Mythbusters sink car

Everyone,

Juice and I love to watch Mythbusters (on the Discovery Channel...no idea what time because I use the DVR with reckless abandonment). If you are familiar with Adam and Jamie, you will know that they take myths and try to prove or disprove them. This past week's myth was a sinking car. Well, I can explain it or you can just watch it for yourself. It horrified me. Just see:



Okay, so what's the problem you ask? Well, these guys are notorious for taking things, say a car, and destroying it. So they tend to get things that people don't want anymore. Or they are old. Take that car in the video for example, a 1991 Ford Taurus.

Yes, I know the year and the make and model of this car. Why? Because that's MY car. The Mythbusters sank MY car. Juice says they probably got it at a good deal and that's why they decided to destroy it. Yeah...what does that say about our car, hmmm?

That's what I thought.

Safire

Babysitting Wildlife

Everyone,

With the start up of Jeff back in school, I have started babysitting 2 days a week at a friend's house while she goes back to school. Honestly, it's not my favorite thing to do. But Butterfly loves these girls and it's fun for her to get out of the house. One nice thing about it is they live out in the country and have a huge yard (plus I believe 100 acres...they rent the old farm house) so Butterfly gets a taste of country life.

They have huge windows all over the house with no blinds (no need, their closest neighbor is across the street about a block away) and I love to watch the wildlife. There are deer galore, geese, crows, birds, raccoons, foxes, ladybugs, and hawks. This morning, I saw one of these:


It was so beautiful and so big. I never imagined that woodpeckers could get this big. Apparently, this is a Pileated Woodpecker. The Pileated Woodpecker is the second largest woodpecker in the United States. They normally live in mature coniferous and deciduous forests, valley woodlots and remote mountain territory. My friends have a wood lot behind their house (which the girls call the Hundred Acre Woods...cute!) so I imagine the woodpecker lives there.

One day, Miss Long Hair started yelling about an animal in their backyard. Now I know they have a ground hog that lives out there (much to the parents' dismay) so I thought that's what she was yelling about. Nope, turned out to be two of these:



They were so beautiful, and got close enough to the house that I could make out their whiskers. Sadly, I saw one of them on the road the next morning. But I have never seen a wild one and it was stunning.

I need to start bringing my camera.

I have thought about getting a book on birding at the library so when the kids are sleeping, I can sit at their window and make note of the kinds of birds I see. So far I know I've seen crows (there are murders of them...love that phrase...murders), geese, the woodpecker, cardinals (my favorite bird), and orioles (pretty little yellow things).

One bad thing about living in the country: the amount of ladybugs they get in the house. I have never seen so many inside, let alone outside.

Safire

Snow! Actual snow!

Everyone,

It actually snowed! Real, cold, white stuff fell from the sky. I honestly thought that this would be our first winter without seeing any snow at all. Juice was a little upset about it, but we got about an inch on Sunday. We of course had to take Butterfly out in it to show her the joys of snow. She was unimpressed. She kept saying, "It's cold!" and trying to get the stuff off her hands. Since the girl won't wear gloves, her hands got cold fast. But she did throw her first snowball.

While the snow was coming down, she informed us that "it's raining!". Just goes to show you what we get here. Rain, not snow.


I think we only spent a few minutes out in it because Butterfly's hands were just so cold and she broke down. I get the feeling that she doesn't like snow. That's to bad because Juice and I love the snow. I think we can turn her around. Hopefully.

Safire

"See? I cute."

Everyone,

Butterfly says such cute things lately. Today alone she said 2 cute things. Cute enough to share with the internet. She was dancing and I was trying to take a video of her. When I was done, she was watching it on the camera. Juice came in and she went running over to him, camera in hand. "See? I cute!" Yes, yes Butterfly, you are. Super cute.

Juice sat down to put on his shoes. She launched at him from across the room yelling, "Daddy, hold me!" He did.

A new phrase she says all the time is "I need it." Not 'I want it' or 'please may I have it'. Oh no. She needs it. Like Juice needs snow in winter. Like Juice needs sleep when he's sick. Like she needs raisins in the morning. Uh huh. It's a need.

The last cute thing she said was when she was hanging out in the bathroom with Juice. I hear her playing and talking to him, and then I hear something fall in the bathtub. It was her dolly. "Uh oh! Mommy, I have problem." I had to save Dolly from the porcelain reaches of the tub. And then she promptly climbed into the tub herself, laid Dolly down, and got back out. You have a problem baby? Maybe it's Mommy that has the problem. When did she get so big and where have I been that I missed it?


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Safire

Photo Friday

Everyone,

Since Butterfly is taking her afternoon nap, I thought it might be fun to share a couple of pictures.

