Nancy Drew : Danger By Design Walkthrough

Ok, you may remember from some of my earliest posts that one of my guilty pleasures is to play Nancy Drew computer games. Well, I just got another one in the mail a few days ago.

Well, I decided to try my hand at a walkthrough.

Here it is! If you find any errors, please let me know.

Also, No part of this or any post on my blog may be reproduced in any form. You may however link to it.

Rather than just giving answers, I’ll try and guide you to the answers. We’ll see how that goes.

We start out in Nancy’s room. I’m not sure why they chose to start here, but ok. Read the case file and if you would like the scrapbook and How to be a detective. When you are ready to start, click on the airline ticket.

I’m going to choose the Senior Detective level.

Once Heather sits down at her desk, talk to her and exhaust all topics of conversation (as always).

Before going to see Minette, search the room.

Read the notebook in your desk drawer carefully. There are solutions to at least 3 puzzles in there.

On the computer you’ll figure out that Sonny Joon from the Secret of the Scarlet hand is making a special guest appearance (sort of).

Read the e-mail, and make note of the things you need to do on the to do list.

Click on the game portal. You need a name and password. They are in Sonny’s notebook. I will give you one clue. Minette’s best friend of sorts is a dress form named Carol. That is your username. That is all. Oh, and don’t play the game yet.

OK, lets fix the plotter before we see Minette. On the last page of Sonny’s notebook there is a letter about the plotter. Read the letter, and the shapes on the bottom of the page will help you solve this puzzle. If you correctly fixed the plotter, it will no longer let you get a close up view of it.

Now that those things are done, lets go talk to Minette! But wait! Answer the phone!

Ok, Now go see Minette.

Talk to her and at the end, she will ask you to brew her some tea. Go over to the tea brewing area on the other side of Minette’s room.

Nancy will basically tell you how everything works. Click on the white recipe card looking thing on the table.

So Minette’s favorite color is red today and then she chooses the number 10. So read through all the conditions and add the called for herbs. I will say that the herb doesn’t have to meet all the conditions, just one of the conditions. What I did was figure out a condition (grow in marshy areas) and go through all the herb descriptions and write down those herbs. Then, I figured out another condition and did the same thing. You will find out that 2 herbs will appear twice on your list. I just added those once.

The total number of herbs is 11 (only counting the 2 herbs that appear on your list 2 times, once)

As soon as you finish with the tea, go to the outer office. Minette will let you know immediately if you got it right or if you have to try again.

Once you get it right, she’ll call you back and give you money and a bag and tell you to go to Pont Neuf to buy stuff that’s just like her old stuff.

Go back to your computer and make a note of all the other errands you could run while you’re out.

Talk to Heather.

Try to leave

Get the letter, take care of it, and then leave.

Lets go to Pont Neuf first. Look at the cross thingy in front of you. Read the inscription.

Next check out each of the venders in the park. Lets start with the one with the wrap on her head. She’s to the left.

One thing to note with Venders – you can haggle with them. You can try half price which they will accept most of the time, but if they don’t accept it, then the only choice you have is to pay full price.

Ok, back to the vender with the wrap on her head. She has one item of the four that Minette is looking for.

Now lets go to the vender with her back to you the whole time. She has 2 items that you will need for Minette.

Now for the vender in the middle of the park - he has only 1 item for Minette. But surprise! He also has a way for you to make money. You can paint reproductions for him. I always do the Mona Lisa painting because it’s much easier than the other one - although the other one is nice for a change now and again.

By the way, don’t forget to look at everything in the park.

Now on to Place Monge to talk to JJ Ling.

Talk to JJ, and don’t believe her! Get the envelope from her, and as always, exhaust all topics of conversation. Look at everything in the room, and also be sure to read the paper on the table now and every morning.

Now lets go to Rue Du Bac.

Dieter will say he doesn’t have the time to make the prints, so it’s up to you. The binder with instructions on it was hard for me to find. Click on the fish tank and to the right on the shelf is the binder. Read it and take notes. Dieter won’t let you take it into the dark room.

Don’t forget to search the room. You can borrow the digital camera right now if you want. You won’t need it until later, but it’s fun.

Now for the dark room. The hardest part here is the fact that you have to do this in complete darkness. And if you miss the tray and knock something over, you have a huge explosion. The easiest way to do this is to get a post-it and mark your screen where the switch and trays are. Be very careful not to do anything to harm your computer screen. Do this at your own risk!

Ok, the slides. You would think they would make things easy and you would develop 4 slides and voila! They would be 4 different slides. Well, it’s not that easy. I developed 3 and then kept developing the same ones I already had. Just try and look at the slide before you put it in the machine.

After you are done, talk to Dieter some more.

Now its time to go to Hotel De Ville

Talk to Jean Mi and give him the prints. Order something when urged to. I’ve had just about everything on the menu. It’s all chicken and hamburgers and ice cream.

Talk to Jean Mi some more and he will give you Hugo Butterly’s phone number. Fat lot of good it will do for you.

Ok, now back to the office.

Answer the phone for another blast from the past.

Ok, so we need to create some outfits. These outfits are weird. I’m not sure how to give hints for this. Just read the outfit guidelines on the white card on each page and try lots of combinations.

First outfit clue - The 3 items of one color aren’t the color green.

Second outfit clue - 2 items in this outfit are furry.

Third outfit clue - Both items on her head are yellow.

Talk to Heather some more and give her the envelope from JJ.

Go and try to give your items to Minette. You’ll find out she’s playing a game.

Go and talk to Heather. She’ll suggest you try and log in as Minette and get the high score so that Minette will quit playing and get back to work.

Login to the game portal using the username and password found in Sonny’s notebook. Keep playing until you top the high score of 1000. Yeah, this game is a pain. Everyone looks alike!

After you get the high score, go talk to Minette and give her your stuff.

Go to the outer office and now you are running home to see why JJ isn’t answering the phone.

Ok, once you get home talk to JJ.

Now we have 2 problems. We need to find mint and find out how to substitute for brown sugar.

First go to the kitchen cupboard and find the molasses. Get it and put it on the island with all the other ingredients.

Now we can solve both of our problems by going to the park.

Ok, we’re going to spend a lot of money on things you may think we don’t need. But we’ll need them later in the game.

First vendor – lady with a blanket on her head. You’ll need to pay full price for the mint. Buy the mint, the stake, the string, and the Ichi-Do book. Be sure to read the book carefully before you swim later in the game.

The second vender – the lady whose back is always to us. Buy the flashlight and the dictionary.

The 3rd vendor – the man in the middle of the park. Bring lots of money to this one. Buy the wetsuit, the pie tin, the cookbook and the book about codes. Try and buy the black box also.

When you leave the park, Nancy will make you go home because it’s getting dark. OK, I guess JJ can sleep outside Minette’s studio J

Next day:

Read the paper and then go over to the cookie ingredients.

Chop up the mint on the cutting board to the right. Be sure to read the recipe card and also the cook book to find out what the substitution for brown sugar is. Also don’t forget about the dictionary if you need help with figuring out what some of the ingredients are.

Mix the cookies up, click on the cookie sheet and when the cookies are done JJ will call.

Now to the office. As soon as you go inside, you will need to get the phone.

Get the note next to your computer.

So you need to go to the park and buy a stuffed parrot.

But what’s the hurry? Heather is gone so it’s time to check out her desk and get a closer look at the Dodo box.

At Heathers desk, the only thing to do really is look at her portfolio.

The Dodo box contains a great puzzle.

My hint here is that if you look in Sonny’s notebook, it will be much much much easier. I spent a lot of time on this puzzle before I realized that.

You have to solve the first puzzle on your own. OK, and the last one. But the middle one is very hard and it’s solution is in Sonny’s notebook I promise.

Read all the letters in the box.

OK now off to the park to buy a parrot!

After you talk to the lady with the hood, the game makes you go right. You see Dieter, and after he runs off you get an article and a clock gismo. Take them and continue shopping.

Buy the parrot from the man in the middle of the park.

Now lets go to Dieter’s and find out why he ran off?

He’s in the dark room. Knock on the door and talk to him.

He leads you to another puzzle on the wall over to the right of the fish. Put the clock gizmo on the wall.

This puzzle only gives you a certain period of time to solve. But it’s really easy. Just remember that the clock in the middle is the one you put in and maybe you should make the rest of the clocks look like that one.

Follow the passageway until the end and click on the leaves. You’ll find another puzzle. The answer is in the article about Noisette you got from Dieter.

Read the book.

Now back to the office to find something bugging Minette.

While searching for bugs, find a letter behind the first lady’s dress and a note on Minette’s desk.

This is a good time to search Minette’s room. Look at the first ladies desk and also those paint splattered round things.

You’ll have all the bugs when the box is full.

Now it’s time to use your calling card to call Lynn Manrique

Red Left… Green – as always, exhaust all conversation topics.

Now, lets go and talk to Dieter again and ask some more questions.

Alas! He is to busy and wants us to take some pictures for him.

Get the list off of his desk and use your dictionary to translate.

OK, so I can’t keep you from just looking down and seeing my list.

Stapler – Look in your office
Spider – Look around Dieter’s apartment/office
Candle – in the same place Zu tells you to leave a note.
Skull – in the same place Zu tells you to leave a note
Cross – look in the park
Teapot – where have we made tea lately?


OK, off to the park to release these bugs. Also to take a picture of the cross.

Now back to the office to take a picture of the teapot and stapler, and to make a few phone calls.

While you’re taking pictures in Minette’s area, why not ask her a few questions.

Also, click on the dress and she’ll tell you a bit more about it.

Next, talk to Heather and give her the parrot. She admits to sending the letter.

OK, now its time to call ZU. His number should appear when you pick up the phone.

Now lets go to see Jean Mi to ask about the photo in the magazine in Minette’s area.

Uh Oh, you have to help make parfaits before he’ll let you see the photo.

Be sure to use the parfait instruction book on the ledge in front of you. And ding the bell when it’s done.

