Rainbow

With the rain we endure the mud, but are rewarded with more beautiful things every once in a while.

The Stroller

So here is our new stroller purchase. I opted not to go with the double stroller since Lana really hasn't been a stroller girl for the last few months. I hope I do not regret that decision! Anyway, I LOVE this stroller and it's a good thing too because I purchased it sight unseen. NO stores in the state of MS carried this stroller.Tanner seems to enjoy his new ride. He is so quiet when we're strolling around, he's even fallen asleep in it (yay!).
Lana of course loves the stroller too (good thing it's a 50 lbs. weight limit). She only wants to sit in it when I have it in the house though so that's good. I mostly keep it in the trunk now.

Awesome Sunday Music Find

Perhaps it's because I play the piano, but there's nothing more than I love to listen to than music on a Grand Piano. Anyway, I came across Paul Cardall yesterday on iTunes looking for a rendition to a hymn. If you have iTunes you can purchase the cd pictured above for $9.99 (31 songs!). The arrangements are beautifully played and are great for Sunday listening.

Mud

Yesterday at our house I witnessed my first micro-burst. Complete with howling winds, pea-size hail and heavy sometimes horizontal rain. Oh and an hour without power. Then after the micro-burst, it rained for at least the next 4 hours straight at a moderate pace which resulted in the minor flooding of our street (there are some advantages for having a steep driveway). In the morning we were left with 3 inches of mud. Luckily someone came and scraped it up.

Grandma memories

Grandma's "secret dippy sauce". Many doilies for my barbies and doll house. Birthday goodie bread (chocolate zucchini being my choice favorite). Hello and goodbye hugs at every occasion. Teaching me different stitches when I attempted cross stitching. Embroidered pillowcases. Afghans. Her initial J on her key chain. Visiting during Priesthood Sessions of General Conference. Telling me memories of her mom, dad, and her and Grandpa."Computer crap". Spending Sunday afternoons at the duplex. Watching Murder-She-Wrote. The Statler Brothers.

I love you Grandma.

Joyce Schoenfeld Russell
August 23, 1921 ~ May 18, 2008

Obituary

Elvis has left the building

Welcome to Graceland! Home of Elvis Presley. Regardless of the fact that we live only 2 1/2 hours from Memphis, we rarely go there. In fact, this was only my second time there since we've been here (sad, yes I know). Thank you to Ken and RaNae ("Kin and Nae" in Lana language) for letting us come and spend a day of vacation with them! Before you go looking at the pictures I must apologize for many of them. You can't use flash anywhere on the inside of the property and for the life of me I couldn't figure how to get a non-blurry picture without my auto-focus/flash button on. So just don't enlarge the pics and you'll be fine.

"Graceland Mansion" - A little disappointing since you only get to see half of it, but interesting to note the style in which it is decorated. I think every surface that could be covered was covered. The house tour only took about 25 minutes. Cloth ceilings, many rooms had shag carpet on the ceilings. Even the entry/exit way from the house to the carport ceiling was covered in carpet. Is this what rich people did to decorate their houses in the 70's or was it just Elvis' taste (which after touring Graceland I've deduced to be very weird)?She was such a trooper throughout the entire time we were there. We almost had a meltdown over Lisa Marie's play swings because she couldn't go swing, but thankfully she found more interest in some sticks on the ground before I could think of a good excuse as to why we couldn't use the swings.

So I'm trying to take a picture of Lana and I'm telling her "look at mommy!". She would turn real quick and say "cheese!" and before I could snap a picture she'd be back to her original position.

Tanner was very good, only crying when hungry. Thankfully no blowouts as well, except today he had 3 big poopy diapers. He's such a considerate little guy!

