Lexie

Flip Video

In case anyone is interested in a review, I really like the flip video camera. I know that the quality on the youtube videos looks horrible but that is because its so compressed by youtube. The picture quality is pretty good for a $130 digital video camera, the color of somethings leaves a bit to be desired and the mic is only good within about 12 feet. The editing is super easy and upload even easier. It was well worth the price IMO

The kids swing, giggle, etc

Meet Ana as the Evil Queen/Hannah Montana singing Rock Star :D

The Evil Queen because she has on some super dark eye makup and lipstick, she had been playing the evil queen part in a play she and her friends put on earlier in the day. She is mad at me for not redoing this since you can hear the swings squeeking int he background, maybe later well do it again.

Meet Gage, Kung Foo Panda

Entitlement

Entitlement has been on my mind lately, people always think they are entitled to this and entitled to that, even my kids or maybe especially my kids. Just today I was reading about how a group of ladies thought they were entitled to ane explanation, and well Im just not sure why they feel entitled and yet at the same time they feel people on the other side of the issue are not entitled to their feelings or humaness or to an explanation of their own. Entitlement is a funny thing though, ususally only the owner of the feelings of entitlement sees it that way.

Ill say this though, its been for research, years of research. You see Im writing a book.....

Digital Video- Flip Video Ultra

I am so psyched. Last week I ordered The Pink Flip Video Ultra and it should arrive on Monday. Mostly I want it for our upcoming Dland trip but Im betting it will get alot of use since it is so small and compact. I cant wait to play around with it though, and since its supposedly really easy to upload directly to Utube, I can torture my online friends with videos of my kids soon :D. Next weeks blogs should be full of video for your viewing pleasure :D.

Again with David Cook

I am unendingly impressed with this guy, he is so talented. It matters little who wins Idol at this point really, he is by far the best in my book. Though I think Kristy Lee Cook could make some great country albums and Carly could sell alot of albums with the right songs and even Brook if she would do something that fits her, alot of what she had done on Idol does not fit her

Getting Chickens, Yah....

Yah, were most likely going to get some chickens!!! Gonna keep em in my garden to eat bugs and lay eggs for us :D, actually maybe not in my garden, dont chickens eat everything. Im trying more and more to rely less and and less on the grocery store!. If only I had room for a dairy cow for milk and a cow to raise for beef. Also planning to get an apple tree and some grape vines and a replacement clementine and nectarine tree, the dog ate the first ones we got, rotten dog :D

Ok so maybe a strange reason to get excited but I am :D

98 degrees, EEK!!!, DH is Dead-Meat and Nim's Island

That is our projected high for today, Im so cleaning the pool and going to costco to get Lexie a floaty boat, I hope they have those floaty boats for babies this year!! I am not ready for 98 degrees, but I know its really time, today at 7:30 I walked dd to school and I was wearing shorts and a spaghetti strap tank top and I was good and warm cause it was already over 70.


So I was playing guitar hero last night with the kids and I turn around and dh is video taping me, I am so embaressed, I really get into it when I play :D. I must come up with an evil plan to get back at him :D. Im open for suggestions....


So we saw Nim's Island Sunday with the kiddos. What a great movie, so family friendly and so imaginative. Im glad we chose it. DD was sure she wouldn't like it, but only cause she wanted to see Horton Hear a Who more. She was happily surprised to love what we watched ;).

We are all excited for Speed Racer and Journey to the Center of the Earth too. Gage is always running around doing the speed racer sound, and is dying for the helmet they have at Target, I wonder if he will still like it by Christmas, I was thinking of getting it and putting it back till then. That and the Wii game, it comes out next month.

Dancing Cactus

So on the way home from taking dd to school this morning my son looks at me in all seriousness and says "hey mawm, remember when we were camping and there were dancing cactuses up there."

I drew a blank for a minute and so he goes on to elaborate for me.....

"You know, the ones dad said are electricity and they jump and were electricity and we jump"

Sure its crystal clear now right :D. But out of this I got what he really meant. He was talking about cholla of course and yah, you sure dont want to go near that stuff, it will certainly bite yah ;). You could swear they really do jump at you and dh told ds that he thought it was a static electricity attraction that did it, that was where the electricity came in :D.