OK, now we get to look at the photo. Notice that there is an arrow on each round thing and it is pointing to a particular roman numeral? Write down those numbers!

Next we go to talk Jing Jing into writing Zu a note.

Well, she won’t because she’s afraid that he will steal her identity.

The answer to this one lies in Hangman. I will tell you that there is no way to get her to agree to it, so you’ll have to trick her into it.

Now off to Denfert Rochereau or the Catacombs. Make sure you have 5 euro because that’s how much it costs.

Take pictures of the skull and candle. Then leave your message for Zu in the skull.

Well that’s all of the pictures. Lets head back to Dieter’s.

Talk to Dieter and give him the pictures. Ask about Noisette and he will give you a postcard type thing.

Combine the postcard with something in your inventory and then use the Red left….green clue.

It’s to late to do anything now.

Call Zu. He tells you how to get into the catacombs. Cool

First though lets look at that clue you got off of the post card. Open up that book that you got from Dieters place. On the last page of that letter is a symbol that is referred to as the cross of Lorraine. Have you seen it anywhere else? It’s the same cross you took a picture of in the park.

So we’re off to the park.

Click on the cross to get a close up view. You’ll notice that you can push the numbers now. Use the number that you got on the post card.

OK! Another puzzle. Make note of the clues here. They have something to do with each of the pieces of art in the park.

Go and do the mouths first.

Next do the windmill thingy. When you get it right and turn away, a squirrel will jump on the handle and make it move.

To solve this puzzle you will need a few of the things we bought from venders earlier. I will tell you no more however.

Now for the fish. That one is simple. Just push the red button!

Follow the path down, get the key. That is all there is to do here.

Can I just say that the next sequence made me a little dizzy. And can I also say that to make the tunnel that long was unnecessary and just a time waster. At least you don’t have to use it multiple times like the tunnel in Danger on Deception Island.

Just a little more criticizing. Can I just state how unlikely it would be that a secret tunnel would stay secret when it’s located in the middle of a city park. Thanks. OK, that’s all. Back to the walkthrough.

Lets go to the catacombs now. Hope you remembered your wetsuit. And to read that book. I bet the people at HERinteractive had a lot of fun putting that book together. The guy’s fro is awesome.

Click on the skull to reveal a red button. When pushed an entrance to the catacombs is revealed.

If the police approach, you can hide in the side rooms.

From the entrance you want to go across the board to the other side and then go to the very last entry on the right. You will see a pool of sorts just waiting for you to dive in!

OK, first lets go and get that bottle of whatever it was for the vender in the park.

Dive in, go into the large room with the three tunnels on the far wall. Choose the tunnel to the far right. Go through the tunnel, go right and then go straight towards the fan. The bottle is sitting right in front of it.

Now go back to the beginning for air. Also, because that’s where my next set of instructions start.

Ok, we’ll have to stop for air halfway or so. S = straight, L = left, R = right.

Go into the large room with the three tunnels on the far wall. Choose the tunnel on the lower left. Go through the tunnel and then go R, S, S, S, S, S, L, S, L, R, S, S, L, S, S, go up for air, then back down and go S, S, S, L, S, S, S, S, L, S, S, R, S. Then climb up the ladder. Check out the box and find that you have another puzzle to solve.

This one can be solved using a map of Paris, which coincidentally you see every time you go somewhere. It also talks about this a little in the letter in the book you got at Dieter’s place.

I really over thought this puzzle. I finally gave up and cheated by going to a forum. But it’s really easy if you look for those words that were in a different color on the plaque thingy, on your map of the city. I just finally got this to work for me. When I ‘saw’ it, I was feeling quite stupid.

Anyway, back to the underground plaque thingy. Swim to it, input your code, and if it’s right you get another thingy.

And after you get out of the water, you know why I wanted you to read that book.

OK, so lets go back to the office and check in.

Hey what is that thing on Minette’s door? Another puzzle to solve! Basically each fuse thingy needs to have either a color or shape in common with anything else that is connected to it.

If you fail, a yellow paint bomb goes off and ruins Minette’s entire collection.

OK, once that’s gone and you’ve thrown the bomb away, go into Minette’s area. Mysteriously, she’s gone. Anyway look at the center pole in the middle of the room. Click on the strange indentation in the metal. Look familiar? That’s right. Put the similar thing on it and a panel opens. Rotating color things. This puzzle, like the others, is impossible without the solution.

Lets go to the park and get the M380. There is a code in the book we got from Dieters that we might be able to decode with it.

Once you’ve traded for the M380, look at it in your inventory. Click on the lower portion. It opens a compartment with dials that look just like the things in Minette’s office.

Set the dials correctly and then type in the code from the book found at Dieters, under the picture of the M380.

Voila! The solution to the puzzle in Minette’s area. Use the dictionary if you need help with what color is what.

Lets go back to the office.

Solve the puzzle in Minette’s area by using the solution we just found.

Hey look a door in the floor!

Go down the stairs and see what’s there. Use your key in the door.

Read the letter in the box. Pay attention because Nancy only reads it out loud once and the darn thing is in French.

Make a note of the roman numerals on the bottom of the last page of the letter.

Uh oh, the door locked behind you.

Look at the lock.

Another puzzle.

This one you will need to decode before you can put it into the M380.

Cher ami, where have you seen that before?

Check out the letter in the book from Dieter’s. Both the picture and the letter have a clue for you.

Check out the codebook and read page 8, 9, and 10. If there are any letters in the number that is your Cher ami, just drop them.

Once you have the message decoded, grab your M380 and change the dials to match the numbers from the bottom of the letter in the case.

Type them in and voila! French numbers. That’s ok. Just use your dictionary to tell you what the solution is.

Ok, now that the bars are gone again, lets go upstairs.

You overhear a conversation.

Try to grab the dress.

I sure hope you read that book on Ichi-Do. Well, if you didn’t just take notes. She says a specific phrase just before she does a specific move.

Hope you had fun! I sure did!

for sale

Our house is now on the market. It's actually been on the market since about noon yesterday.

No calls yet. but keeping the house this clean is driving me insane. and it's driving the kids crazy (I'm cranky and keep after them to keep their toys picked up). On top of that I've got this nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach that I don't think will go away until at least one person looks at our house.

but at least I can say that for the most part I can get the house ready and leave in 15 minutes.

Of course this doesn't count mornings. Mornings, with getting the kids up and ready and also making beds, cleaning up after breakfast, I'd be comfortable with an hour to get all that done.

So here's hoping the house sells quickly. I'm still hoping for an investor so that we could rent back while the other house is being built. But at this point, I would take almost any full price offer. (give me a week, I'll change it to 'any offer') :)

We've got almost everything ready for the first hole to be dug. Our builder went down for the building permits on Wednesday and came out of the county building sounding about the same way I feel after going there for anything. Hopeless.

Anyway, he thought there was a ton of more unexpected things to do, but after sorting through what I had already done, we found that all we had to actually do is e-mail one guy for the new street address and apply for another permit at the fire department. The addresses I had in hand the next day, and hopefully the fire department thing will be resolved by early next week.

The worst part about the whole visit to the county is that while our builder was telling me about all these things we still needed, he said that we should be breaking ground within a month.

Um. no. Next week is more like it. Probably the week after (since we are still waiting on the fire department access permit) but I refuse to let him alter our July 1st starting date by THAT much.

I plan to keep pushing him until things start happening. He will find that I'm going to be checking on him a bunch. Not so much that he will hate us, but enough to help him realize that the best thing for him is to finish our house!

Anyway, I'm crossing my fingers that someone will come see our house!

Land owners!

We're land owners! Wahoo!

I filed all the paperwork to split the lot and give us ownership of the land.

We now have 1 acre of land!

Our house plans are nearly done. Our builder is awesome. I wish I knew how to put house plans online.

We've got a 4 bed, 2 1/2 bath, large kitchen with an island, huge pantry, storage room off the huge garage, covered back patio. A total of 2187 square feet.

I feel blessed that we were able to work with a builder who also was able to draw up plans for us. I'm sure we've payed for a it in our costs somewhere, but it feels good to work on plans with the same guy who will be building your house. I feel like he's really been able to concentrate on our house and our dreams for it. He's also been able to keep us on track as to what would look good and how to get what we want in our house along with what would look nice. I highly recommend our builder. If you're looking for a builder in the Boise/Meridian/Nampa/Kuna etc. area, I've got the guy for you.

I'm also the proud owner of a septic permit almost. That only cost $300 smackeroos. I just need to get them

Oh and the access permit. That was only $25, but don't forget that you have to buy a bid bond. Which basically means this... you get a bid for some asphalt work for x amount ($1,800 in our case) Then you go down to the highway district and pay them the $1800. Then the person does the work. Then the highway district comes and inspects it. If the company does a good job, then the highway district refunds your money. If they do a bad job, then the highway district takes your money and fixes it. So this could potentially cost $3,600. I'm not sure how picky the highway district is, but the company I've chosen seems very professional and I'm confident in my choice.

I can say right now that I'm frustrated what a pain this whole process has been.

I am also frustrated at this moment by hubbies family.

His sister has planned a family reunion.

Strike one - wants to have a family picture taken where the kids wear white shirts and the adults wear black shirts.

To elaborate. We don't own shirts these colors, and in the kids case, white shirts are very impracticle.

Strike two - The men go golfing while the women (and kids of course) do pedicures and manicures.

Not something I enjoy. I'd rather do something else.

Strike three - we have to go to Roaring Springs.

Don't look good in a bathing suit. The kids aren't old enough to enjoy the expensive experience. I can't enjoy myself because of course I'm with the kids while hubby is probably out playing. I'm sure he'll take his turn, but I'd rather have the kids not there and be able to enjoy myself with him on the rides.

We could talk about cost, we could talk about the fact that none of these things is something I especially want to do. We could talk about the driving back and forth - 45 minutes both ways - and cranky tired children who don't want to get in the car the 3rd day. We could talk about how I've sworn to my husband that I don't want to go.

