more randomness

Today was the first day of registering for the summer reading program at the Provo Library. As you can see, free t-shirts were part of the bargain. But my favorite thing about this picture is Ethan's face. Why is that whenever you ask a child around his age to "smile," this is the result? (all squinched up eyes and bared teeth) Anyone else know what I mean?

So, the kids are happy to have their "library shirts," but I have to make a small confession. As most of you know, I love to read (that's not the confession). However, (here it comes) I HATE reading out loud. At times I feel like a really horrible mom because Ethan will want me to read a book to him for the twentieth time, and I just can't do it. Isn't that weird? I just don't like reading out loud. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to get used to it, because as part of the summer reading program you have to pledge to read x-amount of minutes a day to your child/children. *sigh*


To the right you will see my latest experiment in progress. Behold the "potty-training M&Ms." Yep, thats right. This week marks the start of what I hope to be a speedy and successful ordeal. Ethan will be 3 this month and I'm just really tired of having two kids in diapers. I'm hoping some good old-fashioned bribing will work wonders with my number one son. So, far he's done nothing on the potty -- yet eaten many an M&M. Hmmmm. Well, at least Grace is taking some interest. As long as I can get ONE child potty-trained this summer...

Honestly though, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've never done this whole potty-training thing before. I'm just doing the best I can!



To end, I thought I'd leave a short little anecdote involving my husband. Last night Scott was very studiously working on his independent study classes (econ 110 and accounting 200) that he has to finish by July 1st in order to start BYU's MBA program in the fall. He was sitting at our brand new table (see picture in post below) when I heard him say "Oww!" Well, when we got our table, it had "some minor assembly required" (oh and boy could that story fill a whole other post) and we had to screw the legs onto the table ourselves. Before assembled, the legs were attached to the bottom of the table with plastic strips (these are hard to describe, but I'm hoping you get the picture) and staples. Well, these staples were practically IMPOSSIBLE to get out, and by the time that we were finished with the "minor assembly" it was very late and I was very frustrated and didn't feel like being frustrated further. Long story short, the staples were still attached to the underside of the table, and Scott had just scraped his knee on one.

Wow, this is longer than I intended. So, Scott got very industrious and decided to get out some pliers and pull all the staples out. In order to do so he had to crawl under the table and lay down on his back and pull down on the staples with the pliers. So, as I was very busily playing around on the computer, I heard an even LOUDER "Owwww!" and I looked over to see Scott holding onto his head where apparently his hand slipped yanking on the staple and punched himself right in the temple (it's okay, you can laugh). So, I was concerned thinking he'd stabbed himself in the head with the pliers or something because of all the blood, but no -- it wasn't until this morning that I found out that the pliers didn't do it. It was just his knuckle. He had literally clocked himself so bad it broke the skin and was bleeding.

Whewwww! Okay, I think I'm done for now. (oh but p.s. did anyone else catch the season premiere of "the hills" last night? let's discuss [yes, i know its pathetic that i still watch mtv programs]).