Mutual at it's finest

My calling in church is working with the 14-16 year old Young Women- the Mia Maids- Best Calling ever!  Tonight we has a really fun mutual activity.  The Laurels planned it.  It was a evening with the single peeps in our ward.  Where we cooked for them, served them and socialized with them.  I had the opportunity of sitting at the same table as an older single guy in our ward that I had never seen before.  I thought Ryan Williams was inappropriate... He doesn't even compare to this guy.  

Inappropriate comments of the evening:

"now I know why polygamy was so big with the early mormons"  Sitting at a table of girls that had just served him dinner.

"AHHH God... who sings this song" listening to the old music playing in the background

"Hell if I know"  Answering a Laurel's question

"The only sports I like are MAKING LOVE and dancing"  in response to my question if he had a favorite sport.

"Would this make your husband jealous"  while slow dancing with me... no one else was dancing, he just asked me too.

"Favorite Breakfast would be pancakes with syrup and Rum on top"  answering a Mia Maids question

I really appreciated this old Man's humor- he made a potentially boring evening into a very interesting butt tight one.  The girls were a little freaked out by him.

Just one of those Days

So half of today was a bad day, the other half - not sure, but it can only get better.  

I know I am not the only one to have such a crap day, but sometimes I wish there was a crap day support group, where you can vent, and then I realized, "Wait a sec. Katie, you have a blog you can vent to, yah for blogs not only being sunshine and rainbows."  Why was it such a bad day?  Well I had two things I wanted to get done - Laundry and Dishes- and bonus projects if I got a chance.  The only thing getting in my way was Stephanie Meyer's Twilight from Edward's perspective book she posted online and my two year old.  

Remember this is a vent post

Ruby was really pissing me off, she is becoming really independent but at the same time super dependent.  She shouts my name all day and explodes into angry fits when I come and help too much- because she wants to do everything herself.  She wanted to Vacuum, she wanted to wash the dishes (pour water all over the floor), blow bubbles, blow on the dvd to make it work, dump her mac and cheese on the ground, not let me do her hair, push the button to cross the street... all of these sent her into a fit.  I am really happy I have "Love and Logic" Book to get me through it, otherwise I know I would do things I would regret later.

I finally was at my wits end and texted ben, "This baby is driving me crazy!!!"  With no response from him, not sure what he could have said or done to make things better, but it just put me in a worse mood.  It is kind of crazy the effect we allow our kids to have on us... or any person to have on us. 

Possible Reasons to this crappy day:

1. Too much idle time- I usually babysit twice a week and it has been so good for me, to have a job, something to take my thoughts off of myself.

2. Annoying two year old- maybe I need to change some of the ways I handle the situations

3. No game plan- I need to plan out activities for myself and Ruby.

4. I just got a flu shot on Mon. and my arm still hurts from it

5. I am pregnant- best excuse of all, could be a mood swing, hormonal thing.

All I know is tomorrow will be better and if any of you friends and family that are reading this are also having a crap day, please call me- I will gladly listen and say, "Yah that does suck"

Disneyland at last with Ben

Disneyland passes are great for the SoCal mom that doesn't have the energy to invent new adventures, but has the gas power(car) to get to Disneyland.  Every times I have plans to head out to D-land I always try to persuade Ben to go with, but he is usually real busy and has to decline.  

So this was a special trip cause Ben was able to go.  We just went for a couple hours and we hit up the carousel.  

The Casey Jr Train ride.  While waiting in line, Ben chose the train compartment he wanted to be in... They all looked really cramped- so he wanted one of the two that were open and not caged in.
Yah we got the cage and it was really cozy.
Ruby is really obsessed with Toy Story 2.  It was so cool that we got to see a Woody Show.  She got real nervous when we got close to him, but she still gave him her half eaten licorice. 
We went to the petting zoo last and - I just love disneyland around the holiday's all the goats and sheep had halloween bandanas around their necks.  yah for Disneyland

Georgia

This is Taylor and he is now Three years old!  He lives in Savannah Georgia.  He loves Cars and playing with the bigger Boys.  He is such a good little guy. My mom and Dad flew me and Ruby and Cody out to visit my sister and her little Taylor and Allison(5months) with them.

