Nicknames

My dad is the king of nicknames.  We all had several growing up.  Some are obvious, like Kim Kim.  Some are less obvious, like Monchichi (my brother Rob's because he had a buzz cut and looked like this) 

I guess I take after my dad (I can hear Adam laughing in my head.  He would say that is an understatement!) Axel has several nicknames.  My favorite thing is watching Olivia call him by what ever name I just used.  It's very sweet. 

Just a few of the names we call Axel:

Axel Boy

Baby Axel

Axel Waxel

Little Nuget

Little Strawberry 

Chuga Chuga

What do you call your babies? 

PS.  I'm also over on Shannon's blog, The Scribble Pad, talking about my first six weeks as a mom of two! 

I'm not good at being serious

I was reading Erin's blog, as I often do, and she asked herself a bunch of deep questions.  I thought it would be fun to answer them as well!  Here we go:

1. If you could do one thing differently in your life, what would it be?
Um, this is hard because I'm one of those people that freaks out wondering how one different decision would change my whole life. If I could do it over again I would probably go to a school with an interior design major, but how would that change my life? I don't know, but I'm betting I wouldn't be married to Adam since I met him while I was teaching high school and I wouldn't have Axel and Olivia! Scary!

Basically I just want to be an interior designer.

2. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

In five years I'll be almost 35, so I guess I hope I have all my kids by then.  Let's think this out. . . I want my next child to be born in the spring of 2016 (no more January babies, that was rough!) And then another one in the spring of 2018.  And that might be all.  Or I'll have one more.  Who knows.

I do want to be in a house!  I hope I'm doing something creative.  I'm about to open my etsy shop, I'm excited to see how I like it, but its too soon to make a long term goal yet.  As long as I'm sewing and creating, I'll be happy.

3. Do you honestly want kids?
Yes!  I love my babies.  I mean, sure I see other people with all their free time (you think you don't have free time?  Take care of my kids for a week and you'll realize how much you do have!) but soon my babies will be more capable and I wont have to mop the floor after every meal Olivia eats or nurse Axel 8 times a day.


4. What has been the best moment of your life so far?
I'm with Erin, I feel like I'm supposed to say my wedding.  That might have been the most important and the most significant, but there are things I would do differently if I could (ooh, question #1! And I don't think changing my wedding day schedule would have a big impact on my life today. . . ) It was a busy stressful exhausting awesome day.  But I like the small things, the moments when Olivia hugs me tight or when Axel falls asleep on my shoulder.  So maybe there isn't just one, but a bunch of little ones I never want to forget.


5. What is your life theme song?
I know my funeral song!  Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum.  But honestly, I've been trying to answer this question for a long time, aaaaand.  I can't.  I can't pick one song.  Maybe I can make a mix tape, but ONE?  No, not possible.  I think the problem is (after reading several other people's answers to this question) is I don't really like serious songs.  So its hard to say that my theme song is California Girls by the Beach Boys (hey, that is not a bad idea!) when it seems so superficial.  But I like an upbeat song, because I like to dance around the kitchen while I clean, dang it!


6. What is one thing you have yet to accomplish that you want to do before you die?
Travel more.  Other than that, I'm super content with my accomplishments.  I know I could do a lot with my education career if I want, and knowing that is enough.  I don't actually need to do it.


7. If you could choose one thing to be known for, what would it be?
As a kid I think I answered this question: Being pretty.  I'm not going to lie, that thought did just cross my mind.  I haven't changed much.  No, but seriously, I would want to be known for my cooking.

8. If you could do anything you wanted right in this very moment (no consequences, no fear, etc), what would it be?
No consequences?  Sleep through the night without Axel getting hungry!  Soon enough, soon enough.


9. What has been the most challenging moment in your life?
Its a three way tie between:
1) Taking care of Olivia when I was super sick from being pregnant with Axel
2) Taking care of Olivia and Axel when he had "colic" (Still not sure if that's what he had, or if it was just gas!)
3) Freaking potty training.  


