Party of Five

Hello there, dear devoted readers (ha!). It's been one year and 27ish days since my husband hijacked the blog and posted for me. That made me feel like a little less of a woman, by the way. I'm back, though, in a big way. Don't even worry about it.

I had a busy year though. I made a new person. More on her later (of course it's a 'she'- that's all we can make, I think). First let me catch you up on the rest of the Fam.

Eric

He's still a stud. He helped me to make a person. Like, on purpose even. Still travels the world although he's been in town a lot lately. Something he's proud of: he finished Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged' and is now able to discuss John Galt. Hmmmmm.... what else? Oh- he still loves me in spite of my three baby body and my new penchant for random anxiety. I love him.

Me

My newest interests (that sounds better than fixations, right?) include: Reruns of 'Bones' on Netflix, Pinterest, the Tooele Joann's store, Cloth Diapers (weirdly consuming), and Running at night. I'm working hard on getting back to my pre-pre-pregnancy size. I could use some support on that. Anyone up for some competition? I'm so happy the sunshine is finally here! Somehow I forget about sweat and mosquitoes every year, though.

Olivia

She's going to be a third grader! Insane! She was just baptized and loved every second of that day. I loved seeing her smile so much. And Eric took her skiing for the first time! This will embarrass her, but she is growing into such a beautiful girl. She's tall and willowy and tan. Such a good girl. The other night at a wedding reception, she came skipping towards us with a big smile on her face when her flip-flop (flip-flops are totally fine for a wedding reception) caught on a paver and she went down. HARD. Oh my. That girl was so tough. She was mortified but held back tears and hobbled back to our table. Oh, it makes me want to hug her, just thinking about it. She's not a little kid anymore.

Frances

Oooo-eeeee. What about Fran-Fran? She is brilliantly willful. Amazingly argumentative. But also hilarious, generous and sensitive. She just graduated from pre-school! Weird. I swear she should be in high school by now.

At her pre-school graduation, her teacher handed out books to the parents and in each was a bunch of questions she asked the kids and their individual answers. When Eric and I read Fran's, we almost wet our pants. Her answers are, like, a paragraph long.

Here's a photo of our favorite. The question was "What scares you the most?" Her answer is at the bottom. You know, where it says 'Frances'.

And..... the Newbie. AKA Maybel.

"Maybel, Maybel. Set the table." The girls sing this to her often. Not quite sure where it came from. Miss Maybe (not a typo- it's a nickname). She's four months old already. She is a little chub chub, she toots incessantly, spits up on ev-er-y-thing. But we are all madly in love with her. She's pretty much the sweetest, most edible little thing around. I can't believe how much I don't accomplish these days because of her. I had completely blocked what it was like to have a newborn. I got a new iPhone a few days after she was born and because I am constantly holding, feeding, changing her- there are more than SIX HUNDRED photos of her on it now. Six. Hundy! Oh well. She's my life these days. It will all pass soon enough. So, anyway, that's our baby.

This post was a tad long-winded. So sorry about that. From now on, I think I'll just post pictures and captions (thanks for the inspiration, Ketryn) because I don't have a whole lot of adult interaction during the day, and I tend to ramble.

Excited to be back, people!

Hijacked

Thats right ladies...over one year!!! I'm here to appease the masses. I've taken over to quiet the crowd! So what if its been over a year, so what if Hillarie doesn't know what to write because it's been so long, so what if no one follows this blog.

I'm sure she will follow this up with a more complete post.

Girls on the salt flats with friends that moved away

Gone again

Our new (1965) car

NYC Library

Checking the menu at Brooklyn Bowl

Rockefeller Center

Our little "Artiste"

Lake Blanche Hike

Sand Caves outside of Kanab

The girls hangin in AZ

Yeah, I worked here for 3 weeks

We so hot!

Oh yeah, I worked here too

Disneyland was wicked awesome!

Air Show at Hill

We make the girls work for us

I don't know what to say about this one

Girls took ice-skating lessons

Cutie

High Expectations

Apparently quarterly postings aren't enough for some people. Talk about unrealistic expectations. Assuming I have stuff to write about more often than that may be a mistake. 

