Weekly Quote 8/31/09

"You have not kept me apprised
Of the tales of your life
And I wonder where you have gone."

This was from a song by Girlyman called I Wonder Where You Have Gone. Thanks to an itunes gift card for my birthday, I finally purchased their Little Star album, and now I'm somewhat obsessed. To put it mildly. I basically listen to them every chance I get, and I love it.

New quote up!

Clarky Hilarity

Last night, I'm quietly reading my book when Clark comes over to me, singing, "Jingle, jingle jingle; you will hear my sleigh bells ring." And then he busts out with this:

"I might be Santa Claus. I'm not sure."

And then I died laughing.

End scene.

Weekly Quote 8/24/09

"Marry, sir, she's the kitchen wench and all grease;
and I know not what use to put her to but to make a
lamp of her and run from her by her own light. I
warrant, her rags and the tallow in them will burn a
Poland winter; if she lives till doomsday,
she'll burn a week longer than the whole world."

This was from The Comedy of Errors. Sorry for the lengthy delay, but there is now a new quote up!

Four-eyes

I just found Julia playing with my racquetball glasses (goggles?).

Future athlete?

Future scientist? (You really want to follow this link. Trust me.)

Or future wack-o?

Oh yeah, I'm old.

It turns out I had a birthday. It was lovely, thanks for asking! My parents came down to visit, along with my brother and sister-in-law. We went to brunch at 25 Main (which was delicious food with horrific service, but oh well, I think the food made up for it), and then had some delicious Red Velvet cake made by Clark (with Cream Cheese Frosting made by my mom).

I even got binary candles.

Oh, so yummy!

And then we went to Cedar City to see The Comedy of Errors at the Shakespearean Festival. It was excellent, though I expected no less. Actually, The Comedy of Errors was our Valentine's Day present to each other, but since you can't go in February, it was a little late. It was fun to go with my family, and to have them with me on my birthday.

Clark also decided to give me 6 days of birthday surprises, since we've been married for 6 of my birthdays. First, he gave me some flowers:

Then he played short order cook on Sunday and made me breakfast in bed. (Also, I didn't take any more pictures.) I ordered pancakes. He used an old family recipe. (Bisquick is probably someone's family, right?)

Then he bought me a pie from Croshaw's Gourmet Pies. German Chocolate. DELIGHTFUL.

And that's as far as we've gotten with the surprises. There have been a few mishaps that are most definitely not Clark's fault. The way I see it, this stretches my birthday out for weeks. Weeks! Who doesn't want that?

And now I'm only 2 years away from 30. What a pleasant thought.

Maggie

Julia has a beloved doll named Maggie. Maggie does everything that Julia does. The other day, Julia put a bib on her, asked for help getting her in the high chair, and then started feeding her.

So stinking cute. Maggie also folds her arm for the prayer, gets tucked into the drawer for bed, finds Utah on the map, plays the piano, gets buckled into the carseat, drinks from a sippy cup, walks, and shakes hands with the bride and groom at a wedding. All with Julia's help.

Grandpa Tweet

Julia has a love/hate relationship with her Grandpa Blockburger. Well, maybe more of a love/not like, because hate is such a strong word. Basically she loves to call him on the computer, and talk about him, but she doesn't like to see him in person, and apparently she doesn't love him when you ask her.

We'll be doing something totally unrelated, and she'll come up to me and say, "Bampa, Bampa, Bampa!" She gets this look on her face like, "Mom! This is very important! BAMPA!" We've also been reminiscing about the time she looked at the birds with Grandpa, so she'll often say, "Bampa! Tweet, tweet!"

But the moment you say, "Oh, do you love Grandpa?" she says no. Or nope. Or shakes her head. It's kind of sad. We're working on it.

Here's a video:

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

For some reason that I can't fathom, "Grandpa" gets the same sign as "milk" and "hot." Is Grandpa like a cup of hot milk?

Calling all St Georgians

I frequent mooshinindy.com. She lives in Indiana. So imagine my surprise when I saw this post. That house is in St George! Well, Washington. But still! That is close to home! So I decided that I wanted to help in some way. I hopped on over to Facebook and found out there is a yard sale/bake sale with a farmers market this Saturday. We're going to be out of town for that event, but I am most definitely contributing some baked goods to the cause. Yummy, yummy baked goods. And so I am encouraging you, if you live in the area and want to do something nice on your Saturday morning. . . .

GO TO THE YARD SALE/BAKE SALE/FARMERS MARKET FOR THE ANDERSEN FAMILY! This Saturday. August 22. 7am. At the Bubble Bath Car Wash.

You won't regret it if you go.

Maps

After seeing this map master, I decided that we'd see what our Julia could do. It took months before I finally bought the maps (one of the USA, one of the world), but they are now up on our walls and we are trying to learn new states and countries every day. Some days Julia is more focused than others, but I think she's doing pretty well for 16 months old.

