7/6/09 - 7/29/09

Monday 7/6/09 – Biked to work. I'm not sure if I should be embarrassed to reveal this or not, but here goes…. I told Amy at work about our little adventure at Silver Lane Park Lake and she showed me a website that will calculate the distance. Turns out our long treacherous hike was only 1.32 miles. It looked a lot longer on my little map, and it definitely felt longer, but 1.32 miles. Seriously, we are dorks. After work Lijah and I did some crafts while Clark napped. We went outside and picked out some rocks to expand our rock family. We already had mom, dad, and Lijah – and we are now adding maw-maw, Clark, and Aunt Dawn. But we couldn't find the googly eyes so our crafting was stopped short.

Tuesday 7/7/09 – Biked to work. When I got home from work Jason told me that the Jehovah's Witnesses stopped by. Jason likes to talk with them, not because he wants to become one, but because they always tell him a different story and he wants to try to get a straight story out of them. Anyways, on a side note, but also related to this story, since Lijah has started potty training he has been a bit obsessed with his private parts. He especially likes that there is a hole in his underwear in the front and we will often see him walking around with his parts sticking out of the hole. So when the Jehovah's Witnesses were on the porch talking to Jason, Lijah was standing next to him. After awhile Jason happened to look down at Lijah and there he was standing right next to him, playing with himself. The couple at the door must have sent it long before Jason did, but never said anything. So Jason took Lijah inside and told him not to do that and went back to talking to the people. I laughed so hard envisioning this scene and chuckle every time I think about it…..

Wednesday 7/8/09 – Today at work was the worst day yet in 7 years here at Capella. Seems that since I am competent in what I am doing I am getting pulled in to pick up the slack elsewhere. This is a good thing – in terms of visibility and advancement, but a bad thing in terms of stress. One thing with biking to work is that by the time I get home all of the stress has rolled off of my back. I'm not sure what I am going to do when winter hits and I'm not able to bike anymore.

Thursday 7/9/09 – An equally bad day at work. Went with Lijah to pick up our veggies from the CSA dropoff. Nate and Becca are out of town this week so we have the whole box to eat! Here is what we got: Norland red Potatoes, Knight shelling peas, Cascadia edible podded peas, Primax green cabbage, Blues Chinese cabbage, 3 Joi Choi Bok Choi, a few Bull’s Blood Beets and Greens, Vates Collard Greens (baby), Easter Egg and Pink Beauty Radishes, Packman Broccoli, and a
Candy Onion. Not sure how I am going to eat all of this cabbage, but I am going to try!

Friday 7/10/09 – I biked to work all week! After work I promised Lijah we could go to the thrift store. We were looking for 2 lamps, but we did not find any. However, we did find a few onsies for Clark and a nice outfit for Lijah to wear to church, some new spoons and forks, a bunch of magazines, and a new book for Lijah. Lijah also got two new toys – a garbage truck and a semi truck to hold some of hit toy cars.

Saturday 7/11/09 – This morning we went to the Northeast library. I was going to carry Clark with me since he is so squirmy, but Lijah just about freaked out when I didn't take out the stroller. So I pulled out the strolled and Lijah happily pushed Clark inside. Last time he wanted to run up and down the aisles with him so I had to give him some clear instructions this time not to do that. He also likes to try to run away in the Northeast library too – I think because of the way the books are stacked in the aisles – because he can run up and down and up and down. So I threatened to take away his new garbage truck if he was a naughty boy. Overall he was pretty good. I let Clark out of the stroller to crawl around in the kids section and the two of them got a bit rowdy. Lijah was making Clark laugh, and Clark laughing made Lijah laugh, and the circle went on and on. In the afternoon while Clark napped I brought Lijah to Lake Johanna for a swim. We have not been able to go because it's just too much with both of them and Jason does not enjoy the beach, and all Clark would do it try to eat sand anyways. On the way there Lijah requested some music so I put in a CD. He loves the song Neighborhood by Arcade Fire – it's the one Jason used for his video of Lijah (I think that's why Lijah likes it). Anyways, Lijah made me play the song over and over and over – and wanted it really loud. Anytime I switched the song he would say "I don't like it…." And then I'd put the one he likes back on and his face would light up and he'd start dancing. When we first got to the beach he was a little hesitant, but by the end he was out in the deep water with me and splashing all around. It was nice to have a little alone time with him (other than playing in the yard while Clark sleeps). Later, Lijah, Clark and I went to Trader Joe's to stock up on some stuff. Again, Lijah had the same request in the car – so we listened to the same song for the whole drive there and back. Lijah got to push his own little kid-sized cart at the store, found a sucker in the mailbox, and went home with a green balloon. Clark, luckily, is now able to get strapped in the cart so I no longer need to lug around the car seat.

