Just a Bunch of Stuff

I've determined that a miscellaneous post is necessary or I will never record everything that I want to get down. So, to my readers, if you can stand it this is going to be a long post about a lot of nothing. But, for your reading pleasure I've included a lot of pictures--something that has been noticeably lacking on my blog as of late.

Here's the rundown of what I've been up to lately:

To get things started off right, here's a recent picture of Alexander. I took it yesterday--the first day that he's been in a really good mood while awake. And, mind you, he'd just spent the previous five hours to taking this picture in the car and being dragged into the Memories outlet and Costco. What a trooper! Today continued this trend, and I'm hopeful that it will continue. We met Jeremy for dinner at The Pizza Factory in Lindon. He had to work late but wanted to see the kids for at least a few minutes today. Alexander sat very contentedly in his chair, smiling and cooing and just being generally very charming. He really is a delightful little baby. Such a joy!

Yesterday ended my three and a half day break. If I didn't miss my family so much I could have used several more days. I didn't even dent my to-do list for the time I had, but I realize that it was a very ambitious list, impossible, really. I did have a lot of time in the middle of the night to do things. Alexander decided that he would take an hour or so after eating to look around. He would not go back to sleep, and he cried if I left him in his crib. So before going to bed I'd make sure to have a project in progress. One of my projects was to finish my Christmas cards. This is my stack of completed Christmas cards. I made 50 this year since I got such a head start on them. Every year in the past we've had to trim our list down to fit the few cards I could quickly throw together after Thanksgiving. This year I'm sending cards to whoever I want. Who knows I just might have to make more!

My time almost alone at home was really quite nice. It was so wonderful to be able to spend a little one-on-one time with Alexander. It was nice to not have the stress of trying to juggle the needs of two children. It was nice being able to sleep whenever I wanted, to eat whatever I wanted, and to do whatever I wanted. I took full advantage of this. Kaitlin had a great time on the farm with her grandparents. All morning today I got to listen to Kaitlin's memories of her time with Grandma Hanks. For example, this morning I asked her if she wanted some toast and honey. Instead of giving me an answer, she said, "Grandma Hanks has toast and honey."

Although it was so nice to be alone, I am so grateful that my family is all home safe and sound. Jeremy got back from Boston last night. A little time away makes me realize just how much I enjoy our time together, and regretfully, how much I take my family for granted. This, I'm afraid is a lesson that I need to have taught to me time and time again--especially when the cares and worries of every day life start to take over.

This is what my family room looked like while Kaitlin was away. Oh, how what bliss to know when I woke up in the morning that the family room would remain in this state of cleanliness basically all day! It goes without saying that the act of occupying a room does make a little mess. I had some time with a paper mess leftover from the birth announcements that I'm working on. But we're taking about a 2 minute maximum clean up time. Now, get ready, after a single day home, with Kaitlin running free, this is what my family room looked like just after Kaitlin went to bed. How can one little girl make so much mess? What you can't see is the spot where Kaitlin wet her pants. We tried some new Disney Princess panties today to see if they would make her feel like a big enough girl to go potty on the big girl potty. Apparently not. I told her that Belle was mad at her for peeing all over her, but she doesn't seem to care. Even the bribe toys that I bought weren't enough. Kaitlin is showing signs that she's ready to potty train, but she's just not quite ready to say goodbye to her diapers. Oh well. We'll try again another day.

I have been very bad about posting pictures of the good mail that I get. I'm going to vow to everyone to change that. It's fun to see everyone else's good mail, and it's fun to have your good mail recognized. So, here I am, turning over a new leaf. Today I got a huge package from my friend Nikki. It was a bithday present that also contained gifts for the kids. She sent me some Japanese papers that are simply gorgeous! Nic, if you only knew how I've been lamenting the fact that I have no local resource for Japanese paper! I used some last week and fell in love. It's so nice for covering blank notebooks. It folds like a dream. So thank you, thank you! You got me the perfect gift! You can see the rest of my haul here. The only thing that's missing is a soft stuffed dog that Kaitlin has adopted as her own. The time that she wasn't playing with her new Color Wonder finger paints was spent riding the dog around the house. Also included in Nikki's package were a darling mug and picture frame, a US Navy teddy bear (which Kaitlin also adores, but forgot to take to bed), some cute little foam stamps for Kaitlin, a Winnie the Pooh talking cell phone that speaks Japanese(!), and some US Navy wear. (In case you were wondering, her husband is in the Navy. They're stationed in Japan right now. Cool, huh?)

Here are some pictures of our new front yard. At long last the landscaper was finally able to come out and put our yard in. The front and back took about three weeks to complete. Such a long time, but the results are amazing! Before the work was done our yard was plain and, quite frankly, pretty ugly. The grass would not stay green because the slope was so steep. There were no plants or anything else to make the yard interesting. We ripped out all of the old grass, built these stacked stone walls, added trees, a ton of plants and laid new sod. I hate to sound boastful but our yard is the nicest one on the block--though two of our across the street neighbors have gorgeous yards as well. This second picture is a close up of my favorite part of our yard--the stone steps leading up to the door. Oh, who am I kidding, the whole yard is my favorite! We also did our back yard, but when I thought to take these pictures today the yard was in too much shade. If I think about it I'll take some tomorrow and post them.

The final item: a little known fact about the Jeremy and Amy Hanks family is that we are popcorn snobs. Well, really, Jeremy is the popcorn snob, but since I'm his wife, I have to go along for the ride. Did you know that it's nearly impossible to find an air popper these days? Target doesn't carry them. I'm not sure about Walmart. I'll have to check. No, the introduction of microwave popcorn has virtually made air poppers obsolete. As a result, it's nearly impossible to find a good assortment of popcorn kernels at the grocery store. It used to be that the shelves contained bags of corn made by Orville Redenbacher's, Jiffypop, Jolly Time as well as the store's generic brand. Oh, yeah, and that microwave stuff. Now, the only brand I've been able to find in Orville Redenbacher's, and according to Jeremy, this is the worst brand around. This conclusion was reached by a great amount of experimentation. In Jeremy's opinion the best brand is Jolly Time. The Jolly Time kernels pop bigger than any other. In addition, Jolly Time popcorn leaves the fewest unpopped kernels. Finally, the white kernel popcorn is the ultimate in taste. Needless to say, it was a sad day in our house when we ran out of Jolly Time pop corn. I searched high and low for some more, and came up empty handed. In the interim we had to resort to some Orville Redenbacher's that we had left over from the time before I realized how passionately Jeremy feels about his popcorn quality and the microwave popcorn we keep on hand for babysitters. Well, thank goodness for the Internet. Because of the Internet, we were able to order a year's supply of Jeremy's favorite popcorn. The shipping cost more than the actual product, but not to worry! We will have the best popcorn around!

OK, that's all for now. Whew! If you've stuck with me this long, you are a model for endurance! Thanks. And I have to apologize now for any spelling errors/typos I might have made. It's late. Who knows when Alex will wake up. So I'm off to bed. I'll proof read in the morning.