We have a leaky bathtub faucet and a leaky pipe in the basement and yesterday afternoon, I finally called a plumber. He came this morning, but I didn't have time to shower or anything before he got here and while he was working, I had to find something to do that didn't involve water (since the water was turned off), so I started in my kitchen, just rearranging stuff.

Well, I put away dishes, picked up, swept the floor and then started wiping everything down with disinfectant wipes. The plumber was still working, so I dove into the pantry and started organizing it. I did such a good job getting rid of old bags of stale chips and hard marshmellows that I actually had room for my Kitchen Aid to sit in there, instead of taking up precious space on my countertops. Well, I got so proud of myself, I took a picture of my new and improved pantry:



Then the plumber left and I finished up the dishes in the sink and wiped everything else down and by the time I was done, my kitchen was cleaner and more organized than it has been in 6 months (that's sad really).

I was talking to Christina on the phone about how excited I was about it all and she urged me to put up pictures, so here's my clean kitchen - ta da!












One of my favorite things in the kitchen - cup measurements from Anthropologie from Liz!!










Another one of my favorite parts of the kitchen - my yellow timer from Anthropologie that Daniel got me for Christmas.

I LOVE date night. I also love my date every date night: Daniel-cakes.

Side note: Noah has gotten in the habit of referring to his daddy as a few names: Honey, Daniel, Honey-Daniel or Daddy ... the "cakes" nick name hasn't caught on yet with Noah. But interestingly enough, it HAS caught on with my mom. My mom no commonly refers to Daniel as "Cakes", my sister, Christina, calls him "Daniel-cakes" too .... and I love it.

OK, back to date night! I got a babysitter and we decided to finally see Avatar. When we saw the previews and all this hype about Avatar a few months ago, we were immediately turned off to the whole thing. I remember seeing a preview a few months back and afterwards I turned to Daniel and said, "Do you have any desire to see that movie?" and Daniel responded, "not really", so that was that ... until everyone we knew saw it and kept raving about it. SO ..... we finally went on date night and ... IT WAS AMAZING. It was inspiring, had a good plot, interesting, exciting, action-filled, great acting, and a good soundtrack. If you haven't seen it - check it out!



I lost a little steam on Thursday (see previous entry) and so Friday had to count. I had date night to look forward to and that was the thought that motivated me all day. I cleaned the whole house in preparation for the babystter coming, made dinner, bathed the boys and wanted to look like a knock-out when Daniel walked in the door from work.

When I said I cleaned the house, let me clarify ... I CLEANED the house. Not just picked it up, but: deep cleaned the bathroom (I was on hands and knees at one point swiping the pee spotted floor with disinfectant and a sponge ... boys ... sheesh), deep cleaned the kitchen, organized and vacuumed the office, cleaned and vacuumed the boys' room 3 times over (because they destroyed it several times throughout the day), dusted and vaccuumed the front room, did the same for our bedroom, cleaned and put away 3 loads of laundry ... OK OK, I think I've made my point. Anyway, it was nice to have purpose: date night.

The funniest part was that I wanted to look all cute and snazzy when Daniel got home and I think I did too. I got in some leggings and my brown boots and had on a cute long shirt and chain necklaces. I had done my hair earlier in the day and let it air dry all long and curly, then put it half up. Makeup and earrings and I was set! Then Daniel ran in the door, didn't give me a second glance and ran into our room to get dressed. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed in his lack of reaction.

Three minutes later he came out of our room in jeans, tshirt and Vans and all the wind was knocked out of my little get-up. So, I ran back into our room, undressed completely and threw on some jeans, tshirt, my Santa Cruz sweatshirt and some slip on Airwalks and came out and Daniel stopped dead in his tracks in the front room. He looked at me with big eyes and said, "Wow, look at you - looking all cute and sexy and stuff in you jeans!" .... I do not get him, but I love him.

Date night means talking in a quiet car ride and sometimes listening to the radio, quietly - ahhhhhhh. It means sitting in a restaurant and being served then walking away without having to do dishes - ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It means never getting stepped on or smacked in the crotch or splattered or smeared with messy hands or faces - ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. It means snuggling and holding hands in a theatre and after the movie, knowing that we get to go home together and get in the same bed and fall asleep with your honey. And that's why I love date nights.

