I Love Lutherans

BIG WEEK.

- Gretchen got her stitches out. Gretchen's hand shook a little bit while the stitches were removed, but she held very still. The cut is healing up nicely. Our pediatrician said the ER Practitioner did an excellent job, and even though she'll have a scar, it'll be a little skinny one. Not the gaping wound I was afraid it'd be. (DUDE, WE COULD SEE HER SKULL BONE!!! I AM STILL FREAKED OUT BY THIS!!!) She is so brave. And now she's rockin' the bandaids that we plaster daily across her little forehead.

- Gretchen spilled her crackers all over my lap & the pew at church today and said, "Oh great." My baby knows how to properly use sarcasm. I'm so proud.

- We put an offer in on a condo, but found out Friday that we didn't get it. LAME. But whatever, we will persevere. And one day we'll have our very own little ghetto condo to call home. Or not. Maybe we'll just have to find a rental. I'm sick of thinking about it. So I'm not going to any more. I'm taking the night off.

-Ella can sit down and READ. A ton. It's pretty amazing. I can't really take much credit for it either. She is brilliant. Now if I could only get her to make her bed...

-I went to a Retreat with my mom's group this weekend. It was FREE. And this is what I got to look at all weekend:


That is just a picture I stole off the internet. But the view from our bedroom was almost as amazing. We were literally 20 feet from the lake. My mom's group is hosted by a Lutheran church in town, and so all the ladies were from the congregation. I met some SUPER COOL people. One nice lady invited me to go out for a run with her. After warning her that I am sooooooooooo sloooooooooooooow, and that I wouldn't be offended if she left me in her dust, I agreed. (She told me, "Speed is an ability, but endurance is a gift." Isn't that a sweet way of saying it's ok that I suck at running? I know!) We ran in the sand on the beach. Well, we ran for a little bit. RUNNING ON SAND IS HARD. Then we walked. And then it started to snow. But I had my gloves on and my hat, and IT WAS SO PRETTY. After we caught our breath, we started talking. About babies and c-sections. And then she mentioned that she was in the Peace Corps with her husband right after they got married. That is pretty much the coolest thing ever, right? She said they DIDN'T HAVE C-SECTIONS where she was. Either the mom died or the baby died. Craziness. (SO THANKFUL FOR MODERN MEDICINE. Even though the c-section rate in our country is horrible, blah blah blah, etc. STILL GRATEFUL WE HAVE THEM. And grateful I only had one.) We were out for 1.5 hours, having so much fun & talking & enjoying the view. When I finally got back to my room with my Mom's Group Peeps, they were freaking out a little big because, "No one goes running in the snow for an hour & a half!!!" But you do with when it's that pretty! (It wasn't really THAT snowy, the view was still great. Just snowy enough to make us feel super tough and awesome.)

I loved having a church service with my non-church friends. I love that the girls were so happy to see me when I got home. I love that they were all ready for church and I didn't have to do anything for them. I love that Colby was nice enough to take on his children single-handedly for 48 hours so I could have a weekend away. I love that Ella still had all her long, long hair when I got home and that Colby didn't cut it off in a fit of frustration (shout out to Amber & Grandma for brushing it in my absence! Love you too!)

I am freakin' full of love.

I hope you all get a weekend away too.

The ER In Reno Is Nothing Like The One On TV

Just had to share...

Guess where we just were. THE ER. Guess why. Because Gretchen did a face plant into a speaker box. But 3 hours, 4 stitches in her forehead, and ONE HUGE BANDAID later, we're all recovered. (It was totally gruesome. Her forehead was cut all the way to the bone. I almost threw up. Colby almost fainted. The Nurse Practitioner kept asking him if he was OK. He was Edward-White, but without the sparkles.) Gretchen was a total trooper. She was thrilled about the huge bandaide. She'll have a scar (sniff!), but nothing can keep The Gretch down. She'll just look even tougher now.

The end.

ChChChChanges

Remember all that snow from last week? We barely do. There was still plenty around on Monday to call off school & make these beeeeaaauuutiful Snow Sculptures. And I was proud of my snow-sculpture building skillz, I actually rolled a ball of snow around to make a BIG GIANT BALL OF SNOW like they did on Charlie Brown (I get 75% of my life skills from TV, just so you know...) (Usually I just pat handfuls of snow together and it takes FOR. EVER. Charlie Brown totally knew what he was doing.) (Dude, I grew up in SoCal. I'd never even SEEN snow till I was 12.) Our initial plan was to make a Snow Unicorn, but then we got a little carried away with the icicles, and our artistic journey brought us to this:



Porcupine Bear and Alien (as named by Ella)


Then the sun came out and melted all the snow. (Really it was the perfect snowstorm. Super pretty snow-dump one day, melted within three.)

