THE PRICE IS RIGHT!

I have been DYING to blog about this since March 8th when we actually got onto the Price is Right. But they threatened me and said that I would get my prizes all taken away if I didn't keep it a secret so I've been holding in the BEST secret ever for far too long!

Here are all the great details.

Zac's PT class at school all decided that they wanted to go to the PIR (price is right) together during this semester. I decided that I would just stay home with Teagan so Zac could go, but then decided I didn't want to miss out last minute so we got a babysitter for the day.

Some of the girls from his class made all the matching T-shirts and they even made one for me. Keely, the one in charge found out that usually if you have a group over 20 you are guaranteed to get someone picked from your group. SAWEET! We had 22 I believe. Here is a picture of some of the ones there, we were a little excited if you can't tell. :)

We showed up and waited in line from 12pm until 4:10 when they opened the doors. Everyone in line is crazy. We were all wired and hyper and it was super entertaining. The time passed by quick! While in line they give you your name tag and you have to fill out a little card. You have to write why you think you should get onto the PIR. I wrote something along the lines of:

"I am an AWESOME math teacher and I HAVE to get onto the Price is Right to show all my students how important math is!!! PICK ME because all my students will be watching!!!"

Then, near the end of the line they do an "interview." They basically take about 15 or 20 people at a time and go down the line and ask "what do you do for fun" or "why are you here today" to each person. You have about 15 seconds to sell yourself to the guy who hand picks the contestants.

I had an unfair advantage because I was with a bunch of PTs who all had similar stories. They all are poor, starving students who do high adventure activities in their spare time so it was hard to stand out. Then you have this super nerdo girl in the middle of them all who is begging to win a fancy calculator and acting a little crazy. Needless to say, I got picked which was VERY unexpected. I didn't think I'd get picked since I wasn't really part of their group, but I DID!!!!!!

This is a few minutes before our interview.

Then we watched an episode of the PIR before they let us into the studio, there was a LOT of energy in that room, let me tell ya! The lines for the bathroom were ridiculous. I started waiting in line because I had to go, but got to nervous that I'd loose my spot because they were about to open the doors so I just decided to hold it....big mistake, details to follow.

Once we got in there things started happening really fast. They gave us some explanations about what we were supposed to do and not do and then it started. They had HUGE cue cards in the front that had the names of the people being called to "Come on Down." It was SO LOUD in there that you could hear a word they were saying so we all just stared at the cue cards hoping that our name would appear when they flipped the card over. Mine was the second name called, it was INCREDIBLE.

As I was watching myself on TV I have to admit that I look much more calm and collected than I felt. My heart was racing SO fast and my brain was working even faster. I was so nervous. I totally overbid on the first item, I was just freakin out and not thinking clearly.

The next item to win was the camping gear. I knew I was guessing last so I would have my best chance of getting up on that one. My plan was to either bid $1 if everyone overbid or $1 more than the highest bid if they were low. When it got to my turn my mind went blank and I forgot everyone's bids. PANIC ATTACK! So I asked what the girl's bid next to me was and went $50 higher. I was so shocked when I WON because I thought I'd TOTALLY BLOWN IT!

I was so excited on my way up to stage, I have to admit I peed, just a little...ahhahaha! All the excitement and jumping up and down was a bad combination with my resolve to "hold it" through the show. What was I thinking!

For the camping gear I just get cash for the worth of those prizes which is awesome because it will help pay for the taxes on everything else!

The first prize was a little bit of a blur. I was bidding on 2 dune buggies that were pretty dang sweet! I listened to what Zac told me to do, but he was listening to his class and we both went against our better judgement and lost.....so sad! We were ONE number off, they were supposed to be 7995 or something. It is SO hard to concentrate and think straight when everyone is screaming and you're in an out-of-this world experience!!! Oh well, I knew I still had the wheel so all was not lost.

The wheel will go down in history as my most embarrassing moment EVER!!!! Watching it was much worse than experiencing it. I don't know that I even have an explanation. I spun the wheel and got 5 cents. My mind starts working, "what do I need to get to beat this other girl? How hard should I spin the wheel? Is it going to land on my number." The intensity and anxiety of that moment is CRAZY. Then Mr. Drew Carey comes over and starts asking me these light questions. So do you want to say hi to anyone? NO, I am concentrating!!!! is what I thought I replied something like "ya hi to all my family, all million of em." Dumb comment, but forgivable. Next question: "so how much more do you need for a dollar" I thought he said "what are you gonna do with with a dollar" but I repeated his question so I must have really been in another world or something because I replied "just add a couple zeros and I'll pay off my husbands student loans" Disgraceful....don't know what I was thinking. I hope everyone laughed REALLY hard and that they rewinded it over and over to get the full effect of my moronic reply....that will make me feel better to know that people were at least entertained. haha!

