Something that makes me happy today

Today while I was helping Lisa clean out the shed, I found my flute. I had been thinking about it but had no idea where to find it, except that it was in a box somewhere. I pulled it out, put it together, and ran through a few scales. I've still got it, even after 12 years. :) It makes me happy.

New stuff going on in the Lott household. We're tackling a big bed and potty training all at once. And she's doing great with both! Who knew that she just needed the proper motivation for potty training (going swimming) and that she would love a new bed so much that she would hug it and refuse to get out to have a bath and put pajamas on?

Interesting How Time Flies?

Anyone know what is significant about June 1st, 2012? Well, that was the last time I posted something on the blog. Yeah, I know, I promised to do better yet I seem to have forgotten that so quickly. Well I'm here trying to do better.

I have decided to try to do smaller posts more often rather than the large posts that take so much time. However I do have some posts already in progress, so I will finish those and get back posting more often.

I am almost done with one already. It is my second Harry Potter post so that should come out here soon.

Have fun until next time!

Halloween

The day before Halloween, we carved our pumpkins and Sophie had fun playing with the pumpkin guts mostly.

This year, when I asked Sophie what she wanted to be for Halloween, all she said time after time, was "a pretty pink dress", over and over. So Princess Sophie it was and I got to work making her costume.  I think it turned out quite nicely.

 Don't mind her Kool-Aid mustache from dinner.

 I even took forever curling her hair (twice) for the occasion.

 She was super excited to go trick or treating.  She talked about it for weeks before hand.  In the morning we went trick or treating at Lisa's work and also at Dave's work, so she already had a significant haul of candy, but she was still excited to go on our street.

 I think this shows her excitement quite well.

All in all, it was a resounding success.  She talked about Halloween for weeks after.  However, one bad thing that came from it was that she did see some "scary" (aka anyone with a mask) people and has been talking about bad guys ever since.  She's had a relapse of separation anxiety because of it.  She's finally stopped talking about Halloween now that we've started in on Christmas, which she's 100 times more excited about.

Since my last catch up post, I've since discovered over 200 pictures on our camera that I hadn't put on our computer yet.  So there should be another catch up post soon.

Catch-up

So I'm looking through my pictures to see what I've missed blogging about and I may have found some from June that never got acknowledged (I know, embarrassing).  We went to the kids' garden at Thanksgiving point with Sophie and had a lot of fun.

 

She really loved those fish.  We need to make sure to go back next year.

 

Back in September we went up the canyon for a picnic and Sophie experienced her first s'more.  She loved it.

 

She also had fun throwing rocks into the creek.  Simple pleasures.

 

Back in October, we went to Payton's third birthday party.  He had a pirate theme, and lucky for us, her pirate costume from last Halloween still fit (it was big last year) and she got to wear it again.  She (and we) had a lot of fun digging for treasure, walking the plank, hitting the pinata, and lots of other cool pirate stuff.

This is pretty much how the whole party went.  The 3 boys ran around hitting each other with their swords and Sophie watched or just did her own thing.

 

The day before Halloween, we went to the little petting zoo at Gardner Village.  Sophie had a blast, and Mark and I enjoyed watching her have fun. 

 

 This alpaca kind of freaked me out.  He kept trying to get closer to me. 

 Sophie's very first pony ride.  She loved it!

I think I'll take a break here and do a separate post for Halloween.  It's good to be back!

The Sound of Silence

So...........I've had no excuse for not blogging, except that I've had nothing to say.  It's not that I don't have a ton of pictures to post, it's just.......nothing to say.  Nothing has changed in our life status, nothing astounding has happened, not even much interesting.  Just daily life.  So I decided I needed to catch up a week or two ago, and then I hit a snag.  I started a new post, then tried to upload a picture, when it told me I have reached my limit of free storage space in my Picasa Web Album.  It took me awhile to even figure out what that had to do with our blog, but essentially it means I either had to stop posting any pictures (um.....not happening), make more storage by deleting posts/pictures, or I had to buy more storage.  So I looked into printing a book covering the first few years of our blog and then erasing the posts to clear up some storage space.  But the book would have cost us quite a lot of money, and I didn't want to do that.  So I thought about buying extra storage from Google, but you can't just buy a chunk of storage space and call it good.  You have to pay them every month until.........forever for the extra storage space.  Not a fan of that either.  Back to square one.  So I've spent quite a significant amount of time today copying each individual post (plus pictures and comments) into a file that I've been saving to Dropbox.  However, now that I've copied and deleted those posts, I have to go delete all the pictures off of Picasa that were in those posts.  I should have that done today sometime, and then I'll finally get back on the blogging wagon in the next couple days. 