I had two Craft Commitments this week to work on. Yesterday Gretchen helped me prepare a craft for my Mom's group. She's suuuuuuuuuper helpful. She can come over to help at your house anytime you want.



The other craft was this:


We're selling prints of this pastel I made of the Reno Temple for our YW Camp Fundraiser. Hopefully it doesn't look like the Haunted Temple anymore (I did it on gray toned paper - the color of the street - and before I put blossoms on the tree branches it looked a little...bleak...). Anyway, I got prints of this made up and a display put together for the church foyer.

NOW FOR THE BIG NEWS.
Grandpa Dennis got a job. HOOORAY. That is super fabulous and exciting. He's been stressed about it, and we've been stressed for him. We're all so happy.

But the job is in Utah.

Not Reno.

And they're selling their house.

The house that we've been selfishly squatting in for 2.75 years.

So we have some decisions to make. We want to move out fairly soon so that it's easier for them to sell the house (paint, open up the rooms, not look like two families are co-habituating, etc.) We're *thinking* that maybe we might buy a condo. There are lots of scenarios running around in our heads right now, we're going to decide for sure today what we want to do. WISH US LUCK. But either way, we'll be renting our buying our very own home in the next few months. OMGosh.

(Ella can't even comprehend what it will mean for us to NOT LIVE WITH GRANDMA AND GRANDPA. It's overwhelming. How can we not live with them? How will they survive without small children throwing screaming fits to welcome them home at the end of the day? Or invade their personal space by wiggling bony little bottoms into their laps at the most inopportune times? Or knock on their door at 7am on Saturday and ask for breakfast because mom & dad aren't waking up? Or emit ear-piercing screams every Sunday morning at bath time when they get their hair washed for church???? I know!)

Krista came over to help deconstruct the guest room bed yesterday. But first she constructed Gretchen's hair.


Oh Krista, you're HILARIOUS!


But maybe not quite as hilarious as the Day After hair Gretchen is sportin' now. I'm tempted to leave it like this for church. Maybe not.


AND MORE GOOD NEWS!

The "Scary Body" in the closet? I found out where Gretchen got that idea. From Monsters Inc. THANKS PIXAR!!!! (I'm slightly relieved. That was totally creeping me out. Scary bodies? Seriously, two year old? Scary bodies? Monsters I can handle.... But scary bodies? Ugh.)

Snowsuit, Bathing Suit, Snowsuit

This week started out with a bang. We had Monday off from school, so we went to Truckee to play in the snow with Ella's friend.



More photographic proof. We went to Sugarbowl. It is lovely, as you can see. That's one good thing about Reno. You drive 40 minutes in any direction & find magical surprises like this.


Overlooking Donner Lake (it looks like he's standing on the edge of a cliff, but apparently it was only two feet from up from a gently sloping hill.)


Hey Mom! Watch this!


The rest of the week was filled with playdates and chores and cleaning the kitchen and making snacks and making cookies and more cleaning the kitchen, and more cleaning. Saturday Ella had a Birthday Party at a local indoor pool. Gretchen is a TOTAL WATER BABY. She walked around the toddler pool for about two hours straight giggling. Laps and laps and laps. Ella climbed out and said, "Ok, I'm ready to go." and even after we gave Gretchen another 15 minutes of laps, she still screamed when we took her out.

And then it snowed in Reno. We got about a foot. Here's more photographic proof:



Hot Chocolate warms your soul. And your chin. And your belly. And your pajamas that are doubling as a snow suit.






Gretchen's new trick is to tell us that she's "Scared!" so that we'll pick her up and carry her everywhere. We'll be on a walk & she'll decide she's tired. Instead of saying, "Up please!", she says in a very dramatic voice, "I'm SCARED! Scared! Mommy! Scared!"

This morning Gretchen got a time-out for dumping her cup of water all over the floor (on purpose). When I went to get her out of her crib after time-out, she kept pointing to the closet and saying, "SCARY! SCARY BODY! SCARY BODY!" I told her the only thing in the closet are clothes & shoes & hats. No scary bodies. I showed her. We looked together. And she said, "No scary body?" No. Just a hat. "Oh, just a hat." Yeah. So apparently she's added a whole new level of creepiness to her two-year-old-emotional-manipulations by adding a "scary body" to the mix. She's tricky. (No, we do NOT watch CSI. I have no idea where she'd get this idea...)

