GOT ZACH'S DONE
This one didn't turn out as well as I thought it would, but I have to remind myself that while I want every page to be a work of art, it's really just going to be one of hundreds of pages in a book on the shelf. So I'm not going to fret over it anymore.

GEE WHIZ
My mission companion, Kika, just posted on her blog that she "drank the water." But I think it must be in the air or something, because it seems like everyone is expecting! Let's see, my sisters-in-law Lora (in Kentucky) and Erin (in Korea), Kika (Utah), Melanie (Utah), high school friend Renée (California), did I forget anyone?
Of course, I love it all.
Does anyone else have an announcement to make?

MYSTERY
A new mystery unfolded today when we went to get sno-cones (it's the last day of the season, and they were BOGO). In the middle of the night last night, I rolled over and couldn't. There was a speed bump in my bed. A speed bump named Zach. I thought, "Wow, I feel bad. I was so tired that I didn't even hear Zach crying, or Ryan get up to get him." But tonight while we were enjoying our frosty goodness, Ryan asked why Zach had ended up in our bed.
Hmmmm...so either we were both so tired that one of us stumbled around and got Zach out of bed, then forgot about it, and the other one didn't notice, or Zach did it himself.
We're starting to think he did it himself.
And this is after I rearranged his room so he couldn't climb out of his crib onto his window seat anymore. Ryan thinks he climbed out onto his dresser. All moms, I'm open to advice. It's time to either rearrange the furniture again, or to convert his crib into a toddler bed. I'm worried about the stairs, and of course, I am thinking that he is proving that he won't stay in bed if we do a toddler bed. Any ideas?

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE?
I worked on Jared's 4 year old scrapbook page last night, and thought it would be fun to list all the things he wants to be when he grows up. He seems to think that you do something for a while, then move on to the next fun career, so he has a long list, usually in a certain order. I finished up the layout last night, all except for the actual list, because I wanted to make sure nothing had changed.
While he was thinking (I don't know what about, because he gave me the same list as always), I had the brilliant idea to ask Zach.
Me: "Zach, when you're all grown up and are a big tall man like daddy, you get to have a job!"
Zach: "Yup!"
Me: "And you'll go work every day."
Zach: "Yup."
Me: "So what do you want to be when you grow up?"
Zach: "F."
(pause)
Me: "You want to be the letter F?"
Zach: "Yup."
Me: "What does the letter F do?"
Zach: "Fffffff."
Me: "It sits around and says, "Fffff all day?"
Zach: "Yup."
Okay then!
That reminds me of when my niece said she wanted to be a flamingo when she grew up. She was totally serious. She said that for years!

So now on to Jared. Here's the scrapbook page, and just in case you can't read it (even if you click on it to see it bigger), here's Jared's list:
Astronaut
Garbage Man
Construction Worker (So he can build the roads that Daddy designs)
Volcano Scientist (Vulcanologist)
Dinosaur Scientist (Paleontologist)

CONVERSATION WITH ZACH
I was telling Ryan how Zach tried to go in to the "Jazzy Bugs" class while Jared was taking his free trial class at The Little Gym today. The class was full of cute little girls in pink leotards with flowy skirts and little black tap shoes.
Dad: Oh, that's why he kept going in there! Zach, do you like girls?
Zach nods emphatically.
Mom: Do you have a girlfriend?
Zach: Zup. Like Herbie. (he saw part of Herbie Fully Loaded, where he likes a new yellow Bug, and now refers to all new Bugs as Herbie's Girlfriend)
Mom: Who's your girlfriend?
Zach: Mommy!

Aw, idn't that cute?

TAGGED AGAIN (KEEPIN' IT REAL)
I got tagged by my college roommate Bonnie back in MAY. Yikes. I haven't felt like I had time to do it until now. Picking when you do it kind of defeats the purpose, but I'm doing what I can. It's called Keeping It Real Tag:

This tag is all about keepin' it real! The rules are to take pictures of the things listed below, but no straightening, primping or prepping. Leave everything just as they look and take the picture. Then tag five victims...um, I mean people.

1. Fridge: Gotta have the LeapFrog magnets all over it. Sometimes we line them up, and sometimes there are random words spelled on it. Jared sticks his artwork on the bottom half. The top half used to be mine, but now Jared can reach and Zach gets a barstool to stand on to get his favorite magnet (it has the LA temple under a glass pebble--my sister made it for me a while ago.) He carries it around and says, "Tempo! Tempo!" and sometimes sings "I Love to See the Temple." He's knows both verses!

