To-do list

• 6 loads of laundry
• spend all day on the phone changing addresses with insurance, credit cards, etc
• prepare Etsy order to ship
• yell at kids
• curse the "witching hour" (4-8pm)
• feel awful when kids come to me first to apologize when I was the nasty one toward them (even though it's an hour past their bedtime)
• give kids hugs
• wish I could have more patience with said kids
• wonder why I think about having more kids
• waste time blogging and playing mindless games so I don't have to finish the dishes
• dream of living in my own home
• wish I always had a backyard for the kids to play in while I prepare dinner
• wonder how I will "set up" shop for the next month
• remind myself of my priorities: FAMILY
  

Goodbye Murray

Brevity is not in my vocabulary. I tried to keep this short and not too detailed info about my personal life but I hate repeating myself the story of our summer over and over again so here goes.....

Our life is a whirlwind. I tell myself I am pretty adaptable to change but lately I wonder. I just go along with what Tyler has in mind. So far, it's turned out okay. The first time he had a crazy idea we ended up in Paris for a year. Then we moved from Provo to Arvada to Murray all within 4 months. He received an offer to teach at SLCC, Salt Lake Community College, and while we we were on vacation in Utah we looked for a place to live and the next weekend we moved back out here. We lived in Murray for 20 months. It was a wonderful experience. I met some of my closest friends here. The kids grew up a lot here and I'll miss it. And now, the time has come, to be uprooted again.

We've left our apartment contract early to come back to Arvada for a short summer of work. And then back down to Provo again for schooling. Just in case you care here is our time line:

This week: Packed up moving van, cleaned apartment, unloaded belongings in Uncle's basement to store for the summer, stayed with great Aunt in Provo, attended Samuel's pre-school end of year party and drove for 9+hours to Colorado (luckily, I had help this time).

Tomorrow: Tyler's sister graduates from High School.

Sunday: My nephew, Warren, is blessed.

Next week: Re-open shop, adjust to living at the in-law's (not that they are hard to live with at all, it's just not our space....you know what I mean?). Remind children, particularly Jocelyn, that we are not going back to "our home" and that we are not in Colorado on vacation but to live.

Around July 1st: My sister Rose gets married, so we'll pack up and head back out to Utah. I'll stay w/my folks, Tyler will do some work for my dad for about 2 weeks before he heads off to Alaska with his father and grandfather to fish for salmon and halibut. I'll stay w/my folks still and periodically find reasons (like visiting friends and using zoo pass) to drive up to SLC.

Early August: Go to Lake Powell with Tyler's family for a week. Wahoo!

August 19th: Tyler starts Law School.

Sometime in July/August, we'll fix up my grandma's basement so it's livable with two children and my sanity level.

Hopefully our contract, which ends at the end of August will be over so that we don't have to break our lease (which is super expensive).

So that is our whirlwind of a summer. You may ask, "Why are they moving so much especially when their contract is not yet up? " Yes, I ask myself this sometimes too. But we felt we should come to Colorado. Tyler can work for his dad (a realtor) and his grandfather (also a realtor) doing odd jobs like digging ditches for water lines, pouring cement, staining decks, mowing lawns on his dad's properties, etc.....physical labor kind of stuff that will allow his farmer's tan to improve and he'll make more than working at Best Buy or somewhere like that, if he could even find someone who would hire him at high enough pay and only for 2 1/2 months plus 3 weeks vacation!

So we're in Colorado. I grew up here. It feels like home still. I love my in-laws and so do my kids. I have two young sister-in-laws and great parents who help out immensely with the kids so it'll be good. Plus my sister lives 2o minutes in downtown Denver so we'll see each other often. I only hope to set up my etsy shop comfortably enough to keep it up and find the balance with that in my life w/children, husband and self :)

It'll be interesting. It'll be fast. It'll be an adjustment. I hope I can handle the stress of all the moves. And I hope the kids can too :) As they get older I notice change is harder, in moving type situations. They can't see the whole picture and timetable and they act out more.

But we'll live and move onto meeting more special friends (though, how can I beat awesome neighbors who'll watch my kids while I take Samuel to pre-school, or bring me goodies in time of need, or stay up at ladies nights till 1am?...I am sure I can find someone....I just don't know if I want to....sad)

Au revoir, Murray! Bonjour....uh, Provo?

And the winner is....

"True Random Number Generator Min: 1 Max: 72 Result: 45 Powered by RANDOM.ORG"

NORA!!!

