Tomorrow is Christmas Eve...

It feels so odd to be doing nothing today...to be so close to Christmas, to feel like it has gotten away from me, and that the excitement I have been used to my whole life is somehow escaping me a bit. I am excited to have a Christmas at home with my little family, but I just feel like it is not the same. I can't wait until my kids get excited about it. I think next year River will be counting down the days until Christmas and that will bring more excitement.

Deric has done so well this year! He got all my gifts before last week, and they will all be here in time. He actually is getting excited about holidays and realizing how he can take part and enjoy them with us! I am so grateful for his coming around. I just hope my hesitating with the Christmas cheer this year doesn't ruin it for him.

We get our carpet on Tuesday next week! To say I am "excited" would be the understatement of the year! We finish painting the ceilings and trim Saturday...or maybe Christmas. Then we will be all set for the downstairs bedroom and hallway to be done! I just can't wait to get it all done down there; theater, bathroom, and my craft room. :-)

Tonight we are going to the Kimber side's Christmas party. It is always a little bit...er, boring...but it is good to have family that is happy to have us around at least. Even if we do just stare at each other. Tomorrow is the Meldrum side Christmas party...that will be interesting as always. I just hope that it will be a good one. I can't wait to give Joan her gift, we got a hardback book printed with pictures from us and Evette and family. It will be wonderful to see her reaction to it! (It took a week of work!) Christmas day we are spending with our little family. Just opening presents in the morning, then awaiting Doug's call. It will be nice to talk to him again.

What a year...it is swiftly drawing to a close. I pray next year brings much happiness, excitement, and joy...not to mention continued good health and prosperity. :-) I wish that for all of you too!

Crunch time...

We ordered the carpet for downstairs! We went with a higher grade (premium) carpet instead of what our upstairs carpet is. It is close in shade to upstairs but without speckles and without the twist. I hope I don't kick myself for having gotten it. It is a light color...I should have compared it to the paint color...eh, oh well, at least it is coming soon enough. 1 1/2 weeks until Christmas and just two and a half in the year/decade! What a crazy last few years this has been. I am excited for the years to come.

I am spending the majority of my week at Alaris' house. She is having me help her with a video she is doing for Christmas presents for everyone in their family. She has to have it done by friday in order for it to make it to all of them in time, more like in the mail friday. We will see how it goes. I am happy River will get to play with her friends, but it will also be a lot of work for me.

Christmas is creeping up on me!

I feel like I have no time to enjoy the holiday this year. I am just running around trying to get the things done for Christmas. I went to a couple parties, which was fun. But, it seems like it is getting away from me this year. Well, off to work on gifts....

Yes, it has been a while...

So, I realized that blogging is really exciting and fun for the first few times you do it and then it gets a little bit hard to keep up. Just like journaling. I did write in my journal about my trip out to PA though. So, yay me!

So, my trip out to PA was interesting. It was really a great trip all around, but there were a lot of things that made me really think about what I am thankful for. That is particularly good because I was there over Thanksgiving and I haven't sat down and contemplated it to that degree for a very long time. My family's life is kind of in an uproar at the moment as they have a rather untidy family living with them. It opened my eyes to just how lucky I am to have a semi-tidy husband, and one that encourages me to clean. Odd as that sounds. I am grateful for children that are fast learners and for the fact River speaks with such fluency and can say all her letters. My children will not be behind in any schooling, I can tell already. I am grateful for the fact my husband has a great job and has so much more self-worth now than he did before we were married, and even in the first part of our marriage. I am grateful that I was able to have my grandparents in my life for as long as I have and that Grandpa Bill was in my life when Grandpa Phil couldn't be. I am so grateful for having my own house to do with what I want, but that I get the opportunity to help others with theirs on occasion. (It's fun to clean someone else's house!) Haha! Life really is, that good. ;-)

We are nearly completed in the hallway and bedroom downstairs, a few more touch ups on the walls in the hall and then trim and ceiling paint to do. We order our carpet next week and get it installed around the beginning of the year! I am soooo happy for it to be so close. (Though, I wish we could be getting carpet IN next week!) The paint color is gorgeous, I went downstairs and thought that the light was on, but it was just the sunlight reflecting off the color! Beautiful! Deric isn't too thrilled, but he only gets it as his office a little under two years. (until the next child is born.) Hooray for getting rid of more of the brown in this house though!

I have been working on Christmas presents and cards the last few days. Got the pictures printed and ordered, got Doug's gift ordered (an 8-bit tie--think: Mario pixels), Molly's gift ordered (a bib with a runway on it and a matching airplane spoon! They light up!), Plus, Joan's gift ordered (a book of pictures from us and Evette's family--she complained about not having us in the one the step siblings did last year.), plus more that I can't tell you about. Hehe! I got all the neighborhood gifts out this week too (purple ornaments with a little "reminder" attached about Christ being "King", get it? Royal purple...anyway). I am excited about Christmas, but behind on getting the tree up, we put it together tonight, and will decorate it tomorrow.

I had a terrible night last night of about 4 hours total of sleep. Molly was wide awake for some reason...so, off to bed I go. Goodnight! Happy Holidays!

Stuff, n' stuff...

Sunday we went up to Deric's grandparent's house. (The Abels) They hadn't seen Molly yet and they basically told us "get your butts up here". So, we went and visited with them a couple hours and saw Pat and Von (Deric's aunt and uncle, the cowboy-Dad's side). Then we went and visited with his half-sister, Monica for a little bit and went to dinner with them. So, we got to see everyone up north, they should be good for another year. ;-)

Monday night was the opening social of the snowmobile club. It was fun. I made Chili and nobody ate any. :-( Sad, so, I froze half of it. I won a hoodie in the prize drawing! Yay, I love hoodies! Got to see some friends and talk with them briefly. We are starting to upgrade this club a bit. It is getting better than just being thrown together each year. It's kinda exciting.

Today we went to the temple for the first time in three years. It is pretty crazy it has been that long...but the last time we were there we asked to get pregnant and River was conceived just days later. I didn't learn anything amazing, but those few moments of pure si9lence and peace in the celestial room were worth it. Molly slept the exact amount of time I was gone too. :-) Good day...

Super Productive Saturday :-)

This is all we did today...so far:

Winterized the trailer
Cleaned out the garden
mowed the lawn and put the debris on the garden (compost)
tidied the yard
tidied the carport
trimmed the blackberries
trimmed the fruit trees
moved the play set
trimmed the rosebushes
insulated the new bedroom walls
weeded the flower bed

We are still going to cover the trailer and go trick-or-treating. :-)

The room downstairs will have WALLS by Wednesday! Yay!

