Happy, Happy Birthday, Mikey Dear!

It's Michael's birthday today and I was just writing him his birthday card (10:45 at night. Nice, huh? But I did LOTS of other stuff today for the occasion, in my defense!). I wrote, "When I met you, you were 23. Now you're 36! Wow! We really ARE growing old together!" Gee whiz, time flies. And what happened to Michael's 30s, anyway? They're more than half gone. When did we become such old farts (ha! Just kidding to all of you "older" friends of mine!!)? Sometimes I feel like I'm still 20 and he's still 23. When did the life of adults creep up on us with a house and kids and, uh, stress?!?! Oh, well. He's got a lot less hair now than he did back then, but that just saves on gel. And the great thing is that his glasses are much smaller than they were back in the day. But, Mikey, I love you more than I could've ever thought possible back when you were a wee lad of 23. Happy birthday, Love!

New Take on the Doggy Door!

So today we're driving home from taking Michael to work and Evan tells me he has a great idea. He wants to cut some of the wall out of his room in the shape of a square. Then he wants to put a square piece of paper over it. That way whenever he wants to go outside, he can just rip off the paper and go out through the hole in his bedroom wall. A ha! Of course! He wants a doggy door. But when I asked him where he had seen that before, he told me he'd never seen it. He just thought about it and thought it was a great idea. So, son, could you think of another great idea that hasn't already been invented and make your family financially stable?!?! :-) By the way, sorry, but no on the doggy door. Haven't you ever seen that America's Funniest Videos where the people record the raccoon coming in and out the doggy door in the middle of the night? I told Evan he'd wake up and have raccoons and squirrels laying on his bed with him!

Love It!

Okay, this is so perfectly stated. I feel like I'm always trying to make excuses for why I can't get enough done in a day. Whether it be to friends or strangers or Mr. Michael. Now I understand! It's so true...it takes 45 minutes to get done what it takes people not packing kids around 15 minutes to do! Can you believe the nerve of this "friend" who wrote in with the question? Good grief! Enjoy!

Say what?

In the last couple of days, the kids have said things that really astounded us. We'll start with the funny and end with the serious. On Saturday Maren and I dropped the boys off at Home Depot and drove to my mom's house to give her our coffee table. Maren didn't know we had put it in the trunk. She went into my mom's house and me and the table followed. I put the table down in my mom's family room. When Maren saw OUR table sitting in my mom's house, she was quite surprised and said, "What is going on around here?" Huh? I was sure I didn't hear that right so I checked with my mom who confirmed that's exactly what she said. We got a good laugh over that one.

Yesterday morning (Sunday), Michael was working on the talk he would give in Sacrament Meeting that afternoon. I was sitting on the other side of the wall from the computer where Michael was looking quite concentratingly (interesting word, eh?) at his notes. Evan walked up to him and said, "What's wrong, Dad?" Michael replied that nothing was wrong, he was just fine. Then Evan said, "No, what's wrong with your talk?" Michael told Evan that there were just so many things he wanted to say. He wanted to make sure to say the most important things but he was having a hard time choosing which ones were the most important. This is what Evan said... "Well, Dad, the most important things are that Jesus is real. And Jesus will come again. And everyone will be resurrected. And Joseph Smith told us not to smoke." Well, I must've had the hugest eyes ever as they filled up with sweet tears. It's amazing what kids know and understand these days. He was absolutely right. He had no idea what Michael was speaking about but it doesn't matter. Those things are the most important (at least the first three, for sure! I love how that fourth one is the "one of these things is not like the other". Cute.). Michael shared that in his talk and Evan got lots of comments from the adults afterwards on how it was nice of him to help with his dad's talk. Pretty sweet moments for this mom.

Well, guess what...

I'm pregnant! Ha! Feel free to discuss it now. :-) Didn't see what is living inside me, but whatever it is has a heartbeat so we're doing good. Four more weeks to ultrasound. Hooray!