Also, the whole thing will cost around $160 - $170. For that kind of money I want something besides cranky children to show for it thanks. A trip to a resort, something. Something besides black shirts we won't wear again, and white shirts that the kids will stain soon after (or before with my luck) the picture is taken.

Sorry for the negativity. I'll get over it. Just like I managed to get through Thanksgiving.

Have I told you about our street naming dilemma? :)

I'm about to have a nervous breakdown

We've been working on simply owning the land that our future home will be built on.

Can you say headache?

From not being able to split the lot, to easements, to surveys, to acknowledgement letters, to renaming the lane to putting up street signs, to quit claims.

This is the biggest headache. As of about 10 minutes ago I was ready to call the whole thing off.

I received the acknowledgement letter from the highway district. It said that we would have to pave the lane and put a stop sign in. My first thought was of some asphalt quotes for our home owners association. What we had quoted was much smaller than a lane, and was quoted at $16k.

We don't have that sort of money and I don't intend to go that much further into debt for this stupid thing.

I should also mention the the county planning and zoning people told us that since the lane already existed, we would not have to pave it.

Upon further review of the letter, it struck me that they were referring to to "one lot plus the new lot". Well there will be 3 lots on this after all is said and done. So I'm crossing my fingers that this is a big mistake!

I'm really crossing my fingers.

If we have to pave the lane, I'm pretty sure we can't afford this. I've already been worried about financial stuff and this would be the straw, you know "The last straw" or the "straw that broke the camels back"

Pray for us.

sorrow

Hubby's father passed away yesterday evening.

I'm not ready to say much more than that.

We're all a bit numb.

Thoughts going through my head:

What am I feeling?

Why do I feel so normal at times, and at other times, so emotional?

How is this going to affect hubby?

How is this going to affect our relationship?

How is this going to affect hubby's Mom?

How is this going to affect the family?

I'm tired of all these emotions. When I say tired I mean my body is tired. This has truly been a rollercoaster ride.

We are blessed to be an eternal family.

I think I'm over it

I think I'm over blogging.

I've had lots of news the last few months, but no desire to post about it.

This has become my place to rant.

I don't want anyone to think that that's me though. I've got a great life, just need a place to rant occasionally.

Anyway, a quick update.

A is walking, C is a cutie who is becoming very helpful with her little sister.

Hubby is working away at his job and school. He should be done with his upper division classes by August-ish. Then he has to clep around 30 credits, and then he has to take one last class, and voila! I'm hoping to have him done by next January.

He did have a bit of a scare with his job. The company was going to open a division in China. But that seems to have not taken off at all. He has a great guy at the head of his division of the company who is great and had a special meeting to update all the employees about what is going on. There were a ton of depressing rumors floating around and this guy planned a meeting for everyone (held 2x to accomodate all the shifts) and told everyone EXACTLY what was happening and not happening. He managed to clear up all the rumors, and hubby came home from work very positive and not worried at all. We even started dreaming about a new house again!

I'm glad that scare lasted only a week. The China thing might still happen, but on a much smaller scale that would not affect hubby's job. Also, he was just given a huge new project that will give him major responsibility. So he's even feeling more valuable to the company.

I also want to mention that hubby's boss is great. He's very open, relaxed and a great supervisor. The only problem with him is the fact that he can be raunchy. He'll send out the occasional raunchy joke, and going to lunch with him is awful. He basically sexually harasses the waitresses to an embarrasing degree. Hubby tolerates what he must and deletes the rest. Lately he's been skipping out on the group lunches.

He's been skipping because of our New Year's Resolution. We decided that in order to live a longer and healthier life, and in order to more enjoy our kids and grandkids, we needed to start a diet and excersize program.

We've been exercising since Jan 1 and eating lots of fruits and vegetables. Our day starts early. Hubby gets up at 4:30 to work out for about 45 min. He runs on our treadmill and sometimes lifts weights. Then he goes to work.

I don't know his exact schedule, because I get to sleep until 7! I get up, walk for 26 min on the treadmill and then shower if there's time, and get the kids up. We have breakfast and then around 10 we have a snack. For breakfast we're eating fiber cereals and hubby eats oatmeal occasionally. Snacks are from 100-200 calories.

Hubby comes home from work around 11am He works out/lifts weights. Then we all eat lunch together. We usually have sandwiches. The kids love pb&j and we have turkey.

Then hubby goes back to work and the kids and I watch Zaboomafoo. Then the kids take naps. That's when I get started again. I'm still changing things around with my 2nd workout, but right now I'm doing another 26 minutes on the treadmill and then 30 minutes on the exersize bike. Then I have about and hour to myself and then the kids get up again!

We have an afternoon snack and then I usually let them watch Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. C loves it! Just like I did when I was a kid. We sing the theme song together!

When hubby gets home from work, he does more time on the treadmill and then we eat dinner. I've been experimenting with the "Lowfat" recipes in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. They're pretty good!

Then we usually watch a little tv and go to bed. Once the weather warms up I hope that we go to the park and play in the backyard in the evenings.

So anyway, this is the big thing in our lives right now. By the way, Hubby has lost 38 pounds! and I've lost a less impressive 14 pounds. I don't know why it's harder for me, Maybe because I dont' run or lift weights but it can be depressing. I just have to remind myself that we all lose weight differently. And I've been noticing that clothes fit differently so, I have to be happy with that.

But anyway, Go us!

My needs

Google your name + needs. So it looks like this "Me Again needs". Quite entertaining!

Me Again needs ... help
Me Again needs ... an organ transplant (who knew?)
Me Again needs ... a theme song
Me Again needs ... to get a life
Me Again needs ... an adoptive family (really?)
Me Again needs ... a fresh start
Me Again needs ... a loving home (well, ok then)
Me Again needs ... independence
Me Again needs ... very little help with daily tasks
Me Again needs ... a makeover (Hey! I'm trying over here!)
Me Again needs ... a new environment
Me Again needs ... to find the truth


I am slightly disturbed at how many people are using my name for their pets names.

Oh well.

I won't take credit for this. I found it on someone elses blog and found it entertaining.

I could tell you the poop story instead, but members of my family found it too distirbing, so I'll spare you. Lets just say it involved massive amounts of poop and a bathtub. And my two kids. We'll leave it at that :) .

I'm freaking out!

So we have an overabundance of nursery kids in our ward. That is where I come in. In the Primary presidency, I'm over the nursery and the sunbeams. I thought it was a great idea because at the time C was in the nursery. She's now going to be a sunbeam! and A will hit the nursery around Feb/March.

Well at this time we have 27 kids in the nursery. We've been told at the stake and ward level that we need to have only 10 kids per nursery. So that means that we need to have 3 nurseries. By the end of the year, we'll have around 42 kids in nursery. (we have a young families ward) So by the end of the year, we'll need to have 4 nurseries.

The problem is that we don't have room for that many nurseries.

So we've been searching for answers. We thought maybe we could switch one of our nursery rooms for the bigger YW room. They weren't all that excited to move though. And they would have to use the kitchen for a classroom. We would have to help them move the piano every sunday, and also buy them pictures for the walls out of our budget.

Also, the YW pres is harder than hades to get a hold of. So for the past week, I've been trying to talk to her. I finally cornered her Christmas day at church. She wasn't excited about the idea at all. She wanted me to solve all her problems. That's how we came around to the list of things for us to do above. I told her I would call her monday, but wasn't able to before FHE time came around.

I also wanted to put it off until I verified that this was our absolute last resort.
I went to the church and listed all our current classrooms, and how many classes we had. I also was able to look a little more into the possibility of using 2 classrooms that we already have. They have a divider and would be a perfect nursery. But that would leave us short a classroom. I talked it over with the Primary Pres and we discussed a few things. Anyway I called up the Sunday School Pres. and was able to find out that they had a classroom that no-one was using. So Voila! Solution.

The funny part was that I haven't been able to get a hold of the YW pres to tell her the heat is off, for now. Come fall when we hit 40, I'm not sure what we'll do. Maybe we'll have to up the limit to around 14 in each nursery. That's better than the 20 each that we were carrying at the end of this year in each of our 2 nurseries.

Anyway, now I need to call a few people to finish this thing off.


I'M SICK OF PHONE CALLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It drives me crazy

It drives me crazy that we can have an argument about whatever, and then he'll just go to sleep in the middle of it.

I hate that when I get so upset that I leave the room he never follows me. It's like he could care less.

The thing is, he is normally very caring. Why can't he see that this would make a big difference to me?

Tonight we were arguing about where to go for Thanksgiving. My family is huge and normally has to reserve a church building for our meal. This year, it looks like it will be a small gathering for a change and my parents decided to have it at their home for a change.

I would like to go. My husband wants to go to his parents. To be fair, it is our year to go there.

I hate this whole your parents my parents split the holiday thing. I really just want to stay home (at OUR house) and enjoy the holiday.

In the middle of the argument I threatened this. He didn't have any comment.

He says that I don't show any enthusiasm to go to his parents house at all. Ever.

I do though. There are things that I don't like about it though. I will admit that.

First off, his parents live in a doublewide. No big deal. We have a small kitchen and living room to hang out in. But to stay there for long periods of time can be claustrophobic. Especially since his father is an invalid and has huge sores on his legs that smell. I guess being around that smell is something I don't look forward to. His dad lives in the living room. That's also where everyone eats. Tne kitchen is just to small to fit around the table. Their house is also the reason I will never like the smell of Febreeze again. Febreeze mixed with smelly mediciney smells aren't very nice. And don't get me started on the bathroom. Lets just say that I make every effort to go before we get in the car to go to their house.

I also don't look forward to keeping C and A out of what they are supposed to stay out of and confined into that small area. I don't mind it for Sunday visits.... I wonder how long we would stay for Thanksgiving? 4-6 hours? It was only a few years ago that we were there... Why don't I remember? Did we leave early to get in some Thanksgiving at my parents?

