Tuesday, 25 March, 2003

We have decided to buy a new house.  Crazy huh?  We made the decision this week.  But for a little background, there is a new US Home development (we bought our first Colorado house from them) about a mile and a half from us called Monarch Estates.  We were driving around one day and noticed that US Home would be starting a new development with larger homes and home lots, and we were curious.  We certainly love this home we are in right now, but wish that we had made some different decisions: a bigger lot, a three-car garage and a full basement.  One day as we drove around Monarch Estates looking at the lots, I had the distinct impression that someday we would live there.  It was similar to the impression I received as I drove past the new addition to the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo and felt that I would have a baby there.

I mentioned this impression to Chris probably the next time we drove by but we didn’t think too much about it.  So, a couple of months later we stopped and talked to the sales agent, Brad Williams, who sold us our current house.  Chris made the comment that the lots must be a lot more money than at Ridge Crest since they were bigger.  Brad said no that many of them weren’t.  We were both intrigued, and I went into the office to take a look and get some floor plans for the new models they would be building.  We drove up to Johnstown and looked at some of the models that were there.  We looked at one model and thought we might like it–someday.  I kept thinking about the house and wanted to talk to Brad some more to get an idea of what a move would cost us.  Really, I felt very impressed for the last couple of months that we needed to explore these homes more.

I kept wondering if making a move to a bigger home was just being greedy and wanting bigger and better, but the feelings were still there.  Chris tolerated my notion that we should look at these homes and indulged me, but he rolled his eyes at me plenty.  He felt that we needed to stay in our current house for at least another year, year and a half–at least until October to get the tax benefits.  So we began looking with that time frame in mind.

We went back to look at one of the models in Johnstown–the Crescendo–but decided that it wasn’t really a good fit for us.  We stopped and talked with Brad again and he directed us to some models that might be a better fit.  At that time (about two weeks ago), we told him we were projecting for the future but wanted to be prepared.  This was a Saturday and Chris had a list of things at the house that he wanted to do.  We spent almost the whole afternoon driving to these models and looking (after cleaning the church).  We looked first at a model in Loveland at Hunter’s Run–the Etude.  And frankly, we loved it.  Very similar to when we walked into US Home's Amethyst model and loved it.  It is open and spacious with lots of light and windows.  We took pictures and then went to look at the last model Brad had suggested.  It was the Symphony model.  It was okay, but very similar to what we already have that it would be hard to justify purchasing it.  Plus it was decorated in pretty outrageous colors.

After deciding on the Etude, IF we bought a new house at all, we went home.  But all week long, I felt as though we needed to go talk to Brad again soon and just find out how much this would be–still planning for the future.  I got a babysitter for last Saturday evening and we headed over to talk with Brad.  I knew Chris was still planning for next year and wasn’t quite sold on the idea, but as we talked to Brad, I could see that his thoughts were changing.  We went home feeling a little overwhelmed, and Chris stayed up for a couple hours creating financial scenarios.  The gist was that we could afford to buy a house now, but probably not a year from now as prices continue to rise.  The equity that we would gain in that home would outpace what we might accrue in this house.  The incentives at this time are pretty fantastic.  Things seem to be falling into place this week.  We are meeting with realtors tomorrow and Thursday, we got preapproved for a home equity loan to pay the earnest fees and Brad offered us an additional $2000 incentive to close by the end of the month.

Chris and I talked last night and decided to move ahead as though we were supposed to be making this decision and proceed until we felt as though it was wrong.  Everything seems to be falling into place.

I am just showing Amy the floor plan of the Etude.  Her words, “Wow!  Are we gonna buy a new house?  Wow.” She thinks for a second... “What's the matter with this one?”

Friday, 21 March, 2003

We have had record snow falls this past week.  It started on Monday night and didn’t stop snowing until late Wednesday.  Some places in the mountains have had up to 90 inches of snow.  Most of the state was home-bound for a couple of days, and in many places it was illegal to be out driving anyway.  We probably got 18 to 24 inches.  Chris took the girls out to play in the snow on Wednesday afternoon.  They, however, were more attracted to the huge puddle at the bottom of the driveway.  Misha sat in it twice and was pretty soaked when she finally had to come in–kicking and screaming.  Her arms were red to the elbows she was so cold.

We had record warmth the week before the snow, the girls were wearing shorts and t-shirts on Saturday.  My tulips were peaking out of the ground in the front flower bed, and I am not sure whether they will survive or not.

