Bedtime Story for everyone

A few months ago, (has it rally been THAT long?) I talked about the iPad and this. A Story Before Bed.
I blogged about it and therefore felt that I needed to take it for my very own Hawaiian-style test drive. And so it was late one night with the toddler asleep and the hubbs in the next room that I was alone with the laptop, my TV, a webcam and internet. We have our laptop feed into our TV (I am sure that is the technical term) so our little screen is now a VERY BIG screen.

I entered in my user name and my password. And, OH NO! Whats wrong?! I knew something was not right. The VERY BIG screen was VERY MUCH all BLACK. I emailed the customer service and the sweet and ever prompt Hillel responded. I thought, "She must never sleep" and then "She is Superwoman" followed by "I got to get whatever she is on."

After a few brief emails the problem was resolved. It was a due to user error. Go figure. Once again I typed in my user name and my password. And my oh my... I was introduced to virtual heaven.

Books upon books at my fingertips. All it took was a click of the mouse to browse through page after page of books.  With so many choices I decided to try the Itsy-Bitsy Spider. Simple. Classic. And free. The result? I loved it. I think that being able to "read" aloud a story via computer is a really innovative way top connect to those inside your home and those who may not be inside your home right now but are inside your heart. I will let you check it out here. (Don't judge me off the cheap quality web-cam)

Oh one more thing. Both the Toddler and the hubbs LOVED it. I am going to make more. And you should too. Especially if you are far from your loved ones.

I'd do it again you know...

Phil Foster: I'd do it again you know? Us, you, me the kids, all of it. I'd do it again. I'd choose you every time.
Claire Foster: If we are going to pay this much for crab it better sing and dance and introduce us to the Little Mermaid! 

Remember the post here. Of course you don't. I mean, who really remembers things from other people's lives anyhow? Who even really reads all of this post?


The Hubbs a some of you as well are over a week into the Summer of Love. Part of this for us here in Houston means that each week we trade off with who plans a date. I NEVER KNEW how tough guys had it planning dates! It is hard work let me tell you. I got the idea for this one from The Dahling Divas because let's be honest here, I am just not that creative. (feel free to dispute this one in the comment section)

Here is how the whole night went down:
24hr before: Watched the preview for Date night
18hr before: Printed off fake tickets and stuck to the mirror so the hubbs would see it in the morning
5pm day of! Hubbs and I get ready to go. Take picts, pack the toddler up and drop her off at the sitters. Thanks again Steph!
5:40p-Dinner at PF Changs on the Patio (Thank you Brandon and Shelby). We make reservations as the Triplehorns and ten act like a silly couple and as spys. And we play the "Guess their story game" We did this when we were dating each other as single people so it was extra fun
6:30p-Go see Date Night at the Dollar Movie Theater
7:30p-Walked out of Date Night between the f-bomb and the strip scene
Do a few errands, pick up the toddler and pick up ice cream and cold medicine. 
NOTE: even on a date night we can't manage to do "parenting" things. 

It was like a real date when we were single... the dressing up, the anticipation, and even the walking out of yucky movies together. 
This week is McKay's turn. And he has a big date planned for us!  

Dear Crayola,

My sweet Crayola,

We have been together through a lot over the years.It was you who was with me when I first learned to spell my name. Through Grammar school you comforted me with your new big box and built-in sharpener, always ready to color when teacher asked us to draw our summer vacation. Then in junior high school you came with different smells such as "popcorn" and "chocolate"; again an added comfort during those awkward years of puberty We were been together during that particular long car trip to Colorado where the little brother puked on everything. You were the one who helped me illustrate it in detail and you were the one even in College who allowed me to use you on a dreadful date to diagram the water cycle. Yes Crayola, you have always been there for me. You are reliable, sturdy, and provider of color for every occasion and mood I may be in.

Now look how you have grown! You are no longer restricted to colored wax in paper. You have become an essential to any worthy mothers emergency pack. Coloring on the walls is no longer a fear with Color Wonder. Little hands can grab your waxy flesh to color or stack together with no problem  as you pose in Beginning Jumbler. And my personal favorite, your water soluble formula that, after all these years, allows me to write and draw in the shower thus giving a surprise pleasure to those who will follow.

And so I thank you Crayola my love for the many years of memories for me and the many to come for my family. You have been with my daughter every step of the way and through every stage of life.

PS: What is your favorite Crayola product or memory. Come on now, don't be shy!

