Deck and mancave (pics)

So now the deck is done!
1. Helping Daddy 2. I hold it and John attaches it 3. I got you some screws Daddy
4. Always wear your seatbelt, he fell out right after this picture 5. Ben giving Little John a ride (Ben doesn't need that wheelchair he got it at a yard sale to play with) 6. They're under the trampoline, and yeah he fell over doing that 7. Enjoying the new deck


So here is the grand tour of the mancave!
1. & 2. You go down the library hallway to get there (we have 5 bookcases in there)
3. The view from the door 4. The shelves we built him for his birthday, anchored to the wall and painted, he's started to put stuff on them 5. This is to give you some perspective, the shelves are taller than me 6. He puts his laptop on the shelf and sits in the banana chair (the arrow shows which shelf in the big picture)


And of course its all decorated!
1. This curtain hides the stuff we'll store back here 2. This is the beautiful marblized finish I gave his floor, it took a month of washing to get all the paint off my feet (it stuck like nail polish, but I was out of remover) 3. This beautiful rug keeps John's toes warm, his Dad brought it back from the first Desert Storm 4. I made him a lampshade 5. It makes neat patterns on the wall when it's on 6. The switch plate is covered in tinfoil and John painted this picture himself 2 years ago

The art of story telling

So I read Crystal's blog about fairy tales and I made this comment :

"Fairy tales rock! I've read them since forever. I love to read different nation's versions of the same stories, there's lots of versions of Cinderella for example. My favorite is a beautifully illistrated version of the egyptian cinderella."

And it got me thinking about how much I enjoy them and how I like to tell them to Little John. I started telling them to him when he was just a few weeks old to soothe him and keep myself awake during 2 am feedings. I still tell him them in the car and sometimes on those sleepless nights when he's awake for an hour or 2 in the middle of the night. (I can't just let him sit in the crib and scream, but if I let him get up and play he might make a habit of it :()

I tell him classic Grimms' tales and shortened Disney movies (like my favorite, Mulan) and Hans Christian Anderson and sometimes I just make stuff up. I read an article about how story telling encourages kids' imaginations and builds language skills and stuff, but mostly I just enjoy doing it.

I enjoy reading aloud, but there's something about story telling that really appeals to the preformer in me. If I'm not driving or trying to get Little John to sleep, I love to decribe things with my hands and sometimes I get up and act out the monsters and battles. Little kids love that! I started doing it when I'd babysit, as bedtime stories. And the best thing is little kids are such non-judgemental audiences. They don't care if you forget the details or tell it different than last time, so long as you're into it and animated.

I don't tell the tales quite the way you'd find them in print. As hard as it is to belive, I can't remember all the details at 2 am. Sometimes I make up the details and sometimes I just skip bits I can't remember very well. And I've added my own personal twist to any tale I tell. As I tell the story I always specify that the kings daughter is old enough to date and that's why her hand in marriage is the prize for whatever nasty task needs doing. And also of course the hero is old enough to date too. And I tend to elaborate on things like clothes and the country side (when I'm fully awake that is) and I love to do different voices for different characters. (I do that when I read aloud too) I also love to add sound effects and cheesy melodrama things like "da-da-daaa!".

When I make up stories sometimes I barrow details from other stories I've read. Sometimes my stories follow a regular pattern (begining, middle, end), but a lot of them are silly nonsense that either end very quickly or ramble on and on. The good news is Little John doesn't seem to mind if the stories are real or not or make sense or not. He especially loves when I tell stories about him and Daddy doing things together, even when its nonsense stuff.

As he starts to talk more and more clearly I plan on having him help with the made up stories. Things like what color things are, what weapon the hero uses, what kind of car the bad guy drives. All the little details. I'm really excited to see what neat things he comes up with. I already know he has a good imagination because he holds his cars up to his head and babbles at them like they're telephones.

I still read fairy tales myself and will totally read them to my kids. If they grow up and would rather read text books, that's cool, its their choice, but at least they had the choice. It bugs the heck out of me when people are like "I don't let my kids read that magic stuff because they need to understand reality" (and yet most of these same people let their kids watch cartoons, go figure). It reminds me of that poor little girl in Miracle on 34th Street, no hopes or dreams, no fantasies.

