A Little Behind

Okay, so maybe I don't have the littlest behind in the world, but I am feeling a bit behind right now. We just got home last night after a wonderful week of Spring Vacation, and it took me quite a while to catch up with everyone's blogs. Plus, we left the house messy (I hate doing that) so I've got to catch up on cleaning while I unpack everything. Here's some pictures from Easter and such.

Ethan's journey from the bed to the chocolate bunny. He enjoyed it - he really did.

All of the kids enjoying Easter. Marcus loves his bunny!






























And here they are enjoying the foam pit during open gym at the gymnastics center. Alyssa and Marian are mermaids, and Ethan is building a tower.

A Much Needed Vacation

This week started out pretty cruddy. Along with other things, I broke our glass pitcher that we got when we were first married (I love that thing!), Ethan has been getting up at 5:00, so I haven't been able to go to the gym (where's my 'me' time?), I nearly burned down our house when I put a bag of chocolate chips in the microwave (what was I thinking?), and there's something else really cruddy that happened earlier this week, but things must be looking up because I can't remember what it was.

Ethan needs his hearing checked, and he needs to be tested by early intervention, because he's still hardly talking. But Dr. Brown says that since the rest of his development is right on or ahead, it's most likely that he's just not ready to talk yet.

So it started out as a yucky, crummy week, but the past couple of days I've been feeling better. And tomorrow we get to pack up our little car and go to the Tri-Cities for spring break. We're so excited! It's going to feel so nice just to get away and hang out with our families. Also what's fun: We got Ethan to say 'water' yesterday, and Marcus is starting to crawl.

Nicknames

Brian

If I'm not calling him by his actual name, I usually call Brian 'Honey,' or 'Brian - Love'.

Carrie

Brian calls me 'Carriewif'. I don't know exactly how it became 'wif' instead of 'wife,' but that's what he calls me. We actually have a pretty good-sized rock sitting on a bookshelf in our living room that is engraved to say, "Carriewif, I love you." Usually when a man gives his wife a "rock" it means a diamond, but not at our house. I love that rock. Brian has actually been on a campaign the last couple of years to change my name to 'Mama Llama Ding Dong.' The scary thing is, sometimes it works.

Alyssa

We usually call Alyssa 'Lissie." In fact, when she was a baby I labeled things of hers by writing Lissie with the i's as flowers. It was pretty cute. We also call her 'Lis,' 'Lissie - Boo,' and 'Lissa.' Brian calls her 'Alyssa - Monkey' sometimes, or just plain 'Monkey.' One thing that I've noticed lately is that I call Alyssa 'Baby' and 'Babe,' but I don't call the boys that. It's funny that even though she's my oldest, she's still my baby.

Ethan

Ethan doesn't have any nicknames derived from his name. We usually just call him just 'Ethan.' Nickname-wise though, we call him, 'Sir' and 'Little Man.' We also call him 'Bud' or 'Bub.'

Marcus

Marcus is my baby. I call him 'My Marcus' and 'My man.' I love saying, "Who's My Marcus? Marcus is!" while changing his diaper and watching him just smile at me. And since he's the baby, right now he's the one privileged to be called 'Little One.'

You Know

You know you're a blogging junkie when your friend hasn't even pulled out of your driveway and you're already taking pictures of her cookies so you can put them on your blog.

Spring has Sprung

Spring has sprung in the form of Char's yummy cookies, and off and on again rain showers. Have you ever heard of a Monkey's Wedding? Apparently, when it's raining and sunny at the same time, it's called a Monkey's Wedding. We've been having a lot of that lately, and it's absolutely beautiful.

Shoulda Listened

When things get rough, like when I was pregnant and puking all over the place, Brian tells me to call someone for help. "Just ask someone to watch the kids for a while," he would say, but I didn't want to bother anyone. "If someone called you and asked you to watch their kids, would it bother you?"

No, it wouldn't bother at all. Not in the least. But I hate calling and asking for people to help. It feels like I'm putting them out, even if I might not be.

Yesterday morning I thought, "We should have Jenny and her kids over this afternoon. That would be fun." But then I got busy with the laundry and never called her. Then Steve (her husband) called and said that Jenny hurt her back pretty bad and could we please watch their kids? Of course I said yes, and they ended up just sending Katie over. Alyssa and Katie had a marvelous time together, but I couldn't help thinking that I should have called Jenny when I thought about it, then I could have offered to watch the kids instead of them having to ask.

