Found You!!

I just came in from a rousing game of Hide-and-go-seek with the hubs and three of my nieces.

Before I go on, picture this: it got to 90-something outside today and I was extremely happy to just stay in the air conditioned heaven of my dungeon room. However, I was coaxed out of my cave by an email. "Your photobook is ready for you to pick up." YAY! So, after the kids went to bed and we were sure they wouldn't be whining and crying for the next hour and a half, we ran off to Costco to pick it up. It's beautiful! (There are only two typos, bad me!)

Anyhoot, when we got home, we called the nieces up and accepted their proposal for a romp in the yard. I didn't exactly go kicking and screaming... more like whining and threatening heat exhaustion.

The first thing we established before we started were boundaries and game style. I'm sorry, I'm not about to go running for base with "It" chasing after me. So, once found, found. Round one was pretty fast, I found everyone without too much trouble. Round two is where things got interesting. I was the first one found, so I went back to the porch swing where I witnessed two of my fellow hiders running from one spot in the yard to a new hiding spot. I really felt that was down-right fishy. PLUS they chose a hiding spot in what some considered to be out of bounds. SHAME, SHAME!!

So, we went over some re-worked rules at the end of that round. Yes, you are allowed to change your hiding spot, but now that the Seeker knows that you are doing this, it'll be much harder to sneak around without getting caught. The out of bounds spot was deemed okay in the end, but it ended up being the worst spot to hide after that round.

We had a few more rounds where I discovered that moving my spot caused just as many problems as it solved and I was found in ridiculous spots (In the middle of the lawn in full sprint, sneaking through the side yard, kneeling behind some potted tomatoes). After that we paused briefly for a beverage break.

After that, the biggest problem for some of the hiders was to keep quiet after having their carbonated drinks. Do some people seriously not know how to stifle their burps??

I witnessed in one of the final rounds Ben climbing a tree, Cammy hiding in a hollow spot in a bush (in plain view from a certain angle), and poor Baylie wandering round thinking they must be moving because she couldn't find them. The resulting hullabaloo from that area of the yard came when an indignant Uncle accused his bush-hiding niece of giving away his spot.

Heard from the front yard: "I saw you pointing!"

"No, I just did this..."

"You gave me away. I saw you!"

"Hoot, holler, complain, complain!!"

When the three finally came back to the front yard, it was explained to all parties that "it's just a game" and "you don't give away other hiders". All was (mostly) forgiven... but I was nearly positive that someone *cough! cough! BEN! cough!* was going to say "Screw you guys, I'm going home!"

Final round!!!

I was found in 10 seconds... lame....

Ben had compassion and said to go hide again... everyone got a second chance... I don't know where everyone else was found since I WAS THE LAST ONE! YAY! Of course, he found me sneaking down the side yard, in full view. Lame....

Well, I guess the point I was trying to make is that I haven't played a good game of hide-and-go-seek since I was a kid! Aside from coming in hot, sweaty and smelling like I-Don't-Know-What, I had a good time! It's been ages and I felt just a little bit young again.

Next time you're in Utah in the summer, swing by and we'll hit you up for a game!

I'm feeling much better now...

I was in a horrible mood a few days ago. Everything was difficult and I just felt sortof sad. I'm not sure why and I just couldn't come up with any way to alleviate the crummy feelings.

So, I went looking around online for a deskmate. I used to have an alien that would say aloud everything I typed into it's box. This provided many hours of silly amusement. I tried finding it years later, only to find that it just didn't exist anymore. At the very least, it was well hidden.

I also used to have a program that each time clicked on, would make a sheep appear (up to about a dozen, I think). The little animated sheep would wander around the computer screen, doing silly things, eating, sleeping, getting abducted by aliens, etc. That program is still around. I'm toying with the idea of downloading it.

I did end up finding in my hunt, a program that would make a cat appear on my desktop. It does a lot of cute things too, and I can even play games with it, if I so choose. CUTE!!