His parents are very nice people, and I don't mind talking to them at all. I don't mind talking to any of his family.

But I was trying to explain this concept to him earlier. If I have a choice of course I'm going to choose my parents. That's my home. That's what I'm familiar with. Unless you had a horrible childhood, that's what you do. I tried to explain this to him and he totally didn't understand.

ARGH.

He thinks I have something against his parents, their trailer, etc. He says, "Why do you even mention the smallness if it doesn't matter?" Well that would be because it's slightly claustrophobic. But I can handle it. No Big Deal. FOR HIM I WILL DEAL WITH IT!!! He doesn't get that though.

ARGH!!!!

This whole argument started when I said that he seemed to care deeply where we go for Thanksgiving, so I said we'll do what you want to do, I don't care about it as much as you seem to. Then he got all argumentive. I still don't understand why.

I hope whoever might stumble upon this blog won't think that we argue all the time. Only occasionally. And it's true what they say. The 3 things you will argue about in a marriage are family, money, and sex. So far, family is a big hitter in our house.

Whoa, it's been a long time

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Ok, enough of that.

Lots has happened in the last few months.

For one thing, I sort of lost my desire to blog. Life is going to fast and I want to get off!

The primary program is this Sunday. The neighborhood association has asked (well they didn't ask, they just did it) me to be the beautification committee head. I've been having play dates with 2 of my neighbors twice a week (Tues & Thurs) and a primary pres. meeting on Wed. Friday seems to be the only day I stay home anymore.

It's crazy.

I'm now a year older, and A is now 1 year old. C will be 3 in a few months and my hubby is going to be hitting the big 3-0 soon. We're all getting so old :) !

Well, the phone is ringing, so I should go.

Bye!

Bad Dream

I just had a really bad dream.

I was staying on the coast, in a little town where my family would vacation while we were growing up.

Someone I knew came and got me. They took me to one of the houses that we would vacation at. Although I didn't recognize it. We had a conversation as we walked over about how it would be nice for me to be able to vacation there again.

Turns out this lady was from another branch of the family. These were all people I didn't know. As soon as I arrived I remembered that I had left my kids at the motel.

I couldn't believe that I had forgotten about them, but since it was around 6pm, maybe they were sleeping? Then I remembered that I had been engrossed in a book all day and must have forgotten about them.

The person that brought me over, wanted me to meet everyone before I left. I agreed, but was in a hurry. I met about half before I just said I had to go.

As I was leaving the house, Somehow it was a motel or something? Anyway I saw C sitting on the floor playing with another little girl. I was surprised and then all of a sudden She was 50 feet away and in the middle of me and this other lady who was claiming to be her mommy. I yelled at the lady that she was my child and then she said that she was hers. C of course came when I called for her. the lady said something like oh well and ran away.

Then somehow she had a guy with her. I chased after them and caught the guy. All of a sudden my hubby was there and I was yelling at him to call the police on a cell phone. He was trying, but kept saying stuff about the service. I was pleading with someone to call the police as I sat on this guy and wouldn't let him up. Then I realized that I didn't know where A was.

the guy said that they had done a little number on A. I don't know what that meant but I couldn't leave to go look in the motel room for her fast enough. I told hubby to sit on the guy and not to let him go. Hubby wasn't taking me seriously. Not until I told him to sit on him again.

Then I was looking for my key, I asked a employee who was right there if they had extra keys. They did, but I didn't know my room number. Finally I grabbed hubby's bag and took his.

I didn't get to my room before I woke up.

When I woke up, I was so disturbed. I thought I heard noises in the kids bedrooms, and had to go make sure they were ok.

They were.

Of course I can't imagine going back to bed. I'm too worked up.

A will wake up in about an hour.

I should probably go and lay down though. Otherwise today will kill me.

I hate dreams like this.

Why am I so paranoid?

About 9 months ago someone broke the window out of our car and stole some things from inside it.

Right before I fell asleep last night I was thinking about how we had left a portable television in the trunk of our car that was sitting in the driveway.

About 5 hours before bed someone doorbell ditched us. I think anyway. I was kind of slow getting to the door (thought it was a salesman) so maybe they just left. But when I went outside I didn't see anyone, and when I went to the upstairs window I didn't see anyone anywhere walking away, or to another house.

I wonder if the dream was because I still feel victimized about the window being broken out of the car thing.

Here's hoping that when we buy and build on that acre, that I'll feel somewhat safe. (crossing my fingers). The acre wouldn't be on a street. Its off of a back street, behind another house. People would see this other house, then walk down the lane, see ours, walk down the lane a bit more, and see my parents. I want to build the house in such a way that its not easy to pick it out as new(new means rich to some people) We want a nice country style laid back house. But one that will match with the other two homes near it. They both have a pinkish brick outside. I wonder how expensive brick is? That's the way I would love to go.

Every few months or so, in our neighborhood, we have a rash of those car burglaries. So can you blame me for being paranoid?

the dog(s)?

So last Saturday night I stayed up until 2am working on a project for Primary. chair covers.

I haven't been up that late for a while. I was tired and a little punchy. Well, I went downstairs, and got ready for bed. It took me forever to relax to the point where I might fall asleep. All of a sudden there is a "whumpa whumpa whumpa and then what sounded like our back gate opening and closing really fast.

That freaked me out. My first thought was that someone had run down the side of our house, went through the gate, and was now in the back yard. So of course I had to go to the back door and peak out. I looked and looked, and finally put the back porch light on. I didn't see a thing.

I got back into bed. I was freaked and didn't want to go to bed with potential robbers trying to get into the house.

Then there was more commotion at the side of the house (which by the way was right next to my head because of where our bedroom and bed are situated)

Then there were more running sounds and a crashing sort of sound, then a high pitched, noise. I woke up my husband in a panic.

He agreed that there were some strange noises coming from the side of the house. He thought it sounded like a dog whining. We both went to a window or door to look out. Neither of us saw a thing. But the high sound was still coming from the side of the house.

So we think that it was most likely a dog whining. There are some dogs in the house behind ours. So the thinking is that some dog was in heat, another dog tried to jump our fence to get to the dog and hit the fence instead.

So somewhere around our neighborhood a dog owner is trying to figure out where his dog got hurt.

The toilet... again

So C tells me she has to go poo poos. So I tell her to go sit on the potty. She has done this before with no problems. She was starting to grunt, and I urged her to go in again. She went into the bathroom and I heard her moving around. She's done this plenty of times before with potty, so I thought she made it onto the potty. Hubby goes into check on her. I hear a horrified "Oh NO!!!"

C had pooped in her panties, and pottied. The potty was all over her and the floor. The poop seemed to be contained in her panties. Hubby was able to get her out of those. Whats funny is that when she sees the poop she panics and wants out of them as soon as possible. So here's how it went down. Hubby gingerly grabs the panties and stretches the leg holes so that she can easily get her legs out. She pulls one leg out and then sees the poop. She couldn't get away from it fast enough. Unfortunately for hubby, one of her legs was still in the panties.

PLOP

You guessed it. A nice big pile of poop on the floor. Fairly contained. A lot of it too. Imagine a medium sized, somewhat slushy, snow ball and picture it dropped on the floor. That is about what this looked like. Anyway, hubby grabs the panties, grabs some more dirty clothes, and puts it all in the washing mashine for a wash. In the meantime I get to mop up potty and poop and give the kid a bath. Why Oh why?

I love the fact that hubby helps so much around the house, but when it comes to the kids, sometimes I feel like I'm the only show in town.


Argh!!!

Anyway, it all cleaned up well, and I can't wait to clean that floor like crazy. YUCK!


We went out to my parents new place tonight. They have 2 horses, 3 goats, and 2 bunnies that they "inherited" from my brother and his family. C is thrilled because she got to pet the goats and help feed the horses carrots. She loved picking and eating blackberries also. What she didnt' like was when she walked to close to some rose bushes and they kept grabbing her clothes. She would panic and start crying. So I would help her get untangled. She did it two different times. She also fed some bread to the bunnies. I doubt they will eat it, but she had fun!

The Toilet

So I've got the kids fed, A is in bed. All that's left is C. I've got her in her bedroom, I'm changing her into a pull-up for her nap and I ask the fateful question. "do you have to go potty?" She says "nooooyes" I ask her again. This time the answer is yes.

I bring her into the bathroom and as she lifts the lid of the toilet she says " umhgj fjaefjlkew (gibberish) comb" I only understand Comb. Oh no I think. I'm going to find a comb in the toilet. Great.

Sure enough. There are not one, but TWO combs in the toilet. I grab the nearest fishing tool (my crochet hook) and fish them out. I liberally soap everything including my hands.

Just another day in this Mom's life. :)

By the way, C just told me that she is done. She didn't go potty. But now she's in bed.

YAY!

and on and on and on

My Reggae Name http://www.irielion.com/israel/reggaename.html
Sheba Nancy

My Mormon Name http://rumandmonkey.com/widgets/toys/mormon/
Heavenly Melanie AldaVern

My Smurf Name http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mule/smurfgen.html
Fictitious Smurf

My Matrix Name http://matrix.orb6.com/name_generator.php
Eos the Glitch Chaser

Here is my Indian Name

Abigail Blackhearted Barnstormer

And my husband's

Johnson Blue Velvet Jackal

For your's, go here http://www.aspalta.cbc.ca/deaddog_asp/aininfo.asp

C's
Delphinia Neon Chicken

A's
Charlotte Unhesitating Weasel

My Sister L's
Naomi Makeshift Scallion

My new nephew's (Who was born 2 days ago and is as cute as a button)
Randolph Antibiotic Hyena

I could go on forever! But I won't. To much fun!

Whoa

So life has gone crazy in the last month. It seems like forever since I last posted.

We're in a bit of a houseing dilemma.

Hubby's Dad had to go to the hospital. He is quite overweight and has poor circulation in his legs. He is a veteran, so he gets to take advantage of the veterans services in our area. Such as monthly doctors appointments to monitor his health. He has poor health, I'm sure they don't do this for every veteran unless needed :).