Self Control? What's That?

So the cake didn't get put in the freezer. I thought to myself, "How can I not have cake the day after my birthday?" Three pieces later I was really regretting that thought.

The Glories of Having Curly Hair

I tried to lay down with Ethan and Marcus to get them down for a nap. Marcus fell asleep while I read "A Bad Case of Stripes" by David Shannon, but Ethan was still going even after I told "The Three Bears" and was halfway through "The Three Little Pigs." It was when I caught myself saying, "And the little pig woke up and ordered that his room be..." that I realized I had been dozing off. Who knows what the little pig had been doing before I realized I was talking nonsense?

Anyway, I got up and Brian was studying in our bedroom. He said my hair looked hilarious. Here's the Photo Shoot he put me through:

On the plus side, Marcus is cute.

Birthday Weekend

27 years old, that's what I am. Like all of my other birthdays to date, I don't feel any different than I did yesterday. But, we had a great weekend.

On Friday we went to Red Robin, and I had the new Bruschetta Chicken Burger with Parmesan Steak Fries. It was so yummy! Alyssa loved that they sang "Happy Birthday" to me, and she and Ethan helped me eat my ice cream.

On Saturday Ethan and I got up at 6:00 (it was Ethan's idea, not mine) and we made name tags and printed out character information for our murder mystery party that was taking place that night. When everyone woke up, we started cleaning the house and rearranging the furniture. Ethan and Alyssa were having a great time making messes while I cleaned, but once I gave a little lecture about how we all needed to clean the house and (a little louder, so Brian could hear) "get out of bed," the cleaning went a lot smoother. Alyssa washed walls, while Ethan was in charge of getting the dust buster out when I was done sweeping. Brian's job was to put together a play list of 40's music and to hold and entertain Marcus. When everything was almost ready, we headed to Costco to pick up the cake and some flowers, and we ended up getting cream puffs and cookie dough too.

The party was fabulous. It seemed like everyone had a great time - I hope they did. We played "Dazzled to Death" by Freeform Games. Char and Mason did a great job of keeping their secrets secret, and Trent did a stupendous job of being the thief. He made little cards that said "Puma, you've been plucked" (Puma was the name given to the thief) and he left them around the house when he stole something. Items that went missing were: the cake knife, my camera, and Cali's bag of diamonds. He almost got away with it all, but when he sat down and the cake knife fell out of his pocket, he got caught. Brian was killed by accident, (accident meaning he wasn't supposed to be killed and I, as the one in charge, killed him wrongfully) and he was soon resurrected. Nate was killed on purpose by Casey and Derek, but not before he was able to blackmail Char. Brian was the FBI agent who arrested Trent. Anyway, great time.

And Sunday was my birthday. We went to church, I said prayer in Relief Society, then we came home and had dinner. I had cake for breakfast and lunch, which I think is perfectly fine to do on your birthday. The leftovers are going in the freezer for a while though, because I am caked-out.

Bringin' Back the Do-Rag

Okay, here's a little hair history. I grew up with stick-straight hair. Both of my sisters have beautiful curly hair, and I was always jealous of them. It took me 24 years to come to love my straight hair, and just when I did, it started to grow curly. Being pregnant with Ethan affected my hormones in huge ways, and my once-straight hair had cute little wavy curls in it. I loved it...for about a year. Marcus's pregnancy decided to mess around with those hormones a bit more, and the end result (I wish I would have gotten a before picture) was a short, feathered, not quite curly, not quite straight, but not even wavy kind of hair do. If I didn't curl it every day and clip it back, I looked like David Cassidy from the "Partridge Family," but with not quite such a big smile. It took a little bit of thinking, and I decided that getting a perm is not just an 80's thing to do, so I headed to the salon to get back those slight curls that Ethan had given me.

The lady said that the biggest curler would give be "body" and "volume," so I opted for the second to biggest, because my hair's body was the problem I was trying to get rid of. So now it looks like this:

These pictures were taken right after we got home, and I was on the phone with my sister, telling her I look like a poodle. And I purposefully didn't do my make up yesterday, because I wanted to do a dumpy, gloomy before picture (why don't they ever smile?) and then later do a made up, happy, glowing after picture with my new do. The thing is, I never got around to doing my make up, and Brian followed me around the house with the camera the minute I stepped through the door. The phone conversation went like this:

Carrie: I look like a poodle! It's so curly! Brian, stop taking my picture!

