Wednesday, 11 September, 2002

Today is the first anniversary of the tragedies in New York City at the World Trade Centers, the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania.

I received a letter from INS a couple of weeks ago stating that my petition for permanent residency had been granted.  YEAH!  But we still had to go to INS one more time to submit more passport photos for my new card.  When we went to the  INS office two weeks ago, they stamped my passport so that I can leave the country.  I am finally an official permanent resident, though the actual green card takes two to ten months to get to me.  Leave it to INS to be so timely.

We are leaving for Canada on Friday.  We have not been since Amy was about six or seven months old.  I am not looking forward to the drive there, but we should have movies for the girls to watch that will hopefully make it easier.   We bought some new movies and fun toys that they will be able to play with along the way.  Hopefully things that will hold their attention and keep it off of the fact that they have been sitting in car seats for a very long time.

I am just hoping that we all stay healthy for the trip.  Both Amy and Alicia were sick two weeks ago with colds and when they were finally on the mend, I came down with strep.  That was pretty painful.  Fortunately I got onto antibiotics pretty quick and was feeling much better within a couple of days.  Sadly, Amy showed signs of being sick with a cold again yesterday.  I hope that it won’t last more than today and that the rest of us can stay healthy as well.

Susan and Becky are pregnant.  Susan is due in March and Becky in April.  Susan has had a lot of challenges with a cyst and went to the doctor because she had a lot of cramping and pain.  She wanted to make sure she wasn’t pregnant so that she could take some heavy duty medicine.  She was and now there is a lot of concern about keeping her and the baby healthy throughout the pregnancy.  I hope that it will go well for her as she doesn’t really have an easy time being pregnant.

Chris and I both had dental appointments yesterday and took the girls along with us.  We had hoped that Amy would let the hygienist look in her mouth, but she wasn’t opening her mouth for anyone.  She was pretty interested in watching me have my teeth cleaned though.

We are in the process of refinancing our house right now.  A couple months ago, we had a speaker in church who challenged us to pay extra fast offerings and promised us that if we did we would be blessed in a myriad of ways, including financially.  I decided that I would take that challenge and started paying more fast offerings.  I didn’t really know how we would realize these financial blessings, but I had faith that we would.

Chris met a new member of our ward a month or so ago while helping some people move.  Eric works for a mortgage company and mentioned something about refinancing.  Chris came home and mentioned it to me and from there the idea grew, and I convinced Chris that we ought to check seriously into a no-cost refinance.  When figuring the numbers, we should come out almost $300 a month ahead with our new loan payments plus have a one month reprieve from paying.  It is amazing to me how the Lord works.  Raises at IBM only come once a year so we knew that a raise wasn’t in the works for us, and even though we aren’t making any more per month, we will have more income to work with.  Such a testimony builder in that the Lord is always mindful of our needs.

Alicia is growing up fast.  I think much faster than Amy because she has Amy to follow and tries to do so many of the things that Amy already does.  She has mastered walking, running, likes to walk backwards, goes up and down stairs easily enough and pretty much makes her wants and needs known.  Like Amy, she loves her morning orange juice.  That is the first thing that either of them want when they wake up.  They both love to shower and hate having to get out, and I am sure she will come to love Wal-mart for the free cookies for kids.

We went to K-mart the other day and Amy doesn’t quite distinguish it from Walmart.  She calls it K-Walmart.  We purchased new shoes for Amy for the fall that help her run fast, fast, fast.  We have started to buy some things for birthdays and Christmas and have to be careful about making sure they are hidden before Amy sees them.  She has such a good memory.