You can all breathe a sigh of relief...

Ta-da! Crisis averted! After blogging yesterday I continued to think of places to look for the beloved Baby Magic, and came across Babies R Us. On their website they didn't have the yellow kind, but they did have some other ones, so I decided that warranted further investigation. I hadn't been to Toys or Babies R Us since moving here, because the closest one is about a half hour away. I routinely drove that far to them in Utah, but, well, everything was pretty much that far. Here there are so many options so close (Last week I drove to the store, bought eggs, and was back home in EIGHT minutes!) that I haven't felt it worth the drive. But I was seriously panicking about the potential lack of Baby Magic, so I hurried and got ready to go and headed over.

At first I only found yellow with pink lids, which was "Original Baby Scent." It smelled close, but with a strong sunscreen-y smell on top of it. I was going to get a few anyways, since it was better than nothing. Then I found the "Soft Baby Scent." I was SO EXCITED!!! I told Dan I was going to buy 3. He said "You mean 10?" He told me he needs a guarantee that we wouldn't run out. So I gathered up all 5 there, and a lotion to make it a multiple of 3 (there was a coupon for $2 off any 3 baby bath items)!

Then I was feeling SO HAPPY that I let the kids talk me into buying some other stuff too. Oh well, it was worth it!

So, why was there that post that said Baby Magic wasn't being made anymore? I've decided it's one of several possibilities.

1. It stopped for a little while, then started up again.

2. Babies R Us is just using up some huge supply that will run out eventually.

3. It never stopped, the person was somehow misinformed (I couldn't find anything else to confirm or deny it).

4. That post didn't apply to the specific kind we love (looking at it not without the panic I was feeling yesterday, I think it doesn't apply to all kinds).

Reasons 3 & 4 don't explain why I can't find it at Target & Walmart anymore. But now I'm thinking it's probably #4, and I was all worked up for no reason.

On the plus side, now we have 195 more ounces of Baby Magic (since the 30 oz bottles came with 9 oz travel ones), and wouldn't it be silly to have all that if we don't ever have another little one to wash with it? Katy can't use it forever, it's getting hard to comb her wet hair without some sort of conditioner or detangler (which at the moment I am forbidden to use because it ruins The Smell).

And no, I'm not pregnant (yet?!?!?), thanks for asking. I will be in the hot tub in 6 days as proof!

Oh, and thanks Whitney for the comment! If I hadn't kept looking and found it there myself, I would be eternally grateful!

Baby Magic GONE?!?

Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! Okay, so we LOVE Baby Magic baby shampoo. It's what we have always used on our kids, exclusively. I love the smell, and, maybe more importantly, so does The Daddy. He really doesn't have an opinion about many baby-related things. He doesn't care which brand of diaper (although he did comment when I tried out some really cheap-o ones) or anything like that. But one time I tried buying a sweet pea scented baby shampoo, and he was really sad/mad. You just do NOT mess with the Baby Magic!

We always buy the big bottles of it, so they last quite a long time. Like many, many, many months. I finally was due for a new one while we were living with my parents just over a year ago, and my mom bought one. When it was time for us to move out I asked if I could take it, and she said no. :( So I dumped some (okay, probably like half of it...) into our container, to tide us over until I got some.

I've checked at Walmart a couple times with no luck.

I asked my mom where she got hers, and she said she thought it was Target.

Yesterday Katy & I went to Target. We couldn't find any. More upsetting? We couldn't even find a spot where it should've been!

I woke up thinking about it this morning, and went online to see where I might be able to find it. And I found this that says that IT ISN'T MADE ANYMORE!!!!!

You can still find some on ebay and amazon.com, and that's about it! Not Target, not Walmart, not Walgreens...even drugstore.com has it listed but says it's out of stock!

Dan, it's time we made a decision about whether or not we're ever going to have another baby. Because if we are, I need to start hording Baby Magic!!!!!

look what I made!

So I've been seeing pretty Easter wreaths all over the place lately. Nice, elegant looking ones with the eggs painted to look like real eggs. I thought about making something like that. But first of all, it sounded like quite a bit of work for something that could only be up for a couple weeks. Second, there was a good chance I'd screw it up, and it would look like I tried to be elegant but failed. And third, there just wasn't enough color for me! So I decided that instead of trying to make something that looks pretty according to the current decorating standard, I would just make something fun that I like! And I did!

I bought this grapevine wreath a few weeks ago for $3.50 during a fit of "I need to learn how to decorate." It's been sitting on the piano, waiting for inspiration to strike. So I busted out the bin of Easter stuff, stuck Easter grass all over the wreath, and hot glued on some plastic eggs. Then when I was running to grab another glue stick, I saw a bag of pom-poms in an open container (yes, sitting in the middle of the floor...see, something good came from me being homemakerly challenged!) that matched perfectly, so I added those as well. Then I stuck it on the wall! And it makes me really happy!

What I Miss About Utah

First off, I must say that I LOVE living in the Pacific Northwest again. There are MANY things I like better here. Maybe I'll blog about that later. For now, here's a (short) list of the things I miss most about Utah:

This was our house. There are a few things I miss about it. I miss the newness of it. It's going to take a lot of time & money to make our house here have pretty white baseboards & doors, nice new carpet, nice kitchen appliances, etc. And I miss having a central vac.

