No Signs

Benjamin is going through a stage where he is obsessed with "no signs." He sees them everywhere. I didn't how ubiquitous they really are until living with a three year old who can spot "no signs" everywhere. Some places that he has found them are on the back of the sun visor in the car (no carseats in front seat with airbags), elevators (no using the stairs with a fire), on his carseat, no exits signs, back of computer at the doctors office (no hands), on fans (no hands again), no U-turn, no smoking, no food or drink, no strollers on the escalator, no dogs, no parking, no turn on red, etc. The scenario usually plays out like this. Benjamin screams "I see a 'no sign.' What does it say?" I reply, "What do you think it says?" He is pretty close at guessing the meaning since it is usually a picture of something. He spots them everywhere and each one is so exciting. I just wanted to remember this stage as it is pretty prominent for us right now.

Why Questions

We have been getting a barrage of "why" questions from Benjamin lately. Here are a few: 1. Why do houses have roofs? 2. Why are pans hot? 3. Why are germs bad? 4. Why does medicine help us? 5. Why does snow melt? 6. Why are shots owie? 7. Why is King Noah bad? 8. Why do animals not talk? You can tell that Benjamin is starting to become aware of what is going on around him!

No Milk Days

I don't know what it is about running out of milk that makes me feel like a bad person. I love having cereal for breakfast in the morning. I look forward to it. I don't really do hot breakfasts, well maybe once in awhile. I quite literally think about a bowl of cereal with cold, splashing milk. Then every once in awhile, I get up to find~no milk. Those no milk days are just down right depressing for me. I beat myself up all day by dreaming of the bowl of cereal with milk that I didn't eat. One day in the last week, I discovered in the afternoon that we were almost out of milk. I am usually really good about milk monitoring, but this time I just missed it. I was really tired, and I still needed to take the sister I visit teach to her doctor's appointment. The appointment was about 20 mins. away and when the sister didn't get in the car until twenty minutes after the hour and the appointment was in 10 mins., I knew we were in trouble. It ended up being a bust because she was so late that the doctor didn't have time to do what was planned. Yet, we were at the clinic for an hour and a half. Then Benjamin fell asleep on the drive back from the doctor's office. I dropped off the sister and swung back in the opposite direction from the house to hit the store for the milk. I bought some salmon to cook for dinner while I was there and finally arrived home completely exhausted. Yet, in the exhaustion, I was greatly pleased in knowing the next morning, I would not wake up to a no milk day.

Long Weekend Away

We took a trip South a few weeks ago. I can't believe that it has taken me so long to post about it. I guess I was dreading going through all the pictures; we took a ton. We stayed with my good friend Teresa and her cute family on Wednesday night. As soon as we arrived Stephen and I headed to the temple for a session while Teresa had Benjamin. Spiritually, it was an amazing experience. Thanks again Teresa! We enjoyed a lovely dinner and breakfast with a tour of the house her husband Bryce renovated. It was beautiful, and we had a good time. Thursday afternoon we headed to the children's museum and then to our hotel for some swimming. Benjamin loved the hotel because they had a manager's reception just before dinner time. He loved drinking Shirley Temples and getting extra cherries in his glass. I really think it might have been the highlight. Then Friday we met Teresa again at the Science Center. Friday night, we visited Stephen's cousin Joe and Lisa and their family for dinner. We didn't get a picture with them, but they are coming to stay with us in August to go to a waterpark nearby. I'll get a picture then to make up for it. Andrew, my brother, and his finance Kelly were in town visiting her family so we had a great breakfast Saturday morning with them at our hotel. We then met her family along with their new puppy Heidi. (I can't remember if that is right~ so correct me Kelly if I am wrong.) Benjamin loved their dog. She was so soft! Then Saturday around lunchtime we headed back home. It was a great little vacation for us. Enjoy the pictures.

Life Lessons from "You've Got Mail"

I've had a off day. I don't want to go into all the nitty gritty details but just one of those days when life seems to swirl around while I sit and think about what to do. I happened to turn on the t.v. after dinner. It is unlike me because I didn't clean up after dinner. I just left the dinner dishes, the mess really to just sit. Stephen was very in tune with my need to sit and cleaned up everything. I was lucky enough to find something other than watch "House Hunters" for the millionth time to find that "You've Got Mail" was on. I heard these two quotations from the movie that sparked some thinking.

"The odd thing about this form of communication is that you're more likely to talk about nothing than something. But I just want to say that all this nothing has meant more to me than so many somethings. So thanks." (You've Got Mail, email from Kathleen Kelly to Joe Fox) Sometimes I wonder about this blog. I kind of feel this same feeling about this form of communication, namely blogging. I feel like a share a whole lot of "nothings" but many mean something. There is some cathartic, joyful, reverencing, exciting, adventuresome, infuriating, exasperating, and inspiring about writing my life, my thinking, my feelings. I realize that my nothings really are nothing to most but they feel like something. So thanks.

"Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life. Well, valuable, but small. And sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven't been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around?" (You've Got Mail) I've loved thinking about this. Today my life seems small, valuable but small, yet why can't my nothings be something more. My life, not a dream, not a book, just my life. Do I need to be a bit braver to get something more? Something to think about . . .