Sorry, my soap box ran away with me there. What I meant to say is: I've read lots of fairy tale collections (among other fantstical stories like the tales of Sinbad the Sailor and Arabian Nights), but there is this collection I've heard such great things about but have never been able to find them so I can read them. They're a series of collections (I think) called the Blue Fairy Book, the Red Fairy Book, the Lilac Fairy Book, and so on. I think there are 7 or 8 all together. Maybe I can find them on Ebay or Amazon. Oh, well, my next story post should be about my other love, scifi. Anyway I should go. Go share a story with a kid. Later.

Some recommendations

So I found this really great online radio station. Google for "your LDS radio" and you should find it no problem. They play church music and good uplifting other music, but its not all MoTab. Theres a lot of EFY stuff and things like from the "Singles Ward" sound track where they gave hymns a jazzier beat. Don't get me wrong, I still love to listen to rock and oldies and some newer stuff, but if I'm having a stressfull day or the atmosphere around the house is chaos, I just crank up the volume on this station and it makes such an improvement, especially in my attitude. They also keep advertising this sort of LDS version of iTunes where you can download most of the music they play. I haven't tried it yet but I'm deffinatly going to get me at least the Cinderella song, if I figure out what the real title is.

Also: I found the best series of books for, ummm... age 10-14?, girls. They're called the Lady Grace mysteries, you can get all the titles from the wikipedia page. They're great historical fiction with lots of adventure. I love them. (Of course I love a lot of children's/young adult books) One big helpful bit of advice to go with them: there is a glossary and a "some info about..." section in the back and I find it easier to read the story if I've read those first, instead of constantly flipping to the back to see what a farthingale is. (A sort of hoop skirt, fyi)

We play, Wii fit, they work

So it's been a bit busy around here since my last post. Everybody went back to work and school and its just me and Little John and the dog at home. And he keeps me pretty busy! The last time I was on my own with him all day he had only started to crawl, now he runs! I wasn't quite prepared for the difference that would be :D
Now that you more experienced Moms have stopped laughing, I will continue :) He may be more work to keep up with but he is also so much fun! We play cars and Little People and jump on the bed a run around and clapping games and sing. We snuggle on the couch with his blanket and bottle and watch a show. (BTW I'm asking for tips to get from bottle to sippy, please) And he like to play by himself a bit more now, so I like to do email or knitting while he's busy 'cuz its something I can stop right away if he needs me.
And then when he gets tired I put him down for a nap and have anywhere from 1 to 2.5 hours to myself! I love this time of day, I selfishly keep it all to myself- no housework! (ok I clear up the living room so I can feel comfy, but nothing else!) We (as in anyone living in our house) got a Wii fit for Christmas. I love it! It tracks stuff, helps set goals, the games are great, and it gives you your BMI in addition to your wieght (which is the number that means more) I started using it Monday and have used it everyday for 30-45 minutes. My goal is to use it every weekday, during nap time since no one is around to see. The rest of nap time I like to read my book, but I decided at least once aweek I should blog instead (hence this blog).
John loves his job, he's already ahead on some project they thought would take longer. But the commute... Well the commute is fine if the weather is. Monday it was not, and it took him like 3.5 hours to get home! And I tell you I don't enjoy the worry that causes. But now that the weather is good he loves the drive, mostly because we get him books on CD from the library.
So I fibbed a little there has been another person here all week (drumroll...) the carpet guy! Yes its true, at long last we have some carpet downstairs! He's not done with everything but hopefully by dinner Friday(tomarrow)... He didn't think it would take this long but he couldn't nail down the tack strips (concrete, duh!) like he thought he'd be able to, so he had to glue. And that nasty smelly stuff takes a while to dry. (Due to the smell we're camped out up stairs in Sarah's room since she's at school. Little John is in the porta-crib in Mom's room) And rather than haul everything up the stairs and then back down, we're playing musical chairs with it. We smashed it in the storage spaces and the bedrooms so he could work on the living room and halls. Now that the living room is done we've smashed it all in there. (Actually the living room is a good size so it isn't smashed much at all) Thank goodness for the Young Men, it took us all weekend to condense into the bedrooms. We moved the light things into the living room and then the deacons moved everything else in 15 minutes. It deffinately would have taken us longer, especially since John is kinda tired when he gets home from work (not suprising). Hopefully the carpet gets finished so we can use the weekend to put life back to normal downstairs.
I drew up a sketch of how I want the furniture to go. It worked the way it was before but somethings (like my craft table) need rearranged so I can keep a better eye on Little John since no one else is aound during the day. I think that after bedrooms my crafts will be the first thing set up, because I'm editing some bridesmaids dresses for a wedding on the 31 (as in January). They got the dresses at the after Christmas sales so they were half off, but they're half gone too. Ok maybe not half that makes them sound like floozy dresses, they're black full length, but sleeveless/strapless. So I'm adding sleeves and some pretty red sheer sparkly stuff, but with all my machines and supplies packed up so we can get the carpet I haven't had much chance to work on them. Plus when that's done I'm going to get my Etsy shop up and running. This is why nap time is all mine, the rest of the time I'm busy.

