Kate Update

The other day she surprised me by pulling over a chair to the couch, laying down with a blanket, proclaiming herself tired, and falling asleep.

I realized it has been a long time since I've given a good Kate update! So here goes.

Kate has officially broken out of her painfully shy spell. She loves to say hi and good-bye now to anyone and everyone. After she says it, she'll tell me, "Say bye, Mommy!" Meaning, she's proud of herself for saying bye to people. She loves to play with other girls and boys and talks about how much fun she had with them long after they're gone. Nursery is her favorite place, and we were happy to hear from the nursery leader that Kate is the most well-behaved kid in the class! And she is the only one who volunteers answers during lessons. I'm so proud!

Kate also LOVES the sacrament. Her hands are always reaching into the bread tray before I can get one out for her. Today, when she saw the water tray coming, she said, "Ooh water!" then leaned over the back of our pew and took a cup of water out of someone else's tray!! She proceeded to slurp it down noisily, saying, "Yummy water!"

She is so kind and thoughtful, it makes me tear up sometimes. She frequently will hook her arms around mine, look up at me adoringly, and say, "I love you, too, Mommy" even though I haven't said anything. She proudly goes potty before bath time and always gets a fruit snack as a reward. I only give her two or three for going potty, and she will often give Daddy one and give me the other. Fruit snacks are one of her favorite things in this world, so I know it is a real sacrifice.

She continues to love going outside, going on hikes, and camping. She's not one to roll around in the mud, though. She likes to stay clean and will refrain from going down the slide if she deems it "too messy."

She loves all things princess! She knows all of the Disney princesses, even though she hasn't even seen all of their movies.

When I ask her to do something, or tell her it's time to go home, her favorite response is to say quietly, "No no, Mommy." Then she puts her little index finger to her lips crookedly, and says, "Shh." It is so cute, I usually don't have the heart to drag her away from what she's doing.

In the mornings, her typical greeting to me is, "I don't feel so good." When I ask what's wrong, she says with a sigh, "I tired." I can relate. She has stopped taking regular naps, but at night she will tell me she is sleepy and needs to get some rest.

She LOVES to clean up and generally does so without me mentioning it. She has become very independent and likes to get her silverware out and put her own butter and jelly on bread, push the grocery cart at the store, etc.

She now sleeps in her very own toddler bed. When we put it together and rearranged her room, she was SO excited! She kept running around, throwing her arms in the air, and exclaiming, "It's PERFECT!"

It seems she is somehow managing to get cuter and cuter with time, and she is a joy to be around. If ever I stub my toe or otherwise yell out in pain, she is always there to see what's wrong and how she can help. She even offered to carry me the other day. It didn't work out so well...

More and more I look forward to seeing the person she becomes.

911 "EMERGENCY" ?!?!?!

I think the quickest way to ruin someone's reputation at Wymount is to send a fleet of police cars to their house and accuse them of domestic abuse.

That is what happened to us this morning. It was a nice morning, we showered, had breakfast, Kate watched Clifford. I was going to take Andrew to work and go to SLC with Kate to develop his latest photographs. It was raining, and I made a couple trips to the car with Kate and everything that goes along with her to keep her happy. I noticed a police car parked right behind our car, blocking us, but assumed he was looking for someone and would move his car in a minute. As I was scurrying about, the policeman got out of his car and approached me. At first I panicked because our Nova is sitting in a Visitor spot without current registration. I was wondering if someone had complained about it sitting there. He told me that he was there because someone had called about a noise they heard.

Naively, I asked, "A noise? From where?"

"Your apartment."

Quickly, I went through everything I had done that morning in my head. Did I have music on too loud? No, wait, I didn't have music on at all. Was Clifford too loud? No. Kate hadn't cried or screamed at all this morning. Andrew was busy getting ready for work...

"What kind of noise?"

He motioned us out of the rain and told me that it was a domestic disturbance call. A what what??

Immediately, two more squad cars came swarming into our complex. Two officers asked to speak with me privately in the apartment, while another questioned Andrew outside. I told them that I didn't know why anyone would call and was frankly very disturbed that they would. They were very nice, and it seemed obvious that they believed everything I told them.

He seemed bugged that someone had called and said he was going to go upstairs and talk to our neighbors. They never asked to see Kate, who was patiently sitting in the car.

Needless to say, I was extremely bothered by this all day. When Andrew and I got home tonight we decided to go upstairs and talk to our neighbors and find out why they would call the police. We spoke with the lady who actually made the call (an older woman not in our ward), and she said that she heard a man yelling, "I'll show you!" or something like that and hitting someone, and a child screaming. She said she's heard this abuse going on for months, and she always thought it was us. She was kind and just trying to do the right thing by calling the police. When we told her all that we had done that morning, shower, ate, no abuse...she asked what time Andrew showered, and it turned out that he was showering when she heard the man yelling and hitting--so we were off the hook--with her.

SO STRANGE!! RIGHT?? I've never heard anyone being abused and our windows are open all the time like everybody else's.

This has definitely taught me to NEVER jump to conclusions, listen to gossip, or spread rumors or anything like that. Even if you think you know something for sure (like the woman who called), you might be wrong--and then what?

Happy Father's Day

Sorry for the nudity--I normally would never post bum pictures, but I thought this was too cute. It was taken way back in March, and I've been wanting to post it ever since. I finally broke down tonight. :) Andrew is a wonderful dad. I love you!

