You're too smart for me sometimes.
Chloe: I know. (bigger smile)

The Medicentre

Well, this week I had this great Canadian adventure and I thought I'd share for all my American followers. A little glimpse into the Canadian health care system. Not too different from what you'd see at home. First off, my problem:

In the last few days, I have noticed that my normally pretty obedient child has stopped listening to me. I know she is a good little actress but she can't be this good. Then I also started noticing that she was mis-hearing me. I'd say, "Go get ready to go outside." and she'd go, "I don't see a fly!" I'm pretty sure she had an ear infection last week but since they don't give you antibiotics anymore with those, I just gave her some Tylenol for a couple of days and figured it would be fine. I tried to ask her questions about it like, "Are your ears plugged?" and things of that nature but she didn't really grasp that concept. Funny but after all this Greg tells me that she was explaining to him how noisy her food was when she was eating and how she couldn't believe how crunchy her cereal was. So I decided yesterday to get a flashlight and see what was going on. I shown the light in there and beheld the largest build up of earwax I've ever seen. So nasty. I told Chloe we needed to go to the doctor because Mommy didn't want to stick anything in her ears without knowing what I was doing. She got all nervous and tried to explain it away like this,

"Since my lips are on my face, my voice can be louder to myself but from other people like from my mom and dad, I can hear just normal with them not loud like I can hear with my voice."

So in Canada if you don't have an emergency, you can try and get an appointment to see your doctor, but you'll don't know how long you'll have to wait. If you'd rather get your question answered right away, you can go to this place called the Medicentre. I would best compare it to an Urgent Care clinic. Anyway, if you go there, you have to be prepared to wait. It was around 3:30 when I decided to take her and I called ahead to see what the "line" was like and the girl told me that there were few people there and things were going quickly and that they had 3 doctors working. So we headed over. You grab a number and sit down. They eventually call your number and you tell them why you came, show them your health card and then go sit down again to wait for them to call you. They were calling numbers super fast which led me to believe that things were going fast but I was fooled. I learned my lesson: Don't trust anybody who works at the Medicentre when they are talking about things going fast. 2 of the doctors left at 4 leaving just one there. You are always surrounded by such interesting people in a place like that. I'll break it down:

• One white trash girl was trying to nurse her baby but he wasn't hungry. Anytime, he'd make any sort of peep she'd lift her shirt again. I wanted to tell her I thought he was just mad at her always trying to nurse him but I didn't think that would be too helpful. Then there was her mother, the grandmother who was narrating for this baby in this really loud voice like, "Oh, you love your GRANDMA! I know sugar, Nana loves you. Oh, you have some STINKIES?!" The narration was fine when I thought it was only going to last for like a min. but when it started reaching the 10 min. mark, I was thankful she went outside to smoke--without her grandson, phew.
  
• Then there was the constuction guy who kept staring and then when you'd look at him would quickly look away and pretend he wasn't staring.
  
• Then the nice dad with his two kids, one sick one not and the girl talked to Chloe for quite a while with Chloe saying, "What did you say?" like 10 times. Pobrecita.
  
• Then there was the group I was not prepared for. It was like 5:40 by now. We usually eat dinner at 5 and thankfully I had packed some snacks but I was sure we'd be home fast. Anyway, this lady strolls in with her kids. 4 kids to be exact and one mommy. Looked like one of the youngest was the sick one. She got them all settled, and coats, hats, and gloves off (yes, that is quite a pile of winter gear for everybody to be juggling--not to mention diaper bag and the box of granola bars she brought and started passing out to ther kids) and then the kid straight up pukes. Once, twice, three times a lady. His twin reaches for the puke. I was holding Tats, plus I don't really do so well with barf of my own children let alone a stranger but I managed to help her get a garbage can and some paper towels but then I needed to get away from it all. It was so repulsive and so sad. Chloe was like, "Oh mom, that kid was just so poor." "Mom, it stinks." "Mom, when will it be our turn." "Mom, is that kid going to puke again?" "Mom, I don't think I want cottage cheese for a long time." YUCK!!!!

p.s. Chloe's ear are doing better but she does have an ear infection and apparently the inflammation coupled with the intense amount of ear wax led to her deafness. She should be back to quiet eating in a few days.

