Pajamas and Autism

Happy Pajama Day!

Has there ever been a more FABULOUS idea than to let EVERYONE at school wear their pajamas for a day?! I think not. Please not the boy behind Maren and I (who look ridiculously large in this picture...we're not really that plump...angle of the camera?...*puts down the cookie) in his snuggie. Snuggies are the best thing since sliced bread. That is not even an exaggeration.

One of the best parts of this day was the fact that 45 principals from around the state of Utah came to our school to all watch us teach a math lesson (apparently the way we teach math is revolutionary...that was not sarcastic. It's pretty kick butt awesome). So I had three principals in my class watching and yes, we're all in pajamas. It was grand.

What else is grand? A FOUR day weekend!! No school Monday and Jon and Sarah's wedding on Tuesday. At first I thought the fact they picked a Tuesday to get married was really inconvenient...but now I'm loving the idea.

Sooo I'm one of those people who thinks its not a smart idea to have kids very close together. Not only because medically it takes a complete year for your body to recoop from pregnancy/labor, but I want one out of diapers before another one is in diapers. Too many diapers= no bueno. My ideal spacing is 3 years I think. All of my siblings and myself are all 4 years apart, and that's worked out great. I know people though who are really close in age and although their teen years were a living hell with one another, now they're really close. To each his own. Anyway, here's something I came across that is pretty interesting...

Children born less than two years after their siblings were considerably more likely to have an autism diagnosis compared to those born after at least three years.

Later in the article it explains that the mother doesn't have enough time to recoop and rebuild vitamin and calcium supplies. Autism is pretty scary in the same way cancer is scary...people don't know THAT much about it yet. And there isn't a "cure". Anyway, the article I read this is here, and the "scholarly" article is the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. So I guess I can add that reason to my list. So all you crazy ladies poppin' out babies like it's going out of style...slow the heck down!

Jon + Sarah = Jonrah.

(Genre). James and I for some reason started combining names of the married people we knew to just refer to them as one person. To save time I guess??? Not that we're really people that are so busy we have to jam words together in conversation, but sometimes it's just easier. The only ones that have really stuck (that we actually use) is Rymber (Ryan + Kimber) or Rymberilly (Ryan+Kimber+ Milly)..but now they have Eliza too sooo....I'm not sure what to do about that. I guess they've progressed to "The Shannons." And Jonrah (pronounced Genre).

Yeah...we're that hokey. ANYway.

We went to a little pre-wedding dinner/couples shower/party thing for them on Friday. Completing the Jon's tux completely out of tissue paper I'd say was the crowning jewel of the evening.

Don't let the pilgrim hat and umbrella looking pimp cane throw you off...it was the best we could do.

James did all the between the leg taping...he knew Jon the best...

WHOA my hair is getting long.

Good ole' Florida

This is ridiculously accurate. Love it.

You know you're a Floridian if....


* You never use an umbrella because the rain will be over in five minutes.
* You think a six-foot alligator is actually pretty average

* Every other house in your neighborhood had blue roofs in 2004-2005

* “Down South” means Key West

* You know that anything under a Category 3 just isn't worth waking up for.

* You know the four seasons really are: Hurricane season, love bug season, tourist season and summer.

* Your winter coat is made of denim.

* You can tell the difference between fire ant bites and mosquito bites.

* Anything under 70 degrees is chilly.

* You've driven through Yeehaw Junction.

* You know that no other grocery store can compare to Publix.

* You recognize Miami-Dade as ' Northern Cuba ' (we always called it little Havana)

* You dread love bug season. (didn't know until moving to Utah that people DON'T know what love bugs are...)

* You've worn shorts and used the A/C on Christmas and New Years.

* You are on a first name basis with the Hurricane list. They aren't Hurricane Charley or Hurricane Frances. You know them as Andrew, Charley , Frances , Ivan, Jeanne & Wilma...Irene...Cheryl...Rita Mary... Alison

* You know what a snowbird is and when they'll leave.

* Flip-flops are everyday wear. Shoes are for business meetings and church, but you HAVE worn flip flops to church before.

* You have a drawer full of bathing suits, and one sweatshirt.

* You get annoyed at the tourists who feed seagulls.

