That's not fair!

Sibling rivalry has begun.

Brenna is very observant. She is aware of everything around her. She is accuately aware of the fact that we treat her differently than Cannon. Whether it is when Cannon stays up later than her, or he might get a microscopically bigger cookie. Thankfully she hasn't dropped the the floor in a major tantrum. Instead, she will quietly protest, "That's not fair."

It has been interesting trying to explain to her that we will not treat them exactly the same. There are things that Cannon gets away with (throwing his dinner on the kitchen floor) that she won't. Because he doesn't completely understand that it is a bad choice the way she does. On the flip side, Brenna can help me make cookies, among many other things, because she is older. It has given me an insight into my parents, and Ryan's parents, and their approach to their kids. It would be ridiculous for me to treat Brenna and Cannon exactly the same, same consequences, same rewards, same standards, etc. But I think, just like Brenna, we all had at some point expected that of our parents. Hopefully Brenna has a faster learning curve than I had, and it won't take her until she is a parent to understand that. So far, once I point out all the great things she can do that Cannon can't, she seems satisfied. We shall see!

Happy 20th!

Chesapeake celebrated their 20th anniversary last Thursday with a huge party for their employees. The highlight of the event was the unveiling of the first natural gas Orange County Chopper. Ryan's good friend and co-worker, Steve, was watching the show about 6 months ago and e-mailed Aubrey McClendon, CEO, about his brilliant idea of a Chesapeake Natural Gas Chopper. Some time later, he heard back that they thought it was a great idea and wanted him to secretly be apart of it! They flew him out to the show's taping, and was able to watch the bike be built. Then the host of Orange County Chopper attended the celebration to turn the keys over. Ryan had a great time, especially watching everyone else take advantage of the "open bar".

A highlight for Ryan was having a table next to the CEO's, and having him recognize Ryan as his racquetball opponent (refer back to a previous post)! He remembered Ryan! Woo-hoo, his plan to be on a first-name basis worked! And no, Ryan wasn't dressed up just to impress. He attended the temple following work, and was only in a shirt and tie for that! Hopefully Chesapeake keeps growing for another 20 years...and we can stay with them for that long, as well!

My absolute FAVORITE!!!

I can NOT wait!!! I absolutely LOVE this show, and it starts tonight. This is the fourth season, and honestly, I could care less who wins. I enjoy the performances, routines, costumes, everything! I hope that Wade Robson comes back as a choreographer, and all of the other regulars. Is anyone else into this show? Or is it just me...

Oh, Cannon...

He definitely keeps me on my toes! There is never a dull moment unless he is sleeping! This one example out of an infinite amount each day that proves my point! I filled the bath tub, got Brenna in, ran to their rooms to gather their pajamas, and by the time I got back to the bathroom...

Cannon had dropped the toys he was playing with in Brenna's room, and climbed into the bath with her! Clothes and dirty diaper and all! I can't complain though. Although he is running me ragged, he is one of the happiest kids I know. The only time he gets fussy is if he is exhausted or hungry. But he has managed to figure out how to push chairs up to the kitchen cabinets and get food out himself, if I don't move fast enough for his tummy!

Dad's Day

Brenna had been talking about this day for a very, very, very, very long time. She was so excited that her dad was coming to school with her. She picked out a special outfit. It had to be a cute dress but one she could play on the playground in. Nothing too fancy. She kept telling me "secrets" of what songs they will sing, or what the treat is going to be. I am so glad Ryan could take the time off work (from 9am to 11am) to go. That is a hard time block to take out of a work day.

The secret treat was icecream. And I guess they made it while the dads were there by putting the ingredients in an empty coffee canister and aggitating it by rolling it back and forth between them. Of course Ryan eventually used his feet to kick the can around!

From what Brenna and Ryan said, it actually tasted pretty good! If you can taste the icecream through the sprinkles and whipped cream!

Brenna is definitely a daddy's girl. She can't wait till he comes home from work. And yesterday was a CRAZY day. I don't think I sat down until I climbed into bed. But the minute Ryan got home from work, he was in the backyard working on the fence. Brenna had to eat dinner and get ready for bed, while Dad was still outside working. She said several times yesterday and today, "I wished I could have spent some time with Dad yesterday". Today and tomorrow don't look anymore promising. But I'm glad she loves spending so much time with him.

Countdown to Cruise #2!

We have 594 days left to go on another cruise!

