Sunday, 16 May, 2004

The good news is that the sprinklers are finally done.  Chris did the final electrical work this past weekend.  We still have the fence, rocks, sod and trees to do, though sod and trees won’t be right away.  It is a slow project with a lot of time and effort involved.  I don’t do a lot with installing, but I do a lot of weeding and keeping things looking nice around the yard.  I expect that trees and shrubs will be a work in progress.  I don’t really profess to have much of a green thumb, though I can keep my house plants alive, so I want to learn and make wise choices.  I have been reading and perusing a lot of gardening books from the library lately to get a better idea of what I should and shouldn’t do.

My parents visited last weekend.  They drove all day Friday-the 7th-and arrived around 8:30 pm.  It was quite a long day for them as they left about 5:30 am.  On Saturday morning, Dad was great to help Chris finish up the outside sprinkler work and raked the dirt back into the trenches that had been dug.  Mom and I and the girls went to some garage sales.  I was lucky enough to find two metal bed frames for the girls’ bed - FOR FREE!  What a blessing.  I had just been thinking that I needed to get a frame at least for Amy’s bed so that the air vent wasn’t covered up by her bed.  We just happened onto both of them and I felt so lucky.  When we got back, I made lunch and we got ready to go to Estes park and Rocky Mountain National Park for the afternoon.

The weather was wonderful, though we did get rained on a bit.  We drove up into the National Park and saw dozens and dozens of elk grazing.  There is still plenty of snow in the high country, so we didn’t go too far.  Amy was good about all the driving because we said that if she would be patient doing our stuff, we would stop and do some fun stuff for her.  As we headed into the mountains, she spied a huge-really huge-slide that she wanted to go on.  She didn’t let us forget about it either on the way back.  Chris bought her three rides and went with her down the slide the first time.  After catching a bit of air and coming back down hard on his tail bone, Chris opted to let Amy go by herself the next two times.  She wasn’t a bit scared and begged to go again after her third turn.

We wanted to take Mom and Dad out for dinner for Mother’s Day, but ended up back in Loveland because there was nothing in Estes that they were interested in. I think that they thought that most of it was just way too much $$.  Mom likes to shop and shop and shop, but they don’t spend a lot of money on food.

We stopped for some groceries at Walmart after dinner and it was a madhouse.  Everybody was running around trying to get meals and gifts for Mother’s Day.  We got what we needed and hurried to get out as quickly as possible.

Sunday, to be honest, wasn’t much of a Mother’s Day for me.  I did all the meals for everybody, Chris was getting better from having a cold AND had preparations to make for his last University of Phoenix class, and this is the second year in a row that he has made Mother’s Day unmemorable for me.  Kind of disheartening.

Monday morning the girls had swimming lessons.  Grandma and Grandpa came with us.  The girls are doing super in their class.  Amy is so brave in the water.  When she has her life jacket on, she is comfortable going pretty much anywhere on her own.  Misha is still pretty tentative.  I don’t know if that is just her personality or age.  We’ll see.

After swimming lessons, we headed over to the library to return books and to check out some more.  I also signed the girls up for their summer reading program.  It starts the first week in June while we are still in Arizona.

Tuesday morning we received a call that Grandma Great (my dad’s mom) had finally died.  It has been a long hard struggle for her the past couple years.  Her body and especially her mind had deteriorated to such a point that quality of life was fairly non-existent.  Maureen and Gayle have done a tremendous service in caring for Grandma Great, though I think it has been a hard struggle to let her go.  They had her revived from near death a number of times.  It was more a relief and a feeling of “finally” when we heard the news.  I am sure that Dad was sad to see her leave this world, but was grateful that she no longer has to suffer.  Plus, I can imagine that the family reunion she was having with her husband, brothers, sisters, and parents far surpassed any earthly family reunion we have ever had.  Her funeral will be this coming Wednesday.  Since Mom and Dad had already driven down here to spend time with family, Dad’s family was kind enough to let him enjoy his time here without having to rush right back for a funeral service.

The other night I was talking to the girls about strangers and warning them about never talking to them if they were to drive up to our house and tempt them with candy or seeing kitties or puppies.  I could tell it really registered with Amy as she said, “We put an X on the stranger and a circle on mommy.”  School has definitely had a positive impact on her.

Speaking of school, we attended her preschool graduation this past week.  All of the students from the morning and afternoon classes along with their parents and families attended.  Amy had a cute little felt mortar board hat to wear.  The exercise consisted of them singing a song, showing the “zoophonics” that they had learned and receiving their certificate of graduation.  Amy did great, and Misha was pretty entranced through the whole thing.  That’s big since she’s not usually one for sitting still.

Sunday, May 2, 2004

The girls are sick, though Misha is on the tail end of it.  They kindly woke up at 6 am this morning which wasn’t so happy of a moment for me.  And that was after a week of Misha sleeping in until 7 or later.  Nice treat for me since I can have some time for myself in the morning without a little one wanting juice and her shows and whatever else.

Chris has been trying to fit in every possible spare moment on the back yard.  Either the weather doesn’t cooperate or he has some meeting or activity that he needs to be too.  Yesterday he was able to work most of the morning in the yard, but that was after a couple days of rain, so it wasn’t exactly dry.  He spent the afternoon at the temple helping with baptisms.  Enjoyable yes, but I know that he is feeling pulled in a million different directions.  He has been spending a lot of time on his University of Phoenix class.  I think that he is glad that he did it, but not so happy about the time crunch in his life.  He has two more nights of classes and then it is over and then he teaches another class in August.

The girls started swimming lessons last Monday.  I am not sure if they will be able to go tomorrow with their colds, I’ll have to decide in the morning to see if they are feeling any better.

Friday, 16 April, 2004

After a three bad weather weekends in a row, we are going to enjoy some 70 degree weather tomorrow.  Chris has the back yard ready to trench for sprinklers and will work on that project tomorrow with our next door neighbor Mike.  Since the weather wasn’t so nice last weekend - we had snow - Chris spent most of Saturday getting all the sprinkler parts sorted and put together, so now everything is ready to go.  I am excited; each project completed brings us one step closer to having a fence and sod and a wonderful play area for the girls.

