Blast These Hiccups

I have had the hiccups since I woke up this morning (it is now amost 12:30am). While Cade and Myla burst into giggles every time I hiccup, I am not finding it so funny. I am prone to hiccups and have received several bits of advice on how to get rid of them. Let me share them with you. Perhaps they will work better for you than they have for me.

1. Swallow a tablespoon of sugar.
2. Get a glass of water, put a silver butter knife in it and drink it upside down. (If any of you can actually pull this off I'd pay money to see it.)
3. Drink lemon juice by the glass.
4. Ask someone to scare you. (Not likely going to happen since I asked him to scare me, therefore I am expecting it.)
5. Hold your breath and jump up and down.
6. Drink lots of water.

None of these have worked for me, so I googled "cures for hiccups." The results gave me quite a chuckle. Here are the ones I found most funny or unusual.

* Jump out of a plane.

* Think of all the bald men you can.
* Tell yourself "I'm not going to hiccup again."
* Don't do anything; just wait for the next hiccup.
* Close your eyes and visualize a neon sign, like a movie marquee; see the word "THINK" blinking on and off; concentrate on the sign and make the word blink as fast as possible.
Imagine a neon blue color, coming from between your eyes, (also known as the third or psychic eye) and directing it down the centre of your chest to the xiphisternum and then washing calmly across the diaphragm, from one side to the next and back continuously.

* Fart.
* Burp.
* Don't swallow.
* Say "pineapple."
* Count to twenty with your fingers in your ears.
* Urinate; concentrate on both peeing and breathing.
* Gently rub your ear lobe until the hiccups are gone.
* Rub the back of your tongue to stimulate the gag reflex.
* Try to say "now!" out loud just before your next hiccup.
* Hold your tongue with your thumb and index finger and gently pull it forward.
* With one hand, apply pressure to the gums above your front teeth and to a point just below your nose.
* Take a finger full of hair from the crown of your head and as hard as you can stand (though not hard enough to pull the hair out) for 10 seconds. * Breathe slowly into your shirt.
* Read about hiccups online.
* Immerse your face in ice water.
* Balance something on your nose.

There you have it. If you ever get the hiccups you are armed with a variety of remedies for them! If my hiccups aren't gone tomorrow I may try jumping out of a plane, or saying pineapple over and over again.

Counting Down to Christie

10 FAVORITES
Favorite Color: yellow
Favorite Foods: Anything Mexican, watermelon, chocolate
Favorite Month: October
Favorite Song: Anyway by Martina McBride
Favorite Movie: Right now I can't get enough of The Pirate Movie
Favorite Sport: Volleyball
Favorite Season: Spring
Favorite Day of the week: Saturday
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Caramel Praline
Favorite Time of Day: Evening

9 CURRENTS
Current Mood: A little sleepy, but content
Current Taste: Anything sweet
Current Clothes: Comfies
Current Desktop: foggy woods
Current Toenail Color: pink
Current Time: 9:30 am
Current Surroundings: In my room
Current Thoughts: The No Child Left Behind program...is it working?

8 FIRSTS
First Best Friend: Charlotte
First Kiss: Kevin
First Screen Name: smiley24
First Pet: dog named Lady
First Piercing: I think I was like 4 or 5
First Crush: Dennis in the 3rd grade
First CD: Bryan Adams "So Far So Good" (sorry Nikki, I forgot to change that one--I got this from your blog!)
First car: 1981 WV Rabbit Convertible

7 LASTS
Last Cigarette: no
Last Drink: water
Last Car Ride: Last night I went to get Taco Bell for dinner
Last Kiss: This morning from Kevin
Last Movie Seen: The Nanny Diaries
Last Phone Call: Aubrey, this morning
Last CD Played: Mix CD

6 HAVE YOU EVER?
Have You Ever Dated One Of Your Best Guy/Girl Friends: no
Have You Ever Broken the Law: speeding
Have You Ever Been Arrested: no
Have You Ever Skinny Dipped: yup
Have You Ever Been on TV: No
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: No