10. Summarize yourself in one word.
Blonde.

(Its the only word general enough, everything else I thought of was too specific or too boring)


So there you go.  Learn anything you didn't know?  Because I sure did!

Facebook: Its love/hate

So many people rag on facebook.  Its like the cool thing to quit it.  I get it, I do.  But you know what?  I can't get out of the house most days and I don't really have many friends close by even if I did.  What I can do is type with one hand while nursing Axel eight times a day.  And so thanks to facebook (and of course this blog!) I still manage to chat with some mom friends every day.  Yeah, it might look like I'm online all day long.  I am.  No I'm not neglecting my kids.  I read Elmo four times today and held Olivia or Axel or both almost the entire 8 hours Adam was gone.

That being said, I've become a facebook status update connoisseur (that is a hard word to spell, thank you google for figuring out what I meant to type) Here are my favorite and least favorite types of updates:

Love
-What we're having for dinner.  I hear a lot of complaints about this one.  "Why do I care what you're having for dinner???"  Those people have obviously not tried to come up with a months worth of meal ideas.  I love when people share, I almost always want the recipe.

-Funny stories.  About anything.  Your kids, your job, heck even your dog if its really truly funny.  (Sorry, I'm not a dog lover.  Or a cat lover.  Pretty much I just like my human children).  Is having kids a requirement to liking these kind of posts?  I don't think so, but to be honest I can't remember much before having Olivia.

-On that note, I love mom stories, even if they're not funny.  Didn't sleep last night?  I want to hear about it (makes me feel better about my five hours if you only got two!)  Its just nice to know there are people in your boat.

Hate (is a strong word, but its the yang to the yin of love, ya know?)
-Negative Nellys.  Okay, so I get it, life is rough.  But do you have to complain every.ten.minutes?  Especially people that complain about how mean their kids are.  They are KIDS.  If you don't have the emotional maturity to realize they don't actually 'hate' you, well its going to be a long 18 years.

-Quotes that you didn't write.  Or memes.  Are those the same thing?  In any case, this isn't pinterest.

Just call your grandkids and tell them you love them.  No need to repost this tackiness.

-False information.  Snopes, have you heard of it?  Onions aren't going to kill you, microwaved water isn't going to make your plants die (or do anything harmful to you either) and the government has not removed "In God We Trust" from the new dollar coin (heads up, its on the edge of the coin, cool huh?). 

What do you love/hate about facebook? 

A quick run

I just got back from my first run post baby.  And by just, I mean a half an hour ago.  And I'm still wheezing.  And it was 1/4 of a mile.  And I worked hard not to pee my pants (sorry, tmi)

Speaking of wheezing, thanks to Weezer for making it happen.  My iPod was on shuffle and I would skip songs if they weren't making it easier to run and all three songs that I listened to (I might have song ADD, it doesn't take three FULL songs to run 1/4 mile) were Weezer. 

Passing judgement

When I quit my job last year one thing I looked forward to was going back to judge FCCLA state competitions in March. I didn't know I would have Axel, but since he is still so small I decided I would bring him along and we'd make a go of it. Olivia stayed with one of my former students who has a one year old and she had a blast! (Let's just take a moment here to realize that I have former students that are married and have children!  Cra-Zy)

I got to see the fun ladies I used to work with at Bingham and Wayne!! Wayne was sort of my boss and just one of my favorite people ever. I got to judge the Recycle Redesign projects and my good friend Lois was in charge of that room. Lois is the mom of four grown girls and three grandchildren. She is also very funny and kind, but she's good at teasing too. She is a magnet for all things positive and lovely. I'm sure I'm not doing her justice, you just have to meet her.

I came into our judging room early to feed Axel and she said, "I put you over in this corner so you can nurse anytime during the day." I asked if she thought no one would mind. Her response was, "Kimberly! This is Family! Family and Consumer Sciences. This is what we're all about." So funny, and so great to have that support from her when I was nervous about tending to Axel while watching presentations (I even packed a bottle just in case!)