The girls seem as though they have had a growth spurt recently.  Their pants are about 1 inch or so above their ankles, fortunately shirt sizes will stay about the same this year.  We just bought them new spring sandals, so they are pretty set for a summer of fun.

Grandma Andrews is coming to visit in May.  Chris was able to get her a non-stop flight which is a tremendous relief for her.  She worries so much about traveling and changing planes.  She probably wouldn’t have done it except that she has some wonderful great granddaughters whom she loves to come and see.  Grandpa Kline will also make an appearance when she is here also.  Kind of absolves him from having to make a special trip to her house to visit her.   My parents will also swing by for a short visit a week prior to Grandma Andrews’ visit on their way to Utah and then on to Las Vegas with Brad.  He has a conference to go to and is staying at a luxury hotel.  Since they have never been to Vegas before, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.  They’ll probably come away thinking that one trip was plenty and they’ll never need to go back again.

After Grandma Andrews’ visit, we are planning a trip to Arizona to visit Grandpa Kline since we haven’t been to his home since I was pregnant with Misha.  The girls are thrilled to know that Grandpa has a swimming pool in the backyard.  They have been swimming at the new Rec Center in Frederick three times now and have a blast each time they go.  Amy is like a fish.  She goes down the slide by herself, jumps off the diving board or “jumping board” as she likes to call it, and pretty much swims wherever.  She, of course, wears a life jacket in the water, but it doesn’t seem to bother her or impede in any way.  She would probably like swimming less if she didn’t have it because we would have to hold on to her all the time.  Misha is improving and getting braver all the time as well.  She doesn’t jump off the diving board yet, but she can stand on it for four or five minutes at a stretch and pretend that she is going to jump “any second now”.

Speaking of Misha, she has been a whiney crab lately.  I am not sure what her problem is.  I am constantly reminding her not to whine.  She does it often for no reason at all, except that maybe it is becoming a very bad habit.  It, however, drives me crazy.  Her vocabulary continues to grow all the time.  I was trying to entice her to eat a carrot this morning and she kept saying “Keep it away from me!”  She is also quite fond of saying, “Just leab (leave) me alone.  Don’t bother me!” and “I sure love you too” (that’s in her sweeter moments).

Amy has a couple more weeks of preschool and then swimming lessons begin.  I received a call yesterday from a lady in our ward who has been trying to get Amy into her preschool program for a couple of months now.  I am not sure yet what we will do in the fall, I really wish that Amy could just go to kindergarten.  I think she would be plenty ready for it.

Tuesday, March 30, 2004

We have been enjoying some fabulous spring weather in the past couple of weeks.  We are expecting some snow this weekend, and it is hard when you can be outside enjoying 70 degree weather one day, and cold and snow the next.

We have started working on our back yard.  We installed a retaining or “garden” wall in hopes of removing some of the slope from our yard.  It looks great and definitely flattened out the lot.  I am excited about getting the rest of it done and most especially to get sod laid.  That won’t be for awhile yet, but the girls track in so much dirt right now.

Amy came in to the office after drawing whiskers on her nose and cheeks, so proud of herself.  I wasn’t so pleased and even less so when I found out that she did it to Misha as well. 

We are going swimming tonight at the newly open recreation center.  The girls have been waiting since the end of last summer to go swimming and are thrilled.  We went and toured the facility on Saturday and were completely impressed.  The pool area is huge and has a lot of fun things for kids to play on.

Monday, 8 March, 2004

Chris has been in Orlando at a conference since Friday and doesn’t get home until Wednesday evening.  We sure miss him.  Amy says something about missing him a couple of times a day at least.  Amy and I both started getting sick on Friday evening and have been trying to get better ever since.  I think I am recovering a bit faster, though, her upper lip is red from wiping her nose so much.  I am pretty sure we got sick from one of the moms at play group.  She came last Wednesday with a hoarse throat claiming that she wasn’t sick.  Her attitude frustrates me to no end because we were not sick.  Misha got sick earlier in the week and it didn’t last very long for her.

I was exercising early Friday morning last week when I saw a mouse in the basement.  I hate mice in my house.  I knew that there was a mousetrap over by the food storage, so I jumped off the treadmill and went to move it.  AAAGGGHHH there was already a dead mouse in it.  It has always been Chris’ job to dispose of the mice–he knows how much I hate them.  I ran upstairs to look for another trap and couldn’t find one.  EW, so with deep disgust I picked up the mousetrap (dead mouse and all) and walked over to the garbage with it to dump it.  If I had been thinking more clearly, I would have brought the garbage closer to where I was.  I cinched the garbage bag up tight and then reset the mousetrap in the new location.  It snapped shut on me once scaring me but I finally got it set.  My adrenaline was pumping when I got back on the treadmill, it was though I had a second wind.  I was successful in catching the second mouse–more EW!-but sadly it was on Saturday morning when Chris was already in Florida and I had to dump this one as well.  I didn’t want the girls to come across it.  I haven’t caught any more since then, and hope that I don’t.  I don’t relish the idea of disposing of another one.

Last week for Amy’s preschool, the morning and afternoon class combined for a trip to the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster.  Amy was thrilled about going for days before.  Her teacher asked if I would also come along and drive some of the kids, so Tuesday morning I packed a lunch for Amy, Misha, and me (Misha couldn’t stay home with Daddy while he worked) and we were off.  Two other little girls-Peyton and Savannah-came with us.  Talk about a bunch of high-pitched screaming.  We finally arrived, paid our money, took care of bathroom needs, and then started looking around.  We started in a room with spiders, beetles and cockroaches.  Those roaches were HUGE!  A volunteer sat in a far corner surrounded by little chairs holding “Rosie” the tarantula.  Misha would have nothing to do with it, but Amy said, “I’ll be brave” and sat down on one of the chairs and held out her hands to Rosie.  My camera was little slow but I got a picture of Rosie climbing out of her hands and she got a sticker saying “I held Rosie.”