2. Closet: I haven't really bothered to organize our closet. There are boxes in there that we don't plan to unpack. And 6 more months in this house isn't worth a whole lot of organizing energy.
3. Kitchen Sink: Still got a few more dishes to wash before bed.

4. Laundry room: My laundry system is fairly organized, but the "folding table" isn't. It's turned into the place to put things on their way in from or out to the garage (a.k.a. our storage unit.)

5. Toilet: This is our downstairs/guest bathroom. No visitor has ever asked to use it, though. I could be the nicest room in the house because I bought the stuff to stage our less-than-adequate master bath in Glendale. It needed a lot of help, so it's pretty posh. Except that the counter is always dirty because that's where the boys clean up after dinner and after digging in the garden. And they did pull-ups on the towel bar (together), which of course isn't made to handle their 75 pounds, so it came out of the wall.
I don't know what they're expecting to catch me at by taking a picture of the toilet. The lid up or something? I did get caught with a full garbage can--oh the horror!

6. Favorite Room: The living room. I just love my new curtains. And it's usually the tidyest room in the house. Our nicest furniture goes in there, too. Hah! Nicest is kind of a joke. The chairs are hand-me downs from (see if you can follow this) Ryan's high-school friend's wife's parents' neighbors (I think--hey Kat, is that right?), and the bookshelves were $20 for a set of two at a yard sale. Then we have to pull kitchen or camp chairs in there when the home teachers (or anyone else) comes over so we don't have to sit on the floor, because we're short a couch.
The curtains are pushed aside so the boys could watch our street being chip-sealed today. I'd better go fix that.

7. Favorite pair of shoes: My fun hiker-type shoes. I hate regular old tennis shoes, and everyone in Boise is so outdoorsy. Only problem is they are partially mesh, so they won't work so great in the snow. Insurance paid for these because one of my cute brown shoes got lost while the crooks who stole our Uhaul were rifling through our possessions. I have one, and the other one is somewhere in Nebraska, I think.But they require socks (see the post from last time I got tagged), so I wear these the most lately. They're some sort of Croc look-a-like.

8. What are the kids doing right now?: Ryan's still not home from work, and it's after 8. So we're having a movie night. They just got out of the bath and Jared won't get dressed, so he's hangin out in his towel. Like how they're on opposite sides of our 8-foot couch? That's probably a good thing.

9. Self Portrait: I still had my new tripod adapter thingy on the camera from taking our family portraits Saturday, so I couldn't set down the camera on anything. So I had to get out the tripod for the self-portrait. It also helps that I have a remote control, eh? (I LOVE my camera!) No makeup today, and the hair's kinda frizzy, so I went for a more creative pose. Besides, normal is so boring. My flexibility surprised me. Maybe it the all the Olympic gymnastics I watched rubbed off on me.

10. Where You Want To Go: This is a hard one for me. Because right now, I'm not really thinking of places to go. I just want to settle down somewhere and not move (houses, that is) for at least 5 years. Is that too much to ask? Maybe it is.
I'm hoping I get to go to Utah with Ryan when he goes to take his professional licensing test in October, though. Utah is home to the highest concentration of my good friends. None live in Idaho, of course. But I'm making new ones.
And I've started wishing I could go to one of those fibromyalgia clinics that seem to be so prevalent in everywhere but Idaho. Go get some biofeedback or mudwraps or whatever they do to people there. Anything to get a little more energy! I don't think they're really resort-ish, in-house treatment sorts of places, but they really should make those. Fibro-retreats! Yeah right, just try to get health insurance to pay for that!

Okay, so I don't have six people to tag, just like last time, but I want to tag Melanie, Kika, and Kat.

DENTIST
I just read an article about how kids don't get to the dentist young enough. They're supposed to go at age 1?!? How in the world do you clean a one-year old's teeth? The article also said that most kids go when they're 4 or 5. So maybe we're later than we should be, but we're average!
Anyway, Jared went to the dentist for his first cleaning today. We took him last year and he rode on the chair and got his teeth counted. But today was the real thing. Jared was really excited to go, and he did so great! He kept his mouth open the whole time--I had to tell him when it was okay to close it. He even used the suction thingy himself. Then we switched places and he watched me get my teeth cleaned. Meanwhile, we could hear Ryan trying to entertain Zach in the lobby.
Jared got a Mater toothbrush, and the hygienist surprised Zach with his own goody bag, a well-chosen Lightening McQueen toothbrush and tiny tube of bubble-gum flavored toothpaste! So the boys got their favorite characters to try out tonight.
The hygienist kept saying how great Jared was doing. And I saw it all! He really was great. And on the way home, he said that going to the dentist is fun. WOW, we pulled it off! Let's hope we can keep that attitude for the rest of his life!

