Benson Family

The Puppy and The Mailman

2009-11-12T19:24:00.004-05:00

Halloween this year was EXTRA memorable for at least 3 reasons:
1) Grandma Benson was here!!
2) Carter was actually something other than a marine!!
3) Our powder room toilet flooded spilling water through the wall and all over our master bathroom/closets (yuck).

Though it was raining we still perservered and did a respectable amount of trick-or-treating with our friends the Sessions and our sweet Grandma. Ellie was a freezing ball of stickiness when we got home but she LOVED it. I made Carter and Ellie messenger bags to put their candy in AND my sisters Brittany and Bonnie collaborated to make all the nieces and nephews super cute Halloween bags so there were plenty of places to put candy and carry it all over the house. There is an immensely talented woman in our ward who turned the bags I made into true awesomeness with the personalized monograms. I thought they looked amazing and Carter still wears his costume for dress-up (yes, I said dress-up).

Our ward had their trunk-or-treat at our old Bishops Christmas tree farm and the kids waited almost a half hour in the cold drizzle because Carter really wanted to go on a hay ride. The happy memory will have been well worth the wait! Joe was the chili cook-off judge and he took his responsibility very seriously. He was a fair, unpartial though sometimes harsh judge :).

Couple of extra confessions:
1)okay, our neighborhood had a big halloween party the week before Halloween and I didn't have their costumes ready sooooo....they were both marines...
2)we totally grew the big pumpkin in that picture!! Carter couldn't bear to cut into it so a little permanent marker turned it into a masterpiece.

Our $30 zuchini

2009-08-11T15:33:00.002-04:00

If our vegetables continue to grow at the sparse snails pace they have been then this, our first zuchini, cost us about $30 to grow! I think I mentioned before that between the lumber, dirt, seeds and plants it wasn't cheap to put this garden together and Carter and I have not produced much vegetation (though Carter doesn't know that- he thinks the garden is awesome and fruitful :) but I tell myself this is my learning year. I have never grown my own garden before- and gardening in the south is a whole new ball game with different bugs than we had back in Kansas (where I grew up) and our soil here stinks as well. In one picture Carter is holding our beautiful zuchini as well as a shrimpy store bought zuchini- he was pretty proud of how great ours looked. We sauteed them up with some olive oil, onion and garlic salt and it was delicious! We now have a whole one pumpkin growing as well as one banana squash and lots of tomatoes- maybe things are looking up for the Benson garden!

My Monkey

2009-08-11T15:12:00.003-04:00

All who see Ellie on a regular basis know that her hair is almost always stuck up in a "Pebbles" style ponytail on top of her head. Her hair doesn't grow well on the sides so I don't have many options. She was sitting so happily on my counter the other day, playing in my sink, so I experimented with a few new do's. I showed Carter and he said:

"Uh, Mom- she looks like a monkey".

So we took it out and went with the "Pebbles" ponytail once again!

Carter, me and our green thumbs!

2009-07-24T22:00:00.003-04:00

I figured that I needed to grow a garden this year. I told Joe we would save lots of money on vegetables but when you factor in the cost of the wood for the raised bed, the dirt, the seeds, the plants and the fact that we have only harvested 6 tomatoes and some peas we are definitely just counting it as a learning experience instead. For some reason we grow beautiful pumpkin vines, squash plants and watermelon plants but NO ACTUAL VEGETABLES themselves. If anyone knows why that would be please let me know. The first thing Carter asks EVERY morning is to go look at our tomatoes and peas- thankfully they grow okay. He loves it when the tomatoes start to turn orangey-red and his eyes shine with excitement. That is all I need to remind me of why we are growing a garden!

Grandma Time!

2009-07-09T22:11:00.004-04:00

Well this is another post that is a few months late in coming! We are so blessed to have a Grandma Benson- everyone should be so lucky! Joe's Mom is amazing and every time we see her the trips are too short, and we miss her like crazy when she goes. We love you Grandma!!

