Nedarb's Nuf Ytrap

Braden got to go to a friend's Backwards-themed birthday party today, and this was the result. He informed me that only he and one other boy wore their underwear backwards. I would worry about that if he was an adult who came home and told me that, but I'm not concerned, since I'm guessing that's the first thing a group of 8 six year olds talk about at a backwards birthday party.

Anyone in search of an easy kid's party idea should try this one out. His eyes practically danced when he told me they walked backwards while playing musical chairs and ate their birthday cake under the table instead of on it. Kudos to Kristy, the mom who planned it!

Breakfast Tears

Since Nathan had cereal for a late night snack, when I poured out my bowl of Raisin Bran Crunch this morning, it was pretty scant. As luck would have it, Rebecca, who was back for a Breakfast the Sequel cup of yogurt, looked at my paltry serving of RBC and asked, "Can I have a bite?" I told her no, because she already had her breakfast and now was rockin' the seconds. As I poured the milk, she asked again, saying, "But I like that kind. Can I please have a bite?" Again, I told her no. I put the milk away and pulled out my stool to sit down. She persisted, saying, "I want a bite of yours, Mom. You took the rest of it and I wanted some." Exasperated, I firmly and loudly (but not yet crossing the border into Yell-country) responded, "NO! This is my cereal, and it is what I am having for breakfast. You had your own breakfast." She then burst into tears. After a few seconds, I asked, "Why are you crying?" Her reply was, "Because I don't like you anymore." Bummer.

Now, 20 minutes later she is sitting in my lap, talking nonstop, and kissing me on the cheek every 15 seconds, and instructing me to tell her Thank You every time. I think she likes me again, because she just told me, cupping my chin in her hand, "You're the cutiest-ootest one, Mom."

Sidenote: Cassidy is currently reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Rebecca just told me the name of Cassie's book is the green I Will Pants book.

Three year olds are a trip.

Rachel's Turn

Dear Rachel, 

Now that you are three months old, you have become fun for Mom to play with. You smile when I talk to you. You are fascinated by your hands. Talk about simpler times. If I was entertained by looking at my hands for an hour, imagine how much enjoyment I should be getting out of doing the laundry and reading a book! You may very well be the best baby I have had. As long as you aren't hungry, you only cry if you are bored and need a change of scenery. You can go 4-5 hours without eating, which means you only eat 5-6 times a day. (That's mommy code for Best Baby Ever!) You sleep between 9:30 pm until almost 7:00 am the next morning.

You don't like riding in the car, and you only just tolerate the car seat. Sometimes you fuss when we put you in bed for the night, and you make a grunting sound that has the cadence of, "It's not fair! It's not fair!" We laugh when you do that.

You are able to reach for objects and grasp them now. There is a musical butterfly that dangles from a bar over your purple bouncer seat. When you reach the handle and pull it to make the song play, you get a big smile on your face every time.

Dad fed you chocolate mousse over the weekend. Yeah, he's a terrible dad. (Chocolate and cream for your first solid food? Really?) But you loved it. :-) I think he was trying to win you over. Twice last week I handed you to him so he could hold you, and you stuck your lip out and cried like you had your feelings hurt. We're guessing you're starting to be a Mommy's Girl like the other kids were.

Just like I knew you would, you get better every day! 

Love, Mom

Doya think?

Reading about Bernie Madoff's arrest made me wonder: When we use the colloquialism "he'll burn in hell for that," do you think the fire is set using the stolen money (or goods) as kindling? If so, Bernie's $50 BILLION is gonna last him one long hot time.

A rose by any other name...

I thought it was boring to just be Brenda when I posted comments on people's blogs, and I thought for a long time about what name I could use.  I couldn't think of a good one.  I wanted something awesome:  such as one we saw on a LDS.org forum, an LDS guy named Mark Coffey whose screen name is "Decaf."  That's awesome.

The only thing I could think of was a nickname my Uncle Jim called me when I was a little girl.  Hence, for a week or so I was "Brender Brender Fender Bender."  Nathan informed me it was obnoxious.  That's a quote.  Obnoxious.  I didn't mean to be obnoxious, I just wanted to be non-boring.

So now we're on Screen-Name 2.0.

Let's see how "B Flat Major" works for a while.  

Church Chuckles

Yesterday was ward conference, and a member of the Stake Presidency stood up in the meeting to read the list of General, Stake, and Ward authorities/callings for the sustaining vote of the ward. A few sets of names through, Braden started to comment in an exasperated tone: "Why is this taking so long?" "Why are we raising our hands so many times?" "Why is MY dad the President?" Nathan is the Elder's Quorum President in our ward, and that is why his name was read. But after further discussion when we got home, we discovered (and corrected) that Braden thought Nathan had been made the president of the whole church!

