Punk Rocker

This week was a particularly exciting week for me as the new Sum 41 album was released. M, being the wonderful wife that she is, went to the store, bought it for me, and then brought it to my work. I have listened to it multiple times and it gets better every time.

Jr and I have similar tastes in music for the most part but he tends to gravitate more toward female singers (not that I blame him, but he is only 3). However, he also shares my enthusiasm for Sum 41 even to a degree that I haven't seen from him. The other night they played on the Tonight Show and I recorded it. Now, Jr begs every night before he goes to bed to watch them perform "Walking Disaster." We have used this to our advantage and we tell him that he can watch it if he is obedient. He watches for a little while and then usually gets up to dance around like a madman.

On Saturday night, M and I decided to go out with some friends and we took advantage of our gym's "Parents Escape." Can't beat 4 hours of free time while the workers in the kid's area play with the boy. While we were driving there we were, of course, listening to Sum 41 in the car. Jr piped up and said that he was going to tell the teachers that he loves Sum 41. We laughed, but didn't think he would really do it. Much to our surprise, when we went to pick him up, he came out with a paper airplane that one of the workers made for him. The plane was adorned with "Sum 41" written all over it. We laughed all the way home imagining the reaction of one of the teenage girls playing with Jr and him telling her he loves Sum 41 and wanted it colored on his airplane. I'm proud of the boy.

Big Mac Attack

People have been telling M and I, for a while now, that we need to watch "Supersize Me." For the few who haven't seen it, it is a documentary where a guy decides to eat nothing but McDonald's food for a month. He gained 25 pounds, his cholestrol shot up dramatically and the doctors told him to stop about halfway through or he might die. The effects on his body were pretty extreme. The point was that fast food is really bad and you should not eat it.

However, for some reason, instead of being totally disgusted and wanting to avoid fast food, it seemed to have the opposite effect on me. To be honest, as soon as the movie was over, I was halfway in the car to go to McDonald's for a Big Mac. M stopped me, but my Big Mac cravings have not stopped. In fact, I think they are getting stronger. I will eat one, maybe tomorrow, despite knowing that it is really bad for me. Even typing this entry is making me hungry for a Big Mac.

The Moral of the Story

I teach the Sunbeams at church. Not Buddy's class because he's too hard to handle and since I'm his mom, it's socially acceptable for me to decline teaching him. I feel bad for his teacher. There are 12 kids going on age four in our ward, so they've put six kids in each class. Lucky me, I've got the much easier class.

This is my favorite calling. I've done it once before and I got released far too quickly, so I've been campaigning to do it again ever since. I especially love it because I'm teaching Buddy's friends and I just adore them. I could tell stories for hours about the hilarious things they say. Like this Sunday when we were talking about being thankful for our families. We went around the room and they got to tell everyone their mommy's and daddy's first names. One little boy said his mom is Celini and his dad is Babe. I about died laughing. His parents are good friends of mine and for the record, his dad's name is actually Tony.

Anyway, last week we were thankful for our bodies, so the lesson said to tell the kids the story of David and Goliath. I was nervous to tell them that story, especially since David KILLS someone, but I've always found that if I stick to the lesson, good things happen. Plus I loved that story when I was a kid. Like I had hoped, the kids enjoyed the story and we got into a great discussion about courage.

We do Family Home Evening on Monday nights, which is a highlight of the week for Buddy. He really likes the two-on-one learning time, and he loves to practice the songs he's learning at church. Another reason I love teaching the Sunbeams is I know exactly what Buddy is learning there, so we usually reinforce at least one principle at home during FHE. I got the impression his teacher didn't go over the David and Goliath story (probably for good reason,) so in a lapse in judgement, I decided we should tell him that story during FHE.

We showed him the picture, told him the story, breezed past the throwing rocks and killing Goliath parts, and focused on how David prayed to be brave and to know how to help his friends. We asked a few questions to make sure Buddy was understanding, then I asked, "So if you are scared and want to be brave, what can you do?"

"I can throw rocks at somebody," he said. Of course he said that. This is Buddy we're talking about.

I said, "No. You don't ever throw rocks. You can pray to be brave. If you're ever scared, you can always pray."

Then a big Buddy argument ensued where he insisted that yes, he should throw rocks like David.

Dang this idea of teaching from the scriptures. Thankfully, that was a few days ago and he hasn't brought it up again. Or thrown any rocks.

What Do You Do When You've Had a Bad Week?

A couple days ago I posted a "What Do You Do in the Summertime" post. This is Part II of that story. I'll spare you the gory details about the stress of our lives. If you know nothing of the frustration of infertility and adoption, be glad you've been spared this hell.

Now on with my story...

Saturday was supposed to be a work day around here. We were going to trim some trees and get some other things done around the house. I moped around all morning -- angry and depressed. Meanwhile, G got one tree partially trimmed and just as he got the yard debris bin stuffed to overflowing, he suggested we bag the work day and drive to the beach. It was 12:45, and by 1:30 we were on the road. G is OBSESSED with the Tillamook Cheese Factory. If they had season passes, he'd have one. So, we stopped there first to load up on cheese and ice cream cones. Next we drove down to Pacific City. Ahh... I could feel my mood improving immediately. We figured it would be too chilly to stay long. However, when we hit the sand, we realized how warm and balmy it was near the water. Buddy played in the sand, then we explored the tide pools, which were full of little sea creatures that kept us all interested for a long time. Thankfully I know just enough about sealife to be able to point things out to Buddy. I have a feeling I exhausted my knowledge though, and the next time we go looking in tidepools, Buddy will know more than me. Buddy was amazingly quick at spotting the rock fish, little crabs, etc. Starfish and big crabs are the real crowd pleasers in the tidepools, and Buddy found three big crabs. Another lady near us found three starfish, which got a huge reaction from Buddy too.