I was trying to get a picture of this outfit that my mom sent her. The only way she would be far enough away from the camera was if I asked her to show Nana the penny she has in her hand. Apparently, my mom lives in the camera because she immediately backed up and held up her hand. She then said, "I have shiny penny. I like penny."

Last weekend we went to a national park to hike. I bought the national park passport while we were in Assateague. I have been dragging Juice and Butterfly all over the area to one of the 96 national parks (including at least 35 down town). I still have about 10 more to get down town, and about 50 more in the area. One at a time, one at a time. Last weekend was a trip to Greenbelt park. We took a lovely mile long hike, where Butterfly insisted that she walk Soot most of the way. We also had a picnic and saw a lot of trees. We had a great time.

Juice decided to put on his renn faire costume for no apparent reason. That warranted a picture. Drop. Your. Sword. Doesn't he look dashing? The sword, the gloves, and the mask are new additions since Christmas.

Safire

New Year, New Gym

Everyone,

I have decided to give up my membership at the Y and go to a new gym. It's closer, cheeper, and has more classes. I don't exersize on my own. I have to go to class or have a buddy. So this new gym has classes I would consider taking at least 3 times a day. The Y, once or twice a week. Plus, at the Y you had to pay an additional fee for some of the classes. Not here. It's a better move for me for sure.

We went to see the new gym today and I took a spin class in the mid morning. It was pretty good. Although I missed my old spin teacher (he moved to NY, sigh...) this class was good and challenging. Everyone was so friendly, and I even saw a few people from my church working out. This is great because now Butterfly can go to 'gym care' with the same kids she goes to nursery with.

Not a whole lot going on this week. We're just plugging along. Juice starts school up again next week. He is taking a computer aided drafting class to beef up his resume. It's only a month long and 2 nights a week. I also start back into babysitting on Mondays and Tuesdays. We'll see how that goes. I'm trying to save up for a trip to Southern California with my parents mid-May.

Oh, and that trip I was going to take to Utah to visit? Cancelled. Juice's trip is cancelled indefinitely so we're all coming out in May. Should be fun!

Safire

PS- Family night on Monday was a lesson about baptism, and more ice cream. Yum!

20 Months Old

Everyone,

I got an email the other day telling me all about my 20 month old. I seriously thought it was wrong. She can't possibly be 20 months old! That means she is only 4 short months away from being 2. But the email is right. She is 20 months old!

Butterfly loves Soot right now. She asks for her first thing when she wakes up. She follows that poor dog around the house, and if she drops food, she'll call for Soot. Periodically through out the day, she has to find Soot. "Where Soot? Where Soot? I found Soot!" It's very cute.

She has taken a liking to the phone. Today she brought it to me and said, "Call Nana." Okay! So I helped her dial the number (with her saying, "Two two tree five ten!" the whole time) and she must have talked to my mom for 2 or 3 minutes. She will nod her head in response to questions, and laughs the whole time. It's very cute. She got a toy phone from her Grandma for Christmas and she always sits down and says, "I call. I call. I call [enter name here, most of the time it's Daddy but sometimes Soot or Nana too.]"

We have a chatter box on our hands. She talks all day long. Here is a list of some things she says:

I don't want it.

I don't want [shoes, socks, coat, etc.]

shirt

pants

tights

dress

bow

hair

teeth

comb

brush

burrito

read

I see you.

I ready to go.

outside

come

heel

speak

shake (can you tell she loves to give commands to Soot?)

don't

feed Soot

Soot eat water.

milk (which she calls nup)

One more time.

snap

One more snap.

Up we go! (This is how she asks to be picked up.)

Up me! (If we don't respond to the very cute up we go.)

Jumpy jumpy jumpy.

Smell flowers.

I hungry.

Purple coat/shoes.

cream (either ice or diaper)

diaper

I change. (for a diaper change, and yes, she does tell me when she needs one.)

package

open package

I love [mommy, daddy, soot, cheese, etc.]

Hi Daddy.

Daddy work.

Daddy at work.

Call Daddy at work.

Okay.

Nope.

Uh-huh.

Super cute.

Cute!

Baby

bunny

cook

ouch, hot!

More cereal please.

berries

There are tons more but this is long enough. There is a chart of milestones that kids this age should be doing. • Will pretend to feed a doll. Check. This is the only way I got her to eat dinner tonight. We have a very small mechanical raptor that we call Bunny. She had a great time feeding Bunny, and then eating Bunny's bites. • Can take off own clothes with help. Or without help, like she does pretty much every day. I'm waiting for the diaper to come off as well. • Will dump an object in imitation, such as throwing garbage away. This is a favorite pastime of Butterfly's. I have to check the garbage periodically to see if she has thrown toys away. • Learns words at a rate of 10 or more a day. Yes, Juice can tell you that she now says "Dang it!" because he kept saying it over our crashed computer. Dang it! • Can walk up (but probably not down) stairs. Up and down, but she's been doing that since forever is seems. She is tall enough to reach the hand rail on our stairs, and can even go down one or two without holding on to anything. • Searches for hidden objects. See above story about Soot. You can substitute Soot for her dolly, blocks, anything. She loves searching games. • Names several body parts. Nose, head, hair, chin, eye, ear, shoulder, knee, elbow, arm, hand, foot, toes (she calls them piggies), leg, finger nails, cheeks, lips, mouth, teeth. I'm running out of body parts to tell her!

