Forsyth Family Blog2012-02-07T01:47:31ZFrancesca ForsythCopyright 2012, Francesca ForsythSPHPBLOGshouldn't be blogging I got a ticket last night when I went out with my girlfriends. I have to say, it was my fault. I turned right on red when there was a sign that said not to. I didn't see the sign and in my defense, out here in Michigan not every traffic light says no right on red, it's like every 5th one, so sometimes it's hard to know. I deserved the ticket. Does that make it feel any better to blow $100 towards Michigan's enforcement community? no. Does it make me feel safer that there are cops out there upholding the law? no.
I have only had bad experiences with cops. Never once has one helped me - given me directions, come by the house to stop a robbery, been there when someone cut me off or did something dangerous ... and yet, I HAVE gotten pulled over and gotten tickets. It's a sick feeling in your stomach. The same feeling I had in elementary school when I thought they'd send me to the principle's office because I was caught talking in class. I have done a lot of dumb things driving in my life, I'm not gonna lie, but not lately. Yet over the past 13 years as a grown adult (over 18) I have gotten only two tickets, one of them being last night and another two years ago, here in Michigan. Two tickets in two years?? It makes me loath this place more. I hate to say it, but it adds to the bitter taste I have in my mouth about Michigan in general. I know, it's irrational, but it does.
The ticket two years ago still makes me seethe. It was unfair. I fought it. And lost. I wrote letters to the court, the police station, the judge and the cop who pulled me over because the cop lied in court about the situation, to no avail. I felt bitterly taken advantage of. The worst part of the ticket two years ago was sitting in the courtroom and watching the judge have pity on this idiot kid who had just gotten out of jail and had fines up the ying yang and couldn't pay them - he let the kid off scott free. Then the judge had every good, upstanding citizen who was there to pay a traffic ticket (and I heard them call out what they had done - literally all of them weren't for moving violations, but for going within 5 mph over the speed limit. five. really.) and guess what? The judge had them all go one by one and pay their $100 fine upstairs. Ten good citizens went upstairs and paid their fine. That was an easy $1000 for the court that day, huh? Taken advantage of. Thanks to us tax paying citizens who make minor missteps on the road, a criminal kid goes free to live off the system we set up. awesome.
OK, enough about the judicial system and cops. blech.
But what I was dreaming about was much worse. In my mind I have been holding out for something for a long time. About five years. Coincidentally I have been living in Michigan for the same five years. I have had this dream that has gotten steadily stronger - to live in the west near my family.
I remember talking to my sister, Christina, and she mentioned how her patriarchal blessing talks about her good family and what a blessing that is. It's funny because my blessing says the same thing. I didn't tell her that at the time. I'm really blessed to have a family I actually WANT to live near. I miss them ... and the sun in California. In my mind, I have been dreaming of blowing the likes of this place and heading out west for my dream. And I've successfully convinced myself it will happen, against all odds. That even though our house is worth nothing, Daniel hasn't even looked for a job there, and the housing and living expenses are ridiculous in California - I still hold out for it. In my dream, I thought, what if it never happens in this lifetime? It may never happen. For lots of reasons. I just never let myself consider it, until last night, in my dreams.
I know I should be counting my blessings and grateful that we have a job and a house and that I'm healthy and my kids are healthy and I have a good family that loves me, even though they are 3,000 miles away and it would take 3 solid days of driving through terrible weather (Wyoming) to get there (don't think I haven't mapped this out in Google maps a few times). I should be happy. I should be grateful. I know. Yet, sometimes, it just makes me sad to think I may never live the dream. Never live next door to any sister. Never have the opportunity for my kids to know their great Grandma before she dies. Never have my kids know Grandma and Grandpa in California very well. Never have sleepovers with cousins. Never go to the park in February. Never have holidays the way I remember them, surrounded by family - crazy, wild, fun family. It just might never be. And this morning it makes me sad.
