Tagged 3 Times! Okay, I'm it already!

I really was planning on doing this; I just hadn't had a chance yet. But now that three people have tagged me, I won't put it off anymore.

THIS IS ME!

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A) Four jobs I have had in my life :

1. Pizza-waitress @ Pizza Hut/delivery for Papa Johns- Loved the free food!

2. Videos- Blockbuster/American Family Video- Loved the free movies!

3. Housekeeper at Lane Guest Ranch, Estes Park, CO

4. Instructional Assistant at Chemeketa Community College

5. Mother

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B) Four movies I could watch over and over (total chick flicks!):

1. Little Women

2. Sense and Sensibility

3. The Three Amigos

4. Blast from the Past

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C) Four places I have lived:

1. West Jordan, UT

2. Vernal, UT

3. Dallas, OR

4. Corvallis, OR

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D) Four television shows I watch:

1. Notes from the Underbelly

2. The Office

3. Grey's Anatomy -my sister got me hooked

4. Heroes

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E) Four places I have gone (or will go) on vacation:

1. Oregon coast

2. Victoria, Canada

3. England (someday)

4. Veracruz, Mexico (someday- I'd like to have Grant show me all the beautiful places he saw on his mission)

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F) Four websites I visit almost daily:

1. Blogs of friends and family

2. Hotmail

3. Netflix

4. weather.com

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G) Four of my favorite foods:

1. pizza

2. bacon- extra crispy

3. buffalo and blue chicken sandwich from Ruby Tuesdays

4. cookies and milk (or any other yummy sweet goody with milk)

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H) Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Right here where I am, with my toddler clambering all over me and trying to tickle me- though having Grant here with me instead of at work would be ideal

2. somewhere quiet, reading a good book

3. on some sort of hike, admiring the beautiful wilderness

4. in bed taking a nap!

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And just to make things interesting, I'm adding a question of my own (and I suggest others do to)

I) Four things you'd like to learn/ be better at:

1. knitting

2. make a mosaic (Kari and I plan to attempt this together in about 20 years)

3. fluent Spanish

4. patience

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I) Four people who I tag:

1. Kelli Pinkerton

2. Julia Nelson

3. Mandy Young

4. Shonda Barlow

5. Haley Judd- get a blog!

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Cut and paste and fill in your own answers!

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Aside: I'm having formatting problems. Whenever I put an extra space between lines on my blog, it disappears once I publish. Does anyone else have this problem? Any suggestions?

Playtime at the Park

As promised, here are some more pictures of our trip to the park last Friday. . . The girls just loved all the dogs that were around. This is the second one we stopped to visit.

Audrey had a turn with the dog, too. Awww.

***

We took a ride on the carousel (thanks, Kelli), but I didn't get any pictures. Eleanor was only somewhat happy with the situation until it started moving, and then she wanted nothing to do with it.

Cute girls.

More cute girls.

Watch Out Boys. . .

. . . Here comes the next generation of heartbreakers!

(Audrey, Eleanor, Larissa)

We spent some time at the Waterfront Park today with Kelli, Larissa, Kari, and Audrey. I got a bunch of cute pictures that I'll have to post later. It's late, and I need to get to bed, but I just had to show off these adorable girls. They'll be heartbreakers as soon as they turn 30 and their daddies finally let them date (until then, their daddies will keep investing in firearms).

Eleanor's Little Antics

Here are a couple of cute Eleanor stories. . .

As I have mentioned before, we got a new laptop. The week that it came, Grant took apart our old desktop computer that was taking up space in my kitchen. Eleanor watched Grant as he used a screwdriver to open up the CPU and take out different parts. A few days later, Eleanor was helping me with dishes in her usual way, handing me dishes one by one out of the dishwasher to put away. When that was done, I started loading the dishwasher, and Eleanor assumed her most recent preferred position of sitting at the end of the open dishwasher door with her legs underneath it as if it was a little desk for her. This time, she happened to look down and notice the latch on the door. At first, she explored it with her fingers a bit, and I could tell she was thinking. Then, her mind made up, she reached up and yanked her hair clip out of her hair and proceeded to try to stick the end of it into the screws and turn them. After she tried the two screws on either side of the latch, she stood up and tried every screw around the dishwasher door. So, if any of you are needing dishwasher repairs, I think you know who to call. Leave the Maytag Man alone; Eleanor will take care of you!

