CP is the puppy. He loves everyone and gives smiles to anyone who passes within his range of vision. LG is the kitty, who makes you work for his attention.

We had so much fun seeing LG (and his parents) during their break from school!

Story Time

We were late getting to bed tonight, so instead of reading a book to A, I told him a short story, and then he told one to me...

"Once there was a dinosaur, and his name was Bip-G and he was digging for treasure. He digged and he digged, and he found....nuffing! Then he digged another hole, and more and more and more and more holes, and then he found a mom dinosaur, and her name was Bip-D, and they looked for treasure and they found some...little teeth (said as he saw me smiling at him, because he was so adorable) and some little eyes, and HUGE dinosaur bones, and a house.

The End"

As I said goodnight, I told him to have some good dreams about his dinosaurs, and he said he'd dream about a huge dinosaur named Bip-A.

I have no idea where those names came from, but at least he has a theme going.

The Pain and the Joy (maybe that should be the Joy then the Pain?)!

The landscaping company finally came to grade our lot, which means we can start doing stuff in the yard. My Mr. had built three raised beds awhile back (back when we thought we could start on our yard stuff...) and the landscapers actually filled them with dirt* while they were grading, which was very nice, and saved us a lot of money and time.

Yesterday I planted Amish Paste tomatoes, a cherry tomato (I don't know how that one got in my cart, I didn't mean to buy it), a grape tomato, and one heirloom big slicing tomato that I can't remember the name of at the moment, and 6 beefsteak type tomatoes. I also planted 6 bell pepper plants and 6 anaheim peppers. We're planning on lots of salsa this fall.

Today I planted one long hill with several Kabocha squash seeds (I use to think my favorite squash was acorn, but I think kabocha's are edging them out), corn, beans, peas, two hills of zucchini, and pumpkins. I can hardly wait for things to start sprouting.

You'll notice (or not) that a chunk of the raised bed in the front of the picture isn't planted and doesn't have compost added to it (if you didn't notice, it's not planted and doesn't have compost added to it), you also may notice that the raised beds are HUGE, and way too wide to get at the center without stepping into the garden. It's not ideal, but it was necessary for the chicken coop to be able to fit inside the raised beds- no more dead grass (hopefully) surrounding the chicken coop, since the chickens won't be able (hopefully) to reach the grass from up in the bed. We'll also rotate the coop each year to spread the "fertilizer" around.

All the digging and bending has made my back REALLY sore, but it's a good pain.

*dirt, not soil, because the stuff we have out here is very heavy clay with little to no organic matter. It's going to take a lot of amending to turn it into soil.

Support Kyle

As anyone who reads my blog must already know, Kyle (My Mister) is running for the House of Representatives in district 20. He is doing it because he believes that it's time for more of us (you know us, regular citizens) to get involved in our state government. We have to remind the current legislators that they are not doing their job (representing us), and that we deserve and expect better.

Kyle supports public education, ethics reform, and affordable health care for all Utahns. For more information see his blog, and coming soon, his campaign website.

Please make a donation to support Kyle, also consider becoming a fund raiser, go to Act Blue to send emails to your friends and family.

Every dollar matters.

You can donate using the act blue donation box in the side bar of my blog.

BPA and Fear Mongering

I somehow missed the original hubub over BPA or Bisphenol A, and have continued as with my previous two children, to feed my baby with bottles that could cause cancer.

Part of me figures, my other kids drank from those bottles and they're fine, this is just fear mongering, trying to get consumers to toss all their plastic stuff and go shopping for "safer" products. The other part of me wonders if I should join in and go buy some glass baby bottles.

From the things I have read, it seems that putting boiling water in the bottles, microwaving them, and washing them in the dishwasher are what we should be most concerned about, although I can't find anything that says whether the plastic continues to leach the chemical after one washing/microwaving, or if it just leaches at a higher level while it is hot. If that is the case, it seems like it would be fine to just stop microwaving the formula in the bottle (which I know I'm not supposed to do anyway).

I found an interesting article called Truth and Rumors Muddy Plastics Debate and it says that in the rat research, the rats are injected with BPA, which our bodies would deal with very differently than the way we would absorb the chemical, which makes me think it's not a big deal for adults. The article also says that in infants and fetuses, because their bodies don't metabolize things the same was as an adult, it didn't make a difference if baby rats or rat fetuses were injected with BPA or if they swallowed it, it was equally harmful.

I guess the good news is that my baby just turned one, and really shouldn't be drinking from bottles anymore anyway, so I just have to make sure his cups are safe and we're good to go

Until the next scare.

What do you get when you cross a Pear and a Carrot?

A Parrot!

A says they make good snacks, at least the pear part, since he didn't really want to eat carrots.

