Day 6 - Books

Day 6 - Your favorite book.

Huck Finn - A classic which has been my "favorite book" since high school. This book makes me laugh out loud and I simply love every part of it.


Mitford Series - I have a tiny old-lady crush on Father Tim. When Josh grows up, I hope he become a rector.


Anne of Green Gables - A bathtub book.


The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - There are a few lines from this book that are a permenant part of my vocabulary. ("Love to Little Johnny and more to you,") and I immediately fell in love with the entire society.


In a nutshell I love book which are "charming" and "delightful" just as much I love boys who are "sharp". It's the 80-year-old inside me.

Day 5 - TV

Day 4 - Your favorite television program.

I wonder how many times in 30 days I'll have to explain my hatred for favorites.....

Wanna know what I'm watching right now?

24

Obsessively. Whoever the idiot was that thought "we'll just tell 1 story a season instead of 24 stories a season - it's brilliant!" should be hung in town square. Because I don't have 24 hours/story! Yeesh. Also I can't stop watching. It's a physical impossibility.

How I Met Your Mother

I didn't just laugh out loud - I snort-laughed last night while watching this. But only in the most graceful way you know?

Bones

Yes, I have to close my eyes during all the icky parts - but I still can't seem to turn it off. So so great!

Santa Haters - it's genetic

Remember how Tommy didn't love Santa?

While I was looking for childhood photos for Day 4 I found this beauty. 

Amy meets Santa

Santa's beard certainly has become more curly and less flowy hasn't it? 

Day 4 - Baby Amy

Day 4 - A photo of you as a child

When I was a little girl my older siblings used to chant at me
Baby Amy, Baby Amy
What's underneath your nose?

To which I would proudly respond "My wips!" (lips)

See, I was adorable.

OK it's totally against the rules to put more than one - but remember? I'm cool. So breaking the rule doesn't bug me.
See?
Rebel.

This photo is meant to be taken at evidence that I did look good in overalls at one point in my life.

Preschool

When I saw this next picture I realized that Tommy does look like me. He does this non-smile thing that melts my heart, and I never in a million years would've guessed that I did that smile too. But I did. My mom's heart must be putty.

1st Grade

Dear Mom,
Thank you for accepting this as my school photo for the year and not requiring retakes for "a real smile".
Love,
Amy

Although my mom was not so into taking a million pictures of every little thing - I do have a few photos that were not school pictures.

My cousin, Gina, and I being dancers. I'm the chubby one on the left, Gina's the beautiful willowy elegant one on the right. Some girls get all the luck.

My first self-portrait. Little did I know I would become VERY good at the self-portrait.

You're gonna have to blow this one up to see me in it - but the better part is my daddy. Isn't he dashing? This might be my new favorite picture of him. One black dress sock on pulled up to mid-calf. One RED BYU sweatshirt (Whose idea was that? And how many of you want one?). And of course he's wearing the smile that must have won over my mom back before the dinosaurs. Who wouldn't fall in love with that smile? He melts my heart too. 

Christmas morning
I'm the tiny girl in the middle who is apparently trying to suffocate the cabbage patch doll.

In Style

He heard that "pants below the booty" is still the style.

The teenage years are gonna be awesome in this house.

Day 3: My Favorite Movie

Again with the favorites?

Well....

Honestly I can't even think of one movie I would dare call my favorite.

Well, except this one from last night.

And I'm certain it doesn't count as a movie - but unless you want an incredibly long list of 12-year-old girl movies and stupid comedy shows, you're gonna have to just live with that.

Also this is Tommy's favorite movie and has had him laughing that hard all morning.

Day 2: Songs I Love

Day 2: Your favorite song.

It's not fair to say "favorite". Especially not about kids or music or books.

So knowing that, here are a few songs I absolutely love. Love love LOVE. But they are not my favorites because I don't have any.


Yes, I know. Veggie Tales. But it's just so dang funny! Cucumber dancing around in a towel? Genius.

And most things by Mat Kearney make me smile. Because oooh....I just love him.


And if it's snowing (or July...whatever) this Christmas song by BNL.