Yay for productive days like this!

Shedule

Well, I decided that the only way to be less stressed and get more done would be to create a schedule for myself. I have never been able to stick to hourly type schedules because I don't like the limitation...so here is what I did:

Monday--vacuum the house, art and music with River

Tuesday--Laundry, art and music with River

Wednesday--Sweep/mop the floors, special treat making with River

Thursday--Grocery Shopping, play group (for River)

Friday--Clean Bathroom, art and music with River, "date night"

Saturday--Yard work/Family Home project day

We started this on Monday and I really like it. I have gotten my house totally clean throughout this week. There are the normal everyday things to do, but it has divided the big stuff over the week. :-) I also like having a plan of what I am going to do with River for at least half an hour each day. I get a teaching moment with her, she gets a creative outlet, and I feel like a good mom! haha! Monday we made a Fall leaf collage, Tuesday she painted egg carton bugs, and Wednesday we made oatmeal-molasses cookies.

Last night was the Halloween Party. Again, Sister Frost went ALL out...yikes, what a crazy night. There were so many booths, and it was just nuts. Last minute the Relief Society Activity committee was told they were in charge of a booth. Yah, it wasn't really very fun...we have young kids, and it is geared toward the kids...so, it was hard to enjoy it. River was so distracted by everything that she didn't eat her dinner or really pay attention to me at all. She just wandered around looking dazed, and staring. Funny girl.

Tomorrow we are winterizing the yard, trailer, shed, garden, and carport. Lots of work, and hopefully it will be doable with Molly...she naps for a while in the morning...so, I think it will work. I am kinda excited to do it. Always feels good to get a big project done.

I just can't wait until November 13th when we get enough money to put up insulation and drywall in the bedroom/hallway downstairs. :-) In December we will finish it up, yay!

Joan and I started a business together called Blissful Bags. We are making those scripture bag things out of the placemats and selling them on a site that contacted us about being on it. Smashion.com. They saw them on etsy and loved them so they contacted me to be on their site. The best part is, it's FREE! Yay! We are hopeful. We got 12 faux leather mats, and 12 microfiber mats, and lots of fun plastic handles (like dalmation print) and so on. If we can sell them for what I was hoping for we could have $300-$350 profit EACH! (with the bags we have already)

I'll put up pics as we make them...just waiting for everything to arrive in the mail now.

Ben Franklin Addict...

Yes, I admit it.

I have been trying to go to Ben Franklin nearly every day this week. The first day I went by myself with the kids and Molly cried nearly the whole time while River ran around touching stuff. Too stressful to get real shopping done. Then I tried to go Wednesday night with Alaris, and we got there at 7...but it had just closed. When online it had said it closes at 8! (they changed it for going out of business) Then last night Joan and I went, and we were stopped on the freeway for an hour! It is 12 minutes away normally...but at Hill Airforce Base there was a plane that jettisoned its fuel and munitions. So, we were able to look around for only 20 minutes before it closed. Today, I am going to take my girls again...and try to have Joan come along with me, or watch River. That way I can actually really look around and get some things for Christmas gifts. I hope that it works....

I got a cute little table last night that I am going to turn into the girl's art table. It was one of their fixtures and it was only $5. So, I am going to paint it and make some holders for things to use for River's stickers, crayons, paper, coloring books, etc. I think it will be really a great thing for her to have in the room downstairs for when I am doing my crafts.

This past little while Deric and I have been in a slump. I have tried not to be for his sake, but I am getting worn out on being a Mom. We have been SO busy every night and day this last few weeks, working on the basement, canning, doing our callings, etsy, and doing our jobs for the snowmobile club. Plus, Molly was screaming every night from 5:30-11 because I ate chocolate. So, I have now given that up. :-( Sadly, Halloween is just around the corner...Ah well, she goes down at 9 and wakes up only once (at 4am) when I don't eat it...which is wonderful! So, here goes sacrifice. I have just been craving sugar so much! And chocolate more than I ever have in my life! Weird how pregnancy and birth changes things...

I have been pretty proud of my cooking recently. I got this "Church Supper" magazine that has something like 300 recipes for potluck dinner items! Nearly everything we have tried we have liked, there have only been a few "ok" dishes, and one "yuck". It is the greatest magazine I have ever gotten. I have been making notes in it as I try each thing...but we probably won't have the same thing again for a LONG time.

I got the girl's costumes done yesterday. They are going to be mermaids, and I think it is going to be adorable! Well, toodles for now!

Long time since the last time...

Hi there all who might read this...

I wanted to update you all on the progress of our BIG project. We started on the basement and so far have finished the framing of the bedroom, hallway, and most of the bathroom(we are waiting on the shower or bath to get the rest of the framing finished). We installed all the electrical outlets, switches, and light fixtures in the hallway and bedroom. We are now waiting on some money so we can go buy the insulation and drywall/mud/tape.

We just refinanced our house to 4.875% so that we have an additional $180/month to put toward paying for things and paying things down. Plus, this gives us more "emergency" money for each month--ie. more wiggle room. Which is a fabulous thing. We also subtracted 2 whole years from our payoff time frame and are under 10 years for complete payoff of everything including the house. I am really proud of how we are taking care of everything. We are putting much more than the minimum payment each month toward everything. Yay!

Because we refinanced we get November "off" from paying mortgage. So, we have about $900 to put toward the basement finishing. This means that we can finish the hallway, bedroom, and start framing, electrical, and insulating in the theater room. The bathroom is going to be our "drawn out" project. We think it will probably be able to be done by summertime however. I am really excited to have the basement finally becoming finished usable (useful) space! The bedroom down there will serve as Deric's office (and a guest bedroom) until we plan on either doing carpet and paint in my craft/guest room, or we move River down there. Which could be about 2 years.

Molly is having a tough time the last little while with getting to bed. She has always been kind of hard to get down...staying up until around 11 each night. But, I think she may not be able to handle me eating chocolate. Which is really sad, because it is Halloween month...and I love my reeces and butterfingers! :-( So, I am off chocolate as of today to see if it helps. We are going to put away the bassinet (which she has never liked sleeping in--just our bed or the floor!) and get out the crib tonight too. Which means we will be moving her into River's room with her soon. I also think I will put away the swing, since she is not a fan...

She is smiling like mad now! It is the cutest thing! She just melts your heart whenever she gets excited that you are around...even if you are sooo tired and frustrated from the fussiness it makes it all go away. :-)

River is starting to really show an interest in potty training...I just don't know what to do...it is a daunting thing to start. Plus, then we have to make bathroom runs wherever we may be!