Now to the good part, the projects. I want to show you what made my day the most fun, the seriously awful projects, but considering how much these kids put themselves out there I feel like that would be uncool. The internet can be a small place and I would hate for these kids to ever find themselves being mocked.

In the past this has mostly been a fashion competition, but I think pinterest is changing that. We got a lot more craft projects than in times past.

The first girl I judged used fabric scraps and handmade lace to cover her guitar instead of buying a new one.  She didn't have strings on it, but said it plays perfectly even with the fabric on it.

This project is hard to see in this picture, but its a window pane turned picture frame.  And the flowers in the glass bottles are made from recycled paper.

I was excited to see this project, because I'm always trying to find ways to make my own rugs.  This one was made of old towels and while her idea was creative, I don't think the rug will hold together in the long run.

This girl used old clothes to make cute flowers for headbands!  She even started selling them, and her high school dance team paid her to make head pieces for their competitions.  Cool, huh?

I love retro fabrics, and so I thought this skirt made of an old bed sheet was really awesome.  Can I tell you something funny?  While she was presenting it, she said her reason for doing this project was to reduce the amount of unused sheets in the world.  Now recycling is good, but that gave me a good laugh (after she was gone!)

A jewelry box made of old cassette tapes!  Lois's husband and I checked and there weren't many great artists used on this project (Nat King Cole and Janet Jackson are the only two worth mentioning)

This was one of my favorites, a corduroy hat made from a old skirt (you can see this picture of it inside out on the very left of the picture) 

I also loved the lining!  (which I believe was the pocket lining of the skirt)

This dress was insane!  Very Hershey couture.  Red carpet dress for the premier of Willy Wonka.

Check out those Hershey Kisses!

I only took a quick picture of this dress, I didn't judge it (there were 40 students and five sets of judges!) and so I don't know much about it, but it looks cute!

This dress is made from a rain coat and two umbrellas!  The girl was a big fan of singing in the rain :)

Another one I don't know much about, but I do know it was made from an old tree skirt, and I think its quite pretty!

This seriously brought tears to my postpartum eyes.  This boy made a wallet from his dad's old work boots.  The foot of the boot was seriously worn, but the tops were in great condition.  I just think its awesome to have something like that, an item that can be passed down for generations, an item that symbolizes hard work and family.

This boy made these small benches out of an old rocking chair that was going to be thrown out.  The camo fabric may not be my design style, but I still think these are awesome!

It was so fun to see so many high school students working hard for something other than a grade!  They care so much about their projects and its just great to feel their excitement.  Can't wait for next year!

Just a few things

I had a very long day today (Thursday), so Friday's (today) post is going to be a short one. 

First of all, I designed my etsy shop banner and facebook logo.  I love them. 

Etsy banner

Facebook button

Second of all, I was reading this post about using pinterest to market your home based business and number one really hit home with me.  I've got to be more consistent in my branding.  On that note, I'm thinking of changing the name of this blog to Olive the Things.  I know I'm crazy, but Olive the Things is a little more fitting, since I talk about anything and everything here!  Its the name for my shop because I plan to sell a wide variety of stuff (pretty much what ever comes to mind)  So far on the list of things I've designed: coordinating mom and daughter dresses/skirts, a duvet cover and nursery decor.  See what I mean?  Its all over the place.  Plus, Olive for Olivia.  And my brother Rob came up with that name (gotta give credit!)

Third of all, potty training.  That was my goal for April, remember?  It starts MONDAY.  And just to solidify that, Olivia took her diaper off and peed on the carpet tonight.  Its going to be a rough couple of days, but she has been wanting to be potty trained for at least six months now.  Here we go.

Have good weekend every one!  I know I'll be getting as much sleep as Axel lets me get!  (12 hours with only two feedings is not bad!)

Life

So after the horrible events on Monday it could be easy to wallow in sadness.  It could be easy to question humanity.  It could be easy to feel despair. 

But it feels like that's what "they" want. 

