August

• The movie quote is updated!

• M has picked up a habit from her cousins Jdub and Chum that whenever I tell her she can't do something or has to wait for something she says "Aw, mom..." She says it with such a tone of exasperation that I immediately have flash-forwards to what life will be like when she's a teenager. It makes me crack up laughing every time! It is so stinking hilarious.


• Baby L is the most destructive person I've ever met! She's like a tornado, carving a wake of destruction wherever she meanders. Currently she is fascinated with toilets and trash cans.



• I chase Baby L away from my make-up about 10 times a day. She drives me crazy. She is continually managing to get into it and yesterday she did so again and M joined her and colored all over herself with my new eyeliner. If I could have shot laser beams out of my eyes at them I would have....


• Potty training is going decently, but has had an interesting side effect. M is much better motivated by encouragement versus punishment. She would endure endless punishment happily and stubbornly keep doing as she wants, but if you encourage and praise her she is much easily molded. Consequently Baby L and I applaud M whenever she goes potty. That has turned now so that whenever I go potty, I get a round of applause too. It's quite flattering....


• A few months ago the people down the street moved and left a bunch of stuff on the curb for the trash. On my morning run I went by and saw a huge Tupperware container full of textbooks. I've sold hundred's of dollars of textbooks on Amazon in the past and saw the possibility instantly. I tried to convince Mr. N to walk down and take them, but he wasn't really inclined to do so. I think he has a lot more dignity than I do. So I convinced my dad to drive down with me and help me put them in the car. That was the best dumpster dive ever! Once we got them home Mr. N took the books and researched how much we could sell them for. When he saw their potential value he became really excited too. He listed them all on amazon and so far we have made about $200! Does this make us low class for dumpster diving, or thrifty for not allowing valuable things to fill the landfills?


• M loves bugs right now. Ick. Baby L eats crayons.



• Mr. N's garden is growing out of control! I think we put in a little bit too much rabbit poop.... The corn tastes fantastic, we're all getting sick of zucchini bread (just kidding...how can you ever get sick of zucchini bread!), and the tomatoes are fantastic. I am a HUGE fan of fried green tomatoes. There's nothing like them! I tried convincing Mr. N that they were really healthy ("They're tomatoes"), but he replied, "Yeah, just ignore the cup of oil..." I'm convinced they are healthy though.... In this picture L was ripping the leaves off our squash plant, much to Mr. N's irritation.


• Also in the above picture you'll see that Baby L is finally grown up enough to fit into one of the life vests that keeps her face up if she falls in the water. I tried putting it on her at the beginning of the summer, but she didn't have enough neck and wasn't as accomplished at walking so all she did was sit there frustrated and cry. Now that she's bigger she wears it without a problem, which is a HUGE stress relief on mom and dad. Both girls have fallen into the pool a couple times this summer, and there is nothing worse than looking at the fear in your child's face as they are submerged for that fraction of a second before they are pulled out. It keeps me up at night. I think it would keep any mother up at night.
  
• Yesterday we were at the neighbors and looking at their baby rabbits (they are about 4 weeks old). They had them in a huge cage and so the girls got in to play with them. I turned around to look at something and when I looked back around I saw M pick up one of the babies and throw it like a softball. I immediately yelled at her, "[M], we don't throw rabbits!" all the while thinking 'Now that's not something I ever thought I'd say...'

• Our car broke 100,000 miles. Not bad for being almost 10 years old.

• I got new jeans (thanks to a gift card, they cost a whopping $10)! Do you ever feel like, as a young mom, that you don't really fit in the clothing department. At the store I first looked for jeans in the younger girl section, but honestly I didn't feel like the jeans with fake fading and beaded decor on the pockets was really me. What's the other option? The section that in my opinion is more for "older people". Hmmm... I happened across a rack of Lee jeans (of which Mr. N swears by). I grabbed a couple and tried them on and was surprised how much I liked them. No fake fading, no beading/sequence/glitter, and they felt really sturdy. I hate putting on a pair of jeans that feels like the material is cotton. Honestly, how long before they rip? So anyways, I got a nice pair of jeans and was really happy with them. I was also excited that I bought a smaller size than I had expected. That's always a boost to the self-esteem, but I'm sure it has more to do with a different brand of jeans than my ability to lose 10 lbs from trying on one pair of jeans to the other....

• I think I have a pregnant rabbit, and I'm kind of freaked out. I usually let our girl rabbits out to run and keep the boy locked up, but somehow his cage opened the several weeks ago while they were out and of course the girls jumped right in. He's only a baby, so I didn't think any harm was done, but I noticed last night that one of my females has built a nest. I'm not sure really what to do. I guess just wait and see. If she doesn't kill off her litter, I should be able to sell the babies because they are all pure bred. Oh well. It's too late now. The only problem is that if the one female is pregnant...the other might be too. Hmmm...

• I got to talk to Kim! I love Kim. She was my MTC companion and then we served close to each other our whole missions, frequently in the same zones. We went home together too. She lives in Canada so we don't get to talk much. I love her! She's expecting her first baby, which is so exciting. We only talk once every 6 months or year, but it's always nice. To me a friend is someone I can go a long time without speaking to and then reconnect with and have it be as if there was no break at all. I only have about 3 or 4 people that I consider as best friends, and she is one of them!