Monday, 11 November, 2002

We got over our twenty degree weather two weeks ago to have 60 degree weather last week.  I prefer the latter.  It was so cold over Halloween and we had tons of snow.  We only got a few trick or treaters at our house.  Chris bundled Amy out and took her out for a short while.  She was one of the few trick or treaters out and people filled her Halloween bucket to overflowing.  Grandma had sent some fun Halloween headbands.  Amy put one on over all of her jackets and hats and was good to go.

Chris was in Texas last week training on a new product at work–Vitria.  He left Sunday afternoon and got back late on Friday evening.  We sure missed him.  When he left, Amy and Misha were both recovering from being sick.  Misha took two weeks to recover.  It seemed as though she was getting better, and then she relapsed.  Happened that way for Amy and Chris as well.  I didn’t get very sick, but I could tell that I wasn’t up to par. 

I don’t enjoy playing the role of single parent and hope that it never is a reality.  It is hard on all of us.  I need a break from my kids and they need a break from me.  I tried to keep us busy while Chris was gone.  On Monday, we went to story time as usual.  Tuesday I wanted to go into town to Hobby Lobby to look at some things for Christmas decorations.  Amy complained of a tummy ache but when I told her that we were going to stay home because of it, she cried and still wanted to go.  Not ten minutes after we got to the store, Amy started moaning and crying and asking to go home.  I tried to have her hang on for a bit, but I could tell just by looking at her that she felt awful.  She was very pale and seemed to be in a lot of pain.  So back home we went.  She laid on the couch for the rest of the evening and didn’t want anything to eat.  Fortunately she didn’t throw up at all.  All the way home from the store I was hoping she wouldn’t .  She woke up in pain after only being asleep for awhile and asked to sleep in my bed.  Since it is easier to get sleep throughout the night with her close by, I agreed.  She woke up a couple of times crying and in obvious pain but slept pretty well.  In the morning she was fine.

We went to Safeway later in the week which elicited quite an excited response from Amy.  They have shopping carts now that have a car attached to the front that kids can sit in and steer.  She loves it.  Plus she got to ride the mechanical horse before coming home.  It only costs a penny.

Misha gets pretty innovative when she wants a snack.

Before Chris left, he told Amy that if she was good, he would bring her a treat home.  Throughout the week, she would say to me, “What do you think it is?”  So, when Chris got out of the car on Friday night, the first words out of her mouth were, “What did you bring me?”  It was a cute vest from Old Navy “just like mommies.”  Misha was pretty excited to see her daddy and ran up to him and hugged him.  We were all glad that daddy was home.

I surprised him by getting a babysitter for Saturday evening.  We didn’t do anything spectacular but it was so nice just to be together.  Since Amy had never really had a babysitter before, she really didn’t know what to expect.  Her mind imagined one thing though because when I would tell her that a babysitter was coming to our house, she would ask “Can I hold her?”  I thought that was hilarious.  It was so nice to get out that Chris and I have decided that we need to hire a babysitter at least once a month.

A couple of weeks ago, we were putting up some shelves in the Misha’s room.  She was getting in the way, and so I put her into her crib.  You could just see her little mind working, “They’ve got to be kidding if they think I am going to stay in here.”  She had her foot up and over the rail within seconds.  She has never tried that before.  Sadly for her, she won’t be able to try it again for awhile.  Chris lowered the mattress down to the lowest it would go.  Makes it hard on me though to try and cover her in the middle of the night since I can hardly reach her.  We might be getting her a twin bed but probably won’t put her in it for a couple of months yet. 

Misha is becoming more interactive with the tv.  Last week as I was working in the study and she was watching the "Teletubbies", I could hear her calling, “Hi, Hi” to them as they said hi to her.  Her little hand waving.  She has become much more interested in tv lately.  I figured out that when she says “ree” to me, she wants to watch a movie.  Not usually just any movie though, she likes “Bug’s Life” the best.

Amy, Misha, and I were in the study last week-all getting in each other’s way.  Finally, Misha got on Amy’s nerves enough that Amy said, “Honey, go sit on the stairs.”  Misha promptly replied, “No.”  Wasn’t quite the response Amy was looking for, but then she has a few undesirable responses of her own that she regularly shares with us.  When she is upset and doesn’t want to do something, she folds her arms over her chest, kind of harrumphs, and says “no” in a very undignified manner.  Drove me crazy last week.  But then she turns all lovey dovey and will say, “I lub you.  You’re my best friend.”

Misha is getting her molars.  Poor little thing.  I looked in her mouth a couple of weeks ago and one had already popped through.  The rest of them are causing her a lot of distress.  She threw up twice this morning, she has no appetite, she often wakes up with a fever, and she wants me to hold her or at least sit beside her on the couch.

Amy is looking forward to her birthday.  We found her a little fisher-price house the other day at a garage sale and it was a hit.  I had to hide it downstairs and hopefully will be able to find some little people to go with it.  It has been colored on a bit and hopefully I can get that out, but if not, she still seemed to love it.

Thursday, 25 October, 2002

Yesterday I don’t think the temperatures rose about 30 degrees.  It snowed some last night and the night before.  Misha has been sick since Monday night.  When I put her to bed, she seemed fine, but an hour later she woke up crying, and an hour after that, and then we were awake until about 2 when she finally went to sleep.  Fortunately, she slept a lot during the day on Tuesday, but only slept for an hour yesterday.  I hope that the rest of us can stay healthy.  My throat is kind of sore, so I hope that I can beat it.

Misha’s vocabulary is improving all the time.  She says please and thank you and is learning you’re welcome and sorry.  If I say to her, “Can you say...” and then add a word, she will usually say it.  She is really good at saying purple.