And if I'm in a summertime, windows down, outdoor acoustic concert kind of mood, Jack Johnson fits the bill.


There's just so much good music and so little time to listen to it all. Meh, take a minute and listen, you're welcome.

Day 1

Day 1 - A recent photo of you.

You see plenty of photos of me. Almost always recent.

So I'll see that "recent", and raise it "current".

That's scary because I now have short hair and just got back from a jog.

Shield your eyes!

Eh, that actually wasn't as bad as I thought..... never mind, you can open them.

30 days (because 29 is a weird number...)

Dear Mal,

Who designs a 29 day blog plan? I realize it wasn't you - but doesn't that bug you a little bit? I'm adding Day 30 (From another friend's blog who is doing the same plan.) and will be bitterly disappointed if you don't do the last day too. :D 

Dear Readers, 

I have been challenged by Mal. (Have you met Mal? If not, you should go read her blog and then you can come back and thank me for introducing you to one of my uber-cool friends. You're welcome.) And I am on a quest to prove that "I'm cool." this year. ("I'm cool." should be said whilst shrugging shoulders, raising the hands slightly and cocking the head to one side as if to say - "I'm cool".) I think that accepting challenges contributes to the "I'm cool" I'm going for. Yes?


OK here's the challenge.

Day 1 – a recent photo of you

Day 2 – your favorite song

Day 3 – your favorite movie

Day 4 – a photo of you as a child

Day 5 – your favorite television program

Day 6 – your favorite book

Day 7 – a picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest

Day 8 – your favorite quote

Day 9 – your dream house (description or photo!)

Day 10 – a photo that makes you happy

Day 11 – a photo that makes you angry/sad

Day 12 – something you are OCD about

Day 13 – a description of what's currently in your handbag/purse/diaper bag!

Day 14 – a photo of a person you’d love to trade places with for a day

Day 15 – a photo of yourself and a new friend you met this year

Day 16 – a song that makes you cry

Day 17 – your favorite website

Day 18 – a photo of your favorite memory

Day 19 – a picture of somewhere you’d like to travel

Day 20 – a talent of yours

Day 21 – a hobby of yours

Day 22 – a photo of your wedding/future wedding plans

Day 23 – a photo of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently

Day 24 – a recipe

Day 25 – your worst habit

Day 26 – a photo of where you live

Day 27 – a photo of someone you could never imagine your life without

Day 28 – your hopes, dreams, plans for the next 365 days

Day 29 – a picture of something you want to do before you die

Day 30 - a photo of yourself today + three good things that have happened in the past.

Also, (as with any good blog challenge) you tag other people to do it too because we feel less foolish if we're not alone. If your first name is Emily, Megan or Ashley (or Ashlie) consider yourself tagged!

Dear Ashley,

Remember how I never learned to do my hair? And remember how we thought I could handle it? We were half right.

See how cute I am?

But then there's this side....

And I can't get that wonky curling business on the left side of my face (in the photo...it's really my right side)  to do what is should, add one widows peak and I look exactly as frumpy as I always do. *sigh*

I wonder if I'll ever grow up.

Love,
Amy

PS I've had nothing but compliments since you did it - THANKS!

I'll help!

Believe it or not, Tommy is a fabulous helper with a lot of things.

He loves to load and unload the washer and dryer. (And then he closes the doors to the machines AND the doors to the closet!)

He always pulls the silverware out of the dishwasher and hands it to me to put away.

He fixes his own toys (while sitting on the toolbox).

He also likes to bring things to people.

But I think the thing he's best at helping with is giving loves.

Chillin'

During breakfast this morning Tommy started whining a bit, I told him to "chill man" and he did.

I laughed, and so did he.

We're just so funny around here!

Good Morning Beautiful

You should probably try to be friends with my friends, because your life will be better if you do. In an e-mail from one of them this morning, she ended with the line "you are beautiful!". I laughed because this morning I'm far from beautiful.

[the crowd chants pic-ture! pic-ture! pic-ture!]

Okay okay....

I made Tommy sit on my lap for a photo in hopes of distracting you from the overwhelming *ugh* I'm putting out there. This kid is always cute so I figured the law of averages would apply and it would be a less hideous picture, then he went and made his drugged face. Dang it!