He chases butterflies, eats kitty food, sleeps in his little cubby, puts paw prints on your screen, and generally behaves in a cute manner. That cheered me up a bit.

But here's the thing that REALLY cheered me up. This one can't be downloaded onto your desktop which is really a shame. The website saves your preferences though and so you can go back to it whenever you want. It asks you a few questions about your "ideal guy" and lets you pick what he looks like. You can even attach your own beau's face to his head creating a bobble-head effect.

Then he floats in his ManQuarium and gives you lovely compliments.

Yeah.

When he first spoke up, Ben's head snapped around and he said in complete shock, "What is THAT?!"

"That's my manquarium. He compliments me. Hee hee!"

Eye-roll, "Ooookaaaay..."

It WAS very silly, but it was MY kind of silly and it cheered me up almost instantly. An artistic man giving me compliments from my own personal aquarium and he even looks like the love of my life.

An example of what my virtual man tells me as I'm working on my computer. Most are cheesy and some are really funny :

"My ManQuarium is meaningless without you!"

"There's room in this ManQuarium for one more... care to join me?"

"You're more beautiful than a Picasso. Less creepy too." (HA! HA!)

"Does my ManQuarium exist when no one's around to see it. Do I exist without you?"

"I know, guys are supposed to be into cars and stuff, but I'm just into you."

"Before I met you, I just felt so... trapped!"

"Goddess I wrote you a haiku: My ManQuarium, Full of my Goddess' charm, And lots of weird fish"

"Goddess I could just swim here, talking to you for hours."

"My wetsuit is at the dry cleaners... what does that mean?!?"

Ben is completely creeped out by the ManQuarium, but if anything, it just makes it funnier to me. I'm sure I'll get tired of him eventually, but how can you get tired of a captive audience telling you how awesome and beautiful you are?

Bliss...

So now I have a virtual kitty to play with and pet... a virtual man to compliment me tirelessly... what more could I want? How about a virtual child that does everything I tell them to without whining, crying, or throwing up on me? That's the ticket!

By way of Updates

It's been a while since I've given any kind of update on the kids. So...

Audrey: still growing like a weed, NO POTTY ACCIDENTS in WEEKS!, loves going to the park to play with her cousins (or anyone for that matter), has successfully cut her TV intake to less than 8 hours a week (not her choice, of course). When she can't watch regular TV (only on Wednesdays) she will ask for her "Jesus Movie" which is a narrated scripture slideshow or "animal movie" which is BBC's Planet Earth. We will almost always let her watch these shows as they are spiritual and/or educational (clever girl!). She received her first ever french braid last night after bathtime which was a bigger accomplishment for her mother but props to her for standing still long enough for me to muddle through it. She asks all the time to go to school and is always disappointed when we tell her she has to be five. As an update since the last blog, she played with her new flannel board during church today and was better behaved than she has been in weeks! Yay!

Some recent, funny Audrey-isms:

When kissing me goodnight she pats my cheeks, "Mama you're not ouchy. Daddy is ouchy, he has polka-dots on his face!"

Singing to herself the other day, "Patty-cake, patty-cake, bakers man, bake me a cake as fascist you can..."

Oh, and she LOVES playing kickball.

Henry: still growing like a weed, is walking so well it's strange when he decides to crawl and is "this close" to running, has been trying to cut his molars for weeks and just might break them out in the next few days, loves his mom and dad so much that he doesn't like when they leave for ANY reason at all (even if it's to get him some milk), will stay in nursery only if mom or dad is in there with him (he just MIGHT be ready to go in by himself by the time he is 18 months old), loves going on the swing at the park, loves when dad throws him high up and catches him. He is learning how to go down stairs backward, but most of the time forgets and starts going up again. He does the cutest little "ant stomping" dance where he stands and stamps his feet and giggles.

He is also learning what the camera means and is turning into quite the ham.

