lucky flowers

I just got back from a local flower wholesaler, Potomac Floral. It made me miss the days that I worked with flowers everyday. There were flowers everywhere, people running around, wonderful smells, bright colors, and to look at the outside warehouse you would think nothing of it. While there I put in an order to get flowers for a friend's wedding that I will be arranging. I had previously signed up on the Internet site, but wanted down to go look around to get a feel of who I was doing business with. After placing the order I started to ask a sales rep about pricing and what kind of a price cut you would get if you had a business licence. He looked at me and said, "Didn't you already put a business ID in the computer when you signed up?" I said that I had not and that I only do arrangements for friends and that this wasn't a business nor did I have a business licence. He then looked at me shocked, and showed me that they have three degrees of discounts and that I was already getting the 2nd level. 1st level would be the people that walk in off of the street to buy flowers (ME), 2nd level being those who do small quantity purchases, and the 3rd those that buy by the case. I asked him how that was possible that I could be at that level, he said that he didn't know and he wasn't privileged to that information and only went off of what was on the computer. Call it blessings from above or pure luck, either way it made me happy! Unfortunately the wedding is the week after Mother's Day and prices don't go down until the following week, but it was still better then having to pay retail prices.

Edy the half pint

Today Eden is six months old.......time goes by so fast and I can't believe how big she is and all of the stuff she is doing. She is so absolutely charming and adorable and just plain cute! Her stats are:

weight: 15 lbs, 13 oz (48%)

height: 25.5" (43%)

head circumference: 16" (3%)

This is what she is doing:

• Rolls over both ways
• Plays with her toes while laying on her back
• Smiles constantly
• Babbles on and on
• Just started solid food
• Puts up a fuss if she is in a different room than everyone else
• Chews on everything
• Giggles up a storm when one of the kids is playing with her
• Sleeps through the night (7:30-7)

She is such a wonderful baby, so easy going and content with life! She has definitely brightened our lives!

A visit from E!!

Alan and I were both blessed with only one sister. Of course now we have many wonderful, fabulous, fantastic Sister-in-Laws, but there is only one true sister from each of our families. It was fun to have them both come in April!!

We loved having Erin here! Although we wished her whole family could have come especially the kiddies but I am sure that it made it much more relaxing for her and easier to get around. It was lots of fun and we enjoyed our time with her!

Things we did......

• Ledo's pizza (delicious)
• National Arboretum (check out that green bug in the pictures, and the beautiful azalea's)
• Said farewell to the turtles (bitter sweet but mostly sweet)
• University of Maryland (a huge part of the Boss family)
• Rita's (the BEST custard and italian ice ever)
• Gettysburg, PA (can you really come east and not get a little history??)
• Washington DC LDS Temple (added bonus: Tribute to President Hinckley in the visitor center)

As short as the trip was we tried to pack in as much as we could and give her a taste of Maryland and our random happenings of life with a little bit of site seeing.

These are the days....

Eden is down for a morning nap.......Alan is down for a morning nap......I need to get some exercise after eating a whole can of buffalo flavored Pringles yesterday (which I must say are delicious!)......Joseph needs to get out of the house and do something or he is going to drive ME crazy.

These were my thoughts when I decided that Joseph and I were going to go for a walk. It was done at a much slower pass then I would have liked, but I would also have liked to make it an hour longer. Joseph and I walked and talked and explored for an hour this morning. It was wonderful to get a glimpse into his mind and to be able to talk about things that he wanted to. We saw tadpoles, caterpillars, ant holes (or hills), horses (there was a white and brown one that had beautiful blue eyes, I didn't know a horse could have blue eyes), butterflies, and flowers. We renamed all of the horses. We talked to a new neighbor. We discovered a new place that we could go ride bikes. We kicked the white dandylions so we could watch them float away. We walked through dew covered grass. All the while holding hands........Just me and Joe.......

Ahoy thar, matey!

Peter...you've become a pirate. (Wendy Darling, Hook, 1991)

Next stop...Tour de France!

We took Peter's training wheels off today!! He was ready a while ago, but we thought that we should get Hannah to ride a bike before Peter did. Hannah still refuses, but the winds might be changing. I predict that Joseph will be riding shortly without training wheels as well.
At first Peter was very intimidated and scared. After about 1/2 hour and a schoolmate seeing him and sharing her surprise that he couldn't ride a 2 wheel bike he got it. It's funny how a little bit of peer pressure can change things, especially when it is a girl who is putting the pressure on! He rode around our church with no help and without stopping about 4 times. We still need to work on the start up, but I am sure that after a summer of riding his bike we will be looking into registering for the Tour de France.
Sorry there are no pictures, I forgot the camera!

Getting old

Have you ever played freeze tag? Have you ever played freeze tag when you were 29 1/2?

Today I did and I felt old. We went to Bond Mill, the kids elementary school, so that they could show me all of their moves on the monkey bars and other playground equipment. They decided that they wanted to play freeze tag and asked if I wanted to play. I was laughing so hard after about 3 minutes of sprinting around the playground. My whole body ached as I zigged and zagged around trying to dodge whomever was "it" and saving those who were frozen. I couldn't stop laughing which probably made everything worse because I wasn't getting the oxygen my body needed. Such is life, maybe it's not that I am old, just out of shape. So many possibilities to why I can't sprint around like the good old days. And to think that I was thinking of maybe training for a mini-triathlon, maybe I should rethink that.

Witch in training

The word witch seems to have a negative connotation associated with it. Probably because it rhymes with a word that does. Plus it always seems like the wicked witches stand out more in our mind.
This is nothing negative......I am not going to turn green or start riding a broom or start casting evil spells on anyone. Although that might be fun!