If you're thinking that the past cruise was so absolutely amazing that we have caught the cruise bug and are desperate to cruise again...you're partially wrong! We did have a great time, but there is another reason for the definite timeline. Carnival Cruise contact all those on our ship, Cruise to Nowhere, and gave us a 50% discount on 2 future cruises. But the catch is, we have to take advantage of the discount before the end of December 2010. Hence the 594 days! So who's up for a cruise late next year?

I jinxed myself

I was asking for it. I should have known! Writing about my home, which I love, inevitably jinxed me! Last night Oklahoma had a huge wind storm. It woke me up arond 1:30am, because our windows were open. (By the way, I love the "windows-open" spring weather!) Sure enough, the powerful and LOUD wind from last night, blew over our already leaning fence. I knew it was coming. Our poor old fence is just that, poor and old! So our already booked Saturday Projects have been bumped, to make room for the extremely intensive project of putting in a new fence. We figure it will be about $360 for that side of our backyard, or about $675 for the whole thing (which will need to be replaced soon). This is if we do it ourselves. I'm hoping that our neighbors will go halfsies with us, which I'm sure they will.

And along with the Oklahoma winds, spring brought in ants. They drive me NUTS! I think they took advantage of our open windows, and snuck in during the night. I hadn't seen one before this morning, then our floor and door was covered in ants! I definitely took care of the invaders...with vengence! I doubt they will dare creep in again. Oh the joys of home-ownership!

Multi-Taskers Anonymous

Hi. My name is Sarah Bushman. And I have a problem. I am a multi-tasker. I have been one as long as I can remember. I realized I had a serious problem over the course of a few incidents. Last night, I was folding laundry, while downloading articles from the internet on our laptop, while eating dessert, while talking to someone on the phone, while trying to watch Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Even the everyday tasks of brushing my teeth or going to the bathroom are opportunities to multi-task. Everynight while I brush my teeth, I put toys away and turn off lights or the computer. This afternoon, while sitting on my thrown, I couldn't just sit there! I had to carefully reach over and roll up my now cooled off hair straightener and put my hair brush away.

1. I have now made the first step of admitting I am powerless over mutli-tasking.


2. I believe that the greater power of time management could restore me back to sanity.


3. I have made the decision to turn my will over to mediocrity, as I understand it.


4. I have made a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself, which did not play well with my other addiction of OCD. The inventory is on an Excel Spreadsheet and is alphabetized and categorized.


5. Through this post, I am admitting to God, to myself, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.


6. I am entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character, but while I wait I still need to vaccum our living room, finish getting ready, bake cookies, prepare for cub scouts, and give Brenna some attention.


7. "Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings" I plan on getting to this one tonight after my teeth brushing ritual.


8. Making a "list of all persons we had harmed" is on my prioritized list of "Things to do".


9. I would like to make direct amends to people my issue has caused pain. This would include family members, friends, those who work with me in Primary, my piano students, but most of all, my husband and kids!


10. I do have an updated personal inventory in that Excel Spreadsheet, which I am color coding at this very moment, while I do my make-up.


11. Does prayer and meditation count when it is done while I am waiting in the car-line to pick up Brenna from school, while I'm reading my latest book and addressing envelopes?


12. I have had a spiritual awakening, and now am asking for those of you out there who are also Multi-Tasking abusers to boldly step forward and take the 12 steps necessary to recovery.

Happy Mother's Day!

Ryan has the best taste! He surprised me with this gorgeous bouquet of Gerber Daisies (my absolute favorite!). I also got to sleep in Sunday morning, thank goodness! Mother's Day is not only a good reminiscing day for me about my own mom and grandmothers, but I find that I do a lot of self-evaluating. How am I measuring up? What will my kids say about their mom? Someone spoke in Church yesterday, and made the statement "I never heard my mom raise her voice." Well....I'm hope my kids will have other nice things to say! I hope all the moms had a great day, especially my mom. She always comments on what a great mom I am (she doesn't see behind closed doors!), or what great parents we are (we have a "no beating our kids at grandma's house" rule!) And I know it is only because we are following her example. Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Tea

This past Friday, Brenna's school had a "Mother's Tea Party", which included a lot of singing, some careful dancing (for those of us expecting or recently new moms), a fruit salad and a cup of water.