My sister, Mina wrote it best in an email earlier this week. We send pretty awesome email chains to one another (my sisters and parents ... sometimes the husbands join in on the convo too, it's hilarious). We were, sadly, talking about our Aunt Tinin who passed a year ago and our next door neighbor who died last week. Mina said, "This is why mom and dad (or any of my sisters!) are not allowed to die. I can't lose you guys thinking, I wasted so much time in Idaho, when I should have filed bankruptcy and moved in with you instead of spending this time apart! I constantly feel like moments and memories are forever slipping through my hands and I am going to miss them all."
here here. I second that. Sad, lame and irrational, I know, but true.]]>http://www.forsythfamily.org/index.php?entry=entry120204-0703392012-02-04T00:00:00Z2012-02-04T00:00:00Zliam & noah
Right after we dropped Noah off for school, Liam and I were in the car watching him run into his school and Liam said, "He's the best Noah". Then followed that up with, "He's fun to pway wiv (play with)".
You're missing a little by not actually hearing Liam say it. He didn't used an exuberant voice, like Noah would have, with lots of emphasis, but he said it right after a sigh and totally deadpan like he really meant it sincerely. So cute. These brothers love each other. I'm excited for them to have another brother to add to the mix. I hope they love to play with number 3 too.]]>http://www.forsythfamily.org/index.php?entry=entry120130-1632452012-01-30T00:00:00Z2012-01-30T00:00:00Zvalentines day prep So we took some valentines pictures ...
]]>http://www.forsythfamily.org/index.php?entry=entry120130-1402542012-01-30T00:00:00Z2012-01-30T00:00:00Zit's a wonderful life Daniel put in a new faucet in our kitchen sink. These small changes probably don't mean that much to anyone but me, but I think they are substantial.
Sometimes I feel like I'm living the movie "It's a Wonderful Life". You know how George Bailey ends up buying that crappy old house they used to throw rocks at? And they spend their honeymoon night there and everything is leaking and they love it and each other anyway? Sometimes I feel like that. Like Daniel and I love each other in a home that is sort of falling apart.
Anyway, he fixed the faucet, but only after 2 days, and several leaks in two rooms later. Daniel successfully hooked up the faucet, then walked downstairs to the laundry room where he had turned off the water to turn it back on again - and then realized the knob he had turned off had been leaking all over our dryer the whole time because this knob was so rusted and decrepit. So he fixed that and truned the water on and the faucet worked .... but the hose to the dishwasher was leaking. It was then too late to work on the dishwasher, so we put a tub under the dishwasher hose to catch the drips and waited until morning to worry about it.
The next morning we awoke to a huge leaking mess in another place in the laundry room (the laundry room is right beneath the kitchen). Evidently, when I had dumped the pot of water catching the drip under the dishwasher hose, I had not replaced it correctly, so the leak had been dripping all over the underside of our kitchen sink, soaked through the floorboards and had been leaking all night on the laundry room beneath. Many towels and buckets later, we dried things up and Daniel had to go to Home Depot for more supplies to fix the dishwasher. He did it and everything finally worked .... two days and several leaks in two rooms later. Yeah. Old houses. Aren't they "quaint"?
Don't before pictures look so much worse when there's dirty dishes in the sink and everything is a mess? Yeah, that's what I meant to do. It's not that I was lazy and didn't want to do the dishes or anything like that ...
Can you see where it's leaking puddles?
Dishes done and everything .... oh yeah, and a new faucet too!
]]>http://www.forsythfamily.org/index.php?entry=entry120125-1052242012-01-25T00:00:00Z2012-01-25T00:00:00Zpaint! Here are a few before pictures of the office. It's actually a "during" picture, since I was already painting the walls white at this point, but whatevs:
You can really see the difference in this picture between the crappy, exterior paint I used in the office originally and the new interior white paint I'm doing now. The old paint looks gray next to the white, doesn't it? But not a good gray, just a dirty one.
The first white wall almost done
This is going to be the gray wall and the white crib will be up against this wall. This is the wall you first see when you walk into the room from the hallway. I really want it to be a focal point and really beautiful.
This is really what the grays looked like in the room. I know it looks a little yellow because I took the picture at night under the tungsen (sp?) lighting, but this is the most realistic way of seeing what I saw .... can you see how purplish the grays are on the left and the second to the right??! It was driving me crazy! The actual gray I will use is the one above and the farthest right one.
