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Ditch the workout, join the party

My zumba instructor is so amazing the news is going to come to her class. So many people come to her class she has to teach in the gym now instead of the dance room to fit everyone. It's crazy. I am debating if I should go to class that day. It would be fun to see the excitement, but do I really want to risk being on TV while dancing like a fool? If I do go, should I buy some cute, new work out clothes? Also, if I go, and you see me on TV, keep this in mind: If I look ridiculous it's because that's one of the new songs I haven't gotten down yet. If I look awesome it's because that is the one song I bought on itunes and practice at home. And if they have the camera on me while saying "zumba is for all shapes and sizes" I am never going again.

New Soap Dispenser

A new soap dispenser isn't super exciting, but it is exciting to get to make your own. My friend Robynn invited me to go to Color-Me-Mine a few weeks ago to have some fun creative time. I knew Calvin would insist on painting too so I turned his clothes clothes inside out and let him paint away. I figured with Calvin it was better to keep it simple so we stuck to one solid color. Then Robynn watched Calvin so I could add some decorative swirly leaves at the end. If it didn't cost so much I think I would go there everyday. Then I would have a lot of soap dispensers.

Confession

Brandon, Heather and I played a fun game of Settlers tonight. (Brandon won)
It made me think back to when I was little and how easy it was for me to win playing Monopoly against one of my younger sisters. I would magically roll a 13 to land on "Free Parking" that was stacked with money for me and I rarely landed on her property. She was too young to count the dice quick enough and I guess I was too young to have a conscience? Sorry about that, Michelle. I promise next time we play monopoly I'll give you some free money... or at least be a kind trader. (which is saying a lot considering my usual competitive and borderline vicious trading style)

Patience

Patience is a hard thing for a lot of people. It's so hard for Calvin he can't even wait for me to cook an eggo waffle any more. Lately he gets so mad if I try to cook them and insists on eating them frozen:
(and he even ate the whole thing)

Names

Lately Calvin has started shortening Mama, Dada to MaDa or DaMa. I guess he figures this is a quicker way to talk to both of us? He also calls me Becca. I kept trying to figure out if he was referring to something else but he keeps pointing to me and insisting that I'm "Becca!"

I haven't had anything to blog about because I've been so focused on buying a house. Not that it takes up my time, besides looking at carpet and paint samples, but my mind is consumed with images of our potential new home. So hopefully things go well with all the paperwork and the inspection and we will be homeowners sometime in March. Calvin is practicing for the house by doing a lot of extra loud yelling that will no longer disturb neighbors when we don't share walls with them.

More Snow

We had a nice pile of snow this morning and since our snowman had some awesome hair going on, we decided snowoman would be the best way to go on this one:

Abstract

The other day we went to the BDAC to see the Illustrators in Utah show. (my Christmas painting is in the show) It was family art night so along with having snacks they also had painting stuff for the kids. Here are Calvin's creations. He made them completely on his own, the only way I helped him was 1. helping him know when to stop by telling him he was done and 2. keeping him from eating the paint.

He told me the first one is of a chubby blond lady dancing with her head turned to the side:This one is also a dancer, looking from the back:

Six remotes

A. digital converter box & channel changing
B. "universal remote" used for the dvd player (remember the problems with this one?)
C. TV remote
D. heater remote used to give to Calvin so he doesn't use a remote that actually does something
E. not sure, but we've had it forever, I think it's suppose to work for the stereo?
F. volume for movies since the sound goes through the stereo

Yes, it took me 3 weeks after we got the new TV to figure out how to watch it and an extra week to be able to watch a movie as well.

go jazz go

Brandon got us tickets from work to go to a Jazz game. Usually I am mildly interested in going, if at all. But check out these seats- yeah, there's actually people sitting above us! Way better. We had a good time. However, a disappointing part of the night was when I discovered that I am older than everyone on the Jazz team except Okur. Oh well, I wasn't planning on trying out for the team anyway.

Missing the internet

We didn't have the internet for a little awhile and there are a lot of things I don't like about not having the internet, but I've decided the worst part is having to use the phone book.

Painting Demonstration

If anyone is curious to see an example of my painting process you can check it out here.

