Yes, apparently one or both Jason and I say “oofta.” Yes, we also live in North Dakota, so it probably happens more than we ever realize. This fact was hammered home to us the other night at supper when Jason said, “oofta” after A had a coughing spell. K looked at him and said, “Asa poopy?” So apparently, we not only use the word oofta, but we use it as an expletive when changing a smelly diaper.

More and more over the past few weeks, we’ve been hearing K repeat things that we have said to him. One night, Jason was giving him two choices for getting his diaper changed. K kept telling Jason that he didn’t want to have his (poopy) diaper changed. He wanted to wear it. (On a side note, you can tell we’re not exactly steaming down the road of potty learning :-). ) Jason told him, “That’s not a choice.” Later that night during the bedtime routine, K and Jason were talking and at one point, K said to Jason, “No, Daddy, that not a choice.”

Last week, we spent a little time with my mother-in-law and father-in-law. One of the days, my nieces (ages 6 and 4 were over). At one point, I heard them arguing, and the six year old was saying, “That’s fair!” to her sister over whether or not she needed to share some toys with her. Fast forward to this morning. I was showing K the new library books we had checked out for this week. He was pretty excited about them, and he kept pulling them out of the bag and saying, “That very fair!”

Then, there are the things he picks up that I’m not sure where they came from. “You know better, Mommy!” “A, you being bad!” “No, no, no, no, no!” These are not things we say to him. I know that now that his peers are speaking more and we are around more and different people, his pool of experiences to draw from also grows.

He’s at an age where he is such a sponge. He doesn’t have preconceived ideas of what is fun or not fun (video games vs. books) or what music is good or not good (pop music vs. opera). He loves so many different things. I think that his new tendency to repeat things that we say at just the right time is good for us in more than one way. While it reminds me that he’s always listening to what we say, it also reminds me that he is picking stuff up All. The. Time. I am raising a little sponge, and I want him to be able to absorb all that he can before this time ends.

You know that whenever your spouse says, “Do you know what your son just did?” something hasn’t gone quite right. This morning, I was laying in bed nursing A, and Jason said those words. I didn’t answer, because I knew he was dying to tell me. Sure enough, the answer followed almost immediately. “He put Magic Butt Cream in his hair.” For those of you who don’t know, Magic Butt Cream is the diaper cream that we get from our doctor for a diaper rash that isn’t controlled by the regular over the counter stuff. A few weeks ago, K and Jason had a talk about how we don’t eat the Magic Butt Cream. It’s only for sore butts. It’s not for eating. Well, he didn’t try eating it again. This time, he took about 1/2 of what was left, and he smeared it in his hair. Ugh.

Unfortunately for me, Jason was on his way out the door and on his way to work. I was lucky enough to take over the emergency bath. In addition to having a head full of grease, K did not want to take a bath, and he had a poopy diaper! I managed to talk him into the bath. Then, I started in on his hair with Dawn. Dawn cuts grease, right? I figured that was my best chance at getting some of that stuff out of his hair. He was patient enough to let me lather and rinse his hair twice. THen, he lost patience, so I took him out of the bath, and he spent the rest of the day with the wet look.

Tonight at supper, he continued on with the hair experiment and decided to try applesauce in his hair. I told Jason that it was his turn to work on K’s hair. He did the 2nd bath of the day with both boys. While they were in the bathroom, I checked the internet and found that some people suggested using cornstarch for getting Vasaline out of hair, so we tried it. K thought it was pretty funny, and I figured it couldn’t hurt. I didn’t get a chance to see his hair after it dried, so I’m not sure if the cornstarch solved our problem or not. I’ll be interested to see how it looks tomorrow.

It’s time for my favorite carnival! It’s the 5 Minutes for Books monthly “What’s on Your Nightstand?” carnival. Yay!

This is so hard for me. I have so many books I want to read. I have told my husband several times recently that there are just too many books and too little time. Last month, I spent most of my reading time reading the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. It was okay. Yes, that was a lot of time to allocate to something that is just okay. Generally, I’m not the type of person who sticks with something and follows it through if I start to lose interest, so I decided that I was going to read all 4 books no matter what. Also, I was curious. I liked some of the characters, and I liked the first book quite a bit, so I wanted to see how she wrapped it up. It seemed to me like there was a LOT of room for another book in the series and that it wasn’t really wrapped up. I know the movie just came out, but I don’t go to movies so I most likely won’t be seeing it for quite some time if at all.

This month, I’m back to my pile of books from BookMooch and PaperbackSwap. I’m also thinking a lot about homeschool, parenting, and breastfeeding toddlers, so maybe I’ll read some of those types of books, too.

Do you have any homeschooling, parenting or breastfeeding books you’d recommend?

