Sunday, February 12, 2006
My calling at church is Ward Librarian. When Kristen was younger, it was great to keep her in her car seat and just let her snooze and watch the goings on. Now that she is older, she is no longer content to be confined. I had to find a way to keep her occupied and somewhat confined so that she wasn't underfoot or pulling things off the shelf. This box has worked so far, though at some point I know she will realize that she can get out of it. Most people laugh when they walk in to the library and see Kristen sitting in her box.
Wednesday, 1 February, 2006
Chris is soooooo busy right now. He was accepted to speak at two IBM conferences. One in February (over Valentines! What were they thinking) and the other one is in Orlando in March. He feels honored to be chosen to present but it means a lot of long hours for him preparing. He is getting rather burned out and will certainly be ready for a break after the March presentation.
We are planning a trip home to Canada this summer. I don’t think we have been since Misha was one maybe. We will also be heading out to Portland for Jenni’s wedding in August. We hope to be able to go out a little early and spend some time at the coast with the girls. It should be fun.
Kristen is getting close to being mobile. When she is sitting on the floor she reaches so that she is almost on her knees. You can tell that she wants to move, she just hasn’t figured out how to do it. If she is in her walker, she is all over the house and we have to watch out for our toes and heals. She comes zooming up behind you, and if you aren’t paying attention, she’ll get you. Her first word was “Dada”. All of my girls said "Dada" first, so I was hoping she’d change the trend. You can tell that she wants to talk as well because she’ll jabber at me as though she is carrying on a conversation. Kristen has given up pacifiers. She really has only been using them as something to chew on for awhile now so I decided to just stop giving them to her and take the cues from her.
Kristen is a great sleeper. My only concern is that she loves to have her blanket on her face and often covers her whole head. I check on her a couple of times a night just to make sure she keeps her head uncovered. She usually sleeps from around 8 pm to 7 am. Certainly can’t complain about that one bit. She takes two naps a day, sometimes three if the first two aren’t very substantial. She certainly is a sweetie.
Sunday, 29 January, 2006
I am now officially a U.S. Citizen. I attended my oath ceremony on January 26 along with Chris and the girls. Knowing INS as I do, I was not going to get too excited until I had my certificate in hand. You never know what kind of shenanigans they might pull. There were people from 33 other countries receiving their citizenship. We got there second to the last so Chris had to stand and the girls sat on the floor. Chris unfortunately had to hold Kristen the whole time. He said she about lost it a couple of times, but was good. It was a very emotional experience for me. Now I need to work on my passport, and then it’ll truly feel official.
For Christmas, Amy was able to take money to school to purchase small gifts for her family members. She worked it so that she had enough money to buy a pink-stone ring for herself. When I opened up my present from her on Christmas morning, it was an identical ring with blue stones. Well, this morning we were talking about her buying presents and managing to buy a ring for herself. Since pink is her favorite color she said, “I couldn’t possibly give myself green!”
The other day in the car on the way home from school we were talking about being 16 and getting to drive and go on dates. Amy said, “And you get to kiss”. I told her that no, SHE had to wait until she was 300. She thought for a minute, “But YOU kiss!”
For Christmas, Amy was able to take money to school to purchase small gifts for her family members. She worked it so that she had enough money to buy a pink-stone ring for herself. When I opened up my present from her on Christmas morning, it was an identical ring with blue stones. Well, this morning we were talking about her buying presents and managing to buy a ring for herself. Since pink is her favorite color she said, “I couldn’t possibly give myself green!”
The other day in the car on the way home from school we were talking about being 16 and getting to drive and go on dates. Amy said, “And you get to kiss”. I told her that no, SHE had to wait until she was 300. She thought for a minute, “But YOU kiss!”
Saturday, 28 January, 2006
I had a fun little photo shoot with Kristen. She was animated, happy, and quite cooperative.
Friday, January 5, 2006
We got a piano. I am excited to start playing again as well as to get Amy started on piano lessons.