Sweet Shower!

So, I've got to tell you about my sweet shower yesterday! You see, we have a hot water problem. I can never get the water hot through my whole shower. Or I can get it luke warm through my shower but never hot. My showers are pretty miserable. Well yesterday Michael washed his church shirt about an hour before I took my shower. On hot! I asked him what the heck he was thinking and he said it would actually help and that we should have nice hot water for the next hour. Okey dokey. So my ritual is that I turn the shower on to full heat, feel the water from the outside, turn it down to the appropriate temp. and then get in. So I turned it on and was feeling cold, cold, cold. I look away to check something out on the wall and suddenly the water is gone. When I turn to look back, I realize it's not hitting my hand anymore because the water pressure just dropped about 90%. The water is only FALLING out of the shower head. But, guess what! Sweet! It's hot! So I get in and make a note that there's only about ten drops falling per second. Hmm... I try to get wet but I keep having to back up. Back. Back. Right into the knobby thing that turns the water on and off. Well, that's gonna leave a bruise but at least now I'm getting wet. Wash my hair. Start to rinse my hair. And rinse. And rinse. It takes me about five minutes to actually get all the shampoo out of my hair. But you know what? The water is hot! I consider whether it would really be wise to put conditioner in my hair since it will take a while to get it rinsed out and I might run out of hot water from taking so long. But my hair needs it so I go for it. Ouch! Ran into that darn thing again. And I'm practically stepping on the drain. I wish the trickle would shoot out just a little bit more. The problem with the low water pressure is also that even though the water is hot, I still feel rather cold because most of the air in the shower is not being hit by this hot water and it's chilly in there. But I finally get my hair rinsed and decide it would be unwise to skip my body. So I take care of that. All in all, it was a difficult shower. Not all that fun and kind of painful. But it was sweet! You know why? The water was hot!

Salmonella Scare?

So, I have my first appointment tomorrow. 16 weeks along and my first appointment. Should be interesting. Have you Googled the V baby video yet? Hmm... Anyway, if you don't hear another thing from me about a baby and that little widget is gone from the sidebar there, you'll know that there has been no baby this whole time and I just need to lay off the ice cream. In that case, please don't mention it to me. :-)

But, about the salmonella...I was supposed to fill out this paperwork with questions like how many pregnancies have you had? Do you smoke? Do you drink? How much exercise do you get? Do you take prenatal vitamins? You know, all those things they want to know to make sure you're making healthy choices in your pregnancy. Well, then there's this list of foods it asks you if you've been eating. Such as raw fish (no way, Jose!), deli meat (haven't been in the mood lately) and some other things. But then I got found out! The Mexican cheese. Yeah, forgot about that one...that it goes in with the soft cheeses. I realized my yummy tacos at Don Chilitos probably had Mexican cheese on them. And I've been there three times since I got pregnant. And then the real killer. Any raw eggs? HELLO! I'm a cookie dough lover! I love the dough better than the cookies. And not just that...brownie batter, cake batter. Whatever is yummy and uncooked I love! And they all have eggs in them, of course. So, I haven't finished filling in the sheet yet because I'm not sure what to put without getting in trouble. The good news, however, is that I'm pretty sure I've been eating raw eggs in this kind of stuff since I was two or younger. So I think I'm immune to salmonella. Can you be immune to salmonella? I'll have to ask Michael. :-) Not sick now, never have been before. Yeah, I'll probably continue with the cookie dough habit. The lizard probably likes what comes through the umbilical cord when I do!

"I Two Years Olds!"

That's what Maren likes to remind everyone of lately. Her birthday was Sunday, the 25th, and it couldn't have come soon enough. For days she was singing herself the birthday song and talking about her cake, ice cream, and presents. Nothing disappointed. Except, oh, yes, the Christmas theme with the camera. Seriously not a single good, worthy picture on her birthday. I'm beginning to wonder if the camera is going downhill or if my picture-taking abilities are! Ugh. So, here's a little video of her (which I couldn't figure out how to shorten - sorry!) singing herself Happy Birthday. If you watch her mouth, she sings the whole thing. Ha! She really is so, so cute and we love her so much. She's on my dad's lap here...