Call it early Spring cleaning, but Daniel and I have been cleaning out boxes and getting rid of stuff in our basement. While cleaning, we found an old board from our first year of marriage called: Daniel's Quote Board. I think Daniel is hilarious and says the funniest stuff, so when we were first married, I started jotting it down on this board. So here are the quotes:

"What's going on?"

"Don't be emotional"

"Don't cry"

"You've got something hard stuck to your face"

"Don't do this"

"Peace is peace ... shut up"

Francesca: "Are you gonna shave?"
Daniel: "Yeah, sure I will."
Francesca: "No you won't"
Daniel: "Yes, I will"
Francesca: "No you won't"
Daniel: "OK fine, I won't. Now get off me"


On the back of the board there was one quote from me that Daniel scribbled down, here it is:
"I live my life in a state of emotional turbulence. I'm okay with it. Why aren't you?"

I know everyone says Mondays are the worst - not for me ... it's Thursdays that bite. By Thursday I've lost all the steam for my projects and feel either overwhelmed because they're not done, or bored because they are. Daniel has school every other Thursday night (which is good, last semester they were every Thursday night), so I miss Daniel. And by Thursday, I'm tired of being a mommy. I have no more creativity by Thursdays and no more patience. Thursdays are close, but not close enough to the weekend, when I get to play with and hang out with my honey.

This Thursday, today, the feelings are heightened because Liam has officially entered the terrible twos stage. I have less patience, less creativty, and I'm more tired and frustrated than usual.

This stage includes getting into everything he is NOT supposed to. He has plenty of fun toys and appropriate things to play with, but to a Terrible Two, those are no longer daring or interesting enough. A Terrible Two has to find the garbage in mommy's room and pull out the entirity of it's contents and when she stops you from doing that, you find the dishwasher and begin unloading it, then standing on the open door. When she gets you out of the kitchen, a Terrible Two runs to the bathroom, gets the step stool and grabs the toothbrushes, cramming as many as you can into your mouth as quickly as possible, before she derails you once again. A Terrible Two is then so enraged that he finds the load of laundry in mommy's room and dumps the whole thing on the floor - just for spite. This is just about ten minutes of one day ... so by Thursday, after 4 days of fighting this battle alone, I am pooped and frustrated.

But today, I think it's not just Liam's new fascination with all things destructive and dangerous or even that it's just Thursday. I think today, it's a little of me just feeling funky.

Ever had one of those days when you have plenty to do, but you don't want to do any of it? You feel like curling up in sweats on the couch and eating donuts and watching like 3 or 4 straight hours of TV? But even as I think about that, I don't think that would make this Thursday any better - I would just feel like that much bigger of a loser afterwards. So, I'm not sure what WILL work - however, I'm positive that what I'm doing now is not helping my mood. I am currently shoving Liam's hands away from the computer desk every third word, Noah is at my feet poking me and I'm biting my nails typing like a maniac about how unhappy I am .... grrrrrr.

For now, I will put Liam down for bed in a half hour, find a project for Noah to do and then look online at pretty pictures of Tahiti and imagine what it would be like to be doing yoga, alone on a beach in Tahiti, surrounded only by beauty and the sounds and smells of the ocean. Yes ... Tahitian Yoga by the ocean .... mmmmmmmmm.





P.S. Yes, that is the body I would have if I did yoga on the beach everyday.

Last Sunday Noah got a "CTR" ring. It stands for "choose the right". He has been pumped about it all week and I have used it to my advantage all week, telling him to obey and remember his ring and to "choose the right" - so far it's working! He lost the ring after a few days, hopefully it will turn up soon.

This year in Primary (I am the Primary Chorister), we have been emphasizing to our Primary kids to bring their scriptures to church. To encourage this, we have those who bring at least a Book of Mormon to church put aan M&M in a jar. When the jar is full, we're going to cook cookies for the kids in Primary.

So Noah has a Book of Mormon that he brings with him to church, so ofcourse he needs ..... a scripture bag!! And because of the recent "CTR" influence, I decided to adorn his scripture bag with the emblem, "CTR". I chose to do a slightly uncommon CTR emblem. The usual one has a point at the top and the letters are spaced differently than I did them, but I followed a large CTR ring that Daniel has owned since he was 16. He bought the ring from this guy in southern California who makes awesome CTR rings. the shape looks more like a shield, I think and the "T" is made to look like a sword. I love it. Here's the finished product:







Noah said he wanted some red on his bag, so I put it inside the pocket. When I showed him he said, "oh look, I see the red ... and there are golden stars too!" I love doing stuff like this for my little Noah. I hope he remembers to choose the right.

