Ripped Pants

We went to Epcot last Saturday. They have a big aquarium with trained dolphins. They picked all our kids to go up and wave their arms at the dolphins and the dolphins waved their fins back. So cool. Kendall also got picked to ask Crush a question in the turltle talk "ride". It wasn't really a ride, it was an interactive thing where the turtle talks to the kids - Disney sure knows how to do things. Well I wore some new pants on our little excursion this day and while bending over the stroller, I heard a little riiip. Uh oh I thought - well no one will notice. Well every time I bent over the stroller I would hear a little more riiip. Finally I went into the bathroom to check out the damage - whoa the rip was like 8 inches long - how embarrassing. I went to the first aid which was next door and got a couple of safety pins. Well, I guess it's time to lose some weight because when I sat down the pins bent and came right out. I so didn't want to leave the park because of my stupid pants so I pulled my shirt down and made Taylor walk behind me. We did leave earlier than I wanted, but Dale was being a party pooper and wanted to leave anyway.
So Max is a thumb sucker. I was a thumb sucker and I remember how addictive it was for getting to sleep. I've tried hard to make my kids take a binky so they wouldn't be thumb suckers, but to no avail with this one. He loves his thumb.

I have a new plan with my kids. If anyone knows Amy, they know she has her own agenda. It's hard for her to give up what she has in her mind to do what I have in mind. So I thought I would attack her nightly prize - a snack. The kids now have to earn their snack (okay I know I shouldn't use food as a reward, but these kids can't go to bed without a little something to eat). So I thought - "I need to notice the good things my kids do instead of nagging them about the things they are doing wrong." So for about a month now, I have been telling them when I see them doing something good that they have earned their snack. It has worked pretty good because they ask me if they earned their snack and I have to tell them what they did good - because I truly want them to get the snack. Amy has improved and really tries to do her best bless her heart.

Yesterday at church a few families - including us - were asked to go without buying food or watching TV for a week. They were trying to similate being prepared and what it would be like without electricity. Well we know what it's really like without electricity for a while from our experience in Washington last year and this is nothing. At least we have our fridge, washer and dryer, stove, and dishwasher. Going without TV will be a piece of cake - except Dale missed the super bowl. It's also Dale's birthday this week - good thing I got the steaks already. They told us we couldn't go out to eat either. Now if they had asked us to do this for a month - we might have had to dip into the wheat and beans and oats in the garage. I hope they're still good after being in the hot garage. I got my powdered milk out and it said "Best by April 2004" - Yuck.

I went for a bike ride this morning - it was beautiful - it's supposed to get up to 80 today. There was a blue jay flying nearby and cute squirrels scurrying up the trees. Then I saw the picture of Dale's dad shoveling snow in Utah and I was quite grateful for our beautiful weather here.