PMS.

Is it possible for a 3 year old to have PMS? I think so. Yesterday I had quite the day with Kate. It was tears from the moment she woke up. Here's an example: We were outside playing in the snow and Kate had to go pee. So I sent her upstairs by herself, usually she can do it all by herself, but for some reason yesterday she didn't make it. After a few minutes I went in to check on her, come to find her in her room trying to put a diaper on herself. I told her she could not wear a diaper, but she had to wear 'little panties' (real panties) or 'princess panties' (pull-ups). She just lost it. She wanted to wear that diaper. I took it away and told her to get herself dressed. After about 10 minutes she finally put a pull-up on, but then came the decision as to what to wear since her skirt and tights were all wet. Here's how the conversation went after that.
Me: Here's your white tights, put these on.
Kate: I don't want those tights.
Me: Ok. Then put on some pants.
Kate: I don't want pants, I want to wear a skirt.
Me: If you want to wear a skirt, then you have to wear tights.
Kate: I don't want to wear those tights.
Me: Ok, fine. Either put on the pants or the tights.

At this point I walk out of her room, with her still throwing a fit. After a few minutes she decided to put on the tights, but of course couldn't put them on herself- even though usually she demands she does it herself. So she is yelling/crying from her room for me to come help her.
Once we had the tights on we had to pick out a skirt. The one she wanted was dirty, so that started the whole process over again until she could pick out a skirt.

Poor girl. She is doomed. If she is already having emotional issues over everything- I'm not looking forward to when she is 13!

Mouse Trapped

The saga of my mouse bite continues.......

Yesterday I was making dinner when Ryan saw a little something run from behind the fridge and into the panty. He slowly started moving the stuff that was on the floor out of the pantry-then got the idea that he should close off the pantry opening, so the mouse couldn't run out again.

So here is the mouse blockaide. Ryan put up this foam board and then continued to take everything off the floor ,only to find- THE MOUSE!
Here is the mouse trapped in the empty pantry. I was disgusted. I couldn't even look at it, Ryan had to take the pictures for me. The mouse was not very happy to be stuck in there, in fact he tried to jump out. He could even get about a foot and half off the floor.

Ryan had a 'Ratatuille' moment where he thought the mouse was cute and didn't want to kill it. He even let the kids see it and was getting a bit too attached when I had to remind him that the rodent had knawed on my elbow and deserved the death penalty.

So as we are deciding how we are going to kill it, Ryan got the broom, and trapped the mouse under the broom. We decided Ryan should take it out into the garage and either drown it or whatever other cruel, or torturous thing he could think of. When Ryan lifted up the broom, he was dead. Much easier than we anticipated.

Here's my fearless husband with the dead mouse. He put it in a ziplock bag and filled it with water, just in case Basil of Baker St. decided to wake up.

I'm glad we finally found the mouse and got rid of it, but now I'm worried about more. I've got the heebie-jeebies all over again, and I'm afraid to walk into a dark room or to open doors. YUCK. It's like living in the Fire Swamp and being afraid the R.O.U.S.'s are going to jump out and get you.

January

For those of you who haven't heard yet, we won't be moving back to Mesa until January, for sure this time. I know you're thinking, "yeah right, I've heard that before", but we really are coming home the end of January. Ryan is in charge of a 10 story building, and he needs to see it all the way until the end before we can come home. When we come home, he will be starting a private school remodel in Chandler.
I am very excited to get back to Mesa and back to my "normal" life with all my friends and family, but there is a little part of my heart that will be sad to leave Utah. When we first got here I didn't invest any time or energy in making friends, but when we found out we were going to be here longer than expected, I decided it was time to reach out and make friends. I'm finally getting to the point where I feel I have friends at church and I know who people are. I've even made some really good friends I'll be sad to leave.
This has been a great experience for Ryan and I and for us as a family. I feel so much closer to Ryan, and I'm learning how to be a better Mom. It also has made me appreciate some things I took for granted. First- my family. I really have missed being able to go to my Mom's, and being able to go to family functions. Not to mention the baby sitters! I don't think I've ever spent so much money on babysitters the whole of Kate and Clark's life as I have while being here!
Second- my house. I didn't realize how much I loved my house until I had to live in a rental. Ryan and I spent a lot of time and money over the last two and half years fixing up our house and I miss it!
Third- my ward. I miss all my friends and feeling a part of the ward. I miss the dynamics of it and the feeling of family there.
Anyways- I didn't mean to go on and on- just wanted to let you know we'll be home soon. I'm making a point to get home before London's Run, so I can run the 10k- anyone want to join me? I won't be in very good running shape by then, I can't run anymore- seeing as the high is 35 and there's snow on the ground!