Happy Monday!

Let the training begin

Well, like it or not, we have begun potty training.  I'm not one of those parents who has been praying for this day to happen for the last two years.  If anything, I've been dreading it.  I would much rather quickly change a few diapers a day than worry about asking if she needs to go to the bathroom every 15 minutes.  Or worse, cleaning up accidents.  But, as any responsible parent would do, I have been looking for the signs that she's ready for it, and they're all there.  Usually when I ask her if she wants to try to go on the potty, she says "Um,....no."  But when I asked her a couple days ago, she shouted yes at me and immediately booked it for the bathroom.  So we tried it.  The first day was a little traumatic.....for me.  After all, I've never done this before.  So I did my homework for the second day and after a trip to Target, I came home all prepared with Pull-ups and a little seat (so she would stop falling in) and the second day went much better.  So, here we are in day three, and I'm already tired of it.  I am oh so tempted to just go back to diapers until she begs me to use the bathroom and is prepared and capable to do everything herself.  It's not that she doesn't have the routine down and know what to do.  In fact, she talks herself through it every time.  It's the fact that she refuses to tell me when she has to go.  In fact, she denies it when I ask and ends up wet.  How do you get them to acknowledge that they have to go before they go?  Any ideas people?

It's a good thing she's cute.

Binky Be Gone

Today is a big day.  I went to get Sophie from her crib today, grabbed her binky off the floor, and realized it looked like a mangy little dog had been chewing on it for a week.  Turns out, it was just my daughter......who had only been chewing it for one night.  Earlier this week, I threw away one binky because it had started to get cracks in it and I was afraid she would break the end off and choke on it.  So I explained to her that we only had one left and when that one broke, that was it.  I didn't expect it to be 3 days later.  So I had a little moment of panic as I looked at the mangled binky.  I knew I was in for a bad day because she was going to freak out when she had to sleep without it, but surprisingly, she didn't.  I explained to her that it was broken, had her kiss it goodbye, and threw it away.  She got a little sad, and talked about her broken binky all day, but when it came time to go to sleep without it, she was fine.  Hooray! 

She's growing up so fast. 

Things That Make Me Happy

So, I've been reading "The Happiness Project" for awhile now (bookclub is tonight)......and as hyped up as the book was, I haven't really loved it.  I find the author shallow and grasping and mean to her husband and I hate the way she writes it like a law school paper (and trust me, I know what those sound like).  However, the overall idea is good and there are some interesting studies that she mentions.  So in light of me reading that, and the fact that the last post was about things I hate, I figured I'd do one about things that make me happy.  :)

1.  This funny girl

So, funny story about these pictures.......we went to have 2 year pictures done, and she kind of flipped out and they only got about 5 okay ones.  So we went back to have another shoot, and she did GREAT!  These are from the 2nd shoot.  So cute! 

2.  Our new mattress

After living with pain every morning for almost 2 years, we finally had the ability to buy a new mattress (can anyone say thank goodness for memorial day sales?).  Mission accomplished.  No more pain.  Blissful sleeping.

3.  New headphones

Seriously people.  It was bad.  My old ones (sorry, forgot to get a picture before they went into the garbage) were about 4 feet too long so they got all snarled right at the split and the left ear only worked if I moved my head to exactly the right spot and held absolutely still.  And these ones have the cool little clicker that lets you answer your phone and talk without ever taking them out.  I even made Dave call me to try it out.  So fun!  And they don't fall out of my ears like all my other ones have done.

