Sherri's (Never A Dull Moment) World

Fascination

FASCINATION (def.): a state of captured interest or irresistable attraction.

I am fascinated with toddler Elijah Rodgers.

At sixteen months old, he is walking... talking (his own language)... and learning new things every day. Whether at his house or at our house, I observe him doing a million different things and I take mental notes. Have I really forgotten all about the lifestyle of a toddler?? Or is it Elijah?

To be honest, my early years as a mother are a bit of a blur. When Jeremiah was sixteen months old, I was a full-time stay-at-home mom-- trying to figure out how to raise a toddler and 2 dogs, cook and keep the house clean, and be a strong military wife while her husband (Bill) worked long hours, was out in the field and to/from a deployment. I was about to be pregnant (with Nick) and soon to be nauseous all the time.

When Nick was sixteen months old, I was still doing all of the above only I now had 2 toddlers to manage and keep on a decent schedule. Bill was still gone a lot of the time. I was also pregnant (with Natasha) and once again, nauseous all the time. I must have been exhausted.

When Natasha was sixteen months old, I was still doing all of the above only now Jeremiah was in kindergarten. Bill was out of the Army, but retraining for a new profession. I now had only 2 hands for 3 children, was still doing all of the cooking and cleaning, we still had 2 dogs and added a bunny rabbit, and I was trying to be organized by putting all of my housework chores into an index card filing system so I could keep track of what I did from day to day or week to week (example: when did I last wash all the windows?). I had no concept of time passing.... I probably was still exhausted.

So maybe it is me. Maybe I have forgotten.

BUT... last week I had Elijah over for 3 fun-filled hours of playtime at my house.

We did some familiar things, like looking at flashcards while having a snack:

  
(Right now, the "cars & trucks" card is his favorite.)

He played with kitchen utensils on the coffee table:

He likes my turkey baster:

I think he was trying to hide it:

"Should I put it here?"

"Or here?"

"Maybe I should tuck it here..."

We went outside to the backyard and watched chickens peck and scratch. We went outside to the front deck and experimented with bubbles. Elijah liked watching the bubbles. He tried to blow the bubbles, but got the soap all over his lips. So I gave him the bubble wand:

  he used it for whacking and poking things:

 
We played "ball" with an orange:

We went to see if chickens were on the back deck:

We played with farm animals again:

And then, Elijah did something new. He came to me, grabbed my finger and wanted to show me something:

He wanted to go see the chickens.... again:

And my heart stopped for a split second. I was irresistably captivated by this little boy and his desire to get my attention...

He absolutely FASCINATES me. And during this stage in my life, I have all the time in the world to watch what a sixteen month old toddler is all about. I simply adore him.

About Last Weekend...

I was away last weekend... it was time for another scrapbooking retreat!

So I headed east to the sleepy town of Goldbar:
 
Back to the Wallace Falls Lodge:

 
There were 19 lovely ladies there, with good intentions to scrapbook all weekend:

 
My scrapbooking partner-in-crime, Kris, was with me:

 
As usual, the snack table was overflowing with fruit, veggies, chocolate and junk food:

 
Saturday was so sunny that it was difficult to stay focused, so I slipped outside for some vitamin D:

 
And I read another chapter in my book:

 
One of the gals brought some bubble wands to play with. I couldn't resist:

 
What fun!

 

Most of us participated in a "Secret Sister" activity throughout the weekend. We were to leave a few fun gifts for our assigned SS and then reveal ourselves on Saturday night. I received some wonderful things:

 
and

 
They were soooooo ME!

Turns out that Chrissy was my sweet Secret Sister:

 
While I was sneaking around, leaving gifts for cute Brenda:

 

There was some talk about the "Super Moon" that occurred Saturday night:

 
Bill was worried that people would go a little crazy (he packed a survival kit in my car just in case I needed to fend for myself in Goldbar)...

Instead, a different kind of crazy happened that night:

 
Around 10:00 p.m., a trio of Blue Women entered the Cabana House (where all the scrapbooking takes place). The music switched to "I Think I Want You" by PitBull. And The Blue Women started to dance: 

 

and

 
It was sexy! It was cool! They had a message for us when the routine ended: 
I asked if I could take their pictures before they disappeared. I was hugged with enthusiasm:

 
I started a line-up of women waiting to be photographed with The Blue Women group (a.k.a. Lori, Bridget & Brenda):

 

And *poof* they were gone!

