Spencer's Preschool Profile

Spencer must be growing up - last year he wanted to be Spiderman when he grew up.

(Where did he get the idea to be a doctor? No idea. Maybe because we seem to visit the doctor all the time!)

Mail Call

Oddly enough, my family in Utah gets junk mail for me. Odder still is that I have never, ever lived at the address they're at, so why in the world is mail for me getting sent there?

But it gets even weirder. Look what came in the mail for me during our visit last week.

In case you're wondering, I blurred the address. I just figured my fam didn't want it posted on such a world-famous blog. Ha.

Oh my.

I mean, seriously. This is wrong on so many levels.

Wrongness #1: It's like Karen with an 'M', not like Maren with a 'K'!!!! C'MON PEOPLE!

Wrongness #2: I don't even have a middle name, let alone one that starts with D. However, in high school my good friend Jen thought it was weird that I didn't have a middle name so she christened me "Maren David Roper". (David being the middle name of the boy I was so in lurrve with at the time.) How did the junk mail people know about this?! Am I the only one who is getting a little paranoid right now?

Wrongness #3: Roper is my maiden name. I've been a full-time Madsen for nearly nine years now. If the junk mail people researched my fake middle name, they could at least have the courtesy to use my married last name. I'm just sayin'.

My New Best Friend

I have a new best friend.

Meet Rojo. (Pronounced with much rolling of the tongue to make it sound very masculine and exotic.) (Even though I cannot roll my tongue, much to all of my high school Spanish teachers' grief and despair.)

Rojo is the Enrique Iglesias of laptops: powerful, sexy, shiny, hot, and mole-less.

I luuurrrvvvee him. (Rojo, not Enrique.) (Not that Enrique is so bad; but can he support the latest version of Firefox or Photoshop? I think not.)


My last laptop went to that big laptop heaven in the sky, we had a generous tax refund, and my husband is a computer guru: it was the perfect storm as far as getting a new laptop is concerned. I'm so glad I did.

Rojo has more power, more memory, and just more more more. Sure, he has a slightly smaller screen and now I have to learn how to use Vista (no biggie), but he's lighter and cuter and friendlier. He can run bigger and better programs and doesn't stall or have keys that stick. He's just better all around.

As a bonus, Rojo doesn't throw tantrums or whine or complain. He doesn't freak out when I say, no, you can't have more juice, you've had too much today. He goes to sleep when I tell him to and doesn't wake up until I'm ready for him. He's not addicted to the computer or Wii, and always does what I say.

Unlike certain little boys who shall remain nameless.

Oh computer love. Thy name be Rojo.

Long Day

I am having to deal with an ornery cuss of a toddler again today.

I had to listen to him cry and scream any time we were in the car. I had to keep him away from the water cooler in the waiting room while our car was worked on. (I was mostly unsuccessful, much to the amusement of the other people in the room.) And I had to drag him kicking and screaming out of the library. Again. (As in for the 2nd time this week.)

And now he's fast asleep on the couch and I know I should wake him up but I just can't bring myself to wake the slumbering beast.

And it's only 12:30pm.

Anyone want a two year old? I'm just sure he'd behave better for you...

Utah Trip

Why did I go to Utah last week? Well, I certainly hope it wasn't to take pictures, because I totally failed on that front. Oops.

I just wanted to get one more trip in before bebe numero tres makes his appearance. Plus, it was Spencer's Spring break, and I didn't want to have to come up with ways to entertain him at home. I mean, that's something akin to work... going to Utah? Much easier. (Right.)

The boys are actually pretty good little travelers now. On the first leg of our trip out the plane was only about 2/3 full, which was weird. But great! The boys were able to wander the ailes and each have their own window seats and ate snacks to their heart's content. (Southwest flight attendants are by far the most friendly I've ever encountered!) Then from Denver to Salt Lake the boys actually slept almost the entire away. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles. Seriously, flying out doesn't get much easier than that.

We didn't do a ton of activities during our stay, which was actually kinda nice. We relaxed and watched movies, played Rock Band, wondered what was up with my brother Kyle and his girlfriend, harrassed my brother Kevin... good times. We did do a few things, though.

