A Day in the Life, Well... Two Actually!

Hey ya'll. Sorry it has been a little while, yet again, since I wrote. I have had a few things happen the last week that I figured might be worth sharing. I should have wrote about them separately but oh well, sometimes it just doesn't happen that way. This last Sunday we had a visitor, Gail and Michael's grandson came to visit. Conveniently enough, his name is also Michael. Little Michael is what they call him, even though he isn't really all that little, he actually just graduated from high school. Anyway, he got to enjoy a day in Celeste's world. We played with Eryn outside all day. We did everything from try to fly kites (which there really wasn't enough wind for that, but try telling that to an excited 5 year old) to catching lizards. That is one thing that there is plenty of here in Louisiana. It isn't uncommon for me to sit out on the deck and be visited by 3 or 4 lizards. They come out and sit by me, they stare for a bit trying to decide whether Im a friend or foe...then they run off. Anyway, I took some pictures of our day together. You are prob thinking, finally, some different pictures. Haha.
Anyway, so the other thing that I wanted to mention to the masses is this... let me set the stage. Last night, Gail and Mike decided that they were going to go to a movie. They needed to get out of the house for a bit and I wasn't gonna complain cause to tell you the truth, I needed some time without them as well. Anyway, part of Eryn and I's routine when we are alone together at night is that I put her in the tub and she plays and then she gets ready for bed. Sounds easy enough right? Well, last night I put her in the tub. She was happily playing with her growing assortment of bath toys ( she adds new ones almost every night, I think she is up to like 30 toys). I happened to get a phone call and so I stepped away for a moment to tell the caller that I would call them back in a few minutes. After hanging up the phone I turned back to Eryn just in time to catch her in the process of going poop in the tub and then proceeding to pick it up... play with it... and then put it in the toilet which is right next to the tub.... Ok, now in my mind Im thinking.... uh, what the heck?!? You are 5 years old, you should know better. There is something wrong with this picture.... but what actually came out of my mouth was more to the tune of.... Eryn, you get out of the bath tub right now.... why did you go poop in the tub instead of getting out and using the toilet. She really didn't want to get out of the tub because she wasn't done playing... but since she prob thinks Im a mean nanny anyway, I made her get out. I wasn't about to let her continue playing in water in which she just shat.... Anyway, needless to say the bath tub and all the tub toys have now been soaked in bleach and hopefully she learned that it is soooo not cool to use the tub as a latrine. Anyway, has been the goings on of the week in my world... I hope to be better at keeping you guys all updated. Sorry there is not picture of the floating log.

A'hoy Matey

As you all know, life is full of ups and downs... sometimes your even being thrown sideways and diagonally, but through it all, there are two options: 1. to give up, and never make anything better. Or 2. do what ever you can to make things better and just keep pressing on. If any of you know me really well then you know the last few years in my life have been full of changes and challenges and I would like to think that I am becoming a master at the 2nd option. I really don't believe its even any competition when it all comes down to it. I have drive, and I wanna make things the best I can. In the end, if they still suck, at least I know I did everything in my power to change things and I can be happy with what I have accomplished. Some of you may be wondering why in the world I am being so sentimental and reflective (even though its been known to happen from time to time). Well, I'm not going to go into specifics, but lets just say that things in my life have yet again taken and interesting turn (for better or worse has yet to be determined). Through it all, I'm hoping that all parties involved will be able to come to an understanding and be happy with the outcome. I really didn't want to make my blog a outlet for venting so I will shut up now. I just wanted to let y'all know I'm still alive... On a happier note, it is beautiful here. Gail's older son Tim has been staying here for the last week because he is trying to get moved into a place not far from here. It has been nice having another person around who isn't exactly in the thick of everything that goes on here in the house. I was feeling really stir crazy yesterday cause lets face it, I don't get out much unless I'm taking Eryn to or from school. I asked Tim to take me somewhere to get a drink (dad, I have cut down on the soda a lot! Thank you very much! haha jk). He took me around a town called Mandeville that is just a couple miles away from where I am in Covington. You know, I feel bad that I haven't been able to go exploring more because it really it beautiful here. I love pretty much everything about it, so far... even the humidity sometimes. Tim took me down to Lake Pontchartrain and was telling me how back in the day, a really long time ago that pirates actually would come here to Lake Pontchartrain to hide out. I thought that was great. I got to see a bunch of Yatch clubs and hear some good stories. I really enjoyed my time (Eryn free) with him. If any of you ever get a chance to come here and visit, please do. I really don't think you will regret it.

Secret Stashing Place

Nothing to exciting has happened this week. I had my first day alone, completely alone, in a month. I didn't even get to spend it doing anything fun, I just did a bunch of paper work. I was completely bummed out about it, I won't lie. Haha. Anyway, So, Eryn has come up with this new thing she likes to do. She likes to hide her shoes. She isn't allowed to wear sandals at her Pre- school because of the gravel so she has to wear sneakers. She has been in this I don't wanna go to school mode lately so she has been hiding her shoes. Finally after 3 days of looking high and low for them, we finally found her hiding place. She found the key to one of her parents filing cabinets and has been locking away her shoes in there... sneaky child. Anyway, at least we didn't have to take her shoes shopping and now we know her dirty little secret. Haha. Its quite clever actually, once you get past the whole being annoyed with her for it part. Well, hopefully this next week brings with it some exciting adventures. Wouldn't want life to slow down any would we.

Me, do accounting???