Thursday, 4 January, 2006
I had my INS Interview on November 21st for citizenship. The letter I received instructed me to be at the INS office by 11:30. It failed to note that the wait could be up to two hours. I think I ended up waiting well over one hour. Chris finally took Amy and Misha to get lunch while I kept Kristen. My turn finally came before they arrived back so they allowed me to bring Kristen back with me. Normally they don’t. She started to get fussy halfway through my interview so the officer called out to the waiting area to see if Chris had returned. He had so we made a quick child transfer. The interview progressed with the dreaded interview questions about U.S. government. It was actually rather easy. The computer generated a random list of ten questions, and I had to get six correct. I passed. I am now waiting for information on the swearing in ceremony. I was supposed to receive information about it two to four weeks after my interview, but wouldn’t you know, nothing has come yet.
Kristen’s first tooth broke through November 23 and the second one-both on the bottom-appeared one week later. She was rather crabby, so we knew something was coming. As of yet, no other teeth are showing through but she chews on things non-stop.
Chris has been teaching another University of Phoenix class that began in December. Fortunately they gave him a two week break over the Christmas holiday so that he wouldn’t have to reschedule. The nice thing about the timing of this class is that the money from this class paid for Christmas. We actually came out ahead rather than having to play catch-up in January. When we went to Tithing Settlement, we realized that even though we were conscientiously paying extra tithing, we had paid A LOT extra. So even without paying any tithing in December, we still had everything covered.
Carbon Valley Academy held their first annual school Christmas concert at LifeBridge Christian Church. It was rather chaotic to say the least with kids filing on and off the stage and waiting for them to do it. The kids did great and wouldn’t you know it, Amy found her way up to the top of the stage with the older kids. She was pretty nervous about the concert. Someone at school at told her that they would be performing in front of thousands of people. This was at the same time as the stomach malady. Actually we thought that might have been the problem of it all, but her stomach problems continue on.
A couple weeks before Christmas, we bundled up the kids to take them into Longmont for the annual Christmas parade. We pulled out snow pants, gloves, hats, scarves-eveything to try and stay warm. As we headed into town on Hwy 119, Chris all of a sudden saw a car in the west-bound lanes flashing its lights as we drove in the east-bound lane. Suddenly, coming toward us was a car going west bound in our east bound lane. Chris swerved into the right lane, and we narrowly missed a head-on collision. We pulled over onto the shoulder and Chris quickly called 911 to report the guy. We were so lucky and blessed not to have been hurt.
Turns out though that we had a mix-up in our dates and the Christmas parade wasn’t even scheduled for that night.
We certainly had an enjoyable Christmas. The girls were so excited for it. Amy was finished school on the 16th of December and Misha on the 20th. I must say I now understand the whole craziness of moms feeling hectic with kids on vacation. Amy and Misha seemed to fight more and subsequently get on my nerves more. I imagine a lot of it is just that they had so much more time to spend together.
Instead of honoring the Rice family tradition of having chinese food on Christmas Eve, I gave in and we went to Olive Garden instead. I knew that at least they would eat the food there. After our meal, we hurried home to watch a Christmas DVD about Jesus’ birth. We followed that with our traditional pajama Christmas Eve gift and then off to bed for the girls.
We had purchased a trampoline for the girls and had planned to set it up in the living room. After the girls were in bed, Chris headed over to a friends house to retrieve the trampoline from his garage. We moved the furniture out of the living room and began the process. Our friends had told us that setting up the trampoline was easy but once we started, we wondered what they could mean. After we had it halfway done, we decided that we didn’t want to finish, take it done and have to do it all over again. Our wonderful Christmas morning surprise was deflating fast. Sadly we took the trampoline outside and decided to try and set it up out there. We started again and noticed that we were off on the springs. Oh well, at 11:30 pm in the freezing cold, we decided to throw in the towel. We took the mat in the living room. The impact was lost, but they still had a fun day.
Kristen’s first tooth broke through November 23 and the second one-both on the bottom-appeared one week later. She was rather crabby, so we knew something was coming. As of yet, no other teeth are showing through but she chews on things non-stop.
Chris has been teaching another University of Phoenix class that began in December. Fortunately they gave him a two week break over the Christmas holiday so that he wouldn’t have to reschedule. The nice thing about the timing of this class is that the money from this class paid for Christmas. We actually came out ahead rather than having to play catch-up in January. When we went to Tithing Settlement, we realized that even though we were conscientiously paying extra tithing, we had paid A LOT extra. So even without paying any tithing in December, we still had everything covered.