FAMILY PORTRAITS
I was wondering if I should keep these photos secret and use them on our Christmas cards and for Christmas gifts. But we'll just have to take some more! I like to scrap photos while they're still new, and then I like to share my pages. I guess it's another form of talking too much.
This page took much too long because I wanted to make all the supplies. I want the photo to be in our living room, and love how the colors of our clothes coordinate with the colors in the living room, so I made papers and ribbons, etc. inspired by my curtains!
Maybe someday someone else will want to use my home-made supplies so they don't just get used once.
Anyway, here's the page!

SELF-HEALING
It's great. I have a self-healing kid!
When it was time to change his diaper this evening, he was very unhappy about it. I found a still-sticky sticker lying on the stairs and gave it to him to cheer him up. While he was on the changing pad, he played with sticker and discovered a red line on his thumb.
"Oh no, Mommy. My have owwie!"
"I think that's just some marker, bud. Did you draw with a red marker today?"
"No, iss owwie."
"Oh, okay."
"My need ban-aid owwie."
Great, I think. How can I distract him from this one? Redirect... redirect...
Then he has a great idea. He slaps the sticker on the red marker line and says, "See my ban-aid my owwie!"
Stickers are sticky, band-aids are sticky, why not?

TAGGED
My friend Katrina tagged my blog. These are the instructions I'm supposed to follow:

• Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
• Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them.
• Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Hmmm...this is harder than it seems!

1. I hate eggs. I guess I'm oversensitive to the sulfur they contain, because they all smell (and taste) like stinky egg gas to me! I even didn't like french toast because most of the times I had it it was too "eggy." Ryan taught me to quickly dunk it in the batter, but never let it soak, and now I love it. BUT I always swore I'd learn to cook eggs for my husband and family. Now Ryan says that I make eggs better than he does!
   
2. That reminds me that I don't like store-bought maple syrup. It tastes like plastic to me! My mom always made syrup with Maple-ine, and that's the only kind I really like. And I'm cheap, and so is Maple-ine syrup, so it suits me just fine!
   
3. I hardly ever wear socks when it's warm enough. I remember 3 occasions that I wore socks this summer. When we lived in Arizona, I hardly ever wore socks and shoes, all year round! I owned like 8 pair of flip-flops and that's all I wore except for special occasions and church. Except I always wear dress sandals to church, so no stocking-type footwear there, either. I don't think I've worn nylons or tights since my mission! Oh, except for the time my sister made me wear some to my brother's wedding. Also, I kick off my shoes, flip-flops, or Crocs the moment I get in the door. I'd rather be barefoot than anything!
   
4. I talk too much. This is strange because I used to be so shy! Part of it was that I learned how to talk to anyone on my mission, and the other part is because I don't get the chance very often anymore. At least, I don't get the chance to talk to adults very often. So I guess I try to take advantage of every opportunity I get. Maybe after we make more friends, I can spread it around better and not talk everyone's ears off!
5. My feet are almost always hot at night. I usually have to stick them out of the covers. Maybe they are hot during the day, too, and that's why I like to go barefoot???
6. I see pajamas as a reason to wear clothes I wouldn't usually wear in public. Right now, I have red and pink plaid pj pants (from the clearance rack after Valentine's Day) with a red shirt. They're actually really cute and I love them. But once at the swap meet in LA, I found this cute but crazy fabric and made pj's out of it. It was tomato red with blue hand-drawn flowers. The leaves on the flowers were chartreuse, and of course, the swap meet also had chartreuse fabric and chartreuse buttons! I made the collar of the pj's chartreuse, with a band of chartreuse at the bottom of the shorts, too. I sewed the collar on a little bit wrong, and it totally looked like a bowling shirt. So I embroidered my name on an oval of chartreuse fabric and appliquéd it on the chest. Actually, I think I embroidered "Simon" on it. Simon Elly was a nickname my friend Sarah gave me our freshman year at BYU. It had to do with a game using your initials. Anyway, I took those pj's on my mission. When I came home, I left most of my stuff there in Brazil, donated to members or other sister missionaries. I found out later that those pajamas were later used as a wild and crazy costume in a ward activity! They were a hit!

