Kids are so funny

Yesterday Marin handed me the phone and asked if I would please call Cinderella to come and play with her. She was totally serious. I tried to explain to her that Cinderella was very busy being a princess and probably wouldn't be able to come, but she was quite insistent. I finally got her convinced that Cinderella lives at Disneyland and we would go visit her soon (my parents are planning a trip there in the Fall). Marin told me that Cinderella was coming to her wedding too. She's been telling me that for a couple of months now. She's going to love Disneyland!

Little Tubing Clubber in Training

You all remember my husband being the president of USU's official Tubing Club right? Well if not, he was, and he is training his posterity to follow in his footsteps. He took Marin tubing for the second time this winter to a spot in Logan where there are some huge hills. He said the first time she was a bit nervous to go by herself, but then she LOVED it! This time around she wanted to go down the big hill right away and tried going on her tummy too. He said she pointed to a huge hill with trees (off limits for tubers) and wanted to go down it. When Mitch told her it wasn't allowed, she started crying-- yes, he was very proud. Mitch told her she can go down big hills with trees on her skis. I hope this girl likes to ski because she has a season pass for next winter and will be hitting the slopes with her dad come first snow in December. She'll be 3 1/2 by then-- Mitch figures if she really works at it, by the time she's in middle school she'll be a great ski partner for him. Sadly, I will never be a great ski parnter for anyone. But I will sit at the lodge with hot chocolate, a good book, and treats and chat with my sister Avree (who will be doing the same thing) while our husbands ski with the kids-- or maybe we'll go shopping. Anyway, here are some cute pictures of Marin tubing with her daddy:

Jackson Hole

Mitch and my brother Blake went snowboarding at Jackson Hole last weekend. According to Blake it was the best time he's ever had snowboarding in his life (and he has spent quite a bit of his life snowboarding). Mitch was seriously praying all week for some new snow, there wasn't a ton, but they did get about 4 inches of new powder. Mitch's brother Ashlee went too and was happy to report that after a four year absence from skiing, he still had it. Mitch said it's like riding a bike... like he would know, he would never go that long without snowboarding or his head might explode or something. Here are a few cute pictures. My brother is a hottie don't you think?


Corbet's Couloir beat Mitch this time. Time was, he would have probably done it... but under strict orders from his wife to remember he had one child and another on the way and not to do anything too risky, he decided there was not enough powder. This is as close as he got.

The Sweater Vest Dilemma

Okay, first I have to explain this picture. I was going to make a posting about sweater vests, so I Googled "sweater vest" for a picture (that's what good bloggers do... they have pictures to go along with their ramblings) and this is one of the images that came up. I just couldn't resist putting it here on my blog!

Anyway, so I am posing a question to the throngs of readers who read my blog (ha!)-- what do you think about sweater vests for guys? Now my preference is generally with a shirt worn under them... although if my husband wore one like Mr. Cool up there to work he'd really attract some attention. Anyway, the reason I ask is that recently I was shopping for dress clothes for Mitch (he rarely shops for clothing for himself-- electronics or sporting equipment shopping is a completely different story though) and I got him some nice button-down striped shirts and some sweater vests. He doesn't have to wear a tie to work unless he's meeting with a client, but he does have to wear button shirts and slacks. I think sweater vests look hot on guys (well on my husband at least), but sometimes I am out of touch with fashion-type things. When I showed Mitch his new clothes he raised his eyebrows a bit over the sweater vests. He said he was going to get a lot of crap at work about wearing them, but he was a good sport about it and has been wearing them (side note: I tried to buy him some tighter jeans than he is used to wearing, not that I like tight jeans on guys by any means-- but Mitch still thinks he is a 15-year-old snowboarder/skater and likes to wear his jeans a bit baggier, thus disguising his hot behind-- but it was a no-go.) Well, he gets lots of comments at work every time he wears a sweater vest. In fact, every one of his co-workers said at least something about the vest the first time he wore one. One of his co-workers (a lady who is one of my favorites, she's hilarious!) said all he needed was a bow-tie to complete his look! I don't know if I trust a bunch of CPA's to lend me fashion advice...so, fellow bloggers, what do you think? To sweater vest, or not to sweater vest??

You know you grew up in the 80's if...

A friend of mine forwarded this list to me... it's probably an e-mail that's been going around forever and I'm just now getting it, since I'm usually the last to get these things. So if you've already read it, here it is again. But I LOVED it! I could answer "yes" to every single question (except the one about carrying a boom box around, I never did do that one). And not only do I know the names and life stories of every cast member of "Saved by the Bell", I can quote every episode almost word for word! Such talent, I know....

