List - Galaxy Quest

One of my favorite movies. It gets quoted often here in Nashville. Here's some of my favs - 

1. Never give up. Never surrender.
2. On Teb. On.
3. I have one job on this lousy ship. Its stupid but I'm going to do it. Ok!
4. Whoever wrote this script should die!
5. Its true. I knew it. (That's for you mom.)
6. Can you find a rudimentary lathe?
7. Quick before one of those things kills guy.
8. Does the rolling help? Where's your gun?
9. I'll tear through your ship like tissue paper.
10. Have you ever watched the show?

Ok so some, I know, are misquotes but I haven't been able to watch the show for a few years because I had it on VHS and our VCR broke a couple of years ago. So tragic. I really need to get it on DVD. Its one of the few movies both Jeremy and I like.

Classic.

List - What I Know Now That I Wish I'd Known Then

They grow up to be such cute 2 year olds.

New babies are amazing, wonderful, beautiful, and fun. I love my new little one.

But let's face it, new babies are stressful. I've made more than my fair share of mistakes but I'm on new babe number four and I've learned a few things along the way. If I could go back and talk to me when I had Madilyn I would look me in the eye and say...

• ask for help
• accept help
• its going to cry for no reason at all
• its not your fault
• no matter what anyone says, you know your baby better than they do
• never apologize for a crying baby
• its still not your fault
• do what you have to do to keep your sanity, even if its putting the baby in another room and walking away
• it may feel like forever, but this phase really doesn't last that long. In a few months you'll look back and think - I'm glad that's over.
• AND its not your fault the baby cries a lot

List - Why the blog has fallen by the wayside

It has and it bugs me. Not that I've ever been a heavy post-er but the last 4 months I'm barely making once or twice a month. And there are reasons:

1. Pregnancy - Nashling #4 has thrown me for a loop. Mostly on the energy scale.
2. School - There's only one Nashling in school and I struggle to keep up, might have something to do with #1.
3. Garrett hit the terrible 2's. The girls really didn't start to be stinkers until age three but the boy is a terror on two legs. A cute one but a terror none the less.
4. Back to zero - This is how I describe my 'job'. My job is to get things back to zero. Laundry, dishes, cleaning have all seemed to take up all the energy that I have, that and reason #3. And frankly I'm not doing a very good job anymore.
5. Pregnancy
6. I fall asleep on the couch every night by 8:45. If I make it to 9:30 Jeremy is shocked...and so am I.
7. Insomnia, pretty sure brought on by reasons #1 and5.
8. Memory loss - yes I know laugh. But its true my already sketchy memory has pretty much turned to a complete lack of knowledge of anything beyond this day, this hour. (See reasons #1 and 5)
9. Pregnancy
10. Pregnancy

30 Posts - Post 3 20 favorite things

Disclaimer - Like my inspirer (is that a word?) Heather, really my favorite things are family, friends, and my Savior Jesus Christ but I'm going completely superficial on this one.

1 - chocolate (oh how I wish it wasn't so!)
2 - singing
3 - playing volleyball
4 - playing basketball
5 - watercolor painting
6 - sewing
7 - upcycling vintage clothes
8 - running shoes
9 - shoes in general
10 - books
11 - writing
12 - fixing my girls' hair (they hate it)
13 - sleeping in until 7:30 (for the record it happens about once every 6 months)
14 - Stargate SG-1
15 - Star Trek
16 - Betty Neels
17 - lifting weights
18 - Beverly Sills (Could I please sing just like her?)
19 - blank books (think of all the things you could fill them with!)
20 - library

List - Children's Book Authors I Adore

These lovely people, whomever they are, have made reading to my children a joy. Madilyn is beyond most of them now but I can still talk Emma into readying them.

• Dr. Suess - I mean really how can he not be on this list. My personal favorite is the 'pale green pants with nobody inside them'.


• Jane Yolen - How do dinosaurs...etc. with wonderful illustrations. I once read a young adult book by her...she has an unhealthy fascination with dragons/dinosaurs.


• Jane O'Connor - Any of you 'boy only' families probably don't know her but Fancy Nancy speaks to my frou frou little girls like no one else. Its really worth reading yourself as a mom because she's so over the top.


• Barbara Park - Junie B. Jones is the funniest kindergartner I've ever read.


• A.A. Milne - Not only do we love Pooh Bear, I have a poetry book of his that the kids love.


• Shel Silverstein - Two words Runny Babbit, just saying it is funny.


• Mo Willems - who is currently my favorite. The girls are too old for most of his stuff but I get it anyway because the illustrations and stories are hilarious. My favorite - Can I Play Too?
  

I love books.

List - Guilty Pleasures

• fruit snacks - I can't buy them for my children because I eat them all...in a day.
• any show with 'star' in the title - Star Trek, Stargate, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, etc.
• Betty Neels romance novels - a little known harlequin author who happened to write 130 books that are almost all the same and yet I can't stop reading them
• pencil sharpeners - I don' know why either.
• blank books - Can you have too many? I think not.
• video games - Its like the fruit snacks, I don't have many games because I can't have many games.
• thrift stores
• fabric - There I admitted it. Even before I started sewing I always wanted to buy it for something.
• library - How can you not love the library? Everythings free!