This is a blog carnival from 5 Minutes for Books. It’s held the 4th Tuesday of each month, and it’s a blast! I get a lot of great recommendations and a few new blogs for my feed reader each month by clicking through to others’ posts.

What

Last month, I set forth a nearly impossible reading goal for myself. Instead of reading all the books faithfully on my list, I got side tracked. I read the first two books in the Twilight series, Twilight and New Moon. I will be completely honest this month and I’ll admit that right now the other two books are the priority on my reading list. I’m waiting for Eclipse to be returned to the library and then I’ll read Breaking Dawn right after that. Right now, I’m reading Eat. Love. Pray. and I have to admit, I’m not loving it. I’m definitely looking for a diversion. So, if anyone knows who has that copy of Eclipse that is 2 weeks overdue, tell them to take it back! Normal reading plans of way too many books in way too few days will be resumed next month.

I’ve been counting down in my head to my 100th post for a while now. Then, I realized that I missed it! Whoops. So, for my 101st post on this blog, I decided to do a list of 101 things about me (and my family). Here it is:

1. My mom and I shared a hospital room with my high school best friend and her mom when we were born (2 days apart).
2. We didn’t find out about that until we were 17 years old, because we weren’t from the same town until her family moved at age 14.
3. When I was younger, I thought I would become a nurse, a teacher, and a pet store employee when I grew up.
4. When I was around 7 or 8 years old, I started putting the same 3 items on my Christmas list every year: a phone in my room, a pet, and another brother or sister.
5. I have one sibling.
6. I never got any of those things.
7. Before I could read (well), my parents used to give me the mail addressed to “Current Resident” and tell me it was for me.
8. They gave me mailings from Byron Dorgan and told me he was sending me mail.
9. I believed them until I was far too old to believe that sort of thing.
10. I had a great childhood.
11. I have great parents.
12. Most of my childhood memories revolve around playing at the neighbor hood park, playing with friends in my yard, or being with my extended family.
13. I learned to read before kindergarten.
14. I have loved to read for as long as I can remember.
15. When my brother had bowling league, I spent the time at the library
16. I’m not sure he’d appreciate me reminding people he was in a bowling league.
17. Fourth grade was my favorite year of elementary school. Thanks, Mrs. Becker!
18. By 6th grade, I had read nearly all the children/youth books in our library and checked out a Stephen King novel.
19. My sixth grade teacher called my parents to see what they thought about me having that book.
20. I didn’t actually read it. It was a little too creepy for my age.
21. When I was in seventh grade, I had my first sort-of-real boyfriend.
22. We didn’t date or call each other or anything, but we were “together.”
23. When I was a junior in high school, I had two teachers tell me that he still “had the hots” for me.
24. I doubt the truth of #22.
25. I have been a North Dakota resident my entire life.
26. I flew on an airplane for the first time when I was 16. I went to St. Louis, Missouri with 3 classmates and a teacher from my school.
27. FHA (now known as FCCLA) was responsible for most of my travel prior to turning 18.
28. Because of FCCLA, I was able to go to St. Louis, MO, New Orleans, LA, and Tokyo, Japan.
29. I spent 6 weeks in Japan with a host family the summer I was 17.
30. I climbed (part of) Mt. Fuji.
31. I lived in central Tokyo when I was in Japan.
32. My Japanese family drove a Ford minivan.
33. When I was in Tokyo, I felt like I could not breathe because there were so many people and buildings all around.
34. When I came home from Japan, I remember what North Dakota air smelled like as I stepped off the airplane.
35. The only reason I needed to attend 4 years of high school was for my senior english and my senior social studies class. I had enough classes/credits to graduate after 3 years.
36. I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was in high school.
37. That is not very likely when you live in North Dakota.
38. When I wrote my senior english paper about my future career, I chose civil engineering.
39. I was an engineering major for 3 days in college.
40. I also majored in speech language pathology.
41. and athletic training
42. and elementary education
43. and middle school education.
44. I stuck with the last two.
45. I have a dual major in elementary and middle level education.
46. I have a masters in special education.
47. I met my husband, Jason, in my first semester of college.
48. I knew who he was in a class of 150ish people.
49. He didn’t know me, but it all worked out in the end.
50. We officially met at a Campus Crusade for Christ Christmas Conference.
51. We dated for 10 months
52. and broke up for a year and a half.
53. Then, we dated for 8 months,
54. were engaged for 8 moths,
55. and got married in June of 2002.
56. Jason says that he knew we would get married the night we first met.
57. It took me another 3 years to figure that out.
58. I don’t like the ends of chicken strips.
59. I don’t really like most meat at all.
60. If I had my choice, I would be vegetarian.
61. I have two sons.
62. I had two unmedicated labors.
63. I am breastfeeding both my 15 month old and my almost 3 year old (will be 3 on Nov 3).
64. I am married to an early adopter (someone who jumps onto new trends early).
65. I am not an early adopter.
66. Jason has introduced me to blogging,
67. NPR/MPR,
68. and being politically moderate.
69. I’m no good at moderation. I like all or nothing.
70. I used to teach special education before I had K.
71. When I tell people that, they say, “you must be really patient.”
72. I laugh when they say that.
73. I am a very emotional person.
74. I am easily moved to cry.
75. There is a CVS commercial that makes me cry.
76. I like the Pixar movie Cars more than my son, I think.
77. I am planning to run a half marathon in May of 2009.
78. I used to think that I wanted to have six children.
79. Now, I’m not sure how many I want.
80. For the first two years of our marriage, I did almost no cooking.
81. We had a rotation of about 4 meals that we used to space out meals in restaurants.
82. In the summer of 2004, I decided to start trying one new meal a week.
83. Now we usually eat 2-4 new meals a week.
84. I am trying to get rid of high fructose corn syrup in our house.
85. I love cinnamon rolls.
86. I love caramel rolls.
87. I once found (what I think was) a cockroach in the basement of the apartment building/house we were living it.
88. I put it in a sandwich bag and left it on the kitchen table to show to Jason when he got home from work.
89. Thinking about that now still gives me the creeps.
90. I sometimes get the urge to move somewhere far away from North Dakota.
91. I will probably never move all that far from North Dakota…maybe Moorhead or East Grand Forks?
92. I am passionate about breastfeeding and the benefits of breastmilk for moms and babies.
93. I am becoming more and more interested and passionate about conservation, green living, fair trade, and organic food.
94. I want to learn to knit
95. I have started playing the piano again, but our piano badly needs to be tuned.
96. I am pleased with where my life is 10 years after high school graduation.
97. I miss my brother and sister-in-law and wish they lived closer.
98. I love to watch football
99. and hockey.
100. Having kids has significantly reduced my sports watching time.
101. Ideally, if I have more children, I would love to give birth to them at The Farm.

