American Idol - David Archuletta

So I don't want to turn this into a TV blog, but I had to put this video up after seeing it on Ashley's blog (which you should check out - she has a darling little boy and digital scrapbooking links). I watched the end of the guys on American Idol last night, and I loved this seventeen year old kid from Murray, UT. I especially liked the last line, where he goes a capella for a minute and then the guitar comes back.

Jury Duty

I got a notice for jury duty for the end of next month. I have never served jury duty before - have any of you been a juror? I think it will be interesting, so I don't mind going, only it will be a pain to find a place for Boo.

Potty Training

We started potty training on Friday. I've been talking about doing it for some time, but finally got a break between illness and busy-ness. Boo loves to sit on the potty and can tell me (sometimes) when she needs to go, and she HATES her diapers. Diaper changing time is not a happy time at our house.

So far we have a nice little system going. We go to the bathroom every 30 minutes or so, or whenever she tells me she needs to go. She went through a phase one night where she insisted on sitting on the potty every 10 minutes (but not actually going potty), and I started to regret this potty business.

I got her some princess panties to wear under her diaper....so she can feel when she is wet, but doesn't make a mess. We've tried the Feel 'N Learn pullups, but I don't think she can feel the wet as well with those.
Boo LOVES her panties. The first morning that I got them out, she grabbed them all up in her arms and toted them downstairs, where she stuck her arm through the leg hole of each one til she was 'wearing' all seven pairs on her arm. But then we put a pair on her bum, and she thought that was even better. So she gathered up the other six pairs and put them all on. (No picture of that one, sorry.) I decided I would be in big trouble if she wet all her panties at once, so the extras had to come off.

Virtual Baby Shower

My good friend Rachel has been nominated for a virtual baby shower by Erin, and she made it into the Top 10! The virtual baby shower is hosted by Pinks & Blues Girls Blog - I understand that they are very witty, so sometime head on over and check them out. But definitely take a minute to head over there TODAY to vote for Rachel to win the virtual baby shower. You can read Rachel's story here, and vote for her here. She is certainly deserving of this honor, as this baby has been a very very very long time coming, and she is going to graduate school and missing her husband while he is deployed in Afghanistan. So please go vote for her - you don't have to sign in or create an account or anything. Just click next to RACHEL.

*****NOTE: You can vote for Rachel until March 6th, but don't procrastinate!!*****

Tagged By Ashley

I've been tagged by Ashley...awhile back, but I keep forgetting to do this.

10 years ago...I was finishing up my Associates at Ricks College (which sadly, is no longer a 2 year junior college, but a big 4 year University), panicking about which college to transfer to, and freezing my tail off.

Snacks I enjoy...granola, hummus and pita, thin mint cookies

5 things on my to-do list today ... grocery shopping, finish family movie from 2006 (that's been on my to-do list awhile), pilates, vacuum, register for a conference

If I were suddenly a billionaire...Buy a lot of fabric. The expensive kind. And every kind of cheese in the store. In the Sam's Club size. And a fence for my yard and a fire pit. And fresh flowers every day for my house - upstairs and downstairs. And then I would start a business.

3 bad habits...procrastination, worrying, I hate cleaning the bathrooms.

5 places I have lived...Cali, Maryland, Idaho, Utah, Indiana

Jobs I have had...gas station attendant, picking out tomato skins at a tomato processing plant, dishwasher in a cafeteria, cashier in a cafeteria, office help, house cleaner, clinic assistant, research assistant, special education aide to a high schooler, speech therapist in nursing homes, schools, hospitals.

Things most people don't know about me...Well, there is a reason why people don't know those things. They are MY skeletons. But here are some harmless ones. I would love to have a small business of my own. Small, but successful. I was painfully, embarrassingly shy until graduating from college. Scared to death to talk to anyone but my closest friends. I still think of myself as shy, but I like to think that I manage it better now.

PHC Link

Last week I posted about PHC from Bloomington. Here is the link to listen to it online.

I recommend the piece with Ignaci Cambra (segment 2) and the piece about Bloomington in segment 3.

Tag! You Are It!

Check out my friend Erin's new Etsy shop: Tag! You are it! She is selling cute taggie things, like this cute Pooh Bear ball. Also check out her blog: Life in the Nuthouse. Her posts are entertaining, her kids are adorable, and she makes really cool cakes.

