Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Song of the Week

"Gravity" by Sara Bareilles

I like this song for the simple fact that it's not "Love Song". I don't know how many times I've heard that song, and it's a good song, but she's got other great songs too. I like this one alot and the feel of it. I'd have to say that my favorite part is when she sings the word "down", yet her pitch and the music are ascending. It's nice to have some irony in music every once in awhile instead of having everything thrown at you in such a straight forward manner all of the time. Enjoy!

Playing Catch-Up

I'm sorry that I haven't been able to post much lately; I've been so busy with work and the kids (I'm sure that no one else can relate to that!) Here are some pics of what's been going on lately in the Sabin home.




Margaret wants to do everything just like her big brother, including standing on the stool and brushing her teeth at the sink. Steven stayed close for moral support and, as you can see, she loved every minute of it.


Steven found this face mask in one of our 72-hour kits and proceeded to growl like a monster for the next half-hour.

That is, after he realized that it was a face mask and not a hat!

Steven has found his new favorite spot for sleeping. Can you guess where it is?

I'm ashamed to admit it, but our son now sleeps on his closet floor. I know what you're thinking, "You're such a bad parent", but believe me when I say that Steven did this of his own free will and choice! Kids are so crazy... especially mine!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Song of the Week

"Life's Not a Race" by 311

I was introduced to 311 in college by some of the guys in drumline with me. They were all obsessed over Chad Sexton, the drummer. I must admit, he is pretty awesome. His rolls, flams, cheeses and diddles are some of the best that I've heard; all very tight (those are all percussion terms, for those who don't know). Alot of their music is simply unlistenable due to too much profanity, but every once in awhile there comes along a jewel that I can actually listen to (or others that aren't too bad). I think I've admitted this before, but 311 is a guilty pleasure of mine. As soon as I heard them for the first time, I really fell in love with their raggae/rap/rock style. At the time, it was very original and I love to listen to it.

Horton Hears a Who

John and I took the kids to see this movie at the dollar theater today and we loved it! So many wonderful messages in it and very clean. I give it 4 1/2 stars and recommend it to everyone who likes good, clean family films.
(You'll need to scroll down to the bottom and stop the music before viewing.)


Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Attempt Number Two

Here are the results for my second hairstyle attempt on Margaret. This one is called the "Dual Puffy Braid". It was pretty easy and now its John's favorite.



What it's supposed to look like


What mine looks like from the top


And from the side

I can't figure out how to get my parts as neatly sectioned as hers, but maybe someone has some tips for that? So far, I'm still enojoying this but Margaret starts running away when she sees me break out the come and detangler spray. As a result, I usually end up leaving a style in for a few days before I was her hair and give her another one. They actually last that long!!!

A Day in the Life of a Superhero

Steven came across his Buzz Lightyear costume from Halloween and insisted on wearing it all day long. I had to take pics, of course, but I wish that I would have remembered to grab the video camera. He kept running through the house shouting "To infinity and beyond!"; it was great!


"Good morning, Supermom!"

What's a superhero without his pacies?

"Not now, supermom; I'm trying to watch Superwhy!"

Breaktime!

At the end of a hard-days work.

Song of the Week

"Dreams" by The Cranberries


I've loved this song ever since it came out. When I was alot younger, it was one of those songs that sounded great and I loved to sing to it (the harmonies are awesome!), but I never knew what the words were! Come to find out, it's just another love song. But that's okay because I still like to sing to it and it brings back lots of memories from high school. The band just released a new CD titled "Gold" in March of this year which contains all of their singles and big hits; looks pretty good. Enjoy!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Random Pics

I feel like I have so much to blog about since I've been gone for nearly two weeks! Here are just some random pics of the kids:






This stroller was given to us for Margaret when she was just a baby. Steven happened upon it a few days later and immediately took it over (he's obviously very secure with his manhood.) Yesterday was the first day that there was an issue over who the stroller acually belonged to. Steven says it's his because he's been playing with it for over a year, but now Margaret is actually old enough to play with it, too. I think we're going to have to break down and get another one (blue or something) for him and let her have the very girly one for herself.

Steven was very jealous when I was taking pictures of Margaret's hair yesterday and insisted that I take pictures of everyone else's hair too!

Lessons Learned

Here are 10 things that I've learned as a result of our move from an apartment into a house:

10. Just because its free doesn't mean its good
9. Don't get a bigger moving truck than you can use or lots of stuff gets broken
8. Never own a glass dining table... (sorry, Dan I had to add it! But I really did hate the table anyway! I promise!)
7. The Elder's Quorom and Family are priceless and deserve much thanks.
6. Never try to move (including all packing, phone calls, etc) in 3 days...
5. Almost doubling your square footage, gaining 3 extra (and free) parking spaces, and having a yard are sooooooooo worth the trouble of moving!
4. Just because the doors of the bedrooms are "split" doesn't mean you aren't still right next to your kids' rooms.
3. Make sure that you move into a clean house so that you don't spend an entire day cleaning your apartment in order to get your deposit back (thanks again, Kanzlers!) and then have to turn around and clean your entire house before you can put things away. (If I see another pair of yellow cleaning gloves I think I'll throw myself out the window... wait, we're on the first floor now...)
2. I'm so glad to have such a wonderful husband who was willing to take on so much of the planning/grunt work of the actual move. I love you, John! Thank you for working so hard!
1. It feels really good knowing that you are doing what the Lord has in mind for you and your family. Even if things don't always look good on paper, if you follow the promptings of the spirit, you will be blessed.

Great Commercial

I got this from Julie Rose's blog and thought it was great! The world IS awesome!

