It's Been So Long

Well, it's been awhile since I wrote. Quick update: Nils took 3 days off work last week. We did lots of fun stuff. We mostly just spent money, which is funny, because we don't have any. But anyhoo... it was nice to have a few days together. This week has been less enjoyable. I've been sick all week with hemophilis or something of the sort. The kids have snotty noses, and Anders has had stomach issues. I'll spare the details. We're feeling better, however. I went to the Dr. and got a $60 prescription, so all is well. I really don't have much else to report. I'll write more when something AMAZING happens.

As Long As I Can See the Light

I've seen the commercials for these GE Reveal Light Bulbs but I thought it was probably just a marketing spoof. Then I became really curious about the bulbs so Katrina and I picked up a couple of packs at the store. They were expensive. Normal four pack of bulbs: 96 cents. Reveal four pack of bulbs: $2.50. I turned on only one light fixture in our living room, which contains three bulbs, and set the camera on the bench to take the first picture. I had the camera on all manual settings so that the Fstop, shutter speed, etc. would be the same in the before and after pictures. No flash was used. After the first picture, I didn't touch the camera at all but I did change the bulbs in the light and shot another picture. What a difference! Now I love walking into our living room at night because it's a huge improvement. Our paint looks different, things look clear instead of faded and yellow. I'm hooked. I've since replaced the bulbs in the kitchen and many of our dishes have colors in them that I've never even seen. It's totally amazing so I'm sharing my new found information with the world. OK, not the world.. but maybe two or three people. So try it out. When you do you'll thank me for showing you the light. Literally.

Sleepless Wonders

Anders woke up at 3 am, got out of his bed and came into our room. This has never happened in the middle of the night. It was a little freaky to wake up to him, honestly. He got into our bed, and didn't go to sleep. He heard the train go by and said, "Mommy! I hear the train!" I was like, yeah that's great, go to sleep. An hour of him squirming and kicking was enough to put him back in his room. He completely freaked out. Finally the only way I could get him to go to sleep was to lay on his floor by his bed. He finally went to sleep at about 4:30, and then Addie decided to wake up at 5. That was actually really good for her, it was the first time she woke up. Anyhoo, she decided to wake up for good at 6. I let her lay in our bed and play for awhile so I could doze, but eventually she started slapping my face and grabbing my nose. I really need to cut her nails, by the way.
On Tuesday night, I was so tired my body ached. At about 8:30, I laid down thinking I would rest for 30 minutes or so. I woke up 11 hours later. Nils told me I woke up a couple of times, said really weird things and went back to sleep. I guess my whole point is that I'm tired, and I'm wondering if I'll ever be un-tired.
The good news is that we've finally cracked down on Addie. She no longer sleeps in our bed at night, and we have made her cry through the night. It sounds so mean. But, she's pretty much sleeping through the night now. So it makes no sense that I'm going to bed at 8:30.
I had a goal last night to run 3 miles in less than 30 minutes. I had eaten a pretty good sized dinner not too long before this, so by the time I finished running I thought I was having a heart attack. No really, I did. I came home and told Nils I was having a heart attack. He was like, "Oh really?" (Probably because I'm always dying. During my pregnancy with Addie, I thought I had Parkinson's Disease, and I thought I was having a heart attack then, too.) Anyway, I looked up symptoms of a heart attack, and I had them!!! Fortunately the pain subsided after about a half hour. When I do actually have a heart attack, no one will believe me. And won't that just be sad?

Help Support Katrina's iPod Nano Cause!

I've always thought those 'Free iPod' offers were hoaxes but I know a few people who have actually gotten XBox's and iPod's from them so I thought I'd investigate. When this new iPod Nano came out, I thought I'd check out the possibility of getting one for 'free'. It's not totally free but if I have to pay $20 or so for an iPod Nano 4GB, I'm OK with that. Here's the deal: I signed up for one service (there's a list of 20 or so to choose from) and I have done my part. I now need to get five other people to sign up for a service or trial and then we get the Nano! The cool part is that the offers aren't these ridiculous offers that nobody would want to try. There are things like discountd ink cartridges, Blockbuster DVD trials, subscriptions, etc. I signed up for Auto Vantage- a roadside assistance type thing. It's $1 to sign up and after 7 days they send me a $40 Gas Card! That's pretty cool. If I continue with the service (and I probably should since I drive a 91 wagon) it's $9.99/month but I think I'm just gonna cancel before the first 30 days.