So now it's time to tag some others. This could be tough, too!
Okay, I tag Bonnie, Melanie, Kika, and Erin. My other blog buddies don't update their blogs often enough, I think. I don't think they'd notice that I tagged them!

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?
I just haven't found the time to do a single scrapbook page in almost a month! You'd think I could.
So when I had a few minutes tonight, I scrapped our trip to the Twin Falls Temple open house. I got to go to the dedication this afternoon, so maybe it was on the brain!
As usual, you can click on the image to see it bigger.

PERHAPS
I'm trying not to laugh right now. Jared just used the word, "perhaps." And he used it correctly. Even worse, he said, "Is this supposed to be shiny? Perhaps you could polish it."
I'm going to bust a gut! Who does this kid think he is?

BLACK HOLE
I think everyone must have been sucked in by a black hole. Or maybe it's just the Olympics. Because no one has visited this blog (at least as far as I can tell, because no one has left any comments), nor have any of my friends posted anything on their blogs in about a week!

HELLO... HELLO... HELLO...
ECHO... ECHO... ECHO...

Is anybody there?

MINKY & THE BRAIN
We went walking on the Greenbelt last weekend and took some pictures. I forgot about them until I went to upload photos of the new highchair. We have some cool pictures, but the coolest is of a small furry animal Ryan spotted on the edge of the river. I had the camera out trying to capture a butterfly, and snapped a few of the rodent (don't quote me on that classification). But I figured it was just a muskrat or something.
Turns out it's a mink! A real live mink! How cool is that?

Zach is watching me blog, and says, "Mommy, see beaver!"
I said, "Actually, Zach, that's called a mink."
He shot me a "gimme a break" look and said, "Like beaver, Mommy."
He's right. Close enough!

Ryan gets the "Minky" part, but wants to know what "The Brain" part refers to. I guess it's Jared, since he's got a picture in this post, too! But don't worry, I won't brag about him this time....

PEDAL PUSHER
Zach followed me when I went out to the garage to get something today. He got on his bike and actually started pedaling! I thought it would be months before that happened! So I did a cheer and took a picture. Hopefully he gets the idea that he did good! ('cause I don't want to push him around on his bike anymore!)

NEW THRONE
I busted out the new high chair tonight. Zach loves high chairs, and while he's definitely on the large and old side, I think we'll all be happier with him confined to a high chair! And not smearing his food all over the hard-to clean painted-wood and tile-top table. And doing art projects in it, instead of escaping from his bar stool to draw on the vacuum, the computer, the floor...
We like that it has swiveling casters. Jared's already given Zach a ride. We also like that the seat goes down low. It just might become Zach's favorite seat on Movie Nights!
(P.S. He wouldn't get out of it for an hour!)
See even more views of our new acquisition here.

OLYMPIC EXCITEMENT
Zach got to stay up late last night, and was watching the Olympics with Daddy. When gymnastics came on, one of the competitors waved at the camera. Zach was in awe, and said, "She wave at me!"
A little later in the competition, there was a nice shot of one of the gymnast's tiny, shiny little rears. Zach exclaimed, "Have bum, like mine!" Wow, what a discovery!

OLYMPIAN FAME
That's right, I have a claim to Olympian fame. If you've been watching, the US Men's Volleyball team is doing great. They just won their fourth match out of four played. And Ryan Millar is playing on that team.
And this is my very thread-like attachment to Ryan Millar.
He was in what Ryan calls "nerd hall" with me. That means the scholars' floor of the dorms at BYU. He looked quite different back then!
His wife, Suzanne, was also in our "nerd" ward. And I was her Visiting Teacher! Of course, I could always remember her name...
I was quite surprised to hear Ryan Millar's name on the Olympic broadcast. It's not often that you've met an Olympian, even if it was 13 years before (ouch, are we really that old?) he became one!

'BROWS
We were eating dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets for lunch one day. Zach told me that they were shaped like dinosaurs, "but no eyebrows."
What a weird kid!