The Digi World

So I don't know how many of my loyal readers have noticed the large gap in my normally pretty regular postings (but I've noticed there has been a blogger lull for lots of my pals lately), so I thought I'd tell you what I've been up to and where I've been. I've recently discovered the "Digi World". This post is meant to be sort of informative (unless you already know this stuff which is quite likely since I feel like I'm the last one to explore all of this) so if you don't have time now, come back to this one when you have some time to check out the links and have some computer fun. If those two words don't go together in your world, you should just skip this post altogether. My friend Sondi taught this class at church about digital scrap booking and it has opened my eyes to where the future of picture keeping and family history is heading. [future of history-:-) ] Anyway, it was a fantastic class and since most of you all live far away and can't have her come and do a class for you, I'm going to try and give you all the two peso version of what I learned. Thanks Sondi for sharing your knowledge. Funny excerpt about Sondi. When she introduced herself to me, I thought she was just talking with her "Canadian" accent and that really her name had to be "Sandy". Then I saw it in print and learned that she was in fact not using an accent.

1. Let go of the guilt. This is not a contest. If you want to scrapbook, enjoy it. If you don’t want to scrapbook, don’t and don’t feel guilty about it. I think the idea of personal and family history is now taking on a broader definition.
   
2. Organize your photos into some sort of a system. For old photos, you can organize them in a photo box. For newer digital photos, you can start organizing your Picasa (I still think it is a little cookoo to have all your photos on an internet account but whatever) or iphoto. Speaking of iphoto. Have you seen the new stuff you can do in iphoto. It is pretty sick. Then again, to do all these cool things, you'd need to buy the most recent version which for us we'd only really be thrilled about the new iphoto stuff and those features, though cool, aren't really necessary. It's a little Bourne Identity but still pretty awesome. Check out these links. 1, 2, 3. If all you do is just get your pictures organized after reading all this, that is good enough and better than a lot of people! Once you've set up a system, you'll save your self time and stress in the future. Then someday when somebody wants to scrapbook or when your kids grow up and want some pictures, you will easily be able to give them some.
1. Ideas for Organizing the photos:
   1. Collect
   2. Decide [alphabetically, chronologically (less than 5 years old), holidays, favorite photos, heritage]
   3. Sort
   4. Commit
2. This is where I really falter because for some reason I can't seem to delete photos. If I do end up deleting photos, they usually sit in the trash can and then I never officially delete delete them. I learned a word here about that from my friend, Rena. I need to be better at "culling", no this has nothing to do with the Cullens. It means "to reduce in population". She was doing a soliloquay about people who have blurry photos (guilty) and people who have shot after shot of the same or slightly different thing(guilty again). I feel like I should start a support group here. Anyway, pick your faves and then delete the rest. Maybe you can have somebody else empty the trash for you?
   
3. Photography--Most of you already know more than I will ever know about photography but the big thing I learned from the class is that you really need to know your camera and stop just using "Auto" as a crutch. The camera has all kinds of settings to help you out like, "snow, bright sun, indoor, etc." Read the camera manual. I found it way more interesting than I thought I would. I will say my camera is sick of being on the "snow" setting though. :-)
   
4. Journaling (Here are some fun ideas from Sondi)
   • Write dramatically: e.g. “T’was a dark and . . . ”
   • Tally up the numbers: 8 friends, 32°C, 1 perfect day
   • Write from a different point of view.
   • Journal a favorite story if an explanation isn’t needed.
   • Write about what happened that is NOT in the pics
5. Format (I really like this idea because too often I put pressure on myself to not do certain things unless I'm going to do a perfect job or unless things are all uniform. I love the freedom this idea gives.)
   You don’t have to choose just one. Use different formats for different projects.
   
   1. Photo albums: include 4x6 journaling cards (These are those old skool ones where you just insert photos. But the great idea is to insert the cards as journaling to make it more scrapbookish. Very fast and easy idea.)
   2. Traditional scrapbooks (especially if you've invested in a butt load of equipment, don't stop. You can also use all this stuff to make cards)
   3. Digi-scrapping (more on this to come down a bit)
   4. Printed photo books: www.shutterfly.com
   5. Blogs. And now for my new discovery. You can do all your work on your blog and then print it. Check out these two links. This one is more generic and the program does all the work for you. The lame thing here is it prints all the comments at the end of the book. Or maybe that is a changeable option? This one is more creative. It gives layout options and lets you decide how many photos appear on each page. It also lets you print the comments from each post if you'd like to. I'm pretty cheap (as most of you know) but I didn't think these prices were too shabby--especially considering the investment it could be in your family history.
   
