Friday, 3 January, 2003

The border in Amy's room has taken many hours to complete.  I wish that the yellow was a bit darker but other than that, I think it looks great.  There is still a bit more to do in Amy’s room with touch-ups, but it is close to being finished.

 Speaking of Amy, she went poop in the potty this morning and didn’t have a single accident today.  Yesterday was full of accidents and she got her new purse and her “baby” taken away.  She was pretty distressed about her baby when it came time to go to sleep, but I told her that she could have it back if she would poop in the potty today.  She did wonderfully and because she didn’t have any accidents today, she gets the purse back as well.  Amy has had a bit of a cold the last two days.  I think I was able to catch it with the echinacea in time and she is feeling a lot better.  This morning as she was sneezing, she suddenly tooted too.  She said to me, “I sneezed and I tooted.  I have sneeze toots!”




Amy fell asleep while sitting on the potty.

I often find Amy asleep with her favorite blanket pulled up over her head.

 Amy is very much into being a princess, she puts towels on her head, around her neck, anywhere.  The other day she walked into the office where I was and said, “Your majesty.”

The girls both had doctors appointments last Friday, and I had blood work done to test my thyroid.  Amy weighed 38 pounds and was 37 inches tall.  They are both in the upper percentiles for the age.  Amy is showing advancement in her development and demonstrated her ability to hop on one foot and draw a picture of Dr. Walker.  Her language skills are pretty impressive.

As are Misha’s.  She can say purple very well, and I have been having her say the other colors too.  Now we just need to match them up with the actual colors.  I am beginning to understand her a lot more.  When you call her, she will sometimes say, “Coming”.  She still likes to go to sleep at night.  I hope that the transition to a twin bed will be a smooth one for her.  Just today, she figured out how to open a door.  Nothing is safe now.  She likes to scavenge in the pantry and gets into the pretzels, chips, crackers, cookies–anything she can reach.  Especially anything with a chip clip on it.

I took Amy for her second hair cut on Tuesday the 31st.  She was pretty proud of herself.  I think, though, that I can probably cut her hair from now on.  Especially if it is only once a year.  The hair dresser said that she had very healthy hair for a child her age and that it did not feel like child hair.  I still have to cut Misha’s bangs every 4 to 6 weeks, depending on how short they get when she squirms as I cut them.  I trimmed the ends a couple months ago and her hair seems to be growing quite quickly.  It is past her collar in the back and almost to her shoulders on the side.  The top constantly falls forward into her face which drives me crazy but doesn’t seem to bother her.  I try to keep a barrette in it, but she usually just pulls them out.  Thus, her hair is a lot thinner on top.

 Dr. Walker called Tuesday morning to say that my thyroid levels are back again in the normal range, typical for autoimmune thyroiditis.  Not sure why I had it in the first place, but it is nice to know that I don’t have to worry much about it right now.

Tuesday, 31 December, 2002

Christmas has come and gone as well as another year almost.  But it was a lot of fun.  Last Monday (the 23rd), Santa Claus rode around the neighborhood on a fire engine and Amy was even brave enough to talk to him.  All season long, she would see Santa Claus and shrink up next to us saying, “I don’t want to talk to him.”  That night we went to the fire station where he arrived on the fire truck amid lights and sirens.  We had a hard time finding a parking space and kind of blocked Santa’s grand entrance for a minute or so.  We didn’t know if they would be meeting inside the station or outside, so we bundled the girls up.  Once inside, I stood in the line to have pictures taken with Santa, and Chris climbed on the fire trucks with the girls and took pictures.  The place was pretty packed with families and lots of kids, so we didn’t stay too long.

On Christmas Eve, we continued a holiday tradition from my family and had Chinese food.  We went to the restaurant to eat, but as the girls get older, I want to do more of the tradition by getting take out from the restaurant, and having a fun family dinner at home.  We drove around and looked at the lights in Longmont after dinner and then brought the girls home for more celebration.  We have tried to focus on Christmas as Christ’s birthday and not just Santa Claus and presents.  We read the story of Christ’s birth using a fun little felt nativity that Grandma Ball sent.  Amy gets into the story but Misha is more interested in messing up all the little felt pieces.  We also opened up one Christmas gift--jammies for everyone--and changed right there in the middle of the living room.  (That obviously won’t be a tradition that we continue for too many years.)  I then had a small box that was a present for Jesus Christ and we all wrote down one thing we would work on in the next year to be a gift for Jesus.  We will open it up next year and then add new gifts.