Carbon Valley Academy held their first annual school Christmas concert at LifeBridge Christian Church. It was rather chaotic to say the least with kids filing on and off the stage and waiting for them to do it. The kids did great and wouldn’t you know it, Amy found her way up to the top of the stage with the older kids. She was pretty nervous about the concert. Someone at school at told her that they would be performing in front of thousands of people. This was at the same time as the stomach malady. Actually we thought that might have been the problem of it all, but her stomach problems continue on.
A couple weeks before Christmas, we bundled up the kids to take them into Longmont for the annual Christmas parade. We pulled out snow pants, gloves, hats, scarves-eveything to try and stay warm. As we headed into town on Hwy 119, Chris all of a sudden saw a car in the west-bound lanes flashing its lights as we drove in the east-bound lane. Suddenly, coming toward us was a car going west bound in our east bound lane. Chris swerved into the right lane, and we narrowly missed a head-on collision. We pulled over onto the shoulder and Chris quickly called 911 to report the guy. We were so lucky and blessed not to have been hurt.
Turns out though that we had a mix-up in our dates and the Christmas parade wasn’t even scheduled for that night.
We certainly had an enjoyable Christmas. The girls were so excited for it. Amy was finished school on the 16th of December and Misha on the 20th. I must say I now understand the whole craziness of moms feeling hectic with kids on vacation. Amy and Misha seemed to fight more and subsequently get on my nerves more. I imagine a lot of it is just that they had so much more time to spend together.
Instead of honoring the Rice family tradition of having chinese food on Christmas Eve, I gave in and we went to Olive Garden instead. I knew that at least they would eat the food there. After our meal, we hurried home to watch a Christmas DVD about Jesus’ birth. We followed that with our traditional pajama Christmas Eve gift and then off to bed for the girls.
We had purchased a trampoline for the girls and had planned to set it up in the living room. After the girls were in bed, Chris headed over to a friends house to retrieve the trampoline from his garage. We moved the furniture out of the living room and began the process. Our friends had told us that setting up the trampoline was easy but once we started, we wondered what they could mean. After we had it halfway done, we decided that we didn’t want to finish, take it done and have to do it all over again. Our wonderful Christmas morning surprise was deflating fast. Sadly we took the trampoline outside and decided to try and set it up out there. We started again and noticed that we were off on the springs. Oh well, at 11:30 pm in the freezing cold, we decided to throw in the towel. We took the mat in the living room. The impact was lost, but they still had a fun day.
Friday, 23 December, 2005
Since I have been slacking in my journal writing, I will try to recap some of the activity of the past month. It seems as though we were sick for weeks on end with one person finally getting better and then another picking up where the other left off. I somehow lucked out on avoiding the stomach flu, but everyone else suffered with it. Misha woke up on a Monday night having thrown up in her bed, on the floor and all over herself. EWWWW what a gross stinky mess. We had to wash all of her bedding right down to the bed skirt.
Chris and I made a bed for Misha on the floor of the guest room, and I laid next to her. We finally got her throwing up in a bowl instead of wherever and that continued until 2:30 am. I was so exhausted and suffering with a head cold that Kristen had passed on to me. I finally got to sleep when Kristen started crying at 3:30 am. She wasn’t willing to be consoled by rocking, so I fed her. Unfortunately when I sat her up to burp, she threw up all over me, her, the chair and the floor. Poor thing. Poor me. Chris woke up when he heard Kristen barfing. He has funny sensors that way when it comes to barfing noises. I wasn’t feeling pleasant after being up for most of the night, but I think we finally got Kristen settled and back to bed around 4:30 or 5. Misha’s tummy seemed to have settled down for a short while but she threw up at least once more then next morning. Kristen seemed to get everything out of her system with the one barfing session but was rather lethargic for most of the day.
I thought we were done with the stomach flu until the following Monday morning when both Amy and Chris woke up and immediately started barfing. Amy threw up for most of the day and couldn’t even hold down water. It was a bitterly cold day but also the day of the funeral for family in our ward whose little baby had died.