I got all my new stuff up on Etsy. I am really excited about my Tie Tree Skirts and hair clips. :-)
www.FromEveryday2NewLove.etsy.com

I did a bunch of canning: Plum Jam--7 jars, Applesauce--10 1/2 quarts, Pear slices and halves--27 pints, Peach jam--6 jars, dried apples--3 large & 4 small containers, Dried banana chips--1 sandwich bag full

Finishing the basement!

YAY!!! I am sooo excited about our new project! We are going to start on finishing the basement today!

We have Craig Anderson (one of our stake presidency, and a long time friend/teacher of Deric's) coming to help us. He loves doing these kinds of projects to keep him entertained, so he is doing it for FREE! He is coming over tonight to help us "draw up" plans of the layout and what supplies we will be needing to get. I also get to pick a color for the bedroom at least...and probably the hallway. I dunno if we will get all the bathroom finished with our $500 budget...but we will see. I'm just excited to get everything moving down there after 4 1/2 years in this house! Having a clean space down there will be wonderful. :-) (Plus, when we get the other bedroom done we can move everything over from the "guest bedroom" now and tear up that carpet and paint and all that in there!

Today, I am going to do some scrapbooking. I am hoping to be caught up to 2009 soon in the next couple months. Even though I have Halloween and Christmas projects to start on too. With Molly staying up until 11 every night, I might just have to use 8-11 for doing my crafts. :-) Slowly I will figure out life. And have a great balance of everything.

Days gone by...

I just want to say that August flew by in a blink of the eye. I feel like it didn't actually happen...life is crazy like that.

We are trying to catch up on everyday things. I have a yard to attend to, a trailer to deep clean and winterize, a batch of tomatoes to turn into sauce, and I really want to get the scrapbooking done that I have pictures in piles for downstairs. At least I got the 9 loads of laundry done from our trip.

I offered to help Heidi with her kitchen and living room when she paints it. I don't know why but I have been craving that. It is nice to have a project to "entertain" me with someone to talk to and kids for River to play with, and something 'creative", and not in my house...haha! Plus, it's service (her birthday was last weeks so this is my gift to her). She is really excited about it, having a motivator now.

I went to playgroup yesterday and kind of broke down and vented to Diana and Heidi. River had thrown a very large and hard toy at Diana's youngest girl's face. Go River. So, I started crying...I am so tired of her acting up! I can't control her with a baby in my arms. I did decide afterward that I need to work on my tactic with her. I need to be more loving throughout the day and then find ways to discipline her without "beating" her. I feel like such a failure when I hit her back after she hits me or Molly...that can't possibly work. Ah, but the motivation to really start doing better is wavering...someday, somehow, I will do it. Time out may start to be important. I think I will make a time out rug and sit and watch her and make sure that if she gets up I put her back...over, and over, and over again until she stays. Diana said that it worked with her oldest. We shall see what I can find at Zion's market.

I AM SOOOO STOKED FOR ZION'S MARKET!! I cannot wait! It is better than Christmas for me! Of course, this is where my Christmas shopping starts...I get crafts and things to make my gifts and it just works out fabulously! I have a shorter list this time...but it will still be fun to see what all I can find. Maybe some things to finish our bathroom downstairs with...who knows! Only one week!

Ah, back to screaming babies...while whitening my teeth...yes.

Home Alone...well, sort of ;-)

Well, we have come to the end of the 3 weeks of visitors. We loved having my Mom out for a week and my sister, Ginny, here for 2 1/2 weeks. Some of the highlights included:

-Going to Ravali's restaurant with my Mom, sister, and my girls...good eats!
-Getting a 2 hour long pedicure with just my Mom. :-) It was super fun and my toes are a fabulous blue-green color! We got to talk and relax without the distraction of kids. Our ladies were fun to get to know. :-)
-We went to the Hogle Zoo with the girls and my Mom and Sister. River loved all the animals! She especially loved the giraffe baby, elephant, and the monkeys. She has been talking about them ever since. :-)
-Going to the mall with my girls and my sister...though River got ornery I was able to get a super cute purple shirt from Aeropastale and a fabulous bright green button down shirt from American Eagle. We ate soft pretzels and Orange Julius too...mmm.
-Camping in the Uintas from Thursday night-Sunday morning this Labor day weekend with Ginny. It was really fun. We went on a walk around the lake and took some great pictures. We went fishing a few times. I almost caught 3 fish...but lost them all. :-/ Deric caught 2 fish and someone gave us one, so we were able to have enough for all of us to have one. Mark and Joan were there with us too. They were sick, so we didn't do a ton with them. We had dutch oven one night that they cooked and another we cooked. We played "Dollar, dollar, dollar" with them with pennies. We watched movies, read, wrote in our journals, and just relaxed. It was nice, but it was also nice to get home. :-) On the way home we blew a tire on our trailer and were on the side of the freeway for an hour while the cop, Deric, and Ryan worked on getting the spare on and the other one unwrapped from around the other tire. It was scary with the trucks and cars rocking the trailer as the passed at 80 miles per hour. We were very happy to get going again!
-Gena and Cal's baby shower we had Ginny watch the girls and went and enjoyed some treats and company.
-Ginny watched the girls a bunch and let me run around...Mom was great this way too! Thank you both so much!! It made it so much easier with not having Deric around for that week!

I'll miss everyone, but I am happy to be able to start my schedule with the girls. :-)

Molly Sage Abel...

She is so flippin' cute! I love little babies! I just want to cuddle her up and love her forever. I know it goes fast, so I am trying really hard to enjoy all the little moments. It is kind of difficult to divide my attention between River and Molly. But, like Deric said, at this point my main priority is to take care of the needs of the newborn. He has made sure to play with River whenever he can. I also make sure I read to her at nap time and bedtimes. She is jealous of Molly, so it's a bit tough when I have to hold and feed her during the day.

Molly Sage Abel was born August 7th at 2:34am, she was 7lbs and 19.5inches long. She came out wide eyed and looking around. She cried only a little bit when they started rubbing her to get her to cough. She had inhaled a little bit of amniotic fluid when she was coming out. So, they had to put her on some oxygen for a couple minutes.