Ode To Brittany

2009-07-09T11:48:00.005-04:00

Many moons ago (almost 3 months!) my sister Brittany and her brave husband James drove 16 whole hours here with their entire family (three kids 5 and under AND Britt's pregnant with #4) in the ultimate show of love. My sister is one of those supermom's who puts all of us to shame and I always enjoy being around her and gleaning tidbits of her vast mommy knowledge. In my almost 2 weeks with her I learned many things. Here is a brief list:

--How to do Ellie's hair with elastics!
--How to cook ribs and onions straws
--That chalk + spray bottles= hours of entertainment
--How to make a raised bed garden planter
--That I can and should make my own jam
--That you can easily fit two adults, five kids AND an Ikea bookcase in one minivan (Joe- I want one!!)
--Dollar stores are indeed awesome
--You can be pregnant and dang cute
--every mommy needs a power nap (there's no shame in it)
--And, she lives MUCH MUCH MUCh too far away...

And a big shout out to James for being totally awesome and finishing Joe's entire honey-do list. Joe is quite pleased that I no longer nag him about all of those things:). I have, of course, found plenty of other things to nag him about.

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Somehow I have no pictures of James, darn! And I forgot to mention that Grandma Bensons trip overlapped a little and all the kiddos LOVED her (no surprise there:).

By jove, I think he's got it!

2009-05-26T21:34:00.002-04:00

So after almost 6 years of marriage I do believe that Joe is beginning to "get" me! Thursday night I put the kiddos to bed and ran to see a movie with the ladies in my ward and when I came home I found an almost completely clean AND vacuumed house AND he had put all my dirt into my raised garden bed (something I have been procrastinating because there were 10 bags and each was 40 pounds). I noticed the second I walked in the door and my jaw literally dropped. It's not that Joe doesn't help around the house much (well, even he would admit he doesn't) but only a few times in our marriage has he ever done something all on his own like this. He said he did it because the next day was my birthday. It was the perfect gift! EXACTLY what I would want- he finally gets me!

Hilton Head

2009-05-16T11:05:00.002-04:00

Over a month ago we took what we believe to be our very first family vacation. What I mean by this is that we were not going to visit anyone, no one was getting married and there was no holiday involved. We just packed up the car (not very well as it turned out, a lot of shopping was required once we arrived) and drove to Hilton Head Island South Carolina! We met up with our friends the Bettes (whose vacation we actually invited ourselves along for- thank you!) and hit the beach, ate yummy food, scootered, swam in the pool and enjoyed a long weekend. We even stopped off in Savannah on the way home. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, sunburns and all, and though we do love visiting family and friends we will definitely hit the road as a family again very soon. And by soon I mean when the humidity goes away and being outside is bearable again!

Elise Marie Benson

2009-04-15T21:13:00.008-04:00

Our Ellie-bellie turned one today. It makes me happy and sad all at the same time. We didn't do much for Carter's first birthday and I have always felt bad about that (my mentality then was that he would never remember, I still feel that way but I will remember :) so I stayed up super late last night putting streamers up and blowing up balloons to put all over her floor and the house for when she woke up. Carter was more excited than she was but she does love those balloons, she can't quite figure them out. Elise is SO different from Carter! She loves to hold things, especially soda bottles or cups with lids and straws, and will turn into a crazy person when I try to take it away. She is a very opinionated eater and refuses to eat anything slimy (bananas, pears, baby food, most healthy things) so I have had to get really creative to keep her alive. Since she weighs 22 1/2 pounds I think we're okay though:). She didn't crawl until she was 10 1/2 months old, probably because she knows exactly how to manipulate her mother (who can do almost anything now with only one hand). Joe taught her how to throw a ball back and forth and now she LOVES to play with balls and if we walk by one in the store she must hold it, or else. And "else" isn't pretty, she can throw quite the convincing tantrum. Carter was not a tantrum kind of guy. I knew having a girl was going to be quite the roller coaster ride. We've never called her "princess" or overly pinked her up, she's more of a tomboy in our eyes- probably because we only have boy toys at our house. She loves her paci and blankie and when she is REALLY tired she will lay her head on my shoulder and snuggle to sleep. She loves the beach and swimming- she has only done each activity once but she was SO adorably happy. She loves her big brother and although he has discovered the joy of antagonizing her she always wants to be near him. She loves the bathtub and thinks she can crawl, stand up and lay down in the there so I have to bathe with her for her safety. She sticks EVERYTHING smaller than a tennis ball in her mouth, Carter did not do this!! It's probably for the best though as my house gets swept and vacuumed a lot more these days. The last year has been wonderful, though my right arm still gets a little sore on days when Ellie really needed the up-close view of me cooking dinner or changing the laundry or grocery shopping (which I almost refuse to do with kiddos right now). I know these days aren't going to last forever but for now I will relish every moment of being her whole world. We love you Elise. We waited a little while for you, with the miscarriage and everything that happened before and after, you were worth the wait. We're sorry we wanted a boy so very badly- really we just wanted an Ellie-bear.