The average cuteness of this photo is still brought up by his presence, but I was counting on him bringing it a little more - you know?

It's OK, the cuddles made up for it.

Anyway,
Dear Aundrea,
See? I told you "beautiful" was not the appropriate word this morning.
Love to incredible liars, and more to you,
Amy

Can't Beat 'Em? Join 'Em

Sometimes you drop your snacks.

You could cry about it....

Or you could just get comfy and eat them anyway.

Cubies: A CSN Review

Remember how I got to do a CSN Review?

Well here's what I picked.

They're called cubies and I really like them.

The wall above my bed has been empty since the day we moved in. (And in the house we lived in before this one, and the place before that....) That's because I have issues. Some of those issues have to do with my lack of ability to decorate. Others have to do with my inability to spend money on stuff you look at - but not really because who sits and looks at the wall above their bed anyway? Also my husband's inability to spend money period. Also my inability to commit to looking at one thing for the rest of my life.

So, I picked these because they were 1) Free 2) totally changeable (for when I get sick of what's in there) and 3) built-in cuteness.

I ordered them just before Christmas, they came just after Christmas. They got here fast in great shape and I love them!

So:
Dear CSN,
I love my cubies. I also had a good experience with the company in general and I would totally order from you again - if you had what I was looking for.
Thanks, Amy

Scandalous!

My daddy Santa gave me something to wear for Christmas.

It's totally backless.

He probably didn't know that when he bought it though, because I didn't know it until I put it on.

That's because all the pictures I've seen of this item, look like this:

They don't really highlight the backless nature of the Snuggie. They're busy highlighting the arm-full nature instead.

But when you're wearing it, you feel more like this:

Backless nature = highlighted.

Somehow that face (above*) is a lot cuter when you're in a wedding dress (below).

*Aren't you glad I labeled which was the Snuggie and which was the wedding dress? I could've had some really confused readers I think...


Thanks for the awesome present daddy. I promise not to wear it in public.

Music To My Ears

First, let me set the stage:
[The very quiet sounds of Tommy stirring echo through my silent house as the sun starts to peek through the windows.]
[Or maybe the "echo" was because I have 2 monitors in my 1200 sq ft house....whatever, Tommy was quietly stirring, we heard it in surround sound, that's the point.]

Josh: "Can I go get my boy? Please?"
Me: "Uhhh, just to be clear, you're asking for permission to go in there and change the overnight diaper and get him up and ready for breakfast?"
Josh: "Yes. I didn't get to see him yet this week."
Me: "Knock yourself out."

[Now the sounds of the doorknob squeaking and Josh sneaking into Tommy's room "echo" through the house.]

Josh: "There's my boy!"
Tommy: Smiles. I can hear it. He smiled.
Josh: "Whoa - you got some snot-boogers in there dude?"
Tommy: Frowns. I can hear it. He frowned.
Josh: "Where's that sucker thing?"

[silence while Josh gears up for the battle]

Tommy: SCREAMING! You can barely hear the snot sucker over the screams.

You wanna know why it's music to my ears? Because (for once) I'm not the one causing the screaming.

Back to School

Josh does not love school.

You'd think so, but you'd be wrong. He doesn't. It's hard for him. He doesn't get high on supplies and syllabuses. He doesn't have a "cracking of the spine" ceremony for his new books. He hates the tests and homework and teachers. But he's willing to do school anyway, because he likes learning and he really likes the idea that he'll have a marketable skill at the end of it.

But last night the kid came home with 3 new 3" binders, dividers, sticky notes, highlighters and a couple reams of paper. He spent 3 solid hours printing off the material he'll need to follow along in class this week. He organized it all and put it where it goes and told me all about the stuff he'll be doing this semester. He read his textbook (because he thought it was interesting) and studied WAY past his normal bedtime. This semester? He's excited. He's motivated. He's high on school. He's like....me!

It's going to be a rough semester, but his sudden burst of motivation and interest just might carry all of us through it. It's only day 3, but I today have high hopes.