I took this video sometime last week (you know, when our computer was dead, but not really). Since then she has learned to find Canada, Brazil, Australia, Russia, China, and Arizona. And sometimes California, but that's still a work in progress. And she's gotten much better at finding Colorado. I also think it's funny that she says, "Low," when she finds Texas (I told her once that Texas is low on the map). Appropriate since the Lowes live there.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I'll probably take another video when we get a few more under her belt.

I'm Back!

Well hi there! Our dear computer is up and running. It turns out the problem was with our old hard drive that was still sitting in the computer, and our new(ish) hard drive is just fine. No data lost, no harm done. What a relief! And Clark has ordered an external hard drive so we can back up our files. So we're good to go. I'm sure you've all been DYING without my stunning blog posts. So glad I can relieve your suffering.

Bubble Bath

After I had delegated the task of Julia's bath to Clark so that I could get some dishes done, he came into the kitchen with a gleam in his eye, and a bottle of bubble bath in his hand.

"You want to give her a bubble bath?"

"Yes."

"To teach her that Dad's baths are always more fun?"

"Precisely."

That may or may not be what was actually said.

But alas, the plan backfired! Instead of being delighted to play in the bubbles, Julia spent the first few minutes refusing to get in because she was terrified. And then she refused to sit down. And then I think she was upset that all her toys were lost under the bubbles.

She calmed down a lot by the time I pulled the camera out, but you can tell that she's still not thrilled to be there.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

"Is anyone puking at your house?"

It turns out our computer died. Again. We are not amused. I'm currently using Clark's laptop because he is kind enough to bring it home from work so I can check my email. Naptime is surprisingly quiet and lonely with no computer at home.

Good thing Julia decided to vomit in her sleep the other day, or I wouldn't have known what to do with myself. Oh, and then she had a blowout. And then she barfed again. And again. And again. And all the while begged me for some milk (no way, kid, I know how that tastes coming up, and you'll never drink milk again). This was all on top of a raging case of eczema on her stomach, chest, and face.

Of course, while scraping the chunks of partially digested food off her bedsheet (TMI?), I realized that I didn't mind. I'd rather be a mom cleaning up the mother of all messes than a lady who dreads going to work every day. And there are certainly perks to this whole motherhood deal. Like the big fat hug I get every night. Ah, that is heaven.

Hopefully I'll be back online next week. Fingers crossed!

Weekly Quote 8/10/09

"You don't look different, but you have changed
I'm looking through you, you're not the same."

I'm Looking Through You by The Beatles. On Rubber Soul. Oh my, I love Rubber Soul. I discovered it much later in life than other Beatles albums (like, a couple years ago), but I can listen to it over and over again. Good stuff.

New quote up!

Hello

A day or two ago (I thought I'd take a ride. . . wait, no! It's not Christmas yet!), Julia decided to start saying, "Hello," instead of, "Hi." Well, at least when she's on the phone. It's so stinking cute, here's a video (oh, and I love how she says, "Cheese," for the camera):

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Wedding Weekend

Well, we had somewhat of a crazy weekend, but we all survived, and I dare say we all had a great time. Even Julia McFussypants.

I don't know if you know this about Julia, but she can be shy of strangers. Very shy. And "strangers" really means "anyone other than Mom and Dad." Eventually she'll warm up to you, but it generally takes a day or two. Oh, unless you are Grandpa Blockburger. Then she is terrified of you always and forever. Unless you distract her with something pretty great. Like the computer:

Or a pool with a big toy:

Grandpa really saved the day by letting her get in the pool. She was desperate to get in, I was not very excited about the prospect (seeing as no one had a swimsuit), but Grandpa worked it all out, and she had a GREAT time on that first step.

Clark and I had a great time staying up way too late every night chatting with Melissa. I do wish Texas wasn't so far, because I love seeing those Lowes (as a single or a package set).

Oh yeah, and Suzanne and Elliot got MARRIED! Woo! I had a great time at the wedding, lots of family, yummy food. And I thought it all turned out rather well.

As for pictures. I had every intention of taking lots of pictures at the wedding. I even got the camera out multiple times to snap a shot or two. But guess who could not stand to see a camera in someone else's hands? Oh, right, that would be Julia McFussypants. If the camera was out, she demanded to be holding it, and generally I frown upon that. Clark took a few pictures, at least, but my whole plan was thwarted. Anyway, here are a few of the pictures we got. I wasn't exactly in the best spot for taking pictures of the wedding (that's why we have photographers, right?). But it was a beautiful event, and it turned out so well. Congrats to the happy couple!

Weekly Quote 8/3/09

"I wanna make you smile whenever you are sad,
Carry you around when your arthritis is bad.
All I wanna do is grow old with you."

I agree, ladies, we should have a Wedding Singer/Chinese food night. Of course, it's nigh unto impossible now that we live far apart, but one can always hope! New quote up.