Brenna took the singing very seriously, and concentrated on all the words and actions. She did a fabulous job!
One of my favorites, was when they sang "You are my sunshine". After the singing, the kids served the moms, who were trying to stay balanced on the short chairs. It was really sweet to see them try to serve us so carefully, and I don't think there was any spills.

Cannon spent the morning at a good friends home, playing and tearing up the place. One absolute benefit of the cruise and leaving for a week, is he has no problems when I leave him somewhere. He now says, "Buh-bye!" at the door. But it was nice to focus on Brenna, and he had fun playing!
Afterwards, I took them to Cici's Pizza. It is a yummy (and inexpensive) pizza buffet. And Cannon showed off his favorite new hobby, showing you his pre-chewed food! But now he does say "Cheese!" when you pull out the camera. It was a great day!

My Latest Project

One of our first furniture purchases after we were married was a kitchen table and 4 chairs. The company was going out of business, and we got a great deal. 2 kids, 3 moves, and 7 years later, the clean white fabric covering the cushion on the chairs was disgusting! I have planned on recovering them for quite some time, but never found the right fabric or the time. But I am hosting a book club at our house on Tuesday (we read "The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas", I highly recommend it!) and I need some presentable seating. So I finally forced myself to do it.

Here is a before:

Here is the after:

The green in the fabric matches the walls of our kitchen. And I love the bright colors. I am extremely happy with the end results! Yeah, inexpensive fixes!

The expensive child

Not too long ago a friend asked how long we had been in our home. I had to really think about it, and the answer shocked me. This month is our home's 3rd birthday! Just like with your kids, 3 years goes by fast. And while I was reminiscing, I remembered what it was like to become new parents of our very own home.

We were ecstatic when we first walked in after signing the papers. Leading up to this big moment, Ryan's parents sat us down and tried to prepare us for the unexpected expenses. We felt like we had a good understanding, Ryan worked for two mortgage institutions. We understand loans, interest rates, PMI, home owners insurance, property taxes, first time home buyer grants, etc. We were ahead of the game. They reminded us of the increase of every bill, household needs that we didn't need renting, like a lawn mower, hose, etc. It was a sobering discussion. I am grateful for it, because I feel like we went in with our eyes completely wide open.

Now looking back over the past three years, it is amazing to me how much my relationship with the house is almost like a parent. It can be one of the most frustrating, stressful, expensive, and rewarding decisions you can make. I love our house, I feel comfortable here. Coming home from a vacation, I love walking in and knowing you are home. But when you feel like you have a handle on everything, something goes wrong. Your air conditioner goes out, a strong wind blows over part of your fence, a broken window, garage door breaking. And this is all separate than cosmetic changes you want to make. Finally after 3 years I feel like we are in the groove. Every room has a memory and even the dents and dings have stories to tell.

Ryan and I were just laughing about our first apartment together. It was literally a shoe box. We estimate it was about a 400 square foot studio apartment. One bedroom, one bathroom, a hallway for a kitchen. We barely owned anything, and what we did own was hand-me-down hideous furniture. We couldn't wait to get out of there. But it was still home, and looking back we have some of the funniest memories there. Sometimes the most simple times are the sweetest. And I'm sure in 10 years when we look back on our first home, we will have the same fondness.

I absolutely couldn't be happier with our decision and we have been extremely happy the past three years. I love our expensive third child, and can't wait to bring out latest edition home.

The Cruise

Monday: Day 1

Here is the cruising crew before we left. Left to right: Us, Eric and Wendy, Heather and Mike, and Todd and Allyson. We stayed Sunday night at Eric and Wendy's in Houston, then left Monday morning to the port in Galveston.

Happy couple on deck as we were pulling out of Galveston. It was extremely windy!

Here is the obligatory Towel Animals. A seal right? Tuesday: Day 2
We had heard yesterday that the CDC issued the "cancel non-essential travel to Mexico" advisory, and while we were watching CNN Tuesday morning they announced Carnival had cancelled their ports in Mexico. We waited all day to hear from our Cruise Director if we were re-routing to Grand Cayman. But didn't hear anything until 8:30pm that we were going nowhere! With that out of the way, it was a blast! And it cracks us up how many pictures we took of on board activities! Enjoy!

Of course, I wanted to be apart of every dance class. This was the first of many. It was the Austin Powers Dance class, and it was a BLAST! We also went to Hip Hop and ABBA. I love dancing!