Both girls slept without a problem (I used to wake up so much the night before Christmas).  I had just finished showering and putting on makeup when I heard Amy up.  She was already downstairs looking for me but hadn’t yet been in the living room.  I made her stand outside the living room until I had the camera ready and Chris climbed out of bed.  She was awed by the presents under the tree (I hadn’t put any out for fear that Misha would just unwrap them all).  Plus there were some great unwrapped gifts sitting next to the tree–a little tykes kitchen, a tonka truck, a slide, and a doll stroller.  (All but the slide were purchased at garage sales last summer).  I got the slide hoping that Misha would climb on it instead of the kitchen table and chairs, back of the couch, toy chest, etc.  There were so many wonderful things that Amy didn’t know what to start with first.  Misha woke up around 7:45 and then the party started (along with the fight over toys).  They had a lot and got even more and they both always wanted the same thing at the same time.

Grandma Ball said they were scaling back on Christmas this year, but you wouldn’t know it by all the gifts they sent.  She sent a cash register, a cassette player with microphone, a ball bopper toy, dresses, and more little toys.  The cash register and cassette player are a big hit.  She gave Chris a picture of Christ with all of his ordination information overlaid and money for the new bedding we got. 

Chris’ dad gave us money for Christmas (which is always welcome) and also brought a Mr. Potato Head family for the girls.  So many pieces!  Aaagh!  Oh well, the girls love it.  He flew in on Thursday afternoon and out again on Sunday morning.  Actually, he hoped to fly out in the morning but wasn’t able to catch a flight until later in the day.  We went out for my early birthday dinner that night at Armadillo’s in Thornton.  None of us were too impressed with the food or the service.

Friday we tried to find some snow hoping to go sledding with the girls.  We drove up into the mountains past Nederland, Golden, and through Blackhawk and everything was brown.  Blackhawk is basically a town full of casinos, but by then Grandpa had to go to the bathroom.  Chris took Amy as well.  By the time they were coming out of the bathroom, security had spotted them on a camera and were there to escort them out!

So we came home and made a ham dinner.  Grandpa finally got to have his mashed potatoes with the skins on.  He bugs me about it every time he comes here.

Chris had arranged with a friend from work to come and help him put up the molding in Amy’s room.  They spent a couple of hours working on that Saturday morning.  Grandpa Kline has his check-ride in a couple of weeks, so he spent most of the morning studying for that.  He has to pass this test or he can’t fly airplanes anymore.  We didn’t do anything exciting on Saturday, it was more of a relaxing day in the afternoon.  Chris and I drove into Longmont with Misha to pick up some paint for her room and Amy stayed with Grandpa.  He took her to the park which thrilled her to her toes.  Sadly, Grandpa was kicking her inflatable beach ball a little too hard and burst it.  She was pretty upset with him.

Chris took the girls and Grandpa Kline to the airport on Sunday morning.  It was a wonderfully nice treat for me to have some time to myself.  I know I don’t make time for me often enough.  Sadly, when they arrived back, Misha had already slept in the car.  That equates into a crabby girl in church.  Amy had a nap though.  And Grandpa Kline called from the airport to say that he was bumped from his flight.  He would try to find a roundabout way to get home faster since the next direct flight wasn’t until 7 that evening.

I took Misha to nursery for the first time on Sunday.  She loved it.  She walked right in and started playing.  It was Amy’s last week as she will become a Sunbeam on Sunday and go to regular Primary class.  She is pretty excited though we told her there wouldn’t be any more treats or toys to play with.  I hope she likes it.  I hope that Misha likes nursery without Amy there.  Amy used to cry when we came to pick her up because she realized then that we had left her (she had a good time while we were gone though), but Misha wasn’t even too anxious to leave.  Hurray!  It was so nice to have a quiet Sunday School class and Relief Society.