So what's some fun stuff going on with our now-2-year-old? She is big into babies. Real and pretend. She got babies for Christmas and babies for her birthday and she loves every one. And she seems very excited about "new baby". She really loves to draw and she loves to have us draw things for her. Her favorite canvas is her Magna-Doodle. But what's tiring is she will bring it to us about 25 times a day and say, "Mommy, draw Maren, Evan, Daddy, Dowlin (Dallin), new baby, Mommy". Oh, gee whiz, I think. Again? As soon as it's drawn she's erasing so we can do it all over again. Sometimes it gets recorded for posterity...on real paper...with a real pen.

Yes, that's just about the best I can draw anything. Judge not, lest ye be not judged. Ha! Luckily, in this one, I'm the only one carrying the child. Sometimes she insists that she has one in her tummy and sometimes everyone does! Her other funny thing about the new baby is "the song". When I used to put her to bed, I would sing her a Primary song from church. This is the way it's always been done and things were going great this way! Then one day about a month or so ago she said, "Sing new baby song, Mom." What? What new baby song? She insisted. She wouldn't relent and I had to make up a song on the spot...about the new baby...and what Maren would do to help with the new baby after it's born. As you can hear from the happy birthday song, I come from a family of non-singers (missed you guys, Danica and Matt!). Doesn't sound too great. So this song has absolutely not good tune and changes on a daily basis. Right now it includes that Maren will help give baby baths, read to baby, sing songs to baby, feed baby food, rock baby in the chair, make baby laugh, change baby's diapers, get baby's clothes on and more I'm sure I can't remember. But if I ever forget anything, Maren reminds me. And often times she adds things so this horrible song gets longer and longer every week. My only concern with having this new baby is protecting it from its loving sister, Maren.

In other Maren news, we had her 2-year check-up this week and it was so fun. She was ecstatic to go to the doctor and ran into the room when the door from the lobby was opened for her. She danced around and laughed and talked with the doctor. The doctor was beside herself and I heard her say to her assistant in the hall when the door was closed that she has never seen a 2-year-old so excited to be at the doctor. For my information later on, she probably says 500 words, though when the doctor asked how many, I told her 400 because I didn't want to seem like I was over-exaggerating. I probably did anyway. But I'm sure it's really over 500. Some of my favorites that she says are already, almost and either. Not because she says them cute or anything, but because they're such ideas instead of concrete objects. I just can't figure out how someone so little would learn to apply words like those correctly, but she does. Although she once counted to 18, she rarely gets that high anymore. Usually to 12 or 13. Though tonight Evan counted some stuff up to 20 and she took off from there and went from 21 to 26. That was pretty fun to hear! She's really big into colors right now and is working hard to figure them all out. So far she's got orange down and maybe green and purple. She seems bound and determined to figure them all out so it shouldn't be long now. She is pretty outgoing with her friends, who she really seems to love. She talks about her friends during the day and plays really well with them when they're together. Friends from her age to age seven. They all seem to love to play with Maren. And, lastly, she LOVES to go to Nursery. During the closing song she will ask, "Time for Nursery class, Mom?" I tell her that we have to have the closing prayer first and then it's time for class. As soon as that "amen" is said, she's jumping out of my lap and running toward the chapel doors. Seriously! I run after her with this crazed look on my face, I'm sure, because she's surrounded by giants who have no idea this little, tiny body is there, and I'm sure she's going to get trampled any second. She runs herself down the hall to her classroom and I let her in. No need for good-byes, I guess, because she doesn't look back for one. She loves Nursery, her teachers, her friends in there, and snack time, of course.

We sure love our silly, caring, loving, pretty girl. Happy birthday, Maren!