Toast will never be the same again.

If you love making yummy food that is EASY, you have to try this homemade jam my sister told me about. Strawberries are so cheap right now--so go pick up a case and make some jam!! All you need is two cups strawberries and four cups sugar to one box of Sure Jell. It makes about five cups jam. The recipe is in the Sure Jell box--for easy freezer jam, I think it's called.

It is even better than you are imagining. Mmm...I think I will go have some more.

2 Cute 2 Resist

I couldn't resist the title either--flashback to junior high. Anyway, I just asked Kate if she wanted to go to the store with me to pick up some ice cream (for a dinner party with friends tonight--not wholly for personal consumption), which normally she would be more than thrilled to do, but this time replied, "I don't want it. I tired." Not even two minutes later, she looked like this. That's what happens when you stop taking regular naps--you end up sleeping at dinner time and not wanting to go to bed at night. 'Sigh.' But she's too dang cute to harass until she wakes up (and really that's impossible anyway).

PS Notice her painted toes! I can't believe I painted her toes. She loved it, though.

Kate's new do

Before


After

Last night when I was getting my hair cut, Andrew and Kate looked on. Kate kept saying, "Mommy, I need a haircut!" I think I've told her that a time or two recently...her hair has been quite the shagginess. She did let me put in pig tails a couple of times (which was super cute), but then didn't want me to touch it anymore.

So I took her in today and brought a bag of suckers. The last time (and the first time) she had her hair cut somewhere was in Omaha in February. She didn't scream out, but crumpled up and cried silently. It was so sad! Finally, someone got her a sucker because the weird guy that was cutting her hair kept telling me, "I can't cut her hair if she's crying!"

The sucker worked magic on her, and she was totally still for the entire thing. So I figured I'd give it another shot. This time was so funny. She got in the chair, and I immediately gave her the sucker. She completely froze when the clippers came out. She didn't budge--sucker in hand. It never reached her mouth. She obediently raised and lowered her head when told--it was so cute! By the end, the sucker was covered in hair, so I got her another...and another. She was so happy! No tears were shed at all during the haircut. She's growing up.

You can't really see what the hair looks like from these pics, but it's pretty cute. Still sticks out by her ears--oh well.

I guess my bangs are official.

I got my last haircut in February...and before that it had been a long time. When I got my hair cut in February the lady cut off four inches and it was still REALLY long. I was the one who told her to cut four inches, but I don't think I'm great at gauging hair length. Anyway, I went in today and showed the girl about where to cut--thinking about three inches or so. When she started cutting, I asked if she was cutting off about three. She stopped, looked at my hair on the ground, and said, "No." She held up a lock to show me. "More like five." Oh. Okay. She had told me she was going to trim up my bangs. My "bangs" had previously been very long bangs, to my chin. They're now to my nose.

When I saw my bangs hanging there--in my eyes--I panicked. But I don't know how to style hair! I wanted to say. Didn't I give her the spiel I usually give hairdressers about keeping it simple (and I mean simple)? No, I guess I hadn't mentioned my hair phobia, or ineptitude. Crud.

I was like, "Uh, so how do I keep these out of my eyes?"
Her reply: "Blow dry and hair spray." Oh. Crud.
Me: "I guess I'll need to buy some hair spray."

No, I don't own hair spray. I do now. We'll see if I can figure it out. I do have a hair dryer, we'll see if I can find it. I've been using the space heater to dry my hair since Kate was a baby because the hair dryer freaked her out, and I actually prefer the heater now.

Anyway, I actually really like it. I think this length of hair is the best for me. I had been growing my hair out so that when I finally lost my desired weight I could get a cute new hair cut, and the length was to give me options. But, the weight stayed, and the hair grew, and then grew a lot more.

It's fun to have a hair cut I like. I will try hard to make it a working relationship.

PS The shadow in the picture makes my hair appear much larger than it is.

Surely mine eyes deceive me

I honestly got misty-eyed just now looking upon our brand-new, glorious, white GE stove. When Wymount announced they would be installing new stoves, I assumed they meant a different kind of crappy, old, clunker of a stove. I really wish now that I had taken a picture of the stove we've been using here. The handle on the door was broken and would fall off in my hands EVERY time I opened the stove (because I always somehow forgot to open it from the side, knowing that it was broken...). And smoke liked to billow out of it and set off the fire alarm as I cooked. It was horrible!
(you must play "Dream Weaver" in your head as you behold its magnificence)

But this...this beautiful new, delicious-looking stove...I may just be emotional now or something, or maybe it's because it reminds me of the stove we left behind in our house, but I really think I'm in love.

And I have that feeling.

Better days lie ahead.

Sometimes it's good to eat A LOT of cookies.

That's what I've decided. It's good for a few reasons--

1) these particular cookies that I ate (lots of) were on a great sale,
2) cookies are scrumptious, and
3) if you eat a lot of cookies, you will end up feeling sick, fat, depressed, and ready to start working out again.


And...that's where I am. I changed my little weight loss ticker numbers to reflect my new goal. I am shooting for 14 pounds by the end of July. It's not my original goal...but I don't care. Once I hit that goal, I will set a new one until I hit the freaking weight I want to be at. I realized I had totally envisioned myself way skinnier by this summer than I currently am, and of course, pool "fun" has arrived.

Time to get to it. Again.