Daxton Michael Osmond

Welcome to the world beautiful boy

"There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.""

Author: Mark Twain

Tonight, is the night...

Jaedyn is POUNDING to get out of her room as I sit here. And I will continue to ignore it as this is my 3rd attempt at nap time. But I had to steal away a few moments just to say that this is the night.  

Why you ask? Why, I would be happy to list them for you. 

1. Babysitter

2. Getting dressed to the 9's (what does that even refer too? I'll have to BING it)

3. Dinner with a certain sexy man I know

4. Movie with said certain sexy man

5.

That is all I can say for now. I have been so excited for WEEKS for tonight... Maybe if you ask nice I will elaborate. Maybe. But for now, I better go make sure the toddler left the door intact but the sound of the last BANG makes me question that.

Note: Origin of dressed to the 9's found here

Thoughts on marriage.... totally not an expert

Ive been thinking a lot on marriage. Between completing my personal progress and the Summer Of Love, this topic has been on my mind for two weeks. There was a conversation that took place a few days ago I thought to share. 


Me: Awe, so cute!
Hubbs: What? 
Me: That old couple driving together.There. See?
Hubbs: Why is it that it is so cute? 
Later.....
Hubbs: Awe! Look at that 40-something and all the kids. Oh, there is even a dog! 


Hahaha
.....................
But it DID get me thinking. Why is it that my reaction to the older generation seems to always be the same? Then I read this.


"It is far more difficult to be of one heart and mind than to be physically one. This unity of heart and mind is manifest in sincere expressions of 'I appreciate you' and 'I am proud of you.' Such domestic harmony results from forgiving and forgetting, essential elements of a maturing marriage relationship. Someone has said that we 'should keep [our] eyes wide open before marriage, and half shut afterward.' True charity ought to begin in marriage, for it is a relationship that must be rebuilt every day." -Elder James E. Faust


and

“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”

Mother Teresa quotes

And the infamous "Love is a choice you make each morning, each day, each moment"


Recently there have been some loss of marriage through death and divorce. And oh how my heart hurts. And if you been able to wade through all my thoughts put to "paper" here I will make my point. I have LOVED doing this Summer of love. I know, its only been a week. Not even. And each day I am excited to show the hubbs how I love him and also to see what he does. 


I remember while I was at Winter Quarters and seeing how sweet the older couples interacted with one another and promising myself that I would have that. Somewhere I realized that we both have to work at it daily or we will wake up one day, all old and grey and wrinkly and not know each other. I refuse to let that happen. So I choose now. I choose to forgive always, to be slow to anger and to love fully. 


What things have you done to show your love or what have you learned in marriage? I'm interested, open and ready to learn


note: picture by Jared Paulsen

Taking a vote. Please chime in!

L to R: The Hubbs at 1 yr, the Toddler at 1 yr (thanks Mel Parker), and your truly at 1 yr

Question: "Which is stronger? Black bears or brown bears?" -Dwight Schrute

Kidding.

Question: "Who has the stronger genes?" She will be 2 in September and we will be celebrating with a Super WHY party. I wonder how much change will take place between now and then?

So I am taking votes. Tell me what you think. Thank you

News: A new addition to the family

This little doll takes this other little doll everywhere we go. This little doll takes this other little doll everywhere we go. Did I mention that this doll goes EVERYWHERE! We got a stroller for her today (Thank you my friend) and I think we will need a car seat pretty soon. 

To make my point that these two are in fact one, let me just say that if the doll is not with the other doll for bed, she will not go to bed until it is safe next to her. If the doll is does not get kisses from mommy and daddy after prayers, you can bet said parents will hear about it. And if doll is MIA from walks or outings, we end up searching and searching amidst the cries of a toddler until she ifs found. 

Thank you grandparents. This new edition has changed our lives. And did I mention it cries as well? Yep. 