Not Bad for a First Attempt

A few weeks ago I was having a conversation with a friend of mine, Julie Young, about how inept I am when it comes to fixing Margaret's hair. Ponytails and pigtails I've got down, but anything more complex than that and I'm completely lost.






She referred me to these two wonderful blogs that are full of little girl hair tips: Girly Do's and She Does Hair. I've had so much fun just looking at all of the beautiful things these moms have done with their daughter's hair. Most of them look way too hard for me (and Margaret), but I did decide to give one of the easier ones a try today. It's called the "short hair part puffy braid" (a mouthful, I know!) I think it turned out pretty well! Here is the example pic of the finished product and a pic of my finished product on Margaret:







I'm so excited that I can't wait to try something new tomorrow! Who knew that you could have so much fun with hair!?!?!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Song of the Week

"The Lovecats" by The Cure

I'm almost embarrased to say this, but The Cure is a relatively new band for me. Sure, I always knew their big radio hits like "Friday I'm in Love", "Just Like Heaven" and "Close to Me", but I never really got into all of their other stuff until my oldest sister and I started swapping CDs to add to our iTunes. I borrowed this CD among many others and loved alot of the songs. Who knows, maybe this song was a big radio hit and I just don't remember, but all I know is that I LOVE this song. To say nothing for the AWESOME walking bass intro (yes, I'm partial to the bass), I love the words and I love the way Robert Smith delivers them. Most of all, though, I love all of his sound effects and growls throughout the song. I think it takes a very secure person to sing the way Smith does, not just in this song but in all of his songs. Overall, the song is very happy and peppy and you can't deny that toe-tapping, hip-swaying feeling that comes over you when you listen. Enjoy!



Tuesday, June 3, 2008

I'm Baaa-aaack

We finally got our internet connection back up tonight at 6:00pm and it feels great to be connected with the world again! For those of us who are just a little phone shy, the internet and e-mail really are our only link with the outside world.


We've been in our new house for almost two weeks now and I must say that we love it here! Aside from all of the space (our entire family of four can be in the kitchen at the same time now without stepping on each other... or at least we could if we didn't have two refrigerators!), it is so wonderful to just step outside and be in your backyard to play. No more multiple trips hauling toys and tots up and down stairs to play outside in dog-poop infested apartment grass... we have our own dog-poop-free grass right outside our door!!!! :) We had a picnic on the patio last Friday for lunch and it was so fun; something we've never been able to do before. Sure, we had a patio at our apartment, but I never let the kids play out there because I was so paranoid about one of them figuring out how to climb through or over the rails and falling two floors to the ground. (Or at the very least, that toys would fall two floors to the ground and yours truly would be playing fetch all afternoon!) Margaret's sleeping habits have improved now that they have their own rooms; no more in and out with putting Steven down and him getting up in the middle of the night. Steven's sleeping habits have taken a nose-dive, however, unless you count sleeping with us every night at the ripe old age of 3 as healthy! I had taken off work for the end of May to move and get settled and just started back on Monday... that was painful (in more ways than one!)


We're really breaking in the new place with lots of sickness and health issues. Steven had a 24-hour virus on Memorial Day and spent the entire day laying in bed or on the couch with really shallow breathing and a high temp. The worst part was that our air wasn't working properly so it was burning up in our house. Fortunately, he woke up Tuesday morning just as chatty as ever and ready to play, so I didn't end up taking him in. Meanwhile, I suffered from three gallstone attacks last week, the most I've ever had in such a short period of time. The first one was during my first Relief Society in the new ward, so I completely missed out on that. It was sharp and very painful and I was on the floor in the bathroom for 45 minutes. The next one was on Tuesday and it lasted about 5 hours. It was a dull, constant pain with moments of sharp pain mixed in. Finally, when the kids started waking up from their naps and I knew that I couldn't take care of them, I called my mom and asked her if she would come over and take care of the kids while I coped. She was such a lifesaver. Thanks, mom! I couldn't have made it through the day without you! My most recent attack was on Saturday, during John's piano recital. I stayed home, fortunately, because I had felt it coming on for several hours and when it finally hit hard, I had to call mom again. Sorry you didn't get to see Andy play in the recital, mom, but thanks again! I love you!


As many of you know, John is self-employed so we don't get group insurance. I can get private insurance, but they won't cover anything to do with my gallbladder or digestive system while I have this problem... ever. So we've been saving up to pay for the surgery ourselves. Going off of the bill that my friend, Bethanne showed me from her surgery a year ago we were expecting to pay several thousands of dollars for treatment. I finally met with a specialist on Thursday just to make sure that surgery was necessary (and because I'd been having so many recent attacks) and we were pleasantly surprised to find that everything would cost a lot less than we had budgeted. So we're planning on surgery around the end of the summer and praying and fasting that I won't have too many attacks until then.


My most recent problem has been very irritating and depressing: poison ivy. I was out pulling weeds in our front garden patch and came across a huge bush of it. Fortunately for me, I had gloves on, but I still managed to touch it somehow. As some of you may remember, I have ALWAYS been highly allergic to the stuff to the point that doctor's were concerned about it getting into my bloodstream once because I had it so bad. Here's what it looks like today after two doses of steroid cream:



The darn stuff is on my right arm right below my wrist, which is highly inconvenient. It's very hard to pick up Margaret and do anything with her because I don't want her to touch it. I hate cooking or doing laundry or anything because I feel like I'm going to contaminate the whole house, even though I know it's not contagious right now (if I take the proper precautions.) Anyway, I hate poison ivy and I'm so depressed right now; I feel like a leper. Does anyone know of a river that I can go and bathe in to take this away? :)