Christina: No, post the pictures so I can see what it looks like.

Over the past 12 hours I have evolved from thinking that I look like a poodle. I can also compare myself to the kid on "Boy Meets World" or Screech from "Saved by the Bell." But overall, even though it's curlier than I expected, I think I'm going to like it once I get used to it. I might wear a scarf or handkerchief on my head for a couple of days, though, just to ease into the transition.

In a Vocabulary Rut

I go through phases sometimes when I notice that I use a particular word over an over again. Sometimes these phases last an hour or two, but sometimes they can last weeks.

Lately, a few of my frequently-used words are "beautiful" and "gorgeous." It is a beautiful, sunny day outside. It's gorgeous. The last piece of carrot cake I made for Family Council on Sunday isn't very beautiful, but when more of the cake sat on the platter instead of in my tummy, I would pass by the kitchen counter and think that it was just gorgeous. My over-use of these words probably stems from me telling Alyssa that she is beautiful and gorgeous every day. I usually say she looks beautiful, but when it's something specific I'll say, "That headband is gorgeous." I want to say these things frequently, though. I want her to grow up confident. (Yes, I tell her that's she's smart, funny, talented, etc., too.) See, I am not photogenic at all. I really don't like to have pictures taken of me, and I especially didn't like to be in photos when I was in high school. I thought I was funny looking, and it certainly didn't help that all of my friends were beautiful and gorgeous and always looked great in the pictures that I developed. Jamie says that a guy once told her that "every girl should look like Carrie Lewis," and I believe her (although I doubt he was completely sane when he said it - maybe it was early in the morning, before zero hour) but if she would have told me this during high school, I would think she was playing a trick on me. Anyway, I used to think I wasn't pretty, but I've come to terms with that now. When Brian and I were dating, he would say that I was pretty, and that I "sparkled" and that made me feel special. But what really did it was going to church with Alyssa and having people tell me that she looked exactly like me, a "rubber stamp." Well, I think that she's beautiful, so how can I not be? Well, it makes sense to me.

A short-lived vocabulary rut happened on Monday. I took the kids to go see "Enchanted" at the Compass Room theater (free, for us students) while Brian was studying. I was a little afraid to go by myself with three children, so I spent the drive to McMenamins telling them how good they needed to be, otherwise we would go home. We made it there a few minutes early, and we sat down, and the kids were being awesome. Yes, awesome. I haven't used that word in ages, but for some reason, I couldn't stop using it for that five minutes. "Okay, you guys, you are being awesome. You're doing an awesome job. I need you to be good for the whole movie, and that would be awesome. Just stay in your seats, sit still, and we'll have an awesome time..." I swear, the guy sitting behind us kept looking at me like I had no education whatsoever. We enjoyed the movie though. The kids were very well behaved, and it was awesome.

I'm a Butterfly with ADHD

Seriously, I keep going from one thing to the other, just like a butterfly. I have a gazillion projects and ideas running around through my head, and it's driving me crazy. I can't even start one thing before I start thinking about another thing.

Here are a few of the projects and other things floating around my head.

• I want to make night gowns for Alyssa, because all the ones in the store are character pajamas and not long enough for her.
• I want to make our "Caught Being Good" trophy. We're going to JoAnns today, and I want to get going on that, but I still haven't decided exactly what it will look like.
• I want to make a going to bed/bedtime routine book for Ethan, and hopefully get him sleeping through the night.
• I want to make nursing shirts to sell in an etsy shop. I've got ten shirts purchased from Downeast Basics just sitting in a bag for me to cut and sew. The white ones are actually almost done, but I haven't gotten a chance to finish them yet.
• I want to have an unbirthday party for Alyssa in April, because we'll be moving for her birthday in August. I've got tons of great ideas for an Alice in Wonderland party. The cake is going to be stupendous!
  
• I want to build a house when we graduate, and Brian and I are starting to look into whether or not that's even a possibility.
• I think I want to have another baby around the time we graduate, so we can be done (if we want to stop at four) with having babies the same time we're done with school.
• I want to go to Disneyland with my parents this spring. Brian and I have saved up our credit card reward points for a few years, and we've got the park tickets covered with that, and we're selling our stuff on craigslist and ebay (which is a great way to clean the garage!) to raise money for the rest of the trip.
  