I wasn't able to have her naturally because they had to induce me. It was a terrible ordeal...I was battling depression and the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. I screamed so loud during every contraction that I couldn't scream loud enough to satisfy the need. I am not a screamer, so this was pretty terrible. Deric was nearing mental breakdown. He really tried, but it was too much for both of us. I went from 4pm to 1am without the epidural. When I got it I took a nap. (The epidural was the worst part of the whole experience due to a cocky anesthesiologist and being manhandled during intense contractions and shaking.) When I woke up about an hour later my stomach was flat, like she was gone! I was worried that I had given birth without realizing it and they had either taken her or she was there. I couldn't feel anything at all, not even an urge to push. But, Deric ran and got the nurse and she checked me quickly since Molly was about an inch and a half away from being born. I breathed her down. Then at the last minute the monitor died and they got worried so Julia yanked her out. Ouch. The placenta wanted to stick around, so she pulled it off...also ouch. Then because I wasn't contracting down she had to knead my stomach. HUGE ouch. The experience was a lot better in a lot of ways though, being able to watch, no tearing, very little pain down there afterward, caring nurses, and a perfectly healthy baby that I got to bond with in the first few moments of her life. Next time it will be even better.

I hope that I can get to the point of going to bed at a decent time so I get more than 4 hours of sleep each night. I am dying.

still waiting...

yep. We are, come on contractions! I am ready, and willing, lets go!

"False Alarm"

Well, we went into the hospital last night because I was having regular contractions from 9:50-about 1am. I was having 4 minute apart contractions for the last hour and a half. Deric got really excited so he made us go. Plus, he was getting mad he was losing sleep since he had to work today if she didn't come. Unfortunately, as soon as we went to go to the hospital they slowed down to 9 minutes apart. I kinda had a feeling that would happen. I had to have them check me anyway, which is so very unpleasant...and nothing had changed since Thursday at my doctor's appointment. Figures. At least they didn't take my blood before they knew for sure I was going to stay. :-P They called my doctor and she decided that the 4 minute appart rule wasn't appropriate for me so I am now to come in once I have had 2 minute apart contractions for a few hours. So, There we go...more waiting. I hope that it happens this week...

I'm hoping to have this baby soon...We tried walking last night to get things going, but it didn't do anything. I'm hoping by Wednesday I go into labor. I just don't want to go to the doctor again.

Camping

So, we went camping up at Monte Cristo (where we normally go snowmobiling) with the Snowflakes Club. The ride up was terrible, River got car sick and threw up, and I was nearly blacking out from the bouncing and turning. Everyone was constantly asking "when are you due?" I would reply, "Like today". In hypnobirthing you aren't supposed to focus on your due date since it will happen when you are both ready to go through the birthing process. Everyone kept saying "We have an EMT and two nurses here so we could have this baby on one of the picnic tables or something." I was thinking to myself...uh, I have a trailer I would rather be in, with a decent bathroom, and a bed...Silly people. Anywho, we had a potluck dinner and then sat around the fire chatting with everyone. Alaris, Gena (a girl our age we met through the club), and I played the s'more game for a little bit too. We then spent the night...unbelievably. I was having contractions 9 minutes apart while trying to go to bed. I was up until about 1:30 timing them...but they just got further apart, so I finally fell asleep. We got up and Deric went 4-wheeling with the Sharps on their new toys. Then we went shooting, and sat around and relaxed (well, that's what I did the whole time). It was rather enjoyable, and in the end it was nice that we went. I could have cut out the sleeping part and the ride up though.

Today is my birthday....and I am 24. Weird. I don't know if we are planning on doing anything interesting. We'll see...

Getting there...

Well, I went to the doctor today and she checked me so I would know whether or not to go camping. I am a strong 1+ and 75% effaced. Her head is also so far down that Julia had to maneuver around it to get to the cervix...which was unpleasant. So, anytime now I could go into real labor.

We are going up to the Snowmobile club camp out tomorrow. It is about an hour drive to the hospital. So, that would be an interesting scenario. :-P I don't think I want to spend the night, but we will see how I feel when I get there.

Contractions...?

I am having more frequent contractions. I have timed them at 30, 18, and 9 minutes apart. However, they never last longer than a couple hours. So, I dunno what to make of it except that my body is warming up. I was afraid my water broke this morning, but nope. I was happy because unfortunately I have to be on an IV as soon as my water breaks because my Strep test came back positive. So, I have to be on antibiotics through an IV to keep Molly from contracting it. It is really a scary thing...it is life threatening for her to contract it. I also can't be in labor more than 12 hours after my water breaks because it increases the risk. ARGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH! Why can't it just go perfectly well? It's unfair.

Deric is so bored and disappointed with everything; me, his friendship with Justin, etc. He is itching to do things, and really wants this birth to work around it all. I feel like an inconvenience sometimes. It's getting harder and harder to be positive. I just want to be done with this pregnancy, it is putting a lot of strain on my emotions and body. I feel so heavy physically and mentally. Oh well, such is life sometimes.

I feel like I am being a bad mom because River and I have been watching TV everyday for the last couple weeks. It has been really hot and I haven't wanted to go outside at all.

Pioneer Day...

We got the electrical problem fixed. :-) Now I can run all the appliances I want with the AC. I wish we would have been smart and suspected the breaker was bad years ago!

We have been tossing around the idea of getting a new furnace too. Sadly ours is about 30 years old and very out of date. (they don't even use these type anymore) It is also putting off 12 parts per million of carbon monoxide when it is heating our house. Scary when you think that a tiny baby or a child is a lot more susceptible to the deadly effect of this gas. If we were to get one the tax credit would not help us more than about $400 because we never owe taxes at the end of the year (Deric makes sure that only the necessary taxes are taken out throughout the year to give us the most money each month to utilize.) So, we are tossing it around...I am mostly worried about the kids and their little bodies. I also think it would help with how worn out I am during the winter to have our air filtered better and have no noxious gases in the mix. So...we are thinking this may be beneficial. (Since we don't know at what time it will totally die on us too! It is a ticking time bomb...) Tuesday they will be coming to give us a quote on it.

Also, Tuesday we are having our fridge towed away for $30, and we got a $20 rebate from the electric company for getting a new fridge. It seems we are spending a lot of money. :-( We are utilizing all the "deals" though, since these are unfortunately necessary costs. Yay for being a responsible adult with a house! haha.

Today is Pioneer day here in Utah. Which means Deric had the day off, and he helped with the Ham Radio communications side of things for the parade in SLC. He had a good time, and was on tv several times. Fun stuff. We didn't really do anything else that was interesting. I suppose we could go to a rodeo tonight if we wanted to. I went grocery shopping. I got shredded cheese for 99cents a package today and stocked my freezer for the next 6 months--that's a better deal than case lot! I also stocked up on cereal for the next 6 months for $2/box. Which is pretty good considering most name brand cereals are about $4/box. Again, what an interesting life as a Mom and responsible adult. ;-) I love it though, I wouldn't change a thing. Ooo, I also got a raspberry Entenmann's danish today. Heaven.

I stepped on a ridiculously gooey wad of gum in the Walmart parking lot today wearing my favorite flip flops. Gah!

