I'm a bath junkie

I have an awesome best friend. For Christmas she gave me a groupon to Bath Junkie, a store where you can make your own custom scented bath/body products. I made a dewberry/jeweled citrus/coconut perfume, and a hibiscus/peach/honey hand cream. And I want to eat myself every time I put them on.

Just a picture

I love plain white tee shirts. Unfortunately when Violet wears them, everyone thinks she's a boy. So I have to do something different with hers.

Violet, sous chef

Don't be alarmed by the last post. I am back to thinking that having kids isn't that hard.

Tonight Violet showed a keen interest in my cooking. I normally have her sit on the counter and watch while I cook. While I was rolling out some pizza dough, she decided to jump right in and grabbed the rolling pin when I put it down and rolled it all over the dough. I let her shake some herbs on the sauce, and she was thrilled to sprinkle sausage on it, too. I had her try some pineapple juice after I drained it from the can so she could see what it tastes like. It was a huge hit and she kept grabbing the cup to have more. The best part was that she was very proud of herself. She insisted on seeing the pizza go in the oven, and wanted to know what it looked like when it came out. She is a good kitchen helper.

Then again, she usually ends up looking like this picture when she "helps."

Our fun day

This is going to be a long semester.
I don't normally think that having kids is particularly hard. Well, at least not one kid. But this semester, Brandon has ALL evening classes and there are days when I feel like a chicken with its head cut off. Like Tuesday.
10:30AM-5PM: I sit inside all day and babysit. Violet gets cranky because she wants to go out, but I have one stroller and 2 babies. So, I put baby #2 in the stroller and I have Violet ride on top, using the handlebar as a seat and my arms as a seat belt. I get lots of weird looks.
4:00 PM: Violet sees a kitty and wants to get off the stroller. I let her down, and she goes crawling through the mud (yes, it rained the previous day). She comes back after a few minutes, all muddy, and we continue our ride on the stroller. The looks I get are even better now.
5:10 PM: Baby #2 goes home, and Violet and I head to Wal-Mart to pick up her new car seat. We wait for 20 minutes before being helped. Meanwhile Violet finds a toy that plays music and starts dancing to it in the middle of the store. When I try to get her to follow me, she pretends she can't walk.
5:30 PM: I realize that the package won't fit in my car because I already have 2 car seats and I'm boxed in by SUVs on both sides. So I open it right there, in the middle of the parking lot, and throw the contents in the car. I briefly consider leaving the box in the middle of the street. No, I can't. I open the door, shove the empty box with all my might in the car, and drive home with it as my front passenger.
6:00 PM: I put the meatloaf in the oven because I know Brandon will be starving when he gets home. At this point I'm pretty proud of myself for having prepared it during naptime.
6:20 PM: Okay, scratch that. The meatloaf is now sloppy joe mix, because I can't cook.
6:40 PM: Have dinner with Violet. She won't eat any of the sloppy meat loaf, and I can't blame her. But she does eat all the green beans off my plate.
6:45 PM: Violet grabs the empty plate and throws it on the floor, where it breaks.
7:45 PM: It's already 15 minutes past Violet's bedtime, but we have to pick Brandon up from school. We get there and his class that is supposed to end at 8 goes until 8:15.
Insert Violet running around naked every few hours when she is supposed to be getting her diaper changed, and you pretty much have my day. But seriously, what can you do about it? Kids are always going to throw curve balls at you. When nothing goes your way, just put the diaper back on and keep going.

Where have you been all my life?

I finally broke down and got a real diaper bag with my Christmas money. And I think I love it more than it's appropriate to love an inanimate object.

More expectations

Since nothing went as expected last year, I thought it would be fun to list out what I am excited for this year-- you know, just to compare when it all blows up in my face. That's how I like it.

This year I am making a goal to paint at least 5 pictures. That doesn't sound like alot, but my last one took me 5 months, so it's actually rather ambitious.
I also want to improve my painting technique, because the last picture made me realize that it's pretty bad.
In May I look forward to picking dewberries. We are going to pick the fields clean and make delicious dewberry freezer jam. Anyone who wants to join us is welcome to.
Also in May, I hope to be going on a trip. Where and when is still undecided.
I want to go kayaking this summer in my kayak that I haven't used since I was 18.
I hope to be able to survive being without a car while Brandon is at his internship all day in the summer. I also hope that Brandon enjoys his work.
I am very excited about this being the last full year that Brandon will be in school.
I want to go camping at least 3 times.
And by the end of the year, I expect that Brandon will have at least interviewed for a real, non-internship job.

The year already got off to a good start. We spent New Year's day at Bayou Wildlife Park. And no one can look at Violet's expression and tell me that wasn't the best thing we could have done with her.

Yep, it's going to be a fun year.

(And here is the painting I just finished. I promise it looks better in person-- the flash washed it out.)

Since everyone else is doing it...

I'll recap the interesting year of 2010. Here are the highlights, in more or less chronological order:
Graduating college in less than 4 years (technically that falls under 2009)
Getting a temp job at a storage facility
Having Poodle visit us for a week
Getting Brandon's acceptance letters to universities in Houston, Colorado, and Utah
Accepting Houston's acceptance
Brandon convincing my family that he actually accepted the one in Utah (still makes me laugh)
Walking at graduation with Brandon, having Violet get to see us graduate
Going to Arches and back in one day with MTB and DTB (thanks for being good sports)
Visiting Houston and getting to see everyone before Bexie's family moved
Surviving Brandon's 6-week field trip class
Moving to Idaho for a month
Going to Yellowstone with Violet
Going on our 2-week Canada trip with a 9-month old baby
Moving to Houston a week later
Getting a babysitting job
Brandon getting an internship offer

I described this year as interesting. Perhaps a better word would be "surprising," since many things this year didn't go as expected. I never really planned on working after I had Violet, and somehow I've worked 2 jobs this year. Getting into grad school in Houston so quickly was definitely a surprise, especially since it took BYU so long to decide that it wanted Brandon. Everyone predicted that a camping trip with baby Violet would be difficult, but Violet turned out to enjoy it more than anyone. And most surprisingly, living in a crowded house in Idaho turned out to be easier on me than moving back to Houston, a place I had long thought of as home. I guess life never turns out as you expect, and it pays to be flexible. We'll see how the new year meets my expectations, or rather how I meet my own expectations in the coming year.