There you have it! Those are my 101 things. If you got all the way to the end, I’m impressed!

A couple months ago, I found Paper Bridges through a carnival from 5 Minutes for Books. I clicked around her site and found several interesting posts. One of them was a book giveaway. I entered and won this book. She has another book giveaway going now. If you have ever heard of or read For Men Only or For Women Only, you might enjoy having this book even if it’s not directed at you. If you have (or will soon have) a teenage boy, you definitely will enjoy this book. Click on over and check it out!

He does. He is a great husband. He’s an amazing dad. He’s a smart, funny, intelligent, good looking, caring, loving person. I’m guessing you get the picture.

At the convention I attended over the weekend, there was a resource fair with tons of vendors. There were publishers, music artists, and many other booths. I did a little bit of shopping at the fair and a little bit of browsing. I came across a booth that sold t-shirts, and I knew I wanted one. I’m currently trying to cut back on my stash of t-shirts, but these were different. I wanted one. Heck, I wanted them all! The t-shirts are made by a company called FromMeTees. The two women working at the booth were wearing shirts that said, “my husband rocks.”

Anyone who knows me in real life knows that I can’t stop talking about Jason and everything he does that rocks. He does everything! He does laundry. He does dishes. He stays home with the boys when I go to Texas for a weekend. He sits on the couch with me and watches Veronica Mars. Let me count the ways.. I decided that instead of continuing to talk about him all the time and how great he is, I would just wear a shirt that could do the talking for me. Instead of getting the one that said “my husband rocks,” I decided on “Forever His Bride.” I wore the shirt for about half of today, and I have to say I love it! It just puts me in a positive frame of mind when I think about Jason. It reminds me how much I love him and how much he loves me. It also helps me to keep things in perspective if I ever start to get a little frustrated with him. When I first bought the shirt, I thought it was just a cute shirt. Now, after wearing it a couple times, it is definitely still a very cute shirt, but it’s also more.

Some of you may (or may not) have noticed that my blog has been a little quiet for the past week. This is primarily due to the fact that I was not around from Thursday to Sunday. I had the opportunity to attend the MOPS International 2008 Convention.

The weekend was filled with speakers, authors, artists, and time to get to know others from my local group. Because our local group has helped us with fundraising for leadership training like this, one of the other women who attended and I are going to be giving a little recap of our weekend tomorrow at our meeting. When I got to thinking about what I wanted to say, I had a list that was far too long for the time I’ll be given. I am trying to whittle down two and a half days of information into about two and a half minutes.