We flew into Jacksonville, FL and my dad saw a sign saying 6 foot alligator on the side of the freeway, so we had to check it out.  We went looking for it, and luckily the girl in the convenience store found us before we accidently ran into one, and directed us to the one inside that was fake. 
Yah for Cousins
My dad bought Ruby these dress up shoes that she wanted to wear everywhere.  Her favorites of the trip.  Jessica's Puppy and these Shoes, and not pictured - Balloon.
Cody my Bro earned some brownie points for me- for being so helpful, he changed his first diaper and fed his first bottle to baby Allison, and Taylor likes him now.  They bonded.  Ruby learned how to say his name and practiced it often- Yelling it in the Terminal when she couldn't see him.
Cutie baby Allison.  Happy Baby that loves to eat.
On our trolley tour of the City we saw some amazing building with so much history, and we had this amazing black prejudice tour guide.  She would say things like, "In this year Georgia was transformed into a Utopian State outlawing Alcohol and Catholics... and when Catholics were allowed to preach again here they went ahead and built that huge Church, of Course, cause you know how they are, trying to show off."  and she said some amazing things about Jews too- Oh Boy.
Us on the Trolley- we went on a day tour and a night tour, the night one was all about Ghost stories of the old buildings, and our tour guide asked if anyone had a ghost story- Unfortunately my sister shared her Story about the house she is staying now on the Army Base- that she sees a Soldier in her house and Mike(her husband) has seen a blue orb.  yah I could not sleep that night and had a bad dream about Ghosts the following night!
Yah for Taylors B-Day party and Cody being a good Uncle.
The Cupcakes were yum yum good.
We went to the beach and the water was surprisingly warm.
We visited Taylor's Preschool and had cupcake for his Birthday.
Then we visited the wildlife preserve Park and it was so cool, like no zoo I have ever been too.  Just really open and chill
Don't drop that baby in the alligator's habitat!
Outside of Jessica's Church, after a fun day at her ward.  

Thanks Jessi for the good times and for being so accommodating.

Lucky to see Wicked

Wicked Blah Blah

Most people have heard of this Musical on Broadway.  I too have and maybe I heard too much about it, because I was over seeing it and I hadn't even seen it.  But for months now we have been trying to get out to Hollywood to see it.  So we finally made it out there for Nanette and Nancy's Birthday, thanks to Nan's  persistence.  The only catch was that the tickets are $90  dollars, and none of us wanted to spend that much

The Wicked Lottery:

So Ruth knew about this lottery that the theater does before every performance.   You put your name on a paper and the number of tickets you want 1 or 2.  Well we got there just before the lottery closed and everyone circled 2 tickets, so at least two of us would be able to see the show... Everyone except for me!  I only circled 1.  and it was too late to change it.  They called 13 names out of the basket of names (75 names) and guess whose name he called?  Yup Mine- fourth.  I was so excited and stressed out that they wouldn't let me change it to two tickets.  They did ,and I was able to buy two tickets at $25 a piece.  Then right after my name, Ruth's name was called.  So we got four tickets and then they let us buy our fifth one for half price!

The Waffle:

A confusing but delicious restaurant we went to to kill time and our hunger.  Confusing because everything we ordered said "the waffle" in front of it including my meatloaf, Nancy's Burger and the Sandwiches we were looking at.  So the Waffle meatloaf actually did not have a waffle in it, neither did the sandwiches and the hamburger.  Amber ordered an off the menu item- A Waffle sandwiches - that actually was made with waffles as the bread.  Just a little confusing.  But really good.  Then the Play was so stinkin good.  I have to remind myself, maybe there is hype about something for a reason- like the Twilight books, so worth the hype.

Garden Update

I know you are all dying to know what my garden is up to these days... Beats me.  J/K though it is kind of true.  I have my garden on auto pilot except for the harvesting part I do occasionally.  My enthusiasm fizzled a little.

This is my "special" pumpkin that grew half in the garden and half out of it and grea around the fence.  Ben is SUPER happy about the Roma Tomatoes, if I forget to harvest for a while he will gladly go out and pick a bunch.

Ruby loves to pick the tomatoes to however she doesn't always pick the ripe ones or she finds ones that are on the ground with beetles living in them.  YUCK, but don't worry they don't go to waste, she feeds them to Gus.

I also grew a sunflower that only lasted a week, now this little guy doesn't look as cute.

All done with Swimming Lessons

Swimming Lessons are over.  It is definitely bitter sweet.  It was hard to always get her there.  When she went in the morning it was a huge stressful rush and in the evening I would be out running errands or visiting my parents and I would have to cut it short to rush off to swim lessons.  But there sure is a pay off.  Ruby can now swim at 20months!  She kicks her feet to get herself to the side.  She is not so good at breathing while she swims, but she is very confident in the water.

Her last session was so fun, she got to do it with her friends Wyatt and Finn and her cousin Porter.
They take a shower before they get in the water, with a bucket of water being dumped on their heads.
Finn being thrown in the air
Porter being thrown in the air.
Ruby's swim teacher is Ben's Best Friend Brett.  He has a gift for teaching youngsters how to swim, Ruthy pointed out that he is like the dog whisperer except for babies in the pool, because he is calm and assertive and doesn't take any crap.  Thanks Brett!!