Here's the same wall of grays but under the flash. The flash makes these all look more like what they did look like one their swatches, but not like what it looked like to me in the room. ahhhhh, it's over though! Found it. I'm so glad. Now I just need to finish painting before the boys' sleepover this Friday ...
]]>http://www.forsythfamily.org/index.php?entry=entry120124-2031372012-01-25T00:00:00Z2012-01-25T00:00:00Zdiy Another thing that makes this show interesting are the captions that show up periodically throughout the show on the bottom of the screen. The captions tell the viewers what the do-it-yourselfers on the show SHOULD be doing. Sometimes you'll watch the guy on the show start on some plumbing work and a caption shows up saying you should always remember to turn off the water before starting a plumbing job. At which point, the guy on the show gets squirted in the face with a stream of water coming out of his wall. Like I said, hilarious and great TV. It is slightly less hilarious when you are the do-it-yourselfer.
I had some ideas of some home projects Daniel I should tackle before the baby comes, specifically in the office where we are doing the nursery. Everything went wrong. We weren't even planning on doing major projects and still - everything went wrong.
We wanted to put a light fixture in the closet in the office because it was a very deep closet with no light source nearby, natural or artificial. It was a closet tucked into a dark corner of the office. So, since Daniel had done some electrical work in our basement, installing about 20 recessed lights down there a few years ago, he thought this would be fairly easy. So, Daniel crawled up into the attic area and figured it out. He installed the light and it looks amazing and I was so thrilled to see it working and illuminating! However, after we saw it was working properly, Daniel had to go back into the attic to screw in the last few screws and while in haste in the attic, his foot slipped and went right through the ceiling and into our hall closet. Problem #1.
I was doing some painting in the office. Not a major project like replacing a bathroom, but it usually takes a while. I painted our office about a year ago and because I wanted to get the project going, I just used the white paint we already had on hand .... which evidently, was EXTERIOR white paint. I thought something was a little funny when I kept getting headaches from the strong smell of the paint. It also seemed a little thicker than I thought it should be ... but I didn't let any of those warning signs stop me. I had almost finished the office when I ran out of paint, so I took the can to home depot and asked for some more. They asked what I was painting and when I told them a room, they looked me up and down like I was looney and said it was a bad idea to use exterior paint for that project. It was embarrassing.
So as not to make the same mistake, I had Daniel go out and get white INTERIOR paint and grey paint for my project. I had even gotten a brand new paint roller a week before in preparation. I taped everything off and got started. The grey paint we picked was hideously wrong - too light and kind of purple. So I started on the white wall and thought I had done a pretty good job, until this morning. When I saw that the brand new roller I used had left tiny hairy pieces everywhere on the wall. I am going to need to sand the wall and start over with a different roller.
Then there was the blinds. I installed blinds on 4 other windows in our house right after we moved in and felt pretty confident that I could do it again. And I did a great job .... then I stood back. The blinds themselves were faulty and crooked and didn't close all the way. I took them down and tried to adjust them, but after a half hour of jimmy-rigging them to lay straight and close, I realized my only option was to take everything down and return them for new ones.
So, an entire Saturday and two achy backs later, Daniel and I have little to show for it. There IS a light in the closet though! But starting tomorrow, I head back to Home Depot to return blinds, buy more grey paint, a sander and get a new roller. Daniel will need to get some drywall and replace the ceiling that was kicked out, thank heavens it was in the closet and not somewhere more visible :) Man, I can't wait until we're rich enough to pay someone else to break their backs and do our projects for us. Until then, stay tuned for more horror stories from the nursery in progress.]]>http://www.forsythfamily.org/index.php?entry=entry120122-1813292012-01-22T00:00:00Z2012-01-22T00:00:00Zit's a .....
Yep. We're on to baby boy number three. Everyone I talked to asked if I was excited about having another boy and I am. I think it would've been interesting to try out having a girl, but boys are fun. Boys like to play hard, wrestle, eat ... all the same things I like to do :)
I've been looking at baby rooms and I actually get to do some fun stuff for baby boy #3 that I have never been able to do .... like buy a crib. I know, I know, what did we use? We used the same crib Daniel did as a baby - for both boys. By the time Liam was finished with it we were holding up the side of it with a diaper box. So, I earned a crib.
