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The letter of the day for our home mom preschool today was ....you guessed it ....y. Because I have had the flu and because I am supposed to be super busy packing....of course all that I did was spend a couple of hours getting ready for preschool. I am a master of avoiding the things that I'm really supposed to be doing. Instead of procrastinating important things like um...packing to move....or ummm resting because I feel yucky....I just substitute other things that are kind of important, like how to entertain some 3-4 year old for a couple of hours.

Here was our "Y" Day.

We rode a Yellow Bus (i.e. kitchen chairs) to Yemen. (We looked at a world map to see where in the yell that was.)

We visited some Yaks that were hiding in a Yurt. (okay, we just made silly yak faces while hiding in the bunkbeds.)

We made Yoda Masks and then....

We had a Yelling Yoda contest.

and...a Yawning Yoda contest.

and...a Yodeling Yoda contest, finished with singing the Austrian that went Yodeling song


For a snack - Yogurt and Yoda Soda (green lemonade.)

All in all, not a terribly educational day, but it worked. Tomorrow is our yard sale. Yup - you guessed it. I got burnt out today, tomorrow will be a little less exciting...I might get gutsy and pull out some yo-yos though.

Books Books and More Books

I just bought another two book shelves. That makes a grand total of 9! Yikes. It is no wonder that when we bought our home I made sure it had room in an unfinished basement to add a library. While cleaning, it has been fun to go through all of our books. I have 4 bookcases, plus 3 baskets full of just kids books -(books for kids about 5 and under.) I think I'm in trouble....if I have that many for toddlers (and my kids really can't read yet....) what is going to happen when they actually start reading???? I suppose I may have to get rid of some of my books. But for now, I am heartily enjoying them.

There is a problem, though. problem is that I get soooooo bored reading kids books. The repetition just kills me. I hate reading anything twice. (I also ate watching a movie more than once, too. We never buy movies for us. They just sit there. Boring - seen it once, don't need to see it again.) So, instead of reading the same ones over and over I've just trained my kids that if they want mom to read to them they have to read new ones. I have developed a really bad habit of buying lots of books since having kids. It's so hard to pass them up when they are buy 3 get one free at Savers at only 59 cents a piece. In San Diego our libraries always had some on sale, and I would buy some new ones every week, with the rationalization that I was only supporting our local Friends of the Library Program. I just love books, and hate reading the same thing twice.....oh on top of owning all these books we go to the library weekly. Sometimes multiple libraries. I have a card in both Weber and Davis County. We check out basketfulls of books. Books are great. They are also hard to clean up :) Anyhow...here are a few pictures of us enjoying our new bookcases.

A few of my recent favorite books include (but certainly aren't limited to....)

1. David books by David Shannon. I fell in love with these when Cade was a toddler and no surprise, after having a David, he gets these for Christmas/Birthday/ etc. I think we only have one more to complete the set, oh...and then there are the David dolls. My favorite page is this one..."Come Back Here David!" We love all the David Shannon books, and the Pirate Books he illustarted, too (Pirates don't change Diapers and How I Became A Pirate - good books.)

2. Tana Hoban books - these are old school - but awesome. I love the pictures and how you can talk about them with a 1 year old and a 4 year old at the same time. They work for many levels and many concepts. Her books inspired me to try my own Tana Hobanesque book a few years back. It is the book at the top of the picture. I entitlted it "Of Shadows and Shapes." I'm not really a photographer but I had a ton of fun making the book and putting together pics of random shapes all around me. It made me look at the world totally different. I secretely wish I were a photogorapher actually. I wish I had that skill. I think it would be tons of fun. I just don't think I have the natural talent or patience to do it. Dash it all.

3. Yummy Yucky. David gets a kick out of me reading this and bluck bluck blucking and spitting. Yes.,....this is one of the few I HAVE to read over and over. I'm not totally immune from it.

4. This is My Hair. It makes me laugh. I love crazy silly kiddy board boooks.

5. George and Martha - this was actually the first present I gave to Eric. I had only known him a week or two, and this collection of stories of 2 best friends just seemed to fit. We sat down and read this together and laughed and laughed. My favorite story: The Tub. "George was fond of peeking in windows. One day he peeked in on Martha. (cut to picture of Martha dumping tub on George's hippo head.) He never did that again!"

6. Sandra Boynton Books with music - Dog Train and in particular Mooo Mooo MOooo Quack Quack is our favorite around here.