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Look what I did!

2009-03-31T20:14:00.002-04:00

I made the baby AND the dress- pretty cute work if I do say so myself. I'm in charge of a Relief Society craft night (for the record, I am terrible at being in charge of things) and for March we made pillowcase dresses. It was a lot of fun and once we got the hang of it, it wasn't hard either! It's now one of my favorite Ellie dresses and I want to make her another one for Easter. If only I could make something for Carter to match...

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And yes, I know they both still have pacifiers. But look how cute they are, and they both sleep well so I'm not going to rock the boat. I'm a pretty casual Mom who knows when to pick her battles. Or a wimp, whatever...

Memory Lane

2009-03-17T10:59:00.002-04:00

What a wonderful morning I've had! Ellie and Carter woke up at 7:15 this morning but Ellie went back down at 8:45, Carter has been playing independently or watching a show and I have been looking through old pictures for over 2 hours! My parents sent me two huge boxes that have giant folders filled with pictures and souvineers of each year of my life. I've only looked through 3 years worth and I can't stop smiling :). I love remembering the crazy things we siblings would do- shaving cream fights, playing in the rain, and the mud. And remembering people from my past whom I love and miss- The DeShazers for instance, and the Pattersons. I've also found some wonderful blackmail photos, my favorite being the picture of my brother Bryon after we had painted his face to look like a clown- complete with mascara. Mostly it was important for me to remember how much I loved growing up in my family. I love that I know they loved me, I was practically a mother to Breckon, McKenna and Briley and they made me feel important. I love that we did fun things- we bummed around Disneyworld and Florida for almost a month, we scuba certified and went camping! My parents provided us opportunities to live, serve, and laugh and documented it all with a plethera of photos. Thank you for that. And thank you for loving me even though I wore a variety of deplorable outfits throughout my life and my hair was disgustingly long (you guys kind of dropped the ball there)...

C is for Carter, and concussion

2009-03-04T10:43:00.005-05:00

So on Saturday Carter received a giant bear hug from a friend that knocked him down hard onto the concrete. He cried quite a bit but we really didn't think anything of it. Sunday he seemed fine but then monday he was acting a little odd- he would fall asleep on the floor or his chair and he had no energy, he wouldn't eat much and he cried a lot. All VERY off behaviors for my child and yet I thought maybe he was just getting sick. When the behaviors continued on Tuesday I got worried. We figured, better safe then sorry and so Joe took Carter to the ER last night where he was such a trooper. He let them take his temperature, his pulse, touch his ouchie bump on his head and stayed very still through an entire catscan! Joe said he was so quiet and brave but often there would be little silent tears running down his cheeks. The catscan tech was very impressed that they didn't have to sedate our little munchkin. Apparently he had a little concussion and they call all of these symptoms part of post concussion syndrome. He's gonna be fine- but if he's anything like his Dad we are in for quite a few more trips to the ER in our future...

Celebrating Valentines in March

2009-03-02T13:36:00.003-05:00

I got a tip from a gentleman at church to check out the Valentines candy clearance at CVS. So I checked it out today and was not disappointed. Do we need all this chocolatey sugary yumminess? No, but I got it all for $4!! I've got to hide it all from Carter and myself because we cannot be trusted to control ourselves...

Eating 101- What Not To Do...

2009-02-27T14:03:00.006-05:00

Things I never let Carter eat until he was WELL over 1 but Ellie (10 months) has eaten...

--Churro at Costco

--McDonalds cheeseburger

--Soda (diet- does that make it worse or better?)

--Brownie & Chocolate Cake

Have I gone a little too lax in my parenting this go-round?

What They Are Doing...

