Alrighty, I am making sure that a month doesn't go by without another post, so here is the latest in my enthralling world.
For anybody who currently owns, has ever owned or ever borrowed a car seat, you will groan when I tell you that it's time to clean it. That's right you groan, because if it's like mine, you have to take the whole thing practically apart to clean the cover. Now, I love myra's car seat so don't get me wrong, but because of the overwhelming task it takes to clean the dumb thing, I usually wipe it down and call it good. Well, the other day I decided it was time to get to all the crooks and crannies of the seat. So I took it out of the car and busted out the screwdriver. I immediately became fascinated with all of the fossilized snacks and toys that had fallen into the dark crevices of her chair. I flipped the car seat over and shook shook shook. You name it, it came out of the car seat. Goldfish, pretzels, sucker sticks, wrappers, cheerios, and look- 2 quarters! Disgusting! Before going to bed, Myra has to help pick up her toys. Well, she had been playing with her pretend kitchen food and such. I asked her to please put her food away where it belongs. The next morning I found some very suspicious produce in the fridge. Carrot sandwich anyone? Okay, this story just about kills me. So, Sabrina loves loves LOVES to climb on to ANYthing. She doesn't walk, no- she climbs. She likes to especially climb on Myra's 4 story dollhouse. She can climb up to the second shelf than cries when she gets stuck. Well, after bathtime, Sabrina crawled away into Myra's room. I went to go get a clean diaper when I hear Myra yelling, "Mommy, Sabrina is pooping on my dollhouse!" I quickly ran into the room to see if this was true. Yes! Sabrina had climbed on top of the second shelf and pooped. I helped her down and then I thought....hmmm...this is funny blog material. The poop on the shelf right? So I went to get the camera and when I got back my idea of taking a pic of the poop on the shelf changed to this! that's right! Do you see that? Take a closer look! That would be poop in the hand..... Smile on the face!
I have met my 4 month mark. So it's time for another post. Actually, I started one a while ago and never posted it. That's funny huh? You see, I keep thinking I have to tell all that has occured to me since my last post, but then you would be here all day reading about my super fantastic life, and you just might get envious, so I decided to start with just a few of my favorite highlights: Kriss has left the country! :( Okay, that is not my favorite highlight, but it is the most impacting since last post. We were so lucky to be only an hour from his training facility, and although we weren't allowed on base, we made a sneaky visit to hang out in the grass. The following picture is one of my favorites. I took it right before we left our house to drop him off at the base for the last time. He didn't have to be back until ten at night, so we loaded up the kids in their PJ's. The ride was the shortest 60 miles ever. I cannot descrie how it feels to say goodbye to your husband for the next year. I thought that was painful, but then watching your children say goodbye to their dad for a year, is even harder. Especially little Sabrina. She was gooing all over the special attention. Thankfully, I was almost out of gas and had to pull over to fill up. I'm sure the people thought I was a little emotional about the gas prices. On a more upbeat note: Sabrina..... is officially one!! We had a little birthday party for her and I must say, she was pretty funny. You see I put a bday hat on her and she of course cried. I took it off and she was fine. Naturally I assumed the tears were because she didn't want to wear the stupid thing. Nope! She is terriefied of party hats. Just watch this clip. Anytime you put it in her view, tears welt out of her eyes and come pouring down. NO HAT!!! MUCH BETTER!!!
Last month I went to an amazing play- WICKED! No, silly, that's the name of it. It is the story of how the witch becomes the wicked witch of the west in wizard of oz. It was AWESOME! I read the book the day before I went, and as everybody told me, the musical is much better. I say read the book first then see the musical, or you may be disappointed. But be forewarned, the book is dark and deep. It's currently in Phoenix. So check it out if you can!
Speaking of books, we have been spending lots of time at our new libraries (yes plural. There are 3 within 7 miles from us) Anyways, I have a confession. It is true. I, yes, the anti-Twillight girl, have succombed to the pathetic entrapment of the romance of a mortal teenager and her controlling vampire love. I'm on book #4 of the Twilight series and all I have to say is that I vote for Jacob. I know he's not chosen, but I can only pretend right? I can't believe I confessed. It's a deep dark secret I have been holding inside of me. Curiosity caught me and I partook. BARF!