Today I had to go to the hospital and have a radioactive iodine uptake test done.  I was at the hospital this morning to take two capsules and then had to return this afternoon for a scan of my thyroid that took about 45 minutes.  I have to go back again tomorrow morning for the final scan and then wait again for a doctor’s appointment to find out the results.  I don’t enjoy all of this waiting.  It is nice on days like this when Chris is able to stay at home with the girls.  It would have been impossible to take them with me and have them behave the whole time I was there this afternoon.

Grandpa Kline came to visit last Saturday afternoon through Monday afternoon.  We hadn’t seen him since May and the girls have certainly changed a lot since then.  He took us out to dinner on Saturday evening at Three Margaritas in Longmont.  Misha was not very patient while there and bothered some of the other people around us.  Sorry. 

Saturday was a nice day for me.  When Chris left to go pick up his dad at the airport, I went into Longmont to a craft fair.  I met a friend there, but neither of us bought anything.  I have been trying to do some decorating of our house and even made a valance for the kitchen window.  When Chris saw how nicely it turned out, he suggested that I should make curtains for the living room as well.  After the craft fair, I went to some other stores to get decorating ideas and to find some candles.  I was able to spend four hours on my own, and it was nice.  I need to do it more often.

Amy pooped in the potty on Sunday.  All of a sudden, she came running into the study, “Daddy come look!!”  He followed her into the bathroom and was very surprised.  I came after and was much impressed.  Sadly, he left the mess for me to clean up and there was poop in the potty, on the floor, and in her panties.  At least she had tried.  I am soooooo proud of her.  She wears panties now when we go out shopping and is good about telling us when she needs to go.  She will say, “I’m peeing!!”  When you hear that, usually you have a couple of minutes before she actually goes, but it must feel as though it is coming fast because she is pretty urgent about it.  (By the way, she got her bracelet for pooping in the potty.)

Grandpa Kline came to Sacrament Meeting with us and then came home after that.  We went in two separate cars.  Chris taught the Sunday School class and the kids were pretty frustrating.  We were talking about Christ and they could care less.  They were passing notes, talking and causing a lot of disruptions.  They are a pretty discouraging bunch of kids, well, most of them anyway.  I talked to the bishop after church in my Temple Recommend Interview and he was equally frustrated with the guys.   They need a lot of work.

When we finally arrived home, I got busy getting dinner together.  I made a turkey with most of the trimmings.  It was Canadian Thanksgiving a week and a half ago, plus I know that Grandpa Kline loves a turkey dinner.  It was yummmmmmy, if I do say so myself.

Chris and his dad worked in the back yard on Monday digging a trench for the sprinkler system.  Chris rented a trencher that got the work done in a couple of hours, but it was so nice that he had his dad’s help.  We dropped Larry off at the airport around 4 pm and headed back home, stopping at Walmart in Brighton to pick up a few things.

Thursday, 17 October, 2002

Amy is doing so well with the potty.  I have found that for her to use it, she has to wear panties.  If she has on a diaper, she forgets or ignores the feeling.  Today, she woke up in the morning with a diaper, and I put one on her for her nap.  Otherwise, she was in panties all day long with no accidents.  She has made improvements by leaps and bounds, and I am so proud of her.  Now we just need to inspire her to poop in the potty as well.  I told her that if she did, she would get a bracelet.  Motivating with rewards seems to work so well for her.

She has taken to saying “yessiree” lately and I added bob on the end of it so now she also says “yessiree bob” when she answers yes.  It is pretty cute.  She is growing up so quickly.  She can now get dressed all by herself if I set her clothes out for her.

Misha is quite a character.  I went to get her out of bed after her nap this morning and was pretty shocked when I opened the door.  She had tried to take off her shirt but had managed to get it over and behind her head with her arms still in the sleeves.  She had removed her socks, pants and diaper and was jumping around her bed when I walked in.  Fortunately, the diaper was warm with pee so she didn’t pee all over the bed.  What a rascal!  I wished that I had had a camera with me and even took one with me this afternoon when I went to get her thinking that she would do the same thing again.  She was fully clothed.

Sadly though, she is hit and miss with her afternoon naps.  If I put her down and she doesn’t go to sleep, I leave her up there for about an hour.  Not sure what she does the whole time besides make a lot of noise and call “mom” every so often.

A month ago, I had some blood work done for my yearly physical.  The results came back questionable with regards to my Thyroid Stimulating Hormone.  It indicated that I might have hyperthyroidism.  In order to make sure the test was accurate, I had to wait a month to have the TSH retested along with the some other stuff.  Everything was normal except for the TSH which indicates that I have Subclinical Hyperthyroidism, which is basically the beginning of hyperthyroidism.  I will need to see an endocrinologist and am waiting for them to call me back to schedule an appointment.  I would say that this has disrupted my life some in not knowing and wondering what kind of difference it will make to me.  It is a condition that runs in my family on my mother’s side-my mom had such severe problems that a portion of her thyroid needed to be removed.  I guess right now I will just have to wait and see and try not to worry too much.

I found a pair of boots a couple of weeks ago that used to be Amy’s.  They never fit her in the winter months for her to wear them.  I tried them on Misha to see if they would fit her and she wore them all day long.  I took them off when she had a nap, and she was quite upset with me.  The next day she found them again and brought them to me to put on her.  She always likes to be wearing something.  My mom gave her a pair of yellow happy face slippers that she wears or she simply wears her shoes.

Monday, 7 October, 2002

Amy peed in the potty last night.  She was so proud of herself.  I have been working diligently with her for the past two weeks since returning from Canada.  She started out with just one drop in the potty but I encouraged her to keep trying.  I knew from past experience last week that she had more in her little bladder.  Last week, she peed a drop and said she was finished.  I made the mistake of only putting panties on her.  She peed all over the floor.

Chris was talking to his parents at the time and she was so excited to tell them that she had peed in the potty.  After that, we called my parents.  The potty training book that mom gave Amy has really helped.