2009-02-21T16:25:00.008-05:00

Carter Taft
- He can reach the garage door opener on tippy-toes and open the garage, for some reason that made me sad. He's getting so big so fast...
-He is an amazing scooter-er! We move the furniture and set up a course inside (I use Joe's scooter) and he can lap me within three times around the course. He's super quick, can turn a corner on a dime and has little fear (so he HAS to wear a helmet at all times).
-Carter and I were SUPER sick on Wednesday and once when I had to excuse myself to go lose my lunch (or whatever I lost, I hadn't eaten in almost 24 hours), I came back to find Carter feeding Ellie her applesauce. What a helper.
-I discovered this week that he can, and wants to, get dressed all by himself. I know this should have come sooner but I stunt his growth so he will stay young and dependent on me :). Apparently it's not working...
-He can carry Elise, though I might add this is a super supervised activity :).

Ellie-Belly

-grabs my hand & pushes it away when I am sucking her nose, or feeding her yummy food that she doesn't like the texture of (I may have my first picky eater)

-her hair is finally growing, it's long enough to use a little elastic band!

-she has learned to clap. It's adorable to watch them try to get those hands together and miss but then to have sweet success and flash a giant grin :).

-she can drink out of a sippy cup like a champ. As a side note, Carter weaned himself at this age but Ellie is still going strong in the nursing department.

-she crawled her first few paces yesterday, though she then flattened out on the floor and resorted to reaching. My kiddos are a little slow in this area and while it worried me with Carter, with Ellie I don't mind a bit because I know how much harder life is with a mobile child. Which reminds me we should probably go buy gates today...

-she is the best waker-upper I have ever seen. She smiles, plays peekaboo, laughs for no apparent reason and pats my back rigorously when I first get her out of bed.

Here is a rare picture of me and my munchkins. So now people can know that yes, my children do have a mother...

Unconventional

2009-02-13T15:25:00.010-05:00

I am one of those wierdie, unconventional mothers who genuinely enjoys hanging out with a three and almost one year old- over almost anyone else. Sure there are days I want to take a time-out from being a Mom but for the most part I just love their company, conversation, zerberts and smiles. I'm a closet Raffi fan. And Laurie Berkners music cracks me up. I could count all the times I've listened to adult music in the car in the last three years on one hand- but that works for me. I'm not ready to send Carter to preschool, especially not four days a week. When he's four I only want to do 2 or 3 days. And I'm not sending him to all day kindergarten. There ought to be a half-day option. I have thought about home-schooling but I'm honest enough with myself to know that I couldn't or wouldn't be able to give them the experiences they would need to truly excel academically. By the way, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with having your kids in preschool either, what's right for one family or child isn't right for another and I know we all just have to do what is best for our own kids and not have to worry about other parents passing judgement on us. Another confession- I want to have another baby and Elise is only 10 months old (though I am smart enough to realize my body needs to be in a better place first :). Thanks for reading this very jumbled cofessional, I just felt like getting these thoughts off my chest. I wonder if there are any Amish communities nearby- seems like they're onto something there...

Seriously- who can resist these giggles...

Is uh-oh a word?

2009-01-27T20:09:00.006-05:00

My friend Trisa does these dialogue blogs that are adorable with things she overhears her kids say and today I had to share this one:

Joe: Uh-oh!
Elise: Uh-oh (clear as day- does that count as her first word?!)
(then we all made a big deal about it and tried to get her to repeat it:)
Carter: Hey Dad, she can speak our language!

So cute! Then Ellie proceeded to blow bubbles through her straw (another new skill) and refused to jibber jabber anymore:). What a big girl Ellie-belly!!

Highlights Part One

2009-01-07T23:48:00.002-05:00

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Here are some highlights from the months we've been MIA. Carter has been taking more of our photos lately so I'm in a few:). I've got a highlight reel of 2008 in the works- but it's late so that'll be for another day!

Family Picture, sort of...

2009-01-07T22:07:00.004-05:00

We had so much fun taking these pictures! Ellie & I stayed on the couch and Joe & Carter would set the timer on the camera, run all the way around the couch and jump on just in time for the picture. We got some interesting shots- Joe falling off the couch, and this favorite of Carter picking his nose. Happy Holidays!