Anyway, because of his being overweight, he spends most of his time sitting. He has back problems (never has seen a chiropractor.um, ok?) that have caused lying down to be painful, so for about the last 15 years he has slept in a recliner. This has caused bedsores all over his legs and backside.

These sores were getting really bad. They admitted him to the hospital, and then to a care center. He should be at the care center for something like 4 weeks.

So this got hubby and I thinking. His parents live almost 2 hours away from where he has his monthly doctor visits. Is it time to think about moving to a home where his parents can live with us?

So we thought about this, and started looking at possibilities. But when we approached his parents, they said, thanks but no thanks. They are quite comfortable where they were. Also his Mom is working and didn't want to commute 45 minutes every morning. I guess she doesn't want to deal with early retirement? Anyway, They make as much if not more than we do, but have a lot of debt. So hubby also offered to help them get organized and out of debt, but they refused that also. So hubby has organized a meeting of some of the siblings tonight to discuss the situation and see if we need to do anything, or if we should just leave them be.

Can I just say the debt thing drives me nuts. According to hubby's Dad it's all his wifes fault. She is always buying things. That leads me to say, um, ok, so you didn't tell your wife after this many years of marriage that she should cut down on the spending? Being a victim is ok I guess, but for over 25 years? At this point I say its both their faults. In my book its not ok to play victim for this long. I'm not explaining myself well. But hopefully you get the gist.

But the whole houseing thing got us thinking. The land and home prices around here are going up. We would like to buy around an acre, so that means what we can afford is getting smaller and smaller. So I've been anxious. So I've been looking.

Meanwhile another situation is going on. My brother, who runs a picture framing business (although it's much more than that!) decided that he wanted to do something else for awhile. I'm not entirely sure of his reasons, but that isn't really my business. So My parents, who also own a piece of this business have offered to run it for a while. So they are going to sell their home, and buy my brother's home (the business is run in his back yard). Their home is on 2/3's an acre and my brothers home is on 2.? acres. My parents are getting older (mid 60's) and were having problems taking care of their 2/3's an acre. So my brother's land was worrying them. So they heard we were looking at land and approached us! They want us to buy around an acre. So yay! C and A love Grandma so this will be great. But it needs to happen quickly. We want to pay fair market value to avoid any bad feelings, and the land prices are going up up up!

The other thing that's great is that if there is something we want to do (such as a huge garden) and there isn't room on our land for it, Mom and Dad are ok with us doing it on their land. Of course we wouldn't do anything permanent, like a shed on their land, because we would want it on our land in the event of either of us selling our home down the road.

The other thing that makes this great is that Mom and Dad are planning on a mission in about 2 years when mom retires from her job. So at that time, we would be here to watch over the house, and maybe the business. I'm not sure if they will have anyone stay in the house. We'll see in 2 years. And the thought of working the business makes me nervous. But my sister L lives near and has a lot of interest in the business. So it could all work out.

It could all explode too.... so I just try not to think of it. :)

We're going to go look at a home building company today. They say that they can build a home more efficiently than other companies. They only build 7 designs. This makes me a bit nervous. But they also say that they save money without cutting corners or using inferior materials. That sounds good. But we won't make any decisions without a LOT of thought.

crossing my fingers!

Nobody Likes Me, Everybody hates me

Guess I'll go eat worms!

I've e-mailed several people and had no responses. I think I'm developing a complex!

If you happen to have received a plea for help from a somewhat random person that you sort of met one time at Lon's in Provo, please answer their e-mail. The dang family website needs your help!

Primary wipes me out

Totally.

We rotate conducting and sharing time. Every 3rd month I conduct, Every 3rd month I do sharing time, and then I get a month free.

This month I've been doing sharing time. I show up 30 minutes before church to help set up the primary room, and get everything out for my lesson. Then I get to enjoy Sacrament meeting. Then comes 2 hours of primary. We do opening exercises first, until 2:40, in the chapel. then we send the sr. primary to class, and the jr. primary to the primary room for sharing time. Then at 3:20 we do a switcheroo.

By the time its all over I'm ready to take a nap or something. Yesterday, I helped put everything away in the primary room, and then went out to the foyer where Hubby and C and A were waiting. I sat on the couch and couldn't find the motivation to get up and go out to the car. It took at least 5 minutes and a fruit snack for me to get moving again :) Then when we got home, hubby said he had a headache, so I made dinner, we ate, and after a plethura of chocolate, I came out of my tired place.

I can't wait for next month. It's my free month. I plan to enjoy! Also, I think I'll find ways to help the other women in any way I can so that they don't get wiped out.

Well healthwise, I've developed - well - something under my left eye. It's a series of red bumps. One day I think it's gone, and the next its inflamed again. At first I thought it might be skin cancer because my dad gets spots on his face that he has to get frozen off. But he said that when you touch a spot of skin cancer it burns like crazy. This doesn't. It is just sore. It's not pinkeye. My eye is not pink at all. My sister suggested it might be a allergic reaction to something. she said try Cortizone. I've tried that, somewhat irregularly. I can't tell if it has helped at all.

I'm thinking about going to the doctor. Problem is I don't really have a regular doctor. just an OBGYN. We do go to a big building full of doctors for the kids pediatrician. I could go to a GP there. But I hate going to the doctor when its not necessary. Not worth $20 for them to say It will clear up on it's own. It hasn't cleared up on its own for about a month now. I'm not sure what do do.

Any ideas?

This looked fun

Found this in one of the blogs I read.

ten random things about me:
1. Maturity-wise I feel about 18, even though I'm well into my 20's
2. I have a weird lump on my foot.
3. I'm 5'6" and always wanted to be taller. But it was for the best. Hubby is 5'8".
4. I'm currently crocheting my way through a baby blanket pattern book.
5. I'm trying to find a market to sell my blankets.
6. Hubby doesn't like the way I drive, yet it was the first thing he ever complimented me on. It was the night he first asked me out though...
7. I'm about to crochet my second BYU themed blanket. On a baby blanket!
8. I haven't been to one of my hubby's softball games this year. You try chasing a 2 year old around for 1 1/2 hours. Its horrible. Did that last year. No thanks.
9. I don't drink enough water and am secretly scared that I'm going to be sick because of it.
10. I'm fat

nine places I've visited:
1. Hermosillo, Mexico
2. Canon Beach Oregon
3. Pheonix Arizona
4. Manti Utah
5. Payette Idaho
6. West Yellowstone Idaho
7. Idaho Falls Idaho
8. Salt Lake City Utah
9. Boring Oregon (seriously! They even have "The Boring Burger"


eight things I want to do before I die:
1. Have grandkids!
2. Be successful in some sort of stay at home buisiness that doesn't involve a pyramid scheme of some sort
3. Help my children gain strong testimonies.
4. See my children meet their true loves and marry.
5. Be a good parent
6. Be a good helper with school work.
7. Be a good wife!
8. Have a huge garden!


seven ways to win my heart: (Hubby! Please read!)
1. a back massage
2. A foot massage
3. A back scratch
4. comb my hair
5 hold my hand
6. change some diapers
7. make dinner

and just a note. Hubby does this well. He is always helping me with #6 & 7, but if I could have my perfect world I would have to do less of them. :)


six things I believe in:
1. The church
2. That the Lord loves all of us. Even if we're 3 year old kids who are pests and won't sit down or be still during sharing time.
3. There is no baby cuter than A, and when C was a baby, she was the cutest. Now she is the cutest toddler :)
4. I love my hubby
5. you have to really love soccer to watch a game in spanish (when you barely know any words in spanish)
6. The best invention was a car adapter that allows you to watch movies/play games using your car's power. I don't know if those dvd players use it, but our little tv/vcr combo does and it's great. As long as you don't mind listening to 5 hours of the Bear in the Big Blue house potty video.


five things I'm afraid of:
1. Spiders
2. The unknown.
3. burglary
4. falling down (the reason I really can't skate or ice skate)
5. the scale

four of my favorite items in my room:
1. Any of my books by Clair Poulson
2. the Mrs. Pacman console (Mappy!!!)
3. Any of my books by Betsy Brannon Green
4. all of my books!

three things I do everyday:
1. Change at least 2-3 diapers
2. Make at least 2 meals (as long as cereal counts)
3. Kiss my hubby

two things I'm trying to do right now:
1. Trying to finish this list so that I can hold A
2. Listening to a soccer game in Spanish that hubby is watching :)

one person I want to see right now:
1. Love to see my Mom. She is C's absolutely favorite person.

The Opposite Sex

So I'm watching a June Allyson film called "The Opposite Sex" on TCM. About 30 minutes into the show I realize that I'm watching a remake of a film I saw just last week - "The Women" - on TCM. How's that for coincidences? The worst part is that I still watched the whole thing. There was nothing on, and the baby was taking a nap on my lap. I didn't want to disturb her, and I had to watch something. but it was mildly entertaining. :)

"The Secret of the Old Clock" is coming out tomorrow. From www.herinteractive.com . It is a Nancy Drew computer game.

I was a huge fan of the Nancy Drew series when I was a kid. So these computer games are a great way to relive my childhood :)

This company publishes 2 games a year. I usually buy them as soon as humanly possible. but this time, even though I would like to, I'm not sure I even have time to play it if I were to buy it. We'll see.

C is now mostly potty trained. She finally got it while we were in Utah for a family reunion. The thing that did it for her was being able to use a big girls toilet. Go figure. We're still working on the poop thing. I think that's because she has a hard time sitting for very long on a toilet. And she doesn't relax enough. both of these things are necessary for pooping. I'm toying with the idea of reintroducing the potty chair. I don't want to go backwords though. I'm sure we'll figure it out. Right now she usually waits until she has a pull-up on.

A is almost crawling. she mostly goes backwards, but is slowly figuring out going forward. She crawls "catapiller style". She gets up on her knees and then lays down. This pushes her forward about 4 inches at a time. Occasionally she will roll. she's in the experimental stage :)

Oh, and I just wanted to say "Bernard for Heisman!"