Our new life in Indiana has been treating us well. For those who don't know, which is probably the majority of the continental states, Indiana is a huge racing state. Don't know about you, but NASCAR bores me. What is so intriguing about watching a car drive in a circle 200 times? That's what I thought until I went to the Indy 500. I was invited with some people to go, and since it gave me a break from the kids I went. It was so much more entertaining in person. Those cars go 220 mph! It was really cool. There were several wrecks and the worst one was right in front of our seats. I swore the guy died, but the driver is so protected in the car, he walked away from it. Afterall, it hit the wall twice and caught on fire. Debris flew up in the air and the front right panel flew off. Must have been Onstar to the rescue!
Myra just started swimming lessons and thinks she is pretty cool. Actually she is. :) We have taken several trips out on her Aunt Courtney's boat. Myra isn't sure what she likes better the water: the food: or the cruising:
Babies and boats are not quite as fun. I mean, would you be happy if your lifejacket completely swallowed you? and whole? Poor Sabrina, the second born. Going along for the ride.:)
Myra loves the story of the Gingerbread Man, so one day while at papa's they decided to make one- by using 5 lbs of chocolate chip cookie dough. Check it out. This is before it went in the oven: What happened after he baked huh? Well, duh, he ran away saying "you can't catch me I'm the chocolate chip man" But boy he wouldn't run very fast after I bit his gooey legs off! yum!
Sabrina has several fascinations. One is taking everything out of boxes and drawers. the other obsession is this chair. She ABSOLUTELY loves it. She gets in and out of it and will be upset if somebody else sits in it. This used to be her Grandma's chair back in the day, but now it's property of papa's. I have the same picture of Myra at this age in it. Although, Sabrina has definietly ruled superior on this one.
For the fourth of July, I took the girls to the parade. Now everybody knows that there is candy at the parade. Usually children run into the streets and risk a few amputations to get the dum-dum lollipop or the vanilla flavored tootsie roll. Not us. We got so much candy we started giving it away. Check out Myra's hat full. This was insane. So, needless to say, we walked away from the parade ready to forego Halloween!
It was pouring rain on the 4th, so the next night the sky was great. And BOOM! I sat back and relaxed as I watched my neighbors lighting up the sky with massive explosive devices. Being from AZ, I am still a little PTSD of fires and the risk, but in Indiana it's legal to light them in your own yard. Completely insane, but legal. Here is one my next door neighbor lit. BOOM!
Isn't this post so long and so much worth the almost 5 month wait? I will do better about postings I promise. I have a new project that I email Kriss daily with a picture of something that has recently occured, so you will be hearing more from me. Call your therapist and tell her she is without a job. I am back and you are going to love, love, love it! Until next time!
Okay! I got your point. You miss me huh? Come on, if you didn't you wouldn't be reading this! We have been keeping super busy but there is nothing to prove it. We had a great Halloween, thanksgiving and Christmas. Rather than boring you with all of those events, I'll tell you of the recent past and the present. First of all Sabrina is now officially crawling! She is so fast at where she wants to go now. The night she started crawling I took a little video and Myra kept cheering her on the entire time.
Sabrina is eating solid foods and is getting over her gag reflex. Holy Cow is hers ever so intact! Rice cereal was like a chore to get it past the tongue thrusting!
Myra is completely potty trained and has been for a long time now. It's awesome. Until you are in the grocery store with the two of them and a cart full of groceries and she has to go, and now! Myra recently started becoming interested in tv. She still doesn't really quiet down for it, nor will she sit through a show at all, but she enjoys checking movies out from the library. Her recent favorites are Wizard of Oz and Pete's Dragon. I thought I could handle them a hundred times. I was wrong. I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too!!!
Oh, she is really into making everything into a train. Including her sticker collection.
Last weekend Kriss and I had the luxury of spending our first night away from the kids. You see, since Kriss is getting deployed again (I will get to that in a minute) We wanted to take one last opportunity to focus on some couple time. A very very dear friend of ours actually encouraged us to go somewhere. Now, I normally don't take up offers like that, but she kept insisting. So, I surprised Kriss with a night at a bed and breakfast in Pine and then we went hiking down the Tonto Natural Bridge. The whole thing was perfect. It was so awesome to wake up and lounge around without any cute little blondes or baldies crying for help. Who cares that we really didn't sleep in cause our bodies aren't used to it, but we didn't have to get up for anything!! Totally awesome. We decided to hike along the creek and reach the Natural Bridge. We used to hike a lot while we were dating, but last time we hiked was when I was preggo with Myra! I was so excited to get some really cool pictures, but after 4 self timer pics, the batteries died. So, we enjoyed the scenery as best as we could and then went to the gift shop, bought a disposable camera and drove to the viewpoints to snap a few shots. The pictures don't do it justice. It is quite a sight and I recommend it to anybody! Here we are starting our hike at the creek.