A. A Wash Cloth, A Bandaid, A partially emptied Kit Kat Wrapper and the Camcorder charger cord

Q. Things CP tried to eat this morning, so far.

I saw him with the bandaid and wondered where he got it, until I saw the wash cloths all over the floor and the box of bandaids dumped out into the drawer. Just prior to that, I heard rustling sounds and peeked over at him and saw him trying to devour a mini kit kat wrapper, which for some strange reason had just a bit of kit kat left in it (Someone else must have eaten that kit kat, because I would never leave a partially eaten kit kat sitting around).

In other news, A told me recently that we needed to purchase two more humans.

Originally he wanted to buy a blue car, but I told him that we wouldn't all fit in a car, he then pointed out that we have two empty seats in the van. He's been trained well (maybe) that we shouldn't waste resources, so naturally he wanted to fill those empty spots right up. "We need to buy two humans mom".

Hmmm, good luck with that.

Finally, on Sunday I saw the most adorable little girl I think I have ever seen. Maybe not the most adorable, but there was something about her that caught my attention. Maybe she reminded me of me. Whatever it was, she made me really want a little girl. Almost bad enough to forget that I already have a baby, and that I've got my hands full at the moment (CP just tried to eat his daddy's glasses, and everything else left out on the night stand- I think our house needs to be more clutter-free).

The Rest of The Rest

The Rest

I was having a hard time uploading pictures of C's birthday party, so I stopped, meaning to go back and add the ones of the cake eating, but forgot.

So here are some, since I'm still having a hard time uploading pictures

Best of 2008

I got an email from Salt Lake City Weekly letting me know that my diaper store won "Best Diaper Dandies". I'm not sure if I should be honored or if it's just because I'm pretty much the only place around here that sells cloth diapers locally.

Still, it's very cool.

Best of 2008

I'm seventh down on the page.

Happy First Birthday C!

If you can't tell, it's a bumblebee sitting on a flower.


In case you think I forgot the stinger (which I did) here it is...


Opening Gits...


Help blowing out his candle...

Too much

I just read that New Kids on the Block are getting back together.

I'm speechless.

(My seventh grade locker partner (hi K!) loved them, so maybe she'll be excited!)

April Fools

J&A weren't sure what to think about the weird breakfast dad made them this morning, until they realized it was a Dr. Suess Breakfast.

You do not like them so you say, try them try them and you may, try them and you may, I say.

Updates...

Updates to our house.  We're finally getting things put on the walls, and it's feeling more and more like home.  

Updates to my Mr's already busy schedule.  My Mr. is running for the House of Representatives.  I'm so proud of him.  Anyone interested in volunteering in the campaign should email him (his contact info should be on his site- follow the link).  As a quick primer in all things political (just kidding) we watched Mr. Smith Goes to Washington a couple of nights ago.  Look out Utah State Legislature!  

Updates on the new chickens:Clock-wise from the top: Mario, Fred, Little Jerry and Mr. Gordon. (and yes, they are all hens (as far as we know)).  The bigger they get, the more I think about having to put the old chickens in the freezer.  It's not the freezer part that has me worried.  It's the what happens before they can go in the freezer.  I'm letting my Mr. take care of that part, because while I think I can handle eating them, I know I would have a hard time killing something that we named.  (and sorry to anyone we have named chickens after- killing them isn't some sort of statement about our relationship)

Updates on C.

We bought 12 of these totes to store eggs in for our city youth council's easter egg hunt. We figured we had close to 7000 eggs this year, and probably got 5-6000 back at the end. Our goal is 10,000 eggs next year.

Hey, what a fun box to be in!

I'm not so sure about the whole being-buried-in-eggs-thing... If he turns out to be deathly afraid of the easter bunny and refuses to participate in easter egg hunts, we'll know where it came from.

Well, mom and dad are smiling, maybe it's not so bad... (he was really happy when we pulled him out though)

Being a kid's a dangerous job...

...And safety's important (especially when you're watching cartoons)...

Map to NSL Easter Egg Hunt

Here's a map of where Hatch Park is, if you're interested in bringing your children to the NSL Easter Egg Dash


View Larger Map

Funny Quote of the day...

Republicans aren't for less government. They are for less effective government.

-Obi Wan Liberali

(My apologies for perpetuating stereotyping and being divisive.)

North Salt Lake Easter Egg Hunt

The North Salt Lake Youth City Council is holding this year's Easter Egg Dash, this saturday (the 22nd) at 10am at Hatch Park.

The Dash is open to all children ages 2-12.

Bring a basket and don't be late. Once the signal goes off, it's only a matter of seconds until the fields are picked clean.

Almost a year old!

I lost my camera somewhere in the move, so I haven't been talking pictures lately, but my Mr. left a camera home today.

Hard to believe C's almost a year old already.

Babies! Babies!

After a couple of days of waiting, the chicks are finally here! They are adorable, and are settling in nicely in the laundry room. The darker two are Aracauna's (the kind that lay blue or green eggs) and two are the same as our old chickens, Rhode Island Red's. In the first picture they're cold and nervous, but it didn't take long for them to warm up and start exploring their new home.