The final general session that we attended was where it all came together for me. All weekend, we had been asked to wear buttons that said SDWSC on them. People had all sorts of guesses what that could mean, and on Saturday afternoon, we finally learned. It meant, “she did what she could.” Elisa Morgan, the CEO of MOPS, was speaking that afternoon. She talked about Mary bringing perfume to Jesus and seemingly wasting it in an elaborate gesture of pouring it over his head (Mark 14). Then, she elaborated on the sentence “She did what she could.” Mary gave what she had. She did what God had asked of her. She didn’t look around to see what others were doing. She didn’t trade her perfume for something more useful. She didn’t sit around wishing that she knew how to sing a beautiful song or write a breathtaking poem. She did what she could. That right there was the Big Idea for me.

In addition to our general sessions, we also had smaller sessions throughout the day on Friday. My first session was geared toward raising children with a concern about the world, the environment, and how our actions affect others. The speaker, Tracey Bianchi, talked about teaching your children to love something and become passionate about it. Then, once they love it, whatever that it is, they will be more likely to protect it and try to save it. The “it” might be a certain population of people, a type of animal, an aspect of the environment, or something else entirely. Although she gave many ideas, I didn’t leave her session feeling overwhelmed, I felt motivated. I want my kids and my family to be socially aware. I want us to make a positive impact on the world. This includes the environment and, as much as possible, people on the other side of the world, too. I also had two other great sessions. I have a couple many new books on my to be read list. There is so much I could say tomorrow about this conference, but what really sticks out is that she did what she could. That’s what God expects of me. That’s what I should expect of myself. I don’t need to do everything, but I do need to do what I can when I can.

5MinutesForMom is having a sleeping angel contest. They are giving away a South Shore Children’s Bedroom Set from Home & Bedroom Furniture. They are asking people to post pictures of their sleeping babies, and the winner will have their choice of either the Lily Rose or the Summer Breeze set. I would definitely choose Summer Breeze if I were to win.

So, here is the picture. It’s adorable, and it’s one of my favorites. We were at Jason’s parents’ house one day this summer. I ran a few errands, and when I came back, I walked in the front door and saw this…

My Sleeping Angels

Well, like I said last month, I don’t have a nightstand. There’s one on Jason’s side of the bed, but we don’t have books on that one either. I just have my books all over the house. There are a couple in our room, a couple on the back of the couch, one behind the couch, one in my purse, one on my end table, and tons downstairs on our bookshelves.

Last month, I was reading The Breastfeeding Answer Book, Reclaiming Nick, and Happiness Sold Separately. I have made some good progress in the Breastfeeding Answer Book. I read Reclaiming Nick and the two other books in the series, Taming Rafe and Finding Stephanie. I did not finish Happiness Sold Separately. It fell behind our couch, and I sort of forgot about it. Whoops. I did start it, though, and it’s pretty good from what I remember.

In the last month, I also discovered PaperBackSwap and BookMooch. I wouldn’t say that I am obsessed with them, but they are so fun! I put 20 of my books on the sites (10 on each) and so far, I’ve received 4 books with a 5th on the way. I also thought I would try a swap with anyone on here who wants a book that I’ve read, but so far no one has taken me up on my offer. Since I wrote the post, I have decided, I will just give those books away, so if you want one, let me know. If you have any you’d like to swap, I’m open to offers, but I guess it’s now a giveaway!

I have a trip coming up in about 1 1/2 weeks, so my reading list is a bit more ambitious this month. I have some high hopes that I will be able to read a lot on my trip. So, here is my list for October:

Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper (from PaperBackSwap)- I was looking through available books on PaperBackSwap, and I saw this one. I hadn’t heard anything about it, but if it’s John Piper, I figured there’s a pretty good chance it’s got quality content.

Breaking Free by Beth Moore (from PaperBackSwap)- My friend from college purchased this study, and she has done it several times. I love Beth Moore, so I figured if my friend can do the study 5+ times and find it valuable, I would probably enjoy the book.

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian (from BookMooch)- This is a book I had heard about, but I’m not quite sure what I will think of it. It’s a subject I have pretty strong feelings on (midwives and homebirths). I suppose it could really go either way.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards (from BookMooch)- I was in Target wandering around one night after a stressful evening trying to put A to sleep. I picked up this book and read the back of it. I had actually forgotten about it for quite a while, but when I was trading away my books, I decided to look it up.

Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson (received from Monica’s giveaway on her site Paper Bridges)- I actually found this giveaway last month when checking out others’ lists.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (borrowing it from the library)- After hearing about this one for so long, I decided to find out what all the talk is about.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (don’t have it yet, but will be getting it from the library and hope to be a part of October Book Club on 5minutesforbooks.com)- I have heard about this book, but I don’t know anything about it. Maybe it’s time I start learning what the classics are all about!

The Problem with Breastfeeding by James Akre (borrowed from a friend)- She said this book is a must read. I guess I’ll find out.

Don’t forget to check out www.5minutesforbooks.com for a list of people who have shared what they are reading this month!