Mr. Octopus

This is a much loved garage sale item that has kept Jeff and I entertained on many a night. It is fun because it is a scale, octave, octopus, it just makes perfect sense.

Lauren showing us how she plays Mr. Octopus

P.S. I was looking through old posts and Jeff is in four pictures. In three of them he is wearing a brown t-shirt that says "Pal" on it and in the fourth picture you can't see his shirt. What is funny is that he doesn't wear that shirt very often and is more often wearing shirt like in the video, in case any of you thought that Jeff was a slob.

A special Concert given by Jeff

It also is quite the fashion statement. Next step, the runway

Here is just a random photo of our day. Lauren's shoes are all in a basket and today she wanted to play with the shoes so I got the basket down, and if you look closely she put three pairs together. Lauren is our little "pairer." At Sunday dinner she grabbed my Mom's finger, and took to where my Dad was sitting. Kind of like saying you to go together, you should sit by each other. Eventually my Mom sat back down where she was sitting before and Lauren repeated her pairing. She has also done it with Josh and Deanne. She just knows what goes together.

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree

Sorry my dear blogging friends for being such a slacker in posting. I have been a little busy with my new calling of, get this, cub scouts. What is ironic is that I was talking to a lady in our ward and she had just found out that she was getting released as the den leader, and she was really sad about it. I told her that that is one calling I don't ever want to have. And it turns out that Heavenly Father has ears, and probably a sense of humor as well. Since I don't have a clue about scouts except that there is a birdhouse involved, I have been spending my spare time reading the scout manuals.
Now for Christmas tree fun; we went to this place called "Santa's Woods" in Blair and it was really cute. Santa was there and they had reindeer (back-ups in case one of Santa's gets sick or something, and believe you me that they looked like back-ups). But what I thought was so cute was upstairs in the barn. There was a man who made wood toys and was there showing them off, and a lady selling her knit sweaters and hats. There was also a lady who was hand-painting ornaments. It was like Santa's workshop up there. Needless to say it was very cold that day and we rode the tractor up to the field they dropped us off, picked out a tree and were back on the tractor in about 90 seconds to go get more hot chocolate.

At home Lauren was a great helper. She helped Jeff put the screws in the tree stand, and helped untangle the lights, sort of. She loved hanging up the ornaments. They were on the couch and she would grab one and race to the tree to put in on and then race back to get another one. So a lot of our ornaments were at the bottom of the tree where Lauren put them, but as the days go on they are mostly at the top where Lauren can't get them. I'm afraid of putting presents under the tree. Maybe I'll have to triple wrap them.

Cakes are made of Flour and Water.

I threw a baby shower for my friend Jenny and got it in my mind that I was going to make a fondant cake. I didn't really want to make a fondant cake but like I said I got it stuck in my mind. I may lack motivation and gumption but if it is my head it is going to happen no matter what. Sooo not really wanting to make a cake that no one would eat because it had gross fondant on it, I decided to make a little cake, for decoration mostly. This way I could use a cake mix, store bought frosting and pre-colored fondant to ease the work load, since it didn't matter because no one was going to eat it. Here are a couple of pictures of the cute little sailboat cake, which turns out tasted really good when you peeled off the fondant.

A couple of days later I had another cake idea get stuck in my head, but when I went to grab a yellow cake mix, all I had was lemon, so I ended up making a white cake from scratch, which I'm sad to say was not as good as the cake mix. Here are pictures of my cake dedicated to my true hero Martha Stewart :) (The colors of the cake are the colors of her logos)

