Messy Day

For some reason, some days are messier than others. Today was a messy day. I went through a entire pile of rags, which I have to wash tonight so that I have a fresh pile tomorrow. After cleaning a few messes, I decided to document it. Here are some pictures of the fun.

This is the work of William -
don't ask me why he did this, but I was not happy (that's cheese and milk)

The kids making a good mess in Claire's room -
William was in the middle of a coughing fit, so his face and eyes were all red

We are always getting on Claire's case about sitting in her chair on her bottom at dinner. She's always all over the place. Well tonight, she knocked her bowl of sweet and sour sauce off the table and onto her, the chair, the floor and the wall.

William loves shredded cheese and this is what I have to clean up

Another mess I clean up several times a day - cars

There was also two chocolate milk spills and a few other things.

Claire has recently said some funny things: we were watching some documentary on Niagra Falls and they said the number 100,000 and Claire said "Wow! 100,000! That's a lot. I bet that's older than you and dad!"

We were eating Chinese food for dinner tonight and William was being really loud at his train table and Claire said "I feel like I'm at a restaurant that's not very fancy and is really noisy."

Another one..."I bet being grown-up is the worst part of your life." I asked why and she replied "Because you have to do all of that boring stuff." True, true.

Whatever

I don't have anything in particular to write about today, just a few pictures.

This is William playing with the original Polly Pockets that were mine and are now Claire's.
I was washing Claire's sheets and William made himself comfortable in her room.
She would not be happy if she knew about this.

I love pictures of sleeping babies.
His blanket, mom and his bottom lip are all that William need for a good long nap.

William and a little friend playing together; they get along very well.
They just look so cute in this picture - what sweet boys!

A Few Movies

I am trying something new - now that our camera takes movie with sound, I am attempting to put one on my blog. I took one of each of the kids today - nothing special; this is more of a trial run.

Lessons and music stuff

Ryan and I bought a new digital camera with our Christmas money. Our old camera only had 1 mega-pixel, so our pictures were very grainy. It's been a good little camera, but it is nice to have this new one. The only problem is: I don't really know how to work it. So I only have a few pictures to share that I haphazardly took before church and a few pictures from our old camera.

Today has been busy; Wednesdays always are. I have six students on Wednesdays and they all need something different (reeds, help finding solos, audition music, etc). One of my students also plays tenor sax in the jazz band and his parents will only allow him one private teacher - so I got to teach a sax lesson today (and find him a solo). So now I teach bass clarinet, Eb clarinet, and sax in addition to my normal clarinet students. Lots of fun. I picked up two new students last week and one more today. The reason for these three new students is simple: the band just had their big semester try-outs and all of my students beat the pants off of everyone else. My students now sit in the top chairs of both bands and one of my students in the lower band beat out a kid I don't teach in the top band. That shook this kid up a bit and he is now one of my newly acquired students. I guess we're doing something right.

Now I know a lot of you reading this were once in band/orchestra/choir - so you understand what I'm talking about - sorry to the rest of you. I also know this is a very boring topic, but seeing as how I had nothing to write about, this is what you get. Now to reward you for putting up with this post, here are some cute pictures:

Claire before church last Sunday - new camera

Her hair does this naturally when I put it in a pony-tail. No curling iron folks.

William looks angry, but he was just trying to get up. He had been sitting there watching TV while Ryan took a nap. In any case, I think William has very expressive eyes.
That is quite "the look".

While trying to get over my cold Monday, I took a short nap on the couch while William watched cartoons and Claire was at school. This was the first time I've fallen asleep while William was awake - alone. He was a good boy and I was not in a heavy sleep. Anyhow, he was watching Spongebob and I guess a scary part came on because William came over to me and whispered in my ear "scary...scary...scary" over and over. It was really funny. When I got up, this was how I found him in front of the TV and yes, that is a bag of crackers dumped on the carpet.

