Can you say spoiled?

Jeff is always complaining about how much *!@% Pearl has around the house and now look!Yes, two pairs of shoes are on their way - pink croc sandals and patent red leathers. The task now is to hide them when they do get here or else Pearl will want to wear them and well, it's still a bit too cold for sandals and both are a size too big. Jeff says he does things for this kid (aka Pearl) that he normally wouldn't do...like buying crocs which he fondly refers to as dumb $** shoes. And don't be too alarmed, Jeff really doesn't have as big of a potty mouth as this post implies, well anymore.

On another note, I actually participated in a Relief Society event tonight... a mini-class on keeping a journal. Score one point towards exaltation for me 'cause my blog now counts as a journal and record of my life! Yeah, maybe I'll make it after all. Oh and all the old ladies were super impressed I was so skilled at this blogging technology stuff, not to mention my 365 Project - yeah right! Seriously though, there's been plenty of times throughout my life when I've thought about recording my experiences and thoughts and until I started blogging, never did. I never wrote anything down about Jeff and I's courtship, my wedding day, or even when Pearl was born. I never recorded spiritual experiences, my travel adventures, or struggles I had in high school and college. You always seem to think that you'll never forget something that happens in your life but somehow as the years roll by you do start forgetting the feelings you had that made you want to be better, give more, and keep on trying. I wonder what my posterity will want to know about me, what they could have learned from my own experiences. I know I wonder about who my parents and grandparents really are and wish they would have kept records and written down stories from their lives. I did get a good reminder that I need to share my records and pictures with others, not just for the sake of them learning something but in case something disastrous were to happen to the original records. So I've made a goal that by April I will have bought some CDs and burned all our pictures on them in the awful event that our computer were to crash. I think that's a good start and a realistic one at that. Then in like 20 years when I've actually done this, I can move on to finishing those scrapbooks hiding in the back of my closet, doing my family history, recording my parents' histories, and recording memories of my life before blogs.

I've been thinking...

The past couple of days I've kept thinking of how blessed I am. My brother lost his job at USU on Friday and I can't help but wonder what I can do to help. He's got a little girl about 7 months older than Pearl and both him and his wife are trying to finish up school. I worry about my dad's job at USU and my in-laws financial situation (my grandma told me that you marry rich or stupid and well...neither one of us married into $$$). Stupid economy, stupid greed in our country that created this whole mess. It makes me sick to my stomach if I dwell on all the negative you hear on the news everyday. I tend to worry, a lot, about everything, especially about what would happen to me or my family members if they lost their jobs and now it's happened. I complain way too much about everything but having this happen to my little bro has really stopped me in my tracks and helped me realize how truly blessed I am. Jeff and I both finished school without too much debt and in a few months I'll get my masters degree. We found good jobs and as of now, aren't too worried about losing them anytime soon. We have a beautiful house that keeps us warm and safe - cracks, air leaks, and all. We work with really wonderful people who care about what they do and have made lifelong friends there. I get to work part-time with fabulous benefits and better pay than I had in my previous job. I can go to school, play with Pearl more, and still pay our bills (ok so Jeff pays most of the bills but hey he makes more than me). We don't go without anything necessary in life. Sure we have our list of things we want to have but have learned to be careful with our money and try to save for a rainy day, as small as our savings account seems to be nowadays. We always seem to find that extra money for the many car repairs, new set of tires, broken furnace, and clothes for our growing pip-squeak. I take for granted so many things...my freedom, a computer, the ability to get an education, warm slippers, food in the cupboards, a stroller to go on walks with Pearl, and much more. But the best part of this whole economic mess we're in? I have a bigger desire to help my family than ever before. I'm not sure what they need or how we'll get through this but somehow we will.