* A mountain is any hill 100 feet above sea level.

* You've hosted a hurricane party.

* You can pronounce Okeechobee, Kissimmee , Withlacoochee , Thonotosassa and Micanopy.

* You understand why it's better to have a friend with a boat, than have a boat yourself.

* You were 25 when you first met someone who couldn't swim.

* A good parking place has nothing to do with distance from the store, but everything to do with shade.

Two words: lime sherbet.

First of all...am I the only person who pronounces it "sherbeRt?" I actually thought it was spelled with an R until one of my first roommates at BYU so kindly pointed out how incorrect I was. ...I still say sherbert. Old habits die hard. And what the heck is the difference between sherbet and sorbet??? I once heard one is dairy based and one isn't....who really knows...or cares, because lime sherbet is ROCKING MY WORLD right now. At the beginning of the whole pregnancy thing, I wanted french fries with bbq sauce. Now it's all about the sherbet (and popsicles, but sherbet is like my own personal crack). Those are really the only things I've craved consistently...with a LOT more aversions to things. Sad day. It's REALLY sad when things like chocolate sound so repulsive that I'm not even slightly upset that I can't eat it. Will I ever feel normal again?! Blegh. But yes, I am going to go get some as soon as I'm done with this.

Mmmmmm...delish.

Moving on. So I'm watching Toddlers and Tiaras right now (daytime TV sucks. It's a miracle I can find entertainment.) But you know those things that pre-parents say they will never do to their kids- like spank them- and all the parents just laugh because they know that will last all of maybe a year? Toddlers and Tiaras is NOT one of those things. I can honestly say that my kids will never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever be in pageant for kids. I think they're horribly cheesy filled with parents trying to live vicariously through their 2 year-olds that get royally pissed when their kid can't smile and shake their hips on command. HELLO. THEY'RE TWO. Aye aye aye. Am I going to keep watching it? Yes. Haha.

Murry Chrimus and all that jazz

CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So. It is a little strange to wake up Christmas morning and it's just the two of you, and you're like "hey...HEY (thinking...gosh your breath stinks..) let's go upstairs. It's Christmas!" And you hear, "mmmghebagjahgjjn." It's like you have to work harder at being excited to wake up early to open presents when there are no small children involved. Haha, but it was still awesome. Our THIRD Christmas together! Crazy!

Ohhhh oh oh oh, back up. Christmas EVE. Definitely my favorite part of Christmas this year. So we didn't really have any plans (probably just would've stayed home, watched a movie, ate cookies or something), but Kimber's family (Ryan's inlaws) invited us over to there house for dinner so we headed up there. Kimber's Dad was actually hospitalized 5 years ago over Christmas for a pretty serious respiratory (I think?) disease. So they decided to take some goodies/gifts to the hospital and go caroling to the different rooms. It was the coolest thing ever. The patients were so sweet and were so glad that we came- a few of them got teary eyed because they said this was the highlight of their Christmas. One particularly hilarious old guy (who told us all about his UTI) even sang to us! He was the best. I want to be like that when I'm old....hilarious and not embarrassed by anything. It really made me remember the true meaning of Christmas and how important it is to give, especially this time of year.

Milly had to make sure she brought her purse.

So then back at the Craig's house we had dinner and had a white elephant gift exchange (where Milly just wanted to open or pass out everyone's presents, so we let her, because she's adorable).

Schweeeet!

Okay back to Christmas morning. We put on some Christmas tunes and opened our loot...

(do excuse the nasty "I just woke up" look). And I'm definitely sporting my

new snuggie (best thing EVER!)

James excited face and constipated face look strangely similar.... ;-)

Then we had an awesome (southern) Christmas breakfast of biscuits and gravy, hash browns, eggs, and fruit...

Then the rest of the day turned into the movie Four Christmases. We went to Ry's house to see the girls and their presents. Then to James' dad's house for presents there, then to his grandparent's house for dinner and presents there. All in all it was fun, but exhausting.

Oh, and here's a few things that I got from his family....

BECAUSE....

The Houlin family is officially +1!

