Dear Chris, from that one pest control company,

Thank you for not screaming and running from the door when I came to it. I was too overcome at the moment to explain the situation. You, however remained fairly calm and presented your company well. As you have probably figured out, pests are the least of our concern at the moment.

I feel I should offer some explanation.

First, my six year-old was in the middle of giving me a make-over.

Secondly, my four-year-old picked out what I was wearing (orange skirt, that I actually picked out, and bright pink shirt with a purple silk scarf, from Anna.)

Third, the shower of tampons and pads the moment my exuberant four-year-old answered the door was from my six year-old emptying out the bag from our camping trip a few days previous, from the floor above us. I was mortified when I came to the door and saw you picking them up.

I would offer an apology, but feel quite certain that I have provided you with the number one crazy lady story to tell around the water-cooler, in which case, you're welcome.

Sincerely,
Sonja

R and R

Does this picture make anyone else think of the apes at the zoo? I guess we must be related.
My body is soft enough for that to be comfortable. 


Yes, it was a good mother's day. Hope yours was too.

Ok, real quick...

...here's a funny story.


Claire was looking at our pictures and when she came to the ones with the big, red, British phone booths she said,

"So, those are elevators?"

Ha ha. (Thanks JK Rowling)

But even funnier was when explained they were phone booths, where people could use the phone to make calls.

"OH! So like to get out of the rain?"

Because why would anyone need a pay phone, right?

Ha ha.

Just a moment, please.

Ring, ring.



Yes, hello?



Anna! You haven't been returning my calls. Why don't you ever pick up the phone??

Rhymes with bear gut

This morning's session of conference started out a little rocky. Anna was having a hard time sitting still and nothing was working out for her. Her crayons weren't right, the paper wasn't right, the underwear was bugging her, yadda yadda...

I'm glad they started with President Henry B. Something about his demeanor and the things he chooses to speak about always help me feel the spirit.

"Reach out for your children as our Father in Heaven reaches out to us." I needed to hear that.

"Pray for love to see the good in your companion, that mistakes will seem small...." Jeremy needed to hear that.

My notes from L. Tom Perry to Bishop Burton are very short. Because of the a fore mentioned struggle.

Then during Ann M. Dibb's talk everything got pretty quiet. I enjoyed listening to her cheerful voice and analogies. There are so many ways we can relate Lehi's dream to our lives, I tell you.

Half-way through Elder Nelson's talk, Anna (who's disappearance upstairs went unnoticed) came downstairs.

Claire shrieked. Elise shrilled. Sam gasped.

Before I had a chance to see what all the vocals were about, Anna bolted upstairs and slammed the door to her room.

I gathered a few clues on my way to her room. They chilled me to the core.





Yes.

It was that.

By the time I convinced her to come out, I was prepared for the worst.

But it wasn't so bad.



We went down together to hear President Monson's excellent talk on kindness, service and loving each other.

I'm going to get a big jar and a packet of "warm fuzzies" next week.

And a few big, cute barrettes.

Um...I'd like to thank my

This isn't the post I intended to write tonight. I've been writing (in my head) about some pretty heavy, meaningful, deep subjects.

But tonight, we shall just have fluff and stuff. (again)

Here are the reasons why:

Today Sam made me and the nurse laugh. We went to go get flu "sniffs". Claire and Anna already had their flu vaccines misted painlessly into their noses last week. Because there was no school today, it was everyone else's turn. Unfortunately, they were all out of the "mist" kind, so guess what? We got the old fashioned kind.

I didn't tell the kids until after I had mine done. They were like, "Oooh, mom. Sorry that you had to have the shot."

"Well, you see..." I began.

Then Sam caught on and started to freak out a bit.

"No, no, NO...I would rather sniff dad's stinky watch!"

Wha? Yeah, the nurse and I were laughing so hard at the randomness. Maybe you had to be there. Nevertheless, we all are now ready for flu season. We hope. And I'm still laughing.


Also,

and this is just plain bragging, sorry. I was beyond astonished to find out the my photo over here won the best photo at I Heart Faces this week. GET OUT! I've been doing the happy dance for hours.