Man I am a whiner

I have to clean the house today

Ugh.

I don't like cleaning the house. Its a pain with 2 kids. Spend 30 minutes on the kitchen, and A has no patience left. So now I'm a slave to her crankiness. So where's my break? Where's my reward for cleaning? A cranky baby who wants to be held or just played with.

Ugh

Oh well. That's life I guess.

so hubby and I have been thinking about buying a larger piece of property. About 1-2 acres. We want to have a huge garden and some fruit trees. I want a small green house and he wants a shop for his tools, etc.

Well, the company he works for has just announced that next year they will be expanding into China.

It didn't occur to me until he mentioned it, but there is a possibility that his job could go to someone in China.

I really would like to think that this company wouldn't do that. It is a local company, that has been around 25+ years. I used to work there before I had C. It doesn't seem like something they would do.

but the possibility is there.

so we're holding off.

We weren't looking to spend lots of money, but we would be increasing our mortgage.

We're still keeping an eye out for a piece of property to build on. If the right one comes along, we'll look. But most likely, we're in this house and neighborhood for the next 2 years at least.

Halfway house update!

I thought a while ago it wasn't happening, but I was wrong. Its still there. In fact, I found out on Sunday that it has it's first resident. Our own resident ex-con. He served time for grand theft. Lock those doors and cars!!!

Speaking of ex-con's I've found out more info about my sister's ex-con boyfriend. Leadro is on the run. Recently we learned that the reason he cannot use his real name and social is because he skipped out on his parole. How stupid is that? You only have to check in with someone and you skip out?

Stupid stupid stupid.

hmmm

create your own personalized map of the USA

Here are the states I've visited. I've also been to Mexico, but this map wouldn't let me do countries too.

I've never been on a plane. Yes, I know at my age that is somewhat unique. I've always traveled in a car. I've never even had the option. When I was a kid, we were to poor to fly 10 kids anywhere, and utah - where both sets of grandparents, and a good deal of the aunts and uncles were - was a 1/2 day drive. Much cheaper to drive.

As an adult, we've never gone so far that we even considered flying.

The furthest my husband and I have gone was the coast. About 11 hours away. We went in order to be at my sisters wedding at the Portland temple. Then we had a week of fun at the coast. C was only about 18 months.

Anyway, that is the strange fact I share about myself this morning.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

I pity the fool who has to work today!

Garage Sale Saturday!

I'm nowhere near ready for the garage sale on Saturday.

About 3 months ago I had a brilliant idea that our subdivision should have a garage sale. Since I was the one pushing the idea, they put me in charge. So while cleaning out my closets, I've also been in charge of placing ads, posting signs, and on Saturday I'll have to put signs up at all the major cross streets.

Just thinking about it makes me tired.

I still have to do so much stuff. I haven't priced a thing, and I've still got a few more drawers left to go through.

I also wanted to have a lot of baked goods to sell. I need a list!

- go through drawers in bedroom
- get a babysitter
- find out if a goodwill truck will come by afterwards
- Make signs and arrange for hubby to help me put them up
- buy donuts and drinks to sell the day of
- make a lot of baked items to sell the day of
- price stuff

Is that all? And its already Wednesday! Ugh

My Dad is planning on bringing more stuff over tomorrow night.

I'm tired!

I think part of the problem is that since the weekend I haven't been able to drag myself to bed before 11. I need to go to bed!

Oh well.

You know what's strange about this whole garage sale thing?

Growing up my Dad worked for the DI as a production manager. He retired about 4 years ago and has worked a couple jobs since, waiting for my Mom to reach retirement age in about 2 years. Its nice because he's been able to choose jobs he enjoys.

But the whole time growing up, I thought it was a sin to have a garage sale. I thought you should donate to the DI.

I still am somewhat of that mindset, but I no longer think its a sin if you choose to have a garage sale first. :) I still think its important to donate to the DI, so most likely will have less than 5 garage sales in my lifetime

C has been running a fever on and off all day. Her body is a little different in that instead of just getting sick sometimes, She just gets a fever and fights the germ off. I'm not sure what she has now, but am sure it came from nursery. I hope she sleeps well and feels better tomorrow. I hate seeing her sick. She starts wanting to be cuddled and not wanting to play. I love the cuddling, but it gets a little tiresome when I'm breast-feeding the baby. For some reason it really bothers me to be breastfeeding, and then have C crawl all over me and pull on me. Only 4 more months or so.

Well I'm going to bed now. I've discovered when I post late at night, or in the middle of the night :) I sound stupid. I read my posts the next morning and the thoughts don't sound completed and in some cases what I thought I said, isn't what I said.

Oh well.

Lately I've become overly concerned about how many people read my blog. I guess it's part of the evolution of blogging. Actually I think I just wanted to know how many people thought that picture of my hubby was as funny as I did. :) But I've decided that I've got to get back to the mind-set of "I don't care if anyone reads this". This writing has to be for me. I need to have a place where I can think through things and vent if needed. And I think I enjoyed writing more.

So Me, this is your lecture! Just write! Don't be overly concerned about anyone who might venture onto this page.

I can't turn my brain off

So here it is, 4:30 in the morning and I'm posting on my blog.

Sad, Eh?

I'ts weird. Lately when I get up with the baby, I have a hard time making myself go back to bed. I'm not sure why. The only thing I can think of, is that maybe its because I enjoy having the house to myself? That's weird though. Oh well. At least she's starting to sleep through the night. At 8 months, its about time!

Hubby got home safely. It's nice to have him back. He had a great time at the Real Salt lake game. He liked the Men's national team game better. He said it was awesome. He said the Real game was a little slow, but that was because most teams were missing a player or two.

He also said that the lines at the stadium were out of control. Long lines for food, and even lines for the Men's bathroom. That's almost unheard of.

Well, Anyway

Today we're finally meeting with our Realtor. We're going to start searching for a piece of land to buy for our dream home.

Unlike most people's dream home, ours will not be huge. It will not be a castle. It will be modest and fill our needs. Mostly the dream is living on a piece of land that is larger than the .18 of an acre that we currently occupy. Our front yard and our neighbors front yard are not separated. This would be fine if we both had similar landscaping tastes. but we don't. Hers involves a couple fountains, an arch, lots of roses, not much grass. Very very busy. Everyone comments on it. Not because they like it. They always say stuff like "that is busy". and these are pretty small front yards.

Oh well.

I was very disturbed yesterday at church. We have a family in our ward that is a bit unique. I don't know that you would find this in any other ward out there.

Both of the parents suffered from an accident when they were children. Both came very near death. The result of these accidents was that they are both somewhat... I want to say simple, but I don't think that is right. They can both function normally, but don't have normal intelligence. They have 3 children. 2 sons and a daughter. The sons are very hard to handle. They don't respond well to dicipline. I don't know if this is because they don't get any at home, or what. But we are slowly coming up with ways to handle it in primary. We've found that the younger boy responds well to classes that are mostly male, and a male teacher.

On Sunday I dropped C off at nursery and then left for the usual Primary round up, get kids where they need to be. The nursery teacher ran after me and told me that these two boys had broken into a couple of nursery cabinets and eaten a whole box of vanilla wafers. The food didn't bother me. That is only a couple of dollars. What bothered me was that a)these kids had willfully broken doors and locks on ours and another wards nursery closets, and b) Why do these kids think this is acceptable behavior?

How did this happen? Is an easy question to answer. The children are allowed to explore the building while the rest of us are attending Sacrament meeting. We go to church at 2 so there are no other wards in the building at the time we meet. These kids have been known to run through the gym during sacrament meeting. yes, while the curtain to the gym is open. One time the younger one (who is about 7) ran up from the gym and down the aisle. I assume trying to make it to the stand? Anyway, the Primary president at that time was able to dive out of her seat and grab the kid when he was about 6 rows from the front.

The mother, during most of this, sits calmly in her seat. Occasionally you will see her drag one of them out, but not often. Her husband has to work some sunday's, but I think they do a little better when he is there.

I have slowly come to the realization that what they need is a male role-model in their life. A strong father type figure that they can model their behavior after. You know, Someone they like so much that they want to be just like him. Someone that has time to spend with them.

Trouble is, they are so wild, not many people want to be around them.

Anyway, I'm in a quandry as to what we should do about the whole cupboard situation.

Do we hold them responsible and make them pay for the damage? This damage involves the locks and hinges. Do we have them work off the $$ ? I'm glad that this is not my decision. The Primary president will be speaking with the bishop this week to see what direction we want to take.

There is a part of me that can't stand these boys.

There is another part of me that really wants to find a way to reach them.

The one is me before this calling.

The other is me after this calling.

I realize that some kids are just rowdy and you need to lovingly help them. Then other kids need the iron fist.

I don't have enough parenting or teaching experience to figure out which is which.

I'll take any suggestions if anyone has them.

I'm really learning a lot from this calling

Time for bed now!

I have no life

Today I caught myself checking the blogs I read for updates. Twice. Kinda sad :)

I don't know. Its kind of like reading a book that is never finished. There are a lot of bloggers that have a great writing style that I enjoy. Then, others where I can only read some of their posts. They get to longwinded.

So I have a cute picture that I think I'm going to post. I'm just hoping that hubby doesn't get upset at me :)

deleted! Sorry!

I about died laughing when I noticed that both my 2 year old and my hubby were having the same problem!

Here's a pic of the green piano we sold.

deleted! Sorry!

See, not so bad. Kind of a sage green. I love my new piano by the way. And I rearranged my family room so that it looks great! And I moved it around by myself!! I didn't have to call 5 guys to come over and move a heavy piano!

And here's the picture that my Aunt and Uncle who are currently serving a mission in the Phillipines sent.

deleted! Sorry!

