Wiggles

Today we found this little guy climbing up the leg of my chair as I sat and watched Anders play. I looked up what kind of caterpillar it was and apparently it's supposed to turn into a moth. And no we didn't eat it. I know that the spoon looks menacing.... 

I asked Anders what he wanted to name it and he thought for a little bit and then declared "wiggles!" We eventually let wiggles go so that he could find his way home.

Cause For Future Therapy Perhaps?

Anders wanted a "smoke stack" instead he got a girlie ponytail on top of his head. He didn't seem to mind and loved pretending that he was a train with a smoke stack.

Doing The Right Thing

Today while on the ride home from visiting my folks and spending some time at Disneyland, I had Dr. Laura on the car radio.  A women called in who was trying to figure out how to respond to an incident with her kindergarten age daughter.  Apparently, her daughter had pinched another child because that child was bullying another kid and no one was doing anything to intervene. So the girl took the matters into her own hands and stopped it by pinching the perpetrator.

The teacher called the mom and let her know that her daughter had been written up in the class "oops book" which I guess is a kind of accounting for bad behavior. Of course the daughter was devastated since she was usually a good kid.

I loved Dr. Laura's answer! She told the mother to march down to the school and tell the teacher that she had made it into the "oops book"!  And how would she like it if someone was bullying her and no one did anything about it! Her point was that we are teaching our kids to be afraid of doing the right thing in the moment by standing by and not intervening if evil is occurring.  We are becoming a nation that is afraid of getting in the "oops book". Wow!

 

I agree that it's important to teach our kids to stand up for what is right and good even if it is embarrassing or gets us in trouble. Because doing right and standing up for what is right makes our society great. It's what we can't lose and if we do, who will stand up for what is right? The tyrants and bully's will win and everyone else will be weak and scared! 

I have to say it perked up my day considerably to hear this one!

Sunflower Update

So far our little "sunflower farm" is growing nicely! Probably due to the 90+ weather we have had for the last week and a half. (luckily the weather has cooled off yesterday and today!) We've enjoyed checking up on it everyday and seeing the little sprouts get bigger. 

Finally Pedaling!

 

Anders has finally graduated to pedaling and I am so glad I could catch his first real effort on film. Usually he just sits on the back step of the tricycle or sits on the seat and doesn't go anywhere. Tonight he took off thanks to Chris' encouragement!

Btw, there is no sound so you don't need to adjust your volume. (another reason for a new camera!)

Little Train Fanatic

Here are a few pictures of my little train fanatic. Thanks to Papa we have a few issues of a train magazine that he gets regularly. Sorry about the blurry pictures. I am having a hard time getting a good photo with the close up setting and with little light and any sort of movement. It's annoying! Maybe someday I'll get a new camera.

And of course I had to take a picture of his tootsies. A long time ago I blogged about how cute babies toes were. Anders was a couple of months old at the time and I took a picture of his toes and compared them to little peas in a pod. I still love those toes!

We just got home from celebrating our friend Michael's birthday. What a lovely time we had! The food was catered by another good friend who specializes in empanadas. He has his own empanada shop called Johnny Pacific Epanada and his food is AMAZING! There were pulled pork empanadas, chicken and chili relleno, and beef... so good. Of course there was good wine and beer and sparkly water a'plenty. mmm. 

Although the food was great the fellowship was even better and everyone had fun catching up and chatting until late.

Before the party got started Mikes wife Denise and I put our little guys to bed. Luckily they had a pack and play crib for Anders to sleep in and he doesn't mind sleeping in those too much. Later in the evening I went up to check on him and he was wide awake but happy.  It turned out that he had climbed in and out of the crib and had been wandering around the room.... luckily he didn't get into to much trouble but that was the signal that we needed to start making moves toward leaving. 

So we just pulled in about a half an hour ago and Anders is tucked in and quiet.  Chris and I have decided that when we do go out to eat again (sometime in the future) we'll be going to our friend Johns for some more yummy empanadas!

Shorts, Pokichokes and mothballs

Tonight while I was putting Anders down, I was discussing whether or not he might get cold, with Chris. Anders was wearing little pj shorts and a long sleeve shirt and socks. After Chris and I were done talking Anders pointed to his legs and said "more shorts!" Because more shorts would keep his legs warmer...

A couple of nights ago I was cooking up some scrumptious artichokes that my mom had gifted to me. I told Anders what I was making. He melted onto the floor and cried "No pokichokes! No pokichokes!!!" I guess that I wouldn't want to eat something called "pokichokes" either! (He ended up loving them).

On another note, the smell in our apartment didn't go away with the changing of the air filter. We realized that it was our neighbors on the other side of our kitchen. We now have a constant smell of moth balls and curry that gets worse around meal times. 

Today I had someone from the apartment come out to see how bad it was. They say we don't share an air vent so the neighbors apartment must REAK.

Part of me feels bad for being so annoyed with the smell and for complaining. In most places in the world it's completely normal to smell your neighbors curry and moth balls. We are just so isolated and sterile here. I just want to smell my own candles or dirty dishes. Not someone else's idea of "homey".