It snowed so much that Ella's school was cancelled today. We're going to go make a snow fort now.

xo

Be Mine

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!
We hope your day so far has been full of flowers and chocolates and absolutely no sugar-low-induced temper tantrums. And if you live more than 10 miles from us, just pretend I was on-the-ball enough to send you a real Valentine Greeting in the mail...

And if I'd actually been organized to mail you a valentine, THIS is what it would have looked like (instead she just handed them out to her classmates & friends):


(Why yes, that IS Ella riding a trademarked pony over a field of green grass surrounded by flying blue peeps....)

And here's Gretchen's (CUTEST BABY IN THE WORLD ALERT!!!)
(I AM BIASED):



On Monday night, Ella's class had the CUTEST VALENTINES PROGRAM EVER. It was a special romantic dinner just for the parents. The kids brought us all a menu & then fetched our food for us. We got to choose between cheese or pepperoni pizza, and what type of soda we wanted. LUCKY! (To be said in Napoleon Dynamite whine.) I know.



Then they got their own pizza.



Then they played games while they waited for everyone to finish.



Then they put on a program & sang songs and recited a poem. SO CUTE.



Then on Friday they had a class party. Here's Ella taking her turn as "Valentine Mail-Girl". (See the visor? It's an official Valentine Mail Delivery Person visor.)



I was so impressed with the haul of Valentine Treats Ella brought home with her. Two boxes of chocolates, pencils, stickers & a plethora of other goodness. One kid brought roses for EVERY GIRL IN THE CLASS. A little girl looked at me and said, "He's my most favorite boy in the whole school." Yeah. He might be mine too.



And here's Gretchen's favorite tattoo EVER. (The one I was telling you about last week. SCARY BABY!)



This week was crazy busy. I finished my book proposal yesterday (going on the mail on TUESDAY. Because tomorrow is a HOLIDAY! Woot!) I made invitations for the PTA fundraiser. We volunteered for a study about addiction (as the "Non Addicted" participants. I didn't tell them about my sugar habit, my book habit, or my Thursday NBC Lineup habit...) AND we finished a service project with my mom's group. PHEW. AND I changed the sheets on the beds. I know. Pretty much amazing. Now I'm going to go read my BFF Janeece's favorite book & write all over the pages. LUCKY!

I know.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY LOVES TO YOU!!!!
xoxo

Fortnight of Fun

So I had the best intentions of catching up with my missed post from last week. But then I got super excited about this illustration project I'm working on & was TOO BUSY WORKING to talk about my kids. Weird. But true. Hopefully in another week I'll be mailing my new proposal to my rep & soon after making millions. And then I can catch up with everything else I've been postponing. Like changing the sheets on the bed. Ugh.

But, besides paintings of kittens (Regular kittens, not zombie kittens. Just in case you were wondering...), we actually had some fun times over the past two weeks. My new fabulous friend J called one night and said, "Hey Apryl, have you heard of the band Phoenix?" And I said, "No!" And she said, "Want to come to a free concert with me? VIP?" And I said, "Definitely!" And then I went online & did some research. And HOW HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF THIS BAND BEFORE? They are awesome and I had so much fun at the concert. (Plus, they have ties with Daft Punk & the french band Air, both of which I am in love with. SO COOL, I know. Gretchen especially loves Daft Punk. She has special dance moves for their songs & everything.) Going to a concert was way better than watching videos of my favorite bands on youtube. Way better.

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Since it was SO COOL of J to invite me to the show, I've tried to do something nice to say, "Thank you." But J is too nice for me to repay. Every time I try to do something for her, she just GOES AND DOES SOMETHING NICER IN RETURN. I invite her for a playdate, she invites us over for a playdate and HOMEMADE LUNCH. I will never make it up to her.

Colby's BFF from back-in-the-day happened to be driving through Reno. We met him & his family downtown to eat. Photos by Ella.




My friend L. from MOPS invited us over for a playdate. They are awesome and win the award for "Most Kid Friendly House In Town". They have a downstairs playroom with a door and a window (that is a fabulous combination. Downstairs = don't have to drag lazy butts upstairs to check on kids. Door = don't have to hear them. Window = can peek in and make sure they're "making good choices".) They had two (2!!!!) of those motorized cars for the kids to ride in. And they have working radios, so they pumped up some mariachi music and cruised the backyard till the batteries ran out. But the fun didn't end there. Then the rabbits came out to play.