Oh yea- I have a baby

2008-10-22T14:41:00.002-04:00

I realized something today- I have a baby. Lately I have mentioned how well life works with 2 kids- we're in a good routine, everyone is happy and life is good. Sure life is easy when my only ambitions are making sure the three of us are fed, clean, napped and have had sufficient toy/play time. But, when I get cocky and try to actually do something for me or someone else and it's a mess (important side note: I don't clean my bathrooms, vacuum, sweep, mop, grocery shop, etc:). Examples:

---I was in charge of teaching 2 crafts at Super Saturday. Sounds easy enough until you thrown in that I live 20 minutes away from the church, Super Saturday is about 6 hours long and Joe doesn't want to be shuttling a nursing baby back and forth to me every 2 hours (can't blame him) so I end up with Ellie on my hip as I try to teach women how to sew aprons and make bracelets (which you need TWO hands for).
---My Mom has had complications from her brain surgery and subsequent stroke and we want family to be there with her in the hospital 24/7 but again, I have a nursing baby and all I can do is wish I were there and send lots of prayers her way (good news- she might be out of the ICU today which is HUGE cuz she's been there for almost 2 weeks now- yeah Mom!).
---For those of us who couldn't do our Super Saturday crafts we had a little get together today to finish our projects which was a huge joke for me because- oh yea, I have a baby who is a constant fixture in my arms (thanks Carter for being a trooper though!).

I don't mean to complain, I love my little chunk and I know I used to have alone time and hobbies I could pursue and that time will come again- I just forgot that when you have a baby you really are semi useless to the world for a number of months (years?). I also know that when these days are gone I will grieve for the time when my children were content being held, danced around the room and having raspberries blown on their tummies. So stay little Elise (and Carter)- and if I ever say something silly like- "I'll teach that class" just remind me that....I have a baby.

Here's Carter sharing his blankie with his sister:)

Smiling

2008-10-02T16:58:00.004-04:00

These socks just make me happy. Who thought this up- they are adorable! Carter is in the "hey look at me" phase where he wants me to watch all his cool tricks and Elise is SO ticklish under her left armpit. Those are the other things that have made me smile today. What are you smiling about?

The Glad Game...

2008-10-01T12:42:00.003-04:00

Here is my new motto for the day--"How can life be bad when it is so darn good?" Thank you so much for your comments and phone calls. I am so blessed to have good friends and family and I don't utilize that support enough. It's amazing how much better life looks after an evening with friends (even with the kiddos), good night sleep (Ellie must have known I was about to snap) and my sweetie back in town. Here's why life is going to be okay:

Joe is so good to talk things through with me, he reminded me that a highly effective form of torture is sleep deprivation- somehow that makes me feel better (instead of feeling crazy:). I wouldn't last 24 hours being tortured this way before I'd crack and blab everything. Good thing I know nothing.

To be fair to Ellie, she was sleeping 8-11 hours at stretch until about a week ago and last night she slept 12 hours only waking up once. It's because she sleeps so well that a sudden bout of sleeplessness throws me so much.

There is no defense to be spoken for our computer or the gas shortage or my running- they both suck (sorry). But I am going to take Rachel up on the offer for running help!

I KNOW I am supposed to have this organ calling. I may butcher the songs every week but I get to truly enjoy the sacrament in a way I haven't for almost 3 1/2 years- without children. And Heavenly Father knows I need that . But I still feel like I owe a public apology every week.

Carter played with friends last night and he is over playing with a friend right now and he is so happy about it. And when he's happy, I'm happy. It's hard to know what is best for your kids and as parents we just have to do what we feel is right. Even if it's different then what everyone else is doing or if we seem to overprotective.

I am so grateful that this weekend is Conference weekend. I know we have a wise Heavenly Father who knows that my batteries are getting low and I need a spiritual recharge. And thank you Bonnie for your comment, it really got me thinking. Today I've probably cried four times but it's because I'm grateful for what I do have. Maybe sometimes you have to get real low and humble before you see just how bright that light is at the end of the tunnel and you can see how immensely you are blessed.

I think I'm broken...

2008-09-30T10:08:00.002-04:00

I tend to be an emphasize-the-positive-and-ignore-that-bad-happens blogger. This is different than being an optimist and it's not real. So here's how I'm really feeling right now. To preface know that I love my life and my sweet spouse, my adorably good kiddos, I know Heavenly Father loves me and I'm not going to do myself bodily harm (unless the pan of rice crispy treats counts). But boy am I in a funk right now and I feel like nothing in my life is working really well. Examples:

Ellie is getting up every two hours at night (and FOR two hours sometimes) and I don't know what's wrong or how to make it better. Worried it's because I'm running so much and don't have enough milk because she always acts starvingly hungry too.

