Kicky K's Birthday

I'm sorry to say, but of the kajillions of friends that I have, Kerith's birthday is the only one that I know the exact day of. No amount of organization, or lack of it, has allowed me to remember people's actual birthday days. Emily C's is sometime in August. Maybe the 20th or thereabouts. Sarah S's is sometime in December. Probably. These are just a few examples. I may or may not remember what actual month your actual birthdays are in. Please leave me a comment and tell me your birthday, and I'll give you a great shout out, okay?

Now to get down to business. Today is my best friend Keri's birthday. I don't know how I remember this- maybe the connection with the fabulous holiday of St. Patrick's Day. When Keri and Charlie lived in Chicago, I loved that our birthdays were all in a row- mine in January, Paul's in February, Keri's in March, and Charlie's in April. Unfortunately, they didn't stick around in Chicago long enough to celebrate everyone's birthday, but it was a nice idea. And easy to remember. Although I don't know the actual days. Just the months.

*disclaimer: our scanner is not working and I had to take pictures of my scrapbook. Sorry I am pathetic*

Anyway, Keri has been my friend for quite some time now, and I will list some good things/happy memories about/of Kerith:

-A road trip to Houston from Utah in which I drove maybe 4 of the 24 hours. However, I later made up for it by driving almost all the way to New Orleans and back from Houston with Scott quizzing me on all of my former relationships THE WHOLE WAY.



-Sleeping in our non-air conditioned house with the windows closed because Tina was afraid someone would break in.

-Borrowing Keri's clothes, which were too small, but were the most fashionable I've ever encountered. That girl has serious style.

- Shooting off fireworks by ourselves.


-Dr. Jackbass

-Making Keri "volunteer" for me against her will when she first moved to Chicago before she had a job

-Tales of her travels

-Keri could always charm anything from anybody. If you needed something extra at a restaurant, a favor from someone you didn't know, or just wanted to get to know someone better, Keri was the one to get it. I found that if I imitated her, I could get away with a lot. But it was scary being so outgoing and cool, so I quit. However, this is a trait that I quite admire in Keri.

-Keri's car breaking down 4 days in a row before she and her mom could leave Chicago and drive all the way to Alaska.

-Her giving nature- Keri will give food to any homeless person and find out their life story and care about it for the rest of her life.

-Keri is an amazingly talented writer, but I have never been allowed to read any of her stuff.

-She is naturally outdoorsy but loves all surroundings, and all people, except posers and self-centered jerks.

-She reads loads of books and remembers them too.

-She has the best taste in music of anyone I know and is the kind of person that knows the cool bands before they become cool.

-During the 24th of July celebration in Provo, we made dozens of German pancakes for the moocher parade watchers who sat on our lawn, complete with fresh strawberries and never heard a word of thanks.

-We went swimming in the Villa pool almost every day and became close friends with one Tricky-T.

-A hatred of glasses in restaurants without straws.

-A hometown alliance with Napoleon Dynamite.

-A lot of introspection- for better or worse.

Keri, I love you much and hope that your day today is awesome. If you were here I'd make you a mountain of moonpies and some homemade icecream and go for a swim with you in the frigid ocean.

Garfield Minus Garfield

I stumbled across a funny website tonight, that erases Garfield from the Garfield comics. As we all know, Garfield isn't a funny comic strip, but this makes it a whole lot more... interesting.

One Fish, Two Fish

On Saturday we went to a Dr. Seuss celebration at our fancy new library. I told the girls that we were going to a Dr. Seuss celebration and they both burst out in tears. "No go DOCTOR!!!"

Did I never tell them that all of their beloved books were written by one Dr. Seuss?

The celebration wasn't that great and I guess a lot of heartache could have been spared if we had never got it into our minds to go. This being L.A., the Horton Hears a Who movie products were out en masse. Those and the free spanish version "There's a Wocket in My Pocket" books were the best things to be had. Even better than the old lady dressed up like the cat in the hat, complete with white makeup and crooked whiskers. Eek! No wonder Dr. Seuss is so scary!

Popcorn Popping

The air here is thick with blossoms- something that looks like jasmine, if jasmine grows on trees. It reminds me of living in Hemet. I would always drive through the orange groves when the trees were blossoming and take in the pungent scent that will always remind me of home.

How's that for sheer poetry?

There Must Be Something in the Water!

Around the time that we had the girls, there were a lot of twins in our ward and in the other wards in Chicago. People used to say "there must be something in the water!" with a horrified and humorous look on their face.

After reading this article about trace amounts of pharmaceuticals being found in the supplies of drinking water throughout the United States, one can't be too sure, I suppose, that fertility drugs aren't being consumed by all of us, thereby changing the population into a population of multiples.

Although you know I'd like that.

Otherwise, I found the article to be quite gross.

Super Freak

I'm not very good at parenting- at least not the part where I have to share parenting responsibilities with someone else. That is my current problem- just ask Paul. Do other parents out there have this same problem- disagreeing about things over and over again?
One of the things that we disagree about is disciplining. Tonight when putting the girls to bed, Grace wanted a different blankie and she wanted me to put it on her. I was putting Camille in bed, so Paul told her that she could pick her blankie and lie down or she could have no blankie. She didn't like that idea, and had a tantrum about "mommy put on blankie" until I got done with Camille and put the penguin blankie on her and she settled down. Paul didn't like that I just gave in to her, so he told me as much and took the blankie off of Grace and I left the room.
I guess he's more of a softie than I thought, or maybe he is like me and can't stand to hear the children whine- whatever the reason, he went back in and gave her a blankie and got her all calmed down. Maybe she did it on his terms, I don't really know.
The point is, things like this get in our way more often than I'd like them to. And while Paul would like me to just defer to him once in a while, and I do, once in a while, I wish that we were more in sync, or I wasn't a control freak, or something. Is it being a control freak, or is it just being the parent that is usually taking care of the kids? Because that ties in to me wishing that Paul would take the kids off my hands more and he doesn't or can't because I am always the boss.
Does it get easier with time? Do any of you have good advice? Similar stories? Leave a comment and let me know if you're as lame as me. Even if you're not, I'll still like you. Just don't get between me and controlling my kids.

This Doesn't Work

I don't know how to put videos on my blog, but I just thought that, in preparation for Easter, I should tell you that this doesn't work.