7. I asked Cade what his favorites were - he picked these 3. Nutmeg (about a little girl who has a spoon that stirs up her house), The Incredible Book Eating Boy (so funny, the little boy eats books and turns green and vomits etc....), and The Stinky Cheese Man.

8. Other classics we love - Joe on Holiday, The Happy Dresser, Dr. Seuss, Curious George, Helen Oxenbury, James Marshal fairy tales, What Color is Your Underwear, Dr. DeSoto, Star Wars anything of course, Richard Scarry - especially the funniest story book ever, books...I could keep writing for hours, but my head hurts and I need to lay back down. Stupid flu. I have a hard time resting....so this is as close to resting as I get. Blogging about books. Somewhat relaxing. Too bad I can't lay down and do it.

IF YOU HAVE ANY FAVORITE KIDS BOOKS PLEASE COMMENT AND TELL ME YOUR FAVS!!! I"M ALWAYS LOOKING FOR NEW SUGGESTIONS!!!! THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!

Cleaning out the Cobwebs

So in preparation for moving soon - I am cleaning. I am a cleaning fool. I hate cleaning. I am bad at it. It stinks. Okay, moving on. It feels good AFTER it is done for sure. I think I hate it because I am a sentimental-sappy-sue. I get cleaning and it brings back all these memories which brings back all these emotions, which is why I have such a hard time throwing things away. I'm getting better at it though. It helps that my kids are really rough on toys and tear them to shreds. I have no attachments to most broken bits, and neither do they.

I keep getting flashbacks though to the last week before we moved from San Diego. Permit me to spill my guts if you will. I've never REALLY moved from there. I just haven't really moved on. I kind of got stuck there. I HATE change, and I'm really bad at adjusting to it. It has been a year and a half and I still haven't moved on. I think it is time, now though.

That was a CRAZY week. They had these horrible wild fires. Of course we had no air conditioning inside (who needs it in South CA? HA - everyone -cheap-o landlords.) The smoke was awful and the air quality was soooo bad. The fires were pretty darn close, so we had to keep all our windows closed. It was hazy and smoky, and yeah, you were supposed to stay inside. This really made me miffed. I had 2 pages in my journal of everything I HAD to see and do before I left just one last time. I only got about 10 of them in that week. Several of those....were against the advisements to be outside. I was very pregnant, too. I had David 3 weeks later. Pregnant, elderly, children were especially supposed to stay inside. Phooey on that. I had to see my ocean several more times, even if it was hard to breathe by it. As we loaded the truck - we realized we didn't get a big enough truck. We had to leave stuff behind. Pack rat Debby. I still miss my old broken park bench :( I take comfort the new owners have kept it on the porch though. It was kind of a dismal time.

Eric had a creepy experience that week, too. He was in the garage cleaning and boxing stuff when he heard someone screaming. He ran out to see what was going on. Some lady had been in the hot tub and wasn't breathing. The guy didn't know how to do CPR - so someone was running and knocking on everyone's door trying to find someone who did. Eric was the 2nd person there. He did chest compressions and cleaned out her mouth vomit. Yuck. He is still haunted by it a little bit. It turns out she had been drinking and she had been down in the water for quite some time. The paramedics didn't really even try. But, still yeah...CPR and knowing what you are doing are VERY important. Here's a link to buy a kit to teach your family. This is not a certification, but is better than knowing nothing. http://saturn.igetsmart.com/servlet/loaddaemon?Type=92&Load=ahacpr&Field1=62942&Field2=0&Field3=0&Field4=0&Field5=1

Or here is a link to the Red Cross to sign up for a class. http://www.redcross.org/portal/site/en/menuitem.d8aaecf214c576bf971e4cfe43181aa0/?vgnextoid=46de1a53f1c37110VgnVCM1000003481a10aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default There's my plug for CPR.

Anyhow....hopefully this move will go smoother. We are about a week away from closing. So far, the only thing wrong is that I failed to get a flu shot. Naturally, I end up with the flu - the real flu - as in diagnosed with a culture at the Docs - and a really bad sinus infection to boot. Oh well, I can handle that. It still is easier than my last move.

I am officially....moving on. Hopefully emotionally this time, too - not just physically. I really don't recommend moving somewhere and not being ALL there. It kind of makes for a rough year :) I think I just had the chance to live somewhere REALLY great. I think I will always miss it and a big part of my heart will always be in San Diego with all my great memories and with all the wonderful people I met there. It is somewhat easier, most of my friends from there have also moved on now too. Things change....and thankfully there is room enough in our lives to keep growing and embracing new people and new things. You just have to be willing. I think I am finally to that point. It took me long enough! Zukes!

