Friday, 28 April, 2006

Lots of interesting activities this past month.  Kristen turned one on April 19th.  So hard to believe that an entire year has already passed.  I miss having a tiny baby.  Kristen is not so tiny anymore.  She had her 12-month checkup on the 24th of April and weighed in at a whopping 26 pounds.  No wonder I have such strong biceps.  The doctor was kind enough to say that she was in the 95th percentile, but it looks to me as though she’s off both the weight and height charts.  We are lucky to have such healthy children–healthy children that like to get into everything.  She figured out how to get into my cupboards this past week, so we will probably have to put child locks on the cupboards this weekend.

Kristen also figured out that she can climb up stairs.  I set her down by Misha in front of the tv one morning while I went to the bathroom.  I came out and she had made it up the stairs and was standing up with the bannisters by my bedroom.  Little stinker.  She is pretty proud of herself.  Yesterday, though, I watched her climb up the stairs and just as she was about to the top, she suddenly tumbled back down to the landing.  She cried of course, but I didn’t see any obvious bumps or bruises or bleeding.  It didn’t seem to slow her down either.  She was right back on the stairs.  Lots of people would put up a gate to keep their kids off, but I would rather that she learn how to go up and down the stairs without fear.

She is also standing up against the furniture and walking along.  Walking on her own isn’t too far off.  She isn’t ready yet to take those steps alone, but it’ll come soon enough.  We got a free cake from Safeway for Kristen’s first birthday.  She didn’t want to touch it hardly.  Some kids would just dig right in, but she maybe stuck her finger in it–Amy and Misha would have been happy to oblige though.

Misha continues with her funny one-liners.  The other day she was asking me what the name of the day before Sunday was.  I told her Saturday.  She then told me she didn’t like Saturday anymore.  I figured it was because they have Saturday chores now, but no, her answer was that it came before Sunday, and Sunday is too churchy!

 Amy and Misha went with Chris to IBM’s Take Your Children to Work Day yesterday.  They loved it!  They called me a couple of times and were so excited both times that I could hardly understand what they were saying.  It is a non-productive day for Chris but super memories for the girls.  They look forward to going all year long.

Amy has been having her stomach problems.  They seem to spiral out of control.  She woke up with a stomach ache on Tuesday so I let her stay home from school.  That afternoon she was fine.  I think she has a fear of throwing up, especially in front of her class mates.  Wednesday she said she was sick again and wouldn’t eat.  Of course, she doesn’t eat so her tummy hurts more.  The more it hurts, the less she eats.  I still made her go to school and she was fine after I had to walk her in and sign her in as tardy.  She wouldn’t eat all day long though and left the dinner table to lay down and fell asleep at 6:30.  She slept until 6:30 the next morning, but by now her stomach was really hurting (she was starving) and she said she wasn’t going to IBM.  I knew she really wanted to, and so I just got her dressed and sent her out the door.  She was fine though lacking in energy.  Imagine that!  She had some pizza at IBM and a little supper.  I thought she would be past it this morning since we talked so much about the correlation between not eating and feeling hungry.  She felt better last night after we made her sit at the table until she was finished.  But then this morning, she was at it again.  It is so frustrating trying to deal with her.

We bought a new van a couple of weeks ago.  We put our Odyssey up for sale at the beginning of the month on craigslist.  We didn’t anticipate that it would sell so quickly though.  We listed it on Sunday and closed the deal the following Saturday.  We were down to one car and it was a squish at that.  We looked all week for a 2005 or possibly even a 2006 Honda Odyssey to replace it with, but no luck in finding what we wanted for the price we wanted.  Plus, we were trying to refinance our house and were hit with the bad news that we weren’t appraising for as much as we had hoped to.  We weren’t sure how things were going to work out with that and if we would still have money for a car.  From selling the 2001 Odyssey, income taxes, and our IBM bonus, we had close to $20,000 in the bank but we really didn’t want to spend it on the refinance.  Thursday morning, April 13th, both Chris and I were feeling pretty bummed about everything.  We were both praying that a solution would present itself.  Well, we finally decided that we could still refinance and pay the mortgage insurance (which turned out to be a lot less than we had anticipated).  We can always reappraise in another year and see if our home appraises for more.  Well, once we got that figured that was quite a load off our minds.

I was getting dinner ready when Chris came downstairs and said that he had found our van.  Unfortunately, it was in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  He had been looking on craigslist at the surrounding states that would be close enough to drive too.  He was about ready to give up when he found a 2005 silver Odyssey in Oklahoma.  He quickly contacted the guy.  It was still available.  To make a long story short, Chris bought a ticket to Oklahoma, flew out Friday night and drove the van home Saturday.  The winds were horrible all day long for him, but he finally arrived home about 9 pm.  It is a beautiful van. 

When the girls climbed in for the first time on Sunday morning as we headed to church, Amy said, “This is getting cooler and cooler and cooler.”  It has low mileage, a 5 year bumper to bumper warranty (that’s why we felt comfortable getting it), a dvd player, leather seats and plenty more.  It will be a great vehicle for us.  The good news is that everything came together.  We refinanced our house on the 19th so the stress with both issues is gone.  We are so grateful to our Heavenly Father for hearing and answering our prayers and for being mindful of our needs.  Prayers aren’t always answered within our time constraints or even how we think they should be, but we know that an answer will come.

We went on a hike as a family and thoroughly enjoyed our day out.

Monday, 27 March 2006

My children constantly amaze me with the funny and unusual things that come out of their mouths.  One afternoon, Misha and Amy were fighting as they usually do.  Misha came crying and whining into the office tattling on some injustice that Amy had committed.  I told Misha to be tough.  So she marched back into the living room and announced, "Nobody bodders me!"

