Mr. Evans Retires

What have I been up to lately?
1. Sweating to death while Chloe takes swimming lessons.
2. "Trying" to move.
3. Celebrating Brother's Birthday.
4. Celebrating Father's Day. (I made some delicious pasta and strawberry cheesecake parfaits. Which reminds me, I really need to share that link.)
5. Getting really nostalgic.

I am now going to talk about # 5.



This past weekend, my sister flew into town, and all 3 of the Mott sisters participated in a grand retirement concert for our wonderful Mr. Evans, who retired after 30 years of teaching.

so the deal is, choir was kind of my life in High School. And I love to sing. Doing this concert brought back so many memories and feelings. Standing on that stage and singing....brought me back to more than a decade earlier, and of course I always end up thinking about my Mom, and imagine how more than a decade ago she was in the audience and sewing our costumes.

Chelsey has been looking forward to this ever since she found out about it 3 months ago. I think she had a good time, but when asked how she liked it afterwards, she replied that she doesn't think she will sing in a choir anymore because she doesn't like singing next to people she doesn't know. I told her she could sing next to me, but she said she sings alto, not soprano. I have sung by her before and it is quite entertaining. She sings quite loudly. And somewhat off key. But I think it is the greatest that she participated and I know my Mom was happy too.

Oh by the way, this guy sang. And he is on Broadway now. He is pretty legit. And amazingly talented. google him. "Anthony Galde." I did and I found an article on him from high school entitled "There's a new ladies man in town!" Well the ladies love him but I am pretty sure he does not love the ladies in that sorta way.

I of course made some lame compliment when I ran into him afterwards, like I usually do when I talk to anyone famous or very talented. But he was very, very nice.
I kind of love this picture for several reasons.

Oh here are some pictures from my actual high school choir days.
Our dresses were so...um....risque?


It was so much fun to sing again and celebrate my teacher who made such an impact on so many of our lives. How cool to see that what you spent 30 years of your life doing, really changed people's lives for the better.

Chloe asked me yesterday why the park with the big field was once again filled with water. I told her because the grass needs water to make it grow.
And she said, "Ohhhhh...if there no water, cactus grow?"
I don't know where she got the smart genes.

Sunday afternoon she wanted to have a fake picnic. She put a blanket down in my room and got out her supplies. I stayed for a few minutes and then got up to do something else. She said, "How about Macie come to my picnic?"
So I laid Macie on the blanket. I walked by the room later to see Chloe feeding Chloe a plastic chicken.
I laughed.
Then a few minutes later, I heard Macie crying.
I went in to check, and Macie had lollipop residue on her face.
I guess Chloe resorted to real food after the chicken.

The Day Melissa Got Suckered

so remember how I said I got suckered into buying some pictures because they were too perfect? Well here they are. I intended to just get my free 5x7 but I loved all of them. Man. They sure are smart, suckering Moms by taking cute pictures of their kids. They know Moms can't say no to these smiling faces. Do you blame me??

Shots and Swimming

Chloe:
"Mom! Why Dad get bwack wicorice? I have red hair! I need wed wicorice!"
translation: black licorice, red licorice

Last week I took Chloe and Macie for their check ups.
Chloe had 4 shots and Macie had 3.
Evil.
I asked Chloe if she could be really brave and we could go get her a shopping cart that she had been eyeing at Target.
As we waited for eternity for the shots to get drawn, Chloe was losing her courage.
I peeked out the door to the nurse who was drawing the shots and said that I think I changed my mind and only wanted to do 2 today.
She was obviously highly annoyed and said, "Well I will have to send the Doctor back in."
And since I all too often try not to annoy people, I said, Oh, nevermind we'll just do them all.

Well it was awful.
Poor Chloe. She got stuck once and was horrified.
And then she just kept getting poked.
I felt absolutely terrible.
Adults don't even get 4 shots at one time.
And the Nurse was so crabby.
In fact maybe I will write them a letter and tell them that if they are going to be giving shots to children they could act a little more empathetic and at least not give away so easily their disdain for an upset child.
Grr.

Then my poor little Macie got 3.
She handled it a little better.
As soon as it was over I think she forgot that it had hurt.
But not Chloe. It took a half hour for her to become a stable human being again.
The worst part was her repeating over and over again to me, "Mommy! I was only supposed to get 1 shot, not 4!!"
Did I mention it was awful?

I just feel bad for kids. They live in their perfect worlds and then once in awhile they have to do something terrible and it just breaks their little hearts. I hate for them to find out that they better get used to it, because having a body can hurt a lot sometimes!

Good news is Chloe is done with shots until she 11. But I am not sure she is going to forget any time soon.
good thing she went swimming all day yesterday, otherwise I think it would have been a repeat of the day before when she complained that she couldn't walk because her legs hurt.

This week's milestones were:
Macie rolled over. And continues to be the most smiley and perfect baby in the whole entire world.
Chloe got over her fear of going under the water. she went swimming with her friend Bella who is fearless in the water, and it wore off on Chloe. I watched with extreme satisfaction, her practicing over and over again, dunking her head just a little at a time, one had holding onto the side of the pool, until she finally had her whole head go under. She was so proud of herself.

It is very exciting watching your child teaching themself how to do something and to overcome their fear.
It was a good day. I am glad, because the day at the Doctors was crap.