And THAT is probably the best Christmas present of all. I'll be 11 weeks on Tuesday. How have I been feeling? Like horse crap, thanks. Your body does REALLY WEIRD things when you're prego. It's SLOWLY been getting better (the nausea and what not). Weeks 6-8 were the worst...the whole pregnancy thing is NOT for the wimpy. Yesterday was by far the worst though. I could hardly move and barfed 4 times...I'm sure you wanted to know that..right? It's just AMAZING that something so SMALL can make you feel so crappy. I sure hope this kid is cute...Stay tuned.. July 20, 2011 is D-day.

Nut crackin'

Okay now I'm starting to feel all "Christmasy." James and I went to see The Nutcracker ballet in Salt Lake last night-- sooo good! I forgot how much I loved it! James fell asleep during the first act until I elbowed him in the side..soo...he loved it too. :-)

Everybody needs a giant nutcracker in their life..right?

Okay Christmas...bring it on. *Cue Christmas music.

Monotony

December. Already? (Do you like how I say 'already' and it's December 11th?...It's been one of those kind of months. Sort of like last month. Seeing a pattern? I think I actually forgot I had a blog there for a while. And a social life, because I haven't done ANYTHING to even blog about recently. Meh.) The Christmas tree did finally get put up, thanks to an hour long episode of The Office and the fact that I was sick of having a naked tree in the living room. Not much looks good naked in the living room. ....Oh except the star, for some reason the star is still on the floor. That might have to wait until next Thursday when some other TV show is on and I can muster up the energy to put it up there.

6 1/2 days of school left until Christmas break! That's fabulous. In my opinion, it should be 5...because next Monday and Tuesday will we be doing anything remotely academic? Doubtful. I think I would actually go to school two days longer at the end of the year than the two days before Christmas break. Mmmmm yup. No questions about it, definitely would rather do that.

Also unrelated, (I'm feeling pretty ADD right now) I'm really in the mood to travel somewhere warm and tropical. Not necessarily for Christmas, but sometime soon. Maybe Disneyland? I dunno. Won't compare to the real one (Disney World, duh) but at least it'll be warm. I really just want to get in a pool. Outside. An outside pool. Now that I think of it, 2 years seems like a good time to take a second honeymoon. People do those right? I'm thinking it's a good idea before any kids come our way and we can feel less guilty picking up and taking off and spending money on really good food instead of diapers. Speaking of diapers, I was talking to the girl who does my hair the other day and her husband's mom used cloth diapers for ALL 8 of her kids. Cloth diapers. Those things didn't have elastic sides....have you ever thought of the logistics there?? *shudders. "Blow-out" had a whole other meaning back then.

Aaaaanyway. Just felt the need to speak on completely random and pointless subjects to prove I'm still alive. Hopefully they'll be more interesting/exciting things to write about soon. :-)

Oh and GUESS WHAT!!! They changed the McDonald's billboard! Clearly I wasn't the only one annoyed.

Fastest Thanksgiving break EVER

Whoa. Where did those two weeks go? I'm trying really hard not to let this be a repeat of my journaling experience in high school..."Oh, wow! 6 months went by, here's what happened: insert latest boy drama." "Holy cow! I can't believe it's been a whole year! Not much happened."

Haha. Like I said, I'm trying. The past two weeks have just been INSANE and this was like the absolute LAST thing on my mind. The first week of the previously mentioned two weeks was allllll about SEP's (parent teacher conferences...so why is the acronym SEP? I think it's student educational plan...maybe...) so getting ready for those takes a LOT of work. Making sure you have everyone's student work file organized and updated, grades, standards reports, etc. Oh and running through possible conversation scenarios with the "problem" children- maybe only I do that- but it helps. So those lasted from 1:30-8:00 on Thursday and Friday night (30 min. with each kid). Talk about exhausting.

Then my family came in on Saturday morning, so cue the next week of nearly no sleep. We had a good time though. Thanksgiving was at my house! Woo for having enough space to do that!! We had my family, James' mom and grandparents and his brother Andrew, and Shanti. It was good times. Especially when James' grandparents found out Shanti is a wicked good singer and made her sing a church hymn to everyone. Loved that. Thank you. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling so hot, so I managed to eat a roll, two bites of turkey, a few vegetables and some potato casserole. Not how I pictured the day going in my head. At least my Ghirardelli white chocolate raspberry cheesecake was a success! (A delicious success at that).

