Trying to Spread the Word

See that button there on the sidebar? The one with the cute baby foot? The one with the title Threads of Love? Go, click it! Find out about a wonderful new project for the Nielson family. Candice and Kelly what a wonderful idea! Hurry! Shoo! Go Click!

Brain Loop

Everyone gets songs stuck in their heads. You know how annoying it is and frustrating. I've had that happen as well. But every once in a while my brain takes it to the next level. Instead of having a song just stuck in my brain I have a phrase or a chorus from a song that plays in a loop in my head. Seriously, like a record skipping. Nothing can force it's way in except for the lyrics that are playing in that loop.

Yep. The last one I remember really well was from the Macy Gray's song "I Try." It was when Michael J. Fox was leaving Spin City and they used this song as part of the commercials to hype his last appearance on the show. This is what got stuck in my head.

I try to say goodbye and I choke
Try to walk away and I stumble
Though I try to hide it, it's clear
My world crumbles when you are not here
Goodbye and I choke
I try to walk away and I stumble
Though I try to hide it, it's clear
My world crumbles when you are not here

When this occurs my brain also throws in a lovely yet horrendous headache to accompany the loop of words that refuse to be evicted from my head. The only way to empty my head of the lyrics and the pain is to take a couple of Excedrin and turn on the radio and actually focus on the words of the songs that are on. The headaches that come with the loops don't necessarily deal well with sound and it usually helps to sleep them off but after taking Excedrin sleep is hard to come by, unfortunately that is the only way I have found to erase the headaches and the lyrics.

I had another Brain Loop last night. I tried to hold it off as long as I could. Tried to deal with it, sleep it off. I should have known better. At 2:45 a.m. I had to get out of bed, go upstairs, take some Excedrin, turn on the radio and try to get the loop to stop.

It was a loop from a Primary song, since we had our Primary program yesterday. This time around it was only one line from the song "If the Savior Stood Beside Me". I love this song. It's a beautiful song with a very touching message. The line that got stuck in the loop was "He is always with me, though I do not see Him there." I love this line but after having it going in my head for two to three hours along with the headache it was just too much.

So...Message to Brain. I get it. I get it. I know that I can depend on my Savior and He will be there for me no matter what. I have been struggling with some things for awhile. I guess my brain is just tired of listening to me whine in my head all the time and feel sorry for myself. Maybe this is the way that I yell and scream at myself to get my point across to me. I get it. Lesson learned.

Larry Boy, Halloween Costumes, etc.

Halloween is on it's way. And if your house is anything like our house the kids talk about what they want to be for Halloween all year long. We have to put a moratorium on speaking of Halloween costumes or it would be a nightly discussion at the dinner table. In fact, they start talking about what they want to be next year for Halloween on November 1st. It's crazy.

On my older blog one of the highest ways people found me was through a Google search for Larry Boy Costume. My oldest son had an affinity for Larry Boy (that is a nice and mild way to put it). He wanted a LB costume but there were none to be found. This was back in 2002 most people did not know who Larry Boy was. If you are unfamiliar with Larry Boy now and are wondering what gibberish I am going on about here is a video...please for you to enjoy.



Me? I can't sew anything but a straight line so a fabric costume was out of the question. Plus how do you sew plungers? If you are thinking "What in the world is she talking about? PLUNGERS?" and did not watch above video I refer you to said video so you will understand.

Me? I'm good with things like poster board and colored foam and duct tape. So that's what his costume is made of. Oh and I bought two regular sized plunger bottoms from the store because they were out of the small ones. And actually the larger ones were better for the scale of the costume but they were incredibly hard to keep in place and they made the whole thing very top heavy.

I'm posting the pictures of my son in his LB costume so as to help out any of those mothers out there searching in desperation for one. To give them inspiration or maybe just a good laugh. Just out of curiosity I Googled to see if there are any LB costumes out there for sale. I didn't really see anything that was in the retail world. Other mothers just as desperate and far more talented than I have come up with some good ideas. But I'd thought I'd put my own out there as well.

I also thought I'd put pictures up of the kids in some of my more favorite costumes to get the creative juices flowing. Here they are.

We painted his face. Like I said the rest of it is made of poaster board and that craft foam and of course my beloved duct tape. When we went out that night trick or treating most people had no idea what J was supposed to be. A few, though, did know and recognized him as Larry Boy on the spot.