This morning I trimmed the back and sides of Misha’s hair.  She squirms a lot, so I don’t know that I got it all exactly straight and even, but I tried.

Chris’ Grandma-Grandma Ball-died last Thursday morning.  She had fallen a couple of weeks ago and broken her hip and has been going down hill since then.  It was kind of a relief for her sons however that she went as quickly as she did and didn’t have to suffer.  She wasn’t eating and wasn’t even coherent much of the time.  The burial is tomorrow and a memorial service is on Sunday.

Tuesday, 24 September, 2002

We closed on our refinance today.  It was a no-cost refi so all we had to pay for was the $22 credit check.  The difference it will make though is about $320 every month from our mortgage payment.  It will be nice to have a little extra because we haven’t been quite making it month to month since we bought the van.

 Amy has been saying lately, “I have a question” but really doesn’t and “It is true”.  She sure does pick up a lot.  Grandma Rice gave her a book about going potty and she already has most of it memorized.  Grandma really pushed the potty thing while there and Amy surprised me by asking to go potty when Grandma said she would have to if she wanted to wear the tutu Grandma was making.  I have been working with Amy since we got home and she is now much more open to the idea of using the potty.  She hasn’t done anything in the potty yet but ONE drop, but she is at least sitting on it.  And that is a big difference from before.

Misha is talking so much more.  She can say “Costco” and “Walmart” now, though not perfectly.  She is a pretty smart cookie too and understands so much of what I say to her.  I cut about an inch off her bangs again this morning.  Amy has had one haircut to Misha’s four or five.  Misha likes to sit on top of the little potty we have.  I am hoping that she will be potty trained by next summer.  Since she has a big sister to watch and follow, I am sure that she will want to do it much sooner.  That would be so nice not to buy diapers anymore.

Sunday 22 September, 2002

We returned yesterday from a week-long trip to visit my parents.  We left last Friday the 13th and made the trip in two days.  It is about 950 miles one-way so we decided to break up the trip by staying the night in Billings, Montana.  We left home about 10:30 am but didn’t arrive in Billings until around 8:30 pm.  Not having been there before, we drove around a bit trying to find a place to stay.  We ended up at this dumpy little place that we never would have stayed at if we had seen it in the light of day.  To its credit, it did have two rooms, a fridge, and a microwave.  We put the girls to sleep in one room and they slept the entire night. 

 They were both awake at their normal time of 6:45 so we made an early start for Alberta.  The drive on Saturday only took us about 6 hours.  Of course, we have to make our usual stops with the girls to let them release some energy, but we pulled into Stirling around 2:15 that afternoon. 

The girls had it great, or maybe I should say that we did.  We moved their car seats all the way to the back seat of the van, removed one of the middle seats, folded the other middle seat down, and slipped Chris’ laptop into the back pocket of the folded middle seat.  They watched dvd’s all the way there and back.  It was wonderful.  I had to get out of my seat to get them treats and toys, but having the movies was a godsend.  Amy loves to watch “Princess Diaries” and Chris was able to find a used copy online for only $10.  It will get a lot of use from our girls.

We didn’t have any trouble getting through the border, though we were mighty glad not to be a trucker.  The line for them was at least a mile long. 

We pulled into my parent’s driveway right behind a new trailer they just bought.  I didn’t know they were planning on getting a new one or selling their old one.  It is about three feet longer than the old one with much more cupboard and living space.  The bathroom is much nicer as well.  It came in handy as we were going camping to Waterton National Park on Monday.

We got the girls settled and the van unloaded.  Chris helped Dad make repairs to the trailer and transfer all the stuff over from the old trailer.  That took most of the evening.  Amy did her fair share of cleaning in the trailer as well and shadowed Grandma where ever she went.

Church was bright and early at 9 am.  We are used to church at 2 in the afternoon, so this was a nice treat.  Misha missed her nap, of course, and was rather crabby throughout the entirety of church.  Chris kept her in the foyer most of the time, but I don’t think he minded too much.  Amy was excited to go to her class.  I am so glad that she doesn’t get upset over going.  Lots of kids are pretty leery about new places.

It was nice to see some familiar faces again, but there are so many people there now that I don’t know.  What is amazing to me though is the number of people who are big.  Not just fat but really huge.  I vowed that I would never be among the fat Stirling people.  I would guess that at least a 1/4 of the ward was large.

The girls had great naps in the afternoon on Sunday and we just spent a lazy day around the house.  Amy loved sleeping in Grandma's princess bedroom.

Monday, however, dawned bright and early.  Especially since I had to get up with Misha four times.  She finally stayed awake at 4 am and would have nothing to do with going back to sleep until about 6:30.  I think she then slept until 8. Mom had pears to can and dad had a funeral to go to.  Plus, we had to finish cleaning and packing the trailer.  I think we finally got on the road around 2 pm.  Sad to say, I wasn’t going to miss the thousands of gnats flying around outside.  They were everywhere.

It was quite a bit chillier in Waterton, and I was glad that we had brought warm clothes along.  Dad (Grandpa) took Amy for a walk down to the lake while we got things ready for supper and when they returned Grandpa started a roaring hot fire where we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows at one of the camp kitchens.  Amy received her first introduction to the frisbee, but as most beginners, had no coordination with it.

We returned to the trailer and got things ready for bed and then watched “You’ve Got Mail” on DVD (Chris brought his laptop).  Mom and Dad offered to sleep in the back of the suburban, we brought the play pen for Misha to sleep in, Chris and I slept on the couches the folded down, and Amy slept on the bunk.  She called it the closet because when you folded it up, it had three cupboard doors for easy access to stuff.  Amy loved it.  In fact, the main reason I chose to go camping was for her benefit.  I remember how much fun we used to have when we camped in Waterton, and I wanted her to be able to experience it as well.  We all had to go to sleep when the girls did, but they both slept very well both nights we were there.

