Friday, June 29, 2007

Fun Harry Potter Quotes

So my top five had to grow this week so that we could fit all six books in. This is courtesy of mugglenet.com. They have lists of funny and fun quotes from the books. I couldn't find my favorite though. When Dumbledore says he has a few words for the beginning of term and they include "nitwit" and other great nonsensical words!

Book 1-"Sir — Professor Dumbledore? Can I ask you something?"
"Obviously, you’ve just done so," Dumbledore smiled. “You may ask me one more thing, however."
"What do you see when you look in the mirror?"
"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks."
Harry stared.
"One can never have enough socks. Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn’t get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books."

Book 2-Warlock D. J. Prod of Didsbury says: "My wife used to sneer at my feeble charms, but one month into your fabulous Kwikspell course and I succeeded in turning her into a yak! Thank you, Kwikspell!"

Book 3-As though an invisible hand were writing upon it, words appeared on the smooth surface of the map. "Mr. Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business."
Snape froze. Harry stared, dumbstruck, at the message. But the map didn't stop there. More writing was appearing beneath the first.
"Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git."
It would have been funny if the situation hadn't been so serious. And there was more...
"Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor."
Harry closed his eyes in horror. When he'd opened them, the map had had its last word.
"Mr. Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball."

Book 4-Dudley had done the thing he was threatening to do since age three: He had become wider than he was tall.

Book 5-"Don't put your wand there, boy!" roared Moody. "What if it ignited? Better wizards than you have lost buttocks, you know!"

Book 6-"Oh, there you are, Albus," he [Slughorn] said. "You've been a very long time. Upset stomach?"
"No, I was merely reading the Muggle magazines," said Dumbledore. "I do love knitting patterns."

It's okay if her clothes don't match

At least that's what I'm telling myself. If I leave any of her clothes out, she's trying to yank them on her arms and legs. On the particular morning shown here, she kept bringing me different outfits to put on. I did insist on a shirt under the overalls before going out though!

Mystery Solved!

I thought it was just normal for babies to put food in their hair and play with their hair during mealtime. I thought there might even be some sort of innate routine if they could smell shampoo in their hair or their hair felt too clean, it must be time to put pizza in the hair! Alas, no!
She's just copying Daddy's "sit back and relax after dinner ritual"!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

My Magical Education


So, I failed to uphold Harry Potter Friday last week but there was no major uproar so I'm just now getting to it. My brother makes wands. He's a sculptor and he finds beautiful wood to carve into wands. Mine is still on order (it's been a few years, maybe I should remind him, hmmmm) But, if I had a wand and could go to Hogwarts, which I absolutely would! I would take:

5. Herbology
4. Transfiguration, who hasn't wanted to transform something!
3. Charms, I would skim off some fat and straighten my hair without a blowdryer!
2. Potions, I like cooking!
1. Defense Against the Dark Arts, of course!

What about you?

ps- You can sign up for classes and take quizzes and learn fun stuff at mugglnet.com!

Monday, June 25, 2007

Noodles


Megan's grandma LOVES Noodles and Company! They're all over the Twin Cities and there's one between our house and grandma's work. So she'll call us up a few times a month and meet us for lunch there! We love it because M just eats off our plates, Grandma gets M time, the food is so yummy, and Grandma usually treats! :) I was scrapbooking the other night and realized how many pictures we have from there. You can see why some of the servers recognize us!!!!


Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Boo?

Several people recently have commented that our little one reminds them of "Boo" in Monsters, Inc. What do you think?


It's official x 5


I have Picasa envy.

M has figured out that walking is for transportation and not just to get cheered on all the time.

Our lawn is dead. We refuse to go broke watering it!

I truly don't like my car anymore. The check engine light is on again...and we were just there last week!

My house is a mess and my cleaning motivation is running very low.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

ps

I feel I need to qualify my last entry. Yes, we will go camping again. And yes, I did have fun...part of the time. I loved watching M get comfortable in her new surroundings and it really helped her to have to walk around everywhere between the picnic table and chairs. (Heaven forbid our skin touch the grass!) We love camping, this just wasn't the most fun we have had camping. And I have sufficiently blocked out all previous memories of camping in the rain and how miserable that is...for obvious reasons apparently, so next time we will watch the forecasts more carefully! :)

Monday, June 18, 2007

itchy itchy itchy

So, get comfy, this might take a while.

