My Five- Day 20 (and it's not even noon)

Random photo of the day: My brother Derek and my 90-something year old great uncle from Panama. He's a tri-athlete. (my uncle not my brother)

1. We arrived safely. Peacefully? not so much, but I have pretty low expectations when flying with kids. And, as long as we arrive alive I'm usually pretty pleased.
2. All of my sisters old Breyer horse stuff. It entertains Offspring for days.
3. Seeing me Mom, Dad, Brothers, Grandmothers, Aunt, Cousins and friends. There is nothing quite like coming home for the holidays.
4. A new cardigan from Target. I'm a big fan of the layered look as of late. I give Mr. Rogers a run for his money as far as sweaters are concerned.
5. Oranges. They are my favorite fruit.




I am also starting a (possibly) daily (at least for the rest of this month) segment called...

THINGS THAT MAKE ME SNICKER, SNORT AND SOMETIMES LAUGH ALOUD....

1. I used my sister's (who is in Mexico and can't do a thing about it) fancy body wash today in the shower. It was "cocoa scented with hints of almonds and orchid". Now I smell like a brownie and it's making me hungry.

2. We fly the DC to SF flight fairly frequently and in my travels I have noticed some very consistent trends. The majority of people on the flight wear black or other dark colors. Always. Except for me in my fuscia sweater (see above). They also all have iphones. It is just a fact. They also really don't like screaming children on flights. Just some of my observations.

My Five- Day 18 & 19 1/2

We take off today for the holiday. I'm in a flurry of panic as I clean and pack and try to finish up last minute Christmas gifts. It's gonna be a close one....

Day 18-

1. Trains. They delight Numero dos and Phil to no end.

2. Zantac. Holy heartburn batman!

3. notes from Offspring. I get close to 137 a day, but they are each delightful. I save the particularly memorable ones and recycle the rest.

4. "Char-yee". When he's not barking, jumping, stealing food or eating poop he's really quite a delightful dog.

5. Removing facebook from my "bookmarks" bar. I'm much more productive now.

Day 19-

1. new maternity pants. ahhh...I can breath again.

2. my luggage, although I do wish it was lime green.

3. airplanes. as long as they don't crash.

4. Numero dos putting himself down for a nap today.

5. An on-time, peaceful & safe flight (this hasn't happened yet....I'm just using my positive thoughts to will it to be so.)

My Five- Day 17

1. Finally got the H1N1 vaccine. Made me feel funny (yet invincible) all day.

2. Nice ladies who helped give my car a jump start.

3. Butter and sugar. The combination of these two ingredients lead to endless happiness... albeit larger bumbs. (sic)

4. Neighbor kids who agree to watch my dog.

5. Phil's slightly lighter than normal schedule that allows us to see more of him...at least for now.

My Five- Day 16

Harpers Ferry, WV Oct. 2009

1. Family Home Evening. It is crazy and loud and most often futile as far as teaching gospel principles is concerned, but I love that my kids look forward to it. Numero dos asks for "evening" every other day and that makes my heart happy.

2. Parks. Particularly ones that have the type of equiptment that wear my kids out. It won't be long before the weather will prevent us from enjoying the outside, so we're taking advantage of it now.

3. Leaves. I love to watch leaves fall off trees. We're nearing the end of leaf-falling time around here, so any slight breeze sends hundreds of orange, yellow, and brown foliage floating to the ground. I love walking through falling leaves, it makes me feel like a bride again with the trees as my wedding guests showering me with good wishes and leaves instead of rice (or bubbles as is more common these days). Plus falling leaves= fantastic leaf piles!!

4. Visiting Teaching. I love forming friendships with women from my church.

5. Phil's bike-commuting. It makes him happy. It makes me happy that he's happy. And, it makes our environment happy. Happy.

My Five- Day 14 & 15

Day 14-

1. Awesome local toy stores. We just went to browse today for fun, they had tons of toys out for the kids to try and some smaller brands to look at. It reminded me of a MUCH smaller version of FAO Schwartz. Offspring and I used to go frequently in NYC, just to look and play.

2. A clean kitchen. It is a little disturbing how my mood can be determined by the state of my kitchen. I'm trying to be better about letting it go. It's about control, you know.

3. My growing belly. Only 14 more weeks to go.

4. Our city. I love where we live!

5. New friends.

Day 15-

1. Lazy Sunday mornings.

2. The sun. We've missed it, and it was glorious to be able to go on a family walk this morning.

3. My calling. I love working with the youth and we have such great girls! (shout out to you Alex, who I know reads the blog) :)

4. Great General leaders. We had the chance to hear Sister Elaine Dalton speak tonight (she's the General Young Womens President). It was awesome. She had a great message for the girls and it was touching to see 1,700 youth gathered from 8 stakes all there for the same reason. We have such valiant young people!

5. Reading. It's my escape.

My Five- Day 13

One of Charlie's less flattering grooms back in LV. I laughed so hard when I picked him up that I couldn't even carry on a conversation with the groomer.

1. Mini-train at the mall. For $2 I was able to make Numero Dos' day. A perfect way to spend a rainy morning. Plus I was able to do a little Christmas shopping. 10 am is really a great time for shopping. Plenty of inventory, no people, relatively few melt-downs.

2. Petsmart. They groomed our dog. Phil has been resident dog-groomer for the past year, but we figured it was time he was professionally sheared. He looks 20 lbs lighter.

3. Daddy-daughter dates. Phil took Offspring to the movies tonight. She'd been anticipating this all day and was thrilled with the alone time. I'm grateful for a husband who knows how important one-on-one time with his kids is.

4. Numero dos. He's a fun little friend during the day, and I'm really enjoying the one-on-one time with him before third child makes his/her appearance.

5. Grocery stores. As much of a pain as it is to grocery shop I am grateful that we live in a country that has an abundance (and variety) of food available and that my kids never have to go hungry.

My Five- Day 12

Random photo of the day: Las Vegas Santa 5K. We broke the record for most number of Santa's gathered in one spot. I think we held the record for all of two months before some town in Scotland took it from us. Awesome race. Cheap suits. Weird chaffing. Thanks R & C for running it with me. Our time in Las Vegas did have it's perks.

1. Friends, and spontaneous play dates.

2. Numero dos' energy. I don't appreciate it like I should, most of the time his craziness is a bit much, but I am grateful I have healthy active kids I get to chase around.

3. Phil. He's more than I deserve and I love him lots.

4. The rain. It's been pretty non-stop for the past few days and if I don't appreciate it, I'd start to be annoyed with it.

5. completing stage-1 of my Christmas shopping. Boo ya!