Braden and the totally-not-the-President of the Church

Then during the sacrament, Rebecca leaned over to me and whispered, "I wish I could have some bread to hold." Apparently she was envious of the Deacons passing the sacrament. I replied, "Oh, sorry." Then she said again, "I wish I could hold some bread. How old do I have to be before I can hold some bread?" I told her that you have to be 12, but that you also have to be a boy because boys hold the Priesthood. She was disappointed, and who can blame her? Those plastic trays are sooooo cool. Luckily she didn't make a tearful scene in the middle of the meeting, but she did reply, "I still wish I could hold some bread." Then she got distracted by the water trays and told me that the large hole in the center of each tray is "like a trash can for the teeny tiny water cups."

Becca, the would-be "Bread Holder"

Postponed Purchase

Since we finished our basement 3 years ago, we've spent a lot of time down there because that is where the office is. It has always been freezing, but I just endure it. Nathan used to spend his work-from-home days at the kitchen table, but since we put in the fancy desk, he's in the basement all the time now. Since winter set in, he wears his jacket to work downstairs. Mind you, he's a hot-blooded fellow, and he rarely even wears a jacket to go outside - it was totally snowing the other day, and he had driven to teach class downtown and then to the office, but his trusty jacket was left at home on his desk chair. We've always talked about needing to install baseboard heaters or get a space heater or something, but I never got around to it. Plus, I didn't know how much they cost, so it was one of those things that I just put off. Well, I felt sorry for my shivering husband, so on my last trip to Wal-Mart I decided to bite the bullet and buy a heater. When I found out a small one cost $12, I felt kind of dumb for waiting 3 years...

Karaoke Party

We spent New Year's Eve at my parents' house. We made our own Cafe Rio dinner, which everyone agreed was better because you could go back and get 'just a little more pork barbacoa' if your burrito or salad needed a top-off. After dinner we did karaoke and played games.

My sister Katie and I were fantastic on 'Crazy for this Girl.'

The Christmas Miracle

Loyal readers may remember items #1&2 from 100 Post-iversary, which mentioned the unexplained loss of my wedding ring. The plot thickens. Christmas morning, I videotaped the kids opening their gifts, but I was at the end of the tape. I hurried to get a new one out and put it in the recorder so I could record the kids' reaction when the saw the Wii that Santa had brought. About a half hour later I got around to taking the old, full tape back to the video camera case to find a plastic case to store it in.

I picked up the empty cartridge case and let out a shriek, followed by a shout of, "Oh my gosh! NO WAY!!!!!" My original wedding ring, which had been lost for almost exactly 2 years and 1 week was sitting in the bottom of the camera case, underneath the extra tapes. My jaw dropped and my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as I grabbed it, ran downstairs, shoved it in Nathan's face, and yelled, "LOOK AT THIS! I CAN'T BELIEVE I FOUND IT!" I wore it for the rest of Christmas day and the following week.

I am not surprised in the least that I didn't find the ring at first. Who's going to think about looking in the camera case? I don't even remember doing anything with the video camera the week that I lost it. Now that I know where it was, I don't feel bad at all for not finding it. It was gonna be found when it was good and ready. It is odd that it took two whole years. We are not major videographers, but I used that camera Last Christmas, at Cassie's school play, to tape at least two soccer games, and many times to record 2 year old Rebecca singing. I suppose I'm lucky it didn't fall out somewhere along the way!

Of course, it would happen that I find the original 1 year to the day after I received a replacement ring. Nathan jokingly asked if I wanted to "pawn" the new one I got...but since it is nicer and has a more modern setting, I'm definitely keeping it. A true miracle would have been for us to find the ring before shelling out the bucks for a replacement...and I asked Nathan, "Why do you suppose, after praying to find it, that it didn't happen until after we spent all that money?" His response: "Maybe God wanted you to have two wedding rings." Riiiiiiiiight.

Though the ring has been found, I still have no idea how it got into the bottom of the video camera case. It could be that 15 month old Rebecca put it there instead of in the trash like I had originally thought. It could be that the case was sitting on the floor near my dresser and the ring fell into the case somehow. I'm just glad I found it, mostly for sentimental reasons. I may choose to wear my new one more often, but I'm glad to have my ring that 21 year old Nathan chose for me that was paid for with his hard-earned-at-Bailey's-Moving-and-Storage wages. I cried tears of joy when I first saw it, and I'm glad to have it back.

The whole family knew The Saga of the Lost Ring, and it was a hot topic of conversation on Christmas Day. I asked Nathan's Grandma Neilson if she had heard about my "Christmas Miracle," and recounted the story of how I found it. Braden was in earshot, and he slid closer to me. He tugged on my hand during the last half of my story, whispering, "Tell her about the other Christmas miracle, Mom. Tell her about The Wii!!" A miracle is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.

I reiterate my statement in #2 of 100 Post-iversary: I don't lose stuff. At least, not permanently. :-)