TV again

Am I mean if I took the new TV back? What if this is the replacement?:Brandon's brother upgraded. Probably the nicest hand-me-down I've seen in my life. Although, it is competing with the awesome Christmas tree that was handed down to us from some friends this year too. Remember our old little tree? We have a few oversized ornaments that fit so much better on this tree. They are from Brandon's childhood, so we always had to put them on. One is a 7" canoe, which I'm very skeptical that it's an ornament at all, but Brandon claims it is.

pointy elbows

Everyone has quirky things about them. I have discovered that Brandon has elbows with special powers. Special pointy powers. He used to have several long sleeve dress shirts for work, maybe 7 or 8. Now he has one. What happens to them all? The elbows all have holes in them. We've cut off the sleeves and hemmed them, and now he has a closet full of short sleeve shirts. If you ever see him at work don't be surprised if he still has his coat on. Maybe I should get him one of these jackets for Christmas:

Gingerbread Houses

Calvin and I were invited over to Brooke's for a fun morning of gingerbread decorating. Here are some samples of our creations.

new & exciting

I went to a Zumba class at the gym for the first time yesterday because everyone kept saying how great it is. And it's true! It was a combination of latin and hip hop dance turned into an aerobics class. But it really was more dance than aerobics. I LOVED it. Even if it didn't burn calories, I think I would go anyways, that's how fun it is. I loved the variety of people in the class too, the young, skinny, gym obsessed people, and old people, and larger people, everyone fits in.
The other new thing I tried is a paypal account. I feel so excited that any stranger in the world can so easily send me money. I just need to give them a reason to now...

(I would add a link here for you to send me money so I could really see how fun this is, but I don't know how to do that)

Parenting

Calvin has a serious problem with throwing his food. Nearly every meal and all kinds of food. Sometimes I think it's to tell us he's done eating, sometimes because he doesn't like a food, sometimes it's just for attention. We've tried a variety of methods to get him to stop, it's been going on for a loooong time. We've been doing more time outs lately. He's so funny about it, he doesn't care at all, he just stands in the corner until I tell him he is done. I'm pretty sure when I say "time out" I might as well be saying "let's play a game where you stand in the corner".

First real snow

This was Calvin's first real snow because last year he never played in it. This year he was fully equipped and ready to go. I think he was a little frustrated initially with the marshmallow look and how difficult that made it to walk around. He seemed to get used to it and when his neighbor friend invited him to come out again later, he was lovin' it.

Santa time

We meant to get pictures taken with Calvin & Santa last year, but it never happened. We had our ward Christmas party on Friday and I guess they had a hard time finding a Santa, not only was he an hour late, but he didn't pull it off really well. Even the two year old sitting next to me said, "that's not Santa!" We tried to have Calvin sit on his lap, but he was scared. Brandon insisted on a picture though, so here it is. The introduction:
The release:You can see he is trying hard to escape. Besides this one moment of the party, Calvin had a really good time. All the kids were running around the gym and eating lots of cookies. He loved it. He thought it was really funny to go over to the exit doors and smile at us while we motioned at him to come back. Then of course he would laugh and run out so we would chase him.
One time when I was following him around the hallways, I let him get too far ahead of me and he ran into the men's bathroom because someone had propped the door open. I stood there panicking, knowing any moment he was going to throw himself into the toilet. Since the door was wide open I could see that no one seemed to be in either of the stalls Calvin was running in and out of. I had been standing there for awhile trying to quickly figure out if I dared to run into the men's room or not. As he headed for a toilet, I went for it. As I spun around I realized the men's room was set up differently than the women's and besides the two stalls they also had urinals to the side of the door that I couldn't see before. Fortunately they were also empty because that could have turned into my most embarrassing moment ever.

Aspirations

Brandon is always telling me how he wants to be Jason Bourne or Jack Bauer or other guys with impressive skills. We have both been reading C.S. Lewis books lately and were discussing once again how amazed we are with his intelligence and grasp of spiritual concepts. So then Brandon said he would like to have the brain of C.S. Lewis with the skills of Jason Bourne. Quite the combo.