Smorgasbord

It's time for another edition of blogger smorgasbord, a de-cluttering of my brain, if you will.

• I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween. I absolutely love how happy it makes my kids (and my husband.) I love seeing them all dolled up and looking adorable. I love stealing the "good" candy from their treat bags. I HATE the lame candy that seems to linger in my house forever. I hate the fighting over when they can and cannot eat their candy. I hate the bickering about who's had how many pieces. And I get really tired of all the wrappers every where, on the floor, in the car, outside, inside, in pockets, in my purse and inevitably in Luc's mouth.
• We went to the fair last weekend with my parents. It was fun and the food was, well it was fair food, which means it tasted good in a weird "I think I might die of a heart attack if I eat any more" kind of way. The fair attracts a certain kind of person. It's one of those places that makes me feel really smart. Not because I am but because there are some really, um, let's say, "less intelligent" people there. We actually overheard one guy tell his girlfriend (or cousin, not sure) that "sheep don't have teeth." And another lady explain to her friend that the "chicks are 22 days old, it says right there 'gestation 22 days.'" Ok. Nuf said.
• My fridge. Does anyone else struggle with this. I love my girls' drawings and art work and I know they love seeing me put it on the fridge for them but it drives me nuts. Fridge clutter is one of my pet-peeves and I'm just learning to deal with it. Seth and I have taken to using the "someday" term to refer to pretty much everything we want but can't/don't have right now. Well I will "someday" have a clean empty fridge (on the outside, hopefully it will still have food on the inside.)
• I grew up in Washington and have inherited a devotion to the Seattle sports teams. Which if you know anything about sports you know is not the greatest of inheritances. But I've loved them and supported them and hated them and given up on them and loved them again, year after year. Well the Seattle Sonics (basketball) are gone. No longer to haunt my winter and spring with almost but not quite good enough teams. They are now the Oklahoma City Thunder (what a wussy name) and while I should be grateful to be rid of them I am sad. I don't have a team. I need a team but haven't quite given in to the Suns mania. Maybe someday. Or maybe I'll pick a team that actually wins championships and enjoy being on top for once.

Surprisingly there's still de-cluttering to be done but I fear I have lost most of my dear readers by now with my overload of nonsense. So I will stop. Oh wait one more thing, my beloved Utes are ranked #10 in the country right now!!! GO UTES!

Too Soon

Seth just opened the following can of worms:

McKay: Who's is that?
Seth: It was mommy's when she was a little girl.
McKay: I don't remember mommy when she was a little girl.
Seth: That's because you weren't alive yet.
McKay: I wasn't?
Seth: Nope we made you.
McKay: You made me? How did you make me?


Me: You open the can of worms you deal with the can of worms. Not it.

Color Shock

I have lived in AZ for almost 3 years and finally last week on the deadline for registering to vote I went and got an AZ licence. I know you must be in shock over how extremely efficient and timely I am. But that's not what this post is about.

After standing in line for 25 minutes I was given a simple application to fill out. Name, Address, Prior Addresses, you know all the normal stuff. Then I got to that dreaded identification line where they ask you all those super personal questions that are really none of their business and honestly if I were to put 110 would the guy behind the desk have the nerve to say "um I don't think so sweetheart, can I have you step on our scale?" No. So why ask the questions and make me stress over my answers. I like to say I'm 5'2", I don't know that I've ever actually reached the full 2 inches but since I know they won't put 5'1 3/4" on my license I just round up, so I feel pretty good about that. Weight, well who really knows? Between pregnancy and post-baby weight loss I'm not really sure what my "average" weight is. And honestly I don't care, as long as my jeans fit over my butt I'm good to go. So I just took a guess and hoped he wouldn't produce a scale from behind his little desk. Neither height nor weight gave me much trouble on the application.

It was the blasted hair color question that I milled over and nearly made me miss my number being called. I've always been blond (unless you count that time in college when I went for a nice burgundy color and nearly got kicked out of Ricks for having "extreme hair color.") I was a toe-head as a toddler and while it darkened gradually over the years I've still always considered myself blond and done my darnedest to convince others of that too. I highlight my hair just to add a little bit more blond. But I AM BLOND. Right? So feeling like blond is my true hair color, the color I whole-heartedly embrace, I checked the little BN box and called it good.

Forget the scale, judging from the picture I should be grateful the nice gentleman didn't pull out a mirror.

Love Tag

Tagged right at the right time. When I'm bored and can't think of anything worth blogging about.