This beach also has a steep sand dune. Our commitment to working out really paid off in helping us to the top. Last time we were there, about a year ago, we were really huffing and puffing to get the top. Buddy was the littlest boy we saw up there too, which made us proud to have such a tough little kid. The view at the top -- right before sunset -- was spectacular. The beach is my favorite place, and there was just something special about hiking to the top together with my family and then looking at the beauty of the ocean below. It really rejuvenated my spirits. I immediately felt better about all things concerning my life.

We drove for a good hour before stopping for dinner. During the drive, Buddy barraged us with questions. It got the point where I started to write them down because Buddy's randomness and curiosity always makes for entertaining blogging material.

• "Dad, if I cut you with scissors, would it hurt you?"
• "Why don't the zoo trains have seatbelts?"
• "What does this song mean?"
• "Is the museum with the dolphins and whales far away?"

As we were driving, we saw an old fashioned hamburger joint, so we decided to stop. We have yet to find one around our home as good as the burgers in Utah, so we were anxious to give this one a try. It was 9:30 by this point, and Buddy was hungry and tired, so we did our best to keep him under control while we waited for our food. About halfway through eating, I looked over and noticed...

THERE WAS A MONKEY IN A CAGE IN THE RESTAURANT

A real, live monkey in a glass cage. It was even wearing pants. First I thought to myself, "Why on earth couldn't I have noticed that 30 minutes ago while we were not-so-patiently waiting for our food?" And then I suddenly had very happy flashbacks from high school. I had gone there several times with my friends. Probably 13 years have passed since I had been there, and I had completely forgotten about "Monkey Burger," as we had called it.

The monkey looked just like Jack, the monkey in "Pirates of the Caribbean." Buddy thinks he's a pirate, so he thought the monkey was the coolest thing ever. Needless to say, Buddy talked nonstop about monkeys all the way home and has told pretty much everyone he's seen today that "there was a monkey at our dinner yesterday."

A wonderfully relaxing day at the beach. Dinner at "Monkey Burger." Happy memories from high school. A fun day with my family. My over-the-moon happy son because he spent two days at the beach this week AND ate dinner with a monkey.

I guess my life is pretty good afterall.

And for the record, the burgers were fabulous and we will be making the 45-minute drive back to "Monkey Burger" often.

Question of the Day

Jr is very inquisitive and he loves music. Put the two together and you have the Jr Question of the Day. After listening to a popular song on the radio, he asked M: "Mom, what does it mean to 'party like a rockstar'?"

(Note: For those of you who are unfamiliar, the song he was listening to was "Party Like a Rockstar" by the Shop Boyz.)

What Do You Do in the Summertime?

What do you do when it's gets to be over 100 degrees in Oregon? You go to the beach for the day! We don't have AC and we don't know how to handle extreme heat, so we got together with a friend and hit the coast the other day. It was FABULOUS. This is why I'll always be an Oregonian. The coast is just beautiful and so relaxing. For a day I just enjoyed the cool breeze, the warm sand, forgot my worries from my regular life, and enjoyed seeing my little boy so genuinely happy.

Going to the Zoo

The other weekend we went to Seattle with some friends. While we were there we visited the Point Defiance Zoo. Have I mentioned before how much Buddy loves sea life? He's been really into whales and sharks and fish now for a good year, and he fell in awe even more after we went to Sea World last September. In fact, just this morning he reminded me that when he "gets bigger," he wants to be a "worker guy" at Sea World.

Anyway, this zoo is really cool. It overlooks the sound, which is just beautiful, plus the zoo also has sea animals, like beluga whales, walruses, otters, and an entire area with all kinds of seahorses. I had no idea seahorses were so beautiful and fragile. The beluga whale was cool too. It was really friendly and actually, was a lot cuter than the picture I have above. It was amazing to see how big it was, and if you rubbed the glass in a circular motion, it would swim up to you and slide right by along the glass. Buddy loved this. We all were impressed actually.

The following week, Buddy had a friend over to play. Buddy found the map to the zoo and the ticket stubs lying around still, so they decided to dress up like sword-wielding pirates and play "going to the zoo." Each room in the house was a specific zoo exhibit and they used the map to determine where to go next. They carried their swords, tickets and map around and around the house (stopping every so often for a sword fight) for six hours -- all day. It's one of my favorite things about Buddy -- his vivid imagination and creativity. Both of which, I have none.

I had been cleaning and doing some cooking all day, so late in the afternoon, I decided to hop in the shower. I told the boys to keep playing out in the living room, but right as I turned the shower on and hopped in, I heard Buddy yell, "The beluga whale is in the tank! Let's go see!!!!" A few seconds later, they both were in the bathroom with me and Buddy was showing his friend that if you rub the glass shower door, the beluga whale would swim right by. No amount of begging would get them to leave me alone. I mean, until then, this whole "going to the zoo" game had just been pretend.

Thank goodness they're only three and will hopefully forget what a mommy beluga whale looks like.

Taking Sides

Junior has opinions on everything. He formulates his own and most of the time he sides with M. However, he finally took my side on an issue. I've never been more proud of the boy. The other day we went to Costco because we needed some things. I was driving and decided to park in a different spot than we normally do. M didn't liked where I parked, and since she is not shy about expressing her opinions, told me so. However, we weren't really fighting and the subject came and went. Junior, after having a couple of days to process this, decided that on the way to church that he was going to make his opinions known. He told M that it was "fine" where I parked at Costco and that she shouldn't be mad at me because it was fine. Unfortunately, I was not with them when his lecture began but apparently it lasted the entire car ride. I think Junior was just looking for a time to be alone with his mother so he could talk to her about her behavior. That's my boy!