I have decided that Misha needs to be potty trained.  She likes to sit on the potty and be a big girl, but I really haven’t done much more than sit her on the potty with her diaper on.  I realized yesterday that if she is so anxious to sit on the potty, why discourage her?  So, I know that she has been trying to sit on the big potty all by herself when she walked into the living room yesterday with a funny look on her face.  She said, “potty” and I figured she wanted to sit on the potty again.  She turned around though and her whole backside was wet from falling in.

Wednesday, 12 March, 2003

Beautiful and sunny, high 60s

We are all feeling better.  What a relief!  Amy may not have liked the shot she got, but it sure did the trick for her.

Chris has been in Pennsylvania since Monday and will be home tomorrow.  He was originally supposed to go to New York to help out the New York Times with a problem (they are a client of IBM), but they fixed their problem.  Since the ticket had already been purchased, Chris has been helping another teammate in PA.  Probably not a real necessity, but they have been able to get a lot done together.

The girls and I went to the library on Monday for story time.  We hadn’t been in a couple of weeks, so it was a nice treat for them.  On the way home, Amy noticed that I wasn’t wearing any socks.  She said to me, “Mommy, you’re not wearing socks!  Silly Mommy.  What were you thinking?”  I laughed out loud at that one.

Tuesday, 4 March, 2003

Susan had her baby yesterday at 1:13 pm.  Her water broke about 4 am and things just progressed nicely from there.  She was really worried that she would have to have a c-section.  Both Susan and Melissa Brooklyn are doing well.  Her due date of March 26th was obviously incorrect since Melissa weighed in at a wopping 8 lbs 14 ounces.  It has been quite a rough pregnancy for the past four or five months, so I know they are glad to have her here safely.

Misha’s phrase of the week is “no way”.  If you ask her if she wants gummy bears, or crackers, or a cookies, and she doesn’t, we hear “no way”.  Sometimes it is just a little more emphatic with “no, no, no way”.  Sadly, she is also learning to say it when she doesn’t want to do something.  Hmm, where did she pick that up?

We have all been sick over the past month.  Amy and I the most, but Chris and Misha had colds for a few days.  I finally took the girls to the doctor yesterday because I thought I had an ear infection.  Turns out that Amy was the sickest of us all with strep and an ear infection.  She hardly complained and looked fine.  She has been waking up in the middle of the night, but didn’t complain, she just didn’t want to go back to her bed.  In fact, she woke up in the night Sunday and Chris was taking care of her.  She kept saying, “It’s not my fault, It’s not my fault.”  Poor thing.

I had the nurse give her a penicillin shot and that was a sad moment for Amy.  All the way home she kept saying, “The doctor’s office is not fun.  I don’t like getting shots.”  Poor thing.  Probably won’t do that again to her since it was so traumatic for her.  I have had a sinus infection and feel so much better today with some antibiotics in my system.  I am just glad to be feeling better again.  In the past six weeks, I have been to church once.  I have been healthy for one week of the past month.  Not fun, especially when I got sick after getting better the first time.

Thursday, 20 February, 2003

I am trying not to count my chickens before they hatch, but Misha and Amy both went to sleep tonight at the same time, in the same room–Misha suddenly graduated to a twin bed.  She hasn’t slept a full night in one yet though.  The first night (on Tuesday) I put her down and she went right to sleep.  We kept Amy up for awhile waiting for Misha to be asleep.  When we went in though, Misha’s little head just popped up, and she was awake.  She climbed out of bed and was making a lot of noise for Amy.  So, I put her back in her crib.  Last night, she cried a bit, but then went right to sleep.  Chris put her in her crib though because she was flopping all over the bed and almost fell out.  We’ll see how she does tonight.

Amy is a whole other story.  On Tuesday night, she woke up around 1:30 am crying.  She did not want to get back into her bed or sleep in her room.  I finally convinced her to get in bed after I had climbed in a laid down.  She was freezing.  I thought she might be falling asleep when she started breathing deeply, but nope.  She was wide awake as soon as I tried to leave.  Since I didn’t feel like staying in a twin bed with her all night, I brought her into our room.  She had to sleep on the floor though.

On Wednesday night, she was awake again crying.  Chris brought her into our room and at least let her sleep on pillows on the floor.  She kept moaning and crying in her sleep.  She had an earache.  Nothing seemed to help so finally I brought her into our bed.  After crying and thrashing for awhile, I asked Chris to give her a blessing so that her ear would feel better and she could sleep.  Chris left after that--he was tired of being kicked in his sleep.   Shortly after he left, Amy started throwing up.  I grabbed the garbage can and pushed her head into it.  Chris was back in our room and wide awake in a flash.  The sound of throwing up wakes him up pretty quickly.  Suddenly Amy was happy and cheerful and ready to go to sleep.  Sadly, it was about 3 am, and I had been up for hours.