So live life to the fullest.  Enjoy every moment (or as many as possible because its hard to enjoy changing poopy diapers and cleaning up throw up).  You're still alive, so make it count. 

A motivational poster my mom made.

My thoughts on marriage: Straight, Gay and Plural

I usually just ignore this topic.  I'm not eloquent in expressing my political views or religious views, especially when others disagree and I find myself on the defensive.  But it keeps coming up on facebook and on the blogs I read and the best way for me to really nail down my own opinion is to write it out.  And hey!  I can publish this any time I want, so I have plenty of time to construct a well thought out opinion. 

Gay marriage is hard for me.  I see both sides of the issue.  In the end, I have to follow the man I believe to be a modern day prophet.  Yes, it is my responsibility to pray and get an answer for myself and maybe I haven't tried hard enough because this isn't an issue that affects me very deeply.  So, there you have it.

But I do have a solution.  I told it to someone (my husband?  I should remember, I know, but mom brain) and they pretty much told me it was dumb.  Don't feel bad for me, it is dumb.  Dumb as in, it will never happen, it will never work.  But I think my solution expresses my feelings towards marriage.  Not just gay marriage, but straight and plural and any other kind of marriage at all!

Baptism.  Were you baptized?  I was.  When I was 8 I was baptized by my father into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I tried to be Catholic, and showed them my baptismal record, but they told me Mormon baptisms don't fly in the Catholic church.*  Rude, right?  Wrong.  Baptism is a religious covenant and every religion has the right to dictate what constitutes baptism according to them. 

To me, and many others, marriage is a religious experience, a religious covenant.  And just like baptism I think each religion has the right to dictate what constitutes marriage in their church.  The government should stay out if it.  But they didn't.  They started using marriage as a tool to help with taxes, estates and familial rights.  Its worked out fine until recently. 

But now we're all up in a tizzy upset about what government is telling us about marriage.  I think the main problem stems from so many of us viewing this as a religious ceremony and we're used to a separation of church and state.  So let's do that!  Let's separate church and state.  Instead of civil marriages (non religious based marriages) let's all have civil unions.  I want to be married for time and all eternity in the LDS Temple, but I also want my union recognized by the state, so instead of picking up my marriage license at the super creepy court house, we file for civil union instead.  And if we were non-religious people we're stop there and live a happy life with all the rights and privileges that we desire.  But we're not, we're Mormon, so we continue on and get married according to our church's standards and we still live a happy life with all the rights and privledges we desire.  Later if we convert to another religion we may want to be married according to our new beliefs, just as we may want to be baptized again according to our new beliefs. 

Polygamists have been doing this for years.  Men are only legally married to their first wife and only their religion recognizes any other marriages that occur after that. (But there are fewer polygamists and they are less vocal about their life lifestyle so we aren't arguing for them.)  So there.  Gay people can get a civil union just like me, and then if a church down the street wants to marry them that is up to them and government (and every other religion and person) can't say squat about it. 

Its never going to happen, its never going to work.  It would take a major overhaul of the government, but that's my opinion.  I just think government should stay out of all marriages and then we wouldn't even be having this debate.

And of course we should be kind.  I am not arguing that with you (name the movie?).  One of my gay friend's in high school wrote in my year book "In a world where people can be cruel, its refreshing to find someone as genuinely kind as you." (I have no idea where that year book is, and so I'm kind of giving you the gist of it) And let me tell you, I was not so open minded about homosexuality back then as I am now, but I still managed to express myself in a respectful way. 

*This is a dramatization.  I never tried to be Catholic :)

Easter Sunday

Its been almost two weeks since Easter.  I almost didn't bother to blog it at this point, but I bought new clothes for Axel and Olivia and I took pictures!  So here it is. 

This bow tie is as big as my head! --Axel

I dressed Axel and Adam matching!  Okay, I didn't really dress Adam.  I know he wears brown slacks and a white shirt so all I did was request a green tie.