Another funny thing she did was with Grant last weekend. Kari invited me to go shopping with her and some other moms (without our babies), so Grant and Eleanor spent most of the day together. They went walking, and Grant decided to walk up the hill to visit his parents. Eleanor loves to be outside, and she really likes walking around on her own, without being in a stroller or being held. We're teaching her she has to hold a finger at all times so she will be safe, and she's doing pretty well with it. Grant decided she could walk up the hill herself. He said she did really well. She made it up the first very steep hill, with many stops to explore and look at animals, etc. Then, toward the end of the second hill, she turned to him and fussed. She was tired of walking! Grant picked her up, and she told him very clearly, "Car!" Grant said he knew right then she was her mother's daughter. Ha ha, Grant.

A Flower in Her Hair

On Sunday, my mother and Gary came over to visit, and we went walking around the neighborhood. As we were admiring the dogwood trees in bloom, we picked a couple of blossoms. Eleanor looked so pretty with a flower in her hair.
In case you didn't notice, I got a new haircut. I love it! All that unhealthy hair got chopped off and I'm left with soft, healthy, lightweight hair. (And I think it looks pretty cute, too.)

We stopped by the park for some playtime on our walk. . .
I love Grant's face in this one. There's a guy who is happy to be a dad and happy to see his daughter enjoying herself. Grant is such a good dad. He already has such a good relationship with Eleanor and helps me with her so much. I am so blessed!
Eleanor loves to swing; it makes her squeal and giggle.

Guess what else she loves. . .

Check out her right leg. If she gets nervous at all going down the slide, she just throws on the brakes; she stomps down one or both feet or sticks a foot against the side of the slide. Sometimes she makes it to the bottom in one slide, and sometimes she goes halfway and then the other half.

She told us when she was done with the slide, but she wouldn't let us leave the park without going back for a little more swinging.

--Finally, a Blanket for Adelynn!--

This afternoon I went to take pictures of my most recent finished project, a blanket for Stu and Care's new baby, Adelynn. Before I could even get one shot, Eleanor climbed up on the couch and grabbed the "cock-uh" (her latest pronunciation of "cozy" -it used to be "codee" or "cogee" I'm not sure why it's gotten worse). Apparently, she thought it would be more appropriate if she posed with the blanket and made a bunch of silly faces. . .This face has been occurring more frequently in pictures. She's making a clicking sound with her mouth because sometimes, when I try to get her to look at the camera, I snap my fingers over my head. Since she can't snap her fingers, she makes the sound with her mouth and sometimes holds a hand over her head. She'll mimic just about anything; it's scary but true.

No idea what brought about this face!

Or this one.

She's trying to wink in this picture. She's about to close both her eyes, thus completing the wink.

I eventually did manage to get some pictures of just the blanket.

Then, we delivered the blanket as a family this evening. . .
Eleanor got to hold her new cousin, Adelynn. She gave "baby" lots of loves. You can kind of see Eleanor's left hand on her side. That hand was almost constantly patting the baby; she knew just what to do.
What a sweet baby.

I like the smirk on Adelynn's face in this one.

Eleanor had lots of fun playing with Carter, too. She just loves Carter, and Carter is really good to her. I didn't get any pictures because they mostly played in his tunnel, so you couldn't see them anyway. We heard many squeals and giggles as we watched the tunnel roll around the room. After some time playing, Eleanor came back wanting to hold the baby again (she couldn't favor one cousin over the other).

We all had a nice visit, and we're glad to have another girl in the Matthews family!

Swim Lessons / Eleanor Asks a Question

We started swim lessons again last Saturday. We took the same class last year, so Eleanor remembered it. She loved it last year, and she's loving it even more this year. She tries to say, "swimming," now, and the closest I can come to writing it is "ibfwee." She really loves ibfwee.

I told Kari about the class, and we're so glad she and Audrey were able to join us! Now, we'll see each other every Saturday!
(Audrey liked splashing-- who could blame her?)



Practicing getting out safely.


Eleanor had noodle legs when we were supposed to be practicing jumping in. She just wanted to climb back in the water when I put her on the edge. She didn't understand how standing up for me would get her into the water.

We eventually got the hang of it.

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Eleanor did something new last Friday, and I just think it's so cute. It's probably just because I'm a new mom and everything she does excites me, but oh well. To understand this story, you will first need a little Eleanor vocabulary lesson:

dah-doh: this is her adorable way of saying the word, towel. It's one of my favorite words she says.

go-eee: this is how she says go. She'll convince you to pick her up, point her hand in some direction, and command, "go-eee."

Ok, so this is what happened. She was sitting on the end of our bed while I got dressed. She pointed to a sweatshirt next to her on the bed and said, "dah-doh." I explained to her that it wasn't a towel; it was a sweatshirt. She looked at me, puzzled, put up both her hands in a questioning gesture, and said, "go-eee?" with a questioning tone. It was her way of asking, "Where did it go?" Since then, she has used her question about many different things. I'll have to try to catch a picture or a video of it. I think it's adorable!