A little waterfall along the creek. This is when my camera died.
Here is the view from the rim.
Isn't it quaint and beautiful?
This picture shows you what it looks like where we hiked into. We came right under the bridge and had big fun slippery rocks to climb over.
Okay, so what's this? another deployment? Yes, this is correct. Kriss is leaving on my bday March 6 for another deployment back to Iraq. He will be gone for a year and the whole thing just ticks me off. You see, his contract ended jan 26, however, he has been stop lossed. This means 90 days prior to a company being actively deployed all members are locked into serving for the deployment, it doesn't matter if you are to retire or your contract ends. Well, his federal orders start april 7 and if you count back 90 days, the cutoff date is jan 7. Yup, he missed it by 19 days. They won't make any exceptions, trust me we've tried. i went through a period of extreme anger, but now I realize I must face it, again. Yes, he was deployed in 2003-2004, but at that time, we had no children. Myra is going to be really upset about her daddy being gone, and Sabrina will change so much, she won't hardly know who her daddy is. After long discussions, lists on paper and many prayers, we have decided that while Kriss is gone, the girls and I will move closer to family- his family back in Indiana. It doesn't make any logical sense, I know, but that is what we feel strongly in our hearts is the right thing to do. It's a temporary move, love it or hate it, at least it's an adventure.
I think with this deployment I'll be better at updating my blog for Kriss to check it out. Maybe he will log in sometime. ha ha ha hint hint
Well, the past several weeks I have been branching out of my regular realm and have been hanging in the pool. I know how to swim for survival, but I wanted to improve my skills and really learn how to lap swim. So, I signed up for an eight week beginner lap swimming class at the gym I go to. I must say, besides the getting my fat butt into a swimsuit, I actually really enjoy the class. I am horrible for sure and I think the coach is entertained by my ridiculous lack of skills. Anyways, tonight at class, she had all of us swim laps for 15 minutes straight- that doesn't seem very long until you are the one kicking and stroking. She kept track of how far we went in that time. And once again- I placed last!! YES!! I am so dang cool! And the best part is that I didn't hear her the first time, so I asked, like a little fat kid, "How far did you say I went?" and she sheepishly told me. All the others gave me a courtesy smile. But I was leaping with joy. If you were to time me 3 weeks ago, I bet I wouldn't have been able to go as far as I did tonight. I am awesome! wink wink
Myra had gone potty this morning and we just left her diaper off for convenience. I was online checking my email and trying to round on all your blogs when I heard her flushing the toilet over and over again. I started to imagine what she might be doing in the bathroom and wondering what precious toy was making a trip down the sewer line of Flagstaff. Myra comes running out of the bathroom saying, "Wipe my poopy mommy, I wiped my poopy." I look and the child has a small amount of poop on her little fingers and a smear on her butt. Being grossed out but VERY excited that she might have pooped in the toilet I praised her for a job well done and offered her a tootsie roll after washing her hands. I asked her if she went poop and she said "yes, need a candy" I went into the bathroom and found no evidence of the poop- NOTHING. I asked her again if she went poop in the potty, she said "on the floor"- I looked and NOTHING. "Where is it?" I asked. "all gone mommy, need candy". I'm sure she went poop but I was amazed that the only proof of it was on her hands, and so I rewarded my child for depositing a ghost poop in the big toilet.
Okay, confession- has anybody ever forgotten that they put their child in timeout? I put Myra in timeout the other day and totally spaced it. She was in her little corner for a LONG time. She never yelled at me to come out and just talked and babbled to herself. I felt kind of bad, although, I got a lot done and enjoyed some space. Isn't it funny how they never come out until you give them permission? Poor thing... her mom's neglectful!!!
A couple nights ago, Myra kept waking up in the middle of the night. Rather than waking up crying or coming into our room, she quietly goes into the living room. I usually wake up with that feeling of "someone is in the house". I see a flickering of lights and when I walk into the living room, I find her sitting quietly on the couch holding her teddy bear and watching Conan O’Brian. She has her legs crossed and just looks at me like “Sorry, I woke you up, I just can’t sleep.” It is actually kind of cute- as cute as it can be at two in the morning.