When ever people have cute pictures of their kids they always say, "I had to take a million shots just to get one good one!"  Well I took a million shots and didn't even get one good one.  Dang balloons my father-in-law got for the kids, I couldn't get Olivia to focus on anything but that dumb balloon.

This isn't the dress I bought Olivia, but she loved her orange Easter dress so much she wanted to wear it on Saturday and since Kati (her grandma, Adam's mom) had gotten her this pretty blue one I figured we could swap 'em.

And proof that I was there:

High School Me

My 18th birthday

My high school choir teacher is retiring this year, and a bunch of my old high school friends are getting together to surprise him at his last concert.  I wish I could go.  I'm keeping my eyes and mind open to ways to make it work, but right now I don't see how that might be possible. 

I started high school as a freshman at Lancaster High School almost sixteen years ago.  Let that sink in for a minute.  I was fourteen. 

We wore uniforms.  We were the first public  school in our district to have uniforms (I guess I don't need to say public, all the schools in our district are public).  And the last.  While my sister was a student there they relaxed the "dress code" (Which we all know was a uniform)

If I could tell my high school self a few things:

• Take that scarf thing off your head now.  (I honestly do not know why I had that on my head, but its the only picture I could find on facebook of me in my school uniform)
• Don't worry about who is popular and who isn't.  You're going to become friends with so many "popular" kids during the last two weeks of school and you're going to wish you had gotten to know them sooner.  
• You're going to be in choir all four years.  Don't keep quitting during registration and then going back to Mr. Landrus and begging for your spot back after the concert reminds you how much you love to perform.  This is why I never got to be section leader!! (At least that's what I tell myself.)
• Grow out your bangs.  Maybe during the summer.  Don't listen to everyone who says you look better with them.  I've got 12 years of pictures that prove otherwise.  
• Don't let people make feel lame.  You're not.  You'll have a lot of friends in college and after.
• Enjoy being this tan.  And skinny.  
• And enjoy California.  Every now and then I still get struck with homesickness, and I've been gone for twelve years!

What would you tell your high school self?

Jenga Deep Thoughts

Its Sunday night and my daughter just dumped out the box of Jenga blocks.  I used them for a get to know you activity with my students a year ago and so half of them have questions.  I didn't have any ideas for my Monday blog post so I decided to pick a random block to answer.  But that block had a stupid question so I picked another one. 

What is your first memory of being really excited?

I'll admit, at first I thought "I don't remember!"  But I realized that if I didn't remember, it wasn't a memory (deep, right?).  So my first memory of being excited?  Planning a trip to Disneyland when I was probably 11.  I remember packing my purse like a month in advance with my yummy smelling lotion and my bubblegum chapstick. 

Now think a little harder I also remember being very excited to find the gingerbread man in Kindergarten.  The kids I nanny just did that activity last month.  So fun to know the tradition lives on!  (At totally different schools in a totally different state then where I grew up)

A post about not sleeping and pictures of Axel's blessing day

If you've read this post and this post, you might have come to the realization that I am sleep deprived.

I struggled with sleep loss after I had Olivia, and she was a good sleeper!  Axel is less good, but when I spend some time googling things like "breastfed baby sleep through the night" I realize he's better than most of the babies I'm reading about.  He sleeps from 9pm-6am with just two feedings (sometimes one!) and sometimes he sleeps even longer than 6am, but not lately.  And in between those two feedings he wakes up several times with gas, especially if I have a hard time getting a burp out of him at 2am.

I'm glad I didn't start giving advice about getting your baby to sleep through the night.  I would sure have egg on my face right now.  But that's the frustrating part.  I know exactly what to do to get a formula fed baby to sleep through the night.  Easy!  Because its easy to control the amount they are getting at each feeding.

But Axel wasn't gaining weight as fast as the doctor would have liked.  Plus he would only take two ounces from a bottle (making me suspect he was used to eating only two ounces a feeding) and six feedings times two ounces equals 12 ounces, about half of what a baby needs!  Plus he was fussy.  I'm like 95% positive that he was fussy because of gas (isn't that what colic is?  Gas or reflux?).  He would scream in pain and then toot toot toot.  I know the difference between a hunger cry and a pain cry.  Still, those three things (weight gain, bottle feeding and fussiness) stack up to look like my baby isn't getting enough to eat.