Congratulations! She happens to be one of my best friends (my oldest in fact, in years of knowing each other) but this was totally random! Crazy!

72 comments, that's a record! Of course, most of you entered more than once! Thanks for entering and getting the word out about Bonne Nouvelle. I really appreciated all of your blogposts and feedback on the banners. After the move and a little settling down I hope to get some new items in the shop. So keep checking back throughout the summer. And, of course, if you would like something custom made, then let me know!!

The Show & giveaway

Well, Piper & Chloe was a success! Thank all of you who came (or tried :) ). I actually sold more than 1 banner plus several small things. I loved doing it and will perhaps do it again this Fall. They're a great group of gals to work with. Thanks Piper & Chloe!

And to celebrate the success I am hosting my very first giveaway on this blog! Wahoo! (yes, Tyler thinks I am like the government, giving things out when we really don't have the money--but there are several reasons why I am doing this :) ).

I am giving this Birthday Banner in designer fabrics OR the Birthday Banner in Bright colors away to one lucky winner! Your choice! Each is worth $40 and 3 hours of my loving time :) Ah, I am so excited. So spread the word to your friends, family and fellow bloggers!






Here are the RULES:

For your first entry, leave your first and last name in a comment.
Example: Hannah Banana

For a second entry please look through Bonne Nouvelle. Then, return to this blog and leave ANOTHER comment with your first and last name PLUS your favorite item(s) offered in my shop.
Example: Hannah Banana, the Howdy banner is my fave!

For a third entry, Let me know how you found out about this blog!
Example: I found your blog via Etsy or because we're best friends!

For a fourth entry, post the giveaway to your blog. Then leave ANOTHER comment with a link to your post (not just your blog) so that I know you posted it!

It closes at 11:59 pm on Friday night!!!

I'll announce the winner on Saturday morning. I'll leave a comment on the winner's blog and we'll exchange info so I can mail it out sometime next week (amidst our moving...)

Gourmandise

We finally discovered the best thing closest to a French Patisserie in Utah. It's called Gourmandise and Oh, la la, C'est tres magnifique!

After we got our free meal from KFC (thanks Oprah!) we told the kids we'd get them a treat. I didn't know Tyler had this in mind. They were in heaven. We were in heaven :)

Tyler's favorite is the Mille Feuille (thousand leaves) or the Napoleon in America. Mine, in Paris, was the boring, Eclair. But to be honest, it wasn't very good here. So, the second time I tried their pear tart and it did not disappoint. And of course their chocolate mousse cake is divine. The kids enjoyed a chocolate porcupine, with help of course. It was a trio of white, chocolate mousse with chocolate cake and raspberry filling covered in dark chocolate and spiky almonds. Fun and delicious!



Plus the ambiance is great. They have outdoor seating and it feels like you're in a streetside cafe in Paris.

Ah, C'est la vie! (I apologize that I don't know how to add the accents....Wendy?)

Thoughts on Peacocks

We were able to go the Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City. The whole Liberty Park sort of reminded me of Paris, by a stretch. I suppose because it is such large park with green grass :)

The Aviary is small. But we were able to see some interesting birds. We barely made it into the park because the children were so fascinated with the geese outside the park (including those that were eating spaghetti. Who feeds geese spaghetti? And why would they eat it???).

We got pretty close to the Peacocks. These birds are funny. When I was younger I always wondered what that loud cry was when I went to the zoo. My mom then pointed the peacocks out to me and I learned where the sound came from. Then while we were visiting London we went to the peacock garden at Warwick Castle. I thought they were so beautiful. Their feathers are so elegant (of course, not the females...) And then when my parents moved to Mt. P they lived next door to a family who raised peacocks. And my high opinions changed. We'd wake up at 6:30 in the morning to sound of dying cats. Later when we'd go out to our car we had to "shoo" the birds off the top of our cars! No kidding, they are even more like cats the better I get to know them! Plus they'd poop on the windows and leave muddy prints on the top of the cars. They poop everywhere, they hiss, they yowl like cats. Wow, quite the resemblance. So, despite their beauty, we secretly wished they would all run away or disappear. Even when the neighbor moved, they didn't leave with him. They hadn't seen the ones nesting on the barn. If my sister Rose wasn't so good at imitating their call and if they weren't so beautiful, I'd probably detest the creatures.

Anyway, here are some more photos.

The first group is of Tyler saving a baby goose. He wandered out of his fenced area and was squawking while his mother was honking and looking for her baby.





Here are the fancy tailed creatures. It's all show. But it still scared Jocelyn.