I hate to say this, but I have become a head injury specialist, of sorts. I have been a mommy for 4 years now and I consider myself lucky to only have chalked up 3 head injuries ... so far. Noah took the first two head injuries (one to the eyebrow and one to the crown of his head - stapled that one) and on Thursday, Liam racked up head injury, number three.

I was in my room folding laundry and the boys were running around the house (house rules do NOT work, no matter how many times you enforce them). I noticed that they had pulled the diaper genies (yes, we have two) into the hallway because they had been playing with them. Why, you might ask, were they playing with recepticles that hold poopy diapers .... I cannot tell you because I have no idea. It's not like they don't have an entire basement full of amazing toys, complete with a fort lighted from within with white twinkle lights and a PotteryBarn Kids oven, or even the awesome brand new chalk board I made for them from scratch, or the masses of books I have acquired over years scouring consignment stores and Mom to Mom sales. Not to mention the puzzles, piles of Geo trains and a complete set of Radiator Springs cars ... anyway, they had been playing with the poop holder. OK, so I told them they shouldn't play with them and I put them back in their room.

As I did so, a piece of the plastic hinge on one of the diaper genies snapped off and onto their floor. I sighed and walked into my room to decide whether I should try to super glue it or if that would render the hinge useless. As I contemplated what to do next, I hear Liam let out a scream. I hear this all day long, for various reasons and Liam is a little bit of a drama queen, so I thought, "What happened NOW?" I casually turned to see Liam walking into my room and witnessed something I've only seen in movies. It was horrifying.

You never want to see your sweet baby's face like this: he had thick, dark blood streaming down the left side of his face. It was surrounding his eye, streaking his chubby cheeks and dripping onto his shirt. At first I didn't know where the blood was coming from. I thought it was his eye. I began yelling and asking Noah, "What happened?!" Noah is not really good under pressure and just started crying and kept saying, "I don't know". I kept asking Noah what happened as I grabbed a washcloth from the hall closet and started dabbing at Liam's face. NOah finally said he threw something at Liam, so I told Noah to go on time out while I took care of Liam.

As I wiped away the blood, I realized there was a large gash nearly in the center oif Liam's forehead and I applied pressure. I pulled the rag away and found that the bleeding had stopped, so I rinsed the blood out, and kept wiping and applying pressure and the cold rag to his wound. I grabbed some neosporin and a butterfly bandage, bandaged Liam up, got the boys' shoes and jackets on and we got in the car and headed to Urgent Care.

After driving almost the whole way to Urgent Care, I realized I had forgotten my wallet, so I drove back home, got my wallet, headed back to the hospital and an hour later after gluing Liam's head together we went home.

It turns out that Liam picked up the piece of plastic that broke off the diaper genie and threw it at Noah, who in turn, threw it back at Liam ... but Noah had better aim. I should be glad Noah didn't hit Liam in the eye and blind him or something, but all I can think about is how my squishy little Liam will now be scarred forever, right in the middle of his forehead. His precious baby face is the rough and tough exterior of a crazy little boy now. I just hope they don't get any crazier. But think about it - if 3 head injuries have happened and they aren't even 5 yet, what are they going to be breaking, busting open and smashing when they are 12, 13, 14 ..... I don't want to think about it.


The head injury


The culprit



Liam ...


apparently feeling fine now. If you'll notice - his hand is resting on the diaper genie. Apparently, he hasn't learned his painful lesson yet.


My two crazy boys ... I hope they survive each other.

I have really gotten into party-planning ... crazy, huh? But I LOVE it. I can get all crazy and detail oriented and then be praised for it too! Hahahaha. Tomorrow I am helping a few friends of mine put on a "Baby Shower Open House", kind of a weird idea I guess, but we wanted to do something a little more low key and cover two bases at once. The pregnant mommies are both on baby #2, but they both have a different sex for baby #1 (does that make sense), anyway ... Debbie is having a boy and Stephanie is having a girl, so this Baby Shower Open House is themed in blue and pink. Because it's an open house, we're not doing games or prizes or favors or anything like that, but we are doing yummy food, books to sign and leave messages for the mommies and gifts for each respective mommy.

While I've been searching for ideas for this Open House, I have been humbled by the following sites:

Hostess with the Mostess Blog



Paper Culture Invitations



A-MAZING Amy Atlas :)



As soon as I'm done taking pictures of everything tomorrow - I'll post the results!!