All this to say, I would rather feed Axel in the night than worry about his weight or health.  We're going to the dr for Olivia's check up next Monday and we'll have him weighed while we're there.  After that I'll make the call.  I sleep trained Olivia at 3 months and Axel is only a little over 2, so its not like I'm behind but with Olivia things were starting to look up around 6 weeks (she would sleep from 9pm-4am).

So I guess my question is, how do I get Axel to eat more during the day?  Is that even possible?  Will gas eventually stop waking him up All.Night.Long?  Please tell me stories so I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

March's Goal

Budgeting.  Soooo, lets just say. . . its a work in progress. 

1. We started using mint.com to track our spending.  Its linked to our checking account so its very easy to track.  No more fishing receipts out of my purse.  The only thing that bothers me is when I buy diapers and groceries on the same check, there isn't a way to split that into my grocery and baby categories. 

2. I've gotten even better at budgeting my grocery bill.  I don't fill up my car very often, and I have no desire to buy clothes until I get back my pre baby body so groceries is the area I have most control over.  Here are a couple of tips, some things I've done before and some I've just started:

• Reduce the meat.  Not only is this healthier for you, but its way cheaper.  Adam and I split one chicken breast (I cut them so they're half as thick.  Bonus: they cook faster this way too!) so a pack of 8 will last me 8 meals (Olivia doesn't eat much dinner, so I just give her a few pieces of my chicken) I also use 1/4 pound ground turkey for every recipe, no matter how much it calls for.  
• Use low cost staples as the base for your meals.  Rice, potatoes, pasta and lentils are all very inexpensive and very healthy, especially if you use whole wheat pasta and brown rice.
• Shop at WinCo, if you can.  I used to shop at the grocery store closest to my house because I was a busy working mom, but now I have time.  In fact if we can spend more time out of the house that's even better!  Its so much cheaper to buy ingredients in bulk and you only have to buy what you need.  Plus the produce there is so much cheaper, not always the best quality so make sure you're extra selective.
• When you see a good deal or a sale, stock up.  I know I will use at least one can of diced tomatoes a week.  I also use a lot of frozen veggies and canned beans so I make sure to always have these on hand.
• Stay away from recipes with a bunch of special ingredients.  Heavy cream (bad for you!), feta cheese, artisan bread, expensive produce.  Every now and then, these things are okay (I love me some feta cheese) but try not to rely on them too much.
• Find out if there is a farmer's co op in your area.  We use Bountiful Baskets here in Salt Lake.  We get a lot of produce for only $15.  Fun bonus: You never know what you're going to get and its fun to try new things and be creative. :) 

 What are your best budgeting tips (on groceries or just in general, PLEASE!  I can use all the help I can get!)

Birthday Buddies

I got to chose Olivia's birthday.  I chose it with my doctor on March 23rd.  I was due the next day, and the policy is to schedule induction for at least a week after the due date.  I convinced my doctor to schedule me a few days earlier and he gave me the options of March 28th and March 29th.  

The sooner the better.  March 28th is my brother Andrew's birthday as well, and he seemed glad to share.  And so my sweet girl was born on March 28th two years ago.

Here they are last year, the birthday buddies.  I don't have one of this year because by the time Andrew came over, Olivia had gotten her clothes so dirty that we took them off and let her go naked.  This year they both have more hair, Olivia on her head and Andrew on his face!

Andrew and Martha came to visit for a bit on Thursday.  Andrew hoped his son would also be born on the 28th, one day before his due date.  But by 8pm it seemed unlikely that would happen. 

The next morning I got a text that Martha was in the hospital!  I was so excited!  Wesley was born that afternoon, ON HIS DUE DATE!  Crazy, right?

We're so happy to have him here, another family member to add to the birthday buddies!