They also had fish that looked like Nemo and Dory from the movie “Finding Nemo” as well as star fish to touch and an octopus.  Misha was pretty intrigued by the fish.  You would have thought, however, that they both would have loved the butterflies.  Not so!  They both cringed in fear when one flew close to their heads.  It was terrifically humid in the butterfly pavilion, but despite protests from a few of the kids, we ventured into the plant jungle.  Granted there were some butterflies big enough to be birds that Amy and Misha really didn’t like, but they didn’t like the smaller ones either.  Amy was cautiously excited when a butterfly landed on my hand and sat there for about 30 seconds.  When we told the kids that it was time to go, there were no arguments.  We headed to the picnic benches out front for lunch before heading home.  Misha, as usual, wouldn’t sit still, and eat but I gave her part of her lunch to eat on the way home.

I finally remember where I put Amy’s scissors the last time she was “grounded” from them for cutting things she wasn’t supposed to cut.  When I brought them to her, she said, “Good job Mom, you’re a good finder.”  You realize what you say frequently and how much the girls pick it up when they begin to say it back to you or to each other.  The other day Amy was out in the van looking for some doll clothes.  Misha asked where she was doing, and when I told her that Amy was in the van she asked, “For being rude?”

This morning Amy and Misha were playing in the living room, and I was in the office on the computer when I heard some commotion and then Amy saying, “Use your bean, Misha!  Use your bean!”  (At our house, that means, use your head-think about what you are doing).  I asked Amy to pick up things on the floor of her bedroom this morning so that I could vacuum.  When I went in, everything possible thing including throw rugs and toys from the closet were piled on her bed.  Later in the morning, I asked Misha to help Amy clean up her room.  Amy said “You can say that again!”  She must have heard that somewhere recently because she has been saying it a lot today.

We finally received some new living room furniture that we purchased online back in January.  I am getting used to it being there but don’t think I like the placement of it quite yet.  Sadly, it is darker mahogany type wood and really shows the fingerprints and the girls certainly like to play on the coffee table, the end table, and the sofa table.  At times I wish we hadn’t got them because of the upkeep.  Just one more thing to keep nice.

Kevin and Candace welcomed Jeremy Matthew into their lives February 28th–three weeks early.  What a treat!  One day later and he would have been a leap year baby.  He weighed 6 lbs 15 oz, was 19 ½ inches long and is doing great.  Amy was excited since she has her friends Jamie and Jeremy.  She would say “big Jeremy, little Jeremy” while moving her hands up and down to signify their sizes.

Friday, 27 February, 2004

Brad called last Thursday to say that he was being called as the second counselor in his ward’s bishopric.  He has known through inspiration that a change was coming for him, and more specifically this calling for about a month now.  He called Mom and Dad last Wednesday night and told them that either he needed to come home or they needed to come to Utah so that Dad could advance Brad to a High Priest.  Mom and Dad decided to leave on Friday morning, and Chris and I, on the spur of the moment, decided to leave last Friday afternoon.  We talked about it around 2 pm, decided we were leaving at 2:30 and were on the road by 4:30.

It was definitely a quick trip for us as we came home Monday morning, but enjoyable.  The girls, especially had a great time playing with cousins.  We arrived at Brad’s on Friday night around 12:30.  He thought that maybe I would be coming as a surprise but was a bit shocked when we all showed up on his doorstep ringing his doorbell.  The first thing he said to me was, “I knew it.”

We quickly got the girls settled in Brad’s twin bed.  They both snuggled in close together and we didn’t hear a peep until Misha woke up at 6:30 Saturday morning.  She was pretty disoriented and started crying.  That got me out of bed fast.  The good news–both she and Amy were dry.  As we were driving through Wyoming, Amy kept saying, “I know I can, I know I can.”  She did.  And she was dry two nights in a row.

Brad didn’t have too many groceries around, so Chris went and got a few things Saturday morning for breakfast.  I gave the girls a bath and once we were ready, we drove to Brad and Dallin’s practice.  Chris had his glasses fitted and I got to pick up a pair of sunglasses for me for free.  (Since Chris does so much free computer work for them).  We drove down to Dallin and Donna’s where Mom and Dad were staying.  Mom and Dad were originally going to stay at Brad’s, but when Angie spilled the beans about us coming, they decided to stay at Dallin’s so that we could have a little more room and wouldn’t have so far to drive.

Donna was a bit harried and crabby since Isaac had kept her up for a lot of the night and Dallin was out doing fun stuff with Dad all day long.  We picked up Mom and drove her to Susan’s.  We thought we would surprise Susan, but Brad had already told her we were coming...something about Susan not liking to be surprised and wanting to make sure there was enough food for lunch on Sunday.  Party pooper.

Susan wasn’t too pleasant to be around and quite rude.  Fortunately, we had plans to meet Chris’ sister Jenni at noon at BYU.  We picked Jenni up and had lunch at the Cougareat.  Amy was thrilled to be at BYU where her mommy and daddy went to school.  She was the bowling alley and all its fun games, had fun eating lunch and then got to see Polynesian dancers.  She was thrilled though I fear she has a rather skewed view of BYU and what fun it must be to go to college.

After lunch, we took the girls and Jenni to see “Brother Bear” at the $1 Movies in Provo by Shopko.  They had a great time and Misha lasted for maybe 2/3 of the movie before getting antsy.  After the movie, we took Jenni to the grocery store to pick up a few groceries and then dropped her off at home.  We drove back to King’s hoping that the mood was better.

We sat around and talked which is never Chris’ favorite thing to do, but I enjoy it and the girls loved playing with their cousins.  I wish that Jenna lived closer to be their babysitter.  She is great with them.  After much deliberation, Chris and I left for dinner on our own.  The girls stayed at Kings and at the last minute, Mom and Dad decided to join us for dinner at Olive Garden.

Brad’s church was at 9 am Sunday morning.  He had meetings from his previous calling at and so we were on our own to get there.  Actually it was nice to not be rushed.  The girls didn’t take much effort to get ready since they had bathed the day before.  Mom and Dad were at the church when we got there and after getting the girls settled in their classes (without any crying I might add) we went to our meetings.  Sacrament was last, so I went to Relief Society first.