First crush

Meet Josh. Some of you have heard about the infamous Josh but now you can see who this kid is that apparently Pearl is in love with. Josh is one of Pearl's friends at daycare and from the beginning she's been fascinated with him. I can't quite figure out why - they never play together and he ignores her most days not to mention the boogery nose. Maybe it's because "Josh" is an easy name to say and was one of her first words. Or maybe because she can boss him around, who knows. While Josh does get the privilege of being talked about on those long, boring weekends at home (for awhile every time we got in the car Pearl would ask to see him) he also gets blamed for anything that goes wrong at daycare (like Pearl telling me, "Josh bite! Ouch" whether he's the biter or not). He also gets mentioned in Pearl's sleep. The other day when I went to get Pearl for our afternoon walk her teachers asked me if Pearl talked in her sleep. Not that I noticed but apparently she talks about Josh during her naps. She said "Josh, sit down!' a few times (oh and "mean Daddy"...who knows where that came from). She's also said his name lovingly a few times before during her naps too. Great. My daughter's not even 2 and we've got to have "the talk" with her. Jeff has also told Josh he's watching him (after barging into Pearl's class one day and saying "Which one of you is Josh?") but I'm afraid the love birds don't care what their parents think about all this. But I guess being the only girl in her class, it was bound to happen at some point.

For sale

For sale

(ok, maybe just a trade or better yet visit with highest bidder while we go out on a very quiet date)

Twenty-month old piggy-tailed pipsqueak who answers to the name of Pearl. Munchkin for sale eats a lot (at least the past few days) and loves Nemo but is terrified of the aquarium (especially "Mr. Ray"), screams loudly in public, refuses to take naps or hold still and look cute for pictures, tells her mom that her Presidents' day flowers are "MINE," attempts to steal shoes from department stores, and runs around without a diaper on now that she has her own potty chair. Pictures below show full effect of the dwarf's exhausting bounds of energy and moods. The accused is totally exhausting but absolutely adorable and will make you laugh and smile everyday!I thought it would be a great idea to have some fun family today by visiting the Living Planet Aquarium. It started out ok (after waiting in a huge line) and Pearl was pretty excited running around the exhibit but then...Jeff's expression says it all! Although Pearl was still pretty excited at this point she only spent about 3.4 seconds of peering in the tanks, which is so very tiring for her old parents.
You can see Pearl literally clinging to me as we watch the "Mr. Rays" swimming in the tank. What a whimp we have - Pearl wanted to watch them but screamed and freaked out if we got too close. I don't blame her though because the first stingray she saw was seriously attempting to jump out of the tank. That pretty much did it for the rest of the day."Mr. Ray" - if you don't know who he is, you really need to watch Nemo at least 500 zillion times!About 5 minutes before we high-tail it out of there and the end of family fun.Attempting to find Pearl some new church shoes. She loves shoe shopping as is evident from her trying to run away with two different pairs of shoes on. Her favorite though were these little wedge heel sandals. Too bad she had blown all chances of getting them by this point in the day with her constant whining.

Ambitions

I have a friend who always said ambitions never got you anything but trouble, only much more colorful than how I wrote it (I'm trying to keep it to a PG rating after my last post's title). Sadly, it's true for me. I have great ambitions like cleaning my house from top to bottom in a single day (although I did scrape off about an inch of dust and gunk from the top of my kitchen cabinets this afternoon), painting Pearl's table and chair set, painting the dining room, finishing Pearl's Christmas stocking (only 2 Christmas' behind), and putting together some really cute Valentines for Pearl's friends and teachers at daycare. The last one was a miserable failure. Not only did I forget to have Pearl wear her cute Valentines dress and tights for her party yesterday, but I didn't even get around to buying the cheap store bought cards! Urghhh...what kind of a mom am I? Growing up, my mom would get my brother and I these tiny red heart balloons (you know the kind that come on those skinny, white plastic sticks) to take to school for Valentine's Day. It was always an adventure trying to get two huge overflowing garbage bag full of balloons on the bus but everyone thought they were cool because they were different than the typical candy you got. Oh well, at least Pearl isn't old enough to be too traumatized by her forgetful mother. And because a post just isn't a post without some pictures, here is the forgotten dress and the Valentine card holder Pearl made at daycare. At least her teachers remembered to celebrate Valentines Day.