Chris didn’t go back to work until Thursday, the 2nd of January, so he had Monday through Wednesday off this past week.  We went into Longmont on Monday morning to do some shopping and ended spending a lot of the day there.  The missionaries came for dinner that night and since they had used up all their miles for the month, Chris had to go in to Longmont and pick them up and then take them back home again.  He picked up a pizza on the way.  One of the missionaries was pretty sullen, to the point of almost being rude.  He made me uncomfortable.

On Tuesday we headed north to Loveland and Ft. Collins.  It was nice to be out together as a family.  Unfortunately, Amy was having accidents galore, and both days I had to buy her new pants because I didn’t pack enough extra in the diaper bag.  I think she must get stressed when her schedule is messed up.

For New Year’s Eve, we stayed home with the girls.  After our frustrating day with Amy and her accidents, we didn’t feel like going anywhere.  We put them to bed at their normal times and watched a movie together–“Minority Report”-with Tom Cruise.  It was enjoyable but didn’t all come together until the very end.  I even stayed up past midnight which is quite an accomplishment for me.  Still, I have such guilt in the morning if I don’t exercise that I was up fairly early.  I did sleep through my 5:30 alarm but woke up an hour later.  The girls have both been sleeping later in the morning, so I was still able to get a shorter session in.

I took the Christmas tree and most of the decorations down on Wednesday.  I had started on Monday night.  It was nice to have my house back to normal, but I love the warmth of having a Christmas tree.  I left the Christmas lights on the tree this year.  It should save me a couple of hours next year in my decorating.  Chris was at Jamie Stanworth’s working on a computer during the morning and came home to find all traces of Christmas gone.  He was rather surprised that I had managed to pack up the tree and heft it back downstairs.  It was kind of heavy, but I was on a cleaning kick and wanted it out of the way.  It was hardly a relaxing day for me.  I think I worked non-stop all morning long.  I started painting the border in Amy’s room.

Wednesday, 18 December, 2002

One week until Christmas and so much to write.  I was just checking back and can’t believe that it has been five weeks since I last typed anything.  Sorry.  Guess I will have a lot of recapping to do.

Let’s start with Thanksgiving because it was sooooo much fun for all of us.  Shane and Mitch finally decided that they were coming to visit.  We picked them up at the Loveland Wal-mart on a rather chilly Tuesday evening.  They said it was even colder than Rexburg–can that be possible?  Because we planned to paint Amy’s room over the holiday, we moved Misha’s new twin bed into the guest room with the new queen bed and the boys slept in there.  I don’t know how they decided who would get to sleep in the queen vs. the twin, but Mitch won out on that one.

We sold our futon to one of Chris’ coworkers and Shane and Chris delivered it to her in Longmont on Wednesday morning.  It was nice that we didn’t have to go to too much effort to make the sale.  She had just moved into a new condo and needed furniture and our offer was just too good to pass up.  When Chris and Shane got back, we got ready to go to Flat Iron Crossing to have pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids.  I figured since it was the day before Thanksgiving it wouldn’t be quite so crowded as the day after.  I was wrong.  At least every other mother must have had that same idea about getting pictures taken because when we got there, they told us it would be a three hour wait!  We decided that since we were already there, we would wait.

Shane and Mitch went shopping and since it was noon already, my family decided to get some lunch.  That was our big mistake.  Actually, eating at McDonalds for something fast and cheap was our big mistake.  After lunch I went back to Kiddie Kandids to check and see if they had any cancellations and they were able to fit us in right then.  They have two studios at that mall, and we raced off to the other one to claim our spot.  Chris raced out to the car to pick up all of our clothes and we hurriedly changed in the bathroom.  I was wishing that it wasn’t such a harried experience...

Amy took awhile to warm up and Misha didn’t at all.  She never smiled once and after a few shots, it was pointless to even try for more.  After trying to get a picture of the two girls together and not succeeding, I finally decided to have a picture of Chris and I taken just so we could get the process over with.  At that point, I was beginning to feel a bit nauseous but didn’t think much of it.  The pictures were finally done though I wasn’t all that impressed with the quality of them.