Here's the other cool part- if you sign up, then you've taken care of your offer, too. That means that if you get five other people (I can't be one of them) to sign up then you also get a free iPod or whatever else you choose from. There are four or five gifts to choose from.

So PLEASE HELP! If you need cheap ink, a gas card, some DVD's by mail or anything like that- SIGN UP! OK, schpeal over. Thanks for listening. We usually don't solicit but we only need five people and this is a really cool offer so I'm enlisting help via Blog.
Above is the iPod Nano we're trying to win: It's pretty sweet.

Hmmmm...

Nils just told me I should write about what a wonderful husband I have. I looked at him blankly, and I think he's offended. I do think he's wonderful. Now moving on... (hardy har har)
It's Sunday night and I'm sad the weekend is over. Like everyone else on the planet, I love weekends. It's just nice to have a little more freedom schedule wise. I love being together with my little family.

So we had stake conference today, but we don't know where our stake center is. We asked some people, and they didn't really know either. Our stake is new, so it's not listed. We got all ready, packed up the diaper bag, and drove around for about 45 minutes before giving up. I did find one random address online that we attempted, but no luck. I think we get points for trying.
Went to my mom's for our weekly dinner. Anders pushed Addie in the swing and they both thought it was hilarious. I can't wait until they can actually play with each other and entertain each other. I think they'll be good little buddies. They already love each other a lot.

We have a closet under our stairs that we keep all the toys in. Anders hasn't really taken much interest in it lately because it's been such a disaster. Last night I cleaned it out and took a good portion of the toys out and put them in the crawl space. It's like a completely different space. Anders spent most of the day in there today. He can actually get in it which helps, I'm sure. He looked at his books, played with blocks, found all of his little tools. We really haven't sorted through his toys since he was a baby so there was just a lot of clutter. I'm sure it was too overwhelming for him. Hopefully his new play space will help him break away from Dora.

Back to Life

Labor Day was uneventful, but it was good to have the long weekend. We decided to paint the living room late Sunday night after the kids were in bed. We figured that would be easier than trying to take care of them and paint at the same time on Monday. We finished around 1 in the morning, and it looks really good. I'm now inspired to paint every room in the house. Yesterday we all took naps. I must say it was highly unusual and very enjoyable. Nils and Anders went to Krispy Kreme in the morning and got a dozen donuts. That's pretty much all we ate the whole day. It was ever so much fun, yet a little disgusting.
Last night when we were saying family prayer, Anders decided he wanted to say it. It's the first time he's said a prayer by himself, and it was so funny and cute. He listed all the things he was thankful for: Mommy, Daddy, Addie, eating donuts, going to Grandma's house, Mommy's blankie, Daddy's blankie, the pillows, and then he goes, "That's all, I'm all done!". Very cute. One of those rewarding parent moments. It's nice to have those once in awhile.

Holy Saturday, Batman!

Today was nuts! Most Saturdays are, but today was just a whirlwind. The kids both woke up at 7:30- what is up with that, anyway? I went to the gym while Nils took them for a walk. We all got home, showered, etc. My mom called to tell Nils that her cooler stopped working AGAIN, and since he can fix anything (or so everyone thinks) he's obligated to take care of it. After spending a few hours at her house, she offered to take us to Chili's. After Chili's we went to Costco so she could look for a hallway table. While at Costco, she decided to buy us whatever we wanted. Woo-Hoo! We got some new clothes for everyone. Anders got a sliver while we were at Costco and freaked out for about an hour. He got over it when I started feeding him Laffy Taffy. We came back home and went to Wal-Mart to buy some paint, finally. We're going to break up the beigeness in our house. I want our walls to be painted, but I don't want to be the one to paint them. I hate painting. Anyhoo, we ended up spending 100 bucks on painting supplies and diapers and wipes. Holy crap! Most of the money was spent on diapers and wipes. We bought the huge boxes of both, because it's getting old buying diapers once a week. Hopefully this lot will last awhile.
I'm feeling happy that this is a long weekend. They are few and far between. Happy Labor Day to all.