How my mind works, or what I think about in the shower

When I was a kid I had a small paper route. Now I liked the money and the exercise, but the monotony of it got to me sometimes. Everyday when I went out I would calculate as I went along how much I had left. It would go something like this, "I've delivered 3/21 papers. That reduces down to 1/7. I am 1/7th of the way done. I have 6/7th of the way to go." Each paper I would figure out the fraction of what I had done, and the fraction of what I had left. It kept me entertained while I did the route. But you can imagine that doing that almost every day of the year for almost 5 years made me really good at reducing fractions and finding common multiples and stuff like that.

So a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in the shower thinking, "I wonder how old John will be this year on his birthday... oh yeah, 32. Let's see. 32 isn't a prime number. It reduces down to 2^5. It would be great if we had someone that was 2. Oh yeah, Ruth is turning 2. This is great! John is 2^5 and Ruth is 2^1. We've got to have an exponents party. John will love this. I'll throw a surprise party." I was actually laughing out loud. I know, I'm weird. But John loves me.

Well, after further considering, I decided I could never pull off a surprise party without John finding out so I told him my idea. He did love it. He's probably the only husband around who would think that was great. But that's why I love him. He loves math and I love math (to a point).

Anyway so we sent out these invitations and had a grand old time. We saw lots of people we hadn't seen in a long time and the girls got to play for a long time.

And that's an insight into my thinking patterns that you probably didn't need but there you are.

Kid's Music

The girls and I really enjoy listening to music. Fortunately, our public library has a great kids' music collection. There's a lot of great kids music out there but there is also a lot of bad kids music. So here are a few of our favorite artists. (By great I mean it doesn't annoy the heck out of you to listen to it with your kids, or that John will actually listen to it.)

Justin Roberts--we love all of his cd's that we've listened to so far. He has a great song called "Meltdown" where the kids meltdown and then the mom does too. I really related to this song. His music is a lot of rhythm, guitar and a little brass. But I have to say that I know most of the words to the songs we have and I don't mind when they go running through my head.

Laurie Berkner--Clever lyrics and great rhythm. Sometimes her music grows on you. At first I don't always love it, but after a few listens I always do.

Jessica Harper--Great rhythm and good lyrics. It is hard to listen to her music without tapping your feet.

Jon Lithgow--I know you're probably thinking, "Isn't he the Third Rock from the Sun guy?" And yes, he is. But he also has several children's cd's and they are hilarious. He redoes a lot of old big band songs and then has quite a few that he's written. His is big band style and he actually has a great voice. He is one of our favorites and even John likes his stuff. His voice always makes me want to laugh (in a good way).

VeggieTales--You gotta love these guys. We do. "We are the pirates who don't do anything", "Bald Bunny" and "Billy Joe McGuffrey"(otherwise known as John's life story) are our favorites. There's also a little ditty called "Steak and Shrimp" on the Jonah cd that John and the girls like to listen to over and over.

Anyway, there you have it, our kid's music picks. The girls also LOVE Disney's Cheetah Girls, but it is ultra girl power so if you don't have all girls in your house it might not go over as well. I actually had to give the girls the "boys are OK" talk after we had listened to this cd a little too much.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you my little secret. There a website called emusic.com that is kind of like a napster thing. Anyway, they don't really have anything normal (by my standards, sorry if I've offended anyone) but funny enough they have a lot of kids music. I think they work mostly with independent labels and that's where a lot of kid's music gets made. Anyway they have an introductory deal where you can download so many songs for free. I did that and got a lot for my ipod that we really like and then I canceled so they really didn't make any money. Oh well at least they got some free advertising right here.

The Emma-verse

I'm sure if you read John's blog you've encountered the Emma-verse. I'm here to say that it is all true. And some day I'll be telling this tale behind bars. Here's an example:

One day we were running around in the car and we were listening to a children's cd from the library by Ella Jenkins. She's a folk singer from the 60's and does a lot of folk music. We listened to the whole cd and it was all right. BUT one of the songs had like a third verse that went something like "Kiss me Mama, Don't beat me Mama, Not a bucket to sell." So what thing do you think Emma chose to learn and repeat out of all 13 songs and 60 minutes of music. Her and Mary start singing this song and I'm not really paying attention in the car. Then we go into the grocery store and they both start singing that line over and over, very heartfelt, and Emma at the top of her lungs. Emma even threw in a few, "Beat me Mama, Don't kiss me, Mama" improvisations just for fun. I tried to be calm and ask them if we couldn't please sing something else. After a while they complied but I could tell that Emma really wanted to keep singing. Needless to say I got a few weird looks and the cd went back to the library. (I would just like to point out that I don't beat my children, although sometimes I'm tempted.)

Emma Cool

"I'm cool even when I sleep!!" That's my Emma. (She was totally out when this picture was taken. I took three pictures with really bright flash and it didn't phase her a bit.)

The orchid that started it all

This is the orchid corsage that John bought me for Mother's Day this year. We have a tradition that every Mother's Day John gets me an orchid (nature's perfect flower). It actually started the year before we were married. I think I had gone on one official date with John but I was playing baseball one Saturday and I was talking to him and he said to make sure that I was in church the following day. I said OK because I usually went and didn't think too much more about it. Later John called my apartment and asked the relief society president (my roommate Kaylyn) how many girls were in the ward. We thought that odd too, but we got over it. Well, the next day after sacrament meeting, our 1st counselor in the bishopric stood up and said that someone had anonymously donated orchid corsages for all the girls in the ward and that the elders would pass them out. We, as girls, were stunned. Kaylyn and I put 2 and 2 together and knew that that anonymous donor was John. No one else was nice enough or generous enough. We went home that day and Kaylyn said, "Someone in this apartment needs to marry that boy and it's not me! Tara call and ask that boy out." So I did (ask out and marry) and the rest is history.

(After John and I started dating, which only lasted about 3 weeks before we were engaged, I had it independently confirmed that he was the orchid man by two of his friends and the counselor in the bishopric. The conversation in each instance went something like, "I'm not supposed to tell anyone, but you know that John bought all those orchids, don't you? He's a really nice guy." I of course didn't need anyone to tell me that, but it is always good to hear.)

Mother's Day

The girls got me charms to go on my charm bracelet for Mother's Day. We took them to the mall and John let them each pick one out. Then we bought two of whatever they picked so that I could have one to represent them and they could have a matching one for their bracelet (I HAVE ALL GIRLS FOR ANYONE WHO DOESN'T REMEMBER--THIS METHOD MAY NOT WORK IN EVERY FAMILY). That said, the girls loved it and so did I. I thought their choices were enlightening.

The first charm is mine and says "It's a girl thing" because that's the only kind of "things" we have in this family.

The next, a crown, is Kate's. She is the princess.

Mary's beautiful pink jewel studded flower shows her love for all things girl. (Her favorite phrase is Don't I look cute in this?)

The monkey with the banana is Emma's. Enough said. She was so excited about this charm that she ran out of the store with it to show me. (Luckily she was not arrested for shop-lifting).

The heart with wings is Ruth's. She does have a big heart. Just ask Emma the next time Ruth decks her and then gives her a BIG love saying sorry with all her heart. And she must have wings because I don't how else she gets to some of the places I find her. The other day I told her to go in the bedroom so we could change her diaper. When I followed her 3 min later she was laying on the changing table all ready. How did she get there? I feel it's better not to ask.

And John chose "I rule!" for Lily. She doesn't exactly rule our house but if she's anything like her sisters, she probably hopes to some day. Anyway, I love the bracelet. It is really fun!