But it doesn't matter, BECAUSE I WON THE WHEEL SPIN! The rest of the show I spent strategizing, running through different scenarios in my head trying to figure out how to win the showcase showdown. You can see me when one of other contestants ( the cute marathon girl) gets called to "come on down" in the front right area. I have a blank stare on my face and everyone around me is going crazy....kinda funny.

So the showcase showdown. The guy I was with was SO nice, I wish we both could have won, but oh well. He passed over 18 sets of legos, a 7 day trip to San Diego, a 5 day trip to NY and a 5 day trip to Denmark to me and I bid 18,500 and was about 5000 off. He bid on 2 scooters, a mac desktop set up and a new car and bid 28500 and was like 15000 off so I WONNNN!!!!!! I was SO excited I peed a little more and danced around on stage for a while, it was INCREDIBLE! I have never felt that much anxiety and excitement in my life before. As I walked out is was SO surreal. I just won almost $25000 in cash and fabulous prizes on the Price is RIGHT!!!!!

So I went home, changed my pants and started waiting. They said a travel agent would contact me for the trips and that my prizes could be delivered between 10 days after the tapping and 90 days after the air date. WHAT!!?!?! The tension was too much! Then on Tuesday I got the phone call. I still have the message saved. "Hello, this message is for Melissa Daniels, this is CBS studios and we have some prizes we'd like to deliver to your home, please call us back at..." I put Teagan down for his nap SO fast and called him right back. He let me choose when I wanted them delivered so I of course told him I wanted him the next morning.

Sure enough, a member of the Price is Right Stage Crew delivered all these HUGE boxes to me Wednesday morning at 10 o' clock sharp. It was SO INCREDIBLE! They left the ones put together that were on the actual Price is Right, funny!



The three of us had a LOT of fun opening all the boxes and pulling out lego set after lego set! I think it was even more fun to go online and figure out how much they're all worth. You're looking at $2250 worth of legos right now my friends. Those Star Wars ones are $400-$550 each! I haven't decided what to do with them all yet. One part of me says "sell them on ebay and use the money to cover the 10% tax on all your winnings." The other part of me says " You LOVE legos and you will have so much fun with these forever. When will you ever spend such ridiculous prices to get legos again??!?!" I've already put together two of the Toy Story ones for Teagan. It is SO fun, I am a huge lego fan now. I think we'll sell a few sets to pay for food and some entertainment on our trips and keep the rest for fun!
The trips have to be taken within one year of today so have to get started ASAP. Especially since there is a very good chance I'll be pregnant before that year is up and I don't want to be 6 months pregnant trying to get through the streets of Denmark!

Zac has a break the week before the fourth of July and we want to take our Denmark trip that week. His parents said they will watch Teagan, but we still have to figure out how to get him to them or them to him and lots of other details.

We wanted to take the New York trip during his break at the end of this month, but the travel agent hasn't contacted us yet. I talked to a lady in charge and she said that the travel agent sends a letter out right after the show airs. If NY doesn't happen this month, which it probably won't, then we might try for this fall when Zac's school isn't as crazy.

The San Diego Trip is kind of funny since we live here, but we've spent hardly any time in down town San Diego and we've never been to legoland so I think we'll still have fun. Zac wants to wait to take that trip until after we move away so that we can come back and enjoy this great city! I want to take the trip right when we move. I thought we could pack all our stuff into one of those unit deals that you can keep for a month or what not. Move out of our apartment. Stay on the beach in San Diego at a fancy hotel for a week and then head to wherever our new home is.

Whatever we do with our cash and fabulous prizes I can guarantee that this year is going to be SOOOOO FUNNNNNNNN!!!! Legos everyday and trips to amazing places in between. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. I owe a HUGE thank you to Zac's class for putting it all together, especially Keely! And thank you for helping me bid on everything, BLUE CLASS ROCKS!!!!!!

Wow, I feel just as excited after writing about it as I felt after actually experiencing it!

Easter!

We had such a fun surprise last week. I found out that all of my students would be on spring break and that my whole family was getting together that same week so my lovely and generous mother flew Teagan and I to Utah for the week. We had a blast seeing everyone. THANK YOU MOM!

The first day we were there was my niece Kate's birthday. We went to this jump house place and we all LOVED it. Sadly, all the pictures are on Julie's camera. But just imagine how much fun we had!