In case you haven't heard, Ben has been accepted to UofU and starts there this fall. He will be gone a lot more, but (hopefully) will be done in 2 years or less. We should also be paying in-state tuition (hooray!). He gets up for work at 2:30 every morning and catches naps here and there throughout the day, but it's been great to have him home for the summer. He works out in the yard every Thursday and has made some serious improvements. He and Dad built my garden bed (which I love!), the new side yard gates, and miles and miles of pruning, weeding and mowing. He's still a devoted NASCAR fan (boo) but has recently started watching movies with yours truly (yay!)

As for me: The crafts, if you read regularly, have been logged. I have at least another 20 projects waiting in the wings though, so look out! The gardening has yet to be logged... it's going fairly well. I have corn, pumpkins, watermelon, cucumber, carrots, radishes, beans, lettuce, peppers, sunflowers and various flowers sprouting all over my garden. I also have an enormous quantity of elm seeds trying to sprout as well and are getting mixed up with the flowers.

My writing has been waylaid by special events going on in the Flyff world. I know; waste of time, but it's a FUN waste of time. I also picked up some new reading habits lately and haven't been getting to sleep until after 11pm every night, which wouldn't be bad if Ben didn't get up at 2:30, Henry at 4:00 and again with Audrey at around 6:00. I've taken to letting him out of his crib at 6 and letting him and Audrey play in the room until I can drag my fanny out of bed.

I made some amazing shish kabobs tonight that were a hit with the crowds here (thanks for grilling them, Ben). It's astounding what a little fresh rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper can do. They were too pretty to eat, but we did anyway and they were awesome! I will be attacking the leftovers tomorrow at lunch time.

Keep an eye out for more new blogs. I have a few brewing in my noggin... Until then.

Updates... boring and .... boring.

Well, okay... I think I've been a bit boring lately and I'm sorry in advance if I still fall short of entertaining.

I had another prenatal appointment this week, this one with the specialists that I saw last pregnancy. It was that office that labeled me high risk with Audrey.

I got to talk to the genetic counselor lady who, among other things, informed me that I'm not likely to have Hemochromatosis unless Mom is a carrier and/or full-blown herself. I'm still taking that with a grain of salt as there seems to be an awful lot that doctors don't understand about the human body and genetics. Still, it was good to know that the odds are in my favor as far as that goes.

We got another ultrasound (I'll scan the pictures when I dig out my scanner which is currently buried under store ads and disposable dishes) and we got to see our little critter stretching and kicking around in there. That was pretty fun. We still haven't heard a heartbeat, but we have SEEN it going like gangbusters.

The really good thing that came out of all this is that my doctor at this office decided that upping my thyroid medication would be a good idea. FINALLY! I've been feeling unreasonably tired and, over this last weekend, was starting to feel depressed. Depression-like symptoms can point at a thyroid unbalance. So, I've been on the increased dose for two days and I'm already starting to feel good enough to sit up for extended periods of time and my thinking has cleared up a little.

My specialist doctor does seem to need a little breaking in, however. Ben and I were being mildly funny during our visit and my doctor might have cracked a smile once... I'm hopeful that we'll have him loosened up by the time I deliver.

I seem to be at the height of my morning sickness though.. without getting too graphic, I'm pretty sure the stomach acid has been making my throat bleed slightly the last couple of days. I'm definitely going to bring that up to my doctor on my next visit as I don't remember that happening with Audrey.

So, I know it's not funny (yet) but at least I'm able to bring some updates to the table. My only friend lately has been the couch in front of the TV. I am enthused to inform you all, though, that I've managed to help Mario collect 5 of the 7 Crystal Stars and am well on my way to saving Princess Peach and the whole world! Go me!

I'd rather be Farming

Since morning sickness kicked in, I have become a couch potato... sitting in a semi-reclining position takes a good amount of pressure off my tum. So, I have acquired a lot of TV Time...