The Zoo

Josh's mom gave us Zoo passes for Christmas [and the peasants rejoiced] so we used them while Josh was still on break.

Were you wondering how many people go to the zoo the week after New Year's when it's 21 degrees outside?

Not many.

But we do.

Possibly because we're on drugs.

I spent a lot of time saying "Look Bubbah! This is where the ________ would be if they weren't smart enough to go where it's warm. But right now it's just a desert wasteland because we live in Utah."

Then, suddenly, there was an elephant!

And then I got to say "Look Bubbah, this is a big fake elephant, let's sit on it!"

Josh spent most of the time saying "Touch it, it's poisonous!" (The zoo is gonna love us....)

The demon-monkey scared Tommy to death when it ran straight for the glass with it's arms waving around above his head screeching like a maniac. But this monkey was nice and just did tricks.

So did the mamma (be nice and do tricks).

It was a blast, and even though the big animals were hiding, the lizards, snakes, monkeys, and "tropical jungle creatures" were rad. 

Egberts at the Zoo

Want my advice? Go to the zoo when you don't feel like you have to see the whole thing. We skipped the giraffes and hippos and giant ape-monkeys, (and who knows what else) but that was fine because we'll be back soon and we don't have to see them all in one day.

Anyone wanna join us for our next outing?

A Puzzle

Here's what happened:

December 30th I opened The puzzle and started sorting. Josh helped by mixing the previously sorted border pieces with the middles. 

December 31st the missionaries came over and completed the border and got all excited when I told them they couldn't have dinner until they found THAT piece. Before the border was even complete I was positive THAT piece was missing. Positive. 

The missionaries didn't find it, but I let them eat anyway. Lucky missionaries. 

All night long we worked on the puzzle, and put a tablecloth over it to play real games, then worked on it again. 

January 1 - 7 Amy tells Josh he can't go to school until the puzzle was done. She threatens him with his life and forces him to work on it against his will. She forces her to work on it against his will too. And I sortof neglected my child - but in my defense, he's really bad at puzzles! THAT piece has become the running joke. "They puzzle factory probably pulled it out so we would hate them." "The putrid feds took it. They take all the best stuff." 

January 8 Amy completes the puzzle at 11:30pm while Josh falls asleep in the bathtub. 

 Are you thinking "why didn't you put in THAT last piece?"? Well, look closer.

Singing "one of these things is not like the other....one of these things just isn't the same...."

The bonus piece is a duplicate from the other side of the puzzle.

I think that Wanda, a linewoman at the puzzle factory, gets bored on Thursday afternoons, so she randomly pulls two pieces from the same print, but different puzzles and switches them before the box is sealed. Wanda is livin' on the edge.

Meanwhile....back at camp

Josh and I have been trying to party all week long so that he could enjoy the last few days of freedom before school begins again.

The first two weeks of school are looking exceptionally ugly. Classes, tests, orientations and papers (written in the testing center) from 8am - 7pm every day of the week. (With an hour break for lunch.) Plus school is 45 minutes away, and he'll be working, and doing homework after that. So.....yeah.

We finished the puzzle, went to the zoo, saw Harry Potter, sat around, played Wii, played the new board games and somehow managed to leave 4-5 things left undone.

There were more things we wanted to do during the break, but with Little Smurf's disease-ridden body, we've done as much stay at home stuff as possible.

Let's all take a deep cleansing breath and hope nobody dies over the next 4 months.

Sickie Won't Be "Sickie" Anymore!

It was all better, I swear it was.

This was day 3 of no puking, so we officially declared him well first thing this morning. That's a lie, we declared him well after dinner last night when we remember what an angel he normally is. 

Clearly that was a fool thing to do because it's currently 3am and I think that nobody in our home has slept yet tonight. That's not entirely true either, I napped a little on the way home from the zoo, and Josh napped a little during movie night. Guess I'm not into honesty tonight. Tommy woke up at 7:30 with a fever, we rocked and sang and tylenoled and rocked and sang and tylenoled.

He went back to sleep for an hour around 11.