Eating, Hazardous to your health

Im a research fanatic, I LOVE to read, learn, research. And what good is learning about something if you dont use it to better things right? So this morning while I had a bit of quiet time I was researchign neurotoxins. A topic that has been on my mind as of late. Just yesterday dh and I were eating chinese and discussing soy sauce as a neurtoxin due to msg that is processed into it. I came across an informative article and am just newley digusted at how many foods you cant even enjoy without ingesting some fairly common neurotoxins.

http://www.evenbetternow.com/als-diet.asp

I mean milk and cheese and cottage cheese for gods sake. I can do no milk now, Ive gotten use to it for Lexie's sake but I LOVE cheese and cottage cheese. And the most sickening of all, the fact that baby formula has msg in it. Isnt that lovely, I knew this of course but it bothers me still, each time I read about it.

http://www.truthinlabeling.org/formulacopy.html

And another fun tidbit, crop sprays that contain glutamic acid, which is pretty much msg (and yes I realize that glutamic acid is an amino acid that is one of the necessary things for building proteins but when you have to much and in odd forms that its processed into it becomes toxic) are in use around the US, so basically you cant even eat fresh veggies from the grocery store without getting msg in your diet. Disgusting, totally disgusting. Just do a google search for msg crop spray.

http://www.truthinlabeling.org/IVhistoryOfUse.html


The more I read about foods, diet and the bad things in them, the more I think I have found my calling in dietetics :). I am pleased with that, seems the third time is the charm. From computer networking, to english lit, to dietetics :D. I think to Ill specialize in children's dietary needs, it will more closley match my ultimate goal of becoming a lactation consultant. Ill have a pediatric sort of dietetic practice :D

Princess Destructo

Thats the nickname Miss LeX has earned herself. We all call her that, but in particular her brother does, one can hardly blame him though, she can eat light sabers and legos pretty fast. She is like some crazy tornado doing the army crawl. A mini whirlwind on hand and knees, an Arizona dust devil picking up and tossing around everything in her path. She can destry a room in less than a minute and she cant even walk yet!! She went from barely able to sit herself upright unassisted-to crawling-to standing and now-to cruising in less than 2 weeks. Im sure walking is very shortly to follow.

Yesterday I found a screw hole cover/plug in her mouth, I cant even dig these things out on purpose because they are flush with the door, HOW she got it out Ill never know. I find her in the pantry chewing onions and potatoes if I turn around for two seconds when Ive been in there. I cant leave anything in her playpen cause she trys to climb out already by piling things up, at 9 MONTHS OLD. And now to top it all off, she is a biter. Ive never had a biter before, I mean yah I had to teach Gage not to bite while nursing, Ana too, but Lexie bites any appendages she can get in her mouth and somehow that includes shoulders, OUCH!!

Children of Men

So, they are talking TV series for this movie. I LoVEd the movie in the sense that it was VERY thought provoking in all that it did not say, all that it left to the imagination, all that it didn't have time to address. Such as WHy weren't the people of the world able to conceive and birth children anymore? Why did main man and sort of main woman lose their baby (forgive me for forgetting their names, its been several months since I saw it and being a nursing mom, well, I can only remember from hour to hour ;), it sucks your brain dry you know ;). Where did they, main man and birthing woman go later, after the child came. How is this like when Jesus was born as various people have sited other than maybe it gave people hope? How extensive is the network of helpers and how corrupt is it? Is pots smoking helper man dead, even though we probably think he is, and whats up with his wife anyway?

This was a great movie with so many thought provoking starts of story lines, it was a sort of smorgasbord of possible literary discussions, unless you name is Anjelica and you dont like that drawn out stuff, but hey whatever ;), you might be busy learning to be a nurse or some other important shit.

But seriously, I could get alot from a tv show about this and Id love to see it play out. Though Im concered the tv people wont be up for all the violence involved. And like Journeyman, Im concerned it will go the way of all cult favs, canceled prematurely.

