Lazy Sunday

A little lazy Sunday fauxhawk action for you!

I'll never stop being amazed at Ivy's blue eyes. Ever.

Have I mentioned how much I love Bentley?

And how much Gwen hates being in any and all pictures?

Dinosaur ROAR

Blaine is off on a date tonight. I am a little jealous because his date is very beautiful! They are going ice skating, which left his date in a real predicament about about to wear. She wanted to wear a dress to look beautiful, but she didn't want to fall on the ice and scrape her knees. The resulting date outfit was the stuff of legends. Her Easter dress from two years ago, with jeans underneath and a purple zip up jacking that is a size too small over the top, with a winter coat on top of that. Add to that gloves that are three sizes too big, a winter hat and Christmas socks. Underneath all the layers her skin is covered with sparkly body spray, and I was asked no less than twenty times today if her lips were still sparkly from the lip gloss. She's been counting down the days. She's been thanking Heavenly Father for dates in all of her nightly prayers. She's been telling her friends. She wouldn't hold my hand today in the parking lot, insisting instead on holding on to the back pocket of Blaine's jeans, even though Blaine had Ivy on his shoulders and Bentley by one hand....she wouldn't hold my hand because today is her special day with her dad.

I know my relationship with her will always pale in comparison to the relationship she has with her dad. Her dad is a superhero. Her dad is her everything.

All I can say though, is that while they were out ice skating ( I think...I got a text from Blaine that said "my date fell asleep on the drive here! That's a first!"). I was here eating frozen gogurts and reading Dinosaur Roar! six times in a row. I was wrestling and headbutting, squealing and laughing. I even snuck a kiss or two, even though I was informed today by Bentley that he is "too old for kisses".

There is something about fathers and daughters, but I am so glad that there is also something really special about mothers and sons.

I LOVE YOU BENTLEY!

Bounty Hunter Revisited

It's been three weeks since I got my last Bountiful Basket. I know you've been on pins and needs to hear how it all turned out, right? It was so awesome! We loved the things that we had never purchased before (jicama, tangerines, etc.) it was really fun to have the things I am too cheap to buy (fresh pineapple!), and using fresh garlic has been way fun! Anyway, the only thing that didn't work out was the corn, I didn't get to it fast enough! I'll be better this time!

So I was able to go and get my bounty once more, and so for my $16.50 I got

5lbs potatoes
Swiss Chard (Help me!)
Fancy type of leafy lettuce
12 cucumbers (any ideas?)
9 bananas
2lbs asparagus
1 lb strawberries
2 lbs baby carrots
broccoli
2 lemons
6 oranges
7 braeburn apples

I'm very pleased once again !

They contacted me about possibly starting a drop site in Lehi. I am, generally speaking, not the type of person to head up major projects that require me to...I dunno, be responsible. But I am thinking about it, because...there's got to be more to life than Bejeweled and poopy diapers : )

Fly

I overheard this conversation this morning while Blaine and Gwen were eating their breakfast.

Gwen: I don't really believe in imaginations
Blaine: Why not?
Gwen: Because whenever people imagine things they come true, but whenever I imagine things they don't come true
Blaine: Really? Like what?
Gwen:Well in Barney when they imagine he comes to life he really does but when I imagine my stuffed animals come to life, they don't
Blaine: ....
Gwen: I think my imagination must be broken

Sayid

Oh. My. Gosh.

So, remember the butterfly garden? Well, it was awesome. Really fun to watch the caterpillars turn into chrysalids and then emerge as butterflies. They had to live in captivity for their whole lives since it hasn't been over 55 dgs here to release them. They lived for a long time but have started dropping off one by one lately. The last one kicked the bucket today.

I thought.

I dumped the deceased butterflies (two since the last purge) and cleaned out the habitat for the next go around (in a few months). Then I went about my business. I changed my scentsy, I dumped the hot wax into the garbage can. And then I heard a noise. I thought it was a mouse rustling in the pantry...nah, too quiet for that. Then I thought it was my pant leg brushing against the garbage sack. So I moved away. Then I heard it AGAIN.

So I look in the garbage can.

The butterfly is alive! And COVERED IN WAX.

I am like a torture master.

I cried, real tears.

I dumped hot molten wax on a defenseless nearly dead butterfly, which I had already dumped in the trash.

So, since it was half covered in wax and probably nearly starved to death I just dumped it outside. Certain to meet its ultimate demise since it is only 30 dgs outside. I figured after the torture session the least I could do was let it enjoy its last few moments out in the wild.

Either that or I am not man enough to hear the suffering and struggle of a strong willed butterflies last feeble attempts to survive.

I do bad things to good people. And insects.

