Permission vs. Forgiveness

Have you ever heard the philosophy that sometimes it's easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission? It works in some scenarios. Apparently, a very smart 4-year old named Paden believes in this philosophy. It is true that most kids probably don't think like this very often, they just do what they do without thinking; that's my experience anyway. But, this little story about Paden is one of the times I believe he followed the philosophy.

Last night, we were eating dinner (in the loose sense of the term) and so Neil and I were sitting downstairs. Side note: we don't buy soda very often and when we do it's not usually something we share with the kids (I know, we're mean). We haven't consumed caffinated soda for years. So, when we buy something it's usually caffiene free dr. pepper or coca cola as a treat. If we know someone coming from Utah we have them bring us caffiene free mt. dew, which is a special treat since you can't buy that around here. So, anyway, we had purchased some dr pepper the other day. It usually goes pretty quick, then we don't buy any for several months. Neil had the last one last night. When the boys came in from outside Paden came down and was talking about something, then was going to leave. He caught an eye of the coveted last dr. pepper, so he turns back and takes a swig. Neil and I look at each other like, "what is he doing, he didn't even ask".

So, Neil says: Paden, what are you doing?
Paden: I just wanted a drink of your soda.
Neil: Why didn't you ask first?
Paden: Because you would say no.
(Neil and I are cracking up at this)
Paden: Papa, can I have a drink of your soda?
Neil: No
Paden: See . . .

Isn't he sweet?

Easter Saturday

So, I like to blame the fact that my mom wasn't really "into" Easter; we weren't religious growing up nor did we have a lot of money to entertain the Easter Bunny theme. I do like celebrating holidays, don't get me wrong, I just did not have any grand plans for Easter, other than having a few people over for Sunday dinner of ham, jello, mashed potatoes and the like.

So, back up to last week - we sold our car! We sold it with the dent in it and cashed the insurance money and away we go with the money we wanted out of the car. In the current economy, I wasn't confident we could sell a car w/out the dent for the price we needed. So, it worked out pretty well. So, I cashed the buyer's check on Friday morning, I signed over the title and handed over the keys. We headed to Tri-cities to pick up my father-in-law's "loaner" car - the Dodge Stealth, aka the toy green car. We headed out to some places Neil wanted to find some duck call making supplies. We ended up near this crazy department store called Grigg's. It's hard to describe, but it's awesome. So, they have carpet squares. Did I tell you the story about the dog puke? Probably not, it's gross. Short version - dumb dog ate three sticks of butter and a large bag of bacon bits and later threw up a HUGE pile of nastiness on teh boys' floor. Their room has been smelling like puke since the 5th of April! I cleaned it, but didn't get around to steam cleaning it. So, while at Grigg's, we saw the carpet squares and decided to get them. They are 2 feet by 2 feet and there was 15 in each box (supposed to be 14, but there was a bonus one) and it was $43/box. Because their room is 10 feet by 10 feet, two boxes were enough and we only paid $86.

So, back to Easter Saturday . . . we get up and Neil was curious if the carpet in the boys room was glued down and how much work it was going to be. We totally lucked out - not glued down, carpet ripped out even without scoring it. The padding was only stapled down. So, we ripped up 1/2 the carpet before we went to the community easter egg hunt (more on that later, maybe - it was lame, but we did have to find ourselves in controversy, so maybe it's blog worthy). We needed assistance moving the monsterous bunk bed contraption, so after the hunt, our friends came to help out. We finished it out and I believe it looks fabulous.


We put the bed on the other side of the room, which I have absolutely NO CLUE why we had it where it was before. The room looks much better. The paint job is covered mostly. We painted based on where the bed was before. Anyway . . . we didn't glue these down. They have rubber backing, they are tight in there, it vacuums well. The boys don't really play in there, so having no padding underneath isn't an issue. If they puke or anything else on there, just pull one up hose it off, let it dry and it should be good as new. It was a great choice for us!

So, I didn't have any other plans for Easter Saturday but clean the hurricane-hit house. But I believe my good friend, Jessica, felt bad for my kids since I was planning to make them suffer through house cleaning and invited us to her husband's brother's in-laws' house (some nice people in our ward, she was my visiting teacher once, so it wasn't as awkward as it sounds!). They had food, a wagon ride, an easter egg hunt that was fair for all kids (there were only 6) and it was a great time. I was tired by the end of the day and didn't get everything cleaned up like I wasnted to, but the day was better than cleaning all day. Thanks, Jess!

Sunday dinner, I thought, was good. I enjoyed it. I made my grandma's famous fluffy jello and I loved it! Neil and Adam enjoyed raw meat for dinner, so they were happy. We cooked ham and prime rib and the meat wasn't quite done for most of us, but it's all good. I enjoyed it and others probably have been too polite to say if they didn't, so works for me.

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I really only wanted to capture a few small memories. I am sure it would be nice to post some pictures someday, but there are some on Neil's phone which I don't remember to use when it's available to me.

Tonight we sat down for dinner and Paden and Gunnar declared that what I had made was gross, disgusting and they were not going to eat it. It was a dish we like to call Stove Top Chicken. It's tasty. So, Paden has chocolate milk and drank it almost before I sat down. So, we eat. We tell the boys that we aren't cooking anything else for them. Gunnar decides he'll eat what we're having. When he's almost done, he "remembers" that he does like the stuff. Paden still refused to eat. He asked for juice after his milk, which I gave him and he didn't really drink (maybe it's because I was too tired/lazy/whatever to get up and rinse out his cup). So, we eat and Gunnar finishes and they both get down from the table. Paden yells from the other side of the kitchen, "Thanks for the dinner Mama!" Funny.

So, yeah . . . thought there was something else that I wanted to write, but I can't remember. I should be folding clothes, but I am pretty tired tonight, so I am not sure that's going to happen.

Update on the sickness - it's gone. Gunnar actually ended up with strep throat and a rash that was from the same bacteria. Paden's issue we weren't really sure what it was - the doctor said it was a staff-like infection. So, he gave us some soap to wash his face with (it's what surgeons use to scrub with) and some cream to put on there. They both got antibiotics and $112 later all illness is gone. They were feeling better the next day. It was hard to see them not feeling so great, but they had significantly less energy and it was a little bit of a break for us! But, alas, modern medicine works wonders and they were back to full energy in no time. I am not sure it's fortuneate or unfortunate that it was during spring break. No one had to miss work or school to be with them, so that was good. The weather was crappy anyway, so they didn't really miss being outside. I think it all worked out. It just was a pretty boring, crappy, uneventful spring break. Maybe next year will be better. I hope to take a weekend here soon and do something fun with the boys. They did go to the Portland Children's Museum on Friday, but it was really crowed and it's hard for just one parent to take them to those kinds of places because they don't want to do the same thing at the same time and we usually split up with them. So, that was our spring break. Lame!