Our Friend Pearl

You know how I feel about animals...I don't much feel for them. More work for me and they smell. But my Maura is an animal lover and she gets everything she wants. Since she is allergic to basically everything we decided on a nice cockatiel she named Pearl. Pearl is okay. I guess we can keep her. I sure did make a little girl pretty darn happy. Her and Pearl are obsessed with each other. If Pearl sees Maura and Maura doesn't get her out and play with her, Pearl lets her know she isn't too happy (with some high pitched shrieks). She is pretty low maintenance so far...so we will see if Pearl gets to stay.

Summer-Bruno Style

So, I am finally getting around to getting this thing updated. Maura is sick and Rand is off at a Family Reunion, so I have some time while I avoid the tornado of messes in my house. Avoiding is one of my better talents. I'd call it procrastination, but I might not do it later either. Just being honest.

We have had tons of fun this summer, and the past two weeks Rand's family has been in from out of town so all the cousins got to play together. It has gone really well. Max loves the attention and we only had to tell Collin once "I know they are laughing, but it isn't okay to talk about your penis in front of other people."

My friend Jina, and her wonderful husband let us take Maura to ride their horses for her birthday. She is severely allergic, but that is all she wanted for her birthday and I couldn't tell her no, so we pumped her full of allergy medication and went for it. She had a huge smile the whole time and was a natural. Her eye did swell shut and she was oozing liquid for the whole night. I asked her if it was still worth it and she (tried) to smile and "YES!" Like there was any question!



Max has been the highlight and the destruction of my sanity this summer. He is so curious, so happy, but so DESTRUCTIVE. he pulls up my flowers, eats the dirt, picks up huge spiders, runs into the road, and other things normal 1 year olds do I guess. But he is so damn cute, how do I get mad?

Collin has really surprised me this summer. Last year we had a few failed attempts at taking him swimming, but we would end up leaving after he kicked and screamed so loud that every other parent was looking at me with that "what are you doing that poor, innocent child" look. This year Rand took him for the first time and waited for the wails of protest to come, but he jumped right in. We even went to Seven Peaks and he didn't cry once. Major victory. He is really such a good kid, despite the inappropriate jokes. He loves an audience and he loves playing his born role as the goofball.

Rand has been busy working, watching the kids and perfecting his Eddie Vedder look-alike. My 14 year old self back in 1993 is so happy about this.

Fishlake 2010

Whew...summer is off to a start. We made our annual pilgrimage to Fishlake (land of my people)Utah last week and it was crazy. The weather went from high 80's to low 50's in a day and luckily we did our camping during the hotter days and stayed in a cabin during the rain. We did a million fun things (counting me smashing my face into the pavement within 30 minutes of being there) but here are some highlights.

We went to the cemetery in a booming town called "Koosharem" where the first Schaugaards to come to America from Norway settled. This is my great-great-great Grandpa's grave who came to Utah with his family in the mid 1800's. He decided to change the spelling from Schougaard to Schaugaard. Hey Neils, while you were at it, couldn't you have taken out an "A" or two, and an "H", or maybe even a "U"? You go to all the trouble to change it and just make and O into an A? Really? You made my pre-married life sorta difficult.

There is this small town, Loa, where for years and years they have had this fake cop in a car on the side of the road. We got out and took some pics of the creepiest dummy cop in the world. I wanted to get in and get my picture next to him, but nobody would let me.

Dan found some cool powder that turned the fire different colors. It was maybe the coolest thing I have ever seen. I am easily impressed.

My baby turned 7 while we were there, even though I explicitly told her not to!

Max was naked most of the time, as he should be. We had a blast and can't wait to go back next year!

Twinkie Twinkie, Little Star

My blogging seems to be waning...I feel like I have ten million thoughts in my head at once and it is just too much work to sort through them all to find something coherent that anybody else would even care to read about. But just for the hell of it, here are a few of those millions of thoughts. Maybe if I get them out it will make room for something worthwhile. Probably not.

1. My goal to read 50 book is well on track....except that I have just finished up a long list of uber-depressing novels. One about abandoned twins in Ethiopia. One about a slave in 1700's New York. And one about a Nigeria woman trying to escape warfare. All WONDERFUL books. But seriously, maybe I should rethink my boycott on Twilight.
2. I thought it would be a great idea to have a sleepover on a blow-up mattress with the kiddos tonight. Now I am in the middle of a farting boy and a snoring girl. Sounds peaceful, right? I wonder how many Ambien it will take me to actually get any sleep.
3. I kinda, sorta held a grasshopper. Okay, it touched my hand for a second and it was about as big as grain of sand, but still. I'm still debating about posting the video. It has Rand yelling at me, me doing this high-pitch annoying voice and Maura yelling "ARE YOU CRYING?!" at me. It might never see the light of day.
4. Maura is supposed to turn seven in a few weeks, but I think I am going to forbid it. We might end up celebrating six again and calling it good. My baby CANNOT be seven. I won't allow it.
5. We are going camping for a week with the whole fam. Hmmm...I can't even control Max at home, this sounds like a bad idea.
6. This guy stopped me at Walmart to talk to me about Twinkies. No joke, just stopped me as I was walking down the aisle and we had a very philosophical conversation about Twinkies. I am anti, in case you were wondering. I usually hate and avoid talking to people, especially at Walmart, but it was the highlight of my day. Thank you old nice man with ten boxes of Twinkies in your cart, but you still didn't convince me that there is anything edible in there. It is all chemicals and plastic.

Maximus Aurelius

Exactly one year ago I was laboring away with little Max. I felt like I was pregnant for 10 years and his first year has flown by. Happy Birthday to my sweet Maximus. We wouldn't be the crazy family we are without you.

He cannot be contained

I have tried many ways to block this child in and he just thinks it is a game to see how fast he can break out. Oh he wears me out.

My Friend it's a Good Day

Birthdays aren't so bad. 31 isn't so old. But that isn't the problem. The problem is that I feel like I'm 50. I had a rough year and I'm afraid I have wrinkles and an aching body to prove it. Having my 3rd child and a near-death experience was enough for one year. I have hope that 31 will be awesome. No more pregnancies. 3 awesome kids and one amazing husband. No more surgeries. And hopefully some life changes for the better. And maybe some mannequin hands to start the celebrating. Oh, wait.

Mucha Lucha

I am sooooooo glad to be home from Mexico. I contracted the plague (or something similar) and almost died in Mexico City, but I am home and alive. Mexico was actually a blast if I forget about the fever, cough, vomiting, delusions and 20 hour work days. We did find time to fit in some fun and go to the pyramids at Teotihuacan. And I finally was able to put those 10 years of Spanish classes to use.



This is where I almost died at the top of the pyramid of the sun. I wasn't going to go up...but I saw this 80 year-old woman with a cane climbing up and I couldn't be outdone by her, even though I couldn't breathe. But I showed her!

The Goddess of Teotihuacan.

These pyramids date back to 200 BC, they were so cool. But what wasn't cool was the smog in Mexico. I swear I felt like I was eating the air.


Frightening, I know. I bought this Lucha Libre mask for Collin, but I had more fun with it.