Tag-I'm It!

Here goes my first "tag" since being in the blog world!! Thanks Lea....well, I think thanks:)



List 3 joys, fears, goals, obsessions/collections and 3 facts about yourself-for those I tag:) Tag 5 people at the end, then let them know on their blog.



3 Joys:

1. The most recent one is watching Landon taking steps. He laughs and smiles so big when he is walking. He is so proud of himself. I love it that he just gets right back up and tries again. It has been our source of entertainment in the evenings.

2. My children and husband laughing. They laugh at me alot, but also at the littlest things-I need to learn from them and laugh at the things they find humorous. I do sometimes laugh just a them laughing, then we are all happy!!

3.Watching my children interract with each other. Whether they are playing, laughing, helping one another, it warms my heart to see them developing a relationship with one anther. Jordan and Spencer are currently very excited to see Lanny start to walk. I hear them yell "he took 3 steps" "he took 4 steps."



3 Fears:

1. My biggest fear in life currently is gaining back all the weight I lost. I am fighting the war every day, and am currently losing the battle. Have to come up with a new strategy.

2. I fear for the worldly influences my children will face as they grow up. Will I teach them enough to withstand the constant forces of harm and evil around them? Will I help them gain a strongly routed testimony of the gospel to help them over come opposition?

3. I fear being alone. I have never really been one who likes to be alone. Yes, I do need my times of being alone to rest and recharge, but I am speaking on a larger scale. I am social-I need family and friends around me.



3 Goals:

1. To get Spencer potty trained.

2. Get back on the Weight Watchers train. My emotions have been getting the best of me, and I got off the train a couple months ago and have since been wandering around aimlessly in the station. I now have to get back on-if you get my drift.

3. Reduce the clutter in my home and choose a paint color for my living room and dining room and paint it!! Hopefully by the end of this year.....



3 Obsessions/Collections:

1. The first one is in the obsession category: I am a picture taking maniac. If my kids do anything funny, naughty, silly, just about anything, I run for the camera. Can you take too many pictures? I don't know, but I could win the prize if there was one for obsessive picture taking. Thank you to whoever invented the digital camera.

2. I am obsessed with the thought of living in a bigger single family house with a yard. There Darin I admit it. I'll end it there.

3. I don't currently have anything I collect because I have 3 children and a very small house, but lately I have taken to little signs or statues I guess you could call them with words like "family"
"love" "faith" etc. I have lots of plans for when I paint and re-do our living room. We got all new frames to put up, guess I obsess about that as well. I tend to obsess about whatever idea is most current in my head.

4. I have to put this one on for Darin's sake as well-strollers. I am always wanting a different stroller. I drive Darin nuts with this. It comes from my problem of never bing able to make up my mind. There are too many stroller choices, so after I made mine, if someone has something different, I think that I need what they have.....good thing Darin loves me....







3 Facts about myself:

1. I was a social worker when I lived in Utah. I passed test and had a Social Service Worker License. I worked at a community center first as a sexual assault counselor, then as the Children's counselor. I really loved it, and sometimes when people are talking social work, I do miss it. During and after my schooling, for 5 years, I also worked with Juvenile deliquents in group homes and a hospital in Bountiful. I really loved it.

2. In my early years I lived on dairy farms in Wisconsin. Once upon a time, the smell of manure was not anything out of the ordinary for me. I helped my dad milk cows, clean pig pens, spread manure, make hay in the summer, etc.

3. I am a weird sort of first born child. On one hand I can be bossy-just ask my3 little sisters, I like to be in charge a lot and I like to be "right"; but I am not really a perfectionist. I can be anal about a few things and tend to be habitual, but my house is cluttery and probably not what a first born's house would look like. If there are toys on the floor at bedtime, I don't care because the kids will just get them out again in the morning. Weird, huh?



So there you have it-Wendi in a nutshell.

I tag: Amanda, Tiffany, Lynette, Amy and Brighton.

One of my favorite places!

We were able to go to Boston in the beginning of June. One of my friends had a son who was married in the Boston Temple, so we went to his reception. It was fun to see friends from when I lived there years ago. We stayed with some of our favorite people-the Olsons-My adopted family. Jordan calls Marion and Karin "aunties" We sure love seeing them and wish we could more.

This first collage is in the Boston Public Gardens-right next to the Boston Gardens. There is a big pond and they are famous for the Swan boat rides. The driver of the boat is sitting in the back of the boat pedaling-where the swan is. It was very relaxing and the kids loved it.
Then we went to see the "Makeway For Ducklings" statue. Jordan and Spencer liked it, but Landon wasn't thrilled because it was so hot. I was a really hot day. We then played at a little playground, then went to McDonalds for ice cream, and were pretty worn out by that time. Plus our 2 hours on the meter was out!! After we took Darin to the airport shuttle, I took the kids to my favorite beach. I used to live 10 minutes from it when I was a nanny and went there all the time. It is called Nantasket. I have lots of great memories of this beach...it was one of my "thinking" places. It is a great beach-especially when the tide is way out. The kids loved playing in the rocks. Spencer loved playing in the tide pools and Jordan liked to do art in the sand. Landon isn't too sure of the beach yet. They used to have an amusement park on this beach, but all that is left is the carousel, so of course we rode the carousel and had ice cream. Then we were all worn out again..
Here are Auntie Karin, Jordan, Auntie Marion, and Grammy "O" in Karin's fun hat. Jordan loves Grammy "O" for introducing her to word searches. She would sit by grammy's chair and help her look for letters. She would wake up in the morning asking if she could help grammy.
Aunties took us to Horseneck Beach in Westport Ma. We set up camp and stayed a few hours. It only took Jordan and Spencer a few minutes and they were having a blast. Landon, on the other hand wasn't too happy. The sand was pretty hot. Jordan found some friends and played in the sand for a while. Spencer loved running in and out of the water and loved being carried further out. He would say "again mommy!!" It was fun-even being knocked over by a wave.