I didn't realize that I didn't take ANY pictures until the night they were leaving and we went up to Salt Lake to see the Christmas lights around Temple Square (I'm out of whack lately...no blogging...no pictures...what is this?!). Soo those were jipped from Michaela's facebook.

No estas sonando?!

They put one of these up on State Street in Orem recently. WHAT THE HECK. Has anyone else seen these McDonald's billboards around? EN ESPANOL?! For some reason, that pisses me off. I mean, it's not like it's Taco Bell and EVERYBODY knows what "yo quiero taco bell" means (not to mention, a cute little chihuahua says it and they're like TACOS), but this is McDonalds for one, and two, nobody who is only functional (or doesn't know it at all) in Spanish knows what sonando means. So, I know, McDonald's clearly isn't trying to come up with a new catch phrase or slogan, they're targeting Spanish speakers. Spanish speakers only. Why does that erk me so? Well, first of all. I don't care what language you speak, you can recognize those golden arches next to a picture of a big mac. Who cares what it says, the underlying message is always FOOD. I MIGHT NOT BE GOOD FOR YOU BUT I LOOK DELICIOUS SO EAT ME.
I just get ticked off when everybody tries to adapt to the huge influx of Spanish only speakers. Learn some English if you're plannin' on stickin' around! It'll open up a HUGE new world of billboard advertisements and that's just the start. Don't go wasting prime billboard advertisement space with words I don't even understand.

Racist? No.

Bleghasdf.

I've neglected you. I'm sorry.

Wow. I haven't even blogged Halloween yet! That's what happens when your Mom comes to visit, you move, you get sick, and work actually feels like work. It's been a busy two weeks, needless to say. In reverse chronological order:

Halloween!

Loved it. My kids came in the CUTEST costumes. My favorite? A homemade porcupine made out of a big brown sweatshirt and brown golf tees. Excellent. What was I? Well. This stressed me out to end in. I wanted to come up with something homemade/crafty/creative, but the procrastinative (I think I just made that word up) side of me begged to differ. So at 8pm my wonderful husband (who hates Halloween by the way) drove me to the costume store with all of the OTHER procrastinators were anxiously browsing the leftover hot-dog or scantily clad pirate costumes.

I was a pig. Yes, a giant, pink pig. I've never spent so much money on a costume- but I was desperate! I decided to get the best use out of it, I'm going to have to do some variation on it each year. Next year I'm thinking as dressing up in the same costume but wearing a "before" sign, and James will be bacon and wear an "after" sign. Hilarious right?

Mom brought Milly for the last hour of the day dressed in her cute as can be Dorothy costume. She kept laughing and saying "Whitney, pig, silly!" I agree Milly....

My friend Maren on the other hand- super crafty. And cute. And didn't look severely obese (something I didn't think about when buying a full body PIG costume).

Halloween night we ended up doing nothing really. We went out to Zupas for dinner with my mom. Very non-Halloweeny. James didn't mind ;-)

Later-ish (maybe the next day? I can't remember) we carved pumpkins with Ry and Kimber and Milly. Ryan decided to get all high-tech architect on the pumpkin and turn it into a piece of modern art. James assisted. The final product:

Intense right?

Moving on.

Moving!

We've moved! For no real or legitimate reason really, other than wanting to. We moved into a town house like 10 blocks from our old place (made moving a bit easier). I didn't realize 1)how much JUNK we had collected over the past two years and 2) how much ENERGY it takes to move. Most of the boxes are emptied by now. We still have to do all the little things like hang pictures, clean up the mess from moving in, etc. I think that'll happen a little bit slower though. Blegh. But I'm happy to have a new house. It's big enough that we can host Thanksgiving! I'm pretty stoked about that actually.

I think that catches us up to the present. Whew. That burden has been lifted. Oh, I am about to start Jillian Michael's 30 day shred. So if I don't ever blog again, it's because it killed me. I've heard intense things about it, but I'm excited to start. I better go eat a cookie or something to sustain me through the next 20 minutes...haha...(KIDDING).