Chris changed back into his clothes, and then Amy and I went to change into ours.  While we were doing that, Misha threw up all over her dress.  No wonder she didn’t feel like sitting still for pictures or even smiling.  Shane was taking forever finishing his shopping and by that time my stomach was feeling awful.  I finally took Amy and went out to the car.  Chris waited for Shane and for our pictures to be printed, but after waiting and waiting they still weren’t done.  I felt awful and Chris was beginning to feel pretty queasy too.  Finally we left around three o’clock, three hours at the mall.  We were both feeling pretty gross and not able to wait any longer for our pictures to be printed.  Chris drove for about ten minutes and then had to pull over to the side of the road to throw up.  He stood on the median just off Sheridan Rd in Westminister and heaved for about 5 minutes.

Poor guy.  He was having cramps so severely that he could no longer drive.  I wasn’t in any mood to drive either, but we had to get home.  Fortunately the girls slept when we got home, cause neither Chris nor I were in any condition to take care of them.  About ten minutes after arriving home, Chris threw up and began to feel a lot better immediately.  I wasn’t so lucky.  We began to suspect that it was something we ate at McDonald’s that had given us food poisoning.  Misha threw up within an hour after eating and felt pretty much better since it wasn’t in her system for very long.  Chris threw up within three hours and though still not feeling as though he could run a marathon, he was doing much better.

Lucky for us, one of us was able to function.  I was pretty sick.  When Amy woke up from her nap, she wasn’t feeling too great either and laid in bed snuggled up beside me.  After awhile she got up and acted as though she was doing ok, but I heard her throw up downstairs and things went downhill from there for her.  I thankfully threw up around 8:30 pm and felt kind of better though still pretty queasy.  Amy came into the room just after I threw up, saw it and asked if I was having soup.  UGH!

Poor Shane emptied the bowl for me.  Mitch sequestered himself into the guest room saying later that he did not realize that we were all still so sick.  Yeah right.

Amy continued to be sick after her first throwing up experience.  She was laying in bed beside me and threw up all over the sheets.  I was feeling so awful that all I could do was lay on the floor while Chris changed the sheets.  About a ½ hour later, she threw up all over the bed again.  By this time, Chris was a little edgy.  Ok, a lot edgy.  I think he did 5 or 6 loads of laundry that night.  I finally got Amy used to barfing into the bowl beside her instead of on the bed. 

Chris slept in Amy’s room that night, and she slept with me.  Poor little thing had the dry heaves all night long.  I gave her a tums and she threw it up, she had a sip of water and threw it up.  Finally I wouldn’t let her have anything else.  By morning I dared to give her a little bit of water again, and this time she kept it down.  Ahhh, Thursday morning, Thanksgiving Day, and I still felt pretty awful.  Chris was mostly better and he took Mitch and Shane and went to get movies in Longmont at Blockbuster.

Though I didn’t feel like preparing anything big, I still made a Thanksgiving dinner.  Probably the least amount I have ever eaten for Thanksgiving.  One good thing you can say about having food poisoning.

Friday morning, I woke up around 4 extremely hungry.  I got up early and ate something then paid all of our bills online.  I even did a short workout downstairs on the treadmill.  Shane woke up early with the stomach flu.  And so it continued through our entire weekend.

Chris and I and Mitch painted Amy’s room in the morning.  She got to paint on the walls as well.  It turned out a little darker than I thought it would be, but still it looks good.  I will probably try and finish the border over the holidays and then Chris is going to put up some moulding to finish off some edges.  Next I want to paint Misha’s room a pale yellow and then our bedroom.  Not sure on the color yet though.

Anyway, back to Thanksgiving.  We drove up to Estes Park for a Christmas parade.  Mitch and Shane were decidedly unthrilled about being there.  Shane even went back to the car early.  It was pretty chilly so we had him take Misha with him.  We didn’t even stay for the whole thing because it was pretty cold.  And that was one of the warmer years for them to have the parade.  I wasn’t feeling so hot and once we got back home, Chris was feeling rather sick.  He puked and had diarrhea all night long, so I guess we caught whatever it was Shane had.  Mitch was the lucky one and got through the weekend unscathed.  We figure it just served to convince Mitch and Shane that our house is not a great place to visit.  I drove them back to Loveland Sunday morning and they were on their way home.