Sunday 7/12/09 – Went to church and Lijah made a noodle craft. After church we went for a walk around the block while Clark napped. Lijah rode his new bike and stopped at each tree, flower, patch of grass, car, you name it….and said "Hey tree, what are you doing tree?", "Hey cars, what are you doing cars?". It took a lot longer than usual, but I played along and talked for the trees and gave him an answer. Jason has been doing a new 'spider' thing with Lijah where he pretends his two fingers are a spider. When Lijah sees this he immediately comes over and says "hey spider" and proceeds to have a conversation with the spider. I remember that my dad used to do this with me with his foot. Lijah seems to say new words to the spider that he does not say to us, like "I have a train, do you want to see it". I've never heard him talk as clearly as he does to the pretend spider. It's adorable. Clark now can freely get on the couch himself and likes to play with the window opening knobs. I'm scared he will fall off, but I guess he has to learn. He also will walk across the room now, pretty soon he'll be running all over with Lijah – that will be a hoot! I have been trying to test out all sorts of new cabbage recipes this week to use up all of the cabbage from the CSA. I tried Bubbles and Squeak (mashed potatoes, cabbage, egg, onion, veggie sausage, and cheese), Cabbage Bread (pizza dough chunks stuffed with cabbage, veggie sausage, and cheese), and potato croquettes (potatoes, cabbage, cheese fried in oil). They all turned out great but I had a little snafu with the croquettes. When I was done cooking them I turned off the stove and went to eat them in the living room with Lijah and Clark. They both were happily eating them when the smoke alarm went off. Immediately I thought that the smoke from when I was frying wafted up to the alarm. My first instinct was to get the alarm to shut up so I went and took down the alarm. When I came back down and went into the kitchen the entire room was filled with smoke, and then the living room, and everything was filled with smoke. Jason came up and saw that it was the pan I was frying in. Apparently I turned the dial to 'off' but it did not make it all the way and instead rested on 'High' and started burning. We all got outside and luckily we had some painting masks right by the back door. Jason couldn't breath so he needed to get his inhaler, then I went in and set up some fans in the windows. I was amazed that it all happened so quick and at how fast the smoke filled the house making it impossible to breathe. We sat outside and talked about making a fire plan. It was a big wake up call for us. I had thought that the smoke would stay up by the ceiling but it was halfway down the room in just a few minutes. The kids didn't think anything of it – they were just excited to be out in the back yard in their underwear! I think it is also a sign that maybe frying foods isn't such a good idea.

Monday 7/13/09 – This morning I heard trucks outside so I looked out the window and saw dump trucks and bobcats all around. Two doors down they are putting in a driveway. So when Lijah got up I grabbed him and we went to watch the trucks. He really enjoyed it! I told him that maybe while Clark napped daddy could bring him out to see the trucks some more. When we went back inside the first thing he said was 'baby needs a nap!' When I left for work he was sitting looking out the front window longingly…..

Tuesday 7/14/09 - When I got home from work Mark was over hanging out with Jason and the kids. Lijah came running outside when I pulled up on my bike and gave me the biggest hug I have ever had from him. He was squealing that Mark was over - he loves Mark. Then Jason and Mark went out to get cat food, since our cats had empty bowls and no food in the house all day (poor things) and I hung out with the kids. Last night I gave Lijah a bath and decided to plop Clark in as well. This time Clark loved it and was playing all over with Lijah. It makes things so much easier being able to plop them into the tub together.

Wednesday 7/15/09 - After work I decided to hang out with Lijah and Clark outside. I saw the new neighbor outside and saw the little kids car thing going about and thought maybe the little boy was over there - I've been wanting to go introduce Lijah. But when we got out he was not there. But Lijah rode his bike up and down the block, Jason walked one round with us and then hung out on the steps, and I carried Clark in the sling. Clark was getting heavy so I thought I would try an experiment with the wagon. I wanted to see if Clark would crawl right out. He didn't! Instead he stood up in the wagon, propped his hands on the front edge, and just stood there - kind of like a dog hanging out the car window. I walked backwards the whole way because I was so scared he would run for it. Lijah enjoyed the wagon ride with Clark, and without the carseat hogging the whole thing.