HuSBanD TaG

1. WHAT IS YOUR HUSBAND'S NAME ? Jeffrey Clarke

2. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN MARRIED? 800 Days

3. HOW LONG DID YOU DATE? 221 Days before we got engaged and we got married 92 days later.

4. HOW OLD IS HE? 25

5. WHO IS TALLER? Anyone who knows us, knows that answer

6. WHO CAN SING BEST? Depends on who you ask

7. WHO IS SMARTER? Hello, my husband is in medical school, but I am smarter

8. WHO DOES LAUNDRY? I do, but he is very good at getting stains out.

9. WHO PAYS BILLS? I do, but he's the one who knows how much money we have.

10. WHO SLEEPS ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BED? He does

11. WHO MOWS THE LAWN? Torrey Pines grounds maintenance, but he will when we actually have a lawn

12. WHO COOKS DINNER? Taco Bell

13. WHO IS THE FIRST TO ADMIT THEY ARE WRONG? Neither of us are ever wrong, we are just both right in different ways.

14. WHO KISSED WHO FIRST? He did. BEFORE our first date. Men. (eye roll)

15. WHO WEARS THE PANTS? We discussed this at length and Jeff said "I choose to let you wear the pants." Very generous, don't you think?

I tag Alissa, Natalie and Marni

Independent Thought

I guess I figured it was still too early in Lauren's life to have her own will when it comes to clothing choices, but I guess not. Yesterday I opened the dryer and pulled out the green hoodie, a white onesie and a pair of khakis for Lauren to wear. Lauren appeared out of nowhere and pulled out her hawaiian dress. Whatever, I thought I'll just let her wear the dress because we're not really going anywhere. So I put the dress on, but she wanted to wear the hoodie too. I didn't fight with her because I just got over a bout of the wrathful stomach. (phrase from Marni and Jon) Then she tried to put the pants on herself. Today she picked out a purple sock and a red sock for me to put on her.

This little ladybelle is such a stinker. She was playing with her stars and when the music would start she would shake her head really fast, until she got really dizzy looking. She does it just a little bit in the video but not to the extent she was before I got the camera. Oh by the way I got picture tagged. You are supposed to post the fourth picture in the fourth folder, but my fourth folder only had two pictures in it, so I consider myself exempt from the tag!!

Call Me Crazy

Okay, I have a semi-embarrassing confession to make, though some of you already know it. I love High School Musical. And today High School Musical 3 comes out in theaters. I really wanted to go see it, but a person my age can't go see it. So I was trying to finagle ways that I could go and see it.

1. Find someone 10 year old girl in my ward and take her. (Problem is that I don't know anybody in my ward yet. However I did just get called to be a primary worker. Maybe I will be teacher over that class).

2. Go to the 9:55 movie when all the youngsters will be in bed and then I could have the whole theater to myself to laugh at whatever I wanted to laugh at. (But I'm to tired to go that late at night)

3. There really is no third option, which is why I am posting this post and not at the theater enjoying more of the drama of High School set to music.

Someone should really tell Sharpay that red and pink clash.

Butter Anyone

This morning Lauren woke up with a scream followed by some cries, which isn't unusual. But when I walked into her room she was still laying down. Usually in the mornings she dumps all of her blankets out of her crib when she wakes up. So I went over to her crib and looked at her and her leg was stuck between the slats. I tried to pull the slats apart just a little to see if she could pull her leg out. That didn't work so I went and got some butter out of the fridge. When I got back she was sitting up so her leg wasn't at a weird 90 degree angle anymore. I tried to pull her pant leg up but it was so tight I could barely get it up. Once I got butter on her leg it slid through pretty easily. But she has a bruise on her leg and she sat on my lap for about 10 minutes after that, and those of you who know Lauren know that it must have been a traumatic experience if she sat on my lap. Good thing I didn't have to call 911.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins

On Friday we had our friends come over and carve pumpkins with us. (Jeremy, Natalie, Addie and Davis) It was really fun, but I was thinking that I have never personally carved a pumpkin. I guess for some reason in my head it seems like a man's job. Strange sterotype isn't it. Ours is a haunted house. It was commented by our neighbors that it just looked like a house. I guess you have to make the connection that since it is on a pumpkin it is haunted.

Ultrasound Results

We had our ultrasound today and at first they couldn't tell what the baby was, but since they had to measure and check the anatomy of the baby there was 45 minutes to have the baby move around. And I was super shocked to have the technician say that it was a girl. I could have sworn that it was going to be a boy. Oh the drama that I will have to deal with. Sisters always hate each other. Que Sera Sera.