My TV week officially starts on Tuesday since there is practically nothing airing on Monday night.. except Heroes, but I'm hopelessly lost when it comes to Heroes since I haven't watched it since half-way through season one.

Tuesday: Fox is my friend and I watch House (loooooove it!) and Fringe (learning to looooove it!). I can't help my ridiculous attraction to a horribly sardonic doctor who I desperately want to prove he's a good guy, but I'd be instantly uninterested if he did. Fringe, for me, is like a new, fresh version of The X-Files without aliens... so far. The scientist dad guy makes me giggle... a lot.

Wednesday: Two of my favorite shows are on at the same time on Wednesday. America's Next Top Model and Project Runway... good thing for DVR! Ben and I watch Project Runway together... I'm just sad it's over for this season... Finale was last night. As for that, I totally disagree with the Yahoo! critics who think this year was subpar... I thought the talent was AWESOME and I think the winner was AWESOME! Go Leann! Ben hates ANTM.. he got really annoyed last night when I wanted him to stay with me in the Family Room while I watched it. I am starting to think that the people that get booted off have more to do with "politics" this year.. I don't always get the logic behind the reason why these girls are sent home... speaking of girls.. don't get me started on one of the "girls" this year.. ugh.

Thursday: Woohoo for The Office. Steve Carrell is so histarical! He is an HR nightmare and yet I love him! I think The Office is one of the funniest shows on TV right now.

Friday: America's Toughest Jobs was on on Friday nights.. but for some inexplicable reason, they switched it to Saturday this week. Great show.. but like most reality shows, these "real" people are super annoying.

If nothing (I.E. The Presidential Debates) is on, I play Harvest Moon.... Ah... I'd rather be farming.

The Good, The Fun and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day....

Today is Ben and my ninth anniversary... it really is a wonder that it seems to go by so fast and yet filled with so much. It's also a wonder that I'm not a million years old with all the road (virtual & real) that I've walked. I gave Ben his anniversary gifts this morning: a hand-held Tetris game (which he positively beamed over as it's really the only video game that he likes and promptly forgot that I had another gift) and a peridot tie tack. Peridot is his birthstone and, strangely enough, no one has ever given him one. The other interesting thing about the tie tack is that it has one of those chains attached to it so you can fix it to your shirt (presumably so your tie doesn't go flying around). He said that he'd never had a tie tack with one of those either... so, it's a first for a lot of things today... He then put on a small frown and said, "Think about what you want so we can get it today.." He has been agonizing about my gift for weeks and I have been (as usual) completely blank on gifts for myself. I'm also promising myself that I WON'T get another video game... THERE IS A NEW WILL WRIGHT GAME COMING OUT TODAY CALLED SPORE!! AGGGHHH! Ugh.. I'm so disgusting.. I can't help my addiction to Simulation/Creation games.... Oh crap, I just looked up the Spore website and now I REALLY WANT that game.. there goes another year of my life... sigh..

I'm the Senior Activity Days Leader for my ward. Senior only because my partner has been doing it for 5 months instead of 1 1/2 years. Activity Days is a program for girls 8 to 11 years old. They come to the church twice a month and we have some sort of activity that encourages talents, living the gospel and serving others. I was really, honestly afraid the first time I got up in front of those girls and tried out one of my little ideas on them. Now, my fear has slowly become a calm panic that builds the 2 days before each activity and crests just as I'm getting into the Primary Room. After that, I'm typically okay.
The reason I bring this up is that we had an Activity Days yesterday and I am just sooooo proud of myself... well, as proud as someone as unpretentious as I can be. Two weeks ago I assigned the girls to research a famous artist and bring a short report on them. They were not pleased. School just got out and here I was assigning them homework! I laughed a little on the inside..
Starting on Monday (I think.. it's been a positive blur) I realized that there would be girls that showed up that didn't have anything to report. These girls can be a bit forgetful and their mothers end up finding out about assignments the day after they were due...
So, I started looking up pictures and biographies on all the artists I'd assigned so that I would have something for everyone to report. It took forever and I soon discovered that biographies are varied and prone to the biographers personal impressions and not just fact. The pictures were a challenge as well as most of them were about the size of postage stamps online and tended to pixelate when enlarged. By Wednesday morning, I was in a positive meltdown and frantically trying to get everything together before my early afternoon dental appointment where I was sure they were going to rip out two of my teeth. I had everything done before Audrey went down for her first nap... siiiiiiigggggghhhhhh....