I've been sitting here for ten minutes now, trying to think of something good.

How about I just make a list. 

1. Olivia finished kindergarten yesterday. She has also recently tackled the Monkey Bars and is finishing up her first Soccer season. Go Rockstars! So, pretty much, she's an All-American six year old. I guess 'me and Eric mixed together', vintage 2003, is a winner. Not that we can take any credit for that humongous heart of hers. 

2. Frances is brushing up on her valley girl vocabulary. She uses "Like" and "Totally" mass times a day. She walks with one hand on her hip and has an artillery of fake laughs and cheeseball smiles that keep us busting up- even when we're trying really hard to be mad. I know exactly who she's going to be when she is 14. I'm frightened, but as long as she's still our perpetual hugger, we'll be okay.

3. Rikky-Tikky-Tembo. (Just another one of my sweet names for E-rock). He's gone again. I mean, if you are a stalker, he's right here beside me. Anyway, he'll be home any second......  Since Christmas, he's been to Alaska, England, Qatar, Turkey, Germany, Afghanistan, Washington D.C. and those are just the places he's put his plane down. He's been flying all OVER the place lately. Pretty nice "job" he has. And before you go saying "wow- bitter much, hillarie?" - I'm not. I know he's serving our country and all. I tear up every time I hear that dang "Proud to be an American song". I just miss him.

4. Hillarie. .............................. Oh, sorry, I fell asleep there for a second. Seriously, I've never been busier in my entire life and gotten less accomplished. At least anything measurable. I miss teachers and bosses and report cards and paychecks and constructive criticism and workplace politics. How in the wide wide world, am I supposed to know if I'm doing my job right? Where's my semi-annual review and my pat on the back? Where are my A's and B's and (occasional) C's? Blah, blah. Enough whining. 

But, please, if you are reading this and you are of the male persuasion-- go tell your wife (or whoever wipes your children's bums) that they are doing a bang-up job and that they are the most beautifulest, hottest woman around (you can leave out that last part if it's your mom). Even if they roll their eyes and push you off, they'll appreciate it.

Boy. I guess Eric's been gone too long. Yes, I'm lonely, OKAY?

See??? You can't squeeze blood from a turnip, people. That's all I got.

What movie: "SHA-awn... you and I are the same HEIGHT. THAT is neat." 

Hey Diddle, Diddle

NEWS FLASH: THE ABOVE PHOTO IS NOT THE AUTHOR'S BUM-CRACK.

SORRY FOR ANY CONFUSION, PEEPS.

I'm sitting on the couch with my copy of Eclipse (of the Twilight Saga), perusing Facebook, watching High School Musical 2. Wow. I'm really disappointed in myself but I think I'll survive. These are the guilty pleasures that I get to enjoy when *someone* is halfway around the world. Small consolation. Even worse- Franny just asked if she could have some cheese and I told her to bring me the brick with a butter knife and I would cut her some. Ouch. Whatever. I did, like, eight loads of laundry today.


Yesterday Olivia had a nursery rhyme parade at school. She chose to express her sweet self as the Cat and the Fiddle (I was so excited to have something to sew- making the ears and tail felt disproportionately awesome but still left me tad unsatisfied.) What a cutie-cuterton! She did SO WELL. They went to four or five classrooms and recited their chosen rhymes. It was a proud, proud moment.


The girls have obviously been missing Daddio and today Fran picked up this shirt and said "Is this Daddy's? Do you think it will fit into my jewelry box?" When I regretfully said that I didn't think so, she settled for wearing it around the house for a while. It breaks my heart and makes me feel unbelievably lucky at the same time. They love their dad so much. 

Bam? Cinda? Toby? Sunny Pete.

'Sunny Pete' has taken the lead. But I still can't say it comfortably. 'Sunny' was my contribution: sort of an ironic salute to her color and quiet personality. 'Pete' came from the marathon screenings of 'Little Rascals' in my home this week. I like the combo but I just can't seem to move beyond 'darn dog', 'little turd', and 'okay, so you're gonna poo right NEXT to the potty pad? Nice.'