4.  Organizing my seeds

Okay, I know I'm a total nerd, but I spent so much time trying to figure out how to organize these so they were accessible and visible and not spilling everywhere and not being too bulky.  I believe this was my 3rd different organization.  I tried a couple other things first that worked somewhat and finally arrived at this one, which is absolutely perfect.  The packets are upright so nothing falls out, and you can see both the fronts and back of the seed packets without taking them out.  Also, I had a problem with the fact that the seeds are bulky sometimes, so putting them in a 3 ring binder solved the bulging and not being able to shut the book problem.  Oh, and I alphabetized and organized them into 4 categories:  Herbs, Annuals, Perennials and Vegetables.  I absolutely love it, and even Sophie likes to look at it with me.  Like I said.  Total Nerd.

5.  Finishing Projects

I've done a couple painting project lately that I actually saw through to the end (it's a curse - I can never seem to finish anything).  I painted the frame pink to match Sophie's room, and I actually sanded and filled holes and primed and painted and sealed the shelf.....and then hung it up.  Amazing.  I'll have to finish something again.......sometime.

6.  Did I mention this girl?

Sorry, bad lighting in the bathroom for taking pictures.

7.  Puppies

Seriously, I almost stole one this week.

8.  Running

I know, I never thought I'd see the day.  It mostly makes me happy once I'm done doing it.  :)

9.  A clean kitchen

I really do clean the kitchen all the time.  As in, every day.  The dishes and cleaning off the counters as least.  I can't work in it if it's not clean.  But I have this problem.......I never clean the microwave.  It's another curse.  I go through the kitchen, cleaning everything I see, and somehow, I always miss the microwave.  I just forget.  So, I have a dirty little secret called "I-only-clean-the-microwave-3-times-a-year".  It's embarassing.  Don't ever open my microwave if you come to visit.  It might eat you.  Except today.  I just cleaned it.

10.  Food

I'm gonna go eat lunch now.

Growing Up

Sophie switched from saying Mama and Dada this week to saying Mommy and Daddy.  We've always referred to ourselves as Mommy and Daddy to her, but she's always stuck with the baby talk until now.  She even corrects herself now if she accidentally says Mama.  It's kind of exciting and a lot sad.  She's getting big way too fast. 

Things I hate

Today, as I was out and about running errands, I realized two things:

1.  I hate traffic.  If I can get myself and Sophie ready in the morning soon enough, I really love to be running errands around 9 or 9:30.  The traffic isn't nearly as bad then (for Salt Lake).  But by the time you get to 10:30, the lunch traffic is already out and it never stops until late at night.  I hate it.  I grew up in the boonies where the only traffic you saw was usually somebody in a tractor.  The nearest town had one stoplight.  And I refused to drive until I was 17, so it's not my favorite thing anyway.  Traffic:  bad.  No traffic:  not gonna happen here, but I would really love it to happen.

2.  I hate wind.  No surprise here.  I've hated wind my whole life.  One problem:  I love long hair.  Two problem:  a year and a half ago I got bangs cut and I have been growing them out for over a year now and they still don't pull back into my ponytail.  So I've got hair in my face constantly.  I hate it.  If I could somehow figure out the least windy city in Utah (or maybe the U.S......I'm pretty sure I could be persuaded) I would move there in a heartbeat.  I just hate it.  When it blows stuff in my eyes, when my hair is whipping around my head and I can't see, when it blows stuff around that should stay put.......I just HATE it.  I hate it so much I could scream.  Dave makes fun of me because I say I love West Jordan.....known to be a very windy city.  I know, I'm a walking contradiction.

Okay, that's really all I wanted to say.  I'll leave you with something I love.  I saw this on a blog today and had to pin it.  I'm not usually a zebra rug type of person, but I really love this room.

Source

A Funny Case in Utah

I wanted to put a new post up but the few I am working on are not yet done, so I decided to paste a case for you guys. It is only a part of the case but it has some really great stuff. This happened in Utah in 1998, so this is pretty recent. I have underlined some of my favorite parts, so keep an eye out for those. On to the story...

...On March 1, 1998, Officer Paul Davis, a conservation officer for the Division of Wildlife Resources, was patrolling along the Green River. During his patrol, Davis observed a vehicle parked illegally on a boat ramp on the Green River at Flaming Gorge. Soon thereafter, Davis saw Wallace approach the boat ramp, walking toward the illegally parked vehicle. Davis informed Wallace that he had parked illegally, and that he would have to move the vehicle before he returned to fishing. Davis then asked Wallace for his fishing license, which Wallace produced. Davis also asked Wallace for his driver license, because Wallace's fishing license did not include the required driver license number. Davis noted that the name on the driver license, Charles Wallace, did not match the name on the fishing license, Charles Norman. Wallace explained the discrepancy, suggesting that he had merely forgotten to put his last name on the fishing license. Davis then amended the fishing license to include Wallace's last name and instructed him to move his vehicle.