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On Sunday, I thought Eleanor was learning to defend herself with her words, but I have since then decided that I was probably mistaken. She had a piece of apple, and another little girl reached out for it. Eleanor quickly drew the apple up close to herself and said sharply, "Nice!" (as in "be nice"). Well, like I said, I thought she was defending herself. Since then, she has declared, "Nice!" just before she does something mean here at home. I think she's saying it because that's what I tell her when she does something mean, and she has no concept of what I'm saying. She only knows Mommy says it right after she is naughty, so she might as well say it before. Oh well!

~Blogging in Style~

It's here! It's here!

My new laptop came yesterday. Isn't it pretty. . .

So, from now on I'll be blogging in style. I can actually see my pictures instead of guessing what they will look like while squinting at my old, dumpy monitor that darkens all my pictures.

I'll have to get used to Windows Vista. It's a bit different. Did I mention I am SOOOOO excited I have a new, super-cool laptop? 'Cause I am!

(Look at Eleanor's hand in the picture, just itching to start pushing buttons!)

~Shmeary~

Grant and I have added a new word to our vocabulary. . .

"Shmeary"

I'm not sure about it's exact definition, but it means, roughly: not looking superb, a bit on the shabby side. The term seems to mostly be applied to landscaping and general upkeep of one's yard, but it could most likely be generalized to other areas of life such as housekeeping, hygiene, etc. I will refrain from mentioning the origin of the word because, as I mentioned in a previous post, I am trying to watch my tongue.

It recently came to our attention that our yard was looking a bit shmeary, so for family night last Monday, we worked on improving it a bit.

Let me just pause here to mention that I am NOT a gardener. Somehow, that instinctive draw to gardening that I am supposed to have automatically just because I am a woman is inexplicably M.I.A. Some might say that makes me a bad person, but I don't say they are bad people when they refuse to take up/enjoy my favorite hobbies. Moving on. . .
hands unless I find some sharp object to excavate it out of there. It could be that I actually have to have the knowledge of which plants are weeds, which aren't, which like shade, which like to sink my hands into dirt, getting it under my fingernails so it won't wash out when I wash myI have tried to form some sort of explanation for my lack of enthusiasm. It could be that I have water-- they all look green to me, how am I supposed to tell them apart? Or maybe it could be the sneezing, itching, and burning all the plants cause whenever I get up close and personal with them. . . after all they put me through, there's no way I'm singing to them! Or maybe it's the part about crawling around on hands and knees, while in the meantime holding relatively still so the sun can scorch my porcelain skin. . .

I don't know. It could be any one of those things or none of them. Every time I think I've put my finger on the reason I don't like gardening, I think that reason doesn't sound all that disagreeable as long as it doesn't involve gardening. Anyways, I didn't mean to rant. I just feel the need to apologize because I haven't been able to convince myself to be a gardener. I'm working on it. I know I will never quite be a bonified woman until I become a gardener, but right now, I'm just willing to accept that.

But, getting back to the subject, we all worked hard on Monday and it was really fun. Eleanor loves being outside and is eager to help with anything we do. She loved looking at rocks while Grant weeded and I trimmed the shrubs, and she loved helping clean up at the end.

Eleanor helping Grant gather branches to put in the debris can.

Such a hard worker!

Proof that I helped.

Trying to reach a branch into the bin by herself.

And now she's going to close it. . .

VERY determined to get that branch in the can.

Our unhappy participant. He was howling and howling in the back yard because he knew we were in the front, so I brought him out and tied him to the tree. This made him upset because we weren't going on a walk, and usually when we do yard work in the front, we let him run free and watch him so he stays in the yard. I didn't want us to have to watch him AND try to watch Eleanor to keep her out of the road, so he got the short end of the stick. He didn't even appreciate the branches I tossed him to entertain him; he just looked at me like, "What do you expect me to do with that? You know you dropped something over here?"

Eleanor saw Grant climb into the debris can to stomp everything down to make more room, so she had to take a turn on top. At first, she wasn't too sure about it.

Then, she decided it was the perfect throne for a princess.

Helping sweep the sidewalk. These pictures are not posed! We don't ask her to hold the broom so I can get a picture. She sees Grant sweeping and comes up to him and grabs at the broom. Like I have said before, she is the world's most dedicated self-appointed helper.

"Hey, I'm pretty good at this!"

All in a day's work.