Easter Festivities

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter! We spent the afternoon at my Aunt and Uncles house and had the customary egg hunt. Anders was thrilled to find all of the loot and has been playing all day with the toys we hid for him. The only toy I regret was the recorder. That thing is loud and persistent and it's  a favorite!

The pictures I'm posting are really small but it's a little sample of some of the people we got to spend quality time with. Thanks to Aunt G. whose blog I grabbed these off of!

On another note I stumbled across an Avon foundation that is completely amazing! In my last order I selected some samples and this one came in that bunch.  It's called Magix Face Perfector and it's a compact that goes on like a cream but has a powder finish. I diminishes pore size and fine lines and looks so fabulous! 

You can find it in the campaign 9 brochure on my web site. http://youravon.com/gretchenjensen

Happy Easter!!

Today is the day to remember sacrifice. One sacrifice in particular. I was always curious about the term "good Friday" because it never seemed "good". I would go to church and listen to the solemn hymns and the see the candles burning. Everyone was quiet and there was no lively chatter before or after the service.  So unlike Easter. 

But the sacrifice that was made was so good. It was the last sacrifice needed to bring us into relationship with the Creator.  To end the cycle of sin and distance. God becoming man to die for man to pay the price that we should have paid so that He could have a relationship with us.

It is so good. And I am thankful.

Spring Planting

Today we planted sunflower seeds that Grandma J. sent us. It was messy but fun and Anders got pretty involved especially when he told me that the mud was mac n' cheese.... So I pretended to feed him some! Ewww.

Hopefully these will do better than the herbs we tried planting a couple of months ago. I guess that even if they don't come up it will have been a fun project. 

Happy 30th Birthday Erin!!

Erin is has always had so much business savvy and poise. I remember when she was about 3 or 4 and while playing "office" she put a note up on the door of the shed where we played. It was very business like and official and my sister Heidi and I were very surprised at this natural bent Erin had. 

She was also my little accomplice and I remember trying to build an airplane so that we could fly to Japan! She was right along side me brainstorming ways to get the thing up in the air. We were both a little nervous about flying over the ocean at night but figured we'd be o.k. once we got there!

So, happy birthday dear sister. You are an inspiration to me and I look forward to seeing the amazing things life has for you in the next 30 years!

The Fun Life

Hello! There's not too much to report except that life is moving along at a lovely pace right now. We're looking forward to Easter this year and everyday I've been hiding little plastic Easter eggs with small treats inside for Anders to find. You'd think that it was manna from heaven! 

I love this stage. Anders is becoming such a little person and is adding so much to our lives. It's fun to have him sitting at the table with us and adding to the conversation in  his own goofy ways. Mostly it's by giggling uncontrollably or saying nonsense words loudly. 

Tonight while "reading" him his train magazine (compliments of Poppa), he leaned over to kiss me.. how sweet! Although it turned into a full on attack where I couldn't stop laughing while he was grabbing my face and trying to blow (spit) on me! So much fun!

Lucky One

We had a lovely night going out to a local little bbq place called Chewy's tonight. It's such a funky place with airbrush graffiti all over the walls. It's totally loud and has 4 big video arcade games and two of those stuffed animal grabbers. I love this place because Chris and I can enjoy our meal and Anders runs off to "play" the arcade games. 

It's fairly small and we can usually see where Anders is at all times. Near the end of our drawn out meal, Anders came running up with a cheap little stuffed bear with the tags still attached. I started asking him where he got it and a mom on the other side of the restaurant near the stuffed animal machine, called out that he had won it! Somehow he had been able to play the grabber game and had won himself a toy!  We still have no idea how he got the machine to work with no money and actually win.

We figure that he had some luck on his side tonight.

Counting

Yesterday Anders counted on his own! We were reading a tedious train book all about train whistles and what they mean. (this is my least favorite book to read and his absolute favorite). The last page has a picture of a line of train cars.  He pointed to each on and quietly counted  one, two, free, five, six, seven, eight...

I was thrilled.

Does It Work?

As I am studying up on all of the latest Avon products this one keeps coming up with amazing reviews and lots of hype. Last night while watching American Idol (yes I watch American Idol)... I saw the commercial advertising this product.

One of the reasons I'm now selling Avon is that they are know for having some of the best anti-aging creams on the market. My mom was part of a blind study maybe 10 years ago where she had to try out a face cream for a month or so and report on the results. She was so impressed at the way her face looked and felt, she had to find out what it was! It turned out to be the Anew cream and ever since then she has been investing in it. 

 

So, when I put in my order next Thursday I am ordering a hand full of samples of this new Anew cream which is supposed to work wonders on major expression lines and wrinkles.  I'll be using it on my neck and upper chest which looks much older than it should due to too much sun and a regular habit of sleeping on my side. I have permanent lines that I'm hoping will be less obvious after a couple of weeks.  I'll report back and let you know how it works.