Catch All

It's time to play a little catch up here. There are so many little things that have happened in the last couple of weeks that I've jotted down to remember to blog. Now is the moment!

First off, our kids have both hit important, exciting milestones! For Evan, he is now 41" tall. Whew hoo! Everyone celebrating with me? Oh, you're confused? Well, that's tall enough to ride ALL the thrill rides at Disneyland except Indiana Jones. No, we don't have a trip planned. And, no, we probably won't have one any time soon. But it's just great to know that should we find money growing in our garden, we could go to Disneyland and not have to deny Evan of any of the fun rides. I've been waiting for this day for a long time!

Maren's exciting news is that she is potty "trained". I put it that way because I didn't have to do much "training" with either of the kids. I love it! Asked her if she wanted to wear underwear one day and she's been telling me when she needs to use the toilet ever since. I'm sure the new baby will completely throw me for a loop when he's old enough to be potty trained and it'll take me months of blood, sweat and tears. But right now I'm relishing in Maren walking around with her new, less-padded bum. It's so cute!

May 15th was our 12th anniversary! It's been probably 9 months or more that I had been thinking about and planning what I would do for this one. I decided to do the "12 Days of Anniversaring" and give Michael a dozen of something each day. One day it was donuts to share with his co-workers (an obvious when you're talking about dozens). Another day it was kisses. One day it was 12 commercials (meaning I would sit and veg with him on the couch through some shows instead of doing my work on the computer). And the last day it was 12 hours of my undivided time because our friends, the Bliss', kept the kids overnight. We did very little...went out to dinner, to Costco in the morning and then picked the kids up. But it was nice to sleep in a little bit and spend time with just each other, talking and doing whatever else we wanted. I could go for that once every few months. I am totally amazed that we've been married 12 years. I can hardly remember life without Michael and that's just the way I like it. We been through a TON in the last 12 years that has only made us stronger and brought us closer together. I'm very grateful to have him in my life and proud to say that we've been married for a dozen years!

Here's a random story: The other day I walked into Maren's room in the morning to get her out of bed. The first thing she says to me is, "Thanks for closing my door allaway (all the way) for no spiders or bugs get in here. That was so loving." Ha! What?!?! Well, I've since heard similar comments from her...about closing her door all the way so no bugs and spiders get in. She cracks me up. Where do kids get this stuff from? She usually has something really, really funny to say first thing in the morning. Keeps me on my toes.

Evan gave a talk in Primary a few weeks ago. Here it is for your reading enjoyment:

So, the story is that I forgot and forgot about his talk all week. Or I'd remember...but at the wrong times. For the talk before this one, he told me he wanted to write it but I, of course, shrugged him aside, typed up something quickly and helped him read it at the podium when it came time to give it. So Sunday morning I told him we had to get going on his talk. He again told me he wanted to type it up. This time I said okay. So that's it above. When he was done I told him he should practice it. So, just like when we were kids, I pulled out the vacuum so he could use the vacuum handle to pretend it was the microphone in Primary. I remember playing "Primary" so many times as a kid. And our orange vacuum always played a pivotal role. So he stands at his "microphone", holding the above page, and I'm wondering what on earth he's going to say on his topic. He then proceeds to relay the fact that if we have faith in God, we can return to live with him. He also talked about being grateful that he can be baptized when he's eight and that he can pass the sacrament when he's a Elder (yes, you read that right. Michael tried to convince him that you could pass the sacrament when you're a deacon but Evan didn't want to hear about it. I reminded Michael that you could STILL pass the sacrament when you're an Elder so Evan was technically right. Michael dropped it and it stayed in the talk.). I had him practice a few times and then we headed to church. When it was time for him to give his talk, he stood up on the stool with his paper and I stood next to him. I told him to go ahead but didn't coach him one bit. He gave a really great talk that he came up with all on his own. I couldn't have been more proud. And, boy, the hassle it saved me. This is definitely the way I'm going next time. Evan's growing up too fast!