Gavin and Becky Payne knew for half of their pregnancy that their little boy, Solomon Reid, would have problems with his heart when he was born. He arrived November 12 and lived until the 29th or 30th. He had been on the heart transplant list, but just didn’t make it through surgery to implant a stint in his heart.
Chris and I made a bed for Misha on the floor of the guest room, and I laid next to her. We finally got her throwing up in a bowl instead of wherever and that continued until 2:30 am. I was so exhausted and suffering with a head cold that Kristen had passed on to me. I finally got to sleep when Kristen started crying at 3:30 am. She wasn’t willing to be consoled by rocking, so I fed her. Unfortunately when I sat her up to burp, she threw up all over me, her, the chair and the floor. Poor thing. Poor me. Chris woke up when he heard Kristen barfing. He has funny sensors that way when it comes to barfing noises. I wasn’t feeling pleasant after being up for most of the night, but I think we finally got Kristen settled and back to bed around 4:30 or 5. Misha’s tummy seemed to have settled down for a short while but she threw up at least once more then next morning. Kristen seemed to get everything out of her system with the one barfing session but was rather lethargic for most of the day.
I thought we were done with the stomach flu until the following Monday morning when both Amy and Chris woke up and immediately started barfing. Amy threw up for most of the day and couldn’t even hold down water. It was a bitterly cold day but also the day of the funeral for family in our ward whose little baby had died.
Gavin and Becky Payne knew for half of their pregnancy that their little boy, Solomon Reid, would have problems with his heart when he was born. He arrived November 12 and lived until the 29th or 30th. He had been on the heart transplant list, but just didn’t make it through surgery to implant a stint in his heart.
Wednesday, 21 December, 2005
Last night we helped the Relief Society deliver some care packages for Christmas to some needy families. As we waited for Chris to come running back to the car at the first house, a car was coming around the corner just as Chris raced off the front porch, made a mad dash to the car, and we then sped away. The other car was instantly suspicious of us and began to follow. We drove to the next house which had a very long driveway and proceeded to back into the drive. Chris shut off the lights so that we wouldn’t be spotted so easily by the family. Well, the other vehicle drove past us twice and obviously wasn’t about to drive away. I can understand how they would be concerned.
So Chris comes running back to the car and makes it just as the owners of the home open the front door. We pull out of their driveway and race away. Our friendly neighborhood watchdog car follows even though he gets stopped at a few red lights. He picks up our trail again in another subdivision about three miles away. By this time, however, he has called the police on us. We recognize his vehicle by now and wouldn’t you know it, he is joined by a police car. They talk for a minute and then the officer pulls up behind us as we are trying to secretively deliver a package at another house and turns on his red and blues lighting up the neighborhood. Amy and Misha are worried, but Chris and I were laughing. Chris turns on the lights in our car as the officer comes to the driver side window. Chris is laughing as he explains to the officer that we are delivering secret Santa packages and tells the officer that he really isn’t helping our efforts with all the flashing lights. The officer understands and says that as soon as he saw our family in the van, he was reassured that nothing subversive was going on.
Hopefully Amy and Misha will be able to remember the spirit and feeling of what we were doing, but more than likely they will remember the night their daddy got pulled over by a cop.
So Chris comes running back to the car and makes it just as the owners of the home open the front door. We pull out of their driveway and race away. Our friendly neighborhood watchdog car follows even though he gets stopped at a few red lights. He picks up our trail again in another subdivision about three miles away. By this time, however, he has called the police on us. We recognize his vehicle by now and wouldn’t you know it, he is joined by a police car. They talk for a minute and then the officer pulls up behind us as we are trying to secretively deliver a package at another house and turns on his red and blues lighting up the neighborhood. Amy and Misha are worried, but Chris and I were laughing. Chris turns on the lights in our car as the officer comes to the driver side window. Chris is laughing as he explains to the officer that we are delivering secret Santa packages and tells the officer that he really isn’t helping our efforts with all the flashing lights. The officer understands and says that as soon as he saw our family in the van, he was reassured that nothing subversive was going on.