After the call was extended to Brad in Sacrament Meeting, we met after all the meetings for him to be advanced in the priesthood and to be set apart in his new calling. 

A lunch was planned at Donna’s–soup, rolls and salad-with the whole family.  Gayle and Maureen brought Grandma Great but hadn’t come to church.  Grandma is looking rather pathetic.  I wish that they could just let her go.  She had all of her teeth pulled awhile back because she had gum infections of some kind that were infecting her fingernails.  She isn’t coherent much and quite unstable walking.  I felt sad and quite uncomfortable around her.

Again, the kids had a great time playing.  They even roughhoused with Grandpa for awhile which was fun to watch.  I could tell that Brad and Chris had had their fill after awhile, so we all went back to Brad’s house and just relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, 10 February, 2004

Amy goes to school now.  She is so thrilled about it.  She goes on Tuesday and Thursday from 1 to 3:30.  Her teacher is a lady from church-Hallie Springer-who teaches from her home.  Amy has five other students in her class.  She has such expectations for the way things should be.  She wanted to pack a lunch the first day, take snacks, she likes to wear dresses and tights.  This week she is the “star of the week” and gets to bring five things that represent her.  She loves going.

On Tuesday when Chris is home, I can leave Misha with him while she sleeps and go and do stuff on my own.  It’s kind of nice to have a little time to myself.

The other day it was snowing and Amy looked outside and said, “It has to stop snowing!  You have to call the sun and tell him to melt the snow.”

My girls are growing fast.  Some days I sit and watch them and am amazed at how much they know and are learning.  Amy has only been in school for two weeks and already the counting thing seems to have clicked with her.  She just finished doing all her Valentine’s for play group tomorrow.  I wrote out the names and then she copied them onto the cards.  She did a super job.

Misha seems to be sick a lot lately with colds.  Nothing too serious, but it is a definite shift in her personality.  She wants to be held, she is whiney and for some reason, she doesn’t take very long naps.  She has also had a lot of potty accidents recently.  I think she was on her fifth pair of pants and underwear by noon yesterday.  So frustrating for me.  I try to be patient and understanding, but I am not always very good about it.  Today she has done better, so I hope that she will continue to do so.

We painted the office blue on Saturday.  I had the touch-ups still to do and tackled them on Monday.  While I was finishing off the last spot, I dropped my paint brush and in reaching down to get it, I somehow lost my balance.  I fell backward off the stool and watched as the paint sloshed out of the container and on to me, my hair, the girls’s table, and the carpet.  I was mostly worried about the carpet and didn’t take much time to see if I was hurt or not.  I got most of the paint out of the carpet, but noticed that there is still some there today.  It would have been a good day for swearing.  Misha was in the living room watching tv; she didn’t move but hollered to me “What happened Mom?”  Guess I don’t compete with Mickey Mouse.  After cleaning up the mess, I took some Ibuprofen and rested.

I went to the doctor today to have my IUD removed.  We are planning to have another baby, but I don’t want to be pregnant until August.  Here’s hoping.  I would like to have my body have a normal schedule for a couple of months before getting pregnant.

Monday, 26 January, 2004

I bought Misha some colorful new socks at Walmart the other day.  She found them in her drawer yesterday and brought them to Chris.  She had pink on one foot and yellow on another.  She would have put all the colors on if we had let her.  She hasn’t been feeling well lately and woke up last night quite frantic and unwilling to be pacified.  Finally I climbed into the guest bed with her after making sure she had the right pillow.  First she popped her head up to tell me to open the door and leave it open.  Then she wanted her socks on.  I grabbed some of the new blue ones, but those wouldn’t do.  So I had to find the yellow and pink ones from Sunday.  Success!  But as I start to put the yellow one on her right foot, she tells me it belongs on the left foot and wants the pink one on the right foot.  Finally she goes to sleep.  I woke up about an hour later and returned to my bed and Misha slept until about 6:30.

We surprised Amy by telling her that she gets to start a preschool program.  It is held two days a week for 2 ½ hours a day.  Her looks of surprise, awe and joy said it all.  She is thrilled to be going but thinks that she is going to a real school with a bus and lunch.  She informed me that she would need to pack a lunch and when I told her that no she would eat before she went, she was quite indignant that that is what big kids did when they went to school.  She and I will go tomorrow to observe and mostly see if it is the right fit for her.  I hope so because she is excited.  She always tells Misha that Misha needs to be a good girl while Amy is gone to school.  She takes on the big sister role quite well.

My birthday was last Thursday.  Chris surprised me by planting some seeds that he gave me before we were married.  After he got home from work, he took Amy to Safeway to pick up an angel food cake.  When they finally returned (they took so long I was starting to worry), Amy walked in carrying six pink roses for me.  She had written “I Love You” on a card and hugged me and said “Happy Birthday Mom”.  What a sweetheart.

Chris and I went on a date on Friday.  We had our usual babysitter, Alisha M. come but that might have been her last time.  When I got home, the house wreaked of smoke.  I should have asked what happened, but I was waiting for her to tell me.  All that she said was that Misha had a hard time going to bed and then rushed out the door.  I began searching for the problem.  Nothing in the oven, garbage or fridge–and then I opened the microwave.  It was coated in a smokey film and blasted me even more with the smell.  I started cleaning it out and was very disappointed that whatever she had burned had been in there so long that it discolored the sides of the microwave.  When Chris returned, he found a burned bag of popcorn in the dumpster in the garage.

When Amy woke up the next morning, she said to me “something happened last night.  We weren’t watching the popcorn and it burned and filled the microwave with smoke.”  Surely accidents happen, but I wish that Alisha would have had the courage to say something to us about it.

Misha is learning her brand recognition.  She sees the Wendy’s restaurant logo and calls it Peter Pan (because of Wendy in that movie).  McDonalds is called Mikadodalds.  She can spot the golden arches anywhere.

When I was painting all of the flowers in Amy’s and Misha’s room, Amy was in there fooling around throwing a doll.  Suddenly it hit me in the head and landed on my paint container.  Fortunately it only got a small bit of paint on the doll.  I made her sit quietly on the bed.  All of a sudden I hear, “Are we still friends?”