5 THINGS
Thing You're Wearing: shirt and comfy shorts
Thing You've Done Today: Made breakfast, took the kids outside to play, done some laundry
Thing You Can Hear Right Now: Thomas and His Friends movie that Cade is watching
Thing You Can't Live Without: My Family
Thing You Do When You're Bored: Blog, TV, digital scrapbook, sew

4 PLACES YOU'VE BEEN TODAY
1. bathroom
2. kitchen
3. our "yard"
4. living room
(exciting, I know!)

3 PEOPLE YOU CAN TELL ANYTHING TO
1. Kevin
2. Nicki
3. Dad

2 CHOICES
1. Black or White: white
2. Hot or Cold: hold

1 THING YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE
1. Go to Europe

I tag Dawn, Jill, Lynn and Jamie to do this!

Cade's ABC Adventure

Dear Hubby...

Kevin is the sweetest husband in the world! I didn't plan on going to apron night tonight because tomorrow is Bunko night and I didn't want to leave the family two nights in a row, but Kevin encouraged me to go. I told him I'd only be gone an hour or two, but...well...let's just say I stayed out a little later than that.

What We've Been Up To

Cade has been enjoying school. He loves to get his backpack on and go see Ms. Maren and James. Today they made American flags and talked about America in honor of 9/11. Cade was very proud of his flag.


Myla has been...well...being Myla. She has the cutest smile, which usually makes up for the little attitude she's been giving us lately. But even with the attitude she is so sweet and loves to cuddle and give lovies. This week she said her first word...ball. She is growing and learning so fast we can hardly keep up with her. It's so fun to watch.

I, as you can see, am continuing with digital scrapbooking. I've spent so much time the past several weeks looking for scrapbooking ideas and tutorials and supplies. I am finally getting to work and creating things. It's so much fun!

Cade's First Day!

Cade started preschool today!! I think I was more excited than he was. It's so fun to watch my kids grow up and do new things. He only goes two days a week for two hours, so it's not overwhelming, but it's good experience for him. He had a really good time singing, reading a book, coloring, doing show and tell with his trains...he even got a sucker for being good!

Handsome boy
Showing off his Thomas backpack (which he won't take off!)
On his way to preschool
With his awesome teacher Ms. Maren
All tuckered out from his first day.

In My Face

Why are kids' brains hardwired to stand not more than 12 inches away from the TV when watching it? Are they afraid of missing something in the movie they've already watched 3,401,982 times? Maybe I was brainwashed as a child when my mom said that we would ruin our eyes if we stood too close to the TV...I don't know. But when I see Cade doing this the mom instinct in me kicks in and I ask him to move away from the TV. He'll usually do it--especially if I threaten to turn off Thomas; but then I catch him not 5 minutes later with his face in the TV. I caught him not only standing too close, but picking his nose and eating his boogers too! It was a two-fer picture.

Happy Birthday Kevy!

Today is Kevin's 28th birthday! Kevin is the best husband and father a person could ask for. Myla adores him and Cade thinks he's the coolest person on the planet. I wholeheartedly agree. Everytime Daddy comes through the door we have a party. For Kevin's birthday we went to lunch together...just the two of us..the adults...no kids begging for food or for us to hold them or to get out and run through the restaurant dodging servers and ducking under tables. We were able to have a conversation with no interruptions and take as long as we wanted to eat our lunch. It was heavenly.

This evening we had cake and ice cream. This is Kevin blowing out his candle. Jared Jr and Cade helped him out. He is 28 you know...he does need a little help.
The is a really dark picture of Kevin scarfing his cake down.

A fun little side note. Cade and his cousins, Breck, Emma and Jared played together in Cade's bedroom most of the night. They were really good! We didn't hear from them, except when they made Bradley, Myla or Connor cry by kicking them out of the room. Tonight when I went to change Cade into his PJs I pulled down his pants and his diaper was on backwards! Cade started laughing hysterically. It was so funny. Before I even said anything he started laughing so hard. I asked Kevin if he put Cade's diaper on backwards and he said no. So I asked Cade how he got his diaper on backwards. He said "Breck." Then he giggled some more. It was so funny! It was Cade's first practical joke...with the help of an older cousin. He surely got a kick out of himself. And we did too.