Garage Sale Addict Annoyomous

This message is to all those who find their lives deteriorating (or at least their driving skills) because of garage sales. I am addicted to garage sales. But I believe their is hope to overcome (aka Winter). The signs of my addiction is apparent on three different levels.

Level 1: Whenever I see a sign I have to turn, it is almost involuntary. I could be going 45 mph and slam on the brakes to be able to turn. I did this once and my brakes squealed and I felt a little embarrassed.

Level 2: If I have looked in the paper or on craigslist for a garage sale I have to be there right when it starts. I have this phobia kind of anxiety attached to my addiction that if I am late someone will buy all the good stuff.

Level 3: Now this is by far the worst and most telling that I have garage sales way too high on a priority list. I stooped so low as to clean out "precious penny" (see photo) to have money for a garage sale. Now "precious penny" is Jeff's pride and joy! At the end of each day he puts the change he finds on the ground in it. It is a most reverenced item in our household.

They say the first step is recognition, but isn't the second DeNiaL? Ha Ha

Home Sweet Home

I'm adding a couple of pictures of our apartment for the benefit of those with very literal minds like mine. I always need the details. Like what were they wearing, and who else was there, to really enjoy a story. It really drives Jeff crazy when he tries to tell me a story and I interrupt him 10 times, and since he is a guy he never knows the answer to these questions anyway. What does this have to do with pictures of our apartment, you ask? Well it will make the story of our life more real if you know where it is happening. Right? Well if not, then I am just posting pictures of our apartment so you can see it.

Say LEHI

The other morning Lauren was looking at the pictures in her blue Book of Mormon. She was looking at this picture of Lehi and the liahona. So I said "Lauren say Lehi." She started to wave and it took me a second to realize that she thought I had said "say Hi," not "say Lehi."

I'm a Mom

I always wondered why moms had nothing better to talk about than their children, but I have recently discovered the answer to the that question: There is nothing better than talking about your children. I marvel at the pride I have in Lauren when she says words like "car," "go," "Jenny," "Hi," "Here," and since yesterday "mamom." Maybe it is because I taught her everything she knows, well almost. The video here shows off her animal sounds skills.

Scarecrow and Mrs. King

Those of you who know me know how much I love Scarecrow and Mrs. King. During my most recent re-viewings, I began to wonder about all the episodes that I missed or taped over. So I got online and order the set on DVD. 10-14 days. How could I wait 10-14 days for such an anticipated item of mail. To quote Billy Melrose from the show, "I couldn't sit still anymore than Amanda could." Everyday I went to the mailbox with hope in my heart only to have it crushed. Finally it came "express from China." From China? So I open them up and they are just in sleeves with handwritten numbers on them. While watching them there have been a couple of episodes with commercials in them. Like they took somebodies videotaped Scarecrow and Mrs. Kings' from when they first ran on T.V. and then transferred them on DVD. Think these are pirated??? What a bummer. I was hoping for digitally re-mastered quality, with edited scenes, and interviews with the cast. Oh well. I will still watch them and still love them.

What have we got ourselves into?

Medical School really hasn't been so bad, for me anyway, Jeff is home by 5:30 which is earlier than he has ever been home before. After Lauren goes to sleep Jeff studies again, and I'm so tired that I fall asleep at 9:30 while Jeff studies with the lights still on. Jeff is doing well so far except the fact that since he has been in Med school I suddenly have no reflexes in my knees or triceps, conductive hearing loss and hard thyroids! And it has only been three weeks. (Do think I should get a second opinion)? Lauren likes to have Jeff or I use the stethoscope on her head, her hand, and on her little ducks. To amuse Lauren while he studies Jeff will do physical examinations on her giraffe or on her baby doll. During the day I try to keep the house clean, you know it really is a lot of work, I've never tried to keep up on housework before. Whenever it got to disgusting to live in, I clean the house, or wash the dishes when there weren't anymore clean ones. My hat is off to you people with clean houses.