There you go. I can't help myself.

List - I'm Thankful For

I've been so distracted by sickness that I really didn't think a whole lot of what I'm thankful for at Thanksgiving, sad but true. Ugh, even writing it I feel terrible but it happened. I or at least two other members of my family have been sick for the entire month of November. Yup. Good times had by all. BUT now that I'm feeling better I'm doing my grateful list (It doesn't include everything because that would be a crazy long list. Plus some things I'm grateful for are too personal to post on a blog).

10. Sunny days, Rainy Days (as long as I don't have to go out in it for long), Snowy Days - They're all beautiful in their own way.
9. Thoughtful People - You know, the ones that let a mother with three children, two of which are crying, go ahead of them in the line at the grocery store.
8. My home - Its perfect for us and even though its not ours I love it.
7. Wood stove - It makes everything cozy.
6. Cherry Jam - Oh my goodness its like cherry pie in a jar. Yum!
5. Music - I seriously can't help myself. Sometimes I'm singing along and don't even know it.
4. Books
3. Laughter - It really is the best medicine.
2. My big family - All of them. My parents, brother, mother and father-in-law, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.
1. My little family - Jeremy, Madilyn, Emma, and Garrett. There are not words to describe my feelings for them. They range from barely controlled anger to the most tender devoted love. My life would be empty without them. They give me purpose, laughter, and make me want to be a better person.

List - The Kids Have Won

1. They've watched so much tv in the last week that they've memorized the cartoon schedule.
2. You let your 6 year old go to school wearing an outfit that looks like she got dressed in the dark.
3. You eat macaroni and cheese for more than one meal a day.
4. You eat peanut butter and jelly for the other meal.
5. Halloween candy becomes an acceptable between meal snack.
6. Clean rooms are a thing of the past.
7. Clean house is a thing of the past.
8. Clean dishes are relative.
9. Watching your 15 month old eat off the floor you think, oh good I don't have to get him another snack now.
10. You feed them chocolate cake for breakfast.

In my own defense, we're on week two of fevers and ear infections.

List - Movies Part I

Movies I can (and do) watch over and over and over and over and over...

10. Remains of the Day (ok not over and over but at least once a year)

9. Star Trek (the new one)

8. Hook

7. White Christmas

6. Star Wars 4-6

5. Star Trek (All the other movies)

4. While You Were Sleeping

3. Mystery Science Theater 3000 The Movie

2. The Sound of Music (I had a summer growing up where I literally saw how many times I could watch it in one day. Three if you're wondering, four if no one had come home and made me shut it off.)

1. Galaxy Quest

I know I'm a little one or two sided, sci-fi or romantic comedy but I like what I like. What's your list look like?

List - Girls Night Out

Why I like Girls' Night Out:

• When you say, "Don't you hate it when..." at least two people at the table know exactly what you're talking about.
• dessert
• You get put on your nice clothes that you don't want the kids to stain.
• You can talk about the after effects of childbirth without scarring anyone for life...or maybe you still can.
• You get to go somewhere without ANY children. (The silence in the car is AMAZING.)
• You realize there are other moms who start to go crazy at home with their kids.
• You don't have to put the kids to bed.
• dessert
• You don't have to gulp down your food so you can leave before one of the kids starts crying and/or breaks something or someone.
• And lastly, you don't have to share your dessert with anyone unless you want to!

List - Bee 2, Emma 0

My sweet little 3-year-old Emma got attacked by bees last night. Attacked may be too strong of a word but when I heard her scream not two feet from me there were 3 soon to be 4 bees on her face. I brushed them off but they came back and I could see more bees out of the corner of my eye so I grabbed her and ran, yelling at Madilyn to run and yelling at Jer to come and help me because I was sure they were going to chase us down and I had to get Garrett. So all 5 of us were running through the yard, Emma screaming and Jeremy trying to figure out what was going on.

In the end only one stung her on the side of her head but, as you can imagine, it scared me. Plus they were bumblebees which usually aren't aggressive. It may have had something to do with the jelly smeared all over her face.

But really my question is...why? What is it always Emma? Here's my list of ailments for her since birth -

• Ear infection - lasted three months and survived 5 antibiotics
• Ear tubes at age 6 months
• Recurring pink eye
• Recurring impetigo
• Recurring digestive problems
• Surgery to remove and patch holes in ear drum because the tubes wouldn't fall out
• Broken leg
• Bit by a dog
• Bee sting
• Bee attack

If its going to happen, its going to happen to Emma.

List - Clothesline

I'm in love with my clothesline.

1. Grandma
2. Clothes smell great
3. Cost less than the dryer
4. Get through the initial washing faster
5. Pants stay stiff for hours after you put them on (I think this is a pro)
6. Sheets
7. Comforters dry quickly
8. Its an excuse to go outside for a few minutes
9. Lots of exercise
10. I can threaten to hang Madilyn up by her toes from it when she annoys me. (She knows I'm kidding.)

