Setbacks

it seems like there are always setbacks no matter how good things seem to be going. andrew is potty trained. he can go to the bathroom by himself. he knows when to go and he flushes the toilet when he's done, turns off the light and shuts the door. it's great. then today he plays with the toilet paper. he put almost the whole roll into the toilet. yeah, it clogged. the water overflowed and was all over the floor in the bathroom and started to come into the hall. i called the maintenance people and then called my dad. he told me how to turn off the water. then i started to clean and the guy came and snaked it. he said that by how easy it was then it was probably just toilet paper and no toys. i told him i think andrew learned his lesson the last time about toys in the potty. anyway, i just find it so weird that andrew would be so good for so long and then go and do this. i hope he realizes what he did was wrong.

Scrapbooking or Book Scrapping?

i'm almost done with my wedding album scrapbook. i went to michelle's house on wednesday and got a lot done. i've been married for almost 6 years and i'm still working on this. actually, i had all the pictures in an album that i made, but i like the idea of a scrapbook where i can write in it. i enjoy "book scrapping" but i don't get to do it as often as i would like. i think that i'm gonna do some more this coming week. i hope so.

Yummy, with a Side of Hooray!

my mom's plum tree produced plentiful plums this year. she's been giving them away like crazy. i tried to find a recipe for plum pudding, but all i could find were recipes using raisins. um, hello! raisins aren't plums. anyway, i found a plum jam recipe. it seemed simple enough, four ingredients, so i printed it off. a couple days later i was at my mom's house. she was telling me to take some pectin home so that i could make the jam finally. we couldn't remember how much was needed so i asked my sister rachel to find the recipe online. she found a different one that was even simpler. plums, water, and sugar. no pectin needed. i was very excited. so i did that recipe instead. well, i just tasted the jam for the first time today. it was good! i think if i make it again i might add just a little more sugar. if you want the recipe go to cooks.com and look up plum jam. it's the one with only three ingredients.

Andrew is Growing Up!

i think it's safe to say that andrew is potty trained. most mornings he wakes up dry and he goes potty on his own during the day. he hasn't made a mess in his pants in over a week. hooray for andrew!

Family Game Night

my kids love to play games. yesterday we kinda had a family game night. first we played with dominoes. i set them up and they got to knock them down. then we just matched them and made designs. it wasn't a real game, but they like it. after that we played candy land four times. emmy won the first three times. i won the fourth time. andrew was really upset that he didn't get to win. then we played chutes and ladders once and andrew won. finally! then they just played with the dominoes again. it was fun, but sitting on the floor for too long really hurts my hips. i think four games is gonna have to be my limit from now on.

The Reunion

we had a fun time. we played games, went sightseeing like tourists, and nobody broke any bones.

actually, one of my nephews showed up in a cast. according to my sister his leg wasn't broken. with all the running around he did his cast was starting to deteriorate. nursemom talked to the doctor's office on the phone and then my sister, sarah, talked to them. they said that we could take the cast off and see how he does. mrbusdr has lots of power tools in his garage. sarah held the boy while the cast came off. i couldn't watch. now i know that this is his grandchild so mrbusdr is gonna be super careful, but i still couldn't watch. i saw about the first ten seconds and left.

we played a couple rounds of bob. i wish i'd kept a page to post it here. they were pretty funny, except one player seemed to have a facination with potty humor. i tried to make it adults only, but that was shot down. we also played dutch blitz, scattergories, and boggle. i wish we'd played taboo. that's one of my favorite games.

we went to virginia city and walked around there. i can't understand why anybody would live there. the roads are too steep. i'd freak out in the wintertime. it is a cute town with an old timey charm, but that wouldn't be enough to get me there when it snows. we also went to lake tahoe. nobody swam, but we waded in the water. afterwards i had to change andrews clothes 'cause he was so wet. my sister yelled to me that is wasn't a nude beach. ha ha, very funny.

so now i'm sick. i got sick yesterday. we'll see how long it lasts. i can't afford to go to the doctor since i have no medical insurance, so i'll just have to wait it out. apparently one of my sisters got sick, too.