I miss some of my friends, especially Gayelinn. I really enjoyed walking with her, doing fun things together (this picture is from Cornbellys), and just spending relaxing time together. I've had many friends before & since, but nobody I feel as totally comfortable with as Gayelinn.

I miss being close to most of Dan's family. Not that we saw them all that often, but at least the option was there, right? Look at all those cousins (okay, so a few of them aren't from Utah, but they visited fairly often) to play with!!!

I miss Thanksgiving Point! We loved the Farm Country! It was like going to a little, close zoo with slightly less exciting animals. It was great for stopping by for an hour, not a whole day ordeal like the real zoo. And riding the ponies was FUN!!!

The other part of Thanksgiving Point I miss is the Dinosaur Museum. It was really well done for kids, lots of fun hands on stuff! And lots of fun activities on Monday evenings, like the Halloween one we went to in this particular picture!

I MISS Burgers Supreme. It is my all time favorite place to eat. They make my favorite cheeseburger, my favorite french fries, and my favorite fry sauce! All at one place! Mmmmmmm...

I also miss Lehi Bakery, especially their maple bars. They are to die for! Other places make good other kinds of donuts, but nowhere else have I found the flurry maple frosting. I will definitely be going there next time we visit Utah!

I miss Chilis. We used to go there fairly often, and there isn't one anywhere near here. Sad.

I miss all the fast food places with playplaces. Here we've got McDonalds. In Utah there was Arctic Circle, McDonalds, Burger King, and Carls Jr. And it seemed like a higher percentage of fast food places had playplaces. I guess there's an obvious reason for that!

Two more quick ones, then I gotta go get ready for church!

I miss our doctor, Dr. Peterson. We've found a pretty good doctor here, but we went to Dr. Peterson since my prenatal care for David, so we'd developed a good relationship with him.

And I miss having a close DI, both for dropping off stuff at and buying new stuff. I've been frequenting blogs lately where people take something old & ugly and made it new and pretty. I guess there are other thrift stores I could try, but I just love DI!

And...that's about it. I may think of more later, but these are the main ones. Is it sad that so many of them involve food? Maybe that's partly due to it being Fast Sunday....

funny joke, and random thoughts from my Monday morning

Just got this in my email, and I'm still giggling about it. Thought I'd share:

In the Supermarket
At our supermarket, I noticed a woman with four boys and a baby. Her patience was wearing thin as the boys called out, "Mommy! Mommy!" while she tried to shop.

Finally, she blurted out, "I don't want to hear the word mommy for at least ten minutes!"

The boys fell silent for a few seconds. Then one tugged on his mother's dress and said softly, "Excuse me, miss."
-- Dennis Dook

Random Thoughts

• Still haven't found my mail key. It's been missing for probably 3 weeks now, although I caught the mailman one time 2 weeks ago and had him get the mail. On the plus side, the car has been thoroughly cleaned out and vacuumed, and the living room, kitchen, and family room have all been organized, all in an attempt to find it. At this point I'm pretty sure either a) it got picked up with the junk mail and recycled, b) Katy carried it off and it's hiding with her toys, or c) it's hiding in all the paper clutter of the office. I really should get the office organized before shelling out 40 bucks. But it's a new month, we need our rent check from our Utah house and new bills and stuff. Oh, and I would guess our mail is being held at the post office by this point, I really should look into that.
• Ryan put his pants on backwards this morning. I told him to turn them around (If I just point out that they're backwards he laughs and leaves them that way), and he took them off and put them on backwards again! I'm pretty sure he fixed them before heading to school. Why on earth does he do that? It's WAY more than 50/50 forwards/backwards, he gets them backwards probably 3/4 of the time!
• When I was doing Katy's hair today she asked me who has long hair, then told me Katelyn (a friend from nursery) & Amy (her babysitter that she LOVES and talks about several times a day) do. I asked her what color Amy's hair is, and she told me it was brown (I was curious to see if she said brown or black because it is very dark brown). Then I asked what color her hair was, and she was like "Uh...what color is it?" I told her she has blonde hair. She told me she didn't want to have blonde hair, she wants pink hair. Um, no. Not gonna happen.
• I wish I liked cleaning even 10% as much as I like having a clean house. I frequently tell myself that I'm going to get lots of cleaning done, but there are so many other things that are more fun...
• The missionaries are coming to dinner tonight (so I'll force myself to clean...it's easier to do when other people are going to see it). The last 2 times they've come, the kids have been awful. One time they all ran laps around the first floor, the other time they kept hanging on the Elders. Am I a glutton for punishment to try again? I really want them to learn how to behave!
• I helped in Ryan's class this morning, which I've been doing ever week for probably 5 or 6 weeks now. I'm really amazed at the range in abilities among the kids. Ryan can read just about anything, and I bet there are others around his level. Then there are kids that don't even know their letters! I remember doing Letter People in kindergarten, learning a different letter every week. Now these kids are being taught on the assumption that they know how to recognize and write the letters, and some just can't do it. And while Ryan can read wonderfully, his writing is pretty awful. He would benefit greatly from letter writing practice. I've been doing some at home, so I guess I should just keep that up. I worry about the other kids that struggle with writing and/or reading, and wonder if they're getting the help they need. If they fall behind now, how will they catch up? I think being a teacher must be really stressful if for no other reason than that!

That's about it. I'll work on cleaning the office now, I think I'd better call the post office by 3 or so, so I can go in if I need to.