• I'm in the middle of putting together a story book of fairy tales I wrote for the kids. I had Alyssa dress up like a princess to take pictures for her story, and I need to dress Ethan up and take pictures for his story, and I need to write a story for Marcus. (so far the idea for the title is "The Squibble Squabble Baby." Alyssa's story is "The Wiggle Waggle Princess" - can you guess why? And Ethan's is the "Jibber Jabber Prince.")
• I'm planning my future bedroom. A couple of years ago I painted all our furniture a beautiful black, and I want to make a quilt that's a warm, deep red with very light cream.
  
• And that's not all!
  

See what I mean? I'm totally focused on one idea, then the next morning I wake up totally focused on something else. My brain will not slow down long enough for my body to catch up. I'm sure that every time I call my mom or my sister, they're probably thinking, "What's Carrie going to come up with today?"

I Have So Many Friends!

Today we got a huge packet of "Friend" magazines in our mail box. At first I thought I should give the extras to the Relief Society president to disperse, but then when I opened them I found that they are addressed to various people who live in Forest Grove. We have a "Friend" for the Hansens, the Hulets, the Despains, the Taylors, the Ames, and the Richardsons. Needless to say, we will be making some deliveries tonight.

Insights Into The Male Mind

Last night, as we were driving around Hillsboro listening to the radio, we heard John Tesch mention that men are "terrified when women are driving." I asked Brian if he's terrified when I drive, and he said that it's true. I believe it. Whenever I drive him to school - a three minute drive - he tells me when the light is green, or when I should switch lanes. Usually I'm fine with it, but sometimes I find myself saying, "Brian, I do know how to drive." But I guess, according to the radio, this is all completely normal.

Brian's theory is that he's been driving longer than I have, he's had jobs driving (cars, wheelchair accessible mini-buses, and huge buses) and that he would be able to react correctly in a faster manner than I would in a traffic crisis. My theory, that I devised from reading between the lines of Brian's theory, is that men are protectors. They are the leaders of our families, and they feel helpless - thus, terrified - when they are not in a position to protect their wives and children.

So ladies, the next time you're driving and your husband casually mentions that the light is turning yellow so you should slow down and stop, just remember that even though you saw the light change and were planning to stop anyway, that he loves you and wants to keep you safe.

Roses With Calories

Brian has been asking for rosettes for a few weeks now, so on Saturday he told me, "The Cluny's are coming over tomorrow, and we're making rosettes." Okay, that's fine with me.

The Cluny's did come over and Brian and Trent were in charge of the rosette making whle Hanni and I talked at the table and took care of the kids.


They were both beautiful and delicious.

Fathers

Last night Brian called us on his way home from class to see if we were watching the eclipse. I grabbed the kids and rushed them to the front yard, where we watched the blackness slowly creep over the moon. When Brian pulled in the driveway he came to stand with us, and it was time for me to pack up Marcus to go to Activity Day with the eight year old girls in our ward. I left with Brian standing in the street, holding Ethan in his arms and holding Alyssa's hand, watching the moon.

On my way to the church I saw a few couples out for walks to see the eclipse, but I didn't see any mothers out with their children. Each child I saw was accompanied by their father, and usually a telescope. I even saw Alyssa's friend, Paloma, and her dad.

It got me thinking about how cool fathers are. They're the best people to go camping with, to build forts with, and to watch the moon with. I remember laying out on the trampoline as a family to look at the stars. It was great that we were together as a family, but what made it special was having Dad with us, because we didn't see him as often. When I was a little girl we used to love watching the hydro plane races on the Columbia River. We would sit on our deck and watch the super-fast boats go by, sending water high up in the air behind them. My dad would help us build our own hydro planes each summer, helping us cut pieces out of wood and nail them together. Then we'd tie on some rope and pull our hydro planes around the back yard.

I love my dad so much, and I think that the relationships fathers have with their children are so important. I was noticing yesterday that Marcus will smile and talk to me, but it's Brian that makes him laugh. Alyssa and Ethan think they have a standing invitation to crawl all over Brian each time he lays on the living room floor. I'm so glad that I have such a wonderful father, and that my husband is such an amazing father to our children.