I painted mine and River's toe nails today and shaved my legs. Haha, maybe I subconsciously know I am bound for the delivery room soon...haha!

Electrician

Today an electrician is coming to replace our breaker. We have had issues with not being able to run the dryer and washer at the same time with the AC...or the oven and the dishwasher with the AC...and it is getting *obnoxious*! So, hopefully this fixes it now. :-) We also think it might have been the reason for the fridge going bad...all the power failures that happen because of it. (surges might have made that part bad.) Anyway, so that's fun.

Got music for the blooper reel; some royalty free silent movie music. Fun stuff. Today I am starting on the "finale" of the video....off to work!

Ginny has a boyfriend!?!

Okay, I am totally shocked at the sudden development of my very guy-stubborn sister, Ginny, finding herself the *girlfriend* of a 25 year old guy named Wayne Jackson! WHAT HAPPENED? I really am in shock. I had a hard time focusing on starting my segments for the Trek video last night. Wow...the funny thing was that she confided all this information to Deric and not me...huh. We will see how things develop...

Today, I deep cleaned the bathroom, am folding laundry, cleaned the kitchen, and will be looking for my breast pump, bottles, and boppy cover in all the boxes downstairs. Maybe I will even get to finishing the packing up of Deric's junk. (probably not, considering I need him for the final stuff and he is only interested in doing the Trek video when he gets home. So...yah.

This could very well be the last full week we have as a 3 person family. Wow.

....

Yah, I don't think anyone is reading this anymore. Oh well...it does me good to write what I am doing for journaling purposes.

Getting used to the fridge...it's different. Just worked on finishing the basement a little this morning, and the Trek video tonight after we got home from the meeting. I am in charge of doing the bloopers, the separate "overview" video, and the ending "recap" video. I worked on the bloopers tonight. I need to find a song that works.

Fridge woes.

We went camping last night. Spent a nice evening at Willard Bay. It was realllly hot! One hundred degrees this weekend. We went and got a movie; "Bedtime Stories" with Adam Sandler. It wasn't too bad, cheesy, but okay. We got food from Sonic. It was tasty. Then we slept. When we woke up today I spent some time cleaning the trailer and Deric took apart the switch in the dashboard to see why our vents don't work in the truck. (We bought it with the air only coming out of the defroster.) He fixed it by cleaning the pieces! So, he saved us about $300 by not taking it "in" to get looked at and fixed. We decided to come home about 1:00 because we thought we could get a bunch of stuff done at the house we were needing to do. When we got home we found our fridge had stopped working and our freezer was defrosted. YAY. We replaced a part that had gone out in it about 3 1/2 months ago, we are sure it is the same problem. (If we are lucky, they will take back the part and reimburse us for it.) So, we took everything out, put it in the freezer and little fridge downstairs, out in the trailer's fridge, and then took some food across the street to our neighbor's fridge. Then we searched online to see what we wanted. We found it, headed to Home Depot...and they didn't have it in stock. Plus, it would be about 7 days before it would be delivered. :-P Good news though, was all the energy star appliances are 10% off right now and we get a $20 rebate from our power company. Woohoo. They didn't have one of the one we wanted to see there, so we had to go to RC Willey. There they had the same exact fridge, same price, even with the 10% off and they had it in stock in their Salt Lake warehouse which we could go pick up from. SO...we opted to go with that so we would have a fridge. So, he went and got it, brought it home, and we had like 4 guys from our ward come over and help us bring it in. So, here we have a brand new fridge. It is one of the ones with the freezer on the bottom. It has an ice maker that you can change the cube size. An "alarm" for if it is accidentally left open. It is bigger than our old one, so it will last us with more kids to feed.

All in all, it's nice to have new things...but it would have been nice not to *have* to get it right now. Esentially, the money we saved up by putting the money from the couches into another cd is eaten up...so we won't have the $1000 in a savings acct in the end. :-( Sad, but, at least we have a means of paying for it. We are always taken care of. :)

I got my bulk spices order: taco seasoning and vanilla powder. That's cool.

I am nearly done with putting Deric's junk in tupperware downstairs. :-) Yay!

I probably have a little over a week until Molly is here! Wow...

Broken.

Life really *isn't* very good right now. I can't handle ANYTHING.

Swimming...

Last night was the ward pool party. River was afraid of the water at first. Then she got used to it and enjoyed it. She didn't want to leave. Frankly, I didn't either. I was so enjoying how much relief I felt from it. I dunno, it was the first really fun thing I have done in months. I even went down the tube water slide.

Right now I am listening to River screaming at the top of her lungs because she doesn't want to take a nap. I wish I could gain the strength to do something about these feelings...I am just done.

The dog days...

I have been feeling completely blah the last few days. No motivation, no excitement, no ability to be pleasant and happy. It's really frustrating. I just want to get happy! I want to be comfortable! This weekend is supposed to be baking hot, 100 degree weather. Joy. We are going camping at Willard Bay. It should be decent. I can't sleep comfortably in my own bed, so it won't matter if I am in the trailer or not.

I hung all the pictures! I'm happy I did, though my house almost looks cluttered with all the photographs on the walls. Oh well, it's my artwork too...I think I might get some colored fabric to put up with my drapes to tie the pillows and the colored photos in a bit more. It is just too black and brown in there right now.

We started on the Trek video. We did the credits and are working on the "trailsides" and bloopers. It took a while to get everything organized (3 weeks) and now I only have about 2 weeks before I'm hoping Molly will be born...so, I hope to accomplish something or other. I keep feeling like I just won't be able to do much of anything. :-/ Which makes me feel a bit guilty. Oh well again.

I'm just trying to be cheerful...

Happy Birthday River!

What a day...

I got up and cooked for about 3 hours this morning. It was super hot out today, so I needed to get it all done in the morning. I made a birthday cake, potato salad, and baked bean casserole. Then I cut up watermelon, shucked corn, and decorated the cake. I was pretty tired after that. We ate lunch and went to church. I started to fall asleep really bad so we came home and River and I took a nap. :-) That was nice. Then the Sharps got here about 5:15ish. They had to leave at about 6:15...so, we ate really fast, opened presents, and then sang "happy birthday" and River blew out her candle. They had another birthday to go to and they were showing their rental house. It was a rush, but at least someone was able to come.

We are now just sitting and watching Toy Story 2 and Deric is editing some of the Trek video the credits section, we just got the footage last night. So, for the next couple weeks we will be devoting a lot of time to that (until Molly gets here).

Tomorrow I am going to have brunch with Sister McCarthy (yes, David's mom). She is in Kaysville visiting someone so I told her we should get together. So, that should be interesting.