At the end of the day, I often feel drained trying to keep up with the leaps and bounds that she is making. She is also starting to get slightly bossy and tells me how to make her cereal in the morning. Bowl, spoon, cereal in bowl, nup and I have to do it in that order or life as we know it is over. We have read all of her books so many times she has a few memorized and gets upset if you miss a word or a page. She has also started to like to sing, and will just wander around singing to herself.

I am so interested in what she is going to do when she is 2!

Safire

Chicken and Ice Cream

Everyone,

Tonight's family night resulted in 2 very cute things.

1- Butterfly learned a new word and a new phrase. We talked about temples, and she kept wandering around the house saying it. "Templlll...templlll..." I was telling Juice that I thought her outfit was super cute (thanks mom!) and she piped up, "Super cute! Super cute! Templll...super cute!"

2- Since Juice was in charge of the activity part of FHE, we went to get ice cream. We were talking about it at dinner, and Butterfly kept saying "Cream!" and nodding her head vigorously. Her hair flopping around punctuating how earnest she is in having ice cream. She would not eat her chicken. She did not want her beloved green beans. We thought we shouldn't go get ice cream if she wasn't going to eat anything else. So we told her. "Butterfly, if you eat some chicken, we will go get ice cream." She instantly looked at her plate, picked out the smallest piece of chicken on it and shoved it in her mouth. She didn't even have her hand half way down when she said "Cream?" And when we didn't produce said ice cream she spit out the chicken. Monkey.

She did eat something eventually and we did get ice cream. Yum!

Safire

Juice's Family is Sucked In!

Everyone,

10pm, the phone rings. My first thought is who is calling? And then, what's wrong?! It can only be our family in the west that calls this late. It's not late for them. But late for us.

So, the phone is ringing. I see it's Juice's sister, Nawa. "I'm on 45!" she says.
"The real 45?" Juice asks.
"I don't know. How do you tell?"
"Have you done a 45 once already?"
"No..." she says.
"Then it's not the real one." Juice answers.

It goes on like this for quite awhile. There's some kid talk in between code and mentions of web forums. If you are looking to get sucked into something (and I do mean sucked in, as in can't leave your computer screen for days and think about it day and night. Your children will go hungry. Your job will suffer. You will sit at your computer in your pjs muttering, "NURLO...NURLO.") check out Weff Riddles.

But don't say I didn't warn you.

Safire

Juice adds: Oh come on, I would never let my daughter go hungry!

(Notice all the other stuff he didn't deny....)

2007 Goals

Everyone,

I've thought of a list of a few goals I would like to do this year. I wrote them in the back of my planner as I thought them out, and now I'm annoyed because they no longer sell refills for this planner and I have to buy another one. And move all of my notes and addresses over to the other one. Stupid calender makers!

1. Have weekly family nights. My church encourages us to have family home evening (FHE) every Monday night. While we say we're doing it (as in, "What do you want to do for family night?" "I dunno, take Soot for a walk I guess." Which is what we do every night anyway.) So last night, being the first Monday of the year, we actually had FHE. We had a prayer, a lesson, an activity and a song. We read a very short story about a boy who was sad there is no snow and then made snowflakes. We really had a good time, and Butterfly oohed and ahhed over the snowflakes. A success!
2. Write in my paper journal more. I wrote about 20 pages last year, which is very unusual for me. I typically go through at least 300 pages a year. Of course, that was before Butterfly. But I'd like to at least get a page a day.
3. Exercise more than once a week. My spin teacher moved back to New York so they are cancelling my spin class. In turn, I cancelled my membership and am going to try a new gym. A friend of mine goes there a few days a week with her kids so I think I may join up with her. It's always nice to have an exercise buddy.

I think that is about all I'm willing to share. I have other personal goals but those are, well, personal. I hope that 2007 will be a good year for us.

Oh, and it looks like we are tentatively planning a trip to Utah sometime this month. Juice has a business trip to St. Louis this month and I'm not sticking it out here alone again. Being alone out here is actually pretty fun. I get to eat take out food all week and watch girly movies. But my dad offered to fly us out so he can see his granddaughter. Free plane ticket! A week with my friends and parents! Take out food and girly movies with my Mom! I'll take it! :) Juice will join us for the weekend, and then we'll all fly home together. Should be a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to it!

Safire