Last night, we had Amy go to sleep in our room for awhile, hoping to give Misha a little longer time to get to sleep in the twin.  Just as I was going up to carry Amy into her room, I heard her crying.  I went up to comfort her and she was having a bad dream.  She wouldn’t stop crying.  Her eyes were closed, and she would not wake up.  At one point, she said, “No, I don’t want to.”  Chris came up too and finally we woke her up.  She was pretty scared and shaken and didn’t want to leave me.  Must have been a pretty bad dream.  So, she slept with me again and Chris didn’t even bother sleeping in our room.  He slept in Amy’s bed (that was after moving Misha back to the crib).

Today, we have both tried to reinforce with Amy that she is to sleep all night long and that she is NOT sleeping in our bed tonight.  I really need a good night’s sleep.  She does too, as both she and Misha seem to be getting colds again.

I have started babysitting Spencer Stanworth on Tuesday and Thursday.  I have only done it twice so far, but it isn’t a problem at all.  He is only 3 ½ months old and sleeps a lot still.  The girls are quite thrilled to have him come, but I think they like playing with his toys, car seat, and baby swing even more.  Hard to imagine that Amy was Misha’s age when Misha was born.  I am glad that I am not having another baby right now.  Just not ready yet.

Speaking of having a baby, Susan is more than ready to have hers.  She has been having contractions for months now and has been to the hospital quite a number of times when the contractions were two and three minutes apart and not stopping.  She will have amniocentesis next Wednesday to determine if her baby is developed enough to come yet (she isn’t due for another month yet).  Susan has had so many problems with this pregnancy-not that any of her other ones, except for the first, have been easy.  This one is definitely the last.  She has been on bed rest for a couple of weeks now and will continue to be until their little girl is born.

Becky is due in about two months.  She is having a girl-Katelynn Elise-and they already call her Katie.  I always liked that name-Katie.  Oh well.  Donna is due at the end of July--a boy--and they think they will call him Isaac.  Last I heard, he was going to be called Isaac Wolfe Rice.  Kind of a big name for a little kid.

Kevin and Candace are moving to Texas in May and were down there this past weekend picking out a house.  They found one that they really like that will be ready for them about the first of June.  I remember that excited feeling of moving into a new home.  Still like doing it, but we are happy here for a little longer.

We have been painting and so far have painted Amy’s room pink with a flower border and molding.  Misha’s room is yellow.  The Grandma room is kind of a taupe color.  The same color we had planned to paint our room, but it is too light so we need to have the shade darkened a bit.

I painted the kitchen today with the taupe hoping that it would stand out a little more with all the white accents in the kitchen.  It doesn’t look too bad, but it doesn’t jump out at you and say “this room has been painted”.  Not worth it for all the effort that painting is.  We hope to get our bedroom painted this weekend.

Sunday, 26 January, 2003

Another birthday has come and gone and this one was extremely uneventful.  Chris left for New York about 7:15 am on Wednesday and didn’t get home until after midnight on Thursday.  The only people that even called me were Brad, Dad Kline and Grandma Andrews.  I talked to my parents on IM (Instant Messenger) as well as Susan.

I have porcelain veneers on my four front teeth and sadly one of them chipped off on Saturday while I was eating french fries.  Bit down wrong, and I knew immediately that it was broken.  Now I am going to have to get it fixed and hope that it doesn’t cost too much.

 Amy is always saying to me, “Would you tell Misha...” and then whatever it is she is doing, feeling, getting.  Would you tell Misha that I am sick.  Would you tell Misha that I am wearing a dress.  Would you tell Misha that I went poop.  Doesn’t matter that Misha is standing right beside me and can hear what Amy is asking.  Amy doesn’t go for telling Misha herself, she always wants me to do it.

The girls have been sick with colds since Thursday.  They haven’t been too bad, but I did keep them home from church today.  Didn’t want them picking up anything worse or passing on what they have.  Amy loves to go to church so it is always disappointing for her to have to stay home.  She not only gave a talk in primary the second week she was in it, but she volunteered to give the closing prayer last week when nobody else would.  She was so proud of herself and the leaders were completely impressed.  I guess the things we try to get her to do at home actually are sinking in.  Some days you would never know.

