A MESSAGE EVERYONE SHOULD HEAR

I needed to hear this message today. I was really uplifted by Elder Uchtdorf words, the images of this clip, and the music. The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints produces so many beautiful pieces of media. I love Elder Uchtdorf and know he is an apostle of God. One of the twelve apostles of are day. I know we are all children of God. I know if all women everywhere could feel his words and believe them we could change the world.

BURNT

Yesterday morning I put Sierra's hair in pony tails to go to my friend Bethany Wilde's birthday party. I was in a hurry to gather everything together as I headed out the door. My mind must have been on other things. Sierra turned the curling iron up to its highest setting. Yes, I smelt something burning. I didn't know what is was. I just placed the curling iron clap down on Sierra's hair. The curling iron got stuck on her hair. I unclasped it and looked at her hair. There were particles of singed couch stuck all over her pony tail. I looked back at the couch and this is what I saw. Luckily, we only paid 2,000 for this one. Phew. (No really, I told Nate luckily all our furniture is crappy stuff we have bought third hand or has been given to us, so I don't feel bad when stuff like this happens.)


Well, here is the worst of the day. Last night I was so excited about making Nate a delicious meal. I made him this divine sweet pork brisket. I sat the pot on the stove top and was removing chunks of meat from the pot. I grabbed on the handle to steady it and walla. I burnt three fingers on my left hand. (Thankfully my left.) Madison wasn't doing well last night so I was holding her in my left hand. I was bouncing her and singing "Old McDonald." I had my hand in a cup of ice. Fingers spread wide so the cup was dangling but staying where I needed it to. Then I was rolling tortilla's out with my right hand. I was determined this small set back wasn't going ruin my awesome dinner. However, once the brisket and tortillas were done I quit. My hand was hurting. Madison was screaming. Mediocre once again became good enough.

FAIRIES

Sierra said this evening, "Don't worry mom. If I get scared, the fairies will protect me. If the fairies get scared, then I will tell them that there is no such things as monsters."

Last night she was having a hard time staying in bed. I said, "Sierra, if you get out of bed again I will spank your bum." She smarted back, "If you be naughty to me, my faires will spank your bum!" Luckily I was in another room, so she couldn't see me smile. As seriously as I could, I said, "I am not afraid of your fairies." She said, "You should be because they spank very, very hard!" Extremely disrespectful but very funny.

KISSING WARS

Sierra has been very frustrated because she feels MJ has been receiving far more kisses than she has. She felt the need to bring the topic up again yesterday as we were in the kitchen making supper together. Indigently she said "Mom, why does MJ get all the kisses? When I say, give me more kisses stop kissing MJ. You just laugh at me." I started to giggle. "Moommmm! Ahhh. Why are you laughing." I replied, "Because I think it is silly that you are so jealous of my kisses." She insisted, "Ahhh! Mom kiss me." It is less fun to kiss a child that is demanding it but I complied.

ANOTHER DAY

Madison loves the bath tub as much or more than Sierra did. She kicks and plays and gets so excited. Sierra can't resist her enthusiasm and has to join in. Within seconds of me putting Madison in the tub Sierra is undressed and by her side.


Sierra is obsessed with cooking. She loves to help me in the kitchen. The other day in my frustration I steered her out of the kitchen. She protested, "But mom, I am your helper." Last night she was eager to help me cut up the mushrooms. I hate watching her use a knife. She insisted she wouldn't cut herself. I had to look the other way. As you can see, she did a great job.


I have always felt bad that Sierra doesn't have a mother that can think of fun projects for her to do during the day. Today, Sierra created a project for me. She had us make butterflies out of our crackers and carrot sticks.

Notice she is in her PJs at noon. Sierra thinks PJs are at home attire. Even when I spend a lot of time getting her ready for the day within the hour she is back in her PJs.




MJ, MJ, MJ. What can I say. I love her guts. I just want to kiss her all over all day long. Her favorite thing to do is just sit in my lap and watch her surroundings. I love her little open-mouth baby kisses. Yesterday, I swear, she tilted her head and gave me her usual open-mouth kiss on my check without a prompt. She is so adorable.

VANILLA

Is it awful that I think this is so funny? Sierra has always had a perfect vocabulary and almost from the time she started to talk could pronounce most any word. I was stopped once by a speech pathologist at the store when she was two and the women was astounded by her vocabulary. She loves to talk just like her mother.

The other day I asked her if she wanted to get some vanilla ice cream at the store and she couldn't say the word vanilla, which surprised me. I also found it humorous. When I got home I overheard her practicing the word over and over again. I grabbed the camera and tried to help her out. A little self-serving but it was just so humorous.

MJ, THE OPERA STAR!