We're going to put the baby in our office and not give up the office, so it will be the baby/office. So I tried to come up with a somewhat versatile color scheme. Danie's office furniture is black and the baby crib and dresser we'll be getting is white, so we're going to keep all the walls white except one, the one right behind the crib will be a beautiful dove grey.
Here's my little design board I've come up with so far:
I'll probably change my mind a lot and redesign it over and over ... after all, I still have 5 months to sit and stew about it ...]]>http://www.forsythfamily.org/index.php?entry=entry120120-1859322012-01-20T00:00:00Z2012-01-20T00:00:00Znoah quote "Sure, buddy, that would be nice"
"OK ... I love you as much as Heavenly Father loves kids. That's a lot. I love you that much."]]>http://www.forsythfamily.org/index.php?entry=entry120117-1711412012-01-17T00:00:00Z2012-01-17T00:00:00Zliam
Liam is 3 and a half. He is driving me crazy. Sometimes I want to attack him with kisses and sometimes I want to lock him in a room.
It's always hard to get back to life after a 3 day weekend. I don't enjoy anyone as much as Daniel. We don't have to do anything extraordinary, in fact, it is sometimes just the funnest to snag him in the morning when he has inevitably gotten up before me, even on a holiday, and coax him back into our cozy bed to snuggle for a while longer.
Well, today I woke up after that glorious 3 days with him and he was telling me that it had been raining like crazy all night and our basement was leaking water, so to watch out for that. He kissed me goodbye and I could tell it was not going to be a good day. I woke up later to a rainy, cold, grey day ahead of me. Yuck. The day wasn't awful, but it wasn't good. But Liam worked hard enough and made it awful by 4:00 pm. Thanks.
So now I'm sitting here blogging a bit after just scarfing down, not one, but two bowls of fruit loops from my beautiful new Anthropologie bowls. This is supposed to make me happy. And while the fruit loops are actually giving me an immediate stomach ache, the bowl is working its magic by being light blue and happy. Ahhhh. However, I can still hear Liam crying and wailing and tossing things around in his room. He's been banned from Legos for 24 hours. Why did I do this? I know that it's just going to be more of a punishment for me to enforce this than anything, but consequences need to happen and Legos are the only thing that Liam seems to care about.
Liam.
This kid. He is so stubborn. About everything. He's argumentative and particular and picks fights about EV-ERY-THING. He HAS to put his boots on by himself, so I let him, but he makes one weak attempt and they don't immediately glide onto his foot, so he bangs his feet on the floor and throws himself hard against the carpet exclaiming, "It not w-uh-king (working)!!" I bend down to help, but he violently alligator rolls away. He thrashes a bit and keeps complaining. This might seem a little bit of an overreaction. Surely I must be explaining a specific instance that happens once a week, right? ... nope. This is an everyday, several times a day occurrence, just change the name of the task at hand - eating breakfast, putting on his jacket, washing his hands, drying his hands, putting on his pants, eating lunch, picking up a toy, putting away his blanket, eating dinner, getting in the car, getting out of the car, putting on his jacket ... you get the picture.
Liam has his glimmering moments in there too. Sometimes he will come up and tell me he loves me, totally unprompted. Or giggle and smile and yell how he "W-UHVS (loves)" the meal we're about to eat. Yesterday he came into my room after dinner and said, "Fank (thank) you mommy, for making a yummy dinn-uh (dinner). I w-uhv (love) you", then he skips off into the bathroom to wash his face and hands. Or even earlier today he was walking with me hand in hand in Michaels and he looked up at me and said, "Mommy, you my fwend (friend)". sigh. I wish it were always that way. But sometimes it's not. At least Daniel is coming home in an hour and it's quiet now in Liam's room. I hope he fell asleep. He needed a nap today. He keeps waking up before 7 am and it's not good for him. He becomes a crank monster and then refuses to nap. Pray that he's sleeping.