Today has been a long day. I have been helping Mike do a lot of data entry work. His accountant died and left a lot of things unfinished, as a result he has to re-do his 2007 and 2008 taxes... or more like, I have to do his taxes. I didn't realize I was going to need a degree in accounting to be a nanny. Oh well... I better at least get brownie points for this. On a more exciting note, I am working with Gail to set up a business. She used to teach interior design and a few colleges and has wanted to set up her own institute. She has been having me help her and wants me to continue helping her as a part of her company. Which is pretty awesome, I won't lie. She is going to launch her courses by doing it online first and then she is going to actually open an institute and hold classes. Its pretty exciting. We finished her website last night, its up and running. If any of you wanna check it out its at http://www.masterdesignersinc.com . I am going to be working on getting some ads posted for it so people can sign up and get started with their courses. Its pretty cool. I'm excited. Life is constantly changing!

Mothers Day!

Today the family that I am working with decided that we were all going to go out to dinner to celebrate Mothers Day. Dining out is something that I don't do very often so I always feel awkward when going to fancy places to eat. This particular place is an old plantation home that has been converted to a bed and breakfast/restaurant. It was a very pretty building. It was a very interesting and long dinner. We were accompanied by a friend of the family who happens to be a very smart and well known scientist. You know how things go when you talk to people who naturally think on a higher brain wave than most human kind? Well, usually the jabber is accompanied by a glazing of the eyes cause the subject matter is only understood by very few people that somehow manage to keep the conversation going while the rest of us sit there hoping that food will come so that their mouths will be occupied long enough for your brain to stop hurting. Well, imagine having dinner with a couple people like that. Lets just say that it was a very long 2 hour lunch. Although the building was extremely beautiful, you would think that for 60 bucks a person that the food would have been better. The redeeming quality of my day however occurred after dinner. We all came back home from the restaurant and I received a phone call from my younger brother who is serving a LDS mission in Nebraska. I know to some that talking to their family isn't exactly a highlight... but for me it is. My younger brother Derek just happens to be my favorite person on the planet! I was so excited to be able to chat with him for a while and am super excited that he will be done with his mission in just a few months. I love you Derek! Also, since it is Mothers Day, I will give a shout out to my mom.... YO MOMMY! I love you!

Quack! Quack!

Have you ever been scared of something silly? Something like water, or flowers or for the sake of my story... ducks? Well.... I believe that after yesterday I have completely traumatized Eryn into being utterly afraid of ducks. Why you may ask?! After I picked Eryn up from Pre-school yesterday I decided that it would be fun to go down to the pond and feed the ducks. This is something that both Eryn and I have done before with no problems and she really likes doing it. Down at this pond there are ducks and fish and lots of turtles. (that is my favorite part, the turtles). Anyway, So I grabbed some pieces of bread and we went to the pond to feed the ducks. When we got there, there were a lot of ducks. I haven't seen that many ducks down there before so it surprised me greatly. Eryn was so excited cause there were a lot of them and she had bread for them all to eat. So we proceeded to start feeding the ducks. These must have been some pretty hungry ducks though. They were really big too. They actually were about as tall as Eryn is. We were trying to throw the bread into the water for them cause they were walking around on the grass and we thought if we threw the bread in the water they would go in the water.... the small ones took the hint but the big giant ducks wanted their food and they wanted it NOW. They proceeded to chase us all over the place because we had bread and they knew it was for them. Eryn started to cry and I had to pick her up and run with her because she was to scared. Needless to say, it will prob be a little bit before we decide to feed the ducks again. This experience however did not deter Eryn from playing with her rubber duckies in the bath tub last night so maybe her prejudice won't be against all ducks.... just the living kind. :)

You know your lazy when!

I just did something that I am slightly ashamed of yet... I'm definately not going to lose sleep over it. Haha. I was getting ready to brush my teeth, and rather than getting out my toothpaste I used Eryn's Dora the Explorer toothpaste.... so I guess you know your lazy when.... Haha.

Reaching out to the Masses! - That means YOU!

Have any of you ever been in a situation with anyone, whether its children or grown people, where there is one person who seems to play everyone against each other? Well, that is what I am going through right now with Eryn. Her mother returned from Poland on Sunday and ever since then it has been crazy. Everything that I worked with her on during the two weeks her mom was gone has pretty much gone right out the window. She won't let me help her with anything and she keeps throwing tantrums which in my opinion are completely unacceptable. I know that she is just really excited to have her mom home and she wants to spend time with her, which I understand. But there has definitely been more to her clingy-ness. I need to have a little sit down with the parents and we need to come up with some rules that we can all live with that will best help Eryn in the long run. If there actually is anyone who reads my blog, and you happen to have some advice on this matter... Please let me know. Comment, or email me or something. I would be interested to know what your take on it is.

Congrats Clarke!

So, one of the draw backs about being a nanny is that you end up missing your own family. I am one of those independent chicks who when Im home can't wait to get aways. However, when I am away I really actually do miss my home. This weekend was kinda rough. Week two in Louisiana. Thank goodness Im still alive. Haven't been washed out by rain or drowned by the humidity, not even eaten by the strange bugs here. (strange compared to Utah) Anyway, My older brother Clarke who just so happens to be one of my favorite people on the planet, graduated from Utah State University this last weekend. I was so happy for him. It hasn't been easy for him to go to school, work full time, and support him, his wife and their new baby. As proud as I am for him I have to admit, I was feeling a bit selfish this weekend and got really homesick because my family was all up in Logan with my brother and I was stuck here in Louisiana. However I guess that is one of the sacrifices that I decided were going to be worth it when I took this job. I am so excited for my brother though, he is going to be starting his masters program in just a week or so and I know that he has been blessed with the opportunities that he is being able to take part in. I wish him the best of luck and want him to know that I love him and miss him.