I went to bed at 9:30 last night! And then Deric got up with River when she started screaming at 6am so I could sleep until 7:30ish. Yay for being caught up on sleep!

I went yard saling this morning. I got a little greenhouse so that we can grow our tomatoes and peppers and vine plants early on so that we can have a more successful garden. :-) ($2) I got a "cozy coupe" for River (you know, the little tykes cars) it was a police cruiser, but the light on top broke off ($8). I found two vintage fisher price toys, the wobble chime ball ($.50) and the "teaching" wind up music clock ($.50)...probably more for Molly to play with. I LOVE vintage toys! I got an umbrella for the patio for free! I was going to see if the pole fit the one I already had, nope, but this umbrella works well enough. I also got some outdoor hanging lamp lights for my neighbor who has been trying to come up with a way of making some. I paid $5 for them so I figured it would be cheaper to do it that way. I also got my Christmas wrapping paper for like $1.50 (3 rolls). So, yah, fun stuff.

I then went grocery shopping and price matched on like 15 things. I got River's birthday balloons and cake and candle for tomorrow. And of course all the party food. :-) Took me forever, since it is Saturday and Walmart is rearanging everything in the store to upgrade their look. I can finally hang the rest of Molly's clothes now too.

Diana is supposed to be calling me about 3ish to let me know when she will be here. We'll see what happens with the rest of the day!

tired...

I am SO tired. River has been skipping naps the last couple days. And I don't get to sleep until like 11:30. Then River wakes up at 7. I need a nap each day to feel awake.

I just got off the phone with Diana and she and her family are going to come over tomorrow night to visit. Since they are going to be in town. It will be fun to finally get to see Logan. I saw him in early November briefly in the car seat he was in when they stopped by the house. I didn't know for sure if I was pregnant at that point...so here I am, at the end of my pregnancy and I get to see them again. Haha! :-)

I think I am going to go yard saling tomorrow morning since it will be the last opportunity probably before Molly comes. Since next weekend we are going to go camping and the 24th Deric is working in the SLC parade for Pioneer day as a Ham Radio operator.

I went to Visiting teaching interviews today. I probably complained a lot more than I should. Oh well, these last couple weeks have been bad as far as my attitude and energy level have gone. My visiting teaching companion stopped me on the way over there and was like "I think we should just skip this month because of how close you are". I was like "Well, I am planning on skipping next month, so really I am fine with getting this month done since I don't know how it will be after Molly is born..." She's like, "Oh, well, ok, I'll set it up then". Just funny... At the interview we got a slice of pie and then got to choose a vinyl lettering saying. Mine says "Home for the Harvest" which will be nice at Thanksgiving/Halloween time. I needed more things like that...now to just make it!

Today I am going to go do our grocery shopping after I go to Kohl's and use yet another free $10 gift card. It's fun, I go there with these and spend like 11$ and then get 10$ off, so I get all this new stuff for like nothing! So, gonna go make the meal plan now...

Play day...

We went over to the park by Alaris' house to play and then went back to their house for a little bit afterward. They are actually going to come over later today to see the couches and play a little bit. :-) Between now and then we will just be hanging out and taking our nap. Maybe a little tidying up.

Framing

Well, I gave my pictures to Ben Franklin to have custom framed. It will be a couple of weeks before I get them to hang in my living room. Oh well...at least they are getting done finally. :-)

I went to the bank today. We started a 5 year dedicated savings account for River with the $225 we have saved for her in the last two years. Her birthday money and $10 a paycheck have gone into a savings account until now, and we moved it all over today. We will just keep putting it in each of the highest yield dedicated savings accounts each time they end. But she will be 7 when this one closes! Wow, that will be crazy. We plan on opening a savings account for Molly next month too. The goal is to do the savings for each of our children...and since it is in something we can't pull money out of there is no temptation for us to use it either. haha! When they are old enough to earn money for themselves we plan on matching fifty cents for each dollar that they put into their savings (up to $1000/year). They have to continually have an increase in their account balance at the end of each year to keep the money we matched with though. So, they can't spend any of it. When they are 18 the money is totally theirs. But, with the stipulation that they spend it on something important like schooling. I think it will be a great way to encourage them to save their money and use it wisely.

I don't know what to do today...maybe something crafty.

Couches day!

Well, I have spent the morning working on cleaning each room of my house. I have made sure everything has been put away and that there are fresh towels and such. It feels good to have it all cleaned so thoroughly. I figured that it would be good to do with the new furniture coming and wanting to focus on creating my living room and bedroom spaces. Now we have room for everyone to sit if you come out for Christmas. ;-)

Rob Parkes offered to send me $5 because of the shipping costs. So, I am getting a little money from doing the bag after all!

Well, I'm tired for now so, nap time!

Ps. I put a picture of the bag and the parrot up on the days I talked about them so check 'em out!

Happy Anniversary to us...a little early! :-)

Well, we went to RC Willey yesterday to look at sectionals and eat free hot dogs and soda for lunch. I have been looking on KSL and have found a couple that we have liked that have been pretty nice, but an hour drive or so, more money than we were willing to spend on used furniture, or not quite the right color. This was supposed to be my "brand spanking new" living room set that is going to last me until my kids move out (in theory). So we went to the store this weekend because of the big sales going on.

I had kind of given up on finding a sectional in our price range that I liked enough. Everything was less comfy than it looked, or smaller than I wanted (and too much!). So, I was going to move on to a couch and love seat combo to see if we could find something that would work there. We would lose the corner wedge which is what makes the sectional so enticing for the size family I hope to have. Then I saw it; this huge, comfy sectional that fit within our budget (we have been putting money in a CD since last August), that matched my decor, and would stand up to kid's messes! The best part, it was on sale 37% off. Actually, it was probably the best deal there, because two other people bought the same one yesterday while we were there looking at it. All the while saying, "It's sooo comfortable! I love this!" Haha!

We had looked at a lot of the ones that had recliner seats that were more theater type seating and Deric really wanted that kind of thing. He also went and priced out actual theater chairs that had the same things and they were twice as much as just buying the one piece out of the sectional that we were interested in. So, we asked if there was a discount if we purchased the two things together and there was. Since we were planning on getting it eventually anyway we got a two seat recliner with console in the middle (with a compartment for remotes or whatever, and two cupholders). It is a pretty neutral color so we can keep the "microsuade" couch we got from Grandma down there and get rid of the two white floral couches Grandma's friend gave us when we moved in. We just have to figure out how to get rid of it by tomorrow. I am planning on announcing it in church today that anyone can come get it if they want it by tomorrow or it is going to the DI. I'm excited, my house is coming together really well! Well organized, nicely decorated, comfortable. YAY! And...we saved nearly $800!