He woke up just cried. He cries and cries and cries. He's miserable. And he really doesn't want me to hold him. He wants to snuggle with his daddy, but only if they're watching Signing Time together. Strangley his daddy doesn't thinking that Signing Time is an appropriate activity for 1am. Weird. So at 3 he finally gave up, handing me the babe and digging through the drawer for some earplugs.

Tommy was sick (throw-ups) last week, but then we had an appointment with the Dr. so he got better the day before that. It's not his fault, that's the natural law, and he has no power over things like gravity and the "never sick at the Dr." law. Don't hate him. Then he remembered he was sick and stayed sick for the rest of the week. Until he got better. Just in time to be sick again.

I used to wonder if I had an extraordinarily "easy child" and I was just a pansy for thinking being a mom was still hard. I wondered if he cried more or less than other kids. I wondered how much fussing was normal. But mostly I wondered if I would refer to him as "my hardest baby" or "my easiest baby".

Now that I'm dealing with the first sickness at 15 months in, I don't wonder anymore.

One thing I love about Tommy.....

One thing I love about Tommy is that he is so so good at kisses.

Sometimes while he's playing I'll say "Tommy, do ya got any kisses" (my mother would die if she knew I was teaching him such poor grammar.....sorry Mom.) and he stumbles across the room to me and puts his forehead on my lips for a kiss. I give him a kiss, and he puts his forehead up again for more. Then he turns to look for dad so he can "give dad kisses" too.

Someday maybe I'll catch it on video (because I know how you love the videos....) but in the meantime just imagine the sweetest thing you ever saw and that'll be close enough.

Josh plays Joseph Smith

Yesterday was time machine day in Primary (the children's class at church). Our Relief Society Presidency built a time machine around the door that goes from the Primary Room to the outside parking lot, and they periodically ask people from the ward to come and "be" scriptural characters.  They come through the "time machine" and talk to the kids about what they did. 

They've had Noah, and Moses, and Nephi, and all the greats. 

This week they needed Joseph Smith, and Josh got the call. 

So we borrowed my brother-in-law's Amish hat, and put on a vest and wha la. 

Joseph. 

Add caption

It was a bit of a crazy day, because although Josh's "part" was only 10 minutes long, it overlapped with the time that I was supposed to be teaching Relief Society. So really, neither of us could take Tommy. We would've just had a friend watch him for a few minutes, except that he's a human puke factory and we didn't even dare take him in that building with so many brand new little ones floating around. 

So instead we kidnapped Cami and she came to our house on Saturday night, slept over, entertained us and watched Tommy while we both went to (some of) church. 

Whew! What a day.

Josh's b-day

Remember how the older you get the smaller your birthday gets? That's today.

It's Sunday, and fast Sunday, so there weren't even pancakes with a candle for him.

I did tell him Happy Birthday when I woke him up this morning, then promptly ran out the door.

Yesterday I tried to take him to see Harry Potter (even in the real live theater!) for his birthday, but it was sold out. Did you know that everyone in the whole wide world goes to the movies on New Year's Day? True story.


So this birthday was kindof a bust.

Sorry babe. Hopefully next year will be better.

Tommy learned to fake laugh

Listen, some things make you laugh out loud, like this:

Other things you are willing to give a courtesy laugh to, like this:

But some things make you throw your head back and REALLY laugh, like this:

Eat your heart out Gramma Reilley.

Ringing in the New Year

We stayed up all night long playing games.

No really.

All.

Night.

Long.

My sister and her family came over, to keep us entertained.

Also Josh invited the missionaries over for dinner on his way home from work. We had about 45 minutes' notice, but they hung out for quite a while, and made some serious progress on the puzzle, which is great news.

Logan kept busy jumping back and forth.

The older boys were thoroughly entertained with the Wii.

And the old boring ones played words games because we're cool like that.

After our husbands went to bed, Sarah and I stayed up talking until 4am.

That's not me next to Sarah, that's her husband Clint.

When Tommy woke up the next morning, everybody was asleep on the living room floor so we hid in our room trying to be quiet and not wake everyone else.

It was probably the best New Year's Eve we've had in a looong time. I'm so glad the Hunters braved the storm to play with us!