Well, when MJ was born she couldn't talk.(Obviously :) ) She hardly cried. Sierra was in a phase of watching 'The Little Mermaid' at least once a day. One day she inquired, "Mom why doesn't MJ have a voice?" I said, "Because she is a baby." She demanded, "No, Mom it is because Brooklynn stole her voice." (Brooklynn, Shandra's three year old daughter. Her sworn enemy, at the time. I think they started fighting in the pool last summer. Each insisted they were the only three year old that every was. The war raged on through the fall. At the time of this comment, I believe the battle peaked. Since then they have conceded there may in fact be more than one three year old on the planet.) For weeks after Sierra's initial comment she would often inquire, "Mom, why did Brooklynn steal Madison's voice?" No matter how I tried to dissuade the theory I couldn't convince her.

The other day Madison started talking just like this. Sierra excitedly exclaimed, "Madison has her voice back."


Last night at about 4 o'clock in the morning Madison started talking at the top of her lungs. Sierra yelled, "Ahhhhhh! Madison be quit. Madison, I can't sleep. Madison stop talking. Madison....... Ahhhhhh!" Finally, I went in and got MJ and tried to calm her. I said, "MJ, if you don't shhhh. We are going to throw you away." Sierra fearfully pleaded, "Mom, don't throw her away. She will learn how to go to sleep. She just needs to get big like me."

At 3 1/2 Sierra still wakes up at least once a night. She has slept through the night for at least sixty percent of the time this month. We are making progress. I don't think Sierra's plea convinced me though.

PROPHET

Sierra, during family night last night pulled this picture out. Pointing to the man's bare chest she inquired, "Mom, why is that man showing his prophets?"

We have had family night lesson's on the private sacred parts of our bodies. How we need to be modest. Private? Prophet? I don't mean to be sacrilegious. I thought it was pretty cute.

ELEVATORS ARE MONSTERS

It was a beautiful day today.

Madison was her happy joy filled self. She has discovered her voice lately and screeches at the top of her lungs for hours. Her sister is thrilled that she is communicating. As if she thinks Madison is talking in a different language, she is always asking me to translate. Today I walked into where they were playing together and picked up Madison to take her into give her a bath. Sierra confessed, "I am a naughty girl." I said, "Don't say that, you are a good girl Sierra." "No," she insisted, "I am a naughty girl. I lifted up my bum and I pooped (released gas) in Madison's face." I don't know where she came up with the idea and why she confessed. Children?

For those of you who thought Sierra wasn't afraid of anything. Here is a picture of us in the elevator today. (Sad!)She has been scared to death of elevators since she got stuck in the church elevator for ten minutes alone. She was up in the institute nursery and decided to find her way to me alone. I thought she was up with the ladies in charge that day. The ladies in charge thought she down cooking in the kitchen with me. I heard this scream. She finally figured out how to work the elevator. It stinks for her that we live in a high rise. I guess there is nothing like getting back up on that horse.

After conquering the elevator Sierra and I played a game of tag out on the tennis courts. She rode her bike and I ran. She was laughing her head off. She comes to life in the great outdoors. I have committed to taking her outdoors at least once a day.

HAIR!

My sweet husband knows how much I love my hair. I have given up being obsessive about it since becoming a mom. I use to go to the hair dresser regularly and every few mornings I would spend at least forty-five minutes on my hair. I don't know if it was due to my vanity or the awful frizz in it that takes forever to straighten. Either way, Nate has taken note that I love my hair.

Since coming to dental school I haven't spent the money to go to the hair dresser. Most days are pony tail days and I have become the mother I swore I would never become. Well, I have spent a lot of moments in the last few days complaining about my hair.

On Valentine's Day Nate suggested we go to the Mall and he could watch the girls while I had my hair done. I was a little nervous going to someone I had never been to before but Bou at Reggis did a fabulous job cutting it. I watched him cut it and knew he did a good job. However, he was very opinionated about the cut. I asked him to take a little more off the front and I think he was insulted. He pointed to the picture I had shown him and said, "Look at the picture I am cutting it just like the picture." When he got done styling it he took some gel and pressed my hair flat against my scalp. I said, "I would like a little more body." He again pointed to the picture, "Look at how the hair is. It is sleek against her scalp." I don't think we were looking at the same picture.

Needless to say, I got home and restyled it. I love my new hair cut. Thank you love for being so thoughtful.

CAN I BUY A VOWEL?

Well, Sierra for the longest time everytime she smells something strange says, "That is bowel." I have laughed inside because typically it is said when gas is released in our home. I was wondering where she got the term. The other day on the way back from church there was a strange smell in the car and I said, "Nate, that was foul." Sierra started laughing and said, "That was bowel."

Now I understand.

BARROW, ALASKA, ANYONE? ANYONE? NO?

Nate sent out his application to do an externship this summer with the IHS. His choice of places to extern were in this order Alaska, Montana, and last California. I was surprised by his choices and the order. I don’t know if he gave it that much thought, mostly Nate just shoots-from-the-hip. We have discussed Alaska a lot, of course I knew about California, but he just threw in Montana. Whatever? His externship could have a large bearing on where we end up. After sending out the application, we got this response from a clinic in Barrow, Alaska. I won’t include the whole e-mail. I will just highlight the good parts.