In the past month, Amy has had a lot of accidents and has refused to sit on the potty.  It has been extremely frustrating for me and Chris.  Moreso for me since I am home with her all day.  We tried everything from spanking her to being really nice about it.  Nothing worked.  I finally started praying about it.  Things aren’t completely improved but I have just eased off on stressing Amy out about using the potty.  I try to remind her to go pee throughout the day since she has been having a lot of those kind of accidents too.  I have started having Amy sit on the potty every morning for “poop” time.  And...this morning she went.  I am so proud of her.  I know that at some point everything will click, but I also think Chris and I need to be patient with her as her little body learns the signals.

Misha is ever the climber.  I bought her a slide for Christmas so that she would have something that is “legal” to climb on.  I imagine Amy will try to take it over as well, but they should both have some fun new toys.  Every morning when I exercise and see some of the toys I have hidden from garage sales, I think that I need to take time and clean them.  Probably won’t get done until the night before.

Last week, I was wrapping presents in my room and both girls were “helping” me.  Misha got into my night-time mouth piece and kindly hid it for me.  I think it was a least a week before I found it.  I scoured my room thinking she didn’t really get that far from me.  I looked under the bed, in the garbages, through the drawers, in the closet, in the shoes, in the bathroom, through the wrapping paper and bags, everywhere that I could think of.  I kept praying for help in finding it, but nothing.  I even took off the heater vent and felt down into it.  No luck.  I got the feeling that at some point it would just show up.  And it did.  I was putting the videos away in the guest room and opened up the Toy Story case to put in the video and there my mouth piece was.  What a little stinker.  I guess from now on I will have to keep it in the bathroom out of reach of small hands.

It was Amy’s birthday last Wednesday.  She started out the week with a snuffy nose and passed it on to Misha.  Amy was better in a day but Misha’s cold lasted through most of the week.  We had planned to take Amy to a Christmas concert for her birthday and had even made arrangements for Misha to go to Allred’s for a couple of hours.  With a cold though, we didn’t think that was hardly fair, so I stayed home with Misha and Chris took Amy to the concert.  She loved it.  Just after they were seated and before the concert started, she called me and told me that there were lots of people and that she was having fun.  When she walked in the door she was so full of things to tell me about her fun date with daddy.  She loved the music, and Santa Claus came, but he wasn’t the real Santa Claus because he took of his “hair” and played the trumpet.  Chris said she was dancing in the aisle and all of the people around thought she was adorable.  When the music ended she would bow.  Wish I could have been there to see her delight.

On Wednesday for her birthday we had a small party with balloons, party hats, and cake–and french fries.  She got to open some presents in the morning, but frankly it was a hard day for all of us.  She was pretty cranky, had nothing but accidents, and was pretty naughty all day long.  She didn’t even open up her last couple of presents because she had been so ornery and we put her to bed early.  So much for staying up late.

Grandma Ball sent her a fun Fisher Price house with people and furniture that she got off of ebay.  We got the same house at a garage sale a month or so ago for 50 cents but with no people.  I gave her a new outfit.  She liked the shirt because it had ribbed lines in it like some of my shirts do.  Plus she got some chalk and brush for her chalk board that we got at a garage sale this summer.  I spent a couple of hours sanding it, priming it, and painting it white.  She got a cape from Grandma Rice plus a lot of other fun things this Fall when we were there.

Grandma Andrews sent her a card and MONEY.  She was so thrilled to have her own money--$20–which is a fair amount, though she wouldn’t know the difference if it was $1 or a $20.  Chris talked to her about paying tithing and she was excited to give some of her money to the Bishop.  Don’t know if she realized or not that she wouldn’t be getting it back.

On Thursday night, we met one of Chris’ coworkers and her boyfriend for dinner at Olive Garden.  They watched the girls one night and there is a mutual liking of each other.  Amy had a great time and got a new back pack and the movie “Spirit”.  That would be the same “Spirit” movie that inspires her to say “Spirit, I LOVE Spirit!” every time someone mentions that word when praying.

On Friday night, Chris had a party here for some of his co-workers.  We had pizza and played games and sat around and talked.  They are a nice group of people and we enjoy being with them.

Amy is looking forward to Christmas and presents.  She believes that Santa brings treats and toys.  She and Chris went shopping last night to buy things for me.  The first thing she said to me when she walked in the door was, “Wes what (guess what) mommy!  We got earrings.”  She doesn’t know much about keeping a secret.

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.