Mr. Clean, Mr. Clean

Brayden as of late is obsessed with "spraying." Yesterday while I talked to Mandy about my new rug, he sprayed the entire bathroom and his entire bedroom with Windex. And I have to say, he is one pretty thorough boy. And you think I would have learned from my mistake and made sure that today I really did put away the cleaning supplies, but no, I guess I'm a little dense, and I left them on the kitchen counter. So while I was putting Caleb in bed, Brayden Tilexed my entire kitchen. I'm really praying that there isn't bleach in Tilex and that my kitchen chairs are not ruined. Everything else seems fine. I was able to go behind Brayden and Windex everything to remove the Tilex. I then rinsed him off in the tub to get the Tilex off him. I'm very grateful that he didn't get any in his eyes. It would not have been fun to wake up Caleb and call poison control and run to the ER. All in all, it ended pretty well. And my kitchen is remarkably clean right now.

One Fine Day

This has a hint of sarcasm to it. But only a hint. I had a relatively good day, just a hard evening. Every week Mike is gone several nights, so thus far it hasn't been hard to have him gone. But tonight got a little tiresome. I started to lose it right before bedtime. But now kids are asleep, and I think we're going to have an eventless day tomorrow so kids can get back on sleep schedules and BE HAPPY! On the upside, I found a really cute area rug for my front room that I really like. I even bought it. Now I just have to decide if I really think I should keep it. Well, I think I should keep it, I just have to find a way to justify it now. :)

Wicked!

So for my birthday, I got a ticket to Wicked to go with some of the girls. To all those that read Elizabeth and Sharon's blogs, sorry about the repeat! But it was soooo much fun. I really enjoyed the singing, the acting, and the jokes. I think humor really makes or breaks something, and they did a good job. I still have in my mind "Ga-linda" bouncing back and forth when she stands. Thank you Sharon for getting the tickets and driving! Now I just need a weekend get-away with Mike to Chicago and we can go see Wicked there as well. And maybe visit the enormous H&M. :) That would be a sweet vacation.

Celebrity Look-alike

Hmm, I don't think this really worked. People used to stop me in the street to tell me I looked like some girl on some show. They always said the same person, whose name I can recognize but not regurgitate, but she is not a person on my "profile." And I don't really think I look like Minnie Driver. But hey, it was fun to see what they would say!

Phil and Noelle

My brother got married about a year ago to Noelle Tanner. We are finally getting to know Noelle because she and Phil moved to Columbus, Ohio a month ago. Previous to this we had met her briefly the week of their wedding when they were so busy they had the entire week planned by the hour. We love her! Here's the cute couple! Don't they look alike?

Caleb's First Haircut

Today I went to an activity committee meeting and returned an hour in a half later to find two chairs parked in front of the TV, devoid of children, but covered in hair, with hair all over the floor. I heard the boys upstairs, so I went up to the bathroom, opened the shower curtain and found all the males in the house taking a bath together. Oh how I wish I could take a picture of that. Mike had given everyone, including himself, a haircut while I was gone. Impressive! Then they were all showering/bathing together to get rid of the hair. This was Caleb's first haircut at 10 months old! But he totally had a baby mullet that Mike and I weren't super fond of. Now he and Brayden have matching haircuts. Mike said he couldn't make all three of them match because I would have been too mad if he cut the boys' hair as short as he cut his. I wanted to get all three of them in a picture, but alas, I only got the boys. By the way, if you look closely at the picture of the two boys, you may notice purple and red lines, or sticks, sticking out of the couch. Brayden, today, was "hiding" straws in the couch. Silly kid. Oh, and sorry there are no before and after shots. There would have been if I was in the house when all the haircutting took place. :)

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf . . .

We read the story of the Three Little Pigs last week or so, and Brayden loved it. The next day he stood outside my shower and screamed for 20 minutes (yes, I take 20 minute showers) saying that the big bad wolf was going to get him. So I told him we were safe in our house of bricks and eventually he got over it. I told this little story (in greater detail) to my two brothers that are on missions, and Neal emailed back with a picture of three piggies. Now Brayden wants a picture of the big bad wolf.

Brayden and Ethan

So Jessica sent me a couple pictures of the boys when they were playing in the sprinkler. I think the pictures say it all. This is so typical of these boys. :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a great birthday. We went camping with Ryan and Elizabeth Elder and Phil and Noelle (my brother and sister-in-law). We went to Warren Dunes State Park. It was great. This is the first real camping I have been able to do since we camped at Yosemite when we were engaged five years ago. We had a great campsite. It was shaded and right next to the bathroom and a park. We had electricity so we were able to plug in a griddle for cooking breakfasts. MMMMMMM. Plus Warren Dunes is right on Lake Michigan, so we spent two days at the beach. And the best part about this beach is that it looks like the ocean, but since it's a lake it is fresh water. No salt!! We got up there Thursday late afternoon, went to the beach for an hour or so, came back, made a super yummy dinner of VeriVeri Teriyaki chicken, asparagus, and new potatoes and corn. For my birthday dessert we did those huge chocolate Cosco muffins. They are practically cake anyway. The next day we biked to the beach, and played a bunch. We had burgers and then the next morning we packed up. The Elders took off and we went back to the beach and then to lunch at Panera. That night was Phil and Noelle's one year anniversary so I made them Veenstra salad and they went to Gallup Park and paddle-boated around and walked and listened to music. Mike picked up flowers and had them waiting for Noelle when they got back and then we did fondue. The next day at church we all struggled to stay awake. Brayden fell asleep at church for probably the second time in his life and Mike and Caleb fell asleep also. Then a family in the ward had us over for dinner because their oldest son just was called to the Hong Kong mission where Phil served. We were in charge of dessert and so we brought fondue. Again. Next time we get together with Phil and Noelle we're trying fondue on Oreos. I think that would be really good. Anyway, pictures will be forthcoming. Sorry about the novel. :)

Happy 4th!

We had a great fourth of July. We planned on meeting Phil and Noelle at the zoo in Toledo, going to dinner at Champion House for my birthday and having a smashing time; unfortunately, none of our plans worked! But we still had a pancake breakfast and went running in the morning. Bastian family tradition is to run the 6 or 8 miles to the ward pancake breakfast, but I felt like we were keeping with tradition even though we only ran two miles. It even sprinkled in the morning to remind me of Seattle. Phil and Noelle still came up, so we left so I could get movie star sunglasses and since Champion House was closed, we went to California Pizza Kitchen in the mall, which was open. Super yummy. We finished the night off with chocolate fondue back at our house. It was a great day.

A sweet neighbor

Our neighbor Barbara is a nice, spunky old lady that had a pet bat as a little girl, is a master gardener, has a cat names Don Juan (named after an old boyfriend) and loves to always stay busy. Several times she has seen us leave for a family bike ride. One time Mike told Barbara how Brayden doesn't like the bumps. So she made Brayden a pillow for his bum so it wouldn't hurt when we hit the bumps. It was really nice. Brayden always wants to take his "soft pillow" out whenever we go for a ride or jog. By the way, his bum never hurt when we rode, he just got scared jogging with Mike one time when it was really bumpy and the fear has stayed with him. Ironically, the pillow does seem to help.

A Mini Mike

Caleb is a mini Mike in the making. He loves electronics, he is always happy, he is becoming loud and now he is becoming the handyman. Here is Caleb "helping" Mike fix Brayden's trike.

Church Shoes

A week ago Mike and I were rushing to get ready for church (of course we were running just a wee bit late) and Mike asked Brayden to go get his church shoes. Brayden decided that his slippers were his church shoes and we came downstairs to Brayden in full church garb and slippers. It made us laugh. So of course we stopped to take a picture. We were already late, what was another minute or so?