After leaving the immediate area, Davis called dispatch and requested a driver license and warrants check and learned that Wallace's driver license had been suspended and that there was an outstanding warrant for Wallace's arrest. Davis returned to the area only to find that Wallace had moved his car to another no parking zone. Davis then found Wallace and informed him of the warrant and suspended license. Upon hearing this information, Wallace became upset, and told Davis that he would not have driven had he known his license had been suspended.

Davis then told Wallace that he would allow him to move his car to a nearby parking lot to avoid having the vehicle towed. However, based on the change in Wallace's demeanor, Davis asked for permission to search Wallace's vehicle for weapons before Wallace got in. Wallace agreed to the search.
Davis first discovered a soda can that had been converted into marijuana pipe lying upon the floor in front of the vehicle's front passenger seat. Upon seeing the can, Wallace's immediate reaction was to deny knowledge and suggest that his son must have left the can in the car. Davis then told Wallace that it was illegal to possess drug paraphernalia and asked if there were any drugs or other paraphernalia in the vehicle. Wallace said no and told Davis to continue looking. Davis then found a pair of overalls in the backseat, which Wallace admitted were his. As Davis began to remove the overalls, Wallace put a piece of candy into his mouth, fell to the ground, rolled up into a ball, and told Davis that he was not feeling well.

After helping Wallace to his feet, Davis searched the overalls and found a marijuana pipe. Wallace claimed that the pipe was not his and became more upset. Davis subsequently handcuffed Wallace, leaving his hands in front, placed him in the front seat of his patrol vehicle, and then put the can and the pipe into an evidence bag. He then returned to searching Wallace's vehicle where he found another marijuana pipe, which he placed into the evidence bag along with the can and the first pipe. Davis left the bag in his vehicle with Wallace and resumed his search. As he approached Wallace's vehicle, Davis heard the sound of a can being crushed and looked back to his vehicle to see Wallace moving furtively. Davis quickly returned to his vehicle to find Wallace trying to kick the evidence bag underneath the front seat of the police vehicle. Davis informed Wallace that tampering with evidence is a felony, ordered him to stop, and removed the bag from the vehicle. Davis then called for assistance.

While waiting for his back-up to arrive, Davis read Wallace his rights. Wallace responded that he had no rights and that he was going to die. He then briefly settled down. After approximately fifteen minutes, another officer arrived allowing Davis to conclude the search. Finding nothing more, Davis prepared to transport Wallace to the Daggett County jail where he had asked to be met by a drug recognition expert. Meanwhile, Wallace told Davis that he could not believe he was going to jail for “smoking one joint,” that he was going to die, and that the world was going to end. On the way to the county jail, Wallace continued to talk, informing Davis that he was a black belt in karate and that if he were let out of the handcuffs something unpleasant was going to happen. By this time, Davis had stopped the car to investigate the safest method to move Wallace's handcuffed hands from the front of his body to behind his back. Before arriving at a solution, however, Wallace solved the dilemma by stepping through his handcuffed arms, resulting in his hands being behind his back. Davis then resumed driving to the county jail.

On the way to the jail, Wallace experienced several more “mood swings,” characterized by his continued verbal and emotional outbursts. Upon arrival at the jail, Davis asked Wallace to volunteer a blood or urine sample. Wallace refused. Wallace was then examined by a drug recognition expert from the Utah Highway Patrol, following which Wallace requested an attorney. Wallace was told that he would be allowed to use the phone as soon as he was processed; however, Wallace refused to cooperate. He was then placed in a cell and told that the officers had requested a search warrant that would allow them to draw blood to test for narcotics in his system.