They woke up one morning and noticed this huge spider in the window. They thought it was outside, but were shocked to find it was inside. Generally spiders over there are harmless. However they decided to kill it with a fly swatter and ended up feeding it to the semi-tame cats living near their back door. Their house help told them that these spiders generally eat insects around the house, so are good to keep around. But I agree with my Aunt on this one. If that thing crawled across me while I was in bed, I'd die from a heart attack. Uggghhh!!! Gives me the creeps!

Anyway, I've got to go to the store for diapers. I went earlier, and you guessed it. I forgot the one thing I had to get. Oh well.

Great Week

Well camping was awesome. We had so much fun.

We arrived at the camp Wednesday afternoon. We were able to get the best cabin where there were springy type beds. Also, all the cabins had electricity. So we plugged in the tv and let the girls watch the Wiggles while we set up the cabin. Then I was able to go and explore all the rooms and places they never let us go when I was there for girls camp. It was cool!

Anyway, we parked all of our food in the vast kitchen. That night we ate hotdogs and smores. We actually had that the next night also. I started feeling a little sick when thinking about hot dogs after that, so no more! I did eat a few marshmallows Friday night with the rest of the ward when they came up though...

The whole thing was a blast. C had fun playing in the dirt. She's an outside girl, so she was in Heaven. A had fun to. She loved being outside the whole time.

Well we had a sort of family give away yesterday. Everyone was invited to clean out their closets and bring it. Mom invited everyone over for a Memorial day breakfast. Then we all went to the driveway where the stuff was, and had at it. I thought I was getting rid of stuff, but ended up bringing home about the same amount of stuff I brought. That was ok though, because I had uses for the stuff. Overall I think it was the best idea my parents have had yet. They are planning on having another one in a few months. Basically because my sister A and her hubby are moving in with mom and dad, they are cleaning out all the closets. In a way, its forcing us to take our stuff home with us! :)

This week I might try potty training C again..... we'll see...

packed schedule

Yesterday was my Mom's birthday. Before I realized that, I had a full day planned of errands, etc. to get ready for a (sort of) camping trip. My sister Wendy called and reminded me that it was Mom's birthday in the morning, and then invited me to go to lunch with everyone to celebrate. Lately, when someone has a birthday, we've all been going to lunch together to celebrate, so we shouldn't leave Mom out! When I say all of us, I mean all of us. Most of my Sisters and Sister in laws are stay at home mom's and a few of my sisters who work, are usually able to get away for lunch. So potentially for lunch, we could have a crowd of 18 women and children, if everyone were to show. Yesterday only 10 could make it. We had a fun time. Its great to have a bit of a "hen's party" as Mom used to call it when we were younger and all the women got together.

So today, Hubby and I will be going up to a church camp that our ward has rented for the ward campout. This church camp told the ward though, that for their $$ they have the camp from Wednesday until Sunday. So the ward said, hey if you want to go up early, go ahead. So we are! It should be really fun to. I'm pretty sure that we will be the only ones up there today. Their will be an elderly couple coming up tomorrow, and the rest of the ward will be their Friday night. We will have a huge church camp to ourselves! This is the same camp where I went to girls camp. So I will be able to explore like I was never able to back then! All those places I wasn't allowed to go! It should be fun. I haven't been up for about 5-8 years though, and my sister who was up their as a leader 2 years ago said that they have made lots of improvements. So new places to explore. yay! It won't be real camping though. I suppose I should be thankful of that - with 2 small kids. They have a huge lodge (basically a huge gym with a stage and everything. It has a nice big kitchen and if they haven't changed things to much, separate mens and womens bathrooms with showers! My sister said they had remodeled the showers, but she couldn't remember if they were still seperated into mens and womens bathrooms and showers. That would be a little scary to bump into another ward member in the shower. I'm sure most won't take one when just going overnight. But I would be a little disturbed to run into someone from the ward in the shower, much less a member of opposite sex! They do have curtains and everything. But still! I'm sure they're seperate. They have to be! If not, I might have to enlist hubby to guard! :)

We'll get back on Saturday and that night I need to go to a baptism for a new member of our primary.

Then on Monday it's over to Mom and Dad's for a Memorial day breakfast with the family and an "Exchange". This is what Mom and Dad have named it at least. Basically we are all supposed to bring stuff we don't need/want that we think others might need/want and exchange stuff. I'm interested to see what will happen. I'm not bringing much just because we're supposed to participate in the neighborhood garage sale in about a month, and I don't have much to begin with. I'm the chairman of that comittee so I HAVE to have a garage sale. :), amd Dad said I could take the leftovers from the giveaway.

They're basically having it because my sister and her husband are moving into their basement. Dad's taking the opportunity to give away tools and stuff out of the garage, and Mom's cleaning house and giving away old books and movies. Things they dont' really need anymore.

My sister who is moving in is about 24 weeks pregnant. She's the skinny mini of the family. She's not gaining a bunch of weight, but she is constantly hungry. My single sister L said that was what bothered her about them moving in with the parents. Now when she went over to visit, my sister usually has eaten everything in sight, and that would bug her, she said. I think it's funny. I kind of thought that she might be exaggerating a bit, but when the pregnant sister came over last night, the first thing she said was "do you guys have anything to eat?" It was so funny. I don't ever remember being hungry while pregnant. But I don't have a very good memory, and I'm fat, so I guess if the baby was hungry she went after my stored fat (YAY!) .

I only gained 29 lbs with C. The last 9 pounds was in 1 week, so easily explained as water weight gain. And just over 10 pounds with A. Now, lest you get on me about not gaining enough weight when pregnant, My doctor approved. He said that as long as I wasn't losing weight it was ok if I gained very little. I should explain that I'm fat. We'll leave it there. I need to lose weight. I really dont want to get pregnant again until I've lost some weight. I really need to get on the ball if I want to be healthy as I get older, and if I want more kids. Which I'm pretty sure I do - eventually.

Well anyway, the Friday after Memorial day, hubby is going down to Salt Lake to attend a Real Salt Lake soccer game with his brother. They usually go to some game or another about once a year. It doesn't bother me. I encourage it. Hubby brings home the bacon, and he works hard. We all need rewards to keep us going at work, and other stuff we don't like to do. Just as long as he lets me come to a BYU game with him occasionally. :) We went to the BYU BSU game when I was 37 weeks pregnant with A. It was great. We had ok seats, and I was able to exchange them for seats closer to the ground by explaining my condition :) Also, the walk clear across campus took me from a 0 to a 1 dilation. So I was pretty happy about that! It just about killed us though when that guy missed the kick (fieldgoal? don't remember) The new seats put us in the BSU season ticket holders section. There were 2 other guys rooting for BYU about 4 rows down from us. It was an interesting situation.

So we have an adventurous few weeks planned. Its going to be fun!

The Piano

About 2-3 years ago we bought a piano. It was an old upright that weighed about 1,000 pounds. It was green. So you could say that it was unique. It wasn't ugly though. It was uniquely attactive.

However it was not my ideal piano. for one thing I did not want to have to worry about getting 6 guys together every time I wanted to move it across my living room. Also, the green color kind of limited what colors I used to decorate.

So when a couple of people admired it, I mentioned that I would be willing to sell it. Well one person acted really interested, but I didn't hold my breath, knowing that she most likely didn't have the $$ to buy.

The other person I mentioned it to, said that she had a friend who was looking to buy a piano. I didn't think twice about it, because even if this friend was looking to buy a piano, who knew if she wanted a really heavy green piano?

Well, this past Tuesday, this person called me and asked if I would still be willing to sell the piano. I was like, "Well, yeah I guess so". Within 10 minutes, the friend was on the phone with me arranging a time to see the piano that night. That night the friend came and saw it. She liked it and tried to make a deal. We bought the piano for around $450 and that was all that we were asking for it. We told her that we just wanted our money back from the piano so that we could go out and buy a different piano. She acted very interested, and left after telling us that she would most likely take it.

That night she called and said that she wanted the piano, and that she would call me the next day to arrange when she would pick it up. We had mentioned that hubby could help move the piano any day this week after 5:45. Well the next day around that time, a van with a trailer pulled up. So she forgot to call, but it worked out for the best.

The next day I already was missing that darn piano. My living room looked very dowdy without it. It's weird that a piece of furniture can make such a difference.

Well I started looking for another piano the same day they picked our old one up. There wasn't anything I was interested in that day, but the next day, Thursday, their was a new Thrifty Nickel coming out. It it was this ad.

"WURLITZER UPRIGHT piano/ bench, excellent condition."

Well, I was a little skeptical about the piano, because it said it was an upright. That usually means that its a really tall, really heavy piano, just like the one we got rid of. But I googled it using google images, and what came up were pictures of smaller console pianos. So because of that, and the fact that it was smack dab in the middle of our price range, I called and left a message.

They called back and they assured me that it was a smaller console type piano. We arranged a time for us to go see it tonight. They lived in the next town over, in the middle of the country, so we also benefitted from a chance to drive through the area where we want to buy a few acres of land in the next year or two to build our dream house on.

We got there and the people were really nice. they had horses and dogs. C was in heaven. The dogs were very nice and gentle. One was huge and named "candy" and the other was mini and named "Sweetie". C got really brave and pet the big one quite a few times. I can't wait until we have some land and can have dogs! The only thing that I don't know if I would do, is they allowed the dogs inside, which I'm usually for, it just seemed weird to have this huge dog lumbering around inside the house. :)

They led us to a separate entrance, what looked like a mother in law apartment. The woman had mentioned that the piano had belonged to her husbands mother who had passed away something like 6 years earlier, so I would assume that was who had been living there. It currently looked unoccupied.

The piano was great. It was in good shape, and had great sound. I liked what I saw and played all the keys to make sure they all worked. I also played a few chords and part of an Enya song to get an idea of what the sound was like.

