Photo Tagged

I have been "photo tagged" by Morgan, which is good because it's finally giving me an incentive to update our blog. Ok, so here we go.

The rules: The rules are you have to take ten pictures of the following things. And you have to do it right away. No straightening, cleaning or wiping your child's nose. Then you tag five others.

1. The kitchen sink.

I love this sink. It's so big and deep I can fit big jelly roll pans, the whole crockpot, Caleb, and probably even Evan in it (though not all at once). When we move I'm going to cut it out of the counter and take it with us.

2. The toilet(s).

We have two, so I took two pictures. Very exciting, I know.

3. The laundry room.

Or in our case, laundry closet.

4. The fridge.

5. Children/spouse RIGHT NOW.

Children are sleeping, and since I'm pretty sure taking a picture of them right now would wake them up, there's no way I'm going to do it, so the picture from us at bed time the other day will have to suffice.

And Scott reading a woodworking magazine.

6. Favorite shoes.

These probably aren't really my favorite shoes (though they are definitely the most often worn). My favorite pair is a beautiful pair of black heels, but they're at work.

7. Favorite room.

Though we don't have many to choose from....

8. Dream vacation.

A trip around the globe.

9. Self-portait.

Yikes! Sad as it is, this is the best one I took.

Now I tag (I hate this part)...all of you, or anyone who wants to do it, I guess. It's a cop-out, I know.

Kids say the darndest things!

Today after I came home from work we irresponsibly (irresponsibly because it was so late and because the kids needed jackets that I left at home) went to the playground. Among other things, there is a fairly large cement turtle that Evan climbed on. He kept saying Yee-haw! I said, "Evan, are you riding a turtle? Where's the turtle taking you?" To which he replied, "The turtle isn't real, mom." Oh, ok.

!!Warning, potentially disturbing/offensive/gross/off-color story!! The other night Scott was having Evan play messenger, an informal game in which Scott tells Evan to do or say something and Evan, if he is so inclined, attempts to comply. So first Scott told him to come give me a big hug and say, "I love you," and he did. (So cute!) Then, unbeknownst to me, Scott told Evan to come ask me, "Are you going to do what daddy wants to do tonight?" I will let all of you interpret what Scott meant by that. Evan garbled it pretty good, though, and so I had to ask Scott what he was trying to say. Scott told me he'd told Evan to ask, "Are you going to do what daddy wants to do tonight?" Evan brightened and said, "Yeah! He wants to eat lots and lots of candy!"

And on an unrelated but also very funny note, I came across a totally hilarious blog mocking Mormon culture. I quite literally LOL'd. Several times. Check it out at http://seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/. Start with the archived first posts and then go from there. But first, another warning: This blog is to be read only by people who have a high tolerance for satire and irreverant humor. I can definitely see how some might be offended by it....

Whew!

Now try not to die of shock. Yes, I am finally updating our blog. We have been busy, busy with trips to Texas and California, hiring a new nanny in between, sick kids, thesis writing, work, and so on.

We had a wonderful but exhausting time in Texas visiting Kara and John for baby Grant's blessing over the 4th of July weekend. We had a BBQ, watched the fireworks, went swimming, visited a train museum, and had all kinds of fun with family. Here are some photos from the train museum:



Evan walking on the train tracks


I'm gonna be an engineer, mom!



The whole family and a really big train


Evan and Andrew with grandma & grandpa


More updates and pictures to follow.

Punk! and other cute Evan stories

Evan was walking to the playground yesterday with his babysitter, her son, and Caleb, when they were passed by a group of teenage boys. Evan quite matter-of-factly said to them, "Outta my way, punk!" Where, you ask, did our sweet little boy learn such language? Scott says that this is what happens when you live in the 'hood. I, on the other hand, am pretty sure he learned it from his FATHER, who frequently says similar things to Evan. (E.g. outta my way punk; what're you doing, punk, etc.)

We were sitting down for dinner the other night, and Evan turned to me and said, "So, how was your day?" Laughing, I told him it was good and asked him, "How was your day Evan." He said, "I went to Colby's house. I played with airplanes."