Boo's picks

Boo's book of choice these days is Hug by Jez Alborough. It's a very cute picture book about a little monkey, mama and baby animals, and of course, hugging. Just about the only word in the book is "hug" but the pictures tell a great story. We have it in a board book, but I have also seen it in a large hardback.

Another favorite book is The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone. This book has been around for ages. I remember it being a favorite of mine when I was a kid. Starring Grover from Sesame Street. Grover tries to keep you from turning pages to prevent getting to the 'monster' at the end of the book. It's very cute.

Happy Valentines Day!

This is a little late, but I'm just getting our pictures off the camera. In the morning, Boo and I played with Heather and her boys and made heart cookies. Boo was more into cutting our shapes than I thought, we will have to do it again soon. And it was so fun to play with cousins.

Boo got a cute red jacket from Grandma, so she was dressed for the occasion.

Jeremy brought us white roses in the evening, and made us some awesome steaks for dinner.

Another round of snow

We got a few more inches of snow last night. I needed to shovel the walk so I took Boo out with me, wondering if she would tolerate the snow this time. There were no tears. She timidly stomped in the snow and watched me shovel. Then she waded out in it. And giggled. And then happily tromped through the yard.


Now we can play in the snow! She is still frightened of mittens, so you can see that she has socks on her hands instead.

You are sweet, and I am chunky...

I posted about this a couple days ago, but accidentally deleted it. It's hard to accidentally delete something, but that's just me. So Bethany B., I accidentally deleted your comment - sorry!

We just got a great CD by the a cappella group Inside Out. It's called Sharing Time. It has some really fun arrangements of primary songs and also my favorite song ever, the Peanut Butter and Jelly song. "I'm peanut butter and you are jelly, and we're so happy on our little piece of bread...". The song "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" is just beautiful, "Little Purple Pansies" is delightfully sung by the bass-man, and "What Do You Do In The Summertime" is just fun.

Check out their website and click on the music tab at the top, then click on the blue CD and you can hear clips of a few of the songs from this CD.

Oceans

My speech appointment had to cancel last Friday due to illness, so I decided spur of the moment to take Boo to the zoo. It is still February, and very cold, but they have an indoor aquarium exhibit that I planned to head straight to. Boo LOVED it. She loved the sharks, she loved the fish, she loved the jellyfish, she loved the sea horses. We had the exhibit completely to ourselves. The only two people we saw were a cleaning lady and a zoo guy. Who was very nice and let us touch a star fish. The shark and fish tanks both have a ledge that she can stand on, and she was amazed to see them swim right by her face. The sea lion aquarium was really fun. They scared her to death at first - so big and fast. But then she got used to them and just made a nervous little laugh every time they raced by.

Praire Home Companion

This weekend's Prairie Home Companion was performed from Bloomington, Indiana, my old home. Featuring musicians from the Jacobs School of Music. It was a fabulous program. Funny as always, with great violinists and a pianist named Ignasi Cambra. Cambra was born blind, yet played Chopin beautifully. It looks like they archive the shows, but this weekend's is not up yet. I'll publish the link when it's up. I know I have some family members that are fans of PHC, but for those of you not familiar, it's a fun listen. My favorite line: "Indiana...where does anyone really know what time it is?" He gives a beautiful monologue on Indiana University and tribute to Herman B. Wells in the second hour, followed by "Can't get Indiana off my mind" by a baritone sax. Love that Hoagy Carmichael.

It's been a cozy morning for me. It's rainy and windy outside, but I get to stay in and listen to Prairie Home Companion and play with Brookie. I put curlers in her hair this morning - my first try. We'll see how it turns out. Today is her first Sunday in nursery at church, we can't wait.

Hope you all have a lovely Sunday.

18 months old!

We have loved having Boo around for the past 18 months. Here's a picture review of the fun we've had...

Happy Birthday!

First Christmas

Go Colts!

We love you Boo!

Sick again

I have been sick all week. Too sick to blog, too sick to read other blogs. That's sick. But thanks to some very powerful medication...ok...just amoxycilin...well...and some leftover vicodin...I am on the mend. And I have a lot of blogging stored up. Boo did NOT get it, or maybe I should say she hasn't gotten it yet.