The end of Cheerios in our home

I awoke to something touching my face. My nose and mouth to be specific. Hmmm, i think. It smells an awful lot like chocolate. My eyes are still closed and I am not sure what is going on.
................................................................................................................................
Gasp! I have a toddler! I shoot of bed like a bat out of you-know-where and look.
.................................................................................................................................
And I see it. Chocolate. Its on hands, face, pajamas, and my just laundered white sheets. "Ok, I get it. First, we need to put a lock on your door. Second, you need breakfast." And if I could have read her mind or understood her words that spilled out I would have known she already tried. I wonder briefly why she runs into the kitchen and attribute it to her growling tummy. I pull on some clothes and follow after her only to hear a sound I have never heard before.
Swishing cheerios. Crunching cheerios. Cheerio-snow angels singing with new birth. Lovely. And like the good mother who is half-asleep with the smell of chocolate (which I DO NOT like) stuck into my smeller, I get my camera and snap-snap-snap.
.............................................................................................................................
"this is going to make a great post." I think to myself. Now it time to throw away all of these cheerios and bring the cheerio-snow-angels and quick death. And for the record, resurrection is not an option.

Wanted: Participants for the Summer of Love.

Me: "Hubbs, I have an idea"

Hubbs: "ok" (I have LOTS of ideas so he is used to this)

Me: "I have been thinking that maybe we could do something fun and different this summer"
(in my mind I am picturing ideas from here, here, and here)

Hubbs: a little hesitation than, "what do you have in mind)

because let's be honest, sometimes my ideas are WAY out there. Like how I think we should live in Australia. No job there? BAA! Who cares! Let's just go

Me: "Summer starts on the 21st. That's in a few weeks. So, I was thinking that everyday until the end of summer we can do acts of love. EVERY DAY. "
(I can't see his face since we are laying in bed but I can only imagine...)
"It doesn't have to be very big. (because I know he is adding up the costs) But just little things each day, like a letter or leaving a note somewhere or....

Hubbs: "That's a great idea!"

Me: "Really?" I mean, "yeah, it is a good idea. If course it is!"

And thus begins our summer of love. Are you going to participate?

What's the obsession with Gmail? (Open letter)

Okay so I was searching for my tax returns from the past couple of years in my email inbox. My Dad, as a CPA, does a great service for me every year by doing my taxes and sends me those returns via email. I'm glad to have him as my CPA because he really knows his stuff. Anyway, my point is that I have two main email accounts, my Yahoo and my Gmail and my Dad has

started to send me emails exclusively via my Gmail account. So I have long been a fan of Yahoo over Gmail for various reasons that I will soon enumerate. While searching for the forms in both

my Gmail and Yahoo accounts, I was reminded of those differences and said to my wife (who is an avid Gmail user), "Seriously, why do you use Gmail when Yahoo has such better functionality. I don't know what the big deal is and why more people don't have yahoo accounts." She said,

"why don't you blog about it...?" "I think I will!" Now please don't think I am against have a Google account. It is almost a necessity for other things. I love Reader. I like my iGoogle. I love Google chrome and the bookmark bar and the extensions you can add (although I do like Bing a

lot too, especially for maps and travel). I think Google Voice is awesome, and Blogspot is generic, but okay, but seriously people Gmail has been long overdue for an upgrade. I mean after the initial launch all the college people got an account and never checked to see what the competition was doing. Yeah the mass storage was awesome back in 2005/6, but everybody has that now.

So anyway, here is my list of what makes Yahoo better than Gmail.

Tabbed messages - seriously Google, how easily would this be to implement. I mean do you know how nice it is to be writing an email and to be able to stop and reference something that is in another email without having to save and exit your existing message. Any major email client has that and if you want to be taken seriously Gmail, it is a must.

Message previews - I don't want to have to open every message that I get if it is only a couple sentences long. I can quickly scroll through all the messages and then if I want to open it, I can. You do this in Reader, why not in Gmail.

Your search function is awful - Yeah you can do an advanced search and get better results, but Yahoo's is superior in so many ways. All you have to do is enter what it is that you are looking for, in my case it was "tax forms". There were a lot more results than I was expected, but no matter. Over on the right hand there was a bunch of quick filters. Year sent, sender, mail folder, attachment, etc. I didn't have to do an advanced search because that option is available with every search. You just narrow it down after you see you got too many results. See the pic below.

Gmail also doesn't sort by date, by sender, file, etc. Yahoo does. Sometimes it's really nice to have that functionality.

I've heard it argued that Gmail is nice because it has all your chat contacts right in the mailbox. Guess what? Yahoo does too! It's just that everybody uses Gmail for some strange reason so you have everybody has more contacts there. Anyway, let's be honest, everybody uses Facebook now for chatting and messaging, right?

Oh and what's the deal about grouping all "like messages" together? I hate that! We use Google for our email server at work (but use Outlook as the client). Every now and then I have to go into the main Google account to check for Spam because some legitimate emails to get sent there. Well Google groups all messages that have the same subject line and a "Re:" even though they aren't related in the slightest.