This is my bed. I made it. I'm going to persevere. At least I have a backbone this time. My own children still do not go to sleep without songs, backscratches, stories and sippys. The puppy, however, she gets a nice pat on the head on her way into her crate. She's in the half bath downstairs and by the time she starts protesting, I'm in my room with the fan on full blast so I don't hear a thing. Now, those of you who think I'm cruel- I've been reading the 'experts' on this subject. Dogs are 'den animals' for your information, and they love their own space. I'm embracing that. 

So, without further delay, here's some poorly lit pictures of our newest little trial: I give you Sunny Pete.

Three

Fran finally got her party. Seems like it was coming forever, 'snowman' stuff piling up in every corner of my house. I should really start planning only a week in advance because the more time I have, the more money I spend. And at this time of year, chances of me seeing something with a snowman on it while I'm out is about 100%. Anyway- it's OVER! It was really fun.


Pretty manageable actually. I was bracing for 18 kids but my friend with 6 didn't make it and that cuts out a whole third (for those of you who are still struggling with fractions) and one invitee was sick (we missed you 'A') so 11 was great and not too much.



Fran is usually so spritely. It figures that she would have three small meltdowns in 90 minutes. Oh, well. She really DID have fun.

Holy Facebook, Batman

I'm supposed to be cleaning the house. I'm supposed to be getting Liv ready for school. I could be showering. Feeding the chillun. Baking. But I'm not. 

It started innocently. Eric joined because he wanted to check out a friend's profile. After he got a couple 'invites' I had to try it.  

Facebook. It sucked me in. I used to make fun. Now I am one of them. 

So that's why I have been sorely neglecting my blog. I'm going to attempt to form some coherent thoughts, but my mind keeps wandering back to my list of 'friends' and my invites. "Did Janna reply to my invitation? Has anyone written on my wall? Is Erin back yet?" Erin lives down the street, I could just open my door and look! It's terrible. Yesterday, Eric asked me "How many friends did you get today?" He isn't as pathetic as me but he's hooked too. 

Anyhoo......moving on. I don't really have too much to report. That probably has something to do with my recent preoccupations. 

Eric took me shooting the other day (which I posted on my Facebook page).

He has a deployment coming up and I'd like to feel a little more comfortable with the firearms we have. They weren't built for women, that's for sure. I had bruises and my muscles were sore for days. But it sure feels good to shatter a clay pigeon or bust open a jug of water. I wish I could post the video. Each shot I squeezed off was followed by a short uncontrollable gutteral burst. Kind of like a tennis player- you know how sometimes when they hit the ball they go "UGH!" or something? Or when you're birthing a baby (although I'm not a big fan of birth noises). But it was actually because every shot startled me so bad. I couldn't get used to it. So... moral of the story, don't sneak into my house at night while my husband is away because I have some guns and I'm not super proficient yet so even if I only aim to maim you never know.........  I should make a little plaque that says that for my window, huh? 

We had a fun Thanksgiving. Went to Mindy and Jon's with Gabe and Jen. It was perfect actually. Everything looked, smelled and tasted lovely.
We played some games and I found out SOME people are real sticklers for 'rules' (kidding, Gabers). We didn't get tons of pictures but for some reason we ended up with these beauties-

it looks like Eric was trying to get some sweet wedding announcement background shots or something. 

So after that, we went to Dave and Delightra's so she and I could do some Black Friday shopping. Wow. I underestimated her gung-ho-ness. We got to Wal-Mart at 11:00pm Thursday night. 

This is Delightra at 11:30- there was already guys in lawn chairs by big TVs. The sale didn't start until 5AM!! Yes... we scoped and strategized for 6 HOURS. I seriously was afraid for my safety when they finally gave us the word. But we did get everything we wanted, pretty much. Then it was off to Target, Kohls, and Costco. Nutballs. 

Next on the agenda: Franny's birthday party!
We had cake for her yesterday on the 'real' day, but her party will be Saturday. I'll be sure to post some pictures! (You might want to check my Facebook too, just in case).