Davis obtained the search warrant and presented a copy of it to Wallace. Wallace told Davis that he would die before giving the police blood and refused to cooperate any further. Following a protracted attempt to calm Wallace by as many as six uniformed officers, Wallace assumed a “karate posture” and feigned a punch at an officer. During the ensuing confusion, Wallace solidly punched the same officer in the face, which resulted in Wallace being tackled and restrained by five police officers. The technician who had been requested to draw Wallace's blood then entered the cell and successfully drew blood from Wallace's arm. The sample tested positive for amphetamine, methamphetamine, and a cocaine metabolite.

On the day of trial, Wallace requested a continuance to obtain new counsel. The trial court denied Wallace's request. During a short recess following his motion, but prior to the start of the trial, Wallace left the courthouse and did not return and could not be found. As a result, the trial court issued a warrant for Wallace's arrest and Wallace was tried in absentia. Wallace was convicted of attempted tampering with evidence, assault against a police officer, driving with any measurable controlled substance in the body, unlawful possession of a controlled substance, possession of paraphernalia, driving while license suspended or revoked, and illegal parking. This appeal followed.
-State v. Wallace, 55 P.3d 1147 (Utah App. 2002)

Great stuff eh? Hopefully I can get my other posts done soon. I'll be back with more (shorter stuff) later.

Somebody's 2!!!!

A couple things before getting into the birthday spirit.  A little update on my last post about Sophie sleeping in her toddler bed...... it's a no-go.  She slept in it that one night and has refused to do so ever since.  The good news is, I think she's just being stubborn because she can tell we want her to.  Little stinker.  She slept all night and had absolutely no problems.  No falling out, no crying in the middle of the night, no tearing the room apart.  I did go in and take a picture of her in the bed because I was so excited (I know, premature).

She seemed happy........can you blame me?

Another fun thing that she's done is discovered basketball.  Dave had a little basketball hoop that hung on the door in our basement in Omaha that I unearthed in my cleaning of the study (I wish I had before pictures so you could see how bad it was - it's beautiful now!).  So I hung it up for Sophie and she loves it!  We keep trying to guess what she'll be good at when she gets older.  Piano, soccer, now basketball......the options seem to be endless at this point, however, I know Dave is hoping for the sports.

A few weeks ago was Sophie's 2nd birthday and birthday party.  She had a Rapunzel party because that's her favorite movie.  She had tons of fun and we're so happy that everyone could make it.  Here's a few pictures to commemorate the event. 
This first one has her cousin Rion helping her open presents.  I love the look on his face.  He looks more excited than Sophie.

My brother and his family.

Sophie and her two little helpers.

So, funny story about her cake......okay, not so funny.  I was so stressed out the day before the party between getting the food ready and making the cake, and I cried multiple times because I was so frustrated.  I made the first set of cakes (just 2 round cakes that you stick together - pretty basic), and I thought they turned out great, but when I took them out of the pans, the first one broke in half (bad, but fixable) and the second one just obliterated itself into crumbs.  Starting over........I made the second set, waited for it to cool, took the first one out with fingers crossed......and it left the entire bottom of the cake in the pan.  I swear, I do know how to bake.  And I always make sure to grease and flour the bottoms of pans.  I didn't forget.  I don't understand.  But at this point, I just took out the second one (came out perfectly, thank you) and decided to put the gross one on the bottom where no one would know that I pieced it back together.  That should have been the end of my frustrations.  Wrong.  I had this grand idea to do something really cool with the cake that involved yellow frosting and fondant.  The frosting turned out looking like diseased mustard and the fondant was a disaster.  After an hour with the fondant, I still couldn't begin to make it into what I wanted.  So I started over.  Fondant in the garbage.  New icing.  New color.  New idea.  And this is what it turned into.  I'm really pleased with it.

My silly family.....and Lisa trying to get out of the picture.

The jewel hunt they had outside in the grass.

This is her being silly a few days later.

She had her 2 year doctor appointment and she's still up in the 98th percentile for height and 95 or something for head, but she's gone down to the 50somethingth for her weight.  She's finally started talking a ton and repeating everything she hears.  She says new words every day and is doing some complete sentences.  She knows her alphabet and numbers up to 10.  She loves playing outside and cries when she has to come in.  And she's getting a serious attitude.  If she doesn't want to do something, she'll definitely let you know.  In fact, she decided she didn't want to go to nursery this past sunday, so she was pulling on my arm and ended up smacking her nose into the metal doorframe in the process.  Yeah.  This'll be a fun phase.