Here we are in the meditation garden where Elvis and some of his family are buried. Our fun fact for the day that none of us knew was that Elvis was actually born a twin. The twin was still born and buried in Tupelo but had a memorial plaque in the gardens. Here's Lana trying to pluck a teddy bear off of the memorial plaque. I purchased her an Elvis themed teddy bear at one of the gift shops.Today, when I asked Lana what her favorite thing she did yesterday she said it was throwing the coins in the fountain. It took Ken probably 5 minutes to convince her how fun it was and I forked over 3 pennies for her to throw in. She even remembered how many coins we tossed in (4).


Funny story: We ran into the same Graceland worker twice at two different exhibits. Nice guy but he told us his life story each time we saw him. His name was Robert. He'd never been to Graceland before until his friends suggested he go. He got his job at Graceland through a job fair 4 weeks ago. He likes his job. After he got that far I started to tune him out.
Ah, the jump suits. They had an exhibit of the many jump suits he wore and they were all pretty hideous. He had such a weird sense of style. Granted much of the 70's was full of weirdness (no offense to you who grew up then).

Lana's highlight of the tour I think was the airplanes. They were the first thing we saw going into Graceland and the last thing we toured before we left. I have no idea what the kids are looking at in this picture. The only thing above my head were trees, but apparently it was interesting.

Tagged Again...

How to play this game of tag. Post these rules on your blog. List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.





3 Joys...Paul, Lana and Tanner


3 Fears...Big, ugly, nasty spiders, having open blinds in our house at night (why? I don't know, it didn't specify rational fears), losing my kids


3 goals...To learn a new hobby, to decorate my house like the people on Design on a Dime (you know, looks great but it's under $1000), try to be patient as Lana tries to potty train.



3 current obsessions/collections...cooking/baking, reading Terry Pratchett books, blog stalking



3 random surprising facts about me...I used to really stink at cooking/baking, but now I'm actually pretty good at it. I hate (and with a surprising amount of loathing mixed in) any and everything to do with the movie Planet of the Apes and its sequels/prequels. I am slightly obsessive compulsive when it comes to my morning routine. I have to do it in the same order everyday or I feel slightly "off" until I finish doing everything.

Economic stimulus payment

Guess how we are going to stimulate the economy? Movies? Date nights? A cruise? Vacation? Something fun? Spending it on something completely worthless and that we don't really need? Perhaps some of it. But a big chunk will be going toward the purchase of a new car seat for Tanner. He had actually outgrown his car seat by his 4 month Dr.'s appointment (he was 26 1/2 inches and the length limit is 26), but I didn't realize it until recently that he seemed too big for the infant one (oops!). Seriously, how did I not see this coming? Luckily we love Lana's current car seat and are just going to buy another one of those but in a different color. Oh, and a new stroller (because he's too young to be sitting up on his own yet we can't use our current umbrella stroller). Fun, yes?! And may I just vent for a minute on how frustrating it is trying to decide on what stroller to buy? I am a very indecisive and with all those options I have to consider (do I want a sit and stand or a regular...light weight or heavy duty...spend $50 or $800 - ok, I would never spend $800 on a stroller...green or orange...cup holder or no cup holder...) it's not a pretty combination. (insert any type of scream of frustration of your choosing here) I actually love buying new things for the kids, it's deciding what to buy is the problem.

Odd sleeping habits

We went to a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater last night and this is what we found when we returned home. Apparently my children enjoy sleeping in odd positions. It looks like he is in mid movement but he is actually holding still and is fast asleep. I'm going to point the finger and say they take after their dad on this one. I am one for sleeping on my side or back. The other 3 tend to have feet or bums in the air.

When Lana was in the crib she would scrunch herself into a corner as small as she could go and when she woke up she'd have crib slat indents on the top of her head. When we were staying at Grandpa Jerry's, Paul and Lana were sleeping on the futon. In the middle of the night he heard Lana cry and rolled over to see if she was okay except he couldn't find her. He called out for her and when she tried to get up she knocked her head on the futon frame. Somehow she'd managed to roll off the futon and then under it and get stuck.