We have been wanting to go camping for a while. We haven't been for a year and we like camping. We're not super extraordinare hike in, dig a hole to pee in, campers. We are all about drive in camping with a tent and nearby toilets that flush. We like to rough it, kind of. So we cleared a weekend and W got off work early and we drove out to Taylor's Falls. It's on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border and it's beautiful there. Rolling hills, trees everywhere, the St. Croix "Rootbeer" River and waterfall. We camp on the Wisconsin side because it's cheaper and that's where we used to go as kids with my grandparents. It's very nostalgic and I feel like a good Manwaring girl when I go there. We haven't been for three years though.

Fast forward to Friday. We knew it was hot. We knew that would make it tough. But it was 95 degrees!!!! That's hot for Minnesota!! A storm was supposed to roll in on Saturday so it was starting to get really humid too. Camping in that kind of heat is tough. I tried so hard to be optimistic but the truth is, in that kind of heat I kind of shut down. W was so sweet though. He recognized that I'd spent all morning preparing to go camping so he basically took over once we got to the campsite.
Meggie in nature
I love this picture with Dad!
Gee, what do you think she was eating???

It was beautiful and we had a beautiful camping area on the edge of a meadow. We love this campground!!!! However, so do the mosquitos! It's the state bird of Minnesota, right? They were EVERYwhere! I was putting on bug spray every fifteen minutes and still getting bites. Not W or M, just me! I hate bugs! I have a bug complex. If I see a bug bite me, I from then on feel like every brush against my skin is a bug biting me and I basically go nuts. It's a bit neurotic. Plus, it was stinkin' hot still! We drove around so we could sit in the air -conditioned car (once again, thanks to my patient hubby) and got back to the campsite. We blew bubbles, played with M, walked around and tried to sit in the shade. It got more and more pleasant as the evening came on and we even started a fire so we could cook dinner.


M went to bed in her play pen in the tent like a pro and we had yummy foil dinners. And then it got very dark and very windy. We started roasting marshmallows and making banana boats, my all-time favorite camping dessert! Halfway through my banana boat, however, the storm scheduled for Saturday, arrived! I ran for the tent while W insisted on finishing his s'more. Therefore, instead of reminiscing by the fire all evening, we went to bed soaked and still very hot around 9pm.

W and M slept fine but hot. I however was sleeping under the center of the tent where the tent got saturated and was dripped on ALL NIGHT LONG! Do you know how hard it is to sleep when you're being dripped on? Plus, it finally cooled down so I was also paranoid about M getting chilled and/or bitten to death as it had been so hot at her bedtime that she was only in a diaper and t-shirt. I was too chicken to wake her up and put her jammies on so I just stressed about it all night. Slept well? not so much! The next morning, it was hot by 6am, M's wake up time, and soooooo humid because of the rain. I insisted on another car ride hoping that the morning would clear up and we could salvage our day and do some hiking to the falls and enjoy the camp. Halfway down the road to nowhere, however, the car started making a horrible noise. Yes, that's right, a piece of the car was dragging on the road.

This is the point in our trip where I started crying and trying not to say bad words and asked if we could just go home! We got back to a gas station by driving 25 mph and duct-taped, yes, duct-taped the piece back to the car. Classy, eh? We went back to the campsite and I single-handedly cleaned up and packed up camp, I was so ready to leave. I slept in the car and tried not to scratch my many souvenirs the mosquitos gave me.

ps-the new Off! family "clean feel" spray? Doesn't work!!!!!!

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Daddy

A year and a half ago, Will got an eternal birthday present. Someone to share his birthday with!
He didn't have much experience with babies but he dove in head first and has loved it ever since.
He is patient, loving, kind, mellow, sweet, supportive to me, hard-working, and thoughtful.
He reads to her, hugs her, kisses her, holds her, plays with her, feeds her, prays with her and loves her with all his heart.
He even has someone to watch football with now. Touchdown!
He doesn't get enough credit for how much he does and how thankful we are to have him lead our family. M & I love you. Happy Father's Day, squidge! And as M says, "happy daddy!"