The lady left us alone for a few minutes to talk. We decided to make an offer. I should mention that before we left to go see the piano, I called my mom. She has a sister who buys and sells pianos, and Mom had at one time attempted to make a buisiness out of it also. It didn't go very far though. I just don't think she had a passion for it. She ended up buying 2 pianos. She sold the one to my sister, and restored the other and I think gave it to my brother. Anyway, my point is that she knew some things about price. She said that they were really asking to much for the piano and that we should offer about $100 less. I guess this time of the year is not the best for selling pianos. She said the time to unload a piano is in the fall when parents are starting their kids in piano lessons.

So when hubby and I finished discussing the piano, we went to find this lady. She was just across the yard feeding the horses. C was in heaven. When I asked her if she would deal with us, she said to make her an offer. Hubby said would you take X amount ($100 less than asking price). She went and discussed this with her hubby and came back. We got the piano!!!

So we are going to pick it up on Saturday!! YAY!

I'm so excited to have a piano that isn't so unique. One that won't force a certain palatte of colors on my living room. It is beautiful though. A perfect color of finish. Not to light, but not super dark either.

Speaking of that, I forgot to mention that the lady we sold our original piano to has a love for the color green. I guess that she parts of her house decorated entirely in green. So the piano has finally found its proper home. Let me say at this time that the piano was sort of a sage-y green. Not horrible at all. Just that you had to choose colors to decorate that went along with it.

But anyway, everyone is happy!

What a weekend

Wel, all four of us are sick, and the computer needs a new power supply. So here I am typing along on hubbies laptop. This post will be short due to the fact that I'm not used to this keyboard.

We stayed home from church yesterday because we all have bad colds.... well most of us. I'm nearly over it, A is towards the end of it, hubby is just starting it, and C, well, C has just had a high fever for the past few days. Today though it looks like the fever is gone. I just wish I knew if she was going to get the cold?

A got this cold in the nursery last week while hubby was subbing. He let her sit on the floor and said that a couple of the kids kept giving her hugs. Totally fine with me, I just wish someone had kept their sick kid home.

I'm going to suggest that we get a "no bugs allowed" sign for the nursery door for those parents who are to stupid to realize that the rest of us don't want the cold their kid has.

Well, already I'm tired of this keyboard, and a is crying.

So long

Pictures!

Well, I finally decided that it was time to post a picture.

Sorry, deleted!

Aren't we all cute? I realize that hubby isn't in this picture, but I couldn't find one where we all looked good. You know how picky we women are.

Anyway. I hope I don't regret posting that picture. I've been putting it off for a while.

Well, Mia slept through the night last night. She seems happy today. Yeah!!!

Nothing else to report.

Another Wednesday

Lets see, Nothing to exciting happening in my life right now...

My little sister L is now living in her own house about 5 minutes down the road from me. She has a job where she doesn't know if she has to work until the afternoon/evening before. She's a court reporter. She does depositions and stuff. Anyway, we went to lunch on Tuesday and it was a bunch of fun. My sister S is also now working about 10 minutes away from my house. So she came to lunch with us also. She also likes to come to my house about once a week for lunch. Sometimes I feed her a sandwich, and other times she brings her own lunch.

Anyway, it really is great because it breaks up the day for me. Also, it motivates me to clean areas of my house. Like, today she came over for lunch and so I deep cleaned my kitchen! Yay! Tomorrow, my goal is to pick up the rest of the house and maybe do some laundry.

I really need to make a schedule for my day. I do well when I have goals.
Maybe this?
6:30 - wake up, work out, shower
8:00 - get the girls up. Feed C a banana (her favorite breakfast food)
8:00 - 9:00 let Cecilee watch the Wiggles or Maisy (basically one of her shows)
9:00 - 11:30 clean the house, play with playdo, do puzzles, read books, do stuff with the kids.
11:30 - Sesame Street
12:30 - A's nap time, feed C lunch.
1:00 - C's nap time
1:00 - 3:30 or so - Clean house, do laundry, watch tv, whatever I want
3:30 - this is where I get lazy. I usually just let C play while I watch the West Wing or some other stupid show. Maybe once she stops trying to dig up the garden I can eventually let her play outside during this time.
4:30 - 5:30 make dinner - A usually cries through the last half hour. I hate that.
5:45 - eat dinner.

So my chores during the week are Laundry, kitchen, Front Room, Family room, bathrooms,

I would also like time to do primary stuff, and crochet, also play games and read cougarboard.

I also need to set aside a day for errands... but maybe I could do those on Mondays when hubby is home.

So everyday I should clean the kitchen. Tuesdays I could do the laundry. Wednesdays Frontroom, Thursdays Family room, and Friday Bathrooms.

So my ideal schedule would be:
6:30 - wake up, work out, shower
8:00 - get the girls up. Feed C a banana (her favorite breakfast food)
8:00 - 9:00 let Cecilee watch the Wiggles or Maisy (basically one of her shows)
9:00 - 11:30 clean the kitchen, play with playdo, do puzzles, read books, do stuff with the kids.
11:30 - Sesame Street
12:30 - A's nap time, feed C lunch.
1:00 - C's nap time
1:00 - 3:30 or so - Clean the area for that day, read cougarboard, crochet, play games, IM with hubby
3:30 - Not sure what to do with this time. Play outside?
4:30 - 5:30 make dinner - I can't wait until A starts crawling so that she can amuse herself during the last half hour that she gets cranky.
5:45 - eat dinner.

Well anyway, thanks for letting me think out loud.

A has a cold that is scaring me a little. She has had a runny nose with green snot for the last 2 days. A little cough, but nothing extreme, or different from a basic cold that she's had before. But today when I got her up from her nap, I could here the congestion in her chest. She was actually breathing a little differently.

So, I'm thinking about taking her to the doctor this week. But I keep thinking about all the times I've gotten the "you're stupid" looks from the doctor when I brought C in when she'd had a fever over 100 degrees for 3 days. (hello!!!) I think I'll just watch her and if she starts having any sort of problems breathing (not just heavy conjestion) I'll start calling ask a nurse and make an appointment with the doctor.

Right now we've got the humidifier going in her room and hopefully that will break things up.

I'm coming down with the same cold. I've been sucking on those awful orange vitamin C's all night because my mom has always sworn by Vitamin C for colds. She also keeps telling me that if I take them, it will get to A through my breast milk. Well, it should at least boost our immune systems.

Bath Time

So this morning we had bath time. At our house (for the kids) it usually happens on Wednesday, and then Sunday morning.

Yesterday at the store we bought some bubble bath for C. She has had mixed reactions to it in the past (love and hate), but the last time she liked it. So we bought a big bottle of it at the store yesterday. She seemed excited. But this morning when I put it in her bath she kept saying "no bubbles, no bubbles". Since I had already added the bubbles, I couldn't take them out. So I put her in there. She was totally freaking out. Over some bubbles. I don't get kids sometimes. Needless to say she wanted out of there asap. So we soaped, rinsed and were outta there. This is a kid who usually loves to play for a good 20 min or so in the bath. I don't know what the issue was. But she might be coming down with the cold that A has. She is a little cranky this morning.

Friday

So I was just reading over what I last wrote and realized that I sounded sort of negative about being in the primary presidency.

To clarify, my only gripe is how they have changed some of the song tunes from when I sang them as a kid.

I know that there is some reason for my being called into the presidency. I'm slowly figuring out that I'm happy I was called. It sounds like it will be some work, but a lot of fun.

So today is Ae and Ar's birthday. We are all taking them out to lunch. Mom, S, W, L, and my sister J. Some chinese restaurant we've never been to. Two of my sisters work over here and I and my sister L live over here, so its more for convenience that we go to this particular restaurant than anything.

So I've been watching this stupid movie on IFC yesterday and today. Its called the Happy times Hotel. I haven't seen the first 30 minutes, but caught the middle 40 minutes or so, but then had to leave. So I found it on again this am, so plan on catching the last 30 minutes or so.

Its a sad story. A girl who is around 18 is blind. When she was young, her mother died, and after that she developed a brain tumor and lost her sight. Her father married a woman, but they fought so much that he left and I assume got divorced. He left his daughter with the woman and she treated the daughter like crap, while treating her own son like a prince. Its a sad story and I feel for this girl because being blind, she can't do the things she wants, and can easily be taken advantage of (people doing things, taking things, tiptoeing around her, counting on her not knowing they are there). That would freak me out!

Anyway

Went to a primary training meeting last night. It started at 7:00 and when I dropped C off at my sisters house I told her I'd be back by 8:45, 9 at the lastest. When I got to the training, they said, We'll separate for classes and then break at 8:45 for chips and salsa. Ugh. That is late. I also had A, whose bedtime is 8:30. I could tell this would be a long night. All in all it was enjoyable and we got a lot of good info and ideas. But A had had it by the time we left. When I got to the door on my way out I discovered rain was coming down in sheets. I had parked clear across the parking lot, so pulled a blanket over A and walked briskly to the car. By the time I got us all in the car and situated I was pretty wet. I think A stayed pretty dry because of the blanket though.

So I get out on the roads and because of the rain, and it was also dark, I found it hard to see. The rain was pretty deep on the road also. so I felt a little out of control. I hate driving in snow and ice, and this experience was a bit like that. I got out onto the interstate to go home (our stake center is in the middle of no where) There was a ton of standing water on the freeway. I was going about 45 mph, and there was not a lot of traffic (I was passed by one car) but because of the slow going I was afraid that someone would come up behind me going really fast and I would cause an accident. I also felt the car hydroplaning a bit. So I got off at the first exit for the next town over from where I live. I drove through that town, and got over to L's house to pick up C. It was 9:25. Way later than I ever could have guessed. Anyway we were all pooped by the time we got home. I put the kids to bed, and once hubby got home from class, went to bed.

What I don't understand, is why after a late night, the kids didn't wake up later. A woke up about an hour earlier than normal, and C woke up about 45 min later than normal. I was able to get A back to sleep, but that only lasted for 30 min or so.

Oh well. I guess we just need to get to sleep at our normal time tonight.

Well, enough complaining for today.

Life is great. The kids are great. I have many blessings, one of which was finally getting home last night!