(In Michael's Flash costume from when he was little! It must be 30 years old!)

Hmm...

I have heard from quite a few of you about my complete dismissal of my blog lately.  Reasons?  I've been mad.  Mad because we had Dollar Store batteries in our camera and I missed TONS of great stuff.  Like the biggest snow in 40 years.  Like Evan and Maren's faces when they saw their bikes on Christmas morning.  Yeah, the really good and juicy stuff in life.  Here's about all I got of that:

Bundled up to pick out the Christmas tree!

On Christmas Eve, Michael and Evan went outside to make a snowman.  Maren wanted to join them, but the snow was so deep and had a layer of ice inside it that would break as you walked on it.  She wasn't enjoying it too much so the boys made her this throne to sit on while they worked.  She loved it.  But each time she sat in it, she tilted her head to the side like this and closed her eyes.  Ha!  Hard work being a princess.

 

Said bikes...terrible pictures but the only ones those dumb batteries let me get.  Notice Evan's face...he looks terrified.

But he overcame that rather quickly...although this picture was taken 2 weeks or so after Christmas.

I think my other problem and why I've stayed away from my blog is that I'm stressed.  I'm 14 1/2 (don't you forget that half!!) weeks pregnant and I haven't seen the doctor yet.  And for a girl with my past history, that's not so great.  But I haven't had insurance.  I've been fighting and fighting and going around and around with some companies.  FINALLY, just at the end of last week, I learned that I was covered.  So I call my doctor's appointment on Monday and of course they can't get me in for another two weeks.  I'll be 16 weeks!  My doctor is going to wonder what on earth I'm doing waiting so long and I have to wonder myself.  But what are my options?  I called the doctor's office to see how much an initial appointment is without insurance.  With all things included (labs, ultrasound, deposit), it would be around $700.  Ha!  So, anyway, long story short...I'm just really anxious to make sure there's really a baby growing inside there and not a V lizard (remember that show?  I used to love it WAY back.  I was going to put a picture on here of the V baby, but when I looked it up, it was way too freaky to include!!).  Okay, I'm just making my long story long.  So, I just want to know that I don't have an ectopic pregnancy and I don't have twins and there really is something going on inside there.  I was thinking today that I can't wear maternity clothes to my appointment in February.  Because what if I go in and find out I'm not pregnant or something?  I'll feel like an idiot.  Oh, the strange things that go on in a pregnant woman's mind.  So, there you have it.  The explanation.  Michael just got up and told me my dad called tonight (hi, Dad!), all worried about me because I hadn't had a blog post in so long.  Hello, world!  I'm back and still kicking.  I've got some great stuff to post about Maren tomorrow, but for now, I'm going to bed!

 

Little Surprises

I love the little surprises that kids give you from time to time.  Lately Maren's have been with colors.  The other day we were looking at each other and she grabs my face and pulls up on my eyelids.  Eek!  Then she says, "Mommy's eyes blue.  Like Maren.  Mommy eyes blue, Maren eyes blue."  Well, I thought for sure Michael must've given her a lesson on Mommy and Maren's eye color.  How else could she come up with this?  I asked him when he got home, and he vehemently denies it.

Then last week we went to get our Christmas tree.  On the way to the farm, Michael jokingly asks the kids, "What color of a Christmas tree should we get?"  Maren pipes up, "G'een."  What?!?!  How does she know trees are green?  Again I hounded Michael to know when and how he had taught her this, since I obviously hadn't.  He again denied any right-doing.  It's so fun when they piece things together completely behind our backs and then throw them out when we're least expecting it and throw us for a loop.  I love that about kids!  They're such amazing learners!

Family Photos!

Well, it was about time. We had family photos taken a few weeks ago...after 10 years since our last one! That's right, that would be just me and Michael looking like little kids. Thank you to Jen, who came all the way from Utah to do them. Ha! Just kidding. But, seriously, if any of my Utah friends or family wants great pictures taken, check her out. She's amazing! So, here are a few (okay, a LOT!) of my favorites...

