Charm Red Apple Slicer from IKEA

I love eating apples with cheese. Sliced apples, not whole. I hate actually slicing the apples, though. It’s the coring part that bugs me. I can never get a smooth curve. My apple slices end up looking more like a jack-o-lantern mouths gone wrong. Enter the Charm Red Apple Slicer from IKEA. My new culinary best friend. Position the slicer over the apple, press down, presto! Eight perfectly sliced and cored apple segments. Yum.

My Song in the Night

This always makes my heart smile.
(Click here if the video doesn't work.)

Movies

I like movies. I like movies a lot. I like a lot of movies.

But, to keep things short, here are 36 of my most favorite in alphabetical order:

1.        17 Again

2.        A Little Princess

3.        Amelie

4.        Avatar

5.        Contact

6.        Evan Almighty

7.        Ever After: A Cinderella Story

8.       (Everything M. Night Shayamalan)

9.        Frequency

10.     Harry Potter Saga

11.      Inception

12.     Iron Jawed Angels

13.     Just Like Heaven

14.     Les Miserables

15.     Life Is Beautiful

16.     One Night With the King

17.     Pixar Short Films

18.     Practical Magic

19.     Pride and Prejudice

20.    Return to Me

21.     Romeo & Juliet

22.     Seven Pounds

23.     Star Trek

24.     The DaVinci Code

25.     The Family Man

26.     The Family Stone

27.     The Incredibles

28.    The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

29.     The Matrix Trilogy

30.    The Pursuit of Happyness

31.     The Terminal

32.     The Ultimate Gift

33.     V For Vendetta

34.     Wall-E

35.     What Dreams May Come

36.     You’ve Got Mail

The Flock Gawk

They are perfectly unified. Hundreds of tiny souls with one mind. Alone, they are ordinary and unremarkable. But together they are a marvel. A wonder. A glorious visual splendor of nature. I look at this and I feel hypnotized. I can’t tear my eyes away. It’s a dance, and each dancer is perfectly synchronized, working to create an aeronautic ballet. Moves that flow like water down a mountain stream.


Watch this video.

I love what the guy says at the end of the video: “How good is that?” Oh. It’s good. Very good.

Band-Aids

Jacob dropped a chair on his toe yesterday. It was a child-sized chair, but it’s made of solid wood and quite heavy. Poor guy. He cried so hard. It wasn’t bleeding, but he kept asking for a band-aid. Band-aids are the next best thing to a mother’s kiss when it comes to ouchies.

We go through a lot of band-aids at my house. Some of my favorite kinds are:

Nexcare Waterproof bandages. Not only are they waterproof, but they stay on really well. Plus, it’s much harder for little fingers to tear it off. Helpful!

Band-Aid Knuckle & Fingertip bandages.

They rock.

Band-Aid Activ Flex bandages.

Great for blisters. Super thick and cushiony. Plus they stay on really well.

And of course anything with fun graphics.

Grace has a Little Golden Book called “Nurse Nancy.” It’s one of her favorites. It’s about a little girl with three older brothers who don’t usually like to play with her. (Hmmm. I never realized how much that reminds me of my childhood. Just add two older sisters to those three older brothers and there you go!) Anyway, Nancy spent a lot of time entertaining herself.

“Nancy liked to play with dolls. She liked to play Mother. She liked to play Teacher. And best of all, she like to play Nurse.” Her brother gets hurt, but don’t worry. “Nancy was a nurse, so Nancy knew what to do.” Our favorite line in the book is, “That brand-new bandage looked so fresh and fine that even Tom could smile at it now.”

Aren’t band-aids just so fresh and fine?

Happy Birthday, Grampa!

Rulon Kimball Hodges

Ten Things I Really Like About You, Grampa:

1.        You had an amazing daughter who grew up to be an even more amazing mother. My mother. (Thanks for that.)

2.        You are a shining example of generosity.

3.        You keep a rockin’ orange grove.

4.        You have impeccable taste in ice cream.

5.        You always offer to get someone a drink.

6.        You’re a morning person. Me too.

7.        You have a refreshing sense of humor. Especially when you joke about yourself. Like the leak in your face.

8.       You’re a really good looking guy. I think you looked like Mel Gibson when you were younger. (Only slightly more handsome.)