I ran a 10K on Saturday (in 1 hour and 3 minutes- the one bright spot in this story) but now have lost all desire to run. Could be that I lost 20 pounds but have lost NOTHING in the last almost 4 weeks (and no, my clothes don't fit better so I'm not losing inches or gaining muscle). Could be that my feet are killing me because I need better shoes and yet I can't shoe shop with 2 kids. I'm not good at shopping without kids. I need a team of people forcing me to try on one more thing or I'll go get a Wendys frosty and then go home.

Our computer is slower than a Leapfrog laptop toy and I'm trying to do a project online and my computer won't cooperate!! I want a desktop computer that can take all the pictures, music and other data that I throw at is like a man.

Carter's preschool is difficult because he's about 1- almost 2 years younger then these kids and they don't treat him well. It breaks my heart and again I feel so helpless because you can't make someone be nice (though you can remove them from the situation)

I feel like I cannot get a handle on my calling as organist- I suck it up (excuse my language) every week and want to cry when I'm done. I practice- why am I not getting better????!!!!! Besides the obvious reason I guess, that I don't know how to play the organ.

We are in the middle of a gas crisis and I have no idea how all these other peeps find gas but I tried three different days, almost ran out of gas trying, finally found gas but had to wait in a 50 car line for an hour and now feel like I can't leave my house until we are out of crisis mode.

Those are just random examples, I could go on but I won't. My baby, whom I love, just woke up from her whopping 20 minute nap and is screaming upstairs. I just feel like I don't have much control. We have been trying so hard to have FHE and pray and read our scriptures but somehow I'm missing something. Maybe I'm not listening well enough? I'm pretty sure no one reads my blog but if you do- any advice?

Best friends (aka Sibilngs)...

2008-09-11T21:04:00.004-04:00

I could entitle each post "My heart is full" or "My heart is in my throat about to come out of my eyes in liquid form" or "No one told me being a mother could make me so stinkin' happy". I love to see my sweet kiddos interact together. Carter is the sweetest big brother. Always wanting to talk to Elise or show her a toy or put a sticker on her head- and she can't get enough of him! Today I was getting jealous because I was trying to talk to her and whenever Carter would drive his cars close by or say something she was craning her neck to see him and smile at him. I started giving them a bath together (I put Ellie's special tub in the big bathtub) and they were a riot! Carter would holler "squish" as he squeezed the water out of his washcloth and Ellie would laugh hyserically! Over and over and over. When I'm getting ready or making dinner I ask Carter to talk to Ellie and he'll lay next to her and let her play with his face and he'll make her laugh and she'll babble at him. Maybe Carter is just old enough or maybe they are just kindred spirits but he has never tried to hurt her, even on accident, and he never gets upset with her or the attention that she needs. I was so afraid to mess with the happiness that Joe and I had with our sweet little Carter, little did I know about the joy of siblings.

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Lessons from Brittany...

2008-08-22T18:13:00.000-04:00

My sister Brittany is 2 years younger than me and I had so much fun growing up with her as my best friend, though we did have your traditional sibling love/hate relationship at times:). She is a great example to me of patience, she's not afraid to admit when she's wrong, she says what she thinks and is a great friend. She is never fake- if she's happy you know it and it's contagious and if she's not happy- then nobody else is either:). She is most likely the best mom I know and every time I look at her blog or talk to her I get new ideas from her on how I can be a better Mom. I love that she LOVES being a Mom (good thing too since she's fertile as a rabbit:) and that she still has the imagination of a child. I love that Carter loves her and that almost half of his pretend phone conversations are with her though he only sees her about once a year. She has a lot of confidence in herself and she isn't lazy- she always has at least a dozen projects going on. She has faith, she knows when times are hard that there is always something to learn from the experience and that Heavenly Father loves us. She loves her husband, they have a solid relationship and she supports him in whatever he does. Don't you all wish you could have a Brittany in your life?

More Brittany-inspired things that make us smile...
-"When bears get up in the morning" & "Good morning" songs (Carter calls them Brittany songs)
-We often have masking tape roads all over our floor for our cars to drive on, another great Brittany idea
-starfall website (GREAT fun & educational for kiddos)
-Sliding down the stairs on a mattress- those twin mattresses just barely fit down a standard staircase and it's something everyone ought to do once
-She introduced me to "They might be giants"- good running music I've found
-Me on piano, Britt singing- growing up, rarely did a day go by without that scenario happening (I miss it...)