Because I have cute kids AND a new camera

I so don't have time for blogging today. But I'm dying to show off some of my pictures from our trip to NV.

We spent a day in Virginia City and there were just so many old things to take fun pictures of.

I was IN LOVE with this red brick wall. Amazing how something as simple as a wall can make me so very happy.











And this car graveyard was so photogenic.











And this was just funny to me.






And because she's so gosh darn cute!

Excited with a side of skepticism

About a month ago I got an email that basically said hey you have a great blog and we would like you to tell your readers all about our blog. At first I was like wow! Somebody likes my blog. And then reality set in and I realized my blog likely met some keyword search critera and that nobody actually READ my blog before sending me that email. Because well, as loyal my followers are (thanks for that, by the way) there are barely a handful of you. In other words, I'm hardly what you could call and influential blogger.

A few days later I got yet another email requesting that I promote a website and this time I didn't let it go quite so much to my head.

So you can imagine the skepticism I felt when I received the following comment on my blog.

Congratulations!

Your blog has been nominated for the 2009 Utah Baby Guide Blog Contest. The blog that gets the most votes wins! Voting ends June 30th, 2009.

Congratulations! You have a great blog!

Kindly,
Jessica Taufer
Editorial Director
Utah Baby Guide
j.taufer@utahbabyguide.com
http://www.utahbabyguide.com


Especially since I've had spam comments in the past. (before turning on word verification) Comments that served no other purpose than to get you to click over to somebody's insurance site.

My suspicion was furthered by the fact that my other blog also got the same comment. And when I've been spammed in the past both blogs got hit.

But finally my big head telling me "this one might actually be for real" got the best of me and I clicked to it.

It does look like a legitimate site. I think. And my Sister-in-law's two blogs are nominated in different categories which leads me to believe that maybe she nominated me (Thanks if you did!!!!) Or maybe she didn't. Who knows.

Her blog Orange World is nominated in the Discount/Giveaway Blog category. And her blog Orange You Special is nominated in the Product Blog category.

And so this is the part where I shamelessly beg for your vote. Because hey, it would be cool to win something! Plus you don't even have to register. Simply email contest@utahbabyguide.com and tell us the web address of your favorite blog for each category before June 30, 2009.

This blog is nominated in the Funny Blog category

My other blog is nominated in the Personal Blogs category.

And I guess it would be nice if I told you their website. Because that's what a courteous blogger does, right?

So you can visit the Utah Baby Guide at, surprisingly enough, http://www.utahbabyguide.com/

I'll stop begging now. Since it's likely all really a hoax anyway. Thanks.

There may still be hope yet

The kids started in with the bickering early this morning. After playing cars together for about 10 minutes Zoey decided she wanted to play something else.

Of course this made Adam mad. He thinks Zoey should do whatever he wants her to do AT ALL TIMES. And he was NOT done playing cars and thought that Zoey needed to continue playing with him.

So he comes to me and starts laying it on think with the oh pity me act. "Mom, Zoey said she doesn't want to play with me anymore and that really hurts my feelings. It makes me so sad when she won't play with me and she shouldn't hurt my feelings. It's not nice."

Of course, by this time Zoey has followed him into the office as well and so he starts telling her how she is being mean and when she doesn't seem to care he smacks her with a throw pillow, sending her head backwards into the wall. Ouch!

Amazingly enough somewhere within the arguing and blaming they agreed long enough to pick a movie they wanted to watch.

So, after the head banging I sent Adam to his room. He cried that he didn't want to miss the movie (which I hadn't even put in yet) so I told him he'd better hurry to his room because the faster he got there the faster he could come out.

I then turned to Zoey and asked if she was ready to put the movie in. The same Zoey who was crying because her brother smashed her head into the wall. The same Zoey that was just yelling at her brother telling him "quiet, I don't want to hear it!" as he told her all about his hurt feelings. The same Zoey that parroted me when I told Adam to go to his room. "Yea, go to your room for being mean!"

This Zoey looked at me with those big blue eyes and was close to tears when she said "Mom, we can't put the movie in yet! Adam is still in his room and he doesn't want to miss it!"

Priorities

I stepped outside just now to take a dirty diaper to the curb. As I approached the house again I heard frantic crying coming from inside and, I have to admit, my first reaction was "I hope they didn't get anything on the floor, I just mopped it yesterday."

If that's not a sign of a wonderfully caring mother I don't know what is!

Turns out Harrison had climbed up to the table and tried to help himself to some of my Cherry-Vanilla Diet Dr. Pepper. Which, he of course, promptly spilled.

Good news though is that he managed to spill it on his shirt, which did a good job of absorbing most of it, and not a drop of it landed on my freshly mopped kitchen floor. SCORE!

Life and laundry

Having kids is like being a dirty shirt in the washing machine on a never ending wash cycle: constant agitation with no spin cycle in sight.

Prozac with a side of Zoloft

Where does my son come up with these things????

Adam: Mom, I want to watch Bedtime Stories (which is the answer to yesterday's Name that Movie Monday, by the way.)

Me: Okay

Adam: But I'm a little stressed and don't know if I can watch it.

Me: Why are you stressed? Do you want to talk about it?

Adam: Well, I'm stressed because I really want to watch 2 more movies today but I don't want to turn into a couch potato. So what should I do?


He's 5 people. 5 short years old. Somebody please tell me they also have a stressed 5 year old so that I don't go to bed tonight worried that my own 5 year old is weird.

Dictionary Please

The kids have spent the morning playing with the toys my sister brought them from her honeymoon.

Zoey just came crying to me. With Tears in her eyes and a whine in her voice she said to me "I don't want to play with Adam anymore. He is angry and I don't like him when he's like that."

Adam came trailing in, also upset and crying. His whine was "Zoey won't play with me anymore."

Me, knowing how things usually go down when these two play together I asked him, "Well, why doesn't she want to play with you? Where you being bossy."

To which he responded, "No, I wasn't being bossy. She just wouldn't do what I wanted her to do."