Yep. There's a serious resemblance.

9.        You wear great shirts.

10.     You’re “Smooth. Right on.”

One Thing I Don’t Really Like About You, Grampa:

1.        You live 10 hours away and I can’t see you nearly enough.

A Few of My Favorite Memories of You:

1.        You made me a safe out of an old post office box and gave it to me for my 8^th birthday.

2.        You and Nanny took me with you up to the cabin at Lake Arrowhead once. I felt so special because I was the only grandchild who got to go. I fished for the first time on that trip.

3.        Remember when you used to let me pluck your ear hairs with tweezers? Bahahaha!

4.        For my 15^th birthday, you and Nanny flew me to California to spend a few days with you. I think that was the first time I had ever flown in an airplane. You let me drive the golf cart with you. That was fun.

5.        My family and I were living in Salt Lake City. It was right around my 16^th birthday. I was in my room in the basement when I heard someone call my name. I had no idea who it was. I looked up the stairs and saw you and it took me several moment to process that it was really you. I was completely surprised by your visit. (Plus a little embarrassed because I was only wearing a tee shirt and underwear at the time.) You drove your green truck 681 miles to bring me a beautiful bedroom set. A bed, new mattress, box spring, new sheet set, dresser, desk, and chair, and I think even a lamp. You helped me finish my bedroom. I remember you saw a place on the wall where I had tried to hang a picture. I’d nailed hole after hole trying to find the right place. I think you thought it was ridiculous. You showed me how to do it the right way.

6.        We got a laugh once when we realized that we both used the same toothpaste (Aquafresh) and deodorant (Mitchum’s.) Great minds think alike.

When it comes to grandfathers, they just don’t make them any better than you. Grampa. I love you!

Your granddaughter,

Amy

Zip-Up Sleepers

There’s a war going on in my home. It’s Jacob vs. Mom (aka me). The problem: Jacob won’t keep his diaper on. The solution: still working out the kinks on that one.

So, he’s taken off a wet diaper a few times before this most recent streak. But lately, it’s poop. The first time he took off a poopy diaper he was in the living room. After he was naked he decided to sit down on our 8’ x 5’ rug and ponder on his cleverness. I put Jacob in the bath and Ricky worked on the rug. It took him a lot longer than it took me. We ended up throwing the rug away. We decided that we needed to keep onesies on him from then on. I went shopping for more onesies the next day.

The next time, Jacob was in his crib. When Ricky walked in, Jacob had it in his hand. Ricky ran and got a plastic bag and had to firmly and repeatedly say, “Jacob! Drop it!” This time Ricky bathed Jacob and I cleaned out the crib. So Jacob can unsnap his onesies now. Great. Plan B: Onesies on backwards.

Plan B failed. The next time, Jacob was sitting on the small table we have in the kitchen that the kids eat at. Ricky wasn’t home for this one so I took care of it all. Plan C: overalls. The next day I went shopping for overalls. (Thank goodness for DI and Sweet Pea or we’d go broke.) Most overalls have snaps on the bottom, though. So I just sewed them shut. My sewing machine can’t handle some of the thick material, though, so I’m going to use crazy glue on those. Just try to get out of those, Jacob!

I almost couldn’t believe it when Plan C failed. Somehow, Jacob managed to take off a poopy diaper with his overalls still on! Curse you, offspring! He was sitting on the sofa. I came in the room, his diaper was to the right of him and a nice lump was to the left. We took the cover off the cushion and tossed it in the washing machine. I was tempted to toss Jacob in with it, but chances are he’d just think it was really fun and I’d have to find a way to lock the laundry room doors to keep him from trying to climb in every time I wasn’t looking.

I talked with my sister-in-law, Tasha about my adventures, and she suggested zip-up sleepers worn backwards. So, I went shopping for sleepers. It's hard to find a sleeper that is NOT fleece, has a zipper instead of snaps, and is a size 2T. But I did find a couple. Plus, most sleepers have feet, so I had to cut them out. Thus began Plan D.

So far, so good.