One day we went to the Bean Life Science Museum on BYU's campus. Josh loved it because he's goin' through an animal phase. (Every animal is either a mommy, daddy, or baby. Tres cute.)

Spencer, on the other hand, was five going on fifteen. A serious grouch. Whatever, dude.

On another day we went to this placed called Jumpin' Jacks in Springville. It's like a small warehouse full of inflatable slides and whatnot. Running, jumping, wrestling, playing - a veritable little boy paradise.

It was hard to get anyone to hold still for pictures - even Uncle Kevin. Uncle Kevin was great; Josh wasn't quite big enough to get himself up the taller slides, so Kevin would drag him, sluglike, up and then hold him on the way down. It's a hilarious sight burned forever into my brain!

Here are a few videos of the sliders. Notice how Kevin bonks his head on the cieling before coming down. That's what happens when you're a giant, Kevin.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And here's my favorite shot of Josh coming down a slide by himself. Such grace.

We also enjoyed several family dinners and I had a nice time catching up with everyone. No pictures because I was too busy gabbing, but oh well. If you want to see what my Roper family members, just go here and then imagine them in winter clothes.

Oh - I almost forgot one of the coolest things we did! We spent the day with Lance's family, and we went to the Lehi Aquatics Center. (No pictures, but that's because my camera is most definitely not waterproof.) The boys had a BLAST! There were several kid slides and sprayers and things to climb on. There was a huge bucket that filled with water and then tipped it all out every five minutes or so. (Josh and I had to sit under it five times in a row...) The boys could have stayed all day and were quite dissappointed when it was time to leave. I had fun, too, although I was pretty tired after dragging Josh around everywhere.

And of course no trip to grandpa and grandmas would be complete without a few soaks in the big pink tub. Bubblebath is made all the better once the jets are turned on!

Thanks so much to all of our family for lodging, feeding, and entertaining us (especially the boys). It was the perfect little trip I needed!

True Story

My little imp, resting up for an evening of torturing his mother dear.

So today was rough, mainly because of a certain jet-lagged toddler. I'm not naming any names (Josh), but a certain someone just about drove me bananas with all of the tantrums.

But all of the drama did bring about one highlight for the day.

Spencer's preschool had a Subway fundraiser tonight (go to Subway, the preschool gets some money). I'm all for that kind of fundraiser, but I knew there was no way - ever - that both Josh and I would survive an evening out. So I decided to just pick up some sandwiches and we'd eat them at home. I figured we could survive the ten minutes it would take to order and pay for a few sandwiches.

I figured wrong.

As soon as we got there Josh started terrorizing the chip display. And when that became boring the cups were his next target. Then he started running around, screaming jihad like the crazed little toddler-terrorist that he is. At this point I decided I had to hold him for the rest of our excursion.

Thirty weeks pregnant with a struggling, crazed, 40 pound psycho. One of my finer mothering moments.

At that point four burly firemen came in and started ordering sandwiches. While I tried to negotiate the apparently intricate details of a preschool fundraiser flier with the Mickey Mouse band-aid-on-the-eyebrow sandwich girl, one of the firemen tried to distract Josh in order to help me out. While Spencer was impressed, Josh was not and struggled and screamed all the more for it. At this point I turned to the fireman and said "Want a two year old? I'm giving one away today."

His reply?

"No ma'am. We don't work with things that dangerous."

Firemen are smart.

Oh... Hi There

So apparently I forgot to warn you that I was headin' out to Utah last week. Hence the lack of blogging. Several of you emailed me to make sure I was okay, which was really nice. (Unfortunately, I also took a vacation from checking my email.)

It's also really nice to be home. It's nice to...

...sleep in my own bed
...have something of a normal schedule again
...not wake up to 4" of snow (yuck)
...shower in my own shower
...not feel obligated to shower
...hang out with Lance
...tell Lance he has to deal with the kiddos, not me

...and so forth.

Unfortunately, there are also some down sides to being home. It's not so nice to...

...deal with a two year old with jet lag. Seriously.
...deal with a five year old with jet lag
...have to do housework
...have to pay bills
...make my own meals.

*sigh*

Trip highlights and pictures to come. Because nothing is as exciting as looking at other people's vacation photos!