I realized today that I have not taken hardly any pictures of my growing Macie. This month she has really filled out. As I was said to be in junior high, she is"pleasantly plump." And I love every inch of her rolly polliness But be warned- I find it annoying when people say "Oh she is getting so big..."and that's it, in a mournful voice. It makes me sad. Like she is no longer considered a baby or something because she is not 7 pounds anymore. I actually really like it when they get bigger and interactive. All the hard work of the first few weeks finally pays off when they smile after their tummy gets full, changed, or loved. So...if you are going to say, "Oh she is getting so big" please say it in a chipper voice, followed by, "I just love it when they fill out! They just get cuter and cuter."
Thank you and
You're welcome. Don really appreciates it when I tell him exactly what I need him to say. We are all a lot happier that way.

Chloe has been taking swimming lessons. And she wears this bathing suit every day, all day. It is nice because it cuts down on laundry. Also, bathing.
Just kidding.
Although, when I was in Junior High, on swimming days I didn't shower because I thought going swimming at school counted as my shower. And no, I didn't shower afterward either. Combine lack of personal hygiene and being pleasantly plump, and you can guess my popularity soared through the roof.
Apparently Don was very cool in Junior High. He got voted like "Coolest Guy" in 7th grade or something. It's because he is Latin and he probably had facial hair.
He is going to kill me for saying that. I will let you guess whether any of that was actually true.

Anyway...
Chloe liked swimming lessons a lot the first day. She became less enthralled when the idea was proposed that they put their heads under water. She told me she needed goggles to accomplish this. So I bought her some. Then she told me she did not like them because they made her eyes itchy. Today I was glad that she ran over to me during lessons and requested her goggles. Progress. Although I am not counting my chickens before they hatch. Every day is different with her and tomorrow I fully expect her to scoff at the idea of her head going under the water.
And that is when my Mom technique numero uno comes out-bribe with the possibility of ice cream.
I fully intend to turn Chloe pleasantly plump by Junior High as well.
She deserves to know the turmoil I endured during my most impressionable years.
just kidding again.

Chloe got a little too much sun.


Okay. I'll admit it. It is making me sad she is growing so fast. But don't agree with me (see first paragraph). It needs to slow down otherwise I am going to have to have another baby soon. And I so don't want to be pregnant soon.

PS I am nervous.
I told Don this evening, "You know what would be a really great way to steal money? You sell something on Craigslist, drop it off, then come steal it back while they are gone and then sell it again to someone else."

And he said, "I was just thinking the exact thing."

Mind you, this was a totally random conversation as in a "hmmmm, I was just thinking by myself in the other room and I wanted to tell you."

I hope my couches are still there tomorrow.
Because my couches are just a little too perfect....

I am the proud new owner of these couches. I am giddy. They are so beautiful. I got them for a steal off of Craigslist. The family was moving back east and couldn't take them. I love them so much. They are my dream couches. You should come over and sit on them with me sometime.

I call this "Oven Art."

This was once my Pyrex casserole lid. (see last post)

I think I might sell it on Etsy and market it as modern art.

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Today at church:
Chloe gave her first prayer. Well in Primary that is.
Correction, I gave her first prayer.
She got up there and turned beet red and looked like she was going to cry and then hid behind me.
She is not shy, but apparently despises public speaking. Which used to be my number 1 fear up until a few years ago when I guess I got over it.

Also, Macie was sitting on my lap in Relief Society and started passing gas and filling her diaper very loudly. And I am not exaggerating when I say it was loud. It startled me it was so loud. When I realized things were not going so well down on her end, if you know what I mean, I carried her out, and attempted to change her, which was rather futile when she just kept on pooping and projectile pooping on me. So I just wrapped her up in her poop blanket and gave up. Speaking of Macie, I need to put up some new pictures of her because she has turned chubalicious. Which makes me happy and sad at the same time. Why do babies have to grow so fast??

Special Things

So today I had a garage sale. Well it was more like a table sale. I actually sold a few things. Literally, a few. I made 10 bucks.I think I could have got more for my large fork and spoon that goes on your wall, the lady really liked them. Which would have surprised Don being that he thought they were worth about 10 cents. He said they looked like they were from Pick'N Save. I don't even know if that is a real store, or just a figurative word used to describe the place where one would buy crap.





Then a nice man came to my door and wanted me to donate to the Special Olympics. Well obviously I couldn't say no to that. I would feel like a horrible person. Like a person that steals the birthday presents from a child. So bascially I broke even today.





He said something that made me think. He said, "You've only got one life, you might as well make the most of what you have." And yes, partly true. But I believe there is more. I see these special people as perfect spirits in imperfect bodies. And this life is not all they have. I know that they we will all see them some day as they really are. So I agree with him that they, like all of us "normal" (ha!) people need to make the most out of what we have, but I also know that they will have so much more. I wanted to tell him that, but well...maybe he reads my blog. I consider it a privilege to have a special needs sister and that I have been given the opportunity to view these special people in an up close and personal way, and that my children will have the opportunity to learn too at an early age, that everyone deserves dignity, respect, and our love.


Well that was my spiritual insight for the day.

Also today, while I was blogging this, I was interrupted by the smell of burning plastic. Good thing Don came in and made me aware of it because my brain does not work so well and it didn't register, "Danger! Danger!"
Turns out Chloe and her 11 year old niece were preheating the oven to make brownies, and a certain someone left a large casserole type plastic lid in the oven. By the time all of us geniuses discovered it (not Don, he is rather intelligent), the lid was molten blue lava in my oven.
Which I am very excited to clean. Very excited.

I guess Chloe was in a baking mood today. She told me she wanted to make a carrot pie and I found her in the kitchen with a large bowl full of milk with a single floating baby carrot.

And that folks was my day. Insane. I felt much better after I found time to shower. At 4 PM.