On Sat I was going to a soccer game and was in a hurry to park and get on the field. I found a perfect spot right by the entrance. I attempted twice to parallel park in this spot but just couldn't do it. Just then, I saw a woman walking down the parking lot with her kids. Her eyes were watching me. "There is no way I can do this under pressure." I thought. So I pull forward and find another spot- another parallel parking requirement but I can do this one. I know it. I fail at that attempt also. Now, the lady has a small smerk on her face. She is totally engaged on what I will do next. I say loudly, "Myra, I just can't parallel park." Hoping she hears me. Okay, now, I'm even more late, so I pull into the third spot and attempt again to parallel park our little camry. My forehead is in a beaded sweat, b/c I know I am inches from the cars. Can I do it? Nope! The lady has a giant grin on her face, and now I'm mad. So I throw it into drive and floor it straight ahead into a spot I could just pull into!! Anybody want to give me lessons?
Our internet has been running SO SLOWLY lately! It's been worse than dial up and sometimes it just turns off right in the midle of an email. I've been wanting to put up a new post, but get so frustrated with our connection- uggh! Here is a quick glimpse of the past few weeks of our lives: My parents came up to visit for a couple days while Kriss was gone. Myra loved hanging with her G&G. She is obsessed with their cat, Bo. So she constantly was asking, "Where's Bo?" While Kriss was away, we took a little road trip to visit some VERY dear friends of ours. I have been friends with Becky for 7 years now! Wow! We got married a week apart and met in our temple prep class. Myra had so much fun meeting Baby Ben and sleeping in Miriam's bunk bed! Becky took me to get a free makeover- that was a first for me and yes- they do both sides of your face! The place closed before they did Becky, so that was embarassing. I always have so much fun with Becky- she's just that all around awesome friend- the kind you can laugh and cry with or eat a box of mint oreo's while watching Jane Austen movies- yup, we did that too! On our way home, Myra had her first pinata at her cousin, Dalton's bday party. The amount of sugar that was consumed by those kids was breathtaking. I get queesy around pinatas- see on my 7th bday, I broke my mom's nose while trying to hit the pinata. The only thing that came out from that experience was some profanity and bloodshed. I haven't tried a pinata since! Here is a pic of Myra and Sabrina with Della- their cousin Myra just got these new elephant jammies. She was so excited to wear them, she wanted me to take her picture. Isn't she just the little poser? For those who live in AZ know about the monsoon season. We have been getting tons of rain. Myra loves it. She says "Good Morning Rain" and likes it when our dog hides from the storm. I bought her this raincoat for her to run outside in. She loves it and goes right out of her way to step in the puddles! Sabrina has been smiling and cooing for a couple weeks now. It just melts my heart. Usually the camera is in the other room, but I grabbed a snapshot of this one! LOVE IT! My little girls are just growing so fast. Sabrina is two months old and fitting in clothes that Myra wore at 4 months. She is going to be bigger than her sister I think. Here they are lounging in their PJs on a fine crisp morning. Kriss came home from his training two weeks ago. It has been so nice to have him back home with us. Our family is once again complete!
As the 2008 Olympics get ready to commence I feel like I am connected to a few of the swimmers. I remember 4 years ago when Natalie Coughlin took home 2 gold medals, 2 silver and a bronze medal for various events. I was so excited and happy for her. Why? While Kriss was deployed, my dear friend, Susan and I lived together. Susan grew up with Natalie and swam on the same team and I remember Natalie would call and talk about how close she was getting to the Olympic Trials. I looked at pictures of Natalie and Susan at swim meets, etc. We watched excitedly when she took her spot as an USA Olympian! Natalie recently broke another world record! Yup! She holds the title to 3 world records! Even though, I never officially met Natalie, I feel like we are friends. Afterall, we did say hello on the phone! This year Rebecca Suni will be doing the 200 meter breaststroke. How do I know her? Well I don’t, but her mother was one of my nurses when I had Sabrina! She is the nurse that I broke down in tears with. I was hormonal and wanted nothing more than to have a special relationship with my daughters. I shared with my nurse my concern about this since my mother and I have a different kind of relationship. She sat on my bed and told me she had the same experience. She told me that she has two daughters, Rita and Rebecca. She told me all about their likes and the way they got started with swimming. I had no idea she was referencing an Olympic swimmer. We talked and talked throughout the day and she mentioned to me that she was flying out in a couple weeks to the Olympic trials where Rebecca would compete! And looky now- she is going to Beijing to reperesnt the USA! I am always so impressed and astonished by the performances of the Olympics. What an accomplished title. I will definitely be tuned in the day Natalie and Rebecca swim!