Apparently Teagan is only potty trained at our house because he struggled the whole time we were gone and we're having a rough time getting back into the grove of things. We upped the prize for going potty. A WHOLE package of fruit snacks. Anytime he got a package he had a few cousins around trying to get him to share, it was pretty funny.

Here's Teagan with all his Idaho Falls Cousins. From left to right: baby Jax (one week old), Kai, Ethan, Sasha, Grant, Teagan. Teagan had a blast with his cousins!

He was especially concerned about Jax. He'd come up and say "baby go?" and we'd have to point out Jax before he'd go back to playing. He'd go wash his hands and then ask to hold him. So sweet. I'll just say it, I'm so excited for the time when we get to have another one! This isn't an announcement, but man I love those baby newborns.

He obviously loves me already. :)

We got to see the Daniels' side of the family while we were there too! We went to McDonald's and Teag and Tay played in the play place while the adults chatted. It was SO fun seeing everyone again. I could have done without Teagan pooping his pants and it getting ALL OVER my leg and him and the toilet, but I suppose I better focus on the positive. The two little rugrats had so much fun together! When we went back to Adam and Sheena's house they shared rides on Tay's four wheeler and played golf with their new golf sets from g-ma and g-pa. Sheena has all those cute pictures.

We found out that my little bro is engaged to this cute girl: Congrats Jesse and Bri!

Teagan loves holding hands. He was content as can be the WHOLE way back to Utah just to have his aunt Whitney in the back with him. He would ask for her hand, it was pretty cute.

We drove back with my mom and we were both shocked at how well Teagan did in the car! He entertained himself a lot of the time and just pleasantly sat and watched movies. THANK GOODNESS we got a portable DVD player from Zac's parents for Teagan's birthday. I do not know how anyone ever used to take long car trips without those! The trip was so fun! Thanks everyone for making special efforts to see us while we were there! Hopefully next time we won't have to spread ourselves so thin.

What I've learned from Potty Training

This is more for my own records than anything. Potty training was HARD and I want to write down the things that did and did not work for future reference, heck maybe one of you will be able to learn from my mistakes! PS it is really long...feel free to ignore this post.

.5) Kids are capable of more than you think. The program I used 3daypottytrain.com suggests potty training between 22 and 30 months. Teagan is 26 1/2 months right now and he picked it up just fine. I think I might wait a few more months with my next child though, unless they are waking up dry. When I started, Teagan showed zero interest in the toilet. He'd never gone before, he wasn't waking up dry, but he would occasionally tell me he had just pooped, so he wasn't really showing "signs" of being ready. Just do it when you feel ready, the kids will figure it out..

1) DO NOT stretch potty training out over a year long stretch. Once you decide to potty train jump in with both feet. Get rid of the diapers and throw them in underwear. Yeah, there are accidents, but if you catch EVERY accident and rush them to the toilet, you'd be surprised how fast they figure it out. It is much easier to go full throttle for a short time and be done!

2) Plan a few days where you can give your child 100% of your attention, the higher percentage of accidents that you catch the quicker they make the connection. Plan these days when you aren't going to be in a bad mood. I have about 3 days a month where I'm a monster, I'll avoid those days next time because you need every ounce of patience you can get.

3) Start a high fiber diet a few days before and keep the diet going until pooping is regular on the toilet. Have tons of different types of drinks and liquids available. I used otter pops and capri suns as rewards for going pee and constantly offered him water. After he got sick of all the drinks I started getting him to eat ice. Keeping him pumped full of fluids gives lots of practice for pee and helps prevent constipation.

4) Start them off on the big toilet, only resort to a "mini" on the floor potty if you MUST. With Teagan that was the ONLY thing that got him to poop somewhere besides his underwear. He used the one on the floor for 3 or 4 days and then was fine when we moved him back to the big toilet. Now he isn't worried about the whole poop thing anymore. Best $20 I ever spent. But still, next time I'm still going to try to avoid it cause it is NASTY to clean that out every time he pees or poops!

5) The way you SAY things makes a huge difference:

"Time to go sit on the potty" -you are telling them what to do
vs
"Let mommy know when it's time to go sit on the potty" - they are in control and are in charge of making sure they get to the potty on time...he learned QUICKLY

"I'll give you a candy if you go pee on the potty"- this, bribery, works about 25% of the time. with Teagan, mostly he just says NO! and gets more defiant.
vs
"Little boys who pee in the potty get candy" or "hmmm, I wish I had some candy, but I can't remember how to get some" ---these have a success rate of maybe 75% just a little less bossy, I usually say these things more to myself and try to just have Teagan "overhear" them when I know he needs to "go" but is putting it off.

