Early Morning Conversations

This morning Jed and I were in the living room, actually awake before the children and this is what we hear:

Jack: DADADA YAAYAA RRRRR

Jara: Jack BE QUIET! I SLEEPING!

Jack: (Various dolphin noises) AHHHHHRRR

Jara: Jack go to SLEEP!

Jack: jrajrajra (I think he is saying jara)

Jara: Don't talk!

pause

Jara: Use your quiet voice.

Jack: daDAdaDADDDDDD

She's like me in the morning!

*Note: This conversation took place between one closed door and one unusually open door.

Road Construction

Alas, our dirt road will be paved! One of the last roads in Logandale to remain dirt no more! People will now come visit me when it rains. I should be joyous, however the process of getting rid of a dirt road is making me hear noises in my head!

Normally I have a healthy respect for road construction, my husband's livelihood depends on it. But, if I have to hear BEEP BEEP one more time...

Equipment noises and tractor smell does not bother me it brings back fond memories of my grandpa "disking" his field, my dad landscaping, and Jed building things (and landscaping.) However, BEEP BEEP BEEP over and over and over again, especially at 6:30 in the morning is going to make me go out in my pajamas and tell the operator to hand me over the controls I'll show you how it's done! (And no I will not then use heavy equipment for evil hahaha)

They are moving the same pile of dirt repetitively. I think they've re-done my driveway every day for the past month. I see the grade-checker out there lining up his instruments and scratching, never a good sign.

I asked my construction-management-major husband why it is necessary to have the beep noise and he told me "Safety Joshlyn, Safety, it's all about SAFETY." Well if they knew what was really safe for them they would disable it! And seriously, do you need the beeping noise to let you know a million pound, chugging piece of, DIESEL, machinery is coming at you, at the roaring speed of 5 mph! If you can't figure that out you deserve to be hit! Jed responded by telling me a horrible story and telling me to be nice.

When will it be over?

Jack's opinion of road construction...

While the Cat's Away...

The mice play and play and play and PLAY all day long. (The cat is working forty hours a week and has 4 nights classes and 3 labs (more classes, except you don't get credits) Needless to say for the next 9 months I'm going to have to exhort all of my creative energy! Then I'm going away, preferably to Hawaii and not the mental institute, but either way it will be a vacation.

We eat cake batter. (We had to do some serious scrubbing to get rid of this, you can't show up to church sporting a beelzebub mustache.)

We build sand castles in the back yard, even though it's 105 outside! Actually, we are playing street urchin and that is why the children are dirty, unkempt and cooking sand-soup in a pot outside.

I teach 14 piano students a week!

We play hide and seek. I am a really good "hider." jk Jara has to hide from Jack because he likes to practice his piranha skills. He's now sporting 6 sharp, deadly chompers.

We play rate my space. Do you like the finished nursery? It only took 10 months!

We try new beauty concoctions. Here is a little tip, Comet is non-bleaching on hair and makes it surprisingly smooth, silky and shiny! Use under close adult-supervision, if you fail to assist your child while he/she is applying be sure to check their breath for the smell of bleach in case you need to call 911. Don't worry I caught Jara before this occurred, I saw her go in the bathroom, knew I had left the Comet in the sink and was one step away when she scooped it all up and quickly dumped it on her head. Nooooooooo! We do not put comet on our hair. (one of those things you never thought you would say)

Deathly Hobbies

Have you ever wondered where to store a coffin? Here is one idea...

Here is another question you may now be asking yourself: Why is there a hiding coffin in this house? I'll give you a few options to choose from...

A) the neighbor's dog has crapped on my lawn one too many times

B) my sister finally did knock off someone

C) Edward Cullen was staying the night (cliche, i know, that's only in the movies)

D) Jed needs somewhere to store his paintball supplies

Well have you guessed the correct answer? That's right choice D!

When faced with the dilemma of where to store his multiple paintball accessories, my husband came up with the morbidly creative idea of a casket case. He painstakingly crafted a beauty of a case. The only problem now lies in where to store the thing! It was in the closet for a while but every time I went in there it was starting to unnerve me. Being sensitive to my distaste for a daily reminder of death, Jed kindly removed it to where it now rests-in-peace in our bedroom, hidden behind the lovely, happy kissing picture he bought for me ten years ago, that I still haven't hung up since rearranging my room. That's what happens when you let clutter build up, something dead hides behind it!

Building the beauty. Anyone want to purchase a similar replica? This would revolutionize the flowery world of Etsy.

Jara & Jack

Jack
Crawls, really fast, on his belly. He has given himself the worst rug burns on his wrists, of all places!
Has attitude, my sweet precious baby has started yelling at everybody, especially Jara.
Bites, pinches and pulls hair, hard (he's freakishly strong)
Claps (kind-of)
Sleeps a lot and eats A LOT, with no apparent strong likes or dislikes
Follows me around like a puppy dog
Loves to be adored, still
Cheeses for the camera every time I pull it out

Jara
Has given Jack even more pet names: Prince Ali, muffin, handsome
Gave herself a pet name: she now prefers to be called "precious"
Gave me a pet name: mommy wheeler and meemee
Has some scary dance moves (that I hope don't lead to a certain career)
Inherited my fowl phobia, one morning she was crying so I went in her room and she was "scurt of chikuns, scurrry" and also told me, when she saw the chickens running towards her when we were on our vacations, "Holy Hell! The chickens are coming for Jara!" I don't know who taught her such fowl language?! (haha) get it fowl haha, bad I know
Decided Nursery isn't so bad and tells me all about the other children's behavior (but never her own)
Likes to "make mommy happy, very very happy"
Insists on wearing "ballerina" dresses every day (the one you see in the pic is a 6 month old dress she altered into a skirt over her shorts)
Has broken her 3 month cycle of bad/good Jara and now keeps things on a day-to-day basis

They are growing before my very eyes, its bittersweet.

Post B-day

You saw the BEFORE pictures, now here are the AFTER pictures, 26 years later. We (my mom and I) concluded that in the previous post it was my second birthday. I wasn't sure when I posted, I had to do some research. It's funny to think that is the same age as my daughter.

Officially 28

The big girls and the little girls. We did not plan the matchy purple outfits. Karma I guess.

Opening presents, it may be a few years before I don't need any help, it's very overwhelming, you know!

The Birthday Girl