Ben has had another "1st's" weekend. He accomplished a lot of things this past weekend that he never has before and we're SO proud of him! And in no particular order, here they are!

-helped his momma make some blueberry muffins for breakfast! Now... he dumped the package of muffin mix in the bowl and I measured out all the wet ingredients and he dumped those in also.

-Went bowling!

-decided he was okay with potty training, and #1 and #2'd in the potty!!!! I have NEVER been so excited for someone to use the toilet in my life! Well... I'm sure there were a few times I was excited for ME to use a potty...

-has decided that ANYTHING that's broken or that resembles broken needs batteries. For example his blue plastic basket that has a broken side... needs batteries. :)

Beezy

I think I forgot to mention Ben's latest thing to say. It's amazing just how much these little kids of ours listen to us, even when we think they aren't. The other night I was making dinner and Ben wanted to "help" but I told him that he could help me next time and that I was busy because I was tyring to get us all fed at a decent hour. So when dinner was done, I called Ben to come eat and he said "No Mommy, I beeeeezzzy". Which is actually quite cute. He also started saying when I call for him, "don't call me mommy". And has now since combined the two! The other day I called him from the bedroom when he was in the family room. He came to me with his eyes are squinted and said very seriously "Mommy, don't call me. I beezy." and I said "yah, I'm busy too" and he said "I beezey too. I play with my toys." and then walked out and said "BYE!" He's a hoot.

Still enjoying it even two years later...

A New Member of the Smith Family

Introducing little Sofie! We drove with Nana to go pick out a little Lhasa Apso girl. Ryan grew up with a Lhasa Apso named Mandy and I think ever since then both the Smith's and Ryan decided they wouldn't have another kind of dog. (Hence why we have Ally whom we love very much.) She's a lot bigger than Ally was, but she is a snuggle bug and already loves Ben. On the way home, she pretty much insisted on sitting in his lap in the car seat. She didn't want to sit with me or anyone else but him. And he loved it. He drove his cars up and down her back and she didn't mind a bit. We brought her to our house to meet Ally and so that we could let her out of the car before we took her over to the Smith's. Plus Ryan and Debbie had to go to the pet store to pick some stuff up, and Ben needed to nap. We've been a little lame in that we haven't socialized Ally much. We need to... but I think she just doesn't give a crap about other dogs now! Anyway, Sofie is cute and we're excited to see her grow! And hopefully her and Ally will be buddies. I'm sure once she's out of her "puppy" stage and Ally can tolerate her more, they will be!

I don't know why, but I don't remember a lot of things from like oh 9 or 10 years old and back. I do remember a few things, but they're very gray in my mind and I'm not even sure I'm remembering it correctly. But every once in a while, something triggers a memory for me. A song, and smell, a sound...I just heard a sound that for one reason or the other happened and made me think of my childhood days either after school everyday or during the summer, all day long. My manager who sits near me has a small tape player at her desk that (she just told me) she got from a second hand store. When she got it, it came with a tape already in it, and she was just trying to do something with it and it kept playing some piano music. The sound of a cassette tape nowadays is odd to hear first of all, but that with the combination of piano music triggered the memories of my mom's voice students she had all those years of growing up. She also taught piano, but the recordings usually came from the voice lessons she gave. I do have a very distinct picture in my head of our living room in Flagstaff looking from the bottom of the stairs, or the top of the balcony upstairs or from the dining room. We had parquet floors and it stepped down in to the in the "dusty rose" (pink) carpeted living room with white lace curtains I used to hide behind and a big bay window that looked out to the beautifully landscaped front yard. Mom ran the Nola Collier Studio of Music (right mom?) with these voice and piano students for many years. She also taught at Northern Arizona University while we were in Flagstaff- but I feel like she enjoyed her home studio the best. Many of my weekends or nights were spent helping with recitals, master classes and also when she had to do juries (not to be confused with jury duty). We only had one car and so dad and I would take mom to Ashurst Auditorium at NAU for these different events. The thing that triggered my thoughts about all of this though is that mom would have Sis. Tobbler or other talented people (who I can't think of their names right now) play accompaniments while she recorded them on her tape player in her "studio" in the living room. This was to play for the students during their lessons if the accompanist couldn't be there for the lesson, or to take home and practice. (I think I named Sis. Tobbler in particular because I remember she would come for several lessons at a time, and while mom's students were warming up she would sit on the couch and knit or crochet or read.) Mom also would record the student singing so that they could hear themselves and learn the parts they were singing weakly in the tape better. I just remember that background sound of the tapes being rewound, fast forwarded, stopped, played, stopped, etc. in preparation for her next lesson. She was very organized. I used to love listening to SOME of the students sing (not all were good) and I began to memorize a lot of the songs; especially the Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables songs (although, I don't really remember them that well anymore) and other songs from the Basics of Singing book. So much so that, every once in a while I remember my mom calling from downstairs to me playing in my room upstairs to be quiet because they could hear me singing along and it was disrupting the lesson! oops! (I must confess that embarrasses me now... hopefully they just thought I was a cute kid and not annoying.) Some of mom's best students in my young opinion were Ervie Isom, Midori (I don't remember how to spell her last name), and Shayne. There were very many more, my mother has a way with teaching people how to sing. From totally tone deaf to almost bearable which is quite a feat. Even in her 73rd year she is still leading people in music. For the 1billionth time she's the ward choir director, and true to form when she is called there is no one in the choir and by the time she leaves there are 30-40. I remember my friends in the Flagstaff 6th ward saying to me that they loved to hear my mother sing, and if she made a CD of her singing they would listen to it all the time! Although she doesn't sing much anymore, I will always cherish those memories of her. Her beautiful voice, her Love of music, and her ability to share it with just about anyone.