I Know...

I'm out of control with the whole changing of the blog header thing. But I saw this flip flop paper and had to use it. Anyone who knows me understands because I wear flip flops 99.9% of the time and I love them. Someday I'm sure my feet will pay the price, but in the meantime I opt for the ease and comfort and coolness that flip flops offer. So, summer is coming to an end (although it is still well into the 100's) and this is my last hurrah to the summer.

oscraps.com

For all my digital scrapbooking friends out there:

I found a great new website oscraps.com and have just spent the last couple of hours downloading TONS of the cutest freebies I've ever seen. I now have all kinds of ideas for a new blog header (I seem to change those frequently) and scrapbook pages! There just isn't enough time in the day! :)

PS For those of you looking to put a cute background or template on your blog, this person offers them for free and instructions on how to make your own. Pretty generous if you ask me. I'm excited to try making one of my own.

Adventures in Bathtubbing

Myla is such an enthusiastic bath-taker. Whenever she hears the bath water running she rushes in with a look of pure joy on her face. Recently she started just laying down and floating in the water. In fact, it's hard to get any part of her washed because she just wants to lay there and float. I guess her days are pretty rough now, she needs to soak in the tub. Maybe I should dim the lights, get some candles and play soft music. :)

See how happy she is!
Cade has started taking lessons. Before this it was extremely excruiciating to wash his hair--for us that is. He would scream, twist, stand up...anything it took to keep us from washing his hair. But since Myla has started laying back in the water, he decided to join the party. Now hair-washing time is a little more pleasant.

Post-bath pic. Love that wet and wild look. :)
Cade seriously contemplating the hair-washing experience.

Cadpron?

That was my clever attempt at combining Cade and apron...Cadpron. Anyway, I just finished my latest apron. After a short apron slump I got my mojo back and made Cade a reversible Thomas apron (you know, for all the cooking he does). I finished it at 10:00pm and wanted to take pictures, but Cade really wasn't happy about the apron and didn't want to put it on. So I bribed him by putting a piece of candy in the pocket. He then let me take a couple of pictures. He gets it already.

At first he was just merely tolerating me.
But before I knew it he started posing! It was the funniest thing. He put his hands to his cheeks and then on his hips. It was funny.

Can I Hold Her?

The other day after Myla woke up from her nap Cade asked if he could hold her. This really caught me by surprise! First of all, he has NEVER asked to hold her. He loves his sister, but he's never wanted to hold her. Second of all, Myla is easily as heavy as Cade is...so I thought this would prove to be comical. I told him to climb up on the couch and I'd hand her to him. This is what we got:

They sat there with each other watching TV for quite sometime.
Then they got pretty silly. Cade started playing with her face and giving her kisses. Myla thought that was the funniest thing in the world and started giggling. It was one of those moments that reminded me that being a mom was the most important, rewarding job I could have.

Silver Lining

This weekend has been pretty poopy, as far as weekends go. Cade and I are sickies, which keeps us in the house, which means I wasn't able to accomplish my list of goals, which makes us pretty grumpy. However, there have been a couple of things I've been able to do that I haven't done in a while. So this is the silver lining of being sick:

I watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers which I haven't seen in a very long time. It was fun to watch Myla and Cade dance to some of the songs in the movie. And there are a lot of songs in the movie...A LOT. I guess that would be why they call it a musical. I watched women's gymnastics on TV. I'm so excited for 2008 Olympics. What girl hasn't dreamed about going to the Olympics as a gymnast?
I ate ice cream...hoping that it would make my throat feel better. When it didn't I...
drank Postum (aka Mormon coffee). I haven't had this since winter. Warm liquids actually feel better on my throat than cold stuff, so I had this a couple of times.
And then, because we weren't able to go to a family dinner, my family brought dinner to us. So sweet. We were so grateful!

Also, I had my sweet, sweet hubby taking care of me. He's so great when I'm not feeling well. He really picks up the slack. This weekend surely wasn't a break for him either. Thanks baby!