Hello, Beauty! I love those eyes!

Oh, I love these boys!

I just love this squishy face!

This was a sweet moment. I love how much they love each other.

Another sweet Maren shot.

And what a handsome boy you are, Evan!

I thought this one was just too cute!

I wish I could remember what cutie Maren was so excited about.

Here we are...one small, happy family.

I love you, Mikey. After 11 1/2 years we look older and wiser...and happier, too!

I love the drama of this picture. The thing is that Maren hardly smiled in ANY of the pictures. This time it worked out really well. I absolutely love looking at their eyes. I think I've said before that I love having a brown-eyed boy and a blue-eyed girl. I love the differences in them.

One of the few smiles from her. And all because Daddy told her to say "cheese". Her favorite word, by far!

And, if you were patient enough to look through ALL the pictures, you get a special bonus. Here is Evan's very happy face when we told him the news about the new addition!

Pacific Oncology

Well, people keep asking me about Michael's job search and I guess that's because I haven't formally made a post about the fact that he GOT A JOB!!  Yea!  He's been working for a cancer center, Pacific Oncology, for almost three weeks now and...drum roll...he loves it!  Our bishop's wife gets her treatments there and told him he should see if they have jobs open.  Everything kind of fell into place very smoothly from there.  He must've really knocked their socks off in the interview because although they said they had quite a few more people to interview and it would be about a week until we heard anything, they called the next day to offer him the job.  And without even calling his glowing references!

 

They have five offices around here but he works at the Beaverton one, which is the main office.  It takes us about 10 - 15 minutes to get there, so not bad.  It was built in January 2007 and is 54,000 square feet.  And it's absolutely gorgeous on the inside.  It's very state-of-the art and they have some pretty neat things there for the patients.  So far Michael is really enjoying it.  Where the last place he worked was cramped and disorganized, this place is very spacious and well-organized.  Where at the other place, there were a lot of unprofessional co-workers, these ones are very mature and professional.  What's more, OHSU (Oregon Health & Sciences University) is taking them over in January.  OHSU is who Michael wanted to work for in the first place and he's gotten a back door in there.  This will give him great opportunity to move around and do other things.  It's a very exciting step.  Thanks to everyone who has checked on us.  As soon as Michael gets his first paycheck (they are only paid once a month!), we can start to get back on our feet.  Yea!

Premier Tag!

Well, I've never done a tag but this time I was tagged by name so I thought I would be a good girl and participate.  Plus, I really love to read other people's tags and learn interesting tidbits about them!  Here goes...

8 FAVORITE SHOWS

Prison Break, 24, Dancing with the Stars...uh...Jakers, SuperWhy, Between the Lions, WordWorld, Barney.  Ha!  I don't have time to watch much real TV because I'm working.  I sneak Prison Break on the Internet between work files and have even given up DWTS this season.  But I'm okay with that.

8 FAVORITE RESTAURANTS

Morton's, JoPa, Lucy's Table, Caprial's, Alessandro's, Veritable Quandry, The Melting Pot, P.F. Chang's

8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY

Washed clothes, did dishes, had kids over to play, made bubble solution, worked, went to the Young Women activity, went to Target, started a new book.

8 THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TO

When I don't have to work and I can clean up after the kids are in bed, when I don't have to work and I have time to think about what dinner to make, getting health insurance through Michael's new job, seeing how Maren and Evan like sharing a room, Thanksgiving!, a family outing to the pool or Out of This World, reading more in the new book, going to bed.

8 THINGS I LOVE

Michael, Dallin, Evan, Maren, my wonderful friends & family, the Church, watching my kids share, kisses from my kids!

8 THINGS I CAN'T STAND

Seeing people suffer, hearing about babies dying, paranoia, people being rude, mean or judgmental, piles of stuff all over the house (my everyday life), waiting (patiently!) for projects to get done, not getting a decent picture of Maren.