Discovery Gateway Kids Museum

Discovery Gateway Museum is in down town Salt Lake and has to be the coolest kids museum I've ever been to. I wouldn't call it a museum as much as I would call it a huge play house. The whole idea is taking real life things , making them small enough for kids, and using toys instead of the real thing. For example they had a whole house set up with a kitchen, living room and bedroom. In the kitchen was a fridge with play food in it, plates, cups and utensils in the drawers, a sink, and a kitchen table. In the living room there was couches and chairs (the cute little kid ones) and ironing board with an iron and a basket of clothes. In the bedroom there were babies, beds with blankets and pillows, clothes for the babies, pack- n- play and a stroller! And that was just the house. Here's a look at some of the other things they had-

This was the construction zone. They had all kinds of construction vehicles, and those grey foam blocks were for building. They had two cranes on a pulley system so you could move the blocks up and down.
This was the farm area. They had costumes you could put on to be a cowboy or cowgirl, a cow or like Clark, a horse. The chickens in the background all had a basket with eggs in it. There was also full size horse you could climb on and a "garden" where you could pick food out of it and put it in baskets.

This is the grocery store. This was probably my favorite- it was so real. As you can see this was the produce section with all kinds of fruit and vegetables. Then there were actual isles with canned goods. There was also a deli that had a real looking deli case with meat, eggs, cheese fish ect. The bakery had breads and croissants . The kids got a shopping cart and walked around the store picking out whatever they wanted.

Then you actually get to check it out! They have the cash registers that make noise when you push the buttons and everything. We had alot of fun in the store.

They also had cars and this real old-time gas pump. Clark loved putting gas in his truck.

All in all it was a fun day! We even met Ryan for lunch afterward, since his job site was only 4 blocks away. The only draw back was how expensive it is. It's $8.50 per person over 1 year old! Luckily I had a coupon and only paid for 2 instead of 3. It's a shame- if it wasn't so expensive we'd go all the time!

Apples

I bought 4 boxes : 2 fugi 2 granny smith

Spent 3 days turning the apples into 15 jars of apple pie filling, 12 jars of cinnamon applesauce and 10 jars of regular applesauce. I am tired and glad they are done!

Mouse Bite

The strangest thing happened at 5am this morning. I was enjoying my sleep when all of a sudden I feel this scratch on my elbow. ( I had it bent up by my head) I thought it was just Clark, he's been getting up alot latley in the night, so I rolled over to investigate. No Clark. I turned the lamp on, get out of bed, and Ryan lifts the mattress up and this blur of color goes running near the edge of our bed. YUCK! So I freak out and jump on the bed, just to look over and see it run out of our room. Ryan gets up and for the next 20 minutes we're searching the house for the rodent. The gross thing is that it actually drew blood. It scratched the skin right off and I had a little drop of blood on my skin. I'm not sure it was a mouse- I didn't get a good look, but what else can bite and run that fast?
What grosses me out the most is that it was in my bed on my pillow. NASTY. Needless to say we changed all the sheets and tomorrow I'm going to go to Walmart to get a mouse trap.
I called my sister Bridgett just to make sure I didn't need a rabies shot- and she said most mice don't carry it- so I'm good.
Now I'm just freaked out to walk around my house without shoes and to sleep in my bed!