the high chair is the bane of my existence!

I love my little guy for his independence and his strong desire to feed himself. It has saved me soooo much time on those rushed mornings where every second counts. He is even capable of eating a bowl of oatmeal unassisted.

But I HATE it how those grubby little patties completely destroy the high chair requiring nothing less of a good power wash afterwards!

Enough said.

at least now I'm working out!

Broken hot water heater... Day 12.

While we're waiting for the home warranty company to make up their mind about what they will/will not pay for, (crossing our fingers for a new water heater due to a non-existent part for this old (1991) thing...) the plumber said that we could light it up as needed. So one hour prior to starting the dishwasher or taking showers, I light the pilot light and pray that it stays on long enough to heat up the tank. It seems that the period of time that it stays on is shorter and shorter, so we're conserving hot water whenever we can.

Today I discovered a better way to take a cold shower.

After a good and sweaty workout (the only thing good about no hot water is it's forced me to start working out again in order to warm up) ... I immediately hit the shower. To ease some of the pain from the frigid water, I proceeded to do a near back bend to keep the water from touching anything other then my head. This worked quite well. The cold water on my head, did take my breath away a few times, but it was manageable. After the shampoo was rinsed out, I immersed my whole body in the shower stream and did a quick spin. While I was soaping up and putting conditioner, however, I was blessed with a bit of luke warm water that finally made it's way clear across the house and upstairs.

Normally, even a luke warm shower is just as cold... but when you start out with frigid cold, and work your way toward luke warm, it's actually quite pleasant! I just might try it again tomorrow!

no wonder he keeps waking up!

The past couple days Brooks has woken up early from his naps, and he's even woke up a couple times during the early evening. So far, I've chalked it up towards his latest illness, which we have self-diagnosed as Primary Herpes... but for my sake, let's just refer to it as "allergies". I took a picture of him... not for scrapbooking purposes, since I'd much rather forget this... but for pure documentation reasons. Fortunately for all of you, I don't have the courage to post it. But rest assured, it's not a pretty sight. But because all the sores that cover his nose, upper lip and mouth, I thought that he just kept waking up from the pain.

But this afternoon (luckily before his nap), I found the phone nestled in a blanket on the guest bed... in his room. I tend to walk around the house while I'm on the phone... sometimes doing random chores while I chat... but quite often just pacing. (Yes, I admit... I'm a pacer... they say it helps your brain flow, and someone even said it counted as your daily exercise... I doubt that.)

Sorry, I digress. But now, every time the phone rings, I feel a twinge in my stomach. Nap time and bed time is very important to me, and I hate to be disturbed! Panic stricken, I do a head count of all the phones in the house, hoping and PRAYING that I didn't leave the phone in there again! So far, so good.

man enough?

Despite the fact that there are 4 boys in my family, apparently I'm the only "man" in this house... or rather, I'm the only one with enough (you know what) to take a cold shower! Last night I boiled 3 pots of water for Josh and Caleb because they weren't man enough. And this morning, Mike could only wash his hair.

Now, taking a cold shower isn't exactly something I would volunteer to do just for the heck of it... but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do, right?

Here's a quick play-by-play:

Once the water touches your scalp, you experience a literal brain freeze that only intensifies as the water creeps into your ear. Half way into the shampooing process your head thankfully begins to numb, but the ice water that trickles into the ear canal continues to provide unexpected chills throughout the remainder of the shower. The frigid water that flows down your body is obviously more shocking in certain areas then others... I'll spare you the details on the "certain areas". But the initial shock of it is enough to invoke a variety of shrieks and squeals that even I didn't know I was capable of. Now comes the tricky part... First if all, rinsing the shampoo out seems to take forever, and I violently squeegee the foam off as fast as I can... but it just keeps coming. Even though I'm not quite sure if I got all the soap out, I can't bare any more so I turn off the water to condition and lather up with body wash. Thankfully, I feel warmer... either because the 72 degree air is warmer then the 50 degree water... or possibly because of the vicious scrubbing and friction of the loofa. Now, I'm literally covered in bubbles, and I'm wondering what I have gotten myself into. There's no way out! I must turn the cold water back on and submit myself to the torture once again.

Sidebar: Do you remember that feeling when you get out of a pool for a few minutes? And do you remember that upon getting back in, the water is significantly warmer... or at least it feels warmer?

Well, this is NOT the case with cold showers. Once I turned off the water, my body did indeed get warmer... but the water definitely did NOT! So, for the first 20 seconds of the rinsing-off-process, my mind flashed back in time to Girls Camp where we bathed in a pool that was fed by the run-off from a nearby glacier. It felt very similar. But finally, when the last bits of conditioner were dissolving from my hair, I am surprised by the feeling of calmness. The body convulsions have ceased, and the feeling of endurance is replaced by, dare I say, refreshment!!! Ha-haaaa... I had conquered the cold shower after all!