Thursday 7/16/09 - Before I left for work I peeked in Lijah's room. He looked at me and said "me sleep again" and requested that I leave the door open and he fell back asleep. I was so jealous. I think I will try telling my alarm clock next time "me sleep again" and see if it works for me. I was hoping and hoping that I would get the list of "what's in your box" from the farm today and it would not have either cabbage or bok choy on it - but it had both. Looks like this week we will have Yukon Gold potatoes, Knight shelling peas, Provider and Jade Green Beans, Eureka yellow beans, Baby Collard greens, Red Russian kale, Primax green cabbage, Blues Chinese cabbage, Packman broccoli, Walla Walla onions, and Joi Choi bok choy. After work Becca dropped off the veggies and there were so many! I gave her a bigger share since I got the whole share last week - and it is still alot!

Friday 7/17/09 - Biked to work all week! I made soup tonight with some of the veggies we got this week - I made it with: broth, potatoes, green & yellow beans, peas, kale, collard greens, onion, and broccoli. I meant for it to be more of a cooked veggies with some broth type dish than a soup, and it turned out perfect! Rossi asked me to be a backup baby sitter for her tonight. She is starting a new job and Gary is on call this weekend. I was excited to have a house full of kids, but they didn't end up needing me.....

Saturday 7/18/09 - Went to Pierre Bottineau library with the boys. I think this will be the library we visit more often in the future because they have a whole children's room where Clark can freely crawl around, and Lijah can make whatever noises he wants. Outside there is a big geyser-like fountain and I let Lijah play in it a bit. He got splashed all over and my feet and bottom half of my jeans ended up wet, but it was worth it. Clark just happily watched from the stroller. For dinner we went over to Cherie's house and had taco salad. We brought Lijah's bike and he rode around the cul-de-sac for a long time with Abbie. While I was inside Lijah was talking to 'maw maw' about his bike. Cherie said that he said "Maw Maw gave me the bike, You gave me the bike Maw Maw, You gave me the bike because you have money". Clark fell asleep on the way home which meant that he did not want to go to sleep at his normal bedtime. And it turned out to be a horrible night. I fell asleep and then Clark got up so I had to get up and get him back to sleep. Then I fell asleep again and Lijah got up so I had to go get him back to sleep. Then I fell asleep and Clark got up again, but this time he cried it out and went back to sleep. Then I fell asleep again and Clark got up again. This time he would not calm down so I brought him back to bed with me. Well, he didn't sleep well, and eventually woke up for good at 6am. I'd say I got about 4 hours of sleep.

Sunday 7/19/09 - Last night really took a toll on me, but I was teaching in Relief Society today so I could not stay home from church. I was getting Lijah ready for church when he told me that he did not want to go to the nursery. I asked him why and he replied "because the boys are mean to me, they don't like me". My heart just about broke. Noone wants their kid to be the one who gets picked on, and I know how that feels from when I was growing up. So now we have to figure out if Lijah is making it up just to get out of going, or if the kids are mean but Lijah just needs to toughen up, or if the kids are really mean and we need to do something. Poor kid. When Jason woke up he suggested that I go take a nap with Lijah (who was also requesting to sleep up in mommy's bed). He talked me into staying home from church to nap and then go in for the 3rd hour when I was teaching. I was so beat that I happily agreed. However, Lijah did not want to sleep, he wanted to play - so I sent him back downstairs with Jason. I got my nap in, left for church, and gave my lesson. I don't think I could have done it without the nap. My lesson was on loving our neighbors. I talked about what the prophets have told us about loving our neighbors and shared some inspiring stories about others displaying their love to others. By the end of the lesson I had almost all of the sisters crying, it was awesome. It seems that when the class cries, they are feeling the spirit and being inspired to act, so it was wonderful.