And that cassette tapes were pretty cool too. So weird our kids will never know them...

It's starting to get to the point where I'm needing the Fall. It's hot. It's hot and humid and has been for FIFTY days... My cucumbers are dead, my peas are dead...our grass is brown and it's too hot to mow. Plus the mosquitoes are out like crazy. I feel like I'm constantly falling asleep at my desk... I just always feel tired. BUT...on the positive side, it's still warm enough to go to the pool. My squash, green peppers and Tomatoes are still fairing pretty well, the earth is still pretty and green and the days are still pretty long. Although I love the Fall, and CAN'T wait for it this year- this has been a very fun Summer for us and I feel very blessed.

We had a good weekend I guess. I had an Infant shoot on Saturday... don't worry, no Infants were harmed in the shooting of pictures! She was cute and tiny and pooped a lot and peed all over the floor, but I got some good shots. Those crazy little newborns! Who do they think they are? Poopin' and peein' everywhere. Anyway, after that when I got home it was about time to eat lunch, Ben and Daddy had already eaten lunch and Ben had ketchup ALL.OVER.HIS.FACE! Oh boy, he's a riot that kid. We cleaned him up and he was ready for a nap. His poor little eyes were red and droopy (but not from the ketchup). So he slept, and I rested and then after everyone got up we got ready to go and went dinner with the Terry's and then afterward went with them to the baby store to look for strollers, highchairs, cribs, etc. for their little soon-to-be little mamasita! Sunday we went to church and heard an interesting talk about U2 and the Joshua Tree album and how "The Streets Have No Name" were instrumental in this young man's decision to serve a mission for our Church. Hmmm, interesting to say the least. I was a little lost at the validity of it all, but to each his own I guess. Nothing much else to report for the weekend. We went to the Terry's for dinner. And other than that did nothing else.

Except for Ryan wants you to say "Irish Wrist Watch" three times. Try it. Try it when you're just waking up from a nap. That's funny!

We may be taking Ben to his first (out of womb) concert next week! We haven't decided 100% yet but we are thinking of taking him to the Jack Johnson concert. I think he'll like it. I hope... that would suck if he didn't. We'll see. Oh and speaking of Ben, apparently he has a "thing" for baseball right now. He talks about it CONSTANTLY so we decided to get him a little cute t-ball set. He loves it... and STILL talks about it constantly. Maybe we'll have a little sportsman on our hands? Neither of us are in to sports so I've got to figure out how to be a good sporty mom. Although, Ryan played t-ball and little leagues and was also on the swim team for years. I on the other hand played softball... well, okay, played is the operative word here. I basically sat the bench the whole season (with good reason, I sucked) and "played" at a scrimage game. Kinda sad huh? I feel a little pathetic admitting it. I think Ben will also be musical too- which is more of my kind of thing. He likes to play the Terry's piano and sing songs a lot. So we'll see.

Yesterday in the car on the way home he growled and Ryan said "Benny, are you a monster?" Ben replied with "No, Daddy... I'm Elmo"

I sure have been thinking about and missing my big sister. Not a day goes by I don't think of her. I keep having flashbacks to the day I found out and how horrible it was... but try to replace it with my good and fun memories of her. I sure hope she's having a ball, wherever she is!