After an accident:
"eww, why did you do that? You know you're supposed to pee in the potty not on the floor!!!!..."
vs
"next time just let mommy know you need to go, before you go pee/poo, OK" or "remember that pee and poo go in the potty"
This one is so hard because after a bunch of accidents you're frustrated, but it makes a huge difference. When he senses my frustration he is more self conscious about going at all. Just reminding him that pee and poo go in the potty seems to be enough.

6) For rewards: For Teagan he gets just as excited over getting a chocolate chip as getting an m&m or a cookie or a toy. I shouldn't have spent so much on prizes. A bag of choco chips would have been enough. After he goes poop I'll usually say something like "Alright!!!! Big boys who go in the potty get to go ___________" (insert fun activity) in the beginning his rewards was something big: go to the park, get icecream, go to the pool.... now it's more like: go outside, jump on mommy's bed, cut with scissors, color on the white board...basically any activity he likes that we haven't done for a while. It's cheap and as long as I'm super excited about it, he thinks he's the luckiest kid in the world.

I didn't do it exactly how I wanted. I started doing it more this way when we ran out of big prizes, but on the next kid I want to start it off this way. The idea is that good things happen when they go on the potty, but they aren't being bribed to go. They have to learn to want to do it themselves or at least that it's not optional. I just took a break and bribed Teagan to go...so I am OBVIOUSLY not perfect, and it worked so maybe all this is a bunch of crazy talk...haha

The main thing for me to remember: It seems impossible and that they'll never get the hang of it, but you have to STICK TO IT and be CONSISTENT and never have a melt down (in front of TEagan at least). The pooping took 3 solid weeks of accidents, but he's got it now. I consider Teagan to be "potty trained." He tells me when it's time to go and has accidents maybe every 3 or 4 days if that. It was definitely WORTH IT! I hope this makes sense in 2 or 3 years when we have a another one who needs to be potty trained...that's weird to think about!

Happy to be a Mom

The last few days have been bliss being a mom. Teagan went through a really rough spell for a few months. He was getting his last 4 molars, he got sick a TON, and for the last few weeks he was having issues with pooping on the toilet....then our life started looking up.

He has ALL his teeth, as of Tuesday or Wednesday.

He is a full time POOPER (accident free since Monday!).

He is HEALTHY! (knock on wood)

Those three things seem to have turned this little boy's life around (and mine!). He is so happy now, the tantrums are fewer and farther between, he is napping better and he is just down right silly all the time. Constantly laughing and making me laugh and just as sweet as can be, and he is talking lots more. I swear he is growing up so FAST and going wild with that imagination of his.

A few little tidbits of the last few days:

I went to drop him off on Friday for our "date swap group" at a friends house. As the mom's chatted, Teagan would venture a foot or two but would come nervously running back to my leg. Little Preston grabbed Teagan's hand and said "c'mon, lets go play, lets go!" Teagan looks up at me and gets a silly grin, waves and says "bye mom!" before he turned and ran away with the other little boy, never looking back. It about broke my heart, what a champ! He has NEVER done that. He always cries for at least a minute or two when I leave him somewhere. He is growing up!

At first when it was time to go #2 he wanted us in there to tell him stories to distract him and then he'd go. Last night we went in to go and I and asked him if he wanted a story. He said "no, go mom" and pointed to the door for some privacy...alright mr. independent!

He takes his stuffed animals to the bathroom one at a time. He sits them on the potty makes tooting noises, giggles, cheers and then pretends to wash and dry their hands. Each time one finishes he goes "OH! _______" (insert the name of any stuffed animal who hasn't gotten a turn yet) and then he runs off to get them.

He is loving singing songs these days. His favorite way is for me to sing first and he is my echo. For example, I'll sing the alphabet one letter at a time and he repeats each letter. He also loves to sing "lalalalalala" all the time when anyone mentions song.

The other day he was in the shower while Zac was getting ready and Zac went to get dressed or something and heard Teagan yelling for one of us. Zac went in there and my razor and fallen on the floor of the bath tub. Teagan had backed away as far as he could and was saying uh oh and ouch. I always tell him that if he touches the razor his finger will get cut off like daddies.....hehehe apparently he was paying attention!

I think my favorite thing is that he gets SO excited about little things. The enthusiastic words "OH YEAH!" escape his mouth about 25 times a day.

Me:do you want to read a story?
Teagan: Oh YEAH!
Me: should we read about trains or trucks?
Teagan: trucks, oh YEAH!