Tuesday brought with it rain.  All day long.  We drove up to Red Rock Canyon and saw four bears along the way there and back.  While Misha slept, Mom stayed in the suburban and crocheted and Chris, Dad, Amy, and I walked up to some falls.  Chris pushed Amy in the stroller and got an even better workout than all of us.  After Red Rock, we drove down to the “castle” or the Prince of Wales Hotel.  It was rainy and windy so we didn’t get outside but the view from the windows inside was pretty spectacular.  Amy fell asleep after we left the castle and proceeded to sleep for the next three hours in her car seat.  We drove back to the trailer for lunch and just kept an eye on her as she snoozed away.  We watched “Remember the Titans”.

 We cooked supper in the trailer on Tuesday because it was so chilly, but walked downtown to get ice cream at a local shop.  We should have opted for hot chocolate instead, but there was none to be had.

Wednesday dawned fairly sunny.  Wouldn’t you know it!  The day we decide to go home.  We left Waterton around 10:30.  We stopped in Cardston at the temple so that Chris and I could enjoy a session.  Unfortunately I left my recommend at Mom’s.  The temple worker who helped us had to call our bishop, our stake president, whomever he could find at home to make sure I had a current recommend.  That took about a half hour but we were finally able to enter.  The girls stayed with Grandma and Grandpa.  Mom took them to her sister’s just a couple of houses away from the temple. 

When Chris and I walked out the front doors of the temple, the girls were waiting for us.  Amy gave me a big hug and said “You came back!”.  Chris went to hug Misha as we now call her, and she bypassed him and came running towards me.  Funny girl.

Mom and Dad offered to watch the girls even more so that Chris and I could go out that evening.  We didn’t hesitate in taking them up on their offer.  They fed the girls and put them to bed while reassuring Amy that we would be there in the morning.  Mom thinks the girls are wonderful and little angels and loved being able to spend time with them.

Chris and I went out for a leisurely, quiet dinner.  No girls crying, spilling things, throwing things on the floor, or making lots of noise.  We went to a restaurant called “The Cheescake Café”.  Kind of spendy, but with the exchange rate, not too bad for us.  We followed up dinner with a movie–“The Bourne Identity”.  It was a great spy thriller that we both enjoyed.

Amy was definitely happy to see us the next morning and both she and Misha slept through the entire night.  For all the changes of this trip in sleeping arrangements, they were both great about going to sleep.  Misha had one rough night, but that’s all.  When we stayed in hotels or the trailer, we had to go to sleep at the same time as them, so they went to sleep a little later than usual and we went to bed a little earlier.  We could certainly use the extra sleep.

 Thursday morning Mom started working on some Christmas sewing projects for the girls.  They both have new tutus, Amy has a cape and Misha should hopefully get one later.  Grandma is also going to sew some new clothes for baby-Amy’s doll.  Amy spent the morning outside helping Grandpa pull the stakes out of the pea patch and pick up apples.  She had such a great time as I knew she would.  Mom and Dad are so good with them.

Mom and Dad are ordinance workers at the temple on Thursday so they left around 1 pm and Chris and I and the girls drove into Lethbridge.  We had to have a nail removed from one our tires.  Sadly, Amy had just fallen asleep, and we had to wake her up.  That was the extent of her nap for the day--about 10 minutes.

After getting the car fixed, we went to Wal-mart for some snacks and to check out prices.  We had hoped to get another movie for the girls to watch on the way home, but they were sooooo expensive.  I was amazed.  Needless to say, we didn’t buy much.

We went also to visit my grandma, mom’s mom.  She lives on her own now, which is quite a challenge I am sure.  She has an eye condition called macular degeneration which has caused her to lose a lot of her eyesight.  I believe she still has her peripheral vision, but it is a lonely life for her.  She was thrilled that we would come to see her.  When we were leaving she gave the girls a bag of cookies to eat and felt badly that they weren’t homemade.  I told her that I rarely made cookies myself and not to feel bad.  We took some pictures and she even tried taking some of us, but I think she got our stomachs and feet instead of our heads.  I told her that I loved her, and she was so surprised.  She did say it back, but also called on Friday morning before we left to say it again because she couldn’t remember if she had or not.

We left Friday morning around 10:30 am to get to Billings.  Chris made hotel reservations for us this time, and we were able to stay at the Howard Johnson Express.  It was cheaper than the dumpy place we had stayed in the week before.  We even got a continental breakfast with it.  Amy was excited to be heading home and before long both girls were glued to the laptop and their movies.  It was good to be home but it was also good to be going back to our home.  The girls seemed to enjoy themselves, although Amy is more aware of where we were.


We stopped in Great Falls for lunch and to let the girls play at a park.  They appreciated being able to get out and run around and it is nicer for us as well.  We arrived in Billings around 4:30 and after quickly finding our hotel and checking in, went to dinner.  Olive Garden is always a winner with me and the girls actually will eat some of their food.  If we get fast food, they only like to eat french fries.  We went over to Costco after and spent a load of money on diapers and a new VCR.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that Montana had no additional taxes.  Chris felt even more pleased with his VCR purchase.

Again, we all went to bed about the same time since we were all in one room.  Misha woke up about 6:45 am and Amy shortly thereafter.  They were anxious to go get breakfast since we didn’t have any orange juice in the room with us.  They gotta have their oj in the morning!  The continental breakfast was so-so.  Not really too healthy.  We were on the road by 8:30 am and ready to be home.  It was quite a bit cooler on Saturday morning with lots of heavy rain.  It lasted for awhile, even turning into snow at some elevations.