IT'S DONE! (part one)
Last night, I finished piecing Jared's quilt-top. I made so many mistakes! I can't believe it. Math was off, I forgot to wash the fabric first, things didn't line up, and my backing material isn't wide enough. I might have to piece that, too.And that's on top of not being able to find the right fabric, then special ordering it from Hawaii for twice the money, then finding it after all at Walmart. But I'm pushing through the frustration! It's going to turn out just fine. Or I'm going to end up bald (from pulling out my hair). And it's going to look awesome in Jared's room! And it's somehow satisfying to provide a basic necessity (warmth) for my son without just buying it off the shelf. I feel slightly pioneer-ish! You know, except the cowboy fabric, the slick new sewing machine, the rotary fabric cutters, the polyester batting, etc.

PLANETOID
Zach just brought me his favorite toy ever, a bouncy ball. He was holding a rubber band loosely around it and said, "Mommy, see planet!"
Clever!

ULTIMATE OPTIMIST
Jared was keeping me updated on his progress drinking a cup of water. When he said he'd "drinked" half, I couldn't resist.
"So is the cup half full, or half empty?" I asked.
"It's all the way full. One half is full of water, and the other half is full of air!"

NAKED OLYMPICS
When Olympic synchronized diving came on tonight, Jared said, "why are they naked?!?"
"They're wearing swimming suits," Ryan replied.
After looking closer, Jared said, "oh, they look like underwear."
I guess he's never seen a Speedo. I wish I could say the same!

QUILT
I'm making a new quilt for Jared's cowboy room! I've had quite the time finding all the supplies, but that's a long, boring, frustrating story. It's going to be pieced from two different patterns of red bandanna fabric (does that look like it's spelled wrong to anyone else? I think Blogger's spell checker has that one wrong!), then quilted "freeform" on my cool new sewing machine. That means squiggles sewn all over the whole thing.
I just finished gathering the supplies tonight. I can't wait to get started!
And of course, I'll post pictures of it when I'm done.

WEEKEND VACATION
The Twin Falls temple was beautiful, of course! Jared liked wearing the white booties on his feet, but Zach did not. He managed to get the rubber bands off (they rubber banded kids booties on) a few times during the tour. When we left, he wouldn't let the volunteers take them off for him. He had to do it himself, but had some trouble. So a nice brother with a handlebar mustache said, "Come sit on Grandpa's lap and he'll help you." That was okay by Zach!
Another funny moment was when Zach saw a photo of the 12 oxen and said, "those pigs died." Then when we saw the actual font, he said the oxen were goats!
Most impressive was the gorgeous mural of the Shoshone water falls, in all their glory. The boys liked the pronghorn and deer, and all the kids liked finding the tiny lizard sunning on a rock in the mural.
When we came out of the temple, there was an amazing, horizon-to-horizon, super-bright double rainbow! Of course, we'd been asked to leave our cameras in the car, so I didn't get a photo of it. When we finished the tour, I ran to the car and grabbed my camera.
Then we took some pictures with the family, of course. Zach scraped his leg on the rock wall, about 3 inches long! Poor kid! (Click for Pics)
Then we had to hurry to check into our campground before they closed the gates. We drove into a beautiful sunset as we headed to somewhere between Hagerman and Buhl to camp. (See Camping Pics)
We got eaten by mosquitoes as we set up the tent in the dark. As we headed to the bathrooms to get ready for bed, Zach touched the very hot lantern and burned two fingers. They blistered, poor guy! He's very brave, but didn't understand. We ran his fingers under cold water, but when they'd feel better, he'd take them out and squeeze them with his other hand, then cry. I finally got them bandaged and feeling okay, and by then poor Zach was worn out. He asked to go to bed and tucked himself in. Injuries tend to drain a person! But to add insult to injury, he woke up with 15 more mosquito bites, on his head, arms, legs (he was wearing pants) and chest (also through his pj's!). It's just not fair for such a little sweet heart like him. Especially because Jared came hom