Tuesday was the formal dining night. It was fun (for me!) to get all dressed up (Ryan hated every minute of being in his suit) and eat a fancy dinner of steak and lobster. And of course, I filled up on the yummy appetizers, fruit, and desserts. My favorite was their Melting Chocolate Cake with ice cream.

Wednesday, Day 3
It was a gorgeous day outside, so we spent the day soaking up the sun. Thank goodness for our travelling buddies. The guys kept Ryan occupied so I could nap and read lounging by the pool. They played basketball and volleyball.

We also found a new love, Karaoke. Allyson was the first one with the most courage, and sang Celine. The MC was a hilarious Phillipeano that entertained everyone.

The Towel Crab!

Thursday, Day 4
Today we were supposed to be snorkeling in Cozumel. The crew on our cruise did a fabulous job filling in the empty space with LOTS of trivia games and activities. And of course, the Bushmans were not only apart of everything, we were the champions! Eric was the master-mind behind the huge landslide of the "Numbers Game"!

And with every win (or 2nd place), we received either a trophy or a gold medal. The collection started here!The Bushmans were well represented in the Free Throw competition (I was the exception! They needed someone to even out the numbers. First one out!) Eric took 2nd place! Way to go, soccer player!
Our waiter, Juan, had brain teasers for us every night. It was something else to look forward to, besides the caloric binge we participated in every meal!

Another trip to karaoke! Who will be brave tonight?

Wendy! And what was her song choice? Eminem's "Without Me"! It was the most shocking performance of the night, especially since she knew the chorus! My favorite part was when obscenities came on the screen, she'd say "I'm not going to say that!"

Ryan had a difficult time keeping his eyes of the flat screens when soccer was on. His valid point was, "I'm on vacation too!" Ok fine, enjoy it while you can!

Friday, Day 5

Every day they also provided two Suduko puzzles. I don't know why I even tried. The real competition was between Ryan and Eric. I didn't stand a chance!

The "24 Karat Ship on a Stick", was the trophy given to all the first place winners. How many did the Bushmans accumulate?

One of the day's highlights was the Newlywed/Married Game. They picked 3 couples: a couple on their honeymoon, someone who had been married 15+ years and a couple who had been married forever. They chose Eric and Wendy for the 15+ couple! They had funny and somewhat tame questions, such as: "You haven't seen ugly until you've seen my wife's " or "Which holiday would represent last night's session of whoopie? Halloween, Thanksgiving (thankful for what you got!), 4th of July or Passover" What was their answer?

4th of July!!! And that became their nickname throughout the ship, especially by all the geriatric passengers we shared elevators with. And of course, in true Bushman tradition, they WON! Their prize, a $150 bottle of champagne! Woo-hoo!

They generously traded it in to get a round of virgin strawberry daquiri's at our Last Supper. It was so much fun!

This wasn't just any dinner table. No, no. It was the Winner's Circle! We each had a gold medal to wear, and we lined our table with our 6 TROPHIES! They made great centerpieces! Parade of Champions!

After dinner we changed into our pajamas and went back to the Karaoke Lounge for one last performance! I thought it would be funny if I sang "Like a Virgin" by Madonna. But I couldn't get past the first two lines, so I chose "Oops! I did it again!" by Britney Spears. And I of course knew all of the dance moves! Really, I did. Thank you Allyson and Heather for being up there with me, it wouldn't have happened otherwise!

Not only did our Cruise to Nowhere, go nowhere, but it ended early! Kind of! An elderly woman on our ship was in need of emergency medical assistance, so we had to rush back to Galveston. Instead of porting Saturday at 8am, we arrived around Friday at 8pm. Majority of the passengers opted to get off the boat, but we couldn't pass up the free food, entertainment and a quiet place to sleep! We weren't ready to go back to reality yet!

Our last towel animal, sporting Ryan's sun glasses.

Last Breakfast, Saturday:

We had one more filling breakfast before we disembarked. Between Ryan and I, we gained around 12 pounds! But we weren't the Biggest Gainer's of the group though! :) We felt completely relaxed and rejuvenated after this cruise, and loved spending time with family. We have lots of new inside jokes, and we laughed A LOT! And above all, I loved spending one-on-one time with Ryan and feeling like a couple again!

And I loved returning home to a clean house and happy kids! Cannon didn't release his hug for a good 10 minutes, and Brenna was so excited to receive her "souvenir" of what else? A 24 Karat Ship on a Stick! (No Mexico=No Souvenirs!) Glad to have gone, and glad to be back!