Misha is doing exceptionally well with her potty training.  Since Christmas, it just seems to have clicked with her.  She rarely has accidents, is dry during naps and wears pull-ups at night.  We are still working with her and Amy to stay dry at night.  Amy had a three-day run at Christmas time.  I think because she woke up early before she had a chance to pee in her pull-up.


Chris and I painted the dining room on Saturday.  I had a sore throat and wasn’t feeling so hot, but finally got it done about 6 pm.  My part of painting takes a whole lot longer since Chris kindly lets me tape, paint all the edges and corners-two coats-and then do the touch-ups afterwards.  He rolls the paint on and is done in no time at all.

Friday, 9 January, 2004

We had a great Christmas.  It was just the four of house here at home, and it was so much fun.  The girls had a wonderful time and were thoroughly spoiled.  Sadly I wasn’t feeling so hot and had the stomach flu all day Christmas Eve through Boxing Day.  That was the beginning of the bug circulating through the whole family.  Misha had it next, throwing up numerous times.  I spent the night next to her in the guest room and was grateful that she finally got the hang of throwing up in a bowl.  It wasn’t very restful for either of us.  She slept on the couch for about four hours the next day as we began painting the living room and was much better by the afternoon.  Chris was sick next on Tuesday and pretty much stayed in bed all day.  We had been painting non-stop for the past couple of days and since I hadn’t had much of a break the entire holiday I decided to leave the painting for another day.

Chris ended up working on Wednesday while I painted away by myself, but he took Friday off in exchange.  Amy then got the stomach flu and threw up too, but after a good night’s sleep she was feeling better the next morning.  Saturday we painted the girls’ room purple, and I have been working on finishing their room ever since.

The living room is a tannish brown, “latte” color and the kitchen is deep burgundy.  I missed my white walls for a couple days after painting because the change was so dramatic, but I really like the color now.  The girls’ room is purple with a cream stripe around the middle of the room and in that I am painting pink, green and purple flowers.  Much the same as Amy’s old room since she requested it.  The flowers take hours and hours of my time though.

We also got paint for the laundry room (yellow), the office (blue) and the dining room (sage green).  I think that I will also take some of the leftover paint from the girls’ room and paint the powder bath purple.

Wednesday, 17 December, 2003

Amy had her birthday party last night.  She was so excited.  Another one of those “best days ever” kind of days.  We put up some balloons and had lots of desserts, ice cream, and treats for everyone.  I didn’t make another cake since we were still working on the pink one from her birthday.  Her friend Ellie Glover and family came, Lexie Krause (next door neighbor) and parents, Jamie Riddle (Chris’ coworker), and Rochelle Allred and kids (friends from church).  Her bestest friend Audrey Wasden couldn’t come because her mom was sick.  She got a new dress and purse from Jamie, a Strawberry Shortcake doll, crayons, and coloring book from Ellie and a Barbie Princess dress-up dress from Lexie.  There were quite a few kids running through the house and even though we didn’t plan anything formal other than eating and opening presents, they had a great time.  At play group today, Audrey gave Amy a fun balancing game with lots and lots of little pieces that I am already tired of picking up.

Thursday, 11 December, 2003

Amy turns four today.  She has been so excited about her birthday coming.  We had hoped to have a small birthday party for some of her friends and their family tonight, but either they are out of town or have school programs to attend.  So we have moved the friends party to next Tuesday and celebrate tonight by going out to dinner at La Mariposa in Longmont (one of our favorite Mexican restaurants) and then came home after for PINK birthday cake.  She has been requesting pink for probably the entire year now.  Chris and I gave her a new dress, pants and a shirt, and "The Lion King" DVD.  Grandma Ball sent a new Leap Frog learning system, Grandpa Kline sent money for her savings account, Grandma Andrews sent money for fun (though we usually end up depositing it in her account), and Grandma and Grandpa Rice sent a necklace.  Amy kept saying “This is my best birthday ever”.  Good since she doesn’t have too many to compare it to.

Friday, 5 December, 2003

Chris comes home today!!!  Wahoo.  We are all excited.  It seemed as though this day would never come, but I am so grateful that it is finally here.  I will take the girls to the airport with me this time as his flight comes in at 5:30 pm.  Amy has been very vocal about missing her dad while he has been gone.  As I sit here and listen to her “write a letter” to grandma, she says “I really love my dad, but please come home.”  A couple of days ago, she said to me “Mom, please can we call daddy?  I’ll be your best friend.”  I passed that info along to Chris and a couple of seconds later, the phone rang.  She was thrilled to have her own phone call.

Amy was just talking to me about Grandma and Grandpa Rice and wanted to call them.  I told her that we couldn’t because they were at the temple today.  “Are they getting married.”  “No, they are already married.  They have been married almost 41 years.”  She responds, “I don’t want to get married.”  I say, “Well someday when you get bigger.”  Amy: “I don’t want to get bigger.  I just want to stay little.  Well, maybe a little bit bigger so that I can go to school.”

Misha hasn’t been nearly so vocal about Chris being gone, but when he came home last week and found him in bed on Tuesday morning, she laid on his chest and enfolded him in a hug that lasted for about a minute.  It was pretty tender to watch.

Three of my brothers came to visit last week.  Brad, Shane, and Dallin and his family.  It was quite a full house, moreso because we hadn’t planned on Chris being here at all.  It was enjoyable but a lot of work.  Endless meals it seemed like and then lots of cleaning up after.

Tuesday, 2 December, 2003

Only three more days until Chris comes home.  He was able to get away for a couple of days last week and flew home for Thanksgiving but had to return on Friday.  His flight came in at 11 pm last Monday.  I wasn’t looking forward to driving to the airport at a time when I am normally fast asleep and a little slow on the cognitive response, but what to do?  Rochelle Allred was kind enough to offer to stay with the girls while I went, since they were sleeping.  That was nice not to have to wake them up and put them in a cold car.