8 THINGS ON MY WISH LIST

A bigger house, and, if not, a fence around our house so I can let the kids play outside without having to keep an eagle eye on them, an iPod so I can digitize all of my music and put the CDs up in the attic, to get back to my pre-marriage weight (probably not until we're done having kids since ever time I lose weight I get pregnant!), my kids to live long, happy lives, Michael to get more schooling and keep moving up in the medical field, get the house organized, get an amazing family picture taken (thanks, Jen!).

Why We Were Late for Church Today

I'd like to blame Zumba, C.S. Lewis and...Maren, the sweet thing, for making us late for church today.  Here's what I think is a funny story.  Let's see if I can keep it short (do I ever succeed at that?!?!).  Yesterday I went to Zumba, got super stinky and should've taken a shower all day but it was never a good time.  Michael said I'd better take a shower before I got into bed.  Yeah, of course!  That's so gross!  Well, I was working, working, working late and before I knew it, it was midnight.  And church is at 9 a.m.  I decided I'd just forgo the shower (I know, I know, don't even say it!) until the morning.  The problem is that Evan gets the treat of sleeping in our bed on Saturday nights.  So it's already squishy.  Squishy with my stink added to it would've been unbearable for everyone, including me.  So I decided to sleep on Evan's bed.  I took the C.S. Lewis book I'm reading and my alarm clock, which I set for 7:30. 

I read my book for half an hour until 12:30 and then called it a night figuring seven hours of sleep would hold me just fine.  At 7:00 Maren woke up.  I don't know why because she definitely needed more sleep from going to bed late.  She wasn't going to go back to sleep in her bed and I didn't want her waking up the boys yet so I brought her onto Evan's bed with me.  I knew I had a precious 30 minutes left before my alarm clock went off so I was trying to get her to go back to sleep while I tried to nod off myself.  Instead, she was jumping around, grabbing the alarm clock and all sorts of other commotion.  When Michael walked in at 8:30, this is what he found...

(I know!  You think I should be absolutely mortified that I am putting this picture on here and I AM!!  Michael took five pictures of this same shot and, believe me, I got out the ruler and measured which bum shot least resembled a ginormous (anyone know how to spell this made up word?) landing pad.  I'm not totally sure that I succeeded.  Nothing like a blog to keep yourself humble, eh?)

Well, turns out that Michael had gone to sleep without setting his alarm clock and Maren had switched mine off while she was playing with it.  I'm happy to report that we still got there in time for about half of Sacrament meeting.  And, I suppose to help her get over the crink in her neck and the emotional trauma that being that close to my bum must've caused her, Michael gave her chocolate milk when they got home from church.

Evan's 4th Birthday!

Well, it's about time I get around to this post.  I wasn't going to do much of anything for Evan's birthday this year.  Just thought we'd have cake at home as a family because of Michael not having a job and I thought it would be easier that way.  Then I realized I just couldn't let his birthday pass without any fanfare.  I wanted him to know that he was treasured.  So we decided to go to his favorite place, Out of this World and invited just a couple of friends and Anton, our neighbor, of course.  Out of the 100 or so pictures I took, only a handful turned out because our camera is having issues.  And only one of those was of the birthday boy.  I'll save that sweet one for last.  A couple highlights...

Maren tearing into her Iron Man cupcake.  I know, we've got a red eye issue here, but I haven't been in the mood to load the PhotoShop software on here since Michael changed the hard drive.  Some day!

This place is SOOO fun, with cars to ride on, bounce houses, a huge climbing structure with lots of slides, and more and more and more!  Here's a great photo, I must say, that I got of Anton as he's enjoying the cars.

Parents get in free and I definitely feel like I get in as much fun as the kids do!

And here's the sweet birthday boy, very excited about his fun gifts and having his best friends around him on his special day.  We love you, Evan...you cutie!