Deric spent the day yesterday rearranging everything. He moved a lot of what we had in the living room out into other rooms to make way for the couches, moved his desk out of the bedroom and the recliner in, and set up his office downstairs. We have a few little things to do befrore tomorrow. But, mostly it's done! This means we don't have to tear apart the house right after Molly is born, and it is all done for when he is gone over our Anniversary.

We went to the fireworks last night and took Joan. It was really fun, but River was afraid of them for the first 15 minutes. She finally started watching them toward the end. I wish she would like to sit with me when we do fun things like that. But no, she has to have Grandma or a stranger...makes me feel like she doesn't love me sometimes. It's hard when I am so emotional all the time. Oh well, such is life I guess. We blew bubbles while we waited, and talked, and River made friends with the people next to us. Of course. There were some really pretty ones that sent out showers of glittering sparkles that slowly fell to the ground (sort of like the "willow tree" ones, but brighter and more pixie-like). So pretty! And they added light pink to the colors too.

Happy 4th of July!

I'm not sure what we will do today...maybe we will move Deric's desk downstairs and finish that project. Deric was at a lan party until almost 2am so I don't know when he is going to wake up and want to do anything. I made pancakes, but that Isn't super enticing to him.

We might go to RC Willey's and see if we can find the sectional we want, or one like it at least to look for on KSL later. They have free hot dogs and drinks today.

Tonight we plan on going to the fireworks.

Yah, that's about it. We don't do anything as an extended family for holidays out here...

What I can't believe is next weekend is River's second birthday! I invited the Sharps and the Boyles and Joan and Mark. Joan and Mark and the Boyles can't come, so, it's just the Sharps and us (as usual). Anywho, we are having a BBQ and opening presents and playing in the backyard.

Well, hope you all have a fun day!

Deric and his projects...and a Parrot??

So, yesterday Deric decided to launch his own project. We are now moving his "office" downstairs into the theater room behind the couches. Actually, this really helped with the organization down there. The theater "room" is where the rug is up front sectioned off by the couches and it looks almost "finished". Behind the couches will be his desk and chair, so when he has to work late he can without disturbing me...or if his computer needs to run all night for some reason. This means, however, that I have to go downstairs to edit the trek video when we start on that next week...but it's cooler down there, and River now has part of the room she can play in. This whole scenario opens up our bedroom for the recliner, swivel chair, and bassinet. Which works out pretty well. I will have somewhere to nurse Molly at night and there was no room for the basinett before. Today I plan on making little accent pillows for the little blue kid's couch I got at a yard sale. :-) Just thought it would be fun and cute.

We finished the storage room yesterday too by organizing the holiday stuff into one section of shelves, clothing in another, and so on. It looks good. :-) And it feels good. We still have a bunch of Deric's stuff to sort into bins, label, and put away. But, we are almost there!

I wish I could find my boppy cover...

I finished framing 3 of my pictures for the living room. I just have to go get more professionally framed. Deric said I can do one a month. So, I guess I will then. :-)

...Added:
SO, I caught a parrot today. I was outside in our back yard and there was this very odd loud squawk like a falcon type sound. The other birds were being really loud and obnoxious too. I looked up in the tree and spotted a neon orange and yellow-green belly of a parrot! The robins were all flustered and had their feathers all ruffled getting mad at this "intruder". I coaxed it down with an apple wedge...he didn't eat any of it, but he sat on my shoulder a while and let me pet him and talk to him. He kept saying something that sounded like "receiver" or "feedher", couldn't really make it out. Then when I tried to move toward the back door he flew away and was chased by all the neighborhood birds. I ran inside and got some crackers and my car keys and drove around the block to where he was. I found him again and he got chased off again to the next street over. I drove over there, jumped out of my car and whistled until I found him. He was sitting in a little plum tree low enough to the ground that he could come to me without being chased again. He munched on the crackers and let me take him to my car. I got home and found a box for him and gave him some water in a little dish. We got the ID number off his leg tag and called the Animal Control. They came and got him and said if he isn't claimed in 3 days he will be put up for adoption. They apparently go pretty quickly. So, it was a very eventful afternoon. :-)

black paint...

Well, today I am going to finish up painting the three frames I had that would work with the pictures I want to hang in my living room. But I need to get more paint, ran out last night. I have decided that I am going to frame just the photos I have taken for in there. So, mainly black and whites, with some color (like my senior project). I will have to find couches (or a sectional) that will match the decor in the room and I will probably have to make some black accent pillows. Which will be easy enough since I found some stuffing at a yard sale for twenty-five cents this last week. I'm excited for our Anniversary gift. Deric actually tried to use the ploy of "lets go get our couches for fun!" last night to get out of doing the basement organizing work. Haha! Foiled.

We got a lot of stuff pulled out of the storage room, all the old computers are gone. Monitors are the only things I have to get him to go through. But, we still have everything he pulled out and sorted through to organize into bins; the task for tonight. I am just going to organize the other storage down there this morning and do some vacuuming. (there is lots of dirt everywhere)

My artwork that is more colorful I have decided to frame for the theater room. I have track lighting that I am going to point on it so that it gives the room a colorful/funky/theater feel. :-) I'm excited...though I won't see this in motion until probably next year sometime at the earliest.

Well, i think I will get moving...

Frames

I am a bit bummed. I guesstimated how much it would cost for me to mail that stupid bag...and it was off by $5. So, I made *no* money on making that for him. :-( I am too nice...I hate to overcharge, and I always take the hit. In the end I made 1 penny. Blah, oh well...if he orders anything else in the future I will just charge more.

I am starting on an art project today that should keep me a little bit busy the next couple days. It is framing my artwork. I have been collecting picture frames at yard sales if I can get them for a quarter or so. I am going to paint them all to go in my living room (like mom did). Though, mine will all be black. Then I am going to put my artwork in them. I don't know how many of my pieces will fit in the ones I have, so that is my project today...figuring out what I have and what pieces will fit and what I will need in addition. Then I will paint the ones that will work and save the others for projects I do in the future.

Tonight we are going to tackle the other half of the storage room downstairs. Deric's stuff that has been peed on by the cats and needs hosed down and organized into labeled boxes if it is useful or (this is what I am hoping) mostly thrown away. FINALLY after 4 years of keeping it around in the condition it is in...yuck. So, wish me luck!

Housewife.

Today...

Spent the morning from 8:30-11:45 at my neighbor's house. River played in the kiddie pool (and froze!), swung on the swings, and "flew" in their airplane...and fell out and got a bloody fat lip. Fun. I mainly just spent the time complaining about how I have been feeling. It has been really hard to keep my emotions level recently. :-( But, she says she feels the same way when she is pregnant. Which is why she is having a hard time wanting to have the next one she knows she should be having. I just said, "Well, the thing is, it is hard for a little while, and then you get used to it and it gets easier." That's all we have to hold onto as moms sometimes!