Today I received these beautiful flowers from my wonderful husband. Even though he is without internet and phone access, he somehow managed to arrange for the delivery of this bouquet. My husband is so good with words and his card was poetically beautiful. I’d share it with you, but then that would be a little too personal for blogging! Why the balloon coming from the middle huh? The balloon on a stick is a momentum must in our marriage. You see, my parents have a unique relationship. Rarely did they give gifts of any kind to each other for special days (i.e. anniversary, birthday, etc.) But my dad would splurge and get my mom a helium balloon on a stick with a card. You know the kind you get at the grocery store checkout counter for $2.49? That’s the one! My mom would put it in a plastic cup and put it on the table as a centerpiece! Lovely! Well, the thing is, they never get thrown away- I’m not kidding you! If you walk into my parents’ house and look around, you will see numerous partially deflated balloons with “I love you” “Happy Anniversary” inscribed on it. There they stand with dust dated back to conception of their kids. Gross! My parents just celebrated their 38th anniversary. Anyways, Kriss and I always joke that it is the helium balloon on a stick that keeps the marriage alive. So the next time you are doing your grocery shopping- and thinking of your spouse-spend the $2.49 and light the fire of your romance!!
Every year Kriss has summer training with the National Guard. This year it is 3 weeks long. He left last Saturday, and so it has been just the girls and I for the past week. In order to create a little bit of sanity and mostly to help pass the time, I make sure I take the girls out daily for some kind of activity. Here are a few of the things we have done:
Myra loves bubbles! So I added a bubble machine gun to her collection. She loves it. She showers it on everything, including our car! Myra is really into cats right now. Rather than, adding one to our family, I took her to the Humane Society to hold and pet them as much as she wanted without having the obligation of tending to the tender animal. MEOW! Myra of coursed loved holding each of them, but it is rather disturbing as an adult, knowing that when you leave, the likelihood of seeing that cat again is pretty slim. Poor Kitty! Okay, so Myra has been interested in potty training. When we were in the hospital she was going 80% of the time with my sister in law. She had a huge zest to potty train then, but since I was so anemic and had no energy, I would praise her for what I could and gave her a potty treat (M&Ms) That was a big mistake!!! It was all about getting the treat, of course. Now we do stickers for the majority of our potty training success and on occasion we go for the treat. Well, when Myra gets a treat she brings me a bowl to put her 3 M&Ms in. I couldn't stop laughing when she brought me this HUGE bowl for her prize. It was pretty pathetic looking holding only 3 pieces of candy- but she was excited nonetheless. Sabrina just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Her little legs are getting some rolls and she has outgrown her newborn diapers! Soon, she'll be in college!!! We went to Williams to visit an old friend and her 3 boys. We thought it would be fun to take them to the park for a picnic. After preparing for about an hour- we finally made our trek. And can you believe the kids played on the equipment for maybe 3 minutes? The rest of the time they hung out at the picnic table we were sitting at! Just clinging to us! Uggh! HERE IT IS: MYRA'S FIRST BIG INJURY! How did this happen? You probably are wondering. well, read on and I will tell you! The other night, Myra and I were at a friend's house. They have a treadmill in the corner of the living room. A four year old asked, "Can Myra play on the treadmill with me? I will only put it at speed number 1." "Sure" I said. And so they walked, laughed and ran on this health promoting piece of machinery. About 45 minutes went by and once again the four year old had returned to the treadmill. I however, was unaware that Myra was with her. (the treadmill was behind the couch) While I was visiting with my friend our conversation was interrupted with her yelling, "turn it down! Turn it off! Turn it off!" I heard a child screaming and knew right away, it was Myra. The four year old was in a panic and was hitting the speed increase button rather than the off button. I could hear the motor spinning faster and faster. Myra was screaming louder. We all ran to the treadmill and pulled the emergency cord. I thought for sure Myra was going to be with at least one less finger. No, she had all ten of them and all her teeth too, but she suffered this horrible treadmill rash/burn on her chin, neck and spots on her arm. She busted her upper lip too. She was so emotionally distraught, she would not calm down- not even for candy or cookies! She would not let me look at it and wanted nothing more than to hold me tight. She is doing much better now, and the burn is starting to darken and turn that nasty brown color. Her lip is purple and bruised up to her nose. You should see the looks I get from people in public. I finally went out and bought bandaids for her arm burns. Yup! I'm a nurse without bandaids in the house!
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