Next morning, the boys made friends with our next-tent-neighbors. I talked to the mom for a while and discovered she's a geologist from Finland. Pretty interesting! We headed to the Hagerman Fossil Beds visitor's center. It wasn't anything to write home about, unfortunately. It wasn't very big at all! But the boys had fun digging up bones in the sandbox, pretending to be paleontologist. We met up with our Finnish tent-neighbors there, too.
Then we headed to the nearby National Fish Hatchery. That was pretty interesting! The boys liked the baby fish, and Zach kept saying, "Here, fishy fishy fishy!" We hiked up to the spring that constantly provides all the water (they don't try to conserve water there) for the fishery, where Jared somehow managed to huck his Croc into the stream, and we got eaten again by mosquitoes. Then we hiked back down and got to pet white sturgeon! That was kind of cool. They're really big, about 100 pounds, and they have slimy skin. They're more closely related to sharks than the trout the fishery raises. (See pics of the Monument and Hatchery)
We were hot and tired by the time we finished at the hatchery, and decided to head toward home. I spotted a huge plume of smoke, then we heard the buzz of a large airplane. We saw a firefighting airplane fly overhead, then disappear into the smoke. As we continued toward home, we found the fire and a scenic overlook with a pullout. We stopped for about an hour and watched planes dump fire retardant on the edges of the fire, and helicopters scoop water directly from the Snake River and dump it on hot spots. It was really interesting! We also watched the fire eat up miles of grass in just minutes. And I nearly maxed out my camera's memory card taking pictures. Here's a series of photos I took, animated. Watch the plane, and the second time, watch the smoke. It's almost as good as a movie! (Click here to see more fire photos)

FACIAL HAIR
I don't know why, exactly, but I think Ryan rocks a goatee. There are a lot of guys who look okay with one, but few of them look really good with one. At least, I think so.
Ryan used to come home from his 4 days of National Forest Service job all scruffy, and would leave part of it as a goatee for a day or two until Sunday. A few weeks ago, he came home from his whitewater rafting trip with a 10 day beard and totally surprised me by shaving a goatee. And surprised me even more by keeping it for three weeks! He says if I give him 30 compliments on it per day, he'll keep it.
So I gravitated (it's a magnetism I was born with) toward the Clearance rack at ShopKo and found a goatee groomer on sale. I bought it for Ryan, hoping it would make it easier for him to keep the facial hair. When I got it home, he said, "what are you trying to say?" I hadn't noticed the placement of the price tags. It says, "GOAT GROOMER!"

A SIGN OF THE TIMES
Jared is learning to set the table, and while he gets right and left right about 70% of the time, it seems to be harder when deciding where to put the spoons.
I shocked myself by telling him that his right hand is his "mouse hand." Now he grabs the spoons in his "mouse hand" and sets the table no problem.
I learned left and right in kindergarten, and I knew which hand was my right because that's the hand I put over my heart to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Are they allowed to say that anymore in school? And back then, mouses, er... mice, er... whatever the technological plural is, didn't exist.
As NightLine would say, "And that is a sign of the times."

MOMMY, GET UP!
We did our usual today. Go to Jared's swimming lessons at 1, then back home for Otter Pops and a nap for Zach. He always fights naptime, and usually gets carried kicking up the stairs, yelling, "No nap time anymore!" But I put him in his crib, 'cause I'm the momma and I'm in charge. And he falls asleep for 2 or so hours and wakes up happy.
So a moment ago, an hour after I put him in bed, I hear tiny footsteps coming down the stairs. Then his adorable little voice proudly exclaim, "Mommy, (I) get up!"
So much for his nap, and oh boy, we're in real trouble now!

GETAWAY
We're going on a trip!
The Twin Falls temple is finished, and we're going to the open house. It's a rare opportunity for the boys to see the inside of a temple. I don't know how much they'll remember (wait, what am I talking about? Jared will remember everything!), but who knows when we'll have the opportunity to do that again?
We'll leave right after Jared's swimming lessons on Friday, and hope that Zach takes his nap on the 2 hour drive. Grab some dinner in Twin Falls, visit the temple. Then drive partway back, to Buhl, where we're going to camp at Banbury Hot Springs (hot springs resorts are everywhere down there!) overnight. We'll go see the Hagerman Fossil Beds in the morning, then play in the hot springs (channeled into a nice swimming pool) until it's time to head for home.
Sounds fun, huh?
And of course, I'll post pictures when we get back!

IT'S A GAME
Tonight, Jared said, "After dinner, we're going to play Candy Land!"
"Do we know where Candy Land is?" Ryan asked, a valid question since most of our belongings still reside in cardboard boxes.
"It's the game Candy Land, Dad!" Jared exclaimed.
He thought Ryan was asking for driving directions to get to Candy Land! Kids are funny.

