Conversations

I was just in the kitchen with Elena and she said,
"you know what?" (her new phrase) "Dalton say da da, and I say BE TWIET DALTON."
(Me) "Well that was rude."
(Her, laughing) "Yeah, I know it."

She just cracks me up sometimes. Ema came home the other day with a cheer she learned from a friend at school. It goes something like, "to the back, to the front, to the side, to the side, let me see your butterfly." Elena says, "watch this, mom" and jumps around laughing and says "front side back, wha me hee your butterfwy." I don't think Ema does it when she does the cheer, but Elena kinda shakes her hiney on that part. I know it's not supposed to be cute or funny, but it is a little bit! She's actually shaking her whole body, but that is the part that shakes the most. She is a big ham.

Ema has been dressing up for school this week. They are having their drug free week and each day is a different theme. Some seem like they are stretching it a little bit but oh well. Like "crazy against drugs" where they dress crazy-Ema wore 2 shirts, 2 different socks, and her hair in 2 low ponytails. She actually looked really cute. Tuesday she wore her chef's hat and apron because they were supposed to dress up as who they wanted to be when they grow up. Today she is wearing a Snow White dress that someone made and handed down to us. (The theme is our stories are drug-free) She thought she was supposed to dress up as a character that they've learned about this year, but I told her it could be anyone. (Really, how do you dress up as the Pied Piper or Anansi the spider? I need a picture.) Anyway she was self-conscious about it this morning and was afraid she wasn't dressed as the right kind of character. So I had to call one of our friends to avoid walking in with her in my pajamas, messed up hair, and spit-up on my shirt. Then she was okay with it because Ms. Terri said it could be any character from any story. She just reminded me so much of myself this morning. I am the type of person that doesn't like to look different or stand out. This is one reason I don't like Halloween because I always HATED trying to figure out something original and neat to be, and then wondering if anybody else was actually going to dress up. I guess most people go through that. Anyway I am proud of her for doing it.

Eli is still thinking he's going to be a rhinoceros for Halloween so if anyone has any ideas on that, please enlighten me! As usual I have waited for the last minute to figure something out. I put a pumpkin suit on Elena yesterday and she said, "I wook funny." I don't know if she'll wear it or not, but it was cute.

Is it just me, or do other people burst out laughing when nobody else is around? Please tell me I'm not crazy-maybe I just don't get out enough. I was cleaning yesterday and just thinking about things. The scrub brush I was using has rubber bristles and it can be used for many different things. I had ordered it from the FlyLady website that Kristi told me about. People on the website said you could use it for combing pets, or massaging someone's head (I know-random) along with all the other great cleaning uses. Anyway Daniel had a shaved head so he was sitting there and I rubbed his head with it. If you know Daniel, you know he just sat there, unimpressed.
(Me) "Does that feel nice?"
(Daniel) "I guess."
(Me) "They said it's supposed to feel nice."
(Daniel) "Okay. Yeah."
(Me) "It worked really good on the toilet too."
If you know me, you know I like to see how people react to things I say or do. Daniel is hard to get a reaction from. He might have thought it was funnier if I could have kept a straight face through it, but I couldn't. So he just smiled and let out a small chuckle. I love it when I can actually make him laugh, but it doesn't happen very often. Anyway I was thinking about that yesterday while I was cleaning and cracked up all over again. Then there is the other story that makes me laugh so hard. (If you all have other things to do, feel free to go. I didn't intend to write so much, but I'm getting a kick out of myself!) We were sitting around with our friends talking about hospital stays or something. One couple was saying that he had kidney stones and spent a miserable time in the ER and so the next time he had them, he knew what it was so he didn't go. His wife was telling the story and she said, "He was too stubborn to go to the ER again, so he just laid in that bed until he passed it." Daniel quietly leaned over to me and said, "note to self, don't buy a used mattress from the Carsons." I guess laughing is my stress reliever so I'm glad I have these stories to fall back on, when nobody is around to make me laugh.

I've wasted enough time now, but I will leave you with one final piece of advice. If you are ever in a car accident and it suddenly gets quiet, don't take your seat belt off. . . . you may be airborne. (I've been laughing at this one for 12 years. It never gets old to me!)

Finally some pictures

I know a lot of you have seen these already because Shellie and Arly have some up, but here they are anyway. We've got some more on our camera, but the battery won't stay charged up. This is going to be short because I am having to do everything one-handed. Left-handed even because Everet is comfy in my right arm for a few minutes anyway. He's been a little fussy lately so if I can't do something with only one hand, it hasn't gotten done. I try to get a few things done when Daniel gets home, but have been pretty tired lately. Go figure.

A quick review of the last 2 weeks: A very quick (for me) surprise labor and delivery, surgery to assure this doesn't happen again, a bunch of family visiting and helping (thank you all SO much), a 10-day vacation for Daniel (so nice to have him here-the kids couldn't understand why he went to work this week), a week of weakness and soreness (I had to hold my belly to laugh), a clingy, slightly jealous 2-year old, supper being brought to us almost every night (incredibly helpful), first times back at church apparently with sick friends, 3 of the 6 of us throwing up (I also can't tell if Everet is spitting up or throwing up-it's been spewing today), Eli and I have managed to avoid it. We had a trip to the doctor today for an unhealed circumcision and yeast infection. Eli also had one a few days after he was born-maybe because of the penicillin I had to get during delivery? The girls didn't get one though-weird. We've had many "get out of his face" scoldings, lots of just sitting and holding, and a bunch of sleepless nights. It has been great though. That's all I can think of right now. Hopefully we'll get into some kind of routine soon. And I think I need to go and get me one of those slings to hold him in. I haven't been to Wal-mart in 3 weeks people! That's a new record for me! And our bank account appreciates it!