Hopefully Amy and Misha will be able to remember the spirit and feeling of what we were doing, but more than likely they will remember the night their daddy got pulled over by a cop.
Monday, 12 December, 2005
Apparently bringing Misha breakfast in bed for her birthday started a new trend, and Amy kindly requested the same treatment for her birthday on the 11th. She got to open a few presents in the morning and then more in the evening after dinner.
She wasn’t having a birthday party this year, but we let her invite Audrey to come to dinner with us. She was doing this weird upset stomach, “I’m gonna barf” routine that night as well as the night previous at the ward Christmas Party and refused to go. So we had to cancel with Audrey and spent two ruined nights at home. But that wasn’t the end of it. She continued the "I’m sick and gonna barf" thing through the next week. Really her behavior was rather uncharacteristic for her. She was frantic with worry and wanted me to sleep with her every night. She lost four pounds with this because she wouldn’t eat for fear she would throw up. Every now and then she asks if something is good for her stomach. Not sure what is going on with her. I think there is a bit of physical discomfort, maybe cramps or something similar, but she then escalates the problem.
She wasn’t having a birthday party this year, but we let her invite Audrey to come to dinner with us. She was doing this weird upset stomach, “I’m gonna barf” routine that night as well as the night previous at the ward Christmas Party and refused to go. So we had to cancel with Audrey and spent two ruined nights at home. But that wasn’t the end of it. She continued the "I’m sick and gonna barf" thing through the next week. Really her behavior was rather uncharacteristic for her. She was frantic with worry and wanted me to sleep with her every night. She lost four pounds with this because she wouldn’t eat for fear she would throw up. Every now and then she asks if something is good for her stomach. Not sure what is going on with her. I think there is a bit of physical discomfort, maybe cramps or something similar, but she then escalates the problem.
Thursday, 17 November, 2005
Yesterday was a great day. I finally found Misha’s glasses. I realized last week that even though I saw the glass case, it didn’t mean the glasses were actually in the case. I have been searching high and low for those darn glasses for the past week. On Monday, I had Misha go and pray in her bedroom and explained that she needed to wait after praying and listen to where Heavenly Father told her to look. She said that they were in the office but nothing more, and she was unwilling to look. She lost tv privileges all day long. I was praying myself and looking under beds, out in the sandbox, in heat vents–anywhere. She doesn’t really think too much about taking those glasses off and leaving them wherever. Finally yesterday I was straightening books from the book case in the office and noticed something shiny on top of the books. I thought it was something else and was just going to leave it. What a relief when I finally pulled out her glasses. I yelled, “I found them. I found them!”, and Chris came running downstairs to see what the excitement was all about.
Kristen drank from a bottle twice yesterday. I have been trying for awhile now to get her do that, but she hasn’t been the least bit interested. Yesterday I gave her undiluted apple juice and that was a whole lot better tasting than the diluted stuff and she began to drink. Wahoo. Later in the afternoon, I tried a bottle with formula in it, and she drank that as well. I’ll keep working with her so that at some point I can leave her with a babysitter and have a little freedom. I would especially like to go to the temple.
Yesterday afternoon I walked downstairs and down the hall toward my office. Misha came walking out of the office with my broom in her hands and said, “I tried to give Amy a blessing but she didn’t want one.” I explained to her that only those holding the priesthood like Daddy were able to give blessings. At the same time I hear Amy complaining loudly in the office and went in to investigate. “Misha whapped me on the head with the broom.” Which Misha replies to, “No, I didn’t. The whapping on the head part was the blessing.” I had to write everything they said down quickly because I thought it was so funny.
Kristen drank from a bottle twice yesterday. I have been trying for awhile now to get her do that, but she hasn’t been the least bit interested. Yesterday I gave her undiluted apple juice and that was a whole lot better tasting than the diluted stuff and she began to drink. Wahoo. Later in the afternoon, I tried a bottle with formula in it, and she drank that as well. I’ll keep working with her so that at some point I can leave her with a babysitter and have a little freedom. I would especially like to go to the temple.