This next pic is M as a cow girl. It's done with brown paper bags and white paint. The belt buckle is just cardboard covered in tinfoil. You could probably use white paper and just tape it on on instead of painting it. Why I didn't think of that at the time I don't know.

This is j as a Jelly Fish. It's a piece of foam board covered with batting and a lovely pink material that is stapled to the foam board. As are the strips of crepe paper. I used a regular stapler but it would have been much simpler and more sturdy with a heavy duty stapler. Oh and the foam board has to have a hole cut in the middle for the head to fit in and a strap to attach it under the chin or maybe under the shoulders.
I have a couple more that are favorites but it looks like the pictures of them aren't on my computer so I'll have to find them and scan them in. Hmmm.... I wonder if I'll actually get around to it.

BTW my kids still don't know for sure what they want to be for Halloween. The whims change daily but I need to get them going on getting their minds made up. Only, what, 36 more days until All Hallows Eve.

Bleh

Sitting here with a Breathe Right strip on my nose still trying to get enough air into my lungs. (These things do work on helping with the congestion though. I highly recommend them.)

I have company. This morning j threw up just as she was about to get breakfast. She told me her tummy wasn't feeling well but I can never be sure with my kids. So I was making her get something to eat to see if hunger was the problem. Unfortunately it was not.

She ate some toast and kept it down and is now acting just fine. I'm on my way to fixing us both eggs. Such drama and excitement here in my life.

It's just how I like it. If only I could breathe through both nostrils.

One Nostril or Two?

I'll take two nostrils please.

If you have seen the movie Chinatown you probably remember the scene where Jack Nicholson get's caught in an ally by some thugs. As one thug is holding poor Jack the other thug says

"You're a very nosy fellow, kitty cat. Huh? You know what happens to nosy fellows? Huh? No? Wanna guess? Huh? No? Okay. They lose their noses."

And then he totally slits Jack's nose! I saw that scene last night on AFI's 10 top10. It was in the top 10 mystery movies. I actually haven't seen Chinatown. And seeing that clip made it so I don't really want to.

I watched that clip as I struggle to breathe through my nose. I have a sinus infection of some sort that's been coming on since Sunday night. I've been drinking tons of water and trying my best to fight it off but last night it wore me down.

I have issues with being able to breathe through both nostrils. If one nostril is plugged I feel that I am not getting enough air and end up mouth breathing. I know logically I am most likely getting enough air through just the one nostril but psychologically I need to be able to breathe through both. (And let's not even discuss how I can't breathe if the air is hot, two nostrils or not. Sauna's are suffocation rooms in my opinion.)

I stayed up until 11 p.m. in hopes that I would be tired enough to be able to fall asleep without having the one nostril breathing issue. Because if you think me trying to deal with one nostril breathing awake is difficult, you should see me try to be able to go to sleep with one nostril plugged. It's nigh unto impossible.

This morning the stuffiness isn't as bad but my head is still throbbing and full of yuck. I'm thinking I'll be heading to the store to check out those breathe right strips. I'm hoping that they can keep my two nostrils open so I can be sure that my brain is getting enough oxygen because I need to scrub that scene from Chinatown out of my head. It was very disturbing to me.

A Brush with Deth

Ty and I went out to dinner at a local Thai restaurant on Friday. They have the best Spring Rolls and Sweet and Sour Chicken (non-breaded of course) there. Yum!

I happened to notice the name tag of one of our servers. Deth, something or the other, it said. I wonder how it's pronounced? With a long e or like the word death.

It struck me as interesting. Can you imagine the phone calls if it is pronounced like death?
"May I ask who is calling?"
"Deth"
Click.

Don't say I didn't warn you

I told you that it was the boys' turn today. It was a beautiful day and some of the shots turned out pretty good. My favorites of G are the first three of him, those are totally G. His personality just shines through.

You will notice that there are more shots of G than of J. The reason for this is because it is very difficult for me to catch J being J. This is where I wish I had the bigger camera with the telephoto lens because I have to really catch him off guard to get a candid and "true" picture of him. I know that this has much to do with his Autism.

I do love the shot of him jumping on his own. The expression on his face shows just how hard he is working at jumping. How much more difficult it is for him than most of the rest of us, because of his reduced gross motor skills. But I love the fact that he is more than willing to try and to jump (10 to 15 times!) for me in order to get a shot that I liked.

I also like the one where J is bent over and G is laughing. J is actually slapping G on the back at some joke that they were enjoying. That is typical J.

I love my boys.

Are You Prepared?