1982 vs 2007

So as we were on the lookout for the bus from our dining room this morning, Ryan calls Claire over to the computer to look at the recent pictures of her cousins from Ryan's side of the family. They are two of the cutest little kids, but I made the comment that they really don't look like our kids at all. However on my side of the family, a lot of the cousins have my family's look to them. Does that make sense? Anyhow, I pointed out that Claire looks a lot like me when I was a little girl and William looks a lot like my Dad did (William's Grandad). Claire asked if I had any pictures of myself when I was little and I could only remember having one. I quickly pulled it out of my scrapbook and showed it to Claire. It was the first time I've looked at this picture in years. I was quickly struck by the fact that the little blond girl from 1982 (maybe '83) looks a lot like William. For those of you who know William, you know that he sucks on his bottom lip when he's nervous and/or tired. I tried to find a good picture of William sucking his lip and this is the best I came up with. So here they are:

William - Oct 2007

Susan with a little friend - 1982

Does anyone else see the similarity? Crazy.

Journals

As you can see to your right, I am trying out a poll. I am very curious about the whole journal/diary thing. My parents bought me my first official journal when I was eight. I have kept one ever since. I am very inconsistent in my writing; the regularity really depends on the busy-ness of my life at the time. I have tried large journals, which didn't work so well because I felt obligated to fill the whole page and that was too much stress. I have tried small journals, which tend to work better for me. I've tried lined, unlined, spiral bound, spine bound, cutsie, serious looking, etc. My newest journal is an unlined sketchbook. I cut out pictures from magazines that I like for whatever reason (homes, clothes, appliances, whatever) and glue them in. I also include notes and pictures that Claire's made me, notes from Ryan, to do lists, recipes, paint swatches, bits of fabric from my sewing projects, my menu for that day; basically whatever I feel like. I write funny things the kids said, what I did that day, what the weather was like, projects I'm working on, doodles, who I talked to, etc. I like to think of it as a little clip from my day. In the past, I found that my journal entries would end of being a list of what I did that day without anything very interesting (because essentially, I do the same things day after day). My entries were also written in an essay style, which tended to be mundane. But with this new journal, I'm including things that show my mood, thoughts, and other tidbits from my life that are not the same every day. It has really worked for me. I also like to think that one day, when my kids (or whoever) looks at this journal, they will enjoy seeing the decorating styles, appliances, clothing, etc. that were popular today. Here are some pictures of my journals - I know the pictures are really grainy and the lighting is terrible; sorry.

My first journal - given to me in 1988 for Christmas

A sample of the inside

All of my past journals, in chronological order - the smallest one is a journal entitled "What I Read" I list the books I've recently read and what I thought of them.

My current journal with my latest entry. Some pages are more colorful and creative than others. This is an average page.

Another recent entry.

My lovely sister is an avid writer - she always has been since I can remember. I'm guessing she has around 15 to 20 filled journals. The girl went for years without missing a day. Amazing.

There was this lady is my past ward in St. Louis who always carried a cute purse around with her filled with gel pens and her journal. She was always writing and drawing in it whenever she had down time at church (and no ladies, she did not have any children and the ward had more active people than callings). I only caught a few glimpses of her journal, but it looked amazing. She was obviously very creative and a great artist. Each page was a work of art and literature. It looked like something that should be published. I have come to accept that my journal will never look like hers - but at least I can try to make mine interesting in my own way. I would love to hear your comments and thoughts on journals - be sure to post one!

William's Quilt

I have never made a quilt before, but I was determined to make at least one in my life. I thought that I would give it a try and if I liked it, I would learn more about it, etc. So I started this quilt almost a year ago when I knew that we would be buying a house. I already had the color scheme picked out for William's room: green and blue. My design taste is a bit modern, as my friends will tell you. So when I was choosing colors for William's room, I didn't want the typical navy blue, but something with a little more pop (as you will see from the photos). My parents did not like the green wall, but then again, they have lived in a house of white, beige and blue for the past twenty years or so. I've learned that you can't please everyone when decorating a home, you just have to do what your happy with.

