Today I am...

excited for some upcoming programs that I enrolled my kids in.

sad to see my parents and sister leave. We had a fun visit with them this past weekend.

sore from rock climbing yesterday.

looking forward to Jared's brother's wedding on Easter weekend. The entire Whidden family will be in attendance, which is a feat in and of itself.

still full. I ate way too much yummy food the past few days.

wanting some of that leftover chinese food in the fridge. Even though I am still full.

dreading the possibility of Jared losing a friendly competition with some coworkers. A competition in which the loser hosts a dinner party for 10+ people.

contemplating a funny, but semi-cruel April Fools joke to play on my husband tomorrow.

trying to find my camera's USB cord so I can upload pictures of our fun weekend, and Carter's first day of swimming lessons.

waiting for our tax return to get here.

wondering why it's snowing.

noticing that practically everyone I know is pregnant with their third child.

not busy, which is a rare occurance over the past couple months. It's nice.

What are YOU today?

"My Parents" - By Carter

There's a little interview that's been making it's rounds in the blogging world that you do with your kids. I did it with Carter, about Jared and I. I asked him for me first (my answers are in RED) and then asked him the same questions for Jared (his answers are in BLUE).

1. What is something mom/dad always says to you?
Me - “Are you going to go to school soon?”
Jared - “Chillin like a villain” (*it's true. He does always say that*)

2. What makes mom/dad happy?
"a kiss"
“Hayley peeing in the potty”

3. What makes mom/dad sad?
"when we were in that car crash"
“she didn’t pee in the potty”

4. How does your mom/dad make you laugh?
"make silly faces like this…""tickle me"

5. What was your mom/dad like as a child?
"barbies"
"basketball" (*I think he thought I meant WHAT did we like as a child*)

6. How old is your mom/dad?
"I don’t want to say, I might get it wrong. Um… 20?"
"20."

7. How tall is your mom/dad?
"Tall like this (stretches his arms as far as they can reach). Like a giant"
"(holds up his hands about a foot apart)" (* Do you think he even understands the question?*)

8. What is her/his favorite thing to do?
"Go to the park" (*I think this is more like HIS favorite thing to do*)
"go swimming!"

9. What does your mom/dad do when you're not around?
"Go to Rhyme Time with Hayley"
"chillax"

10. If your mom/dad becomes famous, what will it be for?
"being good at using a yo-yo" (*???*)
"work"

11. What is your mom/dad really good at?
"playing games"
"getting money to live in our house really long"

12. What is your mom/dad not very good at?
"swimming" (*Sadly, he's right. I am a terrible swimmer. Truthfully, I really just don't like getting my hair wet*)
"I don’t know. He’s only good at everything"

13. What does your mom/dad do for her job?
"work in the house. Just clean up"
"works at the cold line" (*should I tell him it’s really called a coal mine*)

14. What is your mom's/dad's favorite food?
"pizza?" (*once again, he is answering for himself, I think.*)
"frosted flakes"

15. What makes you proud of your mom/dad?
"when we go swimming"
"him swimming really good. Like going under the water" (*ok, I get it. I suck at swimming*)

16. If your mom/dad were a cartoon character, who would she/he be?
"Barney! no that’s a boy... There’s a girl on American dragon!"
"American Dragon!"

17. What do you and your mom/dad do together?
"bake cookies together"
"Go quading."

18. How are you and your mom/dad the same?
"Hey! We’re both wearing green shirts!"
"Our hair! We both have light hair. That’s true! (pause) What does 'true' mean?"

19. How are you and your mom/dad different?
"I have a fox on my shirt and you don’t. And you are bigger than me"
"I’m little and he’s big. I’m just 5"

20. How do you know your mom/dad loves you?
"because I do lots of funny and cool things"
"I don’t know ….what did I say about how you love me? Yeah, that's right for daddy, too"

21. Where is your mom's/dad's favorite place to go?
"Pizza place! That’s a good question, hey?"
"swimming" (*how original*)


For the record, I tried to do this same interview with Hayley and her answer to every question was "Meow". Kitty refuses to comment at this time.

Melodrama at it's finest

Just an example of how normal life at home is way more fun with Hayley:

Yesterday, she asked me for some chocolate milk (we had previously been out of milk for a day or two) and I said sure, I'd get her some.

She then goes (in her wide-eyed, excited voice that raises a few decibels by the end of each sentence), "YOU DID???? You bought MILK!"

Me: "Yep."

She squeals, runs over, gives me the tightest hug and says, "Oh Mommy! Your my BEST FAVORITE EVER!!!!"

So I mix her some chocolate powder into her milk, she grabs it, hugs it, and goes, "Oh chocolate milk! I missed you SO MUCH!"

Oh, the dramatics around here. We were only out of milk for maybe 36 hours.

Luck o' the (Non) Irish

Wow, we have had a crazy past couple days. If good things come in three's, then what do bad things come in? I'm not sure I want to know the answer to that.

Some of you have heard about our car accident on Sunday evening. The good news is we are all fine. We were on our way home from visiting Jared's parents in Vanderhoof. We took our Explorer and brought home their trailer and snowmobiles. The end result equals us spinning off the road, slamming into a tree, and rolling the trailer. Not fun.

Right now I am tired, grumpy, poor (tow trucks are a rip-off), and just want to sleep in my own bed for the first time in days.

Plus I'm a nervous eater, which is not good for my figure. *I'm only kidding about that last comment. Kind of.*

And, don't worry, I am fully aware of how lucky we are to walk out of it unscathed. There were so many factors that could have made things alot worse for us. The kids are fine. We're fine. Glad to finally be home.

Cartoons for Dummies, I mean Mummies

Most mornings, I try to go on the treadmill. The kids just usually hang out with me and watch cartoons while I am excercising. They get bored, leave the room, and I am stuck watching their cartoons with the remote nowhere within reach. As a result, this is what I end up thinking about during my workouts:

- Why is Dora the Explorer's head so stinking big? I get that it didn't occur to the creators at the beginning, but once they added Diego wasn't it clearly obvious that she has an abnormally huge noggin'. And now that they know, would it kill them to make it just a teensy bit smaller with every progressing episode?

- Clifford the Big Red Dog and George Shrinks are completely impossible. That's it.

- Where are Max and Ruby's parents???

- Do you think the people on "Four Square" have families? And do their families actually admit to other people what their real job is? Same goes for The Doodlebops.

- When Lunette the Clown does her stretches/excercising on her clock, she seems like she enjoys it a little too much. Let's keep it PG, sister.

- Imagination Movers... that group seems like kind of a Wiggles rip-off, no?

- The Man in the Yellow Hat is an idiot and is not responsible enough to own a pet.

- Was anyone else disappointed when they replaced Steve with Joe on Blue's Clues?

- What kind of a Transformer name is Bumblebee? With a name like that, how are they supposed to strike fear into the hearts of their evil enemies?

- Contrary to popular opinion, I actually understand the whole Yo Gabba Gabba/Teletubbies/In The Night Garden infatuation. It's like a train wreck - so horrible, you can't even make yourself look away.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch Backyardigans. Now that's a good show.

And so it begins...

Wish me luck!