Speaking of which, I've had a broken tooth for 4 1/2 years... bottom right wisdom tooth. I broke it while eating mashed potatoes on my lunch break at Walgreens.. I was on the phone with Ben and promptly burst into tears when I realized that part of my tooth was missing and that I had EATEN it... I was very good and went to a dentist as soon as I could. Unfortunately, the dentist balked when I informed him that I was on some herbal remedies: Kelp and St. John's Wort. He said that one of them was a blood thinnner and he was concerned that I wouldn't clot if he pulled out the tooth... so, he wanted me back in a few weeks.. we ended up moving in the interim.
So, 4 1/2 years later, pain brought me to a new dentist who asked me a battery of questions, looked at the tooth, was amazed at my capacity for pain and promptly gave me a referal to an oral surgeon... He also gave me an Rx for antibiotics because he said the hole in my face was infected.. surprise, surprise...
I now get to wait a week for the horror.. the smell.. the sounds.. the panic attack of another dentists office..

Obsession VS The Stomach Flu

So Audrey got the stomach flu on the 21st.. the day before her birthday... Throw up and birthday cake don't mix. Well, they do.. just not the way you would want them to. So, she was sick and crabby and a whole lot of not much fun for the whole week. She didn't learn how to walk and she only wanted to be cuddled! Good thing we got her portraits taken the week before, or who knows how those would have turned out *shudder*!
She was over it by Friday or Saturday but was cranky for a few more days (just for good measure it seems). All was glorious and beautiful in the world! Oh wait, then I got it....

I now understand why the little stinker wanted to be cuddled all week. With Ben at work and Audrey thinking Mom was invincible, I spent the better part of Thursday curled up on a recliner, wishing I would die... or was it Wednesday?.... By Friday, I thought I was over it. By Saturday night, I was wishing I had died on Thursday... (or was it Wednesday?) Now here comes the REALLY awful part: I was so sick...... I couldn't stand to sit up longer than half an hour at a time... so.... no..... computer!! *Gasp!* My sister and I had started playing a new game since Mabinogi was starting to get annoying... Yay for Flyff! And of course, you would think that since it doesn't take much energy to sit at a computer, that I would be hunky dorey playing Flyff.... WRONG! Sitting up for any length of time made me dizzy.. and therefore.. motion sick.. and therefore....... you get the picture!

So, in the battle between Flyff and The Stomach Flu.... sigh... the disgusting illness won out!

The good news is we got Audrey's 1 year old portraits back! Hooray! She is super cute, if I do say so myself. I am going to put some of them up on my Facebook account as soon as I stop playing Flyff! Hooray for Flyff! :D

It's sucking the life out of me!!!

Okay, so I've been playing an online multiplayer game called Mabinogi for about 2 weeks or so. It's sortof like a nicer version of Diablo 2 (you get to battle monsters and work on quests) and it's also like Harvest Moon or other life games (you can make clothes, farm, or whatever!). I think it's so great! I spend about 4 or 5 hours on it every day! I suppose it's better than watching Dora with my daughter!
I love this game! My character is an 11 year old warrior who wields a claymore! I'm so cute! So far, the other people in the game seem nice and helpful. You'll get your bad apples once in a while, but overall, this game rocks!
Best of all it's (mostly) free! There are some premium services that you can buy, but i'm not ready to go there yet! But, I may not be far off, really! :)
So, look for me on Mabinogi! My name is Panya!!