   
6. Digiscrapping (this is the part that I had no idea about. So cool!)
   Sondi uses Photoshop Elements 6.0 (PC version: $25 US downloadable. Mac version around $80) and swears by it. It is the less complicated (and less expensive) version of Photoshop. You can download a free 30 day trial version here. The reason the PC version is $25 is b/c the brand new version just came out. If you wait a bit, the Mac version will be cheaper too b/c they'll release a new version. They alternate new releases. But the Mac version is always going to be more expensive because more Mac people use it. There are some rules about using digital scrapbooking stuff on your sites or blogs (like permission stuff) but each site and download pretty much always comes with their rules. They mostly all say you need to give them credit. The same idea as a works cited page in writing. You can create pages by:
   
   • ADVANCED: create a design, or scraplift (recreating a page you’ve seen). A good source for ideas is this magazine: http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com .
   • MODERATE: using templates (put your own pics and papers into a ready-made layout)
   • http://mandagirl.com/free-templates
   • http://simplyyin.blogspot.com (some free)
   • EASY: using “quick pages” (these are papers, frames, backgrounds, all done and you just add your picture to the spot or spots. Quick Pages usually come with one or two openings for pictures but if you have other stuff, you can add it on top of the page. They usually download as jpgs.
   Sites to help you collect papers, elements, templates and quick pages for free:
   • www.digifree.blogspot.com (search engine for free digi stuff)
   • www.twopeasinabucket.com (go to the "digital kits" under “digital) and on the left side is a menu column. Scroll down to "free" under prices, and there are 74 kits)
   • www.shabbyprincess.com (maybe 10 free kits, but they are GREAT--plus a new one just came out so that is pretty exciting. They don't have new kits very often.)
   • http://ikeagoddess.blogspot.com (she filters the junk out from Digifree. She also organizes them into alphabets, kits, templates, etc.)
   
   The Best Digiscrapping Tutorials (according to www.simplescrapper.com):
   1. Digital Scrapbook University
   2. Cottage Arts
   3. Two Peas in a Bucket
   
   Finishing Up & Printing
   • Costco: $2.49/pg (12x12)
   • http://www.scrappingsimply.com $1.99
   • Bind in a Shutterfly book. SimplyYin has instructions.
   
   Well, I hope this has been as informative and cool for you as it was for me. Let me know what you start to do from here or if this is all old hat to you. If there is something you know about all this that I haven't mentioned, please teach me something. Also, if you’d like to show me some of your sample stuff that you work on, email me some stuff.
   
   Love, Julie
   
   

So random

yet so cool. I know Sondi and Emily will especially think this is fun. I wonder where you could get a poster printed of this.

The Tooth Blitz

Well, the tooth fairy has now made 2 visits to our house. Those two snaggleteeth are gone. Their reign of terror and fright, over. I got so many wonderful ideas from your comments (Thank you) that I didn't know how all to do it. I was told by several people that you had to go big for the first one and make sure the kid knew that the first one was going to be the biggest and best. So we gave her $3 (in dollar coins) and also a doll that she had fallen in love with at the Disney store and lucky timing for us was on clearance. Here's all the info straight from the toothless horse's mouth:
(Interview right after Tooth #1 "Pearly" came out.)
What was the cool thing that happened today?
Today I lost my first tooth. I was a little bit afraid because it hurted. And also I felt like I was so excited that the tooth fairy could come tonight. I'm so excited for the tooth fairy to come!

What did your tooth feel like before it came out?
It felt really really wiggly and when my mom pulled it, it hurt! But then today a magical sight, a miracle happened, it was that my tooth fell out. My first one.

What does it feel like now that the tooth is gone?
It feels like there's a little door in my mouth and it's a cute, little tooth you know. Maybe I could show you it if you come quickly to my house or I could show you it tomorrow at church if you visit. Also, I could tell you about it instead of showing it to you if you can't come.


(A few days later.)
Did the tooth fairy come?
Yes. My mommy gave me some choices and I picked the funnest, coolest, coolest, sparkliest one. It was the coolest. You know? The choices were: put the tooth under your pillow, put the tooth in a treasure box or put the tooth in a glass. I filled a glass up with water and dropped the tooth inside the water and the coolest part is you see the fairy dust in the water.(Good thing she didn't notice the "fairy dust" on my jeans the next day. Woops.)

(P.S. Note to future "Tooth Fairies". Gel food coloring sucks for this application. Invest in some old skool dye if you don't already have it. Or you can just use some beet juice like I did here. If you do use beet juice, dispose the rest of it or you might have some close calls the following day. )

Did she bring anything?
She brang me a DARBY DOLL (Did you all know Christopher Robin had a little sister who is a super slueth? She's a little freaky looking but Chloe LOVES her.)!
(I'd like to comment on this "get-up", as her mother, because she often wears my "Wonder Woman" boots. She's dressed to match Darby here. She wore these all day and even with her night-gown. They turn out to be thigh highs and somehow she can still work the stairs.)

(Interviewed today.)
Last Sunday, I lost my second tooth.