Lastly,

but most definitely NOT leastly,
Samuel, Elise and I auditioned last month for a musical production called, Savior of the World: His Birth and Resurrection. We found out a few weeks ago that all three of us get to participate in this amazing Christmas production.

The performances start November 20 and run until Jan 2 at the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City, UT.

About 3 years ago, I was driving with my kids at night to the airport to pick up my mom. I had just purchased the CD to this musical and we were listening to it in the van. After some beautiful solo (can't remember exactly which one), Sam told me with tears in his eyes, "Mom, I just feel so happy. I feel so good when I hear about Jesus." Elise chimed in with her happy thoughts too. (Claire and Anna were asleep) I'm pretty sure this is the first time we really talked about what it means to feel the spirit and how He testifies of truth. I know they felt the spirit that night, and they know it too.

Ever since then, I knew I had to let my kids experience this show.

It opens with angels singing and anticipating Jesus' birth. The first act is all about Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth and Zacharias. It is the most beautiful retelling of the nativity story. It ends with joy and rejoicing at the Lord's birth.

(Elise is playing Anna, Mary's sister. I am one of Mary's aunts and Sam is a temple boy in a scene with Zacharias.)

The second act is all about the Savior's resurrection. It's a very real and poignant depiction of the days following Christ's death up until his Ascension. It moves through the disciples' anguish and confusion to their joy and understanding ending with all of the disciples stirring testimony of Christ and anticipation of His second coming.

We've been to three rehearsals so far. I've cried at each one. My plan is to callous over the next few weeks, but right now, it has felt so good to cry just because I feel the spirit. You know what I mean? Kind of let it wash all over you. In my patriarchal blessing I'm told that I will sometimes see more clearly through my tears. It's been a while.

It has been a blessing for me and my two oldest. Even a tender mercy. Just as I was so worried about not being able so spend as much time with them (because of school and work), we have been given these evenings to mingle together with beautiful music, script and spirit. I look forward so much to the rehearsals!

If you are around, please come join us for this special event. You can find more information here:
http://www.lds.org/events/info/0,8197,726-1-735,00.html

And Happy Conference Weekend! I found lots of great conference ideas over at MormonMamma. We're going to eat pancakes, orange julius and scrambled eggs all weekend.

What are your family's Gerenal Conference traditions?

Take me home.....chunky roads

For reasons unknown to the universe, this song is special to our family. Elise and Jeremy started singing it together a few years ago, and now the whole family starts belting it out with all our hearts after Jeremy plays the first few chords of this John Denver classic. WE LOVE IT!

Someday we will visit West Virginia and feel like we've been there before.

Anna's revised a few words in the song. I dare you to find a cuter version of this song.

Toi-yet paper is for BUMS!

Here's another round of "Kids say the darnedest things."

Are you ready?

Last week, we while we were watching Claire at Gymnastics, Anna announced that she had boogers. Without any tissues in my pockets, I went to the restroom to collect some toilet paper to wipe her little nose. As I approached her with the toilet paper, she vehemently opposed, proclaiming very loudly,

"MOM, that is toi-yet paper! Toi-yet paper is for bums, not noses, MOM!"

This was proceeded by much wailing followed by more boogers. Mercifully, one of the other moms found a tissue in her purse because I was laughing so hard that I started crying too.

sheesh...

hilarious

Ok, you may think we are the strangest people after this. I'm willing to risk that. After all, chances are you already think that!

We are all coughing, wheezing and feverish right now. No fun. Today I found these videos on the computer. I think this is what Elise does when I'm on the phone. We all laughed SO hard.

Truly the best medicine.

Do you smell that?

That is the smell of post-holiday fridge, my friends.

Come on, I know I'm not the only one smelling left over cheesy cauliflower, discarded, fatty pieces of ham and woo-wee balsamic green beans. Right? Right??

Ooh, ooh...there's also a small container of whipped cream-turned-butter back there.

Ugh.

My fridge is still living in 2008. Today I will remedy that.

No, no, tomorrow I will remedy that.

Today I will write and reminisce!

We had a wonderful Christmas. This is the first year we've had a Christmas tree in 5 years! My kids were so excited. Claire and Anna have never seen all our precious, handmade ornaments given to us from dear friends and family.