Me: should we go get the mail?
Teagan: oh YEAH!

You get the point, he is always excited to do anything, help with anything, play anything, pretty much anything is overly exciting and it's just fun to be around him.

I like to write all of these funny little things I love so much about my little boy, it helps me realize how lucky I am to be a mom!

Love of socks

Can I just say that I LOVE funny stages. The nasty, naughty ones I can live without. But when Teagan developes a new funny thing I can't get enough! For the last few days he's insisted on wearing socks on both hands and feet. Of course white socks are unacceptable so I've been washing a lot of colorful socks. :)

Price is Right!

So the most exciting thing happened yesterday, we went to the Price is Right! 22 people from Zac's class all went together, we even had matching blue t-shirts for the "blue class." It was so fun to be a "college student" again. There was so much energy and the group was really fun. All the people there were crazy, each trying to show how fun they'd be up on stage so it was entertaining. People were singing, dancing, being obnoxious and more!

We waited in line for about 2 hours. For the last part we did get to watch old Price is Right shows and get a little practice. I think the most shocking part once we were inside was the size of the studio. It was tiny! They make it look like the stage is huge and the audience has a thousand people on TV, but it was really small, it's amazing what they can do with cameras!

I'd LOVE to tell you about the events of the actual show and who got on and everything, but I have to wait until it airs on April 8th. We were right in the middle so our group got lots of camera time and I'm excited to watch it on TV.

Teagan did terrible at the babysitters house. After 4 accidents in a row and him screaming and sobbing in sadness I had her put him in a pull up. There were a couple times that I called where he was screaming in the background, it was really sad and hard that I couldn't do much about it and she had no idea why he kept crying. We were 2 hours away and they take your phone away for like 4 hours so I was a little stressed. At 6:30 when we got out we called and Teagan had been crying and sobbing for about an hour and she'd tried everything to comfort him. After we hung up we said a prayer in our car that the spirit could comfort him. I called back a few minutes later and he had stopped. He didn't have any more outbursts for the rest of the night. I wish we had thought to pray at 9 in the morning when he had had his first crying spell. I am so grateful for the power of prayer! Poor poor babysitter, we had to give her one heck of a tip!

Back at home life is feeling a little mundane, but I'm sure I'll find my grove again and my voice. You can't go to game shows every day. :) On to dishes, cooking, laundry, ironing, play groups, poopy underwear, tutoring and "pwaying games" with Teagan. :)

Zac kissed a GOAT!

Hey friends and family. Sorry I post so much. We just don't get to see a lot of our family a lot of the time so we like to share what we're doing. Especially Teagan. I also like to have a detailed record of our lives. Teagan is so funny and every day he starts a new "thing" and I want to keep track.

Zac's 4 day weekend turned into a 6 day weekend last minute so we started planning fun activities. Yesterday we went to Disney Land so Zac could use his free ticket from the "give a day, get a day" program. We made the command decision to pool together our birthday money from Zac's Grandparents and upgrade his to a season pass. Now we can go ANYTIME we want, except all major holiday and weekends. But hey, monday-friday is pretty awesome! So anytime you want to come visit and go to DisneyLand we will totally go with you!

I forgot about the camera until the petting zoo when Zac decided to kiss a goat...
...and of course Teagan wanted in on the action!

He loved the sculptures of all the characters and wanted to "hug" them. Sweet.

We all love the Jungle Cruise ride, the dry sarcasm and life like animals make it a great family ride. :)

Teagan's favorite part is the Characters. He loves to touch their faces and give them hugs and high fives. It is so fun to see him get all excited.

If you look really close you'll notice that Teagan is wearing mis-matched socks. For the last 2 or 3 days he has been obsessed with socks with designs on them. He refuses plain white socks and is always trying to find more with pictures on them. We only have a couple that are actually matching so we put him in two that were lost from their partners. Today for church he insisted on snoopy for his feet and one Michael Jordan and one doggie sock for his hands. haha! He is so funny. He wore socks on his hands for about an hour, before he realized they were getting in the way.

One of his favorite activities this weekend has been baseball. He does really good, I'm kind of impressed!

Potty training is coming a long. When he is all the way there I'll do a big post. For now pooping is about 50/50 so that is a huge improvement. This picture was taken right after a poop on the potty and he was so excited!

He is wearing his "Grandpa Durtschi" shirt. He wants to wear it all the time cause we told him he looks like Grandpa in it. haha

We went out to ice cream to celebrate his wonderful accomplishment. :)