P is for....

Now that Samuel is potty trained his pride gets the best of him. He now torments Jocelyn by saying, "You're a baby" , "You poop in your diaper" all.....day.....long. I blame it on this Little Critter book.

I am certainly no expert but I did learn several things about potty training. These are the "P's of potty training." I learned them mostly from one long, grueling year that it took to train Samuel, who was 4 1/2 years old when he finally got it!!! Here you go:

The "P's" of Potty Training:

Patience--You need LOTS of this. You cannot lose it or it will take the self-esteem away. Keep your self-control.

Perseverance--You may be one of the lucky ones and your child will train in one day. Or better yet, tell you they need to go potty and proceed to sit on the toilet and do it themselves. But if you are not one of those lucky ones, you need to trade kids with those parents and make them train your kids! No kidding. It can be a lengthy process but don't give up! Hang in there and persevere through it! It will happen before they go to high school. I honestly did not believe it when people told me this but the dream did come true!

Poopy and Peepy---Feed them lots of liquids, salty foods (so they'll be thirsty) and have them go every 5-15 minutes on the designated day you decided to start training. Ideally have them run around bottomless so they don't have to practice pulling anything off in a hurry. Make sure they are getting enough fiber to make their poops soft so it doesn't hurt. Use Miralax if their stool is too hard. Miracle medicine! Costco sells it for the cheapest price. Samuel's pediatrician prescribes it the most, second to Ammoxicilin (the pink stuff used for ear infections, etc). Read this book if you want to try it one day.

Prayer--Ask for help. Often. Period. (but don't pray for patience :) )

Priesthood--Ask for a Father's blessing if you need to. I think it helped Samuel, eventually.

Pull-ups--I went back and forth on these. Samuel uses them at night. But a diaper holds more. He still wakes up wet. But pull-ups are nice bcse they have fun characters on them and they can pull them up pretty well on their own. But I don't think they're a must. My neighbor, however, had her little girl wear them, instead of underwear, until she was fully trained. And she went pretty fast....so either way. It's your choice.

Praise--Make sure you give constant positive reinforcement. They love to complimented. There is never too much of this, especially in this arena. Praise, praise, praise. Tell them what they are doing well. Give them high-fives and smiles and hugs.

Play--let them read books or play with toys while sitting and waiting for it to come out. Let them watch a movie on the laptop (if on the big potty). Make it fun!

Porta-potty--use a small potty chair, especially for smaller children. (Jocelyn's hips were too wide so we tried on the big one right away...no, she's not trained yet). Or use one of those doughnuts so they don't fall in the big potty.

Panties--for girls and underwear for boys. Let them pick it out. Or buy some you know they'll love because it has spiderman or princesses on them.

Prizes--Use bribery. Why not? At first I did it wrong. I gave Samuel a piece of candy for going number 1 and 2 pieces for number 2. Then I gave him stickers too. And once he filled out the sticker chart we went to the toy store and picked out any toy he wanted (within reason). He was looking for something specific (which is why we started training in the first place..bcse he wanted this toy). The problem with this is that he peed all the time to fill up the chart.
So my pediatrician suggested using a scale. Start with small prizes. Like stickers, treats, etc. Once they achieve this move onto a medium prize like play outside, watch a special movie, a small toy, etc. Once they have achieved this (this is in days, not all in one day) and they are fully trained give them the ultimate. Like going out to the zoo, a party, buying the big toy, something new and different to make it worth the endeavor. It seemed to work with Samuel!

Positive Attitude!--Always keep this up. Smile and cheer as much as possible. Don't let your guard down. This is one of the areas I failed at. I let anger control the situation instead of looking at it positively. Samuel understood what he needed to do from day 1!!! But it became a battle. Don't let it become a battle.

Period (of time)--pick the right time and season. Summer is best bcse they can roam a little more free and it's warm enough. Also, look for their signs, not yours. Start when they are ready, not YOU! let it be about THEM! If you see you are getting too frustrated then step back, pause, and take a break. Then come back to it a few weeks or even months later.

Party!--Celebrate that evening, at the end of the week or when they've filled their sticker chart up. Make it big with special food, decorations, music, games, friends, whatever works. Make them feel absolutely special and proud of themselves for accomplishing such a great thing! Here are some photos from ours. I made some cheap-o hats and he had a free personal pizza voucher from pre-school so he got his very own pizza. He loved it!

He looks happy doesn't he? It's because we all had strep and didn't know it yet :)