Ode to Sarah

So Sarah hasn't come home from college for weeks, mostly due to homework, and she was going to come home this last weekend, but she couldn't get a ride. And she had lots of homework. Well she has these research papers she has to start working on so I volunteered to help her out. So I googled her topics and then sorted through the results and sent her a list of websites that actually have relevant, usable information. That gives her like a 3 hour headstart on her papers. Well 'cuz I'd spent so much time thinking about her while doing that, I got all depressed that I wasn't going to see her again till Thanksgiving break so I decided I was going to drive down to Ephruim. Google maps says that should take 3 hours and 1 minutes, but that doesn't factor in rush hour traffic in Provo (where the freeway becomes a parking lot).

But I did finnaly get there and it took so long everyone called Sarah to see if I was there yet (which spoiled the surprise, but I felt loved to know they were so worried) and I got there about 20 minutes later. Her boyfriend came over and we had pizza and hung out. And after Tyson left we stayed up late being all giggly. The next morning we spent being giggly and folding laundry before breakfast.

This is Sarah being silly.

And this is us on the beanbag in the living room (it came with the apartment).

And this is Sarah doing some of that homework. While she worked I read her the Illiad outloud, she has to read it for some class she's taking and decided she could listen and do calculus at the same time. I don't think I could manage that but kudos to her.

This is her roomate's (illegal) pet mouse, it's named cow. They keep it in a cage, bathe it regularly and it rides on her shoulder in the car. Personally I think mice are mostly gross, but I've never seen a cow spotted one before.

Sarah gave me a tour of campus and the town. Campus took 5 minutes and the town took 10 because we drove from one end to the other and back. This is me in front of a neat looking building.

This is Sarah in front of the front of that building.

This is the boat in the yard near her apartment. People who've been in it say the room in the stern is full height and there's a smaller room in the bow. How cool is that!

Sarah in the Malt shop.

Me by the Malt Shop's jukebox. I took Sarah to lunch before I had to leave. And if you're ever in Ephraim this is the place to stop. The food is great and the prices are decent. And for when the weather is nice there are picnic tables and a swing set outback.

It's a cute little town with lots of historic buildings, and little shops on an old fashioned kind of main street. Snow is a nice small college too. Sarah really likes it there and I had a great time visiting her, I just wish it wasn't such a long drive. But it's a pretty drive (except for Provo traffic) and I had radio to sing along with nearly all the way there.

And I didn't miss Little John too bad even though it was my first night way from him, and boy was he happy to see me when I got back :D.

Peach Days

So they have a great festival here in Brigham called Peach Days. There's all sorts of stuff: classic car show, parade, library book sale, teen community dance, bandstand, raffles, booths, and of course carnival games and rides. We took Little John to his first parade. He liked the horses and the throwing candy. He did NOT like the fire engine sirens, but he wouldn't let me plug his ears either. We toured the booths in the stroller but he was only interested in touching things I didn't want to have to buy so he and John played in the grass while I looked through the book sale. I got a bunch of things but I'm probably most excited to read the collection of Poe stories. (The other books are children's books) I'm not sure why but when I saw the Poe book I was like"Oooh!" Maybe its because I've only read 2 of his stories, isn't he sopposed to be morbid in his horror? I'm not sure if I like morbid, but I know I don't like horror- at least not how Steven King does it. But we'll see how well I like Poe. But I was telling about Peach Days wasn't I? Umm, oh yes- the homemade peach ice cream was fantastic and because we didn't have the usual turn out :( there was more to go around :D. There have been some new babies and more people off to collage and post college jobs, so fewer people were able to make the trip this year. But that's ok we'll see them at Thanksgiving and Christmas for sure.