Thursday, 13 November, 2003

I had my first mammogram last Friday.  Dr. Walker suggested that now is a good time to start and get a baseline for comparison as I age.  I hadn’t thought too much about it since then, just wanted to get it done before Chris left.  I took the girls in to town yesterday to run errands and then to play at the mall and had a message on the answering machine from Dr. Walker when we arrived home.  Basically she said that my mammogram showed a “benign change on my right side” which she said is nothing to worry about at this point.  I have to go back in next Tuesday for another mammogram that will magnify the spot they are concerned with and then have an ultrasound as well.  I am having a bad day, to say the least.  I called Mom and Dad this morning because mostly I needed someone to talk to and Chris was at work already and IMing him didn’t really help.  I wanted to know if there was a history of breast cancer in our family and to get a little support.  They will be fasting for me this weekend along with the rest of my family.  I am so grateful for the strong support of my brothers and sister.  Susan, Brad and Dallin have either called or IMed to say they are thinking and praying for me.

All this in the midst of poopy accidents with Misha.  She went to the potty and I asked her what she was doing.  She came running out saying, “I sorry mommy”.  I started cleaning up the mess calling for her to come back to bathroom so I could wipe her bottom.  She wasn’t obeying and by the time I got to her she had wiped poop on the couch.  Thank heavens for leather.  I started crying, and I know they have no idea why mommy is having a hard time today.  This being alone thing really stinks–just over three more weeks to go.

In conversing with Dallin, I asked him to please pray for my girls too, they don't understand why I am upset and I am not being as patient as I should.  His response was: “I can do that.  You know I watch my children and know that Donna has days that are better than others but I really think that they are naturally blessed and that a lot of times they are playing with angels.”  I have felt very strongly the presence of angels this past week as I have been with the girls non-stop.  Most evenings, I am more than ready for Chris to come home and give me a break. 

Today has been hard on me, and I know that I shouldn’t let this get to me so much because the real likelihood is that it is just an abnormality and nothing more.

Update: I had a second mammogram and then an ultrasound scheduled for November 18th at 8:30 am.  I dropped the girls off at Melissa Glover’s to play with Ellie and headed into Longmont.  The mammogram was centralized on the specific area of concern and then immediately following that I went across the street to the hospital and had an ultrasound done.  The ultrasound showed that I have a growth as well as a much smaller cyst but both are benign.  Whew.  I called Chris after I left the hospital and asked him to pass the information on to my family on the instant messenger on the computer as I wasn’t going to be home for awhile.  I took the opportunity to go shopping on my own and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I will go back in six months for a follow up mammogram and ultrasound just to check and make sure nothing has changed or grown

Tuesday, 11 November, 2003

Yesterday, I was sewing curtain rings onto the dining room curtains.  The rings had previously been attached with curtain clips.  Amy was playing with the rings with clips in the office, but suddenly walked back into the living room and dumped them all in my lap.  She looked as though she were going to cry, but I couldn’t see that there was anything wrong until she dumped the rings and one lone ring continued to dangle from her tongue.  She didn’t say anything to me but opened her mouth for me to remove the clip.  I tried not to laugh so that she would see, but it was pretty funny and still makes me laugh.

This morning Misha woke up earlier than usual.  Normally, Chris is here to get up with her but with him gone, she started downstairs.  As I was coming up to meet her, she said, “No Daddy.  I lost him.”  Poor thing.

Whew.  The wind is blowing so hard here today.  It tore the bbq cover right off the bbq and up, up and away.  I grabbed my shoes and jacket and tore after it before it blew beyond the fence two house down.  My ears were full of dirt, and I was almost attacked by a tumble weed.  The water in the toilet is moving and the window sills almost have enough dirt for the girls to play in the dirt inside.

Sunday, 9 November, 2003

We took Christopher to the airport yesterday for a very teary goodbye.  None of us were looking forward to the month-long separation.   Chris will be staying in Austin, Texas and will commute a short distance to the IBM Texas facility.  Since today is his first day, we don’t know too much about what he will be doing..we just know that we miss him lots already.  It is possible that he will be able to come home this weekend or next and that would be wonderful.  A month is a looooong time.

All of my brothers are planning on coming for Thanksgiving.  Brad and Dallin have an appointment in Colorado Springs at the Air Force Academy to meet with people in their sports medicine optometry facility.  They will have to be up and out of here fairly early on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to make it to their 8:30 am appointment.  Colorado Springs is about two hours from here. 

Misha got into a package of gum yesterday and hid in the coat closet to eat it.  I saw her sitting in there, but I just thought she was playing.  Amy, my little monitor, alerted me to the gum-eating activities.  Misha is getting to be quite a stinker.  If she does something wrong, she automatically puts her hands on her heiny.  She has a nasty habit of spilling water on the floor whenever she gets a hold of some.  She never learns, which is frustrating.  She spills crackers, cheerios, whatever all over the floor and will not pick them up.  I am not sure how to get through to her because spanks don’t make a difference, she won’t stay sitting on the stairs in time-out.   We had to pretty much start over on reinforcing the potty training that Misha had learned before we moved.  She has got the peeing mostly down again, but doesn’t like to go if she is upstairs or outside or if other people are here.  Poop is another story.  She was so good about telling me, and rarely had accidents and now she won’t tell me at all and poops in her panties everyday.

Amy is excited about her birthday coming up and most especially for the presents she plans to get.  She is really into dress up clothes right now.  I was hoping to find some outfits for her after Halloween, but they were pretty picked over by the time I looked and that was Saturday morning right after Halloween on Friday.  I’ll have to see what else I can find at Goodwill.  Too bad there isn’t a Deseret Industries close by.  Amy is very much into arts and crafts.  When Misha has her nap in the afternoon, Amy spends a lot of that time drawing, coloring, gluing, painting, taping.  One of her presents this year is going to be tape and other art supplies.  She goes through my tape in no time at all.

Sunday, 26 October, 2003

We set our clocks back last night and it was getting dark already as we walked out of church this afternoon.  Kind of depressing.  On the other hand, I am excited to have my girls going to bed at 8 pm again and to have a little time to myself in the evenings.