*What is your husbands name? Seth Ryan
*How long have you been married? 5 wonderful years.
*How long did you date? Dated for 3 months (though it seemed A LOT longer), engaged for 5 mo
*How old is he? 28 (3+ years younger than me)
*Who eats sweets? He does, although his sweet tooth has rubbed off on me
*Who said I love you first? He did, he wrote it on my hand while we were driving from WA to UT after meeting my parents for the first time.
*Who is taller? He is.
*Who can sing best? Definitely him, I can't sing to save my life.
*Who is smarter? That's a dumb question, probably him but why would I admit that.
*Who does laundry? I do. I do. I do.
*Who pays bills? Me, except for some unknown reason he pays just the cell phone bill.
*Who sleeps on the right side? I do.
*Who mows the lawn? The landscapers. (doesn't that make us sound snobby!)
*Who cooks dinner? Me. Unless it's grilled cheese sandwiches.
*Who drives? he does unless I'm sick of dealing with the kids then I do.
*Who is first to admit they are wrong? Him. Always. I need to work on that.
*Who kissed who first? he kissed me and I liked it.
*Who asked who out first? He did, kind of. He made it sound like he was just paying me back for a favor I did for him but it ended up being a date.
*Who wears the pants? I pretend like I do but in the end he's the more logical one and better at making level headed decisions so he just lets me pretend like things were my idea all along.

If you were reading this and at any point thought "this would be fun to do" consider yourself tagged.

3 Comments and that's it.

1. Thanks for all the "hissy fit" advise. I was in serious need of an outlet and I think mostly what I learned is that I do what everyone else does and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

2. At this very moment there is a pot of homemade chicken noodle soup on the stove and homemade rolls in the oven. I think I have finally become a "homemaker." Remind me to give you all an awesome recipe I found for big soft pretzels (like the one's at the mall that you pay $3-4 for.) Delicious and CHEAP!!!


3. GO UTES!!!

Hissy Fits

What do you do about TANTRUMS?

Ignore them?

Try to reason with the child?

Lock them in a room?

Punish them after they're done?

They don't happen all that often at our house but sometimes we can produce some real doozies, like right now. An unnamed child is in the living room screaming because I said no more applesauce this morning. So how do you handle fits?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMBALL!!

So much to cover about this past weekend but nothing as important as my little angel. Happy 3rd Birthday Kimball Pants.

Top 3 Things I Love about Kimball:

3. She is so smart. She was talking in sentences at 20 months and although she's rather shy she always has brilliant ideas. Her latest coming to her while she was on the top bunk in time-out... "hey dad wouldn't it be fun if we put a slide on the bed, that would be a fun way to get down"

2. She is extremely compassionate and thoughtful. We were at my in-laws a couple weeks ago helping trim some trees and she ran past me into the house saying she needed to get some waters. I asked her who asked her to get them water, she said "Nobody, they just look really thirsty." What a sweetheart.

1. She makes us laugh. Constantly. We're hoping to get past the toilet humor, right now she knows how to make us crack up by talking about poop or bums or other bodily functions and while it's a little "8 year old boy" for me she does have impeccable timing. And if you laugh at what she says you will most definitely be rewarded with her amazingly contagious belly laugh.

On our way to St. George for the weekend celebration - as far as she knew the whole trip was about her and her birthday.

Thank goodness for a child who wants something other than chicken nuggets for her birthday meal. Pizza Factory... mmmm that's almost worth the drive just by itself.

I just love this picture, Luc's face is like "is this really what I'm going to have to put up with for the next 15 years?" Yup. Sorry bud.

After Birthday Lunch we went to this great little water structure at city hall. They had a blast.

Then Saturday after the race we had a party in the park. All she asked for was a butterfly cake and a pink hat.

You know you're in Utah when...

I love these little quirky things about Utah, love them now that I get to see them as an outsider.

Run, Sethers, Run!

I don't run. I try every once in a while. I even pretend to like it for a little while but in the end I just don't enjoy it. I spend the whole time looking at my watch or trying to force myself to go one more block. I think it has to do with my inability to entertain myself with my own thoughts. I get really bored. Ok, maybe it has to do with the fact that I'm lazy but I'd like to blame it on something other than that.

Seth on the other hand enjoys it. He enjoys it most, I think, when it's mixed in with some other type of exercise like biking and swimming but none-the-less he enjoys doing it. When we were dating I kind of resented his running. I felt like it took the place of some of "our time." It didn't take long for me to figure out that "our time" was more enjoyable if he got his running time as well. So I thought I was a pretty darn good girlfriend/fiance when I had no issues with him running a marathon the week before our wedding.

I've now realized I may have been a better girlfriend/fiance than I am a wife. That was the last marathon he ran. He had done 5 or 6 in as many years (pre-me) and now it's been 5 years since his last one. Ooops. Sorry babe. But he's doing St. George this weekend I am really excited for him. I hope its not another 5 years before the next.

GOOD LUCK SETHIE-POO!

Side-note: McKay was extremely disappointed to find out that daddy has no chance of winning this race. Her poor little heart just broke, when I told her he wouldn't be "first" and she was mad at me for my lack of confidence in her hero. So cute.