I will warn you that putting the remainer of sunscreen on your self after you have lathered up your kids is not suffiecient from preventing yourself a painful outcome!!! Just a few pics of the car ride up to Boston and having fun at Cracker Barrel. It is our favorite place to eat on the road!!

Jordan's Favorite Person

Each time I have had a baby, I have heard the same thing from Darin for about a year...."she/he doesn't want me. " "He/She doesn't like me." It is a great feeling to know that your child needs you and wants you over anyone else in the world. It is fun when you know just what to do and are able to calm your child in a few minutes. I think it is a blessing and gift we have as mothers.

I do have to confess that these moments of only wanting mommy come at some hard times....cooking dinner, cleaning a mess, caring for another child...etc. This is where daddy can be soooo helpful. Luckily, there is a magical changes that happens sometime after each child was become 12 and 18 months.....daddy becomes a best friend!! I think it happens when they understand what "no" means. I am the one saying it all day....so Daddy is a welcome treat. Spencer has now joined in with Jordan and any time I do not make him happy I hear "I want my daddy" It is pretty cute. The children in the Maney home love their daddy. Each day when he comes in the door, which not to rub it in to many of you, is around 4:30, the kids all run to the door. We often play the "who gets the first kiss" game.

The winner is usually Jordan. She thinks her daddy is the best person around. There are many times a day when she would prefer him to be home!! He is the one who takes her to the movies and buys her new DVD's. When Spencer was born, her daddy was in charge of lots more of her care and needs, and since then, they have been true buddies. She always sits by him in restaurants, hangs out near him when we are on outings, and loves to snuggle next to him on the couch.
I will never forget the first time Darin held Jordan when she was born...He was so happy to have her-his little girl. It has taken a little time- but these two have developed the relationship that I knew was inevitable....they are truly daddy and daughter, and I am so lucky to have them both!!!

9 hours, 1 mini-van, 1 mom, 3 children.....

And I survived!!!

Darin and I drove together to Boston last week, but he flew home on Tuesday. I stayed and played around with friends and came home on Saturday. I actuall went from Boston to Hartford CT on Friday to see a long time friend and left from there Saturday morning at exactly 10:40. I pulled into our driveway at exactly 7:50. Here's a synopsis:

*Gas is $4.49 in Connecticut!!! I didn't want to run out in NY, so I only put $15.00 in because it is really cheap in New Jersey. I still paid $60.00 to fill up in NJ later......
*Horribly long, long, long traffic in New York. Luckily the DVD player was working-it gave us problems on the way up. Landon had a nice nap through all the traffic, but Spencer had periodic moments where he wanted his daddy.
*I took all three kids into one of the huge rest stops off the New Jersey Turnpike and only had one instance of my heart jumping when Jordan was casually looking at pink sunglasses when I was ordering food. Thanks to a double stroller the boys were strapped in.
* I had a nice thunder storm close to home-in Aberdeen MD. Almost felt like I needed to pull over, but we made it.
* I got over a little bit of road rage when the line for the Baltimore tunnel was miles long and when I was finally close a guy drove all the way to the front and wanted in. I really wanted to yell at him out my window, but reconsidered and let him in.....if you do it grudgingly is it still charitable?
*LOTS of prayers that I could stay awake and not crash the car......prayer is great!!

It was raining when we got home and all Jordan wanted when we pulled up was for me to go in and get her umbrella....where are her priorities?

So it wasn't as bad as I was gearing up for. The DVD player helped and sleeping children were great too-also having swedish fish, twizzlers and peanut M&Ms at arms lenth was a helpful thing. Don't tell my WW leader!! At one time all the kiddies slept and I actually listened to the radio.....so now we are home and have to get back on schedule!!

I'd like it just on my shoulders.....

I have I have had some bad hair cuts in the 5 years I have lived here-which is sad because I had the best hairdresser in Utah who gave me a great cut every time.. Mostly because I am cheap and go to the Haircuttery where it is seldom a person who is a native english speaker....one time I went back twice to have the lady fix the back-I have a huge cowlick right in the back that presents huge problems when it is dry.

Anyhow, the title is what I told gal when I decided to get a hair cut last week. It has been over a week now, I think I like it. So, as usual the gal asked me what I wanted. I told her it is really thick and I mostly wanted it thinned out and to rest on my shoulders-it was a little below my shoulders for those who haven't seen me recently. We began chatting, and she kept cutting, and cutting, and cutting.

So.....here is the end product. As usual, I can't manage to put the pictures on in the order I want, so you get the back view first. The good thing is that these are all my natural curls. Front view-sorry bad lighting, but you get the idea.

I have been through the "I love it" stage right after, to the "I hate it" a few days later to now "I will manage...it will grow back....well, I do like it now that I am used to it" stage. At least I can just barely pull it back into a tiny ponytail when I get really hot and sweaty-have to love the DC humidity!!