Big Foot, Loch Ness Monster, and Molly Mormon

I don't believe they exist.

After posting about my housekeeping dilemas the other day, I have since read about a couple of other ladies who have had problems keeping up with the demands of running a household. Sometimes I feel like I have to have it all together: the house has to be clean, the kids have to be dressed in cute clothes with their hair neatly done, meal times must be perfect with all four food groups laid out on the table, service must be done outside the home....and the list goes on and on. The truth is: we are supposed to be doing all of these things, but we are not going to be 100% on all of them every day. I like having a clean house. In fact, I go crazy when the house is messy, but with three kids (and Ethan in the two year old "dump out boxes" stage) the house is not going to be clean all of the time. I am all for a home cooked meal, but there are some days when all I can do is stick some chicken nuggets in the oven and get out the ketchup.

But I do believe that we are all doing a great job. Our goal is to raise our children in a loving, Gospel-centered environment. I believe that if the dirty dishes are stacked up on the counter, it's not as important as helping our daughter write the numbers 1 - 100. I believe that pizza and rootbeer can be a wholesome meal when it's eaten on the floor while watching a fun movie as a family. Even though it's hard to keep up with everything all at once, I believe that we are all doing our best to raise a righteous generation and to have a fun time with our children while they are young.

A Song I Learned From Brooke

It is a Tuesday morning, and the morning is bright.
The sun is shining, there's no cloud in sight.
We're gonna work all day - you'll see.
We're gonna have fun, as fun as can be.

Jogging Now

Okay, things are looking a little better this morning. I'm planning on renting a movie tonight and having a "date" with all of the laundry that's piling up. The sun is shining beautifully this morning, and the kids are happily playing in the back yard. The front rooms are clean and swept, and next I'm heading to the bathroom. We've had ant problems for the past month or so, and when the guy came to spray last week he said not to vacuum them up so they could take the poison back to the nest. I know he meant the live ants, but I've been leaving the dead ants too, just to be sure. For a day or two it looked like the ants were having a frat party in our bathroom. Man, they were having a good time....then the hangovers hit. We had ants staggering all over our walls, dropping into little black piles on the floor. I think that's one reason I went crazy last night. I've had enough of the ant battles - I'm so glad they're going away.

So yeah, things are great this morning. The only problem is I am so tired. Emily (originally from the great city of Pasco!) asked her readers what their dream vacations are. Today, I would just love to hole up in a hotel room for a couple of days, all by myself, and sleep.

So Hard to Keep Up

When you were a kid, did you ever go to the mall and run up the down escalator, and you would try and try, but you would never quite make it to the top? That is exactly how I'm feeling at this moment. I'm running - at least it feels like I'm running - and I'm not going anywhere.

I have baskets of dirty laundry. I have baskets of clean laundry. I have a load of clothes in the dryer and a load of towels in the washer. The dishes in the dishwasher are finally clean, but if I want to go to bed with a clean kitchen I've got to clean it out and fill it again. I know, I should be thankful that I have a dishwasher.

It's just that sometimes I feel like I've got everything together. The house is clean, the kids are reasonably clean, and I can take a few moments to enjoy the peace of knowing that my job is "done." Then five minutes later, chaos breaks out. Or I'll be thinking about my life and I'll start to congratulate myself on all the wonderful things that I'm accomplishing each day and I'll think, "Yeah, I've got it all together."

Then I have a night like tonight where I'm behind on everything and the house is a mess when the home teachers come over (the broom is still leaning against the wall, and it will probably still be there tomorrow when you all read this) and Alyssa keeps biting her knuckles until they crack and bleed and there's piles of dirty laundry on the bathroom floor. A little while ago I pulled back the covers on Ethan's bed and I saw this ugly bug running all around the blanket. "What is that?" I asked Brian after he came into the room. "A silverfish," he replied, to which I questioned: "What the heck is it doing in my son's bed?!?" I was close to tears, and Brian calmly said, "Swimming," and left the room. The silverfish is now swimming in a tightly wrapped piece of toilet paper somewhere in the sewer system of Forest Grove.

I think I'm calm now. I'm resigned to the fact that the laundry will never be done, and it should only take a few minutes to get the dishwasher emptied and filled again, then I can go to bed.