Gotta go make dinn-uh. ]]>http://www.forsythfamily.org/index.php?entry=entry120117-1637262012-01-17T00:00:00Z2012-01-17T00:00:00Zgoals
I have to admit. I'm not really the "New Year's Resolutions" type person. But Daniel is. He said every year growing up, they would set goals for different portions of their lives: physical goals, spiritual goals, personal goals, etc. And so I checked out Pinterest to see if there was any cute way to display our family goals ... once I found a cute idea, I was sold on "goals" for the new year :)
I am good at short term things and small projects, so we'll see how this goes. But here are our family goals out on my chalkboard in my kitchen for all to see ... I guess I shouldn't be caught in my kitchen drinking a rootbeer with my new goals in sight! ]]>http://www.forsythfamily.org/index.php?entry=entry120113-1802152012-01-13T00:00:00Z2012-01-13T00:00:00Znew craft corner What my craft closet looked like BEFORE:
I needed more space and a place where I could lock up some small and dangerous things I didn't want the boys to get into - so I used this old cabinet we still had hanging around in our basement from when we used it with out hideous entertainment center we got off the side of the road in NJ for free. Here is the cabinet BEFORE I did anything to it:
And one pegboard, one painted cabinet and 10 days later this is what I came up with (OK, not just me. I really had lots of help from Daniel. He painted and helped me go through stuff too):
The pegboard was 4 ft by 8 ft and I had Home Depot cut it in half (for free), but the pegboard cost $20. The pegs and dowels were from Home Depot as well, but the wire baskets holding my paint and the white letter organizer is from IKEA. The thread holder is from Joann's.
The white paint we already had, but I got the aqua paint from Home Depot (Behr). I didn't need a lot so I just bought the sample pot of paint for $3. I got the doorknob and lock from Home Depot. The lights inside the cabinet are form IKEA ($12).
OK, these genius little drawers are a gift from my mom. She had these from the 80's when I was growing up. I LOVE them. The only thing I di was use my label maker to make labels for everything in each drawer. There are over 100 drawers ... the labeling took some time :)
I feel so ready to craft, sew, create ... the world seems like my oyster with all my junk organized. 2012 is going to be a good year.
Lately there have been some awesome and happy things going on. I will list them, so I don't forget them:
1. SUN. There has been an unusual amount of sunshine in the state of MI for January. They've been talking about it on the news and radio about how unusual it is to not have snow, to have sunshine and for the degrees to hit the 40's and 50's every few days. I LOVE IT. And I wanted to mention something else about this phenomenon: I think this crazy, warm winter we're having is a direct blessing from my Father in Heaven directed at me. Seriously. I was worried about being pregnant again, especially during the winter here because I get seriously moody during pregnancy and the grey, cold, miserable winter that is so typical made me wonder if I could make it through. I made this pregnancy and the timing of it all a very serious matter of prayer and I felt the Lord confirm to me that everything was right and I would be OK. And I just trusted and moved forward ...... and lo and behold, we have, thus far, had the warmest and sunniest winter I can remember having since I lived here in MI. Thank you, that makes me happy.
2. Taking the boys to the park last Thursday and hearing Noah exclaim, "I just LOVE climbing!" As he skipped across the park and towards the monkey bars.
3. Hearing Liam have a conversation in the car this morning and when I tried to respond to him (because it was just me and him in the car) he responded, "No, mommy, I not talking to you".
4. Noah asking when he could go back to school. He missed it and loved going back on Monday.
5. Having Daniel home almost every night of the week. It feels like Christmas everyday, when in reality, it is just a normal workday and he simply doesn't have school anymore. Such happiness.
6. Telling Daniel I bought myself an orchid at IKEA for our front room and being afraid he'd say I was not being frugal with our money, then hearing him say in response, "oh, that's nice. Sorry, I should be buying you flowers, you shouldn't have to".
7. Cleaning out my craft closet that's in the office, so we have room for the new baby's things.
8. Seeing all my craft stuff organized in a locking cupboard and pegboard downstairs (pictures to come later). I just sit and stare at it sometimes. Everything in its place. It brings joy to my heart. The only thing I love more? All the labels on my craft drawers and color coding my paints and thread. ahhhhhhhhhhh.
9. Watching "Parenthood" with Daniel cakes.
10. Buying a new pair of flat boots. They are by Carlos Santana and are brown (actually "cognac") with buckles and a zipper up the side. I can't wait to get them in the mail.