JUST PEACHY!Zach is in LOVE with Herbie. He watched part of the movie once, but that was enough! Now he points out all the VW Bugs he sees. I know I've posted about this before.
Well, both boys were lumping PT Cruisers in with the Bugs. I explained the difference, and they're starting to understand. So now, Zach exclaims, "See Herbie, over there!" And Jared explains, "No, Zach, that's a Peachy Cruiser!"

THE "NORMAL" CHILD
The other day, Zach drew "roads" with black marker all over the laminate and vinyl floors. Today, he colored my computer desk primrose purple, including the desk, mouse, monitor, and unfinished wood pull-out writing desk (kind of like those pull-out cutting boards in the kitchen). If you ever need to know this, washable markers do wash off of unfinished wood. Almost.
Last week, I found him with the pool's hose turned on and he was spraying a bunch of other kids who were trying to stop him.
And then there were the two times yesterday that I caught him almost to the top of the ladder leading up to the small water slide during Jared's swimming lessons. He almost sprinted to the slide, and I thought I was going to have to go down after him, white tee-shirt and all!
Lest ye think I'm just not paying attention, all of these things happened within seconds of his being at my side! He's really, really fast!
This sort of thing never happened with Jared. He was curious, but not reckless. So I'm trying to remind myself that he's my "normal" child.

CRAFTINESS
I have been looking for a way to mount some digital artwork so I can hang it on a wall. I've bought some ugly art from the dollar store and glued mine on top of it. It really looks pretty good, but I wanted something 12 inches by 12 inches.
So check out what I found at Michael's! I'll be personalizing it a bit more than they have, but this has got to be cheap. I don't know how much the styrofoam costs, but I think it's about $7 for 12x36" (so enough for three.) And scrapbook paper is what, 60 cents a piece?
This is going to be fun!

NEW LESSONS!
Jared started his new swim lessons today, Upper Level 2. The Meridian pool splits up level 2 because there's a huge difference between Level 1 and Level 3, and because there are so many kids who take Level 2 several times. And I heard a lot of moms say they only do lessons until they pass Level 2 because they only want to know their kids are safe.
Jared jumped right in the pool, which I think was a surprise to the teacher. And to Jared, too, because he'd never jumped into water that deep (that class is taught in 4 ft water) without someone catching him. As he struggled to the surface, the teacher looked at his boss and said, "he's not in level 2!" Great way to start off, eh?
But I explained that he'd just finished a session and Dave told him to move up. So he said okay.
Jared did everything the teacher asked, and he got to use a kick-board for the first time. First he hugged it to his chest and kicked on his back, then held it out in front with his face in the water and kicked in a big circle. They did lots of other fun things, too.
Concerned by the teacher's first impression, I talked to him after the lesson. He said that Jared's doing just fine, and he's in the right class.
Way to go, Jared!

FINALLY!
Finally I found a moment (well, many moments) to devote to my scrapbook. It's been a long, long time. Feeling rather uninspired about slogging through Jared's baby book, I decided to try scrapping my birthday photos from last week.
Wow, it was tough. It took me a long time for it to all pull together. I hope I like it in the morning!

SPEECH THERAPIST
The boys were going to make me a birthday cake, but when we saw a yummy chocolate cake at the store, I bought that instead. They had already bought me a birthday card about making a birthday cake, which actually fit the new situation quite nicely, too!
The card says:
I was going to bake you a birthday cake, but I had a little accident...
nothing serious...
just on of those run-of-the-mill kitchen accidents...
(inside)
Well, if you MUTH know-
I wath licking the frothing off the mither badeths
and I ac-thidentally hit the "ON" thwitch. But I'll be better thoon!

When we read the card, lisp and all, Jared laughed his head off. Then he said, "He can't say his S's!"
Whoa! He nailed that one!
Then he said, "And I can't say my L's or R's."
He's ready to be a speech therapist!

SWIMMING SUPERSTAR!
Jared finished his session of swimming lessons today. He very responsibly told me that we needed to go get a paper from the office before we left. His report card! I was very surprised to see that all the skills were checked off. And even more surprised to read the teacher's note on the front.
He wrote, "Jared you did awesome! Front crawl and elementary backstroke look fabulous! Keep up your good work in UPPER LEVEL 2!"

Wow! I knew he was doing well, but I didn't realize how well! So right then we changed his lesson from Lower Level 2 to Upper Level 2. It's sort of a half-graduation, he didn't actually change levels. But the teacher said that he's the only one in his class who's ready to move up. And Jared is the youngest by at least a year.
I could just bust my buttons!