It was a pretty fast moving storm though.  We finally got past it and stopped for lunch in Sheridan, Wyoming and the storm passed over us again.    We were in rain off and on through Wyoming.  Finally, we made it into Colorado and decided to stop at Wal-mart in Loveland and get our groceries for the week.  No sense making an extra trip.  We finally rolled up the driveway at 4:30 pm.  Amy and Misha had just fallen asleep, but Amy quickly woke up.  Especially when the neighbor boy came running over even before I got out of the car to try and sell us a coupon book.  He took one look at our van and said, “You’ve got a lot of stuff!”  I told him we had been gone for a week.

It felt good to walk into the house and smell that new construction smell again.  Sadly, all of my plants were lacking water.  I am not sure if all of them will make it.  I had cleaned the house before I left so it was nice not to have to worry about coming home to a messy house.  We had a great time in Canada.

Wednesday, 11 September, 2002

Today is the first anniversary of the tragedies in New York City at the World Trade Centers, the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania.

I received a letter from INS a couple of weeks ago stating that my petition for permanent residency had been granted.  YEAH!  But we still had to go to INS one more time to submit more passport photos for my new card.  When we went to the  INS office two weeks ago, they stamped my passport so that I can leave the country.  I am finally an official permanent resident, though the actual green card takes two to ten months to get to me.  Leave it to INS to be so timely.

We are leaving for Canada on Friday.  We have not been since Amy was about six or seven months old.  I am not looking forward to the drive there, but we should have movies for the girls to watch that will hopefully make it easier.   We bought some new movies and fun toys that they will be able to play with along the way.  Hopefully things that will hold their attention and keep it off of the fact that they have been sitting in car seats for a very long time.

I am just hoping that we all stay healthy for the trip.  Both Amy and Alicia were sick two weeks ago with colds and when they were finally on the mend, I came down with strep.  That was pretty painful.  Fortunately I got onto antibiotics pretty quick and was feeling much better within a couple of days.  Sadly, Amy showed signs of being sick with a cold again yesterday.  I hope that it won’t last more than today and that the rest of us can stay healthy as well.

Susan and Becky are pregnant.  Susan is due in March and Becky in April.  Susan has had a lot of challenges with a cyst and went to the doctor because she had a lot of cramping and pain.  She wanted to make sure she wasn’t pregnant so that she could take some heavy duty medicine.  She was and now there is a lot of concern about keeping her and the baby healthy throughout the pregnancy.  I hope that it will go well for her as she doesn’t really have an easy time being pregnant.

Chris and I both had dental appointments yesterday and took the girls along with us.  We had hoped that Amy would let the hygienist look in her mouth, but she wasn’t opening her mouth for anyone.  She was pretty interested in watching me have my teeth cleaned though.

We are in the process of refinancing our house right now.  A couple months ago, we had a speaker in church who challenged us to pay extra fast offerings and promised us that if we did we would be blessed in a myriad of ways, including financially.  I decided that I would take that challenge and started paying more fast offerings.  I didn’t really know how we would realize these financial blessings, but I had faith that we would.

Chris met a new member of our ward a month or so ago while helping some people move.  Eric works for a mortgage company and mentioned something about refinancing.  Chris came home and mentioned it to me and from there the idea grew, and I convinced Chris that we ought to check seriously into a no-cost refinance.  When figuring the numbers, we should come out almost $300 a month ahead with our new loan payments plus have a one month reprieve from paying.  It is amazing to me how the Lord works.  Raises at IBM only come once a year so we knew that a raise wasn’t in the works for us, and even though we aren’t making any more per month, we will have more income to work with.  Such a testimony builder in that the Lord is always mindful of our needs.

Alicia is growing up fast.  I think much faster than Amy because she has Amy to follow and tries to do so many of the things that Amy already does.  She has mastered walking, running, likes to walk backwards, goes up and down stairs easily enough and pretty much makes her wants and needs known.  Like Amy, she loves her morning orange juice.  That is the first thing that either of them want when they wake up.  They both love to shower and hate having to get out, and I am sure she will come to love Wal-mart for the free cookies for kids.

We went to K-mart the other day and Amy doesn’t quite distinguish it from Walmart.  She calls it K-Walmart.  We purchased new shoes for Amy for the fall that help her run fast, fast, fast.  We have started to buy some things for birthdays and Christmas and have to be careful about making sure they are hidden before Amy sees them.  She has such a good memory.

Wednesday, 21 August, 2002

Alicia has figured out how to take her clothes off.  If you leave her in her crib for a bit after she wakes up, she will take off both her shirt and pants.  She doesn’t do it during the day though which is nice.  If she starts I’ll have to put onesies on her.

I received a letter from the Department of Justice on Monday stating that I am now a lawful permanent resident.  I still have to have a new green card made which means another trip to INS.  We have never been to the office here in Denver, but I have heard that it is just as crowded as the Salt Lake Office, and you have to go early in the morning to even get a chance to see an officer.  Hopefully after that I won’t have to go through these challenges anymore, though I have heard that the card expires after 10 years.   At least I am now a permanent resident.  It has taken us five years to get to this point.

Thursday, 15 August, 2002

A year ago this week, we packed up and moved to Colorado.  We had the culture shock of a tiny little apartment plus completely new surroundings.  With a 20-month old and 5-week old in tow, it was quite an experience.  I am so glad that we are more settled this year.  Tomorrow is our 5th anniversary.  Amazing that time has gone by so quickly.  And who would have imagined that we would have had two little ragamuffins in that time?

I decided on Tuesday that I was going to wean Alicia from bottles.  Not too much involved there.  I just stopped giving them to her and gave her sippy cups instead.  She hasn’t seemed to mind too much.  I think bottles were a little more calming for her before going to sleep, but I want to try and get her away from having to be rocked before going to sleep.  She doesn’t fall asleep in my arms, but it is just quiet time that helps her wind down.  I am grateful that she hasn’t become attached to nursing or bottles or pacifiers.  She does have a white stuffed bear that she likes to cuddle with when she lays down though.