Not in the "Do you have your food storage all ready to go? Or an 'Ike' is coming." Kind of way. (BTW prayers for those affected by the recent hurricanes. I can't imagine dealing with that.) This is more of a "Are you prepared for the onslaught of pictures that is about to assail you?" kind of way?

Yesterday I followed the advice of Motherboard and stopped procrastinating. I went out with my two daughters and took some pictures of them.

I really don't like the "School pictures" you can go to Target and get MUCH cuter ones there for cheaper than the packages at school. But then you have to drive to Target and drive back to pick up the pictures. Don't really like that...especially with gas prices being what they are. So with the fabulous digital world we live in I started taking pictures of my kids myself. I'm not great at it by any means and my camera is slowly dying (I mean after 12k pics on a small digi how could it not?)

Because said camera doesn't always capture the shot that I want I've put this task off. Yesterday morning I told the girls that we would be doing this "photo shoot" after school. That way I knew they would keep me honest. M walked in the door and off we went. This is what came from the shoot.

(I am deeply, deeply grateful for digital and for the photo editing software that helps these pictures come closer to what I see in my minds eye when I take them.)

Oh and today it's the boys' turn.

Equilibrium - or lack thereof

My equilibrium is pretty much non-existent. When that particular feature was being handed out I must have either been out of the room or didn't figure I'd need that much of it. As I child I was never one of the kids you saw rolling down the hill or spinning in circles until they fell over. I even had a hard time swinging on swings. Needless to say I'm not much fun at amusement parks or carnivals because I can't, or rather won't, go anything that spins. I do enjoy roller coasters and I can deal with those pretty well.

In an earlier post I mentioned that I didn't like the elliptical machine because it made my feet fall asleep and so I was going to give the treadmill a try. I LOVE it. I love the treadmill. I can raise it so it's like I'm walking hills, which I love to do. I can speed it up and slow it down. All this while plugged into Rachael Ray or a local talk show or something. The time flies by and I can get in three miles in no problem. There is a little fan on the machine that blows in your face and keeps you cool and if I'm lucky enough I can get the treadmill that has the air conditioner blowing on it so I have a breeze blowing on me from both directions.

The thing that I don't like about the treadmill is getting off of it. Not because I've turned into a work-out fanatic or anything. It's because when I get off of it my equilibrium goes out on me. I walk or rather stumble away from the machine like I've had one too many. My head feels like I've been on some type of a ride and it hurts. The first time I got off of the treadmill I did so to get on another one so there wasn't really any slowing down and the sensation of falling was dramatic. The last few times haven't been as bad but that stumbley feeling is still there. I feel so awkward getting off of it but that won't stop me from continuing to get on it. I'm hoping that the feeling will continue to diminish as I continue to use it.

After thought. Why do they have cooking shows on while I'm exercising? They make me SO hungry. Although it may benefit my family because there have been some awesome recipes on so I have actually sought after them and will try them out. They had a thing about CAKES on today. Lemon cake, carrot cake, chocolate cake. CAKES! While I'm exercising!!

Midnight Sun - Scandal

Some of you may be aware that there was a leak onto the internet of Stephanie Meyers book in progress Midnight Sun. I feel bad for her that this happened. I can't imagine putting that much time and effort into something just to have it stolen and put forth to the world. Especially since it wasn't finished. So she's put the book on hold. Which makes me sad because I was really looking forward to Edwards side of the story.

She explains things here on her official website, StephanieMeyer.com. If you go to the header that says August 28th(partII) she gives an explanation and she also gives a link for you to read the part of Midnight Sun that she's already written. Which I think is cool of her to do. So if you want to read what's been written so far in Midnight Sun go to the official website. Don't find it somewhere else. And I would imagine that she would like some words of support about the whole situation as well.

Oh and I guess she's (Stephanie Meyers) going to be on the Ellen show today if you want to check it out.

By the way. The way I found out about this all? My 13 year old son came home from school the other day and told M. that Midnight Sun wasn't going to be published. Not a happy day. But I guess there was enough uproar about it at his school that even he caught on to it. And that's got to be quite the uproar.