1. You've ever ended a sentence with the word "PSYCH!".
2. You can sing the rap to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and can do the Carlton dance
3. You know that "WOAH" comes from Joey on Blossom
4. If you ever watched "Fraggle Rock"
5. It was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.
6. You wore a ponytail on the side of your head.
7. You got super-excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.
8. You made your mom buy one of those clips that would hold your shirt in a knot on the side.
9. You played the game "MASH"(Mansion, Apartment, Shelter, House)
10. You wore stonewashed Jordache jean jackets and were proud of it.
11. You know the profound meaning of "WAX ON, WAX OFF"
12. You wanted to be a Goonie.
13. You ever wore fluorescent clothing. (some of us...head-to-toe)
14. You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like before his nose fell off and his cheeks shifted.
15. You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.
16. You took lunch boxes to school...and traded Garbage Pailkids in the schoolyard.
17. You remember the CRAZE, then the BANNING of slap bracelets.
18. You still get the urge to say "NOT" after every sentence.
19. You thought your childhood friends would never leave because you exchanged handmade friendship bracelets.
21. You ever owned a pair of Jelly-Shoes.
22. After you saw Pee-Wee's Big Adventure you kept saying "I know you are, but what am I?"
23. You remember "I've fallen and I can't get up"
24. You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates.
25. You have ever played with a Skip-It.
26. You remember boom boxes and walking around with one on your shoulder like you were all that.
27. You remember watching both Gremlins movies.
28. You thought Doogie Howser/Samantha Micelli was hot.
29. You remember Alf, the lil furry brown alien from Melmac.
30. You remember New Kids on the Block when they were cool...and don't even flinch when people refer to them as "NKOTB"
31. You knew all the characters names and their life stories on "Saved By The Bell," The ORIGINAL class.
32. You know all the words to Bon Jovi - SHOT THROUGH THE HEART.
33. You just sang those words to yourself.
34. You still sing "We are the World"
35. You tight rolled your jeans.
36. You owned a banana clip.
37. You remember "Where's the Beef?"
38. You used to (and probably still do) say "What you talkin' 'bout Willis?"
39. You're still singing shot through the heart in your head, aren't you!

Read The Directions!

It's time for a new post that doesn't involve bathrooms (side note: I never even thought twice about mentioning the "p" word in my potty training post, but got several comments on it. I work in the hospital, we talk about it all the time and I forget not everyone does. We do have a little nicer terminology for it, more medical-sounding, like "BM" and "flatus", but I do apologize if I offended anyone's sensitive ears :) Well anyway, nothing truly exciting or blog-worthy has been happening in my life, but I will post what has been going on anyway.

So a few weeks ago I took the dreaded glucose tolerance test-- you know the one where you drink this fun stuff:


and then get your blood drawn. Well, if you read the directions carefully, it says to eat a regular breakfast, wait at least an hour, then drink the Glucola, then you're supposed to get your blood drawn in another hour. Now I am not the type of person to read directions carefully. I know, it's a problem. My husband is the exact opposite of me in this respect. He insists on me reading the entire user's manual for every appliance or electronic device we own (including the new freezer in my garage-- seriously, what is there to know? It's cold, it freezes our food...that's it). So the morning of my test I ate a breakfast bar (which turns out has a surprisingly high amount of sugar in it) and then quickly wolfed down this drink so I would have it done in time to wait an hour before my doctor's appointment.

So last Friday at around 5:00 I listen to a message from a nurse at my doctor's office saying that my blood glucose level was a little high (I found out later, only a few points above the cut-off), so I needed to go into the hospital lab and get a 3 hour test done. I was literally on my way out the door to go visit my parents in St. George for the weekend when I got the message on my cell phone, so I couldn't get the new test done or find out what my level was until I came back on Wednesday. So-- all weekend I was counting my carbs like a nazi (I am a dietitian, remember) and freaking out thinking I had gestational diabetes. Yesterday I went in for the 3 hour glucose tolerance test--a.k.a. test from he**. I had to go in fasting for 12 hours and get my blood drawn, then drink TWICE as much Glucola as the first time, then wait an hour, get my blood drawn again, wait an hour, get my blood drawn again, and wait ANOTHER hour and get my blood drawn AGAIN (hence the name, "3 hour glucose tolerance test"). All the while I had to stay at the lab and couldn't go anywhere. Thank heaven Avree watched Marin for me! So after all that, at my appointment this morning, my doctor informed me that all my levels were fine...almost low actually. I asked if eating breakfast at the same time as drinking the drink would have affected the first test-- turns out, yes. She looked at me so nicely and said, "Oh, I'm so sorry you had to go through all that for nothing," but I'm sure she was thinking "Read the directions next time you idiot!" So that is the moral of my long story... reading the directions is a good thing and saves you trouble in the future. I believe I will cross-stitch that on a pillow and read it often!

Addendum to below posting...

Okay, after reading over my potty training posting, I realized I made it sound a bit easier than it actually has been. It really hasn't been that hard at all to potty train Marin, but there is a little more to the story. A few months ago I started letting her try going on the toilet. She would go pretty sporadically... at first it was a fun game, but then got old. Then I made this Tinkerbell sticker chart- where every time she went potty on the toilet she got a sticker and when it was full she got the movie. Anyway, it was fun and worked at first, but then she lost interest.... This whole time I was letting her wear pull-ups or diapers, never real panties. So I waited until after Christmas and put the pair of panties on... she had one tiny accident, where she told me she needed to go and we weren't quite fast enough, but that's it! In two weeks! It's not my amazing parenting, I didn't do anything special, it's that Marin was good and ready to be done with diapers. I still put a pull-up on her at night and about half the time it is dry the next morning. And she's had some issues with pooping in the toilet...I won't go into amazing detail there. She's getting the hang of that too though, pretty quickly. I seriously think it's because a) she's a girl, everyone says they're easier to potty train, and b) she is old enough and ready. I just thought every kid got potty trained when they were 2. That's why I've been stressing about this for months! But the more people I talk to, I realize that it's usually closer to 3 years old when their kids finally got it. Marin is 2 and 8 months so I feel pretty good that she's got the hang of it! It seems like there is all this pressure to get your kids potty-trained so soon, and I totally felt that, but now I'm a big believer in waiting and not stressing you and your kids out. But I'm sure every kid is different. Anyway, there's the rest of the story....

Oh, and thanks for the name suggestions. I like all of them! We've half-way decided on Kate Elizabeth, but it's still open for consideration!