Sunday, August 11, 2002

On the computer, Chris has the screen saver set up to cycle through all of the digital pictures we have taken.  It is a like having a photo album open all of the time.  Amy loves to watch the pictures change and often asks when it is a baby picture, “Is that me?”  She can’t always tell the difference between her and Alicia as babies.  Last week as she was watching, she excitedly exclaimed, “Is that me?  Oh boy!  I LOVE me!”  When she is enthusiastic about something she usually says she loves it.   I don’t know where she picked up “oh boy” though.  She also likes to say, “check this out”, “incredible”, “unbelievable” and plenty of other cute sayings. 

A couple of months ago, Disney released a movie about a horse named Spirit.  She only saw the promos for the movie but has a plastic “Spirit” horse from a kid’s meal at Burger King.  I don’t think she relates Spirit the horse to the Holy Spirit however; when a prayer is being said in church and the person praying asks for the spirit to be with us, Amy will loudly whisper, “Spirit!  I LOVE Spirit!”  Always makes us chuckle.

Alicia had the worst dirty diaper ever yesterday.  And she just kept on making it worse and worse.  I found her only after all the damage had been done.  She hasn’t been feeling too well so the poop was rather gushy.  She had the diaper on the couch while sitting against a pillow.  The diaper didn’t hold all the poop and out it gushed onto the pillow.  Then she slid off the couch wiping poop all over the cushion.  At some point she stuck her hand in it as well and then proceeded to lean against the couch in three different spots smearing poop everywhere she stood.  She grabbed the couch with her dirty hand on the arm rest and for her final trick smeared poop on the wall.  When I found her, I only noticed that she had quite a blow out and immediately took her upstairs to change her.  I finished that and noticed that she had it on her hand.  By that time Chris had come in the house, and I told him she must not be feeling well because she had quite a blow out.  That is when he walked into the living room and noticed one of the spots on the couch.  And the poop just kept coming and coming.  All the while, Amy just sat on the couch without saying a word.  Two stinkers I’d say.  Plus I was just starting on getting dinner ready because the missionaries were coming.  The poop fiasco took me 20 minutes just to clean up.  Uggh.  The things we do for our children....and they are documented here just so they’ll know.  The appreciation doesn’t really sink in until you have kids of you own though.

Our ward was split a couple of weeks ago.  We now go to church at 2:00 in the afternoon.  That part isn’t so fun, but I am already enjoying the smaller feel of our new ward.  The 2nd ward had so many people in it, it was impossible to keep track of everyone.  Now I find that I am matching names with people and remembering who they are.  I also heard the bishop talking today about the new building that they will be building out here.  Should only be a mile or so away.  That will be wonderful.  I will appreciate a five minute drive to church over a 25 minute drive.

Monday, 5 August, 2002

 

Amy has started to call Alicia “Misha”.  Pretty cute.  I think it is a combination of Alicia and Michelle.  Probably one of those names that will stick for the rest of her life.

Alicia is a climber.  If you leave a kitchen chair pulled out at the table when you stand up, she is climbing up on it in a flash–-and then on to the table.  I have to make a conscious effort to push the chair in, even if I am only up for a bit.  The funniest thing though is that even when the chair is pushed in under the table she still climbs up on to the chair.  She can’t go anywhere which frustrates her though.

Alicia makes the sound of a dog by saying “ooo, ooo, ooo”.  She is beginning to say more words.  She can say night night, bye bye, eyes, daddy, mommy, and go but understands so much more.

We went to the Boulder County Fair and Parade on Saturday and the girls loved it.  The parade was one of the best we had been to in a long while.  It had a definite home-town feel to it.  Lots of old fire engines, horses, marching bands, though too many people running for office.  They threw out lots of candy, handed out bottled water, flags, and balloons.  Any time there was music, Amy would start to dance in the street.  A lady next to me, leaned over and said to me, “I couldn’t figure out why everybody that passed by was handing your daughter candy and stuff and not anybody else and then I saw her face and she is the most beautiful little girl in the world.”  We agree, but we think we have two of the most beautiful little girls in the world.  How did we get so lucky?

After the parade we drove over to the fair grounds.  The traffic was great, nothing like Provo where it was grid lock for 30 to 40 minutes after the parade and you had to be sitting on the curb four or five hours before the parade started if you wanted a good seat..  We even found a great place to park and sit at the parade, and we only arrived five minutes before it started.  We stopped first at the farmer’s market and then went in to the fair.  Next week I will have to remember to get my vegetables at the market instead of at the grocery store.

The fair wasn’t too fabulous nor big, but both girls enjoyed themselves.  We saw “amazing” performing pigs, looked at all the 4-H exhibits, and then checked out all the animals–chickens, turkeys, ducks, goats, sheep, llamas, and horses.  By about 1:30, I was pretty tired and both girls had missed a nap so we decided to head home.  Not five minutes later, Amy and Alicia were snoring in their car seats.  Chris and I were both able to have a rest as well once we got home.  Quite a fun day for all of us.  Unfortunately, Chris and I forgot to put sunscreen on the girls and Amy got quite a bad sun burn on her shoulders and Alicia a bit on one of her arms.  Sorry girls!

By the way, I noticed that we have two more frogs in the window well again.  Don’t think they are the same ones as before though as one of them is quite tiny.

Wednesday, 24 July, 2002

I think Alicia has her sixth tooth coming in.  She has been such a crab lately.  Yesterday we were all out of sync with each other and I think we all had a bad day.  Chris was kind enough to take the girls to the park for me after work so I could have some time by myself.

Thursday, 18 July, 2002

Chris’ family–Larry, Linda, Jenni, Becky and her baby Andrew–arrived late on Monday evening.  Amy had to give up her bed and room and has been sleeping on a mattress in our closet while they have been here.  She thought it was great fun the first night, but I think it is losing its appeal.  They are leaving tomorrow though so she can go back to her own bed soon.