Monday 7/20/09 - Biked to work and on the way home found a garage sale (on a Monday!). I found two Spiderman shirts for Clark and a dancing Spiderman toy for Lijah. Turns out the Spiderman toy sings songs, but the dancing part is broken. It's like he has a broken back because he cracks and then topples over. But we made the best of it and did not tell Lijah it was broken. We just showed him that it sings songs and that he gets to make Spiderman dance however he wants. Lijah loved it and played with it all night. He tried to have Spiderman come 'get me' and scare me. I played along and he was squealing with joy. Some of the best fifty cents I have spent (and on a broken toy!). I made some more soup like I made on Friday and after eating we went outside so Lijah could ride his bike. He saw that the neighbors were outside and immediately wanted to go play with their kids. Lijah ran around with Maxine and Hyde while I sat with Brad and Christine with Clark and talked. Christine brought out ice cream treats for the kids, Brad offered to help us with the taping and mudding for our bathroom (for $25 an hour), Christine asked if she could hire me to take pictures of their baby that is coming in a few months, and Brad gave me a huge container of raspberries from their yard - it was a good time. A nice breeze and cool weather. Lijah peed his pants on the way home and walked all bow-legged until we got his wet pants off - like the pee was going to kill him or something..... Then we cleaned Eeek Surprises cage and Lijah's room and went to bed.

Tuesday 7/21/09 – Woke up and it was raining. I figured it would pass and I could ride to work, and I glued myself to the radar. Each time I checked it seemed like the rain was almost past us. But it was time to go and it was still raining, so I caved and got a ride. I don't even have an umbrella so I didn't take the bus. Lijah jumped in some puddles on the way to the car and was bummed that we could not play in the rain. I promised him that if it was raining when I came home we could go play in the rain. I complained about not being able to bike almost the whole way and Jason told me to just deal with it, it is what it is. I went to Target during work since I was having an unusually slow day and got some jeans, a few buck fifty rain ponchos, and an armored matchbox car for Lijah. It was muggy and hot outside – I did not like it at all. It didn't rain the rest of the day and I was a bit bummed that I would not be able to play with Lijah. But then the second I stepped off the bus the rain started falling. I quickly got Lijah's raincoat on as soon as I walked in the door and shuffled him outside (raincoat and underwear, nice combo). We ran up and down the sidewalks in the rain and Lijah had a blast. Jason joined us for a bit underneath the tree where it was dry. Then we went inside, made banana muffins (with one raspberry plopped into each), and did pretty much nothing for the rest of the night.

Wednesday 7/22/09 – Biked to work. After work I pulled out a pool-ful of weeds from the back yard while Lijah played with the rain barrel water.

Thursday 7/23/09 – Biked to work. Over lunch a friend from work (Kelly McGivern) and I went down to the farmers market. I got some garlic, patty pan squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and onions. Jason picked up the other veggies from the CSA after work and for once there was no bok-choy! But there was a lot of cabbage again, so I decided that I would dry the cabbage this time into cabbage flakes.

Friday 7/24/09 – Took today off of work and went over to Dawn's house with Lijah and Clark. Dawn's boyfriend Ryan had his two kids over (Gavin-5 and Grace-3) and we all headed up to Forest Park together. Lijah brought his bike and ever since riding in the street at grandma's house he thinks he owns the street and can ride in the middle. After the park Dawn read a Curious George book while the kids drank juice boxes and Lijah was in heaven.

Saturday 7/25/09 – Went to the St Anthony library, a few garage sales, and both thrift stores in the morning. Lijah had a little meltdown when we left the 2nd thrift store. I had let him play with a truck while we were in the store and told him specifically we were not taking it home. It played that "We will rock you" song over and over at full blast. So as we walked up and down the aisles Lijah would blast the song and everyone would turn and look. It was the most annoying truck ever. But then when we left he really wanted to buy it and I would not let him and he cried the whole way home. In the afternoon we were playing on the porch and Clark knocked his chin on the windowsill, which I think caused his teeth to dig into his upper gums, and he started bleeding all over. It didn't help that it happened while he was eating a cracker, and that he did not want to give up his cracker. So there he sat, crying, eating a bloody cracker. Jason's cousin Renee, her husband Jared, and their 3 kids came over for dinner. They live in Utah and are in town for a few weeks. We barbequed and played and we all had a great time, although I ate way too much! While we were playing in the house Clark got his hand pinched in a plastic toy tub that had a crack in it. I went to help him and could not figure out how to get his hand unstuck – it was very scary. Poor kid is having a very injurious day.