Sweet Myla

Primary Party

In order to encourage good behavior in primary we used a marble jar. When they were good and reverent we put marbles in it. When they weren't we took them out. Our primary kids were so reverent over the past, well, 8 months that they earned a party. We had a great time!

We swam!

And swam!

And the girls fought over who got to hold Myla. They adore her. It's so cute!
And then we ate pizza.
And showed it off to the camera.
And then Cade had to copy and show it off to the camera too.
We love our primary kids. They are so sweet!

Fun in the Sun

I know I post pics of my kids in their swimming suits a lot...but I just love doing water stuff with the kids and love them in swimming suits! Today we visited the Tempe Town Lake splash park...one of our favorite places.

I mean, come on! Look at those legs. And those cheeks. And that tummy! I could just squeeze her! (And I do.)
Cade and slides...they are his favorite.
This was the first time we've been to the splash park since Myla started walking and she was very brave. She walked into the area where the big kids spray the water at people. She loved it!
This is Cade looking up at a water fountain that was spraying high into the air. He was fascinated by it.
This was the only time I could get them to be in the same area together!

The Best Burger in Town...

hands down belongs to Islands (in my humble opinion). When I was in high school and college my friends and I went there all the time, but I never fully appreciated it because I wasn't eating red meat at the time, so I only had chicken. I didn't know what I was missing! Whenever we go Kevin and I always order the same burger; Kevin gets the Hawaiian with pineapple and teriyaki sauce in it and I get the Hula with mushrooms and swiss cheese. So if you are in the mood for a good hamburger, go there (Alma School and the 60)...you won't be disappointed.

There is no way a picture could portray the goodness of this hamburger. So I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. I can never finish a burger in one sitting, so I take it home to enjoy it the next day. Gotta love leftovers.
Kevin is sure enjoying his burger.
Myla and Mommy, waiting for dinner.
Cade and Daddy having a good time.
While we were waiting for the food we tried to keep Cade entertained by letting him play with the camera for a bit. This was a nice picture he took of Kevin's strawberry lemondade. A budding photographer he is!

Just a little tip: if you join the Tiki club you will receive a free burger and dessert during your birthday month.

A McMillan Update

I haven't been a very inspired blogger lately. I thought I'd just update the McMillan happenings for those who are interested.

I started a job at the Tempe YMCA last week. I'm just working two afternoons a week in the preschool there--enough to bring in a little extra money and get a free membership (which I am super excited about!). Kevin has been such a good guy and has adjusted his schedule so we don't have to get babysitters for the kids. The kids love having Kevin home a little more in the afternoon. They just love their daddy!

I have also been sewing a lot more and learning so much! Our apron club is growing and it's so fun to meet with the girls and chat and sew. I love it!

Cade is talking like crazy and has learned to write another letter - A. So now he knows how to write A, T, O, C, W, and M. And the greatest part is that he taught himself! Is that weird? I feel like he is making this way too easy on me. He starts preschool in a couple of weeks and I think he will do a great job there! Cade is such a good big brother to Myla. She just adores him and now that she's walking around everywhere she follows him wherever he goes. When Myla is napping Cade almost doesn't know what to do with himself. They are partners in crime. Last week I found them playing in the bathroom with the whole roll of toilet paper unrolled and stuffed in the toilet. That was a fun one to dig out! It's a whole new world of possibility with these two. With the weather being so nice and the sun hiding behind the clouds more we have been playing more outside and having a good time.

Kevin is doing great. He's patiently waiting for his turn to start nursing school. He has been accepted but there is a waiting list. Hopefully he can start next year. In the meantime he has been busy with a number of projects. Kevin is so creative, he has so many things he wants to do, but so little time.

Kevin and I gave talks in church last week. Kevin is such a good speaker and doesn't really get nervous. I, on the other hand, was so nervous. When I was finished speaking I was so relieved to just have to over with. Well, my relief was soon wiped away by a new wave of panic when the stake president asked us to speak in stake conference! Oh wow. Yeah, I'm a bit nervous. Again, Kevin is looking forward to the opportunity. I'm preferring to just block it out of my mind until the day comes. Luckily we have a month or so to prepare.

So, that's the latest here. Hopefully my blogging inspiration will return soon!