Read Mermaid, read!

Mermaid just finished The World of Dick and Jane. I've never read them before, but Mermaid LOVED them! They are super easy and about as sweet and innocent as the Mermaid herself.

Reading has been challenging to teach her because it has always been so easy for me. My earliest memories are of stories I read. It was never a struggle. So finding stories, even if they're simple and silly, that she loves is amazing. Her reading confidence improves every day. I love watching this girl becoming a reader.

Monkey: "Hey Mom. Since you don't read your scriptures, can I put them in this box?"
She meant the teabox on display.
The answer was no.

Got me a good one

Sometimes I feel like I'm just figuring out this marriage thing. Jesse brought these home on Monday just because he knew I needed them. I'm glad he's got it figured out.

Ant Eradication

Sometimes keeping house means asking the little pests to leave. Jesse wants me to do it in a green non toxic way. Well, I tried the corn meal, we have a cinnamon barrier in front of the door, and I've put dryer sheets in crevices. The vinegar is supposed to kill their trails, but I only have sushi vinegar, so they might actually like it. Don't tell Jesse, but I'm off to Target tomorrow for some toxic, horrible for the environment substance to spray around the perimeter of the apartment. They are ruthless. And the cinnamon just doesn't compete. And just so you know, it's not just a couple of ants, they are swarming. ( do ants swarm?)

Everything I need to know I learned in 1st grade

Mermaid's school gives out little tickets for good deeds. At the end of the week, someone from each grade gets their ticket pulled and receives some sort of prize.

"I saw Mrs. R give a girl a ticket for picking up trash, so I decided to pick up trash the next chance I got. So I picked up trash at recess, and I got a ticket too! And then I saw more trash, but I had already gotten my ticket, so I didn't pick it up."

And today I got a call that she had a fever and should come home. I asked her how the teacher knew she was sick and she said "I was groaning a lot and I tried to put my head down." The nurse said she shouldn't come back to school tomorrow, but she's been fit as a fiddle since she got home. But I'd probably die of embarrassment if we had a repeat groaning performance tomorrow. So she's coming to playgroup with G. Whee.

Miraculous Mozart?

The miracle of Mozart is not necessarily that your infant will be a genius. The miracle is that while it's playing in the background, children will eat breakfast, put their shoes on, brush their hair without complaining. And though it seemed impossible since they woke up at 7:30, they are out the door at 7:45 and no one is yelling or crying. And, we get the Mermaid to school before the 5 minute warning at 7:55. How?
Simple.
Mozart in the morning.
Thank you.
Grazie.
Wir Danken Sie, Herr Mozart.

Where have you gone, darling Bekah?

I have been:
-fixing my computer. Yes, an English/psychology/music major can fix her own computer without calling Adam! (It just needed to be cleaned, but I ended up rebooting OSX. Got a little carried away)Check out that fancy schmancy monitor and keyboard that J got through Craigslist. We feel so high class. We just need speakers so Miriam can listen to Faded Paper Figures, her favorite band. She's a bit of a groupie.
-catching up in my classes. After running around campus two days in a row, I am officially enrolled and have two assignments and two discussion boards to contribute to before we go to Santa Barbara tomorrow.
-ferrying kids on the extracycle.
-Missing Jesse while he was at a conference and visiting my dad and Joe, Leslie, kids, and Lance. Not fair.
-Welcoming Jesse home with a semi-immaculate home.
-Reading books one and two of Twilight. It's every teenagers dream, gorgeous boy, who has the maturity of a 100 year old man. Gee, that's every woman's dream. No offense, babe.

So that's where I've been. In bloglalaland. It's sort of like Bob Loblaw's Law blog, but not quite.