Sam, Elise and Jeremy went to go see "A Christmas Carol." One of our family traditions. It will be fun when the whole family can go.

Here is our Christmas Eve nativity scene. Jeremy was the photographer and narrator.

Do you think eating tomato soup enhances Mary's look?

Our big Christmas present was having Mummu and Pappa come visit us!


My parents are so funny. Really.


We went for winter walks.


Mummu and Pappa took the kids to the Dinosaur Museum (so Jeremy and I could go to the temple).

We played games.We went to Jeremy's work and played around with the green screen.
Bobo fett? How'd he get in there?
You saw them here first, folks. That's right. The next big stars. Right here.

We wish we lived closer to Mummu and Pappa, but we are so glad that they are willing to travel to see us!

It was soooo nice to relax and be lazy. I read all of "Brisingr" and luuuved it. But I'm dissapointed it wasn't the last book. That stinker Poalini said it would be a trilogy and then changed his mind and made it a "cycle". Terrific. Now I have to wait who-knows-how-long to find out if Ergon defeats Galbotorix.

Listen to me. Can you believe the things I complain about?

I've got a lot of blog reading to do. I'm looking forward to it!

The fridge, not so much.

Happy New Year.

What do you get when...

...a bunch of 30 something designers hang around each other? This:

(Look closely at the credits, my husband is Jeremy Fett)

A remedy for your election woes:

Now...go vote!

For Pappa

I Missed the Little Things, and other Randomness.

It was so wonderful to be with my sister and her family while they welcomed their new daughter into the world. I love my nephew. He is so cute. I think he will have so much fun with his new sister. I also had fun taking pictures!




I missed my family though. This was the first time I've ever been away from them for longer than a day. Jeremy makes mothering look so easy. I'm told he even got everyone to church on time (we meet at 9:00am by the way).

When I got home, I cherished all the funny little things my kids say. I keep meaning to write them down more often. These were said within the last 24 hours.


When asked to finish writing a book report Sam replied:
"I am going to DIE! And when I do, I want my funeral to be very lavish."

Overheard while Elise and Claire were playing.
Claire: I'll be the mom. Ok, you do this and you do that and I'm going to go on a diet.
Elise: You don't even know what a diet is.
Claire: I know that only moms go on diets.

After seeing pictures of her new baby cousin, Elise asked:
"Mom, I really want a baby brother. Is that too much to ask for?"

I was in the kitchen, unaware that anyone else was listening to me when I said to myself,
"What should we have for dinner tonight?"
Anna, who was coloring at the table smiled and said, "Candy!"

Housefly's Revenge?

I am ruthless when it comes to pesky houseflies.

Typically, if a wandering spider, or other such insect-type, happens to cross my living room, I carefully scoop him up with a piece of paper and take him back outside. I have a hard time squishing bugs.

But this is not the case with flies. I wield my kitchen towel with precision and power. Snapping those annoying, dirty, winged creatures into oblivion. Mwahh ahh ahh ahh....

Last week, however, I think I met my match. We experienced an onslaught. They were everywhere. I was downing 'em like crazy. And then I heard this voice. A very tiny voice with a Latin accent:
The next evening I spent much of my time here:
And this week, Inigo's curse has touched the rest of us. Perhaps it's because I mentioned that my schedule would work as long as nobody got sick. Maybe I cursed myself. (I haven't been leaving the milk out, dad.) In any case, it's not pretty.

Last day of "Simmy" Lessons

Fruits from the Garden

I forgot to mention how excited my kids are to eat fruit from the plants they've grown. We've been enjoying strawberries and peas this week.

Ok, the picture below totally cracks me up. Can you guess why?

Keeping it together.

"Egg shell mosaic", by Stacey Previn

How do you keep from going to pieces when your whole day seems to be falling apart? I've been known to belt out some musicals, write poetry, run...far...away, or just whine about it here at the ol' blog.

Are you ready for the biggest whine of your life?

Ah hem...

My head feels like it's going to explode from all the lovely pollen and cotton wood around here.

I've been van-less for a long time. As in, no vehicle. Nada. My primary mode of transportation is the bike and its trailer and it is no fun to ride a bike in 90 degree weather with four young children in tow. Jeremy has assured me that we will buy a car this weekend.