Yesterday afternoon I walked downstairs and down the hall toward my office. Misha came walking out of the office with my broom in her hands and said, “I tried to give Amy a blessing but she didn’t want one.” I explained to her that only those holding the priesthood like Daddy were able to give blessings. At the same time I hear Amy complaining loudly in the office and went in to investigate. “Misha whapped me on the head with the broom.” Which Misha replies to, “No, I didn’t. The whapping on the head part was the blessing.” I had to write everything they said down quickly because I thought it was so funny.
Thursday, 3 November, 2005
Yesterday I was walking down the stairs in front of Misha, and she wanted me to wait for her. All of a sudden I hear, “Stop right there, old lady.” I could hardly believe my ears. The little stinker. Chris asked me if I gave her soap for saying it but I guess I laughed a little too much to be able to pull that off.
Wednesday, 2 November, 2005
Kristen is learning and growing constantly. She is able to roll over from her front to her back without any difficulty...though she started doing that at five weeks. I never encouraged her until she was about five months old. She doesn’t want to roll back to her stomach yet, but I am sure that will come. At her six-month well child check up, Kristen weighed in at just under 18 pounds (about the 75th percentile). She is around 28 inches in length which is off the chart. Her hair continues to grow as well, I would say about a ½ an inch every month. It is well over four inches long on top. She rubbed a lot of it off in the back so that has some catching up to do, but I don’t imagine it will take long. I can put in pony tails on the top or two little pig tails which are pretty darling.
Still she will have nothing to do with drinking out of a bottle. We have tried numerous times, but she just chews on the nipple. A bit of liquid dribbles in to her mouth from that, but she doesn’t seem to care for the taste of formula all that much. Fortunately, she has been eating baby foods for the past month. Her favorites, of course, are the fruits, but she does like squash and sweet potatoes a lot. Beans and peas are pretty low on her popularity list. She usually will eat rice cereal in the morning mixed with yogurt and then a vegetable and fruit in the evening.
I took all three girls with me to the doctor’s office when I went for Kristen’s check up. After the visit, I was feeding Kristen in the car while the other two played on the grass. Misha and Amy ran over to me saying that Misha’s ear was bleeding. The day previous, Amy was playing doctor or something with her and poked a Q-tip into her ear causing quite a lot of pain for Misha. Misha didn’t complain about it much that night so I didn’t think much more of it. So I finished feeding Kristen and marched us all back into the doctor’s office. They submitted a request for us to see the doctor on short-notice. We had to wait for some time before we were able to get back in, AND I got to pay another $20 copay.
When Dr. Moffatt looked in Misha’s ear, the one ear that was bleeding was pretty red and inflamed indicating that Misha had an ear infection also. Aaaaghh what are the odds? She checked the other two girls just to be sure. She should have checked me as well, because I got sick a couple of days later. Misha got on antibiotics (more money), but she didn’t get sick. Lucky me!
Kristen has been sick since Sunday, so her schedule is quite off. I feel so badly for her. Misha had the same thing a week ago and had a really sore throat. She was rather froggy for about four days and had a fever and body aches. You know Misha doesn’t feel well when you can’t find her and you go into her room and find her fast asleep on her bed. With Misha being sick though, she could tell me what was wrong, so I know from that that Kristen must not be feeling great at all.
My brother, Brad, came for a visit last Saturday and stayed until Tuesday afternoon. When I realized on Sunday that Kristen was getting sick as well, I asked Chris and Brad if they would give both Misha and Kristen blessings. I always hope that my babies will wake up healthy in the morning, which they don’t usually, and wonder if it is some lack of faith on my part. Amy even asked me today why Kristen didn’t get better since daddy gave her a blessing. I didn’t have an answer.
Great Grandma Andrews came to visit three weeks ago. Grandpa Kline also came for a short visit. The girls love to have Grandma Andrews come. Their favorite memory now, which is also something Chris did with her when he was a little boy, is making chocolate-covered bananas. They think it is wonderful and love to eat them as well. Grandma Andrews flew in on Thursday afternoon with Larry coming in around the same time from Phoenix. Chris took Amy and Misha to go pick them up and even took them into the airport with him. They thought that was great fun. I guess traffic wasn’t so great because they didn’t get home until after 7 pm. Shortly after that, Chris had to head off to the church for a planning meeting with the bishop and other auxiliary leaders.