I'm Proud of You


I have a pretty wonderful Dad. To some people, he's scary and intimidating and doesn't smile. To those who know better, though, he's funny and warm and loves to give hugs and is mush inside. I have worked hard my whole life to hear four words that he says to me every time I leave to go home. "I'm proud of you." When I would leave home to go back to Logan, I would always wait to hear those words. When I send really long wordy emails and only get eight words in return, I'm okay with it because it's usually "I'm proud of you. I love you. Dad". When all of us kids are home, we often have family home evenings or devotionals. My Dad is one of those Dads who cries. He gets emotional when moved by the Spirit or when talking about his kids and grandkids. It is so evident that he loves each one of us and is proud of each one of us. He has always inspired me to work harder at school and to be a better wife and Mom. He encourages me to always do better, but he also makes sure I know he loves me. And I'm proud of him too.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Harry Potter Friday!

Dumbledore just got killed. I'm finishing book 6. I am rereading all the books before the new one comes out and I just finished the worst part. So, is Snape good or evil? I have to think he's evil since he killed the greatest wizard of all time. Yet, I'm just not sure it wasn't all a plan. Dumbledore just spent the entire evening teaching Harry that he's stronger and more important than Dumbledore will ever be! But was it really necessary to sacrifice himself for that?????????

Here's the link for the trailer . It's a newer one with more detail for movie five than I've seen in the others. It just makes me more excited!!!!!!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

fun with cousins!

My sister sent me her pictures from our recent trip down south. The last night, after swimming, M and her cousin Everett had a fabulous good time spinning in chairs. They were giggling hysterically!


Monday, June 11, 2007

crayons

It's 89 degrees today-that's hot for here! Especially following several weeks of low seventies! I'm so grateful we invested in the new air conditioner. It works hard, but it feels sooooo good!!!!

I have a white rolling craft chest with several drawers in our office. The answering machine sits on top and it holds all sorts of neat things like pens, pencils, tape, post-it notes, staples, crayons, markers and batteries. It sits in its spot most of the time unnoticed. M noticed it today. In fact, she discovered she can open its drawers and better yet, she has discovered the crayon/marker drawer. It's like Christmas! For her, at least! She has become obsessed with getting the crayons out of the drawer! See, up until now, we've been stuck in the "crayons are yummy" phase and so I kept trying to keep her out of the drawer yesterday. This morning we picked up right where we left off and so I got some printer paper and showed her how to color again and got her a tupperware to put the crayons in knowing the box would be destroyed in no time. So all day, we've been taking crayons out, coloring briefly, and putting crayons back in. It's a very technical process, you see. But we already have fridge-worthy artwork to display. So now we're working on "crayons are for paper only". Wish us luck!

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Bath Time!


I'm at Grandma's house and she has Picasa! So I had fun creating collages! Now my pictures are as cool as everyone else's! :) Thanks Grandma Jan!

Friday, June 8, 2007

what not to crochet

I found this crochet site on someone's blog. It had me ROTFLOL!!!

I can see clearly now!

The spots have passed! M is allergic to Penicillin like her mother and grandmother before her. Luckily the new antibiotic is working fabulously and she woke up happy and singing and ate a full breakfast for the first time in 10 days!!!! I love happy babies!!!

I love clean laundry! I love to smell M's clothes especially-love that baby detergent! I was putting away laundry and smelling my clothes as I did it. I love when I can smell the clean smell when I first put them on as well!

I love shoes! I don't like buying shoes but I love having shoes. I would own tons of shoes if I could afford it. Why? My shoe size doesn't change when I gain or lose weight!! :)

I love flowers! You'd think I'd have a wonderful garden but I don't yet. Someday I will have enough money to buy pretty flowers for my yard...once I figure out what to do with my yard, that is.

I love Fridays! That means W comes home for the whole weekend and I don't have to work for up to four days and today it's going to be 70 degrees! Love it!!!

I love my little one! I hate when she's sick-it's very depressing when your rarely fussy baby is fussy-it wears me down! Yes, I know I'm so doomed with my next one! And no, that's not an announcement!

Harry Potter Friday

My Top 5 Harry Potter Sites:

HPANA -this site gathers all the news from the other sites for you!

Warner Brothers Official Site -you can download pictures and wallpapers, watch the trailer

MuggleNet -you can send people howler emails!!!! At least you used to, I haven't tried it in years!

J.K. Rowling's site -cool links and fun games to play

The Leaky Cauldron-another fun recent discovery

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

I'm seeing...spots!