If you not hip to this great movie, you can be by following this link, well worth the trip, I can assure you ;), plus you can see some of the answers to the questions Ive already posed if you not to lazy to read....

http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/reviews/2006/childrenofmen.html

The Dangerous Book for Boys and The Daring Book for Girls

LOVE LOVE LOVE these books. Got them for my kids a while back, were having fun learning the new things in them which in my case is remembering alot of old things. Got them for half price on ebay, so glad I did!! Granted Gage is a bit young for alot of things in the book, but he can enjoy some of it now and much of it later. DD is up for a whole lot of the book now but has some things to look forward to in the future as well. She is pretty excited about alot of things she is reading about :).

http://www.dangerousbookforboys.com/

http://www.daringbookforgirls.com/

Gila River Trip

Family Camping!!!!

So we thought we wouldn't get to fit in a family camping trip this year which was a bummer since we skipped last year due to me being very prego and then having a newborn. But DH had an unexpected two days off due to no work (yah for his salaried position) and dd had a spring holiday on Friday!! So we threw together a camping trip in a matter of hours and off we went after school got out on thursday.

It was a new adventure for all of us, we usually camp in the Dairy or Double Springs camp grounds up in the Mormon Lake area just outside of Flagstaff. But wow, who wants to camp in snow country this time of year, NOT US :D. So this time we drove an hour south of us to Florence, AZ, and then drove 20 miles into the middle of the desert to find a spot on the Gila River. Gila is pronounced like Hee-Luh for those who dont know.

We camped up on a platform area above the river, it was just a quick trip down a small hill to the river and we had a wonderful view of it from our spot.

We spent our days exploring the area, found a spot that was shallow enough to wade into, thank goodness, because the kids were dying to play in it and the area accessible to vehicles has become to fast and to deep during the spring from the snow runoff. We had the whole place to ourselves the first day and that was so quiet and peacful.

We fished, we played on the sandy beach, we roasted marshmallows, drank hot chocolate, and told scarry stories by the campfire. We even did a good dead and spent over an hour one day picking up trash other had left and then hauled it out when we left.

And of course we forgot some important things, like cups and tongs and bowls. So we drank coffee out of tin cans after they were empty and the kids ate cereal out of a small frying pan and well we had to use fingers and a spatuals for tongs, ouch!!!

We didnt catch any fish, the river was awefully fast for much fishing with the bait we remembered to bring (forgot the worms at home in the fridge). But we brought some fish from home and had that one night. Cooked it up with butter and lemon in foil packets over the fire along with some zucchini, onions, tomatoes and garlic. So yummy!! And of course we had the traditional dutch oven potatoes, bacon and onions one night, I dont think I can even tell yah how good these are, until you have had dutch over potatoes, you have never turely appreicated the potato ;).

We had a scare on our last evening camping on the river. All my life camping it seems there is always some type of scare, bb's in eyes due to ricochet, heads cracked open from boys throwing rocks, and other various things growing up. This was one of those things you play over and over in your mind seemingly just to torture yourself though. And because Im a mother I also think of all the ways it could have been worse, Ive been waking up in the night thinking about it over and over since it happened......

We were down at the river, playing in a spot that had been dug out into a little island, a spot where it was shallow for several feet and had a trench the kids could play in "safely". We were talking to some people from the Florence area, all of our kids were playing, taking turns jumping to and from the little "island".

Im a very protective mother, sometime maybe over protective, but this day I thank god that I am and that I dont take my eyes off my children around water.

Gage, never taking us seriously at his age, was not careful enough when jumping to an from the island and fell when he jumped. He went head over heals into the river and began to panic. We were all right with him and he was pulled out immediatly but it was scarry none the less. Had we been less vigilant parents things could have turned out very badly. Since that evening Ive by watching my son secretly (cause he doesn't like to be stared at ;)), hugging him extra and just thanking God that we still have Gage with us. Treasure your loved ones, you never know when you might lose them.

Despite our scare, we had a great time and met some very nice people, and had a great family camping trip. Next month a whole week at Disneyland :D...