Side Note: The word scandal is sounding and looking wrong for some reason. Does that ever happen to you? You write a word say it in your head and see it written a couple of times but it just doesn't sound or look right? Scandal, SCAN-dal, scan-DAL, Scandal. *Shaking head and moving away from the computer*

The Smithy

On Saturday as G and j and I were walking home we came up on the blacksmith shop. It's over a 100 years old and we go past it every Sunday on the way to church. It's big brown wooden doors are usually closed. This is what we saw as we were walking home Saturday.
It was open for tours because it was out town's Heritage Days. Very cool. I love this old building. I'm pretty sure that the bricks that it's made from were made by my great-grandfather. I've walked past this building hundreds, possibly thousands of times in my life. When I was little it scared me, especially at night time. I would run past it as fast as I could and that was even if I was walking on the opposite side of the street. The big doors and dark windows were frightening. As time as passed I've grown to love and admire this place. They used to take school tours through but I don't know how much they do that any more. Thankfully they do open it once a year during the town festival.

This is a side door that is open. There is one just like it on the opposite side. The horses wagons would pull right up through the building. It has some neat things inside. It's not very tidy though. You can tell it's the domain of men, that and there hasn't been need for tidying up for a long, long time. I got some neat pictures of some of the things inside.

This first is a picture of an apron and a jacket and some paper that were hanging on the inside of one of the open doors.This next is a cabinet that was sitting on the work bench there. I think that it was to hold some type of thread or something because the second drawer up from the bottom says "Spool Cotton". The top drawer also says, to me, that this was in the domain of men. It's supposed to say Assorted Colors but certain letters have been rubbed off and I'm pretty sure it's not from "normal wear" because the next drawer down has every letter rubbed off but the last three and they are the same as the first three. That's not actually why I took the picture though. I just thought it was a cool cabinet. It wasn't until I got it home and opened it up on the computer that I noticed the subtleties in the spelling on the drawers.

G thought that this place was THE coolest place he'd seen in a very long time (can you imagine?) and begged and begged me to let him stay. The man that was there was very gracious and said that it would be fine for G to stay and help him out with another tour group that was coming through. He also fired up the forge and the bellows (which are all electric now) and heated up a branding iron and let G and some other kids that came in brand a piece of wood. The smell of the coal made me exceptionally sick to my stomach and light headed. I stayed around for a bit, enough to see this fine man let G help him use the mechanical hammer that they have there to hammer out really thick heavy items. G was in heaven.They also had some cool old bottles covered with dust and sitting on the shelf. The pictures I took of them did not turn out because I didn't want to use my flash. *sigh* Ah well. One of the coolest things in the place was this old scale. The full picture doesn't really give the feel of the age of this thing but the close-ups kind of do. These are my favorite shots from the smithy.

Uber Sniffer

Recently I've been having issues with my nose. Not with the outside, with the inside. The smell receptors have been behaving off the charts lately. I can smell a mouse poot from about a quarter of a mile away.

O.k. it's not that bad but it's pretty darn close. The smell enhancers have been doing such an incredible job lately that I even took a trip to the store to buy a pregnancy test. Yup. A pee stick.

The only time my schnoz has ever been this attuned to scents has been when I've been knocked up. So yesterday when I was at the store getting stuff for my 11 year old's birthday party I discretely slipped a test into the grocery basket.

In reality it was a very long shot that I would be preggo because there were absolutely no other symptoms. That and I have the Merena iud so chances were pretty slim. BUT my nose was acting as if I were pregnant so we wanted to be sure.

I took that stick and peed on it. And about died when I saw two lines. Yep count them two. I grabbed the instructions and read them and breathed an incredible sigh of relief when I realized that there needed to be THREE lines for pregnancy. One of those lines needed to be a plus sign. No plus sign, not pregnant.

My thirty-seven year old heart started beating again. So now I just have to learn to live with smell receptors that are off the hook. That's not a sign of nasal cavity cancer or something is it?

Wait...what's that smell?

Would it Look Bad?

I tried out the elliptical machine at the Rec Center today. I'm afraid I don't like it. It makes my feet feel like they are falling asleep. It's like there's not enough blood getting to them or something. Not a good feeling. Tomorrow I'll try a treadmill and see if that goes any better. Oh and I'll remember to bring some headphones so I can actually hear what they are saying on one of the four lovely flat screen t.v.s they have there. They showed a sneak peak of The Half Blood Prince and I couldn't hear a word!

As I was on the elliptical I had my trusty water bottle sitting one of the two areas that they have on the machine. I noticed that these lovely spots were fairly large. Do you think that it would look bad if I brought one of these to drink as I'm working out?



Hmmm....Probably would huh? That and the fact that I'd be guzzling down more calories than I'm actually burning as I work out. I did resist the temptation to drive to my favorite gas station and by a large drink. Instead I came home and got me a cup of green grapes.

Go me!