On the last moving day with Leslie and her daughter Ava. October 2007.

Cade says good-bye to San Diego - and moving day spent at the beach while Eric did all the grunt work. The Big Truck - not too much fun to ride in for 16 hours when you are that pregnant. Okay, okay, I actually rode in the car. Still not fun.

Date Night and a Plug for The Village Green

On Saturday, Eric and I decided we had had enough. Enough cleaning and packing that is. We had been at it all day trying to get ready to move. We decided we would go out on a date. We rarely do this anymore (we should, though.) We called a baby sitter and an hour later we were off. This neighborhood has a TON of willing and able sitters. I wish we would have taken advantage of that fact more. Cade snapped a pic of us on our way out the door. He got a camera for his 4th birthday. I should post some of his work - it is not half bad. It's fun to actually get pics of Eric and I together. Cade takes a lot of them, too.

We went to a play at the Village Green in Clearfield called the Complete Works of William Shakespeare, abridged. It was hilarious! We laughed and laughed and laughed. It really covers all of his works in 90 minutes. In fact they do Hamlet 4 times. Slow, fast, faster, and backwards. I knew that I was in for a treat because I knew all 3 of the actors. I have worked with them in past shows at the VG. Eric thought they were hilarious, too. Mandie, Bryan, and Spot - you are all so great! If anyone lives nearby, they have another few shows this weekend T,F, and S at 7:30. It is well worth the 8 bucks.

I'm so glad that I found the Village Green. Cade's preschool teacher's brother partially manages it or something. In December they were frantically looking for a pianist for She Loves Me, a really fun musical. I was bored beyond belief and totally missed performing....so I said sure. I went into it thinking - okay, low budget, untalented, community musical. They surprised me by being good. (And super kids friendly!) Lots of couples with little kids were involved and totally supportive of taking care of the kids while sharing your talents. It ended up being pretty high caliber. Yeah, they don't have hardly any money yet...but they managed to garner some really quality people. Here's the link to their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=70839805231&ref=share

In January, they asked me to play for a Pirates of Penzance Sing Along. So FUN! Yeah, I knew that I would be playing for this audience interactive show. What they didn't tell me was that I would end up singing a solo TWICE! Yikes. There are reasons why I became an instrumentalist. It was painful. They had signs that the audience members could hold up at the end of songs - signs like "Double Time this Song" (good thing I LOVE to play super fast,) or "Swap Gender," or the one that got me in trouble....."Swap Charachters." Who would've thought to make the pianist and the Cop switch? I survived and had an absolute blast making some fun new musical friends.

So...here is my plug for the local business The Village Green. It is by the drive through Baskin Robbins -YUM!!! in Clearfield in the same complex as Sparetime. They are just getting started, but I think they will have success. It's hard to say though...I have never seen so many community musicals and plays in one place before, though. Utah is full of them. Only in Utah do you see billboards - yes - billboards advertising High School Musicals like Showboat. (!!!!!) It cracks me up. Silly musical nerdy people we are! At any rate, it is a fun place and I'm glad I have finally found SOMETHING to keep me performing. It has been a switch going from playing every year at Copley Symphony Hall in San Diego, to a little theatre that doesn't even have a stage....but it is a great place. I totally LOVE the people I have met doing this, too. They are soo much fun and so genuine, and still terrifically talented. I think that in a few years they will really start to see more business boom. There is a lot of potential. We have another musical coming up this summer that I get to play for - HOORAY! I'll post some more when I get some more details about it. I just got asked on Sat. night, but can't even remember the name of the show. Should be fun, though!

A Little Green and a Big Bowl

So I used to not decorate anything...and I'm still pretty crummy at it. Cade gets SOOO excited though when we put up any kind of decorations. So, I've been doing just a little bit. I've really been letting Cade come up with ideas and then I kind of help, but not too much. So....if anything doesn't look perfect - it is because a 4 year old did it, right? (That's my excuse for not being crafty, anyways.) Cade helped me make the banner with the rainbow, and he made a hat for David's "Brobee" and we had a lot of fun.