Came home and napped a little, started laundry, did dishes, vacuumed the upstairs, tidied a bit. Now I am making our week's meal plan so I can go grocery shopping. I need to get to the post office too. I made Rob Parkes a purse for his Mom made out of a pair of Navy pants he ripped. I hope it is what he was wanting. Tonight I am going grocery shopping, Deric will mow the lawn, and we are having shishkabobs. :-) Well, ta ta for now!

Toilet and other stuff...

Sorry about the unrotated pictures. If I can figure it out later then I will fix them. I just wanted to get a few up here: 1.) River with one of her two babies at 23 months old 2 & 3.) This is the finished girl's closet (I have since put another set of drawers on the bottom where those boxes of clothes are and hung up a lot of Molly's clothes on the top.) 4.) This is River's T-shirt Tunic dress I made! I am very proud of it, it just needs the neck brought in a little. 5.) Me at 30 or 31 weeks pregnant. I will probably get another picture or two soon. 6.) This is one of my favorite pictures of River from May (22 months) when she was doing an impromptu parade. Too cute!

Well, our toilet is leaking. Yippee...So, we have to call up someone and find out what exactly is going on. It seems like it is almost coming out of the top of the thing and spilling over. Weird...

Anyway, went to a meeting for Enrichment committee at 9 this morning. Had some monkey bread. (perk to having someone who LOVES baking as the president!) Going to church today, don't know how River's nap is going to work out, but oh well...this will be how church goes for me for the next 8 years since I will always have a child that needs their nap during the time of day our church is held. I am having *the* worst time actually sitting through the meetings. Not all the classes have nice cushioned chairs, and sitting still makes me antsy, uncomfortable, and light headed. So, we don't go the whole time because of that. Oh the joys...

We now have a week break for the Trek video making because everyone has to cut up their clips on their tapes and convert it all to a usable format for our editing. I can't believe that it is fourth of July this next weekend! This summer is speeding by at breakneck speeds. Still hoping for July 31st for Molly to be born, which puts me less than 5 weeks away. I even have the ladies in my enrichment praying for her to come then. I am very curious to see how this all goes. :)

NOT alone. :-)

Well, I drove all the way to Wyoming yesterday to retrieve Deric from Trek. I took River and she slept the whole way there because it was nap time. (only takes 2 hours--YAY!) Anyway, so, I dressed up in some semi-pioneer garb and we stayed the day taping a few things and eating some decent food. While we were there it hailed and rained a little. Kinda funny...and River got passed around like some prize (being the only little kid up there). She was sooo spoiled, she ate caramel popcorn and drank pink lemonade for dinner. :-P Oh well, it was nice to go experience it for a while since I am going to be editing it for the next two months. The due date for the project is end of August. So, yah...

My house is a wreck.

I went yard saling this morning a little and got a large crock pot for fifty cents. :-) Um, other than that a few kids' things and a picture frame to paint. I just need to actually paint all the frames and get this project done of hanging pictures in my living room. I guess I am kinda waiting for when we get the new furniature set in August for our Anniversary.

Well, ta ta for now!

Trekkin'

Well, we are going to go up to the Trek to see Deric today. Last night his tent flooded and most of his clothes got wet. He says it is raining today, and that he might just come home if it gets any worse. Good thing he has a cot that kept him off the ground. I'm excited to go see him, but a two hour drive is kinda long....oh well, I suppose I will do it.

Yesterday was a wash, I lazed around doing nothing all day. I did weed 1/8 of the garden...those tiny little weeds popping up are hard to reach with my belly in the way. :-/

.........................Well, the day got changed around since I started writing this. We aren't going up, I am having a mental breakdown instead and confining myself to the house. I can't be a stay at home mom if my husband isn't at least here in the evenings to talk to and give me some kind of getaway. How pathetic am I..........

It's a HOT one!

Today is going to be one of those sweltering kinds of days...bleh...I don't know why everyone has been complaining about the rain so much. It really has kept it cool and kept things green! I prefer it that way...of course, I am also hugely pregnant and having a hard time breathing in the hot weather. Oh well, Summer was bound to happen at some point...at least I only have about 5 weeks to deal with it. :-)

Finished our last visit for visiting teaching. I have been really frustrated with my "companion". She seems to forget about it half the time, so this time around she was at one out of three appointments. Oh well, it's easier for me to talk without her around, sometimes she is kinda spacey and turns around what I am trying to say into something totally unrelated. But, she does mean well. I won't be able to go in August probably, so it will all even out I am sure.

I'm not sure what to do today. I might get out the sprinkler sit n' spin (that I got at a yard sale for $2!) for River to go play in. I was thinking I might try to tackle the downstairs a bit more...we will see. I have a few little sewing projects I have to finish too...Well, more later.

The loves of my life. :-) April '09

Welcome to my blog everyone! I am just playing around with it since I just made it today...so, this is the only way I know how to get pictures on here so far. So, I figured I would put up one or two. I will do more when the hubby returns and shows me where he put them all... :-)

Alllll Alooooooooone!

Well, this morning we sent Deric off to go on Trek to film it (at 6:00am!). I got up and made breakfast for him and then we woke River up for him to say goodbye. He is doing well so far...

We tried to go strawberry picking at Deric's Aunt's house (they have an overabundance and have canned all the jam they want already) but their berries haven't produced a whole batch since their recent picking. So, we have laid claim to the next round in about 2 weeks. I will freeze some (I froze one bag today) and can jam...mmm!

We found out that Mark (father-in-law) has the Swine Flu...and we were all just over there for Father's Day on Sunday. We were in the basement and Deric's Grandma's really, but Joan insisted on taking River up to say hi. I told her not to let him touch her though. So, I think we are safe...it isn't an airborne thing. But, that means that Grandma can't babysit River on Saturday while I go yardsaling in the morning. Oh well, I suppose I may just attempt to take River...we will see.

We went and played with the neighbor kids a bit and I am having my neighbor and her two young girls over for dinner...lasagna. We decided that since our husbands are on Trek we would do a potluck for dinner tonight. So, she is bringing fruit and veggies, and I am providing lasagna. I'm hoping it won't be a problem with allergies...(her 5 year old is lactose intolerant).

Later....It went pretty well, we just had her daughter eat some leftover stirfry. Good food, good company. We played a little in the backyard, but we are all kinda tired from the long day, so they headed home. I feel like we did some fun stuff today. :-)