This was taken before I put on the baseboards.

I threw together this pillow with the extra fabric from the quilt. It says "William J."

William playing with his car in the blinds. This was a rare happy moment this past week. I took him to the doctor today and it turns out he has an ear infection - that would explain the excessive grumpiness.

A comparison of the old and newly painted baseboards. Do you see what I was dealing with? Amazing what a little paint does.

Another comparison photo - this is the last baseboard I have to paint (it's the one I can't remove due to the phone jack).

Claire was very cute today - she stayed home due to a cold. She spent the day keeping the house clean. While I was at work, Claire apparently cleaned the whole house. She was so proud of her work.

I was playing the piano and William had been watching "Finding Nemo". It was to the part where Dorey and Marlin were in the whale's mouth and were about to get blown out. William came up to me and started patting my back saying "It's scary mom, it's scary." Over and over while he continued to pat my back, reassuring me it was going to be all right. What cute babies I have.

Today was another day filled with painting, sick kids, housework and bills. I did manage to finish all but one of William's baseboards - I'm going to have to paint the last one while it's still on the wall because the phone jack is connected to it and I don't want (or know how) to remove it. I find that with the condition that these baseboards are in (filthy, falling off, dented, cracked, etc), it's easier to remove them and then sand, clean, repair, prime, and paint before replacing them with new nails that actually hold the boards to the wall. It's amazing the difference some paint can do. It makes me wonder: what in the world were the previous owners doing with those nasty things on the wall?

Well sadly, Claire is coming down with whatever William has. I didn't work last week because of William being sick (or go to church or anywhere else). I have to teach 6 lessons tomorrow, so Ryan is going to stay with the kids while I'm gone. I'm assuming Claire won't go to school tomorrow because she had a fever tonight. Fun times.

Enough of this, here are some pictures.

Here I am cooking Christmas dinner in the Moon Shoes Claire got for Christmas - it made Ryan very nervous, so he made me take them off.

Claire drew on the box and called herself Mr. Frank - notice the "decorations" on the wall. Claire put them on our bedroom wall to decorate for Christmas.

William put this on his head himself - it is from his train set.

On Christmas Eve, we went to the Our Lady of the Snows Shrine here in our city. It is interesting, to say the least. Here are a few pictures of the family at the shrine playground.

What can I say??

I have been sitting here, trying to remember anything momentous or funny from today, but nothing came to mind. There were the usual antics from the kids, Ryan donning a mask and blanket and chasing William around the house and other various activities. All in all, it was a usual, run-of-the-mill day. Good night.

...and she's back

I have taken a "vacation" from blogging, email and other internet-related activities. I'm not sure of the exact reason for my absence: it was a combination of holiday stuff, family stuff, house stuff, illness, and laziness. So there you go.

I did attempt to post some pictures last week, but I somehow deleted them, so I gave up without finishing it. I am determined tonight to publish a post, whether or not it's any good.

Today started off slow - William has a nasty cough, keeping Ryan and I awake most of the night. So after sending Claire off to school, I went back to bed for an hour or so. Ryan stayed home to work, so he kept an eye on William while I slept - what a good husband! I then got up and spent the rest of the day sanding and priming baseboards and trim. Ryan made a rule that I can't start any new projects until I have finished the ones I've started (i.e. William's room). After I finish painting and replacing the baseboards and finish the trim, I'm going to build the shelves for his closet and get all of the toys put away. There's a lot to do.

My parents were in town last month for a weekend. We had a great time with them; it was however the first time we had a big snow. Here are pictures from their visit.

We went for a walk in our neighborhood. Here's my dad.

Playing in our front yard.

My mom reading books with the kids before bedtime.

We played hard during Christmas break. I had all sorts of activities planned to keep the kids busy while Claire was home.

William taking a break from playing.

Playing with shaving cream.

William wanted to put this dress on, but quickly changed his mind.

I have more pictures to share, but I want to save some for another post! Goodnight.