Chris and I went on a date last Saturday night, the 18th.  His co-worker, Jamie, and her fiancé, Jeremy, came to watch the girls for us.  Amy and Misha love them and vice versa.  Don’t suppose it has anything to do with the fact that they bring presents and goodies every time they come.  Chris and I went out to dinner and then to a movie, “Catch Me if You Can”.  It was the first movie we have been to here in Colorado.  So nice to get out by ourselves.  We didn’t have much to do after so we came home after the movie and stayed up until 1:00 am talking to Jamie and Jeremy.  They are not LDS but they are so good with the girls and are such a nice couple to be around.

Chris had wanted to take me out for my birthday on Saturday, but since the girls were sick, we didn’t want to leave them with a babysitter.  We took them with us.  Not quite the same as the Saturday previous, but still nice to get out.  Actually Saturday was quite a fun day.  We went to Loveland to Walmart and on the way home stopped at a US Home Development in Johnstown just 10-15 miles north of us.  We looked at a home that we really like.  We are projecting that we will move again in a couple of years and this is definitely a house we could see ourselves in.  I find myself thinking about it a lot today and deciding what I would change or how I would decorate.  Kind of fun and exciting to plan our lives together.

Misha has started fake sneezing.  Amy usually sneezes a lot in the morning and that often gets Misha going “aaah aaaah aaaaaaah dooooo” over and over.  It is pretty funny.

Sunday, 12 January, 2003

Today is my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary.  They have made a wonderful life together and leave a great legacy to their children.  I am so grateful that they taught me so much and showed me how to work.  That makes so much difference in life.

Susan is having a lot of difficulties with her pregnancy.  She has been in and out of the hospital numerous times with early contractions and the latest is a concern with low iron and blood.  We fasted as a family for her this weekend so that she wouldn’t have to have a blood transfusion and able to stay at home for the rest of her pregnancy.  Having a c-section is a piece of cake compared to going through one of her pregnancies.

Amy gave her first talk in Primary today.  You couldn’t even see her head above the pulpit, nor could you even hear her in the back, but she pulled out and opened her scriptures and repeated her talk as I whispered it in her ear.  She did a great job.  She was assigned to speak on the theme: “When Jesus comes again, He will come to the temple.”  This is her talk:

“Malachi 3:1 ‘The Lord...shall suddenly come to his temple.’

The Second Coming of Jesus Christ will be sudden but also a glorious experience for all righteous people.  It will be a time of happiness, peace and love for those who are prepared to meet him.  We can be prepared to meet Jesus Christ if we follow His teachings, keep the commandments, and choose the right.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”

Amy and I were in Safeway on Saturday getting groceries and Chris and Misha were coming to meet us after he finished filling the car up with gasoline.  They have these new carts now that have a car on the front of them for kids to sit in and pretend to drive.  As Misha came around the corner and saw Amy sitting in the car, she started running, saying, “I’m coming.  I’m coming.”  It was pretty cute.

 Misha has started pulling her pants down or simply taking them off and telling me that she has to go potty.  She then wants to sit on the big potty like Amy does.  She doesn’t even like to sit on the little potty.  I am hoping that this is a positive sign for her and that she will want to start potty training.  Wouldn’t that be wonderful.  Now I just need to figure out how to keep her sitting long enough to do anything. 

Amy is improving in her potty training.  We now have “poop time” every morning.  She has been successful the last two days.  Wahooo!

We took the girls swimming at the rec center last Monday for FHE.  Amy loved it immediately.  Both girls wear life jackets or the like and Amy has learned to keep her legs from floating up and tipping her over.  She can even swim the length of the pool as Chris follows along with her.  She loves to jump off the “jumping board”.  Misha took about 45 minutes to warm up to being in the water.  She clung to me and would hardly let go.  Finally as we were getting close to going home, she started splashing her arms and legs.

As I continue to work at teaching Misha colors, she has learned to say purple, red, green, blue, black, white, and yellow but refuses to say orange.  Every time her response is a very emphatic “no”.  Not sure if she relates that to oranges which she doesn’t like to eat.

Friday, 3 January, 2003

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

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




Amy fell asleep while sitting on the potty.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, 31 December, 2002

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, 18 December, 2002

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, 11 November, 2002

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

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

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

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

Misha gets pretty innovative when she wants a snack.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, 25 October, 2002

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, 17 October, 2002

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, 7 October, 2002

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, 24 September, 2002

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

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

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

Sunday 22 September, 2002

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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