Well, M is STILL sick! Poor girl, I was starting to get so impatient and feel so cooped up with her and then I looked at her tummy and noticed tiny pink spots all over! We have to go to the doctor this afternoon to find out if it's a reaction or what's going on because she's still not better and now we have spots! I just want her to feel better soon!!!!

Monday, June 4, 2007

Book Review: Twilight


I just finished Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I had read some good reviews on it and found out she graduated from BYU which usually ensures a clean read. Then I stumbled on a blog of a lady who is, well, an obsessed fan and thought it was at least worth a library rental. So I ordered it from the library. But I didn't get around to reading it and it's a thick book! I got the reminder that it was due in two days and realized I needed to get crackin'!

Well, two days later, I can say I really enjoyed it! It is about a girl who falls in love with a vampire. Seriously. And it's a whole new take on vampires that I really enjoyed. It's convincing and suspensful and exciting without being too scary (I've had many sleepless nights thanks to Mary Higgins Clark and Law & Order). I've already ordered the sequel from the library. While the little one has been sick, I devoured that book and over 500 pages of Harry Potter 5! Anyway, it's a fun read!

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Weekend Worries

Why do kids get sick on the weekend? Then you have to spend the weekend in an inner debate. Do you go to urgent care for them to just say that it's a virus (which you knew deep down) and you have to wait it out, drink fluids, use tylenol and rest? or Do you wait it out to call the doctor on Monday to only find out that it was an ear infection and if you HAD gone to urgent care, you would be two days ahead on getting rid of it? This is usually complicated by being right before or after vacation times (at least with us) so the worry is compounded by missing extra work, contaminating family members, and not being able to travel possibly. At least for us...

M got a cold on vacation and has been sick all week. She has seemed pretty okay except for the runny nose and cough but has been warm off and on as well. This weekend, though, she is hot! We've been fighting to keep her fever down and worrying that it's a cold turned ear infection or that she has had the fever all week and we've been masking it with her cold medicine that has tylenol built in.

This is the part of parenting that stresses me most. Worrying that I'm making things worse or not doing enough. W stayed home with her during church and I was just heartsick sitting alone at church-lonely and worried for my little one. I cried the whole way through fast & testimony meeting only to call home before primary and find out that she wasn't any better. She even watched a whole movie with Dad...that's a bad sign!

Friday, June 1, 2007

Harry Potter


I just found out that the 5th movie The OOTP comes out on July 11th, not July 13th like it was originally planned. This could be very good for me. See, I'm having my gall bladder taken out on July 11th but not until the afternoon. I figure, if I can't eat, maybe I can go to a movie before I get the my insides taken out. When it was going to be on the 13th, I figured I was going to be the last to see it. I went to one of the earlier movies on opening night, midnight. I don't remember which one. But it was fun. I told Will that maybe this one we should go to the opening show, just for fun. Then the surgery ruined that. So maybe it's fixed. We'll see! In honor of my current jubilation that I might get to see it after all, I hereby declare Fridays Harry Potter days! For this one, here are my five reasons I'm excited for movie number five to come out:
1. Fred and George finally get to shine-I love F&G and don't think they get enough spotlight but they definitely make up for it in this chapter!
2. two words: Hermione rebels
3. Luna Lovegood and Tonks, I can't wait to see how they are portrayed!
4. Another of my favorites, Lupin, returns to the action
5. Even though this book is darker than the rest, I am glad there's no more waiting and worrying for Voldemort to return, he's returned, so now they start to do deal with it

Big Kids


Meggie and Hazel just want to be big kids like Christian and Everett sooooo bad!!!! They would steal food off their plates and try to climb into their chairs-too funny!

Highlights!

M and H playing "nice" before the catfights began!

M wanted to take Tickle Me Elmo to Grace's graduation. Not sure why but he was the "baby" that day.

M loved playing Grandma's piano and singing. She took it very seriously-turning the pages to different songs and singing as she played! Too cute! I'm still working on putting video up on the blog because we have some cute video of this and her walking.

This was M's favorite spot at the pool-apparently she loves swimming as much as I used to! The good news about that is there is hope!

The last morning, Grace helped take care of M while I packed. She was so distraught that I might leave without her that she lost it and fell asleep!

17!!!!

b.jionunjuui7686hhj7jj7yyyyyyy (M wanted to say something :)

We were in the den playing and she walked across the whole room totaling 17 steps without falling! This may be for real!!!!