"THE" Big bowl

I finally found a use for THE bowl - the bowl that kept me up a couple of nights - seriously. I put the bowl to use as the pot of gold under the rainbow. This bowl was the bowl I got from RC Willey. On President's Day they had a sale at RC Willey - and they handed out $25 gift cards to the 1st 200 people. I roped Eric into going with me and we each ended up with one. We had planned to put them together and get a new Wii game. Then - we read all the exclusions on the back of the card. Pretty much - you couldn't buy anything with the gift cards. No games, or computer stuff, or movies - just expensive stuff or the little knick knacks hanging around the store. We did find a hand blender perfect for making smoothies - which was perfect timing considering I lived off smoothies for a few weeks. We still had $25 left to spend, though. I perused the store for a good 2 hrs. I was trying to find the perfect object to decorate my house with - the perfect object priced at 26 - 30 dollars so I didn't have to pay much for it. In frustration I settled on the big brown bowl seen in the above picture. I came home and the dumb bowl kept me up for a few nights. It bugged me. I got this ugly bowl because it was different - but I didn't have a use for it. It bugged me because it reminded me how crappy I am at making decisions. I take forever to decide something, and then half the time what I pick wasn't the best choice....or was it? So this bowl made me wax stupidly philosophical. (I can't even spell that right for sure, I shouldn't have said it.) It made me lose a lot of sleep. But, I finally found a use for it and it worked out in the end. Things always do, right?

Puddin' Head Wilson

In high school I had to read the book Puddin'Head Wilson by Mark Twain. It seemed like an appropriate title for an entry of David with pudding on his head. We had a lot of pudding in the house - thanks to my gum surgery. Living a liquid/soft food diet was not a whole lot of fun. I got really sick of pudding. I ended up giving it to the kids in the end.

Here are some pics of my very own Puddin'Head - David Wilson. I love messy babies. Especially when Dad is home to clean them up!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Here's a pic from the Library Luck o' the Irish Party in Layton we went to on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. I guess they have free family activities every month - I'll have to go more. They had the usual cake walk and fish pond, and story time - but it was fun. I'll try to get some more pics up of our festive house, too. We have shamrock lights and we even made a rainbow - go us! Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!

Our First Home....finally!

Above: The view from our home

Below: A few pics of the new place

So....we are finally going to become 1st time homebuyers near the 9th of April. This has probably been the most difficult decision I've ever had to make. I feel truly blessed to have such a pretty 1st home. It's not really a 'starter' home, but we have been saving for many years now. It's been kind of hard because in my heart I really want to be living somewhere else. (Portland is my dream city currently.) I want to raise my family somewhere else and most importantly ---- I need some kind of sunshine! I think I got spoiled in San Diego. I had no idea I could be converted into a sun-dweller, or even that it mattered that much to me, but it does. I really want to be somewhere where I can be outside more often, and that is really much more walker friendly. I truly love to walk places, and Utah just isn't walker friendly. The weather stinks most of the time, and it just is designed to be suburbia heaven. I miss the city!!! I miss my piano students and music opportunities, but have faith something will open up for me here too. I think if we lived in downtown SLC, I'd be just fine...but we really don't want a 40 minute commute, or the more expensive housing. Anyhow, we decided that since the economy stinks, we are going to be in Utah for at least a few more years. There really isn't a better time to buy a home (thanks $8,000 tax credit, most likely another $6,000 tax credit in Utah on new homes - and low interest rates.) So, we are moving to Syracuse. Syracuse, Utah that is. (I wish it were New York....maybe one day...but what a dumb name for a town in Utah, though. Copycats.)


We got a great deal on a brand new home in Sawgrass Meadows by Liberty Homes that has been sitting on the market for some time - it was a custom build that fell through. We love it, and it's....well....an AWESOME consolation prize for having to live somewhere I really don't want to be. I can't complain. I'm very blessed. We don't have neighbors yet, or a yard, or blinds, or a fridge...but I'm excited to see it improve and can't wait to meet new people as they build, and hopefully get some piano students! So....here are a few pics of our home. The master bedroom is my favorite. It has a fireplace and a deck with french doors that walk out to some stellar mountain views. I LOVE the unfinished basement too. I can't wait to put all the toys down there and totally declutter the bedrooms of our boys. Our 1st offer got laughed at, but we let them sit for a while and think about their interest....and came back and got in....so here we go. Off to a new home and new adventure.

Private

I never seem to want to write in my blog anymore.....that is probably a lot of laziness, a little of craziness, and a touch of hysteria about security. So...I think that I am going to go private. I'm not sure how this works, but I've seen others do it and it seems to work well. I might actually be more motivated to write and then I'd put some pictures up of the kids, etc.... so if you want to follow my new private blog I think you need to send me an e-mail and then I send out an invitation. My current e-mail is debbydawn@gmail.com.

THANKS!