17,532 days of Michael

My husband turned 48.  Sigh.

48.  Type 2 diabetes.  Gray hair.  Falling asleep while watching TV.

It's every girl's dream.  Hands off, ladies! He's mine.

But seriously, even though I'm married to a dinosaur, I love the ol' fossil. 

Here's the deal: with the onset of the birthday boy's diabeetus, we've been avoiding all delicious foods and eating a lot of vegetables.  It's alright, but sometimes a person just wants some carbs.  Since Mykey's been doing so well and his A1C numbers fell to the pre-diabetic range, his doctor told him he could eat cake on his birthday.  Michael heard, "It's your birthday.  Spend the entire weekend eating anything you want."

So we did.

His birthday weekend was literally eating all the things he's avoided for the past 5 months.  It was a great way to celebrate turning 17,532 days old. 

We ate burgers.

And burritos.

And Chick Fil A.

And ice cream. Baby had her first taste and was a big fan.  That's my girl!

But don't worry, his birthday celebration wasn't entirely food-related.

We went to Sissy's soccer game.

And Mykey worked on his R2D2.

And I gave him gifts.

An essential oil diffuser with his favorite scent, Thieves.

And the movie Undercover Blues.

We had a great weekend. I loved celebrating Michael.

Happy birthday to my Nyasasaurus!

Temple

I've made a decision - I'm going to stop eating so much chocolate.  Wait.  That seems very unlike me.  Let me try again. 

I've made a decision - I'm not going to refer to my oldest daughter as Zelda anymore.  It just doesn't feel quite right.  Are you with me on this?  I knew you would be.  

From henceforth and forever, I will refer to her as Big Sissy.  That's a title she will never outgrow.  

Now stop lollygagging and get on with it already.

My sweet 11-year-old baby was able to attend the temple for the first time recently.  It takes nearly 4 hours by car to get to the temple.  That's 4 hours each way.  It made for a long but worthwhile day.  Michael took her and I stayed home with Baby.  I was sad to miss it but grateful her dad was able to be there.  One of Sissy's friends rode with them and Michael said they talked and talked and talked.  My heart was happy.  

So what do I want my daughter to know about the temple?  

I want her to know that I love the temple with my whole soul.  

I want her to know that the covenants we make with God in the temple are sacred and a strength to me.

I want her to know that the service we provide in the temple makes an eternal difference for real people.

I want her to know that time spent in the temple is an opportunity to be closer to heaven.

I want her to know that my testimony of temple attendance came by following the admonition of President Nelson back in 2018.  He urged us to attend the temple regularly and promised that the Lord would bring the miracles He knows we need as we sacrifice to serve and worship in the temple. The Lord fulfilled that promise to me and I have experienced many miracles.

I look forward to Sissy calling down her own miracles by attending the temple regularly.

She had a wonderful time and I hope this will spark her own love for the temple.  

What a perfect way to spend a Saturday!

Seesters

Wanna know how I can tell my daughters are sisters?

They act like each other.  Well...not so much at their current ages. It's not like Zelda is going around pooping her pants or Baby is slamming her bedroom door.  What I mean is that Baby does exactly the same things that her older sissy did at this age. And I mean exactly.

Things like playing with one of Michael's gazillion random cords.

Or eating our pet's food. Baby likes cat food.  Zelda likes dog.

Or splashing in the toilet like it's a swimming pool.

And staring longingly outside at the great beyond.

And trying to siphon the last few drips from a soda can. 

Yup. Sisters. It will be fun when they start doing the exact same things that my sisters and I do.

Tweezing our chin whiskers.

Sisters are the best!

Fooled Ya

Zelda starts planning for April Fool's Day on April 2nd.  

I do my best to keep up with her. I think I'm pretty clever with my pranks, but Zelda likes to pretend that I never get her.  

I know the truth.

This year, she really put her back into it.  I was finding gems all day.  I tip my hat to my pranking queen.  This year she made me jump, groan, and shake my head. She was busy.

Busy doing things like putting paint in my shampoo, filling the spray bottle I use to wet down hair with vinegar, adding peppermint oil to Michael's CPAP water reservoir, and rubbing gel food coloring on the bathroom sink faucet.  Whew!

She also was busy doing many other pranks.  Things like:

Using her 3D pen to make a replica of her gecko so I'd think he had escaped.

Replacing my deodorant with butter.

And leaving a cockroach in Baby's bed.

Her best prank was that she covered my soap with nail polish so it wouldn't lather. What a trick!

Michael thought he'd be clever and put a spider under my blanket on the couch.  I didn't appreciate that one.

He also put a speaker in Zelda's bathroom that made mouse noises.  She pretended like it didn't startle her but we know the truth.

I had my own arsenal of pranks to share.  I put rubber insects and a plastic Forky toy in her lunchbox.  

I stole an idea from my nephew and decorated her toilet.

I hid a grasshopper in her dresser drawer.

And put a spider on her toilet paper.

And left friends in the shower.

 

I had to wait all day for the best prank of all. I filled her pillowcase with balloons. She had quite the surprise when she went to bed that night. Totally worth it.

And to cap off the fun, Baby officially started crawling.  It was an eventful day indeed.

Oh, how I love that my older daughter keeps it silly around our house. She truly is a joy. 

 

Happy April Fool's Day!

Easta

Our Easter celebrations this year were lowkey. We started with a ward brunch and egg hunt on Saturday. Now that Zelda is in the Young Women's program at church, she had to transition to setting up the egg hunt rather than participating in it.  

She was rather upset about this.

I looked around for a community egg hunt for her but everything seemed too lame or geared to really young kids.  She's in the odd stage of being too old for a hunt with little kids, but not quite old enough to give up on the idea altogether. 

One night while I was lying in bed NOT sleeping,  I had the brilliant idea to set up a scavenger hunt for our girl.  

So I promptly told Michael to get to work on my brilliant idea. In true Michael fashion, he came up with the even more brilliant idea to use A.I. generated photos based on Zelda's gecko, Squiggly.

It was hilarious.  And perfect in every way.

After her duties at our ward brunch and egg hunt were fulfilled, we surprised her with the scavenger hunt.

She went around the house gathering clues and eggs and finished with the grand finale of a Lego Infinity Gauntlet.  She'd been saving her pennies for months to buy it, but was still $15 short. We made up the difference for her and purchased it.  She had it built in just a couple of hours.

What a great day.

On Easter Sunday we had dinner with my cousin and dyed eggs at home.  The Easter bunny even brought me and Mykey a bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs, which we divided evenly and devoured.  

What a great day.

Happy Easter!