Amy had school Friday morning, but once she was finished, we headed into Longmont for lunch. Larry had to be back at the shuttle at 2ish so we weren’t able to spend much time in town, but Grandma did buy Misha a cowboy hat at Target and Amy a skirt and sweater. We dropped Grandpa Kline off at the shuttle pick up and ran a bunch of errands out in Firestone. We decided to get pizza from Papa Murphy’s and stay in and watch movies. Grandma was fine with that. She’s not up for much activity these days, especially since she is almost 82.
Saturday morning, I headed off to the church for Super Saturday. It is the first one that I have ever attended and there were some fun crafts that I was able to make. Chris stayed home with the girls and even came to pick up Kristen since she was fussing so much. He did pick up a wheel chair for grandma, so once I got home, we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed over to Flat Iron Crossing for an afternoon of shopping. Grandma bought a red hat for the lady’s group she belongs to and some wall art for her living room.
We were going to go to Olive Garden for dinner, but the wait was too long and we were all hungry. We ended up going down the street a ways to On The Border. I love this restaurant, but the food does not sit well with Kristen, and she is usually upset from it for two to three days after. I even ordered something different than normal, but it still upset her tummy. Oh well, I’ll have to wait awhile before I can go back there again.
Grandma’s flight was Sunday morning around 11:45. Chris stayed for about a half hour of church and then headed home to take her to the airport. The girls, of course, were sad to see her go.
Amy is still loving and doing well at school. Chris and I went to Parent Teacher Conference last week. Mrs. Stephen says that Amy is a great student. She doesn’t talk a lot, she does what she is asked, and she gets her work done. Her challenge will be to let others answer questions because she always knows the answers and to not be an overachiever. She is doing well in all areas. I am so proud that she is such a great student.
My paperwork for receiving my green card is still in process. We had to submit some new information because the INS office seems to have lost it (what a surprise!), but I received a letter last month saying that everything is in process however they can’t give any kind of time line for when I should receive my card. On the other hand, I applied for citizenship in July. I have my interview on November 21st. I am not sure if I will be sworn in then or at another time, but I was surprised that my application would be processed so quickly. I’ll be a citizen before I ever get my green card, but by then it won’t really matter.
We pulled a nasty surprise on the girls. Kaiser Permanente was having a flu shot clinic last Saturday. We didn’t tell them that they were going to get a shot until we actually walked into the room full of nurses. When I told Amy, she started to cry right away and Misha was none too happy either. They both clung to me and I had to push them ahead of me as we walked over to the nurses who worked with pediatrics. I hope that it will help us stay healthier this winter season. Sadly, Misha was already sick with a sore and froggy throat and fever. She was sad to miss trunk or treat at the church on Saturday night, but not so sad about missing church.
Brad gladly stayed home with Misha and many people asked where Misha was since both Chris and I were at church. Kristen was pretty docile during church-she even slept twice. Once I got home, I realized that she too was getting what Misha had.
Last week the girls were driving me crazy. Amy was teasing Misha and Misha was whining and whining and whining. Finally I got so tired of listening to them, I made them write lines. Amy had to write ten times, “I will not tease Misha.” She was pretty methodical about it. She wrote ten I’s then the next word ten times down the page until she completed the task. That was around two or three in the afternoon. Misha still hadn’t finished her lines of “I will not whine” by eight pm. She complained and whined and did some more. Chris added extra lines but that didn’t inspire her to finish even when she was threatened with even more lines. Chris told her she would have to go to bed at 7:30 and Misha jumped at the chance. I told him that she had to stay up and finish what she was given because going to bed was simply another way to get out of the task. She finally finished at 9 pm with Chris’ supervision. Such different personalities.
Tuesday, 1 November, 2005
The girls loved Halloween this year. Amy chose to be a bride, and even though she is almost six, she wore the dress I wore at my baptism when I was eight. Misha was a spirited little cowgirl. The weather was cold for trick or treating so I made the girls wear winter jackets and gloves. They stayed warm but weren't too happy about having to cover up their costumes.
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