On Tuesday, they just hung around here for most of the day until about 4.  They drove to Chris’ work and the girls and I joined them later, both of the girls had late naps.  We then went to Boulder and walked up Pearl Street.  It has a lot of interesting shops to visit and a variety of interesting people to watch.  They had a fountain for kids to play in that shot water up into the air.  We peeled them down to their diapers and let them play.  After Pearl Street, we went to the Olive Garden for dinner.  We wanted to treat Jenni and Becky since they had both had birthdays, and Chris ended up paying for everyone. 

Wednesday we spent the day up in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park.  They have a lot of fun shops to explore, and we spent much of the morning looking.  We got a quick lunch at McDonald’s and took it to a park to eat.  The girls and Andrew had fun playing on the toys and expended some energy.  Amy and Alicia were asleep within minutes after we left to drive up into the national park.  We spent a couple of hours driving to one of the highest peaks, but noticed as we were coming down a lot of smoke in the sky.  A forest fire had started not too far from where we were.

On the way home, we stopped at Walmart in Loveland while Chris’ family headed on home.  Becky and Jenni weren’t particularly happy with our choice of activities for the day. 

Wednesday, 10 July, 2002

Alicia is one year old.  I think Amy was more excited about her birthday than anything.  She has been talking for awhile about Alicia’s “bickey” and that she will be one year old.  I told her that Chris would be picking up balloons for a party and Amy said, “I LOVE DADDY!!”  She was so thrilled.  About a month ago, I bought “Barney” party hats because Amy wanted them.  She must have had a birthday party in nursery or seen it on tv.  Yesterday she kept asking me to sing the “Happy Birthday” song so that she could drum along with pencils over and over.  That didn’t last too long. 

We tried to put a party hat on Alicia but she just cried.  I put the birthday cake by her mouth and she took a bite, though I wouldn’t let her grab it with her fingers.  Amy, ever concerned about being clean, took a dainty little bite off the cake.  Alicia got a shape sorter toy and nesting barrels.  Amy was so disappointed not to have presents of her own, that I let her open one of Alicia’s.  The toys were a hit with both of them.  It was just the four of us for the party, but we had a lot of fun.

Amy has been getting in my lingerie drawer lately and today put on one of my bras.  She puts it on backwards so that she can have the clasp in the front to do up.  She keeps saying that she will get a bra when she gets bigger.

I was exercising this morning in the basement and kept catching glimpses of movement out the corner of my eye.  I looked at the window and saw a frog hopping around in the window well trying to find a way out.  A couple minutes later I looked over again, and there was a baby frog also jumping.  I took Amy down later to see it and the big frog was just under the window and jumped up against it.  Scared her.  She was pretty fascinated to see it.  The smaller frog had disappeared though so Chris was only able to free one of them when he came down.

Amy has designated the guest bedroom as the Grandma room.  She only says pawpaw for either Grandma or Grandpa, but they don’t seem to care.  Chris’ parents and Jenni and Becky and her baby, Andrew, are coming next Monday to stay for a couple of days, so she will have even more grandparents to enjoy.

Amy’s favorite movie is “The Princess Diaries”.  We got it from the library a couple of weeks ago and she watched it over and over and over.  I renewed it the following week and just this week checked it out again.  She wants to be a princess when she gets bigger.

Wednesday, 3 July, 2002

It is amazing to think that Alicia is almost 1 year old.  The past year zoomed by so fast and she has grown and progressed in so many ways.  Alicia has not really taken off with walking, though in the past couple of days she has become more and more brave.  She will take off toward something and usually she would only walk if Chris or I encouraged her to come to us.   In fact today, she is trying to run.

Last week, Grandma and Grandpa Rice and Mitch came to visit.  They were here from Tuesday evening until Saturday morning.  Because they were here, Chris and I were able to attend the Nauvoo temple dedication at our stake center.  They watched the girls while we attended the first session and then met us at the church so that they could be in the second session.  We haven’t done much on our own since we have lived here so it was nice to have that time together.  It worked great.  It would be nice to have family closer.  As we were sitting in the stake center chapel in Longmont, I had the very distinct impression that people-spirits-were in attendance because of work that I had done for them in the temple.  I felt a very warm “thank you” fill my heart and for a moment a glimpse of people dressed in white congregating in heaven, anticipating the dedication of this beloved temple.

On Friday night, Chris and I were able to go to the temple down in Littleton.  It was a wonderful, spiritually fulfilling week for me.  I wish I had them more often.  We were going to go to a movie after, but we weren’t out soon enough to catch any of the times and we still needed to eat.  Mom kept telling Amy that I would come back and Amy kept saying to me the next day “You came back.”  Alicia was a bit clingy the next morning, but it was so nice to be in the temple.  I sure do wish that it was closer.

From our house, Mom and Dad and Mitch headed to Utah.  Mitch had to be in Idaho on Monday morning for summer term at BYU-Idaho (formerly known as Ricks College), and I think they wanted to have a chance to rest up after all the traveling.  Unfortunately, on Tuesday morning (yesterday), Dallin called and said that he had taken Dad to the hospital because he had been having chest pains.  He was back at Susan’s by the end of the day and after a myriad of tests.  His heart seems to be fine, but perhaps he has some kind of hernia.  I know he was just relieved that everything turned out okay.  I am grateful that it happened in Utah and not here.  I don’t know any doctors here whereas Carson’s stake president is a doctor and Dallin’s brother-in-law is a physician’s assistant, so Dad was in good hands the entire day.  It was pretty hard on Mom, I guess she didn’t handle it too well.

They will be in Utah until this next weekend.  Mitch is driving back up to Utah for the 4th of July holiday and will drive back with Mom and Dad unless he can find a ride back.