I've heard some fun stories from Paul's old roommate about Paul's sleeping habits back in the day. My favorite one being he actually fell off of the top bunk, had his legs still tangled in the blankets and was still fast asleep when he was found. I have quite a few memories of back when I was younger of waking up in the middle of the night wondering why I was on the floor and how I got there. Ah, good times.

The Zoo

After not even being able to remember the last "free" Saturday that we've had together, we decided to head to the zoo. It was a beautiful overcast day making it very bearable even though it was muggy.

The baby giraffe was born recently and they had a story about him/her on the news. Usually no matter what kind of animal it is, baby versions are always so cute!

Case in point, here is my cute baby enjoying a snooze at the zoo.

We made it 3/4 of the way through the zoo and then Lana biffed it on the sidewalk. Both knees bleeding, loud screaming and big tears were all present. She did pause long enough in the hysterics to ride the train before we left.

Do not be deceived!

She's not always as sweet as she appears in pictures!

"My hurt"

Our first casualty after getting our new bedroom set. She will tell anyone who asks (because she's too shy to bring it up herself) about her "hurt". She will even tell how it happened, that she hurt it on mommy's bed. She was excited that I wanted to take pictures of it and was all too willing to hold still for it. It happened Monday and I've heard about it at least 800 times since. I'm pretty sure it doesn't actually hurt still, because when she's not thinking about it she goes about normal activities. But when she does think about it, she limps about and whines as though it just happened.

Sunday naps with Daddy

I admit that taking naps with dad is an excellent picture subject, but quite frankly drives me crazy. Not because I'm jealous, but when I have to put her to bed I have to put up with "go sleep with daddy (or me if daddy isn't around) on couch" in a very whiny voice and tears when we don't give in. When we do give in, that results in bedtime being pushed back 30 minutes and quite frankly I enjoy my child-free evenings. Lana used to be such a great sleeper, but lately she's been phasing out naps (insert many tears of sadness here) and has been getting out of bed after we've put her to bed. Today I gave her the choice of nap time or mommy quiet time. She chose mommy quiet time and spent about 40 heavenly silent minutes in her room. It also helps that they're framing a house 2 lots down and she has an excellent view of the comings and goings from her window. Anyway, it's a small price for me to pay because Paul gets to spend some time with her after having to put up with her as a baby when she was not a daddy fan.

Happy Anniversary...yesterday!

To Paul: My wonderful, patient, loving, sweet husband who's put up with me for the last 6 years. I say thank you for loving me so well.



We started off the day (Saturday) with breakfast at the Cracker Barrel (the only things I like to eat there is breakfast and their seasonal chocolate coca cola cake.) Paul then went to go help some friends in the ward move. (Yes, it was our anniversary, but after experiencing 6 moves in the last 6 years we understand the importance of people who are willing to help.)



He came home a couple hours later and we found a last minute babysitter and decided to try the restaurant down the street, Bonefish Grill.




We would have ended up at Outback Steakhouse, but I wanted to try something new! Anyway, so we got there and didn't have to wait since we were a bit early. We ordered their crab cakes which were to-die-for. Oh my goodness, they were the best crab cakes I've ever had. We shared a virgin strawberry daiquiri. When it came to the main course I was struggling. I wanted to try something different, but also didn't want to get something that turned out disgusting. So after conversing with our waiter, I decided on the Swordfish. It was actually pretty tasty! I was so proud of myself trying something new! We finished off the night by going to Blockbuster and then to Cold Stone for some ice cream.

Tanner's fist sippy

He doesn't really need a sippy cup, but he can hold onto it really well. He can even get the right part into his mouth. He didn't care for the small sip of water he got, but he looked so cute with his face scrunched tight in disgust.

What's wrong with this picture?

If you don't like the show The Office, just skip this post

For all (or possibly just for my own) viewing pleasure, here is a video of Steve Carrell interviewing Phyllis...Hilarious!!