Tobb

The spacing in my family is really weird. I really only grew up with my one brother, and the others were all quite a bit older than us, so I grew up hearing stories about their childhoods. One of my particular favorites was when my parents found the word "Tobb" etched into their car (was it your car mom?). At the time my brother James was 7, my sister, Jennifer was 3 and my brother Todd was 2. James swears up and down to this day that it was Todd (er...Tobb) who did it. James also traced the bricks of my parents white home with black magic marker, he was a sneaky little devil.

But, now we have our own budding artist in our home. It seems that, though Gwen has never colored on walls or tables, etc. now that she can actually write something she will write on any surface available.

Like on our mouse pad.

She swears she didn't do it. Which is a shame, because I like the mouse pad ten thousand times more now that it has a stick figure little girl on it and a name written in someone's best handwriting. I think I owe the artist who did it a dollar or something. If I only knew...

Rosetta Stone

I am the first to admit that I am not qualified to be a parent.
But I am especially not qualified when it comes to the hieroglyphics department, I had no idea that was a parenting requirement.

Gwen is learning to write, it's really fun! We find these sticky notes all over the place, there's a really cute one on her bed right now. I'll have to post that one later. In the mean time....care to take a stab at translating this one? Go on venture a guess. Her pen ran out of ink at the end. So as a hint for you I'll just tell you the last line is "and give me....(it's supposed to then say "a vitamin" darn pen!).

chickacherrycola

I'm addicted to Cherry Coke. There. It's out in the open. Not sure when my addiction switched from Dr. Pepper to Cherry Coke, but it did. Anyway, in honor of my new found addiction, I am doing this for Lent.

Wish me luck!

Viva Las Vegas

And just to let you know how addicted to LOST I am, I accidentally first typed the title of this blog post as "Viva Lost Vegas". Not kidding.

So! The Bassett's, in the spirit of spontaneity, decided to take a trip to Sin City!

An excellent place for impressionable young minds.

Gwen asked why there were so many "mommy pictures" on the ground.

Yowza.

Seriously though! It was a blast! Look how much fun we had!

Approximately thirty seven minutes after arriving in Las Vegas Bentley spiked a 102.5 fever!

So we spent the majority of our time eating these...

And, just because it is so rare to catch her smiling for a camera...

and just to spare Ralphie a coronary I have to mention that I didn't even tell her to say "cheese" she was just this happy to see real live flamingos, and happier still that she was wearing her pink shirt to match them. Good to know that so long as I book a photo shoot near live flamingos we'll be golden.

And how I love little Miss. She waited a whole 24 hours after our arrival in Vegas to spike her fever.

But she's still really cute. Even when feverish.

So, to the good people of Las Vegas, I am so sorry if you get what they've got. We still went out and about. We just had to spread the love. And I know it makes me an irresponsible citizen, but we kept them confined to the stroller, so that's good right?

And I really wanted to share a picture with you of Ivy's fauxhawk. It rocks. Sticks up like four inches right on the crown of her head, but the pictures of her fauxhawk did not do her baby blues justice. So you'll have to wait.

And here we are, home from Vegas, 24 hours earlier than planned, because that's what happens when your family starts dropping like flies to the plague.

But it was worth it baby, so worth it!

*and as a side note, does anyone in the world know why when I blog directly from picasa it will only let me center justify? For reals.

**um, also everyone pray really hard that someone will rent our house this week and, more importantly, that that someone will be an honest, law abiding, rent paying citizen. And also, while you are praying, add in there that the renters who are leaving really will do all the things they said they would do before leaving. Like clean and stuff. Thanks.

The Stupids

So, you may not want to read this post if you are not in to people who rant.

This is going to be a ranting post, and I use the word stupid no less then about ten thousand times.


And first a note: I am going to rant on the condition that you know that I know that things could be worse. We've all got our health. I feel like whenever I complain how things are going they inevitably will get worse, and worse in such a way that matters more (ie...affects health and family as opposed to just money). So...I am not begging for more trials or burdens or ailments. Fate, are we understood?

But, seriously, what is the point of having a contract if there are no repercussions for breaking it? Our renters signed a two year contract. They signed their name to it. First off in the contract it states that they will not have pets. Upon visiting the house we found they have three dogs, at least one cat and a giant aquarium. Okay, whatever. The contract also said that they would not alter the house cosmetically without our permission. Okay, every wall was painted, my favorite bush was taken out, light fixtures were changed, and they put some funky stained glass thing on the back door glass etc. etc. etc. Fine, it was all in pretty decent taste, whatever.

But...seriously, folks, you signed an agreement to live there for two years and to pay X amount of dollars for every month for the entirety of those two years. So, I kind of feel like you owe me... Lets see here...$27,900. That and the last year of my life back.

You were having a hard time financially so we worked with you on the deposit. You were also having a hard time financially for like, every month thereafter, so we worked with you. Everytime you used the excuse "with the expense of moving we just dont have the money for x and x and x" I thought....well what about me? I had the same expense of moving. No one waived my security deposit. In fact, we had given a verbal agreement for a duplex and then backed out of that and though we had not signed anything we still forked over the $500 deposit we would have paid if we would have signed something, because we have an active conscience.

