Quote of the Day

Mom: Porter pick up those underwear on the side of your bed and put them in the dirty clothes basket.
Porter: Those aren't mine! I smelled them and they smelled like Payton's butt!!

Porter Potty

 This post is all about Porter. 

(The name Porter Potty came from Todd's g-ma Wittwer. She has nick names for everyone and puts them on place cards for Thanksgiving dinner.) I just needed to write down a few funny things I want to remember about this boy before his mom gets too old and forgets.

He doesn't sleep in his bed the right way. He likes to lay with his pillow at the foot of his bed and sleeps on top of his covers with just his blanket from G-ma Turek over the top of him. Sometime in the night (yes, EVERY night) he will come into our room and sleep on the floor until morning. Once Todd's gone to work, he will crawl into bed with me until we HAVE to get up.

Another funny thing he does is when he has to go pee. I know some boys have been taught to 'shake it' when they are done. Porter prefers to slap his tummy three to four times to shake off any excess. I can always tell which boy is in the bathroom when I hear the slap. I love it!

Since Todd has been gone, I've been the one to take the boys pee at night, right before I go to bed. It's really helped cut back on the amount of peeing the bed at night lately. Very rarely are the boys awake enough when we take them that they pee right away. It takes some convincing and some waking up to get them to cooperate. The other night I took Porter to go to the bathroom.He staggered in with his eyes half open. He did the duty and then turned to walk out with him. He didn't come with me. He fell forward into the toilet. Luckily it was just his hand that got good and wet and needed some soap and water before he went back to bed. It gave me a chuckle.

Then last night he woke me up in the night crying. I asked what was wrong and he said he accidentally threw his pajama's into the toilet. I was too tired to care about it that very second so when I got up 30 minutes later to take care of it I found his PJ's and undies both soaked in the toilet. Fun times here at 3am (and I don't even have a newborn...yet)
Porter is a lot like his mom because he bites his fingernails. The way we are different is that he can also bite his toenails. I can't even attempt to get my feet that high, nor do I want to. We brush our kids teeth right before bed. One night I went to brush Porter's teeth. He was stalling big time and I was getting impatient. He finally put his fingers in his mouth and pulled out two or three fingernails he had bit off and was saving/chewing...who know what?? I brushed his teeth and as soon as I was done he put them right back in his mouth. Weirdo, huh?

The last silly thing I wanted to post about Port is his love for Popsicles. He asks for them ALL THE TIME no matter what time of day it is. Of course today was no different. I had to run something down the street so I gave him a Popsicle and told him I'd be right back. When I pulled in 5 minutes later, he was outside eating his treat along with some noodles left over from the spaghetti we had a couple nights ago.

What would we do without this kid??

Do it Myself

Because Todd's gone there are things that I figure, "Who needs a man?? I can do that!" Well, changing the headlight in my car was one of them...so I thought. I went to the auto parts store, gave them the info they needed and they helped me choose the correct bulb that I needed. I came home and got to work. I followed the instructions step by step. Unfortunately I was struggling with step #2. I couldn't get the connector to loosen from the bulb. After trying and trying, my neighbor came over and saw I was playing mechanic. She told me she was going to get her hubby to help. I thought I could just hurry and get it changed before he even got back over to my house. Wrong! Well, at least I got to step #3 when he came to help.

Tyler, that's the neighbor, loosend the bulb and then went to put the new bulb in. In the mean time, my other neighbor, Kasey, came over to help too. If two men can't do it what made me think I could do it? (to their credit they would have been done really quickly if they had what they needed...read on)

They worked and worked on getting the new bulb back in but it just wasn't fitting. They finally came to the conclusion that it was not the same size of bulb and I needed to take it back and get the right one. I jumped in the car and ran to Hurricane to exchange the bulb. Then I hustled back because it was getting dark. We fit the new bulb in--no problem!! Amazing! What a difference the right bulb makes, right?

Well, this is where the story gets good. The light still didn't work because I had replaced the wrong bulb. I had the correct part the first time, I was just trying to put it in the wrong spot. Whooops! So today I ran to the auto parts store again and actually bought the exact same bulb I had the day before (I could tell because of the tape job I did on the box). This time, I didn't need any man power because the old bulb had already been disconnected. I placed the new bulb in (the right place this time) and TADA! It worked!!

So the lesson here is, don't be afraid to ask for help even if your pride tells you it can be done alone. It's great to have neighbors that are so willing to help out a single prego woman while her hubby is out of town for a while!

Fire Season

Fire season has begun, already! It seems like in years past it has been in mid June or July before Todd gets called out on his fires. They called Tuesday night while he was at YM's and he was supposed to leave for Pheonix, AZ the next day. He got all packed that night and then I was off to work the next morning and haven't seen him since. 

I guess when he got to where he was supposed to go they told him the fire was already out. So, they reassigned him to another fire burning in New Mexico. He spent the night at a cheap hotel and then was off to the new area the next morning. He was told that they would probably spend two weeks on this fire. Can I be a single pregnant mother for two weeks?? Yes, yes I can. So far it hasn't been too bad. Of course it's only been four days and we haven't had to go to church yet. Crossing my fingers that I still have some hair at the end of tomorrow--it's always nice to have Todd at church so I can focus on what needs to be done for Primary--what teachers didn't get subs, what teachers subs didn't show up...you know, they usual Primary worries.

As much as I love the money Todd makes during the fire season I still miss him and get a little too lax in our family habits. The kids have been going to bed much later than normal since their dad has been gone. It's just one of those things that has been easier to let go than it has been to enforce. The sun isn't helping when it doesn't go down until 9pm. And then there's the subject of cooking dinner. I haven't done that since Todd left either. One night it's left overs, the next it's pizza and tonight we did hot dogs. HOT DOGS?? bleh! I usually only like them when we're camping but I must say that my dog tonight was mighty tasty!

Tonight was the first night that Julia really said anything about wondering where daddy was. I'm surprised. I think she was just using it as an excuse to stay awake a little bit longer.

It's so nice to live close to family when my hubby is gone because they are so willing to help out wherever and whenever you need help. It will be nice to have a good home cooked meal tomorrow (not by me of course). We're invited to Todd's mom's for dinner...which may be one of the last one's all together with his family for a while. Todd's little bro and his wife are moving to California. We'll miss seeing Uncle Tav and Aunt Amie. I hope Todd makes it home in time to say goodbye to them before they leave.

Something in the air...

A little closer look

This morning (not too early of course) I went out to check on the kids. I saw the neighbor boy riding his bike in the road and there was something in the air flying. At first I thought it was cotton blowing but then I got closer and saw they were some kind of bug or insect flying. I got even closer and saw it was a whole swarm of BEES!! They were all starting to cluster around the bush right next door. I made sure the kids all went to the back yard because there were soooo many of them. Then between my neighbor and I we made a few phone calls to try and find someone to take care of the pesky things. I will have to take pics later of The Bug Man removing this lovely cluster of bees so I will feel better about letting my kids be free outside.