Yahoo also offers some pretty cool features like Other In Box that organizes those annoying (but sometimes important) messages from bank and credit card accounts, Linked In updates, shopping. I don't want to be completely removed, but I don't want them cluttering up my inbox either. So now I just get a daily update from OIB and I can scan through to see if there is anything worth reading.

Oh and I also like how they have top news stories right there on hand on one of the tabs.

By the way, while I am at it Google. Why do you make it so hard to add people that I want to share with on Reader. Maybe I don't have their Gmail account. If they are sharing publicly, why can't you make it easier to search for people and add people by other mail accounts? I'd like to see what more of my friends are sharing. I use Reader a lot more than Facebook and if you made it easier to search and add people than maybe a lot more people would switch over. And you can never tell who is actually following you and posting stuff for you to see.

Okay, I've given my opinion, now give me yours. If you are a Gmail user, why do you use it? Because you are comfortable with it and don't want to make a switch and give out a new email? Well you did it before when you switched to Gmail a couple years ago, right?

21 months old

Moving is a Hazard

When we moved I lost a few things. My coupon binder, my cookbooks, my favorite lamp. (scored it for $30 from $250!) I know. Weird. I did manage to NOT LOSE my child, mind or my marriage. I consider it a win. However, my heart aches each time I reach into my would-be cupboard for my faithful cookbook. My toes hurt each time I stub them on the table due to lack of light. And I cannot begin to express my pain at the loss of my trusty coupon binder. As I thought about replacements, I thought about what things make me happy. And here they are.  I would like to get these two books. The Pioneer Woman and Bakerella. But I can't.
I also want a shirt from each place.

The Pioneer Woman I cant ever have. EVER. I missed the book signing. It was before I became a fan. (sigh....)  But I could get the Bakerella one. Actually, I can't. I have 6 more months of no shopping. (BIG sigh). And I publicly apologize to the hubbs for putting myself through this. I am sure he has had enough of my complaining. Or should I say, self-inflicted pain.

Love of a father

There are no words needed. This is love. 

Just kidding. Here are some words. But they are not mine. "Our most important and powerful assignments are in the family. They are important because the family has the opportunity at the start of a child's life to put feet firmly on the path home. Parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles are made more powerful guides and rescuers by the bonds of love that are the very nature of a family." Thank you Pres. Eyring

I deserve to brag

Randall's purchase. Originally $100. After coupons and card savings $26. Subtract $6 mail in rebate. Total=$20

9 Whole Wheat Pasta, 2 Red Baron singles, Organic milk, 3 Welch's Juice, 2 Snyders Pretzles, Organic Sour cream, 2 packs go-gurt, Cheerios, Trix, 2 Girads salad dressing, 7 Mac and Cheese, well you get the point. My power has gone out twice now so I am just going to stop while I am ahead. . 

2010 Sand Castle Competition. Becoming a statistic

Every year thousands of people swarm to East Beach in Galveston, TX. This year, your truly and the fam were one of the thousands. We laughed, we played, andwe ate snacks lightly salted with sand. It was a good day

Can't you tell I have been working out? :) Seriously, my schedule is tough but it is fulfilling. More of that and exciting news to come. I have been trying out my new camera. Obviously I still need help on the aperture blah blah blah settings. But I am getting the hang of it. Sorta. 

The Dr. Seuss stole my heart right out my chest. I sat there in awe, in amazement and wondering what I would have to do to get them to come to a sand castle party that I would love to throw. Just for them and just so I could I have this in my backyard.  Of course I was over-zealous with the camera and took many-a-picture. But this will suffice. Just mark your calendars for next year. And you too can become a statistic. 

Why is your husband the best?

Seriously? I hope that this was staged. If not, good job getting it on camera random photo from google guy.

Each Friday I share with the www different ways in my hubbs rocks. I then email him the post. I know, I am really great wife. But he is a really great hubbs and not only puts up with all my dysfunctional habits and impulsive behavior and too often "blond" moments, that a once a week sound off of why I love him is a small price considering.

But this post is to you wife and/or momma reading this. Tell me, and the rest of the world for that matter, why your husband is the best. Then send him your response. I bet he will be surprised...

Whats your funny kitchen story?

This needs no words. Although, I am curious as to what you have discovered in your kitchen. Any good tales to tell?