Yesterday at naptime when Evan was at his babysitter's house, her son (Colby) wanted Evan to sing him a song. He asked that Evan sing him, "I Feel My Savior's Love," so Evan sat down in the rocking chair and sang him the whole song.

Evan and Colby declared yesterday that when they are workers when they get bigger they want to drive garbage trucks because that would be fun. We're so proud!!

Memorial Day fun, but no nanny

Scott's parents came to visit us for Memorial Day weekend, and we had lots of fun. On Saturday everyone but me went to breakfast at a very local diner and then went to Ft. Independence at Castle Island. (Sadly I was stuck at home all day working on the 50-state survey I complained about in an earlier post. That was after being at the office until 3am one night earlier in the week and staying up until 2-4am several other nights in the preceding two weeks. Woe is me. )
Then on Sunday after church we drove to the Berkshires in Western Mass. The landscape was beautiful and we had the fortune to be there a weekend or two before the height of the season started, when the Berkshires are inundated by visitors going to Tanglewood (where the Boston Pops play for the summer), the Shakespere Festival, some sort of dance company, and various other major attractions.

On Monday we went to a train museum and got ride on one of the old trains. Evan, as you might
imagine was in train heaven.

Here he is with his Grandpa Pat.

And here, as you can see, are me, Scott, and Caleb enjoying the train ride.

Evan with his Grandma Vivi. He was way too excited about riding on the train to look at the camera.

All of us.

And here is the very cool train we got to ride on.

After the train museum we went to Hancock Shaker Village. Apparently I didn't take any pictures there, though. Still, it was really neat to see the museum there and learn more about the Shakers.

We hope all of you are well and enjoying the start of summer. In case you're wondering, no we haven't found a nanny yet. We thought we'd found one. She accepted our offer, we cancelled our other interviews, spent hour setting things up for her payroll and taxes, told our current babysitter she could quit a few days earlier than she'd been planning, and then the prospective nanny sent me an email three days before she was supposed to start and said she'd been thinking about it and realized that after just a few months of working for us she would have to find a new family to fit with and work for. Of course, we stated in the ad she responded to, as well as the phone and in-person interviews we had with her, that we would only need someone for six months. Why she waited until after we'd gone through the whole hiring process to think about the implications of that, I don't know. But now we're starting back at square-one, even more wary and weary of the nanny-hiring process than we were after our first nanny experience right after we moved to Boston. (And for those of you who know that story, that's saying a lot!)



More pictures:

Scott and Evan outside the USS Constitution.



The boys and me inside the USS Constitution.
And the boys on the swings at the park.

Nanny, anyone?

This is a total long-shot, but here goes anyway. We need to make other arrangements for childcare and are looking for a live-out nanny to start full-time at the beginning of July. In the rather unlikely event that any of you dear friends happen to know anyone (a sister, a sister of a friend, a friend, a friend of a friend, a cousin, etc.) who might be interested, let me know. Though it would obviously be easiest if it was someone already living in Boston, this would also be a great opportunity for someone who wanted to take a semester off and have some fun living in Boston for a few months.

Sorry these last few posts have been so boring....I will try to update again soon with pictures and stories from our wild Memorial Day weekend. (Ok, it wasn't all that wild, but it was fun.)

For you minivan doubters

CNN -- SUVs plunge toward Engangered list:
"If gas prices stay where they are at or continue to rise, the body-on frame SUV is an endangered species and the pickup truck as a personal car is an endangered species," Brown says.
How do owners react when they're told their once-$40,000-plus vehicles are now worth less than half that?
'When they find out what you think their truck is worth, they think you're trying to rip them off or something,' says Fernandez. 'Small cars are gone within a week; SUVs are sitting here since last summer.'"

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/05/23/dumping.suvs/index.html

This is why SUVs are not an option we're willing to consider. Excluding SUVs, to comfortably fit three carseats, we would need a full-size sedan or a minivan. I choose the minivan, which allows for more cargo space and makes it possible to transport more people than just three kids. Plus, if we have more than three kids (which we probably will), we'd have to buy a minivan or SUV anyway. And as previously stated, SUVs are not an option.

So there! (Or perhaps I doth protest too much?)