But man, do those dry, warm towels feet nice. I bundle up my hair in a towel as my scalp starts to thaw...

It's times like this that once again I am proud to be an Alaskan!!!

hot water... who needs it anyway?

Josh, Brooks and myself are the only ones in our family who suffer from allergies. So after playing outside in the pollenated night air for hours... we could literally feel the pollen coating our skin and hair, feel the tightness in our lungs, and the itchiness in our eyes, we desperately longed for a shower!

This was the first time we noticed that there was no hot water. It was late, and the kids were tired. So it went against everything that I knew to be right to put them into their beds covered from head to toe in pollen... I was hoping and praying that this would not lead to a night of torture for them... and me! Josh slept with a cold wet rag over his face, and I managed to keep Brooks from rubbing his eyes by putting multiple binkies in each hand.

Then I scoured the internet for a do-it-yourself guide to lighting a pilot light. Mike was hesitant to light it, even though he had seen numerous home inspectors do it. He relied on the excuse that he was the provider for our family and couldn't risk losing a limb, his hair, or his life from an exploding gas water heater. But I was not in the mood for a cold shower in the morning, and boiling water was for the pioneers... and was willing to risk it all!

So, we went out to the garage together... I was determined to restore hot water to our family... Mike was saying his last goodbyes.

*POOF* ... pilot light ignited. All was well... or so I thought.

Now a week later, I've re-lit the pilot light 3 times, called our home warranty company, boiled water for baths, washed my hair in cold water, waited for 3 hours for the technician to come, repaired of a temperature coupler (in my mind, this didn't seem to remedy the pilot light issue... but they're the experts, right?), and a $60 co-pay later....

And surprise, surprise... we have no hot water again!
I'm speechless.

lazy vs. bad hair?... I think it's a toss up.

I literally had to force myself out of bed this morning. My eyes were burning (thanks to allergies and lack of sleep), my head was pounding, my legs felt like jello as I came down the stairs.... you get the idea. In an effort to easy myself out of this deathly state, I curled up on the couch while Josh ate breakfast. I guarantee that I would still be in bed right now if I didn't feel the "motherly instinct" to oversee Josh getting ready for school. He was going on a field trip for the day, so I needed visual confirmation that he was prepared with his snack, lunch, water bottle, jacket, etc.

I heard Mike and Josh exit the house, while I remained in my semi-comatose state. I was only half aware that Mike came back inside to announce that a friend from church was here. It wasn't until after I bolted up and nearly gave myself a brain aneurysm did he mention that he had told her I was still asleep and would relay a message to me. "But I wasn't asleep." I contested. Mike said, "Well, by the looks of your hair, you might as well have been asleep!"

This friend is known for her early rising, and un-human-like knack for accomplishing everything under the sun... so the fact that she thinks I'm still deep in slumber at 7:40am makes me cringe. But, having my husband be embarrassed enough by my "morning hair" to deceive a morning visitor is equally mortifying.

How does one recover from this?

half clean or half dirty??

I consider myself to be an optimist... right now I'm trying to look past the dishful of dirty dishes, an oatmeal coated high chair, and a sticky stove top... and instead, think of all the things I've accomplished/endured over the past 24 hours.

-waking up at 5am to make rolls for a missionary luncheon
-packed a diaper bag (this is surprisingly time-consuming)
-preschool field trip
-play date with child #2
-6-7 phone calls
-primary presidency meeting
-an unplanned play date for child #1
-over a dozen emails
-7 temper tantrums
-3 arguments
-another diaper bag packed
-baseball uniform gathered
-water bottles located
-cameras charged
-baseball game
-1 more temper tantrum
-unload the car
-side dish for a family BBQ prepared
-lunch and snacks for 3 hungry boys
-1 bathroom cleaned
-a sticky toddler bathed
-a clean toddler down for a nap

I put my hands on my hips... and look around the kitchen trying to decide where to start. Josh enters the messy kitchen and says, "Wow, this kitchen is a mess!" I immediately feel defeated. How can I feel good about everything else I accomplished with the center of our home was neglected. And if it's messy enough for an 8 year-old BOY to notice, it must be pretty bad! So, what do I do?

Pick myself up by my bra straps... and do the most sensible thing I can think of...
Ignore it all and go climb in my un-made bed and take a nap. Goodnight dirty kitchen... I'll see you when I wake up!