Sometimes I look at Scarlet and think in my head, "My gosh. Scarlet is the most beautiful girl in the world." And then it leads to, "But everyone thinks that about their kids." But seriously, sometimes I'm amazed that God graced us with this angel! I really feel that way! She got some shots today, but has done better than ever. Usually it just makes the WHOLE DAY pretty bad. But she's actually had a lot of fun today. I felt really bad. The last time she went in, it was for her booster shot (for the flu) and she REMEMBERED and started FREAKING OUT as soon as I put her on the table. She knew why she was there. And the same thing happened today. I felt really bad. It really is a sad thing, shots. But! In 3 months she gets her last ones. Atleast for a long time.

She is so much fun now. She always has been, but she's growing up and catching onto new things now, so much. She's always saying new words. All the time. She understands everything we say. Or atleast it seems that way. She LOVES playing games. She can play peek a boo all day long. She doesn't do it so much with her hands as she ducks behind a doorway or couch and then pops out. And she never says anything, she just smiles really big and we scream or laugh. She thinks it is SO much fun! It's so cute! She has been signing so much now and it is so amazing. I didn't know if it would ever happen, but she finally signs everything I WANT her to sign. Milk (though I never say milk, it's our sign for "bottle"), sleep, more, all done and eat. It has helped SOOOOOOO much. Oh my GOSH it has HELPED. I mean this girl literally tells me when she wants to go to sleep! It's crazy! I didn't know kids could do that! Or should I say, I didn't know kids WOULD do that. It's the funniest when we're throwing her in the air and when we stop she does the "more" sign. I love it. The eating sign has been soooooo helpful. She used to just cry until I figured it out. Now she just tells me and the crying never has to happen at all. It's great! I hope it will even happen faster with the next, now that I know the signs better. But maybe not. We'll see.

Have I mentioned we started time outs and it is working GREAT?!!! I'm sooo happy about it. I mean, it hasn't solved EVERY problem, but it has DEFINITELY HELPED a lot. When she's getting into the computer or standing in her high chair I tell her to stop and say, "You are going to get a time out if you don't stop." And I would say the majority of the time she instantly stops what she's doing. Definitely not EVERYTIME, but seriously a lot of the time! It has been so great! I feel really bad, but she really hates the time outs. I guess I shouldn't say I feel REALLY bad, I actually don't at all. I shut her in her room for one minute and then I hold her and tell her why she had the time out and tell her I love her and everything's ok. It's crazy, because she plays in her room ALL THE TIME but as soon as I shut that door an EXPLOSION happens. I never felt bad at all till I looked at her face as I shut the door and she looked so traumatized with the expression of, "What are you doing to me!!!!???" Then my heart jerked quite a bit. But I really can't think about it that way. A simple and safe solution to help her learn what is ok and what's not. Anyway, I'm really happy it's working . . . for now.

Oh yes. And it finally happened. I found jeans. I found black skinny jeans and I'm THRILLED. I found these amazing ones, when we were in Europe, but they were crazy tight BEFORE I had Scarlet, so there was no returning to them. But I FINALLY found some, and they were CHEAP. $15. Hoorah. AND I found some normal blue jeans. I really wanted some that weren't skinny, but weren't boot cut. This was the impossible task. But suddenly I found a pair, today and I love them. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that my whole problem was that I didn't know my SIZE!!!!! I was looking at women's sizes WAY TOO BIG. I had only previously shopped in the junior department, so I thought my size 10 in Juniors would just transfer on over to a 10 in womens. So incredibly not the truth, but no matter how many tens I tried on, that I was swimming in, I either couldn't figure it out or was so tired and frustrated by the end, that I couldn't bring myself to go out and try a different size. And then 3 months later I would forget and do the whole thing again. Alas, I finally know my size in jeans and jean shopping, wasn't NEARLY as painful as it has been ALL YEAR LONG. What a waste! But now I know. Why do women's sizes have to be so tricky?! Why can't we have sizes that start when we're tots, to adulthood, and the numbers just grow as we grow? Why does it have to jump back and forth?! Frustrating!!! Anyway. It really helps the self esteem to have a pair of jeans on that fits. It can really ruin an outfit when they don't! Hallelujah. I never thought it would bring such challenge and literal despair, but now the problem is solved. Big sigh. By the way, got them both at TJ MAXX. That store is SO my style, in decor and everything. I love it. I stopped going a long time I ago because I thought it was expensive, but it really isn't- or not anymore. I swear I remember going in 2 years ago and there was a $40 top and I thought, "What! Isn't this a discount store?" And it seemed like everything was that way. But it's not like that at all. I spent $25 on originally $60 jeans. I've literally boughten all of my artwork there and get compliments all the time. It's simply the best and I'm so glad I went in!

I am always cold. I mean ALWAYS. It almost feels like a disease, because it never goes away and no one else is cold. Sometimes they're hot. This used to happen to me in highschool when I was 100 lbs. I keep blaming it on the random 5ish pounds I lost, from a combo of being sick and other things, the last few weeks. I'm completely serious. I mean if you think about it. If you had a heavy 5 lb coat on, it would keep you warmer. I just lost that coat. It almost makes me want to get fat, just so I can stay warm (not that I think 5 lbs would make me fat). I literally whine to Greg the words, "I'm cold" all day, every day. I'm pretty sure it's annoying. It annoys me. Thus, we ordered me a fleece jacket to wear around the house and that may soon be followed by some fuzzy boots/Ug type shoes.

I don't know how, but I've cut my tv watching down to an incredible level. I basically only watch when Greg makes me (he needs to vegge when he gets home, and I also want to spend time with him when he gets home, so we watch SNL, The Office or The Colbert Report together, but I really like Colert) and an hour or two after Scarlet goes to bed. I've basically cut day time watching out completely. I don't know how it even happened! It just DID. And because of it, I play with Scarlet so much more. Nothing else has really changed at all. But I spend sooo much more time playing with her, it's great. I feel like such a better mother, and just less of a lop. And it seems I've been reading my scriptures more often too. It's so easy to do NOTHING when your on the tube. It's such a sucker of EVERYTHING. And my chocolate eating has been going well too! I'm not going to hold my breath that these two break throughs are forever PERMANENT, but hey, for now they're going strong. Greg broke out this box of INCREDIBLE, and I mean INCREDIBLE hazlenut chocolate- our absolute favorite. There is 60 BIG pieces. And somehow they're mostly all still there. It's been DAYS and I seem to be eating a consistent 3 a day, and it hasn't even been hard. It's like I don't WANT more than 3. It's like someone has taken over my body. But hey, they're doing good things to it, so I don't mind for now. For some reason, this is how I am. Something will be a SERIOUS PROBLEM I can't control and then out of nowhere- control. I never no why. It just happens, but it's never lasted. The struggles come back, and then the control pops out of nowhere, again and again.

I can't believe what a JOURNALER I've become on this thing. I used to tell myself I wouldn't put personal things on here or blab forever and ever, but I don't know. This IS my journal now. I used to journal all the time and STOPPED when I blogged, so little by little I seem to be writing even more. Hopefully nobody minds. Sometimes I hear people talk as if they feel PRESSURE to read every word of blogs and how it takes too much time and it's frustrating. That is soooo not the point of blogging to me. I don't expect ANYBODY to read this. If they want to, they can. The end. I would hate for someone to feel PRESSURE to read any of this. Read it if you want to. Don't. Just look at the pics. It doesn't matter. This blog is just for my own personal and family history. I'm just documenting my life because we're supposed to, aren't we? Even if we're not, I absolutely LOVE to look at old journals. It's the best.