Most of us went back to scrapbooking, some ladies went hot-tubbing, others had a few cocktails:

 
As a matter of fact, the snack table added a few new "ingredients":

 
(I only had 1/2 glass, seriously.)

There was a lot to laugh about throughout the weekend!

There were different name tags, sashes, and items like this one floating around the room to be "inherited" when you least expected OR really deserved it:

 
Cheryl ended up wearing the new "Shut The H--- Up!" mask.

This one was worn by both Bridget and Bernie (after Saturday night):

 

There were other "labels" floating throughout the room-- like "Mean Girl", "Tattle Tale", "Best Prankster", "Just Talk To The Hand", "Up All Night" or "Loser". My goal: not to wear ANY of them. [check]

I laughed alot. I finished ~20 scrapbook pages. It was a REALLY fun weekend, thanks to my good friend, Linda:

 
She is the PERFECT hostess! :)

 

 

 

House of Rodgers Update!

I know, I know... I have been away from blogging.

BUT! There is just SO MUCH going on!

Here is where we are with our house addition:

Ta Daaa! We have garage doors! They have to be manually opened and closed right now as we are in the middle of getting wired for electricity.

And we LOVE our electrician! We hired Scott Jewel for our project and he is fantastic:

He has been busy all week wiring both the garage rooms and the second floor for lights:

Changing out our master panel:

There are wires running everywhere for all of our anticipated needs:

And a zillion (okay, not really a zillion) boxes for outlets and switches:

He has listened to ALL of our questions and provided solutions for everything we could think of. He works hard and is easy to talk to. He has been a pleasure to have around while he drills, digs and threads wiring.

If you need anything done, he is THE MAN to call!

Literally. :)

Coming soon.... electricity! Insulation! And drywall! Woo Hooooo!

Happy St. Patrick's Day To YOU!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

 

Oceanic Car

This car REALLY caught my eye today in a local parking lot:

  and

and
If I didn't own a Little Red Hot, I would have to seriously consider buying this car. :)

Pajama Envy

I went to Costco last week and stopped to browse at the toddler clothing table...

I happen to LOVE Carter's 3-piece pajama sets, so I picked up this one:

This set was a NO BRAINER. Bill (a.k.a. Papa) collects elephants-- his collection is on exhibit in our family room. Therefore, it is only natural that Elijah should be wearing elephants. Duh! It went straight into my cart.

I kept on looking. And I saw this set:

Hellooooooo.... Jeremiah teases Elijah about being his little monkey. He makes the crazy monkey sound when he tickles Elijah. Therefore, Elijah should also be wearing monkeys. End of subject-- it jumped into my cart.

I continued looking.... what if there was a shark set or anything fishy? Not today. But then I saw this set:

Pullllleaze. Elijah looks out his living room window every day to watch cars, trucks, and schoolbuses go by. When you ask him what a car says-- he says, "Zoooom! Zooooooom!" Therefore, he would LOVE these pajamas as he could just look at those cute pants and see all of his favorite things. I am not stupid; I have a PhD. It went into my cart.

So how do I justify such impulsive buying behavior? Here are my reasons:

1) My name is Honey and Elijah is my grandson. I work hard. I have some extra dough. Of course, I will spend it on him.

2) Elijah is the first-born son of Jeremiah & Angela. It is hard to build your first child's wardrobe; where it is practical for your second & third kids to wear hand-me-downs. I am helping J & A with this problem by giving them two sets.

3) Elijah is now coming to our house for play dates. All mothers know it is inevitable for kids to spill food/throw up/have an accident while wearing ANY outfit, at ANY time of the day. That is why I am keeping one set of new pjs at our house.

End of raised eyebrows.... case closed. BRILLIANT!

For the record, I would wear ANY of these sets of pajamas if they made them in my size. Where are fun pjs for women? I spent an hour online the other night just Googling "animal pajamas for women" "ocean pajamas for women" (Yes, I would even wear SpongeBob Squarepants pjs!) "monkey pajamas for women". No luck. My search brought up 1) sexy pjs, 2) flannel pjs, 3) silky pjs or 4) just plain boring pjs.

Sigh! I wish Carter's would open up a new line for women.

I have a major case of pajama envy.

"The Adjustment Bureau" - a review

Yes! We went to see this movie today:

 

This movie is about a young, aspiring politician (Matt Damon) who meets an intriguing woman (Emily Blunt) who just might change his future. However, members of the "Adjustment Bureau" step in to sabotage their budding relationship as they are destined for different outcomes...