Today was the Primary program and Amy got to sit up at the front with her class.  She was so excited and looked so cute with a red ribbon in her hair to match her red jumper.  She got to sing “I Am A Child of God” with her class.  We wondered if she would be there for her song as she left to go to the bathroom just before it was her turn.  She made it back, but her teacher afterward said she was just hoping Amy would get back in time because Amy had the loudest voice and carried the others.  She sang her song and then gave us two thumbs up.  She was so proud of herself.  Last Monday night for home evening, we talked about being reverent in church and what she should do when she was sitting up on the stand.  Even today she remembered as I said, “and if I touch my nose?”, she promptly finished “I need to fold my arms and sit quietly.”  Such a big girl she is becoming.

Misha’s vocabulary and sentence structure abilities are growing by leaps and bounds.  'Course that includes being sassy.  She has started answering “Never!” when she is asked to do something.  She likes to say, “Know what mom, I lub you”.  I have said that to both Amy and Misha since they were babies, and it touched my heart in only the way my daughters can the first time she took the initiative and said it to me.

Chris was accepted as faculty for the University of Phoenix a month or so ago and has been attending training classes on Thursday evenings from 6 to 10 down by the Denver Tech Center.  We don’t usually see him at all on Thursday since he takes the opportunity to go Denver to work on an account for IBM on those days.  He is not sure when he will start teaching but life should get profoundly busier then.

Chris is leaving November 9 for an IBM internship in Texas.  They usually last three weeks, but because of the Thanksgiving holiday the time was extended another week.  Ask me how happy that makes me?  I hate being alone in the evenings when he is gone for the long days, so a month is not going to be enjoyable in the least.  He assumed that we would come for the Thanksgiving holiday, but I ...you know, I am still pretty ticked about the whole thing and I can’t say much nice about it right now.  So, enough said.

The good news, though, is that Dallin and Donna might come for Thanksgiving, and maybe even Brad.  I am sure that I will be lonely enough by then that I will welcome any visitors.

Sunday, 5 October, 2003

We just finished a weekend of General Conference.  It is always a nice change of pace to watch church on tv and to not wrestle with children through Sacrament Meeting.

It has been a month now since I last added to this journal and three weeks since we moved and it has been a very busy month.  The following is an excerpt from a letter Chris sent to his family:

“We moved (again) last weekend. We closed on our new home on Friday first thing and I immediately went to work sealing and painting the garage floor before ‘stuff’ was put on it. I had to etch it first, which is to take Muriatic Acid and scrub the floor so it's rough and make the paint stick. Then I had to let it dry before putting the sealer on. It wound up taking me much longer than I had anticipated. By that evening I was already wasted. But we brought over most of the items Jo had boxed for the kitchen anyway so that it would be done before the major move the next day.

On Saturday, we started early, and with the help of a couple friends from work, a couple from church, and a new neighbor, we worked for about 7 hours to get everything moved over. We used a small 4x8 trailer that I purchased from a friend several months ago in anticipation of the move (go minivan!). My new neighbor, Mike, also has a trailer that we used. In all, we made 5-6 trips between the two houses, but since it's only less than 2 miles to make the drive, it was no big deal. We saved quite a bit by not needing the UHaul.

Now for a bit about our new neighbors. We have a delightful family who moved in about 6 weeks ago and who lives right behind us on the cul de sac. Their names are Mike and Kathy Krause. They have a little girl named Lexi who is 3yrs old and Amy's instant new best friend. Jo has made good friends with Kathy already, which is nice. Mike and I get along well, too. When they moved in, I did the good Mormon thing and went to help them move. They were absolutely amazed that someone they hardly knew would do that. When I found out, my response was that they obviously didn't know too many Mormons, cuz that's just the weekend thing to do (at least in our ward, where someone moves in or out at least every third week). Anyway, it made an impression, and Mike wanted to come help us to return the favor. His trailer made a nice difference in getting things done.

One thing we really hoped for in this move was to get some neighbors we could be good friends with. Our last place had nice enough neighbors, but they really kept to themselves and we didn't converse much. Now, we have three houses immediately around us. One is an inventory home that is not yet sold (and because of the crummy floor plan, probably won't sell for a long time). On the west side, we have a Cambodian couple who apparently own a restaurant and are rarely home. Behind us (to the north), we have Mike and Kathy. Since we'll share a large part of our fence with them, we're already making plans on putting a door/gate in so the kids can come and go without needing to walk around the street side.

Back to the move. We have been SUPER busy. By Monday, Jolayne had managed to get virtually all the moving boxes out of the house, which was incredible. We have a few boxes leftover still, but by and large we are done with that part. Sunday was a nice break because it gave us a chance to slow down a bit after a few very busy days. Monday, I took a day off work and ran some errands, hooked up appliances, and installed the garage door opener (a multi-hour job). Good news is it runs great! The rest of the week brought the hanging of ceiling fans (since we had no lights in any rooms) and the beginnings of window coverings. Jolayne has been working very hard over the last few weeks to sew curtains and drapes for all our new windows. We decided to do that this time instead of your basic blinds because it will provide a more comfortable look with more character. Hopefully we'll save a few bucks, as well. Many of our windows are so big that normal 2" blinds would not have worked without splitting into multiple sections or getting something done custom. Both options were expensive.

Yesterday (Saturday) I spent most of the day working in the garage. Before setting up my workshop, I wanted to get insulation on the walls (the third bay is not finished at all). So I put that up and covered it in sheet rock. I wanted to use wood (like OSB) but was amazed to see that the price for lumber has tripled in the last 6-8 months. I wasn't about to pay $19 for a 4x8 sheet of wood (since I needed at least 10 to cover the walls!). Sheetrock was not my first choice, but at $5 each was much more affordable. So that job took me much of the day yesterday. I also finished applying a second coat of sealer to the floor. Another project that took way more effort than I had planned. But, by the end of the day, I had the shelving up, the floor painted, and pegboard hung, on top of (mostly) finished walls. It should be a nice work area and maybe now I can find all the tools I need to do the other jobs.