A little bit later as I was first concerned, then eavesdropping, I heard Amy the drama queen pretending to weep.  She said to Misha, "You have a twin and someone switched you.  You aren't my daughter."  Whereas Misha replied,   "You can't fire me!  You massage my back!”  I sat in the office chuckling at the funny things they were saying.

On another day while Amy was at school, Misha was talking to me and said, “Some daddies have beards.  Some mommies pretend to have beards.”  Probably true.  Another time we were in the car backing out of the driveway when Misha asked, “When I get older will I get my papers?”  I thought for a second trying to correlate the thought with something...nope.  I would have to ask, “ What papers?”  To which Misha replied, “To be a Mexican.”  “What?”  I ask.  “A Mexican.  No sweetie you are an American and will always be one.”

Chris is off to Phoenix for the week to work with the American Express Account.  He left early this morning and returns Friday evening around dinner time.  I think he will drive over to see his dad tonight and then has plans to meet some other friends and old mission companions for dinner later this week. His girls sure do love it when he is home.

Not much excitement going on around here.  Amy and Misha have school, as usual, and dental appointments later in the week.

Wednesday, 8 March, 2006

Chris has been gone for the past week.  I sure don’t like it when he is gone.  He flew to Orlando, Florida last Friday (March 3) and attended classes Saturday and Sunday, though the actual conference began Monday morning.  His presentation was scheduled for 11 am (9 am our time).  He doesn’t usually get too nervous about speaking in front of people, but a lot of higher ups at IBM had made a big deal about his presentation and even pulled strings to get him invited to speak.  So, he was feeling kind of nervous Sunday night.  As we knew it would, everything turned out great.  He had a good turnout of abut 60 people and received some positive feedback.  He was pretty relieved to have it done and to be able to relax and enjoy the next two days.

He left the conference early to fly to New York City for a leadership training class in Armonk at the IBM headquarters.  He received a special invitation to attend and didn’t feel as though he wanted to turn it down.  Unfortunately, when he arrived at the airport last night his flight was delayed due to air traffic control issues in New York.  He wasn’t too pleased because it meant he wouldn’t arrive at the hotel until well after midnight.  I haven’t talked to him yet this morning to find out how things went; I am sure that he is tired.  He will have the next three days to be in training class and then heads home Friday afternoon.

Tuesday, 28 February, 2006

I am so looking forward to spring.  We haven’t really had a bad winter, very few snow storms to speak of actually, but I am ready for green grass, leaves, flowers.  I noticed this morning that some of my tulips are beginning to peak out in the front.  I am sure that we still have a snow storm or two more to go, but I am so glad to be moving into this time of year.

Kristen is still growing and learning new things all the time.  I’m not sure that I have mentioned the dog next door.  Kristen now seems to recognize dogs and growls as though she is barking.  She still hasn’t figured out how to crawl or even pull herself forward, but she can push herself backwards and scoots into all kinds of dead-ends.  She has also figured out how to sit back up which is pretty handy.  Just this week, she began to show a dislike for baby food even though we were still in the #2's.  She gagged and made crazy faces over the texture of the #3 food and wouldn’t eat it.  But she is happy to eat noodles, cheese, beans, etc. with the rest of us.  She doesn’t seem to care for drinking out of sippy cups either.  She’ll take a drink out of my water bottle but pushes the sippy cups away all the time.

Kristen has waving down pretty good too.  She waves if you wave at her, if you say “bye bye” to her or if I say it is “night night” time.  It always amazes me how smart they are and how quickly they pick up things.

Amy is doing well in school.  We had parent teacher conference this last week and Mrs. Stephen says that Amy is pretty much ready for first grade.  The students in her class are divided into three learning groups, and Amy is working well in the highest level.  She has made lots of new friends at school, but her best friend is Madison Reed.  Madison’s Mom and I switch carpooling throughout the week.  It is nice not to have to make extra trips to pick Amy up on Tuesday and Thursday when I also have to make trips to drop off and pick up Misha in the afternoon.

Misha is doing well at school.  She is learning to read and does a great job of sounding out words.  She now needs to work on word recognition and sight words.  Misha is great for one liners.  She hears things on tv and usually at the appropriate time repeats the saying she hears.  The other day she was home with Chris for a little while and wanted him to do something for her.  She smiled sweetly at him and said, “Please with dragonberries on top.”  She has the smiling thing down and knows how to work it to her best advantage.

We left all three girls with our babysitter Tacy a couple weekends ago.  Kristen did great.  What a nice treat to be able to go out again just with Chris.  We love our girls, but it is nice to have some time away.

Our ward was split two Sundays ago.  Amy was sick this last Sunday so I wasn’t able to go to church but Chris said the chapel and gym were just as full.  We picked up members from the Mead area and that added almost 50 new families.  We are sad not to be with so many of our friends who are in the other ward-me especially as a lot of my good friends are now in that ward.

Chris continues to be busy at work.  He presented at a conference in New York over Valentine’s Day and has another presentation at a conference in Orlando this next week.  He was also asked to fly back to New York immediately after the Orlando conference to attend a leadership training seminar.  So he will end up being gone a full week, much to my disappointment.

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

Misha, Kristen, and I went on a field trip today to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  Misha has been studying dinosaurs and the planets in her preschool so this was an opportunity for them to see dinosaurs (bones) up close and to go to the planetarium to watch a movie about the planets.  I stayed outside with Kristen because I didn’t think she would be quiet and she hadn’t taken a nap yet.  When Misha came out with her group, one of the other mothers said that Misha knew all of the planets and told everyone what they were.

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!”

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.