It reminded us of an episode of the 1980s version of this TV show:

 
 We LOVED a particular episode called " A Matter of Time" (it is amazing that you can research these things on Wikipedia). Within this episode, an middle-class couple discovers a glitch in time in which everything around them stays still. They catch something moving ahead of them... it is a team of workers wearing blue coveralls, blue hats and blue masks that must move every physical object in between single seconds of time in order to create their FUTURE.

 
However, the blue people sometimes make mistakes. Like not moving your car keys forward, which means you they are not where you last saw them ---until their supervisor finds that mistake and makes them put them in the correct place again.

 
This is why you CANNOT find your car keys, but after looking at 10 other places, you find them again (where you looked the first time)! The characters on the "Twilight Zone" episode eventually made their way back to their family in real time...

Since then, Bill & I have blamed EVERY misplaced item and time-wasting effort on those "!@#!*&#@@ BLUE PEOPLE"! It has boosted our self-esteem (it's not MY fault I can't find that income tax document) and is one of our secrets for a happy marriage (we are not fighting over who had the remote control last and where did it go-- instead, those "blue people" took it!). It works for us.

So, back to "The Adjustment Bureau":

 
The plot was both simple and intelligent. The men of The Adjustment Bureau (TAB), wearing suits and fedora hats, are assigned to watch over different individuals through the course of their lifetimes in order to guarantee that they do not stray from their destiny. They track an individual with their record books, they must not be seen, and only intervene by creating mini-events (like causing a person to spill his coffee on his shirt, which might make him return home to change his clothes, which will make him miss the bus, which will prevent an interaction or conversation with another person which might might give him a new idea/inspiration/motivation to try something new). In essence, we think we live our lives with free will, but only if we follow our master plan.

This idea kind of ties into our "blue people" theory, only it has evolved. For example, every time you have a dropped cell call-- it is because of TAB!  Every time you get distracted and blow an appointment/are late for work/write down wrong information-- it is due to TAB! Now add the concept of falling in love. It screws everything up for TAB and that is why we really liked this movie. It was a love story after all. And we are suckers for true love.

We give "The Adjustment Bureau" a double Rodgers thumbs up.

House of Rodgers Update!

Last week's snow slowed down lots of things... including our home addition.

However, our contractor, Dave Mannon (Mannon Construction from Bow, WA), showed up bright & early Monday morning to get our project going again!

This week, they added doors:

 
and a skylight upstairs:

 

and windows:

 
and new siding:

 
AND finished the roof! Here is what it looks like today:

 
Hooray!

Just Me & E

I picked up Elijah this morning.... we had a date!

It was his first time riding in Honey's car (a.k.a. Little Red Hot)...and in his new car seat. (J & A just upgraded his car seat from baby to toddler model and they bought one for my car.) Elijah looked out the window and even smiled while we drove to Honey's house.

We have established some regular activities, like looking outside to see if any chickens are around. Today we saw several chicks stopping by my deck doormat for a snack... Elijah was excited to see them! He tried to call them with what sounded like "chickachick!":

 
We looked at some new flashcards:

 
Today he tried to crawl onto the couch (I gave him a helping hand):

 
We practiced turning the light switch "on" and "off":

 
We looked at family pictures, while I pointed out all of the people he knows in our family:

 
I had "Dora the Explorer" on in the background (he danced during the opening song):

 
He is soooo smart! He knows that this is his water bottle at Honey's house:

 
Today's mid-morning snack was graham crackers:

 
He remembered which drawer in my scrapbooking room had those cute little paint bottles:

 
He played with magnets on the fridge:

 
After several play dates here, he remembers where all of the rooms are. He goes to check on the chickens often. He likes to open drawers and cupboards, but he closes them too. He puts things back in the same place where we got them. He likes to tap his toys or spatula or my scrapbooking things on the table to listen to the sounds they make. Today, our contractor & crew were sawing and pounding nails in our garage and he cocked his head to listen to this new sound. We peeked into the garage and waved at the man at the saw and then looked out the window to see Dave, our contractor, banging his hammer. 

My favorite thing today: all of our conversations! Elijah is experimenting with his baby vocabulary and I just listen and respond as if I know exactly what he is talking about. Even though he is saying "dibadabbadub" -- I can hear his voice change as he ends it with a question mark.

I LOVE time with my little E. :)