Jolayne says my garage gets undue priority in projects. My only response is "of course". Why should it be any different for the most important room in the house? :-)

Last night we hung drapes in our bedroom after going back to our old place and patching/painting all the holes from our pictures and stuff. I think we're finally done there now. It's too bad we weren't able to sell it normally, but the buyout deal (selling to a broker) has worked out ok for us. At least we got it done. It was a great home to live in, and it's with a bit of angst that I left there for the last time last night. However, our new place is taking shape very well now and we're excited (and very grateful) to have finally gotten through all the hard parts. Note to self, never move again! Another reason not to move is the gorgeous views we have now. The sunsets for some reason are SO much prettier here. Perhaps it's because we can see so much of the mountains now. Anyway, it helps to make all that moving worth it.

Upcoming projects include the hanging of window coverings in the great room (which will require me to rent a large 15' ladder). We still have lots of little things to take care of, such as small hangers for keys, paper towels, etc. Also need to hang pictures. This winter we will likely begin painting various rooms. Spring will bring a fence, air conditioning, and as much of the back yard as we can afford to finish (we will likely need to terrace part of it). Needless to say, it's lots of work. But it's quite rewarding as well. I enjoy those types of projects, and I'm learning lots about how to do many of them.

In addition to the move, I'm also taking a night class remotely for IBM. It's done via phone and Internet and is IBM's solution to travel costs. I'm also in the process of applying to the University of Phoenix to be a part-time instructor (I'm about half-way through the process now). I am receiving a new calling today at church. I've really enjoyed being a Sunday School teacher for the youth, and it's with a bit of remorse that I move on to a councilor in the Elder's Quorum. Work is much of the same, although we recently reorganized and I'm part of a new team now. It's not my favorite people in the department to work with, but on the upside, the afterhours work will be less than it has been in the past. I'm getting some opportunities to work on some up-and-coming new software products for connecting various applications and businesses together, so it's good to get more experience there. I'm still hoping to switch to a new job sometime in the next 6 months, but we'll see if that happens. So far, my boss has not agreed to let me go. On the upside, my tools package that I've written and shared (the one the patents have been applied for) won a competition of inventions at Boulder in August and I have a 50/50 shot of being sent to IBM headquarters in New York now to present the same stuff. I don't care either way, but it's nice to have a chance to meet some of the more important people at the site and in the company. It beats the "just do your job" mentality that I might otherwise be stuck with.

At home, Misha is pretty well potty trained now. What a blessing it has been to have that come so easily for her! The girls are sharing a room together now and although it was a struggle for the first night or two, they seem to have taken to it very well. The move upset their lives lots, and they had challenges with it for a few days, but I think we're over the worst of it now. Misha is still VERY two and likes to argue with me whenever I ask her to do anything, but hopefully that will change. Amy is doing well, learning more each day.

I have to tell you the funniest story from church with her the other week. She'll hate me someday for sharing it, but I'll do it anyway. It's slightly "colorful", but once you have kids, I've learned that few subjects are really taboo. Jo stayed home with Misha who was sick, so I took Amy to church by myself. We arrived late and sat in the very back. Shortly into the meeting, Amy told me she had to go to the bathroom and so she went by herself. She came back shortly. Not long after that, I found that she had an accident and had pooped a bit in her pants, so off we went to clean up the messes. I was pretty upset at her because she's big enough to not do that now, and so we had a talk about things, blah blah blah. Once we got back into the meeting, she told me shortly that she had to go again. Well, not being the dumbest daddy in church, I was smart enough to know that this was her way of making the meeting more exciting (not that she really had to go), so I resisted. But she persisted, so I (luckily) told her she could go. She came back shortly and told me (quite loudly) as she often does, "Daddy, I went poop!" She was so happy. So were the other 10 people sitting around us who heard her exclamation! :-) Then she proceeded to tell me that I still needed to wipe her bottom. At that point, I made haste getting her out of that meeting before she could say anything else incriminating. We went into the men's room and took care of business, but she was upset because she had gone poop in the "dresses room" (as she calls the ladies' room because of the picture on the door--she will only use the ladies' room when she is wearing a dress) she told me she had to go back in there and flush the potty. She did, and when she came out, she was quite upset. I asked her what was wrong and got the reply I was least expecting but will forever remember: "Daddy, it's not fair, that girl flushed my poop!" Poor kid. Who was "that girl" to take Amy's gleeful opportunity away so thoughtlessly? :-) She didn't understand the principles of a shared bathroom since she's used to being at home. Sure made me laugh though. As you can see, her personality blossoms a bit more each day.

Our internet is still down. Being without it for a week has been more difficult than we would have guessed. I'm only dialed up right now at 21k. Hopefully we'll have service restored in the next week and then I'll be more available.”

It is not often that Chris writes such a discourse, so I have to take advantage of it when he does.  With Lori, his sister, on a mission now, perhaps he will be writing to her more often.

We are certainly enjoying our new home, and I am amazed that three weeks have passed by so quickly.  We did work hard, as Chris said, getting things unpacked and finding places to put everything.  I had a lot of time to think about where I wanted things and had labeled boxes pretty well when moving, so putting everything away wasn’t too hard.  Things in the kitchen have changed around a bit from their original locations, but that is pretty normal for me.  Though, this time, Chris even asked me to changed the silverware to another drawer, and he is usually the one who makes fun of me for moving things.

The girls are back into storytime at the library for the fall and winter.  We have been going on Tuesday morning since Monday was always such a rush to get there on time.  On Wednesday we have play group.  It was at our house last week and it was just a bit crazy.  We don’t have a back yard for the kids to play in at this point and it was fairly cool outside to go to a park. The people in our play group are: Melissa Glover with Ellie and Savannah; Jen Bailey with Noah and Lauryn; Elizabeth Lowry with Nathan and Matthew; Kristina Miller with Britton; Tasha Wasden with Audrey and Jonah; Heather Harmon with Rylee and Tate.

Amy has played with Audrey a couple of times and they are like two peas in a pod dressing up and being so girly.  Misha dresses up too, but I am not sure that it would be her first choice if given an option.