11. Getting new maternity clothes from my friend Leslie and buying a few things at Target that were on sale. I am officially not able to wear anything but actual maternity clothes now (as of Sunday). I love new clothes and I love getting them for free and on sale.
12. Planning a trip to Cozumel for Daniel's and my 10th anniversary this year.
13. Improving on my homemade pizza recipe.
14. Having time alone with Liam while Noah is at school. I love this time. Liam is so chill.
15. Seeing Liam say anything these days. His face has become so animated and he raises one eyebrow when he's confused or perplexed with something. It's awesome. All of his l's come out as w's and all his er's are uh's, so "letters" becomes "wett-uhs". He's to die for.
16. Hearing Noah double check my counting, then telling me, "yeah, that's right mommy. There are 6".
17. Feeling Baby #3 move.
18. Listening to Liam sing the ABC's, this is how he does it: "A B C D E F G H I J K em, em P Q R S T U V now I know my letters, next time will you sing it way-tuh (later)".
Not bad for a January, huh?]]>http://www.forsythfamily.org/index.php?entry=entry120111-1903552012-01-12T00:00:00Z2012-01-12T00:00:00Zcubicle joy
This is for Daniel. It's a surprise, but it's pretty safe to post it here because he never checks our blog unless I tell him too ... and then watch him go to the blog on his phone or on our computer ... and then I make him read it aloud. Yeah. That's how it works. So, I think we're good. Also, we're going to give it to him tonight.
Daniel hates his current job. For a whole host of things, but let's just leave it at that, he hates it. And evidently there are smokers nearby him, so it smells bad, the people are mean and little joy is happening at his workplace - enter - Cubicle Joy!
The boys and I made the pencil holder out of a tin can and hand-colored popsicle sticks glued on. There are scent diffusers for the smell issue (I figured an open flame candle would not be appropriate in the workplace), homemade chocolate chip cookies (his favorite), a "forget-me-not" plant, and a sticky note pad that I'm pretty sure is wayyyyy to girly, but oh well. It just looked so happy :) Did you notice the scent of the aromatherapy scent diffuser?? (happiness) And I wanted Daniel to have something he could munch on that wasn't sugary, but a fun snack - hence the sugar-free Extra gum. Did you know they came in so many awesome flavors?? The boys and I picked out: mint chocolate ice cream, apple pie, orange creamsicle, and watermelon.
One last thing: Noah picked out the pencils from the dollar spot at Target. They are red and blue with robots and stripes ... I love them. But what I love even more is the fact that Noah spent about 25 minutes sharpening each pencil for his Daddy. That's my thoughtful Noah :)
Happy cubicle Daniel-Cakes!]]>http://www.forsythfamily.org/index.php?entry=entry120105-1538062012-01-05T00:00:00Z2012-01-05T00:00:00Zstarting to feel it
I saw this picture Daniel took of me in Chicago at the Field Museum and laughed out loud. Yeah, I'm only about 18 weeks and I'm really starting to feel pregnant. I think my hips went out of alignment within the first month or two and I have had to be super careful not to over-do-it ever since. My lower back is killing me, so are my shoulders ... and let's start the weigh ins ... I've already gained 12 lbs.
But here's the exciting news - I'm feeling the little baby move now and Daniel has felt it too! I still remember where I was the first time I felt Noah move (walking across the street in downtown Provo going to a Ryan Shupe concert). Also, my skin is better, I look less like a 14 year old breaking out (like I usually do).
I am starting to bust out of my regular pants too. I can't even get away with the nifty trick of using a hair thing to hold my button together. The other night Daniel and I went on a date to see "Mission Impossible" (killer movie by the way) and while sitting in the theater I had to completely unbutton my pants and then unzip my pants. I forgot about it until I stood up and my pants nearly fell down, except that my abundant thighs were keeping things in place. Anyway, this new development in pants busting has gotten me to seriously think about maternity clothes. I found a few pictures of maternity outfits that I want ....
It looks like I will need a long black skirt
... And a brown belt ... and I need to somehow get rid of those crazy vericose veins that have shown up on my legs. yeah. maybe I'll just stick to long pants and skirts :)