At the very least, if you are to break the contract that...you know, you signed, you are supposed to give thirty days notice. Not seven.

Seven days notice. You couldn't have told me while I was in Texas and could have done something about it. No no.

Am I the only person in this world who feels obligated to something when I sign my name to it? I wouldn't dream of walking away from a contract. And if I had to, absolutely had to, I would give the required notice, I would expect to pay some sort of fee. I don't expect my landlords to compensate for my financial hard times. I don't expect the realtor we are going to use to accept less of a commission because I don't have enough money to sell the home.

Where's my break? Where's my person I can push over and walk over and manipulate and cheat?

Okay, rant is done.

I don't hate many things, but I've pretty much hated the emotional roller coaster that has been the last six months.

I want nothing more than to pick up next week and move back into my Texas house. The house that, for some reason, no one else in the world wants. And yet instead I am going to pay thousands of dollars to NOT live in that house. It's quite messed up actually.

Stupid renters. Stupid stupid stupid renters. And stupid economy. And STUPID housing market.
And stupid me for being so easy to walk over.

-----------

Wish I could say my rant made me feel better. It didn't.

But with all my ranting now over, I wish to re-emphasize that I am grateful Blaine has a job. I am grateful my kids don't have cancer. I am grateful that we have food to eat, a family who loves us, a God who is looking out for us. I am grateful for so much, and I know things could be so much worse off, I really really know that (you hear me fate? Don't teach me a lesson because I already KNOW!).

The end.

P.S. Anyone want to drive with me to Texas or put me up for a while while I prepare my home to sell. Stupid stupid stupid house.

A tale of two milestones

Today was a big day for Ivy. She finally has enough hair to do a pitiful pony tail and she grew two teeth. I was kind of beginning to wonder how we were going to afford baby dentures. Whew, dodged that bullet!

Bounty Hunter

Have you heard of Bountiful Baskets? Kayla blogged about them a long time ago and my interest was piqued, they weren't available in Texas though so I moved on with my life. Bountiful Baskets are a food co-op in the Western US (mostly Arizona, Utah...I think like Washington too), you make a contribution on Wednesday and then go pick up your bounty on Saturday morning. You don't really know what you are going to get, you just know you'll get fruits and vegetables. It's kind of like Christmas morning really. The bountiful baskets are $15, with a $1.50 handling charge, and then there is a first time charge of $3. They also have add-ons that you can do; bread, granola, cookies, different "packs"-- like an Italian pack, or hostess pack, which have different foods in them. This go around I ordered the regular Bountiful Basket as well as a "dip" pack that was hopefully going to have all sorts of good things in it to make dip with.

So, you ready to see my Bounty?

1 pineapple

6 corn

11 bananas

some type of fancy lettuce

jicama

head of cauliflower

2 packs of asparagus

8 pink lady apples

4 zuccini like squash (are they zuccini? Not sure)

4 Asian Pears

3 cloves of garlic

8 tangarines

Sweet mercy, I am excited!

Okay and the dip pack?

2 Onions

celery

pkg grape tomatoes

1lb carrots

cilantro

5 little bitty limes

7 avacados

I think the dip pack was like....seven bucks or something.

I am pretty darn happy about it and best of all, I went and volunteered to unload the truck and get the baskets ready and it felt SO good to get out and do something besides clean my house and parent (not that I don't love those things). There isn't much time in my life for volunteering, which is sad because I would love to do it. Well, I do have lots of time, but there isn't much that I can do with my three children in tow, so it was nice to get up early and have some alone time and do a little service for the world.

And the OTHER best part is that I am excited to see how this will challenge me as a chef. I normally wouldn't buy things like jicama (but my Grandma used to and I love them!), or tangerines or asian pairs; but I am excited to try them! I am going to get my BB on Saturday mornings and base my menu around my produce and see what I can come up with and hopefully be able to incorporate more fruits and veggies into our diet!

P.S. Texans, have you heard of Angel Food Ministries?It's a similar type co-op but with things like meat and stuff. I never tried it but really wished I would have!

Up & Up

It's Targets new brand name of diapers (and everything) and they aren't so bad, especially when you consider they are cheaper than Luvs even! We've been using them for a while and like them a lot. And hooray, they are on a good sale!

If you buy 4 packages online you get 15% off and free shipping! Plus if you use the code URTYJLI8 you get an extra 10% off. And, of course, don't forget your 3% cashback from ebates.com.

Remember, tell them kristi.bassett@gmail.com sent you so we can each get $5 back!

It works out that you can get the smaller sizes for about nine cents a diaper, and the bigger sizes for about eleven cents, not bad friends! Too bad the wipes aren't available online, because the up & up brand are the best wipes ever!

Happy Diapering!