I found out today, as the boards were coming off the fence in the back, that our neighbors are planning on building a brick wall in the back.
"And we will have to dig up most of your garden," the hired contractors tell me.
The garden that we protected from the gopher; that we endured misquote bites for to make sure it got watered; that is the reason our hands are chapped; that we are just beginning to enjoy the fruits of; that we nourished with the sweat of our own bodies! Yeah, that garden. I spent a good chunk of my day today trying to work that whole situation out.
Was there a bee in my bonnet, you ask? Heck yes.

Despite my best efforts, I can not get more than 6 hours of sleep at night. The past few nights I've gone to bed before 11pm, but now my daughters are having a hard time sleeping. Bad dreams, bed wetting, endless thirst, and loud motorcycles have been keeping me from my sweet dreams. Yes, it's probably good that I've been going to bed earlier, so that I can help my girls during this time and not be a complete monster, but this is a whine, remember? If I'm going to give up that precious alone time, I want 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep, by jingo!

I remembered today that clear contact paper makes me insane. Why do I forget that? I begin a new project and think: this time, this time it will work for me. It will be easy. I don't have to run to the store to have this poster laminated. I already have some contact paper on hand (from the last project that drove me insane). I'm so clever and frugal, aren't I?
No, no, no! I should have taken it to the store to be laminated! It is ABSOLUTELY worth it to pay a little extra than to spend many minutes trying to make clear contact paper look good.

My upstairs bathroom sink is clogged.

The. kids. are. going. crazy. I need to have some discipline and order. Right now. Chaos is raging and I feel helpless against the tide that is summer vacation. We've had our break and now there WILL BE order. and charts. and plans. and lists, so help me...

Jeremy stepped on a huge, ugly, white, grub or caterpillar this morning in our bedroom. We deduced that the poor creature must have climbed in his jeans while they were hanging on the fence to dry yesterday. Talk about yuck. I mean, he described the sound of the squish. Blech...
I was so paranoid about all the laundry, I had to go through and shake all of it. And I prepared myself for the worst: A gianormous, yucky bug infestation in half the clothes we own. Thankfully, I didn't find any others. Yet.

I guess I was expecting this list to be a little longer. It's comforting to think, maybe this wasn't such a bad day after all. It could have been worse, no?

And now for my Broadway belt...

TOMORROW, TOMORROW, I LOVE YA, TOMORROW, YOU'RE ALWAYS A DAY AWAY!

It's tough to be two

Today.

Got dressed by myself.

Had Cherrios.

Got mad when mom didn't give me more right away and threw bowl on floor.

Bowl broke.

Sat in time out while mom cleaned up broken pieces.

Played with my sisters.

Practiced sitting exactly the same way Elise does.

Got feet all muddy in garden.

Walked on mom's clean floor.

Tried for 10 minutes to tell mom something really important until she finally understood me: "Ine scary sado." "I'm scared of shadows."

Helped mom fold laundry.

Escaped out front door with mom's bra.

Sat in time out again.

Ate my chicken sandwich and applesauce lunch.

Fell off my chair backwards and bumped my head.

Went for a walk with every one.

Scraped my knee and cried real hard until mom was able to put a band aid on.

Swung on the swing.

Ate mom's pizza.

Went out to play again.

Sat in a pile of ants.

Got stung by ants on my arms and legs and cried.

Took a bath.

Screamed for a while because I want my binky back that mom took away from me.

Finally went to sleep.

And tomorrow, we get to do it all again!

Crossing the Rubicon

Narmer had Egypt
King Minos had Crete
Shamshi-Adad had the world
For a time.

So did Cyrus, Alexander, Augustus and Caesar
Their conquests and triumphs we
Read and admire.
Many have come with their hopes
And aspire
To greatness and glory and fame.

I felt the 'umph' in triumph today
I conned the quest in conquest.
I crossed the Rubicon,
Half of Provo as well, (not quite)
A better time to claim.

We turned the corner
Our purpose in sight
We ignored the pain
And roared with might!
Forward, onward, victorious flight!
Now 36:02 will be by my name.