Sunday 7/26/09 – Went to church. Afterwards while Clark was sleeping I went out to play with Lijah on his bike. The new neighbor boy was outside playing so we introduced ourselves. The dad's name is Josh and the little boy is Jack – and he is only 2 months older than Lijah. They both got on their bikes and were riding up and down the sidewalk together. Lijah was a bit more rowdy and came flying down the hill crashing into Jack. Jack was a bit shy, but eventually started to warm up to us. Then Josh, Jack, Lijah, and I talked with Margaret for a bit. I had the monitor on to hear when Clark woke up but it wasn’t working, which I did not find out until I was talking with Margaret and heard Clark crying through the walls of the house (poor thing). At the same time Lijah had to pee and was pulling off his clothes. It was a very chaotic 5 minutes there….. Then Clark was really cranky when I came back outside and fell and hit his head on the sidewalk. He did cry for a bit, but it is amazing that sometimes he will knock something really hard and it does not phase him and other times he will barely hit something and he freaks out.

Monday 7/27/09 - Biked to work.

Tuesday 7/28/09 - Biked to work. After work my visiting teacher, Sabrina Peterson came over. Trish Howard was going to come with but she did not show up - she just had a baby a few weeks ago so maybe something went crazy at home. We talked about the Temple amongst other personal things. Lijah was in rare form before she came over and was super hyper the whole time she was there. I think Lijah has officially hit the three year stage that everyone abhors. He is wild, and stubborn, and everything else that goes along with three year olds. I cannot wait until this phase is over. I thought he would miss all of the bad phases, but I guess not. While Sabrina was over Clark was cranky, as usual these days. So with Lijah being crazy and Clark being cranky all the time - we are having some real good times at home (at least we are while they are sleeping). After Sabrina left we walked up and down the sidewalk. Now that Clark is walking he is trying to move on to running (after Lijah), but since he is not very coordinated he looks like a running Frankenstein and falls alot.

Wednesday 7/29/09 - Biked to work. While I was at work Jason called to tell me we would have to get formula after work. But we had just bought a can! Turns out that Jason went to put Clark down for a nap and in those few minutes Lijah went into the kitchen, got the can of formula, put it in the sink, and proceeded to fill it with water. Nice Lijah - there goes $13. But he was just trying to help make mile for the baby so we could not be too hard on him for it - he really thought he was doing something good. On the way home from work I had a little learning experience. I was just about to get on the Stone Arch Bridge and I saw a mom carrying baby and pushing a stroller. I kept going and further down the bridge I saw a pacifier on the ground. I thought, "Hmmm, I wonder if that baby girl lost her pacifier". I was prompted to stop and bring it to the mom to see if it was theirs. Then I was also prompted to just keep going. This second voice said "Just keep going, you want to get home, and the pacifier probably isn't theirs anyways". Then the first voice said "You will never know unless you find out" and I thought about those kids who love their pacifiers and how it can be horribly bad if these kids lose theirs. I stopped and picked it up and saw that the mom and baby were way up the street, up a big hill already. But I followed the first prompting and biked back and up the hill. Turns out that it was not their pacifier, but the mom was very thankful anyways. Even though it was not theirs I am very glad I followed the first prompting for a few reasons. First, there have been many times when I have been prompted by the Spitir to do something and I have not listened to it. Then I have a nagging feeling because I did not act on a prompting and I always wonder what would have come of the situation if I had. Second, I am not sure why I needed to act on this prompting since it was not hers anyways but it could have been that the mom was having a rough day and hated the world and all of the mean people in it and my offer of help helped her turn things around, but I think moreso it was to test me to see if I would act on a prompting I received. If we will not act on small promptings how can we be expected to act on larger more important promptings? from the Spirit? When I got home from work the boys and I went and played outside for a bit. We met a neighbor from down the street names Jesse who has a little girl named Stella - she is also three years old like Lijah. Then our home teacher Mike Gaulke came over and we discussed the story of the Three Nephites. Lijah was again in his usual form and Clark was cranky as usual. Then Jason went to get more formula while I did bedtime, only Clark would not go to bed. He just cried and cried and cried a horrible cry. Finally when Jason came back from the store he took over Lijah's bedtime routine so that I could focus on Clark. He managed to settle down a bit after putting some baby Orajel on his gums and giving him a few teething tablets.