There's something about hanging laundry on the line that makes me feel connected to my grandma, like I'm participating in some time honored or tradition or other such nonsense. Maybe it gives me an insight into her life that I never had before or maybe it just makes my clothes smell like hers did, either way I love my clothesline.

List - MST3K

Every family has a movie that they all laugh about but no one else really gets it. Today I dedicate my post to Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) The Movie. I have never laughed as hard as I did the first time I watched it. For those of you who haven't seen it, a guy and two puppets watch B movies (usually sci-fi) and make fun of them. Its awesome. So my list is my favorite quotes from MST3K the Movie.

1. "Could I love him more?"
2. "Hey some guys legs are hanging out."
3. "Eat at Joe's. Eat at Joe's. Eat at Joe's."
4. Neeeeeroooooooom (that's the sound of car passing by)
5. "Noooooo!"
6. "Why he has a giant hamburger on the wall."
7. "Quick let's escape under the cover of afternoon in the largest car in the county."
8. wshkwshkwshk (that's the sound of whispering)
9. "Should we be watching this?"
10. "Who put the can in the middle of the room?"

Here's to you MST3K.

List - Our House

What I Love About Our House

1. Mt. Rainier outside my living room window
2. 4 bedrooms
3. Playroom
4. Linoleum in the dining room
5. Front yard
6. Back yard
7. Arched doorways
8. Food storage room
9. Wood Floors
10. Its not an apartment!

I'll post pictures soon.

List: Things that Could Happen to You Cause it Happened to Me

• Have to have your earring holes surgically removed
• Fall down brick stairs
• Get toothpaste in your eye while loading your toothbrush
• Walk into a street sign
• Get locked in a bathroom stall in a restaurant, unable to open the door (OK that didn't really happen to me but it did happen to my mom. I was there. Unfortunately I refused to get help because I was too embarrassed. Give me a break I was like 15.)
• Cut your OWN eye with construction paper while wearing glasses
• Kidney stone
• Have your daughter break her leg while sitting on your lap
• House burn down
• Watch a teenager get hit by a car in the Fred Meyer parking lot (they were being idiots) and then refuse to get help (the kid refused not me)

Be careful. It could happen to you.

Movies I Wished I'd Never Seen

• Red Planet
• Talladega Nights
• Land of the Lost (or whatever that movie was called with Will Farrell)
• The Land Before Time II or any of the sequels
• Return to Oz (like the first one wasn't scary enough)
• Miss Congeniality 2
• Where the Red Fern Grows (cried like a baby when we had to watch it in class in 3rd grade)
• Gremlins (I'm still scared of the dark)
• Barbie Swan Lake
• Dumb and Dumber

There are others but these stick out. You?

List of Last Week

Top Reasons I Haven't Blogged

• Fire
• My computer won't download pictures from my camera
• My computer is a pile
• My computer is a pile
• My computer is a pile
• My computer is a pile
• My computer is a pile
• My computer is a pile
• My computer is a pile
• My computer is a pile

'Nough said.

Trekkies Unite

For Mom

Reasons I Love Star Trek

1. I loved watching it with mom.
2. Spock
3. "Boy that sure looks uncomfortable."
4. Its fun to make up words to the theme song
5. Good always defeats evil
6. Humpback whales save the world
7. Smart, brave women
8. They talk science and even if its made up...I get it!
9. I always wanted to be an explorer
10. "I have been and always will be your friend."

You may have to be a trekkie to understand it all.

Mom posted her list to my comments and I wanted to share her Star Trek list too. Thanks Mom.

Reasons I love Star Trek:
1. James Tiberius Kirk
2. I remember how fun it was to watch with my mom.
3. Because it is so much fun now to watch with my daughter.
4. Because anything is possible in sci-fi.
5. Because I love to see the friendships between the characters.
6. The earth seems like a better place.
7. Spock and Data make me laugh-and remind me uncomfortably of myself.
8. Because I once wanted to be an astronaut.
9. Because I can remember reading my first science fiction book and dreaming I was there on Mars.
10. Because Trekkies understand each other.

List of Lists

This thing posted and I didn't know it. Now I'm finishing it.

My list for the week, is a list of the lists I want to write.

1. Reasons I love Star Trek.
2. Reasons I love Stargate SG-1
3. Why kids are better than having pets
4. Why (on occasion) pets are better than having kids
5. Driving styles
6. Best Movies
7. Best Authors
8. Best Children's Books
9. Movies I wished I'd never seen
10. Perks of having your apartment burn down

Lists

I like lists. So once a week I'm going to post a new list. This one's a little serious but I can guarantee that most won't be. Recently I read an article in the Ensign, a magazine for our church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, about having an attitude of gratitude. I had just started having the girls tell me something they were grateful for each day and writing it in my journal. But now more than ever I am grateful (but not necessarily in this particular order).

I am Grateful for

1. my family. We've had some scary brushes with potentially deadly accidents in the last several months.
2. renter's insurance
3. extended family
4. in-law's (mine are awesome)
5. the beautiful green Northwest
6. music
7. running shoes
8. soft baby skin
9. Madilyn's made up songs
10. Emma's hugs

The last but in no way the least, the guidance of the Holy Ghost and our Savior Jesus Christ.