Barrow is a small Inupiaq (Native Alaskan) village of about 5,000 people located on the Arctic Ocean coast in Northern Alaska. To do well in Barrow, you need to be the type of person that enjoys cold weather. I have happily lived in Barrow for the past 10 years and have remembered the phrase 'many are cold, few are frozen' on many cross-country ski trips, ice-cave camping, and during storms where the temps plunge into the -60F range.

There are very limited jobs for spouses/significant others in Barrow outside of our hospital and the local school district. If you have a spouse or sig. other or kids, you need to fully discuss the idea of moving to Barrow with your family/sig.other before applying for our externship. Barrow is a challenging place to live. It gets extremely cold during the winter and the summer temps range from 30F-55F on average. It also snows frequently
on my birthday (July 24th).

If Barrow does sound like an appealing place to live, you are probably like myself and the Staff dentists; a person with a good sense of adventure and someone who is looking to use dentistry to make a difference in people's lives.

Note: A women sent this e-mail. Hilarious!

Well, Nate forwarded the e-mail but he hasn’t said a word about it. I don’t think Barrow was quit the place he had in mind. Fishing poles are probably frozen year round there.

SCHENLEY PARK ICE RINK

Knowing it would be frigid I dressed Sierra in three layers. For the bottom half she had on tights, leggings, jeans, and snow pants. For the top half she had on a long sleeve shirt, short sleeve shirt, jacket, and a coat. Her outfit was completed with a hat, gloves and boots. I dressed myself equally warm. We left the building and walked to the car. As I held her tiny hand she looked up at me wide eyed and said, “Mommy, it is so dark.” (She typically heads to bed when it gets dark and was excited at the prospect of being outdoors at the late hour.) “I know.” I said, “That is because we are having a very special night tonight, just you and I. Isn’t that going to be fun?” A broad smile split her face.

We drove across town, up and down the dark windy streets of Pittsburgh. We arrived at our destination and as I lifted her from the car I became a little apprehensive realizing neither of us had ever been ice skating before. We walked down a sparsely lit path to the rink. The sign over the front desk read ‘cash only’. Oops! I stood there for a minute knowing I only had a debit card on me when Shandra’s bright cheery face came through the doors. Luckily she had extra cash in her car. We went down to wait with Jennifer as she went to go get the cash and pay the fee.

After four tries we finally figured out Sierra’s skate size. We got to the rink and tried our first steps of skating. I was excited to find it was very similar to rollerblading, something I really enjoy. However, Sierra’s attempts reminded me of a phrase in one of her favorite Beatrix Potter stories, ‘slippy-sloppy in the larder.’ She just couldn’t get the balance right. We went back to the desk and exchanged her single blade skates for double blade ones. This was all it took she went from slippy-sloppy to unsteady, booty shaking, skating girl. The rink provided construction cones on wheels to help little kids hold onto something for balance. Sierra didn’t want anything to do with a cone. She lost her balance and bumped her tushie a few times but she didn’t care she was determined to do it on her own. As her mother I was enthralled watching her, it was like watching her learn to walk, scary but thrilling.

SIERRA's REALIZATION

I thought it was really sweet today when Sierra got this huge grin on her face and said, "Mom, Madison is going to grow big like me and then we can be friends like Jennifer and Brooklynn." Then she gave me a huge hug.

POTTY TALK

Today...

CC: Mom come and wipe me!
Mom: CC why are you sitting on the toliet backwards?
CC: Cause Mom that's the way Daddy does it!

(Note: I guess when she peeks into the bathroom and only sees her Dad's backside, she thinks he is using the potty backwards.)


A while ago...

(Note: Issac one of her little boy friends came over with his family to play. Sierra runs into the kitchen wide eyed.)

CC: Mom! Issac is peeing out his belly button.

(Note: I guess when you come from a family of all girls the male anatomy is a mystery.)

PITTSBURGH STEELERS WON!!!

When Nate flew out to Pittsburgh to interview for dental school the Steelers won the SuperBowl. I think it was then that we caught the Steeler fever. Pittsburgh is the Steelers. Everyone who lives here owns a jersey and Steeler paraphernalia is always in style. When there were three minutes remaining in the last quarter we were all sitting on the edge of the couch. When a pass slipped through that dudes (yeah, I am a die hard fan) fingers we all gulped oxygen but the Steeler did it. They pulled it off. What a game for Mike Tomilin! He use to be a high school coach and now he is head coach for the Steelers. I am glad he has a Superbowl win under his belt. If you want to talk Cinderella stories, let's talk about Mike Tomilin, Derek and Jennifer, not the Cardinals (traders). I can't even tell you what it was like at a Super Bowl party in a Steelers Nation. We are glad we went to a party close to home because now there are 110 streets closed in Pittsburgh because people are pouring into the streets in an after game celebration that resembles rioting with people tipping over cars and starting fires. Nate was just chuckling at the chaos featured on the news. Lovin' being a Pittsburgher tonight! GO STEELERS!