Tell me what happened.
Daddy was out of town to camp at a campsite and we saved the tooth for him to pull out since Mommy did the first one but his fingers happened to be too big so he couldn't pull the tooth out. Mommy had to pull it out again! It was so sad for Dad but I just knew his fingers would be too big, his tippies (tips of his fingers?)were too big!

What did it feel like?
It didn't feel like the other one but it did hurt a little bit. There was lots of blood on this one.

Was it as exciting to lose another tooth?
It was a little exciting but the first one was better.

Did the tooth fairy come?
Yes. I chose this time to put it under my pillow. It actually happened that she found my tooth. (my sister gave me the hint to put the tooth in a Ziploc so you can find it easier and not lose it.) I think she lives up in heaven you know. So next time you lose a tooth, you should think about heaven. (nice advise from a kid huh?) And she brang me 4 monies! (quarters) and a pony coloring book (Dollar Store). It had Toola, Pinkie, Rainbow, Scootie and Cheery all in it yeah and also Starsong and Sweetie Belle (can you tell she's obsessed yet?).
(I have to comment on this outfit too. She is wearing capris but because she knew I would tell her it was too cold for capris, she put some leggings on underneath. She's also wearing her HS Musical t-shirt for the third time this week and over it all, a beautiful ballerina outfit--she says she's "June" from "Little Einsteins". The best part you can't really appreciate because the leotard part was super tight over her two pairs of pants.)
My second tooth's name was "Cloudy" and it was a "he" not a "she". It was the boyfriend of "Pearly". Isn't that a little funny? It is so hilarious. Do you know what that means, it means funny. If you ever say hilarious, it means funny. (This fool could talk all day.)

My Mommy Vacation

This post is a little old. I forgot it was in my draft folder awaiting the photos. Anyway, enjoy.

I invented this new thing that I think all Mommies should try. It is called a "Mommy Vacation". I invented it to save myself from a break-down. I didn't think it would be so wonderful but it was. If you want to learn how to do it, read on.

1. You need to be really overwhelmed. This was best accomplished for me by having my husband sleep in while I fed the girls, picked out church outfits and showered all the three girls together (killer on my back).
2. You need to have been or be super stressed out. For me, I hate being late to places. And at 8:55 when I should have been out the door for church (we live within walking distance), I was still doing my hair (that's the thing with this short hair, I can't just not do it). At 9:00, I finished my hair and started my make-up and at 9:05, I was out the door while everyone else had left before me.
   
3. You need to have been let down. For me, I helped my daughter Chloe write her talk for Primary and practiced, practiced, practiced it. I hate when she has to be fed every line. I mean I think that is fine when they are little but I know she doesn't need that anymore. I told everybody the plan, Daddy would help with parts but Chloe would have to do her main story part by herself. Everybody agreed but that is not what happened and yeah she's a kid and blah, blah, blah but it really bugged me.
   
4. You need to be sick of your job. When we got home and there were dirty dishes everywhere, crumbs from breakfast on the floor and table and everybody whining about how they were hungry (or screaming) and even though claiming to be hungry not wanting to eat anything you offer.
5. You need to feel like you are going to snap.
6. Or if your baby just figured out how to scream, this alone can get you an automatic pass.
   

If you can fulfill these requirements, this is what you get:

• You go upstairs (or to some corner of your house) and you tell everybody that you are gone, off duty, ca-poot!
• You put Daddy in charge.
• You eat whatever you want all day and prepare no meals for anybody else. *(*The key here is that somebody else has to do the next three otherwise you will neutralize your vacation.)
• You do no dishes. *
  
• You don't have to clean anything up. *
  
• You can take a nap. A glorious, guilt-free nap.
• You can play on your computer, cleaning off the desktop, organizing photos, reading emails, and actually typing an email without anybody else trying to whack the keyboard while you're typing, etc.
• You can eat 2 packs of Little Debbie heart cakes if you want to. In theory.
  
• You make everybody ask permission to talk to you before they talk to you.
• You eat Fruit Loops for dinner (even though you don't really love cereal, it just sounds so good to you, you can't believe it), and you eat it in bed if you want to because you're the mom and you can do whatever you want.
• You can "visit" your family a few times on your vacation, but if your baby starts screaming, you just tell everybody you're going back on vacation again.

And magically if you do a Mommy Vacation, the next day when your baby wakes up at 6:30 or screams at you and throws food, it isn't quite as hard to handle. You seem happier, more patient, more forgiving and even more optimistic. Plus, everybody else seems to have fun having a break from Mommy too--at least for a while.


The Daddy Fort was such a success in fact that Chloe and Daddy had a sleepover in it's replica the following weekend. Thank you Greg. Although it would be nice to have a Mommy Vacation every month, I am grateful that I got at least one for now.