There was one sad little catch. Gretchen & Baby V got into blows over who got to drive the truck. And Gretchen left marks. It was sad. At first it was funny (watching 2 year olds fight is hilarious. You know, when you're not responsible for it.... But I AM responsible for it, so I had to break it up. And just as I started walking towards them, Gretchen used her last 10 seconds of Full Contact to scratch his sweet little face. Twice. Grrrrr!)



Hey, watch what I can do with this rabbit! Mom! Watch!



Sorry Baby V. We'll trim Gretchen's nails next time. Sorry. Sorry!!!

We had about 50 books due back at the library, so I took JUST ELLA. It was nice. She doesn't pull books off the shelf or run screaming. Usually. And Ella picked out a new DVD. Does this sound familiar? MEKKA MEKKA HI MEKKA HINEY HO!



Pee Wee's Playhouse was my favorite show when I was a kid. The girls are SO FASCINATED by it. And I forgot how brilliant that show was. Hilarious. And random. And Miss Yvonne was such a hussy. My word!

Gretchen kept her eyes glued to the screen until she found something she had to share. Then she would yell it at me.

Gretchen: MOM! MOM! MOM!
Me: What, honey?
Gretchen: IT'S BROKEN?
Me: It's broken?
Gretchen: YEAH!
(in reference to something in the show opening? The sign on the pine tree I think...)

Gretchen: MOM! MOM! MOM!
Me: What, honey?
Gretchen: ROBOTS! UhUhUhUhUhUh (that's a robot sound). ROBOTS!
Me: Yeah, Robots, honey.
(in reference to Conkey The Robot. Secret Word Dispenser. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!)

And when we get our own house, we're going to put in a glitter wall, a magic screen, and some talking flower boxes. You're totally invited over to see it.

Gretchen has also decided she likes me to draw "Tough Tattoos" on her. The toughest thing she could think of last week was a "Scary Baby". She pulls up her sleeve & growls at us when she shows it off. And since it's church today, we're getting into the tub in about 5 seconds to wash "Scary Baby" away for another day.

And by next week we'll have Ella's Valentine ready. Here's our posed picture, ready to photoshop into something fabulous. WHAT WILL IT BE? Leave your guesses in the comment section...



HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

Yo Yo Momma

We were sitting in the car a few weeks ago & I heard an echo. Gretchen. Was singing along to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. And while the Yeah Yeah Yeah's totally rock, it made me think, "Huh. Maybe I should be using this time in the car to broaden our cultural horizons." So I went to the library and got a copy of Yo Yo Ma's Appassionato. (I heard Mr. Ma in an interview on the Diane Rehm show. He was so interesting! Listening to him talk about music made me want to be a better person. Here's a link to the interview if you want to hear it.) Anyway, we've been listening to it all week in the car. Yesterday...

ME: Ella, isn't this song so beautiful? What do you think it's about?
ELLA: Mom, what are you talking about?
ME: When you close your eyes, do pictures about the music come into your head?
ELLA: Yeah, I guess.
ME: What does this song make you think about?
ELLA: Food.
ME: Are you hungry?
ELLA: No. Well, yeah, kinda.

Besides broadening our cultural horizons through music, we've also tried a few new recipes. There's just no way our family will eat fish unless it's in "stick" form. But the homemade tootsie rolls were a semi hit. See the "special" one we made for Daddy? Awww, Daddy is so loved.

Smile for the camera sweetie!



No, that wasn't a smile! Try again!



So much better.

Gretchen has decided to start dressing herself. It's going moderately well...at least she has clothes on....


It's all about layering.





Though I blew off Ella's requests as long as possible, we FINALLY put her "Grow Your Own Pony" in water. (Nanna Joy gave it to us in the Super Awesome Pack Of Car Fun she put together for the girls. Thanks Nanna Joy!!!) It grew slowly over a week. And we watched it get creepier and creepier. At it's height of creepiniess, Auntie Amber suggested we put it in a specimen jar and save it for Halloween. It would have been awesome. But we decided to take it out because it was king of stinkey. (Creepy and stinkey. A magical combination.) Then we got to watch is shrink down, and the legs curl up, and the strange sponge-like-texture DOESN'T GO AWAY. Poor pet pony.


Grow Your Own Pony just wants to be loved. Anyone? Anyone?

That's what we've been up to! What about you?

Oh yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE TYLER!!!!!!!!