Whenever I wear these socks I feel like I am a witch in training!! It makes me giggle and giddy. Little warm things that bring happiness to my life!

Sissssters

All I ever wanted when I was little was for my mom to have a baby girl so that I could have a sister. I had to wait out 3 pregnancies before I got my wish. In fact, I told my mom that I was going to move to Grandma's house unless she had another girl. By that time I had 5 brothers.

My one and only sister, Tamara, hasn't flown much and we figured out that the last time she had been on an airplane was 7 years ago, and that was when she was a lone teenager on a couple hour flight from Utah to Los Angeles, CA to visit none other than ME!! This time it was kind of different. She was traveling as a mom of two small children, solo, on a 5-hour flight. I was so proud, she did well and so did her kids! They stayed for two weeks. It was so much fun having her here. Her girls are so cute and fun! We did have some moments that are bound to happen when you get 6 kids living under one roof, but we all survived. Thanks for coming Tamara! I love you!

Highlights:

• Cherry Blossom Festival


• lots of rain


• DC Temple


• University of Maryland


• National ZOO


• Haircuts


• Car breaking down on I-95 in Virginia


• Picnic in the park


• IKEA


• Arundel Mills Mall


• Movies


• Late Night Games

Pictures:

My stylin' little old bitty!!!

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

Memory Lane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf-ecpV4304

I saw this video and was reminded of "my" sweet African Gray Parrot, Crackers, that I had during my high school years. I stole him from my science teacher...kind of. As you can imagine, living in a high school science class room for years, he was very afraid of people because he was constantly poked at with pencils, or kids would just rush up to his cage and bang on it. It really made me mad, so after taking him home for winter break I just never brought him back.

My science teacher, Brent Brown, was a dear friend of mine. I was his unauthorized TA during his planing period. I graded papers or set things up for him, but mostly we just talked and enjoyed each others company. Of course I ended up with an "A" in science that year! When he had a sub I would get a phone call telling me not to come to "class" that morning. During that time I fell in love with this bird. He would let me hold him and feed him. He could say good morning in about 20 different voices and would do so every morning. "Good morning Lakers", "good morning". A bad habit that he had was when he got mad he would start swearing up a storm. He would just run a blue streak under his breath. The first time that he did it I couldn't stop laughing. I taught him to say "I love you." He loved to look at himself in the mirror and would say, "I love you Crackers!" His cage was always open, yet he hardly ever ventured out. My mom tried so hard to get him to like her and would always try to give him apples, but Crackers would always try to bite her, so she would drop it and then he would pick it up and eat it. My mom said that if I was ever gone for long period of time he would wander around the house. She said it was as though he were looking for me. He would go check everywhere and then just go back to his cage and sit there and wait. He got wildly jealous when I met Alan. He really didn't like him at all. Once Alan was laying on his stomach on my bed, and Crackers took advantage of the moment...got to the level of his feet and bit the back of his ankle. When I got married I had to give him back to my science teacher with a promise that he wouldn't bring him back to school. It was a sad day to part with my friend Crackers.

He what??

I took Joseph into the dentist on Tuesday for his regular cleaning. They took X-rays and found that he had a cavity. Yikes!! They wanted us to go to a pediatric dentist to get it filled because he is only 4 and the dentist thinks it will be a better experience for him.....doesn't want to scar him or something like that.

I called to make an appointment for a pediatric dentist that is in Glen Burnie which is about 40 minutes away (could be worse). They were able to get us in on Friday, which was great!

We got there and they didn't think the X-rays were good enough that our normal dentist took, so they took some more and found that he didn't just have just 1 cavity but 6!!! I was floored, he is 4. I kept my cool...don't want to get overly worked up. The dentist asked if he drinks lots of juice or eats lots of candy. For all of you who know Joseph, the boy never stops eating or drinking. It drives me crazy!! I explained this to the dentist and he said, "Just stop buying it!" Is it really that simple?!? I don't think he has any idea who we are dealing with! He then proceeded to tell me that they will fill the teeth in 3 appointments, so that it won't be so traumatic for him. My thought was wouldn't it be better to do it all at once so that it can be done and over?? But then he mentioned something about giving him too much medication, I could understand that. I then went to the front desk to schedule an appointment and to get my estimate on what the co-pay would be for this next visit. She said it would be about $227.00, I said, "OK and that is top fill all of the cavities?" "No, that is for just the next appointment. I don't know how much the other ones will cost." I couldn't believe it. These teeth are going to fall out within a couple of years!! Do I really want to spend about $700 on teeth that he isn't going to have to treasure for the rest of his life?? I feel like I am left with no options, What else can I do???.......Grrrr

sugar and spice and everything nice

Joseph: Mom, guess what.....I know that Eden is a girl.
Mom: Really, how?
Joseph: She has eyelashes!
Mom: Wow, she does!
Joseph: (focusing intently on my eyes) Mom your a girl too!
Mom: Are you sure?
Joseph: Yes, because you have eyelashes too.
Mom: (laughing) Do you want to hear a secret?
Joseph: Yes!
Mom: You have eyelashes also.
Joseph: (wrinkled nose) NO
Mom: Go look in the mirror.

Joseph (after checking in the mirror and talking to Alan) (wispering, giggling, and grinning from ear to ear) Dad has eyelashes too!

My Savior Jesus Christ

http://www.eastvalleyproductions.com/blog.cfm?postID=31

Girls will be Girls!

Nothing like celebrating spring with painted toe nails!