Alicia seems to be saying the jumbled form of words, such as “What is it” but it comes out all in one.  She can say “go”, “don’t”, “mommy”, daddy”, and “up”.  We started her on whole milk today–no more formula to buy and she usually eats whatever we are eating.  That is, if she doesn’t put it on her head.  For some reason she likes to put food in her hair.  Makes quite a mess, but she is learning.

Alicia’s fourth tooth came through about two weeks ago.  It was a hard one for her and she was crabby for weeks.  Four down and about sixteen to go in the next year.

Amy is maturing so much.  She carries on quite a conversation.  Actually, she jabbers on and on and on, but it is nice to talk to someone during the day who can answer back.  She was sick last week while Grandma and Grandpa Rice were here, fortunately no one else got sick.

Amy still has no desire to be potty trained.  She gets pretty angry with the whole thing and it seems to do more harm than good to try and encourage her to use the potty.  I let her wear panties a couple of times, but both times she peed in them and all over the floor and the couch.  I was hoping that she would catch onto the sensation of feeling pee coming, but she is just not ready yet.  I hope that she will be someday.  I still have some Sunbeams who aren’t yet, so I guess I shouldn’t worry too much.

 We drove to Loveland with Mark and Malinda DeBry last night to watch fireworks.  As usual, our kids were all over the place.  Amy spilled root beer and Alicia was constipated.  So much fun.  A bunch of trees were blocking our view, but it was nice to get out.  We will know better for next year where to sit.

Monday, 10 June, 2002

Chris set up the sprinkler for Amy on Saturday so she could run through it.  She loved putting on her swimming suit to play in the water, but she was definitely surprised that the water was soooooooo cold.  She finally went through if Chris went with her so he peeled off his shirt and played in the water with her.  While she was waiting to play, she was standing on the sidewalk and Chris noticed a little puddle by her feet.  He pointed out that she just went pee.  Amy immediately cried with delight, “I get a treat.”  We laughed and then explained that she only got treats when she actually peed in the potty.

Tuesday, 4 June, 2002

Mitch made it home late Friday night, May 31st, from his mission in Finland.  I didn’t get a chance to talk to him though until Sunday afternoon because they (Mom, Dad, Dallin, Angie, and Mitch) took off to Calgary for a day of shopping.  Poor Mitch.  When Dallin is around, no one sits still for long.  He and Angie drove up together on Friday and left Monday mid-morning.  I didn’t know that they wouldn’t be home on Saturday so I called all day long trying to get a hold of them.  I finally called Brad to see if he knew where they were.  He was lucky enough to catch them just before they left on Saturday.  I called then too, and it was busy so they must have been talking to him.  Anyway, though tired, Mitch is doing well and looking forward to being at Ricks, or BYU-Idaho as it is now called, for the summer term.

Alicia has had so many milestones within the past week.  She is taking steps on her own, though she usually only likes to walk to me.  If Chris holds out his hands to her, she will take a couple of steps and then try and turn around to come back to me.  She is pretty proud of herself and loves it when I take the time for her to walk to me.  She has started letting go of chairs and such to walk to me, but if the distance seems to far, she will sit down and crawl.  I guess she knows what her limits are. 

For a couple weeks, all Alicia would do was climb the first step on the stairs but yesterday, she just took off and climbed to the landing.  All of a sudden she figured it out.  Can’t leave her for very long in one spot.

I was praying last Wednesday about what more I could do to lose weight.  Right now, I walk on the treadmill for one hour five days a week (that is broken up into two ½ hour shifts–one in the morning at 6 am and then later around 11 am after Amy goes down for her nap) and try to fit in 15-20 minutes of strength training when my girls allow it.  Alicia has been waking up at 6:00 am for the last couple of weeks.  I get her up and put her in the playpen beside me, but 30 minutes is about her limit in there.  The impression I received as I was praying was “stop nursing”.  I was trying to hold out for another month, since that was my own imposed time schedule, I struggled with the feeling of letting Alicia down.  She doesn’t seem to see it that way.  She is happier, I think, without the bother of nursing.  After cutting back to only night and morning feedings in April, I wasn’t producing as much milk, and it would usually take one to two minutes before my milk came in.  She was getting pretty frustrated and it was more of an endurance test to see if she would have enough patience to wait.  It certainly has not been as painful or as difficult as with Amy.  I stopped nursing Amy one night after my milk had already come in because she wouldn’t stop biting me.  I kept getting more and more full as the week progressed and subsequently, in more and more pain.  It feels wonderful to have my body to myself again.

Alicia has figured out how to drink from a sippy cup as well as a straw, so transitioning from bottle to cup shouldn’t be difficult at all.  Though she only associates the sippy cup with water right now and doesn’t like to have juice or milk from one.  She is also eating more of our food and seems to enjoy feeding herself.

Amy surprises us with her funny sayings all of the time.   You know she has been watching too many commercials when she yells out, “Call now” when there is a commercial selling something or a lawyer commercial.

Chris has been trying to explain to Amy that when people in church bear their testimonies and start to cry that they aren’t really sad.  He calls it “happy sad” so that she kind of understands.  Yesterday she was telling me that daddy was really happy sad when he found out that she had colored on the wall in her bedroom.  I told her that I doubted that there was any happiness involved at all.

Amy was coloring in the office yesterday and said that she was going to draw a picture of daddy.  “He’s big tall.  Whew. Daddy’s big tall.”

We had Family Home Evening last night to teach Amy about fire safety and calling 9-1-1.  We showed her about fires and how mommy and daddy are the only ones who light candles.  Chris showed her the fire extinguisher and explained that it sprayed water on big fires.  We had a fire drill and practiced running out of the house when it went off.  After that, we pretended that mommy was hurt and taught her how to reach the telephone.  We need to work on dialing 9-1-1 some more, but I think she caught on to the idea.  She was intrigued by the idea of learning, and you could tell that she was soaking up the information.  This morning she has already talked about running outside and pointed out the fire extinguisher.